Republicans & Conservatives:

Winning in Iraq

The President has laid out a good plan to win in Iraq. Some of the plan against the insurgency builds on the successful tactics we used to defeat the insurgency in South Vietnam. Clear. Hold. Build. It works. This time, if we show the political will, the good guys will win all around.

Liberals & Communists

I am surprised that in 2005 - in this blog - people still accuse liberals of being communists. The liberal ideal is the antithesis of communism, so why the confusion? Communists did it and they did it on purpose to divide us. They hid among liberals as terrorists hide among civilians. They spoke the language and pretended to be liberals. Even the Rosenbergs or Alger Hiss, who literally took orders from Moscow, kept up the charade and like terrorist in civilians garb were counted by some as innocent victims.

Green Party: Israel must surrender

Sadly, and in defiance of all logic, reason, and humanity, the Green Party of the US has issued an edict calling Israel a criminal nation that must surrender to Palestinian terror. Conspiciously there is no condemnation or even acknowledgement of any Palestinian responsibility to end the oft quoted 'cycle of violence' there, only a call for Israel's surrender.

Don't Flush - President in the Toilet

The President's approval ratings are in the toilet. Only 34% of Americans think he is doing a good job. It could be worse. The Republicans in Congress weigh in 7% lower than their president. But as bad as all that, even they float 2% above Congressional Democrats. Now is the winter of everyone's discontent - and it's still November.

how liberalism warps your mind

The charge that Bush has alienated the world is popular in liberal circles. Canadians fall into both categories: Alienated and Liberal. But are they alienated because of Bush or because they are liberal?

A former Canadian Minister of Defence and a Deputy Prime Minister are now calling for hearings on how belligerant Bush is prepared to become... with aliens from other galaxies!

What is an American?

The United States requires little of its citizens. Rights have replaced responsibilities to such an extent that many people now consider making demands on their fellow citizens prerequisites of civic virtue. "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country", is a phrase that is revered rhetorically but realistically rejected. Sort of like the black & white version of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", we see it on the far horizon of our landscape of memory, but are only vaguely aware that anyone ever lived there.

History or Philosophy?

I had an interesting and uncharacteristically abstract conversation recently about which is the more overarching discipline: history or philosophy. In defense of philosophy, I said that history cannot have meaning and provide useful insights on the hierarchy of knowledge, moral truths, what it means "to know," and the like, without being grounded in philosophy and without being reinterpreted philosophically. That is, for its own legitimacy, it depends in some sense on a philosophy of history, which makes philosophy more prior and more necessary for historical understanding.

Who is the Enemy?

If you listen to the left, the war in Iraq is lost. Our troops are dying in record numbers. The Iraqis hate us. 'US Soldiers are the enemy', 'Bush is a criminal', 'Bush is the enemy.' Formerly peaceful muslims are now terrorists cutting off the heads of civilians and exploding bombs in mosques because of Bush's incompetence and intransigence. What war is the left really fighting? And against whom?

Wealth and Virtue

Unsuccessful people confuse income with wealth. Wealth is more than income. Smart people use income to build wealth; stupid people trade wealth for income. Wealth stabilizes. It helps people become secure, lets them be more productive and makes them better citizens. It is difficult for those without wealth to be free and independent. Think of Maslow. A person without wealth remains perpetually near the bottom, and not only of the income distribution.

Thank You Mr. Murtha.

It's about time.
The talk is finally more about how we will accomplish the fight, instead of how we got here in the first place.

Another Example of Republican Hate Speech

"This is not an issue of who's patriotic and who's not patriotic. It's an issue of an honest, open debate about the way forward in Iraq." President Bush called John P. Murtha a good man who served America with honor, but said his proposal to immediately withdraw troops "does not make sense."

'Freedom Fighter' May Be Dead

Maybe liberal Kurt Vonnnegut was merely giving a prescient eulogy for Zarqawi when he said that terrorists are 'very brave people' who 'must feel an amazing high' when killing civilians. His comments basically reveal the true face of anti-war activists.

The Reasonable v The Democrats

Beyond a reasonable doubt is required proof in a criminal case. "Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer," said English jurist William Blackstone. Reasonable doubt is why OJ Simpson and Robert Blake remain free. Outside a courtroom we rarely seek that level of certainty. Trying to achieve it is usually impossible, sometimes dangerous, and always naive. We could not live a typical day with that standard. Life is full of doubts; decisions by definition include risks. The smart rule is not beyond a reasonable doubt, but reasonable expectation of success.

Bush lied, we must surrender.

"Bush deceived us." These three words condemn Democrats and the left, by their own arguments, as either too dumb or too dishonest to be in power. Indeed, now that surrender is the official Democratic position on the Iraq war we can be thankful that they are not in power. Still, the left and their allies in the media are trying their best to push the Vietnam War template of surrender and humiliation to the detriment of American Security and the war on terror.

The Biggest Soft Money Loophole--Endorsements

Yesterday's approval of the Fired Up! Advisory Opinion by the Federal Election Commission is, rightfully, being hailed as a significant step in the protection of bloggers and websites who pursue political commentary and political purposes. At the heart of the AO (found here) is the granting of Fired Up! and other similarly situated websites (Including Watchblog) the press exemption, which allows the site to freely link, discuss and even support candidates for federal office. The AO doesn't discuss, but there should be a debate about, the unfair ability of press entities to make endorsements, using corproate funds, when other entities cannot.

Intelligent Design

Success in the long run means doing more of things that work well and less of things that do not. It is evolutionary*, statistical. The more successful adaptations come to replace the less successful ones. No adaptation is universally best in all places and times and the best strategy is to have a diverse mix of options and let the situation decide.

Liberal Guilt

They are more to be pitied than censured, more to be helped than despised. It is not the liberals to blame. It is liberal guilt - misplaced but guilt all the same. Many of those calling the President a liar supported of the war, as did most Americans in 2003. Now they are unhappy. Their reasoning goes like this, "I am good. I supported a war. How can I be good? Solution: that great deceiver GW Bush misled me. My guilt can be deposited on my president. We are the victims. We are all the victims of this dreadful lying liar."

Bush lied?

Did Bush lie when he said:

"There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons..."?

Hate Doesn't Sell

Most of my left sided blogmates like the aggressive Dean approach to bashing us Republicans. Dean is evidently very entertaining in the same sense that Al Franken or Janeanne Garofolo are . . . entertaining. But like his fellow comedians, his fan base is limited and despite all the noise he doesn't actually earn much money for your glorious cause.

Worldwide War Against Terror

The terror attack in Jordan killed three Americans and dozens of good Muslims attending a wedding. The amazing thing is that Al Qaeda isn't backing off taking responsibility. I thought for sure that when they saw how unpopular it was they would shift the blame.

The Economy, Real and Imaginary

Robert Samuelson speculates in the WSJ (I can't link to it because it is a premium page) about why what people say about the economy doesn't correlate with what they do. They are spending money and making home improvements. Since mid-2003, the number of payroll jobs has increased by 4.2 million. The unemployment rate of 5% is low. People are spending money. Gains in housing have more than made up for losses in stocks, which helps explain why household net worth is higher than it was in 1999 and per capita income is up 9% from 1999 to 2004.

Torture, the Law, and the Executive

I don't support a policy of torture, but I don't support the McCain Amendment either. The latter would undermine the Executive unnecessarily by introducing legal processes into a matter more properly left to executive discretion.

Price TAX Gouging

Our Politicians took advantage of our misery yesterday and grandstanded over the price we pay at the pump. In order to keep the masses calm and make themselves look good - try to - they put the executives of the Oil Companies on display for all of us to see.

Financial Tips: Investing during an Intifada

Almost two weeks before Islamic youths rioted throughout France, I came across this article - "Islamic extremism hikes France investment risk."

Now two weeks have passed and "the spread of social unrest in France is undermining investor confidence in the euro and raising fears of an interest rate hike in the euro zone" as the euro falls to a "two-year low against the dollar."

The euro is going down as many suburbs in Europe go up in flames.

The American Military Looks Like America

It ain't what people don't know that hurts; it is what they know that ain't true. This is the case with the composition of the military. People say recruits are poor. Actually the richest quintile made up 22% of 2003 recruits. The poorest made up only 14%. People say new recruits are mostly minority. Whites make up 77.4% of the U.S. population of 18 year olds. They make up 78.5% of the recruits. People are right when they say that recruits are more rural and southern, but no surprise. In fact, the American military looks a lot like America. Let's look at some of the numbers.

