NewsMax has come out with an article reviving Vince Foster’s death. Vince Foster: What the Media Won’t Tell You again points out that there are enough holes in this story to make it look like swiss cheese.

…But despite 10 years of denial by the major media, the Foster case has not “closed” – as the Supreme Court hearing Wednesday demonstrated.

The case won’t close because of the failure of authorities to make full disclosure – and to conduct a full investigation into the case, including a complete autopsy.

There are too many quick decisions, too many quick investigations, too many unexplained facts, too much cover-up to make this go away as “just a suicide.” Coupled with all of the other shady incidents that surrounded the Clintons, there has to be more to it and someday I hope to see it all come out. There is no statute of limitations on murder.

I have no doubt that Vince Foster was murdered. I have no doubt Bill and Hillary were involved. While I don’t think one of them pulled the trigger, I do believe that one of them said, “Do it.” They ran that White House pretty tightly and nothing significant happened that they didn’t approve first.

Remember the Hate Bush email sent out that got reported on by Drudge?

Well, some new information has come out, Politics of hate won’t beat Bush and sadly, it is nothing new.

The people whose votes Democrats will need to defeat George Bush don’t hate him. On a personal level, they like him. They need to be convinced not to vote for him, for reasons that have to do with the war, or special interests or the economy. “Hate Bush” headlines do just the opposite.

I was told several years ago that American politics are divided 40/20/40. The 40% on the left would vote for any Democrat candidate, even if it was Stalin. The 40% on the right would vote for any Republican candidate, even Hitler. It’s the 20% of voters in the middle that decide elections. While I can’t agree on the extremeness of the candidates, I do agree on the mix.

While the Right is moving towards the center to actively work for that Center vote, the 9 dwarves are moving farther and farther left, courting the very people who believe Bush=Hitler. The extremism that they show now will severely haunt them when the winner tries to move toward the center during the general election. Short of a national catastrophe, Bush will win.

That’s the way Hillary wants it. She sees 2008 as her one shot back to the White House. It is better to do it when there is no incumbent rather than have to fight someone of “her” party. Here’s the tricky part. Hillary is the most polarizing person in politics today. She has a good shot at ’08 unless the Republicans counter with a move of their own.

Run Condi Rice.

I think Ms. Rice should get the nod for VP on the second term. This will groom her for a shot as well for 2008. Even if she only gets the VP slot again in ’08, it will show the nation who truly is the party of diversity and equality. I think she is getting groomed even today. She’s in charge of the Iraq situation on this side of the ocean and if this can be pulled off, she will be in prime position to move up in the world, possibly to the top spot.

So as I was welcomed, let me welcome these fine blogs:

Dagley Dagley Daily.
Voluntarily in China
Smijer

Sit on the couch. Have a drink. Kick your feet up on the table, you’re family now!

I think this says it all:

Hat tip to Pamibe for creating it.

I found this on NewsMax, Bush Signs Law to Curb Forest Fires. I especially liked the caption of the picture on the front page. You see President Bush with two firefighters in a burned out section of forest. The caption reads, President and firemen viewed eco-nuts’ damage in Oregon.

Like I’ve said before, wildlands and wildlife must be managed by man. When we do so, there is a benefit to all.

Of course the logging companies will make a profit. That’s the purpose of their business, to make a profit. If they can cut down on the number and severity of forest fires while not clear cutting patches of forest, I say go for it.

At least California has done some common sense things for houses in wildlife areas. Things like stucco exteriors, tile roofs and clearcutting the forest back from the house. A majority of houses that did this survived the recent fires.

As long as rabid environmentalists have their say in how the forests are managed, we will continue to have massive deadly fires. Nature cannot control such things by herself, man is needed.

I found this article, School Voucher Law Unconstitutional, Colorado Judge Decides and I worry about this.

“I see no way to interpret the voucher program statute in a way that does not run afoul of the principle of local control,” he wrote.

Of course it will run afoul, that’s the purpose of vouchers in the first place. To shake up the status quo.

Public education is a massive public bureaucracy. I know because one job I had was working as a Memphis City Schools contractor. The amount of people in non-teaching positions makes bloated look anorexic. They had so many administrative positions they used several former schools as offices.

