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Time to Separate Piety and Politics

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The First Amendment of the Constitution specifies, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In Washington, the “free exercise thereof” perennially includes politicians exploiting religion to sanctify themselves and all their power grabs. Piety with a side of eggs One of the most brazen if not most shameless “free exercise thereof” examples is the annual National Prayer Breakfast. Politicians gather to silently pray that the Lord will smite all their enemies — or at least get them indicted on multiple charges. And the common theme of comments at the event is that the political class is doing God’s work. The prayer breakfast long ago turned into the type of “market” that Jesus castigated thousands of years ago. The prayer breakfast became notorious as “an international influence-peddling bazaar, where foreign dignitaries, religious leaders, diplomats and lobbyists jockey for access to the highest reaches of American power,” the New York Times reported. Maria Butina, who ...

More Blowback from U.S. Oppression

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is up in arms over Russia’s arrest of Alsu Kurmasheva, an employee of RFE/RL who holds dual U.S.-Russia citizenship. The charge? Failing to register as a “foreign agent” of the U.S. government. The New York Times reports that Kurmasheva is being accused of “collecting information about the mobilization of Russian university teachers into the army, something that could then be used to discredit the country.” Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that the Times article points out that RFE/RL is funded by the U.S. government.  RFE/RL head Jeffrey Gedmin exclaimed, “She needs to be released, so she can return to her family immediately.” Really? Well, where were Gedmin and RFE/RL when U.S. officials were going after Russian citizen Maria Butina’s for the “crime” of failing to register as a “foreign agent”? For the life of me, I don’t recall them exclaiming, “She needs to be released, so she can return to her family immediately.

A Pox on Many Houses in Ukraine

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When Russia invaded Ukraine, it immediately became an easy decision for today’s interventionists. Their position was both simple and simplistic: Ukraine is a sovereign and independent country. Russia initiated a war against Ukraine by invading the country. Therefore, Russia is bad and should be condemned. Moreover, the U.S. government, as well as NATO, should come to Ukraine’s defense by furnishing weaponry, money, and training, and possibly even troops. It’s worth pointing out that interventionists are not entirely consistent with respect to their opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These same interventionists were squarely in favor of the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq some 20 years ago, as well as the resulting long-term occupations. Moreover, these same interventionists castigated and condemned anyone who failed to support the U.S. invasions of those two countries, just as Russian interventionists are saying about Russians who oppose their country’s invasion of Ukraine. What U.S. interventionists failed to recognize is that simply because Russia invaded Ukraine ...