Assorted

     I’m exhausted, so no clever title today. Just a few squibs.

     This recent column says it plainly, right out in front of God and everybody:

     For those that are attempting to fight climate change, fighting population growth is one of their number one goals. They tell us that on average each additional human produces approximately 4 tons of carbon dioxide per year. So many true believers in this agenda are convinced that reducing population growth is the most important thing that they can do for the environment.

     The World Economic Forum makes it explicit:

     “An average middle-class American consumes 3.3 times the subsistence level of food and almost 250 times the subsistence level of clean water,” according to Professors Stephen Dovers and Colin Butler in their paper, Population and Environment: A Global Challenge.
     “So if everyone on Earth lived like a middle-class American, then the planet might have a carrying capacity of around 2 billion. However, if people only consumed what they actually needed, then the Earth could potentially support a much higher figure.”

     Is that sufficiently clear? We’re not wanted.

     “They” don’t like the current wave of vaccine skepticism:

     Most troubling is [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s] long record of anti-vaccine advocacy. In the past he has claimed that the measles vaccine causes autism despite reams of studies that have found no causative link, and that the polio vaccine might have killed many more than the actual virus. Deadly infectious diseases disappeared because of better hygiene, not vaccines, he asserts.
     He has tried to soften his vaccine skepticism since being nominated, and he now says he won’t take away anyone’s vaccines. He says he merely wants to ensure that vaccines are safe and thoroughly studied—who doesn’t?—and that Americans have access to more information. In Mr. Kennedy’s case, this means opening the industry to lawsuits by the trial bar.

     In other words, RFKJr. wants the vaccine makers, who are currently shielded from liability under federal law, to forfeit that shield. Why should they have it, when any other business found to be making harmful products is fully exposed?

     Why do vaccines receive more liability protection than medicines? For one, the population of potential plaintiffs is much larger for children’s vaccines than for any other medical product. Juries are especially sympathetic when it comes to children, so the payouts and potential liability are also much larger.

     So it’s the amount of money that’s at stake! Poor vaccine tycoons. Whatever will become of them if they must answer for what their products do?

     This sounds suspiciously like a “special pleading.”

     The more I learn about Tulsi Gabbard, the more I like her:

     In April 2003, Gabbard enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard. She was at the time already a serving member of the Hawaii House of Representatives. She did not step into some pre-arranged cushy staff job. She enlisted, and she went through basic training like everyone else without any of her drill sergeants even knowing who she was.
     The next year, although she had filed to run for reelection, Gabbard volunteered for a 12-month deployment to Iraq with the Medical Company, 29th Support Battalion, 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. She pulled out of the race and stepped down from office to serve in a war zone. The Army sent her to Iraq where she served with Charlie Med at the Anaconda Logistical Support Area in Baghdad and earned the Combat Medical Badge.
     In an interview later, Gabbard described her decision to go to Iraq this way:

     “That summer, the Hawaii National Guard’s 29th Brigade Combat Team was called up for a deployment to Iraq. I was in a headquarters medical unit and heard very quickly from my commander. He said, ‘Hey Tulsi. Good news. You don’t have to deploy. You’re not on the mandatory deployment roster because somebody else already filled the slot. So you get to stay home.’
     I said, ‘No, I’m not staying home. That’s crazy. There’s no way that I’m going to stay back and watch all of you guys go and deploy to Iraq, while I sit here in this fancy office.’ We went back and forth, he pushed back a little bit, and I pushed back some more. He realized I wasn’t budging. They had a different job in the medical unit that needed to be filled, so I volunteered and took it. I withdrew from my reelection campaign and went to our pre-deployment training at Fort Bliss, Camp McGregor, and Dona Ana, for all the training cycles. We trained there for a few months, then deployed to Iraq for a year after that.”

     After returning from Iraq in March 2007, Gabbard graduated at the top of her class from the Accelerated Officer Candidate School at the Alabama Military Academy—the first woman to do so. She was commissioned as a second Lieutenant and then returned to her National Guard unit as a Military Police officer. She then volunteered to return to the Middle East.
     She served in Kuwait from 2008 to 2009. She worked closely with the Kuwaiti military and was given an award by them on her departure.
     Following her return from Kuwait Gabbard continued to serve in the Hawaii National Guard and was promoted to Major on October 12, 2015. In 2020 she transferred from the National Guard to the U.S. Army Reserve. She was assigned to a California-based unit in the United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne). Gabbard was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on July 4, 2021. As a Civil Affairs officer, Gabbard deployed to the Horn of Africa as part of a Special Operations mission.

     Plainly, Gabbard “walks it like she talks it.” It’s not an infallible indicator of good values and good character, but I can’t think of anything that comes closer.

     Pete Hegseth has taken a leaf from Donald Trump’s playbook and has laid down the law:

     Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth’s message to the US Armed Forces was short – just about 330 words. However, its intent and importance could not have been clearer. America’s military personnel will be warriors again, keenly focused on the threats we face and unfailing in the pursuit of the “Peace through Strength” mission President Donald Trump has stressed for the nation. Hegseth’s words were categorical – not elegant, but clear in meaning.
     During Secretary Hegseth’s confirmation hearing, he was unequivocal in portraying precisely what he was about and what he intended to bring to the Pentagon – a renewed warfighter spirit with lethality and readiness. The new secretary made his case for a more capable military in just three bullet points.

     “We will revive the warrior ethos and restore trust in our military. We are American warriors. We will defend our country. Our standards will be high, uncompromising, and clear. The strength of our military is our unity and our shared purpose.
“We will rebuild our military by matching threats to capabilities. This means reviving our defense industrial base, reforming our acquisition process, passing a financial audit, and rapidly fielding emerging technologies. We will remain the strongest and most lethal force in the world.
“We will reestablish deterrence by defending our homeland — on the ground and in the sky. We will work with allies and partners to deter aggression in the Indo-Pacific by Communist China, as well as supporting the President’s priority to end wars responsibly and reorient to key threats. We will stand by our allies — and our enemies are on notice.”

     That’s how a military should focus. America’s armed forces are asked to do more than any other military in the world. Yet they’ve been used as a kind of social laboratory for bizarre left-wing notions about “diversity,” the “right” of transgender individuals to serve, and other nonsense. Let’s hope the correctives are put in place at once.