HunterByrd

2009-03-09T18:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I cared to engage my First Amendment right. I have often referred to myself as "everyman", not because of any egoistic force on my part, but because I have long since concluded I am firmly rooted in 'the flock'. That's not to say just any flock - there are several. My flock is center-right.

As "everyman", let me say this: The crap is swift flowing downhill. Equilibrium is askew. Something big is about to happen. It might not be tomorrow, or next month, but it will be soon. The center of gravity has shifted too fast. The status quo is spent, and there are enough of us with a kindred spirit who are going to fall back upon principle. That principle will inspire us to take positions we would have been too timid to entertain mere months ago. Bob Dylan long ago sang 'The Times are Changin''. Little did he know it would be the American Spirit that would make a hard stand.

Get Ready.

2005-07-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

We have met the enemy, and he is us. Image by Zombie.

2005-07-28T18:37:00.000-07:00

The Enemy

I recently paid a visit to San Francisco. It is a wonderful city. Beautiful along the steeped hills. Fragrant aromas and colorful people. This is life in the bluest of the blue cities America has to offer. Although I was acutely cognizant of this fact, I enjoyed every turn, every vista, and most of the people I encountered there. Frisco is simply shinin'. Sweet and easy.

But the photograph above, taken in that fair city by Zombie the day after the '04 elections, sums up very well the sad problem we Americans share among ourselves.

Look at that fellow's face.

Yeah, I voted for W, just like he voted for Kerry. Had the John won, I would have been sad and perturbed, to be sure, but I would not have indicted the 'blue' areas the way he did my homeland. That sort of expression would not have crossed my mind. Not in a million years. It was only an election, after all. Zombie's image captures a sick, pathetic pathos, which is not good for this nation.

The too veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas just said she would 'kill herself' should Dick Cheney decide to run for President in '08. Really? Pathetic pathology on her part, friends.

There is something dread wrong with the left in this country. Since America's inception, there has been vigorous, oft rancorous, debate over the direction our nation should take. I deeply disagree with that fellow's sentiments. I am offended by it, but I would not express myself likewise, because I do not believe Americans should lower themselves to that level. To do so exposes a lack of compromise, upon which we have exisited forever, save the uncivil war in 1861. Let's please not go there again...

The photograph does not bode well.

2005-07-22T04:37:00.000-07:00

His Excellency Thought about this, too

"[T]he policy or advantage of [immigration] taking place in a body (I mean the settling of them in a body) may be much questioned; for, by so doing, they retain the Language, habits and principles (good or bad) which they bring with them. Whereas by an intermixture with our people, they, or their descendants, get assimilated to our customs, measures and laws: in a word, soon become one people."

-- George Washington (letter to John Adams, 15 November 1794)

Reference: The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, Fitzpatrick, Ed., vol. 34 (American Memory Co)

Know of anywhere in the world where the problems of "immigration taking place in a body" are manifesting? Dig in your heels.

2005-07-08T17:29:00.000-07:00

War

It's not a matter of crime. If you think so after nearly four years, then you are naive beyond reason. It's not a matter of understanding the root cause. If you believe it's about poverty in the third world, or America's over-reaching hand around the globe, then you are either ideologically corrupt, or you are a decided enemy of our way and life in the western world.

We mourn the deaths of innocents. That is why we will hunt down and kill Islamic killers wherever they are found. Even if it takes 156 years. That is a sad pronouncement, but it is grounded in a reality that acknowledges this: "if you won't sit and reason, and if you insist on killing us and our way of life, then you have made a serious mistake. Prepare to die."

In the end, on this world, human beings have the inate right to fight fire with fire; they have a Providential right to defend life and liberty. We're doing it, come hell or high water. If you hunt for me in the name of "Peace", ala Islam, then I will shoot back. Bank on it.

2005-06-01T05:12:00.000-07:00

Mark Felt

Grab your legacy already

Yesterday, this old gentleman finally showed his hand. Despite the MSM taking Mr Felt and putting him upon its lime-lit white horse of the hero of the moment, I believe his actions as 'Deep Throat' were as despicable as the reporters and newspaper that reported them.

Ben Stein's quick article in The American Spectator sums up my (and I would suspect many others') sentiments.

2005-04-24T05:33:00.000-07:00

What's in a Name?

From Ratzinger to Benedict XVI

Frankly, being the light-weight Protestant I am, I wondered why Cardinal Ratzinger took that particular name. Fortunately, I ran across the answer, and it's a pretty good one. The following text is taken from an interview of Father Joseph Fessio, Chancellor/Provost to Ave Maria University in Florida, who has been a good friend and student of Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI for over 30 years. The interview was conducted by Hugh Hewitt, and you can read the whole exchange at Radioblogger. It is well worth the read if you want to know more about this amazing and faithful follower of Christ.

HH: Do you expect this to be a time of renewal under this new Pope for the American and the worldwide Catholic Church?

JF: I do. He chose the name Benedict. It's very significant. You know, Benedict was a young man in the worst days of the crumbling Roman Empire. It was corrupt and decadent from within. And it was being attacked from without, and Benedict did not stay in the city where he was magistrate, the city of Rome, and try to change it, try to improve it. He left with the simple desire of giving himself to God in prayer. Others joined him and they offered God worship and honor and praise and glory. He built a monastery to do that. They consecrated their lives to the Lord, and that monastery bred others and others until finally by 1200, there were 40,000, 40,000 Benedictine monasteries in Europe. That's like having 1,000 in every state in the Union. And those monasteries preserved Greek and Roman culture, they educated generations of young men and women, they laid the foundations for the great Cathedrals of Europe for the Christian nations of Europe. They were the ones that led to Medieval Christendom, this great civil and social society that gave glory to God. And I think that's why St. Benedict's called the father of Europe.

HH: Yup.

JF: And I think that Cardinal Ratzinger has chosen this name partly because he wants to lead the way to the re-Christianization of Europe and the evangelization of the world. And he wants to do it through prayer.

2005-04-16T05:58:00.000-07:00

Golden Gate Bridge

2005-03-18T04:26:00.000-08:00

Krauthammer

The international left's concern for human rights turns out to be nothing more than a useful weapon for its anti-Americanism. Jeane Kirkpatrick pointed out this selective concern for the victims of U.S. allies (such as Chile) 25 years ago. After the Cold War, the hypocrisy continues. For which Arab people do European hearts burn? The Palestinians. Why? Because that permits the vilification of Israel -- an outpost of Western democracy and, even worse, a staunch U.S. ally. Championing suffering Iraqis, Syrians and Lebanese offers no such satisfaction. Hence, silence.

That choice language falls toward the end of Dr Krauthammer's latest column, entitled What's Left, Shame?, on page A23 of the WaPo. Bush's humility, like Reagan's, is a key ingredient in his bold success as a shaker of policy and a mover of world history.

2005-03-08T17:37:00.000-08:00

Two Dogs digging moles in broom sage

2005-03-08T17:00:00.000-08:00

The South. Lost Cause? Hardly. Our heritage Rocks!

We've heard, for years and years and years, about the negative vibrations from the South. Racism! Bigotry! Hatred! Who in tarnation caused this to begin with? Liberal effetes, that's who. High nosed, righteous minds...who never bothered to walk the ground, and swat the misquitos, of the South to begin with.

We Southerners are sick and tired of liberal city-bigots in the north telling us what their perception of right is. To you who have never lived long enough in our land to perceive the truth of this region: we are sick and tired of your judgment. You know not of what you speak.

I got ticked, and I got proud, of this collection of CS Monitor letters. Read 'em all -- you'll get the picture. As for me, I'll stick to what I know best, and that is: a love of my heritage (including the 'flag' and its battlefield history), my brothers (of all stripes and colors), and my culture (hospitality -- check the etymology of the word).

The South has, despite the unceasing attacks upon its meaning and cultural thrust is going to retain its identity. We are not to be 'homogenized'; you snobbish 'hippies' can rant all you want about utopia. It is not the UN's ideal. Utopia, at least on this earth, consists of 'diversity', and the South is a distinct ingredient.

2005-03-07T05:02:00.000-08:00

Good Golly Joshua!

Bono may be next World Bank Head

I thought I had heard it all when Jimmy Carter won his Nobel Peace Prize. Now this. What next? Tim Robbins assumes the reins of US Ambassador to the UN?

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow has confidence in Bono. Snow said, ‘He's somebody I admire. He does a lot of good in this world of economic development.’

Other names under consideration include former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina, Treasury Undersecretary John Taylor and former Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Christine Todd Whitman, according to this Business World article.

Geez, I don't know. The last time I got a good look at the man (whose music I generally admire), was his band's Super Bowl performance a couple of years back. The fellow looked rather grundgy -- a bit short on the shampoo, dull razor, wearing threads longing for the laund-ro-mat. Call me...stodgy?...but I prefer my bankers to look the part...

The news also places Bono in nomination for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

2005-03-06T07:02:00.000-08:00

Russellville house where ghost is reputed to reside in tower (note painted glass)

2005-03-06T06:29:00.000-08:00

Morning in the Middle East

Oh, my. Oh, my!

Remember Ed Asner and "Not in Our Name?" How about Sean Penn's intellectual tomes from his rich, fact-finding forays into pre post-Saddam Iraq? Or the great French statesman, de Villepin's brave confrontations against the evil US on the UN floor? Michael Moore and his 'Minutemen' of Iraq? Bushitler? Ronald Raygun?

"The lesson of these last weeks is that it turns out Washington's Zionists know the Arab people a lot better than Europe's Arabists." Hoowhee, Mark Steyn, you are one for pithy zingers!

The Left is again using its superior intellect to configure the rightness of riding the wrong side of history. So it would seem. Let's take the recent happenings in Lebanon as an example:

"The fact that there are people in the streets of Beirut calling for Syrian withdrawal would have been inconceivable six months ago," said Sandy Berger, Bill Clinton's former National Security Adviser. "I realize that my partisan friends would not like it if I said it, but the answer is, yes, there has been some success."

Last saturday capped an astonishing week: an unrehearsable combination of tragedy, popular will, carefully coordinated behind-the-scenes diplomacy and unusual allied unanimity. The most electrifying moment came on Monday, when 25,000 Lebanese defied a government ban and staged a rally in Martyrs' Square to coincide with a parliamentary debate on the Valentine's Day massacre of Hariri, which was widely believed to be the work of Syria. The Beirut gathering was as unprecedented as it was diverse, in a country where power is constitutionally divided among sectarian communities. Troops and riot police deployed around the city center, but they did not stop thousands from joining the peaceful throng. Inside, the parliamentary debate dissolved into chaos after pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami stunned the chamber by announcing his resignation. "Real independence is not given," said Issaf Chaker Skinner, a Lebanese woman in the joyous crowd outside. "It must be taken." The unprecedented images of people power that beamed across the Arab world on al-Jazeera, said State Department officials, were almost as important as the event itself. -- Time Magazine's Michael Duffy

What are we seeing in these days? Well, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are all in the midst of a controlled revolution. Whether it is the same old 'one step forward, two steps back', or something a bit more -- time will tell. I believe it is the latter. The Left wants the former, oh, you know they do. You see, its all about the failure of the hated, chimp-like cowboy from Texas. This, for the Left, is victory. Never mind problem-solving in the real -- the Left would prefer that it remain upon the blackboard -- the better to nuance and fine-tune their utopian future (always in the future) ideals.

Morning in the Middle-east. Grand, isn't it?

2005-03-06T05:59:00.000-08:00

Identity Theft

You may have felt the sharp pangs of "data rape", or you may yet be blissfully ignorant. As for me, I've seen it in my family. As of today, it is the victim's burden to undue the transgressions upon him. Read this WaPo article for your edification -- important information is contained therein.

More importantly, we will all probably have free access to one complete credit report, per year, from each of the big three Credit Reporting Agencies: Equifax, TransUnion, and Experion (formerly TRW).

2005-02-17T05:04:00.000-08:00

A Liberal Writer's 'Mea Culpa'

The NYT article: "When Good News Feels Bad". Writer Kurt Anderson confesses (for himself, most New Yorkers, and liberals in general) to what we conservatives have been saying since, oh, 9/12/01.

Seriously: The success of the elections poses a major intellectual-moral-political problem for people in this city. The cognitive dissonance is palpable.

New Yorkers think we are smarter than other Americans, that the richness and difficulty of life here give our intelligence a kind of hard-won depth and nuance and sensitivity to contradictions and ambiguity. We feel we are practically French. Most New Yorkers are also liberals. And most liberals, wherever they live, believe that they are smarter than most conservatives (particularly George W. Bush).

And finally, most liberals and New Yorkers suspect that we may be too smart for our own good. It is a form of self-flattery as self-criticism. During these past few years, I have heard it said again and again that liberals・ineffectiveness derives from their inability to see the world in the simple blacks and whites of the Limbaughs and Hannitys and Bushes. (Why else, the argument goes, did John Kerry lose?)

Read this piece, if for no other reason than to watch an earnest liberal mind grapple with the truth -- the 'black-and-white truth' -- of the issue at hand. Also, catch the jab Anderson is compelled to make at Kos (hehe).

