Sheila Jackson Lee Further Nullifies the Term “Racist”

The next time you are the genuine victim of racism and everyone yawns with disinterest when you complain, be sure to thank Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D) for the fact that no one gives a damn about racism any more.

United Airlines passenger Jean-Marie Simon claims that on December 18th her first class seat reservation for a flight from Houston to Washington D.C. was inexplicably cancelled and her seat given to Rep. Lee following Lee’s request for an upgrade.  According to Ms. Simon (see her Face Book post here) she watched as a flight attendant escorted Rep. Lee onto the plane ahead of “…uniformed military, toddlers, people with disabilities and Global Services passengers…,” unaware that her own reservation had been cancelled until she subsequently lined up to board.  When she handed the attendant her boarding pass they could find no record of her reservation, and she was ultimately given a seat in economy-plus, but she was none too pleased about not being seated in the seat that she had specifically reserved weeks ago.  Ms. Simon later had an opportunity to walk through the first class section, at which time she took a cell phone picture of Rep. Lee occupying the seat that Simon had reserved.  This got the attention of a flight attendant who sat down next to Simon after she was back in her seat and questioned her about whether or not she intended to “…be a problem.”

In its own statement United has claimed that it appears Ms. Simon cancelled the reservation herself on her phone app after being notified that the flight was delayed, a claim which Ms. Simon denies (United eventually gave Ms. Simon $500 for her inconvenience).  After the story hit the news Rep. Lee initially offered only the following statement:  “I asked for nothing exceptional or out of the ordinary and received nothing exceptional or out of the ordinary.”  Following an outpouring of anger, however, she posted a lengthy Face Book post of her own about the incident in which, as you may have guessed, she attributes Simon’s anger over the seat incident to racism.  Ho hum.

Apparently it isn’t possible that a woman trying to complete her journey home from Guatemala was understandably irritated that the seat she chose and reserved using thousands of her banked airline miles was suddenly given to someone else, and that someone else just happened to be a person who had clout with the airline.  Never mind that when she initially voiced her objections with United upon learning her ticket was cancelled Ms. Simon wasn’t even aware to whom her seat had been given.   No.  If a white person is upset because their reservation disappears and a black person with clout ends up taking their seat, this means they’re a racist.

I can’t say with certainty what happened with Ms. Simon’s reservation, but I do know that when someone like Sheila Jackson Lee pulls the race card there’s always a reason and it has nothing whatsoever to do with race.  According to Ms. Simon, the congressman who was seated beside her in the seat she ultimately occupied told her that Rep. Lee has done this type of thing before.  If you read Ms. Lee’s FB post, you’ll notice that she is careful in her words, never claiming to have reserved that first class seat herself but only claiming to have a boarding pass.  I’ll let readers be the judge of who’s statement they can trust, but the point I’m making is that Sheila Jackson Lee is using the tired old race card for the sole purpose of taking people’s attention off what appears to be the use of her clout to steal someone else’s seat.   Anyone of reasonable intelligence understands that the consequence of feigning victimhood to satisfy other motives is that it makes good people indifferent and cynical to such claims.  Race-baiters like Rep. Lee know this as well as anyone else, but they just don’t seem to care.  If the real victims of racism end up ignored or assumed to be posers because the claim of racism has been so rampantly abused, it is of no consequence to them as long as their own personal objectives are attained.

By the way, I wonder what the race was of the United employee(s) who assisted Rep. Lee with her upgrade and escorted her onto the plane ahead of all the other passengers?  I wonder how it was that Ms. Simon, a 63-year old white woman, ended up being the person whose reservation was cancelled?  Not being a race-baiter myself, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that if there was mischief involved, it was not racially motivated.

~CW

To leave a comment on this post please view it at The Pesky Truth.  I am unable to respond to comments on Blogger.  Thanks.

All This Leftist Wants for Christmas is Full Communism Now

This gal is the “Science Editor” at BuzzFeed UK. 

Enough said.

~CW

To leave a comment please visit this post at The Pesky Truth.  I am unable to respond to comments on Blogger.

Hilary Shor: This is Who the Left REALLY is

Liberals are the nicest, most non-bullying people.  That’s the reason they so despise Republicans, who are “mean-spirited” and “hateful,” as we are reminded on an almost daily basis (just in case the absence of any actual hate or mean-spiritedness causes people to forget what they’ve been programmed to believe).   As one who has long resented this charade it always gives me great pleasure to share the stories of liberals showing the world who they really are, thus I give you Hilary Shor.  Shor, apparently, is a movie producer who was vacationing in Cabo San Lucas with singer/actress Katherine McPhee when the two either accidentally (according to the story) or intentionally (according to my gut) crashed a wedding.  The bride, it seems, did not take kindly to the crashing of her special day and kicked them out.  Here’s how things went from there, according to this story at “Page Six:”

Shor posted their snarky commentary about the incident in a series of publicly available Instagram stories on her feed, calling the poor bride who denied them entry to her nuptials a “loser.”

 One video seen by Page Six and captioned “Bride Bitch” shows McPhee in her room snottily noting, “What bride does her own wedding security? If you’re doing your own security, you have a problem.”

 A second clip’s titled “dead bride #rude bride,” and a third’s called “loser bride bouncer” — in which Shor quips to McPhee off-camera, “She could have had a Page Six, New York Post [article] of us coming and dancing the night away . . . By the way, I was ready to rock ’n’ roll.”

