Wednesday ~ TheFrontPageCove

The Front Page Cover
 2016             The truth will set you free 
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Featuring:
Thinking Too Much
by Tom McLaughlin
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 Guns or Terrorists? 
"We are and we will keep doing everything in our power to stop these kinds of attacks, and to ultimately destroy ISIL," Barack nObama said in his weekly address. But the complete disconnect from Islamist terror still dominates his rhetoric and policy. "Being tough on terrorism, particularly the sorts of homegrown terrorism that we've seen now in Orlando and San Bernardino, means making it harder for people who want to kill Americans to get their hands on assault weapons that are capable of killing dozens of innocents as quickly as possible." It wasn't "homegrown," it was Islamic State-inspired — a fact that would have been evident had he not neglected to mention six other Islamic terror attacks on his watch.
          He also reiterated his new favorite term, "weapons of war," and lamented as "unconscionable" their legality in schools and movie theaters. Uh, where? Those places ban weapons of all types — with signs, even!
          The truly lamentable fact is that he not only has failed to do "everything in his power" to stop attacks by Islamist radicals he won't name, but he has actively created a disaster in the Middle East through his reckless policies. And then he has the gall to blame constitutionally protected "weapons of war," a fully loaded term meant to scare the public.
          In very related news, Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that the administration will release transcripts of Omar Mateen's phone calls — edited to remove all references to the Islamic State and its proclaimed caliph. Lynch says this is "to avoid re-victimizing those people that went through this horror," but let's be serious — this administration is steadfast in its denial of the real problem, and even more so its own role in creating it. After all, this comes just days after news that nObama's DHS removed the words jihad, sharia and takfir from the intelligence lexicon, as if using the words is the problem.
          The result of this leftist, politically correct narrative is plain. As our own Arnold Ahlert writes, "Despite the reality that Orlando terrorist Omar Mateen professed allegiance to the Islamic State and posted religious rantings on Facebook during the atrocity, 60% of self-identified Democrats characterized the attack as gun violence, compared to only 29% who viewed it as Islamic terrorism, according to a Gallup poll." Ignorance is bliss — until it gets people killed.  -The Patriot Post
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 State Memo to nObama: Use Military Force 
 Against Assad  Further proof that Barack nObama's foreign policy in Syria is a mess: 51 diplomats in the State Department signed a memo that called for the administration to take a tougher stance in Syria. The memo was submitted through the Department's "dissent channel" and apparently leaked — either to intimidate the signees or to draw more attention to their dissent from nObama's Syrian strategy. It called for nObama to use America's air power to strike Syrian forces commanded by Bashar al-Assad over the dictator's repeated human rights abuses. You know, actually enforce the infamous "red line."
          "This is remarkable," marveled The Wall Street Journal. "These rebels aren't the 'neocons' of liberal myth. They are career diplomats whose mission is to pursue the peace through diplomacy that Mr. nObama invokes as his highest foreign-policy principle. Yet they are indicting Mr. nObama's Syrian diplomacy as a strategic and moral failure."
          But a more aggressive stance toward the dictator — who has gassed and barrel-bombed his own civilians and partly fueled the refugee crisis that has allowed the Islamic State to sneak into Europe — is fraught with diplomatic danger. Assad is propped up by Russia and any attack on him will anger Vladimir Putin. (In fact, Russia just bombed a U.S.-backed rebel group.) Is America able to risk Cold War 2.0 after nObama has reduced the U.S. military's fighting capability by turning it into a social-engineering experiment?
