Brave New (Progressive) World

By William L. Garvin 

As our culture quickly coarsens and lurches towards its self-proclaimed, progressive utopia, proponents of traditional values see nothing but a contemporary version of hell.  Liberal leaders continually assault faith, family, and self-reliance.  The trinity of faith, hope and charity is “evolving” into indolence, obesity and promiscuity.  Acts and actions that were heretofore unthinkable seem to be all too commonplace in this contemporary secular society. 

Take the case of Dr. Kermit Gosnell and his “House of Horrors” abortion clinic.  How could any individual possibly conceive of making a living by killing late term babies?  Finally on trial for eight counts of murder, the doctor’s obscene practice and methodology is enough to turn the stomach of any rational member of the human species.  In filthy conditions, using barbaric, outdated, and unsterile equipment, and utilizing unskilled staff, he would induce labor in late term pregnancies, deliver the babies, and then…sever their spines with scissors!  What kind of society would foster such a monster? 

It could only come in a world where the value of life is deemphasized and no longer viewed as sacred.  A perfect example of this “progressive” thought came from Alisa LaPolt Snow of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates.  This Planned Parenthood spokeswoman was being questioned about the Florida implementation of the federal Born Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002.  Florida Representative Jim Boyd asked her “If a baby is born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, what would Planned Parenthood want to have happen to that child that is struggling for life?”  The nonplussed Ms. Snow replied “Well, we believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.”  In other words, a living, breathing baby could be left to die by this inhuman proposition and is entitled to neither life, nor liberty, nor the pursuit of happiness!  What morally repugnant blackness of soul could possibly allow this to occur?  Unfortunately, this mirrors the pro-abortion and non-support of “born alive” bills that President Obama exhibited as a state senator in Illinois! 

Abortion is big business in this country and the largest provider of abortion services in the United States is Planned Parenthood.  According to their latest annual report, they “performed” 332,278 abortions in 2009; another 329,445 in 2010; and a record 333,964 in 2011!  There is no question that Gabrielle Giffords, the Newtown school children, and the Aurora theater victims deserve a vote but Mr. President, ONE MILLION babies also deserve a vote! 

Currently, approximately 52% of Americans identify themselves as “pro-life,” but are forced to support Planned Parenthood with their tax dollars.  An analysis by the Susan B. Anthony List states that PP received record taxpayer funding of $542 million dollars via government grants, government contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements this last year.  This is nearly half their annual budget.  However, Planned Parenthood has REDUCED their contraception services by 12% and their prevention services by 29% since 2009.  The way to make money is committing abortions and getting the message out that “there’s nothing wrong with killing your babies.” 

These views are reinforced in tangential fashion by commentators such as MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry’s observation that we must “…break through the private idea that kids belong to their parents.”  As presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton once opined: “It takes a village.”  Even the legal system seems predisposed to assaulting traditional values.  A federal judge ordered the Food and Drug Administration to allow girls under the age of 17 to purchase the “morning after” pill without a prescription or parental notification.  Let’s give them free condoms, free contraception, free abortions, promote promiscuity, and then act shocked when huge numbers of youth are carrying sexual transmitted diseases! 

This tableau requires an extension of government responsibility and a lessening of individual accountability.  It requires Chris Mathews to say only whites can be racists.  It requires the politically correct Associated Press to remove “illegal immigrant” from their style guide.  It requires the election of liberals who think Guam may tip over if too many people are on one side or gun control advocates who don’t know that magazines can be reloaded!  It requires an educational system where students learn how to cheat from their teachers and an “if you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t competin’!” mentality.  It requires the elevation of “cool” over “competence” and the worship of style over substance.  Emotions must trump thinking and actions must be divorced from results let alone consequences.  Isn’t that pretty much what we have today?  That’s why we have butchers like Kermit Gosnell who call themselves doctors. 

The Tyranny of a Liberal Education

 

By William L. Garvin 

"Ideally, a liberal education produces persons who are open-minded and free from provincialism, dogma, preconception, and ideology; conscious of their opinions and judgments; reflective of their actions; and aware of their place in the social and natural worlds.  Liberally educated people are skeptical of their own traditions; they are trained to think for themselves rather than defer to authority.”

