Is Speech Free For Everyone?

"Kids say the darndest things" said one time television host Art Linkletter.  So do adults.  And while it drives me crazy sometimes, it's one of the rights we still have.  What I find curious is how the rule isn't applied equally.

Just this past week the Supreme Court has said the Westboro Baptist Church people have every right to spew their hate at military funerals.  Decency is not part of the issue.

Michael Moore is free to go to Wisconsin and in all his corpulent glory tells us that the money the rich has was stolen from us.  Well, he's rich and it doesn't appear the cost of food hasn't inhibited his consumption of it. Maybe he'd like to share a bit more with the unions .

We're privy to the maniacal ravings of Charlie Sheen on a daily basis.  We listen to the semi-accurate ravings of Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, Matthews, Graham, Colter, Savage, etc.  Glenn Beck is thought by many to be genuinely certifiable yet there he is day in and day out pontificating on FOX.

On the other hand we have Don Imus, Keith Olbermann and Juan Williams who lost their jobs for speaking their minds.

Yes, sometimes the passion with which utterences are delivered can be offensive, but who is to decide where the line should be drawn?

Today we can add one more to the list.  Catherine Grandy, who had a regular spot on husband  Fred's WMAL radio talk show in D.C,  was banned from his show for taking on radical Islam. He followed suit by resigning.

The Supreme Court, in it's ruling, has pretty much given a pass to whatever anyone chooses to say.  You could argue that it's where they say it but that doesn't wash either.  Radio and television are just that, for the right, the left and everything in between.

I disagree with a lot that is said and the way it is said, but if it's allowed under First Amendment rights then it should be allowed for everyone across the board.  We always have the option of the off button.

We Have Abdicated Our Moral Leadership

Once upon a time the world looked to the United States for leadership.  Especially during difficult times. It did so knowing we would do what is right and just and they would follow.

Our current administration has changed all that. It began with the President's whirlwind apology tour just after he took office. We no longer have any convictions.  We worry right along with the rest of the world whether someone else might be angered if we take action.  We want to study or talk everything to death.  That way no decisions are necessary.

Who have we abdicated to?  Therein lies the problem.  No one.  Britain comes closer than anyone else to actually taking action to help the opposition in Libya. At this point they too are just talking, but at least it's something more than advocating sanctions.

The sad thing is the world still looks to us for answers and we have none to give. The situation is not one where one size fits all.  Some governments are worse than others. Some of the opposition groups would be as bad if not worse than those they would replace.  Each needs careful analysis before we step in.  When the case becomes obvious, however, we do no more than talk.  Meanwhile hundreds of people are being slain.  With the tinder box world we have today, I find it unsettling to see we apparently have no policy for "what ifs".

So where does everyone turn?  To the United Nations.  The member nations are often at odds with one another.  It's why they are so ineffectual.  Resolution after resolution is brought forth only to be denied.  There is a built in safety valve for those who want to look like they're for action.  It's called the Security Council.  With permanent memberships, China, Russia, the U.S. and Great Britain, it's a safe bet that one will veto just about anything.  Such was the case with Iran and it's nuclear ambitions and human rights atrocities.  The same holds true now.

The Security Council will not authorize a no fly zone, with Russia and China the dissenters.  Of course they are.  No matter what spin they put on it, their human rights abuses are as dismal as those who would be attacked.

Yet our President wants to make no move without consultation with the international community.  Since they won't agree on anything, there's the out.  No decision necessary.

One day perhaps someone will step up to the plate and do what's right instead of what's politically expedient.  Unfortunately, at least for the foreseeable future, it's unlikely to be us.

Meanwhile good people die and the dictators don't.

The Wild West Lives ~ If We Don't Kill Each Other Off!

Do you know that Utah's governor is about to sign legislation making the Browning semi-automatic pistol the state gun?  Why in the name of reason, does a state need a state gun?  Arizona is looking to do the same with Colt revolver!

Guns.  I don't know whether to hate them or embrace them.  I'm no stranger to them.  Hub grew up in Montana where owning guns was akin to owning jeans.  His dad gave me his .38 police special as a gift.  His grandmother gave me her .22 rifle and his mom made him stay at the alter waiting for me under threat of her .25.  I've never fired any of them.

Other than that we own several, I usually don't give them much thought even though the news always seems to be full of stories about gun violence.  I've written a few times about contemplating taking a course in order to get a carry permit.  I've never acted on it.  My curiosity about the culture just isn't that strong.

I've written often about my objections to being allowed to carry weapons in our National Parks.  Now states are beginning to look at legislation to not require permits to carry concealed weapons.  Even more worrisome, to me, is the idea of allowing firearms on college campuses.  The argument that it could prevent tragedies such as the one at Virginia Tech is problematic.

