Friday Funnies

Half-Staff

If it's a new month, week, day, hour, minute or whatever, there must be a new controversy about Trump.  It just never stops.  The latest action that the media is losing their minds over is Trump's supposed snub of John McCain.  Of course, if you've been paying attention, you know this goes back a ways.  It really came into the public eye when, during the campaign, Trump made a crack about McCain's heroism as a result of being held captive as a POW in North Vietnam for 5 1/2 years.  He said he didn't particularly think McCain was a hero because hero's don't get captured.  It was an idiotic, insensitive, jackass kind of thing to say.  But it was Trump, so he's gonna say whatever he wants.  He and  McCain, as you would suspect, butted heads over a number of issues.  The thing that permanently ripped it was McCain being the deciding vote to not dismantle Obamacare, one of the signature promises of Trump's campaign.  That was like sticking the knife in and twisting real hard.  So no love lost.  And everyone knows it.

Fast forward and McCain dies from brain cancer on Saturday.  I'm sure Trump heard about it and thought he'd offer an olive branch and sent out a tweet offering support and condolences.  Of course, since it's Trump it was either not enough, not quick enough, or not worded right.  Then the stories emerged quoting "un-named sources" that Trump had rejected doing anything more than the tweet.  And then heads started to explode this morning when the ever watchful press noticed that the flag over the White House was not at half-staff.  They took this as the ultimate insult.  They again quoted "anonymous sources" to say many Trump advisors had told him to do more, but he didn't listen to them.  It was a blaring headline on all the new sites this morning.  Thankfully, I was on the golf course and could ignore them without much problem.

So, based on my experience in Washington DC and in the bureaucracy, here's what I think happened. To be sure, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and am not looking to castrate him at every opportunity like so many.  I bet Trump heard about the death on Saturday and took to the medium he uses most and is comfortable with and tweeted out what he thought was a perfectly reasonable first expression of condolences.  Whoever was responsible for the flag (some low level functionary) took the action to lower the flag to half-staff.  For a Senator the rule is to lower it the day of death and the next day (which is Sunday).  Meanwhile the staff was working on a position paper detailing what actions would be taken to honor McCain.  It was Sunday.  I don't know about you but I was at the beach.  As the paperwork made it's way through channels Monday came around and whoever is responsible for the position of the flag rightly raised it to full staff on Monday morning and heads started to explode throughout the media.  Which is sorta funny because a lot of these jackasses didn't like McCain very much.  But the key is that they hate Trump more.  So anyway, the day unfolds and the staff realizes that their sense of urgency on this issue is nowhere near what the media's is.  So they rush through the directive describing all the actions that the administration would take to honor McCain (including a statement by the President) and support his family and by around noon the flag is lowered to half-staff and will remain in that position until the funeral.  But the damage was done.  Trump hates McCain and Trump doesn't give a shit about niceties when it comes to opponents.  Trump is so stupid he thinks a tweet is enough.  Trump is an asshole who won't even offer condolences other than a Tweet.  Trump was focused on the Mexican deal and couldn't be bothered.  And of course there were many variations on those themes.  The funny (not ha ha, but odd) thing is that I bet Trump didn't even have his focus on this issue.  I bet he expected that his staff would take care of the details, brief him and take appropriate action. To think that the President of the United States was aware of or cared about the position of the White House flag on Monday morning is idiocy.  It's idiocy, that is, unless you hate Trump and your goal is to vilify him at every turn and ultimately drive him from office.  The other funny (this time ha ha) thing is that they don't realize that this bullshit just makes them look stupid.  But once again...they are.

