Opaque Lucidity

A List for the New Year

I've been thinking today about my New Year's resolutions. I really only have three, and those of you who know me can probably guess what they are (we may talk about them later, but not today). But I also have a wishlist for 2005, inspired by Dennis Prager's list. Some of these are whimsical, and some are very serious. I welcome you to post a list of your own.

1. An end to Islamo-Facism. We are not fighting terrorism; we are fighting facists who claim to be Islamic and who use terrorism as a tool of influence. They are gutless, cowardly subhumans who prey on woman, children and anyone who is weaker than they. This is indeed a cultural war---the sooner radical Islamic culture is wiped from this planet, the better.

2. An end to phony hero worship. This is something that has bothered me for years and I don't see any signs of an abatement. Since Sept. 11, 2001, we have seen countless heroes rise from among us and take their place in history. I speak of not only the military, but doctors, nurses, contractors and others who are helping to re-make the world and usher in a new era of democracy. Yet our children still look up to the likes of Eminem, P. Diddy and Britney Spears. Can't we do better? Don't our kids deserve better?

3. An end to reality TV. It's not real, it's not intellectually stimulating and it screams to me that there are millions of Americans who need to get a life.

4. A surge in Linux usage. If you feel pretty comfortable around your PC, you should give a Linux distribution a try. Most of them are free and they're getting easier to use every day. I don't want Microsoft to go out of business; I want them to innovate on their own and build a better product. If you don't feel like taking the plunge, at least go to www.mozilla.org and download Firefox, the best browser ever created by the hand of man.

5. Stiff, stiff punishments for people who send spam, write viruses and create spyware. I'm not a supporter of the death penalty, but having some of these people disappear would make my life easier.

6. Confirm that there is or was life on Mars. There is little doubt in my mind that Mars was once wetter and warmer than it is today. Evidence of life there eons ago (or microbial life there now) would tell us that there is most likely life elsewhere in the universe. Nothing can bring humanity together more than the understanding that we have cosmic neighbors and that we need to clean up the house before they come over.

7. The mainstream media admits that blogs are the new media of the 21st century. It'll never happen, but crusty outlets such as the NY Times are becoming nothing more than a mouthpiece for the wannabe socialist masters and their ignorati (like that term? I made it up; you'll see more of it) who like to think they know something.

8. France annexed by Germany and/or England. Ummmm....oh yeah, F the French.

9. Decrease American dependence on Middle Eastern Oil. This means drilling in ANWR and buying more from Mexico. This is good for Mexico's economy and sticks it in the ribs of the environmentalists.

10. Cars that fly and people living on the moon. Hey, it's 2005! Where are these things? Where's George Jetson?!

The Weblog Awards

If you're a regular reader of Hugh Hewitt or Powerline (both linked on the left), you may have heard about the Weblog Awards. Well, surprise, surprise, this blog actually received some votes. Now, keep in mind that we're in something like 6750th place (there may have been only 6751 blogs voted on for all I know) but it's still a pleasant surprise. Thanks to those of you who voted.

This sort of gives me a weird feeling of responsibility, and it's something that I worry about. After all, I talk about pretty much anything I want. But with many people now reading (over 55,000 hits this month), I wonder if I'm roaming too far afield. After all, most of the readership was gained during the Presidential campaign. Thus, do people want more political discussion? Hmmm.

We'll see. The new year is going to bring some changes in my life and here online, so we'll see if we can maintain this audience. As always, your input is appreciated, be it positive or negative.

The Back Of The Tapestry

The recent earthquake and tsunami in Asia have made me, once again, question my belief (or lack thereof) in cosmic order and justice. Josef Stalin once said that a single death is a tragedy, but a million deaths is a statistic. As horrid as that sounds, Stalin was correct in his understanding of human psychology. 100,000 people were probably killed last weekend, a number so large that it's all but impossible to imagine.

Someone (I think it was my grandfather) once told me a story told to him by a priest. The priest said that our lives on earth are confusing, like the back of a tapestry. When we die, we see that front of the tapestry and everything makes sense. The pointless deaths and deprivations of the world are part of a larger plan that our small minds cannot grasp while we are alive.

Well, isn't that handy: you'll understand it all when you're dead. I would love for someone to explain to me how a loving God could allow the deaths of so many innocents (from a natural occurance, no less) and then let us stew over it for the rest of our lives. Is this any different than promising terrorists 72 virgins in the afterlife?

Maybe it's our concept of God that's all wrong. Instead of the loving God of the New Testament, we should see Him as Creator (from Genesis) or Vengeful Interloper (from the Greeks and Romans). Call me a heretic, but I don't see any evidence that shows these views of God to be wrong.

No Notice

I owe all of you an apology. Evidently, the notification feature does not work, or at least not yet. This site does have an RSS feed, so if you know what that is, you can subscribe to it. Otherwise, I guess it's business as usual. Sorry.

Technical Difficulties

I have been informed that the notification e-mail may not be working. If you receive a notification e-mail (or don't), please let me know.

Shooting The Gift Horse

The UN Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs called the United States and other Western nations 'stingy' in their response to the tsunami disaster in Asia, this despite the fact that Colin Powell stated that our contribution was the first installment of a larger aid package. Did you really expect anything different?

