Here are my observations and opinions on some of the news.
AN INTERESTNG COMPARISON – “Over the weekend there was a massive march in Washington and other cities to demand new laws, ostensibly on behalf of innocent lives being endangered,” writes Michigan freelance writer David Breitenbeck, in The Federalist. “That sounds like another giant protest march takes place once a year in Washington, except this one is being reported coast-to-coast, buoyed by celebrity endorsements, and hailed as the dawn of a revolution, rather than being studiously ignored or downplayed.”
He was reminding us of the gun control activists’ March for Our Lives and another march, the March for Life, annually celebrated by pro-lifers. One favors limiting or ending gun owners, the other limited or ending abortion.
Breitenbeck’s observations on the endorsements and coverage of the two marches is a striking reminder to me of the fact that taking an innocent life by abortion has been an issue Americans have struggled with for decades despite Roe v Wade.
With the Second Amendment, gun control activists have their own uphill battle, and they, too, will probably be relegated to an annual march in Washington.
While gun control activists say they will not vote for candidates who accept campaign contributions from the NRA, pro-lifers will continue to hold Congressmen accountable for the continued ludicrous government funding of Planned Parenthood.
OH MY … ANOTHER FBI EMBARASSMENT – Word is out that Seddique Marteen, father of Omar Marteen, who killed 49 and wounded 58 in the Orlando gay bar shooting on June 12, 2016, was a confidential informant for the FBI over an 11-year period. It wasn’t disclosed earlier because it would have added to the embarrassment already making the news concerning high-level agents. Reportedly, records of money transfers made by the father to Turkey and Afghanistan were found during the investigation.
IT MAKES ONE WONDER if the Las Vegas shooter, Stephen Paddock, might also have had FBI ties, considering the fact that little or no information about him has been released. Hmmmm.
PROLONGING THE LEAKS AND MORE – John Fund wrote an interesting piece, “Trump is Running a ‘Home Alone’ Administration,” in National Review, putting a spotlight on the position vacancies.
The president blames Democrats, who continue to obstruct the confirmation of hundreds of appointees by insisting on a full 30 hours of debate time even on non-controversial nominees.
But Fund points out that “the president hasn’t moved nearly fast enough in filling out the sub-cabinet government officials who, because they are personally appointed by the president, are charged with making Trump policies a reality.”
Of the top 640 jobs that require Senate confirmation, just 275 have been confirmed and are on the job. Another 144 individuals have been nominated and are awaiting confirmation.
As I wrote earlier this year, the president needs to apply pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to keep the senate in session longer and consider modifying cloture rules.
Being new to the ways of Washington, the president seems to want to run a tight ship like he did with his business. During an interview with Forbes magazine last year, he referred to the bloated agencies.
“The federal government simply doesn’t work that way,” writes Fund, “and unless a president has appointees at the top who share his vision, ‘the swamp’ will always win. The longer those positions remain vacant, the longer they will remain in the hands of career servants or political holdovers from the Obama administration.”
FATHERLESS BOYS – “By far the main predictor of shooting rampages – along with all other criminality and virtually every social pathology among young males – is a home without a father,” writes Rachel Alexander in The Stream, quoting Stephen Baskerville a professor at Patrick Henry College.
She notes that seven out of the 19 shootings since 2005 were committed by young males, and that, according to Peter Hasson at the Federalist, that only one of the seven was raised by a biological father throughout childhood. Nicholas Cruz, the Parkland shooter, lost his father when he was young.
In an interview with marriage scholar Suzanne Venker, Alexander learned that Venker found “a direct correlation between boys who grow up with absent fathers and boys who drop out of school, who drink, who do drugs, who become delinquent, who wind up in prison, and who kill their classmates.”
Seventy-two percent of adolescent murderers grew up without fathers; the same for 60 percent of all rapists, according to Terry Brennan of Leading Women for Shared Parenthood.
Understandably, Alexander writes, “no one wants to talk about the importance of fathers in boys’ lives, because society is too concerned with not stigmatizing single mothers.”
