NFL Commissioner Blasted by AMVETS National Commander

The National Commander of American Veterans (AMVETS) has sent National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell an excoriating letter in response to the league’s refusal to print his organization’s ad in this year’s Super Bowl program.

AMVETS, a 501(c)19 non-profit organization that was formed by World War II veterans, submitted a one-page advertisement with the simple request: #PleaseStand. In response, an NFL spokesman said, “The Super Bowl program is designed for fans to commemorate and celebrate the game, players, teams, and the Super Bowl. It has never been a place for advertising that could be considered by some as a political statement.”

Apparently, the NFL considers a request to stand for the national anthem to be too much of a “political statement,” despite institutionalizing the kneeling protests on live television as part of pregame ceremonies earlier this season. It would seem the NFL is conveniently ignoring the original motivation behind the national anthem protests was indeed very much a “political statement.”

In the letter to Goodell, AMVETS National Commander Marion Polk writes:

Mr. Goodell, Veterans are good for more than just military aircraft flyovers, photo opportunities during halftime, or props to sell camouflage-style NFL apparel; although, the NFL’s stance on not allowing the veterans’ unfiltered voice to be heard says otherwise.

Moreover, the fact that the commissioners of the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League have allowed the very same #PleaseStand ad to run in their respective program books only makes the NFL’s decision to reject the ad that much more inexcusable.

Click here to read the letter in its entirety.

With plummeting ratings over the past season and NFL brand’s unpopularity, can the league really afford to alienate veterans in such a way? Last week’s conference championship games hit nine-year lows for viewerships and fans deciding not to watch games have cost advertisers $500 million this year. This is certainly not the kind of PR the NFL wants going into it’s most lucrative game of the year.

Reach out to Roger Goodell and tell him why the NFL’s double-standard on “political statements” is bad for business.

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The Persistence of God

For many centuries, almost everybody in the Western world – the world that used to be called Christendom – was a Christian believer. Then, a few centuries ago, some people (mostly intellectuals) began drifting away from Christian belief. But they found that they couldn’t utterly renounce their old Christian beliefs. They were convinced that Christianity was a mere tissue of superstition, and there was nothing they hated more than superstition. Yet they couldn’t get rid of their belief in some essential elements of this old “superstition.” No matter how much they tried to clear their minds of old superstitions, some of them persisted.

Deists, for example, whose heyday was the 18th century, ceased to believe that Jesus is divine or that God is a Trinity. But they continued to believe in an afterlife, and that God exists and that he rewards the good and punishes the wicked. Though the divinity of Christ was a “superstition,” and the Trinity was a “superstition,” somehow Deists felt that belief in God was not a superstition. That was a true belief, just as rational as Newton’s theory of universal gravitation.

In subsequent generations, many went further in their rejection of Christianity. Some turned to pantheism, a belief that flourished among romantics in the first half of the 19thcentury. They rejected an idea of God that the Deists had retained, namely that God is personal. But they continued to believe in God, an impersonal God that was either identical with nature or at least permeated and controlled nature. In the United States, the finest flower of pantheism was to be found in the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Then came the atheists, who were determined to get rid of God completely, whether this God be personal or impersonal. Karl Marx, a resolute metaphysical materialist, was the most famous example of this species of anti-Christian. But even Marx didn’t get rid of God completely. Of course, he got rid of the name “God,” but he continued to believe that there was a great and ultimately benevolent power that would bring the human race to a condition of happiness, not a post-mortem happiness, but happiness in this very world of time and space.

The totally unspiritual and unthinking matter that (in Marx’s view) lies at the foundation of all reality is not, and never has been, indifferent to human happiness. All this time, all these countless centuries, the universe has been moving in the direction of a worldwide human society that will be classless, and as a result of this classlessness will be prosperous and free and boundlessly creative. And we moderns are now, in that rosy vision, not far from this glorious consummation.

Matthew Arnold, a better poet and critic than he was a Christian theologian, in his attempt to reduce the idea of God to its bare essentials, defined God as “an eternal not-ourselves that makes for righteousness.” The “God” of Marx may be defined as an eternal not-ourselves that makes for a classless society.

As long as we believe that there exists, or should exist, some great power beyond our individual selves that can bring humans to happiness, we have not fully gotten rid of the Christian idea of God. After many centuries of Christianity, the belief that there is, or must be, such a power is built, so to speak, into the structure of the Western mind.

If you have grown up in the midst of Western civilization, if you have absorbed the preconceptions of that civilization with your mother’s milk, you will find it almost impossible not to believe in the existence of that great and benevolent power. If you are unable to believe that this great power takes the form of the Christian God or the deistic God or a pantheistic God or the “God” of historical materialism, you will believe that it takes some other form. It will be very difficult, if not impossible, for you honestly to believe that no such power exists or can exist.

Nowadays, I submit, at least among those who are unable to believe in the God of the Bible, the most common form of the belief in a great and benevolent power is belief in an omnicompetent government. If you’re an atheist and you find that you’re unable to believe in the God of the Bible or the God of Deism or even the God of pantheism, and you’ve given up on the “God” of Marxism, it is probable that you will believe that there is no social problem – poverty, bad neighborhoods, crime, violence, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, traffic jams, bad breath in dogs, lack of education, ill health, mental illness, loneliness, marital unhappiness, etc. – that cannot be solved by government, at least given enough time and, of course, money.

The most striking example of this confidence that a godlike government can solve our problems is the expectation that the governments of the world, operating (as it seemed during the Obama presidency) under the leadership of the USA, can shape the world’s climate over the next century or two, and can do this in a benign way. (I say this, by the way, without meaning to take a position on climate-change theory.)

