Columnist.
Over the past eight years, the Obama administration has never let a crisis go to waste. The Orlando terrorist attack was no different.
Joshua Bruner is a real-life Captain America. The 15-year-old country boy from Ringoes, New Jersey, is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. He's a member of two state shooting teams and he serves as a United States Sea Cadet. Darcy Meys said her son wants to follow in his great-grandfather's footsteps and enlist in the Marines. "Josh considers himself to be a patriot," she told me. "He loves his country." A few weeks ago Josh was given an assignment in a photography class at Hunterdon Central Regional High School. He had to take a self-portrait representing self-expression.
When it comes to eating at a barbecue joint there's an unspoken code of conduct. You don't order salad, you don't use a fork and if you're a cross-dressing cowboy with an affinity for stiletto heels, you don't use the ladies room. And that brings me to a story from the pages of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about a small-town barbecue joint that inadvertently found itself right smack in the middle of the big debate over transgender bathrooms.
North Carolina Rep. Renee Ellmers campaigned as a Tea Party conservative. But when she got elected in 2011, voters quickly realized they had elected a phony. To paraphrase a great country music song, "Renee got the ring, Voters got the finger." But thanks to redistricting, North Carolina conservatives got a heaping helping of payback on Tuesday night.
Firefighters and first responders in Harris County, Texas, bid farewell to one of their own the other day. "It was an incredibly sad day for us," public information officer David Padovan told me. "Any time we lose one of our members it cuts to the core. And Bretagne was a full-fledged member of our fire department." Bretagne was a longtime member of Texas Task Force One — an urban search-and-rescue team. She and her partner Denise Corliss responded to some of the nation's most horrific disasters — from Hurricane Katrina to the tornadoes that ravaged Moore, Okla. She was also there in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
A public school in California ordered a seven-year-old boy to stop handing out Bible verses during lunch — and it dispatched a deputy sheriff to the child's home to enforce the directive. "This is a clear, gross violation of the rights of a child," said Horatio Mihet, a Liberty Counsel attorney representing the first-grader who attends Desert Rose Elementary School in Palmdale. They are also representing his parents, Christina and Jaime Zavala.
San Jose is supposed to be a sanctuary city. Illegal aliens are welcome — but Donald Trump and his supporters are not. A violent crowd of mostly Spanish-speaking thugs waving Mexican flags brutally attacked Americans in San Jose Thursday night. They targeted supporters of Mr. Trump, leaving them bloodied and battered. One guy was sucker-punched. Another was smashed in the face. A woman was pelted with bottles and eggs.
A Kansas military base abruptly canceled an upcoming prayer breakfast that featured retired Lt. General Jerry Boykin after complaints were lodged that Boykin is anti-Muslim and anti-gay. Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder Mikey Weinstein told Army Times that Boykin's invitation had caused great angst among soldiers at Fort Riley – leading some to break down in tears.
A New York City man could be facing a manslaughter charge for defending his wife against a would-be rapist. Mamadou Diallo received a frantic call from his wife. A man identified as Earl Nash forced his way into the Diallos' apartment, according to the brave husband. The intruder took off his pants and attacked Mrs. Diallo, tearing off her clothes and telling her she was about to be raped, according to reports.
Days before the 1983 gubernatorial election in Louisiana, Democrat Edwin Edwards infamously declared that "the only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy." Edwards was elected governor that year — demonstrating the low bar Democrats must hurdle to hold public office in the Bayou State. Edwards may have been a scoundrel (not to mention a convicted felon) but at least he didn't slander our Founding Fathers or the Declaration of Independence.
Ken Dabelstein is a proud American. He owns Ken's Country Produce, a bedding plant business in Westland, Michigan — which has the distinction of being an "All-American City." Folks around Westland have been getting their marigolds and petunias from Ken for 42 years.
It was the best kept secret in East Liverpool, Ohio. Just moments before the graduation ceremony at East Liverpool High School on Sunday, the senior class gathered in a nearby auditorium. Together, they decided to do something that would make national headlines. The week before students learned they would no longer be allowed to perform "The Lord's Prayer" – a graduation tradition dating back some 70 years.
An angry mob caused mayhem outside a Donald Trump rally Tuesday night in Albuquerque, New Mexico, turning the city into a *de facto* Third World country. The rampaging gang was made up of anti-Trump goons waving the Mexican flag and burning a Trump banner. "Viva Mexico," protesters shouted, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
When folks around Beulah, Michigan get a hankering to eat breakfast for dinner, they'll more often than not head over to the Blue Caribou Café and order a Hypocrite Omelet. (That's a vegetarian omelet with your choice of meat.) Ever since it opened nearly two years ago, the Blue Caribou Café has become a gathering place for locals and tourists in this resort town on the shores of Northern Michigan's Crystal Lake.
It's the mother of all food fights — church ladies versus lunch ladies. The controversy involves a church that received permission from the Seattle School District to serve free pizza to students at three area high schools.
Donald Trump has agreed to meet privately with some of the nation's most prominent Evangelical leaders — a meeting seen as critical to garnering support from social conservatives, Fox News has learned. "Our goal is to be able to have a conversation that could lead to a better understanding of what Donald Trump has to offer to the country," said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.
When given the choice of standing alongside a decorated military hero or a bunch of militant LGBT activists, choose wisely. The leadership of Hampden-Sydney College learned that lesson the hard way. On May 19 I reported to you that the Virginia all-male college had chosen not to renew retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin's contract, ending his stellar, nine-year career teaching leadership and ethics.
Jerry Boykin is the kind of man you'd want teaching your sons — a good and decent man, an honorable man — a Christian man. For the past nine years the retired lieutenant general has taught leadership and ethics at Hampden-Sydney College, a highly regarded, all-male school based in Virginia. By many accounts — he is beloved and deeply respected by students. But Gen. Boykin will not be returning to the classroom this fall. That's because he tells me he's been fired.
A musical rendition of "The Lord's Prayer" has been performed at East Liverpool High School's commencement for nearly 70 years. Lisa Ensinger performed the sacred song when she was a senior at the Ohio school in 1986. "It's a tradition," she told me — a tradition that she continued when she became the high school's choir director.
I am the bad boy of Facebook. I earned that badge of honor back in 2013 when Facebook blocked my page and removed a message I had posted that invoked Paula Deen, the National Rifle Association and Jesus Christ.
