Friends, in a very worrying sign for our country's future, standardized test scores are continuing to tumble -- and we should bear in mind that fewer students are taking the SAT and ACT, and we can safely assume that those who aren't taking it are even dimmer than those who are! So, in a nutshell, we is dumb, and we is getting dumber all the time.
https://www.newsmax.com/us/act-sat-education/2023/10/11/id/1137861/
In Israel, they've formed a "unity government" to deal with the Hamas offensive. That's remarkable, because just days ago Israeli politicians were at each other's throats, accusing one another of undermining "democracy", whatever that is. A notable casualty of Hamas' aggression, therefore, may be the conservative government's program of judicial reforms. Or maybe the government's hand will ultimately be strengthened? We shall see.
Poor George Santos has been hit with about two dozen new federal charges, which will be added onto the charges he was already facing. It's quite an avalanche of judicial scrutiny for the New York Republican! As we all know, Santos' real crime was winning a seat that Democrats thought was safe for them. From that point on, he's been hounded by the media and by the DOJ. If he'd just been a good boy and lost, no one would have bothered him. Be all this as it may, Santos appears to be a crook, or at least a serial liar and a cheat. On second thought, maybe Congress is exactly where he belongs!
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67073935
And that's not all!!! You've also got this week's Newsmaker Show with me and Brian O'Neil to engross you, covering everything from the Israel-Hamas conflict to the trials and tribulations of Will Hurd. It's not be missed!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: What's the phrase " partisanship ends at the water's edge " (?) or words to that effect. In southern Israel it ends at one's back yard fence it seems. Its a whole different picture for them now: Israel: " an island of civilization in a sea of barbarity"; that sea may well extend far beyond the middle east. Let's see how "leftist" the opposition in Israel dares to be; can it be that they derive some satisfaction from this tragedy, as do their soul mates in such as our country?
ReplyDeleteJack, politics being what it is, I imagine both factions in Israel will try to derive advantage from the current carnage, and I strongly suspect this "big tent" will soon collapse in a heap.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Because of the possibiity of the large Hezbollah missile arsenal being used against Israel from Lebanon, which might overwhelm Israel's missile defenses, this is starting to remind me of theYom Kippur War, when Israel appeared to be in mortal danger. Israel is no threat to Iran other than to defend itself. Iran has preempted the Palestinian cause simply to prosecute its detestable Jew hatred., I think. I wonder if Israel may bring Iran itself directly to account for this? The left often expresses solidarity with militant Islam. Would Israeli leftists in the War Cabinet support military action against Iran?
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: If US airpower is used to suppress a Hezbollah missile onslaught, might Israel then think it time to settle matters with Iran?
ReplyDeleteRAY TO JACK
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about anything. You will be swept away by the rapture next week. No tribulation for you. Praise be to Allah and Zeus, and whoever else you can think of to thank.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: As I remember, the Yom Kippur War got real dicey real fast. Some accounts hold that PM Meir bade the IDF ( if it was called that then) to prepare to use nukes; Israel was on the road for Damascus and had encircled an Egyptian Army; Soviet airborne was gearing up and Pres.Nixon had put US nuclear forces on a heightened alert. Sure, it was mostly national forces which were involved that time;irregulars had nothing close to the firepower they have now. The many, many missiles they have especially if launched from Gaza and Lebanon , together with mayhem on the West Bank, could push Israel close to extremis. No, a consequential US/Soviet clash does not loom
ReplyDeletebut some commentators believe that if a full out Hezbollah onslaught were to occur, we would move in the air against Hezbollah.Could we end up fighting Iran?What complications could arise from all this?Remember the 73-74 gas lines. And of course half the world will explode in antisemitic condemnation of Israel for defending itself.Would we go to the wall for Israel? Israel's vital importance for civilization would, I hope, lead us to do so if necessary.Iran has cynically motivated and mobilized credulous sociopathic hordes straight out of humanity's most hellish times to do Iran's hateful worst against the insolent Jewish state for which they harbor the most intense, murderous antipathy imaginable(or unimaginable). It must be permanently thwarted.
". . . winnow out. . . in the classroom. . ."