Economic Man Meets Reality in France

One of the more nuanced conservative criticisms of communism was that it misunderstood human nature, by reducing all human differences to economics. The Soviet system would end social conflict, we were told, by abolishing private property and attending to man's material needs. Not only did the Soviet system fail in large measure to keep up with the West materially, but this spiritually impoverished view failed to account for the religious, tribal, ethnic, and linguistic identities of the various subject peoples within and without the Soviet Union who chafed under its authoritarianism and requirements of uniformity.

Fake But Accurate?

Anti-war veterans like Micah Ian Wright and Jim Massey have stories to tell. Touring with Cindy Sheehan, writing anti-war books, painting George W. Bush as a liar, and relating US military war atrocities they witnessed... unfortunately none of it's true.

Racism is Alive and Well, on the Left That Is

Racism is alive and well. It is living and breathing in a willing liberal press and the DNC. Many of you may have heard the Milwaukee Journal Sentinels comment of Nov. 1 in speaking to the diversity of the Supreme Court. The paper said, In losing a woman, the court with Alito would feature seven white men, one white woman and a black man, who deserves an asterisk because he arguably does not represent the views of mainstream black America.

Reporting or distorting?

The NY Times lied and dishonored a fallen soldier in order to make their political statement about the war. Imagine if the Bush Administration had doctored and edited Casey's last letter to Cindy Sheehan.

Without Thatcher or Reagan You have France & Germany

The seventies sucked*. All the thing we fear could happen to our economy - the malaise and the stagflation of high inflation coupled with high unemployment and low economic growth - were reality during the 1970s. Those same things, minus the inflation, have been the way things have been in France and Germany since the early 1990s. We were headed down this road too, until Reagan in the U.S. and Thatcher in the UK saved us. Will the riots wake up our European friends?

The Power of Private Philanthropy

Gates Donations Rival U.N. Health Spending
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation spends billions of dollars each year on international health programs, rivaling the total annual budget of the United Nations' World Health Organization. And I bet the whole thing is managed better too. Government is not always the solution (although it is true that the U.S. government subsidizes this through its tax treatment of charities.) Private U.S. private giving to developing world exceeds $62 billion .

Tony Blankley's "Nightmare Scenario" Coming True?

Is Europe transforming into a bloody urban battleground, between Islam and the West?

That's what Tony Blankley makes the case for in his prophetic new book, The West's Last Chance. With the suburbs in Paris literally exploding, Blankley's notion may become reality.

Activist Judges

When the left says we have a "living constitution," what they mean is that it must be interpreted in light of modern liberal principles. One of these principles is that the State knows best when it comes to indoctrinating your children. For instance, the State can't possibly allow the tender minds of third graders to recite the pledge of allegience, but we can ask them detailed questions like have they been, "Touching my private parts too much," or "Thinking about having sex," or "Thinking about touching other people's private parts," or "Thinking about sex when I don't want to."

Paris is Burning

Parisian housing projects and suburbs have exploded in Muslim and Arab rioting in the last few days, after an incident in which two youths were electrocuted after fleeing police. It's like the movie, La Haine, come to life. The resentment, alienation, and problems creatd by millions of young, underemployed, and in many cases unassimilated Muslim youth in Europe is palpable. While their parents came to work, their sons feel not at home, superior, and put upon all at once.

Pandemic and Judge Alito

Yesterday, President Bush delivered an address at the National Institutes of Health describing the Administration's preparation for the flu pandemic that most people believe is only a matter of time before it happens. What is interesting is that the possibility of a flu pandemic and its impact on American life involves real questions of rights of citizens in a public health emergency. However, such questions, appropriate fodder for judicial nomination hearings, are unlikely to be presented to Judge Alito.

manipulating intelligence

Today, Harry Reid has burned the biggest bridge in Senate history. Not by filibustering Bush's new Supreme Court nominee, but rather by shutting down the Senate in what amounts to an apparent 'Pearl Harbor Strategy' to revive the idea that Bush lied to invade Iraq. Maybe Democrats are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel... or is it actually a train heading down the tracks?