Seditious Behavior

Seditious BehaviorMarch 10th, 2008

Most clear-thinking people will eventually acknowledge, despite their vociferous protestations against any particular subject, that free speech is a precious thing and should be protected. We may wish that someone who is spouting nonsense with which we disagree would shut up, but not many would endorse a law that would force them to do so.

There are people and groups who do now and always have loathed the military. They have every right to their opinions no matter how twisted I may view them to be, but that right becomes seditious action when it is intended to directly impede the work of the military. Apparently shame is a thing of the past.

Code Pink and those sympathetic to their cause have been busily harrassing the military recruiting center in Berkeley, California since it opened in January of last year. Chanting and singing in protest is one thing, but when the protesters blocked the entrance for three hours, there should been a police intervention. Of course, the protesters would have been screaming about oppression and the loss of their civil right to protest. That would have been pure bunk, however.

To make matters worse, we now have elected officials encouraging this sort of behavior. The Mayor of Berkeley and the City Council have branded the Marines as “unwanted intruders” and have been supportive of the protestors. If nothing else, why aren’t they supportive of the rights of the Marine Corps’ free speech? And an even bigger question would be, why aren’t the liberal protestors out there to support the rights of young men and woman to choose whether to join the military?

Pro-choice is not the same without all that make-up, people. Here’s how elected officials view abortion clinics. From the AG of Massachusetts:

“Attorney General Martha Coakley said yesterday that a new law restricting
antiabortion activists from standing within 35 feet of an abortion clinic’s
entrance did not violate their right to free speech.”

Of course, liberals will claim that having clinics blown up justifies the tighter security and the usurpation of the rights of abortion foes to be vocal in their opposition. Then they will dismiss the bombing of the Times Square Recruiting Center as a need for the same security of the Berkeley recruiting center. Someone needs to tell them that they can’t have it both ways. And if the Massachusetts Attorney General’s position has any merit at all, we should be free to tell the Berkeley protestors to shut up. Especially since the very people that they hate so much are responsible for their right to free speech.
-Woody

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Why Contested Games Are Not Replayed
March 6th, 2008

Michigan and Florida willfully violated the rules set forth by the Democratic party and agreed to by the candidates prior to the beginning of the primary season. Now they want to re-write those rules mid-game in the name of “fairness to the voters”. Consider:

Your team has lost, and you’ve seen the replay over and over again. You grow more livid every time you make yourself suffer the outrage of seeing the referee, once again, cost your team the game. Finally, the sports writers’ pugnaciousness bears fruit and the league is forced to admit they erred on the call. Ah, vindication is sweet. Or is it?

So what happens now? Surely the game is replayed and your team has a fair chance to win, as you originally believed they would have, right? No. No, you’re left feeling that a game has been wrenched from your grasp and a damnable injustice has been done, and it will not be undone.

It’s a matter of history that cannot be corrected, for the original conditions can never be duplicated in order to provide the same conditions that would have reaped the outcome that should have been. It could be weather or it could be an injury to a key player that would render a redux moot. So the loss stands.

Howard Dean now says that a fair solution would be to have Florida and Michagan have a new vote in the primaries, based on the tight delegate counts for Obama and Clinton. What is not taken into account is the absence of Kucinich (D-OH) and Edwards, the former Democratic senator from South Carolina. Yes, they were on the ballot in Florida, but they did not campaign there because they knew the rules made it a waste of time. And in Michigan, they did not even have their names on the ballot.

So what to do? Do we simply seat the delegates from those states, or have another vote? Do we bring now meaningless candidates back in the event of a re-vote? And what if these two states had abided by the rules in the first place; would either Kucinich or Edwards still be viable candidates? Or do we reset everything back to the beginning of the primary season?

The entire dynamic of the primary process has already been set in stone, and it cannot be undone with any modicum of fairness to the voter. There is not enough time to bring all of the candidates back to do the whole thing over. So what’s left? Sure, there will be much wailing over the alleged “disenfranchisement” of the voters of Michigan and Florida, but if they had followed the rules from the beginning, none of this would be cause for conversation.

The remaining candidates should reject Michigan and Florida’s delegates as they originally pledged. Pure and simple…
-Woody

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"Evil" Israelis Kill Again

Do a Google search for...oh, just click the link. A simple Google news search for anything on Hamas launching a wave of rocket attacks yields such headlines as this:

Death Toll Rises in Gaza after More Israeli Attacks
Israel Kills 20 Palestinians in Gaza
At least 14 Palestinians killed after strikes by Israeli aircraft ...

Sure, the articles mention (somewhere in the 4th or 5th paragraph) that the strikes were in response to Hamas rocket attacks, but why weren't those rocket attacks news before Israel's response?

Here's one of my favorites:

Israel has stepped up its response to a wave of rocket attacks launched
from Hamas-controlled Gaza across into southern Israel. One of the attacks
killed an Israeli civilian Wednesday. Israeli officials have threatened a major
ground invasion if the attacks do not cease.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians rallied in Gaza Friday to denounce
Israel's deadly air strikes.

Maybe they should have been protesting the Hamas rocket attacks from civilian neighborhoods before Israel got pissed off.

Here's another one:

JERUSALEM - Fourteen Palestinians, including at least five civilians, died late
Friday and early Saturday in escalating Israeli-Palestinian fighting that
renewed threats of an Israeli invasion of Gaza and clouded peace efforts. A baby
and two teenagers were among the dead. (First paragraph)

Hamas said the baby, Malak Karfaneh, died just before midnight Friday in an Israeli strike on Beit Hanoun, a northern town where Palestinian militants often launch rockets at Israel. But local residents said one of those rockets fell short and landed in
the area of the baby’s house. (Fourth paragraph)

Why aren't they protesting HAMAS killing the baby???
-Woody

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