Further, the godlike government in question is the U.S. federal government, not state and local governments, which clearly lack godlike capacities; and not the governments of small countries. Ideally, the best government to take care of these things would be a world government. But we are probably centuries, at least, away from that. In the meantime, the U.S. federal government, being the richest and most powerful of all the governments in the world, is the best we can do.

I am contending, then, that there is an affinity, at least in our post-Christian age, between atheism and a belief in super-big government. The more you incline to the former, the more you will also incline to the latter. And the more you will tend to ignore the – quite abundant – evidence to the contrary.

David Carlin

David Carlin

David Carlin is professor of sociology and philosophy at the Community College of Rhode Island, and the author of The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of a Soviet poster (“May 1”) by Yakov Guminer, 1928. © 2018 The Catholic Thing. All rights reserved. For reprint rights, write to: info@frinstitute.orgThe Catholic Thing is a forum for intelligent Catholic commentary. Opinions expressed by writers are solely their own.

As Palestinian children ‘starve’ Mahmoud Abbas is set to take possession of a new $50 million private jet!

Amid U.S. funding cuts to UNRWA, and threats to cut direct Palestinian Authority (PA) funding, Mahmoud Abbas is set to take possession of a new $50 million private jet.

Half of PA foreign aid goes towards payments to imprisoned terrorists or dead terrorists’ families, while Palestinian “leadership” claims Donald Trump is starving children by withholding funding for the regime in Ramallah.

The illegitimate leader of the fictitious state will need his new wings to fly around the world begging for the money lost from shunning the U.S.

Amid funding cut fears, PA purchases $50 million private jet for Abbas — report

By TOI STAFF from The Times of Israel

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on January 14, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / ABBAS MOMANI)

Even as the Palestinian Authority faces major funding cuts from the US, it has purchased a new luxurious $50 million private jet to be used by President Mahmoud Abbas, Hadashot news reported Wednesday.

The report, which did not provide sourcing, said the plane was set to be delivered to Amman within weeks, and will be stationed there for use by the PA chief.

Funding for the plane was said to have been provided both from the PA budget ($20 million) and from the Palestinian National Fund ($30 million).

The report comes amid deep cuts to US aid to the Palestinians, and reports that further cuts may be coming. 

When US President Donald Trump originally threatened to cut aid earlier this month, top PLO official Saeb Erekat said it would lead to starvation among Palestinian refugee children.

Read more.

 

Total war against Israel should be called the Islam-Israel conflict.

The Arab and Muslim total war against Israel is a war without end. This is why it is not accurate to describe it as the Arab-Israel conflict, nor is it correct to label it the Israel-Palestinian conflict. It is, in reality, the Islam-Israel conflict.

The irrevocable Islamic and Koranic injunction upon all Muslims is to wage endless war against any non-Muslim nation state that exists within what Islam decrees as the Dar al-Islam (the House of Islam). Wherever the Muslim foot has once trod triumphal in the name of Allah, that territory is considered eternally Islamic land. If it is lost, then it enters the Dar al-Harb (the House of War) and must be retaken at all costs and its non-Muslim population either forcibly converted to Islam, subdued or exterminated.

It is not only Israel, the Jewish state, that is aggressed against by the followers of the “religion of peace” but all lands, which once were invaded and occupied by Islamic armies, but have since been liberated from Islam. They must be reconquered by Islam’s followers, however long it may take: These lands include, Spain, Portugal, Sicily, parts of Italy and France, Hungary, Austria, the Balkans, Greece, southern Russia – all lands considered to now be in the Dar al Harb.

It is not by chance that much of Europe is now slipping under the baleful influence of Islamic Sharia law. Vast numbers of Muslim migrants, allowed into Europe and Britain through slavish adherence to the twin gods of diversity and multiculturalism, which have replaced Judeo-Christian civilization, now constitute a present day Islamic advance guard for the re-conquest of much of the European continent – thus fulfilling the Islamic injunction to recapture lost lands, or what Muslims call the Dar al-Harb.

In Israel’s case, it stands as a bulwark – an advance guard if you will – against the battering ram of Islamic supremacy, which threatens to overwhelm the West and subjugate once again Jews and Christians, turning them again into dhimmis, third class citizens, under Muslim control. This is why total war against Israel should be called the Islam-Israel conflict.

How supremely ironic then that the godless European Union relentlessly pressures Israel into conceding ever more of its limited land to create within its biblical and ancestral heartland (Jewish Judea and Samaria, aka the West Bank) yet another Muslim Arab state and terrorist entity whose sole purpose is to finish off what is left of the tiny Jewish state. Israel would be reduced to a narrow width of a mere nine to 15 miles in width at its most populous region. Easy prey for a future Islamic onslaught.

That is what the so-called Two State-Solution is really all about: The eventual murder of the one and only Jewish state.

Bowing to previous pressure from the Clinton Administration, Israel accepted the September, 1993 Oslo Peace Accords with the arch terrorist, Yasser Arafat who, promptly after shaking then Israeli Prime Minister Rabin’s hand during that lamentable ceremony on the White House lawn, flew off to Durban in South Africa.

In Arabic and in a mosque, Arafat gleefully told his audience that he had no intention of ever making peace with Israel and that the Jewish state’s abandonment of much of its biblical homeland to his PLO was merely for him a launching pad for ever more horrendous terror attacks upon Israel’s long suffering civilian population.

True to his evil promise and since the Oslo ‘Peace Accords’ were signed – with Israelis always hoping and praying that true and lasting peace would now at last break out – thousands of Israeli civilians perished at the hands of the overwhelmingly Muslim PLO, Hamas, Fatah, and Palestinian terror gangs.

Indeed, during the Palestinian so-called Al-Aqsa Intifada alone (Sept. 2,000 – Dec. 2,005) Israeli civilians perished in horrifying numbers, many burnt to death in ghastly bus bombings. Since then, Palestinian terrorist attacks have caused thousands more Israeli civilian deaths with hundreds horribly maimed for life – and this Muslim barbarity by the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas, occurs every day.

