Have a Happy New Year

I would like to wish both of my faithful readers the happiest possible year 2010 Anno Domini. May you have great prosperity and health in the coming year.

Our Incompetent (and Corrupt) Government - DOJ

From Andy McCarthy at NRO, We Interrupt this Socialization of Medicine to Bring You an Abdication of Our National Defense

As always, read the whole thing. It discusses the movement of prisoners out of Gitmo but both the Bush and Obama administrations and impropriety in the Department of Justice. The last paragraph;

And then there is the appearance of impropriety. As Tom Joscelyn explains, the Justice Department has taken the lead role in making release determinations — the military command at Gitmo has "zero input" and "zero influence," in its own words. DOJ is rife with attorneys who represented and advocated for the detainees, and, in particular, Attorney General Holder's firm, represented numerous Yemeni enemy combatants. Does Justice not appreciate not only how perilous but how unseemly it appears under the circumstances for it to be leading the charge to release the Yemeni detainees? And could anyone really believe that the supposedly noxious symbolism of Gitmo is more dangerous to Americans than is deporting terrorists to the places where terrorism thrives?

Our Incompetent Government - Congress

One of the great things about the way our government works is that if a law is passed that is later discovered to be flawed, it can be repealed. This applies even of the law is an amendment to the Constitution, e.g. Prohibition.

Found at The Weekly Standard, Reid Bill Says Future Congresses Cannot Repeal Parts of Reid Bill

On page 1020 of the bill we find,

15 ‘‘(C) LIMITATION ON CHANGES TO THIS
16 SUBSECTION.—It shall not be in order in the
17 Senate or the House of Representatives to con
18 sider any bill, resolution, amendment, or con
19 ference report that would repeal or otherwise
20 change this subsection.

Read the post linked above at The Weekly Standard for Sen. Jim DeMint's comments.

Every graduate of a high school civics course (from back in the days when high schools had civics courses) would know how wrong headed and dangerous this is.

Obama Said What ?!?

Ok, I know that this is old news now (see previous post) but it is interesting news.

From the Great Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs, Obama's Nobel Acceptance Speech.

Of course, Charles and I differ. My thoughts on Mr. Obama are well known. Still, when someone says the right things, it must be acknowledged. While I will not (yet) go so far as to say that Mr. Obama is a centrist president I will commend him for the speech that he gave in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. Here it is. Read it all.

Text of Barack Obama Nobel Prize acceptance lecture

Over time, as codes of law sought to control violence within groups, so did philosophers, clerics, and statesmen seek to regulate the destructive power of war. The concept of a “just war” emerged, suggesting that war is justified only when it meets certain preconditions: if it is waged as a last resort or in self-defense; if the forced used is proportional, and if, whenever possible, civilians are spared from violence.

For most of history, this concept of just war was rarely observed. The capacity of human beings to think up new ways to kill one another proved inexhaustible, as did our capacity to exempt from mercy those who look different or pray to a different God. Wars between armies gave way to wars between nations – total wars in which the distinction between combatant and civilian became blurred.

In the span of thirty years, such carnage would twice engulf this continent. And while it is hard to conceive of a cause more just than the defeat of the Third Reich and the Axis powers, World War II was a conflict in which the total number of civilians who died exceeded the number of soldiers who perished.

In the wake of such destruction, and with the advent of the nuclear age, it became clear to victor and vanquished alike that the world needed institutions to prevent another World War. And so, a quarter century after the United States Senate rejected the League of Nations – an idea for which Woodrow Wilson received this Prize – America led the world in constructing an architecture to keep the peace: a Marshall Plan and a United Nations, mechanisms to govern the waging of war, treaties to protect human rights, prevent genocide, and restrict the most dangerous weapons.

In many ways, these efforts succeeded. Yes, terrible wars have been fought, and atrocities committed. But there has been no Third World War. The Cold War ended with jubilant crowds dismantling a wall. Commerce has stitched much of the world together. Billions have been lifted from poverty. The ideals of liberty, self-determination, equality and the rule of law have haltingly advanced. We are the heirs of the fortitude and foresight of generations past, and it is a legacy for which my own country is rightfully proud.

And, it seems that he has stopped apologizing.

I make this statement mindful of what Martin Luther King said in this same ceremony years ago – “Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones.” As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King’s life’s work, I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know there is nothing weak –nothing passive – nothing naïve – in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.

But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince Al Qaeda’s leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism – it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.

I raise this point because in many countries there is a deep ambivalence about military action today, no matter the cause. At times, this is joined by a reflexive suspicion of America, the world’s sole military superpower.

Yet the world must remember that it was not simply international institutions – not just treaties and declarations – that brought stability to a post-World War II world. Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: the United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms.

The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans. We have borne this burden not because we seek to impose our will. We have done so out of enlightened self-interest – because we seek a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if other peoples’ children and grandchildren can live in freedom and prosperity.
So yes, the instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace. And yet this truth must coexist with another – that no matter how justified, war promises human tragedy. The soldier’s courage and sacrifice is full of glory, expressing devotion to country, to cause and to comrades in arms. But war itself is never glorious, and we must never trumpet it as such.

I hope that he means what he says, for I am in complete agreement.

My Last Windows Machine

Once again I find myself apologizing to both of my faithful readers for the gap in my posting. My computer, a Hewlett Packard Laptop running Windows Vista. There is a motherboard failure of some kind. Without going into details, the Repair Service people told the NEX (Navy Exchange) people on thing about what the will do and how much they will charge, and then when I called for the telephone troubleshooting that I expected to do, they told me something entirely different. They had given an minimum estimate to the NEX. When I called them they gave me a minimum estimate $100 higher. In the course of my computer issues, by backups failed as well (I won't go into that now, but beware of Nero) so I have lost all of my data. The result of a perfect Windows data storm. The time is right for a switch.

So, that is the end of Windows machines for me. I know that this particular problem is (mostly) not a software problem, but I have had many of those as well. As for the hardware, it seems that manufacturers of Windows machines crank them out a a rate that does not allow for adequate quality control. Between my wife and I we have owned machines by (in chronological order) Flex, AST, Hewlett Packard, Fujitsu (the only one that never failed), Dell, Sony, Toshiba, and Hewlett Packard again (the laptop that is the subject of this post).

My wife has now owned a MacBook Pro for two years that has not so much as hiccuped.I work with engineers, two of whom own MacBooks and have had the same experience. Very nearly everyone I know that owns Windows machines tell me that the have problems at least once a year, and sometime more often than that. That is my experience as well.

