A Doctor To Admire, Teaching Islam In School, Values Issues Matter

Friday, October 31, 2014

A Doctor To Admire 

Nurse Kaci Hickox has certainly gotten her 15 minutes of fame for siding with Barack Obama and ignoring Ebola quarantine rules. But have you heard of Dr. Colin Bucks? Of course not. 

The Stanford Medical Center doctor also returned to America last week after treating Ebola patients in Liberia. But unlike Hickox, Dr. Bucks is cooperating with state health officials. Unlike Dr. Craig Spencer, who rode the New York subway, went bowling and lied to police about it, Dr. Bucks has stayed in his home. 

During an interview with local media, Dr. Bucks said, "For me, this is not a burden. . . . I need my neighborhood to feel utterly secure. For that reason, it's just easier to work out of home."

Kudos to Dr. Bucks! I admire his courage and desire to help those in West Africa. I also admire his willingness to respect the health and safety concerns of his fellow countrymen. 

If Barack Obama is so upset about anti-science attitudes towards addressing the Ebola crisis, perhaps he should stop lecturing the American people, pick up his phone and talk to Democratic governors. 

Quarantines became news last week when the liberal governors of Illinois and New York adopted such policies. This week, Maryland and California followed suit. 

Thankfully those governors are listening to the 80% of Americans who favor quarantines. 

Political Correctness Run Amok 

A Maryland public high school, located a short distance from the Pentagon, where a plane piloted by radical Islamists killed 125 people on 9/11, is requiring children to learn the five pillars of Islam. 

According to Fox News, the pro-Islam lesson also included questions like "How did Muslim conquerors treat those they conquered?" The "correct" answer, according to the teaching guide, was, "With tolerance, kindness and respect." Tell that to Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East today. 

A Marine who served in Iraq not surprisingly objected to his daughter being forced to learn a whitewashed version of Islam's history. He confronted school officials, used some salty language and was banned from the campus. 

The Marine was right to complain. I hope this experience doesn't end his activism. Perhaps he should run for the school board in order to educate more parents about what is being taught to their kids. 

Just imagine if a teacher anywhere in America told her students, "Okay, class, in order to understand Judaism and the roots of Christianity, you need to memorize the Ten Commandments by Monday." 

The ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation would be running to the nearest courtroom screaming about the separation of church and state. But apparently the merger of mosque and state is okay. 

Americans Not Embracing Same-Sex Marriage 

A new Associated Press poll caught my attention this morning. While the story attempted to throw cold water on the importance of values issues, the poll results confirmed the findings of a previous Pew poll that found support for same-sex marriage falling.

For example, likely voters were split 44% in favor to 45% against same-sex marriage. Moreover, by a 14-point margin (56% to 42%) likely voters felt that it was wrong "for the federal courts to issue rulings that overturn state laws" on marriage. 

As state marriage amendments began falling, where was the campaign against judicial activism, once a pillar of the conservative agenda? 

Here's another encouraging finding in the poll: only 23% of voters said abortion should be legal in all cases. But 76% of voters support some restrictions to the taking of innocent unborn lives. Unfortunately, because of Roe v. Wade, abortion-on-demand remains the law of the land. 

CDC Update 

Many of you emailed this morning to say the link to the CDC Ebola flier we provided in yesterday's report did not work. The CDC removed the flier and posted a message, "Fact sheet is being updated and is currently unavailable." 

Is this one more example of the CDC's incompetence? We'll keep you posted.