You should bookmark this page, National Review Online, so you can always see what Victor Davis Hanson has written.

Today it’s The Event of the Age. I like Victor because he makes you think. Using the only muscle that counts.

Indeed, each day the great gamble in Iraq is taking on significance that transcends the immediate tactical advantages that accrued from ridding the world of Saddam Hussein’s savagery. True, the world is a far better place without the worry of Kurdish genocide, 10,000 U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, perpetual no-fly zones, clumsy U.N. embargos, Abu Abbas loose, guided missiles and WMD programs in Iraq, blood money for suicide bombers, exasperation that Saddam Hussein had violated 1991 agreements, SCUDs raining down on Saudi Arabia and Tel Aviv, assassination plots against American presidents, and so on. But there are other positive rippling effects that are already beginning to become manifest.

Read the rest. I command it.

This is an eye-opening piece, The ‘Psychology’ of Liberals where the underpinnings of why liberals behave like they do is revealed.

You really can’t blame them for their misguided views. They themselves are victims of 20th century psychology, which in textbook after textbook taught clinician after clinician – as well as the general public – that leniency trumps discipline, “concern” trumps consequences, motive trumps morality – and that one’s “feelings” are sacrosanct.

It tries to prove that there are mental health issues involved, and at some level I can agree. About half of the people professionally involved in the mental health field are involved because they have MH issues and they wanted to understand them better.

I don’t agree with the borderline diagnosis. I have that as one of my diagnosis and the black and white viewing of things doesn’t really apply to them. They see things in grey (except republicans). There is also a “I hate you! Don’t leave me!” part of borderline that I don’t see in liberals.

But all in all, a good, recommended read.

This article, Feds Finally Confront ‘Slave Reparations’ Criminals talks about how people are defrauding the government through tax returns to get what they think they deserve.

I have to admit, I am for it in some cases. For those on Welfare and its related programs, let’s make it a one time grant, ending all entitlement programs for those people for all time. That would save the feds a lot of money in the long run.

But generally, I think we should stick to the original deal, either 40 acres and a mule, or a one-way ticket to Liberia.

Since the civil rights movement in the 60’s, racism is largely a thing of the past. Blacks are now treated equally when they give that treatment to others. I admit, it’s not perfect, but it’s a damn sight better than Africa where they still practice slavery to this day.

A $500,000 per person grant is outrageous and not warranted by the circumstances. No one in America today has suffered from the institution of slavery.

And what about all of the white indentured servants? I’m sure at least one of my ancestors was such, don’t I get anything?

Feh.

This article, Beware of Stealth Energy Tax, Conservative Group Warns, is all about trying to back door the Kyoto treaty.

The Kyoto Protocol which was meant to stop global warming, wants the US to cut back emissions of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels. Even supporters of the Kyoto Protocol admitted it would only move the inevitable result back 5-10 years. To comply would wreck our economy in no uncertain terms. It could even be fatal to our economy, starting us on a downward spiral to total collapse. Of course, the Senate rejected it.

Even groups who support the legislation admit it will raise prices. The group Environmental Defense estimates the cost at $10 per household in 2010 – a “low cost,” it says.

Ten dollars a what? Year? Month? Week? Day? And of course like any other government sponsored program, that is a very low ball figure, certain to double or triple in no short order.

I’m no scientist, so I can’t say one way or the other about global warming. Hell, the scientists themselves can’t agree. But I do know that our society rests lightly upon our infrastructure and by jogging one part like this, everything can come down like a house of cards. And by causing a splash in one part, all of the other parts of the infrastructure are affected by the ripples that spread everywhere.

Let’s just assume for a minute that the cost outlined above turns out to be $10 a month. Okay, you pay that without a sweat. But you also pay that same $10 for all of the companies involved in delivering all of your goods and services. And companies pay a magnitude more for their electricity than you do. You end up paying like 10% more for everything you buy, from Wal-Mart to your ISP. Companies do not absorb increases like this, they pass it along to the customer. And in any chain of manufactured goods, you’re paying for 3-4 companies worth of increases.

