Tag Archives: National Prayer Breakfast

I Hadn’t Really Considered This Angle

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PJ Media posted a story today that I think ads an interesting dimension to President Obama’s remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast. As you remember, the President reminded us that we should get up on our ‘high horse’ about what the Islamic terrorists are doing because some of the history of Christianity is not so pure–the Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, support of slavery, etc. First of all, the Crusades were a response to Muslim aggression, and the Christians were the ones who fought slavery.

As far as the Spanish Inquisition, PJ Media says it better than I can:

But perhaps it is Obama who should avoid getting on his high horse, since according to recently published statistics, Obama’s drone campaign has killed more people during the six years of his presidency than were killed the 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition.

…At least 2,464 people have now been killed by US drone strikes outside the country’s declared war zones since President Barack Obama’s inauguration six years ago, the Bureau’s latest monthly report reveals.

Of the total killed since Obama took his oath of office on January 20 2009, at least 314 have been civilians, while the number of confirmed strikes under his administration now stands at 456.

Research by the Bureau (Bureau of Investigative Journalism) also shows there have now been nearly nine times more strikes under Obama in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia than there were under his predecessor, George W Bush.

And the covert Obama strikes, the first of which hit Pakistan just three days after his inauguration, have killed almost six times more people and twice as many civilians than those ordered in the Bush years, the data shows.

The figures have been compiled as part of the Bureau’s monthly report into covert US drone attacks, which are run in two separate missions – one by the CIA and one for the Pentagon by its secretive special forces outfit, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).

The research centers on countries outside the US’s declared war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.

‘Nuff said.

Some Quotes From The National Prayer Breakfast

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I really do not want to talk about President Obama’s remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast. The remarks speak for themselves. The following quotes are posted at the Washington Examiner:

“We’ve seen violence and terror perpetuated” by those who distort their faith, he said Thursday morning to a group of 3,500 gathered in the Washington Hilton’s ballroom for the morning event.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, he said, is a “vicious death cult that in the name of religion carries out unspeakable acts of barbarism.”

In seeking to reconcile these two realities, Obama urged humility for all people of faith, recalling that in the past people “have committed terrible misdeeds in the name of Christ,” including justifying slavery and Jim Crow laws.

“There is a tendency in us — a sinful tendency — that can pervert and distort our faith,” he said.

He urged every member of faith to speak up against those who would misuse their religions to justify murder and terror.

“No God condones terror, no grievance justifies the taking of innocent lives,” he said. “So as people of faith we are summoned to push back at people who will misuse our religion.”

If Islam is being distorted by those who persecute Christians and Jews, force people to convert to Islam, and murder innocent people in the Middle East and in Africa, why is Israel the only country in the region where Jews, Christians, and Muslims are free to practice their religion without persecution? There is a pattern here.

Why Massachusetts Needs Two Political Parties

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A one-party political system does not work, regardless of which political party it is. As Dr. Benjamin Carson stated in his address at the National Prayer Breakfast, “But, why is that eagle able to fly, high, forward? Because it has two wings: a left wing and a right wing. Enough said.”

Anyway. The Boston Herald is reporting today that the glitch in the Massachusetts welfare department has cost the Massachusetts taxpayers $3.4 million in overtime.

The article reports:

More than 900 employees in the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) — mostly caseworkers — shared in the $3.4 million OT bonanza between November 2010 and May 2011, the department acknowledged after a Herald public records request.

DTA authorized the wages — an average of roughly $3,500 each — so staff could address a backlog of 30,000 clients whose eligibility had to be recertified after the agency overpaid food-stamp clients by $27 million in federal money.

I suppose we should be grateful that at least the overpaid food-stamp clients were paid with federal money. Federal money–are these the same people who keep telling us they can’t cut spending?

The article also reports:

The welfare department has been undergoing a shake-up since ex-Commissioner Daniel Curley was forced to resign on Jan 31, after a devastating inspector general’s report claiming another $25 million in taxpayer money is going to welfare recipients who aren’t eligible.

One of the people who has been on top of this from the start is state Rep. Shaunna O’Connell (R-Taunton). Her response to this mess was, “The governor recently called this leakage — I would call this an avalanche. This is an astronomical number to pay out in overtime for outright mismanagement.”

Hopefully she will continue to hold the Massachusetts government responsible for their total mismanagement of taxpayer money.

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