The Patriot Post Digest 10-12-2015

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The Patriot Post Digest 10-12-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Daily Digest

Oct. 12, 2015

THE FOUNDATION

“It will not be too strong to say, that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station [of President] filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue.” — Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 68

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Biden Gets Key Endorsement. Again.1

Barack Obama took to CBS’s “60 Minutes” Sunday night to hang Hillary Clinton out to dry. “She made a mistake,” Obama said, speaking about Clinton’s private email server2. “She has acknowledged it. I do think that the way it’s been ginned up is in part because of politics. I think she’d be the first to acknowledge that maybe she could have handled the original decision better and the disclosures more quickly.” Having dismissed the issue as “politics,” he also called the server a “legitimate” issue — and then denied any security implications. “Well, I — there’s no doubt that there had been breaches, and these are all a matter of degree. We don’t get an impression that here there was purposely efforts … to hide something or to squirrel away information.” He then smirked and added, “I’m gonna leave it to … Hillary when she has an interview with you to address all these questions.” Clearly, Obama’s not happy with her decision and is content now to leave his old rival to deal with political accountability and an FBI investigation.

Meanwhile, he had nothing but glowing things to say about his vice president. “I think Joe [Biden] will go down as one of the finest vice presidents in history, and one of the more consequential,” he said. “He has done great work.” Just a couple of months ago, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest gushed3, “The president has indicated that his view that the decision that he made … to add Joe Biden to the ticket as his running mate was the smartest decision that he has ever made in politics. And I think that should give you some sense into the president’s view into the vice president’s aptitude for the top job.” It seems pretty clear that Obama’s old rivalry with the Clintons is still fresh, and that he’d love nothing more than for his No. 2 to win the Democrat nomination.

The Left Is Simplifying the Message of Columbus Day4

Today is the only day of the year when the Left loathes remembering the arrival of a group of undocumented immigrants looking for economic opportunity in America. The history of Christopher Columbus and the European explorers is certainly mixed — for example, with Hernán Cortés and his conquistadors on one side, and cannibalistic sacrifice5 by the natives on the other — but the Left would rather, er, whitewash the uncomfortable and nuanced discussions for a simplistic view of history. Nine cities across the country issued declarations celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day this second Monday in October instead of the federal holiday remembering ol' Columbus. In addition to the furor to wipe out the legacy of the Confederate States of America and other “politically incorrect” chapters of our nation’s history, the Left wants to control how we think about Native Americans. As CBS News reports6, “Columbus Day supporters say the holiday celebrates centuries of cultural exchange between America and Europe, commemorates an iconic explorer and honors Italian-Americans, a group that has endured its own share of discrimination.” This bickering comes as California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Sunday banning7 the state’s schools from using the name “Redskins” for any team names and mascots. After all, how can the arc of history bend toward justice unless it’s tweaked?

Appeals Court Checks EPA’s Clean Water Act Interpretation8

In yet another check on the Obama administration’s power, the Appeals Court for the Sixth District ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency needs to stop implementing its encroachment of small waterways nationwide. In August, a federal judge stayed the EPA’s action after a conglomerate of 13 states filed suit. The states took issue with an expanded interpretation of the Clean Water Act that would, in the words of the judge in August9, make states “lose their sovereignty over intrastate waters.” The agency responded by saying the stay only applied to the states named in the suit, not the rest of the nation, and continued its implementation. However, the appeals court put that bureaucratic overreach to rest Friday by ruling the stay applied to the whole of the United States. “A stay allows for a more deliberate determination whether this exercise of executive power, enabled by Congress and explicated by the Supreme Court, is proper under the dictates of federal law,” the court wrote10. How about a little humility, EPA? This legal smackdown comes as the EPA triggered yet another wastewater spill11 from a mine in Colorado. The agency assumed that any questions of its actions would not be legitimate. Now there’s mud on its face from more than one direction.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
‘Settled Science’ Strikes Again12

By Lewis Morris

The federal government is finally walking back its dietary guidelines13 on fat consumption. This year, federal bureaucrats are engaging in a periodic rewrite of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans14, and it appears this time they may finally be listening to what the research is telling them — because the science isn’t settled.

Since 1980, the assumption held by the federal government was that a reduction in total fat content would reduce the risk of heart disease, which has long been the number one killer of Americans. As years passed, however, independent scientists discovered that it wasn’t necessarily a reduction in total fat that was at issue, but better management of the sources of fat in one’s diet.

For decades, federal bureaucrats led people to believe they could reduce the risk of heart disease if they lowered their fat intake. to only 20-35% of their diet, regardless of the source. As a result, people ate more carbohydrates and sugars to fill up, which led to higher rates of obesity. People also reduced their consumption of beneficial monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats like fish and nuts. Consequently, heart disease continued to rise.

The federal government also told Americans that whole milk was bad, and people began drinking more skim and low-fat milk. Unfortunately, in their zeal to eat less fat, people neglected the beneficial nutrients whole milk had to offer. Children in particular missed out because the nutrients found in whole milk have been proven to be highly beneficial to the body during growth phases.

“If we are going to make recommendations to the public about what to eat, we should be pretty darn sure they’re right and won’t cause harm,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and epidemiologist at Tufts University. “There’s no evidence that the reduction of saturated fats should be a priority.”

