The Patriot Post® · Lunacy at Large

By Burt Prelutsky ·
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/12801-lunacy-at-large-2012-03-05

I don’t believe I am the only American who gets sick to his stomach every time one of our presidents or generals prostrates himself to Islam. Recently, when it was discovered that Muslim prisoners in Afghanistan had been scribbling messages to one another in their Korans, the books were confiscated and burned. In retaliation, Muslims rioted and murdered four American soldiers. And how did we react? We bowed and scraped and apologized to Hamid Karzai, the putrid Afghan president who not only provided sanctuary to Osama bin Laden, but allowed the Chinese access to the Navy Seals helicopter that went down during the mission to expunge bin Laden.

In the past, it would have made as much sense if members of our military had burned copies of such texts as the Protocols of Zion or “Mein Kampf” and an American president had curtsied and begged forgiveness of Czar Nicholas II or Adolf Hitler.

The way I see it, Ahmadinejad has it all wrong; we’re not the big Satan; we’re the little punk. Jihadists are free to mark up their copies of the Koran; Egyptians are allowed to burn New Testaments and slaughter Christians; Iran is allowed to threaten Israel with nuclear extinction and execute Yusef Nardakhani for apostasy, a fancy word meaning that he had the good sense to convert from Islam to Christianity.

Devout Muslims, in their warped sense of honor, are encouraged to sell their children into slavery or murder them, and mutilate their girls with clitorectomies. But Christian and Jewish Americans are repeatedly told that we are supposed to respect their religion. Why on earth would a civilized human being respect a religion that murders people in the name of Islam over a cartoon or a stuffed toy a child asked to have named Mohammad?

If we were in prison, Islam would be Bubba and we’d be his bitch.

One of the few pieces of good news out of the Middle East is that we haven’t rushed in to arm the so-called rebels in Syria. I would have been in favor of ridding the world of Bashar al-Assad, but if the Arab Spring has taught us anything, it is that we should never expect any good to come of an uprising in that part of the world. There may be something sillier we can do than arm the Muslim Brotherhood, but off the top of my head I can’t imagine what it might be.

Although things aren’t nearly as toxic in America as they are in some places, it’s merely a matter of degree. For instance, even though I’m not a Catholic, I was offended at Obama’s attempt to force Catholic-run institutions to provide contraception devices and abortions for their employees. Even Obama’s “compromise,” which would force insurance companies to provide them, is nothing but political sleight of hand. After all, the insurance companies would simply pass along the cost to the rest of us. Included in “the rest of us” are millions of American Catholics.

On the other hand, the Catholic Bishops supported ObamaCare, and helped sell the scam to their parishioners, so there is a bit of divine justice in the present cockup. As someone once observed, the Devil’s in the details.

Although there is a part of me that’s been enjoying Bill O'Reilly’s nightly rants attacking the major oil companies – namely the part that enjoys seeing his face turn into a ripe red tomato – as usual he’s overlooking a glaring fact. Oil companies have staggering earnings, but it’s because they deal in such enormous volume. But they also have huge expenses. It’s not cheap to seek out oil deposits, set up rigs and drill for the stuff, transport it to refineries, refine it and then transport the finished product to all those thousands of pumps. As a result, their profit margin is somewhere in the range of two to four cents a gallon. On the other hand, gasoline taxes, which include local, state and federal, range from a low of 26 cents per gallon in Alaska to 66 cents in California, with a national average just under half a dollar.

The battle over Affirmative Action is underway once again because a young woman, Abigail Fisher, is suing the University of Texas. Apparently, in spite of her superior test scores, she was denied admission in order to accommodate black and Hispanic students.

The last time the Supreme Court was asked to rule on this matter, which was roughly a decade ago, they decided that race could continue to play a role in such decisions, but not an overriding role, and that at some later date, they might reconsider it. It seems that day has finally arrived.

The good news is that Sandra Day O'Connor is gone, replaced by Samuel Alito, and Elena Kagan has decided to recuse herself because she was on record, as the U.S. solicitor general, as being in favor of Affirmative Action.

In 2007, the Court struck down similar programs in public high schools. In their decision, the majority concluded with the line, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” One can hardly be more succinct or logical.

Once the Supremes take care of that piece of business, they will then be able to move on to the question of free in-state college tuitions for the children of illegal aliens. Not only is it discriminatory, but it flies in the face of the law that states people are not allowed to profit from the commission of a crime.

Finally, was I the only person who imagined the following exchange taking place between movie director, and close personal friend of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, Oliver Stone and one of his Hollywood stooges?

Stooge: “Did you hear the news, Mr. Stone? Your son, Sean, has converted.”

Stone: “Oh, no! Not that! Get me a razor. I’m going to slit my wrists!”

Stooge: “You’re that upset that he went to Iran, became a Muslim and changed his name to Ali?”

Stone: “Oh, for crying out loud! I thought you meant the kid had become a Republican. Go get me a beer.”