Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICANS USE DIRTY METHODS TO FIGHT AGAINST TRUE CONSERVATIVES

Ken Cuccinelli II, the President, of the Senate Conservatives Fund, tells what happened iu the recent Republican Mississippi primary:

The Senate Republican establishment used Democrats to defeat conservative Chris McDaniel (R-MS) because Thad Cochran (R-MS) couldn't win the election with his party's own voters.

These so-called 'Republicans' recruited Democrats -- not by arguing for conservative principles like Ronald Reagan did -- but by campaigning for liberal policies and by calling McDaniel and his supporters racists.

You are right to be angry and it's important for all conservatives to remember what happened in Mississippi.

• We must remember that the establishment urged Cochran to run against McDaniel even though Cochran wanted to retire.
   
• We must remember that the establishment opposed McDaniel even though Cochran had been in Washington for 41 years and had voted for wasteful spending, more debt, and higher taxes.
   
• We must remember that the establishment opposed McDaniel even though, according to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, McDaniel would win the seat for Republicans in November.
   
• We must remember that Haley Barbourgot the gun-grabbing Michael Bloombergto donate $250,000 to help defeat McDaniel.

• We must remember that the establishment funded race-baiting calls to black voters urging them to "say no to the Tea Party and their disrespectful treatment of the first African-American president."
   
• We must remember that the establishment funded race-baiting flyers saying that McDaniel wanted to return Mississippi to a“bygone era of intimidating black Mississippians from voting.”

• We must remember that the establishment funded race-baiting radio ads that claimed McDaniel had connections to the Ku Klux Klan and that McDaniel had a "racist agenda" that could cause black voters to "lose food stamps, housing assistance, student loans, early breakfast and lunch programs, and disaster assistance."

• We must remember that the establishment funded efforts that led to widespread claims of payoffs and voter fraud that threw the results of the election into serious doubt.
   
• We must remember that Mitch McConnell (R-KY) -- who vowed to "crush" conservatives "everywhere" -- raised over $800,000 from Washington, DC lobbyists and other GOP senators to help pay for Cochran's attacks against McDaniel.
   
• We must remember that the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) continued to oppose McDaniel after he won the most Republican votes in the primary, and then spent $175,000 of party money to defeat McDaniel in the runoff.

The establishment showed us in Mississippi that they're willing to betray their own voters and tear the GOP apart to hold on to power.

BRIGETTE GABRIEL EXHIBITS CLEAR THINKING IN WANTING TO THROW "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" IN THE GARBAGE

Brigette Gabriel, on a panel discussing responses to threats from radical Islamists, replied to a Muslim questioner noting that it takes only a small handful of people to cause havoc for a whole nation and the world.  Below is the video followed by a  text of what Gabriel said with minimal commentary by Barbara Boland of CNSNews.

 

Brigette Gabriel as reported by Barbara Boland:

"We are not here to bash Muslims. You were the one who brought up the issue about 'most Muslims' - not us. But since you brought it up, allow me to elaborate with my answer.

"There are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world today. Of course not all of them are radicals. The majority of them are peaceful people. The radicals are estimated to be between 15-25% according to all intelligence services around the world.

"That leaves 75% of [Muslims being] peaceful people. But when you look at 15-25% of the world's Muslim population, you're looking at 180 million to 300 million people dedicated to the destruction of Western civilization. That is as big as the United States," said Gabriel.

"So why should we worry about the radical 15-25%? Because it is the radicals that kill. Because it is the radicals that behead and massacre," Gabriel said.

"When you look throughout history, at the lessons of history, most Germans were peaceful. Yet the Nazis drove the agenda. And as a result, 60 million people died, almost 40 million in concentration camps. 6 million were Jews. The peaceful majority were irrelevant," Gabriel said.

"When you look at Russia, most Russians were peaceful as well. But the Russians were able to kill 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.

"When you look at China for example, most Chinese were peaceful as well. Yet the Chinese were able to kill 70 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.

