Daily Digest for Monday
March 3, 2014
THE FOUNDATION
"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate." --Thomas Jefferson, Rights of British America, 1774TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
Opposing Gun Control Is 'Anti-American'
Connecticut State Police Spokesman Lt. Paul Vance not only thinks that his state's draconian gun laws passed in the aftermath of Sandy Hook are good laws, but he also questioned one woman's patriotism for opposing them. She wanted to know that, "if it comes down to it, will the police go to my home" to seize a formerly legal firearm "made illegal by a corrupt legislature?" The two argued over the meaning of force and threat, which led Vance to respond, "Ma'am, it sounds like you're anti-American, it sounds like you're anti-law." Worse yet, when she said, "You're the servant, we're the master," he replied, "I'm the master, ma'am. I'm the master." There you have it. Our overlords have spoken, and if you believe in something so quaint as the Constitution and Rule of Law then you're "anti-American."Comment | Share
Chinese Attack Kills 29
A group of men and women in China were captured over the weekend after they killed 29 people and wounded more than 130 at a train station in Kunming in the southwest part of the nation. According to the BBC, "Officials have blamed separatists from the Xinjiang region for the attack." Of course, private gun ownership in China is heavily regulated and generally not allowed. So how could this happen? The attackers used knives, that's how. The horrific attack shows the absurdity of disarming the victims.Comment | Share
Lerner to Testify. Or Not.
Rep. Darrell Issa said Sunday that "retired" IRS official Lois Lerner would testify to Congress regarding the political targeting at her agency. "We did not," he said, offer her immunity in exchange. They already know much of what she and her cohorts did; they just need to find out why. But hold the phone -- Lerner's attorney says, "As of now, she intends to continue to assert her Fifth Amendment rights. I do not know why Issa said what he said." We maintain that Lerner forfeited her Fifth Amendment rights when she testified that she had done nothing wrong before claiming those rights as a way of avoiding questions. But the future is clear: She either will or won't testify.Comment | Share
Leftmedia Racism
CNN's Don Lemon may have let the cat out of the bag when it comes to the Leftmedia's cozy relationship with Barack Obama. We know that most in the media agree ideologically with the president, and that sharing his goals means carrying his water. But Lemon admitted that race plays a significant part, too: "As journalists, you know, you weigh whether you -- how much you should criticize the president, because he's black, what have you. But then you have to do it, because ultimately you're a journalist." Except that the criticism is rarely forthcoming, leaving Obama's race as a trump card. A former president had a phrase for this sort of thing: "The soft bigotry of low expectations."Comment | Share
Impossible to Cancel Plans
A Florida man found out the hard way that he's keeping his insurance plan -- whether he likes it or not. When Andrew Robinson signed up for coverage under ObamaCare but then realized he couldn't afford it, he quickly signed up for a different plan and called Florida Blue to cancel the first one. WFTV Orlando reports, "But he quickly learned canceling Obamacare is no easy task. ... More than six weeks later after spending 50 to 60 hours on the phone his policy is still not canceled and he is still waiting for the payment Florida Blue withdrew from his account to be refunded." But not to worry; Harry Reid says the horror stories aren't true.Comment | Share
For more, visit Right Hooks.
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
Putin Plays Chess; Obama Plays Marbles
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In Kiev, the newly elected leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk pledged to prevent the secession of Crimea, but the fragile government is unlikely to be able to stop Russia's breakup of the country without Western help. Russia has the power to isolate Ukraine by shutting down the flow of gas and agricultural products, and it has already cut off much needed economic aid. The EU and the International Monetary Fund have cobbled together an aid package to keep Ukraine from economic oblivion, and the G8 cancelled a meeting scheduled to take place in Sochi while threatening to boot Russia from the group altogether.
But Ukraine needs more than empty rhetoric -- more than a 90-minute phone conversation between Putin and Barack Obama with an accompanying photo. Keep in mind Obama's infamous "reset" button from 2009. He declared much too quickly that "the reset button has worked." Clearly it hasn't.
