Our Superstitious President

Victor Davis Hanson

. . . "In short, Obama is the most anti-science, anti-factual president in modern memory.

The president has warned the nation, usually on the most inappropriate and untimely occasions, of the American tendency to give into Islamophobia. But to support such an assumed pathology, the president adduced no evidence that Americans are more likely to target Muslims than other groups.

"If we were to rely on “scientific” research, there is statistical evidence that in general hate crimes in the U.S. are rare, and that in particular they tend to focus on Jews. The most recent survey (2014) of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program shows 58% of hate crimes were directed at Jews, just 16% toward Muslims. Thus, if the president felt that there was a real danger of American citizens or residents harming others due to their religions, then obviously he would warn us not to attack Jews, who suffer more hate crimes than all other religious groups combined.

"As a student of science, Obama might incorporate such findings in his pop editorializing, for example, not sloppily characterizing the deliberate sorting and murdering of four Jews in a Paris delicatessen as if it were random attack on “a bunch of folks” (e.g., “violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris.”)." . . .

Obama Is Not Who We Are

Clarice Feldman  "The Washington Free Beacon has put together a video montage of Obama using his catchphrase, “it’s not who we are” 46 times.

"The video editor, David Rutz, observes:

Not unlike his warning to political opponents that they may be on the “wrong side of history,” the expression is useful in its ability to shut down conversation and seize a moral high ground, however imaginary.
Obama has deployed the term to convince the country of his rightness on immigration, Obamacare, education, national security and not voting for Mitt Romney, among other important issues to his presidency.

. . .  
"Since there is little flexibility in his thinking, “not who we are” is likely to be used even more to delegitimize his opponents as his term in office runs down, his popularity sinks, and he becomes ever more desperate to stifle mounting criticism.

"No matter how many times it’s used, it is a weak debate trick to muzzle his opponents by suggesting that no true American could possibly disagree with his point of view.

"Allow me to turn the tables and point out some of the multiple instances when Obama’s actions are not what we are. I know there are many others, but these stand out in my mind right now."  Read the full article here.
. . . 
"Undoubtedly, Obama’s claim that this or that is not who “we are”, depends on the meaning of “we.” Maybe some smart journalist can ask him."

Does this mean we never have to hear about ‘solving’ global warming again!?

Two from Drudge:
Climate Depot   . . . t: "We had one UK scientist, Philip Stott, who has said there are quite literally hundreds of factors governing global climate. For the UN to pick  one politically-selected factor -- CO2 -- and then try to tweak it at the margins and then come up with some temperature goal 50 -100 years in the future, is akin to scientific nonsense. You could call it modern day witchcraft."

James Hansen, father of climate change awareness, calls Paris talks 'a fraud'

. . . "Brickbats are thrown in a bipartisan way. Hansen feels Obama, who has made climate change a legacy issue in his final year in office, has botched the opportunity to tackle the issue." . .

Obama: 'Our Most Important Mission' Realized in Climate Agreement  "But the GOP leader of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee called agreement of the Conference of Parties (COP21) pursuant to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change "no more significant to the United States than the Kyoto Protocol announcement 18 years ago.' "

Weasel of the Week Chosen

Nice Deb  "Yes, once again, It’s time to present this week’s statuette of shame, The Golden Weasel!!

"Every Tuesday, the Council nominates some of the slimiest, most despicable characters in public life for some deed of evil, cowardice or corruption they’ve performed. Then we vote to single out one particular Weasel for special mention, to whom we award the statuette of shame, our special, 100% plastic Golden Weasel. This week’s nominees were all particularly slimy and despicable, but the votes are in and we have our winner…the envelope please…

"Prog-Faschist New York Daily News Columnist Linda Stasi !!

