About the middle of 2010 the space shuttle is set to amble into history and none too soon for me.
I was twelve in 1981 when Crippen and Young piloted the Columbia into space for the first time. At this point in my life, I was still running home from school so I could get there in plenty of time to watch reruns of the original Star Trek (4 pm every weekday!) so I was suckered in by the space shuttle program like the rest of my generation. The space shuttle was and still is a remarkable piece of technology but in a not-at-all-stunning display of why government cannot and should not run things, NASA's bureaucracy took a step backward with one of the most incredible vehicles ever built.
Inside of a single decade the early space program went from barely achieving a stable orbit to a trip to the moon. We then repeated that miracle several more times and built a space station to boot - all before 1975 (about the time I started watching Martin Landau and crew living on Moonbase Alpha in Space:1999). By 1981 we had seen Star Wars and the first Star Trek movie. That initial launch of the space shuttle gave my entire generation (Gen X) hopes that ours would be the first to whom space would be open to ordinary people. Some of us still might be able to visit there thanks not to NASA but to 'evil capitalist' billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic project.
This year marked the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Forty years after the Wright brothers first flight, planes were dozens of times faster and ready to break the sound barrier. Forty years after Neil Armstrong became the most famous person on earth, we aren't sure NASA has retained the technology to get us back to the moon. Much of that is because of a change in NASA at about the same time the space shuttle got off the ground where it stopped being run by normal humans and and control was ceded to bureaucrats (the species Homo Bureactratis prove Darwin wrong as they are an evolutionary step backward from Homo Sapiens).
Thus even while we were cheering the new era of space travel, NASA's horizons shrank from the outer planets, Mars, and even the moon back to low orbit around the Earth. The tragedy of the Challenger turned them even more timid and the space shuttle fleet itself became little more than a delivery truck into orbit.
I feel pretty cheated. By this time in my life I expected to be able to look into the sky with good binoculars or a small telescope and see lights from humanity's first permanent base on another world. At the very least, we should have partially completed a space station along the lines of the one in they had in the dreadfully horrid 2001: A Space Odyssey. Good grief!!! I even had the plan. We could have launched a dozen or so regular rockets with building material to the moon over the course of a couple of years while the space shuttle was used to build a transport ship in orbit. It could have even been nuclear powered since the main vehicle would be a ferry between earth and lunar orbit (no risk of releasing radioactive material in a landing). Once enough stuff was landed on the moon a team of engineers would go put up the surface buildings and start digging since a base on the moon would be much safer if most of it was below ground. Over the course of two decades it might even have resembled Moonbase Alpha a little bit. But alas, the dunces in charge at NASA barely got a near-sighted telescope into space.
Like any other bureaucracy NASA now has billions of dollars swallowed up in graft, red tape, dead end projects, and corporate waste; billions that should have been tech labs, observatories, and living areas in the moon base. Billions that should have been constructing a ship on the moon ultimately destined to take the first humans to Mars. George W Bush tried to give a Kennedy-esque speech urging us on to Mars but it fell on deaf ears at NASA. The public may have cheered but NASA replied through its cadre of "Nattering Nabobs of Negativsim".
I don't expect us to get back to the moon anytime soon. My moon base exists in the same place that my flying cars do and wherever that is, it isn't any drawing board at NASA.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Quick Guide to Political Philosophy
Two political philosophers that impacted the creation of the United States, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, had very different views of government and I get the sense that their outlooks are competing against one another in the US again today as many of those who are supposed to be our servants now view themselves as our masters.
I'm hoping that most of you at least heard of these two men in your high school American Government class. Thomas Hobbes is probably best known to most of us for his statement that life in the state of nature is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short". This is the basis for his political treatise Leviathan. Leviathan is properly named considering that the paperback version I have is as thick as an average Tom Clancy novel but the type is about half the size. Hobbes argues that any government is better than being in the state of nature. Civil society should be placed under a sovereign authority that severely curtails many of the natural rights of the individual and any abuses of the heavily centralized power must be tolerated by the populace as the price of a better life than that found in his state of nature. If however the central authority crosses an egregious line of abuse then they should expect a rebellion even though he is strongly against them.
On the opposite end of that spectrum is John Locke. Locke's Second Treatise of Government argues much the opposite of Hobbes and is mercifully as brief as Hobbes is wordy. His claim is that man has certain natural rights bestowed upon him by God that predate the existence of government. As such, when we enter into the social contract of civil government, we should only cede minimal rights to the central authority for the sake of creating a civil society. Most of you might know Locke as the 'life, liberty, and property' guy. Not only does government have no right to interfere in certain of our political liberties BUT it has as an express duty the job of protecting those rights from interference by others. When a government fails to protect our rights or begins to take them from the people then the social contract is broken and as sovereign individuals we have a right and duty to rebel against that authority.
As you may have guessed from previous posts, I am most definitely in the Lockean camp as were many of the Founding Fathers. With some modification his rights to life, liberty, and property are enshrined in the Declaration of Independence (the word property was replaced by pursuit of Happiness because Northern abolitionists balked at the implication of slaves in the word property). They are also embedded in the Bill of Rights with many of the rights specifically listed (free speech, press, religion, assembly, redress of grievances, arms, secure in your household) and those that are not listed covered in a catch all disclaimer in the Tenth Amendment (which bars the central government from interfering in rights not listed).
Unfortunately, too many people are not taught about our rights and into that vacuum which nature abhors step too many politicians and hucksters that see the world according to Hobbes. Our man-child president, the Kenyan bastard, is one of them. Of the one hundred Senators in Congress I would guess that about 75 of them lean toward the Hobbesian world view to some degree or another (thus making this not about party politics). I would venture to say that about 3/4 of the 435 Members of Congress are also in that camp. Some of them are there thinking that if they only had more power they could do great good but many of them - especially those who have spent more than a decade inside the Beltway - want power solely for the sake of that power. Then we are beset by a literal horde of unelected bureaucrats seething with the desire to get more control over other agencies, elected politicians, and average people like you and I. Add to that the other literal horde of those who will benefit from an expansive and corrupt government like Jeffrey Immelt CEO of GE (General Evil) which also means he is in charge of NBC (you may want to research the connection between NBC, Obama, and GE's 'smartgrid', and GE healthcare to see where that relationship is going to take us); George Soros, a crooked investor and speculator (convicted of insider trading in France) with deep pockets and a hand in the leftist Center for American Progress, ACORN, SEIU, and a host of other far left organizations; and so many other individuals/groups all vying for power over us.
