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Is Our Military Becoming an Army of Immorality?

By Selwyn Duke

After being given the choice between reform school and the military, a juvenile delinquent of years past would sometimes be told, “The army will make a man out of you.” But today, critics may say, we can’t be sure what the army would make out of him — or what to make out of the army.

As to this, the Army Times writes, “Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel stunned many at the Pentagon recently by suggesting the military has a ‘deep’ ethical problem. His top spokesman, Rear Adm. John Kirby, used the word ‘systemic.’”

Complaining about how cheating, fraud, lying, stealing, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual assault, and extra-marital affairs are apparently rampant in today’s military, Hagel said “he will appoint a new ethics ‘czar,’ a general or flag officer who will focus on this specific issue,” writes the Times.

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Why Obama is Uneducated

By Selwyn Duke

A few years ago I participated in a radio debate on “white privilege” with a certain man, whose name is unimportant, who had a Ph.D. in “ethnic studies.” At one point he introduced an argument by saying, “If whites are 80 percent of the population…,” which prompted me to interject and point out that whites (non-Hispanic) are now only 63 percent of America. Of course, you might think that someone with a doctorate in “ethnic studies” would know what the ethnic and racial composition of the country is.

Why Putin is Right About America

By Selwyn Duke

As perhaps history’s most famous atheist, Friedrich Nietzsche understood that the death of Christian morality would usher in moral relativism and social breakdown. This truth is now largely ignored in an increasingly atheistic West, but it has found an unlikely — and, some would say, incredible — ally in Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Making the traditional concept of virtue a recent but recurring theme of his presidency, Putin has of late criticized the West for being decadent and godless. As the Washington Times reported this past Tuesday, “‘Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values,’ Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a recent keynote speech. ‘Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation.’”

Oh, how the worm has turned.

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Andrew Cuomo: An Extreme Statement From an Extreme Man

By Selwyn Duke

God’s moderation is man’s extremism. This occurs to me when considering the remarks recently made by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. As you may know, the governor addressed a Republican schism while a guest on the New York Public Broadcasting radio show “The Capitol Pressroom” and said, “Extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay ... have no place in the state of New York — because that’s not who New Yorkers are.” And many observers think that this reveals who Cuomo really is.

In fairness, it appeared as if Cuomo was referring to how such individuals had no place in Empire State politics because they don’t have the votes in New York to carry the day. So while other commentators are busy condemning the governor for being, as late radio legend Bob Grant used to call Cuomo’s father, “Il Duce” (which does truly characterize him), there is so much more that can be said about Cuomo the Younger’s impolitic remarks.  

First, everything Cuomo does must be interpreted within the context of his apparent 2016 presidential ambitions. They are why he visibly pushed radical pro-abortion legislation last year and signed the “SAFE Act” anti-Second Amendment law, and it may explain why he would say that “extreme conservatives” have no place in New York: He is positioning himself as Mr. Progressive-on-steroids in preparation for the Democratic primaries. As to this, I have a New York message for Cuomo.

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Ducking the Real Issue on Duck Dynasty

By Selwyn Duke

This past December, the Duck Dynasty television show became “duck and cover,” with the forces of pinkness going nuclear on its patriarch, Phil Robertson, after he uttered some words about the most victimey of victim groups. For those who missed the story, the saga began when GQ interviewer Drew Magary asked Robertson what he considered sinful, prompting the bearded born-again Christian to say (as presented by GQ),

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he says. Then he paraphrases Corinthians: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers — they won’t inherit the kingdom of God.”

The response was quite predictable. While the Bill Clinton impersonators, W.C. Fields acolytes, gilded Gordon Gecko Wall Street warriors, and the idolater and swindler lobbies were mum, the homosexual activist group GLAAD was anything but glad (never mind gay), calling Robertson’s comments “vile” and extreme. The result was that A&E, the station carrying the Duck Dynasty reality show, did duck and cover and quickly announced an indefinite suspension of Robertson. To his credit, however, Robertson stood by his beliefs, and his family and formidable fan base stood by him, causing A&E to cave and reinstate him on December 27. And all’s well that ends well, right? Not so fast.

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Influential Beats: The Cultural Impact of Music

By Selwyn Duke

The Devil really is a fellow of wine and song,
Playing a tune that trades right for wrong.
The tone-deaf man will hear his notes and say,
What could be wrong with being festive and gay?
And when a sad tomorrow that tune does bring,
Few will know that from their own lips it did spring.

