Page Nine

Special guest columnist report: Are We Free?

The balance sheet of freedom
By Craig J. Cantoni

Have Americans become more or less free over the last century?  Let’s examine some facts before attempting an answer.

Look at three categories of freedom: civil liberties, economic freedom and size of government.  As a starting point, balance sheets appear below for each category.  Since the balance sheets are a work in progress, you are encouraged to offer additional facts and to point out where the balance sheets may be incorrect.

A. CIVIL LIBERTIES

On the plus side, the last century has seen:

• The end of segregation
• The enforcement of voting rights
• Increased tolerance for Jews, Catholics, homosexuals and other minorities
• Women’s suffrage

On the minus side, the last century has seen:

• State-endorsed affirmative action and set-asides that favor some races
• Speech codes on college campuses
• McCain-Feingold and other laws that restrict political speech
• The War on Drugs, which includes the prosecution of people who harm no one but themselves
• Ever-growing restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms
• The demonizing and massive taxing of people who enjoy tobacco
• Eminent domain abuses and other infringements of property rights
• Increased state involvement in the private and religious matter of holy matrimony
• Overwhelming state involvement in the personal matter of health care
• Social engineering by the left and right through the tax code
• The Patriot Act (which some say protects liberty by taking a lot of it away)
• An erosion of federalism (states’ rights) through new federal agencies and regulations, such as the Department of Education and the No Child Left Behind law
• The adoption of Blaine amendments in 38 states (which had the stated purpose of stopping the public funding of private schools but the real purpose of putting Catholic schools out of business)
• A slow and steady transformation of the nation from a constitutional republic to a majority-rule democracy, thus paving the way for the tyranny of the majority

Note:  Some plusses and minuses are not listed, because they cancel each other out or were short-lived.  For example, the 21st amendment canceled the 18th amendment (Prohibition).  And the internment of the Japanese during WWII and the Alien and Sedition Acts of WWI were egregious but short-lived.

Single Parents Dangerous

The lamestream media told you:
A child tragically killed his sibling with the gun of his mother's live-in boyfriend this week in Phoenix (12/9/06). Guns are obviously dangerous and something should be done about this.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
The "news" media may pose an even greater risk to children than guns left floating about by reckless live-in boyfriends, experts said today.

Although the media is fairly diligent about gun homicide stories, the effects of tobacco, obesity and unhealthful foods, and the expensive but ineffective programs to combat these horrors, they have fully neglected to point out the severe dangers of single parenting on kids. The dead child was living with a single parent, a fact that was glossed over.

The risk of fatal abuse to such children is 73 times greater than for children with married parents, a Heritage Foundation study has found. Children living with cohabiting parents are three times more likely to have behavioral disorders than children who have married parents. Expulsion rates, disciplinary actions and learning problems show similar effects.

Headlines on the harmful effects of "non-traditional" families, exploding rates of out-of-wedlock births, and huge increases in single-parent or cohabiting non-parent families have failed to appear in the news, for reasons which remain unclear. The effect of this hidden danger is severe, experts believe.

Tags: Heritage Foundation, non-traditional families, out-of-wedlock births

Lesbian Mary Pregnant

The lamestream media told you:
Vice President “Dick” Cheney’s openly lesbian daughter Mary is pregnant.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
That’s impossible.

Mary Cheney’s partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, is said to be ecstatic. Lengthy stories carried everywhere failed to address how a lesbian couple might find themselves expecting.

No rumors of immaculate conception are circulating, despite the pregnant woman’s first name. If a man was involved, it’s unclear if the title “lesbian” would still apply. If reporters asked, it did not make it into published stories for some reason.

Extensive coverage of GLBT issues, political fallout for the vice president, religious objections to gay lifestyles, gay “marriage” amendments, and the wholesome relationship of the expectant couple, who attended a White House dinner for Prince Charles and his concubine (now wife) Camilla, have been reported.

Frequent charges of a gay agenda bias in the “news” media have been repeatedly denied. This is the first child for both women.

Tags: Dick Cheney, Mary Cheney

Don't Say Queer

The lamestream media told you:
Republican Mark Foley is a very bad man and a reason for the defeat of the Republican Party at the polls in November. Even though his badness was known for a long time, no action was taken against him. Democrats generally support gayness and Republicans generally do not, though both parties have some.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
As near as is known, Mark Foley, an acknowledged homosexual member of Congress, has been found guilty of writing words that are not approved of, but has committed no conduct that would be considered against the law, with underage male pages serving in Congress.

The consequences for using unapproved “salacious” words will appear in the Uninvited Ombudsman’s next book, his 11th, on the limits of free speech, currently entitled, “Bomb Jokes for Airports.”

