Right to Boycott

Part of my Google news feed today included a disturbing story.  Just Google, “congress to make boycott of Israel illegal.”  This is a direct attack on the first amendment and freedom of speech.  Freedom of speech is the most important of our fundamental rights.  It has to be exercised, or it has no value.  And here is the thing, freedom of speech is the two edged sword.  You have the right to express your opinion no matter who disagrees.  But that also means that everybody else gets to express their opinions, no matter how offensive you find what they say.  Here is the text of the first amendment.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. (Emphasis mine)

I believe it is reprehensible to boycott Israel.  I believe that Israel has every right to all of the land currently occupied by the Palestinians.  And I have the right to say as much.  This also means that people with anti-Israel sentiments have every right to boycott Israel.  They have every right to speak whatever antisemitic ideas that occur to them.  The KKK has every right to speak whatever racist ideas they wish.  Pedophiles have the right to advocate adult child sexual relations.  Everybody has the right to argue pro-life, or pro choice, whichever they believe.  No matter what the topic, you have the right to voice your opinion.  No person, no matter what their political position, has the right to dictate what you can or cannot say, discuss, advocate, or condemn, no matter how offensive they believe your words are.

No matter how much I disagree with their ideology, opponents of Israel have the right to boycott, to organize boycotts, to discuss their reasons for the boycott, to come together in their mission.  I, nor any other person, has the right to obstruct them.  The second amendment clearly states above that, Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.  So let them pass their law.  I wager it will be contested to the supreme court where it will be struck down as unconstitutional.

Basket of Deplorables Rejoice

Even now, months after Hillary Clinton called half of Donald Trump’s supporters a “Basket of Deplorables,” (read the story) I am amazed that she actually said the words out loud.  But she did, and I doubt that it had the intended effect.  I know that what I am about to write might not strengthen my case, but here goes anyway.

After the election, I went to the liquor store to purchase a bottle of Captain Morgan Black Spiced Rum.  I’m earning my Deplorable Badge, I know.  I informed the lady at checkout that I was buying my celebratory bottle of rum.  She inquired to what I was celebrating.  When I told her I was one of the Irredeemable Deplorables that is happy that Donald Trump won the presidency, she grinned, shook my hand and proudly proclaimed to be a Deplorable herself.  It would appear, according to my very small sample of two, a very scientific survey if there has ever been one, being a member of Donald Trump’s Basket of Deplorables has become a badge of honor.  Take that Crooked Hillary.

If you would like to proudly proclaim being a Deplorable, please feel free to do so in the comments below.  I would love to hear from you.

Police Lives Matter

If the title of this post got you excited, hold that thought.  This post is about to take a left turn.

One of the news articles that popped up on my phone today was an article on DailyMail.com written by Todd Starnes.  The article is about some Walmart employees refusing to make a Police Lives Matter cake for a police officer’s retirement party.  If you would like, you can read the story here.  I gathered from the article that the employees refused on the grounds that they found the concept to be racist.  From that, I will operate under the assumption that the employees are likely black.  I could be wrong, but that seems a safe bet.  If I am wrong, I apologize for being a racist and insensitive white guy from middle America.  Sue me.

Mr. Starnes wrote of being surprised that the employees were not fired for refusing to make the cake.  So he is obviously taking the side of the daughter trying to get a cake for her retiring father.  That seems to be a sensible position, because how could someone be against an assertion that Police Lives Matter.  I mean, police lives really do matter.  But here’s the thing.  The phrase Police Lives Matter is a direct challenge to the Black Lives Matter organization.  It trivializes a movement that aims to protect the lives of a minority group.  While I understand the sentiment behind the phrase Police Lives Matter, I cannot help but to say those Walmart employees are absolutely correct.  They had every right to refuse to make that cake.  I applaud them for standing up for their convictions.  It takes courage to stand up to your boss and say no when there is a real possibility of being fired for it.  Kudos to the Walmart employees.

That being said, Walmart should have fired them on the spot.  Walmart is a huge corporation, and they cannot have employees dragging their name and brand into political issues that they cannot win.  No matter which side Walmart takes, they alienate some segment of society that are potential customers.  Once those employees made that decision and it hit the news, Walmart could not win no matter what they did.  In this case, they tried very hard to take care of the customer and make the cake.  In the process, they possibly angered everybody that is sympathetic to Black Lives Matter.  They appear to be siding with a woman that some people will view as racist.  They could not win.