This incident highlights the socialist/marxist nature of the United Nations. They are steeped in the oil-for-food scandal (whose billions are sorely need now), yet their officials cry that if only OUR taxes were higher, there wouldn't be a problem. There is no internal call for reform, or budget cuts in unnecessary programs. Instead, we are all called on to shoulder more of the burden for an organization which puts Libya and Syria on its Human Rights Commission. Brilliant. What the breathless UN beauracrats fail to mention is the number of private charities (most of them US-based) that will raise millions, perhaps billions, of dollars for Asia and dole out their help without the need for a lumbering, bloated infrastructure based in New York.

The history of the UN is one of failure, abuse and weakness towards tyranny. The handful of UN-sponsored programs which are successes (like UNICEF) are heavily funded by the United States and Europe. Their history of peacekeeping has been a joke, a play of death that is once again heavily backed by the NATO allies. One need only to look at a divided Korea to see the results of forcing nations to cede strategic decisions to the UN Security Council.

The United Nations, like the League of Nations before it, has outlived its usefulness. What is needed now is a smaller, leaner organization made up of like-minded countries who respond when disasters of this magnitude occur. The NATO alliance could work as a model of organization, with private charities doing much of the work on the ground with funding from member nations. The UN, to paraphrase our President, can move its debating club somewhere else. New York could doubtless find something better to do with the UN complex, like a bowling alley or gun range. Or just an empty lot for kids to play stickball.

A New, Free Service

I was tooling around with some of my site preferences this weekend and I decided that I am going to offer some of you faithful readers a service: you can be alerted when I post. To do this, send me an e-mail with your e-mail address in the body of the e-mail. DO NOT post a comment here saying "add me"---these will be ignored because people who think they're special and don't have to follow simple instructions really bother me. My e-mail address is in the Contact section to the left. Thanks.

...And That Has Made All The Difference

Last night, I was presented an opportunity to look back at a turning point in my life and see one of the roads not taken. I won't go into the details here except to say that this particular turning point is more than fifteen years behind me. The events of that year changed me radically; I can say that I probably would not have joined the Navy had it not been for that year and those events. I definitely wouldn't be the person I am today. That branch of possibility has receded further and further behind me, so much so that I no longer attach any emotion to it. It interests me in an academic sense, the way I would read a biography of someone else.

I get down on myself quite a lot because of what I see as my lack of apparent success. My wife and I went to high school with people who live in near-mansions, make six figure salaries and already have a house full of kids. Not all of them live like that, of course, but I've never taken to looking at the world and saying, "Well, at least we live better than people in...". I was reminded last night that none of that means much without the small things from which happiness is derived.

We are raised in this country to believe that all forms of success equate to happiness. This is true to a degree. But it is not the product of success, but the process of success that breeds happiness. It is the struggle, the deprivation, the pain of achievement that makes the success so sweet. Mere acquisition of a bigger house, a nicer car or the next piece of jewelry is ultimately empty because it must constantly be replaced by the next house, car or ring.

So I sat across a table last night from someone who has known success both financially, academically and in all the other ways that matter to the average person. Yet, this person's life is a disaster. As we sat there and listened to her tale of woe, I thought about something that had happened earlier that night. A friend had called me to say that the moon was coming up as the sun was setting and that it was a very full, bright orange. I stood at our front door and watched it rise over a neighbor's house, amazed at how large and bright it was. Kelli came and tried to take some pictures as it rose in the sky to a harsh, bright white. And I knew, later, that our dinner guest would never appreciate something like that as we did because there is always the goal not reached or the thing not bought or the unhappy relationship to contend with.

As the Roman slaves used to whisper to the conquering heroes, all glory is fleeting. We must always strive, but we must also learn the art of contentment. If I didn't know it before, last night taught me that, despite my own doubts, that I've made the right decisions.

Constant Christmas, Changing World

Christmas is constant and our lives change around it for better or worse. For a moment, try to remember the simple joys of children and how full their hearts are today. If only we could remake our adult world in their Christmas Day image.

The Latest From Will

George Will is one of my favorite political columnists. Today, he writes about the most famous Christmas in American history. Here's my favorite paragraph, something which I have long believed but could never put into such eloquent phrasing (Will is borrowing here):

‘In the late twentieth century, too many scholars tried to make the American past into a record of crime and folly. Too many writers have told us we are captives of our darker selves and helpless victims of our history. It isn't so, and never was.''

Ghost of Christmas Past

I wonder sometimes how my brain works. I'll be doing something mundane (like washing dishes) when a memory will work it's way into my mind. Normally, it's something that has nothing to do with the task in hand and sometimes, like today, it's something I haven't thought about in years.

Unlike most people in the military, I was fortunate enough to get to come home every Christmas while I was in the Navy. It wasn't that I pulled strings or anything; I was just lucky. In 1990, my leave started on December 23. If you recall, this was about three weeks before the first Gulf War started and "war fever" was running high. So I donned my dress blues and went to the airport, pretty full of myself and proud of the newly-earned eagle and chevron that marked me as a Petty Officer. My uniform attracted a lot of attention, especially from the middle-aged woman sitting next to me on the flight from Orlando. As we talked, she would stop and say, "But you're so young!" I was 19.

I have to switch tracks for a moment and tell you about my grandfather; that is, my dad's dad. He was born in 1901, so by the time I came home on leave that Christmas, he was well into his 90th year. He was about 5'2", nearly bald and all Italian. He used to say that, although he and his wife had eight children, he had never changed a diaper. His relationship with my father was, for lack of a better term, difficult. Upon reflection, it was probably the natural outcome of two people who were both very intelligent and very stubborn. Grandpa lived down the street from us, so we saw quite a lot of him. He and I had actually worked together for four summers (we'll talk about that some other day).

