A Geography Lesson

The picture shows the location of the Spratly Islands, which both China and the Philippines claim. The islands are a group of coral atolls that China has been busily filling in with sand and crushed coral to build military bases. The U.S. drove a destroyer the other day past the disputed islands following the accepted international limit of 12 miles and China is howling, claiming a 200-mile territorial limit. 

Look carefully at the map. By China's definition (and assuming its sovereignty which I do not) the straits between the Philippines and Vietnam/Cambodia would be pretty much shut down within the Dragon's grasp. What's next - Mare Island in San Francisco Bay because it's close to Chinatown? Freedom of the seas is crucial to the U.S. and other nations and we were right to throw down the gauntlet. Japan is responding to China the same way. Stand by for future developments in this area. It could get interesting very quickly. 

The Death Throes of a Culture

I like classical music. I will often listen to it playing quietly in the background while I work or on the road stuck in traffic. Classical music draws from a deeper source in us than the surface stimuli demand with which we have to contend in daily life and carries us to places of real thought and introspection, sad ones as well as joy and triumph on occasion. Australian pianist Anna Goldsworthy laments its imminent passing and examines it in a long article in The Monthly.

Goldsworthy notes that the average age of classical concerts has risen from age 30 in 1937 to 65 or above today. She examines some of the culprits: ADD among listeners (i.e. - hitting the clicker), the association with snobbish elites, and the lowest common denominator effect of television with its snippets of music reduced to jingles and silly songs. 

A huge reason is that children never learn to like classical music because they are not exposed to it. Goldsworthy says that:

"Research suggests that only 23% of government schools offer “continuous and developmental” music education, compared to 88% of independent schools. None of this bodes well for audience renewal, and, more problematically, it is a serious equity issue. Children of privilege enjoy the benefits of early music training, and the gap widens. It is no surprise that classical music becomes elitist, when only the privileged are taught its language."

She continues:

In my darkest moments, I wonder whether a transgenerational empathy is still possible, or whether we are drifting so far from the world of Beethoven and Schubert that they will soon have nothing to say to us. And if Beethoven becomes mute, Shakespeare cannot be much further behind.

Indeed that is true and I suspect that we are very near the end of the road or have even entered a new Dark Age. But why?  The reviewer of Goldsworthy's piece has the answer.

William Bigelow, writing for Breitbart, makes this incisive point at the end of his review:

" ... Goldsworthy misses the essential point: art is a reflection of the values espoused by its culture, not an essential pillar on which the culture stands. It is an ancillary aspect of the culture, not a fundamental element of its survival. What Goldsworthy and many other artists ignore is that the two fundamental pillars of Western culture, the nuclear family and Western Judeo-Christian values, are being savaged and left for dead by those who wish to destroy the West. If those two fulcrums of Western civilization are destroyed, the death of all Western traditions will inevitably follow, including classical music."

And Shakespeare, and ... You cannot have the nectar without the flower and as scripture reminds us, who is the One who clothes the lilies of the field? Matthew 6:28-30. Goldsworthy has written a thought-provoking article, but I hope that she and her fellow artists will walk the last mile and understand what, or rather Who, underlies all of creation.


www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/25/real-reason-death-classical-music/

The Return of Morality

Done deal. The Chinese Communist Party has decreed that from henceforth there shall be no: gluttony, heavy drinking, adultery, abuse of power, nepotism - and golf. Golf? Sorry folks, I just read and write this stuff, not decree it in the first place. This done, I am sure that Red China is well on its way to being the paragon of moral virtue in the world. Except for maybe golf.

www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/10/22/chinese-communists-ban-gluttony-adultery-moon-cakes-golf/

No Need to Get Excited

Comrade Putin said this week that continuing U.S. work and testing on an anti-missile system threatens Russia. He further said that the threat against which it is purportedly directed, Iran, why those folks would never harm a fly - no, no, no, no, no! 

www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/10/22/vladimir-putin-u-s-missile-defense-system-threatens-russia/

Although he has probably convinced our President, there is the troubling fact that Iran successfully tested an IRBM with precise control, as reported by the WSJ on October 12 - just 10 days ago. Hmm..

www.wsj.com/articles/iran-test-fires-new-missile-1444610450

Oh, and in June, 2015, just 5 months ago, Russia itself added 40 of its new SS-27 class of ICBMs replete with MIRVs and all sorts of goodies to make sure they get through to vaporize their intended targets. 

thediplomat.com/2015/06/russia-to-add-40-new-icbms-should-the-west-be-worried/

And then there's the little matter of Russia invading the Ukraine, annexing the Crimea and Georgia, threatening the Baltic countries, Syria, etc., etc., etc. 

