Here we go, again – from the AP:

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that California must drastically reduce its prison population to relieve severe overcrowding that has exposed inmates to increased violence, disease and death.

The decision, however, doesn’t mean the prison gates will swing open in an uncontrolled release.

The high court’s decision calls on the state to cut the population to no more than 110,000 inmates, meaning California will have to shed some 33,000 inmates to comply over the next two years. State officials can accomplish that by transferring inmates to local jails or releasing them…

I hate to break it to the Supreme Court, but prison is supposed to be an exceptionally unpleasant experience. It is supposed to be crowded and uncomfortable and rather risky to your health. It is supposed to be something you never want to have happen to you. To say that it is wrong that prisoners are suffering is to say that it is wrong to punish anyone, at all. Needlessly cruel suffering is something, of course, which cannot be allowed…but as long as something isn’t falling in to sadism, its just part of the price a person has to pay for breaking the law.

In addition to the idiocy of saying that prisoners must not suffer there is the sheer stupidity of ordering their release because they don’t live in some pie-in-the-sky ideal conditions. If the conditions are really so bad that they have become inhuman, then releasing the prisoners does nothing to the people who created the inhuman conditions. All such releases accomplish is the punishment of innocent non-criminals, as well as punishing the criminals, themselves…the innocent victims we immediately see: the released offenders are very likely to offend, again. People will be robbed, raped and murdered by these people (yes, even by “non-violent offenders”…some of whom are quite violent but simply weren’t convicted for such acts). Less easy to see – but just as real – is the punishment being inflicted upon the released prisoners…by putting them back in to society, we are putting them at risk of not only of dying in the acts of crime, but of so badly ruining themselves by a criminal life as to be nearly beyond redemption (redemption is always possible…but the further one walks down the road of sin the less likely one is to turn aside from it).

Things like this are the actions of people who will never suffer the least inconvenience for their actions. The Justices who have so ruled will live out the rest of their lives in carefully guarded communities, never to meet the people the ordered released, nor their victims. It is the kind of action you can take only when you are so removed from the reality of life that the affairs of men and women have become remote and academic.

The corrective, on the other hand, is in in the legislative power. Built in to the Constitution – as a check and curb upon judicial tyranny – is the power of Congress, working with the President, to ensure that judges don’t get above themselves. Laws can be passed which ensure against something inane as releasing a criminal to “punish” an incompetent prison administrator. The trouble is that all our Constitutional powers have been atrophied – in this area by the eager desire of Congress and Executive to have un-elected judges make the rules…much easier to let judges solve the thorny issues as that means no vote is on record at election time.

But we must correct this – we must reduce the judiciary to its proper, Constitutional function. It is not there to make everyone dance to a judge’s tune, but just to ensure that the laws are carried out faithfully and in accordance with the Constitution – and I find no warrant in the Constitution for the release of prisoners because they are crowded in cells, nor receiving what some judge thinks is proper health care. The judges have for too long held themselves to be superiors to all of us – holders of knowledge we cannot obtain and issuers of rulings we are not to question. Time to let them know who really runs the United States of America.

The pro-life position continues to advance – from CNS:

Sixty-one percent of American adults—including some who describe themselves as “pro-choice”—told Gallup in a survey conducted May 5-8 that abortion should be illegal in all or most circumstances…

…Only 27 percent in this year’s survey told Gallup they thought abortion should be legal under any circumstances whatsoever.

About 71 percent said they thought abortion should be illegal in at least some cases. This included 22 percent who said it should be illegal in “all circumstances,” 39 percent who said it should be legal in “only a few circumstances,” and 10 percent who said it should be legal in “most” circumstances…

As the liberal position is essentially federally-funded abortion on demand, we can see what a small minority is in favor of such a view. The basic conservative position – that abortion should be at the least heavily restricted – clearly commands a broad majority. This is the result of decades of relentless education and political action – and what is most pleasing is that younger Americans tend to be more pro-life than older (perhaps this is the realization among younger Americans that any one of them could have been aborted on the merest whim?). This battle for life is being won – but we daren’t let up for even a minute. The Culture of Death is well-funded and relentless…as soon as we turn out backs, they’ll be out there trying to undo the pro-life position.

