Tag Archives: ethics

Obama and Gun Control

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In a recent Wall Street Journal article regarding President Barack Obama’s (D) planned unilateral actions to impose further gun controls on us, Obama was quoted as saying

We know that we can’t stop every act of violence. But what if we tried to stop even one? What if Congress did something—anything—to protect our kids from gun violence?

Congress already has done quite a bit to protect our kids: they’ve been blocking your constant efforts to disarm us and thereby leave our kids utterly defenseless against still-armed criminals.

What’s more, We the People—your employer, even though you choose not to accept that—also have already done something, the critical thing, to protect our kids. It’s called the 2nd Amendment, reprinted below for your education.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

There’s nothing in there that says you get to do what you feel like about our Arms. Note especially that phrase shall not be infringed. This means you, Ace.

Delays

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Iran is already violating the nuclear weapons agreement it has concluded with President Barack Obama (D). Obama is already pushing back against and outright delaying sanctions against those violations. The excuse?

Senior US officials have told lawmakers the sanctions were delayed because of “evolving diplomatic work” between the White House and the Iranian government.

This is especially the time when pressure needs to be maintained and stepped up. But Obama is, and has been all along, loathe to risk offending the Mullahs.

What, Me Sanction?

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The White House has delayed its plan to impose new financial sanctions on Iran for its ballistic missile program, according to US officials, amid growing tensions with Iran over the nuclear deal struck earlier this year.

It gets worse.

US officials offered no definitive timeline for when the sanctions would be imposed after the decision was made Wednesday to delay them.

Never mind that Iran has been violating the nuclear weapons agreement since a very few days after Vienna. Never mind, either, that Iran still hasn’t actually signed the agreement. This administration is putting us and our friends and allies in a very dangerous position over the next year. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders want more of the same, too.

“No Room for Negotiation”

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A French journalist is being tossed out of the People’s Republic of China because she wrote factual articles about the PRC’s behavior in Xinjiang province. Her visa to be in the PRC expires at the end of the year, and the government has told her it will not be renewed.

The proximate cause of her expulsion is an article she wrote noting that the PRC’s expressions of solidarity with France over the terrorist attacks in Paris last month were not motivated by sympathy or shared condemnation of terrorism, but were rather motivated by the PRC’s reach for sympathy for its own behaviors in Xinjiang regarding the generally Muslim Uighur population’s demurral from government mistreatment of Uighurs.

Ms [Beijing-based Ursula] Gauthier said Chinese officials had met her three times to protest over the article and had demanded a public apology each time, without specifying exactly what form the apology should take. She said a Chinese official telephoned her on Friday to demand again that she apologize, publicly acknowledge that China was a victim of terrorism, and distance herself from any organization suggesting her case was a violation of press freedom.

“He said there is no room for negotiation,” she said.

Indeed, there is none. Either there is freedom of the press, freedom of speech, or there is not. There can be no middle ground to be reached through…negotiation.

Update: Corrected an idiotic typo in the first paragraph.  I need a keyboard that types what I mean rather than mindlessly repeating the keystrokes I give it.

Another Thought on Encryption

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Apple’s Tim Cook had one [emphasis added].

On your iPhone, there’s likely health information, there’s financial information. There are intimate conversations with your family or your co-workers. There’s probably business secrets, and you should have the ability to protect it. And the only way we know how to do that is to encrypt it. Why is that? It’s because, if there’s a way to get in, then somebody will find the way in. There have been people that suggest that we should have a back door. But the reality is, if you put a back door in, that back door’s for everybody, for good guys and bad guys.

The Democrat District Attorney for Manhattan Cyrus Vance thinks Government should be in our pockets; he thinks Apple, et al., are undermining Government power.

IPhones are now the first consumer products in American history that are beyond the reach of lawful warrants. The result is crimes go unsolved and victims are left beyond the protection of law. Because Apple is unwilling to help solve this problem, the time for a national, legislative solution is now.

Here’s what our Constitution’s 3rd Amendment says:

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner….

Vance just wants to skirt this by quartering virtual policemen in our cell phones. No. Government just needs to go back to doing actual police work, and not rely on such quartering.

Undermining? If anyone is undermining anything, it’s the New York Democrat, who’s undermining individual liberty. This is a clear and present demonstration of why Government cannot be trusted with such a weapon.