          Finally, don't forget: This news comes on the heels of CIA Director John Brennan's warning about the growing threat of the Islamic State. Blame for that falls squarely on nObama.  -The Patriot Post
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Nearly 35,000 in Alabama Lose Food Stamps
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{fixthisnation.com} ` When the recession was in full swing, the federal government offered a waiver to many states that allowed more Americans to obtain food stamp benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program... That waiver eliminated the requirement that food stamp recipients find employment within three months. But with the recession several years in the rearview mirror, those waivers are being eliminated in those states where unemployment has dropped below 10%. In places like Alabama, the impact to total enrollment has been significant. When January 1st came around, some 49,000 Alabama residents were enrolled in the SNAP program. Five months later, the state’s Department of Human Resources reports that only 15,375 Alabamians remain on food stamps. With the state’s work requirement waiver having been eliminated for all but 13 Alabama counties, the state expects to save more than $6 million in taxpayer money...  http://www.fixthisnation.com/conservative-breaking-news/nearly-35000-in-alabama-lose-food-stamps/
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China Is Preparing for Conflict –and
Why We Must Do the Same
by FRANK J. GAFFNEY, JR.
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{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ Ever since Richard Nixon opened relations with Communist China in 1972, Chinese intentions have been a matter of incessant and often fevered speculation in this country... In particular, national security and regional experts, non-governmental organizations and office-holders alike, have endlessly debated whether the People's Republic of China could be brought into a U.S.-dominated international order and world economy in a manner consistent with American interests and, better yet, as a partner in opposition to mutual adversaries (e.g., the Soviet Union, North Korea, and the global jihad movement). Regrettably, this controversy over China's intentions has now been largely settled by actions of the Chinese government - and a rapid militarization. Under successive regimes - and most especially that of the incumbent Chinese ruler, Xi Jinping - the Chinese have relentlessly and unmistakably striven to put themselves in a position to challenge, and ultimately to displace, the post-World War II Pax Americana with a new order. This position would return China to what its leaders consider to be China's rightful place as the Middle Kingdom, the preeminent global power strategically and economically...  http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/china-is-preparing-for-conflict-and-why-we-must-do-the-same?f=must_reads
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Taking Away Constitutional Rights
at the Discretion of the Government
by Hans von Spakovsky
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{dailysignal.com} ~ If the news reports are correct, the latest “gun control” proposal being put forward by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is a “measure that would block people on the Transportation Security Administration’s no–fly list from buying firearms,” according to ABC News... There is one major problem with that proposal: It is potentially unconstitutional since it would take away a constitutional right—your Second Amendment right to bear arms—at the discretion of a government official in a secret, nontransparent process that has no adequate due process protections. Let’s be clear—we don’t want terrorists buying guns in this country. Nor do we think that they have a Second Amendment right to do so. But this blunt instrument is not the right solution...  http://dailysignal.com/2016/06/20/taking-away-constitutional-rights-at-the-discretion-of-the-government/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWXpoalpEWmhaamd6TmpCayIsInQiOiJzMXE4WHpNVEJSZ3UrNURIRzJkc1ZnaVwvRjJDMkllQk5nUGFUOXNWc0NkZnB6SGVVQ013MzZIUEJkTHJheG5WR2hhQlFRRE1QbktiTG9YVzdDK3EwNlloNGpjVHNDSG5iTFkwYVg5WkNkSEU9In0%3D
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How Much of our Culture Are We Surrendering to Islam?
by Giulio Meotti
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{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ It all occurred in the same week. A German judge banned a comedian, Jan Böhmermann, from repeating "obscene" verses of his famous poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan... A Danish theater apparently cancelled "The Satanic Verses" from its season, due to fear of "reprisals." Two French music festivals dropped Eagles of Death Metal -- the U.S. band that was performing at the Bataclan theater in Paris when the attack by ISIS terrorists 89 people murdered, took place there -- because of "Islamophobic" comments by Jesse Hughes, its lead singer. Hughes suggested that Muslims be subjected to greater scrutiny, saying "It's okay to be discerning when it comes to Muslims in this day and age," later adding: "They know there's a whole group of white kids out there who are stupid and blind. You have these affluent white kids who have grown up in a liberal curriculum from the time they were in kindergarten, inundated with these lofty notions that are just hot air." As Brendan O'Neill wrote, "Western liberals are doing their dirty work for them; they're silencing the people ISIS judged to be blasphemous; they're completing ISIS's act of terror."...  http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8271/culture-surrender-islam
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Feds abandon 'equal rights' claim to raise your kids
by Bob Unruh
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{wnd.com} ~ Federal officials have reversed their claim that they have “equal rights” to children to raise them, a claim that stirred outrage in many quarters of America when it was first made a few months back... The claim originally was included in a draft policy by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education and generously allowed that parents, too, should be allowed to help raise their own children along with the government, through various programs. The document, the “Draft Policy Statement on Family Engagement From the Early Years to the Early Grades,” stated at the time: “It is the position of the departments that all early childhood programs and schools recognize families as equal partners in improving children’s development, learning and wellness across all settings, and over the course of their children’s developmental and educational experiences.”...  http://www.wnd.com/2016/06/feds-abandon-equal-rights-claim-to-raise-your-kids/#!
