So, this may come as no new news to many, but we still have no idea where our president was born. Now even the hospital he claimed as his birth hospital is covering up both the claim and the supporting letter.
That linked article actually borders on silly to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of web coding. Of course the html-created version of something is going to be different from the actual scanned letter.
Concerning the cover-up, however, this blogger considers the fact that the 'official letter' initially displayed on their website was actually just html to have been a rather obvious give away that something was wrong.
The hospital is answering no questions, naturally, and refuses to comment.
I, with most people, believed myself to be reasonable in dismissing the initial claims of Obama not being a naturally-born citizen as far-fetched. After all, if he hadn't been, surely someone would have stopped him from running early on, right? And besides, this kind of thing doesn't actually happen in America, right? "Not in Germany..."
But as time goes on, the simple refusal to supply necessary paperwork and information is starting to convince me. If he is a natural-born citizen, why not just supply the papers to prove it? And sorry, laser-printer copies are not considered valid.
Unfortunately, those in places of influence have more or less utterly bungled the issue, by using the issue not to block Obama's nomination on straightforward legal lines, but to whip up anti-Obama hysteria. I don't support the man's positions, philosophy, worldview, or decisions either, but that doesn't mean I have to convince the world to shrink back from the idea of his presidency on an emotional level. There is more than enough evidence present to demand clarification, but it should have happened early, and concertedly, not all along the way in random alarmist fits and starts.
That being said, of course I support inquiries into the matter.
Up to this point, Obama's supporters have basically brushed aside efforts to resolve the matter as irrelevant. Which is only natural, considering his entire rise to power has been exactly that: a power play. Republicans lost at the political game. Whether due to scruples or incompetence, or more likely a combination of the two, does not now matter. Either they will pull themselves together, function as an effective opposition party, and gain some ground in the next few rounds of elections, or they may go the way of the passenger pigeon.
The facts seem to support the conclusion that the condition of Obama's natural born citizenship is at least under a great deal of reasonable doubt; all that needs to be done is to push forward with that mindset. Yet any efforts we see now are by contrast fractured and ineffective.
Perhaps Obama's seeming strength is due largely to the incompetence of his enemies.
Should a different crowd arise, or a leader unite them, he would be advised to plan cautiously for 2012.
UPDATE: The story continues... now a soldier is refusing to deploy, claiming that Obama has no authority to command the US Military, since he is not a natural born citizen and thus cannot be President. Legal proceedings are underway...
-()4|<.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Walk softly, and carry a big schtick?
Obama is currently in Russia, making more treaties which we will, if history is any indication, be expected to unilaterally honor.
However, in keeping with my general preference to pick out non-obvious (or at least less obvious) aspects of current news, I'd like to analyze a recent quote by Obama made while in Russia.
The quote is as follows:
Apart from the odd phrasing in this particular instance, this sentiment is nothing new.
It's the exact opposite of Teddy Roosevelt's bit of wisdom "Walk softly, and carry a big stick.", and represents the opposite approach, of talking big yet bringing no force to back up your words.
This is, as an aside, exactly the philosophy which brought us into the Pacific theater in WWII, with numerous strongly-worded reproaches of Japan's expansionary actions, yet no force in the region to give them weight. The aggressive faction of the Japanese government concluded that ours were idle threats, and proceeded with their imperialistic ambitions.
Russia would naturally be no different, nor would China, who as we've recently seen has no problem with backing up their words with deadly force to subdue unruly outlying provinces.
They are all too happy to hear words denouncing force, when force is exactly what they are accumulating.
In our world, force rules. In other words, in a secular sense, the future belongs precisely to those who -do- gather armies and bury missiles. The US has secured and maintained its freedom only by means of these things, and when it abandons them, its freedom will quickly follow.
Now the leader of our country has denounced both; it must be no coincidence that he clearly despises our freedom as well, a fact underlined by the unprecedentedly rapid dismantling of it since his administration took power.
One is left to wonder whether the last vestiges of our freedom will give way before external forces, or internal dissolution. Time will tell.
-()4|<.
However, in keeping with my general preference to pick out non-obvious (or at least less obvious) aspects of current news, I'd like to analyze a recent quote by Obama made while in Russia.
The quote is as follows:
"The future does not belong to those who gather armies on a field of battle or bury missiles in the ground."
Apart from the odd phrasing in this particular instance, this sentiment is nothing new.
It's the exact opposite of Teddy Roosevelt's bit of wisdom "Walk softly, and carry a big stick.", and represents the opposite approach, of talking big yet bringing no force to back up your words.
This is, as an aside, exactly the philosophy which brought us into the Pacific theater in WWII, with numerous strongly-worded reproaches of Japan's expansionary actions, yet no force in the region to give them weight. The aggressive faction of the Japanese government concluded that ours were idle threats, and proceeded with their imperialistic ambitions.
Russia would naturally be no different, nor would China, who as we've recently seen has no problem with backing up their words with deadly force to subdue unruly outlying provinces.
They are all too happy to hear words denouncing force, when force is exactly what they are accumulating.
In our world, force rules. In other words, in a secular sense, the future belongs precisely to those who -do- gather armies and bury missiles. The US has secured and maintained its freedom only by means of these things, and when it abandons them, its freedom will quickly follow.
Now the leader of our country has denounced both; it must be no coincidence that he clearly despises our freedom as well, a fact underlined by the unprecedentedly rapid dismantling of it since his administration took power.
One is left to wonder whether the last vestiges of our freedom will give way before external forces, or internal dissolution. Time will tell.
-()4|<.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
"So this is how liberty dies... "
I ran across an article from the Times Online, stating that Vladimir Putin had banished casinos from most of Russia, essentially exiling them to the nether regions of the land. Not a particularly fresh piece of news, I read a similar article a day or two ago.
But this one caught my eye.
The story is unsettling; this is just the latest example of Putin basically re-instating himself as Czar. Freedom in Russia was a tumultuous but short-lived affair, evidently.
Upon reaching the end of the article, what I found was comments by my fellow Americans, and a Canadian. Far from decrying this bit of arbitrary power-wielding by an increasingly dictatorial Putin, they applauded it. (interpret the italics as sort of a shocked, wide-eyed whisper)
Samples from the three which greeted me include:
It's possible that the comments are still up on the article. If so, go read and grieve for our nation.
It almost makes me want to give up. Why fight for our freedom, when so few of us want it?
You may think I'm over-reacting to a few random comments. But the signs are everywhere. Every time someone says "there ought to be a law...", and I hear it and similar statements more and more frequently these days, they are giving over responsibility for their own actions (and with it their freedom) to the government.
Do Americans really despise their freedom so much that they will exchange it for illusions of security and the chance for a few unearned creature comforts?
Do we even as a nation know what freedom means?
Perhaps we have forgotten how to live, and thus have forgotten to value the ability to order one's life as one pleases.
At any rate, it seems that the daily loss of our freedoms is accompanied not by outrage (except by a few), or action, but instead occurs:
" ...to thunderous applause."
-()4|<.
But this one caught my eye.
The story is unsettling; this is just the latest example of Putin basically re-instating himself as Czar. Freedom in Russia was a tumultuous but short-lived affair, evidently.
Upon reaching the end of the article, what I found was comments by my fellow Americans, and a Canadian. Far from decrying this bit of arbitrary power-wielding by an increasingly dictatorial Putin, they applauded it. (interpret the italics as sort of a shocked, wide-eyed whisper)
Samples from the three which greeted me include:
"MR Putin has got it right if only the USA would put a stop to all the casinos..."
"...I hope he bans alcohol too as it's the curse of Russia bringing misery to millions."
"Good law. Good sign Putin could resist the criminal elements. Alcoholism needs health and moral-choice education beginning in elementary school..."
It's possible that the comments are still up on the article. If so, go read and grieve for our nation.
It almost makes me want to give up. Why fight for our freedom, when so few of us want it?
You may think I'm over-reacting to a few random comments. But the signs are everywhere. Every time someone says "there ought to be a law...", and I hear it and similar statements more and more frequently these days, they are giving over responsibility for their own actions (and with it their freedom) to the government.
Do Americans really despise their freedom so much that they will exchange it for illusions of security and the chance for a few unearned creature comforts?
Do we even as a nation know what freedom means?
Perhaps we have forgotten how to live, and thus have forgotten to value the ability to order one's life as one pleases.
At any rate, it seems that the daily loss of our freedoms is accompanied not by outrage (except by a few), or action, but instead occurs:
" ...to thunderous applause."
-()4|<.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Did Rome resist falling? Or beg for it?
So as anyone informed enough to be reading this is no doubt aware of by now, the global warming energy bill has narrowly made it through the house. This is basically the equivalent of voting to steer the Titanic towards another iceberg after the first collision, on the grounds that this one will plug the hole left by the last one.
Oh yes. They will be transformed. Flip back through our archives to a few months ago, and you'll see an article about the decay of Detroit, and how the wild is creeping back in. Our industry is packing up and moving to China. Don't blame the Chinese; industry is no longer welcome here.
“It has been an incredible six months, to go from a point where no one believed we could pass this legislation to a point now where we can begin to say that we are going to send president Obama to Copenhagen in December as the leader of the of the world on climate change,” said Markey, referring to world climate talks scheduled this winter.
