#1790 (12/8) "Obama Sent Top Official to Castro’s Funeral, but Not Thatcher’s. Why It Sends the Wrong Message"

"OBAMA SENT TOP OFFICIAL TO CASTRO'S FUNERAL, BUT NOT THATCHERS. WY IT SENDS THE WRONG MESSAGE." - Jarrett Stepman / December 06, 2016 / http://dailysignal.com/2016/12/06/what-obamas-decision-to-send-someone-to-castros-funeral-but-not-thatchers-says/ [AS I SEE IT: Isn't it funny how the mainstream media chose to neglect reporting this truly questionable action in light of how he slighted Prime Minister Thatcher when she died? The President's action says a lot about where he stands on the battle of good and evil but clearly sends the wrong message of where we should be standing. We can only hope the next President will take right stands. - Stan]

Cuba's Fidel Castro, left, and Britain's Margaret Thatcher, right, stood on opposite ends of the Cold War. (Left Photo: Mohammad Farnood/SIPA /Newscom; Right Photo: Pa/ZUMA Press/Newscom)

President Barack Obama sent high-level administration officials to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s funeral procession last week, a gesture of respect he did not offer for former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s funeral.

After Castro’s death, Obama released a statement saying: “History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and the world around him.” The carefully guarded words made no reference to the legacy of tyranny and destruction Castro left for the Cuban people, nor did it explain how much Castro’s communist ideology played a role in the half-century of humanitarian catastrophes during his regime.

As reported in Conservative Review, “Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser and one of the president’s closest aides,” was sent to attend Castro’s funeral service along with the U.S. ambassador to Cuba, Jeffrey DeLaurentis. Rhodes became notorious this spring when he boasted of selling a “narrative” about the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal to journalists to push the president’s agenda through Congress. He was also a key player in opening up relations between the U.S. and Cuba in 2015, ending a long-standing American policy to isolate the communist nation.

The Obama administration failed to send high-level members to Thatcher’s funeral in 2013, which many British saw as a “snub” of their famous leader. Nor was that  the first sharp elbow thrown at legendary British leaders by the Obama administration.

The words and actions of an administration, such as who a president chooses to send to a funeral, have a heightened influence on the global stage without the chief executive ever having to act officially. As historian Richard Neustadt wrote, paraphrasing President Harry Truman, “presidential power is the power to persuade.” And as Neustadt noted, this power to persuade leads to the more tangible power to negotiate—perhaps the most important presidential role in foreign relations.

That the president seems so willing to symbolically and concretely abandon the “special relationship” the U.S. has had with Britain while going out of the way to tiptoe around the sore spots of the Cuban regime is a reversal of priorities for a nation that stood as a beacon for the free world.

Of course, Castro and Thatcher stood at opposite ends of the Cold War in the ultimate test of freedom against authoritarianism—Castro was a revolutionary communist who battled with the United States for decades and Thatcher was a legendary Cold Warrior who stood shoulder to shoulder with President Ronald Reagan against international communism in the 1980s. When Thatcher was elected prime minister in 1979, she, along with Reagan, pursued a more confrontational approach to the Soviet Union, which she viewed as a primary global threat to human liberty. She saw the difference between free countries like the United States and Great Britain and authoritarian regimes like under the Soviet Union and Cuba as fundamental.

Like Reagan, who called the Soviet Union an “evil empire” in a famous 1983 speech, Thatcher rhetorically undermined the tyrannical regimes and indicated that a mere détente with them was unacceptable. When negotiating with the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, Reagan and Thatcher came from a position of strength. 

In a 1983 television appearance, the Iron Lady, as Thatcher came to be called, explained the radically different outcomes for people living under these nearly opposite systems of government: "[Nations] that have gone for equality, like communism, have neither freedom nor justice nor equality, they’ve the greatest inequalities of all, the privileges of the politicians are far greater compared with the ordinary folk than in any other country. The nations that have gone for freedom, justice, and independence of people have still freedom and justice, and they have far more equality between their people, far more respect for each individual than the other nations."

Castro’s Cuba has been the very picture of this despotism based on a false “equality,” as Thatcher described. “Castro’s communism has not just left Cubans economically pauperized, but politically bereft, a situation that Obama’s unilateral concessions to Castro’s little brother, the 85-year-old Raul, Cuba’s present leader, has only made worse,” Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzalez wrote for The Daily Signal.

Cuba’s pursuit of communism under Castro crippled the island nation and pushed hundreds of thousands to risk their lives to escape. Thatcher and Reagan’s rhetorical stands against autocracy helped break the power of communism as an international threat as they pushed the Soviet Union to collapse.

