Note: Each block of text actually is a link to a story or a web page that I am commenting on. Click on that text and it will take you to the page being referred to.
This edition doesn’t have much on the night’s big news event – mainly because I want time to digest my impressions. Other than that, you have lots of other things to peruse and use as food for thinking about.
Don't know if he is a good old boy redneck, but his explanation wouldn't surprise me a bit. I can personally testify that car backfires often do kick in the gunfire alert message in my brain. But this guy definitely isn't off the hook. A rifle and a pistol that weren't supposed to be in the cab of a pickup ... with him being a convicted felon ... major oopsie. Hard to believe that the weapons have been lurking behind the seat without his knowledge ... having drove a pickup for view years ... it is hard for me to accept that.
Interesting take on the Iran Deal by liberal icon and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. His new book makes a deeper case, I suppose, but this is an interesting summary.
Interesting story on a Chicago police practice ... the headline is somewhat misleading in that it implies 1000s are BEING held, rather than about 3500 having passed through the facility over a span of about a dozen years. Apparently, this is not a long term detention, merely a holding facility that, according to the Guardian, processes about 400 people, mostly African-American (which isn't surprising in that it in the middle of one of Chicago's African-American districts), a YEAR – two or three a day or so. Still, it is disturbing that Chicago police have been doing this for years, but I know that in most states police can hold you up to 72 hours without charge, which means you don't show up on the book until your arrest and charge is revealed at your time of booking. Most often this is done in drug gang roundups so as to not tip off accomplices of the arrest of their compatriots.
Texicans can be the most dismayingly xenophobic at times ...
The thing that bothers me about this story is that there apparently no thundering, deafening condemnation being sounded throughout that entire Muslim community ... silence is consent ...
Jeff Greenfield has an interesting take on the campaign of Donald Trump. Sometimes I will the political chattering class and the various opinion making publications would get it through their collective heads, that elections are not horse races. The job of the Fourth Estate is to present what each candidate stands for, without embellishment and as bias free a fashion as possible (that is if they really want to uphold the standards of being a professional journalist)
This will be an interesting story to follow ... Russians hack Pentagon unclassified e-mail server. Not to be unexpected ... it is total war out there in cyberspace, even if it is undeclared.
Interesting article on America's relations with its "allies" ... unfortunately, our president and his secretary of state(s) have done so much to put it all in disarray, it almost defies how the US can resurrect those "special relationships"
Reading this article made me think: And how many times have I made that argument in this country? UK has the same problem the US has. We have progressives/socialists who still are true believers and can't get it through their heads that it has been tried, many times, and it hasn't worked ... not even once.
In light of the 70th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this article offers a interesting perspective on possible changing attitudes in Japan toward developing their own nukes. Long promised protection under the US nuclear umbrella, like many allies, Japan seems reassessing just how sure that assurance is.
Another 70th story ... this one is about the Murphy-plagued second mission.
International relations do make from some strange bedfellows ... but then the quote in this story from Ben Franklin is apt.
With respect, but talk like this, supposedly emanating from the mouth of our President really disturb me ... and I think it should disturb anyone who really cares about the rule of law and the supremacy of the people in our Republic
And interesting touch with the past ... it will be interesting to learn what the inscriptions say ... for all we know it may say "Eat at Joe's"
Having spent six months in Saudi Arabia, 25 years ago, this always was my nightmare ... the country really is extremely vulnerable to attacks, and with the war in Yemen, this strike near its border should be no surprise either
I do love the selective cherry-picking of figures ... but the real problem here is not the quality of health care ... it seems more relevant that the higher rate is attributed to out-of-wedlock births, in-vitro-fertilization and births that are not planned ... could the denigration of the marriage contract have something to do with that. Of course, we don't add the toll that abortion takes on infants.
5th Circuit strikes down Texas Voter ID Law. The case goes back to the lower court to determine the "intent" of the law. HMMMMM, how do you prove intent?
The war on police officers continues
I could say a something about lowest possible bidder ... but the field is too small. I just hope it is more a certification problem than an actual physical defect
President Obama on the nuclear deal opponents puts me in mind of the old Shakespearean quote about the lady doth protest too much. Sorry, Mr. President, the choices are more complex than black and white, so casting them that way is not helping your cause.
Interesting perspective on the decision to drop the A-bomb by Truman ... It always is good to try to remember that the decision makers often have incomplete information - in compared to the historical retrospective which can see many things the decision makers can't or never would see - when we try to criticize decisions in the past. In almost every case, in every disaster or success, the decisions were made on what was considered the best information available at the time ... and it was the best decision based on that knowledge. Even today, we fail to connect the dots so often it isn't even funny. It is not really the fault of those who are charged with the making the decisions that those dots are not connected because it only is retrospect that they become important.
The fall of empires ... interesting parallels and food for thought
An analysis of the Ukraine situation ... and how it might get even messier ... food for thought
Is the Russian veto of a UN tribunal to investigate the shoot-down of MH17 in Ukraine a blunder ... if it is, it would not be the first time the Russians have blundered at the UN
China, with a clear objective, outmaneuvers the rest of ASEAN, who don't share a unified objective ... divide and conquer, I think is what China's strategy is called.
This article illustrates one of the major problems with the Iran Deal, and even President Obama admits is going to do this.
This article seems denigrating to the Army training to wear the Ranger Tab, but I find that really misguided. The training is difficult, because those who wear the Ranger Tab have demonstrated they deserve it. It is interesting that the current two women in the final phase are ring-knockers (West Point graduates), because the Army takes special care of its ring-knockers (so called because when in staff meetings, the Pointers are known to knock their rings on the table as a point maker to those who don't wear one) ... So I hope the ladies survive ... and yes, it will take awhile for them to be invited to join the all-male 75th Ranger Regiment ... but then not every graduate of Ranger Training goes on to The Regiment. It is honor enough to wear the tab.
In like every other field of warfare, the defense always is chasing the offense to beat off the enemy - so it is with the new combat arena of cyberspace
Another place where the US should lead, but won't.
Is John Kerry being played for a fool again ... probably
The headline on this commentary says it all for me: What part do we not understand? It seems pretty plain to me ... but then progressives and our administration can't get their collective arms around the fact that not everybody is a rational secular humanist raised in the Greco-Roman tradition based on Judeo Christian values and English Common Law ... sorry, they have a whole different value system and martyrdom is part of it.
At least some sanity has prevailed in the Navy Department
If anyone is surprised by the hypocrisy of this administration and people on the left in general when it comes to human life ... then recheck your assumptions
It doesn't matter if it does any good, at least you look like you are doing something ... The Obama EPA pursues the eyewash answer to climate change.
Interesting commentary by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
If you think the Iran Deal is wrong, here is a list of reasons to confirm your suspicions
This is one of the problems of reporting poll numbers ... the reporting can skew the image
Israel seems to have its share of fringe idiots
Obama admits more money to go to terror ... but it is better than war
Interesting story, and I have no doubt it is true, but read the numbers and then think about the differences in scale.
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