Oh My! Radical Leftist Freddie deBoer Calls for Legalizing Polygamous Marriage!

Well, so much for the widely derided right-wing "slippery slope" on legalized polygamy.

Yesterday Salon's Sophia Tesfaye was mocking conservatives who raised the possibility of legalized polygamy: "“Polygamy, here we come!” Right wing melts down over gay marriage victory."

But a quick search shows that Salon's backed polygamy for years, "Legalize Polygamy!"

And then of course radical leftist Fredrik "Freddie" deBoer was off the blocks with the case for legalized polygamy as well, almost as soon the Supreme Court issued its ruling. See, at Politico, "It’s Time to Legalize Polygamy":

Well, that didn't take long. http://t.co/UDmysj6fwR pic.twitter.com/wyCozIugpw

— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) June 26, 2015

Just can't convince some people that I wrote that piece because I genuinely believe in a natural moral right to group marriage.

— Freddie (@freddiedeboer) June 27, 2015

Welcome to the exciting new world of the slippery slope. With the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling this Friday legalizing same sex marriage in all 50 states, social liberalism has achieved one of its central goals. A right seemingly unthinkable two decades ago has now been broadly applied to a whole new class of citizens. Following on the rejection of interracial marriage bans in the 20th Century, the Supreme Court decision clearly shows that marriage should be a broadly applicable right—one that forces the government to recognize, as Friday’s decision said, a private couple’s “love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family.

The question presents itself: Where does the next advance come? The answer is going to make nearly everyone uncomfortable: Now that we’ve defined that love and devotion and family isn’t driven by gender alone, why should it be limited to just two individuals? The most natural advance next for marriage lies in legalized polygamy—yet many of the same people who pressed for marriage equality for gay couples oppose it.

This is not an abstract issue. In Chief Justice John Roberts’ dissenting opinion, he remarks, “It is striking how much of the majority’s reasoning would apply with equal force to the claim of a fundamental right to plural marriage.” As is often the case with critics of polygamy, he neglects to mention why this is a fate to be feared. Polygamy today stands as a taboo just as strong as same-sex marriage was several decades ago—it’s effectively only discussed as outdated jokes about Utah and Mormons, who banned the practice over 120 years ago.

Yet the moral reasoning behind society’s rejection of polygamy remains just as uncomfortable and legally weak as same-sex marriage opposition was until recently.

That’s one reason why progressives who reject the case for legal polygamy often don’t really appear to have their hearts in it. They seem uncomfortable voicing their objections, clearly unused to being in the position of rejecting the appeals of those who would codify non-traditional relationships in law. They are, without exception, accepting of the right of consenting adults to engage in whatever sexual and romantic relationships they choose, but oppose the formal, legal recognition of those relationships. They’re trapped, I suspect, in prior opposition that they voiced from a standpoint of political pragmatism in order to advance the cause of gay marriage.

In doing so, they do real harm to real people. Marriage is not just a formal codification of informal relationships. It’s also a defensive system designed to protect the interests of people whose material, economic and emotional security depends on the marriage in question. If my liberal friends recognize the legitimacy of free people who choose to form romantic partnerships with multiple partners, how can they deny them the right to the legal protections marriage affords?

Keep reading.

And remember, if you're not down with legalized polygamy, you're a hater!

See, "The Same-Sex Marriage Bait-and-Switch - You Will Be Assimilated!"

ADDED: DeBoer responds to his critics:

But why publish it on the day gay marriage becomes law?

Because I do think, despite what so many progressives have halfheartedly said, that marriage equality meaningfully influences the legal and moral case for polygamy, and that this is a good thing. I waited until that day because, with marriage equality now the law of the land, with broad popular support, the political risk of association with polygamy has died, and so the time has come to make the case for polygamy, a natural outgrowth of social liberalism and one of several moral imperatives for us going forward. I wrote the piece because I believe in a natural moral right to group marriage, and for the reasons I said in the piece. You can agree, or disagree, but you cannot dictate my reasons or my views.

Wow! Islamic State Using TOW Anti-Tank Guided Missiles!

Mind-boggling.

At Long War Journal, "Islamic State uses US-made anti-tank missiles in Hasakah offensive."

The Islamic State has released photographs from its offensive in the eastern Syrian city of Hasakah. Two of the photos detail the use of the US-made BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missile.

The current offensive in Hasakah is happening concurrently with an offensive in Kobane in northern Syria, and a renewed push at the Deir al Zour airbase. The assaults come after Kurdish forces made significant gains in the northern Syrian province of Raqqah, considered the “capital” of the Islamic State. Over 100 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the assaults. (For more information, see LWJ report, Islamic State attacks Kobane, Hasakah, and Deir al Zour.)

Photos released from the battle showcase the spoils gained in the fighting. Several crates of ammunition are seen to have been captured from the regime, as well as several vehicles. Other photos show dead regime soldiers, but the images are too graphic to be published by The Long War Journal. Other images highlight actual fighting, including the two showing the use of the TOW missiles.

This is not the first time the jihadist group has used the US system. Earlier this month, the Islamic State publicized the use of the missiles during the capture of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. Last December, the jihadist group also published photos showing its forces using TOW missiles against Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces in the Damascus countryside. The United States has supplied several FSA groups with TOW missiles, which have sometimes fallen into the hands of jihadist groups or have been used to assist jihadist groups. The TOWs used in Palmyra and Hasakah were likely captured from battles with the FSA in other parts of Syria...

More.

Via Bad Blue.

Don't Get Trolled on Confederate Flag

From Robert Tracinski, at the Federalist, "Let’s Not Get Trolled on the Confederate Flag":

I’ve been getting the feeling over the past few days that the Left is trying to troll us into defending the Confederate flag, simply by way of the trivial, obnoxious, and gratuitously partisan way they’re campaigning against it.

Yeah, well, that's the left for you, despicable cretins.

I'm not defending the Confederate flag. It's Democrats battle flag. That's just a fact.

Linked there is Ta-Nehisi Coates, who despite his disgusting racialization of everything, is right about this: "What This Cruel War Was Over - The meaning of the Confederate flag is best discerned in the words of those who bore it."

Stonewall Homosexuals 'Noisily' Celebrate Supreme Court's Depraved Same-Sex Marriage Ruling

I wonder if by "noisily" it turns out the homosexuals weren't using lubricants for their public sex.

At the Independent UK:

Patrons of NYC’s Stonewall Inn noisily celebrate same-sex court ruling #Lovewon http://t.co/xS2V92l7BN pic.twitter.com/TCxAYsNmtp

— Independent US (@IndyUSA) June 27, 2015

PREVIOUSLY: "Stonewall Homosexuals Celebrate Supreme Court Same-Sex Marriage Ruling."

BONUS: At the ISR, "Stonewall: The birth of gay power - An excerpt from Sherry Wolf's book, Sexuality and Socialism."

Bree Newsome, #BlackLivesMatter Extremist, Tears Down Confederate at South Carolina Statehouse (VIDEO)

Wow.

This is just extreme. No, it's beyond extreme. It's frankly insane.

The woman, Bree Newsome, is on Twitter here. She's a radical leftist and #BlackLivesMatter activist.

At Memeorandum, "Woman removes Confederate flag in front of SC statehouse."

“We removed the flag today because we can’t wait any longer. It’s time for a new chapter where we are sincere about dismantling white supremacy and building toward true racial justice and equality.”

And at the Charleston Post & Courier, "Woman removes Confederate flag in front of South Carolina statehouse (has video)."

...the flag is intolerable only because it primarily offends black people (who racists already feel are "taking over their country").