2005-02-16T16:11:00.000-08:00

Rolling on the Steyn Line

But Carter and Kerry and Old Europe were wrong, and the absurd absolutist simpleton was right. Iraq is free not just because of the military skill of America and her allies but because of the political will of one man, who stuck to his guns against the opposition of the Eurocynics, the U.N. do-nothings, the Democratic Party weathervanes, the media doom-mongers, and the unreal realpolitik grandees of his own party -- the Scowcrofts and Eagleburgers.

Mark Steyn, missed him! He's back. He's on track.

His latest, inimitable, concise article disses American Democrats, the UN, and the Eurobureaucracy in equal measures.

The Dems have no strategy other than to complain, whine, and complain.

The UN complains of US foreign policy, but rolls like a wet noodle in the face of murderous, genocidal catastropy on a scale of Stalin.

The European pension schemes are a sinking ship, dependent upon the very life force of Islam . . . oh, irony of ironies!

Thanks to Kellipundit for the general, 'Mark-is-back' heads-up.

2005-02-15T18:55:00.000-08:00

Salt is in the water

2005-02-15T18:06:00.000-08:00

Right Back At Ya!

Kudos to our majority-elected President! Thank you, W, for placing those choked-off, obstructed judicial nominees back into consideration. Force the up-or-down vote!

"To replay this narrow and completed debate demonstrates the Bush administration's failure to craft a positive agenda for the American people," [Senate Minority Leader Harry] Reid said yesterday after the renominations were announced.

Reid is just a Senator who was elected to his position after the fact. The debate was never completed. That would have happened ONLY had the nominations been placed on the Senate floor for an up-or-down vote. No, the issue is not Bush's 'positive agenda', it is the Dem's obstructionism. You think we can't see that?

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat and member of the Judiciary Committee, said, "The president looks like he is still more interested in picking fights than in picking judges."

Mr Kennedy, is the epitome of the pot calling the kettle black. His public existence has been reduced to obstructionism. He has offered nothing substantive in the way of a bridge-solution concerning this impasse. Golly, someone research what happened when FDR packed the court and changed America in the 30's please.

"The nuclear option (i.e., changing the Senate rules of procedure) is aptly named because it will blow up the Senate," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat. "We don't know if Senator Frist has 51 'yes' votes, but it would be a tragedy for the Senate and for the country if he does. It would reverse almost 200 years of history and dramatically change what the Senate has always been."

You spell the rest of "b.s."

Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican and member of the Judiciary Committee, said that for 200 years, judges have passed on a straight majority vote, by which all of the filibustered nominees would be confirmed.

"It would make no sense to require Republicans to be elected by a 60 percent vote, while only requiring 51 percent of Democrats," he said. "The Senate should reject the double standard that Democrats have created for confirming President Bush's nominees and restore our constitutional and traditional standards."

Cut to the chase! We re-elected W, and put four more Republicans in the Senate. Give us an up-or-down vote on these nominees, and choke the obstructing whine.

Quotes from this Charles Hurt WaPo article.

2005-02-14T20:26:00.000-08:00

"I'm Google for Loco Puffs"

98% (about $203497) of all political donations by Google employees went to the Dem cause last year. That tells you alot. These sharp geeks spend their brain capital on a worthwhile endeavor, but the political end of the cranium is all mush. We common-sense types thank all Googlers for your technical know-how. But please, spend a little time and learn about the real world while you are at it! You are not spending your money wisely.

2005-02-12T18:00:00.000-08:00

Truth is multidirectional

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
~Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 16 April 1953

So well put, General. I agree. I, too, have my little utopian shelf upon which like sentiments are placed, only to settle, agog, and to gather dust. But, I do hold out Hope. I think we all do, every one of us with a heart. My problem is this: for every gun made, warship launched, and every ordinance expended -- if those explosions are not answered in kind, then the blood they draw is lost in the mud of victim hell and grief.

Freedom comes with a price. And I know, dear hero, that most of those who use your quote in this day, are principally those who use it out of context. Thank you for your meritorious service, above and beyond the call of duty.

2005-02-12T17:21:00.000-08:00

Captain at the helm

2005-02-12T16:44:00.000-08:00

Bring them Lemmings on! (The Scream)

So where are they now as the Democrats are set to name wild-eyed ultraliberal Howard Dean as the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee?

Consider this: If, on the cusp of the first President Bush losing the 1992 election, the Republican National Committee had united around the idea of having his conservative base-rousing primary challenger Pat Buchanan be the next party chairman, how would the media cover the story? You can bet the farm they would have shouted from the rooftops that the GOP had a death wish, that the lemmings were pouring over the cliff, that the Republicans were forsaking every American voter in the middle for the foam-flecked extremists.

Thank you, Brent Bozelle!

Roll the muffin again. What? For the 50th time? Come on guys (i.e., MSM and Ward Churchillians), those cutesy, sapsy, vomitous, idealogic folks we know we won't hear a peep from over the erstwhile Vermont kingpin).

But then, having tasted their sour-mash (less the yeast) for this long, it does not matter. Bring Howard Dean on! Let the NPR cheerleaders and their guests sing his praises (the chorus line is STRAINED), because here is a guy to lead the yawying left, left. Ever outward!

One day (probably in most of our lifetimes), the old chain of national unity is gonna SNAP, and when it does, we'll just see who the 'Murc'ns are.

Saints preserve us (one more time).

As bizarre as it might seem, liberal media bias is proving to be a boon for the GOP. In its complete Bush-era meltdown, the liberal media elite is applying absolutely no brakes to the Dean "revolution" taking over the DNC. They are moving further and further to the left, and the media are offering nothing but happy talk. The cliff is in sight, and the Pied Piper press is set to lead the party over the edge.

2005-02-12T05:46:00.000-08:00

Ten Reasons for Democracy in the Middle East

As the debate between a largely neo-conservative 'red' America and a largely idealist-egalitarianist (i.e. UN-wishing) 'blue' America rages, prominent commentator Victor Davis Hanson offers up another of his superbly thought-out essays in support of the Bush administrations efforts in the Arab World.

Here are the reasons (Hanson's commentary on each of them is exceptionally valuable):

1. It is widely said that democracies rarely attack other democracies. Thus the more that exist in the world — and at no time in history have there been more such governments than today — the less likely is war itself.

2. More often than not, democracies arise through violence — either by threat of force or after war with all the incumbent detritus of humiliation, impoverishment, and revolution.

3. Democracies are more likely to be internally stable, inasmuch as they allow people to take credit and accept blame for their own predicaments.

4. The democratic idea is contagious.

5. In the case of the Muslim world, there is nothing inherently incompatible between Islam and democracy.

6. Democracy brings moral clarity and cures deluded populaces of their false grievances and exaggerated hurts.

7. We fret rightly about the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

8. The promotion of democracy abroad by democracy at home is internally consistent and empowers rather than embarrasses a sponsoring consensual society.

9. By promoting democracies, Americans can at last come to a reckoning with the Cold War.

10. Like it or not, a growing consensus has emerged that consumer capitalism and democracy are the only ways to organize society.

The article is worthy of a bookmark.

2005-02-12T05:26:00.000-08:00

Moon over White Barn

2005-02-12T05:08:00.000-08:00

Ayn Rand at 100

No other modern author has had such extravagant claims of greatness made on her behalf: Followers of her philosophy, Objectivism, regard her as the greatest thinker to have graced this earth since Aristotle and the greatest writer of all time. Mainstream intellectuals tend to dismiss her as a writer of glorified pulp fiction and a pseudo-philosophical quack with an appeal for impressionable teens. Politically, too, Rand is an outsider: Liberals shrink from her defiant pro-capitalist stance, conservatives from her militant atheism, and conservatives and liberals alike from her individualism.

Understanding this author may not be the easiest intellectual endeavor, but her ideas never fail to reach out and grab hold of your thought processes. As she would say, there are no contradictions, only misunderstandings of the baseline truths. The woman continues to amaze me by the sheer force and magnitude of her intellect.

There are a lot of testimonials and tributes out there. Start withthis one , by Cathy Young.

2005-02-11T17:10:00.000-08:00

Bash me some more

"'I hate America' is the world’s default position. Knocking America is a form of displacement. It helps non-Americans avoid focusing on their own big problems. In fact, strip it of its lacy hosiery and the world’s relationship with America is disgustingly Freudian."

So says Dominic Hilton, in an article for the website Open Democracy.

This long tome by Hilton is interesting. Particularly, I suppose, because he does his part to expose the vacuuous gibberish behind the 'hate America' juggernaut that has rolled for the better part of three years to...where?...nowhere substantive. But he tries to be fair about it.

To all of you Ward Churchill types, you leftist gend'armes, where do you seek to go with your rhetoric? To which utopia do you seek to deliver us?

"Some of America’s most sour critics preach their gospels in America’s palatial universities. A highly desirable standard of living is endowed on those who make their living attacking America’s highly desirable standard of living. Ditto its liberty."

Thank the good Lord Above, and stand fast, dear friends. To be on the right side of history is to trust in one's good, common sense.

2005-02-05T03:59:00.000-08:00

Vigilance

2005-02-05T03:27:00.000-08:00

On interminable hiatus

This exercise of posting into the ether is a strange experience indeed. I came to the conclusion that the only reason I became one of the 600,000 active blogs last year was because of the election. What an event that was! Politics is the high drama of human affairs.

I could have been a forum poster. I could have been a regular commenter on any number of inspired, well-written blogs. That didn't appeal. Vanity.

In any event, three days after the election, the air whooshed right out of this balloon. Everyone experiences passing interests, like bowling or golf, or dyeing one's hair purple. Sooner or later, if it doesn't fit, you take it off and put it away. Funny thing is, there hasn't been a single day I haven't thought of this website (as if it were important!). I have experienced a twinge of, dare I say, guilt. Vanity again.

Nothing I posted was unique or breaking. At best, it was anecdotally contributive. There are too many bright stars in the blogoverse. You need a Hubbell-type device to spot me...way off in the distance of the background radiation.

So there. I'll keep thinking. I'll keep reading and listening to talking heads. And when the 'itch' manifests, I'll man this post again, because as any blogger knows, it's fun in the groove.

For those few wander here from time to time, thank you.

2005-01-22T15:58:00.000-08:00

As the World Turns

W has been sworn in for a second term. His speech was earnest, well-parsed, and profound. The usual suspects, eg. the UK mass-media, mocked his ‘end tyranny’ phraseology. The Brits never have forgiven us our 18th Century impetuousness. Anarchists seemingly had their way with the young ‘Protest Warrior’ lions in Washington when our 43rd President took his oath.

Nevertheless, all is well in our Republic. Dark forces may gather in the gloaming loom of an uncertain future, but we – the 'we within' the blue parentheses of the edge ...we, the red of ‘fly-over’ sent our message. We are not prepared to give up, and we shall not. Our vision of hope and freedom has been pronounced. The ‘world’ may balk, cuss, and curse, but they can ‘eat it’!

I thank my Sweet Lord for the blessings He has bestowed. With all due respect, let the neuro-scientists, with their unsolved circuitry-of-the-chemical-brain be damned. There is a Soul in each of us, and it is surely connected to our Creator...who gave us that chemical brain to begin with. Go figure! His gift is just that.

2005-01-21T05:17:00.000-08:00

Winter passes

2004-12-23T09:43:00.000-08:00

Global Warming takes a Breather

Bing’s dream a reality

I recall DC shutting down because of a blizzard. In fact, heavy snowfall is not at all unusual in many parts of the country. Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, and Colorado come to mind. However, these parts of America take this type of weather in stride. Granted, it is a large stride, but tolerable. Not so in these parts.

Where I come from, bitter cold, high winds, and copious amounts of stinging ice and drifting snow are relatively rare in combination. We have just experienced an intense storm which has left hundreds of stranded motorists along a forty-mile stretch of Interstate 24 (from mile 25 in Marshall Co, Kentucky to mile 65 in Trigg Co, KY). Several counties have been declared to be disaster areas! ‘Civil emergency’ is the catch-phrase of the day. Carlisle Co has called for backhoe operators to clear roads. SUV and tow-truck operators have been asked to search for stranded motorists along highways and byways. People are running out of gas and growing cold. State Police have issued a plea to all moving motorists to seek out and rescue any stranded drivers they come across. And the folks from Duluth are knowingly smiling.

At my place, I’m seeing things not seen since childhood. Two and three foot drifts on flat terrain. Three inches of snow atop hay stacked inside my old dirt barn. The barn has no batten boards, so for that amount of snow to uniformly cover a surface through ½ inch cracks takes some driving wind. The wind chill was ferocious.

My son decided not to make his way home from university on Tuesday. Like many skeptical west Kentuckians, he did not heed the weather warnings. We always hear this sort of thing, and the worst of it seems to blow by. Now he’s stuck in his apartment, a mere 36 miles away. It might as well be 360.

At times like this, we rural dwellers always turn our thoughts to the power lines. Loss of electricity could be devastating. Kerosene’s value far exceeds its 2.29/gal price. Bathtubs become receptacles for flush water.

Anyway, I won’t be playing my favorite, secular Christmas tune today. Stay warm.

2004-12-11T19:31:00.000-08:00

Capitol Rotunda - Frankfort KY

2004-12-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

The Captain's Belief ain't so red as blood red

We can barely muster the Democrats to go after terrorists and to eliminate the environments that produce terrorists after 9/11. I don't see them leaping towards a war with China simply because we signed a paper decades ago promising to protect Taiwan.

