The occasion was one meant to honor a great Polish hero named Jan Karski, who was appropriately awarded the Medal of Freedom for resisting the Nazi occupation in Poland during the second world war. Some Americans like our own president are unaware of the contributions of the underground resistance movement in occupied countries like Poland and France. That is a function of our own egocentric nature as Americans and poor educations in world affairs.

Barack Obama labeled a Nazi concentration camp a “Polish death camp” on Tuesday, which is akin to labeling 911 hijackers “American terrorists” just because they flew airplanes in the United States. Such an affront was immediately rebuked by Polish diplomats, and their national press is demanding an apology. Is Obama too ignorant of history to give it? Their foreign minister thinks so, calling Obama’s comments a matter of “ignorance and incompetence.” Read more here.

Like the Polish diplomats, we still have not seen Obama’s college transcripts. Every president in the last 100 years has released them, but not this president for some reason. We are left speculating why, but most scholars believe they would show a president with poor grades who was inattentive in class. He admitted so much in his own biography, calling himself an “unremarkable student” but the depths of his disinterest in the world around him is thus far unknown.

How much Obama benefited from affirmative action college admissions policies is also anyone’s guess. He hasn’t released his high school transcripts either, but the money bet is they would show an ambitious young man with a low IQ, but with a great essay about his life experience. Essays were half of the SAT score in the 1970s, and 25% of Harvard’s admission standards were based on either race or perceived financial need.

As for an apology, all bets are off for this president. He has apologized on behalf of the United States for perceived slights throughout history while visiting dictatorships in the middle east and Asia. Those slights are cartoonish caricatures of the type he once read in his Indonesian textbooks as an impressionable child. As president he has bowed to Sheiks and Kings, broken bread with communists, and generally distanced himself from the idea that America is a beacon of enlightened hope in the world. But he has never apologized for his own ignorance. Not once.

And that is because Barack Obama, deep down in his heart, believes that America has historically had a criminal foreign policy agenda. It’s not his fault because it is part of his indoctrination as an anti-American youth in a Muslim country. That is the reason he refused to wear flag pins on his lapel during Veterans Day gatherings, and the reasons he bows to tyrants abroad. He grew up ashamed of his own country due to his ignorance, and that is very much a shame.

Reader comments are welcome. You can watch the video below and fast forward to the 13:30 mark to hear the remarks that created the latest Obama foreign policy scandal. You can also blow up the picture of Jan Karski to see a true hero.

Yes that really is a picture of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg holding court with US President Barack Obama. You all know the Facebook stock offering has not gone as well as expected, although Zuckerberg has made millions as others lose money. And for that he has something remarkably in common with the president himself versus the people who elected him.

Caption this Photo!

It’s Friday which means it is time again for the weekly photo caption contest. Caption this photo and you just might be the lucky winner to be announced on Monday.

Here are the winner’s of the last contest, with prizes appropriately sized to the level of your accomplishments. Based on the numerous high-quality entries, choosing was very very hard so try again next week!

1st Place! Bill “Don’t look at me like that. I just got married.”
2nd Place! flyingmonkey “Suckle right here Mark and you’ll never have that crazy urge to delve into free enterprise again!!”
3rd Place! Chris in N.Va “So, how to you like this “off the shoulder” look? Is it ME? Is it ME?”
Honorable Mention! Faye “Mark–My limosine is bigger than yours–Wanna Party?”

Stay tuned for our next caption contest on Friday. Congratulations to all the winners this week, and thanks to everyone who entered. Better luck next time!

Rules
—–
1. Shut up. If you are reading the rules for a caption contest, you need to get a drink and come back in a better mood.
2. You can enter as many times as you like, in fact it is encouraged.
3. A first, second and third place winner will be declared.
4. Winner will receive the vaunted Right Punditeer award, which has not been given away on these pages for four years.
5. Second and third will receive a smaller version, appropriately scaled to the achievement.
6. Contest is over Monday 6pm PT.

For over a year, the fighting in Syria has racked-up a death toll of nearly 10,000 victims. Far less bloodshed resulted in intervention in Libya by the US and NATO last year, toppling the regime of Muammar Gadhafi. In that conflict, while the US led in air strikes, Obama let David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy take the lead in shaping a policy of response to the violence in Libya.

Many will argue that the United States is already over extended as far as military power goes. Scheduled cuts in defense spending and reductions in the size of our forces would further hamper any future conflict we may need to become involved in. Reports this weekend that Obama himself is apparently picking which terrorists to target with drone strikes, using photos as if they were cards of baseball players, shows a level of White House involvement not seen since the days that Lyndon Johnson would personally pick targets for bombing missions over Vietnam.

