#1468 (1/14) "Fact-Checking Obama’s Final State of the Union"

"FACT-CHECKING OBAMA'S FINAL STATE OF THE UNION" - Melissa Quinn / Josh Siegel / Philip Wegmann/ Jan. 12, 2016 /http://dailysignal.com/2016/01/12/fact-checking-president-obamas-final-state-of-the-union/ [NOTE: You can find a more complete analysis of the  SOTU in the article "What Obama Got Wrong in the SOTU" that is noted below. It was just too long to post here. - Stan]
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President Barack Obama looked to the future Tuesday night in his final State of the Union address, touching on issues ranging from health care and the economy to climate change, terrorism and military strength. Obama touted the achievements of his seven years in office, and outlined how he thought his policies will help Americans for years to come.The president delivered the nationally televised speech to a joint session of Congress as well as members of his Cabinet, U.S. Supreme Court justices, military officers and dozens of special guests.

Here, The Daily Signal provides more context for some of Obama’s claims:

    Obama: “Nearly 18 million have gained [health] coverage so far. Health care inflation has slowed. And our businesses have created jobs every single month since it became law.”
 
Despite the president’s claim that more than 18 million Americans now have health insurance—credited to Obamacare’s implementation—the majority of those who gained coverage qualified for Medicaid because of loosened eligibility. Since the health care law went into effect in 2013, 31 states and the District of Columbia have opted to expand Medicaid, the federal health program for the poor. From January 2014 to July 2014, more than 8 million Americans gained coverage under the president’s signature health care law. However, 71 percent of those signups were attributed to Medicaid expansion. Additionally, an October 2015 report found that though more than 9 million Americans gained health insurance in all of 2014, the Medicaid rolls swelled. Of the 9.25 million Americans who enrolled in health coverage, 97 percent—8.99 million Americans—received insurance through Medicaid.

For Americans who receive coverage through their employer or the individual market, many have been faced with skyrocketing premiums and deductibles. Premiums increased in 49 of the 50 states for 2016 on the individual market, with many premiums growing by double digits.

Obama: “More than 14 million new jobs; the strongest two years of job growth since the ’90s; an unemployment rate cut in half. Our auto industry just had its best year ever. Manufacturing has created nearly 900,000 new jobs in the past six years. And we’ve done all this while cutting our deficits by almost three-quarters.”

Though the deficit fell during Obama’s presidency, Romina Boccia, a senior budget analyst at The Heritage Foundation, said this can be attributed to the recovery following the 2008 recession and tax hikes on Americans.Boccia also noted that Congress has cut spending, largely because of the caps put in place by the 2011 Budget Control Act. Still, in the years since they went into effect, Congress and the White House have weakened the caps.

Labor experts also argue that though the unemployment rate has fallen steadily, millions of Americans have left the workforce.

Obama: “We spend more on our military than the next eight nations combined.  Our troops are the finest fighting force in the history of the world.  No nation dares to attack us or our allies because they know that’s the path to ruin.”

In 2014, the U.S. accounted for more than one-third of military spending worldwide, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. America spends several times more on its military than does second-place China. Still, U.S. military spending as a percent of total government spending dropped from 10.4 percent in 2013 to 9.5 percent in 2014. And military spending declined from its 2010 peak, although it is higher than in 2001, just before 9/11.

In its 2016 Index of Military Strength, The Heritage Foundation reports budget sequestration spending caps affected military readiness and capability. Though the U.S. military is able to engage in a single major regional conflict while tending to its normal presence in other countries, it would be “ill-equipped” to fight two significant wars at once, Heritage says.

Obama: “For more than a year, America has led a coalition of more than 60 countries to cut off ISIL’s financing, disrupt their plots, stop the flow of terrorist fighters, and stamp out their vicious ideology. With nearly 10,000 air strikes, we are taking out their leadership, their oil, their training camps, and their weapons. We are training, arming, and supporting forces who are steadily reclaiming territory in Iraq and Syria.”

Most of the airstrikes have occurred in Iraq, not in Syria, where the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has its home base. In Syria, the U.S. has to contend with an unfriendly dictatorship –which it neither wants to coordinate with or attack–and with Russian airstrikes, which began this fall.

Some critics have argued the U.S. should send more ground troops to fight ISIS in Syria, but Obama has said Americans have no appetite for an enduring war, and that Sunni-Arab fighters must lead the effort to defeat the brutal Islamist terrorists.In October, Obama ordered several dozen Special Operations troops into Syria, representing the first open-ended ground forces sent into that country.

Also in October, the Defense Department abandoned a $500 million program to train moderate Syrian rebels. It decided instead to use the money to provide ammunition and weapons for groups already succeeding in the fight against ISIS. The decision to drop the training program came after the administration announced it graduated only a few recruits among the Syrian rebels.

Obama: “That’s why we built a global coalition, with sanctions and principled diplomacy, to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. As we speak, Iran has rolled back its nuclear program, shipped out its uranium stockpile, and the world has avoided another war.”

The United States and five other world powers last summer reached a deal with Iran that limits the Islamic regime’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions. Iran agreed to reduce its stockpile of uranium by 98 percent. But the main provisions of the agreement expire in 10 to 15 years. After that, Iran can produce uranium on an industrial scale.

When Iran meets its obligations–during what is known as “implementation day”–the international community will allow Tehran to access some $100 billion in frozen oil revenue. Iran has not yet reached implementation day, so technically its nuclear program has not been rolled back.

Iran completed an important step Monday when the regime reported it had removed the core of its plutonium-producing nuclear reactor, which limits the amount of plutonium to a level insufficient to make a bomb.

