Love out of Tragedy: Boston Bombing Survivor Gets Engaged to Hero Firefighter

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Roseann Sdoia was one of hundreds injured in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three. Mike Materia was the firefighter who rushed to her aid, stayed by her side while she was transported to the hospital, and checked on her throughout her recovery after her right leg was amputated.

Now, he’s her fiancé.

The two went on their first date two months after the bombing, Fox 5 News reported. Materia proposed in December of last year.

“I asked him if I was going to die,” Sdoia told the New York Post, recalling the day they met. “And he told me that I was going to be OK, that I only had a flesh wound.”

Materia “was so kind and caring,” she said.

On Wednesday the couple participated in the Empire State Building Run-Up, the New York Times reported. The event benefited the Challenged Athletes Foundation. Sdoia, a beneficiary of Challenged Athletes Foundation herself, climbed all 1,576 steps with her prosthetic leg. Materia completed the challenge in full firefighter gear.

Sdoia and Materia are also scheduled in March to release Perfect Strangers, a book about four people whose lives were impacted by the bombing. (For more from the author of “Love out of Tragedy: Boston Bombing Survivor Gets Engaged to Hero Firefighter” please click HERE)

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The Big Lesson From the Boy Scouts Demise: Appeasement Doesn’t Work

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The Boy Scouts of America have capitulated to liberal culture. Matt Walsh called them “spineless cowards” and bid them goodbye:

Goodbye, Boy Scouts. You fools. You invertebrates. You caved once again and will now allow “transgender boys” — also known as girls — to enter your ranks. I guess you forgot that the girls already have their own branch of the Scouts. It’s called the Girl Scouts. You know, the one with the cookies. Will the Boy Scouts start selling cookies now, too? That would be one upside to all of this, at least.

Walsh is right, that the BSA is no longer the organization it was founded to be, and in fact is redundant given that girls who want to act and live as boys can now join. But I would stop short of calling them fools. They’re just appeasers who learned an old lesson: Appeasement doesn’t work.

A History Lesson on Failed Attempts at Appeasement

The BSA fell victim to appeasing antagonists and mistaking those antagonists as advocates for limited change. Those antagonists painted themselves as persecuted victims who share Scout values, but in fact they were traitors to those values. History shows over and over again that appeasing traitors always leads to defeat.

Behold the sad story of Edvard Beneš, President of Czechoslovakia from 1935-1938. He was a national socialist — a believer in a unity of Czechs and Slovak ethnic groups. He was a respected diplomat of great skill. But history made him a great fool. He faced a group of separatists he believed shared his aims and suffered genuine persecution, but the persecution was hyped and staged — led by traitor Konrad Henlein.

Henlein was the head of a political party seeking autonomy for Sudeten Germans. In fact Henlein was a Nazi agent taking his orders from Berlin. Beneš offered Henlein everything he asked for, but Henlein’s orders were to refuse all offers, as Hitler wanted to annex Czechoslovakia. British PM Neville Chamberlain’s visit to Munich capped the appeasement, but didn’t stop the ever-growing demands.

Beneš was forced from office in October 1938, after Henlein fled to Berlin. The Germans replaced Beneš with a Nazi puppet, and the Wehrmacht rolled into Prague unopposed.

The Boy Scouts Ignored Their Most Important Weapon: Biblical Truth

Now that the Boy Scouts have capitulated, they will be annexed by liberal culture. Some churches, which have already been annexed, will continue to support the organization. The Cub Scout “transgender crisis” in New Jersey was nothing more than the ever-growing demands of a culture that refuses to be appeased, but wants to occupy and annex everything.

By the time that crisis came along, the ending was already written. When, in 2013, the BSA abandoned a Supreme Court ruling that gave them the right to exclude gay Scouts and leaders from their organization, they surrendered. Unlike Czechoslovakia, which lacked the weapons to stop Germany, the Boy Scouts had a super weapon, and they gave it up.

Why? Because they were scared of losing funding. They were scared of losing relevance, and they were scared of shrinking, like the culture they previously supported. As church attendance and Biblical adherence declined, the Scouts declined with it. They believed that they lacked the weapons to fight the culture, when in fact they had two unassailable weapons: Biblical moral truth, and a Supreme Court decision in their favor.

Once the BSA abandoned their strong defense, the end was inevitable. The culture would not be appeased. Gay Scouts turned into gay leaders. Then that turned into a “transgender crisis.”

