POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Rare Species Granted Protected Status

The Cumbrian sausage, a species of (mildly poisonous) sheep snake famously recorded in Thomas Hardy's Return of the Native, has been granted protected status. The name is a misnomer, the "sausage" having evolved into more or less its current form in the pre-Cumbrian period. It is classed among the so-called "sausage snakes" (technically, Eustacians) for its habit of wrapping itself into a tight planar spiral.

Hardest hit by the decision are the landed gentry, whose colorful spring sausage hunts have now been made illegal. Oscar Wilde once described the annual equestrian pageants as "the unspeakable in pursuit of the barely edible." PETA Scotland is seeking to extend such protections to the strange annelid highlanders refer to as the "blood pudding."

Crimes, Various and Sundry

I can't recall which twitterer brought this delightful headline to my attention, but his response was "Duh."

Deputy: Strip Search Finds Crack Between Buttocks

This one seems more certainly aware of the ludicrousness:

Biggest. Criminal Vagina. Ever.

Congratulations! It's a pharmacy!

I've got some more information on the OTS and related failures, that I'll be taking up soon . . . maybe tomorrow. This is related.

It is high-time to call attention to Fannie Mae’s dastardly practice of NOT disclosing existing inspections and reports to buyers of their REO properties. Fannie Mae is knowingly breaking real estate law and asking it’s REO listing agents to do so as well.

Pretend you buying a foreclosed property owned by Fannie Mae. The listing agent sends you over a package of disclosures (or most of them anyway). They are also required to send over all inspections and reports from any previous escrows. But, they don’t and they won’t.

But you know how serious the authorities are when it comes to massive fraud:

The founder of Germantown-based AmeriDebt has pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, admitting that he concealed assets during court proceedings against the now-defunct debt counseling company.

Prosecutors alleged that Andris Pukke deliberately transferred millions of dollars in assets to his father, estranged wife and girlfriend in order to conceal them from authorities after AmeriDebt was accused of cheating debtors.

The company was founded in 1996 to help clients lower payments and receive counseling. It became one of the country's largest debt counseling services before the Federal Trade Commission claimed in a 2003 lawsuit that the company charged debtors $172 million in hidden fees, which Pukke allegedly used to fund a lavish lifestyle for himself.

A settlement with the FTC in 2006 required Pukke to turn over all assets to a $35 million restitution fund to pay back the victims.

*******

He was jailed for about a month in 2007, when U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte found him in civil contempt of court for using family and friends to hide the money.

The FTC agreed to Pukke's release after he turned over $4.5 million.

So, you see, the fraudulently obtained mortgages led to fraudulently loaned home equity loans to pay off fraudulently gotten credit card debt that led to fraudulent debt repayment schemes, and then the institutions that started the whole thing got recapitalized at public expense.

This is why there needs to be a general amnesty for illegal immigrants:

An illegal immigrant from the Philippines was arrested Thursday and charged with 17 counts of voter fraud for allegedly voting in Lake County elections since 2003.

Maria Azada, 53, of Grayslake, faces 17 felony counts of perjury, mutilation of election materials and tampering with voting machines in connection with illegal voting by a non-U.S. citizen, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Gary Hartwig, special agent in charge of ICE Homeland Security investigations in Chicago, said ICE will “aggressively investigate and bring to justice anyone who falsely claims to be a U.S. citizen so they can illegally vote.”

The investigation began in February 2009 when Azada allegedly admitted to an ICE officer during an interview for an immigration benefit that she had voted, authorities said. It is illegal for foreign nationals to vote.

The investigation revealed Azada voted nine times in primary, general and consolidated elections between 2003 and 2009, authorities said. According to the arrest warrant, she falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen on two Illinois voter registration applications.

Otherwise the very people whom we ought to want to make citizens will continue breaking the law.

Also from Illinois:

The Illinois Senate is currently debating SB1645 which would arbitrarily limit a citizen’s “right to know.” If a citizen asks more than fifteen questions per year under FOI rules (Freedom of Information Act Requests), the citizen’s requests would be characterized as a “vexatious” requests.

I wish I could limit the number of questions the government asks of me to 15 per year.

