The Modern American Mind on Islamic Attacks in France

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“Don’t be who ISIS wants you to be”: Bloggers on Paris and Beirut by Michelle W. Telling stories has power; they connect us, help us work through the raw emotion, and give us a way to make sense of events. After last week’s devastating violence in Paris and Beirut, these nine bloggers shared theirs, helping us do just that. Reading their posts may not be easy — but it is important. Cultive le Web, “Attentats à Paris, j’étais rue de Charonne“ A writer from Cultive le Web was out for an evening with friends Friday night when shooting began on the rue de Charonne. The staccato phrasing of this play-by-play post captures brings readers some tiny measure of the fear, panic, and disbelief. It’s an unvarnished outpouring we wish he had no occasion to write, but are glad he did. 9:45 p.m. Noise, screams. A fight? A rowdy crowd there at the bar? They must be drunk, like on any Friday night in Paris, right? I come closer. A group of people has formed on the other side of the sidewalk. “Kalashnikov shots.” “Casualties.” “Dozens of casualties.” “Broken glass, everywhere.” There’s a gush of details — who to believe? What to make out of this? What are they talking about? A shoot-out? Settling scores like in Marseille? But thinking about it, why not a terrorist attack? I ask, naively. “Obviously it’s a terrorist attack!” answer the patrons who’d fled running, all at once.* *Translated from the French by WordPress.com editor Ben Huberman. The Seventy Fifth, “Sense and Senselessness“ Patrick lives in Paris’ 11e arrondissement, a short walk from Le Bataclan. Waking up the morning after Friday’s attacks, he looks for patterns in the violence that might give him hints for staying safe  — but finds none. It makes sense, sadly, that an attack may occur at or near a French football match – the President was there, after all. We can avoid large displays of nationalism, sports, culture or otherwise. But must we also avoid all American rock bands? Was it something about the name Eagles of Death Metal? Do we stay inside on Friday the 13th? Never patronise Cambodian restaurants? How long is a piece of string? Hummus for Thought, “Beirut, Paris“ Paris isn’t the only city in mourning; bombings in Beirut last week left over 40 people dead. Lebanese blogger Joey reflects on the lack of global attention on Lebanon, with sense of resignation tempered by the hope that we can do better. ‘We’ don’t get a safe button on Facebook. ‘We’ don’t get late night statements from the most powerful men and women alive and millions of online users. ‘We’ don’t change policies which will affect the lives of countless innocent refugees. This could not be clearer. I say this with no resentment whatsoever, just sadness. A Separate State of Mind, “From Beirut, This is Paris“ On A Separate State of Mind, Elie reacts with more anger than resignation — anger at the world for caring more about Paris, but also at his countrymen and women for seeming to do the same. We can ask for the world to think Beirut is as important as Paris, or for Facebook to add a “safety check” button for us to use daily, or for people to care about us. But the truth of the matter is, we are a people that doesn’t care about itself. We call it habituation, but it’s really not. We call it the new normal, but if this [is] normality then let it go to hell. In the world that doesn’t care about Arab lives, Arabs lead the front lines. Everybody’s Talking at Once, “How Refusing to Be United Makes Us Stronger“ Video game blogger Drew turned to more serious topics after the attacks on Paris, penning a thought-provoking post on whether being “united” against terror is a laudable goal, or a positive idea at all. It’s a sobering (and, it must be said, fundamentally French) thought: That the people killed in Paris “had declared war” on terrorism not because they imagined themselves conscripted into a fighting force, and certainly not because they marched in cultural and rhetorical lockstep, but specifically because they weren’t in lockstep. They were living out the messier, more joyful, less “united” way of life that terrorism seeks to undermine… We don’t have to be united. We don’t have to agree. We don’t always have to “stand together,” even. That’s precisely what makes us strong, and that’s precisely what makes our way of life worth defending. John Scalzi, “Paris“ Author John Scalzi also veered from his regular bailiwick, science-fiction. His short but impassioned piece exhorts us to avoid giving credence to the Islamic State’s black-and-white worldview by refusing to conflate “Muslim” and “terrorist.” Don’t do what ISIS wants you to do. Don’t be who ISIS wants you to be, and to be to Muslims. Be smarter than they want you to be. All it takes is for you to imagine the average Muslim to be like you, than to be like ISIS. If you can do that, you make a better world, and a more difficult one for groups like ISIS to exist in. Idiot Joy Showland, “How to Politicise a Tragedy“ Analyses of tragic situations are quickly followed by calls to stop politicizing tragedy — i.e., to stop analyzing at all, and allow people space to grieve. Idiot Joy Showland‘s Sam Kriss rejects that request, explaining why in this cogent piece. When it’s deployed honestly, the command to not politicise means to not make someone’s death about something else: it’s not about the issue you’ve always cared about; it’s not about you. To do this is one type of politics. But there’s another. Insisting on the humanity of the victims is also a political act, and as tragedy is spun into civilisational conflict or an excuse to victimise those who are already victims, it’s a very necessary one. Natalia Antonova, “In Paris they ask the right questions“ Natalia’s poem was written well before last week’s events but published this week, a fitting tribute to the city of love. In Paris they ask the right questions: “Cognac, armagnac, or calvados?” And, “Why are your eyes so blue?” “Do you know how to get back home?” “Is it finally time to kiss you?” Pascale Guillou, “Restoring Hope and Innocence“ Illustrator Pascale, a Frenchwoman living in the Netherlands, reacted with pen and ink. Her lines are simple but heartbreaking, reminding us of something we all want but can’t have — whether we’re in France, Lebanon, or anywhere else.

