The Morning Roar: U.S. Troops To Iraq, SCOTUS Rules on "Straw Purchaser" Gun Law, and Duke Porn Star Explains Skyrocketing College Tuition
Welcome to The Morning Roar for Tuesday June 17, 2014!U.S. Troops Being Sent to Iraq to Protect Embassy Well, this was inevitable. Late Monday night it was announced that President Obama is sending 275 troops to Iraq to protect the American embassy there from the dreaded ISIS (Islamic State or Iraq and Syria), which has asserted it's control of several of the country's cities. When Obama "withdrew" troops in 2011, he was doing so under order of a law signed by President George W. Bush, while meanwhile secretly negotiating to keep troops in the country. This inevitable attack on the Vatican City-sized symbol of American imperialism provides POTUS the opportunity to do just that.While there is certainly a legitimate place for ambassadors to be present in foreign countries, the U.S. embassy in Iraq is fortified like a military base and is understandably viewed as such on the ground. The embassy's massive presence in Baghdad serves not as a welcome mat to the friendly locals, but a base of operations for the U.S.'s political influence over the country.The irony in all of this is that if U.S. troops do engage in combat on the ground, they will be doing so against the same gang of fun-lovin' terrorists as it has been funding in Syria. Chris Ernesto of AntiWar.com puts it bluntly:
So, it looks like the US will ultimately use aerial strikes (and undoubtedly, Special Forces and mercenaries) in Iraq against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) at the same time it is supplying them with lethal weapons in Syria.This bears repeating. The US is arming ISIS in Syria and is now considering military action against them in neighboring Iraq.
Like common criminals who repeat the same pattern of robbery over and over until they are eventually caught, those who pull the Imperial Strings of Power always seem to cause their own demise through a stunning combination of arrogance and ignorance. I fear we are one "40 U.S. troops killed during embassy mission; Obama readies full-scale invasion" headline away from another endless, unconstitutional war.Let's hope Obama wants to leave a legacy of a (relative) peace President, and not the "Oh no, did we really do that again?" President.SCOTUS Rules on "Straw Purchaser" Gun LawThe Supreme Court ruled yesterday that federal law does not allow an individual to act as a "straw" purchaser and to buy a gun for someone else, even if both individuals involved are legally allowed to own the firearms in question. The Associated Press reports on the case in question:
The case began after Bruce James Abramski, Jr. bought a Glock 19 handgun in Collinsville, Virginia, in 2009 and later transferred it to his uncle in Easton, Pennsylvania. Abramski, a former police officer, had assured the Virginia dealer he was the "actual buyer" of the weapon even though he had already offered to buy the gun for his uncle using a police discount.
Abramski purchased the gun three days after his uncle had written him a check for $400 with "Glock 19 handgun" written in the memo line. During the transaction, he answered "yes" on a federal form asking "Are you the actual transferee buyer of the firearm(s) listed on this form? Warning: You are not the actual buyer if you are acquiring the firearm(s) on behalf of another person. If you are not the actual buyer, the dealer cannot transfer the firearm(s) to you."
Police later arrested Abramski after they thought he was involved in a bank robbery in Rocky Mount, Virginia. No charges were ever filed on the bank robbery, but officials charged him with making false statements about the purchase of the gun.
This is interesting because it seems that the only issue at hand here is when Abramski had decided to give the gun to his uncle, since it is normally legal to transfer a firearm between two individuals who are legally allowed to own them. The memo line on the $400 check is a clear indication he did decide ahead of time to intentionally purchase the gun for his uncle. And Bruce Abramski clearly lied (or simply didn't read it) when he signed the statement that he was the actual buyer of the gun. Despite the ridiculousness of the ruling on its surface, it is hard to feel too sorry for him when he knowingly violated the law for seemingly no good reason.The real issue here is the inefficacy of the many gun laws in place. While Abramski either mistakenly violated the law or did so out of ignorance, this incident highlights how silly such a law is in the first place. The transfer still took place without a hitch, and if Abramski was planning to transfer the weapon to someone who wasn't legally allowed to own it, he certainly wouldn't have been able to do so through a legal transfer. Like the majority of gun laws, the only people likely to be affected by them are those committing no real crime at all.Duke Porn Star Explains The High Cost of College TuitionDuke student Miriam Weeks took a lot of flack from conservatives and progressives alike when it was revealed that she pays her pricey Duke tuition by performing in adult films as Belle Knox. Like the majority of Duke students, Weeks was accepted to the university due to her intelligence, not by how she pays the bills when school is out. In a recent column for Time, Weeks described just why the price of higher education is so…well…high.
Instead of focusing on my decision to perform in porn to pay my tuition, let’s start paying attention to what got me here: artificially inflated demand for college that pushes tuitions sky highTo make matters worse, my income now makes me ineligible for the $13,000 in aid I was receiving. My bill for next year will be a staggering $62,000. And I will pay this all on my own; the financial aid office does not care that I am legally financially independent. They view it as my parent’s responsibility to foot the bill.But my porn work pays the exorbitant tab for one simple reason: Demand for porn actresses, especially extremely young ones like myself, far exceeds supply. How interesting that the same basic principle explains why my tuition bill is so high in the first place.Demand for education, kind of like demand for porn, is pretty inelastic. Kids like me have been told our whole lives that higher education is the only way to be successful in America. President Obama made it clear he wants to keep that demand high in a speech in Austin, Texas.
The whole article is an excellent take on current situation; I recommend giving it a full read. It's another case study which illustrates the staggering student debt crisis facing the nation's young adults, as I discussed recently on the Lions of Liberty Podcast with "For Profit" actor and student debt activist Aaron Calafato.Read The Morning Roar every weekday Monday-Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