While the U.S. has said Iran is living up to its commitments under the nuclear deal so far, Tehran also has launched ballistic missile tests in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and continued to support unpopular proxies in the region. The Obama administration argues the nuclear deal with Iran is only about that issue, and that punishing Tehran for other actions could undermine the agreement.

Obama did not mention Tuesday’s news that Iran was holding 10 American sailors after two naval vessels traveled into Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf. U.S. officials said they expected the men to be released by Wednesday morning.[which they were]

Obama: “But even if the planet wasn’t at stake; even if 2014 wasn’t the warmest year on record–until 2015 turned out even hotter…”

The president is right when he says last year was the warmest year on record, but that data point doesn’t necessarily translate into increased global warming.In making this claim, Obama was referring to a 2015 study released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA). But there are serious questions about the data driving that study and the conclusions drawn from it by politicians. Some of the weather stations that collect those measures are located in industrial areas, surrounded by buildings, parking lots, and other structures that retain heat and skew the data. For instance, the official weather station in Washington, D.C., is located at Reagan National Airport. As Patrick J. Michaels of the Cato Institute explains, that station produces an inaccurate weather report because it measures increased heat produced by “several hundred feet lower in elevation … the brick buildings [nearby], and the pavement of urban Washington.”

Geography could also play a significant role in some NOAA’s dramatic numbers. The weather stations that provide the data for the report are not spread out. “These stations are not distributed in a regular, comprehensive geological pattern” notes David Kreutzer, a senior fellow in energy economics at The Heritage Foundation. As a result, he concludes the data “doesn’t prove a climate crisis is evident.”

Obama: “In fields from Iowa to Texas, wind power is now cheaper than dirtier, conventional power.  On rooftops from Arizona to New York, solar is saving Americans tens of millions of dollars a year on their energy bills, and employs more Americans than coal–in jobs that pay better than average. “

Wind power isn’t just cheaper than fossil fuels, as the president said. Often, as in Texas last March, wind-generated electricity is sold for negative prices. Slate reports that companies actually were paying Texas public utilities to take their excess electricity. Among many factors artificially driving the price down was a generous federal production tax credit that pays producers 2.3 cents per kilowatt hour. Nick Loris, an economist who is the Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, explains that subsidies and regulation–like the Texas wind credit–govern and skew significant portions of the energy market.

And although, as the president says, the solar industry does employ more Americans than coal, Loris says, that’s because of an unfair playing field. “Heavy-handed regulations,” he says, “are driving out coal as an important, reliable energy source and destroying jobs in the process.” Meanwhile, “solar benefits from generous taxpayer-funded subsidies.”

Loris notes further that increased oil drilling, not solar production, does more to push down electricity prices. The Energy Information Administration reported that in 2015, “wholesale electricity prices at major trading hubs … were down 27 percent [to]37 percent across the nation” and that the price drop was “driven largely by lower natural gas prices.
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"What Obama Got Wrong in the State of the Union" - Rob Kuhlmann / Jan. 12, 2016 / http://dailysignal.com/2016/01/12/what-obama-got-wrong-in-the-state-of-the-union/
"Conservatives Condemn Obama’s Silence on Sailors Captured by Iran" - Philip Wegmann / Jan. 13, 2016;http://dailysignal.com/2016/01/13/conservatives-condemn-obamas-silence-on-sailors-captured-by-iran/
...[Sen. Mike]Lee questioned that logic, asking why the nuclear agreement “didn’t prevent Iran from taking those ships into custody[.]” “If it brought us all this goodwill,” Lee said, “why would this have happened in the first place? It’s also interesting that this happens just as we’re on the precipice of lifting sanctions on Iran. It’s strange.

#1467 (1/13) "Powerball and the Moral Deficit..."

"POWERBALL AND THE MORAL DEFECIT - BAD ODDS FOR THE POOR" - By: John Stonestreet| Breakpoint.org: Jan.13,2016;
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/28722?utm_source=Colson+Center+Master+List&utm_campaign=6f36a24fc1-BP_Daily_01_13_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84bd2dc76d-6f36a24fc1-6541173 [AS I SEE IT: I've never been tempted to purchase a lottery ticket, though I hear Christians saying "What can spending a few dollars hurt." It would be interesting at one week's worship service, people were asked to drop in a special offering collection whatever few dollars they would ordinarily use to purchase lottery tickets. People might be amazed at how much that money that added up to, money that could be placed in a benevolence fund to HELP someone with great needs. Just a thought.  P.S. - I do confess that I do get caught up in the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes, though I never purchase any of the products they offer for sale. Still, I struggle to know if that is a wrong use of my time. What do you think? - Stan]

There are some taxes that folks just love. And in the last two weeks, people have been scrambling to pay one of them. I'm talking about Powerball.

America is in the midst of Powerball fever. And it’s not hard to see why. The potential value of a winning ticket went from $40 million in November, to $800 million last Saturday night, to an estimated $1.3 billion as I record. In interviews everywhere, people are fantasizing about what they would do with all that money. Many are admitting to buying tickets in bulk. Though in one a refreshing change of pace, a woman at a supermarket told a colleague that she wasn’t playing because, “No one needs that kind of money.”

Well, she’s definitely in the minority. People are lining up to buy, despite the fact that the chances of winning are astronomical: one in 292 million. In miles, that’s more than three times the distance between the Earth and the Sun, what astronomers call an astronomical unit or AU.