Think about it. Then write your Senators and see what side of this bill they are on.

ATM Skimming – Consumers Beware! details in yet another way your electronic identity can be stolen.

I don’t understand how the extra swiper is being employed at ATM machines. I know that unscrupulous restaurant employees who you hand the card to can have a hand swiper that steals the information, but unless the whole ATM is a fraud, I don’t understand.

Anyhow, I only use ATM’s that belong to my bank. I live next to a Stop n Rob (Memphis slang for convenience store) and I picked my bank based on the ATM in that store. I only use other banks machines in extreme cases due to the ATM fees, and I never use third party machines.

Let’s be careful out there.

What does this say about our society? Killing the Good Samaritan is a story about a guy trying to do the right thing and getting body slammed for it.

The incident reflects how paranoid our culture has become after decades of political correctness that defines and divides us into categories eternally at war: female against male, whites against minorities, heterosexual against gay.

You should read the whole article, especially the couple of paragraphs about how the author defines The Devil.

In war, training is used specifically to dehumanize the enemy, making it easier for the soldier to kill and not agonize over it. This is exactly what the Liberals are doing here. By assigning everyone into a category, then associating that category with something bad, then you assign something bad to everyone you put into that category, guilty or not.

We must fight this on every level. I follow the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and I judge a person by the content of their character, rather than by he color of their skin. I do not lump people together in groups, I treat every individual as that individual treats me. You should do the same.

Sorry about this, Tuesdays I work an extra hour, and the family needed to go shopping tonight, so no time to search and post. I’ll be up bright and early tomorrow to bring my usual analysis.

After reading this article, A French Revolution in Iraq?, I begin to understand how incredibly klutzy the French are.

France began its own path toward democracy by explicitly rejecting this [Anglo-American] view. Unlike the American Founding or England’s Glorious Revolution, the French experience exulted in humanistic ideals about man’s potential. The immediate result was the orgy of the guillotine, followed by a cynical regard for religious values and institutions. “We will strangle the last king,” cried the revolutionaries, “with the guts of the last priest.”

France is currently working on its fifth incarnation of a republic since the end of the Napoleonic era. We are still on our first. The Articles of Confederation don’t count because there was no revolution to bring about the Constitution. The Articles were not doing the job, and so were refined into the Constitution we follow today.

The French claim that we are the naive ones, but it is the French that are naive. They believe that they can stab us in the back and be friends again instantly. They believe that once the process of democracy in Iraq is started, it can stand and survive on its own. Both of these views are wrong on so many levels that it isn’t funny, it’s sad. To see a country that was once a superpower, now collapsing due to its own selfishness and indifference is disheartening.

We’ve been over this subject before. Compassion-Based Schools Teach Kids ‘Untrue Drivel,’ Critic Charges.

Of course it’s centered in that great Liberal stronghold of San Francisco. Unabashedly teaching unsubstantiated left-wing psychobabble to children and passing it off as “humane education” makes me want to pull out what little hair I have left.

“They are going to be teaching alarmism, which inherently means filling their heads with untrue drivel designed to breed a new generation of modernity-loathing robots,” Horner added.

This couldn’t be more of a brain-washing indoctrination if it was being done in China or South Korea. I understand that these people must exist (how can you have good without bad?), but it’s the influence that they have on our young that enrages me.

Fight this wherever you see it. Please.

The title comes from a line some magicians use for a laugh before they pull off a big illusion.

I got a chuckle out of this headline, Secondhand Smoke Scam. I have a clear bias against smoking, both my parents and sister smoked. I remember sticking my nose into my shirt every time my parents lit up while we were in the car, yelling at them to crack the windows.

But this falls into the misdirection category, where you pick a lay audience to announce your findings, then refuse to release your data to peers for critical review. You do this to maximize your “findings” while tap-dancing as fast as you can to fool the very people who can shed light on what you want to keep secret.

