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Be Like The Mahatma!

As I said before, I get lots of letters. Most are good, some are open discussions on difficult topics, some are bald-faced death threats. You deal with it, comforted by the fact that most leftists are terrible marksman, dont own guns anyway and every outlet of air from their mouths is a sheep like bleat admitting their general cowardace as a human being. As I said to "da goddess", I've faced death before, I used to own a 1974 Pinto.

There is one constant "stream of consciousness", that is often repeated in emails from people who consider themselves "pacifists", that I should reject violence, and follow the lessons of the "Mahatma".

This is interesting to me for many reasons, first the assumption is that I must be a "bloodthirsty warmonger" if I believe, as I do, that though war is always regrettable, it is often the only civilized answer to the question of genocide and enslavement. Second, that the "Mahatma" is an exemplar in the way to live ones life.

Through the power of the internet, I bring you the following:

George Orwell on Mahatma Gandhi.

Excerpts:

"In his early days Gandhi served as a stretcher-bearer on the British side in the Boer War, and he was prepared to do the same again in the war of 1914-18."

This - I didn't know.

"Even after he had completely abjured violence he was honest enough to see that in war it is usually necessary to take sides. He did not indeed, since his whole political life centered round a struggle for national independence, he could not - take the sterile and dishonest line of pretending that in every war both sides are exactly the same and it makes no difference who wins. Nor did he, like most Western pacifists, specialize in avoiding awkward questions. In relation to the late war, one question that every pacifist had a clear obligation to answer was: "What about the Jews? Are you prepared to see them exterminated? If not, how do you propose to save them without resorting to war?" I must say that I have never heard, from any Western pacifist, an honest answer to this question, though I have heard plenty of evasions, usually of the "you're another" type. But it so happens that Gandhi was asked a somewhat similar question in 1938 and that his answer is on record in Mr. Louis Fischer's Gandhi and Stalin. According to Mr. Fischer, Gandhi's view was that the German Jews ought to commit collective suicide, which "would have aroused the world and the people of Germany to Hitler's violence." After the war he justified himself the Jews had been killed anyway, and might as well have died significantly"

Well Golly! - You never hear that little tidbit do you? How does that translate into the pacifist view on Iraq? "Gosh, they were going to die anyway, so why should we go in and try to save them..."

"When, in 1942, he urged non-violent resistance against a Japanese invasion, he was ready to admit that it might cost several million deaths."

Million here, million there, who's gonna know one way or the other.....

and the "grand finale":

"It is difficult to see how Gandhi's methods could be applied in a country where opponents of the regime disappear in the middle of the night and are never heard of again. Without a free press and the right of assembly, it is impossible not merely to appeal to outside opinion, but to bring a mass movement into being, or even to make your intentions known to your adversary."

Free press, right of assembly, make a note of that. When we get rid of Ashcroft and Bushitler we might want to get some of that.

"Is there a Gandhi in Russia at this moment? And if there is, what is he accomplishing? The Russian masses could only practice civil disobedience if the same idea happened to occur to all of them simultaneously, and even then, to judge by the history of the Ukraine famine, it would make no difference."

For you kids out there, substitute "Iran" for "Russia".

"But let it be granted that non-violent resistance can be effective against one's own government, or against an occupying power: even so, how does one put it into practice internationally? Gandhi's various conflicting statements on the late war seem to show that he felt the difficulty of this. Applied to foreign politics, pacifism either stops being pacifist or becomes appeasement."

If Orwell was alive today, He'd be on my Blogroll. I'd "Tip his jar" big-time after a statement like that!

"Moreover the assumption, which served Gandhi so well in dealing with individuals, that all human beings are more or less approachable and will respond to a generous gesture, needs to be seriously questioned."

Ya think?

"It is not necessarily true, for example, when you are dealing with lunatics. Then the question becomes: Who is sane? Was Hitler sane? And is it not possible for one whole culture to be insane by the standards of another? And, so far as one can gauge the feelings of whole nations, is there any apparent connection between a generous deed and a friendly response? Is gratitude a factor in international politics?"

Oh monseuir Orwell, you are so simplesse...

As is often said, Read The Whole Thing

Posted @ August 31, 2004 09:17 PM | History file | Comments (3)

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Moore May Not Return to MSG

My guess is he can't sit down after the ass-paddling he got from Mccain.

Update: Michael Moore and Senator McCain will be staging a play based on the childrens classic tale "Goofus and Gallant" at the Convention.

Republican strategists could not be more pleased for the man who invented the role of "Goofus" to be playing the role off broadway for the first time.

Posted @ August 31, 2004 02:39 PM | Making fun of people | Comments (0)

Well, this could come in handy...

