The Conservative Soldier

Get ready for a new tide of “hate crime” victims across America.

(REUTERS) The current law, enacted four decades ago, limits federal jurisdiction over hate crimes to assaults based on race, color, religion or national origin. The (2009) bill would lift a requirement that a victim had to be attacked while engaged in a federally protected activity, like attending school, for it to be a federal hate crime.

If the bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives today actually becomes law (as B. Hussein Obama intends), playground banter between kids at school, for example, could become subject to closer “scrutiny”, shall we say. Do not send your child to summer camp without trailing legal counsel.

Or, let’s imagine you are a passenger on a commercial flight and become frustrated by the demeanor and attitude of a flight attendant (a scenario requiring no imagination, whatsoever). You let her know about it. Today, they call it air rage. Tomorrow, it’s a hate crime, Mister!

Your waiter drops dinner all over your lap and you, the customer, suggest he is an idiot. Hate crime.

You attend a school board meeting and publicly challenge the competence of a board member. Hate crime.

Any hint by an employer that an extremely obese person is incapable of performing his job. Hate crime.

Bloggers, in fact, likely will face accusations of being hate criminals each time a new post appears.

The expanding Victim Class will be lining up around the block to file its claims. Where will it end?

It won’t.

U.S. Median Household income: $50,233 (2007, U.S. Census Bureau)

Cost per hour to operate Air Force One*: $60,000-70,000 (media reports; cost varies due to varying aircraft weight, altitudes, duration of flight, jet fuel costs)

Estimated cost of Monday’s White House-approved Statue of Liberty photo-op: $100,000 (minimum estimate; including operational costs of accompanying Air Force F-16 jet)

The dramatic yet infuriating Manhattan fly-around by Air Force One merely reveals anew the chasm between Barack Hussein Obama’s campaign rhetoric and his conduct as President of the United States.

This is a man who preaches personal sacrifice and conservation, yet smuggly heats the Oval Office to levels that one aide jested would permit the growing of orchids.

This is the Obama who wagged his finger at Americans last year on the campaign trail, chiding citizens to sacrifice in the name of global leadership.

Remember this Teleprompter-inspired flourish?

“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times,” he said. “That’s not leadership.”

Perhaps the failure to mention Boeing 747 fuel burn rates was not a mere oversight.

The Obama White House flies in the face of common sense by approving a photo op for a low-flying Air Force One above Manhattan’s skyline.