Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

This is a view from my seat at the Ballpark in Arlington, after sunset. Click to enlarge. Katherine, Luki, two friends, and I went to the Ballpark yesterday evening. It was a makeup game from April. The red-hot Texas Rangers came back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3. A good time was had by all.

To the Editor:

Re “Senate Blocks 4 Measures Proposed to Curb Gun Sales” (news article, June 21):

After Sandy Hook, nothing. After Orlando, nothing. Aurora. Charleston. Virginia Tech. San Bernardino. Columbine. Blood is everywhere, and huge majorities want reasonable gun controls.

When the will of the people is consistently thwarted, a nation’s claim to democracy is called into question. After the Port Arthur tragedy in 1996, in which a gunman killed 35 people, Australians demanded strict measures, including a buyback program funded by taxes, and the public’s will became law.

Here, we have popular opinion but no results. Our Congress accepts the National Rifle Association’s worldview without reflection, study or hearings, and the wisdom of a huge majority is ignored yet again.

CURT LaFOND

Montgomery, Ala.

Note from KBJ: Yes, a "buyback program" would have prevented these murders. What a blithering idiot.

Skyscraper (1988).

Here.

Here.

Happy solstice, everyone! It's the first day of summer for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. There's also a full moon today, which makes it doubly interesting. I hope to see a beautiful strawberry moon this evening from our seats at the Ballpark in Arlington. Go, Rangers! (The Rangers are 23-6 in their past 29 games.)

I'm the second oldest of four Jackson boys. All of us are alive and well, two living in Michigan and two in Texas. Today, the youngest of the four—my little brother Gary—is 50 years old. Happy birthday, Bro! It's all downhill from here!

Suppose you believe, as Barack Obama evidently does, that Islam is a religion of peace. You endorse the universal affirmative ("A") proposition that all Muslims are peaceable. One day, a Muslim commits mass murder. There are two things you might do to preserve consistency in your beliefs.

1. You might cease believing, and saying, that all Muslims are peaceable, which might in turn cause you to abandon the idea that Islam is a religion of peace. This is the respectable approach.
2. You might deny that the mass murderer is a Muslim. You might say, for instance, that "no true Muslim would commit mass murder." This preserves consistency in your beliefs, but at what cost? You have arbitrarily excluded someone from the class of Muslims, on the ground that he or she doesn't satisfy your idea of what a Muslim is (or should be).

This fallacy was originally known as the "No-True-Scotsman Fallacy." I hereby propose that we rename it, for it is committed routinely by Barack Obama and his minions, who seem hell-bent on preserving their (patently false) belief that Islam is a religion of peace. See here. Only someone in the grip of Islamophilia could believe such a thing.

Addendum: Islamophilia is a far greater threat to this nation than Islamophobia, and unfortunately our government is suffused with Islamophiles. Women, blacks, Hispanics, homosexuals, and disabled people had better wise up fast, for their identities have taken a back seat to Muslim identity. To be Muslim today is to be protected, immunized, enabled, and promoted—at the expense of everyone else. Gays and lesbians now know (after the mass murder in Orlando) that when their interests conflict with those of Muslims, they lose.

To the Editor:

Thomas L. Friedman thinks the Republican Party is morally bankrupt because of—what? Because it doesn’t have “sensible” positions on his list of liberal issues, such as global warming and more gun control. He doesn’t understand why Republicans are skeptical about man-made global warming and don’t believe in gun control.

Too many liberals think that any political position other than progressive is morally wrong.

REID K. BEVERIDGE

Broadkill Beach, Del.

Note from KBJ: Now you know why Rush Limbaugh calls Friedman "Thomas Loopy Friedman."

The Obama administration doesn't think you can handle the truth. Bureaucrats know what's best for you. Lie back and enjoy it.