Isn't It Rich

"He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world." Benjamin Franklin

Friday, December 31, 2004

New Year, Old Habits

From my friend, Lenny Cacchio:
“Behold, I make all things new.” (Revelation 21:5)

It is a strange thing to have the new year begin in the dead of winter. Personally, I like the way the ancients did it, who started their year in the spring. I realize our new year marks approximately the time when the days start to lengthen and hence is the time of renewal of the sun. But I don’t worship the sun, and frankly I don’t feel renewed with sub-freezing temperatures and the sun setting at 4:30.

Give me spring, when the sun starts to warm, when the grass turns green, when my vegetables start to grow, and horsehide and wood make contact on the ball diamond. The ancients were right about the time of new beginnings, and indeed the Hebrew calendar and the sacred year attendant to it begin just then.

Nevertheless it is nice to have a benchmark to look back at the past year’s foibles and triumphs and look forward to the opportunities and challenges that stand before us. Like everyone else, I had my share of blessings and trials during the past year, but it is the future to which we will direct our attention here.

The words of Paul ring in our benchmarks of time when he said, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” (Ephesians 4:1) Paul was a prisoner of the Romans when he wrote those words, but like him, we are all prisoners in one sense -- prisoners of the Lord. Or rather, we should be. He will own us, but he will own us only if we let him. As his “prisoners” it behooves us to find out what our “calling” with God is, for each of us indeed has a special calling. We were not created for the 24/7 world of bustle in which we find ourselves, where our service to God is too often preempted by the demands of daily living.

The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years before entering the Promised Land, and it was not because the way was long. They became sidetracked by the frustrations of daily living. They took their eyes off God and focused on the physical limits of their being, and their desert wanderings were forty years of trudging circles in the desert. That’s the way my life feels sometimes, and, no better than the Israelites, I find myself grumbling about my daily predicaments instead of dreaming about what could be.

After Joshua and the next generation of Israelites entered the Promised Land and conquered the giants who stood in their way, Joshua arose before the people and recounted what had transpired during the previous forty years and all that God had done for them. Then he issued them a challenge: “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)

What is my calling? How can I best serve God? Those are the things to contemplate as we make things new at the beginning of this year. Between now and the real new year that begins in the spring I commit to finding the answers to those two questions."

(Interested in attending public Bible studies, where these and other topics are discussed? In the Kansas City area, call Lenny Cacchio: (816) 520-1743.)


Thursday, December 30, 2004

Peggy Noonan--"It Can All Be Swept Away in a Moment"

Be sure to read Peggy Noonan's year end piece:
The biggest story of 2004 has come, has not yet gone, and will be with us for some time. Two thousand five begins on Saturday. For the new year, two thoughts. Remember it can all be swept away in a moment, so hold it close and love it while you've got it. And may we begin 2005 pondering how much we have in common, how down-to-the-bone the same we are, and how the enemy is not the guy across the fence but the tragedy of life. We should try to make it better. We should cut to the chase.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Donation Watch

It is going to be interesting to see just how generous the critics of America (in all our "stinginess") will be to the pitiful tsunami victims. Rich Galen, posts his thoughts on the matter at his blog, Mullings.

This shouldn't be an issue at a time when one part of the world has been so devastated and so many people are hurting. It becomes an issue when misguided critics of the U.S. voice their misplaced disdain toward our charitable giving, which exceeds every other country in the world.

Blogs Flourish--Old Media Languishes

Must reading for bloggers/information junkies/media watchers: A Unified Theory of the Old Media Collapse.

From this point on Hugh Hewitt will be referred to here as the "Blogfather"; not because he was first, but because of all he has done for bloggers and blogging. Way to go, Hugh!

Welcome to Kookville!

Alan Caruba's piece, Welcome to Kookville, from the Intellectual Conservative, makes one wonder why it was so "whacked out" to believe that the UN has been dysfunctional for 50 years. Regardless, for you newcomers, as Mr. Caruba says, "Welcome to Kookville":
There are elements of the United Nations that are doing some good work. It has helped refugees. Its World Health Organization presumably tries to improve conditions. There are, I’m sure, other examples, but overall the UN is a cesspool of corruption and the nexus of evil that blithely ignores its original mandates.

So, if by now you have been or are ready to join the rest of us kooks who want the US to withdraw its support, welcome to Kookville. Welcome to the existing and growing majority of Americans who think it’s time to withdraw from the United Nations and find other means to address the world’s problems, unilaterally, bilaterally, and effectively.
If you're new to Kookville, this will be a great primer, or, if you just hate the UN for their recent atrocities, this will confirm your newly formed disdain. It wouldn't be a bad idea if you wrote your U.S. Representative to let him or her know that you would love it if we stopped funding this corrupt agency. You can locate him or her here. But, by all means, please read Caruba's entire piece.

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

"U.S. is Too Stingy"

A holier than thou socialist U.N. official claimed today that the U.S. is too stingy when it comes to contributing to disaster relief. The pathetically misguided Norwegian suggested our taxes should be raised so that our 'contributions' could be higher:
The Bush administration yesterday pledged $15 million to Asian nations hit by a tsunami that has killed more than 22,500 people, although the United Nations' humanitarian-aid chief called the donation "stingy."

"The United States, at the president's direction, will be a leading partner in one of the most significant relief, rescue and recovery challenges that the world has ever known," said White House deputy press secretary Trent Duffy.
But U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were being "stingy" with relief funds, saying there would be more available if taxes were raised.
Well, la de frickin da! Time for some of our high up politicians to start cutting WAY back on what we spend on this fraudulent organization. We can aid who we want to on our own, much more efficiently than the corrupt U.N. Their time is up!

UPDATE: Reuters is reporting that Mr. Egeland is backing off his earlier charges that the U.S. is "stingy." How very astute of him!

British Unions, Celebrities Demand that Blair Reduce World Poverty

British trade unions and celebrities (read, socialists) are insisting that Tony Blair "drastically reduce world poverty":

A coalition of British charities, campaign groups, trade unions and celebrities will today demand that Tony Blair makes dramatic changes in government policy to significantly reduce world poverty.

The group will deliver a report called Make Poverty History to the prime minister which calls for changes to trade agreements, the cancellation of developing countries' debts and big increases in aid.

In other words, these leftist groups are demanding that Britain's wealth be more equally distributed around the world to 3d and 4th world underdeveloped countries who are underdeveloped because they have corrupt governments. The poor, underdeveloped dictatorships whose people go hungry, do so because they happen to live in countries antithetical to personal liberty and free enterprise. Which, of the underdeveloped, 3d and 4th world poverty ridden countries, is supportive of capitalism, free enterprise, personal freedoms, minimal government, low taxation, and property rights? None of them! If they were supportive of those God-given rights, then they wouldn't need hand outs from freer, wealthier countries.

Socialists, the world around, including our own leftist democrats, and those at the U.N., have always denigrated capitalism and free enterprise, but because they have no viable alternative, they demand that capitalists pay for their international socialistic programs. They cannot make it on their own in the long run!

How about, for a change, we start handing out foreign aid conditionally. You know; we'll do this if you do that. We'll feed you if you make your dictator take a huge cut in pay, or better yet, overthrow him. We'll educate you if you're willing to learn about liberty and self-government. We will even come to your aid if you decide to overthrow your worthless, thieving leader, but we're not going to give you any more money while he is still in power. We'll pay you if you speak highly of us. We'll support you if you support us, but unless we have your undivided support and devotion, don't even think about getting any of our money.

Now that would be an effective foreign policy!

Monday, December 27, 2004

The Quake: Updates and Aid Links

A thorough clearing house of where you can go to help quake victims can be found at The Command Post. Updated links on quake information can be found here, here, here and here.

Instapundit Reviews Hewitt's New Book "Blog"

Glenn Reynolds, at Instapundit, reviews Hugh Hewitt's new book, Blog, just out this weekend:
I FINISHED HUGH HEWITT'S NEW BOOK ON BLOGS LAST NIGHT, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who's interested in blogs, new media, or public relations.

There's a history of blogs, an analogy between the changes blogs are bringing to the media priesthood and the Reformation (with which I heartily agree) and -- most significantly -- a lot of good advice to businesses, of both the media and non-media varieties, on how they can use blogs to help themselves, and how to avoid becoming, like Trent Lott or Dan Rather, the focus of a damaging "opinion storm." He also catches on (actually, I think Hugh was one of the first to make this point, in a post on his blog) to the importance of what Chris Anderson is calling the Long Tail -- that in the aggregate, the vast hordes of small blogs with a few dozen readers are more important than the small number of big blogs with hundreds of thousands of readers. (Here's an article on that topic by Anderson, from Wired.) I think that's absolutely right, and Hugh has some interesting things to say about it. (And journalists mostly don't get this point at all -- every time I get interviewed it seems that they want firsts, mosts, and biggests, when I keep telling them that the real story of the blogosphere is the day-to-day interaction and writing of a whole lot of blogs).