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The Patriot Post Digest 10-12-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Penny Kris-Etherton, professor of nutrition at Penn State and the chair of the American Heart Association’s nutrition committee, added, “A lot of people still look at how much fat [is in foods], and we’re now saying don’t focus on that: Look at the quality of fat you’re consuming.”

It turns out the milk fat government said was bad for us actually lowered incidents of heart disease. Studies have been mounting for years disproving the long-standing guidelines that the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services refused to revisit. Perhaps they believed the science was settled. It’s just one more example of a terrible trend by the government to entrench itself in a debate in which it really should have no voice.

Just why we are listening to the federal government tells us regarding our diets is anybody’s guess. Being elected to public office or being appointed to a government board does not automatically make one an expert in any field, particularly medicine.

Now, consider the “settled science” on climate change and other similar arguments over the production and consumption of energy. Democrats claim they want to free science in the name of scholarly debate, but they reject the idea that the driving force of science is discovery. It’s about analyzing data and looking at the evidence as it is currently understood, not arbitrarily announcing a conclusion, then looking for favorable data that fits the narrative while ignoring contrary evidence — all in support of massive government economic interference.

There’s a lot of money riding on the government’s actions. There is a huge cost in health care to be paid for the higher incidences of heart disease that resulted from wrong-headed government action. But the money doesn’t seem to matter. And no one is learning the lesson.

Michelle Obama’s crusade for healthier school lunches is based on the same questionable data that have backed the federal dietary guidelines for decades. The USDA estimates that school districts will have to pay $1.22 billion in new food and administrative costs in Fiscal Year 2015. Additional costs for FY 2014 were $362 million. Rather than let local school nutrition experts determine what works, public schools across the country are forced to listen to the First Lady, whose own experience in the matter extends to planting a vegetable garden on the White House grounds.

But hey, it’s “settled science.”

MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE

    ANALYSIS: A Progressive-Inspired Hollywood Horror Show15
    Here Comes the Executive Action on Gun Control16
    Energy Department Is Wreaking Its Own Economic Havoc17
    A Bad Week in Syria18

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

    Marvin J. Folkertsma: Tracking America’s Suicide19
    Hans von Spakovsky: No, Alabama Closing Part-Time DMVs Is Not ‘New Jim Crow’20
    John Goodman: Why Not Just Get Rid of Labor Law?21

For more, visit Right Opinion22.

TOP HEADLINES

    Officer Recommends No Jail Time for Bergdahl23
    American Journalist Convicted in Iran24
    Walter Scott Family Reaches $6.5M Settlement With City25

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report26

OPINION IN BRIEF

Marvin J. Folkertsma: “In 2011 … a group of Green Berets, which included Captain Danny Quinn and Sergeant First Class Charles Martland, were faced with reprehensible acts that pitted them against some local officials in a classic episode involving a clash of civilizations. … Martland proclaimed that they morally could not tolerate Afghan soldiers committing atrocities against their own people in the presence of U.S. forces, and the two men made their point clear by body-slamming the soldier [raping a young boy] and kicking him off the post. … Although Quinn has since left the military, Martland is currently fighting to keep his position before he is discharged, effective November 1. Without question, these American soldiers represent the best that our country has to offer, sterling exemplars of moral rectitude and courage. However, they are currently facing an enemy that is arguably more insidious than anything they have faced so far on the battlefield. What enemy is that? It is the reigning multiculturalist ideology, a witch’s brew of moral relativism that over the past two generations has morally castrated Western civilization by expunging efforts to make principled judgments defending our values. At best, multiculturalists believe in nothing in particular. And as the West’s enemies know, something always beats nothing, and it doesn’t matter how reprehensible that something is. In short, multiculturalism represents the suicide of Western civilization.”

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “The size of the federal budget is not an appropriate barometer of social conscience or charitable concern.”

Braying Jenny: “The 15 Republican candidates that are left … [are] saying, ‘Yeah, let’s kick women out. Let’s kick immigrants out of this country. Let’s take away health care from women.’” —Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Identity crisis: “No, [I’m not a capitalist]. I’m a Democratic Socialist. … Look, when one of your Republican colleagues gets on the show, do you say, ‘Are you a capitalist?’ Have you ever referred to them as capitalists?” —an agitated Bernie Sanders on “Meet the Press”

The BIG lie: “It is my understanding that they made a decision, a business decision that regulations didn’t shut them down. They didn’t want to live within the regulations. So they decided to go elsewhere. That was a private sector decision on their part to do that.” —Nancy Pelosi on San Francisco’s only gun shop closing27

Village Idiots: “Jesus was a Palestinian.” —former Obama pastor Jeremiah Wright

Non Compos Mentis: “If you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in, in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we’ve got a different definition of leadership. My definition of leadership would be leading on climate change, an international accord that potentially we’ll get in Paris. My definition of leadership is mobilizing the entire world to make sure that Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon.” —Barack Obama, who contends Vladimir Putin’s recent provocations aren’t “an indication of strength”

And last… “Note to self: Remind Obama not to talk about ‘limiting gun ownership’ & ‘releasing thousands of dangerous prison inmates’ on the same day.” —Twitter satirist @weknowwhatsbest

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.