UPDATE:  Thought I'd come back and say what I assumed to be obvious.  If you've been reading at all you know my background.  I'm a career Naval Aviator.  My Father and Father-in-Law were career Navy.  My Son and Son-in-Law went to the U.S. Naval Academy.  In other words, my family is steeped in the sea service.  The Navy has been our life.  So it should come as no surprise that my admiration for John McCain is enormous.  He lived a wonderful, heroic, important life that truly made a difference.  His courage was beyond question.  He was the epitome, especially in his later years, of trying to reach across the aisle to get things done.  What I wrote above in no way minimizes or disparages John McCain.  He gave as good as he got in every battle and he doesn't need any sympathy or help.  And I don't think he'd appreciate the wildly and obviously partisan media using his death as a way to get at Trump.  So my comments did not in any way have to do with McCain the man.  Every American should agree that he was a hero and deserves our admiration, respect and love.

Motivation Monday

Friday Funnies

Someone in my house laughed uproariously when she saw this.  She even said there was a lot of truth in it.  I don't get it...

Trump...Survivor

There are a couple of events this week that are judicial and yet political...Cohen and Manafort.  Manafort was found guilty on 8 of 18 counts against him.  Mostly the charges had to do with tax filings and fraud when completing filings when working with foreign entities.  All pretty arcane and most likely would normally result in fines and a slap on the wrist at most.  But...Trump.  So now he's facing real jail time.  And there is no doubt this is because Mueller and his crew are trying to get Trump.  But none of this had to do with Trump and barring something weird they won't be successful.

And then Cohen.  He was Trump's fixer.  He's the one who paid off the women before the election.  And the Trump haters went crazy.  But the thing is that all this stuff is baked in.  Trump supporters know and accept his...ahem...failings.  There are some who say that the connection Trump has because of the payoffs will result in impeachment.  I'm finding that hard to believe because Trump has some pretty smart lawyers too!  The absolute worst case scenario would be for the Dems to gain the majority in the House and push impeachment. And even if they brought charges to the Senate, gaining 2/3 yes votes for removal is far fetched.  So it would be a long, torturous journey for nothing.  So if you hate Trump and want him impeached, think about what it would do to the workings of government.

But I started writing this little post because of a very good column in the WSJ today from Jason Riley.  I'd link it but sometimes there is a block for reading it so I'm going to copy it all here.  Read the highlighted part.  Think about the good news that is emanating to so many parts of the country.  Is Trump a jackass?  Yes.  Is he insufferable?  Yes.  Has he done some shady things in his life?  Yes.  But the economic success under his term already is undeniable.  And we're starting to see his international economic policies pay off.  The elimination of so many onerous regulations and our reemergence on the international stage alone are worth the angst that he causes.   I won't list all the accomplishments but you can find them here.   Now I know that is a Trump site.  But the interesting thing is to look at the list (try and do it objectively) and decide if those things are true.  Some may be shaded and given an optimistic spin, but to me it's irrefutable that there are a lot more positives than negatives.  So take out the individual, and if you can't see the successes, then maybe you're blinded by the individual.

I'll say again what I've said before.  I didn't vote for him but his success in so many areas is undeniable.  He's not Presidential...but he's effective.  And this in spite of the almost unprecedented and coordinated attack by the press.  I say almost because I'm reading a biography of U.S. Grant by Ron Chernow and the situation that Grant faced from the press is eerily similar.  And I'm sure it was similar for other Presidents.  So, like Obama, he wasn't my guy but he is my President.  I will support him where I can and oppose him in a non-hysterical manner where I can't.  Simple as that.

"The Media Keep Falling Into the Trump Trap 

Reporters foolishly act like liberal political activists.

By Jason L. Riley

Aug. 21, 2018 

Donald Trump has long demonstrated a knack for getting his political opponents to make fools of themselves. Sen. Marco Rubio learned this the hard way on the 2016 campaign trail when he tried to out-Trump Mr. Trump. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and former CIA chief John Brennan got caught in the trap last week.

Mr. Cuomo took issue with Mr. Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” telling an audience full of Democrats that “we’re not going to make America great again—it was never that great.” The audience booed. Mr. Cuomo was attempting to insult the president but wound up insulting the country and then spent several days walking back what he said. Mr. Cuomo’s late father, Mario, also served as governor of New York. He once remarked: “There are few things more amusing in the world of politics than watching moderate Republicans charging to the right in pursuit of greater glory.” His son is evidence that such behavior is bipartisan.