I think it is time to turn our attention to an outright ban on third trimester abortions. It would be the fight of a decade, but it would start the ball rolling towards a constitutional ban on abortion.

Proof that GOPers – when they’ve caught the RINO bug – can be just as lousy as Democrats.

Three neglected lessons of American economic history.

Virginia Health Department decides not to allow for more killing at Planned Parenthood Abortuaries. Things are swinging our way – perhaps, one day, you can be safe in the womb…

Have we mentioned lately that Chomsky is a fool?

No easy way out on the economy.

Yet more short sighted greed on the part of socialists and public sector unions.

How Kahn the Ruling Class be so nauseating?

A Thick Book to Smack Terrorists in the Face with Between Waterboarding Sessions

From Reuters:

President Barack Obama on Sunday sought to soothe Israeli fury over his new Middle East peace proposals by making clear that the Jewish state would likely be able to keep some settlements in any final deal with the Palestinians…

Always better, Mr. President, to think before you speak…

Everyone knows that the middle east is a minefield and anything to do with Israel and Palestine doubly so. This means if you wish to make a policy statement on the subject, you’d better think carefully about what you want to do and how you want to say it. Calling for a return of the 1967 borders was never going to work…Israel would never agree to commit national suicide like that. But Obama went right ahead and did it – and I can’t imagine that no one saw the speech before it was delivered. This means that input was given by State and Defense…and unless Obama has firmly implanted drooling idiocy in to both those departments, someone issued an objection to the call for 1967 borders…and it was ignored.

Is this just part of Obama’s self image as some sort of chosen person? That if he said it, it would be ok because he is Barack Obama, The One? Or are their puppet-masters who, for whatever bizarre reasons, decided that this needed to be said, objections from wiser heads be darned? No matter how you slice it, things look pretty bad – either our President, completely ignorant of foreign and military affairs, is winging it on his own or some anti-Israel ideologues have gained his ear and aren’t allowing other views to be presented.

2012 just can’t come fast enough…

Some questions are being asked – over at Beldar Blog there is a great series of entries on the defense Obama is mounting over his non-compliance with the War Powers Act. Beldar seems to hold that while the Act is unconstitutional, Obama is going about in a perfectly idiotic manner. I agree on the idiocy bit, don’t agree on the unconstitutionality. Of all the acts done by liberals, this is one that I agree with. Of course, I doubt that when liberals enacted it they really understood what they were doing – they were trying to ensure that Nixon couldn’t come to the aid of South Vietnam when the North attacked. But regardless of why it was done, it was properly done – and, indeed, should be expanded and clarified in greater detail. For too long the President has had too much ability to usher us in to war without a preliminary debate and Declaration. Time to correct this.

I would, for instance, forbid the deployment of US ground forces outside the territory of the United States except during a declared state of war. I would require a declaration of war for any military action which extends beyond three days…once that fourth day is reached, the President better have a declaration of war or have the troops out of there. I would insist that all alliances we engage in require all contracting parties to expend at least as great a percentage of GDP on defense as we do (no more free rides). The bottom line is that I want us to avoid an armed conflict, but if we go in to it, I want the whole power of the United States directed against the offending power.

What is very interesting about this, however, is the silence on the left. Imagine if President Bush had done this! There would be 100,000 pinkos on the streets shouting their “hey, hey; ho, ho” nonsense for all its worth. There would be calls for impeachment. There would be demands for Congressional hearings. The MSM would be breathlessly reporting about a looming, constitutional crisis. But, Obama is President – he’s got a “D” after his name, so all is quiet on the lefty front.

Which proves, once and for all, that they are nothing more than corrupt, political hacks. In this, at least, Obama has done us a good service…and only a fool will ever in the future pay attention to liberal rantings about war.

From Pajamas Media:

The numbers are in, and the news is bad: our public benefits system has gone to rack and ruin. From Social Security to food programs and other pillars of the welfare state, waste, fraud, and abuse is rampant.

