Obama’s Little Default Secret Gets Out

Barack Obama and his Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, have been telling everyone who will listen that the U.S. will default on its debts if the debt ceiling is not raised, pronto.

“The yellow light,” the president said, “is flashing.” “By August 2nd, we run out of tools to make sure that all our bills are paid. So that is a hard deadline.”

Curiously, though, just a week away from that “hard deadline,” the stock market is not panicking, and all is quiet on the Asian trading front, too.

What gives?

It seems that Barack Obama and Timothy Geithner have been assuring banks that what the White House has been telling the rest of us is pure bunk, fit only for the unwashed ears of the lowly American masses, including those fearful American grandmas living on the edge of starvation on tiny little Social Security checks.

From Fox Business (h/t The Strata-Sphere):

While officials from the Obama Administration raised their rhetoric over the weekend about the possibility of a debt default if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, they privately have been telling top executives at major U.S. banks that such an event won’t happen, FOX Business has learned.

In a series of phone calls, administration officials have told bankers that the administration will not allow a default to happen even if the debt cap isn’t raised by the August 2 date.

America, who have you elected?

Cross-posted at Bread upon the Waters.

Advertisement

Back of the envelope math: 18,000 new jobs in June = 4/10 of one job per zip code

On average.

That will be a big help to the one out of every eleven Americans who are out of work.

Cross posted at Bread upon the Waters.

Teaching by Example: Wisconsin “Sick Note” Doctors are Medical School Faculty

The Department of Family Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health must be proud. A number of the doctors publicly dispensing doctor-excuse sick notes to thousands of teachers who expect to be paid by taxpayers for attending a political rally serve as the Department’s faculty.

More at Bread upon the Waters.

In June of 2009, Asia Bibi, mother of fi…

In June of 2009, Asia Bibi, mother of five, was working in the fields on the farm of Muslim landowner Muhammad Idrees, near the village of Ittanwali, when her boss told her to fetch some water for the rest of the crew.

After Asia brought the water, some of the women–all Muslims–refused to drink it because it had been brought by a Christian, making it “unclean.” The women called Asia an “infidel” and called Christianity a “religion of infidels.”

Asia reportedly responded by telling the Muslim women that Christ died on the cross for our sins. She told them Jesus is alive. “Our Christ is the true prophet of God,” she reportedly told them.

Upon hearing this response, the Muslim women became angry and began to beat Asia.

When Muslim men in nearby fields gathered to attack Asia, she fled to her home, but angry Muslims followed her, took her out of her home, severely beat her, and tortured her children.

They announced from mosque loudspeakers that she would be punished by having her face blackened and being paraded through the village on a donkey.

When local Christians informed the police, the police saved Asia’s life by taking her into custody, holding her in Nankana city “for her own safety.” Under pressure from local Muslim leaders, the police registered a blasphemy case against her.

Two courts in Nankana found Asia guilty of the “crime” of blasphemy and, on November 8, 2010, Asia was fined US$1,190 and sentenced to death by hanging.

Ashiq Masih, her husband, doesn’t have the heart to break the news to their two youngest daughters.

“They asked me many times about their mother but I can’t get the courage to tell them that the judge has sentenced their mother to capital punishment for a crime she never committed.”

Asia’s case is now under appeal, but she has been being held in isolation since June of 2009, essentially for the crime of sharing her Christian beliefs with her Muslim neighbors. Her family is one of only three Christian families in a village of more than 1,500 families. Asia’s family has lived in the village of Ittanwali for many generations.

Between 1986 and August 2009, at least 974 people have been charged with blasphemy against Islam.

This week, an anti-blasphemy resolution, “On Combating Defamation of Religion,” is coming to a vote at the U.N.

Pakistan has been actively pushing for passage of this resolution since 1999.

One thing you can count on, passage of this resolution will not offer protection for Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, or any other non-Muslims.

More Shariah law, anyone?
__________
Cross-posted at Bread upon the Waters.

We’ve all heard of dead people register…

We’ve all heard of dead people registering to vote and casting ballots, but California’s tombstone voters may have carried the practice to its logical extreme by re-electing a deceased incumbent, State Senator Jenny Oropeza (CA-28).

Senator Oropeza died on October 20.

She won her seat by a nearly 23 point margin.

H/t: What Planet Am I On?

