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Lingua publica

The good and the bad...presented with permission from The Patriot E-Journal

web posted July 22, 2013

"The conventional wisdom evolves. Yesterday, Washington was merely broken, gridlocked, dysfunctional. The passive voice spread the blame evenly. Today it's agreed that Republican obstructionism is the root of all evil -- GOP resistance having now escalated to nihilism and indeed sabotage. Sabotage carries a fine whiff of extralegal, anti-constitutional vandalism. This from media mandarins who barely bat an eyelash when President Obama unilaterally suspends parts of his own health-care law -- just as he unilaterally stopped enforcing current immigration laws for 1.7 million young illegal immigrants, thereby enacting by executive order legislation that had failed in Congress. So much for faithfully executing the laws (Article II)." --columnist Charles Krauthammer

"The motivations of [George] Zimmerman were quite easy to understand if you cared to. He lived in a neighborhood with a lot of break ins and the police were ineffective to stop it. So he tried to help out, and when he saw a teenager he didn't recognize, he confronted the kid and talked to the police. Now, you can question whether Zimmerman's actions were sensible, but his motivations are very easy to comprehend if you're interested in treating him like a fellow human being. But no. A lot of people want to see him as this inhuman monster who just decided to murder a minority. They are bigots, and bigotry keeps them from seeing others as a human being. And these same bigots questioned everything about Zimmerman's story while being really unconcerned about what led Trayvon to bashing a man's head into the pavement. Because, again, they're bigots; they're not operating with rational minds." --columnist Frank J. Fleming

"'Ben Jealous of the NAACP, Al Sharpton of MSNBC, Jesse Jackson, and the left-wing media compete to incite hatred of America generally and white America specifically. Over what? A tragic incident in which a Hispanic man (regularly labeled 'white') said, with all physical evidence to support him, that fearing for his life, he killed a black 17-year-old (regularly labeled 'a child'). The very fact that George Zimmerman -- who is as white as Barack Obama -- is labeled 'white' bears testimony to the left-wing agenda of blaming white America and to the desire of many blacks to vent anger at whites. And that is why the election of a black president has meant nothing. Indeed, to those whose lives and/or ideologies are predicated on labeling America and its white population as racist, it wouldn't matter if half the Senate, half the House and half the governors were black." --columnist Dennis Prager

"Liberal journalists loved to suggest that the lives of young blacks in America are worth less than white lives. This was not a maxim in the coverage (or to be more accurate, shocking avoidance of) the trial of inner-city Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell. But when 17-year-old black boys are shooting other black teenagers? Yawn. In the 20-day period of the Zimmerman trial, the Chicago Sun-Times reported four minors ... were gunned down in the president's adopted hometown of Chicago. Those victims will not be adopted as a cause by Sharpton & Co. Their deaths generated zero coverage by the national 'news' media. Like the jurors, most Americans saw the confrontation between Zimmerman and Martin as unnecessary and tragic. But that doesn't make it a murder. It doesn't make it an occasion for our 'news' media to pander to liberal 'civil rights' leaders and sound the wildly inaccurate alarm that America hasn't moved an inch on racial matters since 14-year-old Emmett Till was murdered in 1955." --columnist L. Brent Bozell

"We should ask ourselves if we're doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis. ... That's the way to honor Trayvon Martin." --Barack Obama

"I think it's possible if the police had got a black Zimmerman, the question would be whether they would have beat him to death and then threw handcuffs on him and dragged him into the precinct." --Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)

"I am deeply disappointed by the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case. It seems to justify the stalking and killing of innocent black boys and deny them any avenue of self-defense." --Rep. John Lewis (D-GA)

"ObamaCare has been wonderful for America. ... [Republicans] should just get real and understand this is a law that's important, and they need to work with us to improve it." --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

"[I]t was reported to me that there are seniors in my district who eat dog food when their food stamps run out. I was appalled and went to see for myself, and I was dumbfounded. I fixed the situation, but I'm sure that somewhere in America today some poor soul is relying on dog food to take them through the month." --Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL)

"[W]hat conservatives are doing to black people at large is precisely what George Zimmerman did to Trayvon Martin. It is that they are suspected of being disposed to violence in some kind of preternatural way more than other races. They are judged guilty before they do anything." --MSNBC's Chris Hayes

