Dec 26th

I reading a series on the Holocaust for review--and it, the series, is very depressing.  In fact, I needed to take a break from reading one particularly hasty, inhumane passage, dealing with children who were dressed up in their best clothes (at least the best they had), marched to cattle cars, and taken off to extermination camps.

As if any thinking person needs to be reminded of the evil that can be perpetrated......  Well, it appears many so-called "thinking" people don't know or refuse to acknowledge evil.

I have done extensive reading on the Holocaust, although not much in recent years, even a couple of decades.  What the Nazis and common people who either aided and abetted or just looked the other way dud brings tears to the brink of my eyes.  This is esp true when reading of the children who were shipped to their deaths.

The Holocaust could not have happened, certainly not to the extent it did, without the help, active or otherwise, of those who weren't Nazis.  I just cannot fathom how this happened, how so many people could have turned a blind eye to what was, if not overtly know, obvious.  I nod when I read of Jews in Europe who thought, "Oh, this is an exaggeration.  Such cannot be happening."  I'm not a Holocaust denier, not by any means.  I just cannot understand how this happened.

But I am heartened by the many stories of the hundreds, even thousands of lives that were saved by the heroics of others.  We've heard some of the names, such as Raoul Wallenberg and Oskar Schindler, but many others have gone by nameless.  A lot of them not only defied the Nazis, openly and otherwise, but also their own governments, institutions (such as churches), etc.  They, too, if caught faced death.  Courage......

Besides the sadness and anger that this provokes, there are lessons for us here, if we'll only open our eyes to them.

Today's Detroit News includes an op-ed in which the newspaper makes its case opposing term limits.  I, too, oppose them, but for far different reason.  I, that is we voters, already possess the power of term limits.  We can always vote for the other guy, for a different candidate.  Term limits takes away my choices as a voting citizen.  But that's not the stance the News takes.

It cites the experience and power attained by the four Michigan members of Congress who are leaving at the end of this term.  Each of the four "gained expertise, influence" during their long tenures in office.  I suppose so; I certainly won't argue that.

But isn't this the same Detroit News that is a frequent, if not constant, critic of what is handed down from Washington, DC, the politicians, the appointees, and the bureaucrats?  And, if so much that is wrong has emanated from these DC folks, Democrats and Establishment Republicans alike (which includes each of these four who are exiting), why would we cite them as positive examples for not having term limits?

Maybe it's as I suspect.  The Detroit News--and other media outlets who purport to be conservative--talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk.  That is, it really doesn't want to see the Establishment shaken because it is a part of the Establishment.  Look at the number of incumbents the News endorsed back in Aug (esp telling in the primary) and Nov--both Reps and Dems.  Why would it do that?  Why would it continue to back people who, already holding office, have done so much damage to the American people, esp Michigan residents?  And, just read the News op-ed pages and you'll see that the paper is very critical......

The Free Press, I think, had a column by a Democrat adviser that lampooned (harpooned?) Sen. Ted Cruz for his antics last week (or was it two weeks ago already?) over the Cromnibus.  Ha, Ha, she chuckled, Cruz actually helped the Dems get things through the Senate before adjournment for Chris and New Years.  (Does she really think Reid would have let anyone go home without voting on these things before the Reps take over after the first of the year?)  It, the column, led me to wonder about so many of these op-eds.  Are these so-called "experts" really ignorant of matters or do they deliberately manipulate and obfuscate the truth?  I'm really not sure.

And last, without any comment on the grand jury rulings of the past month or so, I wonder why no arrests have been made (or have they?) of looters and arsonists who took to the streets.  I haven't heard of any, but I guess that doesn't mean there haven't been any.  Still......  No doubt there is evidence to arrest and convict many of the felons--they have been captured on film.video!  They destroyed other people's property--their businesses and livelihoods, their homes and cars.  Why are they allowed to break the law, openly!, in the name of "protest" and have government do nothing but look the other way?  I wonder what might have happened to those of us who didn't like seeing W. Bush or Obama elected President and foresaw the bad things they each perpetrated on the US had we "protested" in such a manner.  I know, I know......