Teachers Union Marches Proudly With “One Nation” Socialists

Great public schools for every student? Or is that great socialist indoctrination for every student at private taxpayer expense?

The nation’s teachers union, the National Education Association, proudly helped organize Saturday’s “One Nation” rally and then sent their president, Dennis Van Roekel, to the Lincoln Memorial to address their fellow demonstrators. From NEAtoday:

Soccer practice can wait. The leaves will be there next weekend for raking. Everything can be put on hold for a day to march on Washington on behalf of the new civil rights movement — jobs and education for all.

Tens of thousands are expected to converge on the National Mall Saturday for the One Nation Working Together march.

The event is organized by a broad coalition of more than 170 civil rights, labor and education groups, including the National Education Association. Standing side-by-side, participants will conduct a major demonstration of grassroots support for equal opportunity and justice for all — tenets that include access to a secure job, a safe home and a quality education.

Yes, helping to litter the nation’s capital and one of our nation’s sacred memorials to America’s war dead was none other than the NEA, the union representing public school, college, and university faculty, support personal, and staffers.

To see the identities of many of the other groups that organized the rally, check out teresamerica.

Cross-posted at Bread upon the Waters.

Why Won’t Bloomberg Let A Church Destroyed on 9/11 Rebuild?

Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was destroyed on 9/11 by the collapse of the Twin Towers, has spent NINE YEARS trying to get building permits. Nine. Long. Years.

From Fr. Constantine J. Simones Waterford, courageous pastor of St. Nicholas Church:

Shame on Mayor Michael  Bloomberg and the members of his Landmarks Preservation Commission for  voting 9-0 to allow the building of a Muslim mosque at ground zero in  New York City.

Too many Americans are sleepwalking when it comes  to understanding Islamic policies during the last 1,400 years of what I  see as its brutal history. No one talks about St. Nicholas Greek  Orthodox Church, which was crushed by the collapsing Twin Towers.

Why  is the mosque put on the fast track to construction when St. Nicholas’  reconstruction is being hindered by New York City bureaucracy?

Wake  up, America, before it is too late. The Greek Orthodox faithful of the  Balkans were enslaved by Islam for 500 years. Ask me what it means to  live under the laws of Islam, under Sharia Law and the Hadith. Call me  and I will provide a history lesson on what can be like to live under  Islam extremists.

Fr. Constantine J. Simones Waterford

About the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church:

Since  1922, St. Nicholas Church had stood as a quiet sanctuary of prayer and  reflection amidst the tumultuous and bustling crossroads of commerce.  For the past nine years the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey has  used bureaucratic obstacles and false promises to hinder the rebuilding  of the St. Nicholas Church.

As Nice Deb (who has published an excellent commentary about the Ground Zero mosque, don’t miss it) pointed out:

City officials, eager to deflect the criticism of a righteously outraged  public, claim that nothing can be done [to stop the mosque from being built on hallowed ground]… something that anyone who has  contended with zoning boards across the country knows to be untrue.

Ask the congregation of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church of New York City.

Many thanks to patriot Chris Wysocki at Wyblog for a heads up on the Ground Zero Church. You’ll want to read his report on moderate Muslims in New York (and watch the video) here.

Cross-posted at Bread upon the Waters.

Coloradan Hispanics Want an Immigration Law Like Arizona’s

How is Obama’s unrelenting push to kill Arizona’s immigration bill working out in America’s Southwest?

Not as well as expected, it seems, if the results of the first Denver Post/9News poll of the 2010 election campaign are any indication.

According to that poll, six out of ten Hispanic voters registered in Colorado (62%) would like to see their state enact an immigration law similar to Arizona’s, and only three out of ten (31%) would be opposed to such a law. That pretty much matches the opinions of Arizonan registered voters who identify themselves as White, among whom six out of ten (61%) would like to see a Colorado version of the Arizona law, and three or four in ten (35%) would not.

It’s public opinion like this that motivated Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman to quip,  “I’d be willing to bet a lot of money that almost every state in America next January is going to see a bill similar to Arizona’s.”

More and more, it looks like Americans aim to protect their country, not only from “unauthorized Democrats” flooding in illegally from other countries, but from their enablers in the White House and Congress.

More at Bread upon the Waters.

