Nazi type Protesters Bused in to Disrupt Candidate's Speech

A headline in today's Standard Times highlights a "change" in American culture- a change for the worse. It reads:

     "Police Calls up at Keith School. Mayor, school committee say concerns over violence at middle school must be addressed."

The article goes on to say that the school atmosphere "is mired in a lack of discipline and violence among the students" and has seen 40 calls for the police to quell disturbances in the school during the current school year.

 

The administration has called for meetings among the staff to discuss the problems. But that won't help-this disruptive behavior has been going on for years, the meetings have been held for years, the turmoil continues, the number of employees paid to control the misbehavior keeps increasing, and this is all for twelve-thirteen year olds in a middle school! And this school is run by "education experts" and administrators with college degrees in education!

 

Undoubtedly the teachers are handicapped by fear of lawsuits, political correctness, and difficult parents-but, maybe someone should do something--this is not just a New Bedford problem. Too many of the nation's students are out of control. Think about what they will be like when they have grown up!

 

The latter thought made me reflect on the protesting and riotous behavior inside a Chicago college auditorium last night that dominated the evening news-gangs of protesters had been bused in and organized to close down a scheduled political speech by Donald Trump, the leading Republican candidate in the presidential primaries. The protest resembled those of the brown and black shirt thugs that Mussolini and Hitler used to take over Germany and Italy in the 1930's. Those Nazi gangs' primary purpose was the same-to disrupt the meetings of opposing parties. Last night, however, our news media, were suggesting that the candidate was the one at fault because he had allegedly used "disruptive" language in the past. Thus, the victim was painted as the wrong-doer and the perpetrators were declared innocent! To hear the newscasters, the disruptive gangs, like Hitler's black shirts, were merely exercising their free speech rights. Give me a break! 

 

 

 

Take Your Pick- More Downward Drift or Disruption?

Anyone watching the news lately might believe that America's political candidates have lost their senses. Hardly a day goes by without the talking heads on TV reporting that one of the candidates said something simply awful-and then suggesting that the indiscreet candidate should just drop out of the race. But what's wrong with speaking the truth, unvarnished, and disrupting the power brokers in Washington?

I understand that in these days of stifling political correctness you have to guard your tongue carefully. It is difficult to voice an opinion without being charged you're sexist, or racist, or anti-this-or-anti-that! Our president won't even refer to the terrorists killers as radical Muslims. Some of this Orwellian fear of mere words comes from our Leftist elites who tell us our country stinks and all religions and cultures are equally praiseworthy-therefore you cannot criticize Honor Killings, throat slitting, sacred cows, or illegal immigrants. And you have to love diversity and immigrants no matter how awful some of the diverse elements may be!

Any candidate who says it like it is and decries the corruption and compromise that has soiled out nation's capitol is labeled "disruptive" and "divisive."  The establishment figures who rule Washington and our media do not want any "disruption" of their cozy posts. 

But with America in the doldrums, impotent abroad, broke at home, stuck in partisan gridlock, and the Middle Class suffering from declining income, isn't it time someone was disruptive? If we keep sending back cautious and compromising characters to Washington will anything get fixed? Won't that just continue the downward "drift" of our fortunes? Isn't it about time we disrupted this incompetent mess that holds our nation in a death-grip? You have to break some eggs to make an omelette! 

Syria Today Is Not Germany in 1939

When it comes to foreign policy, President Obama can't seem to win. Critics correctly point to how his efforts to draw red lines have become an international joke. And even his success at toppling dictators, or his efforts to help the "reformists," whoever they are, have all had adverse unintended consequences. Indeed, the Arab Spring he helped nurture has witnessed widespread violence on an unprecedented scale. Chaos now reigns!

However, the fact that many of Obama's political opponents call for more boots on the ground and a concerted effort to "eradicate" ISIS shows that the president is not alone in his advocacy of irrational policies.  George Bush's ground war in the Middle East proved, if nothing else, that we can't "nation build" in the Middle East. The Muslim culture, their institutions, and even the people themselves, educated in religious schools to hate all Infidels, are not able to develop the ordered society needed for peace and prosperity. History proves this--their culture and their nations have stagnated, strangled by the Inman's adherence to Sharia law, backward-looking observers for the last 1,000 years, while the West grew prosperous and free.  They are still in a tribal culture, something Europeans left behind thousands of years ago.

