Category Archives: General Interest

June 19, 2016 · 10:04 am

Obama’s final “transformation”

Obama’s final transformation (read DESTRUCTION) of the US military is now on the table:

The Pentagon’s controversial plan to hire military leaders off the street

Defense Secretary Ash Carter wants to open the door for more “lateral entry” into the military’s upper ranks, clearing the way for lifelong civilians with vital skills and strong résumés to enter the officer corps as high as the O-6 paygrade.

The idea is controversial, to say the very least. For many in the rank-and-file military, it seems absurd, a bewildering cultural change that threatens to upend many assumptions about military life and traditional career paths. But while it’s not universally embraced, there is interest in Congress and among some of the military’s uniformed leaders — even, they say, in exploring how the services could apply this concept to the enlisted force.

This is a key piece of Carter’s “Force of the Future” personnel reform. Unveiled June 9, it aims to help the military bring in more top talent, especially for high-tech career fields focused on cyber warfare and space. Advocates say it will help the military fill important manpower shortfalls with highly skilled professionals and, more broadly, create greater “permeability” between the active-duty military and the civilian sector.

At the same time, it suggests eroding the military’s tradition of growing its own leaders and cultivating a force with a distinct culture and tight social fabric, which many believe to be the heart of military effectiveness. Critics worry it will create a new subcaste of military service members who are fundamentally disconnected from the traditional career force.” (bold is my emphasis)

If this happens, the US Armed Forces is finished as the finest fighting force in the world.

3 Comments

Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, Military

June 19, 2016 · 12:04 am

“Anything but Islam” again…

The “anything but Islam” obfuscation from the Left, in the wake of the Orlando terrorist attack continues to rapidly spread, carried by vicious alien brain-eating spiders, which have taken over liberal rags and mass media.

Let’s see this radicalized Muslim whackado murdered 49 people and injured scores of others, while proclaiming his allegiance to ISIS. Nope, his motive couldn’t be his radical religious beliefs, that would make perfect sense.

So, let’s review the lies. Right off the bat they insisted the terrorist’s motives weren’t clear, but they were sure he wasn’t motivated by his Islamic faith, afterall, just because this guy had become very devout in his religious practices, had expressed support for Al Qaeda and Islamic-inspired attacks against Americans is no reason to link his jihadist beliefs to actually committing jihad. That would be Islamophobic to make that connection. “Islam is a peaceful religion”, you must repeat….. or else.

Then it was the plethora of attacking evil guns and the alleged Christian hate against gays is so pervasive that somehow Christians are responsible for this Muslim who pledged allegiance to ISIS and waged jihad. When you believe the insanity from the Left couldn’t get much worse, well, a political writer, Amanda Marcotte, at Salon explains the real cause:

In the wake of the horrific shooting in Orlando that left 50 dead, a political struggle is forming on whether to define this act as an anti-gay crime or an act of radical Islamic terrorism.

The answer, it’s quickly starting to seem, is both of these, and more. A picture is quickly starting to form of who Omar Mateen, the shooter, was. His ex-wife describes a man who was controlling and abusive. A colleague says he was always using racial and sexual slurs and “talked about killing people all the time.” Both his ex-wife and his father describe him as homophobic, with his father saying he spun into a rage at the sight of two men kissing. He was clearly fond of guns, having not one, but two concealed carry licenses. He worked at a security firm, a career that can be attractive to men with dominance and control issues. He was investigated by the FBI in 2013 for making threats to a coworker.

There is a common theme here: Toxic masculinity.

Every time feminists talk about toxic masculinity, there is a chorus of whiny dudes who will immediately assume — or pretend to assume — that feminists are condemning all masculinity, even though the modifier “toxic” inherently suggests that there are forms of masculinity that are not toxic.

So, to be excruciatingly clear, toxic masculinity is a specific model of manhood, geared towards dominance and control. It’s a manhood that views women and LGBT people as inferior, sees sex as an act not of affection but domination, and which valorizes violence as the way to prove one’s self to the world.

