A six-year-old was suspended from school for making a gun gesture with his hand:

A Michigan boy reportedly has been suspended from school for curling his hand into the shape of a gun and pointing it at another student.

Erin Jammer said her son, Mason, was just playing around when he made the gesture Wednesday….

But officials at Jefferson Elementary School said the behavior made other students uncomfortable, and they suspended Mason for the remainder of the week….

This is a classic and all too common story highlighting yet another action by those on the far left to manipulate behaviors and attitudes. In the process, they don’t mind crushing the self-image of a child for the purpose of pursuing a political agenda.

How have we come to allow the abdication of common sense to enable those in authority to exercise power and control over behaviors and actions that are intended benign but interpreted aggressive and offensive? Power has been transferred by people so wrapped up in the prevention of evil and creation of utopian ideals that they have surrendered authority to others without regard or understanding of their motives, intentions or agenda.

The new despots clamor for power for the sake of power without regard to life, liberty and the pursuit, etc. They facilitate the government’s ability to make rules via a central command and dictate as opposed to logic, reason and — God forbid — common sense. Zero tolerance is simply an excuse to avoid making thoughtful, rational and reasoned decisions and to justify stupidity and incompetence.

That they would do this to a six year old is unconscionable. Can’t you just wait to see government’s role expanded further into overseeing more and more aspects of our daily lives?

If you want to express your disapproval, you can email Jefferson Elementary School Principal Matt Vogel here.

Senators are demanding that the FDA lift the ban on homosexual blood donors.

It’s déjà vu down a well-traveled road for a bloc of loathsome U.S. Senators as they push for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to change its blood donor policy to include men who have sex with men (MSM). The tainted blood scandals of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, which brought death to untold thousands of blood and plasma recipients as millions were infected worldwide with AIDS, Hepatitis C, and other diseases through contaminated blood products, seem to have left no impression on the crusading lawmakers.

In the mid-1980s, public health officials in North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan discovered that almost half of the hemophiliacs and tens of thousands of blood transfusion recipients had been infected with HIV-tainted blood from MSM and intravenous drug users. At the time, the Arkansas governor and former boy-president, B.J. Clinton, allowed prison inmates to donate killer blood containing the AIDS and hepatitis viruses to be exported worldwide for use in the manufacture of clotting agents for hemophiliacs.

Current FDA policy discriminates against MSM because of the high probability of HIV and other pathogens being transmitted in the blood supply. Blood-donor rules are grounded in science and are discriminatory to protect the recipient — “100 percent of the risk is borne by the recipient” — and do not target a particular group.

“It really isn’t even a gay issue because lesbians are not excluded unless they fall into other risk categories,” said Mark Skinner, president of the World Federation of Hemophilia.

The Washington Times reports that MSM “have an HIV prevalence ‘60 times higher than the general population, 800 times higher than first-time blood donors, and 8,000 times higher than repeat blood donors.’” MSM have been singled out and banned from giving blood to protect innocent people from infectious diseases through blood transfusions and not because of homosexual bigotry. Some other groups that have been singled out and permanently restricted from donating blood include:

• hemophiliacs
• intravenous drug users
• those who have had sex for money or drugs any time since 1977
• those who have had hepatitis after 11 years of age
• those who have had cancer (except localized skin cancer)
• those who have had multiple sclerosis
• those who have had myocardial infarction, coronary artery bypass surgery
• those who have had babesiosis or Chagas disease
• those who have taken Tegison for psoriasis
• those who have suffered a stroke
• those who Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) and/or an immediate member of your family has CJD.

What’s more, people who lived in certain parts of the world from 1980 through 1996 are also banned from donating blood due to the risk of transmitting a human variant of Mad Cow Disease.

The leftist lawmakers contend the FDA policy is outdated because today “donated blood must undergo two different, highly accurate tests that make the risk of tainted blood entering the blood supply virtually zero.” Although screening tests for killer blood have improved since the beginning of the AIDS crisis in 1983, tests to detect harmful pathogens are not fool-proof; “virtually zero” is not the same as zero.

Rather than use the luck of the draw to determine what percentage of tainted blood actually enters the blood supply undetected, why not ask the lawmakers who advocate lifting the ban, their families, and members of the Democrat Party if they would be willing to enroll in a trial blood-donor pool where they would receive blood products from MSM donors only?