Large oil reserves found in Mexico

First thought - Call my broker and dump oil stocks.

Second thought - If theres no refinery to send it to, does it really exist?

Third thought - In the Life Magazine issue I was going through the other day is a full page Ad for Southern Cal Edison. It shows a hardhat guy "clocking out" at work**. The copy says:

"Why do we need additional power plants?"

YOUR JOB

Thats why we need additional power plants.

From your friends at SCE

Fourth thought - Paul Ehrlich, Call your Office!

Fifth thought - How lame of a government do you have to be, to be sitting on top of huge oil reserves, yet your primary export is people and your capital city is the biggest slum in the western hemisphere?

** Yes, "clocking out" with a paper time card is another thing thats slipped into the mists of time.

Posted @ August 31, 2004 02:36 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (5)

Ron Silver: A Man

Note to the Left:
You can keep Michael Moore. If the world was full of liberals like Ron Silver, the world would be a much safer place.

Note to the Right:
Is that not the most moving thing you ever did see?

Note to the kids:
Thats what a man looks like.

This is one place where the medium of the web cannot begin to capture the beauty of the moment.

Posted @ August 30, 2004 06:03 PM | Election 2004 | Comments (1)

Life Magazine: Summer 1972

I've just spent some time reading through the summer of 1972 in old copies of Life magazine.
First issue - August 25 1972. Republican First Lady Pat Nixon on the cover.
Second Issue September 15th 1972 - Israeli kidnappings and murder an the Munich Olympics.

According to these magazines, Summer of 1972 we had :

Olympics (Munich - "West" Germany)

A Controversial incumbent republican president (Nixon) running for re-election against war hero liberal democrat.(Mcgovern)

War (Vietnam)

How many pages do you think are dedicated to the war in both issues of this magazine? How many pages are dedicated to the wild eyed hatred of the Americans overseas? How many talk about Nixon in terms of "hitler-like"?

This is 150 huge pages of journalism, written by the cream of the liberal media crop at the top of their game.

come on, just take a guess......

Just 4. One article by Ramsey Clark on our bombing of the North Vietnamese, on reading the article its clear that Mr. Clark never visted Dresden, he seems to think that "bombers" is just a great nickname for a Kansas City Womens Professional Roller Derby team. He seems genuinely surprised to find that when a squadron of B-52 salvoes its payload, that things break and people die for miles around. There is a minor mention in one article about the hip new talk show called "The Dick Cavett show" that talks about how a somewhat lesser known character, known as a "Mr. Kerry" being taken apart by 'his enemies' on the show( gee, I wonder how that all turned out?). In the September 15th issue the only "letters to the editor' that discuss the war are in response to the "Ramsey Clark" article.

Thats it, Vietnam, the most controversial war of all time rates just four pages, in two issues at the very time its being fought.

How is it that the Vietnam war seems to be getting more press in 2004, than it was getting in 1972?

Update: Further analysis of these magazine issues also has revealed that based on the advertising levels seen within them - that Americans of 1972 drank only the hardest of alcohol, smoke cigarettes like chimneys, drive only really big cars made exclusively in some place called "Detroit". There are also repeated references to a device known as a 'record player' and a "hi-fi", which seem to be very popular, although their exact purpose seems to be lost in the mists of time.

Posted @ August 29, 2004 02:38 PM | Kerry File | Comments (3)

The way you look tonight

Three years ago, a summer was passing and grade school was starting across America. School lunchboxes were packed, books stacked and kids marched off to do the drudgery that we require of all our younger minds. While we dashed the young ones off to their lives, we went to work and went on about ours. We were concerned with power, electric power and would there be enough to run our air conditioning. We were concerned with computer jobs, would there be enough as many of our friends, who left the normal corporate world for the dotcom world were coming back like defeated British paratroopers at Arnhem, tired and beaten, but not defeated. We were concerned with our declining stock portfolios and what our friends would think of us for buying pets.com at 60.00 a share.

A new President was in Washington and Republicans were still basking in the fact that for the first time in memory, it was Republicans who had protested in the election, the shouts of "get out of Cheney's house" still ringing in their ears as they felt for the first time that they had not been victims of a Democrat political machine who controlled events because they controlled the mob. Now it seemed, the Republicans were also capable of street theatre and their own mob action.

In our modern age of the internet and the dissemination of image based information, we often forget about what a photograph means to us in a tactile sense. A photograph is a paper based chemical reaction to light that captures in two dimensions what the lens sees. A photograph is in a way a chemical memory of a time and space that has since passed and can never be recaptured. Light from the Sun on a particular orbit of the earth bounces off buildings and trees and is gathered by a small glass lens and concentrated onto a piece of paper coated with a silver compound that reacts to the light to capture the image. It is a miracle when you think about it.

