THE FOUNDATION
“The law of nature and the law of revelation are both Divine: they flow, though in different channels, from the same adorable source. It is indeed preposterous to separate them from each other.” –James Wilson, of the Law of Nature, 1804
TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
“And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus,” wrote the Apostle John in Revelation. On Sunday, a video surfaced that showed the black-clad jihadists of the ISIL franchise in Libya, The Islamic State in Tripoli Province, beheading 21 Coptic Christians from Egypt on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, staining the waves with blood. The jihadists made it clear: They beheaded the men because they were “people of the cross, followers of the hostile [sic] Egyptian Church” and announced their aspiration to capture Rome. Egypt launched swift retaliation, bombing at least seven locations in Libya. Meanwhile, Barack Obama still denied the religious causes of the violence when in his White House statement said, “We offer our condolences to the families of the victims and our support to the Egyptian government and people as they grieve for their fellow citizens. ISIL’s barbarity knows no bounds.” Not only does Obama deny the religious motivations of ISIL, he dishonors victims by denying why they were murdered. Not knowing the enemy – that’s how wars are lost. More…
Islamic terrorism has once again struck Europe. The Wall Street Journal reports, “Danish police said they shot dead a gunman on Sunday who they believe was behind shootings at a free-speech event at a Copenhagen cafe and a nearby synagogue a day earlier.” The first clue of motive comes from the fact that what Barack Obama might call a “random shooting” happened at a synagogue, killing one Jewish man. The second clue is this from the WSJ: “Police said a man sprayed dozens of gunshots through the plate glass windows of central Copenhagen’s Krudttoenden cafe, where Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks and France’s ambassador to Denmark, François Zimeray, were attending the free-speech conference. Neither Mr. Vilks nor Mr. Zimeray was injured.” One person was killed, however. In 2007, Vilks drew caricatures of Muhammad as a dog, and the Islamic State has a $150,000 bounty on his head. And witnesses reported hearing the shooter yell, “Allahu Akbar!” These attacks are by no means “random” acts of “lone wolves,” and these murderers aren’t motivated by what Obama called “whatever ideology” – this is jihad in the name of Islam.
It’s a bit disorientating when Barack Obama – who isn’t known for executive restraint – goes to Congress to ask for the power to fight ISIL and Congress says the president needs more power. But this fight between Obama and Republicans is not over presidential power, but what must be America’s strategy to defeat these Islamic militants. Over the weekend, Republican legislators rebutted Obama’s proposed Authorization for Use of Military Force against ISIL. Sen. John McCain echoed our own analysis: “It’s absolutely clear that if we had left a residual force [in Iraq], it would have remained stable. You have to have a stable force.” In his rebuttal, House Speaker John Boehner added, “The president is asking for less authority than he has today under previous authorizations. I don’t think that’s smart. We need a robust strategy to take on ISIL. No one has seen one from this White House yet. … I look at the submission by the president as the beginning of the process.” Unfortunately, you can only lead a president to a proper AUMF, you can’t make him fight.
The long-duration Arctic chill is doing more than toppling snow records in the Northeast. Mother nature decided to throw a snowball at Yale students who were scheduled to protest supposedly man-made global warming, some of which they could use right now. “Yale anti-fossil fuel campaigners have indefinitely postponed a protest that was set for this weekend due to ‘unfavorable weather conditions and other logistical issues,’” Michael Bastasch of The Daily Caller explains. The prospect for even more snowstorms isn’t ending anytime soon. In fact, on top of a snowpack that’s accumulated multiple feet, the bigger concern is the likelihood of record-low temperatures over the next few weeks. Rather than protesting, students should be celebrating fossil fuels for giving them a comfortable environment during this epic winter weather. They might just be freezing to death otherwise. That’s all the more reason to stop Barack Obama’s dangerous anti-fossil fuel agenda. More…
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has made a splash in the 2016 Republican presidential field. That makes him a prime Leftmedia target, and The Washington Post is on the case. Did you know — gasp! — that Walker dropped out of Marquette University? Where’s the fainting couch? Even though college attendance is prevalent these days, the majority of Americans still don’t have a four-year degree. And the shocking reason Walker didn’t finish is that he found a good job. Hardly scandalous. If college is a requisite for the presidency, someone should have told George Washington — our greatest president. He didn’t attend college at all. And speaking of college records, political analyst Michael Barone asks the Leftmedia, “Why weren’t you — why aren’t you — curious about how Obama behaved in college?”