But the Obama administration now has sent high-ranking officials to the funeral service of the man who pleaded with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to wage nuclear war against the United States during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. The system the now-deceased Castro created still exists after his death and continues under his brother.

The simple act of administration officials attending or not attending a state leader’s funeral service communicates a great deal to the world about what a president’s intentions are. Signaling that free countries like the United States will back off in their condemnation of oppressive, communist regimes like the one propped up by the Castro brothers helps breathe new life into their failed ideology.

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Jarrett Stepman is an editor for The Daily Signal. 

#1789 (12/7) "The Lessons Today’s Leaders Should Take From Pearl Harbor" / "The Seventh of December"

"THE LESSONS TODAY'S LEADERS SHOULD TAKE FROM PEARL HARBOR" - Jacob Jordan / Brian Slattery / December 07, 2016 / http://dailysignal.com/2016/12/07/the-lessons-todays-leaders-should-take-from-pearl-harbor/

Seventy-five years later, Dec. 7 remains etched in the minds of Americans as the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. (Photo: iStock Photo)

At sunrise on this day in 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the American Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, having sailed across the Pacific Ocean unnoticed. In addition to the 19 ships destroyed, 2,403 American soldiers were killed and 1,178 wounded in the attack.

While this attack was 75 years ago, there are pertinent lessons for today’s leaders to learn from how America handled it.

The Japanese were motivated by many factors in striking the U.S., among them deterring America from intervening in their imperial conquests in the Pacific. Though the Japanese succeeded in temporarily crippling the U.S. Navy, their gamble backfired and inadvertently facilitated America’s rise as a global military power and the defeat of the axis powers.

America responded to the attack quickly and decisively. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed Congress on December 8, calling the attack “a date which will live infamy.” In that speech, he also declared that “all measures be taken for our defense.” The next day, the U.S. Senate voted 82-0 to declare war on Japan, while the House of Representatives approved the resolution 388-1, officially entering the United States into World War II.

Hundreds of American men volunteered upon learning this news. Women entered the labor force at unsurpassed levels, not merely to replace the jobs vacated by men at the time, but to do their part to support the war effort—immortalized by the image of “Rosie the Riveter.” In the ensuing months, the country rebuilt its navy, thousands of men enlisted, and America took its first steps in fighting back against the oppressive forces on both sides of the planet.

The war effort displayed the resolve, commitment, and patriotism of the American people, and in the ensuing campaigns of the Pacific our military did not falter amid enormous sacrifices and losses. Ultimately, in both Asia and Europe, America’s commitment and the dedication and heroism of its service members saved the world from tyranny and the destruction of free society.

America today may not face the same imminent danger it faced in 1941, but our leaders should still take lessons from the events that preceded Pearl Harbor. Many of those developments are what made the U.S. vulnerable to attack in the first place.

Then, as has too often been the case in American history, politicians wrongly assumed that the previous major war we had faced would be our last. As a result, in the years after World War I we drew down our military dramatically, and our armed forces were ill-prepared for combat when Congress declared war on Japan. Though America was able to rise up and meet that challenge, the price for our lack of readiness was only overcome through the sacrifice borne by our greatest generation.

Today, at the fringes, American resolve is being tested by Russia’s aggression in Crimea and China’s development of artificial islands in the South China Sea. Terrorist groups continue the fight to destroy our free society. And rogue nations such as Iran and North Korea remain major threats in their respective parts of the world.


Our government should be committed to rebuilding and sustaining a military that is so strong that no one would dare challenge America—a strategy President Ronald Reagan referred to as “peace through strength.” In remembering “the date which will live in infamy,” Americans must not forget the sacrifices made for our freedoms, and we cannot afford to take our national security for granted.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

Jacob Jordan is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. Brian Slattery is a research associate for Security Studies at The Heritage Foundation. In this capacity he advocates for a strong national defense and robust security enterprise. Brian focuses particularly on maritime security, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Arctic.
"THE SEVENTH OF DECEMBER" - Craig Shirley / December 06, 2016 / http://dailysignal.com/2016/12/06/the-seventh-of-december/?

The battleship USS Arizona sinks after being hit by a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. (Photo: Handout/Reuters/Newscom)

The following is an excerpt from historian Craig Shirley’s best-selling book “December 1941: 31 Days that Changed America and Saved the World.” Shirley chronicled the events of the infamous day when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and plunged the United States into World War II. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the attack.

Sunday in America was a day for relaxing, whether you followed the fourth commandment or not. It was a day for church, for fam­ily meals, for reading the newspapers, listening to the radio, going for long walks, for afternoon naps, for working in the yard, and visiting with neighbors.