Indeed, under Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas – himself a Holocaust denier and a leader who has remained unelected in power now for fourteen during which his earlier four year term expired – Palestinian media and schools under his watch and encouragement have descended into Nazi era anti-Semitic indoctrination. This is the ‘peace’ Israel has received for decades from its Muslim Arab so-called Palestinian peace partner.

In past suicidal decisions by Israel – always done in the vain and naive quest for a lasting peace, but with a permanently hostile Muslim world – Israel’s then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2,005 forcefully removed 10,000 Israeli villagers in the Gaza Strip and handed their homes and farms to the Fatah wing of the so-called Palestinian Authority. In return for that oh, so catastrophic act, Israeli towns, villages and farms along the Gaza border and beyond have since endured thousands of incoming missiles fired from the Iranian supported Hamas occupiers of Gaza.

Israel also foolishly withdrew from the security strip along the Lebanese border some years earlier at the decision of the then Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, and predictably that territory was immediately occupied by Iran’s surrogate terrorist organization, Hezbollah.

Again in a vain search for peace with the Muslim world, Israeli towns and villages in Galilee and much of northern and central Israel now face well over 100,000 Iranian supplied sophisticated missiles, most of them deliberately sited by Hezbollah in Lebanese schools, hospitals and private homes. This Muslim act, by an Iranian terror proxy, of hiding lethal weapons among Lebanese civilians – as Hamas does in Gaza – constitutes a crime against humanity.

Thus we clearly see what will happen if Israel gives away yet more land; this time to the genocidal Abbas and his PA terror squads.

We also have the bitter fruits that the unholy alliance between the Left and Muslim Arab propaganda has produced, especially within too many benighted colleges and universities. Rotten to the core with anti-Semitism, and built upon the earlier boycotts of Israel by the oil-rich Arab world, we have the execrable Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement seeking the elimination of the reconstituted Jewish state.

And the BDS does not shirk from boycotting and demonizing non-Jews who accept Israel’s nationhood even as it pollutes the minds of so many easily manipulated and uninformed students.

Many times, Israel’s survival has been challenged by the Arabs on the battlefield. The Arabs have tried despicable terror against Israel’s civilians. All have failed and so they now resort, with their duped supporters in the West, including not only the BDS thugs, but the morally challenged United Nations and the European Union, to engage in issuing anti-Israel threats and extortion. Mahmoud Abbas now openly flouts the terms of that rotting corpse known as the Oslo Peace Accords and his true genocidal and anti-Jewish bigotry is there for all to see.

All this naked pressure is designed to force the embattled Jewish state to allow a fraudulent Arab people, who call themselves Palestinians, to create a terror state within Judea and Samaria (the so-called West Bank) which is the very Biblical and ancestral Jewish heartland, and for Israel to exist in a suicidal border at its most populous region until Islam destroys it.

How ironic and shameful that the same world, which cheered the reunification of Berlin, but which still remains silent at the Muslim Turkish occupation and division of Nicosia in Cyprus, should gloatingly wish to divide Holy Jerusalem against itself.

It seems that the dark legions of hate cannot abide the 3,000 year old Jewish city remaining as Israel’s undivided capital, but must try again and again to eradicate it and equally blot out Jewish presence in its one and only homeland. And that is why those who support the odious alliance that exists between the Left and Islamic triumphalism so viscerally hate President Trump.

This president is the only one who has courageously taken the moral high ground and recognized Jewish Biblical and ancestral Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city.

I, for one, salute him and unreservedly say: Thank God for President Trump.

Cecile Richards Leaves Behind Brutal Legacy as She Steps Down From Planned Parenthood

Cecile Richards will leave behind a brutal legacy if she departs from her position as the president of Planned Parenthood.

Richards—who reportedly told the organization’s board Wednesday that she plans to step down—pioneered a company that has aborted 7,132,130 babies since Margaret Sanger’s founding of the abortion organization. Planned Parenthood doctors aborted more than 328,348 unborn babies in 2016, and killed 6,803,782 unborn babies between 1978 and 2016, according to CNS News.

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Richards was at the forefront of mobilizing pro-abortion forces and promoting Planned Parenthood’s services, which include contraception, abortion pills, early abortions, and dismemberment abortions, in which clinicians rip the babies apart limb by limb before pulling them out of the uterus.

Richards’ leadership has seen Planned Parenthood’s other services continues to decline. The abortion giant performed more than 1 million breast exams in 1999, but only 363,803 in 2014. Planned Parenthood offered only one adoption referral for every 114 abortions in 2016. Record numbers of abortions also followed after medication abortions became available in 2000, according to Planned Parenthood’s 100 Years Strong timeline.

Former Planned Parenthood manager Ramona Trevino described the organization as “demonic,” and told The Daily Caller News Foundation that it grooms young girls as future abortion patients and promotes a promiscuous lifestyle. “We have monthly quotas to meet. They’re just numbers,” she said.

The organization ran 938 clinics in 1995 when Planned Parenthood was at its peak operational level, according to an American Life League report, all of which were responsible for killing thousands of unborn babies.

Richards’ retirement follows the FBI’s request for documents from the Senate Judiciary Committee, obtained from the committee’s investigation into Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue dealings.

The investigation came after the Center for Medical Progress published a series of explosive videos in 2015 revealing that the abortion giant was harvesting and distributing aborted baby parts for research. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley referred Planned Parenthood to the FBI at the conclusion of that investigation, saying his committee found evidence indicating the group was profiting.

