#1776 (11/22) "How Infantilized Campuses Threaten Our Nation’s Future"

AT"HOW INFANTILIZED CAMPUSES THREATEN OUR NATION'S FUTURE" - David Whalen / November 18, 2016 / http://dailysignal.com/2016/11/18/how-infantalized-campuses-threaten-our-nations-future/? [AS I SEE IT: Ouch! This is definitely a message that should be presented by every college President with the courage to be truthful, and not just intent on being politically correct and on the right side of his more radical students. - Stan]

For some time, higher learning has been a political matter, one where the primary aim is to usher students into the club of elite (supposedly enlightened) progressive opinion. (Photo: Pacific Press/SIPA/Newscom)

What are we to make of higher education when students and institutions respond to the recent presidential election with cry-ins, canceled exams, therapy dogs, Play-Doh, coloring books, group screams, Legos, bubble-blowing, and trauma counseling? Well, college “ain’t what it used to be.”

For some time, higher learning has been a political matter, one where the primary aim is to usher students into the club of elite (supposedly enlightened progressive opinion. Gone is the formation of keen, analytical habits of mind and rational argument. The result is not just a poorly educated student body, but an infantilized one. Mature discourse is out, and fragility, dependence, and bad temper is in.

Rather than cultivate habits of sustained and sober thought, we encourage manufactured outrage and self-indulgent victimhood. Anyone who has spent time with 2-year-olds recognizes the behavior. In our case, however, we appear to cultivate it on our campuses.

An infantilized campus is bad enough, but it becomes intolerable when these are the places where leaders of a self-governing republic are usually formed. Regardless of party or position, a citizenry incapable of facing adversity or unwilling to reason about and discuss difficult, public things will not likely produce leaders who can do so. If college campuses steep our future leaders in habits of entitled fragility, the only politics they will be able to imagine is that of the tantrum.

Tellingly, this is exactly the kind of politics we have seen on campus, and, increasingly, off campus as well. A darker view would regard our infantilized campuses as something more sinister than the accidental byproduct of politicized higher education. When the noise of a tantrum becomes a primary political instrument in place of reason, persuasion, and evidence, then volume, not thought, wins the day.

And volume is coercive. When 2-year-olds throw tantrums, they attempt to force matters and get their own way. A set of people taught not to reason but to huddle in safe spaces and throw the occasional tantrum is a people taught to impose their will. They have not been denied a voice; rather, they are intent upon being the only voice.

This is not to say that all post-election anxiety is necessarily irrational. But it is a lack of the aforementioned habits that makes aggression and extremism so common. Genuine higher learning requires (among other things) time, intense application of thought, patient reflection, and maturity. Rather than an education in elite and coddled groupthink, real learning is an education in honed and sound thinking—thinking that is not victim to every fleeting passion.

This is precisely the kind of learning poet Robert Frost had in mind when he wrote, “So when at times the mob is swayed/ To carry praise or blame too far,/ We may choose something like a star/ To stay our minds on and be said.”

If we cannot restore the “higher” to higher education, if we cannot put down our Play-Doh and take up our Plato, it’s unlikely we’ll see a return of either to our politics or our learning.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

Dr. David Whalen is the provost and a professor of English at Hillsdale College in Michigan.

"The Real Alexander Hamilton Was No Liberal" - Carson Holloway / March 14, 2016 / http://dailysignal.com/2016/03/14/the-real-alexander-hamilton-was-no-liberal/

#1775 (11/21) "Obama's Disconnects and Delusions"

"OBAMA'S DISCONNECTS AND DELUSIONS" - David Limbaugh |Nov 18, 2016; http://townhall.com/columnists/davidlimbaugh/2016/11/18/obamas-disconnects-and-delusions-n2247427 [AS I SEE IT: I have followed politics my entire adult life and I cannot remember another President being so self-absorbed. Also, one thing this article does not point out is that he was careful not to criticize Trump after the election until he went to Europe. In front of world leaders, he did not hesitate to criticize the President-elect, something no other President does. In fact, President's always wait till years after they have left office before saying anything critical of their successor. It has always been proper to let your successor have a chance to put his policies in place before commenting. But of  course, President Obama couldn't wait beyond a week to lash out - and on foreign soil to boot. What nerve! - Stan] 

President Obama, in Greece, said world leaders should learn from the U.S. presidential election and pay attention to the public's fears and frustration about the economy. Why? He never has.

How can a man living in such a fantasy world presume to tell other people how to perceive others and react to problems as if he's been an innocent bystander witnessing these horrors for years?
Scratch that. He doesn't think we've experienced horrors. He thinks the U.S. economy has been wonderful under his watch. Listening to him characterize his eight-year record is to witness willful blindness on a scale my willing suspension of disbelief is incapable of processing.