Mr. Brennan, who called Mr. Trump’s July press conference with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin “nothing short of treasonous” on Twitter, had his security clearance revoked by the president last week. But during an appearance on MSNBC a few days later, he rescinded his comment. “I didn’t mean that he committed treason. But it was a term that I used,” he said. “Sometimes my Irish comes out.” Mr. Trump’s statements after the meeting with Mr. Putin were roundly criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike, and Mr. Brennan was free to add his voice. But a former top intelligence officer who wants to decry the president’s reckless behavior on cable news and social media might want to be more mindful of his own behavior.

Likewise, the political press has decided that its job isn’t merely to inform the public but also to take down the current White House, even if such efforts cost journalism what little credibility it has left. Last Thursday, hundreds of newspapers nationwide simultaneously published editorials attacking Mr. Trump in the guise of promoting a free press. The president regularly accuses news outlets of biased coverage. He prefers tweets and rallies to news conferences because he doesn’t trust the Washington Post and CNN to give him or his agenda a fair shake. Mr. Trump’s base comprises tens of millions of voters convinced that the media is as eager as the Democratic Party to run their guy out of office, and last week’s stunt only feeds those fears. Journalists who don’t like what the president has said about the press might want to start behaving like objective reporters instead of liberal political activists.

Take the economy, which is faring better under Mr. Trump by many measures than it has in a generation or longer. Each week throughout this summer has brought almost nothing but economic sunshine. The pace of factory hiring has more than doubled since last year. A July survey from the National Federation of Independent Business notes that optimism among small-business owners, who employ nearly half the nation’s private-sector workforce, is at levels not seen since 1983. Wages are also increasing, which was reflected in a Commerce Department report last week that showed retail sales—on groceries, restaurants and clothing—far exceeding economic forecasts and surging at double the rate of inflation.

The best feature of this economic growth is its inclusiveness. The simultaneous gains among various demographic groups is something the country hasn’t experienced in a long time, if ever. Older workers, women, minorities, seniors and the less-educated all are faring better in the labor force today than they did under President Obama. The jobless rate for Americans age 16 to 24 hit a 50-year low this summer. In May, the black unemployment rate dipped to 5.9%, the lowest number on record at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. People who had stopped looking for work are sending out resumes. More people are quitting jobs because they are confident that a better one awaits. Employers are increasing perks and benefits in an effort to attract new hires and keep the ones they already have. There were 6.7 million job openings last quarter, a 17-year high.

When the media reports this good news, the stories too often resemble a Democratic National Committee press release. The main objective is to assure you that Mr. Trump’s tax cuts and regulatory reform had nothing to do with it, that his predecessor deserves the real credit or that it was all just inevitable. Hogwash.

For all of his faults, the president deserves some praise for the ramped-up economy, just as he’ll deserve blame if his counterproductive trade wars reverse these gains over time. Covering the Russia meddling investigation and keeping the White House honest is important, but these things are hardly the sum of Mr. Trump’s presidency. Reporters look foolish when they insist otherwise."

Meanwhile, in Iowa there's this story about a girl named Mollie who was stalked, captured, murdered and buried in a shallow grave in a cornfield.  The girl was the all-American girl next door who's photo and story captured the hearts of the nation.  The murderer is an illegal alien from Mexico.  But nothing to see here...move along.  The focus should be on tax filings from Manafort and Cohen's activities to payoff a couple of women who had the potential to do damage to Trump.  That's what really matters.

Motivation Monday

Figure it out!

Calm Down

Given the times, this seems appropriate...

Security Clearances

The latest dust up that the Trump haters have latched onto is the revocation of John Brennan's security clearance.  Normally I'd feel obligated to explain the situation to put things in context.  But with the way the media is today, if you don't know what's happened...well then you must be living under a rock.  So I'll take it on faith that you've heard about the Administration revoking his clearance, the outrage from some quarters and the support from others.  It might not surprise you to learn that I'm in the support camp.