Now, if all that was happening was a bunch of people throwing away a couple of bucks on astronomically-long odds, it wouldn’t warrant comment. But that’s not the only thing going on here. As ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser recently said on his radio show, it’s clear that “the lure of easy money affects the segment of the population you wish it [that] it didn’t affect.” 

He’s referring to the disproportionate impact of state-sponsored lotteries on those who can least afford to play them: the lower-middle class and the working poor.This disproportionate impact was the subject of a recent piece by Jordan Ballor of the Acton Institute. He cited polling data that confirmed lottery critics’ worst fears: “The poorest among us," he said, "are contributing much more to lottery revenues than those with higher incomes.” 

How much is “much more?” One poll found that “people who played the lottery with an income of less than $20,000 annually spent an average of $46 per month on lottery tickets. That comes out to more than $550 per year, and it is nearly double the amount spent in any other income bracket.”
And it isn’t only the people at the very bottom of the income brackets: “Those with annual incomes ranging from $30,000 to $50,000 had the second-highest average — $24 per month, or $288 per year.” While that’s half as much as those earning less than $20,000 a year, it's still a lot more than people in higher income brackets.

Ballor calls these state-run lotteries, which include Powerball, a “betrayal” of the citizenry. For starters, they're highly-regressive taxes on those least able to afford them. And it’s certainly the only tax that’s promoted through slick and nearly always misleading television and radio ads. And, Ballor adds, though lotteries are usually promoted as a way to pay for education and other human needs, “revenue is often diverted for new purposes through legislative and bureaucratic chicanery.”

That’s because it’s easier to impose what's virtually a tax without the name on the poor than it is to ask citizens to accept higher taxes for what they want. And this gap between what people demand and what they’re willing to pay for it was what Philip Johnson once dubbed the “moral deficit.”

In other words, people say they want smaller government, but often what they mean is that they’re willing to sacrifice someone else's programs and subsidies, just not their own. The explosion of state-government lotteries, and more recently, state-sanctioned casino gambling and slot machines is, in significant part, a product of this moral deficit. Let someone else pick up the tab.

Every once in a while, the payout grows so great that the rest of us will catch the fever our elected officials are spreading in our name, especially to our most vulnerable neighbors. The rest of the time, however, we’re just content to let them pay the bills that we’re not willing to pay ourselves.

As I said, when it comes to the lottery, the odds of winning are astronomical. But the chance of acting shamefully toward our neighbors is a sure thing. 

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION - The statistics on gambling present a clear reality check. Those who can least afford to throw away money are the ones who try to beat the odds. But when they lose, we all lose. For more information on the consequences of the "moral deficit," check out the links below.[I particularly recommend taking time to read the first article noted. - Stan]
RESOURCES
"Why Everybody Loses With the Powerball" - Jordan Ballor | Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission | January 8, 2016;http://erlc.com/article/why-everybody-loses-with-the-powerball
"Statisticians question logic of buying multiple lottery tickets as jackpot rises to $1.4 B" - Jeff Barker | Baltimore Sun | January 11, 2016;http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-powerball-maryland-odds-20160111-story.html
"Consumerism and the Lottery: What They Can’t Get You" - John Stonestreet | BreakPoint.org | December 7, 2012;http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-powerball-maryland-odds-20160111-story.html
"Gambling Insanity: Political Chicanery and Cowardice" - Chuck Colson | BreakPoint.org | January 31, 2012;http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-search/entry/13/18658

#1466 (1/12) "State of the Union Spectacle Would Appall Thomas Jefferson"

"STATE OF THE UNION SPECTACLE WOULD APPALL THOMAS JERRERSON" - Jeff Jacoby | Jan 10, 2016;
http://townhall.com/columnists/jeffjacoby/2016/01/10/state-of-the-union-spectacle-would-appall-thomas-jefferson-n2102443/page/full

[Tonight],  amid much splendor and spectacle, the president of the United States will be welcomed by a joint session of Congress, there to be cheered and applauded like a homecoming conqueror, and, before an audience of lawmakers, diplomats, military officers, and dignitaries, to deliver his State of the Union oration in a live nationwide broadcast. It is the most preposterous and gaudy ritual in American political life. Thomas Jefferson will be turning in his grave.

Like Moses, Jefferson was burdened with a speech impediment and disliked public speaking. Unlike the Hebrew lawgiver, Jefferson wasn't compelled by Heaven to preach to the multitudes. And, as he knew perfectly well, he wasn't compelled to do so by the Constitution, either.

Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution obliges the president to periodically "give to the Congress information of the State of the Union" and to "recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." George Washington and John Adams elected to do so in person, though nothing in the constitutional language requires a speech. But Jefferson detested the "pompous cavalcade" to Capitol Hill, which in his view smacked disturbingly of the British monarch's annual "Speech from the Throne." Very early in his presidency, therefore, he let it be known that his first annual message to Congress, "like all subsequent ones," would be in writing. He was as good as his word, and the change was widely applauded.

"All the pomp and pageantry, which once dishonored our republican institutions, are buried in the tomb of the Capulets," wrote one admiring Pennsylvania congressman. "Instead of an address to both houses of Congress made by a president who was drawn to the Capitol by six horses, and followed by the creatures of his nostrils, and gaped at by a wondering multitude, we had a message delivered by his private secretary, containing every thing necessary for a great and good man to say."

Jefferson's innovation became the unvarying norm. For the next 112 years, every American president — Democrats, Republicans, and Whigs alike — fulfilled the constitutional mandate by sending written reports to Congress. And then, alas, came Woodrow Wilson.

