If the feds keep arbitrarily “picking and choosing” which laws they wish to enforce, the electorate is left with no other option but the same thing: picking and choosing which laws THEY wish to obey. Or not.
BZ
Thank you sir, whoever you are, for putting in print your true thoughts. You’re precisely why Conservatives are Conservatives, and you confirm our beliefs that Leftists couldn’t care less about our foundational documents. And that damned Constitution, written a hundred years ago.
BZ
The Chief Executive Officer for Mozilla (which provides the Firefox browser that I personally prefer to Internet Exploder), Brendan Eich, contributed $1,000 to a Fornicalia Proposition 8 campaign six years ago. This was — shock of shock — in 2008, at a time when Mr Obama was still not supporting gay marriage himself.
Proposition 8 consisted of two brief sections:
Section I. Title
- This measure shall be known and may be cited as the “California Marriage Protection Act.”
Section 2. Article I. Section 7.5 is added to the California Constitution, to read:
- Sec. 7.5. Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.
Proposition 8 passed in November of 2008 by a majority of Fornicalia voters. And, oddly enough, it was ruled constitutional by the California Supreme Court in the Strauss v. Horton case in 2009.
Fast forward six years to April of 2014, as CNET.com brings us up to speed:
by Charles Cooper
Brendan Eich’s short stint as chief executive officer of the Mozilla Foundation came to an abrupt end this week. All things considered, his ultimate undoing might have been more a matter of his personal style than his personal opinion.
Eich’s resignation on Thursday ended a storm of controversy that whipped up after public records revealed he made a $1,000 donation in 2008 to an organization that promoted a ban on gay marriage in California.
Many, including Mozilla employees and independent Firefox developers, viewed Eich’s support for California’s Proposition 8 as condoning a mean-spirited campaign to prevent gay couples from enjoying the same rights held by other US citizens. (Until it was overturned last year, Prop. 8 had rescinded the right for gay couples to marry.) Dating site OKCupid even publicly urged Firefox-using members to switch Web browsers and called out Eich on its Web site as “an opponent of equal rights for gay couples.”
Others were just as upset that a supremely talented technologist — Eich invented the JavaScript coding language in 1995 — lost his job simply because he exercised his Constitutional right to free speech. After all, he wasn’t contributing to the Nazi Party. In a widely circulated piece, Andrew Sullivan gobsmacked Eich’s critics: “[Eich’s fate] should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society…If we are about intimidating the free speech of others, we are no better than the antigay bullies who came before us.”
Andrew Sullivan, not one to customarily embrace Hard A-Starboarders, wondered where we were ultimately going with this. So did Hard A-Porter Bill Maher, as he threw down the term “gay mafia” for the first DEM/AMM time:
Ultimately, the arguments go on in Silicon Valley and throughout the nation.
One dollar, one thousand, one million — apparently the size of the figure means naught. You are damned if you not only place a quarter where your thoughts are, but if you even have the thoughts themselves.
Cooper focuses the crux of the biscuit here:
Everything is context, and when you’re sitting on top of the corporate pyramid — especially in Silicon Valley — there are always consequences to free speech. How this squares with the First Amendment, not to mention this industry’s counterculture roots, is a question that calls for a serious airing.
Please allow me to translate Fornicalia EmoSpeak.
The First Amendment can go straight to flaming fucking Hell. Our foundational documents, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, mean nothing compared to the elevated and “spiritual” sentiments of Leftists. They believe that emotions trump facts in every circumstance and, most certainly, in common and everyday situations. Facts and statistics are nothing more than impediments to an enlightened state.
Another point of focus from the article:
“We never expected this to get as big as it has and we never expected that Brendan wouldn’t make a simple statement,” Rarebit said. “Seriously, we assumed that he would reconsider his thoughts on the impact of the law (not his personal beliefs), issue an apology, and then he’d go on to be a great CEO. The fact it ever went this far is really disturbing to us.”
An apology. Yes, there it is. An apology for placing a mere $1,000 towards a campaign he felt — freely and lawfully — to support six years ago in 2008.
An apology that was demanded by Leftist Emos.
But then, apparently, the “gay mafia” intervened.
And instead of obfuscation, my view and the views of others like me regarding technology and Leftists and Silicon Valley and business in general acquired much more clarity. Like a brand new windshield untouched by wind or rain or dust.
Bottom line: did the “gay mafia” go after Brendan Eich? That depends upon whom you ask. To some, the “gay mafia” doesn’t exist in the same universe that the “Amish mafia” doesn’t exist. And therein lies the rub.
