Sometimes we have to remind ourselves of the good thing that can come when a bad thing happens. 

The recent wave of sexual misconduct is very disturbing. 

We can probably call this “the Great Purge,” how American society woke up and rid itself of bad and boorish behavior—sometimes worse than bad and boorish, sometimes criminal—from men taking advantage of their powerful positions.  

The good thing in all of this is the opportunities for recourse that are now being afforded young women who had been victimized, simply for wanting to get ahead in their careers. 

Their stories are finally being believed and the bad actors, mostly men, are being forced to walk the gang plank.  

The good thing inside the bad thing is that our daughters and even our sons will not be forced to endure this kind of behavior. They should be promoted based on merit and ability and hard work. Nothing more. Those taking advantage of them should indeed be purged.

Hugh Hewitt: Our Culture And The Sexual Misconduct Crisis

This past Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case formally known as “Masterpiece Cake Shop vs. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission.” 

In terms of religious liberty, there has been no recent case before the Supreme Court more important than this one.

The backstory is that in 2012, Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cake Shop, denied a request made by two men to create a cake in order to celebrate their marriage. 

Jack Phillips and his attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom argue that in requiring Jack Phillips to make a cake, and thus compelling him to use his artistic expression in support of same-sex marriage, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission is violating his religious liberty and protection against forced speech.

What we are looking at here is basically the sexual revolutionaries bullying a baker. This baker and that profession will not be the last.

On religious liberty, there’s been no recent case before the Supreme Court nearly so important as this one on Masterpiece Cake Shop.

Albert Mohler: Masterpiece Cake Shop And The Future Of Religious Liberty

The Senate version of tax reform has a hidden problem which needs to be addressed. It would greatly increase the tax burden on companies which are in debt. When a company expands operations, by say, building a factory, they usually borrow money to do it. 

The tax code has always allowed business to take the cost of that borrowing into account when they calculate their profit for the sensible reason that it is a cost of doing business. Tax reform is cutting that back, and the Senate version is cutting it back severely, especially for companies that own a lot of heavy equipment such as miners and manufacturers, exactly the type of companies that we're trying to revive as part of the Trump growth agenda. 

If we get this wrong, during the next downturn, we may well see an epidemic of high growth and heavy equipment companies driven into bankruptcy by their inability to pay their old debt and their new taxes on it at the same time.

Jerry Bowyer: A Necessary Fix On Tax Reform

The Washington Post recently reported that a former top FBI official, Peter Strzok, who had previously been assigned to and then removed from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, had “exchanged politically charged texts disparaging [President] Trump and supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton” and that Strzok was also “a key player in the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server.”

This is a blockbuster revelation, carrying the possibility of shattering public confidence in a number of long-held assumptions about the criminal-justice system generally and the FBI and the Justice Department specifically. The Justice Department should appoint another  special counsel to investigate Strzok’s actions as soon as possible.

A special counsel should conduct an inquiry, bring any necessary charges and make a report—and it should come from someone without ties to the president or his opponents. They do exist, such men and women. 

Former federal judges make excellent candidates.

Hugh Hewitt: A Blockbuster Revelation At The FBI

Townhall Review -- December 16, 2017
Hugh Hewitt invites Congressman Jim Jordan to share the latest about the growing FBI scandal and conspiracy surrounding the unreleased FBI emails. Kimberly Strassel, of the Wall Street Journal, who has been tracking every twist and turn of this story, shares more on this story with Dennis Prager. Following the Alabama Senate election, Hugh Hewitt speaks with Congressman Mike Gallagher about what the election implications will be in Congress. Tom Von Essen, former commissioner of the New York Fire Department, shares how difficult it is to stop people who are on a mission to do harm. Larry Elder examines some of the racial accusations directed toward President Trump after his attending a civil rights museum opening in Mississippi. Michael Medved turns to his brother Jonathan Medved, a prominent business leader in Israel, to share about the announcement of the U.S. recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Mike Gallagher turns to Mollie Hemmingway,  senior editor at the Federalist,  to explain the "fake news" surrounding the Trump Russia story.

Why Those FBI Emails Matter

Recent charges of assault and harassment have destroyed powerful figures in every field of endeavor. These accusations have afflicted liberals and conservatives, straight and gay, black and white, with only one factor linking every one of the accused: they are all men. That's not because women have no power to abuse: females occupy some commanding heights in politics, business and entertainment, yet no woman producer used a casting couch like Weinstein, and none of the 105 women in Congress have been accused of behavior like Franken's.

Females don't feel the same impulse to force themselves on unwilling objects of desire, and any men subjected to such assaults are better equipped to resist. That's not due to strength or size, but because of the obvious difference in the way males and females engage in sex.

Current headlines should force the Left to acknowledge an obvious point that they have long preferred to ignore: men and women are profoundly, unmistakably, undeniably different.

Michael Medved: What all the Abusers and Harassers Have in Common

A political earthquake recently occurred in the state of Alabama.

For the first time since 1992, the voters of Alabama elected a Democrat to the United States Senate. That Democrat, Doug Jones, bested Republican Roy Moore who was embroiled in accusations of sexual misconduct with women who were minors at the time. 