So I'm through. When I have saved the money (approx 6 weeks - I pay cash for everything except houses and cars) I will buy the base MacBook. I don't need the Pro. The base one has all of the computing power that I need and a 7 hour battery. With a 13 inch screen (a little small, I admit) it will be truely portable - lasting long enough to be really useful on my long and now frequent flights to Japan. And, if I should be able to recover my data, Mac will process all of that as well. iWork handles all Microsoft Office file types.

Good.Bye.Windows.

How Free is Your State

Freedom in the 50 States: Index of Personal and Economic Freedom

Strange how the most "liberal" states are the least free.

Anti-Semitic UN to Act

The loathsome United Nations will, in its great tradition of antisemitism, act against Israel this week.

The Great Mona Charen writes,

Israel's Deadliest Foe to Strike This Week

The war over the war in Gaza is heating up. Next week, the United Nations General Assembly will consider the tendentious Goldstone Report, the highest profile exercise in blaming the victim in the U.N.'s tawdry history. Simultaneously, lawyers in Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, and Norway are drawing up criminal indictments against IDF officers who participated in the Gaza operation. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that a number of names are on a police watch list for arrest and detention should they attempt to enter Britain.

Israel's enemies certainly seek to terrorize and demoralize Israel. But the more important campaign -- which is gaining traction -- is to delegitimize her and to brand Israel's self-defense as a war crime.

Hamas wants the world to recognize them as a legitimate government, and many in the world do. If they are, then it seems to me that the same rules should apply. This piece offers a comparison.

ISRAEL

Consider the assessment of Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, and a veteran of the Gulf War and the conflicts in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, and Macedonia. "During Operation Cast Lead, the IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare. Israel did so while facing an enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population."

What army has offered 48 hours notice to its enemies of planned operations? Israel did so, dropping 2 million leaflets in advance of army movements. Twenty-four hours before the IDF moved on a suspected terrorist site, the army phoned civilians to warn them to evacuate. There were 100,000 calls. And five minutes before an operation began, the IDF sent out text messages. The calls and messages contained not just warnings, but instructions on which roads were safe to take and which schools or other buildings could be used for shelter. In the midst of the conflict, hundreds of trucks brought food, water, and medical supplies to Gaza.

In Rafa, Israel sought to close 225 tunnels (with 800 entrances) used to smuggle arms to Gaza from Egypt. The easiest and safest course for the IDF would have been to level the homes without warning that contained the entrances using air power or tanks. In Gaza City, to avoid civilian casualties, IDF infantrymen went house to house, encountering booby traps along the way and fending off seven attempted kidnappings.

Hamas was so confident that Israel would not knowingly shoot at civilians that they hid behind human shields throughout the short war. It was common, when word came of an impending attack, for Hamas to send children out to play in the streets at that moment. "Will I shoot?" Gruber asks. "I will not." There is video of a terrorist with a rocket launcher slung over his shoulder grabbing a 10-year-old boy by the collar and dragging him across the street to deter Israeli snipers. And it worked. Israel has similar video (from Reuters actually) showing U.N. ambulances ferrying armed men. "Yes," says Gruber with resignation, "the 'ambulances' were always at the front."

HAMAS

There are scores of other examples -- Hamas firing from mosques, schools, private homes, and hospitals. The very fact that Hamas used human shields betrays their admission that Israel abides by ethical standards in war fighting. They took advantage of Israel's moral qualms about harming non-combatants. Now they accuse Israel of the crimes they themselves committed -- deliberately targeting civilians by raining down 12,000 missiles on southern Israel since the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Liberals, amongst whom antisemitism is mainstream (of course they accuse we conservatives of it constantly), will back the UN in efforts to punish Israel for defending herself and support the real terrorists.

UPDATE: Just in case anyone objects to my view that modern liberalism™ is the home of mainstream antisemitism, this from Caroline Glick;

Former ambassador to the UN Dore Gold should probably buy himself a flak jacket. Gold is scheduled to debate Richard Goldstone at Brandeis University next Thursday and the anti-Israel forces are organizing quite a reception for him.

Goldstone, who chaired the UN Human Rights Council's commission charged with accusing Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, has become a darling of the anti-Israel Left in the weeks since his report accusing Israel of committing both war crimes and crimes against humanity was published last month. And anti-Israeli leftists don't like the idea of someone challenging his libelous attacks against Israel in a public debate at a university.

In an e-mail to a campus list-serve, Brandeis student and anti-Israel activist Jonathan Sussman called on his fellow anti-Zionists to disrupt the event that will pit the "neutral" Goldstone against Gold with his "wildly pro-Zionist message." Sussman invited his list-serve members to join him at a meeting to "discuss a possible response."

As the young community organizer sees it, "Possibilities include inviting Palestinian speakers to come participate, seeding the audience with people who can disrupt the Zionist narrative, protest and direct action." He closed his missive with a plaintive call to arms: "F**k the occupation."

Apparently the aspiring political organizer never considered another possibility: listening to what Gold has to say.

More to follow on liberalism™ and antisemitism.

Our Incompetent Government - POTUS Inner circle

A note to the President and his yes men senior aides - YOU are the power. Please grow wake up.

The Great Mark Steyn tells the tale.

REALITY CHECK ON THE OBAMA AS CAESAR CULT

Valerie Jarrett announced the other day that “we’re going to speak truth to power”.

Who’s Valerie Jarrett? She’s “Senior Advisor” to the President of the United States – ie, the leader of the most powerful nation on the face of the earth. You would think the most powerful man in the most powerful nation would find a hard job finding anyone on the planet to “speak truth to power” to. But I suppose if you’re as eager to do so as his Senior Advisor, there’s always somebody out there: The Supreme Leader of Iran. The Prime Minister of Belgium. The Deputy Tourism Minister of the Solomon Islands. But no. The Senior Advisor has selected targets closer to home: “I think that what the administration has said very clearly is that we’re going to speak truth to power. When we saw all of the distortions in the course of the summer, when people were coming down to town hall meetings and putting up signs that were scaring seniors to death…”

Read the whole thing, there is a lot more...

Meanwhile, Larry David is now doing televised NEA exhibits on his HBO show “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. Christians are said to be “angry” at him because of an episode in which, after he accidentally sprays his urine on a picture of Jesus, his assistant mistakes the droplets for tears and calls in her mother to witness the miracle of Christ weeping. Ha-ha! Oh, those brave transgressive artists! Of course, Christians aren’t “angry” in the sense that two US residents arrested last week are. The pair – one an American citizen, the other Canadian – were so “angry” about the Mohammed cartoons published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten that they hatched a plot to kill the artist and his editor. As many commentators pointed out, Mr David’s splashy stunt is a dreary provocation: It’s easy to be provocative with people who can’t be provoked. If he were to start urinating in a more Mecca-ly direction, he’d find an entirely more motivated crowd waiting for him at the stage door.

