I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peacably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

March 15, 2012

• COMMENTARY President Barack Obama Signs Bill that Ends Free Speech in
  Presence of Any Politician 03-15-12
  ...and the draconian punishments apply whether you knew the politician was nearby or not, and whether you were entirely ignorant of a "no free speech zone" or not. So much for freedom of speech!
• "If you're not left wing, you're a hate group" 03-14-12
  I agree with the sheriff's assessment. In fact, if anybody embodies all of the hallmarks of a real hate group, it would be the group the Southern Poverty Law Center has become!
• "Devoid of evidence," Holder still pursues pro-lifer 03-14-12
  The Obama administration's war on those with whom it disagrees is escalating well into tyrannical terrority, and this is just more evidence of that mindset.
• COMMENTARY Can the Secret Service tell you to shut up? 03-14-12
  In a word: Yes. At least it can now, thanks to a nasty piece of legislation that was overwhelmingly passed and then, as Judge Napolitano points out in this column, signed in secret. I agree with everything the judge says here, including the idea that politicians love power and fully intend to keep it, even at the expense of the liberties they were elected to honor and protect.

March 14, 2012

• American Flag With President Obama's Image Sparks Outrage At Florida Democrats 03-14-12
  Forget whether or not just the general idea of Obama-on-a-flag sickens you (full disclosure: yes, I'm nauseous). This is actual defacement of an American flag which is then flown right under the real thing! The veterans are right. It's disrespectful at best! And as I read it, it's also against the law in Florida. I'm glad it's down now, and I'm even happier people will be watching to ensure the sycophants who raised it in the first place won't sneak it right back up.
• LEGAL COMMENTARY Birth Control and the Right to Privacy, a 50 Year Constitutional
  Debate Rages On 03-14-12
  Sorry, contraceptives are elective preventive care, not necessary. If you elect to use them, fine. But if you won't use them because of religious conviction, how dare anyone demaned you pay for them for somebody else? Call it a women's rights issue all day long (which, since nobody is suggesting contraceptives be banned or further controlled, it isn't), but it's still question of religious freedom.
• COMMENTARY God Bless Texas — and Veterans Funerals' Religious Rights 03-14-12
  You won't find a more militant proponent of the separation of church and state than me. But what the government is trying to do here is a blatant infringement of religious freedom. Funerals should reflect the beliefs of the deceased and his or her family, not those of anybody else in attendance or otherwise. And memorial services usually consist of more than one prayer or dedication, so why can't each speaker speak to their own faith? To homogenize everything may avoid the least chance of offense, but it also mitigates anything and everything each person in attendance stands for. Bless those veterans who, even in death, fought for freedom! (And an extra thanks to a very courageous minister who fought as hard and as righteously as any soldier.)
• Justice backs new category of secret gov't files 03-13-12
  The "most transparent administration" in history strikes again! Ironically, it's Sunshine Week to boot...

March 13, 2012

• Obama disregards congressional mandate 03-12-12
  Almost as troubling as the President's disregard for Congress and the Constitution is the White House's disregard for select journalists. It seems to me that if you've got White House credentials, you should be treated just the same as everybody else who has White House credentials. Clearly, that's not the case! To put it another way, it appears the White House Press Secretary has a bias toward the biased!
• BLOG ENTRY First Amendment Be Damned: Out of control TSA threatens bloggers 03-12-12
  The saddest part of all is that given its overall attitude, we had to know something like this was coming...

March 12, 2012

It's Sunshine Week! This year, Open Government, Freedom of Info is the Focus of Sunshine Week 2012.