A great honor, to be sure. Attempting to stake the heart of your country's infrastructure in exchange for a chance to sit at the table with the cool kids is clearly a win-win scenario for Democrats.
Ayn Rand simply called these type of people "looters", and she was right in that respect. We had achieved unparalleled prosperity and standards of living, NOT by wealth hoarded at the expense of other nations, but by CREATING wealth. Now, with barely contained excitement, they inform us that our standards of living are going to fall. ("Finally!", they sigh. "These canaglia... the rabble who need us, they have lived like fattened calves for too long. We, the elite, the inheritors of the age of enlightenment, should be given the money, to spend as it ought to be spent. The rest should live as the rest of the world lives.")
Know this. Those who now guide our country's progress hate America's success, as they hate all success that allows decent people to live in prosperity and order their own lives as they see fit.
If they must bring this entire nation to its knees in order to gain total control over your lives, they will do so. It could be rather quickly inferred that this is exactly what is going on.
Now they have succeeded in passing "the largest tax increase in American history under the guise of climate change", in the words of Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.).
The ins and outs of the mythology of green energy and job creation are straightforward enough (the bottom line: this legislation is going to hurt nearly everything it touches...), and we can outline those in another entry.
Right now, I am curious to hear any reactions you may have. I feel as if this great ship of state has been hijacked by enemies far more dangerous than any external terrorist threat.
Terrorists would be no more a national threat to a strong, free America than horseflies on a summer day at the pool. But in this weakened, divided, apologetic America, that publishes to the terrorists its interrogation techniques and does their PR work for them in advance, that cannot seem to rebuild what they destroy, or even muster the cultural strength to displace the radical culture which spawned them, to an America that now gives away its freedom to men who promise security and peace if only, if only we will let them make our decisions for us, in that America, the terrorists do not even need to "win". America as she has been is rapidly ceasing to exist, and what America is becoming will be no threat to evil.
Rome did not fall at the hands of the barbarians who sacked her, Rome fell from within.
The barbarians merely knocked over the tottering, decaying structure whose time had passed.
-()4|<.
Democrats narrowly passed historic climate and energy legislation Friday evening that would transform the country’s economy and industrial landscape.
Oh yes. They will be transformed. Flip back through our archives to a few months ago, and you'll see an article about the decay of Detroit, and how the wild is creeping back in. Our industry is packing up and moving to China. Don't blame the Chinese; industry is no longer welcome here.
“It has been an incredible six months, to go from a point where no one believed we could pass this legislation to a point now where we can begin to say that we are going to send president Obama to Copenhagen in December as the leader of the of the world on climate change,” said Markey, referring to world climate talks scheduled this winter.
A great honor, to be sure. Attempting to stake the heart of your country's infrastructure in exchange for a chance to sit at the table with the cool kids is clearly a win-win scenario for Democrats.
Ayn Rand simply called these type of people "looters", and she was right in that respect. We had achieved unparalleled prosperity and standards of living, NOT by wealth hoarded at the expense of other nations, but by CREATING wealth. Now, with barely contained excitement, they inform us that our standards of living are going to fall. ("Finally!", they sigh. "These canaglia... the rabble who need us, they have lived like fattened calves for too long. We, the elite, the inheritors of the age of enlightenment, should be given the money, to spend as it ought to be spent. The rest should live as the rest of the world lives.")
Know this. Those who now guide our country's progress hate America's success, as they hate all success that allows decent people to live in prosperity and order their own lives as they see fit.
If they must bring this entire nation to its knees in order to gain total control over your lives, they will do so. It could be rather quickly inferred that this is exactly what is going on.
Now they have succeeded in passing "the largest tax increase in American history under the guise of climate change", in the words of Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.).
The ins and outs of the mythology of green energy and job creation are straightforward enough (the bottom line: this legislation is going to hurt nearly everything it touches...), and we can outline those in another entry.
Right now, I am curious to hear any reactions you may have. I feel as if this great ship of state has been hijacked by enemies far more dangerous than any external terrorist threat.
Terrorists would be no more a national threat to a strong, free America than horseflies on a summer day at the pool. But in this weakened, divided, apologetic America, that publishes to the terrorists its interrogation techniques and does their PR work for them in advance, that cannot seem to rebuild what they destroy, or even muster the cultural strength to displace the radical culture which spawned them, to an America that now gives away its freedom to men who promise security and peace if only, if only we will let them make our decisions for us, in that America, the terrorists do not even need to "win". America as she has been is rapidly ceasing to exist, and what America is becoming will be no threat to evil.
Rome did not fall at the hands of the barbarians who sacked her, Rome fell from within.
The barbarians merely knocked over the tottering, decaying structure whose time had passed.
-()4|<.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
We have a Spaceport?
There is plenty of distressing news today, but I am ignoring all of that and focusing on the rather cool item: New Mexico's commercial spaceport is now in the process of construction.
And unlike green industry, the space industry will likely be highly profitable...
Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn said the firm already had taken some 300 advanced bookings and planned to begin flights from the spaceport within two years.
There are plenty of people with enough money to go into space (sub-orbital space, that is), and if it can be demonstrated to be safe and reliable, it may become the adult "must do at least once" item, a la Disneyworld for kids. At a gathering of the wealthy, someone might mention their Spanish villa, or yacht, but all attention will be commanded by the one who asks "but have you been into space?"
Will we really live in a world where space commutes to Asia or Europe will become routine?
It's a toss-up.
We have repeatedly demonstrated in the West that we don't care about making more power/energy available, and would rather saddle ourselves with oppressive environmental legislation and leave advancement to other parts of the world. Finding the extra energy in our system to power space flights just isn't going to happen, we must build more power-generating sources, be they nuclear power plants, or oil wells in Alaska. We can shift things around on the grid enough to cover black-outs on an unusually hot summer day, but not to cover the amount of energy that this industry is going to require. If we're fortunate/blessed, our energy capabilities will finally be expanded to cover this innovative new industry.
And that leads me to the other point, which is this:
New movements, both social and technological, have rarely been based logically on improvements in existing paradigms.
The internet, and associated information technology, captured the imagination of a generation, and they pushed that beyond all expected limits to fundamentally change we way we live and the world works, in only a few years.
Despite energy shortages, massive server farms have popped up, with their own hydro-electric power plants. Despite everyone already not having time, suddenly massive amounts of it were found available to spend (at the expense of other activities, granted) checking email, surfing randomly, and checking personal networking sites. Everything changed, not slowly as a result of gradual technology improvements, but as a result of the information revolution.
If we are ever to reach the Space Age, that every child who grew up in our generation knew was coming someday, it must be similar. Entrepreneurs and visionaries must emerge who can capture both imagination and funding. The New Mexico spaceport provides a sandbox (in the creative sense) in which they can begin to do this.
Obama has already signaled that he will not give space research a priority during his administration, but as his popularity inevitably begins to fall, it's likely that he will turn to such things to both shift focus away from unpopular socialist policies, and associate himself with popular, forward-looking ideas to boost his image.
We shall see. In the meantime, welcome Spaceport America.
-()4|<.
The $198 million project, which is being funded by the New Mexico state government, is located on a remote high-desert range near the town of Truth or Consequences.
British tycoon Richard Branson's space tours firm, Virgin Galactic, will use the facility to propel tourists into suborbital space at a cost of $200,000 a ride.
"After all of the hard work to get this project off the ground, it is gratifying to see Spaceport America finally become a reality," Richardson said.
And unlike green industry, the space industry will likely be highly profitable...
Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn said the firm already had taken some 300 advanced bookings and planned to begin flights from the spaceport within two years.
There are plenty of people with enough money to go into space (sub-orbital space, that is), and if it can be demonstrated to be safe and reliable, it may become the adult "must do at least once" item, a la Disneyworld for kids. At a gathering of the wealthy, someone might mention their Spanish villa, or yacht, but all attention will be commanded by the one who asks "but have you been into space?"
Will we really live in a world where space commutes to Asia or Europe will become routine?
It's a toss-up.
We have repeatedly demonstrated in the West that we don't care about making more power/energy available, and would rather saddle ourselves with oppressive environmental legislation and leave advancement to other parts of the world. Finding the extra energy in our system to power space flights just isn't going to happen, we must build more power-generating sources, be they nuclear power plants, or oil wells in Alaska. We can shift things around on the grid enough to cover black-outs on an unusually hot summer day, but not to cover the amount of energy that this industry is going to require. If we're fortunate/blessed, our energy capabilities will finally be expanded to cover this innovative new industry.
And that leads me to the other point, which is this:
New movements, both social and technological, have rarely been based logically on improvements in existing paradigms.
The internet, and associated information technology, captured the imagination of a generation, and they pushed that beyond all expected limits to fundamentally change we way we live and the world works, in only a few years.
Despite energy shortages, massive server farms have popped up, with their own hydro-electric power plants. Despite everyone already not having time, suddenly massive amounts of it were found available to spend (at the expense of other activities, granted) checking email, surfing randomly, and checking personal networking sites. Everything changed, not slowly as a result of gradual technology improvements, but as a result of the information revolution.