RELATED VIDEO: Tucker Carlson on DOJ Investigation of Planned Parenthood

EDITORS NOTE: Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities for this original content, email licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. The featured image is of Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards who pioneered a company that has aborted 7,132,130 babies since Margaret Sanger’s founding of the abortion organization. (Photo: Erin Scott/Polaris/Newscom)

New Jersey Middle School Sued For Instructing Students Islam Is The ‘True Faith’

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”), a national nonprofit public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed a federal lawsuit yesterday evening in the New Jersey District Court against several officials and teachers of the Chatham Middle School and the School District of the Chathams, located in New Jersey.

The lawsuit, claiming several violations of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, was filed on behalf of Libby Hilsenrath and her minor son. Seventh-grade students at Chatham Middle School were forced to endure Islamic propaganda and an explicit call to convert to Islam through a disturbing set of videos in their World Cultures and Geography class.

TMLC’s affiliated New Jersey attorney, Michael Hrycak, filed the lawsuit. TMLC staff attorney, Kate Oliveri, the principle drafter of the federal complaint, observed: “The Board of Education and other Defendants are waging a war against the religious protections afforded by the First Amendment. They attack religious liberty by enticing young school children with a direct call to convert to Islam and providing a step-by-step guide on how to effect that conversion.”

One of the videos, linked in this press release, seeks to convert students to Islam and is filled with the Islamic religious beliefs presented as facts, as well as pure Islamic propaganda.  This five-minute video ends with the prayer “May God help us all find the true faith, Islam. Ameen.” 

This video includes the following phrases as facts:

  • “Allah is the one God who created the heavens and the earth, who has no equal and is all powerful.”
  • “Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is the last & final Messenger of God. God gave him the Noble Quran.”
  • “Lo, We have sent thee (O Muhammad) with the truth, a bringer of glad tidings and a warner.”
  • “What is the Noble Quran? Divine Revelation sent to Muhammad (S) last Prophet of Allah. A Perfect guide for Humanity.”
  • “The Noble Quran: Guidance, Mercy and Blessing for all Mankind.”
  • “The Noble Quran: Without any doubt and an eloquent guide from Allah.”
  • “The Beautiful Quran: Guidance for the wise & sensible.”
  • “Islam: A shining beacon against the darkness of repression, segregation, intolerance and racism . . .”

This propaganda video also contains excerpts from the Quran stating that Islam is “perfected” religion and the only religion for mankind. And it ends with a call to conversion: “May God help us all find the true faith, Islam.”

However, just as shocking is the background music which includes the poem “Qaseedah Burdah” in Arabic, describing Christians and Jews as “infidels” and praising Muhammad in gruesome detail for slaughtering them:

  • “He [Muhammad] kept on encountering with them (infidels) in every battle until they looked like meat put on butcher’s bench (they were the lesson for those who were willing to encounter with the Muslims)” (parenthetical in original).
  • “It is as though the religion of Islam was a guest that visited every house of those (infidels and was) extremely desirous for the flesh of enemy. . .” (parenthetical in original).
  • “(The Muslims made their) white shining swords red (with the blood of infidels) after they were plunged; (and the majority of) enemies were having black hair (i.e., most of them were young).” (parenthetical in original).

 WATCH the 5-minute video here

Seventh-grade students were also instructed to view a subtle propaganda cartoon video, 5 Pillars, which included bright, multi-colored words quoting the Islamic conversion creed: “There is no god except Allah and Prophet Muhammad is His messenger.” The video concludes with text containing contact information for the students of Chatham Middle School to set up their own mosque tour.

Clearly, seventh graders were given a sugarcoated, false depiction of Islam. They were not informed of the kidnappings, beheadings, slave-trading, massacres, and persecution of non-Muslims, nor of the repression of women — all done in the name of Islam.

Richard Thompson, TMLC President and Chief Counsel remarked, “What would people say if our public schools taught Christianity as the true faith? After watching this video, I can’t imagine any reasonable person saying this is not Islamic indoctrination. Chatham Middle School made a mockery of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.”

Continued Thompson, “When Libby Hilsenrath brought her concerns to the school board’s attention, on February 6, 2017, they were disregarded. And when she appeared on the Tucker Carlson Show on February 20, 2017 to express her concerns to the Nation, the school community pilloried her. Clueless school administrators across our Nation are allowing this type of indoctrination to take place, and it’s up to vigilant and courageous parents like Libby Hilsenrath to stop it.”

Because of Libby Hilsenrath’s attempts to get the Board of Education to remove the videos and end the Islamic indoctrination of her son and the other seventh-grade students, she was subjected to a barrage of personal attacks from her own community: “hateful,” “ignorant,” “intolerant,” “racist,” “closed minded,” and the list goes on. These attacks significantly intensified after she appeared on the Tucker Carlson Show.

Click here to read the entire Federal Complaint

School Choice Helped This Girl Escape a Broken School, Then Become Valedictorian

The right to choose where your kids attend school should be common sense. But for too long, it’s something too many parents have been denied for their children.

Thankfully, we live in a day when access to education choice is gaining ground. More kids across our country are now being freed from broken schools and have the chance to select schools that meet their needs, setting them on a course to achieve their own dreams.

That is progress worth celebrating, and it’s why I am celebrating National School Choice Week. To have played a part in fighting for school choice has been a true privilege.

As an advocate for school choice, I’ve followed many families whose children found success. One of the students I’ve stayed close to is Tiffany Dunston.

I first met Tiffany and her grandmother when they attended an information session about a scholarship that would allow Tiffany to attend a better school that would nurture her. I remember chatting with a mature 13-year-old girl whose eyes sparkled as she talked about doing well in school and making her family proud.

Immediately, I knew that the future would be bright for this young girl.

That hope of a scholarship turned into a reality for Tiffany in 2004. Congress had approved the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, providing scholarships to children from low-income families (like Tiffany), which enabled them to attend a private school of choice.

I saw Tiffany again that year and learned that she had received a scholarship through the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program and was enrolled at Archbishop Carroll High School.