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State Dept. sued over failure to recover
deleted liar-Clinton emails
by Sarah Westwood
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{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ A pair of watchdog groups are asking a federal judge to force the government to recover the more than 30,000 emails liar-Hilly Clinton deleted from her private email server in December 2014... In documents filed with the court Monday, Cause of Action, a nonpartisan oversight group, and Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog, argued liar-Clinton and her aides violated the Federal Records Act by selecting which emails they wanted to turn over and deleting the rest. The effort to withhold thousands of records from the State Department and the National Archives prevented government officials from fulfilling Freedom of Information Act requests during and shortly after liar-Clinton's diplomatic tenure...  http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/state-dept.-sued-over-failure-to-recover-deleted-clinton-emails/article/2594409
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Senators Want Companies to
Reveal Where They Keep Their Cash
by Walter Hudson
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{pjmedia.com} ~ If you think that multinational corporations take measures to avoid paying your country's taxes, you have two ways to deal with it. You could reform your tax code so that the incentive to avoid taxation disappears... Or, you could go the route of Stuart Smalley. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune: Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota is among a group of senators who want U.S. multinational corporations to publicly name the countries where they book profits. In a recent letter to the secretary of the Treasury, Franken and several colleagues called for country-by-country disclosure of foreign profits as a way to head off accounting maneuvers many corporations use to redirect revenue from countries where they are earned to tax havens...
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Congress gives NSA
More Power to Spy on U.S. Citizens
by Aliice Greene
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{punchingbagpost.com} ~ The first thing to cross my mind when I walked into Miami’s Bayfront Park for a sold-out concert last week was, “This would be a perfect opportunity for a bombing or mass shooting. Am I safe?”... In this and many other ways, terrorism is changing American culture. Terrorism is even influencing Congress, as exemplified by this Thursday's vote to uphold the federal government’s ability to spy on phone conversations and text messages if it believes that person is involved in terrorist activity. Congress showed considerable progress in the realm of civil liberties in 2014 and 2015, but has started to reverse its course as attacks of terror continue at home and abroad. The debate is centered on programs that spy on foreign emails and phone calls under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. These snooping programs also pick up the private communications between innocent Americans...  http://punchingbagpost.com/congress-gives-nsa-more-power-to-spy-on-us-citizens
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Corrupt Communist Leads Race for UN Boss
by Alex Newman
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Irina Bokova
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{thenewamerican.com} ~ The next United Nations chief may be an unapologetic communist who served a savage dictatorship that murdered hundreds of thousands of people and tortured even more... Her name is Irina Bokova. And thanks to a slick public-relations operation and a team of “former” communist spies running her campaign, there is reportedly a good chance that the Bulgarian Communist Party operative could end up as UN boss in 2017 when current Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s term expires. Bokova currently serves as the chief of the UN “Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization” (UNESCO). But her long career in the service of both internationalism and communism suggests that she has been plotting to move up the UN hierarchy for years. Bokova’s candidacy has backing from top establishment figures in the West, in addition to strong support from key leaders of the East such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Establishment media outlets around the world have also been singing her praises while concealing her past. Indeed, Bokova and those backing her should not be underestimated...  http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/item/23451-corrupt-communist-leads-race-for-un-boss
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California’s New Motor Voter Law Illustrates
Wisdom of the Electoral College
by Steve Byas
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{thenewamerican.com} ~ California has adopted a law, the New Motor Voter Act, AB 1461, which is designed to get more people registered to vote who are likely to support bigger government... This is an illustration of why the Electoral College should be retained as the method by which we elect a president of the United States. If the United States were to adopt some form of direct popular vote for choosing the president, this type of law could become typical, especially in the more politically liberal states such as California. As it stands now, no matter how many voters are added to the rolls, California cannot increase its number of electoral votes. The allocation of electoral votes is determined by the decennial federal census, in which representation in the House of Representatives is apportioned by total population in the state — the number of registered voters does not matter. Under the U.S. Constitution, a state is entitled to the same number of electoral votes as they have members of the House of Representatives, plus their two senators...
