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The Left's Renewed Assault on the NRA

By Joseph Klein

Anti-Second Amendment zealots vow to "exploit" and "politicize" the Newtown massacre.

Secretary Chuck Hagel? Bring It On!

By Caroline Glick

Obama poised to nominate one of the few ferociously anti-Israel senators in the past generation.

Double Standards on Death

By Lloyd Billingsley

The Obama administration's selectivity on gun violence.

Hamas Nazis and Their American Supporters

By Daniel Greenfield

Hamas doesn't hate Israel, it hates Jews.

Education or Indoctrination?

By Jamie Glazov

Brigitte Gabriel delivers a stunning investigative report on the treatment of Islam in 6th-through-12th grade American textbooks.

Syrian Rebels Now Have Chemical Weapons

By Theodore and Walid Shoebat

A glimpse at the nightmare when Assad goes down.

Jamie "Kill all the White People" Foxx Blasts Hollywood Violence

By Ben Shapiro

But the celebrity class is guilty of much more than Foxx admits.

PC Insanity Cripples Our Military

By Arnold Ahlert

Green-on-blue deaths of coalition soldiers blamed on our "cultural insensitivity."

Ireland's Anti-Israel Bias

By Joseph Puder

Diagnosing Irish anti-Semitism.

The All-New Hollywood Closet - on The Brewster Gang

By Josh Brewster

Actor Dwight Schultz opens up about the punishment for thought crimes in an unforgiving industry.

More to read:

Never Let a Horror Go To Waste
John Kerry: Assad's Man in Washington
Oliver Stone's Left-Wing Agitprop
The Second Amendment Is Not Negotiable
Fraud and Racketeering at CAIR

Obama doubles down on the Muslim Brotherhood 

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 03:05 PM PST

(Paul Mirengoff)

The Muslim Brotherhood is a virulently anti-Western Islamist outfit committed to the destruction of Israel. Its history of engaging in and supporting terrorism is beyond dispute.

President Obama backs the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He backed it, for example, when the military tried to stand up against Mohamed Morsi, the Brotherhood man who heads the Egyptian government, and when he made Morsi look like the hero of Hamas' recent mini-victory over Israel.

But in backing Morsi, Obama can claim that he is simply recognizing the reality that Morsi is the elected leader of Egypt. It's a weak argument because, elected or not, Morsi is an anti-western, anti-Israeli Islamist whose intentions are malicious. We don't have to back our enemies just because they win elections. Heck, Obama sees no need to back our friends on this basis. Just ask Benjamin Netanyahu.

In any event, we now learn (from Jonathan Spyer, via Barry Rubin) that Obama has decided to back the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. Here, we aren't talking about backing an elected government; rather, the issue is which rebel group to support.

As Spyer shows, Obama's "intention is to align with and strengthen Muslim Brotherhood-associated elements, while painting Salafi forces as the sole real Islamist danger." Meanwhile, "secular forces are ignored or brushed aside."

Spyer ponts to the new military council that Obama is backing:

The founder of the Free Syrian Army, the secular former Syrian Air Force Colonel Riad Asaad, is notably absent. General Mustafa al-Sheikh, the first of his rank to defect to the rebels, is also not there. Sheikh is known for his fierce opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood. Hussein Haj Ali, the highest ranking officer to defect so far, was similarly absent.

A Reuters report on the new joint military council calculated that the Muslim Brotherhood and their allies account for about two thirds of the 263 men who met in Antaliya and formed the new body. Salafi commanders are also there.  

The new council is headed by Brigadier Selim Idriss, who is described as a non-ideological military man. But his deputies, Abdel-basset Tawil of Idleb and Abdel-qader Saleh of Aleppo governate are associated with the Salafi trend.  

The same picture emerges from an anlysis of the new civilian leadership body - the Syrian National Coalition:

The leader of this coalition is Ahmed Mouaz al-Khatib, former Imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Khatib is closely associated with the Damascus Branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The leader of the new coalition has a long history of antisemitic, anti-western and anti-Shia remarks (he praised Saddam Hussein, for example, for 'terrifying the Jews' and wrote an article asking if Facebook was an 'American-Israeli intelligence website.') He is also an admirer of the Qatar-based Muslim Brotherhood preacher Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi.  