Cutting to the chase (which is what blogs do, right?): This is the best book on blogs yet, which isn't surprising since it's by a successful blogger who also knows a lot about communications and the world in general. I'm sure it will get a lot of attention within the blogosphere, but I hope that it will get a lot of attention elsewhere, because the people who really need to read it are the people who won't find out about it from blogs. Best quote: "Blogs are built on speed and trust, and the MSM is very slow and very distrusted."

posted at 10:03 AM by Glenn Reynolds

TCS: The Year Of Blogging Dangerously

Edward Driscoll's piece, The Year Of Blogging Dangerously, at Tech Central Station lists the top 10 stories which catapulted bloggers (and the internet in general), to New Media status:
...2004 will be remembered as the year the mask not only slipped, it completely came off the mainstream media. Newspapers and television networks were happy -- almost gleeful -- to toss their previously vaunted claims of objectivity into the dumpster, to help defeat a president that, almost to a man, they despised.

Fortunately, the Blogosphere was there fight to back. Coming of age on and immediately after 9/11, there were numerous bloggers who watched with a combination of horror and glee at what we saw happening to the media in 2004.

It was horrific because most bloggers actually want to see a well-functioning press: one that reports the news fairly, and offers a wide range of opinions. And ideally, doesn't mix reporting and editorializing in the same story.

On the other hand, we were gleeful, at having so many stories to debunk and so much context to fill-in.
Be sure to check out the rest of his piece.

Ben Stein on Gratitude

Ben Stein has an excellent piece in The American Spectator. It dawned on him while he and a friend were shopping in Beverly Hills just how richly and unbelievably blessed we are in this country:
"America, America, God shed His grace on thee." And then I thought of something else. None of this, absolutely none of it, would be there without the men and women of our armed forces. Every bit of what we have by virtue of being a free and prosperous nation, every ability to buy whatever book we want at Dutton's, every ability we have to come here from foreign lands and escape oppression, every speck of a chance we have to make it and become prosperous enough to have foot massages -- all of this is behind the shield of the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, National Guard and Reserves. Every speck of everything good we have by having full pantries and full stomachs is because someone fought and died for us at Bastogne or Tarawa. Every Jewish person like me or that woman getting her feet massaged owes our bare survival to the men and women who fought and won World War II. Hollywood didn't do it. The NBA didn't do it. Martha Stewart didn't do it. Donald Trump didn't do it. The U.S. Congress didn't do it. Men and women from places like Prescott, Arkansas, and Bedford, Virginia, men who we never heard of–they are the ones who did it.

While I couldn't agree more with Ben Stein, and I give him the benefit of the doubt for not stating the obvious, but we would be remiss if we didn't give God more than just a little credit for our incredible blessings. The inclusion of God in America's day to day conduct is directly proportional to our wellbeing. Unfortunately, the inverse of that is also true. If we as a country decide to exclude and/or forsake Him by insisting on secularizing everything and kick Him out of schools, courthouses, parks, and more importantly, our hearts and minds, eventually, there will be hell to pay. God has shed His grace on America. We couldn't have become this great nation with out Him.

Sunday, December 26, 2004

3 Million Displaced by Quake?

So far, DRUDGE REPORT has the best links and best reporting on the quake damage:

Moved the entire island of Sumatra about 100 feet toward the southwest; first tsunami in the Indian Ocean since 1883...

He's devoting his Sunday night radio show to the earthquake. Hat tip to Drudge! It's certainly being reported on the top and bottom of each hour on the cable shows, but it hasn't been anywhere near 'wall to wall', like some of the grating court-cases. Obviously, this is an ongoing story of unbelievable magnitude which will only intensify as more reports come in.

Go See The Aviator

The Aviator is my pick for Best Flick of the Year* with one teeny-tiny caveat; I'm a huge Howard Hughes fan; always have been, and can't remember a time when I wasn't enamored by his genius, his brass and his ability to invent and create. My wife, liked it, but didn't love it. I loved the subject matter, how it was handled and the overall look of the movie. Three, out of four thumbs up, if you take into account my wife's thumbs as well! Just make it a point to see the "Aviator."

*(I would put The Passion of The Christ in a completely different category. These films should not have to compete against each other because they are of categorically different genres. Don't ask me what category "Passion" should be in; that's for another discussion.
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio deserve big time kudos, but then, so do Mel Gibson and James Caviezel.)

Thursday, December 23, 2004

He Tabernacled Among Us

This was written by my friend, Lenny Cacchio:
More than one hundred years ago the scholar E. W. Bullinger published his Companion Bible, popular for its scholarly appendices and insights. From internal Scriptural evidence, Bullinger makes the case that Jesus could not have been born in December. More than likely his birth was in the fall of the year, specifically during the High Holy Day season at the Feast of Tabernacles.

His complex but understandable explanation is a little too involved to explain here, but if Bullinger is right, the theological typology of the birth of Christ can lend even more hope and comfort to a world in need than even the traditional Christmas story.

To the Israelites the Feast of Tabernacles depicted their forty years of wandering in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land. During the feast they lived in "booths", or "tabernacles", which were temporary dwelling places. This was to show that they were strangers and pilgrims in the wilderness and that their permanent home awaited elsewhere. (See Leviticus 23:34-43). In synagogues today the book of Ecclesiastes is read during the Feast of Tabernacles, for that book laments the temporary nature of life in the flesh and the futility of life without God. Both Peter and Paul referred to our physical bodies as tabernacles, or temporary dwellings (II Corinthians 5:1-4, II Peter 2:13-14).

Anyone with just a passing acquaintance with Christian theology knows that the death and resurrection of Christ are central to salvation. I agree with that. But Jesus' first coming has a rich connection with this ancient festival, and the typology overflows with encouragement in what might seem like hopeless times.

In John's gospel we read that "the Word became flesh and dwelt [or 'tabernacled'] among us" (John 1:14), the point being that this one who was the Word from the beginning actually emptied himself of his immortality and became a man. He took on a temporary nature and became a stranger and pilgrim. It's a noble thing to put one's life at risk for another, but it is love without limit to risk one's eternal life for those who are undeserving. That is precisely what the one called the Word has done. He emptied himself and became subject to the same aches, pains, and temptations that we have.

Put differently, Jesus understands whatever you are going through because he has been there. Have you been lonely, tempted, or afraid? Have you been wracked with pain or hungry beyond measure? Have your friends betrayed you? Have you suffered through imprisonment? Have you felt forsaken by God? Have there been times when your family didn't believe in you? Have you been hounded by your enemies or sycophants, have no where to sleep, or so beset upon that you have no time to eat? Well, because Jesus chose to tabernacle with us, he understands it all, for in the days of his flesh he experienced all those trials and more.

The writer of Hebrews says, "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:15-16)

Jesus was born, and we recognize that. But too much richness is lost by misunderstanding the context of his birth. He tabernacled among us! He understands our struggles in a way that comes only through experience. He can sympathize with our weaknesses. That's a wonderful message of hope.

Michelle Malkin Uncovers Dress Code

On December 7th I blogged that the policy makers in the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) were out of touch and "clueless":
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Big Gov't --Clueless
Air marshals are extremely unhappy with the unreasonable dress codes put upon them during the holiday season. Seems that gov't regs call for the marshals to wear suits but, alas, the vast majority of travelers going wherever holiday travelers go, don't wear suits. When was the last time you wore a suit on the plane when you were flying home for the holidays? I have an idea. Why not make the marshals wear black suits like the Secret Service and make sure they all have little microphones wired down to their wrist so they can serupticiously speak into their hand. And they could have that trademark earphone with the curly cue cord emerging from their ear going to who knows where and that unseemly bulge on the left side of their rib cage. That way they could completely blend in with the rest of the passengers. C'mon, Marshals, get with the program!

posted by rich glasgow at 11:59 PM Comment (0) Trackback (0 )

Last week columnist, blogger, and frequent guest on cable news programs, Michelle Malkin wrote a widely read piece on this very subject; the existence of an unpopular dress code for Air Marshals. As a result, Thomas Quinn, head of FAMS, summoned his spokesman, David Adams, to deny the charge that a strict dress code was being enforced.

Today, Malkin, at her blog (scroll down to 'Air Rage') responds, armed with a large quiver full of emails from anonymous Air Marshals fed up with the dress code, claiming it hinders their ability to remain undercover. Additionally, too much manpower is spent making sure agents are wearing proper attire instead of using that time, energy and money looking for terrorists. Be sure to read this piece and the comments from disgruntled agents.

Europe's Supreme Denial

Britain's Telegraph News is reporting that Europe is reluctant to aid in the uncovering of evidence against Saddam Hussein because it may lead to his execution. Secular Euro-weenies (my term) are unable to deal with the death penalty and therefore don't relish the thought of helping to uncover evidence such as those pesky mass graves throughout Iraq. (What hath secularism wrought in Europe?)