But I liked the point made by the Anchoress, a writer at the magazine First Things: Putting Mohammed et al aside, if Larry David had a yen to urinate hither and yon, wouldn’t it have been “braver” to have done it to the religious icon du jour? That’s to say, Barack Obama. And then maybe Ashton Kutcher could have marveled at how even Obama’s image was empathizing tearily with all 687 million Americans without health insurance. Or, alternatively, dribbling warm champagne from his Norwegian Nobel banquet toast. C’mon, Larry. Sure, you might not have a career afterward, but, unlike any Islamo-provocations, you’re not gonna get killed. Just fired, and probably damned as a racist. But at least you wouldn’t be a simpering suck-up to power like Rocco Landesman and the other creeps.

A Terrible Tragedy

On Saturday night a Seattle police officer was in the residential Central District in a marked police car with a female trainee when the car was hit several times with gunfire. The police officer was killed, the trainee was injured.

Seattle police say officer killed in shooting

Police say a male officer was training a female student officer in a marked patrol car Saturday night when their vehicle was struck several times by gunfire. They say the student officer suffered minor injuries in the shooting that took in the mostly residential Central District.

Pray for them.

Ok - So It Took an Outrage

Again I find myself apologizing to both of my faithful readers, life continues to be very, very full and sadly blogging fell down the priority list. I promise that when I get settled into my apartment in Japan (yes, I spend that much time there) I will have more time to blog.

Anyway, the thing that prompted me was this.

Loraine Mullen-Kress carries a Bank of America credit card and religiously pays off her balance.

"Flawless credit," she boasted.

Yet now, her good credit habits could cost her. Earlier this month Bank of America started notifying customers like Mullen-Kress that they will be charged a new annual fee of $29 to $99.

"There is a big segment of their population that they will have never made money on, which is people who pay their bills on time every month," said Ben Woolsey, Director of Consumer Research at CreditCards.com.

Bank of America said in a statement: "At this point we're testing the fee on a very small number of accounts and haven't made any final decisions." Citigroup is also trying out an annual fee with some card holders, and analysts expect more banks to follow their lead.

The banks are starting to charge fees to reliable customers in response to a slew of new credit card industry regulations that will limit when banks can hike interest rates. Cardholders who get a new annual fee notice in the mail will be in a no-win situation.

"They can either pay that fee or they can close the account, and if they have had the account for a while and they close it, they are potentially going to hurt their credit card score," said Woolsey.

If they do this to you let them know what you think. After all of the business that I have done with Bank of America, if they start charging me a fee to use their card, I will never apply to them for credit again. I will use Discover, or JCB, or Fred's (a Steve Martin joke).

I seriously hope that, if they try this, it hurts them badly.

Our Incompetent Government - ICE

Not only is our government incompetent, but now we have law enforcement agencies that are actively working AGAINST our country.

From the Washington Times, ICE gags sheriff (h/t to the great Michelle Malkin)

The spat between controversial Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surfaced on July 23 and 24 when the sheriff's deputies were ordered by ICE officials to release illegal immigrants who had been caught in a broader criminal sweep. Sheriff Arpaio complained to the media; a federal spokesman claimed the release was the sheriff's fault; and the sheriff then released audiotapes proving that ICE officials, not he, had ordered the release.

Caught looking foolish, ICE officials threatened to withdraw the sheriff's authority to enforce any immigration laws because the sheriff had violated a ban on contacting the media without first obtaining approval from the Department of Homeland Security, which is ICE's parent agency.

Yes, you read that correctly: The sheriff was ordered to shut up. To make it clearer, ICE's principal legal adviser, Peter S. Vincent, wrote to Arpaio attorney Robert Driscoll on July 31 that the sheriff's department, under the terms of its agreement with ICE, must "coordinate with ICE regarding information to be released to the media regarding actions taken under this memorandum of agreement."

To Mr. Driscoll's complaint that the requirement violates the sheriff's First Amendment rights (not to mention the public's right to know), Mr. Vincent replied: "Few courts would consider an obligation to consult with the federal government before releasing information to the media that may involve sensitive law enforcement issues to be an unreasonable burden on the right to free speech." Furthermore, he wrote, government can "lawfully" require "the surrender of a constitutional right ... provided the conditions are reasonable."

Our Dear Leader is happy to compromise your fundamental Constitutional rights, but will make those same rights freely available as ABSOLUTE rights if you are not a citizen and are able to sneak over the border illegally.

If you do not see a big problem here, you are numb. It is time to rise up.

Here is Your Health Reform

Liberal efforts to get you to believe that current efforts to "reform" health care will not be a government takeover are a lie.

Yes, when they say this they are liars. Representative for Life Barney Frank (Comm - MA) let the cat out of the bag.

And what will Single Payer get you. This is the plan used in Canada and the U.K. Just in case you believe it when supporters of Single Payer tell you that these health system are taking adequate care of their patients, read this;

Patients forced to live in agony after NHS refuses to pay for painkilling injections

The Government's drug rationing watchdog says "therapeutic" injections of steroids, such as cortisone, which are used to reduce inflammation, should no longer be offered to patients suffering from persistent lower back pain when the cause is not known.

Instead the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is ordering doctors to offer patients remedies like acupuncture and osteopathy.

So, they will give up effective therapy and substitute "alternative" junk because it is cheaper - effectiveness be damned. Does the government care at all?

No.

The NICE guidelines admit that evidence was limited for many back pain treatments, including those it recommended. Where scientific proof was lacking, advice was instead taken from its expert group. But specialists are furious that while the group included practitioners of alternative therapies, there was no one with expertise in conventional pain relief medicine to argue against a decision to significantly restrict its use.

Dr Jonathan Richardson, a consultant pain specialist from Bradford Hospitals Trust, is among more than 50 medics who have written to NICE urging the body to reconsider its decision, which was taken in May.

He said: "The consequences of the NICE decision will be devastating for thousands of patients. It will mean more people on opiates, which are addictive, and kill 2,000 a year. It will mean more people having spinal surgery, which is incredibly risky, and has a 50 per cent failure rate."

There are thousands of cases like this in both the U.K. and Canada. This is not an unusual situation.

So, why will we do this to ourselves? Power, that's why.

From John Hinderacker at Power Line; Thoughts on Health Care "Reform".

We are going to destroy our health care and very seriously damage our country simple to exercise a socialist ideology without concern as to results.

The change you get.

