The incomparable and damn-near-always-right George Will wrote yesterday on Friday the 13th of the current disfunction in Congress by Repubs, in which I agree with him, but he slipped in Senator Tommy Tuberville’s holding of blanket military promotions because Biden’s and the DoD’s refusal to follow the law on abortion. I repeat – the DoD refuses to follow the law. Mr. Will makes Tuberville look like an idiot, which is now a requirement of public disagreement, from which in this case reasonable people can disagree, but he adds that he agrees with the opinion that Tuberville’s partisan recalcitrance is making the US a laughingstock among her adversaries.
As if.
Forget our open border, forget the retrograde debacle of Afghanistan, forget stop pumping US oil and begging other countries to produce more, forget the Chinese surveillance balloons, forget the trans nonsense training in the military ranks, forget handing $6 billion to a nation that sneers repeatedly at our outstretched hand.
Forget that Biden’s minions publicly state that climate change is the most important military threat, greater than the security of our strongest ally in the Middle East, forget that Democrats support our and our allies’ adversaries and too many Repubs support isolationism and you-know-who. Forget that the US is the last of our allied western nations to evacuate its civilians (who have been targeted by Hamas) from Israel.
Forget parades of ignorant morons in New York City and elsewhere in our nation who think Palestine will gain a nation and Israel will just walk into the sea because of mindless violence against innocents and grievances that have been repeatedly self-imposed.
Mr. Will is right 99% of the time. He is wrong to agree with the opinion that Tuberville’s procedural block is making us a laughingstock. That element is waaaaaaay down the list.
There’s a baseball analogy to make here (mind you the world is about to blow up, its most dangerous time since just before WWII). If US foreign policy doesn’t stop the crazy dictators now in the press, in the financial and allied business corridors, in the court of public opinion, then a sun burst or a sea level change will mean nothing if the world is a nuclear wasteland. If you don’t win today, you can’t play tomorrow.
Our adversaries have much more to laugh about than one US Senator (who has a lot of support on this stand), one Senator who is only asking that the DoD follow the law.
Let me shift gears for your further amusement: our parish has a food distribution program that is run through one of the ministries on Saturday mornings. I have been involved with other agencies in other locations in this kind of assistance to those in need of food for many years, but not in my parish.
The cars for food queue in the church lot and strong old men led by tough old ladies muscle the boxes and bags and trays of foodstuffs into open trunks and doors and hatchbacks of cars. Some of the cars are very nice, and very new, certainly nicer and newer than my vehicle which I appreciate very much and have no plans to get rid of.
A stretch limo is in the line today, too. Hand to God. Probably some legitimate story behind that, but man, it looks bad.
The lot is shared at the time of morning mass and there is always a line at the short green light on egress from the property for both the food recipients and the mass attendees. Today when I got to the light two cars were in front of me at the long red, both food recipients. I’m feeling what passes for me as the holy spirit having just church.
The light turns green and the first car doesn’t move, probably on his phone. Happens all the time, right? Done it yourself? Say oops and just get going, right? Georgia is a hands-free state, so he is technically breaking the law.
Car number two hits the horn a nano-second before I can. Car one, loaded with free food from our parish’s generosity, flips the bird, and stays put. As the left green switches to flashing amber, he guns away.
The second car makes chase, an elderly couple, as pops is hunched over the wheel.
I had to laugh as I sat through another long light cycle, resisting the temptation to check my phone or curse eloquently in the private space of my car.
There are some parallels here, with our government and with world events. I shouldn’t have to point them out, but I will… think decency, gratitude, civil behavior.
And more gratitude.
That’s a start.
Peace. Out.