op ed review 1/25
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
State of the Union address:
Obama calls for civility, then immediately taunts Republicans over his two presidential wins.
Ben Stein: “Endless
Gifts From Uncle Obama”
The Associated Press released a fact check of President
Barack Obama’s 2015 State of the Union address, and their analysis is not kind
to Obama’s claims.
Obama Proposes New Law that Already Exists
In spite of all the mainstream media promotion, President
Barack Obama‘s 2015 State of the Union address drew the lowest television
viewership for any such speech in the last 15 years,
There’s a subtext to President Obama’s slew of domestic
policy proposals since the November elections: President Obama does not trust
Hillary Clinton very much. None of the president’s domestic-policy brainwaves
has much chance of becoming law in the next two years: not free community
college, not cash grants to selected middle-income households, and certainly
not heavy tax increases on upper-income earners. The president knows these odds
better than anybody. So why keep propounding such no-hopers? The intent, pretty
obviously, is to box in his presumptive successor as head of the Democratic Party.
Obama mocked for MLK Day photo that
features him: ‘It’s always about the Big
O!’
“In an effort at outreach to the large and growing
Moron-American voting bloc…..Obama debases the presidency in sit-down interviews with YouTube celebrities”
“The White House Thursday was officially declared a
“Laughingstock” and will be demolished by the Department of Interior within a
month, officials said today. The proximate cause of the declaration was the
White House decision to take the presidency to a brand new low, inviting in
three absurdly unqualified and generally ridiculous people to interview the
president of the United States.”
The new border bills
drafted by Republican leaders require the actual removal of at least 66 miles
of weak border fencing between Mexico and the United States. The border bills
also only require for the construction of 27 miles of effective double-layer
fencing along the 2,000-mile border. “It is a remarkable that the direction of
our progress is going backwards, from a goal of building 700 miles of
double-layer border fencing [in 2006] to only 27 miles [in 2015],” said a Hill
staffer who opposes the leaders’ bills.
Then Republican leadership pulled the “Pain-Capable Unborn
Child Protection Act.” “Everyone should be worried by the House Republicans'
action. The measure has overwhelming popular support; the GOP campaigned on the
issue…..but the GOP could not pull it off. That level of incompetence bodes
poorly for legislation that does not have popular support.”
“Republican Woman Derails Abortion Ban”
“This past week, the national media and the Republican base
both scratched their collective heads perplexed by the un-anchoring of the
Republican Party.”
Gas is so cheap that a gallon costs 89 cents less than a
gallon of sparkling water, and more than $1 less than a gallon of Pepsi,
according to economist Mark Perry with the American Enterprise Institute. “Thanks
at least in part to the revolutionary drilling technologies of hydraulic
fracturing and horizontal drilling, we now have the cheapest gas in history
when adjusted for increased fuel economy and higher wages.”.
After Irish-born actor Liam Neeson shot off his mouth about
Americans’ fondness for guns — you know, the things he uses in his hit action
movies — the company that provided the weapons for the latest installment in
the Taken series decided it had had enough: PARA USA regrets its decision to
provide firearms for use in the film “Taken 3. While the film itself is
entertaining, comments made by its Irish-born star during press junkets reflect
a cultural and factual ignorance that undermines support of the Second
Amendment and American liberties. We will no longer provide firearms for use…”
Great moments in socialized medicine: The British National Health Service is ‘not
fit for the future’ and unless it undergoes radical change it may be forced to
abandon free healthcare for all, in the future, the service's top doctor has
warned.
Colorado’s decision to legalize marijuana was a bad idea,
the state’s governor said Friday.
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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Mark Davis 1/23
The Dark Urges Of Chris Kyle's Haters
…the torrents of liberal revulsion (American Sniper) has
sparked have nothing to do with vigorous debate over a movie’s merits. The
Hollywood haters of “American Sniper” are driven by hatred of Chris Kyle
himself. And it is there we find a modern mental pathology that would keep a
full ward of psychologists busy for a very long time.
But no degree in human personality traits is necessary to
see what drives the monstrous reactions of the Michael Moores, Seth Rogens and Max
Blumenthals who have gone beyond disregard for the movie to heap venom on its
subject.
There is not a surprise to be found in Moore’s attack about
the cowardice of snipers, Rogen’s snotty comparison of the film to Nazi
propaganda, or even Blumenthal’s label of “mass murdering sniper,” in the mold
John Lee Malvo.
This is a natural visceral reaction when the bigotries of
the left are laid bare to the bright light of American virtue. The prospect of
a selfless American hero willing to risk his life to fight the evils of global
jihad offends leftism at every level. It speaks to a strong America, which they
despise. It celebrates wartime sacrifice, which does not move them. And it
highlights the evils of our Islamic enemies, which sends them over the cliff into
an abyss of hostile loathing they cannot help but share.
The comments of the Kyle-haters were met with conservative
pushback, much of it suggesting that Michael Moore in particular should shut up
and thank God for the Chris Kyles who fight for his freedom to make whatever
little films he pleases.
I differed. From the insults to Kyle to the labels of him as
a murderer, to the derision of any film that would elevate him, I want to hear
it all. I want every loathsome, odious rant from these people to be out there
for all to hear. Let them be judged by those words. Let their vicious
derangements go into a time capsule for the ages, to chronicle how such
merchants of our pop culture reviled the people who fought for the liberties
they take for granted.