Any business without meaningful competition becomes stagnant. That is what the public education system is, stagnant. The inner-city schools where the drop-out and illiteracy rates are sky-high are the worst. There are other reasons behind these rates besides ineffective school systems, but this is one we can work on.

In Memphis, those who can afford it send their kids to private schools. Those who can’t are stuck with the public system and that is just wrong.

Before the liberalization of the public school system, schools were authorized to use corporal punishment when necessary. I myself was “cracked” on several occasions. Students who were incorrigible were separated from the regular students and sent to disciplinary schools in the system. They did not sacrifice the future of 29 students to avoid wounding the self-esteem of one student.

Nowadays, feelings are more important than facts. This must stop. Get your kids out of such an environment NOW.

The best way to reform the public school system is through market forces. That means competition. If the public school system wants to attract students, it must clean up the campuses and the curriculum.

The bad news is the public school system will only get worse. The students who don’t want to learn, the ones who are on drugs or part of gangs will soon be the only students at public schools. They will be left to the public schools because the private schools will not put up with things like that.

Unless the public system shapes up. If the public system wants to attract the good students, they must do several things. Have a curriculum worth teaching. Make the campuses safe. Warehouse the ones who don’t want to learn in their own schools. You need to separate the wheat from the chaff and be damned about self-esteem. That comes when the kid successfully completes a project or passes a hard test.

You can never eliminate the bell curve, but you can do things like move the curve to the left.

Vouchers will be fought tooth-and-nail by the public school system because they know how bad they are doing. If vouchers were to take hold, you would see student performance skyrocket.

Fight for this if your kids are in bad public schools. You owe it to them.

The final step of this journey is here. Supreme Court Allows Newdow To Argue Pledge Of Allegiance Case will settle this issue one way or the other.

I have already spoken on this issue, and have been clearly against this man and his position since the start. The United States was founded upon the principle of God granting powers to the people and then the people giving some of that to the government. God is an integral part of this country and to deny recognition of that fact is wrong.

If this man were to win, his next admitted his agenda, which is to ban any mention of God in any governmental system. I can’t come up with a link because Blogspot is down at the moment.

I think SCOTUS is hearing this to put the issue to bed permanently. In favor of “under God.”

I hope.

Here is my previous post.

Any time I think I can really go back to work, I do several things in a row. This morning I did all of my personal grooming, vacuumed around the apartment, cleaned Rocket and Corkys cage, then walked down the street and paid the rent. When I started news scanning was when I fell apart.

That got me two hours in the closet. Oh joy.

Of course, Rocket and Corkys incessant screeching didn’t help either. They got three trips to the bedroom this morning. The only way to get them to shut up is to either put them where they can’t see me, or let them out so they can fly over and sit on me. When I let them out, I have to wear a towel over my back and shoulders so they can chew and poop on that instead of on me.

I have such an exciting life, don’t you agree?

I found this article via Drudge, RP students protest ‘liberal bias,’ push conservative agenda.

I am heartened by these young adults, and I just wish my Conservatism was as well developed at that age. I was Conservative, but I was not as clear and articulate as I am now in my views. I know I was a conservative because I would have discussions with a flaming Liberal at my lunch table. Todd was always uptight about the political situation in Bolivia or some such and just about lived off of Rolaids. Like I said, my views on the world was not as well developed as they could have been, but this was back when the only news sources were the paper and TV. No Limbaugh, no Fox News, no internet.

In the article, it talks about a newsletter being started by the students. I have an email into the reporter that wrote the article for a contact for the club. Depending on ad rates, I might take out an ad for the blog. Whatever I can do to help the cause.

With my addition to the Rocky Top Brigade, I have an expanded readership and I wanted to explain a few things to all who manage to find my blog.

