Special place in Hell Albright's, not female Sanders voters

The political class is having a hissy fit over former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's statement last week charging "there's a special place in Hell for women who don't help each other", referring to the thousands of NH women abandoning Hillary for Bernie in the NH Primary. A majority of NH ladies were feeling the bern alright, but it was Sanders' revolutionary message, not the heat of Hades. Albright's hyperbole became a huge distraction for Hillary, popping up in Thursday's Democratic debate and prompting Albright's extraordinary NY Times op ed apologizing for her gaffe.

Albright certainly won't go to Hell for what the career diplomat calls "My undiplomatic moment". But the 78 year old Albright may soon be taking the 'down' escalator for her statement to 60 Minutes' Leslie Stahl 20 years ago about the slow genocide her economic sanctions against Iraq caused as Bill Clinton's Secretary of State:

Stahl: "We've learned a half million (Iraqi) children died..more than in Hiroshima. Is the price worth it?"

Albright: "I think that's a very hard choice..but we think the price was worth it."

You will never read Albright's mea culpa for those half million dead kids and her heartless, grotesque defense of her mendacity. The aforementioned political class has given her a lifetime pass on even mentioning it. And when she gets that one way ticket to the special place in Hell, she won't find a single female Sanders voter to burn with.

Two cool ways to reduce $4 trillion 2017 budget

Two easy ways to reduce $4 trillion 2017 budget

While the President's 2017 budget is only a tad larger than 2016's, the $4 trillion budget is still bloated; deserving of a go with Weight Watchers. A couple of items for quick trimming deserve mention. Coincidentally, the $11 billion tabbed to fight ISIS is lines up with what ISIS proposed the US spend to fight them. Why? Every dollar the US squanders fighting ISIS simply increases ISIS recruitment.They're ecstatic Uncle Sam budgeted their recommendation. It again earns America their ISIS Recruitment of Year Award.

And that $4.3 billion to fight Russian encroachment against NATO could similarly be cut to zero. Rather than fighting imagined Russian encroachment against NATO, we should end Western encroachment on Russia's borders by lobbying all Russia's neighbors to join NATO. We should also apologize for fomenting the February, 2014 revolt in Ukraine that deposed the Russian friendly and legitimately elected president Viktor Yanukovych. Cost of both measures? Zero.

You don't need an accounting or math degree to reduce our $4 trillion 2017 budget. Just a little common sense...and sanity.

Dueling imaginary friends doom Hawkins' Wheaton College tenure

Both Wheaton College Professor Larycia Hawkins and Wheaton College Provost Stanton Jones have an imaginary friend. He goes by the name God and is said to represent Christianity, a religion practiced by 2.2 billion believers, roughly a third of our nearly 7 billion souls. For the last nine years Hawkins has been by all accounts, an excellent teacher of political science to hundreds of Wheaton College students. As a black female, Hawkins has also injected much needed diversity into the Wheaton College faculty, and has their near unanimous support.

Alas, Hawkins' humanistic outreach to her students and all mankind, for that matter, didn't matter to Provost Jones, who took umbrage to Hawkins' attempt to practice the best values of Christianity, by extending hope and justice to the Muslim community, suffering worldwide hatred, suspicion, even violence by many, including professed Christians. Jones, self appointed arbiter of what constitutes good Christianity at Wheaton, was horrified that Hawkins would even hint that Wheaton's Christian God isn't the only God worth valuing. Jones upholds the evangelical belief that no other religion's God can ever be recognized, much less put on a par with Wheaton College's One True God.

That led to Jones and Wheaton suspending the tenured Hawkins, beginning termination proceedings worthy of a Stalinist Show Trial in terms of forcing Hawkins to recant her ideological apostasy. The students pushed back, not caring a whit about how many angels dance on the head of pin when it comes to dumping a beloved teacher and mentor. The faculty pushed back; their governing body voting unanimously to have Provost Jones drop his weird witch hunt for heretics. Many decent, wise alums pushed back, vowing to put their considerable donations on more humanistic endeavors.

To resolve this messy matter the two parties bumped heads in private. Jones apologized to Hawkins and the Wheaton College community for being a jerk, and Hawkins agreed to take her considerable teaching talents elsewhere. Given her now worldwide respect and acclaim, she can no doubt find a considerably more supportive and nurturing academic environment elsewhere.

And Jones? He's stuck at Wheaton College in disgrace, no doubt having difficulty looking any student, faculty member or alum square in the eye again. Oh well, he's still got his imaginary 'One True God' friend to give him solace.