Random Thoughts: Suggested readings from Sept. 18, 2015

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.

Been a busy day out there, what with all the after-action reports about the GOP debates and the previews of the pontiff’s visit starting Sunday… well, I am not going to dwell on either of them … just few items … and see what else I dug up.

Round Three for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ... wonder where it will come down this time.

Another Confederate flag flap ... I swear, this really is getting stupid ... but then I have a solution for every school in the country ... will solve the whole problem without any need for discretion: Students all wear the same uniform ... or same outfits ... no logos, designs, etc., period on any clothes other that the school's name and possibly its logo or mascot. That's it folks ... no high fashion walks, no gang garb, and it makes it easy for parents because the uniformity of the outfits means that economy of scale for suppliers.

Eager to blame the Republicans, the Democrats are spouting off about a government shutdown ... it really isn't necessary ... although the Democrats will use the tyranny of the minority to tie up any spending bills that don't give them absolutely everything they want in the Senate and thereby triggering a shutdown ... oh, they say as the crocodile tears roll down the back of their necks, we want to talk ... but the Republicans have to meet our conditions. If there is a shutdown, Reid and Pelosi are at the heart of it, with the full-blown political backing of President Obama … not that the WaPo or any of the major nets will portray it as such.

Abortion again has raised its head in the debates in Washington, but to me it is interesting how slanted this story in the New York Times is: "bitterly partisan the political climate had recently become — driven by a powerful and unyielding group of hard-right lawmakers in the House — and how difficult it has become for the White House and congressional leaders to perform even the most basic responsibilities of governing." You could substitute the phrase "hard-line liberals, progressives and Democrats" for the throw-away line about “hard-right lawmakers” ... and the statement would be just as valid. The Democrats are not willing to give an inch, nor is the NYT, so the it is all the Republicans fault. You want to know why Donald Trump is being triumphant? It is the gridlock caused by both sides, but the Democrats are as guilty or more so than the Republicans.

I remember being told back when I was in high school and China was in the deepest throes of its Cultural Revolution ... that in the end ... China would emerge out the end not as a communist nation but as China in its historical sense. In other words, Communism would not be able to change China, but China could and would change what it meant to be a Chinese communist ... it seems that those that told me that were very prescient ... and China is looking to its past, from centuries and centuries ago and drawing on its imperial glory of times gone by.

This is a spooky story ... particularly since I now live next to a port city ...

There is much truth in this former Marine's story ... but then, for myself, I have never really seen any glory in war ... it really is a dirty, ugly business in which far too many people get killed or maimed ... I always have maintained that a truly professional warrior is anti-war, for he knows its true cost, but it also knows that wars sometimes have to be fought and the only just or sane thing to do is to fight it with sufficient force and firepower that you get the war over as quickly as possible ... anything less only prolongs the war and lengthens the casualty lists … unfortunately, that seems to be something our leaderships have not learned or have forgotten and have tried to fight on the cheap. The cost is chaos and blood.

A little history review of the 1939 German-Soviet non-aggression pact that set the stage for the invasion of Poland ... oh, a secret protocol? Nobody every has those, do they?

This is why the reaction to the young man in Irving, Texas, is over the top ... sorry ... but it is

Interesting commentary on how Democrats can't resist using politics to exercise control over the economy and private property ... typical

The Marines seem to be the only ones prepared to fall on their swords on integrating women in line combat units. Everybody else has given up, given the attitudes of the president and the civilian service leaderships ... no matter what it probably will cost in blood and lives in the end ... I am glad I am out that line of fire now.

How far we have fallen as it pertains to protecting the freedom of the seas and the rights to innocent passage ... it is a direct reflection on the attitudes of the President and the left in the US. It is sad ... but then they don't care.