OK.

I believe our resolve is somewhat more stiff, if that's alright with you, mighty blogger. Times might be hard, but America is, in the end, America still.

2004-12-11T17:49:00.000-08:00

Why is Kim Jong Il the only fat man in North Korea?

Here is a sweet travelogue about the third prong of W's 'axis of evil'.

"Under North Korean law, every male must spend 10 years in the military. Women spend seven."

Now that sounds like something to look forward to.

While in the country, I desperately tried to talk to some actual North Koreans. But all outsiders travel in a virtual bubble, as a way to just about eliminate contact between North Koreans and outsiders. Except for the hotel's doormen, all the staff we encountered were recruited from ethnic Korean communities in China - and they are rotated back to China every three months.

Say that again? Quick, how do you spell p-a-r-a-n-o-i-a?

2004-12-11T17:22:00.000-08:00

The flow of liberal bias in American academia

Not so good ... we fear...merely more of the same.

Ah, The Economist. A center of center bastion from across the sea...in Britain. Read this article, which includes generous reference to Tom Wolfe's latest novel.

Debating chambers are becoming echo chambers. Students hear only one side of the story on everything from abortion (good) to the rise of the West (bad). It is notable that the surveys show far more conservatives in the more rigorous disciplines such as economics than in the vaguer 1960s “ologies”. Yet, as George Will pointed out in the Washington Post this week, this monotheism is also limiting universities' ability to influence the wider intellectual culture.

This is true, and such shill is regularly disseminated to the larger, consuming culture. Just today, I witness a perfect example of the above statement. I watched the film Igby Falls Down. Igby is a younger, emotional, free-spirited (albeit aimless) sibling to his Ivy-league brother who majors in economics. The older, toe-haired brother is freely and derogatively referred to as a neo-fascist, young Republican.

Evidence of the atypical uniformity of American universities grows by the week. The Centre for Responsive Politics notes that this year two universities—the University of California and Harvard—occupied first and second place in the list of donations to the Kerry campaign by employee groups, ahead of Time Warner, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft et al. Employees at both universities gave 19 times as much to John Kerry as to George Bush. Meanwhile, a new national survey of more than 1,000 academics by Daniel Klein, of Santa Clara University, shows that Democrats outnumber Republicans by at least seven to one in the humanities and social sciences. And things are likely to get less balanced, because younger professors are more liberal. For instance, at Berkeley and Stanford, where Democrats overall outnumber Republicans by a mere nine to one, the ratio rises above 30 to one among assistant and associate professors.

Oh, well, keep writing to the contrary. Perhaps tomorrow's students will, to our collective intellectual, idealogical benefit, find words like these to plagiarize.

2004-12-11T16:41:00.000-08:00

Boone's Bones - Frankfort, KY

2004-12-11T15:32:00.000-08:00

The Story of this Century

It's here. More and more people are paying attention to it. It has only just begun. A generation will be weaned on it.

The great Muslim migration to Europe ripens and comes of age. Sorry, but there are no melting pot analogies in this story. Why, then, don't we try 'good and evil' on for size? Too complex -- far too many loose (politically correct) ends for coherent minds? Well, then, let's accept an 'us versus them' approach. That will work, no matter which level the reader ascends -- or descends -- to.

The other day, Politickal Animal spoke of how well suited Tolkien's trilogy was to the day. Prescient man, Politickal! No less an internet presence than Victor Davis Hanson has chosen to elaborate upon your thoughts (mine, too, but you captured your keystrokes first!).

True, for a variety of reasons, Amsterdam may be a case study of how wrong Rousseau was about natural man, but for a Muslim immigrant the country was about as hospitable a foreign host as one can imagine. Thus, it was far safer for radical Islamic fascists to damn the West openly from a mosque in Rotterdam than for a moderate Christian to quietly worship in a church in Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Algeria. And yet we learn not just that the Netherlands has fostered a radical sect of Muslims who will kill and bomb, but, far more importantly, that they will do so after years of residency among, and indeed in utter contempt of, their Western hosts.

VDH is a deep thinker and meticulous observer; I heed his words. Like when he puts the pox of Judas upon the entire of Kerry-supporting Frankreich:

Things are no less humiliating — or dangerous — in France. Thousands of unassimilated Muslims mock French society. Yet their fury shapes its foreign policy to the degree that Jacques Chirac sent a government plane to sweep up a dying Arafat. But then what do we expect from a country that enriched Hamas, let Mrs. Arafat spend her husband's embezzled millions under its nose, gave Khomeini the sanctuary needed to destroy Iran, sold a nuclear reactor to Saddam, is at the heart of the Oil-for-Food scandal, and revs up the Muslim world against the United States?

These islamists...what a deck of cards they are. What IS this picture we are staring at and into? I am confused to the depths. All of these people (obviously) ran away from something...we can only surmise that it was misery incarnate. They ran away to the west...to that great Satan and enemy of Allah. From cultural misery to license and liberty...but these people couldn't let go of the dark side.

It is almost as if the killers in Amsterdam said, "I want your cell phones, unfettered Internet access, and free-spirited girls, but hate the very system that alone can create them all. So please let me stay here to destroy what I want."

. . . .

Europe is also trapped in its own utopian race/class/gender rhetoric. It cannot openly question the wisdom of making the "other" coequal to itself, since one does not by any abstract standard judge, much less censure, customs, religions, or values.

I can't write --unfettered-- with curse words, but I want to insert them here for response, in the very same way these people strike at Western civilization. I am not the most eclectic of individuals, nor the most erudite, but I have been around long enough to draw a very firm conclusion with regards to western civ. It's the best that's ever been...its very weakness is its greatest intellectual strength...but when it gets down to the nut-cutting...rhetoric is a limp weapon indeed. Europe is awash in rhetoric, as is blue America.

We have three distinct traditions here in the West, according to James Kurth: (1) the classical culture of Greece and Rome (i.e., liberty and law); (2) the Christian religion (separation of powers); and (3) the Enlightenment of the modern era (liberal democracy, free market, reason and science). Which of these three (or any combination thereof) have you heard the Mullahs espouse recently?

But gut-check time is coming for Europe, with its own rising unassimilated immigrant populations, rogue mosques entirely bent on destroying the West, declining birth rate and rising entitlements, the Turkish question, and a foreign policy whose appeasement of Arab regimes won it only a brief lull and plenty of humiliation. The radical Muslim world of the madrassas hates the United States because it is liberal and powerful; but it utterly despises Europe because it is even more liberal and far weaker, earning the continent not fear, but contempt.

The real question is whether there is any Demosthenes left in Europe, who will soberly but firmly demand assimilation and integration of all immigrants, an end to mosque radicalism, even-handedness in the Middle East, no more subsidies to terrorists like Hamas, a toughness rather than opportunist profiteering with the likes of Assad and the Iranian theocracy — and make it clear that states that aid and abet terrorists in Europe due so to their great peril.

So will the old Ents awaken, or will they slumber on, muttering nonsense to themselves, lost in past grandeur and utterly clueless about the dangers on their borders?

Stay tuned — it is one of the most fascinating sagas of our time.

As my new-found friend, Politickal Animal, said the other day: "Even so, in the larger world the shadow is lengthening, just as it did in Middle Earth (one of my fav metaphors for the challenge of evil before us)."

Radical Islam must be tempered. If we are to see an end to this madness within our lifetimes, the force from without this sickness (i.e., the West's) will not be enough. Islamists adhering to the highest tenants of their belief must force positive change from within.

2004-12-09T05:29:00.000-08:00

Lower Broadway - Nashville

2004-12-08T17:48:00.000-08:00

An Anecdote concerning Security within the Homeland

Harrassment

The Transportation Safety Authority has an awful responsibility. The TSA must stop hijackings and terrorist bombers. They have their collective self between a rock and a hard place. Everyone knows what the rock is. The hard place is the 99.999% of innocent travellers who fill the planes.

Readers will know I recently left the ‘Lower 48' for holiday in the Yucatan Peninsula. Being a generally unobservant person, I missed out upon confirmation of what we have all heard the past three years concerning airport security. It was right under my nose, within my senses, and I let the moment pass...until today.

The ACLU is concerned that women, more than men, are targeted for pat-downs. If so, that raises questions whether the Transportation Security Administration is discriminating on the basis of gender, said Barry Steinhardt, of the ACLU's New York office. ''What they're doing is subjecting women to very aggressive, intrusive searches,'' he said. ''We're worried that this is, in fact, sexual harassment.''

David Beecroft, federal aviation director for the Nashville International Airport, said the searches were ''absolutely necessary'' and said few people had complained. ''We have 2 million passengers who pass through our airports a day, and only 266 have filed complaints since August.''

My mother (who probably filed the 267th such report) and father were with me and my wife on this trip. Mother is a world traveler, having moved extensively across the globe for the better part of 20 years. She is no stranger to airport security, including the beefed-up, federally-implemented measures within the last three years. She complained of her status before we ever left. "What do you mean?" I asked. "So, they have to pass a wand across your knees," I said, not waiting for her reply. My mother has prosthetic, titanium knees. "They single me out," she said. "They single me out for the treatment."

I first saw security work her over in Nashville International Airport, on our way out of the country. They did single her out. Made her move to a ‘special area’, replete with those painted footprints where you stand. Most people with athletic shoes were excepted from the requirement to remove one’s footgear. Not my 68-year old mother. She had to take them off. Oh well, no big deal.

Upon our return the states in the port of Atlanta, Ga., my mother got it good. Even after she removed her tennis shoes and her loose-knit sweater, after she removed every other loose item on her person, she was subjected to the routine. Only this time, the responsible Federal security ‘expert’ must have taken this grandmother for a major terrorist threat, because that female agent in Atlanta Hartsfield subjected my mother to a full-body pat-down. Legs, mid-section, crotch, buttocks, and breast areas! Hats off to the TSA. So meticulous are they to search out crotch, butt, and boob bombs. Can’t be too careful (only that, since she was first wanded). To be fair, the two Russian airliners recently brought down were at the hands (or boobs) of Chechen women who had attached explovise beneath their undergarments.

Today, weeks later, my mother is traumatized. A veteran of countless long-distance, inter-continental flights, she has told my father they will drive to Albuquerque, NM, this spring rather than fly. She does not want to be felt up again. She is no fragile flower, so I suspect a lot of it may have been to do with the way in which the search was conducted...

If we were all subjected to this treatment, there can be no room to complain. Thoroughness is self-contained, as they say. On the trip, it did not happen once to me, my wife, or my father...the only other people (very few) I witnessed who received this level of security were...profile-types...I saw several other individuals escape scrutiny that I would have checked had I been a TSA authority. Then again, I am no expert. For all I know, grandmothers are, in fact, included on some generic, meticulously researched list of potential terrorists.

In any event, my mother now has ‘issues’ which may require professional help. She is an innocent traveler, far from the profile, who has been repeatedly traumatized by the cloak of authority (she has made an official complaint -- about a dozen are now filed each week).

My mother isn’t alone. As stated, there are loads of anecdotes floating around out there. I recently heard a Sean Hannity diatribe on the subject, which included one airline stewardess grown tired of the routine.

Being felt up by total strangers on a regular basis probably gets worse, not easier. Folks, this has to be thought through. It is human instinct to take the path of least resistance in any given task, and that includes the work of security personnel, but grandmother-searches are a security cop-out.

2004-12-02T15:56:00.000-08:00

Two bells and a banner in the wind

2004-12-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

A Wild, Wild Ride

So went the election cycle. We were all caught up in it, like Toto in the witch’s bicycle basket, the tornadic vortex of the season gone rabidly wild. In its aftermath, the storm has grown silent. The black clouds have pitched away toward the horizon. These days, old epithets are strewn across the landscape, covered in the mud, debris, and thatch of the gyrating spin machines, which have all whirred to a halt for the time being.

I believe we witnessed history. Saw it being made. We watched the minute hands move and knew it to be so. A conservative President was elected when so many took it as a given that he should not have been. As a consequence, we watched the tides of societal shifts and momentum buck off course. ‘Course’, of course, is what has been seen and said in Europe. There, polite society has steadily pushed toward the Marxian ideal: cradle to grave government oversight and care. From the wide perspective, it’s much the same in the USA. But on the ground, we ‘red’s’ said NO, and stopped the devil at the gate.

Many say what happened was an ugly aberration that could have come only from America. What we saw was, to put it simply, a logical extension of the forces which made (and continue to make) America the singular power for good in this world that it is. Common sense prevailed in the face of Chiracian-creep. In spite of a so-called ‘world consensus’ to the contrary, in spite of know-it-all Canadian, Lincolnshirian, and otherwise ‘continental’ meddling by the likes of George Soros "& Co.", good, old American fly-over values and sentimentality stood in the face of erudite, whining, faithless rhetoric.

In the end, America carried the day, for another day. International leadership comes at a great price in the white-hot forge of history. Leadership, in reality, is a painful position to take. It is not unlike the example of an unsuccessful parent versus a successful one. The parent who attempts to be friend to the child will inevitably fail in the business of parenthood. Feel goodism is paramount (vain). Only the parent who truly acts on the best interests of the child will foster that child’s success in the long run. Feelings of hurt and resentment by the child are inevitably shortsighted and vacuuous. My prayer of thanks is one of tough love for the world at large.

