My Sandmen

Brotha Necessity... Obama Says, "Let them eat Cupcakes!"

2009-07-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

Episodes like this one, encourage me to start blogging again. Consider lines like this from Obama's recent appearance in Raleigh

Obama says, "we helped stop a recession from becoming a depression," and explains how the jobs programs in the stimulus are helping. Says tax cuts are helping people buy "cupcakes and other necessities of life."

Now, had Bush said this, the Media would be hounding him as absurb, calous, thoughtless, idiotic and out of touch. And maybe rightly so, because the statement is moronic to say the least. Except that Obama wasn't being moronic, he was being quite sardonic in his gratuitous disrespect and disdain for the America People. And yet the same people who feared that the last President would abscond with their liberty, do no more than giggle at the intense loathing this Man holds for them and humanity in general.

Mother Necessity is said to have birthed a Nation of dreamers and achievers the likes of which humanity had never seen. This Man should come to be known as Brotha Necessity as he will make certain her offspring return to the dirt from wence they arose; housed, dumb, happy and progressively declining until they are all dead... all by his Necessity and of course, his Brother Love.

PDX Tea Party

2009-04-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

dueler 88

I took my daughter to the Tea Party in Portland yesterday at Pioneer Square. Since she came along and sat on my shoulders most of the time, I was not as participatory as I would have liked to be - although she clapped when I whistled, so it's all good.

I must admit that I'm against indoctrinating anyone, so it disturbed me a little to have her clap for things which she knew nothing about. At the same time, I think it's important for me to teach her why people were there, and the importance of personal liberty and accountability. So that's what we talk about at home sometimes, when the opportunity arises.

This blog venue is more for photos than anything else. I'll post captions if I get ambitious, but I wanted to at least evoke the flavor of what was happening.

The Gadsden Flag was well-represented. It made me wish that I had borrowed my dad's First Navy Jack flag for the occasion.

Obviously a fan of icanhascheezburger.com. Me too.

The Debt Star. Note the WSJ graphic stats on national debt. I gave this guy a big thumbs-up.

Who IS John Galt, indeed! Good photo of the general crowd as well.

I was a little disappointed that the crowd was relatively monochromatic. Everybody kinda looked the same. Granted, P-town does not have a very big minority population. But I was still sorta disappointed by the consistency of "white folks." The ideas are too important to have any racial component. Are "white folks" the only people left who care about the Constitution and preventing runaway federal power? Time will tell. But I took this as a signal that "we" need to be more vigilant about expressing the importance of an unobtrusive federal government, and that it has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with race, skin color, religion or sexual preference. It's all about LIBERTY.

During the middle of the Tea Party, my daughter was getting hungry so I took her to McDonalds for a chicken sandwich and some fries. We had a nice little dinner together. Afterwards, on the train on the way home, we sat next to a nice woman who is active in Soldier's Angels. I was trying to describe to my daughter the rank insignia on the arms of a local Air Force NCO sitting several seats away, and the difference between commissioned- and non-commissoned officers. The woman overheard me, so she obviously knew that I had some experience (familial, in this case), and we struck up a conversation. An extremely pleasant and supportive woman. I might just actually join her and do something about it, to show our men and women in uniform that we DO care what they're doing for us. I encourage you to do the same.
www.soldiersangels.com

Fraud Bless America

2008-11-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

dueler88

Politico has a story (HT: Richard Fernandez) describing how the McCain campaign's donations will be fully audited. The Obama campaign will highly likely not be subjected to the same level of scrutiny. The reason for this is that, in spite of his early campaign promise, Obama did not make use of publicly-sourced campaign funds.

While this is anecdotal evidence, I've heard stories of people donating to both campaigns to test the theory of credit card verification. In each case, their donation to the Obama campaign was not subject to the same (legally-required) verification process that was involved in their donation to the McCain campaign. The possibilities for fraud are astronomical. Credit cards are international. How easy would it be for non-US citizens to influence an election?

It makes sense to investigate possible fraud when public funds might be involved. But does it make sense to investigate fraud even if public funds are not involved? The public certainly has a stake in who wins an election.

The question is whether or not the ends justify the means. I ask everyone, regardless of political affiliation: is fraud acceptable if it results in the election of the candidate you support? Which is more important - your political party, or the very foundation of our constitutional system of government?

Given the potential fraud in the current situation, I support auditing both campaigns. But I understand the potential repercussions. Proof that a sitting president's previous campaign won the election as a result of voter or campaign fraud would tear the country apart. But which is more important - maintaining the integrity of the constitution? or maintaining domestic tranquility?

Of the Democrat colleagues and friends I speak with openly about politics, most of them like to quote the phrase "vote early, vote often." OK, I get the joke. But is it really a joke? Are you really willing to bypass Constitutional principles in order to see to it that the "correct" candidate is elected? Would you support overturning an election if it was found to be definitively decided or influenced by fraud?

We are on a very slippery slope. I submit that, by and large, Conservatives simply want to be left alone to pursue happiness according to their own choosing, and in such a way that it does not infringe on the rights of others. Can the same be said for "Progressives?"

My suggestion, other than air-tight verification of political donations, would be to eliminate vote-by-mail (except in the case of absence) and to maintain a voting system that protects the one-person, one-vote idea that is so central to our system of government. Something like the purple-fingered Iraqis, perhaps. I know, the "Progressives" will scream at me for voter disenfranchisement for the audacity of having to prove U.S. citizenship and singular voting. But I believe that if you value something enough, you will do what is necessary to make it happen. And to make things fair, I think that it should be a law that employers allow time off for voting.

There is value in Civic Ritual. Our system of government depends on the integrity of its voting system.

A Republican Votes for Obama

2008-11-03T11:00:00.001-08:00

dueler88

I recently had a disappointing email exchange with a family member. He is a life-long Republican, but will be voting for Obama due to Bush "muddying the waters" over the past eight years. I was disheartened by our conversation, but drafted up the following response. I post it here in the hopes that it will reach other Republicans that are contemplating an unwise vote:
----------------------------------
I certainly understand and agree with your frustration with the GOP generally and GWB specifically. W did a poor job of making use of the political capital he acquired after 9/11, and he's not the kind of eloquent communicator that we have come to expect from our Chief Executives. To be fair to him, though, the media has done an extremely poor job of reporting on the successes of his policies. Nobody's perfect, and no battle plan lasts past the first 5 minutes of engagement. But taken as a whole, and in the context of the times, his successes ultimately outweigh his failures. But I suppose how history judges him depends on to what degree those successful policies are continued.

We won't know for a long time whether the post-9/11 period of no domestic terrorist incidents was as a result of (either deliberately unreported or clandestine) successful policy application, or whether militant islam was never that big of an enemy to begin with. But I suspect it is the former. Such is the price of success.

But to address the question at hand: is "change" always a good thing? Is a drastic change of direction going to result in a net positive? BHO will certainly get the country going again, but at whose expense, and according to whose idea of “justice”?

Given the socio-political climate in our current culture, I fear the potential of "with chaos comes opportunity." Specifically, the use of high uncertainty to gain, consolidate and wield political power. In the case of BHO, his societal perspective comes from a desire to fix a culture that is wrong on balance, rather than build upon a culture that has been the most positive force for humanity that the world has ever seen. And he will likely surround himself with people whose views are even more radical than his.

Any regular run-of-the-mill Democrat would probably be relatively harmless. But BHO is not run-of-the-mill. He’s the farthest left candidate to be brought by the Democrats in a long time, if not ever. Given the choice between a far-left Democrat and a moderate Republican, the choice would seem clear in any normal circumstances.

I do hope that I’m wrong about him and that the office of the President will bring out the best in him. But I’m not optimistic, and it’s a big chance we’re taking to put him in office.
The next 20 years are going to be more challenging than we can imagine. Societal memory is very short, and we’re going to make LOTS of mistakes. BHO may turn out to be relatively harmless. But I think both your and my warning bells should start going off if we see serious consideration of:

1. “spreading the wealth around” and “economic justice.” (already happened, and not surprising)
2. Governing from the far left, without consideration of the views from the minority.
3. Reinstatement of the “Fairness Doctrine” (silencing his critics) and expanding it to include the Internet (by either outright mandate or a financial disincentive).
4. Looking to the United Nations (a governing body that is outside of our legal constitutional framework) to formulate domestic policies
5. Socialized medicine and child care (already happening), especially if it happens quickly
6. Diplomatic distancing from our closest ally in the Middle East, Israel
7. Nominations of justices who have radical views (Alinsky-esque) about the role of the judiciary in regards to economic and social policy
8. Gun registration and federal limitations on concealed carry (in effect, disarming his critics. The reinstatement, and probably the expansion, of the “Assault Weapons” Ban is a given)
9. Reparations for slavery

With the exception of Israel, none of these actions fit within the framework of the Constitution. And none of them will assuage any racial guilt we may have as a society or as individuals, nor will they really correct those injustices. The union of socialist ideology with racial justice is extremely disturbing to me.

My general point is that people – especially groups of people – can make all kinds of poor decisions when they’re in the middle of a crisis. Clever leaders will use panic to their advantage. It works great against a (external) military adversary (see Sun Tzu), but if the “adversary” is viewed more increasingly as being internal, I will be VERY concerned (see Stalin). And I suppose what’s most troublesome is not what BHO will do, but what his most fervent supporters will do to further his cause.

There are two very good reasons why my online political/philosophical activities are anonymous. The first is to remove my employer and my associates from the situation, and the second (and more important) is to protect myself and my family from harm by those who feel that the first amendment does not apply to people with whom they disagree. While there are constitutional protections of individual rights in place right now, I think that any of them can be removed recklessly, given the right (chaotic) circumstances. So who would be better able to protect and maintain those rights? A person who feels that government should - by default - make decisions on behalf of individuals? Or a person who understands the importance of individual liberty from first-hand experience?

I don’t pretend to believe that I can sway anybody’s opinion. Oregon will go to BHO, and nearly all of my family members will vote for him. But I, like many Republicans, will hold my nose and vote for the GOP. There’s just too much at stake to do otherwise.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Additional discussion is welcome, but not necessary. I have stated my case.

The Obama Plan...

2008-10-31T07:13:00.001-07:00

Mr.Atos

I posted this a few years ago under the title, "Dont Go Back To Starnesville." Back then, the idea of Marxist America seemed fairly far fetched. But today, on the eve of a critical election and turning point for the American experiment, poised on the precipice of change, it is critically important that those Americans considering a vote for Barack Obama or any Democrat running for Congress this year understand the consequences. Obama is now openly running on the slogan, "I am my brothers keeper." He says he is running against "The Virtue of Selfishness." I submit, this is direct terminology of marxism, and he is unabashed in saying it. Pelosi and Reid are likelwise unashamed in supporting his language, and that means his mission... of change.

Over 50 years ago, the pre-eminent American Philosopher and champion of Capitalism, Ayn Rand, warned the world and America specifically about the dangers of marxism - also known as collectivism, statism, and communism. She warnmed us about men who preach that they and YOU are "Your brother's keeper." She wrote a collection of essays on Capitalism and Liberty titled, "The Virtue of Selfishness." And if Senator Barack Hussein Obama now wishes to direct his assault on America by attacking its foremost philosophical champion, then do let's take a close look at the America that Obama, Reid, and Pelosi are attempting to sell us by way of this election.

The Obama Plan...

"We voted for that plan at a big meeting, with all of us present, six thousand of us, everybody that worked in the factory. The Starnes heirs made long speeches about it, and it wasn't clear, but nobody asked any questions. None of us knew just how the plan would work, but every one of us thought that the next fellow knew it. And if anybody had doubts, he felt guilty and kept his mouth shut - because they made it sound like anyone who'd oppose the plan was a child-killer at heart and less than a human being. They told us that the plan would achieve a noble idea. Well, how were we to know otherwise? Hadn't we heard it all our lives - from our parents and our schoolteachers and our ministers, and in every newspaper we ever read and every movie and every public speech? Hadn't we always been told that this was righteous and just? Well, maybe there's some excuse for what we did at that meeting. Still, we voted for the plan - and what we got, we had it coming to us. You know,ma'am, we are marked men, in a way, those of us who lived through thefour years of that plan of the Twentieth Century factory. What is it that hell is supposed to be? Evil - plain, naked smirking evil, isn't it? Well, that's what we saw and helped to make - and I think we're damned, every one of us, and maybe we'll never be forgiven...

"Do you know how it worked, that plan, and what it did to people? Try pouring water into a tank where there's a pipe at the bottom draining it out faster than you can pour, and each bucket you bring breaks the pipe an inch wider, and the harder you work the more is demanded of you, and you stand slinging buckets forty hours per week, then forty-eight, then fifty-six - for your neighbour's supper, for his wife's operation - for his child's measles - for his mother's wheel chair-for his uncle's shirt - for his nephew's schooling - for the baby next door - for the baby to be born - for anyone anywhere around you -it's theirs to receive, from diapers to dentures - and yours to work, from sun up to sun down, month after month, year after year, with nothing to show for it but your sweat, with nothing in sight for you but their pleasure, for the whole of your life, without rest, without hope, without end.... From each according to his ability, to each according to his need....

"God help us, ma'am! Do you see what we saw? We saw that we'd been given a law to live by, a moral law, they called it, which punished those who observed it - for observing it. The more you tried to liveup to it, the more you suffered; the more you cheated it, the bigger reward you got. Your honesty was like a tool left at the mercy of the next man's dishonesty. The honest ones paid, the dishonest collected. The honest lost, the dishonest won. How long could men stay good under this sort of a law of goodness? We were a pretty decent bunch of fellows when we started. There weren't many chiselers among us. We knew our jobs as were proud of it and we worked for the best factory in the country, where old man Starnes hired nothing but the pick of the country's labor. Within one year under the new plan, there wasn't anhonest man left among us. That was the evil, the sort of hell-horror evil that preachers used to scare you with, but you never thought to see alive. Not that the plan encouraged a few bastards, but that it turned decent people into bastards, and there was nothing else it could do - and it was called a moral ideal!"

(excerpted from Atlas Shrugged, Book 2, Chapter 10, Ayn Rand, 1957)

Originally I posted this in response to a story at Stones Cry Out, where Rick posted a sad tale of debauchery as a testiment to the dehumanization of collectivism. At that time recent events in Angers, France revive recollections of Ayn Rand's fictional illustration of Starnesville from her novel, Atlas Shrugged - an excerpt of which can be read below and the entire account here.

In 21st century America, a generation lives devoid of any direct experience with totalitarianism - the inevitable bi-product of the collectivist principle. The glossy impressions of change offered by Obama seem seductive in promise, while the reality of the misery of millions of sufferers of statism should reveal his sheen to be a greasy stain on the legacy of humanity. Would that this generation were interested to know it. Sadly for them, the glossy idea that they covet is be to their brother's burden, free of obligation. They see their rewards coming from above, distributed to them from their wealthy brothers by some messiah-like benefactor. And yet, they miss the abyss of bloodthristy impoverished insects below, waiting on that same benefactor. You see, Obama's noble vision is Ivy Starnes' legacy, and sadly a certain macrocosm of Angers. And the reality of that legacy is that it takes a Village "to turn decent people into bastards" and children into livestock...

...and I should add, a proud strong nation into a dismal rusted wreck.

Vote wisely!

Vote Wisely...

2008-10-29T06:21:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

Fallujah, Iraq...

Hollywood, California...

In Hollywood, Chad Michael Morisette lynched an effigy of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Republican Candidate for President. In Fallujah, fanatic insurgents, hung the burned body of a female American contractor. Both of these acts were committed by supporters of Barrack Obama for President. Both acts are celebrated by the Left. Both actd were virtually disregarded by Mainstream American Media.

Vote wisely!... very wisely!

Obama-Bi-nla-Den...

2008-10-27T22:58:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

Obama-Biden 2008

OBAMA BInlaDEN?

Is it just me, or does fate harbor a rather cruel humor?

Obama's Heidi Spot...

2008-10-16T21:05:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

It is being reported that Major League Baseball is altering the the start of the World Series Game 6 in order to accommodate the FOX Network airing of Senator Obama's paid infomertial. Obama has purchased 30 minutes of airtime on each network in order to run his campaign advertisement. As reported...

"To accommodate a half-hour Obama time buy on Fox on Oct. 29, Major League Baseball has agreed to move the start time of World Series Game 6 by about 15 minutes. That would move the start of the game from 8:20 p.m. ET or so to 8:35 p.m."

So those great American Baseball fans eager to see the game, will instead be lectured for a delayed quarter hour by Senator "Government." That ought to go over well. One poster on Free Republic called it "Obama's Heidi Moment" refering to the 1968 NFL game between the Jets and Raiders. With 68 seconds remaining in the game and the Jets leading 32-29, NBC, eager to stick with its regular program schedule, switched to the beginning of Heidi, depriving fans outside of the Pacific time zone of Oakland's spectacular comeback. It remains one of the most infamously unpopular TV events in history.

The screen's all yours Senator Heidi! And your paying a tremendous amount of campaign cash for it!

E-Racing the Issue…

2008-09-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

Lately, in person and by proxy, I have been called a racist for the fact that I will not be supporting for Senator Obama in the 2008 Presidential Election. Interesting! But, do let’s dispense with the issue of race in this Presidential Campaign. It’s really quite easy. What is the fundamental difference between Barack Obama and John Kerry? Really?! Aren’t they exactly the same?

Well, no! John Kerry has been a very active United States Senator for over 15 years. Before that he had a very distinguished Law career. Before that he was a veteran and served in Vietnam. To many, Senator Kerry is a very charismatic figure, with tremendous orator skill. He has been an active , vigorous , and vocal advocate of many issues. It is undeniable that, agree with him or not, John Kerry is a Man of demonstrably strong moral conviction. All that being said, Senator Kerry is one of the most Liberal members of the Senate; third only to Senators Biden and Obama. He and I disagree on nearly every major issue, as is the case with the majority of Americans given the Presidential election of 2008.

I didn’t vote for John Kerry in 2004. The Nation did not elect John Kerry to be President in 2004. So, why should I or the nation change now, and elect Barack Obama in 2008…

…merely because he is black? Sorry! Not going to happen.

Taking prudent note of the profound words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it’s not the color of a man’s skin with which I take note. As with Kerry, it is the content of his character that has me concerned.

Visions of Die Sturm - The Barack-A-Hack...

2008-09-18T05:27:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

Are you curious to know what an Obama Thugocracy would be like? We are witness to a preview now, as Leftist hackers violated the privacy of Sarah Palin's private email accounts. Stealing a variety of personal information including messages, photos, and phone numbers, they offered it for mischievous distribution throughtout the nutroots of the internet. To make matters worse, Mainstream Media venues - rather than reject the looter's bounty - acted on it, published it, and analyzed it as if it were a legitimate public release of information, knowing full well that it was gathered illegally. The Associated Press went so far as to refuse cooperation with a United States Secret Service investigation into the matter.

Now, if watching a horror of this nature unfold against a Vice Presidential Candidate in the 21st Century isn't bone-chilling enough, imagine what it would be like if Obama's Stalinesque Chicagoland Sturmabteilung thugs were to target you and your family. What if they invaded your privacy by crawling like roaches through your most personal correspondence? What if they decided to silence you by attacking your children... scattering their personal cell phone numbers, I.D. and account numbers, photographs, addresses, school and daycare location, and anything else they can find, to the same type of people who fantasize about murder and assasination, and make a hobby of torching homes, cars and businesses. What if altered photos of your adolescent daughter suddenly appeared on pornographic websites? What if your infant child's Social Security number were provided to an identity thief? What if your friends were inundated with inquiries for details about your most intimate exchanges. And what if your son, recently deployed to Iraq, began receiving calls on his private cell phone from anonymous deviants proclaiming him to be a 'baby-killer?' Is that freezing your marrow now? It should. Because this style of politics is not new to Senator Barack Hussein Obama and his Leftist thugs. And if they will do it to a sitting Governor of the largest State in the Union, and a phenomenally popular Vice-Presidential Candidate, even under threat of prosecution by the United States Secret Servive, do you think they would think twice about silencing you in a similar manner?.. or worse?!

Die Sturm operates on many levels as we have seen all too often, but primative violence is the base derivative of their ignorance and hate. Its the fall back tool for the radical Left when the argument is hopelessly lost; fear and coercion being often more powerful than thoughtful persuasion. Clearly losing the arguments at an intellectual level, the thugs that are what is being Left ultimately return back to the method they know best.

Intimidation is certainly not new to American politics. Unfortunately, neither is violence a unique side effect of human disagreement. Even the use of surrogate associates with plausibly deniable connections to conduct the 'dirty' work of a campaign is familiar to everyone. And to be honest, Obama wouldnt be the first political leader in world history to neutralize his political opponents by intimidating, attacking, and destroying their children if necessary. But, to date this degree of reprehensible behavior has not been an acceptable mainstay of American Presidential Campaign politics. The failure of the Mainstream Media so far to seriously investigate this story, much less reject the methodology, would suggest that it is now acceptable and mainstay... at least as fair for what is being Left.

In that respect, one must indeed give Barack Hussein Obama credit. He is the candidate of change...

Hackers Violate Palin, AP Complicit...

2008-09-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

MrAtos

Reporting on the story of Obama supporters hacking into Sarah Palin's private email accounts and distributing personal infromation including, messages, addresses, phone numbers, photos, etc on the internet, AP YAHOO uses the opportunity of the violation to further distribute the pilfered information.

Hackers break into Sarah Palin's e-mail account

Here is the money line from their story,

"The Secret Service contacted The Associated Press on Wednesday and asked for copies of the leaked e-mails, which circulated widely on the Internet. The AP did not comply."

Reporter, TED BRIDIS, goes on to report,

"The disclosure Wednesday raises new questions about the propriety of the Palin administration's use of nongovernment e-mail accounts to conduct state business. The practice was revealed months ago — prior to Palin's selection as a vice presidential candidate — after political critics obtained internal e-mails documenting the practice by some aides."

Then he proceeds to analyze the information.

John Hinderacker at Powerline, says it perfectly, "Just another reminder that there is no sense of decency on the Left."

Until the Obama Campaign denounces both the hackers and the Associated Press, demanding that they cooperate with the Secret Service, we must assume they endorse such activity.

Them...

2008-09-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

If you had any question about Senator Obama's approach to the issue of National Security as President Barack Hussein Obama, watch his own campaign video... (HT. Macsmind)

Watch it again… and note how they pan the cam ever so slightly to keep him seemingly staring at the audience as he reads the teleprompter. Its really pathetic stage craft. Honestly, I haven’t paid a whole lot of attention to the man and I don’t watch television, so this is the first time I have seen him speaking close up. He really is not very impressive and is rather plastic, imo. And if that is supposedly the extent of his credentials (the great orator), I’ll pass. I've seen better, and I still didn't vote for Senator Kerry. Not to mention the policy positions articulated by Senator Obama surpass the boundary of naïve into the surreal frontier of the absurd.

At least Sarah can see the enemy from her house. Obama can’t see any enemy at all...

...except for George W.Bush, of course.

No thanks!

BTW, could someone in the media, please ask Barack Obama, what and who he means by, "Them?"

The Bush Doctrine (aka. his world view)...

2008-09-12T13:23:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

As set forth in his Second Inaugeral Address, President George W. Bush expressed his world view regarding the nature of humanity and the historical significance of the United States of America. It has come to be known by many, as the Bush Doctrine, and this is its fundamental premise...

At this second gathering, our duties are defined not by the words I use, but by the history we have seen together. For a half century, America defended our own freedom by standing watch on distant borders. After the shipwreck of communism came years of relative quiet, years of repose, years of sabbatical - and then there came a day of fire.

We have seen our vulnerability - and we have seen its deepest source. For as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny - prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse murder - violence will gather, and multiply in destructive power, and cross the most defended borders, and raise a mortal threat. There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom.

We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.

America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one. From the day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our Nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation's security, and the calling of our time.

So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.

This is not primarily the task of arms, though we will defend ourselves and our friends by force of arms when necessary. Freedom, by its nature, must be chosen, and defended by citizens, and sustained by the rule of law and the protection of minorities. And when the soul of a nation finally speaks, the institutions that arise may reflect customs and traditions very different from our own. America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling. Our goal instead is to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom, and make their own way.

The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it. America's influence is not unlimited, but fortunately for the oppressed, America's influence is considerable, and we will use it confidently in freedom's cause.

My most solemn duty is to protect this nation and its people against further attacks and emerging threats. Some have unwisely chosen to test America's resolve, and have found it firm.

We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation: The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right. America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies.

We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people. America's belief in human dignity will guide our policies, yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators; they are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. In the long run, there is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human rights without human liberty.

Some, I know, have questioned the global appeal of liberty - though this time in history, four decades defined by the swiftest advance of freedom ever seen, is an odd time for doubt. Americans, of all people, should never be surprised by the power of our ideals. Eventually, the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility of permanent slavery. Liberty will come to those who love it.

Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world:

All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.

Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know: America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free country.

The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe as Abraham Lincoln did: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it."

The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know: To serve your people you must learn to trust them. Start on this journey of progress and justice, and America will walk at your side.

And all the allies of the United States can know: we honor your friendship, we rely on your counsel, and we depend on your help. Division among free nations is a primary goal of freedom's enemies. The concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy is a prelude to our enemies' defeat..."

Last night, in her interview on ABC, Vice Presidential Candidate, Sarah Palin, seems to understand it, even in its profound complexity. ABC's, Charlie Gibson, on the other hand should dust off the Cliff notes and read Norman Podhoretz most definitive analysis of the Bush Doctrine, as described in World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism.

In what respect, indeed, Charlie? In what respect, indeed?!

September 11th, 2008...

2008-09-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

That is the foundation.

There is no building!

It cannot be felled by the actions of butchers,

Nor can it be diminished by the rhetoric of fools!

The Jerk...

2008-09-09T16:19:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

Responding to his recent drop in the polls by infering that his VP opponent, Sarah Palin, is "a Pig", Barrack Obama demostrates that not only is he not Presidential, he is little more than an adolescent Jerk.

HT. Hugh Hewitt

HT. Politico

Change? He smells like the same old Ass to me.

Palin Versus the Volcano

2008-09-03T15:43:00.000-07:00

Mr. Atos

Like the Waponi's of Woo sans the orange soda, the Mainstream media are feeding a monster that will ultimately immolate them. Dueler makes a good point about Palin versus Biden. And yet its true that Obama's Vice Presidential candidate fails to match up with that of McCain's, its even more significant to note that the Democrat's Presidential choice, despite the modern realties of affirmative action, isn't even in the same league as Sarah Palin.

That being sad, the Left, including the Mainstream Media, must provide their base with the plausible deniability regarding Palin's charisma and credentials. The voter who simply "wants" to cast their ballot for the "black" candidate, yet cannot help but recognize the opposing ticket that represents real leadership, real progress, real change, needs only a shadow of doubt and fictitious scandal to support their surrender to whim.

Sadly, that is what Democracy(and the Democrat Party) has been reduced to in the dawn of the 21st century... Affirmative action sacrificing progress, to preference qua patronage. (editorial correction, 08.04.08.11:56)

The MSM may attempt to sacrifice Palin to their big Woo, but it is they who will be burned...

compliments of Hugh Hewitt,

Biden vs. Palin

2008-09-02T15:14:00.000-07:00

dueler88

Just a quick one:

Barak Obama's choice of Joe Biden is like a 5-year-old reaching back to hold the hand of his "eccentric" uncle before crossing a busy street.

John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin is like a seasoned warrior sizing up an uncertain battle and handing a sword to a younger warrior, saying "Let's face this together."

The Sewer of Inequity...

2008-07-08T05:47:00.001-07:00

Mr.Atos

In The Winter of 2004, we moved to Portland... my wife newborn son and I. We had left Seattle where we were finding it increasingly difficult to find a home anywhere near our jobs downtown or in anyplace in the Metropolitan area that we actually wanted to live. We left a place we loved, sacrificing friends and desires, for a place that promised us more opportunity. We were young, smart, professional, upwardly mobile, financially responsible. We had one old wreck of a truck, little cash, lots of (good) credit, and what's more, we understood our limitations.

Knowing the level of house we would be offered by the loan any bank would be willing to provide us, we nevertheless selected a conservative little home in a transitional neighborhood. We did our homework, balanced our budgets, cut corners where we had to, and secured the best loan possible, from a competitive and highly competent lender. We bought our first home... all 960 square feet of the dull little modern ranch-style fabrication.

In the Summer of that year, the local newspaper ran a story of another young couple who had just bought their first home in the Portland Metro Area. By that time real estate here was booming, Portland being consistently listed in the top ten best places to live in the country. The couple was celebrated for being ethnically diverse. They also had a child the same age as our own and were about the same age as my wife and I. The wife did not work. "Wonderful, I thought genuinely, "a stay-at-home Mom. The child was fortunate." The father, it was reported washed dishes at a local restaurant. "Okay," I thought, "aren't we fortunate to live in such prosperous times." I started out myself as a bus boy and this too was the first home I ever lived in in my life; 'home' being defined for me as living in a place you owned.

The story's attached photo was the kick in the stomach for us... the blow that wiped the smile off both my wife and my faces. The house had to be in excess of 2000 square feet. It was nearly brand new in what looked to be a new subdivision. The happy couple stood in front of their driveway which contained a new car and truck. Their little boy played in the drive, behind the wheel of a $400 dollar electric car. For our part, we had just purchased a used car for my wife in order to make her 40 minute commute. Our other recent purchase was a second hand tricycle for my son, via craigslist. Our old wreck of a truck was to be stolen the following winter.

The story went on to fill the gaps in the mystery. The couple had attained their loans with the help of new government program that allowed them to take on far more burden than any responsible lender would ever have allowed. The Oregonian was not only celebrating the tenuous achievement, it was promoting the practice.

Five years later, as we prepared to sell our little home, I read another story in the same newspaper lamenting the poor judgement and so-called cannibalistic tactics of mortgage lenders, who had violated the tenents of better financial judgement and extended credit and loans far in excess of what applicants could reasonably afford. I thought about that couple from years before, wondering now what was their fate... and who was really to blame.

By thi8s time, we were doing reasonably better than before. Now, we had two children, both in daycare. We had the same used car and had replaced the stolen wreck of a truck with a lesser wreck of an old truck. You see, knowing we wanted to buy a bigger home in the next few years, I passed up the chance to buy a new truck for myself and payed 2,200 for a used SUV and bought a new bicycle instead. We had refinanced our home years before, locking into a very low rate 5 year ARM. We used the equity from our home to help pay for city mandated neighborhood sewer improvements. You see, the city of Portland will fund risky loans to 'underprivileged' couples and build apartments for the homeless all with taxpayer dollars, but then refuse to pay for necessary infrastructure.

Neverthless, we were able to squeeze out some money for a few home improvements.W e payed off some outstanding debt and payed every bill on time for the next several years. Working very hard, we had transformed our modest home into one of the jewels of the block. So by the time the ARM came due, our home had sold for a good price and we were moving on up.

Selling faster than we expected, our new home search became a bit more frantic. We had seen many that we liked, but few that we could reasonably afford. We still understood our own limits. Finally finding the house that we both liked and wanted, our agent prepared the offer. It was more than we wanted to spend, but a good house in a great neighborhood was worth the sacrifice, right?! After a restless night's sleep, however, running numbers in our dreams and having them come up dangerously close to red, we phoned our agent first thing and stopped him from making that offer. Instead, we purchased a smaller home, in need of moderate care in a similar neighborhood. And despite our dissappointment, 2 months later, with gas prices doubled, the grocery bills edging higher, and our 401K's getting crushed once again, we breath a comfortable sign of relief.

Until we read things like this,

Mortgage rescue plan draws Senate support:
...The Senate voted 76-10 Monday to advance the bill, a broad array of housing measures including overhauls of the Federal Housing Administration, the Depression-era mortgage insurer, and government-sponsored home loan giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Its centerpiece is a new $300 billion FHA program to allow debt-ridden homeowners who are currently too financially risky to qualify for government-backed loans to refinance into safer, more affordable mortgages.

The measure is on track for passage by an overwhelming margin, possibly by week's end. It has survived several test votes in the Senate, repeatedly demonstrating that there's enough support for it to override President Bush's promised veto.

We work hard. We make smart, responsible choices. We earn trust and extend it wisely. We expect a system to award us accordingly. What we get is higher taxes as reward for our efforts with the money getting flushed down a sewer of inequity, to pay for the perks and the political pull of Salem and Washington peddlers...

... and more blindness and misery for those too ignorant to know better and to pampered by mother government to learn from their mistakes.

Here we go again!

Surging Unemployment?...

2008-04-04T08:08:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

As evidence of recession, this is AP's idea of "surging" unemployment...

WASHINGTON - Employers buffeted by talk of recession slashed 80,000 jobs in March, the most in five years and the third straight month of losses.

At the same time, the national unemployment rate rose from 4.8 percent to 5.1 percent, the clearest signal yet that the economy might already be shrinking.

4.8 to 5.1%! A three tenths of a percent increase is an unemployment surge according to AP Economics Writer, Jeannine Aversa. Considering that 5% is considered statistically to be full employment, once again one might question the objectivity of AP reporting.

Earth Hour...

2008-03-28T23:46:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

Earth Hour!

While the ignorant world cowars in the darkness of their irrational fear, light the torch of freedom in insolence at their stupidity.

Turn your lights on. All of them!

Light the torch! Wyatt's Torch...

...in utter defiance of stupidity's oppression.

Man is the light, the motor of the world.

The Gospel Madrassa (Part 5)...

2008-03-18T22:22:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

Imagine the confusion of Florida in November of 2000, combined with the chaos, rage and violence of LA, 1992... spread across a nation hopelessly divided: politically, socially, philosophically.

There is a darker side of the issue looming before the American electorate. And let's be certain to understand that the term 'dark' refers to a malevolent intent and not the color of one's skin. Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a black soul indeed, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with race. Dark is the content of the man's character, speaking as he does in the cadence of Arafat, Bin Laden, Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Castro, and Krushev, directing the passion of hate like a primed and timed explosive projectile at his philosophical enemies... America, Americans, "the Whites", the Jews, Capitalists, "the Rich", Republicans, and other assorted "Theys." Like his Islamists brethern herding the Palestinians, Wright has stoked emotions and planted suspicions and fears beyond the tolerance of rational restraint. To what purpose? Is it hate for hate's sake? Or is there motive behind such madness?

An Obama candidacy would unify an enormous pool of electoral and emotional Pull, worldwide; from the Muslim Madrassas of the East, to the Universities of Europe and America, the World's media, Television, Newspapers, Hollywood, and of course the Gospel Madrassas of south side Chicago and other inner cities. After August, that political force would slam into the McCain ticket like a Hurricane.

John McCain however, is proving to be a stong and able contender. Traveling to the Middle East and Europe this week, he is seen to be above the bickering and the rhetoric, simply behaving as if he already were the President. If the America electorate continues to view him this way, come September his election may be little more than a foregone conclusion. Yet make no mistake, it will be close. Previous elections have demostrated the reality of political division in America today. Where opposing candidates once battled for States, now they battle for precincts, and votes by the dozen. As the 2004 Gubernatorial election in Washington State demonstrated, even a victory by a few hundred votes can be challenged and stolen. Everyone recalls the debacle of the the 2000 Presidential Election in Florida, where a solid State victory was widdled away by recount after dubious recount until no doubt remained. And still Democrats claimed foul. A victory like that will not stand in 2008 with passions flared, emotions charged, suspicions honed, and the haunting resentment of historical injustice ignited like a fuse ready to trigger a bomb exponentially larger than the one that exploded in Los Angeles in the Spring of 1992 and far less confined. Make no mistake in doubting that there are those who would be eager to use such a bomb. They follow the Alinsky model of sociopolitical evolution whereby any means necessary are acceptable to gain their desired end, even violence and chaos. And clearly, Barack Obama is a student of his fellow Chicagoan, willing to use the suggestion of unrest to further his ends. Fear is a powerful weapon, primarily meant to gain concession.

America might well be facing a climactic moment. With European opinion said to be turned sour, a World War raging against the forces of Islamic Fascism, aggressive trade competition with China, and increasing hostility rising in South America, America can hardly afford another Civil War. It may not even be able to survive it... not as a single Nation. Yet, the threat might easily be neutralized with the selection by the Republican Candidate for President of a running mate that demonstrates once and for all, to all Americans, that the content of one's character is truly the only quality that merits confirmation in the United States of America.

Senator McCain, please choose wisely!

The Gospel Madrassa (Part 4)...

2008-03-18T07:53:00.001-07:00

Mr.Atos

On the face of it, the strategy suggested in part 3 - whereby McCain selects a Black running mate - would seem in itself to be catering to racial politics. Indeed in a sense it is. But, the race card has already been played by the leading Democrat Candidate. Obama continues to double down with his speech today, whereby he asks people to look beyond the content of his character, as represented by his beliefs and the messages he entertains with his family for 20 years. Look beyond, he asks America, the character's of Jeremiah Wright and his own racist grandmother, and consider the color of their skin first and foremeost this election. What other conclusion can one come to when in the middle of a Presidential campaign the leading Democrat Candidate, who happens to be black, delivers a public address on race in America? Barack Obama is making this election about race over ideas. Indeed the gambit is afoot. The victor will be the Candidate who uses the situation at hand on the proverbial battlefield to their best advantage. At the moment Clinton and Obama are engaging one another on that battlefield. Clinton seems to be losing an election about race. She may however be winning an election about ideas, as more of what Obama believes is exposed by the words of his philosophical mentor, Jeremiah Wright. It has clearly caused some level of discomfort among the Aristocracy. Now it seems, with delegates split, the Democrat National Convention and the choice of its super delegates will ultimately decide the primary. Senator McCain has the luxury of opportunity to choose his ground for the battle that is surely to come after the Convention, be it an election of character and ideas or just race and prejudice.

If Clinton is able to overcome Obama's current primary advantage, by nevertheless gaining the support of a majority of delegates, securing her Party's nomination for POTUS, there will be trouble. A great number of Obama supporters will feel cheated... and perhaps rightly so. The system and its rules as they understood it will have been undermined in favor of the preference of the Aristocracy. As has been pointed out in part one, this is the methodology of Liberal Progressivism - preference over merit. Liberalism is in itself an institution of bias, prejudice and discrimiination. What will those disenfranchised Democrat voters do when their preferred candidate has been sandbagged? Dejection and rage will be one immediate reaction, and who really knows how that will play out. Here's where the allusions to 1968 Chicago have been offered, cautiously yet repeatedly. In the aftermath of a riotous tantrum, maybe Democrat voters will reunite once again behind one inevitable candidate and organize their pull with the Hillary Clinton faction for the November's election offensive. On the other hand perhaps, in total rejection, the Obama faction will simply abandon support for the Democrat candidate altogether... in a sense, pull the pull from the pool.

How would that occur? Will they simply stay home on election day?

Or might they lend their support to the Republican Candidate, John McCain? That is doubtful to be sure, given the rhetoric emanating from the Gospel Madrassas and their Institutional surrogates. Republicans are both the party of the evil white man and patriotic America, the Great Satan. What reason would an Obama supporter, fueled on the audacity of hope for change, have to vote for a McCain ticket? What reason indeed might there be.

On the other hand, might some Obama supporters see the promise in a third alternative? ... one that would begin to fracture the narratives and undermine the invective and divisive agitprop that has been built by the messages of the Gospel Madrassas of the Reverends Wright, Jackson, Sharpton, used by race pimps like Rangel, Conyers, Brazil, Nagen to imprison a good people in sociopolitical slavery and keep a Nation permanently divided for the benefit of the Aristocracy of Pull? Condoleeza Rice or Colin Powell could offer that glimpse of promise... a true audacity of hope, if you will. A Vice presidential Candidate of true merit and superb character linked with an identity consistent with Obama's own superficial marketing and packaging, could be an attractive ticket for those American's who truly do hope for 'progress.'

Of course, there would be fierce criticisms, from all the usual suspects. America could even be witness to one of the most amusing hypocritical philosophical catastrophes in the history of Western Civilization if its lucky. When the uncontrolled invective tirades let loose from the fringe Left, directed at someone like Powell or Rice, the utter collapse of civility and rational public discourse could be both magnificent and highly educational to the world. Most would see it for what it is, especially those members of communities who have been asked to sacrifice far too much and far too long for the puney little nobles of a political Aristocracy that has enslaved them as chattel means to serve its bitter ends. And in the end, who can really argue with the facts as considered by each individual sitting alone with their ballot making the right choice about the future of America?...

...one vote at a time toward their own meaningful ends.

But, what if Obama prevails?

(continued...)

The Gospel Madrassa(Part 3)...

2008-03-17T07:45:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

As the official Republican Candidate for forty forth President of the United States of America, Senator John McCain must insulate both his Ticket and the Nation from the ugly realities of the forthcoming election. Unfortunately, whether his team knows it or not, he is left having to play the game of racial politics better than either of his potential opponents. With the selection of his Vice President he has a very unique chance to claim mate to their check. McCain must also select a Black candidate as his running mate. But, he must do so in a manner that illustrates Republican's favor of substance over symbolism. He must select a candidate whose character is sound, and whose political substance, regardless of popularity, is without question. There are only two such candidates in the pool of Republican politics at present: Colin Powel and Condoleeza Rice. For the sake of this Nation, one of them MUST be Vice President of the United States.

The contradiction of racial politics is that it promotes the primacy of race foremost over the recognition of ability. To turn a famous phrase, it judges a man (or woman) by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character. For that reason it is incredibly destructive both for the people that purport to be the beneficiaries of a such a mechanism and for the culture of which they are a part. The culture continues to be pre-occupied by race and skin color, albeit in reverse fashion... enslaving the American people to a hyper-enfranchised minority of its citizens. Worse yet, ratial politics continues the enslavement of that very minority for the purpose of Pull for its noble Aristocracy. And while it is arguable that the Reverend Jeremiah Wright is one of its nobles, he most certainly speaks for its class of Wizards and Mullahs, on behalf of its Princes like Barak Obama, today's leader of the Aristocracy of Race. And a vast majority of the Nation's inner-city minoritues have been listening to the fomentations of the Mullahs of the Gospel Madrassas like Wright and their counterpart Muslim Mullahs, like Farakan.

After August's Democrat Convention in Denver, the selection of their candidate will be certified and the campaign for President will officially begin. That leaves little time for the Candidate to mount an effective drive against a Republican opponent who has been campaigning as the Party's Presidential candidate for over 6 months. The longer the primary goes on for Democrats the uglier and more desperate it is sure to become. The weapons turned in will be targetted more savagely and indiscriminately in an attempt to secure pull over the other. After August, they will be turned outward with the same and even greater savage fury. The Clinton's play a brutal politcial game as America has bore witness in the past. They are experts at its perverted machinations. But, Barack Obama relies heavily, albeit abstrusely, on the Pull of ratial politics. His greatest weapon is the innuendo of conseqence; the foremost electoral effect being the pull of the Black vote form the Democrat base of supoort, should Obama not be the Party's Candidate. The suggestion of violence however, hangs over Denver and the Nation like the front of a pending storm, with whispered allusions of a 1968 redux. Should Barack Obama be the Democrat Party's Candidate and the Presidential Election is similar to that of 2000, is it a 1992 redux that is really at hand?

(continued...)

The Gospel Madrassa (Part 2)...

2008-03-14T22:44:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

The goal of racial politics is to promote the advantage of privilege over merit. Privilege in modern politics is bestowed by favor of preference. That which is preferred, is promoted. Preferential treatment according to the Liberal Progressive social model is granted by favor of political affiliation. Politics being the primary vehicle for social evolution, its not enough to be black (or even female for that matter). To be preferred, one must be a 'correct' black - a Liberal black. Since political beliefs are easier to achieve than actual merit, those that advance in privilege by preference need only say the correct things and be seen to do what is expected. Meanwhile, most persons of true merit have no need of such a model, since it affords them few rewards, and often punishes true achievement. Clarence Thomas and Condoleeza Rice are particularly good examples. By merit alone, both have achieved the pinnacles of their particular professions. They are experts... who just happen to be black. Yet, they are despised for their beliefs and especially for their political affiliations. Barack Obama on the other hand, a Man of little merit, heralded nevertheless for his political charisma, is being propelled by nature of his rhetoric alone to the Nation's highest public office.

The problem with racial politics is that the United States Constitution establishes the principle of merit over privilege. Racial politics is therefore, fundamentally at odds with founding American principles. The Constitution secures the blessings of liberty by promoting an environment of opportunity where individuals are free to achieve (or fail) by choice. Racial Politics, on the other hand, like much of Liberal Progressivism, seeks to replace the rewards of achievement, with the endowed privilege of a new nobility... an Aristocracy of Pull.

The ruler of that Aristicracy is granted to the noble who achieves the most powerful pull or influence. Once installed, the ruler commands all pull and influence, dispensing it by leave of preference, favor, and whim with the primary goal being the maintenance of power... and pull. Currently, two factions of the Democrat Party battle with their pull, for the ultimate power. Hillary Rodham Clinton was, by noble heredity, to be the presumptious Queen of Pull. Barack Hussein Obama, on the other hand, demonstated his own desire to be seated as the King of Pull... and his own pool of formidable pull it seems, to install him there. Both are fighting feircely, by means of their particular factions, just for their Party's nomination, and all of its unified Pull for the fiercer battle that is to follow. Eventually, one of them will need to unleash the Pull againt John McCain to win American's elective favor as their new executive, and leader... their President.

The battle for the Democrat Presidential nomination has gone on far longer than was expected. Because of that, the conflict has become more aggressive then desired with each faction deploying increasingly negative tactics against the other to gain favor in the form of electoral delegates. In a recent post at the Belmont Club, Wretchard looks at these Weapons Turned Inward,

... consider how hijackers and hostages takers get the authorities' attentions by demonstrating their seriousness.
The principle followed by kidnappers in Baghdad who sent five severed fingersbelonging to "four Americans and an Austrian taken hostage more than a year ago in Iraq" was that if you want to be taken seriously you have to demonstrate how far you are willing to go in order to get what you want. And although neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton have sent anyone actual severed fingers yet, both have amply shown their astonished supporters that they are willing to ignite race war, tear the Party apart or engage in political cannibalism to serve their own individual ambitions. What's really awesome about Hillary and Barack is not their resumes but the lengths to which they are willing to go.

His observation aptly describes the ugly nature of today's battle among the American Aristocracy of Liberal Progressivism for the control of their collective Pull. But, Wretchard stops short (for now) of looking at what happens later, when all of those threats and weapons are turn outward...

...at John McCain? At Republicans? And at the America people?

For as Wretchard so eloquently puts it, " The problem with the axiom "by any means necessary" is that it means "by any means necessary". " And the power of that ultimate Pull, is a insanely seductive end.

(continued...)

The Gospel Madrassa (Part 1)...

2008-03-14T05:08:00.000-07:00

Mr. Atos

Some years back, I sat with my wife and children on the pew of our Lutheran Church listening to yet another sermon of condemnation delivered by the new Pastor from the old pulpit against the primary source of evil in the modern world... Israel. He had been with our church for a little over two months and this was his fourth such Sermon. Living in Portland, I'm used to a general deficit of faith and an abundance of progressive humanism... including a touch of anti-semetism. We sought a place of refuge where our children could be nutured by a sheltering community of faithful people who share our values and can help promote commensurate virtue. We returned home that Sunday afternoon, where I immediately drafted a letter to the Church Council on which I sat, explaining why I was resigning from the Council and leaving this church. I was not going to sit with my boys and have them believe of me that I, by default, shared the views of the man preaching before us any given Sunday, simply by tolerating his incessant invective. Children are peers. They will watch carefully and learn accordingly.

The American electorate should react likewise when they hear the message preached by the longtime Pastor and mentor of Senator Barack Obama. Much has been made as late, of Barack Hussein Obama's Muslim heritage. Is he still a Muslim? Does that matter? One could argue that it might, considering that the world is currently engulfed in a War between two clashing philosophies... one of them being a fanatical form of Muslim faith - Islam. Islamic Fascism has replaced moral principle with a feverish determination to displace human liberty with the shackles of a global caliphate, by any means necessary, including mass murder on a cataclysmic scale. Western Civilization and Islamic Fascism are struggling at present on the razor's edge of Armageddon. America is the primary picket separating liberty and slavery. As America approaches the 2008 Presidential Election, it is the responsibility of each American to exercise their judgment about the next leader of this ongoing struggle, asking one critical question: does that candidate have the passion, the determination, and the loyalty to the fundamental values of Western Civilization with a conviction necessary to do whatever is needed to achieve victory. Obama must be judged according to all the knowledge and evidence at hand.

Right or wrong, it is everyone's prerogative to judge as they see fit. Discrimination is nothing more than a set of personal preferences built on a series of judgments...and even prejudices. In absense of instinct, judgment is a human's primary means of survival. A choice exercised in favor of survival is a moral imperative. The choice between food and poision, for instance, is a mechanism of survival using a method of discrimination based on personal judgment. Choosing food is moral. Choosing poison is not. Similarly, the choice between Coke and Pepsi is a discriminate judgment, albeit not necessarily tied to survival. Some choices are simply based on preference; Hillary or Obama? Either is a judgment of desire. And while preference choices are no less valid than moral imperatives, they can be exercised with less intellectual consideration, for they carry less potential for negative consequences. Moral choices, on the other hand, decide fate. Survival or death.

The particulars of Obama's religious affiliations are not nearly as troubling as the nature of his actual beliefs. Islam in itself, truly in its intent a religion of peace, is of little concern to most people when considering the qualifications of a political candidate. Like Judaism, Christianity, Budaism, or Mormonism, the qualities of character contributed by the belief system to a dedicated practicioner would be a resume enhancement for the candidate in the eyes of most, regardless of to which he or she ascribes. Whether Obama considers himself Christian in fact, and or Muslim in spirit, it is the nature of his spiritual beliefs that define the Man.

So, when we listen to the messages emanating from America's inner city Gospel madrassas: notably, "God damn America...", it makes most Americans pause and re-consider the character of a candidate who has spent the last 20 years absorbing just such a message from a Pastor like Jeremiah Wright of Chicago's Trinity Church... A man who remains, ostensibly Senator Obama's primary spiritual and campaign advisor. Consider the message...

"We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki. And we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians, and black South Africans. And now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost."
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three strike law, and then wants us to sing God Bless America? No, no, no. Not God Bless America, God damn America, that’s in the Bible, for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating us citizens as less than human."

Radical Muslim or radical Christian, it makes no difference. If the message is "God Damn America!... America is the great Satan!... Death to America and Americans!..." Then the two messages define the exact same belief; the belief that led to the murderous attacks on 911; and that represent the motivating spirit of the enemies of Western Civilization, both foreign and domestic. It is a message of hate, lies, and agitation propaganda that has been pouring forth from radical madrassas of the Middle East spreading all over the world, generating radicalized armies of rampaging butchers and homicide bombers to do its bidding. And apparently it is the same sentiment being propagated in the American inner city, by Pastors like Jeremiah Wright...

... with the approval and support of Barack Obama?

Judge accordingly.

(Continued...)

Hillary Bin Lyin'...

2008-03-12T12:43:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

Much has been made of Hillary Clinton's shrewd parsing of words in her recent 60 Minutes interview (HT: Politico) leaving the uncertain impression that Barrack Hussein Obama might or might not still be Muslim. To be clear, she did not use his actual middle name. And she didn't actually say that he was... or even that he wasn't for that matter. What she said in response to the question, "...a Muslim. You don't believe that he's…?" was this...

“No. No, there is nothing to base that on. As far as I know,” she said.

Now, regardless of the facts in the issue (because who cares, right?!) is anyone really shocked or surprised by a Clinton's ability to parse conjecture into invective while evading conviction?

Come to think of it, do we really know the answer to Kroft's question if it were turned against Clinton? A Muslim? You don't really believe that she's... (gasp!) Truth is, there's nothing to base that on. As far as I know. Just because My Sandmen say Hillary Bin Lyin'? there's nothing more to the rumors...

...started here.

The Price of a Headline...

2008-03-12T08:34:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

The price of an Associated Press headline - and a purchased AP narrative - seems to be blood... lots of it. Terrorists in Iraq have proven time and agin that if you kill enough people at a given time, the Western Press will deliver their ultimatums, complete with conditions and the appropriate sprinkling of American condemnation. So it is again with a rampage of recent attacks in Iraq...

Group of Iraqis asks UN to take over

BAGHDAD - A group of Iraqi tribal leaders, former politicians and intellectuals appealed Wednesday to the United Nations to take control of Iraq in a move they say would help U.S. troops leave the beleaguered country.
Both the U.S. administration and the Baghdad government are unlikely to endorse the request, which was addressed to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and delivered to the Cairo offices of the organization.
"We believe that the only opportunity left for Iraq to be saved from a dark, but not inevitable future, is to engage the international community represented by the United Nations," the letter said. "Such a step will allow the American troops to leave and the occupation to be brought to its end."

Indeed! A group of Iraqi tribal leaders, former politicians and intellectuals would like the U.N. to arrest control of Iraq from Coalition Forces...

... a group like the Associated Press it seems as well,

... and a group like Al Quaeda.

Is Starvation The Price Of Sustainability?...

2008-03-11T04:48:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

Is starvation the price of sustainability?... because the current devotion to corn-based ethanol and other bio-mass based fuels is quickly driving up the price of groceries. From the Dallas News,

Grocery prices getting fat on ethanol demand, weak dollar

Escalating food costs could present a greater problem than soaring oil prices for the national economy because the average household spends three times as much for food as for gasoline. Food accounts for about 13 percent of household spending, compared with about 4 percent for gas.
And consumers spending more on food have less disposable income to spend on items that keep retailers happy – from electronics to dining out. Food prices are rising while home values fall and the stock market falters – all of which can shake consumer confidence.