Rabid environmentalists have done this for years. They either make up stuff out of blue smoke and mirrors, or they take one little fact and bend it way out of context. In either case, they start screaming it at the top of their lungs, hoping for it to ripple outwards and get into the national consciousness before they are found out. When the real facts emerge, they are downplayed to the point of invisibility.

Almost every liberal group with an agenda have done this at one time or another. Which is why I am very cynical in regards to any flashy “findings.”

Color me not impressed with this “study.”

Until I landed in my apartment, stable on my medication, I was homeless off and on for three years. There were the big blowups that got me into the hospital, but there were lots of smaller blowups that resulted in me grabbing my backpack and walking out of the house for three days to a week. I’ve slept under bridges, in doorways, in missions and libraries, in summer and winter. It was an experience that you should do your best to avoid at all costs.

Telling The Truth on the ‘Homeless’ talks about the underpinning causes of homelessness. You can’t solve the problem with the Liberal solution, which is to just give housing to the homeless. You need to treat the problem of why these people are homeless. The right thing for the wrong reasons and all that. Normally doctors treat the symptoms to cure the disease, but in this case that doesn’t solve the problem. You have to have a patient who is willing to address the problems as to why they are homeless, or confine them to long-term care facilities where they get the treatment if they like it or not. But that money and facilities simply do not exist. Psychiatric facilities are there to treat acute problems, not the long care stuff.

Because I had a family that was dependent on my disability money, there was nothing left over for me to use for the long-term care that I really needed, such as a care home or my own place to live like I have now. It took the fortuitous break of getting a job where I could support myself and walk to work.

While my family and I still have a long way to go, my relationship with my family is at it’s best since I became sick.

You do have a fire extinguisher in your kitchen, don’t you? How about in your car? Garage? If you do, then you’re my kind of person. You’re careful and thoughtful, keeping well aware of realistically possible emergencies.

Do you have a crime extinguisher? You know, a firearm. Are you familiar with its operation? Do you take it to the range often to keep yourself familiar with it? (you can also have fun with it at the same time) Do you get to carry it with you where ever you go? Gun Rights Advocates Take Aim at Concealed Carry Bans talks about the fight in the last holdout states that do not let law-abiding citizens carry concealed firearms.

Guns prevent crime. Gary Kleck did a careful study to prove that gun control works, and found out the exact opposite. Lawful defensive use of firearms results in the prevention of 2,500,000 crimes a year. In 97% of those incidents, all it takes is for the citizen to show the weapon and the criminals run away. Only in 1/2 of 1% is somebody actually shot or killed, and of course those are the only incidents that make the news.

Back in the 90’s, Florida (a concealed weapon state) had a rather serious crime wave in rapes. The police took action and the headlines sum it all up, “POLICE GIVE GUNS, TRAINING TO RAPE VICTIMS.” Don’t you know, the bottom fell out of that particular crime wave.

It has been documented in state after state that when the citizens are allowed to lawfully carry weapons, the crime rate goes down. When the criminals know the victims have a fair chance to shoot back, they change their habits.

I myself used to have a carry permit. I had a lot of self-imposed restrictions. I couldn’t yell at anybody, no matter how idiotic they were. I was very careful as to where I went. My family could not stand on my gun side. I was always alert to my surroundings. I trained constantly, and at my peak I could draw from cover and put two rounds in the center of a target up to 25 feet away in under 3/4 of a second, well under a defensive reaction time. But it was all worth it.

You can never know when violent crime will strike you and your family. All you can do is be prepared for it when it does happen. Are you ready for it?

This article, Child Welfare System Must Grow Up, shows what happens when a governmental agency is paid on a commission basis.

The incentive here is 180 degrees out of what it should be. Yes, there is a need to sometimes got a child out of a hostile environment, but it is also important to reunite the child with the parent(s) after the problem has been solved. If the problem can’t be solved, you need to transition the child into an adopting household as quickly as possible. Leaving a child in a ‘temporary’ situation for years does terrible damage, but when the governmental agency gets paid for how many kids are in foster care, that is exactly what happens.