The American Association for the Advancement of Science 

There was a time when recipients of a liberal education could engage in proper debate and discussion based on facts, logic and reason.  Questions could be formulated, positions established, arguments made, and conclusions drawn.  Those days appear to be dwindling.  Under the combined onslaught of politically liberal education systems, politically liberal Hollywood and pop culture, and agenda-driven politically liberal media, we are faced with a generation of “educated” but brain-dead zombies.  Like their popular walking dead, they are devoid of original insight but continue to lurch forward regurgitating their progressive, politically correct propaganda.  When their orthodoxies are challenged, being unable to intellectually defend their positions, they tend to turn inward to their social peers, where their mocking, name calling, and crude invective is not only tolerated but encouraged, even lauded.

We’ve recently seen a fading comic-actor try to force his way into political relevance by producing a video and mocking a dead actor.  The crude central theme was to pretend Charlton Heston’s support for second amendment rights was because of sexual inadequacy.  Now that’s the liberal fighting spirit…pick on someone who can’t fight back.  The pathetic attempt at satire was neither edgy nor funny.  Slightly below the incredibly low bar that had already been set was another B-list “comic” who tweeted crude, lewd, and unfunny comments about the Pope.  If you really want to be edgy, let’s see these brave new leftists pop off about Mohammed.  Or face off with the violence and misogyny in rap videos…or video games…or horror of horrors, Hollywood movies!

These are the same lib-zoms who rallied to the support of Sandra Fluke and think that other taxpayers should buy their contraceptives.  Of course they blithely ignore the impact of their musical bed lifestyle (modeled by their Hollywood heroes).  First, fifty percent of mothers under thirty are bearing their children out of wedlock.  If they are single moms, look out for the high correlation between single parenthood, poverty, and crime.  Secondly, the Center for Disease Control says in 2008, there were nearly twenty million new venereal infections bringing the total in the United States up to 110,197,000 infected individuals.  Thirdly, maybe that’s part of the reason Planned Parenthood aborted 333,964 babies in the 2011-2012 fiscal year alone.  Good thing there were no scientists who could cure cancer, or Shakespeares, or Beethovens, or Rembrandts in the one million abortions PP “performed” in the last three years!

On the religious front, lib-zoms did lose their battle to exclude the cross-shaped steel beam found in the World Trade Center wreckage from the Memorial and Museum.  Sorry about that American Atheists.  However, the principal of an elementary school in Alabama cancelled the Easter egg hunt for the kids because “the egg hunt is associated with Easter, and Easter may be offensive to some people.”  Then there’s the Florida Atlantic University instructor who told his students to write “Jesus” on a piece of paper and then stomp on it.  A student who refused to do so was then initially suspended for violations of the student code of conduct.  By the way, Dr. Deandre Poole is not only the instructor in this tawdry scenario, but he is also the vice chairman of the Palm Beach Democrat Party. 

Then there’s the Easter service that the President attended.  "It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back ... for blacks to be back in the back of the bus ... for women to be back in the kitchen ... for immigrants to be back on their side of the border," preached/pontificated Rev. Luis León at St. John's Episcopal Church.  Naturally, no one has challenged Reverend Leon to name one religious right captain who is guilty of any of the scurrilous allegations he made in his ad hominem attack.  Certainly the President didn’t.  Just another hit and run assault by the left that will remain unchallenged.

In today’s brave new world, politically correct lib-zoms will tolerate anything but someone who disagrees with them.  They’re all for free speech unless it’s dissent or opposition based in fact.  Their minds are made up and they won’t be confused with facts!  But as Aldous Huxley noted, “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."   

Tanks for Nothing?!

By William L. Garvin
“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set.  We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”  Barack Obama, July, 2008

When you have to cancel White House tours, will the Easter egg roll be far behind?  What a foolish, foolish display of pettiness and phony politics.  In reality, sequestration has not resulted in planes falling out of the skies or thousands of airline passengers waiting in line for hours and hours to be assaulted by TSA personnel.  The President who incessantly cried fiscal wolf now says there is no imminent fiscal crisis.  Apparently, $16.7 trillion of debt doesn’t really matter!  Unfunded liabilities of trillion after trillion after trillion don’t matter either.  Record income tax revenue isn’t enough to stem another trillion dollar deficit to add to the national debt but still he insists there’s no immediate crisis.  There’s no budget either.

That explains why the Postal Service can spend $2 million on another GSA-styled conference.  That’s why Congress refuses to allow them to NOT deliver mail on Saturday.  What’s a measly $2 billion in savings?  Also, Janet Napolitano could have saved the $50 million she spent on spanking brand new TSA uniforms so she didn’t have to release 2,200 criminal aliens.  Tom Vilsack could have stopped wasting money with his stupid ads teaching college kids how to use a microwave instead of threatening to stop inspecting meat.  He might have also considered his super expensive “awareness program partnership” with Mexico to popularize our food stamps.  Since recipients are approaching fifty MILLION, the world seems to be pretty aware of the benefits.  By the way, Tom, how about cancelling those conferences in California and Oregon which feature “guest chefs” and “exceptional wines” for tastings?  By the way, where did the money come from to give Egypt another $250 million on top of the twenty fighter jets and 200 tanks already squandered?

Speaking of tanks brings us back to Janet Napolitano and her hoarding of ammo and weapons in the Department of Homeland Security.  By most estimates, DHS now has over 1.6 billion bullets.  One analysis concludes that is enough to fight the equivalent of a 24-year Iraq war, given that American troops were firing 5.5 million rounds per month at the war’s height.  Another analysis pointed out that DHS has enough ammo to shoot everyone in the United States, legal or illegal, at least five times!  Various other federal agencies also purchase large quantities of ammunition which liberal fact checkers/apologists invariably rationalize as needed for “target practice” and “training scenarios.”  Largely ignored are the specific requests for “.357 hollow point” bullets which are not used in target practice or training scenarios!  Of course, the 7,000 “personal defense weapons” capable of fully automatic fire and the 30-round magazines are perfectly understandable…aren’t they?

When it takes a thirteen hour filibuster to get the Attorney General to clearly say that an American citizen should not be killed by an American drone without due process, it’s no wonder that conspiracy theories proliferate.  When the use of drones and internet spying proliferates, when the government is not forthcoming, let alone transparent, many people readily believe the internet theory that DHS has purchased “2,700 tanks.”  Ms. Napolitano has an ignorant history of linking military veterans to “terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.”  Similarly, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the radical left equivalent of the Westboro Baptist Church, defines “rightwing extremist groups as primarily hate-oriented or anti-government” which “may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration."  Of course the SPLC demanded the Justice Department and DHS “crack down on Americans expressing opposition to an increasingly tyrannical federal government.”  Only liberals should have freedom of speech!

The SPLC has now been joined at the hate hip by the Los Angeles Times.  Its editorial opined that “They are white, right-wing Americans, nearly all with an obsessive attachment to guns, who may represent a greater danger to the lives of American civilians than international terrorists.”  This is the prevailing liberal mindset.  This is the liberal culture of deliberate racial divisiveness.  This is the deliberate fanning of the flames of hatred.  The Times editorial queried:  “What can be done to reverse this tide of belligerent ignorance?”  Physician, heal thyself.  Times editors should look in the mirror and try to tell the truth!  Until they do, more and more Americans will “bitterly cling to their guns and religion.”

Stop Your Lying!

 

By William L. Garvin

 

“Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.”  We are currently seeing the American dream become an American nightmare.

For a prime example, look at our leadership in Washington, D.C.  First of all, they lurch from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis like an alcoholic on a cheap whiskey bender stumbling from lamppost to lamppost.  Grasping their temporary support, they pause long enough for inebriation to temporarily subside only to lurch forward in their stumble bum gait to the next temporary respite.  When confronted for their irresponsible behavior, they first deny having had more than one drink.  Then they concoct a fantasy that the world faces impending doom without them being allowed to proceed along their sotted way.  Finally, they blame the bartender for having built a bar where they were served alcohol.  Apparently one thing they will never admit is the truth—they are economic drunks about to reach a certain disastrous end.

Naturally, the current discussion about sequestration epitomizes the model for lying.  You see, one side (which includes ABC news) says that there are no actual cuts in sequestration.  In fact, the government will spend more this year than they did last year even AFTER sequestration occurs.  In fact, the government will spend more each and every year than they did the year before until 2020 UNDER sequestration.  All this artificial device does is slow the rate of increase.

Of course the other side says that times will immediately become apocalyptic.  Police, firefighters, and other emergency responders will lose their jobs.  Thousands of teachers will be turned out of the classroom.  Planes won’t be falling from the sky but it will take you hours longer to get on them.  Our military will be decimated and national security will be compromised.  Plagues and locusts are soon to follow!  Naturally, the President blames the Republicans.  However, even Bob Woodward and the New York Times point out that sequestration was a White House proposal (thank you, Jack Lew) and was signed into law by Barack Obama.