If we are ever to reach the Space Age, that every child who grew up in our generation knew was coming someday, it must be similar. Entrepreneurs and visionaries must emerge who can capture both imagination and funding. The New Mexico spaceport provides a sandbox (in the creative sense) in which they can begin to do this.
Obama has already signaled that he will not give space research a priority during his administration, but as his popularity inevitably begins to fall, it's likely that he will turn to such things to both shift focus away from unpopular socialist policies, and associate himself with popular, forward-looking ideas to boost his image.
We shall see. In the meantime, welcome Spaceport America.
-()4|<.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
And... we're back!
Greetings all. Following a dearth of posting in the past several weeks, we should be kicking things back into gear here within the month, with a return to frequent posting no later than the end of the month. Call it a summer break.
And speaking of summer, it seems that this summer of our American discontent has been made glorious (or at least more interesting) by a massive Rightward swing in Europe.
This was an inevitability. Europe had to shift politically, or cease existence entirely, but I admit I had assumed a relatively slow and painful process of the later.
And the mechanism by which the switch occurred is interesting as well.
With socialists and liberals proclaiming the ongoing financial disaster as proof that capitalism has failed, (rather like saying that a flu outbreak is proof that doctors are useless) many expected socialists to clinch their control over Europe. I was one of these, and assumed that failed socialist policies would lead most of Europe through a weakening decline until the Great Muslim Demographic shift came into play and transferred several EU member states into the Dar al-Islam.
Not yet, however. The article linked above describes the damage to the entrenched socialist power structures of Europe as follows:
As to the cause of this unexpected rout, further investigation would be worthwhile.
The article puts it down to two root causes:
It is not clear why a chunk of the blue-collar working base has swung almost overnight from Left to Right, but clearly we are seeing the delayed detonation of two political time-bombs: rising unemployment and the growth of immigrant enclaves that resist assimilation.
Ah yes, the immigrant enclaves. Much has been made in the US of a growing percentage of Latin Americans changing the balance of some political debates -abortion, for example, as Mexicans tend to be staunchly pro-life- and more of this will undoubtedly be seen as the demographics continue to shift. Less commonly, however, have I heard discussions of how Europe's demographic shift will affect politics there.
(Discussion of looming cultural shifts, yes; of political reorganizations, not so much.)
Could this be one of the first major rumblings of a new era in Europe?
Or is it instead merely the fallout from the global economic turmoil taking an unexpected route?
Time will tell. Meanwhile, though the left-leaning members of our government have long idolized Europe, something tells me this latest shift will go unadored...
-()4|<.
And speaking of summer, it seems that this summer of our American discontent has been made glorious (or at least more interesting) by a massive Rightward swing in Europe.
This was an inevitability. Europe had to shift politically, or cease existence entirely, but I admit I had assumed a relatively slow and painful process of the later.
And the mechanism by which the switch occurred is interesting as well.
With socialists and liberals proclaiming the ongoing financial disaster as proof that capitalism has failed, (rather like saying that a flu outbreak is proof that doctors are useless) many expected socialists to clinch their control over Europe. I was one of these, and assumed that failed socialist policies would lead most of Europe through a weakening decline until the Great Muslim Demographic shift came into play and transferred several EU member states into the Dar al-Islam.
Not yet, however. The article linked above describes the damage to the entrenched socialist power structures of Europe as follows:
Left-wing incumbents in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, and of course Britain were either slaughtered, or badly mauled.It also mentions that the comparatively right-wing incumbents of France and Italy did just fine.
As to the cause of this unexpected rout, further investigation would be worthwhile.
The article puts it down to two root causes:
It is not clear why a chunk of the blue-collar working base has swung almost overnight from Left to Right, but clearly we are seeing the delayed detonation of two political time-bombs: rising unemployment and the growth of immigrant enclaves that resist assimilation.
Ah yes, the immigrant enclaves. Much has been made in the US of a growing percentage of Latin Americans changing the balance of some political debates -abortion, for example, as Mexicans tend to be staunchly pro-life- and more of this will undoubtedly be seen as the demographics continue to shift. Less commonly, however, have I heard discussions of how Europe's demographic shift will affect politics there.
(Discussion of looming cultural shifts, yes; of political reorganizations, not so much.)
Could this be one of the first major rumblings of a new era in Europe?
Or is it instead merely the fallout from the global economic turmoil taking an unexpected route?
Time will tell. Meanwhile, though the left-leaning members of our government have long idolized Europe, something tells me this latest shift will go unadored...
-()4|<.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Entitling Ourselves to Death
So this one was obvious, but I couldn't pass it up.
Pelosi is in China, behaving as we have come to expect.
There is beautiful irony in appealing to Beijing to cooperate in the efforts to change our climate (oh, sorry, I mean disrupt the natural cycle of our climate-er, I mean... Bush caused Katrina! There we go.) on the basis of human rights, when Beijing clearly not only has a track record of ignoring human rights complaints, but disagrees with the Western concept of human rights on a fundamental philosophical level altogether.
Of course, Drudge's headline emphasized Pelosi's typically creepy statement that "Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory ... of how we are taking responsibility."
Granted, that's an interesting and revealing statement of the liberal outlook on life. More on that later, perhaps. But to me, the key phrase comes earlier in the article.
A human right? Since when? Are we now entitled to a static climate and optimal living conditions? It's not even possible to control the climate from a human perspective. The most of what we have accomplished so far is to murk things up a bit, and even that pales in comparison to one truly significant volcanic eruption. We might just as well speak of the entitlement to never be cold.
No generation of humans in modern history has been as concerned for the well-being of our environment, or more willing to sacrifice personal freedom (which we are also supposedly entitled to) for the sake of associated causes. And yet we are continually told by our president and other national leaders that we should be prepared to sacrifice for our country.
Pardon my frankness, but while I am quite prepared to sacrifice time, effort, and even my life if necessary for my country, I fail to see that our government deserves any of the above, nor that the interests of our country are being in any way advanced by said government.
An unfortunate event occurred in a town near my home several years back; a steel plant was taken over, the workers all laid off, and the plant dismantled and sold off. This story is unfortunately not uncommon across the country, as "looters" (to borrow a term from Ayn Rand) profit by destroying our producing power to line their pockets.
But now the looters are in Washington, and selling our freedoms isn't paying as well as it used to.
They'll be looking for more soon, which means more entitlements must be discovered.
Our forefathers knew better; we're not entitled to anything. Now we are coasting on the strength of their achievements, but inertia is running out. America was a chance for people to work hard and succeed, not for what they felt they deserved to be given to them by a nanny state.
If Americans have any entitlement, it is the chance for their hard work to pay off.
Perhaps we have forgotten that this is not always how the world works. In some cultures, you work yourself nearly to death, just to stay where you are. In others, a stratified society means that all your hard work will never help you get ahead.
America was never a give-away, it was a tough job with a good starting salary and excellent chances of advancement.
Now we are all "entitled" to prosperity, but not everyone is willing to work hard. Where then, does the money for those people come from? From the people producing all the value in this country. Right now, they are dragging everyone else along with them. But the situation can't continue forever.
If we don't kick the looters out of Washington, and also destroy the culture of entitlement, there simply is no future for America.
-()4|<.
Pelosi is in China, behaving as we have come to expect.
"U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged Beijing on Thursday to cooperate on climate change, calling a safe environment a basic human right."
There is beautiful irony in appealing to Beijing to cooperate in the efforts to change our climate (oh, sorry, I mean disrupt the natural cycle of our climate-er, I mean... Bush caused Katrina! There we go.) on the basis of human rights, when Beijing clearly not only has a track record of ignoring human rights complaints, but disagrees with the Western concept of human rights on a fundamental philosophical level altogether.
Of course, Drudge's headline emphasized Pelosi's typically creepy statement that "Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory ... of how we are taking responsibility."
Granted, that's an interesting and revealing statement of the liberal outlook on life. More on that later, perhaps. But to me, the key phrase comes earlier in the article.
"I do see this opportunity for climate change to be ... a game-changer," she said at Tsinghua. "It's a place where human rights — looking out for the needs of the poor in terms of climate change and healthy environment — are a human right."
A human right? Since when? Are we now entitled to a static climate and optimal living conditions? It's not even possible to control the climate from a human perspective. The most of what we have accomplished so far is to murk things up a bit, and even that pales in comparison to one truly significant volcanic eruption. We might just as well speak of the entitlement to never be cold.
No generation of humans in modern history has been as concerned for the well-being of our environment, or more willing to sacrifice personal freedom (which we are also supposedly entitled to) for the sake of associated causes. And yet we are continually told by our president and other national leaders that we should be prepared to sacrifice for our country.
Pardon my frankness, but while I am quite prepared to sacrifice time, effort, and even my life if necessary for my country, I fail to see that our government deserves any of the above, nor that the interests of our country are being in any way advanced by said government.
An unfortunate event occurred in a town near my home several years back; a steel plant was taken over, the workers all laid off, and the plant dismantled and sold off. This story is unfortunately not uncommon across the country, as "looters" (to borrow a term from Ayn Rand) profit by destroying our producing power to line their pockets.
But now the looters are in Washington, and selling our freedoms isn't paying as well as it used to.