Tiffany had grown into a lovely young woman who was thriving as a freshman at Carroll. I was delighted to see her and so many other students excelling who had benefited from the same scholarship option.

Tiffany went on to graduate as valedictorian from Carroll in 2008, and received a scholarship to Syracuse University. I prayed that this young woman would do well and accomplish her dreams there. And she did.

Not only did she thrive at Syracuse, but after receiving her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, she was accepted into a doctoral program. Tiffany received her doctorate in chemistry one year ago and is now working at Johns Hopkins University as a post-doctoral research fellow in oncology.

Tiffany Dunston, left, stands with Virginia Walden Ford, right. (Photo: Virginia Walden Ford)

Tiffany’s journey has not only brought joy to my heart—it has made the hard work of fighting for school choice worth every second. And there are countless other children like Tiffany who stand to benefit from expanding school choice across our nation.

National School Choice Week is a time for us to rejoice over stories like Tiffany’s, and also look forward to a day when every child in America will have the doors of education opened wide to them. Our movement is winning. Let’s keep winning more.

COMMENTARY BY

Portrait of Virginia Walden Ford

Virginia Walden Ford Virginia is a national board member and a founding member of The Black Alliance for Educational Options, Inc. She also serves on the D.C. Advisory Committee of the US Civil Rights Commission, and serves as executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice, Inc. which she founded in 1998.

RELATED ARTICLE: Trump: School Choices ‘Empower Parents’ to Seek Best Future for Children

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Florida’s Top #NeverTrump Candidate Files to Run Against Trump Ally John Ward

DAYTONA, Fla –  The Campaign for Navy Veteran, and Businessman John Ward today issued the following statement on Florida’s Top #NeverTrumper Michael Waltz who today entered the congressional race in Florida’s District 6:

Campaign spokesman Brian Swensen says,

“Michael Waltz was a strong #NeverTrump supporter who actively worked to make sure Trump was not elected and helped spread the egregious Trump and Putin lies being pushed by Hillary and the liberal media. He will quickly learn that Republican primary voters are not easily fooled, and they do not forget.”

The campaign has launched the website, www.NeverTrumperMikeWaltz.com, and the video below that details Florida’s leading #NeverTrumper, Michael Waltz’s, most egregious attacks, lies, and accusations made on President Trump.

Below is a sample of some of some of Waltz’s attacks that can be found on the video above and on www.NeverTrumperMikeWaltz.com.

  • Spread Hillary Clinton’s Russia collusion lies by saying Trump was “cozying up to Putin…”
  • Lied by Claiming Trump “dodged the draft”
  • Tried disqualifying President Trump’s ability to lead by saying we can’t “afford a commander-in-chief that’s learning on the job and shooting from the hip.”
  • He buddied up with Megyn Kelly and claimed Trump’s “foreign policy isn’t moored in principle.”
  • Said “Donald Trump hasn’t served this country a day in his life…” and that “Has been fed through a silver spoon.”
  • Waltz also added that “All Donald Trump has served is himself”
  • Accused the President of only “saying what the voters want to hear.”
  • Falsely accused the president of having “Hateful rhetoric towards muslims”
  • Waltz closed his attacks by saying: “Don’t let Donald Trump fool you, look into his real record and stop Trump now!”

John Ward announced his campaign for CD 6 on October 12, 2017.

The 6th Congressional District, includes Volusia & Flagler Counties as well as southern St. John’s and north eastern Lake County.

VIDEO: Tuesday’s Men

Daytona Beach, Florida’s Christian men.

Powerful Republican Caucus Wants Vote on Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s Conservative DACA Bill

An influential caucus of conservative Republicans is pushing House Speaker Paul Ryan to hold a vote on an immigration reform bill that has emerged as a White House favorite.

The 150-member Republican Study Committee announced Tuesday that it endorses the Securing America’s Future Act, which gives legal status to certain younger illegal immigrants in exchange for a host of conservative immigration reforms.

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Critically, the bill contains provisions on the three concessions demanded by President Donald Trump as part of amnesty for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program: border wall funding, limits on chain migration, and an end to the Diversity Visa Lottery.

The RSC’s steering committee voted to back the bill, co-authored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and called for a floor vote in the House.

“The Securing America’s Future Act is the framework to strengthen border security, increase interior enforcement and resolve the DACA situation,” the steering committee said in a statement, according to CNN. “We believe an eventual stand alone floor vote is essential. We oppose any process for a DACA solution that favors a backroom deal with Democrats over regular order in the House.”

The RSC’s endorsement puts pressure on Ryan to bring forward a bill that is widely supported by immigration hawks and the White House, but that has little chance of garnering any Democratic votes in the Senate.

It also pushes the House farther from the immigration debate in the upper chamber, where moderate Republicans secured a commitment from the party’s leadership to open floor debate on DACA if a deal is not made in the next government funding bill due Feb. 8.

The Securing America’s Future Act—also authored by Reps. Mike McCaul of Texas, Raul Labrador of Idaho, and Martha McSally of Arizona—goes beyond the Trump administration’s DACA demands. The bill tacks on mandatory e-Verify, punishments for sanctuary cities, tighter asylum standards, and significant cuts to legal immigration levels.

The legislation has been endorsed by groups that favor tighter limits on immigration, such as the Center for Immigration Studies and NumbersUSA.

The bill does not have unanimous support in the House Republican caucus, however. Some moderates have dismissed the proposal because it does not offer a path to citizenship for former DACA recipients, only a renewable legal status that includes work authorization.

Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., who leads the Republican Study Committee, says the bill will likely need some modifications to get to a majority of 218 votes. But he said he believes House leadership should use it as a starting point for DACA negotiations.

“The only other things that we have seen out there are pieces of legislation that, though well-intended, may garner 20 or 25 Republican votes here or there,”  Walker said Tuesday, according to CNN. “That’s why we believe this is the framework to get things moving.”

EDITORS NOTE: Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities for this original content, email licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

NFL Faces Ad-versity from Vets’ Group

The NFL can’t afford more bad publicity, but that’s exactly what they’re getting after their latest clash with veterans. You’d think the league’s abysmal ratings would have them rethinking their business model. Not so far, according to Fox News’s Todd Starnes. Instead of shying away from the anti-Americanism that’s hurting them, the NFL is embracing more!

As if five months of anthem controversy isn’t enough, Commissioner Roger Goodell is heading into the league’s biggest game with a black cloud hanging over the sport.

Its relationship with the military already on shaky ground, Goodell didn’t exactly further the peace process when he blocked American Veterans (AMVETS) from airing a Super Bowl ad on patriotism. The ad (you can watch it here) includes a two-word message: “#PleaseStand.”

“It’s a simple, polite request that represents the sentiment of our membership, particularly those whose missing or paralyzed arms or limbs preclude standing,” group National Commander Marion Polk explained.Apparently, the NFL didn’t take it that way and rejected the ad outright. The Super Bowl, insisted league spokesman Brian McCarthy, “is designed for fans to commemorate and celebrate the game, players, [and] teams” — not, apparently, the men and women who guard the freedom that makes that celebration possible. “It’s never,” McCarthy said with a straight face, “been a place for advertising that could be considered by some as a political statement.”

Is that so? Where was McCarthy last year when the ads were so political that they made more headlines than the actual game? For corporate heavyweights like Google, Coca-Cola, 84 Lumber, Budweiser, and Airbnb, staying on the sidelines in the early days of the Trump administration wasn’t an option for Super Bowl LI. They left product placement in the rearview and opted for controversial statements on everything from immigration to sexuality. “We all belong. The world is more beautiful the more you accept,” Airbnb insisted. Google squeezed in plenty of subliminal messages — and some not-so-subliminal rainbow flags.

Then there was 84 Lumber, who didn’t win over a lot of conservatives with its attack on Trump’s immigration crackdown in its commercial bashing of a Mexican border wall. “There is an example of an unsophisticated advertiser making a political statement, and not really caring whether it helps them sell any lumber,” said Allen Adamson, founder of Brand Simple Consulting. Then, of course, there was Audi, which tried to make a statement about equal pay — only to be outed for having an all-male board.

As usual, the only thing more astounding than the NFL’s censorship is its hypocrisy. And since when did honoring the flag become a political statement anyway? It used to be just good manners. “Perhaps Goodell was concerned that a ‘political statement’ in the game-day program might take away from the ‘political statements’ being made on the football field when players take a knee,” Todd suggested. And for all of its radical politics, Polk points out, the NFL certainly doesn’t mind exploiting the military when it’s convenient. “Veterans are good for more than just military aircraft flyovers, photo opportunities during halftime, or props to sell camouflage-style NFL apparel, although the NFL’s stance… says otherwise.”

If there’s room for the “free speech” of Colin Kaepernick, then surely there’s room for the majority of Americans who are disgusted by his display. “Freedom of speech works both ways,” Polk warns. “We respect the rights of those who choose to protest, as these rights are precisely what our members have fought — and in many cases died — for. But imposing corporate censorship to deny that same right to those veterans who have secured it for us all is reprehensible and totally beyond the pale.”


Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.


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The Right Side of History: The Media Continues to Whitewash the Legacy of Communism

“The Right Side of History” is a podcast dedicated to exploring current events through a historical lens and busting left-wing myths about figures and events of America’s past.

On this week’s episode, hosts Jarrett Stepman, a contributor to The Daily Signal, and Fred Lucas, The Daily Signal’s White House correspondent, discuss the history of communism in the 20th century and the media’s whitewashing of its legacy.

With the surge in millennial support for communism and socialism, it is important to note the impact these doctrines had on the countries that implemented them. Stepman and Lucas discuss the origins of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia as well as the egregious cover-up of the Soviet Union’s crimes by New York Times Moscow correspondent Walter Duranty.

COMMENTARY BY

Portrait of Jarrett Stepman

Jarrett Stepman is an editor for The Daily Signal. Send an email to Jarrett. Twitter: .

Portrait of Fred Lucas

Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for The Daily Signal. Send an email to Fred. Twitter: .

RELATED ARTICLE: How Believing in Socialism Can Make You Miserable

A Note for our Readers:

Trust in the mainstream media is at a historic low—and rightfully so given the behavior of many journalists in Washington, D.C.

Ever since Donald Trump was elected president, it is painfully clear that the mainstream media covers liberals glowingly and conservatives critically.

Now journalists spread false, negative rumors about President Trump before any evidence is even produced.

Americans need an alternative to the mainstream media. That’s why The Daily Signal exists.

The Daily Signal’s mission is to give Americans the real, unvarnished truth about what is happening in Washington and what must be done to save our country.

Our dedicated team of more than 100 journalists and policy experts rely on the financial support of patriots like you.

Your donation helps us fight for access to our nation’s leaders and report the facts.

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EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is by Alex Milan Tracy/Sipa USA/Newscom.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: Hollywood is Out of Control. Is it Time to Reinstate Public ‘Morality Codes’?

Chris Lewis from the University of Colorado Boulder produced a short historical report on the The Production Code of 1930, known as The Hays Code. To read The Production Code published on March 31, 1930 click here.

