THE FOUNDATION
"At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous... In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Monsieur A. Coray, 1823TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
'Ebola Is a Great Argument for Big Government'
Former Obama official and CNN "Crossfire" host Van Jones says there's no reason to let a good crisis go to waste. Specifically, Ebola. "We can't let the Republicans get away with some of the stuff they're doing this week, just trying to bash Obama," Jones said. "Hey, you know, government is always your enemy until you need a friend. This Ebola thing is the best argument you can make for the kind of government that we believe in." Jones inadvertently admitted an important distinction between conservatives and liberals. The former think government, properly defined and constrained by the Constitution, is, as Thomas Paine called it, "a necessary evil." Liberals simply "believe in" government, and the bigger the better. It's practically religious. And it might be as dangerous as Ebola.Comment | Share
Enterovirus D68 Kills, Too
While much of the media focus on Ebola and it's potential spread, another virus is infecting and killing people across the country. USA Today reports, "The CDC has confirmed 594 people across 43 states and the District of Columbia with illness caused by enterovirus D68 between mid-August and Monday. The virus has been detected in four other people who have died, the centers said. The role EV-D68 played in these deaths is unclear; state and local health departments are investigating, the CDC said." On Monday, a four-year-old New Jersey boy succumbed to D68. According to USA Today, "The virus is spread through close contact with infected people. Coughs, sneezes and touching objects or surfaces with the virus are common ways to become infected, the health department said." Keep a close eye on this one.Comment | Share
Panetta: 'We're Looking at a 30-Year War'
"I think we're looking at kind of a 30-year war. It's going to take a long time to be able to go after these elements. It can't be [that] we're going to go in one day and pull back the next day." That's according toComment | Share
Joe Biden Says Something on ISIL That Makes Sense
Last week, Joe Biden blamed Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for helping fuel the rise of ISIL. This week, he's apologizing for it. On Thursday, Biden told an audience at Harvard University, "Our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria." He argued that's because Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were "so determined to take down Assad" that they gave "hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons" to Syrian rebels of any stripe, effectively fueling a "proxy Sunni-Shia war." Like other Biden-isms in the past, this most likely caused headaches for the ever-political Obama administration, so Biden picked up the phone to personally apologize to the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and UAE. But Biden's frank analysis was actually correct: ISIL is motivated by Islam, and in this conflict between two religious factions, America too often ignores religion when our strategy is simply, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." More...Comment | Share
New York Time Journalist: 'Obama Hates the Press'
While some journalists are awed by power and only become mouthpieces of propaganda, other journalists fight to preserve freedom of speech and the press. New York Times journalist James Risen decries post-9/11 government attempts to snuff the work of reporters, and says the Obama administration in particular hates independent journalists. Risen argues journalists must push back. On Oct. 5, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner won the Elijah Parish Lovejoy award for courageous journalism because he may face jail time for not naming a whistleblower in the CIA after Risen wrote a piece about that agency's failed attempt to disrupt Iran's nuclear program. Lovejay was an antebellum minister and journalist in Missouri who opposed slavery. "Today, the U.S. government treats whistle-blowers as criminals, much like Elijah Lovejoy," Risen says. "I don't think any of this would be happening under the Obama administration if Obama didn't want to do it. I think Obama hates the press. I think he doesn't like the press and he hates leaks." Ironic since they're his greatest sycophants. More...Comment | Share
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
Marriage Under Attack -- Again
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According to the Associated Press, it is likely that six other states -- North Carolina, South Carolina, Colorado, Kansas, West Virginia and Wyoming -- will see same-sex couples marrying soon “since those states would be bound by the same appellate rulings that have been on hold.”
The SCOTUS decision to decline hearing these cases is a victory for those who support same-sex marriage, and it sends a message that the Court tacitly approves lower court rulings. It's also a backhand for the citizens who have voted to keep marriage between one man and one woman. Further, state legislatures that passed amendments and laws to protect the institution of marriage have just been told that their sovereignty as a state doesn’t matter.
Writing for the Heritage Foundation, Ryan T. Anderson notes, “This is an unfortunate setback for sound constitutional self-government and a setback for healthy marriage culture.” Indeed, whenever unelected officials undermine Liberty and Rule of Law, our nation moves closer to tyranny.
First, it's tragic that as a nation we have reached the point where marriage has become a federal issue. The Tenth Amendment clearly states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the States are reserved to the States respectively or to the people.” Marriage policy fits perfectly into this definition, which is why so many states through their citizens have enacted laws to protect the institution of marriage.
Second, marriage should not be a court issue. Yet because the Left has so successfully taken advantage of activist judges ruling against the majority of a state's citizens with the goal of redefining marriage, the Supreme Court may need to step in and put those lower courts in check. The current justices apparently don’t feel compelled to do so.
Third, we the people should have the final say in what marriage is -- as the majority of U.S. citizens clearly have. If the majority of the citizens don’t have a say in such an important issue as marriage, then what is the point in voting? What is the point in electing those who pass legislation that reflects the view of a majority of their constituents only to have those laws overturned by the courts? Is it even worth the effort to defend marriage anymore?
For some, such as Republican Governor Scott Walker from Wisconsin, the fight against same-sex marriage “is over.” He declared, “[I]t is clear that the position of the court of appeals at the federal level is the law of the land and we’re going to go forward with enacting it.” Sorry governor, but shouldn’t you be upholding your state's laws that are constitutional?
