Daniel ben Mordechai

In an article that appears at the American Thinker today, Avi Davis, the head of the American Freedom Alliance, provides significant detail on this subject:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/08/the_first_w...

While I find Mr. Davis' case highly persuasive, perhaps others might have a different opinion on this. Your comments?

There are many people, I do not doubt, who contend that our reproductive technologies have been a blessing with no downside whatsoever. Undoubtedly, contraception has made things more convenient for many people in any number of ways, and I do not doubt that raising children entails great financial sacrifices, especially when a family has more than three children.

That stated, it is my contention that those who maintain this view are only viewing one side of the equation. A very different view comes from Mark Oshinskie at the American Thinker website. In a piece that appeared this past Friday, Mr. Oshinskie made a case that, in my view, at the very least merits some consideration:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/08/the_reprodu...

Your comments?

Independence Day is not yet here, but I found a piece by Thomas Sowell that raises an important topic in America circa 2014.

Here is a link to that piece at the Human Events website:

http://www.humanevents.com/2014/07/01/americas-bir...

Your comments?

Apparently, Lois Lerner and the IRS aren't the only players here. In a hearing that occurred last week, an EPA administrator showed that the EPA is playing the same game here:

http://dailysurge.com/2014/06/irs-isnt-agency-clai...

Perhaps, then, the problem in this regard goes beyond the current administration, with all its lawlessness - it might be a systemic aspect of big government in America these days.

Your comments?

One of the significant things I noticed while watching the news this past week was the defeat of Majority Leader Eric Cantor by economics professor David Brat in the Virginia Republican primary. Apparently, what loomed largest in this race was the amnesty issue on immigration (often referred to as "immigration reform"), with Cantor sending mixed signals on the subject and Brat signaling clear opposition to it. In a piece that appeared at the American Thinker website, Rabbi Aryeh Spero argued that Cantor's defeat was due to his no longer fighting "the good fight," while at the same time recalling a time when Brat had invited him to speak at Randolph-Macon College, where Brat has taught:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/06/cantor_fell...

Some are speculating that this dooms "immigration reform" this year, but I for one would not underestimate the Obama administration's determination to get it by any means deemed necessary.

Your comments?

In a piece that appeared at the American Thinker website yesterday, Louis Rene Beres argued that America is definitely less safe from terrorism now, citing legal issues that arose in Israel over similar cases and international law on the subject:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/06/the_bergdah...

While I think that in his piece, Mr. Beres clearly underestimates the significance of the fact that Bergdahl is apparently a deserter, his overall argument, I submit, would still be very valid indeed even if this wasn't true.

Your comments?

In a piece that appeared at the American Spectator website today, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., the founder and editor in chief of the American Spectator, argued that while we have been paying a whole lot of attention to the recent slaughter on a California college campus, we have lost sight of what the purpose of education is, especially in higher education:

http://spectator.org/articles/59347/death-campus

Granted, some may have looked at the question I am posing here and wondered why I am even opening this topic for discussion on the grounds that it's so obvious. There is, however, more here than first meets the eye - and in my view Tyrrell poses questions that need to be explored.

Your comments?

I distinctly recall a time more than 10 years ago when a radio host in my area (the Pittsburgh area) challenged would-be gun grabbers to put up signs in front of their homes declaring them gun-free zones. He did so on the premise that people wouldn't do that, not even people fanatically in favor of gun control. My sense is that he never envisioned a situation whereby a shop would actually do much the same thing - and get robbed at gunpoint. At Townhall.com yesterday, Christine Rousselle provided details regarding one restaurant in North Carolina:

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/christinerousselle/20...

It's a miracle, frankly, that no one was physically hurt in all this. Your comments?

Today at the Front Page Magazine website, Deborah Weiss noted the risks inherent in the approach the Obama administration is taking on this issue, especially on freedom of speech:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/deborah-weiss/yes...

As Ms. Weiss's article notes, the opposition to this proposal isn't confined to Republicans, as former President Clinton has made his opposition clear on this matter.

Your comments?

Until now, I have refrained from comment on the Donald Sterling affair, in which he got banned for life from LA Clippers games over racist comments made in private. However, I have read much about this matter online over the course of the past week, and it is clear to me that there is more here than first was reported in the establishment media. In a piece that appeared on Wednesday this past week at TruthRevolt.com, Ben Shapiro argued that the real offense Sterling should have been fired for was not the racist remarks he made in private (and didn't intend to go public on) but his actual discrimination against blacks, Hispanics and families without children in his rental properties, which he settled an actual suit on in 2009, among other things:

http://www.truthrevolt.org/commentary/shapiro-dona...

I find Mr. Shapiro's case persuasive - we seem to have lost the distinction here between public and private racism, and words and actions.

Your comments?

