THE FOUNDATION
“This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still.” –Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
Corruption charges against Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) cleared a federal grand jury Wednesday, which itself smacks of political corruption inside the Department of Revenge Justice. According to the DOJ’s allegations, Menendez accepted bribes from a Florida eye doctor. Menendez said it was only a friendship. Former federal prosecutor Adam Lurie told The Wall Street Journal, “I think the government’s real challenge here is going to be overcoming the friendship evidence. Doing something for a friend is not a crime, and doing something because you also have a real policy concern about something is not a crime. And I think the government is going to have to deal with both of those issues here.” Attacking Menendez could solidify the Democrat Party behind Obama, as the senator was a vocal opponent of the Obama administration’s diplomatic actions with Iran and Cuba. Meanwhile, former IRS official Lois Lerner, who helped Obama win re-election by targeting conservative groups, will not be charged with contempt of Congress. According to The Hill, a DOJ attorney said it would be “inappropriate.” Indeed, Obama doesn’t send the DOJ after his friends.
How much time does it take America to work to pay off taxes? It will take 114 days for Americans to earn enough to pay off their tax debt to all levels of government. Good job, America! You’re almost to Tax Freedom Day. The Tax Foundation named April 24 as the day when taxpayers have finished paying off Big Brother and can get on to actually making money for themselves. The cost of feeding the leviathan is so high that Americans will spend more in paying taxes then they do in housing, clothing and food combined. Tax Foundation economist Kyle Pomerleau toldCNS News, “Tax Freedom Day gives us a vivid representation of how much we pay for the goods and services provided by governments at all levels. Arguments can be made that the tax bill is too high or too low, but in order to have an honest discussion, it’s important for taxpayers to understand cost of government.” Of course, different states have different tax burdens, and you can see when you’ll be hypothetically free from taxes in the map below. It’s good news if you live in Louisiana, not so much for people in Connecticut. More…
Surprise, surprise. It appears the Obama administration is stopping its all-out war against oil production, or at least putting it on pause. On Tuesday, the Department of the Interior approved the sale of exploratory drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea to Shell Oil Co. The Arctic “is an important component of the administration’s national energy strategy,” said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. “We remain committed to taking a thoughtful and balanced approach to oil and gas leasing and exploration offshore Alaska. This unique, sensitive and often challenging environment requires effective oversight to ensure all activities are conducted safely and responsibly.” Of course, the administration is keeping tight-fisted control over the whole enterprise, still arguing renewable energy sources are somehow better than tried and true methods of energy production. But Obama seems to be listening to the Department of Energy’s advisory council, which recommended the U.S. develop its oil production in the waters off Alaska. And the recent success of America’s shale oil boom, which drove gas prices low and boosted foreign policy, is a powerful argument that shows the black liquid isn’t all that bad. More…
The ongoing global warming hiatus, per satellite measurements, surprised climatologists because computer climate projections never indicated a short- or long-term reprieve. Scientists anticipated temperatures to move in tandem with steadily increasing levels of CO2 – which didn’t happen – and nevertheless they insist that it’s only a matter of time before warming re-emerges. That’s what the data reveals. According to NOAA, the data also shows that global carbon dioxide measurements for the last seven days average around 400 parts per million, up from 380 ppm during the same period in 2005. Without question, CO2 measurements continue to climb, which begs the question: Why haven’t temperatures? A damning new study reinforces what skeptics have long suspected: The relationship between the two isn’t as clear-cut as we’re led to believe. In what would otherwise be labeled a “game changer” outside the mainstream media, The Daily Caller writes, “A study by scientists at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Meteorology found that man-made aerosols had a much smaller cooling effect on the atmosphere during the 20th Century than was previously thought. Why is this big news? It means increases in carbon dioxide emissions likely cause less warming than most climate models suggest.” The study is even listed on the American Meteorological Society website. As significant as the finding is, however, expect the study to receive the same conniving response from man-made global warming evangelists as do skeptics offering their viewpoint.
