Friday Musings

I'm too frustrated with the administration to think much today, so I'm punting the blogpost today and just engaging in reverie:

--  We were at Home Depot the other day, and Karen needed to use the restroom.  While I was waiting out in the hallway, I noticed a sign that read:    Have a question?  Call Home Depot at 1.800.HOMEDEPOT.  Just how would one dial that number?

--  I awoke to some raging online controversy about a dress's color.  It was even on ESPN, for crying out loud.  I just shake my head.

--  So Rahm Emanuel is in a runoff election with an immigrant from Durango, Mexico, named Chuy. The election isn't for six weeks, but I could really use a laugh.  I don't think this is exactly what the POTUS had in mind the other day when he gave that interview about diversity.

--  Why is it every time the White House spokesperson answers a question he sounds like one of those beauty pageant contestants fumbling for the right answer?

--  And I thought I was allergic to cats.

--  Pendleton mugs are just the best vessels for hot tea or chocolate.

--  Although I took a typing course in high school (thanks, Mom) and can type reasonably well, I cannot reach the numbers line at all.

--  When we were growing up, television shows would last around twenty-two episodes and run straight through the season.  Nowadays, they take breaks in the middle of the season for no good reason.  It makes keeping up with the shows more difficult.

--  No matter what the enticement, autobiographies or biographies about people younger than forty years of age are really a waste of time.

--  Last winter it was snow, this winter it's cold.

--  Online job applications are a mixed bag.  But one would think that a group that caters to the older set wouldn't have a mystifying online application process and no human available to troubleshoot problems.

--  Outside the entertainment shows, is there a bigger attention whore on television than Jedediah Bila?

--  Leonard Nimoy died today of COPD.  He was born in 1931.  He used to smoke and, just like Mom, he gave it up.  But Mom died in 1996 at age 64.  Nimoy was 83 at his death.

--  I can't believe I wouldn't eat grilled cheese sandwiches for so long.

--  The internet provides many moments for unintentional comedy, like when conservative groups announce breathlessly that someone somewhere has done something that will make Obama's head explode.  Um, I don't think so, but OK.

--  Just when Karen thought out measurable snow was over for the winter, we're forecast to have another two to three inches this Sunday.  I'll be in the driveway with my shovel and Ipod.

--  Listening to clips from the CPAC conference, it reminds me why I'm so thankful I lost the vote to become vice president of NHS at the end of our junior year in high school.  And we didn't even get to go to that Cubs' game the winner promised he'd take us to if people voted for him.

--  Giving bulldogs a bath isn't so much a matter of hygiene as it is one of wrestling.

--  Making beds and folding clothes are just not activities at which I excel.  Heck, I'm not even competent at them.

--  Just what is a Touré, anyway?

-- Why wasn't Chris Pratt cast as Chris Kyle instead of Bradley Cooper?  He looks much more like Mr. Kyle:

--  On a similar note, how many MSM outlets are reporting the Justice Department's announcement that there was no civil rights violation in the Trayvon Martin case?

(c) 2015 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Cynical Wordsmithery

In this age of ISIS, the administration has struggled with how to address the growing threat, both at home and on the battlefield.  The latter reflects a troublesome issue that has existed since the end of World War II -- how to deal with guerrilla or unconventional warfare.  Since Vietnam, the military has studied this problem and arrived at different methods for combat in this new arena, but the problem really lies in the nexus between political and military spheres of influence.  That is another blogpost altogether.

The question of how to handle this threat at home is a completely different matter, although this is some crossover, given the explosion of the internet and the immediacy of news reporting.  Yet the approach the administration takes in its reporting to the American public is mostly a domestic issue, one that requires tact insofar as the repercussions of its pronouncements are concerned, but also a deft hand.  This administration lacks both.

To begin, it is glaringly apparent that this administration, from the President down to his lowly mouthpieces, thinks itself superior to the American public where intelligence is concerned.  There are two kinds of intelligence, of course:  The kind gathered by our spy agencies and the natural kind with which every human is imbued, to one degree or another.  And make no mistake, the President is a smart man.  But he's smug to think that he has all the answers and that there are no other smart people in this country.  This same attitude seems pervasive in the administration, especially when it comes to the spokespersons who are tasked with getting the administration's message out to the people.

Where it becomes toughest to swallow -- besides the condescending smiles and the eyerolling in which the administration and its minions engage -- is when they say something that is either patently false or obviously ridiculous, and then not only expect the American public to believe it but are affronted when it doesn't.

It first became noticeable when the administration declared the shootings at Fort Hood to be workplace violence and not acts of terrorism.  More than anything, the denial of Purple Hearts to those wounded or killed in that attack infuriated people who saw clearly the hand of radical Islam as the motivating force.

