Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Major Oops by Somali Pirates

They have commandeered a Iranian ship, the Iran Deyanat, and were holding it,along with its crew and cargo, for ransom. They now have a bit of a problem.

No Iran did not send a crack commando unit to retrieve the ship, though the pirates would have probably preferred that to what did happen.

The MV Iran Deyanat was brought to Eyl, a sleepy fishing village in northeastern Somalia, and was secured by a larger gang of pirates - 50 onboard and 50 onshore. Within days, pirates who had boarded the ship developed strange health complications, skin burns and loss of hair. Independent sources tell The Long War Journal that a number of pirates have also died. "Yes, some of them have died. I do not know exactly how many but the information that I am getting is that some of them have died," Andrew Mwangura, Director of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, said Friday when reached by phone in Mombasa.

I must now ask, what is on that ship that would cause such a reaction in the pirates? Does that sound like some sort of chemical or radiation poisoning to you? While the ship was supposedly carrying iron ore and "industrial materials" to Rotterdam, it's pretty clear that there is something else on that ship.

The pirates don't know what it is because they have been unable to open the cargo containers.

There are a couple of possibilities. The most suspected is that it was taking weapons in Eritrea against a UN sanction. It could have also been something intended for terrorists in Europe as the ship was headed toward Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

I for one would like to know what it is. The American Intelligence agencies also want to know. They have supposedly offered a bribe to the pirates to inspect the cargo. Under the circumstances I think that would an advisable thing to do.

It would be a major bit of irony if a terrorist plot was ended by a group of Islamic pirates who had no idea of what they were doing.

I'm Directing You Away

I am the first to admit that there are people out there a heck of lot smarter and wiser than I am. One of these is the blogger over at One Cosmos (understood to part of "One Cosmos Under God") who goes by the blog name of "Gagdad Bob". I read his blog daily but rarely comment, because it takes me a while to contemplate and digest what Bob has had to say and by the time I am ready to comment ol Bob has already posted another excellent post.

He posts on spiritual matters. His religion is a somewhat unorthodox Christianity which is comparable to the "Christian universalism" of men like George MacDonald (whom he reminds me of.)

He takes spiritual matters, studies them, and then applies it to our lives and social and cultural matters. Some say that the left is much more "spiritual" than the moralistic right wing Jesus Freaks but Gagdad Bob blows them out of the water. Most bloggers attack the left on fact, history and statistics, but Gagdad Bob defends the conservative beliefs on a purely spiritual basis.

If you are not familiar with him then I am going to ask you to read just one posting by him and think about. Hopefully you will understand why I, only half-jokingly, call him the "smartest man on the net." Please note that I do not necessarily agree with everything he says and sometimes I do roll my eyes and occasionally even gag, but he's always thought provoking.

I mean what can you say about a blogger who gives his posts titles like Bill Maher, Bad Theologian, Worse Comedian?

Monday, September 29, 2008

I Needed Some Good News

Let's face it. The news is so depressing right now. Between the Wall Street fiasco and the inability of the sheeple to see through Obama's fraud (thanks in no small part to the extreme left controlling most of the news), the future looks kind of bleak at the moment.

So much is being said about Wall Street and the bail out right now and while I have seen and read much, I have nothing original to add at this point in time. Many good posts are being done by other bloggers.

I just needed some good news.

In all the darkness, there are a few tiny candles shining.

One of them is this. I make no secret of my love for space exploration and development and here is where I found something that cheered me up a little.

Some time ago I posted about the Dragon, a privately developed capsule capable of manned flight, that should be ready before NASA's Orion is. It's developer and owner, Space-X, just had its first successful launch of its Falcon rocket. This is a rocket that was designed, financed and built entirely by private funds. That would make it the first privately developed liquid fueled booster to put a satellite in orbit. The satellite itself was just a dummy to create a viable launch payload, but that dummy is now in orbit of the earth. (And in the near future they will be able to do it considerably cheaper than any NASA rockets .)




At a little less than 3:00 into the flight there is an enormous cheer as the first stage drops away because that is the point where the previous attempt failed destroying the earlier rocket.

It pales compared to the news we are facing right now, but now is when we need some good news, and for me the launch of the Falcon qualifies.

America has a lot of idiots, but it still the home to genius. The Falcon is American ingenuity at its best.

Another Absence.

I spent this weekend at my parents' home giving some assistance to Mom and my brother.

Dad is doing fairly well at home but it hurts him to sit in a wheelchair too long so that limits him a bit. We went to our family reunion yesterday and it was the first time that he has been on an actual outing since he had his stroke on February 20th.

It's hard to see my father who was such a rugged and independent man all of his life reduced to this, yet at times I see his inner strength and humor shine through. He's a tough old Marine, even when he's in a wheelchair.

