Metrosexual Masquerade

I’ve always had trouble with the “turn the other cheek” thing. If someone punched you in the face and you just stood there, you could expect it to happen again and again until you moved away. That’s how it was in my neighborhood. What you did was hit back harder and more often —  twice at least — before asking, “Want some more?” If the other guy was tougher you still had to hit back, even when you knew you’d get pounded. Everyone understood that. There was never a shortage of bullies, and that’s the way you dealt with them. Though I’ve met bullies several times since, I haven’t had to hit one for decades. I think it was because they knew, viscerally, that I would. I’m fairly old now, but I still would.

There are always bullies, and boys who fight back. The way adults handle it, however, has changed. Teachers and administrators who have to deal with occasional fights have stopped inquiring about who or what started it — who may have been in the right, and who in the wrong. Instead, the same punishment is meted out to both combatants because the new ethic is: “Fighting is always wrong.” That sometimes it’s right is never considered in what some call our new, feminized culture. 

I know men who believe that’s the way is should be, and they may be in the majority now. That’s sad, but what’s even worse? These metrosexual men are running our government. When Vladimir Putin invaded the Crimea, Secretary of State John Kerry said, “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pre-text.”

Really John? I know you grew up in Massachusetts the same time I did, but maybe it was in a different kind of neighborhood, or maybe you were a cheek-turner. If you’ve never been punched you in the head, you never learned the basic lessons every man should learn. Clearly Putin learned them, and he understands you much better than you understand him. That’s unfortunate for the rest of us Americans you’re representing. You should know the nature of man is the same in the 21st century as it was in the 19th and in every other century, but you don’t.

After Putin took Crimea and then massed troops on the Ukrainian border, President Obama said almost the same thing Kerry did: “Because you're bigger and stronger [you’re] taking a piece of the country — that is not how international law and international norms are observed in the 21st century.” Oh yeah? I have news for you President Obama: That’s the law of the jungle no matter what century it is. You clearly haven’t learned it, and neither has your Secretary of State.

Yes, I know Kerry got three Purple Hearts and a silver star in Vietnam, but the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth were right when they claimed he lied to receive them. I came to know Kerry shortly after that. I worked in his unsuccessful campaign for congress in 1972. He was a guest in my house and in my parents’ house, and I sensed in him what Putin sensed, and what Iranian negotiators sensed: A leader needs an inner core of toughness and Kerry hasn’t got it. It’s not there. Neither his Boston Brahmin accent nor his $400 haircuts, nor his ill-gotten medals can disguise the emptiness of his expensive, tailored suit. I stopped showing up at his campaign headquarters back in September of ’72, and I was happy to watch him lose in November after spending more than any other congressional candidate in the country.

Never have I met President Obama, but I’ve been forced to see him over and over on television — so many times that I feel like I know him. He’s faced tough situations and I’ve observed his reactions. My conclusion? He hasn’t got it either. If I had any doubt, it was gone when he drew a red line in Syria and then let Assad cross it. He dithered and denied, saying he never drew it in the first place. After that, nothing mattered — not the crease in his pants that David Brooks so admired, not the thrill Chris Matthews got up his leg, not the resolve he pretends to possess as he reads from a teleprompter — none of it. Both our allies and our enemies know that, although people in the Obama Administration still talk tough, that’s all there will ever be. They’ve seen the man behind the curtain and he isn’t much.

Two More Years. Will We Make It?

The private school where I started my career was boot camp for teachers. We got high school aged students from public school on the way to lockup or coming from lockup back to public school. Some were bigger than me. If I could carry out a lesson plan with them, I could do it anywhere. The first thing I learned was that no matter how good my lesson plan was, it wouldn’t work unless I had control of the classroom. If I couldn’t wield authority effectively, there were students ready to take over. When I felt control slipping, I had to be conscious of one important dynamic and ask myself: “Who is responding to whom?” It was my job to enforce the rules consistently. Never bluff, never yell. Warn once in an even tone, then lower the boom. If the hooligans I taught sensed weakness, they exploited it. I could lighten up only after earning their respect. There was no other way.

After that, I taught fourteen-year-olds in a regular, public school classroom, twenty or thirty at a time for decades. It was a breeze, but they, too, were masters at sizing up adults. Many probed to see how far they could push before feeling an uncomfortable consequence. Working as a mentor with teacher interns who were weak classroom managers, I’d emphasize that the he or she had to establish clear boundaries early and administer a consequence if any were crossed. “Don’t blink,” I’d say. There were students in every class who would sense weakness and push further and further until hell broke loose. Once a teacher-intern lost control, it was almost impossible to get it back. Someone else had to step in and restore order.