Sunday, Dec. 7, was different. Ten days earlier, on Nov. 27, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Harold R. Stark and Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Gen. George C. Marshall authored a two-page memo stamped for their commander in chief “Secret.” It read: “Subject: Far Eastern Situation.” “If the current negotiations end without agreement,” they wrote, “Japan may attack: the Burma Road; Thailand; Malaya; the Netherlands East Indies; the Philippines; the Russian Maritime Provinces.” Significantly, no mention was made by Stark or Marshall of any other American military installation in the Pacific region, including Hawaii.

An extraordinary Sunday meeting was requested by the Japanese Embassy in Washington with Secretary of State Cordell Hull. The meeting was set for 1 p.m. (EST). It would be 7:30 a.m. in Honolulu. Tokyo had already reassigned some of its Washington envoys back to Japan. Just one day before, Hull had told reporters that he anticipated no fur­ther meetings with his Japanese counterparts.

On Saturday evening, Dec. 6, Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a message directly to Emperor Hirohito, “an unprecedented action—as disturbing reports reached the State Department that two large and heavily escorted convoys were seen yester­day morning steaming into the Gulf of Siam, which washes the shores of Thailand.” The contents of the president’s message to the emperor were not revealed at the time. Later it became known—it was utterly respectful and solicitous of the emperor. Words such as “friendship” and “virtue” and “wis­dom” littered the missive, but also words like “fear” and “concern.” While coverage might have otherwise been slight, every radio and news­paper in America covered in detail Roosevelt’s olive branch to Japan the morning of Dec. 8, though not all reported on the “two large and heavily escorted Japanese convoys … steaming toward the Gulf of Siam (Thailand) this morning.”

Another large convoy featuring six aircraft carriers heading southeast from Japan and briefly reported on six days earlier had not been seen or heard from since. Adm. Husband Kimmel had received a notice on Dec. 2 that this Japanese task force, moving at flank speed, around 24 knots, had been lost to American trackers. On the other side of the world, Great Britain declared war against Finland, which had become an “ally” of the Third Reich. In concert with the British declaration of war, FDR put Finnish ships in American ports in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore under “protective custody.”

Navy Secretary Frank Knox released a report he’d prepared for FDR that stated America’s fleet was “superior to any” in the world and that it had recently been “placed on a war footing with full personnel manning the ships of three fleets,” including the Pacific fleet in Hawaii. “I am proud to report that the American people may feel fully confident in their Navy.” It is, he said, “without superior. On any comparable basis, the United States Navy is second to none.” Knox concluded, “In the Pacific, the strategic impor­tance … with development of the islands guarding the approach to the Navy’s defense in the Hawaiian area with the resultant safety of the Pacific Coast, are obvious.”

At 3:42 a.m., the Condor, on patrol outside the entrance to Pearl Harbor, spot­ted an unidentified and unauthorized midget submarine. Later that morn­ing, at 6:45 a.m., the Ward fired on and hit yet another mysterious midget submersible. The young captain with the perfectly nautical name of William Outerbridge ordered his No. 3 deck gun to fire on the unknown sub­marine. A report was made to naval authorities at Pearl Harbor, but no action was taken.

Scout planes from the Enterprise, some 200 miles out and heading back to Pearl Harbor after making her delivery, spotted Japanese bombers and escort planes over the Pacific at 6:15 a.m., heading southeast. Radio confusion between a scout plane and the “Big E” prevented it from taking any action.

At Opana Point Radar Station, set on the highest point on the island of Oahu, two young army privates, Joseph L. Lockard and George Elliot, noticed what looked to be a huge grouping of planes headed for the island. A call was placed around 7 a.m. to Lt. Kermit Tyler. Tyler, thinking the two were seeing a squadron of American B-17s due in that morning, told them to forget about it. They turned off the radar and went to breakfast.

A private pilot was up for a quiet and leisurely flight over Honolulu early that morning. Ray Buduick, a lawyer, expected to have the airspace all to himself and his 17-year-old son, Martin. Shortly after takeoff, he realized that his expectations were wrong. All of a sudden, the skies over the island were filled with hundreds of airplanes. A female flight instructor, Cornelia Fort, was also aloft, giving a lesson, when she was overwhelmed with hundreds of planes bearing a red flaming ball. A squadron of Japanese fighter planes, being faster than the bombers, arrived at Oahu at 7:30 and orbited the island for 25 minutes while they waited for the slower planes to catch up.

On a beach in Santa Monica, a group of sun worshipers was out early play­ing volleyball when one of them heard something over the radio and tried to catch the attention of the others. But they were disinterested at the moment in anything other than the outcome of their morning match.

