Mass Graves For ISIS Murderers. Thank You, Mr. Trump

From the Jakarta Post: 

The Islamic State group once drew recruits from near and far with promises of paradise but now bodies of jihadists lie in mass graves or at the mercy of wild dogs as its "caliphate" collapses.

Flies buzz around human remains poking through the dusty earth in the Iraqi town of Dhuluiyah, 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of Baghdad, at a hastily-dug pit containing the bodies of dozens of IS fighters killed in 2015.

"They should have ended up in the stomachs of stray dogs," local police officer Mohammed al-Juburi told AFP.

"We buried them here not out of love but because we wanted to avoid diseases."

At one stage, IS ruthlessly wielded power over a vast swathe of territory straddling Iraq and Syria, but a military onslaught on multiple fronts has seen its fiefdom shrink to a last few pockets.

Since the launch in 2014 of air strikes in Iraq and Syria against the group, a US-led coalition says around 80,000 jihadists have been killed. 

The overall number of dead is higher if you include those targeted by Russian and Syrian strikes. 

Three observations:

• Indonesia, capital Jakarta, is a huge nation, with an enormous Muslim presence. Some editor there felt safe enough to run this story.
• Yes, the efforts to curtail ISIS began in 2014, after they raped and pillaged mercilessly, while President Obama dismissed them as 'junior varsity', not really worth worrying about.
• His successor has taken them very seriously. Every stump speech spoke of 'Radical Islamic Terrorism' and contained the phrase 'Kick the hell out of ISIS'. The Donald, the world is beginning to discover, is a man of his word. 

Dead jihadis can't plant car bombs, rape women and children, kidnap innocents, burn prisoners alive, behead victims on camera, run trucks through crowds. The Donald understands something his predecessor never could wrap his head around: The jihadis crossed over into a moral Point of No Return, a place past re-integration into the civilized world. The only sane and moral course of action is to run them to ground, and bury them into the unmarked graves they earned. 

It is a horrible thing to have to say this, but this is the path they chose. May Providence grant success to those tasked with hunting the monsters down.

Pastor Peters Asks: When Was This Written?

Truth is truth, regardless of year of publication...

Pastor Peters--ya'll really should check him out--shares along these cogent words, which could have been written this week, but in actuality date from the early 1940's, by Episcopal Bishop Bernard Iddings Bell.

When one examines the blueprints of a post-war Paradise offered for our encouragement or enticement by the spokesmen of the contending nations, one perceives a common denominator in their various plans: a unanimous assumption that the new order is to be an affair of this world only; a taking it for granted that all that men need for security and happiness and peace is an industrial and political setup well conceived; a postulation that man, when he regards himself as an end to be served, is morally competent, of sufficient natural good-will to make his system—whatever it may be—minister to something more satisfactory than a frequently renewed fratricidal conflict.

Against this common assumption which characterizes all the popular post-war hopes—British, American, Russian, German, Japanese, Italian—the teaching of Jesus Christ stands in unqualified opposition; nor can the Christian Church compromise in respect to that opposition without ceasing to be Christian. In that simple fact is the essence of the Church's problem.

Bell is just getting warmed up with these opening paragraphs--

If man, as envisioned by democrats and totalitarians alike, is for himself a determining end; if he may safely do as he pleases, in such fashion as may from time to time seem to him expedient; if he is able to handle his affairs without redemption from an ingrained folly; if in his own power he can rise above self-seeking and live in a voluntary sociality; if he is able to get along quite nicely without contact with any power not of himself which makes for righteousness—then Christianity is irrelevant to life. In that case the Church is at worst an incubus which ought to be destroyed and from which innocent children should be protected, at best an ivory tower in which peculiar and incompetent people may from time to time be permitted to take refuge from reality—an institution insignificant but relatively harmless.


But wait! There's more!! But you'll need to read for yourself.

One immediate observation: Is there an Episcopal bishop living in the US who would think or dare to write such words? OS has met and known a few of these types, and they are, as Bell predicted 'peculiar and incompetent people', definitely taking refuge from reality. Hey! The music is wonderful, the buildings are old and pretty, the atmosphere is quiet and calm, and the guy (or lady) in the pulpit won't dare say a word that might ruffle your feathers, much less make you quake in your boots. 

God is a good idea, Jesus was a nice moral teacher, If we'll be nice to one another and vote the Democrat ticket, all will be well with the world, Please do remember to give generously, There is sherry available in the meeting hall following the service, We'll see you next week. 

