Tuesday, December 06, 2005

The Samaritans

This is how we defeat terrorism.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Power

The essence of power, in the political sense, is the ability to do as you please without regard for others. A nation controlled and dominated, without check, by one person or by a small group is a despotic tyranny; regardless of whether you call it a monarchy, aristocracy or democracy. The opposite situation is every person claiming to be his own governing authority. This is anarchy and anarchies always lead to tyranny or oligarchy by those who are smarter and/or stronger.

The goal should be to balance power so that tyranny can not manifest itself. That was the goal of the framers of the US Constitution. Unfortunately there is a ceaseless endeavor to upset this balance usually for some perceived altruistic idea. The compulsive utopian considers power to always be a force for good as long as the power is in his hand. It was in the name of liberty that the Russian revolutionaries destroyed the old political system. But like a natural force in the physical world, power in the political world does not vanish. Instead it seeks the path of least resistance. And the path of least resistance became the tyrannical hands of the radicals. The cost was sixty million lives.

History clearly shows that we can not put our trust in mere benevolence. Constitutional restrictions, political checks and balances and adequate enforcement of the laws must be in place to restrain human natures appetite for power. A just government maintains a healthy tension between the claims of authority and the claims of liberty.

Monday, October 03, 2005

Teen sex -> Teen suicide

But there was another statistic that should have gotten parents' attention but which was similarly ignored, namely, that there seems to be a direct link between teen sexuality and teen depression. A study by the Heritage Foundation, in-turn based on the government-funded National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, found that about 25 percent of sexually active girls say they are depressed all, most or a lot of the time, while only 8 percent of girls who are not sexually active feel the same.

While 14 percent of girls who have had intercourse have attempted suicide, only 5 percent of sexually inactive girls have. And whereas 6 percent of sexually active boys have tried suicide, less than 1 percent of sexually inactive boys have. The report challenges the previously held notion that teens become sexually active in order to self-medicate their own depression.
The rest of the story.

Buckley vs Vidal

From a 1968 debate between Bill Buckley and Gore Vidal.
Buckley snapped: "Now listen, you queer," he said, "stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered."
And you thought the debate was rude these days.

Children of Crises

From Robert Coles' Children of Crises.
They came telling us not to have children, and not to have children, and sweep up, and all that. They tell you you're bad, and worse than others, and you're lazy, and you don't know how to get along like others do. . . . Then they say we should look different, and eat different -- use more of the protein. I tell them about the prices, but they reply about 'planning' -- planning, planning, that's all they tell you. The worst of it is that they try to get you to plan your kids, by the year, except they mean by the ten-year plan, one every ten years. The truth is, they don't want you to have any, if they could help it.

To me, having a baby inside me is the only time I'm really alive. I know I can make something, do something, no matter what color my skin is, and what names people call me. When the baby gets born I see him, and he's full of life, or she is; and I think to myself that it doesn't make any difference what happens later, at least now we've got a chance, or the baby does. You can see the little one grow and get larger and start doing things, and you feel there must be some hope, some chance that things will get better; because there it is, right before you, a real, live growing baby. The children and their father feel it, too, just like I do. They feel the baby is a good sign, or at least he's some sign. If we didn't have that, what would be the difference from death?

Even without children, my life would still be bad -- they're not going to give us what they have, the birth control people. They just want us to be a poor version of them, only without our children and our faith in God and our tasty fried food, or anything.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Da Vinci clue for heart surgeon

It appears that Leonardo Da Vinci is helping with modern heart surgery.
Leonardo worked out in the 1500s that the opening phase of the mitral valve was extremely important - this can be compromised with conventional surgery because the opening is made narrower than normal.

Mr Wells says he can now repair the floppy mitral valve in such a way that it does not alter the normal diameter of the valve when it is open which means that the individual can return to more vigorous exercise without any problems.

He said Leonardo had a depth of appreciation of the anatomy and physiology of the body - its structure and function - that perhaps has been overlooked by some.

Friday, September 30, 2005

Hamastan

As predicted.
The worst fear of politicians, military officials and Israeli civilians regarding Israel's withdrawal from Gaza has become a reality - the volatile coastal strip is now the private domain of Islamic terrorism, led by the infamous Hamas organization.
The rest of the story is here.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Voice of the CalipHate

The WAPO is reporting that Al Qaida now has their on news show.
The anchorman, who said the report would appear once a week, presented news about the Gaza Strip and Iraq and expressed happiness about recent hurricanes in the United States. A copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, was placed by his right hand and a rifle affixed to a tripod was pointed at the camera.
I have a question. How is it that these broadcast can get publicized but can never be traced to the source?

Monday, September 26, 2005

B.S. Declares Global Warming Emergency

World renowned enviromental scientist Barbara Striesand has declared a Global Warming Emergency.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Putin's Russia

For those who may be interested in such things the Carnegie Endowment has a policy brief on Vladimir Putin's second term.
Russia’s regime has gone through a major aggravation during the first year of President Vladimir Putin’s second term. The regime suffers from serious overcentralization of power, which has led to a paralysis of policy making. Putin’s power base has been shrunk to a core of secret policemen from St. Petersburg.

Weather War

Some claim that there is a trending increase in the number of natural disasters and they point to this as "a sign of the times". I haven't seen any data that would confirm this. Not that I have actually looked.

If you think it's controversial to attribute natural events to God, what do think of weatherman Scott Stevens. He blames it on the Japanese and the Russians. According to Scott we are at war.
A battle in the skies is waged daily. Some battles are won and others lost. We yet know not which. For years this massive global project has been under way, but only now is it making it to the forefront of the consciousness of those with curious minds.
It's a weather war!
So in early 1990, the weather engineering operations over North America were assumed from the FSB/KGB by the Yakuza/Aum Shinrikyo teams, and operations continued with the Yakuza's leased giant scalar interferometers. The weather engineering against the United States continues today under the rogue Japanese teams on site in Russia, with direct FSB/KGB supervision.
Needless to say, I remain skeptical.

The Law of Appeasement

Benjamin Netanyahu resigned his position soon after Israel surrendered Gaza to the so-called Palestinians . He assured us all Gaza would become the main base of operations for terrorist attacks against Israel. Netanyahu is not a prophet. He simply understands the law of appeasement.

The rocket attacks began almost immediately. Now Israel is promising a crushing responce.

The responce will not be enough.

A little history:

Until 1948 there was no such thing as a "palestinian arab". Until 1967 Gaza and The West Bank were parts of Egypt and Jordan. How do the so-called palestinians have any legitimate claim to this land? Why does Israel continue to tolerate these murderous people?

Appeasement always invites attack. Always.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Terrorist Recruiting

There is a constant drone that our actions in Iraq and elsewhere have actually increased the number of terrorist worldwide. This assertion has only been challenged by the facts.
A suicide bomber captured before he could blow himself up in a Shiite mosque claimed he was kidnapped, beaten and drugged by insurgents who forced him to take on the mission. The U.S. military said its medical tests indicated the man was telling the truth.

Mohammed Ali, who claimed to be Saudi-born and appeared to be in his 20s, said he managed to flee after another suicide attacker set off his bomb, killing at least 12 worshippers Friday as they left a mosque in the northern city of Tuz Khormato.

In confession broadcast on state television later that day, Ali told Iraqi interrogators he did not want to bomb the mosque and hoped to go home.

Results from medical tests on Ali were "consistent with his story and characterization of his treatment," Col. Billy J. Buckner, a U.S. military spokesman said Sunday.


It could be a cover story after being caught but the attitude doesn't fit. Most terrorist remain defiant even after being caught.

It appears that terrorist organizations are growing desperate. Why else use such recruitment tactics?

For those who continue to claim that terrorist recruiment is on the rise, may we please see the data?

Saturday, September 17, 2005

The Disappearing Sheehan

In case you were wondering what happened to Cindy Sheehan Power Line has an update.

