tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19430593659663671472024-02-19T05:07:11.341-05:00Sherman's MarchAuguste Ballzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03069477713979392235noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-45381409008713229782009-08-15T20:59:00.002-04:002009-08-15T21:08:01.872-04:00The Trip to OhioHey there! I've been gone for a couple of weeks now, due to a visit from my two daughters. I haven't been with them since Christmas '08 and wanted to devote every moment to them. I've been oblivious tothe whole town hall health care metting thing, but I am looking for the first one I can find to attend. Anyway, here's a letter going to the management of Northwest/Delta Airlines regarding the trip with my girls back to thier home in Ohio. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />Dear Sir or Madame,<br /><br />On August 10, 2009 I set out with my two daughters L****** (9 yrs. old) and E**** (5 yrs. old) to travel from White Plains, NY (HPN) to Cincinnati, OH (CVG) with a connection in DTW. They had been visiting me in Valhalla, NY and I was returning them to their mother in Lebanon, OH.<br /><br />The first leg of our trip from HPN to Detroit Metro (DTW) aboard NW flight XXXX went fine. We arrived at DTW to make our connection to CVG aboard NW flight 2451. That is when all the trouble started. Before we got off the aircraft, the flight attendant announced that our gate for the connecting flight was at C36. After de-plane-ing I checked the video board and saw the gate had changed to C16. When we got to C16 the departure time had changed to 8:00 p.m. instead of the scheduled 7:15 p.m. Next the gate was changed again to gate B4. So my little troupers and me walked down to B4. I need a crutch to walk correctly so it took a bit of time. Arriving at B4 the departure time had changed again to 8:30 p.m. Now I had to get in touch with Enterprise Rent-A-Car to let them know my arrival was going to be delayed because I knew that their CVG facility closes at 10:00 p.m. and I didn’t want to get stranded at CVG without the ability to get a car to drive my minor children the 45 miles to their home in Lebanon.<br /><br />After a brief stay at gate B4, NW once again changed the gate to gate B6. It was the next gate down, so to was not a big hassel to move. But when we got to gate B6, yet again the departure time had been pushed back to 9:00 p.m. So I had to make another round of calls to secure a car, and to notify my ex-wife of our ever changing arrival time. My poor daughters would now not be getting into their beds until way past midnight. After a brief stay at B6, NW announced again that the gate was changing and everyone on flight 2451 now how had to hike back to gate C14.<br /><br />At C14, NW again delayed the departure time to 10:00 p.m. They also announced that the actual aircraft was at the gate, but the crew had timed out and a new crew was on the way to fly us all to CVG. At about 10:15 NW announced that flight 2451 to CVG was now cancelled, and the real fun was about to begin.<br /><br />After approximately another 15 minutes, the NW representative announced that NW was arranging to hire a bus to drive the passengers of NW2451 from DTW to CVG that very evening. A 5+ hour drive, in the middle of the night. How very sensitive and caring of NW to provide their passengers with such accommodation! The NW representative then told us that first we had to walk down to Luggage Claim belt #3 and collect our checked baggage in order to bring it on the bus with us. He told us the bus would have a luggage compartment for our bags, and that he would meet us at Luggage Claim belt #3 at 11:45 p.m.<br /><br />My little girls were totally exhausted at this point and the long walk with a daddy using a crutch wasn’t a memory they will enjoy. All the passengers of NW2451 got to Luggage Claim belt #3 and collected our bags. NW finally did something competent at DTW! The NW representative arrived at midnight, and told us the bus was about 30 minutes from arriving. We would be ON THE ROAD around 12:30 a.m., 8/11/09, to arrive at CVG with the days sunrise. BTW, I had my return flight to HPN scheduled for departure at 11:15 a.m. on 8/11/09, just to let you know.<br /><br />It was shortly past 12:35 a.m. when the “bus” arrived to drive all of us to CVG. The passengers of NW2451 were expecting an over-the-road type coach bus, with baggage compartments and padded reclining seats. After all, NW was sending us on a 5+ hour ride, in the middle of the night, with no chance to get any sleep. <br /> The vehicle that showed up to transport the passengers of NW 2451 to CVG was nothing anyone expected, not even the NW representative. Our “bus” was an around-the-town, see-the-sights-of-Detroit-in-three-hours tour bus. It had no luggage compartments, forcing the passengers to ride with their checked baggage on their laps, and the seats –oh the seats-, these were two-person common park benches made with wooden planks for seats and seat backs and wrought iron arm rests!!!! And NW expected us to sit for 5+ hours on these with our luggage on our laps. Who at NW thinks this was acceptable accommodation or service for the passengers of NW2451?<br /><br />About twenty of us decided that enough was enough and we were no longer going to stand for anymore of this piss-poor treatment. We got off the bus and demanded the NW representative make us more acceptable arrangements. After telling us of his own embarrassment at what his company was providing, he went and got the “protestors” vouchers to spend what was left of the night at the Four-Points Sheraton. He also told us that there would be a proper coach at Baggage Claim belt #3 at 7:00 a.m. to drive us to CVG. He also got some booking agents to re-arrange our flight schedules upon our arrival at CVG. When it was my turn at the counter, the agent said the first available flight from CVG to HPN would leave CVG at 2:30 p.m. on 8/11/09 for DTW, with a connection in Detroit at leaving at 5:40 p.m. to HPN. When I asked if she could book me on a direct flight from CVG to HPN, I was told that I did not pay for a direct flight, so none was going to be offered. What rude, un-accommodating people and practices NW/Delta employs. NW/Delta was the cause of all this trouble and all your company was trying to do was to get rid of the “Interrupted Travel” passengers as cheaply as possible. This is no way to run an airline, and when your company fails, it will be because it deserves to.<br /><br />Anyway, on with the record of events. A shuttle to the Sheraton arrived to take us to the hotel with our vouchers. BTW, no vouchers for food were provided, and none of us had eaten for at least 6-7 hours. Another consideration completely ignored by NW. Before we left DTW, we were told that the shuttles ran every 10 minutes and our bus in the morning would leave DTW at 7:00 a.m. So we got to the Sheraton, checked in, ordered cheeseburgers, went to our room, ate and went to sleep. It was 2:15 a.m., 8/11/09.<br /><br />Our 6:00 a.m. wake-up call got my girls and I moving and we got to the lobby at 6:30 a.m. I asked the desk clerk when the next shuttle was leaving, and she said “they leave on the half-hour, the next one leaves at 7:00 a.m.” Just great! Now the three of us are in danger of missing the bus to CVG. When we got to Luggage Claim belt #3, there was no bus to be found, and no other passengers of NW2451 to be found. I returned to the counter where our re-booking took place 5 hours earlier, and no one at the counter knew anything about the morning bus. One woman who appeared to be in charge said she heard about the bus, but that it left at 1:00 a.m. She said she’d try and find out more information about what was going on. That was the last straw. I was no longer willing to let NW/Delta have any control over my daughters and myself. I asked the woman for a local phone book, which she provided and I called a car service. I made arrangements for a car to pick up my daughters and myself at DTW and drive us to CVG. I left the NW/Delta people to themselves.<br /><br />The car arrived and my girls and I left DTW. I had the driver make a diversion to my girls’ home in Lebanon, OH then proceeded to CVG arriving at 12:30 p.m. to check in for my 2:30 p.m. flight to DTW then onto HPN.<br /><br /><br /><br />When I got to the gate for my flight to DTW, once again the departure gate had changed. When I got to the new gate, the departure time had also changed. Here we go again. Now the flight was going to leave at 3:00 p.m. Then 3:30 p.m. Then 4:00 p.m. They finally boarded the plane at 4:30 p.m. and once on the plane the pilot announces that someone wants the plane to fly a new route to avoid some weather issue and it would be sometime before the new route was planned and approved and any extra fuel required was put onto the aircraft. When the clocked showed 5:00 p.m. and the plane was still on the ground, at the gate, I knew I had no chance of making my connecting flight at DTW. So I told the flight attendant that I wanted to get off this plane to make other arrangements to get back to my home in Valhalla, NY. I was no longer willing to trust NW/Delta to get me home. Once off the plane the NW gate agent told me that there were no other flights on any airline at CVG that would get me to HPN on 8/11/09. So I had him book me on another NW/Delta fight to DTW, then onto HPN leaving CVG at 6:40 a.m. on 8/12/09. So I went and got myself a room at the CVG airport Sheraton, where I had dinner in my room and spent the night.<br /><br />On 8/12/09 I finally got on the flight to DTW, where upon arriving at my connecting gate, once again NW/Delta had changed the gate. This incompetence just would not stop! The flight to HPN eventually got off the ground and arrived at the gate at HPN about 30 minutes late. But at least I was no longer in the clutches of NW/Delta. And never will be again. NW/Delta has not lost just one customer. You have lost three, because I will not trust NW/Delta with my or my daughter’s good treatment any longer. Me and my daughter L****** are both SkyMiles members, but not for very long.<br /><br />What I am requiring from NW/Delta is the following:<br /><br />•Full re-imbursement for our complete flight (3 tickets) from HPN to CVG on the day of 8/10/09. Please don’t offer me any credits, or say that I don’t deserve re-imbursement for the HPN to DTW leg of the trip. That amount is $ 4XX.XX<br /><br />•Full re-imbursement for the $15.00 checked baggage fee that I paid at HPN on 8/10/09<br /><br />•Full re-imbursement for the car service from DTW to CVG on 8/11/09. That amount is $6XX.XX<br /><br />•Full re-imbursement for my stay overnight at the Sheraton at CVG on 8/11/09. That amount is $1XX.XX<br /><br />•This comes to a total re-imbursement of $XXXX.XX<br /><br />I have included copies of all my receipts and “Interrupted Travel” documentation. Everything else I have said in this letter, you can check through your own records.<br /><br />I have never had such a foul travel experience in my life. I would like to describe the service provided by NW/Delta in the most disparaging terms I can find, but I cannot. The reason I cannot is because NW/Delta did not provide ANY SERVICE to speak of. Service was non-existent. And I don’t blame the people that we dealt with face-to-face. The blame rightly falls on the decision makers behind the scenes, and the management that put these shoddy screw-the-customer policies in place.<br /><br />I will not be deterred from collecting my re-imbursements either. My younger sister is an attorney here in New York, so I get my legal services for free. It won’t cost me a dime to get my money back. And the “best man” at my wedding, a friend for 30 years is a producer for Fox News Channel at their headquarters in Manhattan. FNC, especially the <em>Fox and Friends</em> morning show with Steve Doocy, Gretchen Carlson and Brian Kilmeade is always looking for human interest “filler” segments, and airline horror stories are particularly desirable and popular. And boy does this one fit the bill.- partially disabled man, travelling with two minor children gets totally screwed over by NW/Delta.<br /><br />My contact information is as follows:<br /><br />Domenick A. Colangelo Jr.<br />194 ******* Ave.<br />********, NY 10***<br /><br />***-***-3659 (H)<br />***-***-8150 (M)<br /><br />Email: dcolangelojr@******.com<br /><br />I hope NW/Delta chooses to settle this matter quickly and completely without trying to wriggle out from under with the cheapest cost possible. If I do not receive everything that I feel is due me, which I have outlined above, I will not hesitate to make every effort to get this story into as many media outlets as possible (beginning with <em>Fox and Friends</em>) and earn for NW/Delta and it’s management (right up to the CEO) the kind of publicity no company wants. I await your response.<br /><br />Signed,<br /><br /><br />___________________________<br />Domenick A. Colangelo, Jr.<br /><br /></span>Auguste Ballzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03069477713979392235noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-16201747063864987202009-08-06T21:16:00.010-04:002009-09-12T15:26:05.825-04:00Cap and Trade, A Carbon Copy Precedent On Deadly Ground<em><strong>A Washington mimics Hollywood’s Art Memo by Individualist (TheIndividualist@comcast.net)</strong></em><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>“The Purpose of government is to limit the needs of its citizens from the involvement of the government.”</em><br /><br />We’ve heard the pontificating speeches of our Greenier in Chief and similar ones from the Hollywood Actor Steven Seagal before him in the movie “On Deadly Ground”</span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGqwIEDgZ7x9jXzvY4v3w_K0w3bc3U9srl53y5ljHDQfkKC4U9RRJX31XMfoxEkgGEW6d17a8Yj6hQjA1vf-z2RmR9qifleZVRFBuS1bGZl2WmcyGzuNJHvKiS6pHJ1onA_nkwTJGu1sA/s1600-h/BadPennies.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 239px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367359059069111058" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGqwIEDgZ7x9jXzvY4v3w_K0w3bc3U9srl53y5ljHDQfkKC4U9RRJX31XMfoxEkgGEW6d17a8Yj6hQjA1vf-z2RmR9qifleZVRFBuS1bGZl2WmcyGzuNJHvKiS6pHJ1onA_nkwTJGu1sA/s320/BadPennies.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />What was a panned movie rumored to be the end of an actor’s career is a starting play for a Presidency. Two heads on the same bad penny. However, being a bad actor in Washington is seldom punished.<br /></span><br /><span class="fullpost"><br />On Deadly Ground is a 1994 environmental action-adventure film, co-produced, directed by and starring Steven Seagal. The film was a commercial disaster and is rumored to be the death knell for Steven Seagal’s career as a number one box office talent. The movie takes aim at oil companies depicting them as evil murderers out to pollute the world. Steven plays an ex Green Beret/ Navy Seal CIA part Eskimo superspy who just wants the nice quiet life of a specialist in putting out oil fires. Go figure, the evil Big Oil men however have other ideas and so we have action, murder and adventure on the Alaskan frontier. The movie held all the predictable liberal clichés against the Oil Companies but the real kicker was the three minute speech at the end in which Steven as Forest Taft rails against everything from corruption, to government ineptitude even suggesting we had cars capable of running on water and electricity for 50 years if only the Oil companies had not stopped it. He even took off the tinfoil hat. The eerie thing is that President Obama has given many parts of this same speech over and over again. The rhetoric is a carbon copy of the same tired propaganda that has been pushed on us since Jimmy Carter.<br /><br />The only thing that is new is that now these individuals finally have a short window of uncontested power due to political serendipity. Despite the slim margin of victory ( 52% to 46%) the media has used its monopolistic influence to push drastic and radical changes exacerbating and creating one of the greatest economic crises since the FDR era. The democrats have been placing one bill after another indebting our country and reducing our standard of living to meet their utopian fantasies. The most recent bill is the boondoggle tax nightmare called <a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/01/capandtrade101.html">Cap and Trade </a>which the Obama Administration admits will skyrocket electricity costs.<br /><br />How does this law work, essentially it is the worst of a tax and a regulation scheme. The government places a cap on the amount of greenhouse gases that a producer can emit to a “desired” limit. Producers will have to get a permit for the amount of pollution they emit. A producer that manages to somehow reduce emissions below their allowance will then have a permit that they can sell to other producers that cannot as yet meet the limitation. The sinister issue with this law is that the government is free to change the caps on different businesses thus allowing them to pick winners and losers. Given that the government is now a major stockholder in several banks, auto companies and General Electric due to the Fascist manipulation of the TARP funds they have incentive to do just that.<br /><br />But the real question is this. Why? For what reason are we enacting an 800 billion dollar a year regressive tax that will trickle down to the consumers? The short answer is Global Warming. But what does that mean? How do we know this is even necessary? This is the issue that I wish to discuss in this article. The Science or the relative lack thereof is what we are concerned with at the present time.<br /><br />I have spent some time over the last three years looking into what I could of this issue out of my own curiosity. What I can tell you is that the reports and data that are made available for the general public seem to focus on discussing the negative consequences that will inevitably arise from effects of increased carbon in the atmosphere. When the causes of the increase are discussed one is usually referred to a graph that shows a “Hockey Stick”. The last ten years plus the next projected 10 years show an increase in CO2 levels that is an increase made to appear at least 10 times the changes in the last 800,000 years. In some graphs the stick is left open ended to indicate no limit to the increase. This however does not reference the proof for this claim.<br /><br />In my research initially I found reference to three experiments designed to illustrate the CO2 levels over time. These were the Antarctic Ice Cores, The Greenland Ice Cores and a study of the pores in leaves. The research I read two years back referred to the fact that the Antarctic Ice Core samples were considered the premium source of evidence. The tree leaf study was said to be varying too much because of seasonal changes and was considered the worst evidence. In researching this article today I did not find mention of this study, it may be that it is no longer considered valid so I will instead concentrate on the ice core samples which I could obtain support. Essentially the ice cores are measured to indicate the year the ice was created. This ice is then melted in a vacuum chamber and the resulting concentration of gases can evidence for you how much CO2 was concentrated in the atmosphere at the time.<br /><br />Of note is the fact that the experiments between the Greenland Ice Cores and the Antarctic Ice cores do not really agree. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_in_the_Earth">The concentrations in Greenland are much higher </a>and not just in the last 50 years. Scientists explain that this is due to the calcium carbonate which contaminates the ice. This residue is due to the large amount of volcanism in Greenland. The scientists state that when you carefully select ice cores in Greenland that are apart from the volcanic activity that they in fact agree but the articles never seem to state which parts of the glacier this is so I don’t know more than that.<br /><br />The US Global Change Research Program is set up by congress to provide a report detailing the effects of climate change. Like the other research I found it references in detail the projected effects of increased CO2 in the report titled <a href="http://downloads.globalchange.gov/usimpacts/pdfs/climate-impacts-report.pdf">“Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States”</a> produced by this organization. On page 13 of the 196 page report is shown a graph indicating the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere in parts per million (ppm) over 800,000 years including the infamous “Hockey” stick. The caption and legend in the graph explain that this research comes from the Antarctic ice cores. This report made by the Cambridge press was delivered to congress as evidence.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0xNpQAIxXuEnKmTqroknk2yRaBG7hINeLwY7VfdY3cVvxPfkaL6j6sytZniFIJ2FRUw_R_XZdgLqzsZ4t1F8Yl05l7rt4Pa7t_mSdg1Ma30hHTlSiLdfqgmlxkCOUV-2UsMzpEy_4P2s/s1600-h/GlobeArrow.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 252px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367026914271388786" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0xNpQAIxXuEnKmTqroknk2yRaBG7hINeLwY7VfdY3cVvxPfkaL6j6sytZniFIJ2FRUw_R_XZdgLqzsZ4t1F8Yl05l7rt4Pa7t_mSdg1Ma30hHTlSiLdfqgmlxkCOUV-2UsMzpEy_4P2s/s400/GlobeArrow.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Fair enough, so Indy we have the proof, we have the report. Antarctica is in the South Pole, away from pollution therefore it is the superior evidence. Here’s my observations:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/weather/index.shtml">Antarctica</a> is probably the coldest place on the planet. The coldest recorded temperature is -89⁰C in 1983. The south pole ranges from -115⁰F (-81.67⁰C) to -6⁰F (-21.1⁰C). The reason that Antarctica is so cold is due to several factors including the fact that it is landlocked and has a higher elevation. The key point is that the temperature falls below -78.5⁰C at times. This is the temperature at which CO2 condenses as a solid in normal atmosphere. We note that <a href="http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/greenland/swgreenlandave.dat">temperatures in Greenland </a>while cold and considered Arctic do not seem to get low enough to condense CO2.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.gas-plants.com/co2-properties.html">CO2</a> is heavier than water. It weighs 44g/mol as opposed to 18g/mol for H20. Water is also a very unique substance in that it is actually lighter in its solid form that its liquid form due to the ability of the atoms to form crystals. We note that like a miner panhandling for gold the heavier substances will tend to go to the bottom due to their weight. Antarctica is noted for whiteouts and storms where the wind picks up ice and moves it around.<br /><br />So when we obtain an ice core form Antarctica the question becomes what effect on the amount of CO2 found dissolved in the ice is the fact that the CO2 for a time is frozen, moves below the ice and then later sublimates (turns to a gas) and escapes. Would we not expect to find that there would be elevated levels of CO2 in the upper levels of the ice cores. This is just my hypothesis because in what I have been able to read this issue does not seem to be discussed although the issue of calcium carbonate is discussed for the Greenland ice Cores. It is also possible that less CO2 could be found as a result although I can’t determine why this should be so via thought experiment. It is interesting to note that the modified Greenland studies eliminating the Calcium Carbonate are said to match Antarctic cores when Greenland does not get cold enough to freeze CO2. If Antarctic temperature is a factor then would we not have to gauge the temperature during the yearly cycles in order to get a true picture of the data from our ice core experiments? What is the result of this on the experiments and what if anything was done to account for it? Would this mean the CO2 increase is less than the “Hockey” stick projects? I am not sure but then again the articles are silent on the subject as well.<br /><br />The next question I have for the scientists that I have found little information on and no one seems to answer is quite simple. If the levels of CO2 in our atmosphere at the present time are not optimum whether due to nature or the activities of man then what is Optimum. If I had a magic wand and could magically set the (ppm) of CO2 in our atmosphere what is the number that you suggest. You say we moved from 280 to 380. OK what number should it be? Do we even know? If not what numbers do we guess that it should be at? To my mind if I were going to force industry and ultimately the taxpayer to spend 800 billion dollars on a project to terraform mother earth this is the first question I would want answered before I began on that prospect. One thing I do know is that that this number must be somewhere below 5% of the atmosphere. That high a concentration is lethal to most plants and animals. Beyond that I have no idea nor has anything that I have read which discusses Climate Change ever even mention this line of reasoning. This I find curious.<br /><br />I do know from watching the science channel that deep in the earth’s past at the dawn of the age of the reptiles that there was thought to be five times the level of CO2 in the atmosphere than today due to volcanism. It also is thought that the planet had twice the biomass (the amount of life on the planet). Given in recent history we are lectured on the population bomb by the same liberal interest groups, would increasing the amount of food we can grow not be a benefit.<br /><br />I did find the following articles that found some benefits to elevated CO2:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.newsofthenorth.net/article.cfm?articleID=23646">Elevated carbon dioxide and ozone levels have surprising effects on northern hardwood forests</a><br /><br />“Kubiske says he looks at the elevated CO2 issue a bit differently than most scientists. “Green plants and all they co-exist with have evolved over time. If you look at most of the green plants today, you find they have an excess capacity to take up carbon dioxide. That’s why they grow faster when you give them more CO2. Their physiology allows that; it evolved in the distant past, when CO2 was higher. So my response is, if green plants have excess capacity to make use of excess CO2, why not the whole system have this capacity? This isn’t the kind of thinking that has steered the scientific community, who has been looking for a more negative consequence of elevated CO2.”<br /><br /><a href="http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/06/08/surprise-earths-biosphere-is-booming-co2-the-cause/">Surprise: Earths’ Biosphere is Booming, Satellite Data Suggests CO2 the Cause</a><br /><br />This article suggests that NASA satellite data show the earth has had an increase in biomass.