RUTHFULLY YOURS

Montpelier, Vt. — “Nice flag!” the woman shouted sarcastically, adding: “F*** you!”

The woman was seated on the patio of a restaurant overlooking Main Street in this famously liberal capital of this famously liberal state when a truck sporting the Confederate emblem passed by.

I could understand the sentiment (particularly given the fact that her lunch partner was an African-American man). When the woman saw my daughter and her friend, she apologized for her profanity.

And while I could have done without the f-bomb around two twelve-year-old girls, my real objection was something different. The young woman’s outburst was exactly the reaction the buffoon in the truck was hoping for. After all, Vermont is the heart of union territory (and the first state to ban slavery in 1777). Even without the recent controversies, there’s no reason to fly a Confederate flag in downtown Montpelier except to offend.

The deal is done. Iran has sort-of promised it won’t build nuclear weapons, but even the promise has serious caveats: Iran can continue to build weapons platforms to deliver the non-existent weapons; it can cooperate with friendly countries to acquire enhancements to weapons delivery technology; and it can prevent entry to requested facilities by international inspectors for 24 days per request; it need not account for prior military activity. And Iran will be vastly richer.

Based on the world’s experience with the efficacy of multinational inspection regimes and with Iran specifically, it would be wise to assume that the Islamic Republic will move (continue?) covertly to build nuclear warheads, perhaps just leaving out the nuclear fuel. Iran will likely begin testing rockets so that they will be able to release a future nuclear weapon securely at the right moment to get the right blast effect.

The debate is raging over President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, and Mr. Obama held a rare press conference Wednesday to say that “99% of the world community” agrees with him. Then why bother with a press conference? Mr. Obama made other claims we’ll address in coming days, but for today it’s worth rebutting his assertion that “none” of his critics “have presented to me or the American people a better alternative.”

Specifically, Mr. Obama resorted to his familiar default of the false political choice. “There really are only two alternatives here. Either the issue of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon is resolved diplomatically through a negotiation or it’s resolved through force, through war. Those are—those are the options,” Mr. Obama said. He added that no better deal was or is possible than the one he has negotiated.

Rick Perry’s race speech threw down the gauntlet on party loyalty and economic results.

Something in American politics seems to be moving in mysteriously positive ways. Especially in the nation’s tense racial politics.

Last month a racist fanatic shot nine people in a black church in Charleston, S.C. Instead of the city going up in flames, as in Ferguson or Baltimore, the surviving family members counseled forgiveness.

Then, on July 2, Rick Perry, the former Texas governor and now Republican presidential candidate, gave a speech on race in America at the National Press Club in Washington. That Donald Trump’s demagoguery on Mexicans sucks the oxygen out of the media universe while Rick Perry’s strong speech on race fades from the news is a commentary on, well, the news.

Iran is allowed ample time, up to 24 days, to hide or destroy evidence before inspectors are given access.
In the months leading up to Tuesday’s announcement of a nuclear agreement with Iran, American proponents and skeptics of the deal at least agreed on one thing: the importance of “anywhere, anytime” inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

On the skeptical side, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R., Calif.) said on June 30: “The standard needs to be ‘go anywhere, anytime’—not go ‘some places, sometimes.’ ” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that same day called for “complete agreement on ‘anytime, anywhere’ inspections.”

On the Obama administration side, there was Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in April saying, “We expect to have anywhere, anytime access.” And Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes also in April saying: “In the first place we will have anytime, anywhere access [to] nuclear facilities.”

By all accounts, the Pope is a man who cares deeply for the world’s poor. But he is less sound when it comes to matters of history and economics.

Like any vocation, capitalism is a pyramid, with a few successful people at the top. It is like an army or a ship, where there is one commander. It is similar to sports and entertainment. Just as there is only one CEO at a company, there is only one Kobe Bryant and one Taylor Swift. There is only one Pope. By definition, success reflects inequality – in aspiration, talent, effort and luck. Equality of opportunity is a worthy goal. Equality in outcomes is not possible. It cannot be otherwise. Those on the left who scream loudest about inequality are themselves often at the pinnacle of a career – a success they would not have had in a flat society.

“Inequality” is a political “hot-button” word. It plays well in societies addicted to sound-bites and with people who lack perspective. What exactly do the words “inequality” and “redistribution,” and the phrase “fairness economy” really mean? Humpty Dumpty provided an answer when he said to Alice, “When I use a word it means exactly what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.” Humpty Dumpty was referring to “glory,” but one may substitute any number of words whose definitions, in their ambiguity, are convenient for hedging politicians and moral relativists.

Last year, Barack Obama ordered that five bloodthirsty terrorist masterminds be traded to the Taliban for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, whose desertion and possible traitorous activity had been known by the White House prior to the exchange. The White House staged a photo-op at the White House with Bergdahl’s parents and sent Susan Rice out to the media to portray Bergdahl as a soldier who served with honor and dignity.

Monday, the White House signed a controversial nuclear deal with the Iranian regime that Obama celebrated as a historic achievement (Munich was historic; Pearl Harbor; 9/11 were all historic, too). Left behind were 4 innocent American hostages imprisoned by the regime for years. On Wednesday, CBS White House correspondent, Major Garrett asked about them. Barack Obama, the snarkiest most thin-skinned president in American history lashed out — not at the Iranians but at the temerity of Garrett for daring to ask him the question.

More important than planning for combat is planning for the strengthening of democracies.

We cannot make democracies out of Iraq or Libya or Syria, but when democratic countries are united, the world becomes a safer place for all.

“In a volatile region so vital to the U.S., where other states cannot be relied upon, it would be foolish to disengage — or denigrate — an ally such as Israel. The war against terrorists and the states that harbor and support them will be long and hard, and success will depend in no small measure on the allies who stand with us and with whom we stand.” — JINSA

Perhaps you think the war is over. Perhaps you think that if Iran becomes a “friend” of the United States and the possibility of an American-led war against the Islamic Republic recedes, the need for a militarily capable ally such as Israel also recedes. Maybe the U.S. doesn’t want to associate with the “militaristic” Jewish State. That’s quite possible from the vantage point of July 2015 and if you think the only reason to befriend anyone is for the military advantages it brings to the relationship.

File this under “it doesn’t make much difference bu it’s nice to know”….as a mother of two sons who love The Yankees….rsk

With the 2015 baseball season hitting the mid-way point, the Ledger takes its annual look at how the Jewish boys of summer are faring on the field this year. (Statistics are as of July 12, 2015).

1.Scott Wynne Feldman (p)
Houston Astros – DL 5/27/2015
Born: February 7, 1983
Birthplace: Kailua, Hawaii
Team: Houston Astros
Position: Starting Pitcher
Number: 46
Bats: Left
Throws: Right
Season ERA: 4.80
Season SO: 37
Season Record: 4-4
Career ERA: 4.49
Career SO: 709
Career Record: 63-72
Experience: 10 Years
Feldman ended the 2014 season with the lowest ERA of his career at 3.74. He won the 2014 Darryl Kile Good Guy Award voted by the Houston Baseball Writers Association.

2.Joc Russell Pederson (of)
Los Angeles Dodgers
Born: April 21, 1992
Birthplace: Palo Alto, CA
Team: LA Dodgers
Position: CF
Number: 31
Bats: Left
Throws: Left
Season Avg: .230
Season HR: 20
Season RBI: 40
Career Avg: .223
Career HR: 20
Career RBI: 40
Experience: 1 Year
Joc was drafted in the 11th round of the 2010 draft by the Dodgers. His father Stu also played for the Dodgers in 1985. In 2013 he played for Team Israel in the qualifying rounds of the World Baseball Classic. While in the minors in 2014, he was voted the MVP of the Pacific Coast League. He made his major league debut on September 1, 2014. When the Dodgers traded Matt Kemp, Joc became their center field starter. He was selected to the 2015 MLB All Star Game and finished second in the Home Run Derby. He replaced Matt Holliday as the starting center fielder in the All-Star Game. He was the first Dodgers rookie to start in an All-Star Game.

“Truth and reason are eternal,” Thomas Jefferson wrote to Rev. Samuel Knox in 1810. “They have prevailed. And they will eternally prevail…” Jefferson was wrong. As the current media pack coverage of the 20th anniversary of the “Srebrenica massacre” indicates, his belief that “error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left to combat it” was somewhat naive.

It is noteworthy that “Srebrenica” in the mainstream media discourse is no longer a geographic location that needs to be preceded by a noun (“the massacre in…”). It has been developed into a stand-alone term that denotes horror, on par with “Auschwitz,” “Katyn,” or “Hiroshima.” In reality, unlike those very real horrors, it is a postmodern myth based on a distortion of facts and their willful omission.