"[I]n too many ways, we still live in the same America ... where blacks are often judged to be a threat to order and citizens are able to destroy their bodies and be protected by the justice system and the black community is left in pain." --MSNBC's Touré

"There's [sic] some in this country who would like nothing better than to start seeing killing on both sides because they had the capacity to out-kill [us] and not have to pay for it." --MSNBC's Al Sharpton

"So, you know how you felt on 9/11? Yeah, that's how we feel when it comes to race." --MSNBC's Michael Eric Dyson

"There's no such thing as 'black-on-black' crime." --The Daily Beast's Jamelle Bouie

"So we can all kill teenagers now? Just checking." --AP reporter Cristina Silva

"Racist" Republicans and immigration: "[Republicans] don't want to make these [illegal immigrants] citizen[s] because they don't think they'll vote for them in 13 years from now. They don't think they can get there. But it is also a very sort of ugly ethnic argument that they don't want to add more brown people to the population of the United States underlying the argument." --MSNBC's Joy Reid

"'Shoot first' laws like those in Florida can inspire dangerous vigilantism and protect those who act recklessly with guns. Such laws -- drafted by gun lobby extremists in Washington -- encourage deadly confrontations by enabling people to shoot first and argue 'justifiable homicide' later. The tragic death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed child attempting to walk home from the store, will continue to drive our efforts [for more gun control]." --New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg

"Separate and apart from the [Trayvon Martin] case that has drawn the nation's attention, it's time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods. ... It is our collective obligation; we must stand OUR ground to ensure ... that our laws reduce violence, and take a hard look at laws that contribute to more violence than they prevent." --Attorney General Eric Holder

"We must not -- as we have too often in the past -- let this opportunity pass. ... I want to assure you that the Department will continue to act in a manner that is consistent with the facts and the law. .... And we will never stop working to ensure that -- in every case, in every circumstance, and in every community -- justice must be done." --Eric Holder

"We will pursue civil rights charges with the Department of Justice, we will continue to fight for the removal of Stand Your Ground laws in every state, and we will not rest until racial profiling in all its forms is outlawed." --NAACP president Benjamin Jealous

"Frankly, I am stunned over this ... tremendous miscarriage of justice [in the Zimmerman trial]. When the jury says not guilty -- he's at least guilty of murder. An armed man, racially pursuing and profiling a young African-American boy, and kills him." --Jesse Jackson

"F---ing Zimmerman got away with murder today wow what kind of world do we live in. All them jurors should go home tonight and kill themselves for letting a grown man get away with killing a kid." --Atlanta Falcons player Roddy White

"It's 2013 and an American jury just acquitted a man who admitted to stalking and killing an unarmed child." --actor-director Richard Dreyfuss

"We are officially game, like deer. ... Black parents hold your kids at home because apparently killing black children is okay. ... Ni---- are official 'sport'. Rabbit season, duck season, ni--- season." --actor Marlon Wayans

"Future generations are going to have fun analyzing how a large majority electing a black president was a step backwards in race relations." --columnist Frank J. Fleming

"The University of Hawaii set aside an oceanfront site in a bid to have President Obama's library located there. However, one of two colleges in Southside Chicago may get the library. That's because in Chicago Barack Obama got a hundred twenty percent of the vote." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"President Obama said he wants to use Google's model to create 'a smarter government.' Nah, he should try the Twitter model: no new laws over 140 characters long." --Fred Thompson

"According to a new study, inactivity can kill you. You can die from doing nothing. Believe me. These findings scare the hell out of the Congress." --comedian Jay Leno

"The Affordable Care Act is the most powerful law for reducing health disparities since Medicare and Medicaid were created in 1965, the same year the Voting Rights Act was also enacted. ... The same arguments against change, the same fear and misinformation that opponents used then are the same ones opponents are spreading now. ... But history shows that upholding our founding principles demands continuous work toward a more perfect union. ... And it requires the kind of work that the NAACP has done for more than a century to move us forward. You showed it in the fight against lynching and the fight for desegregation. You showed it by ensuring inalienable rights are secured in the courtroom and at the ballot box. And you showed it by supporting a health law 100 years in the making." --Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in remarks to the NAACP

