On college campuses all over America, the First Amendment is trashed on a regular basis. Even when the courts weigh in, declaring that speech codes are unconstitutional, college administrators, professors and even students find a way to curb free speech. At least free speech that expresses conservative sentiments.
At the same time, those very same groups either remain silent or encourage Muslims and left-wingers who regularly shout down conservatives and Israeli diplomats who have been invited to be guest speakers.
It’s been a long time since college campuses have lived up to their reputation as venues dedicated to the free expression of unpopular ideas. At this point, the main difference between a college campus and a totalitarian state is that the former doesn’t require the secret police in order to shut down dissent.
Things have gotten so bad that even certain words are now taboo, lest a member of any protected group — be it racial, gender or religious-based — be offended.
I’m not exactly certain when we became a nation of crybabies, but I do recall when colleges began to suspend and even expel male students for unwarranted sexual advances, which could include asking a coed for a date, complimenting her appearance or even consensual sexual activity, if the next morning the coed sobered up and nursed not only a hangover, but remorse.
The whole notion that we are a nation of victims has expanded to include not only blacks, illegal aliens and homosexuals, but every bozo whose feelings are hurt if he’s called a bozo.
The truth is, idiocy is rampant in America. For instance, each and every time some crazy person shoots someone, those on the left begin parroting Michael Moore’s demand that the government confiscate firearms. Aside from the fact that the measure would be blatantly unconstitutional, it would be impossible to carry out; and were it possible, it would leave most of the remaining weapons in the hands of criminals.
Instead, why is it that they never suggest a way to deal with known crackpots like Major Nidal Malik Husan and Jared Loughner before they go on killing sprees? So far as I’m concerned, any member of the military who was aware of Major Husan’s jihadist beliefs and did nothing about it is as guilty as a combat soldier who goes AWOL. The oath that all those army officers took was to protect us from enemies, foreign and domestic. By placing political correctness above duty, by not blowing the whistle on Husan, they were all accessories to 13 murders, and I’d like to see the whole miserable crew serving time in the brig.
Speaking of killing, I fail to see why there is such a distinction between murder and attempted murder. I mean, why should a would-be killer profit from his own incompetence?
There are occasions when some of my readers suggest that I should be above referring to left-wingers as idiots, boneheads, knuckleheads and morons. They feel that my ad hominem attacks lower me to the level of my targets. While I appreciate their concern, I am always reminded of what Harry Truman said when he was accused of giving his political opponents hell. He said, “I just tell the truth, and they think it’s hell.”
Like Truman, I don’t call left-wingers names in order to hurt their feelings, but because I honestly regard the likes of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Henry Waxman and the other members of Obama’s amen corner to be idiots, boneheads, knuckleheads and morons.
Quite frankly, I am getting sick and tired of my fellow conservatives who seem to feel that they should take on back-alley thugs while confining themselves to Marquis of Queensbury rules. I mean, either, like me, they seriously believe that those on the left are out to destroy America or they don’t. If they don’t, they’ve been lying to us. If they do, they shouldn’t be above kicking, kneeing and gouging, because all is fair and even necessary in war, if not necessarily in love.
Frankly, I personally find their insistence on maintaining a civil tone and setting an upstanding example to be as tedious and self-laudatory as a PBS fundraiser.
Burt Prelutsky is a humor columnist, a movie critic and a writer for TV. He’s written episodes of MASH, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Family Ties, Dr. Quinn and Diagnosis Murder. He is the author of “Conservatives Are From Mars, Liberals Are From San Francisco” and “Liberals: America’s Termites or It’s a Shame That Liberals, Unlike Hamsters, Never Eat Their Young,” along with two collections of interviews, “The Secret of Their Success” and “Portraits of Success.” He blogs at BurtPrelutsky.com.