The American economy, said Obama, was contracting faster than it did during the Great Depression. "We had to fight back from the worst recession since the Great Depression. ... But we were able to intervene, apply lessons learned and stabilize and then begin growth again." He tastelessly bragged, in front of his Greek audience, that his economy recovered better and faster than most of Europe's. Then he began critiquing Greece's economy, as if he is a wizard of economics.

No American politician -- and certainly no president -- in my lifetime has caused such destruction and suffered so little personal accountability for it. It was ridiculous when he still blamed George W. Bush for his own lackluster economy and unconscionable deficits in the latter half of his first term. It was amazing that he kept making this argument with a straight face through the 2012 presidential election.

But why not? It worked. When you've got a liberal media covering your tracks and slanting everything in your favor, you can apparently fool millions.

But Obama is still making the same arguments today after eight straight years of malaise. So how did he fight against the worst recession since the Great Depression? Well, he spent money we didn't have like a drunken sailor, increased taxes and smothering regulations, bad-mouthed entrepreneurship and producers, and vilified the "wealthy" for not paying their fair share.

How did that work out? Contrary to his bizarre self-assessment, we have had the worst economic recovery in 60 years. So he's bragging about that? We've had a stagnant economy his entire tenure in office, and he is touting it as sustained growth? Of course he is, and the media continue to cover for him.

He talks about the unemployment rate's going down, but this obscures the reality that tens of millions have opted out of the workforce in despair. The media know that the unemployment figure is meaningless when factoring in the labor participation rate. Whether Obama is able to accept it, given what this knowledge would do to his unreflective ego, is debatable.

Obama covers his bases. He gets to have his cake and keep it, too, and, if you haven't noticed, he remains skinny. He tells us the economy's great; then he kind of says it isn't. Otherwise, why would he still have to blame Dubya? Why would he have to blame the recent election results on an angry populace? Why would he say, "The problem was I couldn't convince the Republican Congress to pass a lot of (my agenda items)"? What problem? I thought things were rosy.

You see, he thinks the main economic problem we face is income inequality. He thinks people are angry because others are making more money than they do and so they had a temper tantrum and elected Donald Trump. But hasn't there always been income inequality? Isn't that guaranteed in a free system? But if the people are inconsolable with envy, that might have something to do with Obama's constant harping on it, railing against the rich.

Nope. The hoi polloi are just restless; there's nothing to see here. "The country," he says, "is indisputably better off, and those folks who voted for the president-elect are better off than they were when I came into office, for the most part." But here was the punchline: "People," he said, "seem to think I did a pretty good job. And so there is this mismatch, I think, between frustration and anger. Perhaps the view of the American people is that (we) just need to shake things up."

Well, if there's any mismatch or disconnect here, it's Obama's perception of his performance and reality. His narcissism makes him allergic to self-doubt, and his dogged ideology and oversize pride preclude him from admitting his failures.

This same ideology compels him to project onto others his own prejudices. He has been saying since before he was elected that "bitter" Bible toters who "cling to guns" in small-town America are just suspicious of people who don't look like them. But that's offensively false. He is the one who always has race on his mind, and he's a virtuoso of bitterness. Remember when his Homeland Security Department was on the lookout for returning military personnel and tea party types, rather than Islamists, as possible domestic terrorists?

Pro tip: These peace-loving, ordinary, patriotic Americans have had their fill of his attacks on their traditions, their worldview and their lifestyle. They sent that message resoundingly in the congressional elections in 2010 and 2014, yet he escaped accountability with his own re-election in 2012. Another frightful disconnect.

But there can be no mistaking this year's election results. The people's rejection of his agenda and Hillary Clinton is so severe that we are seeing a major restructuring of the electorate. He, his media co-conspirators and the liberal punditry can blame Clinton's flaws for this, and they are indeed part of it, but Obama's leftist agenda got shellacked up and down the ticket and in state elections throughout the country.

This was not a glitch; this is a wave. And the longer he and his cohorts remain in denial about it the more it will grow. That, my friends, is a beautiful thing.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

#1774 (11/20) SUNDAY SPECIAL: "Christians ‘Under Caesar’s Sword’ - RESPONDING TO WORLDWIDE PERSECUTION"

