It's a World Down Syndrome Day Thing

Dear America,

 grab a tissue
 

so little did I know --  until today --
that we have a World Down Syndrome Day.

It is March 21st.

And that seems to fit most fine, considering it marks the beginning of the season welcoming spring --  with daffodils and tulips, baby birdies and ducklings, the resurrection and the Life.   It's the perfect day.

Now, as many of you know, my loving attachment to this video comes with a kindred connection to the best brother in the world -- kissy face.  And for all the remarkable and memorable and adorable and even the irritable (especially when you make that face x) ways he has touched my life -- this day, this blog (albeit a day late and a holler short), goes out to honor him.

This video is sweet and beautiful and authentic in every way.

I love you, big brother.

I will gladly paint the signs when you are ready to run for president.

Make it a Good Day, G

 

It's Just a Little March Madness Thing

Dear America,

happy Friday

Let's immediately cut to Breitbart Sports because it is just that brilliant:

Conservative Nebraska Senate candidate Ben Sasse, who has been surging since being labeled the anti-Obamacare candidate, has released a "Constitutional Madness" bracket to highlight the lawlessness of the Obama administration.

"Which is President Obama's worst constitutional violation?" the bracket says. "Make your picks!"

is how it all begins before breaking down the Constitutional Madness into regions with each pairing more reprehensible than the next.

Then, if we were to buttress the domestic policy up against our foreign policy, what do we get?

Firm foundation for success?

Domestic and International tranquility worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize?

Let's cut to Mary Katharine Ham, of HotAir, taking us to a post dating back to the first week of March, just because it is a happy Friday and it is that good:

When you accept a repressive Russian ruler’s offer as a political escape hatch because your own ill-considered rhetoric put you in the awkward position of being a Nobel Peace Prize winner elected president as an anti-Bush who would “nation build at home” now half-heartedly lobbying the nation to go to war in Syria, that repressive Russian ruler might not take you seriously the next time around.

A coherent foreign policy— at its best telegraphing that the United States is willing to use many tools to back good actors and punish bad, reward allies and punish enemies— is about being perceived as tough and reliable enough to prevent something like the invasion of Ukraine from happening before it happens

Let's now cut to Wednesday -- being on the cusp of, oh how do you say, a Ukraine Spring -- when the president made oh so sadly clear where his foreign policy in that region stands:

We are not going to be getting into a military excursion in Ukraine.

What we are going to do is mobilize all of our diplomatic resources to make sure that we've got a strong international coalition that sends a clear message

Ukraine should decide their own destiny. Russia right now is violating international law and the sovereignty of another country. Might doesn’t make right

[and to continue reading, go to Washington Examiner]

Remember now -- we have long told Ukraine not to worry; we would have their back all the way through the brackets, whether it was March, or not...And making it look totally official  and everything ...here, and here, when the March madness news on "the Ukraine Page" dot Gov.  included this from the ambassador: 

U.S. Ambassador To Ukraine Says Crimea Should Stay In Ukraine
Ambassador Pyatt (Mar. 10): "Crimea is and should remain a part of Ukraine. Discussion over. That said, I have been encouraged to see comments from Prime Minister Yatseniuk and others indicating that the government, the Ukrainian government is open to enhance levels of autonomy for the people in Crimea."

U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Ukraine
Deputy Assistant Secretary Rubin (Mar. 6): "Our united efforts have demonstrated to the people of Ukraine and to the international community that the United States is resolute in its support of Ukraine’s desire for a democratic, peaceful, and prosperous future."

Perhaps we should revisit the scrapped missile defense program to help Ukraine...and quickly mitigate the growing concerns of other allies, see Poland.

Let's cut to the CBS News post for a simple breakdown of what happened to it:

The Bush program, which would have placed 10 ground-based interceptors in Poland along with a radar in the Czech Republic, was replaced with a system of smaller interceptors to better deal with short- and medium-range missiles that the administration believed Iran had made more progress developing. The final stage of the replacement program was cancelled last year to place more interceptors in Alaska to deal with threats from North Korea.

