Facing the Varsity

A few short months ago, Barack Hussein Obama dismissed the "Islamic State" (IS) as the junior varsity team. Since then, the Islamic State has taken over wide swathes of Iraq and Syria. The United States has now been forced to commit air power to containing the Islamic State. Obama, who so recently did not take IS all that seriously, now says it will be a long process and not easy, but that the US and our allies will eventually defeat IS. The President said in a Sixty Minutes interview broadcast Sunday that our intelligence community had underestimated the threat posed by the Islamic State. Will the President's publicly pronounced lack of faith in US intelligence not a.)cause the American public to lose faith in our spies, and b.)sap the morale of our intelligence operatives and further hurt the agencies they represent? Seldom before Obama did Americans see so-called leaders point the finger and say the buck stops somewhere else.

War Against Ebola

The United States has deployed the military to Africa to battle a disease. That illnesses is so virulent that it infected American medical missionaries who had trained for years to deal with and protect themselves from communicable illnesses. If well-trained medical professionals found themselves contracting the Ebola virus, is it not likely members of the US armed forces with considerably less medical training might catch the disease? Might they not bring that sickness back to the States to infect other Americans? While everyone wants to help, I believe it was ill-considered to expose our troops and the American public when those forces are brought home to such a risk. It would have been better to devote resources to the production in quantity of the vaccine that saved the medical missionaries and then ship that cure to the African medical workers who were already on "the front line" rather than to send troops who have no cure for Ebola into the danger zone.

Resolute Russia Reemerges

Unlike the United States, Russia has a strong leader. Vladimir Putin is the anti-Obama. Putin is everything Barack Hussein Obama is not. He exemplifies the values of traditional Russia. Obama tries to "change" America, taking us farther than ever from our founding virtues. Russians look to and respect assertive leaders, which is precisely what Putin is. Obama seeks to "lead from behind", expecting to find coalitions to defeat threats to US security, rather than vigorously defending American strategic interests. Putin is a Russian bear. George W. Bush was a cowboy. Barack Obama is a steer.

Recovery Plan America

The ultra wealthy are doing fine here in the United States. The poor do not suffer in the US as they sometimes do in other places as the US has a vast social safety net. I hereby propose to restore prosperity to the dwindling and assailed middle class in these steps: 1.)Cut domestic spending by the Federal government. 2.)End the Federal Income Tax. 3.)Replace that tax with a national sales tax. (That way, individuals could have some control over what they owe to government. By consuming less, they could pay less in taxes, giving citizens more choice in their economic destiny). 4.)Reduce burdensome government regulation that criminalizes far too much and stifles wealth creation. (Entrepreneurship built America's prosperity that our socialist masters have sapped, but free enterprise, if allowed to, can still save us). 5.)Abolish the Federal Reserve and return the US to a gold and/or silver standard so that our currency has real value and is not an overprinted fiat currency, the value of which is predicated on a false promise by government (Let "full faith and credit" have actual value). 6.) Restore America's defense to reinforce our capacity to deter foreign enemies (including terrorists abroad). This is the only part of my proposal that engenders additional expense on the part of the public but is a necessary effort for national security and our very survival as a nation and as individuals. 7.)Replace Obamacare with the eminently viable GOP health plan set forth by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal . These seven steps might not all be easy, but they could allow most to become more free and prosperous, which is why none of the steps will ever be implemented. Power in the United States is a virus that protects and perpetuates itself while killing its host, which is our fading liberty, that America's elite are killing.

The New Year

The holiday of Rosh Hashanah which marks the Jewish New Year has just been celebrated by Jews worldwide. Each year, Jews pray for peace but the Jewish people have rarely found that elusive peace. The coming year looks no different than the last year. Jews found themselves attacked everywhere from Israel to the Jewish museum in Belgium. Three Jewish boys in Israel were abducted and murdered, sparking a prolonged war with the terror group Hamas. The forces that slaughtered Jews in the Holy Land and abroad gained strength while the Jewish State was subjected to evermore criticism as an "apartheid" state with threats looming of boycotts, divestment, and sanction. We hope what we as Jews face does not grow worse, and pray our situation improves, but it seems certain it will deteriorate. We beseech the Lord to sustain us and grant our people and all the people of the world a peaceful year.

Goodbye Eric Holder

The good news today is that the white-hating attorney general of the United States is stepping down. Eric Holder, the most racially-hostile member of the Obama cabinet is departing. The bad news is that Holder's boss is not resigning with him. I am not sanguine that whoever Obama appoints to succeed him will be any less biased. Holder has been hostile to traditional values and gun rights. Holder refused to prosecute members of the New Black Panther Party who had intimidated white voters in Philadelphia. Holder perfectly reflected the views of Obama, and Obama will select a like-minded individual who sees everything through a racial prism to be the next Attorney General of the US.

Little Jack Burden

Little Jack Burden has become New Jack Burden// Urban predator, pretend farmer// Pigford at the trough, all the slop they can steal// A different breed of dole dweller// Sneaking out of the DC cellar// Hey Jose, can you pick my crop?// "No indeed, give me EBT or I'll call a cop"// Virginia coed- she go bye// Break you crackers, you gonna die// Bin Laden's brother sneak across the Southern border because he thinks some jihad is in order// So go out and vote RINO in November// This will be your act of surrender

On Climate Change

Hubris is behind the notion that the human species is so powerful that we can alter the climate. The world has just witnessed climate marches where more than a million people globally gathered to protest a chimera. The pride that must be involved with thinking you quitting your gas guzzler will save the environment, or even better, the pride felt in forcing your neighbor to give up his SUV and that will save "Mother Earth" must be overwhelming. Those pushing climate change must think we are our own gods because they fail to recognize the sovereign power of the Lord. Human activity does not cause, nor can human activity prevent hurricanes. It is the height of folly to believe man has so much power and G-d so little. Man is not that potent and the good Lord is not so puny as to permit people driving down the street or switching on light bulbs to have a lasting effect on the climate of earth.

Housing Market Stinks

Despite all the rose-colored glasses talk coming from the White House about a roaring economy, existing home sales slipped two percent last month. Ninety-two million American adults are not working. More Americans are on some form of government aid than ever before. America has welcomed in more than eleven million illegal aliens, including at least seventy thousand unaccompanied minors, and must find means to feed and house them. Middle class Americans see no cause for optimism that would cause them to buy a house. Residential real estate now is not a buyers' or sellers' market. It is a mourners' market for traditional Americans so distressed at seeing their country taken away from them.

Titans Really Disappoint

Rooting for my hometown professional football team, the Tennessee Titans, is like supporting the Chicago Cubs. The Titans organization wanted desperately to give owner Bud Adams a Super Bowl title. Adams died waiting. The Titans are nowhere near as bad as the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers were, but that makes the losses that much more disappointing. They come close to the prize, but it manages to elude them, just out of reach. "Maybe next year" should be the anthem for the hapless Tennessee Titans.

Dime of Difference

The go-along GOP as embodied by John Boehner disgusts me. Boehner, who hardly ever squawks about the socialist direction that Barack Hussein Obama is taking the country, has contrived with Democrats to see that Obamacare is funded. Boehner and the establishment Republicans have not opposed Obama on amnesty but have fought as hard as the Democrats to pass amnesty disguised as "comprehensive immigration reform". These GOP nitwits have no qualms about disease or even ISIS terrorists breaching America's porous Southern border. Republicans who pretend to be conservative are all too often progressive. These chameleons are just as dangerous to liberty as the Democrats are.

The Reluctant Virgin

Scotland said "no" last night to independence. Britain is still "Great". Millions in Scotland voted and a clear majority want to maintain the bond. Many Scots favored severing the tie. More Scots supported maintaining the link. The process was sometimes rowdy but was never violent. Both sides had their say and I feel both Scotland and the United Kingdom are stronger together than apart.

Inherently Violent Sport

Should anyone be surprised that men paid to knock each other down on the athletic field might knock people around off the field? Is there some mystic boundary at the sideline that turns thugs on the pitch into saints off it? The O.J. Simpson case springs to mind when thinking about domestic violence involving football stars. There can be little doubt those with aggressive personalities are drawn to a sport involving so much contact. The same could be said of boxing where former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson was jailed for rape and allegedly knocked his then wife Robin Givens across a room. Jon Koppenhaver, a mixed martial arts competitor known as "War Machine", recently was arrested for assaulting his former girlfriend. If you date or marry someone paid to be a brute, there is a possibility that man will be brutal toward your children or you.

Just Forgive Biden

Joe Biden did not mean to offend Jews by using the term "Shylocks". He meant to say "Fagin".