Yet, Obama is doing little, if anything, concerning Syria. Some analysts are comparing his lack of action to that of Bill Clinton during the massacres in Rwanda. It is obvious that all efforts up till now in bringing an end to the Assad regime′s crackdown on political opposition has born no fruit. A growing chorus of American and world leaders are asking when will Obama act decisively?

So the killing goes in Syria as the Bashar Assad regime hammers away at rebel towns like Houla and Hama. The latest massacres of civilians show the utter failure of Barack Obama in his foreign policy, as well as his reliance on the United Nations and Envoy Kofi Annan is handling the situation. Reports of the execution-style murders of civilians by pro-Assad troops has been confirmed by UN spokesman Rupert Colville. The question before us now is how much longer will Obama sit on his hands and do nothing?

I love board games! I′ve been playing them since my early childhood, evolving from the usual ′kiddie′ games like Hi-Ho-Cherrio to Monopoly. In the late 1960s, I began playing some of the early historical military board games, like Risk, to my very first ′real′ wargame, Guadacanal by Avalon Hill. They produced a wide range of historical games, often called ′book-shelf games′, like Luftwaffe and Panzer Blitz, due to the size and shape of the box. Air combat games have always been a favorite and range in complexity and realism. Perhaps one of the more simpler ones was the old Milton Bradley ′American Heritage′ series game called Dogfight, which simulated World War One aerial combat. The most complex air combat game ever produced was probably from the old company which dominated wargames through the 19702 and 80s, Simulation Publications Inc., or SPI. Their offering called Air War might go down as the most complex board game ever published, requiring a rule book about 100 pages in length, plus another booklet over 60 pages which contained nothing but charts and tables to refer to.

Phantom Leader is in a happy middle ground of complexity. In fact, once you get the hang of it, you can play a short campaign of 2 to 4 missions in about 2 hours or less. First you select which campaign to play from six available. Each comes with its own map of Southeast Asia, noting targets for three eras, the early war years up to 1965, Rolling Thunder from the late 60s, and the Linebacker campaigns of the early 70s. Each era has two maps, one for U.S. Air Force missions and another for the U.S. Navy.

Once you determine the campaign and the duration (short = 2-4 missions, medium = 3-8 and long = 6-12 missions), you grab a deck of Pilot Cards and form your squadron. You have a wide variety of aircraft to choose from. For the Navy missions, you may select from A-4s, A-6s, A-7s, F-8s and the gun-less version of the F-4 Phantom. The Air Force deck of pilots has F-4 Phantom IIs with guns, F-105 Thunderchiefs or ′Thuds′, as well as older F-104 Starfighters and F-100 SuperSabres. Pilots vary in their skills and experience levels, and their performance depends largely on how much Stress they have accumulated during their missions. More on that later.

After your squadron is formed, its time to start playing. You shuffle the deck of Target Cards and draw. Depending on your Recon Level in the campaign, you can draw 2 or more Target Cards and then select which you feel like flying. Your Political Level may force you to fly some rougher missions initially. Target Cards describe the target, as well as indicate what you might expect in the way of air defense sites on the ground, like AA-Flak guns and SAM sites, plus if there are any ′Bandits′ lurking about, like MiG-21s, 19s or 17s. You randomly draw the defenses and place them either in the Center Box with the Target Card on the Tactical Battle Map, along with those units selected to cover the four ′Approaches′ which frame the Center Box.

The Target Cards also tell you how many aircraft from your squadron may participate in the mission. So once you have set-up the Target and its defenses, you choose which pilots will fly and then arm their planes. Depending on the campaign era, you have a variety of ordinance to select based on your mission requirements. Simple rockets do not cause much damage but are effective against soft targets and can be fired from an adjacent zone. Iron bombs, like the 500-pound Mk. 82, have to be dropped directly overhead and at low level for accuracy. Some eras include the early guided weapons, like the AGM-12 Bullpup missile, which can hit a target two zones away and can be launched from high altitude, avoiding most of the ground-based flak defenses.

After you have armed your planes, you place the corresponding counters, or chits (cardboard squares with a picture and info printed on them) in one of eight Pre-Approach Zones which frame the Approach Zones. Each mission only lasts 4 Game Turns, usually, and when ready to start, you draw an Event Card for the ′In-Bound Flight′ from that deck after its been shuffled. These cards provide either some immediate advantage or disadvantage which will effect your mission. After a final adjustment is made, a second Event Card is drawn for ′Over The Target′. Again, some of these will be good, others very bad.