<br /><br />On Saturday June 7 an article appeared on the Financial post website labeled “In Praise of CO2” by Don Mills, Ontario. The article stated that GPP and NPP are on their way up. From the article:<br /><br />“GPP is Gross Primary Production, a measure of the daily output of the global biosphere –the amount of new plant matter on land. NPP is Net Primary Production, an annual tally of the globe’s production. Biomass is booming. The planet is the greenest it’s been in decades, perhaps in centuries.”<br /><br />I will reprint the text of the article for reference as it is no longer available on the website if I am able. It is interesting.<br /><br />My greatest fear about what the liberals have done by politicizing this issue is the ultimate retardation of scientific progress in this area. They have latched on to this issue in order to justify their controlling policies as a method of back door socialism. In doing so they attack and do everything in their power to discredit and counter dissent. Anyone who questions is treated as an enemy because to them the political gain and not the science is what is important. When I read that scientists have uncovered some aspect of this issue that leads to a positive benefit to increased CO2 on some scale there is a reluctance that can be garnered from the tone. They begin with apologies or statements that the negative benefits outweigh the good or they are couched in the body of the article in scientific prose designed to put the lay person asleep before they get to the point. Scientists practically live off University Tenure and Government grants. They have a vested interest in not making public any finding that would thwart the political powers that be. True scientific progress cannot be made in a climate of fear.<br /><br />If the politicians are perpetuating a fraud (knowingly or unknowingly) or are simply exaggerating the problem for political benefit it will eventually be found out. Granted from a political perspective it may be so far down the road that the reveal does not or cannot derail the policy as it becomes ingrained. How many of us remember the politicians or scientists who just 20 years ago told us man made pollution would put us in an ice age?<br /><br />However, in the public mind things like CO2 levels will become that erroneous thought process that was debunked. Science in this area will then have no funding. This is unfortunate because the actual science behind this is crucial to the prospect of being able to engage in terraforming of other planets, most notably the planet Mars. Levels of CO2 and Water Vapor, what they mean and other such mysteries are a necessary understanding to have in order to be able to make an inhospitable planet livable. This issue should be researched for the purposes of science and politics should be kept out of it.<br /><br />Alas the Democrat party will not allow that. They make ridiculous claims such as in 25 years if we do not do something earth will no longer support life as we know it. The rhetoric is eternally ramped because the more we shout and ooh and aw the less likely we are to pay attention to the man behind curtain.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7w6LapSldjivCBKWeCf8pgTzUt7eVV9stLBTDj3B-snfKuCmbfIFDcXTgo588wEXnvSAWoYmeAct107tEb0LL9yWMrZHtVXKQcCa9LdR_WsFC14xFQwqTDynQmZJ9ku0ovuOB1jun1tk/s1600-h/CurtainWizard.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 247px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367029133971471378" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7w6LapSldjivCBKWeCf8pgTzUt7eVV9stLBTDj3B-snfKuCmbfIFDcXTgo588wEXnvSAWoYmeAct107tEb0LL9yWMrZHtVXKQcCa9LdR_WsFC14xFQwqTDynQmZJ9ku0ovuOB1jun1tk/s400/CurtainWizard.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Obama is showing us the true meaning of the phrase: “The more things change, the more things stay the same”<br /></span>Individualisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005025873042230314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-71254766725893399662009-07-26T10:40:00.001-04:002009-07-26T10:42:20.370-04:00Indulging CrazinessI'll bet this has happened to you. Some friend or relative is a little bit nuts -- maybe they just are, or maybe they have been burned by painful experiences. So they get very anxious about imaginary threats and outraged by imagined injustices. Maybe they're paranoid because they're smoking dope, or they drive drunk because they're young and stupid and think it's cool. Or maybe they're just jealous of people who look happier, or prettier, or have better toys. It's just ordinary human folly. <span class="fullpost">And to keep the peace, we indulge their craziness. <br /><br /><br /><em>That's our biggest mistake. That's why we are in such trouble as a people and a culture. </em><br /><br />We have been taught to indulge craziness. It's supposed to show that we're "compassionate". Psychiatrists know this: If you let crazy folks set the rules, you have to get crazy right along with them. It doesn't matter if your client is crazy for good reasons. The cause doesn't matter one little bit. Good therapists are taught never to indulge craziness, because that just makes everything worse. Alcoholics Anonymous has long understood exactly the same thing. Real compassion doesn't mean joining people in the pits. That just means that you get two crazy people instead of just one. And then you get more and more, as the phony compassion spreads. <br /><br /><br />Our culture is now actively teaching racial paranoia to blacks, gender paranoia to women, and abuse paranoia to everybody with a beef. All those exaggerated fears and phony fits of rage have been cynically whipped up by the Left to grab more power. That's their Compassion Fascism. The rest of us go along, because we don't want to be bothered to stand up against it. But in the aggregate, over time, we have become a culture driven loopy by race, gender, and group paranoia. We have adopted the madness of the most race-obsessed people, and made them rich. Over time, they have worn down our sanity, so that our culture has literally gotten crazy. <br /><br /><br />Obama's first crazy-making person was probably his father substitute in Hawaii. By all accounts Frank Marshall was a race-obsessed black guy. It's not that he was wrong to feel angry, at the time. There were a ton of injustices against blacks. It's rather that he turned his pain into fanatical campaign of hatred, spreading it around to everybody else. That was Obama's first father figure in Hawaii. <br /><br /><br />Enter Henry Louis Gates, Al Sharpton, Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, Attorney General Eric Holder and Barack Obama: All of them built fame and wealth on paranoid race politics. Enter Ruth Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Barbara Boxer (I'm no lady, I'm a Senator!), and an endless Conga Line of victim feminists. Look what those folks have done to Sarah Palin -- a high-tech lynch mob, driven mad with envy of Palin's good looks, popularity and joie de vivre. In the universities raging feminists, blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and Queer Studies nabobs -- among others -- have exploited the career specialty of victimology. It's a standard way to get tenure and promotion -- by slander, rumor-mongering and intimidation. We've seen the faculty lynch mob at Duke U going after white lacrosse players. At Harvard, it's how the Left fired Larry Summers for daring to tell the truth. <br /><br /><br />Summers used to be a respectable economist, more or less, but now he is toeing the mendacious Obama line on the economy. Is it possible he was just burned at Harvard? Maybe Larry learned fear of the lynch mob at Harvard U, and Obama now has him under his thumb. <br /><br /><br />You see fear in the eyes of white guys around Obama. Brian Williams has his eyes cast down. Tim Geithner has this little head bow, looking at Obama with fear in his eyes while keeping his head bowed down. They look for all the world like Step ‘n Fetchit. That's all very amusing for purposes of racial revenge, but it means Obama is surrounded with lying commissars who fear to tell him the truth. Michelle is even scarier than hubby, and must be a terror in the White House. It was Michelle who got IG Walpin fired from her private playpen, Americorps. It's Michelle who is the child of the Chicago Machine, after all. <br /><br /><br />So this White House really does have Czars - Obama being Numero Uno -- and a Czarina -- Michelle, who supports the atmosphere of intimidation. If Obama seems badly out of touch with reality, the answer should be obvious: By spreading fear he guarantees that his commissars will lie to him. That's how the Roman Caesars drifted more and more out of touch as they gained more and more power. It's how Europe's monarchs managed to live in isolated splendor, totally in a glass bubble. It's how the Chinese and Japanese courts began to live out a Noh play. <br /><br /><br />Humans have a hard time facing reality. Power-hungry people drift into their own fantasy world by cutting off the truth-tellers. This is the most fantasy-driven administration in US history. That will be their downfall, as we are already beginning to see right in front of our eyes. <br /></span>Auguste Ballzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03069477713979392235noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-720456661752854952009-07-25T21:52:00.000-04:002009-07-31T00:41:14.568-04:00“CHINA, HOW YOU GONNA KEEP THEM DOWN ON THE FARM” (A Parody in Song)<em><strong>Visual Poetry by Individualist (TheIndividualist@comcast.net)</strong></em><em>“The Purpose of government is to limit the needs of its citizens from the involvement of the government.”</em><br /><br />These verses are a Parody of the song How you gonna keep em down on the Farm inspired by the metaphor of <a href="http://shermansmarch.blogspot.com/2009/07/by-individualist-theindividualistcomcas.html">my post </a>comparing the situation in China with the Book, the Animal Farm.<br /><br />Enjoy<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br /><em>Note: General Secretary pronounced (Gen’ral Sec’try in the song)</em><br /><br /><em><strong>Verse 1:</strong></em><br /><blockquote>General Secretary I’ve been Thinking<br />Said the Bureau Chief<br />“Now the US is in our debt,<br />It’s no trouble to control the farm”<br />General Secretary, started barking<br />Wiping away the sweat<br />He pulled the aparatchik up close<br />And then Threatened with a grin</blockquote><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7YvKo2cB7Cw1CGnuqYgFTo1qanWg8tDkX-VfqTbHQcyaZE2NoOKn2u5qfYSNt9lVI6TMftGnQplYHsvv_TZONWQlwqqojvabVh9nv_abnC8gFQ76BZv_QZdwbl30vSgAtqYVkVVWgyV8/s1600-h/p1AmericaInDebt.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 317px; height: 286px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7YvKo2cB7Cw1CGnuqYgFTo1qanWg8tDkX-VfqTbHQcyaZE2NoOKn2u5qfYSNt9lVI6TMftGnQplYHsvv_TZONWQlwqqojvabVh9nv_abnC8gFQ76BZv_QZdwbl30vSgAtqYVkVVWgyV8/s400/p1AmericaInDebt.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363324030115864818" /></a><br /><br /><em><strong>Chorus(Repeat Twice):</strong></em><br /><blockquote>How we gonna keep em down on the farm<br />When the Freedom Bell Rings<br />How ya gonna keep em away from You Tube<br />Tweating Protests<br />All over the net<br />How will the State keep the people in fear<br />That’s the test you see<br />They’ll never carry your little red book<br />Who will give your half truths a second look<br />How will ya know Mao’s Thoughts are all they’ll hear<br />When the Freedom Bell Rings</blockquote><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJyhBNV3RrTXltPwNM1Qz40JT415qt5eg8cabAsW-1mD4vTX-jlVwpA5GtpXirB-w0iecIFA511uxeJX4XcsOUBgv1cGxHBc5ikz2E1YMJwVyzA1dglZuzP9gBmgIHmbZSs4SjLQt4hSo/s1600-h/p2RedBook.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 272px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJyhBNV3RrTXltPwNM1Qz40JT415qt5eg8cabAsW-1mD4vTX-jlVwpA5GtpXirB-w0iecIFA511uxeJX4XcsOUBgv1cGxHBc5ikz2E1YMJwVyzA1dglZuzP9gBmgIHmbZSs4SjLQt4hSo/s400/p2RedBook.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363324712588431794" /></a><br /><br /><em><strong>Verse 2:</strong></em><br /><blockquote>General Secretary, Your mistaken<br />Said the Bureau Chief<br />“Once a worker always a prole<br />And workers always pay the state’s toll”<br />“Oh Bureau Chief, I’m not fakin’<br />Tho’ you may think it strange;<br />But Liberty’s call plays the mischief<br />With the hammer of the state”</blockquote><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGXaahAItN0QQkrQo_JlltCi5eT9TmMdPoWibjc_GehyphenhyphenjTvbLAWfzWAcsW3F-l6x7J7H9E8ln0HPePMoDhx3iKEs_ZuRdKWSCmjQ97GpSYq8sEiJAmhDFySKwLBVUtDMT8w5G8lZ-NNC0/s1600-h/p3Hammer.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 324px; height: 249px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGXaahAItN0QQkrQo_JlltCi5eT9TmMdPoWibjc_GehyphenhyphenjTvbLAWfzWAcsW3F-l6x7J7H9E8ln0HPePMoDhx3iKEs_ZuRdKWSCmjQ97GpSYq8sEiJAmhDFySKwLBVUtDMT8w5G8lZ-NNC0/s400/p3Hammer.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363325213484471058" /></a><br /><br /></span>Individualisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005025873042230314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-46973531221872746642009-07-25T20:53:00.001-04:002009-10-17T22:57:57.379-04:00“CHINA, HOW YOU GONNA KEEP THEM DOWN ON THE FARM”<strong>By Individualist (TheIndividualist@comcast.net)</strong><em>“The Purpose of government is to limit the needs of its citizens from the involvement of the government.”</em><br /><br />Over 150 Dead in riots in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in clashes between the government supported Han Chinese and the Turkish speaking Muslim minority the Uyghurs. Recently the Obama administration has released several Uyghurs to Bermuda. The question is what is going on in Western China and why has the American government not been more forthright in detailing what is going on. In reviewing the various facets of the story which I could sneak past the Great Firewall of China (Thanks Google – Don’t Be Evil), I realized that to truly understand this story we must go back to the simple basics found down on the Farm”.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbbVKjFHMPOc1uLvgmb5s2g83IXezA3xi201iKBUposS9z9-YyNl4VGmnlBVwKAyzRrlqQwS0kybgN4JK2ON4eZh04OmPl7LDLuI9pjaAygB4WywjXg3c0iZpfviiOZo9eRMfv0r7WXXM/s1600-h/1AnimalFarm.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 101px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbbVKjFHMPOc1uLvgmb5s2g83IXezA3xi201iKBUposS9z9-YyNl4VGmnlBVwKAyzRrlqQwS0kybgN4JK2ON4eZh04OmPl7LDLuI9pjaAygB4WywjXg3c0iZpfviiOZo9eRMfv0r7WXXM/s320/1AnimalFarm.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361452785354796962" /></a><br />The Animal Farm that is………………………………………………………………<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br />The area known as the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of Communist China is located in North Western China. It is populated by Turkish speaking Muslims. Independence in this area is not some dream that is supported by wishful thinking anti-communist conservatives in the west. Since the end of the Qing Dynasty they have had different degrees of independence and self governance. In October of 1933 they declared independence and formed the Islamic Republic of East Turkestan which lasted one year. Again in 1944 they declared Independence as the Second East Turkestan Republic under the guidance of the Soviet Union but were retaken by China in 1949. China reclassified the area as an autonomous region in 1955.<br /><br />Oddly enough the region is rich in oil and the economic opportunities have driven interest by the Chinese government. The government has encouraged migration to the area by Han Chinese. The population of Han Chinese has increased from 5% in 1940 to 40% as of 2008. The facts that I have garnered above come from my research at the websites of NPR and the Council of Foreign Relations. In analyzing the racial aspect of the situation we note several Easter eggs the Chinese government has hidden.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmnJhxBIbPOhg7NpVAY3JtgwYxJbRys5e6mkE7Wr3YZprBZJF_W4uU3kghQ3qDOSuC0ABSjktT_hGZ_WOW5gtkemZgVJ6pE0Z-8Ib5vYpHuxzXhIu894NzMY0dUnUgf5eLrXc_fhbGA80/s1600-h/2UighurEgg.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 308px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmnJhxBIbPOhg7NpVAY3JtgwYxJbRys5e6mkE7Wr3YZprBZJF_W4uU3kghQ3qDOSuC0ABSjktT_hGZ_WOW5gtkemZgVJ6pE0Z-8Ib5vYpHuxzXhIu894NzMY0dUnUgf5eLrXc_fhbGA80/s400/2UighurEgg.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361453380733669586" /></a><br /><br />There is a great deal of racial tension among the groups and ethnic discrimination in China is a major problem that the Chinese government tries very had to hide from the west. Ethnic tension among the Uyghurs dates back to the 1750’s. In America we would call this attitude racism but since China is a utopia for leftists the terminology is altered somewhat to soften the impact. It can be inferred by an analysis that the actions of the Chinese government are meant to inflame racial tensions among the ethnic Muslims. In 2002, the Chinese government gave information that the separatist group the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) was receiving aid from Al Qaeda. Since the communist government is known for falsifying information the exact nature of the claims is suspect. There is some conjecture that the ETIM does not have significant ties to the Bin Laden network but have had some contact. This explains our reluctance to return the Uyghurs captured in Afghanistan back to China and instead we have removed them to neutral countries. In 2006 we transferred Uyghurs captured to Albania and again in 2009 to Bermuda.<br /><br />These then are the relevant facts of the case. What exactly is it that one should derive from them. For me I can’t help seeing many parallels between the governments, the people involved and the media outlets and the book by George Orwell, “Animal Farm”. I think that I will do my best to describe the metaphor by trying to point out who is who in the cast of characters.<br /><br /><em><strong>Snowball</strong></em><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje__Sn307Yv07uxQTXx9pB4ix241D6YGbb56X5BbfpukEjC2-LC7yodVU_scB_unBxj3mpsttFDnwLn-A5IkyVVdGAxaQUgaSeFe9gUMYffKLVF9ZmgHeKstAePLS5UntSabMqUNUzlmA/s1600-h/3Snowball.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 388px; height: 309px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje__Sn307Yv07uxQTXx9pB4ix241D6YGbb56X5BbfpukEjC2-LC7yodVU_scB_unBxj3mpsttFDnwLn-A5IkyVVdGAxaQUgaSeFe9gUMYffKLVF9ZmgHeKstAePLS5UntSabMqUNUzlmA/s400/3Snowball.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361453900019790834" /></a><br /><br />Rebiya Kadeer is an activist for the Uyghur people. Her story is one that in one sense is even more compelling than that of Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Bill Gates or Herman Cain, each n their own right a great American “Industrialist”. She started out in the Uyghur Autonomous region of China as a laundress and managed within communist China as an ethnic minority to become a millionaire. She was such an outstanding success that the Chinese government appointed her to the National Congress.<br /><br />When she spoke out against the abuses of her people however they stripped her of her power and put her in jail for five years. Due to her humanitarian efforts she won several awards which forced the Chinese government to release her in 2005. She now works from a small office in Washington DC. The Chinese government has used its influence to threaten the Norwegian Nobel Committee to keep her from obtaining a Nobel Peace Prize. She is followed by the Chinese version of the CIA, An Chuan Ting and there has been one assassination attempt on her life in Virginia.<br /><br />Her story is told in the book the <a href="http://www.uyghuramerican.org/forum/showthread.php?p=52645#post52645">Dragon Fighter</a>.<br /><em><strong>Dragon Fighter<br />One Woman’s Epic Struggle for Peace with China<br />Rebiya Kadeer<br />with Alexandra Cavelius<br />Introduction by His Holiness The Dalai Lama </strong><br />Kales Press, a W. W. Norton affiliate<br />ISBN-13: 978-0-99798456-1-1</em><br /><br />Rebiya is a perfect example of the metaphor George Orwell was attempting to explain in the character of Snowball. Although he was a revolutionary in his own way Snowball was unknowingly for capitalism. He was the inspiration for the idea of the windmill on the farm. He was the one that wanted to use the capital of the animal’s labors to better their plight. This is something the industrialist, the small business owner, the inventor and the marketer of ideas does through free market capitalism. To me Capitalism is not a philosophy like Marxism, Fascism or Libertarianism. Capitalism exists no matter what form of government you employ. There will always be capital and any society will have to make use of that capital in order to continue. Whether it is handled by individuals or collectivist organizations, the laws that will dictate the results are best explained by Capitalism. Capitalism therefore to me is a science, a model in much the same way that gravity or quantum physics is a model for the associated aspects of the Universe. What we refer to as the philosophy of capitalism I think is better stated as Free Market Individualism. Something I wholly support. Thus like Snowball the ruling pigs in China had to force Rebiya off the farm because her ideas were troubling their endeavors to create a collectivist state to rule.<br /><br /><em><strong>The Young Pigs and the Hens</strong></em><br /><br />In the book the Animal Farm any animal that was perceived as trying to stand up for themselves or questioning the ideas of Napoleon ended up being put to death. These included among others the Hens who started the Egg rebellion and the four young pigs who spoke against Napolean in the meetings before they were disbanded.<br /><br />As in the book this story has its victims. Among these are the 165 dead in the riots and sadly Mrs. Kadeers youngest son, Alim Abdureyim who on July 1, 2006 confessed to political crimes authorities in China after being tortured. The torture began on June 25, 2006.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirhiHtufcOzRvvdaqd7Nayy6hwyUNbISn5q4nPWf3xJuFcTjfZuh_4d3x3LhABLcFjuZfbxbS7Kf0QkIH5MPmleCsDFSczEU7273AYJPpAT4UTF26-5Kay6fuFYMRWc1rL7YRGwiOKu_A/s1600-h/4Young.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 312px; height: 315px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirhiHtufcOzRvvdaqd7Nayy6hwyUNbISn5q4nPWf3xJuFcTjfZuh_4d3x3LhABLcFjuZfbxbS7Kf0QkIH5MPmleCsDFSczEU7273AYJPpAT4UTF26-5Kay6fuFYMRWc1rL7YRGwiOKu_A/s400/4Young.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361455113133380450" /></a><br /><br />We are not sure as to his injuries, I have no knowledge that he is even alive and how do I find out. Ask the Chinese consolate? Why believe them? All I can do is pray that the angels watch over him. The NPR article states the the Chinese government has a 99% conviction rate because evidence of torture is not reason to throw out a confession under Chinese law.<br /><br /><em><strong>Napoleon and the Rulings Pigs</strong></em><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOdDLZnE9VAvoamz9sxlCt2iSUEv2qoIiv0nkiEu_g3qaBgGM_iXQweSO4itI9TDNg-Ubt4u8dDpTUaD21sBAI9BM73aviBhQthGSIUC9wbm3u7nDzIzl7sigeOxpV2yVLfO7Kwfio_0/s1600-h/5Napoleon.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 259px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOdDLZnE9VAvoamz9sxlCt2iSUEv2qoIiv0nkiEu_g3qaBgGM_iXQweSO4itI9TDNg-Ubt4u8dDpTUaD21sBAI9BM73aviBhQthGSIUC9wbm3u7nDzIzl7sigeOxpV2yVLfO7Kwfio_0/s400/5Napoleon.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361455588025503538" /></a><br /><br />In Animal Farm the pigs take the leadership role supervising the work and eventually moving into the manor house to take over as the de facto leaders of the farm, rewriting the rules to suit themselves and others. I understand that China is ruled by the Communist Party, that they are controlled by a Central Committee but what does that mean, exactly. To gain further insight I decided to go to the Constitution of China itself. In particular the 2,618 words (translated to English) and five pages dedicated to membership in the Communist party. <br /><br />Evidently it is not as simple as going down to the DMV, filling out the registration form and placing a check by the D as a communist in America would do. No you have to be 18, you have to show knowledge of Marxist Leninism with Mao Zedong thought, you must have the recommendation of two full members of the Communist party who are responsible for your work ethic and ensuring you think like a communist, you have to fill out an application which must be reviewed at a general meeting where it needs approval, and then you are a probationary member. After a year’s probation where you show you are worthy you will be accepted as a full member and even then you must “work on party programs” and pay dues. Geez even the Unions in this country don’t expect you to actually work.<br /><br />Within the membership section it explains that all members must join a branch or a cell which shall be subordinate to higher party organizations which in turn take their marching orders from the Central Committees and the National Congress. While it does say that the election of delegates shall be held by a secret ballot (Hey at least that is better than card check), it does state that who gets to be on the list is subject to “full deliberation and discussion”. The thing I find hilarious is that the Article 11 of Chapter I Membership of the constitution gives specific instructions on how to handle those elections where there are more people on the ballot than are delegate slots available as if that is a rare occurrence. Of course if there is any issue with a lower party branch’s elections, the next ruling body has the authority to invalidate that election and take appropriate measure. Makes you rethink the purpose of the hammer and sickle.<br /><br />The words in the Chinese constitution that provide the best metaphor for the Pigs in Animal Farm are from Article 2 of Chapter I Membership which is listed below:<br /><br /><blockquote><em>Members of the Communist Party of China are at all times ordinary members of the working people. Communist Party members must not seek personal gain or privileges, although the relevant laws and policies provide them with personal benefits and job-related functions and powers.</em></blockquote><br /><br />Don’t seek material gain and of course you are then bestowed with material benefits. It must be a Zen thing I guess. To Hu Jintao I only have this to add. Would not the following have been easier than five pages of complicated rules and still have said the same thing:<br /><br /><em>“All Animals are Equal <br />Some Animals are more Equal than others”</em> - George Orwell, Animal Farm<br /><br /><em><strong>Squealer</strong></em><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiasjFH5-yiNJhljYrkIkcx697wYRehzPNON-A7wxzunshk3MuoyfPqSTVd8syB-BGt3zpmcZMFwkaUrIc6w1MRkHItsHoqAyxFuiSEcloE1W1nF21ohasEUqEcPQt6AmXSZmbIPWCCstk/s1600-h/6Squealor.