They'll be looking for more soon, which means more entitlements must be discovered.
Our forefathers knew better; we're not entitled to anything. Now we are coasting on the strength of their achievements, but inertia is running out. America was a chance for people to work hard and succeed, not for what they felt they deserved to be given to them by a nanny state.
If Americans have any entitlement, it is the chance for their hard work to pay off.
Perhaps we have forgotten that this is not always how the world works. In some cultures, you work yourself nearly to death, just to stay where you are. In others, a stratified society means that all your hard work will never help you get ahead.
America was never a give-away, it was a tough job with a good starting salary and excellent chances of advancement.
Now we are all "entitled" to prosperity, but not everyone is willing to work hard. Where then, does the money for those people come from? From the people producing all the value in this country. Right now, they are dragging everyone else along with them. But the situation can't continue forever.
If we don't kick the looters out of Washington, and also destroy the culture of entitlement, there simply is no future for America.
-()4|<.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Border Creep
And we're back, after a short hiatus here at MC.
I have been quite busy in Mexico for the past week, and while there made a few cultural observations that might prove increasingly relevant in the days to come.
The argument over illegal immigration (or migration, as it has been more accurately described) has raged on for years now. Former President Bush seemed more or less unilaterally in favor of "amnesty", establishing a swift and easy path to citizenship for the millions of Latin Americans living illegally inside the Estados Unidos. Congress was on the verge of passing this, but overwhelming opposition from the American people killed it.
For latin migrants, it's a question of simple economics. Barely scrape by in Mexico, or earn a decent wage in America. For us, it's akin to a cultural invasion, but one that we have on a national level neither affirmed or denied.
Without a clear message from the United States either way (most people want illegal migrant workers removed, and the borders secured. Congress evidently doesn't know what it wants, Obama has not given the issue much attention, and many businesses continue to use and encourage the flow of cheap labor), one can hardly blame the migrant workers (whose culture views laws more as obstacles to work around than anything personally binding) from moving up to where they can potentially make as much in a day as they would in a week back home.
As usual, the question is more complicated than either side of the debate presents it. The facts lie rusty and unacknowledged, while the MSM focuses primarily on the emotional aspects of the conflict.
On the one hand, it's clear that illegal entry should not be rewarded with citizenship. It's also very unclear what effect the massive importation of another culture will have on America.
Well, perhaps not entirely unclear. A quick trip to most cities within 100 miles of the border
and towns all across the sun belt will make it obvious what changes are already occuring. Just going to El Wal-Mart here, hundreds of miles from the border, has become quite a cultural experience. We even have a few tiendas (Mexican corner shops, essentially) popping up around town.
On the other hand, with hospitals closing all over the country, and millions of untaxed dollars flowing southward, (forming the major portion of several Latin American economies, in fact) it could be argued that we are clinging to some principles while ignoring others, at our own great expense.
And there is a more serious problem, that has been almost totally ignored:
Without the influx of people from the south, the US birth rate falls below "the line of no return" for declining cultures. As we have previously noted, Europe has already fallen below this line, and is in the process of a massive cultural shift towards Islam, a fact that the German government has even admitted.
Any culture that decides to stop having children in sufficient numbers, dooms itself to eventual decline and collapse or displacement, by sheer lack of population. This is an inescapable historical fact.
Of course, one might reasonably question whether maintaining our culture with the importation of another culture is really possible, since as history has shown, the incoming culture will displace our own. However, as stated above, it's not a question of our culture surviving as is. We simply are not raising enough children in our own culture to perpetuate it. We can either take whoever is willing to, along with such elements of their culture as they bring with them, or slowly disappear.
Taking all that into account, regardless of where the immigration debate goes, or what solution is eventually settled on, it seems that some Spanish classes might be in order. They will be, shall we say, necesario?
-()4|<.
I have been quite busy in Mexico for the past week, and while there made a few cultural observations that might prove increasingly relevant in the days to come.
The argument over illegal immigration (or migration, as it has been more accurately described) has raged on for years now. Former President Bush seemed more or less unilaterally in favor of "amnesty", establishing a swift and easy path to citizenship for the millions of Latin Americans living illegally inside the Estados Unidos. Congress was on the verge of passing this, but overwhelming opposition from the American people killed it.
For latin migrants, it's a question of simple economics. Barely scrape by in Mexico, or earn a decent wage in America. For us, it's akin to a cultural invasion, but one that we have on a national level neither affirmed or denied.
Without a clear message from the United States either way (most people want illegal migrant workers removed, and the borders secured. Congress evidently doesn't know what it wants, Obama has not given the issue much attention, and many businesses continue to use and encourage the flow of cheap labor), one can hardly blame the migrant workers (whose culture views laws more as obstacles to work around than anything personally binding) from moving up to where they can potentially make as much in a day as they would in a week back home.
As usual, the question is more complicated than either side of the debate presents it. The facts lie rusty and unacknowledged, while the MSM focuses primarily on the emotional aspects of the conflict.
On the one hand, it's clear that illegal entry should not be rewarded with citizenship. It's also very unclear what effect the massive importation of another culture will have on America.
Well, perhaps not entirely unclear. A quick trip to most cities within 100 miles of the border
and towns all across the sun belt will make it obvious what changes are already occuring. Just going to El Wal-Mart here, hundreds of miles from the border, has become quite a cultural experience. We even have a few tiendas (Mexican corner shops, essentially) popping up around town.
On the other hand, with hospitals closing all over the country, and millions of untaxed dollars flowing southward, (forming the major portion of several Latin American economies, in fact) it could be argued that we are clinging to some principles while ignoring others, at our own great expense.
And there is a more serious problem, that has been almost totally ignored:
Without the influx of people from the south, the US birth rate falls below "the line of no return" for declining cultures. As we have previously noted, Europe has already fallen below this line, and is in the process of a massive cultural shift towards Islam, a fact that the German government has even admitted.
Any culture that decides to stop having children in sufficient numbers, dooms itself to eventual decline and collapse or displacement, by sheer lack of population. This is an inescapable historical fact.
Of course, one might reasonably question whether maintaining our culture with the importation of another culture is really possible, since as history has shown, the incoming culture will displace our own. However, as stated above, it's not a question of our culture surviving as is. We simply are not raising enough children in our own culture to perpetuate it. We can either take whoever is willing to, along with such elements of their culture as they bring with them, or slowly disappear.
Taking all that into account, regardless of where the immigration debate goes, or what solution is eventually settled on, it seems that some Spanish classes might be in order. They will be, shall we say, necesario?
-()4|<.
Friday, May 08, 2009
The Road to Serfdom
For those of you unaware of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, or Mises economic theory, I highly recommend you go to their website, which has a library, and doing some reading. In a nutshell, you might call Mises economic theory "reality-based", versus theory-based. It's been beating the flawed Keynesian model to pieces in predicting the economy's next steps.
THE_CSM sent me this, and I thought I'd bring it to the attention of our readers.
"The Road to Serfdom" by Friedrich A Hayek... handily portrayed in cartoon form.
-()4|<.
THE_CSM sent me this, and I thought I'd bring it to the attention of our readers.
"The Road to Serfdom" by Friedrich A Hayek... handily portrayed in cartoon form.
-()4|<.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Powell vs. the People
Colin Powell offers his opinions on a couple issues, mainly the Republican's current identity crisis. Let's see if he says anything intelligent...
Leaving aside his bad choice of phrasing, (the "middle of the country", aka "the heartland" has been consistently conservative for a long time, not the left-leaning centrists that Powell suggests they would be best represented by) this strategy interests me (in a morbid way). Let's see what he says next.
I won't bother to quote him any more. Read the article if you wish, it's fruitless verbiage.
One might assume, based on the results of the last election, that Powell's words are true.
But over half a million of my fellow Americans who joined me in the tea parties might beg to differ. Half a million, yes, that's a very, very small slice of America. But behind every one of those people who showed up are tens and hundreds who feel the same.
The American Revolution was ignited by the issue of taxation without representation.
What we have now is a new and unnatural chimera:
Taxation without representation, and also representation without taxation.
Those who pay taxes have fewer and fewer advocates in the government which siphons off the money they have earned, while those who do not contribute to the system receive the ill-gotten gain, minus their freedom.
Meanwhile, Powell advocates a shift by the GOP from "Lie to your base for votes" to "Our base does not exist, let us become our opponents".
Republicans only have themselves to blame for their current troubles. Any true conservative or smaller-government advocate has been so burned by this point that McCain's loss would have been truly epic if millions of people had not voted for him merely to vote against Obama.
The Republican party had only survived that long because of their conservative voters. The homeschooler moms who volunteered, gun owners who contributed, pro-lifers who urgently invested in their cause. Those people have been repeatedly betrayed, their interests sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.
No more. The stake in the heart of the GOP of before was not Obama's victory, but the nomination of McCain. Palin was an unexpected boost, and nearly upset the election.
And yet, as the confetti was still falling in Chicago, the Republicans turned on Palin, who offered the only breath of fresh air in the race, the only factor that made victory even conceivable, and proceeded to blame her for the whole thing.
Imagine a man who sleeps for 14 hours a day, blaming his inability to win a marathon on the fact that, had he only enough sleep, say 18 hours a day, he could have done it.
