Usually when U.S. citizens argue in favor of downsizing the military budget, they are treated as anti-American by neoconservatives and other "hawks." When presidential contender Ron Paul advocates bringing the troops home and reducing federal military spending, he is called an isolationist. But what can critics say of a military general who makes such assertions? Brigadier General John Adams, in a piece for The Hill, makes such declarations. He claims that while the federal government has increased military spending, it has not increased national security, and such spending only serves to threaten economic security and fiscal sanity:

Eid-ul-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan, is one of the most important Muslim religious holidays.  As a celebration of that holiday, 3,000 Muslims went to Playland Amusement Park in Rye, New York. When staff at the park insisted that women who rode rides at the park could not wear the hijab — the traditional head covering that the majority of Muslim women are enjoined to use — the result was a brawl that required police from nine different agencies to converge on the park and restore peace.  About 100 officers were required to handle the disturbance that involved 30 to 40 people, 13 of whom were arrested by the police.  Playland Amusement Park was not attempting to offend Muslims, park officials explained. The park has had three accidents on its rides in the last seven years. Two children and a park employee were killed as a result of these accidents. As a result of that, Playland Amusement Park adopted some relatively stringent rules regarding passengers on its rides. These rules are on Playland’s website and state that all items and clothing must be appropriately secured while on a ride. Jackets/sweaters must be worn properly and not around the waist while on the ride. The rides forbid backpacks, purses or head gear of any kind.

In an effort to create an ultimate Nanny state, the California Assembly has recently passed legislation that legislates the proper treatment of babysitters, as per the Assembly’s standards. The new legislation requires that babysitters receive rest and meal breaks. Additionally, parents who hire babysitters would be required to provide workers’ compensation benefits. Written by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) Assembly Bill 889 makes these requirements and more. The bill applies to all “domestic employees,” to include housekeepers, nannies, caregivers, and babysitters.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of a law, passed by the Texas legislature in May, that requires a woman seeking an abortion to receive a sonogram at least 24 hours before the procedure so she can see the baby’s features and hear its heartbeat. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks of Austin ruled that the law, set to go into effect on September 1st, “compels physicians to advance an ideological agenda with which they may not agree, regardless of any medical necessity, and irrespective of whether the pregnant women wish to listen.” In his August 31st injunction, reported the Baptist Press News, “Sparks wrote that the law’s requirements expand beyond medically necessary information and ‘are unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment right to be free from compelled speech.’” Specifically, continued the BP news story, “Sparks argued that the First Amendment rights of doctors and patients are violated in the law’s requirements that doctors show the patient an ultrasound of the baby, make the heartbeat audible and give a verbal description of the child.”

After collecting $535 million in loan guarantees from the federal government, solar technology manufacturer Solyndra is shutting down its operations, as hundreds of employees were turned away Wednesday morning. Just last year, the Silicon Valley solar panel maker drew valiant praise from President Obama for being an "innovator" in solar technology, while the President touted the economic opportunity for thousands of "green" jobs. Solyndra’s grievous acknowledgement resulted in immediate layoffs for 1,100 workers. "We are incredibly proud of our employees, and we would like to thank our investors, channel partners, customers and suppliers for the years of support that allowed us to bring our innovative technology to market," said Chief Executive Officer Brian Harrison. "This was an unexpected outcome and is most unfortunate."

Civil libertarians pitched their usual fit last week over the revelation that the NYPD is collaborating with the CIA to spy on New Yorkers — and folks living, working, or worshipping everywhere else, too. But this may be may be just the protection New Yorkers need, given another story that had emerged three days earlier: the FBI is busily recruiting and outfitting terrorists to bomb us. The government’s excuse for both outrages is the usual one: preventing terrorism. “…[A]ny potential threat to New York City is the NYPD's business, regardless of where it occurs,” “officials” sniffed. Indeed. “The NYPD…produced an analytical report on every mosque within 100 miles, officials said.” One hundred miles from the City puts us in the wilds of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, and upstate New York; it encompasses such large cities as Philadelphia and Newark; it includes tens of millions of people.

As states like Arizona and Alabama are passing laws in an attempt to maintain control over the overwhelming amount of illegal immigration into their states, the Obama administration continues to launch lawsuits against them and assert that it is solely the role of the federal government to enforce immigration laws. However, there is a great deal of evidence that the federal government has reneged on that role, the most recent proof coming out of the U.S. Department of Labor, which has confirmed that it will enforce federal wage laws on behalf of anyone working in the United States, “regardless of immigration status.” According to Department of Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano, there are approximately 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States, though some argue that the number is significantly higher. Of the number touted by Napolitano, however, that figure includes nearly seven million who are of working age. Meanwhile, the nation’s unemployment rate has remained at around 9 percent for months, and at least 14 million Americans are unemployed, and the percentage of working Americans has decreased to 64 percent, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A woman in Idaho has filed the first ever lawsuit against the “fetal pain” abortion ban. Filed by Jennie Linn McCormack against Bannock County, the lawsuit contends that the new law that bans abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy because of fetal pain is a violation of the Constitution. Idaho is one of six states — the others being Kansas, Alabama, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Nebraska — to enact the fetal pain abortion ban in six years. Nebraska was the first to pass legislation that bans abortions after 20 weeks because of fetal pain at that stage of development. LifeSiteNews.com explains the premise behind the bans:

The other night I was watching interviewer Piers Morgan, CNN’s replacement for Larry King, who retired from TV in December 2010. Morgan was interviewing Arianna Huffington, the Greek-American political commentator-activist, whose Internet journal, the Huffington Post, or HuffPo, is comprised of daily comments from liberal bloggers and columnists. The subject was the American Dream and what’s happened to it. They both agreed that the great entrepreneurial spirit that drove the American economy to heights of ingenious productivity was somewhat lacking. They blamed it on all sorts of factors, but neither Morgan nor Huffington was willing to acknowledge that socialist societies generally kill entrepreneurial freedom and enterprise. Neither did they acknowledge that the American government had become too big and too intrusive in the lives of its citizens. Of course, Morgan had been born in 1965 in socialist England and came to socialist America just a few years ago. So he simply doesn’t know what it was like to live in an America where true economic freedom once existed. Nor was Ms. Huffington any more enlightening. She came from socialist Greece, which has now reached the end of its rope, married a rich Californian and has no idea how a free economy works.

One American author has set out to change America’s “ungodly” course. Dr. Carol M. Swain, a law professor, Christian social scientist, and frequent media contributor, has written a book entitled Be the People, wherein she claims that the United States is heading in an “ungodly direction.” In her book, she sets out to redirect that path. Swain’s book is described as “an insightful analysis of the forces of deception rapidly reshaping America’s morals, social policies, and culture, with a call to specific action, written by a thoughtful and courageous Christian social scientist on the front lines of today’s issues.” Be the People is divided into two sections: Forsaking what we once knew, and Re-embracing truth and justice in policy choices. It covers a number of issues, including what Swain classifies as “America’s shift to moral relativism,” and “Abortion’s fragile façade.”