"When you look at Japan prior to World War II, most Japanese were peaceful people too. Yet, Japan was able to butcher its way across Southeast Asia, killing 12 million people, mostly killed by bayonets and shovels. The peaceful majority were irrelevant," Gabriel said.

AMERICA'S HISTORIC ROLE IN SUSTAINING WORLD STABILITY

I hope people in the White House and State Department pause to take in Victor Davis Hanson's recital of the historical and current role the United States plays in keeping the world stable and relatively peaceful.  He titles his piece "Obama's World Disorder."   We in America generally have no idea how utterly strategic America  has been and remains in protecting nations, keeping aggressors at bay, and shaping world history for good.   Millions and millions of people depend on us.  Panic and fear now grip nations because their trust and reliance on American protection now looks misplaced and tenuous.  I prayBarack Obama reads Hanson's piece.  Obama's policies are creating world chaos that will doom many small nations and invite the destruction and enslaving of billions of people.   We live in a time of grave historical ignorance and miscalculation.  

Hanson's piece treats of Europe, Russia, China and the East and the stability the United States has fostered. The following short excerpt does not begin to do justice to the full piece..

The United States offered resistance to illiberal and autocratic regional powers that have at time challenged the protocols of the postwar order. And that pushback has allowed weaker nations—such as Poland or the Baltic States—to escape the orbit of post-Soviet Russia, while in the Pacific ensuring that an Australia, New Zealand, or the Philippines is not bullied into subservience by China

This strange postwar world ushered in the greatest advancement in prosperity amid the general absence of a cataclysmic world conflagration or continental war since the dawn of civilization. For the first time since the rise of the Greek city-state, most nations have been able both to prosper and to assume that their boundaries were inviolate and their populations mostly free from attack. A system of international communications, travel, commerce, and trade is predicated on the assumption that pirates cannot seize cargo ships, terrorists cannot hijack planes, and rogue nations cannot let off atomic bombs without a U.S. led coalition to stop them from threatening the international order.

For the U.S. to continue this exceptional role of preserving the postwar system in times of economic weakness and spiritual exhaustion, it is critical for the Obama administration to articulate to the American people exactly what the United States has accomplished, how the postwar order arose, and what precisely are the benefits that justify such enormous sacrifices in blood and treasure. . . 

Hanson notes at the end of his piece the following:

The Obama administration declares climate change the chief global threat. That new inanimate target is welcome news to aggressive nations that had once feared that their own reckless behavior might have been so singled out.

Americans did not fully appreciate the costly postwar global order that the United States had established over the last seventy years. Maybe they will start to as they witness it vanish.

MERIAM IBRAHIM, THE CHRISTIAN MOTHER IMPRISONED IN SUDAN AND SENTENCED TO DIE FOR APOSTASY, HAS BEEN FREED

Update 6/24/14   10:30 PM - Meriam cannot leave the country!!  The British Daily Mail reports in an exclusive story that she is being charged with fraud.  Reporter Dan Bates writes:

. . . Meriam Ibrahim has been accused of falsifying travel documents as she tried to leave the African country hours after the death penalty was dropped against her.

It is understood that the authorities told her she should have used the Muslim name she had when she was born, not the Christian name she uses after choosing to worship that faith.

It is not clear if her husband Daniel Wani, who is from Manchester in New Hampshire, has also been charged with any offenses.

The new allegations are a huge setback to Meriam's hopes of leaving Sudan and a further sign that the Sudanese government is playing twisted games over her release.

Meriam, a doctor, is on bail which was put up by a friend. She cannot leave Sudan until this matter is resolved as part of her bail conditions.

It came as campaigners working to free the mother-of-two attacked the U.S. Department of State for its ‘shameful’ response to helping her.

Tina Ramirez, founder of religious freedom organization Hardwired, called for Congress to investigate the 'incredibly negligent' handling of Meriam Ibrahim’s case.

Meriam and her husband were detained at the airport of the Sudanese capital Khartoum when they tried to leave the country with their son Martin, 21 months, and daughter Maya, one month.

Meriam was only freed on Monday after nine months in jail, during which she was shackled to the floor while she gave birth to Maya.

As noted, Tina Ramiraz of Hardwired, accuses the State Department of incredible negligence.  Read the whole news report to understand why.  Note also the reporter's chilling observation:

In a worrying twist, Meriam and Daniel were taken into custody by the feared National Intelligence and Security Services, MailOnline has confirmed.

NISS does not operate through the courts if it claims to be working on a matter of national security and can detain people indefinitely, Hardwired said.

The organisation was described as ‘Agents of Fear’ in a damning report by human rights campaigners Amnesty which outlined a catalogue of abuses they had carried out.

NISS is also notorious for taking prisoners to secret 'ghost houses' where they are tortured. . . 

We need to pray this family safely released and out of Sudan!  

(Original Post) - The following CBN News video interview offers  lots of insights into the freeing of Meriam Ibrahim.  Noteworthy is that Ibrahim was represented by Muslim lawyers who demonstrated tremendous courage in so doing.   Also noteworthy has been the negligence of the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum.   As Tony Perkins points out, "where the Obama administration has fallen short, House and Senate conservatives have not. Congressmen from Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.), and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) to Senators Cruz, Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) were doing the heavy lifting -- while not a single White House official met with the Sudanese ambassador."  

 

Perkins also notes that,

If the State Department isn't busy bringing Meriam home or dealing with the imploding Middle East, what exactly is it doing? According to Secretary Kerry, he's "working hard to… have lesbian, bisexual, and transgender ambassadors." Like his boss, Kerry foreign policy seems to be a foreign concept for this administration, whose only real overseas "progress" is bullying other nations into accepting this President's twisted sexual agenda.

During last week's LGBT pep rally at the State Department, Kerry's rah-rah moment was saying that if confirmed, Ted Osius would be the sixth openly homosexual ambassador. "… We now have hundreds of LGBT individuals in our bureaus at State, USAID, and at posts all around the world." Of course, what Kerry neglected to mention is that many of those posts are in complete and utter turmoil -- in large part because the Obama administration is too obsessed with its homosexual agenda to focus on the real priority of protecting America's national interests. It all confirms what former Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote in his book -- the only time he sensed passion from the President about any issue involving the military was overturning "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

Last week I read of the disturbing fanatical gay foreign policy of the Obama Administration when it cut U.S. aid to Uganda because it refuses to bow down to imperialist U.S. government pressures to remove restrictions on homosexual practice in the country.  I read:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday cut aid to Uganda, imposed visa restrictions and canceled a regional military exercise in response to a Ugandan law that imposes harsh penalties on homosexuality.

The White House said in a statement the measures were intended to "reinforce our support for human rights of all Ugandans regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity."

Homosexuality is taboo in most African countries and illegal in 37, including in Uganda where it has been a crime since British rule.  [more . . .]

Which leads one to ask why the Obama administration doesn't cut aid to countries that persecute Christians?  Why doesn't it, at the very least, advocate for freedom of religion and speak up on behalf of imprisoned Christians?  Why the Johnny one-note imperialist commitment to homosexual acceptance worldwide and failure to address human rights more broadly?

The news of Ibrahim's release has brought to my attention the good work of Hardwired, an organization I had not heard of before. 

MARCH FOR MARRIAGE IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

Update from the March:

 

Original post:  Watch live today via internet here  [Update note: The speeches may still be viewed at this link).

