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Author: Fuzzy Slippers

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Fuzzy Slippers

I am a constitutional conservative, a writer, and an editor.

Follow me on Twitter @fuzislippers

Last month, the city council in Charlotte, North Carolina passed an ordinance that included allowing transgendered persons to use bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, etc. for the gender with which they identify. This did not sit well with North Carolinians, nor with their state legislature, and in a special session, the state passed a bill that would make it state law--thus over-turning the Charlotte ordinance--that people can use such facilities only for the gender with which they were born, not the one they identify with or claim to be.  North Carolina governor (and former mayor of Charlotte) Pat McCrory signed the bill into law late Wednesday. https://twitter.com/PatMcCroryNC/status/712825004312829952 Watch the report:

Walt Disney and Marvel, a Disney subsidiary, are threatening to boycott Georgia if Governor Nathan Deal signs into law a religious freedom bill that recently passed the Georgia state legislature. The bill, HB 575, had already undergone significant revisions in response to pressure from SJWs.  The bill was initially designed to protect businesses and non-profits whose owners had religious objections to providing services for and participating in gay "marriages"; however, the new version is less accommodating to religious freedom. The Washington Times reports:
The bill initially would have allowed Georgians to decline service for same-sex weddings if doing so violated their religious beliefs. But, sensing the coming storm, Mr. Deal urged lawmakers to make substantial changes to the legislation before passing it.

It seems that everyday residents of red states aren't the only ones fed up with people moving to our states from their failed progressive fantasylands and bringing those failed policies with them. One Mississippi State Representative echoed the sentiments of many of us; while I live in Florida, not Mississippi, Florida is being inundated with blue staters fleeing the results of their policies . . . only to try to force them on us. The Clarion-Ledger reports:
When Becky Guidry of Gulfport emailed freshman Rep. Karl Oliver, R-Winona, expressing her concerns about the tax breaks being considered by the Legislature, she was shocked by his response. "It is irresponsible of our leadership to suggest eliminating income and corporate franchise taxes when: revenue projections are already down, budgets for various services are being cut across the board, funding for public education and other critical services such as child care, foster care and roads/bridges are underfunded," Guidry wrote in an email she said she sent to most representatives. "... If and when this bill reaches the full House for a vote, again, I urge you to vote No."
Cutting taxes in a red state!? Who ever heard of such a thing?  Needless to say, Oliver had a fitting response:

A 25-year-old black woman who appeared to be brandishing a handgun was shot and killed by police in Virginia; it was later discovered that, like Tamir Rice, she held a non-firing replica (see below). CBS reports:
A 25-year-old black woman was shot and killed by police officers in Virginia on Saturday after threatening them with what turned out to be a fake handgun, police said. Investigators with the Norfolk Police Department's Vice and Narcotics Division were conducting a surveillance operation when they came across a fight in a parking lot, police said.

It seems that Iran is having trouble getting the Obama administration to understand just how little it respects or fears Obama's America. They do keep trying, though.  They bully and cajole the Obama admin while dangling empty promises and outright lies before them, and they repeatedly declare that their goal is, first, the destruction of Israel (wipe Israel off the map), and second, the destruction of the United States (we're the "big" Satan after Israel's "little" Satan.). That's okay, the Obama admin assures us, Iran doesn't mean what its leaders say (there may be a certain amount of projection here).  Iran does love and respect—if not America then—its fearful leader. Iran's theocratic leadership shakes its head in disbelief  . . . and pure joy.  How weak! How malleable! How ineffectual!  Iran loves a weak American president as Jimmy Carter found out to the detriment of his second term dreams.

You may recall the Silver Spring, Maryland case of parents being charged with “unsubstantiated neglect” for allowing their children, ages 10 and 6, to walk home from a local park.  This, along with similar incidents, sparked a debate about "free-range kids," the role government should take in parenting, and the relative dangers of and safety concerns about children walking outside without a parent or guardian present. The Washington Post reported about it at the time:

Long before the Meitivs of Silver Spring clashed with Montgomery County over their young children’s walk home alone from a park, other parents across the country were at odds with authorities over similar questions: How much supervision do children need, and when are they truly at risk?

In Austin, Kari Anne Roy, 38, a children’s author, was investigated for neglect after her children walked the dog one day in August and her 6-year-old lagged behind, playing on an outdoor bench a few houses down the street.

In Port St. Lucie, Fla., Nicole Gainey, 35, a mother of two, was arrested for letting her 7-year-old son walk alone to a park and play there, about half a mile away from their home in the town where she grew up.

One of most the most publicized recent cases involved Debra Harrell in North Augusta, S.C., who allegedly allowed her 9-year-old daughter to play at a park while she worked at a McDonald’s as a shift manager.