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack:I think I failed to publish my comment on the dumbing down of the American academy for which the above was a correction. I think the truly able will find some way to obtain a challenging education. Some majors (eg. in the fundamental and applied sciences) cannot be watered down (?).The professional value of BAs in the humanities and social sciences will continue to decrease although their traditional role of honing young and undecided intellects may continue in settings not ruined by political correctness. Grad.schools may find themselves much more involved in winnowing out those whose undergraduate records did not reflect their unsuitability for scholarship. The law, because of its organic relationship with concepts of justice, has already been grievously degraded by woke presumptuousness and that is no doubt obvious in some law schools, traditionally very challenging settings. This regretable and potentially catastrophic development is evident even in Scotus.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Your observation on a what a terrible shock Hamas' atavistic onslaught is to an Israel which thought itself relatively safe, was very well taken.What an ordeal it must be to live in a garrison state ; Israel and Britain in 1940- 1 have both done it nobly. TYouf
ReplyDeleteYourcommon sense observation that giving in to blackmail surely fosters more evil is completely lost on the dreamers who mislead our executive branch. Much as a physically injured person often must relearn mundane tasks:even so the left must reprise the painfully won, now common sense wisdom history affords the wise.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I just learned what I think is an apt synonym for Rinos: "Vichy Republicans". Ron DeSantis is the farthest thing from that but, though I like Nikki Haley, I still have a gnawing suspicion that in the Presidency
ReplyDeleteshe might become an apologetic conservative. Not Vichy but perhaps Neville Chamberlain.
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Dr. Waddy fromJack: I learned much from your observation that Biden's wall building move is a significant development. Good thing we live in a democracy and not the totalitarian dictatorship the left intends for us. In such a place a catastrophic policy like our border regime would casually continue until Dear Leader sought some other amusement.
ReplyDeleteOf course incalculable damage would have occurred but " de nada, no es importante! "
age would
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I liked your thought that AOC is stepping off for awhile, her obvious ambition for ultmate power notwithstanding.That tactic has worked for such as Richard Nixon, Hillary Clinton and Biden. Yeah: chill, build a rep as a team player and a loyal American. "My day will come and when it does -America beware!" In the names I just mentioned, only Hillary manifests the grim vindictive intent which is essential to AOC.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Sunday AM: Now Iran blats that it will "intervene" if Israel invests Gaza City. Surely it cannot think thereby to intimidate an aroused Israel. Two American super carriers are close at hand.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: The antiamerican left tends to confirm an essential antisemitism on its part, about which it has heretofore been circumspect (see David Horowitz's Unholy Alliance: radical Islam and the American left.)Continuing their shameful degradation of the American academy they use our campuses to demand that Israel be thrown under the bus. They have the almost unimaginable gall to demonstrate this wish in NYC. . .NYC!!! They are neonazis plain and simple.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: The 1985 hijacking of the liner Achille Lauro manifested a profoundly hideous act on the part of the subhuman hijackers when they threw a wheelchair bound Jewish American, Leon Klinghoffer, into the sea. In doing so they defined themselves and their cause.
ReplyDeleteHmm. We can't rule out Iranian intervention in some form in the present conflict, but I'm not sure how that intervention could be militarily significant. The Iranians will goad their proxies to launch more missiles, sure, but these are primarily an annoyance to Israel -- not an existential or even a serious threat. If Iran were to start launching missiles directly from its own territory, it would be courting massive retaliation -- and Iran has never seemed to have the gumption for that. I can only foresee U.S. military involvement if Israel's prodigious air force was overwhelmed (which seems highly unlikely) or navigation in the Gulf became precarious.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't think there's much of a comparison to 1973. The conventional balance of forces was totally different, and Soviet backing of the Arabs gave them a legitimate, if slim, prospect of success. Hamas and Hezbollah don't genuinely threaten Israel's existence, much as they might want to. All they can do is lash out and then embroil Israel in messy retaliatory actions. As for Iran, I don't think it has any realistic path to projecting power into Israel itself in a way that would alter the terms of the present conflict. In fact, if I were Iran, I would have decidedly mixed feelings about what Hamas has done, since the medium term outcome is likely to be the obliteration of Hamas, and possibly Hezbollah too, if they aren't very judicious in their use of force against an Israel with hackles raised.
Jack, I would not underestimate the wide reach of the leftist effort to undermine "merit" in favor of identity politics and ideological conformity. DEI can and will reshape even the professions, including engineering and the hard sciences. Now, it may be hard to convince people that a building that falls down is just as good as one that stands up, but that doesn't mean that employing incompetent architects or engineers is an impossibility, especially if their practical work can be done by colleagues or by helpful A.I.
Vichy Republicans! That's a new one for me. Personally, I think it's unfair -- to Marshal Petain!
Jack, I suppose, under a leftist dictatorship, we might see border enforcement improve, since a Dem dictator would have no need of pliant voters or future voters. He might like lots of pliant worker ants, though, so who knows.
Jack, Iran excels at making threats, but not necessarily at translating them into concrete and direct action.
True, there are plenty of anti-Semitic leftists. There are, and historically have been, plenty of Jew haters on the right too, however, although less so in this country than in others. There is an important distinction between those who question Israeli policy, and those who hate Jews categorically. Speaking of which, it would be interesting to know what the Hamas attackers made of Israeli Christians, Western tourists, and especially Israeli Arabs, when they encountered them during their rampage. Who, precisely, are they enraged at?