So who is the biggest liar?  One thing to immediately note is that the federal government has only a minor role in paying the salaries of teachers, police officers and firefighters.  Those costs are borne by local governments which by law have to balance their budgets.  Many state and local employees have not only foregone pay raises but have also taken pay cuts, much like their private sector counterparts.  Not so the federal government payroll.  Not so the congress or their staffs.  They continue merrily along their tipsy way.  With fiscal Armageddon less than a week away, the President jets off to Florida to play golf and the Congress goes on vacation!  To paraphrase Ricky Ricardo, “D.C., you got some ‘splaining to do!”

Then there’s the whole gun control debate.  When the administration and its media propaganda arm want to terrorize the low information voter, the nom de plume is “military style assault rifles.”  However, when the Department of Homeland Security wishes to purchase 7,000 rifles which use NATO ammunition and are suitable for “personal defense use in close quarters,” the assault rifle magically morphs into “personal defense weapons” or PDW’s.  This newly coined pseudonym also requires thirty-round magazines and is “select fire,” read FULLY AUTOMATIC.   In addition, DHS is also requesting another twenty million “hollow point” bullets to go along with the 1.6 BILLION bullets it has acquired over the last ten months!  Additionally, the President has signed legislation to allow the use of drones in the United States.  Some estimates predict as many as 30,000 drones will be in use domestically in the next ten years.

Ben Franklin once said, “Never trust a government that doesn’t trust its own citizens with guns.”  He probably was part of a conversation with Thomas Jefferson who said, “The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”  Further founding father wisdom came from George Washington who noted, “A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.”

If your home is broken into and you are in danger of being robbed, raped, beaten or murdered, you can follow Joe Biden’s advice and “go out on the balcony” and fire both barrels of your only weapon, a shotgun, into the air.  This is wrong on so many levels.  You could also follow the advice of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin.  It’s your choice, America…for now.

Our American Monarchy

By William L. Garvin

This isn't about the current resident of the White House who laments that he's only the President of the United States, not the "Emperor of the United States."  It isn't about the supposed Constitutional scholar who boasts "If Congress doesn't act, I will" and threatens that he will write a bill and Congress will have to vote on it.  It isn't about the fact that he unilaterally defines laws as unconstitutional and orders the Department of Justice to refuse to defend them as he did with the Defense of Marriage Act.

This isn't about him promising to "work tirelessly" until every American had a job then dashing off to Florida to play golf with Tiger Woods on a private course closed to even the press.  It isn't about his $1,000 per hour golf lessons while his wife spirits off on another multi-million dollar ski trip in Aspen.  It isn't about the nouveau riche jet setting that exceeds the travel budget of Britain's royal family and would have made the Gatsby's jealous.  After all, four years from now, they will have packed their bags and moved on.  Metaphorically speaking:  "The King is dead; long live the King."

No, this is about the permanent aristocracy, the Congress.  Presidents come and presidents go but "the institution" retains its members as if they had a lifetime employment contract.  Maybe it's because they do.  Despite having only an eighteen percent current approval rating, there is little danger of being fired.  Over the last century, ninety percent of incumbents were reelected.  In 2004, for example, 396 of the 401 House of Representative incumbents running for reelection succeeded.  In the Senate, 25 of the 26 incumbents won their races.  It's probably just coincidental, but that year incumbents in the House outspent their challengers by an average of $700,000.  In the Senate, challengers were down by $4 million dollars in the money ball game.  With the additional advantage of visibility and the subsequent name recognition, along with taxpayer funded staff and organization, the King may be dead but the King's Court is alive.  It doesn't matter if you're a convicted liar, thief, tax cheat, or mentally unstable, you can and probably will be reelected.

With that in mind, the permanent ruling class feels "entitled" to confer special privileges upon itself.  It lavishes health benefits and retirement perks upon itself that the serfs, the peasants, the workers, the taxpaying citizens can never afford.  It profits on insider knowledge which results in the accumulation of wealth that far exceeds the salaries that they earn on the books.  Their cozy relationships with lobbyists often result in sinecures on boards and corporations should they ever be voted out or choose to retire from the government gravy train.  They also exclude themselves from the laws they foist upon the country class, the little people, those they think need Big Government to assist them in every aspect of their daily lives.  In reality, they act in an antithetical manner to the self-anointed noblesse oblige they affect on stage.