I believe that we may quickly be approaching that dreadful and yet glorious day when it is necessary for us to revoke our consent to be governed by these people. All of my adult life - starting with the George Hebert Walker Bush administration - I have watched as sinister forces have been eroding our liberties. Some do it in the guise of helping the less fortunate through weakening our borders, protecting us from terrorists, 'giving' us health care, and bailing out failing businesses. Others do it through draconian bureaucracies like the IRS with its tangled web of regulations that no layman can understand or the EPA by declaring every species that sneezes as protected (or the subhuman wretches that forced wolf reintroduction in Idaho). We must not live in fear of that day or one another. That will be the one thing that stops a critical mass of us from standing up to be counted with the true Patriots. It is a daunting task but I know that I would rather die free and on my feet rather than live to an old age on my knees and die a slave to the people I've named above and their political descendants. As Patrick Henry said "If this be treason then let's make the most of it."
I'm hoping that most of you at least heard of these two men in your high school American Government class. Thomas Hobbes is probably best known to most of us for his statement that life in the state of nature is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short". This is the basis for his political treatise Leviathan. Leviathan is properly named considering that the paperback version I have is as thick as an average Tom Clancy novel but the type is about half the size. Hobbes argues that any government is better than being in the state of nature. Civil society should be placed under a sovereign authority that severely curtails many of the natural rights of the individual and any abuses of the heavily centralized power must be tolerated by the populace as the price of a better life than that found in his state of nature. If however the central authority crosses an egregious line of abuse then they should expect a rebellion even though he is strongly against them.
On the opposite end of that spectrum is John Locke. Locke's Second Treatise of Government argues much the opposite of Hobbes and is mercifully as brief as Hobbes is wordy. His claim is that man has certain natural rights bestowed upon him by God that predate the existence of government. As such, when we enter into the social contract of civil government, we should only cede minimal rights to the central authority for the sake of creating a civil society. Most of you might know Locke as the 'life, liberty, and property' guy. Not only does government have no right to interfere in certain of our political liberties BUT it has as an express duty the job of protecting those rights from interference by others. When a government fails to protect our rights or begins to take them from the people then the social contract is broken and as sovereign individuals we have a right and duty to rebel against that authority.
As you may have guessed from previous posts, I am most definitely in the Lockean camp as were many of the Founding Fathers. With some modification his rights to life, liberty, and property are enshrined in the Declaration of Independence (the word property was replaced by pursuit of Happiness because Northern abolitionists balked at the implication of slaves in the word property). They are also embedded in the Bill of Rights with many of the rights specifically listed (free speech, press, religion, assembly, redress of grievances, arms, secure in your household) and those that are not listed covered in a catch all disclaimer in the Tenth Amendment (which bars the central government from interfering in rights not listed).
Unfortunately, too many people are not taught about our rights and into that vacuum which nature abhors step too many politicians and hucksters that see the world according to Hobbes. Our man-child president, the Kenyan bastard, is one of them. Of the one hundred Senators in Congress I would guess that about 75 of them lean toward the Hobbesian world view to some degree or another (thus making this not about party politics). I would venture to say that about 3/4 of the 435 Members of Congress are also in that camp. Some of them are there thinking that if they only had more power they could do great good but many of them - especially those who have spent more than a decade inside the Beltway - want power solely for the sake of that power. Then we are beset by a literal horde of unelected bureaucrats seething with the desire to get more control over other agencies, elected politicians, and average people like you and I. Add to that the other literal horde of those who will benefit from an expansive and corrupt government like Jeffrey Immelt CEO of GE (General Evil) which also means he is in charge of NBC (you may want to research the connection between NBC, Obama, and GE's 'smartgrid', and GE healthcare to see where that relationship is going to take us); George Soros, a crooked investor and speculator (convicted of insider trading in France) with deep pockets and a hand in the leftist Center for American Progress, ACORN, SEIU, and a host of other far left organizations; and so many other individuals/groups all vying for power over us.
I believe that we may quickly be approaching that dreadful and yet glorious day when it is necessary for us to revoke our consent to be governed by these people. All of my adult life - starting with the George Hebert Walker Bush administration - I have watched as sinister forces have been eroding our liberties. Some do it in the guise of helping the less fortunate through weakening our borders, protecting us from terrorists, 'giving' us health care, and bailing out failing businesses. Others do it through draconian bureaucracies like the IRS with its tangled web of regulations that no layman can understand or the EPA by declaring every species that sneezes as protected (or the subhuman wretches that forced wolf reintroduction in Idaho). We must not live in fear of that day or one another. That will be the one thing that stops a critical mass of us from standing up to be counted with the true Patriots. It is a daunting task but I know that I would rather die free and on my feet rather than live to an old age on my knees and die a slave to the people I've named above and their political descendants. As Patrick Henry said "If this be treason then let's make the most of it."
Monday, December 7, 2009
Musings for Pearl Harbor Day
Today is the 68th anniversary of Pearl Harbor and I hope you will take a moment to remember what is now the second worst day in American history and the 2402 Americans who died there. Every year fewer and fewer of those who fought and survived World War II remain for us to thank. Both of my grandfathers and a number of great uncles fought in that war and all are now gone. Fortunately they told stories about their experiences that I will remember for years to come.
Pearl Harbor was one of the darkest days in American history. Just as many Americans awaited more and worse attacks in the dark days after 9/11/01, numerous Americans - especially those on the west coast and in Hawaii - lived in great fear of a Japanese invasion of America. Of course that invasion never came and in the microscope of history we know that Japan really didn't have the ability to launch a mass invasion of the US Mainland with the bulk of their ground forces sweeping through the Republic of China and Indochina.
A mere six months later the Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942) drove off the spectre of invasion completely as the rejuvenated US Navy tore apart the Japanese armada and made them a third rate naval power in one blow. Though the battles in the Pacific would rage on above and below water for three more years Japan was always on the defensive from Midway on.
Less than four years later, Japan's emperor stood on the decks of the USS Missouri, in the bay of Tokyo Harbor signing a complete and utter surrender of his nation without terms while two of his most important cities still burned from the atomic blasts that devastated them. In the final analysis Pearl Harbor was a brilliant tactical moment and victory for Japan (in the west, we consider sneak attacks as a sign of cowardice and evil but in the east it is an acceptable tactic - something to consider when dealing with out Chinese 'friends') but it was a horrible strategic miscalculation. Without the ability to press the attack by following up with an invasion of Hawaii, which would have starved out islands like Midway and forced the US to operate from its own shores or from the Alaskan islands far to the north; all the attack on Pearl Harbor achieved for them was to gain an additional, intractable, and righteously angry enemy before they had chased the British out of the Pacific and hamstrung or crushed Australia as an allied base of operations.
I feel sorry for Amanda Knox. I can't imagine facing murder charges in America where the burden of proof is on the prosecution to demonstrate that you did it; but to have to face the charges in a nation without many of the guarantees the accused has here and in which the burden is on the defense to demonstrate that the accused did not commit the crime must have been overwhelming. Now I don't think she did it but I have to qualify my belief because as a man seeing an attractive young woman in distress, my protective instincts start firing up. Would I be as protective if she wasn't attractive? - that's hard to say. I don't believe that she killed her roommate but she could be hiding a Machiavellian evil inside her that we miss simply because she's attractive. In the American media we only get one side of the story and I think we lose sight of the first victim; Meredith Kercher - also a lovely young woman. I want justice for her but convicting someone of her murder wholly on circumstantial evidence is a crime in itself as it denies both Meredith and Amanda justice. There is a cautionary tale here as well. As much as you should take care with whom you associate here in America, all of us and moreso young Americans need to scrutinize their acquaintances and new friends if they are travelling, working, or schooling alone overseas.
I also feel sorry for Lindsay Lohan. Like many of you, I practically watched the spunky little freckle-faced red-head grow up in Disney movies never suspecting that pretty much everyone in her life was exploiting her. I think this happens to a number of child stars and thanks to 'reality' television it seems to be happening to a lot of other children as well. We may not be far from a day when Child Protective Services come busting through your door to wrestle away your children because you dared spank them but they ignore the real damage done to children by television shows like John and Kate Plus Eight (neither one seems a fit parent and all I've ever seen is what they show on The Soup); Wife Swap (two parents were so celebrity addicted they faked their son being in a runaway balloon for publicity early this fall); and by far the worst Toddlers and Tiaras which is nothing less than the sexualization of children (again other than seeing it appear on my on-screen guide as I search my 200+ channels for something decent to watch because Phineas and Ferb isn't on, I've only seen excerpts from it on The Soup which disgusts me enough).
Finally today, my un-Christian moment. I HATE Harry Reid and Barrack Obama. I hate Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer. These people deserve our ire and disdain. They are poised to force Cap and Trade on us in spite of the fact that man caused global warming has been discredited completely, are ready to finish forcing government run health care on us in spite of public opinion, and are finding ways to spend us into oblivion. At the risk of baiting the black helicopters and an FBI investigation, I wish for the crazed Japanese pilot in Tom Clancy that rammed a 747 into the Capitol Building. That little part of me that fights against my Christian upbringing makes a little smile curl on my lip when I imagine them all suffering eternal torment in Hell. Its hard to ignore. It whispers in my ear the hope that God does not have mercy on their souls. I know its not right but its there. It is about ultimate revenge and it embarrasses me to admit it because I know that I should love my enemy and make no mistake; these people ARE my enemy and YOURS.
Pearl Harbor was one of the darkest days in American history. Just as many Americans awaited more and worse attacks in the dark days after 9/11/01, numerous Americans - especially those on the west coast and in Hawaii - lived in great fear of a Japanese invasion of America. Of course that invasion never came and in the microscope of history we know that Japan really didn't have the ability to launch a mass invasion of the US Mainland with the bulk of their ground forces sweeping through the Republic of China and Indochina.
A mere six months later the Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942) drove off the spectre of invasion completely as the rejuvenated US Navy tore apart the Japanese armada and made them a third rate naval power in one blow. Though the battles in the Pacific would rage on above and below water for three more years Japan was always on the defensive from Midway on.
Less than four years later, Japan's emperor stood on the decks of the USS Missouri, in the bay of Tokyo Harbor signing a complete and utter surrender of his nation without terms while two of his most important cities still burned from the atomic blasts that devastated them. In the final analysis Pearl Harbor was a brilliant tactical moment and victory for Japan (in the west, we consider sneak attacks as a sign of cowardice and evil but in the east it is an acceptable tactic - something to consider when dealing with out Chinese 'friends') but it was a horrible strategic miscalculation. Without the ability to press the attack by following up with an invasion of Hawaii, which would have starved out islands like Midway and forced the US to operate from its own shores or from the Alaskan islands far to the north; all the attack on Pearl Harbor achieved for them was to gain an additional, intractable, and righteously angry enemy before they had chased the British out of the Pacific and hamstrung or crushed Australia as an allied base of operations.
I feel sorry for Amanda Knox. I can't imagine facing murder charges in America where the burden of proof is on the prosecution to demonstrate that you did it; but to have to face the charges in a nation without many of the guarantees the accused has here and in which the burden is on the defense to demonstrate that the accused did not commit the crime must have been overwhelming. Now I don't think she did it but I have to qualify my belief because as a man seeing an attractive young woman in distress, my protective instincts start firing up. Would I be as protective if she wasn't attractive? - that's hard to say. I don't believe that she killed her roommate but she could be hiding a Machiavellian evil inside her that we miss simply because she's attractive. In the American media we only get one side of the story and I think we lose sight of the first victim; Meredith Kercher - also a lovely young woman. I want justice for her but convicting someone of her murder wholly on circumstantial evidence is a crime in itself as it denies both Meredith and Amanda justice. There is a cautionary tale here as well. As much as you should take care with whom you associate here in America, all of us and moreso young Americans need to scrutinize their acquaintances and new friends if they are travelling, working, or schooling alone overseas.
