RUTHFULLY YOURS

According to the feminist blog Bustle, seemingly harmless phrases including “no can do” and “long time, no see” are actually terribly racist and so we must stop using them “immediately.”

Huh?

Basically, the idea is that these two phrases are considered racist because they originated from Westerners mocking what’s called “pidgin English,” which are forms of English that immigrants have used to make it easier for them to communicate in America.

The piece was based on a video that aired on MTV, which explained that the phrase “no can do” originated from Westerners’ mocking Chinese immigrants’ “pidgin language” in the early 20th century, and “long time, no see” was a way of mocking the speech of indigenous people.

The host of MTV’s segment, Franchesca Ramsey, clarified that the history of these phrases did not mean that people have to stop using them. In fact, she said that all of the phrases — other than the word “gypped,” which she referred to as a “racial slur” for the Romani people — were “pretty harmless” and that there was no reason to ban them from our speech.

Though over 100,000 people claimed asylum in the United States in 2014, the federal government only has “limited capabilities to detect asylum fraud,” according to a new government audit.

About 4,500 people claimed asylum with the assistance of lawyers and application preparers who were later convicted of fraud, the Government Accountability Office’s audit found. “Granting asylum to an individual with a fraudulent claim jeopardizes the integrity of the asylum system by enabling the individual to remain in the United States, apply for certain federal benefits, and pursue a path to citizenship,” the report says. “Given the potential consequences of asylum decisions, it is important that the asylum system is not misused.”

The number of asylum claims has doubled since 2010, a statistic that surely will stoke questions about whether President Obama’s immigration policies are a “magnet” for people who try to enter the country illegally. The report also feeds into an ongoing debate about whether the federal government has the capability to ensure that terrorists can’t take advantage of refugee programs to enter the United States.

There were over 108,000 asylum claims filed in fiscal year 2014, up from about 47,000 in fiscal year 2010, and the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services have struggled to keep up with the surge in paperwork. They currently face a backlog of 106,121 applicants.

When the Redlands Tea Party Patriots objected to the resettling of Syrian Muslim migrants in their community, CAIR accused them of “paranoia and phobia is rooted in a combination of ignorance and bigotry.”

But “paranoia and phobia” are the modern condition that the free world has found itself living in. Islamic terrorism can strike anytime and anywhere from a Paris concert hall to a San Bernardino County facility where disabled children were being helped. It’s ignorance to ignore that and bigotry to defend it.

“What will be done to ensure the safety of our community? Our biggest concern is the safety of our family, our children and our grandchildren,” Victoria Hargrave of Redlands Townhall had asked.

It was a good question. As the country watched police charge towards a home in the Redlands, it has become an even better question.

The shooter has been named as Sayeed Farouk. His father described him as a religiously devout Muslim. “He was very religious. He would go to work, come back, go to pray, come back.” Co-workers say that he “grew a beard and started to wear religious clothing. The long shirt that’s like a dress and the cap on his head.”

And at some point his “religiosity” took him down the familiar path of Jihad.

San Bernardino’s police chief confirmed that the mass shooting at a county Christmas banquet did not look like a spontaneous attack due to the amount of planning, devices, weapons and tactical gear involved.

Chief Jarrod Barguan told reporters in a late-night press conference the shooting suspects, both killed in a gunbattle with some 20 officers at the end of a pursuit, have been identified as Syed Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27. Farook was a U.S.-born citizen; the chief wasn’t sure of Malik’s background. He said he had no information on whether either had a criminal record.

Barguan said there was a relationship between the two; CBS News reported that the pair had been married for two years. CAIR said earlier that Farook and his wife have a 6-month-old baby.

Farook was an environmental specialist at the county health department. He had attended the Christmas party last year, and this year left the party early “angry” under circumstances that led police to the Redlands residence. The Daily Beast reported that Farook’s mother lived there.

“Where intelligence starts and stops is at the White House,” Lt. General Michael Flynn gruffly exclaimed in response to a question posed by Megyn Kelly on The Kelly File. “The president sets the priorities, and he’s the number-one customer. So if he’s not getting the intelligence that he needs, and if he’s not paying attention to what else is going on, then something else is wrong there between them and the advisers that he has.”