She has aligned herself with individuals and groups to radical even for the MSM.
Who is Cindy's "new friend" Malik Rahim? He is conventionally described as a "veteran of the Black Panther Party in New Orleans," and was recently a Green Party candidate for local office there. But the truth is somewhat worse. Rahim is a Communist. Here is a speech he gave to the Communist Manifesto conference in December 1998; it begins:

I'm here on behalf of two revolutionary freedom fighters that have spent the last 26 years in solitary confinement in Angola, a state prison in Louisiana. I met these freedom fighters as a political prisoner in 1970. I was in a shoot-out with the police in New Orleans as a member of the Black Panther Party.

Cindy Sheehan's hatred has driven her mad. How else can we explain the fact that she is now aligned with the very forces that killed Casey.
Cindy Sheehan's association with these Communists is no fluke. They are among her most fervent supporters (or, perhaps, manipulators). Sheehan has announced that she will participate in a climactic anti-Iraq war protest in Washington on September 24. Who is the co-sponsor of the September 24 demonstration? International ANSWER. Who has promoted the "Camp Caseys" that have sprung up here and there? the Workers World Party. Who has a special web page devoted to "supporting Cindy Sheehan"? the International Action Center.

What makes these associations doubly sick is that the International Action Center, International ANSWER and the Workers World Party were, prior to the Iraq war, staunch supporters of Saddam Hussein and his Baath regime. See, for example, this tirade by Ramsey Clark, leader of the IAC, who later volunteered to represent Saddam.

Cindy Sheehan has staunchly aligned herself with the enemies of her country, even with those who murdered her own son ("freedom fighters," as she calls them, or "Minutemen" as her patron Michael Moore says). She has gone even beyond that perverse outrage: she has sought out and lent support to the very most extreme, twisted, hateful remnants of the Communist movement, and the last survivors of the Black Panthers. Cindy Sheehan is a hater: nothing more, nothing less.

This poor woman has become a pathetic instrument of the extreme left. She is the ultimate "useful idiot". But in the process she has exposed the true nature of the "Bush is Hitler" crowd. That's why she has disappeared from the headlines.

Friday, September 16, 2005

Red America, Blue Europe and China

Some comments from Jonah Goldberg stress the point that anti-Americanism did not start with our current President.
Anti-American books tore up the best-seller list in France throughout the Clinton presidency. The staged anti-globalization riots during the 1990s were not love letters to America or the Democratic party. In 1999, Bill Clinton needed 10,000 policemen to protect him from Greek activists who aimed to firebomb him. Protesters in Athens continually pulled down a statue of Harry Truman. Despite the relentless jackassery of people like Michael Moore and others who attributed 9/11 to Bush's policies — including our failure to sign the Kyoto Treaty (stop laughing) — al-Qaeda got its operation up and running throughout the sunny days of Bill Clinton and the dotcom bubble.

In the 1980s, anti-Americanism was also a big problem, but fortunately the elites of Europe generally understood — with some lamentable exceptions — it was better to have America as a friend than the Soviet Union as a ruler.

I'm sure that some Europeans dislike us more since Bush became president but who cares, really. It is ironic that former Soviet Bloc nations are friendly to America while our former cold war allies are unfriendly.

When looking at the bigger picture we see that Europe is far less important than China.
The U.S. is the only superpower and European elites don't think anyone but them should be superpowers. The Chinese have a similar attitude, of course, and pretty much every foreign policy article and expert I can find says we're going to be playing Cold War-style games with China for the next 50 years.

While freedom is limited in China as compared to America, China is progressively moving toward more liberty, at least economically. There is no argument that modern China is more free than the former Soviet Union. The result is that China's best weapon against America is cheap products. If Chinese policy and economic trends continue to favor liberty then the worst threat to America is no longer having the largest economy among nations. A good economist will not have any grave concerns over this.

While China should still be considered a totalitarian state, I remain hopeful that it will continue it's trend toward freedom. For Europe, the opposite is true. Europe has freedom on par with America but is showing signs of an opposite trend. Of course the same could be said for America. I will save comments on America's erosion of freedom for a later post.

For now let's look at some of the news from Europe.
A columnist for the British Sun wrote this week, "America may have given the world the space shuttle and, er, condensed milk, but behind the veneer of civilization most Americans barely have the brains to walk on their back legs." Then he got offensive, writing that the people of New Orleans were "finding themselves being blown to pieces by a helicopter gunship."

A third of Germans under 30 think America ordered the 9/11 attacks. The "theory" that the Pentagon attack was self-inflicted stagecraft is in wide circulation in France, and the subject of a best-selling book. Throughout Europe, it's easy to find commentators who take it at face value that Bush's failure to sign Kyoto led to Katrina. (It's worth noting: Clinton refused to sign it, too. And rightly so.)
...
Tony Blair, a stalwart ally in Iraq, has recently been caving to Islamic radicals for domestic political considerations. He's decided to seek advice from a new "task force" on extremism that hosts a rogues' gallery of anti-Semites, Holocaust deniers and apologists for bin Laden and jihadism (one "adviser" calls bin Laden a "freedom fighter"). This hardly bodes well for Britain to stay the course in the battle against Islamic fundamentalism.

What bodes even worse is that Britain is the only country in Europe with a military capable of projecting significant military force abroad for a sustained period of time. Even if the next president, or the one after that, succeeded in winning European friends where Bush has failed, it seems unlikely those friendships will be of enormous use. Economically and militarily, Europe is increasingly second-rate.

With respect to economic freedom and the improvement of peoples lives, I am more hopeful for China than I am for Europe. The wild card is the Chinese governments ability to instantly screw things up. An invasion of Taiwon and all bets are off. And in light of China's massive military modernization and build up, the threats can not be ignored. The Chinese will not back down from Tiawon the way the Soviets did in Cuba. Tiawon is the oriental Sudetenland.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Creamed Skin

Could this be considered pseudo-cannibalism?
A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered.

Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is "traditional" and nothing to "make such a big fuss about".

How is this repugnant practice not a "big fuss"? How does a supposedly civilized society get into the practice of using body parts from executed prisoners in commercial products? I guess when supply runs low they can just kill more prisoners.
The agent told the researcher: "A lot of the research is still carried out in the traditional manner using skin from the executed prisoner and aborted foetus." This material, he said, was being bought from "bio tech" companies based in the northern province of Heilongjiang, and was being developed elsewhere in China.

He suggested that the use of skin and other tissues harvested from executed prisoners was not uncommon. "In China it is considered very normal and I was very shocked that western countries can make such a big fuss about this," he said. Speaking from his office in northern China, he added: "The government has put some pressure on all the medical facilities to keep this type of work in low profile."

Here's a suggestion for a warning label. "This skin cream product contains creamed skin".

Delay, the waste

I am convinced that Tom Delay is either a liar or stupid.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an "ongoing victory," and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.

I had to read it twice. The republicans are spending US dollars like it was monopoly money and Delay says there's no fat left to cut?

I think Citizens against Government Waste have a few suggestions.
Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), said if Mr. DeLay wants to know where to cut, "there are plenty of places to reduce."

His group soon will release a list of $2 trillion in suggested spending cuts over the next five years, and he said Congress also could cut the estimated $20 billion to $25 billion in pet projects that make their way into must-pass spending bills each year.

CAGW and the Heritage Foundation also suggest rescinding the 6,000-plus earmarked projects in the recently passed highway bill.

That's the highest number of projects ever budgeted in a highway bill. Ever! And the highway bill is not an anamoly. It is typical of the legislation that has been passed by this congress and signed by Bush since Republicans took over the house and senate.

And the biggest waste of all is Tom Delay. If Delay calls himself a conservative he's either lying or stupid. He has no idea what a conservative is.

Monday, September 12, 2005

Federal Responce to Katrina

Jason van Steenwyk is a Florida Army National Guardsman who has been mobilized six times for hurricane relief. He notes that:

"The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne."