Probably worst of all:

Oh joy and rapture, Al Gore is writing another book! I know, I know. The very idea of 300 or so pages from such a scintillating wordsmith as Gore is enough to stir the soul to heights of heretofore unknown bliss, but I have better than an idea. I have a summary of the book from the author himself!

Winning Hearts and Minds in Wisconsin [UPDATED]

I'm going to try to make quick work of this post, so that some of you might not have seen all of this on the nightly news. For starters, via William Jacobson:

The office of Sen. Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) said the senator has been subjected to damage of personal property and has received threatening statements in the wake of mass protests in recent weeks over Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill.

Kapanke have been unavailable, but an aide to Kapanke says that windows on Kapanke's car were broken in Madison and the senator's wife found nails strewn on the driveway of their home.

According to Rose Smyrski of Kapanke’s staff:

Nails were scattered on his driveway twice last week. The incidents were reported to the La Crosse Police Department.

Also, Kapanke's’s windshield was damaged on March 9 after the Senate voted on the budget-repair bill. Kapanke was advised by Capitol police he would not be able to reach his car parked on the Capitol Square because of protesters. A state trooper moved the car, and when Kapanke went to his car a short time later, he found a hole in the windshield. He drove home to La Crosse. He reported the damage on Wednesday to Capitol police.

You'll find more information there about death threats, and a link to Ann Althouse, who's also received threatening communications:

Althouse is a UW-Madison law professor who has been covering and writing about the thuggery and incivility in Madison. She and Meade are now on the receiving end of this bizarre and hateful threat.***LANGUAGE WARNING*****
Union thuggery against Althouse and Meade: "We will hang up wanted posters of you everywhere you like to go."

"We will picket on public property as close to your house as we can every day. We will harrass the ever loving shi*t out of you all the time. Campus is OCCUPIED. State street is OCCUPIED. The Square is OCCUPIED. Vilas, Schenk's Corners, Atwood, Willy Street – Occupied, Occupied, Occupied, Occupied. Did you really think it was all about the Capitol? F*ck the Capitol, we are the CITY... We have the numbers and we don't back down from anyone. We all know each other. We all know each other. We know each other from Service Industry Night at the Orpheum, because we're regulars at the same coffee shops, restaurants and bars, we know each other from the co-ops, we know each other because we've had a million jobs each (and we all worked at CapTel at least once), because we live in every shitty townie house in ever-changing groups of 2 – 7 people, because we are young and horny and screw each other incessantly, because we're all on facebook, and because we aren't anti-social, life-denying, world-sterilizing pieces of human garbage like the two of you. WE WILL F***K YOU UP. We will throw our baseballs in your lawn, you cranky old pieces of sh*t, and then we will come get them back. What are you gonna do? Shoot us? Get Wausau Tea Patriots to form an ad hoc militia on your front lawn? That would be f**king HILAROUS to us. You could get to know the assholes on your side in real f**king life instead of sponging off the civil society we provide for you every single day you draw breath."

That's from Charlie Sykes at WTMJ.

Via Sarah W comes the information that this is the noble young man who drafted the threatening letter to Althouse.

Also via Sarah this photo of the idealistic young man and his sweetheart:

So sweet.

Nuclear Energy Information Service peacenik demonstrates his love for all of God's creatures.

Oh, look: Governor Moonbeam has laid off 19,000 teachers in California. How many did evil Scott Walker fire, again?

You mustn't lay off any government workers, though, because if they suicide the blood will be on your hands. The same is true when they resort to crime.

Nice piece on unions and their fellow travelers.

Those ObamaCare waivers: most of them have been given for reasons that weren't permitted in the legislation.

Oh, gosh. What?

Oklahoma GOP Sen. Tom Coburn warns Social Security solvency should not be contingent on the federal government’s continuing ability to borrow money and previous Congresses have “stolen” the trust fund intended to make the American people secure in retirement.

“We have stolen $2.6 trillion from it. We put paper money in there. The problem is, we spent the money – we didn't just take it, we took it and spent it,” Coburn said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “Social Security ran about a $53 billion deficit last year – it's projected to run a continuous deficit.

Tsk.

An important post by Juliette on honor in Japan, and here at home.

Yikes! Lee Stranahan at . . . HuffPo?

Is this really what liberalism has come to in 2011?