Last night I was messing with my anti-virus system, which I was very unhappy with; I finally got fed up with it and flushed it and reinstalled AVG. The first run showed over 250 problems that PC Tools Anti-Virus had missed. (Mostly tracking cookies.) (I was using the free edition which could have been the problem. The paid-for edition might be better.) The fact that I had so many tracking cookies means I need to take a good look at my spyware defenses as well.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Detroit At It Again.

I sometimes enjoy the TV show CSI in its various incarnations, but I wonder what a show named CSI-Detroit would be like.

Let's see

Oops my bad! I got the wrong sample here.

I think I may have misidentified your suspect here.

I don't know what they were really saying there but Detroit's new Mayor has shut down the city's crime lab because it so error prone. People are depending on this for justice, to condemn the guilty and vindicate the innocent. Detroit cannot tolerate such an error rate. It appears that the bulk of the mistakes were in the ballistics lab.

When the crime lab is wrong a full 10% of the time, you wonder how they get anything done. An occasional mistake is a fact of life, but this is ridiculous. It's like a doctor misdiagnosing a disease; realistically it's going to happen from time to time, but when your wrong 10% of the time something is seriously wrong.

I don't like the idea of firing people, but heads had better roll here.

The lab employees will be re-assigned until the investigation is complete and they find out how it got so bad. With as much corruption as Detroit has, it would not totally shock me to discover that some of the mistakes were political favors, but that could not possibly account for all of the mistakes.

The problem was uncovered in April by a private investigator. For the time being, the tests will be conducted in State Police Labs which will slow things down considerably.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Another Embarrassment to Michigan

In 1999 Anarchists successfully brought a world economic meeting in a Seattle to a near standstill and considered themselves triumphant and on their way to bigger and better things. Triumphs are all too often short-lived and sometimes that is a good thing.

They brought all their experience a training to the GOP and convention and dreamed of shutting it down. There was one little problem. Law enforcement agencies had also brought the lessons they had learned in Seattle and used them to good effect, protecting law-abiding citizens from the anarchist rabble. The anarchists got in a few token shots and a few more serious events but they utterly failed to shut down the convention.

One of the Anarchists was a boy (I won't offend the term by calling him a man) from Flushing Michigan (national sources say he is from Flint, more local sources place him in Flushing, Michigan, a relatively affluent suburb of Flint) named Matthew Bradley DePalma. Mr DePalma was planning to use Molotov cocktails to disrupt the GOP convention but made a very vital mistake; he was rooming with an FBI informant when he announced his intentions and started to work on his dream.

Ah! . . . . the poetic justice of it all.

Yet I wonder. He is a part of an organization of Anarchists. Think about that for a second. Anarchy is by definition the absence of law and the absence of order. How can you have an organization based on the absence of order. They are misnamed for they do believe in law, to the point that they willing to destroy, kill and harm to enforce their ideas of law on others. They wish to destroy one law and replace it with another law, which makes them insurgents and terrorists, not anarchists, and thus, possibly under some circumstances, even enemy combatants. (I kind of wonder if a genuine anarchist, who believes in the absolute absence of any order, could even function.)

In my not so humble opinion they would be fools to launch a full-scale insurgency because they would lose and lose big time. Leftists demonstrate courage when they shout obscenities at the establishment in a situation where they cannot be harmed, but let them face a determined, angry and armed public and they would flee like vermin. They would be slaughtered by the half-trained Michigan Militia, not to mention the much better armed and trained police and national guard.

Yes we are having problems at the moment, but the Anarchist "solution" is worse than the problem they are trying to solve.

I have some second cousins living in Flushing and they are decent, hard-working, and largely affluent people. I am sure that they are not proud to call this little criminal a neighbor.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Gone Again

I have spent the last three days away from home helping get things ready for my father to hopefully leave the therapy center tomorrow. We were getting his new home ready and Mom and I already spent two nights there as it turns into a home.

This afternoon I apologized to him because I won't be there when he leaves because of a job possibility, but he grinned at me and said "I'll keep!"

We got a lot done but I am still astonished at how much stuff Mom and Dad have accumulated in the 41 years they lived in their old house. I think they have at least 3, if not 4, of every tool and kitchen utensil in existence. Sadly their new home doesn't have nearly the storage capacity so they are planning a big garage sale.

Of course my little brother can barely contain himself in the blog he has kept on Dad's progress.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

How Odd

The headline says that Racial views steer some white Dems away from Obama. But go a bit further into the article and the writer gives a completely different story. Yes there are some who will not vote for him because of his skin color just like there are those who are voting for him only because of his skin color.

The real problem is mentioned farther down.

Race is not the biggest factor driving Democrats and independents away from Obama. Doubts about his competency loom even larger, the poll indicates. More than a quarter of all Democrats expressed doubt that Obama can bring about the change they want, and they are likely to vote against him because of that.

Three in 10 of those Democrats who don't trust Obama's change-making credentials say they plan to vote for McCain.

Of course it's easier just to cry race.

I have said it before and I mean it. There are black Americans and women that I would vote for in any office, but Obama is not one of them. He is way too far to the left. His "cures" for society's ills are worse than the disease.

Friday, September 19, 2008

The Other Price

What is a human life worth?

A Canadian doctor criticizes Sarah Palin for not aborting little Trig.

In Oregon the state offers to pay for a woman to commit suicide.

Now a British ethicist says it's OK to kill people with Dementia because they are drain on resources.

And they call conservatives heartless.

The veteran Government adviser said pensioners in mental decline are "wasting people's lives" because of the care they require and should be allowed to opt for euthanasia even if they are not in pain.

She insisted there was "nothing wrong" with people being helped to die for the sake of their loved ones or society.

These first lines are disingenuous because she isn't seeking for volunteers; she is actively encouraging it.

Lady Warnock said: "If you're demented, you're wasting people's lives – your family's lives – and you're wasting the resources of the National Health Service. Thus you are morally obligated to kill yourself.

We are approaching the means of helping people with Alzheimer's Disease. So let's kill them just as effective treatment appears on the horizon. One very ethical ethicist there.

It's interesting that this all for the benefit of society or the state. What is the political philosophy where the best interest of the state is but ahead of all other considerations, including humanitarian ones? I believe it's called Fascism.

Britain, once the gem of Europe, is under assault by forces determined to destroy that great nation. Sad.

What is it About Vermont.

Vermont has what may be the looniest bunch of politicians in this country. I once knew some very good people who lived there and I hate to think of them trapped by these people.

I commented some time ago about a group trying to get Vermont to secede from the union and now someone else from that state is running for office on an even brighter idea. Charlotte Dennett is running for the State Attorney General's office says she will prosecute George Bush for his crimes against humanity.

Sorry but in spite of Vincent Bugliosi opinion to the contrary a state attorney general does not have that authority. They can investigate and appoint committees all they want but they don't have the power to prosecute him for declaring war. I favor state-rights, probably moreso than they do, but this an absurdity. (Or perhaps it's simply States' Rights are important so long as they are pursuing policies further to left than Washington is.)

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that he should be prosecuted. Is this the right venue for such a prosecution. I really doubt it. Even if such a trial was called for it would have to be done at the Federal level.

What does William Sorrell, Vermont's incumbent AG who is also running for re-election, say about this?

Sorrell, who is seeking a sixth term, said he doesn't believe a Vermont attorney general would have the authority to charge Bush.

"The reality is, in my view, that unless the crime takes place in Vermont, then I as the attorney general have no authority under Vermont law to be prosecuting the president," Sorrell said.

Ms Dennett is 3rd party candidate and thus will probably not win. But this is also the state that sends a Socialist Party Candidate, under the label Independent, Bernie Sanders to the Senate so you can't rule it out.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

The Hacker Brags

So the mental genius/moral imbecile who hacked into Sarah Palin's Yahoo E-mail account had to brag about it.

Michelle Malkin has posted the story. (I know! She's a far right pundit and thus should never be considered a source. Sorry! I disagree. ) Actually she is not the source but is merely passing on information that she got from another source who studied the original material. Much of the information is verified here.

Here's the best part. The bragging hacker was disappointed. Why?

I read though the emails… ALL OF THEM… before I posted, and what I concluded was anticlimactic, there was nothing there, nothing incriminating, nothing that would derail her campaign as I had hoped, all I saw was personal stuff, some clerical stuff from when she was governor…. And pictures of her family

I then started a topic on /b/, peeps asked for pics or gtfo and I obliged, then it started to get big

Earlier it was just some prank to me, I really wanted to get something incriminating which I was sure there would be, just like all of you anon out there that you think there was some missed opportunity of glory, well there WAS NOTHING, I read everything, every little blackberry confirmation… all the pictures, and there was nothing, and it finally set in, THIS internet was serious business, yes I was behind a proxy, only one, if this shit ever got to the FBI I was fucked, I panicked, i still wanted the stuff out there but I didn’t know how to rapidshit all that stuff, so I posted the pass on /b/, and then promptly deleted everything, and unplugged my internet and just sat there in a comatose state

All that work and he didn't find anything to derail her. I think I'll have a little pity party for him.

Aaaawwwww!!!! Snicker-snicker.

Also, a number of sites have identified the hacker, but I have seen no real confirmation of this but if this is really the person who is suspected then it was NOT a harmless prank by zealous prankster but a crime committed for political reasons. Actually some of his boasting suggests that it was partly determined by "let's see if we can do it" and partly by political considerations.

(I have multiple E-mail accounts but I don't think any hacker would consider me a major target and since my passwords are randomly generated I don't think they'll be hacking me any time soon.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

This Night

I really didn't have anything that had to be done and didn't feel like digging around the news, so I dug into my movie collection and stumbled across my DVD of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. If you don't know this movie, it's an over looked classic.


The poster asks What would you give to a man who could make your deepest dream come true.

