The Uncivil War Rages On
Unlike many others, I do not hold Abraham Lincoln in high regard. By his own admission, he did not wage a war that saw 700,000 die in order to eliminate slavery. He had the blood of what today would be the equivalent of eight million Americans on his hands in order to preserve the Union. Towards what end? What would have been so terrible about the two nations existing side by side? Slavery would have come to an end in fairly short order. The two Americas, both speaking English, would have banded together against a common foe at times of war and been obvious trading partners, just as we are with Canada. So what if we had different national anthems? Wouldn’t it be better if, say, one country was deciding between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, while the other chose between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, instead of having to either wind up with Trump or Clinton, the ultimate winner being utterly repulsive to half of the electorate?
Unlike many others, I do not hold Abraham Lincoln in high regard. By his own admission, he did not wage a war that saw 700,000 die in order to eliminate slavery. He had the blood of what today would be the equivalent of eight million Americans on his hands in order to preserve the Union.
Towards what end? What would have been so terrible about the two nations existing side by side? Slavery would have come to an end in fairly short order. The two Americas, both speaking English, would have banded together against a common foe at times of war and been obvious trading partners, just as we are with Canada. So what if we had different national anthems? Wouldn’t it be better if, say, one country was deciding between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, while the other chose between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, instead of having to either wind up with Trump or Clinton, the ultimate winner being utterly repulsive to half of the electorate?
People speak of gridlock in Washington, but how can it be otherwise when one side is convinced that our existential enemy is Islam and the other side believes that Smith & Wesson is entirely to blame for the terrorist acts in Paris, Brussels, San Bernardino, Orlando and Istanbul?
The Democrats in Washington argue for more gun laws, although France, Belgium and Chicago, have the strictest gun laws imaginable, but calling for more laws is what Democrats are programmed to do. As partisan hack Rahm Emanuel was fond of saying, “Never let a crisis go to waste.”
So now the Democrats want to restrict gun sales to anyone who finds his name on a no-fly list, although there is no legal recourse for someone whose guilt is merely assumed, not proven, and thus winds up on such a list. Using the sort of logic that exists mainly in Wonderland, his guilt is established by the fact that his name is on a list rather than the other way around, as is customary in a free society.
Also keep in mind that people like the Tsarnaev brothers, who blew up scores of people at the Boston marathon, in spite of the elder brother having flown between Boston and Islamic hot spots on more than one occasion, never landed on such a list because some minor bureaucrat had misspelled “Tsarnaev.”
On the other hand, Steve Hayes, a columnist for the Weekly Standard, a frequent panelist on Fox News and the official biographer of ex-V.P. Dick Cheney, not only found himself on a no-fly list, but in spite of his high-profile credentials, had to jump through hoops for seven months before he got the matter straightened out and could once again have his constitutional rights restored.
Picking up on the obvious contradiction, someone sent me an email pointing out that the DNC is building a security wall around their Convention site in Philadelphia and will require a photo ID to gain entry, just so that they can feel safe while condemning Conservatives for wanting to build a Security Wall around the country and requiring a photo ID to vote!
In response to my article comparing the lives and deaths of draft dodger Mohammad Ali and USAF Colonel Tom Schaefer, I received an outpouring of support from active and retired members of the military. One of my favorite communiques came from David M. Roeder, Colonel, USAF, Retired.
He wrote that, as the Assistant Air Force Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Teheran, Schaefer had been his boss. His letter, in part, reads: “I was not only his professional colleague, but also his principal assistant and, most importantly, his friend. During the early days of the ‘Hostage Crisis,’ my cell in the Mushroom Inn was only two away from his — with Army Col. Chuck Scott, the Military Group Commander — between us. Although most of us received our share of interrogations, mental abuse, starvation and torture, as the senior military officer at the Embassy, my sense is that it was Tom who clearly endured the worst treatment. His leadership, raw guts and his determination to maintain not only his own integrity, but that of his country as well, was an inspiration to us all.
"Finally, when we returned to the U.S. aboard the government-provided ‘Freedom One’ 707 several days after President Reagan’s inauguration, it was Tom Schaefer who was in the co-pilot seat when the New York Air Traffic Control site welcomed us home and ‘God Bless America’ was transmitted throughout the aircraft. Although I believe that the title ‘hero’ is often abused in today’s society, Tom Schaefer was the ‘real thing!’ RIP, my friend.”