"The aptly named columnist “blamed of the victim” and engaged in gross moral relativism in her horrific Dec. 6 article asserting “that the interaction between ‘two hate-filled, bigoted municipal employees’ led to the deaths of ’13 innocent people’ who were killed in an act of “unspeakable carnage.. ”

"The post’s title read: “San Bernardino Killers Were ISIS-Loving Monsters — But One of Their Victims Was Just as Bigoted.”

. . . "But in terms of the weaselness which we commemorate here, Ms. Stasi is perfect. She has her morality disengaged and will twist, warp and/or excuse anything as long as it helps the Cause, even if it means dragging a murder victim’s name through the mud before his corpse is even cold and while his family is still in mourning."

 . . . 

Terrific Ad Hitting Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama: Leading From Behind

Weasel Zippers

Another Casualty Of Obamacare, Nashville Deli Open For 20 Years, Now Closing…

Weasel Zippers

"After being released from job lock, the employees can become artists and street performers.

"Via Daily Signal:

"If you ask Tom Loventhal, a deli is no more than a place to provide customers with comfort food.

"Whether it’s breakfast—served all day—soup or a sandwich, Loventhal’s motto has always been that at his Nashville, Tenn.,-based deli, “anyone is welcome here from ages 0 to 99, because you’ll find something on the menu.”

"And for nearly two decades, Loventhal has stayed true to his motto at his restaurant, Noshville Authentic New York Delicatessen (“nosh” meaning to eat), where he’s kept more than half of the same employees on the payroll for at least 10 years and one-quarter of his workers for nearly 15 years.

"Loventhal of course has his regulars, who he says come into the deli at least four times a week and take their usual seats at the counter, and he’s seen three generations of customers—the parents had kids, and now those same kids are having kids.

“ 'The loyalty, people just come back,” he told The Daily Signal. “We have good service and consistent good food. It’s just a fun place to come in and eat.”

"But come Dec. 27, the midtown Nashville location of the restaurant, one of two Loventhal owns, will be closing its doors in part because of Obamacare, he said." . . .

 “ 'It’s an onerous bill, and for a small business, it’s a lot of time [to comply],” he said. “I’ve been studying this for three years, and I really couldn’t come up with a good answer, and I feel sorry for closing this business.' ”

Final draft of climate deal readied in Paris

Rick Moran  "After weeks of wrangling, the thousands of officials attending the Paris Climate Conference look to approve a final draft of an agreement that would phase out the use of fossil fuels over the next few decades and transfer trillions of dollars from rich to poor nations to help the latter pay for the effects of global warming.
Or enrich the personal bank accounts of third world kleptocrats - take your pick.
This is not a treaty. It is a statement of intent from every country on the planet to meet ambitious goals to reduce carbon emissions. 
Reuters:

. . . Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, the last major climate deal agreed in 1997, the Paris pact will also not be a legally binding treaty, something that would almost certainly fail to pass the U.S. Congress. Instead, it will be largely up to each nation to pursue greener growth in its own way, making good on detailed pledges submitted ahead of the two-week summit.
And in the United States, many Republicans will see the pact as a dangerous endeavor that threatens to trade economic prosperity for an uncertain if greener future.

. . . "So in essence, we are expected to rip trillions of dollars out of the US economy over the next few decades and ask the American taxpayer to give billions a year to a climate change fund, based on nothing more than predictive models that so far, have failed miserably to accurately predict anything."

Alan Caruba, your voice of wisdom and reason are sorely missed.  R.I.P.

False: Valerie Jarrett wants America to be more Islamic

Snopes

"Quoted from Valerie Jarrett:

" 'I am an Iranian by birth and of my Islamic faith. I am also an American Citizen and I seek to help change America to be a more Islamic country. My faith guides me and I feel like it is going well in the transition of using freedom of religion in America against itself." 

"Valerie Jarrett, Stanford University 1977 

"Contrary to common rumor, however, neither Jarrett nor her parents are Iranian, nor (as far as we can tell) are any of them Muslim. Jarrett's parents, James E. Bowman and Barbara Taylor Bowman, were both American-born U.S. citizens from Washington, D.C. and Chicago, respectively; the couple merely lived in Iran for about six years in the late 1950s and early 1960s while James served as chair of pathology at Nemazee Hospital in Shiraz as part of a program that sent American physicians to work in developing countries. 

