Starting (for me, anyway) with Brokeback Mountain, Hollywood has attempted to de-sensitize us to homosexual displays of affection (now including sex scenes, of course). These scenes continue to be extremely cringe-worthy for the vast majority of normal people. So much for the new normal.

I really like Ann. She's brilliant and funny. And I'm much closer to her on this issue than to Rubio. I also recommend the recent articles by Malkin and Buchanan--we can't afford to deceive ourselves that huge numbers of unskilled people seeking handouts can be good for the economy. But we need somebody to actually unravel this complicated immigration issue. The Wall Street Journal does NOT advocate for open borders or for admitting immigrants who have no skills. They HAVE made a point that SKILLED immigrants like engineers create two or three support jobs for every one they take. I agree that they are basically pro-immigration. One major point is that our birth rate is below the replacement rate. Without immigrants there will be nobody to fund Social Security and Medicare in the future. This doesn't imply in any way that we should tolerate illegal immigration. And secondly, to honestly unravel this issue requires getting past the false dichotomy of "amnesty" versus "border security." It's far from that simple. Consider that it is much more important that we secure our entitlement programs than that we secure the border. We had a relatively open border for most of 200 years. Take the incentives away and unskilled people won't be so anxious to come here.

So my point is, Mr. Falin, that looking for ideas for government to solve the problem is barking up the wrong tree. And it means that the indoctrination of our population, generation by generation, in both public and private schools should be addressed directly. It's an evil that must be stopped. I realize that's difficult because of tenure, freedom of speech, etc. But the problem isn't what's taught, it's what is not taught. It's what is prohibited by "hate speech" codes, etc. The government should take a stronger stand in protecting contrary thoughts on campuses.

1) When one of the core beliefs of a group is that there is no virtue in codes of professional behavior, that chaos (anarchy) is preferable to what we have because what we have is so, so absolutely evil (as Bill Ayers loves to explain about the evils of the Viet Nam war, so evil that his violence was more than justified), we are playing a game against people who will not follow rules. Their ideology is that the very rules themselves are evil. 2) As far as the economy is concerned I believe that the lesson of the Great Depression is that less is more. It's very difficult to make an argument for doing less, or even doing nothing about a problem. But as we know from cultivating a garden, too much water or fertilizer can kill it. At a certain point one must simply stand back and allow it to flourish.

It's the imperfection of human beings. Whether one embraces the concept of a deity or simply wishes to respect culture and traditions that have succeeded is really immaterial. We will not succeed if we don't respect something bigger than our individual selves. When we turn ourselves over to the gentle ministrations of a Castro or Chavez, a Lenin or Mao, we will be finally and eternally damned as a species. The quaint notions our founders identified as important--freedoms, rights, etc.--so demeaned by the academics of our age will be sorely missed when they're gone forever. Thank you Bill Ayers. You smartass punk, you think you're superior. But you are a moron.

The thought of Valerie Jarrett running the country should be terrifying for any thinking person. And the reality is that she is replicated a dozen times in the unconfirmed "czars" running so much of our government. We really need to wake up Boehner and get him to behave more like Rand Paul and Darrel Issa. We are too close to the destruction of our government, and this is something I don't think the planet can recover from in this Internet age. Do you see countries rushing to copy us, or Singapore? No, we see people more and more convinced, like Tom Friedman, that we need to be "China for a day." This is a slippery slope any sentient person should reject immediately and emphatically, but that is not happening.

Very good, Matt. Thank you for your thoughts.

I'm puzzled by this irrationality. "...backed by facts..," samplin is right. This country has done more to reduce disease, famine, war, to aid disaster victims, etc. than any other country in history. In order to provide this help a country has to have the means. If our country is imperfect (which, of course, it is! duh), why don't these people try to work within the system to correct its faults incrementally, through changes to laws and amendments to the constitution? If they get the chaos and violence they seem to be working to get they'll be really, really sorry. Even in this country it is possible to kill the golden goose, and we've seen more than enough violence to live under any illusion that it couldn't happen here. When shortages of food begin to make people really hungry, watch out! And when the U.S. is gone, because of the Internet, so goes the planet. There will be no more "rise and fall" of any empires. We're toast. If we let go of this miracle and resume employing the usual human solutions to government, how will another successful country ever generate? Just look at Europe for a preview of what world cooperation/government looks like.

Nice summary and great observations, Ms Pavlich.

There actually is good news on the media front. Yesterday on Morning Joe (MSNBC), Tom Brokaw, Mika Brzezinski, Chuck Todd, et al took the administration to task. The IRS story was way too much for them--they compared it to Watergate as well as the Nixon "enemies list." And they weren't giving him a pass on Benghazi, either. I haven't seen any of the show this morning, but we can hope the AP story will be the final straw and we'll find that the infatuation is over. Fingers crossed. Rachel Maddow will be the last one to give him up. Seems the love there is genuine!