Questions for the World

By William L. Garvin

There are three interrelated questions that need to be answered:  should Israel be allowed to exist, should Christianity be eradicated, and should countries have borders?  If you look at what’s in the news and what’s NOT in the news, you will see countless variations on these three questions, although they will not be laid out in such stark terms.  And if you look very closely, you will see a clear agenda in what they choose to print and what they choose NOT to print, what they choose to show and what they choose NOT to show.

As to the first question, according to the charter of Hamas (the “Islamic Resistance Movement” and an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood), "The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews [and kill them]; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!"  The co-founder of Hamas said he envisioned a huge map hanging on his wall where the nation of Israel would not be shown.  When Hamas speaks, it speaks of ceasefires but never peace.  They wage their holy war, their jihad, indiscriminately but mostly against civilians of any age.  They have fired over 2,400 rockets into Israel from schools, hospitals, and homes.  They surround their munitions with women and children so when retaliation comes, there will be maximum human suffering for the cameras to capture.  These murderous thugs prefer the psychological value of this tactic more than they value the lives of their own children and the media obliges.

Enter the United Nations Human Rights Council which creates an “independent international commission of inquiry to investigate all violations of international humanitarian law and international human-rights law” in the current war in Gaza.  Actually, they will only investigate Israel since the resolution reads: “The Council condemns in the strongest terms the widespread, systematic and gross violations of international human rights and fundamental freedoms arising from the Israeli military operations…since 13 June 2014.”  Cuba, Mexico, Algeria and Venezuela were among the 29 members voting yes as did China and the Russian Federation.  Firmly (sic) among the 17 abstentions were France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.  Only the United States voted no!

Simultaneously, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) continues its murderous campaign.  Chief among their victims are Christians.  Not only are their homes looted and destroyed but also their churches.  Even the centuries old tomb of Jonah was desecrated and then destroyed.  Crosses are being ripped off churches and Christians are told to convert to Islam, leave without their belongings, or die.  Some are not even being given a choice but are found murdered in mass graves, beheaded and even crucified.  Where is the United Nations?  Where is our president?  Where is the outrage?  Where is the media?  Remember they felt morally compelled to show every photo of abuse in Abu Ghraib that they could lay their hands on.  Where is a similar moral compunction to expose the bestial savagery against Christians on display throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa?  If they are indeed “good men,” they are standing by and doing nothing as evil triumphs!

Which brings us to the third question, should countries have borders.  Should Hamas be allowed to tunnel into Israel?  Should Russia be allowed to “annex” Crimea and the Ukraine?  Should the United States be allowed to close and enforce its southern border?  If the answers are yes, yes, and no, then prepare for a “new world order” in which the United States will be “leading from behind” not by choice, but by necessity.  With millions of illegal aliens already in the United States and thousands more pouring in, is it any wonder that “income inequality” is so disparate under this administration?  With 92 million Americans already out of work and 47 million receiving food stamps, when will we reach the tipping point?  Yet the New York Times reports that the Obama administration actually has plans to fly even more “refugees” from Central America into the US!

As income inequality exacerbates, as dependency increases, as the national debt skyrockets, as our military strength weakens, as our borders remain porous, as our leadership fails, as western democracy erodes, the world becomes much more unstable.  If the United Nations and the “world community” it represents is able to defeat the only stable democracy in the Middle East, expect the next target to be the USA.  If radical Islam is able to “cleanse” itself of Jews and Christians in current areas of conflict, look for the battlefield to expand.  Get ready.

Bordering on Insanity

By William L. Garvin
“…It is no doubt very desirable that we should hold out as many inducements as possible for the worthy part of mankind to come and settle amongst us, and throw their fortunes into a common lot with ours. But why is this desirable? Not merely to swell the catalogue of people. No, sir, it is to increase the wealth and strength of the community; and those who acquire the rights of citizenship, without adding to the strength or wealth of the community are not the people we are in want of. And what is proposed by the amendment is, that they shall take nothing more than an oath of fidelity, and declare their intention to reside in the United States. Under such terms, it was well observed by my colleague, aliens might acquire the right of citizenship, and return to the country from which they came, and evade the laws intended to encourage the commerce and industry of the real citizens and inhabitants of America, enjoying at the same time all the advantages of citizens and aliens.”
James Madison

It is amazing to me to see the  lockstep sheeple of the main stream media shift so quickly from the economic ills of America to the contrived “humanitarian crisis “ of our southern borders  The hue and cry amongst popular pundits of all political persuasions  is preoccupied with  “is this Obama’s Katrina?”  The answer is “No, it’s not!” and it should be obvious for a number of reasons.  First of all, President Bush, for all his failings, did not cause Hurricane Katrina.  There is no question that President Obama’s deferred deportation executive order advertised to the entire world that if you made it into the formerly sovereign United States of America you would not be deported.

