“Why #Benghazi Matters” – Bill Whittle

It’s been quite a while since we’ve featured Mr. Whittle here, but hopefully this entry will make amends for our negligence.

Seems that he’s found a new home for his ‘Firewall’ video series, too, and added some snazzy production elements to his normal flawless delivery.

In the clip below, Bill walks us through exactly WHY obtaining the truth about the 2012 Benghazi attacks is so essential to our country: Competence, and Character. Those are the two most important qualities of our elected officials, and they had the primary role in how Benghazi was handled (as they will with the “Benghazis” of the future).

Men or women lacking in either quality are unfit to lead, period. You need look no further than the current Administration for proof of that:

Education and Character: Learning to See Clearly (part 1)

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen.

Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

–C.S. Lewis, “Is Theology Poetry?”(1945)

——————–

My years are beginning to show. I am facing the fact that I can no longer read most print without a pair of reading glasses. A cloudiness in my right eye suggests something more ominous, but I’m ignoring that for the moment.

Unlike the floaters I see in the air, which only appear when I stare at a blank surface, I am seeing connecting threads between many different things I’ve been reading in a variety of rich sources lately. Most of these ideas boil down to truths about learning, about character and about perspective, how we look at the world and how that looking affects us.

Attitude

An alleged Chinese proverb says, “May you live in interesting times.” I can certainly appreciate why this purported curse keeps surfacing…the more eventful our world gets, the more I wish I were living in some quiet backwater of history where nothing ever  happens.

But of course I’m not.  And while it behooves me to have an opinion on current events, whether it’s Syria (Should we bomb them?) or Obamacare (Should we ban it?), the BIG issues are not ultimately in my control.

But my attitude towards daily life IS in my control.

If YOU can say these words: “I’d rather go on Unemployment”, then YOU are the problem

There is a scene in the movie ‘Cinderella Man‘ which never fails to get me misty-eyed. It’s when Russell Crowe’s character, James J. Braddock, begins his inexplicable comeback from penniless dock-worker to Heavyweight champion:

Then, he took on Art Lasky, who had won all but one of
his last 15 fights—yet Braddock dispatched him, too, in a thrilling 15-rounder. 

With these remarkable wins, Braddock’s spirit became renewed. Remarkably, one of the first things he did with his earnings was to pay back his Public Relief debt to the government. 

Braddock had sacrificed everything for his family: his career, his house, even his pride…attempting to feed and shelter them. He eventually needed help, just a little, to keep going. And as soon as he was able, he repaid that help, in full.

So…., ‘Remarkable’? Is it “remarkable” to pay back a loan he wasn’t “forced” to repay, just because it was the right thing to do? And (especially) judging by today’s standards?

Yeah, it was. Definitely. Because now, our nation doesn’t perceive Government Assistance the same way. It’s now not just for absolute, dire emergencies; it’s for everyone, anytime.

Want proof?

The reason that scene came flooding back to me was a report I heard on the news last night, where some of the Hostess bakers were being interviewed:

Character and Responsibility

We’ve highlighted J.E. Dyer’s work before, and I’ve been following her for quite some time now. A retired US Naval intelligence officer who served around the world, Dyer now blogs on a number of different sites, covering mainly politics and religion. If you don’t have at least one of her blogs bookmarked, you really should do so.

She had two different posts recently, on two different blogs and I thought they dovetailed nicely. They both deal with our current situation and the responsibility we each have to act, not just to “hope”.

From Dyer’s theoptimisticconservative blog:

Our Founders were profoundly – and properly – skeptical of government.  They stated repeatedly that their reliance was ultimately on the good sense and character of the people.  In 2012, it’s all about the people: who we are and the clarity with which we see our predicament and our options.