— Bree Newsome (@BreeNewsome) June 20, 2015

The refusal to firmly acknowledge and condemn the racism only fans the flames further because it makes it seem like...

— Bree Newsome (@BreeNewsome) June 20, 2015

They're trying to displace the decision from themselves; the flag has gotta come down because "some people" don't like it...

— Bree Newsome (@BreeNewsome) June 20, 2015

White politicians calling for removal of the confederate flag because "to SOME people it's a symbol of racism and hate" is problematic...

— Bree Newsome (@BreeNewsome) June 20, 2015

The flag will come down, neo-confederates will rise up and USA will face a day of reckoning for original sin it still refuses to acknowledge

— Bree Newsome (@BreeNewsome) June 21, 2015

They allow monuments to the confederacy all throughout the southern U.S. but suppress the history of the slave rebellions. Why is that?

— Bree Newsome (@BreeNewsome) June 21, 2015

Saberpoint on Gene Kizer's, Slavery Was Not the Cause of the War Between the States — the Irrefutable Argument

Man, this book must be really bad.

See Stogie at Saberpoint, "Slavery Was Not the Cause of the War Between the States -- the Irrefutable Argument."

Kizer's book is here.

And here's my response to Stogie:

"The North's economy was based mostly on manufacturing for the South and shipping Southern cotton around the world."

Yes, and cotton was an extremely low-value added commodity, of which the U.S. economy would increasingly marginalize had not the South attempted to export its ideology of property in slaves into the territories, in essence attempting to nationalize the ideology of slaveholder's rights to own blacks.

The fact is, the South had a pre-industrial economy that failed to attract capital, and was already headed for a falling rate of productivity and further economic backwardness. Ironically, what investment that was sent to the South was overwhelming invested in planting, since that's all Southerners really knew how to do -- own black slaves, beat them into vicious submission, to eek out increasingly marginalized returns.

Moreover, insular agrarianism isolated the South, cutting it off from the influx of new people and ideas (people obviously hostile to chattel slavery and much more morally enlightened). Today, the Confederacy, if it had continued to exist, would be a poor primary exporter like the peripheral Latin American economies. Cutting edge industries, back then rail, steel, manufacturing, shipbuilding, and now high-technology information systems, robotics, and nano-technology, would be found nearly exclusively in the North. Folks might as well move to Mexico for all the Southern economy would be cracked up to be.

But again, Stogie, all this stuff you're spouting about the North being the aggressor against the South is more of the mythic national ideology of the South, the same ideology that claimed to favor liberty and states' rights, but in fact pursued tyrannical policies, nationalized economics, used murderous Gestapo-style police force to keep the system in place, and advanced racial ideologies to keep alive a social hierarchy of American apartheid.

Kizer's book is economically illiterate. Yes, the South dominated cotton exports, but economic history shows that "King Cotton" is no longer king. The South was bound to backwardness one way or the other. But by bringing on the Civil War, Southerners guaranteed their experiment from 1961-1865 would wind up on the scrapheap of history, not unlike the Soviet Union (or the Nazis, if you prefer), with which the South's methods of tyranny had so much in common.

As always, check back for future iterations on the discussion of the Confederacy.

Here's Donald Trump's Letter to Univision

He's getting pretty aggressive on this whole thing.

Letter to @Univision - Re: @TrumpDoral https://t.co/6mauCmg6uO

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2015

PREVIOUSLY: "Donald Trump Under Fire for 'Mexican Rapist' Comment, Doubles Down (VIDEO)."

San Francisco Homosexuals Celebrate Supreme Court Same-Sex Marriage Ruling

At CBS News San Francisco:

President Obama Calls Jim Obergefell, Plaintiff in Depraved Homosexual Marriage Ruling (VIDEO)

At CNN:

Homosexual Marriage Ruling Starts New Religious Freedom War

At IBD, "Same-Sex Marriage Ruling Starts New Religious Freedom War":

#SupremeCourt Gay Marriage Ruling Will Harm #ReligiousFreedom, Marginalize Biblical Worldview: http://t.co/c6aRo5CIT7 pic.twitter.com/0L7mzKKwBP

— The Christian Post (@ChristianPost) June 26, 2015

Observant Christians — and adherents of other faiths — are reeling from the Supreme Court's declaration of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage and preparing for an unprecedented struggle for their right to express their beliefs and live their lives accordingly, as new battles will now be waged unless and until a future Supreme Court reverses course.

The Constitution says nothing about marriage or abortion. Yet in 1973 the Supreme Court declared a constitutional right to abortion, resulting in decades of relentless political and legal conflicts.

Now the Court has held that the Constitution likewise forbids the 50 states from defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. But many people of faith disagree, and the First Amendment promises that they have the right to do so. Devout Christians are already enmeshed in legal battles over this issue.

Navy chaplain Wes Modder, sportscaster Craig James and others have lost jobs or are losing their jobs because they hold Christian beliefs on sex and marriage.

Business owners face more than losing their businesses, as Washington florist Barronelle Stutzman could lose her home and life's savings, and Colorado baker Jack Phillips risks jail time if he continues refusing to bake cakes celebrating gay marriage. There are others, and the list grows monthly.

Keep reading.

Homosexual Flag Goes Up Over Civic Center, City of Long Beach, California

Following up from yesterday, "Homosexual Flag Goes Up Over County Government Center in Santa Clara, California."

From the Twitter feed of homosexual Mayor of Long Beach, Robert Garcia:

Day of decision rally is tonight at 5:30PM in the plaza at the Long Beach Civic Center. info http://t.co/cQYb9GnZEm pic.twitter.com/r7FRz8dSZi

— LB Mayor's Office (@LBMayorsOffice) June 26, 2015

Long Beach raised a rainbow flag today in front of City Hall. pic.twitter.com/etTBvzHel0

— Lauren Raab (@raablauren) June 26, 2015

Stonewall Homosexuals Celebrate Supreme Court Same-Sex Marriage Ruling

Well, homosexual rainbows are breaking out all over.

At CBS News New York:

#BlackLivesMatter Activists Whine That Homosexual Marriage Overshadows Their Movement

When all is said and done, homosexuals are higher up the hierarchy of the oppressed.

At Twitchy, "Does the #BlackLivesMatter movement have a problem with today’s focus on gay marriage? Sure looks like it!"

They only legalized gay marriage to get everyone off track about #BlackLivesMatter

— BabyBoy ⛽️ (@DavoneTurner) June 26, 2015

Yes. Only.

The Only Way to Guarantee 'Peak Leftism' Is to Fight Leftism and Destroy It

A masterful piece from William Kristol, at the Weekly Standard, "‘Peak Leftism’?":

It’s the summer of 2015, and the left is on the march. Or perhaps one should say—since the left presumably dislikes the militarist connotations of the term “march”—that the left is swarming. And in its mindless swarming and mob-like frenzy, nearly every hideous aspect of contemporary leftism is on display.

We see a French Revolution-like tendency to move with the speed of light from a reasonable and perhaps overdue change (taking down the Confederate flag over state buildings) to an all-out determination to expunge from our history any recognition or respect for that which doesn’t fully comport with contemporary progressive sentiment. The left’s point, of course, is not to clarify and sharpen appreciation for our distinctive history; the point is to discredit that history.

And the point is not to advance arguments and criticize alternative views; it is to deny the legitimacy of opposing arguments and to demonize opponents and purge them from the public square.

We see a pitiful aversion to standing up to barbarism abroad and a desperate willingness to accommodate and appease. This requires an amazing ability to shut one’s eyes to reality, and an extraordinary refusal to make tough decisions and assume real responsibilities. As Harvey Mansfield put it in the 1970s, “From having been the aggressive doctrine of vigorous, spirited men, liberalism has become hardly more than a trembling in the presence of illiberalism. .  .  . Who today is called a liberal for strength and confidence in defense of liberty?”

