THE FOUNDATION
"Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve." —Benjamin Franklin, 1771TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Leader Low on Resolve Attempts Smack Talk
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The only thing that's changed is the rhetoric. After the recent attacks on the West, Americans are increasingly worried about Obama's strategy against the group, a strategy the chief executive only doubled down on Monday, naming off a list of eight Islamic State leaders that coalition airstrikes supposedly killed. Obama continued, saying the Islamic State has not made any major advancements in Iraq and Syria since the summer. So we're winning, right?
According to commentator Charles Krauthammer, it's the same rhetorical trick presidents used to convince Americans the Vietnam War was a success. Meanwhile, the Islamic State struck San Bernardino, Paris and downed a Russian passenger plane over the Sinai Peninsula. "When you have to resort to statistics," Krauthammer said, "he has a list of people whom we've killed, as if anyone has any idea who they are. It's reminiscent of the strategy of the Vietnam War where we would announce the body counts — the ratio of dead Vietcong to Americans. It was always lopsided, and we lost the damn war because that's not how you gauge who's winning or losing a war." But hey, smart power demands committing to a failing strategy, holding out until someone more experienced can take over.
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DHS Won't Review Social Media Posts of Visa Entrants
The Obama State Department once had a "brilliant" plan — fight the Islamic State in part by waging a propaganda war on social media. In other words, bureaucrats would try to deter potential ISIL recruits with Twitter and Facebook posts. After a while, however, State finally admitted that hashtag diplomacy wasn't really working all that well. But you know what else isn't working? U.S. policy of not considering the social media posts of foreigners trying to enter the U.S. through the visa program. ABC News reports, "Fearing a civil liberties backlash and 'bad public relations' for the Obama administration, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson refused in early 2014 to end a secret U.S. policy that prohibited immigration officials from reviewing the social media messages of all foreign citizens applying for U.S. visas, a former senior department official said." Why does that matter? Well, if officials had reviewed the social media posts of Tashfeen Malik, she might not have been granted a visa in May 2014 — a full 18 months before she and her husband killed 14 in San Bernardino. Even Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) gets it: "Had they checked out Tashfeen Malik, maybe those people in San Bernardino would be alive." Remember, no one has a right to come to the U.S., and the fact that Islam is as much a political system as a religion means these reviews are far more important than a little uncomfortable PR for the Obama administration.Comment | Share
And One of the Biggest Whoppers of the Year Goes To...
One of the largest bastions of the Leftmedia, The Washington Post, has said the "Hands up, don't shoot" narrative that gelled after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson was one of the biggest political lies of 2015. The false narrative was that Brown had his hands up when Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed him. A grand jury later ruled that Wilson acted in self-defense.The Post's Fact Checker blog released a list of claims it said were the "The biggest Pinocchios of 2015." Among the claims flagged by the Post, Hillary Clinton lied when she said the Defense of Marriage Act was signed by her husband to prevent a DOMA amendment to the Constitution, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy mislead Americans when he said, on average, there was a school shooting every week since the Sandy Hook massacre, and Barack Obama fibbed when he said the Keystone Pipeline would transport oil not for American consumption.
But in terms of the most stubborn lies, "Hands up, don't shoot" was one of the worst. It was repeated before a NFL game, as well as on the steps of the Capitol and on the House floor. In communities nationwide, it was a false narrative that fomented discord and served as race bait between law enforcement and residents. Unfortunately, this BIG Lie has had a big cost in terms of a spike in crime in big cities.
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The Bill of Rights
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The Bill of Rights was inspired by three remarkable documents: John Locke's 1689 thesis, "Two Treatises of Government," regarding the protection of "property" (in the Latin context, proprius, or one's own "life, liberty and estate"); in part from the Virginia Declaration of Rights authored by George Mason in 1776 as part of that state's Constitution; and, of course, in part from our Declaration of Independence authored by Thomas Jefferson.