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives issued a white paper to determine whether certain ammunition is “primarily intended for sporting purposes.” At issue is 5.56mm M855 ammo, which is considered “armor piercing,” and therefore the ATF says it’s of questionable merit for the average citizen. The ATF hasn’t made its decision yet and will accept comments until March 16, but if the bureau carries through the net effect would be a ban on one of the most common and affordable types of military surplus AR-15 ammo.
It’s no surprise that the ATF is way off target – down and to the Left.
The white paper begins: “To protect the lives and safety of law enforcement officers from the threat posed by ammunition capable of penetrating a protective vest when fired from a handgun, the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA), as amended, prohibits the import, manufacture, and distribution of ‘armor piercing ammunition’ as defined by the statute. The GCA, however, allows for the exemption of ammunition that would otherwise be considered armor piercing if the Attorney General determines that the specific ammunition at issue is ‘primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes.’”
Because of the growing popularity of AR-style handguns capable of firing 5.56mm projectiles from M855 casings, the ATF says, “To ensure consistency, upon final implementation of the sporting purpose framework outlined above, ATF must withdraw the exemptions for 5.56 mm ‘green tip’ ammunition, including both the SS109 and M855 cartridges.”
SBR = short-barrel rifleOf course, if you’ve ever seen an AR “pistol,” you’d know that calling it a pistol is a joke. Besides, the first AR pistol was manufactured in 1993. Are we supposed to believe it took the ATF 22 years to catch on?
Going forward, the ATF is considering granting a “sporting purposes” exemption in only two categories: one for .22 caliber ammo, and another for all other calibers only “if the projectile is loaded into a cartridge for which the only handgun that is readily available in the ordinary channels of commercial trade is a single shot handgun.”
First, and most important, the Founders did not craft the Second Amendment to protect “sporting purposes.” It reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The purpose was to codify our God-given right (yes, rights do come from God) of self-defense, not just against crime but against a tyrannical government. It is and will always be an inalienable right.
In more recent history, after the Supreme Court’s Heller ruling, how does “sporting purposes” pass constitutional muster at all?
Second, the ATF’s move is a cynical one. M855 was developed for a Cold War scenario in which Soviet troops in hard body armor would pour through the Fulda Gap in once-divided Germany. American troops were supplied with it to defend the West. (All full metal jacket 5.56mm rounds can penetrate soft armor. In fact, most rifle rounds can.)
But M855 has well-documented shortcomings against soft targets (see Somalia, Iraq, etc.) The other common loading, M193, is more effective against soft targets. So the side effect of this ruling would be that more AR-15 owners would buy rounds that are more effective in the typical domestic shooting. The only people this rule change protects is the government, whose varmints wear Kevlar.
Not that this should undermine Second Amendment restraints on the government, but how many deaths in the U.S. occurred last year because these rounds were used to “pierce armor”? How many deaths occurred due to AR-15s, period? Not many.
The ATF’s move is yet another straw man diversion from Barack Obama’s failed policies. It could also be a consolation feather in the cap for outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, who recently lamented that his only failure was the inability to pass major gun control.
But it’s more than a diversion or a feather. It’s an incremental “boiled frog” move to limit the Second Amendment. This is backdoor gun control via ammunition control. When states like California have gone after lead ammunition as environmentally “unsafe,” and the ATF considers rounds made of anything else to be “armor piercing,” there isn’t much left.