 McPhee is shown in bed giggling and chiming in: “I was ready to show some serious moves.”  McPhee also says in a video on the vacation: “Hi everyone, it’s late-night shenanigans.”

 Shor also posted captions of their wedding crash fail: “That bride voted for Trump I can feel it,” and “Rise above the rude bride. She should be so lucky to dance with me, I got moves.”

Yes, it’s hard to understand why this ungrateful bride wouldn’t want such gracious ladies crashing her wedding party.

The snarky Trump comment takes away any question as to which way Ms. Shor leans politically, so now the only question is this:

What kind of a woman thinks it’s okay to crash another woman’s wedding party and then gets so vicious when she isn’t allowed to?

Maybe since marriage means so little to liberals it wouldn’t occur to someone like Shor that this day and this party was special to that bride, and she wanted to share it with friends and family, not with arrogant strangers who feel entitled to crash other people’s special events.  Whatever her reasons, she doesn’t owe Shor or McPhee an explanation.  And how did this lovely leftist from the Party of Women treat a sister on her wedding day?  She used her high profile social media account to publically bully her, calling her “rude, bitch,” and “dead,” whatever that means.  Nice.   Move over Ashley Judd and Elizabeth Warren.  Here are some more “nasty women” for your club.

I have long made the case that liberals are merely children in adult bodies, and Ms. Shor is the living proof of it.  She acts like a spoiled brat who has no clue why she shouldn’t be allowed to crash a stranger’s wedding if she wants to amuse herself, even though both she and McPhee probably wouldn’t tolerate strangers crashing their weddings.

Maybe we should start a “#Me too” campaign for victims of liberal bullies.

Stayed tuned for the next episode of “This is Who the Left REALLY is…”

  

~CW

To leave a comment please visit this post at The Pesky Truth.  I am unable to respond to comments on Blogger.  Thanks.

Sanctuary City D.A. Scolds Trump: “We are a Nation of Laws.”

You cannot make this stuff up.

In response to Donald Trump’s calling the acquittal of Kate Steinle’s killer “disgraceful,” the District Attorney for San Francisco proclaimed in a press conference:

“It’s important for the president of the U.S. to remember this is a nation of laws.  We respect the legal process even when the outcome is one that we may not be happy with.”

Does the dear district attorney need to be reminded of what city he’s standing in???  Should we ask Chevy Chase to come out of retirement from SNL and tap him on the shoulder and whisper, “San Francisco ignores federal laws on immigration.”  If that happened would the lightbulb even turn on???

Forgive my abuse of the question marks here but I sometimes cannot come to grips with how stupidly oblivious the leftists are to their own hypocrisy.

I feel sorry for the writers at The Onion.  In a world with people like George Gascon and cities like San Francisco reality and satire are indistinguishable.

~CW

To leave a comment please see this post at The Pesky Truth.  I am unable to respond to comments on Blogger.  Thanks.

On Roy Moore Question, Trump Hits a Homerun

If off-the-cuff remarks were described in baseball terms, it would be fair to say Donald Trump hits a lot of foul balls.  But today Trump hit a homerun as far as this conservative blogger is concerned when he gave this response to shouts from reporters about the Roy Moore allegations:  “We don’t want to have a liberal Democrat in Alabama.”

Here’s why I love it:  because it’s the truth.

How refreshing to hear someone on the political front forego the usual made-up excuses and half-truths and bluntly speak the truth about their reasons to stand behind a candidate.  Let’s cut the bull and go straight to the heart of this debate.  And the best part is that it gives voters something very serious and relevant to think about and base their decision on, because a candidate’s political ideology will have far greater consequence to their lives as citizens of this country than Roy Moore’s alleged attraction to teenage girls forty years ago.

“We don’t want to have a liberal Democrat in Alabama.”

Damn straight, President Trump.  We don’t want them in Texas either.

If Alabamans agree, let’s hope they send that message loud and clear at the ballot box.

~CW

To leave a comment on this topic, please follow the link to this essay at The Pesky Truth.  I am unable to respond to comments on Blogger.  Thanks.

Rose McGowan Burped

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Democrats and their enablers in the media and in Hollywood et al were not supposed to be caught up in the sexual harassment dragnet.  These were elite members of The Club and they were supposed to have immunity from their misdeeds.  That was the unspoken deal that first took root in the 60’s and 70’s when the Sexual Revolution emerged, coincidentally timed, mind you, with the women’s rights movement.  Leftist males, clever as they are, quickly realized that there was both a political and personal advantage to treating women as a special interest group and championing “the cause.”

When the movement got around to going after sexual harassers, it was all good to start with, because the targets were Republicans.  Club members feigned righteous indignation on behalf of the women who testified against Clarence Thomas and nearly derailed the conservative justice’s appointment to the Supreme Court (damn!…so close), as well as for the women who testified against Republican Senator Bob Packwood, who was successfully (Victory!) forced to resign his seat.  (Side note:  The leftwing Washington Post delayed publication of the Packwood allegations until after he was elected whereupon, following his resignation, his seat went to a Democrat in a special election.  Sound familiar anyone?).

The unspoken pact was put to the test during the Bill Clinton era, when the moment came where women had to choose between standing by their sisters in the fight against sexual harassment or siding with their benefactors who pulled the political strings in their favor.  We all know what happened there, don’t we?  And when it was tested again during the campaign of “bimbo”- suppressor Hillary Clinton, the pact was reaffirmed yet again.  Leftist males were starting to believe they were invincible, especially when psuedo “conservative” powerhouse Bill O’Reilly and Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes were both forced out at Fox News over sexual harassment allegations.

