Red State/Blue State

On The Roosevelt’s The best part, for me, remains the section on FDR. He was a loveable man. No wonder so many men & women pledged their lives, their full measure of devotion, to his care & well-being. His faithful cousin, his secretary Missy Lehand, Harry Hopkins, Louis Howe, Harold Ickes, his old love Lucy Mercer, his children who literally supported him as he spoke to the nation and helped care for him, .. The other two Roosevelt’s, Teddy & Eleanor, were not easy people to know. Even in documentary form, their restless energy comes through in leaps and bounds. They are to be admired, respected, and even revered. But to be loved, that task belongs to Franklin. His smile and sunny, engaging personality, his commanding presence compounded with the touching vulnerability of a man bound for life to a chair, all of that commands not just deep and abiding respect but love. There is love for a man so willing to be pushed and pulled without admitting defeat. Th...

On the war word: So what? Who cares if we say the word war ? Does it really matter? What should matter is whether we are placing so much of our emphasis on the military might of the United States that all else, education of our youth, our future infrastructure, our economic welfare, is perpetually tied to the military industrial complex. How does that happen? Our enemies have kicked sand in our faces and  then ran. But they could be David to our Goliath if we continue to allow the enemy to define us as they have for the past fifty years. If we limit our military actions, if we insist that the Arab states begin to police and govern their own regions, then perhaps we will change the dynamics of the situation. If we reframe the question, instead, and ask, “Why are you bent on destroying the lives of innocent Muslims as well as Christians?’, Why do you continue to operate as dishonorable and ignoble thugs instead of honorable men and warriors?, Why do you dish...

James Baker was the man who was purported to negotiate with someone who said of him, ‘You needed to see both his hands on the table, or else you couldn't trust him.”   Even a slippery eel such as Baker had to admit that the reason they didn’t go into Baghdad in the First Gulf War was because, as he put it, “…you see what happened. We knew it would be a mess!” (I predict he’ll have to walk that one back, but sometimes the truth slips out).   George W. Bush once said, truthfully, during the 2004 presidential campaign, when asked about the war on terror, “It’s not something…you can’t actually ‘win’ it”. Of course, he had to retract that truth gaffe immediately, but it was out there.   That was the most truthful statement I ever heard from the man. You can’t traditionally win a war on terror. You can subdue, you can contain, but you can’t declare victory over a group of jihadists or extremist guerilla fighters.   In Somalia and Yemen, there’s been some con...