RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://spectator.org/articles/58493/putin-keeps-us-guessing

If Henry Kissinger were dead, he’d be spinning in his grave. The fact that he is very much alive is a good thing that may make us dream of the day when someone with the essential education, skills, and training will again be in charge of our foreign policy.

Unfortunately, no such person is and one of the men most observant of our sad condition is in a position to take advantage of it. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s often bare-chested strongman, has managed with very little effort and hardly a shot fired not only to destabilize Europe but to do so in a way that makes the European governments and our president believe that it is too hard, too expensive, and too dangerous to do anything about it. Putin’s managed to bring back the atmosphere of the Cold War — the intimidation that the Soviets brought about — so easily it’s almost admirable.

Putin’s swallowing of the Crimea has everyone gushing with guesses and running for cover. Where will he strike next? Is it Georgia, which he nearly took over in 2008 in an invasion of South Ossetia (which he’s kept)? Will it be the rest of Ukraine? NATO’s top military commander, U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, told a conference the other day that “The (Russian) force that is at the Ukrainian border now to the east is very, very sizeable and very, very ready.” Will Putin strike somewhere else or not at all? How long will he wait before he tries something else?

Putin, who must be a superb poker player, has no reason to tell us. Why end the suspense when you’re positioning yourself to retake more of what used to parts of the Soviet Union without any real interference? Keeping everyone off balance is so easy, why end the fun?

http://politicalmavens.com/

If you thought that the Board of Eduation in NYC was largely responsible for a malfunctioning school system, here’s an incident showing the improbable actions of our justice system in reversing a ruling that reflected rare common sense and discipline. Two female teachers in their thirties were found on the floor in a classroom at Madison High School in Brooklyn; they were topless and the room was dark on an evening when a student performance was taking place in the auditorium. Witnesses reported seeing the women undressed – one of them described seeing one of the teachers kneeling between the legs of the other one. The teachers were both fired.

Let’s assume that witnesses sometimes get facts wrong and let’s accept the highly creative defense argument that one woman was administering insulin to her colleague who suffers from diabetes. Possibly some of the judges who reversed the firing may suffer from this disease as well and might have asked themselves whether they remembered to remove their shirts and bras in order to get an insulin shot. They might also search their minds to think of any other systemic disease that requires injections into the breast as opposed to arm or buttock. George Costanza, the compulsive neurotic on “Seinfeld” took off his shirt before sitting on the bathroom commode – the writers understood that this would get a huge laugh precisely because it was so ridiculous. Do appellate judges lack a sense of humor?

Like Gilbert & Sullivan’s Mikado, the justices felt that this punishment didn’t fit the crime because there was no crime. The behavior occurred between consenting adults. So let’s pretend that what’s obvious isn’t, and that school principals aren’t capable of recognizing behavior, character and judgement unsuitable for those who are role models for our students. The judges felt that no students had witnessed this event – but they all certainly heard about it faster than anyone could say: “check out the NY Post, the Daily News, the local news on tv and the internet.” Does using the classroom for a tryst – oops, an emergency room for topless medical care – have to be a crime in order for employers to decide that people who do this shouldn’t be teaching teenaged kids? How long would an employer keep two nurses who were undressed and using a hospital room for their relaxation or medicinal needs? How long would you keep a nanny found undressed with another person in her room while the children were asleep? Shouldn’t a school be treated with greater consideration than most workplaces precisely because young people are meant to look up to and respect their teachers as part of society’s attempt to mold character?

Saudi Arabia denied a visa to a White House press corps reporter from the Jerusalem Post. The reporter is Jewish, but is not an Israeli. Plain old anti-Semitism.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/saudi-arabia-refuses-visa-to-american-jewish-journalist/2014/03/25/

Michael Wilner is the Jerusalem Post‘s reporter based in Washington, and its White House correspondent. He is an American Jew who does not have Israeli citizenship and has never lived in Israel.

About midday on Monday, March 24, Wilner tweeted, “Saudi Arabia has denied me a visa to cover Obama’s trip this week.”

Wilner is the only journalist in the press corps who was denied entry by Saudi Arabia.

The White House declined to comment publicly, but the Jerusalem Post reported that U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice specifically requested that the visa be granted. Tony Blinken, a special assistant to President Obama, was also reported to have issued a request to Adel bin Ahmed al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S.

In another Twitter exchange, Wilner answered a reporter from AL Monitor who queried, “Any idea why?” [he was denied the visa.] “not the faintest idea” Wilner tweeted back.