* There’s a lesson in this AP photo, by way of Fox News:
The caption provided is: “Two opposing groups of Cambodian Buddhist monks fight in a street in Phnom Penh, Cambodia”
The lesson, requires an understanding of Buddhism and it’s commitment to non-violence. Apparently, even the supposedly commitedly non-violent, think there are some things worth fighting for. Would that the defeatist left in this country could learn that lesson.
*It seems to me that many of the arguments being put forward about lowering the drinking age, to save lives, [1] can also be made in the argument over gun control, and the relaxing thereof, for many of the same reasons. it’s interesting how nobody wants to talk about those parallels, however; even the ones making the arguments. It strikes me, that perhaps the reason behind that is that they are not arguing from principals, but from other positions.
* I watched the movie “The Enemy Below” l [2]ast night. I’ve actually had a floating around on my TIVO for several days. From the movie:
Doctor: Well, in time we’ll all get back to our own stuff again. The war will get swallowed up, and seem like it never happened.
Captain Murrell: Yes, but it won’t be the same as it was. We won’t have that feeling of permanency that we had before. We’ve learned a hard truth.
Doctor: How do you mean?
Captain Murrell: That there’s no end to misery and destruction. You cut the head off a snake, and it grows another one. You cut that one off, and you find another. You can’t kill it, because it’s something within ourselves. You can call it the enemy if you want to, but it’s part of us; we’re all men.
Therein, dear reader, lies wisdom that many of today don’t want to acknowledge. The reason that we are in so much difficulty right now with the Middle East, is because we have ignored the evil occurring there, for too long; and the snake Murrell speaks of is now strong enough to give us serious problems getting it back under control, again. Many of today would rather have things the way they were. And the lesson being cut here, is that is an impossibility.
Still further, there are many who cry we are being too Militaristic. I submit, that our problem has developed to the point it has because since sometime around the end of the cold war, we as a nation, have not been militaristic enough. Nature, as a rule, hates a vacuum. What we are now seeing, is certain groups, sensing weakness on our part. They take our easygoing ways, and they see a weakness in it; and they exploit it.
We’d better set our minds to the idea that the beast simply cannot be killed; it must, rather, be controlled. Controlled by us. Because if we do not, it will control us.
* Speaking of such matters, I notice a story are running on Q and O [3] today, reporting that Iranian made IED’s are being found in Iraq, along with Iranian munitions. Gee. Big surprise, huh? Friends, Iraq is not involved in a civil war. A civil war by definition is an internal matter. Iran’s involvement, makes this anything but a civil war.
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* I see Canada has finally woken up to the sham that is the Kyoto accord. Good. [4]
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*Yes, I was watching the Buffalo Sabres mop up the New York Islanders last night. The Islanders went home, tails between their legs. If I’m concerned about anything that I saw last night, it’s the way Buffalo essentially went to sleep in the third period. That aside, a satisfying ending to the series.