THE MASSACRE THAT NEVER WAS

As for college riots over conservative speakers.

I don't need to listen to conservatives dreaming up excuses for discrimination against Muslims (Trump), making up massacres for Bowling Green (Kellyanne Conway*), letting people pick and chose which parts of a law they don't want to follow because of religious reasons (contraceptives and abortion), and trying to find legal reasons to prevent certain people from voting (voter ID laws).

There are conservatives, however, that I love to hear talk or read such as David Brooks, Arthur Brooks, Robert  Gates, and Condoleezza Rice.  I've read Gate's whole book "Duty."  I also like to listen to Ohio Gov. John Kasich.  At least he says things like we need to help those less fortunate than us.  He is not mean spirited though he is a strong opponent of abortion and contraception,  but you can't be a Republican politician these days without opposing them.

Here is Kasich's view against abortion and even contraception:
The ruse that the anti-choice movement is about "life" has been harder to maintain in recent years, as lawmakers have starting attacking contraception access (which reduces the need for abortion, duh). Gov. John Kasich of Ohio took it a step further Sunday night and signed a bill that merges his party's anti-contraception and anti-abortion agendas into one. The budget bill (of course!) packs a one-two-three punch of making it harder for women to prevent pregnancies, harder for women to terminate pregnancies, and harder for low-income women to keep their babies. ****

* http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/02/trump-travel-ban-kellyanne-conway-made-up-a-fake-terrorist-attack-by-iraqi-refugees-to-justify-presidents-move.html
**http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/07/01/john_kasich_of_ohio_signs_hb59_the_bill_cuts_contraception_funding_restricts.html

TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 2ND IRAQ WAR

There is abundant discussion of the misrepresentation of information that brought us into the Iraq War-II.  There has been less discussion of the ruthless manipulation of mass hysteria in the dark age leading up to the war.  The French, for example, that were with us on Afghanistan were demeaned because they were not with us on the Iraq War-II.  Remember even the childish renaming of French fries to Freedom fries in the congressional dining rooms?  Anyone who spoke against the war was implied to be unAmerican and cowed the opposition.  And then there was Presidential candidate John Kerry who was for the war before he was against it.*  There were some congressmen who did manage to say that it was an "optional war" and get away with it.  The administration exercised a masterful manipulation of mob psychology over using "bogus facts" to promote an uncalled for war.  There was the chilling announcement by Condoleezza Rice** that we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud when there was no evidence of an Iraq effort on making nuclear weapons.  The period should rank beside McCarthyism as a dark period in modern U.S. history, but will it?

So we entered a war where 1-1/2 times our troops were killed as died in 9/11 with more than 30,000 injured, many with life changing disabilities at a huge financial cost of more than a trillion dollars.

The way it looks today is that Iraq will eventually split into three countries: a Shiite country, a Sunni country and a Kurdish country.  Perhaps there will be some lose confederation between them or maybe not, but the outcome won't be what we wanted.  Despite our objections, for example, the Iraq administration still permits overflights of Iran arms to the Syrian regime.

* http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-250_162-646435.html
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condoleezza_Rice