Fortunately, others haven’t caved so easily. South Carolina’s Attorney General Alan Wilson stated he would “continue to fight to uphold his state constitution’s ban on same-sex marriage.”
There are some who have called for a constitutional amendment to define marriage between one man and one woman at the federal level. This is a noble idea, but without principled politicians in Washington, does anyone really think this is feasible? Even if it were, it at least violates the spirit of the Tenth Amendment by federalizing yet another issue.
For the last several decades, the progressive Left has pursued an agenda to undermine marriage. Undermining marriage undermines the family. And undermining the family undermines the very building block of all civilizations throughout history.
Anderson of Heritage accurately defines marriage as “a comprehensive union of sexually complementary spouses.” In essence, marriage means something. It means that a man and a woman can become husband wife, who then, if they are able and choose to do so, can produce children. The institution of marriage is an absolute truth. The nature of it cannot be changed without changing the meaning of it.
If our country is to thrive and grow, then traditional marriage and family need to be upheld and maintained. We the people, not the courts and not politicians, have the responsibility to safeguard the institution of marriage. We the people may have lost this battle, but we cannot lose the war for our culture.
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The Financial Cure Made the Disease Worse
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Dodd-Frank, the 2,000-plus-page bill meant to cure our nation's financial ills after the great crash of 2008, has done nothing to fix the problems it was supposed to. In fact, the legislation merely institutionalized the symptoms of the crisis. The main reason it hasn't worked -- and never will work -- is because the government itself was behind the economic meltdown that wrecked Lehman Brothers and placed many other large financial institutions in the loving arms of Big Brother in Washington.
The single biggest reason for the crisis was that the federal government forced banks to give home loans to wholly unqualified borrowers because then-President Bill Clinton and his Democrat cronies wanted more minorities to become homeowners. Cheap credit mixed with Washington's implicit guarantee that banks would be supported in their risky lending efforts created an unholy alliance that came to a painful head in August 2008. It was an end many saw coming, but few in government, particularly former Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, wanted to admit.
Frank, who authored the massive bill and is now retired from the House and free from the punishment of voters, admits, sort of, that Washington may have had a hand in the causes of the 2008 meltdown. Co-author Chris Dodd, also conveniently retired from the Senate, probably doesn't lose much sleep over the whole mess either. As chief lobbyist for the Motion Picture Association of America, Dodd spends his time in sunny California, rubbing elbows with the Tinseltown elite.
Their legislation, crafted with the help of fellow Democrats and their generous donors at Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and other "survivors" of the 2008 meltdown, did nothing to protect financial institutions from collapse. Dodd-Frank, with its ad hoc regulations and business-crushing fees, did little more than create a wall around the nation's preferred financial institutions, making them "too big to fail." Yet on the other hand, since Dodd-Frank became law, some 1,600 bank branches across the country have been forced to close their doors due to unmanageable fees resulting from the law's regulations. Rest assured, though, many of the fat cats who made the risky lending decisions and the politicians who compelled them to do so are doing just fine.
Unfortunately, as long as Dodd-Frank remains the law of the land, the American economy will not be fine. And the millions of people out of work or suffering in menial jobs below their pay grade or skill level will continue to languish while Washington chugs along, telling the rest of the country that everything is just fine.
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Tony Perkins: SCOTUS Turns Down Marriage Proposal
- Thomas Sowell: Ebola and Obama
- Arnold Ahlert: Enterovirus D68: A Call to Arms
- David Limbaugh: Democrats Will Pay the Price for Obama in November
- Ed Feulner: 'I Wanted to Be Free'
OPINION IN BRIEF
Winston Churchill (1874-1965): "If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time -- a tremendous whack."FRC's Tony Perkins: "Deep down, the Left knows it needed the Court to force same-sex 'marriage' on America before more people saw the fallout for Christians like Aaron and Melissa Klein. Or sportscasters like Craig James. Or CEOs like Brandon Eich. Ask them if same-sex 'marriage' is just about two people who love each other. For them, it was about losing their business, their livelihood, and their freedom. If the Supreme Court thinks America isn’t ready for same-sex 'marriage,' they’re right. As more states are forced to recognize it, people will see the ensuing attacks on religious freedom. They’ll feel the wedge driven between parents and their children when school curriculum is changed to contradict the morals moms and dads are teaching at home. They’ll shudder as more people lose their jobs because they refuse to celebrate (not just tolerate) same-sex 'marriage.' Maybe then they’ll realize that the true goal is not about the marriage altar -- but fundamentally altering society."
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Columnist Thomas Sowell: "Barack Obama has refused to bar entry to the United States by people from countries where the Ebola epidemic rages, as Britain has done. The reason? Refusing to let people with Ebola enter the United States would conflict with the goal of fighting the disease. In other words, the safety of the American people takes second place to the goal of helping people overseas. As if to emphasize his priorities, President Obama has ordered thousands of American troops to go into Ebola-stricken Liberia, disregarding the dangers to those troops and to other Americans when the troops return. What does this say about Obama? At a minimum, it suggests that he takes his conception of himself as a citizen of the world more seriously than he takes his role as President of the United States. At worst, he may consider Americans' interests expendable in the grand scheme of things internationally. If so, this would explain a lot of his foreign policy disasters around the world, which seem inexplicable otherwise."
Comedian Jimmy Fallon: "Scientists are suggesting that Pluto should be considered a planet again eight years after it was classified as a dwarf planet -- and Americans are suggesting that scientists cut the crap about Pluto and figure out how to stop Ebola."
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
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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