I guess what most people don't understand is that one, it is impossible to know exactly where a storm is going to hit and two, even if you did know you can't have relief supplies on location because they would be threatened by the very conditions that mandate the need for relief.

A former Air Force logistics officer had some words of advice for us in the Fourth Estate on his blog, Moltenthought:

"We do not yet have teleporter or replicator technology like you saw on 'Star Trek' in college between hookah hits and waiting to pick up your worthless communications degree while the grown-ups actually engaged in the recovery effort were studying engineering.

"The United States military can wipe out the Taliban and the Iraqi Republican Guard far more swiftly than they can bring 3 million Swanson dinners to an underwater city through an area the size of Great Britain which has no power, no working ports or airports, and a devastated and impassable road network.

"You cannot speed recovery and relief efforts up by prepositioning assets (in the affected areas) since the assets are endangered by the very storm which destroyed the region.

"No amount of yelling, crying and mustering of moral indignation will change any of the facts above."

"You cannot just snap your fingers and make the military appear somewhere," van Steenwyk said.


The rest of the article is here.

Friday, September 09, 2005

Body Count

I am becoming hopeful that my previous prediction of a low body count may be accurate. According to this story the number of bodies recovered in LA is 118.
The recovery of Katrina's victims speeded up in the last two days. As of Thursday, Mississippi had recorded 201 deaths and Louisiana 118, while other affected states had much lower numbers.

With the flooding in New Orleans it has not been possible to go in and do a thorough search of the city. So the count will surely rise.

This statement is troubling.
In the rural areas east of St. Bernard Parish, some bodies will never be found because alligators will have taken them away, locals said.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Katrina Summary

QandO has posted a lengthy summary of the Katrina rescue/relief effort.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Sean Penn

How is it that Sean Penn is able to find criminal negligence on the part of George Bush but had no problem with Saddam Hussein?

Monday, September 05, 2005

The levee is plugged

Myway news has an AP report that the broken levee in New Orleans has been repaired.

Thank God the water is finally beginning to recede. That broken levee was the real disaster. Moreso than the initial storm. Monday morning we thought a bullet had been dodged. Tuesday the levee broke and then all hell broke loose. That may explain (but not excuse) the slow responce on the part of the Feds.

The mayor of New Orleans is predicting 10,000 dead.

No doubt Mayor Nagin knows his city better than I, but I'm willing to go out on a limb and predict less than 1,000 dead. My prediction is based on nothing but God's mercy.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist RIP

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist has lost his battle with thyroid cancer. Details are available here.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Report from New Orleans

LGF has posted an email from Dr. Greg Henderson, a pathologist currently in New Orleans.
The city now has no clean water, no sewerage system, no electricity, and no real communications. Bodies are still being recovered floating in the floods. We are worried about a cholera epidemic. Even the police are without effective communications. We have a group of armed police here with us at the hotel that is admirably trying to exert some local law enforcement.

The situation is worse that I ever imagined it would be.
These are poor and desperate people with no housing and no medical care and no food or water trying to take care of themselves and their families. Unfortunately, the people are armed and dangerous. We hear gunshots frequently. Most of Canal street is occupied by armed looters who have a low threshold for discharging their weapons. We hear gunshots frequently. The looters are using makeshift boats made of pieces of styrofoam to access. We are still waiting for a significant national guard presence.

I pray that the good doctor will not have to wait much longer.

Through it all Dr. Henderson has proven to be very strong.
In a sort of cliche way, this is an edifying experience. One is rapidly focused away from the transient and material to the bare necessities of life. It has been challenging to me to learn how to be a primary care physician. We are under martial law so return to our homes is impossible. I don’t know how long it will be and this is my greatest fear. Despite it all, this is a soul-edifying experience. The greatest pain is to think about the loss. And how long the rebuild will take. And the horror of so many dead people.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

A Real Reporter

I have mentioned Michael Yon in previous post and he continues to provide incredible on the ground reports out of Iraq.
Combat comes unexpectedly, even in war.

On Monday, while conducting operations in west Mosul, a voice came over the radio saying troops from our brother unit, the 3-21, were fighting with the enemy in east Mosul on the opposite side of the Tigris River. Moments later, SSG Will Shockley relayed word to us that an American soldier was dead. We began searching for the shooters near one of the bridges on our side of the Tigris, but they got away. Jose L. Ruiz was killed in action.

Although the situation in Mosul is better, our troops still fight here every day. This may not be the war some folks had in mind a few years ago. But once the shooting starts, a plan is just a guess in a party dress.

Take a few minutes to read some of his post. You won't be disappointed.

Monday, August 29, 2005

Party of Values

Democrats have been known to ask "How did a party that is filled with people with values get tagged as the party without values?"

I will attempt to answer.

First let me make something very clear. I do agree that the democrat party is mostly comprised of people with values. Therefore much of what follows applies to the party leadership and not the vast majority of party members.

1) Most Americans understand that Michael Moore is a first rate propagandist who considers the United States to be the focus of evil in the world. Yet the Democrat Party gives him an honored seat during the Democrat Convention.

2) Most Americans, democrats included, know that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are professional race hustlers. Yet these two are heroes in the Democratic Party. The rest of us are offended and tired of constantly being called racist and bigots.

3) Most Americans love a good movie and appreciate talented actors. They also would prefer that actors keep their stupid political opinions to themselves. Yet the Democrat Party embraces the likes of Sean Penn and Whoopi “foul mouth” Goldberg. So why should millions of Americans not naturally assume that the Democrat Party shares Hollywood's values.

4) Most Americans understand the need for a strong military. Yet the Democrat Party would have us believe that the UN could do a better job protecting our freedom. At best they consider any military as a necessary evil.

5) The vast majority of Americans are sickened by partial-birth abortion yet most Democrats have repeatedly voted against a ban.

I could go own but I think you get the point. Let me also stress once more that these points are aimed at the Democrat Party leadership and not the average party member.

So it Continues

No good deed goes unpunished.

Israel unconditionally surrenders Gaza to the Palestinians. Here is the thanks they get.
Twenty-one people were wounded Sunday, two seriously, in a suicide bombing at a central bus station in the southern Israeli town of Beersheba, Israeli officials said.

I thank God that the only one to die was the bomber. I'll lose no sleep over him.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Hurricane Katrina

It's looking very bad for New Orleans.
Estimates have been made of tens of thousands of deaths from flooding that could overrun the levees and turn New Orleans into a 30-foot-deep toxic lake filled with chemicals and petroleum from refineries, and waste from ruined septic systems.

I hope the estimates are wrong.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Israel's Reward

This is Israels reward for pulling out of Gaza.
Mohammed Deif praised Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a victory for armed resistance, rejected calls for his group to disarm, and vowed to continue attacks on Israel until the Jewish state is erased from the map.

As predicted here and here this is only the beginning.

Here's a thought experiment. What if Israel had decided to return Gaza to the Egyptians? After all it was Egyptian territory prior to the 1967 war. Would the Palestinians still demand Gaza as part of a new Palestinian state? I seriously doubt the Egytians would want Gaza back even if the Israelis made the offer.

The so-called Palestinians are far more interested in murdering Israelis than having a state. I've asked this question before but it's worth asking again. Does anyone really believe that a Palestinian state would be anything other than a terrorist state?

Prepare to witness the bloodiest intifada yet.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Bring on the Lawyers

Global warming is no longer a scientific issue. It's now for a jury to decide.
A federal judge here said environmental groups and four U.S. cities can sue federal development agencies on allegations the overseas projects they financially back contribute to global warming.

The decision Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White is the first to say that groups alleging global warming have a right to sue.

The keyword is "alleging".

