More government madness: Local officials threatened a church with fines and forced them to cease giving away free water during the Mardi Gras parade.
Stupidity: The baseball Astros have been forced by league officials to remove the picture of a Colt revolver from their original baseball jerseys.
[Major League Baseball] gave the okay to the uniform, which the Astros will wear to kick off a season of throwbacks commemorating the 50th anniversary of the club. It nixed the pistol on the uniform in an era when guns are a sensitive issue, according to an Astros official.
Surprise, surprise! A new poll shows that Obamacare continues to be a major political problem for Obama, and Romney.
In the poll, Obama lags the two leading Republican rivals in the 12 states likely to determine the outcome of a close race in November:
- Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum tops Obama 50%-45% in the swing states. Nationwide, Santorum’s lead narrows to 49%-46%.
- Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney edges Obama 48%-46% in the swing states. Nationwide, they are tied at 47% each.
Romney also has a health care problem: Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in the battleground states, 27% say they are less likely to support him because he signed a Massachusetts law that required residents to have coverage. Just 7% say it makes them more likely to back him.
At least Romney has made it clear he intends to repeal Obamacare, which should help him in the election should he overcome the Republican hostility to RomneyCare and become the Republican candidate. For Obama, however, there is no escape. Obamacare is his problem, and his alone, and he is likely going to go down in flames because of it more than anything else.
Islamic tolerance: The Pennsylvania atheist — assaulted by a Muslim man because he was ridiculing Mohammad — has received almost 500 death threats since the judge dismissed the assault charges against the Muslim.
More video of that townhall meeting where Congresswoman Kathy Hochul (D-New York) was challenged by her constituents over Obama’s contraceptive mandate. Her answer:
Well, basically, we’re not looking to the Constitution on that aspect of it.
She essentially admits that when it comes to the Democratic Party and the Obama administration, policy will trump the Constitution every time.
At the end of the videotape, when she finds herself literally speechless and unable to respond intelligently to the questions being put to her, she says, “Clearly, more work needs to be done.” I agree. The work that needs to be done is to throw these thugs out of office.
Finding out what’s in it: Massachusett has proposed a 500-plus percent increase in vending machine license fees in order to meet new regulations imposed by Obamacare.
And this ain’t the end. Day by day for the next three years — as Obamacare slowly takes effect — we are going to find out again and again how completely bad it is. The important thing will be to remember clearly who imposed this idiocy on us.
Tea Party 2: A democratic congresswoman, Kathy Hochul (D-New York), was booed at a townhall meeting by her constituents enraged by the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate.
One woman in the crowd told Hochul: “This President has lied to us repeatedly when he proclaims support for conscience protection in his infamous speech at Notre Dame as well as in the executive order he signed following passage of the health care law. He is not worthy of your support in this matter.” Another man shouted “It’s an insult to the Catholics in this country to even listen to that gibberish. It is an absolute insult and Catholics deserve better. We were taking care of this country’s sick long before the government got involved in it.”
What we have here is a case where a political party (Obama and the Democrats in Congress) have willingly and consciously stomped on the rights of a large number of American citizens. Because these Democrats happen to also be tone deaf politically, they don’t seem to care. They will find out how much it matters come November.
Charges have been dropped against New Hampshire man who fired into the ground to stop a burglar.
The tragedy here is that the arrest has intimidated him.
I shouldn’t have done that. I should have called the police. That’s what you’re supposed to do. I let emotions take over when rationale should’ve taken over and I went after the guy and I shouldn’t have done that.
I say, bull. The man did nothing wrong. His action caught a serial burglar.
Theft by governments: After spending $2.6 million to find and recover a half a billion dollars in gold from a 1804 shipwreck, a U.S. salvage company has now been forced to return the gold to Spain by the U.S. courts.
Fakegate: Global warmists try to hide their decline.
Fakegate shows us, with the precision of a scientific experiment, several key truths about the global warming movement. It shows that most warmists, both the scientists and the journalists, will embrace any claim that seems to bolster their cause, without bothering to check the facts or subject them to rigorous investigation. (Anthony Watts notes how few journalists bothered to contact him before reporting the claims about him that are made in the fake memo.) And it shows us that warmists like Gleick have no compunction about falsifying information to promote their agenda, and that many other warmists are willing to serve as accomplices after the fact, excusing Gleick’s fraud on the grounds that he was acting in a “noble cause.” It shows us that “hide the decline” dishonesty is a deeply ingrained part of the corporate culture of the global warming movement.
Gleick wasn’t just an obscure, rogue operator in the climate debate. Before his exposure, his stock in trade was lecturing on “scientific integrity,” and until a few days ago he was the chairman of the American Geophysical Union’s Task Force on Scientific Ethics. So this scandal goes to the very top of the global warming establishment, and it compels honest observers to ask: if the warmists were willing to deceive us on this, what else have they been deceiving us about?
Between Climategate and Fakegate, the warmist establishment now has zero credibility, and we must call all of their claims into question. [emphasis mine]
And in related news, the EPA has scrubbed its grants database of any mention of the grants it had awarded to Peter Gleick and the institute he heads.
The wave builds: Seven states today filed a joint lawsuit, seeking to overturn Obama’s contraceptive mandate.
“This violation of the [First] Amendment is a threat to every American, regardless of religious faith,” Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning said in a news release. “We will not stand idly by while our constitutionally guaranteed liberties are discarded by an administration that has sworn to uphold them.”
The lawsuit also alleges the “practical effect” of the mandate “will force religious employers to drop health insurance coverage,” in order to avoid violating their religious beliefs.
“Obamacare’s latest mandate tramples the First Amendment’s freedom of religion and compels people of faith to act contrary to their convictions,” Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a news release. “The very first amendment to our Constitution was intended to protect against this sort of government intrusion into our religious convictions.”
The abuse of power: Months after its raid and confiscation of a half a million dollars worth of property from Gibson Guitars, the Obama Justice Department has still not filed any charges.
Reason.tv recently checked in with Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz to see how the case has progressed. Turns out, the DOJ has filed no charges. That means Gibson hasn’t had its day in court to defend itself — and the government still has all that confiscated property.
Are we beginning to sense a pattern here with this administration and how it treats the citizens of the United States?
This wave is only beginning: A Baptist college has joined a growing list of schools and other organizations and filed suit against the federal government over Obama’s healthcare mandates.
A federal judge has struck down a Washington state law that required pharmacists to sell contraceptives.
In his 48-page opinion, [the judge] noted that Washington permitted pharmacy owners to decide they won’t stock certain medications for any number of “secular reasons” – because they drugs are expensive, for example, or inconvenient to dispense, or because they simply don’t fit into the store’s business plan. Yet the rule did not allow pharmacists to assert a religious reason for keeping certain drugs off their shelves. “A pharmacy is permitted to refuse to stock oxycodone because it fears robbery, but the same pharmacy cannot refuse to stock Plan B because it objects on religious grounds,” the judge wrote. “Why are these reasons treated differently under the rules?” The judge also accused the state of enforcing the mandate selectively, noting that regulators had not opened cases against the many Catholic-affiliated pharmacies in the state that also refuse to dispense Plan B.
I would not be at all surprised if we find that Obama’s contraceptive mandate carries with it the same type of selective enforcement.
More Islamic tolerance: In its final decision an Iranian court has sentenced a Christian pastor to death for leaving Islam.
Leftwing civility: A fourteen year old girl has been swamped with death threats after testifying before the Maryland state legislature in opposition to gay marriage. A handful of examples:
The issue here is not gay marriage, but the threatening, hateful behavior of too many of those who support it. She speaks out in disagreement, and the response isn’t to debate the point but to try to shut her up, in any way possible.
Islamic debate: Islamic protesters throw eggs at a speaker in an attempt to silence him during a lecture on freedom of speech.
On Washington’s birthday: A Jewish congregation’s letter to George Washington welcoming him to Rhode Island in 1790.
Washington had come to Rhode Island in celebration of that state’s ratification of the Constitution. This paragraph, written by these immigrant Jews, speaks directly to today’s far less tolerant government and society that now believes it has the right to squelch religious freedom:
Deprived as we heretofore have been of the invaluable rights of free Citizens, we now with a deep sense of gratitude to the Almighty disposer of all events behold a Government, erected by the Majesty of the People ~~ a Government, which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance ~~ but generously affording to all Liberty of conscience, and immunities of Citizenship: ~~ deeming every one, of whatever Nation, tongue, or language equal parts of the great governmental Machine.
One private religious company explains why it will refuse to go along with the Obama administration’s mandate on contraceptives.
The administration’s supporters say that by opposing the rule, religious employers like EWTN are guilty of trying to coerce our employees and impose our values on them. But we are simply choosing not to participate in the use of these drugs. Our 350 employees, many of whom are not Catholic, freely choose to work here and can purchase and use contraception if they want to. They are aware of the values we practice, and I hear regularly from Catholic and non-Catholic employees alike how much they love working for an organization that is defined by its Catholic beliefs — beliefs that we think result in a better workplace and more expansive benefits over all.