The human cost of rushing children into foster care does not stop when they reach 18 years old. According to CDDS data, among youths who “emancipate” from foster care, 50 percent do not complete high school; 45 percent are unemployed; 33 percent are arrested; 30 percent are on welfare; 25 percent are homeless.

These are statistics that do not need to happen. Get the foster care system away from a commission basis today.

I have been dealing with some rather personal issues over the past multiple months. Being depressed, I never thought about it much, thinking it was just a by-product of the depression. Well, after my appointment with my Medication nurse, I spent some time with my family. I mentioned my problems with my wife again, and she went to my computer and looked up the side-effects of my medications. Sure enough, all of my issues were the uncommon side-effects of one of my medications.

The medication in question is a ‘last-resort’ medication, the one to go to when everything else has failed. This has given me pause, and now I will spend the next month thinking about the subject on whether or not to change this medication. I will be bouncing this off my Case Manager. While these side-effects are seriously impacting the quality of my life, I worry about the impact of a bullet with my brain even more. Decisions, decisions.

First, a reading assignment: This Perfect Day by Ira Levin.

I picked this one over Brave New World, THX 1138 and 1984 because if it’s idyllic perfectness. In your reading assignment, you have truly a perfect world. Everyone is equal, no Alphas, Betas, Deltas and Gammas, and there is no war like in 1984.

This Perfect Day describes a Tranzi’s idea of heaven. The world is one big Family. The Benevolent UniComp takes care of everyone, from picking a nameber (Name/serial number, like Mark GH5178392), to deciding where you live and what you do. ‘F*ck’ is an acceptable word, but ‘hate’ is used as a swear word. You eat cakes and Cokes every day. The price is total conformity. Any deviant behavior gets you grabbed and taken to a medical facility where the ‘sick’ person is ‘helped.’ You are constantly pumped full of psychotropic drugs to keep you happy.

The standing question is, can good things happen in such a world? I mean the bad things were eliminated, like war, crime, poverty, intolerance and hate. Does this mean that only the good things were left? And what else was given up? Individuality, self-determination, worship of God, freedom and the like. Are these good things?

In Oh, God! Book II, the little girl that God picked to be His messenger asked God, “Why do bad things happen to people?”

(I’m paraphrasing here, I don’t remember the exact conversation)
God replied, “Have you ever seen a top without a bottom?”
“Nope,” said the little girl.
“How about a left without a right?”
“Nope.”
“An up without a down?”
“Never.”
“Then,” Said God, “how can you have good without bad? You tell what the good things are by comparing them to the bad things. If you have nothing to compare good to, is it really good?”

I believe the single thing that makes America great is the freedom to choose bad over good. That doesn’t mean I’m soft on crime or whatever. I firmly believe there should be serious, negative consequences for doing bad things, just like there are serious positive consequences for doing good. It is this very action/consequence cycle that should propel us towards good, but doesn’t always do so.

Just look at the rest of the world. Nowhere else is anybody able to have as much freedom and power as the American people. Nowhere else do you see people who work harder, produce more, are more innovative and play harder than America as well. We are the people who invented the light bulb, powered flight, the computer and landed on the moon.

Good and bad are on a bell curve. Every time you take a serious piece out of doing bad, you lose some of your greatness in the process. I am quite sure we could take a serious bite out of the drug trade by executing dealers on the spot. But what would that cost us in the long run? What freedoms would we lose in order to allow such an action? And what are the long term effects of the loss of such freedoms? Not developing some important piece of technology? How about not saving someone’s life?

The consequences of ‘getting rid of bad’ at any cost are myriad and uncomprehendingly complex. It’s like in the 1978 series Connections James Burke starts off with a touchstone. He then draws a line from innovation to innovation, one invention or idea building on the last one until he arrived at the atomic bomb. There is just no way to determine what the long-term consequences will be to our actions if we are not very careful.