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Thoughts on the War

This post from Power Line offers some wise insights into the war in Iraq.
The sins of the news media in reporting on Iraq are mainly sins of omission. Not only do news outlets generally fail to report the progress that is being made, and often fail to put military operations into any kind of tactical or strategic perspective, they assiduously avoid talking about the overarching strategic reason for our involvement there: the Bush administration's conviction that the only way to solve the problem of Islamic terrorism, long term, is to help liberate the Arab countries so that their peoples' energies will be channelled into the peaceful pursuits of free enterprise and democracy, rather than into bizarre ideologies and terrorism.

Even if you disagree with the war there is no argument with this assessment of the media coverage.

Maybe WWII should have been reported this way.
One wonders how past wars could have been fought if news reporting had consisted almost entirely of a recitation of casualties. The D-Day invasion was one of the greatest organizational feats ever achieved by human beings, and one of the most successful. But what if the only news Americans had gotten about the invasion was that 2,500 allied soldiers died that day, with no discussion of whether the invasion was a success or a failure, and no acknowledgement of the huge strategic stakes that were involved? Or what if such news coverage had continued, day by day, through the entire Battle of Normandy, with Americans having no idea whether the battle was being won or lost, but knowing only that 54,000 Allied troops had been killed by the Germans?

How about the Battle of Midway, one of the most one-sided and strategically significant battles of world history? What if there had been no "triumphalism"--that dreaded word--in the American media's reporting on the battle, and Americans had learned only that 307 Americans died--never mind that the Japanese lost more than ten times that many--without being told the decisive significance of the engagement?

Or take Iwo Jima, the iconic Marine Corps battle. If Americans knew only that nearly 7,000 Marines lost their lives there, with no context, no strategy, and only sporadic acknowledgement of the heroism that accompanied those thousands of deaths, would the American people have continued the virtually unanimous support for our country, our soldiers and our government that characterized World War II?

Go read the rest of the post.

Monday, August 22, 2005

C.A.I.R

Some things we should all know about CAIR can be found here.

A Few Questions

If Bush lied about WMD's in Iraq, how did he know something that every intelligence agency in the world didn't know?

Why does the UN spend time pointing out the so-called evils of Israel, a country smaller than Belize, but doesn't seem to give a rip about real evil in the rest of the world?

Does anyone really believe that a Palestinian state would be anything other than a terrorist state?

How does Cindy Sheehan's actions give meaning to her son's life and sacrifice?

Why do we not secure our borders?

Why do some say health care is unaffordable but the same folks tell us health care along with a massive government bureaucracy is the solution?

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Frisco Rejects USS Iowa

I found this hard to believe.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a former San Francisco mayor, helped secure $3 million to tow the Iowa from Rhode Island to the Bay Area in 2001 in hopes of making touristy Fisherman's Wharf its new home.

But city supervisors voted 8-3 last month to oppose taking in the ship, citing local opposition to the Iraq war and the military's stance on gays, among other things.

"If I was going to commit any kind of money in recognition of war, then it should be toward peace, given what our war is in Iraq right now," Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi said.

Feinstein called it a "very petty decision."

Somebody needs to inform Feinstein that this decision is many things, but "petty" is not a word I would use to describe such non-sense. Mind-numbingly unamerican might be a better term to use. How does opposition to the war in Iraq motivate someone to reject such an important piece of American history? Obviously eight of the city supervisors have a very mature hate-america mentality.
"This isn't the San Francisco that I've known and loved and grew up in and was born in," Feinstein said.

Yes it is Senator. This is what San Francisco has become and it's been this way for a long time. The city supervisors believe their opinions on current events to be more important than the heritage of our great nation.

At least someone will benefit from this contemptuos behaviour.
Officials in Stockton couldn't be happier. They've offered a dock on the river, a 90,000-square-foot waterfront building and a parking area, and hope to attract at least 125,000 annual visitors.
...
San Francisco's rejection of such a storied battleship is a slap in the nation's face, said Douglass Wilhoit, head of Stockton's Chamber of Commerce.

"We're lucky our men and women have sacrificed their lives ... to protect our freedom," Wilhoit said. "Wherever you stand on the war in Iraq ... you shouldn't make a decision based on philosophy."

Next time I'm in the bay area I'll bypass Frisco and visit the USS Iowa in Stockton.

Great Raid

I just saw the Great Raid. If you haven't seen it, go see it. Right now.

If it's not the best movie I have ever seen it is surely in the top five.

I'm not joking.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Anti-Semitic UN

I found this interesting and disturbing.
The United Nations bankrolled the production of thousands of banners, bumper stickers, mugs, and T-shirts bearing the slogan "Today Gaza and Tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem," which have been widely distributed to Palestinian Arabs in the Gaza Strip, according to a U.N. official.

The So-called Palestinians will not be satisfied until the Jews are completely out of the middle-east. And the UN is more than happy to help.
A special representative of the United Nations Development Program in the Gaza Strip, Timothy Rothermel, told Fox News that his office provided financial support for the production of materials that make up the Palestinian Authority's propaganda campaign, timed to coincide with the Gaza pullout. The Palestinian Authority's withdrawal committee developed and produced the posters and other items using U.N. money, Mr. Rothermel said.

...

Asked by a Fox News correspondent about one of the banners bearing the words implying an impending Palestinian Arab takeover of the disputed areas, Mr. Rothermel, said, "That particular poster was prepared by the disengagement office with financial support from the United Nations Development Program."

Apparently it is part of the UN agenda to get Israel out of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Mr. Rothermel, in the Fox News interview, argued that the slogan, which predicts an Israeli disengagement from the West Bank and, presumably, East Jerusalem, is a message that is "consistent with the relevant U.N. resolutions and Security Council resolutions about the status of Palestine."

Someone please tell me why we're in the UN.

12 Steps

Here is a 12 step program to cure one of liberalism.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Infidel

According to this post muslim extremist do not interpret "innocent lives" the way most of us normally would.
Non-Muslims can be forgiven if they assume the reference to "innocent lives" includes those traveling on the Underground and bus lines in London earlier in the month.

So when the clerics issue a fatwa condeming the killing of innocents they are not refering to non-muslims, at least according to the islamist.
Omar Bakri Mohammed, the sect's leader, who publicly condemned the deaths of "innocents," but at the Selby Centre in Wood Green, north London, on July 22 referred to the 7/7 bombers as the "fantastic four" and explained that his grief for the "innocent" applied only to Muslims. "Yes I condemn killing any innocent people, but not any kuffar."

Kuffar is another word for infidel.

The fatwas are meaningless.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Carter the Fabulist

George will expounds on one of my favorites subjects, Jimmy Carter.
A quarter of a century has passed since 44 states said "No, thanks" to Jimmy Carter's offer to serve a second term,

My previous post on Carter will give you an idea about my opinion of the man.

George Will shows us that Carter has not changed. The ex-president has repeatedly accused Will of sabotaging the Carter-Reagan debates.

According to Carter:
Ronald Reagan won because he won the only debate. He won it not because of Carter's debate performance ("I had a discussion with my daughter, Amy, the other day, before I came here, to ask her what the most important issue was. She said she thought nuclear weaponry . . .") but only because Reagan had Carter's briefing book. And Reagan had it because this columnist gave it to him.

That's it. A single debate and Carter loses 489 to 49.

Will's responce:
That last accusation, for which there is no evidence, is, as he has been told, false. But he is a recidivist fibber.

Carter sticks with his story regardless of the facts.
Last Oct. 21, on National Public Radio, he said: "We found out later that one of Ronald Reagan's supporters inside the White House had stolen my briefing book, my top-secret briefing book that prepared me for the debate. And a very prominent news reporter was the one who took the briefing book to Ronald Reagan and helped drill him on the things that I might say if he said certain things." Asked who that reporter was, Carter replied, "It was George Will, and it was later known that he did that."

This is typical Carter. He didn't lose the election because of his disastrous Presidency. It's because that rascally George Will stole his playbook.

