Archives for 2010
reaction to elitism and narcissism
PCuicide
In the wake of NPR’s PC-spasm firing of Juan Williams, consider The Travails of Modern Islam by Daniel Pipes:
QUESTION: In relation to the two questions of what went wrong and how do we fix it, do you see a difference between hardcore Islamists and those that are less committed?
DR DANIEL PIPES: They are roughly the same. Various versions of Islamism exist. For example, in Saudi Arabia women can’t drive, can’t do this, can’t do that. In Iran, they can. The Iranian idea is that they’ve created an Islamic republic where women are safe. In the Saudi vision, danger lurks in every corner and females need to be protected. There are many such differences in both style and substance. But in the end, all Islamists aspire to the same thing which is the application of Islamic law. Islamic law differs slightly in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and India. They have different schools, but these are again details and in general the aspiration to apply Islamic law is common to all Muslims.
The generalizations abhorred by the politically correct need the most scrutiny.
illegal immigration
Illegal immigration is a massive problem that causes your eyes to glaze over when you try to think of remedies in total.
At Tom Tancredo’s meeting in Elizabeth yesterday, however, the question was asked and answered about what percentage of illegal immigrants also end up in our criminal justice process. The answer, confirmed by Tancredo and Sheriff Frangis, is that between 15% and 20% of arrested perps are illegal immigrants.
That’s a huge statistic. Why are we not deporting the 15% to 20% of perps in our criminal justice system who are also known illegal immigrants? What a perfect place to start solving the illegal immigration problem!
Reduce prison load and save a boatload of money from that, make the streets of America safer by deporting a known criminal element, and reduce the illegal immigrant population by its’ most undesirable subset.
Can you think of a good reason why to keep illegal immigrants in our jails and prisons?
Maes is over
People who still support Dan Maes have effectively withdrawn from meaningful participation in this election for governor. Whether Maes goes or stays, you can make a plausible case that voters currently dedicated to Dan Maes are irrelevant to the outcome of the race.
Let’s assume he stays, which seems the most likely case. If all those pledged to him remain loyal and vote for him, they won’t effect the outcome of the race for governor. That race will be decided completely by people who vote for Tancredo and Hickenlooper.
On the other hand, let’s assume Maes withdraws–the unlikely case. Some of his pledged voters will still vote for him, and won’t effect the outcome of the race. Some will choose not to vote at all, and won’t effect the outcome of the race. Some will vote for Tancredo on the principle of conservatism, while others will vote for Hickenlooper purely out of spite. Let’s face it, after all that’s gone wrong with Dan Maes, of the people remaining in his camp today who don’t end up in one of the nullifying outcomes, they’re as likely to go one way or the other (conservatism or spite), and those two camps will cancel each other out.
The bottom line is, whether Maes stays or goes, his voters have become irrelevant. The race is between those who relevantly declare for Tancredo and Hickenlooper, and Tancredo has about pulled even in that contest.
we the people…
…did not found the Elbert County Tea Party and did not elect its self-appointed Chairman. When will the Elbert County Tea Party embrace the consent of the citizens that it claims to uphold and elect its own party leaders? When will the Elbert County Tea Party hold its own leadership accountable for supporting Dan Maes and for siding with the left on Proposition 1A?
tea party and liberal against 1A
Tea Party self-appointed leader Robert Rowland sides with Democrat Whistler on Elbert County Proposition 1A.
ELBERT COUNTY FINANCIAL WOES
by Robert Rowland on Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 1:30pm
WE NEED EVERYONE IN ELBERT COUNTY TO SEE AND READ THIS, PLEASE PASS ALONG. ELBERT COUNTY – BALLOT INITIATIVE 1A [Read more…]
Join the Game
Tancredo’s K w/ Colorado
Vote YES on 60, 61 & 101
Blue Book w/out govt bias
“Anyone who accuses the legislative council staff
[who wrote the Blue Book] of bias,
will be ejected from this hearing.”