• COMMENTARY FCC should clear Limbaugh from airwaves 03-12-12
  Well, that makes perfect sense considering the woman who collaborated to write this column. It's fine for Jane Fonda to disparage our troops and to give aid and succor to the enemy. It's perfectly okay for Gloria Steinem to denigrate men. But it's not okay for Rush Limbaugh (or anybody else, for that matter) to express any opinion with which they disagree! Makes sense, I guess, if you're a hypocrite!
• COMMENTARY It's un-American to silence Limbaugh 03-12-12
  And this opinion comes from a man who admittedly loathes Rush Limbaugh and pretty much everything he says! Of course, this man also happens to know what the Constitution says... I'm particularly fond of his statement that notes: "Using the government to support our view is constitutionally intolerable." Indeed!
• Beyond Rush: Hannity, Beck, Levin Hit With Advertiser Bans 03-11-12
  I maintain that it's entirely up to advertisers whether or not they wish to market their product(s) on a given program or not. At the same time, I find it more than a little disturbing that a host of marketers have determined to avoid advertising on any program that's "known" to be controversial, or which might prove offensive to what is acknowledged to be a "small" percentage of listeners. Really? So now if it isn't homogenized, we don't get to hear it? This is rapidly approaching organized censorship, and when you see the list of advertisers involved, you'll be as hard pressed as I am not to make some connections with the current administration...
• Premiere Source: 98 Advertisers Not Targeting Hannity, Beck, Levin 03-11-12
  Good. But it's not so good that Media Matters appears to be pushing a very biased spin on the story (see above), nor is it good that everybody is so worried about offending anybody that anything short of milquetoast is a risk!
• Armed police officer sent to reporter's home to demand changes to story 03-11-12
  Yes, apparently the reporter got something wrong, something he corrected the next morning. But is it ever okay to send an armed, on duty cop to the door in the middle of the night to demand such changes be made? I don't think so!
• Former NASA specialist claims he was fired over intelligent design 03-11-12
  It appears the man was probably layed off because his project was winding down, and NASA is dealing with budget cuts. But even if that weren't the case, he readily acknowledges he was handing out creationist (that's what "intelligent design" really is, you know) materials while on the job. I don't know of too many employers who would condone that kind of thing, nor do I know many employees who would be inclined to put up with it!
• PRAVDA chides U.S. media for ignoring Sherrif Joe Arpaio investigation 03-07-12
  This egregious failure by the American mainstream media is appalling. And it's more than a little ironic that the press outlet reporting this particular story is one that's been criticized by the American media for years for engaging in precisely the kind of thing it's doing for itself now: Government toadying and selective cover-ups of "inconvenient" facts. Even worse, I suspect most reporters don't even possess the ethical fortitude to be ashamed of themselves!

March 8, 2012

• IRS Accused of Intimidating Tea Party Groups 03-08-12
  Every time I read another story about this, I'm more and more dismayed. Thankfully, it appears the ACLJ is standing firm—and, as it happens, on entirely the right side of this dispute.
• Rush Limbaugh: Biased Media Should Register as Obama Super PACs 03-08-12
  That's funny. Unfortunately, it's also true.
• COMMENTARY The War on Conservative Women 03-08-12
  Do I approve of such name-calling? Of course not. But I approve of the hypcricy on the left even less.
• "Smoking gun" in Breitbart mystery video 03-07-12
  In 2008, the media put up its own smokescreen over these videos. And in 2012, not much has changed. Although some of the "mainstream" media is finally airing the video discussed here, the selective editing is certainly suspect! I for one am looking forward to more videos and more information, the latter of which would represent a real change where Barack Obama and the media have been concerned thus far!

March 7, 2012

• Breitbart's mystery tapes on Obama released 03-07-12
  Andrew Breitbart exposed any number of things because, he always said, the mainstream media wasn't doing its job. As these tapes are released, no matter what's on them, I'd like to express my appreciation yet again for Mr. Breitbart as well as my hopes that his work will go on. It's unfortunate those in the mainstream media have lost their understanding (and frankly their appreciation) for just why freedom of the press was deemed so important by the Founders!
• Congress "criminalizing" First Amendment 03-06-12
  Even if this limitation would ensure security for politicians (it won't), I couldn't support it. It's ill-advised. It's overbroad. Oh, yes, and it's a violation of the First Amenment.

March 6, 2012

• Rush Limbaugh unloads on fleeing advertisers 03-05-12
  Actually, Limbaugh acknowledges the rights of his adverisers to spend their marketing money elsewhere. And he's right! Perhaps the single most rational voice (so far) in this entire brouhaha comes from Clear Channel, the corporation with which Limbaugh remains under contract until 2016. In its statement, the broadcast giant says in part, "We respect the right of Mr. Limbaugh, as well as the rights of those who disagree with him, to express those opinions." Exactly.
• Townhall yanks column on Arpaio's findings 03-05-12
  Sure, maybe it's just a server error. On the other hand, the timing is suspect, and frankly so is the failure to adequately address the "problem" of the "page not found" errors.
• COMMENTARY Wikileaks reveals Democrat 2008 election crimes 03-05-12
  Not only has the maintstream media been failing to fulfill its obligation to the public, it's looking the other way when somebody does do their job!
• BLOG ENTRY Rush Underestimated Us & It's Costing Him 03-03-12
  Really? Well, for the record: I've been a woman all my life, and I'm not psychologically damaged or depressed. In fact, while I don't think the words he chose were necessarily the most appropriate, I happen to agree with Mr. Limbaugh's overall assessment of Ms. Fluke.

