New Years' Resolutions

What are yours? I resolve to improve RWotG. Which begs a question to be asked: What suggestions do you have to improve this site? Let us know anything you think this site is lacking. Content-wise, layout-wise, or anything else you can think of.

FYI

I am now posting by my real name Memnoch/Shaun

20/20

While I normally don't watch this show because it is nothing more than how your favorite product is killing you, this weeks preview got me to watch. It was about the 10 biggest lies/myths/ect. in America. From http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123606 (my comments in bold) This one seemed obvious to me and most people...its the victim mentality types who believe this myth MYTH #10 — We Have Less Free Time Countless news stories tell us we're running ourselves ragged. And everyone thinks it's true. Lots of Americans say have no free time. We all seem to be rushing everywhere. Sherri Kowalski is busy. She's a working mom, who's in a constant struggle to get everything done. She has two kids, and a husband who helps. But there's a lot to do: laundry, cooking, cleaning, helping kids with their schoolwork. When we visited her home, she was so busy she didn't even sit down to eat her meals. Everyone we interviewed said they were pressed for time. It made me want to seek out some real data on this. I talked with sociologist John Robinson of the University of Maryland, who's been trying to measure how much time we have for several decades. Since 1965, Robinson has had people keep time diaries, so he could calculate how much free time people really have. I assumed that we've lost free time since 1965, but Robinson said that's not the case. Surprisingly, since 1965 we've gained an hour more free time every day. "There is a discrepancy between what people say and what they report when they keep a time diary," he said. Sure enough, when Kowalski and some of the other people we met at the mall kept Robinson's time diaries, what they wrote down didn't always match what they'd said. Sherri had twice as much free time as she'd estimated. She finds time to exercise every day, and she often goes to a tanning salon. Kowalski also watches some TV; that's the No. 1 free time activity in America. We have more free time now, say the experts, because we're working less, marrying later, having fewer children, and retiring earlier. If we're so stressed for free time, it's hard to explain how 36 million people can find time to golf, and 65 million people can go camping, and hundreds of millions go to the beach, the movies, and sports events. Economist Stephen Moore says, "One of the reasons that Americans feel so pressed for time is there's so much more to do in life today." Interesting. As I don't make $50k I still could use more money for happiness. Seriously though I can see both sides of it. Then again I'm a happy person for the most part, even when I shouldn't be. MYTH #9 — Money Can Buy Happiness I guess politicians are no different than the rest of us. Politicians want federal money for nice things like museums and senior centers and highways in their states. We want more money too, because we think it'll buy us things that make us happy. We get a lot of messages from television and movies telling us that more money will make us happy. Lottery winners have press conferences, reality shows have pretty women lining up to marry rich guys. But in fact, one lottery winner told us she was very happy for several days, then the thrill wore off. Milionaire hip-hop promoter Russell Simmons told me wealth didn't make him or his friends happy either. "If I know 15 billionaires, I know 13 unhappy people," he said. Simmons' brother, Reverend Run was the lead rapper for Run DMC. He said he suddenly realized money wouldn't buy happiness when he was at the peak of his career. "I get to L.A., and I've got the presidential suite," he said, "and it all came at once. … And it was too much. I realized, 'OK, I got it, God. I got it. I got it. This will not work. It is not gonna make me happy.' … The only thing that's gonna make me happy is the joy that's on the inside of me." Research suggests that Reverend Run and Russell Simmons are right. A survey of 49 of the Forbes richest found that they weren't any happier than the rest of us. Money magazine columnist Jean Chatsky polled 1,500 people for her book "You Don't Have to Be Rich" and found that more money makes people significantly happier only if their family income's below $30,000, but by $50,000, money makes no difference. "Once you get to that $50,000 level, more money doesn't buy more happiness," she said. Happiness researchers agree with Simmons and Chatsky: Purposeful work is what makes people happy. And finding religion. And family. Sadly this one is true. Not of true conservatives...but then again there are few of them in Washington. We need to get the republican party out of the pockets of the AARP and a few other groups. MYTH #8 — Republicans Shrink the Government Republicans always trot out the slogan that they oppose big government and want to shrink the federal payroll. President Bush tells us that "big government is not the answer." President Reagan told us, "Our government is too big and it spends too much." But for more than 75 years, no Republican administration has cut the size of government. Since George W. Bush became president, government spending has risen nearly 25 percent. And the spending increase isn't just tied to the war on terrorism. The Office of Management and Budget says spending at the Environmental Protection Agency is up 12 percent; it's up 14 percent at the Agriculture Department, 30 percent at the Department of the Interior; 64 percent at the Department of Labor, and 70 percent at the Department of Education. And the pork keeps pouring out. Even the Peanut Festival in Dothan, Ala., got $200,000. Alabama congressman Terry Everett, a Republican, got them the money. He wouldn't talk to us about it, but the locals said they like getting your money. "I think it's a waste of money, but if they're going to waste money, I guess it's better to waste it here than anywhere else," one man told me. Economist Stephen Moore, a Republican, says, "We fought a war against big government and you know what? Big government won." He noted, "You look at what's happened to the government in the 10 years since the Republicans took control of Congress, the government is twice as big." The problem is it is getting crowded in the wrong places. That, and the people having the most children are the ones who shouldn't have children at all MYTH #7 — The World Is Getting Too Crowded We've heard protests about this for decades: News articles warn of "the population bomb," and "a tidal wave of humanity," and plead: No more babies. The world population today is more than 6 billion. It seems like so many people. But who says it's "too many?" There are lots of problems all over the world caused by too many people But there's no space problem. Our planet is huge. In fact we could take the entire world population and move everyone to the state of Texas, and the population density there would still be less than that of New York City. But, you might wonder, won't we run out of resources, like food? Paul Ehrlich wrote the book "Population Bomb," and warned 65 million Americans would starve in a "Great Die Off" in the 1980s. The 1973 movie "Soylent Green" predicted food riots would erupt in the year 2022 but it doesn't look like that will happen. According to media mogul and philanthropist Ted Turner, population growth is "a time bomb waiting to happen." If it continues, at the current rate, according to Turner, "Eventually you stand around in a desert with nothing to eat." But that too is a myth. We see the pictures of starving masses in populous places, but the starvation is caused by things like civil war and government corruption that interfere with the distribution of food. With more people, we also have more smart ideas. Every year we learn how to grow more food on less land. Thanks to improved technology, the United Nations now says the world overproduces food. About 15,000 babies are born every hour. But they are not a burden, they offer more brains that might cure cancer, more hands to build things, more voices to bring us beautiful music. We have all tried explaining this to liberals, but you will never convince them. Also not long ago a report came out on how second hand smoke has no direct link to sickness/death. This is one I really want people to quit spouting MYTH #6 — Chemicals Are Killing Us In America today, there's this myth that quietly, secretly, everywhere, chemicals are gradually poisoning us. Of course some chemicals, in high enough doses, do kill people. Americans' fear of chemicals has caused us to obsess about everything from hair dye and dry cleaning to coffee and artificial sweeteners even though there's no proof that the small amounts of the chemicals in those products have harmed anyone. Cancer deaths are actually declining in America. But our fear is contagious and sometimes deadly. Health Minister Jim Muhwezi of Uganda points out that as many as 2 million to 3 million people may die because of DDT. But not because DDT is bad, but because Americans' fear of it has deprived much of the world of the DDT that could have saved them. How did this happen? Well, 50 years ago, Americans sprayed tons of DDT everywhere. Farmers used it to repel bugs, and health officials used it to fight mosquitoes that carry malaria. Nobody worried much about chemicals then. Today DDT is rarely used. America's demonization of it caused others to shun it. The U.S. government does spend your tax dollars fighting malaria in Africa, but it will not spend a penny on DDT. The result has been a huge resurgence of malaria. More than 50 people million have died, mostly children. "If it's DDT, it must be awful. And that's fine if you're a rich, white environmentalist," says Amir Attaran, a scientist leading a campaign urging the use of DDT to fight malaria. "It's not so fine if you're a poor black kid who's about to lose his life to malaria." The United States fights malaria with drugs that the government's own Web site admits fail up to 80 percent of the time. But we will not use DDT, even though USAID acknowledges it's safe to use. Conservatives have always known this. MYTH # 5 — Guns Are Always Bad for Us America is notorious for its culture of gun violence. Guns sometimes do cause terrible harm, and many kids are killed every year in gun accidents. But public service announcements and news stories make it seem as if the accidents kill thousands of kids every year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, fewer than 100 kids 15 and under are killed in gun accidents every year. Of course that's horrible, and I understand why demonstrators say we need more gun control. But guess what? The Centers for Disease Control recently completed a review of studies of various types of gun control: background checks, waiting periods, bans on certain guns and ammunition. It could not document that these rules have reduced violent crime. The government wants to say regulations and laws like the Brady Gun Control Law are making a difference, but they aren't. Some maximum security felons I spoke to in New Jersey scoffed at measures like the Brady law. They said they'll have no trouble getting guns if they want them. A Justice Department study confirmed what the prisoners said. But get this: the felons say that the thing they fear the most is not the police, not time in prison, but, you, another American who might be armed. It's a reason many states are passing gun un-control. They're allowing citizens to carry guns with them, it's called concealed carry or right to carry. Some women say they're comforted by these laws. But many people, including Rev. Al Sharpton, are horrified at the idea of concealed carry laws, and predict mayhem if all states adopt these laws. But surprise, 36 states already have concealed carry laws; and not one reported an upsurge in gun crime. Another good one, but again its hard to get hippies to pay attention long enough to notice...and if you do they are probably so stoned they won't remember. MYTH # 4 — We're Drowning in Garbage We've been told we're running out of places to put our garbage. We do produce a lot of it — more than any other country in the world. But it's not the crisis described in so many media reports. Analysts say this myth was jumpstarted by a 1987 story about a garbage barge on the Mississippi River. The barge was filled with 3,000 tons of compacted trash and garbage from New York. It was supposed to have been shipped to a landfill in Louisiana, but on the way, the shipper tried to save money by dumping the trash in North Carolina. Suspicious local officials said no thanks. Their response got so much publicity that by the time the barge reached its original destination, the Louisiana dump wouldn't accept it anymore. The publicity over the barge ignited 10 years of activism. Cynthia Pollack of the WorldWatch Institute said back in 1987 that we were approaching an emergency situation. But it wasn't true. The EPA says while some cities have to ship garbage out, overall landfill capacity is actually increasing. All around America, people are building bigger landfills. Some landfill owners are competing for our trash. Jeremy O'Brien, of the Solid Waste Association of North America, said some of his group's members are actually looking for waste. Some communities put parks and golf courses on top of trash sites. O'Brien said, "In the United States, there's plenty of land to properly dispose of our solid waste for hundreds and even thousands of years." We hardly have a garbage crisis. This one (actually most of these) need posted on a forum Dan belongs to. What is bad is I explained this to my environmentalist girlfriend and she claimed that the government saved the Forests. She would not accept that loggers have long realized if they didn't replace what they took they would be out of business, capitalism at its best. MYTH # 3 — We Are Destroying Our Forests Lots of Americans feel bad when they see images of trees being cut down, because they've been told that America's running out of forestland. Carl Ross, of the group, Save America's Forests, says we've cut way too much. "The loss of natural forests in America is a crisis," he said. "And we will lose species forever, and they'll go extinct, if we don't take action now." Other environmental groups run ads warning of the dire consequences. But The U.S. Agriculture Department says America has 749 million acres of forestland. In 1920, we had 735 million acres of forest. We have more forest now. How can that be? One reason is technology that allows us to grow five times more food per acre — so we need less farmland. Lots of what once was farmland has reverted to forest. But Ross says we don't really have more forests. "We have more areas, in America, with trees on them, that's true. But we have less that are natural," he said. He's right that many of the oldest trees have been cut down, and about 7 percent of America's forests have been planted by man, but that still means that 93 percent are natural. Ross is also concerned that loss of old-growth forest is leading to a loss of biodiversity. But while some species have decreased, the populations of many others animals have actually increased in the past 75 years. Michael Shermer says many people believe America is destroying the forests because environment groups need to scare people to raise money. "The fear is there," he said, "because, if your goal is to raise funds you have to scare people. You can't tell people things are getting better, and here's the data. You have to tell people things are worse." The truth, however, is that today in the United States there are two acres of forestland for every single person, and America is growing more trees than it cuts. I learned this in Korea, 20 degrees, outside in shorts and a t-shirt, eating ice cream. MYTH # 2 — Getting Cold Can Give You a Cold All through my childhood, I had to watch health movies which sold us the old wive's tale: being cold will give you a cold. I spoke with some adults who still think that's true, and they make sure their kids are more than prepared for nasty weather. So what happens when kids play a game of football without any coats — some without any shirts — on a 40-degree day? Probably nothing. Public health expert Dr. Mark Callahan explained being cold has nothing to do with getting a cold. "Running around outside in the cold won't give you a cold. You have to get exposed to a virus, pick it up and then you'll get a cold," Callahan said. I learned about this myth years ago, when "20/20" sent me to a cold part of England. Scientists there found that dropping cold viruses into people's noses often made them sick. But getting them cold and wet made no difference. The researchers had people walk outside in the winter rain and then sit in unheated rooms in various stages of undress, and those chilled people got no more olds than anyone else. The cold is caused by a virus, not by temperature. And people get more colds in the winter, only because then we spend more time indoors passing the virus back and forth because we're closer to each other. Being cold has nothing to do with it. Myth #1 is that we are destroying the world with polution. The world is less polluted now than it was in the 20's, despite SUV's, hairspray, and big business. They even went on about how people swim in the East River. It really is something that environmentalists will never accept

