Again I Ask, Apologize For What?

Today, in honor of the 70th anniversary of Victory Day in Russia (the country that imprisoned members of the Pussy Riot band for insulting Herr Putin) we focus on the unique American bedrock principle of free speech.

Members of Pussy Riot awaiting the guilty verdict

Butt “free” doesn’t mean what you think it means…anymore. It’s more like what “free” means in Russia now, as we are being advised not to provoke while exercising our free speech. Bill O’Reilly said so, Donald Trump said so, Laura Ingraham said so and Chris Cuomo (brilliant law school graduate, son of Andrew and CNN legal correspondent) even went so far as to tell us that Pamela Geller was guilty of “hate speech” which is not covered by the First Amendment (now that’s NEWS!).

It’s been a long week around Casa Motus, so I leave you with these assignments: First, read Ace’s review of the freedom of speech issue, if for no other reason than to see O’Reilly put in his place:

O'Reilly is a pretty thoughtless man, given to the sort of rantings of the Lunchbucket Philosopher, basing his philosophy not on Judeo-Christian teachings, as he never tired of cliche-ing, but on his visceral gut reactions.

Do I like this? Do I not like this? Does this bother me in my gut?

I knock Megyn Kelly for being part of the smug Upper Middle Class Consensus, which is essentially a center-left worldview, even among alleged conservatives, but she's also, unlike Bill O'Reilly, a smart and cutting thinker who is more than capable of thinking in terms of abstraction and cool reasoning, and here she takes heated exception to Bill O'Reily's cowardly carping about Ms. Gellar and how he wouldn't have made the point in quite that way.

Butt also because to see blame placed for the erosion of our principles where it belongs:

This is about, specifically, the careerist, cowardly, go-along-to-get-along mores of the Upper Middle Class, the class of people whose parents were all college educated, and of course are college educated themselves; the class that dominates our thought-transmitting institutions (because non-college educated people are more of less shut out of this industry).(snip)

Thus, our institutions of thought propagation are dominated by the very people who can be easily cowed by the Social Justice Warriors, and who will, therefore, adjust their speech in order to not run afoul of the thoughtless -- and frequently lunatic -- thugs of the censorious left.

Ace goes on to defend Pamela Geller despite a certain level of personal animus:

Now, as a personal matter, I have had sharp differences with Ms. Gellar. We do not get along.

But this is entirely besides the point.

And proceeds to remind us:

The current dominant class, the class that controls the political-media establishment, is this Upper Middle Class, leftism-inflected consensus, and until people can begin seeing this and seeing past it, and until they can begin making their first loyalty to Idea and Principle, which are universal and eternal, rather than Class and Cult, which are nothing but happenstance and ego, we will continue having an "opposition" which continues genuflecting to leftist conformity rather than standing up for ideas.

To escape the Matrix, you must first see the Matrix -- something Andrew Breitbart was fond of observing.

Ah, Andrew, we hardly knew ye!

As they say, READ THE WHOLE THING.

And I’ll wrap up with Megyn’s two back to back warrior defenses of the First Amendment. Well done Ms. Megyn, well done.

 

Megyn Kelly on Free Speech 1:  If This Is Where We Stand On Free Speech, 'the Jihadis Are Officially Winning'

 

Megyn Kelly on Free Speech 2: “We don’t compromise America’s bedrock principles just to make other nations like us more.”

Breitbart’s legacy in three words:

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Deflation at Home and Abroad

Since the progs will simply not SHUT UP about reining in free speech I was planning on covering that today, butt then, SURPRISE! The Tories somehow managed to pull off an UPSET in the British elections, which means only one thing: David Axelrod lost!

Say WHAT!?!

And if David Axelrod lost, that means that James Carville might LOSE too!

Butt what difference at this point does it make?