There perhaps is something primal about music, something that can touch or twist one’s soul. This is no doubt why Ludwig van Beethoven said, “Music can change the world,” and William Congreve famously wrote that music “has charms to soothe a savage breast.” And music’s power is tacitly acknowledged all the time. For example, last year Michelle Obama lent her name and image to a rap album that complements her “Let’s Move!” anti-obesity campaign. And while a track featuring a trio called “Salad Bar” and a song entitled “Veggie Luv” is easy to mock (given their mother’s priorities, I can just hear Sasha and Malia singing, “And we’ll have fun, fun, fun till daddy takes the tea cake away”), there is method to the first lady’s madness. As Boston College professor emeritus William K. Kilpatrick wrote in his book Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right From Wrong:

[We] tend to learn something more easily and indelibly if it’s set to a rhyme or song. Advertisers know this and use it so effectively that we sometimes have difficulty getting their jingles out of our heads. But there are more positive educational uses. Most of us learned the alphabet this way and some of our history as well (“Paul Revere’s Ride,” “Concord Hymn”). Recently some foreign language courses have been developed which employ rhyme and song as the central teaching method. Similarly, one of the most successful new phonics programs teaches reading through singing.

Quite true. To this day I can recite a McDonald’s Big Mac-recipe jingle I heard as a little child — verbatim. And I only had to hear the weather advice “Red sky in morning, sailor take warning; red sky at night, sailor’s delight” once to remember it forever. But since all power can be misused, can music possibly usher in a storm of civilizational upheaval? If it can soothe the savage breast, does it not follow that it can also inflame it?

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Teaching All of the Facts, but None of the Truth

By Selwyn Duke

While dining one evening in NYC with a brilliant man I once knew, we couldn’t help overhearing some moderns espousing progressive ideas at a nearby table. Seeming like typical Manhattanites, they were well spoken, likely had some higher degrees among them, and would have appeared to many to possess good command of the issues. My friend, though, unimpressed, simply said: “It’s amazing how you can know all of the facts but none of the Truth.”  

Recently I had a conversation with another smart fellow who made the case that the way to minimize evil in the world was through education. This is a common idea. As we struggle to explain man’s condition, we sometimes fall back on the belief, “Knowledge is power.” Yet even if true, note that power can be misused. Moreover, even if true, it certainly isn’t absolute power.

How often do we see people who know they’re smoking, drinking, or eating themselves to death but yet can’t stop?

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Nobel Laureate: World Needs “Secular Ten Commandments” and Universal Values

By Selwyn Duke

Old utopians may die, but utopianism never does fade away. While speaking at a summit of Nobel Peace Prize winners in Warsaw on Monday, Nobel Laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa added Modern-day Moses of Magog to his résumé, advocating a “secular Ten Commandments” as a basis for universal values. Said Walesa, “We need to agree on common values for all religions as soon as possible, a kind of secular Ten Commandments on which we will build the world of tomorrow,” reports France 24.

Ah, “build the world of tomorrow.” Somehow that reminds me of WWI being “the war to end all wars” or, to cite intended fiction, the paternalistic android in an old Star Trek episode that summed up his purpose in dominating man by saying, “And you will be happy … and controlled.” Captain Kirk was not amused.

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Why “Equality” Must Die

By Selwyn Duke

Take a look at the following list and tell me if anything strikes you:

• Prudence
• Justice
• Temperance
• Courage
• Faith
• Hope
• Charity

Viewing these, the Seven Cardinal Virtues, anything make an impression? Okay, now try the Seven Heavenly Virtues of:

•  Chastity
• Temperance
• Charity
• Diligence
• Patience
• Kindness
• Humility

Anything? What strikes me is that equality is not among them.

Scour great works, such as the Bible, and you won’t find much talk of equality — that is, unless you consider The Communist Manifesto a great work.

One thing about virtues — which are defined as “good moral habits” — is that their exercise doesn’t require the cooperation, or compulsion, of another person. I can cultivate prudence, temperance, courage and the other virtues in myself, and I can do it all by myself. So while a virtuous society is desirable, virtue can also be a purely personal goal. And this is one time when focusing on the self needn’t be selfish, for we should take the log out of our own eyes before worrying about the speck in our brother’s. 

ESPN’s Random Act of Feminism

By Selwyn Duke

It’s really hard to know today where the stupidity ends and the propaganda begins. MSNBC recently made news by labeling infamous segregationist George Wallace a Republican during a recent television broadcast. Now ESPN has followed suit, with a random act of feminism. 

On the sports network’s Friday US Open golf telecast, there was a short retrospective piece on golf great Lee Trevino’s gag at the 1971 Open at Merion, where he tossed a rubber snake at opponent Jack Nicklaus right before their playoff. The piece’s narrator mentioned that it was history’s second most famous serpent story, next to that of the Garden of Eden. This was accompanied by Eden imagery, which certainly enhanced the work’s artistic quality, so the association made sense. But then the piece took an interesting twist: