This week has started out with a bang. Early yesterday morning, I appeared on radio station KTRH in Houston to discuss President Obama’s attempts to move America in the direction of socialism. I pointed out that national health care, which Obama would love to foist on America, is the pride and joy of Fidel Castro, one of the world’s premier socialists. But I also pointed out that the Republicans are no different, especially given their socialistic programs that redistribute wealth from the poor and middle class to their rich buddies on Wall Street.
Then, I went to the ABC television studios in Washington, where I participated in a very lively 1/2-hour debate on ABC’s Nightline on the Internet with Paul Helmke, head of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Violence. The subject was Ft. Hood and gun control.
Helmke pointed to the killings at Ft. Hood as confirmation that we need more stringent controls on guns.
I responded that that argument was ridiculous. It would be difficult to find a better controlled experiment for gun control than what happened at Ft. Hood. Army posts are federally mandated gun-free zones which are enforced by the military. But as libertarians have long pointed out, since murderers don’t give a hoot about murder laws, they’re not going to give a hoot for gun-control laws. The Ft. Hood killings confirm this phenomenon once again. The Ft. Hood killer disobeyed gun-control laws by illegally taking his guns onto the base.
So, the only thing the gun control accomplished was to ensure that the victims at Ft. Hood were denied the right to defend themselves. As I pointed out on the show, this is a principle that escapes liberals — they honestly believe that if they enact a gun-control law, murderers are going to obey it. What nonsense.
There was lots more during the heated debate — the sparks flew, big time. ABC is going to post the video of the debate soon, and we’ll link to it in our FFF Email Update.
From ABC, I rushed over to the Fox News studios to appear on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s Freedom Watch to discuss the decision by the Justice Department to try accused 9/11 co-conspirator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in federal district court in New York. The judge and I agreed that this was the right thing to do and that it should have been done a long time ago. As I pointed out, terrorism is a federal criminal offense, an undisputable fact that has now once again been confirmed by U.S. officials with their decision to have Mohammed indicted and tried in federal district court.
The judge and I also agreed that it is an abomination that U.S. officials are persisting in their decision to try some accused terrorists in the Pentagon’s alternative “judicial” system in Cuba. As I stated on the show, it is a fundamental violation of the principles of equal treatment under law and the rule of law to permit government officials the arbitrary and ad hoc power to treat accused criminals in two different, alternative ways, one in which the defendants are accorded the rights and guarantees of the Bill of Rights and one in which the defendants are denied such rights and given kangaroo justice.
Here is the link to yesterday’s Freedom Watch.
Today, the email newsletter of Freedom’s Phoenix is reporting the following: “Judge Andrew Napolitano is in negotiations right now with Fox to take Freedom watch (his .com show) on the air. So, email Fox and tell them you want the judge on the air. Send email to viewerservices@foxnews.com with FREEDOM WATCH WITH THE JUDGE in the subject line.”
If Judge Napolitano’s show were to be placed on television, it would quite possibly be the most exciting and encouraging thing to ever happen to the libertarian movement. Imagine: libertarians exposing and critiquing the statism of both liberals and conservatives on national television on a regular basis. What could be more exciting and encouraging than that?
If you would like to send your input to Fox — and I hope you will — send your email to viewerservices@foxnews.com with “Freedom Watch with the Judge” in the subject line.