FIRST & FINAL Thoughts On the Week That Was…
FIRST Today, June 6th, is the 71st anniversary of D-Day, the Allied Invasion of Normandy that began the liberation of France and Western Europe and that led ultimately to the victory against the Nazis during World War II.
To commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion in 1984, President Ronald Reagan stood on the French shore at Pointe-du-Hoc and delivered the first of two speeches that day.
It was here at Pointe-du-Hoc where the U.S. Army Rangers were given an unimaginable task of scaling up a 100 foot cliff using ladders and ropes to overtake a strategic German gun position. With the German army shooting straight down at them and throwing grenades, the Rangers lost many men that day but never gave up the will to overcome and accomplish their task. Eventually, they overtook the German guns that sat atop the cliff.
To those men at Pointe-du-Hoc and to all of those who fought bravely on June 6, 1944, we salute and honor you for your courage to fight for the freedom that we enjoy today.
Speaking of courage, all this week this word has been used to describe Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner’s transformation from man to woman. ESPN is even awarding him/her their prestigious Arthur Ashe Award for Courage which has created a controversy because many people believe the award should be given to more worthy recipients such as Iraq War veteran and amputee Noah Galloway or 19-year-old college basketball player Lauren Hill from Mount St. Joseph University, who lost her battle with brain cancer in April.
We agree.
Galloway, who nearly won this past season’s “Dancing With the Stars” despite missing a leg and most of one arm and who competes in extreme sports, would surely be deserving of this award. It takes courage to fight for your country and even more to live a full life after suffering such horrific injuries.
As for Hill, who continued to play basketball until nearly the end of her life, it saddens us deeply to learn when anyone young and with a full life ahead is taken too soon by cancer or anything else. To stay on her college basketball team until the end battling brain cancer takes courage.
While ESPN says there are “no runner ups” for the reward, we aren’t surprised that they would honor Jenner. Liberal politics is a close second to their sports coverage. But unfortunately, that is the culture we live in today where gender identity politics trumps service to our country or battling cancer. Those aren’t sexy enough to be on the covers of magazines.
We don’t know the true motive behind Jenner’s decision to become a woman. And frankly we don’t care. It’s none of our business. But when the media start celebrating and offering awards for changing your gender over fighting for your country or battling brain cancer, we wonder if we have lost our perspective as a country.
We say to Mr. Holloway and to the family and friends of Ms. Hill who are grieving over their loss that it certainly doesn’t take an award from ESPN to leave a legacy and inspire others.
We salute their courage as well as the many, many other unknowns in similar situations.
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry announced on Thursday that he is running for president in 2016. This is his second time he has thrown his hat into the ring after his highly-touted, quick flame-out run in 2011-12.
Check out our blog post back in January of this year titled Rick Perry’s Political Future for more analysis.
As we noted in that blog, we would love to see Mr. Perry be more like the firebrand, grassroots conservative from 2009-2011 than the recent, more establishment former governor he seems to have evolved into. And we aren’t just talking about his new look either.
His re-introduction into presidential campaign politics during a 28 minute speech in Addison, Texas on Thursday has been well-received for its inspiring tone and his boasting of his executive experience running Texas from 2001-2014. Rush Limbaugh, The Wall Street Journal, and Townhall.com are among several outlets that have offered some positive praise and insight on “Rick Perry for President 2.0.” The former governor talked about our country’s current failed leadership as well as the suffering of the ordinary people, especially the youth who will be facing a massive debt burden.
Rick Perry wants the 2016 campaign to be about experience, not talk. He surely has the experience. Perhaps it will be better for him to be the “under the radar” candidate this time around rather than the early frontrunner like in 2011.
The country needs a president with bold ideas and vision and has a plan to save our republic from the brink. Yes, Governor Perry has the experience, and aside from a couple of issues, we like his record very much. But when he seeks advice from Senator Lindsey Graham and endorses Mitch McConnell, we certainly can’t move him up into our top-tier of presidential candidates. He still has too much establishment pedigree in him.
But we will say this about Rick Perry: don’t underestimate him. His 2.0 campaign could flame out quickly like he did four years ago or he could rocket to the top and become the 45th President.
Stay tuned.
So Florida Senator and 2016 hopeful Marco Rubio and his wife Jeanette seem to have a thing for driving fast and at times carelessly the past 18 years or so. In typical drive-by media fashion, they attack personally rather than on substance and ideals. Last we checked, the president doesn’t personally drive.
With all the scandals surrounding the anointed Hillary Clinton (server gate, Benghazi, Clinton Foundation donations to name just three recent ones), the media has to attack Senator Rubio over he and his wife’s driving habits.
The media are just stenographers for the Democratic Party.
We say at least Mr. Rubio and his wife drive themselves. Hillary hasn’t driven since 1996.
She is definitely just a common woman with a common life.
Indeed.
FINAL And finally, this is so ridiculous that we are only going to mention it to illustrate the absurdity of the left.
Former Rhode Island Republican (ahem) Senator Lincoln Chafee announced this week that he is running to be the 2016 Democratic nominee for president. Among the things the former governor of the Ocean State wants to do as president include switching to the metric system and to “reinvigorate the United Nations and make the next 70 years even better”.
As if the first 70 years of the United Nations have been a success!
But it was what Mr. Chafee said on CNN this week during an interview with host Wolf Blitzer that really boiled our blood. He said that he doesn’t currently have a plan to combat ISIS saying “we are still learning what’s occurring.” Say what? This is outrageous but typical of a leftist.
We know what is occurring and we don’t need to learn more or understand what is happening.
Mr. Chafee, we will help you out with this: ISIS is an evil group who beheads and kills innocent men, women, children, and Christians and must be eradicated from this earth quickly and fully.
The End.
