by Bob Barr | May 11, 2023 | Townhall Article |
Townhall“Gaslight” — psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator –Merriam-Webster DictionaryNeither history nor common sense mean anything to those demanding “racial reparations.”Slavery in America was definitively outlawed upon ratification of the 13th Amendment to our Constitution in 1865. The right to vote was secured against racial discrimination by way of the 15th Amendment just five years later. Federal legislation, including the 1871 criminal deprivation of civil rights law, the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and many other statutes, provide robust legal vehicles by which to ensure the principles embodied in the Constitution had real meaning, and were enforceable in courts of law.Judging by the way the “racial reparations” movement is gaining steam in California, none of these several constitutional and statutory mechanisms ever really existed. Reparations proponents are attempting to gaslight the American people into believing our country sleepwalked through those eras and never addressed the evils of slavery or racial discrimination.That this reparations movement is gaining notoriety mostly in California, which still ironically claims the moniker of “the Golden State,” should not surprise us. One of the state’s former chief executive, Jerry Brown, was known as “Governor Moonbeam” for his eccentricities and “hippy” image during his first two terms, from 1975 to 1983. However, the fact that the state’s current governor, Gavin Newsom (who sees a future U.S. president in his mirror...
by Bob Barr | May 4, 2023 | Townhall Article |
TownhallFrom the east coast to the Pacific Northwest, the past week once again confirmed that Democrat political leaders prefer to address the serious problem of gun crime in America as a political rather than a law enforcement and mental health problem.In Washington state, Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law outlawing the sale of AR-style rifles. Inslee wrongly but sanctimoniously stated that such “weapons of war” have as their “only purpose” murdering people. Conveniently ignored by the Governor is the fact that the AR is the most popular rifle in the country, used regularly by millions of law-abiding citizens for competition, hunting, and self-defense.In the nearby, and also Democrat-led state of Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis lamented that he was not yet legislatively empowered to outlaw the same rifle, but pompously declared that by forcing citizens in the state to wait three days before being permitted to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed right to purchase a firearm, he was making it “safe” for them to go to the grocery store.Last week also, on Capitol Hill testimony by the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) made clear that today’s ATF remains more concerned with finding ways to limit the lawful ownership of firearms and accessories, than in meeting its avowed mission “to protect communities from violent criminals, criminal organizations, [and] acts of terrorism.”For example, during his April 26th appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, ATF Director Steve Dettlebach was asked how the agency intended in the future to enforce the agency’s new, self-dictated regulation on so-called arm or “stabilizing” braces, which as of May 31st will become illegal to possess. Such questions...
by Bob Barr | Apr 20, 2023 | Townhall Article |
TownhallA report on criminal law published last month by the International Commission of Jurists in collaboration with the United Nations, could easily serve as a handbook for the looting, filth, and general lawlessness now infecting many U.S. cities, including San Francisco, Chicago, and New York.Typical of virtually every report drafted by the United Nations and related international organizations, this one was long in the drafting, taking a full five years to compose. Also, like other U.N.-created reports, it has a ridiculously long and convoluted title: The 8 March Principles for a Human Rights-Based Approach to Criminal Law Proscribing Conduct Associated with Sex, Reproduction, Drug Use, HIV, Homelessness and Poverty. A shorter and more accurate title would be How To Destroy Civil Society By Abandoning the Rule of Law.Central to the Report’s thesis is the notion that a society’s criminal laws must in every instance yield to and be secondary to “human rights.” In this approach, no criminal law should be permitted to “restrict the exercise of any human right” unless such a law is itself “consistent with other rights recognized under international human rights law.” To cement this circular thesis, the Report declares that if there might ever arise any question about the reach of a country’s criminal law, it must never be construed “to an accused person’s disadvantage.”To further undercut any legal system that might still employ a criminal code, the Report asserts that “international law” trumps any system of “domestic law,” which would include, for example, our Constitution. And, borrowing a phrase employed often by liberals here in the United States to justify whatever “rights” they desire...