Simply put, Brennan is a jackass.  He's a career bureaucrat in the intelligentsia and has been an embarrassment.  I've seen him testify, seen him on cable channels, and heard his line for a long time.  He is an opportunist and clearly considers himself the smartest guy in the room.  And he is not just an antagonist for the President.  He is a royal pain in the ass.  He has been a constant detractor since Trump emerged as a Presidential candidate and even went so far as to accuse him of treason in Helsinki.  And that is just BS.

Now, in case you're not versed in security clearances, this is no big deal.  He has obviously had a security clearance with various levels of access, depending the job he held for a long time.  For most people, when they retire or leave a job, they no longer have access to info.  And when the security clearance runs out, it runs out.  Simple as that.  But there is a cadre of folks in DC who get them renewed on the supposition that they are senior people who have a need to know and can advise people in the government.  Okay, I'll buy that.  But there are also a lot of folks who maintain their clearance as an opportunity to receive information that they can use to further their careers as talking heads on one of the cable channels.  Color Brennan in that category.  He clearly used info at his disposal to formulate an opposition to our President.  And it was BS.

Now there are some who are decrying the revocation as an infringement on his right to freedom of speech.  And that is really BS.  Not having a clearance has nothing to do with his right to say anything he wants.  So this argument is totally false and it is frankly embarrassing that some high powered people in government have taken this tact.  The highest profile is probably ADM McRaven, the former Commander of the Joint Special Operations Command and architect of the Bin Laden raid.  Given his status, some are taking notice.  But it doesn't take much more than a Google search to discover that McRaven was a bit Hillary supporter and a never Trumper.  So this is no surprise.

Now Trump is indicating that he might be looking at others.  I say good.  Over the last several weeks it's been proven that there are a lot of folks from the previous administration who are vocally and directly determined to bring him down.  I say don't give them any more ammunition than they already possess from their relationship with others of their same ilk.

But like a lot (most?) of occurrences of hate against the President, I bet this whole thing blows over.  His supporters will clearly be happy about the revocation.  His detractors will be pissed, but there's not much they can do.

Friday Funnies

Creepy

This is just really, really creepy.

Eye Test

Cats

Terrible beasts for centuries!

Cooling Off

It's been really hot in So Cal.  This would really hit the spot.  And she could get practice...

Fishing Car

At least he took off his shoes!

Straws

I'm sure you've heard all the hype about banning straws.  The truth is that the ban is a gigantic nod to the PC crowd.  Because it won't make a difference.  Especially if the new paper straws are wrapped in plastic.  But the real issue is priorities.  It seems that the focus of our friends in the media these days go to the sensational and the easy.  It's easy to report on the straw ban.  It's easy to find "outrage" over no more straws being available.  But meanwhile...the streets of our major cities are littered with drug residue, homeless wander unchecked, and the streets are used as toilets.  But hey...we won't have to worry about straws.

Cool Pic

An Unbalanced Fight

I'm a student of the Civil War.  You know, THE Civil War.  It was a terrible and yet defining time in our history.  And no matter what anyone tells you about economics and industrial North vs agrarian South, etc., it was about slavery.  The scourge of slavery.  The same of slavery.  It was an overwhelming and oppressive issue that has defined us as a nation for centuries.  And we're still struggling with that legacy.  So what's happening today, while distressing, isn't close to the strife that gripped the country during the Civil War.  Not close.  And if something were to happen, the lopsided nature of the battle would be pretty bad.  I mean, this message contains some truth!

Motivation Monday

A friend posted this over on FB.  Thought there were some pretty motivating ideas sprinkled in here.  I highlighted a few that resonate with me.  You'll have your own.  Enjoy.

Saw this post online, don't know the author. Did some editing to generalize it. Good stuff.

Just a few things to remember...

• Travel light through life. Keep only what you need.

• It’s okay to cry when you’re hurt. It’s also okay to smash (some) things; but, wash your face, clean your mess, and get up off the floor when you’re done. You don’t belong down there.

