The beneficiaries of the French arm of the great western european social welfare system are rioting and looting in the streets of Paris. A secret little piece of many in the good old USA is experiencing a little bit of Schaudenfreude-that's shameful joy when translated into plain ole murrican talk, for those out there (and you know who you are) who don't watch The Simpsons.
Remember when we were the bad guys for kicking Saddam's sorry backside, compatriots?
We are not colonists by force. The United States never has been a nation of colonial bent. We were the colonies that started it all by telling King George III to get a big old hammer, go to the Aussie outback, and pound all that sand up his...well, you know where.
We know that colonies will turn on their Empire. We INVENTED that!
God bless it, the French accepted the young American nation just to enfuriate the British. And then they go and act like themselves once we had a pulse and the British realized that we would probably continue doing grievous harm to their military presence elsewhere.
But the French kept colonizing. That is a country that could qualify for Special Ed. They were the ones who got run out of Vietnam at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. It took Algeria another six years, mainly because the French forces could not get their Regie Renault tanks to go into reverse as they were designed to. The grommets fell out on the same day as Dien Bien Phu, but it took Renault six years to send the parts overland. It had something to do with the engines flooding off Marseilles.
This one is all yours, France. We owe you for dragging us into two World Wars and Vietnam. For the courage of every Charles DeGaulle and Resistance fighter, there was a platoon of cretins predisposed to Jerry Lewis and warm wine kowtowing to the Vichy Nazis.
And now, after fifty years of public pronouncements of how America's social system is racist and inadequate; after proclaimations of the moral and intellectual superiority of the French system; after telling us to have a nice life in the Iraqi desert, what the hell happened?
40 percent unemployment among the immigrant community in France? Our immigrants work, diligently. They assimilate, perhaps not as rapidly as some would wish, but they assimilate.
Mexicans and Central Americans are not burning cars in Los Angeles. Puerto Ricans aren't doing so in New York. They're buying the cars instead, along with their Cuban brothers and sisters who fled to Florida and escaped a tyrant.
France, you have yourselves to blame. The cradle-to-grave social systems of your modern western european model have destroyed initiative. The dole has given immigrants in France an elevated standard of living that will be ultimately unsustainable. If immigrants in France have no incentive to succeed, they will have no incentive to contribute to French society. If there is no incentive to contribute, it will depress the motivation to identify with Paris or Lyon instead of Algiers. What happens in twenty or fifty years when the most common first name in Nice is Mohammed instead of Jean or Pierre?
This is a good one for America to sit out. Eventually we will observe the culture that gave us Sartre and Proust, fading into obscurity. France may die alone, loved only by leftists on the other side of the Atlantic.
For fifty years, the question posed to capitalists has been "Why should an affluent society let the poorest live in misery when they can be helped?"
The answer is that the private sector is the only mechanism that has consistently brought people out of despair. Public sector programs do not end poverty adequately; rather they function as justification for an ever-widening stream of bureaucrats and social workers.
The far left is about to join the extreme right over issues of undocumented immigration in this country. The far right, in the guise of Pat Buchanan, is embracing the idea of a wall between the US and Mexico. The far left has chosen the environment as their battleground.
The truth is that the far right, on issues of "preserving language and culture," has aped the party of Jean Le Pen in France, and the extreme left has rebadged from "Socialist" to "Green" masking a similar anti-diversity, anti-Israel, anti-semitic message.
The far left, with the environment as their venue, will come down on illegals ineligible for their ineffective programs, i. e. repatriating dissenters. The objective of the far right is similar, although their motivating citerion will be the scoundrel's sanctuary of Nationalism.
Nationalism? Excuse me, but everybody in America is from somewhere else! It has worked pretty well for oh, about a couple of hundred years, maybe this is something worth keeping?
Embrace nationalism and one-note environmentalism, as significant numbers in France have done, and the next cars burning won't be Peugeots.
They'll be Chevies.
11 November 2005
04 November 2005
Good Buddy Hugo Chavez
Fidel's good buddy Hugo Chavez is at it again, screaming about how he will bury FTAA, and how he is planning to begin a "news" and propaganda network named Telesur.
Oh Lord, here we go. Hugo Chavez is Socialist Lite. He has all of the trappings of a freely elected leader, a masqureade to cover his abuses of Human Rights among dissenters in Venezuela. He gets Jimmy Carter to come down and sanction his election, and he's a groovy little darling of the left.
By means of loud denunciations of the United States, he appeals to a disenfranchised population in Latin America. Were he offering a true method of reform, this would certainly be something that could appeal to those who embrace liberty.
Regrettably, he just parrots the anti-Bush left in the United States, pawning off half-truths and outright lies indicting this country of radical, systematic racism; neglect of the poor; the elimination of the middle classes, yada, yada, yada.
Tell ya what, Huguito, when the middle class in your country is as big as the one in this country, or bigger, then you can talk about how unfair we are. Until that day, please do everyone in the hemisphere a favor and shut your pie-hole.
There are problems in Latin America, but the question is as to which countries have the greatest numbers of people trying to get out by any means possible. Obviously, Mexico and El Salvador have issues with entrenched anti-libertarian authority. Guatemala has been looted like a New Orleans Wal Mart, as has Haiti. Colombia has been fighting a bloody and vicious civil war for the last fifty years. Brazil has a middle level of corruption that rivals the worst ruined mechanisms in Mexico. Reform of problems like these is not coming overnight, because the problems did not spring up overnight.
Reform of these issues is a desirable thing. Mexico has made great strides in improving the situation. Privatization has not been the best situation in Argentina, but the Chileans have done well, and could be emulated. Costa Rica has functioned as a tolerant, peaceful republic for the last 57 years. Ecuador has had issues, as has Peru, but both countries are progressing as compared to Venezuela under demagogue Chavez.
