[Screenshot from Fox News, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx2rb3xe6hY][/caption]

Television personality Mike Rowe has an inimitable way of explaining things.

I don’t know how he got where he is, but I imagine he was just on the sidewalk one day and said something that made so much sense, everybody was stunned. And he kept doing that, until word got around and no one could resist giving him a national audience.

But however he got here, he made some fantastic points on Veteran’s Day about the military and so-called safe spaces.

Speaking on Fox & Friends, Mike championed the fairness and diversity of the armed forces:

“Is there a greater meritocracy in the world? Is there a better example of true diversity? … The thing that I’m most proud about when I go to bases when I visit with people, they are utterly colorblind.”

And they aren’t wimps:

“There’s no conversation about ‘trigger words.’ There’s no safe space. The military is not a safe space.”

As evidence of our servicemen and -women’s toughness, Mike pointed to his inspiring friend, quadruple-amputee Travis Mills:

“[S]ome people hit the reset button to start their life over, and some people get the reset button hit for them. And that was Travis. And he just simply refused to quit. In fact, his book is called Never Quit, and he doesn’t. And, look — you can be inspired by that no matter who you are, no matter how you vote, no matter what you think. It’s only the essence of humanity.”

Mike is a master of mixing profundity with common sense and plain-spoken expression, and he’s certainly right about the simple meritocracy of the military.

I hope he remains so — lives are on the line, and there are some elements that may like to work against letting mere results lead the way.

RedState’s legendary streiff offered the following in October of 2015:

On August 17, the US Army began what might very well be an inexorable slide into the status of a Third World Army. That would not be because of a lack of money or manpower but because the Army senior leadership has become so politically corrupt that it will do whatever it is told, no matter the outcome on some far flung battlefield. Two women were pushed, pulled, and hauled through Ranger School.

…

This is about a coordinated and conscious attack on military efficiency in the service of perceived gender equity is in full swing in the military.

Recently, the USMC did a study that compared all-male infantry squads to co-ed infantry squads in performing combat tasks. It wasn’t even close. But rather than accept the science that the left is all in favor of, the Secretary of the Navy accused the Marines of fixing the study. Perhaps in his view, “fixing” means the same as “honest assessment.”

There’s also this and this.

I’m sure Mike will remain on hand to comment as he sees fit, as he’s done on subjects such as free speech.

Here’s what he had to say about the Nike/Colin Kaepernick controversy in July:

“[Colin] has argued that the Betsy Ross flag is ‘racist,’ because it flew at a time when slavery was legal in America. By that definition, aren’t crosses also racist? Weren’t they on churches attended by slave-owning congregants? Why not demand their removal? What about the Bald Eagle? Wasn’t our national bird flying around when slaves were held? Why not protest it as well? What about the Great Seal? E Pluribus Unum? The Liberty Bell? It rang countless times while slavery was still the law of the land. Why not demand its removal? Kaepernick’s argument is unpersuasive, not because it’s unpopular, or unpatriotic. It’s unpersuasive because it’s completely void of logic.”

The guy has a gift. And whenever and wherever he speaks, there are no safe spaces.

On Fox, Mike praised the unity of those who keep our country as safe a space as it is:

“In the military, there’s a difference set of rules. And there’s a different reality. And there’s just a different commonality. … Shakespeare got it right: ‘We few, we few, we happy few. We band of brothers.'”

-ALEX

Relevant RedState links in this article:

Man Attempts Armed Robbery, Accidentally Gives His Victim The Gun (Video)

West Virginia Mayor Who Took ‘Christmas’ Out Of The City’s Parade Name Reverses Gears Due To ‘Hurtful’ Backlash

Hillary Plops Out Another: She Was Robbed Of Her Rightful Presidency By Hacking 10-Year-Old Children

Find all my RedState work here.

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