Winning Hearts And Minds… with a War

I discovered back in September of 2000, and thereafter, that writing about current events that are moving quickly is perhaps the hardest chore one can undertake. This has proven true yet again. Events are moving quickly enough that I won’t attempt to comment on and cover each point that pops up, in this week’s column; there is certainly enough to descuss these events in the next weeks and months.  I am forced to start with events, picked by chance as much as anything else.

As I write this, we have four days of this war under our belt. I find myself watching our people acting in a just cause with no small measure of pride.

Our country is blessed indeed to have such dedicated and talented people.  This Army Photograph is of a tank and it’s crew in Central Iraq, having just driven for the last 32 hours, basicly non-stop. Some of us don’t deserve to be served by such people. Who am I talking about?  Who else? The ones who basicly spit in the face of the military every chance they get… the liberals.

One of the interesting aspects of this war is watching the liberals in their discomfort, as their arguments disappear or backfire on them, one by one.  They’re begining to understand that they will lose what little credibility they have left when President Bush’s path with Iraq turns out to be the right one… and the signs are all there for the seeing. The only ones NOT seeing this, are the losers… the leftists.

See, the left has never understood that winning the hearts and minds of people is of paramount import. In this case, they’re just starting to understand that they’ve already lost, but they fail to fully comprehend WHY.

Let’s examine some of the nonsense they’ve been claiming.

* They can no longer claim this is about oil, since if it was it would have been far more productive to simply put up with Saddam’s world-class thuggery. I’m quite sure he’d be more than willing to pump all the oil we wanted, under those conditions.

* They can’t claim, as they have been, that Iraqi citizens are victims of American force, as we all watch the reaction from the Iraqi people, and watching as they cheer as they see their oppressors fall. Here’s a few I’ve collected, as they’ve been reported.

Coming into Basra as part of a massive military convoy, I encountered
a stream of young men, dressed in what appeared to be Iraqi army uniforms, applauding the US marines as they swept past in tanks.”
BBC reporter, 3-22-03

“Ajami Saadoun Khlis, whose son and brother were executed under the
Saddam regime,sobbed like a child on the shoulder of the Guardian’s Egyptian translator. He mopped the tears but they kept coming. ‘You just arrived,’ he said. ‘You’re late. What took you so long? God help you become victorious. I want to say hello to Bush, to shake his hand.  We came out of the grave.'”
The Guadian, 3-22-03

“As hundreds of coalition troops swept in just after dawn, the heartache of a town that felt the hardest edges of Saddam Hussein’s rule seemed to burst forth, with villagers running into the streets to celebrate in a kind of grim ecstasy, laughing and weeping in long guttural cries. “‘Oooooo, peace be upon you, peace be upon you, peace you, oooooo,’.  Zahra Khafi, a 68-year-old mother of five, cried to a group of American and British visitors who came to the town shortly
after Mr. Hussein’s army appeared to melt away. ‘I’m not afraid of Saddam anymore.'”
New York Times, 3-22-03

“We’ve been driving since dawn today in southern Iraq, and so far
we’ve come across scores of Bedouin herdsmen. We’ve been greeted by friendly greetings of ‘inshallah’ and ‘salaam aleikum’…we’ve seen both women and men waving greetings and shouting greeting to the U.S. troops.”
Radio Free Europe correspondent Ron Synovitz, 3-21-03

“They told me that Saddam Hussein is not allowing anyone to leave Baghdad. I don’t fear the Americans. I was in Baghdad in the war in 1991 and I saw how surgical an operation it was. Saddam Hussein has persecuted everyone except his own family. Kurds, Arab Shiites, Turkoman – everybody has suffered. But our country was a rich country and we can be rich again.'”
Financial Times Information, 3-21-03

“These are US Marines being greeted if not with garlands, with hand shakes by residents of the town in the deep-south corner of Iraq.”
CBS News, 3-21-03

“One little boy, who had chocolate melted all over his face after a soldier gave him some treats from his ration kit, kept pointing at the sky, saying ‘Ameriki, Ameriki.'”
Associated Press, 3-21-03

“Milling crowds of men and boys watched as the Marines attached ropes on the front of their Jeeps to one portrait and then backed up, peeling the Iraqi leader’s black-and-white metal image off a frame. Some locals briefly joined Maj. David ‘Bull’ Gurfein in a new cheer. ‘Iraqis! Iraqis! Iraqis!’ Gurfein yelled, pumping his fist in the air… ….A few men and boys ventured out, putting makeshift white
flags on their pickup trucks or waving white T-shirts out truck windows….’Americans very good,’ Ali Khemy said. ‘Iraq wants to be free. Some chanted, ‘Ameriki! Ameriki!’ … “Gurfein playfully traded pats with a disabled man and turned down a dinner invitation from townspeople. ‘Friend, friend,’ he told them in Arabic learned in the first Gulf War. …”‘No Saddam Hussein!’ one young man in
headscarf told Gurfein. ‘Bush!'”
Associated Press, 3-21-03

“Iraqi citizens were shown ‘tearing down a poster of Saddam Hussein’ and Dexter Filkins of The New York Times was interviewed, saying that Iraqis he had seen were ‘hugging and kissing every American they could find.'”
NBC Nightly News, 3-21-03

“Here was a chance to stop and I clambered down, eager to get a first word from an Iraqi of what he thought of this whole affair. ‘As salaam alekum,’ I said in the traditional greeting, then ran out of Arabic and quickly added, ‘Do you speak English?’ No go. But with a fumbled exchange of gestures we slowly managed to communicate. Thumbs up for the American tanks, thumbs down for Saddam Hussein. Then he pointed north into the distance and said ‘Baghdad.'”
Reuters, 3-21-03

“A line of dancing Kurdish men, staring directly into the mouth of the Iraqi guns less than a mile away, defiantly burned tires, sang traditional new years songs and chanted, ‘Topple Saddam.’…”March 21 is the Kurdish New Year….And bonfires have long been a symbol of liberation in this part of the world. ‘We’re celebrating [Nawroz] national holiday,’ said Samad Abdulla Rahim, 22. ‘But today we also celebrate the attack on Saddam.’…”Many expressed hope that deadly fire would light the night sky over Baghdad in the days ahead, bringing an end to the Kurd’s epic 30-year struggle against Hussein and his Baath Party. ‘I can’t wait for the U.S. planes to come and liberate Kirkuk,’ said Shahab Ahmed Sherif, a 33-year-old Kurd who had fled the oil-rich city four days earlier.”
Copley News Service, 3-21-03

Unidentified Iraqi man: “Help us live better than this life. Let us have freedom.”
ABC World News Tonight, 3-21-03

Hmmm.Given the comments of the Iraqi people, I’d say offhand, that it’s a sure bet their hearts and minds are already won over by President Bush’s action.

* Leftists can no longer claim that the UK and the USA are alone in the thought that our actions are just and right. Indeed, some forty-six countries are publicly committed to the Coalition, including (in Alpha sort)

Afghanistan , Albania , Australia , Azerbaijan , Bulgaria , Colombia ,Costa Rica , Czech Republic, Denmark , Dominican Republic , El Salvador , Eritrea , Estonia , Ethiopia , Georgia , Honduras , Hungary , Iceland , Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Palau, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Singapore, Slovakia, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan

There are many more who because of fear of reprisals, are not publicly backing this effort but rather are privately supporting it.

That’s who supports our actions. As to who does not support our actions. it should not escape you that the party of big government here in America… the socialist Democrats, along with the Socialist dominated French the left in Canada, the Germans who are socialist dominated now, and have been since the fall of the Berlin wall, the Russians, and many other socialist/leftist groups should want to keep the Iraqi people from this day of liberation… instead keeping them under the thumb of their fellow Socialists in the Baath party. Indeed, all Americans should be angry about it.  American leftists are not, if we can take their louder members as any
indication.

* So, also, then, they cannot claim being loyal Americans. This by definition includes Democrat leaders, who, as a result of this action in Iraq, are in full disarray, as well.

Consider the position of Minority Leader Tom Dashiele (D- France). His earlier support of Clinton’s attacks on Iraq are now coming back to haunt him. Way back in 98, Daschle said,

“Saddam Hussein leaves us little choice” but “the use of force.” He also said, “Iraq must comply (with U.N. resolutions). There is no choice. We stand united in our determination to do whatever is necessary ..”

He also called for “immediate Iraqi compliance” or “threat by force” would be “required”.

Even more recently, he plays the same tune.

“We ought not politicize this war. We ought not politicize the rhetoric about war and life and death … We have to rise to a higher level .. It is not too late to forget the pollsters . the campaign fund-raisers . (the) accusations about how interested in national security,” different parties are ..”(Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle in the Congressional Record 9/25/02).

So, his well-known recent attacks on President Bush, as regards his efforts in Iraq are nothing more than the worst kind of partisan politics.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/17/sprj.irq.congress.briefing/

And the Democrats seem to be not backing down from this matter, as if they could EVER admit they were wrong… In a recent note to the party faithful, their leadership asks them to stand up for Partisanship over what’s right and wrong… Just an hour or two before our beginning to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime, the DNC sent e-mails to its grass-roots activists that said “Democratic leaders are standing up to Bush; Make sure you stand up for them!”

The UN must be scratching their collectivist heads, as well, as they watch these reactions… to say nothing of the expressions on their faces as they watch weapons they themselves banned Saddam from having, weapons he swore he didn’t have, being launched at our troups, as they liberate Iraq.

You could just feel the red faces as the world discovered that Iraq does indeed have a downright huge Chem /Bio Weapons plant, near An Najaf, just as we’ve been saying, all along.

The poll shows that three-quarters of all Americans approve of the decision to go to war, including 60% who approve strongly. Only one in five Americans disapprove — 15% who feel strongly and 5% not strongly.

Source: http://gallup.com/poll/releases/pr030321.asp

It’s interesting how the press has been by and large ignoring this report so far. (Non-partisan press, my butt.)

It’s also interesting that the day after this polling data hit the streets, that Daschle and Nancy Pelosi both used their Saturday Radio address to whine about how they are ‘behind the troups’. Here’s a link to it;

http://www.house.gov/pelosi/prSupportTroops032003.htm

This is almost word for word the actual text of the address given, except that Daschle, who can’t convincingly read scripting to save himself, was obviously tacked in at the last minute. They clearly gave the impression of two errant dogs being called sternly to heel. Yet they still will not address the concept that when one supports the troups one must also support their actions.. and thereby the choices made by their commanders. If the troups are right in what they do, then so too is
their commander… President Bush. making the choices that are right.

These Democrats know no shame whatever, apparently.

The left KNOWS their positions… every one of them, as regards Saddam, and our fight against terrorism, (to say nothing of their draconian domestic policies) are the wrong ones for America, and for the world. They KNOW their constant whining about President Bush and his leadership is costing them votes, particularly when Bush
demonstrably keeps making the right choices, over their loud objections, which would have us doing exactly the wrong thing. The numbers above, suggest that the American people, as a rule, are wise to this, however much TV coverage the anti-war rioters get.

I, for one, plan to never let the left forget they stood up to be counted among those who opposed the US… the troops our President and the freedom of the Iraqi people. I hope you don’t either. But, for the rest of the world, our hearts and minds have been won by the people who have the courage to fight for what’s right.  Let us also not forget who it was who put us into this position of having to fight in
the first place:. Think back a few years, to 1992. Who was it who told us all that he had little interest in foreign policy, and was therefore better qualified to run for President? Why, Bill Clinton, of course.

With all of this said, I will make the suggestion that you offer a prayer for our servicepeople. They know better than anyone else what we’re up against. They don’t think their sacrafice a vain or idle one.