The cost/benefit analysis on Barack Obama’s climate pledge isn’t adding up. The Obama administration introduced its pledge to the United Nations saying that America would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 26-28% by 2025 from 2005 levels. The EPA says this proposal will cost the U.S. $8.8 billion a year, but that’s a conservative estimate, as National Economic Research Associates estimates the regulations will cost $41 billion a year. And for what? Chip Knappenberger, a climate scientist at Cato Institute, says for all that effort the U.S. will only prevent the earth from warming 0.001 degree Celsius per year. But Obama wants everyone to think he has everything under control. When asked if Congress should have a say in the United States' negotiations at the UN over a climate treaty, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said Congress should stay out because they’re stupid. “Well, these are individuals, at least many of them, [who] deny the fact that climate change even exists,” Earnest replied. “So I’m not sure that they would be in the best position to decide whether or not a climate change agreement is one that is worth entering in to.” It’s typical of the Left to frame the conversation thusly: Either you agree with our solution to the problem, or you want the end of the world. Same as Obama and Iran – either you want his deal, or you want war. There is no compromise. More…
For more, visit Right Hooks.
Don’t Miss Alexander’s Column
Read The Sum of All Lies, on not whether Iran can be trusted, but whether Obama can be trusted.
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
In a race to see who can cave the fastest, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson reneged on his promise to sign his state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), instead sending it back to state legislators with a request to “recall it and change the language.” Perhaps he was upset that Indiana Governor Mike Pence was getting all the attention for wimping out on his own state’s religious freedom protections. Why should Republicans cave once when they can cave twice? Clearly, the beatings have been effective.
The brouhaha in Arkansas stems from the RFRA bill that passed the legislature on Tuesday and dares to assert, “[N]o human authority can, in any case or manner whatsoever, control or interfere with the right of conscience.” Furthermore, the state “shall not substantially burden a person’s right to exercise of religion … unless it is demonstrated that applying the substantial burden … (1) Is essential to further a compelling governmental interest; and (2) Is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.”
Sounds reasonable enough, but when has reason ever stopped the Left? Indeed, to the ever-classy New York Times, such a bill can only be “driven by bigotry against gays and lesbians.”
Never mind that neither Arkansas' bill nor Indiana’s says a whit about the “LGBT community.” To a hammer, everything is a nail, and to the Left, everything is anti-gay. And leftists have deliberately hijacked the term “religious liberty” in order to redefine it from a God-given right to be cherished and preserved into a smoke screen for hate and discrimination. Indeed, the Times continued, “Religious-freedom laws, which were originally intended to protect religious minorities from burdensome laws or regulations, have become increasingly invoked by conservative Christian groups as gay rights in general – and marriage equality in particular – found greater acceptance nationally.”
It’s all well and good until Christians are protected.
And the Times isn’t alone. The leftist cultural assault on religious liberty has extended from the mainstream media to social media, to the point that laws in no way permitting discrimination are being framed as driven by discrimination.
Corporate CEOs have joined in the hazing, with Apple’s Tim Cook blasting Indiana’s law and Walmart’s Doug McMillon taking on Arkansas'. Both companies, of course, have no problem doing business in nation’s like China that have horrendous human rights records.
Hutchison’s and Pence’s inglorious retreats only give credence to the Left’s claims. By ceding the point that their state’s RFRAs require clarification and fixes, the gubernatorial duo practically endorsed the Left’s claim that the bills are discriminatory and allowed the opposition to define the laws. While the best offense might very well be a good defense, a pathetic defense with no offense is a recipe for loss, and that’s exactly what Republicans offered this past week.
Instead of rushing to retreat, Pence, Hutchinson and Republicans across the country should have gone on an immediate and aggressive offense, publicizing the multiple cases of small business owners who have been penalized, fined and even forced out of business for refusing to participate in same-sex ceremonies in direct violation of their faith and conscience. Republicans should have shown how advocates for the homosexual agenda are working relentlessly to take away 70-year-old grandmother Barronelle Stutzman’s business and are also threatening her home and life savings. Or how the supposed “tolerant” pro-homosexual crowd targeted Sweet Cakes by Melissa, a family-owned bakery that may now have to pay up to $150,000 in fines. Or how the Left cheered when a Catholic couple, Robert and Cynthia Gifford, were fined and ordered to put their staff through sensitivity training (a.k.a., re-education camp) for declining to host a same-sex marriage ceremony at their farm.
But instead of pointing out not only the utter hypocrisy but also the blatant fascism of the “tolerant” Left, Republicans asked, “How high?” when Democrats hollered, “Jump!” With a losing strategy like this, who needs enemies?
Meanwhile, Republicans' inability to communicate effectively is racking up losses. According to arecent study by the Pew Research Center, Americans are divided on this issue, with 49% saying businesses should be required to serve same-sex weddings and 47% saying businesses should be allowed to decline service for religious reasons. A public that understands Liberty would never be so evenly split.