Last week I wrote about the fact that Navy SEALs are forced to share combat rifles, are short on live ammo for training, and are purchasing their own gear.  This week, assistant commandant of the United States Marine Corps, General John Paxton, told Congress that he does not believe the Marines are ready for another war. The Stars and Stripes reports:
If the Marines were called today to respond to an unexpected crisis, they might not be ready, a top Marine general told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

Gen. John Paxton, assistant commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, testified to lawmakers that the Marines could face more casualties in a war and might not be able to deter a potential enemy.

“I worry about the capability and the capacity to win in a major fight somewhere else right now,” he said, citing a lack of training and equipment.

Paxton, along with the vice chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force, spoke to the Senate committee on the readiness challenges facing each service after 15 years of war and recent budget cuts.

In a rather surprising move, Russia's president Vladimir Putin announced Monday that he would begin withdrawing troops from Syria the very next day.  Those of us watching the Middle East carefully were not only surprised by the move but also intensely curious about possible motivations and what the move will ultimately mean in the region, particularly with regard to Israel. Tuesday, retired U. S. Army lieutenant colonel Ralph Peters offered a compelling analysis of Putin's move and of what it means not only in the Middle East but, ultimately, for the United States. Positing that Putin has quickly seen—Russia's been in Syria only since September—that the power that will emerge in the region will be Iran's, not Russia's, Peters concludes that Putin's decision was based in cold, hard reality. In his article, "The Syrian War Just Taught Putin to Worry About Iran," for the The New York Post, Peters writes:

While early reports of a potential Hillary VP pick centered on former San Antonio mayor Julian Castro, top Democrats in the (increasingly large) progressive wing of the party are reportedly rallying behind a relatively unknown, but reliably progressive, Tom Perez to run as Hillary's VP. Who is Tom Perez? Listen: Politico reports:
Aside from the wonkiest of Washington circles and the most progressive corners of the left, no one’s heard of Tom Perez. He isn’t young or handsome. He has zero foreign policy experience. The highest office he’s been elected to is a suburban county council. Yet the labor secretary has emerged as a sleeper pick for vice president, with chatter building among top Democrats — including Elizabeth Warren.

Apparently, Bernie Sanders' supporters can't stop themselves from expressing their thoughts about how great socialism is. The former former Soviet chess champion has taken to Facebook to express his thoughts about being lectured by the uninformed about something he knows all too well. Garry Kasparov writes:
I'm enjoying the irony of American Sanders supporters lecturing me, a former Soviet citizen, on the glories of Socialism and what it really means! Socialism sounds great in speech soundbites and on Facebook, but please keep it there. In practice, it corrodes not only the economy but the human spirit itself, and the ambition and achievement that made modern capitalism possible and brought billions of people out of poverty. Talking about Socialism is a huge luxury, a luxury that was paid for by the successes of capitalism. Income inequality is a huge problem, absolutely. But the idea that the solution is more government, more regulation, more debt, and less risk is dangerously absurd.

With recent polls showing Donald Trump and John Kasich tied in Ohio and reports that Marco Rubio is telling his OH supporters to vote for Kasich, Ohio has become quite the battleground in the 2016 Republican primaries. Entering the fray from his recent retirement is former House Speaker and long-time congressman from Ohio, John Boehner.  Boehner announced his endorsement of Kasich days before Ohio primary voters head to the polls. Cincinnati.com reports:
Republicans in Butler County honored former Speaker John Boehner three days before residents across Ohio's 8th District will vote on his replacement in Congress. But on Saturday, Boehner was more interested in talking about the presidential race. One day before Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is scheduled to speak in West Chester, Boehner endorsed Ohio Gov. John Kasich for president.

Protesters have been interrupting quite a few Trump events of late, but none were as "successful" as the one in Chicago.  That multi-pronged, organized and coordinated protest, covered by Professor Jacobson, actually shut down the event.  The progressive left is hailing this as a victory, so we are sure to see more of the same at future Trump events, and because it's perceived as a "victory," at the events of other Republican candidates before too long.  Professor Jacobson also discusses this slippery slope in another post. One report from a Politico writer explains how the organizer and some of his classmates felt in the minutes before the event was cancelled and as the students prepared for their disruption. Politico reports:
Just 50 feet in front of the podium where Trump was scheduled to appear at any moment, Nathaniel Lewis, a 25-year-old African-American graduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, had established a beachhead of sorts: a pocket of about three dozen college students and activists. They were ready, too. What Lewis and dozens of his UIC classmates had planned was perhaps bigger—and better organized—than any protest Trump had faced to date. It had been a week in the making, and now everyone was in place: with roughly 2,500 on the street outside and hundreds more inside, including dozens working directly with Lewis. As they waited, the crowd growing loud around them, a few were starting to feel doubts about what they were hoping to do.