A 12 year old boy, Will Holloway, whose father was middle-aged when he was born, along with his best friend, whose father abandoned him, must deal with the issues of temptation and one's deepest, most profound desires. A carnival comes to town in late October and the boys discover that the owner of the carnival, Mr. Dark, is either the Devil or something indistinguishable from him. He is able to fulfill people's deepest yearnings but at a horrible price, one that makes it impossible to enjoy the fulfillment. (For example an aging spinster finds her youthful beauty restored to her and then is suddenly struck blind.). The aging father is dealing with the fact that he is too old to be the father that he needs to be and feels that he is failing to be a proper father because of his age. Because the boys know the truth about Mr Dark, he must find and silence them.

Here is the scene where Mr. Dark tempts Will Holloway's father, offering to restore his lost youth if he would only betray his son.



Be careful what you wish for. It is an interesting study of regret and unattainable wishes. When I hear Mr. Dark speak of lost dreams and regrets, I think of another demon whose name was Darkness in the movie Legend. Played by Tim Currey, this demon tells a young girl whom he is attempting to seduce into evil, Dreams are my specialty. The dreams of youth become the regrets of maturity. It kind of amazes me how so a movie can sometimes be so accurate in how evil attacks and tries to seduce good people.

Curious Observation.

Monday the dock market had a major slide. The government did nothing and we had a bit of a recovery on Tuesday. The government then did something and the stockmarket proceeded to slide even lower than it was.

I just wonder if there's a pattern here.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

New Accusations Against the GOP

If the GOP is accused of doing anything wrong it is automatically guilty because everyone knows the GOP is just a coalition of greedy businessmen and the ignorant hicks they dupe.

There is no truth to that statement but a lot of people either believe it or pretend to believe it.

Now some are claiming that the GOP plans to use foreclosure lists to keep people from voting. This was released in a far-left news site (an oxymoron if there ever was one), Michigan Messenger. (also here.)

Evidence: Non-existent! That is except for a private phone-call between the reporter and a GOP county chair. Assuming the GOP was planning to do such a thing, why would they tell their political opposition about it? It makes absolutely no sense to do so.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

Sorry but this does not pass the smell test. (That is correct Michigan Messenger; I do not believe you!) The rest of the article merely says that the GOP is preparing teams to make sure that there is a minimal number of illegal votes cast. Of course they go out of their way to make sure that this perfectly legitimate function sounds as sinister as possible.

What is to stop me from trying to vote in every precinct in this county? I certainly hope someone would challenge me and stop me. (By the way, I have no intention of trying to do that.)

This is, in my opinion, nothing more than a preemptive strike to prevent the GOP from challenging questionable voters such as the graveyard vote, the vote early and vote often vote, and the Peter Pan vote. While there are probably some shenanigans by both parties, the abuses by the Democrats are, in my opinion, more widespread and more brazen.

Fortunately the GOP is fighting back.

H/T A comment at Geeez alerted me to this "scandal".

A Different Stock Market Slide

We have our own problems with our own stock markets. While there was a bit of a recovery today it's far from over.

It's having an effect all over the world.

Russia's stock market is getting into an even steeper decline, having lost a third of it's value since August 19th. (That's not quite a month!) Reuters reported a 17.75% decline yesterday alone.

Chart from Russian Trading System Stock Exchange.

In spite of the tendency to feel a bit of schadenfreude for Russia's troubles I see no reason to celebrate. The economy of the world is now interdependent and no one nation can prosper while the rest decline. If Russia goes down the world will feel it; if America goes down it would cause a world-wide economic depression that would last for many years simply because our economy powers so much of the world economy.

Why is their stock market worse off than ours and declining faster? I would say a lot of it has to do with the political situation with foreign investors uncertain about investing in a country that is quickly sliding from a market democracy to a Fascist/socialist dictatorship. Putin and his puppet have not done a lot to bolster confidence in the rest of the world. There are questions about Bush, but he will be gone shortly and his power has never been as great as the top dog in Russia.

The main point is that it is not just our economy. It is the whole world's economy. We may be the world's flagship economy, but us going down economically is in no one's interest.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Wasted Evening

I just spent most of the evening at City Hall listening to a city council meeting and . . . hmmmm

It involved the opening of a homeless facility, a worthwhile endeavor in and of itself, provided it is being done right. It is not. Such an enterprise, if done properly, can make a big improvement and if done incorrectly can create more problems than it solves.

This one is poorly thought out.

1) One block from a Junior High School (528 feet). (No sex offender is allowed to be within 1000 feet of a school which would eliminate quite of few of our local homeless.)

2) in an area of congested parking. Parking cops have a field day there.

3) building is around 800 square feet. It could meet some of the needs but not all of them or even a significant number of them and once this building gets established they never will create a facility adequate to better meet more needs.

(It would be funded as a co-operative by several churches and would not be state funded. This is good, but again it has to be done right. The meeting was to get a permit from the city to do it.)

The big issue is number 1. In my opinion that should be a show-stopper right there. We need the facility but it shouldn't be where hundreds of kids walk by every few hours.