So what can you do? Contact the ATF. The bureau will not acknowledge receipt of comments, but you can submit them in the following ways:
ATF email: APAComments@atf.gov
Fax: (202) 648-9741
Mail: Denise Brown, Mailstop 6N-602, Office of Regulatory Affairs, Enforcement Programs and Services, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, 99 New York Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20226: ATTN: AP Ammo Comments.
On a final note, good luck finding any M855 on the shelves. It took only a couple of days after the ATF floated the proposed ban for the ammo to sell out. Evidently, Obama hopes to maintain his string of six years as “Gun Salesman of the Year.”
Little League Baseball revoked Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West all-stars' United States championship last Wednesday. The reason was straight-forward: The team used players who lived outside the boundaries allowed by the rules. Team manager Donald Butler was suspended from Little League, and Illinois District 4 administrator Michael Kelly has been removed from his position. Little League International CEO Stephen D. Keener called it a “heartbreaking decision,” but one necessary to “maintain the integrity of the Little League program.” Enter those with no integrity at all: “Is this about boundaries or race?” wondered professional agitator Jessie Jackson.
“This decision’s untimely and inappropriate at this time,” Jackson added. “It should not take six months after a team has played a championship game to determine eligibility to play the game in the first place.”
Is there the slightest doubt that if an investigation had taken half that time or less Jackson would be bemoaning a “rush to judgment” just as facilely?
Activist Rev. Michael Pfleger, who admires Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan and shares their belief that America is an irredeemably racist nation, was equally up to the task of obscuring the real problem. “When you’re going over to voter registration and going to birth certificates and doing all this time of hunting and a witch hunt that’s been going on for the last number of months, I can’t help but wonder the question if the same thing would have been done with another team from another place, another race,” Pfleger spewed.
The facts? Little League officials acknowledged a map redrafting process took place in 2013 – but no changes were submitted for approval. League officials explained that Jackie Robinson West “knowingly expanded its boundaries to include territory that belonged to other leagues in the district.” Moreover, local league officials admitted they had “direct knowledge of this rules violation” when asked by Little League officials during the investigation. Keener also cleared up any further ambiguity as well. “During our review, it became clear that both Jackie Robinson West officials and District Administrator Mike Kelly signed documents to make players eligible who should not have been,” he said.
DNAinfo columnist Mark Konkol summed up reality in a single paragraph: “All it took was a simple Internet search to find that a congresswoman, a suburban mayor, an elite traveling baseball league and Sports Illustrated posted details about the players' suburban roots.”
The decision was made following allegations first made by Evergreen Park officials. They alerted Little League following a 43-2 wipeout at the hands of a Jackie Robinson West squad they described as “manipulating, bending and blatantly breaking the rules for the sole purpose of winning at all costs.” Teams from Illinois and Nevada also complained the team’s roster was rigged. Nevada’s Mountain Ridge team lost to Jackie Robinson West in the U.S. final. They will be awarded the championship – one Jackson insists they “did not earn.”
Mountain Ridge isn’t interested in Jackson’s misguided assessment or the title. “For us, it’s not about getting the title,” said Kristi Black, president of the Las Vegas league when its team was in Williamsport. “It’s about preserving the integrity of the Little League World Series. I spoke with a couple of our kids this morning, and they’re excited, but they feel terrible for the kids on the Chicago team. Our kids have moved on. They’re just of the mind that when rules are broken, that’s not acceptable.”
Jackson couldn’t care less. He promised the team’s parents would file a lawsuit over the decision, even as attorney Victor Henderson cautioned against “saber-rattling,” adding that “no lawyer worth his salt” would threaten to sue without knowing all the facts of the case.
For Jackson and his ilk, facts are irrelevant. What really matters is adding another chapter to the black victimist narrative that has brought him fame and fortune. While he pontificates, a bunch of young black kids are paying for the sins of adults who ought to know better.