As our plane pulled up to the gate in Louisville, I could see people looking out the waiting room window at us. And there, looking like a small child, was my grandfather. He had on his usual "going to town" uniform: white dress shirt, black pants, black shoes. I can imagine that jet travel seemed exotic and strange to him, since he had seen the entire history of aviation unfold during his lifetime. My dad was there next to him, not too much taller. What a pair.

As I came off the plane there was the usual chorus of hugs. Then my grandpa did something he had never done before: he touched the sleeve of my jumper, as if to make sure it was real. He was a practical man and I'm sure his action was to see what kind of material I was wearing. But today, for the first time, I realized that he had also greeted his son, my dad, in the same uniform. I'll probably never know what it's like to greet my son and his son as they come home from military service. If I ever have a son, I would like to think he can grow up in a world where they'll be no need for that kind of thing (fat chance of that).

So today, I think of all those fathers and grandfathers who will get to spend Christmas with their sailors, airman, marines and soldiers. I also think of those who won't get to see their loved ones, and pray for those who will never see their loved ones again.

Sorry. I know that was sappy.

Snow

If you've listened to the national news today, you know that those of us who live in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky have been subjected to the greatest snowfall in nearly a decade. My office is closed until Monday, so a three-day weekend suddenly became four days long. I welcome the time off, but except for a short (in distance, not time) drive this afternoon, we have been trapped in the house.

I'll post more in the morning; I strained my lower back earlier and need to hit the rack early. Now go have a sno-cone.

Victims of Desperation

By now, you know that over 20 American servicemen and an unknown number of Iraqis were killed yesterday when a rocket was fired into a mess tent in Mosul. All deaths in this war are tragic, but there is something especially infuriating about the type of sub-human who would fire a rocket at random towards a base hoping to catch someone unprepared. I know some of you are thinking about the civilian deaths that have occured in Iraq, but the United States and her allies are not senseless butchers; in fact, our laser- and satellite-guided weaponry was developed so that only the target is destroyed, not an entire neighborhood as has been the case in previous wars. This attacker's only goal was to produce fear and terror.

With the Iraqi election a little over a month away, we can expect to see more attacks like this. The attackers only have to be right a handful of times to make a significant statement; the defenders of order must be right every time in order to stave off disaster. I can't help but wonder how much more of this the American public can stomach before the dissent becomes mainstream and in the majority. Most of Iraq is secure and returning to normal and I believe that the election will take place on time. But saying that is, in a way, like saying that most planes take off and land safely or most people drive to work without being killed in a wreck. The media only reports the bad things, but that's nothing new.

My father, a true conservative in the original meaning of the term, was against the US going into Iraq. He knew that Saddam Hussein was a genocidal tyrant who probably had ties to terrorism; his concern was the occupation. And he was right. As I see it, there seems to be no clear end to our stay there. The American people are patient and supportive, but that only goes so far. This administration needs to lay out a set of conditions for withdrawal of our troops. I'm not calling for a timeline, but rather a statement saying that "when these things occur, we will turn Iraqi national security over to Iraqis."

On the eve of the war, Colin Powell told President Bush in reference to Iraq, "If you break it, you buy it." We've been buying it every day since March of 2003, and I can't help but wonder about the cost.

Bye, Bye Houston...Callin' In The "Wolf"

I don't know where these people come from. If you're in Texas, read this. Hell, read it even if you don't live in Texas. Those of you in Dallas should probably start packing.

Tradition

I was raised in a Catholic household where my father was of Italian ancestry and my mother's family was Irish. I didn't realize it at the time, but our lives were full of traditions. We almost always had spaghetti and meatballs on Sunday and mom almost always made cabbage on New Year's Day. We didn't call these little things traditions or even discuss them; they just were. As we grew older and my siblings began raising families of their own, these things went away and were replaced by other traditions. Such is life.

I feel about traditions much the same way I feel about legacies: you don't go out and create them. They find you. I am leery of anyone who says, "We're going to start tradition X right now." It's a feeling in search of a home, something that almost always leads nowhere. Traditions exist because people embrace certain activities or beliefs, thus leading to repetition.

Let's take traditional Italian food, something with which I am very familiar. When the first Italian immigrants came to the United States, they didn't say "Let's create comfort food from our homeland and call it traditional food." The food they cooked was the food they knew, so they stuck to it. It was good food and was pretty cheap, so it was popular. Thus, the tradition was born on this side of the ocean.

Around the holidays, forced tradition (especially from people who think that tradition formation will somehow solve problems or bring families closer together) does nothing but make things more complicated and more strained. Things have a way of working themselves out; one day you look back, and you realize that a tradition has begun and you didn't do anything except live life.

Shop Talk

It has come to my attention (uhhmmm...sly....uhmmmm) that some of the more popular posts may be dropping off the front page while the discussions are still red-hot, so to speak. Thus, I have changed the blog so that there are three weeks of posts visible instead of just one. I apologize to you folks on dial-up; please be patient.

Top 20

Right Wing News has published their list of the 20 Most Annoying Liberals in the United States for 2004. At the top of the list (or the bottom, as it were) is Michael Moore. If you check out the site, read the entry for The Democratic Underground. Scary.

Happy Nondescriptness, Fellow Earthlings

After hearing the phrase about 50 times thus far since Thanksgiving, I have decided that "Happy Holidays" is a term for sissified, politically-correct nancy-boys who are afraid of offending those useless individuals who would be offended by the use of "Merry Christmas".