-Chairman Terrance Carroll opening the only public hearing
With Colorado’s Blue Book Alternative you can avoid our government’s conflict of interest and bureaucratic bias, and get information about ballot initiatives straight from the proponents.
Proposition 101 (Cut car, income, phone taxes)
Amendment 60 (Limit Property Tax)
Amendment 61 (Limit Colorado Debt)
Friday 10/8/10 Morning
holy men vitamins
all litmus tests are not created equal
RE:
Call For The Immediate Resignation of All Republican Officials Openly Supporting 3rd Party ACP Candidate Tancredo
by Cindy Lyons on Sunday, October 3, 2010 at 7:54pmI am calling for the immediate resignation of ALL Republican elected officials and party people who are caught openly defying state GOP party by-laws. It is shameful for a liberal reporter to expose so well what was lying under neath all along. When a Republican supports a party not their own they are called RINO: Republican In Name Only under the truest of circumstances. I call for all GOP Party Chairs to enforce this rule.
Cindy Lyons
Patriot
9-12 member
Republican Conservative
It took a systemic failure of the Republican caucus system for a public call to go out to purge the party of its RINO’s. But RINO’s have been comfortably ensconced in Republican Central Committees for years. Why must they suddenly be purged?
Because Maes zealots need someone to blame for the failure of the caucus system that they perpetrated. They abused the caucus apparatus, they screwed it up royally, and now they have bogeyman in the form of Tancredo supporters to blame.
The caucus system was never a good solution; it’s thoroughly corrupt and has been for a long time. But Republicans have an opportunity to really fix something if they have the courage that their professed patriotism and allegiance to conservatism implies.
Expelling RINO’s, even if they could do it which they can’t, will only further cement the caucus problem in place. So, do Republicans have the courage of introspection to analyze themselves and the conduct of their caucus process? Can they admit that the caucus system is the product of a small minority of self-appointed apparatchiks who convince themselves over time that they are representatives of the people at large, and that this bunch blew it big time?
This would be a great opportunity for Republicans to man up, take responsibility for their mistakes, and fix this broken corrupt caucus process.
The tenor of the Elbert County Tea Party however, full of self-righteous indignation, seems to be running away from these real growth opportunities as fast as they can. Electing the leftist opposition will be their legacy, they’ll never admit it, and they’ll go on nursing their coffee clatch political club for the rest of their days.
clock is ticking
Time is almost up to do the right thing Mr. Peterson.
The right thing would be to stop promoting the grifter for governor and get behind the man with real answers, real experience, real leadership and real command of the office he seeks.
And doing the right thing for the greater good would be to support tax limiting proposals instead of big public money interests.
When Republicans align with the NEA, the Colorado Progressive Coalition, the Democratic Governors Association, and the SEIU, it’s time to say goodbye to the Republicans.
Tancredo dominates debate tonight
The Governor’s Forum debate begins at about 23 minutes into this video.
The Closing of the Muslim Mind
The Closing Of The Muslim Mind by Robert R. Reilly
Foreword by Roger Scruton
“The roots of Western civilization lie in the religion of Israel, the culture of Greece, and the law of Rome, and the resulting synthesis has flourished and decayed in a thousand ways during the two millennia that have followed the death of Christ. Whether expanding into new territories or retreating into cities, Western civilization has continually experimented with new institutions, new laws, new forms of political order, new scientific beliefs, and new practices in the arts. And this tradition of experiment led, in time, to the Enlightenment, to democracy, and to forms of social order in which free opinion and freedom of religion are guaranteed by the state.
