Reality Trumps The Onion for Insane News

Tourism is a human right. Now I've heard everything. Why can't we be entitled to everything? Then none of us would have to worry about anything!

Health care has already been deemed a human right in Europe, so logically the next step in universal entitlements is subsidized tourism. Can't wait for the government (aka, rich taxpayer dollars) to buy me a vacation, then I don't have to work for it!

In America, we don't have the right to happiness, we have the right to pursue happiness.

From the U.K. Times:

AN overseas holiday used to be thought of as a reward for a year’s hard work. Now Brussels has declared that tourism is a human right and pensioners, youths and those too poor to afford it should have their travel subsidised by the taxpayer.

Under the scheme, British pensioners could be given cut-price trips to Spain, while Greek teenagers could be taken around disused mills in Manchester to experience the cultural diversity of Europe.

The idea for the subsidised tours is the brainchild of Antonio Tajani, the European Union commissioner for enterprise and industry, who was appointed by Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister.

The scheme, which could cost hundreds of millions of pounds a year, is intended to promote a sense of pride in European culture, bridge the north-south divide in the continent and prop up resorts in their off-season.

Tajani, who unveiled his plan last week at a ministerial conference in Madrid, believes the days when holidays were a luxury have gone. “Travelling for tourism today is a right. The way we spend our holidays is a formidable indicator of our quality of life,” he said.

Tajani, who used to be transport commissioner, said he had been able to “affirm the rights of passengers” in his previous office and the next step was to ensure people’s “right to be tourists”.

The European Union has experience of subsidised holidays. In February the European parliament paid contributions of up to 52% towards an eight-day skiing trip in the Italian Alps for 80 children of Eurocrats.

Tajani’s programme will be piloted until 2013 and then put into full operation. It will be open to pensioners and anyone over 65, young people between 18 and 25, families facing “difficult social, financial or personal” circumstances and disabled people. The disabled and the elderly can be accompanied by one person.

In the initial phase, northern Europeans will be encouraged to visit southern Europe and vice versa. Details of how participants are chosen have not yet been finalised, but it is expected the EU will subsidise about 30% of the cost.

Officials have envisaged sending south Europeans to Manchester and Liverpool on a tour of “archeological and industrial sites” such as closed factories and power plants.

Tajani’s spokesman said: “Why should someone from the Mediterranean not be able to travel to Edinburgh in summer for a breath of cool, fresh air; why should someone from Edinburgh not be able to travel to Greece in winter?”

The idea is based on a project in Spain in which holidays in the winter off-season are subsidised by the government for European residents aged 55 and over. Spain calculated that for every €1 it spent in subsidies, €1.6 was gained for its resorts.

CROSSHAIRS! OMG

I can't believe the lengths to which liberals will go to try to paint us conservatives as angry, racist, violent, extremists in an effort to detract from the red flags our side raises with regards to the radical changes that are being shoved down our throats today.

It's come to the point that it's completely laughable.

For example, recently Sarah Palin released a list of 20 Democrat Congressional seats that her Political Action Committed (PAC) is targeting with funds to win for the Republican challengers in the 2010 midterm elections. Here is the picture that was released:

Now, us normal Americans would look at this and think that it's a perfectly normal idea. These are political targets for 2010, so sweet! Let's play off that and mark each district with a crosshair.

But oh no. Some liberals out there are SO desperate to discredit our side, they try to spin this simple campaign publication as outside the bounds of decency. Some on the lefty blogs, the mainstream media, etc., have accused Palin of "inciting violence" against the opposition by using crosshairs, as well as using language like "don't retreat, reload."

Can I get an "are you kidding me?" Liberals of all people, who seem to have a fondness for symbolism, should be able to recognize a literary metaphor when they see one. OBVIOUSLY Palin is not calling for supporters to snipe each of these representatives as they're heading to Starbucks for their morning non-fat, organic, cup-made-out-of-recycled-tire, dolphin-friendly hippie brew.

We can all pick out a few crazy people on either side who would take these kinds of thing literally and try say that represents the entire opposition. But is that honest? NO. This is a very hasty generalization.

Eric Cantor, a staunch opponent of Obama's health care reform, reportedly had a shot fired into one of his offices and has also received threats in the mail. So it swings both ways, and you don't see us conservatives out there smearing the entire Democrat party because of a few threatening letters and a shot fired at a Congressional office. Come on. A few bad apples doesn't define the entire orchard.

*On a side note, I just want to point out the geniuses at CBS news. I found a CBS article talking about Palin's target list. See how after each representative on Palin's list it says what state and congressional district the rep is from? If you notice, Representative Earl Pomeroy, from North Dakota, has ND-AL after his name, presumably to mean he is "At Large," because ND, like SD, only has a single House of Representative district. CBS really did its homework, as they took the ND-AL to mean that Earl Pomeroy is a representative from Alabama. Nice reporting, keep up the good work, haha.

Terrorist Rights

How do you feel about giving all the rights entitled to American citizens to terrorists as well? I truly believe in treating people as human beings, but giving murderous terrorists caught on the battlefield the same rights as American citizens arrested within our borders for robbing a candy store just seems wrong to me.

Soldiers shouldn't have to be more concerned about collecting evidence for a courtroom, reading Miranda rights, etc. rather than focusing on their job: capturing terrorists without getting themselves killed.

The actions of the Obama Justice Department not only give terrorists these rights, the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks) and others will cost New York an estimated $400 million. As if 9/11 wasn't enough pain for that city.

And don't forget, he is innocent until proven guilty (an ALLEGED mastermind of 9/11, not mastermind), so there is always the off-chance he will be let out of prison scott free on a judicial technicality, like not being told he has the right to remain silent.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) probably makes a better case than me in this video:

"Not a Principled Fight"

This is how radical our leaders in Washington are now...they believe they are so superior to everyone else in intellect that they do not even have to fight fair to get a single-payer health care system here in the United States. Because we know politicians are experts on health care and providers and insurance companies know nothing. I can't wait to stay get in line for a year before I can receive triple bypass surgery. Receiving that care the very next day after diagnosis in our current system rather than dying waiting in line is just tragic... To remedy the increased demand for "free" health care, the government would be in charge of rationing who gets care and who gets thrown on the waiting list, based on perceived need. Just watch this clip and see how extreme things have become, that the powers that be are willing to give the ax to the private health care industry in favor of pursuing a public payer experiment, which has failed in Canada and Great Britain: