Posts By Author » Cassandra

Navy: Men Have “Duty” To Protect Women From Themselves
8 Jul 2010 11:29 am

This is so incandescently idiotic – on so many levels – that I don’t even know what to say about it. Sometimes the stupid is just overpowering:
The U.S. Navy wants commanders to “feel very uncomfortable” about sexual assaults, happening at a rate of more than one a day, military officials said.
“My goal is to make every single commander that has a sexual assault occur at their command feel very uncomfortable and wonder, ‘Why is this happening in my command?’” Vice Chief of Naval Operations Jonathan Greenert said in a speech …

Selective Outrage and the Catholic Church
3 Apr 2010 1:01 pm

The temptation to look for scapegoats is a human failing, too. Those who hate the military gleefully seize on every crime committed by a soldier, sailor or Marine as evidence that war causes crime, as though it were unheard of for civilians to rape, murder or steal. Those who hate religion seize on crimes committed by the faithful as evidence that religion causes pedophilia, as though child abuse were the exclusive province of the Catholic church.

Never mind that civilians and atheists commit crimes too.

Our Commander in Chief Doesn’t “Get” the Military
8 Nov 2009 1:27 pm

“What Vice President Cheney calls ‘dithering,’ President Obama calls his solemn responsibility to the men and women in uniform and to the American public,” said Gibbs. “I think we’ve all seen what happens when somebody doesn’t take that responsibility seriously.”
~White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
Life is full of mysteries, but chief among them in this Marine wife’s mind at the moment is, “Just how stupid does this White House think we are?” If the events of the past few months have shown us anything, it’s that Barack Obama has little …

The “Myth” of American Heroism
7 Nov 2009 1:20 pm

How bizarre is it when the number two link on Google for Brian Chontosh, a bona fide war hero and recipient of the Navy Cross, goes to a site devoted to “debunking” urban myths?
Is the idea that a Marine officer could perform acts of heroism so outlandish that it requires debunking? If so, there’s little doubt why so many Americans might doubt such tales. Every day we’re force fed a distorted, dishonest narrative that magnifies every misdeed and sweeps acts of heroism under the rug. This, we are given to …

“This Doesn’t Define Me”
31 Oct 2009 2:22 pm

There are many kinds of courage.
We hear most about the bravery of battle, when the adrenaline is pumping and soldiers are fighting just to stay alive. But we rarely hear about the incredible courage and strength needed to sit up for the first time despite searing pain, to stand, to take those few wobbly steps…
… or, against all odds, to run again.
Meet some wounded vets who have not only recovered from severe combat injuries, but who have gone on to things most of us only dream of doing. In …

Transparency We Can’t Believe In!
31 Oct 2009 10:56 am

It’s… transparency like you’ve never seen! The White House blog gushes:
We previously announced that the White House in December of this year would — for the first time in history — begin posting all White House visitor records under the terms of our new voluntary disclosure policy. As part of that initiative, we also offered to look back at the records created before the announcement of the policy and answer specific requests for visitor records created earlier in the year.
They may have a point, if by transparency like you’ve …

When Chicago Style Politics Backfires
24 Oct 2009 6:08 pm

Oh-oh:
“One thing I can tell you: They can go out and chase me and chase the Chamber and put stuff in the newspaper. It only . . . drives more and more support. . . . You think we are going to blink because a couple of people are out shooting at us? Tell ‘em to put their damn helmets on.”
Them’s fighting words, all the more so when delivered in the feisty, New York accent of U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue. The 71-year-old was recruited 12 years ago …

The Judgment to Lead
18 Oct 2009 11:13 pm

It is now more than 76 days after General McChrystal submitted an assessment of what was needed to carry out the “comprehensive new strategy” President Obama announced in March. McChrystal’s assessment was delayed at the request of the administration and the General was warned not to include a request for more troops until the President was “ready” to consider it. Obama’s Chief of Staff is quick to affix the blame for this delay where it belongs – squarely on George Bush’s shoulders:
One of President Obama’s top advisers said …

Organic Tuscan Kale a Core Ethical, Moral Obligation
19 Sep 2009 11:20 am

Good morning, dangerously unhinged wingnuts.
As you all marinate in your unearned race, class and gender privileges on this fine Saturday morning, your First Lady is hardly working to make sure all Americans – not just the selfish rich – have equal access to pesticide-free comestibles:
Let’s say you’re preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don’t have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do?
Here’s how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon:
The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H …

The Moral Obligation to Provide Health Care
22 Aug 2009 2:10 pm

Dave Schuler poses an interesting question:
As I’ve said before, I don’t believe that there’s a right to healthcare nor have I seen a coherent argument made that it is, merely a claim. However, bear with me.
Is is possible to make a coherent argument that government-provided healthcare is a moral obligation but that our obligation doesn’t extend to people in Zambia? I don’t think it is but I’m willing to listen to the arguments.
A few observations. The most obvious thing that comes to mind here is that if Barack Obama thinks …

