WATCH: Unanswered questions surrounding Boston Marathon bombing

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Now, some interesting new developments in the Boston Marathon attack as well. The media, quick to latch onto the lone wolf theory – you know, well, who are these guys, really? And then they immediately went, well, it was their religion. I’m not sure what religion.

But as the investigation continues to pan out, it is becoming increasingly likely that this event being done by a couple of guys who were just radicalized solely by taking the wrong turn on Google search is as likely as Benghazi happening because of a YouTube video. That’s not the truth. Lawmakers now say the Tsarnaev brothers were trained before the attack. Here’s a Congressman, Michael McCaul, the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. Watch this.

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Rep. Michael McCaul: I think given the level of sophistication of this device, the fact that the pressure cooker is a signature device that goes back to Pakistan, Afghanistan, leads me to believe – and the way they handled these devices and the tradecraft – leads me to believe that there was a trainer, and the question is where is that trainer or trainers?

Okay, who is the trainer? Remember, this guy is a Republican. Now, let me give you the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, also revealing that the FBI is investigating persons of interest here inside the United States.

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George Stephanopoulos: Do you know of any other people here in the United States who might have been part of this process of radicalizing Tamerlan?

Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger: This is part of the investigation. It’s a domestic investigation, and it’s an international investigation. And we’re really good at this. The FBI’s very good with that, working with our other agencies. There are persons of interest in the United States.

Let me give you another Democrat. This is a Democrat Representative in the House on the House Intelligence Committee. He said he believed the Russians know more than they are telling us now.

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Rep. Adam Schiff: But at the same time, if they were up on the mother or on someone related to the mother and listening, there’s got to be a basis for why they went up on her electronically or why they went up on one of her affiliates or associates. We don’t know that. We haven’t received that information from the Russians. I think they do know more than they’re telling us.

Okay, now here’s what’s of particular interest: the fact that the Russian authorities recorded a conversation between Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his mother back in 2011. They’re talking about jihad together, and there’s a second call that was recorded between the suspects’ mother and an unnamed man under FBI investigation living in southern Russia.

The Russians just provided this information to United States over the weekend, so why were the Russians recording the phone call in the first place? What do they know? Well, again, there’s no answer yet. That seems to be the theme around many of the stories today. There are more questions than answers, but there’s something different, because it used to always take time. But there was something else that we used to also have, and that was trust for our own government, trust that eventually we would get to the meaning, trust that there were people actually trying to do the right thing.

The issue of the Miranda rights has caused all kinds of disagreement in the Boston Marathon attack investigation, and here’s where I stand. If you’re not a citizen, sorry, dude. If you are a citizen, you need to be granted those rights, no matter how big of a dirt bag you may be. It only counts when we uphold the rights of the people we really don’t want to give rights to. That’s when it’s important.

But there is controversy surrounding how the surviving suspect was Mirandized. A federal judge – her name is Marianne Bowler. She decided to go it alone. She went down to the hospital, and she rushed down there to set up a makeshift proceeding and read the suspect his rights. It’s like 16 hours into it. That’s important to remember.

According to House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Rogers, the FBI was “not happy about it” because, “They believed they needed more time. This is not a good way to stop another bomb from going off.” The FBI reportedly was blindsided and stunned when the judge showed up. Tsarnaev was providing valuable intelligence information and then suddenly stopped after his rights were read by this particular judge.

The FBI believes valuable information now has been lost due to the actions of this judge. So who is this judge? Who is the judge? Well, the Supreme Court held that a suspect has to be brought before the judicial officer within 48 hours. You’ve got 48 hours. The suspect has to be read their rights no matter what at 48 hours.

I believe you should be Mirandized right away, but others argue that the FBI should have been allowed the full 48 hours under the law. Okay, we can go back and forth on that one all day. Are you going to get to the next bomb, if there is a bomb? Okay, the debate goes on, and everybody’s focused on this debate, but nobody is looking at this judge.

Whether or not…is this legal? Yeah, but her timing is very interesting. We reached out to Judicial Watch. We asked them, how common is it for a judge to insert themselves into a case like this? Here’s what they told us in a statement just this afternoon. “What is unusual is the reported surprise of the FBI and the other officials at the turn of events. It looks as if the DOJ went around the FBI. The DOJ reportedly coordinated with everyone but the FBI.”

So in other words, Eric Holder went and coordinated with this judge but nobody else. Now, that seems strange for the chief law enforcement officer, doesn’t it? “Arraignments and other court proceedings do sometimes take place in hospitals. Once he was charged by justice in a federal court, it was a matter of time before Tsarnaev would have been read his rights. Don’t blame the judges, blame the Justice Department.”

Okay. Well, now let’s look at this here for a second, because I’ve got another theory. If you go by Judicial Watch, this is the decision of Eric Holder. But I again think we should ask who is this judge? Well, we started today just by going over her resume, and it’s fairly normal except for one part of her resume, a strange string of facts. One of her hobbies and interests include traveling overseas to Muslim countries for speaking engagements all the time.

