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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

International support for blasphemy laws has been growing in recent years with Muslims pushing for them in Europe and Obama seemingly advocating for them at the U. N. In Quebec, a bill has been introduced that will target those who "write against the Islamic religion." Robert Spencer reports, initially quoting from The National Post:
“Bill 59 assigns new powers to the Quebec Human Rights Commission (QHRC) to combat hate speech, as well as a variety of other provisions meant to protect against extremism, by censoring speech that promotes ‘fear of the other.’ Ominously, the bill would allow the QHRC to pursue websites that in its estimation describe and denounce Islamism….Jacques Frémont, the commission’s president, explained that he planned to use the requested powers to sue those critical of certain ideas, ‘people who would write against … the Islamic religion … on a website or on a Facebook page.'”

While small acts of kindness from citizens can touch the lives of police officers many miles away, police officers across the country increasingly face public aggression, disrespect, and violence.  In the wake of Ferguson and the execution of police officers in NYC and across America,  America's police face an untenable situation as they attempt to do their jobs. Watch this report on police under attack: The recent attention has brought with it a heightened awareness among police officers . . . and hesitation.  An Alabama police detective, saying that he was concerned about media attention, was pistol-whipped with his own gun last week.  CNN Wire reports:
An Alabama police detective is pistol whipped with his own gun. He says the coverage of deadly police shootings across America is partly to blame.

George Will has written a thought-provoking piece over at WaPo in which he argues that the GOP should purge itself of Trump and Trump's supporters. Will explains:
When, however, Trump decided that his next acquisition would be not another casino but the Republican presidential nomination, he tactically and quickly underwent many conversions of convenience (concerning abortion, health care, funding Democrats, etc.). His makeover demonstrates that he is a counterfeit Republican and no conservative.

He is an affront to anyone devoted to the project William F. Buckley began six decades ago with the founding in 1955 of the National Review — making conservatism intellectually respectable and politically palatable. Buckley’s legacy is being betrayed by invertebrate conservatives now saying that although Trump “goes too far,” he has “tapped into something,” and therefore . . . .

Therefore what? This stance — if a semi-grovel can be dignified as a stance — is a recipe for deserved disaster. Remember, Henry Wallace and Strom Thurmond “tapped into” things.

Obama has stated that the "most frustrating part" of his presidency has been his inability to pass gun control legislation, and progressives are not going to give up on their gun grabbing goal any time soon. The Washington Post has published an article by E. J. Dionne entitled "How American can free itself from guns."  Dionne argues, much as Eric Holder did, that the key is to change the American mind about guns. Watch Eric Holder explain how we need to "brainwash" people against guns: Dionne doesn't use the word "brainwashing," but he makes the same comparison to public service messages about cigarettes.  He writes:

Dr. Ben Carson came into the public eye with his 2013 Prayer Breakfast speech at the White House.  Conservatives, myself included, were thrilled to see a prominent physician speak out for life and against many Obama policies . . . with Obama squirming in his chair only a few feet away. We love someone who is brave enough to stand for their principles and unafraid to take on the powers that be (as witnessed by the strong conservative support we are currently seeing for Trump). Dr. Carson was, many conservatives thought and still think, just what the doctor ordered. There was a hiccup along the way, however, when Dr. Carson made his remarks that the Second Amendment should only being applied to some people, depending on where they live. Populated areas, he felt, were not the place for legal gun ownership. He later clarified these remarks and asserted that he is "extremely pro–Second Amendment, no question about it,” and the issue kind of faded away. Now, Dr. Carson is facing another controversy stemming from Dr. Jen Gunter's blog post stating that he "once did research on 17-week aborted fetal tissue." It seems that Dr. Carson was one of several authors listed on a paper, published in Human Pathology in 1992, detailing his and others' study of adult and fetal tissue.

In the wake of the heart-wrenching videos concerning Planned Parenthood's sale of "fully intact" aborted babies and their assorted "baby parts," sometimes without the mother's consent, Alabama governor Bentley, Louisiana governor Jindal, and New Hampshire's Executive Council took steps to defund Planned Parenthood in their states. Because these defunding measures involve Medicaid, a federally-funded program, the Obama White House is warning states that they may be breaking the law by accepting Medicaid funding and excluding Planned Parenthood.  The Hill reports:
The Obama administration has warned Louisiana and Alabama that they could be violating federal law by cutting off Planned Parenthood from their states’ Medicaid programs. The Republican governors in both states this month terminated their state Medicaid contracts with the organization in the wake of controversial undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the price of fetal tissue for medical research.

The Ted Cruz campaign is holding its own in terms of polls and campaign fundraising; indeed, according to reports, the Cruz campaign raked in $1 million within the first 100 hours following last Thursday's debate.  His #CruzCountry bus tour is also creating a lot of buzz on Twitter, with enthusiastic supporters tweeting that they've just met the "next president." Watch: Winning the presidency is clearly Cruz's goal, and he seems to be playing a long game.

