• "INTO THE STORM", by Perkins and Murphy, American Management Association, 2013;
• "IN THE KINGDOM OF ICE", by Hampton Sides, Doubleday, 2014;
• "SHADOWS ON THE KOYUKUK", by Sidney Huntington - as told to Jim Reardon, Alaska Northwest Books, 1993.

IT IS SAID THAT THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF PEOPLE:

Those who make things happen;

Those who watch things happen;

And those who are constantly saying: "Wha Hoppen?"

If you are reading this, you are definitely in one of the first two groups.

Now try advancing to the first group.  If not your own, the quality of life of your

children and grandchildren may well depend in your informed initiatives.

RECOMMENDED READINGS:

1) Re. Ferguson, Mo. and "Race Relations".  Too much to post here; but see my offering one week ago.  And see this classic:

"What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July", by Frederick Douglas, July 5, 1852, as recently reviewed by Andrew S. Bibby, WSJ Thursday, July 3, 2014, Opinion, pA13.

2) "A Necessary Response to ISIS", in NYTimes Editorial recently.

3)"The Growing Threat From An EMP Attack", by Woolsey and Pry, in WSJ Wednesday, August 13, 2014, Opinion, pA13.

4) "Health Care At The VA", by Bakaeen et al, in JAMA August 6, 2014)

5) Re. The Public Education Disaster: a) "Charters Catch On Fast In Newark", by Leslie Brody, in WSJ Monday, July 7, 2014, pA13;

b) "The Legal Legal Road Map to Reform Public Schools", by Joshua Lipshutz, WSJ Wednesday, July 9, 2014, Opinion pA13;

c) "Taking The Longer View of Diversity", by Leslie Brody, in WSJ Tuesday, August 19, 2014, pA17.

6) On "Buyer's Remorse": President Barack Hussein Obama:

"The Daydream And The Nightmare", by Petty Noonan, in WSJ Saturday - Sunday, July 5,6, 2014, Opinion pA13.  

 GS

ANOTHER EDITION: AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 OPINIONS...

This is a summary!  It is offered for those, including President Obama, who "don't have a strategy yet."

I am prepared to discuss / debate any of these positions in the proper forum.

PAKISTAN: Too strategic to discount.  Continue to support it...and to support India as a counter-weight.

AFGHANISTAN: We were unreliable after the defeat of Russia there; and we are still unreliable.  We must maintain a military presence there, with a "Status of Forces" agreement.  More strategic than our continuing ground forces in Europe.

IRAQ: We were right to invade in 2003...but implementation of both civilian and military forces was stupid.  Thank you Donald Rumsfeld...and thanks to the misguided "loyalty" of "W".  We must maintain a military presence there, with a "Status of Forces" agreement.  The KURDS are a separate issue, and are worthy of all our support.

SUNNI VS SHIA; SALAFISM / WAHIBISM / "FUNDAMENTALIST ISLAM".  The Muslims must resolve this for themselves. For that, they may need a "Protestant Revolution", a "Thirty Years' War" and a "Council of Trent".  But non-Muslims will not tolerate the export of this Terrorism out of the Middle East or against any of our Middle East interests.  And we will specifically not tolerate the expansion of Sharia Law beyond its unfortunate current borders. 

IRAN: A Russian surrogate, to be handled as one would handle a scorpion.  And NO Nuclear Weapons!

SYRIA AND LEBANON.  Approaching "failed State" status.  Such vacuums are never good and must be addressed.

TURKEY: Friend or foe?  They must be made to decide.  Mr. Erdogan cannot play both sides, as he is being allowed to do.

ISRAEL: There will ALWAYS be an Israel.  America guarantees it.  The Arabs and Muslims must be made to know this.  Meanwhile, the current stand-off is the best we can hope for.

ISIS: We need a "Coalition of the Willing", from both the West and the East, to degrade and destroy this cancer - by whatever means that are effective.

EXPORTED TERRORISM: Uncover and destroy, with the targeted suspension of constitutional rights where necessary.

ALLIES: Except for the U.K., duplicitous and self-serving partners - but all we have. 

THE U.N.: Fuggedaboudet.

CANADA; Close cooperation as an equal partner, especially regarding border issues and regarding the Arctic Circle.

MEXICO AND LATIN AMERICA: Apply consistent tough love, "quid pro quo". We advance future relations owing them nothing.

THE DRUG TRADE: Decapitate the drug pushers (whether users or not) here in America, the largest market.

IMMIGRATION: Comprehensive and realistic reform...AFTER CONTROLLING OUR BORDERS!

THE TEA PARTY: They must be both principled and must have a winning strategy.  So far, that's not the case. 

ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICANS: Not perceived as trust-worthy...just self-serving.  Not a winning perception.

ESTABLISHMENT DEMOCRATS: Are there any left?  Or have you all been co-opted by the "AAA Party": articulate, arrogant, asinine"?

"INDEPENDENTS": A nice name for those supposedly "above the fray".  But do you really care, and do you really participate? Evidence suggests otherwise.  Wake Up!  The future of the nation is in your hands between now and 2016. 

"RACE RELATIONS": This will be the topic of a separate statement.

GS

Will someone please remind our enemies of Admiral Yamamoto's words of caution to his superiors who wanted to invade America shortly after Pearl Harbor: "In America, there is a gun behind every blade of grass".

GS

FERGUSON, MO.

WHAT WE DON'T KNOW:

• What started the confrontation between the teenager and the police officer?

• Was there the proper degree of RESPECT displayed for a CITIZEN..and for an OFFICER OF THE LAW in the confrontation?

• If the officer initiated physical confrontation, was he enforcing an arrest, for which any counter-action would be "resisting arrest" and would place the armed officer in jeopardy of having his gun used against him?
• If the teenager initiated the physical confrontation, see above.

WHAT WE DO KNOW.

• "Eye-witness" accounts are worthless, absent photographic evidence, given the highly charged atmosphere.  People are well-known to LIE at times.
• There is photographic evidence that the teenager had just committed a crime.  It is likely that that fact played an important role in the mindset of the teenager, if not of the officer, during the subsequent encounter. 
• The "Racism Industry", of which those who disgracefully call themselves "Black Leaders" are the prime purveyors in this country, pounced into action.
• While many cried for JUSTICE, just as many opportunists - and just plain bums - cried for LOOTING.
• As anyone who has fired a 9mm handgun will recall, after the first round is fired it is too easy to fire off several other rounds with almost no thought attached. 
• The long-standing and troubling connection between some Blacks and fundamentalist / radical Islam has now become dangerous to this nation as the latter press for non-existent "rights" and for the introduction of Sharia Law into American courts.  My position: NEVER.  See my earlier Rapid Response offerings on this subject. 
• "LAW ENFORCEMENT" means exactly that...not street social work when laws have been broken and when public safety is jeopardized. 
• Police officers are sometimes biased and even racist in some quarters of this country.  This cannot be tolerated in their official duties.
• The THIN BLUE LINE is alive and well as it pertains to police officers "covering up" for other officers.  This dereliction of duty must not be tolerated and must be extirpated from police academies and from all levels of law enforcement through the application of severe penalties.  
• Let's wait for the results of a complete, fair and non-politicized investigation.  Can you wait for that in your cry for Justice?

If we want Justice in Society, we must practice Individual Respect and Individual Responsibility.  WHAT A CONCEPT. 

IN CASE I HAVE BEEN TOO AMBIGUOUS IN MY STATEMENTS...

• Today, this country is reaping what it has sown during the last 50 years: "Horse's Ass, and Son of Horse's Ass".
• As with all religious fanatics,  true believers are beyond reason.  So it is with today's ultra - liberals and their religion.
• This country has never been in danger of totalitarianism from the Right.  But we are certainly in danger of totalitarianism from the Left.
• Three institutions basic to the survival of a free society are no longer operational: the Media, our electoral system, and our public schools.  That fact, and not our divisions which have always been part of our American history, will be our undoing if left unchecked. 
• Our two party system of government can not survive if one party is allowed to buy its votes through "entitlements", if the other party is having an identity crisis instead of being united behind a very few basic principles, and if the so-called "Independents" carry their supposed posture "above the fray" into a full disconnect from the issues of the day. 
• The results of the Presidential elections of 2008 and 2012 reflected a national hypnosis born of the above symptoms and signs.
•  The results of the national elections of 2014 and 2016 will determine whether we stumble into World War lll within a few years and/or whether our citizens resort to mass civil disobedience or worse. 
• Meanwhile, our President...faced with critical developments in Iraq, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in Egypt, in Libya, in Syria, in Iran, in Crimea, in Israel and Gaza, and now in the rise of ISIS throughout the Middle East, is AWOL. 

AMERICAN "FOREIGN POLICY": WHEN IS THIS NIGHTMARE GOING TO END?  

GAZA TUNNELS

AND WHERE HAS ISRAEL BEEN?

God helps those who help themselves.  Neverthelsss, it is the Israelis...and not the Palestinian "civilians", who are the vistims here.

