Mid-Day Snapshot · April 17, 2024

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“From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”.

THE FOUNDATION

“The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.” —Fisher Ames (1788)

Fellow Patriots, on this day in 1942, Lt. Col. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle and 79 other American airmen conducted a daring bombing raid over Tokyo just four months after Pearl Harbor. Four of the airmen paid with their lives, and the raid did little lasting damage, but it stunned the seemingly invincible Japanese and spurred American spirit early in the war. —Mark Alexander

IN TODAY’S DIGEST

ON THE WEB

FEATURED ANALYSIS

National Public Retaliation and Resignation

The editor who complained about NPR’s left-wing bias has been suspended.

Nate Jackson

National Public Radio receives taxpayer money. Specifically, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting received $525 million in federal funding in the most recent fiscal year, a portion of which goes to NPR and PBS via local television and radio stations around the country. Federal funding isn’t the sole or even primary source of revenue for these ventures, but neither is $500 million chump change.

Understandably, after recent events, there are renewed calls for defunding. “I would eliminate the funding for NPR tomorrow,” declared Texas Senator Ted Cruz. “We shouldn’t be in the business of funding NPR.”

Every now and then, Republican politicians express disgust at the idea of publicly funding a left-wing enterprise like NPR, and we certainly agree with Cruz. Yet taxpayers have been subsidizing it since the ‘60s, and Ronald Reagan once called government programs “the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.”

In any case, by recent events, I mean the blistering Free Press op-ed written by 25-year NPR veteran Uri Berliner last week, followed by his suspension and then his resignation this morning.

As I said last week, conservatives have always known that NPR is just another cog in the Leftmedia propaganda machine, but even leftists should take note when Berliner explains just how bad it’s gotten as left-wing journalists succumbed to Trump Derangement Syndrome.

It was obvious that Berliner wrote his op-ed effectively as a public resignation letter. For one thing, he published it in The Free Press, founded by Bari Weiss, who left The New York Times for the same reasons. For another, his colleagues now think his name is mud. NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben didn’t name Berliner but complained about people “going to another outlet and s**tting on your colleagues.” Doing that would lose “trust.”

Furthermore, Berliner even went so far as to name-drop NPR’s new CEO, Katherine Maher, noting that she had no journalism experience but essentially challenging her to make fair journalism the outlet’s “new North Star.” He might as well have added, Go ahead and fire me.

On the one hand, any employee of any organization who publicly airs grievances like he did will find himself on thin ice, and rightly so. On the other hand, if Berliner is being honest, he’s been sounding the alarms internally for years, only to be ignored.

He sure isn’t being ignored now.

Neither is Maher’s history. The Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo lives for this sort of thing, and he set to work digging through Maher’s old Twitter feed. The evidence that Maher, formerly CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, is a left-wing loon is myriad and damning. Here are just a few samples:

America is addicted to white supremacy.

Never underestimate the ability of white people to center ourselves.

Lots of jokes about leaving the US, and I get it. But as someone with cis white mobility privilege, I’m thinking I’m staying and investing in ridding ourselves of this spectre of tyranny.

I made a commitment to never step on a speaker’s stage without talking about our climate crisis.

I mean, sure, looting is counterproductive. But it’s hard to be mad about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression founded on treating people’s ancestors as private property.

Who was it that declared a fetus was genetically human from the point of conception?

Donald Trump, she said, is a “deranged racist sociopath.” After Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, she said, “I can’t stop crying with relief.”

Hillary Clinton shouldn’t say “boy” and “girl” because it’s “erasing language for non-binary people.”

Maher didn’t have children because “I dunno, the planet is literally burning.”

She applauded BLM and reparations while condemning white people, straight people, “late-stage capitalism,” and America generally.

You get the idea. I’d go out on a limb and say that Berliner was also aware of this before he challenged Maher to be fair. He is, after all, a straight white male — one of her favorite targets. If only he had identified as a black female, he could have hung NPR out to dry and suffered no consequences whatsoever. Rebuking DEI was a big part of his point, though.

He also benefits from having someone else “out” his new boss. “We’re looking for a leader right now who’s going to be unifying and bring more people into the tent and have a broader perspective on, sort of, what America is all about,” Berliner told NPR scribe David Folkenflik in a post-suspension interview Tuesday. “And this seems to be the opposite of that.”

