RUTHFULLY YOURS

Congress, composed of popularly elected representatives, is charged with passing laws. It is the job of the President to “faithfully” carry out those laws, whether he (she) likes them or not. It is the Supreme Court alone, based on cases brought before it and using judgment and precedence, which decides whether a law meets the standards set forth in the Constitution. No one, not the former Secretary of State, not even the President is above the law. Justice is (or should be) blind.

When Kim Davis, the Rowan County (Kentucky) clerk refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple because it violated her religious beliefs, she broke the law. She spent five days in jail. While the right to worship as we please comes from our Creator, we live among others who may not share our beliefs. Society functions when it adheres to laws, not passed down from God, but made by men and women. When Michael Brown walked into a convenience store in Ferguson, Missouri and stole some cigarillos, he broke the law. When he resisted arrest, he broke the law. When he attacked the arresting police officer, he was shot. Despite enormous pressure from the White House, a grand jury decided not to indict and the Justice Department declined to bring criminal charges against Officer Wilson. Justice prevailed, but because of attempts by public officials to evade the legal system Wilson’s life was forever changed.

Millions of Muslims are trying, through dangerous ways, to reach the borders of a civilization they have historically blamed for all the world’s evils, including in their own countries’.

Muslims in this part of the world view the Christian West as “evil;” yet they know Christian lands are the most decent places to live economically and politically. Wealthy Arab states rigidly turn their back on the plight of fellow Muslims who are in need of a helping hand; and Islamist hypocrites blame it all on the West.

Sadly, no one questions why “West-hating” Muslims go West… or why non-Muslims should pay the price for exclusively intra-Muslim wars and the wave of migrants they create.

“The tragedy of the Palestinians,” Jordan’s (late) King Abdullah wrote in his memoirs, “was that most of their leaders had paralyzed them with false and unsubstantiated promises that they were not alone; that 80 million Arabs and 400 million Muslims would instantly and miraculously come to their rescue.”

Decades later, Syrians fleeing the civil war in their homeland make up the backbone of the world’s refugee tragedy.

I’ve just got my internet connection up and running again, and as I suspected, the “maybe” Jewish status of the man sworn in today as Australia’s 29th prime minister, following his successful (many will add “lamentable”) coup last night against the previous incumbent, the more genuinely conservative Tony Abbott, is circulating again.

Thus we learn, from the Times of Israel, citing an interview Turnbull gave to the Australian Jewish News a couple of years ago, that Turnbull’s mother may have been Jewish, and if she was, then so is he (halachically) but she was very vague about the matter, and so therefore is he.

To quote the latter newspaper in 2013:

‘….“My mother always used to say that her mother’s family was Jewish,” the member for Wentworth said….

Asked if his mother’s revelation has shaped his views he said: “Yes, maybe.”

“I grew up in the Eastern Suburbs and as we all observe there were a lot of Jews in the Eastern Suburbs and I have always been very comfortable.

“There is no doubt that the strong traditions of family and the whole heimishe atmosphere of the Jewish community, which I’m sure some people don’t like, for me – as someone who is a good friend, but not part of it – I find very admirable.”

Reflecting on his mother, he noted, “She had a lot of Jewish friends in Sydney and a lot of Jewish friends in Philadelphia, where she was living when she died.”….’

Well, that can’t do Mr Turnbull (who, by the way, is a convert from Presbyterianism to Catholicism yet at odds with Catholicism on several social issues) any harm with Jewish voters, although I’ve always wondered why another Liberal politician, former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett, an Abbott loyalist who yesterday denounced Turnbull as the Liberal Party’s Kevin Rudd (a reference to the Rudd-Gillard backstabbing episode in the Labour Party), never big-noted his own undoubted Jewish ancestry. Indeed, he seems to have kept it snugly under wraps.

Then, again, we’re entitled to roll our eyes and say “So what?” when confronted with a politician who just happens to have a Jewish parent or forebear. I mean, look at the British Labour Party’s former leader, “Red Ed” Miliband. His Jewish parentage didn’t make him especially sympathetic to Israel, did it? And David Cameron’s two Jewish great-grandparents, or Jack Straw’s one? True, Malcolm Fraser had a mother with a Jewish father, and Bob Hawke had a (first) wife with a mother of Jewish extraction, and both Fraser and Hawke were friendly to the cause of Soviet Jewry, and to Israel too, though not for the long haul.

