Radical Islam in America

There was a powerful piece in a recent National Review the dealt with the Boston Marathon bombers. The pair of brothers who instigated this terrible act were examples of what's happening to many other Muslims as they enter Western nations. They are being told to integrate but not assimilate.

Radical Muslims have a strategy. They want to convince Western leaders and decision-makers of their right to live according to their faith. Now, that sounds good to our ears, because we all want the right to live according to our faith; it's a fundamental guarantee in the United States.

But Muslim supremacists stretched the definition of the word "faith." They are not talking merely about what we would consider religious tenets. Instead, they're talking about full-on sharia law, with its social and political boundaries, its regulation of every detail of people's lives.

These radicals don't want to join the rest of us at America's ecumenical table. What they are demanding is the establishment of autonomous Muslim enclaves within a society of which they are irrevocably hostile.

So the Boston bombers sucked up the ideology that creates terrorism by insulating its adherents and dehumanizing non-believers. But what does our government do about this? It often appeases supremacist agitators.

Consider Sheikh Qaradawi. He is probably the most influential Islamic scholar alive today, being found on advisory boards all over the West. Never mind the fact that he has issued fatwas endorsing suicide bombings against Israel, terror war against American troops in Iraq, and the death penalty for homosexuals. He is a darling of Western universities and academics, who present him as a leading "moderate" intellectual.

Until we get our head out of the sand, we will see more Boston-type events in our future. This is something we can and must fight.

Random stories and quotations that add up to something

I found a few things interesting from a recent issue of National Review. Here goes:

1. Republicans were not able to stop Obamacare, but there was one tiny victory they had – requiring Congressman/women and some of their aides to enroll in what the law calls "exchanges." Now, congressional Democrats are starting to worry that they won't be able to attract young, single staffers, are going to have to pay much more for exchange cover. He then they paid today, thanks to the obscure, intricate regulations and Obamacare. So, guess what? The Democrats are trying to create an exemption for their offices. Is anyone surprised? Congress always passes stupid laws for the rest of us, but they are the first to make sure they get exemptions from it.

2. We now have a new Secretary of State, John Kerry. Listen to a few of these comments by him. When he testified before Congress, he was asked about Benghazi and finished an answer by saying, "we got a lot more important things to move on to and get done." On another day, he made a casual comparison of those who died in the Boston terror bombing to the thugs who lost their lives on the Turkish ship when they attempted to break an Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza. Here's one more Kerry comment on jihadists: "I think the world has had enough of people who have no belief system, no policy for jobs, no policy for education." Well, the individuals he's referring to actually do have a rather well-developed belief system. It's called Islam.

3. I love reading about cars, so I was interested in what happened to an automobile company called Fisker. It was going to build a beautiful plug-in luxury car called the Karma. Unfortunately, the company is nearly bankrupt. Here's for all of us come in – the American taxpayer is on the hook for a loan of over $500 million given to it by the Department of Energy. I keep in mind these are the same people who brought us Solyndra. In fact, VP Biden stood at the site of a proposed Fisker plant in Delaware, promising that the government's investment would return billions of dollars. This is what we get when we have an inefficient government trying to determine winners and losers in the private sector.

4. Remember the terrible explosion in Texas, where a fertilizer-plant blew up, killing 15 people? Some on the left argued that this was due to Texas's lighter regulatory touch. Actually, the facility was supposedly regulated by no fewer than seven agencies. The problem was not the regulations but the regulators –OSHA , for example, had not visited the site since the Reagan Administration. Here we go again: the federal government thinks it knows best, but it fails often in doing its duties.

Well, those are just a few items that interested me. I hope they are instructive to all of us.

Benghazi and the IRS--Two Monsters Unleashed on the Administration

I want to continue criticism of the Obamacare program, but let’s take a second to consider recent events—Benghazi and the IRS. Both suggest the adoration poured out upon Obama may have been misplaced.

Remember how he was the Second Coming? Remember how he was going to run the most transparent administration in American history? Remember how he was going to heal the planet? Well, these and other fantasies may have to be put on hold while he has to deal with the realities of Benghazi and the IRS.

We are starting to know much about the attack on our embassy in Benghazi. The official talking points are far different from what really happened.  We now discover Hillary Clinton’s chief assistant had scrubbed talking points about the attack expressly to deny Republicans the opportunity to criticize the administration. Wow, so much for Obama’s claim that his administration was being forthcoming. We are left with a key question: Were Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton willfully misinformed or willfully spreading misinformation? Not a good answer either way.

While this disaster involving the deaths of four Americans is being revealed, new discoveries of IRS malfeasance have come forth, like a monster out of the crypt.  We now know the IRS has deliberately targeted conservative groups. Shades of Nixon! At first, it looked like the agency was trying to honestly report on its own shortcomings by going public late last week. But their revelation took place just ahead of congressional investigators released their findings. So, the officials there weren’t coming clean out of guilty consciences; they were trying to lessen the impact of damning congressional discoveries.

So, what do we have here? A terrible mix of two news items. A government agency going after groups that oppose the president’s agenda and, worst of all, undermine constitutional principles, would never be a good thing for an administration. But add to that the Benghazi disaster--the Obama administration has taken a huge hit on its credibility for misleading the public here.

So, what’s ahead for Obama? It depends. Many presidents have tried to slip and slide past problems rather than confront them head-on. This current occupant of the White House doesn’t seem like the type who can admit wrongdoings or incompetence. That doesn’t bode well for him, his administration, or, more importantly, the American people.

The realities of Obamacare

Well, this is the year that Obamacare starts being rolled out for the American people. Despite the glowing predictions by Obama and other Democrats, it's going to be a mess. Let's compare some of the predictions with the realities.

We were told by Obama that if Americans like their doctor, they'll be able to keep their doctor. Not true. The Congressional Budget Office predicts something like 7 million Americans will lose the insurance they would've had provided by their employer.

Those in favor of Obamacare assured us that insurance would be more affordable. Also not true. This plan says health insurance policies must cover much more than they previously have. The implications are obvious – more things that are covered, the more expensive the program will be. One organization predicted the premiums would go up over 20% for Californians not eligible for federal subsidies.

Businesses were told that health-insurance costs would lessen for them. Sorry, but this ain't going to happen either. Private companies are turning to part-time workers so they can avoid having to pay Obamacare's costly mandates.

But surely the federal government's cost for health insurance will drop, as we were told by confident Democrats? Nope. In February, the CBO estimated Obama care would cost well over $1 trillion in its first 10 years beyond what our federal government is currently spending on health programs.

Obviously, there's much more to say in regards to the horror of Obama care, but I'll save that for a future blog.