Yeah, I’d say so.

Perhaps most revealing were Maher’s comments about Berliner’s op-ed. She called it “profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning” because it amounted to “a criticism of our people on the basis of who we are.” No, that’s just it — the crux of the problem with modern radical leftists. Berliner based his entire criticism not on “who” but “what.” Leftists are obsessed with identity, and Berliner says that obsession is the problem. Even so, it’s not who’s doing it, it’s what they’re doing, which is to violate basic journalistic integrity. Berliner simply decided he could no longer stomach such an environment.

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Executive News Summary

Alejandro Mayorkas articles of impeachment, Iran sanctions, Menendez blames his wife, and more.

Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler

Cross-Examination

  • Oh, Alejandro! Yesterday was a good day for Rule of Law, at least in a ceremonial sense, as House Republicans somberly walked the articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate, which will likely lead to a battle between that august body’s narrowly divided political parties. The dispute? Whether to hold a constitutionally prescribed Senate trial at all — such is the sorry state of our politics. As Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy observed, only 22 times in our nation’s history has this sort of impeachment happened, and every single time the Senate has held a trial, except when the charged individual did the right thing and resigned in disgrace. No such luck with Biden’s intentionally incompetent and disgustingly defiant DHS chief. And so, since elections have consequences, and since Democrat Chuck Schumer is the Senate majority leader, he’s therefore the decider on the matter of whether to hold an impeachment trial. Democrats and their media trucklings are calling this a “baseless” “political stunt,” but the testimony against Mayorkas would likely be devastating, and the last thing the Democrats want in the middle of a presidential campaign is a couple of days of damning testimony against a Biden administration cabinet member, which would be a stark reminder about their man-made border disaster, and which would necessitate a yea-or-nay vote by some electorally vulnerable Democrat senators. Speaking of the Democrats’ incessant thirst for political power, the Oversight Project reports that fliers distributed at an (illegal) immigration resource center in Matamoros, Mexico, reads as follows: “Reminder to vote for President Biden when you are in the United States. We need another four years of his term to stay open.” Strange. We didn’t think illegals could vote in our federal elections, but maybe Team Biden knows something we don’t.
  • Iran sanctions: In response to Iran’s missile and drone attack against Israel over the weekend, the Biden administration announced new sanctions against Iran. The missile barrage was the first time Iran had ever launched a direct attack against Israel. It was an act of war, and yet, due to Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, the attack proved largely impotent. And that fact allowed Joe Biden to warn Israel against retaliating, a warning meant to placate the radical anti-Israel members of his party’s base. That fact was driven home by radical leftist Squad member Representative Cori Bush (D-MO), who was pleased that Biden “advised Prime Minister Netanyahu … that the U.S. will oppose any Israeli counter-attacks against Iran.” But to show that Biden is taking Iran’s act of war seriously, his administration announced it will be raising new sanctions against Tehran. The extent of these sanctions has yet to be made clear. Recall that it was the Biden administration that released $6 billion to the regime in Tehran in exchange for hostages last year. Furthermore, Biden has been soft on Iran when it comes to its selling oil to China. Despite Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen asserting that “all options” are on the table when it comes to raising sanctions against Iran, Biden’s record shows otherwise.
  • New York City “welcomes” 1,300 Guineans: Life’s tough all over these days, especially for illegal immigrants, around 1,300 of whom mobbed up at City Hall in New York City to demand their rightful free stuff. The illegals were mostly from the West African nation of Guinea because, well, why not? They’re flowing in freely from everywhere else. Apparently, PJ Media’s Lincoln Brown notes, “An activist group said that work visas and green cards were to be distributed and that word had spread around the migrant community.” On the bright side, we suppose it’s encouraging that they at least seem to be interested in working. But, as Brown adds: “On some level, these administrators, bureaucrats, and wonks knew that someone was going to have to pay for all of these immigrants, one way or another. With that in mind, their plan is to put our money, jobs, homes, and lives where their rhetoric is.”
  • Monitoring half a million felonious illegals: Of the more than six million illegal migrants U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is supposedly monitoring, some 617,000 of them are either convicted felons or have pending criminal charges. In a House Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sheriff Bill Waybourn of Tarrant County, Texas, provided a local sample of this criminal problem currently impacting the entire country. After noting that he currently has 264 illegal immigrants sitting in his county jail, all facing felony charges — everything from murder to sexual assault to possession of child pornography — Waybourn stated, “These offenders, [many of which] are gang members and outlaws, have left nothing untouched.” He added, “While I do not necessarily think these aliens have a higher crime rate, just the fact these people are illegal in our country and committed crimes is the impact.” Loudoun County, Virginia, Sheriff Mike Chapman testified to the growing problem of fentanyl and other drugs that have been pouring into his county, which had directly resulted in the rise of juvenile overdoses. Chapman tellingly observed: “Having served as a DEA agent in Miami during the mid and late 80s, I thought I had seen the worst of the drug problem. I was wrong.” Former Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli laid the blame squarely at Joe Biden’s feet, stating, “President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas are knowingly and willingly sacrificing Americans to appease their anti-American leftist political constituency.”