This quote comes from the Telegraph via the Belmont Club and Stand in the Trenches. Yes, bloggers are an incestuous lot, but that's the way we like it and besides, it serves as a sifting process to substantiate credibility:

Lack of European experts has held up the excavation of mass graves in Iraq, according to an American human rights lawyer working on the investigation.

Greg Kehoe said the experts were not joining in because evidence might be used to sentence Saddam Hussein to death.

He accused European agencies of depriving the investigation of experienced staff who would speed up the process.

"I don't have enough budget or staff to do more than one mass grave at a time," said Mr Kehoe. "That's why we need help from other countries. Europeans don't want to help out because of the ramifications of the death penalty."

Capital punishment is not permitted within the European Union which discourages its use elsewhere. EU countries also routinely refuse to extradite people to the United States and other countries unless they receive guarantees that detainees will not be executed.

The Iraqi Special Tribunal has identified a further nine mass graves to be examined for evidence of the former Saddam regime's crimes against humanity. Human rights groups estimate that 300,000 people were killed.
As an aside, can America afford to slide into the secular moral relativistic abyss that is jeopardizing Europe's political stability?

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Hugh Hewitt was Right

A quote from Hugh Hewitt:
I said in my book, if it's not close, they can't cheat. It was close in Washington State, and they did cheat, and they won!
No substantive proof of cheating yet...Wonder if all the military votes got counted? But, alas, it is not completely over. There will be at least one more recount.

The Sisterhood and UNICEF

When the corruption of any given organization becomes obvious to even casual observers, then it's probably safe to assume that corruption is extant throughout. In this piece from the Intellectual Conservative, by Carey Roberts, The Sad Tale of UNICEF exposes how the radical feminist agenda has come to dominate what was once a charitable organization to help children:
Under Carol Bellamy's leadership, radical feminism has come to define the current UNICEF, even to the possible detriment of UNICEF’s original mandate to help children.
It's an eye-opening piece and not too lengthy. If you wonder what it would be like to have Hillary Clinton in the Whitehouse making appointments such as Carol Bellamy, then you need to read this.

A corroborating piece, UNICEF's 'Rights' Focus Is All Wrong, by Wendy McElroy, also on the Intellectual Conservative site, can be found here.

Where's the Outrage?

From the The Harvard Crimson Online, Mark Adomanis asks some pertinent questions that demand answers (one would think):

Imagine that a United States government program, Medicaid for example, had lost more than 20 billion dollars to blatant graft and corruption. Imagine that the executive director of that program had himself benefited personally to the tune of millions of dollars. Imagine that the President's son was under serious suspicion of being involved in the scandal. Imagine that the "independent" government investigation was being paid for with funds from the program itself. Imagine that some of the money skimmed off was used to fund a terrorist insurgency. Finally, imagine that the scandal permeated the government to such a degree that national security decisions were influenced.

Well it turns out that an active imagination really isn't necessary--all of these things actually happened under the auspices of the vaunted United Nations (UN) oil for food program in Iraq. What is clearly the single biggest case of humanitarian fraud in history, and what might be the largest financial fraud of any kind in modern times, has gone rather unnoted in the American media.

How about an even "scarier" scenario...what if just 10% of the U.N. corruption was uncovered in the evil Halliburton Corporation or Enron or Walmart or Fox News or Rush Limbaugh's EIB empire. Wouldn't all hell be breaking loose 24/7/365? Do you think Dan Rather would be anything less than relentless?

The fact that all hell isn't breaking loose is the very reason the Old Media has been relegated to the ashheaps of incredulity. They don't investigate people or institutions who share their own leftist views, and so the internet and talk radio have replaced them. News of the U.N. debacle is getting out and ever more people are becoming outraged. But don't credit the Old Media for initiating any investigations.

Boortz: So, You Don't Want the US to be the World's Policeman...

Today's essential read from Nealz Nuze :
OK ... fine. Let's go with that. We just have to stop being the world's policeman. Your next job is to pick a replacement. Like it or not, some nation or some entity is going to assume the role of enforcing its version of a world view on the rest of us. Nature abhors a vacuum, and the intensity with which political nature abhors a power vacuum is something to behold. There has never in the history of civilization been any society where someone or something did not dominate and rule, sometimes benignly, often not, over the others. Where this is true for societies and cultural enclaves, it is doubly true for the community of nations. Throughout the history of the world there has always been one nation-state that dominated world affairs. Again, sometimes benignly, sometimes not. This world has been blessed for the past 100+ years by the fact that the dominate nation, the big dog, the 800-pound gorilla has been the United States. There were options. Nazi Germany comes to mind, or the Japanese Empire. Then, of course, there was Soviet Union and its determination to bring about one world living under communism.

Think about this. In almost every war, save two*, in which the United States has been involved the country we were at war with was rebuilt following the conflict and its people were left to chose(sic) and elect their own government. Can you name another powerful nation with such a history? Following World War II the Soviet Union robbed the people of how many nations their freedom? I lost count somewhere. Some of those nations are still fighting to this day to regain their independence.

There are people, Americans included, who hate the United States for its strength. These people harbor the naive world view that no nation should be stronger than another, and that no one nation should ever be allowed to dominate world affairs. Somehow, in their convoluted logic-starved minds, these people have forgotten that someone, somewhere, is going to be the top dog. Or, in the alternative, they fully realize that every wolf pack has it's dominant male, and they just want that dominant male to be someone else. And just who would that be? The United Nations? Is that what they're after? They recognize that someone is inevitably going to fill the role of "the world's policeman," and they want that someone to be the hopelessly corrupt and blatantly anti-American United Nations?

There has never been any nation in this history of man's time on earth that has done so much good for so many people as has the United States. There has never been any nation that has done so much to spread the cause of freedom and self-government then has the United States. These accomplishments have come about because the United States is both benevolent and powerful. Take away either element and the positive influence of the United States on the affairs of the world and the lives of people everywhere will be all but gone.

So, for those of you who believe that the United States cannot be the world's policeman, fine. You pick the replacement, because a replacement there will be. Let me know who you think can do a better job.

*The two exceptions are what is commonly called the "Civil War," and the Vietnam War. Some people despised the fact that in Vietnam Americans were killed in a war that the politicians were not dedicated to winning. Today people despise the fact that we're in a war that our leaders are determined to win. You just can't please everyone.

Red States Showing Faster Growth

According to USA TODAY:
Robust population growth continues to sweep the nation's Southern and Western states, according to estimates released Wednesday by the Census Bureau.
If the trend continues at its current pace, states in the Northeast and Midwest that have been population powerhouses since the 19th century will lose their dominance to Sun Belt states by 2010.
An interesting trend to watch.

Glenn Reynolds: "A Good Year for Free Speech?"

A good piece by Glenn Reynolds (his blog can be seen here) in Tech Central Station on how free speech fared in 2004. Check it out! Not everyone is a big fan of unbridled free speech, believe it or not. Michael Kinsley for one, has a burr or two in his butt.

In a somewhat related piece, James Lileks writes about the "year of the blog" or was that "blog of the year"....it's posted at Newhouse News Service, but you can see his blog here.

They Could Use our Prayers

Hugh Hewitt read this tonite on his radio show. If you missed it, please visit Training for Eternity, where Army Chaplain Lewis describes what he saw today near Mosul:
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
MASCAL
By the time I got back to our compound it was all over the news. It seemed like the thing had just happened when in reality I had been neck deep in it for several hours. And there it was on TV. Frankly, it's kind of a blur.
They could use some encouraging words from home if you wouldn't mind posting a comment at the Chaplain's site. You might even spread the word to some of your friends and family members. It's a tough time for these guys and their families.

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

The Self-Esteem Myth

Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth, in Scientific American, explores the self-esteem issue in academia:
Boosting people's sense of self-worth has become a national preoccupation. Yet surprisingly, researchshows that such efforts are of little value in fostering academic progress or preventing undesirable behavior
Like the old joke goes, "Schools today are turning out kids that can't even read, but they really feel good about themselves," or something like that. The point being that so much has been made about self-esteem in primary education that substantive educational goals have gone by the wayside.

What this piece doesn't address is the difference between real self-esteem and phony, trumped up feel goodism so often passed off as self-esteem. Real self-esteem, of necessity, is the result of a positive action. It's tough to have self-esteem when you're in high school and you still don't know how to read, for example. But self-esteem does occur when students do learn to read. It's a positive act. High self-esteem happens when students do well. Shouldn't it be obvious that poor self-esteem happens when students don't do well? This common sense approach hasn't been taken in gov't schools because it's not politically correct. Sorry if that sounds over simplified, but it's woefully true. And another issue altogether.