Mexican Drug Cartel Threatened to Blow Up Texas Dam

There are plenty of events that you might think would make big news but don’t because they contradict utterances made by Barack Obama or one of his high-ranking Obamatons. A case in point is the reported plan by a Mexican drug cartel, the Zeta cartel, to blow up Falcon Dam on the Rio Grande, southwest of San Antonio, Texas, as an act of vengeance against their rival, the Gulf cartel.

The plan came to the attention of U.S. officials when members of the Zeta cartel circulated handbills and drove around “the Mexican side of the river near the dam” with bullhorns to warn the population “to get out of the area.” Some members of the cartel are known to be ex-military members “trained in special forces tactics,  including demolition.” If  these drug thugs had succeeded in seriously compromising the dam, they  would have released 534 billion gallons of water stored behind the dam in Falcon Lake, not only disrupting the Gulf cartel’s smuggling routes from Falcon Lake to the Gulf but also flooding “massive amounts of agricultural land . . .  as well  as significant parts of a region where about 4 million people live along  both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.”

Contrast the Zeta cartel’s threat in May of this year with a statement made by Obama during his “immigration reform” speech of June 1:

So the bottom line is this:  The southern border is more secure today  than at any time in the past 20 years.

The threatened attack on the dam was met with secret actions by the “American police, federal agents and disaster officials” including the “U.S. Border Patrol, the Texas Department of Public Safety and even game  wardens,” according to officials. A “stepped-up presence by the Mexican military” may also have played a role.

Said Gene Falcon, director of emergency preparedness for Starr County where Falcon Dam is sited, “It would have been a hell of a disaster. There was plenty of concern.”

I’ll bet.

But will that concern ever reach the White House?

More at Bread upon the Waters.

Obama Tells His Price for Border Security, AZ Senator Says

Arizonans and other Americans suffer enormously from illegal immigration, but what does that suffering amount to for the president of the United States? It makes a great bargaining chip. When you are in serious pain, you might agree to just about anything to make the pain stop.

On Friday, June 18, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) told an audience at a town hall meeting in North Tempe why President Obama won’t enforce America’s immigration laws. The entire video is worth watching, but the Obama information starts at 3:17.

Here’s what Senator Kyl said:

I met with the president in the Oval Office, just the two of us . . . and we had a discussion about this. . . . Here’s what the president said:

“The problem is,” he said, “if we secure the border, then you all won’t have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform.”

In other words, they’re holding it hostage. They don’t want to secure the border unless and until it is combined with comprehensive immigration reform.

Now, I explained, “You and I, Mr. President, have an obligation to secure the border. That’s an obligation. It also has potentially positive benefits. You don’t have to have comprehensive reform to secure the border, but you have to secure the border to get comprehensive reform.” I said, “You’d be surprised. Maybe you don’t think that there would be any more incentive for comprehensive reform. But I’m not so sure that that’s true.” In any event, it doesn’t matter. We’re supposed to secure the border.

But that’s why it isn’t being done. They frankly don’t want to do it. They want to get something in return for doing their duty.

That is, of course, if “they” plan on securing the border at any time.

Hat tips: Snaggletoothie of the Loyal Opposition and The Right Scoop.

Cross-posted at Bread upon the Waters.

Obama’s View: Gulf Spill Recovery Only a Part-Time Job

I might think I was hallucinating, but I have witnesses: commenters on Potluck’s Oval Office live open thread, plus the dozens of millions of people who watched, listened to, or read Barack Obama’s Oval Office speech of only four days ago, Tuesday, June 15. In that speech, according to The New York Times, Obama said:

Already, this oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced. And unlike an earthquake or a hurricane, it’s not a single event that does its damage in a matter of minutes or days. The millions of gallons of oil that have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico are more like an epidemic, one that we will be fighting for months and even years.

But make no mistake: We will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long as it takes. We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. And we will do whatever’s necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy.

So Obama appoints a guy to lead the Gulf recovery: a part-time guy. That’s what Obama considers “everything we’ve got for as long as it takes.” If only he had hired a part-time guy to push through his socialized health-insurance fiasco. But no, for that he had to tie up the 111th Congress for an entire year and whip them into voting on Christmas Eve.

