Bits and Pieces #20

1. Harrison Butker: By now, I am sure all of you have heard of the controversy over Kansas City Chiefs kicker, Harrison Butker, and his commencement speech that he gave at Benedictine College last week. It is amazing to me how much hate his speech has brought out. This is especially true of our forever tolerant and woke lunatics on the left. It is hard to understand so much misplaced and unchanneled anger.

Whenever something like this comes up, and it always does, my suggestion is not to listen to the idiots who continually spout lies and misrepresentations of the truth, but go right to the source. Unlike most people who have something negative to say, I can at least say that I have read Butker’s entire speech. Yes, the whole thing. Actually, I have read several parts more than once so I can speak to what he was saying. For those who have negative things to say about either his speech or him personally, especially those who have not read what he said, all I can say to you is, “Shut up.” You don’t know what he said and you cannot understand what he is saying. I Corinthians 2:14 says, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” This is where many of you fall.

The man said NOTHING wrong. Just because what he said does not line up with many a warped world view, it doesn’t mean he was wrong. So, tell me what is so wrong with family values? What is wrong with saying the most important job you have in life, in the long run, is raising great, socially and well-adjusted, God fearing, and productive children? Is murdering babies more important to you than raising them? If so, might you need a true gut check? I read this morning where some Jesuits are bashing him. Why? Because he called out many in the church who are not doing what they are supposed to do. What many failed to do during the COVID pandemic. Was it bad for him to say it is wrong for men and women in a relationship to live together before marriage? Was it wrong for him to talk about those who after college walk away from the faith? Was it wrong for him to point out the danger of too many families without a dedicated father in the home and the inevitable cycle of violence it breeds? Did he argue that women need to be barefoot and pregnant, never leaving the house? Did he say that women should never seek a career of their own? Of course not. He did not say or imply any of these things. He did, however, honor his wife with nothing but praise and saluted her for believing her most important job is raising their children. Shame on her according to the left.

The man gave a very Catholic oriented commencement speech at a Catholic college. What did people expect him to say? Stupidity and hate reigns. It is hard to imagine that over 200,000 people have signed a petition to have the man fired and kicked off the team. This is at the same time video shows P-Diddy beating the snot out of his girlfriend while people are calling for forgiveness. Shame on the NFL actually putting out a press release saying that Butker’s opinions are not the opinions of the NFL because they support inclusion and diversity in every way. Except if you are Christian, I suppose. As for Harrison Butker, the man has my respect. 100%.

2. Amal Clooney: I just read where actor George Clooney’s wife, Amal, was instrumental in getting an arrest warrant issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Really? An arrest warrant. This is just another sign of people losing their collective minds. In today’s world, let’s just admit that anti-Israel really means anti-Semitic. If Clooney was so concerned about “crimes against humanity” done in Israel, where is the arrest warrant for Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping and for what China is doing to the Muslim Uyghurs or the Tibetans. Oh I know why, Jinping is not Jewish. What about the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi? That’s right, he just died in a helicopter crash. Had he lived, was there any effort to issue a warrant for him in his treatment of dissidents within his own country? That’s right, he wasn’t Jewish.

People can cloak their hatred in many ways but it still lingers in the background, just waiting to get out. The expression, “From the river to the sea. . .” is such an example. I watch these idiot kids on college campuses, many who are not even in college, protesting Israel and they seem to forget that Israel was attacked by Hamas back in October. I had a friend who used to say, “If you cannot take a joke, don’t start a war.” That whole, “Fool around and find out” thing is definitely in play right now. Israel has a right to defend itself and to end this war as they see fit. Can you imagine the world coming to the Allies in 1943 and saying, “Look guys. The Germans and the Japanese have had enough. You have to stop all this military action stuff. Too many bad guys are dying. Oh, and Hitler, he gets to stay in power, he gets to plan future attacks against you, and those camps he’s running, you must leave those alone. In the Pacific, just pack up your gear and go home. We are tired of seeing war.” Exactly how would we have responded to that? The bottom line here, from my vantage spot, is anti-Semitism is alive and well in the world today. Let’s not confuse that with any legitimate desires to see the conflict in Israel end.

3. Student Loan Debt: I guess President Biden has allocated another $6 billion to his cause of forgiving student load debt. There is so much to this insanity. To make this short and sweet, go to budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu and read some of the details of both of Biden’s plans for the redistribution of wealth. Just to give you a little nudge, did you realize that 750,000 of the people enrolled in these programs are “residing in households who on average earn $312,977 per year.” Yup, our tax dollars are paying for these people. How many of you out there earn more than $312,000 per year?

4. Shooting at Mexico de Tipico Restaurant: Two nights ago, some thugs shot one of the nicest men you will ever meet in the back parking lot at the Mexican restaurant on Taylor Road. Luckily, he will survive but he had to have his hip replaced. The violence in this city has to stop. I am not calling for many of the worthless walks for peace that people like to dream up but accomplish nothing but how about some real boots on your neck tactics and strategies?

When I taught operational planning in the Air Force, we always dealt with objectives and strategies. An objective, for arguments sake is simply what you want to accomplish. A strategy is how you plan on achieving your objective. But without a clear objective, knowing exactly what you want to do, you CANNOT have a clear strategy. It is impossible. Mayor Reed, do you get this? Without a clear objective, people will continue to run amok in our city. A classic example is letting people out on bail who have shot and injured another person. I would give them bail set at $835,000,000. In other words, you are not getting out. Sorry, not sorry. “But our jails are overcrowded.” So? Guess what, if you didn’t shoot that person, you wouldn’t be in jail. Pretty simple how that works.

The cold calculus of truth comes down to this. What is more important, the criminal’s comfort or the lives of your law abiding citizens? It is that simple. This is as far as you need to look. In my current book, I talk about the bombing of the German city of Dresden in 1944-45. For almost 80 years people have stated how horrible it was. How wrong it was. I approach it from another angle. For example, as the Commander of RAF Bomber Command, a man charged with sending bombers out almost every night to targets in Germany, who was more important, German civilians or British civilians, soldiers, sailors, and airmen? The answer is both painful but easy to find if you honestly look for it. Hard decisions must be made. Dresden was obliterated for good military reasons. What about the criminal elements vs. law abiding citizens. You choose. Remember, doing nothing is never a valid strategy. But if you do not have a good, clearly defined, measurable, attainable or decisive objective, you are doing nothing but wasting money and spinning your wheels. To do nothing means getting masses of people, no matter how much they love Montgomery, to pull the handles on the proverbial ejection seat and get the heck out of dodge. From the perspective of many of us watching from the outside, this city does not have a valid objective for the increased crime and thus, they have no idea of how to correct it – i.e. no valid strategy. Prove us wrong.