We see a wanton willingness on the part of leftist elites to use sophistic arguments to override democratic self-government when the people might not endorse the outcome (say, “marriage equality”) that the left has decided “progress” requires. We see a desperate desire to find a secular substitute for religious belief in the embrace of abstract doctrines (“global warming”) that are appropriately renamed (“climate change”) when the facts complicate matters. And we see a cavalier willingness to impose costs on others less fortunate and less well-protected for the sake of the left’s moral self-regard (by, for example, pledging to end “the era of mass incarceration,” also known as the era of crime reduction).

But as Alexander Hamilton (another recent object of the left’s perpetual discomfort with human achievement) wrote in Federalist 70: “There can be no need .  .  . to multiply arguments or examples on this head.” All the trends and tendencies, the pathologies and perversities that have made the modern left so corrosive of national spirit, so corrupting of self-government, so damaging to Western civilization, are on display front and center in today’s America. As the title of a brilliant article by Kevin D. Williamson in National Review puts it, “We Have Officially Reached Peak Leftism.” ...

The only way to ensure leftism has peaked, and to ensure that it doesn’t drag us further down into the abyss, is to fight it and defeat it. We either overcome peak leftism, or we’re doomed.

I've snipped some of it, so go read it all.

After Sundown, Democrats Light Up White House in Rainbow Colors to Celebrate Homosexual Ruling! (VIDEO)

We have gone officially mad.

Watch: "VIDEO - White House Lit in Rainbow Colors to Celebrate New Chapter in Same Sex Rights - 6/26/15."

WATCH LIVE: As sun goes down, White House lights up rainbow colors to celebrate SCOTUS ruling http://t.co/yKJ71mR4fY pic.twitter.com/VezIVQpOvJ

— The Hill (@thehill) June 27, 2015

New Hamas Flotilla Sets Out to Break Israel's Blockade of Gaza (VIDEO)

They're terrorists.

At Telegraph UK, "Activists set sail for Gaza aboard 'Freedom Flotilla'."

And at Bare Naked Islam, "LOCK & LOAD! Another flo’terror’tilla from Europe will attempt to break the Israeli security barrier that prevents weapons and bombs from reaching Gaza."

Fighting Fatalism After the End of America As We Know It

From Jon Gabriel, at Ricochet, "Fighting Fatalism":

NEVER. GIVE. UP. pic.twitter.com/c3RSqpmRrg

— Stay Puft (@staypuft) June 26, 2015

Despite the multiple crises, our betters are screeching about utter nonsense. Whether a flag should be displayed in an iPhone game, whether people can choose their race and gender, if old ladies should be publicly flayed or just put out of business for not baking a cake.

Eventually the electorate will come to its senses — I mean, they have to, right? As Glenn Reynolds often says, “what cannot continue, won’t.” But what cataclysm will it take to shake us out of our navel-gazing, microaggressed, Brawndo-swilling stupor?

An even worse financial collapse than in 2008 with no borrowed money left to rescue the banks? A deadlier act of war than 9-11? And if either happens, God forbid, will Americans just use the moment to blame each other in even uglier terms?

My ultimate hope, as a Christian, is knowing that God is in control. Being a student of history, I know that cultures have endured far worse calamities than our comfortable decline. But I want to know how you keep your hopes up. Fatalism will never win hearts and minds, let alone elections, so do you have advice on keeping political setbacks from dragging you into despond?

RTWT.

Added: From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "IS THIS WEEK THE RIGHT’S VALLEY FORGE? From Rick Moran at the PJ Tatler."

Team U.S.A. Star Alex Morgan Comes Out for Homosexual Marriage

Women's World Cup quarterfinals play is on right now.

Meanwhile, Alex Morgan tweeted her support for the Supreme Court's homosexual marriage ruling:

Finally. A big step in the right direction for our country! https://t.co/uDS6ltqpcR

— Alex Morgan (@alexmorgan13) June 26, 2015

She's also got some coverage at Sports Illustrated today, plus flashback to her body paint in 2012:

Let's hear it for @alexmorgan13 and the @ussoccer_wnt team! http://t.co/yRK3Dx1eJ2 pic.twitter.com/y4WX02WW93

— SI Swimsuit (@SI_Swimsuit) June 26, 2015

Veep Joseph Biden Congratulates President Obama on #SSM Ruling: 'This is a big f*cking deal' (PHOTOS)

See all the celebratory photos from White House photographer Pete Souza, at Medium, "Behind the Lens: When the President Heard the News of the Supreme Court Decision on the Affordable Care Act." (Via Memeorandum.)

Elizabeth Warren Wears Feather Boa to Celebrate Homosexual Marriage Ruling in Massachusetts

Well, it's a "boa" at the tweet, but c'mon. Is there any other kind?

From Jacklyn Friedman:

Don’t know if you can see her here, but Senator Warren is wearing a boa at the State House right now. pic.twitter.com/uFClUBBoRk

— Jaclyn Friedman (@jaclynf) June 26, 2015

Outrage as Giant Penis in Norway Goes Around 'Ejaculating' Glitter at People (VIDEO)

It's for "safe sex." But it's Norway. It's safe man-on-man butt sex as much as anything else.

Coming to America.

Watch: "Outrage as giant penis creeps up on people and sprays them for safe sex campaign."

More: "Giant glitter-spraying penis stars in Norwegian sex education advert."

Franklin Graham: Prepare for Persecution of Christians After Homosexual Marriage Ruling (VIDEO)

Yep.

And S.E. Cupp discounts this.

Franklin Graham: "Our nation has a spiritual problem."

Bingo:

CNN Contributor S.E. Cupp Gets Emotional Discussing Homosexual Marriage Ruling (VIDEO)

She's a good lady.

The problem is that it's not just about "marriage equality." The left is currently tearing the country down.

What's the GOP going to do about that?

The Media's Vile Attacks on Conservative Assimilationists

From Michelle Malkin:

I have had enough of smug liberal elites wrapped in their “Celebrate Diversity” banners tearing down minority conservatives.

Look in the mirror, media and academia bigots. Your own reflexive racism and divisive rhetoric are poisoning public discourse.

There’s nothing “progressive” about attacking the children and grandchildren of immigrants who proudly embrace an American identity.
We are not “self-hating.” You just hate what we believe.

The most recent grenade tossed by the jack-booted Enforcers of Ethnic Authenticity came from The Washington Post this week. The Beltway fish-wrapper hyped a 2,100-word investigation of GOP Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal with a condescending quote from Professor G. Pearson Cross, who sneered: “There’s not much Indian left in Bobby Jindal.”

Has pallid Professor Cross invented an ambient diagnostic test to measure sufficiently acceptable levels of ethnicity?

The Post quoted a grand total of one disgruntled Democratic donor who railed against Jindal for “forgetting” his “heritage” and his “roots.” But that was more than enough for the apartheid-lite adherents to heed the dog whistle immediately. The Post’s splashy attack on Jindal’s assimilationist ethic spawned a vile Twitter hashtag game: #BobbyJindalIsSoWhite.

Left-wing racists mocked his skin color, his kids and his decision to change his name from “Piyush” to “Bobby.” A New York Times digital editor, Shreeya Sinha, gleefully linked to a BBC compilation of “The best of #BobbyJindalisSoWhite.” NBC News gloated over tweets from liberal Indian-Americans who mocked the accomplished governor, Rhodes scholar and father of three as a “Jindian.”