Take disability payments. According to an Inspector General’s report obtained by Pajamas Media, the Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance program (OASDI) has provided significant benefits to people who should not have them — including the dead. A newly commissioned audit reveals that more than 2,900 dead people may have received more than $23 million in Social Security disability insurance payments…

Is anyone surprised? Of course not. Now, why do this happen? Because when you pass out free cash, it won’t just be honest people applying for it – and, in fact, it is highly likely that the pool of free cash will bring con artists crawling out of the wood work looking for a piece of the pie. You know this – come on, don’t be shy: you know darned well from your own life experiences that there plenty of people drawing a government check for no good reason.

What is disability supposed to be for? Well, for a person who is rendered temporarily or permanently incapable of working. I’ll bet that not even 10% of those on disability really merit it. The recent story of a man pretending he has to be treated like a baby is just one of the more egregious examples of the disability scam – but most don’t even go to that length. Find a friendly doctor, make up a physical or psychological ailment and eventually the government will disgorge…because the bureaucrats shelling out the money have a vested interest in an ever-increasing number of dependents. To them, it is job security. As long as you are willing to lie, you’ll eventually be on your duff, living off the taxpayer’s dime.

And before any reader who is on disability gets all upset with me – for years I worked with a lady now, sadly, deceased. She was born with a genetic malady which made her incapable of walking (or, indeed, of even sitting in a wheel chair without a seat belt), while her arms and hands were barely functional. She held down a 40 hour a week job until just a few months before her death, and only went on disability when she really could not take the physical strain of going to work. If you don’t have at least my late friend’s level of illness, then you should not be on disability. Period. End of story. Get off your butt and get a job. Stop sucking the life blood out of everyone else. If you need help, you should get it – if you can’t work, you shouldn’t have to…but it isn’t right for people to be getting a free ride.

And until we start acting like adults here – which includes demanding that everyone who can work pull their own weight – this will just go on. Sure, they audited and caught these people but vast shoals of leeches have already made it through the net, costing our nation not just billions in tax dollars, but many more billions in lost productivity. We are allowing the lazy and shiftless to take advantage of a generous society, and it is time we called a halt.

I like that – we are to be the Defending Fathers; preserving what the Founding Fathers gave to us. Excellent way to state it, good way to pull TEA Party support. Cain is doing this exactly right – though it very much remains to be seen if he’ll catch fire in the primaries.

Mish has an excellent run down of the sheer idiocy the IMF and ECB are carrying on regarding Portugal, Greece and rest of Europe’s bankrupt “PIIGS”. Meanwhile, over at Zero Hedge there is an excellent article of just what everyone can expect when (not if, when) Greece defaults. Not a pretty picture, anywhere you look.

Massive protests are spreading across Spain and unrest continues to grow in Greece and Portugal. People are demonstrating mostly over the tax hikes and benefit cuts being imposed to meet IMF and ECB requirements for more funding. To be sure, all of the European nations need to trim their socialist welfare system, but I’m all sympathy for the regular folks there. Sure, they voted in to office twits who promised them no work and high benefits, so this mess if fundamentally of their own making…but, then again, why should a Greek or Spaniard agree to a lower standard of living so that bond holders don’t lose money? Additionally, why should Germans and Frenchmen agree to tax themselves so that more money can be provided for profligate, bankrupt States?

But the wheels of the Ruling Class continue to grind forward. In Spain, the government’s response to the protests is to insist that no one is allowed to protest at the moment, so please go home (the Spanish people don’t seem to be listening, however). Protests, money printing, more loans to pay off old loans…all a bunch of nonsense. The bottom line is that countries like Greece and Spain cannot pay their debts – not now, not ever. Doesn’t matter how much they jack up taxes and cut benefits, there isn’t enough money in either country to pay off the full debt load and there never was. Essentially, financial gamblers bet that reality would never show up and kept loaning money to people who could never pay. The rational response to this would be to just default, pay off at, say, 50 cents on the dollar, and have done with it.

Ah, but the bond holders have the ear of government and governments are deathly afraid of a crash – it might result in the worst possible outcome: loss of office at the next election. So, they’ll keep twisting and turning and hoping against hope that something will turn up to avert catastrophe. They will be disappointed in their hopes – there is no way out of this other than by default. And default really isn’t the worst thing possible – all it does is allow everyone to find out what everything is really worth and then move forward. Sure, some banks will fold and unemployment will rise (though with unemployment already at 21% in Spain, this might not be as noticeable as you think)…there will be three or four bad years as everything shakes out. But once past it, you’re past it – debts defaulted upon cannot burden you a second time. With a bit of wisdom and grit (mostly in the areas of cutting back on the more lavish aspects of welfare, and then also being willing to work hard), things will improve fairly quickly…and in ten years it will be like it never happened.