Chavez mocks the peaceful transition of power, as exists now in the nations he chides. He has acted exactly as he has accused Bush of acting...stealing elections, judicial fiat, disregard of world opinion, hiding out with despots.Where are the leftists doing that finger-wagging shame shame thing when it's their lap dog?
Credit is given where credit is due. Bush has honestly taken steps with Mexico's President Fox to improve the standard of living in Mexico. He has managed this without diminishing the United States' standard of living. What has hurt the US economy has had nothing to do with Mexico, and everything to do with a necessary demonstration of force that was woefully underestimated by the Bush administration.
Vicente Fox has nothing to be ashamed of with regard to the improvements in Mexico. Bush is not a fool, either; he understands that his country has a vital strategic interest in having a productive, free, democratic, and eventually prosperous Mexico sitting on Texas' back door.
The center right has grasped several points.
Rhetoric does not effect change, but it does bring about productive dialogue. Blame-and-shame games accomplish nothing. Government is not the solution to the problem, it is the problem. Open trade improves both sides. Good neighbors are a mutual asset. Solutions are best found through ingenuity and individual initiative as opposed to committees and programs.
Bush has been accoutable for his failures, with a free press and open criticism. Chavez passes the buck to Bush with paranoia and demagogic pedantry.
It may be just to state that the left would not fare as well if it were subjected to the same level of scrutiny and accountability. The tactic of blaming Bush and the Republicans has passed from the merely inane to the totally asinine.
The only tools left for the totalitarian, authoritarian left (and right!) are appeasement, isolation, propaganda, and suppression of dissent. These are the tools Fidel and his Good Buddy Hugo Chavez use on a daily basis.
If the left wishes to replace what exists now, then it will be incumbent upon them to prosper using the same rule book. After all, it is only fair, and the left claims that they are much more fair than the middle or the right.
Free human beings are the best judge of what is fair, not dictators who stack the deck.
Oh Lord, here we go. Hugo Chavez is Socialist Lite. He has all of the trappings of a freely elected leader, a masqureade to cover his abuses of Human Rights among dissenters in Venezuela. He gets Jimmy Carter to come down and sanction his election, and he's a groovy little darling of the left.
By means of loud denunciations of the United States, he appeals to a disenfranchised population in Latin America. Were he offering a true method of reform, this would certainly be something that could appeal to those who embrace liberty.
Regrettably, he just parrots the anti-Bush left in the United States, pawning off half-truths and outright lies indicting this country of radical, systematic racism; neglect of the poor; the elimination of the middle classes, yada, yada, yada.
Tell ya what, Huguito, when the middle class in your country is as big as the one in this country, or bigger, then you can talk about how unfair we are. Until that day, please do everyone in the hemisphere a favor and shut your pie-hole.
There are problems in Latin America, but the question is as to which countries have the greatest numbers of people trying to get out by any means possible. Obviously, Mexico and El Salvador have issues with entrenched anti-libertarian authority. Guatemala has been looted like a New Orleans Wal Mart, as has Haiti. Colombia has been fighting a bloody and vicious civil war for the last fifty years. Brazil has a middle level of corruption that rivals the worst ruined mechanisms in Mexico. Reform of problems like these is not coming overnight, because the problems did not spring up overnight.
Reform of these issues is a desirable thing. Mexico has made great strides in improving the situation. Privatization has not been the best situation in Argentina, but the Chileans have done well, and could be emulated. Costa Rica has functioned as a tolerant, peaceful republic for the last 57 years. Ecuador has had issues, as has Peru, but both countries are progressing as compared to Venezuela under demagogue Chavez.
Chavez mocks the peaceful transition of power, as exists now in the nations he chides. He has acted exactly as he has accused Bush of acting...stealing elections, judicial fiat, disregard of world opinion, hiding out with despots.Where are the leftists doing that finger-wagging shame shame thing when it's their lap dog?
Credit is given where credit is due. Bush has honestly taken steps with Mexico's President Fox to improve the standard of living in Mexico. He has managed this without diminishing the United States' standard of living. What has hurt the US economy has had nothing to do with Mexico, and everything to do with a necessary demonstration of force that was woefully underestimated by the Bush administration.
Vicente Fox has nothing to be ashamed of with regard to the improvements in Mexico. Bush is not a fool, either; he understands that his country has a vital strategic interest in having a productive, free, democratic, and eventually prosperous Mexico sitting on Texas' back door.
The center right has grasped several points.
Rhetoric does not effect change, but it does bring about productive dialogue. Blame-and-shame games accomplish nothing. Government is not the solution to the problem, it is the problem. Open trade improves both sides. Good neighbors are a mutual asset. Solutions are best found through ingenuity and individual initiative as opposed to committees and programs.
Bush has been accoutable for his failures, with a free press and open criticism. Chavez passes the buck to Bush with paranoia and demagogic pedantry.
It may be just to state that the left would not fare as well if it were subjected to the same level of scrutiny and accountability. The tactic of blaming Bush and the Republicans has passed from the merely inane to the totally asinine.
The only tools left for the totalitarian, authoritarian left (and right!) are appeasement, isolation, propaganda, and suppression of dissent. These are the tools Fidel and his Good Buddy Hugo Chavez use on a daily basis.
If the left wishes to replace what exists now, then it will be incumbent upon them to prosper using the same rule book. After all, it is only fair, and the left claims that they are much more fair than the middle or the right.
Free human beings are the best judge of what is fair, not dictators who stack the deck.