My answer to this question is yes. This past Friday, Daniel Greenfield provided a philosophical look at this particular question, which is particularly valuable in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision last week on the discriminatory practice known as "affirmative action":

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/its-h...

To me, watching this is almost like watching a rewrite of some words from George Orwell's legendary dystopian novel, 1984: "Non-discrimination is discrimination, color-blindness is racism, individualism is anti-minority."

Your comments?

The recent formation of a so-called "unity government" for the Palestinian Authority comprising Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction (itself the main faction of the PLO, itself a terrorist outfit), and the Islamist terrorist outfits Hamas and Islamic Jihad, in my view, should raise questions in even the minds of the enthusiasts of what has been called the Middle East "peace process." In a piece that appeared yesterday at the American Thinker website, Ken Blackwell and Bob Morrison questioned why American foreign policy continues to pander to and pay off a force bent on Israel's destruction:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/04/secretary_k...

Your comments?

I would argue in the negative on this. At the Front Page Magazine website this past Friday, Daniel Greenfield noted the partially laudatory remarks of Glenn Miller, the white supremacist gunman at two Jewish sites in Overland Park, Kansas this past weekend of Max Blumenthal, a virulently anti-Israel, "left-wing" commentator who is Jewish by birth:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/anti-...

The first link in Mr. Greenfield's piece sends the reader to a piece by Ron Radosh at PJ Media from this past Monday, which provides corroborating quotations:

http://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2014/04/14/who-inspir...

If that shooter hadn't included the pejorative "Jew journalist" epithet in his comments, they would be indistinguishable from many on the political "left" today.

Your comments?

This, I think, is an entirely legitimate question in light of Egypt's inability to feed its 84 million (and growing) population. In an article at the American Thinker website today, David Archibald provides some details on Egypt's dangerous plight in the early 21st century:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/04/say_goodbye...

I pose this question because I think that if Egypt collapses internally, the shockwaves from such a development could reverberate in highly destructive ways. Your comments?

Not helpful at all, according to the sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. Sheriff David Clarke, himself black, in a piece that appeared at the Washington Times on March 24th, made a scathing case that "liberal" policies have in fact destroyed the black family:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/24/cl...

Your comments?

This came in last month, from the "You Can't Make This Up" Department:

An Egyptian columnist, Ahmad al-Gamal, has made a demand to sue, among other parties, Israel for the 10 plagues, citing the biblical account in Exodus as part of what he perceives as his case:

http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/7892.ht...

Your comments?

A piece by Victor Davis Hanson at National Review online, in my judgment, poses questions about this subject that, in my view, cannot be ignored:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/373725/techn...

Although I appreciate the fact that vast repositories of information are available on the World Wide Web, I sometimes worry that the information technology of our age is being used by all too many in ways that retard literacy, raising the question of whether we could be heading for a post-literate society in the 21st century. As Mr. Hanson puts it in his piece:

"The downside of this complete reliance on computer gadgetry is a fundamental ignorance of what technology is. Smart machines are simply the pumps that deliver the water of knowledge — not knowledge itself."

Your comments?

Jonah Goldberg, in a piece that appeared at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review website on Friday, argued in the affirmative on this:

http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/580...

Your comments?

My sense that this would likely be a long run matter of national survival for Israel, as in any situation where a country receives aid from abroad, he who pays the piper gets to call the tune. What this means is that the aid can often function in practice as a mechanism of control, even if indirectly. I believe that this is perhaps truest of all with regard to any aid coming from European countries, which have, by and large, long been lacking in sympathy for Israel's situation. As Shoshana Bryen noted today at PJ Media, a report was just issued by the EU that put the primary blame for the situation in Gaza on Israel (even though there was criticism of Hamas as well), even as money paid by taxpayers in EU member states wind up disappearing in Gaza, according to a recent audit:

http://pjmedia.com/blog/eu-report-eu-money-threate...

Your comments?

A piece at the Front Page Magazine website this past Tuesday, by Bruce Thornton, examined the clashing themes of national self-determination and idealistic internationalism:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/bruce-thornton/th...

These clashing themes seem to have tied American foreign policy in knots over the years, and the fact that the Ukraine seems to be, on the one hand, vying for EU membership while at the same time Vladimir Putin seems to want the Ukraine (or at least some parts of it) as part of a greater Russia is significant in my mind. The idea of the Ukraine as a fully independent country seems to be out in the cold. From my vantage point, neither option seems like such a great deal for the Ukraine (although I readily admit at the outset that I, being an American, don't view the situation there like a Ukrainian might). With regard to Ukraine with relation to Russia, we are talking about irredentist claims on the part of Vladimir Putin. With regard to the idea of the Ukraine becoming an EU member, the EU seems to be unsteady (along with the euro as a currency), and having a harder time holding together due to the rise of nationalist parties in EU member states, which resent the involvement of the bureaucracy in Brussels in the internal affairs of their countries.

Your comments?