President Obama has less than 72 hours left as the leader of the free world — and he’s using every single one of them to remind Americans why they made the right decision in November. And if anyone’s as happy as conservatives about this Friday’s festivities, it’s Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Like the rest of the world, he watched the one-day summit in Paris on Sunday, where Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry decided to take one last swipe at Israel on the way out the door.

With a final gasp, the Obama administration spent more than an hour bashing the U.S. ally and reaffirming its commitment to the Palestinians. Among other things, the liberal leaders voiced their objections to the possibility that Trump might move the U.S. embassy back to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv — something President Obama has refused to do in the absence of a final settlement agreement between Israel and Palestine. “Trump and his choice to be ambassador to Israel have telegraphed the commitment, which would ostensibly recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital after decades of insisting that the city’s status must be determined by direct negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians,” the AP points out.

By the end of the “rigged” conference, as Netanyahu called it, the “peace” summit was as “flat as a failed soufflé,” Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emanuel Nahshon tweeted. Apart from the subtle warnings to the incoming administration, little resulted from the meeting — much like Obama’s eight years of unsuccessful diplomacy. “This conference is among the last twitches of yesterday’s world,” Netanyahu told his cabinet. “Tomorrow’s world will be different — and it is very near.”

Originally published here.

Liberal Appointees Never Go Away

As the clock is ticking on the Obama administration, the president and team are furiously putting new rules and regulations in place that will serve as obstacles to the pro-growth, limited government initiatives of the Trump administration. But the danger posed by last-minute rules and regulations pales in comparison to the impact that Mr. Obama will have with the people he leaves behind. The combination of last-minute appointments to commissions and other federal posts will make changing the direction of some agencies challenging. The State Department is Exhibit A in how the Left has succeeded over the years to make the department resistant to change — even under a conservative president — by infiltrating the ranks of career service members with liberal appointees whose time has ended.

The new administration is sending Obama’s diplomats packing — but some are not going too far. In the case of LGBT Envoy Randy Berry, the move may be a short one. Inside the State Department, rumors are swirling that Secretary John Kerry’s pro-gay protégé just took a different job in the department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor division — giving the radical agenda a permanent home in an agency that some claim has nothing to do with social issues.

“I plan to come to work the day after the inauguration,” Berry told the Blade a year ago. “I serve the U.S. government. I serve the American people.” Unfortunately for voters anxious to return to real diplomacy, he may be close to making good on that promise. Berry, who spent more than a year and a half on a worldwide “tolerance” tour, has been very clear about his intentions from Day One. Special rights for people who identify as gay or transgender “creates a more durable, healthier nation,” he’s insisted. He took that message on the road through most of 2015 and 2016, leaning on other countries in an effort to force them to open their doors to extreme policies at the expense not just of the host nation’s values but of international religious liberty.

If the reports are accurate, returning the State Department to true, statutorily-defined foreign policy will be that much harder for the Trump team, which already has its work cut out for it in reversing the damage done by eight years of the department’s misguided priorities. And just because Berry switches posts doesn’t mean he’ll switch tactics. After all, this is a man who argued that the best way to effect change is to target other countries’ constitutions — meddling in a process where America has no business. “From [the beginning], one of my primary goals was … to engage with our detractors and to shine a spotlight on this key set of issues.” Obviously, President Obama is doing his best to protect that spotlight by shuffling Berry away from a job that could be eliminated under a conservative administration. This way, Berry could still influence policy, but from a position that doesn’t require executive approval.

Unfortunately, this is just another example of how the LGBT agenda has distracted and undermined the agency’s statutorily-defined goal of promoting religious liberty. While the Obama administration has never minded interfering in other country’s moral traditions, it refuses to intervene when lives of Christians are at stake — or the basic human rights to life and religious freedom. Until the department is headed up by a strong leader who is determined to face the hostile forces within, Obama’s liberal ideology that has created global instability will remain. Let’s hope and pray that the Trump team recognizes the threat and moves forward with a solid assistant secretary over the Bureau who won’t tolerate Berry bullying other countries on the Left’s sexual extremism.

Originally published here.

Middle Schoolers Get a Crass Course in Sex Ed

What’s the difference between a dirty magazine and Colorado’s sex-ed curriculum? The curriculum’s free! That’s the shocking reality at Fox Ridge Middle School, where parents are up in arms over an online portal that wouldn’t get past most internet filters. A local family stumbled on the materials when they were checking their child’s password access at school. Now, they’re exposing what the district never intended moms and dads to see: A controversial sex education site filled with erotica, advice on performing certain acts, homosexual propaganda, information on bondage, and much more.

But what may be more disturbing is that school officials, when confronted about the inappropriate content, actually pointed the finger at parents, claiming they were “breaking school policy” by logging on to the materials. The portal is password-protected for a reason, the district argued. As if that weren’t enough, officials cited the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as one supporter of the curriculum. (As if that’s comforting! SPLC is not only radically pro-LGBT, but it’s linked to the first case of domestic terrorism in DC by a federal court.) Stunned, a group of parents reached out for help in stopping the pornographic onslaught. After accessing several of the images and articles, MassResistance helped moms and dads confront the district. Not only did the board members and school officials admit the material was available to students but “they simply do not see a problem with it.”

Fortunately, though, the uproar has triggered a deeper investigation. “We will continue to review all of the resources and materials provided to students and will take the appropriate action regarding materials not suitable for use,” a spokesman said for the Denver-area district. In the meantime, one dad vowed, “We will attend every school board meeting in perpetuity until this stuff is taken off.” Thank goodness for parents who took the time to look at their kids’ curriculum. Too many families don’t do their homework about what their children are learning! Don’t be one of them.

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.