For obvious political reasons, conservatives are hustling as fast as they can to make this about “radical Islam,” which is to say they are trying to imply that there’s something inherent to Islam and not Christianity that causes such violence. This, of course, is hoary nonsense, as there is a long and ignoble history of Christian-identified men, caught up in the cult of toxic masculinity, sowing discord and causing violence in our country: The gun-toting militiamen that caused a showdown in Oregon, the self-appointed border patrol called the Minutemen that recently made news again as their founder was convicted of child molestation, men who attack abortion clinics and providers.

http://www.salon.com/2016/06/13/overcompensation_nation_its_time_to_admit_that_toxic_masculinity_drives_gun_violence/

There you have it……… “toxic masculinity” made him do it.

Ahem, Ms Marcotte, as to your assertion: “they are trying to imply that there’s something inherent to Islam and not Christianity that causes such violence.”, let me answer that in one word for you – JIHAD. That is what is inherent in Islam that is NOT in Christianity.

My head is going to explode… where is my fainting couch?

Leave a comment

Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, Islam, Politics, Terrorism

June 18, 2016 · 3:12 am

Who said subtitles can’t be funny?

Steve Hayward posted this video. Here’s the link to the his article.

Leave a comment

Filed under General Interest, Humor, Politics

June 16, 2016 · 10:02 am

After Orlando: Clinton 2.0 scorched earth unleashed

I’ve hesitated commenting on Orlando, so first here’s the political situation. In the wake of the Orlando terrorist attack, while Donald Trump added another talking point for the Democratic party, the rest of their script remained predictable, totally dishonest, deliberately deceptive and a messaging marvel to behold. While Bernie still clings to a few threads to be relevant, for all intents and purposes, the Dems are unified and Orlando appears to be a watershed event to get them all marching in lockstep.

Donald Trump’s cheerleading section, as usual, applauded that he was saying things no one else will say, touching on common sense themes like a moratorium on taking in Muslim refugees, in light of fact that despite Jeh Johnson’s disingenuous assurances, there’s no way to thoroughly vet refugees from Iraq and Syria, due to the political instability, ditto that for Somalia and ISIS stated they will use the refugee crisis to get ISIS militants into the US.   Trump made a common sense point, except with the terrorist in Orlando, he wasn’t a refugee or an immigrant, but a born and raised, American citizen and Trump’s common sense policy would not have prevented this terrorist from being in the US.

Then Trump played identity politics, as he tried to use the tragedy to shamelessly  and clumsily pander to the LGBT community. If there were any doubts that his Sunday tweets and comments, instead of winning over gays, backfired and helped galvanize the fractious Dem minority and special interest groups, well just look at how fast the LGBT community smacked down Trump’s pathetic political pandering.

Trump could have demonstrated some calm, resolute leadership, but instead it was the same old loudmouth bragging, callous and bizarre tweets, insensitive remarks and the same old need to eclipse any story, no matter how grave, with himself.  He sent a tweet on Sunday thanking his followers for congratulating him for being right on terrorism , trying to capitalize on being seen as a tough and resolute leader in a crisis, but by yesterday he looked to be desperately searching for an angle to be heard over the Dem talking points… Without any warning he knifed the NRA in the back, completely overlooking the politicization of terrorist watch lists by the Obama administration, when he announced he supports restricting people on terror watch lists from buying guns.

Since Monday, Republican leaders, as usual, seem unsure of how to deal with Donald Trump, who spends more time sabotaging and undermining the GOP than he does fighting Hillary Clinton.  So, many GOP leaders are avoiding the press….. abandoning the media field and allowing the Dems to control the 24/7 news cycle, unchallenged.

Sure, President Obama came out and blasted Trump in a very petulant, hyper-partisan manner. Hillary came out and bashed Trump more than she addressed the terrorist attack too, but the difference is the media pivoted and moved in unison to get in line with the Dem talking points. A main Dem talking point IS “Trump is a loose cannon”, so they were completely on message.  The cable news networks, not even Trump central (FOX News), were giving Trump 24/7 control of the news cycle, to relentlessly repeat his talking points, ergo he’s sinking fast.  Trump has no plan other than his “GOP Insurgency”. He has no viable ground game and added to the GOP disunity, his campaign remains disorganized and internally an internecine battleground too.