With that, General Flynn, the personification of a bald eagle, is discussing an issue that’s near and dear to his heart: military intelligence and how it’s being manipulated. It’s the latest Obama administration scandal, and it’s being whisked along on an assembly line chock-full of them. The nature of this one, however, is far worse than “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.” Dumbed down intelligence at the insistence of someone in the military or the administration is a clear and present threat to our national security.

Flynn, a no-nonsense, intensely bright, and “ground-truth” general, has been an intrepid and stormy critic of the Obama administration, its “whack a mole” air campaign against ISIS, and its mealy-mouthed narrative about terrorism in general. He is the tip of the spear of a growing vanguard of those in the intelligence sector who fiercely defend their craft and the solid information they provide. Top-notch analysts have been appalled to learn that the intel they’ve been supplying has been watered down like a glass of cheap wine in a cheesy bar.

A congressional panel said it has uncovered an array of previously unknown security lapses by the Secret Service showing the agency is “in crisis’’ and needs major changes.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform report, set to be released Wednesday, documents what it says are widespread problems at the Secret Service. The committee, led by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah), has been probing the agency since a 2012 scandal over agents bringing prostitutes back to their hotel rooms in Cartagena, Colombia.

The newly revealed security breakdowns cited in the report include:

Security at Vice President Joe Biden’s home in Delaware was breached in 2013 when four young adults went fishing in his backyard. The Secret Service learned of their presence from neighbors of Mr. Biden, according to the report.

A previously disclosed incident in which a man pretended to be a lawmaker to get backstage at a Congressional Black Caucus event was worse than initially thought. The man managed to speak directly to President Barack Obama at the 2014 event before being removed, the report says.

Two days after terrorists rampaged in Paris, the Obama administration announced that it had transferred five prisoners—including a former Osama bin Laden bodyguard—from the U.S. prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United Arab Emirates.

In the past several days, the White House has signaled that a more significant step is coming soon: the complete shutdown of the facility and the transfer of the remaining detainees—there are 107 at the moment—to sites on the U.S. mainland. Obama-administration surrogates say the president will effect the change by using his favorite tool, an executive order. But this would be utterly illegal, since Congress has specifically prohibited the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to U.S. soil.

Although the president’s war powers are broad and formidable, so are those of Congress. In particular, the Constitution specifically vests the legislative branch with the powers to “declare War”; to “raise and support Armies”; to “make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water”; to “make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces”; and to appropriate funds for all of these purposes.

With all the marching in cities and demonstrating on campus, it might be helpful to look at some actual statistics about Black Lives. According to the Bureau of Justice for the year 2009 (the last for which data is available), 218 Black men died during the course of arrest or while in the custody of the law. This does not distinguish between armed or unarmed men nor does it justify any wrongful death. In the same year, Blacks accounted for 56% of deaths due to HIV/AIDS, the vast majority being young gay black men. In 2012, there were 6,540 Black deaths from HIV/AIDS according to the CDC (Center for Disease Control); although Blacks are only 12% of the population, this represents 50% of the 13,712 people who died of this disease.

While medicines are improving and people are living longer with HIV, there are 45,000 new HIV infections each year and the rate is rising for the most at risk demographic – young gay black men. 72% of Black men with HIV contract it thru sex with other men. High risk, invasive and unprotected sex is common among this group as is non-compliance with taking medication and lack of concern about infecting others.

We are near the end of the seventh year of Barack Obama’s presidency, and by any measure the United States is a fractured nation. Its people are more divided politically than any time in recent memory. Personally, many are anxious, angry or just down.

Whatever Mr. Obama promised in that famous first Inaugural Address, any sense of a nation united and raised up is gone. This isn’t normal second-term blues. It’s a sense of bust.

The formal measure of all this appeared last week with the release of the Pew Research poll, whose headline message is that trust in government is kaput. Forget the old joke about the government coming to “help.” There’s a darker version now: We’re the government, and we’re here to screw you.

In a normal presidential transition year, voters would be excited at the mere prospect of new leadership. Instead, the American people are grasping for straw men.