A teacher must be the leader in a classroom and the President of the United States must be the leader of the free world. The dynamics are similar. There will always be malignant actors ready to take advantage of a president they perceive as weak. Unless it was clear to students who the adult was in the room, nothing else mattered. Just as a good set of lesson plans weren’t going to work unless the teacher could handle a class. A thoughtful foreign policy won’t work either unless the president has earned respect. If our community organizer president tried to work with juvenile delinquents by “leading from behind” or with his latest policy of “strategic patience,” he wouldn’t last a week. They’d eat him up.

Our president has the US military behind him. I had the backing of the owner and director of our school, Dr. Ernest L. Herrman, who had been a running back at Kansas State. If I sent a student to his office and he closed the door, people nearby might hear sounds of bodies hitting walls after which the student would emerge with a different attitude. Students had to know I would send them for therapy with Dr. Herrman after only one warning — and drag them down to his office if I had to. If malignant actors in today’s world actually believed the president would use American military force, it wouldn’t likely be necessary to do so.

The trouble is, they don’t. They sensed weakness early on and have been exploiting it ever since. If a student crosses boundaries and the teacher responds with idle threats, the student will continue pushing until the trigger is pulled. A teacher must assess the situation early, warn only once, and do something when a boundary is crossed. Our president blustered about red lines, but backed down while sketchy strongmen all around the world were watching. His attempts at tough talk ever since are seen as so much bluff and bluster.

As Iran keeps building the nuclear weapons our president said were unacceptable, who is responding to whom? As Vladimir Putin takes over parts of the Ukraine and Europe wonders where he’ll go next, who is responding to whom? Where will the next red line be drawn and erased?

Some teacher interns didn’t have to be coached. They had a clear sense of right and wrong ingrained in their personhood. They knew instinctively when a behavior was purposely disruptive and were ready to handle it. My only assistance was to walk them through the administrative paperwork and parent notification procedures for whatever action they took. Other interns lacked a strong inner core. I sensed it, and knew students would too. When those interns had to take over alone for a few weeks, I knew they’d be eaten up. I’d have to hover nearby so I could take over periodically and restore order.

Nobody is hovering outside the White House and the community organizer has to pretend he’s leading for almost two more years. The only ones who seem weaker than him are Republican leaders in the House and Senate whose job it is to keep him in line. It’s not a good situation for the United States, or the rest of the free world either.

Leftist La-La Land

In leftist la-la-land people really believe they can bring about an age when we “Ain’t gonna study war no more,” as the old gospel song goes. They really believe America was the primary cause of war in their lifetime. They believe that after they twice elected a president who would fundamentally transform America as The Big O has so often promised, war would disappear. He said it would only take five years the world would be filled with smiling, happy people holding hands. That’s why Obama’s chief dopelimat diplomat, John Kerry, characterized Putin’s invasion of Crimea saying: “It's really 19th century behavior in the 21st century.” He’s not supposed to be doing this in the world he and his boss understand.

Putin obviously hadn’t heard that Obama has already ushered in the Age of Aquarius here in 2014. The moon is in the seventh house. Jupiter aligns with Mars. Peace is guiding the planets and love is steering the stars. So what the heck is Putin doing? Young people are, like, “Oh my god!” which is the most severe exclamation in their parlance. Is it possible that Obama can’t actually change the world? If that’s true, maybe he can’s really stop the oceans from rising either! But he promised! We voted for him! Twice!

Nonetheless, Obama and Kerry are proceeding as if the biggest problem facing the world early in the 21st century really is global warming, and the mainstream media is cheering them on. Only three weeks ago Kerry called it: “perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction” and belittled those who don’t believe it as “flat-earthers.” Well, this writer knows the earth is round - and human-caused global warming is a crock, but most leftists still don’t think so. Global warming is a religion with them, and while their faith has been shaken by the winter we’ve had, they still believe.

Obama is proceeding with his global warming policies undeterred, as if his branch of government is the only one with power. When Congress failed to pass his “Cap and Trade” legislation, he had his EPA declare carbon dioxide a “pollutant,” so all of you reading this right now are polluting the air as you exhale CO2. More recently, his EPA dialed up air standards so high it's putting the coal industry out of business.

Meanwhile, Congress sits on its hands while he amasses power in the White House. He’s turning one executive department into a protection racket. When congress refused him funds for selling Obamacare, he used HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, whose department regulates insurance companies, to shake them down for money. She contacted them, and said, in effect: “Nice little insurance company you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it. And by the way, I need some money to implement Obamacare.”

When he couldn’t silence Fox News or Rush Limbaugh, even with George Soros spending millions on Media Matters, he turned to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler who regulates radio and television. He sent FCC officials to media outlets saying, in effect: “Nice little station you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it. By the way, we’re conducting a “Critical Information Needs” study here and we’d like to ask you a few questions, like how do you select what stories you report?”

