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This morning the website American Thinker has published my latest essay.  “Young People, Listen to Your Gen-X Elders: Communism Sucks!” is something that’s been percolating for awhile and  I suppose recent events in the American political realm made it time to deploy.  This article is a few things: history lesson (has it really been thirty-five years since I was a high school senior watching the attempted coup against Gorbechev?), recap of the rise of extreme socialism in this country, and finishing off with a stark warning to the young people of this land.  Take it from someone who was there during the height of the Cold War: communism is NOT something we should want to entertain notions of accommodating, much less adopting (or having it forced upon us).


From the article…

The ad begins with a poor Russian peon, bundled up for the harsh winter, cautiously asking a stern

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This is a story that for whatever reason, I haven’t shared on this blog before.  Maybe it’s because it’s so long and many people might not have the time to read it all?  But it’s a good story, I think.  One that might have many marveling at the serendipitous nature of the universe.  Personally, I believe this is a “God thing”.  The chances of this happening as they did cannot be calculated.  And yet the elements fell precisely into place, more beautifully than anything that a person could probably come up with on their own.

I shared this story earlier a few days ago on a friend’s Facebook post, which was about her daughter happening to run into a former next-door neighbor at the Vatican.   This story is right up there with that.  So here it is.  Enjoy!

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It was the summer of 1993.  July 5th to be ...

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 C’mere. Siddown.  I’ve got something to say.

One person has accused me of siding with Putin.  And that’s one person too many.

To this person and others who think that of me: “***** you”.  Because I am the FURTHEST thing from being a Putin apologist.

NOBODY’S hands are clean in this affair.  Not Russia.  Not Ukraine (as much as many of us want to believe otherwise) and not the United States.  We are involved too.  We sent a LOT of money and war materiel to Ukraine, and it’s been questionable whether it was used by that country to fight Russia or if it was diverted and sold to other interests.  It’s quite possible that some of the arms we sent wound up in the hands of drug cartels in Latin America.  I love the people of Ukraine, but the matter remains that they allowed their country to be one of ...

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And I mean I watched the entire meeting, not just the final ten minutes that descended into diplomatic chaos.

The war in Ukraine is perhaps the damndest Gordian Knot of foreign relations that I’ve seen in my lifetime.  I am and always have been against Russia’s aggression into what should be a sovereign nation recognized as such by all.  I despise Russian dictator Vladamir Putin as much as anyone can.  The sooner he dies or is somehow overthrown will be a happy day for the world.  He had no right to plan and execute the invasion of Ukraine.
But what can be done about that?  More to the point, what should the role of the United States be?  We’ve already given hundreds of billions of dollars in funding and war materiel to Ukraine.
It’s now an open
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may go down as the textbook example of all the wrong ways to try to take over a neighboring country.  I’m reading the reports (whichever ones may be accurate) and it just blows my mind how unprepared Putin was in sending his forces into Ukraine.

First of all: WHY did Russia commit its forces during the winter?  The vehicles have gotten bogged down in mud and mire, just as any armchair strategist knew would happen.  But this seems to be the classic pattern for Russia.

There does not seem to be a reliable system of replenishing food, ammo and replacement artillery.

Speaking of that artillery, there are reports that the Ukrainians have more tanks now than when the war began, because they keep capturing Russian tanks and painting Ukrainian markings on them.

The Russian trucks and other vehicles in the invasion convoys have shoddy tires, and ...

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Wow.  Day twenty of writing a new blog post each day during Lent.  I’m starting to believe that I can actually pull off this thing.

Yesterday while looking at the blog stats, I discovered something that startled me.  Over the past 48 hours, this site has received three visits from Kiev, in Ukraine.

Someone going through tribulation that I cannot comprehend, for whatever reason thought to visit my blog.  Actually, at least two someones.  Two of the visits were repeats from the same IP address.

I really don’t know what to say, about that.  Except this:

Whoever you are, I am praying for you and your fellow Ukrainians.  You are not forgotten.  You have friends out here.  And maybe someday, sooner than later, we can properly introduce ourselves to each other.  Maybe someday we will get to meet in person.

I would very much be honored to know who you ...

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Oleksii Kyrychenko of Kiev, Ukraine took this photo of his nine-year old daughter.  He titled it “Girl with Candy”:

A few days before the Russian invasion he took this photo:

Let us pray that Kyrychenko’s daughter, and all of the children of Ukraine, can be brought through this present madness.  Of all the things that are lost in war, childhood innocence must be among the most tragic.

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Of all the photos that have come out of Ukraine in the past two weeks, it’s the one most heart-wrenching to me.  The photo that says it all about what that evil bastitch Vladimir Putin has done to that country.

I came across it on Facebook.  On one of the many dachshund-related groups that I’m a member of there.  It was a few days ago.  And I’ve been thinking about it a lot.

It’s a photo of a Ukrainian woman, fleeing the destruction.  In her arms, she is holding her dachshund.  Keeping it safe amid the turmoil.

I saw that photo and it damn nearly broke me.

I have a dachshund also.  Her name is Tammy.  She turns ten years old one month from today.  She and I have been through a lot together.  We look after each other.  She’s been there for me through a lot that’s happened in ...

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The Russian people did not wake up pokey one morning last week and decide to invade Ukraine.  Neither did the Russian people occupy Poland and impose the Iron Curtain.  The average subject of the emperor didn’t care where Pearl Harbor was if he even knew it existed at all.  The Protestants and Catholics of Northern Ireland spent decades blowing each other up… why, exactly?  The typical Palestinian when pressed on the matter can not say why he wants to shove every Jewish man woman and child into the sea.

 
I’m reading stories now about Russian soldiers in the field crying and wanting their mothers.  They didn’t want to be there.  Many of them claim that they didn’t know they were going into Ukraine to begin with.
 
I’m also reading about the Ukrainians holding Russian soldiers hostage and parading them in front of cameras for social media.  And showing
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