But it was Mohammad Ali who received the hero’s send-off and the present Commander-in-chief who saw fit to reward Iran with $150 billion and a clear path to a nuclear arsenal.
That whirring sound you hear is no doubt Col. Schaefer spinning in his hero’s grave.
Pope Francis recently declared that the majority of Catholic marriages are null because he has decided that the couples aren’t sincere in making a lifetime commitment. As I understand it, the Pope is supposed to be a pipeline between Catholics and God. This one seems to believe he is God, with the omnipotent power to read hundreds of millions of hearts and minds.
What makes his comment all the more audacious is that he, himself, recently streamlined the Church’s annulment process.
Hypocrisy aside, I would suggest that a Pope who decides he is the ultimate authority when it comes to marriage is about as ill-equipped for the job as a eunuch who decides to write an advice to the lovelorn column.
Although I have no special gifts when it comes to prophecy, I find that compared to some, I’m a regular Nostradamus. For instance, while others were dancing around and tossing confetti in the air over the Arab Spring, I thought it was no more than the ability to recognize reality that had me predicting that it was an Arab Winter the world should be expecting.
Again, when Obama said that Assad’s days were numbered, I pointed out that everyone’s days are numbered, but I was willing to wager that Assad would be in power long after Obama had left the key under the White House doormat.
I mention these things not to boast, but merely to suggest how easy it is to be right if you rely on your own logic and common sense instead of depending on the New York Times for your answers.
It seems that the 10,000 Islamic refugees Obama is presently welcoming to our shores is merely a drop in the bucket, as he has already issued roughly one million visas to Muslims during his time in the Oval Office, including over 100,000 each from Iraq and Pakistan. During that period, only 2,400 have been sent back for over-staying their visas.
When looking for an explanation, a cynic might conclude that this favoritism is because 70% of Muslims in America vote for Democrats, while a scant 11% support the GOP.
Speaking of he who should start packing his bags now so he’ll be able to make a fast exit after his term ends next January 20th, Obama keeps insisting that his refusal to say the words “Islamic terrorism” is because he doesn’t want to upset one billion Muslims, the same excuse Hillary Clinton gives for her reluctance to mention “Islam” in the same sentence as “jihadist,” “terrorist” or “butcher.”
Well, it seems to me that if a billion Muslims can’t recognize a distinction between people who are lopping off heads, crucifying Christians, blowing up sports stadiums and slaughtering 49 people in a Florida nightclub, and themselves, perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to do so, either.
The media, as to be expected, has made far too much of Donald Trump’s dumping the Washington Post from his campaign plane. How quickly they forget that in 2008, Obama, while keeping Glamour, Ebony and Jet, on board, dumped the NY Post, the Washington Times and the Dallas Morning News, from his jet for the sin of not gushing about his candidacy.
Then, for good measure, once he was elected, Obama did his best to keep Fox News out of his press conferences.
On Father’s Day, several sons remembered the best advice their dads had passed on. They included “Work to do something, not to be someone.” “Always lock at least one door of your car with a key. That way you’ll never lock your keys inside.” Best and most practical of all: “As I walked away from my dad, a career soldier, and headed towards the enlistment center in 1968, he said, ‘The only three things you should ever say are Yes, sir; No, sir; and No Excuse, Sir.’”
I have long contended that if you kill or rape someone, you should not be able to avoid being fully punished for the crime by blaming it on diminished capacity. If the brutes really don’t know the difference between right and wrong, how is it that the allegedly insane never boast about the crime, but always try to avoid being found out and punished?
Finally, I found myself thinking what if the alligator that dragged the boy in Orlando to his watery grave had been a human being? What if, like Omar Mateen, he had been a Muslim? Would the politically correct among us have worried themselves sick over whether it was an act of terrorism or a hate crime? Would the pundits have bored us silly trying to determine whether the alligator hated all two-year-olds or only those he perceived to be infidels?
The day we finally accept that, like alligators, when Islamists kill, they are merely being true to their nature, we may finally start making inroads against the enemy.
