Highlights: The Charleston Effect

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Wednesday Review
By Ericka Andersen (@ErickaAndersen; eandersen@nationalreview.com)

Charleston Reigns: The dignity of Charleston flies in the face of the Left's uninformed, anti-South bigotry. natl.re/f9JsKB

The Left Panics: We have seen an extraordinary outburst of genuine extremism — and genuine authoritarianism — in the past several months, and it will no doubt grow more intense as we approach the constitutional dethroning of the mock messiah to whom our progressive friends literally sang hymns of praise and swore oaths of allegiance. ("I pledge to be a servant to our president" — recall all that sieg heil creepiness.) natl.re/CTYojy

How Obama Invites Jihadists to Take Americans Hostage: President Obama's abandonment of longstanding U.S. hostage-negotiation policy is so problematic. The president says that the U.S. government will only communicate and facilitate hostage negotiations but not directly pay ransoms. But that's a qualification without meaning. Again, perception is key. And the perception here, joined to reality, is that America is now willing to negotiate with terrorists. natl.re/0xXd0r

Jindal's In: "My name is Bobby Jindal, and I am running for President of the United States of America," Jindal wrote in a blog post previewing his formal announcement speech, which will take place in New Orleans. The post featured video of him first breaking the news to his three children. natl.re/JcvYUF

Immoral Rules of Engagement: It's not virtuous to prolong a war – to allow our enemies to rampage – for the sake of upholding ineffective rules of engagement that far exceed the requirements of international law. If the law of war means anything, it means that violators must be punished. It's past time to punish ISIS. natl.re/tHMG74

Behold, Amazon and eBay: So, now that Amazon and eBay — two retailers I frequent online — have adopted the view that they own the moral message of their products, I decided to do a few simple searches for their views on some of the 20th century's deadliest regimes — regimes responsible for race- and class-based genocides that claimed the lives of up to 100 million innocent men, women, and children. It turns out that these retailers are happy for you to remember, enjoy, and sometimes proudly display emblems of deadly hate. natl.re/cjREOq

Reagan Throwback: The Reagan tax-rate reductions increased tax revenues from $500 billion to $1 trillion by the end of the 1980s. A study by economist Larry Lindsey found that the rate cuts for the highest income brackets paid for themselves by encouraging work and investment. Supply-side economics was a fiscal success. As the Gipper used to put it with his customary wit, "I knew my ideas were working when the media stopped calling it Reaganomics." natl.re/oXNNwC

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