While much of the attention focused on Europe's refugee crisis has been focused on Germany, Sweden is also experiencing quite serious problems associated with the influx of Middle Eastern, Asian, and North African immigrants and refugees. Not only have Swedish officials been accused of covering up the sexual assaults and rapes of recent immigrants and refugees, but now we are seeing the problems spread beyond the large cities and into small villages in Sweden, just as they have in Germany. The small and sleepy town of Östersund, Sweden, has been shaken by a series of eight sexual attacks by migrants against residents in only three weeks. The Daily Mail reports:

A CBSNews investigation uncovered worrying patterns of spending donations by the Wounded Warrior Project, a charity that helps veterans wounded while serving their country. According to the initial CBS report, Wounded Warrior Project spends only about 60% of its donations on veterans.  Compared to the 91% Fischer House spends on veterans and the 96% spent by the Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust this is a shockingly low percentage of donations used for things other than the stated goals of the charity. In light of the CBSNews investigation and the subsequent publicity and internal investigation, Wounded Warrior Project has fired both its CEO, Steven Nardizzi, and its COO, Al Giordano. CBS's initial investigation uncovered shocking increases in spending on "team building" staff meetings as five-star resorts and extravagance on "big parties" after Nardizzi came on board in 2009.
Former employees say spending has skyrocketed since Steven Nardizzi took over as CEO in 2009. Many point to the 2014 annual meeting at a luxury resort in Colorado Springs as typical of his style. "He rappelled down the side of a building at one of the all hands events. He's come in on a Segway, he's come in on a horse." About 500 staff members attended the four-day conference in Colorado. The price tag? About $3 million.

We all remember Hillary Clinton's, along with assorted Obama administration officials', televised assertions that the Benghazi attacks that left four men—an American ambassador (Christopher Stevens), two former Navy SEALS (Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty), and one embassy aide (Sean Smith)—brutally murdered in a terrorist attack was the result of an anti-Islamist video. As of the most recent Democrat debate, Hillary is still standing by that assertion and even going so far as to imply the Benghazi victims' families are lying about what she told them. Following Hillary's repeated assertions that the video was the cause of the "spontaneous" attack on the Benghazi compound and the subsequent revelations that the attack was neither spontaneous nor the result of a video, the victims' families came forward with the information that Hillary had told them that the video was to blame long after she knew that not to be the case. Watch one victim's mother express her outrage at Hillary for lying to her:

As Obama, Bloomberg, and assorted progressives continue in their gun-grabbing push, red states and those states with Republican legislative majorities have been pushing back, legalizing guns on campus, expanding carry laws, and now, in West Virginia, allowing permitless concealed carry. The bill, HB 4145, allows anyone over the age of 21 to carry a concealed handgun without a permit and was vetoed last Thursday by Democrat Governor Tomlin in a theatrical ceremony. In a bipartisan vote in first the State House and then in the State Senate, the governor's veto was overridden. The Charleston Gazette reports:
It will soon be legal for adults in West Virginia to carry hidden handguns with no training and without a permit, after the Legislature acted swiftly, and against the wishes of law enforcement, to override Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s veto of the legislation. Tomblin held a rare veto-signing ceremony Thursday, surrounded by dozens of police officers, to try to convince legislators to let the veto stand. “I urge you to look around this room for a moment and see that law enforcement are concerned about this bill,” Tomblin said Thursday. They didn’t listen.

According to the Washington Times, the U. S. military under Obama has shed so many troops and weapons that it is "only marginally able" to defend the nation.  At least one Republican presidential nominee, Ted Cruz, has laid out detailed plans for rebuilding our nation's military, and a recent revelation about Navy SEALs starkly illustrates exactly how important this goal actually is. SEALs who've met with Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA) have confided that the Navy is so short of combat rifles that SEALs have to share them, rotating rifles amongst returning and deploying teams. CBS News reports:
Navy SEAL teams don't have enough combat rifles to go around, even as these highly trained forces are relied on more than ever to carry out counterterrorism operations and other secretive missions, according to SEALs who have confided in Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. After SEALs return from a deployment, their rifles are given to other commandos who are shipping out, said Hunter, a former Marine who served three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. This weapons carousel undercuts the "train like you fight" ethos of the U.S. special operations forces, they said.
According to Hunter, money is not the problem, and citing one reason for the problem, a SEAL explains that the slow-moving bureaucracy can take as long four years to approve new combat rifle purchases.

Fake hate crimes have been relatively common in recent years; indeed, there is even a Twitter hashtag, #FakeHate, devoted to the topic.  The DC Caller has a handy list of fake hate crimes reported on U. S. campuses in 2015 alone. A recent case at SUNY Albany is now being resolved in light of the revelation that the supposed victims were actually the aggressors. Some background: In January of this year, three black UAlbany students claimed to have been victimized by a group of white men who attacked and used racial slurs against them while the (white) bus passengers sat and watched.  The outrage was such that rallies were held and social media melted down, with even Hillary Clinton deigning to comment before any facts were known. Yet the incident, as uncovered in the subsequent investigation, was not a racist attack . . . at least not as described by the "victims."