  • Google rabble arrested for anti-Israel protest in CEO’s office: It seems that some of Google’s hard-left, Jew-hating employees can’t stand the fact that their company is doing work with the Israeli government, including a $1.2 billion initiative called Project Nimbus. The sit-ins were announced via internal Google email, and they took place in two Google offices, New York City and Sunnyvale, California. The dirty hippies aimed high, too, going so far as to occupy the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian. It could be worse, we suppose. After all, they could instead be engaged in toddler terrorist tantrums. In any case, it’s a catchy ditty they uncorked there in the CEO’s office. Let’s all sing it now: Google, Google, you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide. A Google spokesperson said, in part, “Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and we will investigate and take action.” And take action they did. The employees were placed on administrative leave, and their access to Google systems was suspended. We wonder, though: If these folks don’t like their company’s business decisions, perhaps they ought to find some other place to work. As constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley points out: “This is part of the rather perverse universe we find ourselves in. They’re Google. They’re employees at the company. … Free speech does not include disrupting others from speaking. It also doesn’t include taking a salary and going in and stopping your business because you have a few things that you want to get off your chest.”
  • Menendez blames his wife: New Jersey Democrat Senator Bob Menendez is facing bribery charges, and the evidence is pretty damning. But Bob’s team has a plan, which amounts to invoking one of the oldest excuses in the history of mankind: It’s my wife’s fault. According to recently unsealed court documents, Menendez is blaming his wife Nadine for withholding information from him and thereby giving him the false impression that everything was on the up-and-up. The documents read in part, “While these explanations, and the marital communications on which they rely, will tend to exonerate Senator Menendez by demonstrating the absence of any improper intent on Senator Menendez’s part, they may inculpate Nadine [Menendez] by demonstrating the ways in which she withheld information from Senator Menendez or otherwise led him to believe that nothing unlawful was taking place.” While Mrs. Menendez is also facing bribery charges in the case, this attempt to pin the full blame on her should work wonders in their marriage. Meanwhile, the trial has been postponed until late summer, as Mrs. Menendez is dealing with a medical issue.
  • ChiCom fentanyl tax rebates: Would it not be an act of war for a foreign country to actively conspire to poison American citizens by the bushel? Asking for a dead friend. According to the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, China has been subsidizing the manufacture and export “of illicit fentanyl precursor chemicals and other synthetic narcotics through tax rebates and other means.” Yoo-hoo, President Biden. Former AG Bill Barr says the Chinese Communist Party is knee-deep in the fentanyl crisis that is plaguing our nation to the funeral dirge of some 70,000 dead Americans every year. As Barr told Fox News this morning: “It’s clear that they’re not acting in good faith. And when they do something, it’s window dressing. They’re knee-deep in this. They’re active. … They’re driving the trafficking. They’re incentivizing the trafficking.” Asked what the ChiComs’ angle is in all this, Barr says: “I think a big part of it is strategic. That is, they believe it weakens the United States. It tells the world that we’re a decadent society, and a disciplined society like China’s is the future, and it distracts us. And so, if it’s bad for us, it’s good for them.” Barr isn’t optimistic about any lessening of the crisis, at least not from the Biden administration, whose obeisance to the ChiComs knows no bounds. He says the Chinese and the Mexicans are giving us “happy talk” and that they’re both complicit. Maybe it’s time for a tougher foreign policy — one that puts the lives and interests of American citizens before the sensitivities of our greatest geopolitical foe.
  • Germany is climate nuts: It would seem that when the Germans decide to do anything, they do it to the extreme. A case in point is Germany’s commitment to net-zero carbon emissions. Recently, German transport minister Volker Wissing warned that unless the country changes its net-zero laws, people’s weekend driving will have to be banned. Wissing explained that in order to meet the net-zero target, Germans would effectively have to give up their leisure driving rights. “A corresponding reduction in traffic performance would only be possible through restrictive measures that are difficult to communicate to the population, such as nationwide and indefinite driving bans on Saturdays and Sundays,” he wrote last week. Curtailing individual freedom in the name of “saving the planet” is the playbook for the Left across the West. Germany is simply further down that tyrannical “green” road, and it should serve as a warning to the rest of us. Fortunately, for car-loving Germans, Wissing’s warning had an impact, as the government agreed to a more moderated emissions law.

Headlines

  • Justices divided over January 6 participant’s call to throw out obstruction charge (SCOTUSblog) | Justice Gorsuch throws shade at Jamaal Bowman during J6 hearing, and it’s glorious (PJ Media) | Gorsuch hammers Biden DOJ on “mostly peaceful protests” (Washington Examiner)
  • Planned Parenthood: More abortions, more taxpayer dollars, and fewer health services (National Review)
  • Biden has taken over 200 actions against U.S. oil (Just the News)
  • Biden plans new 15% tariff on Chinese steel (NY Post)
  • Iran closes nuclear facilities over fears they could be targeted in strike (Daily Wire)
  • California legislators water down bill making buying child prostitutes a felony (Just the News)
  • West Virginia transgender sports ban discriminates against teen athlete, appeals court says (AP)
  • Scotland’s proposed misogyny law will protect men pretending to be women, First Minister says (Daily Wire)
  • Policy: The failed experiment with ending standardized testing (National Review)
  • Humor: Journalist at NPR suspended, leading to shocking discovery there was a journalist at NPR (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.

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The Honest Pro-Abortion Argument

As told by leftist political commentator and nihilist Bill Maher.

Emmy Griffin

On the HBO show “Real Time With Bill Maher,” guests Piers Morgan and Gillian Tett were discussing a 15-week abortion ban as an unofficial American standard and comparing it to the rest of the world. By the way, the U.S. remains one of only seven nations in the world permitting abortion all the way through pregnancy — China, Vietnam, and North Korea among the others.

Predictably, Tett went to the usual leftist tactic by asking why we even care, adding that it’s outdated and strange that people do. This is where host and comedian Bill Maher chimed in, giving a refreshingly honest — if also rather horrifying — take on the pro-choice argument. He started out by addressing Tett’s conviction that focusing on the abortion issue is strange, saying, “Not if you think it’s murder.”

He went on to say: “I don’t understand the 15-week thing, or the Trump’s plan [sic] is, ‘Let’s leave it to the states.’ You mean, so killing babies is okay in some states? Like, I can respect the absolutist position. I really can. I scold the Left on when they say: ‘Oh, you know what? They just hate women. People who aren’t … pro-choice.’ They just — they don’t hate women. [The pro-abortion crowd] just made that up.”

He ends with this kicker of a statement: “[Pro-lifers] think it’s murder. And it kind of is. I’m just okay with that. I am. I mean, there’s eight billion people in the world. I’m sorry, we won’t miss you. That’s my position.”

Along with the silent audience, Morgan was rather befuddled, responding, “That’s kind of harsh, Bill.” To which Maher responded, “Is that not your position if you’re pro-choice?”

Once one gets past the initial shock of these harpies blithely discussing gestational age appropriateness to ban murder, one is stunned by Maher’s candor.

Maher is a major pro-choice public figure. He calls abortion what it is, and it shocks even his fellow ideologues. We can appreciate that, for once, a pro-abortion advocate doesn’t cover up the act with euphemisms or deny the reality that life begins at conception. Political pundit Matt Walsh correctly describes it as the logical nihilistic argument. Nihilism rejects all morality and religious principles and upholds the view that life has no meaning.