The trend continued with the terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi.  Despite all indications to the contrary, the administration floated the idea that this was a spontaneous demonstration unconnected to organized terrorism at all.  Despite the mounting evidence that this was a coordinated strike -- on the anniversary or 9/11, no less -- the administration trotted out its professional pinata Ambassador Susan Rice to parrot the same tired line on all the Sunday morning talk shows.  Then, when confronted with the lie, the administration dog paddled as fast as it could to try to say that despite the original justification for the attack -- some lame story about an even lamer movie somewhere -- the President did refer to the attack as terrorism, despite the turgid fib being thrown around like a football that it was only some misguided youths run amok.

Then there was Obamacare.  This fiasco is too well known, but it bears repeating:  If you want to keep your doctor, if you want to keep your health plan, you can keep them.  Period.  Except that period didn't mean period, exactly, causing Americans to rush to their dictionaries to see if Bill Clinton was the author.

Then there was the IRS debacle.  Despite the mountain of evidence that conservative groups were being targeted, they weren't -- if you listened to the administration.  Cognitive dissonance is now officially a political tool.

The Bowe Bergdahl swap -- which makes the Herschel Walker trade look good by comparison -- was derided by both the left and the right, yet again professional pinata Ambassador Susan Rice was sent out to tell the American public that the trade was motivated by the concept that Americans don't leave their own behind and that Bergdahl had served with honor and distinction...a claim laughably refuted in the weeks following the trade when a court martial was instituted to investigate charges of desertion.  The military's findings are now in administrative limbo somewhere.

Then came Syria.  It's a confusing situation, to be sure.  But the President decided to draw a red line in the sand that, if crossed, would mean greater American intervention...only that it didn't.  On the heels of that weak-kneed response to a crisis -- together with its tepid approach to the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya -- ISIS metastasized, and the opportunities for more robust leadership presented themselves.  The only problem with that is that robust is another of those words that have different meanings for different people.

Even though ISIS is the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the administration bends over backwards to remind us that it's not Islam that is committing the atrocities, but a group perverting Islam.  At the same time, it won't hesitate to call it white supremacy when skinheads are involved, although as a white person I'm offended and disgusted by white supremacy, and it won't shrink from targeting right-wing fanatics when addressing potential home-grown terrorism.  In other words, it's OK to use labels sometimes but not others.  The last time I checked, neither the white supremacists nor the right-wing fanatics were beheading or burning its opponents alive.

When twenty-one Coptic Christians were murdered, the administration referred to them as citizens, not Christians.  The administration insists on calling it ISIL, not ISIS, like the rest of the country. Then the half-witted spokesperson from the State Department suggested that we can't kill everyone in ISIL, doggonit, so perhaps we should look at medium- and long-term solutions involving employment opportunities, so these knuckleheads wouldn't turn to terrorism.  When called on that in an interview, she doubled down, suggesting that perhaps this notion was too nuanced for some people.

There you have it, folks!  Finally, an admission from our government:  We're too stupid to know what's going on, they have it all handled and we should just be thankful for their insight.  Of course, Jonathan Gruber prepared us for this; he wasn't as nuanced in his delivery, but he kept it hidden longer.

As someone who's not just fallen off the turnip truck, I'm beyond offended.  The government, after all, is supposed to be by the people, for the people and of the people.  To put it plainly, I'm a people. And although I don't have the high level security clearance to know what the latest intel is, I know a terrorist attack when I see one, I know what desertion is compared to serving with honor and distinction, I know that citizens are Christians too and I know that a jobs program isn't going to stop a terrorist in the short-, medium or long-term.

I'm tired of being treated like a child who has no concept of what is going on.

This administration needs to stop playing word games, to stop parsing sentences with the Bill Clinton Dictionary and to begin talking straight to the American public.

(c) The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

America's Reputation

With all the dissension here at home over how to address the terrorist threat from ISIS, I wonder just how our we're being perceived abroad.  During President Bush's administration, it was feared, with some justification to be sure, that we were cowboys doing whatever we wanted regardless of the political fallout abroad.  Despite that, I have to wonder how we're being perceived under this administration.

When he was elected, Mr. Obama made efforts to patch up relations with the Arab world.  He made that speech in Cairo wherein he apologized for America's mistakes.  I'm not sure that how he said what he said was the best way to go about it.

His behavior towards Russia has been weak-kneed at best.  How he handled Syria with the imaginary red line he drew in the sand and how he equivocated on Libya made us look weaker still.

His constant photo ops with other leaders is embarrassing.  He looks like some sort of high schooler trying to win votes for class president.  He bowed to the Saudis.

When the Paris terrorist attacks occurred last month, the administration botched it horribly.  First, it didn't send a representative to represent a united front against terrorism.  This, despite the fact that it continued to trumpet a coalition of some sixty countries against ISIS in the Middle East.  How can anyone take the President seriously when it says one thing and does another.  Meanwhile, after the beheadings of James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig, Mr. Obama authorized air attacks against ISIS strongholds...that have currently been running at about seven to ten a day.  That's a pin prick.