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 354px; height: 243px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiasjFH5-yiNJhljYrkIkcx697wYRehzPNON-A7wxzunshk3MuoyfPqSTVd8syB-BGt3zpmcZMFwkaUrIc6w1MRkHItsHoqAyxFuiSEcloE1W1nF21ohasEUqEcPQt6AmXSZmbIPWCCstk/s400/6Squealor.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361456575492951586" /></a><br /><br />In Animal Farm, Squealer represents the propaganda arm of the government. He is the Pig that has the gift of the blarney and will go out to tell the carefully crafted lies to the workers and people in order to cover up, spin and explain away the actions of the government. He is the huckster working the three card Monte deck who seems to be able to use his verbal sleight of hand in such a way that you only see the red queen when he wants you to see it. In our metaphor Squealer is represented by the Chinese government’s diplomatic mouth pieces.<br /><br />It really is not important which marketing agent the Chinese use to spread their message so much as it is the message itself. In regard to this I have two examples<br /><br /><a href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw1141879501346R131">South African Article</a><br /><br />The following article can be found on IOL a premiere news service in South Africa entitled “Racism still rife in US, says China”. It describes allegations made by the Chinese government concerning denouncing “widespread discrimination in the United States”. The Chinese seem to be lapping up each and every canard of the race mongers in our country that exacerbate white guilt at the least of provocation. The purpose of the article is to ridicule reports by the US decrying human rights violations in China. They make the following statement:<br /><br /><blockquote><em>Blacks are given heavier criminal penalties, arrested more frequently and are more likely to be targeted for hate crimes, the report said.</em></blockquote><br /><br />What is actually surreal about this statement is that black people are considered “Black Demons” by the Han Chinese. Despite what Al Sharpton would have us believe Racism and Discrimination is a wholly human condition and there is not one group of people in the world that at one time have not been guilty of it or haven fallen victim to the embrace of its way of thinking.<br /><br />China calls for the probing of Human Rights abuses in the United States. I would ask this question of the Chinese government: If you are so concerned with Racial Harmony, why are you promoting unrest in Xinjiang and Tibet engaged at reducing the numbers of the cultural residents that currently reside there?<br /><br />We also have an individual that responded in comments to NPR as Datang Immortal (Datang Immortal 4th) who seems to take the other tack:<br /><br /><blockquote><em>The racial issues in the US had made remarkable progress in the last 50 years, but it come at a cost. and China want to learn from America's success in racial integration. But there are certain people in the name of preserving minority culture were actually fueling the racial divide, and brain wash the Uighur that they are not Chinese. What if someone educate American kid, you are not American, you are African, you are Hispanic, you are Japanese? we all know this is wrong, but if you think this is wrong to America, how this could be right to China?<br /><br />Shame on NPR, worse than communist propaganda, you are fueling racial divide here ! Rebiya Kadeer Terrorist, supporting East Turkestan Islamic Movement a terrorist organization listed by US, China and Russia, that's why she's arrested. before that China promoted her to great success.</em></blockquote><br /><br /><strong>Authors note:</strong> <em>In statements Ms. Kadeer has called for Non-violent solutions to the problem which is one reason human rights groups give her humanitarian awards and she is a candidate for a Nobel Peace prize, her alleged support of terrorism by this Datang individual notwithstanding.</em><br /><br />Now I am not certain whether this individual truly believes what he is saying or if the comments are manufactured by him. I will state that the comments are, making amends for the fact that English does not appear to be his first language, very lucid and probably very close to what someone who was repeating them for the sake of propaganda would say. Since it is the message I am concerned with here for my metaphor I will give Datang the benefit of the doubt but I will not treat his message with the same generosity.<br /><br />So in Africa America is terrible and harming its African American citizens but in America “We have made great strides” and China just wants to learn from us. The message is formed to get the best response which seems to be <strong><em>“Hey, Leave us to torture our ne’er-do-wells in peace and tranquility”.</em></strong> Marxists are well known for their use of the oxymoron.<br /><br /><em><strong>The Sheep</strong></em><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFLegk5uyHsywLk_GeUWvu96HRCicEsEYB_na5SopiF9I3xW6ZhzXucrykVBeBs0lvNXA-zsS5dJT-A57EfQre0IgYOMcCh8Da4ezOTbpgwIo89C8sY28oAZ_8Ygt0ImlTwIr-0JacLYE/s1600-h/7Sheep.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 317px; height: 243px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFLegk5uyHsywLk_GeUWvu96HRCicEsEYB_na5SopiF9I3xW6ZhzXucrykVBeBs0lvNXA-zsS5dJT-A57EfQre0IgYOMcCh8Da4ezOTbpgwIo89C8sY28oAZ_8Ygt0ImlTwIr-0JacLYE/s400/7Sheep.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361458078240427874" /></a><br /><br />In the end of Animal Farm the pigs finally take down the commandments of Animalism and begin walking on two feet, the veil is finally lifted. The Animals begin to get angry but before they can react they are drowned out by a chorus from the Sheep, “Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better … Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better”. This mantra drones on for 15 minutes until the animals become lulled into complacency. Perhaps more than any other part of the story this is the saddest part. We end up enslaved by the senseless.<br /><br />The Chinese government seems to have been successful in getting some individuals to believe that any criticism by Americans of their government’s actions must be founded in racism. <br /><br /><a href="http://resistracism.wordpress.com/2007/07/16/demonizing-china/">Demonizing China</a><br />If the Chinese are putting lead into our toothpaste and children’s toys, speaking out against it is “racist” since many other countries and companies’ make mistakes. Never mind that a totalitarian government has no incentive to enact standards or pay the prisoners doing the manual labor a decent wage which might be factors, racism is to be the only consideration deemed politically correct. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories/5.17/990827-racism.html">Chinese Espionage</a><br />If a Chinese national working for the American government is accused of espionage then of course it must only be racism.<br /><br /><a href="http://dwizzlesworld.blogspot.com/2008/08/racism-by-media-on-china-and-chinese.html">The Media on China</a><br />Here is a fellow that even thinks among other things that the outcry against the Olympics over the treatment of those dying in Tibet was just another example of the blue eyed devil’s hatred of those who don’t look like him.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.blackandwhitecat.org/2007/08/18/do-they-really-need-to-be-saved/">Black and White Cat</a><br />Here is an interesting post from a blog called the Black and White Cat which does proffer the mythology of the Berkeley left that all interaction with missionaries is somehow tied to oppression. In expressing the sins of the recent past of the colonizing era of the European powers, the connection is somehow used to divine the true intent of our current leaders whose decisions must be enslaved to their upbringing. Specifically:<br /><br /><blockquote><em>“Non-white countries, on the other hand, might sometimes be feared - eg. China, Iran, Bolivia, Venezuela - but they also have to be saved. I’m not really sure why we’re supposed to be afraid of Bolivia and Venezuela, but it seems that we are.”</em></blockquote><br /><br />Now to be fair I think this individual is intelligent and thoughtful but the message is couched in dialectic that does not I believe allow one to see past its spinning logic to understand what is going on. I think this is the point. (As an aside I have been to Recife, Brazil which is some 90 miles from the Venezuelan border. The majority of the people that live there are “white” and came from the same European continent I did. The notion we have in this country that to be Latin is to be another race is laughable. Yet it persists as a myth in our culture.)<br /><br />The individual states they do not know “Why” Venezuela is to be feared. Hugo Chavez has defrauded the Venezuelan voters twice to maintain his Presidency. The first time when protestors (students) marched against him he had thugs open fire on them from roof tops. He controls the press in that country and has been aiding FARC guerillas in destabilizing the Colombian government. He set up military bases in Bolivia which have angered Peru and inflamed tensions with Chile over access to the sea from land lost in a War in 1884. He recently threatened to invade Honduras and has publicly threatened Brazil and Mexico over trade agreements. He once told the Venezuelan people on his Radio Sunday show “Alo Presidente” that his political opposition refused to run a candidate against him in the election in a desperate attempt to make him “look” like a dictator. I for one don’t question why one would fear Venezuela at all. It is run by an egocentric paranoid tyrant.<br /><br />These are communist dictators. They delve in the totalitarian socialism of Fascism and Leninist Marxism. They prey on the individual and use their collectivist philosophies to enslave. To get the message out one has to speak above the bleating of the sheep. We are inundated with the chants and slogans designed to deflect and obfuscate. Is China killing Tibetans? Should we support them? “America Racist! Minorities Good!”. Is Chavez a dictator threatening his neighbors? “America Racist! Minorities Good!”. Should we stop drug dealers who from crossing over from Mexico? “America Racist! Minorities Good!”. Should we allow North Korea to send missiles over Japan? “America Racist! Minorities Good!”. Should we buy Chinese products that have lead in them? “America Racist! Minorities Good!”. <br /><br />The individuals that I have illustrated here have really done nothing wrong and I am not disputing their right to make those points. What I am trying to do is to illustrate the unconscious message whose underpinnings are supported. That is what is being manipulated. We have allowed ourselves to become so obsessed with Race that we see bogeymen hiding in children’s cartoons. We have come to the point that we question whether a black person is a racist against other black people because he lives “white”. Living “white” evidently is having more money than what Jesse Jackson thinks is allowed. These individuals are just repeating those parts of the cultural world view that is indoctrinated into us all when we watch the news and listen to entertainment. The guilt of being discriminatory will cause us to edit ourselves even with the actions of a communist dictatorship that kills its own people. It is this flaw the Squealers of the world are willing to exploit. In the end the Sheep are not just these people but all of us. This is how propaganda works. It is the art of editing the truth.<br /><br />But there is Hope!<br /><a href="http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2009/06/new-tax-plan-sparks-china-protest/">Furniture Tax Protest</a><br /><br />From the BBC “Protesters in the south-eastern Chinese city of Nanking have overturned police cars and blocked roads over plans to more strictly enforce payment of taxes”. This event was about taxes on furniture in the Nanking a port city in central eastern China. We Americans can’t talk, we started a Revolution over the price of Tea from China.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOcI1siFxehP0MhxpKGSxmiCvY881IQu9pIo1x4COwY3rB9b2rkdBblfbsN_2pCgkyEPjJiGl9b6chX1fJ8XrjQY3Yp385hnpkcTDsndIVQns1kCNiV8iIjRDOVAB3uOh90YSkfMG53fM/s1600-h/8World.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 370px; height: 284px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOcI1siFxehP0MhxpKGSxmiCvY881IQu9pIo1x4COwY3rB9b2rkdBblfbsN_2pCgkyEPjJiGl9b6chX1fJ8XrjQY3Yp385hnpkcTDsndIVQns1kCNiV8iIjRDOVAB3uOh90YSkfMG53fM/s400/8World.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361460145065566514" /></a><br /><br />I misremember the words but today I am thinking the song starts off with:<br /><br />“China, how you gonna keep them down on the farm, after the freedom bell rings………”<br /><br /></span>Individualisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005025873042230314noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-67006736052881522652009-07-24T19:51:00.032-04:002009-08-01T05:14:13.555-04:00Christopher Columbus - Crazed Killer?In 1492 a genocidal maniac named Christopher Columbus persuaded a mob of crazed killers to climb into small, crappy little boats without GPS, LORAN, radar, electricity, proper sanitation, a health spa, free ice cream, 21 bars and lounges, a fog horn, all you can eat shrimp, two heated pools, plasma screen T.V.'s, a ball room with 37 piece orchestra featuring "Tony Orlando and Dawn", a Bingo Hall, a "Disco", a 24 hour buffet featuring an ice sculpture of Oprah, room service, a rock climbing wall, beach volleyball, premium suites facing the ocean, a sauna, a sushi bar, a masseuse, a guy dressed like Mickey Mouse, a shopping mall with duty free merchandise, a wait staff, Wi-Fi, life boats, a desalinization unit, and last but not least, a complete lack of laundry facilities, and <strong>blindly</strong> sail westward; a journey of thousands of miles into the great unknown.<br /><div></div><span class="fullpost"><br /><br /><div>Apparently, according to modern liberal sociologists and historians, their true purpose was to wipe the indigenous people occupying the land they "found" from the face the earth. We all know the false story of Columbus, we learned it in school, back in the "bad old pre-P.C. days". You know, he sailed over to get some spice, establish a Spanish colony, hopefully find some gold, then sail back. But do we know the "real truth" behind Columbus' journey?</div><br /><div>Here's the liberal establishment's version of the "real truth". In reality it was a mission planned to inflict utter destruction on all living organisms, flora and fauna on the continents of North America and South America. Obviously their aim was to subjugate or kill any humans or animals that got in their way. Here's part of a popular little ditty that helps to propagate the lies of the day and mask Columbus' true intentions:</div><br /><div>"In fourteen hundred ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue. He had three ships and left from Spain; He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain. He sailed by night; he sailed by day; He used the stars to find his way... Columbus sailed on to find some gold To bring back home, as he'd been told. He made the trip again and again, Trading gold to bring to Spain. The first American? No, not quite. But Columbus was brave, and he was bright."</div><br /><div>Now, is that a load of crap or what?</div><br /><div>The land Columbus invaded, raped, and pillaged was pristine, it was unspoiled, it was bucolic...hell it was basically unoccupied!</div><br /><div>North America is a land mass covering approximately 9,450,000 square miles. NINE and a HALF MILLION SQUARE MILES!</div><br /><div>Here is an estimate of the population of North America in 1492:</div><br /><div>"The population of North America prior to the first sustained European contact in 1492 <a href="http://www.religioustolerance.org/ce.htm">CE</a> is a matter of active debate. Various estimates of the Native population of the continental U.S. and Canada range from 1.8 to over 12 million. Over the next four centuries, their numbers were reduced to about 237,000 as Natives were almost wiped out."</div><br /><div>Here are some modern scholarly opinions about the aftermath of European incursion into North America:</div><br /><div>"The destruction of the Indians of the Americas was, far and away, the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world." David E. Stannard. </div><br /><div>"This violent corruption needn't define us.... We can say, yes, this happened, and we are ashamed. We repudiate the greed. We recognize and condemn the evil. And we see how the harm has been perpetuated. But, five hundred years later, we intend to mean something else in the world." Barry Lopez. </div><br /><div>"By then [1891] the native population had been reduced to 2.5% of its original numbers and 97.5% of the aboriginal land base had been expropriated....Hundreds upon hundreds of native tribes with unique languages, learning, customs, and cultures had simply been erased from the face of the earth, most often without even the pretense of justice or law." Peter Montague </div><br /><div>Well, that's their opinion. What was the opinion of a world class thinker concerning the "occupation" of the "New World" in the time of the settlement of North America?</div><br /><div>Here's what John Locke had to say about the issue in his Second Treatise of Civil Government 1690;</div><br /><div>Sec. 34. "God gave the world to men in common; but since he gave it them for their benefit, and the greatest conveniences of life they were capable to draw from it, it cannot be supposed he meant it should always remain common and uncultivated"</div><br /><div>Sec. 40. "Nor is it so strange, as perhaps before consideration it may appear, that the property of labour should be able to over-balance the community of land: for it is labour indeed that puts the difference of value on every thing; and let any one consider what the difference is between an acre of land planted with tobacco or sugar, sown with wheat or barley, and an acre of the same land lying in common, without any husbandry upon it, and he will find, that the improvement of labour makes the far greater part of the value."</div><br /><div>Sec. 41. "There cannot be a clearer demonstration of any thing, than several nations of the Americans are of this, who are rich in land, and poor in all the comforts of life; whom nature having furnished as liberally as any other people, with the materials of plenty, i.e. a fruitful soil, apt to produce in abundance, what might serve for food, raiment, and delight; yet for want of improving it by labour, have not one hundredth part of the conveniences we enjoy: and a king of a large and fruitful territory there, feeds, lodges, and is clad worse than a day-labourer in England.</div><br /><div>Do we really think that Europeans wanted to wipe out the inhabitants of the New World? Christianize them against their will and appropriate any wealth they found lying around perhaps, but wipe them out? According to modern "scholarly" propaganda that is what many school children are being led to believe.</div><br /><div>Obviously the European invaders knew they were carrying micro-organisms that the indigenous people had no natural defenses to, right? I mean, come on, Columbus must have know that, right? Ask a college sociology or history professor, they'll tell you it was intentional genocide. Jewish Holocaust? That was nothing; these Europeans were on the rampage. No wonder "white guilt" helped get an under qualified guy from Harvard that had a cup of coffee in the U.S. Senate elected, right? </div><br /><div></div><div>A new narrative is emerging, telling us of a of Pre-Columbian America that perhaps wasn't the "Fantasy Island" that some would lead you to believe, here is a sample;</div><br /><div>"...it was the introduction of Old World diseases, especially smallpox and measles, that claimed the majority of the native inhabitants of the hemisphere.<br />Because the suffering and mortality occasioned by these epidemics was so great, one can easily understand why native writers looked back on the past as a time relatively free of disease, and ultimately as a time when peoples' lives were longer and happier. While this tendency to romanticize life in the Americas before 1492 may be understandable, it does not make it so...." <a name="Article">The Great Killers in Precolumbian America. A Hemispheric Perspective</a><br />Suzanne Austin Alchon</div><br /><div></div><div>In reality, disparate civilizations collided with catastrophic consequences for the indigenous people of North and South America, that's a fact. Likewise misrepresenting the world the Pre-Columbian people inhabited as bucolic and peaceful is dishonest and ridiculous. The New World was a violent and sometimes sick place, the arrival of the Europeans just added to the stew already filled with death and disease. Let's just be honest about it.</div><br /><br /></span>James J. Benoithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04572664698139323838noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-48139408473945185502009-07-22T18:34:00.023-04:002009-07-24T18:24:26.501-04:00JULY 22, 2011 OBAMACAREJuly 22, 2011, two years from today. It's a lovely summer day in Bridgeport, Connecticut, an old "factory town" that has seen its factories shut down and move overseas and its middle class move away. In some ways it's a town that has seen its better days. But things have improved since the 70's and 80's and Bridgeport is coming back in this new year of 2011, life here has been better lately.<span class="fullpost"> Like in all of New England as in too much of the country, the citizens of Bridgeport have bought into "hope and change" and helped elect a little known, or "too little is known about" junior Senator from Illinois to become the 44th President of the United States of America. "Life would be even better" after that heady day in November, 2008 they said. Optimism would flourish and after real change "took hold in America" and "after the world loved us again" all would be well. Obama had "audacity", and the citizens of Bridgeport believed him when he promised a tax cut for 95% of the citizens of the U.S. and health care reform resulting in "coverage for all".<br /><br />As Teddy Kennedy, New England liberal's favorite drunken embarrassment of a son said;<br /><br />"But quality care shouldn't depend on your financial resources, or the type of job you have, or the medical condition you face. Every American should be able to get the same treatment that U.S. senators are entitled to.<br />This is the cause of my life. It is a key reason that I defied my illness last summer to speak at the Democratic convention in Denver—to support Barack Obama, but also to make sure, as I said, "that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American…will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege." Newsweek: July 18, 2009<br /><br />Of course Teddy didn't have thoughts of "health care for all" or even arrogant self righteousousness brimming in his whiskey addled mind the night of July 18, 1969. He was busy "allegedly" covering up what should have been, at the very least, a charge of manslaughter for driving a car off a bridge and drowning an innocent young woman, Mary Jo Kopechne. Instead, he "allegedly tried to save her" then neglected to call anybody like say, <strong>the police</strong>, but instead called Kennedy insiders while he was most likely "allegedly" sobering up in a near by hotel and trying to establish a suitable alibi. But I digress.<br /><br />Eleanor Bigsby is a widow, though only sixty two. Bob Bigsby Sr., her loving husband of forty two years passed away in the late nineties from lung cancer, the scourge of the cigarette smoker. Bob was a tough guy, a factory guy and a Korean War vet who thought of himself as invincible; he wasn't. Eleanor's two children, Bob Jr. and Cassie check in on Mom often and Eleanor has managed her finances wisely and frugally since Bob's passing. Eleanor had begun feeling poorly the last few days and Cassie had been stopping by and keeping her older brother advised.<br /><br />Finally after three days of feeling "not quite up to snuff" Cassie insisted that her Mother call her doctor and set up an appointment. Eleanor assured her daughter that she would "get right on it". Later that day Eleanor called Cassie and asked her to come over and help her make an appointment. In the year since "Obama-care" had become the "law of the land" neither of them had been sick and neither were aware of the changes beyond the casual mention of "Obama-care" on the local T.V. news. A manual had arrived from the Federal Government the year before, and Cassie went to fetch it. Mom kept it under the phonebook, it rivaled the Bridgeport phonebook in size. Cassie was shocked. After much searching and page flipping they located the "authorized procedure for seeking medical treatment" on page 782. paragraph 3 Sec.(b). Cassie called her mother's doctor. He had just retired. Cassie returned to the "manual" and found the procedure to locate and secure another doctor and an appointment. After two hours on the phone Cassie worked her way through the maze of bureaucracy and red tape to get the name of a local physician. After 40 minutes on hold she was given an appointment date and time when her ailing mother could be seen. Ya, they could "see" her in SIX MONTHS, on December 18, 2011. Is this, she wondered, is the"Hope and Change" for which they had all voted?<br /><br />Cassie called Bob Jr. and they decided that Mom couldn't wait six months to be seen by a doctor. So they put their mother in the car and drive her to St. Vincent's Medical Center, a local Bridgeport Catholic Hospital run by the Daughters of Charity. Or rather it had been run by the Daughters of Charity. It seems under the auspices"Obama-care" religious orders were "incompatible with the vision of the Administration and it's sub-departments and therefore a violation of the strict separation of Church and State Sec. 6-66, subsection 35; paragraph 2 part (d)". They looked at each other and thought, well regardless, Mom needs to see a doctor. Eleanor's children checked her into "Vincent's Government Health Center"that afternoon.<br /><br />Several hours pass before Eleanor is assigned a bed on the 6th floor of "Vincent's G.H.C." Finally settled in, Eleanor and her adult kids wait for a doctor come in and give her an examination. The wait has been torture but waiting isn't new when it comes to "things medical" they suppose, so they remain "patient" and chat despite Mom's discomfort and pain.<br /><br />Finally a short, thin man in a lab coat, not a typical white lab coat, but a medium brown lab coat with a red armband enters the room. He has a gaunt face and pencil thin moustache. His slicked back, dark black hair gives him the look of an actor from a thirties era film, a bit of an odd look for 21st century American Eleanor thinks, but she keeps it to herself, besides she feels too bad to quibble about details. "I'm Paul Joesph Goebbels III, I'm from your Collaborative Referral and Assessment Program, you can vill me Paul Joesph, how are you?" "Well, um...Paul, uh... Joesph, not to well I'm afraid" said Eleanor as she manages a pained smile. "OK then, let's get started" "Do you..." "Are you a doctor?", Eleanor interrupts. " No, I assess your situation then I consult with the doctors about your case, I'm you Assessor" says Goebbels with an sharp air of authority that Eleanor and her kids find eerily unsettling.