All of this was completely predictable watching how he operated rather than grasping at his buzz words as if they were actual complete ideas and policies.  If you want to figure out how people will perform any job, first gauge their character and then watch how they operate and by operate I mean see how they handle different tasks and challenges, how they utilize resources, both staff and material resources.  Good leadership is mostly about the leader’s character and how he operates with his team.  Any person who engages in vicious character assassinations within his own party, plays people against each other constantly, delights in publicly humiliating people and most of all makes every issue almost entirely about his own vanity will be a terrible leader.   Even Trump’s delight in being rude speaks to a person who has no respect for others.  As I’ve said many times, Trump, in every discernible way he operates, screams “toxic leader”.

Lest, anyone doubt it, the Clintons 2.0 scorched earth/mass media saturation strategy moved into full assault mode and it is a take no prisoners ruthless offensive to destroy Donald Trump and the GOP. The unified messaging coming from President Obama, Hillary, Dem Congressional leaders, on down to the LGBT community activists, who smacked down Trump’s attempt to woo them, should alarm GOP leaders. The liberal media moved into general election high gear too, spinning Orlando as the result of Christian bigots fomenting “hate” against the LGBT community and gun violence. This messaging marvel, where the Dems circulated their talking points and got all their spokespeople and the media on message within hours, should clue the GOP leaders in that the undisciplined, raving primary Trump, who loves to launch character assassinations is the real Trump, who would still rather attack fellow Republicans. He’s going to be a disaster in November.

So, when the LGBT community threw his shallow pandering back in his face, Trump pivoted and tried to steal some of the Dems thunder by attempting to steal one of their main their talking points on gun control. He made this abrupt policy change without even so much as discussing his new epiphany beforehand with GOP leaders or the NRA.

Perhaps more GOP leaders will abandon the Trump train, but at this point either with Trump as the nominee or going through the fractious process of dumping him at the convention, Trump’s “GOP insurgency” leaves the GOP a smoldering rubble. That Trump, without so much as a phone call, could sign on to a key Dem gun control plank in their messaging blitz should finally clue in even the most deluded Republicans that Trump is a total fraud and loose cannon.

Absent the FBI playing some wild card, Hillary, corrupt, vile and politically tone deaf, sits well-positioned to win by a huge margin in November against Donald Trump.

The other stunning takeaway from Orlando is the Dems hate Republicans more than they care about Islamist terrorism – that’s a reality Republicans still don’t understand and that reality is a topic I want to broach in another post.

1 Comment

Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics

June 14, 2016 · 11:55 pm

“American identity”

vintage-patriotic-american-flag-god-bless-america

Today is almost over, but I wanted to mention that today was Flag Day and I came across this passage from the Roger Kimball book, “The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture  and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia”,  that eloquently expresses the hope for America:

Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. —J. H. St. John de Crèvecœur, Letters from an American Farmer, 1782

The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin … would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities. —Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, 1913

A FEW YEARS AGO, on a trip to Maryland, I stopped at Baltimore Harbor with my wife and five-year-old son to see Fort McHenry, the site, in September 1814, of the Battle of Baltimore, a decisive episode in the War of 1812. It was a glorious spring day: the sky was an infinite azure punctuated by a flotilla of stately white clouds. Our first stop was a modern outbuilding adjacent to the eighteenth-century fort. We crowded into a small theater with about thirty fourth-graders and their teachers to watch a short film. Among other things, we learned about the origins of the war, about how the British took and burned Washington, about how at last a thousand U.S. troops under George Armistead at Fort McHenry successfully defended their bastion against the British naval onslaught, saving Baltimore and turning the tide of the war.

