Neil Gorsuch Will Have Immediate Impact

At LAT:

.@TerriGreenUSA Thank goodness: #Gorsuch's impact on divided Supreme Court will begin immediately: https://t.co/qRifPCQRDI

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) April 10, 2017

Newlyweds Hold Wedding Reception at In-N-Out

That is the best!

At ABC 15 News Phoenix:

Newlywed couple holds wedding reception at In-n-Out in California.https://t.co/MXpyp7xZlE #abc15 pic.twitter.com/6xyvZM0ZbM

— ABC15 Arizona (@abc15) April 2, 2017

Without God, All Morality is Mere Opinion

Here's Dennis Prager, "If There Is No God, Murder Isn't Wrong

Chloé Valdary

Ms. Chloé made the "Don't Judge Blacks Differently" video for Prager University, which is one of my longtime favorites.

She's a really good lady.

Trump Administration's Religious Freedom Executive Order

The hits keep coming for leftists, and the freak-out index keeps dialing up.

It turns out the administration's forthcoming executive order on religious freedom's been leaked, and far-left outlets are in meltdown mode.

At Newsweek, "LGBT Groups Brace for Trump Religious Freedom Executive Order."

At at the Nation, "Leaked Draft of Trump’s Religious Freedom Order Reveals Sweeping Plans to Legalize Discrimination":

Lefty groups are freaking out about the draft of Trump's religious liberty EO. It's good policy. He should issue it. https://t.co/Y1ICL3Ansz

— Ryan T. Anderson (@RyanTAnd) February 2, 2017

If signed, the order would create wholesale exemptions for people and organizations who claim religious objections to same-sex marriage, premarital sex, abortion, and trans identity.

leaked copy of a draft executive order titled “Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom,” obtained by The Investigative Fund and The Nation, reveals sweeping plans by the Trump administration to legalize discrimination.

The four-page draft order, a copy of which is currently circulating among federal staff and advocacy organizations, construes religious organizations so broadly that it covers “any organization, including closely held for-profit corporations,” and protects “religious freedom” in every walk of life: “when providing social services, education, or healthcare; earning a living, seeking a job, or employing others; receiving government grants or contracts; or otherwise participating in the marketplace, the public square, or interfacing with Federal, State or local governments.”

The draft order seeks to create wholesale exemptions for people and organizations who claim religious or moral objections to same-sex marriage, premarital sex, abortion, and trans identity, and it seeks to curtail women’s access to contraception and abortion through the Affordable Care Act. The White House did not respond to requests for comment, but when asked Monday about whether a religious freedom executive order was in the works, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters, “I’m not getting ahead of the executive orders that we may or may not issue. There is a lot of executive orders, a lot of things that the president has talked about and will continue to fulfill, but we have nothing on that front now.”

Language in the draft document specifically protects the tax-exempt status of any organization that “believes, speaks, or acts (or declines to act) in accordance with the belief that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, sexual relations are properly reserved for such a marriage, male and female and their equivalents refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy, physiology, or genetics at or before birth, and that human life begins at conception and merits protection at all stages of life.”

 The breadth of the draft order, which legal experts described as “sweeping” and “staggering,” may exceed the authority of the executive branch if enacted. It also, by extending some of its protections to one particular set of religious beliefs, would risk violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution.

“This executive order would appear to require agencies to provide extensive exemptions from a staggering number of federal laws—without regard to whether such laws substantially burden religious exercise,” said Marty Lederman, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and an expert on church-state separation and religious freedom.

The exemptions, Lederman said, could themselves violate federal law or license individuals and private parties to violate federal law. “Moreover,” he added, “the exemptions would raise serious First Amendment questions, as well, because they would go far beyond what the Supreme Court has identified as the limits of permissive religious accommodations.” It would be “astonishing,” he said, “if the Office of Legal Counsel certifies the legality of this blunderbuss order.”

The leaked draft maintains that, as a matter of policy, “Americans and their religious organizations will not be coerced by the Federal Government into participating in activities that violate their conscience.”