<br /><br />Goebbels begins his assessment; "Do you smoke?" he asks. "Well, not in many years. I stopped when the kids came along." He shoots her a glance over his clipboard. "Do you drink?" "Not much, a beer here and there". "Did your husband smoke?" "Yes he did, he died of..." "Mom, can I talk to you?"interrupts Bob Jr. "Is there a problem, Sir?" barks Goebbels in Bob's direction. Bob, a solid guy at six feet one and 210 pounds stands up and takes a step toward Goebbels. "I advise that you stand down, Sir" Goebbels barks as he takes a whistle from his pocket. He gives it two loud, sharp blasts. In burst three "security personnel" with strangely vintage looking Luger handguns drawn. Bob steps back, a odd look on his face. "Who are these guys?" "They are from the Civilian National Security Force" says Goebbels calmly as he wheels about and orders "Take him away, SCHNELL!" In an instant Bob Jr. is dragged out of the room and down the hall, his loud protestations ignored. Bob had forgotten about Obama’s pledge to build a separate security force. He is harshly reminded of that old campaign promise from three years ago, but "nobody keeps that kind of campaign promise" he thinks to himself as he sits handcuffed in the hospital brig, chained to a wall.<br /><br />"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." B.H. Obama July 2, 2008 Colorado Springs, CO.<br /><br />Eleanor and Cassie are horrified and both begin to complain and demand an explanation. "This is America! Where are you taking my son?" demands Eleanor as Cassie starts to quietly cry. "What kind of care is this?" she asks imploringly. "I voted for CHANGE Sir, this is not change!" " "It's not?" says Goebbels as he continues to write notes on the pad he carries on his clipboard. "What kind of change did you expect, hmmm?" "Well, you know change...Bush, he was,... he was...you know, Iraq and stuff!" "Well, it's CHANGE YOU GOT, YA?" sneers the Assessor. "But Bush was kind and he helped Africa and he was only tough on our enemies, I thought, right?" Besides, she continues "Leno and Letterman said he was dumb, and wrong...and you know Texans, they like to fight..." her voice trailing off in despair and pain.<br /><br />Goebbels then declares "I believe I am done with you, ya?" He clicks his heels and turns to leave. "What about my assessment?" ask Eleanor, "When do I see a doctor?" Goebbels turns slowly, a wry sarcastic look coming over his face, his thin lips curled into a cruel smile...."Doctor?, see a DOCTOR?" A deep, evil laugh erupts from what seems like his bowels, the very bowels of HELL..."You VILL SEE NO DOCTOR!" "You have lived a life that I deem unworthy of living. There will be NO medical intervention, ya?" "You may not buy the right to see a doctor, ya?" "Furthermore the database will identify you and you vill not be admitted in any U.S. medical facility!" "Do you understand me?" "You have smoked, you have been a drinker, you have not met the standards set forth by C.R.A.P. and the Obama Administration!" "Please get dressed and leave this facility AT ONCE!"<br /><br />In stunned silence Eleanor and Cassie return to home. "But I believed in Obama..." "He said everything was broken...it was all Bush's fault, and the Republicans...all the comedians and news guys like that Stewart and ya know, Saturday Night Live,...they said Palin was stupid and a whore...what happened?" Eleanor thought some more, then said "But I had my doctor, he would see the next day or that week...if I was sick like I am now he would see me right away...what happened?" "My taxes are higher, I thought it would be OK because I would get universal health care and we wouldn't invade, you know, the Arabs or whatever...people in the world would like us better...Obama, he said that..he did." "I know Mom, me too." " I mean John Stewart has the news every night, he said that Republicans were all stupid, not smart as he is..." she says her voice trailing off...<br /><br />Two days later Eleanor Bigsby received a letter from the C.R.A.P./Obama-Regime Administrator for National Health Disbursement. It was actually a bill for her assessment, it read:<br /><br />"Dear Comrade Mrs. Bigsby, a sum of $500 a month in addition to your 'contribution through federal mandate' will be appropriated from your retirement income. It will be DEDUCTED as a means of penalty for your use of tobacco and alcohol. There is NO APPEAL. Failure to comply will result in a mandatory hearing before the Civilian National Security Force."<br /><br />Eleanor thought of her son Bob who was summarily sentenced to three months hard labor for his run-in with the "Assessor". She laid down the letter and began to cry..."Where is the America I grew up in?" "What happened to my country...?" Sorry Eleanor, it "CHANGED"...<br /><br /></span>James J. Benoithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04572664698139323838noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-79633881681923797832009-07-19T17:21:00.009-04:002009-07-20T21:14:03.228-04:00Walter Cronkite --- War Criminal?No, "Uncle Walt" didn't fit the text book definition of a "war criminal" anymore than George W. Bush or Dick Cheney ever would. He was a "newscaster" or "newsman" or, as they call them in Australia, a "newsreader" He seemed benign enough, very "grandfatherly", a nice, regular old guy. <span class="fullpost">But behind this facade was a doctrinaire liberal with the bully pulpit to shape public opinion in a very powerful way. People trusted him and took his word as gospel on the issuses of the day. So when he became an anti-Vietnam War mouthpiece, the viewing public followed him. The thing is, he misunderstood or didn't care about dreams and aspirations of the people South Vietnam. He eventually became the "posterboy" for the leftist media machine that mobilized into an all-out media and college campus revolt that aided the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army and, in my opinion, the blood of dead G.I.'s and South Vietmanese civilians drips from Cronkite's hands. Yo, Walt...report the news accurately, don't lie. TET was a U.S. VICTORY, yet you ignored that and offered your now famous opinion that the war was lost. His sins of omission and commission are being carried on by the likes of modern Main Sream Media cesspools MSNBC, CNN, and psycho leftist web sites like HuffPo and Daily Kos.<br /><br /><br /><br />If you'all will please indulge me for a second and come along as Sherman and I climb aboard Mr. Peabody's "Wayback Machine" and go back...back...back, to 1969 America. I was a smart ass 10 year old and even then thought I "knew it all". I didn't then, I don't now. We would watch network TV because you had three channels in the pre-cable days of late 60's and early 70's El Paso, way out in hot, dusty far-West Texas. The national news casts began at 5:30 local time. My little brother Frank, a.k.a. the "channel changer" sat nearest to the TV and changed the channels. There were no remote control so that was his job. You had Walter Cronkite at CBS and Huntley-Binkley at NBC, and I think Frank Reynolds at ABC. That was it. Most often we got our national news of the day from CBS and "Uncle Walter". He wielded tremendous influence over American TV viewers during his years as the CBS anchor. I don't remember the assassination of J.F.K., I was too young. Cronkite made his reputation with his now very famous live newscast confirming the death of our young American President. He later confided that that was as close to 'breaking" on the air that he ever got. (Larry King interview May, 2001) and that was totally understandable. We Americans pride ourselves on peaceful executive transitions free of the subterfuge and rankor like the attempted hi-jacking by Al "Globalwarmer" Gore attempted in 2000. That was an attempted "coup by lawyer" and he was correctly rejected by the Supreme Court. The funny thing is, had he not tried to "cherry pick" Democrat friendly counties in and around Miami and instead recounted the whole state of Florida, he might have won. Or he might have been totally crushed. Those same lawyers have perfected "election theft by lawyer" tactic, Gore's guy was David Boies, Franken's is the firm of Perkins Cole of Washington D.C.; they helped Al "the mysoginist idiot" Franken keep counting votes until he was ahead and win a Senate seat in Minnesota that he has no business defiling. Stealing elections seems to be a Democrat lawyer "growth industry", but I digress.<br /><br /><br /><br />Much has been made of quotes attributed to a North Vietnamese general, Vo Nguyen Giap, and whether he really said the following: "What we still don't understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi. You had us on the ropes. If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender! It was the same at the battles of TET. You defeated us! We knew it, and we thought you knew it. But we were elated to notice your media was definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields. We were ready to surrender. You had won!" --this quote is popularly attributed to Gen. Giap but is probably not accurate. He did site the U.S. media as an ally in a more mild way and wasn't the only N.V.A. officer to make such statements. It was obvious that North Vietnam was out gunned and needed American opinion to sour for the tide of American opinion to turn against the war.<br /><br /><br /><br />The Kerry Presidential campaign in 2004, opposed by the Swiftboat Veterans For Truth political group ambushed Kerry with his own words and puffed up deeds when our young Lt. Kerry returned from Vietnam and latter embarked on his political career. The group Kerry later led, Vietnam Veterns Against the War, famously exaggerated and misled the Senate Committee called the Fulbright Hearing. During the Vietnam War in 1970 he told a Congressional committee that American soldiers, "...raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of [J]enghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks..." -- see <a href="http://snipurl.com/10yof" target="new">http://snipurl.com/10yof</a><br /><br />Kerry's people sluffed off his traitorous lies and deeds as well as the words of Gen. Giap concerning the effect of American traitors as just "urban legends" despite evidence to the contrary. An N.V.A. general staff Colonel, Col. Bui Tin echoed Gen Giap's sentiment that anti-war propogandists and activists undoubtable helped the North. In a 1995 Wall Street Journal interview Col. Bui said the following:<br /><br />Q: How did the Hanoi intend to defeat the Americans?<br /><br />A: By fighting a long war which would break their will to help South Vietnam. Ho Chi Mihn said "We don't need win military victories, we only need to hit them until they give up and get out."<br /><br />Q: Was the American anti-war movement inportant to Hanoi's strategy?<br /><br />A: It was essential to our strategy. Support for the war from our rear was completely secure while the American rear was vulnerable. Everyday our leadership would listen to the world news over the radio at 9:00 a.m. to follow the growth of the American anti-war movement. Visits to Hanoi by people like Jane Fonda and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses. We were elated when Jane Fonda, wearing a red Vietnamese dress, said that she was ashamed of American actions in the war and that she would struggle with us.<br /><br /><br /><br />This brings me back to good ol' "Uncle Walt". How he could, in all his college dropout wisdom, shove his spectacles down to the end of his nose, lean into the camera and tell the good citizens of the United States of America in this now famous editorial that:<br /><br />"Tonight, back in the more familiar surroundings in New York, we'd like to sum up our findings in Vietnam, an analysis that must be speculative, personal, subjective. Who won and who lost in the great Tet offensive against the cities? I'm not sure. The Vietcong did not win by a knockout, but neither did we. The referees of history may make it a draw. Another standoff may be coming in the big battles expected south of the Demilitarized Zone. Khe Sanh could well fall, with a terrible loss in American lives, prestige and morale, and this is a tragedy of our stubbornness there; but the bastion no longer is a key to the rest of the northern regions, and it is doubtful that the American forces can be defeated across the breadth of the DMZ with any substantial loss of ground. Another standoff. On the political front, past performance gives no confidence that the Vietnamese government can cope with its problems, now compounded by the attack on the cities. It may not fall, it may hold on, but it probably won't show the dynamic qualities demanded of this young nation. Another standoff.We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. They may be right, that Hanoi's winter-spring offensive has been forced by the Communist realizationthat they could not win the longer war of attrition, and that the Communists hope that any success in the offensive will improve their position for eventual negotiations. It would improve their position, and it would also require our realization, that we should have had all along, that any negotiations must be that-negotiations, not the dictation of peace terms. For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. This summer's almost certain standoff will either end in real give-and-take negotiations or terrible escalation; and for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us, and that applies to invasion of the North, the use of nuclear weapons, or the mere commitment of one hundred, or two hundred, or three hundred thousand more American troops to the battle. And with each escalation, the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster.To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.<br />This is Walter Cronkite. Good night.”<br /><br /><br /><br />Gee thanks, Walt! TET was a U.S. victory. Could you have found that out from the comfort of your hotel in Saigon? I doubt it. Did you find some rubble to stand in front of to make nice "photo ops" out of? Ya, that was easy. Finding out the truth about TET would have been harder, maybe even dangerous. I know Cronkite covered WWII as a reporter for the UPI, and I salute him. Was he of the age in the late 60's that Vietnam was too perhaps too hazardous for him to accurately ferret ou the truth? Did perhaps age and a wisdom lead him to stay to out of Viet Cong machine gun range?<br /><br />There is no doubt that North Vietnam propagandists used the Walter Cronkites' and John Kerrys' of this world to force the U.S. out of S.E. Asia with catastrophic results for the millions of innocent victims left behind. The South Vietnamese that didn't or couldn't flee were subjected to unspeakable misery. Cambodians were punished for resisting communism by dying by the millions in Pol Pot's Killing Fields. Communist Vietnam plods along today, a third world sweat shop, cranking out cheap athletics shoes and other easily massed produced consumables. The "People's Paradise" in deed.<br />Good bye and good riddance "Uncle Walt"; you helped sow the seeds of what the American people are reaping decades after the "end" of the Vietnam War. You falsely led the despots of the world to view the U.S. as just a "Paper Tiger" without the political will to stand up and fight for what is right and liberate people from the bondage of oppression without the lie that America is an Imperialist occupier. Thanks Walt, you emboldened a group of raggedy assed "students" to occupy or Embassy in Iran in 1979. You set the stage for incursions by Sadam into Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. When repelled by U.S. led coalition forces Saddam resorted to duplicity and terror. Saddam's threat to Saudi Arabia, our "ally" in the Middle East, led to U.S. airbases in the land of Mecca and Medina igniting Al Queda's current wave of terror attacks and general Jihad against America and her allies. A strong U.S. victory in Vietnam could have changed history, but you sat at your typewriter and unilaterally decided that we "LOST" the war, like our present day Democrat Sen. Harry Reid. Walt, you've passed on, but 300 plus million Americans live with consequenses of you shooting off your mouth, getting it wrong, and giving our enemies a blueprint to defeat us and ginning their confidence way up. Thanks for NOTHING, and that's the way it really is.<br /><br /></span>James J. Benoithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04572664698139323838noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-23763566427390013192009-07-15T18:43:00.002-04:002009-07-16T01:49:56.980-04:00I Honestly Don't UnderstandHonesty is good. Honesty is true. Honesty is a virtue worth having. But the problem is most people cannot handle complete honesty. People do not want you to be honest with them. Honesty is not the best policy. Well, not complete honesty anyway.<span class="fullpost"><br /><br />Now I am not talking about honesty of <em>opinion</em>. When it comes to being honest about our own opinions of things, very often we must use tact and employ consideration about the feelings of those on the receiving end of our opinion(s)so that our opinion is taken as an <em>opinion</em> and not some ad hominem attack. The classic question from a wife to her husband, ‘Does this dress make my butt look fat?’ is an example of what I mean about honestly giving one’s opinion and using tact and discretion while doing so.<br /><br />Do not be confused when it comes to “the truth.” People deal with partial truths every day and still claim to be “honest”. The government does this all the time. Think about the so-called Truth-In-Advertising laws. These laws specifically permit partial “truths” (lies) to be used in ad campaigns. As a newly minted diabetic I found out that “sugar-free” does not mean the product is free of sweeteners that can be bad for a diabetic.<br /><br />Even when people are given the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth most people are inclined to add layers of supposition, conjecture and outright distortion on top of the truth to come up with a conclusion well tailored to their own prejudices. It is now approaching five years since I became the center of a situation, not of my choosing, that has affected many people close to me and others who no longer are. I determined at the very onset that I would be completely honest and truthful about the day-to-day circumstances and also about the consultations I had with various professionals trying to help me through my situation. And still many people around me came to very wrong, very destructive conclusions. Often times denying what was true and conjuring up their own separate “truths”.<br /><br />I truly do not understand how this can be so. How does a person sit in a pool of water and say he is not wet? What makes a person run from honesty, or pare it down to a form that fits inside their comfort zone? What is so attractive about living in denial? I want my two daughters to understand that in life they will face decisions - they can choose to hide behind lies and obfuscations, or they can choose to rely on truth and honesty and come out better for having done so. Honesty and truth are not always pleasant. But surely it is more unpleasant to live inside a world that is full not with the reality that honesty provides but instead inflated only with the vapor of denial.<br /></span>Auguste Ballzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03069477713979392235noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-23746954111573318482009-07-13T00:49:00.001-04:002009-07-13T00:52:43.761-04:00The Jimmy Cater Comeback?An interesting article from the Washington Examiner.<span class="fullpost"><br /><br /><strong>Has the rehabiliatation of Jimmy Carter begun?</strong><br />By: Mark Tapscott<br />Editorial Page Editor<br />07/12/09 2:32 PM EDT <br />Those too young to recall cannot appreciate what a terrible state the country was in during the four long years in which President Jimmy Carter was in the White House. The nation lurched from one crisis to another, with double-digit inflation, soaring interest rates, long gas lines during the summer, and natural gas shortages in the winter.<br /><br /> There were Democrat majorities in Congress determined to make everything worse with higher taxes, government-guaranteed jobs for everybody, and an unprecedented blizzard of new bureaucratic regulation issuing from Washington departments and agencies, including two new ones created at Carter's suggestion, the Department of Energy and the Department of Education.<br /><br />In retrospect, it was almost no wonder that Carter was blown out by Ronald Reagan, while the Republicans regained a Senate majority for the first time in decades in the 1980 election. Carter went home to Plains, Ga, to sulk for a few years, then began, slowly but surely, reminding us of what a disater he was by making steadily more frequent public appearances. Along the way, he was bought and paid for by the anti-Israel lobby, and, in more recent years, has repeatedly demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of the legitimate and vital role of the U.S. on the world stage.<br /><br />Now along comes Ohio University historian Kevin Mattson's "What the heck are you up to, Mr. President." In the words of Carlos Lozada, deputy editor of the Outlook section of The Washington Post, Mattson "offers a dramatically different reading" of Carter and his infamous "Malaise" speech.<br /><br />As described by Lozada, Mattson argues that "the speech, far from a miscalculation, was a brave attempt by a thoughtful president to reimagine the nation and bind citizen and government in a common purpose, one that the author believes should still resonate today."<br /><br />Lozada adds that, according to Mattson, "if the speech failed, it was not because of the president's words, but because of the way his message was twisted by his opponents and because of strategic flubs Carter made shortly thereafter."<br /><br />I freely admit to not having read Mattson's book, and odds are good that I never will. I lived through the Carter years, saw those interest and mortgage rates up close and personal, and sat in the long lines waiting to get 10 gallons of gas. I also marvelled at the short-sightedness of Carter's "inordinate fear of communism" speech and his obvious inability to deal with either the Iranian hostage crisis or the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, (he at least admitted that the latter "surprised" him).<br /><br />Carter's was a disastrous presidency from beginning to end, and nothing that Mattson might say will change the facts of history. On second thought, I might buy it for laughs. It must make for hilarious reading to find somebody trying to rationalize an incompetent, mean-spirited peanut farmer as an underappreciated or misunderstood chief executive.<br /><br />What strikes me about Lozada's mostly sympathetic review is the above quoted passage about Carter's attempt to "reimagine the nation and bind citizens and government in common purpose." It has been quite some time since I encountered a sentence that so captures the liberal mind in all its conceit and arrogance. This is the eliteratti at its most vivid.<br /><br />There are two things that bear discussion here. First, "reimagining" is another word for re-founding. Liberals want a "living constitution" so they can continually reimagine it further and further from the Founders' intention. It is an illustration of the gnostic habit described by philosopher Eric Voegelin in his landmark book,"The New Science of Politics" as "immanetizing the eschaton."<br /><br />Thus, "reimagining" should be seen as the imposition of the liberal's abstract conception of what should be on the always recalcitrant reality of what is. Since the abstract can never be perfectly achieved, the political process is thrown into a permanent state of upheaval. Sooner or later, those who oppose the march to the progressive liberal/socialist/marxist nirvana end up as silenced second-class citizens, in prison, re-education camps, or worse.<br /><br />Second, note the equal status of "citizen" and "government" in the effort to bind both to the [new] "common purpose." That formulation neatly puts aside the fundamental fact of the American regime - the federal government is the creation of the people, acting through their state governments.<br /><br />Thus, the 10th Amendment's reservation of all powers to the states or the people that are not explicitly given to the central government. People and government are in no way equal. The people rule, the government is ruled. That is also why, incidentally, to be conservative in the current American political context is to be populist in the most fundamental sense of that much-misunderstood word.<br /><br />Remember that the next time President Obama summons us to his latest version of reimagining the nation. Interestingly enough, Lozada commends Carter's "malaise" speech to our current chief executive because, "with the economy again in crisis and Iran again in turmoil, the parallels are hard to ignore."<br /><br />Indeed the parallels are hard to ignore, though not for the reasons touted by Lozada or Mattson.<br /><br /></span>Auguste Ballzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03069477713979392235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-81318474045977085862009-07-09T19:48:00.010-04:002009-07-09T20:15:19.383-04:00Liberty For All (Dedicated to my Nieces and Nephew)by Individualist (TheIndividualist@comcast.net)<br />“The Purpose of government is to limit the needs of its citizens from the involvement of the government.”<br /><br />I spent this Fourth of July with nieces. This year however their crazy uncle embarrassed himself at the Fireworks Display at the River by trying to handout green bandanas purchased at Walmart to anyone who would listen about the cause of the Iranians. I tried to get people involved to very little success. My family wore the bandanas even though they were embarrassed by my antics. They tried to tell me but my refrain was “I cared”.<br /><br />My precocious niece, I call her RALA B asked me why it was so important. I found myself explaining about Liberty, the founding fathers, their principles and the terrible situation in Iran today. She then put me on the spot, “Why don’t you write something of Freedom on your blog and I’ll take it to show and tell.” So what can I say of our Independence Day and Iran’s predicament. The first thing that comes to my mind is Cripus Attucks and Neda Soltan. They are the first martyrs in their country’s Fight for Freedom.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGyWYhq_YXXzeVshkN2_9xLvLQFBN2LQhZz87v_bAOyVnx-kBnRTl9LXFmk2qhmUCLI5l1r6ipxo2QRXnPC-LO4AOw8GL0oo07OSk6xH6Osk3ahOMBBY47s77XnPOq-CiDV7nvR1eQ_Fk/s1600-h/NedaCrispus.