19 October 2005
F*** the Drive Thru
The bland and the transparent are ubiquitous. Luminas, Accords, SUVs, and ghastly fuel-sucking pickups crowd the freeways of Atlanta and every other city in the US with their V6 engines and seamless automatic transmissions. It takes a trained and cautious eye to see these vehicles in traffic. They work, but who wants to pay thousands for an appliance?
It gets kind of depressing, watching flotillas of Sentras and Civics jockeying about the Perimeter with Yukons and Explorers, F150s and Dakotas.
One knows that these people are voting. They have chosen ennui. The drivers have made a statement every bit as telling as the ratings for carbon copy sitcoms and soap operas. They have chosen security over liberty; they have embraced the inoffensive and flavorless in a passionless declaration of indifference.
It is a statement worthy of tears. Even the economy models, which once demanded that the driver invest some part of himself in the experience of using the machine, have fallen into the trap of isolating the driver with a sound system and an automatic transmission.
Push a button and it goes. Push another and it stops.
Frankly, someone driving one of these automatic mushmobiles is making the first step toward returning to mass transit. It is only one step from the old proletariat uniforms of Communist China or North Korea. These are the people who befoul the air because they are either too lazy or too paranoid to get out of the vehicle when getting a Big Mac. What was once a decent idea has now become fodder for an experience that too many of us understand: They (have an illicit sexual relationship with) you at the Drive-Thru.
The Opel Kadetts and Morris Minors of the 1960s have given way to the Toyota Echo and the Hyundai Accent of today. This is not a condemnation of the greater virtues of these autos, merely the fact that an environment that includes drive through everything-even mortuaries that serve the bereaved from the comfort of their Tauruses and Santa Fes-has destroyed the practicality and enjoyment of simple, involving cars like the original Volkswagen Beetle and the Volvo 122 with their manual steering and clutch pedals.
If there were an honest desire to improve the quality of air and life in the United States, it would be best served by closing the Drive Thrus, and taxing automatic transmissions like Marlboros in New York City. Cell Phone laws woud not be necessary if a driver had to use all his limbs to operate the blessed car.
This is the point where people who normally want Government to do something about a problem are shrieking "Oh hell no!" Half of the drivers on the road cannot drive a stickshift.
A big chunk of the rest are devoted to the Drive Thru. A tax on automatic transmissions would be waived for persons with a handicap that prevents them from using a clutch or shifting gears.
(While we're at it, let's end zoning that shunts all business to expressway off ramps and cutesy-poo "neighborhood covenants" that prohibit businesses from going closer to homes. Apartment complexes on the Atlanta model can go the way of 45rpm records, too. 100,000 square feet of discount department store with 50 acres of paved parking? Not the best idea.)
The greenies are now jumping up and down. Their ever-tightening regulation of the automobile has taken the fun out of driving one. Take regulation off cars with engines under 1.2 liters of displacement. The only regulation that would be necessary for diesels would be lower sulfur content in diesel fuel.
United States auto manufacturers could take this as an opportunity like no other. Deregulated 1.2 liter superminis could generate huge profits, while handling four people in reasonable comfort. The Big 3 already have the products in place in Europe and through their Asian affiliates. Involving the driver has been a huge component of the success of Honda, BMW, and Mazda in the United States.
Regulate vehicles over 3 liters. This is not to say that these should not be available, but to consider a six-liter engine, with only the driver, sitting in clogged traffic is to acknowledge that the politcal environment in this country has encouraged profilgate, myopic behavior.
No one wants to look back on $3 a gallon as "the good old days," as our friends in Europe and Japan do. But it is incumbent upon us as a nation to consider solutions that will improve our standard of living for a better, safer, and cleaner future.
There is no better start than by suiting our automobiles for driving and abandoning non-driving tasks inside our automotive environments.
It gets kind of depressing, watching flotillas of Sentras and Civics jockeying about the Perimeter with Yukons and Explorers, F150s and Dakotas.
One knows that these people are voting. They have chosen ennui. The drivers have made a statement every bit as telling as the ratings for carbon copy sitcoms and soap operas. They have chosen security over liberty; they have embraced the inoffensive and flavorless in a passionless declaration of indifference.
It is a statement worthy of tears. Even the economy models, which once demanded that the driver invest some part of himself in the experience of using the machine, have fallen into the trap of isolating the driver with a sound system and an automatic transmission.
Push a button and it goes. Push another and it stops.
Frankly, someone driving one of these automatic mushmobiles is making the first step toward returning to mass transit. It is only one step from the old proletariat uniforms of Communist China or North Korea. These are the people who befoul the air because they are either too lazy or too paranoid to get out of the vehicle when getting a Big Mac. What was once a decent idea has now become fodder for an experience that too many of us understand: They (have an illicit sexual relationship with) you at the Drive-Thru.
The Opel Kadetts and Morris Minors of the 1960s have given way to the Toyota Echo and the Hyundai Accent of today. This is not a condemnation of the greater virtues of these autos, merely the fact that an environment that includes drive through everything-even mortuaries that serve the bereaved from the comfort of their Tauruses and Santa Fes-has destroyed the practicality and enjoyment of simple, involving cars like the original Volkswagen Beetle and the Volvo 122 with their manual steering and clutch pedals.
If there were an honest desire to improve the quality of air and life in the United States, it would be best served by closing the Drive Thrus, and taxing automatic transmissions like Marlboros in New York City. Cell Phone laws woud not be necessary if a driver had to use all his limbs to operate the blessed car.
This is the point where people who normally want Government to do something about a problem are shrieking "Oh hell no!" Half of the drivers on the road cannot drive a stickshift.