She was the first female judge to speak in Kuwait. She also appeared at the United Arab Emirates, and let me put aside here for a second another big piece. She also visited the U.S. embassy in Belgrade, but besides that one, all of her international trips, she goes to Muslim countries to speak to them.

And here’s the last piece of this: She made a trip to Egypt last year. Now, this according to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, she was there for a conference on cross-border financial investigations organized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations in cooperation with the Egyptian judicial and law enforcement authorities.

Okay, so the Department of Homeland Security picks her to go because she keeps going over to the Middle East. They pick her to go and be a part of this, but that’s not the only reason why she was there. She also was to meet with the defense team and observe the trial of the six NGOs accused of receiving foreign funding and operating illegally in the country. Do you remember this?

We talked about how strange this was during the Arab Spring. All of these kids from both the Republicans and the Democrats, they were all there, and they were accused of funding street protest during the heat of the Arab Spring. Everybody was chanting for democracy, and the radical leftists rushed to Egypt to help and so did all of these kids. And they were scooped up, and they were held.

And then all of a sudden, they were just released. Yet, that’s one of the reasons why that judge was there. What is it about this judge and her particular interest in the Muslim countries? What is happening here? Is this just a coincidence? Maybe, very well may be. Why is she so eager to defend those who are fueling the riots? Oh, probably because she’s in good graces with this administration, and those weren’t riots; those were freedom fighters to help the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood.

We’ll continue to seek answers on all of the questions in the stories, but like I said, only more questions are coming, not more answers, including the crazy mother of the Boston bombing suspect. Something’s wrong here. She has said some truly outrageous things. Watch.

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Zubeidat Tsarnaev: They already are talking about that we are terrorists. I am terror – they told that I was doing some terroristic, you know. What did they tell? Some kind of operation, I was kind of preparing here or I already did something, I don’t know. People are telling different, you know, information I get. They already want me, him, and all of us to look as terrorists. So yes, I would prefer not to live in American now. Why did I even go there? Why? I thought America was going to like protect us, our kids. It’s going to be safe for like any reason.

Yeah, it’d be safe. You could come over. You could be, you know, part of let’s say a marathon, and you wouldn’t be blown up. Yeah, I don’t know why you came here. I ain’t gonna miss you. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Here’s the amazing thing here is if you don’t like America, if you don’t trust America, she rings true to you. She rings true to you. This is important. She also told the Associated Press, “I’m sick and tired of all this nonsense that they make up about me and my children. People know me as a regular person…” Yeah, they did Lee Harvey Oswald, too.

“…and I’ve never been mixed up in any criminal intentions, especially any linked to terrorism.” Never been mixed up in crime, really? That is quite a bold statement considering we have the mug shot. She shoplifted $1,600 in merchandise from Lord &Taylor. Ironically, Lord & Taylor is the store that also had the videotape of her sons planting the bombs.

Also, we have now the taped phone conversations that she had with her son about jihad, and another person on the watch list, so it’s quite a statement to make. But again, if you listen to her, and you don’t like us, if you mistrust us, she rings true. It causes more doubt.

The reaction of the mom, the dad, the crazy aunt, all of this, immediately discredits the United States, but not just outside, here at home as well, I believe. The assumptions are so cartoonish, they’re so fake, it’s role-playing. Why would she leap to such bizarre, unsupported conclusions without any evidence at all? Why would she point the finger to America? Why would she say, “I’ve never done anything”? Because most people won’t look it up.

This is the tactic they use against Israel. We haven’t had it used here in our own country. This is the first time. This is something new for America. This has moved us into a new place, because what’s different this time is we don’t trust our own government. Back on September 11, we would all stand together, but now we have an inherent distrust of the U.S. We have an inherent distrust of the media. We know we’re not getting the truth.

And remember, back after September 11, the truthers didn’t ring true to anybody, because we would never have believed that before. The truthers are a mixed bag. It’s Ahmadinejad, radical Muslims, and Michael Moore, and all they have to do is plant the seeds of doubt whenever and wherever they can. With her and her husband’s stories changing in such a strategic way, I can’t help but wonder – is somebody coaching her?

I said this is a lot like Israel. Let me bring you up to speed on one other thing, one other thing I haven’t seen anybody talk about. On the day of the bombings, everybody lept to connect the bombings to the tax day and the Tea Party. Have you heard anybody point out that April 15 was also the 65th anniversary of Israel’s independence? I mean, given the bombers were radical Islamists…reasonable to search for the connection there?

Should we expect that the tactics of bombings and terror normally used against Israel to happen here more frequently? By the way, the White House cared about this 65th anniversary of Israel so much that they say well, because of sequester, we had to cancel the dinner celebration for the Jewish Heritage Month at the White House.

Yeah. Oh, and one other thing: here’s the bombing scene, and you’ll notice that this is the area here, and there’s the Israeli flag. I mean, is it too much to assume that maybe – has anybody looked for the Saudi on the surveillance tape from the day before? The scripts don’t match. The media is not telling you the truth. The government is also not telling you the truth.

