Bits and Pieces of Weird Stuff

It's the weekend. Life, in the form of a grueling house hunt and a new puppy who loves chewing electrical cables, is intruding on my blogging. That said, there are some genuinely weird things out there that deserve commentary.

Obama's Most Excellent Crimea Crisis

Given the failure of previous "efforts" to get Putin to roll-back his annexation of Crimea and his pursuit of, at least, de facto control of all Ukraine, the Obama misadministration geniuses have come up with a weapon so unconventional, so diabolical that Putin will have no option but to OBEY. Yes, by now, of course, you all know that the United States has demonstrated a nonpareil #hashtag strike capability! We have the vaunted second strike! The State Department spokesman, Jen Psaki, a bubbly, goofy product of the "best" universities, has warned the Russians that they had better live up to the promise of the "#unitedforukraine" hashtag, or else . . . well, or, or . . . we will engage them in a #hashtag war from which they can never recover! I am sure Lavrov is shaking with laughter--and he does not laugh easily--and telling his President, "OK, sir, let me know when you want to move on Estonia."

On the slightly positive side, I am glad to see that not all the MSM is buying the absurdity of Obama's foreign policy re Russia.

Putin's Tsarist/Stalinist dreams of recreating the old Russian Empire can only be stopped with a strong US military capability led by a resolute President, and, more importantly, by an economic onslaught, e.g., fracking, for which Russia has no answer. The Russian economy, military build-up, and political stability are very vulnerable to energy prices; that is where we need to focus.

In the meanwhile, we #hashtag.

Obama and the MidEast

What more can I say about this misadministration's never-ending quest to undermine Israel's security and permanently erase American influence in the Middle East? I have noted that the whole Palestinian issue is a hoax, and that the creation of yet another corrupt, authoritarian Arab state will solve nothing. Kerry's insistence on expending what little credibility he has on this issue makes no sense, and shows how disconnected he and our president are from reality.

What have we achieved?

Let's see.

We pressured Israel into releasing gobs of locked-up Arab terrorists, who will, of course, strike again.

We have seen the Palestinians laugh in our face and cobble together a reconciliation deal between the PLO and Hamas that, if it holds, guarantees 110% that there will be no deal with Israel.

Good work there, John "Xmas in Cambodia" Kerry! And congratulations to all the State Department personnel who are undoubtedly receiving "Superior Honor" awards with cash bonuses, and promotions based on their "indefatigable (favorite word on award citations) efforts in favor of peace during a very difficult time." It's all about input! We spent a lot of time on this, so it must be good. Imagine if a business worked that way.

Meanwhile, the Syrian civil war churns on, Iran builds its bomb, North Korea threatens the world, China makes its moves, and the jihadis plan for their coming take-over of Afghanistan.

Brandeis University Goes Full PC

Ah, my old alma mater on the River Charles in beauteous Waltham, Massachusetts.

Brandeis, the "Jewish Harvard," as it liked to bill itself, has gone full-blown insane.

Ol' Brandeis long had a touch of the daft when it came to domestic politics, but as a rule the institution was pretty solid on the need for a strong US foreign policy and a strong Israel. I studied politics there, and many of the professors were what today we would call neo-cons, or just old fashioned Hans Morgenthau "balance of power realists." Yes, there was a long history of craziness there, e.g., Herbert Marcuse, Angela Davis, Abbie Hoffman, but it generally was relegated to the fringes. No more.

The crazies have taken over. They decided to disinvite Ayan Hirsi Ali and to scrap the offer of an honorary degree. The Jews of Brandeis found her just too, too pro-Western, and just too, way too, anti-jihadi. They didn't know this when they invited her? This is of a piece with Brandeis's effort in 2003 to form an academic alliance with Al-Quds University--that alliance lasted about ten years and was suspended when Al-Quds went so overboard in demonstrating its true anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments, that even liberals had to act shocked. Brandeis is in the hands of either the most naive and ill-informed people on earth, or something else is afoot.