Too much attention is being paid to this:
President Obama faced off with a heckler during a reception celebrating LGBT Pride Month at the White House, telling the person “you’re in my house.”
“My house”? Er, not exactly, Mr. President. That’s the people’s house and you are just being provided room and board for as long as your term lasts.
And not enough to this:
The Obama administration was accused Wednesday of giving terrorists an incentive to kidnap as it unveiled a hostage policy overhaul allowing families of U.S. hostages to pay ransom -- and allowing the U.S. government to help families communicate with captors.
"This doesn't fix anything," Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a leading critic of the administration's hostage policy, told Fox News. "The money that we're going to be paying ISIS is going to be used to buy arms and to buy equipment to fight Americans and to fight the Iraqis."
But the White House said the changes are being unveiled with the families and victims in mind.
"We're not going to abandon you. We're going to stand by you," Obama said of hostages' families, speaking at the White House on Wednesday.
On the "my house" thing, he was just being figurative -- it's his house because he's the one who occupies it now -- so it's silly to make a big deal about it. On the other hand, you can't invited a bunch of activists to the White House and be surprised that one of them acts up, which is what activists do.
On the dealing-with-terrorists issue, I'd like to know a whole lot more about it. I know its simplistic to merely say "we don't neotiate with terrorists," but I think it's a very fine line to walk between supporting the families and not encouraging more acts of terror.