Time to Say Goodbye

Walsh is right that soon we’ll see liberal indoctrination in the Boy Scouts. Christian values and absolute morals will be tossed and replaced with relativism and “many truths.” The definitions of family, gender, and manhood will become a muddled mess of validation versus truth. The Bible will be held in contempt or twisted to liberal ends.

What will they teach boys to prepare them to be men? Camping, knot tying and woodsman skills were never the point of what the Scouts taught. They taught values. The activities served to reinforce those values and cement them into boys’ psyches. Positive peer pressure and group bonding is a powerful teaching tool. The Scouts may keep doing the same activities, but the lessons will be completely different.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts merged at some point, given that there’s no longer a difference. To the Scouts’ new masters, teaching “gender roles” is prudish and oppressive.

Christians must now avoid and withdraw from the Boy Scouts. The organization, through appeasement, has been thoroughly annexed and handed over to the God-mocking liberal culture of the day. Better to choose Trail Life USA, Royal Rangers, or some other Christ-centered mentoring program that teaches boys to be Godly men.

The lesson cannot be more clearly delivered. Appeasement doesn’t work. Persecution is part of the package for Christians. We must never abandon the truth. (For more from the author of “The Big Lesson From the Boy Scouts Demise: Appeasement Doesn’t Work” please click HERE)

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Democrats Have Run out of Ideas — Even Bad Ones

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Just days into the Trump administration, the left’s narrative is clear. First, it was that Trump is an “illegitimate” president because he didn’t win the popular vote, claims about “voter fraud” notwithstanding.

Then the left tried name-calling. Unfit. Immoral. Crude. High-handed. Fascist. His supporters stuck with him when similar tactics were tried during the campaign.

Now the narrative has gone “racist,” that all-purpose word the left seems ready to attach to anyone for any reason. Egged on by their media allies, Democrats called the temporary halt on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries “racist” and referred to it as a travel “ban.” It was nothing of the kind and, according to a recent USA Today report, the Department of Homeland Security, as of Sunday night, said “all 109 travelers who were detained for additional screening under Trump’s order had their cases resolved.” DHS granted waivers to 392 legal permanent residents “after they underwent additional screening and allowed to enter the country.”

This action shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s what Trump promised during the campaign.

It should also be noted, because the major media doesn’t, that the past six presidents have limited access or banned outright immigrants from certain parts of the world deemed dangerous, as they are allowed to do by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. These include former President Obama, who couldn’t help himself and spoke out against the temporary delay. Trump’s action, as noted by Matt Vespa for townhall.com, “is based on a bill that Obama signed into law in December 2015.” At that time Obama restricted waivers from the same seven majority-Muslim countries — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen — that President Trump did. (Read more from “Democrats Have Run out of Ideas — Even Bad Ones” HERE)

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New Obamacare Report Shows Rising Costs and Fewer Options for 2017

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A new report shows that Obamacare enrollees could pay more money and end up with fewer options in 2017.

The study from Avalere Health, a health care consulting firm, showed rising premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket costs for many customers, a shrinking amount of insurance options in the exchange market, and a drastically lower number of Obamacare enrollees than projected.

Premiums for the silver-level plan, Obamacare’s most popular option, increased by an average of 12 percent in 2017. Specifically, the Avalere report showed that 71 percent of Obamacare enrollees covered under the silver plan have seen their average costs rise from $496 per month last year to $554 per month this year. The average cost for the first and second cheapest silver-level plans have also gone up by 25 percent.

Even for Obamacare’s bronze-level plan—the cheapest, lowest quality option—the monthly, average premiums rose from $408 in 2016 to $475 this year.

“Part of the reason why these premiums are rising is because there are fewer people enrolled than I expected, and the people who are enrolled are sicker than expected,” said Chris Sloan, a senior manager at Avalere, in a phone interview with The Daily Signal.

However, according to Sloan, with government subsidies and tax credits, lower-income earners enrolled in Obamacare may not be affected by the rising costs of these cheaper plans.

“While many consumers will experience significant premium increases this year, most will receive subsidies to help offset the costs of the increases and make premiums more affordable,” Sloan said in a statement.

Obamacare premiums are going up, but due to government financial assistance, real costs for many enrollees are remaining relatively the same. These costs will fall on taxpayers, according to a health care expert.

