The Judge Misunderstands

“America, love it or leave it.”  Judge Andrew Napolitano says this about that statement:

The phrase itself—with its command of the government’s way or the highway—admits no dissenting opinions, suggests that all is well and proper here, and insinuates that moral norms and cultural values cannot be improved. The phrase itself is un-American.

This is nonsense, and Napolitano is projecting, or he’s dissembling. The phrase has no government’s way or the highway meaning, and it calls forth dissenting opinions.  Especially contrary to Napolitano’s distortion, the phrase insists not only that “norms and cultural values” can be improved, but that those with dissenting opinions have an obligation to offer their ideas for solutions.  And thereby does not at all suggest that “all is well and proper here.”  In fine, it demands, all it demands, is American-ness—loyalty to America.

Except in the fetid imaginations of the Left, and apparently of Napolitano.

The phrase simply suggests that if a man is miserable here, he’s free to leave, and it wonders why he does not.

Of course, loving America necessarily includes wanting to make us better, which involves praise for the things we are doing better or already do well, and criticism of those things we do wrong or not well enough, while offering solutions for the corrections.

But if all a man wants to do is sit in the safety of the sidelines and carp and wallow in the misery of his location, why stay? We don’t have walls keeping anyone in. Why shouldn’t the man go somewhere where he will not have to face the misery, which is all that he sees?

As to the torrent of hatred Napolitano fears has been unleashed, that certainly has been.  The loosening of the fetters began with Obama’s and his Party henchmen’s open contempt for bitter religion- and gun-clinging denizens of flyover country.

They were loosened very much further with Obama’s State Department Secretary and staffers insulting the intelligence of Americans by insisting that the terrorist murders in Benghazi were the result of a YouTube movie

The fetters were taken off altogether by then-Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton calling tens of millions of Americans irredeemably deplorable racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic homophobes.

The sharks of hatred currently are chummed by the racist and anti-Semitic statements of Progressive-Democratic Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley, Congresswomen and behaviors that Party actively condones if not openly embraces.

America, love it, indeed, and help us do yet better.  Or leave, if you’re so miserable and find us to hateful.

Finally

Great Britain, early in this latest stage, might finally have a Prime Minister who’s serious about Brexit because he’s committed to it in his soul, unlike the Remainer Theresa May (whom I think made a good faith effort, but because her heart wasn’t in it, she couldn’t perform).

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson laid out a hard-line negotiating stance with the European Union, setting the stage for fraught Brexit talks before the UK’s scheduled departure from the bloc on Oct 31.

Among other things,

In a combative first speech to Parliament, Mr Johnson reiterated Thursday that the plan in place to avoid a border on the island of Ireland after Brexit—one of the central planks of the divorce deal—was “unacceptable” and would have to be abolished.

Of course it’s unacceptable, and it should have been all along—it is nothing but Brussels’ attempt to disassemble Great Britain in punishment for its effrontery in deciding to leave the EU and as a warning to other uppity member nations.

Which is sort of what Johnson said:

No country that values its independence and indeed its self-respect could agree to a treaty, which signed away our economic independence and self-government as this backstop does[.]
I do not accept the argument that says that these issues can only be solved by all or part of the UK remaining in the customs union or in the single market

Nor does this poor, dumb colonial from Texas accept such sewage.

Bigotry or Cowardice

You decide.  In connection with a UEFA Europa League qualifying match between Israel’s Maccabi Haifa and RC Strasbourg, in Strasbourg, France, the French police barred the Maccabi fans from waving the Israeli flag or wearing club or Israeli paraphernalia in the area around the stadium.

Because of, claimed the police,

fears of violence following anti-Semitic actions against fans of the Israeli club.

On top of that,

Just 600 Haifa fans were allowed into the Stade de la Meinau for the match.

In other words, the Strasbourg police either restricted the Israelis out of bigotry, or they surrendered to anti-Semitic terrorist wannabes.

It was only after extensive objections from the Israeli government and the Maccabi fans that the police relented. Sort of.

…fans could now wave the Israeli flag inside of the venue starting around 6:30 p.m. local time. However, the restriction was kept in place outside the stadium and on the streets of Strasbourg[.]

Either way, this stinks. And restrictions of any sort never should have been retained. It never should have happened, and it mustn’t be allowed to happen again.  Nor bigotry nor cowardice can be allowed to prevail.

One More Reason

…to be clear and overt in our support for the Republic of China.

We sailed a guided missile cruiser through the international waters of the Taiwan Strait last Wednesday, and the People’s Republic of China objected.  Then it threatened.

China said it would take all necessary military measures to defeat “separatists” in Taiwan.

This comes, also, after the PRC threatened military action against the people of Hong Kong because they’ve been uppity enough to insist that the PRC honor its commitment to Hong Kong’s (semi-)autonomy IAW its handover agreement with Great Britain.

All this adds to the necessity of selling the RoC anti-missile and anti-aircraft systems, modern combat aircraft and ground combat equipment, and brokering deals between the RoC and Israel for the latter’s Iron Dome and Arrow systems.  And systems designed specifically to defeat amphibious and airborne invasion attempts.

We’re already in the processing of selling them $2.2 billion worth of arms, but that should be only a start.