web posted July 15, 2013

"In the health insurance exchanges, the cheapest plans are going to have deductibles of $5,000 or more. And lots and lots of people are going to choose the cheapest plans. Avik Roy reports that employers are going for Health Savings Accounts ... in a big way. Bottom line: millions of patients are going to be buying care with their own money, rather than with a third-party payer's money. I'm sure this thought is causing heartburn for those on the left who view high deductible plans as 'under-insurance.' But this development is viewed as opportunity by health care entrepreneurs. One study is predicting that the number of walk-in clinics is going to double in the next few years. The Obama administration doesn't like them because they are not part of integrated care/coordinated care/medical homes/etc., etc., etc. Even so, they are doing what the ACOs are unlikely to do: lowering costs, increasing quality and improving access to care." --NCPA president John C. Goodman

"Democrats want 30 million new voters and they will say anything to get there: It's a crisis! Illegal immigrants are 'living in the shadows'! ... We're told, 'You don't know what it's like to live in the shadows!' Yes, you're right, and that proves it's not a crisis. Sorry to sound legalistic, illegal aliens, but you broke the law and ... you know you broke the law. You hid in the backs of trucks, traveled across remote desert locations, ran from U.S. agents and stole American IDs. It's supposed to be uncomfortable to break the law. We aren't required to grant amnesty to people just because they've put themselves in the awkward position of being here illegally. (Or because the Democrats need 30 million new voters.) If illegals were Republicans, Chuck Schumer would be a 'Minuteman,' patrolling the Mexican border 24-7." --columnist Ann Coulter

"Egyptians learned the hard way that, whatever their cultural preferences, full-strength Islam comes at a price. Egypt has a wheat crisis, and a fuel crisis, and the World Food Program estimates that 40 percent of the population is suffering from 'physical or mental' malnutrition. For purposes of comparison, when King Farouk was overthrown in 1952, Egypt and South Korea had more or less the same GDP per capita. Today Egypt's is about one-eighth of South Korea's. Washington has spent six decades getting Egypt wrong, ever since the CIA insouciantly joined the coup against Farouk.... Even in a multicultural age, liberal Americans casually assume that 'developing countries' want to develop into something like a Western democracy. But Egypt only goes backwards." --columnist Mark Steyn

"How can Egypt have a stable government when the Brotherhood claims to be doing the will of God at the same time the military says it carried out God's will by removing Morsi and secularists say they don't want Islamists governing Egypt? ... While often treating [Israel] as a weed that ought to be dug up, rather than a flower in the desert to be nourished, U.S. policy has focused on placating Arabs and Muslims, many of whom wish to destroy Israel and America. Perhaps now that the United States is rapidly headed toward energy independence ... this and future administrations won't feel the need to bow to Middle East dictators and will push a 're-set' button that has a better chance at succeeding than the one that for too long has been stuck and inoperative." --columnist Cal Thomas

"[I]n this democracy, we the people recognize that this government belongs to us, and it's up to each of us and every one of us to make it work better. We can't just stand on the sidelines. We can't take comfort in just being cynical. We all have a stake in government's success, because the government is us, and we're doing things right." --Barack Obama

"We are the first to confess that progress has not always come quick, and major challenges still remain. But we've made huge swaths of your government more efficient and more transparent, and more accountable than ever before." --Barack Obama

"[Presidents' wives] have probably the best job in the world, because while our husbands ... have to react and respond to crises on a minute-to-minute basis, we got to work on what we're passionate about. ... I have just found it a very freeing and liberating opportunity. ... There are prison-like elements, but it's a really nice prison. You can't complain. There are confining elements." --Michelle Obama

"I have found that my husband needs time to be off and the only time is when they walk into the doors of the residence and we sit down and have a family dinner." --Michelle Obama

"Chicago's supposedly 'tough' gun laws are utterly pointless when states around it have weak gun laws. America needs to take federal action. The gun 'rights' lobby can tell me the only answer to gun violence is more guns until they're blue in the face. It's utter nonsense. There will be more mass shooting atrocities in America soon. And more hollow words from cowardly politicians. Until the people say 'enough.'" --CNN's Piers Morgan

"You know, the one thing that's been a common theme throughout this first six months has been distractions. ... [W]e spent more time talking about the IRS and Benghazi and the NSA, and privacy and tapping or gathering information from our phones, than almost anything else. And now is that just because it's more interesting to talk about a distraction than to try to get policy done?" --PBS' Gwen Ifill