GS

GLOBAL WARMING?  DON'T "BELIEVE" ANYBODY.

Just check your outdoor thermometer, the weather reports from throughout the world, and the data, as recently reviewed by me in a public access TV program to which we will soon place a link.  You might also access the section on this website entitled "The Arctic".
Bottom Line:

• Yes global warming IS taking place.
• Yes, it is partly or mainly due to cyclical weather changes through the ages.
• Yes, it is worsened by human action.
• How much? We don't know...but it isn't helping.
• How much of the human impact is produced by Americans.  About 5%, as compared with 80+% from the developing world.
• We can change our economic activities related to organic fuels and implicated chemicals - but not so much as to seriously injure our national economy. 

Beginning in the early 1970's, the Education Profession ruled that all education had to be "value neutral" particularly at the young formative ages.  Fast forward to subsequent decades, when we now have generations including many members who are amoral, cynical, immoral and totally self-centered around "ME".  This has produced a Wild West Wall Street, an oxymoron called "business ethics", another oxymoron called "internet security", Science professions that increasingly unearth members who lie and cheat to get ahead, and most recently a CDC that doesn't even "wash its hands".  (See "Crack Down On Scientific Fraudsters", by Adam Marcus and Ivan Oranski, NYTimes Friday, July 11, 2014, Op-Ed, pA21).    YOU'RE DOING A GREAT JOB, BROWNIE".

GS

Lt. Col Matthew Dooley, a West Point graduate and highly decorated combat veteran, was an instructor at the Joint Forces Staff College at the National Defense University. He had 19 years of service and experience, and was considered one of the most highly qualified military instructors on Radical Islam & Terrorism.

He taught military students about the situations they would encounter, how to react, about Islamic culture, traditions, and explained the mindset of Islamic extremists. Passing down first hand knowledge and experience, and teaching courses that were suggested (and approved) by the Joint Forces Staff College. 

The course "Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism," which was suggested and approved by the Joint Forces Staff College, caught the attention of several Islamic Groups, and they wanted to make an example of him. They collectively wrote a letter expressing their outrage, and the Pro-Islamic Obama Administration was all too happy to assist.

The letter was passed to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey. Dempsey publicly degraded and reprimanded Dooley, and Dooley received a negative Officer Evaluation Report almost immediately (which he had aced for the past 5 years).

He was relieved of teaching duties, and his career has been red-flagged. “He had a brilliant career ahead of him. Now, he has been flagged.” Richard Thompson, Thomas More Law Center  "All US military Combatant Commands, Services, the National Guard Bureau, and Joint Chiefs are under Dempsey's Muslim Brotherhood-dictated order to ensure that henceforth, no US military course will ever again teach truth about Islam that the jihadist enemy finds offensive, or just too informative." 

Former CIA agent Claire M. Lopez (about Lt. Col. Dooley)..." The Obama Administration has demonstrated lightning speed to dismiss military brass that does not conform to it's agenda, and not surprisingly, nobody is speaking up for Lt. Col. Dooley. Col. Dooley has now been added to the 9 generals the Obama administration has summarily dismissed for no other reason than they are great American military citizens."

The Senate votes this week on S. 2578, a bill introduced by Democrats to overturn the religious freedom protections upheld in the Supreme Court Hobby Lobby ruling and force religious Americans to provide others’ abortion-inducing drugs.
Take Action! Email your Senators to tell them to protect religious freedom and the unborn and vote NO on S. 2578.
And, as if that wasn’t terrible enough, tomorrow the pro-abortion Senate is advancing another bill, S. 1696, the so-called “Women’s Health Protection Act,” that attempts to wipe out almost every pro-life law on the books. This bill is worse than FOCA, the radically pro-abortion legislation Barack Obama championed as a Senator.
Our research arm, the Charlotte Lozier Institute, just completed an in-depth analysis of the atrocious, far-reaching ramifications S. 1696 would have on unborn babies and their mothers.
S.1696 would jeopardize or outright invalidate several pro-life laws that are broadly supported by the American people, especially women. I know many of you personally worked to pass these laws protecting women and the unborn.
Just a few examples:

• Limits on abortion after 20 weeks – or after 5 months of pregnancy – based on the child’s ability to feel pain would be invalidated.
• Laws prohibiting abortions based on the child’s gender would be invalidated.
• Waiting period laws – that give the mother time to reflect on her decision – would be severely jeopardized.
• Laws requiring mothers to be given an opportunity to see a sonogram and hear the heartbeat of her unborn child before choosing abortion would be severely jeopardized.