THE FOUNDATION
"A universal peace, it is to be feared, is in the catalogue of events, which will never exist but in the imaginations of visionary philosophers, or in the breasts of benevolent enthusiasts." --James Madison, essay in the National Gazette, 1792TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
Feinstein: Germany Has to Lead
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is looking for leadership when it comes to confronting Russia over the downed Malaysian airliner. But she's looking everywhere but the U.S. "I think the world has to rise up and say we've had enough of this," Feinstein told CNN's Candy Crowley. "I think Europe has to come together. I think Germany in particular has to lead. I think we have to continue with sanctions. That's difficult, because you need Russian help in so many things -- the P5+1, Syria, and a lot of our energy is tied up in Russia, but you cannot let this kind of thing happen." Perhaps she knows she won't find the necessary leadership from the Nobel Peace Prize winner in the Oval Office.Comment | Share
Russia 'Not an Adversary'
Russia at least aided in downing the Malaysian airliner last week, and now Russian separatists in Ukraine are working to destroy evidence. Yet despite all evidence to the contrary, U.S. assistant secretary of defense Derek Chollet insists that the U.S. and NATO do not consider Russia an adversary. Which makes his next statement rather complicated: "Whereas we do not consider Russia an adversary, I think it's safe to assume many in Russia, including perhaps even the leader of Russia, consider NATO as an adversary," Chollet said. "What the reality of that is for us moving forward is very difficult." Indeed, especially with a commander in chief who's derelict in his duty. More...Comment | Share
Manufactured Immigration Crisis
The Obama administration received reports of Central American children illegally crossing the border beginning in 2012, but chose to ignore the growing problem for political gain. The Washington Post reports, "Meanwhile, top officials focused much of their attention on political battles, such as Obama's 2012 reelection campaign and the push to win congressional support for a broad immigration overhaul, that would have been made more difficult with the addition of a high-profile border crisis." But now, Obama can argue for adopting his terrible immigration policies because it's for the children. Politicians can't let a crisis go to waste, but slicker still is manufacturing a crisis to leverage an agenda. More...Comment | Share
Oil Search OK'd in Atlantic
There's more good news on the energy front, but this time it involves oil and the Obama administration. "The Obama administration opened up the Atlantic to oil and gas exploration for the first time in nearly four decades on Friday," reports The Hill. "The announcement from Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) allows the use of air guns and sonic sensors to search off of the East Coast. It is a major step toward allowing future drilling in the Atlantic, which has remained off-limits for over 30 years." Obama has repeatedly claimed credit for the oil boom the U.S. has enjoyed over the last few years, though it's been entirely outside -- and even in spite of -- his doing. The news doesn't guarantee drilling, but it's a step in the right direction. More...Comment | Share
The Sun Is Going to Sleep
If current solar projections are any indication, the globe may be entering a new period of global cooling. SI meteorologist Paul Dorian explains: "It appears that the solar maximum phase for solar cycle 24 may have been reached and it is not very impressive. ... In fact, this solar cycle continues to rank among the weakest on record which continues the recent trend for increasingly weaker cycles. ... There have been two notable historical periods with decades-long episodes of low solar activity. The first period is known as the 'Maunder Minimum' ... and it lasted from around 1645 to 1715. The second one is referred to as the 'Dalton Minimum' ... and it lasted from about 1790 to 1830. Both of these historical periods coincided with below-normal global temperatures in an era now referred to by many as the 'Little Ice Age.'" So what does all this mean? "If this trend continues for the next couple of cycles," writes Dorian, "then there would likely be more talk of another 'grand minimum' for the sun." Only time will tell, but at this rate, alarmists will be clamoring "global warming" hubris through chattering teeth. More...Comment | Share
For more, visit Right Hooks.
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
Israel's War of Restraint Continues
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In two weeks of fighting, Gaza officials claim the Palestinian death toll exceeds 500 as Israel retaliates for indiscriminate rocket attacks coming from Hamas strongholds. Conversely, 20 Israelis have been killed by Hamas strikes (including two Americans fighting in the Israeli army). The low number is mainly thanks to the success of Israel's "Iron Dome" defensive infrastructure designed to repel the frequent Hamas rocket attacks.
While Israel sent in ground troops, the high Palestinian death toll is not from an overly aggressive Israeli offensive. Hamas doesn't "give a whit about the Palestinians," scolded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "All they want is more and more civilian deaths." He also noted, "Here's the difference between us: We're using missile defense to protect our civilians, and they're using their civilians to protect their missiles."
Indeed, a common practice of Hamas leadership is to place weapons, supply dumps and command-and-control sites amid civilians (hospitals, schools, markets, etc.) to maximize casualties from any Israeli attack -- in effect holding their own people hostage. The Israeli government warns occupants of targeted areas in advance of their bombings, yet Hamas leaders ask their civilians not to seek safety. The end result is the high Palestinian death toll, and a victory for Hamas in the propaganda war as numbers are gobbled up by an anti-Semitic populace worldwide.
Unbelievably, the UN discovered some of those rockets in a Gaza school and promptly handed them to the government in Gaza, i.e., Hamas. The stupidity is stunning.
Speaking of stupidity, John Kerry was caught on a hot mic disparaging Israel's efforts at limiting civilian casualties with pinpoint strikes. "It's a hell of a pinpoint operation," Kerry sarcastically blustered. It isn't the first time Kerry has criticized Israel. In April, he warned of an apartheid state if Israel didn't make changes.