Within the body headed by Khatib, the Muslim Brotherhood dominated Syrian National Council controls around 27 of the 65 seats on the executive body of the new coalition. There are also Islamists and fellow travelers among the non-SNC delegates. The Brotherhood are by far the best organized single body within the coalition. One secular delegate at the first full meeting of the coalition accused the MB of "pushing more of its hawks into the coalition, although it already has half of the seats."

In sum, the Obama administration is now backing a Muslim Brotherhood-dominated coalition as the preferred replacement for the Assad regime.

The excuse will be that the alternative is the al-Qaeda linked Jabhat al-Nusra organization. But Spyer insists that "the difference between [al-Nusra] and the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated groups is one of degree, not of kind." The "home grown, Muslim Brotherhood elements that the US is backing are no less anti-western and no less anti-Jewish," he adds. Nor is it clear that the U.S. had no other alternatives.

In this regard, we should keep in mind that the Syrian incarnation of the Muslim Brotherhood is even more militant than its counterparts elsewhere in the Middle East, according to Glenn Robinson, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval Academy graduate school writing in the December issue of Current History. In this sense, Obama's play in Syria amounts to more than a doubling down on the Brotherhood.

The bottom line, says Barry Rubin, is that if the Obama-backed group is Syria's new government, then Syria now has an Islamist regime. And that, it now seems clear, is fine with Obama.

A word from Stephen Hunter 

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 02:57 PM PST

(Scott Johnson)

Stephen Hunter is the Pulitzer Prize-winning former film critic of the Washington Post and author of the Bob Lee Swagger series of novels, whose latest entrant - The Third Bullet - is forthcoming next month. Steve writes to comment with respect to the Newtown massacre:

It seems odd that in the orgy of recrimination, faux solemnity and glycerine tears of the past few days on the issue of "What can we do?" no one has mentioned something that is A.) Immediate, B) Cheap and C) Bound to be effective and at the least, D) Certainly worth trying. That is if the New York Times, the Washington Post, People Magazine, NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox-Big Media, USA- were to announce, jointly, the following voluntary policy: "As of January 1, 2013, we will not publish or broadcast the name, photograph or background of anyone who attempts or commits a mass murderer of the active shooter variety. Further, we will work within our professional culture to 'enforce' this rule until it becomes a cultural norm. Names of killers will only be acknowledged at the time of adjudication or the issuance of a posthumous investigative finding."

No, you can't keep the name and identity secret in this time of Internet and text, but you can certainly change the culture so that the killer doesn't become a week-long rock star under the auspices of corporate media 24/7 overkill. It's time for the media to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

Can Boehner Turn the Tables? 

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 12:59 PM PST

(Steven Hayward)

I received a lot of disagreement for my post over the weekend defending Speaker Boehner, and I understand the frustration.  But I maintain my ground that taking out our frustrations on him is not simply unfair but probably imprudent, too, for reasons that may just now be coming into focus.  I can see that I may need to book space in brother Mirengoff's bunker where he had to flee after defending Mike Castle over Christine O'Donnell in the 2010 Delaware Senate race.

Here's the problem: it is foolish to suppose that a more "dynamic" or "principled" Speaker would be sufficient to turn around the fiscal cliff debate of the present moment.  This impulse both overestimates the power of-and underestimates the difficulty of-political rhetoric in the short term.  The contours of the present losing hand the GOP holds were set months ago, when Romney and the rest of the Republican Party leadership failed to contest Obama effectively on the issue of taxes and "fairness."  Dumping Boehner now is like saying the Jets, down three touchdowns with five minutes to go in the fourth quarter, should now switch to Tim Tebow and the wildcat offense to try to pull it out of the fire.  Demanding that Boehner and House Republicans go down with guns blazing and refusing any tax increase in order to protect the Republican "no-tax" brand is to turn away from how a tactical retreat may prepare the ground for larger victories ahead.  The GOP isn't going to lose its brand ID because it accedes to a tax increase on millionaires under these circumstances.  This is not the same as 1990, when the first President Bush botched the budget deal.  The public knows which party is, and which party isn't, driving this mess.