Open Post

Today's a day-off and I'm feelin' lazy. So if your out there, have at it.

2005

Now is the time where everyone looks back on the year and starts evaluating how it went: LGF is culling together it's nominees for the Fiskies - otherwise known as the Idiotarian of the Year Award. Atlas Shrugs has her list of the Top Ten Worst Americans, and the Dishonest Reporter Award, 2005. Newsbusters has the "Top 10 Lowlights of the New York Times in 2005", and also details the CNN piece this moring about how they ranked Cindy Sheehan over The Pope's death as one of 2005's big stories. I ask, "Cindy who?" The biggest story of 2005? RCP has a suggestion. I'm sure I'll find more lists. It seems that everyone has one.

Come Visit The Socialist Paradise That Is Libya

For some Gods-forsaken reason, Michael Totten went to Libya. He gives us this report decribing the wealth and beauty that Kaddafi built with the principles of the superior political ideology that is socialism: In the Land of the Brother Leader I saw no corporate advertising: no Pepsi signs, no movie posters and no cute girls flashing milk-mustache smiles for the dairy industry. I did, however, see one hysterical propaganda billboard after another. They were socialist cartoons from the Soviet era, the same kinds of living museum pieces still on display in North Korea and other wonderful places where starving proles live in glorious jackbooted paradise. The Happy Worker theme was a common one; smiling construction workers wore hardhats, and Bedouins-turned-widget-makers basked in the glory of assembly-line work. One poster showed two hands chained together at the wrist below an image of Qaddafi’s sinister Green Book descending from heaven. It's sad really, because from the sounds of it, that place could draw a good amount of tourism, from the Arch of Marcus Aurelius to the ancient -but now empty- city of Ghadames. I wonder what the beaches are like. Yet another place full of riches squandered by a terrible political system.

Saddam's Lawyer: "Let My Dictator Go!"

Free Saddam to end woes in Iraq, lawyer tells Bush The United States should free Saddam Hussein if it wants to end its problems in Iraq and earn the friendship of Arabs, the former Iraqi president's lawyer wrote in a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush. The chief lawyer for Saddam at his trial for crimes against humanity in Baghdad told Bush that Iraqis who supported their former leader were waiting for a bold decision from the world's most powerful statesman to free him. "I call on you (President Bush) to release Mr. President (Saddam) immediately to allow the Iraqis to decide his fate. Only then will you get out of your predicament in Iraq and truly become an advocate of justice," Khalil Dulaimi wrote in a letter obtained by Reuters. Such a decision would prove to be the panacea that would end Washington's woes over Iraq, Dulaimi asserted. Awww why not? He's harmless. He's not going to cause trouble. He'll retire, find a nice two bedroom apartment and get a job as a greeter at Wal-Mart (if and when it's built). Hey, I'm all for letting ol' Saddamy go, right down the main street of every town from the top of Iraq to the bottom. If he makes it, he can keep going. No help though!

Don't Piss-off Dad

Dad Replaces Bad Kids 360 with Coal Someone placed an ad on Craig's List saying that he was selling an Xbox 360 for $100. The guy says he's sick of his ratbag son and needs to teach him a lesson. So he's going to sell the console, controllers and headset but keep the box, to fill with charcoal. Why? This from the alleged ad: My kid has been an absolute terror for the last month. He has been demanding more and more from my wife while constantly pestering us to give him his X-box 360 early so he can play it. Last night was the last straw when he kicked my $2000 stereo system after I refused to give it to him early. Damn, that's HARSH. The kid deserved it, but what makes him think that stfliesflys in the house? Seems someone has spared the rod for a while and set a precedent that the little punk can be a terror. Of course there's probably more to the story...if it's true.