A big chunk of the rest are devoted to the Drive Thru. A tax on automatic transmissions would be waived for persons with a handicap that prevents them from using a clutch or shifting gears.
(While we're at it, let's end zoning that shunts all business to expressway off ramps and cutesy-poo "neighborhood covenants" that prohibit businesses from going closer to homes. Apartment complexes on the Atlanta model can go the way of 45rpm records, too. 100,000 square feet of discount department store with 50 acres of paved parking? Not the best idea.)
The greenies are now jumping up and down. Their ever-tightening regulation of the automobile has taken the fun out of driving one. Take regulation off cars with engines under 1.2 liters of displacement. The only regulation that would be necessary for diesels would be lower sulfur content in diesel fuel.
United States auto manufacturers could take this as an opportunity like no other. Deregulated 1.2 liter superminis could generate huge profits, while handling four people in reasonable comfort. The Big 3 already have the products in place in Europe and through their Asian affiliates. Involving the driver has been a huge component of the success of Honda, BMW, and Mazda in the United States.
Regulate vehicles over 3 liters. This is not to say that these should not be available, but to consider a six-liter engine, with only the driver, sitting in clogged traffic is to acknowledge that the politcal environment in this country has encouraged profilgate, myopic behavior.
No one wants to look back on $3 a gallon as "the good old days," as our friends in Europe and Japan do. But it is incumbent upon us as a nation to consider solutions that will improve our standard of living for a better, safer, and cleaner future.
There is no better start than by suiting our automobiles for driving and abandoning non-driving tasks inside our automotive environments.
06 July 2005
Peace is Patriotic
The War in Iraq is not a good thing, it is merely the least bad option. Can the question be posed that perhaps-just maybe- Bush is not stupid? In an atmosphere surrounded by individuals who complain about the cost of Unleaded Regular and shout "Viva Bush" sarcastically...well, one individual, anyway, the opportunity has come to ask the question: "Could this be worse?"
It could be much worse.
After 9/11, the nation's options were limited. The United States was on the receiving end of an act of War.
Issue: there was no nation-state backing al-Qaeda.
Answer:Yeah, and OJ had nothing to do with what happened to Nicole, either. There was no paper link to al-Qaeda with Iraq, and the Republican party has had a hard-on for Saddam since 1991. That does not mean that they were totally wrong on this one either.
The last thing you want to do when you commit a crime is put plans on paper, because those things can bite your face off. Period. It is futile to discuss these kinds of links, and the factions who wanted a diplomatic solution understand the futility, because the futility of finding a link furthers the anti-war, but not necessarily pro-peace, agenda. Whether or not there was a relationship cannot be proven, however a result was both necessary and desirable.
Without a nation-state to legitimize whatever fatwas were being enforced by al-Qaeda, a direct attack on al-Qaeda forces was not possible. Al-Qaeda had to be drawn out, and their resources had to be occupied at a central point. Saddam Hussein, for all of his pendejadas, offered the venue for drawing al-Qaeda out like cockroaches in a dark room.
We needed Saddam flipping off the UN like Salma Hayek needs a third breast. Flipping off the UN isn't necessarily a bad thing, but being a loudmouth bully compensating for personal inadequacies and basically acting like a jerk with very large weapons...not good. The fact that he had used WMDs in the past and the (Magnificent!) Israeli response to his nuclear program back in '82 all lead to the conclusion that this is someone you do not want screwing around within 10,000 miles of you. Eventually something bad was going to happen.
Saddam Hussein was not listed as a credible threat. Big Deal. Not every credible threat walks up to international organizations with a credential that says "Hi! I want to blow up the world!"
That's like putting a "kick me" sign on a handcuffed authority figure in a junior high school. It's also about as productive in realizing a dialog resulting in closure. Ask Doctor Evil how well it works, sometime.
There was no dialog to be realized with Saddam. He was screening his calls and ignoring everything with a US, UN, or UK area code. But Saddam had done the rest of the world a solid favor in producing a secular, educated society, with a fair amount of industrialization. If the head of a household were to behave like Saddam Hussein, he would be locked up in DeKalb County, Georgia or Marin County, California. Domestic violence is against the law. So is Saddam Hussein's behavior, and with the UN resolutions after the'91 conflict, we had the warrant to go in.
So Saddam stomped around like a drunken wifebeater, and screamed how he was going to take everybody with him if anyone dared to take him down. He simply needed a rolled up newspaper across the nose like the mangy cur he is. Hinesville, Georgia's Third and Killeen, Texas' Fourth infantry divisions took care of the whipping he had been asking for. Hence we found him in a cast off Eisenhower era bomb shelter eating Spam and using a Pepsi bottle for a sanitary service. We knew Saddam was a punk.
Saddam's arrogance made him a target. This is not about crude oil, but it doesn't hurt, either.
The Bush administration deserves credit where credit is due. Instead of merely waiting for al-Qaeda to blow something up in another city, or Saddam to prove that he did have a WMD, they made a decision that may result in lives being saved.
Nobody is happy about 1800 young Americans who have lost their lives over the last 2 years. We would be a lot less happy about a WMD. An oops or a dud could still cost 1800 civilian lives. For our internationalist friends, that terrorist could just as easily hit Toronto, or Paris, or Berlin.
Our friends in Madrid are all too aware that the "West" doesn't end at Uncle Sam's yard.
Popping up in Iraq has saved lives in the United States, and will serve to improve lives in the Middle East. The fact of the matter is that al-Qaeda is not the Soviet Union, nor does it have unlimited resources. Fanatics and their allies are not fighting for freedom nor independence, but rather to enslave humanity to a blasphemy of Islam that rewards murderers of innocents; the same murder of innocents prohibited by the Koran.
The arrival of American troops in Iraq put the fanatics of Islam on the defensive. In place of the time and resources to plan another attack on American soil, they have been forced to defend the Middle East...and the hue and cry for self-determination is starting to spread. It is ironic that the cradle of humanity is among the last places to emerge from dictatorship and tyranny. How fitting that we should be the messengers that invite our enslaved neighbors to join in our hope and dream of a better tomorrow.
It is just that the very thing that al-Qaeda and similar fanatics fear-Western pluralism with the rights implied for everyone, not just the adherents of a narrow ideology, has come to their back yard escorted by the United States Military.
Al-Qaeda asked for the fight against Western ideologies when they started blowing our stuff up in the '90s. Republicans who pillory Bill Clinton now for his inaction would have been all too happy to pillory his action at the time, and did. Democrats who would have supported a preemptive strike on Osama bin Laden in 1998 under Bill Clinton, now have a problem with preemptive action under George W. Bush.
This kind of partisanship threatens the very environment that allows it to exist. This much is certain; It doesn't matter if the President Is George W. Bush or Cynthia McKinney, Atlanta's Southside Socialist. Put the fight back in their yard and use everything you need, including WMDs. Al-Qaeda deserves to be blown off the face of the planet or at least to be beaten until they seem quaint and a bit dotty, like the Communists do.
And should anyone else come out to try something like putting a hole in America, they should be forewarned that we are ready, willing and able to put a hole in them the likes of which will cause a rewriting of their holiest texts.
Al-Qaeda should have asked Japan about that one a long time ago.
It could be much worse.
After 9/11, the nation's options were limited. The United States was on the receiving end of an act of War.
Issue: there was no nation-state backing al-Qaeda.
Answer:Yeah, and OJ had nothing to do with what happened to Nicole, either. There was no paper link to al-Qaeda with Iraq, and the Republican party has had a hard-on for Saddam since 1991. That does not mean that they were totally wrong on this one either.
The last thing you want to do when you commit a crime is put plans on paper, because those things can bite your face off. Period. It is futile to discuss these kinds of links, and the factions who wanted a diplomatic solution understand the futility, because the futility of finding a link furthers the anti-war, but not necessarily pro-peace, agenda. Whether or not there was a relationship cannot be proven, however a result was both necessary and desirable.
Without a nation-state to legitimize whatever fatwas were being enforced by al-Qaeda, a direct attack on al-Qaeda forces was not possible. Al-Qaeda had to be drawn out, and their resources had to be occupied at a central point. Saddam Hussein, for all of his pendejadas, offered the venue for drawing al-Qaeda out like cockroaches in a dark room.
We needed Saddam flipping off the UN like Salma Hayek needs a third breast. Flipping off the UN isn't necessarily a bad thing, but being a loudmouth bully compensating for personal inadequacies and basically acting like a jerk with very large weapons...not good. The fact that he had used WMDs in the past and the (Magnificent!) Israeli response to his nuclear program back in '82 all lead to the conclusion that this is someone you do not want screwing around within 10,000 miles of you. Eventually something bad was going to happen.
Saddam Hussein was not listed as a credible threat. Big Deal. Not every credible threat walks up to international organizations with a credential that says "Hi! I want to blow up the world!"
That's like putting a "kick me" sign on a handcuffed authority figure in a junior high school. It's also about as productive in realizing a dialog resulting in closure. Ask Doctor Evil how well it works, sometime.
There was no dialog to be realized with Saddam. He was screening his calls and ignoring everything with a US, UN, or UK area code. But Saddam had done the rest of the world a solid favor in producing a secular, educated society, with a fair amount of industrialization. If the head of a household were to behave like Saddam Hussein, he would be locked up in DeKalb County, Georgia or Marin County, California. Domestic violence is against the law. So is Saddam Hussein's behavior, and with the UN resolutions after the'91 conflict, we had the warrant to go in.
So Saddam stomped around like a drunken wifebeater, and screamed how he was going to take everybody with him if anyone dared to take him down. He simply needed a rolled up newspaper across the nose like the mangy cur he is. Hinesville, Georgia's Third and Killeen, Texas' Fourth infantry divisions took care of the whipping he had been asking for. Hence we found him in a cast off Eisenhower era bomb shelter eating Spam and using a Pepsi bottle for a sanitary service. We knew Saddam was a punk.
Saddam's arrogance made him a target. This is not about crude oil, but it doesn't hurt, either.
The Bush administration deserves credit where credit is due. Instead of merely waiting for al-Qaeda to blow something up in another city, or Saddam to prove that he did have a WMD, they made a decision that may result in lives being saved.
Nobody is happy about 1800 young Americans who have lost their lives over the last 2 years. We would be a lot less happy about a WMD. An oops or a dud could still cost 1800 civilian lives. For our internationalist friends, that terrorist could just as easily hit Toronto, or Paris, or Berlin.
Our friends in Madrid are all too aware that the "West" doesn't end at Uncle Sam's yard.
Popping up in Iraq has saved lives in the United States, and will serve to improve lives in the Middle East. The fact of the matter is that al-Qaeda is not the Soviet Union, nor does it have unlimited resources. Fanatics and their allies are not fighting for freedom nor independence, but rather to enslave humanity to a blasphemy of Islam that rewards murderers of innocents; the same murder of innocents prohibited by the Koran.
The arrival of American troops in Iraq put the fanatics of Islam on the defensive. In place of the time and resources to plan another attack on American soil, they have been forced to defend the Middle East...and the hue and cry for self-determination is starting to spread. It is ironic that the cradle of humanity is among the last places to emerge from dictatorship and tyranny. How fitting that we should be the messengers that invite our enslaved neighbors to join in our hope and dream of a better tomorrow.
It is just that the very thing that al-Qaeda and similar fanatics fear-Western pluralism with the rights implied for everyone, not just the adherents of a narrow ideology, has come to their back yard escorted by the United States Military.
Al-Qaeda asked for the fight against Western ideologies when they started blowing our stuff up in the '90s. Republicans who pillory Bill Clinton now for his inaction would have been all too happy to pillory his action at the time, and did. Democrats who would have supported a preemptive strike on Osama bin Laden in 1998 under Bill Clinton, now have a problem with preemptive action under George W. Bush.
This kind of partisanship threatens the very environment that allows it to exist. This much is certain; It doesn't matter if the President Is George W. Bush or Cynthia McKinney, Atlanta's Southside Socialist. Put the fight back in their yard and use everything you need, including WMDs. Al-Qaeda deserves to be blown off the face of the planet or at least to be beaten until they seem quaint and a bit dotty, like the Communists do.
And should anyone else come out to try something like putting a hole in America, they should be forewarned that we are ready, willing and able to put a hole in them the likes of which will cause a rewriting of their holiest texts.
Al-Qaeda should have asked Japan about that one a long time ago.
05 July 2005
What Men Want
Every year that I have been in a relationship, I have faced the query about what I want for my birthday/christmas/anniversary gift.
That is about as pointless a question as has ever been asked. Most men like the same things. It does not have to be so hard as asking a question he should not answer.
Men do not want apparel. Unless you find the one in a million who is an honest Metrosexual...to wit a heterosexual who shops for shoes, HE DOES NOT WANT CLOTHES, PARTICULARLY CUTE ONES!!!!! All men have been getting "cute" clothes since they were born. We do not notice. If you want to get his attention, find the gaudiest T-shirt featuring the name of his favorite sports club and offer that. In my case, anything featuring the Atlanta Braves or the Miami Dolphins works fine. A Milan AC soccer shirt would be good too, as it combines one of my favorite sports with my favorite kind of car. How cool is that? It is a 43 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Men are by nature sexual. E mail him a naked picture of a breast he knows, nipple and all. If you wish to be unforgettable, that's a good one. We are quite fond of breasts, and even a bad one is still pretty good. There is no such thing as a bad nipple. There are asymetrical nipples, hard nipples, soft nipples, even suggestions of beer flavored nipples, but THERE ARE NO BAD NIPPLES!
Compliment his driving/directional acumen. He could get lost going two doors down to the convenience store with the 10'x10' fluorescent sign any other day, but if you wish to make an occasion, make him feel like a cross between Magellan and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. If you get really lost, start in after midnight and plan accordingly. You might even find out you like the worst neighborhood in the nearest big city.
Give him something tacky for the car. Not a problem if you own a Honda, but having a set of loud dual exhausts put on the V6 minivan requires chutzpah, and says "I love you" a hell of a lot better than something from the greeting card store. Bonus points are given for racing stripes, naked lady hood ornaments, curb feelers and anything from a truck stop with a Barjan package.
The polite car is a bit emasculating.
You have access to all the money and title to all of the female genitalia. Do not consider pornography to be your enemy, but rather, your ally in obseving new techniques. Particularly with men native to the Americas, men are enthusiastic adopters of new methods and behaviors especially in the bedroom. Lovemaking is a means of communication, and honestly, inhibition in bed walls off a viable and highly useful arena for opening up a dialog regarding feelings.
Okay, that's horsecrap, but it is very useful for getting him to clean out the garage because he owes you. Do something well enough and the TV doesn't move off Lifetime for a week.
Beer! Beer! Beer! All men love beer! More is better, his favorite brand is best.
Sports are important. If you want a man to get weak in the knees, a sporting event is always a good place to start. What is vital is knowing the sport that rocks his world. You must find out whether he likes a sport in season during the occasion. A NASCAR fan is out of luck at Christmas, and a Basketball fan has issues with an August birthday.
Take the heat from his ex. If you, like many women, are involved with a man who has children from a previous relationship, he still wants to hear from the younguns. What he has heard enough of, is what a sorry rat bastard he is from his ex. More than enough. It is still the kid's father's birthday, his birthday, or Christmas. Not that I have ever gotten that more than half a dozen times in 13 years, but you get the point about the issue. He can love your kids as much as his own, but if you keep pushing him to take the heat from his ex, that's a great way to find the off ramp from the relationship. You don't have to like her, but for God's sake, you can bury the hatchet for a day, right?
A favorite activity is good. But make sure the activity suits the person. A man who lives on Manhattan's Upper West Side and drives a Porsche 911 is probably not the camping type, and you'll do more harm than good taking a Conservative to a meeting of environmental activists. The occasion for a man should affirm his desires. You can work on the makeover on another date. Let him be himself, if only for a day.
Movies! Explosions! Gun Battles! Popcorn! Soda! MILK DUDS!!! Gratuitous Tittie jokes! The drama that won all the prizes can wait, unless you fancy the above on your birthday...
(Although a strategically located Milk Dud can be a gift that keeps on giving for both of you.)
Most of all, a gift is about who the recipient is, not who you want them to be.
Once that comes in clear, the intended recipient is much more receptive to constructive and productive changes.
That is about as pointless a question as has ever been asked. Most men like the same things. It does not have to be so hard as asking a question he should not answer.