The Wash., D.C.-based National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association's guide to language for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community advocates against using the word “homosexual” to describe homosexuals, preferring the terms gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender, or simply GLBT. Older terms such as “fag” and “queer” are on the hate list and should never be used, the guide says.

Homosexuals may call each other fags and queers though, following the same hypocritical rules governing the “N” word for black and somewhat black people. Under these duplicitous guidelines, if you are a member of a group, you can use words that, if used by a non-member, constitute a hate crime. (NLGJA says gays have "reclaimed" these words as "self-affirming umbrella terms" but they remain "extremely offensive" for others to use.)

Isaac Asimov’s classic science fiction novels from the 1950s and 1960s often speak of things seeming queer, in the normal meaning of that word. Modern writers though have totally abandoned the word due to pressure from GLBTs (sometimes pronounced “gullbutts”).

The classic Christmas song "Deck The Halls" includes, “Don we now our gay apparel,” and the Flintstones theme says, "We'll have a gay old time," and are sung with gay abandon, though how much longer this may be acceptable is uncertain. No new material using gay or queer were known to be in the works at press time.

While the First Amendment says “Congress shall make no law,” regarding free speech, social engineers operating under political correctness have no such restriction. Some observers believe social pressure to be a far more pernicious and overarching set of rules than anything Congress can devise.

More than 400 things you’re not allowed to say are currently in the draft for “Bomb Jokes for Airports.” The book is expected out in 2007, but sometimes these things take longer than you expect.

Nearly every day, newspapers have stories about people in trouble somewhere for saying something. Look for it, it’s there.

Tags: Congress, First Amendment, Flintstones, gay, homosexual, Isaac Asimov, Mark Foley, National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, pages

Islamist Deaths Unreported

The lamestream media told you:
Five U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, bringing the total in the first week of this month to 12. American newspapers have developed easy-to-recognize graphic sidebars for their routine reporting of U.S. military deaths by Muslim insurgents.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
The lamestream media has apparently stopped reporting on the number of Muslim extremists and jihadis killed by U.S. forces in Iraq. Although the number of Muslims who have killed each other is reported with some frequency, current “news” reports give the impression that U.S. soldiers simply hang out until they are killed, and do not fight back, shoot back, get payback, break things, seek and destroy the enemy, blow stuff up, or conduct operations against military targets.

The U.S. reportedly had 152,000 service personnel in Iraq in mid-November, most of them heavily armed and well equipped.

President Bush, in a recent speech that made little news, mentioned that we have killed or captured 5,900 enemy combatants in the past two-and-a-half months.

Tags: Muslim extremists

Oil Drilling Unblocked

The lamestream media told you:
Congress, sensitive to the demands of environmentalists, has blocked drilling for oil within 100 miles of the U.S. coastline for years, despite a desperate need to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Revenue from oil sales to Arab nations provides major funding for their terrorism operations against us and our allies.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
It was pointed out by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.) on the floor of Congress last week (broadcast on C-SPAN but not picked up by lamestream outlets) that Communist China, Communist Cuba, and Venezuela under Hugo Chavez are drilling for oil within 50 miles of the U.S. coast.

Tags: Hugo Chavez, oil, oil drilling, Rick Santorum

Brady Announces Plans

The lamestream media told you:
Guns were not much of an issue in the midterm elections, few politicians brought up the subject, Democrats know it’s a loser for them, and the new Congress will have other fish to fry.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
The Brady campaign released their gun agenda for the next Congress by direct mail on Nov. 22, absolutely giddy about changes the elections made in Congress. “We won more than 95% of the races where we endorsed a candidate,” they gushed, and now propose to:

• Re-enact the assault weapon ban
• Federalize all private gun sales
• Criminalize gun-show activity
• Strengthen the Brady law*
• Curb illegal gun sales*
• Pass life-saving gun laws*
• Repeal the Lawful Commerce in Firearms Act (the frivolous lawsuit ban)
• Limit the number of guns people can buy

*No details provided on what these goals might actually mean.

In addition, they plan to continue to fight for their “successes” while Republicans were in power:

• Block national concealed carry
• Maintain the gun-ban for Wash., D.C.
• Ban gun sales across state lines
• Continue gun-lock sales requirements
• Fight anything the “sleazy” (their word) NRA proposes
• Limit available “military-style firearms”
• Restrict “faster-firing, bigger clip” guns

After Katrina: “This will be a gun-free zone. We are going to confiscate every gun... Is that unreasonable?” --Illinois Democrat Senator Dick Durbin on the floor of Congress, July 13, 2006.

The Uninvited Ombudsman asks: should politicians who violate their oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution be removed from office or imprisoned?