But, I hasten to add, the left does. Consider it this way: How can one claim, as the left has with some consistancy, that Mr. Bush is a war criminal, without labeling the military war criminals as well?

Perhaps that’s one more claim the left can no longer make; that they support our soldiers.

It’s been amusing and educational, since last November’s elections, watching the Democrats squirm.

For example, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschele (feels really good to say that) Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschele lately is rather like watching a mouse in a trap.  Grisly, to say the very least. Flailing around helplessly, the mouse will start frothing at the mouth attacking anything and everything… even shadows. So it was with Old Tommy Boy who started frothing at the mouth, attacking everything to
his right…which these days includes just about everything.

Apparently here is a man who knows he’s never going any higher in his political life, he will never attain any more power,, and so all bets are off. Everything and everyone got his blame. Of course the fact that the media he blames for his loss is biased so far to the left that the claims of press neutrality in reporting are something of a national joke. That point aside, he also tried to tell us all how it
was those who oppose him that had been projecting a tenor that has led to increased threats on those of the left. He claimed threats have increased against him and his family….

Well, let’s break out for a minute; Since the post 9/11 anthrax attacks, during which MANY Americans are sent envelopes containing white powder, Dashiele has been under Secret Service Protection. Do you think for a minute that in that situation, added threats wouldn’t have eventually made the news? Put simply, the man’s a bald faced liar. That said, let’s continue.

Dasheile went on to blame talk show hosts… “Rush Limbaugh and all of the Rush Limbaugh wannabes” for an “increasingly negative tone in politics. ” He said, to an astonished room full or Reporters:

“What happens when Rush Limbaugh attacks those of us in public life is that people aren’t satisfied just to listen, They want to act because they get emotionally invested. And so, you know, the threats to those of us in public life go up dramatically, on our families and on us, in a way that’s very disconcerting.”

Well, let’s examine this. I mean, let’s examine some recent events some recent quotes in then news, some recent usenet quotes, and see where the attacks designed to increase threats are from and whom they are directed at. Let’s see where the unfounded hysteria is really coming from. Let’s look behind the Leftist claims to the real source.

“When you don’t vote, you let another church explode. When you don’t vote, you allow another cross to burn. When you don’t vote, you let another assault wound a brother or sister. When you don’t vote, you let the Republicans continue to cut school lunches and Head Start.”

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to project “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

Or how about this campaign ad?

“On June 7, 1998 in Texas my father was killed.  He was beaten, chained, and then dragged 3 miles to his death, all because he was black.  So when Governor George W. Bush refused to support hate-crime legislation, it was like my father was killed all over again. Call Governor George W. Bush and tell him to support hate-crime legislation.  We won’t be dragged away from our future.”

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to project “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

Oh, yeah. It’s a real ad, Here’s the link:

http://www.gwu.edu/~action/ads2/adnaacp.html

And, it isn’t like the Democrats didn’t know and approve of what they’ve been doing….
Check the following exchange:

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos: “Well, if it’s wrong to play politics with national security, why not call off the scare tactics with Social Security?”

Gephardt: “I think that’s over the line when you get — get into national security.  Social Security, the economy, jobs are always legitimate political issues and important substantive issues. ”

George Stephanopoulos:”You don’t think the DNC should take [the ad] down?”

Gephardt: “I don’t.”

—-(ABC’s “This Week,” October 6, 2002)

The comment about national security is of interest, too. When the Democrats started playing politics with our national security, Gephardt at least had the good sense to cut bait.

Liberal Pols are not the only ones cranking up the hysteria in politics.  Remember Harry Belafonte taking to the radiowaves to slam Secretary of State Colin Powell as a sellout to the black race? Belafonte, a guest on San Diego’s 760 KFMB, told host Ted Leitner that Powell was like a plantation slave who moves into the slave owner’s
house and only says what his master wants him to say.

“In the days of slavery, there were those slaves who lived on the plantation and were those slaves that lived in the house. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master… exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him.

“Colin Powell’s committed to come into the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture.”  For close to twenty minutes, Belafonte ripped the entire Bush administration, including an attack on Attorney General John Ashcroft. “There’s something wrong with men who think the way Ashcroft does and who
manipulate the justice system the way he does.”

Belafonte likened Ashcroft’s tactics to the McCarthy era:

“Families were destroyed, neighbors spied on neighbors. Now we find Ashcroft cutting in under the guise of catching terrorists, suspending liberties and rights. To deny those rights, to any citizen, to any people, is to cast a great shame on us and lead us back to another dark period.”

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to project “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

Or, we can look at Nina Totenburg:

“If there is justice, he will get AIDS, or his grandchilderen will”
—(referring to Jesse Helms)

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to project “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

How about Margaret Carlson?
Linda “Tripp lost membership in the family of man” and “can safely be cast as a villain — the Mark Fuhrman of the Starr investigation,”

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to pproject “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

OK, this is all somewhat older stuff. More current you say:… Fine. How about November ’02, in this most recent election;

Candidate debate has unfriendly end
11/24/02
By Bill Walsh
Staff writer/The Times-Picayune

BATON ROUGE — An already-bitter U.S. Senate campaign got personal Saturday afternoon at the conclusion of a taped debate between Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu and Republican state Elections Commissioner Suzanne Haik Terrell.

After a tense 30-minute segment finished taping at WDSU’s studios in New Orleans, the two candidates were preparing to leave. According to witnesses, Landrieu looked over her shoulder and told Terrell, “This is your last campaign.”

A stunned Terrell replied, “She threatened me.”

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflamitory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to project “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

How about Alec Baldwin? Is he still in the country? Remember his big
day?

“I’m thinking to myself if we were in other countries, we would, all of us together, all of us together would go down to Washington and we would stone Henry Hyde to death! We would go to their homes, and we’d kill their wives and their children. We would kill their families”

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to project “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

Or, how about the steamy rethoric of Babs Striesand? Remember her memo to Democrat leaders? She continues to rant, even today.

“And there is a horde of extremist federal judicial nominees, deemed by the Democratically- controlled Senate as too conservative for confirmation, just waiting to get rushed through the nomination process. These judges are guaranteed to threaten our civil liberties, a woman’s right to choose, civil rights and environmental protection. And they will be around long after the president is gone.”

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to project “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

Really sad, that one. Such talent. Such a voice. Such an IDIOT.

There’s always Ed Asner…

“I feel that George Bush’s actions are desecrating the America that I grew up in and believed in. He is making us an imperialist government. He is choosing to replace heads of state and government he doesn’t like.”

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to pproject “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh? And as an aside, does that mean you DO like Saddam, Ed?

Or how about leftists on the street… literally. Check this from a recent USEnet posting.
“We all need to take a deep breath and think about being a Bush daughter and having that cross to bear. I’d go out and have a couple of drinks, too. – about President George W. Bush’s daughters being caught with alcohol as minors He’s embarrassing, he’s not my president. He will never be my president ”

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to pproject “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

BET’s Tavis Smiley on CNBC’s Rivera Live:

“As far as I’m concerned, Bush in Texas is nothing more than a serial killer.”

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to pproject “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

How about Al Gore?

“They use colorblind the way duck hunters use their duck blind. They hide behind it and hope the ducks won’t figure out what they’re up to.” (On Good Morning America)

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there.
Nothing designed to project “a tenor that has led to increased threats
on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

OK, let’s dive back into history, as I happen to find these little gems… One from Hillary Clinton:

“For anybody willing to find it, and write about it, and explain it, is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for President. A few journalists have kind of caught on to it and explained it, but it has not yet been fully revealed to the American public.”  –Jan 27, 1998 Today Show (NBC)

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to project “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

Or, from: http://www.therightwing.com/conspiracy/

“The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy has been outed by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. We can no longer lurk in the shadows. We must show ourselves to the world and reveal for all to see who we are. We have built this page to inform, educate, postulate, and to fight the lies. We have been maligned, slandered and misquoted. On this page you shall find THE TRUTH! Awaken to the knowledge. Arise to the dawn of a new
age. Advance to the Promised Land, to the TRUTH!:

These idiots wouldn’t know truth if it jumped up and bit them. Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to pproject “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh? Just so we know the one quote is no fluke, let’s go back and look for more at the same site.

President Bill Clinton was in fear of the Extremist Right Wing Cabal (The Cabal) of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Bill Clinton did not hold more than two Cabinet meeting in 1998 because of his fear of the militant wing of the Conspiracy.
http://www.therightwing.com/conspiracy/cabal.html

He feared his own Cabinet?

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to project “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

George W. Bush is Becoming More Like Hitler Everyday

1) The republican party and Bush almost mirror the propaganda methods used by Hitler in old nazi germany. The republicans are calling this fight against terrorism a war, this is propaganda. It is not a war, congress has to declare war and they have not done that. It is propaganda to call a fight against terrorism a war. http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/oreilly-sucks/hitlerbush.htm

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to pproject “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

From Elsewhere on the web:

US actor Martin Sheen, who plays the US president in hit series The West Wing, has said he cannot bear politics and that George W Bush is a “moron”.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1166696.stm

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to pproject “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

…the NAACP, which ran a multi-million dollar TV effort during the presidential race insinuating that George W. Bush hates black people and is in league with lynchers because he did not think extending a hate crimes law to include special protections for gays was a prudent idea. No Democrat has condemned this racial McCarthyism let alone the offensive outbursts of party extremists like Maxine Waters.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=1055

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to pproject “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh? Good thing Front Page caught that one and reported it as such instead of burying it.

Back to Usenet for one of the bigger idiots there:

“You Redcoat motherf—ers are done. You’ve blown your cover, and gotdamn that’s some nasty s*** you got under those sheats! Does KKK stand for Kringe Kringe Kringe? Here not 60 years ago, American men lined up to run head first into Nazi tanks singing the star spangled banner, and now we’ve come to this? You see a wrapped head come around the corner and you clutch your purse (why do you have a purse?) like
Satan himself is bearing down on you. You guys are cowards! Contortionists couldn’t bend over as far as you have for the Great Oligarchy Party! You know, if your grandpappy was upset with one of those knee-grows, he’d hop in the back of his truck and go shoot him! Now you’ve got to beg Ape Bushie Boy to throw out the miranda so you can beat the s*** out of suspects , mind you, only if the ACLU isn’t taping it. To call you pantywaist is an insult to drag queens; At least they’ve got nutz!Of note : My killfiles have been deleted, all of you cowardly little Repugnant b****s that are pissed off that I’ve been “ignoring” you can feel free to come get some of this.”

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to project “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

And another:

The whackos are all on the right nowadays.  You’re the ones that want to genocide iraq and thereby inflame the arab world and thereby cause MORE terrorist attax on america.  Just so you have cheap gas for your Tahoe.

Oh, yeah. Nothing inflammatory there, huh? Nothing hysterical, there. Nothing designed to project “a tenor that has led to increased threats on those” who aren’t leftist, eh?

The examples are easy to find there are millions, quite literally. All these quotes I’ve included in this 5 page commentary are easily verified, and prove beyond a shadow of any doubt:

It is the DEMOCRATS who are the real source of racism and hysteria, the real advocates of violence against political enemies.

It’ll be interesting to watch the cockroaches they are, run for cover when this light is placed on them.

–Rochester, NY—

The left is a group of fighters, with an agenda… and a group in search of an excuse to impose that agenda, as a solution to whatever problem happens to be to hand at the moment. Even if they created the problem in the first place.

Back in the early 90’s when the SUV started becoming the vehicle of choice for millions of Americans, the left was had problems justifying their arguments against such vehicles. Having higher priorities at that time, (such as defending Bill Clinton from his misdeeds), the attentions of the left were turned away from this.