And for a WHOLE lot more deep background on the entire missile defense program  -- that is, if you've got the time -- see the Heritage Foundation here.

While all this makes me nervous, anxious, good reason to pop up to the concessions for a hot dog, soft pretzel and beer, it also makes me wonder...just what happened to kinetic military action?  Why then, not now?  [Don't hate.  It's just a good question.]

AND don't get me wrong.  This girl doesn't want to go to war with Russia! 

What I am dreaming of is an administration who carries a big stick, bolstered with a well thought out game plan in both offense and defense; an administration who says what they mean and means what they say; an administration so formidable that by just walking into the arena makes any opponent shrivel into a ball, making almost any situation a non-starter.

But look at us; that was era gone by, long in the record books; that was then and this is now, all "nation building at home."

How's that working out for us?

Are we?  Are we really building a stronger nation , here, there, or anywhere?

Let's cut the denial.  We suck.

Look at us!   Completely and thoroughly divided by region... be it race, religion, wealth, sexuality, boy vs. girl, English vs. Spanish, progressive vs. conservative, east vs. west vs. north vs. south  -- you name it, we've got a bracket for it.  And who do we have leading the charge?  A community organizer -- make that agitator; just a guy who has no business being the leader of the free world, be it foreign or domestic.

Somebody, anybody, make it stop; stop the insidious madness.

A cohesive, free enterprising, peace building, corporate culture,  united under the Divine and the Rule of Law, and brought to you by painstaking assimilation by virtue of all brackets melting into one -- begins with one ball.

Make it a Good Day, G

And since this week is brought to you by the Number 8 -- let's add this to the long list of links --  Obama March Madness:  Scandal Edition:  College Students Fill Out Their Brackets on Top [Eight] Obama Scandals.

It's a Hard Knocked Moral Life Thing

Dear America,

this blog just might come in stages...levels, if you will...possibly eight.

it might come in one fell swoop, but then again, it might not.

and doncha just love the creative license at play, and surely, at fault.

This is what happens, you see, when multiple dimensions -- most likely eight -- come at me all at once.

There is just so much to say...

from the everyday and nameless cynics to the Book of Job, that's how it all begins for me, G, in this new day...

from there, from the mindset of organizers and radicals to the consciousness of revolutionaries and freedom fighters -- from the absence of light to the deliverance of evil -- from the very essence of how power tends to corrupt to the evolution of absolute power corrupts absolutely -- from the self interests of the common good to self interests of the common not so good.

It's all right here at the tip of my tongue.

How ironic that Saul Alinsky handpicked the Bible verse, "The life of man upon earth is a warfare..." [Job 7:1] to set forth the premise of his entire work, a "pragmatic primer for realistic radicals."

For Alinsky could have chosen anything he so pleased.

But he chose this... 
making it a bullet point, no less, to stand out -- for emphasis -- in order to capture the fullness of his lament (that being Alinsky's, not Job's) and organize his thoughts into that one thing.

To characterize Alinsky quickly and without pomp and circumstance, he's the epitome of a true American cynic.  End of story.   Narrowing the perspective even further:  reading what ultimately becomes the operation's manual for the up and coming progressives of the last fifty years, Rules for Radicals, the task grows into something insufferable, weighted down by a constant stream of whining. 

It's heavy.
Jaded.
Dropping even a few F-bombs along the way, remaining true to the story -- which had to be revolutionary for it's day, no?    Alinsky was cool like that.

What is a cynic anyway?

To the standard, everyday understanding:   "a person who believes all men are motivated by selfishness."  

And that is all well and good; and yet, searching it's origins revealing a certain caveat, then we discover another view, "a member of a sect, founded by Antisthenes of Athens, of ancient Greek philosophers who believed virtue to be the only good and self-control to be the only means of achieving virtue."

 Returning to the Book of Job, it begins with this focus on how hard life is, the suffering that seems too great, too much to handle -- that all life is, and ever will be, can be summed up to being  a hard service, like that of a hired man, and synonymous with war itself.

Alinsky LEADS with this one idea and continues to lead the education of an organizer with a plethora of tips and tactics capitalizing on a theme -- the struggle to gain control (absolute power). 