Still it was astonishing to sit in this meeting and see people talk. We had a couple of candidates for local office give stump speeches. We had a couple of people who just babbled nonsense. (It was entertaining to see the mayor and city council, heads propped up by their hands, looking at nothing in particular, while bouncing the eraser end of their pencils off the table while the speaker discussed things that were inexplicable - - fortunately there was a 4 minute time limit and when it was done so were you.) There was one that I'm not even sure was speaking English.

Most of the people on both sides had very valid points and I'm glad I didn't to make that decision, but what amazed me was this. It stayed civil because we are a moderate sized town and most of us are at least vaguely acquainted. The disagreement that was there was not along party lines at all, as there were Democrats and Republicans on the council on both sides. Everyone agrees that it's a good idea but the disagreement is over the right way and proper place to do it.

I got bored and left before any decision was reached. I was there because a friend owns property adjacent to the building and he's quite concerned.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

This Explains a Whole Lot

Seems that there are a number of things that causes the brain to shrink.

It includes such things as being overweight, drinking ahem certain beverages, etc.

But there is another real beauty of a cause.

Being a vegetarian or vegan.

It seems that some of the things that a brain needs to function well is best obtained through meat, especially liver, fish and milk. That something is vitamin B-12 and animal products are the best source of it.

That explains the intelligence of those who think it's OK to kill an unborn child for mere convenience but wrong to kill an animal for food.

And the article was published in the Times of India, not exactly a meat-eater's paradise.

Bet that upsets a few people. I guess we were designed to be omnivores afterall.

The test was done mostly on older people but I would be most curious to see if there is any effect on younger people.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Some Additions to My Links.

I have added a few blogs that I have started to visit occasionally and consider worthwhile.

First off, in alphabetical order, is Always on Watch who comments at most of the blogs I visit and often has worthwhile comments. Though I know very little about her, nothing unusual in the blogosphere, she says she's a teacher in Virginia.

Secondly is Chuck Thinks Right. Chuck has been kind enough to visit and I checked his blog out and found it worthwhile.

The third addition is Social Sense by Mustang. Mustang has been giving me a bit of a ribbing on another blog about using "polynomial math" in a comment to a posting about a math problem. Mustang's blog is also worth a visit.

Finally I have added a blog called Sparks From the Anvil by a blogger whose blogname is "The Wordsmith From Nantucket". He leaves long, well thought out comments on many blogs and his own blog is wordy but worthwhile.

If you have never done so, check these bloggers out.

Update: I have also added The Political Jungle by Jenn of the Jungle after checking her blog out when she commented on mine. I have been aware of her for a while but never paid her a visit.

And another thing! What is up with the TTLB Ecosystem. I have been an Adorable Little Rodent for the last year or so, a few days ago I was at Marauding Marsupial then the next day I was Flappy Bird, then a day later I was a Reptile of some sort. Yesterday I was a Large Mammal (which I was skeptical of because I know I'm not that popular!) and today I am a Multicellular Organism. I am bouncing all over the place.

I have also added Carol's Blog which I stumbled across. It doesn't draw a lot of comments but it is a decent blog.

Friday, September 12, 2008

What Are They Thinking?

Or are they thinking at all?

Sometimes the extreme left puts up a protest sign that just has you scratching your head.


Then they came for the common criminals, but I didn't say anything because I wasn't a common criminal.

H/T to Zombie Time

Gas Lines

Gas prices had not risen noticeably as of this afternoon, but boy are there lines. There are long lines at virtually every gas station.

They are mostly forming because of the hurricane.

I do understand reasonable precautions, but at the same time I have to wonder if perhaps an attitude of panic won't do more harm to the fuel supply than the actual hurricane will.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Policy Scores Another Against Common Sense.

This what happens when policy is unrestrained by common sense.

A 10 year old boy brings a weapon to class and his weapon is . . . a broken pencil sharpener.

He faces a two day suspension and perhaps further discipline.

Zero tolerance has reached an intolerable point.

"We're always going to do something to make sure the child understands the seriousness of having something that could potentially harm another student, but we're going to be reasonable," he said.

As your two day suspension demonstrates how reasonable you are.

Yes a broken pencil sharpener could potentially harm a child but it would take a moment of extreme stupidity for it to result in serious injury and such stupidity can result from anything.

When I was in school high school students were allowed to carry folding knives if the blade was no more than 2 1/2 inches long and they understood that severe penalties (including criminal charges) would result if you ever actually used or threatened to use one against another student; they were tools and not weapons. We never had an incident of a stabbing.

We also saw guns in cars in our parking lots (and never had one used against a student). You could even, under a strict protocol, take a gun into shop class and work on it. (You got permission from the principal who would have someone in authority watch you bring the gun, in a sealed gun bag, to the door, would take it from you, make sure it wasn't loaded, and would personally take it to the wood shop or metal shop and lock it up until your shop period.) We even had gun safety in school. We never had so much as a threat of gun violence.