We've been among the many voices urging the House GOP to seize the initiative by passing something-Simpson-Bowles, anything-to force Obama's hand.  Now, as Paul noted earlier today, it appears Boehner is ready to do so with his "Plan B."  It may turn out that Boehner's patience will be rewarded: having offered a grudging concession on taxes, we are starting to see that Democrats are fracturing over any serious spending cuts.  If Obama can't deliver Democrats, it will shatter the media meme that Republicans are the obstacle to any deal, and Democrats will suddenly become the final cause of going over the fiscal cliff.

No, this is far from ideal.  Ideal would have been winning the election.  Or at least a Senate majority to join the House majority.  Failing this, Boehner is playing his bad hand as best as might be hoped with surviving to win the next hand in mind.

I'd like to draw everyone's attention once again to something Harvey Mansfield said in his recent Wall Street Journal interview:

Conservatives should be the party of good judgment, not just of principles.  Of course there are conservative principles-free markets, family values, a strong national defense-but those principles must be defended with good judgment.  Conservatives need to be intelligent, and they shouldn't use their principles as substitutes for intelligence.  Principles need to be there so judgment can be distinguished from opportunism.  But just because you give ground on principle doesn't mean you're an opportunist.

Chuck Hagel, the antithesis to the Obama thesis of liberal Jews 

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 09:34 AM PST

(Paul Mirengoff)

Last week, I asked: If Obama nominates Hagel, will that make Jews who worry about Iran but voted for Obama useful idiots? After all, Hagel voted against designating Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization; urged President Bush to open "direct, unconditional" talks with Iran to create "a historic new dynamic in U.S.-Iran relations;" was a reliable "no" vote on sanctions against Iran; and serves on the board of directors of Deutsche Bank, which is reportedly being probed by U.S. authorities for possible violations of the very kinds of sanctions Hagel opposed when he was in Congress.

Alana Goodman adds another dimension to the "useful idiot" question. She reminds us that Obama supporters in the pro-Israel community took pains during the election to assure us that Obama was serious about using military force against Iran, if need be. Thus Alan Dershowitz said in the Jerusalem Post:

There are some, in both parties, who wrongly believe that a policy of "containment" - that is, allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons but containing their use by the threat of tit-for-tat reprisal - is the right strategy. President Obama has explicitly rejected this benighted approach and has instead announced that his policy is to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, even if it takes military action to do so. In the meantime, he has ratcheted up sanctions and diplomatic pressure while explicitly keeping the military option on the table.

Several months ago, President Obama invited me to the Oval Office to discuss his Iran strategy. He looked me in the eye and said, "I don't bluff." His actions with regard to Osama bin Laden and the Somali pirates who endangered Americans and threatened to kill them demonstrated his willingness to use force when warranted. So does his increased use of drones to target terrorists who are beyond the reach of capture. I believe President Obama when he says that Iran will not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons on his watch.

Similarly, Jeffery Goldberg wrote in the Atlantic:

I run into people constantly who believe that the bluffer in this relationship is Obama. Their argument holds that Obama will move toward a strategy of containment soon after the election, and that there is no way he would ever use military force to prevent Iran from getting the bomb.

I'm in the camp of people, however, who take him at his word, in part because he's repeated himself on the subject so many times and in part because he has laid out such an effective argument against containment and for disruption, by force, if necessary.

But, as Goodman shows, Hagel strongly opposes using force against Iran:

I do not expect any kind of military solution on the Iran issue. I think to further comment on it would be complete speculation, but I would say that a military strike against Iran, a military option, is not a viable, feasible, responsible option.

In fact, Hagel opposes talking about using force against Iran, even as a bluff:

I think talking about going to war with Iran in fairly specific terms should be carefully reviewed. And that's pretty dangerous talk. It's easy to get a nation into war; not so easy to get a nation out of war, as we are finding out.

If Obama nominates Hagel as his Secretary of Defense, it will be a slap in the face for Dershowitz, Goldberg, and many other liberal American Jews. But that, or worse, is what normally happens to useful idiots.

