A new entrant into the political correctness circus is a little surprising. We've seen gays take photographers and bakers to court for failure to handle their business, in both cases being successful to force the merchants to provide the services against their religious beliefs or pay heavy fines. And going back some years, recording artists put pressure on Sun City, a resort in South Africa, to stop abiding by apartheid practices. Legally, there's nothing wrong with this. Private enterprise can do whatever it likes with its money so long as it's not funding terrorist activities, laundering money for drug cartels or violating currency laws or campaign funding laws. Now there's a new entrant in this merry-go-round of political correctness.
First, I should point out that the jury's still out on the gays' efforts to force people to provide services against their religious convictions. I think this is going to the SCOTUS and it's anyone's guess how the Court will rule, especially in view of the recent ruling on affirmative action that upheld Michigan's laws tearing down affirmative action. But that ruling is simply grounded in states' rights issues, which could be said to be central to the gay v. merchant debate, although I think that contrary to affirmative action, which is over forty years old, gay rights issues are just beginning to be examined. But I digress.
News came out that Bank of America has told porn stars that their bank accounts will be closed, no matter how solidly the accounts have been maintained by the holders. Behind this decision, allegedly, may be something called Operation Choke Point, in which the federal government pressures lending institutions to close the accounts of businesses and individuals engaged in industries deemed by the government to be unsavory or undesirable. Allegedly, industries so far targeted have included payday lenders, ammunition sellers, dating services, purveyors of drug paraphernalia and online gambling sites.
To be fair, I'm not sure how much of that last information is true. I've gleaned that from other online sources. At the same time, I located information regarding the same approach applied to gun manufacturers that turned out to be false.
What's particularly frightening is how Operation Choke Point has been manipulated by the government. Originally intended -- or so it was said -- as a safeguard against fraudsters, a year after its initiation, the DOJ began applying pressure on banks to target specific industries with which it had a moral disagreement. Unable to defeat gun owners by curtailing their rights under the Second Amendment, the government is engaging in collateral attacks by going after magazine sizes, rates of fire, consumption and manufacture of lead (a key component in bullets) and the finances of gun manufacture and sales. This end-run would appear, at first blush, to be perfectly legal, until it's understood that by doing this, the government is infringing on enumerated rights as set forth in the Bill of Rights. It's devious and ultimately totalitarian.
If porn stars aren't able to bank properly, they become ripe for audits by the IRS. Indirectly, this attacks the porn stars First Amendment rights, because the ultimate goal isn't to prevent them from banking, but from plying their craft, such as it is. What's the problem? one might ask. Well, what if the government extended it to other industries with which it differed? What about certain artists, authors or commentators? In a sense, this is what Congress, which has the power of the purse, could do to the Supreme Court, were it to disagree with a ruling made by the SCOTUS: It could pull funding for the Court, crippling it and rendering it impotent. Congress has had many disagreements with the SCOTUS over the years, but it has never acted accordingly. Sadly, the admininstration has no such compunctions.
In researching this story I came across a site called Jews For the Preservation of Firearms Ownership that posted an article entitled It's Even Worse: Operation Choke Point Threatens Both Guns and Common Decency. It's an excellent article and well worth the read. You can find it here:
http://jpfo.org/articles-assd04/wolfe-operation-choke-point.htm
If anyone should fear government infringement of personal rights, it's Jews.
The thing that their article reminded me of was a poem by Martin Niemoller. Niemoller was a German anti-Nazi and Lutheran theologian. Niemoller wrote the very well-known poem as a criticism of German intellectuals who failed to stand up to Nazis who imprisoned and ultimately killed Jews, communists, gypsies and others viewed as dissenters or enemies of the state. His poem reads (in one version):
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.
I'm not a porn star. Were I in porn I'd be hungry and homeless. But what's being done to people in the porn industry -- and the gun manufacturing industry, or the payday loan industry, or the gambling industry -- is wrong. I don't engage in certain of those activities, but I believe they have a fundamental right to do whatever they want so long as they are within the bounds of the law. The law does not criminalize the porn industry. It does not outlaw payday loans. It does not provide for penalties for selling guns within the codified laws. But the government is hellbent on destroying these industries by cutting off their life's blood -- money.
Pastor Niemoller was both perceptive and prescient. We need to be the same.
EDIT: Just as I was finishing this post I came across yet another article about the same tactic being used by this administration:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/18/targeted-gun-sellers-say-high-risk-label-from-feds/
People, this is not a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
(c) 2014 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles
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