by Bob Barr | Aug 12, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall When it comes to undercover investigative journalists, there are few better than Project Veritas’ James O’Keefe. In the last decade, O’Keefe’s undercover exposés have revealed the corrupt underbelly of some of the Left’s most revered institutions (such as Planned Parenthood), as well as exposing the incompetence that infects many government agencies. O’Keefe’s advocacy has earned him many friends but also enemies, including some inside the government. A recent event suggests the FBI is among those not happy with O’Keefe. The incident in question happened when O’Keefe, a resident of New York, tried to purchase a firearm from a retailer in that state. Although he has never been convicted of a felony and does not fall within any of the eight other reasons under federal law that would prohibit him from buying a gun, he was turned down. The FBI figures in this equation because since 1998, it has been responsible for maintaining the database of information through which all retail firearm sales must be checked (the so-called “NICS” system). If there is no information in the database establishing that the purchaser falls into one of the classes of persons prohibited from possessing a gun, the sale may proceed. On the other hand, if the database reveals that a purchaser falls within one of the prohibitory categories, the retailer is notified and the sale cannot lawfully go forward. Since O’Keefe demonstrably does not fall within one of the disabling categories, his purchase should have been promptly approved. That it was not, raises suspicions that the FBI has on its own decided it does not want him to have a...
by Bob Barr | Aug 5, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall When 13,000 air traffic controllers walked off the job in August 1981, President Ronald Reagan had this to say: “Tell them when the strike’s over, they don’t have any jobs.” The media, not yet fully familiar with the seriousness with which Reagan intended to govern, scoffed at the president’s threat. But it was not a bluff. Two days later, when more than 11,000 controllers refused to come back, Reagan fired them all. It was a powerful move, and demonstrated to the entire country that essential public employees serve the public, not union bosses. America’s public school teachers should be reminded of this fact. With thousands of teachers across the country currently protesting a return to the classroom because of COVID fears, Reagan’s example is particularly relevant. Like air traffic controllers, teachers sign employment contracts. While air traffic controllers contract with the federal government and teachers with local school districts, the principle is the same: perform the duties for which you were hired, or be fired. Teachers who refuse to teach in the setting for which they were hired – the classroom – need to stop acting like scared bunnies and grow up. If they truly are “essential” workers, as they remind us repeatedly, then they need to start behavinglike other essential employees and get back to work. Many businesses, unfortunately, have been forced by the government to shut down wholly or in part in reaction to the coronavirus pandemic, and this is having a devastating effect on our national economy. Amidst this devastation, public schools in virtually every jurisdiction across the country ended the school year early after...
by Bob Barr | Jul 29, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall Our collective attention these days understandably has focused on the Left’s violent protests against America’s cities. Buildings are being burned, mobs are attacking federal employees, and innocent people are being murdered. Meanwhile, a deeply more destructive war is being waged by the Left; one that seeks to dismantle the essential values that sustain the very soul of our country. In some ways, the Left’s attacks on America’s traditional values is not new; conservatives are used to hearing comedy hacks like Bill Maher mock God, and rich Hollywood starlets and pop singers scold us about the inequalities of capitalism. These are not serious people. The people who are serious about undermining values such as God, freedom, and individualism are abandoning the public bully pulpit as the forum of choice from which to corrupt our values. One of the insidious tactics they have learned to employ is destruction of the one essential tool whereby ideas and values are collectively understood and transmitted from person to person, and generation to generation – language. When words no longer have meaning, beliefs and values atrophy. Manipulation of the masses is made far easier. Examples abound. Undermining the Second Amendment by enacting gun control measures is facilitated by describing it not as what it is – depriving individuals of a God-given right to protect themselves – but by defining the problem as something it is not, and in terms that garner broad (if superficial) public support; namely, protecting the “public health” against a public health “crisis” (gun violence). To further this unscrupulous but clever attack on a fundamental liberty, the Left has worked relentlessly...