It is clear, from reading now, that the US and UK assumed they would win the war in the 1940's, and the GreatAndGood were hard at work thinking through what they wished the world to look like in the aftermath of the conflagration. This was before Dresden, Hiroshima, and the freeing of the Nazi and Japanese concentration camps, the Nuremburg trials. The full extent and wickedness of the evil had not yet been revealed, nor the dangers that lay ahead. 

Still, unfazed, on they went, forming a new order as described above, adhering to it faithfully, oblivious to its consequences. William Buckley, as a young man, described its institutionalization at Yale University in his classic slim volume God and Man at Yale.
(The link takes you to the Amazon listing--a few bucks well spent.) As OS read it a few months ago, it dawned upon him: 'Damn, the culture was screwed to the wall by 1950! The GreatAndGood set about to disassemble our lives, our homes, our mores, our economy, our churches and synagogues, our faith itself. And we paid them to do it!'

It's well worth reading--Buckley shines as a writer, never a wasted word. 

Another good, pithy, short read: Solzhenitsyn's Address At Harvard Yard, in which he traveled the journey from cultural icon to non-person in the space of about one hour. It was a record at the time, back in 1978. Any mention of the man's name now is met with a blank stare (Who?), or blocking by moderators in most comment threads. Read his words, and it won't be hard to understand why.  

A decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party, and, of course, in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society. Of course, there are many courageous individuals, but they have no determining influence on public life.

For those of OS's vast legion of readers (myriads of readers!!) who are in shock about Donald Trump, bear this in mind: He never got the memo from Yale, and he spends every day pushing back against those GreatAndGoods who have so systematically and coldly savaged this country. He's a flawed messenger, to be sure, but he's the guy with the resources and will to lead the push-back. And push back he does, in ways great and small, some unexpected--like the whole NFL player/National Anthem dustup. But he seems to have an instinct for the push-back, and his followers sense it as they push back with him. He's a boxer--he punches back, and sometimes punches first. Thus the drop in NFL viewership, and certainly Major League Baseball owners are holding their breaths this post season. It will only take one wing-nut player at a World Series game to cause America's TV screens to go dark, and sports bars to empty early. 

Other push-backs are going on more quietly, especially the one that sees ISIS being driven from the battlefield, with apparently few prisoners taken. Not much publicity, mind you, just a lot of pushback of the lethal variety. And it seems there are fewer car-bombs going off in the markets of Baghdad, Damascus, Tripoli, Beirut, Amman, and Jerusalem.  Dead men can't build bombs, it turns out. Push-back works, at least some of the time. 

So, back to the original question--Bell penned these words in 1942, when a bishop could still write them, and Atlantic Magazine would deign to publish them. 

We are living now in the world created then, and hopefully we will find the courage to continue to push back.

Lynne Patton "The Trump Family That I Know" - A Black Female Trump Execu...

OS generally does not participate in 'viral sharing'--but for this, he makes the exception. Five credible, moving minutes about the Trump family. It speaks for itself.

OS voted for Trump in the Tennessee primary, seems like an eternity ago. Not out of affection for the man, but because OS took some business trips, and encountered perfect strangers willing to talk about their lives.

Two in particular come to mind--one a young man working in a family business in the Northeast that has been extant since the 1870's, and now struggles against the headwinds of a government, tax system, social decay, and economy brought about over the past 25 years by leadership of BOTH parties. He's thirty, and wonders how they will survive.

The second was a chauffer--hotel to airport, in his 60's, an emigre from Africa from the early 80's. He has spent his career driving limos, and now owns a piece of the firm. Two children, born and raised here. One child graduates MBA from a major East Coast university, the second entering med school at an Ivy League school. He is so proud of them, parented them to be Americans. Sez he: 'Children, it's great you have your African heritage, but THIS is your country. You are Americans!!' A question posed about all the illegal immigration brought a disdainful response--he had gone about things properly, has no respect for the gate-crashers.

OS isn't a Trump 'fan', per se. But only The Donald speaks directly to the heart of the issues that we must face, and speaks for these people encountered on the road.

Last night, the subject came up with friends, who have a child in a military career. The Dad sez, 'You may disagree, but I'm voting for Trump. He's the only one who will value my child's life in the military, and gives us the best odds of the kid coming home to us in one piece.'

Now, take five minutes--decide for yourself.

Big Red Car--The Boss Explains How Trump's Wall Is Funded...and why we should build it, even out of our own pockets

OS urges his legions of readers to check out BRC--loads of wisdom, delivered with gentle wry humor.