Obama's 2012 Campaign Slogans

Doug Ross has the early contenders for Barack Obama's 2012 campaign slogans.

A few;

• "Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You, Ask How You Can Illegally Contribute To My Campaign"

• "Your long national nightmare is not over"

• "It's Mourning Again in America"

Go read, there are many more, like;

• "Isn't It Time You Were Disappointed Again?"

• "Read My Lips: No New Tax Cuts"

This Is Why They Hate It When We Read The Bills

Democrats and other Liberals™ (socialists, communists, etc.) absolutely do not want people reading the legislation that they are, in their ever so democratic and liberal way, want to jam down our throats. If we were to find out what is in their legislation, they are afraid that we might not like it.

Like this; It's Not An Option

Congress: It didn't take long to run into an "uh-oh" moment when reading the House's "health care for all Americans" bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.

When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.

It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of "Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:

"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.

So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

h/t to the great Michelle Malkin

They are lying to us and we are (mostly) still asleep. Our freedoms (to buy what we want with our own money, for instance) are being taken away from us and most of the country is completely unaware.

This is extreme dangerous, we are being led by a government that has no respect for the people that they govern. They want us under their thumb.

Read the whole piece.

The public option won't be an option for many, but rather a mandate for buying government care. A free people should be outraged at this advance of soft tyranny.

Washington does not have the constitutional or moral authority to outlaw private markets in which parties voluntarily participate. It shouldn't be killing business opportunities, or limiting choices, or legislating major changes in Americans' lives.

It took just 16 pages of reading to find this naked attempt by the political powers to increase their reach. It's scary to think how many more breaches of liberty we'll come across in the final 1,002.

Idiots

I am most amused when an organization uses politicians that they have bought and paid for (Mr. Obama bought and paid for by organized labor) to gain an advantage using our unethical and incompetent government go on to injure themselves. But, being blinded by partisan ideology and greed, do not even care (or notice).

The great George F. Will tells the tale.

Labor in the Driver's Seat

"Bailout" is now both a noun and a verb, and FedEx characterizes what Congress might do for UPS as the "Brown Bailout." But properly used, "bailout" denotes a rescue of an economic entity from financial distress. Although UPS is suffering from the recession, so is FedEx. Furthermore, UPS, whose revenue is 36 percent larger than FedEx's, began advocating this injury to FedEx long before this recession.

What UPS is doing is called rent-seeking -- bending public power for private advantage by hindering a competitor. This practice, which expands exponentially as government expands arithmetically, is banal but can have entertaining ricochets:

If Congress makes FedEx's operations more precarious by changing the law to make it easier for local disputes to cripple its operations, Smith says a multibillion-dollar order for 15 Boeing 777s will be automatically canceled. One of the unions lobbying on behalf of UPS and the Teamsters is the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, whose members make 777s.

As always, read the whole thing for two reasons (or more);
1. Mr. Will is one of the finest writers alive and is both crystal clear and entertaining.
2. He provides valuable legal history and supporting arguments leading to the conclusion that I quoted above.

...for three - three reasons (channeling Monty Python)

3. It is important to understand now loyal Mr. Obama is to his owners, and make no mistake, he is owned by organized labor.

Sarah Palin's Plan to Defeat the Smear Artists

Liberals are sick with PDS and have been shamelessly lying, smearing, filing false charges against, and seeking to harm in every conceivable way, Sarah Palin. They dishonor and defile themselves in the process (as if they had any honor to begin with).

Not everyone falls for the lies. This gives Governor Palin the opportunity to recover. Roger Stone has the Plan.

Palin's Plan

It was 1962. Richard Nixon had had enough. Enough of being called "Tricky Dick, the man no one would buy a used car from." Enough of the elitist derision that had come his way since the Hiss case. He had had enough of the liberal media who consistently held him to a higher standard than his Democratic opponents and poked fun at his lack of sophistication - he being the son of a grocer. So Nixon blew. He announced the end of his career in seeking elective office; "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." Six years later he was inaugurated as President of the United States.

This moment came last week for Sarah Palin and her husband Todd. Sick of the derision of the media for her unsophisticated country ways, her plain speaking and consistently being held to a higher standard than her critics, Palin had had enough. Palin resigned as Governor and, like Nixon, did not reveal her future plans. A follow-up FACEBOOK posting for her legions of admirers was clearly written in her own hand as it is plain-spoken and blunt.

Watching the Washington chattering class pan the Palin moves shows the moronic level of political analysis in the media today. Switch-hitter Dave Gergen, Ed Rollins who bolted his Party to go destroy the candidacy of Ross Perot and then trashed Perot, and Upper West Side reform Democrat Dick Morris who toiled for Ohio lefty, Howard Metzenbaum and Clinton but is today a born again Christian and right-winger, all panned the Palin move. Fools.

In fact, resignation as Governor was necessary to preserve any prospect that Palin could be nominated and elected in 2012 or beyond.

Read it all and do not believe the Democrat Party and Liberal™ smear merchants. She was and is a more worthy candidate for President than either John McCain or Barack Obama.

Get through the lies and the smears and the false charges and just listen to what she has to say. You will be very surprised.

Sorry Iran, Your Struggle Must Wait...

because We Have a Pedophile to Worship

Back when the news still took the trouble to cover the bloodbath in Iran, the world saw young Iranians holding signs in English. Urgent pleas were coming through computers worldwide begging the leader of the free world to help the Iranian people. Many Americans would be amazed to learn how many Iranians were educated via petrodollars in the United Kingdom or the United States. Some Iranian young people speak far better English than your local high school kids.

The late shah’s son reached out to Obama for support:

“I would like to take this opportunity and tell the President this is a crucial moment - on behalf of my compatriots and millions who have been turning to the outside world, particularly to this President - to say: don’t let us down.”

While Barack Obama was eating ice cream, Neda’s parents were forced from their home by government agents. Public displays of mourning were shut down. Nineteen year old Kaveh Alipour was gunned down by government barbarians. After frantically searching for news about his missing son at hospitals and eventually the morgue, Alipour’s father was told he would be required to pay a $3000 “bullet fee” to reimburse the government for the ammo expended in executing his child.

Barack Obama did eventually deliver the obligatory “we are outraged” statement. He held off as long as he could, until public opinion became too clamorous to overlook. While he gabbled, the violence in Iran escalated. Iranian citizens were being massacred in the streets with axes and machetes. Students were being routed from their beds in their dorm rooms.

Ronald Reagan responded to a similar cry for help from the people of Poland who were then enslaved by the Soviet Union. Reagan minced no words in decrying the Soviet Union as an “Evil Empire”. He never expelled gibberish about how the United States shouldn’t “meddle” as innocent citizens suffer.