I was an IT manager until I had a negative reaction to a drug that exacerbated an undiagnosed Bi-Polar Disorder. I am actually now a Fast Cycling Bi-Polar. A “normal” person who suffers from BPD can spend months or years in a manic or depressive swing. I can switch in a matter of minutes. I have gone from manic like Robin Williams to suicidal faster than you can spin around. I have no stability in my emotional control and must take care about getting too excited or depressed. I am taking a variety of psychotropic drugs that have “smoothed” out my swings, but I still suffer from them. I am doing my best to stay slightly depressed so the manic swings aren’t too bad.

There are times I get overstimulated. This is where “closet time” comes in. This means that I am out of control of my thoughts and emotions and the only thing I can do is crawl into my small hall closet, close the door behind me and scream, cry and whimper for a couple of hours in the dark.

My mental illness has cost me my career, my home and my family. I can no longer work in the fast paced IT industry, I would have to spend my lunch hour whimpering under my desk. With the loss of my $50k job, I could not keep my piece of the American Dream. My wife and son held on to me for as long as they could, but in the end they had to cut me loose for their own survival. My family lives on my disability and I work part time driving around people who also suffer from mental illness.

This gives me plenty of time to think. And I am imparting my thoughts and what I go through to this blog. This is one way the people in my life (friends, family, case manager) can see how I am doing so they can catch me if I get too far out of kilter. I’m been pretty lucky, it’s been a year since my last hospital stay. That’s the longest I’ve stayed out since I became sick 5 years ago.

It’s been a scary roller coaster ride so far and there is no end in sight. It’s taken me this long to find any drugs that had any effect on my condition at all. I’ve been through most of the drugs that treat BPD, and I am currently on a combination of “last-resort” drugs and those brand new to the market.

Wish me luck. I need it.

Tim Robbins, who screamed “Censorship!” when he was criticized for his anti-war views, has produced a play about the war. Robbins’ ‘Embedded’ Play Not So Realistic chronicles his view of the part embedded journalists played in the war.

It goes without saying that there is an obvious slant toward the left in the views expressed in this play.

Robbins portrays journalists as Pentagon puppets, U.S. soldiers as thieves and killers of innocent women and children, and the Bush cabinet as war mongers willing to start a war to escape the negative publicity of the Enron scandal.

I don’t know what planet Tim is from, but I truly wish he would go back there and leave the rest of us alone.

Here’s another money quote:

When Laura Israel, another audience member, was asked if she thought the play was accurate, she replied: “Yes, not only on what is going on there, but it also showed how we are being lied to by all the networks.”

We are being lied to by the media, we don’t see enough of the good things that are happening over there. We see some, but not enough.

I think this woman means we aren’t being lied to enough by the media. I think Ms. Israel would like to see about all of the war atrocities American troops have been committing. You know, the rape squads, the torture chambers, Iraqis at random being fed feet first into wood chippers and all that. She believes we are doing that, but Saddam didn’t. Or even if he did, then not as much as we are.

It simply boggles my mind how someone can walk around in the same world as I, see the same things and have such a distorted view. Anti-war beliefs that are reasonable I can work with. At least I can agree to disagree with reasonable folk. But people like Mr. Robbins truly are viewing a world that does not exist. He believes (or professes to) in facts clearly not in evidence. When everybody is telling you the same thing, it’s either a) the truth, or b) there is a massive conspiracy. Mr. Robbins is clearly in the “B” category.

I think that this will be like Bowling for Columbine, in that only people who already believe this kind of tripe will be the only audience members. But the cast should still be ready to take incoming fire from the audience. I can imagine a platoon of Marines who have been in Iraq coming armed with eggs.

While going through my blog list, I found an interesting article on Say Uncle I quickly went to the source and found, Gun Banner Wishes My Family to Be Murdered and Die Slowly.

Someone please point to this person and what they have written and tell me it is not hate speech. Mr. Bellamy is downright apoplectic over this. Tell me this person is reasonable and you can hold an intelligent conversation with him over firearms. If you do, you’re guilty of trying to blow smoke up my butt.

I refuse to reprint this letter because of the foul language. I’m not shy when it comes to such language, I can get R. Lee Ermey to blush with my command of the language. I just don’t use it except under extreme circumstances.

I think Mr. Jon Bellamy is agitated and upset. He should seek immediate help for this condition.

