Opaque Lucidity

Smaller And Smaller

I'm not dead, at least not yet. I have tried to post something every day since January 1, but I've fallen hard this week. In the end, I guess what matters is not quantity, but quality. From now on, I will post when the mood strikes. Check back as you will.

It would be easy for me to blame my lack of posts on work, or a busy vacation week, or the podcast. But I would be lying. The simple truth of the matter is that I no longer believe I have anything to contribute to our conversations here. Only about 40 of you read this blog, which is fine. I know almost all of you personally, enough so that you know where I stand politically and personally on any number of issues. We've been over it, time and time again. If you're not sure, go back to Sept. 2003 on this blog or June 2002 on the Dattblog and read all about it.

When I started blogging for a wide audience in September, 2003, I honestly believed that my posts could make a difference not just to my friends and family, but to the world at large. I knew that people would always disagree, but I wanted to make the debate a little more intelligent. But I failed, and Hugh Hewitt failed, and Michelle Malkin and the guys at Powerline failed. Why? Because the stupid and the emotion-driven still have the upper hand.

I realized this tonight as we watched a recording of 'The View'. I don't make it a habit to watch the show, but I read that Rosie O'Donnell made some wild comment about a 9/11 conspiracy and I wanted to see for myself. So there she was, in all her bitter lesbian dog splendor, talking about Iraq, President Bush and 9/11 as if she has two brain cells to rub together. And the audience loved it.

You could look at the people who would take the time to sit and watch a filming of 'The View' and conclude that Rosie could proclaim herself Satan's sex slave and they would cheer. But they are not unique. Watch Bill Mahr and you'll see the same thing. To quote Christopher Hitchens, "It's the stuff only stupid people find funny."

Now go to any liberal blog (any of them) that posted about Tony Snow's cancer and read the comments. Come away and tell me that those of us who know the score are making progress.

I probably had a point when I started this, but I've lost it. I'll keep talking, because evidently all you have to do is keep moving your fingers or lips and if you're base enough, the unruly mob will love you.

President Reagan Shot, March 30, 1981

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The Final Five

I need to get this on the record before 10PM EST. The final five Cylon models are: Colonel Tigh, Anders, the President's assistant (her name is Tory, I think), Chief Tyrol, and someone else, probably Starbuck in a reappearance.

You read it here first.

UPDATE: I think I'm batting 1.000!!!!

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, March 25, 1911

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UPDATE: The link is fixed. Sorry about that.

Shop Talk

I'm in the middle of downloading Ubuntu 7.04 Beta (Feisty Fawn), which I will install on the iMac using Parallels. I've never installed Ubuntu before, but from what I understand it is the easiest Linux distro to install and use. If you have some thoughts on this, please fire away.

One cool thing about using Parallels is that you can do an install directly from an image file; there's no need to burn a CD or DVD. I didn't learn this until about a week ago, but now that I know, I'm much more enthusiastic.

I miss having time to play around the computer. I finally have a machine that will run pretty much any OS available today, but I don't have time to really test anything out. If only I could podcast full time...uh, yeah.

Ignore Me

Test

Death Of A Republican

On Wednesday of this week, I heard a segment of news on which President Bush was discussing immigration issues. He said something that made me stop and stare at the radio: "We need these people to do the jobs Americans aren't doing."

This is the argument the open border folks use to promote their cause. Basically, according to them, we need Mexicans and others from south of the US border to do the dirty work in our society. As proof, they state the fact that most landscaping and construction jobs are done by immigrants, both legal and illegal. True. And terrible.

The simple fact is that most Americans have been priced out of these jobs precisely because of cheap illegal labor. These jobs were not going unfilled, they simply demanded a higher wage than they do now. You can state any number of economic reasons as to why a white construction worker is hard to find in many parts of the United States, but the truth is that he was slowly pushed out of his job. The contractor remains, for his profits increased due to this new, young, cheap labor.

Which brings me to my point: this will not end with blue collar jobs. We can already see programming jobs moving overseas to India, China and Russia. Most people are only exposed to outsourcing when they place a customer service call about their computer, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. In addition to overseas industries, people are coming here from all over the world to take engineering and IT jobs. Should we let legal immigrants take good paying jobs? You bet. But what is the price?

Ultimately, I believe we are looking at the death of the middle class in our society. Anything that can be outsourced to another country or "insourced" to a cheaper labor pool will be. On my side of the aisle, there are those who say that what's good for business is good for America. That is only true to a point. Those who hold the rosy picture of a workforce that is constantly re-training for the next job are fooling themselves. Like or not, we are not a very pliable people.

