As IF Times

link Taliban Dream Team: Who are the 5 prisoners traded for Bergdahls freedom? | Fox News.

The release of 5 Taliban guys in exchange for Sgt. Bergdahl  is an event  that has to anger or annoy at least one person.  That would be the number 6 terrorist on the release list.  The link describes the various nefarious exploits of the top 5 Taliban guys and we must suppose that the number 6 guy didn’t quite cause as much mayhem and destruction as the top 5 did.  As we’ve determined before, that consternation must come with mixed feelings.  On the one hand, all the guys below 5 get to still live in relative comfort without the corporate pressure of plotting the next successful hit.  On the other hand, they miss out on the adulation of their peeps back at home.

History is replete with the exploits of those that went above and beyond and were able to distinguish themselves from the vast majority of people who toil anonymously in their chosen fields.  Even in the mass murder and mayhem business, it seems that excellence in the field is rewarded.  You would think by now that some of the foot-soldiers in the Jihad movement would be a little less eager to don the ball bearing vest when they see that their superiors get fed and coddled by the enemy and then feted by their own people upon their release.  All that the plebes get are promises of untouched women in the great beyond.

What’s the lesson here?  It’s the universal one: whatever you do, strive to be the best at it if you want to be treated well by society.  We can foresee the Taliban guys giving inspirational speeches at high school graduations. The incumbent president seems to be taking that philosophy as his operating beacon as well.  Not content to be just a number in the string of Presidents through history, he appears intent on cementing his position as the worst thereby ensuring his immortality.  At this point, Jimmy Carter is rightfully miffed and Woodrow Wilson is convulsing in his grave.

The only certainty about attaining recognition for being the best at what you do is that someone will always come along trying to top that position.  In the case of the 5 Taliban guys just recently released, you can bet that some in the ranks will want to surpass their positions like golfers trying to oust Tiger Woods as number 1.  We can expect more killings, more destruction and larger scale mayhem.   In the case of someone one day trying to usurp Obama’s role in history, well that’s a race to the bottom nobody should want to celebrate.

link Youth anxiety on the rise amid changing climate – The Globe and Mail.

The number of “youth” who are naturally “consumed” with anxiety surrounding climate change can be counted on one hand.  Actually on one thumb… at most.  This is the same level of preposterousness as kittens having anxiety about the paucity of good cable channels.  No normal kid wakes up in the morning wondering about the fate of penguins unless they’ve been brainwashed like Moonies by their idiotic parents and teachers about something that is every bit as abstract and fake as the bogey man.  Show me a kid that runs around bleating about global warming and I’ll show you the atomic wedgie winner of the month.

It’s amusing to see cute stories of precocious pre teens doing their little bit in the cause of preventing global warming.  Riding bikes to the mall instead of having mom drive them.  Drinking water drawn from a local well instead of from evil plastic bottles.  Wearing hemp clothes made by the local garment marm instead of shopping at Tommy Hilfiger.  Using megaphones and tin cans to shout messages instead of using power hungry Iphones.  Oh wait, that hasn’t happened yet.  And don’t hold your breath. The chances of  youth giving up their cushy lifestyles to save penguins and snow owls is as close to zero as finding shrimp at the buffet table after Al Gore’s been there.

The only place you’ll find anxiety in front of youth is in the dictionary unless there’s rumors of a new Iphone release.  Their minds just aren’t wired towards expansive thought beyond getting the newest Apple gadget.  Within the linked article, there’s a passage in which the little girl whose house had been swept away by a river now has developed fear of rivers which somehow translates into global warming anxiety.  It’s as if you witnessed a car accident involving a Toyota and in the aftermath, have anxiety about Japanese people. The entire manufactured industry of global warming exists only in the world of those unable to logically reason for themselves on just how preposterous it all is.  Or, propagated by modern day wise-men in the guise of lawyers, lobbyists and now psychologists.  If there’s anxiety to be shared, it should be about the proliferation of lawyers, lobbyists and psychologists.