Why did not something similar happen in the Islamic world? [Read more…]
Essay Contest
Kerchner v. Obama
Petition for Writ of Certiorari filed with the U.S. Supreme Court for Kerchner v Obama
The threat to petitioners’ life, liberty, safety, security, tranquility, and property is actual and concrete rather than merely conjectural or hypothetical. The Declaration of Independence recognizes these rights as “unalienable” and as having been endowed upon an individual by his or her “Creator.” The Constitution recognizes these rights not as being abstract or theoretical rights but rather as concrete and real and needing protection from government abuses. It recognizes these rights as the essence of a person’s being. Petitioners sued Obama after he assumed the great and singular powers of the Executive. Obama was not a mere candidate with no power. Obama has had and continues to have executive and military power to harm the petitioners. He actually exercises those powers on a daily basis. Petitioners cannot rely on Obama, who was born with dual and conflicting allegiances to protect them as a “natural born Citizen” would. The United States Supreme Court has recognized the problems presented by dual nationality and has stated that dual nationality is a “status long recognized in the law” and that a person with such dual nationality “may have and exercise rights of nationality in two countries and be subject to the responsibilities of both.” Kawakita v. United States, 343 U.S. 717 (1952). But because Obama has yet to and because he cannot conclusively prove that he is an Article II “natural born Citizen” because of his conflicting natural allegiance and loyalty, plaintiffs are not constitutionally expected to nor do they trust him to protect their life, liberty, safety, security, tranquility, and property as would a President and Commander in Chief of the Military who is a “natural born Citizen.” Petitioners must therefore be allowed to challenge Obama in order to protect these concrete rights.
Dems’ Ad Strategy
Ad Strategy Worked: Weak Tea Party Candidate Won Primary
“The most recently filed campaign records from Colorado Freedom Fund indicate that the Democratic Governors Association donated $150,000, while wealthy Colorado philanthropist Pat Stryker gave $108,000. The SEIU Small Donor Committee gave $200,000 and the Public Education Committee, an education union, gave $150,000. Two other groups gave $5,000 each to the committee.
“Democrats spent more money on Maes in two weeks than he raised in his entire campaign,” said Rob Witwer, co-author of “The Blueprint,” a book about the Democrats takeover of Colorado. “They wanted Dan Maes to be the Republican nominee and they got him.”
60, 61, 101 – BIG money game
With nearly $4 million spent so far to defeat these measures, an amount which dwarfs the money for all other political issues and offices in Colorado combined, these measures are the biggest threat to tax and spend liberalism currently on the table. You know, to a point of certainty, that the legal briefs that will challenge these measures are already written and waiting to be filed, should any of them squeak through the liberal firewall. And you know, given the composition of the Colorado Supreme Court, that any legal challenge to these measures will be found sufficient and ultimately upheld. There’s just too much money on the table to enliven the fight.
Still, it’s a fight worth having because it exposes the tax and spend super structure running Colorado. And there’s no other way we’ll ever even see who runs our government.
According to August 2010 reports, Coloradans for Responsible Reform, an opponent of Proposition 101, Amendment 60 and 61, has reportedly received $4.109 million in campaign contributions and has spent $3.877 million. Their current balance is $231,335.98.[29] Compared to May 2010 reports, supporters reported that they had received $777,000 in campaign donations and a total of $671,190 in the bank.[30] In July 2010, state campaign finance records revealed that opponents received contributions from 36 businesses and 11 business & trade groups.[13]
Below is a chart that outlines major cash contributions to Coloradans for Responsible Reform:[31][32]
Contributor Amount National Education Association $400,000 Colorado Contractors Association, Inc. $300,000 Colorado Education Association $250,000 The Colorado Health Foundation $175,000 Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association $150,000 Campaign advertising
- Opponents purchased $2 million of television air time. Their ad campaign is expected to launch after Labor Day.[13]
- On September 8, 2010 Coloradans for Responsible Reform launched a one-minute ad in opposition to Prop 101, Amendment 60 and 61. According to reports, the ad calls the three measures “The Ugly Three.” The radio ad ran on 64 stations in 39 cities.[33] The radio ad can be heard here.
