God Speaks, Mrs. Perry Listens
Anita Perry, the increasingly unstable wife of Texas Governor Rick Perry, told an audience yesterday that her husband absolutely did not want to run for President and it was she who convinced him to run. Originally we were lead to believe that God had spoken directly to Gov. Perry and commanded him to run. Apparently we were misinformed.
Mrs. Perry tearfully told the crowd how after his last re-election God had spoken to her and told her that he had to run for president (nope, I'm not making this up). She told Gov. Perry that his reluctance to run was based on his not seeing a "Burning Bush" but that others had (figuratively speaking, presumably). She then went on to blast the news media, the Republican Party and his opponents for "brutalizing" him because of his faith. Huh?
The only person I can tell who is being beat up because of his religion is Mitt Romney. Who exactly has been attacking Gov. Perry's Christianity? I watch as much MSNBC as I do Fox and no one has attacked his faith. His debate performance, his inarticulate speech, his lack of an economic plan, his obsession with 12yo girls, his crony capitalism - sure all that. But his religion, not a peep.
This is why Rick Perry scares so many people. Not just in the Democratic Party, but across the political spectrum. No matter how many jobs Texas creates, I don't want an America that looks and thinks like Texas. In the same way many Americans wouldn't want an entire country that aped California, just as many don't want a nation based on Texas laws, values and culture. This extremely cynical use of religion to attack his critics and gin up his base is really sickening and, dare I say, unAmerican.
The reason, as I have stated here before, that Gov. Perry keeps winning in Texas is that he is a complete reflection of those values - he personifies them. But the pride in executions, wild west gun laws, a lack of any church/state separation and a political system that Boss Tweed or the late Mayor Daley would blanche at is not something any of us want played out nationally. State sponsored prayer rallies, praying for rain and actually believing God is speaking directly to you, makes perfect sense to most Texans. It scares the bejesus out of the rest of us.
Mrs. Perry can't understand this because like Saddam Hussein, who never left Iraq and couldn't make informed decisions having no world view, the Perrys can't process how non-adoring non-Texans don't relate to them the way the people at home do. All the hype that Perry is a much more savvy George Bush was just dead wrong. He's an Aggie hick who never ventured out of his comfort zone after college.
The question here is, what else would the Perrys feel compelled to do if God commanded them once they were in the White House? And how often exactly is God speaking to them directly? There's a word for people like this, it's called schizophrenia. Schizophrenics are defined by those who hear voices. Check. Delusional. Check. Paranoid (everyone's attacking me because of my faith). Check. Just to be clear, I am not questioning their faith; I am questioning their sanity.
Here's hoping the next time God speaks to Mrs. Perry he tells her he was just kidding and that even he is now OK with Mitt Romney.
Never Prouder to Be a Jew
I am always proud to be a Jew and a Zionist but never more so than when I heard the news regarding the trade for Gilead Shilat. It's ironic I feel this way since had I been a cabinet or Knesset member I probably would have voted against it. The American in me tells me that you can't justify freeing a thousand Palestinian thugs, murderers and terrorists. That's the reason I would vote against this swap. But the Jew in me is so proud once again that Israel reaffirms the value it places on a single Israeli life; especially an Israeli soldier. Moreover, the entire nation supports the decision.
No nation on Earth, especially the United States, would place this much sanctity on a single soldier's life; notwithstanding all the blather about "supporting the troops." Public opinion would be sharply against any such trade if something similar were proposed here.
The ratio for this trade doesn't sound right to me though. It would take far more than 1,100 Palestinians to equal the value of a single brave Israeli soldier. Cheneyites love to talk about how our enemies hate us because of our freedoms and way of life. Israel proves by example yet again why its neighbors hate her so much: no Arab nation would ever have this much angst and grief for a single captured solider or take such extraordinary steps to win his release. Nations that shoot their own citizens in the streets for speaking out can only look upon this deal and scratch their heads. The next time Barack Obama hates on Israel ask yourself if he would go to these lengths to secure the release of a single American soldier. I can assure you he would not.
The Final Straw
In a New York City courtroom yesterday a former NYPD Detective testified that it is common for officers assigned to the Narcotics Division to plant drugs on citizens in order to meet a quota for arrests within the department.
According to his testimony this practice is rampant in Mike Bloomberg and Ray Kelly's police department. Not bad enough to needlessly violate the civil rights of almost 3/4 of a million New Yorkers each year with Stop & Frisk, not content by wildly overreacting with extreme force to Occupy Wall Street, not even satisfied to ring the city with cameras, now we have police so rogue it appears to be almost policy that they plant evidence on civilians to make arrests in order to meet a quota. It is beyond shocking.
And when asked to respond to this, the PD had no comment. In another time and age the New York City Council would have scheduled hearings within hours of that testimony. Speaker Quinn, refusing once again to embarrass her patron, is completely silent.
This is frankly intolerable and is one more sign of what happens when you have a Mayor and City Hall that are totally disengaged. Mike Bloomberg has left Ray Kelly alone with no oversight for ten years. This outrageous practice is the direct result of that.
Rudy Giuliani and Bill Bratton initiated CompStat in order to hold commanders accountable for their precincts and divisions. There's a philosophy behind that. Without oversight and accountability inertia sets in. And in the police department that leads to corruption. We learned last week that the city's First Deputy Mayor never meets with the Police Commissioner. Mike Bloomberg similarly provides no oversight.
Routinely planting drugs on citizens to meet a quota. Can you honestly get your head around that? I can't and I have seen a lot.
Russell Harding
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