by Bob Barr | Sep 2, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall Monday, after months of self-quarantine in his basement, former Vice President Joe Biden emerged to deliver a speech in Pittsburgh. However, rather than present an image of a revitalized, coherent candidate, Biden confirmed what many in America have long-known about him – that he plays fast and loose with the facts and remains clueless about what is happening in the world outside his Washington-centric bubble.Most telling in this regard were Biden’s repeated efforts to blame President Trump for the violence that for months has plagued cities from coast to coast and in the country’s heartland; communities that have been living for years if not decades under ineffectual Democrat Party control. Blaming Donald Trump, a Republican president, for violence in Democrat-run cities even after he has repeatedly denounced it and offered assistance to help quell it, bordered on the ludicrous, but was not the only mendacious story offered up by the former vice president on Monday.For example, the former vice president charged that Trump deployed “secret federal troops” to protect federal property. This claim would be startling if true, but it is utterly without foundation. The Trump Administration did order federal law enforcement officers to protect federal facilities, buildings, and personnel in Portland, Oregon, for example, when they were attacked repeatedly by violent mobs. There was, however, nothing “secret” about the deployment, and there were only civilian federal law enforcement officers involved, not “federal troops.” Considering the many research staff and speech writers available to Biden as both a former vice president and a current presidential nominee, we are left to conclude either that he knew such a statement...
by Bob Barr | Aug 26, 2020 | Townhall Article |
TownhallParents across America being forced to deal with the technological and administrative burdens of “distance learning” face severe consequences, even potential criminal charges, if they fail to meet these challenges.One might think that actually getting a student to sit in front of a laptop for hours on end would be a victory in and of itself. Now, however, parents have the added stress of making sure nothing that might be seen on camera behind and around the child shows anything that could be considered politically incorrect, or that might trigger a report to the “authorities.” Failure to do so could result in a visit from the police. This is exactly what happened to the mother of a fifth-grade boy in Baltimore.The student was a Boy Scout and his mother a Navy veteran. They made what turned out to be a serious mistake during a distance learning session, when they failed to realize that hanging on a wall behind where the boy sat for his video learning session were two BB guns, including a fabled “Red Ryder” model. This oversight was sufficient to trigger fear in the fifth-grade teacher on the other end of the video session, who quickly reported the “disturbing” images to her school principal. Up the chain of command the report went, from the teacher, to the principal, and to the police who were summoned to search the house for “weapons.” Even more disturbing than the fact that a teacher apparently became traumatized at the sight of a BB gun on a bedroom wall, was the fact that, according to media accounts, the initial call came from “a concerned parent.”The Baltimore...
by Bob Barr | Aug 19, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall To some extent, most crimes are relatively easy to explain. For example, greed leads to theft; anger often is a predicate to violence; a desire to “belong” pushes many teenagers to join gangs; and marital discord lies at the root of far too many murders. But the cold-blooded murder of a young child, like 5-year-old Cannon Hinnant, defies all rational understanding or explanation — a senseless act by an individual who has lost all touch with humanity. It is the very definition of inhuman.It is difficult to recount the details of young Cannon’s murder without being moved to tears. Although the incident was largely ignored by the mainstream media, the pointlessness and savagery of the murder, apparently without any conceivable explanation or motive, is deeply unsettling. Cannon Hinnant’s murder starkly illustrates the reality that America’s moral soul is dying.America was founded as a sanctuary for religious refugees. At its core and since its creation, our country has been a society with a shared belief in God and on the moral virtues to which our Founders explicitly paid tribute. It was this spirit of moral integrity that helped turn America into the world’s guiding light for hope and freedom.Today, that light is decidedly dimmed. Looking at the violence-torn streets of Portland, Chicago, New York, and so many other cities and communities, it has become virtually impossible to recognize the country “made only for a moral and religious People,” as John Adams once wrote. On the surface the looting and violence may appear to some observers as political acts; but roving mobs beating people within an inch of their lives is much...
by Bob Barr | Aug 12, 2020 | Townhall Article |
TownhallWhen 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 firearm and therefore told...
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 COVID hit our...
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 since the 1970s to...