It was (as the Duke of Wellington said of Waterloo) “a damn nice thing— the nearest run thing you ever saw.” The British ships, anchored out of range of Armistead’s cannons, pounded the fort with mortar and Congreve rocket fire over the course of twenty-five hours. Sitting on a truce ship behind the British fleet was a young American lawyer and amateur poet named Francis Scott Key. He watched as the battle raged, dappling the night sky with noisy coruscations.

Sometime before sunrise, the bombardment suddenly stopped. Key was uncertain of the battle’s outcome until dawn broke and he saw the American flag fluttering boldly above Fort McHenry. (When he had taken command, Armistead asked for an extra large flag so that “the British would have no trouble seeing it from a distance.”) There would be no surrender. The Brits abandoned their plans to invade Baltimore. The war would soon be over. As soon as he caught sight of Old Glory, Francis Scott Key began scribbling what would become “The Star-Spangled Banner” on the back of a letter. He finished it in a hotel in Baltimore a day or two later. The poem was an instant hit and was soon set to “The Anacreontic Song,” an eighteenth-century English drinking tune. It became the official national anthem in 1931.

The film ended and strains of the song began floating out from the loudspeakers— softly at first, then louder and louder. Everyone in the room scrambled to his feet.

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

The schoolchildren stood reverently, each with his right hand over his heart. A floor-length curtain wheeled back, flooding the room with light. There was Fort McHenry. And there, rising above it, was the American flag, waving gently in the breeze. With the possible exception of our son, who was busy attacking The Enemy with his toy F14, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

Of course, that calculated piece of theater was in part an exercise in sentimentality. Is that a bad thing? Wallace Stevens may have been right that, in general, “sentimentality is a failure of feeling”— a sign of counterfeit emotion rather than the real thing. Nevertheless, there is a place for a bit of affirmative sentimentality in the moral economy of our society. Among other things, it provides emotional glue for our shared identity as Americans. These days, perhaps more than ever before, that identity needs glue. As we contemplate the prospects for America and its institutions in the twenty-first century, it is not only particular cultural and social institutions that deserve scrutiny. What we might call the institution of American identity— of who we are as a people— also requires our attention.

Kimball, Roger (2012-07-04). The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia (Kindle Locations 754-793). St. Augustine’s Press. Kindle Edition.

Leave a comment

Filed under American Character, American History, Food for Thought, General Interest

June 14, 2016 · 11:20 am

Don’t knock bird brains

“Bird brains? No, parrots are just as bright as apes! Birds found to have more brain cells despite organ being much smaller”

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3640017/Bird-brains-No-parrots-just-bright-apes-Birds-brain-cells-despite-organ-smaller.html#ixzz4BZF4srcR
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Leave a comment

Filed under General Interest

June 13, 2016 · 1:15 pm

A tougher ISIS plan

My thoughts on what to do about ISIS follow.

We need to use military force to a purpose and “crushing” terrorists, who are widely dispersed in more than 80 countries isn’t feasible. The military force needs to be about taking away territory controlled by ISIS and insuring a political situation on the ground follows that does not embrace radical Islam. The proponents of “go crush them” almost invariably are the same ones who don’t want us getting bogged down in the ME again and a common refrain is “we go crush them and come home”, except that is a ridiculous idea, because unless there’s a dramatic, long-term political change on the ground, Islamic terrorist groups keep springing up in the ME.

Trump tough talking points aren’t a strategy, they’re his usual mindless bluster and what he thinks will play well in the polls. Trump decides merits on the polls – national security is just a huge popularity contest to him – if most people agree with it, it’s “great”. You want to see how Trump really operates, just peek at the internal chaos inside his campaign or that he’s at the general election stage and still doesn’t have a viable ground game or that none of his plans is ever well-thought out with clear, coherent planning. You want to see what Hillary is like, well,  just look to the carefully focus-group tested parsing she engages in as she tries to find the right words to sell herself. In real world tests of foreign policy chops – look at the mess in Libya as exhibit A on her foreign policy “successes”.  Both of them are unfit to be commander-in-chief and both lack any real understanding of foreign policy. Their foreign policy ideas are always about what words and phrases will poll best, not about sound national security strategy.