Ever since the 2016 presidential election, many people in America have been asking how voters will resolve the conflict between political convictions and the character of a candidate. 2016 clearly tested Republicans and, in particular, conservative Christians on this question, but it was a deeper test in Alabama.

What we find is that an incredible number of Republican voters in Alabama simply did not vote. They could not vote for a pro-abortion candidate like Doug Jones but they also would not vote for a Republican like Roy Moore.

The voters of Alabama demonstrated that there are limits to conservative tolerance when it comes to questions of character.

Albert Mohler: A Political Earthquake In Alabama

“If they would rather die they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

With that quote, Ebenezer Scrooge makes perfectly clear the true political message of “A Christmas Carol.” Dickens was writing amidst a wave of hysteria about population growth, triggered shortly before by Thomas Malthus, who argued that reproduction would exceed growth in food. 

Scrooge was both anti-procreation and anti-marriage. He fell out with his nephew Fred simply because the latter decided to marry. When the ghost of Christmas present said that he had more than 1,800 brothers, Scrooge lamented that this would be a large family to provide for. 
 
Of course Scrooge and Malthus turned out to be wrong and nephew Fred and Christmas Present turned out to be right. In 1800 there were roughly 1 billion people on planet earth, now there are almost 7 billion. 

So, this Christmas season when your friends try to use a Christmas Carol as a club against capitalism, tell them the true meaning of a Christmas Carol, that there is no such thing as surplus people.

Jerry Bowyer: The True Meaning Of A Christmas Carol

During the eight-day festival of Hanukah, it’s worthwhile to connect the holiday to recent controversies surrounding Jerusalem. The joyous holiday celebrates the purification and re-dedication of Jerusalem’s Second Temple in 164 BC, but today the official Palestinian position denies that this Temple ever even existed. That absurd notion not only contradicts hundreds of references in both Old and New Testaments, but also goes against incontrovertible historical and archaeological evidence. 

This unbending extremism under-girds Palestinian insistence that Jewish people have no valid claims to any portion of Jerusalem—and their furious reaction to President Trump’s recognition of the Holy City as Israel’s capital. Neither the Trump administration nor the Israeli government rules out the idea that peace negotiations might one day establish a Palestinian capital in some section of Jerusalem. 

But until Islamic extremists recognize the region’s actual history and drop the ridiculous fantasy of “Temple Denial,” there can be no progress—and no peace.

Michael Medved: Hanukkah Affirms History Over Fantasy

Everyone knows about George Frideric Handel, but few remember Charles Jennens, but it was Jennens who wrote and conceived the idea of the “Messiah,” the massive oratorio that is performed thousands of times worldwide at Christmas. Jennens wrote the libretto—the text—of the “Messiah,” tying together the Bible’s central story: God’s salvation of His people through the work of the Messiah.
 
He used the very words of the Bible for his text. Jennens had a purpose in his project, and that was to remind his audience of the truth and power of the story of salvation. And thus his attention to the birth of Christ. In just 21 days, Handel put the words to majestic music. “For Unto Us a Child is Born.”
 
That is the prophet’s declaration of God’s great gift to us at Christmas. It is the reason for the unspeakable joy Christians know at Christmas.
 
Merry Christmas from the Salem Radio family.

Albert Mohler: The Message And Majesty Of Handel’s "Messiah"

Townhall Review -- December 23, 2017
In this special edition of the Townhall Review, Michael Medved tells the story of Christmas, from the humble beginnings of Jesus Christ’s birth to Saint Nicholas to Santa Clause. Medved shares how Christmas was both frowned upon and celebrated in colonial America and how General George Washington used the holiday to his advantage in the Revolutionary War. Dennis Prager rounds out the show by expressing his gratitude for religion and particularly Christianity in America, even though he is a Jew.

A Christmas Story Special

‘Tis the season for Christmas carols, and one of the beautiful of our carols asks the most important question of all: “What child is this, who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?” Christmas demands an answer to that question.
 
Even with all the fanfare and frantic activity of the season, that question remains. Even though commercialism and secularism and political correctness try to push the question aside, the question still stands. In the stillness of a winter’s night, the question rings our loudly and insistently – who is this child?
 
You know the carol’s answer: “This, this is Christ the king, whom shepherd’s guard and angels sing.” “Joy! Joy! For Christ is born. The babe, the son of Mary!” That is the true answer to the question – the baby is Christ the king. May you know the full joy of Christmas.
 
Merry Christmas.

Albert Mohler: The Full Joy Of Christmas

On Thursday December 14th, R.C. Sproul met his Savior, Jesus Christ, face to face.

My own pilgrimage as a theologian cannot be traced without the indelible influence of R.C. Sproul. He was one of the great defenders of historic Christianity of our times. It is fair to say that R.C. was the greatest and most influential proponent of the recovery of Reformed theology in the last century. He was a stalwart defender of the Word of God, and one of the primary architects of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy in 1978. 

In a tribute to his own beloved teacher, Professor John Gerstner, written in 1976, R.C. stated: “In an era of church history when theology is in chaos, the church is being shaken at its foundations, and Christian ethics shift and slide with every novel theology, we are grateful for the vivid example of one who stands in the midst of confusion as ‘a bright and burning light.’”