The camera goes 'click', and another piece of time/space is captured. It is no wonder that many primitive societies consider photography to be the "stealing of a soul", in many ways that is what is going on. The soul of a moment in time is gathered and stored on a piece of paper.

Much more than just light is captured in a photograph, Our minds react to the picture and we are brought back to the time that the picture was generated. We are reminded of where we were and sometimes who we were when the picture was made. Photographs are often composed of scenes that are important to us at the time for seemingly trivial lighthearted reasons. Sometimes those pictures contain information which at the time they are made make no sense to us, but years later, Time and space have moved to provide a context that didn't exist when the picture was originally made.

Yesterday, a slice of time/space re-appeared into my life.

Its a summer vacation picture. it is of an older woman,My mother-in-law, wearing a Statue of Liberty foam-crown, so commonly found on the heads of tourists in the New York City area. She is standing on the front of a tourist boat in New York Harbor. She's smiling for the camera and all the folks at home in a grin that could easily contain a regulation football and leave space on each side of her face. She his happy, Her arms outstretched in front of the New York Skyline, Her right arm overhead of Ellis Island.

She's on vacation with her daughter. They have flown clear across country to visit New York City.

In the background, prominent in the scene, are "David" and "Nelson". "David" and "Nelson" are not relatives hogging the picture, "David" and "Nelson" are the names of the two WTC towers.

In every visit I ever made to Manhattan and the New York and New Jersey Area, "David" and "Nelson" stood there marking the daily passing of the Sun. If you were in Long Island traveling towards Manhattan you knew you were getting close when you could see the tops of the towers in lower Manhattan above the tree line. If you were in New Jersey, you could look across and see the brothers and know that the rotation of the earth ran through those axles that came up out of the ground in Manhattan, you could see it there, right across the water.

Three years ago, the world changed and I didn't even know it. It was mostly over by the time I became aware of it here on the West coast. Much like the way the lives of parents are destroyed without their knowing it in the hours before they find out that their children were killed overnight in a car accident, our lives were changed forever hours before I knew it had even occurred.

I turned on the TV the way I used to do every morning and I saw the axles of the earth crash to the ground. We wondered if we should send the kids to school, We wondered if the attacks would continue, if these attacks were just the start of something bigger. I found myself confronting a fear that I hadn't had in the years since the end of the cold war that 'today could be the last day of life on earth'. I watched in awe as aircraft around the country stopped flying. The sky was silent and for the first time in my life even in my fathers life, no aircraft were in the skies anywhere. As a pilot, being told there are no aircraft flying was the equivalent of a priest being told that there are no more churches.

Well, there was one aircraft. Out on the horizon that night you could see the navigation lights of an F-15 fighter aircraft in a wide orbit over the city, looking for an enemy that thankfully didn't reappear. I always wondered what was that pilots name and what was in his mind those nights. He was a man who like the rest of us worried for his family and hoped for the future, only he sat in the front of a weapon ready to do his duty, even though he was not in foreign skies against an enemy pilot, but here at home and his likely target would be a civilian airliner being used as a weapon against his family and his homeland.

The day went from bad to worse as the impact began to sink in as to what it all meant. " We are at war" is what I said when I saw that it wasn't a tragic airliner accident, the moment when the second tower was hit was as powerful to me as the words "The Japs Have Attacked Pearl Harbor" was to my fathers generation.

That night, I, like thousands of other Americans went to the Red Cross blood center to help in the smallest way I could with helping in dealing with the carnage. It was filled beyond capacity, parents brought their children for whom there were no babysitters planned for and they all calmly sat on the curb outside the building waiting their turn to help their fellow countrymen. For a large crowd, it was very quiet and orderly. It's amazing how emergencies turn what would ordinarily been a crowd of misbehaving kids and rattled parents into calm collected citizens, all more aware of their neighbors needs than their own desires. We all wanted to be somewhere else, we all wanted our pre-breakfast lives back.

That night I witnessed a bit of magic. The moment of magic was captured when a woman, who had clearly been a singer in her younger days began to sing " The way you look tonight". It wasn't obtrusive, it wasn't joy filled piano bar belting that was going on. This was something else.

She could see what I saw, the recognition of so many willing to give, and help at a time of need. I started the day wondering where my socks were and at the end of the day I had found my heart, thanks to a woman who's name I'll never know, and a moment in time that was not on anyone's agenda as much as 12 hours before. In the parking lot of the Red Cross stood a woman singing a song to an audience of Americans, doing all that they could with what little they had.

What was she wearing?
She was wearing a Statue-of-Liberty foam-crown.

