Life’s Mysteries

- Why is Kim Kardashian famous ... there are lots of women with big butts?

- If kneeling is a sign of obedience and respect, why, when done during the playing of the national anthem, is it just the opposite?

- Why is Donald Trump’s hair orange?

- Why 72 virgins for martyred jihadists  ... why not 83 or 37?

- If all life is sacred to Hindus, how can they eat anything?

- Who killed Seth Rich? And why?

- Why are there no pictures of a pregnant Michelle Obama?

- If aliens are visiting us in UFOs, how come they don’t land and say hello?

- Where has all the comedy gone?

- How many push-ups can Joe Biden do?

- Who was the first person to eat an oyster?

- Is rap really “music?”


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Headlines

How John Kelly became 'chief in name only'

Rudy Giuliani says 'collusion is bot a crime' -- after months of Trump denying he colluded with Russia

Code X virus 'could wipe out 900 million people,' experts warn ...

Euro judges  will block U.K. from sentencing Islamic state terrorists to death

Ruth Bader Ginsberg: I have 'at least five more years on the bench

Full-scale bailout of industries impacted by tariffs would cost $39 billion, Chamber of Commerce says

Accidents at AMAZON: Workers left to suffer after warehouse injuries

Currency crash: Iran rial hits record low -- 100,000 = $1

Kudlow  defends tariffs on China, wants to avoid EU duties

Russia has been offloading its US dent holdings at breakneck speed-- but here's what's behind it

'Medicare for all' to cost $32.6 trillion, experts say ...

Sessions: I  have 'highest vonfidence' in Rosenstein

Cause du Jour

Why is it that only liberals seem to have causes that they will stage emotive protests for: legalize marijuana, "women's reproductive rights," equal pay, transgender bathrooms, black lives matter, dump Trump Women's March, safe spaces, #MeToo, down with Civil War monuments, save the planet, bam guns, no tax cuts, open borders, same sex marriage, evil white privilege, eliminate ICE? The list goes on and on and on. As soon as the emotion drains out of one cause, another one steps in to take it's place. Do not these fulminaters have anything else to do with their empty lives? Must our media always have a weekend protest or boycott or diatribe to headline? It all seems very artificial and superficial to this observer.

Are these real grassroots protests or is this a lot of AstroTurf ... ginned-up crowds comprised mostly of many Soros-paid actors ... or  rent-a-mobs? (There are agencies which will actually rent you a spittle-flecked mob for any cause you want. How cynical can you get?)

The free-speech, save the whales and free-love activists of our youth seem so much more tame and naive than the cause du jour gauntlets we are forced to endure these days. What's next? "Green cards  for all the jihadists'  children?" Spare me!

Headlines

All the following headlines were found on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

Comey claims that Trump asked him to 'lift the cloud' of the Russian probe

Intel officials blow a gaping hole in media reports that Trump interfered

Jeff Sessions ends DOJ handouts to leftist groups

Trump ridicules obstructionist Dems while calling for bipartisan support for infrastructure

James Comey never kept detailed notes on conversations he had with Obama

NSA leaker's parents say 'she's a patriot'

[Trump] jokes he's 'upset' that Jared Kushner 'is more famous than me'

Coats and Rogers refuse to say if Trump asked them to sway Russian probe

Comey's friends weren't as 'familiar with his thinking' as they claimed

Mag: 'Musk magic' wearing off?

Solar activity lowest in100 years ...

London mayor says police can't afford to track jihadists

Prejudice

As a tutor, one of my students is writing his college-application essay on prejudice ... which has inspired me to take up this same subject. Here goes:

"Prejudice" really means to pre-judge something or someone. After viewing N events or characteristics of a particular group of people, it is human nature to draw a generalization from the preponderance of a trait exhibiting itself in this experience. This generalization is not prejudice. Prejudice is applying this generalization to the next or N+1 person or event. As an example, if after a life among Irishmen, one concludes that this group has a tendency toward over-imbibing ... the generalization ... then upon meeting a next Irishman, one assumes that he is a sot ... this is prejudice. You have unfairly prejudged him without any evidence other than your prior generalization.