Will gives us the real story.
Regarding your briefing book, I will tell you what I have told many others. When I got to David Stockman's house on the day he was preparing to play the role of you in the debate preparations, he had on his kitchen table what I gather was the briefing book. I do not know how he got it; more to the point, I do not know who thought having it would be helpful. Frankly, you deserved better. My cursory glance at it convinced me that it was a crashing bore and next to useless -- for you, or for anyone else

I had to laugh when I read that.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Peter Jennings 1938 - 2005

Peter Jennings has lost his battle with lung cancer. The story is here.

Netanyahu Resigns

Binyamin Netanyahu officially resigned his post at the ministry of the treasury in Israel. I had discussed some of his concerns about the pullout of Gaza in a previous post. It looks like these concerns were the prime motivation for his resignation.

To my sorrow, the security fence has not been completed around the settlement blocs, the Philadelphi Corridor will be handed over to the Palestinians, and worse than that, we will allow the Palestinians to open a sea port that will be open to the terror boats.

To my disappointment, the Government ignores reality. As I warned, the Hamas is strengthening, the terror continues, the firing of rockets and mortars on our communities has not ended, and terror elements proclaim that they will move the rockets that drove us out of the Gaza Strip to Judea and Samaria, and from there will operate them until "the complete liberation of Palestine."


This is worse than Oslo. Why the continued rewarding of terrorist? Their strategy of murdering innocents to get what they want brings their desired results. And some still beleive that rewarding terrorist will stop terrorism. Unbelievable.

Netanyahu makes a prediction on what the results of the Gaza pullout will be.

I do not know when the terror will break out in full force. It is possible that it will take a month or two or a year or two. It is possible that the terror will first break out in Judea and Samaria. I hope that it won't break out at all. But just as I warned in 1993 that the Oslo Agreement will bring attacks from Judea and Samaria and rockets from Gaza, so I unfortunately am convinced today that the current move will bring in the course of time to an increase in terror rather than a decrease. As you know full well, security officials also confirm that in the wake of the unilateral withdrawal they expect an increase in terror in the mid-run.

In summary: it is becoming increasingly clear that the unilateral withdrawal under fire doesn't give us anything. The opposite; it endangers the security of Israel, divides the Nation, and sets the principle of withdrawal to the '67 lines that are not defendable.

This is not the way to achieve peace.


I concur.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Hiroshima

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Victor Davis Hanson's latest article offers some interesting analysis.
As it was, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, General Tojo’s followers capitulated only through the intervention of the emperor. And it was not altogether clear even then that Japanese fanatics would not attack the Americans as they steamed into Tokyo Bay for the surrender ceremonies.

The radical militarist generals that had taken over control of Japan considered the fire-bombing of Tokyo worse than the a-bombing of Hiroshima. Based on nothing but the death toll they were right. The militarist concluded that the destruction was "tolerable" and that Japan should prepare for an American invasion. If the Emporer had not surrendered via a public radio address the militarist would have never surrendered.

If Saipan and Okinawa are examples of Japanese resistance, and there is no reason to assume otherwise, the destruction of Japan would have been far worse and the number of dead Americans would have been enormous.
But in August 1945 most Americans had a much different take on Hiroshima, a decision that cannot be fathomed without appreciation of the recently concluded Okinawa campaign (April 1-July 2) that had cost 50,000 American casualties and 200,000 Japanese and Okinawa dead. Okinawa saw the worst losses in the history of the U.S. Navy. Over 300 ships were damaged, more than 30 sunk, as about 5,000 sailors perished under a barrage of some 2,000 Kamikaze attacks.

And it was believed at least 10,000 more suicide planes were waiting on Kyushu and Honshu.

The bombing of Hiroshima was horrible but the alternatives were worse beyond comparison.
In some sense, Hiroshima and Nagasaki not only helped to cut short the week-long Soviet invasion of Japanese-held Manchuria (80,000 Japanese soldiers killed, over 8,000 Russian dead), but an even more ambitious incendiary campaign planned by Gen. Curtis LeMay. With the far shorter missions possible from planned new bases in Okinawa and his fleet vastly augmented by more B-29s and the transference from Europe of thousands of idle B-17s and B-24, the ‘mad bomber’ LeMay envisioned burning down the entire urban and industrial landscape of Japan.

Some militarist tried to stop the Emperor from delivering his radio address. Had they succeeded the destruction of Japan would have been complete.

Friday, August 05, 2005

I Missed Something

Does it make sense that we would go to the trouble of toppling two terror supporting governments and then encourage the establishment of a new base of operations for terrorist?

I am referring to the Israelis pullout in Gaza. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had several things to say.
Gaza will be transformed into a base for Islamic terrorism adjacent to the coast of the State of Isreal.

This it isn't just our problem,

It's the West's problem as well because forces that are controlled, deployed and cooperate with Iran - and today Hizbullah and Hamas are controlled in a significant way by Iran - will receive an additional base of operations not only in close proximity to Israel's cities but also on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea not far from Europe.

Netanyahu makes a point that had not previously occurred to me. But a Mediterranean coastal base of operations does provide a great benefit to terrorist. And they will take advantage of this benefit. So why is Israel pulling out and why did the Bush administration lean on Israel to pull out?

What did I miss?

Thursday, August 04, 2005

RIP

This is the final resting place of Matthew Ryan Stovall.



He faithfully served his country and made the supreme sacrifice. He will not have died in vain.

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. John 15:13

Quagmire

No honest analysis of the the Vietnam War could conclude that the United States suffered a military defeat. We abandoned the cause and handed the South Vietnamese over to the communist because of domestic political turmoil. The radicals won the day and the communist quenched their thirst for blood. There were almost twice as many casualties in Southeast Asia the first two years after the fall of Saigon in 1975 than during the ten years the U.S. was involved in Vietnam. Thank you Noam Chomsky and all your brethren.

I bring this up because of the nonsense I hear from the left. They say that Iraq has become another Vietnam and we should get out. I say the only way Iraq could become another Vietnam is if we, yet again, "abandoned the cause" and handed the Iraqis over to the vampires. Please, let's not make that mistake again.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Voter Fraud

A group calling itself the American Center for Voting Rights (ac4vr) has released a report detailing voter fraud in the 2004 presidential election.

The Captain has some enlightening comments on the subject.
Be sure to read through all the details of the report. It takes a comprehensive view of all the so-called "irregularities" of the 2004 election and makes minced meat of Democratic claims of victimhood. It will not change any minds among the True Believers, but the rational moderates will have this much more information with which to judge the vanishing credibility of Democratic leadership.

I haven't read the report so I won't comment.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Nuclear Iran

Dafna Linzer of the Washington Post reports on Irans progress in aquiring nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile we have this quote from Iranian President-Elect Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad.
We want art that is on the offensive. Art on the offensive exalts and defends the noble principles, and attacks principles that are corrupt, vulgar, ungodly, and inhuman.

Art reaches perfection when it portrays the best life and best death. After all, art tells you how to live. That is the essence of art. Is there art that is more beautiful, more divine, and more eternal than the art of martyrdom? A nation with martyrdom knows no captivity. Those who wish to undermine this principle undermine the foundations of our independence and national security. They undermine the foundation of our eternity.

The message of the (Islamic) Revolution is global, and is not restricted to a specific place or time. It is a human message, and it will move forward.

Have no doubt... Allah willing, Islam will conquer what? It will conquer all the mountain tops of the world.

Some say we are not at war. I wonder what they're taking?

Update: Mcq at Q & O has some serious doubts about the timeline of the WaPo report.
So excuse me if I take this assessment with a grain of salt. It seems to me to be fashioned to support a competing alternate view of the state of the nuclear program in Iran within the intelligence community, and frankly, based on the WaPo story, it isn't particularly convincing.

Mississippi

As a native of Mississippi I enjoyed reading this article from Paul Harvey.

