Contemplating the Live Hand Grenade

On this day:

437
Emperor Valentinian III, begins his reign over the Western Roman Empire. His mother Galla Placidia ends her regency, but continues to exercise political influence at the court in Rome.
1881
Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James Garfield, who eventually dies from an infection on September 19.

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Mark Rutte, the NATO Secretary General, gave an eye-opening interview on NATO and the Russian efforts in Ukraine, and North Korean involvement. He flattered Trump--except for one moment where he said future negotiations with Russia should include more than a "historian."

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A minority opinion: The gender debates in locker rooms, bathrooms, and sports received unintended stimulus when female reporters objected male reporters had an advantage over them when they could enter football locker rooms for post-game interviews. The culture demurred, and women were allowed in, causing surprised guys coming out of showers, a scramble for towels, and annoyed interviews with half-naked men.

It was sold as a women's rights question, but that crossed a line.. I don't recall any effort to make those men more comfortable. Men and women mixed in the locker rooms. The camel's nose was under the tent.

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Raising taxes, substituting social workers for police, and inserting government into private business is a good way to cause the flight of the only people in NYC who can help. As always, the Left creates what it tries to prevent.

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Contemplating the Live Hand Grenade

Zakaria had the bad judgment to give a platform to Jake Sullivan, the national security advisor under the Biden Regency, to rewrite the history of Ukraine and the Democrats' mishandling of Iran. First, he said that the Iran bombing could eventually be overcome with money and effort--a remarkably simplistic and obvious statement that led to the more obvious idea that only the participants' decision to prefer peace could keep the area safe. But the reason for the bombing attack was exactly that. And the idea that giving the Iranian regime money to continue their nuclear plans was not a solution, it was collusion. Obama--and the Biden Regency--underwrote Iran's nuclear development and contributed to the region's instability.

Remember, we are not trying to protect Israel from Iran; they don't need help. We are trying to protect the Middle East and ourselves from Iran's insane ambitions and Israel's inevitable insane vengeful response in its death throes.

Compounding this nonsense, Sullivan also criticized Trump for not being more forceful and supportive of Ukraine, this from a guy whose presumed boss called the invasion by Russia a "minor incursion."

All of this went unchallenged by Zakaria, who continued the tradition of journalistic one-sidedness. One obvious reason is the Press's political bias. However, another, painful, and discouraging factor is that these problems are dangerous and are felt to be more safely dealt with by platitudes. As in Ukraine and the national debt, the Left defaults to the safer, short-term news cycle rather than the challenging, long-term, and more dangerous policy.