op ed review 12/25
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
The Electoral College formalized Donald Trump's election
victory on Monday.
Hillary Clinton is now considered one of the least
influential people of the year. The former presidential candidate was one of 30
people named to GQ’s “Least Influential People Of 2016” list this week — right
next to Anthony Weiner, Tim Kaine and Harambe, the gorilla that was shot after
a kid fell into his enclosure at the Cincinnati zoo.
Suddenly liberals are the ones stockpiling food, guns, and emergency
supplies.
ISIS
Puts Out Holiday Attack List Of U.S. Churches.
The terror group threatened "bloody celebrations in the Christian
New Year"
Seven Arrested As Australian Police Foil Christmas Day
Terror Plot
Germany has 7,000 terror suspects at large and is finding it
‘almost impossible’ to monitor them, former UK intelligence chief says
London to be protected from terror attack by new £5m ‘ring
of steel’ built around the City
Meanwhile, the Obama administration is officially ending a registration
system for immigrant men from mostly Muslim countries.
After the governor of Texas announced that the state would
stop accepting Syrian refugees, the Obama administration went behind his back
secretly conferencing with a mayor (Austin) that offers illegal immigrants
sanctuary and Syrians a welcome mat.
Evidence emerging that Dems’ disparagement of Trump victory
is backfiring
Barack Obama, utilizing the hitherto unknown
"No-Backsies!" provision of Article II, has unilaterally declared an
"indefinite" ban on oil exploration in certain parts of the Atlantic
and Arctic. The president is relying on a novel - and imaginary, and dishonest
- interpretation of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which he says
empowers him to make, by unilateral executive fiat, new drilling rules that
cannot be undone by any successor president.
Obama backstabs Israel
Obama in Hawaii again:
his Christmas vacations cost taxpayers $35 million over 8 years
Obama Signs New Religious Freedom Act Protecting Atheists
After 8 years of Obama, almost 40 per cent of all young adults
are living with their parents hitting a 75-year high in America
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway will be joining the
White House as counselor to the president, but the mom of four says there’s no
need to worry about her being able to juggle her domestic duties because she
doesn’t have the distractions of some men.
Flood of Illegals Rises for 5th Straight Month: 1,574 PER
DAY...
http://www.mrctv.org/blog/1574-day-border-officials-struggle-under-increasing-wave-illegal-migration
Los Angeles leaders are announcing a new $10-million fund to
provide legal assistance for illegal immigrants facing deportation.
This is rich: Obama
warns Trump not to overuse executive orders
___________________________________________________________________
COLUMN OF THE WEEK
Selwyn Duke 12/22
“Islam is not the problem,” proclaims the Left. And if you
say otherwise, you’re a “racist,” even though “Muslim” is not a race. Yet a
fact remains: virtually all the world’s terrorists today claim Islamic
motivations. So if Islam (belief) is not the problem, are we then left with a genetic
explanation for this violence? Is there something inherent in the groups
generally embracing Islam — Arabs, Persians, Indonesians, Punjabis, etc. — that
would account for it? And, hey, I’m just asking; it’s the liberals who profess
ideas suggesting this possibility.
Consider: When analyzing WWII and Germany, few claim the
problem was Germans, but Nazism. When looking at 1917 Russia, we don’t say the
problem was Russians, but Marxism. So fill in the blank: when evaluating the
Muslim world and its violence, do we assume the problem is the people or _____?
Then there are other explanations for Muslim violence, all
of which amount to Islamsplainin’. Poverty is one, but the Muslim world is not
uniquely poor. There are many millions of poor Catholics in South America,
Africa and elsewhere; and hundreds of millions of poor Hindus in India. Yet
they aren’t committing terrorist acts. And Osama bin Laden was worth $125
million.