Imperious and antirepublican, Wilson had long criticized the separation of powers established by the Constitution. Only the president could truly represent the will of the people, he believed, and it was therefore appropriate that he appear before Congress in person to let legislators know what he expected of them. For more than a century, presidents of every stripe had accepted and honored the principle that the executive, legislative, and judicial branches were separate and co-equal. Presidents didn't intrude on lawmakers' turf, let alone presume to lecture them on his political wish-list. Wilson's reversion to pre-Jeffersonian practice was jolting.

"All official Washington was agape last night over the decision of the president to go back to the long-abandoned custom," reported The Washington Post on April 7, 1913. Considering some of Wilson's other achievements — he segregated Washington, D.C., opposed female suffrage, approved a law to sterilize the disabled, screened the racist "Birth of Nation" in the White House, championed a federal income tax, and endorsed a ruthless civil-liberties crackdown — it would be stretch to describe Wilson's revival of the in-person State of the Union address as his worst offense. But it's on the list.

As president, Calvin Coolidge reversed Wilson's grandiose precedent, but it was revived again by Franklin Roosevelt and has been the norm ever since. The advent of television has turned the yearly pageant into a regal political infomercial. It now includes staged shout-outs to specially-invited citizens in the House gallery, members of Congress jostling for center-aisle seats in hopes of scoring a presidential handshake, and the wholly inappropriate presence of robed Supreme Court justices and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in uniform. News organizations count the number of standing ovations each president receives. And woe betide anyone in the audience who so much as murmurs disapproval of the executive during his hour of exaltation.

It isn't a healthy practice. What the Constitution's framers intended as a matter-of-fact directive — that presidents supply lawmakers with useful information and policy proposals — has become an antidemocratic extravaganza that would have horrified Jefferson. The State of the Union broadcast fuels the cult of the presidency. It encourages the delusion that the nation's "state" can somehow be embodied by a single individual, a Great Leader capable of crafting a sweeping political agenda that will bring the millennium.

The lone saving grace of the modern State of the Union Address is its reputation for tedium. Last year, fewer than 32 million viewers tuned in to the speech, a decline of more than 20 million since President Obama's first State of the Union in 2009, and the lowest ratings since Bill Clinton's final address in 2000. To political junkies, the "pompous cavalcade" may be irresistible. To the vast majority of Americans, it's just a bore.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine] 
 
Jeff Jacoby is an Op-Ed writer for the Boston Globe, a radio political commentator, and a contributing columnist for Townhall.com.

#1465 (1/11) "10 Myths About Guns [ie. the President's Proposed Gun Law Changes] "

"10 MYTHS ABOUT GUNS" - Sen. Chuck Grassley / Jan.07, 2016;
http://dailysignal.com/2016/01/07/10-myths-about-guns/

[Last]week, President Barack Obama announced executive actions related to guns. Here are 10 common myths about firearms.

Myth No. 1: Firearm purchases at gun shows do not require a background check due to the “gun show loophole.”
Facts: When the president and others refer to the “gun show loophole,” they imply that there are no background checks being done at gun shows. As a result, much of the public has been misinformed and are led to believe that individuals who purchase firearms at gun shows are not subject to a background check.
     In reality, there is no “gun show loophole.” If an individual wants to purchase a firearm from a licensed firearms retailer, which typically makes up the majority of vendors at gun shows, the individual must fill out the requisite federal firearms paperwork and undergo a National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) background check.
     The only firearms that are being purchased at gun shows without a background check are those being bought and sold between individuals, peer-to-peer, as opposed to buying a firearm from a gun dealer. These private sales are no different from selling a personal hunting rifle to the owner’s niece or nephew down the road. It is a private sale and no background paperwork is required. The gun is private property and the sale is made like a sale of the family’s good silver. The one difference is that the locus of a gun show is being used to make the private sale.
     Under current law, an individual is permitted to occasionally sell part, or all, of their personal firearms collection. These private sellers, however, cannot be “engaged in the business” of selling firearms. “Engaged in the business” means they can’t repeatedly sell firearms with the principal objective of earning funds to support themselves. Some of the individuals who wish to sell a portion, or all, of their personal firearms collection do so at the show and might display their wares on a table. These “private table sales,” however, are private, peer-to-peer, sales and, therefore, do not require a background check. The president cannot change criminal statutes governing requirements for which sellers must conduct background checks. His new actions don’t do so and don’t claim to do so.
     In a peer-to-peer, private firearms transaction, it is already illegal to sell a firearm to another individual if the seller “knows or has reasonable cause to believe” that the buyer meets any of the prohibited categories for possession of a firearm (felon, fugitive, illegal alien, etc).

Myth No. 2: Gun shows lack any law enforcement presence and are a free-for-all for felons and other prohibited individuals to obtain firearms.
Fact: Local, state, and federal law enforcement are often present both in uniform and/or covertly in plain clothes to monitor and intervene in suspected unlawful firearms sales such as straw purchasing, purchases made by prohibited individuals, including non-residents, and the attempted sale of any illegal firearms.

Myth No. 3: Individuals who purchase firearms on the Internet are not subject to background checks.
Facts: An individual cannot purchase a firearm directly from a firearms retailer over the Internet and have that firearm shipped to them directly. An individual can pay for the firearm over the Internet at websites and online sporting goods retailers. The firearm, however, must be picked up from a federal firearms licensee, such as a gun store. In many cases, this is the brick-and-mortar store associated with the website where the gun purchase was made. Once at the retail store, the Internet purchaser must then fill out the requisite forms, including ATF Form 4473, which initiates the NICS background check process. Thus, an Internet purchase of a firearm from a firearms retailer require a background check.
     Individuals, from the same state, are able to advertise and purchase firearms from one another and use the Internet to facilitate the transaction. It is unlawful, under current law, to sell or transfer a firearm to an individual who is out-of-state. Any Internet sale, even between individuals, that crosses state lines would have to utilize a federal firearms licensee, such as a gun store, and the purchaser would be required to fill out the requisite state and federal paperwork and would undergo a background check.