For All You "True Believers"

Dust My Broom has a lesson in political history: Liberals, Conservatives, Beer, and the Wheel

The Hard Right vs. The Easy Wrong

This guy chose the easy wrong: SEATTLE (AP) -- A 12-inch hole in the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines jet caused the plane to lose cabin pressure, forcing the pilots to make an emergency descent and return to the airport, authorities said Tuesday. The incident Monday involved an MD-80 jet en route from Seattle to Burbank, Calif. The plane landed safely at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and none of the 140 passengers was hurt. A ramp worker acknowledged that he failed to report immediately striking the plane at the gate Monday with a baggage cart or baggage-belt machine, said Jim Struhsaker, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board. One wonders if he still is choosing the easy wrong when he stated that, "he was not aware he had dented it."

Sometimes You Just Have to Draw Them a Picture

Reason and logic are governed by their own laws and employ their own methods. they launch themselves at will, and they head straight for their target. This is why we call actions that seem to us reasonable and logical "right," because they are right on target. -Marcus Aurelius Logic Times stays true to it's name by the way of this flow chart, which breaks down the claims made by the anti-victory "patriots". Great stuff (thanks RWN!). Little did I know that what was said about the "insurgency" in Iraq was also said about the "insurgency" in post-Hitler Germany. Hell, I didn't even know post-Nazi Germany had an "insurgency". Thank you, California public education!

The Mainstream Press Launches Preemptive Strike on the Blogosphere

Picked-up this story from a morning recon into the enemy territory known as The Democratic underground: Bloggers, Money Now Weapons in Information War Now when I saw the headline, I thought this article may be about an active conspiracy hatched, driven, and directed by the by the military in an effort to subvert the blogosphere for propaganda purposes. The article, however, talks about something much less sinister: Retired soldier Bill Roggio was a computer technician living in New Jersey less than two months ago when a Marine officer half a world away made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Frustrated by the coverage they were receiving from the news media, the Marines invited Roggio, 35, who writes a popular Web log about the military called "The Fourth Rail" ( http://www.billroggio.com ), to come cover the war from the front lines. So a reporter is invited by the Marines to ride along and report what goes on. Not much different than when the DoD invited (and continues to invite) mainstream media journalists to embed and ride along with the troops starting with the initial invasion of Iraq. As we all know, they were all over that. As the adage goes, "if it bleeds, it leads". He raised more than $30,000 from his online readers to pay for airfare, technical equipment and body armor. A few weeks later, he was posting dispatches from a remote outpost in western Anbar province, a hotbed of Iraq's insurgency. Yup, Bill Roggio, like every other reporter in Iraq, still had to pay for his own equipment, which his readers graciously paid for. Which says something about the amount of demand that people have for this kind of journalism. What kind of journalism is that? The Michael Yon style of journalism where someone who has spent time in the military (Army Special Forces in his case), goes and simply reports what's going on, for good or bad, from a ground-floor level. What caused me to groan and roll my eyes was the inclusion of news regarding the allegation concerning the monetary support of local Iraqi media by the military. In the mind of the reporters in the mainstream media, this automatically MUST mean that our military is paying them to print only what our military wants them to print: A local U.S. Army National Guard commander acknowledged that his officers "suggest" stories to the station and review the content of the program in a weekly meeting before it is aired. Though the commander, a lieutenant colonel whose name is being withheld because he is based in the same area, denied that payments were made to the station, the Iraqi television producer said his staff got $1,000 a month from the military. It does not disclose any financial relationship to viewers. There was no explanation of the discrepancy between that amount and the figure of $600 per week provided by Blanton. "The coalition forces support us," said the producer, who added that while the U.S. military reviews each program, "they don't change anything." Therefore, the Iraqi producer's admission virtually makes this a non-story. Even so, use of propaganda in war is nothing new. I find it particularly telling that the WaPo doesn't delve into exactly what news story's were favorable! You'd think they couldn't find someone who speaks Arabic and English. Note that this mention is irrelevant to Bill Roggio. There is no evidence he is being paid by the military to print propaganda, or at least none the WaPo has produced in this story. After all, who the hell raises money to spend on a trip to one of the most dangerous places on earth without more than $30k (before expenses, mind you) worth of incentive? Notice also the sad attempt by the WaPo to sling mud in response to their reporting being called into question by the military, not to mention their willingness to be accomplices in terrorist-staged propaganda. Yet this still is irrelevant to the Bill Roggio trip to Iraq. Why is the military allowing him to tag-along? Because they are fed-up with the status quo reporting they get from mainstream sources: "His reporting was objective, credible and compelling. But most of all, it was independent," Pool said. "He didn't have to worry about some editor back in the States altering what he wrote before it got published. Plus, he had no competition from other news sources to churn out a 'marketable' product on a day-to-day basis." On other words, they just want honest reporting. Most likely they've read or at least witnessed the reaction to the excellent account from Michael Yon, in which he followed a battalion from the 24th Infantry Division as it fought to drive the terrorists out of Mosul. A series that starkly contrasted the defeatist news regularly reported back home. In my assessment, those in the mainstream media are worried. The rise of so-called "Pajamas Media" has provided anyone with an internet connection virtually unlimited alternative news and views without having to subscribe to a newspaper or wait for it to be broadcast on TV. Now with the success of Yon and the grass-roots support of Roggio, we are seeing the mainstream media lose control in the one area where they had a monopoly on: war. So I see this article as more of an preemptive attempt at damage control by attempting to discredit Bill Roggio before he becomes another Mike Yon. Lord knows we don't want the public to know that you don't need a journalism degree or a position in a major media outlet to accurately report what's going on. (you can check out Roggio's dispatches here) UPDATE: Bill Roggio answers this article, and lists numerous errors and attempts to set the record straight.

Anti-Christian Hysteria

Something I picked up from the same message board I frequent, from Mother Jones: A Nation Under God I made it through a couple of paragraphs before the storytelling aspect of the story got on my nerves. I skimmed about halfway through looking for something firmly in the "non-biased-fact" genre before I gave up and moved on. All this alarmism is ironic. For the last few decades in this country (though the phenomenon has existed for a few centuries), a small group of vocal ideologues have been telling people that much of what Americans have thought is wrong and that they have the answers to solving society's ills. Poverty? It's all because of racism. Crime? It can be cured with a therapeutic approach to the criminal. Nevermind that when the "War on Poverty" began in the ' 60s- originally to reduce dependency on government programs - that the number of people who were below the official poverty line was half of what it was a decade before. Crime - which was also decreasing before people such as Attorney General Ramsey Clark enacted reforms - skyrocketed after the justice system tried to reform criminals rather than punishing them. There's other issues, but you get the point. Those ideologues use "logical" arguments - that generally use the rules of argument than the rules of logic - to divert the debate away from the flaws in their ideas, and then blame the American public for being ignorant and stupid. Well, guess what? Some in the public are fighting back, and it seems that the ideologues wish to paint their opponents as this article has painted some Christians. I find it ironic in a poetic sort of way. One thing I did notice about this article: the book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) , wasn't written by Gary DeMar, it was written by Robert Spencer. How can one attribute a quote from a book to a man when the real author has his name right in the front of the book? Anyways, read the article if you wish. But since I haven't heard of anyone burned at the stake since this country was founded. I'm not going to subscribe to the fear-mongering these ideologues are trying to sell me.

Merry Christmas!

Oh, Am I a day late? Did I have a blog to run? I forgot. I've been playing Call of Duty 2 and spending my time killing fascists. Which brings up an interesting point: when will we see the Iraq War video games? Fascists are fascists, whether they are from Europe or the Middle East, and killing them on my computer is fun. I wonder what CAIR (Council on Islamic-American Relations, the group that polices speech considered "anti-Muslim") will have to say about it. Maybe they'll tell us that killing Islamic terrorists is racist, nevermind the killing of ethic Germans, which is okay. Too bad, they have alot in common. So is it bad to beat a game the day you recieved it? Must've been all that time I spent at Ft. Benning and FT. Bragg learning how to flank and do the '3-5 second rush'. It's a good game though, yet I would be interested to see a title published from the viewpoint of a German soldier. Historically, it would be an interesting and educational perspective of WWII. Alas, I think in this age of literary embellishment, it would be too tempting to add-on to history to further a political point, and certainly if history contradicts a prevailing political ideology, you'll see an uproar about it. That shouldn't stop people from being honest, but it does. BTW, it's a great game.

NSA Wiretapping

Yesterday John Hinderaker (a lawyer) at Powerline did an excellent analysis of the legality of President Bush's use of Echelon: On the Legality of the NSA Electronic Intercept Program Pass this around to all your friends who think President Bush broke the law.

Too Little, Too Late?