Earlier this year, Hillary Clinton told a cheering Silicon Valley audience, “There is a special spot in hell for women who don’t help other women.”

If there is such a place in hell, Hillary has reserved parking there. It’s hard to think of any other politician who has done as much to exploit women while doing so little for them. Except maybe her husband.

While Hillary pontificated about the glass ceiling, the tabloids were filled with new allegations of sexual abuse about Clinton pal Jeffrey Epstein by one of his former “slaves”. Bill Clinton had taken frequent rides on Epstein’s private jet which had been nicknamed the “Lolita Express” because of its transportation of underage girls for the use of Epstein and some of his friends and associates.

Hillary Clinton was lecturing on feminism while new allegations were coming out about the former slave’s meeting with Bill Clinton on the “Lolita Express” and the favors that Bill owed Epstein.

Jeffrey Epstein was good at cashing in his favors. Despite buying girls as young as twelve, he served a year in the private wing of a Palm Beach prison with “work release” for six days a week and sixteen hours a day which he used to fly the Lolita Express back to his private island.

Impressive candidates make clear no one will go down without a fight.

Last night’s CNN-sponsored GOP presidential debate at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA was promoted with the title “It’s On: Watch Sparks Fly.” Debate moderator Jake Tapper was joined by CNN’s Dana Bash and radio host Hugh Hewitt, who posed additional questions to the 11 candidates, including Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina, Rand Paul, Scott Walker, John Kasich and Chris Christie. And while CNN shamelessly attempted to engender a political food fight, the candidates themselves mostly refused to play along.

Tapper opened the debate by giving each candidate 30 seconds to introduce themselves, and most of them spoke of the need to restore America and take on the status quo of out of control government.

After a desperate attempt to goad several candidates into attacking Trump on stage, the first substantial topic raised was Russia moving troops into Syria. Tapper asked Trump what he would do to get Russia out. Trump was evasive, saying he would get along with Putin and he would allow Syria and ISIS fight it out, and then “we could pick up the pieces.” Meanwhile, Rubio noted that Obama is allowing Putin to reestablish Russia as a geopolitical force. Fiorina said she wouldn’t talk to Putin at all, but engage in military maneuvers demonstrating American strength, which she then detailed.

By far, one of the top foreign policy concerns of Americans at the moment is the disastrous nuclear deal brokered between the Obama administration and the Islamic Republic of Iran, which most Americans oppose. The Iran deal will no doubt be a major issue between any future Republican presidential candidate and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who recently issued a full-throated defense of the accord. Republican candidates were not shy about making their positions on the deal known. Cruz was asked to respond to Kasich’s assertion that Cruz was “playing to the crowd” regarding his vigorous opposition to the deal. “I will rip up the Iran deal the first day in office,” Cruz stated, elaborating on the idea that no president has the right to give up national sovereignty. ​Kasich offered the already discredited idea that the sanctions could be “snapped back” if Iran cheats. Cruz highlighted the folly of that idea and further noted Obama is violating federal law by not turning over all parts of the Iran deal to Congress.

“The world will respect us like never before?” Do you respect Donald Trump tonight like never before?

The personal attacks that have worked so well for Donald Trump these past few weeks fell flat tonight. Trump didn’t get this at first, and even threw out a gratuitous insult or two mid-debate. Gradually, however, Trump woke up to the fact that crass wasn’t working anymore. By the time Carly Fiorina took him down, we’d crossed into new territory. Trump looked small and ugly.

Is this the guy who’s going to make America great again?

I’m sympathetic to the frustration with the GOP establishment, and with the overall direction of the country, that are feeding the Trump phenomenon. But I don’t think Trump is the answer. After this debate, I don’t think voters are going to see him as the answer either.

Simi Valley, Calif. — The skills that make a good president aren’t necessarily demonstrable on a debate stage. But a candidate must be elected, which means being able to win some debates.

