Baghdad Christmas Slaughter

Christmas in the Middle East was once again marred by violence from radical Islamists. Two car bombings in Baghdad, one targeting a church and the other targeting a market frequented by Christians, killed more than three dozen people and wounded 70 others.

PJ Media asked a number of columnists to name the most underreported foreign policy story of 2013. Andrew McCarthy wrote this in response:

"The most underreported foreign news story of 2013 is the pogrom against Christians in Islamic countries. … The pogrom is the inexorable result of Islamic teaching and Western indulgence. It is, after all, directed at Christians because there are no more Jews left to persecute. The latter have long made their exodus from Muslim countries where Jewish communities once flourished. …

"Sadly, we could have written this essay at the end of 2012, and the story will be no different at the end of 2014. If Muslim societies are not confronted about religious persecution, they are encouraged to persist in it. That is our shame."

McCarthy is right. CNN reports that ten years ago there were as many as 1.4 million Christians in Iraq. Today it is estimated that only one-third still remain, the rest having fled growing violence and persecution.

The bombings in Baghdad are another reminder for American Christians to pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters in the Middle East. But we must do more.

Fighting religious persecution overseas is a growing part of my work at American Values. Far too many politicians, who claim to be champions of tolerance and diversity, remain silent when it comes to religious persecution and the mass murder of Christians overseas. That ambivalence must end.

We are going to turn up the heat so that this important issue cannot be ignored any longer. We are planning some major projects in 2014, and that is one reason why I hope you will stand with us now.

Today's Obamacare Headlines

Obamacare continues to be a major headache for millions of Americans and the Obama White House. Here are the latest problems making headlines:

• Obama is touting figures suggesting that as many as one million Americans have signed up for Obamacare. But industry experts are saying that far fewer people are technically enrolled. While people are filling out applications online, some insurance companies report that only 10% of applicants have actually paid their premiums. And if you don't pay, you're not enrolled.
• Why aren't people paying their premiums? Sticker shock. According to this analysis from USA Today, "More than half of the counties in 34 states using the federal health insurance exchange lack even a bronze plan that's affordable -- by the government's own definition…" Obama's Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) was sold on a myriad of lies, one of the biggest being that it would be "affordable."
• In what the New York Times labeled as a "vague announcement," the Obama Administration moved the goal posts yet again Tuesday, declaring a "special enrollment period" for anyone whose policy was cancelled and who experiences trouble with the glitchy healthcare.gov site. Even the left-wing Times conceded that Obama's constant unilateral changes to the law "amount to a sweeping exercise of executive power…"
• Politico labeled the ongoing disastrous rollout of Obamacare a "PR nightmare," and compared its many problems to a monster in a horror film that just keeps coming back.