The Washington Times newspaper has produced a special edition - 

 

• 

  Traditional marriage proponents fight on

  By Cheryl Wetzstein - The Washington Times

  With stunning swiftness, the legal landscape for same-sex marriage has been reshaped in less than a year after the Supreme Court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Published June 18, 2014

   
• 

  Polling on marriage: The american people continue to support preserving marriage as the union of one

  By Frank Schubert

  It's become an article of faith in media reporting that there has been a massive shift in public opinion in favor of same-sex 'marriage.' Published June 18, 2014

• 

  Biblical marriage is beautiful

  By Dr. Mark A. Smith and OCU President

  Current society finds many citizens deciding critical issues based on polls or humanistic thinking- which views humans as the decision makers or as "gods" of their own lives. I, in turn, take a biblical view of allowing my belief system to be shaped by biblical foundation principles. Published June 18, 2014

   

PETER BURGER - "IS THE CHINESE REGIME CHANGING ITS POLICY TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY?"

Famed sociologist of religion Peter Berger reflects on the widely-reported government demolition of a prominent church in the Southeast city of Wenzhou and reads the tea leaves.  His article is must reading for followers of Christianity in China.

PROTEST AT WHITE HOUSE OVER PRESIDENT'S SILENCE ON IMPRISONED MOTHER SENTENCED TO DIE

Paul Strand, CBN News, reports:

WASHINGTON -- Protesters from some 40 groups marched and rallied outside the White House Thursday, accusing the president of not doing enough to push Sudan to free Meriam Ibrahim, a 27-year-old mother of two who's been sentenced to die for her Christian faith.

 Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, attended the rally and pointed out Ibrahim, who is a daughter of a Muslim father, has been sentenced to die because she herself is a practicing Christian.

"Very simply the fact that she is a Christian, that she attends a local Catholic church, is deemed a crime there," Cruz said of Sudan. "And for that crime, she has been sentenced to 100 lashes and then to hang by the neck till dead."

Meriam's young son is imprisoned with her, as is her newborn baby daughter. Some of the protesters calling for their freedom wore red links as they marched and demonstrated.

"These represent the chains that Meriam Ibrahim has been wearing since she was imprisoned in Sudan," Penny Nance, with Concerned Women for America, told CBN News.

"She actually was forced to give birth while wearing them. So we wanted to wear them today in solidarity with our Christian sister, who was imprisoned only because of her faith," she added.

HOW TO SHARPEN AND REUSE YOUR RAZOR BLADES FOR YEARS

I am delighted to have come across this video.  A month ago when I went to buy more razors, I rebelled and decided it would be less expensive to buy a new razor (which came with two razor blades) than to buy refills for my old razor.  Now with this technique, it will be a long time before I ever again buy razor blades!

 

CHRISTIANS FLEEING FOR THEIR LIVES IN IRAQ

** Update: Al-Queda rebels take Tikrit; force 500,000 to flee Mosul

** Original post: Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom reports the terrible news:

The government of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, fell overnight to the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, also called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Mosul’s panic-stricken Christians, along with many others, are now fleeing en masse to the rural Nineveh Plain, according to the Vatican publicationFides. The border crossings into Kurdistan, too, are jammed with the cars of the estimated 150,000 desperate escapees.

The population, particularly its Christian community, has much to fear. The ruthlessness of ISIS, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, has been legendary. Its beheadings, crucifixions, and other atrocities against Christians and everyone else who fails to conform to its vision of a caliphate have been on full display earlier this year, in Syria.

As Corner readers will remember, in February, it was the militants of this rebel group that, in the northern Syrian state of Raqqa, compelled Christian leaders to sign a 7th-century dhimmi contract. The document sets forth specific terms denying the Christians the basic civil rights of equality and religious freedom and committing them to pay protection money in exchange for their lives and the ability to keep their Christian identity.

Since 2003, Iraq’s Christian community has suffered intense religious persecution on top of the effects of the conflict and, as a result, it’s shrunk by well over 50 percent. Mosul, the site of ancient Nineveh of the Assyrians, who converted to Christianity in the first century, has become the home of many Christians who remained. Considered by Christians the place of last resort inside Iraq, Mosul and the surrounding Nineveh Plain has been home to many Christian refugees driven out of Baghdad and Basra. Mosul has the only university, the best hospitals, and the largest markets serving the Christian towns and villages of the Nineveh Plain. The plain, itself, is now at grave risk of direct jihadi attacks and the possibility of being cut off from an essential city.

