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MAY 29,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

HELP THESE SUFFERING CHILDREN! – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   Undergraduates in Yale’s English department have started a petition to “decolonize” their introductory curriculum, noting the Major English Poets sequence omits the “contributions of women, people of color, and queer folk.”  The petition “calls for the abolishment of this prerequisite and for the pre-1800/1900 requirements to refocus and include literature relating to gender, race and sexuality.”  “A year spent around a seminar table where the literary contributions of women, people of color, and queer folk are absent actively harms all students, regardless of their identity,” it reads in part.  The petition goes on to state that the Major English Poets sequence is “especially hostile” to minority students and that the sense of “alienation” causes students to leave in the middle of class.  Let's see if Yale caves in to this demand as well.

HILLARY MUST CHOOSE A LEFTY, SAYS BERNIE – FROM THE TELEGRAPH:   Bernie Sanders warned on Sunday that Hillary Clinton must choose a left-wing candidate as running mate if the Democratic party is to win the presidential election.  The comments came amid mounting criticism that Mrs Clinton's campaign is poorly equipped to take on Donald Trump.  Mr Sanders cautioned that to beat the bombastic Republican nominee, the Democratic party must defend working families by choosing a non-traditional candidate who would stand up to "Wall Street" and the "greed of corporate America".  "That means having a candidate who can excite working families, excite young people, bring them into the political process, create a large voter turnout," said Mr Sanders in a television interview. "It means someone who has a history of fighting for working families."  Karl Marx is not available, and Joe Stalin has other engagements.  Bernie is disappointed, but he'll find someone for Hillary.

CIRCUS – FROM CNN:   (CNN) Donald Trump's campaign is considering booking one of Cleveland's big sports venues for his acceptance speech in July, two GOP sources familiar with the planning of the upcoming GOP convention say.  The sources said First Energy Stadium, home of the Cleveland Browns, and Progressive Field, home of the city's Indians baseball team, are the two sites under consideration for Trump's acceptance speech on the final night of the convention.  One of the sources said the campaign is closing in on signing a contract for use of one of the two venues, with the football stadium currently the favorite for Trump's speech.  "It's going to be a big production," a Trump campaign adviser told CNN. "Given Trump's profile and how he handles things, nothing is off the table."  "And he's going to be intimately involved in it," the adviser added.  He needs Lady Gaga.

May 29, 2016       Permalink

NOT A GOOD SIGN – REMEMBER 1968 IN CHICAGO – AT 12:32 P.M. ET:   There are serious, well-founded concerns about violence at the political conventions this summer.  Here is evidence.  From Fox: 

A North Carolina police department backed out of sending 50 police officers to the Republican presidential convention in Cleveland in June over concerns about whether the city is prepared to host an event that is expected to bring at least 50,000 visitors to northeast Ohio.

Greensboro police made the decision earlier this week to pull its officers from the event, saying the city isn’t providing workers’ compensation for coverage for out-of-town officers and is requiring them to get physical exams they’d have to pay for themselves.

Deputy Police Chief Brian James wrote in a memo to the city’s police chief that he had spoken with police administrators experienced in planning events like the GOP convention and that they expressed “a lack of confidence in the city of Cleveland and their preparedness.”

"We have a responsibility to ensure that we are sending our officers to an event that is well planned," James wrote.

James told the Cleveland Plain-Dealer that his memo wasn’t intended to take shots at Cleveland police or say they weren’t prepared to handle the convention.

"But for us, for coming out of our jurisdiction into another state, we had hoped that we would have better clarification on different logistical issues, and specifically what our assignments would be going into Cleveland," James said. "And we don't have that information at this time."

COMMENT:   This is one of a number of complaints I've seen about Cleveland's "preparations."  And the Dems are meeting in Philadelphia, not exactly a rock of stability and good order.

A long hot summer, I'm afraid.

May 29, 2016        Permalink

PUBLIC REJECTS PRESIDENTIAL RACE – AT 11:51 A.M. ET:  Polls are now confirming the general perception that the American public is unhappy with both major choices in the presidential race.  Indeed, I've never seen a rejection of the candidates this great.  From The Hill:   

Most Americans are frustrated with the 2016 presidential election, according to a new poll released Saturday.

Seventy percent of respondents described themselves as frustrated with the election, while more than half, including majorities of both Republicans and Democrats, called themselves angry, the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found.

Only 23 percent said they were excited about the election, while 37 percent felt hopeful.