Via Slashdot: California Police Arrest Man in Bank PC Theft.

The guy who posted the article about this wondered about what kind of data is being transferred when you login or while online. After reading the money paragraph, I had the same question:

Investigators traced the computer to Krastof when he logged onto his own America Online account at home through one of the stolen computers, White said. That enabled authorities to connect the computer’s Internet Protocol address, a number that identifies a computer on the Internet, to Krastof’s home address through his AOL account, White said.

While this was a wonderful crime fighting tool, I’m not sure I like it, even with judicial oversight. In fact, I know I don’t like it. Anyone who wants to can get my IP address, find out my name and link it up with one or more serial numbers in my machine, then track me wherever I take my laptop. This is the kind of precursor that leads to identity theft. I’m just glad I don’t have an identity worth stealing. Who would want to be me?

UPDATE: My friend Mike wrote to me and tells me the inept, inbred idiot (my words, not his) used the AOL account already on the PC. Police, alert to any use of these accounts, had a hit and traced it back to the perp. Which does not change anything on what I said. Anyone armed with my IP address and the ability to hack into systems could still easily find out who I am and everything else they needed to know.

Ever since I joined the Rocky Top Brigade, the blogs I have been perusing have dramatically increased.

I backtracked a visitor to another Memphis blog, Musings of a Philosophical Scrivener… and happened across this Thought for the Day. I thought this would be a perfect chance to fine tune the broad brush I use to paint liberals.

He quotes:

My tribe is better than your tribe! It’s the oldest, dumbest pre-human instinct, hard-wired into our weak little brains by millions of years of natural selection. And to this day, dumb-asses believe what Prager said-they believe that “thinking people” agree with their views, and that people who disagree with their views are automatically irrational or devious. It’s tribalism at its dumbest-and it rules the world of the talk-show right, where the Limbaughs serve their credulous listeners frightening tales about “The Liberals.” Is my tribe good, and your tribe evil? Intelligent people know better.
–Bob Somerby

If anybody thinks anybody is evil, I think the Liberals fill the bill. You hear all the time “Bush=Hitler.” Even during the height of the Impeachment, I don’t remember anything like that being said about Clinton. Liberals are the elitists, seeing themselves as better than everyone else.

I do not see Liberals as evil, merely misguided children. The Liberal that I go after sees the world in an infinite spectrum of grey. Everybody’s idea (except conservatives) on how to solve problems is viable. They like to solve problems with the same thought process that they use to compare the writing style of Hemingway to James Mitchner (Don’t put too much thought into it, the answer boils down to personal preference). While there is more than one way to solve a problem, there are a finite number of solutions and they are similar.

When solving a problem, a Liberal looks at the intentions that were used to develop the solution. Results don’t matter, it’s how much he cares in solving the problem. If the solution didn’t work, expand the scope, increase the amount of money involved and try the same thing again. Which is the definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

Liberals also have a rather large set of blinders when it concerns solutions to problems. Any idea or solution that doesn’t fit their paradigm is instantly rejected, even if it has worked before. They are unwilling to try such solutions, even when they have no solutions of their own. Just take a look at the 9 dwarfs. They are all against the tax cut. They all want to get rid of it (which means RAISE YOUR TAXES). They all refuse to believe that increased economic activity and lowered unemployment brings in more tax revenues than higher taxes on a lower level of activity and higher unemployment. I can’t see why they think so. Kennedy cut taxes and doubled tax revenues. Reagan cut tax rates and had a similar return. Every indication of current activity indicates that tax cuts are 3-for-3 in bringing in more tax revenue than by raising taxes. So the only answer that I can see is they are against cutting taxes is President Bush is for it. This doesn’t mean that every one of the Presidents solutions are spot-on the first time, but at least he is looking to see what has worked in the past.

Conservatives like to look at the results of a solution to determine if it was successful or not. If it wasn’t successful, you see where you went wrong, change that part of the solution and try again. It’s known as a positive feedback loop. You continue to use what works and you stop using what doesn’t work.