Myth No. 4: The president’s Jan. 5 executive action on gun control represents landmark change regarding gun control.
Facts: With few exceptions, Obama’s executive action on firearms is nothing more than rhetoric regarding the status quo. Many senators have long argued for better and more robust enforcement of existing laws that prohibit criminals from owning guns. It is the current law of the land that anyone engaged in the business of selling firearms must have a federal firearms license. The president’s action does not change current law, but merely restates existing court rulings on the meaning of “engaged in the business.”

Myth No. 5: The Obama administration has made firearms enforcement a priority.
Facts: The Obama administration has used its limited criminal enforcement resources to focus on clemency for convicted and imprisoned felons, the investigation of police departments, and on civil rights cases. The latter two categories represent important work, but the Department of Justice lost track of one of its core missions of enforcing criminal law: prosecuting violent criminals, including gun criminals.
     The Obama administration is only now making firearms enforcement a priority. Clearly, enforcing the gun laws is a new initiative, or one of the president’s actions would not have been informing all of the 93 U.S. attorneys about it.
     Proof of this lack of enforcement is revealed in the decline of weapons related prosecutions during the Obama administration. As data obtained from the Executive Office of United States Attorneys, through a Freedom of Information Act request, reveal, firearms prosecutions are down approximately 25 percent under the Obama administration versus the last year of the Bush administration.

Myth No. 6: Mental health has nothing to do with gun control.
Facts: People with certain levels of mental illness are not permitted to own guns. Many of the recent mass killings were committed by mentally ill individuals. One of the keys to preventing further mass shootings and violence committed with firearms is addressing the issue of mental health.
Background checks to prevent the mentally ill from obtaining guns can only work if states provide mental health records to the NICS system. Too many states have failed to do so. Many of the worst offenders are states with the most stringent gun control laws. For multiple years now, many members of Congress have repeatedly called for and introduced legislation that would provide incentives for states to submit their mental health records for inclusion in the NICS database.

Myth No. 7: Obama’s executive action on gun control will thwart criminals’ ability to obtain firearms.
Facts: The president’s executive action regarding firearms is focused primarily on individuals who attempt to purchase firearms through the background check process. Criminals, however, obtain firearms in myriad illegal ways, including home invasion robbery, trading narcotics for firearms, burglary of homes, vehicles, and businesses, as well as straw purchasing. My legislation, Senate Amendment 725, was specifically designed to combat the straw purchasing of firearms as well as firearms traffickers who transfer firearms to prohibited individuals and out-of-state residents.

Myth No. 8: There is a general consensus in America that greater gun control is needed to prevent mass shootings in the United States.
Facts: Despite the president’s statement to the contrary, polls have shown that the majority of Americans do not believe that stricter gun control would reduce the number of mass shootings in the United States. The American public does not believe that making it harder for law abiding Americans to obtain guns makes America safer. In fact, polls have shown that a majority of Americans thinks the United States would be safer if there were more individuals licensed and trained to carry concealed weapons. A majority opposes re-imposition of the “assault weapons” ban.

Myth No. 9: The terrorist “no-fly” list is a proper mechanism to bar Americans from purchasing firearms. —Obama, Jan. 5
Fact: The no-fly list is actually multiple lists, which are generated in secret and controlled by executive branch bureaucrats.  The Second Amendment right to bear arms has been determined by the U.S. Supreme Court to be a fundamental right. This puts the right to bear arms in our most closely guarded rights similar to the right to free speech and freedom of religion. It is unconstitutional to deprive an American citizen of their Second Amendment right without notice and an opportunity to be heard.

Myth No. 10: Gun retailers need to step up and refuse to sell semi-automatic weapons. —Obama, Jan. 5
Fact: There is nothing unlawful about a semi-automatic firearm. A semi-automatic firearm simply means that a round is discharged with each pull of the trigger. These include most shotguns used for waterfowl hunting and rifles commonly used for target shooting.

[bold, italics, underline, and colored emphasis mine]

Chuck Grassley is a Republican senator from Iowa and serves as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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"The President and Gun Control - Is There A Christian Perspective?" - By: John Stonestreet|Breakpoint.org:Jan.7, 2016; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/28701?utm_source=Colson+Center+Master+List&utm_campaign=ded2d4b6b0-BP_Daily_01_07_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84bd2dc76d-ded2d4b6b0-6541173

#1464 (1/10) SUNDAY SPECIAL: "...CELEBRATING THE EPIPHANY"

ATTENTION: Please SCROLL DOWN this page to find the article titled on this post in LARGE BRIGHT BLUE CAPITAL LETTERS. Thank you.)

[NOTE: If you scroll down the right side of this page, you will note my first update in my JOURNAL in just over a year. Check it out for the latest concerning me.]

JANUARY IS “SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE” MONTH - To help you to pray for the end of abortion in America"21 Days of Prayer for Life Prayer Guide," pdf - http://www.colsoncenter.org/images/content/colson2011/21-days-of-prayer-for-life.pdf (Read post #1463 below.)