• If you’re going to cuss, be clever. If you’re going to cuss in public, know your audience.

• Seek out the people and places that resonate with your soul.

• Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

• 5-second rule. It’s just dirt. There are worse things in a fast food cheeseburger.

• You do not need a significant other (But it is okay to want the right one, and you will find the right one at the right time, but don’t settle)

• Happiness is not a permanent state, Wholeness ought to be. Don’t confuse these.

• Pain is inevitable, but suffering is a choice. 

• Never, ever walk through an alley alone. 

• Be only as nice as you’re able to without compromising yourself.

• Can’t is a cop-out. 

• Hold your heroes to a high standard. Be your own hero.

• If you can’t smile with your eyes, don’t smile. Insincerity is nothing to aspire to.

• Never lie to yourself.

• Your body, your rules.

• If you have an opinion, you better know why.

• Practice your passions. 

• Ask for what you want. The worst thing they can say is no. 

• Wishing's okay, but then get to work to make them happen.

• Stay as sweet as you are.

• Fall in love often, with ideas, art, music, literature, food and far-off places.

• Fall hard and forever in love with yourself.

• Say Please, Thank You, and Pardon Me, whenever the situation warrants it.

• Reserve “I’m sorry” for when you truly are.

• Naps are for grown-ups, too.

• Question everything, except your own intuition. 

• You have enough. You are enough.

• You are amazing! Don't let anyone ever make you feel you are not. If someone does....walk away. You deserve better. Never forget that!

• No matter where you are, you can always come home. Always!!

• Be happy and remember your roots, family is EVERYTHING.

• Say what you mean and mean what you say. 

• Love is so much more than words.

• Be kind; treat others how you would like them to treat you.

Respect

Saw this post over on FB and thought I would share.  It tells of the author Laura Hillenbrand (she wrote "Unbroken") visiting a vet from WWII.

Like most Americans I've long been an ardent admirer of the generation who went off to war and saved the world.  There were so many who put it all on the line for the cause of liberty and freedom.  At the very top of a long list of heroes were those in the 8th Air Force who flew into the teeth of the devil every day.  If you're every in Savannah, GA stop in at the 8th Air Force Museum out by I-95.  It is incredibly well done and you can't help but be enthralled by their story during WWII.  They aren't called the greatest generation for nothing.

On Wednesday I traveled up into the Washington State hills, down a bumpy, winding one-lane road in thick trees, to a tiny grass airstrip cut out of the middle of a forest. There, in a little room in a hangar by this unlikely air strip, I met history, in the form of a smiling, gentle man named John Luke.

Mr. Luke is ninety-five years old. As a twenty-one-year-old, he was the ball turret gunner in the belly of a B-17 bomber called the Nine-o-Nine, fighting Hitler's Luftwaffe in the flak-blackened skies over Europe. It was perhaps the most dangerous job for American servicemen in World War II. It is said that on every mission, the men faced a one-in-ten chance of being killed. A tour was composed of twenty-five missions, making it statistically unlikely that airmen would ever see home again. When the crews gathered for pre-mission briefings, they were told where to fly and what to do; when they returned, there would be a bottle of bourbon on the table, a replacement for all the eleven-man crews that did not come back. In one raid of B-24 bombers, 54 planes were lost, killing 532 men. Mr. Luke, who watched his best friend go down when his plane was hit and split in two some ten feet away, made it through twenty-five missions alive, went home, and married his sweetheart. His beloved Nine-o-Nine survived an unimaginable 140 missions, believed to be the most in the entire 8th Air Force.

We spent some three hours talking with Mr. Luke, who told stories that had us spellbound. Some were hilarious: on the long missions, his crewmen would pee through the bomb bay doors, which would promptly freeze shut. Many were terrifying: His crew flew only daylight raids, giving the Germans ample time to see them coming and fill the air with artillery shells and the dreaded Messerschmitt BF-109 fighters, whose pilots were so brave and skilled that they flew directly through the tight formations of American bombers, making it impossible for Luke and his fellow gunners to fire on them lest they shoot down their own planes.