In no small part because this administration seems to dish up scandal and outrage on a seemingly weekly basis, the Fast and Furious scandal has yet to be fully investigated or resolved.  After Eric Holder cleared Eric Holder of any wrong-doing, and the mainstream media outlets began reporting, erroneously, that Fast and Furious was the same program that began under President Bush as Project Gunrunner, the story sort of faded from the public eye. Apparently intended by the Obama administration to, at least in part, serve as a rationale for more gun control regulations in the U.S., Operation Fast in Furious is back in this news. Last week, it was reported that the Garland, Texas terrorist, for whose acts ISIS claimed credit, purchased a gun through a Fast and Furious gun shop in 2010. And this week, we learn that the man charged in the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry has received a plea deal from the U. S. government.  KVOA in Tuscon reports:
One of the men charged in the murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry pleaded guilty to one count of murder, Monday morning. Once a potential candidate for the death penalty after the murder of the agent, the drawn up plea deal now states that the U.S. and the defendant will ask for 360 months imprisonment, with credit for time served since his arrest in October 2012.

Following last Thursday's debate, Ted Cruz's support has more than doubled according to an NBC poll.  Matthew Burke reports:
In a new NBC News/Survey Monkey poll released on Sunday, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a constitutional conservative, catapulted into second place overall, increasing by a whopping 7% over the prior poll, putting him at 13% overall, more than doubling his prior support of 6%, according to the poll. Cruz, a former national collegiate debate champion, soared despite having his debate performance largely put on mute mode by major media outlets, including FOX News.
Although Trump still leads in this poll, this is a very nice bump for Cruz.  This news comes on the tail of a debate performance, particularly involving ISIS, that Frank Luntz calls "great news for Cruz." Watch:

As I've noted previously, "If the gun grabbers can’t repeal the Second Amendment or get laws passed to infringe on our right to bear arms, they’ll simply tax guns and ammo until we can no longer afford to buy guns or use the ones we have.  At least that is their hope." And it's full steam ahead in Seattle, where they are moving forward with their "gun violence" tax.  David Workman explains:
The committee voted unanimously [Wednesday] to send the proposal to the full city council for consideration next Monday, according to the Seattle P-I.com. Monday's vote could set the stage for a legal confrontation, and there were hints that existing gun shops could move out of the city, and that gun owners living in Seattle will simply shop outside the city, thus thwarting any dreams that this tax will generate $300,000 to $500,000 annually for the city's gun control efforts. . . . . Another part of the Burgess gun control effort is a second proposed ordinance requiring the reporting of lost or stolen firearms to police within 24 hours that the theft or loss is discovered. This requirement also appears to go beyond state statute, and thus violate the preemption statute, passed in 1982, strengthened in 1985 and reinforced with the defeat of Seattle’s attempted parks ban three years ago when the state Supreme Court refused to hear Seattle’s appeal after the city lost at trial and at the appeals court.
The NRA argues that this is bad policy.  From the NRA-ILA website:

With illegal immigration and sanctuary cities a topic of hot debate, it's interesting to note that voters think the federal government doesn't do enough to deport illegal aliens.  Rasmussen reports:
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 60% of Likely U.S. Voters think the U.S. government is not aggressive enough in deporting those who are in this country illegally. That shows little change from April but is up from 52% in April of last year. Twelve percent (12%) think the government is too aggressive, down from 16% in April. Sixteen percent (16%) now think the number of deportations is about right, while 12% are not sure.
This is a trend that seems to be growing, as voters shift toward stronger penalties for hiring / housing illegals and harsher punishments for sanctuary cities:
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 55% of Likely U.S. Voters think the policies and practices of the federal government encourage people to enter the United States illegally, down just two points from March’s recent high. Twenty-eight percent (28%) disagree, while 17% are undecided.

When Lois Lerner preemptively "broke" the story in 2013 about the IRS targeting conservative groups from (at least) 2010 to the time leading up to the 2012 presidential election, there was outrage and a bit of curiosity because it was she, then director of the Exempt Organizations Unit of the IRS, who admitted to these illegal actions.  Four days later, the Inspector General's office issued a report confirming the targeting, and three years later, we are learning of additional targets such as Bristol Palin. After his initial feigned outrage, Obama, of course, is adamant that there is not a "smidgen of corruption" at the IRS, but that remains to be seen as reports of ongoing IRS targeting of conservatives emerge. Conservatives were—and are—justifiably outraged at such a blatant and illegal weaponization of the IRS against those whom Lerner and others in the IRS, perhaps on up to the White House, deemed threatening or otherwise "enemies."