Some pilots are rated as being ′Fast′, which allows them to shoot first before the enemy can do anything. But most pilots are ′Slow′, which means the bad guys will get a chance to shoot at your planes first. Pilots can suppress ground fire and possibly prevent any damage. They can also use ′Evasion′ to avoid any attacks by enemy aircraft, but at a price of added Stress. After this round, the Slow American pilots get to act. If they can employ their ordinance against ground targets, including the primary Target Card, or fire missiles or guns at opposing Bandits within range. AIM-7 Sparrow radar missiles have a range of 2 zones, while AIM-9 heat-seeking Sidewinder missiles only have a range of 1 zone. Only the Sidewinders, and guns, can be used against enemy aircraft in the same zone as your planes are in.

Damage is cumulative. Some Target Cards will take between 6 to 10 ′hits′ before they are destroyed. All combat is resolved using a ten-sided die which comes with the game. You want to roll high! Each die-roll is modified, depending on the Pilot ratings, as well as special conditions based on the Target or Event Cards. Some weapons can inflict multiple hits per die roll. Once you have hit the Target with enough damage to destroy it, the job is done and its time to go home. One last Event Card is drawn for the Home-bound flight.

After each mission, adjustments are made to the Recon, Intel and Political Levels on your campaign map, making the next mission, hopefully, a bit easier. Depending on where the Target had been, a certain amount of Stress is added to each pilot who flew, as well as any Stress noted from the Event Cards. Most pilots can handle between 3-4 Stress points before their capabilities begin to degrade. Then you may have to sit them out for a mission or two to recover. Once all the book-keeping is completed, its time to draw your next Target Card and begin the process all over again until you have fulfilled your required number of missions. Each Target Card has a Victory Point rating, which you add up at the end of the campaign to determine how successful your operations were.

I hope you enjoyed my game review of Phantom Leader, published by Dan Verssen Games. This seemed to be a natural for today being Memorial Day 2012 as well as the 50th anniversary of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Combat campaigns like Rolling Thunder and Linebacker are replayed in this solitaire aerial board game. DVG will soon be releasing an updated, Deluxe version later this summer, which includes other campaign from that era like the Cuban Missile Crisis. For more information, you may visit Dan Verssen Games website, or any number of vendors who carry Phantom Leader, as well as other war games. I bought my copy from NWS-Online and was very satisfied with their service

Naturally, we have to consider the source. Iran will pretty much say and do anything to slam Christianity and Judaism. As true in most Muslim countries, owning a Bible is a criminal offense. We also have to consider that there are many books or ′gospels′ written by Biblical figures that are not part of most Christian Bibles. Even among the various Christian denominations, there are differences in which books comprise their Bibles, as well as the translations.

So for Iran to claim that this Gospel of Barnabas will cause Christianity to collapse is a blend of wishful thinking and political propaganda. So we are amused that the Basij Press is making such a bid deal out of the discovery of this alleged text found in Turkey back in 2000. The passage about the Bible account of Adam and Eve being cast out of Eden, or Heaven, by the Archangel Michael plays well for the Iranian mullahs. That Adam saw a sign above the gateway to Heaven saying, ″Allah is the only God and Muhammad his prophet″ would seem to indicate that the text was not from the 5th or 6th Century as the Iranians claim, since Islam had yet to emerge. The text also says that Jesus Christ was not crucified and was not the Son of God.

Currently, tropical storm warnings are in effect throughout the entire Georgia coast, southern South Carolina and Florida as far south as Orlando. Right now, winds from Beryl are 50 mph, with gusts up to 65 mph. Tropical storms are defined as wind conditions of at least 45 mph. currently, around 6 inches of rain is predicted for this area on Sunday night and Monday, which will probably cause flooding and high tides along the coast.

It is expected that this will, at minimum, be a three day thunderstorm affecting the three state region as well as some parts of the North Carolina coast. This weekend is the beginning of the summer season, which is obviously when many merchants make most of their money. If travelers decide to cancel their plans, it will probably adversely affect the economy in many of the beach towns. Local officials have not yet formed evacuation plans, because of the economic havoc that will ensue once tourists and residents leave.

As an aside, our next door neighbors, who just arrived today, were advised by the rental management company on SGI to be prepared to leave either Sunday night or Monday morning. Luckily, they decided that they should get rid of their beer just in case. As a helpful kind of guy, I assisted in this endeavor.

Here is the NBC news report of Beryl: