PUTIN THE PUNDIT: Tells Dems Why They Lost, Reaches out to Trump

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Russian President Vladimir Putin followed up a warm letter to Donald Trump with a more terse message for U.S. Democrats Friday: Don’t blame me for your November drubbing.

President-elect Trump on Friday released the Dec. 15 note from Putin, who Democrats blame for tilting the election Trump won against Hillary Clinton, and called it a “very nice letter.”

In it, Putin wished Trump “warmest Christmas” greetings and expressed hope that Trump would “bring our level of collaboration on the international scene to a qualitatively new level” . . .

But Putin, in a year-ending address from Moscow Friday, had a different message for Democrats as he offered his analysis of the American political scene.

“Democrats are losing on every front and looking for people to blame everywhere,” he said. “They need to learn to lose with dignity. (Read more from “PUTIN THE PUNDIT: Tells Dems Why They Lost, Reaches out to Trump” HERE)

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Is Yahoo! Serious With This Absurd Ivanka Trump’s Alleged Pre-Flight Harrassment?

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More airline harassment. More media malfeasance.

Reports emerged Thursday afternoon that Ivanka Trump was accosted by a man while on a JetBlue flight. According to TMZ, an “out-of-control passenger” on the plane allegedly began “verbally berating” Ms. Trump and “jeering” at her children:

Ivanka was on a JetBlue flight leaving JFK Thursday morning with her family when a passenger started screaming, “Your father is ruining the country.” The guy went on, “Why is she on our flight? She should be flying private.” The guy had his kid in his arms as he went on the tirade.

The unruly man was reportedly escorted off the plane by JetBlue personnel. But wait, there’s more.

Twitchy collected a series of since-deleted tweets from one Matthew Lasner, a professor at Hunter College in New York City, who said it was his husband who was the man kicked off the plane.

“Ivanka and Jared at JFK T5, flying commercial. My husband chasing them down to harass them. #banalityofevil,” Lasner tweeted (preserved via screengrabs from Twitchy).

“Ivanka just before @JetBlue kicked us off our flight when a flt attendant overhead my husband expressing displeasure about flying w/ Trumps,” read another one of his tweets.

“Ivanka and Jared on our flight. My husband expressed displeasure in a calm tone, JetBlue staff overheard, and they kicked us off the plane,” read a third.

A statement from JetBlue explains that the decision to remove a passenger “is not taken lightly,” explaining: “[I]f the crew determines that a customer is causing a conflict on the aircraft, the customer will be asked to deplane, especially if the crew feels the situation runs the risk of escalation during flight.”

So, let’s review the facts.

JetBlue policy is to remove a passenger pretty much as only a last resort. The husband of the alleged offender tweeted that his husband was going to “harass” the future first daughter, and her husband Jared Kushner. And TMZ’s report confirms that Ivanka and her children were verbally abused by this passenger before JetBlue personnel were forced to deplane him.

Now, let’s look at how Yahoo! News reported the story.

“Man kicked off JetBlue flight for questioning why Ivanka Trump was on it.” Are you kidding, Yahoo!?

“Questioning”?

Ivanka Trump was, reportedly, verbally assaulted. She was allegedly harassed — her innocent children yelled at. The entire incident and deplaning did not revolve around some questions.

And, of course, Yahoo! is not alone in this egregious distortion of the facts. ThinkProgress editor Judd Legum’s attempt at spinning the story said the passenger was “kicked off Jet Blue flight for talking to Ivanka Trump.”

No, he wasn’t kicked off for “talking”; he was kicked off for harassing a fellow traveler simply due to her familial association. But facts don’t matter to many on the Left. Over and over again, they demonstrate they don’t care much for inconvenient truths.

And that is, ladies and gentlemen…

(For more from the author of “Is Yahoo! Serious With This Absurd Ivanka Trump’s Alleged Pre-Flight Harrassment?” please click HERE)

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This 7-Year-Old Got a Job at Mcdonald’s. The Reason Why Will Inspire You

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This 7-year-old is putting all of us to shame this Christmas.