While Jeb's Telemundo interview this week has been getting attention for his statements about amnesty immigration reform, there is another interesting tidbit in there about Iran that sheds some light on his push back against Mike Huckabee's comments evoking the Holocaust. Personally, I'm not surprised that Jeb is promising action on immigration reform to Spanish-speaking audiences; he promises the same thing to English-speaking audiences and has been quite defiant about maintaining his position throughout the primary. Here's a transcript (translated from Spanish) of part of the immigration portion of the interview:
José Díaz-Balart: How do we resolve the problem of 11 million undocumented and what do you think is the formula for the border to be secured and deal with those those people who are here and contribute to the economy with their hard work? Jeb Bush: Look, first of all, to arrive here legally has to be easier than to arrive here illegally. So one must have a commitment with a border, and JUST as important, there’s 40 percent of the undocumented that arrived  here legally, that have a legal visa and they overstayed  And they don’t go back. We must have a plan to solve that. It’s not the most complicated thing in our country, we can do it. We can accomplish it. But for the 11 million people, I believe that they come from out of the shadows they get a work permit, they pay taxes naturally, they pay small fine they, learn English. They don’t get benefits from the federal government, but they come out of the shadows. And they obtain a legal status after some time. I believe that’s the place where one could obtain consensus to solve this problem.

Following the shooting of Cecil the lion, the Daily Mail is reporting that his brother, Jericho, has also been shot dead by poachers in Zimbabwe:

Cecil the lion's brother Jericho has been shot dead in a park in Zimbabwe.

The animal was protecting his lion cubs after he was shot dead by Minnesota dentist, Walter Palmer earlier this month, sparking outrage around the world.

Johnny Rodrigues, Chairman for Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, said in a statement: 'It is with great sadness and regret that we report that Jericho was shot dead at 4pm this afternoon.

'We have no further details but will advise as soon as we know more.'

Before his death there had been concerns Jericho would not be able to hold the territory of Cecil's cubs alone and could be chased away by rival lions.

Unprotected, the lionesses and cubs are now under threat and also move away or be killed.

Last week Mr Rodrigues, told the Daily Mail Online Jericho was keeping the cubs safe from any rival males.

Twitter is atwitter at the news:

Over the years, Obama has lamented the fact that he's not a king, an emperor, or a dictator and has stated that it would be "so much easier to be president of China."  He also stated no fewer than 22 times that he does not have the authority for executive amnesty . . . before doing it. Apparently recognizing the limitations of being the president of the United States, Obama can't help musing about a third term.  He thinks he'd win. Watch:

The insensitive, extremist Westboro Baptist Church has threatened to picket the funerals of the two victims of the Lafayette movie theater shooting.  In response, Governor Jindal has ordered police to “take swift and immediate action” against them. The Hill Reports:

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is issuing a warning to the Westboro Baptist Church, which has threatened to picket the funerals of two victims from the Lafayette, La., movie theater shooting this week.

Jindal on Saturday told state police to “take swift and immediate action” against anyone who tries to disrupt the funerals of 21-year-old Mayci Breaux or 33-year-old Jillian Johnson.

“In times of grief and mourning, the rule of law is especially important to protect the rights of citizens when they are most vulnerable, and any effort to disrupt or interfere with a family’s ability to grieve following the loss of a loved one is a reprehensible act,” Jindal wrote in an executive order announced late Saturday morning.

Obama's first trip to Kenya since becoming president has highlighted the disappointment that many Africans feel in his presidency.  While President Bush earns high praise and achieved a great deal in Africa, particularly with regard to his efforts fighting AIDS, Obama . . . not so much. In his article entitled, "Africa's Disappointment with Obama," Edward-Isaac Dovere writes:

Beneath the ecstatic welcome President Barack Obama will receive when he arrives in his father’s homeland of Kenya on Friday is a lingering sense of disappointment.

More than the first black president, he’s the first African-American U.S. president, and that’s accentuated a frustration among many Africans — and some Americans — who see his record on the continent over the last six-and-a-half years as modest at best and falling short of the successes of his predecessor,George W. Bush.

“There’s been a feeling that up to now, maybe he hasn’t really achieved all the expectations,” said Witney Schneidman, who’s done extensive governmental, non-profit and corporate work in Africa and co-chaired the Africa Experts Group for Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Part of the disappointment is exemplified in the following quote in Dovere's piece:

Ted Cruz has long criticized career politicians in both parties for not listening to the American people; indeed, he started a Twitter hashtag #MakeDCListen on this very issue and has taken to the Senate floor on a number of occasions to urge DC to listen to the people who elected them. His pleas, like ours, fall on deaf ears, but that doesn't stop him from voicing what so many of us have come to believe: Yesterday, Cruz once again took to the Senate floor to berate career politicians in both parties, particularly Republican leadership. The Washington Post reports:
Firebrand Republican senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz did something surprising in the Senate on Friday: He accused the head of his party, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of lying to his colleagues. “We know now that when the majority leader looks us in the eyes and makes an explicit commitment, that he is willing to say things that he knows are false,” Cruz (Tex.) said. “That has consequences for how this body operates.”