Monday, December 20, 2004

He Works in Mysterious Ways

A year ago some friends of ours lost their 10 month old daughter to sudden illness. When she died the family generously donated her organs and a little boy across the country now lives as a result. The heart rending, but also inspiring, story is told in today's Dallas Morning News. If you have access to the paper it appears in the metro section and has some accompanying photos. A worthy read!

Today's Must Read

From today's OpinionJournal. Not only should the U.N. be rendered irrelevant and run out of the U.S., it should be taken militarily and be treated like a terrorist encampment. Release the innocent personnel, imprison the leaders and destroy the crumbling facilities.

Lookism: How Very Hurtful

Cokie Roberts blames Michael Moore for Kerry's loss:

Former 'This Week' host and National Public Radio veteran Cokie Roberts blamed conspiracy filmmaker Michael Moore on Sunday for causing Sen. John Kerry to lose the presidential election.

'I think Michael Moore actually had a very major impact - a negative impact - on the Democratic Party,' Roberts told NBC's 'Chris Matthews Show.'

'I think he exemplified all of the things that people hate about Democrats. And the fact that he was - it was a hate-America-first campaign and that hurts the Democrats every time.'

"Adding insult to injury, Roberts also contended that Moore's "physical appearance did not help."
Is Cokie guilty of "lookism" implying that Michael Moore doesn't look like a suitably representative politically correct leftist?

Big Stories of 2004

My pick for 2004's biggest stories:
  • Mainstream Media bites the big one and becomes known as the old media
  • Talk Radio/Internet/Fox News (in that order) render the old media irrelevant
  • SwiftBoat Vets emasculate the Kerry campaign and almost single handedly defeat him
  • Hollywood, Michael Moore, et al, unknowingly undermine the democrat party
  • Clintonistas knowingly undermine the democrat party for Hillary's sake in 2008
  • U.N.'s Food for Oil debacle, is the worst scandal to ever be uncovered
  • Christophobia consumes the Secular left in an all out effort to remove God and Christ from all things public all in the name of "separation of church and state"

My pick for 2004's winners:

  • George W. Bush
  • Karl Rove
  • Talk Radio
  • The Internet
  • Conservatives
  • FoxNews
  • Wireless Communications Co.'s
  • Political Incorrectness
  • Home Schoolers

My pick for 2004's losers:

  • Leftists
  • Mainstream Media
  • Kerry, Edwards, Algore, Dean, McAwful
  • DNC
  • Hollywood, Michael Moore, President Carter, et al
  • U.N., Kofi Annan, and his partners in crime
  • Land line telecommunications Co.'s
  • Political Correctness
  • Gov't Indoctrination Centers


Sunday, December 19, 2004

Schwarzenegger: "Republicans Should Move Leftward"

USA TODAY is reporting that Gov. Schwarzenegger wants the republicans to lean more to the left:
BERLIN (AP) — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested in a German newspaper interview published Saturday that the Republican Party should move "a little to the left," a shift that he said would allow it to pick up new voters
The republicans have been moving to the left for more than a generation. Today's republicans are essentially the democrats of John F. Kennedy's era. President Reagan may have been the most conservative president of our time, but only by comparison to the democrats who took a hard left turn during Lyndon Johnson's presidency. Many republicans, like Reagan himself, were at one time democrats but became republicans when they realized that the dems left them behind.

As the dems moved further to the left, as they continue to do, the republicans moved to the left as well, whether intentionally or otherwise. If the republicans were truly conservative, we wouldn't continue to see unabridged growth in gov't programs, departments, agencies, policies, regulations and taxation.

The republicans are already too far to the left. President Bush's tax cuts are a good start and give the hopeful appearance to a much needed conservative trend, but the ever burgeoning growth of gov't needs to stop.

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Warming Your Cockles

This is the time of year when many charitable organizations reach out for aid and assistance--usually in the form of tax deductible dollars. Last week I received a brochure from an organization called the Smile Train an international charity which provides cleft lip and palate surgery for children who would otherwise not be able to afford this operation. There are a lot of fund raising organizations that spend more money on themselves than the people they trying to help, but 100% of the money raised by the good folks at the Smile Train is spent on the children for whom it's raised. I'm not begging you to send them money, but go to their website and see for yourself the good work they do.

Whoa--This Guy's Good!

More profundities from Victor Davis Hanson :
"Democratic leaders are never going to be trusted in matters of foreign policy unless they can convince Americans that they once more believe in American exceptionalism and are the proper co-custodians of values such as freedom and individual liberty."
The entire piece is essential reading.

Friday, December 17, 2004

Iraq, WWII, the Media and What If

Mark Levin, via The Limbaugh Institute, in a June 1, 2004 National Review Online piece shows how some of the media looked for the worst even in WWII. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

And from Transterrestrial Musings, via Hugh Hewitt, read how today's MSM would report the Battle of the Bulge. Classic!

Quote of the Day

(overheard on the Laura Ingraham show in an interview with Sen. Elizabeth Dole)
...don't wait for everything to be done before anything can be done.
Taken from Sen. Dole's new book, Hearts Touched by Fire: My 500 Most Inspirational Quotations

"Islamophobia" vs "Islamoterrorism"

Kofi Annan is far more concerned with "Islamophobia" than he is with "Islamoterrorism":
Last week Kofi Annan presided over a UN seminar on "Islamophobia," explaining with a straight face: "When the world is compelled to coin a new term to take account of increasingly widespread bigotry -- that is a sad and troubling development. Such is the case with 'Islamophobia.'
Correction, Mr. Annan, you and your partners in crime at the U.N. are a sad and troubling development.

Thursday, December 16, 2004

"How the Gov't Breaks the Law"

Judge Andrew Napolitano in a speech at the Cato Institute:
It should be against the law to break the law. Unfortunately, it is not. In early 21st-century America, a dirty little secret still exists among public officials, politicians, judges, prosecutors, and the police. The government—federal, state, and local—is not bound to obey its own laws. I know this sounds crazy, but too many cases prove it true. It should be a matter of grave concern for every American who prizes personal liberty.

When I became a judge in New Jersey, I had impeccable conservative Republican law and-order credentials. When I left eight years later, I was a born-again individualist, after witnessing first-hand how the criminal justice system works to subvert and shred the Constitution. You think you’ve got rights that are guaranteed? Well, think again.
You've seen him on Fox News; you can get to know him better if you read this speech. It might also scare the hell out of you.

Eeeeeviiiilllll Dioxins

Master debunker, Michael Fumento does it again. By now, everyone in the known universe has seen the before and after photo of Ukraine presidential candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, who was poisened by someone who obviously thought that dioxins were among the most powerful toxins known to man. But he survived and the prognosis is good for his recovery. Read Fumento's piece:
It's perhaps fitting that dioxin was used in the attempted political murder of Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko. That's because dioxin is the most politicized chemical in history. It's notorious for its role at New York's Love Canal and Missouri's Times Beach, but primarily as an ingredient in the defoliant Agent Orange. Yet Yushchenko is alive because what's been called "the most deadly chemical known" is essentially a myth.

Dioxin is an unwanted by-product of incineration, uncontrolled burning and certain industrial processes such as bleaching. It was also formerly in trace amounts in herbicides and liquid soaps. We all carry dioxin in our fat and blood. But Dutch researchers said Yushchenko's exposure, probably from poisoned food, was about 6,000 times higher than average. So why, as the Munchkin coroner said of the Wicked Witch of the East, isn't Yushchenko "not only merely dead" but "really most sincerely dead"?
Be sure to read the entire piece. It's very illuminating and probably won't be given much press, when in reality, this should be headline news for environmentalists around the world.

Ask Them No Questions, They'll Tell You No Lies

A moderator at the UN Conference in Buenos Aires, took umbridge with one of the reporters who asked an embarrassing question:
Buenos Aires, Argentina (CNSNews.com) - The moderator of a panel discussion at the United Nations climate change conference here shut down questioning by a reporter who asked about disputed scientific claims regarding global warming, calling such questions "silly."

The panel discussion featured representatives of the Inuit people, who were announcing their intention to seek a ruling from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights against the United States "for causing global warming and its devastating impacts."

But when asked by CNSNews.com to defend the science behind the group's legal challenge, the moderator of the event cut off the reporter's questions and threatened "to put a stop to this."
The moderator was probably afraid the next question would be about the food for oil boondoggle.

Pencils and other lethal weapons

Michael Reagan's piece, Pencils and other lethal weapons, is a must read for those with any interest whatsoever in public education. Reagan aptly observes that public schools are now gov't schools and they are being run by imbeciles:

When school officials found a pair of scissors in 10-year-old Porsche Brown's book bag, the fourth grade student at Philadelphia's Thomas Holme Elementary School was handcuffed and hauled off to a police station even though the school district admitted she did not threaten anyone with them or even display them.