Regardless of what you believe, Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. You don't have to recognize it as a holiday, but this nation (along with many others) pretty much stops on December 25th. It is a federal holiday as well. President Grant, please call the ACLU.

So, when you see me between now and December 25, I will say "Merry Christmas". If you are an observant Jew, you will probably not be offended. Hannukah is over and Jesus was Jewish, after all. Between December 25th and January 1st, I will say "Happy New Year". And, before you ask, I will NOT wish anyone, anywhere a "Happy Kwanzaa" since it is a contrived holiday that seeks to seperate rather than unite.

Bah-Humbug!

Rummy Trouble

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is in trouble, of a sort, for not personally signing condolence letters to the families of servicemen who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Evidently, personnel who worked in his office were using an Auto-Pen to affix his name. Rumsfeld said yesterday that he would begin to sign all the letters personally.

I've been a big defender of Sec. Rumsfeld. He inherited a military shrunk by eight years of post-Cold War cutbacks, some of them draconian. What's more, he moved into a Pentagon that was used to being all but ignored by the White House. During the Clinton Administration, the military was excluded from day-to-day civilian management. To some in the upper ranks, this was probably a very likeable situation. Then, in January 2001, a new sheriff arrived. He was a man who had held the job before, had run a large corporation, and had zero tolerance for bullshit. Suddenly, the Secretary of Defense was not happy to let things slip by unnoticed. Memos were sent, questions were asked. Before 9/11, Rumsfeld first fielded the idea of completely revamping the military so it could better meet the challenges of the 21st century.

The mainstream media has been merciless in their pursuit of "Rummy", probably because he makes many in the press corps wet their pants. He's not a friendly guy; he answers questions with remarks like, "The mission is to kill these people. Next question." He's not a politician; in 2008, he'll go home, not down to his campaign headquarters. He has, in my opinion, made the best hand he could out of the cards he was dealt.

I can't stand by the Secretary's side this time. There is simply no good excuse as to why the man couldn't have signed every condolence letter sent out to family members of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation. This isn't World War Two; there aren't thousands of soldiers dying every month. This is twenty minutes a day we're talking about, time that might make a grieving parent or spouse feel a little better. For God's sake, the President signs his name to the letters he sends.

Some of you will tell me that people further down the chain of command also send letters, letters that are much more personal and mean a lot more. This is true. But don't you think it's a good idea to sign the letters personally, if for no other reason than the press may find our you're NOT doing it? This reeks of a certain administrative insensitivity, something that the Secretary has been fighting since day one. I fear that he will now be associated with Secretary McNamara, the smart businessman who tried to run the Vietnam war like a for-profit auto dealership.

These are people's kids over there; if we're going to ask them to sacrifice, let's show them the respect they deserve.

"I Know...The Borg"

Microsoft has acquired an anti-spyware software company. I should probably just stop and let my friend Hash comment on this, but I have to get in a few shots ;-).

Let me state, for the record, that Microsoft (MS) has done some things well. Windows XP is, in my opinion, the best operating system they have ever produced for the desktop. Windows Server 2003 is a good server OS (although I work in a Netware shop, so I'm probably not an unbiased judge of these things) and Outlook 2003 is, security aside, very cool. Having said that, they have made more than their fair share of stinkers: Windows ME, BoB (remember that?), Pre-SP1 Windows 2000. You could give them credit for DOS, but that would be wrong: they bought it hook, line and sinker from a smaller company. And so the trend continues.

MS getting into the anti-spyware market is like a drug manufacturer getting into the casket business. One solution: bundle it with Windows and give it away. Otherwise, they're going to come off looking like they want to capitalize on their own security problems (shocking!).

I'm going to make a promise now, and it's something I'm very serious about. If MS does NOT give away this new software, I will NEVER use their products again. I'm a hair away from using Suse Linux now anyway; that will push us over the edge.

To Boldly Go...

Nice parody from Hugh Hewitt, who got it from someone else:

Ted Kennedy Leads Delegation on Historic Journey

Elsewhere, doctors examining President Bush said he was "in excellent health" and capable of assuming the duties of president should anything happen to Dick Cheney."

The Bulge

Sixty years ago today, three German armies (200,000 men) broke through the Allied lines in the wooded Ardenne region of Belgium. This was the beginning of what would be called the Battle of the Bulge. It was so named because, at its height, the German offensive created a "bulge" in the Allied lines 60 miles deep and 50 miles wide. It remains, to this day, the largest single battle ever fought by American troops.

The summer of 1944 was a golden time for the Allies in Europe. The Normandy invasion and the breakout from the hedgerow country of northwest France had been costly in terms of lives, but the succeeding weeks had seen the liberation of Paris and a race into Belgium and towards the German border. In the East, the Soviets were pushing in Poland, squeezing what remained of the German Army into a tighter and tighter vice. Rumor had it that the war would be over by Christmas. Continued resistance seemed foolish.

I don't know what caused the intelligence breakdown that autumn, but I'm sure overconfidence played a part (see, this whole "faulty intelligence" thing isn't new). Looking back, there were plenty of signs pointing to a German buildup: missing units, strangely quiet areas of the front, etc. The few voices urging caution were dismissed; after all, where would the Germans get the resources to pull off an offensive?

When the offensive came on the 16th of December, it was made up of mostly old men and boys. The best trained units were the dreaded SS, who were still under the impression that the war was winnable. But even a poor army can perform miracles if they have surprise on their side, and the Germans had it in spades. The American forces facing the German attack were caught almost completely off-guard.

Even though the battle was wide-ranging, the area that history remembers most is Bastogne, the small town that was completely surrounded by the Germans and defended by elements of the 101st Airborne and the 10th Armored Divison. During the first week of the battle, the weather kept Allied aircraft from flying, which made the Germans confident that they could overrun Bastogne. When the town did not immediately fall, they sent messengers to deliver an ultimatum to the American commander, General Anthony McAuliffe. The German message was formal and dire:

To the U.S.A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne.

The German Commander.

There are many stories concerning how the American response was crafted. Most of the men involved are now dead, so we will probably never know the truth. No matter the thinking involved, McAuliffe's one word response is, to say the least, a classic:

To the German Commander,

The American Commander.

The German messengers did not understand the message until a nearby American officer told them that it meant they could all go to hell. The following day, December 23rd, was clear. The US Army Air Force pounded the German artillery positions, rendering them useless. On the 26th, the 3rd Armored Division under General Patton broke through to the city. Patton commented on McAuliffe's response: "Any man that eloquent must be saved."

It took until January 21st for the Allies to straighten the lines back up, but the damage had already been done: the Germans lost 120,000 men, or most of the attacking force. The Allied toll was 80,000, of which 75,000 were Americans. That's more Americans than died in Vietnam (57,000) between 1957 and 1975.

Your Color's Back And There's Gonna Be Trouble...

Hey la, hey la, the color's back. I need to refer to Webmonkey for color codes a little more often.

I, The Abuser

I received an e-mail this morning from my best friend Peter of the LSC (Lone Star Contingent; I just made that up, but I like it) telling me to check out Michael Moore's site. According to Peter, Moore is comparing Democrats and their fellow travelers to abuse victims. I smiled when I read his e-mail, figuring that the comparison must've been vague at best. I told him I'd check it out and mention it here if I found it worthwhile.

I'm still picking my jaw up off the floor. Moore's post includes an essay written by a "friend" (my guess is that he wrote it, because it's his style of prose) that pulls no punches and is not in the least bit vague about calling Republicans and other conservatives abusers. Please read it for yourself before you read the rest of this post. I'll still be here when you get back.

I want to talk to those of you who consider yourself Democrats, or at least left of center. There's a few things I think you need to understand:

-John Kerry did not lose the election because Moore and those like him failed to get out their message. He lost precisely because Moore DID get out his message. It just doesn't resonate well among informed, reasoned people who actually vote. What plays well on the coasts doesn't necessarily play well in Peoria.

-Michael Moore is on his way to becoming the spiritual leader of your party. If you allow this to happen, you will continue to be a minority party for the forseeable future. Just because a lot of people saw his propaganda piece doesn't mean they agree with him.

-There are good, honorable Democrats out there that you need to embrace. Evan Bayh, a Senator from Indiana, is one of them. Raging liberals may be exciting, but they're strictly for one night stands. The sun is up; get real.

You Can Take The Hick Out Of The Country...

Official Senate Curmudgeon Fritz Hollings is retiring. The 183-year old (or was that 83? I forget) Democrat from South Kakalakie gave an interview to 60 minutes on Sunday in which he proved that you're never to old to make excuses for your inbred, uneducated decisions from 40 years ago. Here's some gems:

"What are you saying? That all of these folks that keep voting Republican are racist," asks Wallace.

"We believe in feeding the hungry, and housing the homeless, and educating the uninformed and everything else like that. They believe in private education, a privatized Social Security, privatized energy policy -- privatize, privatize. They don’t believe in 'We the people' in order to form a more perfect union.”

No, Fritzy, Democrats believe in TALKING about feeding the homeless and educating people. However, they never do anything about so they can continue to have it as an issue. For God's sake, dude, you guys had the House for 40 years!

He says (Dr. Condeleeza) Rice is a real mistake: "She ought to go back to teaching Russian or whatever it was.

Hey, maybe she ought to go back to the back of bus where she belongs, right? Them thar niggars shure is gettin' outta hand in Washin'ton.

Buy my favorite line comes at the very end:

"The newspaper had, in my hometown, one of the Letters to the Editor ended, 'We hope Hollings enjoys his retirement, because we sure as hell will,'"

Amen.

Connor

It looks like Scott Peterson is going to get the death penalty. I'm against the death penalty, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over this bastard. He committed one of the worst things I can imagine: he killed the woman he had taken an oath to care for and their pre-born child. It wasn't done in a moment of anger, even though that would not have lessened the horror of the act. He planned his actions with precision. I just can't wrap my mind around that.

Had Laci Peterson not been eight months pregnant, we probably would never have heard of this case. Yet, under California law, she could have had an abortion and walked away from Connor free and clear. She would've been exercising her "right", nothing more. So the jury was swayed (if you believe their statements) by the murder of a child who could've been murdered by his mother. Am I the only one confused by this?

It comes down to want. If a child is wanted, as Laci wanted Connor, then his death is a tragedy. If a child is inconvienent, then he is disposable. This is the splendor of our achievement. Congratulations.