Just when Europe thought the world was about to settle back into the way it should be, with the Liberal Labour party in power, somehow the stupid people WON again! So congrats, David Cameron. And since I think we can all agree that David isn’t the most charismatic candidate who’s ever been on a political slate,

perhaps it has more to do with his party’s policies:

Our long-term economic plan: Capping welfare and working to control immigration

Or maybe we can credit Mr. Cameron’s position on Islamo-fascism (calling a spade a spade, if I may say that) vis-à-vis Big Guy’s position:

• Five times British PM David Cameron referred to it a 'poisonous' ideology
• At one point he said it's import to break down the 'poisonous radical death cult of a narrative' that's corrupting the Islamic religion
• President Barack Obama said we need to 'lift up those voices that represent the vast majority of the Muslim world' to push a counter narrative
• The White House has actively refused to describe Islamic radicals fighting in Iraq and Syria for a caliphate in religious terms
• 'These terrorists are individuals who would like to cloak themselves in the veil of a particular religion,' Obama's spokesman said Tuesday

Because, you know, Islam has nothing what-so-ever to do with, umm, Islam.

Anyway, congratulations Britain: you now have one job – to save the world – so please try to get it right.

geometric confusion: it’s as real as gender confusion

And as for the men and women across the pond who would be King/Queen; a bit of advice:  Terrorism still matters, the economy still matters, bottomless welfare pits still matter. Conservatism is still viable, and liberalism will still take us down the path of oblivion. Most unfortunate that half of America has yet to acknowledge that fact.

What do you think he was talking about?

And now, speaking of presidential candidates, I have just one question. At what point did we as a nation determine that “more probable than not” is a standard on which we can convict a quarterback of cheating:

Wells wrote that investigators also concluded “it is more probable than not that Tom Brady was at least generally aware of the inapproprate activities” – NYT

butt it is NOT even a good enough standard around which to frame a QUESTION for the presumed Democratic nominee for President of the United States?

“We are not aware of any evidence that actions taken by Secretary Clinton were influenced by donations to the Clinton Foundation or speech or honoraria of former President Clinton.” – Mediaite

And since that case is closed like a book; you are now free to get back to pursuing this week’s deflated squirrel.

  Deflategate: we’re all over it.

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

One Small Victory for Mankind

If you’ve been holding your breath, waiting to see if Governor Rick Snyder (RINO-MI) was going to enter the RINO sweepstakes for President, the suspense may be over:

Gov. Rick Snyder said he would wait until after this week's special road funding election to decide whether he'll run for president. The overwhelming defeat of the measure should send a straightforward message to the governor: Don't run, Rick. – Detroit News

Not only does Snyder rank dead last in name recognition among Republicans in Iowa, butt the ballot initiative he championed to raise taxes in Michigan was not just defeated in a special election this week, it was trounced. Felled at the hands of an electorate that saw through the cynical proposal to permanently raise the state sales tax to 7% (from 6%, which is already pretty high) to supposedly fix the roads (INFRASTRUCTURE!) in the state, which are atrocious.

Butt  Prop 1 was  Governor Snyder’s special election proposal to pay for the roads “emergency” that has been under development since Rick took office (first we create the problems then we figure out how to raise more money to fix them). It  was a variation on the classic shell game con: eliminate taxes on one end (fuel tax) a little bit and increase them a whole lot on the other, and convince people they are the winners.

I know your stupid game and I’m not playing

It was the type of cynical political solution so popular these days: take money out of the pocket of the working stiffs while pretending to put more back in their other pocket. Butt in reality the new funds are used to establish a new, bigger public slush fund for politicians to dole out to those who have “earned” their support (state level crony capitalism). Butt the RINO proposal went down to defeat - stunning defeat – the largest rejection under the state's modern-day constitution (80 – 20%).

So let’s analyze: how did RINO darling Rick’s proposal take such a thrashing in a predominantly Blue state that loves taxes; aside from interested citizens showing up at the polls I mean. I think the problem is with the governor’s inadequate command of Newspeak. That deficiency left him hard pressed to explain to the beleaguered Michigan voters how diverting funds from the new (permanent)1% sales tax to the general fund to be used for such things as raising teachers salaries was going to fix potholes.

There. That should hold it.