My apologies for the silence of the days, but it cannot be helped.

2004-11-23T21:19:00.000-08:00

The Ukranian Situation

It would appear the Ukraine is undergoing a crisis of gigantic proportion. Thanks to the concise reporting of Wretchard, we catch a glimpse into a boiling situation. One so grave, it could bring confrontation (at some unpleasant level) between the US & (in this case) its NATO allies and Russia.

Let's hope this matter, reminiscent (from a liberal point-of-view) of Florida 2000, will be contained, successfully negotiated between the pro-western electorate and the Russia-oriented bloc, and democracy will continue to proceed apace...without bloodshed.

2004-11-23T20:44:00.000-08:00

Slowly, but surely

Some among the Muslim community begin to speak out

It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims.

So says Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, general manager of Al-Arabiya news channel. The gentleman says many painful things about his religious community. Painful but necessary.

We can't call those who take schoolchildren as hostages our own. We cannot tolerate in our midst those who abduct journalists, murder civilians, explode buses; we cannot accept them as related to us, whatever the sufferings they claim to justify their criminal deeds. These are the people who have smeared Islam and stained its image.

We cannot clear our names unless we own up to the shameful fact that terrorism has become an Islamic enterprise; an almost exclusive monopoly, implemented by Muslim men and women.

We cannot redeem our extremist youths, who commit all these heinous crimes, without confronting the Sheikhs who thought it ennobling to re-invent themselves as revolutionary ideologues, sending other people's sons and daughters to certain death, while sending their own children to European and American schools and colleges.

More of this frank language is needed. As we have heard, 'the truth shall set you free.' I would ask our Muslim brothers and sisters across the globe to pay attention to the way their religion is practiced in the USA. Were they to do so, they would see - by and large - that their faith is not a religion of death, but one of peace and mercy...as it is written.

2004-11-22T05:05:00.000-08:00

Surf's up!

2004-11-20T04:44:00.000-08:00

We have a huge disconnect, that is for sure.

There was one silly response yesterday to the marine corporal's letter published yesterday, and then there was this:

Tell me why is there so much hate in the US if abortion isn't possible in many states if not all, when same sex marriage isn't allowed? Why is it that Europe is overwhelmed with internet spam from the USA? From my (European) point of view fundamentalistic christian fanatics in the USA are as wrong as the fundamentalistic islamic fanatics in Europe. They use the same methods of terror and killing.Your country doesn't support the war on terror, which is a euphemism of a silent war on all continents, but started it. So bear the consequenses and end it.

Anonymous, I wish I could understand just what you are trying to say! What does hate have to do with abortion? There are fanatics in this world, and they can, and obviously do, attach to every issue out there. But what does hate have to do with the issue of abortion?

I don't know, why is Europe overwhelmed with spam from the USA? I wish Europeans would do something about it. We sure are. It's a technological thing, you see. The internet. Wide open -- knows no boundaries...

Europeans, I am given to understand, are no longer as religious as they once were, for better or worse. I know, from personal experience, that animus directed at church goers oft-times will fester and grow in non-church goers. Could you please direct this writer to any recent news stories concerning "fundamentalistic christian fanatics"? When that is done, please serve up any recent stories concerning "fundamentalistic christian fanatics" who "use the same methods of terror and killing" as the islamofascists?

I do not believe you said what you really wanted to say. If you can go so far as to make the last statement you did, I would suspect your sentiments lie with those who would bomb trains and behead innocent men and shoot innocent women in front of a cheap, hand-held digicam.

NOTE: Blogspot gives the option of preventing anonymous posters. Hard decision, because there are some regular posters here who still post under 'anonymous', and I do not want you gone. So, I suppose we shall have to grin and bear... and REDACT the particularly onerous deposits sometimes left here from time to time, of which the above is not an example.

2004-11-20T04:24:00.000-08:00

Uh, pass the mustache wax

Linda Ronstadt says:

"People don't realize that by voting Republican, they voted against themselves," she says. Of Iraq in particular, she adds, "I worry that some people are entertained by the idea of this war. They don't know anything about the Iraqis, but they're angry and frustrated in their own lives. It's like Germany, before Hitler took over. The economy was bad and people felt kicked around. They looked for a scapegoat. Now we've got a new bunch of Hitlers."

I would like to ask her a couple of follow-up questions, such as "Just how was Germany before Hitler took over? Just how did someone who voted Republican vote against themselves? What do you know about the Iraqis? If asked on the spot, how well do you think she could reply?

I think what she said and how she said it is classic, artful, empty liberalism. The art of it is to say something without substance for the 'sting value'; then cut and run. The grace of it is that anyone with any purchase in the public eye can do it...like Linda.

2004-11-18T03:55:00.000-08:00

All the Tea in China

A Young Marine Writes Home

As published in a small-town West Kentucky newspaper - 11-17-04

To the editor:

I would like to thank everyone for your support and mostly for your prayers. The station I'm at is a calm place. I don't really have much to worry about as far as attacks. The living conditions are good here. We have a church to go to and Bible study. Now is the time more than ever for faith. God has been with us to give us strength and courage everyday.

We had a marine from my unit in the rear fall. He left a new wife. I also had a friend from boot-camp fall a week earlier. He left behind a new wife and unborn child. Please pray for them and their families. I also ask you to pray for those who have fallen and those still here. I am proud to serve my country and fight for freedom. I know and understand that these deaths are not in vain.

I look and talk to these people and see the desperation for freedom. They are all not like the stories we hear. They are very friendly, kind people. They always greet you with a smile and laughter. I now know why we are here. Everyone deserves freedom and happiness. To those who fight, I ask for God's mercy for them and their souls. I pray that one day they will understand the error of their ways. I hope they see that instead of murder, there can be peace.

Life is a gift from God that no one should take for granted, though we do it everyday. At home we enjoy our family meals, our favorite shows and our occasional night out. We fight with our spouses over money, the care, the cleanliness of the house and the toilet seat. Out here, none of that matters. Here, Christmas is another day at work with a slight relief that we are still alive. We give thanks to God for being alive and praying for those who have fallen.

Before you go to bed tonight, grant me this favor: pray for the marines, soldiers, sailors, Americans and the people here. The power of prayer is greater when more than one prays for the same cause. I thank you all.

Jason E. F.
Cpl., USMC

Jason's letter is followed by one other on the papers op-ed page. It is almost three times as long. A somewhat battered and bruised, albeit well-respected and highly educated, successful liberal attempts to extend a hand of friendship to all in the community following the contentious election season. He exhorts us all to live by our principles and to respect the Constitution, but...he just can't seem to get past himself, and falls back into the same, tired arguments of the left. You know, the wrongness of the war, helping OBL, you know the routine (e.g., "It's OK to be conservative, and it's OK to be liberal, without which by the way we would still have slaves and women would still be second-class citizens."). Bitter liberals can't even say 'can't we all just get along', without picking a fight.

All the tea in China could not purchase elevation of the liberal's grandiloquent proselytizing over the young marine's simple, profound song of thanks and entreaty for prayer. In him, and so many tens of thousands like him, is the core of what will carry America forward another 100 years.

God Bless our Troops. God Bless our Mission. Pray for everyone in Iraq.

2004-11-18T03:37:00.000-08:00

Ssssshhhhhhhh

So says Peggy Noonan.

2004-11-17T16:17:00.000-08:00

A Mexican breakfast

2004-11-17T15:22:00.000-08:00

Strife in North Korea?

The people of North Korea are not as submissive as they appear to be. Unnoticed by the outside world, strong opposition to the regime of dictator Kim Jong Il is beginning to appear.

So begins this article from Der Spiegel (english version).

When the great train explosion occurred in the far northern reaches of the country, Kim Jong Il didn't bother much in the way of condolensces. Instead, the state spent time celebrating the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the army, "Dear Leader", and "joyful dancing". That wouldn't fly in the USA now, would it?

A few hours prior to the tragedy, Kim's special train passed through the Ryongchon train station, returning from a trip to China. Is it possible that this was not an accident, but instead an attempt by opponents of the regime to blow up the dictator and his entourage?

Sounds like a very large, open-ended, lack-of-any-substantive-evidence question to me. If there is merit to it, Kim already knows and the perpetrators would be long-dead as we read this... But. As all good articles are wont to do, the author gives us a little something to indicate all is not well in paradise -- as if hell on earth could ever be mistaken for such. Anti-government slogans on the sides of train cars, epithets on the 'Great Leader's' Kumsusan Mausoleum in Pyongyang, and so on and so on. Folks can only take so much.

When an "attempt to circumvent the defunct public supply system to obtain food [is] considered sabotage and treason," I can't take issue with human nature. Preservation of self and child is primal. The question is, what are those 22.5 million generationally suppressed people going to do about it? They will not do any more than the Iraqis did before the USA, with a solid hand from a few worthy friends, did something about it.

Forget internal revolution in North Korea! Remember Tianamen Square? When some Iraqis did try to do something about Saddam in the early 90's, their heads wound up beneath the treads of Soviet-made T-62 tanks. The PRK is all about a huge, entrenched military, my German friend.

The article recounts several anecdotes, including internal attempts to eradicate the leader. Alas, all have obviously ended in mortal failure, just like those who tried to oust Saddam.

While the North Koreans starved and the country descended ever more deeply into poverty, the younger Kim built at least ten palaces, complete with golf courses, stables and movie theaters. His garages are filled with luxury cars. The CIA estimates the family's wealth at four billion dollars, part of which is deposited in Swiss bank accounts.

My, that does sound like Saddam. Good read.

2004-11-17T13:36:00.000-08:00

Condoleezza Rice

Listening to the car radio this day in small portion, I have heard more than passing reference to belittling of Condi Rice by the Left, especially allegations that the lib smarminess goes so far as to encompass bigotry and rascism, I have no doubt of the veracity of the reports, at least in degree.

After all, the Left is eager to belittle any person or official who has shown loyalty and acted faithfully in pursuit of our elected President's goals and policies. This is so regardless of the success of his vision. World view, including that of France, is far more optimistic, even enthusiastic, about the possibility of a Rice-run State Department.

The Left's general consensus seems to be this: Powell was a voice of reason, a multilateralist sharing the table in a room full of unilateralist hawks. Powell was not afraid to differ with his fellow cabinet members or his President. Rice is like the next pea in a pod with Bush. It may not be a good thing she is so loyal. Why is that? (because the Left doesn't want to see everyone on the same page; they prefer strife and dissention around W any which way they can get it -- and it ain't comin' from Condi).

You may remember Bush 41's SecState James Baker. Those two were on the same page. Their relationship was characterized as symbiotic - when one exhaled the other inhaled. I recall that Jim Baker disagreed at times with GHWB. There is no reason to believe Condi is some automaton.

That she is not.

2004-11-16T17:35:00.000-08:00

Kayaks on 'El cenote de la Vida' (The life sinkhole)

2004-11-16T17:19:00.000-08:00

Political Burnout

I feel the need for quiet

With each passing day, I get the feeling I am the typical American. As a typical American, I grew intensely interested as the election year passed by. With each day, the election drew nearer, and I became more passionate. Those around me did the same. Fever pitch! I watched my fellow bloggers become as incensed as I was; we couldn’t stay far away from the shining, center-right stars in the blogosphere. What they said was how we felt, and we embellished those well-spoken words.

And then came the election. Oh yes! The drama of the exit polls. The voices yelling, ‘hold fast, the day is yet ours!’ What sweet ecstacy! The Triumph of our man, and the ideals he embodied (in a generic sense, mind you, W is, after all, just a politician writ large in the foaming broth of history) gave us sublime satisfaction.

When Wednesday rolled around, I felt justified in the commanding numbers - some 60-odd million compatriots - who had voted my sincere beliefs. By God, sweet justification! Michael Moore and MoveOn.org were slapped with reality.

Reality. Thursday. The Left will not go away. We all knew that. People who write and talk for a living - from an ideological bent - are going to keep doing so. The MSM is not going away. The spin is not going to stop. And there is where the ‘typical Americanism’ washed over me in torrents.

I had enough. I ran away to another country, and the ensuing silence was bliss. This was so in spite of the fact I was immersed in a sea of sun-worshiping Germans, Italians, and ... FRENCH. I didn’t hear a word of politics until I returned to the good old USA. None of those ‘foreigners’ went out of their way to disparage Bush (not counting the Mexican merchant who was disgusted by one of my relatives who would not pay an exorbitant price for a silver bauble – when it was apparent to him that his craftiness would not prevail, he kept yelling "Bush - shieet, Bush shieet!").

So I return home. The blog is on my mind. I’m listening and reading (a little) about Fallujah and the Cabinet changes. My crazy right Democrat friend called W a bad name this afternoon, and belittled Condi ("she’s wacko – Powell was a ‘good soldier’"), and all I could do was smile, shake my head and listen. Nothing has changed but the fact W is around for another term, and even this prescient fact is muted by Hillary-talk (a woman in the catbird seat!).

I apologize (if to no one but myself) for my lack of posts, but I do not feel a burning desire to voice my beliefs and comment on the MSM rhetoric mill yet. I’m a good right-of-center American, rock-solid and confident in the just cause of my beliefs, but I am tired of the incessant shill. I have to breathe (this evening, at least).