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 232px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGyWYhq_YXXzeVshkN2_9xLvLQFBN2LQhZz87v_bAOyVnx-kBnRTl9LXFmk2qhmUCLI5l1r6ipxo2QRXnPC-LO4AOw8GL0oo07OSk6xH6Osk3ahOMBBY47s77XnPOq-CiDV7nvR1eQ_Fk/s320/NedaCrispus.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356611954623597218" /></a><br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br />RALA, I am wholly ill equipped to this task. I want to explain to you why Freedom is so important. I want you to understand why it is the best thing our country has to offer its citizens. I want to ensure that you see the real meaning of Freedom and why you should care deeply when you see the garden that grows those flowers trampled by knaves on black bikes with sticks and guns. Why it is important to get involved in seeing the fruits of the Tree of Liberty grow in soil that has been salted by the blood red stains of Tyranny.<br /><br />So if you will indulge me I have decided to borrow from the words of great men who helped to found this country. Those Great men who wrote “something” of Freedom to instruct their children, the people of the Thirteen Colonies of England. You may not understand everything at first. I think you will find as I have that you must from time to time come back to these writings to have further mysteries revealed.<br /><br />I will begin first with the man who I think without dissent can be likened to America’s Spark of Enlightenment. A prolific writer I will suggest we begin our tutelage with the treatise he wrote “on Liberty and Necessity”.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCwQHn45ziqn1ijtcz9kfYL9AG1q3j6ZKBV2Zv36UPKMlN2PlvauKrDnMMqTVGrRBovhDqndZzbPnCWnVCK-O4QDwlDrE38Xk51htqnNKQs4tm2H1ogbZnUi2rW1T1ghqKtj1JE3YJS8M/s1600-h/BenFranklin.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 363px; height: 281px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCwQHn45ziqn1ijtcz9kfYL9AG1q3j6ZKBV2Zv36UPKMlN2PlvauKrDnMMqTVGrRBovhDqndZzbPnCWnVCK-O4QDwlDrE38Xk51htqnNKQs4tm2H1ogbZnUi2rW1T1ghqKtj1JE3YJS8M/s400/BenFranklin.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356612452529339586" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf1/m7.htm">Liberty and Necessity</a><br /><br />This is a philosophical treatise on the nature of God and Free Will and an attempt to explain Good and Evil in this world and why God permits it. One quote stands out:<br /><br /><blockquote><em>“If a continual Weight is not applied, the Clock will stop. And as soon as the Avenues of Uneasiness to the Soul are choked up or cut off, we are dead, we think and act no more. This Uneasiness, whenever felt, produces Desire to be freed from it, great in exact proportion to the Uneasiness. Thus is Uneasiness the first Spring and Cause of all Action; for till we are uneasy in Rest, we can have no Desire to move, and without Desire of moving there can be no voluntary Motion. The Experience of every Man who has observed his own Actions will evince the Truth of this; and I think nothing need be said to prove that the Desire will be equal to the Uneasiness, for the very Thing implies as much: It is not Uneasiness unless we desire to be freed from it, nor a great Uneasiness unless the consequent Desire is great.”</em></blockquote><br /><br />Now to be fair the main premise of Mr. Franklin’s thesis is to explain that the soul’s actions are therefore only taken in this life and in death we return to its state before we are born, one that I am not sure is solidly explained or that I wholly accept but that is a discussion for another day. The ideas I want to discuss are about pleasure being derived from the overcoming of pain. These do strike a chord with me and I think are germane to this debate for one reason. Necessity is the first enemy of Liberty. It in one sense as Mr. Franklin explains is what drives us to act and to want to be free. It is as Mr. Franklin states the natural order of the soul when experiencing pain to act in order to be free from it thus granting pleasure. So too is it the natural state of individuals in a society when controlled and oppressed by the government to want to be extricated from that authority thus granting the pleasure of Freedom.<br /><br />As Mr. Franklin is our inspiration, our spark of enlightenment then so too is the next man the Engineer of Liberty. He is the industrialist whose words gave us the practical application of thought to define our Engine of Freedom and develop the ideas of our constitutional government. He is by his own pen the purveyor of “Common Sense”.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8tArdn13EQGfjdWekoZ_CMSttn6yEBjbO8ikUrrLBidUmBrBz5Fn4pxaacfxmejb-vWJGMRJ1dsk1CifKyK8UGC2o9ZqNkoBcrV57X_UzzC7zS4fwkOaTM0m3XnyTOESkxplzzRHa8Kg/s1600-h/ThomasPaine.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 327px; height: 241px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8tArdn13EQGfjdWekoZ_CMSttn6yEBjbO8ikUrrLBidUmBrBz5Fn4pxaacfxmejb-vWJGMRJ1dsk1CifKyK8UGC2o9ZqNkoBcrV57X_UzzC7zS4fwkOaTM0m3XnyTOESkxplzzRHa8Kg/s400/ThomasPaine.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356613526668152674" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ushistory.org/Paine/commonsense/singlehtml.htm">Common Sense</a><br /><br />Common Sense is a famous pamphlet which was published anonymously by an Englishman named Thomas Paine which is considered to be the blueprint for the ideas of independence that fueled the American Revolution and created the Blueprint for our Republic. Here is a quote from this pamphlet.<br /><br /><blockquote><em>“SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.<br />Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.”</em></blockquote><br /><br />The relevant points here are that no matter who the actors behind a government are, that left unchecked they will assume more power and eventually abuse it. We are instructed to remember that our culture, our society and our desires as individuals are separate and distinct from the state. When we look to governments to provide for us security and well being we will instead obtain oppression and frustration. This is important since the original revolutionaries in Iran have stated their goal was freedom. Even the Islamic leaders stated that goal of an Islamic Republic was to ensure the rights of the people by following the Will of God. Through Thomas Paine we gain the insight that the best government is the one that preserves the rights of the individuals. Incorporating Ben Franklin’s religious insights we see that a government which enhances Free Will enhances God’s Will because it was God’s Choice to give Man Free Will. He wants us thereby to use that Free Will.<br /><br />If Mr. Paine is the Engineer who drove the Engine of Liberty then this next individual is the steam whistle that sounds to get that engine moving. More than any efforts of the other founding fathers, this man’s speech at the second Virginia Revolutionary Convention on March 23, 1775 galvanized the nation on its course. He was the fire starter of the revolution.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8CIpskUV70Jxrw4DSWvXybvHlSjl3EK76YZyqQN-yQxElStIoYIyDdP-m0XqLkqF_lI8iJkRTjhFOjzPb9i02DvZnQNgJWybwfzOXVawqD_KwHNBHbNif2nEelgaaF_r_x8tnAtVXNiM/s1600-h/PatickHenry.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 368px; height: 283px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8CIpskUV70Jxrw4DSWvXybvHlSjl3EK76YZyqQN-yQxElStIoYIyDdP-m0XqLkqF_lI8iJkRTjhFOjzPb9i02DvZnQNgJWybwfzOXVawqD_KwHNBHbNif2nEelgaaF_r_x8tnAtVXNiM/s400/PatickHenry.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356614375470408098" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.redhill.org/speeches/liberty.htm">Liberty or Death</a><br /><br />At the end of his famous speech Patrick Henry said the following:<br /><br /><blockquote><em>“There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.……<br />……..Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.”<br /><br />“Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! “</em></blockquote><br /><br />Here then RALA is the cost of obtaining Freedom. It is the last full measure of devotion given again and again by patriots, soldiers and even innocent citizens going about their day. We remember the dates of these events, December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001. We remember the places, Pearl Harbor and Gettysburg. Patrick Henry reminds us that obtaining and keeping our Freedoms will take brave action and constant vigilance. Every child will know this from the moment they are faced with a school yard bully. Only those that stand up will gain that Freedom and keep it. The forces of the statists and dictators must be met everywhere they assert their control for like a potato chip they cannot stop at dominating one person, they will want more. While we have a President who worries about diplomacy and does not wish to “meddle” in events in Iran and now China we have to ask “Why do we stand here idle?” Will the regimes stop at the borders of Iran, will they be satisfied with just the Jews who live in Israel. No Mr. Henry points to the threat we face and asks us to meet it while we still can.<br /><br />As Patrick Henry is the Fire of the Revolution, the voice that sings the Song for Freedom, this Great Scholar can be thought of as the Prophet of Liberty. He like Moses who brought down the Ten Commandments gives us with words inspired by his love of God and his fellow man a Declaration of Freedom. This is the Declaration of Independence.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-XXG-Xz5u7GVTmKNSOlkfcUdC0bs7wawa2nKOFXmcbvfwMbHUXZMmkvigcd5U8ue9z_lNM8CTJSgKepQGX0X-GmnB-6REimLtEc62HlwKNvOJbnEveMxR6w_kQ3NRGsqR9St0B-R1hoo/s1600-h/Jefferson.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 334px; height: 303px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-XXG-Xz5u7GVTmKNSOlkfcUdC0bs7wawa2nKOFXmcbvfwMbHUXZMmkvigcd5U8ue9z_lNM8CTJSgKepQGX0X-GmnB-6REimLtEc62HlwKNvOJbnEveMxR6w_kQ3NRGsqR9St0B-R1hoo/s400/Jefferson.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356615291441816242" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/index.htm">Declaration of Independence</a><br /><br />Now many may at first balk when I state that Mr. Jefferson’s words were inspired by God or that I am somehow equating these words with the text of the Torah, the Bible or the Koran. I cannot explain these texts to you since I will admit I am not privy to discussions with the Deity beyond whatever thoughts may arise in my mind on those occasions that I do take time to meditate and pray. I am not qualified to speak as to what is entailed in making these three tomes “Holy” except to say that by the fervor of their followers I believe that they do have positive effects on my fellow man when viewing the actions of their believers. On my better days I myself can even be held in that camp.<br /><br />What I am saying is this. That Mr. Jefferson sat in a room on June 11, 1776 and for Seventeen days he labored in deep thought and prayer to write a document that would justify to the world the actions of the colonies in demanding their freedom. He chose his words carefully and he explained in a way more eloquent than I could muster that such an act was a choice and a duty of Men as directed by almighty God. When a man writes thus as Mr. Jefferson had, even if he does not realize it, he is taking upon himself a role akin to that of a biblical prophet. He is speaking his mind to the authorities as to the direction God expects them to take. He is usually not of the clergy or ruling power and is correcting them as to what he thinks is God’s Path. In the bible there were true prophets and false prophets. In reviewing this man’s life, in seeing what he is requesting, I feel that it is obvious that Thomas Jefferson was speaking from the Heart in a principled position come to in no short order through many hours of deliberation with himself and the Creator. I feel also that his words are timeless and will resound in all generations to come. The words in this document proclaim the duty of all men to seek their Freedom, every day and in every way great and small.<br /><br /><blockquote><em>“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.<br /><br />We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security”</em></blockquote><br /><br />Mr. Jefferson said it all RALA. Freedom is a Gift from God. It is made available to all men and the greatest sin that one could potentially perform is to take that Freedom from another individual for your own Self Aggrandizement or Ambition. It is always the Politician that performs the greatest Evil. God made each and every one of us and he placed us here I believe to see what we could do with the short time that he has allotted to us. We are given Free Will as a grand experiment. As any Father he is proud of our accomplishments, sorrowed at our pains, joyous when we are happy, satisfied when we do right and disappointed when we do wrong. It is in this way that our existence serves His purpose. Even those who do not believe in Him or who turn from Him teach the Deity the one thing He cannot know until we have acted. That is what choice we shall make with our own Free Will. Thus I believe in the same Individualism of our Founding Fathers. That government should increase and not limit our Freedom. That society should be allowed to thrive to the extent that it can without the limits of Government. That we as individuals should serve the interests of Society and not the State because Tyranny arises when we assume that these two separate things are one.<br /><br />So in conclusion there are those that question supporting the efforts of the people of Iran to obtain Democracy. They say we are meddling. We are lectured that the tyrants will make accusations of us if we enter into the situation. We are told the embattled opposition candidate strongly disagrees with our country’s course of action, anyways so it is not in our best interests.<br /><br />Thomas Jefferson tells us that it is our duty to throw off government that reduces people to a state of absolute despotism. When the Tyrants kill the innocent for speaking their mind, we must do what we can to help those who are being oppressed. Otherwise we will one day find ourselves under the despot’s thumb.<br /><br />When I read the Declaration of Independence I say to myself, “Amen” which means “I believe it”. I hope RALA that you shall always have Lady Liberty to guide you and will hold her close to your heart and remember the ending words of our Pledge of Allegiance, “Liberty for All”.<br /><br /></span>Individualisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005025873042230314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-37234060358947720872009-07-01T14:31:00.004-04:002009-07-01T14:38:22.033-04:00My Friend John - RIPThe happiest day in the life of a very, very good man. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br /><strong>“I cried when I wrote this song,<br />sue me if I play too long”</strong><br /><br /><br /><br />Wow. I am having a hard time coming to grips with John’s death. You don’t just let a friend of 29 years slip out of your life without a lot of memories coming back. Over the course of a lifetime we make many friends. We have childhood friends who sometimes don’t stay in your life very long. Children grow up and families move away. We get into adolescence and we make new friends who share our expanding interests. Then many of us go to some type of higher education and again our personal circle of friends changes and grows. Finally, we go out on our own. A fourth group of friends begin to assemble in our lives. For the most part, this fourth group will differ significantly from the first three.<br /><br />Each of the first three groups will be limited by the amount time we spend together, our common geography, and our common interests. All of these will change in our journey to adulthood, and we will lose association with many of the friends we make along the way. Lots of us are fortunate enough to have friends that go all the way back to childhood and it is a great thing. But the friends we have that go all the way back to those first three groups are a lot fewer in number than those we have from the fourth group. And for me, the experiences that I’ve shared with my friends of the “fourth order” (if I may call them that) are of a much greater significance than those of the first three. Really, which is more significant, winning a high school championship football game, or the birth of a child? See what I mean? Between me and my fourth order, we shared things as men. We shared, and do share the hard and great things of life. And in my life I have only two friends from my fourth order that have been present at, or shared with me, every one of the hard and great things of my life. With some of these things, only one was there, sometimes both. But combined, all. I am blessed with other friends of the fourth order and I very much love them all. But if all my friends of this fourth order, were drowning, and I could save them all, I would reach with for these two first, each getting one arm. But today, only one remains. <br /><br />I’m not going to write about all that John was and what he meant to others. And I’m not going to tell much about the things he thought and felt. I leave that to others who spent more time with him, and who knew him at an even deeper level. I’m going to tell the story of what I know to be the happiest day of John’s life. August 10, 1982. I’m only going to tell what I know and saw, only John could fill in what happened during the hours we weren’t in contact.<br /><br />This actually begins on the afternoon of August 9, 1982. We were working together in Memphis, TN for an engineering firm whose client was Federal Express. John owned a mid 1960’s gray Pontiac convertible (a Bonneville I think) that he called “The Gray Ghost”. The Ghost was having some front end problems, and as skilled as John was when it came to auto repair, this job was beyond his tool arsenal and he arranged to get it fixed at a local repair shop. Before we left for the day, he asked me if, in the morning, I could follow him to drop off the Ghost and give him a lift to our office, and drive him back to the shop after work to pick the car up. I said sure.<br /><br />On the morning of August 10,1982 it was typical August weather in Memphis. Temperature at 7:30 a.m. already past 85, the humidity likewise, and sure to get worse. Real uncomfortable. Things went as John had planned. We dropped of the Ghost and made it to our office on time, about 8:45 a.m. No more than 15 minutes into the workday, John takes a call, hangs up, and is visibly shaken. He looks at me.<br /><br />“Can I take your truck and split?”<br /><br />“Sure, was that the shop?”<br /><br />“No, it was Mare. She says it’s time.”<br /><br />Did I mention that John’s wife Maryanne was 9+ months pregnant? So John hustles out the door and we are (there were 8 of us “consultants” in our field office) all hopeful and happy at what the day may now bring. We were also having a good chuckle at John’s panicked demeanor as he hurried to get to Maryanne.<br /><br />About 11:00 a.m., two hours had gone by, and John comes strolling through the office door, drops my keys on my desk and sits down at his.<br /><br />“Well?”<br /><br />“By the time I got home, Mare had called the doctor and he said her contractions were coming too far apart for her to go to the hospital. He said to wait and call him back when they start coming closer together.”<br /><br />I swear John had barely gotten the words out of his mouth, when our secretary called back for him to take a phone call. After hanging up he looks at me again with this why-is-this-happening-to-me look all over his face.<br /><br />“I gotta go. It was Mare, she said the contractions are coming about two minutes apart all of a sudden. Man, I have to split.”<br /><br />‘Take the truck and go. I’ll take care of the Ghost and come to the hospital after work. Don’t come back here no matter what anyone says. If this isn’t it, stay home anyway, just in case.”<br /><br />It was maybe between 2 and 3 p.m. when our secretary told me to pick up the phone, it was John calling. His voice was cool and relaxed as was almost always the case.<br /><br />“She had the baby. Anya Marie.” <br /><br />They already knew it was a girl, and weeks earlier I had tricked Mayanne into telling the secret, but kept their confidence. He told me the time, weight, length, room number etc., so we all could go and play the lucky numbers with our friend Kenny back home, who moonlighted as a bookie. We were a colorful little bunch of miscreants.<br /><br />“So what happened?’<br /><br />“When I got home Mare was havin’ the contractions and we went right to the hospital. Her water broke when we were standing at the registration counter. What a mess. They took her right into surgery and did the C-section, and she’s fine too. Mommy, baby, 10 fingers, 10 toes, everybody’s fine.”<br /><br />“How are you?”<br /><br />“I’m kinda fucked up right now. Everything’s going so fast.”<br /><br />“Have you called your folks? Reg, Mund, Walter?”<br /><br />“I spoke with my folks, but everyone else is still at work and I don’t remember those numbers.”<br /><br />“Okay, congratulations. What do you want me to do about the Ghost? You want to keep the truck and I’ll pick up the Ghost and we can switch tomorrow?”<br /><br />“What do you want to do?”<br /><br />“Well I wanna come to the hospital and see Mare and the baby, sorry, Anya.”<br /><br />“Okay, but I don’t know if you’ll see Mare, she’s still in recovery. But the baby, oh, Anya, gotta get used to that, is in the nursery.”<br /><br />“That’s good enough for me. I’ll see you when I get there.”<br /><br />When 5:00 p.m. rolled around, I got one of our other co-workers to drive me to the shop, and along the way we enjoyed a bit of the good smoke. A colorful bunch as I said. At the shop I took the information on what was done, paid the bill, got the receipt and drove off to the hospital. The day had gotten hotter and more humid. Even with the Ghost’s top down it was oppressive. Coming up on a traffic light, the car in front of me stops kinda short, and my mind being elsewhere, I bumped, not smashed, into that car’s rear end. We both pulled into a parking lot beyond the intersection to inspect the damage. Thankfully, there was none to either car. The woman driving the car suggested we call the police just to get a report. But I managed to convince her that because there was no damage or injury, no report was necessary and our insurances would go up, blah, blah, blah. I apologized, waved her good bye and got to the hospital.<br /><br />I saw John in a lounge close to the maternity ward. He had this joyful, thankful, exhausted expression on his face. He just stood up and with as big a smile as I ever saw just said, “C’mon, she’s over here.” And we walked through a set of doors to the nursery. And like every scene in every movie or TV show, we stood in front of the picture window and he pointed out the bassinette that held Anya. “GIRL – Dorowski” on a pink card. She was sleeping, and only her tiny face was visible under the hat and swaddling blanket.<br /><br />“She’s really beautiful.”<br /><br />“Yeah, it’s amazing.”<br /><br />“Yeah, the whole new life into the world thing sure is that.”<br /><br />‘That ain’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking about how much I love her. In an instant. Right from the second I saw her, before I even touched her, I love her more than anything in this world. And it’s a different love than how I love Mare, or my folks. It’s just so….arrrragh…I can’t explain it.”<br /><br />“I get it.” I was lying. I couldn’t get it. It wasn’t until February 10, 2000 that I actually got it. And on that day, some of my first words to John (who was the first non-family member I spoke to) were, “now I know what you meant.” He remembered instantly what I was referring to.<br /><br />We spent a couple more years together working in Memphis. For John and his young family it was vey good. Me? Not so much. But among the 8 guys working in our office, John and I were a terrific team. An engineer for FedEx once said that some people can work faster, and some people can work better, but nobody works faster and better than John and Dom. And the management of FedEx expressed this literally when the time came to close out the contract and wrap up our firm’s participation in the project.<br /><br />Except for two of the eight guys working in the field office, everyone was to pack up and return to our home office in Greenwich, CT. I was told by our VP, that John and I were specifically requested by FedEx to be the two who remained. In the final months in Memphis, I decided for personal reasons to leave our company and stay permanently in Memphis. Permanently lasted 6 months. But John and I always stayed in touch even when he got relocated to Indianapolis, IN. We always knew what was going on in each other’s lives. But on the day he and his family left Memphis, I heard these words on the radio:<br /><br /><em>Johnny's takin' care of things for a while<br />And his style is so right for troubadours<br />They got him sitting with his back to the door<br />Now he won't be my fast gun anymore<br />Say goodbye to Hollywood<br />Say goodbye, my baby<br /><br />So many faces in and out of my life<br />Some will last<br />Some will just be now and then<br />Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes<br />I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again<br />Say goodbye to Hollywood<br />Say goodbye, my baby</em><br /><br />John was never now and then. John was one that lasted. I say goodbye to the sound of his voice, I say goodbye to his slap on the back, I say goodbye to the glint in his eyes. But I will never,…never, say goodbye to John.<br /><br /><br /></span>Auguste Ballzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03069477713979392235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-32412452148256011522009-06-30T19:29:00.017-04:002009-07-07T23:35:16.384-04:00of Zohak, The Serpent King<strong>Visual Poetry by Individualist (TheIndividualist@comcast.net)</strong><br /><em>“The Purpose of government is to limit the needs of its citizens from the involvement of the government.”</em><br /><br />I have promised myself to do something to cover the events in Iran which fill me with Dread and Hope for the future. But as our media find distractions for the story we hear less from the President on the matter and I am saddened. The emotions in me are too strong to address with reason and satire so I have opted for this poem instead. The story of Kaveh the Blacksmith is maybe the most popular Iranian tale and the allusions in the poetry, such as they are, refer to it. This link gives a version of the story.<br /><br />I regret to the people of Iran that this humble effort appears to be the greatest I am capable of helping with the cause. God protect you all from despots and madmen.<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://web.mit.edu/kardar/www/personal/kaveh/epic.html">The Story of Kaveh the Blacksmith who defeats Zohak the Serpent King </a></strong>summarized from <strong><a href="http://www.persian.com/ferdowsi/">The Epic of Shahnameh Ferdowsi</a>.