Trenton Gardner, hailing from Bicknell, Indiana, is the newest employee at his local McDonald’s. So great is his work ethic, he begged for a job there, despite his young age.

“He asked for a job and they told him he was too young, and he burst into tears because he was so upset,” General Manager Rhonda Butler told WTHI. But Trenton persisted. He kept coming back and asking for a job until he was hired as an “honorary employee.”

Now Trenton cleans tables for just $1. And he loves it. “You see, when I wipe tables and customers are at the tables, I get paid for it,” he said, “It’s the coolest job I’ve ever done.”

His manager loves it too.

“Just to see someone so young have that kind of ethic, and just want to help and be a part of something, and he’s like ‘McDonald’s is the best place ever!’,” Butler said, “So it’s good to know that hey, this could be one of my future employees.”

But the coolest part of this story is Trenton didn’t want a job for himself. He’s saving the money he makes to buy Christmas presidents for less fortunate children in his community. His family has even donated his own toys to the Toys For Tots charity.

“When Toys For Tots bins started coming out, he wanted to know what it was,” Trenton’s mother explained. “Me and his dad explained to him that not every kid is fortunate enough to get toys like he did for Christmas, and that made him very upset and very sad.”

“We’ve always raised Trenton that not everything in life is handed to you and you have to work hard for what you get,” she said, “So low and behold that led him to asking his Grandpa Terry if he could take him to McDonald’s to get a job.”

Wow. What a great kid. His parents should be proud. (For more from the author of “This 7-Year-Old Got a Job at Mcdonald’s. The Reason Why Will Inspire You” please click HERE)

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Steven Crowder Got Waterboarded Live. And It Was Awesome!

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You did it. You all did it. Everyone who subscribed to the Louder with Crowder Mug Club during the Crowder Christmas Waterboarding Telethon made Ben Shapiro’s Christmas dreams come true.

CRTV’s Steven Crowder got waterboarded by Tim Kennedy. And it was awesome.

So what’s it like getting waterboarded? Crowder says he felt “like [he] was gonna die.”

But he didn’t. And he made off with some pretty great (lame) swag.

Merry Christmas Crowder, you strange animal.

If you want to see the rest of the telethon, in which Michelle Malkin, Ben Shapiro, Andrew Klavan, and more hang out with Crowder, look no further:

Poor NotGayJared gets tased and had to eat two live crickets. Dude deserves a raise. (For more from the author of “Steven Crowder Got Waterboarded Live. And It Was Awesome!” please click HERE)

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The Courts Just Made It Legal for Police to Shoot Your Dog for No Reason!

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In a disturbing ruling, the 6th Circuit Court gave blanket deference to police officers to shoot any dog they reasonably believe to be a threat while executing a search warrant. As the Washington Examiner points out, this effectively means that if your dog so much as barks or moves towards and officer, it’s fair game to be killed.

Now it’s one thing if, for example, police are responding to a domestic dispute and they get charged by a snarling Rottweiler. It’s common for drug gangs, too, to keep guard dogs which are trained to be vicious towards strangers. At some point, the officer has to do what he can to defend himself.

But the case in front of the 6th Circuit, and the reality in thousands of cases nationwide, is that some police departments exercise a casual “shoot the dog, ask questions later” policy. In some jurisdictions, like Detroit, it’s not even uncommon. It’s difficult to tell how often these episodes occur, because few centralized records are kept. Networks of pet owners and alarmed activists and journalists, however, have begun documenting thousands of what are grimly called “puppycides”.

With relationships between local police forces and their communities already tense, stuff like this doesn’t help.

Part of this “puppycide” epidemic could be addressed by training. In many cases, a basic understanding of canine body language and the difference between excitement and aggression could save a lot of furry lives. Many postal workers and other professionals who are frequently in contact with strangers’ dogs (and who aren’t authorized to just shoot them) use such training to their benefit. Many police departments have seen the value in such preventative measures and have begun educating their officers accordingly.