This Israeli offensive is intended to clean out a network of tunnels and other shelters used by Hamas to store and transport weapons and give cover to leadership. It's also clearly self-defense. "If it's left up to Hamas, thousands of Israelis would be dead," said Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-NC). So a fed-up Israel is fighting back after months of fruitless negotiations and ever-increasing attacks.
Predictably, the prospect of a peaceful two-state solution -- which Israel helped to boost a decade ago by clearing out its own unwilling settlers and providing 3,000 greenhouses to jumpstart an economy they hoped would be based on a thriving Gaza export industry -- isn't working out in favor of either party. "This is a world in which the U.N. ignores humanity's worst war criminals," writes columnist Charles Krauthammer, "while incessantly condemning Israel, a state warred upon for 66 years which nonetheless goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid harming the very innocents its enemies use as shields." When the choices are vigilance or extinction, sometimes blows have to be exchanged.
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University of Texas Wins on Racial Preferences
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| Abigail Fisher |
Fisher first brought suit against UT in 2008 after being refused admission to the school on what she contends were racial grounds. Since the mid-1990s, the university practiced an admissions policy limited to the top 10% of all graduating high school seniors in the state of Texas. In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Grutter v. Bollinger that the use of racial preferences in admissions was warranted to "obtain the educational benefits of student body diversity." Texas then added a provision that considered race or ethnicity in the admissions of any students falling below the top 10% academic-qualification threshold. Fisher, who is white, fell below that threshold and was denied admission because, she maintains, she did not represent the racial mix the university was seeking to achieve.
At the trial level, a judge ruled in favor of the university. The Fifth Circuit in 2011 affirmed that ruling. In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled 7-1, with Justice Elena Kagan recusing herself, that the university did not properly identify the racial balance it was seeking to achieve. The case was sent back to the Fifth Circuit for review, and that court basically spit out its earlier decision this week.
The biggest problem with UT's race-based admissions policy is its call for achieving a "critical mass" of minority students without ever defining what that means. This was a clever ploy by the racial engineers who developed the standard. As Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote in Grutter in 2003, "Enrolling a 'critical mass' of minority students simply to assure some specified percentage of a particular group merely because of its race or ethnic origin would be patently unconstitutional." The university couldn't substantially define what a critical mass is without running afoul of the Constitution, so they created a vague term that basically allows them to say they'll be able to identify racial balance when they see it. In so doing, they could keep the racial preferences in place indefinitely by constantly claiming racial balance had not in fact been achieved.
The Fifth Circuit's continued support of racial preferences in the Texas university system is a blow to fairness and a victory for leftists who want to continue to divide this country by skin color. As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a similar racial preference case in 2007, "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."
Fisher has said she will continue her fight, and her case may very well end up back before the Supreme Court. Her chances look good based on the makeup of the Court's previous ruling in this matter. It's just a shame this woman has had to endure a six-year legal battle because of a university admissions system purporting to achieve racial harmony by judging students not on their academic merits but on the color of their skin.
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For more, visit Right Analysis.
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Ken Blackwell: Mr. President: Is There a Bear?
- Star Parker: Racial Politics May Determine Who Controls Senate in 2014
- Arnold Ahlert: A Grand Opportunity for the Grand Old Party
- Stephen Moore: Memo to Congress: True Patriotism Is Axing Taxes to Keep Companies in U.S.
- Tony Perkins: Mining Cole for Answers on IRS
OPINION IN BRIEF
The Gipper: "I'm coming before you tonight about the Korean airline massacre, the attack by the Soviet Union against 269 innocent men, women, and children aboard an unarmed Korean passenger plane. This crime against humanity must never be forgotten, here or throughout the world. ... There was absolutely no justification, either legal or moral, for what the Soviets did."Read the rest of the speech.
Columnist Star Parker: "It is no accident that rhetoric about race has been ramping up at a time when racial politics can be the key determinant for control of the Senate this year. At least three states -- North Carolina, Louisiana, and Arkansas -- are red states with vulnerable Democrat Senators up for re-election that have large black populations. ... [P]erhaps all the rhetoric about race we're hearing reflects more Democratic political operations than realities of America. ... If the key difference between the two parties is about big government versus limited government, much of what America's future will look like will ride on whether Republicans can make any headway with non-white voters with a limited government message. I believe there is much potential for doing so if Republicans would get down to the work that needs to be done."
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FRC President Tony Perkins: "If you think Colorado's Masterpiece Cakes will give in to homosexual bullies, then you don't know Jack. Jack Phillips, the owner of another Christian bakery under attack, is refusing to cave to the state's ridiculous demands after he turned down an order for a same-sex 'wedding' cake. With help from our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom, the baker and his family are fighting Colorado's order that he check his religious beliefs at the door of his business and participate in the same-sex 'marriages' Christianity rejects. 'Americans should not be forced by the government -- or by another citizen -- to endorse or promote ideas with which they disagree,' said attorney Nicholle Martin. ... For now, the case heads to the Colorado Court of Appeals where Jack and ADF will battle for the religious freedoms the Supreme Court just upheld for companies like Hobby Lobby."
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Comedian Argus Hamilton: "Russia faced international condemnation for supplying missiles to Ukrainian rebels over the past weekend. The Kremlin is worried this could hurt tourism. Vladimir Putin will star in a commercial for Russian tourism in which he urges you to visit Russia before Russia visits you."
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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