Tags: Brady law, Lawful Commerce in Firearms Act, NRA, Dick Durbin

Gun Sales Exploding

The lamestream media told you:
Nothing.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
Imports of sporting arms and ammunition showed a 24.9 percent increase in third quarter over the same period last year, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. Third quarter imports of handguns, muzzleloaders, shotguns, rifles, ammunition and shotshells totaled $175,664,230. For the first three quarters of the calendar year, sporting arms and ammunition import totals are up 15.2 percent over the same period in 2005, rising to $506,188,495 from $439,403,022. Source: National Shooting Sports Foundation.

The NICS federal background check for retail firearms purchases has handled more than 68 million gun sales since it began in 1998, but "news" outlets uniformly continue to suppress news of all this perfectly legal firearms activity, for reasons that were unclear at press time.

Tags: firearms, National Shooting Sports Foundation, ammunition

Yes -- the Uninvited Ombudsman's new superhero, Counterintuitive Man, comments on illegal immigration, no?

Korwin's new superhero idol, Counterintuitive Man, says:

The new multi-plan for unlimited Mexican immigration is working perfectly!

Promises of border control calm the American public without actually having to do anything!

An impossible border-fence law is passed without funding and the public loves it!

Tens of millions of dollars line the pockets of high-tech surveillance companies, for gear that isn’t deployed, doesn’t even work, and no one is even charged!

The complex Mexican logistics needed to move two-to-three million people up through Mexico to the border each year (5,500 a day) is running smoothly!

The Border Patrol has caught more than one million people each year for the past seven years, but since about two get in for every one caught, immigration is unaffected!

The Border Patrol doesn’t even stop anyone, since every person caught is just turned around and given another chance to attempt entry, over and over, until they make it!

Only indigenous short, swarthy native Mexicans with Aztec, Mayan, Incan and similar Indian blood are being expelled, and no one mentions the blatant racism!

Immigrants of Spanish and European descent are increasing their percentage by expelling the reviled indigenous peoples and no one notices or cares!

U.S. employers absorb every illegal who makes it in, everyone knows it, they all use the same fake social security number, and it’s OK!

Local police are disinterested, helpless, or prosecuted if they act, to keep things running!

Ranchers who stop illegal immigrants trespassing on their property are arrested and successfully sued, making the illegals rich!

Editorial complaints and even “news” stories about the so-called problem make for interesting reading and have no effect!

Maps of “Aztlan,” the proposed new Spanish-speaking country placed between the U.S. southwest and northern Mexico are proliferating, along with percentage-population charts, and U.S. “news” reports don’t even mention it!

[Note: Google “Aztlan,” or try this link to “MEChA” the Hispanic separatist organization that, according to its website, “encourages anti-American activities, and lays claim to the ‘lost territories’ of the Southwestern United States.” ]

Stupid U.S. citizens think the National Council on La Raza is a civil-rights group, and the “news” media quotes them as if they are! (“La Raza” means “The Race.”)

Official plans are rapidly proceeding to eliminate the northern and southern U.S. borders, turning North America into a single unit, and it's less well known than if it were kept secret!
http://www.cfr.org/publication/8102/
http://www.eagleforum.org/topics/NAU/

There's no reason to even try to stop illegal immigrants, since they'll soon be part of the NAU (North American Union) anyway!

Yes, everything about the massive migration multi-plan for the indigenous population of Mexico, and all the rest, is going smoothly and according to plan, no?

Tags: Aztlan, border patrol, La Raza, Mexico, NAU, North American Union

Handouts Aren't Charity

The lamestream media told you:
"When the federal government hands out billions of dollars to fund programs that assist the country's neediest residents, Phoenix gets the short end of the stick," according to reporter Monica Dunsmoor recently.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:
"When the federal government forces billions of dollars from the public through taxation, then gives it to other people, it violates every principle of the Constitution and the American Way, yet none of the perpetrators are arrested, and instead of sounding an alarm, mainstream reporters like this call for more "funding."

Charity is a private affair. And it's only charity if it's voluntary. The Constitution does not contemplate giving the treasury to any selected segment of the population, as this reporter craves.

Reporters act as if welfare helps, but taking from those who earn money and giving it to those who do not will never end poverty. Wealth redistribution is a proven failure -- the socialist opposite of the American Dream that created the prosperity in the first place. It creates hopeless dependency. When the money runs out, Dunsmoor's economics says take more, forever.

Instead, reduce taxes by the amount "stolen for charity." That economic impact would alleviate more poverty than any theft-and-redistribution program misguided do-gooders can invent.

We should indict a few of the scoundrels to chill other public thieves, and editors promoting socialism should rethink their values and hiring guidelines.