I’m not a fan of sharing some of my most personal details in public (OK…yeah…that’s a lie). But this one is one of those “Oh Dear GOD!!! I knew you were….but I didn’t think you were…” kinds of confessions. And no. It’s not about my age or my golf handicap. Both of which are far higher than most people imagine.
No. It has to do with the darkest secret of all. I have been carrying around a 5th grader…for YEARS…and I haven’t had the courage to admit it.
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As with countless developments in the “modern age” of sports, a series of events magnified the differences between the terms “amateur” and “greatness” in college athletics. Yes…this is likely to feel like a “geezer rant,” about the “good old days.” But in this case, the two primary events were inescapable. One, the early departure of a “great football player,” who I think left for the wrong reasons. The other, the loss of a great man who played and coached football for all the right reasons.
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Watching the horrendous chaos that is taking place in Afghanistan, it’s easy to sprint into finger pointing about “what went wrong” in our drawdown and removal of troops from this embattled region where “Empires Go to Die.” This is not a “Biden failure.” Bush got us there, Obama kept us there, Trump capitulated through failed “deal making” with the Taliban, and Biden is simply throwing in the towel, long after our fighters were knocked out.
The history of failures by nations with the “good intentions” of helping the Afghan people to be “free from tribal and extremist rule” goes back centuries. The recently updated WIKI history of the region makes it clear that this isn’t a remotely new outcome. “Some of the invaders in the history of Afghanistan include the Maurya Empire, the Greek Empire of Alexander the Great of Macedon, Rashidun Caliphate, the Mongol Empire led by Genghis Khan, the Timurid Empire of Timur, the Mughal Empire, various Persian Empires, the Sikh Empire, the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and most recently a coalition force of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops, the majority from the United States, which entered the country in the first-ever invocation of NATO’s Article 5 “an attack on one is an attack on all” following the September 11 attacks in the United States. A reduced number of NATO troops remained in the country in support of the government under the U.S.–Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement. Since American withdrawal in 2021, the Taliban has regained control of the capital Kabul and most of the country. Afghanistan official name changed to Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”
Holyfreakinshirt!
But if you look at the full history, it becomes clear that the reasons for failure are the same, because the tactics used by all, have a predictable outcome. In short, “Conversion through Invasion and Occupation” is a recipe for failure.
What is the real solution? And more so, does the current failure point to the need for a drastic change in United States and greater world policy?
I think so.
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It is a pretty well accepted fact, that the damage that Trump did by spreading, or ignoring mis-information about wearing masks, and getting vaccinated has likely cost hundreds of thousands of American lives. His reaction, or inaction to the pandemic was criminal.
But we have a new face who is the likely claimant of the title, “Most Dangerous Assclown in America.” He is the face, and “only lying when his mouth is open,” prime time Fox host, Tucker Carlson.
I am appalled at how many people I know who actually watch this miscreant religiously. For my money, he long ago passed up Sean Hannity as the worst of the worst on “Faux News.” But this time, his ridiculous, insane, and “only for ratings” rant about wearing masks, may well make him culpable as yet another “Covid Murderer,” simply because so many Anti-Vax, Anti-Mask morons are looking for excuses to not do neither.
His words should be the first piece of evidence to have him removed from the airwaves.
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