Nowadays, the left has no such distractions, and there has been some serious concentration on an all-out campaign against the SUV. But let’s examine in critical fashion, the arguments the left puts up against the SUV, shall we?

First, let’s take the most recent one, being pushed the loudest by the ‘Detroit Project”:

SUV’s support terrorists

While this would be true if we were actually getting a significant portion of our oil from the Middle East, we’re not. Iraq, for example, only accounts for around 9% of our consumption, under the normal conditions we’ve not had for some 10 years now.

Also, let’s consider that the head of ‘People for the American Way’, Norman Lear who is the creator of these ads has a garage with 21 cars that includes 2 Limousines Private Jet.  Forgive me, Norman, but somehow, I doubt your sincerity on this issue. In fact, Lear is not alone. According to actual survey, over half of the people involved in this political hit movement drive SUV’s.

Let’s also consider the idea that all automobiles burn fuel, and often at as high a rate as SUV’s, the whining not withstanding. Looking even closer, let’s say that the SUV uses 20 gal per week, on average. Meanwhile the driver of the average car gets a little better, burning perhaps 8 gallons per week less. Are the folks at the Detroit project telling us that it’s just the money for that eight gallons that funds terrorism, and the rest are OK?

So, by those lights, shouldn’t that be ANYTHING that burns gas or uses oil contributes? Why just SUV’s?  Should we be shutting down NASCAR and NHRA competitions because they’re anti-American? Do we all become Amish to satisfy these people? The question becomes, of course, at what point does this Liber-Lieâ„¢ get to absurd levels?

SUV’s Pollute

Again, comes the question about ALL autos. The fact is, the polution from such vehicles are no worse than the vast majority on the road today, Including the mini-coffins the left would have us driving.

There’s no real need for the SUV

I’m forced to agree with Charles Galbach, who speaks to these points better than I:

“In the first place, the purchase of SUV’s by businesses was the result of your close buddies, the tax lawyers and their cohorts in the not that long ago Democratically controlled congress which permitted or encouraged a windfall tax deduction for SUV’s, posing as “trucks”. Since the Republicans have a history of trying to bottle up lawyers, including tax lawyers, where they belong and also have a history of opposing business taxes rather than the Democrat method of manufacturing loopholes, it had to be the Democrats who conjured up this ruse. It obviously backfired with unintended consequences.

Secondly, it was the Democrats who forced the auto industry into creating vehicles that couldn’t hold even 2 adults and 2 children without them being squashed inside a thimble sized vehicle. These same vehicles are underpowered and therefore unsafe on any highway at any speed. They qualify for no more than zipping around an area no bigger than your typical gated community – a role better served by the usual
golf cart.

Everyone, except the rabid few enviro-whackos can see this. As a result, we see mom driving around in an oversized vehicle which is the only one that can hold her kids and a couple friends on a trip to soccer practice – or grandma driving around in an oversized vehicle which is about the only thing safe enough for her to drive on her
daily errands.”

To this excellent commentary, I would add one more point: Like millions of Americans, I tow frequently enough to make a truck an economical choice.  Now, I happen to do this with a conversion van.  But I could easily do this with an SUV, as well, and many do.

Cars have been so downsized that towing with anything less is simply unsafe if not impossible. As an example, I will never forget the sight a few years ago while in Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, the sight of an obviously honeymooning couple using a Dodge Neon to tow a fairly small sized popup camper. We were at a parking spot along the ocean, near a popular eating spot.  There’s a sizeable hill out front. When he
pulled in, I could smell his brakes burning, from trying to get down the hill without smacking something or someone.  They ate, and left. Well, they tried to…. They got stuck going back up that same hill… the car had all it could do to hold the trailer against the hill… and the trailer only weighed a couple thousand lbs.!

You do NOT want people and equipment like this next to you on the highway. But just think of all the gas he’s saving, right up to the part where they both die horribly because he can’t control the thing.

If milage is the desired goal, fine, go after it. Meantime, leave me something that actually works. Create something that can tow 6000lbs, without getting into trouble, is safe in an accident sitaution, and yet gets 45mpg, and is at a reasonable initial cost, and is as dependable as our current modes of transport, and I’ll buy it.

Meantime, leave me the beep alone.

Which leads me, finally, to a personal comment, to those of you who think small cars are “safe”.

I hesitate to say this.
Twice now, I’ve been at the scene of an accident… once where I knew the victims personally, and once where I happened upon an accident before the police arrived. Both fatal accdents, both one car accdients, and both situations where the person would have lived had they had something better than a Ford Fiesta in one case, or a Prius, in the other.  In both cases, they valued a gallon of gas over their own lives, and paid the price…. And I’m left with the horrible memory of those two incidents.

I will *never* drive such a vehicle, and I don’t give a hot crap WHAT kind of gas numbers it turns in.

SUV’s Aren’t safe in accdients, having higher accident death rates.

NHTSA figures report that 64% of SUV deaths are blamed on lack of seatbelts, not of vehicle design. And of those, a sizeable number are related to tire failures, which in turn are caused by lack of tire maintainance… simply keeping the tires up to pressure, and THAT in fairly isolated cases. When those incidents are factored out, the death rates in SUV’s are actually LOWER than for the kind of tincans the left would have us in.

Now, of course comes the story from several difference sources (NewsMax, The NY POST, etc) that the people behind this are the rich Hollywood left, led by Norman Lear, who himself owns a 21 car garage. Excuse me, but I question the sincerity of this arguments’ proponants.

Sorry, but from any angle… ANY angle…this anti-SUV argument doesn’t hold up.  Since all these arguments are so easily defeated, it strikes me taht what we’re seeing is more a poliytical ploy, than anything else. An excuse for a bigger attack. An infamous socialist (is there any other kind) Adolf Hitler, had the Jews as an excuse for his attacks. The socialists of today have the SUV as their excuse. I
refuse to be a victim as they were, for the purpose of someone’s political ploy for power.

You should refuse to, as well.

It’s snowing tonight in Rochester. About everything is shut down. So, I’m spending some time, drinking a bit of Irish Coffee, and warming myself in front of a roaring computer. Looking outside, we’ve got a fresh snow measuring a good foot on the ground, and it’s showing no signs of stopping. A practically dry Christmas, and now this. It’s metephoric, I think for what I see going on in the political world of late. Take these last few days for an example…

Democrats, we are told, are looking for a new voice, one who shares the vision of the American people for their future.. someone who doesn’t represent big money, and who represents fairness.  So, who comes to the front of the line? Who do the Democrats claim is the answer to their quest?

None other than (drum roll, please) Sen. John Edwards, the Multi-multi millionare lawyer.  Edwards, as you may know, made all his money, being a professional ambulance chaser.

He was on all three national TV morning shows, all at the same time, the morning after his announcement. You couldn’t escape it, if you had the TV running. That they have this timing suggests a willing press being used as campaign fodder by the Democrats who are struggling to get back into the spotlight, after the voters kicked them out last November.

That rather obvious point aside, the Democrats will tell you with smiles on their faces that Edwards largely funded his own Senate campaign with a $20-50 million fortune. What they don’t say, what’s hidden behind the smile, is that he got all that money as a trial lawyer, winning huge medical malpractice and products liability
claims.

Back in the day of the debate over the Tobacco settlement, many Republicans, including then House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., singled out the multibillion-dollar contingency fees contained in the proposed tobacco settlement for “enriching a small group of trial lawyers” rather than aiding children’s health.  Newt was right, too… and Edwards is one such person.

In 1997, a suit leveled by Edwards, gathered a state record $23.5 million award. Edwards went on to break his own record later that year with a $30 million award. In an area of practice where the mouth piece gets around 30% fees, one can easily see the attraction.

However; that amount of money, and that kind of voting history comes with a cost, assuming the the Republicans are willing to extract such a cost… we know full and well the press won’t. That cost is simply described. Edwards is going to be hard pressed to sell himself to the public as ‘Joe Everyman’, given his millionaire status. His vote record certainly doesn’t reflect the desires of the average American, either, further eroding his chances. While the so-called mainstream news media calls edwards a moderate, let’s consider they did that with Bill Clinton, as well.

Since they won’t tell you about this, I will.

Edwards voted NO to partial birth abortion ban
Edwards voted NO to eliminating the marriage tax penalty.
Edwards voted NO to repealing the estate tax
Edwards voted NO on the confirmation of Interior Secretary Gale Norton
Edwards voted NO to the bipartisan tax cut plan
Edwards voted NO to temporarily suspending the gasoline tax.
Edwards voted NO to limiting the social security tax to 50% of total benefits (it had been 85%).

Edwards was backed by Bill Clinton, who raised around 400,000 dollars for him.
Edwards voted NO to stopping the use of federal funds to distribute the “morning after pill” on school grounds.

Is there any doubt that this is the record of a far-leftist?

This… this is supposed to be new, and refreshing? 
This is not supposed represent big money?
This is supposed to represent fairness?

Sorry, but this is nothing more than the same often criminal tripe the DNC has been pushing for decades.

Clearly this support of a rich lawyer is nothing new for the Democrats, who have been in the hip pocket of the American Trial Lawyers Association (ALTA) for decades. Thing is, for all Edwards’ blowing smoke about healthcare as an issue, and for all the noises form the DNC that this will be an issue come next Presidential election, has anyone seriously looked at the role Edwards and his ilk have played in the worsening healthcare situation in this country?

Perhaps we should do so here, since again, the so-called mainstream News Media won’t. And certainly Edwards the ATLA and the Democrats won’t.

The biggest problem with doctor fees right now, are insurance costs. Malpractice insurance is driving good doctors out of their practice. ATLA falsely blames insurance companies. So does Edwards. But wait! Ask the question: Where are the doctors going? They’re retring, but the ones that aren’;t ready to retire yet are leaving for states that have Tort reform on the books… you know.. the tort reform the ATLA and their puppets, Democrats, are against, and are lying about, while
states without tort reform are losing doctors to the exodus. As a result, the United States increasingly faces a health care crisis.

This is not the fault of the insurance companies, but rather of the kind of outrageous lawsuits that we’ve seen. Trial lawyers like John Edwards are the biggest reason why. The ‘get all the money you have coming to you’ commericals we’re all assulted with daily of late from lawyers like Edwards have a price… and healthcare costing more in those few places you can now find it, is that cost.

The gargantuan awards in malpractice lawsuits brought by Edwards and his fellows, have caused a lot of insurers to abandon medicine altogether, and those that remain have been forced to raise premiums to rates that have been bankrupting doctors… yes, even those who have never had an insurance issue.  Some of the doctors I’ve seen
reporting on such matters, say they’re getting hit with rate increases of between 20 to 400 percent in the last few years.  This can get into the range of $200,000 per year, per doctor. Gee, do you suppose this might affect your healthcare coverage costs?

A report in the paper, “Roll Call”, 86 percent of the $1.39 million raised by Edwards’ recently formed political action committee came from fellow trial lawyers. Roll Call writes, “No other Congressional leader or potential presidential contender has such a heavy reliance on a single industry for their leadership PAC.”

The reasons for such PACs, along with the ATLA want Edwards in office is to gather them yet more money. Problem here is they’ll finish the job they’ve started; killing off affordable healthcare in this country. I say it again:These are the people killing off healthcare, and the people who need it.
And they’re running for office.

What I find particularly frustrating here, is the lying Edwards and his supporters have already started with: He makes lots of noise about ‘helping the helpless’, but his record is one of making a fortune and cutting a path to power, by chasing Doctors out of business, and thereby harming the helpless who are now without healthcare they need as a direct result.