But training doesn’t solve all of these problems, because dogs are naturally inclined to step in between their owners and a perceived threat. Any dog owner also knows that dogs are incredibly responsive to the moods of their masters, and are going to be more inclined to respond with fear or suspicion in a high-stress situation like a police search. Under a ruling like this 6th Circuit case, even a non-aggressive fearful response like barking or growling would serve as probable cause for blowing away the family pet.

A more effective way to reduce such encounters is to reduce the number of occasions where police even have to encroach on people’s property in the first place. The disturbing trend in policing over the past century has shifted from guaranteeing the peace to enforcing the law, as the volumes of laws restricting our behavior grow thicker by dozens of pages per year.

The thousands of criminal penalties imposed by unelected bureaucrats and the futile, destructive drug war have vastly increased the number of encounters where police are sent to incur on people’s homes and property. This unhealthy dynamic has been accompanied by a corresponding increase in the use of SWAT teams and no-knock raids. Both drastically increase the likelihood of both puppycide and officer-related shootings of people because of the sudden, combat-like nature of the raids.

Officers of the law should definitely be held to a higher standard before using deadly force against pets than what the 6th Circuit required. But ultimately, for the safety of both the police and the private citizens they are supposed to protect, the only foolproof way to reduce these encounters is for citizens to demand that lawmakers reduce the number of laws that are enforced at the point of a gun. (For more from the author of “The Courts Just Made It Legal for Police to Shoot Your Dog for No Reason!” please click HERE)

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JetBlue Removes Man for Harassing Ivanka Trump and Her Kids

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A man angry at President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton was removed from a JetBlue flight after harassing Trump’s daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and the couple’s three young children.

Originally reported by TMZ, the verbal assault was later verified by multiple media outlets. According to Mediaite, Trump was not targeted because of her work for her father’s campaign, but rather for his victory:

The soon-to-be First Daughter was on board a JetBlue flight from JFK when an “out-of-control passenger” began screaming, going as far as to “jeer” at her three children. “A passenger on the flight tells TMZ Ivanka ignored the guy and tried distracting her kids with crayons,” says the report.

The passenger, identified only as a man, reportedly said, “Your father is ruining the country” and “Why is she on our flight? She should be flying private.” The man even had a child with him at the time of the incident; bizarrely, the daughter of our 45th President was sitting in coach with other family members according to the report.

The belligerent passenger, later identified as attorney Daniel Goldstein, apparently then yelled at JetBlue for removing him, saying, “You’re kicking me off for expressing my opinion?”

JetBlue tweeted that it got the man on the next flight, while a Trump Organization spokesman told CNN, “The story speaks for itself. It’s an incredibly unfortunate situation.”

Abusers Pretend to Be Victims

According to Forward.com, Goldstein’s partner Matt Lasner tweeted that he and Goldstein were the victims in the incident:

“My husband expressed his displeasure in a calm tone, JetBlue staff overheard, and they kicked us off the plane.”

However, this was no random chance encounter. According to Twitchy and CNN, Lasner earlier tweeted proudly that Ivanka was targeted the minute she was spotted.

“Ivanka and Jared at JFK TF, flying commercial. My husband chasing them down to harass them. #banalityofevil”

Lasner quickly deleted his Twitter account. CNN reported that Lasner had identified himself on that account as a book author and Hunter College professor. His faculty page currently brings up an error; a his personal website notes that his teaching focuses on urban planning and living. Forward reports that has Lasner marched against Trump and called him a fascist.

Marc Scheff, who allegedly witnessed the incident and is himself severe critic of the President-elect, disputed Lasner’s account in a Facebook post:

When he got on and saw her, sitting behind me, he said “oh my god. This is a nightmare” and was visibly shaking. He said “they ruin the country now they ruin our flight!” (Context: Boarding and therefore the flight was delayed because they needed to get on first through some other way)

He did not yell. He was also not what I would describe as calm. Agitated maybe. His husband behind him was very calm. His son is adorable and sharply dressed.

When the JetBlue staff went back to speak to the man I overheard Ivanka say to them “I don’t want to make this a thing.” My assessment is that she was happy to let the man take his seat. She handled the situation calmly and with class. Security made the call to remove the man.

