Octopodial Chrome

Maher Hawash plead guilty to conspiring to provide services to the Taliban. He and six other had travelled to China in order to cross the border into Afghanistan and fight the US. He's a US citizen, and thus is a traitor; he should be hanged for it, but instead gets a minimum seven year sentence.

Larry Kudlow writes that the economy is in good shape, and that a wave of job-creation should take place soon enough.

The highest court of our federation decided two things in the Roe vs. Wade decision: first, that the Constitution contains a right to privacy (previously noted in the Griswold decision); second, that infanticide (commonly called abortion, which is a misnomer) falls thereunder. Is there a right to privacy? If so, does it protect a right to slaughter children? The very phrasing of the questions shows how ridiculous they are: a right to privacy can have no effect on infanticide, as killing a child is killing regardless of any right (it's conceivable that it is a necessary murder, e.g. in the case of ectopic pregnancies).

The major problem with this justification of infanticide is that it has led many conservatives to mistrust the very idea of a right to privacy. This is a grave error: the right to privacy is among the most fundamental. It is the foundation of: freedom of belief; freedom of speech; freedom to bear arms; and so on, for privacy is essentially the right not to be intruded upon by others. In a major way, privacy is the sole right any of us has.

Maggie Gallagher writes on Town Hall that the Irish Council for Civil Liberties has warned priests and bishops they may face charges for simply quoting or handing out the Vatican statement [on sexuality], and that the Dutch government considered charges against the Roman Pope for violating their speech codes.

We see here what happens when liberalism (based on freedom) is conquered by liberal cosmopolitanism (based on force). There was a time when conservatives had the upper hand, and forced all men to act like conservatives; now leftists have the upper hand, and will force all men to act as leftists. Never mind the libertarian ideal, where all men are free to live as they will, so long as they do not interfere with others.

The Roman Pope should not be charged for speaking his mind; sodomites should not be charged for their buggery; we Christians should be allowed to practise our faith; pagans should be allowed to practise theirs. This constant attempt to use the law to achieve one's aims is evil and must be stopped.