Talks resume in NY transit strike Wikipedia has some good info on the strike, such as the union demands: The TWU is asking for all employees to receive an 8% salary increase per year for each of the 3 years of the contract, plus improved benefits for maternity leave, and better funding for station maintenance. The MTA has offered a 3% raise the first year, a 4% raise the second year, and a 3.5% raise the third year. The striking workers reportedly earn an average of about 48,000 USD annually. The TWU also wants to lower the age of retirement (at which point the employee is eligible for a full pension) from 55 to 50. The MTA had wanted to raise the retirement age for newer workers from 55 to 62, but dropped this demand in exchange for pension contributions from new workers of 6% of gross salary per year for the first 10 years of employment. Under the previous contract, workers contribute 2% to their pension plan. [3] Citing the rising cost of health care, the MTA wants new employees to contribute 1% of their salary to pay for health insurance. Transit workers currently pay nothing for health insurance. At the last minute, the MTA offered a 3.5% per year raise and no change in the retirement age, with the caveat that new transit workers pay 6% of their wages into the pension fund, up from the 2% that current workers pay. The offer was rejected, and a strike declared. Combined, the pension and healthcare reforms the MTA seeks would cost about 30 million USD over the span of the three-year contract. Critics have lambasted both the MTA and TWU for allowing a strike to occur over such a relatively small sum. However, the pension costs would balloon to 160 million USD in the first 10 years, and 80 million USD per year after 20 years. The MTA claims that its reluctance to give in to the TWU on this point stems from fear of future deficits (projected to be 1 billion USD by 2009). Now the same site also states that the average salary for a bus or subway operator is $63,000/year! The average salary for a cleaner is $40,000! Now think about this from an economic standpoint. How many have invested in alternative means of transportation? Will they dump their investment just to go back to riding the train? Also consider the effect on businesses that will now have to lay off or close their doors due to lost revenue, perhaps causing people to get jobs closer to work, or relocate from he city altogether. This union really pissed some poeple off. I wouldn't be suprised if we see a bigger movement to change the union laws. Which brings up another point: According to the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, from 1993-2003 the percentage change in non-farm private sector employees was 17.7% growth overall. The change in Right to Work States was 24.1% growth, while the change in "union shop" States was 14.2% growth. According to the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, from 1993-2003 the percentage change in real personal income was 29% growth overall. The change in Right to Work States was 37% growth, while the change in "union shop" States was 26% growth. According to the US Bureau of Census, from 1982-2001 the percentage change in manufacturing establishments was 1.5% loss overall. The change in Right to Work States was 7% growth, while the change in "union shop" States was 4.9% loss. Also according to the US Bureau of Census, from 1993-2003 the percentage growth of people covered by private health insurance was 8.5% growth. The change in Right to Work States was 13.6% growth, while the change in "union-shop" States was 5.9% growth. According to both the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of Census, from 1991-2001 the percentage change in real value added per production worker was 11.1% growth overall. The change in Right to Work States was 17.1% growth, while the change in "union-shop" states was 8.4% growth. True that the article above also states there may be other factors, but this seems to be a pretty clear trend here. The talking heads already say that MTA will withdraw its last-minute demands, and the union will effectively win. Time will tell what kind of long-term impact on the economy of New York.

Darwinism in Action

Stupid Rifle Tricks The pathetic thing is that the guy probably went home and told all the ladies at the bar some B.S. "no shit, there I was..." war story.

The Left's Strategy for Our Their Victory

Allow me to sum up the homeland security strategy of America's do-nothing brigade, led by the armchair generals at The New York Times and ACLU headquarters: First, bar law enforcement at all levels from taking race, ethnicity, national origin and religion into account when assessing radical Islamic terror threats. (But continue to allow the use of those factors to ensure "diversity" in public-college admissions, contracting, and police- and fire-department hiring.) Second, institute the "Eenie-meenie-miny-moe" random-search program at all subways, railways and bus stations. Third, open the borders, sabotage all immigration enforcement efforts and scream "Racist" at any law-abiding American who protests. Fourth, sue. Sue. Sue. Fifth, yell "Connect the dots!" while rebuilding and strengthening the walls that prevent information-sharing between the CIA, State Department, Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and other key government agencies. Sixth, hang the white flag and declare victory. Seventh, sit back and wait to blame the president for failing to take aggressive, preventative measures when the next terrorist attack hits. Repeat. Read the rest.

To All You Young, Aspiring Socialist Revolutionaries: Your Ideology Doesn't Work

This morning I wrote a response to the socialist I remarked on in an earlier post. I invested some time in it and I thought it worthy enough to share with you all. (Of course names have been changed to protect the innocent) I think what we have here is a misunderstanding of what capitalism is and of what socialism involves. This is directly due to the lack of quality education on the subject of economics as taught in our government schools. Modern socialists and their friends aren't the first bunch to think of a profitless society. Even Marx wasn't the first. The thing is that historically, our world was pretty stagnant as far as the standard of living for the average man for a long, long time. You had the nobility, and you had the subjects. everything the subjects produced was the property of the nobility. When human beings discovered profit thru trade and business, then you saw the quality of living gradually raise, you saw the assertion of subjects to own what they produced. The American Revolution wasn't simply about a form of government that was chosen by the people, it was more about a system of government that would allow people to own property and let them determine how best to manage it. "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" is almost a direct quote from John Locke, who said that all men have right to, "life, liberty, and estate (or property)". People will work hard and persue excellence only if there is an incentive to do so. Profit is that incentive. This has been proven by other groups who sought to "follow, extend, and refine [Marx's] ideas on socialism", as well as by our own government when it tried to curb profit in order to avert whatever "crisis" the politicians decided would come about without their wisdom. Case in point: In 1979 the government placed price controls on the sale of gasoline. Now mind you, most if us have seen or heard of the long lines and such. Yet do we know that 1978 was a record-breaking year for gasoline sales, and that in 1979 there was only a 3.5% drop in gasoline sales? The amount of gasoline consumption in 1979 was still higher than any previous year other than 1978. So why the legendary long-lines? Because with government price controls, retailers had no means of adjusting price to meet increasing costs of meeting increased demand, such as hiring additional workers, providing increased upkeep for machinery (since it was recieving increased use) and moving gasoline from one station where it wasn't selling to another where it was selling out. So what was the retailer to do to keep his business from breaking down and from running dry (a dry station gets no business, therefore no means to pay the rent, electricity, or other regular costs)? Easy: either raise the price lower the cost. The government stopped the former, so retailers had to do the latter. In New York City during September 1978, gas stations were open an average of 110 hours a week, but cut back to only 27 hours a week in June the following year. Why? The retailer no longer had an incentive to please the consumer under government price controls. The consumer became a source of increased cost rather than a source of increased profit. The same mentality was seen in the profitless society of Soviet Russia, as I quote from the book I offered to one socialist on a message board: "In the vast common fields, fleets of tractors fanned out to begin the plowing. Plan fulfillment was calculated on the basis of hectares worked, and so it was to the driver's advantage to cover as much territory as quickly as possible. the drivers started by cutting deep furrows around the edge of the field. as they moved deeper into the fields, however, they began to lift the blade of the plow and race the tractor, and the furrows became progressively shallowed. The first furrow was nine to ten inches deep. A little farther from the road, they were five to six inches deep, and in the center of the field, where the tractor drivers were certain that no one would check on them, the furrows were as little as two inches deep. Usually, no one discovered that the furrows were so shallow in the middle of the field until it became obvious that something was wrong from the stunted nature of the crop." No one works just to work. No one works for the sole benefit of another without any sort of profit for themselves, monetarily, material, or otherwise. Like someone else has remarked, we are human beings, not a colony of bees. If those Soviet fields were owned by the tractor drivers and they recieved the profits, you'd be hard-pressed to find a shallow field. Socialism as taught on general political or ideological terms sounds good, but when you get to the nitty-gritty of specifics it's not very well thought-out.

108 House Democrats Not Committed To Victory In Iraq

On Friday the House voted on H Res 612, which simply asked are you committed to victory in Iraq. 108 Democrats and 1 Independant voted that they were for failure. Here is a link providing how your representative voted.

Bush Has Opprotunity To Be Reagan-like

As everyone has heard that the MTA in NYC is on strike? Not only is this an illegal strike, it is uncalled for. Considering that the transit workers make 47k-55k salaries, take an average of 13 sick days per year, the retiree's make a total of 50 million+ dollars in benefits, and they were offered a 10% raise over 3 years; that wasn't good enough. So they choose to strike illegally. What does that have to do with Reagan? When the FATC (Air traffic controllers) went on strike illegally in the 80's President Reagan fired them all. Bush needs to use that as a guide in how this is dealt with.