</strong><br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNWmxo4wdAyO_ny_lNFuoqxDafWE0dEFJiJ5v41rGENECsIDKRzJk9y88RWnN86O_q15IoUw3qq_Mro802BU70tPevFwpY-WWGohgIBT1a8os0Mf7cblil_zLSJEzCZXTVKXDnd2ucjq8/s1600-h/FlameJaadi.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 366px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNWmxo4wdAyO_ny_lNFuoqxDafWE0dEFJiJ5v41rGENECsIDKRzJk9y88RWnN86O_q15IoUw3qq_Mro802BU70tPevFwpY-WWGohgIBT1a8os0Mf7cblil_zLSJEzCZXTVKXDnd2ucjq8/s400/FlameJaadi.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353268639655620930" /></a><br /><br /><em>Shadow and Misdirection is his Craft<br />Dark Flames Veil Terror’s Sight<br />To Break Truth upon the Dagger’s Haft<br />The Dark Cold Shores of Acheron His Final Plight</em><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCEaTn3hs1x93RTs31GPwsebE_teWCtHvEolnd1sel62JWv7FeKcqabeKNfQR6SrRtMF0N-NqWtUOCiWZpMAc9mz_96usoL36YttmwfSrHh3ERnuIcyogYKQ0a3c4S10_lDpah3RlrWFg/s1600-h/TravelersFlight.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 287px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCEaTn3hs1x93RTs31GPwsebE_teWCtHvEolnd1sel62JWv7FeKcqabeKNfQR6SrRtMF0N-NqWtUOCiWZpMAc9mz_96usoL36YttmwfSrHh3ERnuIcyogYKQ0a3c4S10_lDpah3RlrWFg/s400/TravelersFlight.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353269102800350226" /></a><br /><br /><em>The Travelers’ Flight Down Fear’s Path<br />Moving to Escape the Inferno’s Chain<br />Sweet Freedom’s Echo Rings in the Elector’s Math<br />The Demon’s Flawed Reckoning Sounds the Pursuing Pain</em><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEied2JLpwv9o7bxg2zYMFlVP_mlTQ4iiqjTT4vTUUP8nRu-EO7QsrVC8AqBW0XN_HQZlrVU54YIAZrlic3xgoTOif639lS60Eko9Vls6vD0shDt8cRsU9r79k3sTibs6P3tyHs4LVQ-6A8/s1600-h/MoonGirl.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 303px; height: 367px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEied2JLpwv9o7bxg2zYMFlVP_mlTQ4iiqjTT4vTUUP8nRu-EO7QsrVC8AqBW0XN_HQZlrVU54YIAZrlic3xgoTOif639lS60Eko9Vls6vD0shDt8cRsU9r79k3sTibs6P3tyHs4LVQ-6A8/s400/MoonGirl.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353269427982776530" /></a><br /><br /><em>Through the Darkest Night of Sorrow’s Blue <br />Hope’s Glimmer Shines Through the Crooked Moon<br />Freedom’s Green Fields the Sayer’s Sooth<br />Crying for God’s Word, the Angels Happy Tune</em><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj95gA2qF-QpIKfMLpPnpxrv3kNpdBy2JEZ6GN6wqZyeiYoH9Lgv4IyeZJW5xc5M75QFGFQ-K9g7NWFUXlmiM4dhRHZ2UaZ_tX4howw4ZCGVvPwRLP3ZjL5SVPca-cS_5Z7J9-WTmy4jh4/s1600-h/HorsemansArrow.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj95gA2qF-QpIKfMLpPnpxrv3kNpdBy2JEZ6GN6wqZyeiYoH9Lgv4IyeZJW5xc5M75QFGFQ-K9g7NWFUXlmiM4dhRHZ2UaZ_tX4howw4ZCGVvPwRLP3ZjL5SVPca-cS_5Z7J9-WTmy4jh4/s400/HorsemansArrow.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353270213721942674" /></a><br /><br /><em>On Clouds of Fire the Horseman Gather for the State<br />The Conjurer’s Spell Strikes, the Arrow Fury Enraged<br />Sinister Smoke Envelops the Mirrored Plate<br />They Cuckold Righteousness and Justice is Caged</em><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp6XQbCwaLjGc9gE6W1lwR3nD0KqPERjRjYaZdwgnkvcFxq1Y4pDnJX3_D35hrdMnHEGUEalEA5z3o37zr4cO_o51pzQ8dAeSBaEBnRW1GPSHhOe2aZtLKclDhf_5k9-814G0bwQaMmGs/s1600-h/PassionFades.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp6XQbCwaLjGc9gE6W1lwR3nD0KqPERjRjYaZdwgnkvcFxq1Y4pDnJX3_D35hrdMnHEGUEalEA5z3o37zr4cO_o51pzQ8dAeSBaEBnRW1GPSHhOe2aZtLKclDhf_5k9-814G0bwQaMmGs/s400/PassionFades.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353270531011691538" /></a><br /><br /><em>Along Serendipity’s Road the Marchers Race<br />The tides of Chaos weave Silver Linings in the Thunderhead’s Brocade<br /> Hope, Angst, Wrath and Terror fill the withering Pace<br />With each misstep the Falls of Time threaten to see Passions Fade</em><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_APBzQfI27vtoypjd7tMdAu21Q8yzA-IftO3IWEOtBYMxUbWo7HYbn9ZPcBi42fCGOGffEqxkXCrokd684kjvthK6gPzaVKqly4YqoX6FBWEIa4zdcsRe4BpRoXpw76Ud6KkGMny0E4A/s1600-h/RancorsFlower.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 301px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_APBzQfI27vtoypjd7tMdAu21Q8yzA-IftO3IWEOtBYMxUbWo7HYbn9ZPcBi42fCGOGffEqxkXCrokd684kjvthK6gPzaVKqly4YqoX6FBWEIa4zdcsRe4BpRoXpw76Ud6KkGMny0E4A/s400/RancorsFlower.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353270829593124226" /></a><br /><br /><em>The Rising Rain flowers the Orchids of Transformation<br />The Fruits of Hate are Blood and Fire<br />The Frenzied Expressions Fuel the Call of a Nation<br />The “Voice” Shot Dead Thrives in the Din of the World’s Ire</em><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvLqSxA74Qet9YGin2L3lr4Ze25RthpoB13fljLNP8cLUJ41_A0wRFRN_eWifxTrQjC3ObLgnyOwlCdTwdHODo-XWGR0hivMFJddxovCFOF76gpr6qCytzSDUwtpzCLO3Qo1zv7rEMD8M/s1600-h/BlacksmithsSpark.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 284px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvLqSxA74Qet9YGin2L3lr4Ze25RthpoB13fljLNP8cLUJ41_A0wRFRN_eWifxTrQjC3ObLgnyOwlCdTwdHODo-XWGR0hivMFJddxovCFOF76gpr6qCytzSDUwtpzCLO3Qo1zv7rEMD8M/s400/BlacksmithsSpark.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353271291396532338" /></a><br /><br /><em>Eighteen of the Blacksmith’s Rams the Supreme Leader’s Serpents shall Shear <br />Terror, Murder, Mayhem, on black bellies is the venom met<br />Kaveh the Blacksmith holds up his Leather Smock on the Spear<br />Independence, Resistance, Resilience, the Hero’s Standard is set</em><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe5Au4faadWqZWz5cHM4cSDY8KSWF5-t9cifihbMD5_lK3tv6H5a_YThsypRzyQhL9kOfqcS0XUhaq7Cy4GvGsWXAK6PGBFdZ4UBqeYkzkWUX0cGwL2BnES8B6r349mm3CeyEK_qf5Qyw/s1600-h/MousaviSun.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 313px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe5Au4faadWqZWz5cHM4cSDY8KSWF5-t9cifihbMD5_lK3tv6H5a_YThsypRzyQhL9kOfqcS0XUhaq7Cy4GvGsWXAK6PGBFdZ4UBqeYkzkWUX0cGwL2BnES8B6r349mm3CeyEK_qf5Qyw/s400/MousaviSun.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353271606917540530" /></a><br /><br /><em>In strange Fates does desperation arise<br />Shining its Beacon on Freedom Travail<br />The Serpent King seeks the martyr’s demise<br />But to Allah we pray Hope’s Shade will Prevail</em><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNTBTSrhQ3V6fNQqlEiBto7gNJSFFhCcG8epsUj4nqjQBvHs5gFjjXVvEqtqYUXS24QbTQg5TCRseFfuA_56Hg5OlhQYmwuiJbc36H7kD38910am6jH3COUoPkBC9OJR9bds9hyphenhyphenyiQYVQ/s1600-h/GODBLESSIRAN.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 142px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNTBTSrhQ3V6fNQqlEiBto7gNJSFFhCcG8epsUj4nqjQBvHs5gFjjXVvEqtqYUXS24QbTQg5TCRseFfuA_56Hg5OlhQYmwuiJbc36H7kD38910am6jH3COUoPkBC9OJR9bds9hyphenhyphenyiQYVQ/s400/GODBLESSIRAN.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353271903123693314" /></a><br /><br /></span>Individualisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005025873042230314noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-34717553258088518572009-06-29T05:21:00.001-04:002009-06-29T05:22:28.337-04:00Give Bush Credit on IranThis is an article in <em>Commentary</em> by Abe Greenwald. <span class="fullpost"><a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/give-bush-credit-on-iran-15200?page=all">Read the article</a></span>Auguste Ballzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03069477713979392235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-9950805228940928322009-06-28T19:24:00.004-04:002009-07-07T23:26:38.115-04:00“Ciphering” Who Wins at Football<strong>By Individualist (TheIndividualist@comcast.net)</strong><br /><em>“The Purpose of government is to limit the needs of its citizens from the involvement of the government.”</em><br /><br />Hello Sports Fans and welcome. Today we go to a special place. A weird and wacky place where Politics meets Football that is. Who is the “winningest” (in Sports Bars around the nation that is a technical term) Football Coach of all time Joe Paterno of Penn State University or Bobby Bowden of Florida State. This should be a simple thing that even Jethro Bodine of the Beverly Hillbillies could cipher.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd9qk553hZvZoBYuh3k94nxSu4DQdhBwWffdMz6zfe0CvyFwQ-Ql_8AKp6M_VE_h_JI8SgLXI4oD_cE9KdBsicNznFfQhQjJr3e8bAJO12YUfXQpCrn6DmbGkX3KthT9qAbcOukoUyA0w/s1600-h/Ciphering.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 166px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd9qk553hZvZoBYuh3k94nxSu4DQdhBwWffdMz6zfe0CvyFwQ-Ql_8AKp6M_VE_h_JI8SgLXI4oD_cE9KdBsicNznFfQhQjJr3e8bAJO12YUfXQpCrn6DmbGkX3KthT9qAbcOukoUyA0w/s320/Ciphering.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5352524032621442194" /></a><br /><br />Yet even as we speak today this is evidently something that must be drawn out in court of law with many thousands of dollars of tax payer money spent on lawyers, experts and who knows maybe even Rocket Scientists and Double Knot spies before they are through arguing so we may need Jethro’s help after all.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />The controversy surrounds cheating in an online music history course in the fall of 2006 and the spring and summer of 2007 by several athletes not just in the football team but in many other sports as well. In all the staffers running the course helped 61 student athletes to cheat including allowing someone else to take one of the individual’s exams. Since 30% of the football team or around 25 players were involved and 11 of them starters this was a major problem for the NCAA to deal with. The cheating was uncovered when a single student athlete complained about another student being given answers to the test at the end of the 2007 year. Since many of the players might not had been eligible to play under NCAA rules it was decided that scholarships would be lost, students would be banned from bowl games and the thrust of the controversy, wins would be vacated. This is in all the sports not just football.<br /><br />This is the real issue for FSU since Bobby Bowden is now one game away from outscoring Joe Paterno of Penn State in the greatest number of games won in Division 1A football. As it stands now Jopa as he is lovingly known to his fans has 383 wins while Papa Nole of FSU has 382. Given the winning rates of the schools it is very likely Bobby Bowden could overtake the Nittany Lion King. The vacation of 14 games by the NCAA however will make such an eventuality impossible.<br /><br />So naturally FSU has appealed the ruling stating that they believed it to be unfair. The final verdict of the appeal has come back and the vacation of the wins stands. This means that FSU does not get credit for the wins but it does not mean the losing college will gain a win. The school is claiming that Coach Bowden is being unfairly punished for actions by other individuals for which he had no knowledge.<br /><br />The FSU President is TK Wetherell is a former alumnus and FSU football player himself. According to Brent Kallestad of the associated Press in “NCAA intends to take away Florida State victories” TK Wetherell stated: <br /><br />“This committee is just wrong. The rationale for doing that isn’t accurate.”<br /><br />“There was no coach involved in this. The one group of people that were not involved in this thing were the coaches. They’re the one group that’s being penalized.”<br /><br />“He wanted a “Blue Ribbon Commission” set up to evaluate the policy of vacating wins suspending the NCAA from enacting the punishment until the findings were released. This was denied in March of 2008. He also stated that the school would exhaust all appeal opportunities with the NCAA ‘before going anywhere else.’ ”<br /><br />The appeal has been denied.<br /><br />Where else is there to go except a law suit. However before we even get there we already have the media suing both FSU and the NCAA to force them to release the actual letter with their ruling which is held secret since the names of college students involved are listed. Currently the letter was retyped redacting the names. Florida has a public records law called the Sunshine Law here in the state that requires government agencies and taxpayer sponsored entities to release all minutes of meetings and public documents. I find it ludicrous that taxpayer dollars are being spent over whether a retyped document is not the same as a photocopy. The US congress has recently passed bills spending trillions with less scrutiny.<br /><br />Do we have anything better to do with taxpayer money? Budget cuts enacted this year in education due to the weakening economy has cut classes and has increased college fees. I think that even Jethro Bodine and his vaunted sixth grade education can figure that one out<br /><br />At the end of the day I wonder what value is there on the NCAA sanctioning of wins. I mean it is not like there is an official number. The “winningest” coach in football is an honorific that is given by the effect of the alcohol in the beer that has been consumed at the sports bar and not the striking of the gavel to conclude a pronouncement of some judge. Perhaps there will be a plaque at the Hall of Fame but even still if Bowden did win and the number of games posted did exceed Jopa, there would at the least be an asterisk by the number. The idea that we are spending taxpayer money and wasting the courts time to obtain some pronouncement that the fans at Hooters are going to discount or accept based upon their school affiliation anyways is probably a very good example of why this country is facing the deficits that it does.<br /><br />The irony is that if we include all divisions John Gagliardi, Carroll College/St. John's College (Division III) has 461 wins and Eddie Robinson, Grambling State (Division III) had 408 when he retired. Just to add one more fact to muddy up the conversation at the sports bar.<br /><br />I think Granny needs to start chasing TK Wetherell and these big city lawyers around with her shotgun.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-HSVCspFVC0eSDUsbm7QsQuSmHsm9sNR3zJSPk5ZiYjdh74HaQc8ZBJOBVaRapefm4qmAVWH0WQLgFdcqZVfNiilHs4X4l9yQrZcq1-K7jOe1gtcdDnYFyU6OzuWbmb5U3rd_xHhqXVM/s1600-h/Granny+Get+Your+Gun.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 304px; height: 256px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-HSVCspFVC0eSDUsbm7QsQuSmHsm9sNR3zJSPk5ZiYjdh74HaQc8ZBJOBVaRapefm4qmAVWH0WQLgFdcqZVfNiilHs4X4l9yQrZcq1-K7jOe1gtcdDnYFyU6OzuWbmb5U3rd_xHhqXVM/s400/Granny+Get+Your+Gun.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5352525213638375298" /></a><br /><br />But let us see what others have to say. According to Ray McNulty of the Scripps Howard News Service the NCAA is overstepping their bounds at the suggestion of academic corruption in sports.<br /><br />“In reality, though, what happened in Tallahassee is just further proof that the joint pursuit of serious academics and big-time athletics is, across too much of our college sports landscape, a bad joke. And, for all its mock outrage, the NCAA knows it.”<br /><br />Again from BRENT KALLESTAD article referenced above, Bobby Bowden had this to say on the subject.<br /><br />“Joe, who I love to death, he and I got a battle that neither one of us thought would ever happen,” Bowden told WBRC-TV in Birmingham after a round of golf Thursday. “Joe would not want to win this thing the way they (NCAA) are doing this.”<br /><br />In this case we have Bowden trying to ferret out what Jopa is thinking and predict what he would do in this situation. This is what I know of Joe Paterno. He is considered by Penn State fans to be the patron saint of football and he is held in high regard. I have a lot of respect for coach Bowden and have family members that are alumni of FSU. I say this as someone who has attended the University of Florida myself and I assure you I am not being facetious. He is a great coach and has done great things but I feel that there is no coach in football today that matches Joe Paterno because of his commitment to education. In 1966 when he was hired Joe Paterno brought with him an idea to incorporate academics and athletics from Brown College that he called “the Grand Experiment”.<br /><br />According to Jeff Nelson of www.GOPSUsports.com in 2008 Penn State had 55 football squad members earn a 3.0 GPA or higher, 36 made the Dean’s list among the fall and spring semesters and the senior tackle Gerald Cadogan had a 4.0 GPA. Fifteen of the 36 had a GPA greater than 3.7. Mr. McNulty I guess Penn State is an exception to this rule isn’t it.<br /><br />Penn State graduates 78% of its players in 2008, tying it for 9th place among all colleges. In contrast FSU graduates 69% making it 24th. African American players who play for Penn state have a GSR of 77% as opposed to the 58% GSR for Blacks which is the National Average. So the liberal excuse that Penn State is discriminating against poor blacks in favor of white kids from privileged neighborhoods cannot be applied here. Joe Paterno in this regard was like the Nuns back in the day at the Catholic school I went to in South Carolina that had a student ratio of 50% non Catholic black children. They did not care who you were, they were equally tough to everybody to force students to learn. And God Bless them for it.<br /><br />But of even more significance are the Academic Progress Rates which the NCAA utilizes to measure not only simply gaining a diploma but how well the student athletes are performing. Penn State had an APR for Football Players in 2008 of 976 ranking the school in the 80th to 90th percentiles among football and 60th to 70th among all sports. FSU had an APR in 2008 of 932 which was in the 40th to 50th percentile among the sport of Football and 10 to 20th among all sports. <br /><br />So in conclusion Ray McNulty states that academics and football are a joke yet Jopa manages to not only see that the athletes pass they excel. Bobby Bowden states Joe would not win this way and the FSU President states Bowden had no idea that one third of his team were cheats. Even if we accept that statement at face value it misses the point. The point is that Jopa would never be in that situation because as head coach he takes care to know what the academic progress of his athletes are and ensures that they work so as to not need to cheat. It is for this reason that I think Joe Paterno has earned the title of “the Patron Saint of Football”.<br /><br />But fear not there is hope for Bobby Bowden. He is speculating as to what Joe Paterno thinks on these subjects and is trying to decipher his actions in the situation. In this regard he is asking the correct question, WWJD.<br /><br />What Would Jopa Do?<br /><br />As for ole Indy I feel that even if Joe Paterno were to be second to Bobby Bowden in total number of wins but by less than the 14 games in question that this might be in the end a better metaphor for his career than to win outright. It would tell the story that Joe Paterno’s dedication to the education of his student’s was such that it cost him this title. In this way it would show what Joe Paterno’s priorities actually were; Education First, then Football.<br /><br />Now those priorities are a down home kind of wisdom that Jed Clampett would certainly approve.<br /></span>Individualisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005025873042230314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-31573153416394826402009-06-28T13:56:00.001-04:002009-06-28T13:58:58.233-04:00Critical Thinking vs. "Feelings"This is a re-post.<span class="fullpost"><br /><br />A couple of days ago over at <a href="http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/">Big Hollywood</a> I read an article by <a href="http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sgraves/2009/05/17/seeing-voices-hearing-faces/#more-132746">Scott Graves</a> . In it you’ll see this quote from Mark Twain, “we all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking”. I have been thinking of ways to get this quote actually carved in stone and sent to my 9 and 5 year olds daughters, to hang on the wall in their bedrooms. My Dad has a beautiful slab of unused granite in his garage, but I don’t have the tools to shape a couple of tablet size pieces, and then carve in this wisdom. Combined Dad and I have a formidable tool arsenal, but carving stone is beyond that. Well, I guess we do have about 50 cold chisels between us, but no one would confuse my handiness with Michelangelo's. My daughters live with their mother and spend lots of time with the maternal side of their family tree. Twain’s observation is in the DNA of the people who are my girls’ exemplars of what adult behavior should be. For an aware parent, as I hope I am, the idea that my girls will be governed by their feelings rather than critical thinking scares the bejesus out of me.<br /><br />How did we become a society that prefers to make the emotional choice rather than the rational one? Was it the advent of TV and the brilliant idea to sell products by emotional visual pleas to our wants and desires? I think it could’ve started there. Before TV, ads were in print or radio. The print ads had to use words to get the message across. And though words are powerful, after a while seeing the same type of superlatives over and over, most people glaze over and turn the page. Then radio came along and the words now were infused with tone and inflection that broadcast a more emotional message. But I think it was the music, specifically the jingle that was the big improvement radio gave to advertising. Everybody knows how any little ditty can get stuck in our head and not leave for days. “I’d like to get the world to sing….” Sorry, if I just did it to you.<br /><br />But when TV came along, man everything changed. The moving visual image made it so very much easier to tug at peoples’ emotions than ever before. Hell that’s what makes TV content so powerful too. Seeing all the smiling actors and pitchmen with the Pepsodent smile, and Scope breath, and Herbal Essence hair, made you feel, ‘that could be me’ Even if you were a toothless, halitosified, bald snot. Let’s face it most of the people alive today who were born before TV are in their dotage and even they, having been exposed to these daily, constant emotional heart tugs have been affected. Those of us born after the advent of TV know nothing else.<br /><br />Then of course we saw the emergence of the self-help industry and its partner the pay-a-whole-lot for help industry. Both of these industries have at their core this simple question – ‘how do you feel about it?’ And the implied answer is to guide yourself by what you feel. This is not a prudent precept to live by whether it is gotten off a bookshelf, an analyst’s couch or even a confessional. Yet I’ve come to believe that it dominates our society. With these possible exceptions – the scientific community (and it seems to be making inroads here) and the military where decisions are a matter of life and death, and must be governed by reality and facts. Emotion can only be given sway after the battle.<br /><br />Our entertainment also became more feeling oriented. Observers who get paid to comment on the industry sometimes use the phrase sissified. I don’t disagree. The behavior of men was judged to be out-of-touch(feeling!) and emotionally repressed. So they gave us Alan Alda. Terrific actor, nice man but forever to be saddled as the example of what a limp,feeling man should be. He doesn’t deserve it, but there you go. Thank heavens for James Bond. I really do not know how the character has survived not being turned into a feelings-before-facts squish. He acts on emotion only when and where it’s appropriate and called for.<br /><br />I know that critical thinking in a simple form, is one of the first things any parent wants to teach their child. The parent had better if he wants to keep his child safe during the moments the child is out of view. My mom tells me the first word I spoke was ‘hot’. Mom has always been most fine at thinking critically. If only my daughters….. Being able to assess personal safety and make the right choice is also a continuing lesson of critical thinking that continues as we grow. Learning the scientific method is still taught in school, at least I hope it is. Hell even learning about trial and error is a way of learning about how to make a choice from what you know rather than what you feel. And everybody knows how to do that. Hold on. I am wrong about trial and error. If I wasn’t, the adage “insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result” wouldn’t exist. So there are obviously people who try something, err, and feeling they must be right about their choice,try the same thing again. Hey, did I just demonstrate that relying on feelings is insanity? Whew, talk about pleasant unintended consequences.<br /><br />I think feelings are favored over critical thinking out of laziness. In a totally non-scientific study, the people I know who rely most on their feelings are the most intellectually lazy people I know. Oh, they love to think they’re deeply aware of the world and how it works. They’ll scamper to the basement to surf the Internet and learn about the human genome project when it makes the news cycle, then pronounce themselves experts around the bonfire. But ask them why they support abortion, and you get the pro-choice feelings of the mother bullshit. Or some other talking points horse manure. BTW, why is it bull-shit, but horse-manure? I guess the truth is, living by your feelings is just easier to do than actually putting real thought into your actions and the possible consequences thereof. And man oh man, isn’t a whole lot of the world all about taking the easy way out?<br /><br />Feelings have their proper place. I am the most emotional person I know. I can hate deeply, but love even deeper. Expressing crushing sorrow or exhuberant joy with public tears neither embarasses me or diminishes me. Exaltation and humiliation, I hold back nothing. But when decision time comes, I go by my feelings only when I’m choosing gifts for my loved ones (or gambling -don't tell anybody) The military excels by putting thinking before feeling. Because they know it is a matter of life and death. And first above all things, the military values life. To so many other people, living by feelings is the way to faster gratification of whatever desire they have. How they choose what they choose isn’t such a weighty matter to them. But they couldn’t be more wrong. Dead wrong.