So what happened?  How did big donor Harvey Weinstein, media icons Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose, Senator Al Franken, celebrity Garrison Keiller, and other elite members of The Club suddenly get caught up in the sexual harassment trap even after paying their Club dues?  Watching them fall in quick succession I was reminded of the great children’s story, Yertle the Turtle, by Dr. Suess.  It tells the tale of a selfish, power-obsessed turtle, King Yertle, who forces his subject turtles to climb up upon each other’s backs so that he can sit on top and survey his self-designated kingdom.  As Yertle orders his thousands of turtles to climb on the stack, the bottom turtle – a powerless, inconsequential fellow named Mack – complains of his discomfort to no avail.  Finally, he decides enough is enough, and he does one simple thing that brings the whole turtle throne and the arrogant King Yertle crashing down:  he burps.

I’m not sure if it was Rose McGowan or someone else who finally burped, but whoever it was shook enough turtles out of their complacent silence to send a flurry of the Left’s elite club members crashing unceremoniously to the ground.   Why now?  Because the pact was starting to come apart.  Most of these women are younger and hence were not around when the pact was first formed.  They see no reason that they should trade their silence – and sacrifice their bodies – for political privileges that now seem to be the status quo, and this includes women not just in Hollywood but in the media and in the offices of elected officials as well, which is why the pact is fracturing.

That’s what I think happened, but as much as I am enjoying seeing members of The Club turn on their own, I think there are serious battles ahead with respect to the politics of sexual harassment.  The Left cannot be allowed to use their newly discovered principles on sexual harassment as a cover for past sins.  For the moment, however, as far as I am concerned Rose McGowan – or whoever it was that burped – is excused!

~CW

To leave a comment please visit this post at The Pesky Truth.  I am unable to respond to comments on Blogger.  Thanks!

Trump's Dumb Twitter War

“'Poor man's Don King': Trump takes aim at hoops dad LaVar Ball as feud escalates”

That’s the headline at FoxNews.com this morning, and I’m sure it’s making the rounds at every news station.  Is it helpful to Donald Trump and his ambitious agenda for this to be the story that greets people when they turn on the news?

LaVar Ball is an ungrateful moron who didn’t instill good values in his son, but Donald Trump is doing himself no favors in this particular Twitter war.  As someone who voted for Trump and is willing to give him his due when he does the right thing, I find his reaction to Ball’s idiocy to be childish and revealing – yet again – of a giant ego problem.

Trump had banked some credit as a statesman by using his clout to obtain the release of the three shoplifting basketball players (a questionable use of presidential capital, if you ask me) but then immediately erased that credit by engaging in a public exchange that clearly exposed his intervention as a gratuitous act meant to bolster his own image.  That’s the only conclusion I can reach when, miffed by a father’s ingratitude, he tweets that he should have left all three to their fate in China.  In other words, freeing the boys/men from their harsh fate in China wasn’t worth it if Trump doesn’t get his due in adulation and respect.  That’s not how it’s supposed to work, especially when the individuals who were released were appropriately grateful and respectful, at least in public.  And today he made things worse by appearing to insult supporter Don King in his haste to retaliate against Ball.

The bigger problem with this kind of feud is that it reveals the real Donald Trump for who he is:  small, ego-driven and easily moved off track.  I might have made the same mistakes too – when I was 25.  By Trump’s age I would hope to know better.  It seems that there is a straight line from Trump’s ego to his brain:  whenever the ego takes a hit, so does his I.Q.  These aren’t qualities we generally like to see in a POTUS, and it leads me to question his sincerity on any number of what, on the surface, appear to be heartfelt gestures.  I’m guessing I’m not alone.

For those who disagree, please consider how differently things would look right now if Trump had just shown a bit of discipline and responded differently to the ungrateful moron, LaVar Ball.  If he would have ignored him or tweeted something such as:  “@LaVar Ball:   You’re welcome,” and then let it go, how much bigger the man would Trump have appeared to be?  For someone who so desperately wants respect, he keeps shooting himself in the foot.  A truly great man doesn’t let fools rattle him, at least not publically.  Not good.  Not smart.

  

~CW

To leave a comment on this post please do so at The Pesky Truth.  I am unable to respond to comments on Blogger.  Thanks.

In the Age of Fake Everything: What IS and ISN’T “Racist”

Now and then we see documentaries showing the brainwashing that takes place in politically isolated nations, and we shake our heads at the peoples’ ignorance and childlike gullibility.  But here in the U.S. much of the same thing is going on, except without the benefit of dictatorship or state control, and that makes it worse.  While it’s sometimes hard to discern whether people truly believe the lies and myths that are fed to them or whether they’re just playing along with the game for some common objective, we seem to be in the midst of an epidemic of misunderstanding what it means to be a “racist.”  So I thought this might be a good time to do a bit of UN-brainwashing and straight forward clarification.  Here it is:

What IS racist:

·         “Black Lives Matter” is racist – because they reject the inclusive label, “All Lives Matter”

·         Making assumptions about race, good or bad, that have no basis in reality, is racist

·         Restricting what truths someone is allowed speak just because they’re white is racist

·         Using skin color as the sole or primary qualification when voting for a candidate is racist

·         Assuming, as a matter of public policy, that race should be a factor when qualifying for public assistance is racist

·         For a U.S. President to suggest that it was germane to the pursuit of justice that if he had had a son, that son would have looked like Trayvon Martin (and not like George Zimmerman) is racist