Revealing the importance of making the moral justification and citing,  "all great leaders, including Churchill, Gandhi, Lincoln, and Jefferson, always invoked 'moral principles' to cover naked self-interest in the clothing of 'freedom' 'equality of mankind' 'a law higher than man-made law' and so on."  Alinsky doubles down, saying, "all effective actions require the passport of morality."  Once a cynic always a cynic.


So it's funny, isn't it?

For just how does Alinsky begin but by channeling Job, invoking God into the discussion right from the start.   Linking to the deeper, moral argument in hopes of making his argument not only legitimate, but worthy of attention and worth fighting for no matter the costs, the suffering, the labor, the hard service to something greater than...  It's on behalf of the common good, of course!

Prompted by Job posing the basic question,  why do the righteous suffer if God is so loving and all-powerful -- Alinsky capitalizes and profits in the making of a movement, as if asking, why do the people suffer at the hands of the establishment, if not also by God, all over again.

Attaining a wee bit of deep background via my handy-dandy Nelson's Bible handbook, we discover that "suffering itself is not the central theme; rather, the focus is on what Job learns from his suffering -- the sovereignty of God over all creation."  In the end, Job sees the light and repents and no longer demands answers from God as to why; in the end, Job realizes how great God is, and becomes humbled by his own humanity under God.

Oh if things could be so simple.

What have we learned?

The thing is, what began as a movement complete with rules for radicals et.al. and everything -- and quite possibly whittled down to eight levels of control to create social change -- has evolved.

And some may even say, the rules have changed; they had to change in order to facilitate the simple truth that "radicals must be resilient, adaptable to shifting political circumstances, and sensitive enough to the process of action and reaction to avoid being trapped by their own tactics and forced to travel a road not of their choosing...radicals must have a degree of control over the flow of events."

And come to think of it, we might as well begin concocting the Eight Stages for Fundamental Transformation BY President Barack Obama right now.

wait a minute...

we did that...

for it's all the same thing.

• Control healthcare, nationalize it even (and sign up by March 31st! or not);
• increase the poverty level...they won't fight back if the nanny state is providing everything for them;
• increase the national debt, by 10 trillion dollars before the end of eight years in office -- then increase taxes because it's morally the right thing to do;
• make it impossible to own a gun, or get the ammo for your gun, that way the people can no longer defend themselves and grow to depend upon the police state to control everybody;
• elevate the welfare rolls to levels unseen... just give people the fish... the roof over their head, the cell phone, unemployment, food stamps, ...;
• take control over news rooms, planting government spies and propaganda... implement government controls over education material... and basically indoctrinate the people from birth;
• remove the belief in Divine Providence and foundation under God, allow the atheists to usurp religious rights and the free exercise thereof;
• divide and conquer -- create conflict between the have's and the have-nots -- make the moral case for income redistribution...and while we're at it, let's polarize our cultural traditions and cornerstones.

Ah indeed,
as Alinsky declares war, in peaceful celebration, saying:

"History is a relay of revolutions; the torch of idealism is carried by the revolutionary group until this group becomes an establishment, and then quietly the torch is put down to wait until a new revolutionary group picks it up for the next leg of the run.  Thus the revolutionary cycle goes on...

wow, you don't say.   Go on...

...I believe that man is about to learn that the most practical life is the moral life and that the moral life is the only road to survival."

That last bit sounds real good until we recognize the context.

It should be understood that when Alinsky speaks of this "moral life," he makes the distinction to embrace such changes as a group, fully organized as a community; it is neither rooted, or cultivated, from the seeds of self-reliance and personal responsibility of the individual according to this nation's original intent .  

And to that end, this bad influence shows up when our current president speaks of being "my brother's keeper..." and when a certain first lady (Clinton) chimed in, saying, "it takes a village."   Just two out of the many Alinsky students gazing up to the heaven's with contempt, questioning everything, all the while making a mockery of our foundation in the every day.

Going a totally new direction (but not really), here's a link that encapsulates the changes afoot -- and it comes out of NASA of all places.