From ABC News:

President Barack Obama’s point man charting a new future for the oil-poisoned Gulf Coast will do the job part-time. Some environmentalists said the job demands someone’s full attention.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who oversees 900,000 Navy and Marine personnel, is inheriting an amorphous second job as the Obama administration’s leader of long-term environmental and economic planning. His task is no less than rebuilding a region still suffering after Hurricane Katrina and beset by decades of environmental problems.

Mabus won’t resign from his Navy job. When President George W. Bushpicked Donald Powell to lead the recovery after Hurricane Katrina, Powell resigned as head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Mabus was Clinton’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia for two years, after serving as governor of Mississippi.

“The president talked to the governor about this, and they both agreed that he had the ability to do both,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday after Mabus met with Obama at the White House.

That prompted quick criticism from the Defenders of Wildlife, which is working to save animals from the oil that has gushed from an offshore BP oil well for nearly two months. “The idea that he is only going to work on this part-time is disturbing,” said Robert Irvin, the group’s vice president for conservation programs. “If this is the equivalent of war, as the president has been saying, it needs a full-time general.”

True, the recovery will benefit from focused, strong coordination of help from the federal government. But something tells me that’s not what this president has in mind for the Gulf states.

Cross posted at Bread upon the Waters.

Presidents Who Really Could KSA

Joaquin over at How Is That Obama Vote Working Out For You???, points out that a dude who can’t even pitch a baseball faces a credibility gap when it comes to threatening to perform an activity usually reserved for tough guys.

Joaquin has posted a list of presidents who possessed some real authority in that department. Readers might want to add their own favorites to the list.

Now, if you want to talk about Presidents that can kick ass!

George Washington–clearly
Andrew Jackson–he killed a guy in a duel. So yeah!
William Henry Harrison–yep
Zachary Taylor–for sure
Honest Abe–absolutely…if pushed
US Grant–just ask Robert E. Lee
TR–oh yeah!!
Harry Truman–bantam weight
Ike–yes sir!
JFK–maybe in his prime
LBJ–reluctantly, but yeah!
Gerald Ford–a Wolverine
Ronald Reagan–the Gipper
W–sober
Obama–*snort*

Cross-posted at Bread upon the Waters.

Ground Zero Mosque Imam Sponsors Gaza Blockade Run

The New York Post is reporting that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the point man for the planned Ground Zero mega-mosque, “is a key figure” in the group that is the biggest donor to the Free Gaza Movement, which is “a key organizer of the six-ship flotilla that tried to break Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza strip.” The group, called Perdana Global Peace Organization [it’s always about peace, isn’t it] is based in Malaysia. Their donation? $366,000 (“so far’). The imam’s participation was published on the group’s own Web site.

Efforts to reach Imam Abdul Rauf yesterday for comment were unsuccessful.

He’ll think of something to say. Maybe he’s on the phone with Mayor Bloomberg right now coordinating their press releases. Meanwhile, New Yorkers are preparing for a protest against the mega-mosque to be held tomorrow noon at the corner of Church and Liberty Streets at Ground Zero.

Deborah Burlingame, the sister of the American Airlines pilot whose hijacked plane struck the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, said the indirect ties of the imam to the protesters who confronted Israeli forces Monday were not surprising.

“I think it goes to show he is not the man he represents himself to be. We have two Imam Raufs,” she said.

“We have the anti-Israel, anti-democratic imam, and we have the smiling, soft-spoken moderate Muslim who says ‘Why can’t we all get along?’

The Free Gaza Movement is a charity that has made nine seaborne aid missions in the past two years to break the Israeli blockade.

Cross-posted at Bread upon the Waters.

GROUND ZERO MOSQUE COMMUNITY BOARD MEETING TONIGHT, 5/25/10

From 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America (via Teresamerica and Patriot’s Corner):

[The] mosque, located on the top floor of the 15-story building, would have a commanding view of the entire Ground Zero neighborhood.

I’m trying to imagine what kind of “moderate” Muslims think this is an inspiring view, the site of:

the worst terrorist attack by extremist Muslims in America’s history; following the attack, 20,000 body parts were recovered in a nine-month operation to remove 1.8 million tons of rubble from Lower Manhattan.

So inspiring, in fact, that someone was willing to put down almost $5 million in cash to secure the building, even though it is still under consideration for protection as an historical site.