The first wave of 183 planes continued unmolested and basically undetected. They’d been transported in secret since Nov. 26, at 0900, having departed their home waters of Tankan Bay. The six carriers could deploy hundreds of war planes. They were under the orders of the fleet commander, Isoroku Yamamoto, and the com­mand of Chuichi Nagumo. The massive fleet halted in mid-ocean to refuel on Dec. 3. The standing order was radio silence and, if not recalled by Tokyo, to attack.

Realizing they had suc­ceeded in their audacious sneak attack on the American fleet, the code indi­cating their achievement was transmitted: “Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!” “Tora! Tora! Tora!”

Initial reports out of Hawaii were light. The first bulletin went out over the local airwaves, garbled, not from a military source or official government spokesman, but from a broadcast personality, Webley Edwards, who hosted the popular radio show “Hawaii Calls” on CBS, which was heard all over the mainland. “Attention. This is no exercise. The Japanese are attacking Pearl Harbor. All Army, Navy, and Marine personnel are to report to duty.” Shortly thereafter, a government-ordered blackout was secured on Hawaii, but long-distance phone calls, telegrams, or messages from ham radio operators continued. The phone lines eventually became jammed as the Navy was frantically using them.

But this didn’t stop anybody from hearing about the attack all across the mainland. It went out over the airwaves, repeatedly, with regular programm­ing interrupted, on every radio station in America. News spread by word of mouth, from neighbor to neighbor, parents to kids. In the living rooms of America, people huddled around Philco or General Electric radios, listening to war news that for the first time directly involved the American people. On the sidewalks, people huddled around car radios, listening to the flash bulletins.

At the meaningless football game at Griffith Stadium in Washington between the Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles, 27,000 attendees—including many military personnel and journalists—“were the last to know anything about the world-stirring events.” Throughout the game, there was no announcement whatsoever through the loudspeakers, although radio broadcasters in the booths continually were breaking into their accounts of the game with war bulletins. In the interval after the first half, it became evident to the football fans that something extraordinary was in progress.

Sailors attempt to save a burning amphibious aircraft at during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. (Photo: Handout/Reuters/Newscom)

As the rumor of war spread, the seats emptied. One enterprising wife sent her husband, who was attending the game, a telegram. “Deliver to Section P, Top Row, Seat 27, opposite 25-yard line, East side, Griffith Stadium: War with Japan Get to office.” The Redskins ownership later said using the PA to announce the war news was against its management’s policy.

In all, some 353 Japanese fighters and bombers descended on Oahu. Civilian locations were also bombed and strafed. One of the first to die in the attack may have been a 10-year-old Portuguese girl.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

Craig Shirley is the author of two critically praised best-sellers about Ronald Reagan, "Rendezvous with Destiny" and "Reagan's Revolution," as well as the New York Times best-selling book, "December 1941."

"New Numbers Show Continued Decline of US Military" - Rachel Zissimos /  Brian Slattery / November 16, 2016; http://dailysignal.com/2016/11/16/new-numbers-show-continued-decline-of-us-military/

#1788 (12/6) "The Progressive-State Depression"

"THE PROGRESSIVE-SATE DEPRESSION" - Stephen Moore| Dec 06, 2016; http://townhall.com/columnists/stephenmoore/2016/12/06/the-progressivestate-depression-n2255643

Ditching Electoral College Would Allow California to Impose Imperial Rule on a Colonial America

The blue states of America are in a depression. I don't mean the collective funk of liberal voters because they lost the election to Donald Trump.

I'm talking about an economic malaise in the blue states that went for Hillary Clinton. Here is an amazing statistic courtesy of the just-released 2016 edition of "Rich States, Poor States," which I co-authored with Reagan economist Arthur Laffer and economist Jonathan Williams: Of the 10 blue states that Democrats won by the largest percentage margins -- California, Massachusetts, Vermont, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, Illinois, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Connecticut -- every single one of them lost domestic migration (excluding immigration) between 2004 and 2014. Nearly 2.75 million more Americans left California and New York than entered these states.

They are the loser states. They are all progressive: high taxes rates; high welfare benefits; heavy regulation; environmental extremism; high minimum wages. Most outlaw energy drilling. The whole left-wing playbook is on display in the Clinton states. And people are leaving in droves. Day after day, they are being bled to death. So much for liberalism creating a worker's paradise.

Now let's look at the 10 states that had the largest percentage vote for Trump. Every one of them -- Wyoming, West Virginia, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Dakota and Idaho -- was a net population gainer.

This is part and parcel of one of the greatest internal migration waves in American history, as blue states, especially in the Northeast, are getting clobbered by their low-tax, smaller-government rivals in the South and the mountain regions. By the way, pretty much the same pattern holds true for jobs. The job gains in the red states that Trump carried by the widest margins had about twice the job-creation rate as the bluest states carried by Clinton.