Since working with Breitbart, my position on political issues hasn't changed but I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm deeply disappointed by the virulent, lockstep attitude I see on the left. My experience in the last few months tells me what I would not have believed possible; on any number of issues (including Pigford, by the way) I've seen liberals act much nastier and with less factual honesty than the conservatives... and this includes on issues where I disagree with conservatives.

Burying the death threat story is a clear example of intellectual dishonesty and journalistic bias.

Don't take my word for it, though. Look into the story of death threats in Wisconsin yourself and see who has been covering the story and who hasn't. Try for a moment to see this story from the perspective of those who you may disagree with on policy and ask yourself how this looks to them. Can you blame them for feeling that way? Then take a few seconds and read those questions I asked you at the beginning of this article.

And then ask why progressives shouldn't expect more from our media -- and ourselves -- than we expect from our political adversaries.

via Katnandu on Twitter

UPDATE: Jim Shankman (who's been forced to commit "identity suicide" by crazy right wing bloggers) is a member of the Nottingham Commune.

And, from HuffPo by way of The Blaze, SloJo talks to AFL-CIO with Sec. Labor Solis on a conference call. Honestly, the best bits were left out of the parts transcribed at The Blaze:

via @VickiMcKenna on Twitter

NCAA Brackets

Well, my primary bracket hasn't fallen completely apart, yet.  Thanks to Morehead State's upset of the fighting Pitinos, I'm still in contention.

I know it's a doubly good day for Kentucky fans; UK won and Pitino lost, to another state school from KY.

The Wealth of Nations

"The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering the prisons"
~Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The House of the Dead.

Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.~Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973), My Several Worlds [1954].

The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.
~Samuel Johnson, Boswell: Life of Johnson

The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.~John E. E. Dalberg, Lord Acton, The History of Freedom in Antiquity [1877].

"...the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped. " ~ Last Speech of Hubert H. Humphrey

"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

"Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members -- the last, the least, the littlest."
~Cardinal Roger Mahony, In a 1998 letter, "Creating a Culture of Life"

The greatness of America is in how it treats its weakest members: the elderly, the infirm, the handicapped, the underprivileged, the unborn. ~Bill Federer

"A society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members and among the most vulnerable are surely the unborn and the dying,"
~Pope John Paul II

Forty-six minutes later, and despite her desperate pleas to midwives for assistance, Miss Godwin’s son died as she held him.

She has since been told that the hospital has a policy not to resuscitate babies born earlier than 24 weeks into pregnancy.

Yesterday Miss Godwin, who visits her little boy’s grave every day, told how she is haunted by fears she and her partner didn’t do enough to help their baby when the medics around her refused.

‘They put him in my arms and he cried and was wriggling around. I could feel him breathing and see his eyelashes and fingers and toes,’ she said.

‘But I kept thinking, “Where’s the incubator?” We were begging the midwives to do something to help him but no one was saying anything. He was not stillborn, he was trying to live.

‘If they had tried for an hour and said they couldn’t do anything more for him or he was severely brain damaged, that would have been different, but he wasn’t given a chance.’

via Stoo, on Twitter

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

As much as snaqwells may be concerned about the steady stream of breast images that I receive in emails from conservative women, there's really no need to worry. All of these are sent to the off-board hard, encrypted drive that I keep for such images and immediately purged from email.

But enough about that. Today is St. Patrick's, and although this Irish immigrant hates how we celebrate it here in America, most people are able to go with the flow. I might even suggest that she raise a glass or two and loosen up.

Besides, we see how seriously POTUS and FLOTUS take the so-called crises that the ever-hysterical media wish to impress us with.

Richard McEnroe is getting his Irish on, and Am Spec has a worthwhile article on Saint Patrick.

The Blaze has introduced a new daily email compendium that they're calling Firewire. You can go sign up for that, if you use your computer as your morning paper.

From Ann Althouse via Moonbattery comes the story of Wisconsin children being taught to chant socialist slogans. Aw!

As Stacy notes, a couple of Michigan Democrats are facing felonies for having created a fake Tea Party. Illinois State Representative Richard Rita turns out not to have been eligible to run for the position as a result of a prior felony, but Democrats won't comment on whether or not they were aware of that in advance. Convicted sex offender's computer parts business ad features "Pedobear."