·         Suggesting that an entire race of people is “privileged” based solely upon their skin color, irrespective of any and all evidence to the contrary, is racist

·         Assuming that a white cop cannot be objective when dealing with black citizens is racist

·         Painting any race – black, brown or white – with the same broad brush is racist

·         Making race a factor – positively or negatively – in selecting job or university applicants is racist

What ISN’T racist:

·         Truth: No matter how uncomfortable it is to hear it, the truth is never racist

·         Criticizing someone of a different race is not racist

·         Racial disparities in higher education, occupations or income when there are also disparities in cultural attitudes on education, aptitudes, high school graduation rates, I.Q., life choices, career choices and work history is not racist

·         Profiling for criminal behavior based upon actual criminal statistics and local experience is not racist

·         Following your natural instincts for self-protection based upon your experiences or knowledge of history and/or statistics is not racist; i.e., if a black man walking down the street sees what looks like a group of white skinheads coming his way, he would be acting wisely based upon knowledge – not racism – to quickly change his route.

·         Bank credit policies that favor credit-worthy borrowers are not racist

·         Immigration policies that favor unique and desirable work skills are not racist

·         U.S. border policies that prevent illegal entry are not racist

·         U.S. travel policies that protect U.S. citizens and U.S. interests from terrorist activities and other dangers are not racist

·         Describing a black person as “black” or a Hispanic person as “Hispanic” is not racist

·         Disagreeing with the Left on “climate change,” abortion, drug policy, foreign policy, the Second Amendment, healthcare, taxes or anything else of national concern is not racist

·         The state of being white does not make you a racist

I will not be one of those people who sits quietly by as terms like “racist” are transformed from useful components of our language to weapons for the benefit of the Left.  How about you?

~CW

To leave a comment please go see this post at The Pesky Truth.  I am unable to respond to comments on Blogger.  Thanks!

Here’s how I Know Bowe Bergdahl is a Democrat

"At least the Taliban were honest enough to say, ‘I’m the guy who’s gonna cut your throat.’  Here, it could be the guy I pass in the corridor who’s going to sign the paper that sends me away for life.  We may as well go back to kangaroo courts and lynch mobs."

~Bowe Bergdahl, in an interview with the British paper The Sunday Times

Those three short sentences are a dead giveaway to the psychological mindset and, hence, the politics of Bowe Bergdahl.  Let’s review:

#1.  He’s a whiner.

I don’t know about you guys, but if I were the guy who’s claim to fame was as a deserter whose ill-conceived desertion led to a perilous and tragic rescue mission for my co-workers as well as the release of five enemy-combatants to get my sorry butt back, I’d shut the hell up.

#2.  A Democrat’s poop never smells.

Berdahl whines, “…it could be the guy I pass in the corridor who’s going to sign the paper that sends me away for life.”

Little did Bergdahl’s fellow troops know, when they passed him in the barracks at their station in Afghanistan, that he would be the guy whose actions would equate to signing some of their death warrants.  That little irony seems to have escaped the notice of little Bowe.

#3.  He takes no responsibility for his own actions.

Hillary lies and fails to inspire, then blames the Russians and the Republicans for her failures.  Bergdahl deserts, then blames “the guy in the corrider” for his troubles.

Neither “the guy in the corridor” nor the paper he signed is what sent you away for life, Mr. Bergdahl.  YOU sent yourself away for life.  No one else is responsible for that.  (Are you listening, Hillary?)

#4.  He plays fast and loose with the meaning of words.

Only a leftwing Democrat would have the absence of conscience to abuse the terms “kangaroo courts” and “lynch mobs” to inaptly – but grossly self-servingly – describe Bergdahl’s situation.  There are no phony charges here or pretense at following regular order.  No unauthorized persons are dragging you from your home in the dead of night to mete out some twisted form of vigilante justice.  Impressionable young minds who hear your words will form a dangerously inaccurate picture of what these terms mean, and that hurts us all.  It is the true mark of a leftist that you just don’t care.  No cost – paid by others – is too great a sacrifice if a leftist feels better in the end.

#5.  He’s the victim.

Never mind the soldiers who were injured or killed looking for a sorry deserter.  Never mind the taxpayers who are footing the bill for all of the expenses – and there will be lots – related to his ill-fated actions.  Never mind the innocents who are now at risk because five Gitmo detainees are now free.  Bowe Bergdahl is the victim here. 

This person has shown an absence of comprehension and remorse that justifies the harshest punishment, in my opinion.  I hope the judge takes Bergdahl’s attitude into account when deciding his fate, and I hope the judge chooses just the right words to help the world, and impressionable, young Americans in particular, fully understand how seriously wrong this deserter was in what he chose to do. 

~CW

To leave a comment on this post please follow the link to The Pesky Truth.  I am unable to respond to comments on Blogger.  Thanks!

Defending Your Right to Speak for Yourself

I read with interest this morning, a report on the AOL news page stating that the NFL has announced that players won’t be barred from taking a knee during the national anthem.  When I say, “with interest,” I am referring not to the NFL’s decision with respect to kneeling, which I didn’t find particularly surprising given the way the NFL has been managed.  No, what interested me were the blurbs of rhetoric that came from the interviews with Commissioner Roger Goodell and some of the players following the league’s autumn meeting. 

“The NFL won’t stop its players from kneeling during the national anthem,” said Goodell.  “Instead, he said, the league wants to help them in their political activism….”