Naturally, the aristocracy needs a herald to incessantly proclaim honorable motives to their continual meddling (and their failures!) and to cover up the continuing expansion of their power and their kingdom.  That is the designated role of elite education and elite media.  Move along, nothing to see in "Fast and Furious."  Move along, nothing to see in Benghazi.  Don't worry about the Muslim Brotherhood ruling Egypt or Iran gaining nuclear weapons.  Move along, there will never be a negative impact from "quantitative easing" and the Fed pumping $40 billion each month of freshly printed money into the economy.  Never forget that Fox News, talk radio, the Tea Party and conservative principles are likely to be the ruin of America.  Don't worry about national debt, trillion dollar deficits, unemployment numbers, everything is just peachy keen!   "Don't think twice, it's alright."

The court wouldn't be complete without the jester, aka "the fool."  That is the low information voter who is incapable of separating fact from fiction.  They are the voters who are completely ignorant of government processes, our American history, the rule of law, personal responsibility, limited government and basic economics.  The traditional liberal education in arts, science and the humanities has morphed into an expensive, unemployable, progressive propaganda brainwashing.  Increasingly reliant on government, the low information voters will soon outnumber the voters who work and pay taxes.  The tipping point in America may soon result in a permanent American monarchy.    

The Demise and Death of Respect

By William L. Garvin

Several events have occurred recently to signal that respect is no longer a core cultural value in the United States.  First, the New York school system has decided that it will no longer suspend students for cussing out a teacher.  Then an eighteen-year old reprobate curses at her judge, flips him off and then seems genuinely shocked when he takes offense and gives her even more jail time. 

On a more serious level, convicted double-murderer Nathan Burris mocked his death penalty sentence.  “I cannot or will not express remorse or regret—it’s not gonna happen,” Burris taunted.  “I’m in California, and there ain’t no death penalty in California.  The way I see it, I have good 25-30 years left before anything happens.”  Burris murdered his ex-girlfriend (who had broken up with him) and a man he suspected was now involved with her.  As far as Burris is concerned, he’s got “three hots and a cot” for the rest of his life.

Taking personal vengeance to an even more disgusting level is ex-cop Christopher Dorner.  After being fired from his job, after exhausting all his due process, all his administrative and judicial appeals and still being found guilty, he was unable to get on with his life.  Instead, he swore vengeance not only against the Los Angeles Police Department but also against members of their families.  True to his malevolent threat, he murdered the daughter of the LAPD captain who defended him against the charges resulting in his termination.  Dorner also killed the young woman’s fiancé and later, ambushed and killed a police officer in another city.

Curiously and morbidly, the internet is abuzz with defenders of all three individuals.  Some actually see Dorner’s murderous rampage as some sort of legitimate crusade against oppression.  They view the monomaniacal ramblings he posted on Face book as some sort of “manifesto” of political significance.  None of this bodes well for society.

Maybe it’s because of a degraded culture that has become all too acclimated to lying and law breaking with no substantial consequences.  Presidential prevaricators abound.  President Nixon was not a crook and President Clinton did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.  President Obama blamed Benghazi on a non-existent demonstration and video and shoots shotguns “all the time.”  Television edits and alters their videos to totally distort the content in order to further their assumptive biases.  Television pundits went to extreme lengths to tie the Aurora shooter and the Giffords shooter to non-existent conservative sources.  However, they don’t even mention Dorner’s glowing paeans to liberal politicians and progressive commentators and political voices.  Political campaigns saturate the airwaves and mailboxes with deliberate falsehoods and half truths.  They feel free to demonize anyone who gets in their way if it will score a cheap political point.

Maybe it’s because they see bankers earn millions while their clients lose more and nothing happens.  Maybe they see politicians criticize Wall Street on one hand and take their cash with the other.  Maybe they see Al Gore make millions selling his television station to oil money and al Jazeera and the hypocrisy nary makes a ripple.  Maybe they’ve gotten used to millions of law breakers coming across the borders and the government doing nothing about it.