I also feel sorry for Lindsay Lohan. Like many of you, I practically watched the spunky little freckle-faced red-head grow up in Disney movies never suspecting that pretty much everyone in her life was exploiting her. I think this happens to a number of child stars and thanks to 'reality' television it seems to be happening to a lot of other children as well. We may not be far from a day when Child Protective Services come busting through your door to wrestle away your children because you dared spank them but they ignore the real damage done to children by television shows like John and Kate Plus Eight (neither one seems a fit parent and all I've ever seen is what they show on The Soup); Wife Swap (two parents were so celebrity addicted they faked their son being in a runaway balloon for publicity early this fall); and by far the worst Toddlers and Tiaras which is nothing less than the sexualization of children (again other than seeing it appear on my on-screen guide as I search my 200+ channels for something decent to watch because Phineas and Ferb isn't on, I've only seen excerpts from it on The Soup which disgusts me enough).
Finally today, my un-Christian moment. I HATE Harry Reid and Barrack Obama. I hate Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer. These people deserve our ire and disdain. They are poised to force Cap and Trade on us in spite of the fact that man caused global warming has been discredited completely, are ready to finish forcing government run health care on us in spite of public opinion, and are finding ways to spend us into oblivion. At the risk of baiting the black helicopters and an FBI investigation, I wish for the crazed Japanese pilot in Tom Clancy that rammed a 747 into the Capitol Building. That little part of me that fights against my Christian upbringing makes a little smile curl on my lip when I imagine them all suffering eternal torment in Hell. Its hard to ignore. It whispers in my ear the hope that God does not have mercy on their souls. I know its not right but its there. It is about ultimate revenge and it embarrasses me to admit it because I know that I should love my enemy and make no mistake; these people ARE my enemy and YOURS.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
More Rambling Thoughts
Afghanistan is a failed state. The Indians (that's natives of India not aboriginal North Americans) knew it. The Mongols and Chinese knew it. The Muslim Caliphs knew it. The British found out. The Soviets found out in brutal fashion. Even the Taliban knew it. For some reason we haven't learned it yet. I believe its because the people at the State Department assigned to Afghanistan are "experts" in Latin America or Africa but that's only my opinion.
You can control Afghanistan but not if you fight a "civilized", Western style war. We need to drop poison gas (we have plenty wasting away in depots in Umatilla, OR and Hawthorne, NV) in every cave from Kabul to Lahore (that's in Pakistan for the geographically ignorant) and count the bodies until we get Osama bin Laden and his cronies.
Speaking of failed states, we haven't learned much from the debacle in Somalia that was started by Bush 41 and shorted by another loser left-wing president. I guess on the plus side, Afghanistan is land locked so there won't be many pirates raiding shipping from there.
Continuing with the failed state theme, how about California, huh? Just like their peers in the Beltway, the CA general assembly passed a bill to spend umpteen billion dollars that they don't have. Not to worry though. I'm sure that the Fed's will bail them out. California is the world's 8th largest economy on its own. They seem to be banking on the hope that they will be "too big to fail" and hey, why not. With the precedent set by the bailouts of the banks and GM and Chrysler it looks like their hope will take our change and large bills as well.
Joe Morgan may be the worst sports broadcaster EVER. He is a horrible combination of grandpa Simpson and Narcissus. In other words, he tells disjointed rambling stories that are all about himself and how wonderful he is. Which makes him just like our president...
Those of you who know me know that I have no problem with women in positions of authority. Heck I have worked for women and I have a female doctor; so I'm obviously not threatened by it. That said, I swear that most of the women in Congress are some of the dumbest fishwives ever spawned. Nancy 'Bo-tox' Pelosi can't open her mouth without lowering the IQ of the room she's in. Sadly that's better than her ne'er-do-well witch apprentice Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (ah, the famous hyphenated last name...the flashing red light of b*tchiness) who can't string together a coherent thought to get it out. California gives us a who's who of moron women including Maxine Waters, Zoe Lofgren, Hilda Solis (who is now Labor Secretary), Jane Harman, and their two vomit inducing Senators: Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer (Democrats all). Here in Washington we suffer the Basset Hound of politics: Patty Murray and her apprentice witch Maria Cantwell (oh, the things I've done to that last name!). The Republicans aren't much better with Olympia Snowe and the ditsy Susan Collins. These hags and political whores don't do much credit to their part of the species.
Is that enough for today? I haven't been focused on politics this week. I'll try to alert you in advance next time.
One more thing since I'm listening to Christmas Carols on the radio. I really don't like Karen Carpenter. Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate her silky voice, but for crying out loud, her songs could go on the Soundtrack to Seasonal Affective Disorder. She sings waaaaaaaaaay too slow. William Shatner doesn't draw out a word like she can. Some people may like that but I like my music up tempo and BIG.
If you've heard Amy Grant's versions of Angels We Have Heard on High and Hark the Herald Angels Sing, or Michael Crawford singing O Holy Night, or Boney M singing Mary's Boy Child (all favorite carols), then you have an idea of how I like my music. I once told someone that I will not have considered myself to have fully lived until I have heard Ride of the Valkyries clearly from a mile away. If it can be sung it should be accompanied by music (that doesn't include rap which should be accompanied by the report of field artillery and followed by silence). If it can be accompanied by music it should be orchestrated. If you can orchestrate it and add a chorus then you can double the orchestra. Music should move you...literally. The sound waves should be felt in your body and physically move your cells.
You can control Afghanistan but not if you fight a "civilized", Western style war. We need to drop poison gas (we have plenty wasting away in depots in Umatilla, OR and Hawthorne, NV) in every cave from Kabul to Lahore (that's in Pakistan for the geographically ignorant) and count the bodies until we get Osama bin Laden and his cronies.
Speaking of failed states, we haven't learned much from the debacle in Somalia that was started by Bush 41 and shorted by another loser left-wing president. I guess on the plus side, Afghanistan is land locked so there won't be many pirates raiding shipping from there.
Continuing with the failed state theme, how about California, huh? Just like their peers in the Beltway, the CA general assembly passed a bill to spend umpteen billion dollars that they don't have. Not to worry though. I'm sure that the Fed's will bail them out. California is the world's 8th largest economy on its own. They seem to be banking on the hope that they will be "too big to fail" and hey, why not. With the precedent set by the bailouts of the banks and GM and Chrysler it looks like their hope will take our change and large bills as well.
