The Obama administration confirmed it was sending weapons to Syrian rebels and Sen. Marco Rubio threatened to walk out on the Senate immigration bill if a gay marriage amendment was added.
On the international stage, a British newspaper reported that the United Kingdom’s population was on a trajectory that would make it an Islamic nation within decades.
Here’s a recap, or wrap, of the week that was from The Washington Times.
• Obamacare ‘rate shock’ hits Ohio with 88 percent insurance hikes
The Ohio Department of Insurance predicts premiums in 2014 will rise by 88 percent, a direct result of President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The average cost of insurance premiums will stand about $420, “representing an increase of 88 percent” compared to 2013, the department reported, Forbes said.
• ‘Battlestar Galactica’ actress Katee Sackhoff loses Twitter star power for upholding gun rights
Katee Sackhoff, the Hollywood actress known for her tomboyish, gun-toting star roles in hard-charging action flicks and TV shows — including one as mercurial but talented pilot Kara “Starbuck” Thrace on the television series “Battlestar Galactica” — has taken a Twitter hit for her pro-gun messages. She tweeted on Monday: “On a lighter note since I’ve lost half my followers due to talking about gun safety … the sun is shining and Happy Monday. Love your neighbor today.”
• Britain may be an Islamic nation within 20 years
Way back in 2003 an article in a British newspaper warned about a growing fear that the U.K. was on a fast track to becoming an Islamic nation. That was just ten years ago, and it seemed far fetched at the time. Now the British government has published a study with data that shows Islam will become the dominant religion within the next generation.
The concern in the 2003 article focused on the fact that Britain, and continental Europe for that matter, are becoming increasing secular while immigrant populations of devoted Muslims are growing.
• Rubio: ’I’m done’ if immigration bill includes gay marriage
Sen. Marco Rubio said Thursday that if Democrats expand his immigration bill to extend benefits to gay spouses, he’ll have to scuttle the legislation.
“If this bill has something in it that gives gay couples immigration rights and so forth, it kills the bill. I’m done,” Mr. Rubio said Thursday during an interview on the Andrea Tantaros Show, according to Yahoo News. “I’m off it, and I’ve said that repeatedly. I don’t think that’s going to happen and it shouldn’t happen. This is already a difficult enough issue as it is.”
• The updated Obama scandals user handbook
It is time to update our Obama scandals user handbook. The original handbook was created just a month ago to explain the multitude of scandals then oozing from the Obama Administration, but so fecund has this administration been in breeding scandal, and so much more interesting have the old scandals become, that the older handbook seems a relic of some distant, more innocent age.
• White House says weapons en route to Syrian rebels
The White House said Friday that Syrian rebels should begin to receive shipments of U.S. arms within weeks, but imposing a no-fly zone isn’t a “silver bullet” to ending the two-year-old civil war.
Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to President Obama, said the weapons will be “part of the continuum of assistance that we’ve provided” to the Syrian opposition, which is fighting to topple the regime of dictator Bashar Assad. Mr. Obama announced his decision Thursday to send arms after the U.S. said it had confirmed Mr. Assad’s use of chemical weapons to kill civilians.
• KUHNER: The betrayal of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6
Did the Obama administration put a target on the backs of members of Navy SEAL Team 6? This is the question that parents of slain SEALs are now asking — and rightly so. Forget Benghazi, the IRS, Eric H. Holder Jr. and the National Security Agency spying on U.S. citizens. Important as these scandals are, what happened to SEAL Team 6 could very well dwarf them. Our government betrayed America’s finest warriors.
• Allen West on Bill Cosby’s pro-Muslim post: Are you crazy?
Former Floridian Rep. Allen West had a blunt response to comedian Bill Cosby’s published weekend opinion piece, speaking of the attributes of Muslims and encouraging Americans to emulate them: Have you lost your mind?
“Bill Cosby said we should [be] more like Muslims,” Mr. West wrote, on his Twitter account. “[You] mean honor killings, beheadings, suicide bombings? Hope [you’re] kidding sir.”
• Sen. Tim Kaine speaks in Spanish on Senate floor, pushes immigration bill
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, delivered a speech on the Senate floor in Spanish on Tuesday as he made his push for the chamber to pass his immigration bill.
Mr. Kaine said he would deliver his remarks in Spanish but said he would put an English translation into the Congressional Record.
• Gun-toting grandma, 72, shoots at intruder, saves wheelchair-bound husband
A Southern California grandmother took a shot at a home intruder with her .357-magnum Smith & Wesson, saving her 85-year-old, wheelchair-bound, World War II veteran husband.
Jan Cooper, 72, heard someone trying to open the door of her Anaheim home early Sunday morning and dialed 911, The Associated Press reported. She can be heard on the emergency call begging the dispatcher to hurry, send deputies, and warning that she has a gun.
• Obama says Syria has crossed ‘red line’ with chemical weapons, will send weapons
The Syrian government used chemical weapons against rebel forces trying to overthrow the regime, the Obama administration said Thursday, acknowledging that President Bashar Assad has without doubt crossed the “red line” President Obama laid down for U.S. action in the country’s bloody civil war.
The announcement, which confirms what the U.S. and its allies have long suspected, ups the pressure on Mr. Obama, and key lawmakers on Capitol Hill said this means there must be deeper U.S. military involvement in the 2-year-old civil war.
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