Then, as today, pantywaist liberals were caterwauling about toning down the rhetoric so as not to pique oppressive dictators. Thankfully, Reagan ignored such nattering. The Poles were doing what the Iranians are today: insisting on the most basic of human liberties. Ronald Reagan had no intention of sitting on the sidelines waiting to see how this thing played out:

“In a stiff note to Soviet boss Leonid Brezhnev; Reagan said that if the Russians kept up their thuggish response to Poland they ‘could forget any new nuclear arms agreement.’ Gone too would be better trade relations, and in their place would be the ‘harshest possible economic sanctions’ if they even thought of invading Poland as they had done with Czechoslovakia in 1968 or Hungary in 1956.”

As always, read the whole thing. There is a lot more.

Two Lies of Obama

From The National Post, regarding his naive speech on the occasion of the protests in Iran;

The lies of Obama

Obama's imagined world of "universal" rights would exist if only the expressed principles of the United Nations applied. In 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which insists (among other things) that everyone has the right to express opinions without interference, the right to take part in government through freely chosen representatives and the right to freedom of religion (including the freedom to change religion). And yes, if you can read all the way to Article 20 without collapsing in tears, you'll find that, as Obama says, "Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association."

But of course the Declaration of Human Rights has never been anything more than an exercise in wishful thinking, a set of empty gestures based on pious hopes. Why did the authors (who were led by Eleanor Roosevelt) claim that their wishes for human freedom were in fact the "rights" of all humans? They knew, as much as anyone, that only a fortunate minority possessed such rights. There were no such rights, for example, in the vast empire then being assembled by the Soviet Union.

Read the whole thing - I haven't even said what Obama's lies are - so you'll have to read the article.

Suffice it to say that we made a huge mistake electing this guy and we, and many in the rest of the world, will pay for it.

Our Incompetent Government

Our House of Representative, an organization of people who are mostly incompetent to do what they have been hired to do, have passed an energy tax so large that our economy will be crippled for years. Even the Democrats agree that this is the largest tax increase in the history of the nation.

And they did it without even reading the bill.

House passes climate-change bill

Republicans accused the Democrats of ramming the bill through the House. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), managing the debate for his party, asked repeatedly if there was even a copy of the current version of the bill anywhere in the House chamber. Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher – sitting in the speaker’s chair although she’s already been confirmed as Obama’s undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security — repeatedly dodged the question.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), one of the bill’s sponsors, finally rose to say that a single copy of the current version of the bill was available at the speaker’s desk – and on the Internet, which members would have to leave the floor to access

As a Republican, I crossed party lines and voted for Norm Dicks for our local Representative because he once helped my wife in an issue involving the Government and because he has been good for my beloved Shipyard.

No more.

There is still hope that this 1000+ page suicide note will be defeated by saner heads in the Senate but, as they are mostly incompetent as well, it will be very close.

Protests in Iran

These have been covered by just about everyone, so I thought that anything that I have to add would be redundant (even though that is the nature of blogging).

I was wandering around the internet and found myself at Curmudgeonly & Skeptical² and found this post about Neda Soltani.

During WWII the allies air dropped cheap pistols and burp guns all over France to help the resistance fight Nazis. We ought be doing that now, at the least.

Yes.

Our Public Servants

HEY!...LIZ!...YEAH YOU!...LIZ BECTON!...YOU ARE NOT AS IMPORTANT AS YOU THINK YOU ARE!...YOU COULD DISAPPEAR TOMORROW AND NO ONE WOULD NOTICE!

***************And now back to our regularly scheduled blog post.

As important as our elected officials are (sometimes less important than they actually think that they are), we have a permanent bureaucracy that does as much to run our country. Elected officials have staff people who interface with that bureaucracy. They are not so important, but they think that they are.

If you haven't already, meet Liz Becton

If you want to score a meeting with Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), know this: His scheduler/office manager, Elizabeth Becton, is to be addressed by her full name — not Liz or any other variant.

An executive assistant at McBee Strategic recently learned this the hard way. A few weeks ago, the assistant e-mailed Becton seeking a meeting with McDermott and a client, JPMorgan Chase. Days later, the assistant checked back in and unfortunately began the e-mail with “Hi Liz.”

Becton curtly replied, “Who is Liz?”

When the assistant wrote back with an apology, Becton turned up the heat. “I do not go by Liz. Where did you get your information?” she asked.

The back-and-forth went on for 19 e-mails, with the assistant apologizing six times if she had “offended” Becton, while Becton lectured about name-calling.

Read the whole thing. It is very frustrating to have to deal with the arrogance of the small-minded. It is very amusing to see the arrogance of the small-minded so exposed in this way.

Here is the entire exchange (from Politico.com)

Here’s a redacted version of the exchange:


From: XXX
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 11:38 AM
To: Becton, Elizabeth
Subject: JPMC Meeting Request


Elizabeth,

Attached is a meeting request for JP Morgan Chase who will be in DC June 3rd-4th and would like to request a brief meeting with the Congressman.

Let me know if you need any additional information.

Thank you!

Best,
XXX

________________________________

From: XXX
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:05 PM
To: Becton, Elizabeth
Subject: RE: JPMC Meeting Request


Hi Liz,

just checking in on whether the Congressman is available next week. [REDACTED] can confirm a meeting time for you - she is available at [REDACTED].

Thank you!

Best,
XXX


________________________________

From: Becton, Elizabeth
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:07 PM
To: XXX
Subject: RE: JPMC Meeting Request
Importance: High


Who is Liz?

Elizabeth Becton
Executive Assistant/Office Manager
Office of Congressman Jim McDermott
XXXX Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
XXX phone
XXX fax
________________________________


From: XXX
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:07 PM
To: Becton, Elizabeth
Subject: RE: JPMC Meeting Request


Hi Elizabeth, I thought you went by Liz - apologies if that is incorrect. Best, XXX



________________________________

From: Becton, Elizabeth
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:08 PM
To: XXX
Subject: RE: JPMC Meeting Request



I do not go by Liz. Where did you get your information?
________________________________


Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:10 PM
To: Becton, Elizabeth
Subject: RE: JPMC Meeting Request


Hi Elizabeth, I'm so sorry if I offended you! I thought you had gone by Liz at Potlatch, this was my mistake. Best, XXX

________________________________
From: Becton, Elizabeth
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:11 PM
To: XXX
Subject: RE: JPMC Meeting Request


NEVER. I hate that name.