To compound matters, after it got endless grief about its poor showing in Paris, it dispatched Uncle Joe with James Taylor, who promptly serenaded the French with You've Got a Friend.  Lest anyone forget, were it not for the French, there might not be a United States of America.  I know they can be irksome at times, but even so, James Taylor?  This is what our diplomacy has become?

The number of scandals that has hit this country during Mr. Obama's administration are embarrassing, as much for their number as for their quality.  The IRS, the NSA, Benghazi, Obamacare, the AP scandal, the Secret Service issues, the VA, the Bergdahl trade and the James Reston issue are just a few.  But we're talking about politicization of tax bodies, spying on citizens, lying about the cause of a terrorist attack, lying to the public about the effects of legislation, spying on the press, shifting blame to other government employees, treating veterans horribly, horrible decision-making and threatening reporters are not the kinds of things for which this country is or should be known.  Then, the man who helped get Mr. Obama in the White House, David Axelrod, says there were no major scandals in this adminstration...how is that even possible?

Playing word games is a trademark of this government:  Citizens instead of Christians, Terrorists or Militants instead of Radical Islamists, Random Attacks instead of Terrorist Attacks, ISIL instead of ISIS, Employment Opportunity against Fundamentalist Terror.  When called on this tactic, its spokesperson suggests that it's perhaps too nuanced to understand what the administration is saying, or that we're spending too much time debating the issue.  This from an administration that does its darnedest to spin things the way it wants things spun.

How do we look to the rest of the world?

We used to be regarded as humanity's last best hope.  We had ideals, principles for which we stood. Now, this administration is doing whatever it can to make itself look good no matter what the consequences are for the country.  It's been more divisive on several different fronts leading to fractures within this society that are going to take years to heal.  It's weakened the country and made our enemies more emboldened.

I hope I'm wrong.  I hope the rest of the civilized world recognizes this for what it is, a blip in our history that can be corrected.

Now it's up to us to correct this in the next election.

God help us if we don't.

(c) 2015 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Hollywood and La La Land

Tonight is another edition of the Oscars.  I can hardly wait.  

That was sarcasm.

It stuns me that people who are vastly overpaid, over-hyped and too visible have to have not only awards to validate not only their existence but their job performance.  On top of that, they have to have a show where they get to act some more, behaving as if they're really happy for the winner when they lose or humble when they win.  And this is after they get praised for looking amazing on the red carpet before the show, when people ooo and ahh at them for merely getting dressed up.  It's amazing and just a little sickening.

To be honest, I'm looking forward to seeing Maureen O'Hara, perhaps for the last time, when she's given a lifetime achievement/honorary Oscar.  She's classy and feisty and Irish.  Other than that, I really don't give a whit.

But this morning, I heard a report on the Swag -- Stuff We All Get, which is a lie -- that the losing nominees and the host, Neil Patrick Harris, get for dragging themselves out of bed and getting gussied up to possibly win an award validating their life and work.  Frankly, I'm shocked. Millionaires, people paid quite handsomely for playing make believe, are in line to get gifts totaling nearly $125,000.  Here's a partial list from Variety:

a three-night stay at a resort in Tuscany valued at $1,500; a luxury train ride through the Canadian Rockies worth more than $14,500; natural French Mediterranean sea salts worth $1,500; a custom silver necklace inscribed with the latitude and longitude coordinates of the Dolby Theater from Lat & Lo at $150; a “glamping” trip valued at $12,500; a $800 gift certificate for a custom candy and dessert buffet; a $250 Haze vaporizer; a $250 Afterglow vibrator; a Wellness 360 gift pack worth $1,200; a year’s worth of all-Audi A4 car rental from Silvercar valued at $20,000; a Reset Yourself lifestyle makeover package worth more than $14,200; and so much more.

It's as if these people were being asked to forego killing them, tributes offered for their godliness.  It's astounding to me that for losing an award -- albeit an award that's meaningful within their industry -- people have to be placated with this many gifts.  It's an extension of the notion that everyone gets a trophy for participating.  Mind you, the winners don't get the swag bags -- a mighty consolation to the losers, I'm sure -- but c'mon, are you kidding me?

Can anyone  imagine going to the office Christmas party and getting even a tenth of that lucre? That's outrageous.  What makes it even more unpalatable is that many of these people then turn around and lecture the hoi polloi about income inequality.  That's unconscionable and even disgusting.

News reports, however, hasten to add that taxes must be paid on this swag, as if for us mere mortals that will soften the blow at all.

Yeah, that should be hard for them to pay, especially for some of them who get upwards of $10M per picture.  Moreover, either the studio or their agent may agree to foot that bill, easing the burden for the celebrity.

Try telling that to the poor people these fools claim to champion.