Here is where it’s worth mentioning that Maher is an atheist. This is important because it entirely explains why someone like Bill Maher would be okay with murder to keep the population down. If one is an atheist, one does not believe in or serve a God beyond that of one’s self. Life has no purpose; therefore, ending it before it really has much of a beginning could be seen as mercy.

This, however, is still the argument of a person — some might even say a sociopath — with a very warped morality. It opens the door to the justification of every kind of evil, like killing off the elderly, the mentally ill, the disabled, or anyone who is considered a “burden.” Where does one draw the line? Why does Maher think that his being okay with killing babies means the line can stop there? His worldview can be summed up in the words of Voldemort, J.K. Rowling’s antagonist in the Harry Potter series: “There is no good or evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.”

When you take away the taboo and illegality of committing murder — i.e., when you take away the moral boundaries — people are going to take it to its logical and horrific conclusions (see Canada).

Life is a fundamental right. Life also has a purpose, and for those who are Christians, that purpose is clearly stated in the Bible: “glorify God and enjoy him forever.” On this Earth, we are to use our very lives as a living testimony to God’s glory. We do not even come close to doing this perfectly. However, we who are believers and followers of Christ are redeemed and justified by the only one who did live a perfect life: Jesus. In death, this redemption is made complete by everlasting life in heaven with God the Father.

It’s also worth adding that some people who claim the mantle of Christianity don’t actually follow its teachings or attempt to uphold its precepts. In fact, Pew Research finds that 60% of Catholics support abortion, which is contrary to the teachings of the Bible and the Catholic Church. This isn’t at all surprising. Many Catholics are cultural Catholics. They attend church very rarely. In fact, Pew reports that only 30% go to church regularly.

How, then, does one explain “devout Catholic” President Joe Biden’s stance on abortion? DC Cardinal Wilton Gregory described him as being a “cafeteria Catholic.” In other words, “cafeteria Catholics” (and other nominal Christians in other denominations) pick and choose which precepts of the church to actually follow. Does this glorify God? Are they attempting to live up to the chief end of man?

The answer, sadly, is no. They have gone the way of the culture and are more interested in glorifying themselves or seeking power at the expense of the weak and vulnerable.

At least Bill Maher is honest about his nihilism.

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Couric Decries Anti-Intellectual MAGA Supporters

Joining Bill Maher for a sit-down chat, the former network news anchor reminded why she’s so unlikable.

Douglas Andrews

It’s been a good while since Katie Couric was relevant, but she’s found herself back in the spotlight this week for her elitist take on Donald Trump and his supporters.

Couric, the former network news anchor, was invited by lefty Bill Maher to join him on his “Club Random” podcast, where Maher and his guest settle into soft chairs, share a drink or two, and engage in a meandering 90-minute back-and-forth.

When the topic turned to how we absorb and interpret news and politics, Maher said that each political party believes the other is an “existential threat” and can’t be trusted. To which Couric said: “But don’t you think things changed so dramatically, Bill, when Donald Trump arrived on the scene? Because … there’s always been policy differences … but when Trump arrived on the scene, the decorum was gone. Sort of this level of basic decency evaporated. And, you know, just complete falsehoods.”

Yeah, it’s all Trump’s fault.

Maher, to his credit, has gotten sick of the Trump hatred on his side, and he’s at least tried to understand what half the country finds so appealing about the man. So he calmly came back at Couric: “Not to defend Trump, but to defend the people who still vote for him because what they see on the other side, to them, is even more dangerous. Because it’s closer to home. ‘My kid is coming home from school, and he thinks he’s a racist? He’s 5, what have you been telling him? My son thinks maybe he’s not a boy.’”

Maher continued: “But, you know, those kinds of things are why they say, ‘That’s why I’m voting for Trump.’ A conservative guy once said to me, ‘What you don’t get about Trump is that we don’t like him either. Now, that’s not true for all people … but lots of people, it’s like that. ‘He’s all that stands between us and madness.’ That’s their view. … I would like that view presented. That view. Not election deniers, but just try to understand why even the election-denying thing is not a deal-breaker for these people. And I think they’re wrong. But I don’t hate them. And they’re not stupid.”