Tactics and strategies
- In May 2010 Coloradans for Responsible Reform launched a website called www.donthurtcolorado.com in order to fight Proposition 101, Amendment 60 and 61. According to reports, the group has raised approximately $800,000 to fight the measures. The campaign group is supported by Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and others. According to Coloradans for Responsible Reform the proposed measures would make Colorado an “investment-flight state.”[30]
- On August 14, 2010, opponents of Proposition 101, Amendment 60 and Amendment 61 gathered at the Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library, the headquarters of the Pueblo City-County Library District. According to reports, the crowd consisted of about 50 local politicians, school, library and business leaders.[34]
- On August 25 opponents hosted a rally at the Pioneers Museum gazebo from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm to explain and distribute information on the potential impact of the three measures. The rally, according to reports, was sponsored by the Citizens for Effective Government and group of businesses and organizations.[35][36][37]
- The Colorado Progressive Coalition hit the road on September 14 in a ten-day “Civic Engagement Roundtable Ballot Tour” to inform voters of “the costly effects and unintended consequences” of the measures.[38] A list of tour events can be found here.
- On September 27, 2010 opponents met in front of empty seats at Invesco Field to illustrate the 73,000 jobs they argue would be lost should Amendment 60, 61 and Prop 101 be approved by voters.[39]
Other perspectives
-
- 2010 Gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo announced in an early September debate that he supported Proposition 101, Amendment 60 and 61. Tancredo said, “The people of Colorado are not under-taxed; we are over-governed” and added “It’s really a reaction to people being overtaxed and taxed without their permission. The passage of these things will be an indicator that things are coming to a change and we’ll have to deal with it.”[40] However, in late September 2010, Tancredo said he was unsure about the measures.[41]
Vote YES on 60, 61 & 101
In a time when debt-based federal stimulus money rains down around us out of control, these 3 measures are entirely rational.
Colorado Amendment 60 (2010)
Colorado Amendment 61 (2010)
Colorado Motor Vehicle, Income, and Telecom Taxes, Proposition 101 (2010)
pass the lipstick please
GOP Agenda – A Pledge To America
I don’t think there’s enough lipstick in Washington to make this pig look good. It doesn’t mention death taxes, it uses weasel words about border security, it says they’ll put us on a path to balancing the budget without actually calling for a balanced budget, and they promise to give us 3 days to digest and respond to their thousand page bills.
It looks dressed up to appeal to constitutional fundamentalists without actually saying much to hold the GOP to. And this morph of the Declaration of Independence from a document stating the foundation for our right to change our system of government, to a justification for making policy changes within our existing government, is just repugnant.
the answer to Alinsky
Matthew Broderick played a hacker kid in the movie War Games who dialed into a government computer named WOPR, and triggered a global thermonuclear war game simulation with it. In the movie, WOPR was located at the NORAD complex inside Cheyenne Mountain and it controlled our nuclear arsenal. No one at NORAD realized there was a simulation going on and the military mobilized as if the threat was real. The plot brings the world to the brink of nuclear war as the game between the hacker and the machine plays out. Things eventually resolve and at the end the WOPR computer concludes the moral of the story–in a suitably robotic voice, “The only way to win is not to play the game.”
There you have the answer to Saul Alinsky and his Rules For Radicals.
msnbc.com news services
updated 9/18/2010 10:15:40 PM ETWASHINGTON — President Barack Obama came out swinging against Republicans in a fiery campaign-season speech to black lawmakers Saturday night, urging them to “guard the change” he was delivering with the kind of organizing that propelled the civil rights movement.
“I need everybody here to go back to your neighborhoods, and your workplaces, to your churches, and barbershops, and beauty shops. Tell them we have more work to do. Tell them we can’t wait to organize. Tell them that the time for action is now,” Obama said in his remarks.
Members of “the other side,” Obama said, “want to take us backward. We want to move America forward. In fact, they’re betting that you’ll come down with a case of amnesia. That you’ll forget about what their agenda did to this country when they were in charge. Remember, these are the folks who spent almost a decade driving the economy into a ditch. And now they’re asking for the keys back.”
“What made the civil rights movement possible were foot soldiers like so many of you, sitting down at lunch counters and standing up for freedom. What made it possible for me to be here today are Americans throughout our history making our union more equal, making our union more just, making our union more perfect,” Obama said. “That’s what we need again.”
