Response to Mary Scoles' Second Opinion.

I'll give our short weekly debates another chance this week to be understood by everyone. I take umbrage at your final characterization of my comment last week about the KKK. I do so because it's clear that the average reasonable person would not understand it as you apparently do. Even if taken as "incendiary" (hair on fire) that should not change the clear meaning of the comment. My baldness, I guess, is a sometime benefit.

Contrary, again, to your interpretation, I do not believe that your interpretation of [my] sarcasm "was unfair." Rather, it was untrue. Fairness had nothing to do with it. And while I'm glad you are happy "to express your regret in finding a meaning [I] did not intend [?]", the meaning I expressed is precisely that which I intended. Your reference to pain is puzzling.

Kelly, about your mantra, "Say what you mean and mean what you say". Kind of catchy. My statements are surely "in the public realm" as soon as they limp from my weary keyboard. You claim they are then in "the audience's hands, and the chance at clarity expires." The hope is always that the audience is composed entirely of reasonable people, and that clarity endures, as I'm sure you wish - leaving me with expectations of some small apology for your misreading of my column.

Sarcasm can surely be "risky", with the reader as well as the writer. Both need a good ear. So, as they used to say in the days before the Chinese virus, when law school classrooms were abuzz with educational theories, and Kindergarten classes might hear "Time to put our listening ears on".

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I'm alone from here, headed for the reefs of questionable language, in support of our war fighters. Trump's 4-year spirited effort to reestablish our military strength may have come too late. After 8-years of Obama's dereliction in the defense of our nation, and Biden's blanks, we find ourselves short on weaponry and absent leadership. Our Communist enemy, China, can hardly resist attacking us, especially over Taiwan. They see Biden with his scull full of dust bunnies. Looking forward, even more enticing to China is our second in command, Kamala Harris, with zero experience beyond the bed springs. In other words, America is off-balance, without leadership, at a time when our enemies are flush with money, confidence, showing a lean and hungry look - a great time to start a war.

Trump's recent characterization of the police officers testifying before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 riot has outraged some. However, from those millions of veterans who have suffered selflessly through seemingly endless war, I can hear a roar of approval of Trump's expletive across the land.

They are fed-up with the growing weakness that the feminist influence has intruded into the ethos of our fighting forces - all for the sake of Political Correctness; they're tired of humiliating training in women's high-heels, abandoning ship under Syrian guns, abandoning the command of the world's largest man-o-war (carrier Roosevelt), Co-Ed infantry, "transgenderism", removal of urinals to accommodate female sailors, and un-punished refusals of direct orders from Commander-in-Chief by a Coast Guard Admiral protecting 12 members of his LGBT crew.

"Trump has told some people close to him that several of these [emotionally testifying] officers strike him as weak and as “pussies,” according to two sources familiar with the comments..." Trump has also maintained that these men seem “broke[n]” by the events of Jan. 6, and that they do not have the supposed toughness or character of the law enforcement officers who, on the whole nationally, still widely support Trump and his policies."

There is deadly weakness in WOKE military promotion. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, personify this debilitating weakness. Honors of the past don't always hold up in the present. Victory demands more than the Hollywood appearance of heroism, it demands the true grit of the men who won WWII, like Adm. Chester Nimitz, Adm. William Halsey, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and General George Patton. I can't see Patton having his men on display trying on women's high heel shoes! Combat is always a man's work. Women can do virtually all other military tasks, but they demean the soldier and undermine his work of direct combat when they try to participate in the fight. Ask our enemies - or listen to an expert under fire:
"I don't want to get any messages saying, "I am holding my position" We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly, and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy's balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living [!@#$] out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose, like [!@#$] through a tin horn."
Gen. George S. Patton.

Yes, that's the way determined men talk in combat. Sounds a little like Donald Trump in his political wars.