So far as liberals, including Barack Obama, are concerned, dead people only count if they happen to be black criminals killed by white cops, not if, as in the majority of cases, they’re black people being killed by other black people.

Similarly, so far as that crowd is concerned, innocent lives only matter when we’re talking about Muslims, not Jews or Christians. Frankly, that’s not too surprising when it comes to Europeans. It’s been a great many years since most of them even thought of themselves as Christians. Thanks to socialist policies, which have seen Greece’s economy go belly-up, most Europeans are now devout secularists whose only religion is Liberalism, and whose tenets consist of the 35-hour work week, four week paid vacations and “free” health care.

Having granted all that, it is still mind-boggling how it is that the West has turned a blind eye to Islamic carnage that includes the burnings of churches and people, beheadings, crucifixions and, most recently, the drowning of 12 Christians by a shipload of Muslims, who just happened to be escaping the joys of Islam.

We all pooh-pooh the notion that the West, including the United States, refrained from intervening in Germany simply because people were unaware of the atrocities being committed by the Nazis. It wasn’t true then and it is far less true today when we all get to see the latest acts of barbarism taking place in real time on our TVs and our computers.

But, how much more evil are those committing these acts than those who merely stand by and watch? What’s worse is that Western leaders show far more remorse over Muslims being insulted than Christians being slaughtered. On the one hand, we are constantly being told that there are a billion followers of Islam in the world while, at the same time, concern for their comfort and well-being would have you believe they are on the endangered species list. Would that they were!

What makes those on the Left so despicable isn’t merely that they happen to be wrong on all the issues, but that they lie. And even when their lies are pointed out, they never apologize; instead, they tell even bigger whoppers, expecting that the opposition will finally throw up its hands in frustration.

For instance, in Milwaukee, the mayor and the stooge he appointed to be the police chief blamed Gov. Scott Walker for the soaring murder rate in their city. They pretended that because Walker approved of law-abiding citizens having guns in their homes, they were able to prove, statistically, that they were more likely to be shot. What they neglected to do was point out that the victims weren’t shot in their homes where they could defend themselves, but in the streets, when they were unarmed.

On top of that, whenever hack politicians try to undo the Second Amendment by calling for fewer guns in the hands of lawful citizens, the embarrassing elephants in the room are Chicago and Washington, D.C., which boast the strictest gun control laws in America and also the highest murder rates.

It is similar to the game played by the anti-tobacco zealots who habitually inflate the number of mortalities attributed to smoking. There’s no doubt that cigarettes lead to a great many cancer-related deaths, but not enough to satisfy the die-hards. As a result, they have taken to including every dead person who had ever smoked. So if I, who puffed his last Marlboro in 1974, were hit by a bus tomorrow, my demise would be added to their list.

But lying comes so easily to liberals, I sometimes wonder if they even notice when they’re doing it. For instance, Hillary Clinton recently claimed that three of her four grandparents were immigrants. When it turned out that two were born in Illinois and a third was born in Pennsylvania, one of her numerous translators explained that the grandparents often spoke about the “immigrant experience.”

Well, I can understand her confusion. After all, Elizabeth Warren was convinced she was a Cherokee because her parents used to cheer for the redskins when watching cowboy and Indian movies or something like that. In my own case, because my parents often spoke about the Chicago Cubs, I naturally concluded that my dad had pitched for the team and my mom had played second base.

Finally, as much as I enjoy following the antics of politicians seeking the presidential nomination, I find myself going crazy every four years when the eyes of America inevitably turn to Iowa and New Hampshire. Of all the states in the Union, these are probably the last two that should have so much influence on the race.

For one thing, Iowa doesn’t even have a statewide primary election. Instead, Iowa, one of the least demographically diverse states in America, holds a caucus, where a handful of people get to determine who will be the presumptive favorite moving on to New Hampshire. I suspect there are some colleges at which more votes are cast for Homecoming Queen.

It doesn’t get much better when the circus moves on to New Hampshire. For one thing, it is no more representative of the national electorate than Iowa.

For another, it has even fewer people, so this year when the two dozen Republican contenders, accompanied by their handlers, spokespeople, spouses and fund raisers, arrive, the state’s population will double overnight.