The effort began Monday with a White House reception for black college officials. It included speeches by the president on Wednesday to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and by first lady Michelle Obama to a black caucus legislative conference that same day.
The president told the Hispanic group he is committed to an immigration overhaul, even though it has stalled in Congress. He blamed GOP opposition and said Hispanic voters should keep that in mind.
“You have every right to keep the heat on me and keep the heat on the Democrats,” he said. “But don’t forget who is standing with you, and who is standing against you. … Your voice can make the difference.”
Looking at this latest push from Obama, it’s obvious he’s dealing race cards, class envy cards, illegal immigration cards, culture cards, xenophobia cards, and probably a handful of others–pretty much red meat for everyone, whether you are for or against his hope and change.
If you’re for Obama’s change, he means to inspire you to action. But even more importantly, if you’re against Obama’s change he means to inspire you to reaction. It is in the reaction of the majority that his real power to control events lies.
Without conservative reaction to Obama’s racism, victimization and division, all he has is an echo chamber within the minority. The real play, the big fish he’s trying to reel in, is the resonance from the majority, because their reaction makes the playing field on which to continue the game.
The main goal of community organizing is to provide a continuing provocation to the majority to get them to react irrationally, emotionally, to lose control, and to thereby become subject to manipulation.
Conservatives need to stop reacting to all of the dividing philosophies promulgated by the Left. The basket full of plainly harmful and emotionally supercharged red-meat ideas that the left uses to cause division in America all deserve to be ignored. There’s nothing new there, nothing to be learned, nothing to be gained, and conservatives know this on an intellectual level.
Conservatives need to stop allowing themselves to be jerked around by their emotions. The left will carry on as they will. No one can reasonably expect to change members of a brainwashed cult. Conservatives should take themselves off the playing field and out of that game and allow the left’s ideas, such as they are, to just resonate among themselves.
If conservatives disempower the left’s harmful ideas by ceasing to react to them, I expect their politics of division will lose relevance and gradually die out. And one day we’ll be able to put Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals into the ground where they belong with him.
Silverman & Maes
Silverman interviews Maes 9_17_10.mp4
With all of the loose ends in the continuing Dan Maes’ narrative, with the absence of any pro-forma policies that Maes might intend for Colorado, with the absence of any credentials that might lead one to a governor’s office, Maes leaves me with the clear impression that he continually invents and reinvents himself from whole cloth, minute by minute. He is the narrative and the narrative is all there is.
political sport in ElCo
Denver Post 9/17/10: Elbert County mired in crises
Let’s break this turkey down:
- No county officials will go on the record to comment on the article.
- John Dunn is aggrieved over the situation, which is his normal mental state when it comes to Elbert County.
- Norm Happel is aggrieved over the situation, which is his normal mental state when it comes to Elbert County.
- Jim Whistler is aggrieved over the situation, and he is the underdog in the Treasurers race and has a political ax to grind.
- P.J. Trostel’s indictment has many counts, but prosecutors always over-charge, and all the counts seem to be not very material in value.
- Megan Taunton’s alleged breach also appears to lack much materiality.
- And the sitting commissioners decided to refinance county debt, a decision that they were clearly empowered to make.
This article reeks of election year politics. It’s main value appears to be as an indicator of a linkage between John Dunn and Jim Whistler. Mr. Whistler circulated an email a couple weeks ago that grew out of a freedom of information request he had made for the 2009 county audit report. He then cherry-picked a couple pages out of the 50 page document and forwarded those pages with his own suggestions of county financial impropriety. A friend routed the email to me. I asked Mr. Whistler to release the entire audit report so that I could make an informed analysis of his charges. He refused to release the entire report.
Those are the facts as I see them. Draw your own conclusions.
