Nice-Guyism Continued: Offering Cookies To Mice

     It’s critical that one develop the ability to discriminate, whether it’s among artisans, furry creatures, or the life forms that infest politics, government, and the “news” media. Some of these can be confidently and harmlessly dealt with. Some are venomous and must be avoided at worst, stamped out at best. But in no case whatsoever should they be given anything they ask for.

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     In certain parts of the country, there appears to be an actual taste for the elevation of the Worst of Breed:

     In an interview with New York magazine's Chris Smith, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the biggest obstacle to progress is the idea of private property. He spoke of a "socialistic impulse," and seemed to favor the idea of turning the Big Apple into Venezuela.

     When asked, "Where has it been hardest to make progress? Wages, housing, schools?" de Blasio pivoted to the idea of private property itself.

     "What's been hardest is the way our legal system is structured to favor private property," the mayor said. He suggested that the common people favor socialism over capitalism and that the government should have complete control over everything.

     "I think people all over this city, of every background, would like to have the city government be able to determine which building goes where, how high it will be, who gets to live in it, what the rent will be," de Blasio declared. "I think there's a socialistic impulse, which I hear every day, in every kind of community, that they would like things to be planned in accordance with their needs. And I would, too."

     Incredible. You’d think that Big Apple voters, who experienced a renaissance of their city under Rudy Giuliani that largely continued under Mike Bloomberg, would have better sense than to make a socialist totalitarian their chief executive. But they did so – and in consequence, New York City is halfway back to being the hellhole it had been when Giuliani ousted David Dinkins. If De Blasio is allowed a second term, the city might not get another chance to recover.

     Maybe it was the presidential candidacy of Bernie Sanders that did it. Socialists and totalitarians are awfully good at making rosy promises. (Never mind that they can’t fulfill those promises, and in many cases have no intention of trying.) Or maybe Bloomberg’s failings, which were many and never well concealed, poisoned city voters against the GOP. But whatever the case, New Yorkers have saddled themselves with a mayor who is openly hostile to a Constitutionally guaranteed American norm: the right of private property. Having sown the wind, they should not be surprised at the harvest.

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     As I’ve said before, the vermin of the Left and the vermin of the media are symbiotes. Each creates the conditions the other requires for its flourishing. Just now, having lost both the White House and control of either house of Congress, Leftist politicians and those who ride their coattails are in desperate need of fresh life. The media have been dutifully helping out.

     Please, please watch the video embedded by the above-linked article. (Though my willingness to trust Fox News generally has dwindled, at least Tucker Carlson still has the cojones to call a spade a spade.) The near-unanimity of the other media in denouncing President Trump’s announced sunsetting of Obama’s DACA program as “cruel” and “racist” makes it perfectly plain where they stand. It’s not on our side, and they’re perfectly willing to marshal unthinking emotion to their cause.

     If the sunsetting of DACA was “cruel” and “racist,” then we who applaud it as a move in defense of the borders and the Constitutionality of law are “cruel” and “racist,” and the media want us to feel it. Do you, Gentle Reader?

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     Are you at all religious, Gentle Reader? Do you hold to any variety of the Christian or Judaic faiths? I ask because a government bureaudrone has equated you to a Nazi:

     DENVER — A new brief filed with the Colorado Court of Appeals reveals that a member of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission compared a Christian cake artist to slave owners and perpetrators of the Holocaust when the commission ordered him to re-educate himself and his employees about marriage.

     Alliance Defending Freedom and an allied attorney represent Jack Phillips, a Lakewood, Colo., cake artist who declined to use his artistic talents to celebrate a same-sex ceremony. Their brief filed Friday in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Craig cites a July 25 commission hearing transcript (PDF | audio | video) from last year in which Commissioner Diann Rice makes the following comment just before denying Phillips’ request to temporarily suspend the commission’s re-education order:

     “I would also like to reiterate what we said in…the last meeting [concerning Jack Phillips]. Freedom of religion and religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history, whether it be slavery, whether it be the Holocaust… I mean, we can list hundreds of situations where freedom of religion has been used to justify discrimination. And to me it is one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use – to use their religion to hurt others.”

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     For Leftist totalitarians to classify anyone who disagrees with them in any way as a “Nazi” or a “fascist” is no news. But remember the old saw about giving a mouse a cookie. Some who saw “no harm” in endorsing a “right” to government-recognized same-sex marriages are beginning to see the light:

     Over the course of the last few months, whenever I write or tweet anything, on any topic, I usually receive a caustic social media response about my position on transgenderism. These trolls post links to my tweets about the subject and screenshots, as if showing me my own recent opinion is some sort of gotcha. These individuals even send tweets to my husband and employers, perhaps in hope that they will use their power over me to get my opinion in check with The Approved Position.

     One Twitter follower who “favorited” a tweet of mine about my view on transgenderism even received an email from a stranger demanding to know if her decision to “favorite” my tweet meant she agreed with me. I’ve been called every name in the book: hateful, bigoted, transphobic, etc. All for having a belief that was utterly uncontroversial just three years ago: men are born with penises, women are born with vaginas, and, to quote the great Ben Shapiro, facts don’t care about your feelings.

     Many of my fellow millennial conservatives, out of what they view as courtesy, use the preferred pronoun and name for individuals who identify as transgender. Here is why I won’t: We will be made to care.

     The phrase is care of another great conservative thinker, Erick Erickson. He coined it in the midst of the gay marriage debate. During that debate, I was like many of these younger millennial conservatives. I naively thought the issue was merely about gay marriage, and thought “Hey, marriage is great, so let’s just give into the Left’s demands about the redefinition of a cornerstone of our society because not doing so would be bigoted.”

     But there was more to the Left’s battle with conservatives than that. It wasn’t just about redefining marriage to these activists; it was also about punishing those who weren’t 100 percent on board, especially religious Christians. The livelihoods and lives of bakers, photographers, farmers, and the CEO of Mozilla were destroyed for not completely adhering to the Thought Police’s demands. These Americans were made to care.

     Remember Sweet Cakes by Melissa? Remember Memories Pizza? Remember Mozilla’s ouster of Brendan Eich?

     Do you really think there’s any length or depth to which the Left won’t go to compel your submission? If you can’t see a stopping point – I certainly can’t – then why are you prepared to compromise with them on anything?

     That’s all for today, Gentle Reader. My blood pressure has risen sufficiently for one morning. Time for Mass.