UPDATE: "IRS Won’t Ask Nonprofits to Collect Social Security Numbers" - Kelsey Harkness / Jan.07, 2016; http://dailysignal.com/2016/01/07/irs-wont-ask-nonprofits-to-collect-social-security-numbers/ “... Nonprofits have neither the financial resources nor sufficient staffing to combat hackers who will see an easy source for Social Security information,” he said. “This also creates a liability nightmare for innocent nonprofits…To be asked to share their address, their credit card number and their Social Security number all in the same place would be enough to scare even the most committed donor to decline to give.”

PRAYER MATTERS:"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." - Karl Barth; "Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting Him to accomplish His perfect and loving will." - Stan

PRAY FOR AMERICA: THANK GOD for His many blessings on America throughout it's history. May we then ask that AMERICA once again be a blessing TO GOD, by once again submitting to HIS will in our affairs - both personal and national - that He may truly "heal our land." (2 Chron. 7:14) Short of that, we should not be saying "God Bless America"but instead "God be merciful towards America!" - Rev. Franklin Graham once delivered this insight to his Facebook friends: "I do know that the president defends Islam and chastises Christians, rebukes our allies and befriends our enemies, and fully supports gay marriages and abortion but denies the religious freedoms of those who don't agree. Our nation is ridiculed abroad and morally crumbling within. We are in trouble. We have turned our back on God.")

PRAY FOR OUR LEADERS:  Let's be praying that they might be Spirit-filled, leading us with Godly wisdom and integrity; that the Congress and the the President will find only pass legislation and enact policies that will benefit America today and future generations and NOT do any lasting harm.

Pray DAILY:1) For the Supreme Court, Pray that the justices will demonstrate more judicial RESTRAINT rather than judicial activisim as it has the past few years, esp. on issues having negative impact for generations yet born. Pray in particular that religious liberty will be defended rather than eroded by any decision handed down.2) For the National Elections NEXT November. Pray that Americans will elect leaders at the state (Governors, state legislators) and national(Congress and President)levels who have Spirit-filled wisdom, integrity, and a Biblical world-view, who will know and do what is best for us today as well as for future generations. 

World-Wide Prayer Requests:

9/24 - LATEST UPDATE ON PASTOR SAEED: This week, Iranian intelligence officers interrogated American Pastor Saeed Abedini.They repeatedly used a taser gun on Pastor Saeed as they threatened him with additional time in Iran’s most deadly prison. Pastor Saeed needs two surgeries while Iran denies him the medical care he so badly needs. And now they shock him repeatedly. The interrogators abused him and threatened him with new bogus charges based on more lies. Pastor Saeed again denied all of these allegations.
"'We Can't Forget' Pastor Saeed's 1,000 Days in Prison" - By Abigail Robertson, June 24, 2015, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2015/June/We-Cant-Forget-Pastor-Saeeds-1000-Days-in-Prison/ 
     "Pastor Saeed Abedini has been imprisoned in Iran for his Christian faith for 1,000 days, June 23... 'We cannot move forward with an Iranian nuclear deal while Pastor Saeed sits in prison as well as three other Americans,' he said. Mahoney also called upon Christians around the world to come together in prayer.
     'Pray for Saeed and his family, pray for safety for our brothers and sisters around the world, and also pray for our elected officials and President Obama that they would not be silent, ' Mahoney urged. 'We believe that as Christians pray around the world, we can see Pastor Saeed's release.' "

Urgent Petition: Defend Christians - Defeat ISIS. -  Go to http://aclj.org/jihad/say-no-to-a-third-term-of-president-obamas-failed-foreign-policy?view=donFrmB&utm_expid=7567081-8.vdNbXkfzQUyJhpww3WXtYQ.1&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign= "..An estimated 76 percent of the world's population live in countries where religious freedom is restricted...

7/24 - ASIA BIBI CONVICTION OVERTURNED! PRAY THAT SHE (IN VERY POOR HEALTH) MIGHT BE RELEASED WHEN HER CASE IS REVIEWED SOON. - A Christian mom had been sentenced to death in Pakistan for her faith. Asia Bibi was falsely accused of “blasphemy” – speaking against the prophet Muhammad. Now this wife and mother of five will hang for her Christian faith.She would be the first woman executed under Pakistan’s Shariah blasphemy law.This is the ultimate human rights violation. We’re mobilizing our international affiliate – the European Centre for Law and Justice – and its partner in Pakistan to stop this atrocity. Go to http://aclj.org/persecuted-church/breaking-pakistans-supreme-court-accepts-petition-to-hear-asia-bibis-appeal;please add your signature to over 300,000 others AND continue to pray for Asia Bibi.

PRAY FOR THE CRISIS HAPPENING NOW IN IRAQ (see post #907) Pray that coalition forces will be able to destroy the leadership and infrastructure of ISIS. (see post #964)

/PRAYER ALERT- UKRAINE: As the Lord leads, please pray: 

*For God to suppress President Putin’s ambitions to "restore" the Soviet empire.

*For the people of Ukrainen [esp. for the church 'to be THE church']  as they wait to see if the Russian troops will advance.

*That President Obama would use wisdom in crafting our  foreign policy, and wisdom for his advisers.

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"God's Promise to All Peoples - CELEBRATING THE EPIPHANY" -  By: Eric Metaxas|Breakpoint.org: Jan.5,2016;
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/28687?utm_source=Colson+Center+Master+List&utm_campaign=ecb125afe9-BP_Daily_1_06_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84bd2dc76d-ecb125afe9-6541173

Another Christmas has come and gone. Or has it? If you look closely, there’s one more gift yet to open.