"[Republicans] are just getting started on this IRS issue. And even though we have not really seen anything revelatory that's come out of the investigation in terms of actually tying it to the president ... there is a determination to make sure that every possible pathway is exhausted before they call it off. So it's not going to go away. Whether there's any substance to it, I'm not even sure it really matters at this point." --USA Today's Susan Davis

Nothing to see here: "Would [an Eliot] Spitzer victory mark the of end of the sex scandal as we know it? And I'm asking, really, have we become too intrusive into our elected officials and candidates' private lives? ... [T]oo often do we ascribe to one's behavior public life that which goes on in their private life? ... If you're a competent guy, and I think Eliot Spitzer is a competent guy, then beyond the schadenfreude, what business is it, really, of ours?" --MNSBC's Michael Smerconish interviewing disgraced ex-governor Eliot Spitzer

'Non Compos Mentis': "[L]egislators in North Carolina looked at what's happening in Texas and other states where women are fighting these [anti-abortion] laws, where they're fighting these bills. Where they're coming out and protesting, and where it's becoming national news, and they decided to make the world's most ironic sneak attack. You know, I'm sure these legislators couldn't tell you what Sharia law is, but what they think it is, is exactly what they're doing in these bills, imposing a religious dictate on women." --MSNBC's Joy Reid

"[Obama's] view is that we ought to plow forward, make [ObamaCare] work, and we're going to look back at it and it's going to be our proudest accomplishment. But it's going to take time. If you're worried about optics at any given moment, then you're not going to accomplish very much in public office." --Obama advisor David Axelrod

"We make determinations that are in the interest of successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act. We are flexible because that is the right thing to do. ... We're interested in getting it right because we believe that getting it right will further the benefits that are available to more Americans." --White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

"My mission is to break the ice between hostile countries. Why it's been left to me to smooth things over, I don't know. Dennis Rodman, of all people. Keeping us safe is really not my job; it's the black guy's [Obama's] job. But I'll tell you this: If I don't finish in the top three for the next Nobel Peace Prize, something's seriously wrong." --Dennis Rodman, former athlete and now self-appointed foreign policy expert, on his recent trip to North Korea

"Whether George Zimmerman is found innocent or guilty by the jury, I am firm believer that all of us live by karmic law, and he will ultimately be punished for the death of Trayvon, no matter what." --hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons

"The U.S. Government announced that the Employer Mandate part of ObamaCare could just wait until January 1, 2015 instead of its scheduled launch on January 1, 2014. It would have taken less time (3 years, 7 months) to defeat Japan in World War II than to implement ObamaCare (3 years, 9 months). And Obama will still miss it." --columnist Rich Galen

"Michelle Obama raised eyebrows at the African First Ladies' Conference in Tanzania. She said that being First Lady in the White House was like living in a prison. It's the lamest attempt to be the next Nelson Mandela that we've seen in the First family so far." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"[S]marter government sounds like a good idea. I mean, here's what the government is doing now: the IRS just accidentally released thousands of people's social security numbers. Frankly, it doesn't seem like the government could get much dumber. But do you really think Obama (with the help of Biden!) are capable of making things smarter? Is there any indication they even know what smarter is? Frankly, these days I'd settle for a less malicious government. Until then, I'd rather the government stay dumb." --humorist Frank J. Fleming

"[Congress has passed] a lot of legislation that has poorly designed some of our agencies and forces some of our folks to engage in bureaucratic hoop-jumping, instead of just going ahead and focusing on mission and delivering good service to our citizens." --Barack Obama

"In fact, the point is, is that the [employer] mandate was not delayed." --Nancy Pelosi

web posted July 8, 2013

"[N]ow we the people must ... live up to the words of that Declaration of Independence, and secure liberty and opportunity for our own children, and for future generations." --Barack Obama