Meanwhile, two-thirds of those surveyed said the presidential race is interesting, compared to the 30 percent who called it boring.

The poll was conducted among 1,060 adults from May 12-15 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percent.

COMMENT:  I sense that more and more people are asking, "Is this the best we can do?"  On the Republican side, fine governors and senators with proved ability were tossed aside in favor of a reality-show star and real-estate blowhard with no public-policy experience.  On the Democratic side voters are given a choice between the queen of dishonesty and a small-time clown who took the Young People's Socialist League too seriously.  Not a great showing. 

Political parties are private organizations.  They can make their own rules.  They might look at these rules, and, indeed, the entire primary system, and make changes that are more likely to produce better candidates.

May 29, 2016       Permalink

WHY REAGAN WAS GREAT – AT 11:15 A.M. ET:  President Reagan at Arlington National Cemetery, Memorial Day, 1982:

Mr. President, General, the distinguished guests here with us today, my fellow citizens:

In America’s cities and towns today, flags will be placed on graves in cemeteries; public officials will speak of the sacrifice and the valor of those whose memory we honor.

In 1863, when he dedicated a small cemetery in Pennsylvania marking a terrible collision between the armies of North and South, Abraham Lincoln noted the swift obscurity of such speeches. Well, we know now that Lincoln was wrong about that particular occasion. His remarks commemorating those who gave their “last full measure of devotion” were long remembered. But since that moment at Gettysburg, few other such addresses have become part of our national heritage—not because of the inadequacy of the speakers, but because of the inadequacy of words.

I have no illusions about what little I can add now to the silent testimony of those who gave their lives willingly for their country. Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them.

Yet, we must try to honor them—not for their sakes alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice.

Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we—in a less final, less heroic way—be willing to give of ourselves.

It is this, beyond the controversy and the congressional debate, beyond the blizzard of budget numbers and the complexity of modern weapons systems, that motivates us in our search for security and peace. War will not come again, other young men will not have to die, if we will speak honestly of the dangers that confront us and remain strong enough to meet those dangers.

It’s not just strength or courage that we need, but understanding and a measure of wisdom as well. We must understand enough about our world to see the value of our alliances. We must be wise enough about ourselves to listen to our allies, to work with them, to build and strengthen the bonds between us.

Our understanding must also extend to potential adversaries. We must strive to speak of them not belligerently, but firmly and frankly. And that’s why we must never fail to note, as frequently as necessary, the wide gulf between our codes of morality. And that’s why we must never hesitate to acknowledge the irrefutable difference between our view of man as master of the state and their view of man as servant of the state. Nor must we ever underestimate the seriousness of their aspirations to global expansion. The risk is the very freedom that has been so dearly won.

It is this honesty of mind that can open paths to peace, that can lead to fruitful negotiation, that can build a foundation upon which treaties between our nations can stand and last—treaties that can someday bring about a reduction in the terrible arms of destruction, arms that threaten us with war even more terrible than those that have taken the lives of the Americans we honor today.

In the quest for peace, the United States has proposed to the Soviet Union that we reduce the threat of nuclear weapons by negotiating a stable balance at far lower levels of strategic forces. This is a fitting occasion to announce that START, as we call it, strategic arms reductions, that the negotiations between our country and the Soviet Union will begin on the 29th of June.

As for existing strategic arms agreements, we will refrain from actions which undercut them so long as the Soviet Union shows equal restraint. With good will and dedication on both sides, I pray that we will achieve a safer world.

Our goal is peace. We can gain that peace by strengthening our alliances, by speaking candidly of the dangers before us, by assuring potential adversaries of our seriousness, by actively pursuing every chance of honest and fruitful negotiation.

It is with these goals in mind that I will depart Wednesday for Europe, and it’s altogether fitting that we have this moment to reflect on the price of freedom and those who have so willingly paid it. For however important the matters of state before us this next week, they must not disturb the solemnity of this occasion. Nor must they dilute our sense of reverence and the silent gratitude we hold for those who are buried here.

The willingness of some to give their lives so that others might live never fails to evoke in us a sense of wonder and mystery. One gets that feeling here on this hallowed ground, and I have known that same poignant feeling as I looked out across the rows of white crosses and Stars of David in Europe, in the Philippines, and the military cemeteries here in our own land. Each one marks the resting place of an American hero and, in my lifetime, the heroes of World War I, the Doughboys, the GI’s of World War II or Korea or Vietnam. They span several generations of young Americans, all different and yet all alike, like the markers above their resting places, all alike in a truly meaningful way.