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Thinking Too Much
by Tom McLaughlin
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{tommclaughlin.blogspot.com} ~ “What do you know for sure?” Ernie Colvin asked me the same question his Tennessee drawl every time I visited.

“Not much,” was my usual answer.
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The implied humility in my answer was a pretense because I thought I knew a lot as most young men do. Now though, as I reflect on our friendship nearly a half-century later, I believe I would answer the same way, but with seriousness. I have learned much since I knew Ernie, but that knowledge has only helped me realize how ignorant I am. As I used to tell my students: “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” Most looked at me with puzzlement when I said that, but others got it. The truly educated understand that the best we can come up with after a lifetime of learning and reflecting is a very tentative framework of understanding about the world around us. I like to call it a working hypothesis that should be subject to modification at regular intervals.
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Ernie was a veteran of two wars: the Spanish Civil War and World War II, during which he had been a prisoner of war in Germany. He would be sitting at his desk carving wood and looking up with a wry grin when I came by. He was a security guard on the night shift and I was a field supervisor for the company. It was 1970 and I was nineteen, though I pretended to be 21 so I could get a pistol permit which was required for the job. Ernie was in his sixties and he was patient enough to offer thoughtful answers to my many questions. He taught me a great deal during our frequent, late-night conversations.
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One of the faults that has dogged me for a lifetime is overuse of my brain and underuse of my heart. Since I became conscious of it, I’ve been trying to bring myself into balance but it’s slow going. Observing my youngest grandchildren helps in this endeavor because they’re full of wonder as they explore the world around them. They seem to feel it more than think about it and I remember being that way too until I got out of balance. My brain was always the favored utensil in my personal toolbox and I used it almost exclusively until realizing there were other tools in there as well.
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Somewhere around eight or nine, I remember laying in bed after lights out and pondering the universe — the big one, that is, especially its outer limits. Trying to image our expanding universe fifteen billion years after the Big Bang, I’d imagine space — the nothingness between material things flying out from the central point of the original explosion. How far would things travel into nothingness? Was there a limit to the great nothing into which those things were hurtling in every direction? I knew intuitively there wasn’t. I knew that it was limitless, infinite. I knew also that, though the universe didn’t have limits, my human brain did. It couldn’t fully comprehend infinity. All I could know was that the eternal existed. That realization was extremely frustrating until I accepted it.
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Accepting it became the initial basis for my belief in the Creator, but it wasn’t an “Aha!” moment. The process was gradual. Call it intelligent design or ultimate creativeness, but I began realizing that something conceived of the universe and caused it to be — with me in it. Accepting that the Eternal had a capital E helped me relax as well. Let me re-emphasize that the process has been gradual and ongoing. I’m still in it and somewhere along the way I came to believe.
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Also along the way came a quote from that brilliant atheist-turned-Christian, Augustine of Hippo. Even though he wrote it fifteen centuries ago, it jumped right off the page at me: “If thou hast not understood, said I, believe. For understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe that thou mayest understand.”
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So now there is something else I know for sure. I don’t feel any compulsion to make others know it. It’s enough that I do. I’m not an evangelist and neither was Ernie Colvin. He never preached; he just was. I sensed something in him that I wanted even though I didn’t know what it was.
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