Magic Words

No, they're not "hocus pocus" nor "abracadabra" ... they're "radical Islam." Now, both Hellery and Obummer have coordinated their message, sarcastically saying that the phrase that the president was forever loath to utter was somehow magical and, if said, would solve our terrorist problem. "Is there a military strategy that is served by this [phrase]?" Very clever ... very political ... very Clintonian ... to take a long-standing negative and turn it against Trump and the Republicans (myself included) ... see: The Hill Video.

Now, this phrase, which the president first used in this political turn-about, is no longer a refusal of our president to identify our enemy, it is now an indication of the pettiness of his opposition. How wily ... yet how very insidious. If the president now says these words, it will be to mock his and Hellery's opposition ... it will not be to take the first step toward rallying the country against our enemy.

How low we have sunk ... and how very dangerous things have become ... when our enemy is elevated by this political legerdemain by Trump's opposition. Such a snide identification of our mortal enemy as mere "magic words" says nothing more than we should not consider them as our enemy ... but as evidence of misguided paranoia on the part of those who would resist.

I realize that this logic is somewhat circuitous  ... and may not register with many (the reason why it as so diabolically clever) ... but nevertheless it is real ... and causes me more than a modicum of concern for our collective willingness to resist those forces which are clearly coming over the hill.

I agree with Trump ... when the president and presumptive Democrat candidate feel that they can belittle him for suggesting a first step in defeating the radical Islamists is to call them by name ... "there is something going on here." I also agree with Trump when he says that Obummer seems more angry toward him here than he is toward the Orlando shooter.

Afterward: See also: Powerline Comments.

Bluster

Over the next few days and weeks, Western television sets will be bloated with politicians of all nationalities decrying the kind of terrorism just experienced in Paris. They will bluster about the carnage. Some will bluster about turning back the threats posed by radical Islam. They will raise the battle flags and swear not to stop until this existential threat is eliminated. They will bluster further and name numerous measures that will be taken to protect their populations from such mayhem. They may even carry out a few acts of vengeance.  Yes, they will bluster ... they will prance ... they will pose ... for that is what current politicians do

Then they will retire to their sumptuous rooms in their 5-star hotels and sit down to fabulous gourmet meals while tsk-tsking these recent horrendous events. Next, they will retreat to their well-guarded seashore villas and somehow, over their fifth glass of 99-rated Pommard, forget what they had just promised a short while before.

For that is what current politicians do.

The Death of Common Sense

What is it in the water these days? Doesn’t it appear that our leaders have been tripping on some mysterious substance that robs them of even a modicum of sensibility? Decision after decision by these fruit bats fly in the face of reason … no restrictions on travel from West Africa, no health screening for those tens of thousands of young Mexican border jumpers, supporting welfare benefits and voting rights for illegal aliens, fire-hose government spending that robs from our children and grandchildren, national defense dismantling during a period of growing Russian and radical Islamic threats, rejecting carbon-based energy sources for less viable "green” options. Need I go on?

It seems that every time I see or hear of a policy decision these days it is diametrically opposed to what my Jiminy Cricket is suggesting. Do politicians feel obligated to reject what their inner voices tell them in favor of some cockamamie pronouncement that they heard from atop a soapbox by some wild-eyed ideologue?

I do believe we reject our innate filter of common sense at great risk. Maybe, for at least the next few elections, we might choose those politicians who dare to exhibit some common sense. Perhaps this characteristic won’t grab the headlines, but it might just save us.

Afterward: Not only are we not restricting travel from the three-country center of Ebola outbreaks in West Africa, but we have, for two months, been expediting the processing of U.S. visa extensions to the people from there! I'm not joking ... see: Breitbart Story! By the bye Kenya, Senegal, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and other African Countries have closed their borders to emigres from these three West African countries.

Turkey with all the Fixin's

President Obama has been groping his way toward a cogent policy vis-a-vis Syria for over two years now … besmirching himself and the United States in the process.  Once again his tendency to tilt toward Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister Erdogan and the Muslim Brotherhood has caused most of his headaches.  Rather than rehash some very thoughtful analyses of this foreign-policy mashed potatoes, I suggest that you read this Powerline blog entry and then return for a few thoughts of my own ... see: Powerline Comments.

Unable to recognize the perils surrounding his overt friendship with the Muslim Brotherhood, Obama has continued to bet on this losing horse.  His backing of this radical element of Islam in Egypt was instrumental in Morsi’s winning the Egyptian election … which then resulted in Morsi’s ham-handed attempts to subvert the democratic process there.  As a result we now have a large portion of the more moderate elements in Egypt and around the Middle East distrusting us … as they rightly should. Our President has created major havoc in Syria, Libya, and Egypt … costing many thousands of innocent lives … and missed a golden opportunity to neutralize Iran’s mullahs during its Green Movement … all because of his mule-like embrace of radical Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood.

President Obama’s inability to learn from his many mistakes, both domestic and abroad, is probably his worst character flaw … although I’m sure other thinkers might offer a few more malignant suggestions.  There are even those who feel that his major screw-ups are purposeful.  If that be the case, then neither God nor Allah can save us.