Look: another crazy wingnut makes threats against NPR's Guy Raz and Melissa Block. Nothing about death threats aimed at Wisconsin legislators, though.

In a stroke of masterful irony, the US military have cloned Glenn Greenwald.

Leaving all of that aside, the big news today is this:

Worried about keeping track of your spending on drinks on your next cruise? Royal Caribbean hopes to allay your fears with a trio of new one-price, all-you-can-drink packages.

A caveat: The offers, which are rolling out this week on three ships, aren't inexpensive. The line's new Beer and Wine Package costs $29 per person per day for all beers, house wine by the glass and a 25% discount on all other wines and liquors.

The line also is offering the Classic Package, which costs $39 per person per day and includes all beers, house wine by the glass, all liquor (except premium and speciality brands), cocktails and 25% discount on all other wines and premium and speciality liquors. The Premium Package, at $49 per person per day offers all that is included in the Classic Package plus glasses of wine that normally sell for up to $10, cocktails, premium liquor brands and a 25% discount on all bottles of wine, glasses of wine over $10 and speciality liquors.

For the first time in my life, the prospect of a cruise--even perhaps one with Dick Morris on it--seems to me somewhat attractive.

I think that we should all pitch in and send Stacy on one of these cruises, for investigative purposes. What could possibly go wrong?

'Scushe me . . . which way to the puke deck?

Honey Badgers!

Today’s Lesson

No, it has nothing to do with green beer, nuclear (nucular for any former southern Governors who might be reading) reactors, or the futility of struggling hard with your March Madness ® picks.  No, friends, it's all about your gmail.

Apparently, someone pulled nude photos of Melissa Hudgens by hacking into her gmail.  Scarlett Johansson's breasts may make it onto the internet due to the same intrepit Star Hacker (not to be confused with the dreaded Star Whackers haunting the poor Quaids in Canada.)

So, the big lesson is that Dan probably needs to get in and clear his gmail of all those topless pictures before his breasts end up all over the interweb thingy.

How Liberals Feel – or How Krauthammer Got It Wrong

In this oft-cited piece written in 2002, Charles Krauthammer famously professed the following:

... Liberals are stupid.

Liberals tend to be nice, and they believe -- here is where they go stupid -- that most everybody else is nice too. Sure, you've got your multiple felon and your occasional war criminal, but they're undoubtedly depraved 'cause they're deprived. If only we could get social conditions right -- eliminate poverty, teach anger management, restore the ozone... everyone would be holding hands smiley-faced.

Liberals believe that human nature is fundamentally good. The fact that this is contradicted by, oh, 4,000 years of human history simply tells them how urgent is the need for their next seven-point program for the social reform of everything.

Liberals suffer incurably from naivete, the stupidity of the good heart. Who else but that oracle of American liberalism, The New York Times, could run the puzzled headline: "Crime Keeps On Falling, but Prisons Keep On Filling." But? How about this wild theory: If you lock up the criminals, crime declines.

Accordingly, the conservative attitude toward liberals is one of compassionate condescension. Liberals are not quite as reciprocally charitable. It is natural. They think conservatives are mean. How can conservatives believe in the things they do -- self-reliance, self-discipline, competition, military power -- without being soulless? How to understand conservative desire to abolish welfare, if it is not to punish the poor?

This may have been Krauthammer's take when he  initially wrote the piece. And it may have been true thatthe majority of Liberals back then just thought of Conservatives as too harsh -- or just plain "mean-spirited".

But a few days ago, Mr. Krauthammer put forth a more nuanced (or if you prefer, definitive) position regarding the Great Chasm -- and why compromise is impossible. I don't have the quote in front of me... but if memory serves it went something like this: The fundamental difference is that Conservatives think Liberals are naive and emotional... while Liberals believe Conservatives are evil.

Either his initial estimation of the Liberal opinion of Conservatives was in error or something has changed. Either he was wrong or has had an epiphany OR Liberals themselves have become less-charitable as it relates to those who disagree with them.

Whatever the case may be, I think Krauthammer's statement on Fox News is even more significant than the piece he wrote in 2002.

Liberals do in fact believe conservatives are in fact evil. But what does that really mean? In practical terms it explains a good amount.