Mississippi is still burning. Times have changed, but the incendiaries won't quit. Mississippi, statistically, could shame most of our states with its minimal per-capita crime, its cultural maturity and its distinguished alumni. But Mississippi has enough residual gentility of the Old South not to rub our noses in our own comparative inadequacy.

The pack-media could not wait to remake the movie MISSISSIPPI BURNING, into a TV version called, MURDER IN MISSISSIPPI. Thus yet another generation of Americans is indoctrinated with indelible snapshots which are half a century out of date. The very idea that anybody from New York, D.C., Chicago or L. A. could launch stones from those shabby glass houses toward anybody else is patently absurd. Lilliputians have a psychological need to make everybody else appear small and Mississippi, too nice to fight back, is such an easy target.

The International Ballet Competition regularly rotates among four citadels where there is a sufficiency of sophisticated art appreciation: Vama, Bulgaria; Helsinki, Finland; Moscow, Russia and Jackson, Mississippi.

Only Mississippi has a satellite art program in which the State Museum of Art sends exhibits around the state for the enjoyment of smaller communities. No state can point to a richer per capita contribution to arts and letters. William Faulkner, Richard Wright, Walker Percy, Ellen Douglas, Willie Morris, Margaret Walker Alexander, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, Thomas Harris (Silence of the Lambs) and John Grisham are Mississippians.

As are Leontyne Price, Elvis Presley, Tammy Wynette, B. B. King, Jimmy Rogers, Oprah Winfrey, and Jimmy Buffett.

Scenery? The Nachez Trace is the second most traveled parkway in our nation. With magnolia and dogwood, stately pines and moss-draped oaks, Mississippi is in bloom all year 'round. And the state stays busy---manufacturing more upholstered furniture than any state; testing space shuttle engines for NASA; and building rocket motors.

Much of our nation's most monumental medical progress has roots in Mississippi. The first heart transplant in 1964. The first lung transplant in 1963. The most widely used medical textbook in the world, THE TEXTBOOK OF MEDICAL PHYSIOLOGY, reprinted in ten languages, was authored by Dr. Arthur Guyton of the University of Mississippi.

The "Case Method" of practicing law, the basis of the United States legal system, was developed at the University of Mississippi.

Nationally, educators are chewing their fingernails up past the second knuckle anxious about the disgraceful rate of dropouts and illiterate graduates. In Mississippi, the state government and two philanthropic organizations have teamed up to put a computer-based literacy program in every elementary school in the state. Maybe Mississippi is right to downplay its opportunities, advantages and refinement. The ill-mannered rest of us, converging, would surely mess it up.

This is Paul Harvey...Good Day.


Thank you Mr. Harvey and good day to you also.

Saturday, July 30, 2005

There he goes again

In his typical America bashing way, former president Carter weighs in on club gitmo.
Former President Carter said Saturday the detention of terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay Naval base was an embarrassment and had given extremists an excuse to attack the United States.

I guess the terrorist attacked the WTC in anticipation of the opening of club gitmo.

In case you think what Carter says has anything in common with truth of common sense.
Carter said of Kim Il Sung, a brutal Stalinist dictator, "I found him to be vigorous, intelligent, surprisingly well-informed about the technical issues and in charge of the decisions about this country." As for the North Koreans, Muravchik wrote, Carter said the "people were very friendly and open." The capital, Pyongyang, is a "bustling city," where customers "pack the department stores," which looked like "Wal-Mart in Americus, Georgia." North Korea, it should be noted, has suffered from such government-imposed mass-starvation that millions have been forced to live off grass.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

There is a God (round 3)

If you have ever been told that there are no ancient references to Christ or Christianity outside the Bible then you have been misled. There are many extra-biblical sources from ancient times that we can reference. These sources are both Christian and non-Christian. In this post I will mention a few non-Christian references.

In a first century account by Tacitus of the great fire of Rome during the reign of Emperor Nero, we find the following statement.
Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of the procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular.

Two points to make note of:

1. Tacitus is a recognized accurate historian from the ancient world.
2. His reference to a "mischievous superstition" is generally accepted to be a reference to the resurrection of Christ.

In a letter to Emperor Trajan around A.D. 112 Pliny the younger discusses a Christian worship service.
They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to do any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, not deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food-but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.

We now move on to a controversial quote from the historian Flavius Josephus
Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct to this day.

This passage is referred to among scholars as the Testimonium. The italisized portions are suspected to have been added to the original writing. The debate among scholars comes down to three choices. Accept the passage entirely, reject the passage entirely or accept the passage partially. The third choice seems the most logical because there is another version of the testimonium from an Arabic manuscript that reads as follows.
At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and [he] was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive; accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders.

There are numerous other references that I could quote but I think the point is made. There are legitimate, well known, thoroughly researched first and second century extra-biblical documents that support many of the gospel accounts and many of the practices of the early Christian church.

It should also be pointed out that these are writings from Authors unfriendly to Christianity. Their stories support, in a sometimes hostile tone, what Christians did and what they believed. Not once is evidence shown to counter the claims of the early Christian church.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Terrorist in Training

This is the Palestinian version of kids summer camp.

The PA has named a children's summer camp after Ayyat al-Akhras, a 17 year-old girl who murdered two Israelis in a Jerusalem supermarket on March 29, 2002. This continues the PA policy of naming summer camps, sporting events and schools, after prominent terrorists.


Check out the article and be sure to watch the slide show.

They start them off young in order to firmly establish the hatred.



It works.

Monday, July 18, 2005

Guilty or not Guilty

No doubt you have heard numerous stories from the MSM about Karl Rove, the slant being that Rove is guilty of "outing" a covert CIA agent.

Yet at the same time they are all in agreement that no crime was commited.

The story they're not telling is in a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals on behalf of thirty-six news organizations including, but not limited to, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, AP, Newsweek, Reuters America, the Washington Post, the Los Angelas Times, the Baltimore Sun and the New York Times.

From Section B of the brief.

There Is Ample Evidence On The Public Record To Cast Considerable Doubt That A Crime Has Been Committed

1. The Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 Was Narrowly Drafted To Ensure that Only Specific Actions Under Specific Circumstances Would Support a Finding of Criminality.


This is amazing! When the MSM talks to it's audience, Karl Rove is cast as a criminal. But when they talk to the court, no crime was committed.

Sixteen Words and Joe Wilson

Sixteen famous words from President Bush's 2003 State of the Union speech:

The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.


From the Senate Intelligence Committees report.

The intelligence report based on the former ambassador's [Wilson's] trip was disseminated on March 8, 2002 ... The intelligence report indicated that former Nigerian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mayaki...said that in June 1999, [redacted] businessman, approached him and insisted that Mayaki meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between Niger and Iraq. The intelligence report said that Mayaki interpreted "expanding commercial relations" to mean that the delegation wanted to discuss uranium yellowcake sales.


What is the practical difference between Wilson's report and the statement made by Bush?

So, in Wilson's report he supports the President but to the New York Times he had this to say.

[I]n January, President Bush, citing the British dossier, repeated the charges about Iraqi efforts to buy uranium from Africa.

The next day, I reminded a friend at the State Department of my trip and suggested that if the president had been referring to Niger, then his conclusion was not borne out by the facts as I understood them.


President Bush never referred to Niger so my question still stands.

Another quesiton; When will NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, LA Times, NY Times or WA Post report this?

Don't hold your breath.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Interview with Victor Davis Hanson

Just read a very informative interview of Victor Hansen. The interview was conducted by Hugh Hewitt.

They discussed a variety of issues:

Muslims position on terrorism.

If you go to a mosque, and somebody stands up and says Jews are apes and pigs, or the West should be destroyed, then you have a duty as a resident or a citizen in a Western country to oppose that. And if you don't do it, you're abetting it, and you're complicit in it.


