December Blogmeat - Not

I've decided that I won't be providing the usual run of stuff-I-care-about-but-you-don't tonite.

The Shake 'n Bake theme will be continued, perhaps even later tonite. It's too personal to be written, or composed, in a consistent nightly regimen. And you don't care as much as I do, what I write, even though reader responses have been encouraging.

Instead, I want to do a Blogmeat (as I have before) as I surf through my regular nightly Favorite Websites, providing the links to interesting articles. This probably looks like what I said I don't want to do ... (stuff-I-care-about-but-you-don't) but the difference is that I'm not the source.

For example, Michael Bane links to NRO talking about Fred Thompson's late but not too late arrival on the scene as a viable Republican contender for the Presidential Election.

I agree with Byron York. Thompson has always impressed me as a man who isn't willing to become a media whore to be elected. That quality is not obvious in any other candidate, of any party. Frankly, most of the candidates this year scare the crap out of me.

Thompson may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, or the most charismatic individual, but we've had those kinds of presidents and I for one was not impressed. I'm thinking Wilson, FDR, Clinton ... and shivers go down my spine when I think how narrowly we survived their egotistic predations. Three presidents who did manage to serve their country well were Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan ... none of which I did (or would have) voted for. The difference? They were all mavericks. They were all visionary. They were the closest we have come, as a nation, to electing a Winston Churchill, if a very rough around the edges Churchill and in a non-Churchillian way.

Another thought was that none of these three ever shied away from a fight just because The People of their times were too soft to see what must be done, and to do it. (Mere marital aggressiveness isn't the answer: U.S. Grant was a great general but a thoroughly incompetent President.)

So I'm sorta hoping that Thompson stays in the fight long enough for us to seriously consider him as a candidate. In the final analysis, he may not be the best choice. But in this effete age, is there another man in the running? No, I'm not denying that Hillary doesn't have more balls than her Democratic contenders, but that's not necessarily the same as being sufficiently aware of her limitations to be a viable candidate.

Extra Credit:
Sondra K has this YouTube video of Thompson answering the question: "What's the biggest obstacle standing in the way of Education?" (Fred's answer:
)

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From Michael Yon:

The Iraqi government has ordered all policewomen to hand in their guns for redistribution to men or face having their pay withheld. In 2004 when US trainers started recruiting women for the IPS there were hundreds of applicants and in February of 2006 when responsibility for recruitment and training was handed over to Iraqi authorities the number of women applying dropped to zero.

I'm just saying ... is this the way we had hoped it would go?

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Lawdog is (suitably) outraged that The Brits ... you know, the home of Arthur Pendragon, Camelot and "The Sword In The Stone"? .. has decided to outlaw Swords in England.

"[Barbara Dunne] ..."It's an achievement to get the weapons banned. I don't want children to keep seeing them in shop windows and thinking it's normal."

Well, we haven't expected rational thought from The Brits for the last 30 years, have we?

I, too, am spitting on my monitor screen. Trust me, it doesn't help.

It may help, "Gentle Readers" to read more of LawDog.

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In one of Xavier's most powerful articles, he writes of Jeanne Assam's Story of standing up to a mass murderer:

"I saw him, it seemed like the halls cleared out, and I saw him coming through the doors, and I took cover. I waited for him to get closer, I came out of cover, and I identified myself. I engaged him and I took him down," Jeanne Assam said modestly at a news conference in the Colorado Springs police station. "I didn't think it was my sole responsibility. I didn't think about this. It was, it seemed like it was, me, the gunman and God."

"I didn't run away, and I didn't think for a minute to run away. I just knew that I was given the assignment to end this before it got too much worse," she said. "I just prayed for the Holy Spirit to guide me. I said, 'Holy Spirit, be with me.' My hands weren't even shaking. Honestly, I was very focused, and it was chaotic and it was so loud. I'll never forget the gunshots. It was so loud. I was just focused and I knew I wasn't going to wait for him to do any further damage. I just knew what I had to do."

Xavier's interpretation is worth the read. I am so impressed by this woman, who did The Hard Thing when two other armed men stood, pointing their guns at the Wolf as if mere hardware was a magical Icon against violence.

But during "Sunday Service in Colorado Springs", an Icon was not the needful thing on that day; what was needed was an Avatar of protection, and Jeanne Assam was that Avatar.

In this shameful day of "Gun Free Zones" (see above), we have proof that not all men are created equal, that not all the balls are given to men, and that when The Wolf comes calling you need a Sheepdog. The Designated Protector Sheep-person may not have the courage or conviction (even given the teeth and claws) to protect the flock.

There is, indeed, a place for The Flock. But ...

... It Takes A Sheepdog.