Initially I thought to enumerate the hypocrisies of the left if it is the case that Conservatives are Evil. Fun to do, but tedious.

But what is of more interest to me is how Krauthammer's insight into the liberal mindset - specifically, how liberals think about conservatives - explains a great deal about their behavior in the political realm.

First, it explains why Liberals often come across as pompous and condescending.

It explains their absolute intolerance of diversity of thought.

It explains their violent reaction when they don't get their way.

It explains their hostility toward any who dare to challenge their Worldview.

It explains their knee-jerk demagoguery and intransigence.

I guess that list is also without limit. But you get the point.

Beyond helping us understand Liberal behavior in the political sphere -- beyond having utility as to how Liberals "feel" (think) -- there is a larger lesson here. A lesson I think Conservatives need to learn. A harsh lesson that we need to take to heart. A sad lesson that we must own.

When Conservatives say liberals are just naive, we are being too charitable. Many of them have given their positions much thought over many years and have arrived to conclusions that they cling to as strenuously as many of us do. They believe their truths to be self-evident. In the end analysis, an old Liberal may not have a brain, but in his mind his opinions have been vetted, challenged, verified, martyred, and hard-earned. That is, justified.

When conservatives say they are well-intentioned, we are in denial. They are not on the whole well-intentioned. Sure, there are many hippy-dippy, pot smoking liberals who believe in live and let live. But this is an unfortunate caricature. One that tends to make conservatives underestimate our foes. The most dangerous liberals are incredibly pragmatic. They are incredibly deliberate. They have objectives and formulate strategies to achieve them.

It is often said that "everyone is entitled to his opinion". But this means something radically different to a liberal than to a conservative. The same words spoken in the same sequence mean very much different things.

My point is that when we call Liberals naive, we are being naive. When we say that perhaps "they love too much" we are throwing pearls before the swine. Think Machiavelli and you'll be closer to the truth.

When Krauthammer called liberals stupid, he was wrong. By and large, they are not. They are wrong. But they are not stupid. Their conclusions are wrong. But they are not stupid. Their policies are often irrational and counter to human nature. But Liberals are not stupid.

By and large, they know exactly -- precisely -- what they are doing. And they are shrewd. They are conniving. They are cunning.

I guess what I am saying is in the same manner we chastise the president for his inability to call a spade a spade as it relates to actual Evil, we should be chastised for being unwilling... unable... to accuse Liberals of being precisely what they are. Instead we make excuses for them. For their words. For their behavior. For their policies.

This is perhaps what Krauthammer meant when he wrote that "the conservative attitude toward liberals is one of compassionate condescension". But I am not sure that is what he meant. I think he meant it more like how a conservative parent might excuse a misbehaving child.

I think Krauthammer should re-write his piece from 2002. I think he should force himself to revamp it. Because I believe his premise was all wrong. I believe we conservatives have largely gotten it wrong. Stunningly wrong. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, we continue to hope against hope that liberals really are just well-intentioned dopes who view the world with rose-colored glasses. We do ourselves a grave disservice - nay, we purposefully project our firm hopes about our fellow Man - when we presume they are just misled children. Oddly, I believe it is conservatives who see Man as more inherently good than liberals do.

Finally, whereas on first reading I could not have agreed more... the more I read the the aforementioned article, the more I think Krauthammer was considerably off the mark when he wrote it. It is a tactical mistake to underestimate the Liberal Borg. Make no mistake, if we are evil... we deserve all the contempt they dish out. And, if we are evil... the ends really do justify the means.

Obviously, Krauthammer's opinion of how Liberals view Conservatives has changed. I'd be fascinated to know why. But maybe, more importantly, it's time for Conservatives to employ reason rather than project something on Liberals that only undermines our ability to combat them in the "marketplace of ideas".

Dismissing Liberals as stupid is stupid. And very, very dangerous. Saying they are well-intentioned is intentional self-delusion. Saying they are naive is naive. They may be hypocrites... but we needn't be.

UPDATE -- CROSS-POSTED FROM UNRR's Well-Considered Take at The Unreligious Right --

... It also explains why they hold their many false assumptions with the fervor of religious belief, and react with outrage when those assumptions are challenged, as if you were an evil heretic. But here's where my opinions of liberals diverge from Root's.