It’s the same old, same old from radical academics and reporters who spurned assimilation as a common goal long ago. As I’ve long observed, the media-ivory tower complex’s fidelity lies with bilingualism (a euphemism for native language maintenance over English-first instruction), ethnic militancy, extreme multiculturalism and a borderless continent.

If we conservatives “of color” refuse to promote the welfare state, unfettered abortion, affirmative action and massive immigration, we are guilty of “selling out.”

Conversely, if I point out that my skin is far darker than that of the TV progressives of pallor who presume to know more than me about what it’s like to experience prejudice, I’m accused of exploiting my ethnicity.

We’re coconuts, bananas and Oreos (brown, yellow or black on the outside and “white” on the inside).

We’re accused of “thinking” and “acting” white if we quote the Constitution, shoot, hunt, oppose high taxes, homeschool, take personal responsibility or demand that government leave us alone...

More.

My skin's far darker too, which is why I'm accused of exploiting my ethnicity.

It also explains why leftists have long attempted to take me down, here and here.

Homosexual Flag Goes Up Over County Government Center in Santa Clara, California

We're all homosexuals now.

Interesting how the homosexual flag is going up as the Confederate flag is coming down. I don't care about the racist Confederate flag, but it sure tells you something about the direction of the country.

Rainbow flag flies over Santa Clara Co. Govt center after #SCOTUSMarriage decision this morning. @abc7newsBayArea pic.twitter.com/n2fEQc05Yh

— David Louie (@abc7david) June 26, 2015

Also, "#LOVEWINS: SUPREME COURT MAKES HISTORIC DECISION ON GAY MARRIAGE."

ADDED: It's going to be raised at government buildings all over the country. I'll update if I see more tweets:

Florida. @AmPowerBlog @debrapianalto @lheal @wellfonder http://t.co/fJ2ndGDPpm

— DernDawn (@noprezzie2012) June 26, 2015

Rainbow flag raised over City Hall in St. Pete to honor St. Pete Pride. (Photo: SPPD.) http://t.co/lz9bquV0P2 pic.twitter.com/aOffo28XU1

— Bay News 9 (@BN9) June 25, 2015

Just Waking Up and Saw This Huge Homosexual Marriage Roundup on Memeorandum Earlier

I was up scrolling through the news on my iPhone at 7:00am and the SCOTUS homosexual marriage ruling had just dropped. Memeorandum hadn't caught up with the news but had a beautiful roundup on all the ObamaCare commentary.

Here.

I have my hard copy of the Los Angeles Times, with the lead story from Noam Levey, "Analysis Obamacare appears to be about as established as a law can be in divided U.S."

So, it's a big news day today. There was an ISIS beheading in France that won't get the coverage it deserves in the U.S. with all the other news. But read around and access alternative sites. The ideological war has reached full battle pitch, and conservatives are on the defensive but not yet defeated. Join the fray friends. Truth and decency are themselves under siege.

Roxane Gay, Associate Professor of English at Purdue University, 'Can't Forgive Dylann Roof'

Remember when the suspect Dylann Roof was arraigned and he stood behind the one-way window inside the police department and the victims families forgave him?

Yes, and the response to that was astonishing. People saw that moment as an ultimate example of Christian kindness and Southern honor.

Leftists, on the other hand, denounced the forgiveness, most prominently bad folks on Twitter like Deray and Ta-Nehisi Coates.

And now you can add this leftist douchebag Roxane Gay, who's an Associate Professor of English at Purdue.

At the New York Times, "Why I Can’t Forgive Dylann Roof":

TY @rgay for this truth: http://t.co/m7xAoDxo8I #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/t6hq1ccLK8

— Jodeen Olguín-Tayler (@JodeenOT) June 24, 2015

"I do not foresee ever forgiving his crimes, and I am wholly at ease with that choice" — @rgay http://t.co/FCzhCjymkX pic.twitter.com/b3S6ITUFkh

— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) June 23, 2015

Forgiveness does not come easily to me. I am fine with this failing. I am particularly unwilling to forgive those who show no remorse, who don’t demonstrate any interest in reconciliation. I do not believe there has been enough time since this terrorist attack for anyone to forgive. The bodies of the dead are still being buried....

Over the weekend, newspapers across the country shared headlines of forgiveness from the families of the nine slain. The dominant media narrative vigorously embraced that notion of forgiveness, seeming to believe that if we forgive we have somehow found a way to make sense of the incomprehensible.

We are reminded of the power of whiteness. Predictably, alongside the forgiveness story, the media has tried to humanize this terrorist. They have tried to understand Dylann Roof’s hatred because surely, there must be an explanation for so heinous an act. At the gunman’s bond hearing, the judge, who was once reprimanded for using the N-word from the bench, talked about how not only were the nine slain and their families victims, but so were the relatives of the terrorist. There are no limits to the power of whiteness when it comes to calls for mercy.

The call for forgiveness is a painfully familiar refrain when black people suffer. White people embrace narratives about forgiveness so they can pretend the world is a fairer place than it actually is, and that racism is merely a vestige of a painful past instead of this indelible part of our present.

Black people forgive because we need to survive. We have to forgive time and time again while racism or white silence in the face of racism continues to thrive. We have had to forgive slavery, segregation, Jim Crow laws, lynching, inequity in every realm, mass incarceration, voter disenfranchisement, inadequate representation in popular culture, microaggressions and more. We forgive and forgive and forgive and those who trespass against us continue to trespass against us.

Mr. Roof’s racism was blunt and raggedly formed. It was bred by a culture in which we constantly have to shout “Black lives matter!” because there is so much evidence to the contrary. This terrorist was raised in this culture. He made racist jokes with his friends. He shared his plans with his roommate. It’s much easier to introduce forgiveness into the conversation than to sit with that reality and consider all who are complicit.

What white people are really asking for when they demand forgiveness from a traumatized community is absolution. They want absolution from the racism that infects us all even though forgiveness cannot reconcile America’s racist sins. They want absolution from their silence in the face of all manner of racism, great and small. They want to believe it is possible to heal from such profound and malingering trauma because to face the openness of the wounds racism has created in our society is too much. I, for one, am done forgiving.

"All who are complicit." Hmm, would that be all white people who are complicit?

Jeez, kinda not hard to understand why folks are talking about the coming race war in America. Leftists are bringing it.

There is no mass movement to replicate the insane racist hatred of Dylann Roof, or at least not in the mainstream of America, including white America.

There is a movement of ideological hatred of white people, and that's entirely on the political left. Roxane Gay hates whites. Dylann Roof simply confirmed her ideological hatred.

North Charleston Police Sergeant Fired for Wearing Confederate Flag Boxer Shorts

Wow, man.

This is getting totally hardcore. It's a freakin' crackdown!

At the Charleston Post & Courier, "North Charleston officer fired for posing in rebel flag underwear":

A North Charleston police officer has been fired because he posted a photo of himself wearing Confederate flag boxer shorts.

Shannon Dildine, who was a sergeant and with the force since 1996, was sent a letter Wednesday from Police Chief Eddie Driggers detailing why the department let him go.

He was terminated because it was determined that the posting would make him incapable of effectively serving as a North Charleston officer.

“On Tuesday ... the City learned that you posted on Facebook a photograph in which you were wearing only a pair of boxer shorts emblazoned with the image of the Confederate flag,” Driggers wrote. “Your posting in this manner led to you being publicly identified as a North Charleston Police officer and associated both you and the Department with an image that symbolizes hate and oppression to a significant portion of the citizens we are sworn to serve.”

Further, Driggers said, Dildine could compromise any criminal cases involving minorities because a defense attorney could use the photo call to into question his motivation in making an arrest.