Maybe it’s because they’ve grown up being told how special they are and how they should be extremely proud of whom they are even though they’ve never accomplished anything of any special significance.  Maybe their self-esteem has exploded into such full blown narcissism that they think they are smarter, better, and more deserving than anyone else.  Accordingly, they don’t need the normal restrictions of society, laws, or the legal system or see the laws as pertaining to them.  Maybe they somehow feel that they are entitled to be judge, jury and executioner.  Maybe they think they too should have the president’s drone policy.  

It Does Make a Difference!

By William L. Garvin

So much foolishness and so little time.  After four months of delay, Hillary Clinton finally appeared before congressional committees to testify about the murder of four Americans in Benghazi.  She added absolutely nothing to our understanding of what transpired or why those men died.  She accepted responsibility but not blame; apparently, no one is to blame because no one has been fired.  For some reason, the sycophantic media lauded her “what difference does it make?” Clintonesque screech as some sort of Joan of Arc rallying cry.  The media missed or ignored the point as did the investigating committee.  If you’re going to prevent such a travesty from happening again, the cause makes all the difference in the world in determining an appropriate countermeasure.  Why the administration chose to lie about a video makes a great deal of difference in determining public trust.  Why the consulate security requests were denied or ignored makes a great deal of difference.  What actions were taken and when they were taken makes a great deal of difference.  Of course, the myopic mainstream media seemed much more interested (and showed more diligence!) in make-believe girlfriends, lip synching singers, and doping cyclists than subjects of national importance.

This media foolishness is pathetic.  You would think Newsweek would have learned from their previous debacle showing President Obama with a halo over his head.  Did that influence actor Jamie Foxx to “give thanks to my lord and savior Barack Obama”?  Now Newsweek doubles down on blasphemy by a beatific, new cover picture of the president captioned “The Second Coming.”  Sainthood was stupid but deification is the height of media adulation, cooption and is an insult to Jews, Christians, and thinking people everywhere.

More foolishness surrounded golfer Phil Mickelson saying he might move out of California to a state where he would pay lower taxes.  When Tiger Woods moved to Florida for exactly the same reason, nary a discouraging word was heard.  Now that Tiger has fallen from grace, he might be treated as a pariah in the same way that Mickelson is currently being treated.  Of course, there is scant coverage of Warren Buffett employing an army of attorneys for millions of dollars to avoid paying corporate taxes.  The media hypocrisy was also apparent in their vendetta to lynch Mitt Romney for having a legal, off shore account in the Cayman Islands.  However, when Google shifts $9.8 billion of revenues into a Bermuda shell company thereby avoiding $2 billion in taxes, that’s good business.  Obviously, when you contribute over $800,000 to the Obama campaign, you will buy a lot of media good will.

More liberal foolishness, nee insanity, comes in their maniacal obsession to enact gun control for law abiding citizens.  One of the more humorous arguments relies on the single shot, muzzle loading muskets that were available at the time of the founding fathers.  Apparently, there wouldn’t be a second amendment if the constitutional authors had known that modern weaponry would exist.  That’s akin to saying we wouldn’t need protections for freedom of the press or speech if they would have known about radio, television, cell phones or the internet.  That’s almost as silly as the governor of New York postulating that the freedom to bear arms was designed for deer hunters.  Of course, his haphazard 7-bullet magazine limitation turned most of the peace officers in New York into instantaneous lawbreakers!

Predictably, the National Rifle Association is the liberal whipping boy du jour.  So, was the Newtown shooter an NRA member?  Well…no.  Was the Aurora theater shooter an NRA member?   No.  How about the Virginia Tech shooter?  No.  How about the Gabby Giffords shooter?  Again, no.  The Columbine shooters?  Definitely not.  What about the “Allahu Akbar” shouting, Fort Hood shooting Major Nidal Hassan?  Absolutely not.  Furthermore, not a single one of these homicidal loons was a conservative, Republican, or had any association with George Bush, Dick Cheney, or Sarah Palin.  Those torturous connect-the-dot liberal concoctions have as much substance as Hillary Clinton’s testimony.

Don’t expect any substantive discussion on important issues.  It’s a 140-character twitter world with an attention span of the same length.  Sound bites and pop culture dominate the low information voter universe.  Factual debate and investigative journalism are passé.  The watchdog press has become a simpering puppy propaganda arm for a liberal world view.  It is the only profession protected by the Constitution but it has shamefully denigrated that status.  They have violated their oaths and they passively protect those who violate the Constitution.  What a shameful and dangerous situation.