Political Junkie

The Charlie Gard case is the latest medical ethics case to make international headlines.   Charlie is an 11-month old British boy who suffers from an extremely rare condition known as mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome; or MDDS for short.   This condition prevents his mitochondria from working properly; thus making it nearly impossible for his cells to function without assistance from a ventilator.   The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, which has been treating Gard, submitted an application to withdraw his medical ventilation earlier this year.   His parents appealed the decision all the way up to the European Court of Human Rights; which declined to hear their appeal.   Every court that has heard the case so far has agreed with the hospital that the withdrawal of Charlie’s medical ventilation was in the infant’s best interest. Since most of the Europeans appear to be waving the white flag, Charlie’s parents hope to fly him to the United State...

The leaders of twenty of the world’s largest economies, accounting for more than 80 percent of the global gross domestic product, gathered in Hamburg , Germany last week for the 12 th G20 summit.   Topics discussed at this year’s summit included climate change, counter-terrorism efforts and economic growth initiatives.   More than two-thirds of the world’s population lives in a G20 nation. Also gathered in Hamburg were more than 100,000 protesters associated with the group that calls itself the Antifascists or Antifa.   While not all of the protesters were rioters, all of the rioters were protesters.   Many of the most violent protesters were members of the Black Bloc, an anti-capitalist anarchist group that wears all black apparel and covers their faces with masks.    Antifa titled one of its protests, held on Thursday, “Welcome to Hell.”   Parts of the City of Hamburg certainly resembled hell as protesters set cars on fire and threw bottles...

  There has been much discussion about how CNN’s constant Trump-bashing probably does not help it achieve its parent company, Time Warner’s goal of merging with AT&T.   Well, I am here to propose a different merger idea.   CNN should merge with MSNBC to create the Snowflake News Network (SNN).   In the age of Trump, the two networks have basically become indistinguishable.   They both overact to everything that President Trump does to the point where they look absolutely ridiculous to anyone who is not part of the “Resistance”.   The most recent example of overreaction deals with a decade-old video of Trump body slamming WWE Founder Vince McMahon as part of the well-publicized “ Battle of the Billionaires” at Wrestlemania 23.   Since someone edited the CNN logo onto McMahon’s face, the crybabies at CNN now claim that the President is trying to incite violence against journalists.   Apparently, these geniuses did not even realize...

Yesterday marked the 241 st Anniversary of the signing of our Declaration of Independence. Obviously, a lot has changed since then.   The area of our nation has increased exponentially from around 360,000 square miles to around 3.8 million square miles while the population has exploded from around 2.5 million in 1776 to more than 300 million today.   The signers of the Declaration of Independence knew they were taking a huge risk by severing ties with Britain , then one of the world’s most powerful nations. That risk definitely paid off as the United States of America defied all odds and quickly became one of the world’s biggest superpowers.     A country of America ’s magnitude is obviously going to face a large amount of challenges, both domestically and overseas.   In the past, we have been remarkably successful at overcoming challenges; including a Civil War, two World Wars, and the Great Depression.   There have always been, and still are, ...

Liberals thought they would be rid of Donald Trump forever after Hillary Clinton's Election as the 45th President of the United States.    After the Donald surprised everybody by actually beating Mrs. Clinton,  several washed-up Hollywood celebrities appeared in a video asking Republican members of the Electoral College to vote against him.   Needless to say, that effort failed.   If only celebrities actually kept their promises to leave the country if he was elected.  (They only made that promise because they thought for sure he would lose).   The country would be a lot better off if they did.      Since Donald Trump became the 45 th President of the United States , the Democrats have been obsessing over the idea that the President colluded with the Russians in order to pull off a victory.   This conspiracy theory allows the Democrats to paint Trump as an illegitimate President and avoid taking any respo...

Several years ago, “Dateline NBC” had a series of recurring specials called “To Catch a Predator.”   The hidden camera series set up traps for those wishing to engage in sexual activity with minors.   Airing at a time when social media platforms were just beginning to explode in popularity, an employee at the Watchdog group Perverted Justice would create a profile on a chat room pretending to be a minor.   Then, the decoy would wait for an adult to initiate contact.     The decoy and the adult would then exchange a series of messages using the chat room, with many of them containing sexually explicit content.   The two would then arrange a meeting at a house that was rented out by the folks at “Dateline NBC.”   After arriving at the house, the show’s host Chris Hansen would greet the unsuspecting adults and confront them about their behavior.   “To Catch a Predator” did not come without its share of criticism; as some argued that it was ...

After the Democrats failed to win the special election in Georgia last week, some Democrats are calling for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to step aside.   One of Pelosi’s most vocal critics is Rep. Tim Ryan, who tried to unseat her as Minority Leader last year.   Ryan represents Ohio ’s 13 th Congressional District, which includes the former industrial powerhouse of Youngstown .   Ryan’s district provides quite a contrast to Nancy Pelosi’s Silicon Valley-based Congressional District, which has managed to do quite well in the age of globalization; if you ignore the fact that her “enlightened” home city thinks that public urination is acceptable . When asked by CNN’s Don Lemon if he thought Nancy Pelosi was more toxic than President Trump, Congressman Ryan replied “In some areas of the country, yes.”   Pelosi appears to be brushing off the idea that she is in jeopardy of losing her position as House Minority Leader; referring to herself as a “master legislat...

Last year, the Illinois Legislature passed Senate Bill 1584, which requires all doctors to refer anyone requesting an abortion to a doctor who will provide one; even if it goes against their religious beliefs.   No Republican lawmaker was dumb enough to vote for the bill; which was signed into law by Bruce Rauner, the state’s Republican governor.   I’m really struggling to come up with a reason why this bill was necessary.   Perhaps liberals in Illinois were jealous that states like California and Washington seem to be beating them in the contest for “ Most Progressive State .”   The controversial law has faced its share of court challenges, with the organizations Alliance Defending Freedom and the Thomas More Society arguing on behalf of pregnancy centers and doctors who believe it violates their First Amendment Rights.       Illinois has bigger problems to worry about than establishing street-cred with feminists.   The financial...

Perhaps in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to appeal to disaffected Bernie Sanders supporters, Hillary Clinton promised that if elected President, she would appoint a justice to the Supreme Court that was committed to reversing the Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.     In Citizens United, the Court ruled 5-4 that it was unconstitutional for the government to limit the amount of money voluntary associations such as corporations and labor unions can contribute to a political campaign.      I find it quite strange that Hillary would seek to undo a Supreme Court decision that she directly benefitted from.   In the 2016 Presidential Election, Hillary outspent Trump by a nearly 2-1 margin and still lost.   Talk about buyer’s remorse. Perhaps it never occurred to liberals that money is not the only variable that influences the outcome of election. If money really has the enormous effect on politics that the oppone...