And for good reason. The man’s calm husband had tweeted earlier that his husband was “chasing them down to harass them.”

Scheff agreed with the decision to remove Goldstein. “You know my politics, but I would have made the same call here,” he wrote. (For more from the author of “JetBlue Removes Man for Harassing Ivanka Trump and Her Kids” please click HERE)

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What Really Happened in North Carolina With LGBT Activists and the HB2 Vote

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Did the North Carolina legislature do the right thing by refusing to repeal HB2 after the Charlotte City Council voted 9-0 to repeal the controversial bill that started the whole firestorm? Or did the Republican-led NC Senate miss a great opportunity to remove the stigma surrounding the state and do a major reset? When all things are considered, these legislators did the only thing they could do if they were to be faithful to their convictions and their conscience.

Before I explain why, allow me to give a brief recap.

Recap: How North Carolina Got HB2

In February, 2016, the Charlotte City Council voted 7-4 to enact radical LGBT legislation that would have in effect prohibited genuinely separate male and female restrooms. And they did this despite “more than 250,000 emails, more than 20,000 petition signatures, the opposition of more than 200 local business, community, and faith leaders, and the strong disapproval voiced by the overwhelming number of the 140 people who testified before the council prior to the vote.”

In response to this far-reaching “LGBT Non-Discrimination” bill, and before it could take effect, the state passed HB2, stopping the bill in its tracks and, for the most part, simply putting things back to the way they were before Charlotte’s rash actions. And Gov. Pat McCrory signed the bill into law. (For simplicity’s sake, I’m focusing here on the most controversial aspects of both bills, first that of the city of the Charlotte, then of the state of North Carolina.)

Recalling the Nationwide Backlash Against HB2

The backlash against HB2 was immediate, intense, and unrelenting, with PayPal deciding not to move into Charlotte, the NBA pulling the 2017 All-Star game and the NCAA pulling its state championship events, and celebrities like Bruce Springsteen and Ringo Starr cancelling appearances in the state, costing North Carolina millions.

Gov. McCrory came under unrelenting assault for supporting HB2, while his Attorney General Roy Cooper, who was himself running for governor, strongly opposed HB2 and became the darling of LGBT activists.

Then, in September, Gov. McCrory stated that if the Charlotte City Council would drop its bill, HB2 could be repealed, offering a state-wide reset, but the City Council, with strong support from pro-LGBT activist Mayor Jennifer Roberts, refused to repeal their bill.

On the political front, the battle between McCrory and Cooper was neck and neck, with Cooper holding a small lead most of the time, even before the passage of HB2, and McCrory dogged by two other issues, one having to do with a proposed toll road and the other having to do with Duke Energy.

In the end, Cooper barely defeated McCrory, despite outspending him roughly two-to-one, with the help of major backing by wealthy gay activists and leftwing organizations like the Human Rights Campaign. And, I was informed, some local pundits suggested that without either the toll road controversy or the Duke Energy controversy, McCrory would have stayed in office, let alone if he had received equal funding for his campaign. So, despite the spin being put on McCrory’s loss, this was not a statewide rejection of HB2, as the Republicans, who passed HB2, retained their super-majority in both state houses.

Instead, this was a targeted strategy by LGBT activists and their allies to remove McCrory and make North Carolina an example. In that sense, the state was ground zero in a larger national campaign.

Now, with Roy Cooper about to assume office, the same Charlotte City Council that refused to vote on a repeal of their bill back in September miraculously changed their tune, voting 9-0 to repeal their bill with the understanding that the state would then repeal HB2.

“Let’s have a reset and go back to the way things were before,” they seemed to be saying.

Why then didn’t the state legislators jump at this opportunity to remove the reproach of being boycotted and shunned?

I can best explain that by reminding you of Aesop’s fable about the scorpion and the frog, which goes like this.

Analogy: The Scorpion and the Frog

A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion says, “Because if I do, I will die too.”

The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but has just enough time to gasp “Why?”

Replies the scorpion: “I’m a scorpion. It’s in my nature. …”

Now, I am not comparing LGBT activists and their allies to scorpions (or conservatives to frogs), but I am making a point about people and groups acting in accordance with their nature.