The egghead 18, who would rather promote the homosexual agenda than keep America’s blood supply safe, include John Kerry of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Dick Durbin and Roland Burris of Illinois, Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Mark Udall and Michael Bennet of Colorado, Al Franken of Minnesota, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Carl Levin of Michigan, Tom Harkin of Iowa, and Mark Begich of Alaska.

Let the politically correct fools play Russian roulette with their lives if they choose, but they have no right to gamble with the lives of innocent Americans and their children because some mad homosexual activist group thinks the lifetime “ban on MSM blood donations is punitive, unfair and unnecessary.”

A Muslim cleric who spews vitriol gets more in public assistance than Brit soldiers get in salary and benefits. He is well enough to preach hatred for his benefactors and lead protest marches, but university-educated former lawyer mullah Anjem Choudary claims he is unable to find adequate work. So Britain kindly provides him with public assistance — income, housing benefit, and child support — all tax free, giving him the equivalent of a £32,500 salary. By contrast, British soldiers who risk their lives in Afghanistan earn a take-home pay that is £8,000 less.

Until recently, Choudary was the head of Islam4UK, an organization to convert Britain to a sharia caliphate. British soldiers are repatriated to RAF Lyneham, and pass through the town of Wootton Bassett on their way home, some whole, some shattered, some in coffins. This past January 4 Choudary, calling the lads “Nazis,” announced plans to lead an Islam4UK protest march through the town in the face of grieving families unless the Prime Minister would debate him. Facing an enraged public and a media firestorm, the British government proscribed Islam4UK on January 10. The march was cancelled and the organization’s website taken offline.

It’s one thing to read about Choudary’s benefits in the newspaper:

British-born father-of-four Choudary is notoriously vague about whether he works or has other money coming in.

He is understood to be employed by a Muslim organisation on a shoestring wage, which allows him to claim income support and free time to spread his hatred….

Choudary lives in a smart £320,000 house thought to be owned by an associate or relative whose home is on the same street in Leytonstone, East London. But his rent is paid by Waltham Forest Council.

The university-educated cleric does not claim incapacity benefit, meaning he has no physical problem preventing him from finding a better-paid job.

A benefits official said: “Choudary and his family enjoy a comfortable lifestyle in a smart home paid for by the taxes of hard- working British people appalled by his loathsome views.

“It’s shocking he gets more than a soldier risking his life.”….

State handout figures … show Choudary, 42, gets £15,600 a year in housing benefit – to live in a £320,000 house in Leytonstone, East London. The cleric is also given a £1,820 council tax allowance, £5,200 in income support and £3,120 in child benefits. That’s a total of £25,740.

By contrast, a private fighting the Taliban in the Afghan badlands is paid a basic £16,680 – or £13,430 after tax. He also gets a £2,380 bonus for serving on the frontline and a £1,194 “separation allowance” for being away from home. That makes total take-home earnings of £17,004.

Now some analysts at one of Britain’s leading firms, who prefer to remain anonymous, have created a graphic that showcases this outrage.

Caption:  Here is an evidence-based chart you won’t see elsewhere; it shows how much taxpayers are forced to give to Anjem Choudary – the extremist cleric who wanted to lead a protest march through Wootton Bassett. He claims £25,740 in benefits to subsidise his hate preaching. Guido questions how he can be seeking work when he spends all his time rabble rousing in broadcast studios and on demonstrations.

In contrast a frontline soldier, fighting Choudary’s taliban allies in Afghanistan, takes home £17,004 for risking his life. If that private is killed in combat, his widow and children would have to live on a pension less than Choudary gets. Why are British taxpayers paying their enemies more than their soldiers? Is Choudary really actively seeking work?

The “Guido” depicted in the graphic is Guy Fawkes, who has become a symbol of resistance to overbearing government and served as model for the lead character in the 2005 movie V for Vendetta.

I couldn’t have said this any better than the London Telegraph — The end of the road for Barack Obama?:

Mr Obama benefited in his campaign from an idiotic level of idolatry, in which most of the media participated with an astonishing suspension of cynicism. The sound of the squealing of brakes is now audible all over the American press….

Vacuous promises of change are hostages to fortune if they cannot be delivered upon to improve the living conditions of a people. The slickness of campaigning that comes from a combination of heavy funding and public relations expertise does not inevitably translate into an ability to govern. There is no point a nation’s having the audacity of hope unless it also has the sophistication and the will to turn it into action. As things stand, Barack Obama and America under his leadership do not.