American Young Becoming Dumber in Math

Nation’s Report Card Scores Down

(from the National Center for Policy Analysis:)

The Nation’s Report Card’s recently released the results of an assessment of 279,000 fourth-graders and 273,00 eighth-graders representing both public and private schools from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Education Activity.

• National mathematics scores declined in both 4th and 8th grades for the first time since the early 1990s.
• For 8th graders, the national average scores in both mathematics and reading were lower than in 2013.
• Only in one state was the average 8th grade reading score higher than in 2013.
• The reading gap between large city schools and the national average decreased from a difference of 15 points to 8 points since 2003.
• Comparing 2015 to 2013, students eligible for the National School Lunch Program and identified with a learning disability had scores higher in grade 4 but lower in grade 8.

Achievement levels also varied by race. Those performing at a proficient level or above in grade 4 were either Asian (57 percent) or white (46 percent) while black and Hispanic students only had 18 percent and 21 percent of students, respectively, above proficient.

Source:  Peggy G. Carr, Ph.D., “2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Grades 4 and 8 Mathematics and Reading,” Institute of Education Sciences, October 28, 2015.

– See more at: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=26204&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD#sthash.ZYAsL700.dpuf

The Tale of Two Hospitals

from the National Center for Policy Analysis:

Tale of Two Hospitals: Parkland and the Veterans Administration

When comparing Parkland Hospital and the Aurora Veterans Administration (VA) hospital, the difference between local and federal management is clear. Parkland Hospital in Dallas County completed in August 2015 a $1.27 billion expansion. After approval from taxpayers, $747 million in municipal bonds, private donations and the hospital’s reserve funds renovated the dilapidated building.

The VA hospital in Aurora, Colorado was scheduled to be completed in 2014, but lack of oversight and rejection of fiscally conservative options has left the hospital still unfinished and $600 million over budget.

Both hospitals experienced difficulties with construction. All involved in the Parkland Hospital project, however, were held accountable — project leadership even went as far as hiring a company to monitor spending. The Aurora VA’s building designs changed repeatedly and even after a year, the $604 million hospital plan had to be reconstructed and room equipment size was not taken into account.

Both projects were to improve hospital facilities. One was locally and privately funded, the other a large scale federal undertaking. Parkland hospital is now open, has twice the land area and has 700 more beds. The VA hospital still will not be open until 2017, and cost $500,000 more than the Dallas County project.

Thoughtless federal spending should be curtailed, as this cycle has become all too common. Local involvement, private funding and project accountability could have significantly changed the outcome of the VA hospital remodeling project.

Source:  David Grantham and Jennifer Vermeulen, “Tale of Two Hospitals: Parkland and the Veterans Administration,” Townhall, October 28, 2015.

 

Know Thy Leftist Enemy…..Especially it’s EVIL!