I wonder; how many people have already died because of people like Edwards? This guy wants to be elected President?  Like the snow outside, tonight, the level of nonsense from the Democrats constitutes a snow job that shows no sign of stopping soon. Break out the shovel.

Churchville NY—

Tonight, I’m treating the kids to a little train watching, at a favorite spot of ours for this purpose, which is just west of Rochester, out along I-490. (Sanford Road, if you have a map and are curious) It’s cold, around 28 F or so, and there’s a light reflected from the sky over the the foot or so of the white stuff we picked up over Christmas day around here. After having no snow at Christmas for a few years, this is a wonderful change, other than having a devil of a time finding a spot to park; my usual being covered by around two foot of snow drift.

As luck would have it, this is, then as now, one of the busiest rail corridors in the country… the old New York Central Water Route. Today, this line is run by CSX transportation, and still moves around 70 trains per day, and Amtrak moves 5 to 10, depending on what day it is. Power sets of 6,000 to 10,000 horsepower are common, these days. It’s a big and colorful parade, a display of power unmatched anywhere. It’s free, except for the small amount of fuel needed to get here. Often during the summer we’ll take some camp chairs to this spot, and a cooler, both of which are always in the truck, anyway due to our other family vice… RV camping.

There’s history trackside, as well… and a springboard for educational discussions with the boys. For example, in 1865, this very roadbed, was the route of funeral train of our first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln.

The train is pictured here as it is leaving Chicago the day before. This place wasn’t even a town, yet. But the track was here.

A few years later, just west of here, about 20 miles or so, the fastest machine on earth in May of 1893, the old NYC 999, and it’s engineer Charlie Hogan set it’s record speed of 112.5 mph, while pulling the Empire State Express. Hogan averaged over 100MPH for around 5 miles, on a slight downgrade. Apparently, Hogan just “wanted
to see what it would do”, so once he got west out of Batavia station, he let the valve all the way out, and hung on, across the flats to Buffalo. Listening closely, I can almost hear its whistle.

Old 999 is still around today. It’s currently at the Museum of Science and Industry. The drive wheels you see mounted on 999 here, are 78inch wheels. The record run was done with larger 86in wheels. This would be like adding an overdrive to your car, more or less. One imagines the larger ones were removed so as to remove the high speed temptations from this already long- legged power.

Later, the 20th Century Limited blasted through here, at an only slightly more sedate 80mph as a matter of routine behind sleek, streamlined silver and black Hudson types, like this one, a J3a designed by Henry Dreyfus:

Those same engines pulled troop trains during both world wars. Out the windows of those trains was all too often the last glimpse of home many that fought in those wars, had. One cannot be anywhere along this main line without feeling at least some small sense of history…. A history I am taking pains to ensure my sons know about.

Here’s a link to some more about the area.
http://www.townofriga.org/History.htm

As usual, my trusty Palm Pilot is along on this trip, both for logging train spottings and for writing. Turns out the Word Processor I got for this Palm last spring is some of the better technology money I have spent recently. It’s getting a workout today for this column, because it’s future history I’m concerned about…. Which is to say, I’m concerned over what historians will say about us, looking back.

After all, it’s the day after Christmas, 2002 and strange events cloud our horizons. It is a time is for such thoughts, I guess. Not that we plan it that way, it just happens, more or less. It was just last year that I wrote about how our lives get sadder every year, more care-worn. Our scars this year have not altogether healed from last year, and more have developed since then, and if I read the signs aright,
yet more will follow. And there are those who want those scars not to heal, apparently for reasons of their own… reasons of power and of politics. And as I sit in this historic spot, watching trains rolling by, and looking at 2003 rolling in, I can’t help but wonder what the people of the past would think of us, and what people of the future will think, as they look back on our times.

A few days ago, a black friend of mine and I were discussing the problems surrounding Trent Lott, from the point of view of blacks. He knows about this column and is a frequent reader… occasionally he is a harsh critic, usually, however, he’s a passive bystander.

I asked him in passing if he’d seen, and what he thought of, the Lott article that I’d posted last week. I did so as someone would as they were stepping into a minefield. It did cause an explosion from him… but the explosion went a completely different way from what I envisioned. I had fully expected to hear about how racist Lott was and how he and his ilk… well, you get the idea. What I actually got was
both totally unexpected, and encouraging.

My friend started in loudly, on what he called the ‘purveyors of white guilt in America’ I must confess, I was both taken aback and interested. He asserted… (rather stoutly, I thought, as if he’d been thinking about this very subject before I’d asked) …that this was another example of the Democrats playing the race card, more or less agreeing with what I’d written in the first article on Lott. But from there, he took an unexpected turn, as our conversations often do.

He noted that for example, “the press leans on the usual leftists and race salesmen for quotes to fill their papers… Jackson, Sharpton, Kweisi Mfume, as well as a whole mess of WHITE leftists, who supposedly better represent modern black thought than actual blacks.

Nobody asked Ward Connerly, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, or Shelby Steele, or Condi Rice, for that matter, what THEIR thoughts were. It’s almost as if they can’t allow themselves to think that blacks might NOT agree with whatever the Democrats are saying.” And that, he concluded, would only hurt blacks in the end, and in so doing, all Americans, by eliminating open debate on such matters.

Encouraged by his thoughtful and unexpected response, I prodded him further, asking him directly if he didn’t think Lott’s comments racist. “Depends how you take it”, said he. “Sure, it can be twisted into that but I don’t think he had that in mind. And it wasn’t what he said directly, anyway..” He went on in somewhat more subdued tones: ” Ya know, this… all this…this business from Lott, is a power grab, trying to get Congress back, like you said in your column.”

“But what is also is,”, he continued “is a diversion from what the Democrats have been doing to blacks as INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE. Ya’ever notice that when blacks and their rights are brought up by the Democrats it’s always in the plural, never the person, the individual?

When they claim to be working for the group, they always seem to forget the individual!”

I was intreuged and wanted more of this point, but he was on a roll. I’ve learned to let him go when he gets into these moods. He wanders some, but somehow he always seems to tie his thoughts together in the end, if you give him long enough without interruption. So, the discussion wandered into his frustrations with our local school
system. He then drew a less than obvious comparison:

“Democrats like throwing cash at inner city schools that are falling apart and not really teaching the kids. Why? Because they have a ‘white guilt’ complex, and they need to make themselves feel better about that guilt. Never mind that you’re flushing money down the crapper hoping some of it floats back up. Never mind that using tax money that way is a sheer waste … that doesn’t matter… What matters to
them is that after tossing that tax money around, they can send their kid to the private schools in the ‘burbs…. And with their big government paycheck, they can afford it, too. And guess what? Those schools they send THEIR kids to, are all WHITE, too…”

“Imagine what would happen if we were given the chance to take our kids out of the city school system, and instead use that money they’re tossing around, to send our kids to the schools of OUR choice! “

At this, I understood the larger point he was driving at, and he’s right, sadly. Blacks and other minorities being guaranteed a good education is supposedly why the left steadfastly refuses to allow the money to be diverted from the government school systems, toward schools of the parent’s choice. Yes, that dreaded “v” word. Yet, this attempt to supposedly help ‘the black community’ by removing their choices is actually hurting it, by hurting the black individuals within that system.

I have several articles by Doctor Thomas Sowell stuffed into the word processor in my Palm, here. Among them, I find:

… “According to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a black think tank, over 60 percent of black parents support school vouchers so that their children can attend better and safer schools. Civil rights organizations and 69 percent of black elected officials oppose vouchers. In the “service to their masters,” namely the National Education Association, civil rights groups and black
politicians fight tooth and nail against vouchers. Their payment for helping to protect the monopolistic stranglehold on education is political and charitable contributions.”

Unfortunate, though, that what gets sacrificed here is the individuals who would be better served outside the government education monopoly so pushed by leftists.

It interests me that anyone raising such issues, tend to get labeled as ‘racist’… unless the speaker happens to be black, as Doctor Sowell is, at which point, the cries of ‘racist’ get muddled between silence and mutters of ‘Unc Tom’. Williams happens, by happy chance to have put up an excellent article on these points, just this week, at http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams1.asp

I guess what I’m concerned about here at that so many problems that the leftists and race baiters like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Kweisi Mfume, Maxine Waters, etc, and the entire Democrat leadership these days, want to call racism, are actually nothing of the kind. Doctor Williams in another article I have stuffed into the Palm here, speaks to this point:

“At one time, black Americans didn’t enjoy constitutional protections. Today, we do. As such, the civil-rights struggle is over and won. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t other problems, but they are not civil-rights problems. If we diagnose them incorrectly as civil-rights problems, however, their solutions will remain illusive.”

If those problems never get solved, these folks can keep blaming the right for the problems, and doing nothing to actually solve the problems. It’s a vicious cycle, that I’m afraid consumes those at the center of the storm as well as those on the outside…. The minority as well as the majority.

And, I wonder; what will historians say of the bald-faced lie that the Democrats pass off on us as regards Trent Lott, in an attempt to regain power?

Consider;

Historically, “White Guilt” has proven an effective tool against the opponents of the left. Has our ‘guilt’ been so engrained in us by these flimflammers that we roll over and beg for mercy every time the subject of race comes up? Do we give in every time the left starts hollering ‘racist’? Are we so far gone in what the race baiters have been selling us that there can be no honest disagreement in how to maintain the desired racial equality?

Yes, I’m afraid we are… to both the detriments of both the racial minority and the racial majority. The reaction of the right, to the charges against Lott is a prime example. In most cases, Lott’s included, race isn’t the real issue at hand. Its’ merely a prop, a cover, for a deeper power struggle. And the biggest victims of this
ruse, I think, are the people it’s purveyors are supposed to be helping…. The minorities, that is, and the majority, in the bargain.

What would Lincoln have said if he could see us dealing with this issue today, aside from the comments about ,not being able to make the weak strong by making the strong weak, of course… a comment Liberals seem to ignore as a matter of routine.

And 110 years from now, historians will look back at the doings of these race baiters and report this was our failing. What will the state of racial equality be then, I wonder? Will we have worked our way out of this cycle by then, or will we still be stuck in these well- worn ruts, which were designed for the maintenance of Democrat-party power, like the one that railroaded Trent Lott?

A Lott over Nothing

12-18-02 –Rochester, NY—

First, before I even draw breath, let me mention my personal position against segregation.

I take that off the table right now, because what I say after this will without a doubt be used against me, in an attempt to paint me as a racist, even with this statement up front. So be it; at least now, they have no excuse.

That bit of Political Correctness dealt with, it must be noted that Majority Leader Trent Lott’s situation is not justified by the facts. This is a completely contrived state of affairs… created by frantic Democrats, who are desperate to regain power, in any way they can.

Consider the whole situation, here. Democrats, who are still smarting at their unprecedented mid-term losses, search for a way to retake Congress. At the least, they want to be able to limit the power of the Republicans by slashing the leadership. So they look at the new Majority leader. Now, what would happen, if we painted him as a racist? This is by no means a new trick, for them. The race card has
always worked before.

They see that Mississippi has a Democrat Governor, who will doubtless appoint a Democrat to the Senate if Lott quits, under the kind of pressure they can generate, given their wherewithal in the leftist press. This would place us back at 50/50 again in the Senate.

Lott’s comments about Strom Thurmond must have seemed a gift from Heaven. Oh, wait. These are liberal Democrats. Sorry. I meant to say a gift from Gaia.

“But…. Bit!” , I hear you say; “Lott’s comments were racist!”