PAUSE AND TAKE A DEEP BREATH: My heart goes out to the Americans who are disappointed and even fearful about the results of the recent elections, esp. re: our President-elect. (I certainly remember the angst I felt after the results of the previous 2 Presidential elections.) But 2 Tim. 1:7 instructs us: ”God has not given us a spirit of FEAR, but of power, love, and sound mind.” I believe a sound mind would cause us to look at the things that cause us to fear and to determine if they are truly based on ideas we should fear or just false presumptions we might have or lies we have bought into. As regards President-elect Trump, I agree that I was turned off often by how he expressed himself during the campaign. But note that during his lifetime in the public eye, he was not known to express himself in those ways. In resorting to his showmanship skills during the election campaign, he wrongly used crude expressions to stir up the crowds who he was addressing. I urge you to notice his more humble demeanor when he accepted victory early Wed. morning. I believe those were the expressions of a man who was sobered by the reality of the awesome responsibility he had just been presented. I choose to be HOPEFUL that our next President will govern differently than how he campaigned. I am also HOPEFUL that he will implement many of the good ideas he’s presented, though not necessarily in all the ways he proposed. I encourage those who are fearful to look at the underlying philosophy behind the proposals he has made. We can never be sure of what a new leader will really do until he takes office and so we need to at least give the man time to govern. We must remain PRAYERFUL and HOPEFUL that he will govern with a different temperament than he campaigned. And no matter how we feel about things right now, Donald Trump will be our new President. So I urge all to PAUSE AND TAKE A DEEP BREATH and to be PRAYING for our country’s new leader and his team of advisers, now and throughout his Presidency. As with any leader, he deserves that much from every American. - Stan
WHY MOST OF THE  81% OF EVANGELICALS VOTED FOR DONALD TRUMP: A friend send me this  video message by Tommy Tenny the day before the election. It  is almost an hour long but it is excellent. If you are still not familiar with the issues of concern to many Christians at this time, I invite you to please take time to view this; I only wish this kind of message could be heard in all pulpits. Video: The Continental Divide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwTAQpYhkug  

"Christians ‘Under Caesar’s Sword’ - RESPONDING TO WORLDWIDE PERSECUTION" - By: Eric Metaxas| Breakpoint.org: November 17, 2016; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/30119 [AS I SEE IT: I heard recently that the subject of Christian persecution in the world is rarely heard of from the pulpits of churches in the West. I have a hard time understanding this shameful neglect to recognize the hardships of fellow brothers and sisters around the world. I've heard that Jews - who we all know have experienced great persecution throughout their existence - have become vocal in speaking up for Christians being persecuted around the world, and yes, it seems even more vocal than Western Christians. I don't know about you, but that seems very wrong. My question is: how long will the Church in the West be so silent about what is happening to their brethren around the world? - Stan]

There’s an important new documentary that highlights how Christians are responding to persecution around the globe.

One hundred years ago, one-third of the population of Istanbul, formerly known as Constantinople, was non-Muslim. It was home to hundreds of thousands of Jews and Christians. Today, Istanbul, now the capital of the modern state of Turkey, is less than one percent non-Muslim.

This did not happen by accident. What’s more, the same forces that turned one of Christianity’s great cities into a virtual Christian-free zone is still at work throughout the world. These processes and possible Christian responses to them are the subject of an important new project, “Under Caesar’s Sword,” and a short documentary by the same name. The project is a joint effort of the University of Notre Dame and the Religious Freedom Center of the Berkley Center at Georgetown University. The goal of the “three-year, collaborative global research project” is to investigate “how Christian communities respond when their religious freedom is severely violated.”

Note that I said “when” not “if” their religious freedom is severely violated. As the project’s website tells visitors, “today Christians constitute by far the most widely persecuted religion.” It cites a study by The International Society for Human Rights, which states that Christians are “the victims of 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world.” Christians are also “the only religious group that is persecuted in all 16 of the countries highlighted as egregious offenders by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2012.”

All told, a Pew Research Center found “that between June 2006 and December 2012, Christians faced harassment and intimidation in 151 countries, the largest number of any religious group.”
If you’re a regular BreakPoint [reader], some of these dismal numbers should be familiar to you. What won’t be as familiar are the faces and voices behind the numbers. Nor will the localities featured in the 26-minute documentary.

The stories told by “Under Caesar’s Sword” take place not in ISIS-controlled Syria or Iraq, but in Turkey and India, two ostensibly non-sectarian democracies. In India, Christians who’ve been harassed or worse by their Hindu nationalist neighbors, have to file complaints at police stations festooned with Hindu idols covered in garlands and other offerings. Not exactly the stuff confidence in the legal system is made of. In Turkish-controlled Cyprus, all evidence of that island’s rich Christian heritage, which began with Paul’s companion Barnabas (check out Acts 4), is being systematically eradicated.

As the film tells us, “Everyone agrees that we’re seeing religious cleansing, ethnic cleansing on a massive scale” in parts of the world.

So how are Christians responding? As an Indian Christian leaders says in the film, “The first response [to the harassment and persecution] is prayer . . . We do not retaliate, we do not respond as possibly other communities would do.” It’s not only Indian Christians who have foresworn retaliation. As Daniel Philpott of Notre Dame noted, this is, with very few exceptions, the standard Christian response to persecution, harassment, and humiliation.

What’s more, Christians have not only foresworn retaliation, they are reaching out to their non-Christian neighbors in the hope that these neighbors will see them as fellow Indians or fellow Turks and understand the deep roots of Christianity in those countries.