The scissors were discovered when students' belongings were being searched for property missing from a teacher's desk. The school's excuse for this absurdity: Porsche violated a rule against having dangerous weapons in her possession. So they called police and had her handcuffed and taken to the police station in a filthy paddy wagon.

"They handcuffed her and she said [the handcuffs] were tight on her wrist and they took her out and she was put into a paddy wagon," her mother Rose Jackson told NBC 10.

"She said there was blood in the back of the wagon and it smelled like urine," Jackson added. "It was dark in there."

Now if this isn't crazy enough, consider the fact that nobody ever told Porsche or her mother that having pair of scissors in school was forbidden. And that's not all: "I received a letter of things she needed for school and scissors were on there," Jackson revealed.

At the police station cops realized that Porsche had committed no crime and they released her.

Is it any wonder why Home Schooling has become such a phenomenal success and will continue to be? As gov't schools continue to fail, more and more money will be demanded from the weary tax payer and at some point the public will no longer take it. Gov't has no business being involved in education. Education has always been and always will be the responsibility of parents. When they forfeit that responsibility and they turn their kids over to someone else who doesn't love them or have any regard for them, the results often become disastrous.

The responsibility to educate falls squarely on the parents. Not the schools, not the teachers, and especially, not big gov't. If parents took responsibility over their kids' education, the poor quality of gov't schools wouldn't be an issue because parents wouldn't allow their kids to attend them. That would necessitate alternatives. Private schools would become more plentiful, more competitive, and therefore, less expensive. We're talking freedom of choice here. Only instead of abortion, we're talking about education. Why can't choice apply to education as well as abortion?
(Please be sure to read Michael Reagan's entire piece; it's good.)

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

"Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures"

Dr. Andrew Thomson, a UN worker for the last 12 years, has been "let go" after writing a tell-all book about the sleeziness and utter corruption at the U.N.:

December 16, 2004

United Nations officials will not renew the contract of a New Zealand doctor who co-wrote a controversial memoir about life on the front lines of peacekeeping in the 1990s.

Andrew Thomson, who has worked for the UN for 12 years in New York, Cambodia, Haiti, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda, received a letter three weeks ago declining to renew his contract.

Dr Thomson and two colleagues wrote Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story From Hell on Earth, which was published in June.

The book reads like an illicit peek into the three's diaries during a decade of adventure and angst, and contains graphic descriptions of romantic escapades.

It also delivers harsh judgements on the UN as genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia happened under its watch. "If blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers show up in your town or village and offer to protect you, run," it says. "Or else get weapons. Your lives are worth so much less than theirs."

Nice!

When Big Gov't Says You're Crazy

Phyllis Schlafly's December 15th column is disturbing. It deals with the mental and physical abuse of Dr. Tom Sell, a St. Louis dentist, who is accused of Medicaid fraud and has been held in a federal prison for 8 years without the opportunity of a trial, much less, speedy. The Gov't says he's not fit for trial but he insists he is. You know the drill...the more you insist you're sane, the crazier they say you are. Schlafly, an attorney, wouldn't pass along a bogus story. This column deserves attention. She also links further reading and documentation about this case here.

Where are the people who decry the supposed prison abuse of brutal terrorists? Why can't they step up and investigate domestic abuses such as this? Does there always have to be a political motive for some investigation to take place? 60 Minutes could jump on this and they wouldn't even have to use forged documents. Maybe they could even blame President Bush! How about it, Mr. Rather? How about Dr. Sell's U.S. Representative? Who is he and where is he. Isn't it about time someone step up with some authority to find out what the hell is going on here? Is anyone out there able to help this guy?

Boy Scouts in the ACLU's Face

Boy Scouts raise funds outside ACLU:

"A Boy Scout troop that routinely sells popcorn prior to the holidays is taking its fund-raiser to the enemy this year as it hawks the treat today in front of the Virginia headquarters of the American Civil Liberties Union.

According to Tom McKenna, chairman of Troop 828's executive committee, the boys will stake out a spot outside the ACLU office in downtown Richmond, Va., from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Eastern time. The troop is chartered by St. Joseph's parish in Richmond.

'This is just our little (five boys) troop's way to make our opposition known,' McKenna told WND.

As WorldNetDaily reported, the most recent success by the ACLU against the Boy Scouts occurred when the Pentagon agreed to warn its bases not to sponsor Boy Scout troops as part of the settlement of a 5-year-old lawsuit brought by the legal group. The ACLU charged the government with improperly supporting a group requiring members to believe in God, complaining that Boy Scouts of America 'requires troop and pack leaders, in this case government employees, to compel youth to swear an oath of duty to God.' "


Heh heh! That's the spirit guys!

Voting with Your Pocketbook

Wanna see where your money goes when you purchase your favorite product? This is a handy little reference site to see if you're patronizing a red or blue company, if you think it matters. Found this on Boortz's site. Check it out here

Another Hit on Extreme Environmentalists

Former Greenpeace Member Bjorn Lomborg urged the U.N. conference in Buenos Aires, to ignore global warming. Seems like Kofi and the boys are taking hits from all sides...except from the left side:

Buenos Aires, Argentina -- A former member of Greenpeace who became disillusioned with what he saw as bad eco-science urged a United Nations climate change conference to "save the world" by ignoring global warming.

"Climate change is a huge thing, but there is very little that we can do about it," Bjorn Lomborg told CNSNews.com following a speech in Buenos Aires on Monday.

Lomborg, the author of the new book Global Crisis, Global Solutions, also wrote The Skeptical Environmentalist, a book devoted to debunking many of the alarmist claims of environmental groups. He is attending the U.N.'s Conference of Parties or COP-10 meeting on climate change here.
When it rains it pours! Bad news for the U.N. seems to be spewing forth daily. There seems to be a major seachange taking place. Is this an aftershock of the Bush victory? It will be fascinating to see how this U.N. situation is going to pan out in the next couple of years; maybe less!

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Fast Company Wants to Know Your Favorite Blog

Fast Company is looking for your favorite business blog, but if you don't have one, they would like to know about the other blogs you frequent. Post your favorite blog at their website.

Environmental Extremists on the Run?

Here's a good companion piece to Let's Stop Scaring Ourselves , which corroborates Michael Crichton's thesis that environmental extremists are actually practicing religion as opposed to real science. It's difficult to know who's winning the environmental argument. Is it the socialistic globalist Kyoto crowd who are demanding wealth redistribution or are cooler (pun intended) heads prevailing? James Glassman, in this Tech Central Station piece, claims that the global warming extremists are on the Run. More about James Glassman here.

Not Paying our Share!

Well, well! As I mentioned below (Living in a "State of Fear"), wealthy nations are always being dunned for more money under the guise of "environmentalism." This time the World Bank has their hand out:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank on Tuesday chastised rich countries for not giving enough to fund global environmental protection and warned that overall progress in meeting global environmental targets was "alarmingly slow."
In an annual report entitled "Environment Matters," the World Bank said aid for the environment averaged about $2 billion a year over the past decade, far less than well-off societies agreed during a major environment summit in Brazil in 1992.

World Bank's top environment official, Ian Johnson, said in the report that it was vital that global efforts on the environment be targeted and coordinated to enhance growth and reduce poverty. (emphasis mine)


The article failed to mention anything about the failed U.N. Food for Oil money that was meant for impoverished Iraqis but found its way into the pockets of the truly greedy and corrupt. Why doesn't the World Bank try to go after some of those billions?

Monday, December 13, 2004

China's Growing Strength

Are we so caught up in our own little world that we may be ignoring China's growing economic and military strength? See Mark Helprin's piece in the WSJ, Beyond the Rim. This is an important piece.

Maybe something to be aware of...China and Russia are planning to participate in joint military war games in an effort to "promote the development of the two countries' strategic collaborative relationship in order to safeguard and promote regional and world peace," according to President Hu Jintao.

I sure hope it's true about Communism being dead!

Living in a "State of Fear"

Ronald Bailey, in today's WSJ, has a good piece (A Chilling Tale) reviewing Michael Crichton's new book, State of Fear:
"State of Fear" is, in a sense, the novelization of a speech that Mr. Crichton delivered in September 2003 at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club. He argued there that environmentalism is essentially a religion, a belief-system based on faith, not fact. To make this point, the novel weaves real scientific data and all too real political machinations into the twists and turns of its gripping story.

For example, the climate computer models relied upon by global-warming proponents like Drake -- or, in real life, by John Adams (NRDC), Carl Pope (Sierra Club), Kevin Knobloch (Union of Concerned Scientists) and John Passacantando (Greenpeace USA) -- predict that such warming will be strongest at the earth's poles, turning glaciers into floods and raising sea levels. In "State of Fear," Drake warns that Greenland's ice cap is melting and will push the sea level up by 20 feet. (As it happens, on Wednesday of this week Sir David King, Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser, testified with similar alarm before a British legislative committee, saying: "If the ice-sheets in Greenland melt, sea levels would rise 6.5 metres and London would be underwater.")

Yet as Mr. Crichton has his scientist Kenner correctly note, Greenland's ice cap is in no imminent danger of melting away. It is well established scientifically that average temperatures in Greenland and Iceland have been falling at the rather steep rate of 2.2 degrees Celsius per decade since 1987. As for temperatures in most of Antarctica, they have been falling for nearly 50 years, and ice there has been accumulating rather than melting. And those sea levels? Nils-Axel Mörner, a professor of geodynamics at Stockholm University, has been studying the low-lying atolls of the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. He has found "a total absence of any recent sea level rise" and has instead found evidence of a fall in sea level in the past 20 years -- a fact that Mr. Crichton has the good instinct to report in the course of pushing his plot forward.

In case your Sunday paper doesn't include the suppliment, Parade Magazine, or you happened to miss it when it came out on December 5th, 2004, they previewed Crichton's book in the cover article, Let's Stop Scaring Ourselves. It's a good article. Check it out.

In the 1970's, we were about to be engulfed in an ice age. Now, they say the polar ice caps are melting. Whatever the imminent fear du jour happens to be, they are discovered, philosophically cultivated and broadly promoted for one reason...to extract money from one group so that another group will be enriched, whether it is on a local level or national level. The Kyoto protocol comes to mind.

Crichton can't be accused by Global Warming advocates of being an unenlightened oaf even though he doesn't parrot their politically correct agenda. He's a graduate of Harvard Medical School for starters. Much more about Michael Crichton is available at his website.

John Fund--Internet Changing Politics

John Fund's piece in the OpinionJournal shows how the internet is changing traditional politics:

Bloggers received a lot of attention for helping to expose the fake documents backing up Dan Rather's "60 Minutes" story on President Bush and the Texas Air National Guard. But that's only one of the interesting ways in which the Internet is empowering people and shaping political coverage.

Indeed, the real power of bloggers in politics is how they interact with their mainstream media counterparts. Online journalism gives critics of the media a way to talk back, a platform from which to point out bias, hypocrisy and factual errors. And if the criticisms are on target, old-media institutions can't help but take note. That's exactly what just happened in South Dakota's epic Senate race between Minority Leader Tom Daschle and his GOP challenger, John Thune.

The old way of running for office and governing, for that matter, is a thing of the past. It's not just bloggers changing things. Everyone armed with a computer has an army of email buddies just daring errant politicos to "make their day". People aren't as easily jerked around these days nor are they as naive. That's not to say that it's impossible for the American public to be hoodwinked, it's just takes a little bit more sophistication than it once did. And this is where the bloggers take up the slack. Someone out there in the blogosphere will find the truth about any given controversy and they are able to communicate it instantly. Information brokers (the old media) are no longer necessary for those who have access to the Internet, and these days, who doesn't?

Couple the internet with AM radio and you have the most powerful distribution of information ever known to man. It's a virtual Valhalla for information junkies and a nightmare for information brokers and the elitists who use them.

The Legacy That Keeps on Keeping On

From today's New York Post:
WASHINGTON — Billionaire Marc Rich has emerged as a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal and is under investigation for brokering deals in which scores of international politicians and businessmen cashed in on sweetheart oil deals with Saddam Hussein, The Post has learned.

Rich, the fugitive Swiss-based commodities trader who received a controversial pardon from President Bill Clinton in January 2001, is a primary target of criminal probes under way in the U.S. attorney's office in New York and by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, sources said.

"We think he was a major player in this — a central figure," a senior law-enforcement official told The Post.

Investigators are looking into a series of deals that took place in the months after his pardon from Clinton. If criminal wrongdoing is established in these deals, he could be subject to prosecution.

Could there be a new "Slide out" wing in the future for the Presidential Double Wide in Little Rock?

Sunday, December 12, 2004

SCOTUS and International Law

It couldn't be more disconcerting to the constitutionalists when existing members (Sandra Day O'Connor et al) of the Supreme Court express interest in international law (scroll down to Thursday, December 9, 2004) when it comes to ruling on U.S. Constitutional law. I cringe when other countries make laws diametrically opposed to ours because I just know some of the Supremes are concerned about how our laws may be different or unacceptable to universal trends. The following is from the SCOTUS Blog:
If the desire of some members of the Supreme Court to shape American law in part by looking to other nations applies even to highly controversial issues, the Justices may find some future interest in a ruling on Thursday by Canada’s Supreme Court. The decision declared unanimously that the nation’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms – its constitution – does not stand in the way of same-sex marriage.

No case is now pending in the U.S. Supreme Court on the gay marriage issue, but one is surely to arise as the issue is being increasingly litigated, especially in test cases challenging the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, allowing states to refuse to recognize gay marriages performed in other states. The American court is not bound to follow any foreign court decisions, but several of the Justices are urging their colleagues to make it a fairly routine part of the analysis of major legal questions.
It is a frightening concept for our very own Supreme Court of the Sovereign United States of America to even remotely consider how other nations rule! This dangerous trend cannot be tolerated!

This Week's Dose of Testosterone

Doug Giles, one of America's premier antidotes to metrosexuality and the girly man syndrome, posts another of his pumped up, testosterone fog producing call to arms. For some reason, every time I read his columns I get this uncontrollable urge to "Google" Ted Nugent. Read Doug's column...especially if you're a wuss!

PS...Welcome to Ted Nugent.com! Whew! What a rush!

Saturday, December 11, 2004

What's Going on in Europe?

Europe's liberal open door immigration policies are having an adverse effect on the continent and no one seems to have many answers to the growing problems brought on by out-of-control
multiculturalism:
PARIS. -- For nearly 50 years Western Europe has weathered the storm of the Cold War, living with the threat of the Soviet Union on its doorstep. Now Europe is waking up to a new threat, only this time the danger comes from within.
From Paris to Amsterdam and from Brussels to Berlin, decades of liberal open-door immigration policies are bearing their mark on Europe's domestic politics, not to mention the demographics of the Old Continent.

The arrival of several million immigrants -- mostly from North Africa, Turkey and Southwest Asia, and mostly Muslims -- has forever changed the face of a once largely white, overwhelmingly Christian Europe. Germany alone has some 7 million non-German residents, the majority of them Turks.

This influx of immigrants has caused a knee-jerk reaction from worried Europeans who have turned to right-wing parties for answers. Witness France's National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen who came close to winning the last presidential election.

The failure of many immigrants to integrate has resulted in communities living parallel to one another instead of blending. Exacerbating the problem, Islamist activists have found refuge and anonymity among these immigrant communities into which they can easily blend.

Many in Holland, shaken by brutal murders by islamo-fascist thugs have found their own solution:
For years Holland was celebrated as a symbol of racial tolerance. But two high-profile murders have changed all that, reports Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.

Escaping the stress of clogged roads, street violence and loss of faith in Holland's once celebrated way of life, the Dutch middle classes are leaving the country in droves for the first time in living memory.

Victor Davis Hanson makes a brilliant analogy between Europe and Tolkien's "Ents":
One of the many wondrous peoples that poured forth from the rich imagination of the late J. R. R. Tolkien were the Ents. These tree-like creatures, agonizingly slow and covered with mossy bark, nursed themselves on tales of past glory while their numbers dwindled in their isolation. Unable to reproduce themselves or to fathom the evil outside their peaceful forest — and careful to keep to themselves and avoid reacting to provocation of the tree-cutters and forest burners — they assumed they would be given a pass from the upheavals of Middle Earth.

But with the sudden arrival of two volatile hobbits, the nearby evils of timber-cutting, industrial devilry, and mass murder became too much for the Ents to stomach. They finally "wake up" (literally). Then they go on the offensive — and are amazed at the power they still wield in destroying Saruman's empire.

Can we liken Europe to Tolkien's Ents? Hanson continues:

More specifically, does the Ents analogy work for present-day Europe? Before you laugh at the silly comparison, remember that the Western military tradition is European. Today the continent is unarmed and weak, but deep within its collective mind and spirit still reside the ability to field technologically sophisticated and highly disciplined forces — if it were ever to really feel threatened. One murder began to arouse the Dutch; what would 3,000 dead and a toppled Eiffel Tower do to the French? Or how would the Italians take to a plane stuck into the dome of St. Peter? We are nursed now on the spectacle of Iranian mullahs, with their bought weapons and foreign-produced oil wealth, humiliating a convoy of European delegates begging and cajoling them not to make bombs — or at least to point what bombs they make at Israel and not at Berlin or Paris. But it was not always the case, and may not always be.
This is a must read. As Hanson mentions later in the piece, it's easy for us to be amused by Europe's leftist, effete, elitist, arrogant (my words, not his...I just can't restrain myself sometimes!), methodology of dealing with continent threatening issues. He wonders if a Demosthenes will come to the fore and do the heavy lifting or will they remain in a state of slumber.