I’m all for profiling and being tougher, but tougher needs to be smart and it starts with a comprehensive national strategy that incorporates every tool of national power to deal with the real problem and that’s not primarily ISIS, it’s a much larger threat – the collapsing Islamic civilization. As their civilization keeps falling apart its tremors and eruptions keep impacting us more and more. Some of our strategy needs to be offensive, but a lot of it also needs to be defensive to protect Americans from the fall-out. We can’t go in and fix Islamic civilization, so we need to use our military options carefully and where we have regional leaders working with us to stabilize the situation on the ground and we need to choose the areas we expend military force to ones that are of vital national interest to us.

My views are controversial. Frankly, jumping into the hot mess that is Iraq and Syria impetuously isn’t smart imho. The Russian are there, the Iranians are there – we will only get played for fools if we rush into Syria. In Iraq, Obama walked away and Iran now is the driving force behind the Iraqi government. The Iraqi government relies on Shia militias to fight ISIS and those militias are funded and controlled by Iran, so our military actions are bolstering Iran in Iraq these days, not doing a thing to defeat ISIS. The Shia control in Baghdad assures the Sunni insurgency (ISIS and other Sunni tribal groups) will continue. Let Iran and the Russians cope with that. We need to use our military force where it benefits us and rushing into Syria is a strategic trap where we will end up being the dupe.

I would engage in some tough foreign policy talks with regional leaders and Russia and China, before blabbing about carpet bombing ISIS or destroying ISIS. That entire “moderate Syrian rebels” malarkey was an hostile foreign propaganda coup and that the Institute for the Study of War was a prime spreader of that should raise a lot of red flags. It was a wild goose chase, because vetted US intelligence knew early on that the Syrian rebels were radicalized early and all of those groups were Islamist – some more Islamist than others, but nonetheless Islamist. These “experts” pushing for us to rush in and destroy ISIS are 3rd rate checkers strategic players. Putin would love to see us bogged down in Iraq/Syria, as he and the Chinese make military moves elsewhere and we are unable to respond. We need to wake-up and play the “diplomacy” game like chess players and quit being the 3rd rate checkers player on the world stage!

Obama has gutted our military and infested it with social engineering policies designed to destroy military cohesion and effectiveness. We need to rid the military of Obama’s policies and rebuild our military. We aren’t ready for some ramped up ISIS war or carpet bombing for that matter. That’s the real truth and that alone should scare every American. We need to rebuild our military

I think we should use the laws already on the books and place a ban on immigration from several radical Islam hot bed countries due to the political instability in those countries and then we need to have an across the board standard that every immigrant or refugee coming into America needs to be thoroughly vetted. Obama wants to let in 10,000 before he leaves office. It goes without saying we should have secured our borders all along – why we haven’t is a national disgrace. Putin, Soros and and other American enemies are fueling this entire “refugee crisis” – they are using it to destabilize Western countries – that is obvious. All sorts of “NGOs” are set-up from the fake passport shops to locations all along the route into Europe to feed, clothe, direct the flow of “refugees”, provide them cell phones, etc. There are Soros-funded groups in America to promote the “refugee” policy here too, but even more alarming is many Christian charities get big bucks from the federal government to provide “refugee services” and they are propaganda machines too.

As to domestic policing – how about we untie their hands and let’s quit with all the Islamophobia hype and focus on finding these ISIS terrorists and connections in America. We can do that while still protecting the civil liberties of all Americans.

Here’s an excellent big picture piece by Daniel Greenfield on the civilizational crisis in the Islamic world:

Islam’s Violence is Rooted in Instability

16 Comments

Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Islam, Military, Politics, Terrorism

June 12, 2016 · 4:12 pm

Mike Rowe nails the truth

I assume that I am not alone in having many totally unrealistic and totally delusional dreams of “what I would like to be when I grow-up” as a kid.. Around age 11, I went through a phase of insisting I wanted to be a singer followed by this passion to be a ballerina. Being tone deaf and unable to carry a tune and despite pleadings from my sisters, “Please don’t sing!”, I still jumped into this dream for a short time. My one sister would yell at me, “You CAN’t sing!” or “Stop, this is torture” and I’d sing louder, actually believing that I sounded really good. The ballerina dream was even more delusional, considering I had a large frame, even as a kid and at 11 I was already wearing women’s size 10 shoes. Added to that, I had no sense of rhythm, coordination or grace. My mother told me point-blank that I was not built to be a ballerina, but she had a knack for skillfully redirecting my passions to areas where I had a little talent.