The latest "Rich States, Poor States" report, published by the American Legislative Exchange Council, shows a persistent trend of Americans moving from blue to red states. The best example is that from 2004-2014, the two most populous conservative states -- Florida and Texas -- gained almost 1 million new residents each. The two most populous liberal states -- California and New York -- saw an equal-sized exodus.

It's easy to understand why people might want to leave gray and rusting New York. But California? California has, arguably, the most beautiful weather, mountains and beaches in the country, and yet people keep fleeing the state that is supposed to be a progressive utopia.

What doesn't make California and New York paradise is the high cost of living -- thanks to expensive environmental regulations, forced union policies and income tax rates that are the highest in the nation, at 13 percent or more. Florida and Texas are right-to-work states with no income tax. Is it really a shocker that people would choose zero income tax over 13 percent? New York politicians know that their record-high tax rates are killing growth, which is why the state is spending millions of dollars on TV ads across the country trying to convince people that New York has low taxes. Sure. And Chicago is crime-free.

Even when it comes to income inequality, blue states fare worse than red states. According to a 2016 report by the Economic Policy Institute, three of the states with the largest gaps between rich and poor are those progressive icons New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Sure, Boston, Manhattan and Silicon Valley are booming as the rich prosper. But outside these areas are deep pockets of poverty and wage stagnation.

The lesson to be learned from the experimentation of the states is that the "progressive" tax and spend agenda leads to much slower growth and benefits the rich and politically well-connected at the expense of everyone else.

Trump is now promising that on a national scale, he will cut taxes, deregulate and cut wasteful government spending. In the presidential debates, Clinton disparaged this agenda as "trumped up, trickle-down economics," and she said it had never worked. Yet prospering red states such as Florida, Tennessee, Texas and so many others keep stealing jobs and growth from blue-state America.

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#1787 (12/5) "Federal Agents Threaten Pet Owners With a War on Cats"

"FEDERAL AGENTS THREATEN PET OWNERS WITH A WAR ON CATS" - David Rosenthal / November 30, 2016 / http://dailysignal.com/2016/11/30/federal-agents-threaten-pet-owners-with-a-war-on-cats/ [AS I SEE IT: While this article focuses on the real threat of government overreach/over-criminalization, as a longtime cat lover/owner, I just couldn't resist posting this story of cats being harassed in my state of  Florida. The government can harass us about a lot of things, but to include felines is just too much! - Stan]

The Fish and Wildlife Service implemented a pest management plan designed to trap cats that the agency perceived as a threat to the Key Largo woodrat. (Photo: Huang Jinkun Xinhua News Agency/Newscom)

An overzealous federal agency is targeting Florida cats in a pest removal operation and it’s becoming a huge problem for pet owners.

Throughout the ages, cats have held a high place in society. Scholars commonly hold that felines were first domesticated in Egypt 4,000 years ago due to their ability to police dirty, disease-carrying rodents that plagued the land. This heroic role made cats so revered in ancient Egypt that some worshiped the animals as deities. If a person were to kill a cat, even accidentally, the act was punishable by death. Upon their death, cats were often mummified and left to lay with their trophies: dead rats. However, times have changed for the once-renowned species.

The Smithsonian recently published an article titled: “To Save the Woodrat, Conservationists Have to Deal With an Invasive Species First: House Cats.” This is the latest entry in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s cat fight with residents of Key Largo, Florida, and their beloved pets.

In 2014, the Fish and Wildlife Service implemented a pest management plan designed to trap cats that the agency perceived as a threat to the Key Largo woodrat. The furry targets of this sting operation were accused of trespassing on federal land, which is a woodrat habitat, and doing what cats do best: hunt and kill rats.

Instead of focusing only on the large swaths of feral cats that pose the primary threat to the rats’ survival on the island, the Fish and Wildlife Service went overboard. Resident cat owners complained that agents set baited traps adjacent to the private property of the owners who live next to the federal park.

Then, Fish and Wildlife Service agents trapped Rocky, a pet cat to Spencer Slate, a Key Largo businessman who runs a scuba diving center. According to Slate, the traps “were all about 50 feet from [his] property” when Rocky was lured in one night. As a result, Slate said that “Rocky’s face was so bloodied by the trap’s spring-shut door that he did not recognize his pet.” Slate discovered this after a Fish and Wildlife Service agent showed up at his business to serve him with a written citation threatening jail time for allegedly allowing Rocky to enter federal land. When delivering the citation, the agent neglected to return the captive kitten, instead depositing Rocky at an animal shelter nearly 15 miles away.