So, what about Black Lives Matter?  The news has been constant lately.  It seems that every week another story breaks that follows the same theme.  An unarmed black man is shot and killed by police officers.  These incidents are the reason the Black Lives Matter group exists.  All police agencies in this country need to understand something.  If you want the Black Lives Matter group to go away, stop killing unarmed black men.  It really is that simple.  It has gotten so bad that according to a Huffington Post article, three countries have issued warnings about travel to the United States.  This country is supposed to be a welcoming environment that is safe for all people.  That is no longer the perception some people have of us.

One thing I will not do in this post is list stories about unarmed, black men who have been killed by police.  Even if I limited the list to those that occurred in 2016, it would be too long for this post.  And that’s only part of the problem.  There is another side to the problem, and could be argued is much more important.  For so many years there has been an attitude within law enforcement that “We protect our own.”  It is important to know that you have backup in a stressful situation.  I understand that, but there needs to be a reasonable limit to that.  Covering for criminal activity is in itself a crime.  This Good ol’ Boy atmosphere in the police ranks no longer has any place in our society.  It is sad that the reason it is being challenged now is only because of squad car dash cams and officer body cams.  Until now there has never been proof when an officer acted outside the law and killed an unarmed person with no provocation.  Now we are seeing it weekly.  And much to the horror of the black community, the powers that be keep sweeping it under the rug.  They take a very long time to come to the decision that the officer acted appropriately when all the video evidence tells a completely different story.  What do you expect the black community to do when this happens.  They are the underdogs.  They are the marginalized.  They are  the powerless victims.  They are the ones that die.  Don’t be surprised when they stand up en mass and fight back the only way they know how.  This is the only way they can effect change in a broken system.  Who will listen to them if they petition lawmakers?  Who will take them seriously if they speak out?  It is only through the actions they are taking that they bring attention to the issue that is most important to them.  This is the only way they know to defend themselves from an armed adversary.So, what should the police do about this?

There is a good example of what not to do.  According to this article from CNN, North Carolina enacted a new law removing squad car dash cam footage from the public record.  In North Carolina, dash cam footage was considered public record, so it was available for scrutiny.  Not anymore.  This sends exactly the wrong message to these groups protesting police shootings.  If you do not have anything to hide, stop hiding the evidence.  The solution to the violent protests that are happening after the police shoot an unarmed, black man is not to hide the evidence behind some new law.  The solution is to STOP SHOOTING UNARMED, BLACK MEN!  Why is this so difficult to understand?  If you hide the video footage behind this new law, the black community will assume that you are guilty, and they will riot.  This law is not fixing anything.  It is perpetuating the Good ol’ Boy mentality that I wrote of earlier.

The best way to end this Black Lives Matter movement is to stop hiding the evidence.  Stop defending obviously guilty officers that kill any person without cause.  Release the unedited video in a timely manner so everyone can see what really happened.  Put the officers that are guilty of killing any person without just cause in prison.  The only thing that will end the Black Lives Matter movement is complete, honest, transparency.  Until that happens, they have every right to rise up against you.  Don’t act surprised when they do.

PS: I find it odd that I wrote such a liberal piece.  I mean, I am likely to anger more Republicans with this post than Democrats.  I don’t know that I like that, but it is what it is.  I created the Politically Incorrect category with the expressed goal of pissing off the Liberals and Democrats.  Unfortunately, with this post, I likely failed.  But stay tuned.  I’ll get back to my vast right wing conspiracies soon enough.

Male or Female, Man or Woman

CAUTION: The following text is politically incorrect.  I wrote it with the intent to piss off liberals and the politically correct.  If you find this offensive, good.  I accomplished my goal.  Please comment.  I would love to start up a wall of shame.

Several years ago I attended a college class on Sociology.  It was interesting and quite strange.  While I enjoyed the class, there were a few topics we discussed that I strongly opposed.  The one that I will focus on here has to do with Gender Identity and or Gender Traits.