Liberals do not see a person defined by what he is or what he has done, but rather by his skin color. Looking at two black people, he sees two black people. Me? I see a successful person and a poor person, who both happen to be black. See the difference in views? Liberals also believe that minorities cannot survive by themselves. The Government must step in to help them. Liberals believe that it is good for a business to hire or promote an unqualified minority over a qualified person. Jayson Blair (from the NY Times scandal) is a prime and visible result of such mindsets.

The same hold true for college admissions. If you want more minority participation, you need to turn out more minority high school grads that have the basic knowledge and training to survive in college. That is not happening today. To force an issue like this puts an unfair burden on the marginal minority student and denies an appropriate education to the student who has earned that spot.

Conservatives believe in incentives. If you meet a persons basic needs without them having to work, then they won’t work, no matter how successful they could be if they do so. If you tie rewards to their level of work, they will rise to their best level because they have an incentive. No work, no food and all that. Every person needs to rise to their highest level of potential. It’s just that the best some people can do is a job at Wal-Mart. It is these people who deserve our help. When they work as hard and as best as they can but still can’t make it, then they deserve generosity. Those who won’t work deserve nothing.

So let’s recap. If you believe:

• Bush=Hitler;
• There are infinite levels of grey instead of black/grey/white;
• In problem solving, intentions are more important than results;
• Any solution presented by a Conservative is automatically wrong;
• It is proper to put an unqualified minority over someone who is qualified;
• It is okay to judge someone by just the color of their skin;
• Minorities cannot survive on their own without government help;
• It is okay to give assistance to someone who doesn’t want to work;

If you agreed with any of the above statements, then you are in for a wild ride on this blog.

I am not really concerned with the who or what, but rather the why. I believe in doing the right thing for the right reasons. If you do the right thing for the wrong reasons, you will end up ruining the work you did and get bit in the butt over it. It make take years, but I promise you it will happen.

You have been warned.

I have to work today, but I don’t have to go back until Tuesday. Don’t worry, I’ll keep posting. It’s not like I have anywhere to go. My parents are gone, my sister is 750 miles away in Ohio and my family won’t have me.

Enjoy your family. You never know how dear they are to you until they are gone.

This article, Upholding the law talks about getting the professional criminals off the streets.

I read in Reader’s Digest some years back that 7 percent of the criminal population commits over 70 percent of the crimes in this country. It is also proven that if you enforce the “small laws” such as loitering, vandalism, etc., then neighborhoods become safer because the people likely to commit these (and worse) crimes move on to somewhere else.

Several years ago, Virginia started “Project Exile” which was a hard stance on felons. A felon caught with a gun or even a single bullet was sent to federal prison for 10 years. And the federal system has no parole. If you get 10 years, you serve 10 years. Coupled with an aggressive ad campaign targeting criminals, crimes dramatically dropped. This idea has spread to other areas of the country. Even Memphis has something like this, but I don’t think federal time is involved.

The only factual error of the article is in the quote below:

But while the Patriot Act has allowed us to crack down on terrorists, it has proven to be no threat to the civil liberties the rest of us enjoy. Last month, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, told a congressional hearing: “I have never had a single abuse of the Patriot Act reported to me.” Mrs. Feinstein also contacted the American Civil Liberties Union – a frequent critic of the act – to see if they had any examples of violations. “They had none,” she said.

While the author might have used uninformed sources, there is contradictory facts, I wrote about it here.

It is a good thing to keep criminals off our streets for as long as possible. We will never ‘solve’ the crime problem, but we can make them think twice before committing a crime.

This article rankles me. County deletes ‘master-slave’ PC term bends my brain into knots.

The terms master/slave and primary/secondary are totally different in technical terms. In a master/slave relationship, the master exerts at least some level of direct control over the slave. In a primary/secondary relationship, both units are considered equal, but the primary is used preferentially over the secondary. No control signals pass between units. To replace one term with the other will confuse the technical people who must maintain it. You troubleshoot a master/slave differently than a primary/secondary. I know, I was an Electronics Technician in the US Navy for 13 years, and spent another 7 years before I got sick as an IT guy.

