I am still trying to figure out how to configure my blog so that it runs smoothly. Please bare with me while I work my way through this process.

You can still find all the sound files and my essays, just as before. They are now located on the right hand side of the page.

Those of you looking for the editorials and op-eds that I had on the original homepage, look to the right side of the page under “Really Old Stuff”.

This is going to be fun once it is up and running.

Take it easy and be prepared that this site will change a bit.

I would pay good money to hear this guy speak. He has an absolutely brilliant piece up at National Review Online concerning the continuing irrelevance of the “elite” Left.

Here is a preview:

If the American Left is furious over the loss of most of the nation’s governorships and legislatures, the U.S. House, the Senate, the presidency, and soon the Supreme Court, the Europeans themselves are furious over America’s power: as if Red America is to Blue America as America is to Europe itself. Thus how can a mongrel culture of Taco Bell, Bud Light, and Desperate Housewives project such military and political influence abroad when the soft, subtle triangulation of far more cultured diplomats and sophisticated intellectuals from France, Germany, and Scandinavia is ignored by thugs from Iran, North Korea, and most of the Middle East?

And:

Second, political powerlessness follows from ideological exhaustion. Communism and Marxism are dead. Stalin and Mao killed over 80 million and did not make omelets despite the broken eggs. Castro and North Korea are not classless utopias but thugocracies run by megalomaniac dictators who the world prays will die any minute. The global Left knows that the Cold War is over and was lost by the Left, and that Eastern Europeans and Central Americans probably cherish the memory of a Ronald Reagan far more than that of a Francois Mitterrand or Willy Brandt.

Go check it out.

No, I really do not want Global Warming to actually happen and mess up everyone’s good time, but this guy is off his rocker. I want to remind him that his precious Kyoto Protocol received a tentative 99-1 vote in the US Senate. I know we never actually “officially” voted for or against ratification, but the point is that even if, and I do mean if, the President did change course and sign the Protocol, it would not stand a snowballs chance in hell of passing. Secretly the environmentalists know this and are glad the President pulled out of the treaty. After all, if he had sent it to the Senate and it got slapped back in his face, then who would they blame for the worlds problems?

Anyway, this guy definitely lost me after the first line of the second paragraph and the first line of the third paragraph:

In the disaster-flick genre, there are always two crucial moments when characters must commit acts of breathtaking stupidity, or else there would be no imminent danger and thus no movie. One, of course, is when somebody we’re meant to care about decides to run toward the erupting volcano, rather than away from it. The other comes earlier in the movie, when some Benighted Authority Figure (B.A.F.) looks out the window at the columns of smoke and brimstone belching from nearby Mount Sinister and snaps, “Problem? I don’t see any problem, and I’ll tell you one thing: There’s not gonna be any evacuation, not on my watch. Now everybody back to work.”

Bush is playing the B.A.F. in a movie titled “Heat Wave,” and Irwin Allen — long ago gone to that Lost World in the sky — would be proud.

So, President Bush is “breathtakingly stupid”? Nice way to begin your op-ed.

Also, there are more than a “few qualified scientists” who think Global Warming is bunk.

There is a very informative op-ed in today’s Washington Post by David Kay. Mr. Kay is the former head of the Iraq Survey Group, which was tasked with searching for WMD’s after the Iraq War. His insights sound very similar to what I have previously written.

I must stress that we need to put partisan politics behind us and actively engage in discourse that will lead to better intelligence gathering in the future.

Below is the last paragraph from Mr. Kay’s op-ed:

Nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran would be a grave danger to the world. That is not what is in doubt. What is in doubt is the ability to the U.S. government to honestly assess Iran’s nuclear status and to craft a set of measures that will cope with that threat short of military action by the United States or Israel.

I know I have said it before, but Mark Steyn rocks!

His latest op-ed in the Washington Times is dead on and is a must read. Read it yourself and you tell me if he rocks or if I am missing something.

This week’s U.N. report on Sudan nicely captures the alternative to Bush-style climate change. After months of expressing deep concern, grave concern, deep concern over the graves and deep grave concern over whether the graves were deep enough, Kofi Annan managed to persuade the U.N. to set up a committee to look into what’s going on in Darfur. They’ve just reported back that it’s not genocide. Phew, thank goodness for that. It turns out it’s just 70,000 corpses who all happen to be from the same ethnic group; could happen anywhere. But it’s not genocide, so don’t worry about it.

This editorial cartoon illustrates the above point wonderfully.

If you enjoyed Mr. Steyn’s op-ed you can go here and here for some of his other great works.

Seems there is something a brewing over in Holland. Apparently it is a “sin” to put the Dutch flag on things. Come on, you have got to be kidding!

Peaktalk Blog has a good take on the whole mess. Michelle Malkin also has a link of her own to add to the mix.

Someone on National Review Online posted an excerpt from the 1979 novel “Shibumi,” by the novelist Trevanian. The original post was directed to the French, but one of the funny lines deals with the Dutch:

But even I am forced to admit that they [the French] are a ridiculous people, just as one must confess that the British are bungling, the Italians incompetent, the American neurotic, the Germans romantically savage, the Arabs vicious, the Russians barbaric, and the Dutch make cheese.

I know one should be proud of their country and the PC Nazis should not dissuade anyone from this, but what exactly do the Dutch do? Besides export flowers, that is.

Welp, another one of my essays has been put online over at The Ornery American.

While I am proud of this, I would like to get my essays out to a larger audience. If you have a site or know of a site that would like to publish any of my “thought provoking” essays, just drop me a line. I will even waive my customary charge of, well, nothing…..

Now if the Washington Times would just pick me up….

Hey a man has got to dream.

UPDATE: I re-named my original essay to “So, Do I Flip a Coin?”. That is the same essay as the one titled “Oh, Crap! My Intelligence Sucks!” that was posted over at The Ornery American. Sorry for any confusion. I had second thoughts about the original title, but not until after I submitted it for posting.

On the way home from work yesterday, I was listening to NPR’s “All Things Considered” when they mentioned that coming up was a story on asylum seekers and how they are being abused, not by their home country, but by the US.

I rolled my eyes and let out a groan. “Not another prison scandal”, I bemoaned, “Come on guys, get it together and stop doing this.” So instead of changing the station, I waited for the story to be aired.

They began by saying that Congress has tasked some organization since the 1990’s with ensuring that asylum seekers (for religious, political, physical oppression reasons) were getting fair treatment by the US. The “reporter” then said something to the effect that these people have risked their lives and fled oppression, only to be abused in the land of freedom. Of course then they go into that after 9/11 asylum seekers have undergone greater scrutiny. After all, how do you know if someone is a terrorist intent on killing thousands or just a political refugee? I thought that made good sense. Good for them.

Then they began talking about the awful terrible abuse that these poor people have had to endure. I waited on pins and needles saying over and over again “Please no naked human pyramids. Please no naked human pyramids”.

Here it is: people seeking asylum have to be investigated, and then brought before a judge to determine whether they are allowed in or are deported. During the time they are being investigated and while waiting for their hearing, they have to —-brace yourself—– remain behind bars! GASP! This was explained that many would simply disappear into the US and never report to their hearing if they were not jailed. The “reporter” goes on to say that they have to wear uniforms, they have to lie around all day with nothing to do, and they have to use the bathroom in front of other people. The horror!

Then the report ended. I was shocked. Where were the naked human pyramids? Where were the pictures and stories of forced masturbation? Where were the stories of physical abuse? Of Rape?

Come on people, get a grip. Let me get this straight. We do not know if these people are terrorists. We then investigate them and we have to lock them up because if not, then they skip out and are never seen again. Explain what is wrong with that? I know some would say the vast majority of these people are good and decent people who are fleeing real persecution, but some may be really bad people. You don’t know until you investigate them. I wonder who is more apt to stick around and show up for their hearing: the good honest people or the terrorists. Hmmm…. geee… I don’t know.