Furthermore, Homeland Security advertised on their website back in January of this year for “escorts” for up to 65,000 unaccompanied minors who would be arriving in this country.  All rational people should be able to distinguish between a natural disaster and a contrived “humanitarian crisis.” 
Also remember that this is the administration that almost instantaneously prepared and broadcast television messages throughout the Arab world after Benghazi that clearly decried any relationship with or support of a video blaspheming Allah.  No such video clarification of American policies regarding legal immigration has been shown in Central America or Mexico.  Why is that?  New estimates are that upward of 150,000 will pour through our “secure” border unless the tide is quickly stemmed.

It is also important to remember that every facet of the Katrina disaster was immediately and continually shown on virtually every television channel.  Currently, it is next to impossible to get any first hand information on the surge of “unaccompanied minor children” from the first responders.  There are numerous reports that nurses and doctors are prohibited from speaking to the media much like the Benghazi survivors.  Cell phones are not permitted on site.  Border Patrol agents speak out only on conditions of anonymity.  The lockdown on information has even extended to congressmen visiting military bases in their own district!  There are continuous clandestine plane flights and busloads of “refugees” being shipped to all parts of the United States without any coordination with state or local officials.  There are numerous reports of communicable diseases and gang members among the newly arrived but again, because of the lack of access to medical or law enforcement personnel, this is hard to confirm or deny. 

Also understand that it makes only symbolic sense for President Obama to actually visit the Texas border, wherever it might be.  All the security measures that necessarily accompany a sitting president interfere with the vital operations of the local, state, and federal agency officials.  Then again, leftists should not have criticized President Bush’s aerial observation of the Katrina devastation for exactly the same reason.

Now that these new arrivals are being relocated throughout the United States, the only requirement is that they show up for their immigration hearing.  Unfortunately, it has been estimated that nearly half will not show up.  Those that do show up will be provided legal counsel at taxpayer expense.  Since it is nearly impossible to document the abuse the refugees allegedly had to endure in their own country, it is unlikely that actual deportation will ever occur.  They are here to stay and there is no end in sight.  

  

Feminist Rhetoric is Hysterical Hyperbole

By William L. Garvin

In war, the first casualty is truth.  In the so called “war on women,” the radical left and extreme feminists have combined to make certain this is true.  Their blatant disregard for the truth and in some cases, absolute ignorance of the facts in the Supreme Court Hobby Lobby decision is at best, appalling, and at worst, despicable and reprehensible.  Strong, independent women everywhere must be cringing at the hysterical hyperbole and ignorant assertions being made by those currently in the spotlight purporting to be feminist standard bearers.

 For those who choose not to be “informationally-challenged,” a little history is in order.  The Religious Freedom Restoration Act was passed in the House by a unanimous voice vote and in the Senate by a vote of 97-3.  It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in November, 1993.  Basically, RFRA prevents the federal government from imposing laws that substantially burden a person’s free exercise of religion.

The owners of Hobby Lobby, a closely held corporation, did not want to provide four types of contraceptives that could cause abortions of fertilized eggs.  Their sincerely held religious belief is that life begins at conception.  Fines for not providing these abortifacients under the Affordable Care Act could be as much as $475 million dollars per year.  If they dropped health care entirely, the fines would still be $25 million dollars per year.  The Greens, the principal owners of Hobby Lobby feel a moral compunction to provide their employees with health insurance so the latter was not an option.  They also feel a moral compunction to treat their employees as family and pay their full-time employees a minimum of $14.50 per hour and their part-time employees $9.50 per hour.  Lost to reason in leftist minds is the fact that they have no objection to contraception per se and in fact willingly provide for 16 out of the 20 ACA contraceptives.

Let the contrived “war on women” begin.  While Patricia Ireland, the former president of NOW, was roundly condemning the Hobby Lobby decision, she was asked if she knew how many forms of contraception Hobby Lobby provided.  She had to admit that she didn’t know that basic fact.  Again, it is 16 out of 20.  Amanda Marcotte, feminist writer and leader of the cyber-lynch mob in the Duke lacrosse case, posted that the Supreme Court decision could cost a woman as much as $22,000.  Given that most women can get birth control pills for $9 per month or $108 per year and given a generous 50-year fertility cycle, that would be more like $5,400 unless you have been raised on Common Core math.  Hillary Clinton chimed in with “It’s very troubling that a sales clerk at Hobby Lobby who needs contraception, which is pretty expensive, is not going to get that service through her employer’s health care plan because her employer doesn’t believe she should use birth control.”  As wrong as videos in Benghazi!

