Zelensky’s victory plan for defeating Russia could get us all killed

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky visited the United States last week to pitch his victory plan for winning Ukraine’s war with Russia. Zelensky’s schedule was packed. He gave a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, spoke with former President Donald Trump, and met privately with President Joe Biden. 

Yet he still had time to campaign for the Democrats in Pennsylvania. Was the little soldier interfering with our presidential election to benefit Kamala Harris?

Zelinski’s victory plan has two components. First, he wants Ukraine admitted to NATO. Second, he insists that the Western allies allow him to attack the Russian motherland with advanced weapons systems, including long-range missiles acquired from the West.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said plainly that NATO membership in Ukraine could lead to nuclear war. Putin has also said that Russia might respond with nuclear weapons if Ukraine fires Western-supplied long-range missiles into his country.

I don’t believe President Biden’s handlers are stupid enough to allow Ukraine to fire US-made missiles into the Russian heartland. Their plan is to allow the Ukraine war to drag on for as long as it takes until Russia loses heart and admits defeat.

That plan won’t work. The Russian economy is growing despite Western sanctions, and the Russian army is much bigger now than it was when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Meanwhile, the war has been a disaster for Ukraine. Its cities and infrastructure are being pounded into rubble.  More than 6 million Ukrainians have fled the country, and thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded.

There are only two likely outcomes of the war in Ukraine. First, the West can assure Russia that Ukraine will not join NATO and accede to at least some of Russia’s demands for annexation of Ukrainian territory. At the very least, the West must admit that Crimea is part of Russia.

Alternatively, this war can drag on until one side or the other miscalculates, and the war escalates into a nuclear conflict. If that happens, the baby boomer generation will send its grandchildren to Eastern Europe to fight World War III.

Let us suppose the US is plunged into a nuclear war due to missteps by our nation's bungling diplomats. In that case, the Democratic Party can take comfort in the knowledge that its dream of destroying the American economy, American values, and American culture was finally realized.

It was necessary to destroy Ukraine to save it.

90 second Movie Review: Killer Heat is a Good Contemporary Film Noir

I love film noir movies, especially the black-and-white films made in the 1930s and 1940s that featured cynical private detectives who smoked too much, drank too much, and held cynical views about life in general and women in particular. Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum were masters of film noir, and they wore their slouch fedora hats in a way that made them look both sinister and dissipated.

"Killer Heat" is a worthy addition to the film noir genre. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Nick Bali, an ex New York cop whose life was turned upside down by the discovery of his wife’s infidelity. Bali is a Greek American who speaks the Greek language, so he moves to Athens and sets up shop as a private detective who drinks bourbon straight from the bottle.

Bali is hired by Penelope Vardakis (played by the beautiful Shailene Woodley), the sister-in-law of a wealthy man who died under suspicious circumstances. Bali uses effective but slightly dishonest tactics to solve what turns out to be a murder.

I won’t reveal more of the plot other than to say that the story moves quickly and is enhanced by a backstory that explains why Bali is so bitter about his past.

"Killer Heat" may not be great drama, but film noir fans will enjoy it. For one thing, viewers can understand the plot, which is more than can be said for that famous film noire classic, "The Big Sleep." The movie is set in Crete, and the Mediterranean landscape is breathtakingly beautiful. You can find this film on Amazon.

Killer Heat, a film in the classic film noir tradition

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90 Seconds Movie Review: Sisu is a Finnish Rambo Movie. What's Not To Like?

 Everyone loves an adventure movie about a heroic underdog who kills vicious Nazis in creative and unusual ways. I know I do. Nazi killing is the secret of success for the "Indiana Jones" movies, "Inglorious Bastards," and "Fury."

"Sisu," a Nordic movie, is a worthy addition to the Nazi-eradication niche of the Action movie genre. Sisu is a Finnish word roughly translated  as "strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity."

The movie is a straightforward tale about a retired Finnish soldier who had served as a sniper in Finland's winter war against the Russians. The hero, Aatami Korpi, played by Jorma Tommila, lives a solitary life mining for gold in the Lapland region of Finland. 

Korpi finds a lot of gold, but unfortunately, he is discovered by Nazi soldiers retreating across Finland in the late stage of World War II. The Nazis steal Korpi's gold and try to kill him, but he thwarts them as the movie unfolds across the tundra. 

By the end of the movie, Korpi has dispatched all his Nazi adversaries and rescues a group of Finnish women whom the Nazis planned to exploit as sex slaves. 

Critics have generally reviewed Sisu favorably and compared it to Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns and Quinton Tarantino's movies. I would describe the flick as a Finnish Rambo film.

Sisu does not pretend to be a cinematic work of art. However, I found the movie satisfying as I watched it on a lazy autumn afternoon. I recommend viewing it with an ice-cold light beer and a bowl of popcorn. You can find it on Netflix.

No worries: The guy with a knife in his brain is a Nazi.

90 Seconds Food Review: A Dummy’s Guide to Good Texas Barbecue Restaurants

 Most Texans love to eat barbecue, and barbecue restaurants are sprinkled throughout the Lone Star State. How do you choose a good one?

I’ve eaten in dozens of Texas  barbecue  restaurants, and when I’m scoping out a new barbecue joint, I look for three signs

Sign number one. Check out the parking lot. Pickup trucks should outnumber sedans by at least three to one. Most working people in Texas drive pickup trucks, and these folks know their barbecue.

Jim’s Barbecue in Waskom, Texas, is a good example. I’ve often eaten at Jim’s, and pickup trucks always outnumber sedans.

Sign number two. Good Texas barbecue joints usually shun paper napkins in favor of big rolls of paper towels. If you walk into a Texas barbecue restaurant and see industrial rolls of brown paper towels on the tables, you can be sure you’ll eat some good Texas barbecue.