It was one of the most misleading stories I have heard on NPR in a long time. And that is saying something. All I can say to the Homeland Security people is: Keep it up. Don’t hurt anyone, but check them out thoroughly before you let them free to roam my streets.

UPDATE: Oh my God. It is worse than I thought. I have read the Executive Summary of the Governments report and they barely mention the jail or jail like facilities. The majority and I do mean the majority of the report deals with procedural issues. Somebody needs to crack some skulls over at NPR. Michelle? Powerline? Anyone?

Bill Moyers has been in a bit of a pickle lately. For more info and background, go read over at Power Line. They have a great wrap up of the entire thing.

While it is good that this jerk – Moyers I mean – has apologized, it still begs the question of who pays this guy’s salary? Do US taxpayers pay it? If so, he should be fired.

Apart from some cool NOVA specials, what does PBS and NPR add to our lives?

Just a thought.

So, America is more of a threat to world peace than the terrorists? Oh really? It appears to me that Muslims have been killing a lot of innocent Muslims lately. Someone care to point out when we intentionally killed that many innocent people. Hell, prove to me that we have killed that many innocent people unintentionally and with no remorse.

Some of you will say that the only reason for these bombings is because of American aggression in the region. You will also say that if we were not there or had never come, then these people would still be alive. Of course that would require you to believe that life under Saddam Hussein was a veritable Garden of Eden. Grow up people. These terrorists, I refuse to call them insurgents, have openly stated that they are fighting against democracy and a free society. Even if the US pulled out tomorrow, they would still be blowing up innocent women and children. How’s this for a peaceful religion:

a video posted on an Islamist Web site showed two Iraqis apparently being beheaded on a city sidewalk. In the past, the Web site has shown video verified as having been produced by a group led by al-Zarqawi

In the 10-minute video, the two men tell their kidnappers that they drove truckloads of food and supplies to a U.S. base in the central Iraqi town of Ramadi.

I have no respect for these bastards and wish them a speedy death and a long afterlife in Hell. Real men don’t kill women and children. Bastards!

UPDATE: I know, I know not all Muslims are like this, but I just wish they would denounce these guys for what they are.

I am, and always have been, extremely proud of our men and women in uniform. I have always loved military history and history in general. This love was past down to me by my father. He taught me to love my family history as well as US history.

Although I admire the military, I decided not to make that my career choice. Most people were shocked by this, as everyone always thought (I did too) that I would go into the military either out of high school or after college. Things just did not work out that way.

I am proud of my family’s history. My grandfather’s fought in WWII and my dad fought in Vietnam (1966-67). Over the years I have been able to glean bits and pieces from my dad about his time over in Vietnam. I do no know how any of them survived. It is a miracle. He was a crew chief/door gunner on a Huey gunship. His unit was A Troop, 1st Squadron, 9th Calvary Regiment, 1st Calvary Division. As I have learned, his particular unit was the tip of the spear for the 1st Cav. This was due to the fact that the 9th Calvary Regiment was the scout/recon arm of the 1st Cav. and the 1st Squadron and A Troop in particular was the main scout/recon arm of the regiment. I had the privilege of meeting many of the men that my dad fought with at a reunion this past fall. I will write about that experience sometime in the future, but today I just wanted to honor them and all our Armed Service Personnel and thank them for a job well done.

My dad emailed me this link today. I think it is very fitting and is a must see.

For a thought provoking piece on some of the scenarios involved with a nuclear armed North Korea, go read William F. Buckley’s article over at National Review Online.

I plan to write more about this later, but due to a family emergency, I will be out of action until at least tomorrow. I promise to have a new essay on this subject in no more than two days, well, ok, maybe a few more than that. Hey, I have to earn a living around here.

