A news you can use column:

• during an Equal Opportunity training brief for a Pennsylvania Army Reserve unit, Evangelical Christianity was number one on a list showing examples of “religious extremism.” Catholicism was also named, along with the Jewish Defense League, the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints, Al Qaeda, Hamas, the Ku Klux Klan, Sunni Muslims, the Nation of Islam – and Islamophobia. Army spokesman George Wright contended the presentation was “an isolated incident not condoned by the Dept. of the Army.”

You know what is condoned by the Army? Not giving Purple Hearts to those killed by Islamic terrorist Maj. Nidal Hasan, who slaughtered 13 and wounded 32 of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009. The Pentagon’s excuse? Awarding the Purple Hearts to the Fort Hood victims would make it harder to convict Hasan in the death-penalty case and “deprive the victims of these crimes the right to see justice done.” That would be the same justice-seeking Pentagon who labeled the crime “workplace violence.” And lest anyone forget, at the time of the massacre, then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said, “As horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.”

Here’s something far worse than that, George. Progressives, who operate much like termites, insinuate themselves into institutions they eventually turn to ideological rot. It happened to America’s universities, its publics schools, the mainstream media, and the entertainment culture, over the course of decades. Yet for years, there was one institution that remained staunchly conservative, namely the military.

That the military remained the boil on the butt of progressivism is no accident. People with a first-hand experience engaging America’s enemies – say religious extremists, for example – have traditionally had little use for the touchy-feely, hand wringing, “why do they hate us” garbage that progressives regularly spew.

Now military tradition, like most American traditions in conflict with the progressive worldview, is under assault. It is no longer deniable that progressives have turned the military into another exercise in social engineering. As with every other institution, the long term goal is the removal of another obstacle to progressive hegemony. The military is the last – and by far the most important – domino to fall.

• in Great Britain, mobs of hooligans spent Tuesday night celebrating the death of Margaret Thatcher. In cities across the nation, police were assaulted, riots erupted, and stores were looted and vandalized, in scenes reminiscent of the violence that took place there in 2011.

Thatcher once said that the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money to spend. That’s only half the problem. The other half is that you eventually run out of anything resembling dignity, decency and common sense, concepts these clueless thugs would willingly toss on the ash heap of history. That’s the same ash heap where Britain itself is headed.

• in America, the Republican Party is trying to toss itself on the ash heap of history. The latest “comprehensive immigration reform bill” reportedly totals 1500 pages, and bet the farm that millions of illegals will be on a “pathway to citizenship,” long before anything resembling border security actually amounts to border security. Why any political party would countenance, much less endorse, adding millions of people to the voting rolls of the opposite party – based on the ludicrous hope that they can win Hispanic hearts and minds and votes in the process – might set the historical standard for denial, coupled with unabashed brown-nosing. Memo to Marco Rubio: the first rule of politics is, don’t get rolled. Rubio as presidential timber? If he signs onto this deal, more like timber – period.

• this week, over 700 Special Ops veterans sent a letter to Congress demanding a special investigation into the attack in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012. So far, a totally-in-the-tank media has managed to keep a lid on a scandal that makes Watergate look like amateur hour.

Once again, I’ll offer a spineless Republican National Committee a thirty second commercial they can run nationwide. Gather together family members of Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone S. Woods and Glen A. Doherty, the four men killed in the attack. Add in any relatives you can find of the 20-30 survivors who remain “off limits,” courtesy of the federal government. Put them all on camera, and have these relatives demand to know what happened. If they’ve been told to keep quiet, have them mention that as well. After they speak, cut to Hillary Clinton testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, when she uttered the immortal words, “What difference at this point does it make?” End the commercial with the line, “To the families of the victims, as well as every other decent and patriotic American, it makes all the difference in the world.”

• a Texas public university professor is being investigated by school administrators for allegedly forcing students in her graphic design class to create anti-gun posters – for her personal anti-gun campaign. Jennifer Yucus, Assistant Professor of Graphic Art/Design at Midwestern State University, allegedly told students who objected to the task to rationalize their objections by thinking of it as a job from an employer.

At some point, even the dimmest of dim bulbs are going to realize that a college education doesn’t come with the remotest guarantee that there is a “job from an employer” waiting for everyone who graduates. What is waiting is a mountain of debt for those still willing to tolerate bonehead professors, leftist indoctrination, and very little in the way of real world preparation. As it stands now, most of these kids will be paying off their college debt with tips – as many college graduates, currently working as waiters and bartenders, have discovered. I’d like to sympathize, but the so-called “youth vote” helped reelect Barack Obama. Thus they own the Obama-inspired Era of New Normal, a combination of chronic unemployment and dangerously high levels of debt that will drag younger generations down for years.

Yet maybe some of these kids may still be able to make ends meet – until they’re forced to buy health insurance or pay a fine. That’s part of the New Normal as well.

• finally, a story the mainstream media avoids like the plague: the trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell, facing multiple counts of murder for allegedly killing seven babies after they were delivered alive, as well as 41-year-old Karnamaya Monga, who died following a botched abortion procedure. The latest testimony comes from clinic employee Sherry West, who said she heard a baby scream during a live-birth abortion, and it “really freaked me out.” “I can’t describe it. It sounded like a little alien,” West testified, adding that the baby was about 18 to 24 inches long, making it one of the largest babies she had seen delivered at Gosnell’s clinic.

When investigators searched Gosnell’s facility last year, they found bags and bottles containing aborted babies scattered throughout the building, jars holding babies’ severed feet lining a shelf, and a shocking level of filthy, and unsanitary conditions. The only thing more shocking is the indifference of state officials who, as the the grand jury investigation reveals, did nothing, despite receiving reports about problems at the facility.

In case you’re wondering how we got to this level of depravity, testimony by Planned Parenthood lobbyist Alisa LaPolt Snow, given to Florida lawmakers, reveals the depth of moral bankruptcy among the “pro choice” crowd. The key exchange:

Lawmaker: “If a baby is born on a table as the result of a botched abortion, what would Planned Parenthood want to have happen to that child who’s struggling for life?”

Snow: “We believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.”

Political commentator and community organizer Sally Kohn attempted to rescue Snow. “There’s no question this woman gave a ridiculous answer, but it’s also a ridiculous question,” she contended. “The reality of abortion is emotional enough, we don’t need to be dealing with the sort of made up fear mongering, horrific hypotheticals.”

Ms. Kohn, let me introduce you to Kermit Gosnell.