RUSH LIMBAUGH EXPLAINS ERIC CANTOR'S UNEXPECTED DEFEAT

Rush produced a brilliant monologue as his show began today.  It's titled: "Warning: Amnesty is Not Necessarily Dead."  I had not tuned in but saw Drudge had linked to a transcript within an hour.  What does Rush say?

I can honestly say I have never seen such a divide between the people who govern this country and the people who live in it. I have never seen Washington so distant and so removed and so unaware. It is stunning to me to listen to some of the commentary from inside the Beltway . . . 

I have been predicting that inside-the-Beltway people have no clue what the people of this country are really thinking. They have no clue how irritated people are. They have no idea how angry, and they don't care on top of that, even if they were aware. But Washington has less and less about it that relates to normal life in this country than I've ever seen. And the commentary in the aftermath of this election last night is evidence of it. . .

Rush goes on to discuss what he considers totally "out-of-touch" commentary, including Republicans.  He also notes the failure of Republicans to immediately embrace Dave Brat who defeated Eric Cantor.  Brat was against amnesty, but Rush predicts that amnesty is not thereby defeated.  Not by a long shot.  Read it all..

 

ISRAELIS DEVELOP FIRST BLOOD TEST FOR BREAST CANCER

Ruthie Blum reports:

After eight years of painstaking research, Israeli life-sciences company Eventus Diagnostics (EventusDx) has produced a blood test for the early detection of breast cancer.

The Octava Pink test is now available in Israel and Italy, and is undergoing clinical trials to receive US Food and Drug Administration approval.

This is the first blood test ever that can reveal cancer, not merely markers that might indicate cancer or something else. Its innovation also lies in its examination of antibodies in the blood to pinpoint this specific cancer.

Molecular biologist Galit Yahalom — who heads the research team at the EventusDx offices and lab, located in Moshav Ora outside of Jerusalem – explains the breakthrough to ISRAEL21c.  [more . . .]

MORAL NARCISSISM EXPLAINS THE PROGRESSIVES' NATION-DESTROYING, UNWORKABLE POLICIES

Roger L. Simon has written a piece that offers powerful explanatory power on what is going on in this country.  He titles his piece 'I'm Just a Soul Whose Intentions are Good': Obama, Bergdahl and Moral Narcissism   He writes:

In 1979, Christopher Lasch published The Culture of Narcissism warning of the normalizing of pathological narcissismin our society.  Considering events since then, he was evidently on to something.  Now, some 35 years later in the Obama era, with the Bergdahl incident only the latest in a parade of endless scandals, we have arrived at a  full blown era of what has lately been called Moral Narcissism.

Moral Narcissism is an evocative term for the almost schizophrenic divide between intentions and results now common in our culture.  It doesn’t matter how anything turns out as long as your intentions are good.  And, just as importantly, the only determinant of those intentions, the only one who defines them, is you.

In other words, if you propose or do something, it only matters that you feel good or righteous about what you did or are proposing, that it makes you feel better personally.  The results are irrelevant, as are how the actual activity affects others. . .   [more. . .]

Me:  It might be pointed out that nations as a whole often exhibit moral narcissism.  As Hans Kundnani points out, nations as a whole unconsciously project subjective historical prisms (and moral narcissism) on to world hot spots.  He writes:

The Middle East tends to be what the Germans call a Projektionsfläche, or projection screen, onto which we project our own collective memories. Thus, I would argue, Germans tend to look at the Israeli-Palestinian issue through the prism of the Nazi past (e.g. comparisons between Israelis and Nazis); Britons, on the other hand, tend to look at it through the prism of our own colonial history (e.g. comparisons between Israel and apartheid in South Africa, which it seems to me are particularly prevalent in Britain). Unsurprisingly, Germans’ attitudes to the Middle East can be particularly narcissistic. For example, according to an attitude survey published last week, 57 per cent of Germans think “Israel is conducting a war of extermination [Vernichtungskrieg] against the Palestinians” – surely a classic example of what Dan Diner has called “exonerating projection”.