As we are reminded at Patriot’s Corner, 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America view the plan outlined by the Ground Zero imam to

“leverage” the mosque’s proximity to Ground Zero to engage in proselytizing and to “grow the Muslim community,” as shockingly insensitive to the history of the site . . .

Maybe that’s why the rest of the $100 million the mosque is expected to cost will be coming not only from Muslims in the United States, but also from overseas:

Imam Abdul Rauf … told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Islamic center will be financed through contributions from Muslims in the US, as well as by donations from Arab and Islamic countries. . . .

From Atlas Shrugs:

Last week, the finance committee, composed of 12 people, voted unanimously in support of the mosque, after Imam Rauf and his wife, Daisy Khan was made. No one knew about it, no announcement was made. The matter will now go to the full committee (more than 40 people). The full committee will be meeting on May 25. WE NEED YOU ALL TO ATTEND TO VOICE YOUR OPPOSITION. [emphasis mine]

CB1 has no legal authority. Their “approval” or disapproval is in no way binding on the matter, but the media will be there, and we need to send a message to Rauf, Khan and Mayor Bloomberg: This is wrong.  This will do terrible harm to the 9/11 family community and non- Muslims around the world.

Meeting Info:

CB #1 Monthly Meeting – 6:00 PM

Location: Three Legged Dog Art and Technology Center

80 Greenwich Street (at Rector Street)

What a Deal: A Ground Zero Mosque and Sharia Law in the U.S.

Who could resist a two-fer like that?

Not surprisingly, the imam spearheading this mosque is a big supporter of Muslim law ruling American Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, and everybody else, and has written that the purpose of this mosque is to lay the groundwork to establish shariah law in the U.S.

This link will take you to a petition to stop the building of the mega-mosque in the Ground Zero kill zone. I strongly encourage you to make your opposition known to Mayor Bloomberg, the Financial District Committee who approved this plan, and Community Board No. 1 who gave them authority to do so.

You are asked to be polite in your communications by blogger Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, co-founder of the human rights group, Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), which is hosting a rally at Ground Zero on June 6 at noon to protest the construction of this mosque.

More at Bread upon the Waters.

Janet Napolitano Hasn’t Read The AZ Immigration Bill Either: Why Bother?

Another paragraph in the continuing saga of the Obama administrations disdain for the American people.

From Real Clear Politics:

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano admits she hasn’t read the Arizona immigration law, but passed judgment on it anyway. “That’s not the kind of law I would have signed,” she declared.

Video here (quote starts about :51).

You can understand why Obama’s administration doesn’t want the American people to think they actually read our laws. We might get the mistaken notion that the administration is considering upholding those laws.

Supreme Court Unable to Save Memorial Cross from Desecration

Less than two weeks ago, on April 28th, five members of the Supreme Court decided to let an 8-foot war memorial cross stand in the middle of the Mojave Desert despite the objections of an Oregon man distressed by the possibility that he might someday drive through the Mojave Desert and, from the road, view that memorial cross, which had been erected in 1934 by members of the local post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Against the possibility that the eyes of someone driving through the Mojave Desert might momentarily rest on an object he considers offensive, the cross has been covered with plywood for the last 10 years as the ACLU worked to have it removed from a desert preserve owned by the U.S. government. Over the weekend, “vandals” took it upon themselves to finally remove the plywood covering from the cross. A few hours later, on Sunday, when workers were sent to replace the plywood covering, they found that the problem of having a memorial cross exposed to public view had been solved, not by plywood, but by “by thieves who cut the metal bolts that attached the symbol to a rock in the sprawling desert preserve.”

Authorities are suggesting that the cross was removed by “scrap metal scavengers.”

Uh huh.

As reported by The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, California, the president of the Liberty Institute, one of the law firms representing the veteran caretakers of the Mojave desert cross, had this to say:

This is an outrage, akin to desecrating people’s graves. It’s a disgraceful attack on the selfless sacrifice of our veterans. We will not rest until this memorial is re-installed.

The VFW also promised that the memorial will be rebuilt:

“This was a legal fight that a vandal just made personal to 50 million veterans, military personnel and their families,” National Commander Thomas J. Tradewell said.

