The Weekly Standard has some excellent analysis of a VERY insightful interview given by President Obama to  Jeff Goldberg of Bloomberg Media. 

The Full Obama foreign policy interview is HERE.  (A must read for those who tackle understanding of what motivates the current administration at the core.)  

Weekly Standard – On the eve of the Netanyahu visit to Washington, President Obama gave a lengthy interview to Jeffrey Goldberg that shows a chief executive who has learned next to nothing about the world in his five years in office.

First, kudos to Goldberg: he pressed Obama repeatedly, challenging vague formulations and seeking clarity. Goldberg pushed Obama hard, especially on Iran and Syria.

Obama isn’t good off the cuff, especially when challenged; he is far better with a prepared speech. And what emerged is an awful portrait of the president and his conception of the world.

Take Syria. Here’s what Obama said: (more…)

The truly Great Communicator, Ronald Reagan knew that summits with Gorbachev were the one way he could directly telegraph a message to the walled-off Soviet public. After all, even Soviet TV was obliged to cover these events.

The partners’ first handshake took place outside a 120-year-old Geneva chateau. Reagan arrived first and burst out the door, bounding down the steps without his coat on a cold day, as Gorbachev’s limo pulled up. Gorbachev, bundled in a gray overcoat, looking very much like the guest, was greeted by a dapper Reagan, 20 years his senior.

To top it off, Reagan put his arm under Gorbachev’s, as if he were aiding him up the stairs. All this was captured live on Soviet TV, and it was the first step in reshaping the view of Reagan in the eyes of the Soviet public.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan smiles as he talks to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev outside the villa Fleur D’Eau at Versoix near Geneva, Switzerland, November 19, 1985

In the U.S., Reagan’s talk of the sinister nature of Communism was often dismissed as the rhetoric of a right-wing ideologue. In Moscow, policymakers believed he meant business. The Communist Party newspapers (of course, back then all of them were party newspapers) whipped themselves into a frenzy with invective about the 40th U.S. President.

He was portrayed as a wild “cowboy,” a “shameless liar,” and “a rabid militarist” who employed the “slogans and methods of Hitler.” Cartoons depicted him waving a Stetson as he gleefully sat atop a ballistic missile. He may have called them the Evil Empire, but in the Soviet view, Reagan was evil incarnate. (more…)

Note:  the following is an opinion piece, protected under the rights afforded by the First Amendment to the US Constitution.  Offended Obot trolls will not be let out of the basement to “comment”.  That is all.

Just when you thought the domestic battle for “hearts and minds” couldn’t get any more perverse, in steps “helper Monkey” Hollywood to drag us down into the sewer, reaching a new low in cultural marxism.

There has been an ongoing psyops war waged by the Obama Administration and its sycophants against the U.S. military.

Traditionally, the U.S. military has always enjoyed high approval ratings from the American public at large – they support the military in funding; in its non-combat humanitarian missions as diplomatic outreach (such as the US Navy Hospital Ships, USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy); and are, for the most part, proud of the work that the US military does in defending freedom and the highest ideals of “America” –

individual liberty, peace, free trade, domestic stability among the many hallmarks of the “shining city on the hill”.  In very few other countries, do so many citizens have direct experience – having served, themselves – or a first degree relative connection to someone who has served in the armed forces. (more…)

In a little less than 11 days, on March 1, the Iditarod race will begin.  The Iditarod is an exciting dog-sled race from Anchorage to Nome – a total distance of 975 miles.  It is exciting even in our modern, perhaps jaded, view, but the story behind this race is historic.

Alaska in winter can be a treacherous place.  The modern race is as safe as it can be made, with regular checkpoints, where supplies have been pre-placed, and mushers and their dogs can rest along the way.

The original “Iditarod” was another matter, indeed.

(more…)

You may not be a native Texan, but after watching this beautiful photo-essay by west Texas’ official state photographer Wyman Meinzer, you’ll wish you were.  I suggest you turn up the volume, click on the “full screen” icon on the lower right, and keep a box of Kleenex handy.  If ya’ll aren’t dancin’ in your seats…..well, ya’ll haven’t got a pulse!
This is dedicated to all my Texas buddies….you know who you are. 

The history of  Japan and its people has been rife with periods of rapid building, great prosperity, destruction, and then eventual rebirth. These cycles have become so ingrained in the Japanese culture, that one can only wonder if the “Kaiju films” (Japanese monster movies) and their like are not somehow the product of this cultural ethos. Japan was only nine years away from the events of Hiroshima, and was in the midst of an enormous rebuilding phase, when the first of the Gojira (Godzilla) movies was released in 1954. The film was originally developed to make an anti-nuclear statement, arising from a true event occurring during the Bikini Tests. A Japanese fishing boat had strayed into the test area, and its crew was exposed to severe amounts of radiation when the bomb exploded.  (more…)