It sets forth an exceptionally expansive definition of “religious exercise” that extends to “any act or refusal to act that is motivated by a sincerely held religious belief, whether or not the act is required or compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief.” “It’s very sweeping,” said Ira Lupu, a professor emeritus at the George Washington University Law School and an expert on the Constitution’s religion clauses and on the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). “It raises a big question about whether the Constitution or the RFRA authorizes the president to grant religious freedom in such a broad way.”

In particular, said Lupu, the draft order “privileges” a certain set of beliefs about sexual orientation and gender identity—beliefs identified most closely with conservative Catholics and evangelical Christians—over others. That, he said, goes beyond “what RFRA might authorize” and may violate the Establishment Clause.

Lupu added that the language of the draft “might invite federal employees,” for example, at the Social Security Administration or Veterans Administration, “to refuse on religious grounds to process applications or respond to questions from those whose benefits depend on same sex marriages.” If other employees do not “fill the gap,” he said, it could “lead to a situation where marriage equality was being de facto undermined by federal employees, especially in religiously conservative communities,” contrary to Supreme Court rulings...

Still more.

Nikita Coulombe, 'Why Feminism Wants to Dismantle the Family'

Here's Ms. Nikita, at Medium, "Like many isms before it (Communism, religions, cults), feminism seeks to dismantle the traditional family unit for its own gain. Why? To the ism, old loyalties are like bad habits interfering with an individual’s ability to pledge unwavering allegiance. Isms want control, but families tend to put family members and their needs before the demands of the ism, reducing the ism’s power and influence and therefore undermining its control."

“Why Feminism Wants to Dismantle the Family (long)” — Nikita Coulombe https://t.co/Ds1arZBOUX pic.twitter.com/nHfKow5FUy

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) January 18, 2017

This woman -> @NikitaCoulombe <- should have THOUSANDS of followers.

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) January 18, 2017

If You Saw Your Dog and a Stranger Both Drowning in the Ocean, Which Would You Save First?

Here's Dennis Prager:

Benjamin Netanyahu's Christmas Message (VIDEO)

I love Benjamin Netanyahu.

His messages always make me feel so good and proud, and so welcomed in Israel.

I'm planning at trip to Israel, in fact. I'm not sure when. I have two trips on the agenda. I don't know if I can make it one big trip or not. I want to go to France, to Normandy, and I want to visit Auschwitz, in Poland. Then I want to go to Israel. That might be two trips, but we'll see. I'm not sure if my wife wants to go. She's not comfortable traveling outside of the U.S., and I don't blame her. But I'm not worried. Maybe this summer I'll be able to do some traveling. The time is right, financially as well as family-wise. I want my sons to go, especially my young son, who hasn't traveled a lot yet.

In any case, enjoy the prime minister's message, via the Conservative Treehouse:

Ward Cleaver, Sexiest Man Alive

Here's Jim Geraghty, for Prager University:

Hollywood Faces Identity Crisis After Donald Trump's Election

I don't expect much to change.

When I took my young son to see "Hell or High Water" a few months back, I remarked as the film ended how it was mostly older white patrons exiting the theater. Those movie-goers wanted to enjoy something other than the far-left fare of Hollywood's politically-correct, identity-obsessed culture mavens.

"Hell or High Water" is mentioned at this piece as perhaps the kind of content of which Hollywood should be producing more frequently.

At LAT, "From panic to possibility: A reeling entertainment industry regroups after Trump's win":

Shortly after Donald Trump was elected president, the executive producer of the CW series “Jane the Virgin” decided to make a few changes: She nixed the Ivanka Trump shoes from wardrobe and urged the show’s writers to make a key character zealous about registering Latinos to vote.

Trump’s victory is redrawing many narratives and story lines across the country, including those at the center of the entertainment industry. In addition to the new activism and footwear, “Jane the Virgin,” a family saga of a young Latina in Miami, will be recalibrated in other ways to address America’s unsettling cultural and political climate.

“The writers and I talked about it a lot, about how we should and can approach it most effectively within our storytelling,” said creator and showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman. “I think our show has to live in this world.”

Those sentiments echo across town. Trump may be a colossus of Hollywood’s own making— it was “The Apprentice,” not real estate, that made him a household name — but his defeat of Hillary Clinton was a stinging repudiation of the political correctness, diversity and liberalism celebrated by much of the entertainment business at a time of bitter argument over the nation’s ideals.

The question now is how will Hollywood, which for years has nudged gay rights and other contentious social issues into the mainstream, speak to Trump’s agitated, disillusioned and God-fearing rural America. Will we see more insightful TV shows about working-class lives, such as the 1990s hit “Roseanne”, or will we encounter an uptick in artistic defiance, as when the cast of “Hamilton” recently briefed Vice-president-elect Mike Pence on multi-culturalism?

Trump’s furious response to that incident could provoke a chilling effect, but conversations with Hollywood creators suggest they will remain resolute in advancing civil rights and artistic freedom while also moving toward programming that seeks common ground. A top ABC executive acknowledged last week that the network could do more to illuminate working-class lives.

“With our dramas, we have a lot of shows that feature very well-to-do, very well-educated people…. They all drive very nice cars and live in extremely nice places,” Channing Dungey, president of ABC Entertainment, was quoted as saying at a media summit in London. “We have not, in recent history, paid enough attention to some of the true realities of what life is like in a day-in and day-out way for everyday Americans in some of our dramas.”

Even more than the drawn-out contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore, this election has left America in the clamor of a culturally defining moment, much like the tumult of the 1960s and the insecure, rattled aftermath of 9/11. Trump’s rightist leanings and nationalist populism, and the angry anxiety they have provoked, will likely influence many of our films, books, songs, social media musings and even the images we hold up as emblematic of our times.

This catharsis over the country’s cultural divide is unfolding even as the media landscape and the power of Hollywood celebrity have been splintered; streaming and platforms such as Netflix and Hulu have made our entertainment pathways and content more vast and diffuse than at any time in our history. A former reality-TV star, Trump’s mastery of Twitter shows how cultural and political narratives, from jingoism to veiled racism, can be targeted and refined to rally audiences in an increasingly us-versus-them atmosphere.

 “It’s a turbulent, unsafe time for most of us in this country,” said Sadie Dupuis, songwriter for the indie band Speedy Ortiz. Dupuis, whose new solo album “Slugger” focuses on empowering feminist themes, will be one of many musicians attending the women’s march in Washington planned for the day after Trump’s inauguration. “What art will take shape will depend on what happens in his presidency,” she added. “He is appointing white supremacists to his Cabinet.”

Trump’s election was a gut punch to a liberal Hollywood that had backed Clinton. Chelsea Handler teared up on her Netflix talk show. Aaron Sorkin wrote a public letter to his 15-year-old daughter that stressed getting involved to fight injustice.“The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah self-medicated during the show’s election-night broadcast with Pepto-Bismol and sobering humor: “This is it, the end of the presidential race, and it feels like the end of the world,” Noah said. “We are going to be making jokes tonight, but I am very much afraid.”

The mixed emotions even prompted unexpected disclosures: Kanye West drew boos at a San Jose concert after revealing that if he had voted in this year’s election (he said he didn’t), he would have chosen Trump — commending the president-elect’s politically incorrect command of social media as a way of galvanizing his constituency. (His comments prefaced a breakdown that led to the cancellation of his tour and his hospitalization.)  Such revelations along with scripts, lyrics and plays will factor into how the cultural map will be redrawn during Trump’s administration.

And this is not only an American cultural moment. The world is reverberating with economic anxiety and racist and anti-immigrant fervor, marked by Britain’s impending break from the European Union and the ascent of right-wing parties and nationalist voices from France to the Philippines. Such forces will challenge Hollywood, where more than 70% of the box office comes from overseas, to tap into the complicated story lines of a planet that may not so easily embrace the simple heroics of a Marvel blockbuster.