The GOP Clown Car Rolls On

by Matt Taibbi at Rollingstone:

On the campaign trail with the most dishonest, bumbling and underqualified pack of presidential candidates in history

“Not one of them can win, but one must. That’s the paradox of the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, fast becoming the signature event in the history of black comedy.

Conventional wisdom says that with the primaries and caucuses rapidly approaching, front-running nuts Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson must soon give way to the “real” candidates. But behind Trump and Carson is just more abyss. As I found out on a recent trip to New Hampshire, the rest of the field is either just as crazy or as dangerous as the current poll leaders, or too bumbling to win.

Inside the GOP Clown Car »

Disaster could be averted if Americans on both the left and the right suddenly decide to be more mature about this, neither backing obvious mental incompetents, nor snickering about those who do. But that doesn’t seem probable.

Instead, HashtagClownCar will almost certainly continue to be the most darkly ridiculous political story since Henry II of Champagne, the 12th-century king of Jerusalem, plunged to his death after falling out of a window with a dwarf.

Just after noon, Wednesday, November 4th. I’m in Hollis, New Hampshire, a little town not far from the Massachusetts border.

The Hollis pharmacy is owned by Vahrij Manoukian, a Lebanese immigrant who is the former chairman of the Hillsborough County Republican Committee. If you come into his establishment looking for aspirin, you have to first survive dozens of pictures of the cannonball-shape businessman glad-handing past and present GOP hopefuls like Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Rudy Giuliani.

Primary season is about who most successfully kisses the asses of such local burghers, and the big test in Hollis today is going to be taken by onetime presumptive front-runner Jeb Bush.  (There’s more, do read on, please.)

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-gop-clown-car-rolls-on-20151117

The Battle for Guadalcanal , 1942-1943

History, knowledge in general, has disappeared from the feminized curriculum now passed around as school education.

Correcting ones feelings is the poison of Our childrens’ day of family-dying leftist America.

I was so fortunate to have been born in times of the American Depression,  seven years before I learned to visualize learning…..through the excitement of  a child’s reality and concern that ‘my’  country was at War in the world.

I discovered Guadalcanal, and nouns like Rabaul, Port Morseby,  and eventually Midway, Tarawa, Guam, Saipan the Marianas primarily through the St. Paul Sunday Pioneer Press beginning 73 years ago.

It turned out that I was severely dyslexic, a severe  handicap for one’s  schooling  long before the disorder was discovered.  I couldn’t read sentences and even recognize many letters if the alphabet correctly.  But, I was born to be curious and acquired a powerful love learning about the miracle of life, in particular the human part of it. It was world war time when that happened for me.

I was seven when Pearl Harbor was attacked.  Some time in mid or late summer of 1942 I discovered the rotogravure sections of the St. Paul Pioneer Press Sunday editions where its fat page sections were filled with sepia ‘colored’ pictures of War in the Pacific.    Two  step-brothers of my Mother, ages 17 and 19 had joined the Navy and wound up on ships waging war against Japan by then.   Mother showed me maps and pictures from these newspapers  from the battles on and around the island of Guadalcanal not too far from the continent of Australia.

In no time I began to associate cut line words with action in  the war pictures, or something like that, because I began to read headlines as well as cut lines regarding war progress.   My parents must have recognized this development in me, for they bought me a World Atlas for Christmas, 1942, made of flimsy paper and cardbord, a victim of the war effort.   I haven’t yet thrown it away.

A real war lasted on that island for nearly a half a year till early 1943.  My in law, were on ships connected to and included in the fighting.

The first headline I remember reading dealt with the beginning of the battle for  Midway Island, June, 1942 occurring  at the same time.    I can still see the burning of the Yorktown in one of those newspaper pictures.

I fell in love with gardens, maps, atlases, globes, geography, history, and so on, nearly all around that early age…..then gardens, because they were beautiful places to dive bomb enemy installations made of my toy blocks in a section of Mother’s flower displays and later years  in my neighbor’s sand box.

I had a great childhood living in a very modest ‘loving’ neighborhood, in a wonderful united country trained to decency in the JudeoChristian ethic manner then, called the United States of America.

The following is a rather lengthy but rewarding reading of the Battle for Guadalcanal, a time when America’s young men were God-fearing and heroes, rather than poisoned by today’s American college and university:

http://www.worldwar2history.info/Guadalcanal/Marines.html