The historical report states:

From virtually the earliest years of their existence, movies were regarded by many people as a baleful influence on public morality. In the United States, censorship was exercised pretty much on a local option basis. Many states and individual cities had their own censorship boards that often ordered the deletion of shots, scenes, and/or title cards before a film could be exhibited within its borders, sometimes banning films outright. The fact that a film was banned somewhere was very often turned into a marketing ploy to gain publicity in other, less easily offended cities. [Emphasis added]

Lewis noted:

By 1922, however, spurred by several recent high-profile scandals involving Hollywood celebrities, calls for some type of federal action were heard. In self-defense, motion picture producers passed a succession of moral rules or “codes” meant to guide the content of motion pictures, overseen by former postmaster Will Hays and often referred to as the “Hays Code.” [Emphasis added]

Karl Marx said, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” The Production Code of 1930 was in-part a reaction to the “first sexual revolution” which, according to Wikipedia, was during the Roaring Twenties after World War I and it included writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edna Saint Vincent Millay, and Ernest Hemingway.

It appears that Hollywood is repeating itself and is seen by many as farcical.

In 2017 Americans saw Hollywood battered by an ongoing series of sex scandals first reported in an October 5th, 2017 New York Times article titled “Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades.” This story, coupled with growing numbers of both actors and actresses coming forward to report sexual abuses, has led to the #MeToo movement.

Lewis wrote:

In 1930, therefore, a new code—which came to be known as the Hollywood Production Code—was written. The industry accepted it nominally, although many movies stretched it to its limits or simply ignored it, prompting more public outcry. Movies made between 1930-34 are thus often referred to as “pre-code,” even though the Production Code was theoretically in effect. Many filmmakers during this period tried to stretch the code to its limits, if not defying it outright, especially in their use of sexual innuendoes, risqué costumes, and implicitly immoral characters. [Emphasis added]

In 1968 The Production Code of 1930 was abandoned by Hollywood and replaced by a letter rating system for movies, which, slightly modified, is still used today. This change in ratings was in-part a reaction to the “second sexual revolution.” According to Wikipedia,

[T]he age of changes in perception and practices of sexuality that developed from around 1960 was to reach mainstream America, most of western Europe, and parts of Asia. Indeed, the available quantitative evidence demonstrates that measures of non-traditional sexual behavior (e.g., gonorrhea incidence, births out of wedlock, and births to teenagers) began to rise dramatically in the mid to late 1950s. It brought about profound shifts in the attitudes to women’s sexuality, homosexuality, pre-marital sexuality and the freedom of sexual expression.

Psychologists and scientists such as Wilhelm Reich and Alfred Kinsey influenced the revolution, as well as literature and films, and the social movements of the period, including the counterculture movement, the women’s movement, and the gay rights movement. The counterculture contributed to the awareness of radical cultural change that was the social matrix of the sexual revolution. [Emphasis added]

Lewis wrote this about the current system of ratings:

… [The] Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) letter ratings was first established in 1968 (and later slightly modified), freeing filmmakers to include whatever content they desired and submit it for an official rating. These ratings, however, were not based upon moral values or attitudes (as the Production Code’s guidelines had emphasized), but simply upon the content itself. Somewhat vague quotas for levels of violence, sexual activity or discussions, nudity, and profanity were used to divide films into groups, with a letter assigned to give viewers a rough idea of what it might or might not contain. [Emphasis added]

Perhaps it is time to go back to a system based upon ‘moral values or attitudes” in order to save future generations?

Hollywood has become the purveyor of immorality and politics for profit. Hollywood actively promotes the counterculture, the pro-choice women’s, and the gay rights movements. While it is true that the individual can decide not to go the a particular movie because it does not appeal to their sensibilities. The rapid growth of streaming videos on YouTube, via smart phones, computers, and tablets, make it nearly impossible to control content.

It may be time to go back to insure the future. Why? Because in 2018 movies are regarded by many people as a baleful influence on public morality.

President Trump has made defending religious liberty a hallmark of his administration. It may be time for cities, states and Congress to defend morality and re-institute “morality codes” for not only movies but online and streaming content?

What do you think?

RELATED ARTICLE: Hollywood ‘collaborated’ with Nazi Germany in the 1930s and its happening again!

The Sex-Change Revolution Is Based on Ideology, Not Science

Twenty-eight years ago, the release of “When Harry Met Sally” highlighted one big debate: whether men and women could really be just friends.

That question may still be up in the air, but now we are being forced to confront a more fundamental debate: whether men can really become women.

America is in the midst of what has been called a “transgender moment.” In the space of a year, transgender issues went from something that most Americans had never heard of to a cause claiming the mantle of civil rights.

But can a boy truly be “trapped” in a girl’s body? Can modern medicine really “reassign” sex? Is sex something “assigned” in the first place? What’s the loving response to a friend or child experiencing a gender identity conflict? What should our law say on these issues?

These shouldn’t be difficult questions.

Just a few years before “When Harry Met Sally” hit theaters, Dr. Paul McHugh thought he had convinced the vast majority of medical professionals not to go along with bold claims about sex and gender being proffered by some of his colleagues. And as chair of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School and psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, McHugh put a stop to sex-reassignment surgery at Hopkins.

Once the elite Johns Hopkins did this, many medical centers across the nation followed suit.

But in recent years we have seen a resurgence of these drastic procedures—not in light of new scientific evidence, mind you, but as a result of a growing ideological movement. Such is our transgender moment.

The people increasingly in the spotlight of this moment are children.

In the past 10 years, dozens of pediatric gender clinics have sprung up throughout the United States. In 2007, Boston Children’s Hospital “became the first major program in the United States to focus on transgender children and adolescents,” as its own website brags.

A decade later, over 45 gender clinics opened their doors to our nation’s children—telling parents that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones may be the only way to prevent teen suicides.

Never mind that according to the best studies—the ones that even transgender activists themselves cite—80 to 95 percent of children with gender dysphoria will come to identify with and embrace their bodily sex.

Never mind that 41 percent of people who identify as transgender will attempt suicide at some point in their lives, compared to 4.6 percent of the general population. Never mind that people who have had transition surgery are 19 times more likely than average to die by suicide.