On June 6, 1944, Nine-o-Nine was sent out over a stormy English Channel to support the landing troops on D-Day. Luke sat in his cramped turret under his plane, looking out over the supreme moment of the 20th century, thousands of ships crowding the channel, the sea pitching so high some of them were foundering and breaking open. The breakers on Normandy approached, and Nine-o-Nine blazed low over the landing forces. Luke saw LSTs spilling men onto the beaches, and in the cliffs above them, hundreds of German pillboxes pouring bullets down onto them. As he fired into the pillboxes, trying to protect the Allied men below, history turned in Luke's hands. More than 4,000 Allied servicemen would die in the sand below him that morning, but the survivors made it up the cliffs, stormed the pillboxes, and began the long and bloody march to Berlin and the defeat of Hitler. As Luke spoke, we sat in rapt silence and goosebumps, listening.

You don't know John Luke, but you owe him everything.

Adventurers or Naive Idiots?

A friend sent the story below.  Hat tip to SC.  It's a really good cautionary tale about a couple who decide their life is boring and they strike out to bicycle through some very sketchy parts of the world. On first blush you might think it romantic or adventurous.  But in reality, it was deadly.  This is a good read and hopefully makes one think about the realities of the dangerous world we live in.

Death by Entitlement

On August 7, the New York Times ran a story by Rukmini Callimachi about Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, a young American couple, both graduates of Georgetown University, who decided to quit their humdrum office jobs and go on an epic bike ride and camping trip that would take them all over the world. “I’ve grown tired of spending the best hours of my day in front of a glowing rectangle, of coloring the best years of my life in swaths of grey and beige,” Austin wrote. “I’ve missed too many sunsets while my back was turned.”

So in July of last year, they flew from Washington, D.C., to Cape Town, and from there bicycled through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Malawi to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. From there, they flew to Cairo, and after seeing the pyramids flew on to Casablanca, from which they cycled through Morocco, Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Greece, to Turkey. From there, another flight took them to Kazakhstan. They biked through Kyrgyzstan and entered Tajikistan. It was in that country that their journey came to an abrupt end this past July 29, when five ISIS members deliberately plowed their car into the two adventurers, killing them along with two temporary cycling companions, one from Switzerland and the other from the Netherlands. “Two days later,” wrote Callimachi, “the Islamic State released a video showing five men it identified as the attackers, sitting before the ISIS flag. They face the camera and make a vow: to kill 'disbelievers.'”

Austin, a vegan who worked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Geoghegan, a vegetarian who worked in a college admissions office, were both 29 years old – old enough, one would think, to have some idea of just how dangerous a route they had mapped out. A number of the countries they passed through are considered either “not free” or “partly free” by Freedom House. In several of them, it's not uncommon for roving criminal gangs – or, for that matter, police or soldiers or border officials – to rob, rape, or kill innocent travelers without provocation and with total impunity. One assumes the two tourists had all their shots before leaving the U.S., but that's not necessarily enough to protect you from all the ailments you might be exposed to while biking along the back roads of southern and central Africa. Other perils include wild carnivores, extreme weather, unsanitary food preparation, and substandard medical care.

Both Austin and Geoghegan were seasoned travelers, who had separately gone on backpacking adventures in exotic lands and, together, had recently biked across Iceland as a sort of prelude to their odyssey through Africa, Europe, and Asia. Amanda Kerrigan, a friend of Geoghegan's, was concerned when she heard about the couple's plans for a longer expedition that would last over a year. “I said, ‘This is not the Lauren I know,’ ” Kerrigan told Callimachi. “Jay changed the trajectory of Lauren’s life.” Kerrigan was, writes Callamachi, “concerned for her friend, in part because of how bighearted she was and in part because she feared that Mr. Austin had a higher tolerance for danger than Ms. Geoghegan did.” But if Kerrigan was worried about their vulnerability on the road, that was precisely what appealed to Austin:   “With...vulnerability,” he wrote, “comes immense generosity: good folks who will recognize your helplessness and recognize that you need assistance in one form or another and offer it in spades.”