Annie Get Your Gun

The Washington Times is reporting on an Army paper that could be the beginning of a move to place woman in direct combat roles. As it stands now, women can serve on all combat ships except submarines (where it is impossible to make accomadations for privacy) and fly combat aircraft. The line is drawn at women serving in infantry combat units. Instead, they serve in support units which can, as was the case in Iraq, end up taking casualties. The Army's official reasoning for this exclusion is that women, on average, do not have the upper body strength of a man and so can not carry weight over as long a distance (or support a rifle for extended periods of time). There are also hygiene issues to consider, although we'll leave that for another time.

Woman will be serving in combat before the end of the decade. There is just too much pressure put on the Army and Marines by feminists and their political followers to allow the current situation to go unchanged. But the question is: what will be gained by this? Surveys done within the Army show that the majority of enlisted women do not want to be part of combat units. Will higher female casualties somehow strike a blow for "equality"?

Our armed forces do not exist as platforms for social experimentation. They exist to perform the worst thing a nation can ask of it's citizen soldiers: to go forth and kill the nation's enemies and break their spirit. It is, in many respects, the most uncivilzed practice we engage in yet we must always prepare for it. I may be a sexist, but I have always believed that woman are the civilizing force in our society. Men learn how to treat women from their mothers; it is our wives who keep us from being drooling idiots (well, sometimes anyway). Women have no place in combat not because they are physically weaker, but because they are so different from men in their behavior.

I know that someone will e-mail me and tell me about Aunt Martha, who was a MASH nurse in Korea and is tough as nails or flew cargo planes during World War 2. That's fine, but ask yourself this question: would you want your daughter sharing a foxhole with a group of male foot soldiers?

The Private Child

The Washington State Supreme Court has ruled that it is illegal for parents to listen in on childrens' phone conversations. The high court ruled that children have privacy rights, although it will be interesting to see how far these go.

My wife and I have no children, so my only experience with this kind of thing comes from my childhood. My mother snooped A LOT, so much so that I just stopped telling her about anything even remotely related to my life (much like now). I kept a journal once for about a month when I was 16, and then thought better of it; she went through my trash and read it. You get the point.

I think the level of privacy extended to children depends on their behavior. Some kids are good students and good people who should be extended, in my opinion, more rights than a child who goofs off at every turn and is demonstrably unreliable. Of course, I understand that some kids are angels at home and devils around their friends and that no system is foolproof. But my guess is that most involved parents have their kids pegged.

Many of you have children, either young, teens or grown. How did you handle privacy, how do you handle it now, or how do you think you'll handle it when your kids become teenagers? Do you have the right to access any form of communication your child is exposed to? Do you have the right to search their bedrooms? Inquiring minds want to know, even if you don't have kids yet.

Change of Title

Moveon.org is claiming ownership of the Democrat Party. I say let 'em have it. It's funny to watch liberals out of power---now we actually get to watch them turn into cannibals.

So, how does four more years sound, hippie?

Phone Cards

It's a day of copy and pasting here. This from Hugh Hewitt. I'll be going to Sam's Club this weekend:

Finally, from a naval officer I respect a great deal, an e-mail on how to aid wounded troops in the two weeks left before Christmas:

Please pass this portion on, copy and paste it into your e-mail."

Nope, No Bias Here

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know about the questioning of Don Rumsfeld during his trip to Kuwait this week. Well, Drudge is reporting that at least two of the soldiers who asked questions were plants:

Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts is embedded with the 278th Regimental Combat Team, now in Kuwait preparing to enter Iraq, and is filing articles for his newspaper. Pitts claims in a purported email that he coached soldiers to ask Defense Secretary Rumsfeld questions!

Lee

This doesn't change the fact that the Pentagon, in my opinion, was not prepared for an occupation, but it sheds a lot of light on how the Old Media works their magic.

E-Mail Blues

This is NOT a picture from a 1954 issue of Popular Mechanics.

It does NOT represent Rand Corporation's concept for a home computer.

I tell you this because at least 12 people have felt the need to send me this picture in the past two weeks. They send it because they know I'm a computer guy. They thinks it's cute.

It was. The first time. It was cute because I knew it was a hoax. Snopes.com didn't tell me.

The Navy told me. You're actually looking at a mock-up of the manuevering room of a nuclear-powered submarine. Specifically, submarines equipped with the Westinghouse S5W reactor. This includes Lafeyette and Sturgeon class submarines, which are all now out of commission. I know this because this is the reactor I learned on.

I know every switch, dial and button on those panels. To quote John F'in Kerry, it's seared into my memory. The Reactor Plant Control Panel (the middle section) contains all the pump and motor switches for the reactor. That's where I used to sit most of the time. The cool chrome wheels on the left control steam flow to the turbines. The big one is for forward, and the little one inside it is for reverse. The cool guys could open one while they closed the other.

I was one of those guys. I'm not now.

The panel on the right controls the electrical plant. I had to stand that watch, too. I sucked at it.

So now you know.

A Real Christmas Story

If this doesn't touch you, check your pulse (courtesty of the Associated Press):

All too often, the ring of Debi Faris-Cifelli's cell phone means there is another abandoned newborn at the morgue, another forsaken child for her to recover, name and bury in a shoebox-sized coffin under a white cross in the California desert.

The state budgets about $1.5 million for advertising -- not enough to buy even one statewide TV spot, according to Andrew Roth, spokesman for the California Department of Social Services, the agency responsible for monitoring the law.

Alone

Kelli is in San Antonio on business, so I am living the life of the geographical bachelor. Don't get too excited; I'm spending my time doing some outside computer work for a small local business. We have traveled seperately before but, somehow, it never gets easier.