That's a pretty strong stance but maybe one that is neccessary. I am often confused as to where the 'moderate' Muslim stands on the issue of terrorism. I here groups such as CAIR denounce violence but I don't here any criticism of the environment that spawns terrorism. CAIR never addresses the issue of a Middle East almost entirely governed by theocratic tyrannies. These tyrannies support terrorism through fake charities and payments to the families of suicide killers. And they intentionally breed new terrorist in their madrassas.

In responce to a question about the leftist anger in todays Democrat party:

There was a strain, the Henry Wallace Party. And a group of concerned, sophisticated Democrats decided that was not where to go, and got tough on the Soviet Union, were the architects of the Cold War, and produced people like Scoop Jackson, Harry Truman, JFK. And then Vietnam started that detour again, and we haven't really gone back yet. We've tried to, a little bit sometimes with Bill Clinton's middle course. But I think what's happened is they've come very close...they won the popular election in 2000. They came within three or four points in the last election. But they have no political power, in the sense of no majority in the House, none in the Senate, no presidency, no Supreme Court, no majority of state legislatures or governors. And that creates a frustration. And rather than to do the hard work of laying out an agenda, that would give the American people a clear-cut choice, they just look for an Abu Ghraib scandal, a Koran flushed at Guantanamo, a Karl Rove, any little scandal they think that can get them in power on the cheap. And it's not going to work. Not in a time of war.


There was also some discussion of our Southern border:

I'm afraid, some type of disaster before we wake up and realize we have a fifteen hundred mile border that's completely unguarded, and we have a government in Mexico that's not a friend of ours. And at best, is a neutral. If you read the Mexican newspapers, especially those in Mexico City, it's almost a belligerent.


I have no problem if Latin America and Mexico want to emulate the Anglo-Saxon classical traditions that created this country: the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, an open economony, the protection of private property. But if unity means that we're going to erode the core values, and resemble Mexico or Argentina or Peru or Venezuela, then I think that would be a disaster. We can be enriched in a multi-racial society by food, music, art, but that's very, very different than tampering with these core values. People are dying to come to the United States from Mexico, not because they want to emulate Mexican culture. They want to reject it and enjoy what we have to offer.



Very politically incorrect, but also very true.

On the direction of the EU:

I think what's going on in Europe has confused Americans, because they thought, you know, here's a very liberal Holland, and now they've not only stepped up to the plate, but they're going further to the right than we are, if you read what they're doing to a lot...in their immigration laws. France just cancelled the EU utopian borderless entry controls. And England is going that way.


And the future of America:

HH: I always hate to do this, because I never know what you're going to say, but do you ever worry that we've entered sort of the phase of the late Roman Republic when it comes to politics, Professor Hanson, when personal vendetta mattered more than the interest of Rome?

VDH: Yeah, I think so. And it's not just Rome. It's late 18th Century French politics, or Athenian politics in the 4th Century B.C. And that's a dangerous time. And I think that the Democrats have to, as I said earlier, lay out an agenda. We're in a war, and any time you see an article in the New York Times by Thomas Friedman, The Washington Times and The London Times, three Times articles that are never on the same page, today they were all about the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism. It tells you from left to right to center, not just in the United States, but the West is very concerned about this issue. They don't really care about Karl Rove's phone calls. They don't care about a Koran in Guantanamo. They don't care about these trivia that keep coming up on the part of the Democrats.


If you have the time or the inclination read the entire interview.

Pacifist Nonsense

This post from the Corner is an excellent example of the depravity and nonsense of moral equivalency and pacifism.

There is a God (round 2)

Before we can determine if what is said in the Christian bible corresponds to reality we must first determine if what we have in the Bible is in fact what was said. If the modern Bible does not reflect the original writings then a corresponding reality would be impossible.

Back in my elementary school days we used to play a game called telephone. (I don't know why it was called telephone, but that's another story.) The game starts with the first person thinking of a word or statement and whispering it to the next person. This process continues until the last person gets the message and it is compared to the original. Almost as a rule the message has changed to some degree.

For Christians there is a situation that appears to parallel the kids game on a much larger scale. We have a Bible that has been copied and translated numerous times over a span of thousands of years. Plus we have the additional inconvenience of not having the original for comparison. How can we make any claim to the authenticity of the Bible?

We can make that claim by objectively comparing the Bible to the existing ancient manuscripts. This is the way all ancient documents are verified. As mentioned previously, I am not a scholar and I haven't the time or expertise to verify the authenticity of the Bible. But that's OK because proffesionals have already done the hard work. All I have to do is relay the information.

Scholars have a generally accepted method for the study of ancient manuscripts. Chauncy Sanders in Introduction to Research in English Literary History gives us three basic test in the study of ancient text. First is the bibliographical test, then the external evidence test and finally the internal evidence test.

In the bibliographical area we start by noting the number of New Testament materials available for research. If we include all manuscripts from ancient Greek, Latin Vulgate, old Latin, and others we find that there are almost 25,000 manuscript pieces of the New Testament (NT). This is the largest number of manuscripts available for any ancient work. Homers Iliad is second with 643 known manuscripts in existence. With so many NT manuscripts available it is possible for scholars to cross-check and determine the accuracy of our modern translation.

With few exceptions scholars agree that the original New Testament documents were written before the close of the 1st Century AD. What follows is a sample listing of some of the more important manuscripts available.

Codex Sinaiticus (A.D. 350) British Museum contains almost all of the New Testament.

Codex Vaticanus (A.D. 325) Vatican Library contains almost all of the New Testament.

Chester Beatty Papyri (A.D. 200) C. Beatty Museum contains major portions of the New Testament.

Bodmer Papyrus II (A.D. 150-200) Bodmer Library of World Literature contains most of Johns Gospel.

John Ryland's MS (A.D. 130) John Rylands Library of Manchester, England contains several verses from Johns Gospel.

John Ryland's MS is the oldest known manuscript fragment of the NT. It's discovery location, Egypt, was some distance from the traditionally accepted location of the original. This evidence helps to confirm the date of the original at the end of the first century.

Because of the overwhelming number of ancient sources available most biblical scholars agree that the modern bible is almost 100% accurate. There is also agreement that newer translations are even closer to the original text because of the continued discovery of new evidence.

Based on the work of experts we can safely conclude that most modern translations of the Bible do in fact reflect the original writings.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Margin of Error

A forum paper by Christopher A. Davey and Roger A. Pielke Sr. of Colorado State call into question the accuracy of temperature measurements in Eastern Colorado.

Stations are selected for the USHCN dataset based on the length of period of record, the percentage of missing data in the station’s record, the total number of station moves and other station changes that may affect the homogeneity of the site’s data, and, finally, how the site contributes to the spatial coverage of the USHCN network.


The measurement stations must meet criteria established by the National Weather Service. According to Davey/Pielke most stations fail to meet the criteria.

The USHCN sites with good temperature exposure characteristics (i.e., meet all or almost all of the WMO standards) are in the minority in the set discussed in this paper. If the majority of observing sites elsewhere have similar problems to those in eastern Colorado, a significant number will have nonrepresentative exposure features.


What most don't realize is that the margin of error in global tempurature measurement is actually larger that any global variances measured. Ever!

According to Davey/Pielke it is very possible that "a significant number will have nonrepresentative exposure features". Based on this I submit that the margin of error is even higher than previously thought.

Friday, July 15, 2005

Good vs Evil

If this story from Michael Yon doesn't break heart, then you have no heart.



Here is his complete blog entry.

Mosul

Major Mark Bieger found this little girl after the car bomb that attacked our guys while kids were crowding around. The soldiers here have been angry and sad for two days. They are angry because the terrorists could just as easily have waited a block or two and attacked the patrol away from the kids. Instead, the suicide bomber drove his car and hit the Stryker when about twenty children were jumping up and down and waving at the soldiers. Major Bieger, I had seen him help rescue some of our guys a week earlier during another big attack, took some of our soldiers and rushed this little girl to our hospital. He wanted her to have American surgeons and not to go to the Iraqi hospital. She didn't make it. I snapped this picture when Major Bieger ran to take her away. He kept stopping to talk with her and hug her.

