8 Sobering Reminders That ‘Freedom Is Not Free’

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This Memorial Day, Americans [enjoyed] a three-day weekend, amazing shopping deals, BBQ’s, and time spent with their families. But the time Americans use for rest, relaxation, and festivities came at a heavy price.

Americans should always remember that the freedoms we enjoy today are not free. Our freedom was fought for; it was bought with the blood of soldiers who gave their lives for their families, for their countrymen. These brave men and women gave their lives for our freedom. As President Reagan said, addressing the nation on Memorial Day in 1982:

“Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we — in a less final, less heroic way — be willing to give of ourselves.”

Today it is right to be reminded of the sacrifice of our fallen soldiers, to remember the cost of our freedom.

Here are eight powerful and sobering reminders that freedom isn’t free:

1. Mary McHugh mourns her dead fiance James Regan at Arlington on 27 May 2007. Photo John Moore #MemorialDay

Sgt. James (Jimmy) J. Regan was assigned to company C, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment when he was killed by an IED which targeted his vehicle in northern Iraq in February 2007. “Deeply affected by the terror attacks of 9/11,” Sgt. Regan rejected lucrative job offers on Wall Street and law school scholarships to join the Army in February 2004. He left behind his loving fiancee, his parents, and three sisters.

2. The Civil War in Four Minutes: Battlefield Death

Over 7,000 men died at the Battle of Gettysburg, and would they receive a “good death?” Union troops, sadly, had no time for burials as they hotly pursued Confederate troops away from the battlefield. A town of 2,500 had the tragic responsibility of honoring the dead with a burial. The video’s narrator reminds us that “every Civil War battlefield is a cemetery.”

3. Widow Learns Of Soldier’s Death Through Facebook

“It’s something that you never think will happen to you,” remarks the widow of Staff Sgt. Christopher Brown. “You don’t want it to be real.” Army Staff Sgt. Brown was killed after stepping on an IED in Afghanistan, just a few hours after Skyping with his wife Ariell. Mrs. Brown was told of her husband’s passing by a member of Sgt. Brown’s platoon over Facebook. Sgt. Brown left behind two daughters and at the time his wife was pregnant with their third child.

4. War widow reads dead husband’s letter

The wife of a soldier who died in Iraq finally finds the strength to go through his belongings when she finds a letter written to her by her husband. Holding back tears she reads it aloud for others to hear. “I pray that in my life and death I saved others’ lives, and kept a few from ever having to experience this war,” he writes.

5. Fallen Soldier Returns Home [TAPS]

This touching, yet triumphant, video of fallen Army Specialist Joey Riley returning home to Grove City, Ohio, shows how our veterans are not just numbers, but are real people who belong to real communities. Grove City honored their fallen servicemember with an emotional and honorable homecoming.

6. ‘Come back, daddy:’ 4-year-old boy has heartbreaking plea at grave of Marine father

A young son’s visit to his father’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery offers a stark reminder of the sacrifice our service members make every day. Four-year-old Christian Jacobsen stays strong for his mother as he talks to his dad as if he’s right in front of him. “I know he’s always watching over me,” Christian says.

7. Dog Won’t Leave Fallen Navy Seals Soldier’s Side

This labrador retriever named Hawkeye showed why dogs are often described as “man’s best friend” when he stuck by his owner’s side even after death. Hawkeye led Navy SEAL Officer John Tumilson’s family into the funeral procession and remained loyally by his casket long after everyone else had left.

8. ‘Hero’ U.S. Soldier Gives Life to Save Afghan Girl

U.S. Sgt. Dennis Weichel will never see his kids again because he saved the life of a young girl he had never met before. Weichel had just surprised his two kids at home for Christmas before deploying to Afghanistan for another 11 months. While overseas, Weichel made the ultimate sacrifice, dragging an Afghan girl to safety before he himself was hit by an armored vehicle ending his life.

As President Reagan said:

“As we honor their memory today, let us pledge that their lives, their sacrifices, their valor shall be justified and remembered for as long as God gives life to this nation. And let us also pledge to do our utmost to carry out what must have been their wish: that no other generation of young men will ever have to share their experiences and repeat their sacrifice.

Earlier today, with the music that we have heard and that of our National Anthem — I can’t claim to know the words of all the national anthems in the world, but I don’t know of any other that ends with a question and a challenge as ours does: Does that flag still wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? That is what we must all ask.”

