I hate to sound like a snob but as I wait for our President to make a decision about what he is going to do in Afghanistan concerning General McCrystal’s recommendation, I can’t help but think what got us into this ridiculous situation. I also thought that in my years as a CEO, if it took me four months to make a decision about a high priority issue and then announced to an awaiting constituency about issuing that decision after that amount of time, I would have been a laughing stock to the employees and the shareholders would probably have shown me the door. I guess in politics the bar is not set as high.
The question then came to me about how we put an individual into the most powerful job on this planet with virtually no experience in running anything and educated in the Saul Alinsky school for radicals. Recently, Professor Joseph Olsen of Hamline University School of Law, in St. Paul, Minnesota did an unusual analysis of some interesting facts concerning last November’s presidential election. Although Obama won by a convincing electoral vote margin, many of us thought that the margin would be greater given the Republican candidate, the bias press coverage, the enormous amount of money spent by Obama, and the economic developments just prior to the election. Consider these facts:
The number of States won by Democrats: 19, Republicans: 29
The square miles of land won by Democrats: 580,000, Republicans: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by Democrats: 127 million, Republicans: 143 million
Murder rates per 100k residents in counties won by Democrats: 13.2, Republicans: 2.1
Dr. Olson also added that “in the aggregate, the map of the territory Republicans won was the land owned by most of the taxpaying citizens of the country. Democratic territory encompassed those citizens living in low-income tenements and living off various forms of government welfare”.
Olson believes that the U.S. is now somewhere between the “complacency and apathy” phase in the evolution of democracy, with some 40% of the population already having reached the “government dependency” phase. Since the liberal wing of the Democratic Party is hell bent on amnesty and citizenship for 20 million illegal’s who will eventually vote, along with the lowering of the voting age, the educational level of the U.S. voting public will be similar to that of a Banana Republic. The fact that Obama was elected primarily by minorities and the youth vote with the popularity of a rock-star, are you surprised at what we are contending with today?
Ronald Reagan said that, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction”. It’s time to stop this train to extinction. In this country we do it in the voting booth.
America you better start getting serious about this before its too late.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Fort Hood - Outright Terrorism and Political Correctness
As I contemplate the events that occurred at Fort Hood, Texas the other day, I can’t help but believe this really was a terrorist act caused by political correctness run amuck even in the U.S. army. Although 13 people were murdered and 30 injured this could have been far worse, were it not for the brave acts of a few people. The density of unarmed people in a small space and the assumed secure surroundings existent at Fort Hood were a perfect scenario for an entrepreneurial terrorist like Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan to carry out his dirty deed.
More facts will eventually emerge, particularly as people who came in contact with Hasan over the years are questioned and his computer files are inspected, however, one thing is certain in my mind; this was clearly a planned and calculated terrorist act of the entrepreneurial variety. Hasan was not a member of the “corporation”, Al Qaida, but in business for himself. This act was driven by his Muslim religious beliefs and it was executed in the name of Allah as he shouted “Allaha Akbar” the Arabic phrase for “God is Great!”. The frightening thing is that sentiments like this are cultivated in many mosques all over the U.S. Although the vast majority of people who practice the Islamic faith here are peaceful and law-abiding, there are pockets of people like Maj. Hasan who are capable of this type of terrorism and, in fact, we have stopped many these terrorist attempts with the help of law-abiding Muslims. However, the silence of the Muslim community in condemning these acts is deafening, this also is a result of political correctness in their own community.
The U.S. is extremely vulnerable to entrepreneurial terrorism; since our armed forces and intelligence community are in dire need of people who speak Arabic, who can act as counter-intelligence agents for us, and will integrate with the local population in efforts to stabilize political factions where our forces are deployed. The problem is that the forces of political correctness exacerbate this vulnerability as exemplified in the Hasan case. Hasan may have been provoked by harassment, but it now appears that his actions as a psychiatrist for army returnees and his vocal tirades against our military policies made him a lightning rod for this harassment. His training as psychiatrist should have been enough for him to realize the consequences of his behavior.
Yes, this may have been the act of a desperate man but most of the suicide bombers recruited by Al Qaida are desperate men and women with no future and caught up in a religious justification for their acts. Maj. Hasan had a future, an education, a profession, and a job, all paid for, compliments of the U.S. government and yet he chose this action in the name of Allah. Most Americans abhor this, yet political correctness prevents us from speaking out about this apparently unique Islamic concept.
More facts will eventually emerge, particularly as people who came in contact with Hasan over the years are questioned and his computer files are inspected, however, one thing is certain in my mind; this was clearly a planned and calculated terrorist act of the entrepreneurial variety. Hasan was not a member of the “corporation”, Al Qaida, but in business for himself. This act was driven by his Muslim religious beliefs and it was executed in the name of Allah as he shouted “Allaha Akbar” the Arabic phrase for “God is Great!”. The frightening thing is that sentiments like this are cultivated in many mosques all over the U.S. Although the vast majority of people who practice the Islamic faith here are peaceful and law-abiding, there are pockets of people like Maj. Hasan who are capable of this type of terrorism and, in fact, we have stopped many these terrorist attempts with the help of law-abiding Muslims. However, the silence of the Muslim community in condemning these acts is deafening, this also is a result of political correctness in their own community.
The U.S. is extremely vulnerable to entrepreneurial terrorism; since our armed forces and intelligence community are in dire need of people who speak Arabic, who can act as counter-intelligence agents for us, and will integrate with the local population in efforts to stabilize political factions where our forces are deployed. The problem is that the forces of political correctness exacerbate this vulnerability as exemplified in the Hasan case. Hasan may have been provoked by harassment, but it now appears that his actions as a psychiatrist for army returnees and his vocal tirades against our military policies made him a lightning rod for this harassment. His training as psychiatrist should have been enough for him to realize the consequences of his behavior.
Yes, this may have been the act of a desperate man but most of the suicide bombers recruited by Al Qaida are desperate men and women with no future and caught up in a religious justification for their acts. Maj. Hasan had a future, an education, a profession, and a job, all paid for, compliments of the U.S. government and yet he chose this action in the name of Allah. Most Americans abhor this, yet political correctness prevents us from speaking out about this apparently unique Islamic concept.
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