When you have any group of people, any term will upset at least some of them. But there comes a point where that group of upset people is statistically insignificant. This is one of those cases. I could understand if the employee in question was a recently liberated slave, or his parents were slaves. That is not the case here. If this person is so upset over the term, I suggest they travel to East Africa. They still practice slavery over there, you know. If he is bothered by the term, I think he should do something about it instead of whining about how he’s offended over his ancestors being slaves. How about buying a couple of his cousins, bringing them to America and setting them free? At that point I am willing to cut him some slack.

There are a lot of things that upset me, but I realize that I am in the minority about some of them. Unless there is something inherently wrong about these things, it is incorrect of me to force my minority view on the majority. We’ve got a big fight over cloture in the Senate right now, and that is getting a lot of people pretty upset too. See what I mean? Except in cases where there is a moral wrong, when the minority can control he majority, it is simply not right.

This is a classic example of overreaction. Zero Patience for Zero Tolerance just shows how much of a prison camp our schools have become.

And so, an 11-year-old is taken away in handcuffs for drawing a picture of a gun; an 8-year-old faces expulsion for a keychain that contained a cheap nail clipper; a fifth-grader is suspended for drawing the World Trade Center being hit by an airplane … The stories go on and on.

These are not extreme examples, this is regular, everyday behavior of kids. Well, these are extreme examples of adult overreaction to kids normal actions.

But here’s the payoff paragraph:

In commenting on the study in the journal “National Association of Elementary School Principals,” Roger W. Ashford wrote, “The study concludes, however, that even though there is little data to prove the effectiveness of zero-tolerance policies, such initiatives serve to reassure the public that something is being done to ensure safety. Therefore, the popularity of zero-tolerance policies may have less to do with their actual effect than the image they portray of schools taking harsh measures to prevent violence. Whether the message actually changes student behavior may be less important than the reassurance it provides to administrators, teachers and parents.”

Oh. So Zero Tolerance doesn’t work, but it makes everybody feel safer. That makes it okay. No it doesn’t. When you institute a policy, when you perform any act, you need to have a positive result. If you don’t, you need to reevaluate the process, make changes and try again. You don’t fail when you don’t get the expected result, you fail when you give up trying. Not changing the process after not getting the expected result is counted as giving up trying.

Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. I can attest to this method personally. It doesn’t work. There needs to be a positive feedback loop to continually improve the process. That’s the way you make change and that’s the way you succeed. To do something and not expect success is stupid. And Zero Tolerance is far down that road already.

I just found out via checking my referrals page that I’ve been accepted into the Rocky Top Brigade!

It’s a rather long list of wonderful blogs that I am now part of. I am putting up the flag on my sidebar that will take you to the above link, but I am deciding if I will also put the entire list up as well. My initial thought is to compromise, check out all of the blogs and link directly to those who I’ll be reading.

Thank you for the wonderful honor!

I have been having a lot of compulsive thoughts lately. That’s what drives me into the closet. I need the darkness and the quiet to get my racing thoughts under control.

I forced myself into a minor manic swing this afternoon, running around the apartment. I was picking up and rearranging minor things so I wouldn’t have to deal with the obsessive thoughts. I lost. I ended up in the closet anyway.

Obsessive thoughts are like a significant other that won’t let an argument drop. You’ve given in to all the demands, you’ve said, “I’m sorry” a dozen times, but they still don’t let it drop. Your SO is still in your face, telling you all kinds of hurtful things, and you can’t turn away or stop it. You’re stuck in the middle of it and the best you can hope for is a comfortable place to ride out the storm.

This is what prevents me from rejoining the regular workforce. I doubt a regular employer or coworkers would understand why I have to spend lunch curled up and whimpering under my desk.

I happened across this post from the USS Clueless, An American in Spain. It’s a letter from a man who realizes he’s an American. He may have been born in Spain of Spanish parents, but he holds in his heart the ideal of what freedom is, and that it’s worth fighting and dying for. That makes him an American in my book.

It reminded me of “The shot heard ’round the world.” High school history and even Scholastic Rock tells us this shot was fired from the village green in Lexington on April 19th, 1775. It was the shot that started the American Revolution.