I have worked for enough privately owned companies to know that many senior executives would shoot their own mothers if it saved them money or increased productivity. "It's just business" is the cry, and they're right---it's only business, not moral integrity or a sense of community. There was a time when companies were supportive of their local community and created jobs that were there for a lifetime. They still made profits. Those days are behind us, maybe forever.

The only conclusion to which I can arrive is that many people who call themselves Republicans or conservatives want easy illegal immigration to continue because it helps their own pocketbooks. Do you think George W. Bush is serious about immigration? If you do, you haven't been paying attention. The liberal Dems want a new voting block coming over the border---the Republicans see a minimum wage workforce. They both make me sick.

We need to encourage legal immigration so as to attract hard-working people who can contribute something to our society. As to illegal immigration, we do not need more laws because we don't enforce the laws we have. We need serious action that doesn't worry about the reaction of the Mexican government or what businesses have to say.

And so we come to the title of this post. I have always considered myself conservative. To most people, this term is a synonym for Republican. Sadly, this is becoming less and less true. True conservatives try to cut spending, enforce current laws without further bloating the federal government and cut taxes wherever possible. G.W. Bush had done exactly one of those things. He was better than the alternative in both 2000 and 2004, but I have to wonder how much we really won when the results from his administration match so closely what could have been.

I know many conservatives who are fed up. The party that was once our home is overrun by those who don't want to cut spending, but merely spend more on different programs than the Democrats. I am also alarmed by the overwhelming influence of Christian fundamentalists in the Republican Party. Yes, I believe faith has a place in our society and I believe that our basic values come from the Judeo-Christian teachings. But it's a dangerous path to go down---on one side are the angry atheists who constantly remind us that Jefferson and Franklin were weak deists. On the other are the people who believe the Earth is 6000 years old and want a Christian nation.

Don't fall.

The Scorpion You Know

Four members of the anti-war group Code Pink were arrested outside the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Thursday afternoon, following an announcement that they would seek to take over the office.

MacArthur Promises To Return, March 20, 1942

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Four

The news stories are telling us today that the war in Iraq is four years old. In that time, more than 3,200 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have died there. This does not include the deaths suffered by our allies, which add hundreds to that total. Some argue that this is a lower body count than Americans saw on the first day of the Normandy invasion or at Iwo Jima or the Chosin Reservoir. But we do not measure things in cold numbers, regardless of how convenient it might be. The mother of the son who came home draped in a flag does not care about what happened in previous wars and no amount of pride and patriotism can replace what will always be missing in her heart.

Our Congress seeks to make the war in Iraq right by leaving the nation to its own devices. Senator Kerry said on Sunday that the Iraqi Army needs to defend its own country starting right now. Nowhere did the Senator mention the fact that it was the United States and her allies who invaded Iraq in the first place. WE broke it, not the new Iraqi Army.

We don't talk much about national morality, but it's time we did. To leave Iraq now or in 2008 as some suggest would be, put simply, immoral. We owe the Iraqi people something, namely a stable place they can call their own. I don't know how to achieve this and I don't know how long it will take. As I've said before, I believe the insurgency in Iraq could be defeated in short order, but the cost of such a victory would probably be more than our soft populace could stomach. So until a better way comes along, young Americans will continue to die. This is the price. I'm not paying it and you're probably not paying it, either. But better men than me are sacrificing every day so we can live our lives a world away and sacrifice nothing.

No, there were no weapons of mass destruction and even if there was, they were long gone before the invasion. Four years on, it doesn't matter. What DOES matter is what happens from this day forward. I don't necessarily believe that the terrorists will "follow us home" if we leave Iraq. What I do believe is that we broke a nation for several good reasons and now we must rebuild it. Anything less will leave a permanent stain on the world's only superpower.

Algore On The Hill

From Drudge tonight:

**Exclusive**

Mr. Gore: Do you think the earth is significantly overpopulated and that is a major contributor to your view of climate change. (If yes, what do you think is a sustainable population for the planet?)

There is NO way he is going to be asked these questions. After all, the Dems still have to hang on to the green weenies in '08.

In The Beginning, March 18, 3952 BC

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Spiegel Grove

Penetration diving on sunken ships is one of the most dangerous things a human being can do. One of the problems is not only the confusion of being aboard a vessel that may no longer be sitting upright, but even the slightest movement can stir up silt and leave the diver with zero visibility. One of the best books I've read on the subject is 'Shadow Divers', which tells the tale of a group of men who dived on an unidentified U-Boat in American waters. Even if you've never been diving (I have not), it's worth a read.

One has to wonder if the diving boats which take people to these wrecks ask any questions of their passengers, like their level of experience. You could argue that it is not their place to guard divers from danger, but it must be a helluva feeling to know you took three guys out one day and they never came back.

The Grand....The Old Dame

Helen Thomas gets to keep her front row seat in the White House Press Room, only because she has been there since the end of the Roman Empire.

Have you heard an interview with Thomas lately? She has less going on upstairs than Robert Byrd, and that's really saying something. She is an old, bitter, liberal hag who only hangs onto her seat because she is unabashed about her rudeness towards any administration with which she disagrees. It's time for a mandatory retirement age.

The Newburgh Conspiracy, March 15, 1783

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Questions And Answers From E-Mail

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Sparta? Yeah...

Kelli and I saw '300' this past weekend, the graphic "re-imagining" of the battle of Thermopylae in which several hundred Spartans and other Greeks (more than 300, by the way) held off a Persian army for two days in a narrow mountain pass. An article in the Toronto Star speaks to the historical inaccuracies present in the film, which is, after all, based on a graphic novel (that's an expensive comic book for those of you not hip to such things).

I enjoyed the film as a work of art, not as an historical drama. What's important to remember is that the film never purported to be accurate---it only promised to be a gorefest with a moral center about sacrifice, honor and loyalty. The ancients, such as the Spartans, fought for many of the same things people fight for today: home, family, the right of self-determination, etc. But let's not get carried away with warm, fuzzy feelings for the Spartans or for ancient Greeks as a whole. Only a small percentage of the population knew any real freedom; the rest were slaves or vassals with no options other than a life of hard work and possibly an early death on the battlefield.

Regardless, what those early republics authored lives in us today. All modern democratic republics can trace their beginnings to the writings of ancient Greeks, but with a difference: we made it better and, after generations of struggle, included all people in the quest for personal freedoms. So in that, '300' is a good movie.

The Series Of Tubes

The Internet's key site identity system is in mounting danger from new techniques that could cause havoc by turning it into a free-for-all market, the World Intellectual Property Organization WIPO warned on Monday.

If you're a techie, you know that cyber-squatting has been going on for 15 years. What's new is how the UN is using this issue and others to make the argument that UN-based agencies need to manage the internet. That would be, without a doubt, the worst thing that could happen.

Let's face reality. Despite the fact that the internet makes it possible for people from all over the world to connect to one another, the reality is that relatively few countries drive most of the traffic online. North America, Europe, Japan, South Korea, India and Russia pass more data around the world than any other group of nations you can name. With this in mind, should the internet be overseen by agencies made up of people from countries like Libya?

If the UN ever does gain control of the worldwide internet, I predict that the serious players in the online world will simply create another network. The continents/nations I named above have the resources to build their own interlinked pipelines. No, it wouldn't be the free-wheeling 'net we know today, but nor would it be under the boot heel of delegations from places like North Korea.

Austria Annexed By Germany, March 12, 1938

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Already On The Way

I'm in one of those moods that I have trouble explaining. It all started today when Kelli and I were in Barnes and Noble. She was looking through the stacks while I hit the Starbucks. I was sort of wandering around aimlessly with my drink when I saw a magazine lying on one of the tables: Adbusters. Adbusters is a magazine and website devoted to fighting the effects of rampant consumerism in our society. While I can certainly agree with some of the magazine's observations, I have trouble with any group of people who complain about the very means by which they exists. The magazine is printed on large, glossy pages, thanks to a printing industry that survives on mass mailings and thick mags full of color ads. Their website is accessible only because of the giant telcos and others who pay to run fiber everywhere you can imagine. You get my point.

As I was thumbing through the magazine, I overheard a conversation between two 14ish girls sitting near me. One of the said to the other, "The average American home uses 20x more electricity than the average home in the rest of the world." "Wow", said the other girl.

I had the almost uncontrollable urge to turn and say, "And? Are you doing anything about it? Or are you just living the life? Here you sit with your little East End life complaining about the very things that make your life comfortable. You'll leave here and go home to your cell phone, iPod, broadband internet connection, hair dryer and hot water heater. Your mommy will take your to school tomorrow in your family's SUV, which is about four times larger than what your family probably needs since, statistically speaking, your parents probably either have only one or two children. You'll graduate from high school and go to college where some egghead professor who's never spent a day in the outside world will indoctrinate you into believing that the nation in which you live is the worst thing to happen to mankind since the Black Plague. You'll hook up with guys who don't give a damn about you and you'll let them have their way with you because you've been led to believe this is just the way it is. When you have trouble with the real relationships in your life, you'll scratch your head and wonder why you always pick losers but never, never will you realize you've never seen an example of real manhood, they kind they don't show on TV. And then you'll have kids of your own and your own house you can't afford and you'll feel guilty about having a good life so you'll vote for some fever swamp Democrat and buy carbon credits and put your recycle bin out on garbage day. And you'll hate your life because you gave up all your dreams in the name of getting along and living a life that someone else chose for you, a group of someones you'll never know: the average American family."

