Sanitized Soap Box Loses its Cleaning Power: Another Freedom-of-Speech Loss Story

Buskerfest 2013 was underway tonight in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Virtually any kind of street performer you could think of was represented, and people roamed the free event at will, dropping a dollar in an artist’s tip jar if they were pleased, walking on by if they were not. The audience was quite diverse, and seemed to represent a good cross section of age and ethnicity in our city. The occasional spurts of light rain kept it cool if damp; overall, people looked amused. Our granddaughter was enthralled.

But my husband and I were disappointed.

You see, it was a sadly sanitized event.  Not that it was squeaky clean…there were provocatively-clad belly dancers. There was plenty of goth dress, with abundant piercings and tattoos–among the performers and the audience members.  

But there were no Christian performers that I could see or hear. Also no Jewish or Muslim ones. Faith and religion apparently had no place at the festival.

Down Low In The Rabbit Hole

Consider this a “two-fer”, on a day when I’m buried in home DIY projects.

Mark Steyn is ALWAYS worthwhile, and Mark’s witty observations are brought to us via Bob Belvedere and HIS wonderful blog, ‘The Camp Of The Saints‘.

Two-fer-One: you can’t pass up an opportunity like that!

The Camp Of The Saints

From Mark Steyn, we learn:

In 2011, I mentioned that USDA was dispatching crack field agents to poke around the back yards of children’s magicians on the off-chance they might be using rabbits on stage. Two years on, Bunny Team Six has come up with a new hare-brained scheme to take the magic out of our lives. Sure, it’s impressive when a conjurer pulls a rabbit out of his hat, but let’s face it, it’s not as impressive as a federal bureaucrat pulling a new regulation out of his butt:

My USDA rabbit license requirement has taken another ridiculous twist. I just received an 8 page letter from the USDA, telling me that by July 29 I need to have in place a written disaster plan, detailing all the steps I would take to help get my rabbit through a disaster, such as a tornado, fire, flood…

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How to pull a prank in Obama’s America….

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…because asking “Do you have Prince Albert in a can?” is so passé:

(***Image courtesy of Doug over at Stix Blog)

Mr. Virtual President: “Get the Government out of the Marriage business, completely…”

A very short, and very wise, opinion on the entire DOMA decision from the one-and-only Bill Whittle, speaking as his alter-ego, Mr. Virtual President.

I’m completely in agreement with Bill here: this isn’t an argument for or against traditional marriage, or any other kind. It’s that Government has once again intruded into an area where it should have no opinion whatsoever. By allowing the Federal Government to redefine marriage to reflect what a certain segment of society WANTS it to be, we’ve taken another step down the path towards an all-powerful State, with that State able to re-define society according to its whims.

There’s only one winner when that happens: the State.

Obama: Do as I say, not as I Do….

Another home run by the incomparable Lisa Benson, courtesy of Townhall.com:

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Taking Responsibility for Change, One Step at a Time: an update on ATTWN

My brother JTR made a strong case for personal responsibility yesterday, urging each of us to shake off apathy or that helpless “What can I do?” attitude.

If you need inspiration, here’s an update on how one woman is having an impact on the entire abortion industry.

Her goal:  shut it down.

Her strategy:  one worker at a time.

From #Immigration to #Obamacare, this is all OUR fault…

Let’s admit it: this is all OUR fault.

It was WE who allowed Obama to be elected not once, but twice. It was WE who allowed the Senate to maintain a Liberal majority. And as a result, we’re witnessing our nation’s complete free-fall into Banana Republic territory.

What else can we call it?

From Obama’s newest business-killing “pivot” to Climate Change, to his inexplicable desire to conduct Peace Talks with terrorists, to his repeated attacks on 2nd Amendment rights, to the panoply of scandal which has rocked (yet mysteriously not toppled) his Administration, we’re now privy to a Federal Government which enables the most destructive dreams of the Left to become horrific, Constitution-inverting reality.

Experts reach Consensus on planned Peace Talks with the Taliban: Yeah, that’s a pretty dumb idea

Back in 2009, President Obama included the following statement in an interview with Al-Arabiya: 

“My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy”.

Ummm, okay, but that was always a glaring oversimplification. Left unsaid was that we should probably differentiate between the Muslim world in general, and specifically radical Islamists (such as the Taliban), seeing as how the latter consider themselves to be OUR historic enemies, and plan on remaining so until long after we’re all dead.

For a man who prides himself on ‘nuance’, failing to make such a distinction called into question Obama’s basic competence for this job.