Nope, nobody here but us nice peaceful folks, Mr. President, so you can put the shotgun away.

Everybody Knows Women Can't Shoot Straight

An anti-gun and female law school professor contends that women shouldn't be allowed to carry because they can't really know how to use the things. As AWR Hawkins and The Washington Post report, however, it seems that women are batting 1.000 in real-life rape situations:

The U.S. Census Bureau conducts in-person interviews with several thousand persons annually, for the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). In 1992-2002, over 2,000 of the persons interviewed disclosed they had been raped or sexually assaulted. Of them, only 26 volunteered that they used a weapon to resist. In none of those 26 cases was the rape completed; in none of the cases did the victim suffer additional injury after she deployed her weapon.

Based on the data, a reasonable conclusion would appear to be, You Go Girl!

www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/21/law-professor-campus-carry-women-cant-use-guns-effectively/

The History of the Land of Volvo Ain't What It Seems

Socialists, including the Democratic party in the U.S. (in fact, why don't they just rename themselves the Social Democratic Party?), love to point to Sweden and the Scandinavian countries as exemplars of what socialism can do if done right. Unfortunately for them, when you peer behind the talking points, history shows differently, as a new study by a Swedish scholar, Nima Sanandaji, shows:

Sweden was a poor nation for most of the 19th century (which helps explain the great wave of Swedish emigration to the United States in the 1800s). That began to change as Stockholm, starting around 1870, turned to free-enterprise reforms... The result was an environment in which Swedes experienced "an unprecedented period of sustained and rapid economic development." In fact, between 1870 and 1936 Sweden had the highest growth rate in the industrialized world.

Scandinavia's hard-left turn didn't come about until much later. It was in the late 1960s and early 1970s that taxes soared, welfare payments expanded, and entrepreneurship was discouraged...

Sweden's world-beating growth rate dried up. In 1975, it had been the 4th-wealthiest nation on earth (as measured by GDP per capita); by 1993, it had dropped to 14th. By then, Swedes had begun to regard their experiment with socialism as ... "a colossal failure."

The real key to Scandinavia's unique successes isn't socialism, it's culture. Social trust and cohesion, a broad egalitarian ethic, a strong emphasis on work and responsibility, commitment to the rule of law — these are healthy attributes of a Nordic culture that was ingrained over centuries.

These are the attributes of a healthy society for any nation regardless of ethnic background or geographic location. The sooner we re-learn this again as Americans and quit drinking the Kool Aid of socialism, the better off we are going to be - all of us, red and yellow, black and white. 

townhall.com/columnists/jeffjacoby/2015/10/18/no-bernie-sanders-scandinavia-is-not-a-socialist-utopia-n2067623

A Death Before Dying

A very sad column today on KGW.com, but one worth reading. The writer lost her cousin to a drug overdose when they were still teens and she writes about the experience. Some poignant excerpts:

"I am not an addict.

But try and love one, and then see if you can look me square in the eyes and tell me that you didn't get addicted to trying to fix them.

If you're lucky, they recover. If you're really lucky, you recover, too.

'What if you had to wake up every day and wonder if today was the day your family member was going to die?' will become a popular, not-so-rhetorical question.

Drug addiction has the largest ripple effect that I have ever witnessed firsthand.

It causes parents to outlive their children. It causes jail time and homelessness. It causes sisters to mourn their siblings. It causes nieces to never meet their aunts. It causes an absence before the exit.

You will see your loved one walking and talking, but the truth is, you will lose them far before they actually succumb to their demons; which, if they don't find recovery, is inevitable."

Her cousin died at 19 from a drug overdose. 

www.kgw.com/story/news/features/2015/10/14/lessons-i-learned-from-loving-a-drug-addict/73958870/

Rules, Schmools

We're from the government and we can do whatever the heck we want.

"Two professors of public policy conclude that governments are more likely to violate environmental regulations than private owners. 'Publicly-owned facilities are more likely than similar privately-owned facilities to violate regulatory requirements under the CAA [Clean Air Act] and the SDWA [Safe Drinking Water Act],'as their recent study notes."

www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/14/study-governments-likely-break-environmental-law-private-firms/

Why Republicans Should Hope Bernie is the Nominee

Bernie is basically your brain on drugs is why. Mona Charen analyzes why in a Townhall article:

"Bernie Sanders thunders that the U.S can become a good Scandinavian-style socialist paradise -- but without the huge taxes on the middle class that support those systems. (Denmark has the highest taxes in the world.) Sanders may be disillusioned to discover that Scandinavian countries have thriving private sectors and are in many respects more business-friendly these days than the United States is. Norway funds its welfare state through the sale of -- wait for it -- fossil fuel pumped from the North Sea. But Bernie doesn't pause over pesky details like how to afford things. He and his party are officially in the reality-free zone where, if you close your eyes and wish with all your heart, dreams really do come true. He's Santa Claus with a Brooklyn accent. This is not politics for grown-ups."