 This important effort deserves our support. Come to BreakPoint.org to view the documentary and to learn more about our brethren living under Caesar’s sword.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

RESOURCES
"Under Caesar's Sword" - Project website - http://ucs.nd.edu/

"Worldwide Persecution of Christians: Open Doors 2016 Watch List" - John Stonestreet | BreakPoint.org | February 2, 2016; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-search/entry/13/28813

"Christians in the Muslim World: Growth and Persecution" - John Stonestreet | BreakPoint.org | October 4, 2013; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-search/entry/13/23999

"An Ironic Ecumenism: The Global War on Christians (part 2)"- Eric Metaxas | BreakPoint.org | December 3, 2013; http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-search/entry/13/23970

The Global War on Christians: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Anti-Christian Persecution
- John L. Allen, Jr. | Image Publishing | March 2016; http://www.colsoncenterstore.org/product.asp?sku=9780770437374

#1773 (11/19) PRO-LIFE SAT: "Pro-Life Americans Have the Opportunity of a Generation

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

PAUSE AND TAKE A DEEP BREATH: My heart goes out to the Americans who are disappointed and even fearful about the results of the recent elections, esp. re: our President-elect. (I certainly remember the angst I felt after the results of the previous 2 Presidential elections.) But 2 Tim. 1:7 instructs us: ”God has not given us a spirit of FEAR, but of power, love, and sound mind.” I believe a sound mind would cause us to look at the things that cause us to fear and to determine if they are truly based on ideas we should fear or just false presumptions we might have or lies we have bought into. As regards President-elect Trump, I agree that I was turned off often by how he expressed himself during the campaign. But note that during his lifetime in the public eye, he was not known to express himself in those ways. In resorting to his showmanship skills during the election campaign, he wrongly used crude expressions to stir up the crowds who he was addressing. I urge you to notice his more humble demeanor when he accepted victory early Wed. morning. I believe those were the expressions of a man who was sobered by the reality of the awesome responsibility he had just been presented. I choose to be HOPEFUL that our next President will govern differently than how he campaigned. I am also HOPEFUL that he will implement many of the good ideas he’s presented, though not necessarily in all the ways he proposed. I encourage those who are fearful to look at the underlying philosophy behind the proposals he has made. We can never be sure of what a new leader will really do until he takes office and so we need to at least give the man time to govern. We must remain PRAYERFUL and HOPEFUL that he will govern with a different temperament than he campaigned. And no matter how we feel about things right now, Donald Trump will be our new President. So I urge all to PAUSE AND TAKE A DEEP BREATH and to be PRAYING for our country’s new leader and his team of advisers, now and throughout his Presidency. As with any leader, he deserves that much from every American. - Stan
WHY MOST OF THE  81% OF EVANGELICALS VOTED FOR DONALD TRUMP: A friend send me this  video message by Tommy Tenny the day before the election. It  is almost an hour long but it is excellent. If you are still not familiar with the issues of concern to many Christians at this time, I invite you to please take time to view this; I only wish this kind of message could be heard in all pulpits. Video: The Continental Divide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwTAQpYhkug  

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/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory." - Stan 

MY PERSONAL UPDATE can be found on the right side of this blog page under JOURNAL. 11/4 - Ans. Prayer! - 1) My health has been consistently better the past week, and 2) I've been offered a job!

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: "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:  1) Pray for esp. PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP and his advisors as they prepare to assume office in January; that he would seek God's wisdom and be enabled to lead our country effectively for the good of all in the years ahead; and 2) Let's be praying that all of our nation's leaders might be Spirit-filled, leading us with Godly wisdom and integrity; that they will  only pass legislation and enact policies that will benefit Americans today as well as future generations and NOT do any lasting harm.
PRAY that the justices sitting on the Supreme Court will only hand down decisions that are in the best interests of our country now and for future generations.

JUST RELEASED: “I’m Not Ashamed!"  presents the challenging story of the life of the Columbine massacre Rachael Scott. It’s a movie every teen should see!

"THE VOICESLESS." Talk to your pastor about this movie that challenges those who consider themselves pro-life Christians to be more involved more in the effort to rescue the unborn. Go to http://joinvoiceless.com and share it with others.

MILITARY TRANSGENDER POLICY: Contact Armed Services Chairmen McCain (committee number: 202-224-3871; office number: 202-224-2235) and  Rep. Thornberry (committee number: 202-225-4151; office number: 202-225-3706) and ask them to put the  brakes on the National Defense Authorization Act conference report until military transgenderism is addressed. America's safety depends on it."

"PROTECT LOCAL SCHOOLS from Federal Overreach into Kids' Restrooms"/ Contact your local school:  - http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL16H05&f=AL16H05##FORM

SIGN THE PETITION: Encourage Congress to STOP THE HARVESTING OF ABORTED BABIES (see story in post ##1581) - http://aclj.org/pro-life/stop-planned-parenthood-from-harvesting-and-selling-babies-organs?

