After 100 Years, Europe’s Landscape Is Still Scarred by World War I

100 years after the Battle of Verdun, its land—once a quiet stretch of French farmland—

remains scarred from explosions.

"Even today, a century after the start of the Great War, the countryside still bears scars. In this image by Irish landscape photographer Michael St. Maur Sheil at the site of the Battle of the Somme, in northern France, you can trace grass-covered trenches and pockmarks from exploded bombshells. More than a million men were wounded or killed in the battle, the first major British offensive of the war. “The Germans had been sitting in a deep dugout excavated into the chalk rock,” Sheil says. “British soldiers advancing across the flat landscape were an easy target.” His exhibition, “Fields of Battle—Lands of Peace,” now on display in Paris along the wrought-iron fence of Luxembourg Gardens and later touring the United Kingdom, includes 79 contemporary photographs of World War I battlefields—the artist’s attempt to document the enduring legacy of the war on the landscape."

 

Nearly 70 feet deep, the Lochnagar Crater was formed after an explosive-packed mine was detonated during the Battle of the Somme.

The tiny village of Butte de Vaquois once stood on a hilltop, and was destroyed after three years of furious mining blew away its summit.

More on this last picture here.

Slideshow: World War I in the Trenches

VA Scandal Shows How Government Works

Forbes  "I had to go to the local department of driver services office for a driver’s license renewal this week. While the lady I dealt with was quite helpful and completed the renewal in less than five minutes, I first had to wait nearly two hours.  There were about fifty people waiting and at various times either two or three people working to help them. A normal business would have more employees to help the customers because in a normal business more customers is a good thing. With government in charge, it makes no difference and that is the problem."

"In a for-profit business, serving customers are how one makes money and it is important to keep customers happy. Customers do not like waiting, so businesses work hard to avoid excessive waiting by the customers. They do this in order to make more profit. Government agencies do not have a profit motive. The workers and supervisors have no reason to care about their “customers” except their own pride in doing a good job or perhaps hope of a promotion."

This should sum it all up very well:
"Government agencies like the VA deliver bad service because they have no incentive to do any better. As explained in my e-book, Ending the Era of the Free Lunch, government employees see the politicians and others in charge of their budget as the customer, not the citizens who they are supposed to be serving. "

Did you get that?

politicalincorrectnessrunamuck

Ann Coulter: Don't Stigmatize Murderers!

Townhall

 

... "A family friend, Simon Astaire, described Rodger's flat affect, common to schizophrenics, saying he "couldn't look at you straight in the eye and looked at your feet. It was unbearable."

"It's hard to feel sorry for a mass murderer, but it was cruel to Elliot Rodger to allow him to refuse medication and turn himself into a monster. It was beyond cruel to his innocent victims -- as well as the other victims of psychopathic killers. But liberals are more worried about "stigmatizing" the mentally ill than the occasional mass murder."

 

Earlier in this column, Ms. Coulter snarkily looks at the murderer's delusions of grandeur:

 

Rodger says of himself:

-- "I saw myself as a highly intelligent and magnificent person who is meant for great things."
-- "Becoming a multimillionaire at a young age is what I am meant for."
-- "I am like a god."
-- "This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and the planet began to heal."
(No -- wait ... Last one was Obama.)

 

Voters in California contemplate forming new state

Yahoo News

 

"Tom Knorr, chairman of the Measure A campaign in Tehama County, holds a State of Jefferson flag as he poses for photographs at his ranch house in Corning, Calif., Tuesday, May 27, 2014. The idea of forming their own state has been a topic among local secession dreamers for more than a century in California’s largely rural, agrarian and politically conservative far northern counties. Residents in two counties, Del Norte and Tehama, will decide June 3, 2014, on an advisory measure that asks each county’s board of supervisors to join a wider effort to form a 51st state named Jefferson."

...

"But the loss of millions of dollars for everything from infrastructure to schools is among the biggest worries of residents who oppose the secession movement. The Del Norte County Board of Education, which receives 90 percent of its funding, or $32 million, from the state, voted to oppose the local initiative, known as Measure A."

 

The Presbyterian assault on Israel

Abu Yehuda

 

"Since 2004, the PC(USA) has passed resolutions calling for Israel’s withdrawal from all territory captured in 1967, right of return for Arab refugees, and suggesting that its board divest from companies doing business with Israel until ‘the occupation’ is ended. But the organization stopped short by two votes (333-331-2) of passing an actual divestment resolution in 2012.

"Its resolutions have consistently followed the Arab line in full and placed all the blame for the conflict on Israel. The 2004 resolution is entirely devoted to condemning Israel with the exception of one line criticizing “Palestinian suicide bombings.” This was their response to the Second Intifada which by then had killed 1000 Israelis, almost all of them innocent civilians!"   More here...

And then this week there came Pope Francis...   " From the beginning the Arabs asserted a ‘right’, not only to a state, but to every inch of the land.  More recently, they rejected several additional offers of partition. In each case the grounds for rejection appear to be the insistence on a ‘right of return’ which would in effect bring about Arab sovereignty over all of the land, and a refusal to agree to a final end of the conflict — that is, to admit that the Jewish state is here to stay."
Via Allyson’s Geo-Political Inspections

Dragging along

 Washington Examiner

Reactions to President Obama's West Point speech

 Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations: Obama’s Unclear Foreign Policy Path   ...

"What I would hope is that the president makes a concerted effort to tie our foreign and domestic policies together so that people understand that what happens here in the United States affects our ability to act in the world, and what happens in the world will in many ways affect the quality of life here. That was perhaps implicit in the speech. That has to become explicit in the administration's choice of priorities between now and the end of 2016."

CNN: Obama outlines foreign policy vision of 'might and right'    "Under fire from the political right for what critics call diminishing U.S. global influence, Obama offered a robust defense of his foreign policy as the pragmatic and most effective expression of America's leadership role in the world."

Krauthammer’s Take: Obama’s Foreign-Policy Speech ‘Literally Pointless’

 

"Krauthammer said he spoke with a member of Congress who took issue with President Obama’s “pettiness” during commencement address of taking on his critics, and said the president should have focused on the graduates instead. “There was no response from any of the cadets — it was quiet as a mouse,” he said."

A Sad, Half-hearted Address to the Wrong Audience  " Before a silent graduating class at West Point, Mr. Obama monotonically delivered a defensive foreign-policy address empty of substance. He failed to connect with an audience that responded with polite but tepid applause to a vapid speech more suitable for the United Nations than for the United States."

 

 

The President’s Tired Refrains at West Point    "President Obama’s speech at West Point was not so much an articulation of his foreign policy but a defensive response to critics."
" ... the reputation of weakness is weakness, and despite all of the measures of national power that the president cites, the credibility of American power has diminished on his watch, not out of drift but because of his distinct choices."   Emphasis added

Cliché' alert: "...every fiber of my being"

Obama receives standing ovation from less than 25% of West Point cadets: report
“ 'Receiving tepid applause and a short standing ovation from less than one-quarter of the audience upon his introduction, Obama argued for a contradictory foreign policy that relies on NATO and the United Nations while insisting that ‘America must always lead on the world stage,’  the paper reported."

CNN: Troops gave him an "icy reception".   "CNN’s international correspondent Jim Clancy called the West Point response to President Obama’s meandering foreign policy address “pretty icy” Wednesday.

"Clancy said it was “not really a great speech to give at the U.S. Military Academy,” and the address has drawn bipartisan criticism.

“ 'It was a philosophical speech,” he said. “It was not a Commander-in-Chief speaking to his troops. And you heard the reception. I mean, it was pretty icy.”

Obama Tells West Point Grads That They’ll Be Combating Global Warming   "These future leaders in our military just spent years in college learning about battle strategy, guerrilla warfare, leadership, and how to respond under pressure. They probably should have learned how to reduce their carbon footprint while they were there because the President seems to think that rising CO2 emissions are an emerging threat." Related.

Obama also took a strong stance against … well nobody   ... "This wasn’t lost on the Twitterverse, where writers and pundits provided their alternative to Obama’s “this-stupid-choice versus that-stupid-choice” argument, and they’re hilarious." A sample or two:

 

Ben Shapiro @benshapiro Follow

Obama: "We need to do stuff. And the stuff we will do will not be stuff that a crazy person says we should do. It will be good stuff."

 Lachlan Markay @lachlan Follow    

"Some say we should nuke the entire Asian continent. Others want our capital to be Pyongyang. Unlike everyone else, I'm a rational centrist"

 

 More on this: Obama leads America to glorious victory over straw men at West Point

Public School Kids Rebel Against Michelle Obama's Healthy School Lunches

Public School Kids Rebel Against Michelle Obama's Healthy School Lunches As First Daughters Get Meatball Subs, Ice Cream    ... "Twitchy has done a great job capturing the reactions and photos to some of these lunches and it’s not pretty (click here, here, and here for examples). But CNS News decided to dig a little deeper. What exactly are Michelle O’s daughters eating at lunch? Is it in any way comparable to the lunches in our nation’s public schools?" ...

Michelle O: 'Parents Have Right to Expect Their Kids Will Get Decent Food in Our Schools'
... "Unmentioned in the entire controversy is the fact that for millions of children and their parents, school lunches are a convenience, not a necessity. Schools still permit children to bring food from home into the cafeteria. There is nothing stopping parents who "always put our kids' interests first" from packing a nutritious lunch the night before -- or making sure their children pack their own nutritious lunch." ...

Meanwhile, here is the school menu for Michelle Obama's daughters
Snack: Locally Baked Muffins
Mixed Greens with Avocado & Grapefruit Salad
Housemade Chicken Fingers
Breaded Eggplant w/ Marinara
Steamed Fresh Vegetables
Organic Sweet Potato Fries
Nectarines

 

 

Spring Vegetable Soup
Classic Caesar Salad
Deviled Egg Salad
All Natural Meatball Subs
Spinach Ricotta Phyllo Bake
Roasted Eggplant, Zucchini and Tomato
Bananas

 Hat tip to Harley Standlee; Placerville, CA

Pope Francis’s unfriendly visit

Caroline Glick    ... "Pope Benedict XVI was perceived as a friend of Israel, despite his childhood membership in the Hitler Youth. His opposition to Islam’s rejection of reason, eloquently expressed at his speech at the University of Regensburg in 2006, positioned him as a religious champion of reason, individual responsibility and law – Judaism’s primary contributions to humanity.

"His predecessor Pope John Paul II was less willing to confront Islamic violence. But his opposition to Communism made him respect Israel as freedom’s outpost in the Middle East. John Paul’s visit to Israel in 2000 was in some ways an historic gesture of friendship to the Jewish people of Israel.

"Both Benedict and John Paul II were outspoken champions of the Second Vatican Council and maintained doctrinal allegiance to the Church’s rejection of anti-Judaism, including the charge of deicide, and its denunciation of replacement theology.

"Alas, the Golden Age of Catholic-Jewish relations seems to have come to an end during Francis’s visit to the Promised Land this week." ...
 

About Afghanistan and this president

Krauthammer’s Take: Obama’s 2016 Timing for Afghanistan Withdawal Is ‘Personal Narcissism’     ... "Krauthammer found it contemptible that Obama would orient military plans around the timing of his departure from office, merely to make himself look better."
 

 

Via Lucianne;   A ‘Monumental Mistake’? Obama Details Afghanistan Withdrawal Plan  From John McCain: “The president’s decision to set an arbitrary date for the full withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan is a monumental mistake and a triumph of politics over strategy. This is a short-sighted decision that will make it harder to end the war in Afghanistan responsibly,” the trio said. “The president came into office wanting to end the wars he inherited. But wars do not end just because politicians say so. The president appears to have learned nothing from the damage done by his previous withdrawal announcements in Afghanistan and his disastrous decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq.”

 

Obama taking on foreign policy critics   "The White House is mounting a concerted defense of President Obama's foreign policy against criticism that he has weakened U.S. influence around the globe. — The full-court press hinges on a speech Obama will give Wednesday at West Point's commencement … "   More here.

Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations:  Fixing Our Foreign Policy: 12 Ideas From a Sometimes Critic  ... "I appreciate that it does not take a whole lot of effort to find fault. In that spirit, here are a dozen proposals -- some likely to be popular, others anything but -- that if adopted would enhance this country's national security. I offer them now in the hope the president and his aides are open to new ideas as they prepare his much anticipated May 28 national security speech at West Point."

 How 21st century wars end under Democratic presidents   ... "A better statement of how 21st century wars end under President Obama (and, one suspects, Democrats in general) would be that they end as soon as the president believes he can end them without politically harmful blowback and no later than dates that are predetermined by the political calendar."

Ballot Snafus Nearly Kicked This Senior Democrat Out Of Congress

 

Politix   ... "Conyers, 85, on Friday lost his appeal Friday to get on the August primary ballot after Michigan election officials found problems with the Democrat's nominating petitions, AP reports. This would have ended his 50-year career in Congress.

"But then a federal judge reinstated Conyers's name on the ballot.

"The problem was that Conyers lacked the 1,000 signatures necessary to get on the ballot. He faces a Democratic primary challenge from the Rev. Horace Sheffield III."

2010; Conyers's wife pleads guilty       ... "Her tenure has been marred by controversy and complaints about her personal behavior. Last year, in a dispute during official council proceedings, Conyers called then-council President Ken Cockrel “Shrek.' ”

Mrs. Conyers in action on the Detroit city council: 

The 5 Stages Of An Obama Scandal

Black Quill and Ink

 

... "Moreover, the VA scandal is opening the eyes of many in the media to the president’s strategy. Columnists are starting to notice the same canned responses, inaction, and smokescreens in this instance and are comparing them with other scandals.

"One can only hope that this will bring a higher level of seriousness to scandals, such as Benghazi and force the president to realize that his scandal playbook is no longer an option."

More at BQI

http://liberallogic101.com/?p=11291

What Obama’s many messes really mean  

"Another week, another scandal.

"From Fast and Furious at the ATF to the Pigford fraud at the Department of Agriculture, the IRS’ political targeting to the State Department’s Benghazi mess, the healthcare.gov debacle at HHS to spying at the NSA and the DOJ, President Obama is running out of agencies and departments to defend in his two years left in office." ...