Joe Morgan may be the worst sports broadcaster EVER. He is a horrible combination of grandpa Simpson and Narcissus. In other words, he tells disjointed rambling stories that are all about himself and how wonderful he is. Which makes him just like our president...
Those of you who know me know that I have no problem with women in positions of authority. Heck I have worked for women and I have a female doctor; so I'm obviously not threatened by it. That said, I swear that most of the women in Congress are some of the dumbest fishwives ever spawned. Nancy 'Bo-tox' Pelosi can't open her mouth without lowering the IQ of the room she's in. Sadly that's better than her ne'er-do-well witch apprentice Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (ah, the famous hyphenated last name...the flashing red light of b*tchiness) who can't string together a coherent thought to get it out. California gives us a who's who of moron women including Maxine Waters, Zoe Lofgren, Hilda Solis (who is now Labor Secretary), Jane Harman, and their two vomit inducing Senators: Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer (Democrats all). Here in Washington we suffer the Basset Hound of politics: Patty Murray and her apprentice witch Maria Cantwell (oh, the things I've done to that last name!). The Republicans aren't much better with Olympia Snowe and the ditsy Susan Collins. These hags and political whores don't do much credit to their part of the species.
Is that enough for today? I haven't been focused on politics this week. I'll try to alert you in advance next time.
One more thing since I'm listening to Christmas Carols on the radio. I really don't like Karen Carpenter. Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate her silky voice, but for crying out loud, her songs could go on the Soundtrack to Seasonal Affective Disorder. She sings waaaaaaaaaay too slow. William Shatner doesn't draw out a word like she can. Some people may like that but I like my music up tempo and BIG.
If you've heard Amy Grant's versions of Angels We Have Heard on High and Hark the Herald Angels Sing, or Michael Crawford singing O Holy Night, or Boney M singing Mary's Boy Child (all favorite carols), then you have an idea of how I like my music. I once told someone that I will not have considered myself to have fully lived until I have heard Ride of the Valkyries clearly from a mile away. If it can be sung it should be accompanied by music (that doesn't include rap which should be accompanied by the report of field artillery and followed by silence). If it can be accompanied by music it should be orchestrated. If you can orchestrate it and add a chorus then you can double the orchestra. Music should move you...literally. The sound waves should be felt in your body and physically move your cells.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Oh to be Thankful
Today was supposed to be the warm-fuzzy 'things I'm thankful for' blog but events in the news have a way of intruding into the plans of mice and men. The MSM (mainstream media) is trying its best to ignore the growing scandal that is going to rock the scientific world to its core. It appears that a hacker hit the mother lode that reveals ongoing manipulation of climate data, discarding of data conflicting with Anthropomorphic (man caused) Global Warming conclusions, and a conspiracy to keep papers refuting AGW out of the peer review process. It is still too early to tell how far this reaches but it may actually impact the validity of the infamous 'hockey stick' graph that is used to silence critics of AGW and reveals that data from the Medieval Warm Period (in which the earth's average temperature was higher than 1998 the 'warmest year on record') was marginalized in order to push the AGW agenda forward. In other words the whole Global Warming bit is a HOAX!
Here is the article in the UK Telegraph for those of you interested in more details:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/
Now I'm not going to crow that this is the end of AGW as some will. The powermongers and money greedy are not going to just let it die. Expect even more backlashes from the eco-freaks as they circle the wagons and insist even more loudly that they are right.
So, on to thankfulness. We are so wealthy as a society that we have forgotten what it actually means to be thankful or grateful. Oh, we can talk a good line about the things we're thankful for but how often do we actually stop to fully appreciate what we have? I have so much that I don't even know how to appreciate them. I have books by the hundreds and baseball cards by the thousands. I have so many things that most of them were looked at for a moment and plopped away on a shelf or in a closet. Between Mrs. C and I, we have filled most of the empty space in the house.
It reminds me of historian Simon Schama's book "The Embarrassment of Riches". The book examines the Dutch trade empire from the perspective of their middle class. At the time the Dutch were VERY Protestant and VERY devout. Their trade empire made most of the Dutch very rich within the span of a generation. This created a serious conundrum for them. As good Protestants they whole heartedly believed in what we call the "Christian work ethic". But now, many not only did not have to work for their wealth they were inundated with it. Unlike Americans who are excited to conspicuously consume, the Dutch were embarrassed by their sudden wealth. Schama describes how many would try to get rid of the money by buying up as much as possible and then...hiding it. Middle class Dutch households would literally be bursting with goods. Books were popular but many a proper house would have hundreds of sets of table linens - many never used. They would buy stacks and stacks of chinaware only to shove them into hutches also never to be used. Pottery, books, bedding, and the like filled every corner of Dutch houses and they would go on working as proper Christians were supposed to only to grow even wealthier and have to hide that (a horrible circle I'm sure!). In the end, the sudden wealth went as fast as it came and in its wake it left the Dutch much less religious and much less industrious.
I am very thankful for our great wealth. Even the poorest Americans are rich by the standards of most of the population of the rest of the world. No American can probably even imagine having to live on $20 per month but billions do.
One day Mrs. C asked me what I thought would most amaze Medieval people about us. Most of my thoughts would take up an entire blog of its own but my first answer was 'how much food we have'. I then quickly amended it to 'how much food we waste'. Most Americans throw out as much food as people in the Third World have every year. As we sit down to gorge ourselves tomorrow please take a moment to be truly TRULY thankful for the sheer abundance of food that we have.
Before the family comes tomorrow, before the feasting begins, before the noise of the football games drowns out your thoughts go someplace quiet just for five minutes; heck, you can probably do this exercise in the shower. Just take that time for a little introspection. If you don't believe in God, I'd strongly recommend taking the time to open your mind to Him. Think about what we have to be thankful for and then THANK HIM for it. I am thankful for having so much that I cannot even organize it all. I am thankful for reasonably good health. I am thankful that I was born an American with so many rights, so much wealth, and so little burden. I am thankful for the abundance and variety of food I have. I am thankful for my family from my very supportive parents and best friend brother to my two remaining grandparents to my many aunts, uncles, and cousins, to an extended family out of all proportion (great aunts/uncles, second cousins, cousins removed x times, and all of their families).