Imagine one deranged student beginning to shoot and all those around him doing the same thing.  I see a mass slaughter far worse than anything a lone gunman could do.  Oh, I know, there are hundreds of scenarios for either side of the argument, but it makes me queasy thinking about it!

So here we are.  In the west, Alaska and Arizona do not require permits for concealed firearms.  Wyoming, Colorado and Montana are nearly there.  Idaho and Texas want them allowed on campus.

Representative Allen Jaggi, R-WY, says guns in the right hands make a safer society.  Guns in the right hands.  Like maybe law enforcement?

I'm not against the second amendment, but let's bring some good sense to the issue.  Bad guys will always be able to get guns.  We know that.  But having every Tom, Dick and Mary who wants to carry a concealed firearm is asking for unintended consequences.

There's enough of that going around as is and around here it's aggravated by gun happy law enforcement.  You'd think with all the violence in the world,  be it people fighting for their freedom in far away lands or nut cases taking pot shots at our legislators, I'd think the public, even in the west, would be sick of guns.

I'm Exhausted!

Thoroughly and completely.  Two things have contributed to this.  One, I've been going through numerous check ups and tests as I approach the beginning of a new decade.  It's mostly an annual ritual, but it seems a lot this year.  That in itself is tiring.  There are things I'd much rather be doing than going to doctor's offices and waiting.  waiting for my appointment.  Waiting for tests.  Waiting for the results.  Sheesh.  Fortunately, except for the degenerative arthritis, I'm not in bad shape for an old gal.

The other thing that has me thoroughly exhausted is watching everything that's happening in the world we live in.  I'm so tired of what's going on I can't even get my ire pumped up enough to blog about it.  Everyone is fighting.  The mid-east is on fire.  Other countries are just hungering to follow suit.  Who wants to hear any more about it?  Especially what I may think!

This country is a mess.  Everyone is fighting.  No one wants to stop shouting long enough to listen.  We're in an economic mess - cities, counties, states  and the country as a whole. You'd think it was only the teachers.  Hello?  We're all feeling it!  At least you have jobs.  Unless you blow it. Yet we fight.  You can sacrifice but don't ask anything of me !  Prices continue to escalate.  Gas is ridiculous, food is getting there.  We haven't gone out to dinner for ages, it's the food and the gas!  Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration.  But it may be true for some.  We've just become hermits.  Being winter and all and, yes, the climate created by the politics.

I'm overdue in my workshop now.  It has become a welcome refuge.  I can bury myself in the creation of my little chess people and be in another world until Hub asks if I intend to prepare some dinner.  Afterward I retreat to the den and read.  Something I haven't done enough of recently.  It too lets me escape into a more pleasant place.  Watching television certainly doesn't.

This may last no longer than today.  It all depends on what the papers bring in the morning.  But for today, well I'm off to my shop.  I'm painting Alice.  The walrus is waiting and the carpenter is in progress.  I'm off.  Down the rabbit hole.

Who Will Slay The Monster?

He is one, you know. Gaddafi.  And his sons are in training just as were Saddam Hussein's. Any man who vows to fight to the last man and woman, slaying his own people, is a monster.

For what?  Power.  The power that we, among others, have allowed him to keep in return for something we want.  Not need.  Want.  Oil.  We have it.  We just won't drill it.  So we allow monsters to exist.  No.  Thrive.

The question isn't if he will fall, but when.  Surely he will.  As we've witnessed in Tunisia and Egypt and an armful of other countries, people will reach their limit and will rebel.  Even when unarmed and against terrible odds.  With their own lives on the line whether during battle or if they should lose.

Forget all the accusations being thrown at us by governments in fear of their own existence, is it time for our absentee president to step forward and show some leadership?  What we do hear is weak at best and coming more from the Secretaries of State and Defense than the President.  He should be showing outrage at what this delusional monster is doing and taking action to counteract it.

As we and the rest of the toothless world bodies that could already be engaged dither, countless people are dying for wanting no more than dignity in living.  It's not much of a trade off is it.  Death for a decent life.

The turmoil in Africa and the mid-east is far from over.  The dominoes are continuing to teeter and fall.

Not meaning to be a fear monger, but our government might well be taking a lesson from all this.  People can only be pushed so far.  They will only allow their leaders to obfuscate and oppress for so long.  The more our government tries to take over our lives, the more restless we become.  Don't be fooled by suits and ties.

I cheer the people of those regions who have done what has long been needed.  To take matters into their own hands.  The problem is theirs to solve.  But there is nothing that says we can't step into help when the balance is lost.  There is a point when intervention is justified.  Forget trying to instill democracy.   The people may not want our version of it.  But help the down trodden by arming them, or creating no fly zones or whatever is necessary to level the field.

If Russia and China and North Korea and the United Nations don't like it, so be it.  Each and every country has ordinary citizens waiting in the wings watching.  And so do we.