(c) 2015 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Churchill

With the rise of Islamofascism, it is fashionable for pundits online to quote Winston Churchill or point to him as a bulwark against fascism in general.  There's no doubt that as Britain's leader during World War II, he was the right man at the right time.  He shored up a people in desperate need of leadership and confidence after the Neville Chamberlain years.  His speechmaking is legendary, and as an author few can compare with his wordsmithing.  That being said, I'm not exactly a fan of his.

The problem with Churchill's legacy is that people only know the best side of it.  His highest visibility came during World War II and shortly thereafter when he warned the world of Soviet expansionism.  Even though he was unceremoniously turned out of office shortly after the cessation of hostilities, he is largely regarded as one of Britain's best leaders ever.  Insofar as Britain is concerned, that's probably accurate.  But to grade his statesmanship as applied to the rest of the world, it is clear that Churchill had only one thing in mind:  The maintenance and expansion, if possible, of the British Empire.

During World War II, Churchill sought time and again to effect strategies that would help Britain keep its overseas colonies, whether it was in the Middle East, India or northern Africa.  He all but bled Australia dry, demanding Australian troops to fight in Europe and Africa even after Australia was attacked at home by the Japanese.  British prestige mattered more to him sometimes than sound strategy, allowing him to champion the foppish General Bernard Montgomery and his cockamamie plans when sounder strategies existed.  His interest in keeping British influence what it once was ran counter to what a changing world allowed; only the overwhelming preponderance of American and later Soviet might, coupled with British exhaustion at fighting a world war for over six years, convinced Churchill to take what he could and stop overreaching.

Prior to the World War, however, Churchill's legacy isn't so sterling.  In South Africa, he promoted what were essentially concentration camps into which white Boers and black Africans were confined; roughly 42,000 South Africans died in these camps.  Churchill touted his experiences in South Africa as great fun galloping about.

Privately, he was very proud of his Aryan heritage and thought that it was bound to triumph over natives.  This is unsettling reminiscent of another twentieth century leader who later set Europe on fire.  Yet Churchill's words are all but forgotten, obscured by the devastation wrought by the little corporal.

Despite the help of Polish fighter pilots during the Battle of Britain, Churchill saw to it the Poles were kept out of victory parades so as not to offend the Soviets -- who had only signed a non-aggression pact with the Nazis that allowed them to divide up Poland with the Nazis prior to being betrayed.  And lest we forget, it was heroic Poles who stole copies of the Enigma machine and did preliminary work with bombes to root out the secrets of Enigma prior to Alan Turing's discoveries later in the war.

Churchill loathed Gandi and Indians in general, considering them a beastly people with a beastly religion.  Nearly three million Indians starved to death due to Churchill's policies.

Kenya saw the visitation of Churchill's colonial policies during the fifties, resulting in nearly 150,000 Kenyans going into internment camps.  One of those interned was Barack Obama's grandfather. Torture and mutilation were typical in those camps.

Churchill also fused together three very different tribes to form the country of Iraq.  That hasn't worked out so well.

His contempt for Palestinians is shockingly similar to that he held for South Africans, Indians and Kenyans.  There is a distinct pattern to Churchill's world view:  Anyone not British was inferior, necessarily.

But his disdain for non-British people reached its nadir when directed at the Irish.  Turning his well-sharpened wit on them, he infamously said We have always found the Irish to be a bit odd.  They refuse to be English.  As Colonial Secretary in the 1920's, he was responsible for the Black and Tans who ravaged the Irish countryside prior to Partition.  After World War I and the creation of the League of Nations that was designed to recognize both large and small countries, Churchill did nothing to persuade Woodrow Wilson to recognize Ireland.  What's more, again as Colonial Secretary, he threatened the Irish negotiators with the British Army returning from Europe at the end of hostilities unless they agreed to cede the Six Counties to the British.  Cunningly, the British also gerrymandered out the two counties with preponderantly Catholic populations so the British could cynically claim that Northern Ireland's majority wanted to remain a part of the United Kingdom.

Even during World War II, Churchill had his staff draft plans to invade Ireland to gain access to her ports for military bases despite the fact that Ireland was a non-belligerent.

So the next time someone invokes the mighty Churchill as a stout defender of democracy in the face of fascism, remember that democracy for Churchill was largely limited to the British or those whom the British needed in order to survive.  He was contemptuous of other nations and their claims to freedom, especially when their democracy was in opposition to British imperial aims.  Churchill, ironically, is quite similar to a certain sect within American society whose unofficial mantra is Do as we say, not as we do.

Churchill was a great statesman, as long as the state being discussed was Britain.

(c) 2015 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Horrible Bosses

I've had my share of bosses throughout my life, some good, some bad, very few exceptional.  I acknowledge the good ones, like my first boss, Melvin K., who taught me not only everything about the area of the law that I subsequently practiced for nearly a quarter century but also how to carry myself as an attorney.  His righthand man cum partner, Bennett K., also taught me how to practice law.  Mel was a tightwad, perhaps his only fault was far as I was concerned, but I was truly saddened to hear of his death a few years back.  There are far worse faults, as we shall see, than being a tightwad.