Winston Churchill said of those he knew in World War II they seemed to be the only young men who could laugh and fight at the same time. A great general in that war called them our secret weapon, “just the best darn kids in the world.” Each died for a cause he considered more important than his own life. Well, they didn’t volunteer to die; they volunteered to defend values for which men have always been willing to die if need be, the values which make up what we call civilization. And how they must have wished, in all the ugliness that war brings, that no other generation of young men to follow would have to undergo that same experience.

As we honor their memory today, let us pledge that their lives, their sacrifices, their valor shall be justified and remembered for as long as God gives life to this nation. And let us also pledge to do our utmost to carry out what must have been their wish: that no other generation of young men will every have to share their experiences and repeat their sacrifice.

Earlier today, with the music that we have heard and that of our National Anthem—I can’t claim to know the words of all the national anthems in the world, but I don’t know of any other that ends with a question and a challenge as ours does: Does that flag still wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? That is what we must all ask.
Thank you.

COMMENT:  Reagan had an understanding that was rare.  What other president would note that our national anthem ends in a question?  It reminds me of Eisenhower's warning, in his farewell address, of the impact of funding on scientific integrity.  What other president discusses that?

Reagan inspired us, and stimulated us.  It's been a long ride down from there.

May 29,  2016     Permalink

MAY 28,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET: 

WARNING – FROM THE JERUSALEM POST:   Germany's spy chief said Saturday that ISIS is planning a large scale attack at the Euro 2016 championship in France, the Daily Mail reported.  Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution said that while there were no known plans in action, German intelligence admitted they had heard "quite a lot of background noise" which suggested the plot.  At least 2.5 million people are due to attend the championship, spread across 10 stadiums. The games are set to begin June 10.  Tensions remain high in France, still recovering from the November 2015 attacks in Paris, which included three explosions near the Stade de France national sports stadium.  France is preparing in advance for any potential attacks, saying that some games may be played behind closed doors depending on the threat level.   And one has to wonder about the vulnerability of the Rio Olympics, set to begin in early August.

INCREDIBLE PROGRESS:  FROM RED STATE:   Pakistan is considering a measure that would allow husbands to beat their wives “lightly,” – which, if enforced, would actually be a huge step in the right direction.  Of course, this was in response to a group that proposed a law that would forbid husbands from beating their wives at all, a measure which was condemned as being “anti-Islam.”  In the 75-page proposal, Mohammad Khan Sheerani suggests a light beating is acceptable should the need arise to punish a woman. The proposal bans forceful beating, saying only a small stick is necessary to instill fear.  The Council of Islamic Ideology is a powerful constitutional body that advises the Pakistani legislature whether laws are in line with the teachings of Islam.  Its proposed bill is seen as a response to the rejected Punjab Women Protection bill for abused women. The council shunned it as “un-Islamic” and wrote its own bill, which includes the recommendation for the light beating.  Don't you love to see progress?  Why, pretty soon Islamic women might be allowed out of the house without a man's permission.  Who said Islam isn't hip?

RISKY HEALTH RULING – FROM THE BBC:  The World Health Organization (WHO) has rejected a call to move or postpone this summer's Rio Olympic Games over the Zika outbreak.  It said this would "not significantly alter" the spread of the virus, which is linked to serious birth defects.  In an open letter to the WHO, more than 100 leading scientists had said new findings about Zika made it "unethical" for the Games to go ahead.  They also said the global health body should revisit its Zika guidance.  The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said it sees no reason to delay or move the Games because of the mosquito-borne disease.  The outbreak began in Brazil a year ago, but now more than 60 countries and territories have continuing transmission.   Come on, the Olympics are about money.  The health of athletes and spectators isn't on the radar screen.  And all that TV revenue won't be sent down the drain.  Pray for a healthy Olympics.

May 28, 2016       Permalink 

NEW BREATKTHROUGH IN NATIONAL DEFENSE – AT 12:18 P.M. ET:   Our defenses are deteriorating.  Budget constraints, the ideological left of the Obama administration, and a Republican Congress increasingly adrift, make for a bad combination when the national defense of the United States is involved.  But occasionally we see a piece of technology that may help save the day.  From Fox: 

A warning siren bellowed through the concrete bunker of a top-secret Naval facility where U.S. military engineers prepared to demonstrate a weapon for which there is little defense.