Some examples you say? Well, okay - let's consider:

"The Wall Street Journal toted up the new spending Sanders has proposed, including "free" college education for all, Medicare for all, expanding Social Security, paid family leave, bolstering private pensions, a youth jobs initiative and infrastructure spending. They came up with the figure of $18 trillion over 10 years -- and that doesn't count his plan for universal preschool.

No problem, the self-described socialist counters, he will raise the money by taxing the "greedy 1 percent." The problem is arithmetic. The top 1 percent already pays 45.7 percent of all income taxes. The federal government brings in about $1.5 trillion a year in tax revenue. Even if you confiscated 100 percent of the earnings of those making $1 million or above, you'd only net $616 billion, not nearly enough for Bernie's wish list (to say nothing of the depressing effect on productivity such taxes would have)."

Come fly with me ... Yup, reality is so droll. Listening to snippets of the first Democratic "debate" the other night (aka "Queen Hillary's Coronation March") this also appears to be mainline thinking, if you can call it that, in the Democratic Party. If a majority of Americans vote for Wonderland, we're toast anyhow, so let's just get it over with. Otherwise, bring back the adults and let's get down to the hard work that needs to be done because of these clowns.

townhall.com/columnists/monacharen/2015/10/16/democratic-party-not-for-grownups-n2066557

A Real Hottie!

This is a picture of Bernie Sanders. Joy Behar of The View thinks he is "hot."  Oyvez, your Honor, I rest my case in this commitment proceeding against the Hollywood Left. 

www.breitbart.com/video/2015/10/14/the-view-co-host-joy-behar-im-aroused-by-hot-bernie-sanders/

Come Out and Play?

The news from Syria gets more and more interesting:

• A Russian fighter flew within 1-2 miles of a U.S. fighter this week. According to the Russian  Defense Ministry it was just trying to ID the American plane, not harass it. Right.
• We now have Cuban troops in Syria fighting with their Russki and Syrian comrades. Boy, that  reset of relations with El Jefe in Cuba is sure panning out. 
• One wonders what the Israelis are thinking with Russian fighters and tanks next door in Syria, not to mention the Russian proxies from the Caribbean. It also looks like the Intifada is cranking up again. The "Intifada" is where Hamas, Hezbollah, and all the other wonderful Islamic folks shoot thousands of rockets at Israel and then the rest of the world blames Israel. 

It looks like a real Witch's Brew is bubbling up over there just in time for Halloween. The President was on the golf course and couldn't be reached for comment. 

Un-Keeping the Faith

The Illinois Lottery announced that it won't pay any winners prizes over $600 until the state budget impasse is resolved. That sort of begs the question: where's the cash? Normally, say in Las Vegas, all winnings are paid from the house "pool" of bets placed. So again, where's the cash from bets placed? Oh yeah - it's Illinois! In someone's pockets, of course! This does complicate Lottery marketing, though.

www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/10/15/unlucky-winners-illinois-lottery-halts-payouts-over-600/?intcmp=hpbt3

The Jilted Bride

Ever been to a wedding only to have the bride or groom jilted at the altar? It happens in international relations too, witness what Iran's Parliament just did to the nuclear "deal" with the U.S. and the West, as well as Russia and China. 

The Iranian Parliament re-wrote the "agreement" much more to its liking by requiring Israel to disarm, canceling any and all sanctions against Iran, and for all I know wanting $1M apiece from the U.S. to reconsider. Then they passed the New and Improved Agreement. 

Service to you, Messrs. Obama and Kerry and all the Democratic senators that block-voted for it. A wilted bouquet of flowers. How sad. Told you he was a bum.

www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/10/13/iran-rejects-obamas-iran-nuke-treaty-writes-deal-disarm-israel/

Beach Volleyball Anyone?

Taking the cue from her boss that climate change is the biggest issue facing the world today, Susan Rice, Obama's National Security Advisor, says that climate change is responsible for the murderous genocide going on in Syria. 