There is an unfortunate mix-up in the use of the term prejudice in today's society ... and that is to call any generalizations about WASPs, Jews, gays, Muslims, Asians, etc. "prejudice." They clearly are not ... unless of course the person making such a generalization cannot resist the temptation to apply it in the N+first case ... at which point it lives up to this societal condemnation. I know this is a subtle and difficult distinction to make, but, to me, it is a very important one. I rankle when I am accused of prejudice if I am making a generalization. This is because the accuser assumes that I cannot abandon this generalization when dealing with my next encounter under this generalization. I pride myself on being able to shuck my generalizations in such situations. (Interestingly, in this case, my accuser turns out to be prejudicial.)

Now let's test this definition of prejudice in the real world. When a Cambridge, Massachusetts policeman stopped Professor Chip Gates from entering his house thinking he was breaking in, President Obama said that "the Cambridge police acted stupidly." This is clearly prejudicial for Obama is applying one instance (questionable at that) to the entire Cambridge police department. He, of all people, should know better since, I assume, he has experienced the pain of prejudice in his past life. And now the flip-side ... the Obama administration's unwillingness to generalize with the term "Islamic extremists" or "jihadists" when dealing with ISIS and their ilk, tells me that they are confounded by the distinction made above. (Although, if I met one such militant dressed in black robes and carrying an assegai, I think I would myself tend toward prejudice.)

First Amendment Debate

Pamela Geller, of the Atlas Shrugs blog (which I often read and sometimes cite), engaged in a very lively and edifying debate with a CNN news anchor, Alisyn Camerota, today about the attack that took place in Garland, Texas yesterday at a free-speech event Geller sponsored in which cartoons of Mohammad were displayed ... and where two attacking gunmen were killed ... see: CNN Video. The back and forth in this video I think is well worth watching through to the end since it draws a sharp contrast between the current liberal notion of free speech and that which was expressed by our founding fathers in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In her comments, Ms. Geller repeatedly makes the clear point that she is not anti-Muslim, but she is very much anti-jihadist ... and to assume that all Muslims are jihadists is the true anti-Muslim stance. Not only did Ms. Camerota find this distinction difficult to adsorb, but following this interview, CNN then had on a spokeswoman from the uber-liberal Southern Poverty Law Center who, without blinking, said that Pamela Geller was an "extremist" and does NOT make the distinction between ordinary Muslims and radical Muslims. Apparently she either was not privy to the debate that took place immediately preceding hers. Or, if she did, her ears were so full of "progressive" wax, that she would not acknowledge Ms. Geller's claim.

As a side note, one second-amendment wag has pointed out the difference between the Jihadist attack in Paris were guns are taboo and a similar attack in Texas ... which arms its constabulary.

Afterward: Here is a video of the SPLC spox attacking Ms. Geller ... see: Breitbart Video.

After Afterward: Here is Greg Gutfeld's always-insightful take on this controversy ... see: Breitbart Piece.

Summit Politics

It looks like the White House is once again trying to bamboozle the American public into believing that they are, in fact, administering. It is calling a "summit" to counter "violent extremism" (its pet term for the you-know-whats) ... see: Breitbart Squib. This is a tired old cliche, these show summits, where the president sits at a big table surrounded by oodles of important-looking people who, in the presence of photo-op cameras, go through a pantomime of serious discussions.

It would seem to this silly observer that countering Islamic terrorism could and should be done behind closed doors with a few administration operatives who know how to get things done ... you know, the Dick Cheney types ... not that there really are any of those around these days. All these show summits tell me is that President Obama is still not serious about dealing with this world-wide jihadist threat ... which is obviously growing daily.

Curiously, the only type of serious secret meeting that the White House convenes behind closed doors recently is the one where the president met with 15 Islamic movers and shakers ... see: Breitbart Story.

Hmmm?

Afterward: I am reminded of the Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney meme. Whenever there is a problem, Valerie Jarrett pipes up with, "I know, let's have a summit!"

News You Can Use

In talking recently to a well-versed and connected former politician, I broached two subjects of which he was unaware. I believe that this information is so important that I am going to reprise it here with links to my original blogs that more fully explain this news that, for some inexplicable reason, never made it into the main-stream media.

First, back in August, Egypt offered to cede to the Palestinian Authority (PA) 618 square miles of the Sinai Peninsula to expand the Gaza Strip. This would effectively quintuple its land area for the settlement of its refugees … and would have provided the PA the perfect opening to create its side of the famous “two state solution” to the decades' old smoldering conflict with Israel. President Mahmoud Abbas of the PA rejected this offer on the flimsiest of grounds … see: The Impossible Dream

Second, both the Clintons and the Obama administration have deep and important ties to the Muslim Brotherhood … the nursery for much of the Jihadists movement. These links have helped color our foreign policy in the Mideast over the last six years …and are, I believe, a primary reason that things are so bollixed up there. Read some of the known details here: Fleas.  I’m fairly certain that there are many other more incriminating connections.

