Final Footsteps

Innocence Lost
RedStateVT returned last weekend to our childhood town for a brief visit. What we saw saddened us deeply, but reflects the path of the country. The school playground which once teemed with children of all ages playing ball and attending rec department camps was empty on a sunny summer day. Now it is surrounded by a locked chain link fence. "No Playground Use Without the Consent of the Board of Education" reads the sign. 

Thank you, lawyers. 

Another sign enumerated prohibited activities. In English and Spanish. And so America is now a bi-lingual country. Generations of Poles, Italians, Irish, Germans and every other nationality came to this country, learned the language and assimilated, even as they remembered and celebrated their ethnic heritage. Alas, in the twisted name of diversity, that was not good enough. 

Thank you, Liberals.


Will and Power
World order is maintained by American power and American will. Take that away and you don’t get tranquillity. You get chaos. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 8/1/2013)

The shortest and most devastating condemnation of the Obama foreign policy doctrine that you will see. Ever. 


War Baby
We apologize for being late in our reaction to the Bradley Manning verdict. Here then are our thoughts based on the New York Times article of July 30th: 

In early 2010, he covertly downloaded gun-camera videos, battle logs and tens of thousands of State Department cables onto flash drives while lip-syncing the words to Lady Gaga songs.

Shouldn't this alone have been enough to find Manning guilty?

He spent much of his childhood alone, playing video games or huddled in front of a computer when he was living with his mother in Haverfordwest, Wales.

RedStateVT has spoken repeatedly of the dangers of video games. Here is more proof.

While serving on a base east of Baghdad, he was reprimanded twice, including once for assaulting an officer, and he complained in e-mails of being “regularly ignored by his superiors” unless they needed him to fetch more coffee.

The "wussification" of the armed forces continues. Poor Manning was ignored by higher-ups. Isn't that the way it is supposed to be in the army?

Private Manning rebelled quietly, friends said, wearing a dog tag that said “Humanist” and keeping a toy fairy wand on his desk.

Shouldn't this alone have been enough to find Manning guilty? Wait...did we already say that?

And finally, the New York Times editors weigh in with a typically weak-kneed verdict on Manning. Yes, what he did was technically wrong, but he should not be punished too severely. Maybe a slap on the wrist. (OK, we made that last one up.)