I am also very thankful for my wonderful wife. Amazingly she not only tolerates this blog but actually supports it. She doesn't play jealousy games (something I am not equipped to play nor would I be able to tolerate) when I ogle Natalie Portman, Kiera Knightley, Michelle Trachtenberg, and a whole host of 'flavor of the month' actresses/celebrities (so you know, I don't get jealous of her celebrity passions either). She tolerates my moods and insecurities. She knows and accepts that I will only assimilate about 1/4 of the things she tells me and will make sure my attention is focused if she wants to tell me something important. At this time in my life, I can't imagine another woman tolerating me (I think I'm difficult to live with but I've been living with me for 40 years now) so every day she's still here I'm that much more amazed.
I hope you all find the time to be truly thankful for the many fold blessings of your life tomorrow and of equal importance, I hope you know to Whom those thanks should be given.
Have a truly Happy and Safe Thanksgiving.
Here is the article in the UK Telegraph for those of you interested in more details:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/
Now I'm not going to crow that this is the end of AGW as some will. The powermongers and money greedy are not going to just let it die. Expect even more backlashes from the eco-freaks as they circle the wagons and insist even more loudly that they are right.
So, on to thankfulness. We are so wealthy as a society that we have forgotten what it actually means to be thankful or grateful. Oh, we can talk a good line about the things we're thankful for but how often do we actually stop to fully appreciate what we have? I have so much that I don't even know how to appreciate them. I have books by the hundreds and baseball cards by the thousands. I have so many things that most of them were looked at for a moment and plopped away on a shelf or in a closet. Between Mrs. C and I, we have filled most of the empty space in the house.
It reminds me of historian Simon Schama's book "The Embarrassment of Riches". The book examines the Dutch trade empire from the perspective of their middle class. At the time the Dutch were VERY Protestant and VERY devout. Their trade empire made most of the Dutch very rich within the span of a generation. This created a serious conundrum for them. As good Protestants they whole heartedly believed in what we call the "Christian work ethic". But now, many not only did not have to work for their wealth they were inundated with it. Unlike Americans who are excited to conspicuously consume, the Dutch were embarrassed by their sudden wealth. Schama describes how many would try to get rid of the money by buying up as much as possible and then...hiding it. Middle class Dutch households would literally be bursting with goods. Books were popular but many a proper house would have hundreds of sets of table linens - many never used. They would buy stacks and stacks of chinaware only to shove them into hutches also never to be used. Pottery, books, bedding, and the like filled every corner of Dutch houses and they would go on working as proper Christians were supposed to only to grow even wealthier and have to hide that (a horrible circle I'm sure!). In the end, the sudden wealth went as fast as it came and in its wake it left the Dutch much less religious and much less industrious.
I am very thankful for our great wealth. Even the poorest Americans are rich by the standards of most of the population of the rest of the world. No American can probably even imagine having to live on $20 per month but billions do.
One day Mrs. C asked me what I thought would most amaze Medieval people about us. Most of my thoughts would take up an entire blog of its own but my first answer was 'how much food we have'. I then quickly amended it to 'how much food we waste'. Most Americans throw out as much food as people in the Third World have every year. As we sit down to gorge ourselves tomorrow please take a moment to be truly TRULY thankful for the sheer abundance of food that we have.
Before the family comes tomorrow, before the feasting begins, before the noise of the football games drowns out your thoughts go someplace quiet just for five minutes; heck, you can probably do this exercise in the shower. Just take that time for a little introspection. If you don't believe in God, I'd strongly recommend taking the time to open your mind to Him. Think about what we have to be thankful for and then THANK HIM for it. I am thankful for having so much that I cannot even organize it all. I am thankful for reasonably good health. I am thankful that I was born an American with so many rights, so much wealth, and so little burden. I am thankful for the abundance and variety of food I have. I am thankful for my family from my very supportive parents and best friend brother to my two remaining grandparents to my many aunts, uncles, and cousins, to an extended family out of all proportion (great aunts/uncles, second cousins, cousins removed x times, and all of their families).
I am also very thankful for my wonderful wife. Amazingly she not only tolerates this blog but actually supports it. She doesn't play jealousy games (something I am not equipped to play nor would I be able to tolerate) when I ogle Natalie Portman, Kiera Knightley, Michelle Trachtenberg, and a whole host of 'flavor of the month' actresses/celebrities (so you know, I don't get jealous of her celebrity passions either). She tolerates my moods and insecurities. She knows and accepts that I will only assimilate about 1/4 of the things she tells me and will make sure my attention is focused if she wants to tell me something important. At this time in my life, I can't imagine another woman tolerating me (I think I'm difficult to live with but I've been living with me for 40 years now) so every day she's still here I'm that much more amazed.
I hope you all find the time to be truly thankful for the many fold blessings of your life tomorrow and of equal importance, I hope you know to Whom those thanks should be given.
Have a truly Happy and Safe Thanksgiving.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Yelling at the TV
We all have an image of ourselves in our mind that often air-brushes out some of the imperfections and I am no different. However, one of the problems with self-awareness is that we are also aware of our imperfections. I tend to see myself as a decent Christian man even in the face of advocating the nuclear pulverization of Islamic cities and their inhabitants yesterday. In that case, I can reasonably separate what I believe as a Christian and the necessities of fighting a generational war against someone who MADE THEIRSELF my mortal enemy.
One of my worse failings though is my mouth. I am a bit of a cusser (I'm also a smart-a## but that's a different issue). I learned it in a public university! In spite of my loose usage of certain words, I have used the f-word sparingly as it is simply too vulgar for me. I also have actively chosen not to curse in any way that invokes the Almighty or his Son. In addition, due to changes I want to make in my life, I have been trying to keep from arbitrarily tossing cuss words into my everyday conversation; which is increasingly difficult in a steadily coarsening society. Unfortunately, I find myself firing off a few of my arbitrary strings of profanity while yelling at the television.
