I'm starting to question the narrative that the order to stand down was based on indifference to the fate of the men under fire.  Roger Simon at PJM says that new witnesses are about to come forward.  The House committee investigating this matter has just begun to peal the onion.  I'm going to break the CoC by suggesting that someone got deliberately double-crossed in Benghazi.  Given the people involved my suspicion is not beyond the realm of possibility. 

Who will be the first liberal pundit to ask what kind of man would sacrifice American lives in the pursuit of an election victory?  Is there even one person on the other side who will admit the obvious?  In a sense the press is culpable in the murders because their partisan attitude convinced Obama and Clinton thought they could get away with it.  (I'm looking at you, Candy Crowley.)  Is this not the same as aiding and abetting a crime?  Where is the moral conscience of the left?  Or is the maintenance of power the only thing that matters?        

Religion provides people with a basis for moral discrimination which is why religious institutions are a primary target for leftists.  If we didn't have religion, we could do whatever we want, right?  What a utopia that would be!  "Imagine there's no religion, it isn't hard to do . . . "

I was introduced to some of Coolidge's speeches and personal letters by a conservative friend.  What struck me immediately was that Coolidge was first and foremost a moral philosopher.  He was a deep thinker and a man of tremendous personal integrity.  The contrast between Silent Cal and the current resident in the White House couldn't more striking.         

"It didn't have to happen" is only semantically correct.  The word you are looking for is "inevitable."  It was inevitable that a politicized civil service would eventually use state power to suppress the political opposition.  Whether the decisions were ordered by upper echelon apparatchiks or initiated by low level functionaries makes little difference.  Abuse of this kind is characteristic of a one party state.  The long march through the nation's institutions is nearly complete.  The left is merely showing its true colors:  mostly red.  The seed of tyranny has germinated.  If Republicans leaders actually understood the problem, they would begin the process of dismantling the institutions where tyranny has already taken root.  Not by eliminating individual ideologues, but by eliminating entire agencies.  What we are seeing now is only the tip of the iceberg.   

In the materialist worldview a man is just the sum of his appetites.  The progressive agenda would turn us all into animals, all the easier to enslave once we are fully debauched and debased.  Eventually the day comes when it's time to cull the herd.  The pogrom to eliminate humanity ends in Dr. Gosnell's abattoir and places worse.  Mother Gaia will be revealed as a bloodthirsty bitch with a taste for human flesh.  Some will accuse me of exaggeration, but others know better.  We don't have another generation to set things right.   

KC, I could agree with but for the fact that you're applying a rational and logical analysis to a person suffering from pathological narcissism.  Obama the Great thinks that he can rule by pronouncement.  If he declares that something can be done, then it's up to his minions to carry out the royal decree.  He's not interested in the details, or in a contrary opinion.  When something fails, his reaction is twofold:  a)  it's got to be someone else's fault, and b) the failure cannot reflect on him.  Obama lies first to himself to protect his own self-image.  He then lies to the public in an attempt to change the reality.  The last thing Obama is capable of doing is telling the truth because the reality would cause his self-image to crumble.  It's a form of madness insulated from reality as you and I know it. 

Correct.  The real danger is the regulatory state.  I fear we have already reached critical mass. 

I couldn't agree more, but I worry that the American mind, as per Alan Bloom, might be totally and irrevocably closed.  It's easier for most people to embrace something that is socially acceptable than to think about principles.  And I shudder at the implications. 

I got my first job right out of college with the IRS back in 1981.  Unlike the EPA, for example, the IRS doesn't write the rules and regulations.  The entire tax code is a creature of congress.  Back when I was a lowly GS-4 the code was about the size of three telephone books.  I can't even speculate on its size today.  Keep in mind that every provision in the code was drafted by a congressman to serve a constituent.  That's how business is done these days.

But if wanted to get rid of tax filing (and who wouldn't unless you're an accountant?) there are plenty of alternative methods of taxation that don't require a VAT.  I would personally rather see taxes collected and applied to specific government agencies.  We could fund the entire DOT with gas and excise taxes.  We could do the same for the SEC with a minor tax on stock transactions.  The key would be to set a budget for each agency and design a tax to match it and not a penny more.  Unfortunately, the tax code we have will be with us as long as we have_congressmen.    

Dallin Oaks?  Wasn't he one of the characters from The Hobbit?

I used to ask my students why we call it The Cold War.  Invariably the answer would come back as something like following:  "Well, Russia is a really cold place, right?" 

The House and a third of the Senate are up for reelection in 2014.  Democrats are already running away from Obama on issues like gun control.  As things continue to deteriorate the abandonment will become a stampede.  There is nothing more important to a member of Congress than his own political future.  Guess who's going to get thrown under the bus this time?        

Nothing.  Paralysis will have the political process shut down for the next three years.  

I'm suggesting that Obamacare will have such a devastating effect on the economy in 2014, that the only rational response will be to repeal it.  Despite the calls for repeal even from members of his own party, the president will be indifferent to the consequences. 

I used to tell my students that if I caught them with a cell phone, I would nail it to their forehead with a rusty railroad spike.  I was reprimanded by my principal, so I erected an aquarium in my room and put a couple of old cell phones at the bottom.  Problem solved.