Unhinged Yet Again

This little gem from the Democratic Undergound: It's all about the PNAC, man. Totally. *grabs bong*

Ho-Freakin'-Ho

Now put the money in the bag. Drunken Santas on a rampage in New Zealand, armed German robbers in Santa disguises, a British St. Nick wanted for flashing, and a Swedish vandal in a Santa outfit are giving the big man in red a bad name this year. Reports of "Bad Santas" breaking the law or otherwise wreaking havoc have been circulating around the world.

Echelon and the Left: Hoping We Don't Remember

Check this out: Created in response to last week's bloody attacks, the draft "Mobilization Against Terrorism Act" (MATA) rewrites laws dealing with wiretapping, eavesdropping and immigration. The draft, intended to increase prosecutors' courtroom authority, also unleashes the government's Echelon and Carnivore spy systems. Read the date in the link: 10:15 AM Sep. 20, 2001 PT. Yup. four years ago we knew about Echelon and the White House plan to tap domestic phone lines without a warrant. We didn't care then because we were pissed-off and literally wanted heads to roll. Politicians didn't care then because being anything less than anti-terror and pro-American victory would be political suicide, which isn't the case these days if you judge by how the left has acted lately. Abraham Lincoln said that, "the Constitution is not a suicide pact". He also suspended Habeus Corpus and even deported "agitators". FDR, rounded-up and held Nazi sympathyzers and held them as enemy combatants without trial. He also interned 100,000+ Japanese for fear of infiltration by agents. Harsh measures in a time of war are nothing new, and Echelon is tame by comparison. Addendum Here is the transcript of 60 Minutes' investigation of the Echelon program in Febuary of 2000. For all you visiting Kos Kidz, that was before Bush.(h/t Michelle Malkin)

The Anointed Socialist Argument.

I've just started reading Thomas Sowell's The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation As a Basis for Social Policy and he has this great quote from Joseph Epstein: "Disagree with someone on the right and he is likely to think you obtuse, wrong, foolish, a dope. Disagree with someone on the left and he is more likely to think you selfish, a sell-out, insensitive, and possibly evil." The thing to note is that this book was written ten years ago, and that quote is from the New York Times Magazine ten years before that. Amazing that in 20 years time the left view of their detractors has gone from "possibly evil" to downright evil. Add to that they think we on the right are racists, fascists, terrorists, and want to establish a totalitarian theocracy. Case in point: On one of the message boards I frequent someone curiously asked "why are so many Americans so anti-communist?" Now most of us (and you know who you are out there) who are anti-communist had pretty much the same thing to say "because it doesn't work" or remarked about it's tendency towards totalitarianism. Of course there is always one. This one believes that essentially Americans don't understand Socialism nor do we have the facts, yet in the same thread states that real socialism has never been tried, and of course, communism is not socialism nor has real communism been tried either. I asked about the good things socialism had done and how it has improved people's lives. I've gotten no answer. Only this: Please show some level of respect. I'm a member of the social party here, and quite frankly, they're a lot more intelligent and educated than your average political group Which goes to show that Thomas Sowell - who was once an avid follower of Marxist theory - is a very wise man.

Is Global Warming a Dead Cause?

Yes: Here are 10 good reasons why the global-warming issue can be put to rest. Excellent editorial. My thoughts? Global warming is indeed happening, but there is little proof it is due to man or his machines. I believe we are in the middle of a cycle that is perfectly natural. Truth is, there has been 5 million years of climate change. Not to mention that temperatures are not constant, but are cyclic: but let's be serious, the global warming debate is political in nature, not scientific.

Anyone Catch Bush's Speech Last Night?

You can watch it here if you missed it. Even my politically apathetic wife thought it was one of his best. Sounded to me like the speech that many on the right wished he made a year or so ago, and hope that he will follow-up on in a few weeks. Your thoughts?

Holiday Christmas Ramblings

Just got back from Christmas shopping. Holy Crap. I know everyone across our fruited plain has something to say about how nuts people get around this time of year. Of course, idiots like me who wait 'till D+7 to start our shopping only make it worse. I've lived in the southwest, northwest, two states formerly of tha' Confetahrahcee, and a latin "paradise". Miami, year-'round, is like how most places in our country are during this time. Now imagine how nuttier a city of nuts can get. It's like full-moon at an insane asylum. Traffic backed-up for a couple miles at the mall, people getting angry because they can't find parking spots in front of the mall - while people like me have no problem finding one because we park around the back and walk (what a concept). Hordes of people bumping into one another. All this is why I get there before 1 in the afternoon. Of course, I like to rattle the cage a bit and wear my Che Guevara t-shirt that has a big slash through his face ala Ghostbusters. So far everyone that has bothered to say anything likes it, and the worst I get it is a few negative glares. Today a sales clerk voiced his approval and told me how he also worked at a school library and a couple of the kids are into Che-wear, yet they have no idea who he was, what he stood for, much less know about what he did. Makes me wonder what those latinos in the mall really know about him, or what they think when I pass. Not that I place much stock in what they think anyway. Overall, my holiday has been good. No horror stories as of yet. What about you?

Politics and "Torture"

I've written relatively extensively on this blog about what I think (also here, here, and here) of McCain and his Torture Amendment and the entire torture debate for that matter. He's also gotten a thorough scrogging by the blogosphere, as well. So here we are, McCain has managed to get his amendment through Congress and now President Bush has capitulated to him. The issue really isn't torture, because torture is already illegal. The issue is of harsh and humiliating treatment, in which we have gotten information from terrorists that has prevented more terrorist attacks here in the States. But let's be real here. What does this all boil down to? Politics. Plain. Simple. Politics. McCain himself admitted that he gave up more info than he should have when subjected to torture. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mind behind 9/11, is said to have given up the goat after two minutes of being waterboarded. Yet it is the politicians that scream that these techniques don't work, but is it the politician's jobs to figure out the best way to get information from a terrorist? Nope, that's the job of professional interrogators. Politicians, however, only care about image and getting re-elected - or being elected to a higher office, as is McCain's case. I want to ask all of you reading this a question: If one of your family members worked at a high value target, say anywhere in Washington D.C., New York City, even here in Miami or another big city, and there was someone who was planning to attack said target, what would you do to stop it in order to safeguard your family? This issue is far beyond politics. This is life and death, and I personally would rather place my trust in the ability and training of our professional interrogators than our politicians.

Open Post

Post what you want in the comments section. Go ahead, let it all out.

Divorced Barbie

Got this one via E-mail: One day a father gets out of work and on his way home he remembers that it's his daughter's birthday. He pulls over to a toy store and asks the salesperson, "How much is the Barbie on the display window?" The salesperson answers, "Which one? We have: Work out Barbie for $19.95 Shopping Barbie for $19.95 Beach Barbie for $19.95 Disco Barbie for $19.95 Divorced Barbie for $265.95". The amazed father asks: "What? Why is the Divorced Barbie $265.95 and all the others only $19.95?" The salesperson annoyingly answers : "Sir..., "Divorced Barbie comes with: Ken's Car, Ken's House, Ken's Boat, Ken's Furniture, Ken's Computer and... One of Ken's Friends.

Headlines From the Year 2029

(via Freepers) Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest country in the world, Mexifornia formally known as California. White minorities still trying to have English recognized as Mexifornia's third language. Spotted Owl plague threatens northwestern United States crops and livestock. Baby conceived naturally. Scientists stumped. Couple petitions court to reinstate heterosexual marriage. Last remaining Fundamentalist Muslim dies in the American Territory of the Middle East (formerly known as Iran, Afghanistan, Syria and Lebanon). Iran still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least 10 more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels. France pleads for global help after being taken over by Jamaica. Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking. George Z. Bush says he will run for President in 2036. Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesdays only. 85-year, $75.8 billion study: Diet and Exercise is the key to weight loss. Average weight of Americans drops to 250 lbs. Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative. Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals violates their civil rights. Average height of NBA players now nine feet, seven inches. New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters and rolled-up newspapers must be registered by January 2036. Congress authorizes direct deposit of formerly illegal political contributions to campaign accounts. Capitol Hill intern indicted for refusing to have sex with congressman. IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75 percent. Florida voters still having trouble with voting machines.

Yet Another New Look

I swear this is the last time (at least for the forseeable future). Thoughts?

Democrats Attack Ohio Representative For Calling Murtha A Coward

Apparently it is acceptable to call the Commander-in-chief a war criminal but it isn't acceptable to say Murtha is a coward for his can't-do attitude when it comes to Iraq. Who cares if he was a war "hero"? That was then, in another war, when he held a different job. Now he is a senator who has given comfort to the enemy by telling them America can not win. He may have been a hero, he is now a coward, call a spade a spade. The funniest bit about this is that the "environmentalist" Democrats are spending money on a Mobil billboard which is a horrible pollutant...but ignore the coward behind the curtain and focus on the attacks. Bottom line is, while I do find this dispicable, I find comfort in the fact the Democrats are doing nothing to advance causes and being proven wrong on their attacks (psss...the elections were today, we are winning in Iraq). Here is the story.