Perhaps the first horrible boss I had was in the bottle manufacturer.  It was one of those summertime jobs that kids do to put themselves through college.  I don't remember why he chose to ride me, but I do recall that I retaliated in such a way -- doing what he told me to the letter of the law when I knew full well that the spirit of what he wanted was his real intention -- that we had several confrontations that were then and continue to be hilarious.  About the only interesting thing I remember from that job is learning how two and three liter bottles were made.

My next horrible boss was a guy with whom I attended law school.  He brought me on ostensibly to learn other areas of the law but instead kept me doing the same thing from which I was trying to get away.  He added insult to injury by letting me go with no notice and no way to get my possessions home that same night.  O', and our Mother was dying with cancer, a fact that he knew.  You'd have thought I'd slept with his wife...a woman I'd never met.

It's a little unfair to label the next boss as horrible, because he had his good moments.  Yet this man was so unhinged sometimes, so narcissistic, that I have to mention him.  There were several incidents that remain indelibly etched in my memory, starting with the time he began an hour long diatribe by telling us that we ought to go back to our law schools and ask for a refund because they'd obviously not taught us anything and ended by telling us (sincerely) to keep up the good work.  Add to that his hysterical Sergeant Bilko routine -- anyone who was there that day would never forget it -- his destruction of my desk seeking files on coworkers (I'd prudently kept them at home...and it was his desk), his hiring of six off-duty Chicago police officers, packing, to escort off three attorneys who were siphoning off cases to a rival firm, his years long spat with the feds who were out to get him but botched it and his legendary television commercials that anyone in Chicago has seen and one can imagine just how interesting it was working there.  He also catered breakfast and lunch in the office, which meant no one could ever leave his or her desk.  There was madness to his method, but also method to that madness.

My next boss was a saturnine guy who looked a little like the Stanley Tucci character in The Lovely Bones.  As it later turned out, he was an elitist without a corresponding background.  He also felt that since he'd been put through the ringer by an older attorney, it was his turn to do it.  He was such an anal retentive control freak that he once rewrote a one sentence letter of mine -- yes, a one sentence letter.  He could be positively charming when it suited his purpose, but beneath that on-call charm a dark secret lurked:  He was addicted to teen porn.  This didn't seem to bother the higher ups, though: Six months after the discovery they bumped him up to equity partner.  Yes, a book is in the works.

Finally, the last boss I had I knew about before they hired me.  This doofus, who looks like the Tom Kean character on Blacklist, talked about how magic happens when I answered one of his questions in the interview.  I had no clue, however, just how bad this guy would be.  The worst part about it is that he wrapped everything in corporate bonhommie, something that made my skin crawl.  Anytime we had a discussion, he managed to turn it around to how great he was, whether it was how he'd played three years of varsity basketball, or how the state had asked him for help with test questions, or how he was Erin Brockovich in this one job he had.  The incessant use of exclamation marks and smiley emojis in his emails, his cloying use of the third person and the fact that he didn't catch on for a month what name I used -- despite everyone around him using it -- just rubbed me the wrong way.  I thought I was alone in this, but I found out later that there were others who thought the same as I did.  He also dated one of the women he was managing and was lifelong friends with his direct manager -- can you spell conflict of interest? -- and once told me in a disparaging tone that he had thought about going to law school to become a criminal defense attorney, but that it wasn't for him. The best way I can describe him is as a messianic popinjay.  There aren't enough mirrors available for his brilliance.

Unlike the movie that inspired this blogpost, I'm not out to kill any of these cretins.  I've wasted enough time on them to do more time in a penitentiary.

I just can't wait to meet up with some of them on my terms someday.

(c) 2015 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

Emperor Nero has been reincarnated.

I don't actually know how to approach this blogpost.  I have a stream of consciousness that just wants to spew, so if this appears to be disjointed, it probably is.

Over the last year, I've commented on the rise of ISIS, its conversion into one of the most evil outfits the world's ever known and the administration's abject ineptitude for dealing with what it first termed the JV squad.  Recent events, however, have queered the equation ever more.

After the barbaric burning death by ISIS of the Jordanian fighter pilot and the shotgun murder of the Syrian soldier, ISIS reverted to beheadings but added to its scale, taking twenty-one Coptic Egyptians to the shores of the Mediterranean and decapitating them simultaneously.  I've seen the videos; each is as bad as the one that came before it and the one that came after it.  Today's news is that ISIS increased its burnings by killing forty-five Iraqis by fire.

I can't say I understand fully the strategy ISIS is employing, because so far it's gotten scant military reaction from the countries whose citizens are being slaughtered.  Is this a true manifestation of its religious fervor?  Is it a negotiating strategy run amok?  Is it trying to draw countries into an ambush? Is it trying to foment unrest in certain countries with peoples it believes are disaffected?  Is ISIS just crazy?