Of course! If we just ship more air conditioners and Speedos these guys will knock it off and be buds again. Why didn't I think of that?!

www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/13/susan-rice-blames-climate-change-conflict-syria/

A Norman Rockwell Family

A female HR manager from Manhattan was hugged by her 8-year old nephew which hug, she now alleges in a $127,000 lawsuit against the kid, caused her to lose her balance and fall, breaking her wrist. Oh he's a "very loving" kid, she says,  but must be held responsible for his actions. 

Question: How would you like to have this "lady" for your HR manager, much less your aunt? She has definitely broken the Glass Ceiling being as big a you-know-what as any guy.

www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/13/manhattan-woman-sues-nephew-after-breaking-wrist-during-8-year-olds-hug/

Riding the Titanic

Here's a 2012 Washington Post piece that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Not. 

Did you know that the apportionment of electoral votes done periodically on the basis of population includes non-citizens, 45% or so of whom are illegal immigrants? True story. 

And guess what states they flock to? That's right - California, Illinois and the others who give great benefits to everyone. And are these states blue or red in the color column? Righto again - blue it is. So the more illegals pour into a state, the more electoral college votes (even if the illegals can't vote) the blue states get and the more the Dems take national offices like El Presidente on the electoral strength of those states notwithstanding the sea of red states across the country. A brilliant, if Machiavellian and demented, strategy that totally ignores what is in the best interest of the United States. But then again, I am having some trouble recalling the last time that Dems were overly patriotic about this country. 

And how many billion illegals has Obama let in since 2012 when the article appeared? It is kind of ironic that all these folks are trying to board a sinking ship. 

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/without-voting-noncitizens-could-swing-the-election-for-obama/2012/10/05/b9d99be8-0be9-11e2-bd1a-b868e65d57eb_story.html

I Knew It!

Ah-hah! Caught you! 1/3 of vegetarians eat meat when they are drunk. Not sure how they researched that one, but bring my friend here another beer!

www.foxnews.com/leisure/2015/10/07/one-third-vegetarians-eat-meat-when-get-drunk/

Scorecard

"Scoring" is not just fun, it's necessary for the survival of societies, The Danes have finally recognized this and are encouraging their young people to get out there and take one for the team, so to speak. Why? Because they know:
  
"While the bare minimum fertility rate to keep a population in equilibrium is a 2.1 children per couple average, Denmark presently stands at just 1.7. Almost all European countries are at a similar level – Britain is 1.9, Russia is 1.7, and shockingly Germany, Poland, and Greece all sit at 1.3."

It's fairly easy to understand why Islamists think they will control Europe in another generation or two. Their birthrate is over 4 children per couple and most of them are collecting European benefits along the way. Heckuva deal! 

www.breitbart.com/london/2015/10/06/denmark-increases-pressure-young-couples-children-avert-demographic-collapse/

Stimulus/Response

The Strategic Air Command (SAC) had overall command of the strategic strike assets of the U.S. and kept the peace from shortly after WWII until 1992 when the Soviet Union disintegrated. Last week the Air Force quietly again consolidated its long-range bombers under one command, the famous 8th Air Force that was responsible for the destruction of Nazi Germany. The message to Messrs. Putin and Khamenei: the spear head has been reattached to the shaft and is being sharpened. It's about time.

townhall.com/columnists/austinbay/2015/10/07/the-pentagon-beefs-up-the-8th-air-force-n2062146

Never Waste a Good Crisis

Thus spake Rahm Emmanuel and I, for one, am "crisised"out. Apparently Walter E. Williams is too, specifically in the context of (BOOGA BOOGA!!) "Global Warming":

"The global warming agenda is a desperate effort to gain greater control over our lives. Political commentator Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956) explained that  'the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.' That's the political goal of the global warmers.

Still a doubter? Well never let it be said that you weren't warned to get on board:

"The effort to suppress global warming dissidents is not new. Grist Magazine writer David Roberts said, 'When we've finally gotten serious about global warming, when the impacts are really hitting us and we're in a full worldwide scramble to minimize the damage, we should have war crimes trials for these bastards -- some sort of climate Nuremberg.' Professor Richard Parncutt has called for the execution of prominent 'GW deniers.' Climate Progress Editor Joe Romm called for deniers to be strangled in their beds. James Hansen, who has headed NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has likewise called for trials of global warming deniers."

The problem is that these hysterical ninnies are serious and are useful idiots for cover for politicians who couldn't care less but want to accrue real power as citizens flock to them as their saviors from the crisis du jour. So the next time you hear about this "crisis" and that "crisis," go beyond the rantings of the useful idiots and look for the cynical and coldly calculating, power-mongering politicians behind the veneer. Like Rahm. Or his former boss. 