BE Prepared TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST ABORTION (...because ALL Babies Matter!): Go to: LIFE Training Institute - http://prolifetraining.com/resources/five-minute-11/  
Be Prepared TO ENGAGE WITH THE PC CULTURE: Go to:"Tactics" -
http://townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/2016/04/29/tactics-n2154983;"Asking Questions"- 
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/29295

World-Wide Prayer Requests:

11/16 - TURKEY: An American pastor was arrested and jailed without explanation about 6 weeks ago. Pray that he would finally be released.

 This is a photo of 3 of Asia's daughters holding a picture of their imprisoned mother.

A Christian Mother's Mandatory Death Penalty Could Be Overturned. PRAY and Sign the Petition Now! - https://aclj.org/persecuted-church/save-christian-mom-asia-bibi-from-execution? -Almost 6 years ago, when Asia Bibi defended her faith at her workplace, the workers accused her of insulting the Islamic prophet Mohmmed. She was soon arrested on blasphemy charges and sentenced to death by hanging by a local judge. She has been languishing on death row for 6 years - separated from her husband and five kids because of her Christian faith. Since then, lawyers and human rights activists have been working around the clock to appeal the case and give her  a second chance at life. Pakistan's Supreme Court was supposed to hear a final appeal but has postponed the hearing without explanation. When it is finally held, the hearing could  result in Asia being finally released. OR it could decide to have her hanged. If executed, she would be the first woman executed under Pakistan's brutal blasphemy law. The American Center for Law and Justice has been aggressively advocating for her. 

     Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is asking Christians around the world to PRAY for the folloiwing: 

That Asia would be acquitted.

For her strength and restoration during and after the hearing.

For wisdom and protection for Saiful Malook, her lawyer; and for the judges hearing her case.

For the wider Christian community who may face a backlash whatever the outcome of the appeal.

For an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Pakistan, to maintain calm in the country.

For justice for others accused of blasphemy, and that the government would urgently amend the blasphemy laws.

Don't let them execute Christian mom Asia Bibi!; SIGN the petition and PRAY for this court decision! [I've been praying in addition that , should she be released and the situation be too tense for her and her family to remain in Pakistan, they would be able to find asylum in another country, possibly even the U.S. - Stan]

Learn about Christian Persecution; Check out the World Watch List:
http://live.opendoorsusa.org/wwl/?utm_source=action&utm_medium=email&utm_content=content-banner&utm_campaign=may-2016
PRAY for the ON-GOING crisis now happening in IRAQ/SYRIA.  Pray that coalition forces will be able to destroy the leadership and infrastructure of ISIS.
"Why It's Becoming More Difficult to Be a Christian in INDIA" - 03-03-2016;
http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2016/March/Why-Its-Becoming-More-Difficult-to-Be-a-Christian-in-India

----------------------------------------------------------------------

"PRO-LIFE AMERICANS HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY OF A GENERATION" - Melanie Israel / November 13, 2016 /  http://dailysignal.com/2016/11/13/pro-life-americans-have-the-opportunity-of-a-generation/

Congress and Donald Trump have an opportunity to stop the flow of taxpayer dollars to organizations that perform or promote abortion, appoint pro-life justices to the Supreme Court, and much more. (Photo: Ariel Skelley Blend Images/Newscom)

The American people have returned a pro-life majority to Congress and have elected a president committed to rolling back the Obama administration’s radical abortion policies and to appointing pro-life justices to the Supreme Court. This presents an incredible opportunity for defending innocent human life. Now is the time to act.

Executive Action
   President-elect Donald Trump should act to defend life and conscience immediately after he takes the oath of office, and should:
     Reinstate the Mexico City Policy to ensure that federally funded nongovernmental organizations do not perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in foreign nations.
     Enforce the Weldon Amendment to stop states from unlawfully discriminating against health care entities that refuse to pay for or cover abortions.
     Reject a proposed parting gift to Planned Parenthood through new Title X regulations designed to lock in the abortion giant’s cut of federal funds.
     Nominate a Supreme Court justice that will respect the Constitution and the right to life.
     Repeal the Department of Health and Human Services mandate requiring insurance coverage of certain contraceptives and abortifacients. Although the Supreme Court has protected the consciences of closely held businesses and religious institutions, consciences of individual consumers and employees are still vulnerable absent full repeal.
     Reinstitute Bush administration conscience protections for health care providers.
     Reaffirm states’ freedom to exclude abortion providers from state Medicaid programs.

