Free Republic

The Grassley timeline may not matter if Ford goes on “60 Minutes” tomorrow night as someone has alleged. She will get massively favorable coverage telling whatever story she decides to tell, Dem commentators will fill the ether with praise and support, and Ford can then decline to testify with the American people accepting the 60 Minutes variation as the truth. This variation of truth will then be hammered home on MSM Monday morning talk shows with “polls” showing a call for Kavanaugh to withdraw. Adhering to Marquis of Queensbury rules in confronting a brass knuckles street fighter is no formula for success. If the Left wins this one, the nation is in serious jeopardy.

The media have not been our friends at least since the days of Walter Duranty who received a Pulitzer Prize for lying about the Soviet Union (the New York Times remains proud of his deceitful Pulitzer). They hated Congressman Richard Nixon for keeping Whittaker Chambers alive as they carried water for Alger Hiss (Read Witness) and revenged themselves on President Nixon with Watergate. But watch a segment of Watters’ World with Jesse Watters and ponder how much weight even the truth would have with an uninformed, self-absorbed, and even unconcerned public. Very worrisome.

Abps. Wuerl and Niederauer — and the editor of my local newspaper — are courageous to respond to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s comments on abortion.

These worthy men refer to the authority of the Didache and a few selected scriptures. The heart of the matter, however, lies in the prophet Ezekiel’s admonition to men and women practicing child sacrifice. Ezekiel, speaking for God, states man does not bear sons and daughters for himself but for God to whom His own are precious (Ezekiel 16:20-21). Whoever destroys the unborn thus directly defies the sovereignty of God. That has serious spiritual consequences.

But God also provides abundant mercy to those who repent. He was merciful to wicked Ahab (1 Kings 21:25-29) and to wicked Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33:1-13) when they repented. How much more mercy is available now in the New Testament to those who repent?

There is lesson here for today. The child sacrifice of the Old Testament was practiced for personal benefit, including the desire for power (Hiel rebuilt Jericho on the bones of his sons). We find the sacrifice of children through abortion as an article of faith (and prerequisite to power) for at least part of our political spectrum.

There is a lot of heat, smoke, and increasing entropy in the discussion of abortion (read: child sacrifice) today. God provided His perspective on child sacrifice more than two millennia ago to those who would listen. The outcome was not good for those who failed to listen. If George Santayana was right about history, that’s worth at least considering.

Just a few thoughts for consideration.

INSURV tends to embellish the significance of what it finds to enhance its authority. What is most significant is (a) the number of “starred” (i.e., restrictive) deficiencies, (b) the number of items the ship didn’t identify beforehand (technical proficiency), and how many of (a) were contained in (b). It’s one thing to have problems you recognize but can’t correct because of time, manpower, parts, or operating tempo. It’s something entirely different not to be able even to recognize problems. The facts that the crew documented many of the problems before INSURV and there is no indication of command negligence are favorable.

The INSURVs for STOUT and CHOSIN took place after deployment and before overhaul. These ships may have lost key people due to turnover after deployment and before INSURV. The type commander may even have intended to use the INSURV report as leverage to acquire more overhaul funds(it’s happened but it’s a gutsy ploy). It’s not good if the overhaul is truly short-funded.

It may not be entirely fair to lay the success or failure of a command inspection at the feet of the Goat Locker. It doesn’t take a 4 hashmark CPO to identify bleeding rust or FOD on engine intake screens. Department heads and division officers have to know what’s going on in their spaces, too.

I come from an era where the entire ship’s company took the superstructure and hull of a DLG down to bare metal with chipping hammers, scrapers, and needle guns during ROH before redeployment to Vietnam. But that was long, long ago in what is beginning to look like an America far, far away.

There may be more to this INSURV report than we realize. On the face of it, though, it certainly looks challenging.

Consider Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 1:
“... and of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants ...”

But who reads, much less even understands the wisdom of, The Federalist Papers in school anymore?