We've all heard of the "shut up and sing" epithet tossed (usually rightly) at vapid Hollywood celebrities and other performers who like to parade their political opinions as though they were worth something. But now we see an "adult film" star doing the same thing — what do we tell her? "Shut up and, well, #*&$&?"

Not being an aficionado of internet (or any other type of) "adult film" performances, until very recently I was unaware of who Mia Khalifa was; apparently, she is now a former adult film star, and one who is a supporter of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and, presumably, Hamas. In her latest round of propounding on the issue, she is accusing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) of influencing the Congressional Democrats who voted for Tlaib's recent censure.

Mia Khalifa has shared a claim that all Democrats who joined Republicans to censure Representative Rashida Tlaib this week have received substantive donations from a pro-Israel political action committee.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to censure the Democratic representative of Michigan and the only Palestinian American in Congress by 234 votes to 188 over what she said about the Israel-Hamas war. Tlaib sparked criticism last week by defending the controversial slogan "from the river to the sea" and urged lawmakers to join in calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The phrase is contentious, with the Anti-Defamation League saying it implies "the dismantling of the Jewish state." But Tlaib calls the chant an "aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate."

"I will not be silenced and I will not let you distort my words," Tlaib said in the House. "No government is beyond criticism. The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent, and it's been used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation."

Here's what the IQ-challenged in the universe of political commentary always get wrong: In almost every circumstance, PACs like AIPAC, along with industry, lobbying groups, membership-driven organizations (like the NRA), unions, and so on, almost never contribute to politicians cold, and in so doing seeking to change their position on an issue. Rather, they donate to politicians who already support their particular interest, which is why the NRA favors pro-Second Amendment politicians, AIPAC favors politicians who support Israel, and NAMBLA to... Well, best not to go into that.

Here's the real question, though: Mia Khalifa is, of course, free to express her opinion, just as is Congresswoman Tlaib - thanks to the First Amendment, one of the freedoms our Founders in their wisdom sought to guarantee. But while Miss Khalifa is certainly free to express her opinion, my question is this: Why the heck would anyone pay any attention to her? As my colleague Bonchie pointed out not long after the Oct 7th atrocities, Khalifa is staunchly pro-Hamas and has lost her career over it, which alone disqualifies her from being taken seriously; as Bonchie informs us:

To clear things up, no, this was not cancel culture. To suggest it was is to suggest that no one can ever be fired for anything they say while representing the company they work for. That's a ludicrous standard that essentially no one on the right has ever suggested. 

Rather, cancel culture revolves around unfairness. Is it fair to dig up someone's 10-year-old posts to get them canceled over something completely unrelated? An example of that would be Kyle Kashuv, who lost his bid to Harvard because people who disagreed with him politically released some private Google group messages he sent while he was still in high school. It would also be unfair to get someone fired over an out-of-context video in which what they said was misconstrued. That has also happened multiple times over the last several years. 

None of that describes the situation with Khalifa. We are talking about a person who literally praised terrorists, not just when it wasn't clear what was happening, but after videos of the massacres had already gone viral. Khalifa's comments would be the equivalent of an employee praising the Holocaust and calling pictures of the dead bodies a "renaissance painting." If that's not a justification to fire someone, then nothing is. 

I could not possibly have said it better than that. Mia Khalifa deserved to get fired, just as Rashida Tlaib deserved her censure. In fact, were I in Congress, I would have cheerfully cast a vote to have Tlaib expelled; she is fundamentally anti-American, a racist, a supporter of savagery, and horribly unfit to sit in the halls of Congress. Mia Khalifa is also all of those things, has rightly been cut loose by the adult film industry because of it, and her pronouncements should not be taken seriously by anyone with enough brains to pound sand.