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Jewish World Review
March 15, 2010/ 29 Adar 5770
A Light Bulb Moment of Clarity
By
Arnold Ahlert
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
When I was younger, people would laugh when I told them the greatest threat to American freedom came from the left, not the right. I'll bet a lot of them aren't laughing now.
Recent news would undoubtedly have the Founding Fathers wondering why they wasted their time writing a Constitution enshrining individual rights and freedom. New York, flush with Nanny State successes such as a ban on smoking virtually everywhere, trans-fat in foods, and aluminum bats in baseball games, is considering a total ban on salt use by restaurant chefs. In other words, the state would become the Seasoner-in-Chief. This grand idea is the brainchild of Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, member of the most dysfunctional state legislature in the country, one where people like him apparently have plenty of time to dream, even as the state teeters on the brink of bankruptcy. Such dire circumstances are the direct result of Ortiz and company's gross fiscal malfeasance. The state legislature is a Democrat fiefdom, in case you were wondering.
But Felix is merely the warm-up act for other progressives. In Hawaii, the Obama administration has raised the number of "endangered species" on the island of Kauai from two to fifty, and has "set aside" forty square miles as a habitat. Set aside is a euphemism for federal confiscation of most of the island, the result of lawsuits filed by environmental groups which, like many progressives, believe their "superior" wisdom is grounds for running roughshod over anyone who gets in their way.
On to leftist Federal Judge Nina Gershon from the Eastern District of New York. Gershon has discovered a clause in the Constitution (no doubt the "living" Constitution) prohibiting Congress from cutting off funds to the racketeering enterprise known as ACORN. That the Constitution clearly grants Congress the power of the purse, as opposed to some self-aggandizing, whack-job judge, is apparently no impediment. Thus an organization which has engaged in vote-rigging and providing a "pimp a prostitute" advice on how to game the housing system must now be underwritten by taxpayers—whether we like it or not.
We're not through yet. Under the guise of "immigration reform," the Obama administration is considering issuing every American worker a "biometric" ID card with embedded information, including fingerprints. This card would be a requirement for working—after millions of illegal aliens are granted amnesty. That would be the same amnesty millions of outraged Americans told Congress to stuff up their you-know-whats three years ago. But as most Americans know by now, our Democratically-controlled Congress listens to no one but themselves.
Ironically, these are the same Democrats who routinely oppose picture IDs for voting.
As far as ignoring the American majority's wishes goes, the Obamunists are right there with Congress. Last Friday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the administration's "delay" in offshore drilling leases for gas and oil will become an outright ban for the remainder of the president's term. Once again, the fact that two-out-of three Americans are against such lunacy means nothing to our progressive, wannabe masters.
Unbelievable as it may seem, especially to those who pay attention, most Americans are largely unaware of the grandiose schemes being hatched by the American left. Sure, they know the healthcare bill, a 2700 page nightmare of back-room bribes that no one voting on it has read in its entirety, is a stinker. They might even be vaguely aware of proposed cap-and-trade legislation, yet another blatant power grab being sold as a "planet-saving" measure.
But the truth is, most Americans have lives to live and they're not particularly political, until something gets shoved down their throats or rammed in their faces.
So, is there a tipping point where Americans could rise up collectively, and no amount of political sweet talk will make the slightest difference?
Oddly enough, I believe there is. But before I give it away, it is worth reminding people that most of the excesses of the Clinton administration—including the president's conviction for perjury and obstructing justice, for which he was fined $90,000 and disbarred—were met with semi-disinterest by those Americans for whom politics is little more than a tangential distraction. What set those people off was something much simpler: the outgoing Clintons pilfering china, silverware and other knickknacks from the White House. Apparently such petty unseemliness mattered more than the bigger issues.
So here's my prediction: when Americans realize that the sale of incandescent light bulbs will be banned completely by 2014, and every light in their house will eventually be replaced by fluorescents, they will snap. When that icy white, machine-shop glare is lighting up every room their homes they'll begin to understand the true nature of Nanny State progressivism. And when they find out these bulbs contain mercury, which is so toxic a pregnant woman must leave the room if a bulb breaks, even the dullest among us will be able to put two and two together. Every time they flip a switch they'll be reminded exactly what happens when they let government bureaucrats do their thinking for them.
You might even say a light bulb will go on in their heads.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on JWR Contributor Arnold Ahlert's column, by clicking here.
Previously:
03/10/10: Little Things Mean A Lot
02/03/10: Budgetary Fork in the Road
02/01/10: Liberal Economic Illiteracy
01/27/10: ‘Roe-ing and Wade-ing’ Back to Reason
01/25/10: Arrogance When Up, Denial When Down
01/20/10: Connecting the Educational Dots
01/19/10: The Next Tea Party?
01/15/10: The Myth That Keeps on Giving
01/13/10: Airport Security Begins Away From the Airport
01/11/10: Secrets and Lies
01/08/10: Embracing Bigotry — or Rejecting Bullying?
01/06/10: Hanging by an Ideological Thread
01/04/10: Our ‘Wonderama’ Bureaucracy
12/30/09: A Day Off
12/28/09: Dangerous Myths
12/25/09: I, Me, Mine
12/23/09: A Very Harry Christmas
12/21/09: My Opinon
12/18/09: The Party of Repeal
12/15/09: Privileged Exemption
11/30/09: ‘Settled’ Science and Unsettled Children
11/30/09: American Sharia Law
11/23/09:The Trial (Travesty) of the Century
11/04/09: American Vampires and Their Political Enablers
11/01/09: ‘Opting Out’ of Insanity?
10/28/09: Cell Phones Cause Brain Cancer. Brain Required
10/26/09: Communism: Nazism With Better PR
10/21/09: Just Asking
10/16/09: Cost Projections vs. Actual Costs, or Hope and Change vs. Reality
10/14/09: News you can use …
10/07/09: Incremental Insidiousness
10/05/09: MIA: Common Sense and Common Decency
09/30/09: Iran: Bad Options and Unpreparedness
09/21/09: Crying Racism: the Last Refuge of Scoundrels
09/11/09: 9/11 Cannot Be Sanitized
09/08/09: ‘Truthers’ and Consequences
09/01/09: A ‘Paper Trail’ Challenge for the Mainstream Media
08/31/09: Drowning in Amorality
08/26/09: The Republican Recovery Program
© 2010, Arnold Ahlert
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