The hopefully soon-to-be-irrelevant yet perpetually clueless Sandra Fluke saw it as a “limit to women’s access to reproductive health care.”  Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted “Can’t believe we live in a world where we’d even consider letting big corps deny women access to basic care based on vague moral objections.”  Upping the ante to her potential challenger, Secretary Clinton then voiced a rather unsettling analogy:  “It is a disturbing trend that you see in a lot of societies that are very unstable, anti-democratic, and frankly prone to extremism where women and women’s bodies are used as the defining and unifying issue…because of their religion, their sect, their tribe, whatever.”  Yes indeed, whatever!  Naturally her acolytes trumpeted her theme:  “the HL decision is like ISIS imposing Sharia law”; “Scalia law is like Sharia law”; and then called for burning down Hobby Lobby stores and raping conservative women who upheld the HL decision.  Whatever, indeed.

Lost on the leftist leaders and their masses was the egregious error in their simplistic notions that the HL decision applied to contraceptive coverage in general and that HL saw all birth control as not appropriate.  Look at their printed slogans:  “Bosses don’t belong in the bedroom.”  “Keep the Board Room out of the Bed Room.”  “My bedroom is not my boss’s business.”  “If I wanted government in my bedroom, I’d (have sex with) a senator.”  Meanwhile, they are totally oblivious to the irony that they are asking the courts to force the government to force their employers to pay for avoiding consequences of their bedroom activities by destroying life.  Where’s Helen Reddy when we need her!  

Half Cocked Potshots from Crackpots

By William L. Garvin

If Hillary’s current book tour is a kickoff for a presidential campaign, she needs to hit the reset button…and try to spell it correctly this time!  Her opening salvo not only missed the American bullseye, it missed the entire target.  The reputed “world’s smartest woman” committed such a fusillade of gaffes with such annoying regularity that Joe Biden now looks like Mensa material!  Steve Martin should sue for copyright infringement as she continues her “I was born a poor black child motif.”  Someone who is “dead broke” might think about selling at least one of their million dollar plus homes or leveraging the multi-million dollar book deal coming right down the pike.  Someone whose net worth is now over fifty million dollars might want to stop whining that “we’re not well off.”  It appears even low information voters are tiring of her faux struggles.  If things were really that tough, I’m sure she could float a loan from Chelsea who is making $600,000 per year from NBC television.  Not bad for someone who has no broadcast experience and such minimal actual work product.

I would expect that Hillary’s publisher is also considering asking for some of the advance money back.  Despite massive free publicity from her simpering media sycophants, her book with the “borrowed” title only sold 100,000 in its initial week and then immediately dropped out of Amazon’s top ten.  Sales since have fallen faster than President Obama’s poll numbers.  By way of comparison, Sarah Palin sold 496,000 copies of her book “Going Rogue” in its first week.  That is nearly pure profit since the Governor still lives totally rent free in liberal heads!

Then there’s good old Harry Reid who finally came up for air in his incessant sliming of the Koch brothers to lash out at the Washington Redskins.  Maybe he should make a personal visit to Red Mesa High School on the Navajo reservation in Red Mesa, Arizona where he can see “Red Mesa Redskins” proudly emblazoned on the running track surrounding their football field.  He could also read about Redskins Sports and Redskins News on their website.  Apparently Harry gets to decide what is politically correct and what is offensive for “everyone.”  He’d get along fine with the cash strapped liberals at Brooklyn College in New York who refused a $10 million gift from those evil philanthropists, the aforementioned Koch brothers, and the frothing lunatics who are ranting that the United Negro College Fund should return the $25 million grant from the Koch’s, or the $100 million hospital gift they just made should be verboten! They just keep getting nastier and nastier.

We also see that President Obama has “promised” (spoiler alert!) that there will be no boots on the ground in Iraq but has dispatched 300 advisors to that country.  Apparently our special forces are so special that they can now hover somewhere above terra firma indefinitely.  Some may remember the “advisors” that were sent to Viet Nam as the Military Assistance Advisory Group in 1950.  How did that play out in history?  As the hard won stability in the Middle East disintegrates under this administration, it proves that a flaccid foreign policy results in premature evacuation that ultimately satisfies no one.

On top of that, the Border Patrol has now morphed into “Baby Sitters R Us.”  Somehow, despite assurances that the border is now more secure than ever, thousands upon thousands of unaccompanied children are able to cross with no difficulty.  If you expect that they will ever be returned to their home countries, then you probably also believe that Lois Lerner’s emails were accidentally lost, there’s not a “smidgeon” of corruption in the IRS, Obamacare is a fabulous success, and the Supreme Court’s 9-0 smack down of the president’s unconstitutional overreach is a gross miscarriage of justice!