Top of the list --  according to NASA -- of all things leading to total collapse of civilization as we know it?  The immoral action of income inequality and the immoral depletion of natural resources.

Job would tell us to get on our knees and pray.

Make it a Good Day, G

oh and you bet...

this girl's got plenty more to say, to cynics and comrades alike.  come back now, ya' hear

It's About Bold Character Derived from Stubbord Patience Thing

Dear America,

continuing on a theme for a nano-second, wonder how many trans-genders occupy the Putin Administration's military?  Wonder, too, how many rubles and rubies each one gets for a sex change? 

ah, no bother, that was yesterday's news -- just one day in the life living in America.

Today might just be about a certain Bold Character derived from Stubborn Patience.  This could be describing many things -- America, Putin...me -- but it's origins came from a side of a bottle of wine.  A Paso Creek, Cabernet Sauvignon,  from Paso Robles, California, to be exact.  Can you say,очень вкусный, yummy good?

“Comrade @BarackObama,” so tweeted  Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, “what should do those who have neither accounts nor property abroad? Or U didn’t think about it?”

I'm sorry.
Creepy is seeing the address Comrade boldly inserted before our American president's name.

While in today's headlines, we get Putin, himself, chiming in with a reality check mate to you, comrade...  Highlighted @The Blaze.com:   "He said Western attempts to intimidate Russia with sanctions 'would be viewed as an act of aggression, and that Moscow would retaliate'."

An act of aggression, you say?

Cause for retaliation, you add?

Say it isn't so.

What do you mean Putin is hardly intimidated, not even a smidgen?

What do you mean Putin feels emboldened to hold his own red line, tie it around America's feet, attach a brick off the Kremlin, throw us into the drink, and then toss back a shot of vodka with glee?   Who's your daddy, I mean prankster, I mean fearless leader, now?   #comrade-stupid-americans....

And if, by chance, Russia can control it's own destiny and make up happy endings on the fly, would not the "settled science" of "global warming" counter the measly freezing of a few Russian assets?  Where's the threat? 

Economic sanctions seems to be the go-to diplomatic means for peaceful ends; it's just too bad it doesn't seem to work. 

[Gotta love the addition of various bios of the Russian elites with assets, courtesy of ABC News...in case you missed it, just a quick page up to the Dimitry Rogozin link]

Oi vay.  
It's Obama's war now --  I mean, grim Lenin's fairy tale with puppy dog tails between the legs, is it not?  Bold character with stubborn patience, not.

The good news.
In theory, Obama has just as much power as Putin to make it up as he goes along, no? 

ah, you laugh in the face of danger. 
But in reality,
isn't that what being a leader and having a real plan -- one fortified with military and diplomatic strateeeguries and everything -- is all about?  All the world makes it up as it goes along.

• Having a plan, boom. 
• Understanding the enemy, boom. 
• Recognizing the weaknesses, boom. 
• Contemplating the unintended consequences, boom.
• Follow through with all threats, boom.  
• Seeing a multitude of scenarios play out BEFORE anything happens, boom. 
• Going for the win, boom.
• Being a Commander in Chief, boom.

Obama is truly exceptional at making things up as he goes along.  History proves it:

He made things up in Benghazi.

He made things up in the IRS scandal.

He made things up in Libya.

He made things up in Egypt and the "Arab Spring".

He has made things up throughout every ugly facet of Obamacare -- and even then, if at first you don't succeed, try, try, again.[aaaah, scratch that, didn't mean it ...so says the father of the failing, freaking, fiasco that is responsible for breaking the American health care industry, constituting one-sixth of this nation's economy, to infinity and beyond].

I mean, economic sanctions are powerful things. 
Talk about economic sanctions...

Domestically --  we are in the midst of sanctions so great -- the low information voter and all those otherwise tied emotionally to this current regime are fundamentally immune to recognizing the total economic collapse laying in wait. 

Now to the cut and paste elements of today's news -- and it's plucked out of an email from a trusted source -- my papa xoxo:

 

How to create a social state by Saul Alinsky:

 

There are eight levels of control that must be obtained before you are able to create a social state. The first is the most important.