The soldiers went back to that neighborhood the next day to ask what they could do. The people were very warming and welcomed us into their homes, and many kids were actually running up to say hello and to ask soldiers to shake hands.

Eventually, some insurgents must have realized we were back and started shooting at us. The American soldiers and Iraqi police started engaging the enemy and there was a running gun battle. I saw at least one IP who was shot, but he looked okay and actually smiled at me despite the big bullet hole in his leg. I smiled back.

One thing seems certain; the people in that neighborhood share our feelings about the terrorists. We are going to go back there, and if any terrorists come out, the soldiers hope to find them. Everybody is still very angry that the insurgents attacked us when the kids were around. Their day will come.



Michael Yon


Be sure to check out Michell Malkins blog. She has some info on Michael Yon.

Terrorist screening luggage

The Drudge Report is carrying this story.

When Bassam Khalaf raps, he's the Arabic Assassin. His unreleased CD, "Terror Alert," includes rhymes about flying a plane into a building and descriptions of himself as a "crazy, suicidal Arabic ... equipped with bombs."

Until last week, Khalaf also worked as a baggage screener at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.


Bassam's profile is very similar to the London bombers.

Stay alert!

Thursday, July 14, 2005

City at Sea

Would you like to live aboard the Freedom Ship?

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

What goes round

Josias Kumpf has been keeping a secret for a long time.
Yes, he had been a "soldier for Hitler." Yes, he had served in the feared Nazi SS corps and stood sentry over Jewish prisoners as an SS Death's Head guard in concentration camps in Poland.

Josias is now 80 years old and faces deportation.
A federal judge in Milwaukee ordered his citizenship revoked and, should his appeals fail, Kumpf will be deported.

I find it difficult to be sympathetic.
This much is known: Jewish prisoners had been forced to dig a network of trenches and then lie down in them, naked. Guards machine-gunned them, a hundred at a time, until thousands filled the earth. Nazis blared music from the camp loudspeakers to drown out the cries all that morning, noon and night. When it was over, up to 10,000 corpses were set ablaze.

Some might think it harsh to punish an old man. I don't have a problem with it and neither do some of his former victims.
Chakin, like Kumpf, immigrated to this country; she too became a U.S. citizen and raised a family here. But she lost her parents and her only brother in the camps. She wants Kumpf gone.

"He had a good life. He had a family," said Chakin, 78. "That's what all my people never had. That's what my brother never had. So why not let him feel a little bit of the suffering? Shouldn't he be punished at last?"

Indeed he should be.

Of course Josias maintians his innocense.
When government lawyers deposed Kumpf in Milwaukee, he insisted he was not a killer. "I was a good boy before and I'm still a good boy now," he said. "I don't hurt nobody, and I don't even hurt the flies if they're behaving."

Other former guards have similar claims.
Prosecutors already had reviewed interviews of other SS guards taken by German authorities in the 1960s, when that country was beginning to confront its past.

"The whole business was the most gruesome thing I have ever seen in my life," recalled one guard, Martin Diekmann. "I often saw that, after a salvo was fired, Jews were only wounded and were buried still more or less alive together with the corpses of other victims, without the wounded receiving a so-called coup de grace."

Diekmann added, "I myself did not shoot."

Aleksandr Kurisa, an SS officer from Ukraine, said: "You could hear the moans, crying, and screams of those doomed to death. All Jews in Trawniki were exterminated."

Kurisa added, "I did not directly participate."

All the guards were good guys who had nothing do to with the brutal murders. I suppose all those poor victims voluntarily dug the trenches, stripped naked and shot themselves.

Brain Pill

Sometimes I think I could use some of this.

Modafinil, a drug developed to treat narcolepsy, has been shown to reduce impulsiveness and help people focus on problems.

How to tell?

The Dailymail has a story on one of the London terrorist. Reading the story brought home a question that I and others have asked before.

How can one tell a peaceful Muslim from an Islamist terrorist?
Knowing that her son was on a trip to London "with his mates", his mother Maniza had no idea that he might have actually caused one of the blasts.
When she did not hear from her son all day, mother-of-four Mrs Hussain reported him missing to the central casualty bureau at around 10pm.

His mother didn't even know.

We really need a sure way to spot a terrorist before the bombs go off.

Perhaps this is a clue.
A friend of the family said: "His older brother was worried because Hasib seemed to be getting into some kind of gang and started wearing white robes but he decided there was no harm in him becoming religious. He didn't realise that there might have been something more sinister to it."

Beware the white robes.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Reparations

The Washington Times is reporting that the NAACP will continue to target private business for slavery reparations.

The NAACP will target private companies as part of its economic agenda, seeking reparations from corporations with historical ties to slavery and boycotting companies that refuse to participate in its annual business diversity report card.


NAACP interim president Dennis C. Hayes says "Absolutely, we will be pursuing reparations from companies that have historical ties to slavery and engaging all parties to come to the table,".

Mr. Hays also said "Many of the problems we have now including poverty, disparities in health care and incarcerations can be directly tied to slavery."

That's a stretch. As a matter of fact it's pure malarky. None of the specified problems have anything to do with slavery and they certainly don't have anything to do with private corporations today. As far as I'm concerned the reparations were paid in blood by over 300,000 Union Soldiers.

Apparently that doesn't satisfy the NAACP.

Monday, July 11, 2005

Post Secret

Got a secret to tell or want to know someone else's secret?

Go to POST SECRETS.

Warning! Some of these are very disturbing.

They hate us?

QandO has an interesting post about villagers in Afghanistan helping rescue a Navy Seal from the Taliban.

Afghan villagers sheltered a U.S. Navy SEAL wounded in a battle last month with the Taliban until they could get word to American forces to rescue him, a military official said Monday.


This can't be! I thought they all hated us. Could Durbin have been wrong?

What is Conservatism

Russell Kirk (RIP) explains The Essence of Conservatism.

Homeland Insecurity

LA Times is reporting on two recent converts to Islam targeting U.S. military installations.

Images from Iraq

These images from Iraq are so shocking that the MSM would not dare show them.





Sunday, July 10, 2005

Dr. Tuxedo


This is a story written by my son.

Dr. Tuxedo

My Penguins name is Dr. Tuxedo. He's a criminal, but he's sort of like an Antarctic Robin Hood. He steals fish from the Eskimos who have a lot of them, and give them to hungry Eskimos, who don't have food. Why does he do this? One day while at Igloo Christian School, he saw the movie Robin Penguin. He was inspired, and became like him. He went by the name Dr. Tuxedo, stealing fishes everywhere.


My unbiased opinion is that this is a fantastic story from a perfect 10 yr old kid. He also did the artwork.

The Kids

This is why I go to work everyday.

London Bombings

John Derbyshire at National Review Online has some interesting comments about the terrorist attacks in London.

Since the existence of the nation does not appear to be at stake, citizens, and their alert representatives, are free to ponder, with a clear and patriotic conscience, where their self-interest lies. In a whole-hearted cooperation with America in the war on terror? Or in accommodation with the terrorists? What are the pros and cons, from the point of view of an ordinary British citizen who does not give a fig about America, or Israel, or Iraq? Who just wants a quiet life? To ask the question is to answer it. There have been no IRA bombs in London since Gerry Adams got his government limousine; there have been none in Madrid since the Spaniards kicked out the Aznar government, and pulled their troops out of Iraq.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

First Entry

This is my first ever blog and also my first entry. Are you as thrilled as I am?

I created this blog simply because the tools were available and it didn't cost a thing. It was a spur of the moment decision with no planned objectives.

Perhaps it will come to something. Perhaps not. We shall see.

Till next time.

Regards,
Toastymoe