Another excuse is U.S. “meddling” in Muslim nations’ affairs;
our taking Israel’s side in the Mideast is always Exhibit A. But there’s simply
no good correlation between American interventionism and Muslim violence…..In
fact, it isn’t unusual for Muslim nations to occupy 8 spots on a list of the
world’s 10 most dangerous countries (examples found here and here)…..This is no
surprise, mind you, if we’re to believe a comprehensive German study of
45,000 youths that was reported in 2010. It found that while increasing
religiosity among the Christian youths made them less violent, increasing
religiosity among the Muslim youths actually made them more violent.
When evaluating Islam and seeking to understand such
phenomena, a simple but important point is never made. Christians may use as a
guide for behavior, “What would Jesus do?” (WWJD); likewise, Muslims view
Mohammed as a role model, considering him “the Perfect Man.” But there is a
difference.
I’ve heard leftists diminish Jesus, saying things such as He
wasn’t divine, He never existed, we don’t know anything about Him, He had
brothers and that He was married. What I’ve never heard them say is that He
wasn’t a good man…..
What of Mohammed? He was a warlord who launched close to 30
military campaigns, many of which he led himself. He was a caravan raider (a
bandit) and captured, traded in and owned slaves (note: will liberals suggest
slave-owning Mohammed be diminished, as they have sought to erase our founders’
memory?). He ordered massacres, used torture and had dissidents assassinated.
He was a polygamist and made it lawful for masters to have sexual relations
with their female captives. Mohammad also wasn’t very fond of dogs, an attitude
begetting their mistreatment in the Islamic world.
One could quip here, if the dog is man’s best friend and
Mohammad hated dogs, was he really part of the family of man? But, in fairness
and as I’ll acknowledge, as with Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan or Tamerlane,
Mohammad was largely a man of his time and place. And I’d be happy to let him
rest in peace and put his memory to bed — except for one thing: more than a
billion people worldwide won’t. This brings us to that seldom heard point.
If someone said Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan or Tamerlane
was “the Perfect Man” and used him as his role model, would you turn your back
on that person?
It’s not just the “freedom from guilt” by association
phenomenon, where, as Hollywood does, people are made to have an affinity for a
character for the purposes getting them to accept what he’s associated with
(e.g., homosexuality). Nor is it akin to admiration for George Washington or
Thomas Jefferson, which would wisely be tempered with the knowledge that they
were, like everyone else, humans with flaws. For there simply is no room for
criticism of a “Perfect Man,” no way to say “Alright, I’ll take the good he did
and run with it and ignore the bad.” If a perfect man does something, it cannot
be bad.
So is it fair to say that in the Islamic world, spreading
religion by the sword, murder, rape and slavery have the sanction of a
perceived embodiment of perfection? If much of the Islamic world appears mired
in a medieval mentality, it could be because they’re modeling after a medieval
man.
Yet what mainly plagues us is not Muslims’ enslavement to
misbegotten ideas, but our own. For example, many Westerners cannot open their
minds to the possibility that any religion could be a destructive force because
they’re in the grip of a destructive force themselves: Religious Equivalence
Doctrine, which holds as dogma that all faiths are morally equal.
Some may say a solution to this is, as they put it, to
“realize Islam is not a religion.” I hope these people will read the following
with an open mind, because I believe this is a misguided notion that itself is
dangerous.
The idea is thought to have utility: declassify Islam as a
religion and rob it of First Amendment protection. Yet how much good would this
do? The amendment also guarantees freedom of speech and allows even secular
beliefs such as Nazism and Marxism to be promoted. All the proposal could
really do is remove Islam’s tax-free status.
The idea is destructive, too, because it appears predicated
on the assumption that a “religion” would have to be good or prescriptive of
peace. (In reality, many if not most religions in history, such as that of the
human-sacrificing Aztecs, don’t meet that standard.) Yet this notion strays
mighty close to Religious Equivalence Doctrine, which is corruptive because
since different faiths espouse different values, not all faiths can be equal
unless all values are. This is moral relativism, which has some serious
implications…..if we refuse to make qualitative distinctions among religions —
any group of religions — it implies that qualitative differences among values
or value sets don’t exist. This would mean tolerance could be no better than
intolerance, Christianity no better than Islam, and good will toward men no
better than jihad.