Well, the dude posted it to Facebook --- not sure if that was the best idea, considering.

Confederate Flags Pulled from Shelves at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center

Boy, that's a whole lotta history getting erased.

Leftist's are having a real run with this, man. I can guarantee you that they'll overreach and foment a backlash. Folks don't always tell pollsters everything, especially on questions of race.

At the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "Stand-alone Confederate flags pulled from Gettysburg Visitor Center store."

Confederate flags no more at Gettysburg Visitor Center: http://t.co/4ZpKht0LWc pic.twitter.com/ScR13nCHU7

— Donald Gilliland (@drgilliland) June 25, 2015

Donald Trump Under Fire for 'Mexican Rapist' Comment, Doubles Down (VIDEO)

At Memeorandum, "Miss USA host quits, calls Trump a ‘clown’," and "Trump Dumped! Univision Drops Miss USA Pageant Over Mexican Immigrant Remarks."

Well, he ain't too worried about alienating deep-pocket donors. He's got his own deep pockets!

Jewish Groups Laud Congress for Including Anti-BDS Measure in Trade Bill

At Jewish Political News.

Plus, William Jacobson had a must-read post on this, at Legal Insurrection, "Anti-Israel profs helped deal BDS its biggest blow yet."

Hateful, murderous ghouls. Leftists.

Violent Anti-Uber Protests in France: Leftist Courtney Love Whines, 'Where Are the Police?'

It's in Paris, Lyon, Toulouse --- all over, heh.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Anti-Uber protests turn violent in France."

Also at London's Daily Mail, "French Uber protesters smash up Courtney Love's cab 'and take driver hostage'."

Yeah, Courtney Love's a freakin' far-left prog. And she's whining about "where are the police?"

Turns out she's always had a special fondness for the police, especially when they help her skate on potential murder charges. See WND, "COURTNEY LOVE AND THE SEATTLE COPS: Was Cobain murder investigation compromised by relationships?"

Dude @kanyewest we may turn back to the airport and hide out with u.picketers just attacked our car #ParisUberStrike pic.twitter.com/MtanurybOO

— Courtney Love Cobain (@Courtney) June 25, 2015

they've ambushed our car and are holding our driver hostage. they're beating the cars with metal bats. this is France?? I'm safer in Baghdad

— Courtney Love Cobain (@Courtney) June 25, 2015

they've ambushed our car and are holding our driver hostage. they're beating the cars with metal bats. this is France?? I'm safer in Baghdad

— Courtney Love Cobain (@Courtney) June 25, 2015

Apple Pulls Civil War Games from App Store Because of Confederate Flag

At Truth Revolt, "BREAKING: Apple Pulls All Civil War Games Over Confederate Flag Controversy."

And at Touch Arcade, "Apple Removes All American Civil War Games From the App Store Because of the Confederate Flag."

UPDATE: It's looking like Apple has pulled everything from the App Store that features a Confederate flag, regardless of context. The reasoning Apple is sending developers is "...because it includes images of the confederate flag used in offensive and mean-spirited ways." We just spoke with Andrew from HexWar Games, who have released many historical strategy games. He insists, "We're in no way sympathetic to the use of the flag in an offensive way, we used it purely because historically that was the flag that was used at the time."

HexWar Games plans on attempting to re-submit their games using the lesser-known 1861 version of the Confederate flag. But, who knows if that will even be approved. No one is sure yet if Apple is banning all mention of the Confederacy, or just the specific image of the flag which has since become such a hot button issue in the USA...

Lots more at the link.

The reason this is a huge story is because of Apple's near-monopoly on structuring the popular culture, and debates about the popular culture. I like Apple products. My family uses Apple products and we're not tech geeks by any means. It's a good company. They're just a leftist company and they tremendous market power, and hence cultural influence.

Bar Refaeli Billboards Sending Cars Crashing Off the Road in Tel Aviv

Well, I can see why!

At Free Beacon, "Israeli Model Pics Sending Cars Off the Road in Tel Aviv."

And following the links, to the Times of Israel, "‘Eye-catching ads endanger drivers’":

Study along Tel Aviv’s main highway finds accident rates rise when huge billboards are on display.

Well, yeah. She's a dangerous babe, lol



FLASHBACK, "Babe Blogging: Bar Refaeli Sports Illustrated Video," and "Bar Refaeli Nude Underwear Advertisement."

Thanks to the Reader Who Bought John McManus's The Dead and Those About to Die

Thanks!

One of my readers picked up a copy of John McManus's book through my Amazon affiliate links! The reader also bought a few other books on the Normandy invasion and the wars in Europe.

I haven't been posting links as frequently since school let out, but don't feel shy about hitting the Amazon widget at the side bar if I'm lax in getting my book links posted. Thanks to everybody who's shopped!

Here's McManus's book, The Dead and Those About to Die: D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach.

Obama Has a Good Week

He has.

At WSJ:

So in the past day @POTUS secured #TPA, saw his signature achievement survive SCOTUS, and got to be White House bouncer. That's a good day.

— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) June 25, 2015

WASHINGTON — Twin victories for President Barack Obama this week on health care and trade cement a cornerstone of his legacy and give a rare jolt to a second-term White House that has struggled to advance its agenda.

The Supreme Court’s decision Thursday to uphold a key provision of Mr. Obama’s signature domestic achievement, the Affordable Care Act, coupled with Congress voting Wednesday to give him broad authority to negotiate new trade deals, go to the heart of his presidency.

“This is actually gigantic,” said Anita Dunn, one of Mr. Obama’s former top advisers. “They’ve had a very good week.”

Mr. Obama on Thursday also won a surprise favorable ruling from the high court allowing minorities to continue using a civil-rights era statute in housing discrimination lawsuits.

A Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage as early as Friday could also prove favorable for Mr. Obama. He has since 2012 voiced his support for gay marriage. The court, potentially, could find a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, in essence legalizing the practice nationwide.

But this week also could mark a turning point in Mr. Obama’s presidency, as he now faces the remaining 18 months in office with few, if any, additional big wins on the horizon.

The president’s next major agenda item—the conclusion of diplomatic talks with Iran—is unlikely to yield such a clear-cut victory. If Mr. Obama secures a final deal with Iran to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions, a firestorm of complaint and scrutiny from Congress and certain U.S. allies will follow.

The White House also faces a series of battles with the Republican-led Congress on fiscal issues, including highway funding, infrastructure spending and taxes. Republicans, meanwhile, vowed to continue to challenge the Affordable Care Act, even though Mr. Obama said Thursday’s Supreme Court decision ensures that the law “is here to stay.”

“The politicians who forced Obamacare on the American people now have a choice: Crow about Obamacare’s latest wobble toward the edge, or work with us to address the continuing negative impact of a 2,000-page law that continues to make life miserable for too many of the same people it purported to help,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said in a statement.

Mr. Obama, in remarks Thursday in the Rose Garden at the White House, said that the law is working but also that he was open to consulting with lawmakers to improve health care...

America Demonized as 'Racist Nation', Enabled by Compliant and Hateful Left-Wing Media

It's not just "white privilege" now, it's white supremacy, spewed wall-to-wall by leftists and Democrats, and distributed all over the world by a despicable, biased, and hateful far-left media establishment.

From the O'Reilly Factor. And stay with this until the end. O'Reilly gets pissed off and literally declares war on the radical left. He's going to hold these people "to account." Freakin' rights.

United Against Nuclear Iran Advertisement at CNN

This clip just ran during Wolf Blitzer's show on CNN, from United Against Nuclear Iran:



It's a terrible deal. See the New York Times, "IIran's Supreme Leader, Khamenei, Seems to Pull Back on Nuclear Talks":

TEHRAN — With exactly a week left before the deadline for a final agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear program, the country’s supreme leader appeared to undercut several of the central agreements his negotiators have already reached with the West.