This post, in particular, drives home the central points of Trump's ideas: We can secure the border, and the benefits overwhelm the costs. End of story.

OS will copy a bit of it for you to read--for the REAL payoff, you'll have to hit that little link....

Big Red Car here in the ATX on a lovely day. Got a call from Donald Trump, who said, “Big Red Car, you’re handy with numbers, right?” Before he said anything else, I knew he was talking about the WALL.
“Yes, Donald, I am,” says I.
“How would YOU finance the WALL, Big Red Car?”
To which I reply, “Well, Donald, I’d put a little tariff on imports and exports. That’s what I’d do.”
“Will that work, Big Red Car?” asks That Donald.
“Of course, it’ll work, Donald.”
“Thanks, Big Red Car.”
“Best to Melania, Donnie. See you when the WALL is finished.”
[Melania loves the Big Red Car. Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge!]

Go ahead...hit that link...

Donald Trump Asks The Cogent Question--How

How has 'the system' been working out for you and your family?

From the Wall Street Journal Op-Ed page today--a firm and coherent statement from Mr. Trump.

On Saturday, April 9, Colorado had an “election” without voters. Delegates were chosen on behalf of a presidential nominee, yet the people of Colorado were not able to cast their ballots to say which nominee they preferred.
A planned vote had been canceled. And one million Republicans in Colorado were sidelined.
In recent days, something all too predictable has happened: Politicians furiously defended the system. “These are the rules,” we were told over and over again. If the “rules” can be used to block Coloradans from voting on whether they want better trade deals, or stronger borders, or an end to special-interest vote-buying in Congress—well, that’s just the system and we should embrace it.
Let me ask America a question: How has the “system” been working out for you and your family?
I, for one, am not interested in defending a system that for decades has served the interest of political parties at the expense of the people. Members of the club—the consultants, the pollsters, the politicians, the pundits and the special interests—grow rich and powerful while the American people grow poorer and more isolated.
No one forced anyone to cancel the vote in Colorado. Political insiders made a choice to cancel it. And it was the wrong choice.
Responsible leaders should be shocked by the idea that party officials can simply cancel elections in America if they don’t like what the voters may decide.
The only antidote to decades of ruinous rule by a small handful of elites is a bold infusion of popular will. On every major issue affecting this country, the people are right and the governing elite are wrong. The elites are wrong on taxes, on the size of government, on trade, on immigration, on foreign policy.
Why should we trust the people who have made every wrong decision to substitute their will for America’s will in this presidential election?
Here, I part ways with Sen. Ted Cruz.
Mr. Cruz has toured the country bragging about his voterless victory in Colorado. For a man who styles himself as a warrior against the establishment (you wouldn’t know it from his list of donors and endorsers), you’d think he would be demanding a vote for Coloradans. Instead, Mr. Cruz is celebrating their disenfranchisement.
Likewise, Mr. Cruz loudly boasts every time party insiders disenfranchise voters in a congressional district by appointing delegates who will vote the opposite of the expressed will of the people who live in that district.
That’s because Mr. Cruz has no democratic path to the nomination. He has been mathematically eliminated by the voters.
While I am self-funding, Mr. Cruz rakes in millions from special interests. Yet despite his financial advantage, Mr. Cruz has won only three primaries outside his home state and trails me by two million votes—a gap that will soon explode even wider. Mr. Cruz loses when people actually get to cast ballots. Voter disenfranchisement is not merely part of the Cruz strategy—it is the Cruz strategy.
The great irony of this campaign is that the “Washington cartel” that Mr. Cruz rails against is the very group he is relying upon in his voter-nullification scheme.
My campaign strategy is to win with the voters. Ted Cruz’s campaign strategy is to win despite them.
What we are seeing now is not a proper use of the rules, but a flagrant abuse of the rules. Delegates are supposed to reflect the decisions of voters, but the system is being rigged by party operatives with “double-agent” delegates who reject the decision of voters.
The American people can have no faith in such a system. It must be reformed.
Just as I have said that I will reform our unfair trade, immigration and economic policies that have also been rigged against Americans, so too will I work closely with the chairman of the Republican National Committee and top GOP officials to reform our election policies. Together, we will restore the faith—and the franchise—of the American people.
We must leave no doubt that voters, not donors, choose the nominee.
How have we gotten to the point where politicians defend a rigged delegate-selection process with more passion than they have ever defended America’s borders?
Perhaps it is because politicians care more about securing their private club than about securing their country.
My campaign will, of course, battle for every last delegate. We will work within the system that exists now, while fighting to have it reformed in the future. But we will do it the right way. My campaign will seek maximum transparency, maximum representation and maximum voter participation.
We will run a campaign based on empowering voters, not sidelining them.
Let us take inspiration from patriotic Colorado citizens who have banded together in protest. Let us make Colorado a rallying cry on behalf of all the forgotten people whose desperate pleas have for decades fallen on the deaf ears and closed eyes of our rulers in Washington, D.C.
The political insiders have had their way for a long time. Let 2016 be remembered as the year the American people finally got theirs.