GOP reaches
Decision: Olsen & Harrington v. Tancredo, Miller, ACP & CO Secretary of State
Excerpt:
D. Plaintiffs’ First Amendment Argument Does Not Alter The Court’s Conclusions
Plaintiffs seem to contend that the Court’s construction of the statutory framework somehow implicates Plaintiffs’ rights under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. They point to Storer v. Brown, 415 U.S. 724 (1974), Colo. Libertarian Party v. Sec’y of State of Colo., 817 P.2d 998 (Colo. 1991), and Riddle v. Daley, 2010 WL 2593927 (D. Colo. June 23, 2010) and Curry et al v. Buescher, slip. op. 10-1265 (10th Cir. August 31, 2010). First, Plaintiffs do not explicitly assert a constitutional claim in their Second Amended Petition. Second, the law is clear that a court “should not decide a constitutional issue unless the necessity for such decision is clear and inescapable.” People v. Lybarger, 700 P.2d 910, 915 (Colo. 1985). Third, the associational, speech and ballot access rights at issue, if any, belong to ACP, Mr. Tancredo and Ms. Miller. Fourth, the facts of the cases on which Plaintiffs rely are distinguishable. They involve independent candidates seeking direct access by petition to a general election ballot. Such candidates are not similarly situated to candidates selected through the processes available to major and minor political parties. Finally, Plaintiffs seem to invoke these cases to make a policy argument about what they perceive as the political instability that would result from allowing someone such as Mr. Tancredo late entry into a race. It is not appropriate, however, for this Court to decide public policy. For all these reasons, Plaintiffs’ constitutional argument is not ripe for the Court’s consideration.
The GOP sponsors of this lawsuit consider Tancredo’s candidacy in the governor’s race an infringement of their 1st Am. right to free speech because Tancredo’s candidacy creates political instability for them. A more clear nanny-state predisposition could hardly be conceived. The Colorado Republican Party should be voted into obscurity for prosecuting such an offensive view.
Pollyanna lament
“Why not a 9/10 movement?’ asks Ed Quillen.
Because:
- We live in a universe where time moves forward, and
- The Islamic cult who attacked America on 9/11 is still at war with us, and
- The war will continue until they stop fighting us, and
- They are command by their god to fight us to the death, and
- Many who sympathize with the Islamic cult currently at war with America freely live among us, and
- America has become an armed camp because would-be terrorists living among us seek opportunities to spread terror, and
- etc.
Quillen’s Pollyanna lament is a nice bit of nostalgia, and it’s completely unhelpful, like much of what comes out of his brand of politics. If the left really wanted things to be as they were on 9/10, they would fight the long war and its Islamic philosophy as if they meant to end it. They would stop enabling it in America.
RE:
Quillen: Confessions of a 9/10 American
By Ed Quillen
The Denver Post
Posted: 09/12/2010 01:00:00 AM MDTAs memorable dates go, Sept. 12 is not high on the list. [Read more…]
sanctimony personified
The man who knows nothing about business and wealth creation would guarantee a job, an education, health care, a home, and a comfortable retirement to everyone. The man above who produces nothing would use the power of the state to guarantee the appropriation of wealth from producers to consumers. No one calls it Communism or Socialism, however, “from each according to his abilities to each according to his needs” and Obama’s policy stated recently in Cleveland have a distinction without a difference.
Who is going to provide all of the outcomes that Obama effortlessly promises? Who will provision the beneficiaries? Not the government. The government doesn’t create any of those things. The government is just an intermediary that consumes some overhead to manage the transfer of all this guaranteed value from one group of citizens to another. Wealth producers fund Obama’s guarantees–his wealth transfers–to consumers, and they also fund the government overhead that operates the transfer system.
Obama and Congress are free riders in this system. They get paid by wealth producers, and they keep their jobs by buying off the goodwill of government beneficiaries who receive the guaranteed outcomes they promise.
Obama, Congress, and the Executive Branch containing thousands of federal regulators with enforcement powers, have no personal skin in the game. They produce nothing while they wield power, yet the wielding of power actually prolongs and enhances their positions–gets them more power. The reality feedback loop for this system is stacked against producers, it’s disconnected from real cause and effect, it doesn’t respond to real economics, and it cannot produce economic outcomes. Every outcome the government wealth transfer and regulatory system produces is in fact a dislocation from what would occur naturally.