In view of recent events I understand banning guns but not the banning of common sense regarding anything that might possibly be used as a weapon.

I'm expecting that any day now some nutcase will ban softball because kids might use the bat as a club. It is coming if it hasn't happened already.

Why??

Philosophies and religions are powerful forces in and of themselves.

The philosophy of Marxism believes that the forces of history make it inevitable that Socialism will sweep the globe and bring a worldwide workers' paradise into existence.

The religion of Islam believes that they have a divine mandate to conquer the world in God's name.

America is neither Islamic nor Socialist. We do not rule the world but we are the most influential country on Earth with our economic, cultural, military, and political influence reaching into virtually every country on earth.

To those who believe that either God or history has promised them world wide victory this is anathema.

The most powerful nation on earth has rejected socialism so the socialists hate us because their beliefs require that socialism dominate the Earth.

The most powerful nation on earth has rejected Islam so the Jihadists hate us because their beliefs require that the dominant power on Earth be Islam.

Our power is not acceptable to those who believe that power should be theirs alone. We stand as an iron wall against their dream of world wide victory. If we don't fall either into nothingness or else embrace their beliefs then their beliefs would be undermined.

9-11 happened because America's influence is more powerful than Islam's influence. It would have probably happened even if we didn't have a single soldier or ship in the Islamic world. It didn't happen because we were there but it happened because we exist. America, as it currently exists, does not fit into their dream of a worldwide Caliphate and that Caliphate will not exist until America is destroyed or conquered.

We must never let that happen.

Never forget.

Some think that the 9-11 hijackers simply got lucky and pulled off their insane dream. Maybe or maybe not. How long until they get lucky again and even more people die?

To many people there is only one evil on Earth and that is America. Any evil has to be blamed on us so 9-11 HAD to be an inside job. The unnatural relationship between Islam and Socialism is born mostly of a hatred for America and each group dreaming of the America they could possibly create if they had absolute power.

Very few deny that America is a flawed country, but as far as nations go, we are morally one of the best nations around. We are not perfect of course (no country is) but still a country to be proud of.

Update: thanks to Don's Mind for linking to me.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Been Gone Again

Since Sunday afternoon I was staying at my brother's place and helping him get Mom and Dad's new house ready.

My father is doing better than we thought a while ago and will be living a semi-independent life again in just a few weeks, and is he ever looking forward to it!

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Aw !!!! I Feel So Sorry For Them!!!

While we are happy about the selection of Sarah Palin as the GOP Candidate for Vice President, some old school feminists are furious.

At a website, so properly called Jezebel (what a fitting name) feminists are raging about how she is an insult to real women, as these writers view themselves.

What I've written on this site about Palin so far has been pretty restrained, considering what I feel for her privately could be described as violent, nay, murderous, rage. When Palin spoke on Wednesday night, my head almost exploded from the incandescent anger boiling in my skull. And I'm not the only one! I had simultaneous IM conversations with many friends, who said things like, "she seems like a f*****g monster" and "this feminist wants to murk that idiotic c**t."

and this even better line:

What's infuriating, and perhaps rage-inducing, about Palin, is that she has always embodied that perfectly pleasing female archetype, playing by the boys' game with her big guns and moose-murdering, and that she keeps being rewarded for it. Our schadenfreude for the homecoming queen's mediocrity has turned into white hot anger at her continued dominance.

In other words -- They're Jealous. She's pretty, smart and successful and in their state of hateful envy, she has no right to be. She is supposed to be the loser.

Hey I was a wee bit envious of my class's homecoming king's popularity but I certainly didn't hate him and still don't hate him. (I have no idea what happened to him.)

The comments that are being written after the article reveal what is in the hearts of these people and I don't like what I see: hate, anger, bitterness and envy. The only bit of schadenfreude I'm feeling right now is as I look at the rage these people feel as they see the political power that they consider themselves entitled to beginning to slip away.

H/T to a commenter at Dr Sanity. I have said before and still believe she is the smartest woman in the blogosphere. (The smartest guy is Gagdad Bob.)

Friday, September 05, 2008

The Mayor is Gone

Or he soon will be after a transition period. He will lose his office as of September 19th, giving the city council time to prepare for his departure. This is the apparent end of a state political crisis . . .

or is it?

I'll move myself and my family aside

If we happen to be left half alive

I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky

Though I know that the hypnotized never lie

Do ya?



There's nothing in the streets

Looks any different to me

And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye

And the parting on the left

Are now parting on the right

And the beards have all grown longer overnight



I'll tip my hat to the new constitution

Take a bow for the new revolution

Smile and grin at the change all around

Pick up my guitar and play

Just like yesterday

Then I'll get on my knees and pray

We don't get fooled again

Don't get fooled again

No, no!


Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!