Andrew McCarthy on the Bergdahl-Taliban swap

Andrew McCarthy just may be the most compellingly wise observer of contemporary Islamic-American political realities around.  In this piece, he dissects Krauthammer's analysis of Obama's swap and explains its error.  Since it's not a two-sentence post, I suppose most will not read it.  But if you wish to encounter a truly wise, analytical mind at work, McCarthy's piece will prove a gem.   

Excerpts:

. . . While combat is still raging — especially combat by terrorist methods that violate civilized norms — detainees should be held until the conclusion of hostilities unless there is some strategic advantage in releasing them. There can be no strategic advantage in replenishing the Taliban with five of its most capable commanders at a time when the Taliban, along with its al-Qaeda and Haqqani confederates, is still conducting offensive jihadist operations against both our troops in harm’s way and civilians. . .

, . .  releasing enemy combatants while the war is still raging fortifies the enemy, incentivizes the enemy to extend the war, and causes more carnage. If we are going to talk about our values and the veneration of human life, it makes no sense to account for the marginal humanitarian benefit of obtaining the return of our captured troops while ignoring the humanitarian catastrophe of returning enemy detainees to a hot battlefield. That is especially so if the detainees in question are terrorists, who target civilians. 

. . . The absurdity here is that President Obama seems to think he can bring a war to an end, abracadabra, by saying so. In reality, the war is not close to being over from the enemy’s point of view.  (Much more . . .)

McCarthy is the author of the recently published, and much talked about book, Faithless Execution: Building the Case for Obama's Impeachment,  which he introduces and talks about here.

D-DAY REMEMBERED

Update:  I very much like Wintery Kinght's post featuring Ronald Reagan's Normandy speech and  WK's reflections on what D-Day means to Christians

 

** Following is a link to a special series of interactive photographs taken before, during and after D-Day.  Click on each of the pictures and find that same scene today.  You won't be sorry!

 

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/ng-interactive/2014/jun/01/d-day-landings-scenes-in-1944-and-now-interactive

 

** Also, here is the story of one of the veterans who stormed the participated in D-Day  - Andy Andrews.

 

 

From an interview: . . .     Andy Andrews, 90 , in his own words/As told to staff writer  David Perlmutt

. . .  I was drafted with 250 boys out of my class at Central High in Chattanooga, Tenn. That was in June, 1943. We used to joke that we went through the graduation ceremony and out the back right into a GI truck.

I had four brothers. All of us were drafted. All of us went to war and thankfully all of us came home. God was good to us.

I was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, the Big Red One, 16th Regiment, H Company. We were sworn in at Fort Oglethorpe (near Chattanooga) and sent to Fort McClellan in Alabama. They told us, ‘You guys are going to be machine-gunners. You understand that?’ None of us had a clue about what we were doing.

CAN WE CRITICIZE THE BEHAVIOR OF A PARENT IN DISTRESS?

I think David French's post right on the money.  I especially like his incorporation of an important  C.S. Lewis quote.   French writes:  

This morning Chuck Todd and Joe Scarborough got into an on-air scrap over Robert Bergdahl, Bowe Bergdahl’s father. Scarborough criticized the elder Bergdahl’s dialogue with jihadists and his failure to admonish his son to stay on the line of battle rather than desert. Todd rather indignantly replied with the standard defense that one can’t judge a parent under extreme duress. The entire exchange is below:

 

Todd’s view is a popular one — and oft-repeated. We frequently give people who are under ultimate stress a pass for their outbursts and bad judgment. But should we?