 

1) Healthcare– Control healthcare and you control the people

 

2) Poverty – Increase the Poverty level as high as possible, poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.

 

3) Debt – Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.

 

4) Gun Control– Remove the ability to defend themselves from the Government. That way you are able to create a police state.

 

5) Welfare – Take control of every aspect of their lives (Food, Housing, and Income)

 

6) Education – Take control of what people read and listen to – take control of what children learn in school.

 

7)Religion – Remove the belief in the God from the Government and schools

 

8) Class Warfare – Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (Tax) the wealthy with the support of the poor.

What is so different?
Seriously.

What is so different from the actions of a President Putin, in the specific, and a Russia, in general,  and a fellow world leader and comrade, President Barack Obama?


Welcome to America --  a nation whittled down to nothing more than a project of progressives and elitists,  undermining the natural state of everything under the sun, where the ends justify the means, a place where pranksters lead and a police state -- with origins of the State --  lives outrageously.

And finally, call in the big guns (if we have any left)  -- for America also happens to be the nation leading from behind as the international laughing stock.

Is this a great country, or what?

Hail to the bold character derived from stubborn patience not lost.

Make it a Good Day, G


 

It's About a World Revolving Around Just Six Pillars of Character Thing

Dear America,

yes, little old gthing went all AWOL for a wee bit.  it happens.

no need to get into the itty bitty details of a kitchen unplugged, or my girl upended from a cold, or my own unraveling from the lack of sleep while working extra hours (picture a smidge cranky and then light a match under it)...

...aw, no bother, it's just life.  (that's just a little Eeyore, revisited)

And speaking of revisiting...

hummmmm di dum dum

Can we just return to a little more of the "don't ask don't tell" policy -- and not just for the military, but for bloody ALL of us!!!!!!

Now, it's not that I can't accept different people. I can!   Yes I can --  we all can -- we all scream for can-cans (with frilly tutus and everything)!

How ever God made you and me, we are free to be.  And it's all good.

But something seems to be upsetting the balance of nearly every facet of our lives -- be it within changes of early childhood education, athletics (both amateurs and pros)... even occurring within the very first line of defense of our national security, our military.

And just what, pray tell, has set me off this not so bright eyed and pin the tail on the donkey morning?   THIS!

Enough already.

Seriously?

Is this really an issue we have to spend public air space to figure out?  Do we really want to --- no, need to -- know that there are nearly 16,000 trans genders in the military as we speak? 

Then there's this --

So, we can't afford to subsidize the average military family food budget any longer -- according to recent news upturning the honey pot, and cutting the budget going towards the local commissary on every military base from sea to shining sea -- and quite possible closing some of them altogether --  but we can extend hard earned tax dollars, calculated to come to hundreds of thousands, millions even, for sex changes and medication -- not to be outdone by the inordinate amount of extra care, attention to detail, and changes to military procedure and policy, based solely upon one's sexual orientation?   Or should we say, disorientation. 

The juxtaposition is simply insulting really.

The military's lower classes and our veterans -- the members who will undoubtedly feel it the most --  can just take it up the ass, clearly being the hardest hit with these cuts,  but for all you trans babies  -- yay you!  You get a free re-do on the taxpayer dime.  Can we just, at the very least, take it to a vote?

If I were trans -- this kind of news would actually incite me to enlist!  What's a few years serving in the military, when in fact, before it's all told and undone, there's a free sex change in it.

And NO.  I do not think our children need to be educated from kindergarten by an agenda fulfilling the progressive think tank's wet dreams.  (That might be too rough around the edges, but oh well, it's just the mood I'm in).

That topic -- anything along the lines of the specific best-interests of the LGBT agenda -- crosses lines of religion, cultural tradition and precedence, and personal boundaries predicated upon individual rights.   To really consider every individual family's orientation, if you will -- the topic is not something our early education needs to be involved with.  It should be handled, discussed, and left to be decided at the family level - however it looks. 