Sign asking customers to speak English is illegal

Here locally there is a story about a bar owner who could loose his business and the American dream for putting up a sign saying "For service speak English". Is it insensitive? Yes. Is it racist? No. Why is it the government can't stay out of individual rights? Why is it that asking someone to speak the most common language in this country reason to shut down a business? Political Correctness has gone too far. Here is the story.

This is the Day...

...the Iraqis are voting and will tell us whether all the blood and sweat was worth it. I don't think they will disappoint. Blogs to watch for the latest: Iraqi Bloggers Central The Iraqi Vote <~with pics! Iraq the Model <~with pics! Purple Finger For Freedom <~with pics! Hassan at RedState has some election analysis. Pajamas Media has a good round-up of the latest updates. More and more people are going to the polling centers and the turnout levels have exceeded 84% in some centers, for example in the center that lies in al-Khaleej district more than 2650 voters did vote as of 3 pm out of 3190 registered total voters for this particular center. The overall turnout is estimated at around 75% in the province One more thing: Someone call Howard Dean and let him know we are winning.

Thursday 'Toons

A few funnies I ran into while doing my usual tour of the 'net this morning:

Environmentalism Kills?

Or at least the knee-jerk and extreme factions have indirectly - according to John Stossel's article today. The issue stems from the disallowance of the highly-effective pesticide DDT: Two to three million people die of malaria every year, Uganda's health minister has said, because the U.S. government is afraid of a chemical called DDT. The United States does spend your tax dollars trying to fight malaria in Africa, but it won't fund DDT. The money goes for things like mosquito netting over beds (even though not everyone in Africa even has a bed). The office that dispenses those funds, the Agency for International Development, acknowledges DDT is safe, but it will not spend a penny on it. Now the Libertarian in me begs to ask the question, "why should we pay to spray pesticide in Africa?" but that is neither here nor there regarding the lie about DDT perpetrated by environmentalist activist lobby (h/t Freepers). First, the scientific study that led to the banning of DDT was scewed: The alleged thinning of eggshells by DDT in the diet was effective propaganda; however, actual feeding experiments proved that there was very little, if any, correlation between DDT levels and shell thickness. Thin shells may result when birds are exposed to fear, restraint, mercury, lead, parathion, or other agents, or when deprived of adequate calcium, phosphorus, Vitamin D, light, calories, or water. While quail fed a diet containing 2 percent calcium produced thick shells, a calcium content of only 1 percent resulted in shells 9 percent thinner than normal. In the presence of lead, shells were 14 percent thinner, and with mercury, 8 percent thinner. Bitman and coworkers demonstrated eggshell thinning with DDT by reducing calcium levels to 0.56 percent from the normal 2.5 percent. After this work was exposed as anti-DDT propaganda, Bitman continued his work for another year. Instead of the calcium-deficient diets, however, he fed the quail 2.7 percent calcium in their food. The shells they produced were not thinned at all by the DDT. Unfortunately, the editor of Science refused to publish the results of that later research. Editor Philip Abelson had already told Dr. Thomas Jukes of the University of California in Berkeley that Science would never publish anything that was not antagonistic toward DDT (T. Jukes, personal communication). Bitman therefore had to publish the results of his legitimate feeding experiments in an obscure specialty journal, and many readers of continued to believe that DDT could cause birds to lay thin-shelled eggs. JunkScience also has the short and sweet on the DDT debate. Stossel asks an important question: Why? Fifty years ago, Americans sprayed tons of DDT everywhere. Farmers used it to repel bugs, and health officials to fight mosquitoes that carry malaria. Nobody worried much about chemicals then. People really did just sit there and eat in clouds of DDT. When the trucks came to spray, people often acted as if the ice cream truck had come. They were so happy to have mosquitoes repelled. Huge amounts of DDT were sprayed on food and people, who just breathed it in. Did they all get cancer and die? Nope. The sad thing is that we in the U.S. do not have to worry much about insect-borne diseases (aside from the West Nile scare, and that wouldn't have happened if we still used DDT), but those in under-developed countries in Africa, Asia, and South America do. "If it's a chemical, it must be bad," said scientist Amir Attaran. "If it's DDT, it must be awful. And that's fine if you're a rich, white environmentalist. It's not so fine if you're a poor black kid who is about to lose his life from malaria." But hey, those who are driving the environmentalist lobby think there is too many people on Mother Earth anyway.

Yeah, But....

Bush Estimates 30,000 Iraqis Killed in War In a rare, unscripted moment, President Bush on Monday estimated 30,000 Iraqis have died in the war, the first time he has publicly acknowledged the high price Iraqis have paid in the push for democracy. Let me remind you that (as Logic Times has pointed out) most of those casualties were likely either "insurgents", or non-combatants killed by "insurgents". Yet despite the obvious spin of this article (and the media), the Iraqis are still going to have their 3rd straight successful vote:

Rest in Peace...

.... Albert Owens, Tsai-Shai Yang, Yen-i Yang, Ye-Chen Lin. Crips Gang Co-Founder Executed in Calif. So far L.A. remains (relatively) quiet. But hey, is anyone gonna get up this early to riot?

France: Part Deux?

Racial Unrest Spreading in Australia The difference being that the Aussies are letting the cops do their job: The rioting began Sunday on Cronulla Beach when about 5,000 white youths, many drunk and wrapped in Australian flags, attacked people believed to be of Arab or Middle Eastern descent after rumors spread that Lebanese youths had assaulted two lifeguards earlier this month. Police, who had stepped up patrols on the beach after learning of cell phone text messages urging people to retaliate for the attack on the lifeguards, fought back with batons and pepper spray. Carloads of young Arab men then struck back in several Sydney suburbs, fighting with police for hours and smashing dozens of cars with sticks and bats, police said. Thirty-one people were injured and 16 arrested in the first day of unrest.

Thank a Soldier Week

December 19-25 is thank a soldier week, I think that about says it all, when was the last time you have thanked a soldier? What I find funniest about this is I've never met a soldier who wants or needs thanks. Everyone I knew when I served never knew how to respond to a thank you. The average soldier doesn't think anything of what he does, its a job, its his duty; he isn't doing anything he sees as exceptional. Yet at the same time, I think they truely deserve all of the thanks we can give them. I would like to start with a thank you to Dan and Pawnman, I see both of them more as friends than soldiers, however they are both in the armed services and are fighting the good fight...fortunatly both are in the CONUS, but they are as important as those overseas. I truely miss the little time I was in and wish it were possible to go back without having to go through covering a slightly offensive tattoo that is very meaningful to me. I'm done dragging on, but please, thank a soldier through this site, and thank every soldier you meet, active, reserve, or retired.

Howard Dean White Flag Ad

It seems that after Howard Dean made is ignorant comments about how we "can't win the war in Iraq". The Republicans finally grew a set of balls and went after him making an ad showing Dean waving the white flag (or the unofficial French flag). The Democrats found another anti-war hero to attack Bush for allowing the Republicans to expose Democrat beliefs.

Monday Reading

Fighting to Win - "With the proper strategy, victory in Iraq is far more likely than people think." Rumor of levee dynamite persists- The wackos still persist with their conspiracy theory. Check here for the official Tookie Countdown Clock Anti-war concert gets snubbed by vets - In Caledonia, NY, a group of veterans has forced a anti-war concert to move it's venue away from the city war memorial were it was planned. The moonbats are crying "censorship". Christmas bashing extends to Narnia - Apparently not only do nativity scenes scare people, but "Christian propaganda" does too. Rummy says that rumors of his resignation are bunk. First Gaza, now the Wall - Palestinians are now claiming the Western (Wailing) Wall is Muslim property, since Mohammed tied his horse there...once.

Narnia: Movie Review

Just Saw The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. If you haven't heard about it (and who hasn't?), it's an adaptation of C.S. Lewis' book written in 1950. Overall the movie is very good-looking, and the special-effects on the talking animals and mythical creatures was incredible. The acting is lacking a bit, but not nearly enough to kill the whole thing. The wife appreciated that it mirrored the book quite well(the exception being the longer battle scenes - hooray!), and said that, "it's probably the best movie adaptation of a book I've seen in a good long while". The kids really enjoyed it, which isn't suprising considering the talking animals. I've never read the book, but I understood that Lewis was a religious man, and that this story (and The Magician's Nephew) contains alot of religious allegory. The parallels between the movie and the New Testament interested this Bible-school dropout, but even if you don't care for religious imagery, you can still find it enjoyable. Overall I'd say it was a bout a B+/4 out of 5 stars/two thumbs up, etc.