<br /><br /></span>Auguste Ballzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03069477713979392235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-19252704463012405922009-06-26T16:51:00.004-04:002009-06-26T22:16:08.921-04:00A Rocker Remembers JackoIn the summer of 1973 I attended my first concert, Grand Funk Railroad at the old Colloseum in El Paso. My ears rang for three days, they were fantasic. If you wanted to hang with me and my friends it was Rock & Roll, the heavier the better. If an acoustic guitar was involved Jimmy Page or Neil Young better be playing it for it to be considered"cool". Pop, Funk and my gosh, Disco, that was music you didn't admit listen to. <span class="fullpost">If I was going to listen to genres other than hard rock/metal I had to be by myself in the car driving home late at night. And that's what I did, and you know, I found out that it was ok to broaden my musical horizons. Bob Marley? Dang the man was talented, so what if wasn't really rock? Ohio Players? Now that was funky. So how does this relate to Michael Jackson? Jacko made music you didn't admit to your rocker friends that you were listening to, because he wasn't considered "cool". But I have to admit, many of his biggest hits had an infectious rhythm and some really great musicianship. He really was a master at what he did, and that was pure Pop. Remember, this is from a hard core rocker that would get to an 8:00 pm show at 9:00 am to get the best seats to see Black Sabbath or Judas Priest and fondly remembers seeing AC/DC in '77 or '78 with Bon Scott, their original singer. We had long hair and banged heads before "hair bands" gained prominence, but as the 80's settled in and "Billie Jean" came on the radio I found it was easy to admire the musicianship and songcraft of Michael Jackson.<br /><br /> Does his brilliance as a Pop Star erase his odd behavior or mitigate what were certainly true allegations of his improper involment with children? No. The man was an odd duck and perhaps even a criminal although he was acquitted of molestation charges once and paid off another "victim" in the 90's. Those transgressions are now refueling hate and negative feeling for the man, and to those people that feel that way, I get it and thats your right and priviledge, but for now I'm looking past that sordid part of his life.<br /><br /> He was a towering talent, born to entertain and he did it well for four decades. His premature death at age 50 thrusts him in to the upper strata of "Pop Culture Icons". He has joined Marilyn, Elvis and James Dean as an American Pop legend and he earned it the American way, with hard work and immense talent. We can dissect his life and criticize him another day, for now R.I.P. Michael Jackson. That's what I think, Thank You...<br /><br /></span>James J. Benoithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04572664698139323838noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-33403870109276876832009-06-24T14:32:00.007-04:002009-06-24T17:05:44.617-04:00Dateline: London: Save the U.S from Europeanization!Some things go well together; peanut butter and chocolate, beautiful girls and powerful boats, BBQ and tailgate parties, the list is endless. Somethings don't fit together so well; the Democrat party and governence, being drunk and driving, Ted Kennedy and driving. This list is also endless. Despite what the Obama Administration and many progressive/ liberals think, the U.S. is much better off being widely separated both physically and philisophically from Western Europe. Here is the beginning of my post. <span class="fullpost">The barrier of the Atlantic used to afford the U.S. enough space to breath in, to create in, to be American in. While the great old Imperial powers of Europe receded from the stage of international leadership the U.S. stepped forward. When Western Europe slipped into its current form of modern socialism, the U.S. solidified itself as the most powerful, least likely to be over-regulated, most efficient economy in world history. While science and technology in Western Europe stagnated, the U.S. continued to make one world changing breakthrough after another. We go to the moon, they watch. We build a world class medical system, they sit for months waiting to see a doctor. Why Obamatrons think that England or France just "does it better" is beyond me. Having been there, let me assure you, we don't want to be like them. The cost of fuel forces average people to ride around on scooters and in tiny little clown cars. Most of the people of Europe believe the "global warming" propaganda without question, no debate allowed. They get "free health care", the latest Obama move toward a Euro-style U.S., yet people can't find a dentist that will see them. Some people are pulling their own teeth in England, their National Heath Care system dentists have NO incentive to take on more patients. When it comes to health care in England, apparently "patience" is a BIG part of surviving England's free health care. "Cap and Trade" is certainly the biggest government power grab ever, and it's right out of the European handbook. When in doubt, tax 'em, the English top rate is at 51% and rising. The pushback in England has begun, with members of Parliment abusing the public trust with phony expense claims, living like Kings while they raise taxes on the people and are struggling to keep services in place that they have been using to buy public favor with. Believe me,we don't want to be like Europe, what they do doesn't work.<br /></span>James J. Benoithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04572664698139323838noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-90227802316870912072009-06-24T02:06:00.004-04:002009-06-24T02:13:39.378-04:00The adolescent angst of ObamaThis is an article by the eminent political observer Michael Barone. I don't think conservatives or liberals can rightly claim him as one of their own. He has worked for both CNN and Fox News channel, written for Time, <em>Obamaweek</em>, sorry Newsweek and has authored more than a few books. This article is well worth everyone's time.<br /> <span class="fullpost"> <br /><br />by Michael Barone<br /><br />There is a tendency for newly installed presidents, like adolescents suddenly liberated from adult supervision, to do the exact opposite of what their predecessors did. Presidents of both parties indulge in this behavior, though Democrats who campaign as candidates of hope and change are more likely to do so.<br /><br />Some of this is a legitimate response to the political process: Voters tend to elect presidents who seem to possess qualities and views they thought lacking in their predecessors. But some of it, and especially in the case of Barack Obama, seems to come from an adolescentlike confidence that everything done by those who came before is (insert your own generation’s expletive here).<br /><br />We have seen this spectacularly in the dozen days since the June 12 Iranian election. Back in July 2007, Obama said that he would meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and other tyrants without preconditions. Grown-up squares like George W. Bush wouldn’t talk to these guys, so as the avatar of the generation of hope and change, Obama would. Obama figured he was cool enough to get the mullahs to agree to renounce nuclear weapons and all that hate stuff.<br /><br />Obama has held to this ever since. Before June 12 he said he would give the Iranian leaders till the end of the year to be enchanted. When millions of Iranians started demonstrating in the streets, denouncing the obvious election fraud and in some cases calling for an end to the regime, his initial responses verged on stony indifference.<br /><br />He expressed “deep concern” but said he didn’t want to “meddle.” He issued a statement on June 20 calling on the Iranian government “to stop all violent and unjust actions.” Finally, in a hastily called news conference Tuesday he for the first time uttered the verb “condemn” and said he was moved by the video of YouTube martyr Neda Soltan being shot down by the mullahs’ gunmen.<br /><br />But he clearly hasn’t abandoned his policy of seeking the good opinion of tyrants. He didn’t even rescind the State Department’s invitations of Iranian diplomats to attend U.S. embassy Fourth of July celebrations (halal hot dogs, anyone?). If Bush refused to entertain the emissaries of the Iranian theocrats, it must be right to do the opposite. But even anonymous State Department officials are saying that the chances are dismal for fruitful negotiations with Ahmedinejad or the tyrant Obama insists on calling “the supreme leader” by Obama’s deadline —something that seemed obvious to me and many others well before June 12. A regime of tyrants dedicated to hatred of America, Britain and Israel is not going to be persuaded to abandon a central goal by even the most dazzling display of adolescent charm.<br /><br />The other example of adolescent rejection of a policy has come on missile defense. Back in the 1970s and 1980s Democratic politicians opposed missile defense on the grounds — mistaken in my view, but arguable at the time — that it would destabilize the balance of nuclear terror between the United States and the Soviet Union. Democrats have clung to that position even after the fall of the Soviet Union and Obama, as a senator and presidential candidate, joined them, routinely expressing doubts that missile defense could ever work.<br /><br />As president, he has singled out missile defense for cuts, even in the face of missile launches by North Korea and evidence of continuing missile development by Iran. Bush abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and pushed ahead on missile defense, so it must be bad even if there’s no U.S.-Soviet balance of terror to destabilize any more.<br /><br />Fortunately there has been some adult supervision: Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in anticipation of a North Korean launch, has activated missile defense operations in Hawaii.<br /><br />Obama has not taken an adolescent approach across the board. Despite the yearning of many Democrats for American defeat in Iraq and withdrawal from Afghanistan, he has pushed for something like victory in those theaters.<br /><br />But he is persistent in seeking negotiations with the mullahs and obviously disinclined to increase the small chance of the far more promising outcome of regime change. Plus, Obama shows a continued distaste for missile defense when tyrants are aiming missiles at us and our friends.<br /><br />These moves show an adolescent determination to renounce the policies of those who came before, no matter what. As parents know, it takes time for an adolescent to grow up. <br /></span>Auguste Ballzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03069477713979392235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-14817083445379416032009-06-20T23:47:00.006-04:002009-06-21T00:01:13.272-04:00To Arms Gentle Knights Errant, Our Maidens’ Virtues needs Defending<strong>By Individualist</strong><br /><em>“The Purpose of government is to limit the needs of its citizens from the involvement of the government.”</em><br /><br /><strong><em>To Arms, To Arms my Valiant Warrior Princes<br />We are Charged to Protect our Maiden’s Virtue<br />Her voice so like the warble of Gentle Finches<br />Ere All Silenced by Enemy slashing Slanders, too</em></strong> <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTMhQ_g68OCNId52qxjs2pZkvQaiK4OzgKid-Jdf_u579gf9Xfv5gaojFTQtVWTuDnpCgHdbYKuGYJOWlpCkzZTaD2PWk6bVEOzBUVBIEQZgcmKYkhkwo67hNBpkEVPcZY783UlD4csdc/s1600-h/KnightandTroll.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 158px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTMhQ_g68OCNId52qxjs2pZkvQaiK4OzgKid-Jdf_u579gf9Xfv5gaojFTQtVWTuDnpCgHdbYKuGYJOWlpCkzZTaD2PWk6bVEOzBUVBIEQZgcmKYkhkwo67hNBpkEVPcZY783UlD4csdc/s320/KnightandTroll.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349622849088850338" /></a><br /><br /><em><strong>So I Implore you Gentle Conservative Vassals<br />Who wish to Arm Against the Trolls’ Breath<br />Carry on to Glean Shields against the Missiles <br />For Honor’s Loss is a Fate worse than Death</strong></em><br /><br />Reference: <a href="http://shermansmarch.blogspot.com/2009/06/sexual-obssession-into-dungeons-of.html">Trollywood</a><br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br />In the first part of this post I evaluated several examples of the liberal’s attempts to silence conservative women by quite frankly sexually harassing them. I pointed out the tactics they use. They call them sluts and attack their demeanor. They have liberals openly ridicule them; they have men lambast them by talking of sexually abusing them. They make jokes about rape and openly disparage them. Then when this is done the “feminists” will reluctantly comment on the abhorrent nature of the statements but will then proceed to lecture that conservatives should quit doing it either without giving examples or dragging out factual errors made by them 17 years ago. They do this to ridicule and condemn and to make conservative women want to stop taking a public stance in the arena of politics. Or as Andrew Klavan at Big Hollywood suggests is the standard answer of the left to Conservative thought, Shut The F*** Up.<br /><br />So what are we conservatives to do? As conservatives we must step up and have at the monstrous Trolls that are behind this. We must act as the knights errant of Cervantes’ tales and defend conservative women from these attacks. We must not shy from this course. For this tactic is as old as the notion of chivalry itself, even older. If you attack a woman’s virtue you also attack the honor of the men who are their husbands, fathers, brothers and family friends. It is a Pas d’Armes and if the challenge is not answered then they have the better of you. One way to show a man a coward and thus your dominance of him is too openly disparage his woman. I know the feminists don’t want to hear it but it is ingrained in out nature. The insult is effective as it is tied to our survival (procreation).<br /><br /> We conservatives tend to believe in Individualism and so we do for ourselves. When we get together we focus on what the government is doing to us and how to either stop the government or get around the stricture. We don’t tend to form groups to keep people from talking, acting or thinking in certain proscribed ways. It is the opposite of our nature. We will answer challenges and speak out against policies we disapprove but for the most part when it comes to the verbal art of ridicule we are usually on the defensive.<br /> <br />We need to learn to take notice and stand up to these attacks. We have failed to fend off the Trolls usually under the assumption that these base statements are beneath our contempt. So now we are overrun. We need to see the signs. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibNeLmbLSCdImB4Vpni8W4wLvjJg6HWo9-gohZ9JuyTdxD8qqrmXVZ5hnbwNMFB8KDa0p0olZ1lFw5vJsP8ZZqrQpHmtMe0_2Z819i2VJptji7G4vdOV1e5SsuA7yC17EBE-daK3ZixpU/s1600-h/TrollStop.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 218px; height: 253px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibNeLmbLSCdImB4Vpni8W4wLvjJg6HWo9-gohZ9JuyTdxD8qqrmXVZ5hnbwNMFB8KDa0p0olZ1lFw5vJsP8ZZqrQpHmtMe0_2Z819i2VJptji7G4vdOV1e5SsuA7yC17EBE-daK3ZixpU/s320/TrollStop.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349624117629111746" /></a><br /><br /> <strong>Warning Trolls</strong><br /><br />But you may say to me Indy there you go again. Chivalry is dead, this is the 21st Century. These ideas are gone. Who still preaches those values. Interesting enough there is Stacy McDonald author of the book Raising Maidens who talks of teaching virtue to young ladies and the bond between Mother and Daughter.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJE98-Za1Dtmn0XT7OvCgvIkkYniAGMva9_F098VRnc8_g1M2AeucnR65ZOzKAbtB9QEGBHtoQZLd0YZgGdz-s9ZIw5PFegKzmPzW3akd_ybivkAB3VIkmtf5NadB2snUo1P28EuBHV0c/s1600-h/MaidensandKnights.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 246px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJE98-Za1Dtmn0XT7OvCgvIkkYniAGMva9_F098VRnc8_g1M2AeucnR65ZOzKAbtB9QEGBHtoQZLd0YZgGdz-s9ZIw5PFegKzmPzW3akd_ybivkAB3VIkmtf5NadB2snUo1P28EuBHV0c/s320/MaidensandKnights.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349624505563001554" /></a><br /><br />She is a <a href="http://www.maidensofvirtue.com/helpingservingyourknightins.html">21st century source </a>for the virtue of maidenhood and also has some insight on her blog as to the true Knights in Shining Armor that are there to protect the young maiden’s virtue, Fathers.<br /><br />In reading through here blog I can see that she would be the first to condemn any man who jokes of “rape” or “Hate F***” or whatever euphemism the leftists wish to use. There are no moral equivalencies for our mothers when it comes to this. When someone starts talking of what Rush Limbaugh may or may not have done 17 years ago I think a Mom would have this answer:<br /><br />“Two wrongs don’t make a right”<br /><br />I find it Ironic that in the very flower of Victorian womanhood one would have a more enlightened answer to jokes inferring the rape of daughters than the modern feminist movement.<br /><br />So we must be our own men and we must protect our woman. This is the standard upon which we must charge forward. We conservative must act as the questing Knights Errant of Arthurian Legend or for the women as Le Pucelle (the Maid), Joan of Arc. At Big Hollywood several have been having forth at David Lettermen for his comments about Sara Palin’s children. But what are the weapons of a 21st century cyber knight. The Blog, Music, TV, Literature, the Theater all the trappings of our culture are the playing field. The weapons are satire, thoughtful reasoning and impassioned belief. The armor is knowledge of the facts and ability to see through sophistry and hyperbole. Are there tools of combat that we have left out? The Protest March for one. Not normally our thing, we have come out in a big way on Tax Day at the Tea Parties and it must have had an effect since the leftists at MSNBC had to devote so much time denigrating it with sexual references.<br /><br />But there are other weapons, nastier ones. The Nuisance Suit is one. Sara Palin has had to spend one half million dollars just to fend off bogus lawsuits. Tom Delay was continually indicted by an unscrupulous partisan state’s attorney who for two years kept throwing out charges that would get dropped. The same guy did this to Kay Bailey Hutchinson as well. Do we have clandestine squads of bloggers to gather on the internet just to dream up ways to harass democrats. This is where I’d like to draw the line but there is also a part of me that would like payback I must admit. Part of me would like to see a concerted conservative effort cause a David Letterman to be fired through the filing of nuisance suits against CBS using the same tactics that were successfully used on fellow conservative. I’d like to see this even though I know such impulse is wrong.<br /><br />Would we not like to have payback for Clarence Thomas, Judge Bork, Newt Gingritch, Carrie Prajean and all others that have been so unfairly maligned for just expressing their political viewpoints. Even if the sentiment just is to sate our thirst for vengeance. Especially if such tactics employed against Frank, Pelosi , Dodd Schumer and the rest might mean a leftist not being reelected. You see my point. Political survival can be at stake. The Knights of medieval times had considered similar issues in warfare back then. Certain weapons were considered dishonorable. One could use them to win the day but one could not regain one’s honor or the honor of those they are charged to protect if they are used. The longbow was considered as such.<br /><br />But as to those who cannot be civil to a woman because she disagrees politically. Who call her slut, talk to her as if she was not human, talk suggestively of Rape. Perhaps giving this kind of grief would not be unjustified. After all is there not a difference between how a knight would fight on the field of honor against another noble knight and how a knight would deal with a horrid monstrosity such as a giant, dragon or troll. Are we not right in seeing those that act in the manner above in such a light. The question is not an easy one.<br /><br />Whatever the weapons my friend the call to action must be clear. We must begin to fight back. We cannot allow this to go unanswered any more. As Edward Bulwer-Lytton states in his 1839 play Richilieu; Or the Conspiracy:<br /><br /><em><strong>“True, This! —<br />Beneath the rule of men entirely great,<br />The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold<br />The arch-enchanters wand! — itself a nothing! —<br />But taking sorcery from the master-hand<br />To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike<br />The loud earth breathless! — Take away the sword —<br />States can be saved without it!”</strong></em><br /><br />We must find some way to make certain that liberals who feel empowered to use lies and slander receive the biting thrust of our pens in answer. I will leave you with this quote from Cervantes’ The Man of La Mancha.<br /><br /><strong><em>“Happy she that might body and soul adorn<br /> With thy rich livery and thy high desire;<br /> And see thy happy knight, by honour borne,<br /> In cruel combat, broaching out his ire.”</em></strong><br /></span>Individualisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005025873042230314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-38812944119738169982009-06-20T23:20:00.006-04:002009-06-20T23:40:44.993-04:00Sexual Obssession, Into the Dungeons of the Mindset of Trollywood<strong>By Individualist</strong><br /><em>“The Purpose of government is to limit the needs of its citizens from the involvement of the government.” </em><br /><br /><strong><em>Moving from Shadow to Night, Hiding from Truth’s Grasp<br />Sinking into the depths where cavernous plotting doth twist<br />Lies and Deception mask the Hatred and Venom of the Asp<br />Where Power and Fame are the Lost Soul’s only Grist </em></strong><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2OgSk3bUbr41VETWIvG0vjblMa_xFHgLT3mXo2-Dt4Uvj10yvzHwHuY7pgJwQGz7Vy3P4p2QY3WLh681TP7eTiL1TlHGDbNxB6_ELW9hvaoJj6bCfHy7YFNKVUC84Ou3PVkHqaYxoG3Y/s1600-h/DungeonTrolls.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349616181859201202" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 208px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2OgSk3bUbr41VETWIvG0vjblMa_xFHgLT3mXo2-Dt4Uvj10yvzHwHuY7pgJwQGz7Vy3P4p2QY3WLh681TP7eTiL1TlHGDbNxB6_ELW9hvaoJj6bCfHy7YFNKVUC84Ou3PVkHqaYxoG3Y/s320/DungeonTrolls.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This will be the first of two posts this week related to each other in concept. This post will cover serious and adult topics of the liberals need to denigrate and humiliate conservative women through sexual depraved insults and slanders. This post will deal with the what and potentially the why. The next will deal with the possible response we should have to it. This may be lengthy as I feel I need to cover material to prove my point. Enjoy.<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br />I have to travel a lot for my work and stay in Hotels. One particular Hotel offers movies labeled “Still in Theaters”, “Recent Attractions” and “Adult” for sale. Just click the orange button and you’ve spent $16. You can page through the movies four at a time by hitting nine. If you get through the Recent Attractions it will take you to the Adult films and the first one that is shown is below:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7lRq2SgCnUvdR2TmZBEP0Mwk4KXTmWIMYEWcHgqRx8ojsTnpGGoocrbxu6VTbefRUdr5JdmWjLbadf9zHSY_r4GbaDRGT_D9TeeGeR-QFREOT8LLHSesEPZ_k6DKdD4SCwBWNoF04KW0/s1600-h/NailinPalin.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349616601143800770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 205px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7lRq2SgCnUvdR2TmZBEP0Mwk4KXTmWIMYEWcHgqRx8ojsTnpGGoocrbxu6VTbefRUdr5JdmWjLbadf9zHSY_r4GbaDRGT_D9TeeGeR-QFREOT8LLHSesEPZ_k6DKdD4SCwBWNoF04KW0/s320/NailinPalin.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Just one click too many and there you have it the Best Seller 4 and a half star porn film “Who’s Nailin Palin”. What a sweet tribute to the Governor of Alaska, I wonder who is behind it. I found it so disturbing I decided to research what was behind this.<br /><br />It was released by Larry Flint’s Hustler magazine in October of 2008 just in time for the election. There was a link to the script which starts out with two Russians whose Tank breaks down outside of Palin’s house and she evidently uses her “diplomatic” skills to improve relations with the Ruskies. I did not read further. At this point it is not the Porn that is getting to me it is the venomous cruelty behind it.<br /><br />In my research I found that this industrious crew has not had enough of slandering the Governor, no they want to make more such movies. On June 12 Hustler’s Roger Klipon, Krypton, whatever made an offer to Carrie Prajean for $500K below:<br /><br /><em>“We were so sorry to hear about your recent departure from the Miss California Organization. However I think we have some news that can turn this situation around. Your reign as Miss California doesn’t have to end.<br /><br />Hustler Video would like to offer you to play the role of California in our new interactive parody film, Your Nailin Palin. Your scene would feature some hot girl-on-girl action with adult performer Lisa Ann who’s portraying the former VP candidate. Don’t worry you’ll have some chance to have opposite sex as well. Can’t wait to hear what you think.”</em><br /><br />Classy huh! Klipon is definitely a people person isn’t he.<br /><br />Greg Gutfeld has touched on this theme at Big Hollywood.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi64VQW4W1sLKiPoF0QaAUrZ7-ww1FVhnyIVnU0MVAsUlhmFDIKD8eKABxDU_OUF56TjzluyIPa25qQetvp26w2ao5rF0V7nMvxw9jUBeZsaEIJG_9VAb9K0WfB8uAkioJkwarx-JEZcMs/s1600-h/MnMVid.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349617102058225890" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 176px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi64VQW4W1sLKiPoF0QaAUrZ7-ww1FVhnyIVnU0MVAsUlhmFDIKD8eKABxDU_OUF56TjzluyIPa25qQetvp26w2ao5rF0V7nMvxw9jUBeZsaEIJG_9VAb9K0WfB8uAkioJkwarx-JEZcMs/s320/MnMVid.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggutfeld/2009/04/07/daily-gut-eminem/">Eminem Post</a></strong><br /><br />Another post by Mr. Gutfeld on Big Hollywood about the writings of Henry “the Tool” Rollins regarding Ann Coulter:<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggutfeld/2009/01/09/an-%e2%80%9copen%e2%80%99-letter-to-henry-rollins/#idc-ctools">Henry Rollin's Post</a></strong><br /><br />Essentially Mr. Rollins expresses his superior debating skills in the old Lincoln Douglas debate format where his reasoning is as follows. You’re going to be my sex slave and I will force myself on you and then you will Shut the F*** up. Has a way with the ladies, doesn’t he.<br /><br />So I am now asking myself the question what is it with the left and their obsession with conservative women. After all this is not just petty and trite, it is sickeningly mean. Larry Flint is supposedly sitting on a Gold mine so what is he so unhappy about? What the heck did Carrie Prejean do? What justifies trying to harm everyone that disagrees with you politically? How Pathetic!<br /><br />Then of course there are wannabees. Here’s a juicy clip from the “Anger” guy or is it “Auger” guy. He is digging himself into a hole.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4FytUlgj9E7rUP2Ng8QR97wXkzNOf3EGUFvtS9Zj14JK4xYJ2eLLcVk6fEdzeRfUH_5JQgi4lfxQVcu9Wt5TdXxLkOUxThRLzOos7XSvUbmg1a4TPVdiCuQiI7qOVjww7PDCnMlbg8eU/s1600-h/MalkinNot.