Were they really? Let’s examine this, by looking at what he’s actually said, not what we’re supposed to think he meant:

“I want to say this about my state: when Strom Thurmond ran for President, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either.”

Hmmm. No direct reference to segregation there. The people linking this to segregation are in reality those looking for an excuse to take offense, and at that, one has to do some serious digging. Talk about manufacturing a controversy!

Segregation as a problem of that day in 1948 aside, what was at the core of Thurmond’s run for the White House was strict constitutionalism. Yes, I expect there were many of the day who supported Thurmond on the issue of segregation. Yet, I think where the run got the most support was on it’s lean toward a strict
constitutionalism. Meanwhile, where it eventually lost the most support, was with regards segregation. Regardless of how good the concept of a strict constitutionalism may have been, most Americans couldn’t get over the race issue, and Thurmond lost. Both the gain and the loss were justifiable.

But consider; It’s no accident that those who are against a strict ‘original intent” reading of the constitution call such a reading ‘racist’, and that… what do you know… these are the same ones ‘taking offense’ now.

I have no indication provided me by any available facts, that Lott, wasn’t speaking of the constitutionalism aspect of Thurmond’s 1948 presidential run. The assumption that he is making racist comments sells better, I suppose.

Perhaps it would help to note the words of Dick Morris:

“…one third of Mississippi blacks vote for him, year after year. He
took the lead in doubling funding for historically black colleges in
Mississippi, sponsored the bill to make racially motivated arson a
federal crime, broke the filibuster to get the Africa Free Trade bill
passed and brokered the deal that led to a vast increase in federal
Title I education aid and earmarked it for poor schools.  And he
helped get the Congressional Gold Medal voted for Rosa Parks. “

Gee, a real reacist there, huh?

Further, a comparison or two is in order. I mean, let’s test this supposedly well-known Democrat sensitivity to racism, shall we?

Does nobody recall Slick Willy Clinton honoring William Fulbright? I don’t recall anyone, black or otherwise, lining up to take a stab at ol’ Bubba for speaking warmly of HIM, do you? I’ve even been unable to find any record of anyone within the DNC or within Congress raising their voice in objection.

And of course there’s the Grand Wizard, Robert Byrd, which no Democrat will EVER go after, regardless of the comments made. I recall like yesterday, his saying on Fox, that..

“…there are white niggers. I’ve seen a lot of white niggers in my
time.”

Was he talking about whites who act like blacks, I wonder? Years after Byrd supposedly renounced the Klan, he wrote in a letter, he would never fight…

…”with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”

It was Byrd who fought against the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act — an act which was supported by the supposedly racist Republicans – and fillibustered it for over than 14 hours.I wonder if he mentioned his little dog, Billy.  Byrd also worked against the nominations of the Supreme Court’s two black justices, Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas.

Certainly, his Fox interview alone is a greater and more direct offense than Lott’s indirect and unwitting connection in his comments to segregation. If using ‘Nigger” on a news program won’t get his butt booted out of office, much less the remaining racist history of Byrd, nothing will.

Michelle Malkin, who I find myself respecting more and more of late, accurately notes that if Byrd were a Republican:

“Maxine Waters and Ralph Neas and Julianne Malveaux and Al Sharpton and all the other left-wing bloodhounds who sniff racism in every crevice of American life would be barking up a storm.”

Yet, it is the supporters of such as Clinton, Fullbright and Grand Wizard Robert Byrd, who are going after Trent Lott on his supposed racism? Forgive me, but I smell a fish.

It gets even worse when we reflect on Byrd’s comments about Clarence Thomas…

” I’m very sorry the matter of race was injected here, not in an effort to clear one’s name but in the effort to shift the ground. And so, instead of making an effort to clear his name in the minds of the committee members and in the minds of other senators who are not on the committee, he shifted the blame to the process and to race prejudice. I think it was preposterous…”

Much the same could be asked of Byrd and his fellow Democrats, here.

And now we see chatter from Lott’s home state that the man being considered to replace him should he quit, is Clinton co-criminal Mike Espy. I must say, I’ve never seen so brash a coup.

Make no mistake; this was planned from the get-go. Evidence for this, comes right from my own hometown in Rochester NY, where the attack pattern of the Democrats is all too clearly established. The executive of Monroe County, Jack Doyle is suffering much the same fate as Lott. I’ve met Jack Doyle, and can tell you from even that minimal understanding, that the man is no racist.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/1219story5_news.shtml

I’ll post a little of this article, because the D&C is not known for keeping stories online for a long time, apparently having some kind of space issue on their servers.

More or less from the Article: (edits added to clarify for non-locals)

The comment in question was published Monday in a list of quotes (the Republican) Doyle and (the Democrat Rochester City) Mayor William Johnson . made about their frosty relationship and about governing. Doyle said: “If there was a mayor that looked like me, it would be a whole different landscape.”

During the interview, Doyle was asked whether he meant it as a racial issue, but said “No” and responded, “If there was a Republican mayor, there would be no end to it. Do you know what this city needs? It needs a Republican mayor to go in there and clean the bureaucrats out and straighten this city out. This city is disassembling, it’s deteriorating. And I live in the city.”

Doyle is on record as commenting later: “Any crass political effort to twist these comments into a racially charged statement is entirely inaccurate and can only be explained as partisan politics at their very worst,”

(I strongly advise you visit the D&C site, paying particular attention to the investigative links at the bottom of that web page… as long as it lasts.)

The pattern here is too obvious to ignore… after years of there being no worries about racial discrimination from the left, now suddenly, there’s a national crisis? The tming of this is questionable at best. Forgive me, but this is obviously a co-ordinated effort.. The Democrats have shown their hand… they will play the race card in this is desperate effort to steal power again, by any means they can… in this case dealing the race card they’ve been holding up their sleeve….

The card they won’t play against their own racists, black, white, or whatever.

If there was ever any proof that our press is untrustworthy, it is their reaction to the attacks on America and the world we’ve seen of  late. Does anybody NOT understand whom it is we’re dealing with?  Does  anyone NOT understand what is at stake, here? Apparently, it’s the  leftists running the press.

Since 9/11, they’ve called these those attacking us, “hostage-takers”,  “militants”, “rebels”, “snipers”, “guerrillas”, and countless other  nonsense names, all of which fall short of the truth. Very seldom if  ever are they called what they are… Islamic Terrorists.

Take for example, John Muhammed, our sniper buddy from the Washington area.  You remember him.  He was the radical Muslim that decided to obey the order of Al Qeada to murder Christians and Jews.  He, he is known to have praised the 911 hijackers openly, he held hate-America parties at his house in Tacoma, he frequently visited radical Muslim Mosques that openly called for a jihad against America, He was a part  of Farakhan’s security team at the ‘million man march’.

Oh? You DIDN’T know all this? Gee. Not in the press, huh?

Its clear Islamic leaders knew it… The dust hadn’t settled on the arrest of those slimeballs before Screwy Louie Farrakhan’s public relations crew was in full cry trying to separate themselves from the actions of the Islamic terrorists.

Now, remember the press opened up with the idea that these were “white, Christian, right-wing militiamen.” Just the night before they were arrested… on MSNBC.

But enough of this one event. If this were only one event I’d not worry nearly as much. But there’s far more, even in recent history.

Consider the World Trade Center attacks (1993 and 2001) .

Consider the Pentagon.

Consider the USS Cole,

Consider Osama Bin Laden’s “kill Americans” Fatwah,

Consider the bombing of the  Marine Barracks,

Consider the many embassy bombings,

Consider that  French Oil Tanker,

Consider the actions of Saddam Hussein,

Consider the many suicide bombings around the world,

Consider that theatre in Moscow, where around 70 people died…  and
Consider Bali. Were the Islamics attacking American interests in
either of those two events?

Nope.

So much for the idea that they are reacting to our foreign policy.

Consider that Islamic Egyptian’s machine gun attack at LAX on July 4th. We never did hear about the motivations behind that attack….the FBI finally concluded it was the same motivation behind Sept. 11. We never did hear that in the press did we?

Consider Oklahoma City . All the mounds of evidence collected, that suggested, nay SCREAMED about conspiracy broader than Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols was ignored. Evidence suggesting a Middle East
connection was also ignored.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few points, here. But, we’ve seen this kind of misdirection before, and it’s developing into an undeniable  pattern.. Undeniable for everyone except leftists and Muslims,  apparently.

I’ve similarly written about this as regards TWA Fight 800. I am on record as saying this was a shoot-down, and not a fuel tank problem. While I admit who fired the missile that brought it down is yet a  mystery, I submit that’s because government investigators chose to pretend that hundreds of witnesses didn’t really see what they said they saw. They chose to overlook the forensic evidence that pointed to a missile. They chose to ignore any evidence that suggested anything except a spontaneous center fuel tank explosion

Look, let’s stop sugarcoating these events. The pattern is becoming all too clear. And President Bush is right to act as he has been, and the leftists and the press are wrong to object. The fact is the Western world of which the US is the leader, is in a war against Islam. A war they declared. And one we must win to survive.

In watching the “debate” over attacking Saddam Hussien, there is one point that the detractors seemingly keep failing to mention… This man and his supporters are driven to destroy both the people and the culture of these United States.  I wonder, frankly why they would do that. Let’s examine the reasons.

I have stated several times in this column that I hold politics a means to a societal end… Whatever that end might be for the individual or group.  On that basis, one would normally argue that the societal end of any American citizen should at least include, if it doesn’t focus directly on, the furtherance of western culture in general, and American culture particularly. Well, common sense would
dictate that at least.

If we make the assumption that most follow that rule, we can make three observations very quickly about those those arguing against our waging war against those who have declared war against us, and have acted on that declaration .

The kindest observation would be that the people in question seriously under-estimate the danger presented to the stated goal of supporting and extending the sway of western culture. In short, To hell with the country, and for that matter, the rest of the world … So long as their short – term political goals are satisfied.

Since, as I say, this is the kindest cut, it only gets downhill from here, I’m afraid.

The second, less kind observation would of course be that they are operating outside the group of people who are for the furtherance of our culture, and so they simply don’t care about it. Apparently, there are many libertarians who are in this position. I find their position singular in it’s short- sightedness. Since they are in the extreme minority, I won’t delve very far into this one, except to suggest that
this is the major flaw in the stated libertarian philosophy; they think government should have no influence on culture…. Forgetting, apparently, that the original purpose of government was to reinforce and extend it.

The third, most damning, and possibly most accurate observation would be that the people against our defending ourselves are working directly against us and directly for the destruction of our culture our society and our way of life. There are many, I fear, who are quite squarely in this last group. The majority of them are Democrats.

Now, lest you think this an outlandish statement, consider the new book by one Yossef Bodansky called “The High Cost of Peace”, which I’ve only had a chance to go over quickly as this is written.  At first glance, this book will be worth picking up.

Bodansky, in his book reports that former President Bill Clinton betrayed pro-American Syrians who sought to oust the reviled, terroristic, drug-dealing Assad regime.

Catch this act:
Bodansky goes on to suggest that dozens of Sunni officers in mid-1999 wanted to overthrow Assad and bring Damascus into the modern world with economic development and a representative government. They asked the U.S. for help. So, the U.S. Embassy responded by requesting a list of the coup leaders and details of the Plan.

“Naively, the Syrians complied,” Bodansky writes. Then “the Clinton administration decided to save Assad.”  It released the names of the leaders of this pro-American coup to Assad, which resulted in a deadly purge.

“Washington betrayed an intended coup that was supposed to be pro-American against a regime that was on the United States’ own terrorism and drug-trafficking lists,” the author summarizes.