March 5, 2012

• LEGAL ANALYSIS A Louisiana Federal District Court Judge Strikes Down a Law Banning Registered Sex Offenders From Accessing Facebook and Other Social-Networking Sites 03-05-12
  I was all ready to condemn a liberal, activist judge. And then I read the plaintiffs' argument. The point of the law is perfectly valid, and inarguably a good idea. It's the law itself that's to blame with such overbroad prohibitions that it likely really is unconstitutional, even for convicted sex offenders.
• BLOG ENTRY The Death of Free Speech 03-04-12
  There's little question that the news concerning the First Amendment just keeps getting worse. One of the primary reasons for the First Amendment involves the ability to criticize the government. These measures would effectively strip a good deal of that right, and adding insult to injury, would institute draconian punishment even for those who hurt no one and had no idea what they were doing had just recently been prohibited.
• Social media monitoring vs. First Amendment 03-04-12
  What the student said on her facebook page was a little over the top. But not even the police thought it was criminal! And yet she's been roundly punished. Know what's even more disturbing? The quote in the last paragraph of this story: "...students need to be aware of the fact that when you’re posting things on your Facebook page...you’re throwing it out there to a wider audience, and that somebody who could be offended by this could have access to it.” When "offense" becomes some sort of a guideline between punishment and not punishment, we're in very, very deep trouble.
• Rush Limbaugh should take lessons from Imus, liberal talk-show host Schultz 03-04-12
  Rush Limbaugh makes a living expressing his opinion. Whether or not you agree with him is immaterial. In this case, though, it wasn't his opinion that got him in trouble. It was his choice of words. While I believe he has every right to say whatever he likes however he likes, I also understand that advertisers can spend (or not spend) their money wherever they choose. Hello, free market! Rush said much the same on his Monday program. Good for him!
• COMMENTARY It's The First Amendment Stupid, Not Contraception 03-04-12
  Ah, but when the left can't win on merit, it changes the focus! And right now, the left's focus is apparently the evisceration of yet another unalienable right.
• COMMENTARY Sandra Fluke's Choices 03-03-12
  All too true. Unfortunately, Ms. Fluke's focus isn't on freedom or choice when it conflicts with somebody else footing the bill for her choices! Shame on her. The sad part is that she'll probably actually graduate with a law degree, and you know what that means: Yep, we'll have another out-of-control sue-happy liberal lawyer on our hands who we'll see in court on regular basis demanding that somebody else take responsibility for something they neither have nor want any control over. Mark my words, it's gonna happen...
• BLOG ENTRY Paypal, Credit Cards and Government Censorship by Proxy? 03-03-12
  This is...troubling. At best.

March 2, 2012

• PRESS RELEASE A Message from Carbonite CEO, David Friend Regarding Ads on Limbaugh 03-02-12
  Carbonite has every right to advertise—or not—wherever it chooses. I think it's unfortunate that the company is pulling its ads no matter what Rush Limbaugh says or does, but that's my personal opinion just as spending their ad dollars elsewhere is the results of Carbonite's. (For the record, I'd be a whole lot more upset if it weren't for the fact that I don't like the idea of remote back-ups from a privacy standpoint. I'm guessing Carbonite wouldn't stand up to a request for data from the government any longer than it's stood up to liberal complaints about Limbaugh!)
• BLOG ENTRIES Andrew Breitbart: BigLegacy.com 03-02-12
  For those of us who didn't know him personally, Andrew Breitbart's death is a very real loss. And those who did know him personally comment here to cement the magnitude not only of their own grief but the tremendous size of the loss for every last American patriot.

March 1, 2012

Andrew Breitbart 1969-2012 This morning, word came that Andrew Breitbart had died suddenly overnight. There's no word yet on an actual cause of death—he was only 43—but that's almost immaterial to his loss. Breitbart looked at the mainstream media and its overwhelming biases, and determined to do all that he could to provide real news. He was also a dedicated activist in the cause of freedom, and his political commentary was widely published across the Internet. He will be missed. A brief statement on one of Breitbart's Websites gives an overview of the new and the magnitude of his loss; Tea Party Nation has also taken note of Breitbart's contributions, and, with a collection of video highlights, says Our Flag Is Flying At Half Mast Today. Fox News includes a recap of Breitbart's most recent big stories in its report. CNN offered reactions from several current GOP candidates and others to Breitbart's untimely death.