I'm Just One of the "Government's Poorly Paid Contract Killers"

Or I am according to Ted Rall, of cartoon and column fame. He also has this to say about people like me: "What if they gave a war," a poster of the Vietnam era asked, "and nobody came?" If we are, as Jean-Paul Sartre posited, defined by our actions, most of the blame for the murder of more than 100,000 Iraqis belongs to our top government officials. But Bush's armchair warriors couldn't have invaded Iraq without a compliant and complicit United States military--one that, it should be noted, is all volunteer. These individuals, who enjoy free will, fire the guns and drop the bombs. If personal responsibility is to have any meaning, the men and women of our armed forces have to be held individually accountable for the carnage. "Supporting our troops while opposing their actions may seem contradictory," argues Joshua Frank in the antiwar.com article. "The duties of U.S. soldiers in Iraq are wrong and many may be committing horrible crimes against humanity. True. But soldiers are mostly not bad people (though, of course, some are)." How is a person who voluntarily commits "horrible crimes against humanity" not a "bad person"? So basically, Ted Rall has defined that the entire military is guilty of whatever "atrocities" Ted Rall has a beef with (including the false claim of 100,000 dead civilians). From what I gather I'm essentially guilty of defying the ethics of Ted Rall's fantasy world, when you boil it all down. Ted Rall, if your unfamiliar with his exploits: He called our war in Afghanistan “genocide,” perpetrated to build an imaginary oil pipeline through the region. He supported Marxists Jean Bertrand-Aristide, Hugo Chavez and the Castroite government of Grenada; and he opposed sanctions against Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya and Serbia. He has also said George W. Bush should be "warming a prison cell right now" and strongly hinted that leftist Senator Paul Wellstone was assassinated. He also inked this attempt at "political humor": He's also inked cartoons depicting Condoleezza Rice proclaiming herself as President Bush's "House nigga" , and has made a comment (no longer on CNN's page) that Bill Cosby should go to "racial re-education camp". Yet he's a 2x winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. In other words, he's an approved voice of the fringe leftists. But hell, at least he's an honest fringe leftist: "You can drop the "support the troops" shtick now." I wish the rest of the anti-war and anti-victory movements would be this honest with us. (Thanks to Right Wing News for bringing this to our attention).

Bake Tookie

I've been sort-of following the Stanley "Tookie" Williams death penalty case. I haven't payed alot attention to the details because for one, I support the death penalty, two, 24 years of appeals (including one upheld in 2002 by the the 9th Circus Circuit, probably the most left-wing court in the land) is enough to convince me that he's guilty, despite whatever procedural wrongdoing he alleges. In my book, if one deprives another of life and liberty, then one forfeits their right to life and liberty. Murder is the most heinous of crimes, and deserves the harshest of punishments. Many people have argued the moral implications of the death penalty, and you can read both sides here. I remain steadfastly for the execution of those who take a life. The good Williams may have done does not condone the violence he did to earn the right to be put to death, therefore it should not commute the sentence. If one wishes to turn their life from violence, that is great, but one should still be willing to accept the consequences of their actions. The good that Tookie had done should be for it's own sake rather than simply an excuse to remove his punishment. For one in this situation, it becomes a decision of "the hard right versus the easy wrong", whereas this follows the logic that the morally right thing to do is often the hardest thing to do. In my view, if Williams really cared about something other than saving his own skin, he would own up to what he had done, accept his sentence, die as a man with a cleaner concience knowing that he deserved justice and hope that his death brings closure to the families of those he brutally murdered.

Don't Fault The Air Marshal For Doing His Job

My take on the air marshal shooting of a deranged man down here in Miami? Take your medication, don't make bomb threats and reach in your bag when someone has a gun drawn on you. Sickeningly the local news has the animated title of "Mayhem in MIA" when they report on this story. They are emphasizing how the man's wife warned the marshals of the man's mental illness, and conducting the obligatory interviews of the man's neighbors, who of course, are shocked. It seems the local media has decided to use this incident as a means to showcase themselves on the national stage, adding all the drama possible and essentially turning what would have been an unfortunate incident into a national tragedy in their quest for higher ratings. I wonder how long 'till the ACLU gets involved.

Today in Infamy

The 7 December 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history. A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant. Eighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a presumed deterrent to Japanese agression. The Japanese military, deeply engaged in the seemingly endless war it had started against China in mid-1937, badly needed oil and other raw materials. Commercial access to these was gradually curtailed as the conquests continued. In July 1941 the Western powers effectively halted trade with Japan. From then on, as the desperate Japanese schemed to seize the oil and mineral-rich East Indies and Southeast Asia, a Pacific war was virtually inevitable. By late November 1941, with peace negotiations clearly approaching an end, informed U.S. officials (and they were well-informed, they believed, through an ability to read Japan's diplomatic codes) fully expected a Japanese attack into the Indies, Malaya and probably the Philippines. Completely unanticipated was the prospect that Japan would attack east, as well. The U.S. Fleet's Pearl Harbor base was reachable by an aircraft carrier force, and the Japanese Navy secretly sent one across the Pacific with greater aerial striking power than had ever been seen on the World's oceans. Its planes hit just before 8AM on 7 December. Within a short time five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking, with the rest damaged. Several other ships and most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out and over 2400 Americans were dead. Soon after, Japanese planes eliminated much of the American air force in the Philippines, and a Japanese Army was ashore in Malaya. It amazes me how far we have come. What would we have said of people like Howard Dean, Cindy Sheehan, and Ward Churchill back then?

Poll: Americans Favor Torture in Rare Occasions

Not that I place much stock in polls, but this is interesting: “I don’t think we should go out and string everybody up by their thumbs until somebody talks. But if there is definitely a good reason to get an answer, we should do whatever it takes,” said Billy Adams, a retiree from Tomball, Texas. In America, 61 percent of those surveyed agreed torture is justified at least on rare occasions. Almost nine in 10 in South Korea and just over half in France and Britain felt that way. Of course this doesn't address the debate over what is considered torture. To some, America would be guilty of torture if we used the comfy chair.

Yeah, But They Still "Support" the Troops, Right?!

Saying the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong," Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted today that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years. Dean made his comments in an interview on WOAI Radio in San Antonio. What an Asshat Yet it doesn't end there! More Asshattery(h/t KisP) JOHN KERRY Face the Nation/12.4.05 "And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs."Yup. I guess I'll have to re-name this blog "Right-Wing of the Terrorists", or maybe we should re-name Milblogs, "Terrorblogs". Asshat.

Well, At Least The CIA Snatches The Cheap Ones.

Khaled al-Masri, who is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, said he was arrested while attempting to enter Macedonia for a holiday trip and flown to Afghanistan. During five months in captivity he was subjected to “torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” says a lawsuit he filed in U.S. District Court in suburban Alexandria, Va. Yup, suing the CIA, for $75,000. Obviously he hasn't paid much attention to the scope of the American lawsuit industry. Maybe he should do some research: A West Virginia convenience store worker was awarded a whopping $2,699,000 in punitive damages after she injured her back opening a pickle jar, this according to a report in the Charleston Daily Mail. A California man is suing the Las Vegas Hilton and Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, claiming the casinos were negligent in allowing him to gamble away more than $1 million while he was intoxicated. Nearly four months after the recall, Berkman filed a $50 million class-action lawsuit against Robert's Foods, claiming "emotional distress" and "weight gain...mental anguish, outrage and indignation." The complaint claims to represent all consumers who ruined their diets and had to spend more time at the gym because they ate mislabeled Pirate's Booty. A Montana man has sued media giant Viacom, saying the MTV show "Jackass" plagiarized his name, infringed on the trademark and copyright o his name and defamed his good character...The plaintiff's name is Jack Ass...He's seeking at least $10 million in damages. When an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York encountered severe turbulence in 1995, terrified passengers were hurled from their seats, and some were sure they were about to die. Those 28 seconds of terror were worth $2 million. Bennie Casson filed a lawsuit in Belleville, Ill., against PT's Show Club for its negligence in allowing a stripper to "slam" her breasts into his "neck and head region" as he watched her, a little too close to the stage....The $200,000 lawsuit states that Carson was "bruised, contused, lacerated and made sore" by Heart's breasts, which reportedly weigh in at 40 pounds apiece.

Oprah for what?!

President. Does that mean Dr. Phil will be Secretary of State?

