I had the privilege of attending the 233'rd celebration of the Navy and Marine Corps the other night. I was honored to be among the young Midshipmen and Marines of the NROTC Unit of Vanderbilt University. This is the same battalion that I graduated from almost 30 years ago and I cannot tell you how proud I am to see that they are still going strong. The young men are gentlemen, the young ladies elegant and the whole affair was serious but fun. As I mingled among these fine folks I was struck by their willingness to serve their country. They serve this higher calling because in their hearts they know that there are wolves out there in the world and that the average every day citizen is perfectly comfortable being a sheep. To borrow from Bill Whittle's superlative column, they know they are sheepdogs. In my youth, I too was a sheepdog - and I guess, intellectually I still am. John McCain is a sheepdog. He knows there is good and there is evil and he has stared the latter in the face. But what about Obama?
This germ of a thought led me down a rough attempt at psychiatry. You see, I understand the formation of the brain that ultimately produced the mind of John McCain. I understand the call to service...to the greater good. I understand the willingness to run to the sound of the gun; to run up the stairs when everyone else is running down. McCain may not have a well formed philosophical basis in classical conservative thought - thus his inability to connect the dots on lower taxation leading to prosperity. But in his core he understands what he learned at the Boat School (as we jealous NROTC types referred to the Naval Academy):
When John McCain went through the Naval Academy, he would have taken such courses as "Ethics and Moral Reasoning for the Naval Leader," he would have been imbued with the Naval Officer's creed of "care for your men." Just as we all learned that when you hear "Man Overboard Starboard Side!" you immediately order "Right full rudder, all engines ahead full!" he would have learned to the very marrow of his being that an officer sets the example for his men, that there is nothing he would ask them to do that he would not be willing to do himself. But what about Obama?
Well, sadly much of what we do know about Obama is shrouded in mystery. We don't even have a birth certificate, and there is substantial evidence that he may not even be a legal candidate for President. If he was born in Kenya, as there is a lot of backing for, he is disqualified. But let's get past that and go to what we do know, much of it substantiated in his own biography.
First, "Uncle Frank." Frank, is a character that was a good friend of Obama's grandfather according to his own biography. This is Frank Marshall Davis. This is what the House Committee for Un-American Activities found about Mr. Davis in 1950:
This germ of a thought led me down a rough attempt at psychiatry. You see, I understand the formation of the brain that ultimately produced the mind of John McCain. I understand the call to service...to the greater good. I understand the willingness to run to the sound of the gun; to run up the stairs when everyone else is running down. McCain may not have a well formed philosophical basis in classical conservative thought - thus his inability to connect the dots on lower taxation leading to prosperity. But in his core he understands what he learned at the Boat School (as we jealous NROTC types referred to the Naval Academy):
To develop midshipmen morally, mentally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, honor and loyalty in order to provide graduates who are dedicated to a career of naval service and have potential for future development in mind and character to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.Duty, honor, loyalty. Or as I heard from the letter to the Midshipmen the other night from the Chief of Naval Operations: honor, courage, commitment. I may pull my hair out when I watch John McCain in a debate rail against the rich and powerful on Wall Street while ignoring the hands-in-the-cookie-jar liberals in Washington, but I know HE will run up the stairs when the fire is burning. No, he is no George Washington or Abraham Lincoln...but I know he loves this country with a passion that parallels my own deep affection. But what about Obama?
When John McCain went through the Naval Academy, he would have taken such courses as "Ethics and Moral Reasoning for the Naval Leader," he would have been imbued with the Naval Officer's creed of "care for your men." Just as we all learned that when you hear "Man Overboard Starboard Side!" you immediately order "Right full rudder, all engines ahead full!" he would have learned to the very marrow of his being that an officer sets the example for his men, that there is nothing he would ask them to do that he would not be willing to do himself. But what about Obama?
Well, sadly much of what we do know about Obama is shrouded in mystery. We don't even have a birth certificate, and there is substantial evidence that he may not even be a legal candidate for President. If he was born in Kenya, as there is a lot of backing for, he is disqualified. But let's get past that and go to what we do know, much of it substantiated in his own biography.