Sandy Hook: The Corrections Begin 

Posted: 18 Dec 2012 09:29 AM PST

(John Hinderaker)

I noted here that the news media's performance on the Sandy Hook elementary school murders has been terrible, with news outlets committing one factual error after another. Yet in all the calls for "soul searching" that have followed Adam Lanza's rampage, I haven't seen a single one suggesting that reporters and editors should reflect on their own conduct, either in publicizing (and thereby encouraging) mass murderers like Lanza, or in making sure they have their facts straight before going public with information.

So it will be interesting to watch media outlets issue corrections to their Sandy Hook coverage over the coming days. This morning the New York Times published a series of corrections to its Sandy Hook coverage:

* An article on Saturday about the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 children and 8 adults dead, using information from the authorities, misstated the way in which the gunman managed to enter the Sandy Hook Elementary School. The gunman, Adam Lanza, shot his way in, defeating the security system that required visitors to be buzzed in; the school's principal did not allow him to go through the security system after recognizing him. The article also referred incorrectly to the gunman's mother, Nancy, whom he killed in the house they shared not far from the school. She was never a teacher at the school.

* An article on Sunday about the way in which the gunman in the Connecticut school shooting blasted his way into the building on Friday and shot his victims multiple times misstated, in some editions, the caliber of two handguns found at the school. The guns were a 10-millimeter Glock and a 9-millimeter Sig Sauer - not .10-millimeter and .9-millimeter.

* An article on Monday about President Obama's remarks at a memorial service in Newtown, Conn., for shooting victims quoted incorrectly from comments by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, who criticized Mr. Obama for inaction on gun control. Mr. Bloomberg, appearing on the NBC program "Meet the Press," said that if Mr. Obama "does nothing during his second term something like 48,000 Americans will be killed with illegal guns." He did not say that is the number that would be killed in the next year.

* An article in the New York pages on Monday about past resistance to tightening gun rules in Newtown, Conn., misspelled the surname of an owner of a gun range on High Rock Road. He is Scott Ostrosky, not Ostrovsky.

The first correction relates to two garden-variety factual errors. The assertion that Nancy Lanza was a teacher at Sandy Hook, and that she had been shot there, was a staple of the early coverage by nearly every news outlet.

The second correction reflects the ignorance of firearms, and mathematics, that dogs "mainstream" reporting on gun issues. Have the Times's reporters and editors seriously never heard of a 9 millimeter pistol? And do they really not understand how microscopic a .9 millimeter bullet would be? When people know so little about firearms, how do they presume to lecture the rest of us on public policy relating to guns?

The third item corrects the newspaper's misquotation of Michael Bloomberg, New York's busybody mayor. What Bloomberg actually said was that in the next four years-not the next one year-"48,000 Americans will be killed with illegal guns." But Bloomberg's statement, quoted correctly, is wrong. FBI statistics indicate that in 2010, there were 8,775 homicides using firearms, not 12,000, and the number is steadily dropping. Moreover, that is the total number of homicides that involve all guns, not "illegal guns." There are very few illegal guns-i.e., guns which it is illegal to sell-in the United States. Bloomberg makes clear what he actually means on his web site, where he says:

...12,000 innocent people killed each year with guns, many of them possessed illegally.

During the next President's term, if we do nothing, 48,000 people will be murdered with guns....

So when Bloomberg said on Meet the Press that "48,000 Americans will be killed with illegal guns," he both got the number wrong and gratuitously inserted the reference to "illegal" guns. I have seen no data on the number of homicides involving guns that are possessed illegally.

It is noteworthy that the rate of homicides that involve guns moves with the murder rate generally. Between 2006 and 2010, FBI data indicate that the number of homicides committed with firearms declined by 14%. Over the same time period, homicides in which the weapon was a blunt instrument declined by 13%; homicides in which the weapon was a knife declined by 7%; and homicides in which no weapon was used (i.e., fists) declined by 11%. This suggests that rather than talking about reducing gun violence, we should focus on reducing violence, period. Whatever factors have been reducing the murder rate in recent years apply to gun violence just as they do to other forms of homicide.