The fact is, this had nothing to do with a reset, nor were groups like the HRC saying, “OK. We’ll stop pushing our bills if you stop pushing yours.” If that had been the case, they would have repealed their bill back in September, under Gov. McCrory’s leadership, rather than refusing to act until he had been removed.

No, this was the HRC and the City Council and the incoming governor saying, “We’ll give you an excuse to remove your oppressive HB2 so we can now come at you with a flood of new bills in cities across North Carolina, bills just as radical as the Charlotte bill that started all this. It’s what we do. It’s our nature.”

Of course, LGBT activists and their allies will say in response, “This is not about our ‘nature.’ This is about what’s right. This is about equality. This is about fairness. This is about non-discrimination.”

I certainly understand that perspective, but that only underscores my point.

Mayor Roberts and her radical council members are not about to retreat from their larger goals, nor is the HRC, nor is Governor-elect Cooper. In fact, on December 19, the HRC issued this urgent notice: “North Carolina General Assembly Must Immediately Repeal HB2.” And the HRC stated up front that, “City leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to passing comprehensive non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people after HB2’s repeal.”

Roy Cooper himself said,“Full repeal [of HB2] will help to bring jobs, sports and entertainment events back and will provide the opportunity for strong LGBT protections in our state” — and note that these “strong LGBT protections” were the very things which HB2 was preventing, since these alleged “protections” were actually direct attacks on religious freedoms along with unwanted intrusions into private places like bathrooms and locker rooms.

To return to the scorpion and frog analogy, in this case, the scorpion was telling the frog up front that it was going to bite him. Why then, would the frog give the scorpion a ride? Why remove HB2 if, within a matter of months, there would be bills passed in city after city in North Carolina which would only multiply what HB2 was put in place to stop?

“No Thanks,” Says the Frog

It is truly unfortunate that North Carolina has been stigmatized and bullied by the cultural elitists — although, from what I understand, the state economy continues to thrive — and it is a shame that the city of Charlotte has engaged in such a dangerous game of political football. It’s also tragic that many in the LGBT community in North Carolina feel rejected and unsafe although, the truth be told, things were basically fine statewide before Charlotte started on its ill-advised activist course.

But the heart of the matter was expressed by Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, who posted this on his Facebook page:

Charlotte repealed an ordinance that the General Assembly already voided months ago. I support HB2 and do not favor its repeal. No economic, political or ideological pressure can convince me that what is wrong is right. It will always be wrong for men to have access to women’s showers and bathrooms. If HB2 is repealed, there will be nothing on the books to prevent another city or county to take us down this path again. The left has already publicly stated the removal of HB2 is necessary for the rest of their agenda to move forward. With certainty, if HB2 is repealed, we will fight this battle all over again with another city or county. The names will change, but the national groups who are pushing this agenda will not stop until their social engineering is accomplished. The only thing stopping them are those of us who continue to stand strong.

Yes, “The left has already publicly stated the removal of HB2 is necessary for the rest of their agenda to move forward,” and people of conscience throughout the state have said, “Not on our watch.”

Where things will go in the months and years ahead is uncertain, but what happened this week in North Carolina makes perfect sense: A scorpion asks a frog for a ride across the stream but tells him it will bite him along the way, and the frog said, “No thanks.” (For more from the author of “What Really Happened in North Carolina With LGBT Activists and the HB2 Vote” please click HERE)

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The Christmas Story Retold in Light of the Ghoulish Practices of Planned Parenthood

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At this time of the year, in churches around the world, the opening chapters of Matthew and Luke will be read afresh, describing the miraculous births of Jesus and His forerunner John. In light of a recent 500-page Senate report, detailing some of the barbaric practices of Planned Parenthood, I thought it good to retell the story, but with a striking new twist.

There was an old woman named Elizabeth, a godly, devoted woman, blessed by God in so many ways except one: She was unable to have a child. But now, a miracle had taken place, and this saintly woman found herself pregnant, to her delight and the delight of her husband Zechariah. It was even revealed to them that they were having a boy, a boy with a very special destiny. His name would be John.

