White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, appearing on four Sunday morning political talk shows, offered strong support for Sarah Hall Ingram, who led the agency’s tax-exempt division as it admittedly targeted conservative groups. She recently was promoted to chief of the health care reform office, tasked with implementing “Obamacare.”

Critics of the administration expect many more heads to roll as the true scope and intent of the IRS actions come to light, but Mr. Pfeiffer on Sunday strongly defended Ms. Ingram.

“No one has suggested that she did anything wrong yet,” Mr. Pfeiffer said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Portman welcomed an inspector general’s report and the launch of congressional hearings, but said there were still many unanswered questions.

“I also think that special counsel is going to end up being necessary here, because it has to be independent of the White House,” said Portman of the ongoing investigation.

“What we do know is that politics was put ahead of the public interest. And it was done in two of the most sensitive areas of our government. One, of course, the tax collection agency, which has this enormous power over all of us. And second, our national security,” said Portman referring to the Justice Department’s seizure of journalists’ phone records in a leak probe.

Yahoo’s board of directors agreed on Sunday to buy his wildly popular blogging platform, which boasts 100million users and 90million posts per day, for $1.1billion cash.

The deal could make the native New Yorker the latest 20-something tech billionaire, even though he was publicly opposed, even just last year, to selling the company he founded out of his mother’s small Manhattan apartment in 2007.

On Sunday afternoon, it was revealed Yahoo’s board approved the purchase of Tumblr, despite its revenue of only $13million last year. Even that figure was only made possible after $125million in capital investments.

1 John 4:19

It was so hot today, I saw a dog chasing a cat.

And they were walking.

Got a great joke you want to share with the world? Write it up in the WND Laughlines forum. Who knows? It might be selected as the WND Joke of the Day – and your wildest dreams will come true.

Don’t get me wrong: I love when TV shows and movies transcend mere entertainment to become more of a true art form – and “Star Trek” often did – and I appreciate the journey Roddenberry took us on, but too often the conclusion left audiences further from biblical truth, rather than deeper into it.

Take for instance, the pithy proverb of the uber-rationalist Mr. Spock: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

This moral directive is utilitarianism boiled down to an easily swallowed nugget … of pure poison.

For utilitarianism – as rational as it sounds – is an utter failure as a moral system, for it holds no moral judgment upon any individual action and leaves it wide open for fallible humans to determine what constitutes a “need” or not. Adolf Hitler, for example, facing a cataclysmic depression in Germany that made the one in the U.S. look like a small dip in the stock market came to the conclusion the needs (hunger, starvation) of the many Germans in his nation outweighed the needs (life, personal property) of the comparatively few Jews. History told us where that leads.

Put more succinctly (and in a less inflammatory comparison), utilitarianism is flawed in that it lends itself too easily to a Machiavellian “ends justifies the means” ethic, which in turn is morally bankrupt.

Curiously enough, however, “Star Trek into Darkness” toys with the “needs of the many” argument, but then actually redeems what is a broken moral philosophy with an example of a similar, but far more biblical axiom. In other words, “Into Darkness” actually gets it right.

As a film, “Into Darkness” is a summer blockbuster of the best sort, with a clever, laugh-out-loud script, plenty of action, fun and curious characters, a fantastic villain and entertainment value to the max. Especially for Trekkers, “Into Darkness” intentionally harkens back to classic episodes and “Star Trek” movies in outrageously funny fashion. I daresay it’s even better than first in this recent reboot of the franchise. Yet even for those not a fan of the original TV series, “Into Darkness” packs plenty of entertainment value for the dollar.

If you can forgive just a few breaks of logic that weasel into the final cut, “Star Trek into Darkness” may have even surpassed “Iron Man 3″ as the most must-see blockbuster of the summer (until “Man of Steel” comes out, anyway).

Harkening back to the moral of the story, “Into Darkness” also reveals a better way than utilitarianism: the ethic of self-sacrifice.

“No greater love has a man,” says the Bible’s John 15:13, “than he lay down his life for a friend,” and in Philippians 2:3, “In humility, value others above yourself.”

The Bible’s ethic – which the “needs of the many” construct only vaguely resembles (or distorts) – is not that I can decide whose sacrifice is necessary for whom, but that I can choose to sacrifice myself for others. It’s not that virtue is measured by scales of sheer numbers, but that it is fulfilled when we value others above ourselves, regardless of the others’ merit.

Obviously, Hitler missed that distinction. So did Machiavelli.

“Into Darkness” did not.