I told you guys that I would have a new essay up in a few days concerning the North Koreans and their shiny new nukes.

Well here you go. It is called “A Clear Response”

Here is a teaser:

He [Buckley] is assuming that the US would retaliate with nukes. Here is my question: Would the United States have the will to respond with nuclear weapons to an attack on Japan or South Korea? I have serious misgivings about the will of the American people. As a matter of policy, it should be a no brainer, you launch nukes, we melt your country. Pretty simple. But could we do it? Can you imagine what the Left in this country would say if we did that? Hell, they are still pissed at us for nuking Japan and thereby saving a million US lives. Imagine what they would do and say if we nuked a country that only attacked one of our allies. Would you launch one missile or many? I vote for many. My logic is along the lines of shooting an attacker in your home. If you feel threatened enough, and feel your or your family’s life is in danger…unload the clip. A wounded intruder, opps sorry, “victim”, on a stand is a lot more unpredictable than a dead assailant. We would need to unload on the Norks to ensure that nothing is left in the rubble but roaches and rats.

BTW the family emergency appears to be over. Everyone should be ok.

Strange days indeed. I browse to The Washington Post this morning expecting to find the usual Liberal line in the editorial section when I was stunned by this editorial concerning the conviction of Lynne Stewart. For those who do not know, she was the lawyer for the blind Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman who is the head of a terrorist organization and who is suspected of trying to blow up New York City landmarks and such. She violated clear rules prohibiting her from assisting the Sheik in communicating with his terrorist network. Here is a snippet:

Mr. Abdel Rahman has been the subject of “special administrative measures” that bar him from communicating with the outside world save immediate family members and lawyers. The idea is to prevent him from directing a murderous criminal organization from his cell. As a condition of their access to him, his lawyers, including Ms. Stewart, had to agree not to facilitate communications with unauthorized people.

And:

But facilitating terrorist communications has nothing to do with protecting a man’s rights in the U.S. legal system, as other lawyers for the sheik recognized. It has to do with managing an organization devoted to violent revolution and killing innocent people

Wow! I am in shock. I totally agree with this editorial. Is this a sign of the end times? “Lo, in the last days WunderKraut shall agree with The Washington Post. And it came to pass.”

Ms. Stewart and her defenders drive me nuts. They seem to think that lawyers have special privileges that allow them to get around inconvenient rulings or laws. The same can be said about journalists. Journalists are up in arms about Judith Miller and Matt Cooper being forced to disclose a source. Journalists have such a high opinion of themselves don’t they? They scream about the First Amendment and the “chilling” effect this will have on news gathering. Come off it already. If someone comes to you with information about a crime and that information could be used to solve the crime YOU SHOULD BE COMPELLED to give that source up. How hard is that to understand?

Lawyers and Journalists…..two of my favorite things.

For more information go here and here and here and finally here.

UPDATE: I just found this NRO piece by Rich Lowry on this very same topic.

UPDATE, UPDATE: For an interesting legal take on Rich Lowry’s above piece, go read BeldarBlog.

This is a continuation of my rant about journalists being above the law.

The main argument for not disclosing sources, even for a criminal investigation is that doing so would stifle whistleblowers and the general ability of the press to obtain information, plus some tripe about the First Amendment. The press considers themselves as a fourth branch of the government tasked with being the watch dog for us ordinary citizens, to protect us from the evil government or evil big business.

Yes it is true that the press served us well in the past, but it seems to me that the MSM has been having a hard time discovering some stories, while making hay out of others.

Examples:

Fraud and corruption charges for Florida and Ohio in 2000 and 2004, but nothing said about fraud in Washington State or on the Indian reservations. (I was going to post a link for the above, but pretty much all the coverage of Florida and Ohio was pretty representative of the normal MSM mode)

Lots of attention to the Enron accounting fraud, but nothing said about WorldCom, a larger bankruptcy than Enron, but isn’t it a bit of a coincidence that so many important Democrats made lots of money off of WorldCom, only to have the press look the other way.