I’m certain you can do that math.
BZ
From HSLDA.org:
The Department of Homeland Security verbally informed Home School Legal Defense Association that the Romeike family is being granted indefinite deferred action status. The Department told HSLDA that this meant the order of removal would not be acted on and that the Romeikes could stay.
HSLDA Chairman Michael Farris was thrilled.
“This is an incredible victory that I can only credit to Almighty God. I also want to thank those who spoke up on this issue—including that long ago White House petition. We believe that the public outcry made a huge impact. What an amazing turnaround—in just 24 hours,” he said.
And here’s what made the difference: publicity and public outcry regarding an event that DOJ and DHS thought and hoped would slip past everyone’s radar. Alas, it did not.
But further:
Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued a denial of the Romeike family’s petition for certiorari, sparking an immediate and unprecedented reaction. Fox News told HSLDA that they recorded 1 million page views of the Romeikes’ story in 24 hours—an all-time high. Although many were not surprised by the Supreme Court’s decision, it seemed that this was the last hope for the family to avoid being sent back to Germany where they would undoubtedly be persecuted for homeschooling their children.
According to a Supervisor with DHS, the Romeike family has been granted “indefinite deferred status,” though no one seems to know precisely what that means. Can and will their case be re-evaluated when the publicity dies down? Is that what it means?
Today, a Supervisor with the Department of Homeland Security called a member of our legal team to inform us that the Romeike family has been granted “indefinite deferred status”. This means that the Romeikes can stay in the United States permanently (unless they are convicted of a crime, etc.)
One can only conclude that the federal DOJ went after this family for three reasons:
1. They are Christian;
2. They home school;
3. The are the New Minority
So either one of two things were to have occurred with regard to the Romeike family and our DOJ/DHS:
One: this was a purposeful denial of a mindset and thought process that DC, under Obama, cannot allow: Leftists cannot allow Home Schooling, they cannot allow Christians to assume superiority of/in any fashion, and they cannot support New Minorities.
Two: the DOJ/DHS wanted to ensure that the Romeikes were thrown back to Germany so that they would in fact be split asunder and have to conform to its mandatory public school regimes which would yield fines, custody and/or the physical loss of their children.
Either point is unacceptable.
Consider this one small win for the team.
BZ
From LegalInsurrection.com:
US Sup Ct refuses to hear Romeike homeschooling case
by William A. Jacobson
Family faces deportation to Germany, where they risk fines, imprisonment and loss of children for homeschooling.
In an Orders list just released, the US Supreme Court has refused to grant certiorari to the petition filed by the Romeike family seeking asylum because of persecution of homeschoolers in Germany.
[BZ notes: see the US 6th Circuit Court ruling here, of Uwe Andreas Josef Romeike, et al, vs Eric Holder.]
The result is that the family faces deportation back to Germany, where they will risk fines, imprisonment, and loss of their children if they continue homeschooling.
Background on the case is set forth in these prior posts:
But here’s the unspoken part of the equation: the Romeike’s are Christian and religious, and they will be deported.
More on the case and the situation:
The Romeike’s have been here since 2008, seeking political asylum. They fled, essentially, Deutsch persecution for daring to homeschool their children. Because of their insistence upon homeschooling and their refusal to turn their children over to the government, they faced fines, custody and — literally — the loss of their children
From FoxNews.com:
They wanted to live in a country where they could raise their children in accordance with their Christian beliefs.
The Romeikes were initially given asylum, but the Obama administration objected – claiming that German laws that outlaw homeschooling do not constitute persecution.
Really? Imagine that.
On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear the Romeike’s appeal – paving the way for the Christian family of eight to be deported.
Had the family stayed in Germany, where homeschooling is illegal, they would have faced the prospect of losing their children. Like the Pilgrims, they fled their homeland yearning for a place where they could be free.
Perhaps it’s time for this:
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.
And those who seek freedom from an establishment of a religion in their own country, are they now persona non gratis? When we have, literally, millions of persons who do not respect our fundamental border rights in the slightest?
The US will let Yemenis and Syrians into the country who default the United States by stealing SSI and Social Security benefits for themselves and for the dead and for children who are no longer in the nation, but the US won’t allow a mere eight more people into the country who seek actual and true religious freedom. Is it because the Romeike family is Caucasoid? Is it because they procreate and have a large family? Is it because they are religious? What is it?
Is this what we’ve become? The complete antithesis of our founding?
BZ