John Loeffler: July 14, 2014

John’s boralogue states off by summarizing events in the Middle East in the post-peace process environment, attempting to make sense of data points that don’t seem to make sense. We’re starting a summer history thread: The background of the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights. Constitutional attorney Michael Connelly from the United States Justice Foundation (www.usjf.net) will appear on SOS once a week to discuss the background behind each right contained in the Bill of Rights, and how that particular right is under duress today. Then, speaking of rights, our government is attempting another end run around the Bill of Rights in making it difficult for weapons dealers to do business by restricting their ability to accept credit cards from clients. Larry Pratt from Gun Owners of America (www.gunowners.org) appears to discuss Operation Choke Point. From there a jump to the Middle East for a viewpoint from Avi Lipkin (www.vicmord.org). Everyone’s buzzing about another intifada, but Lipkin maintains that isn’t the real emerging danger. Then on to the question: “If the U.S. is such a bad, imperialist, racist nation as elitists have been telling us for 50 years, why do so many Latin Americans want to come here?” Four hundred years of failure to establish free republics and market economies in Latin America explains why this region has remained so dysfunctional for so long. Alvaro Vargas Llosa (www.independent.org) is an award-winning journalist and author of numerous books on this subject, who joins us from Madrid, Spain.