et ceteras

Gay Marriage

On two separate and unrelated cases, the U.S. Supreme Court is soon to issue rulings that will have a significant impact on the status of Americans' ability to legally marry somebody of the same sex. Therefore, millions of people on both sides of the gay marriage issue are waiting with baited breath to see how the Court rules.

When it comes to an issue of such magnitude, there is no time to opine about it in a quick-hit post like this one. I will be sharing my thoughts in the near future, but if anyone is interested in a "sneak peak" of sorts, then today I will simply say this:

1) It is my strong opinion that public discourse on gay marriage has been horribly unproductive and unenlightening. And, 2) I believe this is because large numbers of people on each side of the issue have intransigent misperceptions about those on the other, which 3) is noteworthy because those who fall on different sides of this issue are not as neatly divided along party and ideological lines as they are almost every other time.

Wither the Academy

If you want to know of another sign that the Apocalypse is upon us when it comes to our institutions of higher learning, here it is: Columbia has hired a convicted murderer and unrepentant terrorist as an adjunct professor.

Though born in New York, Kathy Boudin spent some of her college years in the Soviet Union being paid by the Soviet government...In the 1960's and 70's she emerged as a leader of the Weather Underground, which bombed a multitude of buildings including the Pentagon, U.S. Capitol, and New York Police Benevolent Association...In 1970 she planned the bombing of a soldiers' dance in New Jersey that was attended by recently drafted servicemen. The plot failed when the bomb exploded prematurely, killing three of her co-conspirators as well as injuring injuring herself and another co-conspirator...In October of 1981, after dropping off her 14-month-old son at a babysitter's, she took part in an armed robbery during which three people were killed. She was subsequently convicted of felony murder and served 19 years in prison before being set free on parole...In the words of David Horowitz, Boudin is "a woman whose actions left nine children fatherless and who has shown no genuine remorse for that."

Columbia apparently considers her actions to be less important than the fact she carried them out in the name of left wing causes. I find it more than interesting that Boudin's activism (now there's a euphemism for the ages!) is multi-generational and multi-bracketed in her family. Her father was an attorney who represented Fidel Castro and whose law partner was a member of the American Communist Party. The firm they founded represented Alger Hiss and Jimmy Hoffa. Meanwhile, Boudin's uncle was a Marxist theorist who joined the Socialist Party of America and served as delegate to the International Socialist Congress.

With a bloodline and life history like hers, who else could you possibly want teaching your children after you fork over God knows how much money to send them to the Ivy League?

Newspeak

If that didn't bother you enough, how about this: On Monday the Associated Press made it their official policy to not use the phrase "illegal immigrant." And to top it off they also made it their policy to not use the phrases "undocumented immigrant" and "undocumented worker." In effect, they have banned the reporting of truth by codifying the kind of linguistic chicanery forecasted by Orwell. Maybe there's no need for leftists to hire Kathy Boudin to brainwash college students, since the AP's reporting seems likely to assure that student brains will arrive on campus with nothing in them to be washed out. Students can then be easily indoctrinated by any hack on the block at a fraction of the cost.

More on Immigration

Maybe it's just me, but I already thought it was a travesty when journalists and politicians stopped saying "illegal alien" and replaced it with "illegal immigrant." Historically, the word "immigrant" automatically implies legality because it speaks of people who move to another land while following its rules, and with the intention of adopting it as their own and dedicating themselves to it.

Of course those people retain some of the traditions of their homeland (as they should) but in doing so they immerse themselves in the customs of their new country and become an integral part of it. That is what was done by the legions who left Europe and entered America via Ellis Island. It is also what was done by the legions who arrived on our western coast after departing the islands of Japan and peninsula of Korea and slums of Peking. And it is still done by almost everyone who moves here from across the Atlantic and Pacific.

For centuries it has been clearly understood that the word "immigrant" describes people like them who follow the same basic approach. However, that approach is not followed by the overwhelming majority of people who have snuck across our southern border over the last 30+ years; and as time goes by it becomes more and more obvious that they will never embrace our nation as anything other than a teat from which to suck. To treat them no differently than those who come here in accordance with the rules, and who come here with the intent of making America part of their identity, is an insult to every true immigrant and every descendant of a true immigrant. In other words, it is an insult to every American and should be treated with the rightful contempt it deserves.