Posted by
C-Hayes on Monday, September 24, 2007 7:03:12 PM
1) Governor Deval Patrick embarrassed not only Massachusetts but the entire country while presiding over 9/11 memorial ceremonies in Massachusetts - calling the September 11 attacks "a failure of human understanding." More from the Boston Globe:
"Presiding over the state's memorial ceremonies for the first time, Patrick on Tuesday morning called the events of Sept. 11, 2001, 'a mean and nasty and bitter attack on the United States.'
"'But it was also about the failure of human beings to understand each other and to learn to love each other,' he said. 'It seems to me that lesson [of] that morning is something that we must carry with us every day.'"
"Mean"? "Nasty"? "Bitter"? Manly words, indeed.
How about "savage"? "Brutal"? "Unforgivable"? "Incomprehensible"?
The bigger question, though, is why Patrick felt the need to inject his opinion (he says "it seems to me") at a memorial service for 9/11 victims. Why couldn't he just pray, reflect, remember, and be done with it? People still in mourning from that day do not want to hear about our failure to love terrorists.
(By the way, why is that Patrick has to "fend off" questions from critics, rather than "answer" them? Why is that Republican leaders are "seizing" on his comments rather than "responding to" them? But the media doesn't tilt liberal. No it does not.)
Fortunately for Patrick, talk radio and local media came to his rescue. Brian Maloney reports that "Patrick gave jerky non-answers after being repeatedly pressed by callers on the 9-11 remarks and [WTKK talk show host Jim] Braude banned further calls on the subject. Disgusting."
Disgusting indeed.
Not so fortunate for Patrick was the attention the story received from some national media. Michelle Malkin called him a "9/10 person." But perhaps the most biting criticism came from the inimitable Mark Steyn (emphasis mine):
"Why do radical imams seek to convert young Canadian, British and even American men and women in their late teens and twenties? Because they understand that when you raise a generation in the great wobbling blancmange of Deval Patrick cultural relativism – nothing is any better or any worse than anything else; if people are 'mean and nasty' to us, it’s only because we didn’t sing enough Barney the Dinosaur songs at them – in such a world a certain percentage of its youth will have a great gaping hole where their sense of identity should be. And into that hole you can pour something fierce and primal and implacable."
When "nothing is any better or any worse than anything else," you get 9/11. When the cultural and moral relativism promoted and adored by liberal members of government, academia, and the press fosters an "anything goes" environment...well, literally, "anything goes."
It shouldn't take another 9/11 to figure out why this mentality is dangerous for America and the world.
2) Illegal immigration advocates suffered a blow back in August when the cause's poster woman, "immigration activist" Elvira Arellano, was arrested in Los Angeles after eluding deportation authorities for 10 years, most recently spending the last year in sanctuary at a Chicago church.
From the CBS piece (emphasis mine):
"'We are sad, but at the same time we are angry,' said Javier Rodriguez, a Chicago immigration activist who worked with her. 'How dare they arrest this woman?'"
This woman has evaded the law for 10 years, and the response from "immigration activists" is of pure indignation. "How dare they arrest this woman" - umm, maybe because she's illegal! And it would've happened sooner without ridiculous "sanctuary" policies which permit this woman to continue to live in defiance of the country she professes she wants to be a part of.
The indignation.
Of course, after coming into the country illegally, she committed more crimes:
"Arellano came to Washington state illegally in 1997. She was deported to Mexico shortly after, but returned and moved to Illinois in 2000, taking a job cleaning planes at O'Hare International Airport.
"She was arrested in 2002 at O'Hare and convicted of working under a false Social Security number. She was to surrender to authorities last August.
"She sought refuge at the storefront church on Chicago's West Side Aug. 15, 2006. She had not left the church property until deciding to be driven to Los Angeles..."
Any sob stories on the person whose Social Security Number Arellano stole?
Though the media would want you to believe otherwise, a Rasmussen poll conducted August 18 indicates that Americans are flat-out fed up with illegal immigration, and want the arrest and deportation of Arellano to be the beginning of what I would call "comprehensive illegal immigration reform" - instead of using Arellano as an example of "we're doing something" while continuing to do nothing.
Tammy Bruce highlights:
"A new Rasmussen poll illustrates that Americans had have enough of the social, cultural and economic chaos brought by illegal aliens. Super majorities favor a cut of federal funding to 'Sanctuary Cities' as well as ID cards and tracking for 'foreign visitors' in general, and we want that damn physical fence. Not a virtual one of cameras, and motion detectors. We want a real F-E-N-C-E. Which, btw, would not only make it more difficult for illegals to get into the country, it would also make slipping across the border back into Mexico, by fleeing mass murder suspects as an example, a tad more difficult as well."
Finally, Debbie Schlussel weighs in - finally glad to be proven wrong!
3) Lastly, what I've read in the past couple months:
Treason by Ann Coulter - in preparation for her new book coming out in October!
Winning the Race - Beyond the Crisis in Black America by John McWhorter
Uncle Sam's Plantation by Star Parker
It Takes A Family - Conservatism and the Common Good by Rick Santorum
Porn Generation by Ben Shapiro
All good reads. I think Star Parker's was the best - it was part biography, part plan-of-action for the black community. McWhorter's was quite dense and academic, so, if you want to tackle it, be prepared to use a highlighter.
I'm also co-running a book club, starting in October. Our first book is The Great Gatsby, so clearly not all books will have a political leaning. But I will pick the book come November, and can essentially pick anything I want (and I would LOVE to force people to read something conservative! But I may not do that just yet...) - I would love to hear any suggestions!
That may be it for the "While You Were Out" series...it's difficult to make events relevant that happened weeks, or even months, ago. But if I can think of something I feel worthwhile to write about, you can be sure I will write about it.