In the face of agency abuse, Slate refused to roll over, taking his case to a federal judge who dismissed the citation after the scuba captain demonstrated that the Fish and Wildlife Service had set the trap that captured Rocky outside of federal land. As Mark Miller, managing attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation’s Atlantic Center in Florida, explains, “when [Fish and Wildlife Service] agents prowl off of federal land to trap private citizens’ cats on private land, these agents’ actions implicate a number of constitutional clauses” that could make the agents’ actions unlawful.

Furthermore, the fact that Slate was threatened with jail time for the instinctive response of his baited cat is a gross misuse of government power. This tactic represents the phenomenon of overcriminalization, the use of the criminal law and penalties to punish every mistake and to solve every problem—including a pet cat wandering around Key Largo.

One would hope that after Slate exposed this injustice in court, the government would start leaving pets and their owners alone, but this is not the only example of federal regulation of domestic animals. For instance, it is a crime to “allow” a pet to make a noise “that frightens wildlife” on land administered by the National Park Service. It is also a crime to walk your dog in a national park on a 7-foot leash, 36 CFR § 2.15(a)(2) and 36 CFR § 1.3. Keep Lassie close or she could put her owner in the slammer.

Over the years, courts too have weighed in on animal treachery. In 1926, the English Court of Appeals held in Buckle v. Holmes that a cat owner is not responsible for the damage caused by his trespassing pet. Even earlier, in 1890, a Pennsylvania court held in McDonald v. Jodrey that a cat owner is not responsible for the “predatory habits” of the species, but can only be held liable for the “known mischievous tendencies” of a particular pet. The judge in Slate’s case is not the only judge who would likely view the adoption of a wildlife conservation strategy that encourages federal agents to confiscate pets as an alarming government overreach. Adding the threat of jail time for property owners who are mere bystanders to government conservation efforts and the natural instincts of orderly pets is all the more unjust.

Legend has it that Pope Gregory IX denounced cats as an incarnation of Satan in the 13th century. This led to the mass extermination of medieval felines. With cats no longer present to stand guard, Europe experienced an explosion in the rat population, which spread the ravaging bubonic plague throughout the land. Scholars estimate that the Black Death killed one-third of Europe.

The Fish and Wildlife Service ought to heed this historical warning and leave the cats of Key Largo alone.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

David Rosenthal is a visiting legal fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

#1786 (12/4) SUNDAY SPECIAL: "Freedom of Conscience on Hacksaw Ridge - A STORY FOR OUR TIMES"

"Freedom of Conscience on Hacksaw Ridge - A STORY FOR OUR TIMES" - By: Eric Metaxas, Breakpoint.org: November 28, 2016;

http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/30149

At the height of World War II, there was room in America for conscientious objectors. Where are we now?

It was the great cataclysm of the twentieth century—World War II. America was fighting for its life. Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, totalitarian nightmares bent on world conquest, had to be defeated. Millions of Americans took up arms, willing to sacrifice their lives.

And now there’s an amazing, powerful film about one man who was willing to give his life, but whose conscience and deeply held religious beliefs would not allow him to take the lives of others.

Mel Gibson’s new movie, “Hacksaw Ridge,” tells the story of Desmond Doss, a Seventh Day Adventist from the hills of Virginia, who enlisted in the Army with the understanding he could serve as a medic—and therefore not violate his firm belief in “thou shalt not kill.”

But when Doss arrived at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he was in for a rude surprise. His sergeant, his captain, and the judge at the subsequent military hearing didn’t seem to care much for Doss’s convictions. Nor did members of his platoon, who accused him of cowardice—and let Doss know how they felt with their fists. Doss stood firm—despite facing years of imprisonment. “With the world so set on tearing itself apart,” he told the military tribunal, “it don’t seem like such a bad thing to me to put a little bit of it back together.”

Now, I won’t tell you exactly how the Army gave in—that would be a spoiler—but I will tell you this, because, as they say, the rest is history.

Doss went with his platoon to Okinawa and scaled a cliff known as “the escarpment,” which in the film is called “Hacksaw Ridge.” And that is where the floodgates of hell opened. Hundreds of GI’s perished in the fight that day. At night, as the wounded lay in agony, Doss went from man to man, dragged them to the edge of the escarpment and lowered them down on a rope one by one. In all, he saved some 75 wounded GIs from certain death.

For his actions, President Truman awarded Doss the Congressional Medal of Honor. The first conscientious objector in U. S. history to win the nation’s highest award.

Before I go any further: “Hacksaw Ridge” is rated R for horrifically brutal battle scenes. It is not suitable for children. But it is an outstanding movie: the characters, the dialogue, the drama, and the cinematography are phenomenal. If you can stomach the scenes of death and destruction, you should go see it.

And here’s the major reason why. I’ve never seen a film that so powerfully underscores the importance of freedom of conscience.