And what would occur naturally, according to Leftist mythology, is a dangerous, racist, hurtful, unjust, mean, nasty, insensitive, polluting, deadly, evil, devastating Republican disaster that must be avoided at any and all cost. Leftist mythology covers a lot to hate, and that’s why they’re so practiced at expressing hatred. You are what you eat.
But the Left thinks this system is just wonderful because they see themselves as saviors from all the squalor that would otherwise exist. Obama and those who uphold his beliefs have no clue about the essential injustice, unworkability, and seriously harmful consequences that their guaranteed outcomes have caused wherever they’ve been previously tried. They zealously believe in a system of thought that prevents them from realizing these truths. Blissfully unaware of the harm their policies cause, with brains washed clean of introspection and critical thought, they think themselves brilliant. The role of savior, the messianic complex, is so captivating to them that it crowds out reality feedback. They never even see their own negative effects.
Our Constitution gave us the tools to prevent this sort of monstrosity from developing. Over two centuries of Supreme Court decisions have largely eviscerated the constitutional protections created by the Founders, and there now exists a very wealthy and self-perpetuating industry of lawyers and courts who are vested in the daily effort to transfer wealth and political empowerment to beneficiaries, and away from producers.
America may have already passed the tipping point where the incentive to produce is so diluted, and the avarice of beneficiaries and their empowering bureaucracy is so ravaging, that the American dream has become a memory.
Koran burning
International groups and the U.S. Military have unanimously counseled against the upcoming performance of burning the Koran on the grounds that it greatly inflames Muslims and thereby poses an increased safety risk to Americans. I agree and this is a more than sufficient reason to avoid burning the Koran.
Perhaps this would also be a good time to put to bed this nonsense about Islam being a religion of peace like Christianity. With the shoe on the other foot, with Bibles on fire in a circle of ululating and shouting Muslims, Christians would quietly stand by and pray for the book burners. But Muslims aren’t Christian and Islam has a ways to go to grow out of its barbarism.
If burning Korans would help them do that, one could say that increasing the risk to Americans abroad from Muslim violence would have a balancing argument, but there doesn’t appear to be anything constructive to be gained from this act. It’s as pointless as burning an American flag or an effigy of Uncle Sam, acts which bring great joy to Islamist fanatics, but just look pathetic to the majority of Americans.
Koran burning over here, American flag burning over there, both pitiful acts performed by and for backward people.
which way the wind blows?
Ask the Tea Party in Colorado. The answer is blowing in the wind and whither the wind goes, so goes the tea party. One day the Constitutionalist fishwrap from the Springs agrees with the Gazette that Maes should get out. The very next day, he’s back. The Constitutionalist loves him again. The whole state voted him off the island, but he won’t go. So what does the tea party do? They love him all over again.
Maes blew in like a fresh spring breeze with all the hope and promise you could want. Here was a successful businessman who had made millions, managed large organizations, had the experience and the stones to stand up to the powers that be. Turns out, all he had was the stones! The rest of it was a fraud, but now he’s their fraud.
Again. Today. Tomorrow? Well, they’ll have to cross that bridge when they come to it.
If tea party history is any guide, expect their sentiments to change. Perhaps when the cold winds start to blow in from the North, they’ll turn chilly about Maes once again. They seem to be a fickle bunch.
When you hang your hat on the mercurial, corruptible, shifting sands of the will of the people, you never know when it will be handed back to you, who will wear it in the interim, or what kind of dirt they’ll leave on it. That’s why the Founders built a country on the rule of law and tried to put as many roadblocks in the way of the will of the people as they could devise.
If you could pry the Elbert County Tea Party lose from it’s Facebook flag-waving-frenzy over the will of the people for a moment, you might let them in on this little secret of our shared history, however, the leader of this ragtag bunch of ersatz revolutionaries, one Mr. Rowland, isn’t into substantive debate, responding to dissent, or defending his ideas.