RUTHFULLY YOURS

In China The Cultural Revolution, that took place from 1966 until 1976 had a stated goal : to purge capitalism and traditional culture from Chinese society. They instituted brutal labor re-education camps.

In America anxious seniors are now worried about SAT scores, interviews and essays that have to demonstrate their passions for justice and human rights and a green planet and diversity. The chief question they ask is not about the price of tuition and room and board or the required courses. They want to know if they will be happy.

In late summer of 2018 they will take their trunks with their Che Guevara T shirts, torn designer jeans and grungy sneakers and ingrained ignorance off to campus. And once settled into their cushy dorms, their re-education will commence.

Unless they major only in science, they will learn to despise capitalism, national cultural norms, shed all gender pronouns and identity, atone for their privileges by joining all the inviting “anti” groups that rail, riot and demand recognition, avoid reading old white authors, approach every aggression and barbarism with moral relativity, read alt-history, especially about the Middle East and Palestine.

All this for an average of $50,000 a year…..rsk
P.S. They will also learn that Mao Zedong of the aforementioned re-education labor camps was a progressive.

When Donald Trump announced his plan to ban transgendered people from military service, #TransRightsAreHumanRights quickly began trending on Twitter. While tweets including the hashtag ranged from support for the LGBT community to attacks on Trump, they all carried with them the assumption that trans — and all — people have a “right” to serve in the military. Whether you support President Trump’s policy or not, Americans must reconsider the claim that everyone has a right to military service.

The political theory of the social compact — under which the Founders built America — says natural rights, i.e., true rights, are synonymous with personhood and belong to you simply because you exist. In a word, they are unalienable.

That military service is alienable, through restrictions on membership necessary for our military to fulfill its purpose, automatically rules it out as a right. In other words, the military blocking a 16-year-old’s ability to enlist does not divorce him from or even endanger his personhood. Children under the age of 17 or the mentally and physically disabled, for example, are excluded because their lack of mental maturity or physical capacity threatens combat readiness and effectiveness.

The justifying condition of exclusion for the sake of the group’s ability to perform and survive as a whole classifies military service as an opportunity, at most. Thus, should the Department of Defense and the president determine that 16-year-olds are fit for effective combat service, they wouldn’t be granting a right but opening an opportunity.

That being the case, when the Obama administration’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, and defense secretary, Leon Panetta, opened more than 14,000 military positions to women, they did so based on new qualifications of combat readiness not on women having an inherent “right” to service:

We are fully committed to removing as many barriers as possible to joining, advancing, and succeeding in the U.S. Armed Forces. Success in our military based solely on ability, qualifications, and performance is consistent with our values and enhances military readiness.

When Ashton Carter, Obama’s fourth defense secretary and the only one without military service, opened all military positions to women, he did so for the same reason:

Remember the movie “Rashomon” where four people recount totally different versions of the same incident? Now we have “Russiamon” where depending on who and what you read and who and what you watch we get totally different versions.

Which collusion colluded the most?

A.Did Hillary collude with the Russians by selling them high grade uranium?

B.Did Jared and Donald Trump Jr. collude by listening to a a “high level” lowlife from Russia?

C.Did Debbie Wasserman Schultz collude with Russia through an aide?

D. Was Melania Trump confessing collusion by wearing a bright red suit in France? Red is the color symbol for Communism.

As I said, depends what you watch and what you read…..

At the core of the Qatar dispute is the question of Qatar’s support for extremism. While many Gulf states have histories of donating to or promoting radical Islamism, many have made real reforms. Saudi Arabia, for example, became much more serious about the need to curtail support for radical groups after the Kingdom started suffering blowback with terrorists targeting foreigners living in Saudi Arabia and senior Saudi officials. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, meanwhile, has cracked down not only on the Muslim Brotherhood but has also moved to sever the life-line Egypt often provided Hamas leaders in Gaza. Qatar, however, continues to set itself above the rest in its support for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/will-mattis-betray-the-gulf-allies-qatar/

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and other moderate Arab states are rightly confused, if not frustrated, by the muddled U.S. response so far. After all, diplomats and official from these states say, both Democratic and Republican administrations in the United States have both long beseeched them to take a no-nonsense approach to extremism and to operate in a coordinated fashion against regional threats.

When they finally do, the White House flip-flops and the State Department urges compromise and negotiation. Evenhandedness is not a virtue when one side is right and the other wrong. To negotiate with regard to the acceptance of terrorist groups is, however, a very dangerous precedent. If the United States re-engaged in Afghanistan to eliminate al-Qaeda’s bases there or began operations in Syria to counter the Islamic State, Washington would greatly resent outside powers demanding that the United States compromise with either.

In the wake of the Qatar crisis, now in its second month, Turkey set up a military base in Qatar, much to the outrage of the states seeking to pressure Qatar into compliance. That base’s closure remains a key demand among moderate Arab countries.

Now word comes that the U.S. military is planning to conduct military exercises in Qatar with the Qatari and Turkish militaries. Daily Sabah, a once independent paper which was seized by Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and transferred to his son-in-law, quoted Qatari Defense Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah as saying, “Qatar, Turkey and the U.S. regularly conduct military drills in Qatar. In the near future, a joint drill will begin by the three countries.”

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/07/25/watch-israeli-flags-burnt-and-hezbollah-terror-banners-flown-in-london/ The demonstration was sparked by new security measures on Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which have now been removed. Protesters also waved Palestinian and Turkish flags, a well as pictures of the al-Aksa mosque. Cries of “Allahu-akbar” can be heard in amateur footage of the protest. Israeli flags were snatched from members of a small counter […]

John McCain’s service to our nation in war is unequaled. He faces an enormous challenge. Shame on the media that discusses his diagnosis and prognosis. Medical research has many new modalities to treat brain tumors, and hope is critical for outlook.

Mi Sheberakh is a Hebrew prayer for physical cure and healing, offering blessing, compassion, restoration of health and strength.

It is recited by Chaplains, doctors, nurses, and family members.—

“May the One who blessed our ancestors —Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,Matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah —bless and heal the one who is ill:

May the Holy Blessed One overflow with compassion upon him.,to restore him, to heal him,to strengthen him,to enliven him.

The One will send him speedily,a complete healing —healing of the soul and healing of the body —along with all the ill, among the people of Israel and all humankind, soon, speedily, without delay.”

Amen

When my brother and I were kids, my parents had a subscription to National Geographic magazine. The photography and the articles on flora and fauna in the jungles of the world, and lost and hidden tribes in exotic places were wonderful. Most important in those prudish days, it was the only magazine permitted in the home where one could occasionally see full frontal nudity. We eventually gratified our prurient interest in movies and television and stopped reading National Geographic.

Yesterday, at a doctor’s office I picked up the January 1, 2017 edition which was totally devoted to “Gender.” No more jungles. Just an intro by the doyenne of passe feminism, namely Gloria Steinem, who has decided that proper pronouns are anti public good. He and she, and all such gender descriptive terminology are unnecessary at best and hurtful at worst. Then the entire issue contains testimonials, lexicography, pictures of “theys” who are unsettled in their skin as a result of sexual and gender identity.

Why in the world is this subject in a whole issue of the magazine? Where are the tigers and tigresses and lions and lionesses, and hippopotamus and “hippoptamissus” of earlier issues ? Where is the gorgeous photography of mountains and jungles and giant water lilies and exotic frogs that delighted the readers?

rsk