In a speech broadcast live on Iran state television, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, demanded that most sanctions be lifted before Tehran has dismantled part of its nuclear infrastructure and before international inspectors verify that the country is beginning to meet its commitments. He also ruled out any freeze on Iran’s sensitive nuclear enrichment for as long as a decade, as a preliminary understanding announced in April stipulates, and he repeated his refusal to allow inspections of Iranian military sites...

It's an awful agreement that, if implemented, would devastate U.S. national security interests.

Also at Toronto's National Post, "A nuclear deal with Iran no longer makes sense":

Iran is a theocratic state ruled by an unaccountable religious elite that operates behind an opaque wall largely impenetrable to outsiders. Reports have recently circulated in Iranian media indicating that the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has undergone a series of operations for prostate cancer and may have only months to live. The situation is said to have unleashed a fierce power struggle over his successor, as opposing camps jostle for ultimate control. The fact the reports cannot be firmly verified underlines just how little certainty the West has in dealings with Tehran, and how much guesswork is involved in assessing its reliability, even at the highest international levels.

As if to confirm the unease, Iran’s parliament passed a bill on Tuesday banning access for United Nations inspectors to its military sites and nuclear scientists. Such access is essential to the proposed accord — only by an intense, unfettered ability to monitor its activities could Western powers be certain Iran was keeping its promises. Under the bill, UN experts would be allowed to carry out limited inspections under an existing agreement, but entry would be denied to military, security and non-nuclear sites, as would access to documents and scientists. At the same time, it demanded that all sanctions be lifted immediately, rather than raised gradually in tandem with evidence Tehran had met its commitments.

The bill still must be approved by the unelected Guardian Council headed by Khamenei. Any deal reached before the deadline next Tuesday could thus quickly be challenged by a new council of unknown outlook and aspirations. It would be a deal in the dark, with a shifting leadership obscured by a curtain of doubt and ambiguity...

After Charleston Shootings, Poll Highlights Race Dilemma for Republicans

This is interesting, at Reuters.

How Confederate Flag Controversy Shows We've Gone Nuts as a Culture

From John Ziegler, at Mediaite.

Steven Pinker on Taboos, Political Correctness, and Dissent

From guest blogger Greg Lukianoff, at Instapundit, "CAN’T SLEEP? WANT SOME VIDEO INFOTAINMENT? Then check out this FIRE interview with Steven Pinker on taboos, political correctness, and dissent":

Communist Laurie 'Red' Penny Kicked Off Facebook for Using Fake Name

She's a freak anyway.

At the Independent UK, "A journalist who used a pseudonym to avoid rape and death threats has been kicked off Facebook."

Journalist who used pseudonym to avoid rape threats kicked off Facebook http://t.co/HqrO7X9LEv pic.twitter.com/1iNuB2GGql

— The Independent (@Independent) June 25, 2015

Katy Perry Nearly Nude for New Moschino Ad

At London's Daily Mail, "Stripping down in style! Katy Perry bares her killer body in latest Moschino fashion campaign images - but she doesn't skip out on the accessories."

Citing Slave-Owner Descendant Ben Affleck, PBS Suspends ‘Finding Your Roots’

Well, the disgraced leftist slave-owner's descendant Affleck brings down a PBS franchise.

Way to go, you "special" privileged hack.

At the New York Times, "Citing Ben Affleck's 'Improper Influence,' PBS Suspends 'Finding Your Roots'":

PBS said on Wednesday that it was postponing a future season of “Finding Your Roots” after an investigation revealed that the actor Ben Affleck pressured producers into leaving out details about an ancestor of his who owned slaves.

PBS will not run the show’s third season until staffing changes are made, including hiring a fact checker, it said.

The show, which is hosted by the Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., traces family histories of celebrities and public figures, and has run for two seasons. The concern about Mr. Affleck’s relative surfaced in the WikiLeaks cache of hacked Sony emails after Mr. Gates asked a Sony executive for advice about a “megastar” who wanted to omit a detail about a slave-owning ancestor.

“We’ve never had anyone ever try to censor or edit what we found,” Mr. Gates wrote to a Sony executive, Michael Lynton, in July 2014. Mr. Gates added that this would violate PBS rules, and “once we open the door to censorship, we lose control of the brand.”...

PREVIOUSLY: "Harvard's Henry Louis Gates Under Fire at NPR for Coddling Ben Affleck on Slave Ancestry."

Illegal Immigrant Transgender Woman Demands Immediate Release of Transgendered Aliens Held in ICE Detention Centers!

Not a paroday, "UNDOCUMENTED TRANSGENDER WOMAN WHO INTERRUPTED PRESIDENT AT WHITE HOUSE PRIDE EVENT CALLS TO END DEPORTATION."

Harvard's Henry Louis Gates Under Fire at NPR for Coddling Ben Affleck on Slave Ancestry

From guest-blogger Ann Althouse, at Instapundit, "PBS ACCUSES HENRY LOUIS GATES JR. OF “IMPROPER JUDGMENT”."

The link's busted [it was busted but it's fixed now], but she's pointing to this piece at London's Daily Mail, "Harvard professor who covered up Ben Affleck's slave roots could be dropped from PBS after he is slammed by broadcaster for 'breaching standards'." (Also at Memeorandum.)

Gates is being made the scapegoat here, if you recall. The entire network is implicated, since Affleck can't stand that he's got slave-owning ancestry and he raised a ruckus about getting those portions of the documentary edited out of the broadcast. See, "Hollywood Leftist Ben Affleck Had Inconvenient Truth About Slave-Owning Ancestor Scrubbed from PBS 'Finding Your Roots' Segment."

Fanatical Leftist 'America Haters' Trying to Destroy the 'American Compact' (VIDEO)

An excellent talking points meme at yesterday's O'Reilly Factor, summarized at NewsBusters, "O’Reilly Blasts ‘America Haters’ for Trying to Undo ‘the American Compact’."

General Lee From 'Dukes of Hazzard' Losing Confederate Flag

There's literally a national frenzy taking over. We're zombified right now, and the left's bloodlust and vengeance is insatiable.

what a load of shiat. "Warner Bros. to cease licensing 'Dukes of Hazzard' toy cars with Confederate flags" http://t.co/5kbixGH9V4

— bash (@chkconfig) June 24, 2015

Warner Brothers will stop selling "Dukes of Hazzard" cars with Confederate flags http://t.co/7jEtA1iKF6 pic.twitter.com/IXT1vbiKf7

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) June 24, 2015

License nixed for models of "General Lee" from "The Dukes of Hazzard" http://t.co/kQ7TQlpxLw pic.twitter.com/TEejkbV2BN

— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) June 24, 2015

Apparently still legal, for a limited time http://t.co/V0D8rih0aa

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 23, 2015

Charlotte McKinney Photo Shoot for Galore Magazine

Heh, she's pretty awesome.

#CharlotteMcKinney Breaks Down "BOMBSHELL" & Looks Good Doing It @Char_mck http://t.co/QFwigCnXaS pic.twitter.com/One2VlGdty

— Galore (@TheGaloreMag) June 19, 2015

"It’s about more than your looks—it’s about your confidence." @Char_mck pic.twitter.com/LnmVesV9hv

— Galore (@TheGaloreMag) June 19, 2015

We can't handle our Bombshell 💗 Charlotte McKinney https://t.co/GVHWTiQDvQ

— Galore (@TheGaloreMag) June 19, 2015

"I’m not interested in just being the hot girl." @Char_mck pic.twitter.com/DoCXFpjJDC

— Galore (@TheGaloreMag) June 19, 2015

"I can feel bad about myself, especially if I start to pay attention to stupid comments on the Internet." @Char_mck pic.twitter.com/fA5FeNMtyc

— Galore (@TheGaloreMag) June 19, 2015

The South's Ideological Aggression: Property Rights in Slavery and the Outbreak of the Civil War

 ICYMI, "Response to Stogie at Saberpoint and 'Why the Civil War Was Not About Slavery...'"