I still throw myself into hobbies with gusto, but I am well aware that I will likely suck at most of them, like my most recent Zentangle.  Yes, I am well aware that I lack artistic talent, but I enjoy exploring new hobbies and while I rarely become expert at most of them, with practice my efforts become much better and that’s the lesson I’ve tried to pass on to my children and grandchildren. Practice may not make perfect, but it always makes you better at just about everything you attempt. Teaching kids to practice and complete tasks assuredly will aid them more in life than cosseting them, because even prodigies need to practice and learn self-discipline.  Teach kids to acquire a wide range of skills and not to put all their hopes into some long-shot dream -that’s smart contingency planning for life.

Leave a comment

Filed under General Interest

June 10, 2016 · 9:55 pm

Granddaughter’s 1st Zentangles

13383649_1054240831278370_1456237943_o13405472_1054240834611703_115692462_o

Leave a comment

Filed under General Interest

June 9, 2016 · 3:52 pm

A “great” American history revisionist

Aside from his many talents and all-around “greatness”, joining the ranks of Elizabeth Warren and her Cherokee heritage and Hillary being named after a world-famous explorer,  we can now add American history revisionist  to  Donald J.  Trump’s  resumé.

From www.redstate.com:

“WAIT! Donald Trump Is To Give A Speech Near The Site Of A Civil War Battle He Made Up?”:

“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Next week, Donald Trump announced that he was going to give major campaign speech and had selected the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, as the venue.

The event planning then played out in front of reporters.

“I don’t even know where yet. I think we are gonna do it in Washington at the club,” Trump said about delivering the speech at Trump National Golf Course in suburban Virginia. “Let’s do it at the club,” he said, turning to Hope Hicks, his top press aide. “I wouldn’t mind doing it on the Potomac.”

“I almost would love to do it right at the flag,” Trump said.”

The Redstate article references a November 2015 NY Times story:

STERLING, Va. — When Donald J. Trump bought a fixer-upper golf club on Lowes Island here for $13 million in 2009, he poured millions more into reconfiguring its two courses. He angered conservationists by chopping down more than 400 trees to open up views of the Potomac River. And he shocked no one by renaming the club after himself.

But that wasn’t enough. Mr. Trump also upgraded its place in history.

Between the 14th hole and the 15th tee of one of the club’s two courses, Mr. Trump installed a flagpole on a stone pedestal overlooking the Potomac, to which he affixed a plaque purportedly designating “The River of Blood.”

“Many great American soldiers, both of the North and South, died at this spot,” the inscription reads. “The casualties were so great that the water would turn red and thus became known as ‘The River of Blood.’ ”

The inscription, beneath his family crest and above Mr. Trump’s full name, concludes: “It is my great honor to have preserved this important section of the Potomac River!”

Like many of Mr. Trump’s claims, the inscription was evidently not fact-checked.”

Further on in the story, several Civil War historians are quoted refuting Trump’s claim that this was the site of his made-up “River of Blood” and he is quoted responding:

“Mr. Trump repeatedly said that “numerous historians” had told him that the golf club site was known as the River of Blood. But he said he did not remember their names.

Then he said the historians had spoken not to him but to “my people.” But he refused to identify any underlings who might still possess the historians’ names.

“Write your story the way you want to write it,” Mr. Trump said finally, when pressed unsuccessfully for anything that could corroborate his claim. “You don’t have to talk to anybody. It doesn’t make any difference. But many people were shot. It makes sense.””

That’s his story and he’s sticking to it…

Leave a comment

Filed under American History, General Interest, Military, Politics