No one is required to love “American Sniper.” No one is
required to support the war. But if you are unmoved as the credits roll, there
is something askew in your heart……What is missing in the cauldron of leftist
aggressions is the inability to appreciate the sacrifices of participants
in wars they disagree with. It led them to brand past generations of soldiers
as baby-killers in Vietnam, and it leads them to insult the honor of those who
volunteer today to protect our nation from Islamofascist monsters who would
kill us where we stand.
If ambivalence to “American Sniper” is evidence of a missing
cog in the heart, condemnation of it is evidence of a dark pool in the soul, a
black hole of hatred that yields a wounded animal reaction when faced with the
threat that Chris Kyle’s life story poses to their worldview.
Ken Blackwell: 1/22
Black lives matter” has become the slogan of anti-police
protests across the nation, but the target of the protests is so misplaced that
the motives of the so-called civil rights leaders behind the movement must be
questioned. Do they really care about black lives? Or are they cynically
exploiting isolated incidents, such as the death of Michael Brown, to inflame
the black population and advance their own political interests? Today, on the
somber anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, it’s time for
black leaders to face up to the real danger threatening black lives in America.
It isn’t the police. According to an
anti-police brutality organization, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, 313
blacks were killed by “police, security guards and vigilantes” in 2013. It
isn’t even black criminals, who, as Rudy Giuliani famously pointed out on “Meet
the Press,” are responsible for 93 percent of violent deaths among blacks.
Sources estimate that between 6,000 and 8,000 blacks are murdered each year. No, the greatest danger to blacks is found
precisely where we ought to be safest: in our mothers’ wombs. In 2010, the most
recent year for which statistics are available, 138,539 black babies were
aborted. I’ll say it again: 138,539 black babies, nearly one baby in three,
were killed in the womb in 2010.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/21/j-kenneth-blackwell-black-abortions-a-crisis-in-am/#ixzz3Pa59qSdn
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FROM OTHER COLUMNS
“Obama sure is consistent. His State of the Union address
sounded like his other speeches: What I’ve done is great! America is in a much
better position. We’ve created a manufacturing sector that’s adding jobs. More
oil is produced at home. I cut deficits in half! Give me a break. The deficit
is lower now not because of any prudence on Obama’s part but merely because the
$800 billion stimulus spending blowout didn’t continue. All the president does
is increase spending: free community college, free Obamaphones, free
birth control, etc. Yes, our annual deficit is lower, but it’s still $488
billion! Our $18 trillion national debt increases by $3 million every minute!
Yes, more oil is produced at home, but that’s in spite of the
administration. Oil production is down on public land. Yes, the
manufacturing sector added jobs, but that’s mostly because of cheaper natural
gas created by fracking, which Obama’s cronies opposed. Also, America is finally
recovering from recession. Obama’s policies probably slowed that recovery. Does
the President delude himself when he takes credit for oil production, lower
deficits, etc.? Or does he mislead on purpose? I don’t know.”
-John Stossel
“I think (Obama) believes that the world is unfair and those
who are more fortunate are just lucky—you know, “You didn’t build that”—and
that his role, as he said to Joe the Plumber, is to spread the wealth around.
And so he is letting people into this country so they can partake in the wealth
that the existing American population has created. I think his response
to the Ebola crisis was typical, sending our troops over there. He
doesn’t view his role as protecting the American people from this
disease. I think this is a man who has enormous resentments toward this
country, especially towards those people who have flourished and prospered
here.”
-Thomas Sowell
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LEFTIST WATCH
Arizona State University is offering an English course this
semester that promises to explore the “problem of whiteness” in American
literature and culture
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GLOBALONEY
It wasn’t. The New
York Times features one of the most misleading headlines ever: “2014 Was the
Warmest Year Ever Recorded on Earth.” The first paragraph drives the hysteria
home……
Al Gore wants to spend $90 trillion to ban cars from every
major city in the world.
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ARTICLES
The ‘American Sniper’ Freakout: Why the left can’t tolerate this
movie.
Noonan: I saw “American
Sniper” last night. It is not a great movie but it is a powerful one. It had
the power to leave a packed Manhattan movie house silent—really, completely
silent—as they stared at the closing credits and tried to absorb the meaning of
what they’d seen.
While ABC’s The View is no stranger to discussing topics
that often polarize non-liberal audiences, Clint Eastwood’s patriotic
masterpiece American Sniper found an unlikely ally: Whoopi Goldberg.
Americans love war heroes, despite what Hollywood liberals
think
How Pope Francis allows politics
to distort the Christian faith
The problem with socialism isn’t
that you eventually run out of other people’s money. It’s that you eventually
run out of oil money. Well, at least in Venezuela…
Chris Edwards at the Cato Institute believes there should be
a National Museum of Government Failure. He argues that the displays at the
Smithsonian would pale into insignificance if set beside the awe-inspiring
sight of such things as the “$349 million on a rocket test facility that is
completely unused“, the Superconducting Collider whose ruins include nearly 15
miles of tunnel and the ex-future Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site. Yet these
artifacts, whose scale would surpass many a Lost City, are far from the worst
failures.
Gunfight in Kansas
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WISE WORDS
“Here comes the orator! With his
flood of words, and his drop of reason.”
–Benjamin Franklin
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