ANDREW McCARTHY: THE SOCIAL COMPACT?

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner As Mike correctly notes, there’s plenty to say about David Brooks’s faulty logic. I’ll stick to one aspect of it. Progressives like Brooks see government as if it were not merely a sentient being but one to whom we could transfer our personal responsibilities — as if there were virtue in spending other people’s […]

Undercover in Ramallah — on The Glazov Gang

Undercover in Ramallah — on The Glazov Gang
by Jamie Glazov
A photographer dresses up as a leftist hippie and journeys inside a death cult. This is his tale.
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/jamie-glazov/undercover-in-ramallah-on-the-glazov-gang/

Muslim Riots Reach Europe Free Speech Under Threat by Soeren Kern

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3350/muslim-riots-europe “We are ready to work with our souls and hearts to fight for our beloved prophet, even if death comes to meet us.” — Sharia4Belgium “I can imagine there would be good reasons to outlaw the film.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a reversal from two years ago, when she said, “Free speech is […]

ELECTIONS ARE COMING: GOP WAR ON WOMEN? NO!…WOMEN WARRIORS

Heather Ann Wilson is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives representing New Mexico’s 1st congressional district from 1998 to 2009. She is the first female military veteran elected to a full term in Congress. She is running for the Senate.

http://heatherwilson.com/
HEALTHCARE

I am running for the Senate because I trust people more than I trust government to make the best decisions for themselves and their families. But that is not what we have today with Obamacare. Obamacare does nothing to control the spiraling cost of care. It raises taxes, cuts Medicare, costs more, and gives people less control over their health care decisions.

For the first time in American history, every citizen will be required to purchase a government approved product. If Washington can mandate how people must spend their money, there is no limit to government power. The law is unconstitutional and if it is not thrown out by the Supreme Court, I will fight to make sure it is repealed and replaced.
DEFENSE

The first and most important responsibility of the federal government is to provide for the common defense. A strong military is the best way to keep the peace. Our young men and women in the military should only be sent into harm’s way to protect America’s vital national interests, with clear missions, and with the force necessary to win and come home again.

Three generations of my family have served in uniform. I have spent my adult life serving to protect our country and I will continue to do so in the Senate.

CLAUDIA ROSETT: SUSAN RICE OBFUSCATING FROM BEHIND

http://pjmedia.com/claudiarosett/rice-on-libya-obfuscating-from-behind/?print=1 With an American ambassador murdered abroad for the first time since 1979, it was clear that someone from the Obama administration had to show up on the Sunday TV talk shows to field questions about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. But of all the many officials to whom the […]

AN INTERVIEW WITH MARK STEYN: ED DRISCOLL ****

http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2012/09/17/steyn-on-after-america/ Last year, as the month of August began, I received a copy of Mark Steyn’s After America from his publicist on Wednesday, the Dow Jones dropped 512 points on Thursday, and S&P shorted America’s credit rating on Friday. Mark’s crack PR team earned their keep once again this year, staging riots across the Middle […]

FRANK GAFFNEY: ISLAMISTS TIPPING POINT

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/17/islamists-tipping-point/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS History is replete with examples of strategic miscalculations in which an overreach — usually born of contemptuous disdain for a foe — led to disaster for the aggressor. Think Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 or Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union 131 years later. We may look back at Sept. 11, 2012, as […]

BRET STEPHENS: MUSLIMS, MORMONS AND LIBERALS…WHY IS IT OKAY TO MOCK ONE RELIGION BUT NOT ANOTHER? ****

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444450004578002010241044712.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
‘The Book of Mormon’ performed at New York’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre

‘Hasa Diga Eebowai” is the hit number in Broadway’s hit musical “The Book of Mormon,” which won nine Tony awards last year. What does the phrase mean? I can’t tell you, because it’s unprintable in a family newspaper.

On the other hand, if you can afford to shell out several hundred bucks for a seat, then you can watch a Mormon missionary get his holy book stuffed—well, I can’t tell you about that, either. Let’s just say it has New York City audiences roaring with laughter.

The “Book of Mormon”—a performance of which Hillary Clinton attended last year, without registering a complaint—comes to mind as the administration falls over itself denouncing “Innocence of Muslims.” This is a film that may or may not exist; whose makers are likely not who they say they are; whose actors claim to have known neither the plot nor purpose of the film; and which has never been seen by any member of the public except as a video clip on the Internet.

No matter. The film, the administration says, is “hateful and offensive” (Susan Rice), “reprehensible and disgusting” (Jay Carney) and, in a twist, “disgusting and reprehensible” (Hillary Clinton). Mr. Carney, the White House spokesman, also lays sole blame on the film for inciting the riots that have swept the Muslim world and claimed the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his staff in Libya.

So let’s get this straight: In the consensus view of modern American liberalism, it is hilarious to mock Mormons and Mormonism but outrageous to mock Muslims and Islam. Why? Maybe it’s because nobody has ever been harmed, much less killed, making fun of Mormons.

DOROTHY RABINOWITZ: THE FOURTH ESTATE STILL THRILLING TO THE SPIRIT OF ’08

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443995604578002523312508286.html?mod=hp_opinion

The spectacle of reporters over the past week hounding Mitt Romney for speaking his mind does not come as a surprise.

After an astounding week of ardent media focus on Mitt Romney’s criticism of the initial U.S. response to mob assaults on American diplomatic outposts, the furor is dying down—but it’s not over by any means. Nor was the message that the furor sent a negligible one.Condemnations of Mr. Romney had come thick and fast. He had been “crass and tone deaf,” in the view of MSNBC’s Chuck Todd. He had committed a “slander” against the president, according to Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic.

Journalists in pursuit of this story—to the exclusion of virtually all else going on—were quick to point out that denunciations of Mr. Romney were by no means limited to Democrats, that criticism came from Republican commentators too. This fact was hardly surprising—the sanctimony of the virtuous knows no political bounds.

The spectacle of those hordes of journalists in single-minded pursuit of the Romney story day after day—days that saw the killing of four Americans, embassies burned and trashed, mobs of the faithful running amok—shouldn’t have been surprising either. It’s the most dramatic indicator yet that in this election the pack journalism of four years ago is alive, and well, and in full cry again.

Especially wonderful to hear were all the charges about Mr. Romney’s political opportunism and tone-deafness—this after three days of a Democratic convention distinguished by shameless, nonstop exploitation of the military raid that put an end to Osama bin Laden. It is impossible to imagine any other president in American history orchestrating even two minutes—much less three days—of the self-glorification and wallowing in a victory won by the nation’s armed forces that was on display at the convention. If any of this orgy of boasting in the interest of a political campaign caught the attention of those commentators whose sensibilities were so offended by Mr. Romney last week, we haven’t heard about it.

REVIEW OF DAVID SOLWAY’S BOOK GLOBAL WARMING, TRIALS OF AN UNSETTLED SCIENCE BY BARBARA KAY

http://pjmedia.com/blog/global-warning-how-gaia-replaced-god/?singlepage=true A review of frequent PJM contributor David Solway’s new book, Global Warning, Trials of an Unsettled Science. A thought experiment. You’re a jury member in a courtroom trial that will decide whether the defendant – man-made global warming advocacy – is, as it claims to be, a disinterested conduit of scientific truth, or, as […]