RUTHFULLY YOURS

The Radio Television Digital News Association recently presented its new First Amendment Defenders Award to Tim Tai, a student journalist who was hired by ESPN to cover the anti-racism protests at the University of Missouri.

“Tai was confronted by University students, faculty and staff, threatening him with violence if he did not abandon his efforts,” the award citation reads. “Instead, he stood his ground and patiently asserted his First Amendment Rights to stand in a public place and report on the events around him.”

One would hope that the ACLU of Missouri issued a statement of support for Tim Tai at the time the video of this highly publicized event went viral on the Internet. But the ACLU of Missouri didn’t even acknowledge that the incident occurred. Instead, they issued a statement that “the ACLU of Missouri honors the University of Missouri students and faculty who displayed courageous and creative leadership …”

The next day, when MU’s student body vice president suggested on national television that the exercise of First Amendment rights creates a hostile and unsafe learning environment, the ACLU of Missouri remained silent. Two days later, when a Christian street preacher was physically assaulted by anti-racism protesters while speaking inside MU’s designated “Free Speech Circle,” the ACLU of Missouri remained silent.

One of the San Bernardino shooters came to the United States with the intention of carrying out a terrorist attack, FBI director James Comey told Congress on Wednesday.

Comey said he doesn’t know if a terrorist group arranged the marriage between the two attackers, but said that Tashfeen Malik had jihadist goals as early as 2013. “The intelligence indicates that she was [radicalized] before she connected with the other killer and came here,” he said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this morning.

Comey’s revelation comes in the midst of a debate over President Obama’s pledge to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees to the United States, as lawmakers and governors question the efficacy of Department of Homeland Security screening procedures. It rattled even Democratic lawmakers on the committee who have defended Obama’s policies.

“After this hearing today, every American is going to be asking the question: How did this woman come in on a visa . . . if she was talking publicly (again, we’ll get into ‘privately’ in the classified briefing) about jihad?” said New York senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader-in-waiting. “Shouldn’t that be somehow tied into our visa program?”

The more analysts try to figure out Donald Trump’s appeal, the more they sound baffled.

Pundits cite Trump’s verbal sloppiness and ridiculousness as proof that he must soon implode. But Trump sees his daily bombast as an injection of outrage for a constituency now hooked on someone who finally voices their pent-up anger. The more reckless Trump’s doses of scattergun outrageousness, the better the fix for his supporters.

Trump’s vague “make America great again” was the natural bookend to Barack Obama’s even more vacuous “hope and change.” The popularity of such empty slogans reflects a culture in which no one any longer trusts institutions, the media, government, or politicians.

The public no longer respects U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the IRS, the VA, or the GSA. Even the once-hallowed Secret Service has become a near laughingstock of incompetency, corruption, and politicization. Is the purpose of NASA really Muslim outreach, as NASA chief Charles Bolden suggested in 2010?

I often show the 2006 documentary Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West to my college students. For many, it is an incredible eye-opener. With the latest terrorist attacks by jihadists in Paris and California, this movie is particularly relevant. And the comments by the students speak volumes.

A student who hails from Africa writes:

I’m disgusted by the fact that extreme Muslim people taught children to hate Christians and Jews. I’m offended because I am a Christian and I wouldn’t want any of this wished upon someone else. But above all, we are in the day and age where old texts aren’t morally acceptable, like for example, in the Koran, Allah states that you shouldn’t befriend Christians and Jews.

A young man who served in the armed forces explains:

… the film is a great method of educating and updating people around the world with the issues we are facing with the Islamic community. We are sitting at the end of 2015 still dealing with attacks, refusing to face the fact that they are out to destroy anyone who doesn’t follow their believes [sic].

A young Hindu student remarks:

… this film was edjucational [sic] and should be shown throughout America in all schools. Maybe American children are too unaware of this group of people who don’t value human life. Kids these days are only worried about likes and comments, while Islam is teaching their kids how to disguise themselves and blend in among crowds. We are becoming vulnerable and falling behind. Just like Hitler, the head of this movement should be killed. They are taking the joy of a child and replacing it with hate. Not only are they taking a child’s innocence, but people don’t expect kids to be suicide bombers.

A short history of Obama administration accountability:

1. No one fired at ATF or the Justice Department over Fast and Furious gun walking scandal

2. No one fired at IRS, two employees temporarily demoted over targeting scandal

3. Only 6 managers at the VA fired or allowed to resign over falsifying wait time records

4. No HHS employee fired over Obamacare exchange fiasco

5. No senior officers have been demoted or removed from CENTCOM for “cooking the books” on ISIS intelligence

6.. No EPA employee disciplined for toxic spill at Colorado mine

As for that last scandal, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told a Congressional committee she never even yelled at anyone at the EPA for allowing millions of gallons of orange waste to flow into the Animas River.