Why I Am Not A Leftist Liberal (Part 3)

Part Three in my series addressing what could possibly be one of the only instances in modern time (well, at least in the last three years) that a Liberal has defined what he believed, other than being against President Bush and the war in Iraq. (also check out part one and part two) I believe multinational corporations do not always act in the best interests of America, Technically, the purpose of a corporation is to make a profit for it's shareholders, who in turn must provide enough incentive to hire the best businessmen they can afford in order to keep the corporation afloat. The businessmen, in turn, must maintain and increase profitability in order to provide an incentive for shareholders to keep their investments within the corporation's stock. So really it's a system of mutual self-interest. In other words, all business is to make a profit by means of trade and commerce, and rightly so, because no one is going to engage in trade in order to lose money. This has a beneficial effect of employing workers, providing goods to consumers at a lower price, which has the side-effect of being good for America. But is it the purpose of the corporation to serve the state? It is if your a politician trying to get elected, or a idealogue; both who are looking out for their own self-interests, same as the businessmen, often to the deteriment of business, and therefore America. The cost of doing business in America is higher than in other countries. This is because our taxes and regulations have made it so. Yet are we supposed to hate the multinationals because they have the ability to move elsewhere? I believe that women should have every option available to them when it comes to their health, Obviously this is allegory for being pro-choice. Though if you were to take the statement at face value then you'd have to ask yourself, "what about the men?" Of course the abortion issue involves more than being pro- or anti- choice. Margaret Sanger - the founder of Planned Parenthood - was a big believer in eugenics. Femanists have used the issue to push their agenda, and have cut the rights of the father completely out of the picture. Conversely, the religionists look upon this issue as a moral one based on their prohibitions against murder. The politicians use this devisive issue to their benefit. In short, this argument has very little to do with health, and more to do with ideology, theology, and politics. I believe that the government wastes more money on military spending than it does on welfare or aid to the needy, Whoa, let's look at the numbers. The militaru currently eats up alot of the budget, but also consider that the U.S. is currently fighting two wars, and if you want to ensure victory, you don't try to fight on the cheap. Now consider that the welfare system encompasses six different government agencies: Health and Human Services, Agriculture, HUD, Labor, Treasury, and Education. add to that Social Security, which is effectively bankrupt. Look at the projections for government spending on the above link. Is defense taking up the majority of the budget? Nope. Welfare in it's various forms is, and looks to grow. So what's the problem? The fact is that whether we win this war or not (and we will), a war can still be be won. Yet there will always be poverty - even though the poor in this country live better than the majority of the world's population - in a room full of billionares, the man with $900 million is a schmuck. You have to look at things in terms of incentives rather than intentions. Does welfare reduce poverty? Nope, but it gets politicians elected. I believe children should be taught science not mysticism,. All well and good, but our current public education system doesn't let you have that choice does it? In a way this is poetic justice. For years people have had to endure the teaching of ideologies to their children that they don't approve of, yet now the shoe is on the other foot. Maybe Liberals would be willing to compromise? Perhaps we can have school vouchers and therefore the power to determine what our kids are taught? Of course this means the Leftists would also have to give up their ideologically-based education programs, and that ain't happenin'. I believe that taxes should be paid by those who can most afford to pay them, The fallacy here is the implication that taxes are something fixed, rather than defined by government spending and political social engineering and buying of votes. It's interesting to note that the very same politicians who claim that, "the rich don't pay their fair share", have no problem finding tax loopholes. John Kerry, whose worth is around $700 million, only pays 10% in taxes, whereas those who make more than $200k are supposed to pay 25%. Who is really not paying their fair share? But I digress. This idea frankly has very little to do with sound fiscal policy and everything to do with class envy and greed. Yes, greed. Greed that one feels that if they want a particular social program for their personal benefit, that all they have to do is take the money needed to run it from another. Regardless of the right of a man to keep what he has earned, which was the foundation of the American experiment, and the reasons our Founding Fathers went to war. The difference is that instead of taking it for the king, it is being taken for the benefit of our elected officials and given to people who will vote for them, and then called "social justice". My view on the rich? If you don't like them, then invent a product or service they think they can't live without and sell it to them. Then you can be rich and redistribute your money how you see fit, but don't think you have the right to tell me what to do with mine. I believe running huge government budget deficits will hurt our economy, No kidding, but look at the information above. These deficits are being run up by the very same social welfare programs that this author supports, and looks to support in the future. Time and time again we have seen that what is bad for the economy is continued government over-regulation and over-taxation. It comes down to this: the government does not know how to spend your money, care for your needs, and look out for your interests, as well as you can. I believe that everyone is entitled to health care, Actually all we are entitled to in life is death, everything else is a result of work or luck. The problem with socialized healthcare is that it isn't free and doesn't provide the quality of the free-market variety (keep in mind that what we have now is not a free-market). As Canada has proven, if you want to screw-up an industry. get government involved in it: As reported in a December 2003 story by Kerri Houston for the Frontiers of Freedom Institute titled "Access Denied: Canada's Healthcare System Turns Patients Into Victims" (http://ff.org/centers/ccfsp/pdf/CCSFP-1203-PP.pdf), in some instances, patients die on the waiting list because they become too sick to tolerate a procedure. Houston says that hip-replacement patients often end up non-ambulatory while waiting an average of 20 weeks for the procedure, and that's after having waited 13 weeks just to see the specialist. The wait to get diagnostic scans followed by the wait for the radiologist to read them just might explain why Cleveland, Ohio, has become Canada's hip-replacement center. Then there is the issue of when the "right" of one to "free" healthcare infringes on the rights of another to provide for it: And slavery is really what's at issue here: the enslavement of some to the needs of others. For to the degree health care is made a "right," health care providers are enslaved. Doctors, nurses, scientists and businessmen with too much self-respect to have their abilities declared your "right," will simply abandon medicine, leaving your medical future to those lacking such self-respect. (It's already begun.) Investment dollars will divert from health care interests into freer and thus more profitable areas. (That's begun, too.) Oh, but this has its upside: there'd be no gripes about the "high cost" of new prescription drugs -- there'd never be any new drugs. That last part is true, since we in America with our uncompassionate pharmaceutical corporations lead the world in advanced medicines. Health care isn't a "right" anymore than it's a "right" for you to walk to the local mechanic and demand he fix your car. I believe that the government wastes more money on military spending than it does on welfare or aid to the needy, Again, at least you see more in return with the military than you do with social welfare programs, and it even costs less. Then you have the reality of this issue: a nation cannot maintain it's soveriegnty without an effective military, yet limiting social welfare contributes to it's prosperity. I believe corporations are not people and should not have the same rights as persons, Now I'm not sure of the deeper meaning here. On the surface there is the fact that this overlooks the knowledge of what a corporation is: people. Corporations are people who run a business that are answerable to other people who buy their stock. I believe we should take affirmative action to correct the socio-economic imbalances created by racism and sexism, Except by "correcting" one imbalance, you create another, that is those who are denied a job not because they aren't skilled, but because they are of a certain race/gender. This attitude is a result of the philosophy that embraces an equality of results rather than an equality of opprotunity. Meaning that our society is sexist/racist because there is not an equal amount of black millionaires to white millionaires, despite the fact that there are no rules barring the hiring of certain races or genders. It's important to note that blacks and minorities were graduating college in increasing numbers long before affirmative action, as Thomas Sowell notes: There was no affirmative action when I was admitted as a student at Harvard College in 1955 but, even if there had been and even if I had been admitted because of it, what about all the blacks who went to Harvard before me? The first black man graduated from Harvard in 1870 -- about a century before affirmative action. It is not just a handful of individuals who advanced without the supposedly indispensable black "leaders." Most of the reduction in the number of black families in poverty occurred in the 1940s and 1950s -- before any major civil rights legislation. Black males doubled their years of schooling during that time. When you double your education, your income tends to go up -- with or without Jesse Jackson or other black "leaders." Remember this famous line: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. And these less famous lines by Frederick Douglass: Everybody has asked the question. . ."What shall we do with the Negro?" I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are wormeaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature's plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! In short kids, by giving minorities and women affirmative action, you are telling everyone that they cannot stand on their own merits, when history has already proven that wrong. But hey, it keeps Jesse Jackson rich. and I believe that we are a nation of immigrants and we should welcome those with the drive, determination and ambition to come to America in search of a better life. I have no problem with immigants or immigration. The issue I have is illegal immigrants who pay no taxes yet recieve all the benefits and social welfare programs of a taxpayer. If you come to this country, you come to work and earn your way without government interference, not to sit on your ass and get a handout from 'rich Americans.' The other issue is the borders, and it's a security issue. Anyone can come in to our country to do whatever harm they wish. That's unacceptable in our post-9/11 world. Immigration is fine, but we need to know that those who come here intend to do us no harm. The divide here between Liberals, Leftists and Conservatives is between the idealistic view of what "should happen" and what does happen. Does rent control work? Nope. It creates housing shortages while eliminating the incentives to build new housing and maintain old housing. We need to think in terms of incentives, rather than intentions. Yeah, socialism is a great idea on paper, but it can't compete with capitalism. That's because socialism lacks the incentive to achieve and excel. Obviously there is more to these issues than what I've said here, but I hope this is a good overview on my attitude towards these.