And Americans wonder why those in the Middle East hate us?

I would take that a step farther; 9/11 would not have happened, had another pro-American power been in place in Damascus. 

And let’s see what we can of those the Clinton administration befreinded…. Yassir Arifat. Reports are that he tried to assasinate Colin Powell and the Israeli president, as well, as they were on their way to a peace conference. I’ve written quite a bit about Terrorfat, so I won’t go much further here, either.

Given these reports, much less including the other discussions we’ve had on the subject over the recent years, I’m quickly coming to the conclusion that the Democrats, of whom Bill Clinton is only a part, are intent on the willful destruction of America.  I think you are, too.

But it gets even more conclusive.

We’re now seeing reports that there is a direct link between Robert Jaquez and Saddam Husein. 

Now we find out that the government at the time… Read that Bill Clinton’s White House, and many lower level people within the FBI and the CIA have been stuffing the information that there’s a link.

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/opinion/4251116.htm

Now, remember; this is a bombing Clinton tried to blame on the voices of the right. If this report is anywhere near accurate, it becomes clear that Murrah’s terrorism was the left was doing it’s work, And as usual blaming the right.

So we arrive back at the question of why liberals would defend Saddam, with this new information about Clinton’s activities in the MiddleEeast, with only one answer. There is no other logical conclusion, but that the left is working toward the destruction of America.. Just look at the stink they raise about anything that even
comes close to resembling America defending itself and it’s interests.

It was Robert Frost who suggested that liberals are so open minded they won’t even take their own side in an argument. However, in this case with all respect to the talented Mr. Frost, I tend to doubt its open-mindedness that causes them to take the positions they do.

Rather, with the evidence presented us, it’s clear that Liberal Democrats are actually representing their own position; That is to say, they’re being what they are. Anti-American.

That’s right… you read it correctly, that’s what I said. And I mean it; Liberal Democrats have exposed themselves as being Anti-American.

Remember that, come Election Day.

09-01-02 –Rochester, NY—

I’m on vacation, as I pre-write this, so instead of doing this at my keyboard and desk, I’m writing this on my Palm 505, as we sit around the campfire… a Guinness Stout to one hand, trees sighing overhead, and some pork chops in the smoker, about three hours along. It’s just about dusk, and there’s a train going by on the double track about 3 miles distant. I often do jot general ideas down into my palm into my Palm, but not often do I do it in so nice a setting. Bithead is relaxing, to say the least.

But now that I have the time to reflect, I’m reflecting on the events of the trip here.

In the last few articles, I’ve taken some time to point out just who and what our biggest enemy is. But in all of those, I’ve perhaps neglected one of the biggest:

Liberal idiocy, which as usual, is disguised as ‘caring and sharing’, and anyone opposing them of course, is ‘greed’. There is perhaps no place where the standard liberal arguments take on more of a quality of utter stupidity, than with regards to the subject of transportation in America. I ran into this in all it’s glory, at a gas station on the way up here to my little vacation spot.

To put this story into perspective allow me to show you my rig: I drive a 1995 Chevy Astro conversion, with a 4.3L V6, which usually gets around 23-24 mpg on the highway, after I did some minor mods to it. (even stock, Chevy reports the unit gets around 21 mpg on the highway.)

It’s rather comfortable, having powered velour seats, wood paneling, a TV/VCR combo, which feeds up to four sets of headphones for the kids, two AM/FM/ Cassette Stereo units, one which feeds the afore- mentioned kid headphones. Makes longer hauls much easier on the driver, I can tell you. It’ll seat 7, for short trips, four for longer runs. It has a seat in the back that with the touch of a power button, folds into a bed. Curtains in the windows. Twin A/C units, twin heaters. Direct and indirect lighting, as well as reading lights at every passenger position. For those of you who know about such things, this van is set on an S-10 frame. It’s a really great over-the-road road rig, and already has well over 100,000 miles on it, 30k of it this year so far, with two additional long-haul trips planned before camping season ends in October. OK, that’s the truck.

Trailing along behind is one of the smallest pop-up trailers on the road… around an 8 foot box, weighing, when fully loaded, around 1500lbs. Sleeps five people, if they’re really friendly. This is not a 10,000lb 5th wheel…

So, keep these specs in mind as we proceed here. The importance of them will become apparent.

I left town with less than a full tank, so at around 150 miles out, upon finding some fuel priced $1.27/gal vs the $1.55 I usually pay, I decided it’d be worthwhile to fill the rest of the 27 gallon tank, which when topped usually takes around 32 gallons total. Must be a monster amount of a feed pipe on this thing. It’s one nice thing about having a good sized tank; when you find it cheap, you can load up, and roll past the $1.55/gal places.

Anyway, I pulled in, and proceeded to load up, when a rather nice looking blonde in a Camry Solaria came in for a little liquid motion. She squirted around 5 dollars worth into her car, and then looked at the amount the van had taken on. Her eyes bugged a little, as she motioned toward my pump, and her face got a little red.

“Don’t you know how much gas those SUV’s waste?” Once I stopped laughing, I pointed out that strictly speaking mine was not an SUV. I further pointed out that the car she was driving had only a slighly smaller engine than the one in my van… her 3100cc vs my 4300cc, and that in fact her car according to the EPA, only gets around 25mpg on the road and averages around 19mpg.

(OK truth to tell, I was a little off, as it turns out, the site http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/findacar.htm lists it as 19 and 27.. Not bad, for off the top of my head, and still not as good as my much larger Astro.)

How, I asked her, can she drive such an inefficient mode of transportation? Of course, she went ballistic, and then lacking something better to say, apparently, she pulled out the same defense all liberals do when the tripe they’ve been force-fed is challenged by someone with actual facts: She call me a liar. I’ve come to understand you’re hitting a truth they can’t argue with when they do that. I suppose there are a few who will see themselves here.

She then flamed me about the amount of space being wasted, and did I really need to have all that space, did I have to drive something so large. I reminded her it was in fact a mini-van, and would she like to look inside and point out to me what space got wasted, between my wife, my two boys, the dog and our luggage. She declined, spouting some more crap which I didn’t even bother listening to. She then fumed off, ripping a little environmentally friendly rubber as she went out into the street in front of an oncoming tractor trailer, who had tolock up all 24 wheels to miss making environmentally friendly liberal/riceball pancakes out of it all.

I filled the remainder of the tank, got some coffee, and continued on my way, fully expecting to see her again along the road. I never did. As I drove up to the campsite, perhaps 300 miles distant, I began to wonder a bit at the encounter at the pump. It seems to me that many encounters in various political discussion venues are rather like this one. The liberal attacker being gleefully ignorant of the real world, and calling anyone who disagrees with them (all together now) a liar.

How does all of this tie in with the stated topic? Well, rather simply, really. I submit to you that the biggest enemy of America today is not Bin Laden or any of his bloodthirsty idiots. Our biggest enemy is the willful, nay, GLEEFUL idiocy of the left, of which I was treated to a glowing example that afternoon.

Examples are many of this brand of idiocy are many, and while I won’t get into a lot of them for the moment, I can hardly get by without mentioning a few of the more recent examples.

Since this is a union weekend, let’s take the biggest government teachers union, the NEA, who is going to start this week to teach our kids. What are they teaching? The NEA says “Do not suggest that any group is responsible. Do not repeat the speculations of others, including newscasters” If the examples of the last few years are true, ala OKC, the only time anyone should get blamed, say the liberals, is when right wing talk show hosts can get stuck for blowing up a building. And lest you think the NEA doesn’t carry any weight in this, consider the case of the New York city schools, where a teacher was suspended merely for telling her class that all of the individuals who attacked this country on Sept. 11 were Arabs. Can you beat it?

Consider the recent ‘redemption’ efforts of Johnny Walker Lindh, whom I wrote about recently. Consider the conclusions drawn; he simply acted upon what he was taught. What are the kids learning here, do you suppose? The lefists control over our educational system is nothiung short of a moral disarmament of the nation. For any military force to be able to protect us, there must FIRST be a citizenry that believes in their heart and soul that we are worth defending,

And the American left is exporting their nonsense, too. In listening to my short wave up here, I am hearing reports of the world summit in Johannesburg, where the free world is told among other things that the flush toilet is a major problem, culturally. Some of the other gems coming out of that are typical leftist; it’s the rest of the world’s fault that South Africa is so poor. Of course the fact that the place has sunken into poverty in the time that the socialist African National Congress has been in power, there., isn’t the reason, huh?

So, the Africans hate us, to the point of attack, because of the flush toilet.

Then of course there’s the wacko “Lettuce Lady” a PETA member, trying to get the world to become vegetarian. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020831/od_uk_nm/oukoe_environment_summit_lettuce_1

Of course the idiot GREENS have their say:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020825/sc_nm/environment_summit_dc_25

In all of these cases, the US, and it’s capitalism, the only real salvation of any of these malcontents, is being blamed by those pushing for socialism. And those who don’t know any better, both here and abroad, parrot the nonsense. The conclusion of all of these connections is fairly well obvious. I submit to you that the biggest
enemy America has today, is the willful idiocy of the left, both nationally, and internationally.

The sad fact is, that people like the bleached blond I ran into at the pump have the power to vote, even if they’re not sure how to work a ballot, as in Florida.

Worse, she’s following the left’s dictates, more or less exactly. The proponents of the left clearly haven’t done much actual THINKING on these subjects they so willingly spout on, opting instead to let others do their thinking for them.

We see this kind of BS all the time in Congress, this “Blame America First” nonsense, with exactly the same basis of arguments as we see in the public venues. Problem is, such people have the power of government behind their idiocy, and thus the power to destroy America from within. I can’t think of anything that would be more destructive to us than this. No matter how destructive any external attacker might be, it pales in comparison to the kind of damage that the left can do and I fact is doing to us, to us from within. I don’t fear Saddam, I don’t fear BinLaden, nearly as greatly as I fear the American leftists protecting him, and challenging America’s right to protect herself.

It’s been noted that the destruction of America is the one goal that American leftists share with Bin Laden and Saddam. Will we let them? We’re now around a year away from 9/11/01, and it’s lessons. The question is, have we learned them?

I recently became involved in a conversation, wherein one of the participants a liberal, started making light of the so-called American Taliboy.. Johnny Walker Lindh.

I started wondering about this, and did some investigation. Why would an avowed liberal be so concerned about Lindh’s arrest? I came away from my investigation, more firmly convinced than ever that American liberalism is self-destructive in the extreme. And worse, it seeks to destroy America itself.

That statement on it’s face will create a firestorm, I suppose. But facts, particularly uncomfortable ones, usually do. I submit that liberalism as it has become here in the west is more destructive than any other single force to our American way of life. No before you go into denial, read.

To get an idea of what I’m talking about, one need look no further than Lindh. He’s currently stinking up a jail cell, for having taken up arms against us, where I hope he remains for the rest of an greatly abbreviated life.

Now, I’ve seen suggestions, over the years, that young idealistic kids are cups waiting to be filled. So, let’s see if we can determine what Walker was filled with to get him to this pass, shall we?

According to an article in the UK Guardian, the answer lies in the ” faddism of “Bay Area culture” and excessively liberal parenting”. Lindh was, for lack of a better expression, brought up, in Marin County California… the liberal capital of the planet. One article I’ve seen in Newsweek reminded us that ‘Marin County has even been gently mocked by the the most unabashedly liberal cartoon strip in America, ” Doonesbury” as the epicenter of the self-esteem movement, a land of hot tubs… a bastion of moral relativism where divorces were for a time listed alongside marriages in the newspaper.’ And let’s suggest, gently, that Walker’s parents didn’t give him much to counter that appearance.