The Republican Party will totally cease to exist as a political entity in the United States if they continue on this course. Only a seismic shift in their party mentality to recognize and work for the people who have repeatedly been the motivating power behind their campaigns instead of betraying them to pander ineffectually to politically apathetic centrists who fall left by default could possibly stave off disaster.
That is, if we will ever have them back.
-()4|<.
"The Republican Party is in big trouble and needs to find a way to move back to the middle of the country, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday."
Leaving aside his bad choice of phrasing, (the "middle of the country", aka "the heartland" has been consistently conservative for a long time, not the left-leaning centrists that Powell suggests they would be best represented by) this strategy interests me (in a morbid way). Let's see what he says next.
"The Republican Party is in deep trouble," Powell told corporate security executives at a conference in Washington sponsored by Fortify Software Inc. The party must realize that the country has changed, he said. "Americans do want to pay taxes for services," he said. "Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."
I won't bother to quote him any more. Read the article if you wish, it's fruitless verbiage.
One might assume, based on the results of the last election, that Powell's words are true.
But over half a million of my fellow Americans who joined me in the tea parties might beg to differ. Half a million, yes, that's a very, very small slice of America. But behind every one of those people who showed up are tens and hundreds who feel the same.
The American Revolution was ignited by the issue of taxation without representation.
What we have now is a new and unnatural chimera:
Taxation without representation, and also representation without taxation.
Those who pay taxes have fewer and fewer advocates in the government which siphons off the money they have earned, while those who do not contribute to the system receive the ill-gotten gain, minus their freedom.
Meanwhile, Powell advocates a shift by the GOP from "Lie to your base for votes" to "Our base does not exist, let us become our opponents".
Republicans only have themselves to blame for their current troubles. Any true conservative or smaller-government advocate has been so burned by this point that McCain's loss would have been truly epic if millions of people had not voted for him merely to vote against Obama.
The Republican party had only survived that long because of their conservative voters. The homeschooler moms who volunteered, gun owners who contributed, pro-lifers who urgently invested in their cause. Those people have been repeatedly betrayed, their interests sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.
No more. The stake in the heart of the GOP of before was not Obama's victory, but the nomination of McCain. Palin was an unexpected boost, and nearly upset the election.
And yet, as the confetti was still falling in Chicago, the Republicans turned on Palin, who offered the only breath of fresh air in the race, the only factor that made victory even conceivable, and proceeded to blame her for the whole thing.
Imagine a man who sleeps for 14 hours a day, blaming his inability to win a marathon on the fact that, had he only enough sleep, say 18 hours a day, he could have done it.
The Republican Party will totally cease to exist as a political entity in the United States if they continue on this course. Only a seismic shift in their party mentality to recognize and work for the people who have repeatedly been the motivating power behind their campaigns instead of betraying them to pander ineffectually to politically apathetic centrists who fall left by default could possibly stave off disaster.
That is, if we will ever have them back.
-()4|<.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Does Biden have brain flu?
We knew there was a reason we hadn't seen Biden since the election:
He might actually say something, and that might be made public.
In this case, our most highly esteemed Vice President has blundered by suggesting that public transportation is now unsafe for Americans.
"I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now. It's not that it's going to Mexico, it's you're in a confined aircraft when one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft. That's me. I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation suggesting they ride the subway. "
Panic! Panic! The White House is now recommending that public transportation be avoided!
However, we here at MC would like to reassure our readers. The Vice President's words should not, under any circumstances, be taken at face value. What he really meant to say was this:
“On the Today Show this morning, the vice president was asked what he would tell a family member who was considering air travel to Mexico this week. The advice he is giving family members is the same advice the administration is giving to all Americans: that they should avoid unnecessary air travel to and from Mexico. If they are sick, they should avoid airplanes and other confined public spaces, such as subways. This is the advice the vice president has given family members who are traveling by commercial airline this week."
That's right. When Biden says "It's not that it's going to Mexico", he really means "what he would tell a family member who was considering air travel to Mexico".
In fact, all of Biden's utterances should probably be understood in this more discerning light of meaning the exact opposite of their content.
But this raises a quandary. Clearly, since we are given to understand that Obama is a genius, he would not have chosen a brainless twit to be his Vice President.
The obvious solution is that Al Gore had it slightly wrong. He really should have been hunting the Manbirdpig (otherwise known as Human Avian Swine Flu). And clearly, Biden knows how to catch it. I foresee an urgent press conference in the very near future.
But we try to encourage family-friendly fare here as well, and clearly the show referenced above cannot be in any way construed as such. Therefore, I offer a second explanation, possibly even more accurate and satisfying....
They're pinky and the brain, they're pinky and the brain... one is a genius, the other's insane.
To prove their liberal worth, they'll overthrow the earth
They're pinky, they're pinky and the brain, brain, brain, brain....
-()4|<.
He might actually say something, and that might be made public.
In this case, our most highly esteemed Vice President has blundered by suggesting that public transportation is now unsafe for Americans.
"I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now. It's not that it's going to Mexico, it's you're in a confined aircraft when one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft. That's me. I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation suggesting they ride the subway. "
Panic! Panic! The White House is now recommending that public transportation be avoided!
However, we here at MC would like to reassure our readers. The Vice President's words should not, under any circumstances, be taken at face value. What he really meant to say was this:
“On the Today Show this morning, the vice president was asked what he would tell a family member who was considering air travel to Mexico this week. The advice he is giving family members is the same advice the administration is giving to all Americans: that they should avoid unnecessary air travel to and from Mexico. If they are sick, they should avoid airplanes and other confined public spaces, such as subways. This is the advice the vice president has given family members who are traveling by commercial airline this week."
That's right. When Biden says "It's not that it's going to Mexico", he really means "what he would tell a family member who was considering air travel to Mexico".
In fact, all of Biden's utterances should probably be understood in this more discerning light of meaning the exact opposite of their content.
But this raises a quandary. Clearly, since we are given to understand that Obama is a genius, he would not have chosen a brainless twit to be his Vice President.
The obvious solution is that Al Gore had it slightly wrong. He really should have been hunting the Manbirdpig (otherwise known as Human Avian Swine Flu). And clearly, Biden knows how to catch it. I foresee an urgent press conference in the very near future.
But we try to encourage family-friendly fare here as well, and clearly the show referenced above cannot be in any way construed as such. Therefore, I offer a second explanation, possibly even more accurate and satisfying....
They're pinky and the brain, they're pinky and the brain... one is a genius, the other's insane.
To prove their liberal worth, they'll overthrow the earth
They're pinky, they're pinky and the brain, brain, brain, brain....
-()4|<.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Our Digital September 11th
First, I would like to say that I have no intention for this to become a "Chinaphobic" blog.
While I do cover stories about China when they are of importance, I think it's obvious that indulging in paranoid speculation regarding the East in specific, and China in general, is foolish and often leads others to respond by committing the opposite, equally dangerous error.
If I cover stories on China much more often than stories about other nations, it is for two good reasons. The first is that I have spent some time in that part of the world, and thus know, though perhaps by only a small degree, more of what I am talking about when I address issues from that part of the world. (As an example, one statement I could make from an experiential standpoint is that Chinese people in general, as distinct from their government, are not our enemies at all.) The second is that it is becoming steadily more clear to even the most opaque observer that China has for a long been our rival (declared rival, even) for the world's foremost superpower status, and fully intends to replace us as such, first regionally, then globally.
I say rival, but perhaps the term is misleading. On a national administrative and foreign policy level, it seems quite clear that those of liberal persuasion loathe our status as superpower so intensely that they are practically begging China to take the position from us. They have even taken numerous steps to ensure that they are prepared to do so, from Clinton's military technology transfers to the accumulation and transfer of unprecedented levels of debt into the Chinese government's hands.
One lesson we have from history is that the cultures which apologize for their own existence always give way before the cultures which do not. So, given the situation that exists between our two nations, the self-hating superpower and the would-be superpower, it is probably safe to say that the balance of power will be shifting very soon.
But enough depressing analysis, let us look at the string of stories which inspired today's entry.
Some are recent, others are from the past few years yet remain ongoing situations that have not been dealt with.
The Joint Strike Fighter program. (!)
The Pentagon. (!!)
The Naval War College Network. (?)
The NYPD. (!?)
Our power grid. (!!!)
China also plans, in the event of war, to heavily utilize "cyber" warfare.
You should read the above link if nothing else, there are some very interesting facts buried beneath the alarmist nature of the article.
The Chinese tend to handle things pragmatically. They cannot go toe-to-toe with our carrier groups, and so they develop anti-ship missiles, and extensive hacking networks.
Meeting the F-35 in the air is deadly. Meeting it in cyberspace, not so much.
For the sake of accuracy, I will mention that the Chinese government hotly denies all connection with the intrusions. Which of course, neither adds nor takes away anything from the situation, since that is what they would say whether or not they were involved.
I will say, that the Chinese are a convenient foe to blame every incident on.