Unless, that is, they really do keep trying to put it off – because the longer they put it off, the worse it will be when the wheels come off the cart. This, by the way, is why I’m a “gloom and doom” person regarding the economy – even if one wishes to believe that we are in a genuine recovery, the economic fundamentals around the world are so weak that another crash is bound to happen some where, and some time soon…and when the string does finally snap, it will take down one financial institution and/or government after another. It’ll be kind of like the collapse of the Creditanstalt in 1931 – just a bank, but when it went down it exposed the underlying bankruptcy of the global financial system…and that is when the thus-far normal depression of 1929 turned in to the Great Depression of the 1930s. We’re teetering right on that cliff right now…

From the Guardian:

Doctors are blaming financial pressures on the NHS for an increase in the number of patients who are not being treated within the 18 weeks that the government recommends.

New NHS performance data reveal that the number of people in England who are being forced to wait more than 18 weeks has risen by 26% in the last year, while the number who had to wait longer than six months has shot up by 43%…(emphasis added)

The government recommends that you be treated within 18 weeks. 18 weeks! That is four months. I know a man who was diagnosed with kidney cancer just a few weeks ago – a couple weeks from now he goes for his final consult, probably have surgery to remove it a couple weeks after that. Call it 10 or so weeks from start to finish. Over in socialized-medicine Britain, if they got to you in 18 weeks, they would consider that to be good performance.

And that is what Obama and the Democrats want to bring to America – government run health care, which means health care rationing. Because that is what this is – rationing on the sly. Rather than just bluntly tell people about it they just up the wait times…knowing that a certain percentage of people who need in-patient treatment will simply die, thus relieving the budget. This is where “death panels” come in, for real – people who decide whom to admit will be choosers of the slain, deciding who lives and who dies.

Government cannot provide health care. Not now, not ever. It simply isn’t possible. There isn’t enough money – let alone medical staff – to provide everyone with all the free care they desire at any given moment. Even with the best of intentions, the trick simply cannot be done. All you’ll do by putting government in charge is take yourself entirely out of the decision-making process. Sure, insurance companies are lousy in their own way, but you’ve got at least some leverage with them…you have none with government. With government, you just have to sit there and take it. There will always be a shortage of personnel and money for health care – choose what you want: a faceless, government bureaucrat who has been ordered to cut costs, or an insurance company afraid you’ll sue?

I’ll take the lousy insurance company…

From Reuters:

Some prominent Jewish Americans are rethinking their support for President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election bid after he effectively called on Israel to give back territory it has occupied since 1967 to Palestinians.

The backlash after Obama’s keynote speech on the Middle East has Democratic Party operatives scrambling to mollify the Jewish community as the president prepares to seek a second term in the White House…

But will it really mean anything? The only other voting group which is more blindly loyal to the Democrat party is African-Americans. It is bizarre how both those voting blocks keep with the Democrats – liberal Democrat policies actually harm black people, and yet they stay loyal. Meanwhile, time and time again liberal Democrats have demonstrated both their hatred of Israel and their growing anti-Semitism, yet when election day comes around, Jews flock to the Democrat party. Obama just cut Israel off at the knees with his asinine speech about going back to 1967 – sure, it is causing some ripples, but I won’t believe it will change Jewish American voting habits until I see it in actual votes.

It is, though, time for American Jews to rethink their support for the Democrat party. Even if you have issues with Israeli policy and don’t support Zionism, it is clear that Jews are under greater threat than any time since the 1930’s. Whatever Republicans, conservatives and Christians may have done to Jews in the past, the fact of the matter is that in 2011, the only place Israel or a Jew can find a firm friend is among the ranks of Republicans, conservatives and Christians. And I’m not talking about just any old friend – we’ll actually go to war to defend Israel. All Israel and the Jews can expect from liberals is more speeches like Obama’s, increasing anti-Semitism and, “can you please still shell out the campaign bucks?”.

It is very much time for a change – and I hope we see it in 2012.