“We spent today talking about the issues that our players have been trying to bring attention to. About issues in our communities to make our communities better,” Goodell told reporters.

Pay attention to the sleight of hand taking place here, because the cooption of individual speech rights often takes place as if it’s part of a magic trick.  Notice how the distinction between players who took a knee in protest during the game and all of the rest of the players has been quietly erased.  Suddenly the protest belongs to all of the players in the NFL, regardless of whether they agree or not. 

I for one find it fascinating – and by “fascinating” I mean deeply disturbing – that what many (incorrectly) hailed as an issue of free speech for the kneeling players is now morphing into the cooption of free speech rights of all of the players.  All of the players are social justice warriors now, whether they like it or not.  But as I’ve argued before (see “Losing the Power of ME”), this is what liberals do, and it’s how they’ve become so powerful, so it behooves us to pay careful attention to the experts in action.

One has to wonder if, when NFL players joined the players’ association, it was with the understanding that the spokespersons for the association would presume to speak for them on issues such as “social justice.”  Do the players who stood during the national anthem with their hands over their hearts agree that we’re a racist country where black people are systematically oppressed?  Hmmmm.  Regardless of whether they agree or not, this is what’s implied when the players’ association presumes to speak with one voice on this issue.  No one wants to be the one to raise his hand and say, “I disagree” or “I don’t want to adjudicate this on the football field.”  So the squeaky wheels win once again.

But please don’t let the trees distract you from seeing the forest.  This post is NOT about the NFL.  It’s NOT about the protests.  It’s about the right of every individual to preserve the power to speak for oneself.  It’s about defending the sacred right not to have our unique, individual voices coopted by those that we either have some real or imagined association with.  That, and only that, is what this post is about.

If free speech is power, then there is great power in being able to claim that you speak for others.  This fact has not been lost on many of those who want to drive an agenda.  As I relayed in “Losing the Power of ME,” this is a tactic in which the Left excels.  Liberals are notorious for infiltrating groups and associations organized ostensibly for one purpose and taking control of both the agenda and power of that organization’s voice (and by default, the voice of its membership).  Just think of the AARP, the NAACP, the American Medical Association, the American Bar Association, and just about every labor union that exists.  The leaders of these groups use their power as spokespeople to influence policy that reaches far and wide, and they do so by usurping the voices of the conservatives silenced within.   And though it’s a favorite tool of the Left, some on the Right are guilty as well.

Power is a zero sum game.  When your voice is coopted by others, that is power stolen from you, and your own voice is easily lost in the crowd.

This is a particularly timely subject in light of the onslaught of pundits these days who are presuming to speak for “the voters,” as if we are all of one like mind in a politically tumultuous time when we clearly are not, as evidenced by Garnet92’s enlightening post from earlier today:  “Here Are The Five Types Of Trump Voters.”  The post details a survey of 8,000 voters which found that “there is no such thing as one type of Trump voter.”  In spite of this reality, I turn on the news shows each day to see a familiar pattern wherein one pundit or another is declaring that “the voters” want this or “the voters” want that, in what I see as attempts to create the impression of support for their own versions of an agenda that’s still being tweaked.  If a pundit has evidence that he or she does indeed speak for the will of the voters, then by all means they should make their case; but the powers that be have a duty, in my humble opinion, to verify the truth of their claims, and not to assume that my inability to be heard over the pundits is a sign of my agreement.  Life is hard enough without my having to combat the claims of every shill who claims to speak for me.

The prospect of our stolen voices underscores the importance of by-laws and constitutions, and of the need for strict enforcement of them.  Such documents typically spell out the limits of the power of those in charge such that they don’t have the flexibility to be unduly influenced by those wishing to illegitimately harness the power of its members, as is occurring in the NFL and elsewhere.  Uphold the Constitution.  Isn’t this what it always comes down to in the end?

~CW

To comment on this post please go to The Pesky Truth.  I am unable to respond to comments on Blogger.

Tales of Liberalism’s Destructiveness Hidden In WaPo Stories

I don’t typically read The Washington Post because I prefer my news without the annoying taint of liberal bias, but a while back I came across two unrelated WaPo stories by chance, and in the process of reading I found myself repeatedly struck by the glossed-over details that tell an important story of their own.  Those details demonstrate how the Left’s influence leads to destructive life choices and government policies that set the stage for needless tragedy which – just taking a wild guess here – might be the reason that the dedicated journalists at the WaPo choose to dig only so deep.

The first article, dated June 19, 2017, tells the story of a young Virginia man who, according to police, used his car to harass and attempt to run down a group of Muslim teenagers as they were on their way back from a 3 a.m. outing to MacDonald’s:

“Killing of Muslim teen near Va. mosque stemmed from road rage, police say”

From the article it is unclear what led up to the altercation between Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, and the group of teenagers who were either walking or on bicycles, but readers are told that an altercation took place and that eventually Martinez Torres got out of his car and attacked 17-year old Nabra Hassanen with a baseball bat.  He then forced her into his car and took off.  Later that afternoon her body was found in a pond near Martinez Torres’ home.  She had been beaten to death.

Per the WaPo, the girl’s distraught father “said that he feels sure his daughter was killed because of her religion.”  Police, however, seem to have information indicating that the attack was motivated by road rage.  From the article:

“Martinez Torres spoke through a Spanish translator to answer a judge’s questions. He was appointed a public defender…  U.S. immigration officials requested that a “detainer” be placed on him at the county jail, meaning they are interested in possible future deportation proceedings.  Family members said the man worked in construction. He is Salvadoran and has a 4-year-old son and a girlfriend. He attended school briefly in the United States.”

That’s the story, but here are the between-the-lines parts of the story that stuck out to me:

1.  Martinez Torres is an ILLEGAL ALIEN according to coverage  of the story in The New York Times the next day, surprise, surprise. One would think that with the fierce debate currently taking place on the relationship between crime and illegal immigration in this country, that newsworthy tidbit would warrant mention in a news article, but apparently it is too much of a leap for WaPo to assume  that a man who needs a Spanish interpreter and has an immigration office detainer attached to him is an ILLEGAL ALIEN who all but certainly strolled across our borders during the Obama administration and was immediately and conveniently forgotten by Obama’s immigration enforcement.  Even the leftwing NYT found that part of the story newsworthy, but being a liberal-run propaganda arm of the Democrat Party they naturally used the Left’s politically-cleansed term, “undocumented immigrant,” to describe this person who entered the U.S. illegally and now appears to be responsible for a girl’s abduction and brutal death (eight days after this article was posted Daily News reported that Martinez Torres had been previously accused in a sex assault case and had ties to the MS-13 gang).  Surprised?  Me neither.

2.  The double last name, Martinez Torres, suggests to me that this man is likely the product of an unmarried couple, as so many troublesome young men turn out to be thanks to the influence of liberalism on attitudes about marriage. Similar background details emerge in story after story of violent young adults, yet liberal journalists are strangely lacking in curiosity about the coincidental connection between violence and the disappearance of the traditional family.

3.  Martinez Torres has a 4-year old son “with a girlfriend.” That’s just great isn’t it?  Hope they started teaching him his letters early on, because he has quite a long name to learn, but that’s the least of this poor child’s problems.  As the product of yet another non-traditional union that liberals will tell us there’s nothing wrong with, he already had one big strike against him, and now his father may be on his way to prison.

4.  There were approximately 15 Muslim teens walking and biking to McDonald’s at 3:40 a.m. on the morning of the altercation/abduction. According to reporters Justin Jouvenal and Julie Zauzmer, this is what all teenagers do.  Apparently Jouvenal and Zauzmer grew up in very permissive households, because I wasn’t allowed to roam the streets with my friends at 3:00 a.m when I was a teen, nor did I allow my two sons to do so because it sounds like an invitation for trouble.   I understand their outing had to do with the observance of Ramadan in preparation of the coming fast that morning, but I also understand that parents anticipating hungry teens can make food available so that there’s no need for a large group of teens to wander the streets unsupervised at 3 a.m.  If that sounds a bit like blaming the victim please be aware that I am not one of these people who subscribes to the belief that all victims are to be held 100% blameless for their fate.  My heart goes out to this girl and her family and what happened was indisputably undeserved, but it does us no good to pretend that a bit of common sense and parental supervision might not have made the difference that day.

5.  Without citing specific reasons the police labeled this a road rage incident, which leads me to wonder if the teens were blocking the road or were slow or uncooperative about moving out of the road when Martinez Torres came upon them. That’s just speculation on my part, but I’m guessing that this fairly large group of 15 teens wasn’t walking single file on the sidewalk.  They may not have anticipated any cars to be on the road at that time.  Police said there was a verbal altercation that did not involve racial or religious slurs, so it’s hard to imagine what else these strangers would be arguing about if not some dispute over the road.  My thought:  don’t block the roads and whether you’re in a car or on foot, respect the right of way.

In sum, here is how I, as a conservative, wrote this story in my head:

An (most likely) unmarried girl/woman gives birth to a male child in El Salvador, because marriage is old fashioned and fathers are unnecessary.  He grows up in poverty without a male role model in the home and probably surrounded by violence, and he becomes the “angry young man” that Elvis sang about in his haunting song, “In the Ghetto,” likely to inflict violence and/or die by violence.  This young male, with all his baggage and two last names, is encouraged to make his way to the U.S. where he can simply walk across the border because liberals believe a border wall is ugly and mean-spirited, and besides they would rather spend that money nurturing the sheep’s addiction to the welfare state (Oops – did I say that out loud?).  Once inside he can disappear into the country without fear of being hassled if he keeps his nose clean, because liberals in the U.S. believe that it is better to subject American citizens to whatever violence, diseases or poverty the illegals bring with them than to commit the obscene offense of allowing police to identify illegals by – gasp – profiling.  God forbid any citizen should ever be pulled over and asked to show their drivers’ license and then sent on their way, because this would be a horrendous experience that might require years of psychological counseling.  As far as keeping his nose clean, that didn’t happen with Martinez.   Just a week prior to allegedly killing Miss Hassanen, Martinez Torres was accused of sexually assaulting another woman as well as punching and choking her in front of her child.   According to the CPS report the woman said she didn’t want to press any charges against Martinez Torres, telling authorities in the hospital that she feared her attacker, “…who was in the MS-13 gang.”

Why do you suppose police did not detain this violent, dangerous illegal alien?  Why not notify ICE and get him off the streets?  What kinds of policies and influences might have led to such flawed decisions and abdication of duty?  Instead Martinez Torres was left to continue his trespassing upon this country and to beat and murder a 17-year old girl who should have been safely tucked away in her home at 3:00 a.m. that fateful morning.  And based upon the surviving teens’ claims that Martinez Torres attempted to run them down with his car, the scope of the crime – ultimately committed by Martinez Torres but with every step of the way paved by “well-meaning” liberals – could have been far, far worse.

Reporters Jouvenal and Zauzmer never mentioned the liberal policies and influences that brought Darwin Torres and Nabra Hassanen together that fateful day.  They preferred to cover the was-it-road-rage-or-anti-Muslim-bigotry angle.   This is why some terrible crimes that are avoidable will inevitably go on to happen, nonetheless; and it’s why you don’t read the Washington Post if you want real news.

I think we’ll leave that second story for another day.

~CW

To leave a comment please follow this link to see this post at The Pesky Truth.  I am unable to respond to comments on Blogger.

I Am an American, and When You Disrespect the American Flag You Disrespect Me

It really is that simple. 

The American flag stands for a set of ideals, and for all of the people of this nation, as imperfect as any of us may be.  The flag and the national anthem are there to remind us of those ideals and of the importance of unity and patriotism, and when we stand we do so to reaffirm our commitment to all of those things.

When did Americans stop being mature enough to understand this?  Too many Americans are crybabies and attention seekers who are incapable of looking past their own grievances.  It’s disheartening to be sure, but I’ll stand for the American flag in spite of the crybabies and in spite of those who try and tear this nation down, because honoring the flag is the only way to keep the ideals alive.

That’s all for now.

~CW

To comment on this post please follow this link to The Pesky Truth website.  I am unable to respond to comments on Blogger.  Thanks!

Trump, DACA and the Test of Our Democracy

It ought to go without saying that Donald Trump did the right thing by putting the groundwork in play to rescind DACA. Allowing Barack Obama’s illegal usurpation of congressional authority to stand would be a dereliction of duty and affront to the Constitution.   Judging from the hate speech and histrionics that followed Trump’s announcement, however, I think it’s safe to say that those on the Left see things just a wee bit differently, but that’s par for the course nowadays.  These frauds who claim to revere democracy have become increasingly hostile to the notion of following the Constitution and allowing their fellow Americans to have an equal say in the policies of this country.  When I commented on a recent blog post criticizing Trump’s decision (“Repeal of DACA Will Kill Dreams”) I was told that my argument against DACA wasn’t “strong enough,” the implication being that the Left, as a morally superior class, possesses the inherit right to reject our arguments and assume the authority for making policy unilaterally.  That was the message signaled by Obama when he bypassed congress on DACA and it wasn’t lost on the sheeple, as evidenced by another commenter who wrote on his own blog post (“In Defense of the DREAMers Our President Doesn’t Care About”) that:

“DREAMers have just as much right to belong to the American experiment as any American citizen.”  

Really? When did that happen, and what happened to my right to have a say on the issue?  This is the dangerous place where the thinking of the Left is increasingly headed, and it won’t stop with DACA.  The shouting, the marching, the violence bubbling just under the surface…..all of it points to the Left’s embrace of tyranny and rejection of democracy.   DACA is just the latest testing ground, so it is imperative for the future of this nation that we reset the tone, starting with DACA.

Getting back to Trump for a minute, it’s quite worrisome (and I hope diehard Trump supporters who claim to love the Constitution are paying close attention) that Trump hinted that he, too, would consider messing with congressional authority if congress “doesn’t do its job.”  This begs the question:  What exactly is congress’s “job” with respect to the hundreds of thousands of “Dreamers” who are living unlawfully in the U.S. because their parents illegally brought them here as minors?  How did this become a test of America’s moral values rather than a test of the moral values of the parents who knowingly put their children in this predicament?  Something is seriously amiss when a nation of 330 million people can be essentially blackmailed into weakening its own laws to compensate for the crimes of a much smaller group of trespassers.  This, I presume, is why congress has been reluctant to “act” in the face of presidential bullying to do so.  Furthermore, since when does the decision to leave a law as it stands constitute a “failure to act?”  We can thank Obama/Alinsky (Obalinsky?) for reprogramming the sheeple to think this way.  The illegal alien community and their cohorts on the Left are attempting to force congress into making laws to accommodate criminal behavior by putting this moral quandary on the shoulders of the American people.  I like to think that those who have refused to be blackmailed this way are taking a pro-active stand against aiding and abetting the lawbreakers and are trying their best to place the moral quandary back on the shoulders of the wrong-doers where it rightfully belongs.  In any case, the great lesson to take away here is that DACA, along with all of its ugly repercussions, is the consequence of decades of refusing to stand up and enforce our immigration laws, and for that both political parties are to blame.

So what, if anything, should be done about the so-called Dreamers?  As I see it there are three options:

1.  Congress can do nothing.  This will mean the tragedy inflicted upon these young adults will go unresolved, and they will face unfortunate hardships as a consequence of the choices their parents made. 

2.  Congress can enact its own version of DACA.  This will resolve the dilemma of the so-called Dreamers to a certain extent, but in doing so it will reward the people who disrespected our laws and act as an enticement to others tempted to do the same thing.  The Left will coyly offer to limit this special amnesty to existing “Dreamers,” but we know from experience that this is a lie.  If the logic is that it’s immoral to leave the “Dreamers” in limbo, then the moral argument must apply to all who come in the future as well. 

3.  The Republican-controlled congress, which is largely made up of cowards and vote whores and will most likely cave like a pup tent in a hurricane in the face of the Left’s bullying on this issue, could use it as an opportunity to negotiate for meaningful reforms to immigration policy, such as amending the 14^th Amendment to disallow any interpretation that grants citizenship to the children born to people who are in the U.S. illegally.  Add to that a requirement that the home countries of these “Dreamers” must reimburse the U.S. for the costs we’ve incurred by their presence here to the tune of, say, $10,000 each.  For 900,000 “Dreamers” this would translate to $9 billion, which would make a nice down payment on the wall.  Add to that laws that make it harder for sanctuary cities to exist, etc., etc., etc., etc.