When “too many” black students were being suspended from schools, he turned to Education Secretary Arne Duncan who regulates schools, and Attorney General Eric Holder out to talk to them. Both sent their people around saying, in effect: “Nice little school you got there. Be a shame if its federal funding dried up, now wouldn’t it?”

In spite of all its failures in the 20th century, leftists still believe that communism can work. They just didn’t have the right leaders in Russia, China, Vietnam, North Korea, or Cuba. If they did, Utopia would have manifested by now. Obama is the one though. He told us so. He can do it, if only those Tea Party Republicans in the house weren’t standing in his way. They nearly stopped him from taking over 16% of the economy with Obamacare, and now all they can do is criticize it.

In spite of the continuing disaster of the Obamacare roll-out, the mainstream media are doing their best to find a silver lining. What do we expect? They’re all leftists too.

Smartest President Ever?

The things I feared most when Barack Obama was elected to a second term are unfolding.

Last Friday night, Obama said: “There will be costs” if Russia invades the Crimea. Hours later, Russian soldiers moved in. Remember that 3 AM phone call Hillary Clinton warned us about in 2008? Remember Saturday Night Live’s satire about it? “This is hard!” said the actor playing Obama about being president. Indeed it is. The man who is accustomed to voting “present” when hard decisions are necessary is on the spot now.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia, one of the world’s many thugs, believes our president is spineless - and is taking advantage. A lot can happen in the three years remaining in Obama’s second term, and the invasion of the Crimea is one of many to come. It’s another vision of the world as it is becoming during the Great American Decline. It’s another test for “the most intelligent man ever to become president,” according to presidential historian and sycophant Michael Beschloss. Obama should ace it, right? Maybe not. Could Beschloss possibly have been mistaken? We’ve never seen any of Obama’s grades because won’t release his records.

Expect ever-more-difficult tests right up until January, 2017. Will Putin cut off natural gas to Ukraine? Will he invade the mainland? Does he have his eye on the Baltic States? Does anybody really expect it’s all going to stop here?

So far, President Obama has issued statements. His chief diplomat, John Kerry, talks about crossing lines. The world remembers what Obama said about a red line in Syria last year: “A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized,” he said. Syria did both, and what did Obama do? He said, “I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line.”

For years, Obama has gotten away with contradicting himself like this on the American political stage. The mainstream media had never gone after him the way they went after the cowboy, and maybe he thinks he can get away with it on the world stage too. That’s how he’s always handled whatever challenges have come his way. “Get out the teleprompters!” he’d say. “I’m going to make a speech!” The mainstream media lauded him for his brilliance every time. How is that working with Putin? Not good. Rather than expel Russia from the G-8, Obama threatens to expel Russia from the G-8. Does he really think that’s going to scare Putin?

Try to think of it this way: A bully is walking down the beach and sees a cowboy and a community organizer. Which one is he going to kick sand at? I can just picture it. Can you? Obama stands up rubbing his eyes and draws a line in the sand with his toe. Putin crosses it. Obama backs up and says, “Oh yeah? Well how would you like me to issue a statement?” When that doesn't work, he says: “All right, that’s enough! I’m doing to tell Chris Matthews to call you a racist!”

The rest of the world is watching too. China said Monday it agrees with what Russia did in the Crimea. Remember: China has always wanted Taiwan back, and the United States has pledged to protect it. China also wants some islands in the Sea of Japan, and it could prompt Kim Jong Un to invade South Korea again. What would Obama do about any of that? I read a report in Stars and Stripes that our troops stationed in Okinawa are gearing up by having a stage show on base in which our gay soldiers perform in drag. That ought to scare ’em. The best defense is a good offense, and what better way to offend communist troops than a drag queen performance? The community organizer really knew what he was doing when he repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Sunday’s Washington Post quoted Andrew C. Kutchins of the Center for Strategic and International Studies: “If you are effectively taking the stick option off the table, then what are you left with? I don’t think that Obama and his people really understand how others in the world are viewing his policies.”

Thinking now of Kerry’s recent statement about global warming being the “most dangerous weapon of mass destruction.  . . . The science is unequivocal, and those who refuse to believe it are simply burying their heads in the sand.” Now that he has to deal with thugs like Putin, perhaps he’ll change his mind about that. Like Obama, Kerry thinks he’s wicked smart, even though his grades at Yale weren’t quite as good as those of the cowboy president Democrats believed was so dumb.

At a time when America needs real leaders, we’re left with Obama and Kerry. Putin is eating their lunch.