Never Again
Seventy years ago today, Soviet forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz, revealing some of the worst horrors of the Holocaust. More than one million people were systematically murdered at Auschwitz. Nearly all of them were Jews, killed as part of Hitler's "final solution to the Jewish question," which ultimately claimed six million Jewish lives.
In 2005, as Iran's president was threatening a second Holocaust by vowing to "wipe Israel off the map," the United Nations voted to recognize January 27th as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
In Poland today, about 300 Auschwitz survivors gathered to mark the anniversary. Commenting on the rising anti-Semitism that is sweeping across Europe, Roman Kent, president of the International Auschwitz Committee, choked back tears as he said, "We survivors do not want our past to be our children's future."
The Washington Post interviewed four Auschwitz survivors and posted their stories online. I want to share with you the remarks of Marta Wise, who now resides in Israel.
"I used to be an optimist until a few years ago, but the situation in the Middle East has changed and the world does not notice anything. Reading the newspaper in the past few days is just like reading the newspaper in the 1930s. The world has not changed at all. The bottom line is it can happen again and it is happening again in many places, not necessarily to the Jews, but to anyone."
Sadly, Marta is right. It is astonishing to think that ten years after the U.N. vote establishing International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we are still negotiating with Iran over its nuclear weapons program. Meanwhile, militant Islamists are marauding across the Middle East vowing to kill hundreds of millions of people.
Pray that Western Civilization can muster the courage to defeat this evil just as we defeated the evil of Nazism 70 years ago.
Keystone Filibustered
Senate liberals yesterday filibustered legislation authorizing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline has been through various stages of development and study since the Bush Administration. A CNN poll this month found that just 28% of Americans oppose the pipeline.
Yet after more than a week of debate and more than two dozen votes on amendments, Senate liberals insist they still need more time to think it over. The truth is their minds are already made up -- they have no intention of supporting the pipeline now, two weeks from now or ever.
Left-wing politicians are beholden to the radical environmentalist movement that would hamstring our economy with expensive and unreliable sources of energy.
Thanks to Obama's promise to bankrupt the coal industry, which provides most of America's electricity, and big government mandates, Americans are now paying record prices for electricity.
Red Spies, American Greens & Your Wallet
If you've been enjoying lower gas prices at the pump lately, thank the American energy industry, and fracking technology in particular, for making America one of the world's leading energy producers. But not everyone is celebrating America's successful energy revolution and lower gas prices.
Left-wing environmentalists don't want you to use fossil fuels. If they had their way, they would make gas even more expensive -- taxing it as much as the socialist governments in Europe so you're paying $7 a gallon.
Sounds crazy, right? Well, that was the view of Steven Chu, Obama's first Energy secretary. In 2008, Chu told the Wall Street Journal, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe."
It was also a likely outcome of Obama's failed cap and trade scheme. A Harvard study predicted that Obama's plan to cap greenhouse gas emissions by taxing carbon would result in $7 a gallon gas.
These are not merely unintended consequences of misguided polices. As Chu's quote, Obama's vow to bankrupt the coal industry and his cap and trade scheme clearly demonstrate, this kind of financial pain is a deliberate objective of the left.
It's done under the guise of fighting climate change, as if liberal politicians and government bureaucrats can control the earth's climate. What hubris! Remember this the next time the topic of climate change comes up with friends and family members.
Meanwhile, the FBI arrested three Russian spies in Manhattan yesterday. According to ABC News the men were involved in economic espionage, partly aimed at America's energy industry. But wait. . . there's more. Consider this excerpt from a report in today's Washington Free Beacon:
"A shadowy Bermudan company that has funneled tens of millions of dollars to anti-fracking environmentalist groups in the United States is run by executives with deep ties to Russian oil interests and offshore money laundering schemes involving members of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle."
Russia's economy is heavily dependent on oil revenues and its latest budget was based on oil selling at least $100 a barrel. But thanks to fracking and other developments, oil is now trading around half that.
Energy is critical to our economy and our national security. If foreign governments are manipulating U.S. policy to the detriment of American consumers, businesses and taxpayers, Congress should be holding hearings and demanding answers from these left-wing environmental groups about their sources of funding.