Courage, Mes Amis!

I've been watching the Republican Presidential debate. It is not a pleasant experience.

I can't believe the most reasonable voice on foreign policy in that party is Rand Paul.

Donald Trump just emphasized that immigrants must come here legally. I can't help noting that Donald Trump's immigrant grandfather [Drumpf] met all of the requirements to immigrate in 1885: 1) He proved he was not Chinese; 2) paid a $50 head tax.

I can't believe the hysteria over Syrian refugees. Why Syria? We've never had a terrorist act by a Syrian immigrant. Where have our terrorists come from? Most of them have been home grown white Christians (and a few Jews). But incidents involving immigrants seem to more frequently involve Saudis and Pakistanis than anyone else. As for "Radical Islamic Jihadism" (or whatever magical incantation Republicans want to use) the foundation of that movement is the radical fundamentalist form of Islam nurtured in the Wahabbi sect in Saudi Arabia, funded by the Saudi state. The other troubling source of terrorism has been Pakistan and the region just across the border in Afghanistan.

This group is mostly not rational.

They live in a fantasy world and have magical solutions to imaginary problems.

Heaven help us!

Living with risk and danger in a time of war

CAESAR

Cowards die many times before their deaths.

The valiant never taste of death but once.

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,

It seems to me most strange that men should fear,

Seeing that death, a necessary end,

Will come when it will come.

 

---------

The Burdens Of History

"The past," William Faulkner once wrote, "isn't dead - it isn't even past."

Faulkner was writing in the context of his fictional world of Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, site of the struggle between the aristocratic Compsons and the low-class (dare we call them Red Necks?) Snopes family.

Henry Ford had a different attitude toward the past.

"History," he said,  "is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we make today."

Benito Mussolini: Trump Look Alike

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=benito+mussolini+clips&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001

Il Duce

Some commentators (e.g. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post) have recently compared Donald Trump to the founder of European Fascism, Benito Mussolini.

Those of us old enough to remember World War II newsreels, are struck by the resemblance of Trump's body language when addressing a crowd to that of Mussolini.

Here, for example, is a film from that era showing Mussilini's rise to power: https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=benito+mussolini+clips&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001

Note the resemblance between Trump's hair and Mussolini's helmet. Or, for that matter, note the similar visual effect of Trump's baseball cap to that of Mussolini's helmet.

Watch the movie of Mussolini's speech. Looks just like Trump's delivery.

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=benito+mussolini+clips&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001

Amazing.

Oriental Town Board Meeting

Last night's Town Board meeting saw the swearing in of one new commissioner, Allen Price, and the swearing in of our new mayor, Sally Belangia. Sally becomes our first woman to be sworn in as mayor. She wields her gavel well, and has a voice of authority.

I wish our new additions well.

On Being Free

“Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

― Benjamin Franklin

We'll Always Have Paris

From our village in southern Belgium to downtown Paris was about a three hour drive. About the same as from Oriental to Raleigh.

Two decades later, we lived in Paris and my office was in the Marais (third arrondisement). It was a  ten minute walk to Boulevard Beamarchais for lunch near some of last Friday's shootings.

It was pleasant to stroll around the streets, sharing Paris with a diverse populace of Parisians and visitors.

I take exception to the MSNBC reporter recently describing the events of last Friday 13th as having "devastated Paris."

Paris is not devastated.

Parisians are back at their outdoor cafes. They gather at Place de la Republique and hug each other. They lay flowers as a memorial to victims. Life goes on much as before.

Vive le France!

Yet we must not forget that the terrorists who attacked Paris were themselves French men and Belgians. Not Syrians. Not refugees.

The France that was so welcoming to African Americans like Josephine Baker and James Baldwin has not been so welcoming to Algerians and Moroccans. I have seen it with my own eyes.