The fear of “the other” that Trump leveraged during his campaign is starting to reshape certain story lines. Like “Jane the Virgin,” “Fresh Off the Boat,” the ABC comedy about an Asian American immigrant family, recently took on immigration, in this case against the backdrop of the 1996 race between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. Viewers learn that Jessica Huang, the matriarch of the family played by Constance Wu, has a green card, but she never applied for U.S. citizenship because she felt intimidated by the process.

“With the results of the election, it just sort of confirmed to us that this is a dialogue that needs to happen,” said executive producer Nahnatchka Khan, who plans to continue lacing the comedy with current themes. “These are issues that, even though the show takes place 20 years ago, are still so relevant — even more so now, with the heightened level of fear and anxiety that people are feeling.”

She added: “You can either retreat and cower away from tackling those issues or you can embrace it. I think we’re going to see a lot of art trending toward not being afraid.”

Cinema and television may be overpopulated by upwardly mobile urban professionals, but sympathetic portrayals of the white middle and working classes fuel shows such as ABC’s “The Middle”, a sitcom about an Indiana family, and this year’s “Hell or High Water,” a film that touches on financial hardship and despair in west Texas. Finding the right blend of such stories will be crucial in coming years if specific narratives on culture and class can extend beyond the typical Hollywood fare to find universal resonance...

You can say that again.

Keep reading.

Dennis Prager: America is in Jeopardy (VIDEO)

I love Dennis Prager.

I met him briefly at the David Horowitz West Coast Retreat in 2011.

I missed the 2016 PragerU Dinner, however. I'm sure that'd be a treat.

But don't miss Prager's outstanding book, Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph.

Books About Those 'Hot and Sexy Girls'

If you're up for some hip ("au courant") literary exegeses of the teenage Facebook/Instagram culture.

See Nancy Jo Sales, American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers, and Peggy Orenstein, Girls and Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape.

I'm glad I'm not a teenager in today's day and age.

Seriously. It's hard out there.

September 11 Flashback

My flashback, to 2010.

Here's the post that reminded me of this, "Turning Conservative After September 11, 2001."

The photo's from my visit to Ground Zero, September 11, 2010. Remember?

See, "Faith, Freedom, and Memory: Report From Ground Zero, September 11, 2010."

Dad Pulls Loose Tooth in Particularly Creative Way (VIDEO)

It's Sean Copeland and his son Brodie, two Americans who were slaughtered during the jihad truck rampage in Nice.

A beautiful video. What a great dad. And what an enormous loss of human life, for no reason other than an Islamic nihilist death wish.

At iOWNTHEWORLD Report, "Not Just Another “Dad Pulls Loose Tooth in Creative Way” Video."

Three Sylmar High School Baseball Players Enlisted in the Army

A great story.

One of those little nuggets of news that rekindle your faith in the goodness of America.

Remember, we're constantly bombarded with how terrible we are by the left. When I see a story like this, of young people resisting the left's nihilist culture, I want to shout it from the rooftops.

At LAT, "'Go Army' more than a motto for Sylmar High baseball players":

Mario Xavier Cruz, Robert Jaime and Erick Aleman. Coached by Ray Rivera. 'I've always wanted to serve my country' https://t.co/6pfoJYIh3Z

— Angel Rodriguez (@ajrod) July 1, 2016

When Mario Xavier Cruz and Robert Jaime, baseball teammates at Sylmar High, look up into the sky on the Fourth of July and see fireworks bursting in the air, their thoughts may turn emotional.

Jaime leaves July 11 for Army boot camp at Fort Jackson, S.C. Cruz leaves the same day for Fort Sill, Okla.

Another Sylmar teammate, Erick Aleman, left June 20 for boot camp at Fort Benning, Ga.

“I’m very proud,” Sylmar baseball coach Ray Rivera said. “Three players off one team.”

Rivera doesn’t act like an Army drill sergeant — though his preseason conditioning sessions are pretty tough and he’s got an Army haircut. But the coach does offer a clear message to any player who shows up.

“I tell them everything we do here is geared for preparing you for life,” he said.

And the players agree that baseball has helped prepare them for Army life.

“Playing baseball really influenced me to join,” Aleman, a pitcher, said in an email before he left. “Baseball gave me the personal courage and confidence to join. The skills that I learned, I will use throughout my military career and life.”

Said Cruz: “Baseball takes a lot of discipline and you have to be mentally tough.”

Aleman was first to sign up, then he started talking to Cruz and Jaime. Soon, they were all in.

“I’ve always wanted to serve my country,” said Jaime, an all-East Valley League catcher who batted .437 and also starred as a wrestler. “I always looked up to soldiers and saw how much respect they got.”

Rivera, who has been Sylmar's coach for 14 seasons, had other players join the military but never this many from one team.

“All three of them could have gone to college,” he said...

Keep reading.

Out Today: Dana Loesch, Flyover Nation

Our long national nightmare wait is over.

Available at Amazon, Flyover Nation: You Can't Run a Country You've Never Been To.



Plus, Dana will be speaking at the Politicon Convention this weekend in Pasadena. Hope to see you there!

Markets Soar After Poll Suggests Britain Will Stay in European Union

Hmm. It's just one poll?

Maybe traders are really jonesin' for the U.K. to stay?

At WSJ, "Global Stocks Soar After Poll Suggests U.K. Will Remain in EU":

Stocks, sterling and oil soared at the start of the week after polls suggested the U.K. was more likely to vote to remain in the European Union in Thursday’s referendum than previously expected.

The Stoxx Europe 600 jumped 3.7%, on track for its best day since August, while the British pound surged more than 2% against the dollar to as high as $1.4674.

Futures pointed to a 1.3% opening gain for the S&P 500. Changes in futures markets don't necessarily reflect market moves after the opening bell

“We’re in this sort of frenzied period where Brexit is front and center,” said Bob Doll, senior portfolio manager at Nuveen Asset Management.

A survey published in the Mail on Sunday showed that 45% of respondents backed the U.K. staying in the trade bloc, compared with 42% in favor of leaving. The poll-of-polls, averaging the last six polls in the U.K. vote, returned to 50/50, suggesting growing momentum for the “remain camp” in the referendum...

Keep reading.

There's no mention of the Jo Cox murder, but no doubt ghoulish British leftists will continue to exploit the poor woman's death.

FLASHBACK: From 2004, "Postcard from Britain: Immigration Is Hot Issue as Elections Approach."

Kim R. Holmes: Leftists Now Doing 'Mopping Up' Operations in Fundamental Transformation of America

I've been aggressively recommending Holmes's book, The Closing of the Liberal Mind: How Groupthink and Intolerance Define the Left.

It turns out he's done an interview with Ginni Thomas of the Daily Caller, via Mark Tapscott, at Instapundit, "IS THE LEFT CLOSING IN FOR THE KILL ON AMERICA?"

If that strikes you as an unbalanced question, consider that the guy posing it is Kim Holmes, a former Assistant Secretary of State and a long-time foreign policy expert at the Heritage Foundation. Holmes new book – The Closing of the Liberal Mind: How Groupthink and Intolerance Define the Left – lays out all of the disturbing facts.

Holmes sat down with Ginni Thomas of the Daily Caller (yes, and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas) to explain why he believes the Left’s various contemporary outrages constitute “a mopping-up operation and they’re going in for the kill.” Rather than merely dismissing this as another despairing old conservative, you would do well to read and hear Holmes make his case.

Modesto Man Places 75 Crosses on His Lawn to Honor Those Who Made the Ultimate Sacrifice (VIDEO)

Via KCRA News 3 Sacramento:

Interview with Kim R. Holmes (VIDEO)

Following-up from yesterday, "Should Be at Top of the Bestseller Lists: Kim R. Holmes, The Closing of the Liberal Mind."

Holmes discusses his book, The Closing of the Liberal Mind: How Groupthink and Intolerance Define the Left.