________________________________

From: XXX
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:13 PM
To: Becton, Elizabeth
Subject: RE: JPMC Meeting Request


Hi Elizabeth, I'm so sorry if I offended you! I must have mis-heard. My mistake! Best, XX

________________________________

From: Becton, Elizabeth
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:20 PM
To: XXX
Subject: RE: JPMC Meeting Request
Importance: High

XXX:

If I wanted you to call me by any other name, I would have offered that to you. I think it's rude when people don't even ask permission and take all sorts of liberties with your name. This is a real sore spot with me. My name has a lot of "nicknames" which I don't use. I use either my first name or my last name because I row with a lot of other women who share the same first name. Now, please do not ever call me by a nickname again.

As for your meeting request, who is the point of contact for this meeting? If it's not you, then I need to know who because it's very time-consuming to deal with a lot of people for one meeting.

Thanks,

________________________________

From: XXX
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:23 PM
To: Becton, Elizabeth
Subject: RE: JPMC Meeting Request


Hi Elizabeth, I'm so sorry I offended you! My mistake!

XXX can confirm a meeting time for you - she is available at XXX XXXX.

Thank you!

Best, XXX


________________________________
[UNRELATED EMAILS REDACTED]


From: XXX
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:33 PM
To: Becton, Elizabeth
Subject: RE: JPMC Meeting Request


Of course! Again, I am sincerely sorry for offending you. I must have mis-heard and it was in no way my intention to make you upset. I always enjoy working with you and seeing you at the WSS events J

Best,
XXX


________________________________


From: Becton, Elizabeth
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:37 PM
To: XXX
Subject: RE: JPMC Meeting Request


Sounds like you got played by someone who KNOWS I hate that name and that it's a fast way to TICK me off. Who told you that I go by that name? They are not your friend...


________________________________



From: XXX
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:38 PM
To: Becton, Elizabeth
Subject: RE: JPMC Meeting Request


Hi Elizabeth,

Again, I am sincerely sorry for offending you. I don't want to cause trouble as I clearly must have mis-heard the person at Potlatch. It was in no way my intention to make you upset.

Best,
XXX

________________________________

From: Becton, Elizabeth
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:41 PM
To: XXX
Subject: RE: JPMC Meeting Request
Importance: High


I REALLY want to know who told you to call me that.



________________________________

From:XXX
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:44 PM
To: Becton, Elizabeth
Subject: RE: JPMC Meeting Request


Hi Elizabeth,
Again, I am sincerely sorry for offending you. I don't recall who I overheard. It was in no way my intention to make you upset.
Best,
XXX

________________________________
From: Becton, Elizabeth
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 6:04 PM
To: XXX
Subject: RE: JPMC Meeting Request

Let me put it this way, they don't know me and perhaps they were PRETENDING to know me better than they do and pretended that I go by Liz. They did YOU a disservice.

In the future, you should be VERY careful about such things. People like to brag about their connections in DC. It's a past time for some. It's also dangerous to eaves drop, as you have just found out.

Quit apologizing and never call me anything but Elizabeth again. Also, make sure you correct anyone who attempts to call me by any other name but Elizabeth. Are we clear on this? Like I said, it's a hot button for me.

And please don't call the office and not leave a message. My colleague told me you called while I was away at the Ladies' room. I do sometimes leave my desk.

She is being ridiculed everywhere for this, and rightfully so (h/t Orbusmax);

• It's pretty bad when one leftist™ freak gets mocked by another leftist™ freak. Keith Olbermann reenacts the 'Liz' - aka Elizabeth Becton - emailings on 'Countdown'


• From the Dori Monson show. Audio: Reading of Liz's email


• A new Facebook page; Don't Call Me Liz!!!! (Elizabeth Becton Fan Club)

And because when revealing people like this there is no such thing as enough. She is being very well paid with our tax money. If Rep. Jim McDermott (Kook-Wash) weren't a socialist who believes that your money is his money, she would be FIRED.

• More E-LIZ-abeth Becton emails!
• Liz Becton Continues to Terrorize Washington With Email

Contact information from Rep. McDermott's web page;
Phone; (206) 553-7170 (be polite)
Fax; (206) 553-7175

One of the Greatest Violinists Ever

David Oistrakh was one of the greatest violinists to have ever lived. In my ever-so-humble opinion, the greatest. Here he is playing Ravel's Tzigane.


His bow was made by this guy. A great bow. I know because I have one too. The violin is probably the 1702 Conte di Fontana Stradivarius (actually he played 7 violins by Stradivarius).

UPDATE: Here is an excellent performance of the same work by Isaac Stern with a symphony orchestra (I don't know which). Enjoy.

Can North Korea Win the War?

You can clearly see Seoul in South Korea and Pyongyang in North Korea.

It is hard to find intelligent discussion of this. Normally all you hear is "1.5 million man army" and "massive artillery bombardment will destroy Seoul". With a country that conducts no large-scale exercises and is as poor as dirt with armed forces of very low morale, this never seemed like it made real sense.

Stuart Koehl, a long time military analyst and student of the North Korean armed-forces has something to say.

Endgame in Korea? Lacking the military wherewithal to defeat the South, Kim's regime is simply trying to extend its miserable existence through extortion.

General George Casey, Army Chief of Staff, recently stated quite frankly that it would take ninety days to move forward an adequate force to block an attacking North Korean army. Using this official military assessment as their guide, there is no reason to believe the NK military leadership would hesitate to assure their Dear Leader of an effectively full occupation of the Korean Peninsula within that time period.

I've been a military analyst for more than thirty years. I have studied the North Korean army in detail--its tactics, equipment and capabilities--and I have to say, this projection is one of the more ludicrous I have seen. I understand that in a resource-constrained environment, service leaders and theater commanders have to propound the worst case scenario to ensure their fair share of the pie, but even a cursory look at the North Korean People's Army leaves one wondering "huh?

The arms and equipment of the North Korean military are, overwhelmingly, Soviet-derived systems of 1960s and 70s vintage, lacking the kind of electronics, communications, fire controls and survivability features necessary on the modern battlefield.

To understand what this means, look at the disparity in combat effectiveness between Saddam Hussein's army and our own in Operation Desert Storm. Now consider that, as compared to North Korea's, Saddam's army was extraordinarily well trained and competent.

Read it all. He goes on to explain in detail how North Korea cannot prevail in a war against South Korea and the United States.