Remember always, “The patriot’s blood is the seed of freedom’s tree.” -Thomas Campbell

(For more from the author of “8 Sobering Reminders That ‘Freedom Is Not Free'” please click HERE)

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Should Cruz Endorse Trump? The Senator’s Supporters Say ‘OH HELL NO!’

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With Marco Rubio’s journey towards the dark side complete, all eyes are on Ted Cruz to see if he will bow to the Trump chocolate bunny as well. I’ve already written my own analysis of why I believe this would be a tremendous mistake, not just morally but (especially) politically, so this time I decided to pose the question to Cruz supporters on Twitter. And let’s just say opinions here aren’t exactly varied.

A hefty 83 percent of them said “no” when asked if they thought Cruz should endorse Trump. But it’s not the dominant sentiment that should get the Texas senator’s attention as much as the emphasis. Cruz supporters don’t just seem to be overwhelmingly against him supporting Trump, but like really overwhelmingly against it. Like I’m against canned spinach. Like Chris Christie is against self-dignity. Like Ben Carson is against not being a willful pawn. Like Barack Obama is against the rule of law. Like Hillary Clinton is against transparency.

But don’t just take my word for it. I’ll let those tweets speak for themselves for the rest of this column:

And there’s more where that came from, but by now I think we get the picture. (For more from the author of “Should Cruz Endorse Trump? The Senator’s Supporters Say ‘OH HELL NO!'” please click HERE)

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Memorial Day: Sacrifice Forgotten

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If you do nothing else this Memorial Day, take a few minutes to watch this video. It is a heart-wrenching reminder of the sacrifice that our service members and their families have selflessly made – for us.

It’s easy to breeze by Memorial Day, giving little thought to veterans, while you enjoy a well-deserved day off with family. But when confronted with photos of a wife weeping at her slain soldier’s grave, or a daughter collapsed face-first into the freshly turned dirt above her father’s casket, or a son – tears streaming down his rosy cheeks – trying to keep it together at his dad’s funeral, it starts to give a little sense of the reality of loss suffered by thousands of our fellow Americans. They’ve given everything.

Obviously, Memorial Day is not ‘happy’ for them. For us, it’s a time for us to honor their sacrifice and pray for them.

Regrettably, some of our fellow Americans don’t see it that way. Instead, they think it appropriate to deface war memorials, beat elderly war veterans, and ridicule their service. Others deface our veterans’ sacrifices in other ways, by embracing political leaders and causes wholly contrary to the very Constitution that our veterans swore their oaths to and fought for.

So how do we honor this sacrifice? Not by rolling over in the face tyranny. Not by throwing up our hands and saying, “There’s nothing I can do!” Rather, we honor their ultimate sacrifice by being willing to stand up and fight against the insidious forces that are assaulting our constitutional and moral foundations, no matter how insurmountable they may appear.

OBAMA’S LEGACY: The Terrorist Cancer Is… Growing

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Responding to criticism of President Obama’s handling of terrorism, White House press secretary Josh Earnest boasted Thursday of all the setbacks the Islamic State has experienced in recent months, noting that in Iraq “45 percent of the populated area that ISIL previously controlled has been retaken from them. In Syria, that figure is now 20 percent.”

That’s like a patient who ignored a cancer diagnosis bragging that he finally reduced the tumor in his lung — glossing over the fact that he let it spread and metastasize to his other organs. If he had attacked the Islamic State cancer early, Obama could have stopped it from spreading in the first place. But instead, he dismissed the terrorist group as the “JV team” that was “engaged in various local power struggles and disputes” and did not have “the capacity and reach of a bin Laden” and did not pose “a direct threat to us.” He did nothing, while the cancer grew in Syria and then spread in Iraq.

Now the cancer has spread and metastasized across the world.

According to a recent CNN analysis, since declaring its caliphate in 2014, the Islamic State has carried out 90 attacks in 21 countries outside of Iraq and Syria that have killed 1,390 people and injured more than 2,000 others. The Islamic State has a presence in more than a dozen countries and has declared “provinces” in Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Post reported in 2015 that “since the withdrawal of most US and international troops in December, the Islamic State has steadily made inroads in Afghanistan” where it has “poured pepper into the wounds of their enemies … seared their hands in vats of boiling oil … blindfolded, tortured and blown apart [villagers] with explosives buried underneath them.”