Indeed, we are grateful to God for the bright and burning light named R. C. Sproul. 

Soli Deo Gloria.

Albert Mohler: RC Sproul 1939 - 2017

It’s been an eventful year in American politics, but don’t let the hype distract from the reality.  
 
It’s also been a year of significant accomplishments for the Republican Congress and, yes, President Donald Trump.
 
Congress passed significant legislation to cut taxes for many middle-class taxpayers, make our economy more competitive, and set the groundwork for long-term gains in wages, job creation and economic growth. The tax cut bill also dealt a big blow to Obamacare, by neutering the law’s unpopular individual mandate.
 
President Trump has worked with congressional Republicans to cut red tape and the size of the bureaucratic state. He’s also appointed conservative judges, including Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who will interpret the Constitution with deference to what’s actually in it—not what they think should be in it.  
 
With the New Year comes yet another election and more challenges for lawmakers on Capitol Hill and President Trump. But let’s take a moment as 2017 draws to a close to acknowledge that much good work has been done and to give credit where it’s due.

Lanhee Chen: Significant Accomplishments For GOP And Trump In 2017

California governor Jerry Brown has been everywhere, preaching the gospel of blue-state California. California wildfires are the curse of climate change, he told 60 Minutes, while he whisks off to yet another climate conference in Paris, warning that the world is on the road to hell.  He says the new federal tax cuts are a “monstrosity,” while he raises taxes at home.

Brown has turned California into a blue-state model of governance, but all is not calm or bright. Even with higher taxes and Silicon Valley growth, the state budget has a deficit and its pension deficit has grown dramatically.

Meanwhile jobs continue to flee the state in the face of high labor costs, high taxes and over-regulation. California has the highest poverty rate in the nation. The cost of housing is sky-high and the roads are old and gridlocked.  

Much has been made of Governor Sam Brownback’s failing red-state experiment in Kansas, but Jerry Brown’s blue state Christmas left lumps of coal in many stockings.

David Davenport: Jerry Brown’s Blue Christmas

As we approach a new year, it is clear that 2017 will be remembered as a momentous year for news.  

Perhaps the biggest story of the year will turn out to be this:  How the United States defeated ISIS and its caliphate, and almost no one took notice.  

When ISIS was roaring to power, under the watchful eye of the Obama Administration, no one could figure out how to stop them.
 
In less than a year, under the military guidance of the Trump Administration, ISIS has been defeated and Iraq and Syria have taken back large swaths of their countries that were formerly under ISIS control. 

One would expect the mainstream media to cover this as they would the end of any other war. But—for the most part—we’ve heard only crickets.
 
The truth is reporting good news under the Trump Administration seems to be increasingly difficult for the mainstream press. They can’t even acknowledge when a major victory has been won. 

Story of the year number one, defeating ISIS. Story number two? Losing the mainstream media. One is good. The other is horrible.

Hugh Hewitt: 2017 And The Big Story Elite Media Missed

Townhall Review - December 30, 2017

Hugh Hewitt invites Deputy National Security Director Nadia Schadlow, one of the principle architects of the recently released National Security Strategy document, to share some of the details surrounding this very important document. Dennis Prager identifies the opponents of the tax reform that was signed into law by President Trump. Hugh Hewitt turns to Senator Pat Toomey, who serves on the Senate Finance Committee, to share how this tax legislation will affect Americans.  Guy Benson shares with Mike Gallagher President Trump's list of first-year accomplishments, including the "unheralded decimation of ISIS." Dennis Prager shares from Ross Douthat's New York Times article that exposes the media's shameful lack of coverage of this victory over ISIS. Michael Medved unfurrels more of the Russian conspiracy and collusion, this time involving Green Party Presidential Candidate Dr. Jill Stein.  Hillsdale President Larry Arnn shares with Hugh Hewitt the history behind "Darkest Hour," a film about Sir Winston Churchill's leadership and victory against Nazi Germany. Wrapping up the show, Michael Farris, CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom, sits in with Hugh Hewitt to talk about the Masterpiece Cake Shop case, one of the key religious liberty cases in our generation.

Trump's First Year

Townhall Review -- January 6, 2018

Hugh Hewitt invites Admiral James Stavridis and Senator Tom Cotton to share what it takes to get the United States involved in a conflict like the one happening in Iran.  Mike Gallagher speaks with Ben Shapiro about an article he wrote in support of the protestors in Iran. Michael Medved discusses Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich's theory on the November midterm elections amidst the currently predicted GOP disaster. Dennis Prager shares his list of California's self-destructive laws passed. Prager also discusses the evil form of government that today's youth seldom understand: communism. Mike Gallager ponders the new developments that businesses have recently employed in an effort to be politically correct.

What the U.S. Must Do to Help the Citizens of Iran

Hewitt hosts ADF's Wagoner and the owner of Masterpiece Cake Shop of Colorado, whose case went to the Supreme Court. Masterpiece Cake Shop had refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple.

Hewitt with ADF on The Masterpiece Cakeshop SCOTUS ruling

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