According to the Bureau of Labor statistics:

Chicken prices are up 10 percent
Whole milk was up at least 20 percent
Tomatoes are up 25 percent
Bread was up 5.4 percent
Eggs gained more than 30 percent.

The story goes on,

Corn, a key foodstuff for farm animals, has shot up as ethanol demand increases. Corn prices have more than doubled in commodity markets over two years, and soybeans nearly tripled, according to DTN, a commodities-analysis firm in Omaha, Neb.

Soybean farmers, lured by higher margins, are growing more corn, causing soybean supplies to shrink and prices to increase, said Ephraim Leibtag, an economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's economic research service.

To make matters worse, the rising price of corn means higher beef prices. This all translates into an artificial inflation of overall food prices coming at a time, when American's are already facing a number of looming economic challenges. Not all ideas are good ones. Why for instance, should one grow fuel - consuming enormous amounts of water, fertilizers, soil, and external energy - to create a product that oozes freely from the bowels of the Earth?

Some facets of sustainability, it seems, are quite unsustainable. Starvation being one of them. Unless eugenics is one of the sublime goals of the modern Green movement...

...the darker spectrum, perhaps.

The Sorryness of Spitzer...

2008-03-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

One might think being a Democrat, means never having to say your sorry. Does it?

From William Jefferson Clinton's impotent impeachment to William Jefferson's bribery indictment; Senator Reid's own silent bribery fiasco; Senator Obama's inescapable link to indicted doner, Tony Rezko, one might get the idea that Democrats can get away with all manner of malfeasance and walk away relatively unscathed, and most astoundingly, still holding office.

The latest addition to the list today, is New York Governor, Elliot Spitzer. Not two years into his office and Governor Spitzer is implicated in a prostitution ring.

Official: NY gov caught on wireta
By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press

NEW YORK - A law enforcement official has told The Associated Press that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement in a prostitution ring was caught on a federal wiretap.

The official says Spitzer is identified in court papers as "Client 9," and the wiretap was part of an investigation that opened in the last few months.

The official says the New York governor met last month with at least one woman in a Washington hotel. The law enforcement official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

A few moments ago, Mr. Spitzer essentially told reporters and the State of New York , he's sorry.

With his wife at his side, Spitzer told reporters that he "acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family."

"I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself," he said. "I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family."

When corruption, real or alleged, rears its ugly head on the Right side of the political spectrum, the America media and the Democrat political machine make certain the subject of the investigation is utterly destroyed... personally, professionally, and politically. Rightly so, perhaps. Corruption of any kind, moral or ethically, should be intolerable, Period! But, it seems that being a Democrat in this era of Media-defined degeneracy means simply having to say 'you are sorry.' Then you are off the hook.

Where is the demand for Spitzer's immediate resignation?

UPDATE: 05.11.08

Where is the official (read: Democrat; read: Mainstream Media) demand for Spitzer's resignation?

Every day he stays in office, should be considered an official endorsement of Spitzer's malfeasance by the DNC and The New York Times.

Violent Environmentalism...

2008-03-03T12:50:00.000-08:00

Mr.Atos

Another string of arson fires in a Washington neighborhood, demonstrates that radical environmentalists are increasingly turning to violence as a means to pursue their ends.

Ecoterror link eyed in Wash. fires

WOODINVILLE, Wash. - Fires gutted three multimillion-dollar model homes in a Seattle suburb on Monday, and authorities found a sign purportedly left by eco-terrorists that mocks claims that the homes were environmentally friendly.

"Built Green? Nope black!" said the spray-painted sign that bore the initials of the radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front.

Crews removed explosive devices found in the homes, said Fire Chief Rick Eastman of Snohomish County District 7. The FBI was investigating the fires as a potential domestic terrorism act, said FBI spokesman Rich Kolko in Washington, D.C.

No injuries were reported in the fires, which began before dawn. The sheriff's office estimated damage at $7 million. In addition to the three homes destroyed, two sustained smoke damage.

Video Here

As is known with the methodology of thugs, one form of violence begets the next in an escalating surrender to brutality as a substitute for intellectual persuation. How long will it be before their complete abandon of reason presents them with murder as an acceptable means to their ends? Such is the cycle of fascists and terrorism, and these radical environmentalists are no different than the Sturmabteilung of decades past.

Last night it was abandoned homes that burned in Woodinville, Washington. Next week, perhaps it will be families immolated to make the animals' point.

Directing The Gun...

2008-02-15T08:40:00.000-08:00

Mr.Atos

Its another sad, grimly puncuated statement on the current state of the American culture, as it is being packaged and delivered via the Public Schools and Universities, and the headline of today's Oregonian says it all,

"Run, He's Reloading The Gun!"

5 Students are reported dead this morning, plus the insect who shot them at near point blank range as they completed a geology class at Northern Illinois University on Thursday. Another 15 are wounded.

The shooter, it is being reported, was a former student of Sociology at NIU. Interesting to note, that the Department of Sociology at Northern Illinois University as of this posting seems to have disabled their own website. It might have been interesting to view their mission statement and note the particulars of the faculty that might have helped cultivate a sensibility that ultimately converted other people's children into lifeless heaps, and a boy into their sociopathic predator. You see, even as renewed cries erupt in favor of tighter nationwide gun controls and bans in the face of a growing trend of school shootings, one really must ask the most poignant question at hand. What did more damage in that lecture hall on St. Valentine's Day, 2008?.... the guns loaded with bullets?

... Or the boy loaded with bad ideas directing the gun?

UPDATE: 02.16.08

"To a savage, the world is a place of unintelligible miracles where anything is possible to inanimate matter and nothing is possible to him. His world is not the unknown, but that irrational horror: the unknowable. He believes that physical objects are endowed with a mysterious volition, moved by causeless, unpredictable whims, while he is a helpless pawn at the mercy of forces beyond his control. He believes that nature is ruled by demons who possess an omnipotent power and that reality is their fluid plaything, where they can turn his bowl of meal into a snake and his wife into a beetle at any moment, where the A he has never discovered can be any non-A they choose, where the only knowledge he possesses is that he must not attempt to know. He can count on nothing, he can only wish, and he spends his life on wishing, on begging his demons to grant him his wishes by the arbitrary power of their will, giving them credit when they do, taking the blame when they don't, offering them sacrifices in token of his gratitude and sacrifices in token of his guilt, crawling on his belly in fear and worship of sun and moon and wind and rain and of any thug who announces himself as their spokesman, provided his words are unintelligible and his mask sufficiently frightening—he wishes, begs and crawls, and dies, leaving you, as a record of his view of existence, the distorted monstrosities of his idols, part-man, part-animal, part-spider, the embodiments of the world of non-A.

"His is the intellectual state of your modern teachers and his is the world to which they want to bring you.

"If you wonder by what means they propose to do it, walk into any college classroom and you will hear your professors teaching your children that man can be certain of nothing, that his consciousness has no validity whatever, that he can learn no facts and no laws of existence, that he's incapable of knowing an objective reality. What, then, is his standard of knowledge and truth? Whatever others believe, is their answer. There is no knowledge, they teach, there's only faith: your belief that you exist is an act of faith, no more valid than another's faith in his right to kill you; the axioms of science are an act of faith, no more valid than a mystic's faith in revelations; the belief that electric light can be produced by 'a generator is an act of faith, no more valid than the belief that it can be produced by a rabbit's foot kissed under a stepladder on the first of the moon—truth is whatever people want it to be, and people are everyone except yourself; reality is whatever people choose to say it is, there are no objective facts, there are only people's arbitrary wishes—a man who seeks knowledge in a laboratory by means of test tubes and logic is an old-fashioned, superstitious fool; a true scientist is a man who goes around taking public polls—and if it weren't for the selfish greed of the manufacturers of steel girders, who have a vested interest in obstructing the progress of science, you would learn that New York City does not exist, because a poll of the entire population of the world would tell you by a landslide majority that their beliefs forbid its existence.

(Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957)

Protect and Defend...

2008-02-13T16:32:00.000-08:00

Mr.Atos

Either Vince Flynn is profoundly prescient, or Mitch Rapp is really out their.

Top Hezbollah militant killed in Syria...

DAMASCUS, Syria - One of the world's most wanted and elusive terrorists, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed in a car bombing in Syria nearly 15 years after dropping from sight. The one-time Hezbollah security chief was the suspected mastermind of attacks that killed hundreds of Americans in Lebanon and of the brutal kidnappings of Westerners.

The Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah and its top ally, Iran, blamed Israel on Wednesday for the assassination. Israel denied any involvement, but officials made no effort to conceal their approval of his death.

Mughniyeh was also on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists, and the U.S. State Department had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction. He was indicted in the U.S. for his role in planning the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed.

The United States welcomed Mughniyeh's death.

A car bomb may not be as satisfying a belt throttle, but dead is dead. Huzzah!

The True Carbon Impact...

2008-02-08T22:10:00.000-08:00

Continuing threats from Dr. Suzuki notwithstanding (as yet), it should be pointed out that not only are rumors of Global Warming grossly exaggerated, they may be even completely at odds with the facts. A recent article from Investor's Business Daily reports that a new ice age may be upon us...

Now, Canadian scientists are seeking additional funding for more and better "eyes" with which to observe our sun, which has a bigger impact on Earth's climate than all the tailpipes and smokestacks on our planet combined.

And they're worried about global cooling, not warming. Kenneth Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada's National Research Council, is among those looking at the sun for evidence of an increase in sunspot activity.

Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century. Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The observation of sunspots showed extraordinarily low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no 11-year cycle.

This solar hibernation corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715. Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe.

As seductive (and egocentric) as it is for us to believe that Human activity is significant enough to alter planetary climates, do let us recall, that Mankind occupies a fraction of 1/4 of the planet Earth. The sun transmits daily, exponentially more energy to this planet's surface than the combined output of all nations on the globe since the advent of the industrial revolution, some 200 hundred years ago. Therefore, the idea that Human activity can affect global climate change should be understood as questionable at best and absurd in the very least.

Nevertheless, questionable scientists, opportunistic politicians, and environmental activists insist that Man's activities threaten to destroy the planet's so-called 'precious' ecosystems via dramatic temperature increases from intensified carbon footprints. In fact, the forces of the planet itself and those extraterrestrial forces acting upon it have far more effect on global climate change than those of biological manipulation. Clearly the immediate trends of climatic variation are quite uncertain. A mere 10,000 thousand years ago, glacial ice, miles thick, stretched well into the boundaries of today's United States. Sea levels lingered some 300 feet below that of current coastlines and planetary conditions yielded environments wholely unsuitable to human civilization. The possibiltity of a return to such unhospitable conditions should be an anathema to the judgement of any humanitarian. And yet, the current cult of Global Warming would have us believe that human development should be stifled in the face of a threat that is unsubstantiated and quite at odds with the geological facts. It lends a suspicion as to the motives of the advocates of so-called 'Global Warming' whether their fear of a carbon impact is with the activity of Man...

... or Mankind itself.

Global Warming Hits the Middle East

2008-01-30T12:09:00.001-08:00

Major Mike

I guess there is no 'splaining this to the Global Warming mongers. Or I'm sorry, maybe this was caused by Global Warming!?! That way our "green" excuse-de-jour" can hold up under any circumstances.

As Atos points out below - way too early to tell where this is going and how much we can really affect outcome.

This Way to the Egress...

2008-01-28T09:23:00.000-08:00

Mr.Atos

First of all, pardon the new look and the temporary mess. We're doing a little site renovation as we kick this thing back into gear. So, say goodbye to the Holocene, and Hello again to My Sandmen.

Robert Roy Britt of Live Science.com brings us the news over the weekend that Humans Force Earth into New Geologic Epoch.

Humans have altered Earth so much that scientists say a new epoch in the planet's geologic history has begun. Say goodbye to the 10,000-year-old Holocene Epoch and hello to the Anthropocene. Among the major changes heralding this two-century-old man-made epoch:
Vastly altered sediment erosion and deposition patterns.
Major disturbances to the carbon cycle and global temperature.
Wholesale changes in biology, from altered flowering times to new migration patterns.
Acidification of the ocean, which threatens tiny marine life that forms the bottom of the food chain.
The idea, first suggested in 2000 by Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen, has gained steam with two new scientific papers that call for official recognition of the shift.

Keep in mind that the previous three epochs, The Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene, lasted roughly 18.2 Million years, 3.5 Million years, and 1.8 Million years, respectively. The Pleistocene Epoch marked the beginning of Quaternary Period as defined by renewed Ice Ages and tremendous global climate change. The current Holocene epoch is accepted to have begun 10,000 years ago, marked by the termination of the last periodic glaciation of that Ice age, and subsequent global climate change, most notably, general warming of the Earth and a related rise of global sea levels; upwards of 300+ feet. Clearly, with that in mind, Geologically speaking, the Holocene Epoch has hardly begun.

Time will tell, what comes next. An end in the global warming cycle and return of Ice Age activity would naturally mark the beginning of a new Epoch of this current Geologic Period. A continuation of the current 10,000 year-old warming period, however, should mean a continuation of the Holocene Epoch by which it is defined. For now, however, one thing is certain. The structure of Geologic time is roughly determined by the nature of the Earth's biological activity. But, it is the Geologic mechanisms themselves which effects and defines the biological changes that are what is important to scientists studying and understanding the history of the Earth. It is those mechanisms effecting the periodic Geology of the Earth, as slow and persistent or contrarily sudden as they may be, that have proven to be far more powerful than any inconsequential biological staining of the outer patina of the Earth's lithosphere. Like lichens on Granite, human's are little more than a mechanism of geological weathering, and an equally weak one at that.

Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman who is best remembered for his entertaining hoaxes and for founding the travelling show that eventually became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. PT Barnum's original American Museum was located in New York City from 1841 to 1865. There he displayed all manner of oddities and curious attractions; some real, and some not. As it became more popular, Barnum noticed that people were lingering too long at his exhibits, limiting the number of patrons and no doubt encouraging an unwelcomed degree of speculation of their authenticity. He started posted signs indicating "This Way to the Egress". Most visitors at the time did not know that the word "Egress" was another term for "Exit." Baffled and curious, people followed the signs to what they assumed was another fascinating exhibit, only to find themselves outside the musuem unable to return... without revisiting the ticket booth.

In this era of heated debate regarding global climate change, and the nature of Man's effect on the Earth, it seems that many scientists recognize the threat of public scrutiny lingering too long on the spurious exhibits at hand. By redefining the Earth's Geologic record from within, using those very same questionable exhibits, they hope to christen the show, secure belief, and close the door on the subject once and for all, moving the mind toward the egress into a new Epoch defined by the abomination of human existence.

General Sanchez vs. the MSM

2007-10-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

dueler88

Retired Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez recently gave a press conference, the full text of which can be read here. (HT: Belmont Club)

When I first heard about the conference on the radio news, the narrative was stated in such a way that Gen. Sanchez was yet another in a long line of military brass that simply don't like Bush or his policies. If the media chose to report factually, rather than to support a political agenda, they might learn something. In this case, they might learn that both the Federal Government AND the MSM are quite simply really screwed up. News flash: when I say "Federal Government," I mean ALL policy members - not just the Executive Branch - are doing a piss-poor job at supporting the U.S. military in its efforts in Iraq.

The General's comments are spot-on. Would that there were more history majors that became journalists - then there might be some understanding of the power that information plays in warfare.

The U.S. Military is doing the best they can within the circumstances. The main difficulty of the circumstances is that the military must be as forthcoming as possible so as not to be presumed as hiding bad news, while simultaneously being subjected to a nitpicking news media that presumes the military is always dishonest - being an arm of the EE-VILLE Bush regime, of course.

The General is also correct in that the Bush administration has done an extremely poor job of communicating the importance of the Iraq campaign within the wider war against Islamic Militants. Although I do have to say that it's extremely difficult to get one's point across when those who distill and summarize one's message already have a preconceived idea of one's motivation. Not only that, but those messengers seem to posses a world-view in which any and every idea about human self-government is just as good as any other.

Okay, so I can sorta see the point of the MSM; that they should report news without showing any bias to a particular world-view. But what the MSM fails to recognize is that the world-views outside of their own situation leave much to be desired in regards to individual liberty, i.e. freedom of the press.

The biggest point the General makes, without explicitly making it, is that the officers (non-com's, too) in the U.S. military are light-years ahead of the MSM in understanding the lessons of history, the meaning and importance of individual liberty, and the role that information and intelligence play in both wartime and peacetime. He slapped the MSM upside the head, metaphorically speaking, and the MSM still didn't hear what he said. I don't suspect that the MSM will get the message until the lovely new NYT building is destroyed by Islamic militants (note to Lefty pundits that wish to presume otherwise about conservatives: I do NOT condone or support any such attack). But Islamic militants are much smarter than the MSM - they understand the value of information as much as the U.S. military does.

I fear a horribly fractured and violent time must be weathered before we can remember that the ideals expressed in the founding documents of the United States are humanity's best shot at realizing humanity's true potential for good.

Choices

2007-08-28T16:41:00.001-07:00

dueler88

Today I had my once-every-four-weeks haircut. I’ve having it cut by the same nice woman for the past 15 years. Usually we talk about child-rearing or movies or something harmless. We talked politics for the first time today. Well, not really – she just expressed the determination that she would take her family to Canada if a draft was re-instituted in order to protect her young son (and possibly daughter). This was followed up by some brief expressions about how “wrong this war is.”

She’s probably in the majority here in Moscow on the Willamette. So I cautiously expressed a few alternate opinions about the complexity of the situation, worded in an open-ended fashion that invites additional contemplation. And as with most other verbal interactions I have with people, it is only afterward that I come up with what I should have said. This is not to say that my desire is to win a verbal argument, but to invite the other party to examine things from a different point of view.

On the way back from my appointment, I came up with this one: “One is always free to choose whether or not to fight. But a fight always involves two adversaries. And your adversary, facing the same choice, may just choose to kill you regardless of your choice.”

Then I came up with this one: “Would it be better for your son to be forced to believe in a certain god than it would for him to be drafted?”

The problem I have is that both of these statements, while very obvious to me, are not so obvious to most of the people I encounter. I often feel like nobody even considers such things to be possible in modern America. Sadly, I can’t make people go take a class in World History or Western Civ to learn how truly unique and recent our condition of personal liberty and self-determination is. Even more sadly, the hardest and most important lessons are learned first-hand.

Those statements I make are often met with hostility – either because the other person completely disagrees with the statement, or more perhaps because any statement that is outside of the person’s world-view is automatically met with hostility. Perhaps I should be clearer in such discussions by saying that it is not my intent to force somebody to believe as I do, but to ask that they see the situation from a different viewpoint.

Am I that bad in the art of verbal persuasion? Or are the people I correspond with so unwilling to hear another viewpoint that polite discourse isn’t possible?

What is right About This?

2007-07-12T15:06:00.000-07:00

Major Mike

Someone please explain how we got to this point with family law.

A Tale of Two Soundbites

2007-07-05T16:19:00.000-07:00

dueler88

I was walking down the street here in Moscow-on-the-Willamette a few days ago, when I observed a middle-aged woman getting out of her Subaru wagon (I think middle-aged leftists are issued these particular vehicles when they arrive in Portland). Most of these Subarus have idiotically trite bumper stickers on them, like "Buck Fush", "Hate is Not a Family Value," etc. This wagon, however, had the most short-sighted bumper sticker I've ever seen: "I'm Already Against the Next War."

News Flash (which won't make it to those who need to hear it): one's decision to engage or not engage in warfare has no bearing upon another entity's desire and/or determination to engage in warfare against you. How about this - since you're not going to do anything to prevent the destruction of my civilization, I suggest you get out of the way so I can put a cap in that Islamic Militant suicide bomber that is standing next to us with his thumb on the detonator. That's a metaphor, mind you; let's hope it doesn't become an actual incident somewhere.

Juxtapose this idiocy against a headline I saw in the USA Today this morning: Guard Passes Goal For Recruits. Wait a second - I thought that the military was supposed to be hard-up for body-bag occupants. The article goes on to say that, as it turns out, appealing to patriotism and "emphasizing the warrior-soldier" are good selling points. Who would have thought? You need committed, combat-minded people in order to be victorious in combat?

Pick a side: the one that won't fight and will therefore lose (and lose pretty much everything of value to them), or the one that will fight and will win if s/he has sufficient will to win.

Mastering "the Word"

2007-06-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

Major Mike
(re-printed with permission of townhall.com)

The daily functioning of Marine Officer’s Candidates School (OCS) is hinged on “the Word.”

“The Word” is the culmination of instructions that guides the conduct of the next event. It includes uniform, time, method of transportation (usually the Shoe Leather Express, or individual buses), other equipment, such as rifles/packs/etc., and any special instructions. Much of OCS, after push-ups and bends-and-muthas, is spent waiting for the Word.

The Word has its pre-determined pathway. The Company Commander reviews the training schedule and expresses any special instructions to the Company Executive Officer. The XO distills those instructions into a language most Candidates should be capable of understanding. (This is often a challenge, for the stress of OCS easily scrambles the nimble minds of college juniors and sends errant neurons rebounding inside 250 helmets). The Candidate Company Commander processes the Word, as he understands it, and passes it on to the Candidate Platoon Commanders, who in turn pass it on to their 40 or so Candidates, all hungry for the next set of instructions.

While nearly linear in its design, and efficient looking on paper, this system is often simply a higher form of the game “telephone.” Typically (in my experience), by the time the Word reached the last man of the last squad, having been impacted at each level by the neuroses of Candidate leadership, all afraid of getting the Word wrong, the Word was a garbled mess. Invariably one of the six Candidate Platoon Commanders would get some minute detail of the uniform wrong, and that platoon could make a sore thumb blend in at formation.

Then it would come, in waves. All the platoons would be sent scrambling into the barracks to undergo yet another uniform and equipment inspection, after a new, clarifying Word was issued. For those on the upper floors the scramble to get 160 Candidates up the stairs ensured that no platoon would make the impossible three minute deadline set by the company staff.

Invariably, the new, clarifying Word would have confused at least one platoon, and after falling back out on the deck outside, all 240 Candidates would be sent back in the building, up the stairs, with more, new, clarifying Word on what the uniform and equipment would be.

Bayonet on the deuce gear. Bayonet off the deuce gear. One canteen. Two canteens. Poncho, no liner. Liner, no poncho. First aid kit. Soft covers, no helmet. Helmets no soft covers. Helmets and soft covers. Mathematically it could go on for some time. And it often did.

We called it “Put your canteen on you war belt, take it off.” It could be sang to the tune of “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands,” and it often was, and with great sophomoric fervor.

This mocking was a by-product of the staff’s inability to translate simple instructions into coherent and uniform action. It reflects the frustration that those on the end of the whip feel when simple things bog down, or fail to be executed properly. The mocking signaled a lack of confidence in the leadership abilities of the staff, and the constant changing of the Word, further eroded that already weak confidence. After ten or twelve times up and down the barracks stairs in one morning, a change of Candidate leadership was often a welcomed event.

Sometimes a change of Candidate leadership made it better, sometimes it got worse.

I remember little of the details of OCS, except the funny parts, many unprintable here, but I clearly remember the negative effects that confused, or countermanding leadership can have on unit morale. I am sure most of the rest of those who graduated didn’t forget either. Such it likely is with every batch of Candidates. Yet I still cringe every time I witness bewildered or muddled leadership. I marvel at the obliviousness of such leadership and their inability to grasp the fallout of their actions. They fail to recognize that confused messaging reverberates amongst the troops like taiko drums in a steel shed.

As it was again this week with the Pentagon leadership. On Monday the acting Secretary of the Army Pete Geren left the door open for longer tours in Iraq,

“"It's too early to look into the next year, but for the Army we have to begin to plan,” Geren told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "We have to look into our options."”

Hmmm. “Put your canteen on your war belt,…”

Followed by Secretary of Defense Gates who changes the Word a day later,

“ Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday he does not anticipate extending U.S. troop deployments in Iraq beyond 15 months, calling the idea a "worst-case scenario."”

“…take it off.”

Aside from the disturbing disconnect between the SOD and the SOA, and their inability to firm up the Word, I am disturbed by the lack of coherent staff action within the Pentagon in formulating a manpower plan that supports our actions in Iraq out into the future; a future according to General Patreaus that may be as long as a decade. It is a disconnect that erodes the confidence of the troops and breeds the worst kind mockery and dark humor. It fosters a downward spiral of morale that ultimately echoes service and DOD wide.

Extending tour lengths or not extending them is no long term plan for ultimate success, or relief for our troops. The Pentagon needs to present to the President and Congress long term force structures that are committed to the idea of “taking care of our troops.” This includes spreading the burden across a larger number of troops, and trying to negate the long term effects of extended combat tours. Ultimately this means increasing the size of our ground components.

This increase in force structure should be wrapped around the idea that we need to balance the exposure of our troops to the long term effects of combat with our expectation of the ultimate length of the mission. To date the Army is guilty of trying to skim by OIF II with the force structure that they entered the war with. To still be at first base with force structure four years later, reeks of ineptitude and/or indifference.

How about DOD and DOA getting their messaging on the same track? And that message should be that we acknowledge that we will be engaged globally to a great extent out into the future and that we need a force structure to support such action. And that those force structure requests will be adequate and responsive. And that we will take our best data regarding the long term well-being of our troops and apply that data to our force structure development plans. We need to think ahead, for once.

Plainly put, DOD needs to get a workable plan together and firm up the Word, in order to re-establish the confidence of the troops in their leadership.

Anything less a Candidate could accomplish.

© Michael McBride 2007

Freedom of the Press, Islamofascist Style

2007-06-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

Major Mike

This is both an appropriate metahphor for Islam's view of the role of a free press, and a harbinger of the harsh realities that will follow should we continue to underestimate their Sharia intentions.

Wake up MSM, and America, it is time to overhwhelm these terror groups with the disdain and scorn that their brutal and lethal methods deserve. It is time to isolate them for being the mentally disturbed, megalomaniacs that they are, and quit lending sympathy to their bent causes. They are brutal killers and silencers of the truth.

That is nothing to tolerate.

Update: 09:53 am PST

Captured Indonesian terrorist, Sharia law supporter, and death merchant Abu Dujana, clears up any ambiguities concerning the peaceful "teachings" of Islam, and Islamic extremists' peaceful intentions in the following prison interview...

"Abu Dujana said bin Laden was well respected then and helped him and others realize that it was permissible to kill people to defend Islam.

"I didn't read it in the Koran. It's based on the teachings of our teachers, clerics, especially what Osama bin Laden first said," Abu Dujana said of the tactics.