The professor stated that the terms male and female were not the same as the terms man and woman.  The belief being that male is not synonymous with man or boy, and female is not synonymous with woman or girl.  She lectured that it is also possible to be a male woman, a male girl, a female man or even a female boy.  The terms male and female only apply to the physical parts of the body, that being man, woman, girl or boy is an identity independent of the body’s sex.  I hope that I have described her views fairly, so now I will get on with my rebuttal.

That view, being taught in schools all across the country, is the foundation for the entire transgender rights agenda.  What was once considered strange, or freakish, or just plain weird, is now being applauded.  It seems that the media and academia are falling all over themselves to remake the transgender into a normal and socially acceptable reality, no different than choosing a style of clothing.  Were you born male but wish you were a woman?  No problem choose a feminine name, put on a dress, call yourself a woman, and everyone is expected to go along with it because it would be wrong to hurt your feelings.  Were you born female but wish you were a man?  Same thing, nobody can say anything, because that would be hurtful.  Well, I reject that for what it is.  Bullshit.

If a person is born with a penis, that person is male.  That person is a boy.  That person will grow up to be a man.  If that person decides he wants to be a girl/woman, that’s fine.  He is totally free to identify any way he chooses.  That is none of my business.  The same goes for a female (girl/woman) who wants to be a man.  They can identify any way they choose.  It’s none of my business.  However, there is something that is my business, the terms of which I choose to describe these people.  I believe in free speech.  I am free to use the words I choose to describe these people.

So, what words will I use to describe a person born with a penis, no matter how they identify?  I will always use the male-specific pronouns for that person.  If this person chooses to put on a dress and change their name to a feminine one, that’s fine, but that person is still a male, a boy, and or a man.  It does not matter if this person gets a complete sex change operation in which the penis is replaced with a vagina.  That person was born male, so they will always be a man.  They will just be a man without a schlong.  You cannot change that.  Calling that person a woman, girl, or she is lying.  They are free to lie to themselves and the world all they like.  But I will not.  I will NOT participate in that lie.

And the same goes for any person born female that gets a penis sewn on.  That person is a woman with a schlong.  Calling her a man is a lie.  Even using the pronoun he is a lie, and I will not do it.  Kaitlyn Jenner is not a woman.  He is a man whose name is Bruce, will always be a man, and nothing will ever change that.  He may get his penis cut off, but that will not make him a woman.  He is an outlier.  He is not normal.  He represents a small percentage of the already minority group that is the LGBTQ community.  If anyone wants to call him a woman, that is their right.  If anyone wants to reference him with she, or her, that is their right.  If Caitlyn/Bruce Jenner wants to call himself a woman, he can.  But exercising my freedom of speech is my right, so I will not.  I will always refer to him as a man, because that is what he is.

South Park Political Correctness

For a long time I have been a fan of South Park.  I love how nothing is off limits.  They will mock anything and everything as long as it’s funny.  I admire that.  Well, I just finished watching every episode they have released to date.  The last season is the reason for this post.  They took aim at the whole Politically Correct (PC) movement.  It’s awesome.

It’s no secret.  I hate political correctness.  That’s one of the reasons I am a fan of Donald Trump.  Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t like Donald Trump at all.  Not even a little bit.  He is a brash, egotistical, self-serving ass hat.  I know what people may think of that description.  I cleaned it up a lot before posting it.  But I am a fan of Donald Trump, because he says what he thinks, Political Correctness be damned.  I have a lot of respect for that.  And in that vein, I intend to make more posts to this site, the goal will be to voice some opinions that will not be popular with the PC crowd.  But such is my right according to the 1st amendment.

Here’s the thing about the Political Correctness movement.  They will proclaim people’s right to free speech.  But they don’t really believe in it.  It’s just lip service.  They only believe in free speech that agrees with their own views.  If your view differs from theirs, your words are labeled hate speech and they want to shout you down, stifle you, or outright silence you.  Well, this site, humble as it may be, is my platform to voice my opinions, and voice them I will.  With any luck, I will piss off a lot of Politically Correct people.  So, if you are a proponent of Political Correctness, go hide your Cheerios now.  I’m about to piss all up in them.