Way To Go, Mr. President!

We have a bold leader in the Whitehouse who's not afraid to mention the name of Jesus Christ or give glory to God when he feels like it. In his latest support of God, no doubt to the chagrin of nattering naysayers, President Bush has given his support to displaying the 10 Commandments in courthouses:
Arguing that religion "has played a defining role" in American history, the Bush administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court to allow Ten Commandments displays in courthouses.
Hat tips are in order!

Birthday Felicitations To...

David Limbaugh; birthday boy of the day! Happy Birthday, David! Go to his blog and pass on your birthday congratulations.

Friday, December 10, 2004

Victor Davis Hanson, Farmland Security and Sex in the City

An important piece from historian and gentleman farmer, Victor Davis Hanson; Farmland Security:

President Bush's selection of a new secretary of agriculture, Gov. Mike Johanns of Nebraska, comes as American agriculture is at a dangerous crossroads. Despite government subsidies and technological advancements, the United States could soon become a net importer of food for the first time in about 50 years.

In part because of Nafta and globalization, consumers often find that it is cheaper to eat tomatoes from Mexico or dried fruits from Asia or Africa than what is grown a few miles away. Meanwhile, especially in the fast-growing states of the South and West, medium-sized farmers find that selling their land is more profitable than cultivating it. Here in the San Joaquin Valley, amid some of the richest farmland in the nation, new houses dot the vanishing agrarian landscape.
Please read the entire piece. It goes to show that the more big gov't gets involved in anything, the more screwed up it becomes. Then, when the obvious becomes evident, it's often too late for big gov't to pull out without having catastrophic results. The bastards!

O', that thing about 'Sex in the City'...it was a cruel ruse to get you to read my entire post. I'm really sorry for resorting to such sophistry.

Irrelevant? Don't Kid Yourself!

There's good news and there's bad news. The good news is that Kofi and the boys are in a world of hurt with that pesky, world's largest scandal of all times, also known as the Oil for Food boondoggle. The bad news is the U.N. tentacles are embedded deeply into international and (far too many) domestic policies. One of the most celebrated international protocols making hay these days is the Kyoto Club.

Now that the Kyoto Club has the power of international law, it does not have to answer questions. It can simply issue decrees and declarations, create regulations, and penalize the non-compliant.

Already, the participants at COP 10 are dreaming of ways to penalize the United States, to force the U.S. to join the international global warming club. Cathie Adams, president of Texas Eagle Forum, who is attending the gathering, reports that the World Trade Organization is seen to be the enforcer of choice. Floy Lilley, vice chair of Sovereignty International, who is also attending the conference, reports that the delegates and the NGO representatives have declared that climate change is at "least as great a threat as terrorism."

The Kyoto Protocol is like a giant snowball that has been pushed uphill for 10 years, and now, with its entry into force, has passed the summit and has begun its downhill plunge. It will gather speed and force and crush whatever stands in its way - including the U.S. economy.

The Protocol enforcers, through the several wealth-redistribution schemes embodied in the Protocol, will penalize U.S. industry, artificially increase the cost of energy in non-compliant nations, and roll out the red carpet for U.S. industries to move to developing nations.
The constant pressure on the U.S. is relentless. So far, President Bush has thumbed his nose at the Kyoto aficionados and that is a good thing. We can't ever give in to these people. Regardless of the apparent irrelevancy of the U.N. because of the inherent corruption extant, we can't allow ourselves to be caught off-guard by the encroachment of the international policies that the rest of the world so willingly embraces and fully intends to foist upon the good ol' USA. Our economic (and therefore ALL our freedoms) depend on our total independence from the U.N. or any other institution like them which may replace them.

And don't forget the International Criminal Court:
A UN report issued last week called for the Security Council to refer suspected cases of war crimes to the ICC. Almost simultaneously, war crimes charges were filed in a German court against Defense Secretary Rumsfeld for prison abuses at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. A German human rights group argued, under the much abused and misunderstood concept of "universal jurisdiction," that any citizen or group can file a claim against any world leader who may be guilty of committing crimes against humanity. Can anyone reasonably believe that more such cases are not soon to follow?

Irrelevant?


Here's a good piece on Kyoto from our stalwart friends in Austrailia: Protocol is just lots of hot air.

On the subject of U.N. corruption, here's a must read: Max Boot on the U.N.

There may be a pig pile in the works, but you really need to read this Wes Pruden piece: What's that pungent smell on the East River?

Then, there' this in the American Spectator:

The U.N. is prejudging the January 2005 Iraqi elections a failure so that those who opposed Saddam's overthrow -- France, Germany, and Russia chief among them -- will be able to reject the new government as just another puppet of the United States.

Note to the U.N.: offer up some solutions to your constant bitching and complaining or just shut up. Many of us who are fed up with you and your corruption are going here to sign a petition to get you out of the U.S. May it be sooner than later!

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Another Athiest Throws in the Towell

Antony Flew, 81, a British philosopher and famous atheist now believes in God:
At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said in a telephone interview from England.
This was Peter Jennings' lead story tonite on World News Tonite....NOT!

Get a Life, "Dude"!

Okay, maybe I need to get a life as well, but here's an example of a not so cunning linguist who may be published, but hopefully is not gov't subsidized or tenured. I guess you have to give him a little credit for getting out there and getting published, but, really, a study on the usage of the word "dude"? When there are so many other etymological mysteries out there like the once popular "far out" and the equally heady "out of sight". The origins of these idioms have often kept me awake at night. But really, aren't we all stymied at the ageless popularity of the vacuous statement of incredulity, "cool" (nowadays it's usually pronounced emotively 'kuewwwal', which will only make sense to the regular user). Who says our colleges are lacking?

Psy-Ops at the ACLU

Ya gotta love this-- ACLU subjected to Christmas carols:
A group of demonstrators sang Christmas carols in front of the Washington, D.C., office of the American Civil Liberties Union today to protest the organization for its attempts to take religious references out of the public square.

Over 25 volunteers with Public Advocate of the United States sang at the office to highlight "the ACLU’s continuing disregard for the rights of their many pro-family targets," the group said in a statement.
Don't you just love creative, thoughtful, in your face protestations?

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

From Boortz

A good blurb at Nealz Nuze today about an alternative to gov't indoctrination centers:
NOW -- IS THIS YOUR OPTION OUT OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS?

During dinner with a friend last night we started talking about the sorry state of government schools. His child is being home schooled ... and has just been offered a full scholarship to an elite private college. The stigma attached to home schooling is gone. Now home schooling stands as no obstacle at al to college admission.

My friend told me that there are several Internet sites that supplement home home schooling. The home schooling parent can get full curriculum support from the Internet Academy. Lesson plans, materials and even the testing ... all done over the Internet. Some of these Internet academies are purely secular, others, like this one, have a religious base. The left will surely think this is the end of the world. How in the world can you let people who actually believe in God teach our children? Won't their minds be forever poisoned?

We're working supply and demand here ... and the magic of competition. Look for more Internet academies to spring up, and look for more parents who are disgusted with government education to take advantage of them. Dare we hope that the Internet could be the doom of our hideous system of government education?

I'll drink to that!

Colleges love home schooled kids and, in fact, seek them out. Why? Because, in most cases, they are exceptional students. Colleges seek them out because they would rather have exceptional students than mediocre (or worse) students. Both of our kids were home schooled and my daughter was able to attend a local community college free while simultaneously finishing high school. After attaining her AA degree (with honors), she won a substantial academic scholarship to SMU where she maintains a gpa just shy of 4.0.

My son received a full academic scholarship at the University of Texas at Arlington School of Engineering. He also maintains a near 4.0 gpa and has been active in student government from the gitgo.

There's a flourishing future for the home school movement whereas the gov't schools just keep getting worse. They've been in a state of crisis for more than a generation and we are continually coerced to throw more and more money in what has become an ever deepening cesspool. A favorite Reagan quote comes to mind, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to the problem, government IS the problem."

"No Substitute for Victory"

63 years ago yesterday, 12-7-04, my parents were on their honeymoon when they heard the news that the Japs (that's what were called back then, please, no lawsuits) had bombed Pearl Harbor. The American Thinker has a good, short piece on the similarities of then and now. You might want to go there and read it.

Big Gov't --Clueless

Air marshals are extremely unhappy with the unreasonable dress codes put upon them during the holiday season. Seems that gov't regs call for the marshals to wear suits but, alas, the vast majority of travelers going wherever holiday travelers go, don't wear suits. When was the last time you wore a suit on the plane when you were flying home for the holidays? I have an idea. Why not make the marshals wear black suits like the Secret Service and make sure they all have little microphones wired down to their wrist so they can serupticiously speak into their hand. And they could have that trademark earphone with the curly cue cord emerging from their ear going to who knows where and that unseemly bulge on the left side of their rib cage. That way they could completely blend in with the rest of the passengers. C'mon, Marshals, get with the program!

