What So Proudly We Hailed…

Well, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has just handed down a decision of overwhelming arrogance. Apparently, schools in the Morgan Hill school district may now forbid students from wearing tee shirts with the American flag depicted on them. It’s not clear whether this order only applies to Cinco de Mayo, or whether it will spread to St. Patrick’s Day, Oktoberfest, Bastille Day, and other ethnic multi-cultural celebrations.

From the summary:

“The panel held that school officials did  not violate the students’ rights to freedom of expression, due process, or equal protection. The panel held given the history of prior events at the school, including an altercation on campus, it was reasonable for school officials to proceed as though the threat of a potentially violent disturbance was real. The panel held that school officials anticipated violence or substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities, and their response was tailored to the circumstances…

“On Cinco de Mayo in 2009, a year before the events relevant to this appeal, there was an altercation on campus between a group of predominantly Caucasian students and a group of Mexican students.^2″

And this footnote tells you everything you need to know about the school district, as well as the 9th Circuit Court:

²We use the ethnic and racial terminology employed by the district court (Caucasian, Hispanic, Mexican). For example, the district court at times referred to students of Mexican origin born in the United States and students born in Mexico collectively as “Mexican.” (emphasis added)

The salient points here for me are:

In order to avoid violence, school districts may punish potential victims of violence rather than the expected perpetrators.

Also, it is now appropriate to refer to children born right here in the United States as Mexicans.

We used to be allowed to fight for our flag. That impulse is deliberately being punished out of us, legislated out of us, bred out of us. How much longer will we be allowed even to sing this:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Stoutcat

H/T: HotAir

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Education

The invaluable Bill Whittle does it again. In his guise as the Virtual President, Mr. Whittle takes on the topic of education and makes his case as only he can.

Nicely done, Mr. Virtual President!

Stoutcat

The Economy: From Bad to Worse, Courtesy of Obamacare

Let’s set up a hypothetical situation: I have a spouse, a family, and a job. I am reasonably well-compensated for my work. My small company gives me health insurance that meets my family’s needs at a price that fits our budget.

Obamacare goes into effect.  My employer decides that he can no longer afford to offer health insurance to all his employees, so he cuts my hours. I no longer qualify as a full-time worker. As a necessary corollary, I no longer have my health insurance.

Exploring the Obamacare website (assuming I actually can access it), I find nothing that meets my needs or my budget, as I still make too much to qualify for a subsidy. This actually is a sop to my pride, as I would be mortified were I to ask my fellow tax-payers to pay for even part of my insurance.

But in order to get health insurance that I can afford–even with tax-payer assistance–I must cut my hours and my salary even more, and I must swallow my pride so that I can qualify for a subsidy for a plan that doesn’t really meet my needs but is all I can afford, even with assistance.

However this cut in hours and pay means that I have far less income to spend on anything other than the very basic necessities for my family–food, mortgage, school clothes for the kids, etc.) I’ll cut back cable TV and internet access, skip my morning stop at the local coffee shop, drop music lessons and after-school sports for the kids, back-burner plans for a Disney vacation (thank goodness we hadn’t mentioned it to the kids yet!), and hope that the grandparents can afford to come and visit us this year, instead of us traveling cross-country to visit them, as is our yearly habit.

Yes, as I look at it, there are lots of ways we can cut the budget to cover the income loss; it’ll be very tight, but I know we can make it. And we’re not the only family tightening our belts. Neighbors, colleagues, even family are all facing similar situations.

So what if the coffee shop goes out of business? They only employ six people–and they’ll probably qualify for unemployment. So what if the music teacher loses most of his students? That’s what welfare is for, right?

All this is doing is creating more dependency… not just those who need the subsidy for their required-by-law, law-of-the-land Obamacare coverage; but also for all those folks who are becoming the casualties of the all too predictable unintended consequences of a very, very bad piece of legislation.

Repeal it now.

Stoutcat