Zero Tolerance for Confederate Flag, Nuance for Islamic Terror

Jonah Goldberg / Townhall Columnist

 

"Nice flag!" the woman shouted sarcastically, adding: "F--- you!"

The woman was seated on the patio of a restaurant overlooking Main Street in this famously liberal capital of this famously liberal state when a truck sporting the Confederate emblem passed by.
I could understand the sentiment (particularly given the fact that her lunch partner was an African-American man). When the woman saw my daughter and her friend, she apologized for her profanity.

And while I could have done without the f-bomb around two 12-year-old girls, my real objection was something different. The young woman's outburst was exactly the reaction the buffoon in the truck was hoping for. After all, Vermont is the heart of union territory (and the first state to ban slavery in 1777). Even without the recent controversies, there's no reason to fly a Confederate flag in downtown Montpelier except to offend.

But is that really the intent when the descendant of a Confederate soldier puts a flag on his ancestor's tombstone once a year? According to many on the left, it is. "If we don't eradicate the Confederate flag," writes "social theorist" Frank Smecker, "we can only expect more of such racist, depraved acts (like Dylann Roof's) in our future."

I'm no big fan of the Confederate flag, but do serious people believe that if Roof didn't have access to the banner, he would have pursued a life of peace?

It's this lack of nuance and distinction I find so troubling -- and hypocritical.

Obama Writes Personal Letters to 46 Felons, But No Word on Kate Steinle's Death

Leah Barkoukis / Townhall Columnist

 

President Obama not only commuted 46 non-violent drug offenders on Monday, he also sent each prisoner a personal letter notifying them of their commutations.

It’s curious, then, that he has still not reached out to anyone in Kate Steinle’s family, the young woman who was murdered in broad daylight in San Francisco by an illegal alien who had been deported five times to Mexico.

In fact, it seems his entire administration is in the dark on what happened--or, much more likely, they are willfully ignoring the situation. After all, as Katie reported yesterday, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson claimed to have no idea who she is.

But remember, after the deaths of Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, and Trayvon Martin, President Obama managed to find time in his busy schedule to call, write, or make a public statement. Oh, and how could we forget when Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a slut? Obama also had time to personally phone her, thanking her for speaking out about contraception and making sure she was OK.

As Marc Thiessen observed in The Washington Post, Obama’s silence in this case is deafening.

Then again, however, silence is all the administration has if they continue to support policies that get innocent Americans killed.

U.S. will help Iran stop Israeli threats to its nuclear program

 
By Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

 

“The United States and other world powers will help to teach Iran how to thwart and detect threats to its nuclear program” — and where could those threats come from except from Israel and possibly the Saudis? This agreement is an unfolding disaster, and it is almost certainly going to get even worse once it […]
 
Read in browser »

 

Iran linked to deaths of well over 500 U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan

 Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs

“At least 500 U.S. military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan were directly linked to Iran and its support for anti-American militants, a newly disclosed statistic that offers grim context for the Obama administration’s diplomatic deal with the Iranian regime aimed at curtailing the rogue nation’s nuclear ambitions.”

It is no longer a question of whose side Obama is on. It’s a question of what must be done to save our great nation.

The number 500 is an estimate. It is a “ballpark figure.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican and Army veteran said that number is much greater than 500, with still more American troops wounded in action as a result of Iran’s influence on U.S. adversaries in both war...

Read the whole entry »

     

• Email to a friend • Article Search •

American Pastor Held in Iran Wrongly Overlooked in Nuclear Deal: Wife

NEWSMAX

President Barack Obama should have secured the release of jailed U.S. citizens before sealing a nuclear deal with Iran, and the accord should not win congressional approval until their freedom is guaranteed, the wife of a detained Iranian-American pastor said on Wednesday. 

 

Saeed Abedini, 35, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was sentenced by an Iranian court in 2013 to eight years in prison for allegedly compromising Iran's national security by setting up home-based Christian churches in his native country.

His wife, Naghmeh Abedini of Boise, Idaho, said her husband has faced threats to his life from Islamic militants held in the same prison west of Tehran and that his physical and psychological health has deteriorated from a lack of medical care and from stays in solitary confinement.

Abedini is one of three Americans known to be currently detained in Iran.

His spouse said their release should have been assured before Obama even agreed to the talks that produced a deal on Tuesday aimed at restricting Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

The agreement has drawn fire from Republican lawmakers, but Obama strongly defended it in a news conference on Wednesday, saying it was the only alternative to a nuclear arms race and more war in the Middle East.

Obama also said any notion that he was content with Americans being held in Iran was "nonsense," but insisted that including their fate in the talks would only have undermined the U.S. bargaining position.

"If the question is why we did not tie the negotiations to their release, think about the logic that that creates," he said. "Suddenly Iran realizes ... maybe we can get additional concessions out of the Americans by holding these individuals."

Obama delivered the same message to Naghmeh Abedini and the couple's two young children when he visited them in Boise in January, she said.

The pastor's wife conceded she was not sufficiently well-versed in nuclear matters to evaluate the deal but said parallel talks could have been held to seek the release of her husband and other detained Americans.

She said she was now pinning her hopes on Congress, which must approve the accord. She said Republican leaders and some Democrats have spoken of making congressional approval contingent on the release of the American prisoners.

"It's very difficult for my children. And it's heartbreaking for me to see them growing up without their dad," she said.