Unfortunately, the Left has translated religious liberty – and most other rights, for that matter – into something Americans enjoy at the pleasure of the government rather than something government infringes at its own peril. And this translation is a danger to all Americans.
Nuclear talks with Iran are still going, as negotiators missed Tuesday’s “deadline.” Who could have predicted that? Clearly, extending the deadline on April Fools' Day bears some significance.
Yet again, Barack Obama has erased a red line. The New York Times reports Obama instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to ignore the deadline, because, as one senior official put it, “[The Iranians] were turning our own deadline against us to see if we would give ground.”
Wait – the Iranians can’t be trusted?
That’s exactly the point. As Thomas Sowell writes, “Recent statements from United Nations officials, that Iran is already blocking their existing efforts to keep track of what is going on in their nuclear program, should tell anyone who does not already know it that any agreement with Iran will be utterly worthless in practice. It doesn’t matter what the terms of the agreement are, if Iran can cheat.”
Worse, Sowell said, “It is amazing – indeed, staggering – that so few Americans are talking about what it would mean for the world’s biggest sponsor of international terrorism, Iran, to have nuclear bombs, and to be developing intercontinental missiles that can deliver them far beyond the Middle East.”
A nuclear Iran increases the likelihood that al-Qaida or the Islamic State could gain access to a nuclear weapon, which these jihadis would surely love to detonate in an East Coast city.
But as Mark Alexander wrote yesterday, “Make no mistake, this ‘deal’ is not designed to preventnuclear terrorism, and at best may just delay it.” That threat means no deal is better than a bad deal.
That echoes the warnings of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose nation lives under constant threat of annihilation by Iran. This week, Netanyahu said, “[A]n Iranian general brazenly declared and I quote: ‘Israel’s destruction is non-negotiable,’ but evidently giving Iran’s murderous regime a clear path to the bomb is negotiable. This is unconscionable.”
Netanyahu added, “Iran’s claim that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes doesn’t square with Iran’s insistence on keeping underground nuclear facilities, advanced centrifuges and a heavy water reactor. Nor does it square with Iran’s insistence on developing ICBMs and its refusal to come clean … on its past weaponization efforts.”
What the West should be pressing for is simple, Netanyahu says: “Iran must stop its aggression in the region, stop its terrorism throughout the world and stop its threats to annihilate Israel. That should be non-negotiable and that’s the deal that the world powers must insist upon.”
Obama’s political agenda – the need for a crowning foreign policy “achievement” – will almost surely override these concerns. He has so badly bungled policy in the Middle East that the entire region is collapsing in chaos. And that’s saying something.
“The central issue,” as Alexander put it, “is not whether Iran can be trusted, but that Obama can’tbe trusted.
For more, visit Right Analysis.
TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
For more, visit Right Opinion.
OPINION IN BRIEF
British economist Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): "The Republican form of government is the highest form of government; but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature – a type nowhere at present existing.”
Columnist Cal Thomas: “The uproar about Indiana’s law is political theater. It is also a trap set by the Left, which Republicans risk falling into. It works this way: Find a Republican state (Gov. Pence is a Republican and the legislature is overwhelmingly Republican); pick an issue you can twist to your political advantage – and Republicans' disadvantage; enlist the help of a gay-friendly media; threaten a boycott of the state by prominent individuals and businesses; use this issue in the next presidential campaign to brand Republicans as racists, bigots and homophobes. In this theater of the absurd, any defense becomes indefensible. The die has been cast; the scarlet letter attached. … One potential good has emerged from this, however. Miley Cyrus has announced she won’t be bringing her ‘twerking’ self to Indiana, which is bound to have a positive effect on the state’s moral climate.”
FRC president Tony Perkins: “[L]ost in all of this back-and-forth is the reality that this isn’t about standing up for homosexual rights – it’s about standing up for everyone’s rights. In a civil society, the two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. But that’s exactly the problem. America, under this administration, is less and less civil – particularly to men and women of faith. There’s no room for polite debate or even coexistence. Instead, the LGBT movement that once said they didn’t want the government to tell them how to live, now wants the same government to tell us what to believe and punish those who fail to comply. Where’s the tolerance in that?”
Comedian Jimmy Fallon: “The White House announced that President Obama will attend a summit in Kenya this July. When asked if he’s ever been to Kenya, Obama said, ‘Of course. I was born – no, bored – over there. There’s nothing to do in Kenya.’”
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.