Even before Austin and Geoghegan met their untimely end, they had problems. In Namibia, Geoghegan picked up a stomach virus. (As Austin wrote on his blog: “she curls into the fetal position and rests, eyes closed, fighting chills and nausea and fatigue. There's little that we can do at the moment. I give her some ibuprofen.” Whereupon they resume biking.) Also in Namibia, they were almost hit by a car while bicycling along a highway. In Botswana, they both got sick. In Zambia, Austin had a serious bike crash that sent him flying and left him bleeding all over. In Malawi, he got malaria. In Tanzania, a man tried to bully him into forking over some money. In Ceuta, a driver tried to run him over, and another rear-ended him. In Spain, Geoghegan got conjunctivitis. In Marseilles, she had to be hospitalized for an ear infection that had rendered her deaf. Given the dangers they braved, indeed, they were fortunate to have made it as far as Tajikistan.

But to read Austin's blog is to see no hint of hesitation, on the part of either of them, to keep on cycling – no sign of fear that their luck might run out at any moment. Their naivete is nothing less than breathtaking. “You watch the news and you read the papers and you're led to believe that the world is a big, scary place,” wrote Austin during their trek. “People, the narrative goes, are not to be trusted....I don't buy it. Evil is a make-believe concept we've invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own.” This rosy view of humanity suffuses Austin's blog: “Malawians and Zambians are fantastically friendly people.” And: “All throughout western Europe, when folks asked us where we were headed and we'd say Albania, their faces would drop and they'd start muttering 'Oh, no, no, no.' Albania, they'd tell us, is dangerous. The people of Albania will steal your spleen....The Albanians we come across are perhaps the warmest, friendliest, smiliest...people we've met on the continent.”

Austin's blog also provides a window on his (and presumably her) hippie-dippy worldview and ultra-PC politics. Elephants, writes Austin, “may very well be a smarter, wiser, more thoughtful being than homo sapiens sapiens.” When white South Africans tell them “that the nation and its redistributionist government are making poor, ignorant choices,” Austin sneers at their “Eurocentric values” and their failure to realize that “[n]otions like private property” are culturally relative. This is apparently a comment on the South African government's current expropriation of white farmers' land without compensation. (To be sure, when a friendly Afrikaans man advises Austin and Geoghegan to move their tent because they've pitched it too close to a black settlement and may antagonize the locals, they're quick to let him lead them to a safer spot.)

Austin also sneers at Thanksgiving, “a strange tradition built upon a glossy, guiltless retelling of a genocide, in which we show our appreciation for what we have by killing a quarter-billion turkeys, eating to the point of discomfort, queueing up outside shopping malls to buy electronics at reduced rates, and otherwise yearning for that which we do not have.” When President Trump announces his plans to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, Austin and Geoghegan are in Morocco, where the people are outraged. Yes, because they hate Jews. But Austin's response is to be so ashamed of his American identity that he tries “to disappear into the soft plush” of a couch cushion.

The Times article about Austin and Geoghegan drew hundreds of reader comments. A surprising number were by other people who'd bicycled or backpacked in far-off, dangerous places. Most saw Austin and Geoghegan as “heroic,” “authentic,” “idealistic,” “inspiring,” “a Beautiful example of Purity and Light.” Sample reactions: “Their candle burned brightly before it was extinguished.” And: “Good for them! They followed their dream.” Then there's this: “I only see the beauty of two people taking steps to live the life they envision....The good experienced in their journey far far outweighs any negative.” Easy to say when you're not the one in the body bag. “What is more dangerous,” asked yet another reader, “exposing yourself to the world and its dangers, and living a full vivid life, or insulating yourself in a safe box, in front of screens, where the world and its marvels and dangers cannot touch you? Jay and Lauren understood that safety is its own danger. They are awesome people.” No, they're mangled, decaying corpses. “Safe boxes”? That's what they're both in now: boxes.