Men do not want apparel. Unless you find the one in a million who is an honest Metrosexual...to wit a heterosexual who shops for shoes, HE DOES NOT WANT CLOTHES, PARTICULARLY CUTE ONES!!!!! All men have been getting "cute" clothes since they were born. We do not notice. If you want to get his attention, find the gaudiest T-shirt featuring the name of his favorite sports club and offer that. In my case, anything featuring the Atlanta Braves or the Miami Dolphins works fine. A Milan AC soccer shirt would be good too, as it combines one of my favorite sports with my favorite kind of car. How cool is that? It is a 43 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Men are by nature sexual. E mail him a naked picture of a breast he knows, nipple and all. If you wish to be unforgettable, that's a good one. We are quite fond of breasts, and even a bad one is still pretty good. There is no such thing as a bad nipple. There are asymetrical nipples, hard nipples, soft nipples, even suggestions of beer flavored nipples, but THERE ARE NO BAD NIPPLES!
Compliment his driving/directional acumen. He could get lost going two doors down to the convenience store with the 10'x10' fluorescent sign any other day, but if you wish to make an occasion, make him feel like a cross between Magellan and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. If you get really lost, start in after midnight and plan accordingly. You might even find out you like the worst neighborhood in the nearest big city.
Give him something tacky for the car. Not a problem if you own a Honda, but having a set of loud dual exhausts put on the V6 minivan requires chutzpah, and says "I love you" a hell of a lot better than something from the greeting card store. Bonus points are given for racing stripes, naked lady hood ornaments, curb feelers and anything from a truck stop with a Barjan package.
The polite car is a bit emasculating.
You have access to all the money and title to all of the female genitalia. Do not consider pornography to be your enemy, but rather, your ally in obseving new techniques. Particularly with men native to the Americas, men are enthusiastic adopters of new methods and behaviors especially in the bedroom. Lovemaking is a means of communication, and honestly, inhibition in bed walls off a viable and highly useful arena for opening up a dialog regarding feelings.
Okay, that's horsecrap, but it is very useful for getting him to clean out the garage because he owes you. Do something well enough and the TV doesn't move off Lifetime for a week.
Beer! Beer! Beer! All men love beer! More is better, his favorite brand is best.
Sports are important. If you want a man to get weak in the knees, a sporting event is always a good place to start. What is vital is knowing the sport that rocks his world. You must find out whether he likes a sport in season during the occasion. A NASCAR fan is out of luck at Christmas, and a Basketball fan has issues with an August birthday.
Take the heat from his ex. If you, like many women, are involved with a man who has children from a previous relationship, he still wants to hear from the younguns. What he has heard enough of, is what a sorry rat bastard he is from his ex. More than enough. It is still the kid's father's birthday, his birthday, or Christmas. Not that I have ever gotten that more than half a dozen times in 13 years, but you get the point about the issue. He can love your kids as much as his own, but if you keep pushing him to take the heat from his ex, that's a great way to find the off ramp from the relationship. You don't have to like her, but for God's sake, you can bury the hatchet for a day, right?
A favorite activity is good. But make sure the activity suits the person. A man who lives on Manhattan's Upper West Side and drives a Porsche 911 is probably not the camping type, and you'll do more harm than good taking a Conservative to a meeting of environmental activists. The occasion for a man should affirm his desires. You can work on the makeover on another date. Let him be himself, if only for a day.
Movies! Explosions! Gun Battles! Popcorn! Soda! MILK DUDS!!! Gratuitous Tittie jokes! The drama that won all the prizes can wait, unless you fancy the above on your birthday...
(Although a strategically located Milk Dud can be a gift that keeps on giving for both of you.)
Most of all, a gift is about who the recipient is, not who you want them to be.
Once that comes in clear, the intended recipient is much more receptive to constructive and productive changes.
06 April 2005
Terri and Michael 4ever?
It may be possible that Michael Schiavo is not the rotten rat bastard that we have been sold, particularly through the Conservative media. The whole situation carries the import of a master propaganda campaign. One source has dominated the flow of information, and there has been a constant repetition of Michael as abuser; Michael as murderer...Michael the rotten rat bastard.
Maybe this is the Big Lie. It sure stinks of one. The only person who could clear the man's good name lost her ability to clear it in 1990.
A few facts from the young woman's story convey a different picture. And the few facts about Michael that have gone unchallenged paint a significantly different picture of the man. What we have left is speculation. It is all that remains.
In a biography published by a Sarasota newspaper, there was another image of the Terri Schiavo than had been suggested by press coverage. We are given the photorealistic image of a stereotypical overweight young woman. One could almost smell the empty house full of mangy cats implied as the lonely, chubby girl's destiny.
Then she got some self confidence. She lost weight; bleached her hair; flirted from the driver's seat of a Trans Am...all about the same time she met Michael Schiavo. These are not the activities of a woman who feels bad about herself.
Sitting alone in a room with chocolate, a Hollywood romance novel and collectibles...one can almost hear the voice of Hank Hill stating that "the girl ain't right."
No disrespect for the lady should be inferred. On the contrary, the reason she was not right was much the same as why Tillie Hill was not right. Whatever put Terri Schindler Schiavo on the path to that absolute abomination in Pinellas Park, happened in the house where she grew up.
No trip to the prom; no dates; and one may honestly question the quality if life in a home with people who would broadcast images of their loved one in a state of infirmity on television.
It appeared as if there were a systematic action to remove any dignity or privacy from Terri Schiavo...by the Schindlers. They alone were responsible for surrendering videos of Terri on her sickbed. They were the ones making a stink worthy of a Carl Hiaasen novel about stupid Yankee transplants in Florida, except it wasn't funny.