Whatever the psychological underpinnings, the administration's fetid response has been nothing short of underwhelming, if not downright scary in its reasoning.  The administration is hellbent on worsening the crisis by its well-intentioned but misguided approach to ISIS that begins with its very name.

Everyone in this country refers to it as ISIS -- the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.  Perhaps that's wrong, but it's what the country knows.  For reasons known only to itself -- because it refuses to explain this -- it refers to it as ISIL  -- the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.  I've heard arguments as to why Mr. Obama prefers ISIL over ISIS, and I don't know whether those arguments have any weight to them, but since the rest of the country is saying ISIS, why does he persist in using ISIL?

Yet, that's the least of the administration's problems.  Basically, the administration's policy is rudderless.  Days after asking for an extension of the War Powers Act (for three years, which despite criticism from some quarters, seems somewhat reasonable to me) the administration, with mounting evidence of the barbarity of ISIS, has spokespersons who spout such pablum that it's hard to believe this administration is the result of the American electorate and not some high school election for senior class officers.  Days after the beheadings of the Egyptian Christians, the State Department spokeswoman, an apparently educated woman but someone devoid of common sense whatsoever, announced that we wouldn't be able to defeat ISIS by killing all of them; we'd have to provide employment opportunities for them to arrest their spread.

Imagine, if you will, Neville Chamberlain heading Hitler off with the promise of employment.  Or Roosevelt telling Hirohito that the United States would provide the same for struggling Japanese. Then try to imagine World War II not happening.  The absurdity of those hypotheticals is about the same as the absurdity of our State Department issuing this method for stopping ISIS.

The President himself couldn't be outdone on the absurdity quotient.  He decided that the attack on the kosher deli in Paris was a random attack.  Again, using the analogy of World War II, Auschwitz and other concentration camps must have been random efforts to keep Jews and other persons declared to be undesirable localized for census purposes and bad things just happened to them while they were waiting to be counted.

Other nabobs put in front of the American public, like that smooth-talking liar Josh Earnest, suggest that climate change/global warming are greater threats to most Americans than is ISIS.  Again, going back to World War II, oil spills on our coasts were greater threats to most Americans than were the Nazis.  It is unbelievable how gullible the administration believes the American people to be.  How do these people sleep at night knowing that they are simply spewing rhetoric that is incongruous to what the American people perceive?

When the Egyptian Christians were killed, the administration referred to them as Egyptian citizens. This is beyond curious, because the only known Muslim who was killed in this assassinations were the Jordanian pilot and Peter Kassig, an American aid worker who used to be a Ranger.  Everyone else killed was either a Christian or a Jew.   The crucifixions, the burials alive of young children and other dastardly killings were done with religious overtones.  ISIS itself is the Islamic State, not the Non-Denominational State.  Yet the administration continues to play word games.

By far, this administration is redefining cognitive dissonance.  No matter what the evidence, this President and his willing minions refuse to publicly acknowledge the evil for what it is.  Instead, it tries to tiptoe through a minefield that everyone acknowledges exists, everyone realizes will result in more deaths but that everyone admits must be confronted.

Feckless.  That's the only word to describe the President and those willing to do his bidding.

(c) 2015 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

ISIS Evil

With the recent horrific murder of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh, the world may be galvanizing against the outlaw terrorist organization ISIS.  The blatantly heinous way of killing Mr. al-Kasaesbeh, together with the propaganda film that announced it to the world, after a fortnight of duplicitous negotiations with the Jordanian government for the release of a failed Al Qaeda bomber imprisoned by the Jordanians, has rightly outraged the world community.

As a result of the telecasted video, Arab nations have stepped up their counterinsurgency actions against ISIS.  Even President Obama, a man decidedly against military action unless it's a last resort, has now sought an extension of the War Powers Act to combat ISIS (or ISIL, as he insists on calling it, for whatever reason, despite the fact that everyone else in the country calls it ISIS).

The murders are truly disgusting.  It's one thing to execute a person -- justifiably or not -- but to do so in ways that are cruel and then put those murders on the internet so everyone can see how terrorists -- bravely hiding behind a balaclava, typically -- killed a defenseless human being.  Of course, their argument is that the person being murdered either killed innocents himself -- as in the case of Mr. al-Kasaesbeh -- or are blaspheming Islam, which warrants the ultimate sanction.  Either way, from their perspective, they're justified in killing the worthless infidel or transgressor and degrading the humanity of their victim by publishing the person's horrible death.

Man's inhumanity to man is timeless.  As President Obama so helpfully pointed out, Christians did some horrible things to their opponents (albeit some five hundred years ago) in the name of faith. Native Americans, Mayans, Viet Cong, North Koreans, Germans and Japanese also have track records for doing despicable things to other human beings with sophistry-based justifications.

The difference between those ancient atrocities and the ones going on today is, of course, that the internet now allows the craven assassins to broadcast their crimes in the name of not-too-subtle persuasion.  Imagine what would have happened if the Germans had broadcast their crimes in concentration camps. or the Japanese theirs from Area 751, or the North Vietnamese in the Hanoi Hilton.  In fact, they were more circumspect (well, not the Japanese so much, who ran newspaper reports of beheading contests held in Nanking) and kept their misdeeds under wraps, for the most part.  ISIS, on the other hand, has no such scruples, other than to hide their faces to avoid direct retribution, seeming to revel in the debasing of other human beings.

Unfortunately, ISIS isn't exactly getting the kind of response it thought it was going to get, having begun with beheadings of James Foley, Steven Sotloff and other journalists and aid workers.  Now it has seen fit to burn a human being alive and blow a bound man's head off with a shotgun.  Most of the world is understandably horrified by these pictures, as it should be.  Yet there are those who believe that the images in these videos are too graphic to be seen.

I disagree.

To be sure, there are those who will have physical and emotional reactions to them that would be injurious to their health.  At the same time, we need to know exactly how barbaric our enemies are, if only to steel ourselves against this insidious movement.  I've watched the burning and shotgun death videos, and they are truly disgusting.  Really, though, is watching a person being hanged any more comfortable?  Is seeing a person drop dead of a heart attack more comforting?  Either way, a human life is ending, and the fact that the thought of the death is uncomfortable shouldn't prevent us from preparing to fight people who would do us grievous harm.

For me, personally, the most troubling aspect about all the snuff films ISIS is producing is how the victims appear right before they're killed.  In each and every one of them, the condemned either kneels or stands stoically before losing his life in some of the most brutal ways possible.  Not one of them struggles or tries to run for it, no matter how vain the attempt might be.  I suggested to Karen, who hasn't watched any of the videos, that they must have been drugged somehow.  Today I read an article from some British newspaper in which indeed Mr. al-Kasaesbeh was so sedated he had no idea what awaited him.  So besides tying their hands behind their backs, putting them in cages and ringing the execution zone with heavily armed paramilitaries, ISIS is drugging their victims to make them passive in the face of their own doom.

This is a war.  Anyone who says it isn't is either lying or brain dead.  War is ugly.

It's time we faced up to the fact and do everything we can to eradicate this evil from our midst.

(c) 2015 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Bests

I don't recall if I've ever done this, so if I have, please forgive me.  Everyone has a list of bests that they go to, so I thought I'd add mine:

Best pizza:  Probably Lou Malnati's or Pequod's in Chicago.

Best book:  It's unlikely to ever change, so The Count of Monte Cristo it is.

Best Year of My Life:  1984-85, when I lived in Spain.

Best Day of My Life (so far):  October 28, 2008

Best Game I Ever Saw In Person:  Illinois v. Arizona regional final, 2005

Best War Movie:  This is a tough call, because there are so many good ones from which to choose. If I'm only considering the battle scenes, then probably...We Were Heroes over Saving Private Ryan, only because there are more of them.  Ryan's are longer though.

Best Team On Which I Ever Played:  1974-1975 St. Patrick's grade school basketball team.

Best Movie I've Ever Seen:  The Quiet Man

Best MLB Ballpark I've Ever Attended:  Wrigley Field

Best Car I've Ever Driven:  Dodge Charger

Best Judge Before Whom I've Ever Appeared:  John H. Squires

Best Vocalist (male):  Josh Groban

Best Vocalist (female):  Idina Menzel

Best Country I've Visited:  Spain

Best State I've Visited:  Michigan

Best Board Game:  Chess

Best Card Game:  Uno

Best Book in Spanish:  La sombra del viento

Best Big City in America:  Chicago

Best Chair:  Rocking Chair

Best Fast Food Restaurant:  Red Robin

Best Salad:  Executive Salad at The Italian Village in Chicago narrowly over the Cobb salad at Tomato Brothers in Howell, Michigan

Best Italian Dish:  Cappellini ali oli.

Best Fruit:  Blueberry

Best Color:  Green

Best Newscaster Ever:  David Brinkley 

Best Great Lake:  Lake Superior

Best Drive:  Through the Cumberland Gap

Best Beer:  Sam Adams (Guinness is a porter, not a beer)

Best Computer FPS:  Joint Operations Typhoon Rising

Best President:  Abraham Lincoln

Best Sitcom:  Modern Family

Best Television Drama:  Dexter

Best Painting:  Las meninas

Best Military Historian:  It's truly a toss-up between Peter Cozzens and Rick Atkinson

Best City in Spain;  San Sebastian

Best Ancient Ruin:  La Alhambra

Best Album:  Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

(c)  2015  The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Sniper Controversy

Recently, Michael Moore made some ill-advised comments about the movie American Sniper, the story about the late SEAL sniper Chris Kyle who had the most confirmed kills by an American sniper until his tragic and untimely death at the hands of a deranged Marine whom he was helping.  By now, many people are familiar with what Mr. Moore said, but to refresh everyone's recollection, Mr. Moore said:

My uncle killed by a sniper in WW2.  We were taught that snipers were cowards.  Will shoot you in the back.  Snipers aren't heroes.  And invaders r worse.

