All posts by Rondi Adamson

Admiral Stockdale

Ross Perot passed away, which – for me – brings to mind Admiral Stockdale. This was a time in my life when I was questioning my previous political views, which had been reflexively leftist, and I think the terrible treatment of Stockdale had a powerful effect on me. Seeing how nasty so many were to, and about, this man, brought to light something I had seen in my own family – that people on the left who think of themselves as kind and empathetic and so forth, are often quite the opposite. The chorus of mockery of which they are capable, especially toward the finest people, is horrifying. Further, I realized that part of what we need to remain free is people like Stockdale (and John McCain) and we need to honour them. This was also when I began to notice Dennis Miller, his wit and intelligence and independence. So rare in entertainers.

The Versailles Treaty

When I was in high school, I had a history teacher named Mr. McGrahan. He was mean to me. He was always mystified when I did fabulously well on a test, which was EVERY TIME I WROTE A TEST. He just did not like me. But he said one thing that was useful – he told us that the Versailles Treaty was not unjust, that it was not a cause of World War II, that the Germans had no justification to whinge about it. As I went on to study history at university and on my own time, I came to the conclusion that he was correct, though the received wisdom was always that the Versailles Treaty was unfair to Germany and a cause of the war. This is my very long-winded way of saying that I was thrilled to come upon this column in the Wall Street Journal, written by Joseph Loconte: The Versailles Treaty Gets a Bum Rap. 

I think you should read it!

AOC: Ignorant or anti-Semitic?

Or both? As I have written before, I have at least one relative who is anti-Semitic, possibly more, and several who constantly act as apologists for anti-Semitism. One of them even said to me, after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, that there were “shades of grey” in the story. Dear Lord. The moral bankruptcy.

Very sad.

This is why I am not surprised at the public indifference to AOC’s most recent stupid, bigoted comment. (She makes so many it is hard to keep track.) I am, sadly, accustomed to ahistorical, anti-Western, Chomskybot “thinking,” as I am exposed to it at every family event I attend.

As Daniella  Greenbaum-Davis writes:

Ocasio-Cortez is either willfully ignorant, or purposefully anti-Semitic. Ignorant because if her convictions are genuine, she is entirely uneducated about a crucial part of world history, or educated only to the point of knowing the phrase ’Never Again’ without knowing who said it and why. Anti-Semitic because her inability in this, and only this situation, to utter the words ‘I’m sorry’ is highly unusual.

What’s curious — and deeply troubling — is that if a minority expressed discomfort about something, it’s typical progressive etiquette that the politician that caused that discomfort would quickly apologize and embark on a ‘learning journey’, to correct the ignorance that had led them astray. Instead, AOC is doubling and tripling down. She has chosen this as a hill to die on. This compounds historical ignorance with political vanity, and it compounds the insult too.

Read the whole column.

Alitalia

I love Italy and Italians. But when I tell friends about how openly racist a place it can be, they never believe me. Well, here’s an example. What does not surprise me, because I know Italy, is that Italians, in general, do not “get” why this ad might be a problem. (And boy, did that sentence ever have a lot of commas.)

Men, Women, the Law

There are plenty of silly memes on the internets, most of which have no relationship with logic or facts. One such is the “men should not legislate abortion laws” or “those without female reproductive organs shall not legislate female reproductive organs.” I’ve seen the latter a lot of late. One wants to ask the people who post these things – all of whom are pro-choice (as I am) — if they are not aware that the Supreme Court that legislated Roe v. Wade was all male, or that the Governor of Alabama – the state that recently passed the restrictive abortion bill that has inspired these memes — is female.

Of course, what these people mean is, “men shall not legislate abortion laws unless they agree with me about said laws.”

Another D-Day Story

I found this story particularly poignant.

D-Day veterans have returned to the beaches where they landed 75 years ago to lay crosses and remember their fallen comrades.

Trooper Albert Price, 93, was an 18-year-old gunner with the Royal Dragoon Guards when he landed on Gold beach on D-Day.

He took Betty – his wife of 67 years – by the hand and walked with her on to the historic beach for the first time today.

Read the whole thing and enjoy the pictures. As the kids say, “relationship goals.”