Perhaps by middle school -- having amassed a set of discriminating guidelines surrounding health education teachings thoughtfully arrived from a balanced conglomeration of ideas on various lifestyles -- the topic can be entered into the discussion.  Surely by that time, having been given a foundation of understanding through their parent(s), and having grown up and into their own, our children are ready for a discussion such a this.  Key word there was OUR, just in case it slipped right on past you...but I digress.

The thing is -- there are many times when it just feels that the LGBT agenda is being selfish, narcissistic even, needy beyond what seems to be the norm.  What gives this group the right to be on a pedestal?  Maybe it's just me. 

But we all need to work it out somehow.   And I really think we can.  And we will.

The thing is -- early education is a time for Winnie the Pooh, and things like The Six Pillars of Character, for goodness sakes!

Please note: these  "pillars" are for everyone  in equal portion and include trustworthiness, respect (oooh, pooh,  speaking of which, I have to do it... Cuz somebody needs to revisit third grade apparently...r-s-p-e-c-t,),  responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. 

I do believe this covers it,  does it not?  Don't these ideas, these concepts, work and apply for everyone and everything in life?  And not just for grade school, but for every year thereafter?  Caring for those who are different, good citizenship and treating others the way we want to be treated -- these things are universal no matter who's your daddy/daddy or mama/mama or mommy/daddy or some other combination yet to be decided, no?

No, no, I got an idea.   How about if we all have to be force fed the LGBT education -- we get to bring in The McGuffey's Readers world? !  Yeah, yeah -- a series that highlights the story of Creation, by God, and concentrates on all things relating to good character all the way through grade school!    yeah, yeah, that should be the end of it, no?

Oh what a wonderful, wonderful world it would be if we revolved around just six pillars of character every live long day ... and all sat down to have cookies and milk about three o'clock... a girl can dream, can't she now?

But noooooooooooo -- we, the people, are being forced to deal, no accept without cause, some kind of hostile takeover of not only our kids early health (sexual) education beginning too early for words, but our whole entire focus on day to day life in America; and showing up in places we certainly don't need any extra controversy or concern as our military boys and girls set out each day to protect us, and seemingly, the rest of the disenfranchised world.



PEOPLE!  We need to work it out somehow.  
And I really think we can. 

And we will. 

It just doesn't look like it will be today.

No bother, right?

Make it a Good Day, G


And hey, how about we pray a little  (or not! your choice!)   --

Let us pray for Harlem.  For it is a tragedy, by gas leak, that could have been prevented.

And for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370...For any one of us could have been on it.  And isn't the not-knowing aspect of what happened so unnerving.    poof!  just gone...how can something like that just disappear into thin air?    Let us pray for the souls on board and their families.

And finally, let us pray for our families.  That we figure out how to work things out in a way that truly works for all of us fair and square.  [oooh, is that a double entendre?  is it? the world may never know...]

It's Just a 2014 Blog Based Upon 2008 Election Results Thing

Dear America,

Well, Cry Me A foreign policy on the rocks...
make mine shaken not stirred.

[and little old gthing has only been waiting three days to say that.]

From March 1, Washington Post:

“If you are effectively taking the stick option off the table, then what are you left with?” said Andrew C. Kuchins, who heads the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I don’t think that Obama and his people really understand how others in the world are viewing his policies.”

And the very next day, let me introduce you to the opening paragraph from the editorial section of the same Post:

FOR FIVE YEARS, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality. It was a world in which “the tide of war is receding” and the United States could, without much risk, radically reduce the size of its armed forces. Other leaders, in this vision, would behave rationally and in the interest of their people and the world. Invasions, brute force, great-power games and shifting alliances — these were things of the past. Secretary of State John F. Kerry displayed this mindset on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday when he said, of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, “It’s a 19th century act in the 21st century.”


And Kerry hop skipped over the 20th century ,why?  For emphasis?  oh okay.

But yes, poking fun at Putin is a new kind of diplomacy -- it's fresh -- coming out of the think tanks of the 21st century, for sure, and not to be confused with the hope y changy diplomacy policy -- both foreign and domestic -- rising like a Phoenix on stage in Denver, circa 2008 to date.