Heaps of scorn were immediately leveled at Mr. Moore, and with some good reason.  Seth Rogen weighed in, likening the movie to Nazi propaganda.  After the guns of dissent were trained on him, he backpedaled his way to the border.  His comments were more ignorant than anything.

First, as to Mr. Moore's comments, there is some historical truth to what he says.  When sniping really became a viable military tool, in World War I, there were many who regarded snipers as cowards.  As Martin Pegler points out in his history of sniping, Out of Nowhere, sniping was regarding as cowardly, although no one complained about the use of gas, artillery or the use of night to cloak maneuvers.  Insofar as Mr. Moore's comments relate to cowardice, then, and his family's reaction to his uncle's death in World War II are concerned, it's somewhat understandable that they would have felt that way.

Dean Cain, a product of an Ivy League education no less, took great offense at Mr. Moore's comments, suggesting that Mr. Moore say something derogatory about Chris Kyle to his face and they'd see who was a coward.  He also took issue with Mr. Rogen, telling him he'd like to kick his ass.

Almost as if on cue, professional know-it-all leapt into the fray, challenging Mr. Cain's right to stand up to Mssrs. Moore and Rogen,  First, and quite incoherently, he tweeted:

Did Dean Cain threaten Seth Rogen?  And isn't that the same kind of trouble thinking that got Chris Kyle killed?

First, I'm quite sure that Mr. Cain would admit he'd threatened Mr. Rogen, so that's a throwaway question.  The second question is positively stupid.  Chris Kyle was killed by a troubled Marine veteran who is probably going to plead not guilty by reason of insanity in his trial.  Mr. Kyle was trying to help a fellow veteran.  He wasn't killed by some hyper-macho behavior that went too far.

Undeterred, Mr. Baldwin pivoted and asked in what branch of the military Mr. Cain served, as if he only had a right to question the comments of Mssrs. Moore and Rogen if he'd served in the military. The world's smartest man forgot a couple of rhetorical points:  First, don't ask of one's opponent something that one can't prove himself.  Second, don't ask a question where others can trump one's bona fides in spades.

Quickly it was asked of Mr. Baldwin in what branch Mr. Baldwin himself had served. Understandably, if he's going to question Mr. Cain's credentials, he should have been able to withstand the same scrutiny, which he couldn't.  But the torrent of abuse that followed was predictable, even if Mr. Baldwin himself couldn't see it:  Veterans came out in droves to question Mr. Baldwin's challenge to Mr. Cain.  I don't follow Mr. Baldwin's Twitter account -- or anyone else's, for that matter -- but a quick check shows that there's nary a negative comment there from veterans appalled by Mr. Baldwin sticking his nose into the controversy defending Mssrs. Moore and Rogen. Yet if I check online for comments directed at Mr. Baldwin I find countless replies putting Mr. Baldwin in his place.

The First Amendment gives us the right to say whatever we think.  What we say doesn't have to be the brightest, most insightful thing ever uttered.  But like a bell once rung, something said rarely can be taken back.  Mssrs. Moore, Rogen and Baldwin stepped into it,   Mr. Rogen tried to explain his original comment and wisely stepped out of the limelight.  Mr. Baldwin did what he always did:  Stir the pot and then ignore it like it didn't happen.  Mr. Moore, to his credit, stood by his comments and continued to defend them, although he has tried to twist his meaning and deflect attention to criticism of the Bush administration again.

War is ugly.  Robert E. Lee famously said that It is well that war is so terrible lest we should grow too fond of it.  What Mr. Moore disregards is that men will fight for the men beside them more often than they will the cause that gave birth the fight in the first place.  What Mr. Kyle did should be celebrated, not condemned as cowardly, because he sought to keep other Americans safe.  If Mr. Moore's implicit criticism is that Mr. Bush wrongly sent other Americans to die, than Mr. Kyle's efforts should be all the more worthy in Mr. Moore's eyes.

Interestingly, I just saw Brad Pitt's movie Fury.  As war movies go it's not bad.  Not great, but not bad by any means.  At the risk of spoiling the ending, Mr. Pitt's character is shot three times by a Waffen SS sniper in the climatic battle scene.  Fury came out before American Sniper.  If Mr. Moore was so troubled by cowardly snipers, where was his criticism about Fury, especially since his own uncle died at the hands of a German sniper.

O', wait.  Fury wasn't directed by conservative Clint Eastwood.

Now who's the coward?

(c) 2015 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles