"We should have a trades' track like European countries (one good thing we could actually take from them) to get kids as much training as possible" We used to have this - unfortunately, society has learned to look down at the trade schools, sneeringly calling them "Special Ed" classes. So, as interest dried up, so did funding. Parents are to blame for this - we need to bring this back - after all, you can't out-source plumbing or auto repair or carpentry to Indian call centers ...

Unfortunately, many children of the middle-class really have no idea what it means to make a living in today's world, sheltered as they've been their entire lives. Similarly, they can't really connect with the realities of obtaining a useless college degree and their inability to obtain a job with a meaningful salary, at least until too late. I know many grads who've borrowed six-figure amounts to attend college, only to find part-time employment in retail or as baristas. Even many of those who've planned and educated themselves for higher-paying jobs have no idea that the salary they think they're going to get will be half (or less) of what they expect, after paying federal and state income, SSI, Medicare, health insurance,...

Philosophically, yes, every human being is equally valuable, and murderers should be punished equally. But society "asks" policemen to do that job, to go into dangerous places on our behalf, to protect us against crime and disorder. An attack on a policeman is an attack on society itself - to allow it to go unpunished threatens the very existence of a civil society. So, we must reserve our harshest response to such attacks, for if we fail to protect our protectors, they will fail to protect us. Similarly, those that celebrate cop-killers lower the barriers against such assaults on policemen, and almost certainly bear some responsibility for any future cop-killings. Too many criminals have no fear of being caught, because the...

Anyone who's mind might've been changed by articles like this would immediately tune-out reading these elementary-school taunts. Whatever good points there might have been were lost by the silly and misguided attempt at humor (if that, indeed, was what it was - hint: if people can't tell the difference between your jokes and serious commentary, put down the figurative pen before you hurt yourself.) I see this with a *lot* of Conservative talk - if what you say is 99% intelligent and on-point, I can guarantee you that the DNC, MSNBC, (aren't they the same thing?), and all of the other media water-carriers will spend their entire time focusing on the 1% that isn't. You can't give them ammunition - make one silly comment, and you'll...

Well - best-case is he's the Democrat nominee for Prez in 2016 - Clinton inexplicably has very high positives, and will probably defeat anyone the GOP has on the horizon. I'd rather Christie(D) than Clinton(S) - she'll double-down on Obama's trajectory of state control of everything - think "Animal Farm" as our end-state - her social thinking has been smoothed over, but she's a committed Socialist true believer, of the type where everyone is equally miserable, except for the political ruling class and their cronies. Ahh, what does it matter - the last election showed what the electorate "wants" - and they'll keep voting for what they "want", rather than what the country needs. And we all know how this story ends ...

I really can't keep up with all of the social engineering notions Progressives float - especially since they're often contradictory: - Eat local - to reduce transportation costs and pollution - Shop at small businesses, with higher costs due to overhead, transportation costs, and increased pollution and definitely *not* shop at Walmart and its brethren, who are successful because of efficient distribution networks - Have a supermarket on every corner, which again, increases costs, waste, traffic, and pollution - Abandon your car, and move to an urban area The Progs would have us all live in hives, giant urban towers, with no cars, just public transport, surrounded by farms. They need to turn off Sim City and get real ...

per Politico: "The immigration proposal pending in Congress would transform the nation’s political landscape for a generation or more — pumping as many as 11 million new Hispanic voters into the electorate a decade from now in ways that, if current trends hold, would produce an electoral bonanza for Democrats and cripple Republican prospects in many states they now win easily." Well, duh - in fact, the only thing wrong is "...for a generation or more" - try "forever." Republicans suffer under the delusion that inside every illegal is a Republican, trying to get out. In fact, Hispanics are among the most reliable Democrat voting bloc there is - this would change our country forever - economically, socially *and* politically.

The hashtags aren't a surprise - my firm belief is that at least 5% of the population is insane, with far more that are merely "disturbed." I know there are a lot of people who want to think this is just some really nice guy, led astray by his brother. But just look at his face, his eyes on the photos and video as he carried the bomb, put it behind those children, then calmly walked away. Did he look frightened? Did he look concerned? Agitated? Nervous? Guilty? Not at all - this guy was a full, willing participant - if any expression could be read, he was excited, as though he was off to play a really funny prank - he's a psychopath, a monster, not an "angel." Save your sympathy for those who deserve it.

Politicians should be made to suffer the effects of the legislation they push - let *them* live in neighborhoods overrun with gangs, and illegal boarding houses packed with illegals, with the attendant trash and crime they bring; let their children attend failing schools crushed under the burden of trying to teach, when 60% of the children are children of illegals and speak little or no English, let them wait in-line behind a crush of illegals at the ED to be seen by a doctor, let their property be vandalized by drunken groups of illegals with nowhere to go, and nothing to do, let their children catch diseases like TB and malaria from illegals... Let them live with the mess they create - suddenly doesn't look so good, does it?

MM has a point - when people start getting comfortable / complacent over the nature of a security threat, it becomes easy to criticize those who actually "say something", attacking them for their alleged racism, or paranoia, or that they're delusional. Remember how a certain administration explicitly firewalled the CIA and the FBI to prevent data-sharing? Remember the criticism they came under for not sharing data, and perhaps preventing 9/11? When something *does* happen, the same people who sneered and complained about their rights being violated will be on the front lines of those shrieking the government didn't do enough to stop it - can't wait for criticisms that there weren't drones overhead.