I wasn't aware of the picture of my mother-in-law in front of the New York skyline in a Statue-of-Liberty foam-crown until yesterday. The slice in time/space from whence the picture was taken, a simple vacation trip taken before mass murder was committed in the same place as this photograph of a womans of joy and innocence, did not have the significance to me then that it now does.

Two seemingly unrelated events brought together by a simple piece of tourist kitsch.

Three years later, "David" and "Nelson" are gone, and so is my mother-in-law, of a disease she must have had but didnt know about at the time the picture was taken. She is happy, arms outstreched like Barbra Striesand in "Funny Girl" - she has 2 years to live, the buildings behind her and three thousand lives, only 14 months...

Somewhere in a drawer at the home of a woman who was once a singer, sits a small piece of tourist kitch, a green crown made of foam, to make the wearer look like the Statue of Liberty that she once bought on her trip to New York, unaware of how it and a photograph taken by the daughter of another woman visting New York before September 11th 2001 tied together time and space in the parking lot of the Red Cross on that warm summer night in September.

It's three years later and I still miss them. That song still goes through my mind everytime I think of how the world has changed.

Posted @ August 28, 2004 05:57 PM | History file | Comments (3)

APB: Beer Truck Stolen

Be on the look out for a Robert and Douglas McKenzie, wanted for questioning in the theft of a Molsens Beer truck.

Posted @ August 26, 2004 10:07 PM | Comments (0)

Letters! We get Letters!

Well, its week one here at Varifrank and its been quite an eye opener. I have to say to all that have visited here in the inaugural week that things are moving along nicely. With one Vodka-lanche and two -count 'em- Two Insta-lanches, the traffic is moving along just fine. Its more than I could ever hope for and I thank you all.

The Moveable Type site is beginning to form and with the sure as the sunrise arrival of payday and a cash infusion to the hobby will provide what I need for a graphics mercenary to get it in professional shape.

I also have to say I get one heck of a lot of email. I also have to say that 99% of you are polite, erudite and smart, even when you disagree with me. Some of you however, are a real adventure.

You learn a lot when you blog. It's like being a teacher. People have this illusion that students learn from their teachers, but its really the other way around, its the teachers who are learning from their students.

For example, I grew up in a four generation Navy family, I thought I had heard every dirty word ever uttered in about 12 languages. This week, I learned a lot more. I cant wait to see my dad again so I can tell him all the new things that monkeys want to do with me and apparently what people want me to do with monkeys. Surprisingly, most of the anger seems directed at my mom and her genetic lineage, why? I don't know.

I also learned that "the kids today" end all the words that end in "s" with "z". I learned that there is a large population of people who are utterly shocked to find that not only is George W. Bush running for office, but that there are a substantial number of people who actually are supporting him.

I learned that there is a hotbed of anger, bile, bigotry and hatred called "Democratic Underground", where bigots trade invectives and give each other hints on what new names to call people with whom they disagree. Think of this as the webs equivalent to the kind of place that southern sherrifs and their deputies used to sit around killing time in before the evenings cross burning and lynching activities were underway.

Now, I know I'm not supposed to do this, but I do try to talk to them when they write. If I can translate their text ( often it appears in the form of Instant Messenger shorthand text) I try to form a response to their statements. I want the record to be clear - I do not hate Democrats, I hate Tyranny. Democrats are my countrymen, I need a strong Democratic party for this country to exist. I happen to disagree with them on many issues, but that is not the end of the world, at least not to me. If Western Civilization is about anything its about tolerance. I am a very tolerant fellow.

Here's an exchange I had with one of the members of "Democratic Underground":

Frank,

Care to name all 40 states? Or would that make plain
how ridiculous both your prediction, and you, are?

While you're on the subject of Vietnam service, why
not mention that while Bush supports that war, he used
his family connections to avoid it? Or that he
couldn't be bothered to show up for Guard drills for
months at a time? Just like Iraq, he's perfectly
willing to send the less fortunate in our country to
die for an unjust war. Apparently, so are you, you
chickenhawk.

Name Withheld

The author posted this email on the forum, but seems to have neglected to post my response.
So, Here is my response:

Ok, let's be nice here. I'm just a guy and so are you. There's no need to get upset.
I'll try to answer your questions as long as you promise to play nice.

Here's the states I don't think Bush will win:

California
Washington
Wisconsin
Illinois
New York
Massachusetts
New Jersey
Connecticut
Vermont
Rhode Island

I see Bush taking all the rest, 'cept Washington D.C.

For the record, I didn't mention Bush.

But since you did -

I don't see a problem with Bush's performance in the National Guard. If Bush made it the centerpiece of his campaign, my opinion would grow very dark indeed. He was the equivalent of what I believe Kerry to have been, a mediocre officer just marking time. There's no shame in that, there's nothing wrong with it at all for either man. There is something really weird with making it into something more than it was, as Kerry has clearly done.