Writing at the National Catholic Register, Steven Greydanus calls WWII Private Desmond Doss “a hero for our troubled times.” Times in which florists and bakers are being hauled before civil rights commissions, being fined, losing their businesses; times in which pharmacists in Washington State can lose their licenses for refusing to dispense abortion pills; times in which churches in Massachusetts can run afoul of “public accommodation” laws requiring gender neutral bathrooms—we do indeed have a model in Desmond Doss.

Doss quietly and courageously sought to be a good citizen, but he knew where his true citizenship lay. Scorn, the threat of imprisonment, even Japanese bullets could not induce him to abandon his convictions. And most importantly, Doss backed his convictions with his actions. His humility, his bravery and his willingness to sacrifice his life--even for those who opposed him—won over his harshest critics. May it be so with us.

Editor's note: We originally said that Private Doss was the only conscientious objector to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. When he received the award in 1945, he was. Since then two conscientious objectors who served as Army medics in Vietnam, Thomas Bennett and Joseph LaPointe, Jr., both of whom were killed in action, received the award posthumously.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION - As Eric has pointed out, the emphasis on freedom of conscience in "Hacksaw Ridge" is a timely reminder that standing for our faith and our convictions can sometimes be costly. Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." Matthew 16:24
"Hacksaw Ridge" official trailer -Youtube- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sslCRVx7nPQ

"Values Under Attack: ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ and Religious Liberty" - Steven D. Greydanus | NCRegister.com | November 11, 2016; http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/values-under-attack-hacksaw-ridge-and-religious-liberty

Desmond Doss: Conscientious Objector: The Story of an Unlikely Hero- Frances M. Doss | Pacific Press Publishing Association | September 2015; http://www.colsoncenterstore.org/product.asp?sku=9780816321247

#1785 (12/3) PRO-LIFE SAT: "New Poll: 64% Support Ban on Abortions After 20 Weeks. 78% of Millennials and 67% of Women Do Too"

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

11/30 - NOTE: Dear reader, I started a new job last Friday that at least for awhile will cause me  NOT  to be able to maintain this blog some days. I hope that you will be patient and prayerful for me as I adjust to these more physically exhausting days that limit what I can be available to do in blogging. - Stan

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 - 11/27: THANKS for your continued prayers as I  began working at my new job on Friday. There is so much to become familiar with but I  am thankful for co-workers who at least appear to be patient with me. Please pray that I "learn the ropes" quickly to where I stop praying silently that customers 'go away' so I don't have to wait on them and risk messing up. (: Please also pray that I will experience good health so that I will establish myself as someone who can be counted on by my new employer. Also, pray that I can make a right decision of what to do about signing up for some  kind of health insurance until my new employer is able to provide something.

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 that they would select Godly leaders who will be accountable to do an excellent job (or be fired!) ; that he would seek God's wisdom and be enabled to lead our country effectively in the years ahead; and 2) Pray our leaders at every level of government will 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.

SUPREME COURT: 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

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"NEW POLL: 64% SUPPORT BAN ON ABORTION AFTER 20 WEEKS. 78% OF MILLENNIALS AND 67% OE WOMEN DO TOO" -  Micaiah Bilger, NOV 22, 2016| http://www.lifenews.com/2016/11/22/new-poll-64-support-ban-on-abortions-after-20-weeks-78-of-millennials-and-67-of-women-do-too/ [AS I SEE IT: I am, of course, encouraged by what's reported here. But I am particularly encouraged by it showing 78% of young voters expressing their support of the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Personally, I don't believe abortion will ever be completely outlawed, though states may be given the right to do so should Roe v Wade be overturned. My prayer has been that young women facing a crisis pregnancy will more and more choose adoption over abortion, that for more and more abortion will just become anathema and though available it will rarely be chosen. - Stan]

A new poll indicates that a strong majority of Americans support legislation to protect unborn babies from abortions after 20 weeks when scientific evidence indicates they can feel pain.

National Review reports 64 percent of voters support the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, according to the poll from the Polling Company Inc./WomenTrend. Support was even stronger among women and Millennials: 67 percent of women and 78 percent of young voters said they would support the legislation.

In addition, 70 percent of blacks and 57 percent of Hispanic voters said they would support the 20-week abortion limit, Breitbart reports. The polling group, which interviewed 824 voters on Election Day, found that just 22 percent strongly opposed the measure.

Previous polls have shown similar results. A national poll by The Polling Company in 2013 found that, after being informed that there is scientific evidence that unborn children are capable of feeling pain at least by 20 weeks, 64 percent would support a law banning abortion after 20 weeks, unless the mother’s life was in danger. Only 30 percent said they would oppose such a law.

