• Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she was not 100 percent sober during the State of the Union address. That’s okay, Madam Justice: We’re not sure the president was, either.
• President Obama made two telling statements recently. At the National Prayer Breakfast, in a meditation on religiously inspired terrorism, he widened the focus thus: “And lest we get on our high horse . . . remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.” How many ways was this inappropriate? It was a false apology, as far as Obama is concerned: He does not consider himself among the mistaken we. It was a far-fetched comparison, equating deeds of 500 and 1,000 years ago with slaughters on today’s front page. It played into the enemies’ playbook, since the Crusades feature prominently in jihadist grievance. Then, in an interview with Vox, Obama referred in passing to the massacre at the kosher market in Paris: “You’ve got a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who . . . randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris.” But the folks who died were Jews and the Islamist terrorists who killed them did so not randomly, but for that very reason. Obama says what should not be said, and will not say what should be said. Confucius said the first task of the gentleman was the rectification of names. Confusion results when leaders misuse and efface them.
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