These statistics should stop us in our tracks. Clearly, we must work to find ways to effectively prevent these suicides and address the underlying causes. We certainly shouldn’t be encouraging children to “transition.”

Many psychologists and psychiatrists think of gender dysphoria as similar to other dysphorias, or forms of discomfort with one’s body, such as anorexia. The feelings of discomfort can lead to mistaken beliefs about oneself or about reality, and then to actions in accordance with those false beliefs.

The most helpful therapies focus not on achieving the impossible—changing bodies to conform to thoughts and feelings—but on helping people accept and even embrace the truth about their bodies and reality.

Operating in the background is a sound understanding of physical and mental health—proper function of one’s body and mind—and a sound understanding of medicine as a practice aimed at restoring health, not simply satisfying the desires of patients.

For human beings to flourish, they need to feel comfortable in their own bodies, readily identify with their sex, and believe that they are who they actually are.

In my new book, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” I argue that McHugh got it right. The best biology, psychology, and philosophy all support an understanding of sex as a bodily reality, and of gender as a social manifestation of bodily sex. Biology isn’t bigotry.

In my book I offer a balanced approach to the policy issues, a nuanced vision of human embodiment, and a sober and honest survey of the human costs of getting human nature wrong.

Despite activists’ best efforts to put up a unified front, Harry cannot become Sally. Activists’ desperate insistence to the contrary suggests that the transgender moment is fleeting.

COMMENTARY BY

Portrait of Ryan T. Anderson

Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D., is the William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow in American Principles and Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation, where he researches and writes about marriage, bioethics, religious liberty and political philosophy. Anderson is the author of several books and his research has been cited by two U.S. Supreme Court justices in two separate cases. Read his Heritage research. Twitter: .

RELATED ARTICLES:

When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment

Planned Transgenderhood

A Note for our Readers:

Trust in the mainstream media is at a historic low—and rightfully so given the behavior of many journalists in Washington, D.C.

Ever since Donald Trump was elected president, it is painfully clear that the mainstream media covers liberals glowingly and conservatives critically.

Now journalists spread false, negative rumors about President Trump before any evidence is even produced.

Americans need an alternative to the mainstream media. That’s why The Daily Signal exists.

The Daily Signal’s mission is to give Americans the real, unvarnished truth about what is happening in Washington and what must be done to save our country.

Our dedicated team of more than 100 journalists and policy experts rely on the financial support of patriots like you.

Your donation helps us fight for access to our nation’s leaders and report the facts.

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Please make a gift to support The Daily Signal.

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VIDEO: Schumer Shutdown Makes Clear Democrats’ Real Priorities

A couple of days before the shutdown, Genevieve Wood recorded this commentary, which you can either watch above or read below.  Since then, Senate Democrats, whose leader is Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., did indeed refuse to join Republicans to vote for a spending bill, and so the government did shut down. 

As you may have heard, a government shutdown is looming here in D.C. Many of you out there watching probably think, “So what? That can be a good thing. Less of Washington, fewer bureaucrats telling us what to do and how to spend our money.”  Those are all good points.

But that is not why Democrats are threatening to shut down the government.

Let’s keep in mind this is the same party that is always telling us if we shut down the government, this will be a travesty for millions of Americans, so many government programs and services will be unmet.

But yet they’re still willing to do so. Why is that?

Well, it’s because their liberal base is demanding that in this election year they put the needs and desires of those who are here in this country illegally before anybody else.

So if you’re an American who wants to live in a safe community and wants a safe border, too bad for you. If you’re a man or woman serving in our military, sworn to protect us around the world, well, we’re just not going to get those funds in that the military may need. And if you’re somebody who is not an American citizen but you’re standing in line because you, too, want to have a chance at the American dream and you’re trying to do it the right way? To all of those folks, Democrats are saying, “Get to the back of the line. ”

Now for all of you of [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] recipients out there who may feel as though you’re kind of a pawn in this whole thing: Well, you have a reason to believe that. Keep in mind Democrats have made promises to you before. But when Barack Obama was president, Nancy [Pelosi] was running the House, Harry [Reid] was running the Senate—for two years, Democrats were in control of the White House and Congress, they did absolutely nada.

That’s why Democrats are willing to shut down government. The reality is they don’t really want a deal on immigration. They talk about addressing the needs of the DACA population, but they have no time to address the other side of the immigration issue, border security and enforcement.

Here’s the deal. Democrats are fearful that President [Donald] Trump and Republicans could go into the midterm elections with both victories on tax cuts and immigration reform. So at the end of the day, that’s what all of this is about. It’s an election year, and that means politics, not people, are their priority.

COMMENTARY BY

Portrait of Genevieve Wood

RELATED ARTICLES:

The Senate voted 81-18 to break a Democratic filibuster on a stalled government spending bill, clearing the way to end the three-day government shutdown. – Fox News

Shock poll: Americans want massive cuts to legal immigration – Washington Times

‘We Are Outraged!’ Illegal Alien Activists Turn on Democrats After Amnesty-or-Shutdown Fail – Breitbart News

A Note for our Readers:

Trust in the mainstream media is at a historic low—and rightfully so given the behavior of many journalists in Washington, D.C.

Ever since Donald Trump was elected president, it is painfully clear that the mainstream media covers liberals glowingly and conservatives critically.

Now journalists spread false, negative rumors about President Trump before any evidence is even produced.

Americans need an alternative to the mainstream media. That’s why The Daily Signal exists.

The Daily Signal’s mission is to give Americans the real, unvarnished truth about what is happening in Washington and what must be done to save our country.

Our dedicated team of more than 100 journalists and policy experts rely on the financial support of patriots like you.

Your donation helps us fight for access to our nation’s leaders and report the facts.

You deserve the truth about what’s going on in Washington.

Please make a gift to support The Daily Signal.

SUPPORT THE DAILY SIGNAL