"There are some prison elements to [being first lady]. But it's a really nice prison. You can't complain, but there is [sic] definitely elements that are confining." --Michelle Obama

web posted July 1, 2013

"[I]n truth Mr. Obama's target is all forms of carbon energy. Natural gas is next. The higher costs will ripple through the energy chain, which is precisely Mr. Obama's goal. Only by artificially raising the cost of carbon energy can he make even heavily subsidized 'renewables' competitive. In general every $1 billion spent complying with an EPA rule threatens 16,000 jobs and cuts GDP by $1.2 billion -- and the agency is now writing scores of multibillion-dollar rules. Keep in mind that last month the Administration quietly raised the 'social cost' of carbon by 60% in a regulatory filing related to microwave ovens. That means the EPA can jack up costs by 59.99% and still justify them by claiming the higher benefits. ... The Americans who will be harmed will have to console themselves with 99 weeks of jobless benefits, food stamps and ObamaCare." --The Wall Street Journal

"I think a simpler, fairer immigration system that allows more legal immigration would be good for the country and more humane for those who are currently standing in line to get into this country. I'm not opposed to the idea that a robust legal immigration plan can be a net gain to our economy and our people. I think the majority of those here illegally are here to make a better life for themselves and I'm sympathetic to that, though not totally forgiving. But if such a reform is to allow those who have broken the law coming here to be rewarded for those actions, it should at the very least, offer some assurances that it might actually solve the illegal immigration problem in something close to satisfactory fashion. That seems like a pretty low bar for a bill whose raison d'etre is supposed to be solving the illegal immigration problem." --blogger Mary Katharine Ham

"Republicans might want to consider the fact that the real threat of a 'death spiral' comes from alienating one's core constituency. A constituency that has made it clear any bill in which border security isn't the top priority is a deal-breaker. That would be genuine border security, not the so-called triggers and/or the aforementioned flexibility that render it completely impotent. Republicans might want to consider something else as well. Virtually all of the progressive agenda is based on the politics of incrementalism. That means this bill represents a point of departure, not the 'last time' endgame its supporters in both parties claim it to be. As soon as the ink is dry on any comprehensive reform package, Democrats will be right back to work, attempting to 'modify' the more 'onerous' and 'inhumane' aspects of the bill." --columnist Arnold Ahlert

"In 2012, the Treasury collected $2.4 trillion in taxes, more than $20,000 per household. Sounds like a lot, and it is. But it wasn't enough. The federal government spent $3.5 trillion. 'Lord, the money we do spend on government,' Will Rogers once quipped. 'And it's not one bit better than the government we got for one-third the money 20 years ago.' More than 80 years after he said that, the problem has only worsened. Too much drag makes it impossible for an airplane to fly. The same is true for economies. Lawmakers need to get serious about taming the debt, not take bows for fleeting improvements." --former Heritage president Ed Feulner

"Now, we know that no single weather event is caused solely by climate change. ... But we also know that in a world that's warmer than it used to be, all weather events are affected by a warming planet." --Barack Obama

"In fact, those who are already feeling the effects of climate change don't have time to deny it -- they're busy dealing with it. ... I had to sit on a meeting with the Department of Interior and Agriculture and some of the rest of my team just to figure out how we're going to pay for more and more expensive fire seasons." --BO (In reality, this year's fire season is the quietest on record.)

"So the question is not whether we need to act. The overwhelming judgment of science ... has put all that to rest. Ninety-seven percent of scientists, including, by the way, some who originally disputed the data, have now put that to rest." --BO (The 97% consensus: "a lie of presidential proportions.")

"I don't have much patience for anyone who denies that this challenge is real. We don't have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society. Sticking your head in the sand might make you feel safer, but it's not going to protect you from the coming storm." --BO

"It's been 86 days since the Senate passed a budget. Republicans, stop obstructing us from proceeding to conference." --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) (Reid went FOUR YEARS without passing a budget in the Senate.)

"This [immigration issue] has the potential of becoming the next civil rights movement." --Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

"[R]emember ... after Superstorm Sandy when the oceans did rise and people died and people lost their homes and people wanted help for their families. So, you know, Obama got the last laugh." --Salon's Joan Walsh

"Whether or not we'll get a new voting rights act is anybody's guess. Right now, there is no voting rights act operative in the United States." --ABC's Terry Moran

"Clarence Thomas's actions [on The Voting Rights Act] here today, though consistent, though tragic to me, are even more so in light of the bulk of decisions he's rendered in the name of a judicial vote on the Supreme Court. A symbolic Jew has invited a metaphoric Hitler to commit holocaust and genocide upon his own people." --MSNBC's Michael Eric Dyson