• Campaign: Romney would support Blunt birth-control measure 02-29-12
  ...or not. Romney didn't seem keen on the idea, but his campaign says the question was "confusing" and that he does support some kind of a conscience clause. What do I think Romney thinks? Well, let's just say that this is the man still championing "Romneycare." Anything Mitt Romney says about the issue is therefore suspect at best!
• COMMENTARY Zombie Muhammad and the First Amendment 02-29-12
  Some things about this Pennsylvania case are now clearer, while others are even more muddied than they were to begin with. That being said, I still believe that the judge was entirely out of line, and frankly, so was the Muslim who was so offended that he apparently committed assault.
• COMMENTARY Illinois Church Files First Amendment Lawsuit 02-29-12
  I understand that churches might need some zoning. Parking issues, for examples, can overcrowd streets where residents also need to park. Traffic can be a problem. But the church bought a VFW hall where all of those things have doubtless been taken care of for years. Further, some of the apparent "requirements" don't make sense for a church which, unlike the VFW, won't be serving food (for example). Even without the rest of the facts, the least I can gather from this column is that I can't blame the church for filing!

February 29, 2012

Leap Day

• Goodbye, First Amendment: "Trespass Bill" will make protest illegal 02-29-12
  No, it won't. Well, not the vast majority of them. Or, you know, some of them. This, I'm afraid, is yet another classic case of making a law to deal with a crime that already has laws under which it could have been prosecuted, and is broadened to the point where abuse isn't just possible, but probable.
• COMMENTARY Blasphemy and Free Speech February, 2012
  The concerns stressed here are warranted! Between implied threats from one end of the spectrum and demands for ultra-political correctness (usually selectively applied) from the other, genuinely free speech is truly imperiled.
• Islamic group threatens WND 02-28-12
  So nobody can tell the truth about certain religions any more? Nobody can have an opinion about certain religions any more? And their compliance with these "requests" is demanded at the unspecified but clearly implied threat of violence? WND's editor is right: Not only does this show the intolerance of those demanding tolerance, but proves the clearcut danger to free speech an a free press should there be some kind of international controls imposed on the Internet (as we've discussed on these pages in recent weeks).
• Expose Shariah, get threatened... 02-28-12
  This follow-up to a story we linked just yesterday only serves as added evidence that Shariah is a very real danger to liberty. The sooner we can demand—with the force of law, thank you very much—that judges cannot consider laws other than the Constitution and Constitution-based precedent in America, the better! While this is among the first broadly publicized case of this nature, you'd better believe it won't be the last if we don't nip this in the bud!

February 28, 2012

• BLOG ENTRY Can the Tea Party Save Us from Rick Santorum? 02-28-12
  Mr. Santorum's comments concerning his belief that government should be influenced by religion are troubling at best. In my opinion, it makes it a lot more difficult to believe that the candidate's own beliefs wouldn't therefore have an unconstitutional bearing on his decisions, particularly those involving the freedom of worship for those who don't happen to agree with him!
• COMMENTARY Say good-bye to the Internet? 02-28-12
  If some repressive regimes get their way, that's exactly what could happen. Oh, the 'net will still exist, of course. But its usefulness will be curtailed, and its unparalleled communications abilities will be muzzled. This is especially important where politics and activism is concerned, and those are the same things that will be the most stringently targeted. I agree with the author's plea to contact your political representatives to ensure the United States signs on to no such treaty. Further, given Barack Obama's tendencies to do "end-runs" around Congress, we need to keep a close eye on this one so that anything he tries to do in that direction meets with failure.
• Is the IRS Attempting to Intimidate Local Tea Parties? 02-27-12
  Maybe not. But the timing, the nature of the questions being asked, and the make-up of the Senators who are backing the "venture" is suspect at best. You know how we here in this country criticize other government's for strong-arming their people? For making demands under penalty of overwhelming government crackdowns (read massive legal expenses, fines, etc.)? Well...

home | alerts | constitution | bill of rights | our view | movie reviews | shop | contact | site map

This site optimized for Firefox. This page last updated Friday, March 16, 2012