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Agreed: there are many of good will, entirely lacking in antisemitism, who are nonetheless opposed to some of Israel's actions. But, for me, here's the rub: I can think no other ethnic animus in history which has demonstrated such breadth, longevity, persistence and demonic sociopathy as has antisemitism. Even in lands somewhat tolerant of Jews that is and has been so only if Jews "stay in their place" ( which of course does not include Israel). I am not well read on the history of Palestine but it appears to me that Jews have as much right to be there as Arabs and they were there long before Islam and Arab expansion. Most of the Palestine mandate went to Arabs;Israel got a scrubby patch and was denied access to some of its most holy sites. Nonetheless, in 1948 the Arab world suddenly decided that Palestine had existential importance which necessitated annihilating those uppity Jews. Yes, some Arabs in Israel were done great injustice but why is this of such incredibly intense offense to the Arab world as a whole? Were Palestinian Arabs especially treasured?If so why?During the very Holocaust the hate filled Grand Mufti of Jerusalem became an acolyte of Hitler and recruited Palestinians for the SS. No: I cannot but think that this utterly inordinate antipathy the Arab world and those who presume to empathize with it (eg the antiamerican left) manifest to fullness against Israel is essentially that ancient abomination, ANTISEMITISM: plain, simple and profoundly evil.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Some commetators have held that an all out Hezbollah missile onslaught could , together with Hamas' tender graces,overwhelm Israel's defenses. That is a close to an existential threat. Of course Israel has nukes; what might they be aimed at?Could they be effective against dispersed irregulars? Iran on the other hand, has many organized military targets.Perhaps Israel would choose to destroy Iran's nuclear potential while they were at it. Yes, those US carriers might go after Hezbollah's launching sites.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I think Hamas primitives were incapable of identifying the nationalities and ethnicities of the the humans they encountered during their rampage. During the medieval crusade against the Albigensians those investing places where the heretics were were enjoined by princes of the church to simply kill all they met, in order, you see, to ensure the success of their mission. The Japanese army gave its troops unrestrained to rape Nanking. My guess is that Hamas allowed its "ambassadors" similar license in condemned Israel.
ReplyDelete". . . . unrestrained leave. . . "
ReplyDeleteJack, I agree that anti-Semitism is pervasive and incredibly resilient, but I think you would find that some of the Arabs' antipathy for the "Jews" is redolent of their antipathy for Westerners as a whole. For that matter, Africans' detestation of colonialism and apartheid, and their indifference to the suffering of (black) Africans living under (black) African rule, is part of the same phenomenon: we will tolerate extraordinary beastliness in those we deem "like us", and not so much in outsiders.
ReplyDeleteJack, if Hezbollah fired all its missiles, that might mean that some of the missiles would get through, but Israel's existence would be in no way, shape, or form jeopardized. Plus, Hezbollah would be out of missiles! The Israelis would just hit back against southern Lebanon, and repay Hezbollah ten or twenty fold for all the damage it had done. Case closed. Now, theoretically Hezbollah could pull a Ukraine and deny Israel, the ostensibly superior military power, air supremacy. That would be a game-changer, but I seriously doubt if Hezbollah or Iran are capable of any such thing.
Jack, I have no idea the sort of "tactics" that Hamas thugs employed in invading southern Israel, but it would have been very politically unwise to target Israeli Arabs and Jews indiscriminately and equally, since, presumably, the whole point of the exercise is to get the Arab world on Gaza's side...
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I gladly defer to your professional knowledge of Africa. I can see I placed too much emphasis on antisemitism; as much as to consider it the fount of Arab antipathy to Israel. Is rule by the Ottomans considered colonialism too?
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Hezbollah and Iran: Those two Amercan carriers taking the waters off the Levant are being joined by USS Mt. Whitney, a sophisticated command and control ship.Its not as fierce looking as an attack carrier loaded with planes but it can coordinate a very extensive effort. If Hezbollah launches a massive missile onslaught Iran would want to keep it resupplied. Interdiction of those missile shipments might be the mission for which those ships are intended, should Israel need the help.That would mean war of a sort with Iran.
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Jack, I would say there's a feedback loop between Arab anti-Semitism and Arab antipathy for the West. They see Israeli and Western dominance as two sides of the same coin.
ReplyDeleteThe Ottomans certainly were resented by the Arabs over whom they held sway (just ask Lawrence of Arabia), but that's ancient history now. Plus, Erdogan has mostly aligned Turkey with Islamism.
Jack, I don't see Iran picking a fight with the U.S. or Israeli navies in the Med, or in the Persian Gulf. The Iranians may be bloody-minded, but they're not suicidal.