‘Everyman’ is a touch burned out; he wants merely to gloat a while to himself...at least until his senses are so offended he feels compelled to speak out again. That could happen as early as tomorrow... After all, ‘Everyman’ can only take so much!

2004-11-14T16:45:00.000-08:00

The pyramid at Chitchen Itza

2004-11-14T16:18:00.000-08:00

Mayan Culture

I suppose the above photo leaves no doubt where I've been, and (part of) what I was up to last week. An abbreviated visit to the great Chitchen Itza complex on the Yucatan peninsula did much to change life-long misconceptions about the dominant culture in Central America, circa 200-1300 AD (that's 'CE' to you academic, agnostic, time-papering liberals who've just gotta 'have it your way' types).

First, I learned that the Mayans were centered upon sacrifice, bloody sacrifice, in the pursuit of their Sun and Water god-oriented religious practices. In quite horrific ways, indeed. The only levels of society not subject to being offered up at one time or another were the highest levels of nobility and (of course) the priests who did the performing. Second, they were very war-like. I had erroneously believed these attributes belonged more to the later Aztecs...

Third, this grand society was an incredibly hard-working one. While their stone structures were not as formidible as their earlier Egyptian counterparts, the labor was no less intense. For instance, the grand complex above mentioned, just happens to sit on a man-made (stone/fill)plateau which is, on average, eight to nine feet above the jungle it is built upon! The central area is immense. Eyeballing it, I estimated it was a minimum of 100 acres. The pyramid (above) is estimated to have taken 12,000 people twenty years to build...

Of course, you know about Mayan mathematical and astronomical prowess...

For what it is worth, if you harbor a desire to climb the pyramid, as we did, you had better pack your bags and go there now. I was given the firm understanding that direct access to this, and other significant Mayan ruins and restorations will be closed to the public as early as next year.

2004-11-05T13:43:00.000-08:00

Near 'Bayou le Batrie'

2004-11-05T13:32:00.000-08:00

On The Road Again

I'll be off-line eight days or so.

Whew! And about the right time, too. I am simply amazed at the vitriol, hate, and anger of the bitter Left. Yes, those highly enlightened, emotive, nuanced, and oh-so-unignorant among us, who cry foul and whine about the hate, anger, and ignorance of the Right. Yes. I need a break.

Nothing like a little silent observation and detachment to calm the nerves. Please come back around in due time.

2004-11-04T17:18:00.000-08:00

Zealots are not only the 'province' of the right

Frequent commentator 'Pecheur' is chasing an unreported aspect of this election. Religious zealots on the Left.

It would seem, contrary to the plethora of NPR stories I heard this afternoon, that the Left has its own wing of Christian punditry, so to speak. Bill Keller, not to be confused with the NYT reporter of the same name, made bold statements of his own. Pecheur, a thoughtful student of Christian theology, is a conservative-leaning man. He inhabits a world where he finds himself in the midst of 'left-leaning' students and intellectuals. Pecheur should be, and I bet he is, comforted that a majority of Americans have borne out his own deep-seated sentiment.

He has a post concerning Bill Keller, vocal, activist leader of Bill Keller Ministries, which owns LivePrayer. Pastor Keller stated that he strongly believed Kerry would be our next President. Bill Keller "heard from God that Kerry will win." Pecheur emailed him: "[T]hat is that you feel strongly that our next president will be Kerry, what will happen if you are wrong?" . . .

Pastor Keller to Pecheur (prior to the big day): "Bush will lose for failing to do what God allowed him to be elected to do..if by some chance he win..no excuses form me..I am someone that is not to be heard.."

Well, as we now know, Pastor Keller was WRONG. You must read all said in Pecheur's post.

Well? Has Bill Keller been heard from again? What do you think? Will Pastor Keller follow his self-stated biblical mandate? Brother Bill's own testimony is interesting. Insider trading, inter alia. United Methodist background...(I identify) today, he is 'non-denominational'.

Just goes to show: The Left belittles we grounded, center-right folk for our traditional theology, while, in the silence of the left-wing airwaves, liberal religiosity is alive and well. My bet is that the dynamic, enigmatic Rev Keller will keep talking, despite his biblically-based contrary assurance to Pecheur, which begs the question: is something else motivating this preacher?

2004-11-04T04:51:00.000-08:00

Irshad Manji

Manji, author of a controversial book in the world of Islam, "The Trouble with Islam: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith," has a thoughtful essay today in the Washington Times. Islamofascism is a serious business indeed.

The trouble with Islam today is that literalism is going mainstream.

* * * *

If Muslims in the West dare to ask questions about our holy book, and if we care to denounce human rights violations being committed under the banner of that book, we need not worry about being raped, flogged, stoned or executed by the state for doing so. What in God's name are Muslims in the West doing with our freedoms?

She says her growing support is coming principally from the female and youth of the Muslim community.

Manji gives passing mention in the lede to the murder on November 2nd of Theo van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who criticized Islamic practices. Follow this link and learn a little of the Netherlands dynamic which prompted Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende to implore his countrymen to remain calm in the face of this killing.

2004-11-04T04:34:00.000-08:00

Moonbeams

2004-11-04T04:18:00.000-08:00

A Level head in the Storm

What I like in a leader

"It was on Air Force One on election day that strategist Karl Rove started calling around to get the results of early exit polls. But the line kept breaking down. The only information that came through as the plane descended was a BlackBerry message from an aide that simply read: "Not good." Not long afterward, Rove got a more detailed picture and told the President and senior aides the bad news. Florida Governor Jeb Bush had been saying the state was looking good, and the Bush team had expected to be ahead in Ohio. But Kerry was leading everywhere. "I wanted to throw up," said an aide onboard. Bush was more philosophical: "Well, it is what it is," he told adviser Karen Hughes."

Source (today's date).

2004-11-04T03:07:00.000-08:00

Precision Gloating Acceptable

Derbyshire has a collection of appropriate targets to gloat at, in an otherwise air of calm, reserve, and humility in the glow of an absolute popular and electoral vote victory.

2004-11-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

First thought - post Bush (praise the Lord!)

The red counties, thus far posted on USA Today, are not so red as we may wish to believe. 'Majorities' are only that. In, reality, they are purple, albeit obviously weighted Red. My county, comfortably in flyover country is no exception. In this vein, I give grudging assent to the line of Barak Obama. That is, nothing is black and white as we give glancing acknowledgment to. My position is predicated upon the simple reason of my Americanhood. I prefer to get along with my fellow citizens. Mark Levin vociferously intones not to let my guard down; he says the Left will grow only more ascerbic. I will not. Still, the Blue people who are my neighbors are appreciated and endeared. I will not spit on them, even if their sentiments are bitter. I'm going to stand firm! We won!

When my neighbors inevitably begin to espouse their bitterness and lift up (the elated) Hillary Clinton, I'm going to smile and shake my head. If they persist, I'll say, "Bring it on!"

And Bring-it-on we will. We have no choice. None at all. Michael Moore isn't going away (he earned a lot of money in this cycle).

2004-11-03T05:31:00.000-08:00

YES!

Bush 51% v. Kerry 48% -- margin: some 3.5 million votes

"It's over. The first thing out the door was the Boston Red Sox cap, then the barn coat, and his wife was about ready to throw him out, too," said Mike Barnacle. "Yeah, and don't forget the Bruce Springsteen guitar pick," added Don Imus.

Passing remarks, but indicative of the truth of Kerry's and the Demcrat Party's disconnect with we 'red' of heart and mind. Bush garnered more popular votes than Ronaldus Magnus. W is our legitimately elected President. If the Left continues to complain about 2000 now, the problem rests clearly with them. If 'Lord Haw Haw' Moore continues with the hate speech, he has mental health and behavioral issues which he should see to immediately.

Also: So long Tommy Boy!

2004-11-02T14:59:00.000-08:00

Bust low and keep your head bowed!

That's what my high school football coach ground into me. Plow into someone like that, like you mean it! Win or lose, hit hard and keep your head up.

The exit polls spell cyclical doom for those of us in the right corner. But they are just polls. They are not the results. Oh far from it! They are the gleeful, gyrational spin of the MSM spinmeisters. It's 2000 all over. It's 2002 all over. And the spinmeisters soiled their pants (big-time) on each occasion. Votes count, and nothing else! Everytime.

As I told my fellow blogger Kelli, I have been unnaturally calm most of the day. I credit it to the fact I have stayed away from the MSM, FoxNews included. What little I have done this day, beside burp bile at Drudge, is graze on the Northern Alliance bigs, Polipundit, and The Corner. Most of what I read there (deep, so very deep, in feel-good country) is heartening.

Cheer up! I don't know enough to posit an intelligent guess. But I do know that the world will keep turning. I guarantee you this: whatever happens, the passion that I, and the friends and (highly valued) commenters who come here regularly, have, will not abate. If anything, it will intensify. The war has only begun.

This conflict is far deeper than a bunch of islamofascists intent on killing us each and every one, Tiny Tim included. It encompasses our own political landscape. Everyone reading knows what that landscape is, and who it includes. Regardless of the outcome of this election, MiKail Moore will still be around, ascerbic and rotten-to-the-core as ever, and he is just the "pus-pocket' of the left - a visible blackhead.

Stay calm. Watch the returns (the high drama we have waited years for), take a deep breath and know you are not alone. If you suffer, you have lots of company, what? about half the country? If you rejoice, do so among ourselves. The urge to rub it in lies deeper with the blind, corrupt, hateful, or ignorant left. We freedom-loving center-righters have absolutely sound ideas on our side, and there isn't a lot of need to grind anything in on the loser. Right has no need for hate.

2004-11-02T11:14:00.000-08:00

Go!, Go!, Go!, Go!

I watched the first man in my precinct vote at 6:00 am, and I went in eighth. Three inches of rain soaked the ground last night and into this morning, but folks kept coming and coming to cast their votes, here in my red state county.

May every single last one of the 'red staters' ( in heart and mind, if not geographically) vote to keep the historic and courageous leadership Bush has shown these last four years.

2004-11-01T20:42:00.000-08:00

To the polls!

2004-11-01T20:26:00.000-08:00

Go George W Bush!

2004-11-01T19:54:00.000-08:00

What you know but do not hear...

The great problems today, Iranian and Korean nuclear power, the coming baby-boom on Social Security and Medicare, immigration, health care, and dependency on foreign oil, are the intractible ones. They are the issues that fester like the wound from a rusty nail in the heal of our national foot. None of them were addressed hard and head-on by either candidate, because a politician can go only so far and remain viable.

Proof? Look at the Keyes - Obama race in Illinois. Mr Alan tells it like it is; there isn't a lot of soft rhetoric in his argument. And he will lose...because he speaks his mind to the detriment of his viability... yet he speaks from his heart, God bless him!

If the public won't abide honest discussion of clear problems -- and our leaders can't lead opinion -- then the problems simply fester. In this campaign, neither Bush nor Kerry has risen above that dilemma.

That suggests that many of our largest social problems will progressively worsen until they get so bad that we're forced to deal with them. Or they deal harshly with us. This is the true deadlock, and it may be incurable.

These are the words of Robert Samuelson, WaPo columnist. I agree. Our political campaigns are about one-upmanship in the world of talking points and surveys. It's about the spin and how 'evil' one candidate can make the other look. Mr Samuelson does have a point, re the deadlock.

We often wish our candidate would just 'blow and go' with the truth...really let the other guy 'have it'. But that doesn't happen, because the respective campaigns have to keep it in line, else votes will be lost! Again, Alan Keyes is a case in point.

Mr Samuelson quotes 19th century British historian James Bryce: "public opinion stands out . . . as the great source of power, the master of servants who tremble before it". True then. True today. Alas, foresake, and foresooth.

In any event, the long-anticipated election shall occur.

2004-11-01T18:14:00.000-08:00

Tom Wolfe on the Eve of Hell

This story is from The Guardian. I have kept away from my blog, because I am sick of this. Sick of it all. All. Catatonic is a good word for my state of mind the past 48 hours. The pundits have shrilled. The politicians have spun out to the same decibal level. I tuned in because I can't help myself. Then I saw this article on Drudge (my 'home page'). It is written by (pardon my last minute, uncivil anger) leftist pig-dogs.

As he notes, the America which votes tomorrow is a country riven over morality like never before. On the flip side of the culture of ubiquitous sex is that of puritan Christianity, as harnessed in no small part by Bush. "Yes, there is this puritanism," says Wolfe, "and I suppose we are talking here about what you might call the religious right. But I don't think these people are left or right, they are just religious, and if you are religious, you observe certain strictures on sexual activity - you are against the mainstream, morally speaking. And I do have sympathy with them, yes, though I am not religious. I am simply in awe of it all; the openness of sex. In the 60s they talked about a sexual revolution, but it has become a sexual carnival."

I do think Mr Tom called that one right. Those of us here in fly-over country are not the shrill school teachers heard in Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'. Contrary to popular east and west coast belief, we are not the hard task masters of their rotten, modern day fable. Au contrare, mon frere, we are, indeed, kinder and gentler. We just know right from wrong, and are proud of our diminishing capablilites in so discerning. W rings true.