Had he more experience under his belt – like Bubba – he could have slickly deferred the allegations as a giant right wing conspiracy to take his tax proposal down (which would have been true, if you still consider the Tea Party as right wingers and not fanatics). Because like the Clinton foundation, Governor Snyder’s plan would spend approximately 9% of the billions of dollars it raised for its stated purpose.

“Hey man, I just work here, don’t ask me to explain anything about finances”

Conclusion: Rick Snyder shouldn’t run for the Democratic nomination; there are already a lot of qualified people lined up for this spot: Jeb, Christie, Lindsey, etc.. He’s not really ready for prime time until he masters that Newspeak thing.

Additionally, the Michigan results shows what can happen even if only 1 in 5 people bother to vote; it matters greatly which WON it is. Way to go Michigan Tea Party! Way to go Thayrone X on WAAM radio in the People’s Republic of Ann Arbor – a one man band who’s been beating the drum against this irresponsible tax increase for months.

Take a bow, Thayrone

One small victory for Michigan, maybe the beginning of one large victory for America?

Fighting the three card monte since 2009

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Who Pooped in America’s Kitchen: Snitch

Because it’s important to know what’s going on in your kitchen, we all need a good snitch.

And since the NSA, despite all their resources, recording all of our calls, emails and tweets and tracking us with our cell phones GPS, don’t seem able to provide that service even when they’re holding all the clues, I think that I should help out. To that end, I feel I should provide this old report from The Washington Times that reported who was pooping in Ferguson’s kitchen:

There’s a solitary man at the financial center of the Ferguson protest movement. No, it’s not victim Michael Brown or Officer Darren Wilson. It’s not even the Rev. Al Sharpton, despite his ubiquitous campaign on TV and the streets.

Rather, it’s liberal billionaire George Soros, who has built a business empire that dominates across the ocean in Europe while forging a political machine powered by nonprofit foundations that impacts American politics and policy, not unlike what he did with MoveOn.org.

Mr. Soros spurred the Ferguson protest movement through years of funding and mobilizing groups across the U.S., according to interviews with key players and financial records reviewed by The Washington Times.

Of course this report was promptly ignored until such time as there was occasion to raise it again as Baltimore burned. Which caused some to revisit the “seriousness of the charges” and report on what they found:

Tax records of the Soros funded group, Open Society, shows that Soros gave 33 million dollars in funding that kept the Ferguson riots going among other civil disobedience the group has funded.  Soros has used Open Society much as he has MoveOn.org to try to manipulate the discussions in order to push forward his plans for a socialist United States.

Kenneth Zimmerman, director of the Soros owned Open Society explains why they funded the Ferguson riots:

“Our DNA includes a belief that having people participate in government is indispensable to living in a more just, inclusive, democratic society.  Helping groups combine policy, research [and] data collection with community organizing feels very much the way our society becomes more accountable.”

The incidents, whether in Staten Island, Cleveland or Ferguson [or Baltimore], were spontaneous protests — we don’t have the ability to control or dictate what others say or choose to say.  But these circumstances focused people’s attention — and it became increasingly evident to the social justice groups involved that what a particular incident like Ferguson [or Baltimore] represents is a lack of accountability and a lack of democratic participation.”

Soros then used his other groups to fund scholarly works blaming conservatives for the actions as well as decimating that same information through his bought and paid for media campaigns of MoveOn.org and Think Progress.  He also feeds that information to like minded news organizations like PMSDNC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and the New York Times.

During the Ferguson riots, Soros hired buses to take activists from his various organizations into Ferguson to try to keep and expand the ongoing riots.  Soros funded groups making the trip include but not limited to Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference in Chicago; from the Drug Policy Alliance, Make the Road New York and Equal Justice USA from New York; from Sojourners, the Advancement Project and Center for Community Change in Washington; and networks from the Gamaliel Foundation.

So while ISIS is preparing to come poop in our kitchen, George Soros’ poopers continue to poop in kitchens across America at will. If you didn’t know better you might conclude they are both operating towards the same end.

And speaking of Death to America, or at least the American Justice system, there are some in Maryland who think what’s good for the goose is good for the gander…or, the other way around:

[Marilyn Mosby’s] case against the two arresting officers rests upon an “illegal” arrest.  She says the knife that Freddie Gray was carrying was legal.  But the police task force examined it and said the officers were indeed correct, the knife was spring-assisted and therefore prohibited.

It’s Mosby who made the “illegal” arrest, and could be charged under her own theory of “false imprisonment.” And sued to boot, since she forfeited her immunity from civil action by doing the charging herself. (link)

I’m going to say, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen, lest you crap all over the place and make matters worse. IYKWIMAITYD.

Hey wait - that’s my kitchen! Get out of my kitchen!

Ms. Mosby looks like she’s about to foul her own kitchen – oh wait, she already did.

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Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

“They would not and by law they could not say it on TV if it were not true.”

Normally the last thing on earth I have time or inclination to do is watch Fox News in the afternoon. Butt since Raj is immobile these days he happened to be watching yesterday as this news allegory played out. He then backed it up and insisted I watch the entire 30 minute segment. It was painful so I’ll summarize for you. (all times are approximate)

2:45 pm: Mike Tobin on site near Pennsylvania and North Avenues in Baltimore calls into Fox News with breaking news about a shooting in Baltimore that he was eye witness to and reports “as he was running away, that police officer drew his weapon and fired and struck the individual who was running away.” 

3:01 pm: Tobin reports to Shepard Smith that he witnessed this go down as it happened about 40 yards from the car he was sitting in, preparing for his next “on air” report. He further reports that he didn’t actually see the man’s wound but reported the young victim looked to be “in bad shape.”

3:15 pm:  Shep goes to Leland Vittert on scene who is now interviewing Tiffany, a young black woman who was an eye witness to the shooting.

In the course of interviewing the distraught Tiffany, Leland asks her to relate what she saw as the police “shot and killed” the young man. Hearing for the first time that the “boy” was dead, Tiffany begins to grow hysterical. She gives a chilling report of how she just saw a policeman chase down and shoot an unarmed black boy in the back.

“Police just got out of the car and started chasing the boy,” the woman recalled. “And then he ran down towards the Metro PCS, the officer got in the middle of the street and he shot that boy in his back in my face.”

The woman also said the man was unarmed and she wouldn’t believe anything police said about the incident.

“This is what they are going to say,” she said, adding that she “watched it with my own eyes.”

3:18 pm: A commander with the Baltimore Police Department at the scene told a journalist with the Baltimore Sun that authorities were trying to arrest an armed man when that person’s gun fell and went off.

3:20 pm: Back to Mike Tobin who now reports to Shep that he had only heard a single gunshot, and did not actually see anyone fire a weapon. There was a row of parked cars between him and the scene, he admitted. Butt there was a revolver on the ground.

3:23 pm: Baltimore police report there was no shooting.

Whoops!

Apparently the young man’s gun went off when he dropped it and he was taken to the hospital out of “an abundance of caution” – because, you know, they didn’t take Freddie to the hospital in time. Turns out there was nothing wrong with the young black boy arrested for having a handgun that he may or may not have been brandishing at the time of his arrest.

Wait, what? No shooting? Butt we just heard about it on Fox News. They’re the good guys in this news racket, right? Right!?!

So what have we discovered here? 1. There’s a reason God gave you the gift of skepticism, use it. 2. “Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see” is an old saying for a good reason. 3. Be sure to use that gift of skepticism God gave you.

And what about “they would not, and could not, say it if it wasn’t true”? That only applies to important things, like advertising, not news and politics. So you can be certain of only one constant; the carnival of errors will continue…

 

And as Calvin discovered to his great disappointment, it doesn’t even apply in advertising. Or Obamacare:

Read the complete Obamacare Allegory

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Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Free Speech Monday: That’s Going to Cost You

And what, exactly, does that mean?