Meet the new boss

Same as the old boss


The new boss will probably not be a whole different, or if he is he (or she) wants to make the needed changes the political machine will render the mayor powerless. We saw what happened in Detroit when a reformer became mayor; he was undermined by the cities real political bosses in order to protect their power, prestige and money. Dennis Archer honestly tried to fix the city and wasn't allowed to. I don't think it's going to matter who the mayor is. It can be a man or woman of integrity or just a pawn of the machine, but the machine runs the city.

Detroit is a mess and I will admit that I have no idea how to clean it up. If we don't Detroit will sink and take the whole state down with it.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Memories - - A Great Political Cartoon

When the Clinton Administration was on the ropes in 94, 95 the pundits couldn't stand it because the sexist conservatives couldn't handle and didn't like a strong woman.

Brought up this political cartoon that appeared about that time.

Picture if you will, a woman with of a man who has a GOP pin on his lapel. (She has a DEM pin on hers) He is sitting a desk and she is talking to him.

Her: You don't like Hillary Clinton. Why is it that you conservatives are so fearful of strong, assertive women in positions of power?

He doesn't answer but hanging on the wall behind his desk is a picture of Maggie Thatcher, a strong assertive woman who held power and whom conservatives loved (and feminists hated.)

It's still true today. It's not enough to support a woman. If you support a conservative woman you are a still a sexist. It must be a liberal woman in order to expiate your sexism.

Not A Lot To Say

So much is being said about Sarah Palin right now and I can't really say anything that isn't being said elsewhere.

I just have this to say

WOW!!!


It does bring back an old memory. It was back in '70 or '71 when the Detroit Tigers were a rather mediocre team and my younger brother, my older cousin's husband, my Dad and myself were at my cousin's home in Saginaw watching the Boston Red Sox clean the Tiger's clock (again). The game was well underway and the Red Sox had jumped to an early lead as the score was 6-1 or 7-2 (The Tigers were down by 5 runs whatever the score was). Then the Tigers managed to load the bases and up stepped a slugger named Willie Horton (not to be confused a certain much less worthy man who who just happened to have the same name and was associated with Dukakis). Now Horton was a pretty heavy hitter and the next thing we knew he was circling the bases in triumph and Tiger announcer George Kell was yelling

"ALL OF A SUDDEN IT'S A DIFFERENT BALL GAME!!!"

(A statement I may have quoted before.)

A Grand Slam by Willie the Wonder had put the Tigers back in the game. They were still down by one run but the momentum had shifted and they went on to win.

Right now I feel the same way I felt as I saw that slugger circling with bases with three more runners crossing home ahead of him. We still have an uphill fight but something has changed.

There is an odd thing about a grand slam though. One player, no matter how good, can't do it unless the rest of the team sets them up by loading the bases. I think that has happened.

Update: 09/05 Mona Charen has used similar terminology in her NRO Article:

Together McCain and Palin have changed the game. They have seized the mantle of reform and dare the Democrats to show anything comparable. In this worst of all years for Republicans, it no longer seems fanciful to imagine that they can win.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Not A Laughing Matter

If the humor presented by the late night comics is any indication then this might not be the campaign buster that Obama and his people are looking for. Letterman, O'Brien, Leno and Ferguson all only told one joke each about Miss Palin's pregnancy and the butt of the joke was someone other than Miss Palin.

Letterman said. "The Palin family crisis that we were talking about on Sunday and Monday, that has been solved now and, today, the baby is being adopted by Angelina Jolie."

Ferguson said "I don't think that a young lady getting pregnant should even be news, Unless John Edwards is the father. Then that is kinda news."

Leno said "Gov. Palin announced over the weekend that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months' pregnant, And you thought John Edwards was in trouble before! Now he has really done it."

O'Brien: "we should never have introduced her to John Edwards."

Now I ask you, who is the real butt of these jokes?

Morality

I was in Bay City with my brother when I was informed that one the levees had again broken in New Orleans. I looked to the TV and was relieved to see that I had been misinformed, but there was splash-over. Waves in the water, driven by the wind was coming over the edges of the levees but the levees themselves were still standing. There were two differences between Katrina and Gustav: the mayor of New Orleans (who should have born the brunt of the nation's fury for Katrina instead of the feds) actually did his job this time and evacuated the city and secondly, the levees held.

The levees held. That made all the difference.

Water did get into the city this time because of rain and the splash over from behind the levees, but it was not catastrophic.

Now I'm going to ask to picture something utterly stupid. Let us suppose that the authorities decided that because they were not able to stop all of the water from getting in they should take the levees down and just accept the fact that the water is going to come in and can't be stopped.

Utterly stupid but I ask you to do that for a reason.

The reason is that it has implications concerning - - morality.

One of the key doctrines to Christianity is the universality of sin for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, We know that God's law is absolutely perfect, but we also know that, with the exception of Jesus, no human that has lived beyond their earliest childhood has lived a life where they have never sinned (putting aside original sin for the moment). The problem isn't with the moral law; it is absolutely perfect. The problem is with us. No matter how much we try we will never on our own live up to God's standard.