It’s like the Treaty of Versailles. The conditions of the treaty on Germany made World War II inevitable, but at the time they thought they were making sure war wouldn’t happen again. Irony can be pretty ironic.

Which brings me back around to my old Conservative idea of doing the right thing for the right reasons. This is not an easy task, let me tell you. You can do the right thing for the wrong reasons pretty easily, getting positive short-term results. But then something will come back and bite you in the rear later over it and it will leave you wondering, “What did I do to deserve this?” All must be in positive alignment, action, motivation and intent, to obtain a long-term positive outcome. Remember this always and you will do much good in this world.

Wow. That ‘something’ to help me with the insomnia laid me out like a sledgehammer to the forehead this morning. I made it to work, but I was in no condition to drive. I came back to the apartment and I didn’t get up until 2pm. I’m still pretty laid out but feeling better.

I’m slowly looking over the news, and working on an essay or two. Later.

After getting a bad start on the day, I had to do some shopping, go to a medication appointment and spent a good chunk on family time. Thus, no posting for today. But I do promise some light posting in the morning (I got something that should help with the insomnia) and substantial posting Tuesday night. All my shows are set to record so there’s no stopping me tomorrow.

I think the main reason I haven’t been running at my best over the past few days is because I’m suffering through a rather nasty case of insomnia. I have been trying to go to sleep since 10:30 and that just means I’ve been laying in bed for the past 3 hours and 45 minutes with nothing but my racing thoughts.

Oh, well, back to try again. Maybe I’ll fall asleep in the next hour or so.

Following links from USS Clueless again, I happened across the Pournelle Political Axes, a 2D X/Y scale to reflect political leanings. A very thoughtful read. I have a couple of Ayn Rand e-books that I’ve been meaning to read, now that I see where she lies on the scale, it might be a waste of my time to do so.

My only disagreement was the Editor’s analysis of Reagan as a 4/2 is a little too far. 4/2.5 perhaps, but no lower. He also lists President Bush at 3/3. I would put him more on a 3.5/3.25, his leanings into Social Engineering with the Medicare prescription plan and such puts him over the edge. Otherwise Bush would be a 3.5/2.75.

Where are you?

It seems that the L.A. Times has enraged a significant portion of its readership. This article, Readers Keep Fleeing Biased L.A. Times plainly proves that there is immense bias in the paper, both in editorializing and in the straight reporting.

[Times editor John] Carroll continues to duck the issue of another outrageous example of the paper’s hypocrisy: burying and censoring news of Bill Clinton the rapist while trumpeting claims of Schwarzenegger the fondler.

The Times has already admitted that they’ve lost 1,000 subscriptions, and they are admitting losing additional uncounted subscriptions. Add to that sales from vendors and other places where you buy it on the street, they could be looking at a significant loss of readership.

Now all that is needed is a concerted letter campaign against the businesses that advertise in the Times. Loss of advertising revenue together with loss of readership will definitely put the hurt on them.

These people are flagrant Liberals. They are doing their best to tell you what you should be thinking, because to them you’re not smart enough to know what to think about anything. When they want you to have an opinion, they’ll tell you what your opinion should be!

Me? I offer things, show you the evidence and offer my own insightful commentary. I find articles that you won’t find in your local paper. After I present these things to you, I let you draw your own conclusions. I think you are smart enough to decide that either I’m on to something or that I’m full of BS. Your decision, not mine, and definitely not the Times.

I lost the link, but there is a story related to Valerie Plame Outed as CIA Agent Long Before Novak Column.

NewsMax released a story just a couple of days ago about how the husband, Joseph Wilson, was going to release his memoirs. The review of the subject matter was ‘underwhelming’ according to the article I saw.

I think that Mr. Wilson has some ulterior motives, because he is howling way out of proportion as to any real damage that was done to him or his wife. He is spearheading an assault on President Bush and his administration. With the book deal, is seems to be trying to grab some of the glory for himself.

