America for sale: Profs who sold out to our enemies.

For years, foreign corporations hired ex-government officials from the FTC, FDA and other alphabet soup agencies to lobby on their behalf. After regulating business, an appointed or assigned official can look forward to a cushy paycheck working as a corporate lapdog.

It has been know that the KGB bankrolled the left, the “greens” and the anti-nuclear movement during the cold war.

And now:

When educators who are identified as professors from prestigious universities testify before Congress, write op-eds, and appear on public or media sponsored panels, most readers and listeners value their words more than those of others less credentialed. Perhaps this is especially the case when the subject is foreign affairs, which — without warrant — is generally treated as an arcane subject requiring considerable specialized study to fully comprehend.

For this reason, concern is growing that our universities, especially those highly regarded, have been receiving very large sums of cash from abroad, often from countries or citizens of countries which hold positions antithetical to our interests or engage in conduct shocking to our values. This matter is receiving critical attention from both sides of the political spectrum.
— Clarice Feldman, pajamasmedia.com

The left will cry foul. They’ll pull out the Koch brothers, they’ll scream about free speech. Let’em.
The reality is that only a few Marxist and anti-American blue falcons care about countries, corporations and those people and groups who hate us. Those countries would have a hard sell without a nice American face to sugarcoat their evil. Yes Virgina, there are card-carrying villains. They need to buy good press just like anyone else. Only we stand to lose more than jobs if they succeed.

The left doesn’t care. A mad man’s money lines their coffers just as well as a college student’s.

h/t: Instapundit

The left’s view of war: two weblinks

Contrast this:

How Bush’s family life opposes his rhetoric.

Slate.com: Michael KinsleyPosted Monday, Dec. 4, 2006

Living your life according to your own values is a challenge for everyone, and must be a special challenge if you happen to be the president. No one thinks that the president should have to give up a child to prove that his family is as serious about freedom as these other families he praises. But it would be reassuring to see a little struggle here—some sign that the Bush family truly believes that American soldiers are dying for our freedom, and it’s worth it. Who knows? Maybe they have had huge arguments about this. Maybe George and Laura wanted the girls to join the Red Cross, or the Peace Corps, or do something that would at least take them off the party circuit for a couple of years. And perhaps the girls said no. But I doubt this scenario, don’t you?

With this:

The Routinization of Humanitarian War | The Daily Caller : Dailycaller.com: Micky Klaus, March 27, 2011:

“Humanitarian imperialism.” I think that label will stick. And in a true empire–in this case, the empire of UN approved human rights enforcement–war never really ends.

…

It helps achieve routinization if wars can be conducted by a distinct cast of professionals whom we hire to do the job, as opposed to ordinary citizens who are drafted. That way when soldiers start dying … well, that’s the business they have chosen, right? And they’re largely drawn from a distinct geographic region, the South. Mothers don’t have to worry that their sons will sent to fight against their will, as happened in Vietnam–and if they’re Northern mothers in well-off suburbs they may not even know anyone who has a family member at risk.

Remember, Iraq was about oil, so the left was against it. Libya is about…um…uh…er…IDK?

How much is a diploma worth?

The science major asks “Why does it work?” The engineering major asks “How does it work?” The liberal arts major asks “Do you want fries with that?”

–The internet

Glenn Reynolds links to a Boston Herald article post that posits:

The average private school now costs more than $40,000 a year, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics is projecting that most of the jobs created in the next decade won’t require “much more than on-the-job training.” Princeton economist Alan Blinder tells the Los Angeles Times he “won’t be surprised years from now if a carpenter in the U.S. earns more than a college-educated computer operator.”

Robert Heinlein, in is novel Friday, had the citizens of the “Republic of California” vote to give every citizen a college degree because “everyone with a degree earns more.” Of course that doesn’t happen in the novel and we are seeing it play out IRL.

A Bachelor’s degree is a start nowadays unless you are an engineer, CS major (programmer) or get a commission in the military. Want to get into the medical field? Unless you want to be a counselor at a mental health clinic (earning what a Taco hut manager does) you need a PhD. But wait! unless you want to be an MD, the insurance companies don’t want to pay you. They farm mental health to counselors or social workers with Masters or case workers with a BA or BS. most PsyD’s end up in research. Most Psychiatrists end up as a consult on a team in a mental health clinic or, worse yet, just write ‘scripts for teh crazy meds.

A college degree is not the meal ticket or magic scroll it once was (if it ever was). Most students are less mature and less willing to think about their future after the weekend kegger, let alone after graduation.

And the problem is endemic to our society. No one “operates” computers anymore. There is software on the market (and many free proggies) that can do what used to take days in a computer lab. In my college, the computer lab went from a mainframe the size of your living room to a bank (serviced by lots of contractors and dedicated staff) of networked desktops (cared for by 2-3 employees and lots of students). Technology marches on , only those who have the smarts to see it and the discipline to work hard will survive. Given the state of technology today, the heavy lifting has been done for you. You don’t have to program to use a computer. You don’t have to know music to compose a video. Most people can survive without a degree.

Sure you could get a BA in English lit, womyn’s studies or popular culture. Your parents could take that money and set it on fire. Your life would be the same either way.

So why is there a push for college? The universities and the left are stuck in the 60’s. The left can’t survive without college age kids making noise and student loans pay for the lush salaries of many professors.

The future is in online courses, vocational school and a more specialized degrees. Maybe the “fluff section” will make it. Or maybe the “Buffy Studies” and “Twilight as modern literature” will become a footnote in the history of higher education***. In the chapter that explains why many colleges and universities folded.

***: no I did not make those courses up.

Remember the Yalu River

So our current SECDEF has spoken:

Looking ahead, though, in the competition for tight defense dollars within and between the services, the Army also must confront the reality that the most plausible, high-end scenarios for the U.S. military are primarily naval and air engagements – whether in Asia, the Persian Gulf, or elsewhere. The strategic rationale for swift-moving expeditionary forces, be they Army or Marines, airborne infantry or special operations, is self-evident given the likelihood of counterterrorism, rapid reaction, disaster response, or stability or security force assistance missions. But in my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should “have his head examined,” as General MacArthur so delicately put it.

CMDR Salamander praises:

We are not a land power by need or design. We need to be home-based with global reach. We need robust friends to partner with – not pampered dependents to garrison or play mercenary for. We need to spend out money on things to create global effects at minimal impact in blood and treasure. That is done at sea, in the air, and in space.

That is our future. We can either get it right now, or suffer later.

XBradTC fires back:

Much has been made of SecDef Gates quote, “But in my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should “have his head examined,” as General MacArthur so delicately put it.” SecDef Gates seems to be ruling out any future large interventions in Asia or Africa. Would that it were so easy! If the Secretary(who by the way has himself advocated for large deployments to Asia, twice!) is referring to the potentially large domestic political costs of such a course of action, he’s probably right

Here’s the rub, during the Korean War, the PLA marched across the Yalu river just at the time the US believed that they wouldn’t. Among the American commanders was General MacArthur. His call for more firepower and attempt to appeal to Congress and the populace cause President Truman to fire him. Same thing with Vietnam. The NVA used the VC until American will was broken. See how well air strikes and naval power worked that time.

Not every war will be OIF/OEF. Behind every insurgency/terrorist movement is a government somewhere that stands to profit. Our enemies tried guerrilla tactics when force or force didn’t work (or they couldn’t afford it). In the future they’ll try both. Given that Chinese and Russian arms are on the market…this won’t be good for the “strike from afar” thinking. Interventions in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan with Predator drones and air strikes are criticized and denounced for collateral damage. How would that be avoided in the future? The “surgical strike” exists only in fiction. China spent lots of money on missiles designed to exploit weaknesses in our navy. Google “Club-K” and see the scary Russian missile that’s for sale. (I’ll wait)

You want to hold territory? Want that dictator out? Want that city or “safe haven” protected? Sent in the Army or Marines. not the Air Force and not the Navy. Want food distribued in a war torn region? Special Forces teams are way to small, send in a national guard unit.

Why is it that PATRIOT and THAAD are Army and not Air Force? The Army remembers that we are all a team working for the soldier/marine on the ground.

Washington dreams of the day they can push a button and some evil guy goes boom. Keep dreaming. Armies are expensive. So is losing. So is genocide. Screw the media, do what’s right by those with boots on the ground. Let’em sail and let’em fly, the Army (and yes the Marines) will never go out of style and will always be the best. And remember the media is not the friend of the military.

Winning the Future: the world without US leadership

How’s that hope and change and post-American empire?

Sucks don’t it?

• Even as opposition leaders were asking for help, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the world on Thursday that Gadhafi is likely to win in the long-term. The Administration scrambled to say this was merely a factual judgment about the balance of military power, but the message couldn’t be clearer to any of Gadhafi’s generals who might consider defecting: Do so at your peril because you will join the losing side.

We could go on, but you get the idea. When the U.S. fails to lead, the world reverts to its default mode as a diplomatic Tower of Babel. Everyone discusses “options” and “contingencies” but no one has the will to act, while the predators march.

This was true in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s until the U.S. shamed Europe and NATO into using force with or without a U.N. resolution. And it has been true in every case in which the world finally resisted tyrants or terrorists, from the Gulf War to Afghanistan to Iraq. When the U.S. chooses to act like everyone else, the result is Rwanda, Darfur and now Libya.

That’s the Wall St. Journal.

I remember the 90’s with the war in Bosnia and Kosovo. We still have troops over there. Now I was against US involvement because: A) no oil, B) it’s Europe’s backyard and C) who cares? (see A)

The media cared. While they tugged on heartstrings and “sold the war” (before the 2003 Iraq invasion, the Balklands were the first war sold by the media). Then the media played up civilian casualties as America stood on the sidelines. Two massacres occurred while UN forces watched.

The US finally got involved and the war was over. Leadership in action.

Today?

Dictators will learn that the way to keep America from acting is to keep its diplomats and citizens around, while mowing down your opponents as the world debates contingencies.

btw: “American Professor Kidnapped in Mexican Border City” Fox News

Change

Chew on this: Voting for the Impossbile

“They voted for the impossible, and the disastrous possible happened instead.”
— Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

The left and the Earth throw tantrums, a police officer fails firearm safety forever and our hearts go out to Japan.

1. Could America become Europe 2: the broke Bugaloo? Sister Toldjah looks into it.
2. NFL Players Ass. works to ruin football forever!!1!! (hotair)
3. A call for more drilling for oil by….Bill Clinton?!?! (hot air)
4. Instapundit with some thoughts about the big earthquake in Japan…and a take down of an idiot lefty blogger (it’s that redundant?) (Prof. Reynolds & JammieWearingFool)
5. Hotair with the two faces of the left.
6. The administration of an entire town falls for the Juarez cartel and the MSM is silent…. (No Lawyers)
7. How the Wisconsin protesters ruined things for the unions AND the taxpayers.
8. SWAT officer uses his training and special skills to stumble and shoot an innocent in the face. (SayUncle)

This week was soo surreal that I give you:

p.s. please donate, money, clothes, blood every little bit helps.