"Because of America's arrogance, many in the Muslim world know, believe, it's permissible to kill American soldiers. It's halal; it's permitted." " (Emphasis added)

Mythbusters: A by-product for the logically inept

2007-06-19T07:25:00.000-07:00

Major Mike
(re-printed with permission of townhall.com)

Victor Davis Hanson wrote an extremely important piece last week on D-Day. As the preeminent historian of our time, he reflected on D-Day and he legitimately highlighted, in spite of all of the hype about its successes, that on many levels D-Day was not the huge success that it is acclaimed to be. He cites failed topographical analysis, the ultra-human expectations that planners demanded of tactical units, and the everyday confusions and cross-ups that occur in major operations. He reminds the reader of the realities of the day, and that the utter randomness of combat can make a slot machine look like a sure thing.

His message was that the trial and tribulations we are experiencing in Iraq do not sit in solitary isolation in our military history, but that they may indeed be more indicative of our military operations than we either know or care to believe.

In short, he did not sugar coat the ultimate success that was D-Day by leaving out the bad parts. He did not hide the horrible miscalculations of the day in the bright light of our ultimate success. He leaves the reader with the reality of D-Day, not the lore, not the myths. It was published in the Papersaurus edition of the Oregonian last Saturday, a shock in and of itself.

And because it ran here in Portland it was no surprise that on Sunday, many readers responded with letters to the editor. The first line of one caught my eye,

“Our military has not suffered many debacles in its history…” It went on to explain how our effort in Iraq was, by far, the worst political and military debacle in our history.

I was reduced to mouth-breather for several minutes; perhaps I damaged my jaw when it hit the counter. To the non-historian, to the non-military student, to the casual observer, to the blind partisan, to the unstudied, to the myth believer, this may seem true; but it is false on dozens, if not hundreds of counts.

- The first two years of the Civil War failed to produce one strategic victory for the Union forces. Until the victories Gettysburg and Vicksburg, which occurred just a day a part, the Union armies could claim no important victories. Even on the heels of the Gettysburg victory, General Meade horribly failed to exploit his victory, likely extending the war by a year or more. If not for Joshua Chamberlain’s fortuitous and timely arrival at Little Round Top, and his unit’s determined charge into the face of an equally determined rebel force, Gettysburg may not have been a Union victory at all.
- The unmitigated disaster of Pearl Harbor can hardly be called anything but a debacle. Nearly all of our assumptions about warfighting, except for Naval Avaition and amphibious warfare, were proven archaic and out-moded by the summer of 1942.
- The performance of our combat units early in the Korean War reflect an over-confidence bred from the successes of WWII, poor training and discipline within the services following the close of WWII, and our continued prejudices against the abilities of the Asian warrior. The result was the Pusan Perimeter, and our nearly losing the Korean peninsula altogether. Unparalleled retreats marked the movement of American forces down the length of the Korean peninsula.

In fact our military history is replete with examples of incompetence and folly, but we have generally overcome our deficiencies by adapting to the situation, applying competent leadership to the effort, and using our vast resources in support of our efforts, which was VDH’s larger point.

His column drew another ponderous missive today. Submitted by yet another brilliant Oregonian reader who viewed the “classicist’s” piece (even though he admitted to not knowing what a classicist is) as a shill for President Bush, and he supported this assessment with his own illustrious background as a “news junkie” and pop culture artist. He completely missed VDH’s point on the errors of D-Day as compared to our tactical and strategic errors in Iraq and he concluded brilliantly, and categorically, that our entry into Iraq was dissimilar to our entry into WWII. Thanks for that valuable clue.

I guess it takes a classicist to understand one.

Today’s letter, combined with his compatriot’s miss a week earlier illuminate our ever increasing belief in lore, pseudo-history, and shallow pop-analysis.

We have become a nation of Cliff Note reading news junkies that absorb the biased and unstudied drivel that passes for news in this country, and give it the same credence as if it were the scientific writings of Albert Einstein. We have come to view Oliver Stone and his fictional construction of history as the modern equivalent to the libraries of Alexandria. We gravitate to the unproven and illogical, at the very same time we reject the studied reason of a “classicist” as if it were the remnants of partially chewed Cheerios spewing from the mouths of babes.

Our gravity towards the false or unproven is seen in the success of US, People, The Enquirer, the Brit tabloids. We lap up gossip and paparazzi driven “news” and other trivial events as if they have some meaningful impact in a world where terrorists continue to threaten to kill us at the next opportunity, and an insane leader of a country seeking nuclear weapons promises to use them if he can complete development. We see gaps in information as full blown conspiracies. We accept a trip to rehab as some kind of reputation rehabilitator instead of the grueling withdraw from addiction that it should be.

We have become a nation of the un-studied and easily duped. We skim the surface of educational opportunity and fail to leverage it into a true education or real knowledge. We accept top level analysis and fail to want to understand the underpinnings of the underlying conditions in our efforts to find true pathways to workable solutions. Our Congressional leaders don’t read the National Intelligence Estimate.

We have become so ignorant and gullible that we need a TV show to prove that you can’t electrocute yourself by “peeing on the third rail of the subway train,” or that no one probably flew to the moon with a rocket pack fueled by carbonated beverages and Alka-seltzer, and that there are no traces of urine in Corona beer. We have become a world of un-educated dolts with a propensity to absorb trivia, illogic, and pure fiction at a rate that that neither the Mythbusters nor VDH will have much success in slowing down.

The result will be a monumentally weak electorate that will put this nation on a wandering, if not entertaining, path downhill and on its way to its eventual demise. For if nothing else, democracies are dependant on a responsible, educated, and informed electorate, and we appear to be on the verge of supplanting ours with Paris obsessed, culture fueled, intellectually lazy, Twinkie-like spongebots that are incapable of logical thought and reasoned decision making.

Call me crazy, but I’ll take the reasoned thinking of Professor Hanson over an internet fed, self-proclaimed “news junkie.” But that is just me.

© Michael McBride 2007

The Duke...

2007-06-16T22:54:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

Well, well, well, N.C. panel disbars Duke prosecutor,

RALEIGH, N.C. - District Attorney Mike Nifong was disbarred Saturday for his "selfish" rape prosecution of three Duke University lacrosse players — a politically motivated act, his judges said, that he inexplicably allowed to fester for months after it was clear the defendants were innocent.
"This matter has been a fiasco. There's no doubt about it," said F. Lane Williamson, the chairman of the three-member disciplinary committee that stripped the veteran prosecutor of his state law license.

Once again we see that popular 'truth' is in the eye of the besmircher!

Ultimately facts, however, have a funny way of deposing 'truth!'

Memo to Trent Lott

2007-06-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

Major Mike

Dear Trent,

I have refused to donate to the GOP during the last fifty or so active solicitations, including the phone call I received two nights ago. The solicitor had to listen to my many frustrations with the GOP and the fact that the GOP politicians that now inhabit the Congress are more interested in keeping their jobs and prestige than they are in passing meaninful legislation; especially a truly comprhensive immigration reform bill that balances some kind of regularization with REAL border security. And, if GOP leaders (?!!!???) keep up this kind of irreality,

"Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem.”

At some point, Mr. Lott said, Senate Republican leaders may try to rein in “younger guys who are huffing and puffing against the bill.”

The GOP will go into the next election cycle penniless. Remember this, abandon your base and give up your leather chair.

Very sincerely.
The Base

Embracing Anarchy...

2007-06-08T17:07:00.001-07:00

Mr.Atos

Portland's annual Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade is schedule to commence tomorrow at 10am. And per tradition, groups and families have, over the last several days, taped off areas of downtown sidewalk in reserve for viewing this spectacular event. This practice has gone on for as long as I have lived in Portland, and probably as long as anyone here can remember. If one considers it for a moment, it is an extremely civilized way people have adopted to view the parade, and avoid the chaos of last minute congestion, confusion and conflict.

But all of that ends tonight, compliments of Portland's own alternative class of anarchic lunatics. The Portland Mercury News has declared war on common civility, promising to send out their thugs tonight to pull up the 'unfair' tape. Calling it "some form of ancient Portland code of ethics, " and backed by Portland city councilman, Randy Leonard, the Mercury News whines, " Rose Parade Tape isn’t 'Fair' !"

So, a self-adopted community standard of organized behavior has now been labeled as an 'ancient Code of Ethics' and then denigrated as such. I should think that any form of ethics, ancient or otherwise should be appreciated by everyone, and most certainly by members of the civil establishment, if they respect the idea of self-government at all. Afterall, the traditional method of accepted reservation is far superior to some Saturday morning mob event whereby people charge downtown at 2am to begin battling for the best viewing locations, clogging streets threatening disorder and promising violence. Is this the nature of fairness Leonard and the Mercury News would prefer? Ask yourselves, then what is it they would actually prefer to common civilty. The answer might be both frightening and obvious.

I submit this as further evidence that what Randy Leonard and the Mercury News respect, is something akin to authoritarianism which dictates which person will get what position; or they desire the chaos of morning riots to lend position... for this family event. Both these choices are obviously anathema to ethics, ancient or otherwise. So ask yourselves, just what system of government does Portland's class of alternative lunatics and civil servants support?

An Inconvenient Conundrum...

2007-06-04T21:53:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

On the one hand, the Associated Press seemed determined to bang on Texas over the weekend. 'Hayseed' central afterall, having given the nation President Bush, it must be home to equally worse environmental calamity, right?

The Associated Press analyzed state-by-state emissions of carbon dioxide from
2003, the latest U.S. Energy Department numbers available. The review shows
startling differences in states' contribution to climate change.
The biggest reason? The burning of high-carbon coal to produce cheap electricity.
_Wyoming's coal-fired power plants produce more carbon dioxide in just eight
hours than the power generators of more populous Vermont do in a year.

Is it any wonder, Vermont intends to secede? They go on,

Texas, the leader in emitting this greenhouse gas, cranks out more than the next
two biggest producers combined, California and Pennsylvania, which together have
twice Texas' population.

In fact, California purchases a significant amount of energy from other States, like Oregon. Yet while the State does have one of the lowest per capita energy consumption rates in the country, that can be attributed in no small part to mild weather that reduces energy demand for heating and cooling year round. Nevertheless, California imports more electricity than any other State.

Pennsylvania, is a net energy producer as a leader in nuclear energy production. But don't let's forget Three Mile Island. And while we're at it, note that Pennsylvania profits from the production of virtually all of the Nations’ supply of anthracite coal. While that is the cleanest-burning form of coal, the State is one of the top coal-consuming States in the Nationwith bituminous coal dominating the State’s power generation market. Next to lignite, that's the dirtiest form of coal.

What the story fails to mention is that Texas is also a net energy producing State, consuming what it produces and distributing the rest to other States. Texas leads the nation in oil and natural gas production, as well as overall total electricity production. And while it also leads the nation in overall energy consumption, its economy is far more sustainable, given its balance of production and consumption than California.

On the other hand, the Associated Press reported previously that Texas now leads the nation in wind energy production, perhaps the cleanest form of renewable energy produced,

DALLAS — Long known as a top oil- and natural gas-producing state, Texas has gained new energy acclaim by becoming the nation's top producer of wind energy.

Texas capacity stands at 2,370 megawatts, enough to power 600,000 average-sized homes a year, according to a midyear report released Tuesday by the American Wind Energy Association.

That puts Texas slightly ahead of California, the nation's leader since 1981. California has 2,323 megawatts of capacity. The total U.S. capacity is 9,971 megawatts. So far this year, Texas has added 375 megawatts, or 46% of the total 822 megawatts brought online nationwide.

Last year, wind energy generation grew 35% nationwide, adding 2,431 megawatts, but that fell short of the projected 2,500.

The wind association believes it can add 3,000 megawatts nationwide this year, even if that means another 2,178 megawatts by year's end.

This, I'd say is a bit of an inconvenient conundrum... Texas being both a leading contributor and a leading corrector of so-called global warming. Not bad for a bunch of redneck Capitalist hayseeds who are allowing the market to drive improvements. You see while California has implimented many of the most stringent energy policies anywhere in the United States, much to the detriment (in money and freedom) of its citizens, it remains one of the leading consumers of energy and creators of filth. Its relative energy production continues to fall, yielding a unbalanced condition of dependency and vulnerablity. So, while Texas may be a leading producer of carbon dioxide, the State nevertheless is well on its way to a cleaner, independent economy of lower environmental impact and genuine sustainablity... and greater per capita joy. Which is more 'Green?'

But that's not really the goal of the purveyors of the Global Warming meme, anyway... is it?

Global Swarming - Net Species Gain...

2007-06-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

Reuters reports today that a purple frog is among 24 new species found in Suriname ,

A purple fluorescent frog is one of 24 new species found in the South American highlands of Suriname, conservationists reported on Monday, warning that these creatures are threatened by illegal gold mining.

The discovery of so many species outside the insect realm is extraordinary and points up the need to survey distant regions, said Leeanne Alonso of Conservation International, which led the expedition that found the new species.

"When you go to these places that are so unexplored and so remote, we do tend to find new species ... but most of them are insects," Alonso said by telephone from Suriname's capital, Paramaribo. "What's really exciting here is we found a lot of new species of frogs and fish as well."

24 new species found in one survey of one place alone. It makes you wonder, in the midst of the man-made global warming catastrophe meme, if the number of species discovered is ever added to number of species lost, to determine a net species gain. That is of course assuming that anyone really knows the historical average overall rate of global species replacement in the first place.

Welcome to Earth, little guy.

The Haunting Ghosts of Beslan

2007-06-01T06:56:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

This original post was published here in September of 2004, just after the massacre of young school children by Muslim fanatics (so-called Chechen Rebels) in Beslan, Russia. Long since forgotten by most Americans, if they ever really acknowledged it all all, the horific events that unfolded on September 1st of that year should serve as a stern and chilling reminder of what might happen any morning in any town in America. A sobering post from wretchard this morning over at The Belmont Club, reminded me like a prescient brick to the head, of the terrible possibilities that lay in wait this or any other day if we don't stay vigilant... and possibly even if we do. Being prepared, does not necessarily provide one with the ability to prevent tragedy. It also imparts the constitution necessary to survive beyond the disaster.

Note that the only thing that has changed since this post, is that the London massacre has since occurred.

The Ghosts of Beslan...

The events and details of the massacre at Beslan have all but unfolded for the world. Unfortunately, the sins of a cursed political season have yielded little coverage of the savagery from the mainstream America media outlets, who have addressed the event superficially and reluctantly, if at all. More images of the carnage and sorrow have circulated on Free Republic, it seems than all newspapers and television news combined. Together with in-depth analyses from Bloggers like wretchard at Belmont Club and The Command Post, the horrors of the event have been mostly realized for those concerned, yet detached observers…. Mostly! Yet, while the profound horror of tortured and murdered children may be conveyed through reporting to the rational mind, short of the actual experience, a tangible empathy is only possible with the aid of literary vision. There are few instances of similar horror so boldly recorded. And there are certainly none so penetrating as James Fenimore Cooper’s singular account in his novel, The Last of the Mohicans, of the beginning of the massacre of British troops and Colonials at Fort William Henry after their surrender to French and Huron forces in 1757.

The savages now fell back, and seemed content to let their enemies advance without further molestation. But, as the female crowd approached them, the gaudy colors of a shawl attracted the eyes of a wild and untutored Huron. He advanced to seize it without the least hesitation. The woman, more in terror than through love of the ornament, wrapped her child in the coveted article, and folded both more closely to her bosom. Cora was in the act of speaking with an intent to advise the woman to abandon the trifle, when the savage relinquished his hold of the shawl, and tore the screaming infant from her arms. Abandoning everything to the greedy grasp of those around her, the mother darted, with distraction in her mien, to reclaim her child. The Indian smiled grimly, and extended one hand, in sign of a willingness to exchange, while, with the other, he flourished the babe over his head, holding it by the feet as if to enhance the value of the ransom.
"Here-here-there-all-any-everything!" exclaimed the breathless woman, tearing the lighter articles of dress from her person with ill-directed and trembling fingers; "take all, but give me my babe!"
The savage spurned the worthless rags, and perceived that the shawl had already become a prize to another, his bantering but sullen smile changing into a gleam of ferocity, he dashed the head of the infant against a rock, and cast its quivering remains to her feet. For an instant the mother stood, like a statue of despair, looking wildly down at the unseemly object, which had so lately nestled in her bosom and smiled in her face; and then she raised her eyes and countenance toward heaven as if calling on God to curse the perpetrator of the foul deed. She was spared the sin of such a prayer for, maddened at his disappointment, and excited at the sight of blood, the Huron mercifully drove his tomahawk into her own brain. The mother sank under the blow, and fell, grasping at her child, in death, with the same engrossing love that had caused her to cherish it when living. (Chapter 17)

The Huron savages under French command, no more represented the totality of the Native American peoples than do the butchers of Beslan or madmen of Manhattan represent the people of Islam. And yet the good people of that once-proud religion may do well to learn how the ghosts of those massacred victims seared a distrust and vengeance into the American spirit so profound as to doom all aboriginal occupants of the continent a century beyond one act of unconscionable barbarism on the shores of Lake George. Many have debated the historical accuracy of Cooper's fictional analysis of the historic event. Yet, accurate or not, his conception of the horror conveys a visceral comprehension of the misery and rage of the ghosts haunting Beslan today. Most mothers and fathers there were not spared the horror of loss with a similar blow to their skull. Their blow comes each morning anew as waking lights the flickering memory of a smile dashed out of existence by Islamic fascist butchers. Like it or not, we are again and in fact, engaged in a struggle for existence on the frontiers of civilization with brutal savages that would just as soon dash the head of our infants against a rock, as they would shoot them in the back, burn them alive, or shred them with shrapnel by the hundreds. And regardless of the inability of some to see beyond their own sophomoric delusions, the consequences of error are real and final. The ghosts of Fort William Henry and of Beslan will join with those of Manhattan, and Madrid, or even Seattle, Dallas, LA, Des Moines, Columbus, Pittsburg, Portland, and perhaps even London and Paris as grim reminders that capitulation to terror is an invitation to slaughter.

It wont take much chaos to cause the hollow spirit to crumble like an empty crysalis. Then we'll see if America has the same reserved grit deep within as it did December 8th, 1941. Unfortunately there has been a tremendous political effort spent over the last 7 years dividing this nation to its core. And we know what Patrick Henry warned about that. We'd hope to never recall those ghosts again. But some horrors do not like to be forgotten or ignored; so much so they are determined to haunt repeatedly until their terror is fully manifest in a way that their spirit never can be.

Feckless Lawmaking

2007-05-31T07:28:00.000-07:00

Major Mike
(re-printed with permission of townhall.com)

Politicians don’t make laws, lawmakers do. And sadly we have plethora of politicians and a dearth of lawmakers.

Laws order societies. They provide guidelines for commerce, social behavior, governmental administration, and public safety. Laws often find their roots in, and are forced to meander back to their relevant guiding document, such as the US Constitution or the English Magna Carta. The limiting of the force of laws by such documents guarantees personal freedoms ensures a certain orderliness in that society that reflects the founders’ vision, and places boundaries to lawmaking by the limiting and sharing of governmental power.

Effective lawmaking requires a vision for improvement, a congruous and coherent pathway to that vision, and an implementation scheme that ensures the functionality of the law over time. Successful implementation plans include appropriate administrative guidelines, adequate levels of funding if required, and enforcement provisions as necessary and relevant exceptions if appropriate. It is the singular responsibility of lawmakers to ensure that any legislation that gets passed, meets those base requirements, is Constitutional, and functional. That would be responsible lawmaking.

The functionality of legislation can be measured in myriad of ways. Was the law found un-Constitutional? Is more than one aspect, if any, bogged down in the courts? Did it survive the weight of its own administrative requirements? Did the funding meet the envisioned or actual expense? Is the program sustainable over time? How big is the administrative tail? How well is it functioning? Is anything positive actually being accomplished?

Often, in today’s climate, a lack of concern over the functionality of newly passed legislation seems to be the only area where bi-partisan agreement can be reached. Which is the crux; we no longer have legislators or lawmakers inside the venerated halls of congress, we simply have politicians. And politicians don’t seem to want to, or care to make very good laws.

Political agendas today are dominated by complex vote-buying legislation, and where real, necessary legislation is consistently avoided over time. The new immigration proposal as an example of the former, and the failure to correct the wonton ills of the Social Security system provide and example of the latter.

The disconnect(s) between the altruistic goals of the McCain-Kennedy immigration embrace, and its functional elements are striking. Hugh Hewitt, and others have done yeoman’s work in parsing the behemoth into digestible bites, but the striking part to me are the many parts of the bill that appear to be a pathway in an Escher drawing.

-Who is going to conduct 12 million plus background checks, and where is the funding, where is the creation of an administrative arm to accomplish it, and the manpower to complete it? A gap this wide in legislation reveals either completely incompetent law writing or a complete indifference as to whether the checks are completed or not. Either way we have incompetent politicians writing laws who show little regard for actually providing border security for the country.

-The Border Patrol math doesn’t add up either. From a BP agent email to HH,

“Fact: The U.S./Mexico Border is 1951 miles long. We need 4 agents per mile.We would need to deploy 7804 Agents per shift, 3 shifts per day. Totalrequired manpower: 23,412 Agents per day. Projected BP staffing level:18,000.”
I am not exactly sure how the “new” math works inside the DC moat called the beltway, but I am pretty sure that between one room full of 435 Representatives, and another room full of 100 Senators, someone would be able to discover a five thousand man shortfall in the manning of the Border Patrol; if they were sincerely interested. Their lack of vetting belies their lack of interest in the enforcement provisions of the legislation.

-And the inclusion of provisionary status for most illegal aliens, after a mere 48 hours, while the flawed provisions of this bill are being played out, only re-enforces the idea, that all of the enforcement measures and procedural triggers will be rendered useless as the administrative requirements cannot be met because of the gaping holes in the legislation itself. In other words, these politicians were more than willing to let the real security aspects of the bill be overcome by events, in order to expedite the regularization of those who have been in this country illegally. And does this make sense when Islamist extremists are targeting our southern order for exploitation?

The point is not whether immigration reform should be passed or not. This country needs to put together a comprehensive and complete package that provides security for the country, provides a path to citizenship, is revenue neutral in its cost to social security and other entitlement programs, and works to such a degree that future “immigration reform” bills are unnecessary.

The point is politicians are incapable of providing us with such legislation. Our current crop is so pre-occupied with preserving their status, or the lineage of their voting record for their Presidential run in 2016, or merely making it through the 2008 elections, that they have no real interest in passing responsible legislation; their only interest is in pandering to 12 million potential new voters they can’t wait to schmoooz.

Further proof lies in the lack of Social Security reform. Yes, sorting out Social Security will be painstaking and political suicide, but the necessity of viable reform cannot be put off until the system collapses under its own weight in 30 years and starts writing checks that the rest of the economy cannot cash. Politicians will continue to hit the birdie back over the net until they are comfortably lounging in their retirements, leaving working class America looking for answers to their unfilled promises. Of course, this crop of politicians will be long forgotten, their names never to be reviled as appropriate.

Lawmakers, if there are any left by then will be actually fixing Social Security, and passing laws that are competently assembled and meaningful to their primary objectives; public safety, commerce, and advancing the founding principles of this nation.

When we are attacked again, and establish that the perpetrators leveraged the gapping holes in our immigration system, we won’t be “connecting the dots” to the resident of the White House, the dots will be connected throughout the halls of Congress. Lawmakers, step up and be counted. Politicians go home.

Memorial Day...

2007-05-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Veterans

To-day, across our fathers' graves,
The astonished years reveal
The remnant of that desperate host
Which cleansed our East with steel.

Hail and farewell! We greet you here,
With tears that none will scorn--
O Keepers of the House of old,
Or ever we were born!

One service more we dare to ask--
Pray for us, heroes, pray,
That when Fate lays on us our task
We do not shame the Day!
Rudyard Kipling, 1907

Thank You, all for your willful sacrifice on our behalf.

The United States Army

United States Marine Corps

United States Navy

United States Air Force

The Pentagon

Ameriphobe...

2007-05-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

While this started out as a comment to Mike's latest column at Townhall (SM Link), it began to take on a life of its own as my thoughts on the subject spread along the tangent. Mike discusses Islamphobia as it is claimed to exists in the United States with a purported trend of religious and ethnic persecution post 9/11. Mike correctly points out, however, that no such phenomenon actually exists, despite media claims and the chortling of pro-Islamic groups like CAIR, OIC and others.

Even despite decades of violence, murder, mass-murder, terrorism, and outright warfare conducted on the West and specifically America in the name of Islam people in America exist in relative harmony... the vitriolic hate spit forth daily from the Left notwithstanding. Afterall, do let's be clear, sadly there are historical incidences of violent persecution (religious, ethnic and otherwise) in this nation's history by which we may compare to what is happening today. But as yet, I see nothing comparable in the last five years to Salem (ca.1692), Wounded Knee (ca. 1890) , Nauvoo (ca, 1848) , and certainly there are no roving bands of white hooded vandals ransacking taxicabs and convenient stores nationwide. And yet, even as a war rages cautiously with the fanatics of Islam, no perceptible hostility actually exists in the United States against Muslims - citizens, nationals, nor immigrants. So, I think we can confidently put the persecution issue to bed, at least and until the next murderous domestic attack, after which all bets may well be off. Because if anyone's animosity and bigotry, given the historical record, is to be understood, it should be that of the Americans if it actually existed. For in addition to Mike's extended list of atrocities committed by Muslim fanatics in the name of Islam (by their very own words, claims, and treatises), let us not forget the additional acts of warfare directed at us over those previous decades -the taking of hostages, the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, and the nearly forgotten missile attack on a US Frigate. Some may recall in May of 1987, two Iraqi missiles ripped through the hull of the the USS Stark on routine patrol in the Gulf prior any direct hostilities, killing thirty-seven sailors and injuring another twenty-one. Its just a few hundred more for the tally, and quite enough justification in itself for a War that came by all accounts, 14 years late.

That being said, people, even groups of people, are solely responsible for the consequences of their actions... or in this case actions taken on their behalf. When that group fails consistently to distance itself from the collective malevolence, it becomes guilty by association. It is certainly not up to me to offer my trust in anyone nor anything. It must be earned. Then it is maintained as such... as TRUST. Yet, once it is shattered, it may only be reassembled by my grace alone. That being said, trust does not equal blindness, anymore than caution should render paranoia, or disagreement treated as depravity. For trust is a virtue, built on the concept of experience, yet exercised like faith. And as I said it can be shattered, but only then should there be the pressumption of animosity. With regard to Muslims, the faith of the West may be cracking. But, it is hardly shattered.

Mike makes this point profoundly enough, so finally here's, my tangent...

In his column, Mike offers the following rhetorical apology,

Sorry if I am more afraid of Muslims than I am of, let’s say, you run of the mill yokel who made some anti-Muslim remarks on 9/12. Those serving the Prophethave a much higher kill ratio than the Christians, the secularists, the atheists, the agnostics, the Jews, and the Wiccans combined.

As for my fear of the 'run of the mill yokel', it grows with each passing day as their venomous hate-filled minds ferment to insanity with irrational rage. Their's however is not directed at Muslims. It is directed intensely at Christians, feverishly at Jews, increasingly at Mormons, and generally at all American's regardless of creed. It is indeed a phobia, as described by Webster... “an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation...” especially given the lack of basis for that fear. One might call it Ameriphobia, in fact. And its spreading worldwide like few other plagues mankind has known. Currently 1 in 5 Democrats shares this affliction as evidence by their belief that the 9/11 attacks were conducted by the US Government as part of a Zionist conspiracy. From what I can tell it could be as many as 1 in 3 here locally. Considering the demographics of cities on the West Coast (and my previous jesting aside), it might actually mean that 2 out 7 people that you pass on the street here in Portland are thus infection, while 3 of the remaining 4 might agree with them simply politically. So, with that in mind, given the religious furvor clearly visible on behalf of a phobia zealously embraced, who seems more capable of violence in America today?

Given that and recent comments logged right here on this forum, it would seem that Ameriphobia has escalated from fringe political fanaticism, to the brink of quasi-religious crusade. In other words, consider that 'some' Americans (1 in 5 Democrats) believe their Nation and countrymen to be purely evil, and capable - nay GUILTY - of holocaust. Is it not 'their' responsibility to liberate their region, the nation and then the world of that enemy by any means necessary?! Dare we assume from their furvor 'their' efforts are not already being implemented?

Afterall, for them, time is short, the tumor malignant, regional popular opinion is in favor, and 'the' enemy of 'their' enemy may not be a true friend...

...but it will serve as ally to 'their' purpose for the time being.

Whose time? Whose being?

Ameriphobia may be irrational, but the fear and its potential manifestation are quite real.

Call Me an Islamaphobe

2007-05-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

Major Mike
(reprinted with permission of townhall.com)

Phobia, as described by Webster... “an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.”

Foxnews.com picked up on an Arab News story coming out of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Islamabad, Pakistan on Thursday that describes Islamaphobia as “the worst form of terrorism” and the OIC was asking for steps world wide to curb it.

The OIC describes Islamaphobia as the “deliberate defamation of Islam and discrimination and intolerance of Muslims.” The OIC alludes to Islamaphobia as a concern well before 9/11…“Islamophobia became a source of concern, especially after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, but the phenomenon was already there in Western societies in one form or the other…” They offer no specific examples.

I’ll be the first to acknowledge that the variety of the world’s non-Muslim countries cultures’ mix with Muslim culture like water and oil, but prior to 9/11; in spite of dozens of aircraft hijackings and the murders associated with many of them, in spite of the 1972 Olympics; in spite of the Achille Lauro (1985), in spite of the first WTC bombings (1993), in spite of the bombings of the Khobar Towers (1996), in spite of the indiscriminate killing of hundreds in the US Embassy bombings (1998), in spite of the USS Cole (2000), Muslims were able to live peacefully throughout the world without fear, harassment, nor threat of persecution.

In fact it is nearly impossible to directly associate any link between 9/11 and an increase in crimes against Muslims in the US. The best accounting I can find is here at religioustolerance.org, where the outrageous attacks on Muslims after 9/11 translates to 3 dead, one beaten, some threats made, and some property damaged.

Seems pale in comparison of the carnage that lies in the wake of motivated Muslims…twelve innocents dead in Munich, one innocent dead on the Achille Lauro and dumped into the sea, six dead and over 1000 injured in the first WTC bombing, twenty dead and 372 injured in the Khobar Towers bombings, over two hundred dead and 4000 injured in the US embassy bombings, seventeen dead in the USS Cole attack. Add in 2973 dead in the 9/11 attacks, 191 killed and 2050 injured in the Madrid bombings in 2004, Theo van Gogh murdered in the streets of Amsterdam 2004, fifty-two dead and 700 injured in the London bombings of July 2005, several killed and property damage worldwide in the aftermath of the Danish cartoon scandal of 2006. By my count that is nearly 3500 innocent people killed by those purporting to be believers in the religion “of peace.”

Sorry if I am more afraid of Muslims than I am of, let’s say, you run of the mill yokel who made some anti-Muslim remarks on 9/12. Those serving the Prophet have a much higher kill ratio than the Christians, the secularists, the atheists, the agnostics, the Jews, and the Wiccans combined.

I am at a loss to figure out how being afraid of Muslims, because they happen to be the world’s largest generator of terrorists, is a greater form of terror than the actual terror than that which is being perpetrated by Muslims extremists on the rest of the world’s population nearly everyday of our lives. This is like castigating an assault victim for being afraid of their attacker.

The OIC is clearly engaging in a classic “desensitivization” and “relativism” spin in trying to compare the brutal savagery committed by Muslim Jihadists over the past 35 years to the actual fear generated by those attacks. They are attempting to carve inroads into and place limitations on, our rights to free speech. And they are seeking an exceptional governmental deference towards their religion. All of which flies in the face of logic when compared to the body count that extreme Islamic Jihadists have racked up. Muslims need to be held accountable for those murders, not venerated as victims.

Is it irrational to fear shoe bombs, dirty bombs, homicidal bombers, homicidal hijackers, anonymous Muslim car bombers, armed kidnappers, video-taping beheaders, truck bombers, airplane crashers, hotel bombers, train bombers, subway bombers, ship bombers, when all of these terror methodologies have been used or attempted in the recent past?

The OIC needs a little perspective. As the second leading inter-governmental organization, behind the UN, it needs to understand that by condemning “discrimination and intolerance,” but not condemning murder and terror, they prove themselves the second biggest hypocritical inter-governmental organization in the world, also still behind the UN. It is inconceivable that an organization supposedly speaking for 57 nations and various other interested parties, can berate other countries for discrimination, while providing no proof or significant harm, but then fail to mention in the least the devastation that has been wrought on the rest of civilized by society by Muslim extremists.

To have murderous behavior defended by oblique attacks on the societies that have been victimized by such attacks is ludicrous in the extreme. Moderate Muslims, if they are who they claim to be, cannot put the loathing of terror and it perpetrators in the same category of wonton murder and terror upon innocents.

If fearing terrorists, Jihadists, wahabists, etc. and et al., because of their brutal and indiscriminate killing sprees, makes me irrational AND an Islamaphobe…then, I guess I am one.

And sorry OIC…the worst form of terrorism is indiscriminate murder, not “defamation and intolerance.”

© Michael McBride 2007

Politics of Personal Destruction 2007

2007-05-18T07:27:00.001-07:00

Major Mike

The MSM was successful in securing Paul Wolfowitz's resignation from the World Bank today...after months of pursuing him on allegations of inappropriately leveraging his status to get his girlfriend a better job. Good work...pat yourselves on the back tonight at Happy Hour.

Then hide your heads in shame as you gave Sandy Berg(l)er a pass on his theft and destruction of critical 9/11 documents just prior to his important testimony before the 9/11 commission. Berger acquiesced yesterday, and agreed to the forfieture of his unused law license in part of an agreement that kept him from testifiying before a panel of lawyers about his actions. Big sacrifice, he hadn't used his law license in 15 years...that would be like me giving up a tennis racket.

And lastly...as the MSM flunkies are congratulating themselves for righting the ethos of the World Bank...maybe they could go back and do a better job of investigating the UN's Oil for Food Program run by their poster child Kofi Annan. They could pat themselves even harder if they did that.

But they won't...he wasn't part of BushCo. And they don't have standards.

Front Page Oregonian Hypocrisy, as Usual

2007-05-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

Major Mike

Nothing grinds me more than MSM hypocrisy, and the Oregonian served up a heaping helping yesterday.

The big, I guess little O, has been running an “expose” all week on the dangers of ATVs, and the toll they take on kids and families. The four part series has been replete with heart-wrenching stories about serious injuries and deaths caused by ATVs over the past couple of decades as their popularity has increased exponentially.

Yesterday’s ATV slam was particularly obtuse, as the writers bemoaned that fact that those injured by ATVs were being denied large settlements because the ATVs came with very precise manufacturers warnings…such as…no passengers, avoid steep slopes, recommended ages for use. And interestingly enough, the main example in yesterday’s story, a compelling case involving a 14 year-old girl who was critically injured seven years ago, and now requires continuous care, was a case generated by a lack of adult supervision and the girl was riding with an underage driver and with another passenger.

How sad that the parents can’t sue the ATV manufacturer’s deep pockets because they did not leave the care of their seven year old (at the time) with someone responsible, or leave precise enough instructions with the care giver to insure that their daughter was not a passenger on a vehicle, against the manufacturer’s recommendations.

Of course, the little O, thinks the parents should be able to sue someone…and they did, the care giver’s insurance company…too bad the settlement was so low.

But the acme of the little O’s hypocrisy comes on page B-3…for you News-paperosaureses like me, where the Oregonian proudly posted one of their photographer’s pictures of last year’s Oregon City’s BMX bike, tricks competition winner.

Nice picture…the 26 year old was about six feet in the air with his bike…no helmet, no pads, no gloves…no manufacturer’s warning…no “professional stunt rider, don’t try this at home” warning… just the empty message that getting your bike six feet in the air is cool. And not the least bit dangerous.

For those parents whose kids suffer injuries in the upcoming weeks while they are BMXing…sue the Oregonian…they love law suits.

In the interest of full disclosure...I have never owned or ridden an ATV.

Defining the Global War on Terror

2007-05-12T16:26:00.000-07:00

Major Mike
(reprinted with permission of townhall.com)

Wars have always had their discernable differences. Some extremely nuanced, some extremely dramatic. Strategists have been able to draw on tactics and strategies from previous wars or engagements and adapt them to modern principles and equipment. Other wars have demanded radically new or deeply evolved strategies and tactics to overcome or leverage operational developments and tactical and strategic shifts.

Had the Allies not perfected the complex, integrated tactics of amphibious warfare, first attempted in the modern age at Gallipoli in World War One, they would have not been successful moving across North Africa, Italy, Europe, and the entirety of Asia in defeating the Axis powers in World War Two.

Carrier warfare was birthed, developed, mastered and integrated into our national strategic plans in less than twenty years. It changed the face of naval warfare forever.

In its simplest form, World War Two was an engagement on two foreign fronts, a modest defense of the homeland, sustaining of supply and logistics lines, and propaganda (support) effort at home. Fought successfully on all five above fronts, the Allies could be expected to defeat the Axis and claim victory.

The Cold War was fought remarkably different. It was fought with weapons development, brinksmanship, and propaganda, occupation of territory, political alignment, time, and economics. In the end, the winning of the Cold War ended up being a strategy of containment, economic depletion over an extended period, and the capability to project a ready and competent response to attack.

It is critical to outline the broad fronts in the Global War on Terrorism in order to lay out a competent, long-term strategy for victory. The fronts that we must engage on, and win on, in order succeed against terror are as follows…

Iraq

The war in Iraq must be sustained until either Al Qaeda is defeated, they abandon the battlefield in Iraq, or the combination of Iraqi armed forces and Iraqi police forces can provide stability in the country, from both internal and external pressures. Al Qaeda cannot be “given” a victory in this battle. They will not go home if they successfully force our withdrawal and claim victory in Iraq. They will simply test our strength and our will in another spot on the globe, using any uncontrolled areas in Iraq as training grounds.

Afghanistan

The effort in Afghanistan must be continued until the Taliban is no longer militarily or politically viable in Afghanistan. As with Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Taliban must be denied even the smallest influence in Afghanistan. The remnants are a nuisance, and they occasionally enjoy some success on the battlefield, but we have already experienced life under the threat of a terror enhancing regime in control in Kabul. Terrorists would have unrestricted access to training and support, and economic viability via the opium trade.

Forces must remain in place which promote long term stability, and a denial of a resurgence to the Taliban.

Iran

Iran must be denied the acquisition of nuclear arms at all costs. We know that the mullahs, via Ahmadinejad are incapable of rational, international intercourse, and that their objective is to enhance their status in the world through the successful development of nuclear arms.

They have proven themselves exasperatingly irrational over the past twenty-eight years, and in adding a nuclear capability to their arsenal, they would only attempt to twist the rest of the world to their influence through an unspoken, yet inherent threat to use nuclear weapons in order to achieve their political objectives.

Iran is the main backer to Hezbollah, and their myriad of terror activities, it is a logical step for Iran to let aggressive, semi-rogue terror groups to do their nuclear bidding for them. Certainly, Iran would arm their surrogates with nuclear weapons, and then the world would become a free-fire zone for nuclear detonations.

Border protection/immigration enforcement

The US must aggressively pursue coherent and responsible immigration and deportation strategies that add to national security. Borders MUST be controlled to the extent that we know, for certain, who is in this country and under what pretenses. We cannot protect ourselves against Al Qaeda mimickers, if we do not have a rational understanding of who is in this country and for what purpose. This requires a serious and immediate action. Failing to plug this gaping hole in our national defense is a symbol for our collective malaise toward our own security and will make us vulnerable into perpetuity should we fail to take appropriate action…control the borders, enforce current laws, deport immigration rules violators without exception, aggressively pursue those here illegally.

Passenger/cargo screening

Continue with aggressive domestic and international screening of airline passengers. Through diligent and continued screening we re-enforce the idea that we have not forgotten 9/11, and that we are aware enough to continue to provide some measure of security to intra- and international travel.

We must aggressively step up our screening of cargo containers entering into this country. We must have an understanding of what is in each and every container that comes through our borders. Certainly this will take some time to fully make operational, but we must continue on the path and complete this critical piece in the continuity of our effort to protect ourselves from further attack.

Engage moderate Muslims

We must begin to develop a much improved working relationship with moderate Muslims. Because of the violent nature of Islamic terrorists across the globe, it is easy to understand the reluctance of some moderate Muslims to step forward and support governmental initiatives in the anti-terror campaign. We must be able to ensure the physical security of moderate Muslims who assist us in our goal to eliminate terrorism.

We need to work with moderates to gain access to networks that harbor or fuel insurgents. We must cultivate them for long term roles as operatives, analysts and interpreters. In short, we must engage moderate Muslims in our effort to eliminate terror, and be prepared to take extraordinary measures to ensure their physical security. The combination of cooperation and protection will begin to break down the existing barriers that are keeping moderate Muslims on the sidelines.

Strengthen domestic surveillance and security initiatives

Key elements of the Patriot Act must remain in place in order to ensure that our domestic terror prevention efforts shift away form the “lucky” and are driven into programmatic success. By limiting access to banking, billing, internet, cell phone records, and other predominate terror pathways of communication and exchange, we hamstring our efforts, and reduce our chances of programmatic success, and shift back to a dependence on luck or fortune.

We will not always be presented with fidgety drivers crossing over from Canada, or copy-cat cells stupid enough to take their training videos to Circuit City for conversion to DVD. At some point the strength of our domestic counter-terror programs must be unearthing these plots, and we must diminish our dependence on stupid terrorists and heads-up store clerks.

Citizen awareness/involvement

We must actively begin a communication program that highlights how important citizen involvement has been in protecting us from further attacks. A concentrated media campaign should be a base element of our public information dissemination well out into the future. This campaign, should resemble the Civil Defense ads of the fifties, and alert our citizens to the very real threats that are beginning to infiltrate our neighborhoods, as these “home-grown” Al Qaeda-like cells begin to gain a toehold on our home turf.

Counter Information operations

We must deny any terror organization the initiative in Information Operations. We must recognize that their objective is to operate inside our information OODA-loop and to co-opt our media outlets. They will continue to leverage the format and content of the evening news to gain air time and to present the images they want to the American public.

We must be aggressive in countering these messages, and devise a coherent and innovative strategy to deny them the unfettered use of our airwaves in this critical element of the GWOT.

Political agreement to these principles

None of the above will work, until there is a bi-partisan agreement to this approach in fighting the GWOT. Each and every time we waver in our effort, the enemy views our divisiveness as an offensive opportunity.

Al Zawahiri is giddy in Iraq at the possibility of the Dems setting a timeline. They operate more freely when we relax our surveillance of bank transactions or incoming cell phone calls. Until both parties can agree to this list as the fronts of this war, we will have no chance of winning it…no matter how much money we spend, or how much energy we expend.

The GWOT is mature enough that a strategic review of our methods and objective is called for. And while this list may not prove to be all inclusive, it is certainly the baseline for achieving success in the long term.

If we can’t figure out, or acknowledge on which fronts we are fighting, we are doomed to be engaged in a long, losing struggle to terror. If we are able to put together a comprehensive fight on all of the fronts described above, we are in for a long, winning struggle against terror.

© Michael McBride 2007

How to Go and Get Yourself Killed

2007-05-08T09:28:00.000-07:00

by dueler88

1. Get brainwashed by a hateful ideology
2. Get an AK-47
3. Do a little target practice
4. Videotape your practice sessions with the hopes of inspiring others and yourself
5. Take said videotape to a store to have it duped to DVD
6. Plan an attack on a local facility
7. Make sure the facility is populated by people who are not only trained in the use of automatic weapons, but who also are currently in possession of automatic weapons
8. Mix lack of judgment with a healthy dose of masculine bravado
9. Fake a pizza delivery to the facility and try to attack the gun-wielding guards at the main gate.

Imagine what could have happened if these rocket scientists had decided to attack, say, a college campus full of unarmed students. . .

So get ready for the lack of factual reporting: the MSM will do all it can to de-emphasize the attackers' religious beliefs (i.e. their prime motivation) by pushing the "Ethnic Albanian" theme as a replacement. Religion as a motivator for murder? Only if you're a serial killer or a fundamentalist Christian.

Then get ready for the spin, implicit or explicit: these guys wouldn't have planned the attack had we not illegally invaded the peaceful country of Iraq. Or was is Yugoslavia? Or was it Albania? Wait - the U.S. attacked the Serbs to save Muslim Albanians? Dang! Well, whatever - they're infidels: let's just kill 'em anyway.

Army Brass Surrenders IO War to MSM

2007-05-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

Major Mike
(reprinted with permission fo townhall.com)

Conventional wars are tests of nations. It is manpower versus manpower. Logistics versus logistics. Lethality versus lethality. Mobility versus mobility. And the nation with the most advantages across the spectrum usually wins. Typically, the one better at all of the combined elements of modern warfighting claims victory.

Insurgencies are different. They are fought across many spectra unrelated to those that compose the fighting of conventional wars. They are contests between competing ideologies. They are contests of uneven resources and continually evolving strategies and tactics. And they are fought across time. They are fought with information.

Typically insurgencies are birthed from moral ideologies. It is not hard to see the morality in an uprising against perpetual colonialism. It is not hard to imagine an insurgency against oppression or forced imposition of religion. In fact, it is easy to support a cause rightly rooted in moral virtue. Insurgencies born of high moral standing will have strength and longevity. And they will be hard to defeat.

Insurgencies born on immoral premises will be only slightly less difficult to defeat because support is not gained through a moral belief, but through intimidation and random violence against the innocent. Over time, the immorality of indiscriminate or ruthless tactics will provide a tactical gap for exploitation. So defeat of immoral insurgencies, while still difficult, is more likely because the base of support will not be as well grounded.

Modern insurgent tacticians have garnered much from the patient nationalist insurgencies of Southeast Asia. They recognize that to win with inferior numbers, it takes a combination of time and high-yield tactics. The Vietnamese patiently waited out the French, the Japanese, the French again, and the Americans to fulfill Ho Chi Minh’s vision of nationalistic communism.

The “Troubles” in Northern Ireland resulted in neither victory nor defeat, as time proved the ultimate winner. It was the erosion of both sides’ will across the long spectrum of time that brought peace to Northern Ireland. Fierce, indiscriminate tactics eroded the morality of the both of the competing ideologies, and time brought a weariness among the population that would not sustain the efforts of either side.

The Vietnamese fought the first truly modern insurgency when they began leveraging the acceleration potential of modern media. They used the nightly broadcasts of the American MSM as an accelerant in their campaign to erode the will of the American public. Previous to this, news accounts of wars and battles involved months, later weeks, then days, but in Vietnam it shrunk to inside of twenty-four hours. This meant that the American public, could be bombarded daily with news headlines, and that these “headlines” could be leveraged to the insurgents’ advantage. And leverage it they did.

With the help of our MSM, the Vietnamese were able to turn military defeats such as Ap Bac, I Drang, and Hue into tactical victories. Not by their success, or lack thereof on the battlefield, but by the visible and measurable erosion of support back in America. They viewed, correctly, that the will of the American people was their target, and attacks on our forces, and the leveraging of our MSM biases were simply the conduits to accelerate the erosion of that will.

The Vietnamese correctly viewed information operations (IO) as a critical part in winning their nationalist insurgency. They understood early on that the major factors in winning would be their nationalistic ideology implanted through both national pride and brutality, and the erosion of US will. They correctly played for time by balancing their use of conventional and unconventional tactics. And they eroded our will by generating enough casualties to have the body bags played night in and night out on our television sets. They achieved their goal, ironically…first in Congress, then with the public. In 1975 they claimed victory vis-à-vis a conventional fight against the South Vietnamese.

They recognized and mastered modern media warfare in less time than it takes most armies to field a new combat rifle.

And thirty-two years later our Army shows it has no better understanding of how to fight in an IO centric world. In fact, by cutting off milblogging yesterday, they have regressed into an era that no longer exists, AND ceded and enormous IO advantage to a brutal and net savvy adversary.

Ostensively the Army’s motives are to increase force security through improved operational security, but this doesn’t wash in the real world. In order for there to be a “harm,” there must be a significance to that harm…Debate 101. And certainly then, the comparative harm of OpSec breaches must exceed the overwhelming good that credible milboggers have done in painting the real picture on the ground in Iraq, vice the MSM negativity that most of the Green Zone lounge lizards masquerading as MSM reporters have been able to manage. Not likely.

Don’t get me wrong, OpSec is important…sometimes.

In Desert Storm I was asked to pull out my daily authenticator after instructing a flight of Air Force F-16s to go to a holding fix while I was controlling other aircraft and actively engaging targets on the ground. They were within their rights to ask for authentication, and OpSec purists can pound their chests with righteousness, but I was a little busy exchanging fire with a couple of ZSU-23/4s, so I told the F-16s they could either go where I told them to go, and hold for further instructions, or they could go back to base. At that point, and likely with the information that the Army is trying to protect today, the OpSec “breach” could not be exploited and likely held little or no tactical value to the enemy.

So, their justification doesn’t’ wash with me. While OpSec is important…it is unlikely that the breaches that the Army is concerned about resulted in any actual harm to our troops in the field.

This is most likely a knee-jerk response to the sharp criticisms Army brass has received in the past few weeks over their extending of the tours of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The supporting commands within the Army have failed to provide a sustainable manning plan for their deployed forces, and they were rightly held to account for that …from those of us on the outside and by some milbloggers on the inside. And generals do not like to be criticized. Justified or not.

What is so striking about this decision is it compromises these same generals on a number of other levels. It shows they are willing to take one of their most effective tools in fighting this war off the table, simply to reduce the internal criticisms of their questionable policies.

It shows they do not understand that mastering IO is a critical element in winning an insurgent conflict, and the initiative in this arena cannot be surrendered under any circumstances. It shows a stagnation of strategic thought in an arena where IO dominates. It shows the generalship in the US, in spite of myriad of War Colleges and advance degree programs, has not evolved with the modern nature of war outside of conventional strategies and tactics. It signals that the Army brass is now in the damage and reputation control mode, vice a full press victory mode. This defensive posture of the general officer ranks is the harbinger of defeat, and signals its onset.

And worse, in ending internal milblogging, the Army is now relying on the biased MSM to provide the public a “balanced” picture of the situation in Iraq. Not happening. Hasn’t happened. Won’t happen.

The Army, rather than getting a handle on how to effectively use, milbloggers, bloggers, and the blogoshpere, is opting to return to dance with the devil they know. They are choosing to partner with a known adversary, one who has contributed to a past defeat, rather than to gain an understanding of how to better use the myriad talents possessed by the same soldiers who are performing gloriously in the field.

They fear what they have not yet mastered, so they choose instead to return to their complex, yet completely ineffective choreography with the MSM. They default to this strategy simply because it is a game plan they know, even if they know it is not a winning dance, they find comfort in knowing the steps. It signals a surrender of the initiative and repose towards accepting defeat.

The silencing of the milblogs uncovers the breadth of the ineptitude that permeates the top levels of the military command elements. They are discarding one of their most valuable tools in order to protect their reputations. They show they have little understanding of, or aptitude for, modern IO centric, counter-insurgent operations. And their reliance on partnering with their old nemesis, the MSM, for message dissemination, reveals the depth of their deficiencies.

And sadly by silencing the milbloggers, the Army relegates our soldiers to simply being trigger pullers for the generals, not voices in the effort that they sacrifice so much else for.

© Michael McBride 2007

Structure and Steel...

2007-04-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

Last month, I might have suggested that The View's most parochial participant refer to the the Uniform or International Building Code to learn about the need for fire protection on structural steel. In fact, Rosie need go no further than Wikipedia to discover the depths of her insufferable ignorance and distressing pathology,

Fireproofing, a passive fire protection measure, subject to bounding, refers to the act of making materials or structures more resistant to fire, or to those materials themselves, or the act of applying such materials. Applying a bounded fireproofing system to certain structures allows these to have a fire-resistance rating. However, by no means does fireproofing allow treated items to be entirely unaffected by any fire. No conventional materials are immune to the effects of fire at a sufficient intensity and/or duration.

Today, I merely suggest to her and to Charlie Sheen and to the rest of conspiracy Hollywood, and the paranoid Left, that a picture is worth a thousand words, knitted in rebuke for anyone willing to read. And that picture appears today on frontpage news across the country,

From The Oregonian this morning, via AP... The crash occurred around 3:45 a.m. on the MacArthur Maze, a network of ramps and interchanges at the edge of downtown Oakland and about a half-mile from the Bay Bridge toll plaza. Witnesses reported flames rising up to 200 feet into the air.

Heat exceeded 2,750 degrees and caused the steel beams holding up the interchange above to buckle. Bolts holding the structure together also melted, leading to the collapse, California Department of Transportation director Will Kempton said. (emphasis added)

Imagine for a moment if the disintegrated overpass had been holding 20 more overpasses on top of it. Further imagine that the overpass had 100 decks below it. What do you think would happen to that structure if that one deck collapsed as shown? Its not too difficult to concieve, especially since we all saw it happen nearly 6 years ago.

Now, take a moment to realize how easy it was for James Mosqueda, 51, of Woodland, CA to destroy a major freeway, yesterday. Imagine again had Mr. Mosqueda ignited his rig at 5:15 pm Tuesday afternoon on that same freeway... or on I-5 at Olive in Seattle... Sunset Highway, Vista Ridge in Portland... Loop 1 at Research in Austin... anywhere along the Dan Ryan or Kennedy in Chicago... or someplace next to you and your children in traffic.

You see, while Rosie and Charlie and the majority of Democrats in this country exercise the luxury of decadent stupidity with regard to national security, real monsters probe, watch, and learn how and where to do very bad things. What's more they know that no matter what they do to inflict mass misery, the Left's first reaction will be to blame Bush!