Kim's army hasn't been to war since 1953. Sure, it can beat up on unarmed truce inspection teams and kidnap Japanese civilians from remote beaches, but what has it really done lately? Worse still, it hasn't been able to stage realistic, large-scale exercises due to a chronic shortage of both fuel and cash. An army that doesn't know how to move formations larger than a battalion or regiment will degenerate into chaos when it tries to move divisions and armies. Finally, promotion in Kim's army, like promotion in Saddam's, is awarded for political loyalty, not military competence. Loyalty in such regimes is usually defined as telling the psychotic dictator what he wants to hear. Yet the first key to success in modern war is a free and open exchange of information between leaders and subordinates. The problem of political reliability is paramount for Kim--if he lets his army loose on the South, will it actually fight, or will it disintegrate on contact (or worse, turn on the regime)

He goes into issues of weapons, terrain, movement of troops and equipment in a manner more thorough than you normally get to read. So, go and read.

War against the "DPRK" will not be painless, but, although because of our own weakness diplomatically he can win the near-term diplomatic battles, Kim cannot win (unless we just give up).

More information (with photos) about North Korean air defenses here.

From GlobalSecurity.org, more about;
North Korean Army Air force
North Korean Army
North Korean Navy

I Have Lost my Best Friend

My best friend, Niko passed away 20 minutes ago and I can barely see through my tears. He is with Cocoa in Heaven now.

From the post that I wrote for her;

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that his faithful dog had been dead for many years. He wondered where the road was leading them. After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. As he reached the wall, he saw a magnificent gate in the arch, and the street that led to the gate made from pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.

When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?"

"This is heaven, sir," the man answered.

"Wow! Would you happen to have some water? We have traveled far," the man said.

"Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up."

The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

"Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked.

"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."

The man thought a moment, remembering all the years this dog remained loyal to him and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going. After another long walk he came to a plain dirt road, which led through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

"Excuse me!" he called to the reader. "Do you have any water? We have traveled far."

"Yes, sure, there's a faucet over there." The man pointed to a place that couldn't be seen from outside the gate. "Come on in and help yourself."

"How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to his dog.

"There should be a bowl by the faucet; he is welcome to share."

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned faucet with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree waiting for them.

"What do you call this place?" the traveler asked.

"This is heaven," was the answer.

"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was heaven, too."

"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell."

"Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?"

"No. We're just happy that they screen out the folks who'd leave their best friends behind in exchange for material things."

Author Unknown

I travel a great deal and (except for Japan) he always went with me. I am too emotional now to write much, but he was loyal and protective. Demanding as well.

All of the doctors and technicians at the veterinary hospital loved him and would cheer out loud whenever we brought him in. They did not do this for any other dog. He was loved by all.

He is on his towel behind me, and I cannot stop weeping.

If I can live as well as he, I will count it as a success.

UPDATE: Because Niko was beautiful, and because he loved us as we loved him, here is something beautiful.

Our Incompetent Government

I could just as well be writing about the national government now, but this is about the Washington State government.

You would think that one who chooses to hold public office would want to know something about how our government is supposed to work. Sadly, that is asking far too much.

Washington 9th in line to kill the electoral college

Washington State is front and center on ridding the U.S. of the Electoral College and pushing for electing the president by National Popular Vote (NPV). Olympia legislators passed Senate Bill 5599 which made Washington the 9th state in the U.S. ready to kill the Electoral College. Ironically the NPV law only needs 270 out of the 538 electoral votes to be enacted into law. The vote is currently at 60 or 23%.

Why we have an electoral college

The Founding Fathers decided against NPV because it would not represent the smaller states. Candidates could ignore rural areas, and focus on densely populated regions where they could get more votes. The Electoral College (EC) is meant for candidates to work harder to get their votes. Each state gets a certain number of electoral votes based on the states population, determined by the U.S. Census. Washington State has eleven votes, less populated states, like Alaska and Delaware only have three while California has the most electoral votes at 55.

Would the end of the Electoral College mean a better democracy. If you are not already convinced by the preceding that the answer to that question is no, then note;

Is a NPV really more representative?

A National Popular Vote doesnt just mean a 51/49 split. It means whoever gets the majority wins. A candiadte (sic) could very well win with a mere 20% approval. It is more complex than people understand. It might kill the two-party system that has carried elections throughout history. Currently, each party has to agree on a candidate who can appeal to the greatest number of citizens to gain a majority of votes of the Electoral College.

Paul Greenberg argues that this shift in electoral reform makes us more like the French. There were thirteen candidates in 2003, and barely any of them could carry a majority. The result was to have a second round of voting that put a right wing radical against an unpopular conservative. Ridding the U.S. of the EC would water down the quality of candidates and open the door for right and left wing radicals to be legitimate presidential contenders. It would segregate states, regions, and people.

Of course none of this means anything to the idiots that run our government and the poorly informed electorate that continually rëelects them.

You Know its Really Bad When...

Antonio Gramsci

Pravda (yes, THAT Pravda!) publishes a story about our rapid descent into Marxism.

American capitalism gone with a whimper

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

Yes, the translation is a little rough, but it is worth a read.

Also worth a read is Gramsci's Grand Plan. An excerpt;

Steps in the Process

The first phase in achieving "cultural hegemony" over a nation is the undermining of all elements of traditional culture. Churches are thus transformed into ideology-driven political clubs, with the stress on "social justice" and egalitarianism, with worship reduced to trivialized entertainment, and with age-old doctrinal and moral teachings "modernized" or diminished to the point of irrelevancy. Genuine education is replaced by "dumbed down" and "politically correct" curricula, and standards are reduced dramatically. The mass media are fashioned into instruments for mass manipulation and for harassing and discrediting traditional institutions and their spokesmen. Morality, decency, and old virtues are ridiculed without respite. Tradition-minded clergymen are portrayed as hypocrites and virtuous men and women as prudish, stuffy, and unenlightened.

Culture is no longer a buttress supporting the integrity of the national heritage and a vehicle for imparting that heritage to future generations, but becomes a means for "destroying ideals and ... presenting the young not with heroic examples but with deliberately and aggressively degenerate ones," as theologian Harold O.J. Brown writes. We see this in contemporary American life, in which the great historical symbols of our nation's past, including great presidents, soldiers, explorers, and thinkers, are shown to have been unforgivably flawed with "racism" and "sexism" and therefore basically evil. Their place has been taken by pro-Marxist charlatans, pseudo-intellectuals, rock stars, leftist movie celebrities, and the like. At another level, traditional Christian culture is condemned as repressive, "Eurocentric," and "racist" and, thus, unworthy of our continued devotion. In its place, unalloyed primitivism in the guise of "multiculturalism" is held as the new model.

Marriage and family, the very building blocks of our society, are perpetually attacked and subverted. Marriage is portrayed as a plot by men to perpetuate an evil system of domination over women and children. The family is depicted as a dangerous institution epitomized by violence and exploitation. Patriarchally oriented families are, according to the Gramscians, the precursors of fascism, Nazism, and every organized form of racial persecution.

