Go watch this clip, and continue watching for two minutes. As soon as I saw this, I thought, “You have got to be kidding me. You cannot possibly this arrogant.”
So let me get this straight: It is violence to alter a transgender person’s name in any way, for even the most innocent reason, even if someone is trying to be respectful and use the person’s chosen name, and accidentally mispronounces it? Seriously?
The reaction of the news media, Democrats and moderate Republicans to a stupid meme video at best borders on hysterical and will only encourage more videos like it. At the same time, those of us on the Right need to stop encouraging stuff like this. (See here and here and here and here for more.)
If you haven’t seen it, the video is Donald Trump’s head superimposed on a character from “Kingsman: Secret Service” as the character massacres people in a church. The victims have the heads of Trump’s political opponents in both parties as well as logos of news organizations superimposed over the characters from the movie. (I have not seen the movie, and while I had heard the name of it, I knew nothing about it other than the name. A friend from college told me what movie it was from.)
I have always thought that the memes about the 2016 presidential contest being a “Flight 93 election” were overwrought and did not place nearly enough faith in the strength of American institutions. But while I disagree with it, I understand the mentality behind it. Hillary Clinton really did call tens of millions of people “deplorable” and Democrats really have spent the last three years demonizing people who voted for Donald Trump – including many who held their nose and voted for him because they could not stand the thought of Mrs. Clinton as President. So when Andrew Walker said this on Twitter:
I know so, so, so many Christians who have no desire to defend President Trump’s behavior and character, but at the same time cannot make peace with a Democratic Party that wants to use, quite literally, the power of the state to stamp out Christian belief.
Some people said that he was dishonest, or a liar, or that he was exaggerating. But we know from the Democrats’ LGBT forum that he is 100% correct. The Democrats literally said that they would use the tax code to punish churches that opposed same-sex marriage, even though two thousand years of church history along with both the Old Testament and the New Testament make it clear in many places that homosexual behavior is sinful. Democrats at the forum cheered when drunk driver Beto O’Rourke promised to punish churches that opposed same-sex marriage.
Monday — Democrats’ culture war against Christians
Tuesday — Stop feeding the trolls!
Wednesday — An honest mistake is not violence
Thursday — Please oppose nanny state and big brother
Friday — Stop groveling before murderous Communists
Since Congress is looking to mandate ignition interlock devices in all vehicles, it is appropriate to revisit a couple editorials I wrote on the topic in 2008. See those editorials here and here.
When a Facebook user described the Life Chain as “very upsetting, very triggering, and super anger-producing,” it underscored for me why we need to continue doing the event. We cannot allow people to get comfortable in their apathy. We must be reminded that abortion exists, and what abortion does.
That is why Christian Citizens for Life stretched across town and through campus on October 6 silently and peacefully holding signs with messages such as “Abortion kills children,” “Jesus heals and forgives” and “pray to end abortion.” It is easy to think of abortion as a simple medical procedure, and then to put it out of our minds.
In a tweet that shows she does not know very much about how social media works, Elizabeth Warren said “the public deserves to know how Facebook intends to use their influence in this election.” Of course, Facebook is part of the Silicon Valley establishment and has shown itself to be biased in favor of the Left. Facebook banned Paul Joseph Watson from Facebook and Instagram, fraudulently labeling him as “dangerous” and connecting him to violence. Yes, those selfies on Instagram are really dangerous.
Let’s be real here: Facebook does not plan on influencing the election, except maybe to unseat Donald Trump. What Warren is really angry about is that the average person can share his views to a wide audience, without the need to have his message filtered by the mainstream media. Facebook is not the target. Facebook’s users are the target. Warren wants to use government force to shut us up.
I have two sons. Over the last five years, it has been very clear to me how quickly children can dart away – but I was already familiar with that concept because I have been an uncle since 1977. Kids scamper off, kids lag behind, kids get distracted, and kids are not aware of their surroundings. Occasionally, that can have tragic or near-tragic outcomes. Many times, nobody is negligent, nobody is reckless, and nobody is malicious. Stuff happens and no one is to blame.
This beings me to another excellent editorial by Lenore Skenazy of Free Range Kids at Reason, and it is a reminder to all of us that sometimes, stuff happens. You cannot watch a child’s every movement at all times. After the outrage over the killing of a gorilla, Hamilton County prosecutor Joseph Deters determined that there was no negligence by the mother. “She was being attentive to her children by all witness accounts,” he told the New York Times, “and the 3-year-old just scampered off.”
Monday — Sometimes, stuff happens and nobody is to blame
Wednesday — Politicians hate social media
Friday — Why we need the Life Chain
I have been saying for years that we should not be involved militarily in Syria. (See here and here and here for more.)
The mess we face today is a direct result of Barack Obama unilaterally sending our military there without Congressional approval, after saying he did not have that authority. If we did not get ourselves entangled in this mess in the first place, we would not need to have a debate now about withdrawing our troops.
If Congress thinks we need to have our military in Syria, they should put on their big boy pants on and do their jobs. Pass an authorization to use military force. Stop ceding your power to the executive branch, you cowards.