And while the Islamic State spreads and grows, al-Qaeda is making a comeback. Obama is touting the killing of Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour as “an important milestone,” but the truth is that the Taliban has made major military gains in Afghanistan — and that has opened the door to al-Qaeda. The Post reported in October that “American airstrikes targeted what was ‘probably the largest’ al-Qaeda training camp found in the 14-year Afghan war.” Sounds good except for one small problem: There were no major al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan when Obama took office. Now it is once again training terrorists in the land where it trained operatives for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Al-Qaeda has also regained lost ground in Yemen, the country where it trained and deployed the underwear bomber who nearly blew up a plane bound for Detroit in 2009. And as a recent report from the Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project notes, the “Syrian al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al Nusra poses one of the most significant long-term threats of any Salafi-jihadi group” and “is much more dangerous to the US than the ISIS model in the long run.”

Overall, Gen. Jack Keane recently testified that al-Qaeda has “grown fourfold in the last five years.”

We’re lying to ourselves if we think that the violence we are witnessing is going to be confined to the Middle East … or South Asia … or North Africa … or Europe. It is only a matter of time before the Islamic State and al-Qaeda bring this violence here to our shores.

Indeed, in many ways we face a situation far more dangerous and complex than we did before Sept. 11, 2001. Before 9/11, we largely faced a danger from one terrorist network (al-Qaeda) with safe haven in one nation (Afghanistan). Today, we face danger from multiple terrorist networks with safe havens in a dozen or more countries.

Moreover, we face something we have never seen before: two terrorist networks — the Islamic State and al-Qaeda — competing with each other for the hearts of the jihadi faithful and the backing of jihadi financiers. The way to win that competition is to be the first to carry out a catastrophic attack here in the United States.

When it came to terrorist networks, the George W. Bush administration had a mantra: We’re going to fight them over there so that we do not have to face them here at home. Obama abandoned that mantra. And now the danger is getting closer to home with each passing day. (For more from the author of “OBAMA’S LEGACY: The Terrorist Cancer Is… Growing” please click HERE)

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When Will the Media Be Held Responsible for Lies About Guns?

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Conservatives have become used to the bias the mainstream media engages in on a daily basis. It has been going on for nearly a generation. The mainstream media, despite having the evidence shoved in its face, will deny it over and over again. Conservatives continue to make sure they point it out, but accept it is simply a reality that has to be dealt with.

There are times, however, when the media is not only biased but outright deceptive. That point was driven home earlier this week when Katie Couric and filmmakers of a documentary she executively produced fabricated a sequence in the film. From the Free Beacon:

The makers of a new Katie Couric documentary on gun violence deceptively edited an interview between Couric and a group of gun rights activists in an apparent attempt to embarrass the activists, an audio recording of the full interview shows.

At the 21:48 mark of Under the Gun a scene of Katie Couric interviewing members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun rights organization, is shown.

Couric can be heard in the interview asking activists from the Virginia Citizens Defense League, “If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?”

The documentary then shows the activists sitting silently for nine awkward seconds, unable to provide an answer. It then cuts to the next scene.

The reality, it appears, was far different.

However, raw audio of the interview between Katie Couric and the activists provided to the Washington Free Beacon shows the scene was deceptively edited. Instead of silence, Couric’s question is met immediately with answers from the activists. A back and forth between a number of the league’s members and Couric over the issue of background checks proceeds for more than four minutes after the original question is asked.

Here is the video in question. Watch as the activists look almost embarrassed they don’t have an answer to her question.

There is a word to describe this kind of deception: Disgraceful.

The filmmakers’ lame excuse that they had no “intent” to deceive anybody has been met with the derision it deserves. There is no doubt they were attempting to make people who support the Second Amendment look completely idiotic, giving weight to the stereotype of gun owners as goofball hicks who just want to shoot their guns all day, every day.

Media deception is also evident in how interviewers will allow politicians to make some of the most outrageous claims without any pushback whatsoever. President Obama made two claims about guns that defy reality. First, he alleged that it’s easier to buy a gun than a vegetable. Then he said it was easier to purchase a gun than it was to buy a book.

Is there anybody in the media who truly believes it is more difficult to buy a tomato or a Harry Potter book than it is a Beretta?

Another lie the media happily parrots without consequence is that “40% of all guns are purchased without a background check.” This is an egregious lie that the mainstream media never bothers to fact check. The number is based on a self-reporting survey, not an investigation, most of which was conducted before the federal background-check system went into place.