If Kerry's is a "War Hero" doesn't that make Vietnam a "Heroic War"? I'm ok with that definition, but I very much doubt that you are willing to go that far. For a man who testified in front of the Senate that "Vietnam is the biggest nothing in history" to now champion his time in Vietnam as having "fought for his country" seems odd to me.

I do support the war in Iraq. Kerry has said recently that he too would have invaded Iraq. President Clinton has also said that "While he would have done it differently" he too would have take the actions that President Bush has done in Iraq. I didn't need WMD's to invade Iraq. the words "Children's Prison" was enough to justify our invasion. The recent return of enough nuclear material to produce 142 atomic weapons to the Oak Ridge laboratory is not a bad thing either. My biggest reason for wanting to invade Iraq? it gives us a nice long border on which to invade Iran. Hopefully we will get around to doing it before they have atomic weapons, which they are busily working day and night to acheive, and rest assured, they will use. It's not a question of "if" we will fight the Iranians, but when. Iraq is just logistical staging area for a bigger more dangerous enemy elsewhere. It was also long overdue.

If Bush was invading Iraq just for the ability to feed his friends in the Oil industry, He could have simply declared war on Iraq in the week after September 11th. The emotions of the time would have allowed it to occur with little problem. Bush didn't do that, He didn't declare war as he easily could have done, and the question has to be asked "why"?

While many call President Bush a "bloodthirsty warmonger", it doesn't resolve to the process that we have used to persecute this war. It's important to understand that our troops aren't dying because our enemy is effective, but simply that we wish to remain humane. We could kill with extreme precision and in mass numbers and our shirts would not so much as get slightly moist with sweat, we've chosen not to do this, but there's nothing really stopping us but our basic humanity.

"Chicken hawk" is a nice word. There are those of us who believe that a democracy is only a democracy when all citizens have a voice in their affairs. There are those who believe that only those who have military backgrounds should be given the full rights of citizenship. Those people are called "fascists". I don't think you really want to be a "fascist", and rest assured I don't want to be one either. I like differences, I like opposition. You are not my enemy, you are my countryman and I hope we can learn to live together. If you are truly for peace, you will find a way to do this, as I have. "Peace" if that is your goal, starts with you and me, right here.

If you can't learn to get along with little old me, what hope do you have for the rest of the world learning to get along?

I'm willing to serve in any capacity that I can to see that the civilization that you and I live in is allowed to survive. I believe that you too are willing to do what is necessary. If I could serve in the military, I'd be happy to do so, if you have some contacts to get me in, send them my way, it's not that I haven't tried. I hope that you would say the same, and I give you the benefit of the doubt that you would.

You, my friend have a lot to lose in the war that's going on. This war is far beyond just Iraq. The Jihadis have told us to "submit or die". We in the west didn't choose this war and frankly we spent 20 years turning the other cheek to avoid it. We can argue about the parameters of western civilization after we are assured that it will survive. While I'm hopeful and optimistic that we will win, I'm painfully aware of how easy it can be to lose.

You should also know that if the Jihadis win, the only difference they will make between the two of us is the order in which we are marched to an open trench to be killed at gunpoint. You and I are both "infidels" to them and in that respect we have that much in common at least.

I'm thinking of making a Letters section on the blog. Some of these are really precious. I just love it when little kids learn to speak and spell, they are just so precious at that age, these kids today have such a dynamic language, it just makes you tingle to read it. .

Posted @ August 26, 2004 09:20 PM | Comments (13)

Victory or Peace?

Peace only occurs where there is capitulation. In this example, we can only hope that al-sadr will either say the arabic equivalent of "no mas" or suddenly have an "accident". I'd like to set the limit to "negotiations" to 5.

And would someone PLEASE occupy that damn shrine before the next set of delicate delinquents occupy it?

Of course, If I had my way, we would have renamed the shrine "monte cassino" and told the Air Force to go take it out. Shrine? I got your shrine right here pal.

Posted @ August 26, 2004 12:06 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Farewell John Kerry!

I had a whole agenda of things I wanted to look up on John Kerry today, and I couldnt get the words to come out. One week after starting my blog, and here I was with a ripping case of "blog-block".

Why? Because I didn't start the blog so I could dig up the obvious on John Kerry. Frankly, its just too easy.

Let's take a look at the score so far. Kerry , who decided for some reason beyond the comprehension of a simpleton like me, has decided that the most important thing to run his campaign on is 4 months of service in Vietnam 35 years ago.

