Author Archives: eehines

Thousand Year Tradition

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Pope Francis is contemplating ending the celibacy requirement the Catholic Church imposes on its priests and nuns. The hue and cry over ending this “thousand year” tradition is deafening.

I have a brief thought on this. Those decriers are missing, with equally missed irony, the meaning of that thousand year tradition in a two thousand year old church.

For good or ill, celibacy has never been a universal requirement in the universal church. Get the smelling salts; some pseudo-traditionalists seem to need them.

An Attack on Workers’ Rights

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Hypocritically, it’s by the Progressive-Democratic Party, which runs Michigan’s government. That’s the party that claims to champion the rights of America’s workers.

[State] Senate Democrats voted along party lines in support of repealing the decade-old “right-to-work” law in a state long considered a pillar of organized labor.

The State’s House already had passed a substantially similar bill, now the two go to conference to reconcile the differences, then the result will be voted up in both houses and sent to Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) to be signed into law.

Michigan’s workers, for the last decade, had been able to speak for themselves, to join or not join unions, to not pay dues to unions to which they didn’t belong.

The Michigan government is telling those workers they have no voice, and their wishes have no importance. Oh, and pay up, suckers.

So much for workers’ rights when Progressive-Democrats reign in Michigan.

Balancing Act

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That’s what conventional “wisdom” says confronts the government of Australia as it contemplates buying nuclear-powered submarines from the US. The buy is part of AUKUS’ combined effort to counter the People’s Republic of China’s military buildup and its continued strengthening of the PLA in the PRC’s occupation of the South China Sea.

Australia is trying to strike a balance between its close relationship with the US and its ties to China, which buys much of its valuable iron ore and is its largest trading partner.

There’s nothing to balance here. There are lots of nations, all over the world, with an interest in buying Australian iron ore, Australia’s iron processed from that ore, such steel as Australia chooses to produce. There is a wide world of existing and potential trading partners for Australia’s other goods and services. Shipping need not be that expensive, either: the nations metaphorically next door that rim the South China Sea, the Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, and Japan all have need of iron ore and iron and are interested in the plethora of additional goods and services that Australia might sell.

Australia has no need of the PRC’s market, and the sooner it divests itself, the sooner it will shake its dependency on and pressure from the PRC.

Another Biden Admin Diplomatic Failure

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This one in our backyard. On the heels of the People’s Republic of China’s brokering a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, right under Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s nose, the PRC apparently has convinced Honduras President Xiomara Castro to end her government’s recognition of the Republic of China and switch that recognition to the PRC.

This also has happened under Blinken’s nose.

I have to ask: did Blinken and his boss President Joe Biden (D) really not know this move was in progress? If not, why not? If so, what were they doing about it, and why did they fail?

Folks thought former President Donald Trump was pulling our nation back from world involvement. The Biden administration is showing what full retreat looks like. But Ukraine, you say? Biden is doing his utmost to avoid that, with his retreat from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats and his deliberate, bloody, slow-walking transferring arms and ammunition to Ukraine.

Some Needed Firings

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They haven’t happened, yet, but they need to.

The US Air Force this month launched an effort to hire a handful of senior-level diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) managers and is hoping to place these officials in posts across the country, from Washington, DC, to Alaska.

And

The Air Force is looking for a “supervisory diversity equity inclusion and accessibility officer for Air Force headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, which will pay anywhere from $155,700 to $183,500 per year.” The person who fills this position will serve as a “first-level supervisor” who will direct employees assigned to the Air Force’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

And

The goal of the managerial slot is to ensure that “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility education and training….

This is nothing but the combat dumbing down of our Air Force: USAF management is putting the divisiveness and bigotry of DEI ahead of training for actual combat against our nation’s enemies.

The staff officers who thought this was a good idea and wasted government time and money developing it and selling to up the chain need to be reassigned to operational billets, not staff billets, in the Combatant Commands, in theater and not safely home in the US. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendell needs to be fired, and Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Brown needs to be dismissed, for allowing this destructive move to occur.

The firings must extend to the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, and JCS Chairman General Mark Milley, also; these wonders are responsible for fostering this destructive culture throughout our defense establishment.