Instead, it is the government — which does not accept EWTN’s religious choice and can punish that choice by imposing fines — that is coercing us. But under the Constitution and federal religious liberties law, we cannot be forced to give up our beliefs as the price of participation in the public square. That is why the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has filed a lawsuit on our behalf seeking to overturn this illegal mandate.
Once again, whether or not you agree with the Obama administration’s policy, the mandate is unconstitutional. The federal government is expressly forbidden from imposing its will in this manner by the 1st Amendment.
A culture of corruption: Documents show that Obama’s FCC used its regulatory muscle to destroy LightSquared’s competition.
The world turned upside down: A New Hampshire homeowner was arrested for firing his gun into the ground in order to catch a suspected burglar.
More than 2500 religious leaders released a letter yesterday condemning the Obama administration’s healthcare mandate as ““a severe blow” to religious liberty.
Obama’s war on religious liberty.
I would simply say that this is a war on liberty. You take away someone’s freedom to pray or practice their religion as they wish, you also take away their liberty. And if you can take their liberty, you can take anyone’s. For those who like the idea of forcing every insurance company and private institution to provide contraceptives, remember, if this administration gains that power, future administrations will have that power as well. And there is no guarantee that those future administrations will impose policies you agree with. To paraphase an old quote, “First they came for the Catholics, and I did nothing, because I wasn’t a Catholic…”
“Occupy Wall Street protesters have been occupying federal property for months, but when we kneel in prayer, the police are called in and we are arrested.”
All they did was quietly pray, in front of the White House. How dare they?
The White House chart that illustrates the irresponsible nature of Obama’s proposed budget.
Yes, that’s right, the chart is from the White House itself, which means they themselves know how useless their proposed budget is, and how little they care. More here, including video of a truly entertaining but clarifying exchange between Congressman Paul Ryan and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
“Government by presidential fiat.”
The president of the United States has just ordered private companies to give away for free a service that his own health and human services secretary has repeatedly called a major financial burden.
On what authority? Where does it say that the president can unilaterally order a private company to provide an allegedly free-standing service at no cost to certain select beneficiaries?
Repeal this damn law (Obamacare), and fire the goddamn politicians that had the hubris to force it on us.
Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist and Jewish leaders all testified at a Congressional hearing today that they would go to prison rather than obey the Obamacare mandates being imposed by the Obama administration. Key reaction from one Congressman:
“Well, just so everybody understands what is going to happen: These guys are either going to go to jail because they won’t violate their religious beliefs, or the hospitals and the schools are going to close, which means governemnt is going to get bigger, because they’re going to have to fill the void that is left when you guys quit doing it. And maybe that’s what [the Obama administration] wanted all along.”
When did we become a nation where government officials can order anyone to do anything, even if that order contradicts a person’s personal religious beliefs? And if you are a Democrat and don’t mind Obama’s orders because you agree with them, just remember that the Democrats are not going to be in power forever. Do you want a conservative Republican to have that same power?
In a free society, no politician should ever have such power. It is essential that everyone stand up against this attack on freedom. And it is even more important that these thugs be removed from office as soon as possible.
Obama administration has decided that volunteering will work to forgive a student loan — as per the law that Congress passed — as long as that volunteer work is not for a religious organization.
Congress created the loan forgiveness program in 2007 to encourage graduates to enter the public service field. In exchange for that service, the remaining balance of student loans would be considered repaid after 120 full payments.
To qualify for the loan forgiveness, one must now work for a federal, state or local government agency or organization, including public water, bridge or housing districts, or nonprofit organizations designated as tax exempt by the Internal Revenue Service.
More and more, it is obvious that this administration and those who support it are hostile to religion (except for Islam), hostile to freedom, and focused on gathering all power and control to the federal government.
Detroit: the triumph of progressive public policy.
Imagine a city where all the major economic planks of the statist or “progressive” platform have been enacted:
- A “living wage” ordinance, far above the federal minimum wage, for all public employees and private contractors.
- A school system that spends significantly more per pupil than the national average.
- A powerful school employee union that militantly defends the exceptional pay, benefits and job security it has won for its members.
- Other government employee unions that do the same for their members.
- A tax system that aggressively redistributes income from businesses and the wealthy to the poor and to government bureaucracies.
Would this be a shining city on a hill, exciting the admiration of all? We don’t have to guess, because there is such a city right here in our state: Detroit.
Read the above article and then compare it to this essay: A thought experiment: Imagining the Republican majority in the House in complete control of Washington.
The contrasts are most illuminating.