First, "Uncle Frank." Frank, is a character that was a good friend of Obama's grandfather according to his own biography. This is Frank Marshall Davis. This is what the House Committee for Un-American Activities found about Mr. Davis in 1950:
Mr. Davis' column defends Communists and attacks capitalism with the same vigor as columns appearing regularly in the Daily Worker and other frankly Communist publications. Typical of Mr. Davis' remarks are the following: “Democracy today lies weak and slowly dying from the poison administered by the divident doctors in Washington and Wall Street who have fooled a trusting public into believing that they are the specialists who would save us from the dread diseases of socialism and communism. . . . They hope to hand us fascism disguised as the healed democracy.” (Honolulu Record, July 28, 1949, p. 8). Mr. Davis constantly defended the 11 top United States Communist officials recently convicted in New York on charges of conspiracy to advocate the overthrow of the Government by force and violence. One of Mr. Davis' comments on the case was as follows : “I feel strong sympathy for the Communist minority who are being oppressed for their political beliefs.” (Honolulu Record, October 20, 1949, p. 6). When Mr. Davis' column first appeared in the Record in May 1949, the Record boasted that the author was a member of the national executive board of the Civil Rights Congress. The organization is cited as Communist by Attorney General Tom Clark as well as by the Committee on Un-American Activities. Mr. Davis has signed a number of statements in behalf of Communists under the sponsorship of the Civil Rights Congress; one of these defended was Gerhart Eisler, notorious Communist international agent who escaped jailing for passport fraud by fleeing to the Soviet sector of Germany. Other front organizations of the Communist Party with which Mr. Davis has associated include : American Youth for Democracy, Abraham Lincoln School, National Federation for Constitutional Liberties, League of American Writers, the National Negro Congress, and the Hawaii Civil Liberties Committee.
OK - so he was definitively a communist. At a time that the United States was locked in a death struggle with the Soviet Union, one of the most influential people in young Barack's life in Hawaii was Frank Marshall Davis. I don't begrudge a rudderless young man gravitating to a grandfatherly figure...but what was passed on? There are central themes to Davis's writing that must have permeated his personality. Foremost among those is not "duty, honor, country." Rather, it would be a despisal of the country, a (dare I say it?) bitterness towards success, capitalism and an American system that had left blacks downtrodden. There are more than legitimate beefs that African-American's can have about their troubled history in our Republic...there is much shame that whites bear too. But the solution is not socialism, communism or any other "ism," that is inspiring at the time (Muslimism?). It is following the path we have followed with the successes we have had. But does Obama believe that?
Let's back up a second and look at the birth situation for Barrack. His father, a Kenyan Muslim comes to the United States to study, hooks up with Ann Dunham, a white lady from Kansas. They meet in Honolulu and two years after Barrack's birth, Barrack Senior heads back to Kenya divorcing Ann along the way. Ann then marries Lolo Soetero, an Indonesian Muslim. Barry moves to Indonesia, enrolling in "local schools." Now, what I have been able to gather, neither his birth or step-father were "radical muslims." Nor was he enrolled in a Wahabi Madrassa in Jakarta. But, he cannot help but be somewhat defensive of muslim attitudes if that was what was in his house at an early age...I am still partial to Oklahoma football because I grew up with a father that loved his Sooners. Any way you cut it, there couldn't have been much "fun" in the dysfunction that he grew up with.
One of the really great mysteries surrounding the man is how he was able to afford what he did at a relatively early age. He started his college career at Occidental College in California and then transferred to Columbia in New York. Why? His transcripts haven't been released, so we really don't know much beyond the fact that he majored in "Political Science." Neither of these institutions is cheap, nor easy to get into. Who? How much? Why?
Next up...the Chicago years. You've seen the video - "No,no,no not God bless America, God*&#m America!" Why? Twenty years and you never heard the vile bile spewed from the pulpit of Reverend Wright's Church? That we are asked to believe this makes the presence of UFO's at Area 51 quite plausible. But the underpinning of Wright's belief is even more frightening. In an inteview with Fox's Sean Hannity over a year ago, Wright became indignant with Sean declaring that his problem was that he had not read James Cone. OK, let's go take a look.
James Hal Cone, per Wikipedia,"is an advocate of Black liberation theology, a theology grounded in the experience of African Americans. In 1969, his book Black Theology and Black Power provided a new way to articulate the distinctiveness of theology in the black Church.[1] James Cone’s work was influential and political from the time of his first publication, and he remains so today" Hmm, interesting. And what is "Black liberation theology?" Weelll, it maintains the following:
1. "Therefore, simply to say that Jesus did not use violence is no evidence relevant to the condition of black people as they decide on what to do about white oppression."
2. "Whether the American system is beyond redemption we will have to wait and see. But we can be certain that black patience has run out, and unless white America responds positively to the theory and activity of Black Power, then a bloody, protracted civil war is inevitable."
3. "To be Christian is to be one of those whom God has chosen. God has chosen black people!"
OK, enough - twenty years of this stuff and NONE of it rubbed off. This leads us with the unpalatable choice - he's either deaf, an idiot OR he believes this slime.