When you've been married a while (six years here) you become a single unit of sorts. We complement each other with regard to knowledge and expertise. She doesn't know much about spyware and I don't know crap about English literature (despite the fact that I've seen every period piece ever made). She is the interior designer; I could leave in a stainless steel room with a drain in the center as long as it contained a fast PC and a broadband connection (I have often told her that the interior of my fantasy home could be cleaned with a fire hose). To steal from Jerry Macguire, we complete each other.

There are inumerable little things that I miss when she is not here. I miss giving her grief about the Goo Goo Dolls (especially that Johnny Rzeznik character) and having her refer to me as "geek" as least once a week. I could go on, but you get the idea.I spend too much time thinking about how our life could be different or better. What I don't do is spend time being grateful for the life we have. My wife makes me a better, happier person. I am a lucky, lucky man.

Live in Infamy

I could not let today go by without writing a little about Pearl Harbor. I found a quote from Churchill, written later, that summed up his feelings when he heard of the attack and America's entrance into the war. It makes one proud to read it today, for Churchill understood the might of this nation. If only the world had remembered...

"To have the United States at our side was to me the greatest joy. Now at this very moment I knew the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all!...Hitler's fate was sealed. Mussolini's fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be ground to powder."

Our Interactive Medium

The fellows over at Powerline were talking yesterday about a column by Bill Bennett about the mainstream media and the growth of blogging as it affects talk radio. As you know, Bennett has his own national morning show; I listen every morning as I blearily make my way to work. Dr. Bennett makes a good point when he says that talk radio is becoming less a lecture and more an interactive discussion, with the listeners often providing as much information as the host. This is due, in large part, to the cornucopia of information and opinions available online. One only has to look at the Dan Rather memo scandal to see how quickly and accurately this new media tag-team can respond to allegations, both on the Left and the Right.

I think we're on the edge of something extraordinary here: the death of traditional journalism. Rather, Jennings and Brokaw represent the last generation of 20th Century reporters who came of age unencumbered with vast numbers of online sources looking over their shoulders. In the age of Murrow and Pyle, journalistic integrity meant that a few large networks could accurately feed the American public's need for news. Vietnam, Watergate and a host of other events showed us that mainstream journalists had changed: news become more about entertainment and agenda and less about facts.

Journalism majors would cringe at the thought of millions of bloggers and radio types calling themselves journalists. But what does it take to report facts and opine on issues? A brain, some writing ability and time. In the same way that the arrival of the personal computer marked the end of the labcoat-wearing secret cabal of computer operators, the age of talk radio and the blog will mark the end of the closed society of information snobs.

I know that I have probably written this topic to death, but I don't believe we can underestimate how incredible these times will seem a generation from now. We are on a cusp; revel in it.

God Inside

Matthew Alper was on with Art Bell last night. As you may be aware, Apler is the author of The God Part of the Brain, in which he argues that man's concept of God is inherently genetic. Why would belief in a higher power be instilled in us by nature? Apler believes that this trait was developed as a coping strategy when human beings figured out that their lives were finite.

I have written here more than once about my struggles with Catholicism, faith and organized religion in general. When one looks at the history of Western civilization, it is hard not to say that religion has had, overall, a positive effect. The tired argument about how many people have died in the wars fought over religion fall silent when faced with the reality of law and order coded on the Ten Commandments. The success of the American Experiment is due, in large part, to not only our tolerance of religion but our embrance of the Judeo-Christian ethic.

So does civilization depend on continuing faith? In some ways, I have to say yes. Atheists and agnostics argue that basic moral decency does not require adherence or belief, but from where did those morals come? Would we continue to live in a civil society if there were suddenly no organzied religions? And if religion of some type is necessary for anarchy to remain tethered away from us, does it stand to reason that a "God" gene might have developed over time as humans began to live in larger and larger communities?

I'm sorry if I've rambled a bit; thank you for reading this far. I have debated some of you on issues of faith, so I will be interested to read your comments.

Pfft

I was going to write about Thomas Wolfe today, but time has run out on my lunch. I may get to something this evening; I apologize if I do not. God, I hate Mondays.

The Politics of Science

I am about halfway through a wonderful biography of Nikola Tesla. Tesla, for all intents and purposes, brought alternating current electricity to the world. AC electricity, once harnessed, was a natural replacement for direct current. While the discoveries he made would've certainly been made by others in time, his genius lay in working quickly and almost without failure towards his goals. But history has pushed Tesla into a corner reserved for oddballs of discovery while Thomas Edison, the man who fought Tesla (and Westinghouse) to keep his DC monopoly intact, is heralded as the father of the modern eletrical era, at least here in the United States. Was it politics? You bet. Edison was all-American boy, while Tesla was an eccentric foreigner.

The same politics that governed science then governs it now. I bring all this up because of an article linked from Slashdot concerning last summer's heatwave in Europe. In my opinion, the article makes some stunning assumptions (such as claiming that the summer of 2003 was the hottest in Europe in over 500 years). There is also no explanation of how the study managed to account for ALL human activity on the continent during the study period. All scientific models proceed from a certain set of assumptions; I may be wrong, but the assumptions in this case seem large indeed.

Let me state for the record that I believe global warming is a reality in that the records we have indicate that temperatures, on average, are rising. However, it is worth mentioning that we only have reliable global temperature data going back 100 years or so. While this may seem like a long time, it is an instant in terms of climate change. History is full of examples of sustained cold and warm spells. The northeastern Colonies and northern Europe experienced a mini Ice Age in the mid-1700's that was so bad that ships delivering goods to Boston had to be unloaded via sled because the harbor was almost frozen solid. Medevial writings speak of wheat being grown in Scandanavia. The examples go on and on.