Just this past weekend, I was reduced to the NFL on NBC for 'entertainment' and found myself shouting for someone to roughly insert a pole of some sort in a certain orifice belonging to Keith Olberman (this on the heels of him being called KO for the umpteenth time in five minutes). I may have also referred to his genitalia as a wild field grass. When watching Fox News (or ANY news), I often find myself yelling at the liberal talking head, often referring to them as a vulgarism for a part of the female anatomy - and so you know, that vulgarism does not begin with the letter 'c' (and now we know why I blog instead of being a talking head). I yell at coaches and managers for making poor play choices while watching college football and MLB - although that doesn't always involve cussing. I yell at "Bones" when they push PC/leftist crap into the plot (e.g. Angela trying to 'save' a pig from being breakfast meat; everyone being too obsequious to the Muslim intern (they trashed a Christian's beliefs in the same episode)). The NBC channels turning their logos green for 'green week'. The ever-present logos in the bottom right corner (I KNOW WHICH *%$^%$##%# CHANNEL I'M WATCHING!!!). One of my personal favorites is watching science shows about the beginning of the universe/solar system/earth where they contradict what they just said in a previous segment of the same show/the previous show/or last week. A few weeks ago, a geologist announced that between 2.5 to 12 times the water in the oceans exists locked in the earth's crust and mantle; at which point I turned to Mrs. C and said "He just confirmed that Noah's flood was possible". OK, that didn't involve cussing but I still yell at the scientists who go miles out of their way to create a theory that denies the existence of God. Anyone ever hear of Ockham's Razor?
However the other night I had a real problem while watching the tail end of a history of Thanksgiving program on the PC "History" Channel. Granted they were talking about how the holiday has become a political brier patch and showing footage of the people of Plymouth doing their annual parade out to Plymouth Rock and being disrupted by civilization hating 'native' Americans. Then the show broke to a sound bite from one of the moron-dians whining about European colonization (you know because we're going to reverse that). It is so easy to sympathize with the plight of someone sitting in a comfortable room, wearing well made and reasonably new clothing (that looked higher end), who gets a check from the US Government every month simply for existing, and can ignore a fair number of governement regulations that European Americans ignore at their peril. I guess the wheel, written language, horses, and gunpowder weren't enough of a trade for him. Funny, it makes you pretty popular when you give another civilization those things in Sid Meier's Civilization games.
Falling into near fits of apoplexy by the time they broke for a commercial, instead of relief I got shoved over the edge by the first ad. In pushing its next show, America before Columbus, I was put in a conundrum as I tried to laugh and suffer a facial tic at the same time. Images from America before Columbus flashed by as the narrator blabbed his PC script when a small group of Indians rode...RODE...onto center screen...ON HORSEBACK!!! Now I will accept that the images had no context with them so it could have been part of the tease but I am 100% sure that America before Columbus did not...DID NOT...have horses! Fortunately, a giggle won out but I did back up and make Mrs. Crusader tell me what was wrong with the commercial (she got it right too!).
I didn't watch America before Columbus.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for that blemish on my self perception. It and several other things I see as personal failings keep my already oversized ego somewhat in check!
One of my worse failings though is my mouth. I am a bit of a cusser (I'm also a smart-a## but that's a different issue). I learned it in a public university! In spite of my loose usage of certain words, I have used the f-word sparingly as it is simply too vulgar for me. I also have actively chosen not to curse in any way that invokes the Almighty or his Son. In addition, due to changes I want to make in my life, I have been trying to keep from arbitrarily tossing cuss words into my everyday conversation; which is increasingly difficult in a steadily coarsening society. Unfortunately, I find myself firing off a few of my arbitrary strings of profanity while yelling at the television.
Just this past weekend, I was reduced to the NFL on NBC for 'entertainment' and found myself shouting for someone to roughly insert a pole of some sort in a certain orifice belonging to Keith Olberman (this on the heels of him being called KO for the umpteenth time in five minutes). I may have also referred to his genitalia as a wild field grass. When watching Fox News (or ANY news), I often find myself yelling at the liberal talking head, often referring to them as a vulgarism for a part of the female anatomy - and so you know, that vulgarism does not begin with the letter 'c' (and now we know why I blog instead of being a talking head). I yell at coaches and managers for making poor play choices while watching college football and MLB - although that doesn't always involve cussing. I yell at "Bones" when they push PC/leftist crap into the plot (e.g. Angela trying to 'save' a pig from being breakfast meat; everyone being too obsequious to the Muslim intern (they trashed a Christian's beliefs in the same episode)). The NBC channels turning their logos green for 'green week'. The ever-present logos in the bottom right corner (I KNOW WHICH *%$^%$##%# CHANNEL I'M WATCHING!!!). One of my personal favorites is watching science shows about the beginning of the universe/solar system/earth where they contradict what they just said in a previous segment of the same show/the previous show/or last week. A few weeks ago, a geologist announced that between 2.5 to 12 times the water in the oceans exists locked in the earth's crust and mantle; at which point I turned to Mrs. C and said "He just confirmed that Noah's flood was possible". OK, that didn't involve cussing but I still yell at the scientists who go miles out of their way to create a theory that denies the existence of God. Anyone ever hear of Ockham's Razor?
However the other night I had a real problem while watching the tail end of a history of Thanksgiving program on the PC "History" Channel. Granted they were talking about how the holiday has become a political brier patch and showing footage of the people of Plymouth doing their annual parade out to Plymouth Rock and being disrupted by civilization hating 'native' Americans. Then the show broke to a sound bite from one of the moron-dians whining about European colonization (you know because we're going to reverse that). It is so easy to sympathize with the plight of someone sitting in a comfortable room, wearing well made and reasonably new clothing (that looked higher end), who gets a check from the US Government every month simply for existing, and can ignore a fair number of governement regulations that European Americans ignore at their peril. I guess the wheel, written language, horses, and gunpowder weren't enough of a trade for him. Funny, it makes you pretty popular when you give another civilization those things in Sid Meier's Civilization games.
Falling into near fits of apoplexy by the time they broke for a commercial, instead of relief I got shoved over the edge by the first ad. In pushing its next show, America before Columbus, I was put in a conundrum as I tried to laugh and suffer a facial tic at the same time. Images from America before Columbus flashed by as the narrator blabbed his PC script when a small group of Indians rode...RODE...onto center screen...ON HORSEBACK!!! Now I will accept that the images had no context with them so it could have been part of the tease but I am 100% sure that America before Columbus did not...DID NOT...have horses! Fortunately, a giggle won out but I did back up and make Mrs. Crusader tell me what was wrong with the commercial (she got it right too!).