Lately, one of the oft-repeated claims about firearms is the bogus accusation regarding the purchase of guns over the internet. President Obama routinely uses this line. In fact, it’s been tweeted by the White House account:

In reality, any purchase of a firearm made on the internet, in order for it to be legal, must be shipped to a federally licensed firearms’ dealer where the purchaser then has to undergo the necessary background check. If the individual is cleared, the transaction is complete.

The media is supposed to be the check against government officials who lie to the public — not an accomplice. When untruths about firearms are told and the media merely repeats them, the information is fed into the public and before too long the false statements are repeated until they become routine factoids.

Katie Couric and the others involved with this “documentary” really need to be held to account. The public statements they have issued thus far are not enough. There needs to be a correction made in the film, an apology issued and a complete mea culpa as to their intent. Until that happens, the backlash against them and the film should continue. (For more from the author of “When Will the Media Be Held Responsible for Lies About Guns?” please click HERE)

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My Dad Was Transgender. Why I Still Think Gender Can’t Be Changed.

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Maybe parallel universes really do exist. Maybe, as my husband and I hiked through the deep, dark forest a few years ago, we somehow crossed through a portal, a stargate into another dimension—a universe that, superficially at least, looks quite similar to the one I’d known most of my life.

I almost hope that’s true. I’d like to believe it, because in the world I now inhabit—which outwardly resembles the one I remember—everything seems to have been turned inside out and become utterly bewildering.

Yes, I find myself wanting to believe that weird matrix explanation and to resist the more likely truth that the world I grew up in could have changed so completely.

I’d like to believe that somewhere back there the world I accidently exited still exists—that world where gender was a fixed biological fact, determined at conception.

But no, this is not the Twilight Zone; it is not an inexplicable parallel universe.

This is 21st century America, and, according to an ABC news article on guidelines recently handed down by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education:

There is no obligation for a student to present a specific medical diagnosis or identification documents that reflect his or her gender identity, and equal access must be given to transgender students even in instances when it makes others uncomfortable, according to the directive.

Yes, we really do live in a nation in which our government tells us girls and boys should be able to share restrooms and locker rooms. We really do live in a culture that values transgender rights over basic morality and children’s safety.

But the very hard reality in this topsy-turvy world is that transgender people are hundreds of times more likely to attempt suicide than the general U.S. population.

And what does our enlightened culture do about this very sad statistic?

Well, we make it easier for people to transition to this sad and depressing lifestyle. Helping them struggle down the hard road of facing reality is just too judgmental; it’s better to let them move into a make-believe life in which they face a 4-in-10 chance of attempting suicide.

My father gave in to his make-believe transgender impulses and became Becky. He’d spent most of his life dreaming of making that transition. When he finally left his family and got what he’d long desired, he still wasn’t fulfilled.

He considered suicide, but, thankfully, resisted. But later, pumped full of unnatural hormones and chemicals and adorned in women’s clothing, he died a sad, confused, forgetful, and regretful old man.

I missed Harold, the one who, during his periods of resisting his impulses, treated me as a father should treat his daughter.

I miss him dancing with my little feet placed on top of his, his big hands reaching down to clasp my little five-year-old hands. I miss those days of his sexual sobriety when we worked together at his father’s seed company and went to lunch together. I miss all those times when he accepted the reality that he was Harold, a man—a husband, father, and grandfather.

I don’t miss Becky, or those transition times when my father gave in to his transgender impulses. I don’t miss him telling me, when I was just nine years old, of his desire to become a woman and then requiring me to keep that confession a secret. I don’t miss the fanciful alternate world he transported into, leaving my mother emotionally distraught and financially destitute.

My father was the one who had entered another dimension, a make-believe dimension. And rather than returning to the real world, he wanted the real world to accommodate his make-believe world.

That’s what this small but vocal minority and their enablers want from the rest of the real world.

I’d like to believe that world in which truth is objective, and children’s modesty and safety is more important than being politically correct still exists and somehow I might find the portal to return to it. Back to that world where adults looked out for children’s best interests, even if doing so meant saying no and then dealing with rather than succumbing to the resultant temper tantrum.

I’d like to think that, in that parallel universe I inadvertently ambled out of, women and children’s safety is still more important than appeasing a tiny-but-very-vocal minority.

But it appears I’m no longer in that universe. I’m in one where choices—no matter how illogical—trump obvious facts.

I find myself in a world in which stating a very plain and evident biological fact is now considered a form of hate speech.

I’m now in a world that tells me I must not only tolerate but also celebrate behaviors that in just a relative eye’s blink before were condemned as detrimental to society. (For more from the author of “My Dad Was Transgender. Why I Still Think Gender Can’t Be Changed.” please click HERE)

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Will Obama Indict Clinton to Save His Party?