“…he pledges allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi when he says “The bro with me and myself have given bay’ah to Amirul Mu’mineen”. According to Walid Shoebat, Amirul Mu’mineed means “prince of the faithful” which is referring to the ISIS Caliph Baghdadi.”

What was Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugged) thinking!? Sponsoring a “Draw Mohammad” contest?

Insulting the “religion of peace” like that, why, she was just asking for it! (I hope that’s not considered a microaggression on my part by the campus speech police.)

The event was sponsored by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) and attended by its president and co-founder, Pamela Geller — who is also president of Stop Islamization of America (SIOA). Both are listed as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. – NBC News

Seriously, she knew better. Freedom of speech is a right reserved for victims these days, not privileged white aggressors like Pamela. And if you don’t believe me just ask Melissa at Sweet Cakes:

Why does GoFundMe, a crowdsourcing website that raises money for a variety of personal causes and life events, get to choose who they do business with, but the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa do not? - The Daily Signal

And now you can add the Fraternal Organization of Police to those who no longer enjoy the First Amendment right of freedom of speech, which has now been abridged to mean your right to free speech as long as it doesn’t upset or otherwise offend. 

“Supporting Our Officers” initiative banned in Baltimore, probably by the spelling police.

If you have the time, it’s worth watching Pamela wave off an “onslaught of ridiculous attacks by CNN’s Alisyn Camerota”. 

“First of all, he’s entitled to his opinion. End of story,” 

Seriously, a good view.

And in other news today, Bill “I did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky,” Clinton declared that he, too, is not a crook.

While castigating the vast right wing conspiracy for the “very concerted effort to bring the foundation down.”

‘Cuz it worked so well when Hilz used it, and she’s not even half as good at this crap as Bill.

OH WAIT! This iOWNTHEWORLDREPORT Via Larwyn’s Linx:

 “In all the excitement we forgot to acknowledge the winning art piece”

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Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Not My Horse, But This Is My Rodeo

Appearing on David Letterman last Thursday, Lady M proved again that you can never do too much self promotion (partial list so far this year: Kimmel, Fallon, Ellen, Glamour, Night Shift, and last butt hardly least, the Black Girls Rock! event).

Black Girl, rockin’

Donning a regal purple v-neck, flared dress MO dished with Dave on things like Joining Forces - Lady M’s military PR program - and college education (everyone should get one; for free).

Then things shifted to more serious issues: Lady M’s career after being FLOTUS: she’s either going to be president, or a nanny for David Letterman’s children (although that last option seems a bit racist, no?)

“We could do things – I would help you raise your children…I can help you through the dark times.”  Wait a minute – “dark times?” What exactly is that code for?

And then she and Dave discussed the difficulty of raising said children and in the course of the discussion managed once again to embarrass the girls she’s constantly trying to shield from the media:

“We have one who generally stays here,” Mrs. Obama said, gesturing with her hand to show an even keel. “And then we have one we call our grumpy cat, our salty biscuit. You just never know what you’re going to get from that one.”

Asked which daughter was which, the first lady demurred. “I’m not saying – they could be watching,” she said. “But they know who they are.” - NYT

Well that’s good, protecting their identities. Now we’ll never know which Wee Won inherited your personality.

We’ll never know which of the girls is “that one”

In other weekend news, I heard that Pharrell won the Kentucky Derby yesterday! Congratulations!

Pharrell Williams performing at the 2015 Grammys

Man that little monkey can run! OMG! Did I just say that? I’ll just go sit in the corner by the tea trolley and consider the possible racist connotations of my remark. And I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to anyone who may have been offended by my remark and intends to take action to impact my non-existent income. I will also appoint Little Mo to conduct an independent investigation of my actions and propose harsh sanctions for violating my own rule against simian references. Which, I may then choose to ignore because…this is my rodeo!

 

Giddy up!

And in my defense, I didn’t start this meme on my own. Some liberal weenie did that for me.

From Not My Circus, Not My Monkey

In other carnival news, be sure to read Clarice’s Pieces report today on: The Great American Traveling Riot Circus.

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Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network