When Conservatives say liberals are just naive, we are being too charitable. ... When conservatives say they are well-intentioned, we are in denial. They are not on the whole well-intentioned. Sure, there are many hippy-dippy, pot smoking liberals who believe in live and let live. But this is an unfortunate caricature. One that tends to make conservatives underestimate our foes. The most dangerous liberals are incredibly pragmatic. They are incredibly deliberate. They have objectives and formulate strategies to achieve them. ... My point is that when we call Liberals naive, we are being naive. When we say that perhaps “they love too much” we are throwing pearls before the swine. Think Machiavelli and you’ll be closer to the truth.

He goes on in this vein. In my opinion this is dangerously close to conspiracy-theory thinking, viewing liberals as evil-minded plotters determined to inflict their monstrous designs upon us.

... I'm firmly in the camp that sees much of the left as naive fools, because the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that most should be regarded as fools, rather than as deliberately malevolent. There's nothing naive about regarding the left as naive. Obviously fools are often dangerous. But that doesn't mean we need to act like the left and assume evil motives on the part of our political opponents.

Editor: Read the whole thing.

Mary Katharine Ham’s Breasts

It's entirely your right to scour the internet for photos of Mary Katharine Ham's breasts, but I just want to say that this isn't that sort of blog. Mostly.

I don't believe that there exists anywhere on the Internet a photo of Mary Katharine Ham's breasts. Nor do I think you are likely to find Liz Stephans' boobs or S.E. Cupp's tits or naked Hannah Giles or Dana Loesch nude.

If you take up a charity collection and ask them nicely, there's a very slender chance they might make such a thing available, but just looking at the searches that bring people here, I think it's a shame that so many man-hours are being wasted in search of a figment of a figment. So, please, stop visiting here looking for them.

Thank you.

The Management

How’s that open hand gesture working out for you?

Barry Rubin:

Anti-Americanism is going to explode now in Egypt, in all of its leftist, Islamist, and nationalist varieties. Candidates will compete to prove they aren’t friendly to America. Egypt won’t do anything the United States asks for.

What? Don’t they thank President Barack Obama for pushing Mubarak out, all of his efforts to show Muslims and Arabs how much he loves them, or the Cairo speech where he extolled Islam?

Not at all! They don’t even remember last month when Obama told Mubarak leave power and his spokesman said that he should have left “yesterday.” Here’s what the youth movement coalition said:

“The US administration took Egypt’s revolution lightly and supported the old regime while Egyptian blood was being spilled.”

Lesson One: Just because you like them, that doesn’t mean they like you.

Lesson Two: Just because you help them doesn’t mean they will help you.

Lesson Three: Just because you pretend that they are really moderates doesn’t mean it’s true.

Let me put it in young, hip terms: If America applied to join their Facebook page, they’d click the “block” and “report as abusive” buttons.

In other words, they remember what they want to remember in the way they want to remember it. America’s assigned roles are, simultaneously, overpowerful bully to be hated and defeated weakling to be beaten up.

It's important, though, that the Muslim Brotherhood assume a political role, though, because they speak to the aspirations of Egyptians who want more freedoms.

Gaddafi feels that the West has abandoned him to the terrorists, who were freedom fighters elsewhere, and the terrorist freedom fighters feel that the West has abandoned them to the Gaddafi regime. So, no matter how that turns out, it's a win, right? We have no right to meddle in the politics of other countries, even if their leaders ordered the bombing of airliners.

Fort Hood? What possible lessons might the administration derive from such a one-off? Absolutely sui generis.

And those King hearings: mustn't invite any h8ers to testify. It's not as though the religion of a warmongering prophet is capable of inspiring atrocities or their celebration.

Coincidence is not causation:

More than 80 percent of all convictions tied to international terrorist groups and homegrown terrorism since 9/11 involve defendants driven by a radical Islamist agenda, a review of Department of Justice statistics shows.

Though Muslims represent about 1 percent of the American population, they constitute defendants in 186 of the 228 cases DOJ lists.

Singling them out would be wrong.

Oh, dear.

What's the upside? I'm just guessing that by the time Obama's done with his (please, God) term in office, some of the folks who were so unappreciative of America's world policing might feel a little nostalgic about it. It's too bad about the dead people and the human rights, though.