To assert that the “family” he came from was left wing wacko would be like suggesting that Sir Lawrence Olivier some pretty good acting, sometimes. The Lindhs deserted their Catholic roots. The mother became Buddhist, say the reports. And though she apparently tried to get her son involved, clearly she was unsuccessful. What was clearly transmitted, however was that foundational beliefs can be shopped for as if one was shopping for a better breakfast cereal. The former Ms Lindh had little time for her son, apparently, but did manage to find the time to be involved with far-left activism…. I’ve seen pictures of the woman, in Marin Country at a rally denouncing our response to Iraq’s aggression. Apparently, her daughter was involved as well, since she was also in the picture, carrying a sign.

John’s father Frank, meanwhile, left the home, and the wedding vows, when John was 16 years of age, to live with no, not another woman, but another man.

The Lindhs apparently found even the liberal biased schools in California to be too restricting. No daily classes for John… Too structured. They opted instead to enroll John in a ‘alternative school’, whose only requirement was that the students meet a few times a month with a tutor to discuss their independent projects, which in John’s case turned out to be ‘world cultures’. Gee, big shock.

Now, one can only speculate from this point, because the press was reluctant to research this any further, and what I have been able to get on this point, so far after John’s initial arrest, is spotty… the thrill is apparently gone for our press. Frankly, though, given the eternal state of youth, and the state of liberalism in this country, one can do this rather easily, I think.

Let’s assume John was like other young people, idealistic and wanting to do the right thing. Such a desire, however, requires the understanding of what right and wrong are. Understanding that John clearly lacked, being educated and raised by liberals.

We can for example pretty much assume that this waste of air wasn’t being taught a healthy respect for American culture, language, history and so on. I rather doubt he knew much about the founders of this country, past that they were slave owners. We know the more liberal schools, even the government paid for ones… IE’ taxpayer supported, are about teaching a healthy DISrespect for all of these. While others were learning about America being the shining city on the hill, Walker was being subjected to a labeling of the US as the oppressor, the imperialism capital of the world. Home life did noting to remove this idea. No anchor there, either… he picked up first hand at home that we are becoming a God-less society.

All very liberal, and all very destructive. No shock then, that this was leaning he ended up acting upon. No shock, that is, to everyonbe but the leftists who went into denial when these facts began to be floated.

The people in America, the liberals teach, are the victims. And of course people elsewhere in the woprld who deal with America and Americans are also victims. Of course Lindh, , being an idealistic youth, ate it all up.

Thus does a son of sunny Marin County California, give up that life to join a bunch of terrorists who hold themselves victims of western aggression. He actually followed through on the trash that American liberalism teaches.

And to this day, he cannot understand why he’s in jail.

Lindh’s actions should be a warning to us all about what we are up against from those who taught him. His liberal teachers, including his parents are as destructive or more destructive than anything BinLaden’s been able to toss at us.

We are freshly back from a weekend road trip to the Kinzua Dam area in PA. We took in the Alleghany parks in PA and NY, and did some touring of NE OH, as well.

Towing our trusty Viking Spirit, was our 95 Astro conversion. No problems with the truck at all; the Astro continues to amaze, and is the best purchase I’ve ever made. At 100,000 miles, it’s as strong
as it ever was.

We did manage to have some problems with the trailer, however. About half-way there, we heard something dragging, which turned out to be the tounge jack wheel. I cranked it back up, and re-checked it’s operation. It worked fine. Since I’m usually almost anal about checking such matters I was a little surprised by it’s dragging. But, since it seemed to be in good repair other than some fresh road wear on the wheel, I mentally chided myself, shrugged, and kept going. I had no further problems so the matter was forgotten… until the next morning, as you’ll see.

We had make quickie reservations at the KOA Kinzua East, which seems a nice enough place.

As usual, I did check around, including a Google search on this NG, which revealed at least one person who seems to have had some problem or other. However, I’ve been by this place previously, and it looked of interest. Besides, Woodall’s listed it pretty highly, so…

We had a great time while there.  The management was friendly in the extreme.  I had a chance to strike up more than one conversation with the owner, who as it happens, came up from Jersey / NYC several years ago to set this place up. He and his wife fell in love with the area, apparently, and one can certanily understand why. The owner was busy helping an older couple with their new (to them) 5th wheel. For reasons I won’t get into here, I will report that the owner went well out of his way to help those folks. It was nice to see. One got the feeling the owner liked to help folks in need… all too rare, I’m afraid.

The place was fairly quiet, except for some area dogs, which apparently were not a part of the camp, but rather kenneled around the area.

The site was level and dry and covered with last fall’s leaves which gave it a feel like the deep woods. There were also a lot of sites for those who like open areas, as well.

The facilities were in fair enough shape, and quite clean, though the showers could have used some help, in the area of the curtains. The water was hot and plentiful however, and came with the cost of the site… no extra $$$.

Seems to be a fair number of perm and semi perm campers, but not overly tilted to such people.

The camp store appeared to be pretty well stocked, enough to get you out of a spot of trouble, but don’t depend on much food being there. You’re a good hike from the nearest grocery, so bring it with you. A few Vid games, the usual 45 RPM jukebox, a reasonal playground and a heated pool completes the picture.

We had a nice campfire that night,… $10 for very good quality wood, a generous wheelbarrow full….. and slept pretty well.  Weather was wonderful, and nearly bugfree except for a lot of fireflies. Nobody complained when we left the fire burn until well after quiet hour…. but of course we were very quiet ourselves, anyway.

When we took up camp the next morning, the tounge jack surprised us by letting go, just as I was cranking it up to put it on the truck… nearly taking my foot with it. It would no longer function at all,
apparently for the same reason it had dropped down on the road down. Out came the tools and my hydrualic jacks. I removed the tounge jack and then put the tounge up high enough that I could get the truck under it, and we got hitched up and ready to go.  A wave from the owner as we left.  We will be back.

–
We took our time getting home, going through the parks on the way, and taking the scenic drive up SR5 by way of NE Ohio, checking out Lake Erie State Park, (Never stayed there but plan to) and Virginia’s Beach, (I’ve already written about this one) along the way. IMO, those are the two premium sites for lakeside camping along that stretch. Everyone else is third and forth string on quality along that stretch, or on the other side of the road, out of view of the lakeshore. There’s a KOA there too, though I haven’t had much of a chance to check that out. yet. We plan a trip with just myself and the older boy to that neck of the woods later this summer, so, we’ll see.

One of those three, I think, for that one nighter.

Next on the list: the Detroit area to visit family there for a one nighter, and to Maine for a week again… Maine is turning into our favorite summer spot. Then to Scranton PA for Steamtown for an
overnight, and likley a few other spots.

I am in shock and full of questions as I write this column. I am afraid this time, that I have no conclusion for you, and I will leave lots of unanswered questions.  Longtime readers will know this is an unusual thing for this writer.

The reason is simple: A 12-year-old boy my son knew killed himself the other night.  Ponder this in general terms for a moment, and let those thoughts seep in before you continue, because I want the reader to fully understand “where I’m at” as I write this.

Jamie, we’ll call him, was a bright kid, with a genuine future. Liked his music, was a veracious reader, was in the Boy Scouts. Got good grades in school. Liked the color Red best. To my understanding, he never gave anyone cause for concern.

Before now.

Now, of course I understand that people die every day. This is not news, nor is it earthshaking. I usually write about things that are more widely reported and discussed. So, my even making mention of this comparatively small happening in the annals of the world,in this column is unusual.

Yet, when one is close to us, that death impacts us in a rather pronounced fashion. When one is particularly young, or their death is particularly senseless, that too, tends to affect us in very significant ways. This death affected me as profoundly, yet on a different level as the events of say, the WTC and Pentagon attack on 9/11 did. So of course, I had to write about it, while marveling that this tragedy should occur so close to the day when the WTC cleanup was officially completed.

We’re still learning about this tragedy, even while we grapple with the emotions it causes us. At this writing, I don’t know any of the problems that led to this event, so we’re not even sure what to base our feelings on.  My son seems to be taking the death of his friend in stride, but then again, he’s the kind to keep things to himself, only to hit you with ‘zinger’ comments and questions later on, sometimes
months later.

So, I’m pretty much resigned to this subject coming up with my boy, at some future date… doubtless, when I am least prepared for it. Indeed, I’m rather hoping for it, since his talking about it to someone he trusts is the only way he’s going to get all of this to a manageable point in his own mind.  Yet, I dread it, because I’m
lacking the answers for the questions he will be asking. So, I got to thinking about all of this, in general terms, in an attempt to prepare myself for what questions he might ask, or feelings he might express.

How does one prepare for undefined, hazy questions from a 12-year-old, who is just coming to grips with the death of a friend, even an accidental one, much less one of this nature?  I suppose it would start with defining your own feelings about it. This would be foundational for my own sanity, first of all, and making sure my boy
takes all the right messages away from this event. In the process, however, I found myself ending up with more new questions than answers for old questions. My own feelings have nothing but loss to be based on, so they are as a result, at best unfocused.

When a tragedy like this happens, one of the biggest questions is always ‘why’. An accident is far easier to explain and deal with emotionally, than this. So, chief among the questions would be, what it is that drives a 12-year-old to end his short life?

In general, we know that there are no definitive answers for why adolescents attempt suicide, there seems to be general agreement among professionals and lay people alike, that young people who take their own lives, feel hopeless about their situation. They think that situation will never change, and so there’s only one way out. Suicide seems to be a response to seemingly what the youth considers
intolerable pain.

Specifically, Jamie was kind of smallish for his age, so I suppose the bully/low self-esteem syndrome could be at work here.  But I know Jamie to have been quite popular and outgoing, so there’s no clear-cut answer there. A lack of parental involvement is usually on the list of possible indicators, but in this case, I don’t see that as an issue, either, based on what little I do know.

We know that suicide attempts are usually speaking, unsuccessful; For every five people who commit suicide, four have made one or more previous attempts, say the experts. But so far as I am aware, there have been no previous incidents in this case. No note was left, so far as I’m aware, but this is not unusual, either. Indeed, the experts tell us only 15% of suicides leave such a note. Even a friend I know who lost a child in this manner decades ago, has no answers for me. To this day, he still searches himself for the answer to his questions, and comes away empty.

The bottom line, I guess, is that I’ll never know what was going on in Jamie’s mind, that night. I am left with the terrible weight of the question, “How could one so young and so apparently promising, be so troubled and not show some outward sign of it?”. I don’t suppose that will change.

Of itself, that’s a problem, in that since I don’t understand it myself, I fear that I cannot explain it to my boy when he comes to me to ask “Why?”, which was a question on all our minds as we came away from the funeral, yesterday. It’s hard for parents when they don’t have answers for their kids.

Harry Chapin (another senseless tragedy) once wrote “It’s got to be the going, not the gettin’ there, that’s good”. So perhaps if we apply that thought of Harry’s to the search for answers to hard questions like this, it’s not the answer itself, but the struggle to find it, that’s of greater import, at least in this case. I guess at this stage of the game, the best I can do, the best thing I can be, is here, and
available, when my son finally starts asking those questions, so that the loss can be a shared one. Because, however often the questions get re-examined, all that’s left is that loss.

And I wonder; would knowing, even were that possible, make it easier or harder to accept?