Call me crazy, but I can't help but believe that our current paranoia about the climate is rooted in a belief that capitalism and democracy are the root causes of environmental problems. The Kyoto Treaty is a sterling example of this. This treaty, which was intended to force its adherents to radically cut "greenhouse gas" emissions, exempted certain developing countries. Guess who made the "developing countries" list? Why, China, of course. This is the same China that has been flirting with evironmental disaster for the better part of a generation, the same China that has the fastest growing industrial sector on the planet.

If you read the mainstream media, you would be left with the impression that the US was the only country to walk away from the Kyoto Treaty while everyone else gladly signed it in the name of saving the planet. Nothing could be further from the truth. Canada and Australia bailed at the same time we did, Russia has yet to ratify it and the EU has stated that it can not meet the required goals. Kyoto is, essentially, dead in the water.

The scary part of all this is that the treaty was crafted based on the unproven theory that the hand of man is responsible for global warming. If it wasn't so scary it would be laughable. It sort of reminds me of a bad sci-fi movie:

Scientist: "Mr. President, there's a Klingon battle group on its way to conquer the planet."

President: "Are you sure?"

Scientist: "No sir. But given that there are possibly billions of planets capable of supporting life, it is very possible there is a race who call themselves 'Klingons'. If this is the case, and it probably is, sir, then they may be war-like and have the technology to enslave us."

President: "What do you suggest we do?"

Scientist: "I think we should devote the entire global economy to our defense. I like space-based lasers, but some of the guys at Berkeley think they can just make the entire Earth invisible with a series of holographic projectors. Either way, we must act now."

President: "By God, man, you're right! Get me Kofi Anan as soon as he's finished counting his stolen oil money!"

Deadened

Many of you are frequent visitors to Fark, a bizarre news and photoshop contest site run by a guy named Drew Curtis. Each story posted there draws comments, but the stories concerning the war or anything political draw hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of witty and not-so-funny postings. My post yesterday concerning Ernie and his LBEH program was gleaned from Fark. Yesterday afternoon I visited the site again to read some of the comments generated by the story. I was shocked by what I read. In addition to the usual "Way to go, Ernie" stuff was a large number of "Screw 'em, the volunteered" posts and "Let Haliburton fly 'em home" stuff. To say I was enraged is an understatement.

So I stewed about the whole thing until a thought hit me, a revelation that has escaped me until now: we are a very, very insulated people. Americans haven't known war in their cities and towns since the Civil War. Thus, the cruelties of war are lost on us. Furthermore, most people are completely isolated from the military. During the Second World War, everyone had a brother, father, uncle (or sister) who was directly involved in the war effort. Now, many people can't name anyone in the military. In many ways, this is good; during a war, it can be disasterous.

So take a news site visited by mostly college-aged boys, kids who have known nothing but softness in their lives, and expose them to the dirt of the real world. What happens? Well, anger for one: how can this be happening now? This isn't the way it's supposed to be! Second, there is a certain amount of shame (at least there would be if I were in my early 20's right now). After all, young guys who are tougher than they (and many who are smarter) are actually making real sacrifices right now in faraway places while the soft kids are trying to get laid on campus and prove how smart they are.

Finally, there is the realization that the world is full of evil. We have lost that concept in our world, the idea that some people can not and should not be saved; they have to be destroyed. This flies in the face of the theory that terrorism is only the result of poverty and lost opportunity. When the great thinkers see that terrorism has nothing to do with economic conditions and everything to do with killing people because they are not radical Muslims, it makes these young men question everything they've ever been taught. Maybe some of them will realize that they've been sold a bill of goods by their professors and by the popular media.

And maybe they'll stop being asshats.

What is Given

Winter mornings in this part of the country normally begin with a grey, solid sky. This trend runs from the middle of November until some time in March. On the odd mornings that the sky is clear or partly cloudy (like this morning), the sunrise is spectacular, full of pinks and golds and lasting longer than a summer sunrise seems to. The dark part of the sky is different too, since the winter sky in the northern hemisphere contains brighter bodies in the early morning. Thus, Venus and Jupiter compete with the Sun for a few minutes, as if they want the night to go on a little longer.

It is on mornings such as this that I remember each of us is only granted so many of these mornings. Most of them go by in a flash of hurry: to work, to school, etc. To make things worse, they go by faster as we get closer to the end of our allotment. I must make the most of these days, for they are the one thing we can not buy or hoarde; they are spent, even if wastefully.

LBEH 2004

I've been a regular reader of Ernie's House of Whoopass for several years now. After 9/11 (maybe before), Ernie started a program called Let's Bring 'Em Home (LBEH). The program helps people in all branches of our Armed Forces who are not able to afford the plane or bus ticket necessary for them to be home with their families over the holidays. If you have ever been away from loved ones over Thanksgiving or Christmas, you know how miserable this can be. Logically, all of the people who receive help are stationed in the US; people in a combat zone are flown back to their home base by Uncle Sam if they get leave.

Here's the site if you want to donate something. Please be advised: while the LBEH site is clean, Ernie's home page is not for the kids. On top of being very politically-incorrect, Ernie likes the topless pictures, if you know what I mean. Carry on.

One more thing: if you donate, please mention this site. Yes, it's shameless promotion. That's what I'm about.