SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

REMEMBER THAT WAR? – From WaPo:   KABUL — Taliban insurgents fought their way into a major city in northern Afghanistan on Monday, driving back stunned security forces in a multi-pronged attack that also sent Afghan officials and U.N. personnel fleeing for safety.  The fall of Kunduz would be a huge blow to the Western-backed government in Kabul and would give Taliban insurgents a critical base of operations beyond their traditional strongholds in Afghanistan’s south. Afghan government leaders and the U.S.-led coalition here view the battle for Kunduz as a key test of the Afghan security forces in their continuing fight with the Taliban.  Someone nudge Field Marshal Obama and tell him about this.  Maybe draw some pictures.

OUR GREAT NATIONAL NIGHTMARE IS OVER – From Mediaite:   Donald Trump‘s Fox News boycott is apparently over. The network announced tonight that Trump will appear on The O’Reilly Factor Tuesday night after he angrily declared he’s boycotting Fox News and won’t be doing any more shows.
That was five days ago.  Trump announced his boycott after various rants against Megyn Kelly, Bill O’Reilly, and Megyn Kelly again.  Fox News fired back quickly against Trump with a blistering statement that declared, “When coverage doesn’t go his way, he engages in personal attacks on our anchors and hosts, which has grown stale and tiresome. He doesn’t seem to grasp that candidates telling journalists what to ask is not how the media works in this country.”  But the day after, Fox announced Roger Ailes would meet with Trump, and now Mediaite has independently confirmed a New York Times report tonight about Trump’s appearance with O’Reilly tomorrow night.  I'm glad to see them make up.  Fox is correct.  Candidates don't get to make up their own interview questions.  Obama never had that concern during campaigns because no one bothered to ask him a tough question.

NUTTINESS – From Fox:  An online petition has gathered more than 1,300 signatures on behalf of a popular Virginia high school teacher who was kicked out of the classroom earlier this month for using a racial slur.  The petition claims history teacher Lynne Pierce, who is white, did nothing wrong when she uttered the “N-word” during a discussion with her students at Heritage High School in Newport News about racism, derogatory terms and the nickname of the Washington Redskins. Heritage is 90 percent black.  “She is a history teacher, she cannot be censored for teaching terms and beliefs that people had throughout history,” the petition says.  She was simply using the word as an example of ugly terms used against people.  I'm glad to see that 1,300 people are fighting back against political correctness.  This apparently is an outstanding teacher who's chosen to teach in a predominantly black school.

September 28,  2015