Busy June

          June hasn’t been a particularly good month.  First we learned that the Chinese hacked the personnel records of a few million federal employees.  The reaction from the White House was rather mild, with no countermeasures planned or threatened.  Then the numbers got worse.  First the administration said that the number of hacked employees, past and present, was 18 million, but only days later admitted the number was probably closer to 32 million.  The consequences of this breach in security could be catastrophic.  Yet, as we’ve seen so many times from this administration, no one has been held accountable.

          The next blast came not from Beijing, but from Rome.  Pope Francis added his voice to the chorus of hysterical climate change alarmists, and, like them, refused to weigh the opinion of dissenting scientists.  That was bad enough, but then he blamed the problem on overconsumption in developed countries, meaning that the wealthy in countries like ours should spend less on themselves and give more to the poor.  The pope’s view is understandable having come from a country where Marxist-inspired liberation theology holds sway.  But when he lays the blame on capitalism, he ignores the fact that capitalism has done more to raise people out of poverty than the socialism he favors. 
          Finally, we have the Supreme Court veering sharply to the left in its opinion on ObamaCare and same-sex marriage.  On the former, the Roberts court declared itself, in the words of George Will, “obligated to do whatever is required to make a law efficient, regardless of how the law is written.”  “Creative construing,” he adds, “is legislating, not judging.”  Justice Scalia in his dissent called it “somersaults of statutory interpretation.”
          As for the court’s view on marriage, we have to marvel at its ability to find rights in the Constitution that our Founders would have considered not only unintended, but violative of their religious principles.  So much for our Judeo-Christian heritage.
          Not all is lost, however. The Supreme Court did come to its senses in ruling that the EPA disregarded costs in regulating power plant emissions.  A small victory for common sense, and maybe a sign of better things to come.