On Wednesday evening, a consensus formed quickly: Florida senator Marco Rubio and former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina had emerged victorious.

In the spin-room scrum that followed, some were quick to voice their objections. “A good performance doesn’t mean you’re a solid conservative,” said former Senate majority leader Trent Lott, who is supporting the rumpled and prickly Ohio governor, John Kasich.

It’s true. Success on the debate stage doesn’t require passing a test of ideological purity or managerial competence; it demands qualities that are easy to identify and hard to define: charisma, stage presence, self-possession. Underlying these “winning” traits is usually some even-more-elusive mix of appearance, body language, voice control, eye contact, style, humor, temperament, and message.

There is a tragic monotony to the latest massive human migration, this one involving Syrians fleeing their war-torn country.

Whether the migrants are from Mexico, the Islamic world, or elsewhere, it is always the same: Migrants flock to the West.

Mexicans who elect to leave their country do not hop trains to Guatemala. Fleeing Libyans do not head for the Congo. And Syrians do not go to Russia or China.

Migrants — many of them young men — come in such numbers that Western immigration laws are often rendered null and void. Western nations tend to apply their exacting immigration laws only to the much smaller number of immigrants who obey the law.

Sometimes the exoduses are due to endemic poverty, usually brought on by the utter failure of non-Western governments to provide jobs, security, and basic social services. Sometimes tribal, religious, or drug wars cause the exoduses.

“ . . . they went up on the breadth of the Earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and the fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.” – Revelation 20:9

It’s curious how often life imitates art. Germany recently won plaudits from the world’s elites when it announced it would accept 800,000 Muslim “refugees [1]” this year. There have been some cold feet in Berlin since then, but it’s probably too late. The hordes are on their way. Per Jean Rean Raspail’s 1973 novel The Camp of Saints [2], on an Easter weekend with an old professor watching an armada of rotting ships steaming slowly up to the coast of the Riviera:

On this Easter Sunday evening, eight hundred thousand living beings, and thousands of dead ones, were making their peaceful assault on the Western World. Tomorrow it would all be over.

The Camp of the Saints tells the story of the destruction of European civilization (including its outpost in the United States), partly by a flood of unassimilable wretches from India, partly by a failure of nerve on the part of the custodians of European civilization. The choice, Respail noted in an afterword, was stark:

To let them in would destroy us. To reject them would destroy them.

Here’s my 10-minute summary of the CNN Republican debate (which should have been renamed the CNN-Pssst-did-you-hear-that-nasty-thing-one-Republican-said-about-another-Republican debate):

The Winners:

Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina were the two standouts in Wednesday’s debate.

Rubio brought an appealing mix of the common touch and tough talk on foreign policy to the debate stage. Unlike some other candidates, he didn’t seem like he was elbowing his way into the debate, so it “felt” like he was a featured speaker. He sounded like the grownup in the room when he tussled with Trump on foreign policy. Trump grimaced and rolled his eyes, but offered no substantive rebuttal. Rubio has a nice way of dispensing with an opponent without sounding angry.

Fiorina was smart and scrappy. Her Planned Parenthood screed was fantastic. She rightly redirected the focus away from the faux “women’s healthcare” straw man (straw woman?) to the real issue of Planned Parenthood selling chopped-up babies. Other candidates ought to take note. Carly does need to soften her edges a bit because she tends to dial it up to harsh and stay there.

Middle of the Pack:

Ted Cruz was brilliant and in command of the facts (despite the fact that Jake Tapper cut him off at nearly every pass). It occurred to me that Mike Huckabee could do a great service to his country by dropping out of the race and coaching Cruz on the common touch. Cruz’s talking points are spot on, but he is missing warmth and the ability to connect on a personal level.

Mike Huckabee’s shining moment was his defense of religious liberty. He noted that GITMO prisoners are afforded more religious accommodations than county clerks in Kentucky. He has a point.

Chris Christie also had a good night and he landed some solid blows in Trump’s direction. But he was crowded out by Carly and Rubio, so viewers will likely only remember his “You kids stop fighting or I’ll pull this debate over!” moment when he told Carly and Trump to knock it off.