Columnist.
Although it is commonly accepted that Obama is the worst president in American history, having wrested the title out of Jimmy Carter's clammy grasp, we shouldn't be too quick to overlook the damage Carter did. By deciding that the Shah of Iran was a bad guy who didn't deserve our support, Carter rolled out the red carpet for the Islamic revolutionaries who have spent the past few decades fomenting trouble for the world. One of the first things they did under the leadership of the Ayatollah Khomeini was to take American diplomats hostage, holding 52 of them for 444 days until the day that Ronald Reagan took office. Then, realizing that they were now facing a man with a backbone, they released the 52 on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 1981.
I realize that there are actually some people outside John McCain's immediate family who regard him as a statesman. They've come to that silly conclusion based on the fact that he loved adding his name to legislation proposed by the abominable likes of Russ Feingold and Ted Kennedy. He referred to it as reaching across the aisle, no doubt picturing himself as God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, reaching down from a heavenly cloud to give life to Adam. Unfortunately, as biologist Richard Dawkins has observed, "When two opposite points of view are expressed with equal intensity, the truth does not necessarily lie halfway between them. It is possible one side is simply wrong." These days, that's not just possible, it's just about guaranteed, which is why people like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner shouldn't even think about accommodating Democrats. It's a poker game with marked cards, and the Republicans will not only lose their shirts, pants and underwear, but they will be written off as traitors by those who elected them.
Recently, there was an event held in Washington, D.C., for the purpose of honoring excellence in American journalism. (Stop laughing, I'm being serious.) And what's more, the keynote address was delivered by Hillary Clinton, who was clearly looking to curry favor by saying – with a straight face, apparently – "We need more than ever smart, fair-minded journalists to challenge our assumptions, push us towards new solutions, and hold all of us accountable." Then, in spite of the fact that she refused to answer any questions, the assemblage gave her a standing ovation. Only in Washington could a candidate for president pretend to mean such utter hogwash and a group of 300 left-wing propagandists pretend to believe she meant it. On her way out the door, Mrs. Clinton rubbed their little pink bellies and handed out doggy treats.
When I was a kid, a very popular radio show hosted by Ralph Edwards was "Truth or Consequences." Contestants would be asked questions and if they muffed one, they would have to face the consequences, which usually involved performing embarrassing stunts in public and then returning the following week to describe their humiliation. But since there were prizes bestowed for "being such a good sport," there was an endless queue of willing victims. That was then, this is now. People – especially those in public life, particularly political life -- can do or say just about anything and get away with it. For instance, even though Eric Holder's own Justice Department found that Officer Darren Wilson had done everything by the book – and you have to know how much Mr. Holder hated that conclusion! – and that the shooting of Ferguson thug Michael Brown was justified, no member of the Congressional Black Caucus ever apologized for standing on the front steps of Congress conveying the false narrative that Brown had raised his hands in surrender.
I know that some people were upset that Barack Obama didn't call to congratulate Bibi Netanyahu on his monumental victory in the Israeli election, the way that the leaders of Canada, India and the U.K., did. I wasn't one of those people. For one thing, everyone knows by this time that the only thing worse than Obama's policies are his manners. He just might be the pettiest individual to have ever been engaged in American politics. Judging by the man he turned out to be, I'm betting that as a kid, Obama was the sort of brat who would hold his breath and stomp his feet if he didn't get his own way. Besides, it's Netanyahu who should have called and thanked Obama. Just knowing that Obama hated Israel's P.M., and that he had even sent his operatives to Israel and helped to fund their activities on behalf of the opposition, was probably all it took to turn what was predicted to be a squeaker of an election into a rout.
There is no real way to know how much racism exists in someone's heart. But something that is easy to measure are the consequences facing white versus black racists. For instance, when a white cop emails racist comments, he's fired as soon as it's found out. When a white college student chants a racist ditty, he's expelled. However, when a black person airs his racism, he winds up in the Oval Office, heading up the Justice Department or, like Al Sharpton, wealthy, with his own TV show, a national following and the key to the White House. Then, for good measure, we have to listen to Barack Obama and Eric Holder pretend that the Ferguson Police Department is a greater menace than ISIS and Iran put together, a conclusion based on the fact that the arrests and traffic stops of blacks exceed their statistical presence, while neglecting to acknowledge that blacks commit crimes and driving violations far in excess of their actual numbers.