So do we ignore the standard or pretend to believe that it isn't there?

Should we pretend to believe that sex outside of marriage is allowable? Should we pretend to believe that drunkenness, drug abuse and smoking are perfectly alright? Should we pretend to believe that gluttony and selfishness are normal and not to be questioned? Are we to pretend to believe so many things and the answer is a resounding NO. Now the problem is that we know what the law says and we also know that with the lone exception of Jesus no one has ever perfectly kept God's moral law. We as Christians know that it is impossible for a human to totally keep the law.

Now here is what would be a difficulty to anyone but God Himself. God's love is absolute. God's justice is absolute. His absolute justice demands that every single sin be punished (a fact that seems to be lost on a lot of people). His absolute love demands that all people be embraced into the family of God. The punishment for sin (any sin) is death and God cannot pass out both eternal death and eternal life to the same person (God can do anything that is not an inherent contradiction.) So how can God satisfy both aspects of His character?

The answer was by crucifixion of Jesus. So much happened that day as the Son of God took on the sins of the world. He took God's absolute justice and His absolute love and wove them together into another big word. Grace (Greek Charis, Hebrew Chessed) Perfect love and perfect justice meet and become one at the cross. He couldn't just abandon us because of His love; He couldn't simply ignore the sin because of His justice. The cross dealt with that paradox.

People rightly point out the loving character of God but if you ignore His just character then you only get part of the picture.

We are in a human situation where God's law is absolute and perfect but no human can possibly obey it. Do we ditch it?

I point again to the levees of New Orleans during Katrina and Gustav. When the levees are in place there is some splashover. Recognition of the moral law is not going to prevent every instance but remove the moral law completely and you have what happened when the levees broke. All hell broke loose and there was chaos. Societal recognition of the moral law is such a barrier. When society recognizes the moral law then there will still be sin, but society as a whole can manage it but remove the moral law completely and you have the breakdown of society. God told Moses that every law He gave was for mankind's good, both collectively and individually.

We certainly do not want the Taliban's idea of Sharia where God's law is turned into an inhuman nightmare, but we don't want the other extreme either. Society must recognize some moral limits in all areas of life, but they should not be a degree that stifles peoples' growth as individuals and as a society. Between the two extremes represented by the Taliban and the hedonistic Hollywood mindset is the reasonable center: Christianity.

An important aspect of a person's character is how they deal with the inevitable sin in their life. Do they pretend it isn't there or pretend that it isn't sin? That is unacceptable. Do they seek forgiveness from those offended (including, most importantly, God) and try to make it right? That is the proper way.

Sarah Palin's daughter and future son-in-law sinned. No question about it. God's grace will deal with the consequences of guilt and He has also laid out a way for young people who put themselves in such a situation to properly deal with it. This young couple is doing so. They are not pretending that it is "no big deal" because they know it is a big deal but they are dealing with the consequences in the right manner.

The problem isn't that people sin but that people deny that it is sin; that is what we must not allow. If a person is an alcoholic and knows he's wrong but can't handle his addiction then compassion is called for; when he insists that it is perfectly alright to constantly be drunk he enters a situation where tough love and discipline are called for. God's moral law was broken, not because it is wrong but because we as humans are wrong. God forgives via the cross, but He will not allow the moral law to be ignored or forgotten or (even worse) outright denied. We too forgive but we must never say such behavior is good or acceptable.

One additional note: Hypocrisy is not in the recognition of sin or the insistence of morality. Hypocrisy is in pretending that you do not sin or that your sin is less important than the sins of others.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

GO Kwame GO!

As far away as possible.

While the country watches national interests, Michigan's eyes are turned to its own political drama as the Mayor of our largest city continues to try and keep his job in spite of an ongoing criminal investigation.

Today a judge allowed the hearings that will very likely lead to Mayor Kilpatrick's removal from office to proceed. I agree with the practical outcome but I still believe that the court should have stated that it had no authority over this, thus recognizing the limits of judicial authority. The courts can, and should, make sure the proceedings are properly and fairly carried out, but should not try to prevent them entirely. Fortunately the courts have decided to allow the hearings to proceed - - for now. That could well change at any time.

He apparently has made a few major concessions that could lead to a settlement, but one thing he is insisting on and not getting is that he will not spend any more time behind bars. Several powerful people feel that he needs to spend some time locked up and if this impasse is settled there may be an agreement. It appears that Jail/Prison time is the hold up to a settlement. I guess he has accepted, on some level, the fact t that he is going to lose his office and his law license.

What annoyed me was this line.

"There's going to be appeals," said Curt A. Benson, a law professor at Thomas Cooley School of Law. "That's the way the game is being played."

The game?!?

That's part of whats going wrong is politics being treated like a game. The lives of close to a million people depend to some degree on the Mayor of Detroit and the city is facing several grave problems. It doesn't have time to waste on politicians who view politics as a mere game.