The lesson to note here is that structural steel fails at prolonged temperatures in excess of 500 degrees fahrenheit. Political steel however, fails at the mildest application of heat, potentially taking the entire structure of civilization with it.

Which manner of steel do you posess?

Dean Barnett...ID'ing the real threat

2007-04-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

Major Mike

Dean Barnett solidly hits one over the wall on this critique of Barack Obama's five ways for America to lead...with him at the helm of course. As Barnett points out, it is a superficial assembly of cliches and rhetoric, but the home run comes with Dean's finish...

"Terrorism isn’t the enemy. Terrorism is just a tactic. Al Qaeda is merely one group that uses that tactic. Declaring war against terrorism and Al Qaeda has all along never made sense. It has always been the logical equivalent of declaring war against U-Boats. And U-Boat captains.

The enemy is radical Islam. And it is a larger and more dangerous enemy than virtually any domestic politician has yet given it credit for being."

What it takes for America to lead going forward is to acknowledge the true threat and to manage a simple display of will...the will to continue to engage evil when it threatens us, and to see that engagement through to an American victory...a victory of good over evil.

Many Americans are lacking at both recognizing the threat, and possessing the will to counter it. We won't be leading anyone in the world until we can do both.

The sky is not falling

2007-04-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

Major Mike

I love the doom and gloom pseudo-economists and their sky-is-falling mantra, they are great entertainment. But they do a great disservice to a significant portion of the population by screeching about home prices dropping, or home sales slowing. Does this shock anyone? After a red-hot five years of leveraging low-interest rates, the housing market is slowing in response to the interest rate hikes that the Fed has initiated in order to keep inflation under control. Higher interest rates…slower housing sales, possibly rolling back prices.

Anyone who has lived in California recognizes this cycle…it has occurred three or four times since I first lived there in 1979. Hawaii experienced a similar correction of prices in the late 1990’s. It is as predictable as the sun rising tomorrow…as interest rates rise, the market will cool, slowing sales, and possibly lowering prices.

There is no doom and gloom, just a shifting of opportunity. Just as when the stock markets receded significantly, there was opportunity to pick up some bargains and ride the wave of recovery over the last couple of years.

Buy low…sell high, and keep an eye out for the opportunities that allow you to do so…such as a slowing in housing sales or a slight dip in housing prices. Pay no attention to the alarmists behind the curtain.

Nugent on gun-free-zones

2007-04-20T12:42:00.000-07:00

Major Mike

CNN put up rocker Ted Nugent's commentary on the VT tragedy...he's right...gun-free-zones are simply killing fields for armed psychos, and slaughterhouses for law-abiding, unarmed citizens. Nuff said.

Extending tours is an admission of force mismanagement

2007-04-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

Major Mike
(Reprinted with permission of townhall.com)

In manufacturing, overtime is problematic. It is typically used to cover short term gaps in manpower and training. It usually covers the gap created between production expansion, hiring to the increased demand, and completion of skills training for the new hires. Often the duration of the overtime is calculable, and its negative effects limited.

It is problematic nonetheless. Labor costs rise by a factor of up to, or over, fifty per cent. Workers can become fatigued and their individual productivity may diminish. During extended periods demanding overtime, this often results in the combined negative impact of both higher labor costs and lower productivity. Eventually, costs outstrip margins, and overtime may not be solving the gaps in labor.

Compounding the business costs are the human costs. Aside from fatigue and weariness, workers’ morale can suffer immeasurably from a perceived lack of management concern, manifested by the lack of management driven, long-term solutions. Soon the extra monies earned by overtime are viewed as uneven when compared to the sacrifices made in terms of reduced time off, increased productivity loads, fatigue, and the general loss of control of one’s schedule.

Eventually demanding more, produces less.

As is will be with today’s announcement by the Army that they will be extending tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Army leadership is failing to manage its part of the war, as today’s announcement, coupled with rocketing re-enlistment costs, highlight. It is the abject responsibility of Pentagon leaders to develop an overall strategy for manning their service in such a way that promotes not only accomplishing the near-term mission, but the sustaining of that mission over time.

It has been clear for a while that our presence in Iraq would be required well out into the future. Our Commander-in-Chief has repeatedly reemphasized our commitment to the mission and to the people of Iraq. Manning the Army with re-enlistment bonuses and gross tour extensions, hints that Army leadership either never grasped this concept, or if they did, were derelict by not implementing long-term corrective actions…the types of corrective actions that would fairly rotate our troops into the combat zones and with adequate rest and recuperative time between tours.

Potentially worse, is that Army leadership has been counting on Congressional intervention to solve their manning problems for them. Congressional blustering over Iraq funding, may have given the Army leadership the false hope that a Congressional timeline would solve their manpower mismanagement issues for them; before they manifested themselves as the failures they are. With Presidential vetoes threatening any calendar driven withdrawals; the Army is now forced to come to grips with their planning and manning deficiencies.

The drastic action that the Army took today is the result of a lack of vision and direction from within the Army, from its civilian staff on down. The Army should have been pro-actively implementing strategies that gave individuals and combat units reasonable respites from combat, and provided adequate opportunities to re-man, re-fit and retrain, prior to returning to combat. Not only are fifteen month tours too long, but one year respites are far too short.

Army leadership has failed at its primary function…developing sustainable force structures and deployment schemes that are capable of supplying combat ready forces uninterrupted out into the future. Their failure is even starker when compared to their Marine brethren who have demonstrated a capacity to sustain combat operations with seven month rotations into the combat zones. Meeting force requirements is the leading purpose in life for staff officers, and the Army staff is showing no aptitude for it.

Today’s announcements will have sent devastating shock waves through the Army’s deployed units, and across their base housing units. While the Army and Marine troops deployed in the field have earned the trust and respect of the country, the competency of the military leadership in the Pentagon, specifically the Army through these tour extensions, is rightfully called into question. It seems that the failings of those in the comfortable surroundings in the Pentagon are being covered by onerous dictums that are not sustainable out into the future.

Move Army HQ to Iraq for fifteen months, it would likely generate better solutions than calling on those who have served this nation so well, to work harder.

© Michael McBride 2007

Blacksburg

2007-04-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

dueler88

Current politics is all about telling the story first so that one can own the political narrative. Those of us with scruples about making sure a story is factual, i.e. NOT the MSM, make the conscious decision to either remain silent and make up our own minds about issues, or we take part in measured, serious discussions about serious issues. At the risk of being labeled a political opportunist, I will now engage the discussion about the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

In the interest of full disclosure: I am an NRA member, gun owner, hunter, gun-club member and have possessed an Oregon Concealed Handgun License for about 6 months. But most of you wouldn’t think it by looking at me – a respectable, quiet, peaceful, law-abiding, professional young father with a Master’s degree. For those who would label me a "gun nut," I encourage you to consider the disposition, actions and beliefs of the people that have paved the way for the peace, prosperity and security you enjoy today.

Instead of talking about the specifics of the horrific event, I would like to walk you through a little exercise in logic and existentialism to put everything in perspective.

Do you have the right to exist?

Do others have a right to deprive you of your existence, or deprive others of their existence?

Do you have the right to prevent said person from depriving you of your existence?

By what means should you be allowed to defend your right to exist?

Who is responsible for sustaining your existence?

Do you, and those around you, have free will to decide between good and evil actions?

What will deter a determined person from committing an act of pure evil?

If somebody points a gun at your face, what are your rights and responsibilities?

Is a gun good or evil?

For those of you who are having trouble with answering these questions, I’ll make some suggestions:

You are a person with free will, surrounded by others with free will, that has a right to defend yourself against anybody who would deprive you of your existence. The means you choose to defend yourself depends upon the means and determination of the person attempting to kill you. There are often no adequate measures that will deter a determined person from taking the life of another person. The determination of an evil person to commit murder is quite possibly infinite and may be beyond your ability to thwart it. You are responsible for your own health and welfare, and have the right, by any means available to you, to prevent yourself from being killed. When somebody points a gun at you, it signals their intent to kill you, and you are thus justified in any action to prevent that person from killing you. A gun is a tool and is neither good nor evil. Like any other tool, can be used for both good and evil purposes; it all depends upon the intent of the user of that tool.

The incidents in Blacksburg boil down to this: in spite of any laws or policies that can be put in place, i.e. “gun-free-zones” (in reality, “free fire zones”) or laws against murder, the essence of the human condition means evil people will always do evil things. To prevent, by either peer pressure, coercion, force or outright mandate, those with the ability to stop such evil acts, is the height of immorality and injustice.

Survivng capture with your honor intact

2007-04-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

Major Mike
(re-printed with permission of Townhall.com)

Much of military life cannot be completely comprehended by those who have not shared the experience. This is not to say that the general populace cannot respect the efforts or accomplishments of the military, but they might not comprehend that the physicality of the beach landing at Normandy, demanded the equivalent of a couple of marathons…and it continued into the night, the next day, and on, and on.

Certainly civilians appreciated the success achieved in Normandy, but they may not really appreciate the enormity of the personal effort that made it the military victory it was.

And such it is with many aspects of military life.

How is it possible to trade nearly all of one’s privacy for the communal living conditions found in the field, and under nearly all combat scenarios? How is it possible to submit to a system that demands obedience and discipline, and still retain your ego and sense of self? How is it possible to do heroic things in the face of overwhelming odds, when the natural human response can be the polar opposite?

Much of military life seems incongruous to the outsider. I was struck my freshman year of NROTC by the idea that the mission of the Marine rifle squad was “to locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver, or repel the enemy's assault by fire and close combat.” It seemed a bit insane to me that we would actually try to find the enemy, because if we actually found him, the odds of getting killed would go up exponentially…seemed better to stay away from the enemy…easier to stay alive.

Unless the enemy was trying to “locate, close with, and destroy” you and your unit, in which case his offensive initiative, may result in your still getting killed… likely in a way far more devastating than forcing the enemy to respond to your initiative and offensive operations. Over time military strategists have come to appreciate that gaining and maintaining contact with the enemy is an effective way to hold the initiative, even if it results in casualties, because being surprised or ambushed is far deadlier.

Many might be surprised to find that the proper response to an ambush is to attack into it. Again, it seems a bit incongruous, but running laterally to escape an ambush or running away back to the enemy only keeps the victims in the kill zone for much longer periods of time, making the ambush more lethal. Attacking directly into an ambush is the fastest and least costly response to being ambushed. It keeps the victims in the kill zone for the shortest possible time, and forces the attackers to shift their focus to their own defense. It is also important not to underestimate the effect of this unexpected and aggressive action. The military response to ambush accomplishes many things, even in light of its apparent incongruities to human nature.

It is the ultimate acceptance of these and hundreds of other basic principles that eventually make the individual a competent warrior, and it is training that reinforces these beliefs with instinct, reaction, and proficiency. Training ingrains the warrior response, and shapes the warrior mentality. Belief in military principles and training are what make a warrior, not uniforms.

The first book I read after my commissioning was POW by John Hubbell. I have never forgotten the title, the author’s name, or its stark realities. The book is a documentation the experiences of about one third of our Vietnam War POWs. It was a wake up call for a twenty-one year old lieutenant with flight training in his future. It is a training primer for POWs, and I devoured it.

I read this book while attending the military inculcation that greets all Marine officers, six months of infantry training at The Basic School in Quantico, Virginia. This was the perfect time to formulate a personal strategy for my incarceration should I ever become a POW. It was a strategy developed from successful examples (Stockdale, McCain, Risner, Hegdahl, Day, and dozens of others), and one that ran counter to the human reflex. But its human incongruities can be readily rejected by a warrior who sees the ultimate utility in adopting proven military responses, and rejecting the natural, human responses.

It is a strategy that runs counter to the human reflex to accept early release when offered…as McCain rejected early release. It runs counter to the human reflex of self preservation …Stockdale and others disfigured themselves in order to avoid being used as pawns by their vicious and manipulative captors. It runs counter to the human reflex to discontinue escape attempts when vicious beatings await those left behind and you should you be re-captured…Day and others.

It was a strategy that rejected many human responses and replaced them with military responses that would ensure unit integrity, high morale, and personal honor had I survived such and ordeal. It was a military strategy…and I doubt this strategy was mine singularly. It was reinforced with SERE training and continuous introspection. It was my survival plan.

It is the suppression human instincts that ensure military unit integrity, and facilitates cohesive martial action. Individuals that cave in to their human instincts not only degrade their own units’ performance, but jeopardize adjacent units as well. Early Army actions in Korea were replete with surrenders and “bugging out,” to the point where Allied forces held barely a toehold around Pusan. There were dozens of examples of poorly trained units giving in to their human traits and not being able to muster the necessary martial qualities when it counted the most. The results were disastrous.

I was going to remain on the sidelines for the Iranian-Brit hostage crisis, and do my best to ignore the civilian punditry, and blog comment lines, as they poured the ammo into the British Sailors and Marines and their behavior in captivity, but with the announcements that these captives might be given the opportunity to profit from their experience, I must weigh in…I’ll be brief.

There is no substitute for aggressive offensive action on the battlefield, and there are no predictable results once that aggressive action is unleashed. We’ll never know what the outcome would have been had the Brits engaged the Iranians, and neither will those involved, but we do know that they will never re-claim the title of warrior, as their actions were both timid and irresolute…a pathetic combination on the battlefield, and disaster for other members of their units, or those serving adjacently.

It is hard to imagine that those Sailors and Marines are derived from the same lineage as those who defended Roarke’s Drift, battled the Luftwaffe over London, or manned the HMS Sheffield.

I am also a bit surprised that one’s honor goes as cheap as £250,000 these days. Had I allowed myself to be paraded around by an abject terrorist, with a smile on my face, and with my Persian goody-bag, I’d be looking for a rock, under a boulder, in a cave, in the far corners of Death Valley under which to hide, and hoping no one recognized me…I wouldn’t be hawking my “story” of shame and recalcitrance. Their performance when threatened smacks of inadequate training, and irresolute individual will…to sell that, shameful.

Lastly we should be leery of those pushing our participation in coalitions…when the Brits don’t have the courage to fire off a few rounds against the Iranian puppet masters, we are truly in a position where we may have the only combat forces left in the world.

Warriors fight…get a helmet and fire your rifle.

© Michael McBride 2007

Global Swarming: The Vultures of Darkness...

2007-04-01T10:21:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

UPDATE 04.03.07
As if to blatantly prove my point, Belgium imposes a tax on fire!

Freed from obligation, Prometheus resigns! The Vultures turn to feed on Men.

---

In the Middle Ages, the Medieval or Dark Ages as it was called, from the 5th Century to the 16th Century, the Roman Catholic Church ushered control of vast populations of Men by manipulating the darkness of their ignorance and fear.

Now, in the dawn of the 2nd millenium, the Church of Environmentalism is trying to return Man to darkness, for the very same reason as before... control by fear and ignorance.

From today's Washington Post...

SYDNEY, March 31 -- The Sydney Opera House, dozens of skyscrapers and countless homes switched off their lights Saturday evening along with many other sites in Australia's largest city to register concern about global warming.

The arch of Sydney's other iconic structure, the Harbor Bridge, was also blacked out in the city of 4 million as part of the hour-long gesture, which organizers said they hoped would be adopted as an annual event around the world.

In her most famous novel, Ayn Rand propheted, "Prometheus... changed his mind. After centuries of being torn by vultures in payment for having brought to men the fire of the gods, he broke his chains—and he withdrew his fire—until the day when men withdraw their vultures.

In the twighlight of Western Civilization, as Men of the mind are made to withdraw, the vultures can be seen on the dark fringe of the opposite horizon...

... swarming!

ALF…Six Degrees of Separation

2007-03-20T10:02:00.000-07:00

Major Michael McBride
(reprinted with permission of townhall.com)

The kooky domestic terrorists at the Animal Liberation Front have struck again, this time in animal friendly Portland, Oregon.

ALF, known in FBI circles as…

“…a leading domestic terrorist threat,…”

…has taken to targeting investment advisors for Wachovia Securities, in some warped Six Degrees of Separation scheme that somehow makes a securities advisor in Portland, Oregon a “legitimate” target for their activities against GlaxoSmithKline; who apparently use the services of Huntingdon Life Sciences, a company founded in England, who is apparently, their ultimate target.

Can Kevin Bacon be more than two steps away?

Huntingdon Life Sciences evaluates the effects of chemicals and drugs, and yes, this involves testing on animals. Their homepage acknowledges that with the stringent demands for drug safety and necessity to minimize the risks to their human end users, surprise, they use animals in their experiments. Huntingdon provides scientific services (experiments) for varied uses such as, veterinary medicines, human medicines, and other testing that ultimately benefits us as humans. They provide a breakout of their procedures used on animals, and obviously overlooked by ALF, an overwhelming majority of their testing occurs on rodents.

I guess the hooded cretins at ALF choose to ignore these facts, so that they can justify their incoherent targeting of innocent securities advisors in the advancement decidedly illegal activities, many highlighted at the Animal Liberation Press Office. I guess, in the best traditions of hooded anarchists, their single-purpose ends, justify their intimidating and illegal means.

ALF’s new tactics are disturbing. By their own illogic, virtually anybody that eats at McDonald’s, or takes prescription drugs may end up being one of their targets. Most of us understand that animals are used in a variety of ways to facilitate our everyday lives…some a bit extravagant, such as furs and cosmetics; some somewhat selfish, such as veterinary products that aid our pets, and enhance our enjoyment of them; and some quit necessary, such as prescription drug testing. None of us deserve to be individually targeted or intimidated simply because we interact with those that participate in this very vital function.

Who at ALF has not taken prescription drugs or taken their pet to the vet for treatment that ultimately led to some kind of drug treatment? It is impossible for even the most stringent ALF anarchist to walk through life without using the benefits of animal testing. So how does a securities analyst in Portland, Oregon get singled out for threats and intimidation?

Coupled with this illogic, is the MSM’s refusal to deal with these “terrorists” as the social threat that they are. While the Oregonian acknowledges in their article that ALF is considered a serious threat by the FBI, the Oregonian mitigates this label by calling them “activists” in their headline.

ALF claims responsibility for over forty “activist” activities over the past three years, many involve disruptions and suppression of legal activities. For all of their focus on the “negative effects” of the Patriot Act over the past five years, you would think that the MSM would likewise object to the threatening and destructive attacks that ALF and their cousins have perpetrated, that have the same net effects on others’ personal liberties. But I guess that it is okay to deny others their legal rights, and destroy their property, if you wrap your abuse of their liberties in the fuzzy cuteness of infant monkeys and puppies.

In the end they are the terrorists that the FBI classifies them as. But until we begin to recognize them for the threat that they are, we will be enabling their activity and emboldening them to take more aggressive measures to achieve their aims. Their activity needs to be stifled and directly engaged by the appropriate law enforcement agencies, until they can contain their methods to true civil disobedience bounded by existing laws, and that is respectful of others’ rights and property.

Their enablers, the MSM, need to begin to live in the real world and recognize that these violent “do-gooders” are not the innocents that they pretend to be, but that they are a true threat to our individual liberties, and because of their random methodologies, a potential physical threat to their varied targets.

ALF’s recent stretch to targeting indirectly connected associates of their prime targets is an ominous turn, and one that requires the immediate attention of law enforcement, and the blind MSM. Turning an indifferent eye to this dangerous group is in itself dangerous and reckless. Domestic terrorism is a real threat and ALF is proving that it cannot be further ignored.

Particularly if Kevin Bacon may eventually lie in the wandering path of ALF’s accelerating violence.

Global Swarming: The Great Swindle...

2007-03-15T19:19:00.000-07:00

Mr.Atos

A new UK Documentary takes a hard look at the The Great Global Warming Swindle,

According to a group of scientists brought together by documentary-maker Martin Durkin, if the planet is heating up, it isn't your fault and there's nothing you can do about it. We've almost begun to take it for granted that climate change is a man-made phenomenon. But just as the environmental lobby think they've got our attention, a group of naysayers have emerged to slay the whole premise of global warming.

View it here...

...If you have the courage to resist the swarm.

The Legacy of Walter Reed’s Failings

2007-03-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

Major Michael McBride

While the over-staged drama of Congressional hearings will continue to dominate the Walter Reed story for weeks to come, there are some real cautions for our Congress and media before they jump in and help the military “solve” the problems at Walter Reed.

The problem is fairly simple. The staff at Walter Reed was caught derelict in their duties.

I am sure that while Democrat lead Congressional hearings, and the bent media coverage find some way to prove that the President planted the black mold in the hospital, they will be missing a couple of points.

Military medicine is BIG medicine. It, combined with VA operations, are enormous “businesses” that are currently not efficiently managed or effectively lead. Managing a tentacled behemoth is no small task, and it must be left to professionals…managers, not doctors. These entities should not be “lead” by tenured physicians with some weekend MBA. They need to be lead by professional and experienced leader/managers. Not efficiency experts, and accounting fanatics, but thoughtful managerial professionals used to leading large, diverse organizations or corporations.

In the case of the military hospitals, they need to be lead by experienced line officers that have earned management degrees outside of military channels. This is the same approach that is taken with the variety of military post-graduate schools, including its War Colleges and its variety of specialized degree programs. But these should be line officers, not doctors trying to extend their careers outside of their operating room duties. It would be even better that any facility that handles the combat wounded, be managed by line officers that were themselves, previously wounded.

This new style of hospital leader would be tied to their patients in a way that would ensure, that in the execution of the primary purpose of their existence, these facilities would be hallmarks of excellence, not paragons of medical mediocrity. Be still moaning doctors…you, as with your educational brethren have had your chance as manager/leaders, and have failed miserably. Now you get to do business the military way; the way in which “leaders” accomplish their missions, or are rightfully relieved of duty.

The military’s medical services and the VA need to get themselves in shape immediately. They need to meet recognized standards, and sustain them. This is accomplished by getting the cronyism out of the VA, and putting line officers in charge of our military facilities…with no apologies. Changing the leadership strategy for hospital management will be unwelcome by medical professionals, but this change is absolutely critical, if we are to ensure that our wounded are dealt with in the interested and respectful manner that they deserve.

Doctors and dentists in the services and the VA are there for one simple reason, to provide care to our wounded servicemen/women…ALL else is secondary. Failing to accomplish this in the middle of a protracted war is a grievous failing that the Army must atone for, and that all other facilities must guard against…assuming they would pass muster today. For those that wish to keep your jobs, refocus on what is important, and put our wounded as your number one priority…all else is a distant second.

You lost focus at the worst possible time. There is no excuse. It is time for a drastic change.

The services should also move to end charitable campaign solicitations from our service members that do not support military related programs. Through the Combined Federal Campaign, only a fraction of the millions our service members contribute finds its way back onto our bases. This type of charitable campaign should be re-focused to serve only the very specific needs of our service members. This could easily include higher end items or advanced care that our services may not able to provide; such as extended or advanced physical therapy, hi-tech prosthetics, and advanced reconstructive surgeries.

We are missing an opportunity to support “our own” by shipping millions of charitable dollars off our bases each year…it is time to cut off the flow, and call in our marker from those charities that have thrived over dozens of years from the donations of our servicemen and women.

Let’s take care of our own, and lay claim to what we need, and let’s get some of it from those we have supported for so long.

Now we will see if all of the Congressional posturing over the past couple of weeks about supporting our troops will be supported with long term action. Support DOD and VA hospital budgets through adequate funding, including enough monies to attract top level doctors and managers to the DOD and VA hospitals. Provide minimum level of care guidelines that stretch our capabilities, but are measurable, so that “adequate care” is not a moving target impossible to hit by ever-wandering congressional standards. Congressional visits to our hospitals should be a routine occurrence, not an infrequent grip-and-grin for PR reasons.

Real congressional involvement, combined with firm standards of care, and adequate budgets would go a long way in stabilizing the slipping state of DOD and VA health care.

For the social program pushing Dems and MSM, this is what non-competition, governmental, BIG medicine can become…even in the best intentioned facilities. This is the harbinger of a national health care system, and the by-product of a non-competitive industry. Without competition or incentives to improve, public medicine will spiral into complacency, just as the staff at Walter Reed did.

Of course the Dems and the MSM will be pleased with themselves, as all citizens will now be covered by health insurance, regardless of how mediocre it becomes. New, BIG medicine will easily evolve into an endless source of “investigative reports” and Congressional hearings. They will forever be able to uncover zillions of shortcomings effortlessly found in under funded systems, and unwieldy organizations; leaving only a trail of exasperated, yet well-intentioned public servants in the wake of their near-continuous stream of “fact-finding” activity.

If you want to see what universal, government backed health care will look like, or worse…look at Walter Reed. The administrative latitude that the services have in accomplishing their mission is unparalleled in the civilian world…if they struggle, you can bet that big, government managed systems will struggle far worse, with many more grievous examples of sub-standard care than will be found at Walter Reed. Congressional dictum cannot “will” mammoth systems to function effectively or efficiently, and such systems will only become self-licking ice cream cones for the left and the MSM…a endless source for malpractice investigations and Congressional windbagging.

The legacy of Walter Reed’s failings will be the imprint that their malfeasance has left on our injured troops; our diminished confidence in our services’ ability to set and sort priorities; and the congressionally mandated overhaul which the VA and military medical systems will certainly undergo in short order.

But the true lesson of Walter Reed, is that monstrously large medical systems are not easily managed, and a lack of competition breeds complacency…this is a preview of a national health care system, and it will not be an Oscar winner.

© Michael McBride 2007

Global Swarming: Dying Polar Bears...

2007-03-09T07:23:00.000-08:00

Mr.Atos

So we've all by now heard the News stories, read the editorials, listened to the Ad Council spots for the Environmental Defense Fund, and the lamentations of friends and co-workers...

Those poor Polar Bears are dying... from Global Warming... and its our fault!

Right?!

Well, not exactly, says London's Daily Telegraph... (ht:wretchard)

More to come...

Stella...

2007-03-06T08:18:00.000-08:00

Mr.Atos

Austin lost another icon. Stella Boes passed away last night. She was one of Austin's folk legends, and had appeared over the years several times on various local radio shows. She had been a long-time feature of Austin's Carousel Lounge and even into her 90's walked and danced for causes and charities like the March of Dimes. She was recently featured in National Geographic's series, Dance Across America as well as other articles,

The Austin Chronicle

The Daily Texan

And others.

Stella was a rugged Canadian gal who became a real Texas folk hero in many ways. And those who came to know her are all very sad about her passing. She is survived by two Sons, Gary and Wayne, and a Daughter, Karen... and many beautiful grand children.

So long, Stella. Keep dancing!

Molly...

2007-03-06T08:06:00.000-08:00

Mr.Atos

Molly Ivins has passed away, RadioAustin, KGSR has posted her obituary, here...

Syndicated political columnist Molly Ivins died of breast cancer Wednesday evening at her home in Austin. She was 62 years old, and had much, much more to give this world.She remained cheerful despite Texas politics. She emphasized the more hilarious aspects of both state and national government, and consequently never had to write fiction. She said, “Good thing we’ve still got politics—finest form of free entertainment ever invented.”

We here at My Sandmen may not have ever agreed with her on a single thing she wrote or believed, but she was nevertheless a strong, determined, and quite articulate champion of the causes and issues she chose to address. She will surely be missed. Dont Ask Why.

God's speed, Molly!

Which Troops Does The Oregonian Support?...

2007-03-05T08:42:00.000-08:00

Mr.Atos

This is how Portland's Oregonian elects to support the troops...

...by running two-day old Taliban propaganda as the lead story, front page, Monday morning.

The story by AP reporter, Rahim Faiez, is headlined, "Afghans say Marines hit civilians."

Its curious, however, that you cannot find this story listed on their official website. A search for it yields this story,

Ambush on U.S. convoy leaves 16 dead

The suicide bomber hit the American convoy with an explosives-packed minivan, said Noor Agha Zawok, the spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, and militants then fired gunfire from several directions, the U.S. military said. Coalition forces returned fire in defense of the attack, the U.S. said.

It wasn't immediately clear if the Afghans were killed by the militants gunfire or that of the U.S. soldiers.

This is quite different form Faiez report that, "The Americans, fleeing a suicide bombing and militant ambush moments earlier, were in a panicked rush... their gunners fired indiscriminately along the busy road."

In the fog of war, with the details vague (or in this case not really), count on the Oregonian to choose their favored side in this conflict by nature of their presumptive reporting. Its clearly not OUR troops they support.

The Lesson of Walter Reed...

2007-03-02T10:29:00.000-08:00

Mr.Atos

By now, the story of Walter Reed Hopsital has achieved public infamy, much to the driveby media's delight, as they report near gleefully that,

....the bureaucratic red tape that bedevils wounded soldiers and their families had become standard operating procedure. When they first arrive at Walter Reed, wounded soldiers receive world-class medical care, but that is only the first step on a long road to recovery, adds Martin. After their wounds have been stabilized and they are out of immediate danger, they become outpatients, living in apartments provided by the Army or renting their own.

That's where they fall into limbo — or at the very least into the life of a low-ranking soldier coping with the intricacies and indifference of the Army's bureaucracy. At any given time, there are 55 soldiers being treated for their wounds in the hospital as well as 600 outpatients undergoing therapy or waiting for further surgery. The system clearly is not capable of handling that many outpatients and that is the system Weightman inherited when he took over.

Clearly the 'Driveby's' intend to clobber the administration with these recent revelations. But, this simply sounds to me like the condition of public healthcare that I experienced while living in Chicago, Illinois. And yet, the good, young (naive and quite incapable) Senator from that State attempts to deliver meaningful attention to the issue,

Responding to reports of deplorable conditions at Walter Reed, Illinois Sen. Barak Obama is introducing a bill to set higher standards, require outside inspection of Army hospitals, and let wounded vets cut through the nightmare of paperwork to get needed services, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss. "The administration has not thought this through," said Obama. "They underestimated the costs and they continue to do so."

Nevertheless, politely ignoring the adequate Senator's inane suggestions, and his quite absurd accusations, I'd like to point to this condition as a sterling example of what America will get, with Nationalized Healthcare... compliments of Obama and/or Clinton. Because, if this is how the Federal healthcare bureaucracy treats America's 'Hero's,' imagine if you will, how it will treat your children... unwanted or otherwise.

Do you wish to choose?

Choose wisely!

What Is Being Left - The Friend of My Enemy...

2007-02-28T09:12:00.000-08:00

Mr.Atos

UPDATE: 30.05.07:06:54

Bill Maher, is most certainly what is being Left! To reiterate my original point, as more and more 'good' citizens evaporate from Liberalism and the Democrat party, all that will be left is the filth... that which is untreatable, not compatible, will go nowhere else..... and stinks unbearably of rot and decomposition. What is being Left is a toxic poison that is attempting to feed itself to humanity... by force. I give you, modern Liberalism as personified by a superconcentrated paste of human septic waste in a cheap suit with a bad haircut a scat-eating grin and a personal stench to match his moral degeneracy.

---

The brutal assasination attempt missed its intended target, but nevertheless ended the lives of 23 people in Bagram, Afghanistan yesterday. It did however succeed in stirring the fetid core of what is being Left.

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) — In what the Taliban claimed was an assassination attempt, a suicide bomber attacked the main gate of a U.S. military base Tuesday within earshot of Vice President Dick Cheney. The explosion killed 23 people, including two Americans, and delivered a propaganda blow that undercut the U.S. military and the weak Afghan government it supports.

The bomber struck about 10 a.m., and U.S. military officials declared a "red alert'' at the sprawling Bagram Air Base while Cheney was rushed to a bomb shelter. Cheney, who had been stranded at the base overnight by a snowstorm, met with President Hamid Karzai in the capital before heading back to the United States via the Gulf
state of Oman.

"I heard a loud boom,'' Cheney told reporters aboard Air Force Two en route to Oman.
"The Secret Service came in and told me there had been an attack on the main gate.''
Many of the victims were said to be Afghan truck drivers waiting to get inside the base. A dozen men — many of them sobbing heavily — left the base holding a stretcher bearing their loved ones wrapped in black body bags. Tears streamed down the face of one man sitting in the passenger seat of an SUV that carried another victim away.

No sooner had the Afghan Taliban laid proud claim to the carnage, when the American Left both applauded the brutal attempt, and lamented its failure. Similar to the scenes of Palestinian celebrations in Gaza on the afternoon of September 11th, the Left, acting out in virtual microcosm, considered for a moment the primordial source of their true motivation and exposed it briefly for the world to behold yesterday at the popular Democrat Blog, Huffington Post. Try as they might afterward to flush the memory hole of any record, WorldNetDaily took notice of some 12 pages of vitriolic comments from the post before the thread was locked and purged. It included such morcels of wisdom as these...

Better luck next time! (TDB)

Dr Evil escapes again ... damn. (truthtopower01)

So Cheney is personally responsible for the deaths of 14 innocent people ... and then he waddles off to lunch!! What a piece of sh--! (fantanfanny)

Jesus Christ and General Jackson too, can't the Taliban do anything right? They must know we would be so gratefull (sic) to them for such a remarkable achievement. (hankster2)

Hey, Thalia, lighten up. I, for one, don't wish Cheny (sic) had been killed. I wish he had been horribly maimed and had to spend the rest of his life hooked to a respirator. Feel better now? (raisarooney)

Let's see ... they're killing him over there so we don't have to kill him over here? (ncjohn)
And they missed!? Oh, Hell. Like Mamma used to say, I guess it's the thought that counts ... (Anachro1)

You can never find a competent suicide bomber when you need one. (Mark701)

To be fair, WND further noted,

... that one contributor to the string of comments, "MNCurler," echoed many others, writing: "The posts advocating for Cheney's demise really show the class of the people who post here. No wonder you can't get a civil debate on this site- we are dealing with lunatic idiots."

Nevertheless the dominant sentiments of the core of what is being Left were cleary expressed by those "lunatic idiots", despite saner protestations. Were that this was an isolated incident of pathological malevolence, one might write it off as the verbal defecations of a marginal radical fringe of ignorant miscreants. But, as I have recorded over the years (see links below) this is an ongoing and quite characteristic of what is being Left.

Note that in their expression of emotion, the self-righteous champions of humanism all but ignored the victims of this latest terrorist assault. Predictably, the Left remains silent about the collateral body count of innocents when the terrorists attack... especially when their target is the American Vice President.

A recent post at FreeRepublic, purportedly on behalf of Moderate Muslims, begged restraint and cooperation,

We the moderate Muslims are doing our best to build Bridges and spread the Peace with "People of the Book" (Jews, Christians, Muslims), and others who are also our brethrens in humanity. But we can’t do it alone and we need your help.

We can tell you that most people around us, are loving, and supportive of us. This is a great Country, as we are free to practice Islam, and contribute to our society.

Regardless of their geniuine sincerity, I was forced to consider their point As unpopular a sentiment as this might seem in many circles, it nevertheless occurred to me as I pondered the asassination attempt on Cheney weighed against the glee on the Left and their disappointment at its lack of success, that something here in our thinking is askew. Was it Sun Tzu who pointed out that the enemy of my enemy is my friend? The Left and the Islamofascists clearly share similar immediate goals and their fundamental sentiments bare profound similarity... Western Civilization is depraved and must be erradicated. In fact, what is being Left has more in common through their collective insanity with radical Muslims than they the West. Similarly, We have far more in common with moderate Muslims than we do our radical Leftists brethren. This War, it occurred to me is being framed along the wrong lines of friend and foe. And perhaps it will be won when we are willing to acknowledge the right friendships and build an alliance of respect and trust among the Men of virtue... be they Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Budhist, Mormon, Muslim or agnostic apostles of Reason. When those Men unite, victory will be delivered. If , however we remain traditionally united by rusted chains of categorical unity, and yet functionally divided in spirit, we will all be cut down by an enemy unified in its hatred of Mankind. Because what is being Left has become every bit as morally degenerate as the Taliban and Al Quaeda, if but merely lacking the courage to act on their immense hate with anything more than those anonymous verbal defecations.

Of that, I guess we can at least be thankful. For now. But, the friend of my enemy claims solidarity, while openly advocating my demise. And that is afterall, what is being Left.

See Also...
What Is Being Left v.18.0
What Is Being Left v.17.0
What Is Being Left v.16.0
What Is Being Left v.15.0
What Is Being Left v.14.0
What Is Being Left v.13.0
What Is Being Left v.12.0
What Is Being Left v.11.0
What Is Being Left v.10.0
What Is Being Left v.9.0
What Is Being Left v.8.0
What Is Being Left v.7.0
What Is Being Left v.6.0
What Is Being Left v.5.0
What Is Being Left v.4.0
What Is Being Left v.3.0
What Is Being Left v.2.0
What Is Being Left v.1.0

Infiltrating Christian Thought

2007-02-27T19:12:00.000-08:00

Major Mike

Is attending Sunday services with the express purpose of critiquing the sermon a sin? Is it a sin to go to church for the express purpose of rallying a radical base against the very churchgoers who let you attend services in the first place? Is deception and cynicism a sin, or just journalistically unethical?

The Oregonian, failing to consider any of those questions, gladly published today’s Steve Duin column, where Steve trashes the conservative message of the sermon delivered by Mat Staver, Dean of the Liberty University School of Law, at the Rolling Hills Community Church this past weekend.

Does his disingenuous attendance of this service serve local journalism well? Probably, because it cements his place as the squeaky clarinet of the disjointed Portland left.

Duin certainly knew what the message would be…a call to conservative Christian values…morality, biblical obedience, and a call to support conservative causes such as a strong defense, pro-marriage legislation, and social obedience. Duin admits he attended so the he could assess the Restore America campaign that encourages Christians to “vote their values.”

Duin thought maybe he’d hear something like a rebuttal of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity?

He feigns disbelief that compassionate souls could make generous offerings to a gas station attendant, yet not embrace the stilted and intertwined aspects of pedophilia, pornography, and same-sex marriage. And throws in a swipe at our founding fathers for good measure…

Duin writes “… We were a Christian nation, balanced on the pillars of morality and religion. We were securely tied to the principles of our God-fearing founding fathers, the ones who considered blacks fit for slavery, women unfit to vote.”

It is not incongruous, nor inconceivable that Christians have limits to their tolerances…limits outlined to them by the Bible, and limits which they embrace to some degree as individuals. Limits that may not include Duin’s vision of a liberal-utopia, where sexual promiscuity, unbridled illegal immigration, and national pacifism exist in abundance and are encouraged to excess by the venerated ACLU.

He is not astute enough in his critique of our founding fathers to measure their quantum leap from previous forms of government to our current form, imperfections not withstanding. He does not acknowledge the limitations they faced in their historical context. In short, Duin has written another of his specialties… a heavily biased, and overly pandering hit piece for the left.

And while he derides the seeming hypocrisy of the attendees and their beliefs, he attacks them as persecutors of Christians have done for over two thousand years…his has struck at them through their own piety, generosity, and hospitality.

I am sure that after the Romans and the lions, Duin is not much of a threat…he is just a bigger hypocrite.

© Michael McBride 2007

Air America Steers for the Iceberg

2007-02-22T14:36:00.000-08:00

Major Mike
(re-printed with permission from townhall.com)

I am not one to explain all things…I remember thinking my brain was probably full when I was learning the aircraft electrical systems of the F/A 18 Hornet. Having previously learned the T-2 (Fighter) Buckeye, The T-39 Saberliner, the TA-4J Skyhawk…The F-4 and the RF-4B…I felt it was getting a little cramped upstairs. Throw in intercept geometry at 900 knots, dogfight tactics, air-to air and air-to-ground weaponry, fusing and delivery options, and there just didn’t seem to be much capacity left. I am sure that many that know me would likely agree.

But some things I get. While reading the Thom Hartmann filling the vacuum (literally) left by Al Franken at Air America, I thought that it is no surprise that successful talk radio is mostly conservative.

The new star of the Portland and the left leaning airwaves is toasted as a do-aller of enormous proportions. He is bragged about as the author of many books, a successful businessman (who has abandoned several “successful” businesses), and is hailed as a liberal iconoclast bolstered by three decades of “personal and professional meanderings.”

The Oregonian glibly glosses over his intentional flunking out of Air Force Basic Training…likely a badge of honor amongst liberal “leadership.” They additionally glide past the incongruity that this college drop out has published several book on such subjects as AD/HD, and the powers of walking for as a cure for an enumerative list of chronic ailments, as if an expert; and they laud his JKF assassination conspiracy book. I suppose expertise doesn’t actually come into play on these subjects…feel good liberal concepts fix or explain it all. Wikipedia calls him a “lay scholar.” I guess that means a scholar without a degree.

So this is the Al Franken replacement?

The Oregonian is hyped up on his granola feel, his “precocious” (I guess, yet incomplete) college career at the academically un-prestigious Michigan State University, and his vegetarianism…a local leftie necessity. At least Franken was a Harvard grad.

For all you Rush haters, I know that he is also a college drop-out. No need to send hate mail on that. But Rush developed and refined the milieu, all others are, as Hartmann says in the Oregonian article, students of the master…or for the lesser skilled, imitators. The feeling I get is that Hartmann is an empty imitator.

Bill Bennett is an accomplished author who happened to forgo writing about his feelings on AD/HD, and chose instead to write about things that he is qualified to comment on. He has a long history of government service, and has a doctorate in Philosophy and a law degree from Harvard. I guess he chose to pass his tests and complete his precocious education.

Hugh Hewitt is a Harvard grad, Michigan Law School graduate…law professor, and writer (on subjects which he happens to actually know about).

Michael Medved is a Yale graduate with a Yale law degree. He is also an accomplished writer and movie critic.

So, as the Titanic known as Air America continues to take on water, and the highly paid captain has chosen to abandon the ship, Air America looks to a relative lightweight to try to save the ship. Academically deficient Janeane Garofolo didn’t posses that capability. I am not sure why AA thinks Hartmann possesses it.

The successful, conservative talk show hosts listed above, are successful, in large measure due to their credibility, derived directly from their bona fides. Their breadth of governmental, academic, and legal expertise, serves them well in putting a superior product on the air very day. They can capably wade through myriad of topics, because they are qualified to do so.

At the same time, Air America has called the neighborhood yacht club regatta winner to try to steer the Titanic to safety. Sorry, but a “lay scholar” isn’t likely to navigate that sinking ship through the choppy waters of talk radio. Deftness is not enough to overcome and inexpert knowledge in a business that is dependent on at least a modicum of credibility.

Air America is doomed…in part because there is no market for the superficial nature of liberal arguments. There is no market for a continuous stream of vulgarities, and shallow analysis. There is no developed market for negativism and defeatism. There is no interest in the vitriolic exchange of ideas that is a constant in the left side of the blogosphere. And there is no market for the re-treading of lies that the Michael Moores, the Bill Mahers, and the Al Frankens spew, day in and day out.

And they are doomed in part because they have picked a darling of the left, who is not capable of swimming in the big pond. Air America is going down. Though they may have picked an able seaman, they certainly have picked no Captain.

If Hartmann is to save the ship…make for the lifeboats…if Franken hasn’t taken them all.

Minority Rules

2007-02-19T08:30:00.000-08:00

Major Mike
(re-printed with permission from Townhall.com)

Democracy is pretty straight forward...majority rules.

Our country has gone to great lengths to ensure that everyone is franchised into our democracy. It has been an imperfect struggle, but we are finally at a point where all are equally represented, and their vote is now equal in measure to all other votes cast. As it should be.

Democracy also finds it way into other areas of our lives...neighborhood associations, clubs, social organizations, and unions, all use the "majority rules" concept. We're comfortable with that. It fits. It is right.

But one of the angular attacks on our democracy has been the over-empowerment of the minority. The minority is entitled to its say in nearly every aspect of our state, local, and national governments. They influence, but don’t govern. They share ideas, but there is no guarantee that their ideas will carry the day. They are full participants, but they are not the majority, and since the majority rules, they have a limited say in the outcomes of these deliberative bodies. Power ebbs and flows between the major parties in Congress, as it ebbs and flows in every other aspect of democratic life.

Except I guess for union organizing.

HB1696 is on the fast track to make it through the House of Representatives, and likely, with the Democrats in control of Congress, on its way to law. Yawn…this happens all the time.

HB1696 proposes some nuanced changes to the National Labor Relations Act, and the key provision, under “Streamlining Union Certification” is the apparently innocuous…

“(6) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, whenever a petition shall have been filed by an employee or group of employees or any individual or labor organization acting in their behalf alleging that a majority of employees in a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining wish to be represented by an individual or labor organization for such purposes, the Board shall investigate the petition. If the Board finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed authorizations designating the individual or labor organization specified in the petition as their bargaining representative and that no other individual or labor organization is currently certified or recognized as the exclusive representative of any of the employees in the unit, the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative described in subsection (a). (my emphasis)

I work in a successful American industry. We have dozens of manufacturing plants across the country, and we provide live-able wage jobs for our employees, with significant benefits…and we have been the target of union organizing several times over the last decade…let me interpret the above paragraph for those unfamiliar with the union organizing process.

Currently, unions are free to solicit employees concerning their interest in joining a union. Typically this is done through some informational briefings where the union organizers explain the benefits of union representation to those interested in the possibility of being represented by that union. These sessions typically culminate with employees being urged to sign Union Authorization Cards.

Under current law, if a union can present to management a number of cards, equal to or greater than 50% of the employee population, the union can solicit for immediate representation, BUT the employer is not obligated to grant this immediate representation, but may defer instead to hold a secret ballot election.

Oh, and incidentally, there is no standard to which the Union Authorization Cards must be filled out, nor the obligation for the organizers to clearly explain the power of these cards. Often employees feel that they are just showing an interest by signing a card, not understanding how much they are empowering a union that does not yet represent them. In a previous drive at this company over 600 employees demanded their signed cards back because of such misleading tactics, the union refused, and counted those 600 cards towards their potential “membership.” To an unprepared employer, and unwitting employees…simply being presented with a stack of UACs that is equal to fifty percent of the workforce, could mean union representation without a secret ballot, democratic style vote.

A prepared employer would demand a secret ballot vote. Secret ballot voting is a hallmark of democracy in that it removes fear and intimidation from the polling place. It allows people to vote with their conscience, without outside influence. It is a standard pursued by international elections monitoring groups, and indeed it is the only way to truly guarantee that the will of the people is correctly heard.

So why would the Democrats, backed heavily by the AFL-CIO, seek to eliminate this very democratic step in the unionization process?

What the proposed law change means in real terms, is that instead of requiring a democratic style vote to in selecting for or against union representation in the workplace, the simple submission of a majority of UACs would be enough, without a vote, to force workers to be represented by the petitioning union. Without a standard for card submission, or employee ownership of their signed cards, there are no guarantees that a majority of employees would actually be determining the direction for all employees. Without requiring a vote, this law sows the seed for fraud at the worst and malfeasance at the best.

Why would Democrats so precipitously sell out one of our basic democratic principles? Campaign contributions? And why would they be so eager to feed the agenda of one of the most corrupt unions of all times?

Election maneuvering has become a hallmark of the liberal game plan, but disenfranchising employees where they make their living is not liberal, it is criminal.

The union model has broken the US airline industry (sans Southwest), and the US automotive industry. A capricious approach to over-empowering the unions of this country should be carefully considered. Unions have mostly helped themselves over the past forty years, now it appears the Democrats are going to aid and abet in that process…walking on our basic democratic principles along the way.

Avoiding Taxes the Celebrity Way

2007-02-16T10:59:00.000-08:00

Major Mike

I am shocked that Steve Duin of the Oregonian missed this gem..."Celebrity royalties flow into Dutch tax shelters". If you remember, Steve is all for higher taxes, and especially sticking it to Nike and other corporations.

He is interestingly silent when it comes to rockers like the Rolling Stones, and uber-celeb-de-cause Bono, denying their governments tax dollars by sheltering them in Holland. Remember, at about a 40% tax rate in Great Britian, the Rolling Stones have paid only about $7M in taxes over the last twenty years on generated incomes of over $450M...good for them, BUT these liberal do-gooders and neo-con bashers are at the same time denying their socialist style governments significant amounts of revenue...in other words...it OK for them to espouse the benefits of universal health care, massive social programs, and government welfare, and its OK for you to pay 40% of your income to support that; but they will deny the very systems they tout the actual monies it takes to finance their liberal agenda...they leave that to you and I.

And Steve Duin remains silent.

I am all for paying lower taxes, what I dislike intensly is liberal media's negative protrayals of companies that generate commerce for their States, and are viewed only as golden geese by MSM pratlers and neo-socialists...while liberal celebrities avoid the same scrutiny.

"Supporting the Troops" Means... Supporting the Troops

2007-02-14T09:03:00.000-08:00

Major Mike

As the House begins its unnecessary, yet self-induced political gyrations on what will prove to be a number of gutless, spineless, and ineffectual resolutions regarding their visions of what should happen in Iraq, complete with the full compliment of 2008 influenced amendments, whereas’, and what-ifs; it would be prudent to take a moment to develop a list of actions that would actually “support” the men and women who are actively engaged in combat operations for this country…from their point of view…not from some slanted, poll blown perspective that is replete with re-election myopia, and covered with party driven slime.

From and insider’s point of view, THIS is supporting the troops.

1. Vote your conscience the first time; then stick to your vote.

Congressional maneuverings among the professional politikal class every two years, in their effort to cling to their prestigious and influential posts, often have the same Senators and Congressmen/women backtracking over their votes in order to preserve their political hides. When this occurs, those in the Armed Forces are disgusted by these self-serving politicos, and they expect their efforts in the field to be fully politicized in short order.

“Supporting” the troops means honoring their sacrifices by seeing through on the mission. Poll sniffing pols do not support the troops; they endeavor only to support themselves. Vascillting self-servitude, is not considered "support" in most circles, and certainly not among the rank and fiile in the military.

2. A Congressional commitment to a strong military in times of peace.

After Desert Storm Congressional budget cuts dictated force reductions for all services. Maintenance and operations budgets were slashed; weapons buying programs were metered monies that barely kept them on life support. Operational capabilities were correspondingly unable to progress from their established 1991 levels, and in many cases, capabilities were reduced due to insufficient training opportunities and declining equipment readiness rates…all budget driven.

Established capabilities require constant training, routine refinement, and equipment/weapons systems upgrading in order for our forces to sustain a sharp operational edge over our opponents. Cyclic financing and wandering (and Congressionally influenced) spending on military programs, strip our operational readiness and place our expeditionary forces at a higher risk. Formal recognition of basic operational requirements, coupled with steady funding to meet these operational baselines, is required to demonstrate a commitment to our combat forces.

3. Keep up on current events.

Know who we’re fighting. Hugh Hewitt has several times caught Congressional leaders on not knowing the difference between Sunni and Shi’a, or which is more closely aligned with us, or what the root causes are for their violent differences. It is hard to imagine that a Senator or Congressman, who is abjectly ignorant or intentionally indifferent on the issues, is sincere with his/her claims of “supporting” the troops.

Re-treading tired issues in the MSM for sound bite generation is also not “supporting” the troops…it is ignorant and self-serving. Upgraded body armor and up-armored Hummers are dead issues…so much so, that many infantry types are complaining about limited mobility on the battlefield due to too much personal armor. Troops have long ago moved on from this issue…it is time for Congressional sound bite generators to move on to something else, and quit manipulating these types of “issues” for “the sake of the troops”…the troops don’t need nor desire that kind of self-serving “help.”

Show an interest by keeping up with the flow of the situation, and act and comment on relevant issues...not those that have been dead for two years.

4. Listen to the troops, not the MSM.

There are dozens of milbloggers who are getting a starkly different message out than what the MSM hash-slingers are printing and airing…listen to the new media. These “new media” reporters, columnists, and editorialists, are directly engaged with our military everyday, and in dozens and dozens of ways. The MSM reporting of the blast-de-jour, and the US service-member body count, from the confines of NYC or some “Green Zone” safe house, is distorting the facts on the ground, and is passé in its methodology. MSM reporters, for the most part, are content with raising their glasses to one another after their “hard day” of reporting.

That some reporters have suffered injuries, or have been killed, has only driven most of them further indoors and away from significant, continuous action. It is dangerous…all the more reason that Congress understands why, and that they should get relevant information from those that have been continuously engaged…not those tagging along on Congressional junkets or three-day excursions to “boost” their credibility.

Also, invite some Lance Corporals, some Sergeants, some Captains and Lieutenants to testify in front of Congress, and instead of asking self-answering, self-serving questions, let them talk freely about their feelings…recorded…on C-SPAN. Don’t speak authoritatively, referencing some ambiguous encounter with some semi-anonymous troops, about a topic that prepoorts to speak for a majority of the troops, when the “information” was gained through some five minute grip-and-grin session at the local Guard base as you were boarding your plane back to Washington. Let the troops speak publicly themselves, and then believe them.

5. Assume some personal risk.

Corollary to above. Congressmen/women should embed themselves with the troops for a minimum of thirty days. This, first-hand experience would go a long way to bridging the divide between espousing “support for the troops” and actually understanding the needs of our troops in the field. Hopefully there will be no casualities, but is it not fair for the poltical windsocks who claim to represent the troops, to share in some of the dangers that their politically driven votes have created?

Most Congressmen/women have not spent enough time engaged with the troops to understand in detail what they need, and what they think. A few weeks of sharing their hardships will get them to cement their votes, and speak defintiviely on a position...one way or the other. A well-cast vote, is support enough.

6. Acknowledge the threat.

The minimization of the intensity and ferocity of the threat worldwide, the complete rejection of the good that we have done in denying another training ground for Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and the over-emphasizing of the mission in Afghanistan, in making the case against our involvement in Iraq; collectively diminish the operational efforts and the collective sacrifices that have been made by our troops in Iraq. Diminishment of one’s accomplishments as compared to the gravity and lethality of the threat is not generally considered “supportive.”