"Indeed, I was at a similar [NYC] dinner, listening to the same conversation [informed 'fly-overs' know the drill], and said: 'If all else fails, you can vote for Bush.' People looked at me as if I had just said: 'Oh, I forgot to tell you, I am a child molester.' I would vote for Bush if for no other reason than to be at the airport waving off all the people who say they are going to London if he wins again. Someone has got to stay behind."

Mr Tom, may that be the case. I will be here, and so will a whole lot of my friends, kith, and kin.

"I think support for Bush is about not wanting to be led by East-coast pretensions. It is about not wanting to be led by people who are forever trying to force their twisted sense of morality onto us, which is a non-morality. That is constantly done, and there is real resentment. Support for Bush is about resentment in the so-called 'red states' - a confusing term to Guardian readers, I agree - which here means, literally, middle America [note that is from where I hail, and so state]. I come from one of those states myself, Virginia. It's the same resentment, indeed, as that against your own newspaper when it sent emails targeting individuals in an American county." Wolfe laughs as he chastises. "No one cares to have outsiders or foreigners butting into their affairs. I'm sure that even many of those Iraqis who were cheering the fall of Saddam now object to our being there. As I said, I do not think the excursion is going well."

What will life be like, for us political animals, come November 3rd? Times like this, and I envy the life of the Amish, who are all blissfully and faithfully removed from the animus of 'the English'.

"I do think," he admits, apparently speaking for himself, his country and his president, "that if you are not having a fight with somebody, then you are not sure whether you are alive when you wake up in the morning."

With that, I think we Americans are acutely animate. God bless us all. In the end, we are all children of Abraham, come what may...

2004-10-31T12:48:00.000-08:00

That's why, dearest

It's amazing when you think about it. The media, the United Nations, the French and the Democrats have thrown everything imaginable, fair and unfair, at Bush, and he still leads by double digits on the issue of who's better at fighting the war on terrorism and winning in Iraq.

And so it is. We have heard from the left, to the top of our ringing ears, capillaries all a-bust, about the silencing of dissent in this administration. That's like Lizzie Borden wielding her famous hand ax, shouting "Murderer!" as she cleaves into her poor papa's head... Times seem that insane.

Jonah Goldberg delivers a pretty fine analogy concerning the Iraq war:

If you live in a house infested by rats, you may think it's OK to tolerate them for a while. They're just a "nuisance," as John Kerry might say. You might, if you're Bill Clinton, tolerate a series of "minor" rat attacks. But when one of your children dies from a bite, you do everything you can to kill the rats and plug up all the rat holes to protect your family. You don't care which specific rat was responsible for the death. You simply do everything necessary to make sure nothing like that ever happens again. In the post-9/11 world George Bush faced a world with a lot of rat holes. The most obvious, urgent and "doable" rat hole was in Baghdad.

2004-10-31T12:27:00.000-08:00

Vacuous, Kerry's campaign

The Dems got a full tank from FDR, a top-up in the Civil Rights era, and they've been running on fumes for 30 years. Their last star, Bill Clinton, has no legacy because, deft as he was, his Democratic Party had no purpose other than as a vehicle for promoting his own indispensability. When he left, the Democrats became a party running on personality with no personalities to run. Hence, the Kerry candidacy. Despite the best efforts of American editorialists, there's no there there. -- Mark Steyn

2004-10-29T17:07:00.000-07:00

Silent No Longer - 9/11 Families

Begged to post the letter...

With patience and tenacity, 217 or so signatories passed this letter to the Bush/Cheney campaign. It was a difficult task, because the campaign remained adament that it did not wish to use the grief of 9/11 as a campaign issue. You see, the Bush people were cowered by the MoveOn.org politics of rage and shyed away from the heart of this most seminal of core issues.

The Letter.

We speak to you now in the same spirit that you spoke to us then, as Americans, united on behalf of our country. Like many of you, we feel that our nation is poised at a critical moment in history. Like our parents and grandparents before us, we know that the choices we make today will affect our children tomorrow. But we face a new challenge, a new kind of war and an enemy who is different from the enemies faced by earlier generations. This is not an adversary who can be reasoned with or appeased, this is an adversary who has repeatedly demonstrated that its means and ends are one and the same: the wanton slaughter of innocents.

* * * *

We speak to you from the heart, as citizens from all across the country and every political stripe. We are Republicans and Democrats, “liberals” and “conservatives,” young and old. We are mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters and friends. We speak out from a profound sense of obligation to those we have lost and to the country that we love. Guided by core principles, President Bush has steadfastly told us who he is, what he believes and what he will fight for. He is a caring and decisive leader who is not afraid to make hard choices to keep this nation safe, by keeping it strong. He has sent a clear message to America’s friends and foes that he will not waver in his resolve as the winds of political fortune change. He will not revert to the failed policies of the past which only served to whet the appetite of those who would destroy us. He will stand firm against our adversaries.

* * * *

Three years ago, George W. Bush stood with us and vowed that he would “Never forget.”

We stand with him now.

This from Chrenkoff, who posts more from these folks:

"And lastly we told the campaign, 'Will the Bush/Cheney campaign, out of its sense of respect for us, inadvertently do what the mainstream media has done to us and refuse to give a public voice to our support for President Bush? Will November 2nd come and go without America knowing that 242 (now 248) 9/11 family members recognize and greatly appreciate President Bush's relentless pursuit of terrorists and those that harbored them? Before the election, will voters be kept from knowing that a large group of 9/11 family members--whom we believe represent a huge majority of 9/11 family members--believe President Bush was right to free Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power due to his history of supporting terrorism (including bin Laden and al Qaeda) and harboring terrorists such as Abu Abbas, Abu Nidal, and Abu Zarqawi?'

2004-10-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

“Lord Haw-Haw of the war on terror.”

That would be Michael Moore. Source.

Also, this wonderful observation on the great hero of the proletariat and all slackers, from David Frum:

Moore arrived late in his trademark jeans, shirt, working man’s jacket, and baseball cap. One of the BBC producers made a joke about the contrast between his outfit and my own Washington-standard-issue blue suit and red tie. I replied that I’d noticed that Moore was wearing a watch that cost at least fifteen times as much as every article of clothing on my body. I learned later that he’d arrived by private jet. Ave et salute, tribune of the plebs!

ADDENDUM: Who WAS Lord Haw-Haw? See here.

2004-10-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

SwiftVets Site

Okay, folks. We got it finally. We have the Former Secretary of the Navy who stated, "Yes, Kerry did receive an Other Than Honorable Discharge".
Stay tuned for more...
Now to MAKE THE MEDIA AND CONGRESS LISTEN!
Go my brothers and sisters -- spread the news to everyone!!!!
- Chief

Don't know what this means. As the Chief directs, I'll stay tuned.

UPDATE: "Content removed at the request of the author. Stay tuned for updates. Will re-open the topic when we have further info."

2004-10-29T05:28:00.000-07:00

Bush v Kerry 47-47

"The election is four days away and we are right back where we started, in a toss-up," pollster John Zogby said. "Kerry had a good day today."

UPDATE: But Daily News columnist Sidney Zion writes of his own post-Novak conversation with Mr Zogby, and this is what Zogby 'really' says: "It's close," he said, "but in the last couple of days things have been trending toward Kerry - nationally and in the swing states. Between this and history, I think it will be Kerry."

To keep things interesting, Zion refers to the current British betting line: "The latest line from sunny old England makes Bush, in their funny lingo, a 4-7 favorite. (Vegas would say it 7-4.) That's almost 2-to-1."

UPDATE:Hugh Hewitt: Look for uneasy Democrats to desert Kerry this weekend even as he deserted the military he wishes to command by ending his campaign ridiculing their magnificent achievement in liberating Iraq in three weeks. Every set-back he has assigned to them and their leadership up to the president. For his own self-interest, he has campaigned on denigrating their effectiveness and refusing to credit their successes from the rout of the Taliban, to the securing of the Afghan vote, to the suppression of the insurgency in Najaf and the looming battle to crush the Fallujah terror hub.

2004-10-29T05:22:00.000-07:00

On Broadway in Paducah

2004-10-29T05:06:00.000-07:00

"A Gift to the Army of North Vietnam from the Students of Berkley California”

Another great American speaks his mind.

Kellipundit has posted the transcript of talk given by former U.S. Marine, Vietnam Veteran, and director of the WWII Museum located in Ruston, LA: Ernie Stevens. Read it.

As I told Kelli, the wheel just keeps turning...

2004-10-29T03:02:00.000-07:00

Paul Johnson

"Quite simply, Kerry must be stopped; and Bush must win"

The great issue in the 2004 election—it seems to me as an Englishman—is, How seriously does the United States take its role as a world leader, and how far will it make sacrifices, and risk unpopularity, to discharge this duty with success and honor? In short, this is an election of the greatest significance, for Americans and all the rest of us. It will redefine what kind of a country the United States is, and how far the rest of the world can rely upon her to preserve the general safety and protect our civilization.

Finally, we hear from an eminent Brit who has his head screwed on. This is one of the finest, most powerful essays in support of George W. Bush's presidency I have yet to read.

In short, Mr Johnson identifies six reasons why John Kerry should not be elected, and he discusses the irrationality of the intellectual left's massive attack - in concert with billionaires, novelists, entertainers, European continentals, anarchists, 'the superbureaucrats of Brussels', and the mullahs - upon W.

For your edification:

There is something grimly admirable about [W's] stoicism in the face of reverses, which reminds me of other moments in history: the dark winter Washington faced in 1777-78, a time to “try men’s souls,” as Thomas Paine put it, and the long succession of military failures Lincoln had to bear and explain before he found a commander who could take the cause to victory. There is nothing glamorous about the Bush presidency and nothing exhilarating. It is all hard pounding, as Wellington said of Waterloo, adding: “Let us see who can pound the hardest.” Mastering terrorism fired by a religious fanaticism straight from the Dark Ages requires hard pounding of the dullest, most repetitious kind, in which spectacular victories are not to be looked for, and all we can expect are “blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” However, something persuades me that Bush— with his grimness and doggedness, his lack of sparkle but his enviable concentration on the central issue—is the president America needs at this difficult time.

* * * *

Anti-Americanism, like anti-Semitism, is not, of course, a rational reflex. It is, rather, a mental disease, and the Continentals are currently suffering from a virulent spasm of the infection, as always happens when America exerts strong and unbending leadership.

* * * *

I cannot recall any election when the enemies of America all over the world have been so unanimous in hoping for the victory of one candidate. That is the overwhelming reason that John Kerry must be defeated, heavily and comprehensively.

My radar will henceforth scan the horizon for further writings by Paul Johnson, an "eminent historian" and author. Regardless of 'W'ho wins, Mr Johnson is a man of great, good sense, it seems to me. I saw mention of, and a link to, it at The American Thinker.

2004-10-28T16:49:00.000-07:00

Terror Video

I'm not that different from the 'highly trained broadcast expert' R. Limbaugh when it comes to checking Drudge first thing in the morning, afternoon, evening, and whenever I log on. He's my at-home PC homepage. Our modern newsman, posts all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Often, my post-hunts begin with his page. No blog-sin there. Not all of us can stay glued to the screen (or in the alternative, have six or eight, or 20 blog-site colleagues) 18 hours a day.

So, the latest headline at Drudge is : TERROR VIDEO WARNS OF BUSH, CHENEY CONSEQUENCE.

I link...and read.

TERROR TAPE WARNS OF BUSH, CHENEY CONSEQUENCE**Exclusive**The CIA and FBI have authenticated a new al Qaeda videotape which warns of retribution for Americans electing Bush and Cheney."What took place on September 11 was but the opening salvo of the global war on America and that our Lord willing, the magnitude and ferocity of what is coming your way will make you forget all about September 11," the man, whose face is covered by a headdress, warns in the video. "After decades of American tyranny, now it's your turn to die."The alarming tape which warns the next terror attack will dwarf 9/11.The CIA and FBI late Wednesday authenticated the tape, federal sources tell DRUDGE. ABCNEWS obtained the tape from a source in Pakistan."You are guilty, guilty, guilty. You're as guilty as Bush and Cheney. You're as guilty as Rumsfeld and Ashcroft and Powell...," the man states. He goes on to warn of an upcoming horror: "The streets will run with blood," and "America will mourn in silence" because they will be unable to count the number of the dead. "People of America, that was the verdict now for the sentencing: as participants and partners in the crimes of the regime, you too shall pay the price for the blood that has been spilled."

I don't know about you, but that makes me want to take a dip of snuff! It makes me mad as hell.

I am dat-burned if I will let some islamofascist scumbag dictate to me that I should cower in fear, or vote for a liberal man who can't make his mind up, or that my countrymen need do the same. The United States of America rose from nothing - NOTHING - and in the course of a 230 some years, our frontier IDEALS have changed the face of the globe...for the better, I would add. To you Islamofascist swine who seek to sway me and my countrymen, you waste your time. I am 'everyman', and I say with confidence: you're making Hitler's and Tojo's same mistakes, 'big time'! Lenin may have thought he was on to something big, just like you do, but he was corrupt of mind and spirit, just like you.

What you and your ilk seekwith this video, and with other hairy expressions of your predilictions and over-all sensibilities, is to cower the American electorate. You seek, by your stupid, fallacious, condemnations of George W. Bush, to sway us to a gentler, more cowardly sensibility. Sorry! No one in my corner cares to bend gently, whimpering quietly, as your sword of hate descends on our collective neck. You've done nothing but put another layer of cement on my long-standing CONVICTION to vote for the re-election of our President.