And then she would've cried or called the cops. But there you have it.

Worst Waster Of Time In History

Curve Ball

Pancho Villa Raids Columbus, New Mexico, March 9, 1916

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Rest Period

I go through a phase about once every 18 months or so during which I almost completely stop listening to talk radio, reading political blogs and/or engaging in debates with people. I am entering just such a phase right now. We face so many monumentally important issues in this country that it's a little more than I can stay on top of. So I do what most Americans do: I hide behind my everyday existence and act like getting home from work on time is the most important thing that could possibly happen.

The truth is, I despise people like that. After a few weeks (or maybe sooner) I will return to reality and catch up with the world. But it seems as if I am surrounded by people who are completely oblivious to anything that does not involve them directly. You know these people; they are your co-workers and neighbors. They can tell you who won on 'American Idol' last year but can't tell you the names of anyone on the Supreme Court.

I'm not trying to sound elitist, and I do know people who are incredibly well-read and keep up with current events not covered in 'People'. I guess I get this from my parents, but I have always believed that all of us, as Americans (or whichever country you call home), have a responsibility to know what's going on. What is Congress debating? Who's running for President? What's the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan? What's going to happen with immigration and the borders?

Remember, we pay for pretty much everything that happens in this country with regard to government action. You should know where your money's going.

Golda Meir Nominated For Prime Minister, March 7, 1969

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Under My Skin

Finally, a tattoo I can live with.

Preparing To Prepare

There is, most likely, intelligent life in the universe other than what is found here. A certain percentage of those intelligent beings may possess the ability to travel vast interstellar distances in reasonable lengths of time. A certain percentage of these travelers may have hostile intentions with regard to our planet. For this reason, I propose that we spend a significant portion of the world's resources developing earth-bound defenses against alien invasion. Furthermore, we must develop a space fleet capable of meeting the alien threat while still far from Earth.

While the above reasoning may seem bizarre, it is no different than the logic used by those who are pursuing enforcement of things such as the Kyoto Treaty and other "green" international and national laws. To them, the science of global warming has been finalized and you, your friends and their SUVs are the problem. While the mainstream media may support this type of thinking, it is far from the realities of the scientific world.

About 15 years ago, soon after the fall of the Soviet Union, I heard someone say that the environmental movement would become the new home of the leftover communists in Europe and the United States. That statement was prophetic, for if you look at the goals of staunch environmentalists, their ultimate goal is really wealth distribution. It may be disguised as a need to spend more public funds on green technology, but they really want you to be punished for living in a nice home and driving a big car. Why do you think China was exempted from the Kyoto protocols? Because they're a "developing nation"? Hardly---their environmental record is one of the worst on the planet.

Is the planet getting warmer? Maybe, but even that is open for debate. Until we know more, combating a threat that may not even exist is a waste of time and resources.

The Root Of All Evil

I hate to keep writing posts about podcasting, but it has been on my mind lately. Those of you who listen to Matt's Today in History know that I announced my move to Podshow last week. I fully expected to receive e-mails from people who are unhappy with this, mainly due to the fact that the show will soon carry advertisements. To date, I have only received one of these e-mails.

However, I have received several e-mails from people who are unsubscribing not because of the inclusion of ads, but because I will (hopefully) be receiving a paycheck for my work. To these people, I have somehow sold out. It reminds me of fans who get angry when their favorite local band signs a record deal and then becomes nationally famous. I'm NOT drawing a comparison; I just never thought I would get to experience that, even on a small scale.

What is so wrong with trying to make money? If you don't like the advertiser or Podshow, I can understand the dislike. But why be upset over the money? What's more, everyone with this opinion who has written to me is a podcaster, which makes absolutely no sense. Everyone's time is valuable----if someone is going to offer to pay me for it, I'm going to accept.

Am I just another capitalist pig? Or do I just not understand "pure" art?

Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech, March 5, 1946

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Put The Cah In The Gahrhage

I'm sure the police in Boston just love this.

The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves Passed, March 2, 1807

Matt's Today in History, March 2, 2007


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