“If subsidies are going up through premium tax credits and cautionary reduction subsidies, the federal taxpayer ends up paying for that increase, so the burden of that is on all us federal taxpayers,” said Alyene Senger, a health care policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation.

Senger added, “When supporters of the [Affordable Care Act] say, ‘Well, these figures don’t really matter, because we’re subsidizing [Obamacare enrollees] so they aren’t feeling the brunt of their premium increases because the federal taxpayer is picking up the tab,’ that doesn’t apply to all the people who are purchasing in the individual market that get no subsidy.”

However, even with many Obamacare enrollees being assisted by subsidies or tax credits, they may still find themselves paying more out of pocket for their health care, as deductibles for services and drugs jumped by about 20 percent for silver-level plans in 2017. The number of silver-level plans charging coinsurance—an out-of-pocket payment charged after a consumer’s deductible is paid—for specialty drugs went up by 10 percent.

Issuer participation is also a problem highlighted by the Avalere report, as approximately 1 in 3 regions in America now only have one health insurance issuer. In 2016, just 4 percent of the country was limited to one issuer in their region. After several national and regional insurers exited the exchange markets, 36 percent of the country is now stuck with one issuer in their region.

“What this means is that people who have purchased insurance for 2017 have a lot less choice, so if there’s only one issuer offering health plans in your area and their network doesn’t include your doctor, then that’s it, you don’t really have another option,” Sloan told The Daily Signal.

“People in this market just won’t have as much choice as they had in 2016, or 2015, or 2014,” Sloan said.

This Avalere report, titled “2017 Health Insurance Exchange Snapshot,” was published on Jan 18. (For more from the author of “New Obamacare Report Shows Rising Costs and Fewer Options for 2017” please click HERE)

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Democrats Send Mixed Signals on Senate Vote for Neil Gorsuch

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Several Democrat senators are sending mixed signals as to whether they will support an up-or-down vote on President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court. The uncertainty could complicate or delay the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch.

With liberal activists calling on Democrats to block Gorsuch’s confirmation, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is demanding a 60-vote threshold. Republicans have 52 seats, meaning they would need to secure the support of eight Democrats to end a filibuster and move to a confirmation vote.

So far, at least eight Democrats have said they support a “vote” on Gorsuch, although their statements aren’t exactly clear on what they mean.

“Various Democrats are trying to use weasely language about a supposed 60-vote standard for Supreme Court nominees in order to try to sound tough to some of their constituents,” said Ed Whelan, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “At the same time, in order to try to appear reasonable to other constituents, they state their support for a floor vote on the Gorsuch nomination.”

Whelan said Democrats “can’t have it both ways.”

There are some like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia who have clearly ruled out a Democrat-led filibuster of Gorsuch, whom Trump picked Tuesday to fill the late Antonin Scalia’s seat.

“The Senate should hold committee hearings,” Manchin said in statement. “Senators should meet with him, we should debate his qualifications on the Senate floor and cast whatever vote we believe he deserves.”

Manchin, who represents a state that Trump won by 42 percentage points, added, “I urge my colleagues to put partisan politics aside and allow the vetting process to proceed.”

Manchin met with Gorsuch on Thursday, but did not say if he would vote for his confirmation.

Then there are others like Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri. She initially signaled support for a hearing and vote for Gorsuch, but backtracked after facing criticism.

On Tuesday, before Trump made his announcement, McCaskill tweeted, “We should have a full confirmation hearing process and a vote.”

About an hour later, however, McCaskill added a caveat: it would need to be at a 60-vote threshold.

Schumer said Wednesday that 60 votes should be the “standard” for a Supreme Court nominee.

“Sixty votes is a bar that was met by each of President [Barack] Obama’s nominees,” he said. “At the time, there was no need for a cloture vote, because we knew that each of them would garner over 60 votes.”

The Washington Post’s fact-checker called out Schumer for his 60-vote “standard” on Supreme Court nominees. While 60 votes would be needed to overcome a filibuster, a simple majority is required for confirmation.

Obama’s two nominees, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, were confirmed with more than 60 votes. But other Supreme Court nominees have been confirmed with less than 60 votes.

Justice Samuel Alito was confirmed by a vote of 58 to 42 in 2006, and Justice Clarence Thomas was confirmed with a vote of 52 to 48 in 1991.