In the wake of Sandy Hook, much attention, all of it negative, has been focused on the Bushmaster rifle that Adam Lanza apparently used to commit his murders (news accounts on this point have varied over time). The rifle is commonly, if meaninglessly, referred to as an "assault weapon." But homicides using rifles of any sort are rare, as well as declining. In 2010 there were only 358 homicides involving rifles, compared with 1,704 in which knives were used, 540 that involved blunt objects, and 745 in which the victims were simply beaten to death. So the idea that there is some kind of epidemic of violence involving semiautomatic rifles, or any other sort of rifle, is nonsense.

As for the Times's story on guns in Newtown that was published on Sunday and was the source of today's final correction, I suspect there was more amiss than the spelling of Scott Ostrosky's name. The article says:

The owner of one, Scott Ostrosky, said he and his friends had been shooting automatic weapons since he bought the 23-acre property more than 12 years ago. It is safe, he said, because his land is sandwiched between two other gun ranges, the 123-acre Pequot hunting club and the 500-acre Fairfield club.

It is possible that Ostrosky and his friends own automatic weapons. They could have filled out this form and gotten permission from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to buy automatic weapons, based on a showing that they had a "reasonable necessity to possess the machinegun, short-barreled rifle, short-barreled shotgun, or destructive device described on this application" and on an endorsement from local law enforcement, or they might have obtained automatic weapons illegally or in some other fashion. But I seriously doubt it.

Be that as it may, my guess is that more corrections are yet to come.

PAUL ADDS: John is spot on about this. I should add, however, that Charles Lane of the Washington Post took the media to task for its atrocious Sandy Hook coverage in an op-ed published this morning. In the print edition the op-ed is called "Rapid-fire falsehoods."

• Until U.S. Understands Police Limitations, Some Will Put Faith in Gun Control (Mike McDaniel)
• What's Gun-Control Proponents' Next Move After Sandy Hook? (Bridget Johnson)
• Democratically, Egypt Becomes Anti-Western Dictatorship (Barry Rubin)
• Cory Booker's Food Stamp Falsehoods (Tom Blumer)
• The Road to Damascus (Richard Fernandez)
• The Face of the Enemy (Andrew Klavan)
• Everything You Think You Know About Autism Is Wrong (Bookworm)

• Glenn Beck: David Barton joins guest host Tim Ballard to talk about moral values and the Second Amendment. Tune in at 5pm ET or on-demand on TheBlaze TV.

• Real News: Would a ban on guns pass judicial scrutiny? And what's happening with the report on Benghazi? For answers, watch Real News at 6pm ET -- only on TheBlaze TV.

• Wilkow!: David Webb interviews Andrew Wilkow... You read that right. David will be asking Andrew questions sent in by viewers. Wilkow! at 7pm ET -- only on TheBlaze TV.

TheBlaze Radio Network - Listen to Jay Severin - live every weekday afternoon from 2-5pm ET - Check out TheBlaze Radio network�s full lineup HERE.

The Left's Ongoing Assault on Election Integrity

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight was published December 14, 2012 on The Washington Times website.

If you think the left is resting on its laurels after Barack Obama's re-election and the Democrats' retention of the U.S. Senate, think again.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who halted photo ID laws in South Carolina and Texas before the November election, suggested on Tuesday in Boston that the United States should consider adopting "automatic" voter registration.

This essentially would mean that millions of people who sign up for government benefits but don't bother to register to vote will be given the franchise. Think of it as Motor Voter on crack cocaine.

Read the Entire Column

Appeals Court Oral Arguments Signal Trouble for Obamacare HHS Mandate

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published on December 15, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

A top federal appeals court signaled Friday that it might act on Obamacare's HHS Mandate--requiring employers to cover birth control and abortion-related services.

Read the Entire Column

ACRU Brief Supports Arizona's Citizenship Law for Voting in Federal Elections

December 14 (Alexandria, VA) - The American Civil Rights Union filed a brief today with the United States Supreme Court in Arizona v. The Intertribal Council of Arizona in support of Arizona's Proposition 200, which requires prospective voters to provide satisfactory evidence of citizenship to register to vote. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a District Court ruling upholding that state law, concluding that federal election law preempts Proposition 200 in regard to federal elections.