When State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked if the administration still believes the trade of five high-ranking jihadists for one Army deserter was a good deal, her blithe response was that we are still able to monitor their activities. When a follow-up question mentioned that three of the five have already attempted to rejoin their fellow terrorists in order to kill Americans, she actually said that proved that our attempts to monitor their activities have been successful. It was at that point my head exploded. But she is the least of our worries when you realize that even after our ambassador had to beat a hasty retreat out of Yemen and our Marines had to make good their last second getaway on civilian transport, after leaving their weapons behind, Obama continued to call Yemen one of his more notable successes. I suppose it qualifies if one also considers the Titanic, the Hindenburg and ObamaCare, success stories.
Joe Biden says really stupid things nearly every time he opens his yap. But that's small potatoes compared to the crimes and sins of the Clintons. What is truly remarkable about this couple is that, outside of Arkansas, most people had never heard of them prior to 1992. Over the course of 23 years, they have been involved in one scandal after another. A short stroll down memory lane will remind us of Whitewater; Filegate; Travelgate; accepting campaign contributions from China; renting out the Lincoln Bedroom to political supporters; a presidential pardon to fugitive Marc Rich; sex scandals involving Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick, Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky; a cozy relationship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein; perjury; impeachment; disbarment; accepting contributions from foreign nations while serving as Secretary of State; covering up the Benghazi massacre; and now ignoring legal and ethical sanctions involving the use of unauthorized email accounts.
I don't envy many people, but I did envy Abigail Van Buren her "Dear Abby" column. For years, she ruled the roost with her advice not only to the lovelorn, but to people having problems with their spouses, their siblings, their in-laws and even with their neighbors and co-workers, and she often got to do it in jokey fashion. I happen to be great at giving advice to people, especially if I can make jokes about their troubles. And in a pinch, Abby wasn't above simply sluffing them off on shrinks, priests and ministers. I, on the other hand, would never think to deal with sub-contractors. There is simply no problem I can't deal with in 100 words or less, so long as it's someone else's and not my own.
I believe I understand why Hillary hates the media. It's because they keep writing the truth about her. Even the NY Times, as left-wing as it is and always has been (let us never forget that Walter Duranty won the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for filing news stories about Joseph Stalin that read like love poems), couldn't refrain from breaking the news that during the four years she was Secretary of State, she used her personal email and owned her own server. What she did was illegal, immoral, unethical and probably fattening, but probably no more so than the Clinton Foundation sucking in millions of dollars in foreign bribes while Hillary busied herself sightseeing on the taxpayers' dime, lying about Benghazi and pushing the reset button with Russia. When asked about Hillary's using an unsecured email account, Obama, who had swapped countless communiques with Hillary, claimed he was unaware of the brewing scandal until he read about it in the newspaper. At the same time, the chap who has kept his birth certificate, his school transcript, his travel visas and his early sex life, under lock and key, insists he is as transparent as glass. Maybe, if he happens to be referring to stained glass.
Any list of my personal peeves would have to include New York City's Mayor Bill De Blasio. Those of us who used to take shots at the former mayor, referring to him as Nanny Bloomberg, didn't fully appreciate how much worse New York voters could do once they really put their minds to it. I honestly thought that after siding with the street mob against the NYPD, De Blasio ran the very real risk of facing a recall election, but I should have known better than to expect New Yorkers to show any sign of sanity. Now I have no doubt that the city's left-wing Jewish and Italian voters will applaud De Blasio's latest decision, which is to close the public schools for two Muslim holidays, Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr. No doubt the voters will also applaud themselves for having elected this ecumenical buffoon.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Although I understood that when George W. Bush was in the White House and the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, America did not enter the state of Nirvana. Far from it. Bush banned incandescent bulbs; wasted fifteen billion dollars fighting AIDS on a continent where those suffering from the disease were convinced that the surest cure was having sex with a young virgin; and micromanaged the war in Iraq by insisting that we re-build every structure a minute after either we or the enemy had knocked it down. In the meantime, Republican senators fluttered their collective eyelashes at Ted Kennedy, hoping in their girlish hearts that he would invite them to the senior prom. I had assumed that after the shellacking they took over the next few years, they had learned their lesson. But, obviously, I was mistaken. Mea culpa.
I wonder how many million Americans were fantasizing Netanyahu in the Oval Office as he spoke sense from the same podium used by Obama to spew left-wing baby talk just six weeks earlier. Besides the content of their remarks, the major difference is that Obama spoke to a full house, whereas Netanyahu addressed a chamber from which a great many Democrats and one Republican pinhead, Walter Jones of North Carolina, had excused themselves. The absentees included Joe Biden, Sens. Al Franken (MN), Elizabeth Warren (MA), Tim Caine (VA), Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders (VT), Martin Heinrich (NMex), Steve Cohen (TN), Brian Schatz (HI), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI); nearly the entire Congressional Black Caucus (although Charley Rangel at the last minute decided to attend); and the two Muslim members of the House, Andre Carson (Ind) and Keith Ellison (MN).