Have you dear reader seen or read about these profound revelations highlighted in our national media? I thought not.

Afterward: Abbas once again showed his blood-stained hands ... see: Breitbart Article.

After Afterward: Now we learn that Obama's buddy, the religious head of the Muslim Brotherhood, is being sought by Interpol ... see: Atlas Shrugged.

Happy Thanksgiving

Freedom from Want

Thanksgiving ... time to wax nostalgic. With all the harsh words and dastardly deeds swirling around the world these days, we all need to look back on easier times to get a little perspective on our current situation. I use the term "easier" with a little irony for Norman Rockwell painted the above picture "Freedom from Want" in 1942 ... during the darkest days of World War II ... see: Freedom from Want. However, fighting a global war on two fronts against known foes was a piece of cake when compared to what is now called "asymmetric warfare" against possibly millions of anarchists and Jihadists both at home and abroad.

In 1942 Americans were actually lucky to be able to put on a feast like Rockwell depicted above ... because each family had ration books that had little stamps allowing them to buy groceries, gasoline, tires, etc. (Although I was quite young, I still remember the constraints placed on our lives by these ration books ... see: National WW2 Museum Entry.) However, what we then lacked in material goods we made up with good sense. We, as a nation, were pulling together to save the world from tyranny. Yes, there was some griping and back biting, but underneath it all we had a common purpose and ethos.

Only with the actual freedom from want that has washed over our nation during the last seventy years have major dislocations occurred. Greed has too often replaced charity. Hedonism has too often replaced faith. Hubris has too often replaced humility. Ostentation has too often replaced modesty. Reticence has too often replaced valor. And we unfortunately view many of these trade-offs as progress and modernity.

So, to me, it is not too surprising when large swaths of the world revolt against these moral excesses by becoming religious zealots. But like most societal sea changes, charlatans are often the first to take up the flag and lead these revolutionaries to evil ends. But, at least in the United States, I believe there is still an undercurrent of virtue and nobility that needs to be recognized and reawakened ... for else I fear we are doomed.

Therefore, when we choose our next leader, this person should be able to encourage this renewal in us ... at the very least. For that then we could be truly thankful.

Shrinking Violets

President Obama has finally shown a bit of a backbone in his "limited" air strikes against ISIS artillery pieces and mortar positions in Northern Iraq. I say a "bit of backbone" for he still believes that he is reflecting America's reluctance to engage in any significant show of air power after Libya has blown up in his face. 

Not only is Obama still a shrinking violet but he resides in a field of such flowers. No country in Western Europe ... save Great Britain ... has shown the slightest inclination to deal with the spread of ISIS and its brutality. This group of about 10,000 jihadists just killed at least 500 Yazidis ... many buried alive ... see: Huffington Post Story (Huffington Post editors ... I think you are playing into ISIS’s barbarous hands by calling them the "Islamic State") ... and the world yawns.

And this field of posies is not limited to Western Europe. Where is Saudi Arabia? (Oops, I forgot, Saudi Arabia, like ISIS, is Sunni also.) Where is Iran? (Oops, I forgot, Iran, even though Shi’ite, does not mind seeing mass executions … particularly in Iraq.) Why is Catholic Latin America not rising in humanitarian outrage to save other Christians from being crucified? (Oops, I forgot, they’re all on trains to the Texas border.) The African nations, Eastern Europe, Egypt, Israel. Jordan and Lebanon have their own problems. But what about Russia (here I’m a little surprised at Putin’s wallfloweredness.) And the rest of the world is apparently not paying attention.

So President Obama must feel vindicated to lead from behind once again. “If the rest of the world wants me to fix this mess again, I’ll not be dragged into another war by you folks. I’ll make like I’m appalled and do a few token things, but the American people (me) don’t want any more involvement in this Mideast swamp. I think I’ll just take a couple of weeks off in Martha’s Vineyard, I’ll play some golf, I’ll eat some ice cream, and see if things aren’t better when I (lots of first person references here) get back.”

“I'll keep talking about not puttin' boots on the ground [in my opinion an over-used red herring] and then maybe I’ll pick some violets …”