A classic example of doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. He should quit while he’s behind.

This just goes to prove that the Conservative movement has it’s loony fringe elements as well. State Dept. Outraged at Robertson Nuke Comment proves to me that there is little difference between Pat Robertson and Osama Bin Laden.

“I read your book,” Robertson told Mowbray. “When you get through, you say, ‘If I could just get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom [State Department headquarters], I think that’s the answer’ and you say, ‘We’ve got to blow that thing up.’ I mean, is it as bad as you say?”

The American way is to plain old fire them, kick them out of their jobs. They are allowed to have their own thoughts on things, but when it comes work time, they are to toe the company line. I think the State Department sees the wiggle room President Bush gives Colin Powell and tries for some of their own.

I believe that if President Bush wins re-election, Powell won’t be part of the team anymore and a lot of the Senior State Department people who aren’t toeing the line will be asked to go with him. The President needs to clean the State Department house, the sooner the better.

I give you this shining example of how racially tolerant the Democrat Party really is: ‘Despicable’ Democrats Under Fire for Racial Slur Against Indian-Americans

I just get warm all over when I see the mask slip from Liberals faces. It seems to me that the Liberals believe everybody should own a pet minority person.

“This is just typical liberal spin trying to throw race into it to bring down the opposition or to bring themselves up,” spokesman David Joyslin said. “As Republicans, we don’t care about race. We just look at the person’s stance on the issues and if they’re going to be a good candidate.”

Clinton appointed Madeleine Albright as Secretary of State because she was a woman. A quick look at her resume would have clearly shown that she was not qualified. I don’t recall any Black (or any minority) people in high places of power under President Clinton.

President Bush has appointed a wealth of minorities and women into positions of authority, and (gasp!) all of them are actually competent and qualified. Will wonders never cease.

So which party is actually the more tolerant one? The one on the Left that promotes tokens that promptly bump into a glass ceiling, or the one on the Right that promotes on qualifications first, skin color/sex second?

Things haven’t been working out too well over the past 24 hours. I visited my family yesterday afternoon to deliver some prescriptions and I couldn’t get into the mood. You know, the one where you enjoy yourself in the company of those that you love. I actually went back to my apartment early and didn’t make it to a MechWarrior tournament because something wasn’t right with me.

Today was worse. Between picking up a couple of new people that live in the extreme corner of the county, and the office calling every 10 minutes to make sure I was picking up somebody or another, my first load ended up an hour long. Then a quick second load from the list the other driver normally gets (he’s been out sick for the past two weeks). During the quick one hour I spent at the center, I spent most of it banging my head into hard things.

I bang my head because I am frustrated and there is no other way to express it. I bang my head because something isn’t working right and I’m trying to find the restart button. There are times I can feel my brain undulating because it wants to explode and I must expose my brain to the air so it can explode. There is some thought or concept in my brain that I must let out at all cost. I don’t know what it is, but I have to get it out, no matter what.

Considering how well I’ve done over the past 24 hours and the fact that I would be working alone tomorrow, I decided to call in sick ahead of time. Can you blame me?

Please excuse me while I crawl into the closet and scream for a while.

I just found this on Right Wing News, The Democratic Underground Post Of The Day: We’re Geniuses, You’re Stupid!

It’s too late to offer my usual insightful commentary, but I offer you this quote:

#1 – I would dare to assume that most of us here are in the upper 1%-20% of the population intelligence-wise. We must come to the realization that the majority of the population is in the lower 80% to 99% percent of the bell-curve. WE are not the norm. The Republicans understand that the average American is not very bright. They cater and pander to the masses. The Democratic Party tries to appeal to the population about “issues” that these people just don’t understand.

Yeah, that’s all that the Democratic Presidential candidates have been talking about, issues. They haven’t been mercilessly slamming President Bush and his policies without offering one iota of their own ideas other than, “I wouldn’t have done it THAT way!”

Like I said earlier, meaningful compromise is impossible with people who believe like that.