Officials huddled at a video screen for a first look at a deadly new supergun that can fire a 25-pound projectile through seven steel plates and leave a 5-inch hole.

The weapon is called a railgun and requires neither gunpowder nor explosive. It is powered by electromagnetic rails that accelerate a hardened projectile to staggering velocity—a battlefield meteorite with the power to one day transform military strategy, say supporters, and keep the U.S. ahead of advancing Russian and Chinese weaponry.

Keeping ahead will be difficult.  The Russians surprised us by bouncing back from their Cold War defeat to build new, excellent weapons.  Putin means what he says.

In conventional guns, a bullet loses velocity from the moment the gunpowder ignites and sends it flying. The railgun projectile instead gains speed as it travels the length of a 32-foot barrel, exiting the muzzle at 4,500 miles an hour, or more than a mile a second.

“This is going to change the way we fight,” said U.S. Navy Adm. Mat Winter, the head of the Office of Naval Research.

COMMENT:  Let's hope the usual bureaucratic mess in Washington doesn't hinder the development of this new system. 

May 28, 2016       Permalink

MR. OBAMA'S MAGICAL ADVENTURE – AT 11:31 A.M. ET:  The president has visited Japan.  It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but he didn't fill us with pride either.  From the British writer James Delingpole, at Breitbart:   

President Obama has kowtowed to the Japanese and Western liberals by promising at the site of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb “we shall not repeat the evil.”

People who agree with this sentiment ought to do two things.

First they should read the essay – Thank God for the Atom Bomb – war historian Paul Fussell wrote on how he felt when, as a 21-year-old second lieutenant in the US army, he and his comrades heard the news that Japan had been nuclear bombed into surrender.

“When we learned to our astonishment that we would not be obliged in a few months to rush up the beaches near Tokyo assault-firing while being machine-gunned, mortared, and shelled, for all the practiced phlegm of our tough facades we broke down and cried with relief and joy. We were going to live.”

Second, they should familiarize themselves with which country it was started this particular war; which country fought it with such sadistic determination that they would frequently torture and bayonet prisoners – even the wounded, in hospitals they’d over-run and would almost always refuse to surrender themselves, making any assault on territory they held more than usually costly in allied lives.

If ever the US finds itself in such circumstances again, let us pray that the president it has at the time is nothing like Barack Obama.

COMMENT:  That certainly says it, doesn't it?  Daniel Patrick Moynihan liked to use the term, "defining deviancy down."  It defined the process whereby people get used to low standards and bad behavior over time, and start considering it normal.   Have we reached that point in the America of Barack Obama?  Maybe, but maybe not.  It's time to fight back, reject political correctness, challenge journalistic mediocrity and corruption, and slam anti-social behavior.  We did it in our past.  We can do it again.

May 28, 2016       Permalink

ON THIS MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:  A magnificent story of a guy who wanted one last mission, and it was his last.  From Fox: 

A retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant who returned to England this month for the first time in 71 years to visit the country he defended during World War II has died during his “final mission.”

Melvin Rector, 94, served in England with the 96th Bomb Group in 1945 as a radio operator and gunner on B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, including on the Memphis Belle, the first heavy bomber to compete its 25-mission tour of duty with its crew intact.

Operating out of RAF Snetterton Heath in Norfolk, Rector flew eight combat missions over Germany during the spring of the final year of the War, with his plane coming back one time dotted with bullet holes on its wings, Stars and Stripes reports.

Rector, hoping to return to the base, decided to leave his home in Barefoot Bay, Fla., to visit Britain as part of a travel program organized by the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

"He planned it for like the last six months," Darlene O'Donnell, Rector's stepdaughter, told Florida Today. "He couldn't wait to go."

Susan Jowers, who accompanied Rector on the trip, said on May 6 he stepped foot on British soil for the first time in 71 years and visited RAF Uxbridge in London.

After Rector toured the Battle of Britain bunker, a command center where airplane operations were coordinated during D-Day, he told Jowers he felt dizzy.

There, right outside the bunker, Rector quietly died on the soil where he risked his life to defend decades ago.

COMMENT:  I wonder if some of our college "students," reading this story, will actually understand it.

It is the soldier, not the politician, who guarantees our freedom.  It is the soldier, not the professor, who guarantees academic freedom.

Melvin Rector did his job.  And nobody provided him a "safe space."

May 28,  2016     Permalink