35 years ago! For Gods sake man! Did it occur to you that 35 years was a hell of a long time ago? Do you remember anyone in 1960 running on his war record against the Kaiser in WWI? Did you really think that no one would look into your record? Did you not think or did anyone that works for you not think that you, like almost everyone else in the world, did in fact embellish your resume and tell tales that weren't based on fact, but on the emotions of the time?

Didn't it occur to you even a little bit, that standing up and saluting like a total fob and saying " Reporting for duty" after you sat in front of the Senate in 1971 with a fatigue shirt and long hair and told tales of "Americas war criminals" that somehow the "Band of Brothers" made for TV presentation schtick, might ring a bit hollow?

Here you are, with a 15% polling tailwind from the press reduced to Michael Moore street theatre with Max Cleland doing your dirty work in front of the cameras.

Do you know how non-presidential this looks? Can you do anything else to look more petty, small and dare I say "lawyer-ish".

If you can't take a punch from a guy like Bush, how are you going to deal with Chirac? or the Iranians? or for that matter, all the other Republicans in Congress, who want nothing more in life than to be the one who spills your guts out on the floor.

This is real hardball politics and your response is to go on "The Daily Show"? Really Mr. Kerry, THE DAILY SHOW? Do you hold me and the rest of the American public in such contempt that your first show after the convention is on a cable comedy satire show? It annoys me sir, but you've got to think that it just sizzles the rear ends of the political journalists, and you know what happens when they get mad at you? They will go looking for things to make you look bad. Mark my words sir, the easy stuff about you has come out, when the really ugly stuff comes out, you're going to need a better game than this to stay upright and watertight. How does it help you to alienate the press? You make the statement all the time about how we are supposed to work with our allies, and here you are, in a political campaign annoying your allies for no clear purpose.

Mark my words - The press made you, and the press will break you. Now that you've embarrased them, they will make it their life's work.

There is no President in modern memory who is so universally hated than George W. Bush, and yet, you've never polled outside of the margin of error. Now, the polls are going against you, and by my measurement, its going to get worse, not better from here. Bush is a marathon runner and you are a country club golf cart riding, two caddy golfer. As long as you continue to bring your B game to an A game park, you and your party are going to look fools. At some point, you will begin to see your allies in your party and the press begin to make you the pinata at this party. They will not take the heat for your loss, they will tie a can around your neck and toss you out into the exercise yard for the guards to shoot at. Everyone loves a winner, but no one can stand a loser.

You sir, are a loser. You will go down in history as the man who made Dukakis look good.

I don't really feel sorry for you, frankly you've proven to be everything I've learned to expect from the son of a foreign service officer who was raised in a swiss boarding school, whos personal fortune comes from marrying women from a higher income bracket than himself.

I do feel sorry for Howard Dean and his supporters. I hope you guys understand what you sold your votes out for. Deaniacs, you might not like George W. Bush, but take a look at John Kerry. Bush might be your enemy, but hes not the one who sunk your battleship. The USS Kerry did that for you, and you helped him do it.

Prediction: Mcgovern, Mondale, Dukakis and now Kerry will each get an entry in the hall of fame of losers. 40 states will go for Bush. It will not be a close election.

I hereby swear off blogging about John Kerry.

UPDATE: Some of you have written saying that I should not stop blogging. I have no intention of stopping, I just got started. I've just sworn off "Blogging on Kerry". It's just not right to attack the weak and infirmed.

Posted @ August 25, 2004 09:35 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (77)

Kerry on Kerry: The New Soldier

Here, for as long as it lasts, is a PDF version of John Kerry's "New Soldier".

I'm now looking for John Kerry's dads book. John Kerry's dad was a foreign service officer who wrote a book about "what we should do". It will make an interesting read.

Posted @ August 25, 2004 01:59 PM | Kerry File | Comments (2)

Iraq Loses: Soccer Team goes home alive with chance to play again.

The good news here is that the Iraqi Soccer Team competed on the world stage, and no one got killed when they didnt win the gold. It's not an insignificant thing when you think about it.

Posted @ August 24, 2004 04:47 PM | Comments (0)

10 Second Summary

"What John Kerry is saying in essence is that "in Vietnam, I was a hero, but I was surrounded by war criminals."

John Kerry’s Two Vietnams: Macubin Thomas Owens - National Review Online

I think that sums the situation up nicely.

Update: Best quote heard all day: "John Kerry's got his foot stuck way down inside a full spittoon, and danged if he aint a gonna get chaw all over the place getting it out and end up lookin like a damn fool doin it too!"

Will Rogers - eat your heart out.

Posted @ August 23, 2004 10:30 AM | Kerry File | Comments (0)

The Grand Unified Theory Of Vietnam

Noah Cross: You may think you know what you're dealing with, but, believe me, you don't.
[Jake grins.]
Noah Cross: Why is that funny?
Jake Gittes: That's what the District Attorney used to tell me in Chinatown.