"Valerie was born in Shiraz during the Bowmans' sojourn in Iran; she returned to the U.S. with her parents in 1962 (when she was five years old), whereupon she attended prep school in Massachusetts, graduated with a B.A. in psychology from Stanford University in 1978, and earned a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981 before returning to Chicago to begin her working career. We've found no evidence Valerie Jarrett is (or ever was) Muslim, her only apparent connection to that religion being the incidental one that she temporarily lived in a predominantly Muslim country with her American parents for the first few years of her life. " . . .

While many who do not like this president would like to believe he is creating the Islamization of America, we do need to make sure our claims are based in truth and can be taken seriously. There are too many real reasons to oppose this administration without our inventing any. TD

Kudlow: I’ve Changed. This Is War. Seal the Borders. Stop the Visas.

A hardline shift from an immigration reformer.

Larry Kudlow  "I know this is not my usual position. But this is a war. Therefore I have come to believe there should be no immigration or visa waivers until the U.S. adopts a completely new system to stop radical Islamic terrorists from entering the country. A wartime lockdown. And a big change in my thinking. ISIS and related Islamic terrorists are already here. More are coming. We must stop them. Until FBI director James Comey gives us the green light, I say seal the borders.

"Here’s what we must do: Completely reform the vetting process for immigrants and foreign visitors. Change the screening process. Come up with a new visa-application review process. Stop this nonsense of marriage-visa fraud. And in the meantime, seal the borders. I agree with Jessica Vaughn, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, who argued many of these points in excellent detail on the National Review website on Friday. 

"Again, why am I taking this hardline position? In the past I have been an immigration reformer, not a restrictionist. But we are at war. That changes everything." . . .

"And let me add, as I have in the past, if the U.S. has the will, the urgency, and the energy to destroy ISIS, then we will destroy ISIS."

CHRISTIAN CHILDREN MURDERED FOR REFUSING ISLAMIC CONVERSION: ‘WE LOVE JESUS’

Onan Coca

"Sometimes the stories I feel compelled to write about seem like “too much.” I have felt my heart break numerous times since I began writing for Eagle Rising… and this is one of those hard stories.

"The Reverend Canon Andrew White is the Anglican Vicar of Baghdad, and he’s become famous for being one of the few sources of news about Christians from inside ISIS influenced areas. Sadly the news from inside Iraq does not seem to be getting better. Just last week, Reverend White sat down for an interview with the Christian Broadcast Network (CBN) to talk about some of the brutal methods ISIS is using to wipe out Christianity in Iraq and Syria." . . .

ISIS turned up and they said to the children, ‘you say the words that you will follow Muhammad.’ The Children, all under 15, four of them, they said, ‘no, we love Yasua [Jesus]. We have always loved Yasua. We have always followed Yasua. Yasua has always been with us. [The Militants] said, ‘say the words!’ [The Children] said, ‘no, we can’t do that.’ They chopped all their heads off. How do you respond to that? You just cry. They are my children. That is what we have been going through. That is what we are going through.

 . . . "We live in a broken and disgusting world. I wonder if you understand that the people who have fallen under the persecution of ISIS are just like you and me… only they live in the Middle East. These are men and women, husbands, mothers, sons, daughters, businessmen, teachers, farmers, doctors, lawyers, shopkeepers, people with families, friends and dreams. These are not just Muslims, but CHRISTIANS, who worship at their local church on Sunday and pray before for their children’s futures. These people are our family and they are dying horribly gruesome and painful deaths. Who will speak for them? We must help. We must."

Onan is a graduate of Liberty University (2003) and earned his M.Ed. at Western Governors University in 2012. Onan lives in the Atlanta area with his wife, Leah. They have three children and enjoy the hectic pace of life in a young family. Onan and Leah are members of the Journey Church in Hiram, GA. He is also the chief editor at EagleRising.

4 Insane Reasons Why Liberals Admire and Romanticize Islam

The Blaze

"Shouldn’t liberalism hate Islam at least as much as it hates Christianity?"

. . . "Indeed one of the most befuddling aspects of liberalism is its habit of ignoring, denying, or tolerating atrocities done in the name of Islam, all while eagerly pointing the finger at Christians and conservatives on the rare occasion that mass violence is carried out by an alleged member of that group. The stark contrast was especially on display last week, when liberals did not hesitate to blame conservative Christians for the Planned Parenthood shooting, but refused to make similar indictments of Islam after the terrorist attack in California." . . .

. . . "Now liberals balk at the idea that we should be wary of granting refugee status to Muslims, but most reacted with either silence or celebration when the Obama administration tried to deport a family of Christian home schoolers. They tell us we ought to respect the religious liberties of non-citizen Muslims, but applaud as the government forces nuns to buy birth control and locks Christian clerks in jail. In fact, the only time — and I mean the only time — a majority of liberals will so much as mention the phrase “religious freedom” is when they’re discussing Muslim migrants from the Middle East. The rest of the time they only cheer as the State compels Christian bakers to service gay weddings and Christian taxpayers to fund abortions."

. . . 

"Everything is the fault of the white man. Everything. This is a fact they teach starting on the first day of college, and if you aren’t repeating it as gospel within a week, they’ll drag you into the auditorium and stone you to death.

"OK, maybe things haven’t gotten that bad yet, but we’ll be there soon enough."

1. It enforces the narrative. . . .2. It makes them feel good. . . .3. It’s all relative. . . .4. They hate Christianity. . . .

Hat tip to Jeff Hayden, Plano,TX 

Trump: Mr. Right Now. Cruz: Mr. Right.

"Donald Trump is Mr. Right Now.  Sen. Ted Cruz is the real-deal Mr. Right – prayerfully, our next Mr. President."

Lloyd Marcus  . . . "I explained to Dad that Ted Cruz is Donald Trump without the slightly unpleasant smell.  Please do not get me wrong, folks.  I am not dissing Trump.  I am merely interjecting a bit of humor.  I would enthusiastically give Trump my vote if he became the GOP presidential nominee.

"All I am saying is, Ted Cruz is a true conservative who offers all the boldness, fearlessness, and promises of Trump but with presidential gravitas and moral authority.

"Confronting the arrogance of Obama's AG Loretta Lynch, Cruz has once again proven he will take no prisoners when standing up for liberty and the American people.

"In a nutshell, despite the most recent Islamic terrorist attack in San Bernardino, in which 14 Americans were murdered, Lynch has decreed that she will throw anyone in jail who dares to speak badly about Muslims.

"The first of several outrages that popped up in my mind is how Lynch and Obama have ignored Black Lives Matter's bold clarion call to blacks to kill cops and crackers (white people).  Hundreds at a BLM rally marched down a N.Y. street chanting, “What do we want?  Dead cops!  When do we want them?  Now!” 

"Well, my man Ted Cruz immediately jumped into Lynch's case.  Cruz scolded Lynch and Obama.
. . . 
Then Cruz jumped onto Obama's case, addressing his absurd, arrogant accusation.

Mr. President, there is not a moral equivalence between radical Islamic terrorists and Christians and Jews.
One has a philosophy from day one of murdering those who they consider infidels; the other preach love and forgiveness and standing together as one humanity.
And let me say beyond that in the United States, we will not enforce sharia Law.
And Madam Attorney General, if you wanna come prosecute me for executing my First Amendment rights, come and get me. I'm right here!

"Folks, if that doesn't get your blood going and have you standing up and cheering, nothing will.  

"Cruz's rant was bold and yet dignified, morally straight, and presidential."