Perusing all the reader comments, I found exactly two that mentioned Islam critically. Here's one: “Tajikistan is 96.7% Islamic. It is a dangerous place for American tourists....This is not Islamophobia. It is common sense.” Here's the other: “As a Western woman I have no desire to visit a majority Muslim country because of the religious and cultural bias regarding their treatment of women.” Both of these comments attracted outraged replies. (“Many parts of the US are not so kind to women either, particularly those states that have managed to close just about all their Planned Parenthood clinics.”) Several readers railed against “religion” generally, as if terrorism by Quakers and Episcopalians were a worldwide problem.

Indeed, this being the New York Times, moral equivalency was rampant (“Yes, they [the ISIS murderers]were brutal....But what about our treatment of prisoners in Guantamino Bay?”), as was a readiness to blame Islamic terrorism on America (“There are consequences to our nation's decision to murder Muslim civilians by the hundreds of thousands”) or, specifically, on Donald Trump. One reader comment, a “Times Pick,” read, in part, as follows: “A great story and an admirable couple. But those who condemn their killers as evil probably fail to recognize that ISIS fighters see themselves as being on the side of good. For them, these young Americans were an embodiment of the Great Satan....Instead of bandying around moral absolutes, perhaps we should recognize that good and evil are relative categories, dependent on your culture and your values.”

Gratifyingly, there were some voices of sanity. The words “naive” and “foolhardy” appeared several times. “Mr. Austin's understanding of people was not beautiful,” maintained one savvy reader. “It was fanciful.” Another saw the couple as examples of “hipster millennials who think the world is their playground.” This was wise: “Liberals are always so naive about human nature[;] conservatives...are realistic about it.” Austin's painfully puerile paeans to the goodness of humanity reminded one reader, as they did me, of a sentence Anne Frank wrote not long before the Gestapo came to ship her off to Auschwitz: “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Austin was willing to wager not only his own life but that of Geoghegan, a woman he purportedly loved, on the belief that people are all good – or, at least, that bad people are so rare as to be not worth worrying about. He apparently prepared for their trip by studying maps; he appears not to have bothered to examine any of the comprehensive human-rights reports that are issued annually by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the U.S. State Department about every one of the countries along their route (except, perhaps, Monaco).

Hundreds of Times readers, as we've seen, celebrated him as an inspiring idealist. One wonders what Geoghegan's parents feel about him now. He comes off, between the lines, as something of a Svengali, persuading Geoghegan, as her friend Amanda Kerrigan feared, to take risks she would otherwise have avoided.  One can only be glad that they didn't

Times readers called the couple heroes. No, the heroes are not these poor fools who stumbled into an ISIS-controlled area; the heroes are the soldiers from the U.S. and elsewhere – most of them a decade or so younger, and centuries savvier, than Austin and Geoghegan – who, while the two 29-year-olds were on a year-long cycling holiday, were risking their lives to beat back ISIS. What, then, is the moral of this couple's story? In the last analysis, it's a story about two young people who, like many other privileged members of their generation of Americans, went to a supposedly top-notch university only to come away poorly educated but heavily propagandized – imbued with a fashionable postmodern contempt for Western civilization and a readiness to idealize and sentimentalize “the other” (especially when the latter is decidedly uncivilized). This, ultimately, was their tragedy: taking for granted American freedom, prosperity, and security, they dismissed these extraordinary blessings as boring, banal, and (in Austin's word) “beige,” and set off, with the starry-eyed and suicidal naivete of children who never entirely grew up, on a child's fairy-tale adventure into the most perilous parts of the planet. Far from being inspirational, theirs is a profoundly cautionary – and distinctly timely – tale that every American, parents especially, should take to heart.

Friday Funnies

Motivation Monday

Spent the last week in Jackson Hole on a family vacation.  This is about as motivating as anything...

Friday Funnies