Though abortion advocates deny the science of fetal pain, researchers have fully established fetal pain at 20 weeks or earlier. Dr. Steven Zielinski, an internal medicine physician from Oregon, is one of the leading researchers into the matter. He first published reports in the 1980s to validate research showing evidence for unborn babies’ capability of feeling pain. He testified before U.S. Congress that an unborn child could feel pain at “eight-and-a-half weeks and possibly earlier” and that a baby before birth “under the right circumstances, is capable of crying.”

In March, leading neonatologist Dr. Colleen A. Malloy told a U.S. Senate committee that “anesthesiologists, and surgeons use pain medication” at the 20 week stage of pregnancy, “because it’s supported by the literature completely.” “The standard of care for NICUs requires attention to and treatment of neonatal pain,” said Malloy, a Northwestern University School of Medicine professor. “There is no reason to believe that a born infant will feel pain any differently than that same infant if he or she were still in utero.”“I could never imagine subjecting my tiny patients to a horrific procedure such as those that involve limb detachment or cardiac injection,” Malloy added.

Further research showed that hormone levels in unborn babies decrease when pain-relievers are supplied, LifeNews previously reported.

The U.S. House passed legislation to protect unborn babies from these painful, late-term abortions, and 14 states also have passed similar legislation, according to the National Right to Life Committee. With Republicans gaining control of both U.S. Congressional houses and the White House, many pro-lifers hope to see lawmakers pass a federal ban on painful, late-term abortions.

Only seven countries in the world, including the U.S., China and North Korea, allow elective abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute.

[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]

#1784 (12/2) "Attack at Ohio State Brings US Terror Plots, Attacks to 93 Since 9/11"

"ATTACK AT OHIO STATE BRINGS US TERROR PLOTS, ATTACKS TO 93 SINCE 9/11" - David Inserra / November 30, 2016 / http://dailysignal.com/2016/11/30/attack-at-ohio-state-brings-us-terror-plots-attacks-to-93-since-911/

The attack at Ohio State University is the 82nd homegrown terror plot in the U.S. since 9/11. (Photo: Seth Herald/Sipa USA/Newscom)

This week, terror struck American soil once again—this time on a university campus.

On the morning of Nov. 28, Abdul Razak Ali Artan drove a car into a crowd of pedestrians on the campus of Ohio State University. He then got out of the car and began attacking those around him with a knife. A nearby police officer, Alan Horujko, was able to respond within a minute, shooting and killing Artan when he refused to drop the knife. Eleven individuals were injured, all of whom are expected to survive.

Authorities believe that Artan may have been inspired by the Islamic State as well as the Yemeni-American propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki. Artan posted a rant against the U.S. on Facebook just before the attack. Using a vehicle as a method of attack has been recommended by al-Qaeda and ISIS in their magazines and was also used in the terrorist attack in Nice, France, and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

According to authorities, Artan was an 18-year-old student at the university. Of Somali descent, Artan was living in the U.S. as a legal permanent resident. Law enforcement officials and refugee resettlement agencies report that Artan and his family came to the U.S. in 2014 from Pakistan as refugees, where they had reportedly lived for seven years after fleeing Somalia.

While some of these details have yet to be officially confirmed, the evidence is clear enough to add this attack to the list of Islamist terror plots. This attack is the 93rd Islamist terrorist attack or plot against the U.S. homeland since 9/11 and the 12th plot or attack this year.

Including this attack, 14 successful Islamist terrorist attacks have occurred on U.S. soil since 9/11, five of which have been in 2016 alone. With Artan also appearing to have been radicalized here in the U.S., the total number of homegrown plots rises to 82 of the 93.

While the threat of complex, overseas-planned or supported terrorist attacks is still real (as evidenced by attacks in Paris and Brussels), the trend in the U.S. has been toward more basic and improvised attacks by homegrown lone wolves. Such attacks can be difficult to detect—a reality reflected by the growing number of successful attacks in the U.S. As these individuals are already in the U.S. when they become radicalized, immigration vetting can do little, if anything, to detect these individuals.

If the U.S. is to stop homegrown terrorists, it must do more to empower local officials. Federal capabilities are incredibly important, but the threat of lone wolves requires all hands on deck.
To find and stop these lone wolves before they attack, U.S. leaders should work to advance the following policies:

1. Building more effective communication lines between local law enforcement and the FBI.
2. Ensuring that local law enforcement agents receive proper training on how to respond to terrorist attacks and active shooters.
3. Helping local law enforcement build relationships with its community.

[bold, italic, and colored emphasis mine]
David Inserra specializes in cyber and homeland security policy, including protection of critical infrastructure, as policy analyst in The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies. Read his research.