7. Quit running the Ho Chi Minh playbook.

By setting timetables, publicly voicing your opposition to the efforts of our troops engaged with the enemy, threatening to counter the President’s efforts for victory, you encourage the enemy, and subsequently enhance the enemy’s efforts in the field…directly increasing the number of US casualties.

Support the troops by working behind the scenes with the President to get your views across. Talk in terms of victory, not disengagement and withdraw…we know these phrases to be euphemisms for “defeat.” Reject any talk of timetables and re-deployments. Send a continuous stream of messages that give our enemies the idea that there is zero chance for their victory, and that our resolve and focus is on a horizon that includes our ultimate success.

8. Say “victory.”

Try it…it is not that hard. The ultimate reward here is the triumph of good over evil, and victory is the measurement. For those serving, the knowledge that they were victorious would be worth a thousand Congressional resolutions commending their effort after a precipitous withdrawal and an Iraq left in chaos.

The "support" required for our troops invloves the belief in their capabilities and the profound belief in the just-ness of the mission. Anything less than that, as Congress' equivocation has aptly demonstrated, is hardly support. Believe in our military's ability to prevail over the multitude of "bad actors" who are intent on stiffling democrracy in the Middle East. Believe in the capabilities and training of our troops, and support them by believing in their ability to achieve an outcome that is synonymous with the generally accepted definitions of victory.

Supporting the troops requires a bit more effort than the assemblage of several disjointed sentences, combined with obviously incongrueous actions, and bundled together with inchoherent Congressional business-speak. It demands attention to the issues, a recognition of the sacrifices made in the defense of our nation, and a deeply sowed commitment to those who preserve our freedoms through sacrifice and sleflessness.

Support is exceedingly more than the orderly collection of five consonents and two vowels, it is derived from a sense that the greater community is engaged with your effort, believes in your abilities, and sincerely desires your success. Anything less is Congressional rhetoric.

© Michael McBride 2007

M&Ms Meet Big Brother

2007-02-07T09:24:00.000-08:00

Major Mike
(Re-printed with permission of Townhall.com)

Does anyone else miss the light brown M&Ms? Me too.

I knew a few years back when the parent company, Masterfoods announced a contest to re-color M&Ms that my little tan friends were in trouble. Their paltry population was remarkably small when compared to the robust quantities of greens and yellows. I knew immediately that a re-design of the overall color scheme was not the objective, but that this marketing campaign was a direct attack on the rare, khaki jewels that gave M&Ms their earthiness. I could sense the trend toward primary colors would edge out the under represented tannies, and that some "new" "hot" color would replace the staid, and understated anchor in a pallet dominated with the brilliance of primaries.

And I was right. The little gems were soon replaced by the over-used primary blue...I yawned, but lamented the loss of the light brown morsels that had graced the packaging for many years.

But Masterfoods, in the business sense, was right. This was Marketing 101…re-define your product, generate a buzz, re-invigorate the market. So the light brown M&Ms gave it up for the team.

In fact an examination of the marketing of M&Ms over the past twenty years or so would make a case study in any business school. Aside from the marketing scheme outlined above, they have added product…almond M&Ms, white chocolate M&Ms, and mint M&Ms. They have developed product for, and marketed with, The Pirates of the Caribbean movie. They have developed seasonal color combinations that have turned this simple candy into a necessary home accessory for any holiday. They have had a car, adorned with M&Ms caricatures, in the Nextel Cup races for years.

This company works for its sales through innovation, product development and marketing.

A perfect storm of successes that simply invite regulatory interference…and so it comes.

The EU’s authority on such matters, DG Sanco, previously sent Masterfoods an inquiry questioning their marketing practices towards those twelve and younger. My initial response is …”duh…its candy.” Followed closely by…”What’s the next target?”

In light of NYC’s ban on trans fats, the all out assault on smoking anywhere on the planet, and the ever increasing intrusions by government into our lives…can the US be far behind in demanding that our twelve-and-younger crowd be shielded from the temptations of chocolate covered candies that melt in your mouth, but not in your hand?

Two main points…first what did DG Sanco fail to target? Only the entire genre of sugar laden breakfast cereals that ONLY target the twelve and younger crowd. They missed every other candy product on the market. They missed chips. They missed ice cream bars. They missed Toostie Roll Pops, Lifesavers, Pez, Milk Duds, Sweet Tarts, and all of the other products that are marketed directly at that age group.

But M&Ms get singled out? How many four year-olds are getting geared up for the Daytona 500 or accessorizing their room with white, pink and red M&Ms for Valentine’s Day? What is striking here is that most of M&Ms’ marketing falls way outside the twelve-year-old range, but they, and their perfectly legal product get targeted for some social engineering experiment by the EU. Nothing attracts attention like success.

And that lands us squarely into the second issue here…the growing trend of unwanted government intrusions into the myriad of personal choices we make each day.

I am the first person to get annoyed with the lamely capable parent who cannot get past the snack aisle in the grocery store without having their 3 year-old go off on a 150 decibel, eardrum shattering tantrum that causes all of us to snicker and comment about the pitiful lack of parenting skills; BUT unless the government is willing to intervene in the home, they should butt out of dictating to businesses on how to sell their legal products.

The issue here is choice. And last I looked we were all still fully endowed with our unalienable right to choose M&Ms for ourselves and for our children, should we desire. Governmental legislation is no substitution for parenting, and it is certainly less capable of parenting than even the most recalcitrant parent that has ever wandered the candy aisle at Safeway. And with an ever increasing number of these governmentally dictated “good/healthy” choices, our rights are being eroded away by a government that thinks it is capable of legislating parents into doing the right thing. Watch the average checkout counter for an hour on a Saturday morning, and that bag of M&Ms will be dwarfed by the caloric content of tubs of ice cream, bags of chips and cookies, cakes, and other candies, to the extent that the singling out M&Ms is ludicrous in the extreme.

The problem is the gross lack of parental skill. And while liberal intentions may be good, I am not willing to give up any more of my rights…and I don’t expect Masterfoods to give up any of theirs…for a vain imposition of liberal societal engineering, via an angular attack on the marketing practices of an innovative company.

Do I exaggerate? Today’s Oregonian offers evidence of local, but surely not isolated, choice interference within the Portland School District and their vending choices. The story is rich in background, financial data, and potential tort action, but nowhere does the district make the case that the removal of sugared drinks has made any quantitative improvements in any health factors of its students. So, we have denied access of legal products to the marketplace…with typical liberal do-gooder intentions, yet we offer no proof of benefit for such a drastic measure. Even the most compelling evidence, if any exists, would have to be weighed against the grievous loss of individual rights and freedoms. We need to stop acquiescing to these small attacks on our freedoms and the unproven benefits they promise to deliver.

Make the product illegal…good luck with that.

Or charge parents of obese children with child abuse…good luck with that.

But leave profitable and innovative companies out of your social engineering schemes. These oblique attacks are low-voltage attacks on our freedoms and run directly counter to the basic premises of our Constitution…those of freedom of speech and expression, individual choice, and the freedom from unwelcome governmental intrusions into our lives.

Leave M&Ms alone…unless you are going to put the light brown ones back in the bag.

Turning Surge Into Victory

2007-01-30T14:54:00.000-08:00

Major Mike
(reprinted with permission from Townhall.com)

Update: Who won the Super Bowl?

The Indianapolis Colts who could've been written of at half-time of the AFC Championship game...being down by 18 points.

Original Post

When I cracked 1776 on Wednesday to give it its long overdue read, there were two pleasant surprises. I found that it was autographed by the author…something I am appalled at myself for not remembering. And secondly, alone on the inner leaf just prior to Part One, I was greeted by a simple and profound quote from General George Washington…

“Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.”

I should grace the elegance of his words by stopping now, but I fear that my editor is expecting more, and that my semi-conceited verbosity cannot be held in check.

Why Surge?

Developing synergy, while not one of the nine generally accepted “Principles of War,” is an essential element in warfighting. Synergy is developed by having sufficient resources available to conduct all aspects of warfighting required to complete the specific mission to an overwhelming effect.

Too few troops… and units will not be able to conduct all the necessary ops required to fight and win a counterinsurgency struggle. They will not be able to simultaneously hunt down armed and indiscriminant murderers, protect logistical lines of support, conduct aggressive patrolling operations, conduct community confidence building and infra-structure re-building efforts, and deliver the expected results to an impatient Congress in a timely manner.

Too many troops… and a discontinuity of effort between units can develop, the logistical tail can outgrow the size of the dog, and the cost to deliver the expected results to an impatient Congress can exceed their expectations and diminish their support.

Getting the proper sized force in place is critical to ensuring that a lean, aggressive force can break the enemies force and their will, ensure its own security, build confidence amongst the local populace, and do so in a timely and efficient manner.

Three years of combat operations in Iraq has greatly diminished the capabilities of the insurgents in Iraq. Yes, they have become more lethal with their explosives…this is simply an outgrowth of the ability to get their hands on better technology, but they are not becoming a better organized, or more effective combat force. Indeed, I think it is very safe to say that if we pulled out today, the insurgents would not be the winner, as they are nearly spent and exhausted, but some third party would likely step into the vacuum that their diminished ranks could not fill.

The goal of the Surge is to complete the task of breaking the will of the insurgents, at the same time, having enough forces available to discourage the rise of a non-governmental third party from interrupting the growth of this fledgling democracy. A simple principle, and well within the norms of our current warfighting capabilities. Situations in combat change and often commanders must be prepared to adapt their strategies and underlying tactics mid-course…this, however is no cause for alarmist, defeatist behavior.

What should the Surge look like?

The Surge should be aggressive in its combat action. It needs to be forceful, lethal, and determined. It needs to re-establish our military supremacy over the situation in Iraq, and in doing so it will re-establish a determined Iraqi populous support for our efforts and their democracy.

Forget hearts and minds, winning insurgencies is about winning the confidence of the general population. If you fail to build a confidence in your inevitable victory and the chances for a long lasting piece, they will waffle in support, biding their time until a clear winner emerges.

Insurgent forces are usually unimaginably brutal in their tactics, not so much to garner support, but more in their efforts to establish security around their ruthless operations. Populations paralyzed in fear, typically do not act against insurgent forces that have a hope in prevailing. Our Surge must extinguish any ray of hope that a post-US Iraq will degenerate into a vengeful free-for-all amongst all the competing political and military entities. To do so, we must crush the ability of our enemies to threaten the general population.

Secondly, we must completely isolate Iraq from any outside political, military, or any other de-stabilizing influences. This includes the harsh interdiction of Iranian, Syrian, Al Qaeda-ian, or any other foreign entity that desires to affect the outcome in Iraq.

This means securing cross-border routes from Iran and Syria, with extreme military measures if required. Lethal combined air-ground operations are likely required to eliminate these as routes of re-supply and re-enforcement. Constant patrolling and interdiction is the order of the day, and this requires a significant number of resources to execute across long international boundaries. This will greatly reduce the combat power of the insurgents and force them to rely solely on “popular” support, which is likely minimal.

This action will additionally have a negative impact on the morale of the insurgents. In order to defeat them, they need to be, and feel, isolated. Isolating the battlefield, aside from providing additional security for our forces, will have an immeasurable effect on the ability of the insurgents to effectively recruit for, and conduct operations within Iraq. The more isolated they are, and they feel, the less effective their operations will be. They need to be impressed with an overwhelming sense of isolation and hopelessness. For, as anyone who has gone through SERE (Survival Escape Resistance and Evasion) training knows, the sense of isolation is a powerful corrosive on the human will. We need to firmly impress the sense of isolation on the insurgents.

We need to win the information war. We need to quit dancing around this one.

The military and the Administration need to redefine this part of the war, and they need to do everything in their power to communicate to the Iraqi people and to all Americans, that we are, even to this point, winning this war. We need to redefine the measureables, swarm the conservative talk shows, and embed as many conservative bloggers over the next few months as possible. Instead of dead US servicemen dominating the MSM, the American public needs to hear about kilowatt hours distributed across the Iraqi power grid. They need to hear how many small businesses opened up last month. They need to hear of dead insurgents, traffic volume, GDP, oil sales, school openings, local elections and everything else that peaceful societies take for granted and fail to appreciate. The public needs to be inundated with every bit of positive news that can make its way out of Iraq. To fail to do so, simply isolates our troops in their efforts and forces them to carry the enormity of their task solo, while the pack wolves known as the MSM circle like vultures waiting for failure. We have to gain traction on this aspect of the war, it is critical to keep the definition of the fight out of the hands of the defeatists….both MSM and Congressional.

How long will the surge last?

Until victory or until the perseverance and spirit of the American will erodes. Victory in Iraq is achievable by our amazingly capable and determined Armed Forces. Their effort will only be undercut by self-serving politicking and pointless impatience.

If we decide we want victory we will have it. If we quit on our effort, we will have defeat.

How did Indianapolis get into the Super Bowl?

Spirit and perseverance.

My Letter of Disgust to Senator Gordon Smith, R- OR

2007-01-26T13:28:00.000-08:00

Major Mike

Dear Senator Smith,

As a Republican and retired Marine Officer I am deeply concerned about your non-support of our President and our troops in this time of war. I find your vote to confirm General Petreaus, then to waffle on giving him the troops he needs to execute a plan he helped developed, grossly hypocritical in the least and disingenuous at its best. You are sending him to Iraq as a pre-positioned Senatorial scapegoat. Shameful.

Your maneuverings, and the similar maneuverings of some of your Republican counterparts, are obvious ploys to straddle the issue in an effort to preserve your places in the Senate, and they do no service to this country, or to our troops in the field. This kind of weather-vaning is not the hallmark of a leader, but more a representation of a self-preservationist trying to play all sides at the same time. I find it gutless and reprehensible. Stand up and be counted, this is no time to abandon the sacrifices that have already been made, or to squander the foothold of democracy that those sacrifices have carved out.

Unless you can find the courage to see our effort in Iraq through, you and the Republican Party will receive none of my support out into the future. You will not receive a vote from me any time out into the future, and furthermore, I will do everything in my power to block your re-election. The same will go for the Republican Party…I will not squander my contributions to the political process on feckless Republicans serving their own interests, and who are more committed to their seats in the Congress, than they are in doing the right thing for this nation and its servicemen and women.

Wake up Senator…find the moral courage to see this fight through…your vote put us there, now have the guts to back your vote.

Very Sincerely,
/s/

Michael E. McBride
Major USMC (Ret.)

Killing the All Volunteer Force

2007-01-25T11:48:00.000-08:00

Major Mike
(Re-printed with permission from Townhall.com)

I suppose I come from what’s left of America’s warrior class. Not the noblesse oblige style warrior that dominated the officer corps from the Civil War to World War II, but a working class stock of martial warrior who serves for a sense of individual purpose, and who coincidentally comes from a line of previous warriors.

I was raised in the martial culture, and was drawn to its machinations, as many boys are. As I grew, I came to understand the necessities behind the ceremony and discipline, and I began to feel the heartbeat behind its marital rhythms. I was attracted to the rigors of the military and the sense honor that comes with service. It was my attraction to the elemental foundations of martial service that put me on my career path.

My grandfather served as a Sergeant in World War I with the AEF. He was (reportedly) a tough, feisty Scots-Irish man who earned his citizenship for his service with the artillery corps. He was scarred by mustard attacks, and died before I was old enough to speak, his lungs no longer capable of supplying him oxygen. His service (along will hundreds of thousands of other Americans) shortened the war, and helped save the lives of thousands of more Europeans on both sides, and should be noted as the heroic endeavor that it was. I wear his well-worn and smoothed “Past Commander” American Legion ring on special occasions.

My father served as a pilot in the Marine Corps for thirteen years. He quit college to enter the Naval Aviation Cadet Program. He graduated, re-trained into fleet aircraft and was shipped to Korea. He eventually flew missions into Vietnam as well, but left the service in 1966 when he failed selection to Major. He served because it was part of his persona…he “fit” the military. His service restored South Korea’s borders and extended American policy in Southeast Asia. I wear his well-worn Marine Corps ring, the one that served as his wedding band, on special occasions as well.

I took my first oath of office in 1974 as a Midshipman at Tulane University. It was a course that was neither chosen for me, nor pushed upon me. It was a choice made from a deep seated respect for the martial lifestyle, and from a sense that this country provided the entirety of my immigrant genealogy with opportunities that Ireland and Holland could not have, and that some measure of payment was required. This is a debt that is not settled simply by one generation, but it is a debt more akin to a type of generational mortgage. A debt that should be continually worked off, generation to generation, in return for the opportunity and prosperity this country has offered, and provided.

It makes sense to sacrifice for a greater cause. Truly, generations of Americans have sacrificed again and again in order to improve this nation, and to defend its democratic principles. We have all reaped the benefits of those sacrifices, and we have all been graced with the opportunities that come with democracy, freedom and capitalism. It makes sense to sustain those efforts, and to sustain our founding principles.

But, for how long will it make sense to those like my family to sacrifice when their efforts are being squandered by the political machinations of 535 elected office holders scrambling for another two to six years on the public dole? By 535 self-serving windbags that have turned the Congress of the United States into a franchise of the Waffle House?

This is the question that Hugh Hewitt actually posed when he posted this essay by another retired serviceman. Another, who like me, has selflessly executed the national will via legal and congressionally sponsored military action. And, who like me, is becoming sickened by the maneuverings of a self-serving political class that uses the military and its members as vote getting props when the wind is blowing one direction, then mercilessly rakes them over the coals, when the wind blows in a different direction.

This is not a national security issue, this is an unemployment issue…the potential unemployment of 535 political weather vanes. And their continued politicizing of serious national security issues is going to wring the will out of the last remnants of our serious warrior class. A class of American that willingly and capably provides for its defense.

But this is also a class of American that is not stupid or naïve. They know they will never own Jon Carey’s twenty-five mansions, or get off on manslaughter charges because their brother was President. They know that it will be a generation or more still, before their heirs are millionaires and enter the privileged class. And they know that the best chances for their heirs to realize that vision, is to defend this country when it, and its values, are under attack. They are proud of their defense of this nation, and are not ashamed to say so. And they have shown that they are willing to do something about it…physically.

They will sacrifice all that they have in order to see that promise fulfilled to another generation. At the very least they sacrifice precious moments of their lives to their country. And at the most, they sacrifice the entirety of their lives for this country. Neither of these selfless acts should be manipulated by 535 ego-maniacs that fear diminished status far more than most of our servicemen fear getting a bullet between the running lights.

Congressional Republicans are squandering the support of this warrior class, and it will not be easily retrieved. Ronald Reagan was able to revive its spirit, because it was predominately squandered by the Democrats in the Vietnam era (The Nightingale’s Song by Robert Timberg is a good reference here). When Republicans diminish the efforts of our warrior class, the volunteer and enthusiastic effort that is the hallmark of our services today will have to be replaced by the Rangle draft, and our military will be incrementally less capable, and less reliable. The end of the republic will then be nigh.

For when the jobs of 535 politicians become more important than defending this nation and our word around the world, then we are doomed to collapse.

In the meantime, I think I’ll discourage my nephews from entering the service. And the rest of the warrior class should withhold its volunteer services until the chuckleheads in Congress can come to take the world, and its many difficult issues seriously, an not politically. We should hide our families, and time the birth of our children, as Pelosi suggests, so that we never have to support the defense of this nation, nor take any personal risks in its defense. We should take our chances with a draft lottery rather than volunteering for the services. And we should stand idly by as 535 politikers sell this nation’s future short for fifteen more minutes of fame and celebrity.

We’ll do that, but don’t come to my house asking for guns and ammo when the enemy is at the gates. And please, don’t ask me to come to the defense of your home…it won’t be happening.

© Michael McBride 2007

Welcome to Oregon...Give Me Some More Money

2007-01-22T08:44:00.000-08:00

Major Mike
(Re-prineted with permission of Townhall.com)

The Oregonian’s Steve Duin, has yet to meet a profitable company that he likes. In an inane, painfully shallow, and vitriolically sarcastic “commentary” he lambastes Nike; who last week gave over $9M to local schools, and who happens to be the Oregonian’s number one target for its State fundraising “commentaries,” for having successfully lobbied the State legislature (along with other Oregon companies) to change the basis for the calculation of their corporate income taxes.

Nike (along with other Oregon companies that Duin fails to mention by name) successfully lobbied to have the basis of their State income taxes determined by their in-state sales, vice total company sales revenue. This is known as the single-sales factor. And it indeed, lowered Nike’s income taxes from $16 million to slightly over $1M…according to Duin…I’ll accept that as fact.

In the interest of full disclosure I am a Nike stockholder, and I was a Nike employee for five years. I was the Facilities Operations and Property Manager for the Nike World Headquarters from 2000 to 2005. I have some knowledge of Nike and its practices. And so that I am not taken as a shill for Nike, I did not leave on the best of terms with my boss, which should go a long way in clearing up any misconceptions on why I would go to bat for the Goliath of sports companies. Regardless of my disputes with my superiors, Nike is a decent company that gives back far more than the $16M that Mr. Duin is crying over.

But before we get to that, Mr. Duin needs a schooling.

First and foremost he needs to be taken to task for his math skills. Any “journalist,” “commentator,” critic, should be able to divide the $16M that Duin weeps for, by the massive State budget of over $15 billion…billion with a “B”… and figure out, in the two thousand words or so he spewed onto page B1, that the resultant would comprise a whopping .10666% of the total budget. I guess they don’t have calculators at the Oregonian.

Additionally, any superior journalist type should be able also calculate that Nike’s stinginess is costing school districts a gargantuan $28 per student, per year. I am certain, in light of the nearly $10,000 per student the state will spend next year per student, that Nike’s miserliness will cause the demise of each and every student in the State of Oregon. No wonder Duin is apoplectic.

Duin singularly claims that Nike is to blame for these tax changes because they… “…lobbied viciously and successfully for the single-sales factor…” Guess he is also taking a swipe at Nike’s free speech rights, and the independent nature of the Salem legislature. Duin certainly doesn’t take narrow aim when he writes a “hit” piece.

Furthermore Duin’s myopia, centered simply on the figure of $16M, fails to consider the enormity of the economic impact that having Nike headquartered in the greater Portland area. Of course, that would take some in-depth analysis, some actual digging for something more than one dimensional facts, and coming to some alternative conclusions based on the whole picture, not just a single pixel in the left margin of a snapshot. His shallow and vacuous “analysis” is well below journalistic standards, and hits far below the belt.

I am not privy to the actual figures, but I will not be far off, and I will certainly not be exaggerating. Consider for a moment that the average salary for the 6000 Nike employees in Oregon, is likely around $40,000…average…don’t get excited. Add in about 50% for their generous fringe benefits, and Nike puts about $360M into the local economies via employee salaries and fringe benefits. Nike salaries bring in additional doctors to service these employees. Additionally, these 6000 employees require dentists, supermarkets, gas stations, schools, houses, banks, credit unions, teachers…all the goods and services that 6000 people use in the course of their daily lives. The $360M that Nike employees earn and distribute within our communities is multiplied across the families that are supported in the spending of those wages.

Is it possible that Nike is already doing its part in generating revenue for the State of Oregon? Those same Nike employees likely contribute about $12M, or more, to local property taxes (if you average a low estimate of $2K per year), and likely another $21M, or more, in state income taxes (Oregon rate of 9%). How is it possible that a simple History major can figure this out, but a professional journalist can choose to ignore this kind of analysis when writing a scathing rip on a responsible corporate citizen?

What else did Duin miss?

One of my additional duties while at Nike was to manage Business Energy Tax Credit Pass Through Program. Nike was approached by the State to be the first company that would directly sponsor school energy projects, in return for equivalent tax credits taken over five years. In the three years that I managed the program, Nike invested $2M directly into school districts and their physical improvements. Of course this was essentially a revenue neutral proposition for Nike, but by investing in energy efficient projects, though an outlet not previously available, school districts could reduce their operating costs year-to-year…returning dollars directly to the districts’ operating budgets. I personally delivered those checks to School District Board meetings in Gervais, Douglas, David Douglas, Klamath Falls, Lane County, Astoria, and a half a dozen more. Those districts were not full of Duin’s venom, they were appropriately grateful and appreciative. On more than one occasion, I got re-thanked for the districts’ new Nike track, although that wasn’t my program.

Nike’s leadership eventually brought more businesses into the BETC Pass Through Program, including US Bank that committed over $40M in Pass Through dollars. The energy savings garnered by this direct infusion of money into the districts, bypassing the State’s inefficient monolithic monetary system, returns millions of dollars to the classrooms through reduced operating expenses. The State’s own figures estimate that over $215M a year is being saved by schools. Many other companies had the opportunity to participate, but declined. Nike’s leadership in this program is more than making up for the $16M that Duin is missing from his wallet. How selfish of Nike.

Nike enthusiastically participates in myriad of popular Oregon endeavors…SOLV, Hood to Coast (sponsoring over 50 teams, including car rentals…etc., etc.), matching volunteer hours with dollars, youth fitness programs, and school and community sports facilities upgrades.

Nike paid matching dollars for my volunteer hours on the Beaverton School District Long Range Plan Committee, even though I am not a resident of that district. They matched my participation as a Board Member on the Oregon Trail Chapter American Red Cross Board of Directors, and supported my efforts while serving on the State Buildings and Codes Structures Board. All endeavors that required time away from my position at Nike, time they never seemed eager to recover. These hours were gift from Nike to this State, and its local entities, which was given without the expectation of re-payment. Duin misses this by a mile. Oh, and by Nike employee standards, I am probably a slacker when it comes to volunteering my time.

He fails to consider the millions the headquarters brings to the community in dollars spent on sales meetings and other extravagant events.

He fails to consider the prestige the area is lent, by having a world class campus within a stones’ throw.

He fails to mention that Nike was stiffed by the City of Beaverton in over $300,000 in legal fees, by an overly generous judge who took mercy on the taxpayers of Beaverton and refused to punish them for the misdeeds of their city leadership. At Nike’s expense.

He fails to consider that Nike, as a publicly traded company is expected to return as much value to its shareholders as possible, within the confines of all corporate governance requirements. Lowering your tax payments is considered one of those proper business objectives.

He fails to mention that Nike is one of a handful of companies that has been sincerely working with the World Wildlife Foundation, through the Climate Savers program, at a considerable corporate expense, to reduce its overall impact on the earth’s environment. This is an onerous commitment to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to pre-1998 levels…independent of growth, and since Nike’s presence in Oregon has grown about 20% over the last seven years, this is no cheap commitment.

Duin simply fails to do a journalist’s job in finding a righteous platform from which to deliver his sanctimonious sermon.

Duin represents all that is wrong with the left and with journalism these days…they take an ounce of fact, mix it with a gallon of prejudices, and spew their over-baked conclusions onto the pages of a non-thinking paper. Nike, nor any other company, is on this planet to be the cash cow for the myriad of liberal causes dreamt up by the left and espoused by the leftie MSM. They are simply another business trying to do business in the increasingly, business unfriendly, liberal world.

Lay off.