And I have to tell you, I thought about it a lot this weekend. I thought, you know what, maybe everybody else in the media has gotten the call saying hey, look, you’re harming the investigation. That doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t make any sense at all, because they would’ve called us. Somebody would have said to us, but instead, we have law-enforcement officials calling us. We have people in the federal government who are instrumental in this case calling us saying please don’t give up on this…please, please, please.

The administration keeps downplaying the threat of Al Qaeda, downplaying – it’s crazy talk to even say anything about Saudi Arabia. They say that Al Qaeda is decimated, but yet their activities seem to be ramping up. They say nothing is happening, could possibly happen with Saudi Arabia, and yet the Saudi Arabians, their fingerprints are all over this.

We told about the incidents in Canada and Spain. Now there’s a story today about the terrorists beginning their spring offensive, something that we’ve been afraid of seeing happen here. It may just be getting started. This is something I’ve told you for years that when we would really be weak, when our enemies felt, okay I think they’re done. They’re at their weakest point, they’d say “go.” Are we there?

The way our government has gone out of their way to lend credibility to the secular and legitimate Muslim Brotherhood while denying any potency left in Al Qaeda and other spinoff radical Islamic terror organizations, we have set ourselves up for big, big trouble, and I don’t think anybody except the few in Washington and in our law-enforcement agencies really care.

The Muslim Brotherhood is not secular, and the only thing legitimate about them is the threat that they pose to you and your family. They have been exported around the world, and they go to work radicalizing people. That’s what they do. They are basically an extension of Saudi Arabia and the radicals there.

The Muslim Brotherhood is financed by contributions from their members, and many of those members just happen to be in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They fund many of these mosques, in fact, the mosque the bombers attended in Boston, the Islamic Society of Boston, the ISB, Islamic Society of Boston. They admitted to receiving millions of dollars from Saudi banks.

It’s run by the Muslim American Society, the MAS, which has been described by prosecutors as a North American arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. Extreme radical Yusuf al-Qaradawi, former trustee at the Islamic Society of Boston. It was founded by an Al Qaeda fundraiser who’s currently serving time in federal prison, and the current imam who also spoke at the Islamic Society of Boston said, “grab onto the shovel, grab onto the gun, and the sword.”

The list goes on and on, and this is just one mosque, the one in Boston. There are many. America cannot continue to ignore the warning signs, but it is more than just an administration failing to recognize the warning signs. This administration is aiding and abetting. They are adding to the warning signs.

Let me give you this warning sign. This is from a concerned Islamic leader. This guy is a good guy, speaking at the State Department in 1999. He said – remember ’99 – “The most dangerous thing that is going on now in these mosques…is the extremists’ ideology…because they are very active…They took over more than 80 percent of the mosques that have been established in the U.S.…A danger might suddenly come that you are not looking for…We don’t know where it is going to hit.”

Islamists call the mosques a rabat. It means “military fortress.” They’ve basically set up the radical Islamic version of the Mafia. The Brotherhood and CAIR and other legitimate organizations are then filled with the made guys. They’re completely legitimate. Uh huh. Really? I’ve seen The Sopranos. This is the Islamic version of The Sopranos. They sit around the table in the scheme while the rabats have the mob enforcers carrying out their hits. And that’s what those two kids were.

We keep going out of our way to help Saudi Arabia in times when we really shouldn’t be. Why, is the question. Why are we helping the Muslim Brotherhood? There’s a deal with Saudi Arabia, and I think we all know it. I mean, geez President Bush, I think actually kissed one of the princes on the lips. It was creepy.

We outwardly claim to have a mutual enemy in Al Qaeda, and we tell the Saudi’s, and they tell us, hey, we’re both against Al Qaeda, but in reality, we should say our enemy is not only Al Qaeda which came from within you, but the Islamic radicals that believe that jihad is more than an internal struggle also come from you.

Al Qaeda believes this. The Muslim Brotherhood believes this. Hezbollah believes this. Much of Saudi Arabia believes this. And why are we helping them? We’ve helped them in Egypt. We’ve helped them in Syria. We’re helping them now in Syria. It was Al Qaeda who was blamed for Benghazi, because we were running guns through Turkey into Syria, for what? For the Muslim Brotherhood at the request of Saudi Arabia.

We have helped fund the Arab Spring, the Muslim Brotherhood. I will tell you one thing that the press will not, nor will the administration, or the terrorists’ mom, and this is the good part; I want you to know while all of these questions are out here, I want you to know that I personally have seen patriotic Americans coming out of the woodwork in our government right now and coming out of the woodwork in law enforcement.

They will not sit down. They are warning. They are begging for someone to listen. I don’t know why the rest of the networks won’t do it. I don’t know why anybody else won’t do it, but people are being threatened with jail time now for helping. But they’re not going to sit down, and this is much bigger than you think and much bigger and different than you are being told. You keep asking questions, and know that we here at TheBlaze will continue to do the same.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The Bubba Effect erupts as America’s power brokers go rogue

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When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

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Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go

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Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.