I’ll leave you with some links to suicide prevention information in the hope that you read and learn. One less of these events would make it worth it to both of us. If you have better ones, drop me a line, and I’ll be glad to pass it on, in future columns.

http://www.jaring.my/befrienders/youth1.htm
http://www.emh.org/acadia/su.htm
http://www.childsafe.net.au/SCOUTS/scysp1.html

Editor’s note: I actually wrote this article some years ago back when I was doing editorials for a GT network BBS I used to SysOp, but I got a number of requests to post it on the net, from folks who had read it back then. So, I’ll do so here. Beisdes, there’s a recent update to the story.

-1-

I’m on the soap-box about lawsuits and government regulations, and warnings and such. All of this came about when I looked at a bag of ice I’d just bought, and noticed that the bag actually had a nutritional statement on it, of all things.

I was amused to learn that because the bag of ice contained 0% fat, it qualifies
under government regulations, as a low fat food! (They must not be using the water from around here, then.)

It was at this point that I started to consider all the strange and wonderful messages we are hit with every day, because of government, and of lawyers. In the process, I made some interesting discoveries.

Consider:It is because of lawsuits and Lawyers that everything we buy has a ridiculous warning on it. My lawn mower actually has a warning that reads:

WARNING!

DO NOT PLACE HANDS OR FEET UNDER MOWER WHILE BLADE IS SPINNING.

Duh! This sticker exists because somone went to court claiming minus part of a hand or a foot, claiming he or she didn’t KNOW there was a slight problem with putting their foot under a mower? Worse… a jury thought they were telling the truth, and forced the manufacturer to pay millions for this person’s rehab. Far as I can tell, half a foot is the least of the problems, here.

It gets worse.

I bought a toaster oven the other day. My new toaster oven came with a whole list of warnings:

” Do not touch heating coils. ”

Gee. I wonder why?

“Do not stick foreign objects in oven.”

Aw, Gee… No French Bread?

” For best results do not submerge oven in bathtub.”

It’s OK if I leave it on the EDGE of the tub, so long as it doesn’t fall in, I guess. One also wonders what they would consider less than “best results”.

” Do not drop oven on your foot.”

Aw, Gee. What happens?

“Oven is not to be used as protective headgear.”

Not even at a party?

This list of oddball warnings goes on and on. I sometimes think my $30 toaster oven would cost $15 if they didn’t have a staff of highly paid lawyers somewhere thinking up this stuff… and highly paid union printers packing literature in there with it, containing what the lawyers tell them to print.

Thinking that there is a reason for all this nonsense, that each of these warnings on a product represents a previous (successful) lawsuit, I decided to focus on one of these warnings, I chose to investigate what caused the ‘Toaster oven as Headgear’ business. It’s amazing what you can find when you’ve got a fast Internet connection
and a good computer… and a Saturday afternoon to kill. Turns out that I was right; there was a strange story behind it.

In this example, some moron in Tacoma went to work at a construction site one day, with a toaster oven on his head instead of his hard hat, so his pals could get a laugh. Yuk Yuk.

A Scooby-Doo lunch box another worker dropped on him injured him. (I can just picture this big burley construction worker with his Scooby-Doo lunchbox, can’t you?) From the accounts, the lunchbox landed on his head. Well, it landed on the toaster oven, which was on his head. What is unclear is how much head damage was
pre-existent.

In any event, he apparently wasn’t warned by the toaster maker that a box of tin filled with heating coils and no padding does not protect your head from metal lunchboxes filled with baloney sandwiches and a thermos full of coffee, moving at 33 ft/sec. So, in response, he sued the toaster oven company as well as his employer, the lunchbox maker, and Hanna-Barbera, who drew the pictures on the lunbchbox and just for good measure, the state of Washington and the federal government. (Apparently, the work site was a government building…. A Post Office. Doesn’t it make you all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that idiots like this are responsible for the quality of the work on government buildings?)

Get this: The guy won $6.33 million, and then took the money and bought a brand new trailer home (the old one was pretty bad… I remembered seeing him on TV at the time) and a collection of commemorative Elvis plates. What novel choices for expenditures! I guess you can’t change a real man.

In response to this unprecedented cost of doing business, the toaster oven manufacturer decided to warn people of the rather limited uses of their product.

Now, before you get started,…./Of course/ I believe that companies should be held accountable for the safety of their products, given reasonable use. I just think that our purposes could be better served by one warning:

WARNING: Do not use this product if you are a complete idiot.

We all know about the MacDonald’s coffee case. Nowadays every drive-up and every cup of coffee the Fallen Arches serves up, has a label:

WARNING! COFFEE IS HOT!!!

Look, Gang… Let’s nip this one, shall we? Coffee is hot, and it will burn you if you’re not careful. If you don’t understand this, then you’ve got bigger problems than a $2.7 million settlement can solve, OK? I suppose you are, however, qualified as a possible winner of the Darwin Award.

Now, just recently, a case against McDonalds, which was almost verbatim the same case as was brought here in the states, was laughed out of a court in London. I’ve not seen the particulars, myself, but the reports I’m seeing suggest the judge gave the plaintiff a bit of a chewing out, and I gather the lawyer is in trouble over it, as well. One wishes that had happened here in the states when the same case came up; the case in England would never have been brought.

The ideals we all grew up with would be served best if the next time someone goes to court to sue both Nabisco and Ford, because neither company warned him that Jell-O was not a suitable substitute for motor oil, the judge quickly throws out the case and recommends that the plaintiff avoid any pyramid investment opportunities, stairs of over three steps, yard implements, and most kitchen utensils, and many small farm animals.

A certain amount of common sense is necessary to survive in this world. Unless of course you have a jury filled with your peers… IE: Fellow idiots, willing to pay someone else’s money to help you along.

3-26-02 08:58 Hrs–Rochester, NY—

In watching the Oscars the other night I was struck again by the racism in our country.

What are you talking about, Bithead? Wasn’t that a breakthrough night for Black America, given that Potier and Halle Berry won historic awards? Possibly, but if so, there are serious questions.

Consider the spin employed, here; The Hollywood left who controls these proceedings, worked themselves into a frenzy trying to convince us that Denzel Washington, Halle Berry and Sydney Poitier won their awards not as the very unique, remarkable, and admirable American talents that they certainly are, but tokens representing a particular group.

Take for example, the idea that there were so few whites who were given the chance to speak in the intro film for Poitier’s award. Did his fine work only affect black people?

Let’s also point out, gently, that Halle Berry is an example of racial integration on two legs, being half white,(her mother’s side) and for that matter, so is Poitier, whose wife is also white, as were all of the directors and producers and financial backers of their projects who took a chance on them personally and professionally. These are not examples of blacks, but of individuals, which, last I heard, is how it’s supposed to work here in America. That these points weren’t
considered seems to have a political stench to it. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, it appears. Because who are the people asked to speak, and their political bent….

Laura Bush.

Jerry ‘Govenor Moonbeam’ Brown, Oakland Democratic mayor and dedicated far-leftist.

Fellow leftist wacko Willie Brown, San Francisco’s Democratic mayor.

Lani Guinier, the far left law professor whom even Bill Clinton thought too radical to be a part of HIS administration… too heavy on the quotas…

And Al Sharpton, who intends to be a Democratic candidate for president next turn.

(A four to one far left wacko to normal person ratio? No leftist tilt in Hollywood, huh? This must be ‘balanced and fair’ to their minds…)

Yet, as to the substance of the awards and the people giving them, let us examine this… The claim is made that this was a special night because the barriers are falling’, as Gannet’s local rag, the Chronic Democrat, put it. Clearly, the perception they are trying to convey here is that there were bariers to overcome , even up till this year.

Seemingly, Hollywood is trying to convince us it was more than their talents that gave them the awards. The subliminal message is clear; it was not their individual talents, and because they were black and available on the night Hollywood needed to feel good politically about itself, by giving these poor disadvantaged multi-millionaire black actors and actresses, a pat on the head for being good little liberal blacks and not upsetting massa’s cotton wagon.

Do not misunderstand my ire. I do not question that those who got awards deserved them, for the fine performances and achievements. They most assuredly deserved them. I applaud their efforts, and have personally enjoyed them over the years.

Yet, how is it that far leftist Hollywood, who has been trumpeting racial equality while pushing for quotas ala Lani Guinier, for decades, is just now getting around to handing out such awards? The left prizes such things as racial equity highly, we are told. Since they’ve obviously controlled Hollywood for generations, doesn’t it
make sense we’d see such awards to black performers previously, and without all the attempts at tokenism, if in fact the left, itself, wasn’t the barrier to black advancement toward equality?

Put another way; Has the left just revealed to us it’s own racism?

Frankly, my general attitude toward watching the Olympics on TV is one
of disinterest, to say the least. I find the network coverage lacking
in several areas. Usually, in the network’s defense, it should be said
that they’re dealing with time factors they cannot control, but this
adds nothing to the viewed output. As a professional announcer, I
generally find the commentary obnoxious in the extreme.

I tried this time, I really did. However, Kostis and Couric not being
able to shut up at the appropriate times during the opening ceremony
forced me to turn the channel. I personally don’t give a damn HOW
perky she is, or how much either is getting paid. In fact, as much as
they’re getting paid, one expects more smarts than they displayed.
(Click)

I do tend to keep a loose eye on the events there via my usual news
sources, however, as I do everything else. So it was, that I was
mildly amused to see the most recent controversy in the skating world.

For all of the protests that the Olympics are not supposed to be about
politics, this event was completely driven by anti-western politics.
If proof of a long-standing effort to lessen the impact of the west on
the part of Europeans was ever needed, it was never easier to obtain
than in the judging of the skaters at the Salt Lake games. This from
the group that told us the display of the flag rescued from the rubble
of the world trade center at the opening ceremony would be too
political, and thus forbade our people from doing so, at least for a
while.

And this Olympics seems to have also given the proof we need about an
anti-American press, here in America. Coric and Kostis both have
publicly, on air, fretted about public displays of American
Patriotism, even as muted and apologetic and self-demeaning as they’ve
been. And the left here in this country has batted NBC about, along
with those who foster anti-American sentiment beyond our
shores…Ironic, since the NBC air talent appears to agree with their
objections.

Worried editorials have been issued, in which NBC has been roundly
chided for its “over-emphasis” on American athletes, American medals,
and American flags, and a conservative, tough talking American
President. It appears news reporters are supposed to ignore the facts.
Whoodathunkit?

It wasn’t bad enough Bush teed off the Europeans with his “axis of
evil” speech, — now NBC was making it worse by reporting patriotism,
a pro-American stance including flag-waving. It’s all so contrary to
the spirit of the games…and bad for international understanding.
Apparently there was enough American at the games that NBC’s
technicians were unable to edit them out, in real time, not having the
8 hours of delay to prime time, as they did at Nogano.)

All of this adds up to a not very pretty picture…at all points, an
anti-American one… even among some ostensibly American Citizens. Most
notably, The American left…. Errr… American Press. (A duplication of
terms, I grant you).

It does seem rather odd, all this flap over such a muted display of
our patriotism. Alas, that it’s not strange to see such bias from our
own press however, who has long been acting in an anti-American
manner. Nor is it much a shock to see anti-American bias pop up in the
judging of events. Both, you see, have been going on for decades. It’s
just they’ve never been so clearly caught at it; they’ve never been so
brazen before.

Oh, and lest we seem to be singled out, here, let’s not forget the
IOC’s refusal to allow Afghanistan it’s chance to be seen as a new
part of the world by allowing the country’s new flag to be flown at
the games. The IOC apparently likes the Afghan people under the rule
of the Taliban. A newly freed Afghan people displaying their new flag
and their new status as a free people is apparently seen by the IOC as
‘too political’

I have only one question: Why are any free nations still involved with
the IOC? Why do we insist on subjecting ourselves to this one-world
feel-goodism, at the expense of our freedom?