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« on: June 29, 2015, 06:42:03 PM » |
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________________________________________ The Patriot Post Digest 6-29-2015 From The Federalist Patriot Free Email Subscription ________________________________________
Daily Digest
Jun. 29, 2015
THE FOUNDATION
“The propriety of a law, in a constitutional light, must always be determined by the nature of the powers upon which it is founded.” —Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 33, 1788
TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Obama’s Funeral Platform for Gun Control1
On Friday, Barack Obama delivered the eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the slain pastor of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. Naturally, he exploited the occasion — metaphorically stood on Pinckney’s casket — to repeat the need for his policy preferences, namely more gun control. “For too long, we’ve been blind to the unique mayhem that gun violence inflicts upon this nation,” Obama thundered. “Sporadically, our eyes are open: When eight of our brothers and sisters are cut down in a church basement, 12 in a movie theater, 26 in an elementary school. But I hope we also see the 30 precious lives cut short by gun violence in this country every single day; the countless more whose lives are forever changed. … The vast majority of Americans — the majority of gun owners — want to do something about this. … None of us should believe that a handful of gun safety measures will prevent every tragedy. … But it would be a betrayal of everything Reverend Pinckney stood for, I believe, if we allowed ourselves to slip into a comfortable silence again.” In this instance, he did mention the lives lost every day — though he neglected the fact that they’re black lives lost to the gang culture festering on his own party’s urban poverty plantations2. But he doesn’t speak at their funerals. That’s because he couldn’t make the blacks who murder other blacks into the supposed carbon copies of the racist Charleston murderer, as he did with whites across the nation that twice elected him president. Obama’s race-baiting, anti-gun tirade was despicable, and all the more so because of the true grace shown3 by the families of the Charleston victims.
One Year Later, Islamic State ‘Caliphate’ Remains Entrenched4
In theory, declaring a caliphate should have painted a huge target on the Islamic State’s back. But after the group (née “the JV team”) announced that it established a caliphate in Iraq and Syria last June, it has continued to hold onto its territory as the coalition fighting the jihadists slowly picks away at the “state.” Indeed, Islamic State-linked jihadists have launched attacks as far away as Pakistan, Algeria and Yemen, and those inspired by the Islamic State have struck both the U.S. and Europe. Now, officials in Afghanistan say the group is in that country, placing the Islamic State in competition with the Taliban over whose caliphate should be established. However, the Islamic State’s strategy has made it less of a threat to the United States than al-Qaida, writes Scott Stewart5 for Stratfor Global Intelligence. “Al Qaeda argues that the caliphate can be established only after the United States and its European allies have been defeated, to the extent that they can no longer interfere in Muslim lands… The Islamic State takes the opposite tack. It has adopted a more urgent ‘why wait?’ approach and concentrates its efforts on immediately taking, holding and governing territory.” This comes as the levels of terrorism6 at home and abroad are on the rise and as Independence Day weekend coincides with the month of Ramadan. So much for Barack Obama’s campaign to degrade and decimate our jihadist foes.
Greeks Scramble for Cash as Financial Crisis Comes to a Head7
Fourteen years ago, Greece entered the Eurozone by using a Trojan Horse: It doctored its finances to make them appear more stable than they actually were. For a run of a few years, the country let its finances go. The party ended during the Great Recession as the country needed bailout after bailout to keep the partial-archipelago afloat. Now, the piper must be paid. But instead of tightening belts and making the tough decisions to get out of debt and onto firm footing, the Greeks elected the Syriza Party to power because it promised that it would lessen the burden of debt by resisting the demands for reform and negotiating further with the nation’s creditors. But those talks with the creditors broke down over the weekend and Greece may be booted from the Eurozone. On hearing the news, Greeks started lining up at ATMs, withdrawing as much money as they could before the cash ran out. In response, Greece started capital controls, keeping banks closed this week. “Appeasing Syriza’s demands could spread political contagion to Spain, Portugal and other countries that might think they too can avoid reform and still be rescued,” writes The Wall Street Journal8 editorial board. “A last-minute reprieve is possible, but if not the Greeks will have committed suicide by ignoring economic reality. Voters in Europe, Japan and the U.S., take note.” As we watch the slow-motion crash of Greece, we should remember that this nation has a growing debt that is being made larger by growing entitlement spending. Someday, the piper must be paid here, too.
FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS Having Dispensed With God, Leftists Now Aim for Christians9
By Robin Smith
1-2-3-4-5. Five leftist lawyers, currently abusing their authority as Supreme Court Justices, unleashed their activism upon the U.S. Constitution Friday and created a non-existent right to same-sex marriage10. The Fourteenth Amendment may provide equal protection under the law, but by applying it to expand the definition of marriage the Court has created a constitutional crisis in America. The First and Tenth Amendments, which respectively promise freedom of individual religion and award jurisdiction to the States of all powers not enumerated in the Constitution, have now been placed in direct conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment.
“Love Wins”? Not here it doesn’t, nor does anything but the will of five judicial despots, followed by the bullying mob rule of the Left and its Rainbow Mafia. Need proof?
In 2008, before the Saul Alinsky-ite Barack Obama and his Chicagoland gang occupied the White House and began “fundamentally transforming” our nation, there was debate, dissent and dialogue about all sorts of issues, including those issues fomented by the hard Left in order to label the response of the Christian Right as extremist.
In 2008, homosexual couples could enter into a legal, binding contract for shared property, power of attorney for making health care decisions, probate of wills, etc., and were, in most cases, receiving health care benefits from employers. These same homosexual couples were consummating their relationship in the privacy of their own domicile without harassment.
In 2008, Christians could speak their opinions and stand on their faith while understanding their voice was respected in the public square.
In 2015, however, those same Christians are in grave danger of losing legal standing because their beliefs are pitted against a brand new, heretofore undiscovered constitutional right. Tolerance is only for those who agree with the mob-rule Left.
What changed in seven years?
If you ask a moderate Republican, he or she might say, “Elections have consequences,” and shrug, since they never viewed this as meaningful anyway. If you ask the Bible-believing Democrats who voted for Ronald Reagan, they shudder at the exchange of timeless principles for sexual license. If you ask a libertarian, you might get the response that devout Christians are the “recalcitrant minority.” But if you ask someone who identifies as Christian first, American second, and is conservative politically, you’ll hear sorrow for a nation that worships the secular triune of me, myself and I rather than our Creator.
Millions of votes cast around the country to support the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman have now been nullified. How will this tyrannical disregard for the enumerated powers of the Constitution play out in the everyday lives of Christians?
In your place of worship, there’s now a government-approved theology that the God-rejecting Left expects to be preached. Whereas Bible-centric congregations stand on Holy Scripture, which does not include one single advocacy of sexual sin or perversion, the homosexual agenda demands that this view be rejected. One of the five black-robed tyrants, Justice Anthony Kennedy — considered the “swing vote” — laughingly attempted to reassure those whose lives revolve around their faith in the Judeo-Christian God by writing, “Those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned.”
Get that? We can advocate our opposition, but there is little legal standing in such a weak word. As Chief Justice John Roberts put it, “The majority graciously suggests that religious believers may continue to ‘advocate’ and ‘teach’ their views of marriage. The First Amendment guarantees, however, the freedom to ‘exercise’ religion. Ominously, that is not a word the majority uses.”
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