So now let's move on to the next batch of Obama's soul mates:
Now, I am not in favor of cluttering up the Constitution with Amendments about flag desecration. However, there should be protection for someone, like myself, that sees this man standing on a flag that I have seen bring the greatest good of any nation in history and wants to punch him in the nose. That, friends, is William Ayers. A founder of the Weathermen. I have written about him elsewhere in this blog and there's been a lot of ink about him lately. But the pattern continues in the M.O.B. (Mind of Barry) - he hangs with people who hate this country. There is no "duty, honor, country" here. There is only "change, hope, future." But what is the change? We simply don't know. We can only surmise that "it ain't good," as one of my first Skippers said.
Let's back up a second and look at the birth situation for Barrack. His father, a Kenyan Muslim comes to the United States to study, hooks up with Ann Dunham, a white lady from Kansas. They meet in Honolulu and two years after Barrack's birth, Barrack Senior heads back to Kenya divorcing Ann along the way. Ann then marries Lolo Soetero, an Indonesian Muslim. Barry moves to Indonesia, enrolling in "local schools." Now, what I have been able to gather, neither his birth or step-father were "radical muslims." Nor was he enrolled in a Wahabi Madrassa in Jakarta. But, he cannot help but be somewhat defensive of muslim attitudes if that was what was in his house at an early age...I am still partial to Oklahoma football because I grew up with a father that loved his Sooners. Any way you cut it, there couldn't have been much "fun" in the dysfunction that he grew up with.
One of the really great mysteries surrounding the man is how he was able to afford what he did at a relatively early age. He started his college career at Occidental College in California and then transferred to Columbia in New York. Why? His transcripts haven't been released, so we really don't know much beyond the fact that he majored in "Political Science." Neither of these institutions is cheap, nor easy to get into. Who? How much? Why?
Next up...the Chicago years. You've seen the video - "No,no,no not God bless America, God*&#m America!" Why? Twenty years and you never heard the vile bile spewed from the pulpit of Reverend Wright's Church? That we are asked to believe this makes the presence of UFO's at Area 51 quite plausible. But the underpinning of Wright's belief is even more frightening. In an inteview with Fox's Sean Hannity over a year ago, Wright became indignant with Sean declaring that his problem was that he had not read James Cone. OK, let's go take a look.
James Hal Cone, per Wikipedia,"is an advocate of Black liberation theology, a theology grounded in the experience of African Americans. In 1969, his book Black Theology and Black Power provided a new way to articulate the distinctiveness of theology in the black Church.[1] James Cone’s work was influential and political from the time of his first publication, and he remains so today" Hmm, interesting. And what is "Black liberation theology?" Weelll, it maintains the following:
- Blacks must be liberated from multiple forms of bondage - social, economic, political and religious.
- They believe that Jesus reveals himself as black to destroy white racism.
- ALL white men are responsible for white oppression of black men and thus must be eliminated.
1. "Therefore, simply to say that Jesus did not use violence is no evidence relevant to the condition of black people as they decide on what to do about white oppression."
2. "Whether the American system is beyond redemption we will have to wait and see. But we can be certain that black patience has run out, and unless white America responds positively to the theory and activity of Black Power, then a bloody, protracted civil war is inevitable."
3. "To be Christian is to be one of those whom God has chosen. God has chosen black people!"
OK, enough - twenty years of this stuff and NONE of it rubbed off. This leads us with the unpalatable choice - he's either deaf, an idiot OR he believes this slime.
So now let's move on to the next batch of Obama's soul mates:
Now, I am not in favor of cluttering up the Constitution with Amendments about flag desecration. However, there should be protection for someone, like myself, that sees this man standing on a flag that I have seen bring the greatest good of any nation in history and wants to punch him in the nose. That, friends, is William Ayers. A founder of the Weathermen. I have written about him elsewhere in this blog and there's been a lot of ink about him lately. But the pattern continues in the M.O.B. (Mind of Barry) - he hangs with people who hate this country. There is no "duty, honor, country" here. There is only "change, hope, future." But what is the change? We simply don't know. We can only surmise that "it ain't good," as one of my first Skippers said.
In the end, the contrast is stark. One candidate does not have a firm political philosophy, but has good judgment, sound intentions and a deep love of country that is summed up in his political slogan "Country First." The other candidate does have a firm political philosophy as exhibited by his voting record. He is deeply liberal, pro-abortion, pro-tax, pro-income redistribution. His judgment as exhibited by his choice of associations is extraordinarily poor UNLESS you believe the philosophy of the associations. His intentions are suspect and his view of this country is jaundiced. America is not the "city on the hill," a noble warrior doing good. No, America is a discriminating, hating society that needs to be changed...to be made better in the fashion of the Soviet state. The choice is clear.
Rumble on!