The White House intends to ram amnesty for illegal immigrants down the throats of the American people as soon as they get finished ramming through Obamacare. They have been holding secret meetings to plan their attack, unreported by the mainstream media. From the Corruption Chronicles — WH Meeting To Legalize Illegal Immigrants:

Preoccupied with healthcare and expanding government, President Obama is still working full throttle to shove through an immigration reform bill prior to the midterm elections because Latino groups have threatened to withhold votes for Democratic candidates.

To appease the influential La Raza movement, the commander-in-chief met privately with his staff this week to devise a measure that will grant United States citizenship to the country’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants…

…the administration has planned a huge immigration rally in Washington D.C. later this month to “spotlight the issue and build needed momentum.”….

Visibly overwhelmed with national security, the ailing economy, sky-rocketing unemployment and other hot-button issues, Obama is dedicating resources to immigration reform because the powerful La Raza lobby is growing impatient and pressuring him to fulfill his campaign promise to legalize the undocumented…..

Obama’s intentions run directly counter to public sentiment. Immediately following his election, a Zogby poll found that support for Obama did not equate with support for amnesty:

…the victory by President-Elect Barack Obama has led to some illegal alien advocates claiming the American people support amnesty for immigration lawbreakers.

However, a nationwide survey of actual voters reveals that Americans strongly support immigration enforcement, and that less than one-third of Obama voters favor granting amnesty to illegal aliens.

The poll conducted by Zogby International … also found that a decisive majority of voters believe that an illegal alien amnesty would “further harm the interests of struggling American workers.”….

Right now, we have at a minimum 11 million lawbreakers draining our social services and taking American jobs, when 14.9 million citizens are out of work, not counting the 30 million Americans who are underemployed or the one million Americans who have given up trying to find a job.

UPDATE: The White House is meeting again today to plan “immigration reform.”

March 8, 2010

President Obama is due to meet today with the two senators who have been trying to plot a legislative course to an immigration reform bill, and the National Council of La Raza is impatient for clear signs of movement.

“If the meeting is just to ‘hear more,’ it’s not going to cut it,” Clarissa Martinez of La Raza said in Huffington Post. Martinez wants a clear sign of movement from Obama’s meeting with Sens. Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham.

“With the Congressional legislative runway getting crowded and time running out before the November elections, it is time to land this plane,” said Martinez. “Monday’s meeting must be followed by a clear, bipartisan proposal and a firm timeline for Senate action. Anything less will be regarded as more stalling by the tens of thousands coming to DC to march in two weeks.”

Martinez was referring to a March 21 demonstration intended to raise the pressure for congressional and White House action, despite the widespread feeling in political circles that there is little chance for substantive action on a bill this year.

In a report from the White House on Friday, Univision reporter Lourdes Meluza said that while presidential advisers “are aware of the difficulty of the political challenge, nevertheless they say the president hasn’t moved back from his intention to advance this project.”

In that report, White House adviser — and former NCLR official — Cecilia Munoz said the Obama administration is asking that Schumer and Graham produce specific proposal in the form of an immigration reform bill.

Last Thursday, Al Gore was in Oslo promoting the launch of his latest global warming book, Our Choice. The available coverage is a translation from the Norwegian (apologies for the clumsy wording):

During the launch of the new book’s “Our choice” in Oslo, said Al Gore, that if you get the political incentives in place, the solar energy technology will be cheaper and quickly spread. Gore believes that we have the solutions to stop global warming, but calls for political will.

If governments around the world signaled that they would invest in solar energy will follow the same trend as the data and the mobile industry, where products have become cheaper as they have been better,” said Gore at the launch 4 March.

In his book he provides a thorough description of research and opportunities in various renewable energy sources….

In the nearby Baltic Sea, dozens of ships were stuck in the ice:

Around 50 ships, including large ferries carrying thousands, were stuck in the ice in the Baltic Sea, with many unable to move until Friday, Swedish maritime authorities said….

Sweden has suffered an unusually harsh winter this year, with temperatures across the country almost continuously well below freezing since December….

While the news report about ships being stuck in ice did get some press coverage in the United States, there was no concurrent mention of Al Gore’s neighboring book launch. Our press would never want to embarrass a liberal.