The last round of interactions on Professor Livingston has fizzled out, and Stogie has tucked tail, not responding to further comments.

Indeed, he's pretty much announced his own personal secession. See "I am a Confederate," and "Survival in a Post-American World."

So, on to the next iteration, if Stogie's up for it. As I've argued, Professor Livingston's piece was mostly a smokescreen, filled with red herrings, designed to deflect attention away from the origins of the Civil War in Old South's white supremacist planter regime. The war was indeed about slavery. The Northern states had abolished slavery and sought to restrict its spread to the territories. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, and especially the Dred Scott decision, destroyed any accommodation that existed regulating the instituion. As Southerners pressed their ideological agenda for slavery, particularly the meme of states' rights, the ultimate irreconcilable differences boiled to a head.

Slavery was the basis for the outbreak of the war.

See Professor James Huston, at the Journal of Southern History, "Property Rights in Slavery and the Coming of the Civil War":

This article proposes an economic explanation for the Civil War --- an explanation based on the existence of a dual system of property rights. The thesis is that southern secession grew out of the irreconcilability of the two regimes of property rights: one in the South that recognized property in humans and one in the North that did not. As long as the United States was fragmented into small market areas these two regimes did not conflict; but the transportation revolution stitched market areas together, and no longer could the effects of slavery be confined to the South. Northerners recognized that, by means of a national market, the effects of the southern labor system could be transmitted to the North, depress the wages of free laborers, and thereby upset its economy. Northerners thereby felt compelled to constrict the effects of slavery. By the same token, southerners, who had placed vast amounts of wealth in slaves, opposed any restrictions on property rights and promptly demanded northern recognition of southern rights regarding slavery --- thereby expanding property rights in slaves from the local to the national arena. Northerners perceived this demand as ideological aggression, and it was the basis for their fears of the nationalization of slavery. Southerners were not going to allow any attack upon the property rights that gave them wealth and income; northerners could not allow southerners to win the battle over property rights because it would cause a fundamental recasting of northern society.

I'll link this over at Saberpoint. Perhaps Stogie will pause his hunkering down for a bit and engage in a new round of discussion.

And be sure to read Professor Huston's piece in its entirety.

Removing Confederate Flag is Just the Start — The Left Will Demand Reparations for Slavery

Yep, from the radical left's point of view, the political end of the Confederate Flag is the beginning of the final assault on American conservatism. The left's hatred and bloodlust is insatiable.

Reparations for slavery. That's the next frontier in the debate, and then once that's done, the final demonization of traditional values. You're getting your "Hope and Change." Stand in the way, and expect the knock in the night. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is turning as we speak.

From Jill Lawrence, at U.S. News and World Report, "Getting Rid of the Confederate Flag Is the Easy Part – Hard Work Remains":

There is no debate; THIS is what the #ConfederateFlag really stands for. #TakeItDown #TakeDownTheFlag @SCGOVOFFICE pic.twitter.com/zs31BomNqS

— Pin Head (@TomAdelsbach) June 22, 2015

#DylannRoof will go down in history as the man that FINALLY killed this hideous flag - the one thing he loved most. pic.twitter.com/Q2KwoNLWzh

— Pin Head (@TomAdelsbach) June 23, 2015

It's not what anyone wants to hear, but compassion and prayers and even rejecting the Confederate flag – as South Carolina appears poised to do -- are the simplest tasks facing America after Charleston.

Rarely is there a tragedy that fuses so many troubling and inflammatory elements. Race and racism, guns and mental illness, religion and terrorism, slavery and the Civil War, all in a terrible roiling stew. Confronting all of that will be divisive and expensive, especially if we do what we should and offer reparations for slavery.

As a first response, compassion and prayers are commendable, as is appreciation of the grace and forgiveness shown by relatives of the victims in the Mother Emanuel AME church shooting. Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren has more ideas in that vein: Be peacemakers and healers, stand for justice, "model integration in our churches." Those are constructive suggestions for everyone.

But there's no way to address our fundamental problems without diving deep into politics. That starts with the flag, which only now is being called out by many for what it is: a symbol of slavery and a breakaway self-proclaimed nation built on a pernicious belief in white superiority....

Exiling that flag is, in the end, symbolic. There are at least four more steps we need that go well beyond that. I've arranged them in the order that I consider least to most controversial.

First, we need to track and treat mental illness to a much greater degree than we do. This will involve more spending and more support for people who suspect a friend or relative might pose a danger. One immediate opportunity to increase access to mental health care is for Texas, Florida and other holdout states to adopt the Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act.

We also need to track domestic terrorism, including groups based on hatred of blacks and other minorities...

These are political realities. The shooter was enamored of the Confederate flag. Earl Holt, leader of the council the shooter admired, has contributed money to many Republicans and their political action committees, including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney and 2016 candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum.

The GOP might also want to ponder this: According to Sylvia Johnson, whose cousin died in the Charleston attack and who spoke with one of the survivors, the shooter told his victims: "I have to do it. You rape our women, and you're taking over our country. And you have to go." How different is that from what Donald Trump said of Mexicans in his announcement speech? "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists ... It's gotta stop, and it's gotta stop fast."

The sooner Republicans explicitly reject the flag, Holt's money and Trump's rhetoric, the better.

Broadly popular gun safety measures such as comprehensive background checks present the next level of challenge....

Finally, and most controversially, we should consider reparations...

Read the whole thing at the link, but as you can see, the left won't stop with the flag. And without a doubt, tearing it down is the right thing to do, but conservatives must beat back the left, mercilessly so. The left's allegations of racism won't stop, and demands for gun control won't either. Conservatives have the high ground now coming out of Nikki Haley's announcement and leftists can't stand it. They have to seize the day and raise the standard of moral clarity before it's too late.

Haley did what the left wanted and they've now put her head on a pike as a warning. She's not to blame but it doesn't matter.

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) June 24, 2015

The left is being so obviously desperate to remove the focus off how amazing Charleston has responded. Focus your energy there.

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) June 24, 2015

Charleston didn't riot. They told Deray to take a hike and are now being ignored & ridiculed for it. Think about that.

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) June 24, 2015

One is the social organized left. One is the rest of the country. pic.twitter.com/hFY3qNVfab

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) June 24, 2015

Charleston is healing without Barack Obama & Al Sharpton. That's what this entire thing is about.

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) June 24, 2015

I cannot emphasize this enough. You're witnessing an exorcism on the American Left right now. It will not be quiet or peaceful.

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) June 24, 2015

They tried occupy It failed. They tried Ferguson It failed. Mitt Romney accomplished more with a phone call than they did in months of riots

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) June 24, 2015

They wanted Obama to be the one to order that flag down. He was too busy podcasting in Hollywood. That's what this is about.

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) June 24, 2015

No White House statement supporting Haley. They are pissed. That's why.

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) June 24, 2015

It's. Not. About. A Flag.

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) June 24, 2015

Confederate Flag Sales Surge

Folks should be able to fly the flag privately, and wear Confederate paraphernalia all they want.

At this point, it's massive resistance against the radical left's massive hate campaign.

