The Roman Army was gathered on the banks of the English Channel poised to invade Britannia. What happened next is one of the most perplexing moments in world history. The Emperor Caligula ordered his troops to dismount and pick up seashells in their tunics and helmets. These he brought back as trophies to Rome as spoils for conquering the sea.

Caligula’s brief four-year reign was as complicated as trying to find the facts of his reign, a convoluted web of paranoia, perversion, and psychosis. It highlights Rome’s political decline from within, as it still pursued its empirical conquest of the world. Caligula did much to accelerate this decline, due in large part to his inability to except criticism, his broadening of the Emperor’s powers, and the brutal obsession with his own selfish ambition.

Many are troubled by the direction our great Nation is headed. Recent events have only magnified the trepidation that so many feel. With all that faces the United States and the gravity of world events, our President seems to be content with picking seashells and conquering the ocean.

Two horrific tragedies have occurred in the War on Terror recently, which shocked and appalled us all. One was the burning alive of brave young Jordanian pilot. The other was the murder of a young humanitarian aid worker from the United States, Kayla Mueller. The leader of Jordan, King Abdullah, responded by strapping on a flight suit to lead a squadron of F-16s on strike against ISIS. The leader of the United States responded by strapping on a selfie-stick and taking pictures of himself, sticking his tongue out at himself, in a mirror. The White House posted these pictures, as they put it, to present an approachable, softer side of the President.

Theodore Roosevelt once accused the sitting President in his day of having the “backbone of an éclair”. I’m not sure what Roosevelt would have thought of this President’s backbone and I’m not sure how much the White House thinks they need to soften the President, but I think we have reached invertebrate status in the Oval Office. Yes, we may have found Darwin’s missing link.

Sarcasm aside, when this President cannot find the courage to admit that twenty-one Egyptian Christians publicly martyred for their faith are… Christians, then there is no leader in Washington. When the Egyptians respond to this gruesome mass murder with an air strike and our President goes golfing, there is no leader in Washington.   President Obama is transfixed and obsessed with the seashells on the seashore and it is destroying our Nation.