April 16, 2018
Good morning from Washington, where pundits chew over the efficacy of the U.S. strike on Syria’s Assad regime for using chemical weapons on its own people. The president acted correctly, James Carafano writes. Confirmation of three key executive branch nominees is progress, but the Senate has many more to go, Fred Lucas reports. Mitch Daniels, the former Indiana governor, tells Rob Bluey how Purdue fosters free speech. Plus: Amy Swearer on the U.K.’s revealing “knife control” push, Adam Michel and Justin Bogie on where your federal taxes go, Jarrett Stepman on the FCC and media freedom, and Daniel Davis on one senator’s chilling probe of gender orthodoxy.
“Do you believe that gay sex is a perversion?” Believe it or not, that question was posed—repeatedly—in a Senate confirmation hearing to Mike Pompeo, the CIA director nominated to be secretary of state.
Following enactment of the 1997 handgun ban, violent crime rates rose sharply. By 2009, England’s violent crime rate was the highest in the European Union and nearly five times that of the United States.
Last year, when the Assad regime gassed its own people, the Trump administration sent an unmistakable message: The unrestrained use of chemical weapons makes it difficult for the U.S. to protect its interest in the regional conflict.
The average American household sends more than $20,000 to Washington in tax revenue each year, and most see little in return.
Plus: the former Indiana governor and now university president explains how he’s been able to keep his campus a haven for free speech.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says she’s pleased the Senate advanced six nominations last week, “but we’d like to see them move forward in a much bigger fashion.”
“In light of my commitment to protecting the First Amendment and freedom of the press, I must respectfully decline,” writes the Federal Communications Commission chairman.
“I applaud the passion and intentions of all the young people who participated. I decry the exploitation of them for the leftist agenda,” writes Jake P. about the March for Our Lives.
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