Ben, Jerry, and Bernie
We sometimes argue that Democrats are the "free ice cream" party. In the case of Bernie Sanders's presidential-campaign kickoff, we mean it literally. If the crowd at a political event seems particularly big, look for what they're giving away up front. Hm. "Sanders has said the federal minimum wage should be go [sic] from the current $7.25 an hour to at least $10.10 an hour and eventually to $15 an hour." Ben and Jerry's average hourly wages, according to glassdoor.com: $9.49 per hour for a Shift Lead, $9.93 per hour for a Shift Leader, $10.06 for an Ice Cream Scooper, $9.69 for a Server in Scoop Shop, $12.29 for an Assistant Manager. Glassdoor.com states, "Unlike other jobs sites, all of this information is entirely shared by those who know a company best — the employees."
Meanwhile, "An entry-level Ben & Jerry's worker earns $15.97 per hour, a company spokeswoman told The Huffington Post in an email." Could it be that the employees are reporting their after-tax hourly pay, while the company is citing the pre-tax figure? What Is Rick Santorum Doing? One: Why did Rick Santorum agree to kick off his campaign with an interview with . . . Clinton-foundation-donor George Stephanopolous, of all people? What, was Keith Olbermann busy? The MSNBC prime-time lineup was all booked up? Two: Santorum -- who wrote "It Takes a Family," a treatise on the ills of big government, in response to Clinton's 1996 book, "It Takes a Village" -- also touted his book's success as an indicator of his ability to defeat Clinton. Critics are saying, "'you know what, this breakdown of the family that Rick Santorum talked about 12 years ago is really one of the central issues in rebuilding America again,'" he told Stephanopoulos. Wha? Whaaaa? That's the first piece of evidence he cites in his ability to beat Hillary? He wrote a book? It Takes a Village sold 700,000 copies by 2006. Santorum's book, which came out in 2005, sold 14,000 copies by 2011. Every time NRO writes about Santorum, you see comments in the section below in the vein of, "Why is he wasting everyone's time by running for president?" Look, there's no doubt Santorum starts as a giant underdog. But he can argue, justifiably, that four years ago, he was every bit as big an underdog -- and he finished with a (really narrow) win in the Iowa caucuses, ten other state wins, 3.9 million primary votes, and 267 delegates, good for a second-place finish. That's his strongest evidence that he can beat Hillary; he never worries about the odds and because those who don't agree with him don't understand him, they continually underestimate him. Santorum seems like an extremely personable guy every time I interact with him, but then he makes a decision like granting Stephanopolous an interview -- completely undermining the entirely justified case that the ABC anchor is too much of a dishonest, compromised hack for political journalism -- and I'm left feeling as incredulously befuddled as Jackie Chan.
"What? Why? How?" Making Sense of One of the Creepiest Scandals in Recent Memory Our David French does some justice to the sordid, dispiriting news of the Duggar family. This is one of those stories where there's a strong temptation to take a rhetorical flamethrower to just about everyone involved. It's a free country. The Duggars choose to live an intensely religious lifestyle that includes extremely limited expressions of physical affection before marriage -- their children do not kiss or hold hands with a member of the opposite sex before marriage. I'll let the psychologists, priests, ministers, and other holy men argue whether that's God's will or a runaway superego. You have to wonder how a teenage boy reacts under a strict code like that. Whether it's because of those rules, his own psychology, demons personal or non-metaphorical, some other malevolent compulsion, or a combination, Josh Duggar committed unnerving, disturbing acts towards his sisters when he was 15. A lot of 15-year-old boys do stupid, reckless things when it comes to sex, but this one should have set off alarm bells. Apparently it set off just enough alarm bells to get the family talking to people in their church, but not to the police for a year or so. In stomach-churning irony, the officer who gave Duggar "a very stern talk" is now serving a prison sentence for child pornography. For what it's worth, the disgraced former cop claims Jim Bob Duggar only told him about one act of sexual abuse, not the multiple victims. Then there's this disturbing detail: When the family was scheduled to appear on Oprah Winfrey's talk show in 2006, an email was sent to the show warning them about the alleged molestation. The email was written by a 61-year-old female who is not identified. Harpo Studios faxed the letter to the Department of Human Services hotline. The report was then opened for investigation, leading to the investigation by Springdale police. When police asked Jim Bob to bring Josh in for an interview in 2006, he attempted to hire a lawyer and refused to produce his son for questioning. At least two lawyers refused to take his case. "Det. Hignite received a voice mail from Mr. Duggar stating that [redacted] had hired an attorney and would not be coming in for an interview." How is it Oprah knew, but the network that aired a show about the Duggars, TLC, didn't? Speaking of which, TLC, your other show, Honey Boo Boo, was suddenly cancelled after they learned the adorable moppet's mother was a relationship with a convicted child molester. Just how are they picking their shows over there? When they decide to put some family in the national spotlight, do they do any digging? Any due diligence? What, are your talent scouts moonlighting as parole officers? There's a fair question of just how much we as a society should punish a 27-year-old man for what he did at 15. The legal statute of limitations expired. (How certain can we be that Josh Duggar hasn't done anything else like this since then? If he had, would the victim have come forward?) Yes, it's awful to see people who hate the Duggars (and probably, by extension, any expression of Christianity too overt for their tastes) doing a celebratory touchdown dance over the family's humiliation. Yes, it's beyond inane for snotty lefties to gleefully showcase pictures of GOP candidates with Duggars, as if any of the candidates knew, or that they somehow condoned Duggar's actions. But there's been a dispiriting rush to treat the Duggar family as a whole as a victim of outside forces, comments that seem to absolve them of the responsibility for this mess. Mike Huckabee wrote, "He and his family dealt with it and were honest and open about it with the victims and the authorities." Were they? They certainly weren't honest and open with the public at large, their fan base, until inTouch broke the news by finding the 2006 police report. And as the family is rocketing to fame and relative fortune (an estimated $25,000 to $40,000 per episode) . . . didn't they have an obligation to be open about such a serious crime in their past? Are the young women he touched okay with his rise to fame and public acclaim? Matt Walsh writes, "Josh has been upfront about it to anyone who actually needs to know this information." Really? How about Family Research Council Action? Did they have a right to know about this ticking-time-bomb of a scandal in Duggar's past before they hired him? (We don't know his salary at FRC Action, but the Family Research Council's 2012 990 form shows eleven staff members making $100,000 per year or more.) Huckabee writes, "No purpose whatsoever is served by those who are now trying to discredit Josh or his family by sensationalizing the story." Wait, who's sensationalizing it? It seems pretty shocking as is. David French comes to the grim conclusion, "If the past 30 years of very public Christian scandals should teach us anything, it's that no one should put their trust in famous Christians." Of course, you can't go through life seeing everybody else as a ticking time bomb, destined to implode the minute the darkest moment in their past comes to light. Everybody's got flaws, everybody's got weak moments, everybody sins. One of the greatest strengths of Christianity is that it recognizes that. As we stumble through life, we just have to leave our follow men and women that cushion for imperfection – which means perhaps not putting them on such a towering pedestal in the first place. ADDENDA: I'm scheduled to appear on Greta's panel tonight. . . . Tonight, National Review and Heritage are hosting the second screening in our Coming Home film series in honor of Military Appreciation Month. RSVP here to see Veteran Nation at 4 p.m., 214 Massachusetts Avenue NE, Washington, D.C. Next week, the final film of the series, The Last Patrol, will be shown June 4, featuring our very own Jay Nordlinger and best-selling author and Oscar-nominated filmmaker, Sebastian Junger. | 
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