by Bob Barr | Jul 22, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall.com A highlight of any visit to our nation’s capital is spending time at one or more of the beautiful Smithsonian Institution museums that line the National Mall. Since the Smithsonian was founded in 1846, these museums have grown to house artworks and artifacts from Native American pottery to the Apollo moon lander, allowing visitors from around the world to see and understand the greatness that is our country and our culture. Tragically, even this magnificent cluster of museums has fallen victim to the destructive political correctness that now is driving protestors to deface and tear down statues of George Washington and other great Americans. One of the more recent examples of this divisive effort is seen in a program on “Whiteness” at the National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC), a part of the Smithsonian Institution. This bizarre exhibition warns viewers of “white racialized identity” as embodied by such cultural beliefs as “rugged individualism,” “the nuclear family,” and “hard work” – all hallmarks of what formerly were considered positive traits that helped build our country; but which now are presented in a negative light, essentially as racist. Instead of noting the ability of each individual by strength to overcome adversity, white participants in this macabre exhibition instead are lectured to consider themselves “fragile” because of their skin color. The deep disdain for capitalism as a foundation of America’s growth from a small littoral country into a world superpower, and the undisguised assault on Western Enlightenment that are reflected in this exhibit, would be shocking if found anywhere in a public forum, but especially so when incorporated...
by Bob Barr | Jul 8, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall.com For years, American cities run by Democrat mayors and city councils have been beset by serious fiscal problems. Now, however, these “blue” cities are reaping a far more tragic harvest of the mismanagement they have sown – violence and death. What transpired in Atlanta over the July 4th weekend was sadly predictable, except that is, to the city’s mayor. At this critical juncture, Atlanta’s police department has a leadership vacuum, with the former chief having stepped down immediately following the death of civilian Rayshard Brooks at a local Wendy’s on June 12th. For the past month, armed thugs have been patrolling a number of streets in Atlanta and adjacent areas without fear of arrest. Meanwhile, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms dithered and preened before the media, hoping to elevate herself in Biden’s not-so-discreet search for an African American female running mate. Last Saturday, on a day most Americans were celebrating our nation’s founding, eight-year-old Atlantan Secoriea Turner paid the price for living in a city void of leadership. The child was fatally shot while was riding in a car driven by her mother who was simply trying to go around a barricade erected unlawfully on a public street by armed thugs. Mayor Lance Bottoms publicly condemned the shooting, but pointedly refused to accept any responsibility for having created the circumstances that allowed the tragedy to occur in the first place. In failing to accept responsibility, Atlanta’s mayor was following in the footsteps of other mayors whose leadership lethargy has led to violence in the cities over which they exercise power, including Seattle, Minneapolis, New York, and elsewhere. After-the-fact, self-serving...
by Bob Barr | Jun 3, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall.com For three months Americans in all parts of the country have meekly submitted to government mandates to “shelter in place” and “social distance.” Then, in a matter of days last week, cities large and small descended into chaos at the hands of violent mobs facing hesitant police. Institutionalized obedience to government that so easily had maintained compliance with measures designed to slow the spread of COVID-19, quickly vanished in a rash of burning, looting and violence against police and civilians alike. The speed with which this descent took place is alarming, and the damage wrought as a result will have long-lasting and negative effects. There may be a widely held perception that the important institutions undergirding our society are sufficiently strong to withstand repeated pressures, and that they will erode if at all only after many decades. While such a view might have been accurate in ages past (after all, it took centuries for the mighty Roman Empire to crumble), the technology and instantaneous communication that have infiltrated every aspect of our lives, businesses and governments, has condensed that timeline dramatically. The social adhesive that law and order provide for our society to function properly is unravelling before our very eyes. This is not to say what we have been witnessing in the riots that have rocked cities from Milwaukee to New York and even to our nation’s Capital, sprang full born within just the past week. What we are in fact seeing is the blooming of a poisonous plant, the seeds of which were sown in many ways over at least the past several months. Last summer,...