Offer Something Better: Daniel Hannan, Donald Trump, and Ben Carson

If only we could lease Daniel Hannan to serve here--oh well...

But we can pay heed to him.

Donald Trump has become the master at expressing and harnessing the free-floating anger of a great portion of American society. He's really really really good at his craft.

But OS observes this: Great performers and writers are great because they are really really really good at that craft. Why do people buy tickets to hear a favorite performer--likely because that person says what the purchaser wishes he possessed the ability to express himself. Think of James Taylor, Paul Simon, Elton John, Billy Joel, Sting, Beyonce, The Beatles...playwrights such as Neil Simon...actors such as Tom Hanks or Al Pacino or Meryl Streep. We identify because they tell us our own stories, and we all have our own list of favorites. They are valuable and wonderful, but for the most part do not do well at Being In Charge Of Things. They hire managers!

True, Trump is successful in the business of being The Donald, and leveraging it to huge advantage. But this job, The Presidency, may not fit him well.

It is important that someone give voice to the great frustrations that now beset us, and for that--if nothing else--Donald Trump has become a seriously important figure in the culture, and hats off to him.

That does not mean he will make a good President. Does he, as DanHan urges, offer Something Better? OS is not convinced he does, past his ability to articulate anger at this point in history. He may be our modern William Jennings Bryan, who never won the office, but still made a significant impact upon the culture.

OS urges his readers to read Daniel Hannan's essay and then quietly consider what life could look like with Dr. Ben Carson at the helm.

Carson is one of the most successful neurosurgeons in history, which means he has a vigorous intellect, a well-disciplined intellect, and no shortage of courage. Would you be willing to spend your workdays drilling into skulls and spines, knowing even a small mishap could ruin the patient's life?

He knows to how to look at dreadful problems and craft solutions to them. He knows to assemble and work with teams of bright people. He knows that his decisions affect many lives for good and ill. He knows how to think long-term. He knows that, as well as he may prepare, once the patient is opened up, he may have to adjust his plans in accordance with the reality that confronts him. He knows there is a God, and Ben Carson is not Him. He knows that science matters.

He also knows how to deliver really bad news, when what the patient and family most desperately wish to hear is good news. Some patients die, even with the best surgeons on the job. The next President will need that particular ability, OS cautions, as the chickens of the past fifty years or so truly come home to roost.

OS believes Ben Carson offers Something Better, which is why he sends what shekels he can in the good doctor's direction.

As valuable a voice as Donald Trump is, OS is not at all certain he is our best option.

Don Henley Reviews Megyn Kelly's Performance As Moderator Of The GOP Debates

We got the bubble-headed bleach-blonde who comes on at five;
She can tell you 'bout the plane crash with a gleam in her eye.
It's interesting when people die--give us dirty laundry.

Kick-em when they're up, kick-em when they're down...
Kick-em when they're up, kick-em when they're down...
Kick-em when they're up, kick-em when they're down...
Kick-em when they're up, kick-em when they're down...

Herman Cain Announces His Run For 2012

The exploratory committee website is here.

Cain, if the reader is not familiar with the gent, is a highly successful business executive (Coca-Cola, Pillsbury, Godfather's Pizza, amongst other other accomplishments), with a masters degree in math from Purdue, cancer survivor, talk show host in Atlanta. He rose from humble circumstances in Atlanta, and is an inspirational gent.

Will he win the Presidency? Who knows? But his voice needs to be heard, and he'll make life utterly miserable for Obama and company, if for no other reason than their inability to play the race and victim cards.

OS looks forward to following his campaign.

Now, lessee if The Donald will join in. That would really make things interesting! He may well yet. He'd be able to look into the camera in November 2012 and tell Obama 'You're Fired!'.

Whoowee! Here we go!