The U.S. needs to show resolve not only by openly siding with Ukraine, but also by exercising some military muscle of its own. Deploying a carrier battle group to the Black Sea as a show of force would be a good start. Unfortunately, this is Obama's America, and we have no reason to expect anything but the feckless leadership he has continuously demonstrated on the international stage. Putin would probably not be emboldened to reclaim Ukraine by force if Obama showed some backbone. But the Russian leader sees Obama's lack of respect for America's place in the world and his utter lack of concern for international affairs as a sign that he is free to continue building his new Russian empire.
As House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) put it, "Putin is playing chess and we're playing marbles."
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The 'Investment' of Higher Education
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Meanwhile, Gallup found that 96% of college and university chief academic officers are "extremely or somewhat confident" that their schools produce job-ready candidates. We wonder how many of these administrators have ever worked outside academia. Barack Obama wants the U.S. to have the highest proportion of college grads in the world by 2020. Just what we need -- diploma-toting experts in the invented Klingon language who, sadly, think the world needs their "knowledge."
All this is not to say higher education is worthless. The survey found 95% of the general public thinks some post-high school education is necessary, but the vast majority believes such education should focus more on useful skills. The question is what is a college education worth? The nation's student debt has far surpassed credit card debt and now exceeds $1 trillion -- up from $253 billion just 10 years ago. And as college tuitions continue to skyrocket, making those loans even more necessary, perhaps one of those useful skills would be knowing that paying money to study the science of superheroes may not be the best investment.
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For more, visit Right Analysis.
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Star Parker: The Cultural War Against Christians
- Arnold Ahlert: An American Hero Calls Out President Zero
- John C. Goodman: A Health Reform Republicans and Democrats Agree On
- Larry Kudlow: Bitcoin Is Not Real Money
- Peggy Noonan: America and the Aggressive Left
OPINION IN BRIEF
Columnist Peggy Noonan: "The president brags he has a pen and a phone. He uses the former to sign executive orders. It is not clear why he mentioned the latter since he rarely attempts to bring legislators over to his side. Who exactly is he calling? The most hopeful thing he's done is signal [last] week what he'll be up to after he leaves. He will work with young minority men. Good. He is a figure of inspiration to them, and they need and deserve encouragement. This also leaves us understanding for the first time the true purpose of his so far unsuccessful presidency: to launch a meaningful postpresidency. I'm glad that's clear."Comment | Share
Columnist Star Parker: "The cultural script has been re-written such that Christians have been put in a position of either rejecting the precepts and prohibitions of their religion, or being faithful to them and being branded as against 'equality.' The problem, of course, is not what people do in private. The issue is that it all has been dragged into the public square because, again, this is a cultural war. ... Let's keep in mind that the idea of religious freedom only means something as long as religion means something. It is critical that Christians draw the line and continue the struggle and not allow religion or religious freedom to be compromised."
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Novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982): "Collectivism holds that the individual has no rights, that his life and work belong to the group (to 'society,' to the tribe, the state, the nation) and that the group may sacrifice him at its own whim to its own interests. The only way to implement a doctrine of that kind is by means of brute force -- and statism has always been the political corollary of collectivism."
Columnist Burt Prelutsky: "A thought that often plagues me is why it is that the only time members of Congress ever seem to question the waste in government spending is when they're trying to come up with the money to finance their own pork projects. In much the same way, the only time these chuckleheads are willing to acknowledge that thousands of federal bureaucrats are unessential is when they're sent home during government shutdowns."
Humorist Frank J. Fleming: "I think Obama is learning. By the end of his presidency, he'll have gone from less than useless to achieving parity with uselessness. ... In America, we love rooting for the underdogs, so maybe a gigantic decline in our nation is just what we need to believe in ourselves again."
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform -- Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen -- standing in harm's way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.
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