Miscellaneous 131

1) “It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.” - George Meany (former head of the AFL-CIO) 1955.............2) When I voted for Mr. Obama in 2008, I did what basically everybody did (those who voted for him, I'm saying). I projected. In my case it was a mixture of JFK's inspiration and Eisenhower's pragmatism. Yeah, huh?............3) And don't get me wrong here. There have been times when he HAS shown the skills and leadership of these two Presidents (two of the finest, in my opinion). Just not lately. I'm especially disappointed in the way that he's been pitting groups of Americans against each other, his denigration of venture capitalism, his giving of credit to the government for entrepreneurial success, etc.. As of now/if the election were held today, I'd be voting for Johnson.............4) For those of you who have an interest in learning more about the Allied bombing of German and Japanese cities during WW2, you might want to check out A.C. Grayling's well revued volume, "Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WW2 Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan". It's a balanced book that puts forth not just a factual perspective but a philosophical one as well.............5) As for the raw numbers, Professor Grayling and others have stated that well in excess of 300,000 (possibly up to 900,000 - and, no, this does NOT include Hiroshima and Nagasaki) Japanese civilians and approximately 400,000 German civilians were killed by American and British air attacks on various cities. And while it has been argued that these strategic bombings of major population centers possibly hastened an end to the conflict, that is something that has been very far from settled. Grayson personally argues no in Germany (as it did in Vietnam decades later, he argues that it actually consolidated the resistance).............6) Look, I'm willing to give FDR and Churchill the benefit of the doubt here. We were fighting for the future of Western Civilization and maybe these draconian tactics were necessary (though clearly they would have been war crimes had we lost). But if you end up giving one President or Prime Minister the benefit of the doubt, maybe it isn't the worst thing in the world to give 'em all some slack - within reason, I'm saying