This week, Democrats sent mixed signals about what an up-or-down vote would mean for Gorsuch. In addition to Manchin and McCaskill, six others weighed in with similar statements.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.: “I will support having a hearing and a vote because I think the president’s nominee deserves that consideration.”
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.: “I will push for a hearing and I will push for a vote.”
Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind.: “As I have said part of our job as senators includes considering, debating, and voting on judicial nominations, including to the Supreme Court.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.: “I will meet with Judge Gorsuch and support a hearing and vote for him.”
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., asked if Gorsuch should get “a straight up-or-down vote,” told Politico: “Absolutely.”
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.: “Have a hearing and vote.”

What remains unclear is the type of vote these senators have in mind: a cloture vote of 60 or confirmation vote of 51. In the case of McCaskill and Durbin, their statements were enough to rattle liberal activists and prompt responses.

A day after his original statement, Durbin clarified that Gorsuch would need to reach a 60-vote threshold.

Meanwhile, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee attacked Coons for lacking “backbone.” The group’s email to supporters said, “After everything Trump has done since taking office, this is NOT what Democratic backbone needs to look like.”

“Democrats are having an internal debate, and their senators are between a rock and a hard place, causing some senators to swing back and forth,” said Ken Klukowski, senior counsel and director of strategic affairs for First Liberty Institute.

“Some in Democratic ranks argue that they should keep Scalia’s seat open for a full four years,” Klukowski added. “They cannot sustain such opposition for four years. As President Obama said, elections have consequences. The American people voted for this outcome.”

Rachel Bovard, director of policy services at The Heritage Foundation, said Democrats have a losing argument.

“The Democratic Party appears to be split on this issue,” Bovard told The Daily Signal. “However, it’s the height of hypocrisy for the Democrats to demand a 60-vote threshold on Gorsuch after they destroyed the 60-vote threshold for every other judge by going nuclear in 2013.”

In 2013, when Democrats controlled the Senate, they changed the rules to eliminate the filibuster for lower court nominees and executive branch nominees. Trump has advised Senate Republicans to “go nuclear” and make the same standar apply to Supreme Court nominees.

Republicans, however, could also use what is known as the two-speech rule to run out the clock on a Democrat-led filibuster, preserving the 60-vote threshold while also eventually confirming Gorsuch.

Klukowski said that dissension in the Democrat ranks is not sustainable. He expects Gorsuch to win confirmation and be seated on the Supreme Court.

“President Trump made the Supreme Court central to his campaign, including a list with Gorsuch’s name on it,” Klukowski said. “In a sense, the election was Merrick Garland vs. Neil Gorsuch. President Trump won, so Judge Gorsuch won. Senate Democrats need to accept the verdict of the American people, and confirm this well-qualified nominee.” (For more from the author of “Democrats Send Mixed Signals on Senate Vote for Neil Gorsuch” please click HERE)

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Will GOP Keep Its Promise to Defund Planned Parenthood?

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A number of promises were made to pro-life voters in 2016, not the least of which was that if given control of Congress, Republicans would defund the country’s largest abortion provided, Planned Parenthood.

But the only way for the GOP to keep that pledge is by passing the reconciliation bill to repeal Obamacare. The longer Republican leaders delay that effort, the less likely either defunding Planned Parenthood or fully repealing Obamacare will actually happen.

We spoke with pro-life activists participating in the recent 44th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., who said they expect the GOP to keep its campaign promises.

(For more from the author of “Will GOP Keep Its Promise to Defund Planned Parenthood?” please click HERE)

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‘EFFECTIVE’ RESPONSE: Mattis Warns North Korea Against Nuclear Weapons Attack on US, Allies

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In an explicit warning to North Korea, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday said any use of nuclear weapons by the North on the United States or its allies would be met with what he called an “effective and overwhelming” response . . .

“North Korea continues to launch missiles, develop its nuclear weapons program, and engage in threatening rhetoric and behavior,” Mattis said with Han standing at his side and U.S. and South Korean flags at their backs.

“We stand with our peace-loving Republic of Korea ally to maintain stability on the peninsula and in the region,” he added. “America’s commitments to defending our allies and to upholding our extended deterrence guarantees remain ironclad: Any attack on the United States, or our allies, will be defeated, and any use of nuclear weapons would be met with a response that would be effective and overwhelming.” (Read more from “‘EFFECTIVE’ RESPONSE: Mattis Warns North Korea Against Nuclear Weapons Attack on US, Allies” HERE)

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President Trump: America ‘Must Never, Ever’ Stop Asking God for Wisdom

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At Thursday morning’s National Prayer Breakfast, President Trump said the whole world has a duty to stop the “genocide” of Christians in the Middle East.