Recently, the FCC passed what is basically a nullification of the 1st Amendment. What's more, they passed it along party lines, three Democrats out-voting two Republicans. Also, they did it secretly, which is pretty much the way that everything is done under Obama. Naturally, they misnamed it Net Neutrality just as they did with the Affordable Care Act. Neutrality is the go-to word for villains because it sounds fair and objective. But keep in mind that during WWII, it was Switzerland that claimed neutrality. That enabled it to avoid invasion while, at the same time, profit from the confiscation of money and art treasures by the Nazis. If I'd known nothing else about the ruling, I would have known which side I favored once I received an email from the Writers Guild of America cheering the decision. My Guild claims that writers will profit from having the feds overseeing the internet, but, then, the WGA, which is to the left of Juan Williams, champions everything that Obama says and does. What confounds me is that those idiots who view an all-powerful federal government as a force for good never seem to consider the possible consequences of a Republican president calling the shots.
Anyone who's lived a while has had friends and relatives die, and knows the grief that can overwhelm the survivors. It's further compounded when the death is a suicide. At such times, you can't help thinking about what you might have said or done that could have prevented it. That's how I now feel about America. I suppose each of us must determine for himself if the crime taking place is suicide by means of a slow-acting poison or murder that can be laid at the feet of homicidal liberals, but I don't think there can be any question that America is not long for this world. America's most precious possession, the Constitution, has been dragged through the mud by those whose egotism is so great that they seem to believe that their whims -- whether motivated by honest conviction or for strictly partisan reasons -- trumps what a bunch of divinely-inspired, long dead white guys, came up with a couple of hundred years ago.
Even though Bernie Goldberg has elected for perfectly rational reasons to stop posting my articles, we continue to exchange friendly email. I like Bernie and I think he's a smart guy, but occasionally I think he goes out of his way to poke Evangelicals, possibly to appear fair and balanced when attacking Islamic jihadists. Although Bernie is not a liberal, it is the sort of moral equivalence in which those on the Left are often engaged. It's not unlike Obama's comparing those who are lopping off heads and setting people on fire today to the Crusades, which took place a thousand years ago and were conducted in retaliation to Islamic barbarism. Recently, after Scott Walker refused to answer an English reporter's question about Evolution, Bernie took him to task and, by extension, those Christians who are convinced that the earth is only 6,000 years old.
It's been 39 years since the movie "Network" was released and we were all introduced to Howard Beale, the half-crazed TV anchorman created by Paddy Chayefsky and portrayed by Peter Finch. It was he who urged his audience to get off their couches, walk to the window, open it and scream: "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" These days, network anchormen either lie about the news or about their personal exploits, occasionally doing both simultaneously, but they never offer such sound advice as Mr. Beale. Frankly, I don't know how any sentient human being can look around and not feel the obligation, or at least the natural urge, to start screaming. For instance, the Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh (pronounced Jay) Johnson, yet another of Obama's endless supply of black, butt-kissing, supplicants, recently declared that conservative Americans are the real threat to American society, not Islamic fundamentalists.
In spite of constantly lying and cheating, liberals always claim to hold title to the moral high ground. Their instinct is always to pretend to care about things they don't. For instance, the House Republicans, in an attempt, to prevent Obama's granting legal status to five million illegal aliens, tied funding for Homeland Security to defunding Obama's blatantly unconstitutional power grab. Predictably, the Democrats in the Senate said that proved Republicans didn't care about protecting us from terrorists without even referring to the actual sticking point. And Mitch McConnell, who is as useless as a human appendix, never bothered making the Democrats explain why they were willing to sacrifice national security for the sake of providing illegal aliens with Social Security numbers and the ability to collect tax refunds for taxes they never paid!
I think the way you answer that question, which is really a combination of two questions, depends entirely on how you define a patriot and a Christian. Obviously those who believe that even the lies that Obama has told about Benghazi, the IRS targeting of conservatives and ObamaCare, were well-intentioned will defend his patriotism, just as those who take him at his word accept his claims to being a Christian. On the other hand, those of us who have not had our brains washed, rinsed and blow-dried, do not accept that which is blatantly false. How can someone who has spoken incessantly about America's sins, apologizing for our history and insulting our allies – going so far as to exile the bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office – be regarded as a patriot?