"While states continue to move forward in preventing voter fraud by passing Voter ID laws, purging deceased voters from their rolls and blocking non-citizens from casting ballots, liberal groups and activists judges continue to weaken voter integrity," said Susan Carleson, chairman of the ACRU and a leading opponent of vote fraud.

Read More and Download the Brief

Our Government-Created Financial Crisis 

This column by ACRU Policy Board Member and Professor of Economics Dr. Walter E. Williams was published December 12, 2012 on Townhall.com.

Suppose you saw a building on fire. Would you seek counsel from the arsonist who set it ablaze for advice on how to put it out? You say, "Williams, you'd have to be a lunatic to do that!" But that's precisely what we've done: turned to the people who created our fiscal crisis to fix it. I have never read a better account of our doing just that than in John A. Allison's new book, The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure.

Allison is the former CEO of Branch Banking and Trust, the nation's 10th largest bank. He assembles evidence that shows that our financial crisis, followed by the Great Recession, was caused by Congress, the Federal Reserve, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and was helped along by the Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama White Houses.

Read the Entire Column

Replacing Speaker Boehner

This column by ACRU General Counsel and Senior Fellow for the Carleson Center for Public Policy (CCPP) Peter Ferrara was published December 12, 2012 on The American Spectator website.

John Boehner is a good man in a hard place. He has served in public office as a lifelong conservative, not a RINO. His position on the Obama tax increases has been better than almost any other Republican who has been speaking out lately, given the Obama/Democrat election victories -- close loopholes and deductions for $800 billion in new revenue over a decade, but no increases in rates.

But face it. Boehner is no match for Obama on the national stage. He cannot press the economic arguments articulately. He does not have a compelling personality. Obama is running circles around Boehner with outrageous falsehoods, and Boehner cannot raise a peep to challenge him. Boehner has managed to allow Obama to turn the Bush middle class tax cuts, passed by a Republican majority Congress over 10 years ago, into the Obama middle class tax cuts, supposedly opposed by the House majority Republicans.

Read the Entire Column

Seventh Circuit Rules in NRA's Favor in Illinois Gun Law Case 

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published on December 5, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

The National Rifle Association just won a major court case in Chicago, providing a huge victory for Second Amendment proponents and gun owners.

Illinois is one of the most anti-gun states in America. Its hostility toward the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is demonstrated in a state law that forbids the carrying of firearms outside the home. There are narrow exceptions for classes of persons such as police officers, or under restrictions that keep the firearm from being readily usable, such as being kept unloaded in a locked case.

Read the Entire Column

Supreme Court Takes Case on Same Sex Marriage, DOMA

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published on December 7, 2012 on Breitbart.com.

The Supreme Court of the United States announced Friday it would decide two cases involving same-sex marriage and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). By next July, the Court will rule on the government's role in marriage both in the states and at the federal level.

The justices granted a writ of certiorari in two of the eleven marriage cases pending before the High Court.

One is Hollingsworth v. Perry, which asks the question of whether the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution contained an implied fundamental right to gay marriage, such that no state may define marriage as the union of one man and one woman and all laws to that effect are unconstitutional.

Read the Entire Column

Shocking psych-meds connection to school shootings

Were psychiatric drugs the likely cause of Adam Lanza's extreme violence in Newtown, Conn., not to mention other school shootings?

You can't miss this eye-opening report on the danger of prescription drugs.

Read the latest now on WND.com.
 

PHOTO: Best way to stop slaughter of innocents

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Maybe it can stop a thousand bullets, too.

Take a look at this amazing photo to see the very simple way to end shooting massacres in schools.

Read the latest now on WND.com.    

Is this a blessing or NIGHTMARE from science?

With all the other troubles in the world recently, you probably didn't think much about HUMAN cloning.

But that's about to change.

Will science destroy us faster than you-know-who?

Read the latest now on WND.com.    