Sign number three. Good Texas barbecue restaurants always offer these three side dishes: baked beans, potato salad, and coleslaw. Texans have never understood the principle of the leafy green vegetable, and you should be suspicious of any barbecue restaurant that offers broccoli, brussels sprouts, or arugula lettuce salads. Too many vegetables is a sign that the restauranteur is conflicted about being in the barbecue business.

Good Texas barbecue restaurants share another common feature. Generally, they serve their customers sweet, iced tea in jumbo-sized plastic glasses— 20 ounces or more. In addition, the server comes by every five minutes and refills the glasses. When you’ve eaten at a good Texas restaurant, you will be satisfied with the food and well-hydrated because you drank two or more quarts of sweet iced tea.

What's wrong with this picture?
Image credit: Houston Food Finder

90 seconds Movie Review: Daddio is a stinker

Saturday night in rural Mississippi and nothing to do. Fortunately, my spotty Internet service is working, and I can rent a movie on amazon.com.

I select Daddio, a new Amazon offering starring Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson. I can rent the movie for six bucks. How bad can it be?

Pretty bad as it turned out. First of all, the entire movie is set in a New York City cab. I kept waiting for Sean and Dakota to get out of the cab and do something interesting, but they never did.

Instead, Sean Penn’s character turns out to be a rustic Freudian psychoanalyst posing as a nosy cab driver. Dakota Johnson plays a stunningly beautiful computer programmer living in midtown Manhattan. As the tedious story unfolds, she reveals herself to be a troubled woman scarred by her dysfunctional childhood back in western Oklahoma. Dakota lost her Oklahoma twang but never shook the anguish of growing up without her father.  

Throughout this excruciatingly long movie, Sean probes Dakota’s hidden anguish with his gritty cab driver's intuition. By the end of the movie, Dakota realizes why she is in an abusive relationship with an older married man.

That’s the whole movie. Before renting this sad sack drama, consider that you are only on this earth for a brief period of time. Do you want to waste part of your precious life watching Sean Penn practice psychiatry without a license?

Gasoline Prices Are Too Low: Get Ready For a Post-Election Shock

 Americans are worried about inflation. The cost of just about everything--food, cars, property insurance, etc--has gone up under the Biden administration. The President's critics blame him for high prices--including the cost of gasoline.

Gas prices, however, are pretty low. I bought gasoline yesterday in Baton Rouge, and it only cost me $2.60 a gallon to fill my tank. That's pretty damn cheap!

Remember the Arab oil embargo of 1973, when gas prices shot up? The average cost of gas that year was 39 cents a gallon. The present value of that 39 cents is $2.59 —almost exactly what I paid yesterday.

For a brief time in 1973, gasoline prices rose to one dollar a gallon, sending trepidations of doom across the entire United States. What is the value of that 1973 dollar today? It's more than $7.00. Except for a few places in California, Americans aren't paying anywhere near $7.00 for gasoline.

In other words, Americans are paying less for gasoline than they did under the 1973 Arab oil embargo, which is curious. After all, the Biden administration has actively discouraged oil exploration in the United States. One might think Biden's policies would hurt the price of gasoline, but they haven't.

In addition, international tensions in the major oil-producing countries haven't affected the gas price for our cars. Uncle Sam and NATO embargoed Russian oil because Russia invaded Ukraine, but that tactic has largely failed. Surprisingly, the Russian economy is growing despite the embargo, and gasoline is still cheap in this country.

Looking to the Middle East, that region is on fire. The Houthis are doing their best to disrupt the flow of oil tankers through the Red Sea, forcing many shippers to bear additional costs to avoid the Suez Canal. So far, however, Houthi missiles haven't impacted gasoline prices in the U.S.

The Biden-Harris administration keeps gasoline prices down by purchasing oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which the government admits. Why? Because many Americans are more concerned about the cost of gas than the price of milk.

All this will change after the November presidential election. If Trump wins, gasoline prices will shoot up, and the Democrats will blame him. I'm not sure Trump's policy of 'drill, baby drill' can be implemented quickly enough to depress the price of gas at the pump.

If Harris wins, the Feds will manage to tamp down the price of gasoline for a time, but ultimately. their bureaucratic machinations will fail. In short, gas prices will soon increase dramatically, and then we'll see some real inflation.

President Biden: "I don't think much about Vadimir Putin." Americans should ask him how he plans to end the Ukraine war.

 Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pressuring the U.S. and NATO to supply his country with Western-manufactured missiles that can strike deep inside Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned the West not to give Ukraine these weapons. Putin has said plainly that the Western allies will be at war with Russia if they allow Ukraine to use NATO-supplied long-range missiles to attack his country.

Some NATO nations seem to think Russia is bluffing. Political leaders in Canada and Great Britain want to grant Zelenskyy's request and send long-range missiles to Ukraine. The Dutch and the Czechs have also signaled their support for sending Zelenskyy the missiles he demands.

President Biden isn't on board yet. A few days ago, he confessed, "I don't think much about President Putin." I suppose he's distracted by more important issues than nuclear war.

Americans, however, should think a lot about President Putin and Russia. We should ask ourselves what our country's response would be if Iran used Russian long-range missiles to wipe out American military bases in the Middle East. Wouldn't we consider such an attack an act of war by the Russians?

Uncle Sam is already neck-deep in the planet's most significant military conflict since World War II. Ukraine could not have inflicted such heavy casualties on the Russian army and navy without American weapons, American technology, and American military support.

Millions of Russians and Ukrainians have died or been wounded in this senseless war, and millions more are refugees. President Biden admits that he doesn't think much about Vladimir Putin. Maybe it's time for Americans to ask Mr. Biden what the hell we're doing in Ukraine and how he plans to bring this tragic conflict to an end.

The politics of joy?

90 Seconds Movie Review: Winchester '73 is the Perfect Western Movie (Rock Hudson Plays a Native American War Chief)

In one of his most famous tunes, David Allan Coe listed the five essential themes for a perfect country and western song: trucks, trains, mama, prison, and getting drunk.

What themes are necessary for a perfect Western movie? A heroic cowboy, a thick-headed sidekick,  bloodthirsty Native Americans, a virtuous damsel in distress, and a villain wearing a black cowboy hat.

By this definition, 'Winchester '73' is the perfect Western movie.  Jimmy Stewart embodies the heroic cowboy with his usual "ah shucks" charm. Millard Mitchell, known as High Spade, is Stewart's trusty but slow-witted sidekick. Shelley Winters is perfectly cast as the virtuous damsel in distress, and black-hatted Stephen McNally appears as the hardhearted villain. Combined with the unique plot (built around a clinical obsession with a Winchester rifle), these elements make 'Winchester '73' a must-watch for any Western movie fan. 

Who plays the part of the vengeful Native American?  To my delighted surprise, Rock Hudson, adorned in warpaint, shows up as Young Bull, the laconic war chief of a Plains Indian tribe.

What's not to like? Indeed, 'Winchester '73' is not just a personal favorite but also ranks seventh on a list of top 20 Western movies of all time. Rotten Tomatoes, a trusted review aggregator, gives the movie a 100 percent rating based on 28 reviews, further solidifying its status as a classic Western movie.

If you don't like Western movies, don't watch "Winchester '73." If you like them, this Jimmy Stewart classic is the movie for you.

I will close with this short reflection. Seeing Rock Hudson in warpaint illustrates Woody Allen's famous line: "Eighty percent of success is showing up."

I doubt Rock was thrilled about dressing out as a Native American, but he showed up anyway. In his wildest fantasy, I'm sure he never envisioned himself being cast as Elizabeth Taylor's husband in "Giant," another classic Western movie.

Rock Hudson as Young Bull: Just showing up

WalletHub's bullshit study ranks Massachusetts as the best state to live in

WalletHub published a bullshit study ranking Massachusetts as the best state to live in and Louisiana as the worst. I've lived in both states, and I can assure you that WalletHub got the story all wrong.

Massachusetts is not the best state to live in--it's the worst. Housing costs and taxes are high, and its citizens have a depressing tendency to elect idiots to public office. 

Elizabeth Warren, for example, is a native Oklahoman who couldn't get elected dogcatcher in her native state.  She landed a cushy job at Harvard Law School by claiming to be a Cherokee, and then the Bay State fools elected her to the U.S. Senate.

Louisiana, it is true, also attracts idiots to public office, but we don't take them seriously. We would never indulge in the fantasy that Elizabeth Warren is a viable presidential candidate. 

WalletHub ranked Louisiana as the worst state to live in; in fact, it's one of the best.  Let's look at cuisine. Massachusetts boasts of Boston baked beans, Yankee pot roast, and clam strips--vile dishes all.

In Louisiana, you can dine on jambalaya, boudin, crawfish etouffee, chicken-and-sausage gumbo, fried catfish, shrimp po'boys, Natchitoches meat pies, beignets, red beans and rice, and banana foster.

How about the people? I found most Massachusetts residents to be arrogant, mean-spirited, and provincial. There's a reason other New Englanders call them Massholes.

On the other hand, Louisianans are known the world over for their friendliness and hospitality. Its culture is so life-affirming and genial that some people say Louisiana is the only place where you can leave the United States without a passport. 

Sports and recreation? Who'd you rather root for--the New Orleans Saints or those friggin' New England Patriots? As for college football, Louisianaians have the LSU Tigers. Does Harvard even have a football team?

WalletHub also misanalyzed some other beautiful states. It ranked Texas as the 36th best place to live and Mississippi as one of the five worst states.

Space does not permit me to give these two states the robust defense they deserve. Thus, I will end this essay with just three questions: Which state has the best barbecue—Massachusetts or Texas? Which state is most friendly to deer hunting with dogs—Massachusetts or Mississippi?

Finally, which state has the worst regional accent? Massachusetts, of course. Actually, this was a trick question. People in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi don't speak with an accent.

Boston in winter: Is this the best state to live in?

'The Terror' Netflix story of the Franklin expedition: Hubris, mutiny, cannibalism and a revolting sociopath. You'll love it!

 "The Terror," season 1, is an AMC drama series that can now be viewed on Netflix. The 10-episode story is loosely based on Sir John Frankin's nineteenth-century Arctic expedition and Dan Simmons's novel of the same name.

Sir Franklin hoped to crown his naval career by discovering a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. In 1845, his party of 129 men left England in two ships, the Terror and Erebus. Not a single member of that ill-fated crew survived. This gripping tale is the foundation of "The Terror," season 1.

"The Terror" AMC series contains all the essential elements of a British naval disaster story: murder, mutiny, insanity, suicide, starvation, euthanasia, and cannibalism. What's not to like?

In addition, the series includes a monstrous animal that stalks the expedition and devours several crew members. The animal is an enormous polar bear on steroids, but the crew refers to it simply as "the creature."

Mike Hale, who reviewed "The Terror" in the New York Times, liked the series but had some reservations. "The heart-of-darkness framework," he wrote, depicting "hubristic Europeans" who become lost in the new world and descend into savagery, was "constructed with intelligence and finesse." Nevertheless, in Hale's view, the series's story is "obvious and generally tedious."

 I disagree with Hale's gentle criticisms. I found the "The Terror's" narrative both fascinating and gripping. The series's supersized polar bear was genuinely frightening, adding a layer of suspense and thrill. Polar bears, after all, are the only animals in North America that stalk humans, and they can run as fast as a horse. Those bears don't need to be supersized to be terrifying.

I agree with Hale that the "The Terror" narrative is obvious, but only if viewed superficially. At a deeper level, the Terror crew's disaster is a complex story that can be interpreted in many ways. For example, it can be seen as a case study of poor leadership and faulty decision-making. It's also a cautionary tale about the massive destruction of a once well-disciplined organization by a single sociopath. The stark landscape of ice and treeless tundra is a story in itself that evokes a bleak assessment of the modern human condition.

Screenwriter David Kajganich affirms the oft-repeated observation that people's true character is only revealed under extreme stress. As the series progressed through its ten episodes, some of Sir Franklin's crew descended into cannibalism, while others rose to almost Christ-like status through sacrifice and suffering.

As someone who once spent time in Alaska's Yupik and Inupiak communities, I can attest that the series's depiction of the Inuits is accurate. They are gentle but resolute people with almost no record of violence before their introduction into the so-called civilized world.

In short, "The Terror" is an entertaining adventure story. I found it totally satisfying, except for the last episode, which was a bit confusing. This is only a minor criticism, however. Overall, "The Terror" is a triumph.

What's not to like? Hubris, a sociopath, cannibalism, and terror

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Antisemitism stalks college campuses. It must be ruthlessly stamped out

 Last spring, American college campuses were roiled by anti-Israel protesters who disrupted commencement ceremonies, vandalized university buildings, and shut several universities down.

Apologists for these hoodlums argue that the protesters are outraged by Israel’s actions in Gaza, where thousands of civilians have been killed in the fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas. Protesters have charged Israel with genocide, and they’ve called for universities to divest from all companies doing business with the Jewish state.

These protests died down at the end of last year’s spring semester, but the anti-Israel movement reared its ugly head again on college campuses this fall. Students at the University of Michigan elected a slate of student officers who vow to stop all funding for university student groups until the university divests itself from Israel. At Columbia, vandals threw red paint on a campus statue--symbolizing Palestinian blood.

It’s impossible to discern the motives of individual protesters, but some have expressed antisemitic and racist sentiments, openly praising Hamas and even calling for the destruction of Israel.

Make no mistake. Antisemitism runs rampant at many American universities, and our most elite schools now harbor students and professors who are racists and bigots. We can expect antisemitism to become more virulent and violent during the upcoming academic year.

Antisemitism is not a fringe movement on college campuses. Anti-Jewish bigotry has become embedded in American higher education and threatens to infect our entire society.

During the 1920s and 1930s, antisemitism flourished in the universities of Eastern Europe even before Hitler gained power in Germany. As scholar Ezra Mendelsohn observed, “universities all over East Central Europe were centers of anti-Semitism.” Some Romanian universities were shut down in 1922 due to anti-Jewish violence.

Mendelsohn offered two explanations for antisemitism at European universities prior to the Second World War. In some Eastern European countries, he wrote, “young and impressionable students were attracted to the new militant, anti-pluralist nationalist movements, which combined xenophobia, anti-communism, and antisemitism with an idealistic campaign directed against the compromise-prone, venal political and economic establishment.” 

In addition, he observed that universities were turning out graduates who could not find decent jobs. Thus, the "new intellectuals” of pre-war Eastern Europe were driven to antisemitism by economic insecurity.

America’s college leaders need to face the fact that growing antisemitism among college students and professors will infect all American society if it is not checked. In my view, professors who promote antisemitism should be fired. Students who openly support genocide against Jews and Israel should be expelled, and anyone who uses violence and vandalism to advance racism and bigotry should go to jail.

Columbia's alma mater statue was vandalized

Will the President of Joy Improve the Lives of Ordinary American Men?

 I edit most of my writing through Grammarly. Whenever I type ‘elderly,' my faithful editor reminds me that some people are offended by the word and suggests I substitute the word 'older.'

This is the world we live in. Our society is sensitive about what we call old people, but we're not concerned about the quality of their lives.  In particular, we aren’t interested in the health and welfare of older men.

Richard V. Reeves published an op-ed essay yesterday about a health crisis among American men. According to Reeves, "The life expectancy gap between men and women widened from less than five years in 2010 to nearly six years in 2002."

Why are men dying at an earlier age? Reeves reports that men's life expectancy is going down due to "deaths of despair," most notably suicide and drug poisoning, and to higher death rates from COVID-19.

Men take their own lives at four times the rate of women, and this disparity in suicide rates increases with age. Among people aged 75-84, men's suicide rate is 7 times higher than the rate for women.

Alcohol abuse also contributes to “deaths of despair” among American men. The Centers for Disease Control reported that male deaths attributed to alcohol abuse increased by 26.8 percent between 2016-2017 and 2020-2021.

The Biden-Harris administration has done virtually nothing to address the growing disparity between mortality rates for American men and women and the high suicide rate for men, and older men in particular. President Biden and VP Harris have shown more concern about the right of gender-confused boys to play girls' basketball than the rising mortality rate for the nation's male citizens.

If Harris is elected "the president of joy, " things may change. Perhaps she'll distribute some of her joy to ordinary American men. 

Somehow, I doubt it. If Harris becomes president, her joy zone will be restricted to her base: Hollywood, the intellectual and media elites, the financial class, and the DEI crowd.  Average American men will see their quality of life continue to deteriorate. And suicide rates for elderly men will remain high.

Cheer up! The President of Joy will solve all your problems.

Harris-Trump Bring Excitement and Ectasy to Presidential Campaign: The Russians Aren't Feeling the Joy

You got no right to take my joy, I want it back.

Joy by Lucinda Williams

Posing as vaudeville comedians, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz wrapped up the Democratic convention last week. Harris waved her arms like a seance conjurer, and Walz strutted and gesticulated around the DNC stage like a game show host.

What was the convention’s theme? Not the economy, not crime, not the nation’s border. No, the theme was joy. 

Kamala Harris is “the president of joy,” Bill Clinton told the convention delegates. He knows a lot about joy. He spilled some of it on a blue dress when he was president. 

New York Times columnist Patrick Healy observed that joy is not a strategy for winning an election, but Healy may be wrong. Harris is ahead of Donald Trump in the polls, even though she hasn’t granted an interview with a real journalist since becoming the Dems' presidential candidate.

Harris is dodging the press because she's afraid a reporter might ask an inconvenient question, which is this: What the fuck are we doing in Ukraine? Such a question might dampen the joy that currently infuses Harris’s frenzied supporters.

Americans whose minds have been turned to Jello by the New York Times, WaPo, and CNN are enthralled by Harris’s clownish behavior, but the Russians aren't feeling the joy. They've suffered over a half million casualties inflicted by NATO weapons, including American cluster bombs, Abrams tanks, uranium-depleted artillery shells, and Bradley fighting vehicles.

If Harris wins the November election, she will find that joy doesn't travel well. I doubt Harris’s cackle will charm Vladimir Putin into surrendering Crimea. 

The politics of joy in Ukraine

Are American mercenaries fighting in Russia? Say it ain't so, Kamala

 Zero Hedge reported today that the Russian foreign ministry summoned a senior American diplomat in Moscow to protest the presence of CNN reporters and American mercenaries on Russian soil. 

Russia did not identify the mercenary organization but flagged a posting by Forward Observations Group, a military contractor, showing a photo of three FOG military operatives supposedly inside Russia's Kursk region.

Without a doubt, CNN journalists were recently in Russia under the protection of the invading Ukrainian army. CNN reporter Nick Paton acknowledged that fact in his reporting.

It is not so clear whether American mercenaries are fighting in Russia, but CNN can confirm that story since their people were traveling with the Ukrainian military.

Suppose we want to get to the bottom of the matter. In that case, American reporters should simply ask Vice President Kamala Harris this question: Are American military personnel or American contractors on Russian soil assisting the Ukrainian invaders? 

That's a yes-or-no question, but I doubt any non-leftist journalist will be allowed to get close enough to VP Harris to ask it.

Maybe the truth about American involvement in the Ukrainian invasion of Russia will be revealed after the November election.  Or maybe not.

Are American mercenaries in Kursk?

Ukraine invades Russia with Western armor. Should Americans be cheering?

 Ukraine invaded the Kursk region of Russia earlier this month. The U.S. government claims the Ukrainians didn't consult the Americans about this "incursion." Nevertheless, the Ukrainians crossed the Russian border with British tanks and American armor.

Should we be happy about this development? Senator Lindsey Graham believes we should be delighted. He called the Kursk offensive "bold, brilliant, and beautiful" and added, "Putin started this. Kick his ass."

Pardon me for not popping the champagne corks over the expansion of the Ukraine war, a war that has dragged on for two and a half years and produced more than a million casualties. I have no interest in kicking Vladimir Putin's ass, and I'm emphatically opposed to American involvement in stoking a senseless war with a nuclear power--a war that might eventually involve my grandchildren.

Ukraine's conflict with Russia was fomented by the United States when the CIA meddled in Ukrainian politics in 2014.  Although it's true that Russia initially tried to take over all of Ukraine when it invaded in February 2022, the fight now is essentially a border dispute over the Donbas, where most residents speak Russian as their first language.

We Americans have become a feckless and frivolous people governed by fools. At the moment, we are enthralled and enchanted by Vice President Kamala Harris, a chronic giggler, and Governor Tim Walz, a union hack from Minnesota, who allowed a large section of his state's largest city to burn down.

Most Americans seem unphased by the fact that the U.S. government is pouring billions of dollars into two wars that could have been prevented if America had behaved like a strong and confident world power. Our national debt is growing by a trillion dollars every 100 days. Yet, presidential candidate Kamala Harris thinks the U.S. Treasury has enough loose change lying about to give all first-time homebuyers $25,000.

Meanwhile, anti-Semitic lunatics are roaming our universities in support of racist terrorists, making a mockery of higher education's "diversity, equity, and inclusion" agenda.

The Ukraine war will end badly--not only for the Russians and the Ukrainians but for Americans as well. The era of Pax Americana is coming to an end, and the end is coming sooner than most people think.

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Kursk

Should the State of Texas reassert its status as an independent nation? Almost a quarter of likely Texas voters say yes

The natives are restless. Across America, independence movements have sprung up, calling for individual states to secede from the Union.

 According to a recent Newsweek article, secession campaigns are active in twelve states: Oregon, Illinois, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Louisiana, California, Washington, Minnesota, New York, and Pennsylvania. That list does not include two more states with active independence movements: Alaska and Florida. 

In Texas, the Texas Nationalist Movement is making significant strides in its campaign for independence. TNM is pushing for a statewide, nonbinding referendum allowing Texans to voice their opinion on a single question: "Should the state of Texas reassert its status as an independent nation?" The movement collected 140,000 signatures for this question to be placed on the Republican primary ballot this year.

Indeed, Texas independence has become a mainstream political issue in the Lone Star State. The Texas Republican Party's "official legislative platform" includes a plank calling for an independence vote. A recent poll of likely Texas voters found that 23 percent would vote for Texas independence if allowed to vote on the question.

Why do some Texans want to secede from the United States? I can think of three reasons. 

First, Texans are alarmed by the federal government's open border policy, which has allowed millions of immigrants to enter the country illegally and enabled drug traffickers to smuggle illegal drugs, including fentanyl, across the nation's southern border.  

Second, many Texans are concerned about the spiraling national debt, which is growing by one trillion dollars every 100 days.

Finally, many Texans are offended by attacks on traditional Texas culture by the federal government and the East Coast mainstream media. The Biden administration's push for transgender participation in girls' varsity sports is just one example of the federal government's disdain for the cultural values of the Heartland.

I am not a resident of Texas, but I support the Texas independence movement. I believe Texas will thrive as an independent nation. 

After all, Texas's economy is the eighth-largest in the world. The state has abundant energy resources and has been the top exporting state for 22 years in a row. 

Perhaps, most importantly, Texas is an agreeable place to live and do business. That's why Texas has attracted so many Californians and California corporations.

I'm beginning to wonder if a nation of 330 million people can maintain a healthy democracy under a government dominated by soulless bureaucrats, repressive government regulations, and an obsession with race and sexual orientation. I also wonder whether a healthy national discourse about major public policy issues can occur in a social media environment easily manipulated and censored by governmental agencies and their corporate lackeys.

On the other hand, Texas has demonstrated that a clearly defined geographic region with a well-educated population, abundant natural resources, access to sea lanes, and a traditional work ethic can prosper.

Maybe it is time for Americans in all 50 states to ponder whether they would be better off leaving the Deep State with its weaponized legal system, political corruption, and universities-inspired culture of victimhood to strike out on their own. 

The people living in the states that make up Flyover Country might prosper as smaller political units, and the coastal elites would be glad to see us go.

Tampons in the boys' bathroom and deer hunting in the rural South

Deer hunting in the rural South is as popular as tennis in the Hamptons. Several Southern states have a traditional rifle hunting season, a bowhunting season, a season for hunting with primitive rifles, and a season for hunting deer with dogs.

Hunting deer with dogs is a brutal sport involving dogs that chase deer to the point of exhaustion and then attack them by the throat. Sometimes, a panicked deer will plunge into a river or stream, hoping to escape its canine pursuers, but the dogs go in after it and occasionally drown a deer before the hunter arrives on the scene.

In a video I watched, I saw a large deer with impressive antlers standing in water up to its neck in an ice-cold slough, wholly exhausted. A relentless tracking dog harassed it, lunging at its throat. The buck was too tired to defend itself.

A hunter, stripped to his boxer shorts and an international orange sweatshirt, waded into the frigid water and shot the deer with his rifle from a distance of about five feet. The deer made a last desperate lunge at the hunter, who shot it a second time. Then he dragged the deer out of the slough onto dry land.

I found myself wondering about this dauntless hunter's politics. I asked myself what he might think about tampon dispensers in the boys' bathrooms at his son's school. Perhaps the man has a high-school-age daughter. Would he be okay if a six-foot kid with a penis and hairy testicles competed against his daughter on the varsity girls basketball team?

Somehow, I doubt it.

Today, our Ivy League-trained politicians are poking the Russian bear, enabling Ukraine, where elections have been suspended, to invade Russia. Vladimir Putin has warned of a nuclear conflict. Meanwhile, President Biden is playing patsy with Iran, which has vowed death to America and Israel. 

Where will Americans go if we are plunged into nuclear war? Will we feel safe if we shelter in the Hamptons, where we can play tennis with the swells as we breathe radioactive air? Or will we be better off living down a rural Southern road from a deer hunter who will go to almost any length to bring meat home to his family and might deign to teach an urbanite how to hunt deer?

Deer hunting with dogs: Better than ice fishing with Tim Walz

Are we nuts? Ukraine invades Russia

When the good guys invade a country, it’s called an incursion. When the bad guys invade a country, it’s called an invasion. Thus, when the United States invaded Cambodia in 1970, the press described the event as an incursion.

When the good guys sponsor an independence election, it’s an exercise of democracy. When the bad guys sponsor an independence election, it’s called an illegal annexation and a violation of international law.

Over the years, the United States has supported free elections worldwide to further democracy. Nevertheless, when the people of Crimea voted to join Russia and the people of the Donbas region did likewise, the Western press described these expressions of democracy as fraudulent violations of international law.

Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Now, Ukraine has invaded Russia. According to the American sycophant press, Ukraine’s action is an incursion, not an invasion. Nothing to see here folks; please move along.

Ukraine has sunk about a third of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, and now it has pushed Ukrainian troops into the Kursk region of Russia. Ukraine could not have done those things without American approval and logistics support. It would not be unfair to say that the United States has attacked Russia by destroying the Russian navy and invading Russian soil. Indeed, Vladimir Putin sees it that way, and Putin has nuclear weapons.

How smart are the Americans who have managed the Ukraine war? Let’s face it. Joe Biden is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and Kamala Harris is no brighter.

Americans are not giving much thought to the war in Ukraine. The mainline press is obsessed with the November election, and the Labor Day holiday is approaching. We aren't concerned with events in Ukraine, where war has produced a million casualties.

Putin has warned us that an escalation of the war in Ukraine could force Russia to use tactical nuclear weapons. I believe him. Biden, Congress, and the New York Times apparently believe that Putin is just blowing smoke.

If nuclear war breaks out because of our stupid meddling in Eastern Europe, I will be in Mississippi catching catfish on the Buffalo River. The residents of New York, Boston, and Washington, DC, will be the people at risk. 

And when the apocalypse descends on America, the coastal elites will suddenly discover the charms of Flyover Country. They will be welcome to shelter in the rural South so long as they leave their arrogant and self-centered politics behind.

Russian refugees from the Kursk region

Golly gee, It doesn't matter who we elect as president

Well, golly gee, what have you done to me?

Well, I guess it doesn't matter anymore.

Buddy Holly (1956)

Americans are caught up in a frenzy about the November election as if it matters who we choose as president. But it doesn't. 

An economic, military, and political hurricane is building strength just off our coast, and soon, it will slam ashore as a Category 5 storm--destroying our economy, our status as a world power, and our way of life.

Here's what's coming our way:

The war in Ukraine. Separatists and Russian troops have been fighting Ukraine in the Donbas for ten years. Ukraine has lost that war and will never reclaim the territory Russia holds. It's lunacy to talk about throwing Russia out of Crimea.

Americans are treating the war like the lottery. Every month, we pour money down the Ukrainian rathole, hoping we'll eventually buy the winning ticket. We don't seem to realize it's a sucker's bet.

Gaza, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.  Israel has been fighting Islamic hatred since 1948, and American money and armaments have kept the wolves at bay.

But the progressive left is bored with Israel, and it's now fashionable to support the Palestinians. President Biden and Antony Blinken are at the roulette table, and they think they can win if they put half their resources on red and half on black. Another sucker's bet.

Our sucker economy. Our government has maxed out all its credit cards. There's not enough money to fight a war in Ukraine and another in the Middle East while paying out all those Social Security checks, Medicare bills, and student loan payouts. Soon, we'll be asking the global loan sharks for cash, but we can't afford the vig. Yet another sucker's game.

So, to riff Buddy Holly, golly gee, who gets sworn in as president doesn't matter anymore. Neither Harris nor Trump can turn the ship of state around.

In short, Americans have behaved like gamblers playing the slots at a Biloxi casino—they didn't realize they were on the dirty side of the storm until the hurricane arrived to blow their gambling den to smithereens.

Is it time to stock up on canned goods and ammunition? Maybe not. But it's definitely time to stop gambling with America's future.

Anti-Israel protesters on American college campuses: Are they Neo-Nazis?

 Nothing has surprised me more in recent months than the rise of anti-Semitism in America. Anti-Jewish bigotry seemed to appear out of nowhere after Hamas terrorists slithered out of Gaza to butcher 1200 Israelis on October 7, 2023. 

Israel retaliated vigorously and has been fighting Hamas in the streets of Gaza for the last nine months.  Not surprisingly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to destroy Hamas and to rescue more than 200 hostages it had kidnapped, including seven American citizens. 

Suddenly, faux-liberal college students and professors began protesting on behalf of the Palestinians, who have suffered greatly in the Gaza conflict due to the Hamas presence in their midst. Protesters camped out on campus lawns, vandalized college buildings, and occasionally scuffled with the police--all to show their support for the people of Gaza. 

It quickly became evident that these protesters were not animated by a humanitarian spirit; their graffiti, protest signs, and declared goals showed many of them to be Jew haters--neo-Nazis.

Americans should be frightened by the sudden rise of anti-Semitism in higher education. Curiously, it seems most vehement at our nation's most elite schools: Harvard, Columbia, and UCLA, among others. Although hundreds of these bigots were arrested, many were released because spineless prosecutors declined to press charges against them.

No one deigns to study history anymore. Woke college students and professors dismiss events of the past as irrelevant--just a bunch of folklore about white racists.

That's a mistake because history contains lessons that help us interpret current events. Anti-Israel protests in our own country are remarkably similar to events in Europe as the Nazis rose to power-- and not just in Germany.

Historian Ezra Mendelsohn wrote that universities in pre-war Eastern Europe established "ghetto benches" and required  Jewish students "to attend lectures in segregated areas of the classroom." 

Encouraged by Hitler's persecution of Jews in Germany, Mendelsohn noted, "universities [in East Central Europe] "became centers of anti-Jewish agitation and riots, much of it in emulation of the Nazis." And commencing in 1937, "physical attacks against Jewish students became ever more common, and several Jewish students were actually murdered."

Make no mistake. The people who are engaging in violent anti-Israel attacks on our nation's college campuses are neo-Nazis.

And there is a name for the Jewish politicians who encourage these outbreaks of racist violence by not speaking out against it and by undermining Israel in its existential war against bestial Islamic terrorism. The word is kapo.

What is a kapo? Historically, a kapo was a Jewish concentration camp prisoner who collaborated with the Nazis during World War to control fellow Jewish inmates. Who says history doesn't repeat itself?

Photo credit: The Telegraph

Whistle while you work: Why are the waitresses at Louie's Cafe so cheerful?

 Louie’s café is a greasy spoon restaurant in the best sense of the word. It has been in business since 1941 and is open until late at night. Located just a block from the campus of Louisiana State University, Louie’s has served comfort food to hungover college students for three-quarters of a century.

My wife and I often patronize Louie’s on weekends. Famous for its hashbrowns and omelets, the cafe offers solid late-morning breakfasts. I like the informal, diner-style ambiance and enjoy watching the bustling cooks who toil at a massive grill behind the lunch counter.

I’ve patronized Louie’s for more than 30 years. In fact, I accepted a job offer at LSU partly because the faculty recruiting team treated me to breakfast at Louie’s, brunch at the Coffee Call, and dinner at Mike Anderson’s seafood restaurant.

I concluded that LSU is in a town that cares about food, and since I care about food, the job was a good fit for me. My Harvard advisor warned me not to start my academic career at LSU, urging me to wait for a better offer. However, I made a good decision by coming to Louisiana, a decision I’ve never regretted.

Among Louie’s many charms are its amiable waitresses, who always bring ice water to my table, vigilantly refill my coffee cup, and exude hospitality and goodwill toward me and every customer in the restaurant.

Why are Louie’s waitresses so cheerful? The service industry is breaking down all over the United States—particularly in restaurants, where the waitstaff are often surly and inattentive, even though they expect a 25 percent tip.

In a town where restaurants are begging for workers, Louie’s waitresses can work just about anywhere they want. I doubt that Louie’s wages are higher than those paid at similar restaurants, yet they choose to work at Louie’s.

 Why?

Perhaps Louie’s managers have cultivated a friendly service culture, and prospective employees want to work there because of that. I don’t know.

I know this: America’s service industry has grown increasingly rude, discourteous, and churlish, and Louie’s is an oasis of hospitality and rustic graciousness.

Breakfast at Louie's

 

Bone Tomahawk revives the Western movie genre

 I grew up in the golden age of Western movies. I saw dozens of Westerns as a child and watched hundreds of Western episodes on television: Gunsmoke, Bonanza, High Chapparal, Have Gun Will Travel, The Roy Rogers Show, Rawhide—I saw them all.

Why did I love this genre? The Western desert appealed to me--the beauty of a long vista, with its ever-present sense of danger and adventure. Mostly, however, I loved to see stories of good guys on horseback as they struggled against insensate evil. I knew the good guys would eventually win, and in the movies, they almost always did.

John Ford's Westerns were my favorites. Without realizing it, I was a movie critic in elementary school. I realized that The Searchers, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence were the genuine article and far superior to the cheap imitations.

Beginning in the 1960s, the Western movie genre fell into decline. I hoped Missouri Brakes, starring Marlin Brando, and The Shootist, starring John Wayne, would revive it, but those movies were disappointments.

Eventually, I realized that Western movies set in modern times are just as thrilling as films about the Old West. Lonely Are the Brave, Hud, and No Country for Old Men were authentic contributions to my beloved genre.  Hell or High Water, starring Jeff Bridges, Ben Foster, and Chris Pine, is equal to Shane, even though the victory over evil was nuanced.

Last night, I watched Bone Tomahawk on Netflix, and I was gratified to see a Western movie that is equal to the films I saw as a kid. The plot is simple: four men of uneven temperament ride out to rescue a kidnapped damsel in distress. By the movie's end, the good guys complete their mission, but two of the four saviors are dead.

Kurt Russell plays the laconic, relentless, and totally dedicated lawman. Mathew Fox plays Brooder, the Western dandy who hates Indians. Patrick Wilson is the faithful husband who endures almost unbelievable pain and hardship to be reunited with his wife, played by Lili Simmons.

Richard Jenkins is cast in the scene-stealing role of Chicory, the self-proclaimed "backup deputy" who is simple-minded but loyal and brave. If there is a hall of fame for Western movie sidekicks, Jenkins deserves a place next to Gabby Hayes, Slim Pickens, and Andy Devine.

I always judge a Western movie's portrayal of Native Americans. Until I saw Bone Tomahawk, I gave Wes Studi top billing for his role as the malignant Magua in The Last of the Mohicans. Now, there was an Indian with a chip on his shoulders.

Wes Studi, however, is a Presbyterian compared to the aborigines in Bone Tomahawk, who are bone-chillingly scary. I won't say more because I want movie movers to feel the horror I experienced when the bad-ass Native Americans showed up in Bone Tomahawk.

Bone Tomahawk is an almost perfect Western--the old-fashioned struggle of good against evil set against the backdrop of the stark and pitiless landscape of the American West.  My faith in Westerns has been renewed,

Going after the Bad Guys

'Can’t Take the Home Out of Oklahoma': A Movie Review of Twisters

I grew up in Tornado Alley in western Oklahoma. This was before the invention of cell phones or the Internet, and people in my small town were warned about an approaching tornado by sirens. As a small child, I recall being awakened in the middle of the night by the urgent moan of a siren blasting through loudspeakers mounted on telephone poles throughout the town.

My parents didn't have a basement, so they would bundle up my siblings and me and take us next door to Mrs. Nightingale’s house. Mrs. Nightingale had a concrete root cellar filled with home-canned fruits and vegetables that smelled of musty concrete. This shelter had a sheet metal door that my father invariably left open. He would stand in the doorway of our cave-like refuge, ready to close it if we heard the freight-train sound of an approaching tornado. Fortunately, we never did.

If the tornado siren blared while I was at elementary school, Mr. Vaughn, the school principal, would order all the children to huddle in the hallway, crouch on the floor, and fold our arms above our heads. It was the same drill the school practiced for nuclear war, but for a six-year-old, a tornado was much more frightening than an atomic bomb.

Our Oklahoma sky would turn green when a tornado lurked on the plains, and the air would become still and heavy. No one can see that green sky without being frightened.

Last night, I went to the movies to see Twisters, starring Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones. I warn you that the film is a full-on rom-com, so if you are one of the millions of Americans who hate rom-coms, don’t see it. It’s also an action movie full of flying cars and trees and a lot of fun to watch while munching on a box of popcorn,

I liked Twisters, the 2024 remake, better than Twister, the 1996 original. The romance between Tyler and Kate, played by Powell and Edgar-Jones in the current film, was more believable than the rocky relationship between Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt in the 1996 version.

None of the main characters used profane language in Twisters, making it appropriate for kids to see. Glen Powell was devilishly handsome, and Edgar-Jones played a chaste and determined young storm chaser with a scientific theory for stopping the deadly tornados that terrorize the Plains states.

Twisters includes "Out of Oklahoma" on its soundtrack, a song written by Lainey Wilson. As an Oklahoman who got a degree from Harvard, this line from the lyrics rings true: "Can’t take the home out of Oklahoma, so you can’t take it out of me.”

I assure you that tornados do not occur daily in Oklahoma, even in Tornado Alley. In fact, I've never seen an active tornado. 

In Twisters, however, cyclones pop up with the regularity of a cross-town bus.  Day after day, adrenaline-charged storm chasers recklessly drove through farmers' fields,  whooping, hollering, and tearing up the landscape. 

If Glen and Daisy had driven through my father’s wheat field in a heavy-duty truck, they would have found storm chasing far less entertaining. In fact, they would discover that my father’s Browning shotgun was far more dangerous than any category-five tornado.

Tornado over Kansas, painted by John S. Curry (1929)