Though in many cases, the attacks were traced back to China, the MSM have taken to automatically blaming Chinese hackers for every incident. (though the power grid report does mention that Russian hackers may also be responsible)
In some classes I have taken, they taught us that it's common for hackers in one area to route their attacks through another area. So these attacks may not all be originating from where they appear to be, and those tracing them may be tempted to stop at China when the trail leads farther back.
However, there is both direct and circumstantial evidence that the majority of these attacks are China-based. China has both the means and the incentive to perpetrate this kind of assault in the very high numbers we are seeing. There are also Chinese hackers claiming responsibility for some of the incidents.*
For years before the Sept. 11 attacks, radical Islamists were at war with us. Even through the first attempted bombing of the WTC, and the attack on the U.S.S. Cole, this fact was denied or minimized by the government.
What will it take for the government to acknowledge the ongoing cyber war with China?
What form will a digital Sept 11th take? The crash of our banking networks?
Using our power grid networks to turn off the lights?
We are currently putting up not even a token resistance; we are in essence being pillaged, outrageously expensive programs and highly sensitive information being compromised and taken with no repercussions.
If the US does not respond realistically, quickly, and practically, our national security will be even more gravely compromised, and lives will be lost as a result.
-()4|<.
*- Yes, we link to CNN too, even though we suspect that we, like the tea parties, might be perceived by certain biased media sources to be "right-wing extremists" and "anti-CNN"...
While I do cover stories about China when they are of importance, I think it's obvious that indulging in paranoid speculation regarding the East in specific, and China in general, is foolish and often leads others to respond by committing the opposite, equally dangerous error.
If I cover stories on China much more often than stories about other nations, it is for two good reasons. The first is that I have spent some time in that part of the world, and thus know, though perhaps by only a small degree, more of what I am talking about when I address issues from that part of the world. (As an example, one statement I could make from an experiential standpoint is that Chinese people in general, as distinct from their government, are not our enemies at all.) The second is that it is becoming steadily more clear to even the most opaque observer that China has for a long been our rival (declared rival, even) for the world's foremost superpower status, and fully intends to replace us as such, first regionally, then globally.
I say rival, but perhaps the term is misleading. On a national administrative and foreign policy level, it seems quite clear that those of liberal persuasion loathe our status as superpower so intensely that they are practically begging China to take the position from us. They have even taken numerous steps to ensure that they are prepared to do so, from Clinton's military technology transfers to the accumulation and transfer of unprecedented levels of debt into the Chinese government's hands.
One lesson we have from history is that the cultures which apologize for their own existence always give way before the cultures which do not. So, given the situation that exists between our two nations, the self-hating superpower and the would-be superpower, it is probably safe to say that the balance of power will be shifting very soon.
But enough depressing analysis, let us look at the string of stories which inspired today's entry.
Some are recent, others are from the past few years yet remain ongoing situations that have not been dealt with.
The Joint Strike Fighter program. (!)
The Pentagon. (!!)
The Naval War College Network. (?)
The NYPD. (!?)
Our power grid. (!!!)
China also plans, in the event of war, to heavily utilize "cyber" warfare.
You should read the above link if nothing else, there are some very interesting facts buried beneath the alarmist nature of the article.
The Chinese tend to handle things pragmatically. They cannot go toe-to-toe with our carrier groups, and so they develop anti-ship missiles, and extensive hacking networks.
Meeting the F-35 in the air is deadly. Meeting it in cyberspace, not so much.
For the sake of accuracy, I will mention that the Chinese government hotly denies all connection with the intrusions. Which of course, neither adds nor takes away anything from the situation, since that is what they would say whether or not they were involved.
I will say, that the Chinese are a convenient foe to blame every incident on.
Though in many cases, the attacks were traced back to China, the MSM have taken to automatically blaming Chinese hackers for every incident. (though the power grid report does mention that Russian hackers may also be responsible)
In some classes I have taken, they taught us that it's common for hackers in one area to route their attacks through another area. So these attacks may not all be originating from where they appear to be, and those tracing them may be tempted to stop at China when the trail leads farther back.
However, there is both direct and circumstantial evidence that the majority of these attacks are China-based. China has both the means and the incentive to perpetrate this kind of assault in the very high numbers we are seeing. There are also Chinese hackers claiming responsibility for some of the incidents.*
For years before the Sept. 11 attacks, radical Islamists were at war with us. Even through the first attempted bombing of the WTC, and the attack on the U.S.S. Cole, this fact was denied or minimized by the government.
What will it take for the government to acknowledge the ongoing cyber war with China?
What form will a digital Sept 11th take? The crash of our banking networks?
Using our power grid networks to turn off the lights?
We are currently putting up not even a token resistance; we are in essence being pillaged, outrageously expensive programs and highly sensitive information being compromised and taken with no repercussions.
If the US does not respond realistically, quickly, and practically, our national security will be even more gravely compromised, and lives will be lost as a result.
-()4|<.
*- Yes, we link to CNN too, even though we suspect that we, like the tea parties, might be perceived by certain biased media sources to be "right-wing extremists" and "anti-CNN"...
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The Beginning of the End
So many stories today... but one must be chosen, and the winner will be a continuation on a theme I am, perhaps morbidly, interested in pursuing.
It has long been my assertion that ideologies which are untrue, that fly in the face of reality, only work at best for a short time, and then proceed to destroy themselves. That is to say, false worldviews are inherently nihilistic. The massive numbers of deaths in any communist regime would be an extreme example, the current cultural annihilation of post-Christian, socialist Europe in the face of Islam would be another.
One thinks of Kipling's poem, "The Gods of the copybook headings".
For those of you unfamiliar with it, I highly recommend it.
Now for one of the most recent examples:
GM will be shutting most of its US plants for 9 months this summer.
Wait, I thought the magical bailouts were supposed to prevent this.
Or perhaps throwing tax dollars onto an economic bonfire is not the best way to extinguish it?
Can you hear the sand in the hourglass?
We have elected those who despise earned wealth, and those who have earned it, and believe that money is theirs to make, claim, and redistribute at will. They do not understand how a nation's wealth is founded, nor do they overly care. They will simply redistribute (holding some back for themselves, of course) wealth until all wealth is gone, all the while blaming producers for failing to produce enough for everyone to share. (and the misguided populace will then attack the producers. Witness the anti-capitalist demonstrations at the G20 conference.)
Obama and his backers are leading the charge of those who wish to saw through the branches upon which they sit, on the grounds that no tree should be taller than any others.
-()4|<.
It has long been my assertion that ideologies which are untrue, that fly in the face of reality, only work at best for a short time, and then proceed to destroy themselves. That is to say, false worldviews are inherently nihilistic. The massive numbers of deaths in any communist regime would be an extreme example, the current cultural annihilation of post-Christian, socialist Europe in the face of Islam would be another.
One thinks of Kipling's poem, "The Gods of the copybook headings".
For those of you unfamiliar with it, I highly recommend it.
Now for one of the most recent examples:
GM will be shutting most of its US plants for 9 months this summer.
"General Motors Corp. is planning to temporarily close most of its U.S. factories for up to nine weeks this summer because of slumping sales and growing inventories of unsold vehicles, three people briefed on the plan said Wednesday. Analysts say the company could be seeing sales decline because of talk about a potential bankruptcy."
Wait, I thought the magical bailouts were supposed to prevent this.
Or perhaps throwing tax dollars onto an economic bonfire is not the best way to extinguish it?
Can you hear the sand in the hourglass?
We have elected those who despise earned wealth, and those who have earned it, and believe that money is theirs to make, claim, and redistribute at will. They do not understand how a nation's wealth is founded, nor do they overly care. They will simply redistribute (holding some back for themselves, of course) wealth until all wealth is gone, all the while blaming producers for failing to produce enough for everyone to share. (and the misguided populace will then attack the producers. Witness the anti-capitalist demonstrations at the G20 conference.)
Obama and his backers are leading the charge of those who wish to saw through the branches upon which they sit, on the grounds that no tree should be taller than any others.
-()4|<.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
So "Conservative," it's working its way toward absolute liberalism.
Long title, I know. Bear with me.
If you would ask any of the local leaders (around North AL) if they consider themselves to be "free market conservatives," I am pretty sure most would say "yes."
However, we have many local laws banning the sale of alcohol on Sundays.
Quite honestly, I view alcohol as a "vile drink that turns even the most respectable men into complete scoundrels"(kudos if you caught the reference, albeit an easy one), but I don't think government regulation over the marketing and sell of any goods at any time should be allowed.
Do lawmakers (and local town Baptists) believe that regulating alcohol on Sunday prevents people from drinking on Sunday? If people want alcohol on Sunday, they can drive to another town (effectively spending a nice sales tax to another city and county) on Sunday or stock up on Saturday.
To balance the ridiculousness of the ban, let me raise a question.
Are the Sunday Protestants being slightly discriminatory with their choice of banning Sunday sales? Afterall, the Sabbath of our Seventh-Day Adventist and Jewish citizens begins Friday at sundown. If we're going to ban alcohol sales, let's at least be consistent.
Just in case some of these legislators are reading this blog,I'll put it into tinier words and an easier analogy for them--with something "less controversial" than something like alcohol (which Jesus drank, by the way. People tend to forget that Jesus didn't take a shot of Welch's out of a tiny plastic cup with his penny-sized cracker.)