Read in context, the Bill of Rights is both an affirmation of innate "unalienable rights" of man, and a clear proscription upon any central government infringement of those rights. As oft trampled and abused as the Bill of Rights is by those who've sworn an oath "to Support and Defend" our Constitution, most notably "judicial supremacists," or the "despotic branch" as Jefferson called the judiciary, Patriots must remain ever vigilant in order to sustain our rights.
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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Paris Climate Conference Focused on Fear, Not Climate Reality
By James Shott
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After all the time involved and the carbon dioxide produced getting thousands of people from 196 nations all in the same place and then back home again, the agreement does not put the world on a path toward what alarmists regard as a safe level of rising temperature. But the agreement sets forth a clear path for countries to identify their own targets for CO2 reduction. Ultimately, participants want a global carbon-free environment by 2060, at the latest, meaning that every car, building, plane, ship, train and power plant would have to operate without burning any fossil fuels.
Days prior to the closing, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon told the ministerial session, “The clock is ticking toward climate disaster.” Repent now, for the end is near.
The populist potentate of ecotheology, Al Gore, compared combating climate change to the abolition of slavery, giving women the right to vote and the civil rights battle. Gore said, “The right choice is to safeguard the future for the next generation and for the generations to come.”
There were scary stories of rising sea levels, causing residents of low-lying areas like the Marshall Islands to lobby strenuously for the agreement, while droughts, flooding and other extreme weather events were predicted to increase elsewhere on the planet if CO2 emissions aren’t reined in. And to make sure to attract the attention of enough third-world countries, billions of dollars in support for affected economies is on the table, supposedly to be paid by the rich countries, like the United States.
The whole world is concerned because of the idea that too much CO2 in the atmosphere will cause a litany of catastrophes sometime in the distant future. But remember: Plants that produce oxygen for us to breathe live on CO2.
All this fear mongering overshadowed the dismal record of climate predictions and data manipulations from the not-so-distant past that casts doubt on the need for turning the energy universe upside-down. Here are just a few of the horrific predictions of climate catastrophes that did not come true:
- By 1980, all of the important animal life in the sea will be extinct.
- By the year 2000, the United Kingdom will be simply a small group of impoverished islands, inhabited by some 70 million hungry people.
- The world will be 11 degrees colder by the year 2000.
- By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching Earth by half.
- A general warming trend over the North Pole is melting the ice cap and may produce an ice-free Arctic Ocean by the year 2000.
- Within a few years children just aren't going to know what snow is.
As an example, while Barack Obama is busy regulating America’s coal-fired electricity-generating plants out of existence, China — by far the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases — is constructing hundreds of new plants. We should be wary of China’s commitment to reduce emissions.
The Wall Street Journal notes, “In 2013 China burned 3.9 billion tons of coal, almost as much as the rest of the world.” Obama seems to think that harming the U.S. economy by shutting down U.S. fossil fuel-burning facilities will negate China’s feverish coal-burning economy.
As Heritage Foundation’s Nicolas Loris asks, “This is the country that we’re going to trust to peak emissions 15 years from now?”
And trust is the operative word. All countries are on scout's honor to do what they have said they will do, without official oversight or penalties — because the agreement isn't a legally binding treaty.
According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2013 “Historical Data Workbook,” 87% of the energy mankind uses every second comes from burning fossil fuels. People who live in cold climates use them to warm their homes, and people who live in warm climates use them to cool their homes. Fossil fuels are used to plant and harvest crops that feed people, and they are used to transport food from places where food is produced to places where it's needed and wanted. They are used to light the darkness, to entertain us, transport us, diagnose disease, communicate with each other, mass-produce products we need and want, and to provide security in our homes and for the nation.
Fossil fuel use has improved the lives of billions of people worldwide, and we can all continue to benefit from it. There are no replacement technologies that even approach filling the void Obama and the other climate change advocates are creating. Contrary to their apocalyptic warnings, we are only on course for a disaster if we follow their lead.
