As IF Times

Source: Marine Le Pen: How France Will Conquer the Enemies of Liberty | TIME

There’s a joke going around which goes, ” How many extremists will it take to destroy America? Answer, none; the liberals will do it from within”.

In the aftermath of the Paris terrorist incident, we observe the usual indignation of the public through the usual people.  Journalists or politicians are always available to publicly express their defiance and indignation.  It all looks familiar especially since this same show of defiance was demonstrated after the Charlie Hebdo shootings earlier this year.  There’s hand holding, candlelight vigils and well meaning brave speeches about living life without fear as a rebuke to those that would curtail their freedoms.  But it’s all self indulgent breast beating along with the expected bromides.  What would really make a difference is a change in mindset to address how to minimize forever the probability of this kind of thing from happening again.

That there would be sad consequences to the carte blanche policy of ‘freedoms’ associated with an open and liberal society have been demonstrated again and again…and again.  We have come to the point that people are so afraid to appear intolerant that conspicuously intolerant activities directed against them are acceptable.  People have become so brainwashed to appear tolerant and accepting that they are obligated to accept even that which is brazenly and unapologetically harmful to them.  It’s as if you welcome  a guest to dinner even though they have clearly informed you that they will murder you sometime between the crème brulee and the  coffee.  There may as well be a suicide gene that has infected western society.

Though the tragedy in Paris carries the headlines, this same mindset that gave rise to the vulnerability of the French to the consequences of  blind liberalism  has taken seed in the U.S.  The most recent manifestations ironically come from the campuses of American universities, the quintessential institutions of free speech, tolerance and liberalism. Except that they have morphed grotesquely into caricatures of themselves.  Incidents such as those at Mizzou and others and here  demonstrate the perverse twisting of the open hand of idealized freedom of expression into the heel of bullying oppression.

As is likely the case in France, the regular folk here are probably not ok with the perversion of what is acceptable behavior in the name of freedom and liberty. However, those that are in positions of influence insist that to raise a voice against anti social behavior is, well,  anti social.  The consequence of course is to encourage more anti social behavior as groups get emboldened and opposing voices get progressively meeker. (If this reminds anyone of the global warming charade, it’s not a coincidence).  The enablers are the political and media class who sanctimoniously invoke tolerance and acceptance when really, they push stupidity.  Come to think of it, that also describes Global warming.

There is a quote attributed to the French philosopher Voltaire which goes, ” I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”.  It all sounds good on paper, but personally, I doubt that he would have carried through with this statement of bravado,  especially not these days when extremists vow to kill him at the first opportunity.  To paraphrase another famous quote, “it’s all fun until someone loses an eye”.

link Fox News Personality Slammed for Mocking Rick Santorums Crazy Behavior After Babys Death Video – Hollywood Reporter.

It’s a sober measure of how far awry mainstream society has veered when we look at the standards of what is considered sane and what is considered crazy.  Rick Santorum is the latest Republican contender for the GOP leadership fight to emerge as an alternative to Mitt Romney for that role.  As expected, the left dominated media are scurrying to frame every Santorum position as being extreme.

Up to now, the many and numerous candidates have been run through the media gauntlet as they are scrutinized for any possible attribute, real or imagined, that would disqualify them to run and eventually serve as President.  In the absence of any genuine flaw, the default knock is to label their views as crazy or extreme.  Such was the fate of Michele Bachmann who recently withdrew her candidacy.  Obviously, being a professional tax attorney, serving 3 terms as a congresswoman including sitting on the National defense committee, raising 5 children of her own as well as 23 foster children makes her a loon. 

Santorum is the newest candidate to be painted as some kind of conservative nut now that his campaign appears to be gaining some traction.   When asked by Bill O’Reilly how he was going to respond when people try to label his views on marriage as extreme,  Santorum responded with what I think is the line of the year,  “Well I don’t happen to think that marriage between a man and a woman is extreme.” Well that’s just crazy talk!  

Santorum is known as a consistent defender of traditional values and has never wavered on that in the pursuit of votes.  While that may be endearing to a conservative base, the unwillingness to accede to the erosion of social values embraced by most of society today makes him an easy target for those, especially in media, who frame his values as extreme.  Apparently boys marrying boys and girls marrying girls is not extreme. 

As a group, the GOP contenders often cite the U.S. constitution as their guide for enacting any legislation, a reference that the Democrats seldom, if ever make.   Conservatives lean towards self sufficiency and hard work to create wealth and prosperity.  Liberals are partial to collectivism, the enhanced role of government and entitlements to distribute wealth and cap prosperity.  As Al Sharpton might say, conservatives want to make, liberals prefer to take.   Apparently to take from the productive to give to the non productive is not extreme.

As a group, liberals love to sing the siren song of equality of all peoples in a society but then balkanize them in order to pit one group against the other.  Everyone is equal except Blacks, Jews, Muslims, Hispanics, Asians, the young, the old, the handicapped, union members, women, vegetarians, pot smokers, drug addicts, rap stars and environmentalists.  Apart from special treatment for this small group, everyone else is equal.   Apparently, this is not extreme.

Every single candidate running for the Republican nomination has had more experience in real life activities in business and administration than the current resident in the White House.  That resident came from an isolated academic background, had a closet full to bursting with friends and supporters who have been exposed as avowed radical socialists, or criminals or both.  This however is not extreme.  

It’s better to disregard most of what the media frames as extreme.  Unless any of the GOP candidates have frozen corpses hidden in their basement freezers, any of them are vastly more suitable to hold office than the nutters the other side has to offer.  The next time a mouthpiece from the left appears on TV, turn down the sound and just watch the delivery.  Unfailingly, they’ll all have the appearance of just having been let out by the guards for their daily walk.  For progressives to label others nutty, they should at least minimize the antics of Alec, “let me finish my video game” Baldwin, or Michael “we are the 99%” Moore, or Al “we’re all gonna die” Gore, or Nancy “middle class” Pelosi, or Joe “we are not at war with the Taliban” Biden.   Apparently, that’s not extreme.