If people want to buy, oh let's say...gum.
Yes, people go to the store to buy gum. Lawmakers decide that people are spitting too much gum on the sidewalks, so they decide to regulate the sale of gum on...Wednesdays. Will banning the sale of gum effectively reduce the gum consumption? My guess is..no. They can go Thursday - Tuesday to pick up their gum. In fact, they can buy as much gum as they want and spit it wherever they want. They can even, therefore, chew their gum on Wednesday. And consume too much gum. And fill sidewalks with it.
These local laws are regressive and, quite frankly, stupid.
-W
If you would ask any of the local leaders (around North AL) if they consider themselves to be "free market conservatives," I am pretty sure most would say "yes."
However, we have many local laws banning the sale of alcohol on Sundays.
Quite honestly, I view alcohol as a "vile drink that turns even the most respectable men into complete scoundrels"(kudos if you caught the reference, albeit an easy one), but I don't think government regulation over the marketing and sell of any goods at any time should be allowed.
Do lawmakers (and local town Baptists) believe that regulating alcohol on Sunday prevents people from drinking on Sunday? If people want alcohol on Sunday, they can drive to another town (effectively spending a nice sales tax to another city and county) on Sunday or stock up on Saturday.
To balance the ridiculousness of the ban, let me raise a question.
Are the Sunday Protestants being slightly discriminatory with their choice of banning Sunday sales? Afterall, the Sabbath of our Seventh-Day Adventist and Jewish citizens begins Friday at sundown. If we're going to ban alcohol sales, let's at least be consistent.
Just in case some of these legislators are reading this blog,I'll put it into tinier words and an easier analogy for them--with something "less controversial" than something like alcohol (which Jesus drank, by the way. People tend to forget that Jesus didn't take a shot of Welch's out of a tiny plastic cup with his penny-sized cracker.)
If people want to buy, oh let's say...gum.
Yes, people go to the store to buy gum. Lawmakers decide that people are spitting too much gum on the sidewalks, so they decide to regulate the sale of gum on...Wednesdays. Will banning the sale of gum effectively reduce the gum consumption? My guess is..no. They can go Thursday - Tuesday to pick up their gum. In fact, they can buy as much gum as they want and spit it wherever they want. They can even, therefore, chew their gum on Wednesday. And consume too much gum. And fill sidewalks with it.
These local laws are regressive and, quite frankly, stupid.
-W
Athens Tea Party
So, I unexpectedly had the chance to attend yet another tea party in the area, this time in Athens Alabama.
I didn't have my camera with me, so I will put up another post later with pictures off my phone.
For those of you not familiar with the area, Athens is a small town, about 23,000 people.
I wasn't expecting much, perhaps 50-100 people. But it seems that the word is getting out better these days. About 300 people showed up, by my estimation. And if everyone who honked and shouted in support as they passed had parked and joined us, we could easily have matched the Huntsville event.
Will Anderson, an area radio personality, led the proceedings.
Christie, the young lady who organized the Huntsville event, showed up as well, and was given a very well-deserved round of applause.
We also heard from a Marine veteran who had recently seen combat in Iraq, been injured several times, and brought back an elaborate dagger from one of Saddam's palaces.
It was encouraging to see more people show up on shorter notice this time. Perhaps the necessary organization is beginning to be set in place. That by itself would be a positive outcome of the tea party movement. Conservatives aren't used to protesting, but we all may be forced to become rather skilled at it in the coming days.
Pictures and more information to come.
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I didn't have my camera with me, so I will put up another post later with pictures off my phone.
For those of you not familiar with the area, Athens is a small town, about 23,000 people.
I wasn't expecting much, perhaps 50-100 people. But it seems that the word is getting out better these days. About 300 people showed up, by my estimation. And if everyone who honked and shouted in support as they passed had parked and joined us, we could easily have matched the Huntsville event.
Will Anderson, an area radio personality, led the proceedings.
Christie, the young lady who organized the Huntsville event, showed up as well, and was given a very well-deserved round of applause.
We also heard from a Marine veteran who had recently seen combat in Iraq, been injured several times, and brought back an elaborate dagger from one of Saddam's palaces.
It was encouraging to see more people show up on shorter notice this time. Perhaps the necessary organization is beginning to be set in place. That by itself would be a positive outcome of the tea party movement. Conservatives aren't used to protesting, but we all may be forced to become rather skilled at it in the coming days.
Pictures and more information to come.
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Friday, April 17, 2009
Huntsville Alabama Tax Day Tea Party - Part II
First, some number crunching, for anyone who likes numbers.
The final attendance estimates I'm getting for the Huntsville, AL event were about 2300-2500.
For comparison purposes, that's about 1.4% of the city of Huntsville's population, though many participants came from the surrounding area rather than Huntsville proper.
Pajamas TV is estimating total turnout for the nationwide protests at over 578,000 people.
For Alabama, total participation was estimated at about 12,000.
So a slightly better than proportional turnout, since Alabama represents 1.6% of the nation's population, and contributed 2% of the tea party attendance with 18 events.
(New York, by comparison, with 6.5% of the nation's population, contributed just 3.3% of the total event attendance, with 33 events, while Texas, with 8.2% of the the nation's population, contributed 12.4% of the total event attendance, with 78 events. But more on Texas later.)
Note: They estimated Huntsville's attendance numbers at 3000, about 500 more than police estimates, so some optimistic rounding up may have occurred. However, by the same token, many events may have been low-balled by official counts, depending on the politics involved, so it's really hard to say.
In any case, at least half a million Americans showed up on April 15th to make their voices heard, many for the first time in their lives.
High-level reactions to the events were varied, including:
Crude and sophomoric
Clueless
Opportunistic
Hypothetically Seccessionary
CNN and MSNBC showed their true colors as crude, sarcastic, out-of-touch elites who neither have any idea of what they are talking about, nor of what normal Americans think about anything.
FOX, meanwhile, was basically along for the ride, defaulting to be the only network that gave the events positive coverage, and earning massive rating boosts as a result.
Republicans generally tried to co-opt the events as supportive, but received mixed results.
Even in Alabama, where for conservatives the Republican party has for years now been seen as the force of good in Washington battling the evil Democrats, opportunistic Republican attempts to channel the events into support for their own campaigns foundered.
One of the more interesting moments at the Huntsville event was when a Republican candidate had been speaking about kicking the current group of politicians out of power (loud cheers), and then expressed his hope that everyone would support his upcoming reelection campaign. (a few weak cheers, deafening silence)
That gave me hope more than most other things I saw. Once people realize that it's not a question of a good party vs. a bad party, but of an entrenched, damaging bureaucracy in which two largely similar parties share power and unelected officials pull the important strings, we might see some effective action taken.
To all the Americans that took time out of their schedules and showed up on Wednesday, and especially to those for whom it was the first time, we salute you. You have earned the right to protest, by acting on your principles.
In a sense, you are learning what it truly means to be a self-governing American citizen, and it is in you that any hopes of stemming the dark tide of government encroachment remain.
Let us draw together in the days ahead, for in the words of Benjamin Franklin:
"We must all hang together, gentlemen... else, we shall most assuredly hang separately"
-()4|<.
The final attendance estimates I'm getting for the Huntsville, AL event were about 2300-2500.
For comparison purposes, that's about 1.4% of the city of Huntsville's population, though many participants came from the surrounding area rather than Huntsville proper.
Pajamas TV is estimating total turnout for the nationwide protests at over 578,000 people.
For Alabama, total participation was estimated at about 12,000.
So a slightly better than proportional turnout, since Alabama represents 1.6% of the nation's population, and contributed 2% of the tea party attendance with 18 events.
(New York, by comparison, with 6.5% of the nation's population, contributed just 3.3% of the total event attendance, with 33 events, while Texas, with 8.2% of the the nation's population, contributed 12.4% of the total event attendance, with 78 events. But more on Texas later.)
Note: They estimated Huntsville's attendance numbers at 3000, about 500 more than police estimates, so some optimistic rounding up may have occurred. However, by the same token, many events may have been low-balled by official counts, depending on the politics involved, so it's really hard to say.
In any case, at least half a million Americans showed up on April 15th to make their voices heard, many for the first time in their lives.
High-level reactions to the events were varied, including:
Crude and sophomoric
Clueless
Opportunistic
Hypothetically Seccessionary
CNN and MSNBC showed their true colors as crude, sarcastic, out-of-touch elites who neither have any idea of what they are talking about, nor of what normal Americans think about anything.
FOX, meanwhile, was basically along for the ride, defaulting to be the only network that gave the events positive coverage, and earning massive rating boosts as a result.
Republicans generally tried to co-opt the events as supportive, but received mixed results.
Even in Alabama, where for conservatives the Republican party has for years now been seen as the force of good in Washington battling the evil Democrats, opportunistic Republican attempts to channel the events into support for their own campaigns foundered.
One of the more interesting moments at the Huntsville event was when a Republican candidate had been speaking about kicking the current group of politicians out of power (loud cheers), and then expressed his hope that everyone would support his upcoming reelection campaign. (a few weak cheers, deafening silence)
That gave me hope more than most other things I saw. Once people realize that it's not a question of a good party vs. a bad party, but of an entrenched, damaging bureaucracy in which two largely similar parties share power and unelected officials pull the important strings, we might see some effective action taken.