I'm sure Stogie'll be pleased.

At the New York Times, "As Retailers Move to Halt Confederate Flag Sales, Some Buyers Stock Up":

Brisk Business for Confederate Flags.. At Local Stores Local reaction tonight at eleven http://t.co/x9pNJXNnXa pic.twitter.com/SNGDpyzzY8

— CBS47 (@CBS47) June 24, 2015

Entering a debate that has played out for years mostly in the political realm, many of the nation’s largest retailers abruptly decided this week to stop selling merchandise tied to the Confederate battle flag.

One by one, beginning with Walmart on Monday night, companies including Sears/Kmart, eBay, Amazon, Etsy and Google Shopping disavowed, sometimes in strong moral terms, merchandise that has been sold quietly for decades.

“We have decided to prohibit Confederate flags and many items containing this image because we believe it has become a contemporary symbol of divisiveness and racism,” eBay said in a statement, echoing the sentiments of others in the aftermath of the fatal shooting last week of nine black parishioners in a South Carolina church and the arrest of a white suspect.

The killings have renewed a focus on the Confederate flag, which had been displayed in a photograph of the accused gunman. Large segments of the public have demanded that it be removed from its perch at the State House grounds in Columbia. On Tuesday, as the flag continued to be held up as a symbol of hatred and slavery, South Carolina lawmakers were considering whether to have it taken down....

Yet even as companies were vowing to discontinue the items, sales of them were soaring. Confederate flags jumped to the top of Amazon’s Patio, Lawn & Garden category, with purchases of some items spiking by more than 5,000 percent.

By midafternoon Tuesday, the Dixie Flag Company in San Antonio had sold 25 Confederate flags in 24 hours, according to the company’s president, Pete Van de Putte. Usually, the company has no more than three orders a week for the flags and sometimes only three in a month, he said.

The reasons for the purchases varied significantly. One customer at a small Georgia shop told the owner she wanted to line her front yard with Confederate flags. Mr. Van de Putte said a black man had come into Dixie Flags on Monday with his young daughter seeking to buy the biggest Confederate flag in the store. He said he was buying it to burn it.

While large retailers were feeling public pressure to pull the items from their shelves and websites, a number of smaller companies refused to stop selling Confederate-related merchandise, no matter how controversial...

Better stock up while supplies last. You never what the left will try to shut down next.

That said, I prefer the California Bear Flag.

More at Pajamas, "Confederate Battle Flag Sales Through the Roof."

What GOP Candidates Need to Speak to, Now

From Hugh Hewitt, at Town Hall:

"This is not about guns. This is about evil. Here at home, and evil abroad."

No GOP candidate for president has yet used those words but I hope some and perhaps all of them will before a week or more passes. I do not fault any of them as they have waited on Governor Haley to make her declaration about the flag of the Confederacy that flies on the grounds of the South Carolina state house. Governor Haley's actions and words Monday were powerful because they were not the consequence of demands made on her by her colleagues from other states, but because she, as the leader of a sovereign state, acted to do the right thing. In a federal system, this is the correct order of things, and the GOP candidates who waited on Governor Haley demonstrated the very sort of presidential leadership we should hope for come 2017 --one that recognizes the governors and their states as partners in a federal system, not errand-runners of a New Rome.

Now, though, the would-be presidents ought to heed Michael Gerson's advice delivered on "Face the Nation" Sunday.

When I was asked to be on Sunday's FTN panel, I had gladly accepted because the new host John Dickerson is a pro admired throughout media and especially because I have just put out a new book about Hillary Clinton and the GOP field, The Queen: The Epic Ambition of Hillary and the Coming of a Second "Clinton Era". I of course hadn't anticipated being part of a discussion on a national tragedy, one of the worst events of our country's life since 9/11.

I was smart enough to attend Mass Sunday morning at The Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle before FTN taped, and so had the benefit of prayer and of hearing a tremendous sermon that helped prepare me for the discussion that was ably led by Dickerson and in which I, Gwen Ifill, David Ignatius and Michael Gerson participated.

Gwen Ifill had also been to church that morning -- Metropolitan AME in D.C. -- and had also heard a sermon preached on the portion of the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark that follows a few lines after those which the martyrs of Emmanuel AME had been studying Wednesday night. The lines my priest and her pastor dwelt on, Mark 4: 35-41, are about Jesus calming the storm and rebuking the apostles for not having faith and for being afraid. The GOP candidates ought to be thinking about calming words now, and about rebuking fear and inspiring hope.

In the course of our conversation Sunday, The Post's Michael Gerson urged the GOP field to step up and into the conversation about violence and race in America, and I completely agree. They ought to be thinking about being very clear that the discussion of guns is not the right discussion, and that various proposals of gun control are not responsive to the two-sided crisis of violence we face -- violence in our streets and homes and the looming threat of terrorism which is again peaking as the Islamic State and its allies launch a thousand appeals for wanton killing in the name of their fanatical beliefs. Even as they speak about the events that stretch from the killing of Trayvon Martin through the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson and other events through to the carnage of last week, they have to keep reminding people that terrorists want nothing more than an American body count far in excess of what happened last week, and that they are positioning themselves to gain that objective.

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post wrote yesterday that Mrs. Clinton has declared "We have to face hard truths about race, violence, guns and division." Of course she has done nothing of the sort, choosing instead to issue a string of cliches and a broadside at Donald Trump -- to which he responded on my show yesterday.

But that Mrs. Clinton is trying to politicize the event should not deter Republican leaders from stepping up to meet Gerson's challenge...

More.

States Rush to Banish the Confederate Flag

This is going to be viewed as a huge victory for the radical left.

At WaPo, "Once politically sacrosanct, Confederate flag moves toward an end":

After the killings in Charleston, the rush is on to banish the Confederate flag http://t.co/eCS5fBewX5

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 24, 2015

After decades of bitter debate over whether the Confederate battle flag is a proud symbol of regional heritage or a shameful emblem of this nation’s most grievous sins, the argument may finally be moving toward an end.

South Carolina is leading the way for other states, as it considers removing the flag from its capitol grounds in the wake of a horrific racial hate crime.

The historical poignancy is heavy and resonant, given that the killings last week of nine African Americans took place in a church basement just a few miles from where the first shots of the Civil War were exchanged in 1861. Photos that have since surfaced of the accused killer, Dylann Roof, show him posing with the Confederate flag.

The banner was long considered politically sacrosanct in the South, at least among conservative whites. It now appears that a rush is on to banish it, along with other images that evoke the Confederacy and sow racial divisiveness.

“It’s a baby step of progress, but we had to step through the blood of nine dead people,” said former College of Charleston president Alex Sanders, a longtime critic of the flag.

On Tuesday, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) said his state will quit issuing license plates with the insignia and replace those already on the road. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, both Republicans, also said they want to get rid of such license plates in their states.

And in Mississippi, the top Republican in the state House of Representatives, Philip Gunn, has called for the Confederate battle cross to be removed from the upper left corner of his state’s flag. As recently as 2001, Mississippi voters weighed in by more than 2 to 1 to retain the rebel badge as the dominant feature of their flag.

Meanwhile, businesses are moving quickly to remove the symbol from their inventory. In the space of less than 24 hours, retailing giants Wal-Mart, Sears, eBay and Amazon.com all announced that they would no longer sell Confederate-themed merchandise. Valley Forge Flag, a leading flagmaker, said it will cease to make the banner...

Other flagmakers will step up to meet the demand, but now more than ever brandishing this flag is going to foment a harsh backlash. Folks like my old friend Stogie at Saberpoint are going to be digging in for their final stand.

Continue reading, in any case.