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Obama must be watching the unfolding 2016 election with a growing sense of horror. The Democrats got the greatest gift imaginable when Donald Trump got the Republican nomination, but Hillary Clinton has already all but frittered away the greatest natural advantage any politician could possibly have – being a woman running against Donald Trump. Clinton’s inept, bungling campaign has alienated huge portions of the blue collar Democrat voting base and has made a race that should be a cakewalk into one that is actually competitive.

One thing that Barack Obama has shown during his seven and a half years in office is that he really is an ideologue. Unlike Clinton, he cares deeply about actually advancing progressive causes, and he is nearly obsessed with his legacy – much of which will be built on unilateral action that could easily be undone by a hostile successor (if we suppose that Trump would actually care to undo any of it). On the other hand, if a Democrat succeeds him, he knows that many of these programs will become much more difficult to undo.

His alliance with Clinton has always been one of political convenience rather than one of genuine friendship, if the Democrat insiders who constantly gab to the media are to be believed. I don’t believe for a moment that Obama has any personal investment in Hillary Clinton becoming President – he’d personally be just as happy with Bernie if not more so.

Moreover, his own Justice Department is allegedly threatening open mutiny if action is not taken against Clinton after the probe into her private email server is completed. If Clinton were in a strong position for the general election, no doubt Obama would order Lynch to softpedal any action that lands on Clinton herself, no matter what the facts say. However, Obama can read the polls as well as anyone, and he knows that Sanders would walk all over Donald Trump, whereas Clinton might well find herself in a dogfight. (Read more from “Will Obama Indict Clinton to Save His Party?” HERE)

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The Three Most Stunning Lies About Hillary’s Emails

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Bernie Sanders said he didn’t care about Hillary Clinton’s emails but the Inspector General at the State Department sure did.

In a 83-page report released Wednesday the Obama-appointed Inspector General found that Clinton’s use of a private email system did not comply with federal records policies. And, while the IG’s declaration Clinton disregarded the rules is remarkable, it’s even more stunning how baldly Clinton lied, on multiple occasions, to multiple people about the matter.

Three noteworthy examples stand out.

First, Clinton told the press she was “not willing to say it was an error in judgment because…nothing that I did was wrong.” Now, it’s a regular bullet in her talking points to admit she made “a mistake.”

Second, in the past Clinton said she was fully cooperating with an FBI investigation into her email. “I’m more than ready to talk to anybody, anytime,” she said. “And I’ve encouraged all of, you know, my assistants to be very forthcoming.”

But, “anybody, anytime” was never true.

She may be cooperating on some level with the FBI, but she never did with the IG.

In a footnote on page 5 of the report, the Office of the Inspector General states that Clinton and several of her top aides, including her former chief of staff Cheryl MIlls, former deputy chief of staff for operations Huma Abedin, and former deputy chief of staff Jake Sullivan, refused requests for interviews.

Third, Clinton insisted everything she did was permitted. According to the report, page 43, staff at the State Department who were concerned about the fact that her personal system was not subject to federal records law and carried security risks were told Clinton’s “personal system had been reviewed and approved by Department legal staff.”

Not true. The IG found no evidence her system had ever been reviewed by legal counsel.

Moreover, State Department employees who raised those questions were instructed that their “mission is to support the Secretary” and to “never to speak of the secretary’s personal email system again.”

(Take a moment to absorb the fact that even her own staff were lied to about the legal merits about what she was asking them to help her do, possibly putting their careers in jeopardy.)

None of this was a “mistake” as Clinton says.

She intentionally lied about her secret email system many times, offering up false pretenses of transparency and legality. She made concentrated efforts to evade federal public records laws, while at the same time, putting national security at risk.

All because she wanted to protect her personal political agenda more than properly carry out her duties as a public servant.

And, she tried to cover it all up until she got caught red handed.

Bernie Sanders and other Democrats ought to care. Otherwise they are condoning the scandal. (For more from the author of “The Three Most Stunning Lies About Hillary’s Emails” please click HERE)

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Remembering Those Who Never Came Home

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During the mid-2000s, I attended my son’s graduation from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, in a ceremony where the commencement address was given by then-Secretary of Defense Bob Gates.

Like many who attend graduations, I have no recall of what Gates said to the collective students, faculty, and families that day. I do recall that it came at a very difficult time overseas for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The other thing I remember: More than 50 percent of that Virginia Military Institute class stood up to be commissioned into the armed forces of the United States.