And even beyond the examples of self-sacrifice, the main moral of the story in the new “Star Trek” film is something else altogether: the journey of Captain Kirk from cocksure and irresponsible rebel to a man of humility who knows how to take responsibility for his actions. It portrays his early success, a humiliating moment of crisis and a rise again as a new man, a servant leader. The film ends with a message about turning aside from the path of revenge.

In the end, it turns out this voyage of the Starship Enterprise has indeed discovered “new life” – both as an entertaining movie franchise and as a vehicle for biblical truth.

A trailer for the film can be seen below (Editor’s note: Trailer contains an instance of obscenity):

Content advisory:

• “Star Trek into Darkness,” rated PG-13, contains roughly 35 profanities and obscenities, the vast majority of the more minor variety.
• The film has only a few moments of light, but completely gratuitous and unnecessary sexuality. In one scene, Kirk is seen leaving two partially clothes alien females in bed. In another, Kirk turns around to see a woman changing clothes, giving the audience full view of her in bra and panties. In a quick shot in a bar scene, two aliens exchange a long-tongued kiss.
• The film’s violence, however, merits a word of caution. “Star Trek into Darkness” is filled with several scenes of hand-to-hand combat, some of it brutal, cringe-worthy and startling. There’s also plenty of laser fire and explosions and the like. A little blood and one severed arm are seen, but it’s not the gore that really stands out, rather, the flesh-jarring pounding of fists in several scenes.
• The film contains almost no religious or occult content, save for the passing mention of God in such phrases as “playing God” and “for the love of God” and a line about miracles in which the ever-rationalist Spock responds, “There are no such things.”

But you don’t need to be in the Big Apple to hear him.

Just click here and choose Aaron Klein’s name to listen.

Hi Mr. Farah,

Thanks for the great column about Nobama being “shocked.”  Do you know when he is lying? When his lips are moving. When you have Chris Matthews criticize him, you know he is having a bad day, but do you think he cares? About as much as he cared about the poor people in Benghazi who were being murdered, sodomized and dragged through the streets. He was more interested in getting a good night’s sleep so he could go to Vegas in the morning.

What kind of cold-hearted person thinks the way he does?

When are people NOT going to be there for his speeches?

When are people going to start to boo everything he lies about and get up and leave when he comes in the room? When are the American people going to finally rise up against this Hitler we’re stuck with?

How can we have him impeached? Who will demand it? The Senate? Eric Holder? The press? Who is going to listen to the American people?

There are thousands of “Obamas” in D.C., and they all with stand up for him. It keeps us awake at night. What is our health care going to be like? Who is going to be blown up next while he sleeps and gets ready for yet another vacation?

This is on Page 59 of the health-care monstrosity: “The federal government will have direct real time access to all individual bank accounts for the transfer of funds.” I wonder how many people know that. I wish all the people who voted for him would find out.

People always criticize George W., but I would love to have him back in there. He was a saint compared to this, and we didn’t have any of the problems we have now when he was in there. Unemployment was 4.5 percent before Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid took over. The military got whatever it needed, nobody was trying to get their hands on our 401(k)s and IRAs, our doctors weren’t thinking about quitting, we had good health insurance, we had the best health care in the world, seniors weren’t the enemy someone was trying to eliminate, we didn’t have to worry what kind of world our kids would inherit, we didn’t have to worry if we had a pre-existing condition (those people are history) and he kept us safe after 9/11.

Obama hopes something big will happen so he can declare martial law and take over. Then we will never get rid of him. Think I am kidding? Stay tuned. I hope it comes back and bites John Roberts in the butt someday. He could have saved this country, but he chose not to for some reason.

It’s unbelievable what’s happening. No one can believe it. I don’t know of anyone who voted for him. You know and I know they cheated their way back in. It’s obvious. Romney should have said something. I think we really missed the boat by not getting Newt in there. He’s the best.

Anyway, thanks for all you do to save America for us and our kids, and please be careful.

Robert

The South believes in evangelical faith with Bible word over the Constitution. They dismiss all others,  including other Christians. They believe the government is the enemy and immigrants do not belong. They, and they alone, are the real Americans – forgetting indigenous Indians and immigrants from every corner of the world that started this great experiment.

Social programs are bad, except when they use them, like Medicare and Social Security. A black president is unacceptable, and the very rich elected to high office should pay no taxes and will look out for the people’s best interest. They have halted the government and believe the country has been taken from them. The rest believe the opposite.

Even war does not unite us. Their families are soldiers. The 1 percent and the rest are detached, do not serve and don’t know what war is. Two people in one country with no middle ground evident in the near future. Our great experiment, this great country, is facing a bleak future.

Norm Stewart