Oh yes, "change we can believe in" and evidently, go on -- forward march! --- to hang a foreign policy upon...... come hell or high water, climate change,  even the Black Sea.

Doncha like the pink?  Besides being a nice touch --  it's code.  It's to serve as a reminder, we are reading material from a place consistently left brained.  And apparently a bunch of left brains all at once, bringing the madness titled, President Obama’s foreign policy is based on fantasy, out of the noggins of  the highly esteemed "Editorial Board."

The White House often responds by accusing critics of being warmongers who want American “boots on the ground” all over the world and have yet to learn the lessons of Iraq. So let’s stipulate: We don’t want U.S. troops in Syria, and we don’t want U.S. troops in Crimea. A great power can become overextended, and if its economy falters, so will its ability to lead. None of this is simple.

But it’s also true that, as long as some leaders play by what Mr. Kerry dismisses as 19th-century rules, the United States can’t pretend that the only game is in another arena altogether. Military strength, trustworthiness as an ally, staying power in difficult corners of the world such as Afghanistan — these still matter, much as we might wish they did not. While the United States has been retrenching, the tide of democracy in the world, which once seemed inexorable, has been receding. In the long run, that’s harmful to U.S. national security, too.

"...these still matter,
much as we might wish they did not."

The urge to pull back — to concentrate on what Mr. Obama calls “nation-building at home” — is nothing new, as former ambassador Stephen Sestanovich recounts in his illuminating history of U.S. foreign policy, “Maximalist.” There were similar retrenchments after the Korea and Vietnam wars and when the Soviet Union crumbled. But the United States discovered each time that the world became a more dangerous place without its leadership and that disorder in the world could threaten U.S. prosperity. Each period of retrenchment was followed by more active (though not always wiser) policy. Today Mr. Obama has plenty of company in his impulse, within both parties and as reflected by public opinion. But he’s also in part responsible for the national mood: If a president doesn’t make the case for global engagement, no one else effectively can.

Upon morning light,

Putin is supposedly "pulling back" now.
Phew!   (and thank you, Drudge, for the headline chuckle when we feel like crying --  because isn't this true...  misery hates company who doesn't bring a bottle of wine). 

But then again, who are we kidding.  That pull back looks a lot like Putin re-grouping and perhaps a little  re-imagining of his relations with China of his own.  Picturing the scene when Mickey Mouse meets the mop in Fantasia now and scaring the living daylights out of myself.

I know.
So weird.
What does it all mean?

and yes, maybe I AM losing my mind.  But I AM not alone.  Surely, there is personal security in that (foreign relations security, not so much).

Clearly, our fantasy centered foreign policy "has  paid a price in the nervousness of its neighbors, who are desperate for the United States to play a balancing role in the region. But none of those neighbors feel confident that the United States can be counted on."

Let's face it, folks, we are a hot mess.
Where's the strateegury?  Where's the methodical study of action and reaction from the ages, spanning the globe and centuries of material at our fingertips?  Where is the art of war not only being recognized, but honored -- and used as a tool and tactic to create diplomatic change from a position of strength and expertise, coming from a formidable world power, no less?

Because clearly!  Other foreign entities are studying US!  Putin seems to foresee things, contemplating consequences all along the way.

And on another campaign promise of a different kind, upon a different day --  March 26, 2012 to be exact -- what did Obama mean when he told Medvedev to wait until after the election, when more flexibility could be seen from his backyard?  You see, it's things like this that make this girl crazy...

But to think --
Palin nailed it, saying “After the Russian Army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama’s reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia’s Putin to invade Ukraine next." 

[And if you linked in there, let me extend this tidbit to Michael Peck:  It was Tina Fey, impersonating Palin, who said she could see Russia...]  But I digress. This isn't the big finish I had envisioned.

This is:

But to think --
Obama was going to save the world! when he was ushered into office without a smidgen of a resume to support the action. 
The Manchurian candidate.... maybe, maybe not... hmm ...fantasy or reality....No matter.   The thing is, it's plum too late for the world to get to the middle of that creamy center. 
It's in motion already. 
And more than that, it is done.

Make it a Good Day, G