Delving deeper, however, the truth is that, in the most
important sense, the secular/religious distinction is a false one.
Consider: If God exists, is it more significant that we label belief in Him
“religious” or that it’s true? If Marxism is essentially a lie, is it
more significant that we label it “secular” or that it’s untrue? The
most important distinction, the only one that really matters, is the true and
the untrue. (Note: because we’ve lost sight of this, our courts now essentially
say that Christianity cannot be in government schools but Marxism can. Ponder
that.)
In the final analysis, people believe things. Some of
those things are good and some of those things are bad. Some awfully bad things
are believed by a large number of people today. If we want to survive, we’d
better recognize what those things are and who promotes them — and act
accordingly.
Another good article: “The Illogic of Russian Hacking”
_____________________________________________________________________
OTHER COLUMNS
“Here’s a paradox for you. Whenever there’s a terrorist
attack, the immediate response from government officials and the media is:
“Let’s not jump to conclusions.” Yet when there are breaking reports that
Muslim or Arab Americans were allegedly victimized by bigots in some hate
crime, the response is instant credulity, outrage, and hand-wringing.”
-Jonah Goldberg
“Tilting at windmills against Donald Trump has become the
most profitable left-wing grift since Al Gore discovered global cooling, er,
global warming, er….”
-Howie Carr
_____________________________________________________________________
GLOBALONEY
A new congressional investigation has determined that the
Obama administration fired a top scientist and intimidated staff at the
Department of Energy in order to further its climate change agenda, according
to a new report that alleges the administration ordered top officials to
obstruct Congress in order to forward this agenda.
_____________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
How Pope Francis Became the Leader of the Global Left
“Resistance to Vatican reforms inspired by the devil, Pope
Francis tells Curia”
New York Times complains about lack diversity in Trump’s
cabinet picks, but wait! “Times Staff
Less Diverse Than Trump’s Cabinet” It turns out
“unrelenting whiteness” is a pretty good summary of the NY Times’ own staff
Author Ed Klein told Pete Hegseth on Fox and Friends that
Barack Obama is setting up a shadow government in Washington DC to undermine
President Trump after Inauguration Day.
___________________________________________________________________
ISLAM
Pakistan airline performs goat sacrifice to protect
airplanes
Suicide of the UK:
While speaking on the British radio show "Thought for the
Day," the future King of Britain, Prince Charles, said that Christians
should be more mindful of Islam and Muhammad during the holidays.
Muslim students demand prayer rooms in every 'major
building'...
_____________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
Let’s stipulate upfront that the Senate battle over Jeff
Sessions’ nomination for U.S. attorney general is not about Jeff Sessions.
Everybody knows this. Everybody also knows the Senate is going to confirm
Sessions. No, the opposition to Alabama’s senator is about two things: One, the
left’s reflexive opposition to all things Donald Trump. Two, the left’s prep
work for the next confirmation battle over Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme
Court. The fight over Sessions’ confirmation to head the Justice Department is
spring training, a preseason tune-up for the regular season, i.e., the
confirmation showdown with Senate Democrats over Trump’s
Two men were ejected from a JetBlue flight Thursday for
reportedly harassing Ivanka Trump and her three children. Newsrooms are
sanitizing that Ivanka harassment story If this had happened to Obama's daughter, these
creeps would be in jail.
Everyone should be treated with respect -- unless you're
Republican...
The Heritage Action Scorecard measures votes,
co-sponsorships, and other legislative activity to show how conservative
Members of Congress are. Newhouse,
Rogers and Beutler OK, Reichert needs improvement. (Hat tip: Dr. Vasko)
Donald Trump is giving a master class in how to use Twitter
List of the top-ten most embarrassing mainstream media moments
of 2016. According to the major networks, Fidel was awesome, Hillary rallies
are the best, and white people ruined America. Your jaw will be hanging open as
you watch all of these! Share this on Facebook if you think the media is too
far gone.
Prager U: Forbes lays out case for the flat tax
posted by gary at
7:49 AM
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