Go read, there is much more.

Ok - Funny Cats and Dogs

Yep.

Lolcats



Loldogs

The Enemy Knows Weakness

This actually happened first, but chronology is not important. The leaders of Iran, North Korea, the Taliban, al Qaeda, etc. all sense weakness as a shark senses blood in the water.

Iran sends warships to Gulf of Aden

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has sent six warships to international waters, including the Gulf of Aden, to show its ability to confront any foreign threats, its naval commander said on Monday.

Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, quoted by the ISNA news agency, made the announcement five days after Iran said it test-fired a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles), putting Israel and U.S. bases in the area within reach.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but;

On May 20, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran had tested a missile that defence analysts say could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf, a move likely to fuel concern about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

The United States and its allies suspect the Islamic Republic is seeking to build nuclear bombs, a charge Tehran denies, but President Barack Obama has offered a new beginning of diplomatic engagement with Iran if it "unclenches its fist"

Blog Update

Ok, I give up. I am going to upgrade the blog to the newer "Layouts" format. We shall see...

UPDATE: Done. It looks like I will eventually be able to get all of my various lists and links built back into the blog, but it will take a little time. If you are linked, please be patient. I will get it back. Thank you.

UPDATE 2: I will start using Blogger Comments instead of Haloscan for now and see how it goes.

UPDATE 3: I will be playing with the colors. Thank you for your patience.

North Korea Atom Bomb Test

As we in the newly weakened United States mumble about negotiating and working with the (feckless) United Nations, the DPRK (interesting how tyrannies love the title "Democratic Peoples Republic") has exploded an atom bomb comparable to the ones used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Even the leftist rags are reporting this. From the Guardian

The KNCA news agency, the regime's official mouthpiece, said: "We have successfully conducted another nuclear test on 25 May as part of the republic's measures to strengthen its nuclear deterrent."

Officials in South Korea said they had detected a tremor consistent with those caused by an underground nuclear explosion. The country's Yonhap news agency reported that the North had test-fired three short-range missiles from a base on the east coast immediately after the nuclear test.

The underground atomic explosion, at 9.54am local time (0154 BST), created an earthquake measuring magnitude 4.5 in Kilju county in the country's north-east, reports said.

President Barack Obama called the test a matter of grave concern to all countries. "North Korea is directly and recklessly challenging the international community," he said in a statement. "North Korea's behaviour increases tensions and undermines stability in north-east Asia."

He added that North Korea's behaviour would serve only to deepen the country's isolation.

"It will not find international acceptance unless it abandons its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery," he said.

This is about a forceful as the US response will get.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said he was "deeply worried" by the development.

Which is what the UN Secretary General is good for.

Japan has a lot to worry about.

In Tokyo, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Takeo Kawamura, said the test was "a clear violation of the UN security council resolution and cannot be tolerated".

Kim will not want to trash South Korea with radioactive contamination since he plans to take ownership of it one day. I think that Japan and the US are at the top of Kim's target list.

The Japanese are currently having a national conversation about amending their Constitution to allow for a more powerful armed force with offensive capabilities. This is a good idea. They are in danger.

See: Japan Moving Toward Amendments To Pacifist Constitution, Official Says

Japan May Amend Pacifist Constitution To Allow Nukes To Protect Against North Korea

North Korea's nuclear weapons has ignited a debate in Japan about allowing nuclear weapons by amending its pacifist Constitution as a deterrent to an attack from nuclear-armed North Korea

Shoichi Nakagawa, former finance minister, said Japan should examine the possibility of obtaining nuclear weapons to defending itself from potential attacks by North Korea and its growing arsenal of ballistic missiles that could be armed with nuclear warheads.

"North Korea has taken a step toward a system whereby it can shoot without prior notice. We have to discuss countermeasures," Kyodo News quoted him as saying.

"It is common sense worldwide that in a purely military sense it is nuclear that can counteract nuclear," said Nakagawa, who has long called for debate on whether Japan should go nuclear.

Let's Kill All The Jews

As I return home for a very few months and try to put things together, I thought that I should start right in with how our unwillingness to take meaningful action in the face of evildoers endangers the world. Include our unwillingness to see through the lies of our enemies (and Mr. Obama's choice to make friends of enemies and enemies of friends). I will start with a piece that I was writing a few months ago. As Obama makes noises about how Mr. Netanyahu needs to accept a "two-state" solution as Mr. Abbas supposedly does, we should remember that what the Palestinian leadership says in public is one thing, but another thing is said amongst themselves in Arabic.

Let's kill all the Jews.

That is the word from Fatah. They openly admit that they are fooling the western powers with the phony acceptance of the right of the state of Israel to exist, or the right of Jews in the middle east to continue breathing. And, having said so openly, expect no objection from us.



Read all about it on the Strategy Page.

Let's Kill All The Jews

March 19, 2009: Fatah, the "moderate" Palestinian political movement, has admitted that it does not recognize the existence of Israel. Fatah points out that the Palestinian Authority, an organization set up in the 1990s after peace negotiations with Israel allowed the Palestinians to assume control of their own affairs, does not speak for Fatah. The Palestinian Authority recognized Israel, but Fatah points out that this was done to meet the demands of Western nations that were going to provide the Palestinians with billions of dollars in economic aid. What the Western donors ignored was the fact that Palestinians regularly used maps of the area that showed Israel as Palestinian territory. To Palestinians, Israel did not exist. Children were taught that Israel was an illegal entity, and the Israelis (at least the Jewish ones) foreign invaders who must be expelled or killed. All this was in Arabic. English pronouncements tended to be rather more opaque on the "kill the Jews" stuff.

And so we allow ourselves to be fooled.

My Travels

As both of you, my faithful and patient readers, know, I travel a lot. This last one is especially chaotic and is offered as the explanation for my absence. I am in Yokosuka, Japan.

Yep.

I am once again working on the USS George Washington and am living at the Hotel New Yokosuka. After arriving home from San Diego I had only a few days to get ready to go, and that was complicated by a major snowstorm that prevented me from getting everything done. That included the necessary preparations for travel abroad and work on my new house. So, no time to post.

I am sorry for that and plan to start again as I always do in these situations.

Those of you who know me know that I have a few things to say about events of the past few months. I will get to them.

More importantly, although I did not post about it, my wife and I did not forget the anniversary of the passing of my little girl. The memory still brings tears to my eyes (even now). Now Niko is old and sick and I fear that I will not get home in time to see him again.

I have also not forgotten about either of my faithful readers. I shall resume blogging as time permits.

Thank you for your kind patience.