Marine Corps Captain Reid “Eeyeore” Nannen  died in a training exercise in Nevada flying the F/A-18C this week, and a memorial fund to benefit his four children has been established here.

Former Senators Jim Talent and Jon Kyl –two of the most respected alums of the body– lay it all out for you in this piece.  Read it and send it to friends and friendly opponents alike.  We are not hollowing out but gutting the military, and it will cause misery and massive loss of life around the globe.

The one chart view:

The weekly column from Clark Judge:

Division and Confusion: Europe Without America
By Clark S. Judge: managing director, White House Writers Group, Inc.; chairman, Pacific Research Institute

If you want to see why American leadership is essential to the effectiveness of Europe in global affairs, just meet with a multinational collection of European political and other officials.

I had occasion to share an evening with such a group this past week.  The discussions were on background, not for attribution, so, as with last week’s column, I won’t name the speakers or identify the occasion of the meeting.  But those details are not necessary to understand what they said or the implications.

For when the question of Ukraine and the Russian incursion into the Crimea came up, the opinions were as diverse as the countries these officials represented.  I gather from an exchange of notes after the Europeans left that every American present was as startled as I at the amount of disagreement over the Russian action and the passion with which the disagreements were expressed.

The central fault line was proximity – how close a speaker’s country was to Russia or Ukraine.  In the United States, when we hear about border problems with Mexico or the terrorist bombing at the Boston Marathon, we don’t say, “Oh, that’s Texas or Massachusetts’ problem.” We understand such national security matters are the concern of the nation as a whole.  This is clearly not the case in Europe. Continue Reading

The news has been so grim this week that I am giving you an hour of Dave Barry today, talking his new book You Can Date Boys When Your Forty.

I was obliged to add additional humor to today’s show because Mark Steyn, while he did appear in his regularly scheduled spot –the transcript will be posted here– has spent all week in a Canadian courtroom, which is designed to make anyone as dull as the average United States senator.

The Thomas Friedman column Steyn, Guy Benson and I discussed is here.  I will also ask Lileks  to help me understand just how a carbon tax will topple Putin.