Understanding that there is no “solution” that doesn’t come at a big price for one group or another, it comes down to a question of who should be the one to pay the price, and that’s a no-brainer for me.  The parents of the “Dreamers” and the Democrat Party whose resistance against immigration enforcement gave aid and comfort to the trespassers are the ones most responsible for the state of things today, so one way or another they must pay the price. 

~CW

To comment on this post please view the post at The Pesky Truth.  I am unable to respond to comments on Blogger.

Knee-Jerk Nation

Back in the days when I blogged at Townhall I regularly sparred with a group of rabidly angry, quasi-libertarians.  During one exchange my adversary characterized a response I made as “knee-jerk,” essentially accusing me of not thoughtfully considering the question or my answer before I responded.  That’s a serious insult in my book, so I immediately grabbed my keyboard to shoot back a denial and defend my comment, but in the struggle to articulate my reply I came to the embarrassing realization that he was actually right. 

Dang.  I hate it when that happens. 

I don’t recall the exact comment in question, only that it involved accepted ‘conservative’ lore and that daring to consider I was wrong also brought into question my worldview which was partially premised upon this and other notions that I’d long accepted as fact.  That was a pivotal moment in my blogging “career” and yes, I did concede to him that he was right (on that ONE point!), because I happen to believe credibility matters.  The experience taught me the importance of taking the time to stop and think and not be so reflexive in debate.  In the process I made a few alterations to certain long-held beliefs that I took for granted, and learned the value of carefully forming my own opinions instead of invoking standard partisan talking points.

Sadly - nay tragically - we have become a nation of people who by and large debate consequential topics with knee-jerk thoughtlessness.  The blogosphere, opinion journals, Facebook and Twitter are often besieged by inane, misguided, indefensible prattle that reveals a dangerous and destructive level of closed-mindedness, inexcusable ignorance and blind devotion to precious prejudices.  That’s not intended to be a blanket condemnation of those mediums as there is plenty of worthy, thoughtful discussion going on as well and that’s a great thing; but certainly the absence of any minimum standards for participation means that self-policing humility is in dangerously short supply.  It used to take work – and to certain audiences the demonstration of credibility – to enjoy the privilege of sharing your thoughts with vast numbers of people.  Now anyone can do so with a phone or computer, but the heretofore unsung voices of wisdom that have been given life by these tools are too often drowned out by those who spew nonsense. I think about the carefully articulated essays and letters crafted by this country’s founding fathers to debate and express their thoughts on the serious subjects of their time and I just want to shake my head at the realization of how far we’ve fallen in comparison.  Am I just glorifying a bygone time and a bygone people or is the disintegration real?

Look at the de-evolution of speech occurring on the campuses of our “institutions of higher learning,” where those who offer to come speak and who are willing to defend their opinions are treated with hostility and violence by those who, in all likelihood, have never heard these speakers articulate what they’re advocating.  In liberal-run schools of all levels the mere act of voicing an opinion is giddily applauded, as long as it’s the right opinion of course.  In these places where objective thinking and debate are supposed to be taught to young people as part of their passage to becoming adults, we instead see these young people encouraged to crawl back towards the womb, where they will curl up and suck their thumbs in their safe spaces or become tyrannical toddlers, screaming and hurling objects when they don’t get their way.   This is both the consequence and the future of the knee-jerk nation.   Gone are the days of Abraham Lincoln’s sage advice:  “Better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”  

After years of watching news analysis shows where conservative and liberal guests are brought on to debate the issues of the day, I have given up any hope of ever seeing one side persuaded by the other side’s more compelling argument, even when that argument contains facts and logic that are indisputable.  Without missing a breath every salient point is rejected out of hand, as if the speaker is on auto-pilot and just waiting to regurgitate his own talking points.  I understand they’re getting paid, one way or another, to represent a certain view no matter what, but I for one wouldn’t be able to stand the embarrassment of standing my ground while my argument is shown to be a failure.  But that’s just me.

Naturally readers will be wondering, “What about Donald Trump?  Isn’t he a knee-jerk president, what with all the tweeting and all?”

To a certain extent, I believe Trump is guilty of knee-jerk behavior, particularly when he feels personally attacked; but let’s not confuse quick reactions with automatic, thought-free reactions.  If one has watched for years as a rogue dictatorship like North Korea menaces its neighbors and the U.S. with threats of attack and progresses closer and closer to having nuclear weapons despite diplomatic efforts, it seems to me the thoughtful reaction, irrespective of speed, would be to treat this serious threat with serious words and actions, which is what Trump has done in my humble estimation.  It is the refusal to modify one’s precious prejudices about the sanctity of diplomacy in the face of an escalating threat that strikes me as robotic, and therefore knee-jerk, under this scenario. 

I don’t expect that the tide will turn and thoughtful reflection will be back in vogue any time soon.  As with anything that involves the Left, there’s a method to the madness.  If one actually debates with seriousness and sincerity one might have to concede that one is wrong, and then the mission to co-opt people’s rights is jeapordized.  There’s too much at stake to risk that.  Thieves and other usurpers of liberty never debate and they never concede any territory. 

~CW

To leave a comment please follow the link to see this post at The Pesky Truth.  I am unable to respond to comments on Blogger.