Congressional Action
     With a pro-life majority in both the House and the Senate, pursuing a life-affirming agenda is a must. Congress should:
     Pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The United States is one of only seven countries in the world that allows elective abortion past 20 weeks (5 months), at which point the baby is capable of feeling excruciating pain during an abortion procedure.
    Pass the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. Instead of relying on a patchwork of policy riders attached to appropriation bills each year, Congress should permanently end taxpayer funding for abortion once and for all.
    Defund Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers have disqualified themselves from federal funding due to their callous disregard for human life. The money should be redirected to comprehensive health centers not entangled with abortion.
    Pass the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. The disturbing case of Kermit Gosnell has shown there must be criminal consequences for abortionists who violate the law and refuse to provide medical care to infants born alive after abortions.
    Pass the Conscience Protection Act, which ensures that individuals get their day in court when their rights to conscience concerning abortion are violated by the government.
    End funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). President Barack Obama sent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to the UNFPA despite evidence of its involvement in China’s coercive two-child policy. This funding should end.
    Repeal Obamacare. Under Obamacare, tax subsidies are available for health plans that include coverage of elective abortion, and the HHS mandate requires coverage of certain abortion-inducing drugs and devices. Both anti-life policies would disappear with Obamacare’s repeal.

Promoting a Culture of Life
     The success of pro-life candidates up and down the ballot is a victory for the pro-life movement. But more importantly, it is a victory for the most vulnerable and innocent among us. Since Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton effectively legalized abortion on demand, more than 56 million children have been denied the opportunity to live.
     For over 40 years, the pro-life community has worked to counter the devastating impact abortion has had on mothers and their unborn babies, witnessing to the fundamental truth that from the moment of conception, a distinct human being with inherent worth and dignity has a right to life.
     Congress and Trump have an opportunity to codify important policy riders, stop the flow of taxpayer dollars to organizations that perform or promote abortion, end the inhuman practice of late-term abortions on babies who are viable or capable of feeling pain, appoint pro-life justices to the Supreme Court, and much more. They should take action with confidence, knowing that Americans have spoken for life at the ballot box.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

Melanie Israel is a research associate for the DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation.

 

"Trump’s Victory and the Religious Right" [or what part did the issue of abortion play in how people voted]" - Jerry Newcombe  | Nov 17, 2016; http://townhall.com/columnists/jerrynewcombe/2016/11/17/trumps-victory-and-the-religious-right-n2247011

#1772 (11/18) "We Won, You Lost, Deal With It"

"WE WON, YOU LOST, DEAL WITH IT" - Cal Thomas, Townhall.com: Nov 17, 2016; http://townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2016/11/17/we-won-you-lost-deal-with-it-n2246715 [AS I SEE IT: Last week, I was accused of being "giddy" over the election results and I admit I felt shamed and tried to deny I felt that way. Well, the more I've had time to reflect on the grave tragedy that this country averted in not approving a Hillary administration - just simply considering her positions and intended actions on a variety of issues - I've decided that I had a right to be "giddy." Especially after the past  of actions by a President who continually steered America in a wrong direction, it is GREAT to be hopeful again for change of the good kind. Note that I am not saying I am certain, since with any leader we can never be truly certain of what they will do. But I truly am hopeful in the sense of being cautiously optimistic. After all, think of what the alternative would  have meant. - Stan]

Three years ago when Republicans were battling President Obama over the debt ceiling and a government shutdown, the president said, "You don't like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election."

That is what Republicans did on Nov. 8. In addition to winning the presidential election, Republicans also maintained majorities in the House and Senate and now have 33 governorships and 32 state legislatures under GOP control. It was a consequential repudiation of the far-left policies of the Democratic Party. To paraphrase Mr. Obama: Republicans won, Democrats lost, now deal with it.

Democrats are having a hard time dealing with it and so instead of examining why they and their policies were so roundly rejected, they have decided to take a familiar path. They are smearing newly named White House counselor and chief strategist Stephen Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News, as an anti-Semite and bigot with little or no evidence, other than guilt by association for incendiary articles posted on Breitbart.com when he was chairman.

In other overreaction to the election results, some despondent lefties have announced their intention to continue violating the law when it comes to illegal aliens. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who can't control the shooting gallery his city has become, has said Chicago will continue to be a sanctuary city for any and all people who broke federal immigration laws. He joins the mayors of New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and more than two dozen other cities and towns who have made similar declarations, thus violating federal law and their oaths of office to defend the federal and state constitutions, which state that lawmakers, not mayors (or presidents, or judges) are the ones who pass laws.

Washington, D.C., radio talk show host Chris Plante has a good idea to counter this lawlessness. On his program Tuesday, Plante said that if an illegal immigrant in a sanctuary city commits a crime, especially murder, the mayor of that city should be prosecuted by the Justice Department as an accessory. The Trump administration should also announce it will withhold federal funds for any city that harbors people who broke immigration laws to get here. 