Government's Controlling Hand

Americans live in a time where our most intimate personal communication is eavesdropped. Interception of our emails and telephone calls is ubiquitous. Each missive we mail is photographed. All this, it is claimed, is for our own protection. With Obamacare, the Federal government has unprecedented control of our medical destiny. In a period of growing government, liberty is shrinking. Individual rights are being encroached like never before while groups that shout for freedom when the Right is in power are largely silent. An era of dependency on government benefits has been fostered which along with crushing taxation and regulation is intended to sap the work ethic that built America. Government is at its worst when it punishes people striving to better themselves. Obama has throttled those who seek to remain self-sufficient while expanding the dole to levels never before seen in the United States. The redistributionist scheme that is the Obama agenda penalizes the desire that most people have to better themselves and attacks the natural yearning to leave your children better off. Government gives great largess to the elderly indigent but impoverishes you to make you indigent by forcing you to forfeit almost all that you have earned in your working life before you can access those benefits. The death tax strips families of farms and businesses while the windfall government receives collecting it goes to the shiftless and the foreign horde of illegal aliens. When the government feeds you, houses you, and even gives you a cell phone, you almost have to be a sucker to work. When the government pays you ninety-nine weeks of unemployment compensation near the wage you were earning, where is the urgency to look for a new job? If you do not see evil in a state that spies on citizens, strips away medical autonomy, rewards sloth and punishes effort, you fit right in with the administration of Barack Hussein Obama.

The Bosses' Bosses

America's political class by in large no longer leads, but is dictated to by large contributors. George Soros wields huge influence on the Left. The Koch brothers shape policy on the right. Democrats in elected office are largely beholden to labor unions, particularly teachers' unions and the SEIU. GOP US Representatives and Senators dance to the tune of the Chamber of Commerce (hence the momentum for amnesty). K Street lobbyists have a voice that drowns out others attempting to get either party to listen. Those who back abortion-on-demand have a megaphone to the Democrat Party while the NRA whispers constantly in most Republican ears. Very few politicians buck their "paymasters". The last people most elected office holders listen to or really care to hear from is their constituents back home.

Straddling the Tracks

Europe might be more representative with independent Basque and Flemish states and an independent Scotland. These are not new notions. If you are a student of Scottish history or have even seen the movie "Braveheart", you know England and the Scots have not always enjoyed a comfortable union. If you remember the Madrid train bombings back in 2004, you know even if Basques were not blamed directly for exploding the bombs, ETA separatists may well have provided the explosives that were ultimately used, even if they had no knowledge of what and who was to be targeted. While the Flemish have been almost always peaceful in their demands, they feel they have been deprived of fair representation. Over the centuries, the borders of European states have changed repeatedly and almost never peacefully. Maybe, an era of nonviolent change for the better will begin with Scotland severing her tie with Great Britain.

New Europe Emerging

If Scotland votes for independence, not only the United Kingdom but the European Union will change overnight. In and of itself, Scotland may not seem that crucial, however, Scotland looms larger than the size of the Scottish economy and the population. How could Sots gain independence and Basques still be held back? The irony might well be that Scotland gains independence and remains in the EU, while UKIP wins in Great Britain and withdraws the UK from the European Union. Many fear Scotland's departure will weaken England. Time will tell but Scotland's independence may in the end be good for England, Europe, and the world.

On American Strength

Teddy Roosevelt declared, "speak softly, and carry a big stick". T. R. demonstrated that this was more than bluster by sending the Great White Fleet around the world. When hostages were seized by Muslims in Morocco, unlike our current leader, Teddy Roosevelt's administration famously demanded, "Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead". Barack Hussein Obama postures mightily about "red lines" in Syria and reversing Russian aggression, but carries no stick at all. Jihadis and foreign despots sense Obama's weakness. No shortage of US military power but a lack of resolve by the Obama administration imperils global stability. If Obama had the will to prevail, America could enforce the peace.

Calling Them "Militants"

The mainstream press is calling Islamic State terrorists "militants". The dinosaur media are referring to these murderers as "fighters". Some of the moral relativists are even calling these cold-blooded killers "activists". These Islamic State butchers want to kill all the Shiites, Alawites, Yazidis, Christians, and Jews who refuse to convert and adhere to their brand of extreme Sunni Wahhabism. These IS marauders even want to slaughter fellow Sunnis who are less fanatical. A fair term to call members of the Islamic State is "Islamo-Nazis", but you will never hear them called that by our suicidal media.