by Bob Barr | Apr 12, 2023 | Townhall Article |
TownhallAmerica clearly is in the throes of a cultural campaign for transgender rights, privileges, and immunities. It is a multi-faceted movement at once entertaining and dangerous.The handwriting was on the wall six years ago, when the August 2017 National Geographic cover depicted a transgendered child and devoted its contents to the “Gender Revolution.” Now, in early 2023, we have Dylan Mulvaney, a well-known transgender “influencer,” as the new face of corporate giants Nike and Anheuser Busch. Soon we may see Mulvaney grace the cover of Popular Mechanics.When that same biological male – Dylan Mulvaney – is hawking not only Bud Light and sports bras but Tampax tampons, the question legitimately needs to be asked, “just what is going on here?”It is not only major corporations, including Nike, Proctor & Gamble, and Anheuser Busch that have jumped aboard the transgender bandwagon. Universities and now, the federal government and the judiciary are all in. Just last week, President Biden decreed that any education institution receiving U.S. taxpayer dollars (which is most every school in the country) cannot stop biological males who “identify” as female from competing against biological females. Even the Supreme Court seems to be intimidated — refusing to consider putting the brake on the practice even after state legislation declares it unfair.While videos of Dylan Mulvaney prancing around in a Nike bra or guzzling Bud Light in a bathtub full of soapsuds may seem comical on its face, with the feds now waiting in the wings to sue schools that consider it unfair for biological men to compete against biological women, the transgender glorification movement truly has transitioned into high gear.The cultural...
by Bob Barr | Apr 6, 2023 | Townhall Article |
TownhallWell, at least the wait is over. Donald Trump on Tuesday became the first former president to be charged with violating criminal law. Despite predictions by many of his supporters that his being charged criminally would cause the sky to fall, such calamity failed to materialize. Wednesday, April 5, 2023 dawned; the dollar remains the world’s reserve currency, our economy still is the largest and strongest on earth, and America’s armed forces remain the best in the world. Are there problems facing us everywhere, from our southern border to the Taiwan Strait? Sure there are but name a time when America has not faced serious challenges. Is our current President – Joe Biden – doing his best to make our domestic economy weaker by the day with his and the Fed’s bumbling decisions? That certainly appears to be the case. But here also, the odds are in our favor that we will survive to defeat him and his Democrat Party’s anti-free market policies in less than two years.Are there judges in states and federal districts across the country who deliberately or ignorantly misinterpret our Constitution and who seek to diminish our constitutionally guaranteed rights? Yes, there are. However, recent court decisions upholding such cherished but always-targeted liberties as the right to keep and bear arms are clear evidence that, despite the best efforts by the Left, the spark of individual liberty lit by our Founders has not been extinguished.And finally, are there prosecutors, such as Manhattan’s Alvin Bragg and New York state’s Letitia James, who openly declare their intent to wield the power of the offices they hold to destroy their...
by Bob Barr | Mar 30, 2023 | Townhall Article |
TownhallThe Supreme Court has agreed to decide a case that, if at least five justices render a majority opinion based on common sense and a reasoned interpretation of federal law, will stop an abusive practice that for three decades has cost businesses and consumers untold millions, if not billions of dollars.The law at the heart of the lawsuit (Acheson Hotels v. Deborah Laufer) is the 1990 “Americans With Disabilities Act,” commonly known as “ADA.” The case itself arose in Maine, but the Court’s decision will have significant effects across the entire country.ADA is a perfect example of a federal law with insufficient guardrails to prevent abuses, allowing lawsuits against businesses for even very minor technical violations, such as the height of a counter in a restaurant’s bathroom, then forcing businesses to defend themselves in court even if they desired to fix the problems without litigation. Consequently, there has arisen over the past three decades a “cottage industry” of ADA “testers.” qThese “testers” hire lawyers to file lawsuits against businesses, usually small businesses, hoping – actually planning – that they will settle rather than engage in lengthy and costly litigation. Often, the individuals threatening or actually filing these lawsuits have not suffered any actual harm, but rely on alleged technical violations of the ADA’s language and detailed implementing regulations. (In one noteworthy case, a tester sued a “pedicure station” at a spa in New York City for an alleged ADA shortcoming, even though the “victim” had no feet.)Because of this costly pattern of ADA abuse, the “ADA Notification Act” was introduced in the House of Representatives in 2000 simply to require that before...
