Stop Rewriting History, Democrats

Iraq is back in the news, and not surprisingly, so is George W. Bush. Anything happening in the Middle East today is Bush's fault. 

Frankly, I'm weary of the way the Dems try to re-write history. 

In case they've forgotten that many of their key players were worried about Saddam Hussein back in the late 90's and supported George Bush's attempts to topple him in the early 2000's, here's a small refresher.




Oh, and while we're on the subject, let's not forget that as recently as 2010, the Obama administration was quite pleased with the way things were going in Iraq. Mr. Biden again: 





Peter Wehner, writing in Commentary Magazine, says the following: 

A fair-minded reading of the facts, I think, shows that when Mr. Obama was sworn in, the Iraq war had more or less been won. Things were fragile to be sure. But the errors that were made during the occupation of Iraq following the fall of Saddam, which were extremely costly, were corrected in 2007. That was when President Bush made what is in my estimation his most impressive decision. In the face of enormous political opposition, with the nation weary of the war, Mr. Bush implemented a new counterinsurgency strategy, dubbed the “surge” and led by the estimable General David Petraeus. It resulted in startling gains.  

By the time the surge ended in 2008, violence in Iraq had dropped to the lowest level since the first year of the war. Sectarian killings had dropped by 95 percent. By 2009, U.S. combat deaths were extremely rare. (In December of that year there were no American combat deaths in Iraq.) Iraq was on the mend. Even Barack Obama, who opposed the surge every step of the way, conceded in September 2008 that it had succeeded in reducing violence “beyond our wildest dreams.”

"What Kind of Iraq Did Obama Inherit?" (Peter Wehner, Commentary Magazine, June 19, 2014). 

Enough, Democrats. Enough of the lying, enough of the blaming, enough of the dissembling, enough of the petty politics, enough of the demonizing. Your party and your leader are taking America down a terrible path. If George W. Bush made mistakes in his attempts to deal with unspeakable evil, at least he was man enough to face them and courageous enough to correct them. 

Now it's your turn. Man up, Mr. Obama. If necessary, ask the good people of the other party to help you and advise you. The time to stop playing politics is now because the evil menacing us today eclipses the evil Mr. Bush faced back then. It's time to set aside your ego and your narcissism and your arrogance. The future of our country, and perhaps even the world, are at stake. 

Private Health Care for Veterans?

This just in: 

More veterans are being allowed to obtain health care at private hospitals and clinics in an effort to improve their treatment following allegations of falsified records and delays in treatment. In a statement issued Saturday, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki also said VA facilities are enhancing capacity of their clinics so veterans can get care sooner. In cases where officials cannot expand capacity at VA centers, the Department of Veterans Affairs is "increasing the care we acquire in the community through non-VA care," Shinseki said.

(VA Approves More Private Care for Veterans, Associated Press, May 24, 2014.

So . . . government health care doesn't work? But Paul Krugman and Ezra Klein said socialized medicine does work! Were they mistaken???

"If liberals want to toast the Veterans medical system as an example of government-run health care done right, they are going to have to seriously grapple with its tragic failures."

Liberals Touted Veterans Affairs Hospitals as Evidence Government-Run Health Care Works, Philip Klein, Washington Examiner,  May 22, 2014).

Narcissim Run Amok: Thoughts After the Isla Vista Rampage

I'm beginning to develop a theory about the next generation. 

Not having to do with access to guns. That's a separate issue. But having to do with the way this generation (millennials and younger) are being raised, not only without God and faith and and a morality that transcends human wisdom (right/wrong, good/evil), but also being raised as if they're the center of the universe. 

Maybe this next generation should be called the "narcissistic generation." YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, selfies. This is their world. Affirmation is not an option but a necessity. One of my students wrote in a paper this semester that if she doesn't get at least 50 "likes" on a Facebook post she removes the post. 

Even if it turns out this guy Elliot Rodgers had some kind of mental disorder, it doesn't change my thinking. I believe he's an inevitable by-product of the societal trend that fosters self-affirmation. Social media not only perpetuates this trend, it probably spawned it. 

From childhood, millennials have been nurtured on the idea that they're self-important, that everything has to go their way, that they are "winners," that nothing bad should ever happen to them, that they deserve happiness, that the world revolves around them. And when it finally dawns on them that the world does not revolve around them, those that that are already a bit "off" (like this guy apparently was) are already be primed to commit atrocities like this. 

But not, of course, before they get out their I-phones and videotape themselves, up close, in our faces, talking about how they've been wronged. 

Factor in the secularist, anti-Christian, anti-God thinking that now permeates both the schools and public square, and the inevitable result is pretty frightening. What we saw in Isla Vista last night is just a symptom of a greater ill: narcissism run amok.   

Isla Vista Shooting Suspect Left Disturbing Manifesto (Los Angeles Times, May 24, 2014).

Short Poem Written in the Dark at Night

Short Poem Written in the Dark at Night

Full moon

and stars

peek through trees

scribbling patterns of light

on the ground below.

 

Outside my window I hear

cars on the 15

coyotes baying

something rustling

in the leaves

beneath the trees

sirens 

 

A cool breeze

wafts through the screen

scented of flowering jasmine 

and smoke

 

San Diego is on fire again.

Notes: Santa Ana winds arrived early this season. 

The Left is Out of Control

Here is an audio file of a voice message left by a Florida school teacher named Swornia Thomas on a student's home phone. The student's name is Giovanni Rubeo. He is in the fifth grade.

Please note that the "religious book" in question is the Bible. 

Note, too, that Giovanni was reading the Bible during free reading time, which is when students read a book of their own choosing. 

Here's the story on Breitbart. 

And here's a link to the Liberty Institute, which is assisting the Rubeo family in this case.