That Maher doesn’t hate us and doesn’t think we’re stupid is yet another sign that he isn’t the ardent lefty he once was. Perhaps it’s because he’s been mugged by reality one too many times. Or perhaps it’s simply because he’s 68, and his couldn’t-care-less attitude has become even more so.

Still, if Maher’s basis for understanding Trump voters is some random “conservative guy” who doesn’t like Trump, then he clearly needs to get out more, clearly needs to take a page from Jacob Riis and see how the other half lives. It’s certainly true that some Trump voters will do so grudgingly, but the majority absolutely love him.

Why might this be? Briefly put, as the exit polling from the Iowa Caucuses made clear, Trump shares their values and fights for people like them.

Squinty-eyed Katie, though, has her own thoughts on the MAGA phenomenon. In an insightful analysis that bordered on the magisterial, here’s how Couric assessed what makes those smelly Walmart-shopping Trump supporters tick:

Socio-economic disparities are a lot-, and class resentment, is a lot-, what-, and anti-intellectualism and [anti-]elitism is what is driving many of these, these anti-establishment Tr-, which are Trump voters. They’re anti-establishment voters. So, I think that is a huge problem that we have to address.

In one sense, I agree with Couric. There’s definitely an anti-elitism among Trump supporters because anti-elitism is the essence of populism. As for anti-intellectualism, I’d say it’s more an anti-pseudo-intellectualism. Thomas Sowell and Victor Davis Hanson, after all, are intellectuals, whereas racial hucksters like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ibram X. Kendi fall into the pseudo-intellectual category, the phony intellectual category.

This isn’t to give a pass to legitimate intellectuals — one of whom, Karl Marx, was the inspiration for the greatest mass murderers of the previous century. Mao and Stalin were communists, and Hitler was a national socialist.

Closer to home, we have our 28th president, Woodrow Wilson, who, before his stint in the Oval Office, was president of Princeton. He not only ushered in the era of “progressive” politics and a bigger, more activist government, but he also segregated the federal workforce in Washington. Who knew a “progressive” could also be a vile racist?

For good measure, “Karen” Couric added this: “I mean, globalization and the transition from an industrial to a technological society — I don’t know if you’ve ever been jealous of some-, what someone else has, or resentful. It is such a corroding and, um, bitter, almost bile, feeling.”

So, you see, if you support Trump, you’re a mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging, hammer-wielding Luddite. You can almost hear the “basket of deplorables” on her lips.

But as for that “almost bile” feeling, Couric clearly knows of what she speaks. A few years ago, she published a memoir called Going There — a memoir in which, as commentator Piers Morgan notes, she wrote jealously and corrosively and bitterly and biliously about her fellow female TV hosts, including Ashleigh Banfield, Deborah Norville, Diane Sawyer, and Martha Stewart.

“I suggest she put a sock in it,” said Morgan. But his advice comes too late. By now, Katie has already given us a window into the mind of the Left elite.

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‘Knife Violence’ Hits Australia

Australia’s tough knife control laws didn’t stop a pair of knife attacks over the weekend.

Thomas Gallatin

Australia may have largely done away with guns, but that hasn’t stopped it from suffering murderous mass attacks.

Over the weekend in Sydney, a 40-year-old knife-wielding man attacked people in a shopping mall with murderous results. The attack was finally stopped by a police officer with a gun, who shot the perpetrator dead as he lunged at her — but not before he had killed six and wounded a dozen others.

While no motive has yet been determined, the attacker apparently suffered from some form of mental illness. (They don’t say.) Thus far, police have ruled out any terrorism connections.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, and once again in Sydney, another knife-wielding individual attacked a bishop as he was delivering a sermon. The attacker, a young man, strolled up to the front of the Assyrian church, produced a knife, and started stabbing.

Fortunately, parishioners quickly responded, subduing the perpetrator. The bishop, while wounded, was not killed and is expected to make a full recovery. No word on the motive of the attacker other than that he reportedly said the bishop “was getting involved in my religion, so I came to get involved in his.”

Both of these incidents are sad commentaries on humanity. People, for a variety of reasons or issues, will too often seek to harm others. Indeed, this has been the case with humanity since the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden.

While the tools for murder may be anything from a rock to a knife to a gun to a vehicle, what has always mattered was the result of the attack, not the implement used. Only a society that rejects the fundamental fallen nature of mankind would be so deceived as to believe that the instrument used in the commission of the crime was the fundamental cause of the crime.