The New Boss

Barack Hussein Obama tried to show the world that he was serious about security in last night's speech. Obama tried to burnish his fading reputation by showing how tough he is going to be on the Islamic State. By emphasizing the "international coalition" he is forming to fight ISIL, Obama is not leading but abdicating leadership. If it is in America's interest to defeat the rising Islamic State, then as the last superpower, the United States need not wait and seek partners but should use our great strategic resources to smash the nihilist group. If the Islamic State is such a menace, Obama should not hesitate to use "boots on the ground" to wipe them out, but once again last night, Obama pledged there will be no US ground forces involved. There are domestic political considerations involved with Congressional elections soon to take place, and Obama does not want to admit he withdrew US troops prematurely from Iraq opening the door to the Islamic State. With heightened focus on terror on this September 11 anniversary, the world looked to America for robust leadership to combat jihad, but in the event, we have a President in Obama who refused even last night to acknowledge that jihad plays the lead role in the current conflict. Obama specifically said last night that the Islamic State is not about religion as no religion condones killing innocent people, but it is not up to Obama or Western leaders to define the nature of Islam. As Sunni religious leaders issue fatwas supporting the Islamic State, it is inarguable that the current wave of jihadi terror is all about religion. Only when imams universally denounce the conduct of the Islamic State will it credibly be said that this conflict is not about Islam. I had more confidence that George W. Bush was committed to defeating the forces of terror than I do in our current President who equivocates in the face of terror and refuses to even declare the true nature of our enemy when that enemy is clearly motivated by the religious fervor of Wahhab absolutism.

The Old Boss

According to US Senator Jeff Sessions as reported by S.A. Miller in the Washington Times, taxpayers are now being forced to pay for welfare beneficiaries marijuana through EBT cards. I am sure this is what our Founding Fathers intended: To take from the producers in society so that the shiftless can get high. When Barack Hussein Obama said he intended "change" for the country, few guessed the direction he would take us. Even fewer realized how successful Obama would be at clouding the Founders' vision. Puff away patriotism, we have been transformed in a nation that would be unrecognizable not just to our Founders, but even to the Eisenhower majority of the 1950s. The beatniks sure would get it though . . . man.

When Sharks Attack

I just read that a man was killed by a shark in Australia. We are told by so-called "experts" that shark attacks on humans are rare. I have the perfect way to avoid being attacked by a shark. Stay out of the water. I have never seen a shark march down High Street to maul a shopper. It is easy enough to avoid sharks. Street thugs as the world observed in the Memphis, Tennessee Kroger beating are harder to avoid. Remember as well that there is no place to hide from jihadi terror as thousands of people merely going to work found on September 11, 2001. I will always be more concerned with random criminal acts and planned acts of terror than I am about shark attacks.

Worse than Witches

I have just read Michelle Malka Grossman's article on jpost.com that sixty British women have joined the Islamic State in Syria to join the al-Khansaa all-female brigade of jihadis enforcing sharia. There are more women there from other nations in the West who have come to fight as members of IS as well. Other Western women and women from Muslim countries have brought themselves to the conflict zone to provide sexual service in the name of jihad to male Wahhab terrorists. These women have abandoned all morality to join a band of murderers and participate in mass murder or to be the "comfort women" of male fanatics who murder in the name of their shared faith. No woman in her right mind would join these misogynistic brutes, but these women have, so I have to presume they are irrational, gripped by a collective insanity. These women, particularly converts from Christianity who are encouraging other Western women to join the jihadi cause, are on forums about jihad on the web talking about the weak-willed, spineless men of the West and praising the real men fighting the jihad who still have "balls". The West must make every effort to capture or kill these evil women on the battlefield, as there is no way to reintegrate their warped minds back into Western society. In the interest of self-preservation to prevent a wave of terror on Western streets, those jihad Janes who survive the fight must be regarded as the dangerous criminals they are and locked away forever.

Lust, Violence, Cupidity

Millions of people want to see stolen pictures of naked celebrities while they ignore their own spouse in the bed next to them. "Hookups" have gone from a college phenomenon, migrated through our Godless high schools, and descended into middle schools. Promiscuity seems to be its own religion with abortion on demand as the singular article of faith. Here at the intersection of lust and violence (against the not yet born), we find the Democrat Party as ardent though not prayerful practitioners of both. The love of mammon over humanity is a sin, yet we see our wealthiest consolidating more and more riches while the populist politicians spout empty rhetoric, all the while doing next to nothing for the poor and everything for the three percent who now control fifty-one percent of the wealth. Never before has America seen such uneven distribution, wherein the bottom ninety percent of Americans control only twenty-four percent of wealth. Not even the robber barons managed to concentrate so much money in their hands. It is not Buffet and Gates who are exploiting average Americans though. It is our worthless political class of establishment liars and their flunkies in the mainstream press who never report what their DC masters are doing to the common folk. Thus, concludes my Sunday sermon, though the message is good seven days a week.

