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OCTOBER 13,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

ANOTHER GIANT MOMENT IN EDUCATION – FROM DAILY MAIL:    A Seattle elementary school has canceled its upcoming Halloween parade and will be banning students from dressing in costumes on October 31, claiming that the annual event ‘marginalizes’ students of color who administrators claim do not celebrate the holiday.  Officials at the Benjamin Franklin Day Elementary School have discussed axing the annual Pumpkin Parade for five years, but first notified parents about the unilateral decision to cancel it in an October 8 newsletter, according to The Jason Rantz Show on local news station KTTH Radio.  ‘As a school with foundational beliefs around equity for our students and families, we are moving away from our traditional ‘Pumpkin Parade’ event and requesting that students do not come to school in costumes,’ reads the newsletter, seen by the radio host.  The school in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood annually invites students to dress in costume and march through the school with their peers as part of its Pumpkin Parade.   However, it decided to cancel the event this year because it could be upsetting for children who can’t afford a Halloween costume and that the loud noise levels and crowds are triggering to some kids, according to the newsletter.   Are you believing what you're reading?  What will these kids be in 15 years?   

October 13,  2021     Permalink

FINE WRITING – OVERNIGHT:  College Fix reviews a fine piece by retired Harvard professor Ruth Wisse in The Wall Street Journal.  Professor Wisse examines a fundamental cause of our loss in Afghanistan.  You will not be surprised by her conclusion, but you will be stimulated by the quality of her argument.  From College Fix: 

Ruth Wisse, a professor emerita at Harvard University, has penned an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal that argues the Ivy League institution’s “40-year ROTC ban sent a deeper message: that American civilization isn’t worth defending.”

Citing the Duke of Wellington’s remark that “the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton,” Wisse argues the presence of ROTC inculcates “respect for military service.”

“The qualities developed in those British schoolboys produced the soldiering that defeated Napoleon’s forces. Since armies are typically made up of young people who go straight from school to the battlefield, the traits and habits necessary for winning wars must be already ingrained in those we expect to fight them. Afghanistan was lost in the halls of Harvard,” Wisse wrote.

ROTC’s absence from Harvard taught its students that they “are too good for military service. Leave national defense to the farm boys and those who don’t make it to an elite college. Forty years of such scorn for the military will bring low any democracy.”

“ROTC is back on Harvard’s campus now. But more than mere acceptance is needed. Students must be offered an education that demonstrates the exceptional merits of their country and civilization, and gives them the intellectual tools to defend it,” Wisse wrote.

COMMENT:  A great truth eloquently presented by one of Harvard's best.  When the draft ended in the early 1970s, even Ted Kennedy, no right winger, worried that the all-volunteer military would become detached from the nation it served, and that civilians would lose appreciation for what the military does.  That has happened.  When I grew up, everyone knew a soldier, or even many soldiers.  On my block we had veterans and battle casualties, one guy who served in both World War II and Korea, and another who was the sole survivor of a B-17 crew.  Universities proudly advertised their ROTC programs.  Armed Forces Day was actively celebrated, and few complained that the military flyovers were threats to the environment.   What a different atmosphere we have now. 

Just before his death, Douglas MacArthur commented that the day might approach when Americans would refuse to fight for their country.  We aren't quite there yet, but we see with horror that many schools openly teach that America is a degraded and racist society, hardly one worth saving.  The question must be asked:  How many years of this can we take before MacArthur's prophecy comes true, and the real America is subjugated by ignorance and spiritual degeneracy?  Think about it.

October 13,  2021     Permalink

OCTOBER 12,   2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:   

JOE BIDEN'S "TITANIC" MOMENT – FROM DAILY MAIL:    President Joe Biden's approval rating is 10 points behind President Barack Obama's at this point in Obama's presidency, as Biden's numbers have been battered by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, among other issues.   The Real Clear Politics polling average for Obama on October, 11 2009 stood at 53 per cent approval and 40 per cent disapproval, while Biden currently stands at 43 per cent approval and 52.3 per cent disapproval.  A new Axios/Ipsos poll released Tuesday found that Americans are getting more pessimistic about the pandemic, and losing trust in Biden at the same time.   The poll found that currently 42 per cent of Americans surveyed trusted Biden a great deal or a fair amount on COVID-19.   That number, however, represents a seven per cent drop from last month and a 10 per cent drop from six months ago.   It was 16 points higher when Biden was sworn-in in January. 
Biden is also losing ground among members of his own party.    While 81 per cent of Democrats surveyed said they trusted Biden a fair amount, only one in three said they trusted the Democratic president 'a great deal.'   In June 45 per cent of Democrats said they trusted Biden on COVID-19 'a great deal.'   Generally, Americans believed returning to their 'normal, pre-COVID life,' is getting farther away, the Axios/Ipsos poll found.  A nation in gloom.  It reminds me of the Jimmy Carter period, when the pundits spoke of a great national malaise.  Of course, Carter was a big part of that malaise.  It seemed to end when he departed Washington and Ronald Reagan moved in.  I'm not so sure that the current malaise can end on Biden's watch, or on Kamala's.  The country is ripe for another Reagan, but I don't see him.   

October 12, 2021       Permalink

THE DEATH OF THE CITY BY THE BAY – OVERNIGHT:  San Francisco was, until recently, seen as one of the nation's gems.  The city by the bay, the elegant town sung about by Judy Garland and Tony Bennett, a symbol of rebirth after the 1906 earthquake, a place known to thousands of GI's on their way to the Pacific theater in World War II.  But that is not the city we see today, after years of leftist leadership and ruin.  It is so sad.  From Fox Business: 

Walgreens said Tuesday that it will be closing another five San Francisco locations, citing the ongoing rampant theft plaguing the city.

"Due to ongoing organized retail crime, we have made the difficult decision to close five stores across San Francisco," a Walgreens spokesperson told FOX Business in a statement. "Each store will transfer prescriptions to a nearby Walgreens location within a mile radius and we expect to place the stores’ team members in other nearby locations."

"Organized retail crime continues to be a challenge facing retailers across San Francisco, and we are not immune to that," the spokesperson continued. "Retail theft across our San Francisco stores has continued to increase in the past few months to five times our chain average. During this time to help combat this issue, we increased our investments in security measures in stores across the city to 46 times our chain average in an effort to provide a safe environment."

The stores closing in the coming weeks are at 2250 Ocean Ave, 4645 Mission Street, 745 Clement Street, 300 Gough Street and 3400 Cesar Chavez Street.

Walgreens has shuttered at least 10 of its stores in the city since the beginning of 2019, according to the San Francisco Gate.

Over the summer, the California Retailers Association reported that San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento have some of the highest organized retail crime in the nation. 

Critics blame a referendum California passed in 2014, which downgraded theft of property to a misdemeanor as long as its value is $950 or less. 

COMMENT:  San Francisco also has a Soros-funded ultra-progressive D.A., a sure formula for increased crime.  And the city is plagued by homeless vagrants.

It's hard to see how the city can get out of its mess, especially since the state of California is governed by the same mentality that laid San Francisco low. 

The city needs to have new, practical government.  And a crusading newspaper, to the right of Karl Marx, would also help.  Neither is in prospect. 

October 12,  2021     Permalink