Forget Dec. 21, watch out for these deadly dates

While some people have calendar jitters about the predicted "end of the world" on Dec. 21, we're now getting a serious warning about a diabolical threat taking place on the 11th day of these upcoming months.

Look what's in the works ...

Read the latest now on WND.com.    

Pat Buchanan: The dead soul of Adam Lanza

As many ponder why Adam Lanza went on his fatal shooting spree in Connecticut, Pat Buchanan goes inside the mind of the killer, and those who want to surpass him.

Read the latest now on WND.com

Plus!

Chances are, you've used this man's very famous service, which has been known at times to embarrass and defame. But now HE is the one claiming his name's being dragged through the mud. As the old saying goes, "Irony can be pretty ironic."

Click here for details

And Sandy Hook kids move to a NEW school

The healing process from the worst school massacre in recent history is underway, as a transition is taking place to another campus some seven miles away.

Click here for details

President Obama's Economically Destructive Tax-Hike Plan

by Nathaniel Ward

President Obama's plan to increase taxes primarily on "high-income earners" and small businesses will have devastating effects on the economy, according to a new report from The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis.

And now Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has introduced a plan that would raise income taxes on those making $1 million or more.

"Private-sector employment in the U.S. economy would fall by an average 1.1 million jobs (1 percent) per year" under the Obama plan, explain Heritage economists Bill Beach, John Ligon and Guinevere Nell. "And Americans would work 2 billion fewer hours."

Not only that, but the Obama tax hike wouldn't achieve it's intended effect of increasing revenue by $160 billion per year. Instead, it would generate only about $68 billion per year." This is due, the report notes, "to a smaller tax base commensurate with the smaller economy. For example, fewer hours worked and lower real wages result in less federal income and payroll tax receipts."

The Center for Data Analysis has developed a unique dynamic model that forecasts how policies like tax increases affect human behavior. Most models, including those used by the government, assume no such changes. For example, many official government projections fail to note that Americans change their saving and investment behavior based on tax policies.

What do you think of proposals to increase tax rates just for high earners? 
 

Last week, President Obama asked Congress for $60.4 billion for Hurricane Sandy response and recovery. But where is that money actually going?

According to Heritage Foundation research, only $12 billion of the President's request, or just 21 percent of the total, will be directed to Hurricane Sandy response and recovery. The rest is going to fund unrelated projects such as:

• Roughly $28 billion of the request is marked for future disaster-mitigation projects on the East Coast, including $3.2 million for erosion control projects and $15 billion for Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grants;
• $3 billion for federal departments and agencies to repair or replace federal assets, including $2 million for roof repairs at the Smithsonian;
• $200 million for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to be used freely at the discretion of the Secretary; 
• $6 million to purchase food for food banks, a need that could be better met by local companies and the nonprofit sector.

If unnecessary items are removed from the Administration's request, you're left with a request of $12.8 billion in supplemental funds.

Do you think lawmakers should use disaster relief as an excuse to fund their pet projects?

Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA) has introduced an important Medicare reform proposal, one that's very similar to The Heritage Foundation's Medicare reform outlined in our Saving the American Dream plan.

Medicare reform is long overdue. It has been a decade since any major Medicare reform proposal was introduced to Congress, and Obamacare did little to fix it. And while Heritage continues to push for Obamacare repeal, we also continue to advocate for fixes to strengthen Medicare and other programs.

Heritage expert Rea Herderman explains how Herger's proposal would work:  

The federal government is spending too much money, and this plan's reforms would help curb that spending. Herger's reform follow the model of the Federal Employee Health Benefits plan, which allows individuals to direct their benefit to their preferred health plan. Ultimately, Hederman explains, this premium support model "would save the government substantial money without endangering the future of Medicare."

Click here to read a list of other benefits of Herger's Medicare reform plan and leave your comments.

December 18, 2012

On Today's Program

With Glenn on vacation for the holidays, we're counting down the top Glenn moments of 2012. What were this year's highlights? Stay tuned to the Glenn Beck newsletter to find out! 

Obama's insanely crazy life story

When President Barack Obama came out and said you can't make it in America if you are different, Glenn could not believe his ears. Did the President really just say that? He of all people should know that anyone in America can make it today. Especially considering that he himself is the President of the United States and has one of the craziest backgrounds ever. Forget the funny sounding name -- America elected Obama despite the fact he had a dad named Lolo, with a monkey named Tata, a small zoo with chickens, ducks, dogs, birds of paradise, and baby crocodiles. His stepdad also worshipped something called Hanuman the monkey god. There's a ton more and Glenn laid it all out in one of the more incredible monologues you will ever see -- not because of anything special Glenn did (although there was a small zoo on set with all the animals Barack Obama had growing up) but because of how incredibly implausible this story is. And despite all of the bizarre life circumstances, Obama still managed to get elected. How could he possibly not believe America is still a place where anyone can make it?

Miss yesterday's kick off of "Top Glenn moments of 2012"? Click HERE for Day 1!

Give the gift of TheBlaze TV:  Do you have a Glenn Beck fan in your life who would love to watch Glenn's show every day? Are you a subscriber to TheBlaze TV Plus who wants to share the information and inspiration with family and friends? TheBlaze TV Plus is the perfect gift this holiday season! Get all the details HERE.

We have everyone on your gift list covered....

Young Adults: Michael Vey and Michael Vey 2: Rise of the Elgen are the must-read hit books of the year! Women: The Snow Angel is an amazing, emotionally charged story about the power of starting over. Men: Signed copies of Glenn's new thriller novel Agenda 21 (with a leather gift box!) are still available. Kids: The Christmas Sweater: A Picture Book is a beautifully illustrated companion to the #1 bestselling adult novel, The Christmas Sweater.

Stories from TheBlaze:

Armed off-duty sheriff's deputy stops armed gunman at movie theater:  With one shot, an off-duty sheriff's deputy took down a gunman attempting to open fire in a crowded movie theater lobby during a late night showing of The Hobbit in San Antonio, TX - DETAILS.

Man posts offensive, racially-charged Facebook status in wake of Sandy Hook school shooting - STORY.

NBC's Richard Engel describes terrifying 'psychological torture' and execution threats during Syrian captivity:  It was confirmed this morning that NBC News's chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel, along with her crew, were kidnapped in Syria and subsequently released. The journalist detailed the horrific experience in an interview with Today -- WATCH.

First photo of marine jailed in Mexico sent to family from anonymous Mexican email account: See the photo and get the full story HERE.

Should Americans learn from Israeli gun laws?

In the wake of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, that left 28 - including 20 innocent children dead - Americans are searching for solutions. What can we learn from our ally, Israel, and their gun laws? Find out HERE. 

In five minutes or less, keep track of the most important news of the day. Sign up for FireWire, the daily e-mail newsletter from TheBlaze.

Watch Glenn's Christmas Special ON DEMAND! Glenn Beck's Family Christmas is now available on demand for TheBlaze TV Plus subscribers and DVD pre-order. Enjoy this Christmas classic with your friends and family for years to come. Get all the details HERE.

What sets small business apart from big business? Sign up with The Marketplace newsletter, and you'll read stories about following your passion, finding purpose in grief, and pushing your own limits.

Beck teams with Vince Vaughn, Peter Billingsley for new reality series

Glenn made a huge announcement a few weeks ago, sure to stir conversation and cause far left basement-dwelling bloggers to freak out: TheBlaze is teaming with Vince Vaughn & Peter Billingsley to create a fantastic new reality series called Pursuit of the Truth. The series will bring together twenty selected documentary filmmakers from across the country to prove to a panel of expert judges that their project is worthy of the grand prize - financing and worldwide distribution for their feature documentary film idea. Applications are currently being accepted from filmmakers, with a deadline of January 31st, 2013. 

Tomorrow on Wilkow! Back to the Future: Conservatism's past and future -- 7pm ET only on TheBlaze TV Plus!

Help others when you shop in the Mercury One store this holiday season
You've still got a few days left to order great gifts for your friends and family from the Mercury One Store! Until December 20th, Mercury One will continue to offer its popular Merit Pins, t-shirts, official service vests and more. The best part is, buying a gift in the store enables Mercury One to help those in need! Visit the store now!