Incidentally, in case you didn't recognize the picture, that's Josef Mengele, a doctor. He was very scientific as he conducted thousands of horrific and deadly experiments on Jews at Auschwitz. Very scientific. Don't underestimate what True Believer "scientists" are capable of.

townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2015/10/07/suppressing-free-speech-n2061331

Begetting Monsters

C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory said that we never pass an ordinary person on the street; everyone we meet is in the process of becoming either a saint of indescribable beauty or a monster of unimaginable horror. The monsters are winning. 

The horror last week at Umpqua Community College in Oregon was the latest in a string of school-shooting horrors, although this one had the added twist of singling out Christians for execution. As survivors pick up the pieces the volleys have started in the media about doing something to prevent this from happening again. Unfortunately, there is no magic wand to wave that is going to change this in the near future. We do need to focus more clearly, however, than most seem to be doing at the moment if we are ever going to begin turning this terrible problem around.

First, for the short term, while I understand the revulsion against guns, it is important to recognize that both guards at our airports and the Secret Service guarding the President have them and for a reason - they are there to stop people intent on doing harm. Period. Children are indeed priceless so shouldn't we at least afford them the same level of protection? If any person coming to a school, student or otherwise, had to go through an airport-type screening with emptied pockets, backpacks, etc., and then through a magnetic scanner, with armed guard backup, I suspect that the incidence of these tragedies would rapidly decrease. It has in Israel where they have to contend not with psycho loners acting out, but trained terrorists.

A standard objection to such an approach is cost. Well, then I guess children aren't really priceless, as we so glibly claim. Then there's "privacy." Really? Would you rather continue having a long line of dead and maimed students or a momentary inconvenience? We do not live in a perfect world and while school should not be like this ( and wasn't when I grew up), we have unfortunately arrived at a place where being Daydream Believers will not change what is.

In the longer term, there are two problems that need to be effectively tackled: mental health treatment and fatherless sons. 

The Roseburg shooter had already flunked out of the Army and been refused participation in a tactical weapons school because he was "too weird." All of this might have raised some red flags. In the case of the Sandy Hook shooter, his mother pleaded for mental health treatment from the state and got nowhere. An example that is closer to home - a friend taught in the early primary grades and had a first grader who was already effectively out of control and violent and said so. First grade. This kid already needs serious help but what he will probably get is band-aids, if that, and he is a potential Roseburg or Sandy Hook shooter in the making. We as a society must absolutely become better at identifying and effectively treating sociopathic children.

Which brings us to the second factor - fatherless sons. Dr. Thomas Williams, a research fellow at Notre Dame, has an excellent article on this phenomena in Breitbart as something that the President and most others have missed:

"As University of Virginia Professor Brad Wilcox pointed out in 2013: 'From shootings at MIT (i.e., the Tsarnaev brothers) to the University of Central Florida to the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur, Ga., nearly every shooting over the last year in Wikipedia’s ‘list of U.S. school attacks’ involved a young man whose parents divorced or never married in the first place.'

Wilcox has noted the overwhelming social scientific evidence connecting violence and broken homes, which suggests that boys living in single mother homes are almost twice as likely to end up delinquent compared to boys who enjoy good relationships with their father.

Another researcher, Harvard sociologist Robert Sampson, has written that 'family structure is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, predictor of variations in urban violence across cities in the United States.' ”

www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/03/barack-obama-ignores-obvious-yet-another-fatherless-killer/

The sad truth of the matter is that in American society today, children are disposable if they interfere with one's personal "happiness." This is manifested in unrestricted abortion, parting babies out for a price, divorce, neglect, abuse, etc. etc., etc. We should not be surprised that young men in particular, as they enter the testosterone-filled years of the teens and twenties, react with an inchoate rage and desperately reach out for ways to seek meaning to their empty lives. In over-broad terms, young white men seem to withdraw into a fantasy world of violent video games which some of them act out at a later date. Young blacks seek a tribal identity in a gang and shoot those in other tribes or innocents to prove their "manhood." This is not to demean single mothers, many of whom do the very best they can under exceptionally difficult circumstances. The vacuum produced by absent fathers, however, begets potentially lethal dysfunction and pathology, the swings of which get wider and wider with each passing generation. This is a societal and systemic issue that if unaddressed will destroy us. 

So mourn the dead and grieve with their families and the survivors, which is only right. But we also have to demand and support costly short term solutions while simultaneously beginning a national journey of again realizing that each of us is not the center of the universe but are all subject to the Golden Rule. It is not all about me.