After seeing this cascade of unilateral equine excrement, the fanatical belief of 100 million Americans is that Michael Schiavo is a murderer. They would pay money to see his viscera splattered on his driveway in the Florida sunshine. May it also be suggested that most of those who would happily see Michael Schiavo killed would happily pay to see it on DVD with a split screen of the reaction of his children.
Now for some facts, not opinions.
Michael Schiavo has gone through two long term relationships without being convicted of anything.
Courts backed him on every level.
He works as a registered nurse in Florida...God's Waiting Room. There are no public records of malfeasance.
There was an attempt to turn this man into Scott Peterson. The problem is that a conclusion of rotten rat bastard is legitimate when Scott Peterson is involved. Had there been a pattern of Michael Schiavo being a turd, records would exist. The only thing that can be proven was that there was a call to police on a Sunday morning in 1990.
Who called the law that morning? Could it have been in-laws trying to stick a man with a label as an abuser? He certainly would not be the first unlucky SOB with meddlers in the house trying to stick him with a label which, like that of racist, stigmatizes him as unfit in society and simultaneously deprives him of any defense.
Which gets this joyful little party to the issue of the evidence of trauma. Yeah, that is believeable, but let us throw out one last caveat emptor.
One of the injuries was a fractured tibia. That's better known as a busted leg. Somebody would have remembered if Terri Schiavo had not been walking when she was with Michael, particularly the load of relatives who followed her down. They could have gotten ten minutes on Fox News with that little tidbit. But there is one little problem.
Actually saying that Michael Schiavo did it would have been actionable with regard to libel and/or slander depending upon whom said it.
Somebody knew he was innocent, probably a lawyer.
Dare we ask if one of those conversations...one of those private moments after Carson's monologue went off on WFLA...after laughing about a quip about Iran Contra or Madonna...Terri Schiavo asked her husband for a promise.
"Please don't let them hurt me again."
Somehow, those few words would explain everything Michael Schiavo put up with when he could have taken a million easier paths.
Michael Schiavo has been guilty until proven innocent in the press. Perhaps one may wish to grieve for his loss, too.
Maybe this is the Big Lie. It sure stinks of one. The only person who could clear the man's good name lost her ability to clear it in 1990.
A few facts from the young woman's story convey a different picture. And the few facts about Michael that have gone unchallenged paint a significantly different picture of the man. What we have left is speculation. It is all that remains.
In a biography published by a Sarasota newspaper, there was another image of the Terri Schiavo than had been suggested by press coverage. We are given the photorealistic image of a stereotypical overweight young woman. One could almost smell the empty house full of mangy cats implied as the lonely, chubby girl's destiny.
Then she got some self confidence. She lost weight; bleached her hair; flirted from the driver's seat of a Trans Am...all about the same time she met Michael Schiavo. These are not the activities of a woman who feels bad about herself.
Sitting alone in a room with chocolate, a Hollywood romance novel and collectibles...one can almost hear the voice of Hank Hill stating that "the girl ain't right."
No disrespect for the lady should be inferred. On the contrary, the reason she was not right was much the same as why Tillie Hill was not right. Whatever put Terri Schindler Schiavo on the path to that absolute abomination in Pinellas Park, happened in the house where she grew up.
No trip to the prom; no dates; and one may honestly question the quality if life in a home with people who would broadcast images of their loved one in a state of infirmity on television.
It appeared as if there were a systematic action to remove any dignity or privacy from Terri Schiavo...by the Schindlers. They alone were responsible for surrendering videos of Terri on her sickbed. They were the ones making a stink worthy of a Carl Hiaasen novel about stupid Yankee transplants in Florida, except it wasn't funny.
After seeing this cascade of unilateral equine excrement, the fanatical belief of 100 million Americans is that Michael Schiavo is a murderer. They would pay money to see his viscera splattered on his driveway in the Florida sunshine. May it also be suggested that most of those who would happily see Michael Schiavo killed would happily pay to see it on DVD with a split screen of the reaction of his children.
Now for some facts, not opinions.
Michael Schiavo has gone through two long term relationships without being convicted of anything.
Courts backed him on every level.
He works as a registered nurse in Florida...God's Waiting Room. There are no public records of malfeasance.
There was an attempt to turn this man into Scott Peterson. The problem is that a conclusion of rotten rat bastard is legitimate when Scott Peterson is involved. Had there been a pattern of Michael Schiavo being a turd, records would exist. The only thing that can be proven was that there was a call to police on a Sunday morning in 1990.
Who called the law that morning? Could it have been in-laws trying to stick a man with a label as an abuser? He certainly would not be the first unlucky SOB with meddlers in the house trying to stick him with a label which, like that of racist, stigmatizes him as unfit in society and simultaneously deprives him of any defense.
Which gets this joyful little party to the issue of the evidence of trauma. Yeah, that is believeable, but let us throw out one last caveat emptor.
One of the injuries was a fractured tibia. That's better known as a busted leg. Somebody would have remembered if Terri Schiavo had not been walking when she was with Michael, particularly the load of relatives who followed her down. They could have gotten ten minutes on Fox News with that little tidbit. But there is one little problem.
Actually saying that Michael Schiavo did it would have been actionable with regard to libel and/or slander depending upon whom said it.
Somebody knew he was innocent, probably a lawyer.
Dare we ask if one of those conversations...one of those private moments after Carson's monologue went off on WFLA...after laughing about a quip about Iran Contra or Madonna...Terri Schiavo asked her husband for a promise.
"Please don't let them hurt me again."
Somehow, those few words would explain everything Michael Schiavo put up with when he could have taken a million easier paths.
Michael Schiavo has been guilty until proven innocent in the press. Perhaps one may wish to grieve for his loss, too.
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