Every year, PNC Wealth Management calculates the cost of the gifts mentioned in the song “The 12 Days of Christmas.” From a bill of $12,623 in 1984—the first year of the survey—Christmas has gotten increasingly costly, totaling more than $34,000 this year. If you were to pay for each gift every time it’s mentioned in the song, you’d be more than $155,000 poorer. Who knew that labor costs for “10 Lords a-Leaping” would be so high? Not included in their estimate, apparently, is the price of therapy to help you get the song out of your head.

Even without “The 12 Days of Christmas” ringing in their ears many people are ready to be done with Christmas by the day after. But to end Christmas too soon neglects one of the most important elements of the Christmas story. In some churches, the Christmas season on the church calendar begins on Christmas Day and runs for twelve days, ending on January 5. January 6 ...brings both the final story of Christmas and launches a new liturgical season, Epiphany.

The word “epiphany” means “to show” or “to make known,” and the feast of Epiphany celebrates the arrival of the magi, or Three Kings, as some traditions call them. As recorded in Matthew 2, after a long and arduous journey, and guided by a mysterious star, these wise men find the Christ-child in Bethlehem. In Christian legend, the three wise men hailed from the near mid-East and were named Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. Various stories describe them as coming from Persia, Yemen, and even India.

In a recent BreakPoint, I shared the amazing history of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. But I didn’t mention a legend from the time that the Persians invaded Palestine in 614. It is told that the invaders spared the church because of a mosaic depicting the magi in Persian dress.While we don’t know many factual details about the magi, the Bible tells us that when they saw the baby Jesus, they fell to their knees and worshipped Him, offering gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. From their example comes our practice of giving gifts at Christmas.

However, Epiphany isn’t so much about the gifts of the magi, but about an even greater gift—the fulfillment of a promise for the long-awaited messiah, Jesus Christ. I’m sure you recall the stirring words of the aged Simeon who took the infant Jesus in his arms at the Temple and blessed God, saying: “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

At Epiphany we’re reminded that the promise of redemption has always been for the whole world. God came not only to His own, but to us outsiders—like the Magi—the lost and darkened souls who had never even heard about God’s promise. That’s the reason that Epiphany is also known as the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.

Which is why this feast day is a particularly joyful celebration for the likes of you and me. Epiphany is the fulfillment of Isaiah 9:2: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light.”

But here’s another critical message in the Epiphany event. One of the gifts of the Magi, myrrh, was used for burials. As the famous carol goes, “its bitter perfume/breathes of life of gathering gloom/Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding dying/Sealed in a stone-cold tomb.” 

Jesus didn’t come to Earth to stay a cute baby boy, but to grow up, manifest God’s love through words and deeds, and ultimately die on the cross to atone for the sins of the entire world. Starting with Epiphany (for this year, Jan. 6 till Easter Sunday) the next few months of the church year follow the Incarnate Word of God as He journeys to the cross and draws us ever closer to the heart of God. Let us journey with Him.

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FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION - Find out more about the history of this season [of Epiphany] in the Church's calendar by clicking on the links below. As Eric mentioned, it's a great time to celebrate the gift of the good news given to all peoples of the world.
RESOURCES
"The Season of Epiphany" - Dennis Bratcher | Christian Resource Institute; http://www.crivoice.org/cyepiph.html
"When Is Three Kings' Day? Facts, History Of The January 6 Holiday" - Connor Adams Sheets | International Business Times | January 2, 2015;http://www.ibtimes.com/when-three-kings-day-facts-history-january-6-holiday-1762917
"We Three Kings of Orient Are" - Lyrics - http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh254.sht

#1463 (1/9) PRO-LIFE SAT '"Praying for Life -INVOKING GOD’S MERCY TO END ABORTION

"Praying for Life - INVOKING GOD’S MERCY TO END ABORTION" - By: Eric Metaxas|Breakpoint.org: Jan.6,2016;
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/28692?utm_source=Colson+Center+Master+List&utm_campaign=6a4e408d1f-BP_Daily_1_06_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84bd2dc76d-6a4e408d1f-6541173

In a few weeks, hundreds of thousands of people will join the March for Life in Washington, DC. What if there were three times that many praying?

January 22nd is the 43rd anniversary of the worst Supreme Court decision in our nation’s history. With Roe v. Wade, seven robed men gave America some of the most permissive abortion-on-demand laws in the world. Since that time, nearly 60 million unborn children have been killed in the womb.

This month, January, is the month so many American Christians memorialize the unborn through Sanctity of Life Sunday (this year on January 17), and the March for Life on the National Mall in Washington DC on January 22nd. And the day before the March, John Stonestreet and I will be speaking at two events: the Anglicans for Life conference and the Evangelicals for Life conference, co-hosted by Focus on the Family and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. As you may know, John and I are very passionate about this issue. My wife runs a pregnancy care center here in New York City, and John’s mother ran one in Virginia.

Now, if you can join us in Washington DC, please do! But if you can’t, you can still be a part of the most significant cause of our day: the cause for life. How? Well, The Colson Center has prepared a free downloadable booklet called: 21 Days of Prayer for Life. We want to see millions of Christians appeal together to heaven to end this grave evil.

This full-color booklet was co-written by John Stonestreet and top pro-life apologist Scott Klusendorf, and is co-sponsored by the top pro-life groups in America: Students for Life, Focus on the Family, Save the Storks, the March for Life, Life Training Institute, CareNet, and others. The booklet will guide you through a three-week journey to pray for all of the victims of abortion: the unborn, expectant mothers and fathers in crisis, siblings, grandparents, and yes, even abortion clinic workers. It also includes prayers for pastors, as well as politicians and policy makers, an especially important group in this election year.