Billionaire globalist George Soros met in Washington this week with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to plot strategy for how to stop Trump. Here's how a story in Politico put it: "George Soros and other rich liberals who spent tens of millions of dollars trying to elect Hillary Clinton are gathering in Washington for a three-day, closed-door meeting to retool the big-money left to fight back against Donald Trump." That was wasted money given the outcome. In business, if your strategy isn't working, you change the strategy. In liberal politics, it's like a cult. You believe despite any and all evidence that proves your beliefs wrong.

The left and angry Democrats believe and behave as if government is their property and when Republicans win they are stealing merchandise that doesn't belong to them. In their efforts to kneecap Trump before he takes office, they will again rely on the big media as their ally. Except it didn't work during the campaign and it won't work now because the public's trust in news organizations is at a record low.

The danger for Democrats and the left is that the very same "angry white voters" they alienated during the campaign might be driven even further away, if they won't even allow Trump to take office and have the traditional honeymoon period to see if his ideas can be implemented and whether they work. That can only mean more Republican victories in the future.

Deal with it!

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

"The Cracked Crystal Ball of Liberal Celebrities" - Brent Bozell |Nov 18, 2016; http://townhall.com/columnists/brentbozell/2016/11/18/the-cracked-crystal-ball-of-liberal-celebrities-n2247429

#1771 (11/17) "Blacks Shouldn’t Be Worried About Trump Presidency"

"BLACKS SHOULDN'T BE WORRIED ABOUT TRUMP PRESIDENCY" - Walter E. Williams / November 16, 2016 / http://dailysignal.com/2016/11/16/blacks-shouldnt-be-worried-about-trump-presidency/?

Whoever is the president has little or no impact on the living conditions of ordinary black people. (Photo: Gary M. Williams/EFE/Newscom)

Donald Trump’s surprise win has millions of Americans, many of whom are black, in a tizzy. Many, such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, are writing about what it means to be black during a Trump administration even though Trump’s presidency has yet to begin. My argument has always been that the political arena is largely irrelevant to the interests of ordinary black people.

Much of the 1960s and ’70s civil rights rhetoric was that black political power was necessary for economic power. But the nation’s most troublesome and dangerous cities, which are also cities with low-performing and unsafe schools and poor quality city services, have been run by Democrats for nearly a half-century—with blacks having significant political power, having been mayors, city councilors, and other top officials, such as superintendents of schools and chiefs of police.

Panic among some blacks over the upcoming Trump presidency is unwarranted. Whoever is the president has little or no impact on the living conditions of ordinary black people, even when that president is a black person, as the Obama presidency has demonstrated.

The overall welfare of black people requires attention to devastating problems that can be solved only at the family and community levels.Mountains of evidence demonstrate that outcomes are not favorable for children raised in female-headed households. Criminal behavior is greater, and academic achievement is much less for such children. This is a devastating problem, but it is beyond the reach of a president or any other politician to solve. If there is a solution, it will come from churches and local community organizations.

Education is vital to upward mobility. Most schools labeled as “persistently dangerous” are schools with predominantly black populations. At many schools, students are required to walk through metal detectors and place their book bags and purses on a conveyor belt that goes through an X-ray machine. Armed police patrol the school to try to stem school violence. But even with a police presence, teachers, staff, and students are assaulted.

A policy that permanently removes troublemakers would make a greater impact on black education than anything a U.S. president could do. The fact that black parents, teachers, and civil rights organizations tolerate and make excuses for the despicable and destructive behavior of so many young blacks is a gross betrayal of the memory, struggle, sacrifice, sweat, tears, and blood of our ancestors.

The sorry and tragic state of black education is not going to be turned around until there’s a change in what’s acceptable and unacceptable behavior by young people. That change could come only from within the black community.

Using 2012 data from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Law Street Media offers some sobering statistics in an article titled “Crime in America: Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities Over 200,000.” The nation’s most dangerous big cities are Detroit, Oakland, St. Louis, Memphis, Stockton, Birmingham, Baltimore, Cleveland, Atlanta and Milwaukee. The most common characteristic of these cities is that they have predominantly black populations.

Another common characteristic is that for decades, all of them have been run by Democratic and presumably liberal administrations. Some cities—such as Detroit, Buffalo, Newark, and Philadelphia—haven’t elected a Republican mayor for more than a half-century.

Here are some indisputable facts: Crime imposes a huge cost on black communities in the forms of human suffering and economic well-being. It matters little whether the U.S. president is black or white, Democrat or Republican. It also matters little whether local politicians are black or white or Democrats or Republicans.

What will matter is an unyielding black intolerance for crime, along with a willingness to allow policing authorities to do what is necessary to stop criminals from preying on the overwhelmingly law-abiding people of the community.

In light of the many difficulties within black communities, focusing energy and resources on the election of Trump is gross dereliction.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.

