Sunday, January 31, 2016

The Insanity Continues

In a school where children are taught the Five Pillars of Islam, and hear negative comments about Christianity, you might reasonably conclude that that school might be located somewhere in the Middle East. You would be wrong. These things occurred at La Plata High School in Maryland. In fact, the students were told to recite the Shahada - "there is no g-d but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger." Apparently, the mere recitation of that verse is considered by Muslims to mean the speaker has converted to Islam. The Thomas More Center has filed a lawsuit on behalf of one family. I am sure the school district will defend this "multi-cultural" teaching. But just imagine if they taught that Jesus was the son of G-d and disparaged Islam. (Story from FoxNews.com, 1/29/16.)

Connecticut College is a small liberal arts college in New London. A professor there had the audacity in a Facebook post to compare Hamas to "rabid pit bulls." This resulted in the professor being accused of racism, bigotry and hate speech. Nobody came to this professor's defense. In fact, the university president and some faculty piled on. No defense of "free speech" or "academic freedom." Then, there were the death threats against the professor, who has been on a leave for a year or more. According to an article in the Washington Post, the professor may have been the only Jewish professor at this school of under 2000 students. A Muslim student who formed a "Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)" chapter on the campus was one of the leading complainers about the professor, notwithstanding having taken a class with the professor and being treated fairly. SJB is a rabidly (can I say that) anti-Israel group on a number of college campuses.

At an LGBT conference in Chicago this month, two LGBT activists from Israel were invited to speak. Israel is one of the most accepting countries for gays in the world. However, some LGBT people took offense by the mere presence of Israelis, calling Israel a racist, apartheid state. The demonstration against the Israelis got violent, and they had to be escorted from the conference for their own safety. Just to clarify, these LGBT protesters were demonstrating on behalf of Palestinians. In Israel, it is perfectly safe to be openly gay. Tel Aviv even has gay pride parades. In the Palestinian territories gays can face imprisonment and even death, just for being gay. But to the left-wing protesters, and as stated by one in particular, gay rights in Israel are just a "cover for their increasingly brutal rule over Palestinians, a process known as pinkwashing." That is, of course, nonsense. But let's assume that comment is correct. These people are still protesting on behalf of a people who would kill or imprison them! Another example of Michael Savage's axiom: liberalism is a mental disorder.

It's good to give away "free" stuff using other people's money. Bernie Sanders proposes lots of such "free" giveaways. The problem is, as most adults know, there is no such thing as a free lunch, or anything else. "Free" college tuition for all is one of Sanders' favorite proposals, as is universal Medicare. The Wall Street Journal has estimated that all of this "free" stuff will cost about $18 trillion dollars over the next ten years. Sanders, like Obama, believes in the redistribution of wealth. If the free market is doing that I am all for it; when the government is doing it that is a form of tyranny.

In a recent IBD/TIPP poll from 1/22-1/27/16, 37% of Democrats agreed that the government should redistribute wealth and income. 10% of Republicans agreed, which is sad. 38% of Democrats agreed that the government should take over major industries such as healthcare and energy. 9% of Republicans agreed. I feel like I need to repeat something I have said many times before - the American democratic capitalist system has created more wealth and more freedom for more people than any other in human history. That is just not good enough for the left-wing fanatics, and for many other Americans who have been convinced that there are "free" lunches.

Out of Minnesota comes yet another hard to believe story. Todd Starnes at FoxNews.com reported that the Rogers Area Youth Basketball Association was forced out of the league (Northwest Suburban Basketball League) in which they played. The team is a girls team. They were not kicked out because of misconduct by the coach or players. They were kicked out of the league because the players were too good. Apparently, some other schools did not want to compete against these girls, and threatened to forfeit their games or bolt the league. I want to know what kind of coach would tell their team that the other team is too talented and you guys suck, so let's just forfeit the game. Shame on such a coach. How about encouraging your team to play their best - and the outcome will be what it will be. As one of the girls on the booted team said: "Are we supposed to play worse just to make them happy?"

But that is what politically correct nonsense gets you. There should be no winners and no losers, so nobody feels bad. Everyone is equally talented. Just like every culture and every religion is equal. Obama will not say "radical Islam" because it is insulting to Muslims. How is that again? Law-abiding Muslims should be insulted by the radical terrorists carrying out murderous attacks in the name of their religion, not by the phrase "radical Islam." Obama told us that other religions do the same thing, harkening back to the Crusades to make his point about Christianity. And, now we have Bernie Sanders, who wants to make sure there is no income or wealth inequality, and will redistribute peoples' savings and fortunes to accomplish his goal.

While we're making everything equal, everything the same, I have a few beefs of my own. I would have loved to have had a great singing voice. Alas... I also would have loved to have the physique of my uncle, an all-star high school football player. Instead, I have had physical disabilities since age 15. And I really wanted to win that $1.5 billion power ball lotto. Can Bernie get some of that money and give it to me? Why should there be winning and losing tickets, anyway?

I happened to see Rafael Cruz, Ted's dad, on Hannity the other night. Said Mr. Cruz: "We need to get back to the foundations that have made America great - the biblical and constitutional foundations - hard work, individual responsibility, honesty, integrity, the rule of law, free enterprise and limited government." Nah, too right-wing radical.