Remember when Eric Holder warned us of the dire consequences of the sequester cuts?

As we speak, these cuts are already having a significant negative impact not ust on Department employees, but on programs that could directly impact the safety of Americans across the country....Our capacity—to respond to crimes, investigate wrongdoing, and hold criminals accountable has been reduced. And, despite our best efforts to limit the impact of sequestration, unless Congress quickly passes a balanced deficit reduction plan, the effect of these cuts-on our entire justice system and on the American people—may be profound.

Wow, that sounds bad. Now that the sequester is actually in effect, we would expect Justice to have pared down and streamlined, so as to focus its efforts on the most threatening of criminals and dangerous crimes. Or maybe not.

The Justice Department late Tuesday formally filed its case against Lance Armstrong and his company Tailwind Sports for millions of dollars that the U.S. Postal Service spent to sponsor the cycling team.

Rest easy, folks. Rest easy. Eric Holder's DOJ is on the case.

Told You So

Back on January 5th 2013, I wrote this:

Here's my slippery slope question: Before redefining marriage from a relationship between a man and a woman to a relationship between consenting adults, can we agree about which consenting adult relationships will not qualify as "marriages?" We haven't had that debate yet, which is why I oppose gay marriage. It shouldn't be permitted until we explore what other doors might be accidentally thrown open. Adults consent to a lot of things, and once we've made that the standard, how do we keep it at two? Why can't three adults consent? What next? How can we re-write marriage law to accommodate gays without opening up a pandora's box of possible marriages? It's a debate worth having.

Now, nearly three and a half months later, we are treated to this piece by one Jillian Keenan:

While the Supreme Court and the rest of us are all focused on the human right of marriage equality, let's not forget that the fight doesn't end with same-sex marriage. We need to legalize polygamy, too. Legalized polygamy in the United States is the constitutional, feminist, and sex-positive choice. More importantly, it would actually help protect, empower, and strengthen women, children, and families. [...]

The definition of marriage is plastic. Just like heterosexual marriage is no better or worse than homosexual marriage, marriage between two consenting adults is not inherently more or less "correct" than marriage among three (or four, or six) consenting adults. Though polygamists are a minority - a tiny minority, in fact - freedom has no value unless it extends to even the smallest and most marginalized groups among us. So let's fight for marriage equality until it extends to every same-sex couple in the United States-and then let's keep fighting. We're not done yet.

There you have it folks. If you think for a minute that embracing gay marriage will end the animosity, you are misguided indeed. It will simply open up another new front in the culture war.

Ann Coulter gets to the ugly truth behind the gun control debate:

The one clear thread that unites all the mass murders currently being exploited by the Democrats is that they were committed by visibly crazy people who were unaccountably not institutionalized. But Democrats refuse to do anything about crazy people. Apparently, the views of families with relatives murdered by severely disturbed individuals are no longer relevant when it comes to institutionalizing the mentally ill.

If liberals had a decent argument for taking guns away from the law-abiding while doing nothing to prevent schizophrenics from getting guns, they'd make it. Manifestly, they don't, so they send out victims to make the argument for them, knowing no one will argue with a person whose child has just been murdered.

Another in a series of roundups from National Review Online:

Kevin D. Williamson on Obamacare:

That leaves us with a system that is private in name only - which is the point. It is meaningless to say that we have a private system in which private consumers buy insurance from private insurers when the insurers have been forbidden to price their products, and have instead been converted into something somewhere between a public utility company and a government contractor. Sure, you are free to buy any insurance you want - but if what you want is a lower rate for being a non-smoker, the point is moot, because it would be a crime for anybody to sell it to you.

Lee Habeeb and Mike Leven explore how the Wright brothers beat government funded "experts" to the invention of the airplane:

The War Department, in its final report on the Langley project, concluded: "We are still far from the ultimate goal, and it would seem as if years of constant work and study by experts, together with the expenditure of thousands of dollars, would still be necessary before we can hope to produce an apparatus of practical utility on these lines." Isn't that just the kind of arrogance you'd expect from government bureaucrats? If their best minds can't do it with our money, no one can.

On December 17, 1903, only nine days after Langley's second failed experiment, two Ohio men did what the War Department, Langley, the Smithsonian, and all of that government investment could not. With $2,000 of their own money and little fanfare, the Wright brothers launched the first powered heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard. From dunes four miles south of Kitty Hawk, N.C., the Wrights' Flyer flew for 59 seconds, traveled 852 feet, and ushered in the era of modern aviation.

Rich Lowry takes down MSNBC's proclamation that society "owns" your kids:

The truth is that parents are one of society's most incorrigible sources of inequality. If you have two of them who stay married and are invested in your upbringing, you have hit life's lottery. You will reap untold benefits denied to children who aren't so lucky. That the family is so essential to the well-being of children has to be a constant source of frustration to the egalitarian statist, a reminder of the limits of his power.

Mark Stein looks at the dearth of press coverage of a Philadelphia slaughterhouse :

The U.S. media's unanimous agreement to see no evil is sick and totalitarian. A very small consolation is that, with news judgments like these, the wretched American press is doing a pretty good job of sawing through its own neck.

I'll leave those of you with a strong stomach to read the testimony the press is ignoring.

The always quotable Jay Nordlinger:

You'll love something the Associated Press did - just love it. Listen: "Senate opponents of a treaty regulating the multibillion-dollar global arms trade said Wednesday they have the votes to block ratification of the pact, which is also opposed by the outlaw regimes of North Korea, Syria and Iran."

Reminds me of what the "MSM" used to do back in the Cold War: When pro-lifers peeped up, the media would mention that Ceausescu's Romania banned abortion.

Nice, nice . . .

More peaceful, tolerant liberals

The left wing can always be counted on to keep things peaceful and classy. Check out these lefties in Great Britain "celebrating" the death of Margaret Thatcher:

Revellers in Brixton staged a street party to celebrate Margaret Thatcher's death, culminating in arrests and an attack on a local charity shop.

Around 100 hundred people were out on the streets to celebrate the death of former the former prime minister, whose death from a stroke was announced on Monday.

A board at the famous Ritzy cinema in Windrush Square was hijacked by partygoers who swapped the letters to read 'Margaret Thatcher's Dead.'

Smashed glass was strewn on the street after the window of charity shop Barnardos was kicked in during ugly scenes.

Police officers trying to keep order were attacked, with extra numbers drafted in to stop revellers spilling out on to the roads and causing traffic delays.

Two women were arrested on suspicion of burglary and spent the night in cells after Barnardos was targeted during celebrations.