To all the Americans that took time out of their schedules and showed up on Wednesday, and especially to those for whom it was the first time, we salute you. You have earned the right to protest, by acting on your principles.
In a sense, you are learning what it truly means to be a self-governing American citizen, and it is in you that any hopes of stemming the dark tide of government encroachment remain.
Let us draw together in the days ahead, for in the words of Benjamin Franklin:
"We must all hang together, gentlemen... else, we shall most assuredly hang separately"
-()4|<.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Ashamed of Christ
Though Obama has claimed to be a Christian, it seems that his actions dictate otherwise.
We cannot know what is in a man's soul, so I will not go so far as to say that he is not.
But we can only judge a man's belief by its fruits, in other words, his actions.
So let us take as an example Obama's recent speech at Georgetown University, in which the name of Christ, or rather a symbolic monogram representing His name, was covered up by request of Obama's team.
We cannot know what is in a man's soul, so I will not go so far as to say that he is not.
But we can only judge a man's belief by its fruits, in other words, his actions.
So let us take as an example Obama's recent speech at Georgetown University, in which the name of Christ, or rather a symbolic monogram representing His name, was covered up by request of Obama's team.
Amidst all of the American flags and presidential seals, there was something missing when President Barack Obama gave an economic speech at Georgetown University this week -- Jesus.The White House asked Georgetown to cover a monogram symbolizing Jesus' name in Gaston Hall, which Obama used for his speech, according to CNSNews.com.
The gold "IHS" monogram inscribed on a pediment in the hall was covered over by a piece of black-painted plywood, and remained covered over the next day, CNSNews.com reported.
Most people who are not Catholic (the majority of Americans) would not even notice the symbol, nor associate the letters "IHS" with Christ. The exaggerated care taken by Obama's team seems to indicate that he wishes not even a remote association with his claimed savior.
As we have earlier seen, however, he does not seem to have an issue with bowing to Muslim leaders.
Though I dismissed earlier claims that he was a secret Muslim as conspiratorial, the evidence that he is at least more sympathetic towards that belief system than to his alleged Christian faith is beginning to mount.
You will note on this blog that I do capitalize the words Islam, Muslim, Allah, etc. I do not go out of my way to disrespect people by disrespecting their faith, even if I know that the God of my faith is the true One, and theirs is not. However, Obama's actions go beyond merely showing respect for people.
First there was his slip of the tongue naming the number of Islamic states instead of US states, then his slip of the tongue in referring to "my muslim faith", and most recently his bowing to a Muslim leader when no one else at the G20 did. All these things are rather suspect.
I don't know if they are all purely circumstancial and accidental or not, but I do know one thing...
"But now the LORD declares: 'Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained." -1 Samuel 2:30
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Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Huntsville Alabama Tax Day Tea Party - Part I
Today, all over America, concerned citizens gathered together to protest uncontrolled spending and general encroachment by Washington. I was present at the Huntsville, AL rally, and I can say that it was quite another thing from the small but lively band that gathered in Decatur. Even before I got off the highway, cars were backed up. People parked all along the street for over a mile down the road.
By the time I had walked to the event itself, there was already a crowd of probably three hundred. This grew steadily to a maximum of what I would guess to be around 800-1000 people. (estimated attendance will be forthcoming eventually, as some local media was present, but anything lower than 750 is an attempt to lowball the figure; the crowd was quite large and densely packed)
The speakers did mostly well. Dale Jackson was present, and of course did an excellent job getting everyone fired up. He and other speakers made numerous comments about our being "domestic terrorists", a reference to the DHS report featured in my previous entry below.
Things began to wind down when an interesting but longish discussion on the Fair Tax was plagued with technical difficulties. I am all for the Fair Tax, and for promoting it, but this was perhaps not the best venue to go into more than a brief summary.
However, everything got back on track, and ended with the recitation of the pledge of allegiance, and a rousing USA chant.
All in all, I was pleased to see the turnout, considering the unfortunately low attendance in Decatur previously. Alabama is not densely populated, so massive crowds tend to require attendance drawing from more than one county. Huntsville is something of a regional center for most of northern Alabama, however, and the event drew people from the surrounding areas. I recognized some people from that earlier Decatur rally as well.
It was a good day, and a good event. In the grand scheme of things, however, it must merely be the beginning of something greater to have any lasting effect.
I will post another article with more information soon, also hopefully with a link to some video of the event, and some commentary on the news coverage.
UPDATE: It turns out I am indeed a conservative, including when it comes to estimating crowds. Huntsville Police are estimating the crowd at 2300 people.
UPDATE 2: WHNT has a great picture of the Huntsville crowd from a better vantage point than I could reach. They also have a couple of pictures from the Dekalb county protest. More pictures may be forthcoming later.
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Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Warning: You might now be a domestic terrorist
Are you dedicated to opposing abortion or illegal immigration?
Do you support state and local government's authority versus that of the federal government?
Then congratulations, according to the DHS (Department of Homeland Security), you are a right-wing extremist, and possible terrorist threat!
Do you support state and local government's authority versus that of the federal government?
Then congratulations, according to the DHS (Department of Homeland Security), you are a right-wing extremist, and possible terrorist threat!
A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines "rightwing extremism in the United States" as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.
"It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration," the warning says.
The timing of this release is rather suspect, with the tea parties happening nation-wide tomorrow. It rather appears to be an attempt to dampen turnout.
Yes, this means our federal government is now actively prosecuting those who disagree with them, on a national level.
What did people expect? That when they gave liberals the power to enforce their doctrines, they would not then proceed to do so? It's very like electing a ski-lodge-burning eco-terrorist as President who repeatedly claims he believes the current human population is unsustainable and should be reduced immediately, then being shocked when he begins to seek practical means to do so.
The report continues, mentioning gun control and immigration issues:
Congressional debates about immigration and gun control also make extremist groups suspicious and give them a rallying cry, the report says.
"It is unclear if either bill will be passed into law; nonetheless, a correlation may exist between the potential passage of gun control legislation and increased hoarding of ammunition, weapons stockpiling, and paramilitary training activities among rightwing extremists," the report said.
Wait, so there might be a connection between moving to ban guns, and people wanting to acquire them beforehand? Brilliant!
The report also expressed worry that extremist groups would subvert and recruit returning veterans to their cause.
"As far as our military members go, I think that the military is a melting pot of society. So you might get a few, a fractional few, who are going to be attracted by militia groups and other right-wing extremists," he said.
"We have to remember that the people serving in our military are volunteers, they do it because they love their country, and they believe in what our country stands for," he said. "They spent their time in the military defending our Constitution, so the vast majority of them would be repulsed by the hate groups discussed in this report."
If they spent their time in the military in order to defend the Constitution, they might very well be tempted to join a group opposing the current administration, at least...
Now the important point is, while this report is speaking more of groups that currently pursue domestic terrorism and white supremacy organizations than of your average abortion-opposing NRA-member, what it does is blur the line between the two. This is the first step necessary to associate the latter, law-abiding citizen, with the former.
I think it's now become quite clear where things are headed. Liberal ideology states that those who know best, should make the decisions for those who do not. In their minds, they are the ones who know best, and the common people should sit back and let them create a better world for all of us. They are now taking steps within the government to ensure that they remain in permanent majority. (after all, you can't very well execute your long-term social agenda when you keep jumping in and out of power)
The farther they encroach on liberties (liberties being dangerous animals that let us make our own decisions about what to think and how to live our lives), the more people will get upset, and try to do something to stop them. That, of course, is when they must use force. It's not a question of you ever being allowed to have liberties, but of how easily you conform.
There are three responses to this. One is, to surrender. To let the government define "decent, law-abiding citizen" to mean whatever type of person will not oppose any of their actions, regardless of existing laws or the constitution, and then conform your actions to that standard.
Another is the passive-aggressive response. Let the government do what they want, don't raise a fuss, but continue to go about things your own way. I submit that this is comparable to surrender. To not resist is to encourage, and good men who see evil and yet do nothing to stop it are culpable in it as well.
Lastly, there is action. What kind of action? Well, that is what millions of Americans want to know. What can Americans who love their country, love their freedom, and yet who are also not the radicals DHS is accusing them of being, but rather respect the rule of law, do to stop this insanity?
For starters, you can attend your local tea party. Sure, you probably have a job, it's probably inconvenient to go, and there might be odd people there with silly signs, but do you think that by doing nothing, your life will continue as usual? The tea party movement may or may not have permanent effects, and alone, I suspect the net result will be insignificant. But they make an excellent first step, and a step in which numbers are crucial.
Writing your congressmen is another step. No, they won't change their mind based on your letter. But with enough letters, they may worry about being re-elected. And that will give them pause.
This DHS report is a sign of things to come. Or rather, things that are currently arriving.
How will you greet them? With fear, with indifference, or with action?
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Saturday, April 11, 2009
He is Risen!
10Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
Wishing you all a joyful Resurrection Sunday from MC!
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13They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"
"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." 14At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
16Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
17Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "
18Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.
-John 20:10-18Wishing you all a joyful Resurrection Sunday from MC!
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