And yet, that is precisely what politicians in the West have been preaching over the past few decades. When an atrocity such as the mass attack at the mall in Sydney occurs, the focus of many goes to the implement used.

Back in 1996, a man wielding a firearm murdered 35 people in the Australian state of Tasmania. The shocking event was used by politicians to implement severe gun control laws, including a state-mandated gun buyback program. Law-abiding Australians effectively lost their right to self-defense and their right to bear arms. Unfortunately, unlike American citizens, Australians do not have a Second Amendment.

Of course, leftists in the U.S. would love nothing more than to see the Second Amendment repealed and the American public disarmed. In their mind, only the state should have the right to bear arms, which is why Democrats have occasionally pointed to the Australian model.

Will politicians in Australia take advantage of these latest murderous attacks to further disarm Australians? Just last year, Sydney’s state of New South Wales passed restrictive knife crime legislation. The law, which was billed as a necessary safety measure, doubled the penalties for “knife crimes” and other knife-related offenses.

Clearly, these knife laws failed to stop these attacks because they focused on the tool rather than on the fact that there are individuals who will engage in evil acts. In the case of the mall attacker, if it had not been for a fast-responding armed police officer in the area, the death toll may well have been substantially higher.

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Lessons From the Masters

Wrestling with life’s challenges? Don’t look to elected politicians for answers!

Jack DeVine

Amidst the election-year craziness here in the U.S. and rapidly deteriorating conditions worldwide, who’s up for a politics-free op-ed? If so, read on.

Last week, the 88th Masters Golf Tournament was held at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Augusta National is a demanding and exquisitely beautiful venue built by the legendary Bobby Jones. The tournament held there each year is rich in tradition, hosting the world’s best golfers in competition for the coveted Masters green jacket, along with lots of money and lifetime fame.

For golf fans, the Masters is more than sports entertainment — it’s a timeless, captivating event. I remember watching on a grainy black-and-white TV as a 10-year-old with my mother, cheering on her favorite, Dr. Cary Middlecoff (winner in 1955), surprised that a dentist could be such a good golfer. The lessons never cease.

It’s often said that golf emulates life. It does, in many ways. And it occurs to me that we might be better off if life emulated golf. Some examples:

1.) Golf competition is a pure meritocracy — the best score wins. It’s fine for a golfer to have an engaging personality, cool duds, and rabid fans, but the tournament winner is the one who completes 72 holes with the fewest strokes. That’s it. The only spin that counts on the golf course is the spin a good golfer puts on the ball to stop it on the green; media spin buys nothing.

2.) In golf, you must live with your mistakes. It’s embarrassing enough with everyone watching to hit a wild shot into the woods, but then you have to tromp in after it, and if you’re lucky enough to find the errant golf ball (thus avoiding the lost ball penalty), you have to try to hit it out of that mess, a move that often makes a bad situation worse. And when it’s all said and done, all of those poorly executed shots, penalties, and compounded errors show up on your scorecard.

On Sunday, Colin Morikowa was tournament co-leader on the ninth hole when he let a slightly misdirected drive drift off the fairway, into the pine straw and behind a tree. That hampered his second shot, leading to more trouble and ultimately to a double bogey. He never recovered the lead.

3.) Similarly, competitive golfers must live with unlucky breaks as well. On Sunday, Max Homa, just two strokes back going into Augusta National’s infamous 12th hole, hit what looked like an excellent shot onto the green — but the ball took an unusually sharp forward bounce into the dense foliage behind the green — and disappeared. The unplayable lie and penalty led to a double bogey on his score, and he also was unable to make up the deficit.

Unfair? Maybe — but that’s golf, and that’s also life. Politicians take note: Finding someone or something to blame might improve the optics but not the score.

4.) In golf, honesty is sacred. Competitors are responsible for keeping track of their own scores, including penalties for rules violations, even if unobserved. Signing an incorrect scorecard after the round — even if unintended and inconsequential — is cause for immediate disqualification. It happened in 1968 when Roberto DiVincenzo made that simple mistake, and his Masters win — his only major championship — was erased.