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Quote of the Day

From Tom Wolfe interviewed by Brian Lamb:
They're not the blue states. They're parentheses with America in between.
Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark!

Monster Burger Brouhaha

Today I became a huge Hardee's fan. They actually had the brazen audacity to offer a politically incorrect, larger than life, in your face Monster Burger; and by so doing, with the help of the food nazis, and the goody goody PC police, made national headlines. What a brilliant marketing move! We need more marketing genuses who boldly thumb their nose at the PC nazis! Monster kudos to Hardee's!

Wouldn't you know it...we don't have a Hardee's in Dallas....doh!!!! But go here to see if there may be one near you. You don't need to feel obligated to buy the Monster Burger, even though you should; just vote with your feet and pocket book, spend some money there and make it a point to shake the manager's hand and tell him/her that you appreciate the fact that they are doing the Lord's work (you don't have to tell them that, I just said that for our PC friends who recoil at references to the "Lord"). And may God bless the audacious folks at Hardee's!

Monday, December 06, 2004

Observation/Headline of the Day

Dog Bites Man
"French Soldier Surrenders After Threat"--headline, Associated Press, Dec. 6

(From today's Best of the Web in the OpinionJournal)

Book of the Day

Dr. Bernard Patten, trained in psychiatry, has penned 4 books, the latest of which is Truth, Knowledge, Or Just Plain Bull: How To Tell The Difference. Now here's a guy you're not gonna be able to BS. I heard him today on David Gold's radio show (aired locally in Dallas and can be downstreamed here 3-6PM, M-F); he was entertaining as well as informative. It's a book for our times. Now everyone can have their own BS detector!

See What Political Correctness Hath Wrought!

Heather McDonald's article in the City Journal shows how untenable the policies of the Department of Transportation have become as a result of political correctness. See for yourself:
"The DoT action against American Airlines was typical. In the last four months of 2001, American carried 23 million passengers and asked ten of them (.00004 percent of the total) not to board because they raised security concerns that could not be resolved in time for departure. For those ten interventions (and an 11th in 2002), DoT declared American a civil rights pariah, whose discriminatory conduct would 'result in irreparable harm to the public' if not stopped.
On its face, the government's charge that American was engaged in a pattern of discriminatory conduct was absurd, given how few passenger removals occurred. But the racism allegation looks all the more unreasonable when put in the context of the government's own actions. Three times between 9/11 and the end of 2001, public officials warned of an imminent terror attack. Transportation officials urged the airlines to be especially vigilant. In such an environment, pilots would have been derelict not to resolve security questions in favor of caution."
Here's another choice paragraph:
In application, the government's "but-for" test reduces to a "never-ever" rule: ethnic heritage, religion, or national origin may play no role in evaluating risk. But when the threat at issue is Islamic terrorism, it is reckless to ask officials to disregard the sole ironclad prerequisite for being an Islamic terrorist: Muslim identity. American officials may still be terrified about naming the threat, but a few Arab commentators are willing to say what the Bush administration will not: "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," wrote Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, the general manager of the influential Al Arabiya television station, after the school massacre in Beslan, Russia.
Why do we bother spending billions on Homeland Security and then penalize airlines with multi-million dollar lawsuits when they act in the interest of the flying public. We all knew this "non-profiling" was taking place. How outrageous is it when old white ladies in wheel chairs are singled out and patted down in search of explosives! As Dennis Prager stated today comparing Israel's policies with the DoT's policies, "We look for bombs while the Israelis look for bombers." How can we look for bombers when they all look like guys from the Middle East? Are you suggesting that we "profile?"

Hollywood Repubs Getting Bolder

Be sure to read Ben Stein's piece in The American Spectator. Closet republicans in Hollywood are downright giddy. More of them are surfacing and cautiously interfacing in public. There may come a time when they can openly admit to their conservatism without fear of retribution. Still, be careful out there! More of Ben Stein's musings can be found at Ben's House.

Just Say No

The New York Post is reporting:
December 6, 2004 -- ALBANY — The United Nations and the Bloomberg administration are not abandoning a proposal to build a U.N. building on a playground, despite harsh criticism from state Senate leaders, a top official told The Post.
"The general feeling is to let the wind blow, let the emotionalism die down and then get back to the specifics, which will prove it to be a good project for New York," said the high official, who is involved in the project and who requested anonymity.

He said the project will create jobs, not cost the city or state money, and ensure that the United Nations and the $2.5 billion it contributes to the city economy remain in New York.

The United Nations wants to take the Robert Moses Playground from the city and erect a 35-story building that would serve as its headquarters while the main building is renovated.

Once the renovations are complete, the new building would be used to house U.N. offices.
If they were better guests in our country, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Be sure to read Doug Powers' humorous take on Kofi and the boys.

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Past Due Thanks

Every toddler blogger, such as myself, is always pleased (a vast understatement) when someone sees your blog and then has the perspicacity (just teasing!) to link it! As dumb luck would have it, David Limbaugh, a few weeks ago, happened upon this blog as a result of an online discussion he was having regarding the exaggerated number of Iraqi casualties being bandied about by various people. Much to my elation, he kindly said he liked my blog was going to link it on his blog roll. Thank you very much, David, for your gracious generosity.

I also want to thank Mary-Eileen at Stand in the Trenches, who has not only included me in her blogroll, but has linked and commented on a couple of my posts. Be sure to visit her blog. She's a strong pro-life, home school mom who also finds the time to be an adjunct professor. Thanks M.E for the link! I really appreciate it.

Why Would He Say This?

When Tommy Thompson resigned as Health and Human Services Secretary, he said this:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson resigned Friday, warning of a potential global outbreak of the flu and health-related terror attacks. "For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do," he said.
You can find the article at My Way News. I'm not disputing the veracity of his comments; I'm just wondering why he would so publicly voice one of our greatest vulnerabilities! (Note to high ranking insiders: when you're privy to national vulnerabilities, it would be best if you KEPT THEM TO YOURSELF!!!!)

As one would imagine, President Bush played down US food threat.

Saturday, December 04, 2004

Blessed to be Scots-Irish

I'm embarrassed to admit that before this week, I was unaware of James Webb or any of his books or articles. As it turned out he was interviewed by Hugh Hewitt this past week and I had the good fortune to hear most of it. There was an immediate mystical connect to what he was saying. He was talking about his new book, Born Fighting-How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. He figuratively had me standing with my hand over my heart throughout the entire interview. These are my people and I'm humbled to be in such awesome company. Forgive me for gushing, but I think you may find this bit of history nearly as fascinating as I do. The following article appeared in a recent Parade Magazine and it's more/less a primer of the aforementioned newly released book.

One of the most powerful cultural forces shaping America, they've produced great Presidents, soldiers, inventors, actors and writers. But, as a group, they've remained invisible. The time has come to change that, says the author.
Great article....read it! No doubt you will want to buy the book, and you can do that here.

Another good piece by Webb appeared in the Wall Street Journal. and if you're still intrigued with the above subject-matter, explore James Webb's website. It's an excellent place.

As luck would have it, I was able to hear another prominent and multi-faceted Scots-Irishman interviewed on Michael Medved's program last week. He interviewed author of Braveheart and We Were Soldiers, Randall Wallace, who is promoting his new historical novel, Love and Honor, which chronicles events leading up to the American Revolution. Check out the reviews and buy it here.

Both of these incredibly talented Scots-Irishmen gave great interviews. Seek out their projects whenever possible; they do exceptional work.

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Death by Committee

Hugh Hewitt has rightly been spending a lot of time talking about this on his radio show. His piece in the Weekly Standard is a must read. Check out Death by Committee here:
The Groningen Protocol is the proposal of doctors in the Netherlands for the establishment of an "independent committee" charged with selecting babies and other severely handicapped or disabled people for euthanasia. The original article provides some of the key details:

Under the Groningen protocol, if doctors at the hospital think a child is suffering unbearably from a terminal condition, they have the authority to end the child's life. The protocol is likely to be used primarily for newborns, but it covers any child up to age 12.

The hospital, beyond confirming the protocol in general terms, refused to discuss its details.

"It is for very sad cases," said a hospital spokesman, who declined to be identified. "After years of discussions, we made our own protocol to cover the small number of infants born with such severe disabilities that doctors can see they have extreme pain and no hope for life. Our estimate is that it will not be used but 10 to 15 times a year."

A parent's role is limited under the protocol. While experts and critics familiar with the policy said a parent's wishes to let a child live or die naturally most likely would be considered, they note that the decision must be professional, so rests with doctors.
On Tuesday the AP carried a second story, and Drudge broadcast the news to the cyber world: The protocol was already in effect, and at least four babies had been deemed disposable, and killed.
Please read this! The MSM isn't covering this, as one can imagine.

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