President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night struck me as being rife with irony, even though Obama himself (and the throngs who cheered him) seemed blind to it.

Here are some examples that seemed obvious to me: on the matter of energy, he stated: "As long as countries like China are going all-in on clean energy, so must we."

Yup, China sets a fine example of "going all-in on clean energy"; that's why the skies over Beijing are so crystal clear and cornflower blue.

When he reached the predictable "gun control" portion of his address, the President stated "Police chiefs are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because they are tired of being outgunned."

But it's perfectly OK with the president, if he achieves his goals, for the law-abiding citizens of the USA to be outgunned by criminals. He and his regime manage to ignore that the intent of the 2nd Amendment is that the citizens should not be outgunned by anyone, from criminals (who ignore gun laws) to their own government (should it become tyrannical). As a deterrent to tyranny, "weapons of war" are precisely what the Founders intended for citizens to "keep and bear".

Later, Obama praised policeman Brian Murphy, who responded to the August 2012 massacre at the Sikh gurdwara (temple) in Wisconsin and who bravely "fought back until help arrived" despite being grievously wounded. But Obama's proposed gun laws would deny the Sikhs in that temple, or anyone else attacked by gun-wielding lunatics or criminals, the means to fight back. Obama would have us all cower and "wait for help to arrive". (You may want to read my own American Thinker piece on "The Sikh Temple Massacre and Gun Control.")

Obama might have mentioned the elder Sikh who, rather than cower and wait, attempted to take on the gunman with the only weapon at his disposal, his ceremonial knife, and was killed in the process. But the very Chicago-style tactician who once cracked wise about "bringing a knife to a gunfight" seeks to make sure that Americans never have more than a knife to bring to a gunfight.

Finally, almost at the end of his address, the President said,

We are citizens. It's a word that doesn't just describe our nationality or legal status. It describes the way we're made. It describes what we believe. It captures the enduring idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations; that our rights are wrapped up in the rights of others; and that well into our third century as a nation, it remains the task of us all, as citizens of these United States, to be the authors of the next great chapter in our American story.

That's all well and good, except that it comes from a man whose agenda is to cheapen the very notion of citizenship by failing to control - Nay, encouraging - illegal immigration, and who will ultimately make us all less like citizens and more like subjects.