What The Other Side Is Saying

WHAT THE OTHER SIDE IS SAYING – I

I gave $500 to Steve Forbes’ 1996 presidential campaign – I’m a Forbes Family Fan – because I thought he might elevate the Republican debate (sadly, no) and $500 to my great friend Mike Huffington’s 1992 congressional race (remember moderate Republicans?) . . . and have been getting right-wing missives ever since.

On Thanksgiving I got an email that begins:

Tyranny and gun control is only an election away! Liberty is at peril every single day and with every breath we take. For 235 years, tyranny in the United States has been held at bay through US Citizen’s right to bear arms.

Leaving aside the two grammatical errors – the pointing out of which only makes gun-rights folks even angrier at people like me – can you think of a single instance, let alone a daily stream of them, where private gun ownership has prevented tyranny here? What are these people talking about?

It continues:

. . . The recent Occupy Wall Street protests and liberal attempts at gun control are eerily reminiscent to the rise of Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot and Idi Amin. Barack Obama and Eric Holder, gun control advocates, are secretly conspiring to strip American Citizens of the right to bear arms.

It’s true that a lot of us think you shouldn’t be able to walk into a gun show and buy a dozen submachine guns with cop-killing bullets if you have a history of mental illness.

And some of us think you should need a license to carry, and that guns shouldn’t be allowed in football stadiums or bars.

There are all kinds of liberal notions floating around out there, most of which I share. But there is absolutely nothing for the gun folks to worry about from Barack Obama. Even if this were an agenda item, and it’s not, he could never possibly get 60 Senate votes to license or register – let alone confiscate – anyone’s guns.

So the urgent tone of the email is hysterical – and not in the “funny” sense.

It includes a video clip of Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Pot, and Imin . . . then goes on to urge a free fax blast to your lawmakers and members of the Supreme Court . . . and offers you links to buy guns, ammunition, and knives.

Oh, the victims of tyranny, upon whom – by liberals – Social Security benefits and access to health care have been thrust! Who now – thanks to Barack Obama – have to accept less onerous college loan terms! Who – thanks to liberals over the decades – must suffer the tyranny of a cushion to fall back on if they lose their jobs; a minimum wage to prevent a complete race-to-the-bottom; an Earned Income Tax Credit (Republicans deserve a chunk of the credit for that tyrannical program); cleaner air and water (again, give Republicans some credit); the Internet (a DARPA-funded development Al Gore championed) . . . and, through some combination of labor unions, communists, and Pol Pot wannabes, weekends.

WHAT THE OTHER SIDE IS SAYING – II

Another Thanksgiving email [emphasis and highlighting in the original]:

. . . did you know that your TURKEY may have been consecrated to Allah this Thanksgiving?

Let me explain.

Most grocery stores carry Butterball© turkeys. It is one of the very largest suppliers of turkeys in America. Did you know that every single Butterball turkey is halal?

I know you are asking: What is halal? It is another part of Sharia law.

The term Halal designates any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law. The term is used to define food seen as permissible and blessed according to Islamic law. Yes, we’re talking about good, old-fashioned, American Butterball© TURKEYS!

Much of the meat processed in Europe and the United States is processed as halal without the knowledge of the non-Muslim consumer.

There are only two plants in the United States that perform halal slaughter keep the halal meat separated from the non-halal meat, and they only do so because plant managers thought it was right to do so. Wendy Howze, a Butterball Consumer Response Representative says: “Our whole turkeys are certified halal.”

Halal slaughter involves cutting the trachea, the esophagus, and the jugular vein, and letting the blood drain out while saying “Bismillah alahu akbar”—in the name of Allah the greatest.

Many people who do not want to eat food that has been offered to another god refuse to eat it on religious grounds. It is meat slaughtered according to Islamic ritual. This offends many Christians and Jews.

According to the anti-Muslim activist Pam Geller: “Non-Muslims in America and Europe do not deserve to have halal turkey forced upon them in this way, without their knowledge or consent. So this Thanksgiving, fight for your freedom. Find a non-halal, non-Butterball turkey to celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday. And write to Butterball and request, politely but firmly, that they stop selling only halal turkeys, and make non-halal turkeys available to Americans who still value our freedoms.”

I know, it may be already too late for you and your family. But please understand what is happening to our American society. Our culture is being changed – slowly but steadily in every single area of our life! And we must fight against that!

Sharia Law is overtaking our society. Almost 100 cases in our courts involve the implementation of Sharia Law into our society.

You ask: “What really is Sharia Law?”

The bottom line definition: “The enemy adheres to an all-encompassing Islamic political-military-legal doctrine known as Sharia. Sharia obliges them to engage in jihad to achieve the triumph of Islam worldwide through the establishment of a global Islamic State governed exclusively by Sharia, under a restored caliphate.”

You see, we have a very pro-active, pro-Muslim United States President – President Obama. This is unprecedented in American political history!

You see, Sharia Law has not only infiltrated our court system, it has made its way to our Thanksgiving tables. GOD HELP US! We must fight back while we still can!

Florida’s U.S. Rep. Sandy Adams has introduced over seven months ago H.R. 973 which forbids foreign law (including Sharia Law) from our United States court system. Through over 5 million e-mails (not including the 100,000’s of TV ad viewership, Facebook© and Google© responses) that Conservative Action Alerts has sent in the last seven months, we have helped to raise the number of Co-Sponsors to this all-important bill to 72! Will you help us today to inform the non-Co-Sponsors that they must get on board this nation-saving bill?

☞ It goes on at length, urging you five different times to click a link to fax Congress: “I desperately urge you to help Co-Sponsor H. R. 973 to make sure that NO foreign law (including Shariah Law) can infiltrate our United States courts system.”

And they will charge you just $33 to fax all 100 senators (at a presumed cost to themselves, given efax blasts, of essentially zero) . . . $119 to fax all congresspersons who have not yet sponsored the bill . . . or (among several other options) “$175 … BIGGEST IMPACT—fax all Senators and Congressmen who have NOT yet Co-Sponsored H.R. 973, and help our nationwide MEDIA EFFORTS.”

In small print at the end: “Conservative Action Alerts (CAA) is a media outlet protected by the first amendment and that [sic] support for our efforts is not tax-deductible. Diener Consultants, Inc., 17388 Nature Walk Trail, Suite No. 301, Parker, CO 80134.”

My guess is that someone behind this email may be eating pretty well himself, whatever the religious background of his turkey.

Be that as it may, the more important point is that millions of these emails are circulating, adding to the right-wing hysteria – Buy guns! Protect yourself from the imminent tyranny! Protect yourself from Muslims! Stop Obama! – and they are not, in my view, adding to the public weal.