Speaking Up, Refusing To Adjust: Ted Cruz Addresses The Faithful At NRA Convention In Houston

It keeps happening, you know, this slow squeeze on our freedoms...

Nineteen mooks who should have never been allowed in the country hijack three planes, murder thousands of innocents, and we end up being frisked every time we wish to fly. We are assumed to be bad actors, native-born citizens, from little kids through grandmas. The borders remain wide open to all comers, including the latest two mooks who slaughtered the innocents in Boston.

Another mook wears explosive shoes, so now, we all dress in loafers to travel. We stand in long long lines to be frisked by surly functionaries paid for by taxes on our air travel. We dare not utter a word of disagreement with the situation. We, after all, are the problem.

Another mook, who should have never been allowed onto the plane in Amsterdam, wears explosive undies. His own father had reported him to the authorities. His flight originated in Africa, and he paid the ticket to Detroit in cash. Now we get scanned to our birthday suits every time we travel. The borders remain wide open to all comers, including the latest two mooks who slaughtered the innocents in Boston.

Two mooks make home-made bombs out of pressure cookers, drop them in back-packs, slaughter innocents and maim many others. The older mook was allowed into the country earlier this year without a proper visa. Today, the Kentucky Derby was run, and the fans were subject to search, and coolers were banned. Yes, it was raining, but the infield was eerily empty of the throngs of happy fans who normally attend the great event. The borders remain wide open to all comers, and we dare not possibly publicly say that maybe, just perhaps, Islam and its extremist elements had something to do with that crime, or the other crimes listed above. No, no, no, no, no, no.....we can't say that. We can't turn the screws on immigration from dangerous places, we must be welcoming and understanding and accepting as we remove our shoes, have our privates scanned, stay home from public events, have our lives inexorably restricted by a government that refuses to defend us, and has chosen instead to focus its efforts on limiting our lives and freedoms.

An evil man murders his mother, steals her guns, and murders first graders, all of this taking place in a state with restrictive gun laws. In reaction, no mention of anything except targeting the law-abiding.

Punish criminals? Nahhhh.... Secure schools with guards? Unthinkable!! Admit that there is such a thing as evil in the world, and that there are evil people walking about? How very un-Progressive!!
The only only only solution is to target the law-abiding. They are the real problem!

In response, OS invites you to hear Ted Cruz's speech the faithful at the 2013 NRA Convention in Houston. Here's still contending that, one day, we will travel freely, send our kids to school fearlessly, attend concerts and sports events without being frisked. We'll even take our own coolers to the Derby.

Mine That Bird and Other Inspirational Competitors

It's moments like this that remind us why the Kentucky Derby is what it is.


A $9500 gelding, driven twenty-one hours from New Mexico by his injured trainer, squeezed at the gate and starting dead last, guided along the rail by the world's most fearless jockey, winning by 6 3/4 lengths(and still accelerating as he crossed the wire).

What makes a moment like this so incredibly special, inspiring and joyful?

Could it be because we saw a real competition unfold before our eyes, in contrast to the endless manipulations of money and power that have so crippled so much of the world, and fertilized and watered our cynicism?

The best horse, guided by the best jockey, ran against the odds (50 to 1) through the mud, straight into our hearts and memories: We'll all remember where we were and who we were with when we saw the 2009 Derby.

Two weeks ago, we saw it unfold in slow motion at the Masters, as Angel Cabrera refused to give up, even when trapped behind a tree, and Kenny Perry came within two inches of the green jacket, only to watch it slide away, just like his first putt on the 72nd hole.

Perry lost the tournament, and won our hearts, as he applauded Cabrera on the putt on the 72nd hole that kept his hopes alive.

It was a real competition, played out in the open, within the strictest rules in sport.

Cabrera took the green jacket home, a most well-deserved prize, the pride of Argentina. (He admitted later in an interview that he checked his closet every day, just to make sure it was still there.)

Kenny Perry returned to Kentucky to a hug from his dad, the admiration of his wife and children, a flood of phone calls and letters, and the realization that at age 48, he's in the middle of his best years as a professional athlete.

That's what real competition does--it creates all sorts of winners, in all sorts of ways.

Please somebody, let Congress, the White House and the Captains of Industry in on the secret...