The Qur'an and The Bible

There are many similarities between the two.  I think the most basic would be they both preach the belief of ONE all-powerful god.  The Bible says in Mark "The Lord our God is one Lord" and the Quran says in 2:163 ‘And your God is One God. There is no God but He, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.’  I think it is because of this similarity that both of these religions have caused many wars over the history of mankind.  With a true conviction and belief that the God you are worshipping is the one and only, you believe you are right and no one else can be worshipping the true God.

A difference between the two is that the Bible says that Jesus is the son of God where as the Quran teaches that he is a prophet.  Considering the first similarity I mentioned being that both religions believe there to be only one true god, this is a fairly big difference in belief and makes some sense out of all of the conflict between Islam & Christianity historically and currently.

Confucious & the presidential candidates

Unfortunately, I do not really think anyone running for president this year lives up to the teachings of Confucious.  He says rulers must be just & gain the trust of the people, and if you just let "the people" speak for themselves, I think the dissatisfaction most people have with their options this year speaks volumes for the trustworthiness of the current candidates.  Plus, I think the entire campaigning system in our country makes it hard to earn the trust of the American people in general because most people realize that so many big coorporations fund a lot of candidates which causes question to who they're actually speaking for and supporting.  Along with the way they speak with each other during debates, speeches, etc, goes along with his teachings yet again because I would call it anything but compassionate, which is another of his values.  Confucious also believed in peace and prosperity (along with doing unto others what you would wish upon yourself), and it seems that no matter where you turn, candidates are preaching selfishness and war as a core value.  Frankly, it makes me sick, and if confucious were alive today I believe he would feel the same way.

Opposites in Daodejing

I think that the main theme of opposites in Daodejing is that without opposites there would be no appreciation of good or beauty and also no concept of right or wrong.  He says 'when everyone in the world sees beauty, then ugly exists' and I think this is something that is true entirely in real life.  You can't appreciate beauty without anything to compare it to.  Just as you can never no how fortunate you truly are if you've never had to withstand any sort of trial in your life. 
Along the same message, it reads 'what is and what is not create each other,' which I believe basically to mean that most of us perceive things in terms of relativity to other situations and things.  When we say "bad" we are typically thinking of a lot of other things that would be "less bad" and when we say "great" we are aware of a lot of "not so great" things in comparison.  Without the knowledge of the opposites, we wouldn't have really any ground to make these claims.

Bhagavad Gita/Syria

Although personally, I have some back and forth feelings about our presence in Syria, I do believe that the Bhagavad-Gita in some ways actually does justify our actions taken.  Although many argue our government has sent men where we ought not interfere, I think that maybe Lord Krishna would have felt differently about the situation.  He said "Bhishma, Drona, Jayadratha, Karna, and many others are already slain. Kill those whom I have killed. Do not hesitate. Fight in this battle and you will conquer your enemies." and I believe he would advise that enemies of others are also enemies of our own.  That it is our duty to defend others who may not be as capable of defense.  In this case, you could replace "enemies" with ISIL and our duty to eliminate evil no matter what borders it is within.  Although this is not entirely my opinion, I think in this context, the Bhagavad Gita does perhaps back this up.  Especially in the context of living at peace with yourself, many would say that it is hard to live at peace with yourself knowing that there is evil at play while you idly sit by.