A Symposium on Liberty and Limited Government
22 Aug 2009 1:37 pm

After all the fulmination we heard over the last 8 years about Executive overreach and the importance of respecting the Constitution, it seems supremely ironic to see two “Constitutional scholars” blithely preparing to eviscerate the founding document of our Republic with the enthusiastic assistance of public servants elected by the 50 states:
President Obama has called for a serious and reasoned debate about his plans to overhaul the health-care system. Any such debate must include the question of whether it is constitutional for the federal government to adopt and implement the …

To Win, Conservatives Must Play Offense, Not Defense
30 May 2009 11:15 am

When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.
- Plato
Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical. If it is to your advantage, make a forward move; if not, stay where you are.
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Imagine, for a moment, a very different world from the one we live in today.
In this world the far Left continues to substitute insults for serious debate. They …

Preposterous!!!
18 Apr 2009 1:10 pm

The nerve of these folks – shielding some wingnut just so he could criticize the President of the United States without disclosing his identity!
… the right of scared Bush officials to participate in public debates without being identified is hardly some noble journalistic value — former Bush officials have not exactly been shy about attacking Obama. Indeed, the very same day that Allen published his Drudge-attracting screed, Michael Mukasey and Michael Hayden published an Op-Ed in The Wall St. Journal voicing exactly the same stale accusations about how Obama …

So…. I’m Just Curious…
4 Apr 2009 11:12 am

…are we now going to be treated to a reprise of the infamous “War is not the answer – for every terrorist we kill, we create 10 more who hate us!!!!” school of international relations?
A Pakistani Taliban militant leader has claimed responsibility for the attack on a U.S. immigration center in New York state in which 13 people were killed, Reuters reported.
“I accept responsibility. They were my men. I gave them orders in reaction to U.S. drone attacks,” Baituallah Mehsud told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location on Saturday.
Hmmm. …

Dude, Where’s My Country?
4 Apr 2009 10:52 am

Congress seems determined to dispense with our freedoms. And to think these are the folks who called Bush a fascist:
Steve Aquino at Mother Jones asks, “Should President Obama have the power to shut down domestic Internet traffic during a state of emergency? Senators John Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) think so.” I’ve highlighted what I think are the interesting passages in the article.
On Wednesday they introduced a bill to establish the Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor–an arm of the executive branch that would have vast power to …

The Root Causes of Income Inequality: Why Big Government is Not the Answer
28 Mar 2009 1:42 pm

In November of 2008 a charismatic and gifted politician with little or no executive experience was elevated to what is arguably the world’s most difficult and powerful position. Both historically and statistically speaking, Obama’s victory was remarkable:
Since the Civil War, 49 men have won a major-party presidential nomination. Only three of these nominees were less qualified, by traditional measures of leadership and experience, than Obama.
… None of those men was able to win the White House.

In retrospect it seems obvious no private sector corporation would hire a Chief Executive Officer …

Judge Orders Mom to Cease Home Schooling
14 Mar 2009 8:40 am

I am still trying to decide what I think about this situation:
A judge in Wake County said three Raleigh children need to switch from home school to public school. Judge Ned Mangum is presiding over divorce proceeding of the children’s parents, Thomas and Venessa Mills.
Venessa Mills was in the fourth year of home schooling her children who are 10, 11 and 12 years old. They have tested two years above their grade levels, she said.
“We have math, reading; we have grammar, science, music,” Venessa Mills said.
Her lessons also have a …

Mind-sexing Obama???
7 Feb 2009 10:37 am

File under Things I Could Happily Lived The Rest of My Life Without Thinking About:
One night, New York Times columnist Judith Warner had a dream about the president taking a shower in her house. Then a friend of hers confided that she’d had an Obama dream, too. So, Warner “launched an e-mail inquiry” to suss out whether the president was behind other women’s fluttering eyelids, and she found that he is — in a big way. Women across America are apparently dreaming about schtupping the president.
But wait! There’s more of …

Countering the Media’s BDS Narrative
7 Feb 2009 10:16 am

Listening to the breathless media coverage of The One recently, you’d think this was the first time a sitting President had ever reached across the aisle to his opponents. NPR even gets a former Republican to bash George Bush so they don’t have to. So good for the street cred:
All that praise for the president isn’t just political spin — it’s sincere, Davis said. Obama could end up being more personally popular among House Republicans than his predecessor.
“After Bush, Obama is a breath of fresh air. He’s going to …

The Right Way to Oppose President Loophole
24 Jan 2009 1:24 pm

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency,”
- Barack Obama
With the 44th President of these United States safely O-naugurated, the foul miasma of fear and secrecy that hung over Capitol Hill for so long has finally begun to lift, ushering in a glorious New Age of transparency and openness:
As a search of whitehouse.gov caches through the site archive.org shows, the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations often featured transcripts of their daily press briefings easily accessible on the Web site. In the case of …

The History of Ernesto Che Guevara – A Short Story

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