Compassion can overwhelm the compassionate, as we've often attempted to point out. It's true at our chaotic Southern border, and human kindness going beyond normal standards can also backfire -- as in the lax attitude the U.S. initiated back to at least the seventies where international trade is concerned. In terms of trade with China, the compassionate trade scale has long been unbalanced in China's favor, and by now our Chinese trading partners have become as comfortable with cheating, robbing and stealing from the United States as a rodent taking up comfortable residence in the warmth of an old sewer pipe.
As the current trade "war" continues, one thing is clear: We Americans are a far, far cry from the resolve demonstrated by our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents during World War II, an era where sacrifice was crucial to the war effort. From "Rosie the Riveter," who exemplified women
leaving the home to take on factory work men couldn't do because they were deployed overseas, to families and entire neighborhoods collecting aluminum, steel, cooking grease and other substances essential for U.S. military operations on the war front, this was a time of immense personal sacrifice.
Fast-forward to 2019. Have things changed? Yes, oh yes. We've become as soft as a cushion in a cat bed. Children and adults can almost be too fat to walk across the street, let alone meet basic military qualifications. Students are often too buzzed-out on electronics or drugs to learn, while teachers and professors often teach about irrelevant, stupid things. "Sacrifice" carries a different meaning now, as our progressive friends of both parties have decided that it means sacrificing your hard-earned money to support illegal immigrants, their families and friends with few limits. Sacrifice is allowing government agencies at all levels to increase your taxes with one hand while waving in empty promises with the other. Sacrifice is having the guts to give up your smart phone for an entire day to declare some kind of social victory. Sacrifice means getting out of the chair to follow a path to the refrigerator 20 times a day instead of 22. Sacrifice is allowing the state to restrict or prohibit your use of firearms in the name of "doing something."
Sacrifice is 10,000 things -- none having the slightest bearing on the actions those who came before us initiated by necessity.
If the U.S./China trade war continues, how many among us have the resolve to willingly tighten our belts and accept or demand less in the short or long term? We are not optimistic.
Knowing that this is the one and only time there may be a chance to put the brakes on China's enormous appetite for all-inclusive world domination, would enough Americans care?
With a disturbing proportion of college students and other young people apparently more than ready to accept socialism with nary a clue about its workings, we fear that "sacrifice" in their view would mean giving up all of our hard-fought precious rights to a central government for "protection."
China? We suspect that China would love this brand of sacrifice in the United States. Russian dictators would swoon in adoration.
Defining politicians today: So many of these folks seem to prefer a feedbag over feedback.
Congratulations to the Obamas, ever so concerned about poverty in the black community. To this end, they are now the proud owners of a $15,000,000 estate in Martha's vineyard. How do you start off a presidency with college debt, move on to a house worth 8-9 million, and just a few years later you're really into the big money? Or check out Congress, where it pays especially well to be a Democrat. No poverty concerns there.
Burning down the house -- The Amazon Rain Forest in flames: Fires caused primarily, some suggest, by farmers clearing land. Our sympathies lie with the flora and fauna. Clearing land for more farms to support and encourage the births of more people to remove more resources to build more places to support the births of more people. . .and solutions will eventually be the worst for every living thing on the planet, 'cept for those ingenious cockroaches. In the rain forest, your babies aren't cute anymore. By the way -- notice how celebs and others enjoyed a tweet-fest, sending along fire disaster photos which weren't even taken in the rain forest? It's no wonder that nobody believes these phonies anymore. There's a huge difference between being a true environmentalist and just a fraud adhering to the concept of never letting a good crisis go to waste (where have we heard that before. . .?).
The Second Amendment: We quake to realize there are still political sorts out there who would have the gullible believe this Amendment is all about freedom to hunt and target-practice, when it was actually formed to deal with neither. Should government tyranny ever catch fire in the United States, we would hope that our unique position as a democratic republic would lead to solving the unthinkable with the cooperation of both police agencies and military members with cool heads who realize it is an out-of-control political class, not the common people, which must be addressed, even with extreme measures if necessary.
Former Venezuelan dictator Chavez banned gun purchases by his nation's citizens in 2011, demonstrating that socialism demands the removal of firearms from the people and leaving them helpless, guided along by a gun-heavy military dictatorship in order to function.
Worst part is, up until a few years ago the Second's importance was pretty basic knowledge. Returning civics classes to schools would go a long way in helping the misinformed understand issues such as this. An Amendment to guarantee your right to hunt? Absurd -- and "they" know it.