Our moral obligations do not cease when we are under the most extreme forms of pressure. In fact, that is arguably when our moral commitments matter most. C. S. Lewis described courage as “not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at its testing point.” In other words, we don’t even know if we possess a virtue unless that virtue is tested. 

Moreover, by giving a pass to moral failure under pressure, we make future failure more likely. People, in times of crisis, will often be as indulgent as their community (their family, their church, their friends, etc.) allows them to be, and if we suspend moral judgment, then they’re more likely to grow increasingly base and self-centered. 

In the crucible of combat we demand — upon pain of punishment — that men and women demonstrate the virtues of loyalty, steadfastness, judgment, integrity, and courage. While we understand that failure can and will occur, we do not condone it, and if we did condone failure, then our Army would melt away into a uniformed rabble, hardly worthy of a great nation. Failures may be understandable, but that does not render them justifiable.

We must maintain moral standards — even for those facing life’s ultimate tests. At the same time, however, we must do so with the utmost humility — drained of all self-righteousness. There are few of us who know exactly how we will react to any given test unless we’ve endured that challenge or challenges sufficiently similar. Military history is littered with examples of soldiers whose bravado and bravery vanished at the first sound of hostile fire. I’ve known parents and husbands and wives who’ve crumbled when facing the very challenges they critiqued others for failing.

My own obligation is to diligently seek to know what’s right, strive to do it even — especially — when times are most difficult, and pray fervently for the necessary grace to accomplish God’s purpose. I know my strength alone is insufficient for any great task.

I’m reminded of the Apostle Paul’s admonition that we obey our Savior and work out our salvation with “fear and trembling.” Why? Because we cannot depend on ourselves: “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” 

We must ask even the fearful and grieving to maintain their integrity and moral courage. But we must render aid to the fearful and grieving to the best of our abilities, demonstrate compassion in the event of failure, and humbly acknowledge that untested courage is merely an aspiration — and not courage at all.

OUR FUTURE IS 1979 - VICTOR DAVIS HANSON

What happened in 1979?  Hanson reminds us:

In 1979, after two full years of Jimmy Carter’s reset foreign policy — and after the president’s “malaise” speech and the surreal attack by the aquatic rabbit — various risk-takers concluded that the United States had decided that it either could not or would not intercede against aggression. In short order, the Chinese invaded Vietnam; the Sandinistas seized power in Nicaragua, and Central America descended into a Communist miasma; the Iranians took U.S. hostages in Tehran; terrorists stormed Mecca; the Soviets invaded Afghanistan — and, after that last event, President Carter confessed that he had undergone “a dramatic change in my own opinion of what the Soviets’ ultimate goals are.”

A weak president invites enemies of the United States to adventurism and the creation of a destabilized world.  Hanson again:

For a variety of reasons, our European and Pacific partners privately sense that the American-led postwar global order is eroding and that regional hegemons like China, Iran, and Russia are filling the gaps. The Mideast badlands seem to be expanding into Egypt, Syria, and Libya. Iran wishes to do to the Middle East what Russia is doing to the former Soviet Union.

So what might the future hold?  Hanson cites hot spots that could erupt during the last two years of the Obama presidency:

 Ukraine, the Baltic states, and the rest of the periphery of Putin’s Russia; Taiwan, the air and sea space surrounding Japan, the Vietnam-China border, the 38th parallel; Cyprus and the Aegean; the hostile neighborhood of Israel; Iran with its defiant nuclear efforts; and on and on. Some authoritarian rogue state or terrorist in the next 30 months may well risk aggression, on the expectation that never in the last half-century has there been a better opportunity to readjust the status quo. When Obama proclaims that climate change is now the most pressing American foreign-policy challenge, many bad actors abroad feel relieved — as if coal burning rather than aggression is about the only sin that might anger America.

Read the whole article.

Me:  It's hard to imagine a more dramatic power decline than that presided over and engineered by the current president of the United States, a man twice elected by an uninformed, superficial, distracted, and easily-swayed populace.   We and the world are paying the price.