What was never covered in my classes was why this particular shot was heard around the world beyond it marked the birth of the United States. But it was more than just that. It was the birth of not just of a new country, but an ideal that has been often copied, but never duplicated. Look at the other democracies of the world. They are that way today because of the United States. We were the first modern democracy. As you look at other democracies, you see that most of them have derived from monarchies of one form or another.

When our great country was founded, it was founded on the ideal that the People control the government, not the other way around. Every citizen has the privilege, the right, nay the obligation to make his wishes known to the government as to how it should conduct its affairs. Those who hold office ignore the will of the people at their own peril.

And that is the difference. Someone from Britain (France/Germany/Japan/Russia, etc.) sees the government in control of things. They have some say in important things, but not much. An American sees the government as a tool, to listen and obey the will of the people. Every two years, people line up and prostrate themselves in front of me and ask for a portion of my power. My power, and the power of my fellow citizens, controls the direction of the government. And when I voice my opinion to my elected officials, I am the one who gets called Sir, and my opinion gets listened to. That is what separates America from the rest of the world.

There is no landed gentry, no elite class that hold the elected offices. Anybody who can pay the filing fee and get enough signatures can run for any office, from dog catcher to the President. While the recent California recall election may have looked like a circus, it is the embodiment of the American way. It was pretty clear almost from the start as to who had a chance to win, but that didn’t stop over a hundred people from trying. Some were in it for the publicity, some were in it for genuine reasons.

It is the idea that the People control the government that gives America it’s true freedom. The Constitution does not give rights to the people, it limits and declares certain things untouchable by the government. This is the meaning of freedom. This is the true meaning of the shot heard ’round the world. It was a call to all who want to be free to come and join us.

This ideal is what has attracted people from every country from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe to the United States. More and more Americans are being born everyday outside of our borders. Most of them make it here to be part of the family.

I hope Oriol makes it. I’d like to meet him.

I came up with the idea of “The Conservative Zone” back about 1995 when personal web pages had just started to take off. This was when 28.8k modems was the fastest you could get. I wanted to make my web page based on The Twilight Zone. I tried coming up with a graphic similar to the Twilight Zone, but I am not an artist. I cobbled together a graphic of a flag, coupled with some text and a gif animator. I made one for the front page, and a banner ad because I was part of the Link Exchange network at the time.

To give the CZ a TZ feel, I had the following header:

(Say it like you know Rod Serling would)
Submitted for your approval. A small corner of a global network of information. A place where the cornerstone of society is the belief that you are responsible for your own actions. A society where you are treated according to how you treat others. A world where you have the freedom to starve as well as succeed. You have entered…The Conservative Zone.

This was also about the time of Hillary’s “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy” rantings, so just to yank her chain, I proudly put the “charter member” bit.

For your amusement, I decided to include my banner, which as soon as BlogSpot decides to start selling ad space once again, I just might put into the rotation.

Enjoy.

A thought came to me while driving my clients around today. It may not be original, but I would still like to point it out.

The Democrats and their screechingly vocal special interest groups have a vested interest in perpetuating problems rather than actually solving them. Democrats have been asking for power since the 60’s so they can solve problems such as poverty, race relations and so on. They say “Here is a problem. Let us solve it.” The bad news is years later the problem still exists, or made even worse.

When you look at the poverty problem, the only thing Welfare has done is perpetuate (yes, I know I repeated myself, but it’s the best word to use) poverty into multiple generations. After almost 40 years and $5 trillion, the same percentage of the population is still in poverty, with no end in sight. Well, the Republican Congress forced President Clinton to sign Welfare reform which did what was supposed to have been done in the first place.

Race relations are at its best since the end of segregation. But if you listen to the NAACP, I mean really listen, they are calling for segregation all over again. They want the races to be separate. That’s so (in their eyes) Blacks can get a better chance than everybody else. I mean, after centuries of slavery, then another century as second class citizens, then 40 years as being equal, they want to be (thank you George Orwell) more equal than everybody else. And only as long as there exists this controversy do they have a job, telling other Blacks how “oppressed” they are and how they deserve two bites at the apple instead of just one.

