Category Archives: Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim

Liberal Vs. Libertarian Response To Ferguson (Rand’s Just An Opportunist)

Britain, Intellectualism, Law, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, libertarianism, Racism

“Liberal outrage over what some see as racial injustice” vs. libertarian anger “that connects the perceived overreaction by a militarised local law enforcement to [a libertarian] critique of the heavy-handed power of government”: As expected, BBC News adopts a more analytical angle on the “unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting death of Michael Brown by a police officer.”

Expected too is BBC’s take on the libertarian scene. As its libertarian stand-bearers, BBC News has chosen from the ranks of Beltway libertarians, conservatives and Republican congressmen and senators.

“The state is big and powerful and violent and can hurt you, whether it’s the FDA, the state prosecutor or the local police force,” writes Hot Air blog’s Mary Katharine Ham, concisely summarising the gist of this libertarian argument.
Breitbart’s John Nolte puts it a bit more sharply: “The media hate police but without them, who will ultimately force us to buy ObamaCare and confiscate our guns?”
On Wednesday night Congressman Justin Amash, a libertarian-leaning Republican embraced by the grass-roots Tea Party movement, tweeted that the news from Ferguson was “frightening”, asking: “Is this a war zone or a US city? Gov’t escalates tensions w/military equipment & tactics.”
One of the leading figures in today’s libertarian movement, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul …

In his response to Ferguson, as is his wont, Sen. Rand Paul managed to straddle liberal and libertarian narratives, vaporizing idiotically as follows:

“Anyone who thinks that race does not still, even if inadvertently, skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention.”

Rand is the very embodiment of political opportunism.

UPDATED: American Rabbis For Israel First (Good Column; Back Page On WND)

Ilana Mercer, Israel, Judaism & Jews, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Morality, Nationhood, Paleolibertarianism

“American Rabbis For Israel First” is the current column, now on WND. An excerpt:

“Here is an angry and cogent Israeli response to incessant provocation and violence, and one of the factors that triggered the Gaza campaign,” wrote a reader. In his missive, the reader had attached an article for my edification. Chief among the problems with the article is that its author, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, is not an Israeli. Rabbi Boteach is an American. Online, he describes himself as “‘America’s Rabbi,’ whom The Washington Post calls ‘the most famous Rabbi in America.”

Rabbi Boteach’s Huffington Post defense of Israel titled “Fed Up With Dead Jews” is thus not an “Israeli” response to the latest flare-up between Hamas and Israel, but a Jewish-American one.

Mistaking a Jewish-American defense of Israel for an “Israeli” one is understandable. When it comes to things Israel, very many American Jews sound like Israelis. While one would expect an Israeli to vigorously defend his homeland, in theory and in practice, one does not expect an American—Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or Baha’i—to defend the interests of a foreign country, with the intensity ordinarily reserved for one’s own.

In “Fed Up,” Rabbi Boteach inveighs: “We have every right to be fed-up. No nation should have to live like this. No nation should have to die like this. … what we do know is that the option of dead Jews is no longer acceptable. We have a right to live.”

Rabbi Boteach and Israel are as one.

Far be it from me to question the Rabbi’s capacity to commit to two countries. Seamlessly does Boteach spread passion and “Kosher Lust” (his new book) wherever he goes. In question here is the unseemliness of dual patriotism; the conflict of interest, if you will. …

… Contra Boteach, my own passions are tempered by time and place. I live in America. My neighbors are American. This is my home. I may be a Jew, but I’m an American patriot first. My loyalties lie with my (war-weary) countrymen, first. …

… An American writer’s intellectual energy ought to focus on American interests, first. Personal probity demands it! Otherwise, the columnist is a fifth column. …

… Read the complete column. “American Rabbis For Israel First” is now on WND.

UPDATE: GOOD COLUMN; BACK PAGE. From the Facebook Thread:

Kerry Crowel: “Whoa … Ilana, that is one hell of a good column.”

Ilana Mercer: “Kerry Crowel, thanks. I thought so. But it’s on second page, as usual, on WND. Second page is more or less the rule for one of the site’s longest standing columns. When thinking of where to publish next book, one takes into account the kind of promotion the column gets. Or no promotion, rather. But thanks for your kind comment.”

UPDATED: When Cretins ‘Confront’ Creep-In-Chief

Barack Obama, Christianity, Constitution, Founding Fathers, IMMIGRATION, Journalism, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Regulation

In the age of illiteracy and ignorance, newspaper transcripts are obsolete. So rely on memory I must in relaying what one can take away from Obama’s “presser at the conclusion of the Africa Summit.” And it is, chiefly, that the media, whose duty it is to keep the president on his toes, is really really dim.

Again, Obama called Congress a do-nothing Congress (if only this were true), when the Founding Fathers put in place a constitutional scheme that was intended to gridlock, so as to prevent usurpation of power belonging to the people. That the system failed to preserve freedom is beside the point. Obama still gets away with disgorging misleading dross about the constitutional system’s workings.

Just the other day, the creep-in-chief declared that there was no money to protect the border from tidal waves of central-American juveniles. (That too was the fault of a “do-nothing Congress.”) Today, this interloper found plenty taxpayer money to give to “Africa” so that it could unleash the potential of its women, press, medical men (or witchdoctors, as they are called on that continent), civil institutions, on and on. I’d say this was tantamount to throwing good money after bad, if there was any real money to throw about.

The American media, like the army, is internationalist. They like to present themselves as humanitarians, whose sympathies lie with the world’s poor (unless they personally have to step up, whereupon these left-liberals metamorphose into NIMBYs).

Why, one feeble-minded female demanded, was an Ebola drug, developed in the US and still not approved for use due to Food and Drug Administration regs—yes, regulation can indirectly kill—why was it not being provided to “Africa”? (I don’t think American journos understand that “Africa,” like Europe before the European Union, is made up of many countries.) And was it ethical to test the compound on the infected Christian missionaries—Americans all—who contracted the disease when ministering to the sick and afflicted on the continent.

If they could, the journos would take the ZMapp drug away from these saints who deserve a cure. The selfless saints serving the Lord in Africa would probably agree.

UPDATED (8/7): Partial transcript courtesy of CNN.

NIMBY Liberals For Open Borders

IMMIGRATION, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Morality

“Oh my Gosh! That’s a tough one. I’ll have to think about it. No thank you. I share a house with mom. In spirit, I’m with you, but … I wish I could. I’ll have to pass.” Those are some of the responses given to a journalist, who ventured out into the predominantly left-liberal Old Alexandria to ask community members, first, to sign a petition in support of the resettlement of some Central American minors in Old Alexandria. And next, whether the signatories would be willing to take such a child into their respective homes.

This lovely little clip captures the essence of your average, Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) liberal.