He blasted the terrorism that religious minorities face in some parts of the world, said we “must never, ever” stop asking God for wisdom, and declared that America will flourish “when religious liberty can flourish.”

“Freedom of religion is a sacred right,” President Trump said. He promised his administration “will do everything in its power to defend and protect religious liberty in our land” and around the world.

He outlined the severity of threats to religious freedom around the world: “We have seen peace-loving Muslims brutalized, victimized, murdered, and oppressed by ISIS killers. We have seen threats of extermination against the Jewish people. We have seen a campaign of ISIS and genocide against Christians, where they cut off heads. Not since the Middle Ages have we seen that. We haven’t seen that – the cutting off of heads. Now they cut off the heads, they drown people in steel cages…Nobody’s seen this for many, many years.”

“All nations have a moral obligation to speak out against such violence,” he said. “All nations have a duty to work to confront it and to confront it viciously if we have to. So I want to express clearly today to the American people that my administration will do everything in its power to defend and protect religious liberty in our land. America must forever remain a tolerant society where all faiths are respected and where all of our citizens can feel safe and secure. We have to feel safe and secure.” (Read more from “President Trump: America ‘Must Never, Ever’ Stop Asking God for Wisdom” HERE)

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Oops! Nancy Pelosi Accidentally Makes the Case for Trump’s Immigration Executive Order

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On Tuesday night, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. (F-10%) accidentally made a strong case for President Donald Trump’s executive order instructing the Department of Homeland Security to keep tabs on crime committed by illegal immigrants.

Laura Wilkerson, a Texas mothe whose son was “tortured,” “tied up like and animal,” and killed by an illegal alien, grilled Pelosi on her unabashed support of sanctuary cities:

“I am not a one-story mother. This happens every day because there are no laws enforcing the border,” Wilkerson said, as reported by the Washington Examiner. “How do you reconcile in your head about allowing people to disavow the law?”

Wilkerson continued:

“The second part of my question is this: if you need to go home tonight and line up your babies as you say, and your grandbabies, which one of them could you look in their eyes today, and tell them that they’re expendable for another foreign person to have a nicer life? Which one would you look to say, you, my child, are expendable for someone else to come over here and not follow the law.”

Pelosi, clearly bewildered by the mother’s impassioned testimony, offered a weak response, thanking Wilkerson for “channeling [her] energy to help prevent something like that from happening.” She then claimed that “our people [i.e. illegals] are not disobeying the law” in sanctuary cities.

“These are, law-abiding citizens, it enables them to, to be there without being reported to ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] in case of another crime that they might bear witness to,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi then went on to explain why Trump’s executive order makes so much sense:

“The point is – is that you do not turn law enforcement officers into immigration officers. That is really what the point is in the sanctuary city. So, it is not a question of getting sanctuary. Someone who … is guilty of a crime. They should be deported. Or sent to jail for what they do if you can catch them in time.”

Here’s the irony: Trump’s executive order doesn’t turn local law enforcement into immigration agents. It merely seeks to call attention to illegals who commit crimes that harm U.S. citizens. Like Pelosi claimed during the town hall, Trump believes that these individuals shouldn’t be allowed to remain in the country. And it’s safe to conclude that Wilkerson also agrees with this.

Thanks, Nancy Pelosi, for being one of the only Democrats in Congress to (albeit unknowingly) come out strongly against senseless sanctuary city provisions that harm citizens and protect criminals. (For more from the author of “Oops! Nancy Pelosi Accidentally Makes the Case for Trump’s Immigration Executive Order” please click HERE)

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Lying Lisa Murkowski Imperils Trump’s Pick for Secretary of Education

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President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Education, Betsy DeVos, on Wednesday became in danger of being voted down in her upcoming Senate confirmation.

The forecast became gloomy after Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — a pair of moderates — announced their opposition during separate speeches on the Senate floor.

“This is not a decision I make lightly,” Collins said. “I have a great deal of respect for Mrs. DeVos. I will not, can not vote to confirm her.”

After Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced his opposition to DeVos earlier Wednesday, it was expected that no Democrat would vote to confirm her.

A GOP megadonor from Michigan, DeVos is an advocate of charter schools and voucher programs — which members of both parties expressed concerns about. (Read more about Lying Lisa HERE)