Smoking, mandating and stuff

Bensblurb #506...

First, before we get to the serious stuff, consider:

Thanks, smokers: They’re among the many Americans coughing up more taxes this year, by having to pay higher federal tax rates per pack and smoking more cigarettes than last year. “No tax increases for middle income folks” --who don’t smoke, Obama should have added.

Thus, smoke still gets in your eyes. But don’t worry. All Americans will soon have to buy health insurance. Pelosi-care seems to read that way. But wait:
　
"Where in the U.S. Constitution does it authorize Congress to force Americans to buy health insurance? If Congress gets away with forcing us to buy health insurance...do you naively think they will stop with health insurance?" --economist Walter E. Williams

Two other views:

* Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va): "The United States Congress passed laws regarding Medicare and Medicaid that became de facto mandatory programs. States all the time require people to have driver's licenses. I think that this is a bit of a spurious argument that's being made by some folks." Yes, but states require licenses only for the privilege of driving, says The Patriot blog.

* Jon M. Hall, in American Thinker: If Congress were to do the right thing and initiate an amendment to enshrine the 'individual mandate' in the Constitution ... it would fail miserably....I'm afraid Congress has not only misread the Constitution, but they've also misjudged the American people. Or maybe they just don't know what country they live in."
　
FORT HOOD LORE...

And by the way, staying up with the latest news, here’s a quotation from an instant celebrity:
“[I]t's getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims...We love death more than you love life.” --Fort Hood terrorist Major Nidal Hasan.

Significantly, Gen. George Casey, Army Chief of Staff, said that the murders were a tragedy, but worried that it "could potentially heighten backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers." He then warned, "As horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse." --Whose country does he represent?

And, speaking of awkward transpositions, there’s this: “The cultural Marxists, leaping to the defense of ‘diversity,’ their favorite poison for Western societies, claim Major Hasan’s massacre of his fellow soldiers does not represent Islam. Sorry, but it represents Islam all too well. Islam does not recognize any separation between church and state. States have no legitimacy in Islam; legitimacy adheres only to the Ummah, the community of all believers. The only legitimate law is Sharia. All Muslims are commanded to wage jihad against all non-Islamics.... Nightwatch for 5 November writes: Two years ago, a devout Pakistani cabdriver told Nightwatch that if Allah called him or any devout Muslim to go on jihad and to kill his family and even the riders in his cab, he must do it immediately. He made that statement calmly as a matter of fact, while driving north on US 1.--William S.Lind, Free Congress Federation

And now, capping off this all-too-eventful week, we hear that the 9/11 terrorists are going to be tried in Manhattan, right near where they in effect incinerated thousands of New Yorkers. If there are riots by survivors during the trials, you can blame--not the crazy Muslims--but Obama’s administration. Just watch.