Defending Ward Churchill and Eason Jordan to the very bitter end for their freedom of speech, but crucifying Larry Summers for saying some provocative things to stimulate debate and that he hoped those ideas would be proven false.

Jessie Jackson has an illegitimate kid from his mistress? Just a few minor headlines saying he was sorry and would support the kid. William Bennett gambles with his own money? Proof that ALL REPUBLICANS are hypocrites.

Bill Clinton: First World Trade Center bombing, embassy bombings in Africa, Khobar Towers bombing, USS Cole bombing? He did everything he could to go after Al Qaeda and protect the US.

George Bush: On the job for 8 MONTHS: 9-11. It was all planned by Bush or that he knew about it. He did not take terrorism seriously. Ignored warnings.

I think you get the point. I am sure that those of you out there that have more time could add even more to this list.

Watch dog my *ss!

I know I am a little behind on this one, but the USS Jimmy Carter, the nations newest nuclear sub, was commissioned on February 19th. Who the heck comes up with these names? I mean, come on. Old Jimmy was a terrible president. Sometimes I wonder if he even knew we had a military. He sure did not know how to use it. The Washington Examiner stated their bewilderment best:

This Sunday, the U.S. Navy will commission the deadliest nuclear-powered attack submarine in the world: the U.S.S. Jimmy Carter. This is like naming our new tanks after the Maginot Line or a missile after Gandhi. Former President Carter has his virtues, but naming a Seawolf attack sub after the author of Desert One is a joke.

Instead of linking to any serious discussion about this topic, I prefer to link to the humorous ones.

Frank J. over at IMAO has two funny posts here and here.

And of course I could never leave ScrappleFace out.

Enjoy.

So now the CDC is warning of a possible bird flu pandemic. Great. Now what do I do? Do I get flu shots to protect my family? Well maybe not, seeing how they may or may not do much of anything. But I can trust what the CDC says right? Again, maybe not. Remember when they changed the guidelines and overnight millions of people suddenly became “obese”? Also remember that obesity was about to become the number one killer, well, until they discovered their books were cooked.

What do I make out of all of this? Something will wipe out life as we know it. It could be the flu, an EMP bomb, a nuclear bomb, the plague or any number of other things. My point: Don’t worry about it. There is very little you can do anyway. No point losing sleep over it.

Going back to the BMI.

For the record, I believe the Body Mass Index is a bunch of bull. I put in my weight and height from when I was 18 years old. When I was at the peak of fitness, was not ashamed of walking around without my shirt and I could bench press 270 pounds. It turns out that my BMI was 26.5. That meant I was overweight. For the love of… you have got to be kidding?! Although, when I put in my current info, it does say that I am obese. I may, may, be willing to go along with that. You be the judge — WARNING —- WARNING — WARNING— You may go blind from looking at this picture.

This “story” from ScappleFace is so true it is sad. I have not posted anything about the whole Harvard University vs Larry Summers ordeal, but PowerLine has been doing a great job with the coverage.

BTW, the title for this post is a quote from something…….. a shiny new nickel to the first person to tell me where the quote came from.

RightWingDuck has a hilarious piece up at IMAO entitled “RWD’s News Roundup”. It is good for the soul to laugh out loud at least once per day. I know that my co-workers must think I am crazy because several times a day they will hear me laugh out loud for no apparent reason.

Some of the more memorable lines:

So the big question is this; Are these smuggled Al Queda taking jobs from honest American terrorists?

Man, I’m so glad we have a border patrol.

On a personal note, I used to worry that terrorists would smuggle a nuclear warhead and detonate it in Los Angeles. Then I realized: this is where all of their allies live and work. Hollywood is like the Al Queda Green Zone.

But I do worry about the rest of you.

Daniel Drezner has a good post on North Korea sort of wanting to come back to the negotiating table. He is a bit more optimistic than I am. I particularly do not agree with his assessment that:

If this change of tack pans out — the North Korean statement has an awful lot of wiggle room — then North Korea has put China into an increasingly awkward position. This episode would demonstrate that China is the one country that can get the North Koreans to cooperate. Which means, down the road, that China will be pressured by the other members of the six-party talks to compel North Korea to halt its weapons program.

He is right in saying that “China is the one country that can get the North Koreans to cooperate”, but I do not believe that China will give in to pressure from the other members of the six-party talks.

As I have previously written, I believe that China will use these latest threats by the North Koreans to THEIR advantage. They may string the other countries along to make everyone think things are fine, but I believe that they want North Korea to have some limited nuclear capability. I can not back that statement up; it is just a gut feeling. That way the US is hamstrung and will not be able to effectively intervene in the “Coming Soon to a Theater Near You” attack China will launch on Taiwan.

Pejman Yousefzadeh reposted a long bit about the Arabic language by Joseph Braude, which was originally posted on The New Republic Online (unfortunately it appears to require a subscription, so you will have to live with Pejman’s post). It is an interesting read.

The only real thing I want to say about this post is: Thank God for people who can learn another language! Is it something wrong with us Americans? Or is it just that I am the product of very poor schooling? No matter how hard I tried, I could never learn another language. Sure, I took my two years of Spanish back in high school, but what did that get me? Then in college, I went to an engineering school…hell I barely had to take an English class, much less learn another language. I always wanted to learn German, so I took one class. It about killed me.

People that have the ability to learn another language should be paid large sums of money to help teach that ability (if possible) to others. Unfortunately, the US is one of the few remaining countries with the majority of people only able to speak one language. I know that Spanish is becoming more and more used, but in my field (Civil Engineering), you find that the people learning Spanish are really only learning Spanglish or what I call “pig” Spanish. Just enough to get your point across, but technically, breaking ALL the rules of that language.

In short, I applaud you out there that can learn these obscure (to us anyway) languages. I think that our government should pay you lots of money to help in the war on terror.

Good luck to you.

I HATE the UN. I HATE THE UN! I do not even know where to start. Today I was reading various blogs and came across William Sjostrom who writes the AtlanticBlog. He posted a picture and a link to a Nicholas Kristof column in the New York Times concerning the ongoing genocide in Darfur.

I can not really add anything to what he posted, just that I have a five year old son. These bastards need to be stopped. Why isn’t anyone doing anything about the ongoing campaign of destruction? Why aren’t there constant news stories showing the devastation and hardship these poor people are enduring? Why was Bosnia and Kosovo a genocide…but Darfur…nope. Why? Why? Why?

Perhaps this political cartoon from the Washington Examiner sums it up best.

There is not a hot enough hell for bastards who purposely target and kill women and children.

Sorry, the title is my own opinion…you are free to have your own. Remember opinions are like….well you know…. we all have one……

Victor Davis Hanson has an essay up each Friday over at National Review Online. Go read it! I am out of pithy, sarcastic and intelligent things to say today, so I will be very brief. Go read it.

Here is the obligatory teaser:

It is wise to cite and publicize our errors — and there have been many in this war. Humility and circumspection are military assets as well. And we should not deprecate the danger of our enemies, who are cruel and ingenious. Moreover, we should never confuse the sharp dissent of the well-meaning critic with disloyalty to the cause.

But nor should we fall into pessimism, when in less than four years we have destroyed the two worst regimes in the Middle East, scattered al Qaeda, avoided another promised 9/11 at home, and sent shock waves of democracy throughout the Arab world…so far at an aggregate cost of less than what was incurred on the first day of this unprovoked war. Car bombs are bad news, but in the shadows is the real story: The terrorists are losing, and radical reform, the likes of which millions have never seen, is right on the horizon. So this American gloominess is not new. Yet, if the past is any guide, our present lack of optimism in this struggle presages its ultimate success.