Attention Sympathizers!

I had a dream. I can promise you that no pepperonis died in the making of my restless slumber.


Sympathizers, Listen up. I dreamed that Vermont has passed a law requiring Vermont cops to arrest Asian people they suspect of passing counterfeit money in Quick Stops. The Secret Service reports that producing or using illegal counterfeit money is a federal crime that carries a maximum sentence of death (life imprisonment is usually the maximum penalty).

The ACDL (Anti Counterfeiting Defamation League) has organized the first of a series of simultaneous marches in Montpelier and Burlington to protest the law; Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vermont) (no relation to the Colonel) has written the Justice Department to insist that they sue the state to block its enforcement law.

Sen. Sanders charged that the Vermont law “crossed a constitutional state line” and threatens to launch a “patchwork of state and local anti-counterfeiting policies throughout the country” banned when federal law usurped local authority. Further, Asian rights advocates say the law improperly targets Asians based solely on their race and ethnicity.

The hits just keep on coming. I dreamed that Florida has passed a law requiring cops to arrest black people they suspect of using stolen credit cards in Quick Stops. Illegal credit card fraud is a federal crime that carries a maximum sentence of death if you are black in the South (life imprisonment is usually the maximum penalty).

The ACDL has also organized the first of a series of simultaneous marches in Tallahassee, Miami, and Key West to protest the law; Sen. Sanders has written the Justice Department about this one, too, to insist that they sue Florida to block its enforcement law.

Sen. Sanders charged that the Florida law “crossed a constitutional state line” and threatens to launch a “patchwork of state and local anti-credit card fraud policies throughout the country” banned when federal law usurped local authority. Further, black rights advocates say the law improperly targets blacks based solely on their race and ethnicity.

Number 3. I dreamed that Arizona has passed a law requiring cops to card anyone they suspect of being in this country illegally. Illegal border crossing is a federal crime that carries a maximum sentence of death if you are an al Qaeda representative but $10-15/hour for life if you are Hispanic (a free plane ticket to anywhere in the world as long as it is Mexico is usually the maximum penalty).

The ACDL has also organized the first of a series of simultaneous marches in Phoenix and neighboring Scottsdale to protest the law; Sen. Sanders has written the Justice Department about this one, too, to insist that they sue Arizona to block its immigration law.

Sen. Sanders (busybody that he is — hey it’s my dream) charged that the Arizona law “crossed a constitutional state line” and threatens to launch a “patchwork of state and local anti-immigration policies throughout the country” banned when federal law usurped local authority. Further, Hispanic rights advocates say the law improperly targets Hispanics based solely on their race and ethnicity.

Attorney General Eric Holder said he wants to nip the state laws I dreamt up in the bud because they “contravene federal policy where it comes to enforcement.”


On Face the Nation this morning, General Holder called the ten unregistered Russian agents “illegals.” The FBI, he said, spent 10 years investigating them.

The Feds sent the Russians packing last week, something Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says the Feds can’t seem to do with any other illegals.

If you see yourself in my dream examples, you might ask yourself WHY ON EARTH ANY AMERICAN CITIZEN WOULD CONDONE LAWBREAKING.

It is worth noting that the term “illegal” in a person’s description usually connotes “breaking a law.” And that’s no dream.

Independence or Bust

I feel independent today.

[Image]Yesterday the 30th rendition of our local annual summer festival, Bay Day, fell on Independence Day. It was a day with far more than fireworks in St. Albans Town Bay Park in northwestern Vermont; it was a family day with a triathalon, lakefront games, sports, fair food, fireworks, and continuous live music. I book the music.

The Summer Sounds concert series starts on Bay Day each year and our kickoff yesterday was inspired. Carol Ann Jones and The Superchargers performed an Independence Day tribute.

Ms. Jones sang an Irving Berlin song at the end of her third set. God Bless America is the unofficial national anthem of the United States. Andre Maquera closed the show as the fireworks flew with a guitar solo of the Star Spangled Banner. In front of the stage, on his knees in the single spotlight, he shot down enemy rockets with his guitar and we heard the guns firing.

Inspiring.

Independence doesn’t come cheaply. Specialist Ryan Grady, 25, of West Burke was killed by an IED near Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan last week. “He made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of a nation that he both loved and served” as a member of the Vermont Army National Guard, Maj. Gen. Michael Dubie said. He is the first Vermonter to be killed since the National Guard deployed.

We dedicated the concert to the Vermont Guard and we remembered Ryan Grady when the fireworks lit the darkened sky.

I feel particularly independent today of the bozos who want my town to take down its Christmas tree but won’t dare to offend anyone who would have an ayatollah take over City Hall. According to the Huff Post, President Obama “rebuked the old chestnut that the United States is a Judeo-Christian nation” during a press conference he held in Turkey last year.

That old chestnut ?

I’m not very religious in an organized way but I went to Sunday School and drilled the catechism. I can recite the Apostle’s Creed and I know the Lord’s Prayer with and without the doxology, with debtors or with trespassers. That said, the evangelicals worry me. Pretty much anyone who trespasses against me does. If you, dear reader, didn’t understand this paragraph, we have little to talk about.

See, I also know that the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence knew somebody’s God was lurking in our founding and I know that the 1892 Supreme Court decision that “this is a Christian nation” affirmed it.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator…

On the one hand, I’m very glad the Ayatollah Obama is not the head of the state church. On the other hand, it worries me that the ayatollahs of godlessness would assure that our kids grow up without the cultural teachings that make us the Good Guys. America is changing from a strong, independent leader to a nation of appeasers.

“Dear Mr./Ms. Bozo:
I don’t mind offending you. Nope, I don’t mind that at all.
Sincerely,
Me.”

Ryan Grady didn’t die because of oil no matter what some evangelical trespassers might think. Ryan Grady died so those bozos could say out loud that this nation never heard of God.