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349617640786209202" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4FytUlgj9E7rUP2Ng8QR97wXkzNOf3EGUFvtS9Zj14JK4xYJ2eLLcVk6fEdzeRfUH_5JQgi4lfxQVcu9Wt5TdXxLkOUxThRLzOos7XSvUbmg1a4TPVdiCuQiI7qOVjww7PDCnMlbg8eU/s320/MalkinNot.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Auger Guy posted a video of two Asian women in a Lesbian scene. The video edited out by me showed another women in white panties being pulled down by the woman shown here in the picture. Auger Guy had this to say:<br /><br /><em>“And is it just me or does the girl at the front look like Michelle Malkin? Ohhhhhh, I just thought of a horribly devious thing to do. Maybe I should rename this post to “Michell Malkin lesbian sex tape released”. That oughta genrate some pervy search engine traffic.”</em><br /><br />That’s right Auger don’t they all look alike. It’s not a bigoted cliché when “progressives” do it. When his video was flagged and removed this was his response:<br /><br /><em>“this is the work or some loser hater, not a genuinely offended person. It isn’t as if it matters anyway, this is hardly an important video to me. Either it was one of the normal boring haters who thought they were getting back at me by doing or it was a Malkin supporter. Either way, f*** you losers.” </em><br /><br />Evidently he posts stills of naked women and suggestive titles over some liberal rant because people who like “porn” don’t know how to hit the “stop” button. But it doesn’t matter anyways (his words). What strikes me as funny is that he would post this of Michelle Malkin and then call someone who was offended by that “the Hater”. But this guy is just fooling around but he doesn’t even clue in to what a slanderous fool he is.<br /><br />Then we come to David Bedwetterman. His non-apology was actually more offensive than his joke. I did not mention rape. No Dave, you just inferred it by making the impregnator in the joke a man who was publicly accused of rape. I meant the older daughter. Yes and all 17 year girls who make a mistake and get pregnant and make the courageous decision to keep their child instead of murdering it deserve to have jokes made about them about rapists impregnating them. Supposedly he gave a real apology yesterday but at this point it is just to save his career so I did not bother to find it and listen.<br /><br />Just when I thought the gutter’s bottom was reached we slide right into the sewer drain. The most offensive I think came in the response from the National Organization for Women.<br /><br /><strong>Now Response</strong><br /><em>“The sexualization of girls and women in the media is reaching new lows these days — it is exploitative and has a negative effect on how all women and girls are perceived and how they view themselves. Letterman also joked about what he called Palin’s “slutty flight attendant look” — yet another example of how the media love to focus on a woman politician’s appearance, especially as it relates to her sexual appeal to men. Someone of Letterman’s stature, who appears on what used to be known as “the Tiffany Network” (CBS), should be above wallowing in the juvenile, sexist mud that other comedians and broadcasters seem to prefer.<br /><br />On that point, it’s important to note that when Chelsea Clinton was 13 years old she was the target of numerous insults based on her appearance. Rush Limbaugh even referred to her as the “White House dog.” NOW hopes that all the conservatives who are fired up about sexism in the media lately will join us in calling out sexism when it is directed at women who aren’t professed conservatives.” </em><br /><br />So Letterman should be taken to task for the “slutty flight attendant” line but not for inferring “rape” of a child. Exactly what in the blue blazes does a comment that Rush Limbaugh made in 1992 have to do with it. Well NOW let’s examine that comment shall we.<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://lyingliar.com/?p=17">Lying Liar</a></strong><br /><br />Let’s see, the reference you give about conservatives getting fired up evidently references the Franken lie and not the actual show that aired. Franken could not even get the year of the show correct, 1992 and not 1993. So Bedwetterman makes a “rape” joke about a child (actually two children because the listener can infer either one) we conservatives are supposed to wear hair shirts because AL Franken lied about what Rush Limbaugh said 17 years ago. I guess the line about women never forgetting slight applies here.<br /><br />Ok NOW you are voted the <strong>Organization Most Likely to Support a Misogynist</strong>, the <strong>OSMOSIS</strong> award. That’s right Move Over Taliban the NOW Gals have edged you out. Watch for white powder in the reward envelope when it is sent back because I believe Bin Ladin had it last.<br /><br />But we are not done with the conservobabes yet. No sir we have heard from Hustler now let’s hear from Playboy. There was an article on Playboy’s website that was eventually pulled because it was so offensive by Guy Cimbalo.<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://www.rightwingnews.com/mt331/2009/06/playboys_hit_piece_on_conserva.php">Right Wing News</a></strong><br /><br />It is discussed very eloquently by Right Wing News. Essentially it is a list of 10 top conservative women Mr. Cimbalo would like to Hate F***. “Rape” involves hating and intercourse does it not. Hmmm….<br /><br />These aggrieved women are<br />• Michelle Malkin<br />• Megyn Kelly<br />• Mary Katharine Ham<br />• Amanda Carpenter<br />• Elisabeth Hasselbeck<br />• Dana Perino<br />• Laura Ingraham<br />• Pamela Geller<br />• Michele Bachmann<br />• Peggy Noonan<br /><br />And again the so-called feminist response itself is in its own way more hurtful than the article.<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/06/01/playboy_conservababes/index.html">Salon.com</a></strong><br /><br /><strong>http://www.usnews.com/blogs/erbe/2009/06/03/playboy-mix-of-sex-hate-and-politics-demeans-conservative-women.html</strong><br /><br />I could elaborate but I will chose instead to list the post by “Unbelievable” instead:<br /><br /><strong>Unbelievable... </strong><br /><em>“So, advocating the rape of someone who holds political views that you disagree with is somehow less repulsive than advocating the rape of someone who holds the same political views you do? And in fact it is a sliding scale. Michele Malkin being further to one end than Amanda Carpenter.<br /><br />Really? I think rape is equally repulsive no matter who the victim is. I think assigning worth to people based on their political views is also repulsive.<br />What? Did your editor tell you (that) you must write an article condemning Playboy and this is the best you can come up with? You're as disgusting as the author of the Playboy article.”</em><br /><br />In conclusion what should we conservatives make of this. Right Wing News is spot on. This is not just meanness and off the cuff ad hominem attacks. This is an attempt to threaten conservative women and scare them off by indulging in the basest and sickest sexual references. The so-called feminists compound the issue with fake statements of condemnation that end up being off hand insults aimed at their conservative values. You can see with the repetition of the tactic that this a just a play from a strategy book.<br /><br />But the motivations behind it are belied by their words. Liberal men fear conservative women because you actually have to listen to them and to convince them you have to show them. With a liberal woman you can pretend to listen to their rants about misogyny and equal rights and at the right time you parrot what they say back to them. Just like the snickers commercial where the guy asks the girl back to his room and then saves himself by “blogging” for the cause. Because all a liberal woman cares about is your submission to identity politics. With a conservative woman she does not involve herself in identity politics. She actually wants an honest answer. There are no cheat sheets on the correct answers in articles in women’s magazines. Hint for liberals: It’s called independent thought.<br /><br />So it is easier to be crude and sexual harass them to make them feel small in an attempt to keep them from speaking out. The feminists play right into it. In the Salon.com articles Michelle Malkin has her husband to write her speeches for her. She is derided as the “little woman” dependent on some man. The insults have layers to them. The left cannot have famous conservative women because they would lose that leg of identity politics. How can you tell a 20 something male he has to vote liberal to get laid when there are gorgeous women like Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Laura Ingraham et al. The answer is you can’t. So they do everything to hurt these woman. Politics is more important than Truth to a Liberal.<br /><br />So they act like Trolls. How a propros!<br /></span>Individualisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11005025873042230314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-14884614619099212472009-06-17T14:18:00.002-04:002009-06-17T14:26:40.465-04:00Lies, Damn Lies & The EnvironmentalistsFirst off let me say that I have no interest in leaving behind to my daughters a world that is full of polluted air, poisonous water and devoid of trees. But the environmentalist movement (Eco-Nazis) have gone way too far in trying to control humanity by their constant use of scare tactics. <span class="fullpost">Starting with the patron saint of Eco-Nazism – Rachel Carson – these people are responsible for more deaths than the total body count of World War Two (70 million). The Eco-Nazis are wreaking havoc across the globe and no one seems to be standing in their way.<br /><br />In Africa alone it is estimated that at least 50 million people have died from malaria since 1972. Why since 1972? Well that was the year that the US and UN instituted a ban on DDT. DDT is a safe, cheap pesticide that eradicates the mosquitoes that carry and transmit malaria. Why was it banned? Because in her nauseatingly propagandistic book “Silent Spring”, Rachel Carson asserted that because DDT was working it’s way into the diets of birds, eventually the birds would produce eggs with shells too thin to survive the gestation process and therefore would go extinct and no more bird songs would be heard, therefore the “silent spring.” Everything about her claims has been since proven to be completely wrong. But the Eco-Nazis and the sheeple that support them got the DDT ban in place and now 30+ years later 50 million Africans have died plus another 20-25 million worldwide in areas prone to mosquito infestation, all because the surest, cheapest way to prevent them from contracting the disease that killed them, was denied them to save some birds who were never even in danger. Anybody out there see anything wrong with this?<br /><br />How about the issue of air pollution? Remember how we were told that living in a large city like New York or LA was the equivalent of smoking two packs a day due to the poor quality of the air in places like that? Utter nonsense. If this were true, why was there never any type of spike in the incidence of emphysema or other dangerous pulmonary diseases in those cities? Same thing with “second hand smoke.” The human respiratory system is basically a filtering system that extracts oxygen from ambient air for the body to use, but also pulls out a lot of other potentially bad stuff, stuff that can be found in tobacco smoke. So if lots of these toxins are pulled out of tobacco smoke in their first filtering through the lungs, how is it possible that the filtered air expelled from the lungs be more polluted than the original smoke that was not filtered? It is stupefying how supposedly intelligent people fall for this garbage.<br /><br />Because of the Eco-Nazis and their use of phony science to support their claims, the American auto industry is now a state run enterprise. The ridiculous and draconian CAFE emissions standards imposed on the industry by the Eco-Nazis and their sheeple in Congress, along with the presidents of both parties who signed the legislation, GM, Ford and Chrysler were forced to make cars that didn’t perform the way their customers wanted them too, and were made more expensive to boot. The Eco-Nazis want to eliminate the internal combustion engine and now they’ve got the means to do it. Think about this for a few minutes; the earth is 75% water, 25% land mass. So over 75% of the earth, no pollution is occurring. Of the 25% land mass only around 5% (or less) is actually occupied by man. That means that over approximately 95% of the earth’s surface, no eco-damaging activity is taking place. And I have no clue as to what percent of the remaining 5% actually has polluting activity taking place. So who in their logical mind can believe that all the internal combustion engines and all the factories, and all the campfires, and all the Bar-B-Q’s, and all the candles, and all the lawnmowers, and all the cow farts in all the world can actually have a permanent global global effect on the quality of the air on earth? Even volcanic explosions only have a temporary effect on air quality, over a limited area and only for a relatively short period of time.<br /><br />The agenda of the Eco-Nazis is to control humanity. That may seem like a stretch, but it is true. And to do this they want to eliminate cheap energy. Cheap energy saves lives, it is indispensable to life in the 21st century. What would medical care look like if the energy to run hospitals or research facilities was four to five times more expensive. If the Eco-Nazis were actually serious about having safe, cheap, clean, inexhaustible energy sources there would be no opposition to nuclear energy. Solar, wind and other types of alternative energy sources are just not viable right now and won’t be for at least twenty years if then even. It is folly to spend money in these economic times to purse any of them. But that doesn’t square with the agenda of the Eco-Nazis. And now they’ve got a friend in the White House.<br /><br />The Eco-Nazis and the sheeple that support them do not care about condemning to death innocent people if their needs conflict with lies of the Eco-Nazis. The Eco-Nazis come clothed in a cloak of benign desires to “save the planet.” And they are the only ones who can save it. But they don’t care about being wrong, they don’t care about tens of millions of malaria victims, they don’t care about wrecking economies, they don’t care about anything but making you live your life they way they want you to live it. And they try to do it by denying you access to the energy you need to live life as you see fit. If people let men like Al Gore and Robert Kennedy Jr. define the way we can live our lives as free Americans, well then, they will richly deserve the fate that befalls them.<br /><br /></span>Auguste Ballzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03069477713979392235noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-46285809463973525912009-06-16T12:08:00.004-04:002009-06-16T12:17:16.316-04:00Liberal Myths vs. The TruthIn America, the post 1968 liberal movement has tried (and largely succeeded) to hijack the public discourse and re-write American history in the best Stalinist tradition. Here are three popular liberal myths with an acompanying short historical summary exploding each one. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br /><strong>Liberal Myth No.1</strong><br />The United States was founded by liberals seeking a change from the status quo.<br /><br /><strong>The Truth</strong><br />The United States was founded (if you discount the failed Jamestown settlement) by the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Puritans were the most conservative sect of the conservative Calvanist movement of Protestant Europe. <em><strong><em>These were the religious right of their d</em>ay</strong></em>. They left their homes in Europe to be free of overbearing government intrusion in their lives. The foremost being religious persecution. They sought to build a place where they could worship their God as they saw fit. A place where the government would be relatively weak. Over time the Puritan model was used by those who wrote our founding documents as a template for the new republic. Those who preferred the European way of doing things (large powerful central governments, state run labor “guilds”, a governing “elite” class) were called “Loyalists” and we call their descendants “Canadians” today. Even then the New York colony was known to be the most liberal of the original 13. And they were the last colony to sign the Declaration of Independence. And it was touch and go as to whether or not they would. As Casey Stengel once said, “you can look it up.”<br /><br /><strong>Liberal Myth No.2</strong><br />It was liberals who formed the anti-slavery movement which led to the Civil War.<br /><br /><strong>The Truth</strong><br />The anti-slavery movement, the “abolitionists” was founded in the evangelical Protestant churches of what would become the Union states. It’s leaders from John Brown on down were conservative, evangelical Christian ministers and church leaders. These men and women, informed by their faith, were the first ones to sacrifice their lives to put an end to institutionalized slavery in the United States. And they stirred the entire nation. It was the southern states, dominated by Democrats, that tried to destroy the Union to hold onto their slaves. And once war broke out, in liberal New York, there were the “draft riots” to protest “Mr. Lincoln’s war to free the slaves.”<br /><br /><strong>Liberal Myth No.3</strong><br />Liberals were the prime movers in America’s effort to defeat Hitler.<br /><br /><strong>The Truth</strong><br />Before Dec. 7, 1941 opposition to entering “another European War” was widespread and pervaded both sides of the political aisle. FDR believed he had to keep his meetings with Churchill clandestine even after having swept into his 3rd term in 1940, because the entire country did not want send American boys to die in Europe. This opposition was led primarily by World War vets who knew what war in Europe was like and did not want to send there sons to die in another one. And as for those in America who held Nazi sympathies, can you guess which American this author was writing about? <br /><br /><em>“ Writing at the time, Joe applauded Hitler's insight in realizing the German people's "need of a common enemy, someone of whom to make the goat. Someone, by whose riddance the Germans would feel they had cast out the cause of their predicament. It was excellent psychology, and it was too bad that it had to be done to the Jews. The dislike of the Jews, however, was well-founded. They were at the heads of all big business, in law etc. It is all to their credit for them to get so far, but their methods had been quite unscrupulous ... the lawyers and prominent judges were Jews, and if you had a case against a Jew, you were nearly always sure to lose it. ... As far as the brutality is concerned, it must have been necessary to use some.” </em> The paragraph is from a biography of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. by Edward Renahan Jr. At the time Kennedy was FDR’s ambassador to Great Britain.<br /><br />FDR himself, in his mis-guided ego regarding his own powers of persuasion, felt that he could negotiate with Hitler if the need to do so ever surfaced. He believed that Hitler would not lie to him as he had to Chamberlain (another liberal). Sound like anyone we just inaugurated? As the war in Europe approached final allied victory, FDR also believed, and told Churchill, that he and he alone knew how to handle “Uncle Joe” (FDR’s condescending name for Stalin). So he believed Stalin’s promise that at the war’s conclusion, Soviet troops would withdraw from the countries they had driven the Nazis out of, and that free elections would be held in these nations. FDR thereby consigned millions of people to Communist, totalitarian, dictatorships for the next 40 years, and gave birth to the Cold War.<br /><br />Had it not been for Pearl Harbor, FDR was quite prepared to see Europe fall, relying on the Atlantic Ocean to give America enough time to build up the forces necessary to defend the homeland and make Hitler think twice about a trans-oceanic invasion.<br /><br />A small historical footnote. It is an old tradition (probably going back to the Continental Army) that the officer corps of our military keep their political affiliations and leanings private until their terms of service were finished. In modern American history, only 5 men have had 5 stars on their shoulders, and they were all WWII commanders: Generals <strong>George Marshall</strong>, FDR’s Chief of Staff, <strong>Dwight D. Eisenhower</strong>, Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Forces, <strong>Omar Bradley</strong>, Commander US Ground Forces European Theater of Operations, <strong>Douglas MacArthur</strong>, Commander US Ground Forces Pacific, and Admiral <strong>Chester Nimitz</strong>, Commander Central Command Pacific. These 5 men developed the strategies, employed the tactics, and led the troops that secured our victories that won WWII. Conservatives or Republicans, all.<br /><br /></span>Auguste Ballzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03069477713979392235noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-24999189149715492552009-06-15T14:43:00.002-04:002009-06-15T14:59:57.264-04:00DATELINE: Omaha BeachIt' serenely quiet as I walk the beach at "Bloody Omaha" of Normandy. No seagulls, no voices, just the soft lapping off the English Channel against the beach. It's a rather unremarkable beach as beaches go, and I seen a whole lot of them. Rather it's the remarkable events that started here before dawn 65 years ago that make this place special. Remarkable young men did the unnatural, they poured out of landing craft and plunged into battle, many for the first time and many for their only time. When you see the terrain you can see why it turned into a killing field. At high tide you still have quite a distance to cover to get to the rise of the land from the beach. The berns and hills above Omaha are tall and imposing. Looking at those steep approaches from their landing craft must have caused a fear I can't identify with. The courage to suck it up and burst out of the Higgins boats and dash for the shore took strength and conviction. Many never made it past the lowering of the ramps, yards from shore would be as close as they get before their lives would end. As I leave Omaha I stop to pick up a couple of peices of trash and walk up the short hill the ends at a draw that gives you driving access to Omaha Beach. German tourist look at me in a curious way as I drop the trash in a receptacle near the parking lot. It clear to me that the don't feel that "Bloody Omaha" is sacred ground, every bit as sacred as Gettysburg or Iwo Jima. I say nothing as the tourists fall silent and munch on apples and boot a soccer ball around as I walk past. Perhaps the look on my face said all that needed to be said.James J. Benoithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04572664698139323838noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1943059365966367147.post-18656204018828911772009-06-12T00:00:00.004-04:002009-06-12T00:56:32.208-04:00The Coming Fall of FireflyPresident Firefly is making "liberal" a bad word again. He now wants military personell to give Miranda warnings to terroists and enemy combatants captured on the battle field. Are court appointed sharia lawyers far Behind?<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br />This latest ridiculousness is only one of the many continuing Firefly embarrassments that display his desire to toss some spoils to the radical hate-American left in the Democratic Party. (Pelosi, Leahy, Frank, etc.) This behavior includes the constant ass-kissing to the perceptions of radical Islamo-fascists and bigoted "moderate Muslims." Firefly tries to persuade the world that the Palestinians are a put upon and persecuted minority when in fact the only minority in the Middle East are the Jews and a racist oppressive majority - Muslim Arabs - who want to destroy the Jewish state.<br /><br />Several pundits have pointed out that Firefly has painted himself into a corner as far as foreign policy is concerned because Republicans are now unified in opposition and if he does not bow to the extremist left on the war, there is an electoral majority against him. And this is only the beginning.<br /><br />Not many people thought, after his assumption of office that he would govern so far from the left. Not with the centrist national security apparatus he assembled. But stupidly, he has done just exactly that. To make matters worse, he rammed through extermely destructive leftist legislation paying for it by compiling more debt in 4 months than George Bush did in 8 years. And more quickly than he expected his poisonous trees are starting to bear fruit.<br /><br />Nothing could have possibly united the right so quickly as his dramatically radical actions. Firefly's executive orders on stem cell research, closing Gitmo and opening the borders all helped galvanize the Republicans. To say nothing of his smug arrogance, backed up by more of the same by the human hand puppets Reid and Pelosi. In just two months Firefly's inadvertant unifying of his political opposition, will be taught for decades in PoliSci classes as the prime example of what an incompetent, self-defeating politcal strategy looks like. Firefly has surpassed even Jimmy Carter for sheer arrogance and ineptitude.<br /><br />In trying to act so quckly to get his agenda through before anyone noticed in a nation set up by it's founders to thwart such radicalism, in a culture that is independent and suspicious of increasing government intrusion, Firefly has ignited a nascent political revolt. And this revolt is only going to grow as the weeks and months pass by. The State Senate of New York has just switched to Republican control, and California has rejected new tax initiatives. These are the bluest of blue states. One cannot slough this off to any sort of red state hysteria. Firefly has brought the banking system under his control, and has done nothing to address its problems. He has also made GM and Chrysler wards of the state with himself as warden. Not a bright future for those companies, I'm afraid. And his next hoped for aquisition is the health care industry. <br /><br />China now fears the debt we have accumulated, and is floating trial balloons to the effect that our borrowing days are numbered. Firefly can't print enough money to paper over that problem.<br /><br />The war in Pakistan and the coming one in Israel with the Palestinians are beyond his control. Israel will not be bullied into suicide.<br /><br />In the European Union the Left just got a big ass-kicking. Gordon Brown's socialist government in the UK will fall soon. Will Firefly's be far behind?<br /><br /></span>Auguste Ballzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03069477713979392235noreply@blogger.com0