But there’s more. Elizabeth had a young cousin named Miriam (Mary), just a young teenager and still a virgin, although she was betrothed to be married to a fine man named Joseph. To her absolute shock, she found herself pregnant out of wedlock but claimed — get this — that an angel appeared to her and told her that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit and was going to give birth to the Messiah. Either this was the most miraculous story in history or it was a tall tale worthy of legend.

About six months later, the two pregnant women met, so many years apart in age but so united by their shared experiences, and when Miriam walked into the room, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb seemed to jump, as if he realized that the other baby in the room was really the Messiah.

Could it be true?

Well, as incredible as the story sounds, reality soon set in, and when Zechariah and Elizabeth realized the very strong chance that their child would be born with Down syndrome (or some other debilitating condition) they did the compassionate thing, found a Planned Parenthood clinic, and aborted the one who was destined to be the forerunner of the Messiah, popularly known as John the Baptist.

And in a further act of compassion, rather than let John’s little body go to waste, it was meticulously divided up and sold off – in the name of science, Zechariah and Elizabeth were told – with detailed records of all the transactions carefully preserved: His brain was sold to one customer for $325 in today’s dollars; both of his eyes for $325 each ($650 total); a portion of his liver for $325; his thymus for $325, along with another portion of his liver; and his lung for $325, all to different customers, allowing John to touch so many more lives. (These figures are based on actual Planned Parenthood transactions, as detailed in the Senate report.)

Reality also set in for Miriam.

Although her husband claimed to believe her story, it was obvious that their marriage would be challenged in the days ahead. Worse still, their child would be tainted — they had given him a name too, Yeshua (Jesus) — always known as the kid born out of wedlock. Why bring someone into the world with a lifelong cloud hanging over his head?

So Miriam and Joseph also found a local Planned Parenthood (thank God there were so many available, especially in the poor neighborhoods) and aborted their little boy, sparing him from an uncertain future. And did I mention that Joseph was also concerned about Miriam’s physical and emotional health? After all, she was so young and the whole experience was so traumatic. Surely, this was best way to go.

The little body of Jesus was also cut up into little pieces — tiny eyes, ears, heart, liver, limbs — each one sold for a good purpose.

And that is the end of the Christmas story — no salvation for the lost, no joy to the world, no hope for the human race — or, I should say, that would have been the end of the story had Planned Parenthood been operating in first century Judea.

I, along with billions of other people, am everlastingly grateful that was not the case.

The Savior has come and hope reigns eternal.

Thanks be to God! (For more from the author of “The Christmas Story Retold in Light of the Ghoulish Practices of Planned Parenthood” please click HERE)

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Moana Is a Classic Disney Film, With a Surprising Pro-Life Message

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If you’re seeking a Christmas weekend movie that every member of your family will enjoy, look no further than Moana. It’s exciting, funny, and moving, with great songs and memorable characters — all the elements you’d expect from Disney films of past decades.

One of its stars, Nicole Scherzinger, brings a special bonus: On top of her fine acting and beautiful singing, Scherzinger is an outspokenly pro-life actor. That’s rare enough in Hollywood, but Scherzinger takes real career risks for her convictions: On the eve of Moana’s release, she spoke out passionately on the subject of abortion. She told the Daily Mail (U.K.) that she herself was the product of a crisis pregnancy, conceived when her mom was only 18. To women in situations like her mother’s, she said: “I just want to … encourage everybody to keep your babies.” Let us encourage you to go see Moana, which deserves to succeed — and drop Disney a line about your support for Nicole Scherzinger, who is doubtless catching heat for her outspoken stand.

The Polynesian Garden of Eden

The film itself is a beautiful retelling of a classic Polynesian folktale that explores the origin of evil — and traces it, poignantly, to parents’ rejecting the life of their child.

In this myth, the world of islands and ocean that Polynesians knew — and explored in heroic journeys across thousands of miles of uncharted seas — was once a tranquil, Edenic place full of harmony and abundance, the gift of a nature goddess called Te Fiti. It was from her heart, a gleaming pounamu stone, that she drew the power to give life and raise new islands in the ocean where people might live.