The cross had been sitting on land controlled by the National Park Service until a transfer of the section of land on which it stood could be transferred to the VFW in a land exchange ordered by Congress. That was a compromise that the plaintiff and the ACLU refused to accept. They adamantly fought to have the cross torn down before the land was transferred, which was the demand that brought the case to the Supreme Court. After hearing oral arguments, the court said:

The goal of avoiding governmental endorsement does not require eradication of all religious symbols in the public realm. . . .

Of course, some people will never quite understand the protections afforded to society when the majority of its members honor such simple rules of conduct as “Thou shalt not steal.”

Cross posted at Bread upon the Waters.

Times Square Bomber Dropped from Terror Watch List

It looks like the Times Square car bomber was dropped from the terrorist watch list shortly before he got his citizenship in 2009–at just about the same time that surveillance of the Fort Hood shooter and the Christmas Day bomber also stopped. This sickening revelation comes via AJ at The Strata-Sphere, who has been connecting the dots on the Obama administration’s reduction of Clinton and Bush era surveillance of suspicious behavior by potential terrorists.

Car Bomb Attempt at Times Square

Last night around 7 p.m. (from the NY Daily News, via Jihad Watch):

Three heroic cops and a quick-thinking street vendor stopped a madman from detonating a car bomb in the heart of Times Square Saturday night, law enforcement officials told the Daily News.

According to Newsweek, the bomb design apparently depended on an timing device triggering commercially made fireworks, which would then ignite containers of gasoline, detonating propane tanks.

Jihad Watch is reporting something that the U.S. MSM is not:

[O]ne clue comes from Jihad Watch reader Michael M.: “the vehicle was parked on 45th Street between 7th and 8th avenues in New York City. This is the location of VIACOM, Inc. offices. VIACOM owns Comedy Central. Comedy Central as we all know is the home of ‘South Park’. This information is omitted from every article I’ve come across so far.”

Back home, according to Newsweek,

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that there is currently no evidence that the bomb was “anything other than a one-off.” But on another show, she said the event was being handled as a “potential terrorist attack … We’re taking this very seriously.”

More at Bread upon the Waters.

Don’t You Dare Ask For My ID, But You Are Welcome to My Body Parts

Of all the creepy, nightmare, sci-fi scenarios that liberal lunacy is assaulting us with, I think New York’s assumption that American citizens don’t even own our own bodies is the topper.

Here in New York, we are so thoroughly considered the property of the state that when we die, our lawmakers plan on having the state move in and harvest our organs, no questions asked. Die in New York State, and your heart, lungs, eyes, and liver go to the highest bidder, the state, nobody’s saying.

What could go wrong? Especially in the age of death panels, world demand for transplant organs and the enormous profits to be made by selling organs, not to mention the inevitable desire to get an organ while it’s nice and fresh, maybe from a body that’s still warm (not quite dead, perhaps). Who’s watching, anyway? After all, it can’t happen here (here, maybe).

Oh, I’m telling you, my dear, that it can’t happen here.

Don’t be nervous about going into a hospital for that risky surgery. If you are viewed as a prospective donor, you don’t need to worry about how hard a medical team will work to save you if they (or the government) perceive a greater benefit to harvesting the organs. Nah. They’ll return you with all your parts. You can always trust the state.

But don’t you find it just a tad interesting that a group of New York’s lowly state assemblymen and assemblywomen are so confident of the state’s ownership of us that they have no problem blithely informing us that they (reluctantly) will approve of individuals owning their own body parts (for now), only if individuals petition the state, in writing, for ownership of their own body parts. That’s for those of us who are in a good situation to write, of course. In enlightened, ultra-charitable New York State, there are no poor, disabled, illiterate, or sick people (or even non-English speakers) who could be taken advantage of — or, let us say –who could “fall through the cracks.” No. Uh, uh. Not here. It can’t happen here.

I mean, some politician wouldn’t dream of confiscating your organs for one of his family members. Nah. Well, maybe the guy who dreamed up New York’s latest “New York wants your heart” legislation because he had a hard time finding new kidneys for his daughter and didn’t want to wait for “an act of God” to provide her with organ donors.

Under current New York State law, if I want to donate my organs and tissues to someone after I die, all I have to do is check a box on my drivers license renewal form (or license application), and my license will be mailed to me clearly emblazoned with the words “ORGAN DONOR.” All legal and set to go.

But that’s not good enough. Or convenient enough.

I keep saying it, and I’ll say it again:  The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Cross-posted at Bread upon the Waters.