#1770 (11/16) "How Trump Closed the Deal With Evangelicals"

"HOW TRUMP  CLOSED THE DEAL WITH EVANGELICALS" - Tony Perkins / November 13, 2016 /  http://dailysignal.com/2016/11/13/how-trump-closed-the-deal-with-evangelicals/ [AS I SEE IT: This article clearly explains why I've rarely been so full of hope for our country as I have the past week. Of course, I understand that we are to FINALLY put our hope only in God and that man will always disappoint. Mr. Trump will surely disappoint in some ways but at least he gives me hope that right decisions might finally be made by our leaders, esp. after the past 8 years. I am therefore committed to do the best I can in the years ahead to to keep all readers of this blog informed about how the issues of the day are being addressed and to hold President Trump's feet to the fire even as I have sought to do with President Obama. Now, more than ever, may we all commit to pray daily for our next President, that he and those who help him lead, will do right for our country and do no harm to us and to future generations through their actions. P.S. - Please be sure to note the the video link noted above under "Why Most of the 81% of Evangelicals Voted for Donald Trump. - Stan] 

Donald Trump outperformed John McCain, Mitt Romney, and even George W. Bush—winning an overwhelming 81 percent of the evangelical vote. (Photo: Van Tine Dennis/ABACA/Newscom)

“Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.” Those words from the Psalmist, King David, rang especially true for many Americans on Nov. 9 when they awoke to the news that the nation had rejected the continuation of the anti-family, anti-faith policies of President Barack Obama by electing Donald Trump in perhaps the most stunning political upset of the modern age.

In a year of surprises, the ultimate outsider delivered the biggest, tapping into the frustration that pollsters didn’t detect and liberal elites never took seriously. “The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer,” vowed the president-elect, who not only overcame the opposition of the Democratic Party, but his own—soaring to victory in spite of a biased media, his own personal baggage, lopsided polls, and a bevy of Hollywood stars.

In disbelief, pundits watched as the electoral map turned a sea of red, colored by almost a decade of disillusionment with the president’s extremist agenda. Fueled by massive turnout, the highest in U.S. history, voters delivered a stinging repudiation—not just of Hillary Clinton—but her party’s ultra-liberal agenda and arguably the entire Obama era.

But the night wasn’t just a vindication of Trump. It was also a validation once again of the evangelical movement, which once again overcame the media’s narrative of division to deliver one of the most significant political messages this country has ever seen. In nearly every election cycle for the last 40 years, the left has tried to bury a movement it wishes had never been born. And on the night of Nov. 8, it learned just how impossible that prospect will be.

Evangelicals, many of whom (myself included) backed other candidates during the primary, quietly assessed the perilous state of the nation and unified behind Trump in greater number than they had behind the last three GOP nominees. To the astonishment of everyone, Trump outperformed John McCain, Mitt Romney, and even George W. Bush—winning an overwhelming 81 percent of the evangelical vote. If the media had questions about the influence of the religious right, they were answered early Wednesday morning by the greatest coalescence around a Republican nominee in two decades. It turns out the press had about as much success writing the obituary of the evangelical movement as it had predicting this election.

Anyone who traveled the country these last few months saw how values voters were drawn to Trump, not because of shared values, but because of shared concerns over the damage a Clinton Supreme Court would do to our freedoms. Recognizing that national security hung in the balance, they saw this as an opportunity, after eight years of Obama’s repressive policies, to make freedom mean something again.

They also had the opportunity to hear, along with the rest of America, one of the best arguments against partial-birth abortion the country has ever heard in a presidential debate, in which Trump described—in detail—the barbaric procedure that rips a child out of the womb moments before birth. It may have been the most significant moment—not just of Trump’s campaign, but in the history of modern presidential politics. 

In four short sentences, the GOP nominee closed the deal with millions of pro-life voters, solidifying their support as the best chance to end America’s nearly 44 years of court-imposed abortion on demand. According to pollster George Barna, politically engaged evangelicals rank abortion as their top issue (30 percent) and Supreme Court nominations a close second (28 percent). The final debate delivered exactly the clarity they were hoping for.

In the end, though, what we witnessed wasn’t just the revenge of the deplorables, but the collapse of the Obama legacy. After the spectacular failures of Obamacare, the demoralization of our military, the explosion of lawlessness, tolerance of corruption, and obsession with social engineering, Americans finally have the opportunity to rebuild the country they once knew.

But the election is just the starting gun. Trump may open the door to America’s solutions, but he was never meant to be the solution.The true transformation of a society starts in the hearts and minds of men and women. And under an administration with no interest in continuing the eight-year war on the First Amendment, we may finally see what the church is capable of.

In the meantime, one thing about this historic uprising is clear: Americans are looking for leaders of conviction. And as the results of the race for president show, they will accept no substitutes.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

Tony Perkins is president of the Family Research Council.