You cannot fool, sway, or scare me into voting for a liberal, brown-nosing internationalist. 70% of the French may want Kerry elected, but not "this ol' boy". Go on, take your Islamic laws into the streets of Marseilles. I have sense enough to know we are grinding through a significant stretch of world-play dynamics and history. I have sense enough to know an evil movement when I see one. You guys either want us 'converted' or killed. You fellows are my enemy. Bring. It On.

God - I don't spell His name 'Allah' (God is a bit too large for limitation of that sort) - doesn't take sides. And I believe, unequivocally, that my side is His side. I've lived a few years, studied a fair amount, and drawn a few of my own conclusions. Conclusion #1: Our Almighty is a loving God. #2: He gave us free-will. #3. We are to love our brother as we love ourself. #4. Islamofascism has scrambled the meaning of the first, has no concept of the second, and utterly disregards the third.

So that brings us back to the article. ABC News doesn't want to air this video. 'Too political,' they say. Afraid, it might sway the election. Yeah, right. Just like the discredited Al QaQaa story, and all the soundbites the enlightened fellows were only too glad to repeat ad nauseum the past 48 hours...the past 48 days (Rathergate, eg). You Spinmeisters! You don't want to run it because it will touch the American heart like it has touched mine! You fellows believe the American heart rests with east coast, effete sentimentalities - those aligned with the French and the Belgians!

"A member of al Qaeda who professes to be a U.S. citizen was always coveted and looked for by the al Qaeda," said Jack Cloonan, a former FBI agent who interviewed a number of captured al Qaeda members and is now an ABC News consultant. Cloonan said he believed the tape to be authentic.

Azzam makes references to several American officials, including 9/11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean, and even refers to the controversial remarks made by comedian Bill Maher about the cowardice of the U.S. launching cruise missiles compared with terrorist suicide attacks.

America is a big place. Room for all, including evil, religious zealots. But just because we are free and open doesn't mean we can't call a zealot a zealot. Bill Maher is in league with John Kerry and Jane Fonda. How does it feel, Bill? Your brave words have given aid and comfort to those who wish us dead. You, sir, are indeed a 'patriotic' American, in the most cynical, warped sense of the adjective. Talk on!

"People of America, I remind you of the weighty words of our leaders, Osama bin Laden and Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri, that what took place on Sept. 11 was but the opening salvo of the global war on America," said Azzam. "And that Allah willing, the magnitude and ferocity of what is coming your way will make you forget all about Sept. 11." Source.

We don't forget, 'Azzam.' We get even. The upcoming election is a turning point in this, the latest tide of human history. If W prevails, we will right this global inequity sooner. If he does not win, half of us will stay on task, come hell or high water. I am not fool enough to expect comfortable, lax, 'touchy-feely' times in the coming days. It is the coming storm!

See also this grand rant by Le Shawn Barber. Polipundit picked it up, and Barber's star continues to rise. Go girl! Captain's Quarters also holds ABC to the fire.

As always, remain calm, steadfast, and vote 'W'!

2004-10-28T05:11:00.000-07:00

Oil prices fall after US report

This BBC report explains the drop in prices (still sky high) is due to "US government data showed that crude stocks were up four million barrels on the week," but prices "will continue to face upward pressure." Assuredly so.

Demand for oil has expanded strongly in 2004, led by China's economic boom and continuing high consumption in the US.

Supply concerns centre on Iraq as well as the ongoing possibility of labour disputes in Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, and Norway, the world's third biggest crude exporter.

How long before the US population converts to small vehicles, ala the late '70s and early '80s? I, for one, no longer have the itch to tool around in a 3/4 ton Chevy pickup...

2004-10-28T04:51:00.000-07:00

Bush up 48-46

"It's close, it's close, it's close," pollster John Zogby said. "The candidates are locked in a dead heat among Catholics, young voters, voters over 70, men and women, and independents."

2004-10-28T04:47:00.000-07:00

JFnK! Trash Putin, not your President. Al-Qaqaa!

As seen on Drudge last evening:

GERTZ // THURSDAY // WASH TIMES: Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned. John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, “almost certainly” removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.

Have mercy! Russia was right there with France and Germany, howling in anger and dismay that the US would invade Iraq. And now, it is no wonder; they almost got caught!

"The Russians brought in, just before the war got started, a whole series of military units," Mr. Shaw said. "Their main job was to shred all evidence of any of the contractual arrangements they had with the Iraqis. The others were transportation units."

Mr. Shaw, who was in charge of cataloging the tons of conventional arms provided to Iraq by foreign suppliers, said he recently obtained reliable information on the arms-dispersal program from two European intelligence services that have detailed knowledge of the Russian-Iraqi weapons collaboration.

Bill Gertz's story is here.

A second defense official said documents on the Russian support to Iraq reveal that Saddam's government paid the Kremlin for the special forces to provide security for Iraq's Russian arms and to conduct counterintelligence activities designed to prevent U.S. and Western intelligence services from learning about the arms pipeline through Syria.

The Russian arms-removal program was initiated after Yevgeny Primakov, the former Russian intelligence chief, could not persuade Saddam to give in to U.S. and Western demands, this official said.

Mr. Shaw said he believes that the withdrawal of Russian-made weapons and explosives from Iraq was part of plan by Saddam to set up a "redoubt" in Syria that could be used as a base for launching pro-Saddam insurgency operations in Iraq.

Pro-Saddam insurgency operations? Help from the Russians? It is a topsy-turvy world, indeed.
The story concludes with the DoD opinion that Russia "can provide information on what happened to the Iraqi weapons and explosives that were transported out of the country," as well as "explain what happened to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs."

This is powerful stuff, but I don't believe we are going to hear from the Russians before next Tuesday.

2004-10-27T19:03:00.000-07:00

A new blog to visit

John McDonald: The Right Scale.

Click his site. He writes clearly and succinctly, and he is decidely right of center. Henceforth, I will check for his insight.

Here, he does a run on Kerry's numbers. Comforting.

2004-10-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

WMD's smuggled from Iraq: UNMOVIC

This report is from June 18th? Real or no?

Late last week, the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) briefed the Security Council on Saddam's lightning-fast dismantling of missile and WMD sites before and during the war. UNMOVIC executive chairman Demetrius Perricos detailed not only the export of thousands of tons of missile components, nuclear reactor vessels and fermenters for chemical and biological warheads, but also the discovery of many (but not most) of these items - with UN inspection tags still on them -- as far afield as Jordan, Turkey and even Holland.

Jan, if you're reading, take note.

You probably haven't heard about Canada's Prime Minister Paul Martin either -- a socialist and no friend of America. Addressing a group of 700 university researchers and business leaders in Montreal last month, Martin stated bluntly that terrorists have acquired WMDs from Saddam. “The fact is that there is now, we know well, a proliferation of nuclear weapons, and that many weapons that Saddam Huseein had, we don't know where they are…. [T]errorists have access to all of them,” the Canadian premier warned.

Disturbing!

The character of our foreign enemies has never been in doubt. The character of the enemy within -- from Dan Rather to Michael Moore -- has never been clearer. And the stakes are the highest they've ever been.

2004-10-27T18:13:00.000-07:00

Iraqi Interim Government has Website!

It's new, and under construction. Nevertheless, despite the fact that it has not been updated since October 9, 2004, I appreciate that folks in this fledgling (struggling) government have put the 'establishment' on the line, for all to see.

Will they have the comfort of another four years of President Bush's rock-solid commitment, or will they, in their long, hard sprint toward freedom and democracy, be forced to look to the side lines, and see the corpulant visage of Micheal Moore sneering at them from the sidelines, yelling "wrong war, at the wrong time!"?

Pray for George.

2004-10-27T17:23:00.000-07:00

Moth on far side of Pane.

2004-10-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

Lileks finely fisks Andy Sullivan's tortured logic

Or: Karl Rove and Micheal Moore uniting as one?

James Lileks skewers Mr Sullivan's tortured logic behind his recent endorsement of Kerry. It had to come. As always this 'house dad' is brilliant, and a joy to read:

And let us shed a tear for those who believed it was necessary after 9/11 to knock off Saddam and establish a beachhead in the region ‘twixt Iran and Syria, but later ran away shrieking like freshly skinned rabbits because it had somehow, by some odd turn of events, turned into a partisan affair. What scared them off? Who knows? Just happened, I guess. Somewhere between the brutal Afghan winter, the interminable quagmire of the operational pause en route to Baghdad – all 72 hours of it - and the devastating supposition that the turkey Bush presented on Thanksgiving may not have been the actual fowl consumed by the troops, we realized that the war was all failure and lies and failed lies about lying failures, and we can’t do anything and the Plan was wrong and Mission Accomplished, yeah right. Oh, and We Support the Troops.

Who gets more media traction in this heated media-saturated climate? Rove-like Opportunists, or Moore-like Haters?

Beats me. More:

Oh, surely. But maybe - just maybe - many people did not want the country to be united if it meant being united behind Bush. He is a much more potent and immediate threat, after all. Who’s heard from Osama lately? Meanwhile Bush is out there every day handling snakes and speaking in tongues and supergluing parapalegics to wheelchairs, because his weird-beard God loves suffering and commands him – via text-messaging, for all we know – to kill them oily rag-heads. I mean, today I was behind a car whose bumpersticker had a picture of Bush with the slogan "American Terrorist." I know that driver was so behind Bush before he failed - in a fundamental way - to convince the driver he was not equivalent to Abu Nidal. Probably because he misprounced "Nuclear." Farking moron.

Keeping the country united? Good luck. Imagine FDR running a war with a press composed of cynical snickerers who derided the president as a rich old cripple who thought the best way to defeat Tojo was a war in North Africa and preached defeat every day through the hard slog of the Pacific theater. Imagine running a war with an entertainment industry that declined to make a single movie about the conflict - why, imagine a "Casablanca" where Rick and Sam argue about whether America started it all because they didn’t support the League of Nations. Imagine a popular radio drama running through the early 40s about a smart, charismatic, oh-so-intellectual Republican president whose bourbon baritone mocked FDR’s patrician whine, a leader who took no guff from Stalin OR Hitler! Lux Soap brings you, The West Wing of the White House! Imagine Thomas Dewey’s wife in 1944 callling the WW2 a war for oil; imagine former vice presidents insisting that FDR had played on our fears after Pearl Harbor. Imagine all that.

Read all of James Lileks rant. He isn't paid the big bucks - on the side - for nothing. Handles his pen with ease. Makes me feel better, too.

2004-10-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

Winning the War

Columnist Ralph Peters's long-time military buddy requested that Mr Peters write one more 'Our Guys Are Winning the War' column before election day. He did.

"Kerry's rhetoric is giving the bad guys a thread to hang on," wrote the soldier. "They're hoping we lose our nerve. They're more concerned with the U.S. elections than with the Iraqi ones."

My pal has been involved in every phase of our Iraq operations — dating back to Desert Storm. And he's convinced that the terrorists have risked everything to create as much carnage as they can before Nov. 2. Our troops are killing them left and right. The terrorists are desperate. They can't sustain this tempo of attacks much longer.

But Sen. Kerry insists that we're losing — giving our enemies hope that we'll pull out. No matter what else John Kerry may say, the terrorists only hear his criticisms of our president and our war.

You know...Kerry has come full circle. That's how he started his political career, by giving aid and comfort to the enemy. He has gotten much better at it. Instead of fronting the VVAW, now he speaks for the entire DNC. Go John!

Muqtada al-Sadr is quiet as a mouse. Najaf is being rebuilt. Two-thirds of Iraq's provinces are quiet. We never see any headlines about our Kurdish allies in northern Iraq — because they're building a successful modern society in the Middle East. Good-news stories aren't welcome in our undeniably pro-Democratic media.

Even the French are uncharacteristically subdued. The serpents of the Seine thought they'd seduced the terrorists with a few anti-American apples. Instead, they've found that they can't even free two kidnapped French journalists.

After their own recent terrorist debacle, the Russians repented their criticism of the Bush administration. The Spanish, too, discovered that appeasement doesn't work any better for them than for the French — an Islamist plot to blow up justice-ministry buildings was recently uncovered. And there's more to come.

One hears little of the northern Kurds, except that they might be an incendiary factor in a free Iraq. I do not believe it! Kurds aren't reported on precisely because things are decently well there. Twinkie-eating cleric al-Sadr was reported on the other day -- on NPR -- he wants in on the politics, but commentators WARNED that if he couldn't fit in, well, then he was gonna call his jojos back up (they'd find arms and munitions somewhere) and they WOULD fight again... you know NPR, they can't say anything that leaves a warm impression on Bush or conservatives.

Of course, the United Nations is still doing everything it can to undercut President Bush. Embarrassed by Oil-for-Food corruption revelations, the U.N. would like to get back to the good old days of the Clinton administration, which winked at outright U.N. criminality.

We do a fair amount of reading in the papers and on the internet. Does anyone know whether Kerry criticizes the United Nations? Even on a limited or sporadic basis? . . . . Didn't think so.

The terrorists are pulling out all the stops to shed blood in Iraq this week. While the media makes every mortar round sound like the end of the world, the encouraging news is that the terrorists haven't been able to do more. They can harass convoys and murder civilians — but they haven't budged our troops or the new Iraqi government.