Something has been bugging me about "John Kerry in Vietnam" thing. I can’t understand what the whole ANGER thing is about in the press. I can understand Al Gore being angry, Terry McAuliffe being angry and, perhaps, the voters of Florida-- but the press? That doesn't make sense, where's their dog in this fight? They get a story no matter what happens. Now, I know the press wants a Democrat in office, because, well that's just how the press is. Many of its members are in the press because of their spoken desire to "help the helpless, give hope to the hopeless and so on." And this sentiment lines up with the pamphlets handed out by the Democratic party as neatly as do the folds in the back of an issue of Mad magazine. The press has always wanted Democrats in office, that's nothing new. What was new in this election is how they've gone completely batty, and for all possible people, it's for this guy. It's not as though John Kerry hasn't run for President before and gotten nowhere, not even out of the early Democratic primaries. He's been "unwept, unhonored, and unsung" for ages, and it’s not as though he's a stunning member of the Senate, he barely makes any kind of presence. Example? Name one piece of legislature with his name on it? What committee does he sit on? Remember any speech of his, ever? Biden? You can't get the guy to shut up. Bob Dole? He hasn't been in office for 8 years, and he's still talking. But Kerry? He's been a cypher for years.

The press, last December, was laughing at John Kerry and at his chances to win the nomination. Now, they seem deeply offended that President Bush decided to run for reelection. Where it gets weird is to see the same people, who derided Kerry just a year ago, are now willing to "go to the mattresses" for him. So what's the deal between the press and John Kerry? What makes a nice guy like Chris Matthews to want to jump across the table and verbally assault a woman on nationwide TV, just because she disagrees with him? What makes newspaper after newspaper assault anyone who even dares say something negative about John Kerry? Thousands of man hours have been spent "uncovering the truth" about President Bush and the Texas Air Guard, but, on the Kerry-Vietnam story, time is only spent to dig up information on people against Kerry. The press didn’t give more than a glance at Kerry's actual record. If a hint had surfaced that Bush had done with his record what Kerry clearly did, we would be talking about President Chaney chances for reelection now.

There must be more here than just a simple case of "media bias." It is pretty easy to prove a case that the press is no longer objective. What is different from past elections is that it was clear that the press had a bias, but that they still did their job. It might have taken some nudging, but during Clinton years the press did eventually report on Jennifer Flowers, and the Whitewater scandal. But, if something similar were to happen in the Kerry administration, I seriously doubt that they would.

Look at what is going on now at Borders Books. There are three rows of shelves each stacked 14 feet high of books signifying that "Bush is the devil incarnate!" Why have so many publishing companies made an independent decision to give an "OK" to authors, so that these books are printed, shipped and stacked? For as inoffensive a person as George Bush? Really? Does he deserve that kind of anger-- that kind of hate? Anger is a passion on a par with love; you should be suspicious of a source when either emotion makes its appearance.

I sat back, thought about it and then spent some time on the internet. I eventually came across a set of pictures of John Kerry at the 1970 "Valley Forge" rally, known as "Winter Soldier," where Kerry made some pretty rough statements against the soldiers and sailors he had served with. Behind him in the pictures were the usual suspects. But then, I began to pick out a series of celebrities. Celebrities who were new at the time-- up and coming in their careers. While I did this, there was playing on the TV in the background,a documentary, "A Decade Under The Influence." This is the story of the rise of the new breed in Hollywood after the studio system had ended. Many people in the background of Kerry’s pictures were also in this documentary. I was doing digital convergence and didn't know it.

Then it hit me.

Vietnam is where the generation making up most of the press and media decision makers "made their bones." Vietnam established for that generation the moral order. It also was a test of their personal validation. You could not be part of the "new order" if you were for the Vietnam war or even for the soldiers who fought in it. You could not be a part of the “new order” if you felt in any way patriotic towards the US, or even favorable to the American culture. How could you back this country after John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Dr. King, Malcolm X and so many others were assassinated. And people like Richard Nixon went on living?

President Clinton came at a unique time in history. Had a cold war still been going on in 1992, I doubt that Clinton would have been a serious contender. What confirmed that the Cold War was over was that for the first time in thirty years we voters did not measure a candidate against the test of "the button." We all used to do it, It went something like this: "Would you want this guy next to the nuclear button every day?" Clinton’s election is the first time we said, "eh, that's not going to happen anymore-- so what the hell?"

However, the press and the media acted as though Clinton’s election were as important as the liberation of France in 1944, and to people of that "new moral order," it must've seemed so.

