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« on: December 21, 2015, 06:24:09 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 12-21-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest
Dec. 21, 2015
THE FOUNDATION
“Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury and the liberty of the press necessary for your liberty? Will the abandonment of your most sacred rights tend to the security of your liberty?” —Patrick Henry, 1788
TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Clinton’s Potty Break Interrupted by Demo ‘Debate’1
Roughly 99.99% of Americans missed the fact that there was a Democrat presidential debate Saturday night. It’s painfully obvious that the Democratic National Committee is protecting Hillary Clinton by scheduling debates when no one will be watching because they’re out last-chance Christmas shopping and at the movies for opening weekend of Star Wars. So Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley can be forgiven for complaining. The party, which was once a raucous bunch that reveled in the old Will Rogers line — “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” — is now bending over backwards to make sure Hillary’s path to coronation is not blocked again. Even if she’s late back to the stage after a bathroom break.
Naturally, there weren’t many highlights. Whereas Republicans are engaged in a spirited debate about immigration, foreign policy and NSA surveillance, the three Democrats on stage Saturday offered nothing but leftist platitudes primarily on national security. They seek to gently criticize the atrocious state of affairs (under Barack Obama’s leadership, they’d rather you didn’t notice) while reminding viewers that Republicans are just plain terrible people.
Since Clinton will be the nominee, we’ll focus on her with three lowlights. An example of the lightly treading around Obama’s failures was Clinton’s reference to “glitches” in ObamaCare — like skyrocketing premiums and deductibles. She’s fix that, though, she promises. On Syria and the Islamic State, she said, “We now finally are where we need to be.” Famous last words that will show up in many a Republican campaign ad. And on Republicans and the Islamic State, she insisted that the GOP frontrunner “is becoming ISIS’s best recruiter.” She explained, “They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.” Then again, Clinton doesn’t have a great track record2 blaming videos for trouble in the Middle East.
All in all, you were better to finish that Christmas shopping than to sit through the Democrat drivel.
Obama Blames Cable News For Terrorism Concern3
It was a vignette that the Obama administration didn’t want The New York Times to publish. Barack Obama held an off-the-record meeting with journalists last week to explain his antiterrorism strategy and the ground rule was that anything Obama said could not be attributed to him. It was a way for Obama to mold the media into a more forceful propaganda arm for his agenda. Initially, the Times wasn’t going to play the commander in chief’s political game. In an article originally published Thursday evening, the Times wrote, “In his meeting with the columnists, Mr. Obama indicated that he did not see enough cable television to fully appreciate the anxiety after the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, and made clear that he plans to step up his public arguments. Republicans were telling Americans that he is not doing anything when he is doing a lot, he said.” You don’t hear Obama complaining how the media has distorted4 gun culture in this nation, but he defended his antiterrorism policies by blaming criticism of his strategies on the media and stupid Americans.
Later that night, as The Federalist reported5, the editors did not stand up to the executive branch like the time it published the Pentagon Papers. Instead, it deleted the telling paragraph and inserted a paragraph of administration catch phrases. Commentator Charles Krauthammer6 said of Obama’s statement, “This is his usual professorial condescension.” Over the weekend, Obama doubled down on his assertion, telling7 NPR the media has been hyping the Islamic State: “All you have been hearing about is these guys with masks or black flags who are potentially coming to get you.” As for the citizens of this nation worried about security, let them eat cake.
Court Rules Against School That Didn’t Hire Homosexual8
A judge in Massachusetts severely restricted the ability of religious organizations to fulfill their missions when he ruled that a Catholic school was guilty of discrimination for rescinding its job offer to a man later discovered to be homosexual. Matthew Barrett interviewed for the position of director of food services at Fontbonne Academy, an all-girls Catholic school, in 2013 and he was offered the job. But when he listed his husband as his emergency contact, the school rescinded his offer.
Judge Douglas H. Wilkins ruled the academy was guilty of discrimination, despite the school arguing that Barrett’s lifestyle was inconsistent with its teachings. As the school’s lawyer told Boston’s ABC affiliate WCVB9, teaching doesn’t occur just outside the classroom, and Barrett’s employment would conflict with what is taught in the theology classroom. “As an educational institution, Fontbonne retains control over its mission and message,” Wilkins wrote10. “It is not forced to allow Barrett to dilute that message, where he will not be a teacher, minister or spokesperson for Fontbonne and has not engaged in public advocacy of same-sex marriage.”
Furthermore, the judge ruled that the school could have been exempt from the state’s discrimination laws if the school only taught girls who believed the same things as the school. In making this ruling, the judge from the first state to legalize same-sex marriage is standing directly against Christian institutions charged with going into all the world to heal the sick, visit those in prison and feed the hungry. Using this same thinking, it’s not much of a stretch for the state to force Christian hospitals to perform gender-reassignment surgery, or perform abortions.
FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Nonjudgmental Absurdity11
By Arnold Ahlert
It’s been a slow year12 for the Christmas bashing that’s become rather routine at the Capitol rotunda in Tallahassee, Florida. Pam Olsen, president of the Florida Prayer Network, the group that has provided a Nativity scene there for the last two years, is taking a pass. “After much prayer, I truly want the message of Christ, The Son of God, born in a manger so long ago in Bethlehem, to be heard very clearly at this difficult time, instead of the dissension in the Capitol rotunda — this is not the year for that kind of debate in our rotunda,” Olsen said in an open letter.
The “debate” to which Olsen refers has been the recent effort to turn the rotunda into a citadel of competing displays, that mostly illuminate the determination of those who can’t stand to see Christians enjoying themselves during the holidays. It is coupled with the timidity of public officials cowed by political correctness. Political correctness that demands equal respect for the sacred and the profane.
Thus in 2014, for the sake of “balance,” the rotunda sported a protest display from the Satanic Temple. It featured an angel falling into a pit of fire. “There’s no significance to it; it’s just a display that we put up to counteract the Nativity scene,” explained13 Satanic Temple member John Porgal at the time. “It’s all or none, and this represents the other side of the manger scene.”
All or none also included a six-foot pole comprised of beer cans celebrating “Festivus,” a fictitious holiday spawned by the sitcom “Seinfeld.” Other atheist banners, including a display from the “Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster” whose followers are known as “Pastafarians,” were also part of the mix.
This year, because the FPN is taking a pass, the Satanic Temple is too. But they warn that could change if another group decides to put up a Christmas display. “As the assertion of plurality is always primary in our holiday displays, and many of our activities, we feel that our Satanic Holiday displays work best in a forum where a Nativity is present,” the Satanic Temple stated in an email. |