As they stood, I could feel myself start to well up. I turned away from my wife so she wouldn’t see, but she knew—and felt the same surge of patriotism I did.

As a veteran myself, I couldn’t have felt prouder of the young men and women, including my son, who were volunteering to serve their country in its time of need, despite the mortal dangers that clearly faced them in the war on terror.

Of course, they were like so many others who had served this great nation before them; who bravely and nobly went in harm’s way to defend our liberty and way of life.

Many would not return to their loved ones or their fellow service members who, truth be told, love them just as much as their kith and kin do.

Next to my desk, I keep a tattered piece of paper with a prayer on it that comes from the Archdioceses for the Military Services that I found at St. Peter’s Church in Washington, D.C. The prayer says it well:

Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands.

Protect them as they protect us.

Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need.

I ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Amen.

Whether you’re spiritual or not, it’s right for this country to take this day to remember those who have fallen, those who have returned, those who are hurting and suffering wounds both visible and invisible, and those who are serving today.

Nor should we forget their families, who have shared their most prized possessions with our armed forces for the good of this country. “They also serve who only stand and wait,” as the poet John Milton noted.

Memorial Day is but a brief moment in time every year when a great country takes pauses to rightfully and reverently thank those both living and dead who have served for their courage and sacrifices on our behalf.

We must never—ever—forget that America is the home of the free because of the brave. (For more from the author of “Remembering Those Who Never Came Home” please click HERE)

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Why This Senator Is Asking Facebook Tough Questions

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The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee defended his inquiry to Facebook over accusations of anti-conservative bias, telling The Daily Signal he simply wants to make sure consumers aren’t being misled by the social media giant.

“We’re not interested in regulating any media platform out there. All we want to do is ensure that consumers know with clarity what it is, what [Facebook’s] policy is, and what the information is that they’re getting and how that’s put together,” Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told The Daily Signal’s Editor-in-Chief Rob Bluey during a Facebook Live discussion in Thune’s Capitol Hill office on Thursday.

On May 9, Gizmodo reported that a former Facebook contractor observed instances when conservative news stories were suppressed from Facebook’s Trending Topics section, while other stories were injected even though they were not actually trending.

The allegations “were pretty difficult to overlook,” said Thune, who also serves as chairman of the Republican Conference Committee, the Senate GOP’s third-ranking leader.

“The allegations that were made suggest that [Facebook] actually had curators who were suppressing conservative content and infusing liberal content,” Thune said. “We’re just trying to get to the bottom of it.”

Thune sent a letter to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on May 10, asking questions related to the allegations made by Gizmodo and for Facebook “to provide some clarity for what their policy actually is,” Thune said.

“All we were interested in really was ensuring that how they describe what they do in terms of putting together the Trending Topics actually match the reality. And that the consumers weren’t being misled,” Thune said.

“They have a lot of users out there, over 160 million in the United States. If they’re representing themselves as a neutral platform that simply aggregates these stories and posts them based on a computer algorithm, that’s number of clicks, that’s one thing.”

Thune asked in his letter to Zuckerberg:

What steps is Facebook taking to investigate claims of politically motivated manipulation of news stories in the Trending Topics section? If such claims are substantiated, what steps will Facebook take to hold the responsible individuals accountable?

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s office “slammed” Thune and his Republican Senate colleagues’ inquiry to Facebook, Politico reported.

Facebook responded to Thune on Monday, saying the company had “initiated an investigation into the policies and practices around Trending Topics to determine if anyone working on the product acted in ways that are inconsistent with our policies and mission.”

Thune says he felt Facebook took the response seriously.

In a letter responding to Thune, Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch wrote:

Our investigation has revealed no evidence of systematic political bias in the selection or prominence of stories included in the Trending Topics feature. Our data analysis indicated that conservative and liberal topics are approved as trending topics at virtually identical rates.

Facebook “went on to suggest that they’re going to make some changes in their policy. I thought it was a good outcome,” Thune said. “It was an issue that needed to be raised.”

Conservative leaders were invited to a meeting with Zuckerberg last week to discuss the situation. The Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint and Bluey were among those in attendance.

Thune says “by and large” Facebook has “been very beneficial for its users.” “The platform creates a very unique way in which people can connect and communicate and get information,” Thune said. (For more from the author of “Why This Senator Is Asking Facebook Tough Questions” please click HERE)

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