Welcoming Own Defeat

America abandoned Iraq to the tender mercies of the most fanatic Islamists when we pulled out our forces. If the Obama administration had tried, we could have achieved a status of forces agreement that would have spared US troops local prosecution by Iraqi courts that would have facilitated US forces remaining to secure Iraq, but Obama really wanted to pull out. Obama is prematurely withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan as well, before that country has the ability to maintain stability by itself. We have US troops in Germany and Okinawa sixty-nine years after World War II ended, and soldiers in South Korea maintaining the peace sixty-one years after major hostilities ended, so long-term US commitment is not such an unusual thing. Barack Hussein Obama was determined to prove George W. Bush wrong and draw down in Iraq right away. In so doing, Obama left a power vacuum that was inevitably going to be filled by Muslim fanatics of one stripe or the other. It could have been the Shiite Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr that won out, but in the event, it turns out it is Sunni radicals filling the void. Iraq could have remained largely pacified with enough US boots on the ground, but to Obama, maintaining a decisive American military presence there would have shown Bush was right, and that could never be allowed to stand.

On the March

Violent, expansionist Wahhab Islam seems to be winning. Do you detect any slowing of the growing Caliphate in Iraq and Syria? Have you heard of the latest Boko Haram triumphs in Borno, Nigeria? Did you witness Hamas fight Israel to a standstill in Gaza? Can you show me where the West and Western allies are winning over the dark forces of Sunni nihilism? I hear rhetoric about the US chasing ISIS to the "gates of hell", but right now, it is ISIS doing all the chasing. The only way the West could lose to primitive, benighted forces is through a lack of will to even survive. This weakness is exactly what America and the West are projecting.

On Our Guard

America and the West need to be ready for attempted terror attacks on or around the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda outrage. No nation can defend against every possible contingency, but our security services must try to out think those who would do us harm. There is no blanket defense, but we must examine the threat matrix and take precautions to protect the most likely targets. Every US and Western embassy, consulate, and diplomatic legation in the Arab world, Africa, and anywhere Muslim insurgencies are prevalent must be vigilant. American schools and US cultural centers, upscale shopping malls that draw Westerners, and those institutions intrinsically linked to America like McDonald's need to up their guard in those same countries. New York City and Washington, D.C. must be on guard as fanatics would love to show we are still vulnerable in places they have already so notoriously attacked. Now that at least eleven commercial jets have disappeared in the chaos of Libya, the world must be extra cautious to prevent another human-guided missile attack as we saw in the original 9/11. Individuals should report suspicious behavior to law enforcement right away because a timely tip might prevent a tragedy. The terrorists need only succeed one time to cause great carnage. We need the skill of our intelligence community and our police forces, but we also need a bit of luck. Let us pray the Divine Hand makes the terrorists the unlucky ones.

Know the Difference

While Islamists destroy, Israel builds. ISIS murders. Calling what ISIS does "executions" is an abuse of language. Lawful governments execute murderers while ISIS murders the innocent. Call the slaughter ISIS is perpetrating what it is: "wanton murder". Our reporters were not "executed" because they were not criminals. They were beheaded, not for any crime, but because they had the misfortune of having US passports when they were captured by a death cult of hate-filled nihilists. The butchered journalists were trying to do a difficult, inherently dangerous job. They were chronicling the suffering of Muslims. While these terrorists focus their energies on destruction, Israel builds homes, researches cures, makes technological advances, makes the desert bloom, reverences and practices tolerance and pluralism, and cherishes innocent life. Hamas is just as contemptuous of life and bloodthirsty as ISIS. They diverted the international aid sent to improve their lives to construct terror tunnels. Israel builds while the forces of Islamist fanaticism do exactly the opposite.

Talked to Death

The end-of-life talks that Obamacare is promoting will inevitably shorten lives. Barack Hussein Obama has demonstrated from his time as an Illinois state senator that he has contempt for the sanctity of human life. Obama was the only member of the Illinois legislature who wanted to deny medical care to babies who had survived attempted abortions. I would hope that doctors would naturally hold human life sacred, but sadly, I know for a fact that not all physicians respect the sanctity of human life. Doctors with this attitude will deliver the end-of-life talks that government is now pushing without concern that they are asking patients to sign their own death warrants. These callous doctors will gladly accept the government checks to discourage their patients from seeking life-sustaining care. I pray that I and those I love are treated by physicians who are dedicated to preserving life.

Lack of Leadership

The ISIS crisis has not arisen because the Islamists are so strong but because the leaders of the West are so weak. Only a lack of will on the part of advanced nations prevents them from eliminating a bunch of thugs with a seventh century mindset. How can nations that have atomic bombs be pushed around by men who have never even seen a flush toilet? How can a country that put a man on the moon be driven back by atavists who have never turned on an electric light? We have Wahhab primitives dominating the most technologically advanced nations that have ever existed. The only reason this absurdity prevails is that the West has elected eunuchs to govern us. Never has the West been led by such a bunch of spineless liars who do not even have the sense to fight to preserve our liberty and our lives.