Of course, the terrorists aren't suddenly going to quit if President Bush wins at the polls — but his re-election would be a terrible psychological blow to them. They know how high the stakes are in Iraq.

The struggle isn't just about the fate of one country, but about the future of the entire Middle East. If freedom and the rule of law get even a 51 percent victory in Iraq, it's the beginning of the end for the terrorists and the vicious regimes that bred them.

Al Qaeda and its affiliates are rapidly using up the human capital they've accumulated over decades. The casualties in Iraq are overwhelmingly on the terrorist side. Extremist leaders have paid a particularly heavy price. But they won't stop fighting because they can't. The terrorists have to win in Iraq. They have to defeat America.

The astonishing thing is that so many of our fellow Americans don't get it. The terrorists aren't committing their shrinking reserves because the outcome's a trivial matter. They recognize the magnitude of what we're helping the Iraqi people achieve.

Yes, sir.

2004-10-27T06:05:00.000-07:00

JFKerry -- no enemy of the enemy

He was a communist stooge, as Polipundit puts it. If one reads carefully between the lines of two recently unearthed documents, and then couples the intelligence with Kerrys anti-war activities, one can certainly draw that conclusion.

The communist regime in Hanoi monitored closely and looked favorably upon the activities of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War during the period Senator Kerry served most actively as the group's spokesman and a member of its executive committee, two captured Viet Cong documents suggest.

So goes the opening paragraph of this New York Sun article. The captured documents have been housed in a massive set of archives located at Texas Tech University at Lubbock. "The Circular and the Directive are listed as items numbered 2150901039b and 2150901041 respectively."

On July 23, 1971, The New York Times reported that Mr. Kerry held a demonstration in Washington in support of the "seven-point peace proposal" and, according to the Times, "Mr. Kerry, who is 27 years, introduced wives, parents and sisters of prisoners to plead for support."

The Times's dispatch stated that Mr. Kerry charged "...the latest Vietcong peace offer in Paris, which promises the release of prisoners as American troops are withdrawn, is being ignored by Mr. Nixon..."

The circular in the Texas archive states, "The antiwar movements in the US are trying to find means to cooperate... They are also trying by all means to support the seven-point peace proposal (of the PRG) [Viet Cong] and oppose the distorted interpretation made by the White House, the Pentagon and CIA."

Kerry and NPR are spouting off about 380 tons of explosives missing from an Iraqi ammo dump before US forces ever got to it (a last week, planned DNC/CBS 'surprise'). He uses it to condemn Bush in the area of national security. This insight into Kerry's motive and intent during the Vietnam War is also within the area national security. Which do you believe is the more significant of the two? Is there even a comparison to be made?

Makes me want to take a dip of snuff... Tell your friends and acquaintances, please.

2004-10-27T05:37:00.000-07:00

Bush Transforms Conservative America

'Bushism'

Our politically and economically astute, erudite British writer friends are at it again. John Mickelthwaite and Adrian Woolridge, who write regularly in the Economist, and are authors of The Right Nation, have a piece in the WSJ this morning that is a must read.

We have seen an incredibly active Bush administration. He has accomplished more in one term than many two-term Presidents. His view of conservatism is not the view of Ronald Reagan, or Barry Goldwater. Reagan said famously, "Big government is the problem, not the solution." But W hasn't said that...or acted in that manner...

The most surprising change has been the rise of "big government conservatism." Ever since the Goldwater campaign of 1963-64, conservatism has defined itself as an antigovernment creed. Barry Goldwater proclaimed that he had little interest in reforming government, "for I mean to reduce its size." Ronald Reagan proclaimed that "government is the problem, not the solution." The Republican Class of '94 believed that "government is dumb while markets are smart" (to borrow a phrase from Dick Armey)--and set about balancing the budget and cutting popular government programs.

But Mr. Bush has been different: an avowed conservative who is nevertheless willing to embrace big government. The massive growth in the state during this presidency (faster than under Bill Clinton, even if you exclude the spending on the war on terror) owes a fair amount to opportunism--to Mr. Bush's willingness to pay off friends in the business world or a refusal to pick a fight with allies in GOP-controlled Congress (he has not wielded his veto pen once). But at its heart it is a deliberate strategy. He came to office planning to expand the Department of Education (an institution the Gingrichistas had planned to abolish). And he laced his acceptance speech at the GOP convention with promises to use government to improve people's lives.

Is this, as many conservatives fear, a move to the left? Mr. Bush was certainly worried by the way that Gingrich Republicanism had apparently alienated suburban Americans. But he is no Nixon, flying in Harvard professors to fine-tune the Great Society. He has had a more ambitious aim: to turn government into an agent of conservative values. Hence the emphasis on choice and accountability to force public-sector bureaucracies to act more like the private sector. And hence the enthusiasm for using government departments to promote conservative values such as sexual abstinence and responsible fatherhood. Before Mr. Bush, conservatives had assumed that the only way to win the battle against what Michael Barone has dubbed "soft America" was to shrink government. Mr. Bush has pioneered a different strategy--to "harden" government itself.

The writers also discuss the social issues upon which W has remained steadfastly loyal and in league with his Christian conservative base. Fascinating, well-informed reading. Mikelthwaite and Woolridge are 'fair and balanced'.

2004-10-27T05:06:00.000-07:00

Bush leads Kerry 48-47

2004-10-26T18:29:00.000-07:00

Iranian Intellectual Struggle

Imagine, Michael Moore is making money from the terror masters that want to destroy us.

It is working. I have spoken to people returning from inside of Iran and there has been a huge shift in the public’s perception of our President and his intentions. Perhaps fewer than 10% of young people in Iran now trust our President. The people of Iran assume that if this film was created in America, it must be accurate.

That is treason, folks, if the word has meaning anymore. Who believes the ruling mullahs would disseminate a film on a mass scale if they did not believe it furthered their cause? Regime Change Iran is a superb, Iran-freedom-movement blog, and this post appears to be in keeping.

However, interested people aren't just sitting around, letting the lib-across-the-world juggernaut roll at will.

To counter this perception, I have been working overtime to arrange for broadcast into Iran portions of several new films refuting the claims of Fahrenheit 9/11 and other propaganda.

Today, the first film excerpt is ready to be broadcast on one of the most popular Iranian opposition satellite broadcast stations, AzadiTV (Azadi means freedom in Persian). We have received permission to air 30 minutes of the new film Fahrenhype 9/11. It has been dubbed in Persian and will air hopefully daily for the next week.

I have commented my thanks to this warrior for truth. Do so yourself.

2004-10-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

6 in 10 look for post-election misery

Is that the way it is going to be? So say some. If it is going to be that way, then I hope Kerry wins, because the last four years have been nothing if not a shade miserable. What with the legion of whiners and moaners: "selected not elected!" Yes, I would rather be here in the blogosphere, among those bright minds who divine instead of whine. Yes, sir.

"I read the other day that there's going to be a perfect storm," Jack Martin, a businessman who lives near Salt Lake City, said of the growing number of lawsuits. "I think it's coming down to the courts. It worries me about our election system. I used to think every vote counts."

Both parties already have filed lawsuits over a variety of complaints -- from how provisional ballots are counted to alleged fraud in voter registration. Judges in several states have issued disparate rulings on provisional ballots, which are required under law for voters who show up at the polls only to find their names are not on the voter rolls.

I just want a good night's sleep when this is over. Let the micro-whiners whine away. There will come a time ("soon, but not yet") when we all wake up fresh, and carry on ((I pray W wins BIG!)).

2004-10-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

Rain and Rainbow - Kentucky Lake

2004-10-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

Hugh's take

"Kerry&Co. have been trying to run up the middle for 3 quarters and 12 minutes, and they have negative yards rushing. So what do they do? Run up the middle. Among the worst campaigns in American political history. " Check out a biggie take.

That's bold. Kerry's campaign hasn't been run as well as it could have been (my feelings aren't hurt, mind you). Neither has W's, but I have enjoyed his (too few) hard hits. The Dukakis campaign was laughable. Mondale's campaign was high comedy, and the final vote bore it out. This final vote will not bear out Kerry's incompetence. That's my prediction.

My prayer is this: The final tally will be not close enough to permit valid bickering of any sort.

Heaven forbid it falls to Kerry. In the unlikely event it does, we conservatives have enough red meat to last us the rest of our natural born lives. Right-of-center bloggers and commenters will blog and speak on, hard. The truth is what it is; won't change. We conservatives have, and will always be possessed of, the correct slant. Liberals may be masters of the slant, the 'emotive', but American conservatives are masters of rational reality. The 'world' be damned. This is today.

In the likely event George W. pulls it off, the hatred of the left will intensify. It is not my intent to 'smirk' as the libbies like to say. Instead, I intend to join my like-minded brothers and sisters in the 'eternal vigilance' of our cause, i.e., the extension of freedom in all its myriad forms, of mind and heart, even if it 'hurts'...

By the way, I watched Kerry on TV for a moment tonight at a Bill Clinton Philly love-fest. Kerry was pounding away about the 380 tons of stolen explosives in Iraq. The Bush administation's failure to "guard those stockpiles" is too much to take. "This is one of the great blunders of Iraq, one of the great blunders of this administration," Kerry said. George didn't have his eye on that dynamite, folks, because he's incompetent to be your President! It's fallen into the hands of terrorists!

Drudge tallies at least 98 mentions of it in the MSM today. Fair and balanced, you know.

Dem vp hopeful John Edwards blasted Bush for not securing the explosives: "It is reckless and irresponsible to fail to protect and safeguard one of the largest weapons sites in the country. And by either ignoring these mistakes or being clueless about them, George Bush has failed. He has failed as our commander in chief; he has failed as president.

OUCH!

But tonight, NBCNEWS reported, once: The 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives were already missing back in April 10, 2003 -- when U.S. troops arrived at the installation south of Baghdad!

A senior Bush official e-mailed DRUDGE late Monday: "Let me get this straight, are Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards now saying we did not go into Iraq soon enough? We should have invaded and liberated Iraq sooner?"

OOOH!

Keep faith folks. This interchange DOES play well with Hugh Biggie's prognostication.

UPDATE: Hugh interviewed former NYC Police Commissioner Bernard Kerick on 10/26. Kerick was in Iraq for four months, from the time Baghdad fell.

"What John Kerry doesn't know or doesn't understand is that we seized more than 280,000 tons that were detonated already. We seized another 160,000 tons that are pending detonation."

Who are John Kerry and and his cronies that they would make such a big deal of 380 tonnes?

2004-10-25T06:06:00.000-07:00

It Just Keeps Looming and Looming

Jack Kelly has another theory on Bin Laden's whereabouts -- if in fact he still exists and is able to be about...

If bin Laden has bitten the dust, it is more likely because of kidney failure than from thermo-baric bombs at Tora Bora. Bin Laden has an ailment that requires dialysis three or four times a week, at 4-5 hours a session. Treatment like this is tough to get in your typical Afghan cave.

This is why I believe that if bin Laden is still alive, he mostly likely is in Iran. If he were somewhere where he could be sheltered by the state, he could get the medical care that would be tough to obtain if he were constantly on the run.

If bin Laden is in Iran, he has lots of company, according to the newspaper Asharq al Awsat. The Saudi-owned London-based daily reported on July 15 that nearly 400 members of al Qaeda, including 18 of its top leaders, have taken refuge in Iran, chiefly near the town of Chalous on the Caspian Sea coast, about 60 miles north of Tehran.

* * * *

If bin Laden is in Iran, it means that the heavy lifting has yet to be done in the war on terrorism, and the axis of evil is more tightly knit than many suppose. Chalous, the town where the al Qaeda hierarchy is said to have taken refuge, is, according to Global Security.Org, "the locale of an underground nuclear weapons facility staffed by experts from Russia, China and North Korea."

Who knows? Plenty of people. They're just not the type folk you can go asking.

2004-10-25T05:14:00.000-07:00

Comfort in shadow of West Bank Wall

Between 2001-03, there were (11) separate Palestinian suicide attacks in the Isreali city of Netanya. This year, there have been none. Israelis are relaxing more. There is less of an armed presence in the streets. Tourists are returning.

"I can walk around freely without looking at everybody that's passing me to see if he's an Arab or not an Arab, he's got explosives underneath his clothes or not," said Netanya resident Carol Shaw.

All because of the wall which has been erected on Palestinian West Bank ground, encircling one village and town after another. Leftists howl at the inhumanity and the apartheid of it. Yet, there are no more suicide killings. . . . and I don't believe there have been too many Israeli forays into the West Bank villages where the wall has been completed.

The security of its citizens is a government's most important function. The Israeli government has been effective in this regard. The International Court of Justice and half the civilized world condemns it. What's tantamount? Public safety or public opinion?

2004-10-25T04:48:00.000-07:00

Carter trash-talking again

This time, he's at it in my favorite, wretch-inducing left-wing Brit rag, The Guardian. With every new utterance from ex-President Jimmy Carter these days, it becomes more difficult to believe the American public ever gave him the honor of the highest office... Former U.S. heads of state simply should not use debasing, demoralizing language when referring to a current President.

Carter is, however, a pioneer. He is dragging down the rhetoric of the of the Presidency to the level of trash talk.