You see, Roe v. Wade, as bad of a decision as it was, did not “settle” the abortion debate in America. We are arguably, as a nation, more unsettled on this issue today than at any point since the decision was rendered. And there was serious momentum for the pro-life cause in 2015, especially with the Planned Parenthood expose videos. What better way for that momentum to continue in 2016 than to start the year with prayer?

But there’s something else powerful about this prayer guide. Each day features beautiful stories of life: of the dad who chose life for his son with Down syndrome, of the sibling who found peace for the loss of her aborted sister and forgiveness for her mom, of the student who courageously stood for life in a hostile college classroom. These stories will inspire you to also pick up the mantle and stand for life.

And as you pray, this guide will equip you to have pro-life conversations with your friends and neighbors. Did you know you can defend the dignity of unborn life through science and philosophy? Could you use some talking points of fetal development, and how to graciously answer the red herring arguments you often hear like: “don’t like abortion, well, don’t have one”? Then you need this prayer guide.

So here’s what you can do: come to BreakPoint.org and click on the link for this prayer guide. You can download it for free right from our website. And please, please, will you think of five people you could share this with and forward the link to them?  And don’t forget your pastor. Maybe your small group or Bible study or family or homeschool group or Christian school class will commit together to pray for life this January.  And Facebook and Twitter would be great ways to share the prayer guide as well. Again, come to BreakPoint.org and download “21 Days of Prayer for Life.” God bless you.

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RESOURCES
"21 Days of Prayer for Life Prayer Guide, pdf "- http://www.colsoncenter.org/images/content/colson2011/21-days-of-prayer-for-life.pdf
PRO-LIFE ORGANIZATIONS
CareNet - http://www.care-net.org/
Focus on the Family - http://www.focusonthefamily.com/
Save the Storks - https://www.savethestorks.com/
Life Training Institute - http://prolifetraining.com/
Students for Life - http://studentsforlife.org/
March for Life - http://marchforlife.org/

#1462 (1/8) "Obama's Gun Order Triggers Outrage"

"OBAMA'S GUN ORDER TRIGGERS OUTRAGE"- Tony Perkins, washington Update, Jan. 6, 2016; http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WA16A04&f=WU16A02
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The media's focus may have been on the president's tears during his gun control speech, but it should have been on the cries of freedom-loving Americans. After seven years of watching the administration wipe its feet on the Constitution, this latest power grab epitomizes everything people have come to resent about the White House. This week, the president's impersonation of the legislative branch got personal with the announcement of a four-point plan to curb one of the country's most important rights: to keep and bear arms.

The same man who spoke in front of a "We Can't Wait" banner three years ago obviously hasn't become more patient in his second term. Instead, the president is doing what we've come to expect when he can't persuade Congress to rubber-stamp his agenda -- taking matters into his own hands. Although the details are still vague, the administration is expected to roll back some of the background check exemptions for sport shooters and collectors, hire more bureaucrats to run background checks, spend $500 million more on mental health care, and crackdown on gun dealers' licensures.

As Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) told me yesterday on "Washington Watch" radio, "In the case of this president, the devils are in the lack of details. From what I've read in the summary of his some of his executive actions are left purposefully vague. And whenever you leave these things vague, it's up to the interpretation of the regulators and enforcers." President Obama insists his orders are entirely consistent with the Second Amendment. And I suppose Americans are supposed to take his word for it? A man whose administration is synonymous with lawlessness? A man who's been rebuked by the highest courts in the country for his overreach on everything from recess appointments to immigration?

Anyone with a seventh grade education knows that the executive branch isn't supposed to legislate. But that's never stopped the Obama administration. Remember, this is a man who built his presidency on circumventing Congress with dozens of controversial executive orders. As the president has said before, he "refuses to take 'no' for an answer." Even if that "no" comes from the Constitution itself. "Congress needs to act," he insisted. Well, as Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) pointed out, Congress did act. It just didn't do what the White House wanted. "[The president's] proposals to restrict gun rights were debated by the United States Senate, and they were rejected. No president should be able to reverse legislative failure by executive fiat, not even incrementally."

What's worse, there is absolutely no reason to believe that any of his orders will work. As the president himself admitted, these proposals wouldn't have stopped any of the gun-related attacks he highlighted. Even people like Hollywood's Kurt Russell can see that. "If you think gun control is going to change the terrorists' point of view, I think you're... out of your mind," he told radio host Jeffrey Wells. "They can also make a bomb pretty easily. They can also get knives and stab you. What are you gonna do about that? They can also get cars and run you over. What are you gonna do about that?... Outlaw everything? That isn't the answer."

If the president truly wanted to do something to stop the violence, Rep. Loudermilk has some ideas. "He says it's about securing America. Well, he wants to hire 230 more people in the FBI to be paper pushers to help run background checks. Just a few weeks ago I was sitting in a Homeland Security Committee hearing, I'm on the committee, and we had the FBI director and the Secretary of Homeland Security, and I asked them about the refugees. 'Do you have a plan to monitor these refugees that you know ISIS is going to exploit?' And they said, 'No, we don't have the manpower to do it.' So why don't we hire more FBI agents to track terrorists? Why don't we put more border patrol agents on the border instead of 200 ATF agents to stop these cartels from bringing in the bad guys? These are the types of things that if [the president] were serious about security he'd be going after."

In the meantime, it's time for the president to start working with Congress the way the Constitution intended it. If the founders wanted a king, they'd have stayed British subjects.

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