But a demi-god named Maui craved this power, and to gain it he stole her heart. So far it sounds a lot like the story of the Serpent tempting Adam and Eve in the Garden. But Maui isn’t Satan. He isn’t evil and envious, but lonely and insecure — because, we find out in the course of the story, his own human parents rejected him at birth, and threw him in the ocean to drown. Saved by the gods (“Though my parents threw me away, the gods thought I was worthy of protection,” he says), he spends his life doing good deeds for men — sometimes misguided ones.

It turns out that Maui had planned to share Te Fiti’s power with mortal men, to gain the love he desperately craves, which his parents denied him. What happens instead is ugly: Having robbed nature of a gift that is rightly divine, Maui finds that he brought down a wave of destruction, want and pestilence. Te Fiti no longer gives life, and the islands are dying one by one. So Maui is less like the Serpent in Genesis than like Adam: foolish, rebellious and finally penitent.

The story begins when the young Moana learns that her beloved island is next. The wave of death that Maui set loose in the world washes up on its shores. The coconut trees start to wither, and the sea is emptied of fish. Moana learns, through a series of entertaining plot twists, that she must sail alone to hunt down Maui, and force him to return the godlike gift that man was never meant to have.

A Teaching Moment for Kids on the Sanctity of Life

While we don’t want to shoehorn this traditional Polynesian tale into a modern or Western frame, there is enormous resonance here for us in our times. If we think of the gift God gave us of taking part in the creation of new human beings, we can see how man’s attempt to impose his own control over this solemn, sacred process has distorted and poisoned our culture. Birth rates have plummeted all around the world, and philosophers actually question whether it is moral or not to have children. Radical environmentalists look at the precious feet of newborns and think of their “carbon footprints.” What they miss, of course, is that the only real reason people care about the environment is to leave a decent world for their offspring. Take that away, and people live only for the moment.

Couples who have missed the chance to have families when they are young turn to artificial techniques like IVF — which leave behind thousands of tiny, frozen babies in labs all around the world, which scientists want to harvest for spare parts and experiments. Add to that the global tragedy of abortion, and you’ll see that this Polynesian story isn’t exotic or quaint. It is potently relevant to Americans today, and Christians who care about the sanctity of life. See it with your kids, and use the story as a teaching moment to let them know about how too many modern people are grasping at godlike power — at the price of precious innocents whose lives God really has entrusted to our power and our protection. (For more from the author of “Moana Is a Classic Disney Film, With a Surprising Pro-Life Message” please click HERE)

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5 Ways the Feds Might Trip up Santa Claus This Year

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While most people know Jolly Old Saint Nick as a friendly figure, he too is not immune from the perils of administrative overreach and overcriminalization.

To get you in the Christmas spirit, here is a list of some of the potential crimes and violations of federal law Saint Nick as he prepares to take flight for 2016.

1. The Reindeer Act

Many have tried finding Santa’s workshop—without success—but children have long mailed letters to the Santa Claus House located at 101 St. Nicholas Drive in North Pole, Alaska. This office location is the first source of trouble for Father Christmas. Under the Reindeer Act, signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937, only Alaska Natives are allowed to own reindeer in Alaska.

While Santa has been operating out of the North Pole for many years, only Eskimos, Indians, and Aleuts inhabiting Alaska at the time the United States purchased the land from Russia are considered natives under the act, and Saint Nicholas is from the Greek village Patara in modern-day Turkey. Luckily for Santa, he might be able to avoid the $5,000 fine for violating this provision of the Code of Federal Regulations, but only if he applies for and is granted a special use permit to possess reindeers as a non-native.

2. The Lacey Act

Even if Santa gets around the Reindeer Act, he may face civil and criminal penalties under the Lacey Act if his purchase, sale, possession, or use of reindeer—or any other flora or fauna— violates any state or federal law or the law of any foreign nation, no matter what language or code that foreign law is written in.