Our continued meddling is based on the concept that we have a strategic interest in the region, or that we have a duty to stand up for human rights. Hawks compare our failure to solve the crises disrupting the Middle East to Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler that led to WWII.  But, this is not 1939 when Hitler and a modern militarized Germany threatened Europe. Perhaps there was a need to deter Germany then--before they ravaged Europe. However today the Middle East presents a very different situation. None of the countries are advanced industrial nations and none have the Blitzkrieg strength, aircraft, and armored forces that can run over their neighbors--let alone land on the shores of North America. Plus they are fractured into at least a dozen warring, tribal sects all set on dominating each other. Germany and Japan were led by a single leader who could marshal their forces along a consistent and malignant objective. In the Middle East, tribal and religious factions render national boundaries irrelevant and create constant insurgencies and horrific terrorist disruptions. Significantly, they are totally dependent on foreign nations for their arms and sustenance. They pose little threat to the nations outside the Middle East. If they have a nuclear factory it can be destroyed by missiles and bombs. Indeed, a true embargo would have them back fighting each other with clubs and sharpened stones!

It is curious that virtually all American politicians and pundits argue for some degree of force to wipe out the terrorist menace. Where are the Doves when you need them? Let's look at what's happened--all our efforts have failed to bring stability to the region. It seems that our presence impairs even what internal strength these countries possess. Most of the Muslim leaders are motivated to do nothing in the hopes we will solve their problems, and yet they enjoy our failures and resent our interference. It is a culture we fail to understand. It is very possible that if we disengaged they would begin to address their own problems. Even if they don't, it's not our problem!

As an inveterate contrarian, I suggest the best answer is that we should simply get out--totally--remove all Americans, close the Embassies and let them have at it. Give Israel a free hand to protect themselves. We have no strategic interest there. It's a hornet nest, the graveyard of civilizations, and our presence only muddles their conflicts. We don't even know who to help, who are the good guys, nor how to help them if we did. For over 60 years America has poured sweat, money, and blood into the Middle East with nothing to show for it. Hundreds of diplomatic meetings and billions of dollars of hand-outs have left a consistent record of failure. To continue such a failed effort is insanity.

Swastika Carvings--Much Ado About Nothing?

My local newspaper has the Obama swastika story as a major front page news item, and the same story has dominated the news on most papers and TV shows for several days now. The lurid headlines refer to "An Act of Hatred," and everyone is falling all over themselves to express outrage at what they identify as "racism." Even the Secret Service and FBI are inspecting the carvings!

Are the politically correct commentators over-reacting to what could well be a schoolboy prank? No one knows why someone carved the word Obama and the ancient symbol into the grass on the 18th hole of the Lakeville golf course, but everyone is horrified. In this new age where words and symbols have taken on more significance than acts or deeds, one might well ask, 1)- is the angst over this presumed desecration justified, and, 2)- whether there is not more important news for the front pages of the papers? Is this very hyped and over-exposed incident another sympton of how the American media is so rapidly and steadily losing influence, readers and advertisers?

There is, after all, little useful discussion over the detail, history or meaning of the swastika. It may be useful to recognize that for thousands of years, the swastika has meant happy life and good luck. Today's schools and media appear ignorant about history and this is a good example, for they seem to only look at the Nazis who briefly (for about 15 years) used it to connote their idea of conquest and hate. But for buddhists and Hindus, as well as American Indians, the swastika has been a benign and religious symbol. There is in fact two completely opposite meanings for the symbol.

Furthermore, no one seems concerned about the direction of the swastika and whether the one carved in the grass was a clockwise swastika or the counter-clockwise sauvastika. Some people have tried to differentiate the two meanings of the swastika by varying its direction - trying to make the clockwise, Nazi version of the swastika mean hate and death while the counter-clockwise version would hold the ancient meaning of the symbol, life and good-luck. It is the counterclockwise presentation that was carved on the grass in Lakeville, so it is conceivable that the carver was attempting to associate good things with President Obama and should not be condemned but praised by the thought police trying to make news out of this event.

It is also conceivable that we as a people should pay more attention to actual deeds and results than the more insignificant world of utterances, promises, and statements of good intentions.