Many of us thought the last couple years of the current administration would be less contentious and more serene than the first term and a half. It appears that is not the case. There is evidence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has returned to using deadly gas weapons on his people. Bashar al-Assad is 50 years of age and has been President since 10 days after his father’s death on June 10, 2000. He is a medical doctor who has served residencies in ophthalmology. A member of the Ba’ath Party, he has a habit of slaughtering his own citizens, just as other tyrants like Stalin, Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Idi Amin of Uganda.
In August of 2012, Mr. Obama drew a red line condemning al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons. Later he denied that he had drawn a red line saying that the ‘world drew a red line.’ Turning the cleanup of Syrian chemical weapons over to his frenemy, Vladimir Putin, the disposal of weapons was delayed but allegedly completed. Now, evidence has surfaced that chemical weapons remain in use by al-Assad. Leading from behind works best when you are holding the reins of a team of horses.
In Iran, negotiations drone on between the Ayatollah and the amateurs. From the side of tranquility, in our eagerness for a ‘deal’ and a second Nobel, we are negotiating with conciliation and compromise while the Iranians are dealing with wile and deception. It’s interesting that Secretary Kerry and Mr. Obama are more altruistic with Theocrats in Iran than with Republicans here at home.
Domestically we have become a culture, a society, a nation in decline in the quicksand of political correctness (PC). We light up the famous People’s Residence called the White House with varied colors to celebrate same-sex marriage and Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Trans-Gender (LGBT). If a nativity scene shows up on the green in Speedbump, Iowa, a single complaint gets it removed.
The government agency NASA is tasked with ‘reaching out’ to Muslims while Catholic schools and hospitals struggle to preserve their policies because government deems that certain practices must be subjugated to secular proxy by government. People like Caitlyn (Bruce) Jenner and athletes who acknowledge being gay are celebrated for their ‘courage.’ Border Guard Brian Terry was killed in Nacho, Arizona in 2012 and his family didn’t even get a call. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised the families of the Navy Seals killed on 9/11/2012 in Benghazi that justice would prevail—a chimera indeed. Courage has various levels of perceived fulfillment.
Political correctness is toxic and communicable. Janet Napolitano, President of the University of California (system) since 2013 and former Secretary of Homeland Security just invented a new word, ‘microaggression.’ This word means expressions like ’America is a melting pot’ and ‘America is the land of opportunity’ are banned in the discourse of teaching and learning at the university system with 10 campuses, five medical centers and other units. The halo of political correctness (PC) has drifted to the Gresham-Barlow, Oregon school system where $100,000 per year is spent featuring Oregon Coaching for Educational Equity (OCEE). The teachers who are brought together annually in Cottage Grove are learning to teach anger to Blacks and guilt to white students who are all considered racist.
ISIS (ISIL to Mr. Obama and government spokes people) is slaughtering everyone in their way including Christians, Kurds and Shiite Muslims. Last week, 27 were killed and 220 were wounded in a crowd of 2,000 Shiites praying in a Mosque in Kuwait City. Our progress against ISIS is proceeding at the pace of extinguishing a four-story fire with a garden hose using a very small nozzle.
Former Army Major Nidal Hasan, 42, has been found guilty of killing 13 and wounding 30 at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009 and has been awarded the death penalty for ‘workplace violence.’ His sentence will be fulfilled at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas someday just as five other soldiers await the same fate. The last execution at Leavenworth was 1961 and we’ve already spent $5 million on the trial.
Our vaunted leader Mr. Obama has three great talents: golf, political fund-raising and PC (political correctness); other skills, not so much.
– Dick Baynton