That rigid standard is harder to maintain in informal weekend golfing, but the basic ethic remains: A golf match is a personal challenge, the golfer vs. the golf course (for mediocre golfers like me, the course usually wins), and a miscounted score is a lie to oneself.

5.) Golf is a humbling game. On Saturday at Augusta, Tiger Woods — a light-years better golfer over his professional career than just about everyone who ever played the game — shot an embarrassingly pedestrian 82. It happens — a reminder of human frailty — but it does not diminish the stature of those who excel.

So take note, elected leaders — and office managers, school teachers, business owners, mothers and fathers, little league coaches, Girl Scout and Boy Scout leaders, and all who influence our future generation in some way (I guess that’s all of us): We mere mortals may have no hope of ever shooting 11 strokes under par at Augusta National, but there is a great deal we can learn from Scottie Scheffler and his competitors in last week’s Masters Tourney.

Strive for constant improvement in whatever is our life’s work. When we make mistakes, shake them off and live with the consequences, however painful. Tell the truth — to your playing partners and to ourselves. When bad luck strikes (it will), don’t waste time with excuses, and don’t sink into the blame game — just deal with it.

And when we do, just slip on that imaginary green jacket and nod to the imaginary crowd.

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BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion.

SHORT CUTS

Upright

“I am resigning from NPR. … I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay.” —Uri Berliner

“NPR has hired a left-wing activist who openly endorses censoring, deplatforming, and punching political opponents. She considers the First Amendment the ‘number one challenge’ to controlling ‘bad information.’ The American people should not be paying for this.” —Christopher F. Rufo

“NPR has become a hard left propaganda machine that tolerates no dissent.” —Elon Musk

The BIG Lies

“I have never minimized the challenge that the southern border presents.” —DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

“We’ve had the most successful economy of any major economy in the world so far. … I’ve been able to cut the federal deficit at the same exact time.” —Joe Biden

“I’ve already been delivering real results in a fiscally responsible way.” —Joe Biden

“I hope you’re all able to make $400,000. I never did.” —Joe Biden

Don’t Believe Your Lying Eyes

“The president has no impairment.” —Attorney General Merrick Garland

Delusions of Grandeur

“Joe Biden gets up every day fighting for the American people. He does what I call the hard work of governing well all the time. … He focuses on bringing people together.” —Biden campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu

Can’t Fix Stupid

“A standalone [bill] would … actually not help Israel and Ukraine. It would actually delay … the needed aid that they obviously need to fight.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre

Belly Laugh of the Day

“DA [Alvin] Bragg will treat this [Trump] case with the respect that the justice system deserves. … He will not politicize this.” —Congressman Dan Goldman (D-NY)

For the Record

“One-word warnings are not a believable foreign policy. Joe Biden has given Iran billions of dollars, and he thinks ‘Don’t’ is going to send a tough message? That’s ludicrous, insulting, and dangerous.” —Gary Bauer

“Most people boasting about the gleaming economy are inside the Washington bubble or nested inside college faculty lounges. … When nearly two of three Americans say things aren’t going well for their personal financial situation, the ‘don’t worry, be happy’ bromide isn’t the response most voters are looking for.” —Stephen Moore

“Our current oppressive tax system can be analogized to Dracula, who is never satisfied with the blood he sucks out of one victim, but must constantly look for new sources to bite. We must drive a stake in the blood-sucking government’s heart, or we will end up driving one in ourselves.” —Cal Thomas

Re: The Left

“This has been the modus operandi of every left-wing group everywhere: Claim concern for some group, and use that group to fool people — specifically, naive liberals, who share few values with the Left but have frequently served as useful idiots for the Left. Liberals do so to this day.” —Dennis Prager

“DEI, typified by the deluge of corporate ‘diversity’ commercials that flooded the airwaves in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death and the expansion of DEI departments across academia, was only ever meant to help white liberals cling to their cultural power.” —Washington Examiner contributor Peter Laffin

And Last…

“The pro-Hamas side is literally chanting ‘Death to America’ — in America. If Biden believes his reelection chances rest on getting votes from that crowd, he should run for office in the Gaza Strip, not the United States.” —Victor Joecks

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TODAY’S MEME

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TODAY’S CARTOON

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For more of today’s cartoons, visit the Cartoons archive.

“From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”.

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