"Most people intuitively know that an embryo is not a human being, but most people also intuitively know that at 20 weeks or 22 weeks or 24 weeks, the fetus has some sort of value, even if not value that trumps the interests of the mother." --Newsweek's Michelle Goldberg

"Republicans face a tremendous deficit with women voters. And so they keep putting on this spectacle over and over and over again. ... They're obsessed with this idea of making women -- this isn't pro-life; this is forced birth. They are obsessed with this notion of shaming, compelling, coercing, whatever they have to do to make women give birth. It's bizarre, but it is what they are about." --MNSBC's Joy Reid

"The total amount of man-made global warming pollution surrounding the planet and the atmosphere today now traps enough extra energy every 24 hours to equal the energy release by 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs going off every single day." --Al Gore

"I heard a great program on CurrentTV yesterday about people who deny climate change, and I'm in favor of what their solution was. We don't have to talk to them anymore about stuff that's not true and this propaganda that's a lie. We're just going to run 'em over." --former DNC chief Howard "The Scream" Dean

"[Abraham Lincoln's] approach to slavery makes me sure he would move on stopping [climate change] because it is moral issue of our time." --professor and environmental propagandist Jonathan Overpeck

"The one thing the president really needs to do now is to begin the process of shutting down the conventional coal plants. Politically, the White House is hesitant to say they're having a war on coal. On the other hand, a war on coal is exactly what's needed." --Obama climate adviser Daniel P. Schrag

"[W]e have an administration today that I am proud to say no longer defends the constitutionality of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act). That's an enormous step forward." --Secretary of State John Kerry

"It's time for our culture to wake up and smell the sex pheromones: monogamy is not natural for many, or probably even most, humans. With people living longer than ever before, a greater tolerance toward the human impulse to experience sexual variety is needed. ... History and biology suggest that strict monogamy, which has social advantages, is not a 'one size' fits all proposition." --author Meghan Laslocky

"It's telling that the scare tactics deployed by the proponents of comprehensive immigration reform all revolve around politics: massive rallies on the Washington Mall and an angry Hispanic electorate. In reality, it might be the folks using the scare tactics who are the ones running scared. Maybe they're afraid that the longer their bill is debated and the more sunshine it's exposed to, the less likely the American people are to support it." --National Review's John Fund

"People who refuse to accept unpleasant truths have no right to complain about politicians who lie to them. What other kind of candidates would such people elect?" --economist Thomas Sowell

"[I]n his commencement speech at Ohio State, Obama warned the graduating class not to listen to those who tell them the tyrant is just around the corner. For once, he was right. The tyrant wasn't lurking in the wings. He was standing at the podium." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"President Obama flew to Germany to address the German people in Berlin. It might cheer him up. He's been ripped by both U.S. parties lately for being an an authoritarian and a compulsive speech-maker so he might as well go where it's traditionally appreciated." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"President Obama got some good news today. The IRS ruled he can write off the first half of his second term as a total loss." --comedian Jay Leno

"Next week, when we celebrate Independence Day we'll also be observing health independence. ... It captures the spirit of our Founders." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who clearly needs remedial history, once again touting ObamaCare

"We know that the costs of [climate change] can be measured in lost lives and lost livelihoods. ... Those that are already feeling the effects of climate change don't have time to deny it. ... We don't have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society. Sticking your head in the sand might make you feel safer, but it's not going to protect you from the coming storm." --Barack Obama disparaging people who dare to think the science behind man-made global warming -- and even more so the Leftist-prescribed Big Government solutions -- warrants skepticism

"[T]o defend traditional marriage is not to condemn, demean, or humiliate those who would prefer other arrangements, any more than to defend the Constitution of the United States is to condemn, demean, or humiliate other constitutions. To hurl such accusations so casually demeans this institution. In the majority's judgment, any resistance to its holding is beyond the pale of reasoned disagreement. To question its high-handed invalidation of a presumptively valid statute is to act (the majority is sure) with the purpose to 'disparage,' 'injure,' 'degrade,' 'demean,' and 'humiliate' our fellow human beings, our fellow citizens, who are homosexual. All that, simply for supporting an Act that did no more than codify an aspect of marriage that had been unquestioned in our society for most of its existence -- indeed, had been unquestioned in virtually all societies for virtually all of human history." --Justice Antonin Scalia in his dissent

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