January 25, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

Masking Treason as Patriotism

Last Monday, a gun-owning friend of mine posted a bunch of internet memes on his Facebook page, culminating with “There are two types of people: gun owners and victims.” Someone please remind me what last Monday’s holiday was for — was it gun owner James Earl Ray or victim Martin Luther King, Jr.? I forget.

There are lots of things our government does that I disagree with. Throughout our history, our government has taken away rights of individuals, and we have been able to make great progress without actually taking up arms against the government.

For instance, the civil rights movement led by King helped to convince Americans that the law had to be changed, and they accomplished this with non-violent protests. Other advances were made through our political system (by electing politicians who promoted change) or through our legal system (with lawsuits to force the government to extend rights). In a truly democratic form of government, this is how you progress.

But some gun owners believe that if you don’t get your way in America, it is perfectly fine to advocate violence. They read the 2nd amendment in a way no court has done, and in a way counter to the majority of Americans, but insist, like religious fundamentalists, that they and they alone know exactly what the Constitution means. “We must obey the Constitution!” they scream. “We are true patriots, obeying the will of the Founders! And we will use violence against the government if you try to stop us!”

Yes, because the Constitution must be obeyed. Oh, except that part about treason. That doesn’t count.

(EDIT: It is pure coincidence that as I am writing this, I hear on the news that there is another shooter killing people in a Mall. I could have re-rerun my “Gun Control Shuffle” post, but I’m getting tired of having to run that every few weeks.)

Editorial cartoon of the day: Half a world away

January 24, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

New Hempshire

The New Hampshire House has voted to legalize marijuana.

This is important. Marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington were voter-driven referenda. Most politicians are afraid to take a stand on this for fear of being labelled as “soft on drugs” or something else equally stupid, but given the popularity of sudden vacations to Colorado, they’re rethinking their old ways.

And rightly so. Legalized marijuana can make a state a lot of money. They can tax it heavily and require sellers to pay for expensive licensing. But they also save money — less people in jail over marijuana possession, less police wasting time on marijuana cases, fewer probation officers needed, fewer court hours spent on hearings and trials.

New Hampshire is a conservative state in many ways, filled with people escaping from liberal Massachusetts and socialistic Vermont. New Hampshire is quite libertarian — they’re individuals who don’t like government telling them that they can’t smoke a joint. “Life free or die” is their credo (even though it doesn’t make any sense).

Will they be the next state to legalize? Not likely. The Governor has vowed to veto the bill. (And she’s a Democrat, too; you’d think otherwise.) So why would she be against this with all the benefits it will bring?

Who knows? Maybe she’s high.

Editorial cartoon of the day: Legacy

January 23, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

Government says Government is illegal

An independent government committee has determined that the NSA program targeting American citizens is (surprise!) illegal. Well, most of the committee did — the two Bush appointees dissented.

Their report concluded that the collection of bulk phone records has provided only minimal protections at a huge cost to our freedoms.

Obama’s recent speech on this topic was about as weak as it could be. He spoke of the need to have spies and intelligence gathering (which no one disagrees with) and tried to convince us all that therefore, this was not too great or unusual. Admittedly, he also said the program should be cut back, but he wouldn’t go so far as to question the need for it in the first place.

The Bush people disagreed that the program was illegal (let us not forget that the program started under Bush, with his “Patriot” act) but did agree that it should be stopped nonetheless.

But seriously, the blame falls on all of government — Congress approved the Patriot Act, after all, and for Congress to now claim that they are shocked that the NSA is doing things they gave them permission to do is ridiculous. Obama is also responsible. He voted against the Patriot Act extension as a Senator but expanded it once he became President. (Ironically, he has spoken of the need to cut it back once he’s out of office, with the pretentious idea that he can handle this but some other President couldn’t.)

Let’s hope this leads to the Supreme Court finding the Patriot Act unconstitutional.

Editorial cartoon of the day: Christie Almighty

January 22, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

Glenn Beck is sorry

Former Shock Jock Glenn Beck is sorry. Boy, is he sorry. What a sorry human he is.

“I remember it as an awful lot of fun and that I made an awful lot of mistakes,” he told Fox’s Megyn Kelly on Tuesday. “I think I played a role, unfortunately, in helping tear the country apart.”

You think? You think that maybe your crazy rants were believed by idiots who took it as the truth? You think maybe you might have helped convince people that anyone to the left of you was some sort of anti-American socialist out to instill Sharia Law on the country? You think that might have done something to divide us?

Beck, who never studied politics or economics and never went to college, is still someone many on the right see as qualified to discuss current affairs with knowledge. Like Rush Limbaugh, he is just a loudmouth who was given a microphone. His views are just as informed and valid as your crazy uncle everyone avoids talking to at Thanksgiving.

Sure, everyone has the right to a political opinion, but usually when you want to get insight, you ask someone who is educated or experienced, not whoever is the loudest. (And yes, to compare, Dr. Rachel Maddow is a Rhodes Scholar whose degree is from Oxford, and Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry has her Political Science doctorate from Duke.)

This statement from Beck, unfortunately, came with absolutely no change in the idiocy of his views. He also claimed that the reason his latest right-wing project was not being more widely distributed was because the Devil was working against him.

Trust me — if the Devil existed, he would be doing everything he could to help Beck tear the country apart.

Editorial cartoon of the day: Passion of the Christie

January 21, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

The New Christie Minstrels

Chris Christie apologists are singing the praises of this guy, even going so far as to claim (on Fox News, of course) that this is just another one of those feminist plots to bring down guys who act like assholes — because we all know that acting like an asshole is the natural state of men, and women who complain about it are just too touchy-feely and sensitive.

Apparently, this micro-manager who has his nose in everyone’s business in every other regard was supposedly completely unaware of what his closest personal staff was doing, even when he met with them while the whole Bridge blockage was happening. Yeah, no one is buying that, and polls show that people just aren’t that gullible.

Is this the most serious scandal in the world? Of course not. But I am more interested in it because it shows what kind of person he is, and that is something we all need to know if he wants to run for higher office.

Hey, remember when the Romney campaign considered having Christie as the VP but ran as far as possible once they began the vetting process? Yeah, that was funny!

Anyway, we all know that if you’re a powerful person (say, a governor) you have a staff of people you have chosen — and one thing a staff does is want to please the boss. Do we really believe that his staff would do these things if they didn’t think he would approve? Even if he didn’t directly give them the instruction to do this, clearly they were following his example and taking actions that would please him.

And if you believe otherwise, I have a bridge to sell you.

Just don’t try to cross it.