And not just the sins of Butler and Kelly. Parent Carlton Hondras, whose son Trey played on the team, insisted that playing for Jackie Robinson West is a tradition “if you are from the city, whether you move out or not.” Parent Tammy King, who lived in the suburbs and changed her address on her driver’s license to one still beyond the boundaries of eligibility, was equally defiant. “I’m in the city of Chicago but do not have to disclose where I live,” she declared. Parents Christopher Green and Dr. Venisa Beasley-Green claimed ignorance of the rules. “We don’t know about boundaries,” Beasley-Green said. “We know it’s a city of Chicago requirement … no specific coordinates to play on a particular team.”
And it was Green who best summed up the mindset that allows Jackson and company to prosper: “It is amazing to me that whenever African-Americans exceed the expectations that there is always going to be fault.”
Sorry, but with the exception of the kids themselves there is plenty of fault to go around. And while it’s bad enough when adults countenance cheating, it’s worse when they jump on Jackson’s racialist bandwagon. Alleging racism to obscure cheating sends the execrable message that integrity itself is not a color-blind virtue – which is another way of saying the color of one’s skin trumps the content of one’s character. Such transparent nonsense is not only self-defeating, it turns Martin Luther King’s most enduring message on its head.
Does it get any more racist than that?
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
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OPINION IN BRIEF
The Gipper: “[A]ny time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we’re denounced as being opposed to their humanitarian goals. It seems impossible to legitimately debate their solutions with the assumption that all of us share the desire to help the less fortunate. They tell us we’re always ‘against,’ never ‘for’ anything.”
FRC president Tony Perkins: “Bradley Manning is in prison for treason – and now the Obama administration wants to help him break another law: nature’s. The national security leaker, whose espionage put countless Americans at risk, is demanding that the U.S. Army – not just recognize, but finance – his gender transition. … While thousands of honorable veterans suffer serial abandonment in VA clinics across the country, the Obama administration is rewarding an avowed traitor with expensive – and elective – treatment. It’s a sad commentary on this administration when an act of treason entitles you to better care than most of the men and women who have honorably served this country! Unfortunately, this is just part of the administration’s broader pattern of indulging lawlessness and lawbreakers like illegal immigrants, military defectors, and turncoats. And the real tragedy is that this therapy isn’t helping Manning – it’s exacerbating a profound mental health crisis. The worst thing we can do for people struggling with gender identity is to enable their disorder. … The military can’t afford to waste more time and energy on political distractions that aren’t just detrimental for people in that lifestyle – but for our military’s mission at large. Even for the President, who’s spent six years using the military as a mule for his social agenda, injecting this kind of gender chaos into the ranks is a step too far.”
Economist Stephen Moore: “Obama rejected the convention of reaching across the aisle from the very start. In his first two years in office this White House never moved an inch in the GOP’s direction and passed his major bills on stimulus and Obamacare without a single Republican vote. … Since the Republicans took control of the House in 2011 and now the entire Congress this year, Obama has been stymied. He still hasn’t budged an inch toward the center. His State of the Union address was effectively an ideological lead pipe, not a peace pipe. … Liberals routinely pout that Republicans won’t work with President Obama cooperatively to get things done and that the GOP’s only goal is to destroy his presidency. Obama has done a pretty good job of that himself without an assist from House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. But who is that won’t cooperate? … Obama’s goal is not to negotiate with Republicans but to steamroller over them. And by so doing, his party is in shatters, and the one who has been steamrolled is himself.”
Humorist Frank J. Fleming: “Shouldn’t you assume someone who made a successful career without going to college is smarter than the average person who went to college? … For so much of the education system, we should start over from scratch and ask, ‘What exactly are we trying to accomplish here?’ … If the point of college is to give you knowledge and skills you’ll need for a job, even the best schools really suck at that.”
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.
Winston Churchill’s speech ‘we shall fight them on the beaches’ is one of the defining speeches during the second world war. It uses the technique of repetition to very good effect.