I didn't watch America before Columbus.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for that blemish on my self perception. It and several other things I see as personal failings keep my already oversized ego somewhat in check!
Monday, November 23, 2009
On Sheik-y Ground
Politics hasn't been the center of the RC's attention for the last week which explains the distinct lack of postings. Besides its been a bit slow lately with regard to business inside the Beltway (which is usually a good thing for the American people). Granted the Senate is still haggling over just how much debt they will saddle our progeny with but that's about as interesting as watching Harry Reid speak...oh yeah, been there done that.
Another reason not to post is because I'm not sure I could control the foul language clogging up my head at the decision by the Obama Administration to try Khalid Sheik Muhammed and his cronies in a civilian court. Make no mistake even though Atty. General Holder is claiming that this was his decision alone, he could not have gotten the prisoners remanded to his custody without the cooperation of the Secretary of Defense and my guess is that Gates wouldn't do that unless the president ordered it. This is all a scam on the American people so that WHEN these trials blow up Holder will be the fall guy and Obummer can do the plausible deniability dance.
Of course they don't really care. This already has blown up since the five have already plead not guilty in order to turn the trial into a political statement. I expect that sometime next year, after this trial has distracted us from what the Kenyan Katastrophe is doing behind the scenes to stomp on the remains of the Republic, Holder will resign 'in disgrace' and end up in the far left Center for American Progress or some similar organization where he will continue to make bad policy for America. The terrorists and their allies in the Middle East will have gotten an open platform to bash American foreign policy and probably a hung jury. Then they will be returned to the custody of the Defense Department since the president has already announced that they won't be released even if they fail to be convicted. And we will be back where we started but our enemies will wrongly be shown that there is nothing just in our justice system.
Now if I remember my Geneva Convention correctly, spies and 'irregulars' (enemy combatants that do not wear a uniform that identifies them as a military member of a nation) can be detained indefinitely, interrogated (that includes enhanced), and summarily executed. This is precisely what should be done with KSM and the other four. A show trial will only serve our enemies both foreign and domestic which is a violation of the oath that Obastard took less than a year ago. But when you don't believe in the Constitution why defend it in the first place?
My friends, this IS and always has been a war on Islam. It should never have been described as anything else because Islam is at war with us. Islam has only two options: the Dar al Islam and the Dar al Harb. The Dar al Islam is all people or lands that have submitted to the will of Allah. The Dar al Harb (literally House of Death) is all people and lands that have not submitted to Allah. Those of us in the Dar al Harb have three options as far as the Koran is concerned: conversion, slavery, or death. Obastard and his cronies seem willing to take us into slavery (Dhimmi-tude) or conversion.
I would like the fourth option: resistance. In a sane world, KSM and the others would be marched out in front of a firing squad, have their mouths and noses stuffed with pork fat (pork is unclean to Muslims and those contaminated by it cannot enter 'Paradise'), and be executed. Of course in a sane world, we would have nuked Damascus, Mecca, Medina, Riyadh, Baghdad, and Tehran on 09/12/01. But that would have been too 'uncivilized'. We would have killed millions of 'innocents'. We would have saved thousands of American lives. We would have scared Islam back into the shadows for ten generations. We are at war; we have been since the 7th century AD. That we refuse to fight the war to win it means we have already lost.
Another reason not to post is because I'm not sure I could control the foul language clogging up my head at the decision by the Obama Administration to try Khalid Sheik Muhammed and his cronies in a civilian court. Make no mistake even though Atty. General Holder is claiming that this was his decision alone, he could not have gotten the prisoners remanded to his custody without the cooperation of the Secretary of Defense and my guess is that Gates wouldn't do that unless the president ordered it. This is all a scam on the American people so that WHEN these trials blow up Holder will be the fall guy and Obummer can do the plausible deniability dance.
Of course they don't really care. This already has blown up since the five have already plead not guilty in order to turn the trial into a political statement. I expect that sometime next year, after this trial has distracted us from what the Kenyan Katastrophe is doing behind the scenes to stomp on the remains of the Republic, Holder will resign 'in disgrace' and end up in the far left Center for American Progress or some similar organization where he will continue to make bad policy for America. The terrorists and their allies in the Middle East will have gotten an open platform to bash American foreign policy and probably a hung jury. Then they will be returned to the custody of the Defense Department since the president has already announced that they won't be released even if they fail to be convicted. And we will be back where we started but our enemies will wrongly be shown that there is nothing just in our justice system.
Now if I remember my Geneva Convention correctly, spies and 'irregulars' (enemy combatants that do not wear a uniform that identifies them as a military member of a nation) can be detained indefinitely, interrogated (that includes enhanced), and summarily executed. This is precisely what should be done with KSM and the other four. A show trial will only serve our enemies both foreign and domestic which is a violation of the oath that Obastard took less than a year ago. But when you don't believe in the Constitution why defend it in the first place?
My friends, this IS and always has been a war on Islam. It should never have been described as anything else because Islam is at war with us. Islam has only two options: the Dar al Islam and the Dar al Harb. The Dar al Islam is all people or lands that have submitted to the will of Allah. The Dar al Harb (literally House of Death) is all people and lands that have not submitted to Allah. Those of us in the Dar al Harb have three options as far as the Koran is concerned: conversion, slavery, or death. Obastard and his cronies seem willing to take us into slavery (Dhimmi-tude) or conversion.
I would like the fourth option: resistance. In a sane world, KSM and the others would be marched out in front of a firing squad, have their mouths and noses stuffed with pork fat (pork is unclean to Muslims and those contaminated by it cannot enter 'Paradise'), and be executed. Of course in a sane world, we would have nuked Damascus, Mecca, Medina, Riyadh, Baghdad, and Tehran on 09/12/01. But that would have been too 'uncivilized'. We would have killed millions of 'innocents'. We would have saved thousands of American lives. We would have scared Islam back into the shadows for ten generations. We are at war; we have been since the 7th century AD. That we refuse to fight the war to win it means we have already lost.
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