Just as some unwitting Americans have been convicted of offenses such as the
“importation of Caribbean spiny lobsters from Honduras” in violation of Honduran packaging laws, Santa could be committing a crime each time he crosses borders to deliver flora or fauna.

3. Flying Without a License

Despite Santa’s many years of experience, there is no Mr. Claus listed in the Federal Aviation Administration’s pilot certificates database. If Santa is piloting his sleigh without an airman’s certificate, he is in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 46317.

Any pilot who operates an aircraft without a proper license is guilty of a federal crime punishable by three years in prison (the sleigh would almost certainly be deemed an aircraft under 49 U.S.C. § 40102(a)(6)). And that is only for Santa’s role as a pilot. If his sleigh is not deemed airworthy, Santa will be in violation of 14 C.F.R. § 91.7 and subject to additional civil penalties by the FAA.

If Santa’s sleigh is approved, he then must post “within” the “aircraft” a copy of the registration, airworthiness certificate, and other official documents, to be displayed “at the cabin or cockpit entrance so that it is legible to passengers or crew,” per 14 C.F.R. § 91.203(b); the sleigh’s baggage compartment must be installed subject to Subsection C with a copy of FAA Form 337 authorizing such installation maintained on board the sleigh; and all fuel venting and exhaust emissions must meet additional requirements.

Hopefully Santa has a good compliance team.

4. False Statements

Any white lie that falls within the jurisdiction of the U.S. government could be a federal crime. As Heritage scholars have written elsewhere, there is one general federal statute for false statements that “should be broad enough to reach any fib or whopper that the federal government could have a good reason to prosecute.”

But there are dozens more specific criminal statutes that punish false statements regarding such minutiae as fluid milk products. If Santa parks his sleigh on federal land and encounters a park ranger while coming down the chimney, he’d better not tell a fib about what he’s up to or he could end up in big trouble. (He would also be violating another federal law if he parks his sleigh in a way that inconveniences another person on federal land, but I digress.)

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once observed that, under federal false statement statutes, “the prospect remains that an overzealous prosecutor or investigator—aware that a person has committed some suspicious acts, but unable to make a criminal case—will create a crime by surprising the suspect, asking about those acts, and receiving a false denial.”

Here, once Santa gets off the ground, his real legal trouble is only just beginning. A government agent need only ask Santa if he committed burglary, trespass, or larceny, or ask him, “Are you really Santa Claus?” In that case, Santa really would need a Miracle on 34th Street to stay out of the slammer for lying.

5. IRS Tax Gift

Even if Santa evades capture during his Christmas Eve flight, he then must deal with Uncle Sam upon his return to the North Pole. Under IRS gift tax rules, the giver of gifts above a certain threshold is taxed at a rate up to 40 percent of the value of the gift. While individuals are allowed to make gifts up to $14,000 per recipient without encountering any tax consequences—most toy trucks and dolls would probably fit under this exemption—gifts above the limit must be reported on IRS Form 709.

As such, each time Santa drops off a shiny new BMW for mom or dad, he will be on the hook for an even bigger tax bill on April 15. Willful failure to file a gift tax return can land Santa in prison for up to one year under 26 U.S.C. § 7203. Let no good deed go unpunished.

The List Goes On

While those are just a few examples of how Santa may be held criminally and civilly liable for violating U.S. law, there are several other ways in which he operates in legal gray areas.

For instance, how does Santa compensate all of his elves who are working around the clock to finish making toys before the big day? If they are not receiving proper overtime pay in a safe work environment, Santa will be in violation of numerous provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Finally, given the size of his operation, Santa must be complying with the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate.

If Santa cannot even stay in line with every single government rule and regulation, how is the average American supposed to keep up? Attorney Harvey Silverglate argues that the average American unwittingly commits three felonies a day due to vague laws and governmental overreach.

The American people—and Mr. Claus—deserve better. Heritage scholars have identified a comprehensive strategy to combat the problem of overcriminalization, which threatens liberty by using the criminal law and penalties to attempt to solve every problem in society and compel compliance with regulatory schemes.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. (For more from the author of “5 Ways the Feds Might Trip up Santa Claus This Year” please click HERE)

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