Look at the 9 Democratic candidates. They were all against the tax cut. They all positioned themselves so they could only take advantage of a bad economy. Because only if there exists a problem can they complain about something. The signs of a recovering economy have been around for a while. Economists have been hinting at this for months. They have been cautiously optimistic up until the numbers really started to take off lately. The more economists have been pointing this out, the more shrill about the bad status of the economy the 9 stooges have become about it. When the numbers were undeniable, they switched to “jobless recovery,” and still didn’t listen to the fact that the jobless rate always lags other indicators. So they got bit twice by this.

Now look at the Republicans. They solve problems, then point to their accomplishments. They say “See what we’ve done, let us build on what we’ve done and do more.” They work hard on tax cuts because this is the third time it’s been tried and it’s the third time it has worked big time. Republicans give incentive to Welfare recipients to get off of the government dole so they can be productive members of society, being tax producers instead of tax consumers. Republicans have more minority and women members in high ranking positions than Democrats ever did.

The Contract With America is a classic example. Here was a list of sore points for Americans. Republicans promised, “Elect me and I will get this to the floor for a vote.” Some passed, some didn’t. But every item on the list was brought to the floor of both houses for a vote.

The fact that those of President Bushs judicial nominees that have been blocked are women and/or minorities is not a coincidence. They are being blocked because they are minorities. I said so here.

Republicans solve problems, Democrats perpetuate problems. Once you realize that I’m right, things will go a lot smoother.

I love Law & Order. I watch all of them, and occasionally partake of the marathons that run on TNT. I love the plot twists and how you can never guess if the good guys will win or not.

This years season premier was a two parter, and in the second part had the tragic story of a baby dropped from a hotel window during a fire. The father was a famous comic who had adopted the kid. During the investigation, they discovered he was a pedophile. They could locate only one victim, who had brought legal action, and since the case was settled, the case was sealed.

Using the logic of “how could you let a 12 year old play with a 40 year old man,” McCoy brought charges against the parents. You see, the parents received a million dollar check from the comic/pedophile, plus a stipend from the lawsuit. The parents claimed that the million dollar check was for writing a movie script for the comic/pedophile. During the trial, it came out that the check was cut before the kid went up to the comics house and was molested, drawing the assertion that the parents knew what was going to happen. The parents did it because they had no money and a younger son who had a serious heart defect. They sacrificed one kid to save the other. On the evidence of the timing of the check, the parents were convicted.

Now, let’s look at Michael. He has an amusement park at his house. He likes making kids happy. Those are okay things, to a point. He has admitted that he likes to have slumber parties with young boys. That sets off rather large and loud alarm bells for me. It has been stated that he has an alarm system inside the house, so that whenever anybody gets within 50 feet of his bedroom, an alarm goes off in there. When combined with the slumber parties, this makes my alarm bells ring all over again.

He was already the defendant of one molestation lawsuit. I and most parents would not allow our children to be within a mile of this man. But there are some that hope that his star stuff will rub off onto their children, and all they have to do is play by Michaels rules. Which allows Michael to molest young children.

I can tell that Michael is sick, by no more that what he has admitted to. The other allegations just throw more fuel onto the fire.

All I can hope for is he gets put away for a long time, and that this gets done before he molests any more boys, including his own children.

I did some shopping this afternoon, enjoying a nice walk in the beautiful weather. Ever since I got back, my condition has been deteriorating. I’ve already spent a couple of hours in the closet, I’m out for a bathroom break and I’m going back in, probably for the rest of the night.

Something is wrong, but I can’t put my finger on it. I know I don’t feel right, but I can’t explain it. I really wish I could see my case manager twice a week. At least I could bounce stuff like this off of him, and let him make the Mental Health Professional decisions for me. I used to see him twice a week, but budget cuts did away with that.

I want to write, I’m beginning to think that I need to write. But it doesn’t help when your side-effects deny you the ability to concentrate. My eyes and other muscles twitch, it seems like someone is playing around with the volume control with my hearing, it feels like I’m always tired. Things like that, and that’s just what I can think of through the mental haze I have right now.

Back in I go, trying to conquer the obsessive thoughts.