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MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE
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- Surviving O'Care Co-Ops Losing Money
- There's Trouble in the Democrat Kingdom of Chicago
- Cuomo: 'Nobody Is Demonizing the Ownership of Guns'
- When Abortionists and Islamic State Have the Same Values
- Leftmedia Hits Marco Rubio for Following the Law
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
- Thomas Sowell: Attacking the Truth: A Defense of Justice Scalia
- Stephen Moore: What, Exactly, Is a Fascist?
- Dennis Prager: Republicans Must Identify What They Are Fighting
TOP HEADLINES
- The Test to Be Commander in Chief: Candidates to Face Off in Debate
- Bowe Bergdahl to Face General Court Martial
- Black Lives Matter Leaders Duke It Out Over Disappearing Charity Money
OPINION IN BRIEF
Thomas Sowell: "Affirmative action is supposed to be a benefit to black and other minority students admitted with lower academic qualifications than some white students who are rejected. But Justice Scalia questioned whether being admitted to an institution geared to students with higher-powered academic records was a real benefit. Despite much media spin, the issue is not whether blacks in general should be admitted to higher ranked or lower ranked institutions. The issue is whether a given black student, with given academic qualifications, should be admitted to a college or university where he would not be admitted if he were white. Much empirical research over the years has confirmed Justice Scalia’s concern that admitting black students to institutions for which their academic preparation is not sufficient can be making them worse off instead of better off. ... Justice Scalia was not talking about sending black students to substandard colleges and universities to get an inferior education. You may in fact get a much better education at an institution that teaches at a pace that you can handle and master. In later life, no one is going to care how fast you learned something, so long as you know it. Mismatching students with educational institutions is a formula for needless failures. ... Do the facts not matter to those who are denouncing Justice Scalia? Does the actual fate of minority students not matter to the left, as much as their symbolic presence on a campus?"Comment | Share
SHORT CUTS
Insight: "The law is an adroit mixture of customs that are beneficial to society, and could be followed even if no law existed, and others that are of advantage to a ruling minority, but harmful to the masses of men, and can be enforced on them only by terror." —Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921)Upright: "Republicans ... fight Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton and all other Democrats. But they don’t fight the left and leftism. The implication is that if only we could defeat this or that Democrat, we would be on our way to a much better America. But it’s not true. ... Republicans need to tell the American people over and over that the only thing that can stop the further degradation of the United States of America is conservatism and the Republican Party. Because only conservatism and the Republican Party can stop the left." —Dennis Prager
Non Compos Mentis: "I have feelings, good, bad and otherwise, about Star Wars. ... Like the part where [Darth Vader] was totally a black guy whose name basically was James Earl Jones ... [and] while he was black, he was terrible and bad and awful and used to cut off white men’s hands, and didn’t, you know, actually claim his son. But as soon as he claims his son and goes over to the good, he takes off his mask and he is white. Yes, I have many, many feelings about that." —MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry
Belly laugh of the week: "Plenty of time and effort have lately gone into analyzing a host of related crises — homelessness, unaffordable urban real estate, devastating gentrification, and a housing bubble whose burst landed us in the Great Recession. ... The true culprit is so deeply embedded in American notions of wealth, rights, and property that we cannot see it for the terrible economy policy it is: private housing. ... [W]hat we call private housing is actually public land that government has set aside for private purposes. ... Ultimately ... the best antidote to private housing is public housing."—Jesse A. Myers in an article for The Nation titled, "How to Get Rid of Your Landlord and Socialize American Housing, in 3 Easy Steps"
Braying Jackass: "I think that most of our largest domestic threat comes from racial supremacist groups. I worked in counterterrorism; I know this to be a fact. ... People want to take us back to some mythological good ol' days, and there are elected officials who are capitalizing on this sentiment." —Rep. Andre Carson
And last... "Obama is right. His climate deal will create jobs. The Unemployment Office will need a bigger staff." —Twitter satirist @weknowwhatsbest
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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson
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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