When Bush was elected in 2000, it seemed like a shock to the Media that so many people in the US didn't vote for Al Gore. This was so improbable that the only reasonable explanation was a stolen election. What else could it be, no thinking person would actually vote for George W. Bush, can you believe the man actually said--With a straight face! --that Jesus Christ was the most important philosopher he had read? Does he think that's going to get him votes?

This alone would have caused the press to look askance at George W. Bush, but was it enough friction to generate all this heat?

And then, something happened that no one foresaw.

An outside force, for the first time since December 7th 1941, had attacked and killed Americans at home. Only this time, it wasn't at an obscure military base in the Pacific, but was in Manhattan, Liberal, Libertine, New Yorker Magazine-- If you lived here, you'd be home by now-- Manhattan.

For the first time, the generation which had rejected war as a tool of the oppressor, used largely by American business as a club to subjugate poor countries, was itself faced with an enemy that did not differentiate between the military and civilian, between Marines and little girls on their way to Disneyland and worse, between the real enemy and the enlightened masses of Manhattan. This generation was faced by an enemy that wanted to kill us all, left and right, progressives, liberals, men, women; it made no difference to them. The only choice the Jihadi's gave us was submission to Islam, or death. This generation had never concided this dogma in their "Grand Unified Theory Of Vietnam." Kill us? Why? We didn't vote for George W. Bush! The Terrorists should have attacked Texas!

The Jihadi's act of violence and insanity shook the world, but no group in it more so than the generation who’s "moral order" was established in Vietnam. "Why do they hate us?" They asked. "It must be our policies." They said, "See! This is a reaction to globalization. This war thing makes no sense, Europeans live with terror, so why can't we? Why - it’s just a pretense for the consolidation of power, THAT'S IT!.....”

One other thing that bothered them was all that flag waving. The US flag, to this generation, was an equivalent to the Nazi swastika and was waved by the same people. I've never seen a Volvo with an American Flag stuck to it. Putting a flag on your car was only for other countries as if to proclaim "I've been there-have you?" That was the way it was in some neighborhoods.

September 11th forced this generation to confront truths that didn't belong in their well-ordered universe. The moral certainty that opposition to Vietnam had provided was pulled away leaving them naked, vulnerable and exposed to something that they could not, or would not face.

That those ignorant people, of whom George W. Bush is just but one, might be right.

This-cannot-stand.

If George W. Bush is right, then the Media might have been wrong about other things for years, which meant they might have been wrong all along about the event that defined their moral order-- Vietnam.

So, why has the press become unhinged and supports John F. Kerry like crazed Moonies? While simultaneously defending their objectivity?

It is as redemption from their sins and for the return to some moral order that they can understand. It is, more important, a moral order where they still sit at the top.

By working to elect John Kerry, they can return to the world where Vietnam was wrong, but they can now say that defense of America is right. By working to elect John Kerry, they do not have to confront their bigotry against their very own country and its countrymen. By voting for John Kerry, they can tell their friends abroad that they need not fear us; that knuckle dragging Republicans are removed from the levers of power, and that men of breeding have returned.

More simply put, by electing John Kerry it allows a generation to escape its malfeasance in the defense of liberty.

Evelyn Mulwray: What were you doing in Chinatown?
Jake Gittes: Working for the District Attorney.
Evelyn Mulwray: Doing what?
Jake Gittes: As little as possible.
Evelyn Mulwray: The District Attorney gives his men advice like that?
Jake Gittes: They do in Chinatown.

Update I: So, I go to bed, thinking its just a piece for little old me and I can edit it in the morning. I wake up in a full on "Insta-lanche" and my unedited peice is now in the hands of over 10,000 internet readers. The lesson here is similar to the lesson the big Media has, "theres not such thing as a closed mike or a camera that off when you are on stage". My Sincere thanks to reader Louis Wheeler for providing his editing services on this piece. My sincere thanks to all whom have visited from Instapundit.

Update II: Christopher Hitchens says that the left has succeeded in doing something Reagan and Kissinger could never have accomplished, the rehabilitation of Vietnam as " a noble cause"! See Wikipedia for "law of unintended consequences".

Posted @ August 22, 2004 01:45 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (39)

John F. Kerry: "Just Another Goofy Ensign"

From Navy Captain Kelly, former Executive Officer of the USS Gridley comes this view into the three paragraph naval career of John F. Kerry, prior to his time in the Swift Boats.

In this testimonial, you'll find several refutations of the story given about Kerry by Douglas Brinkley in the book TOUR OF DUTY.

My favorite bit:

"That is not to say that Kerry was not a good officer. He was and to my recollection was well liked. Did he stalk the passageways showing his future presidential timber? Absolutely not. A reporter from the Chicago Tribune actually asked me that. When I told him that he was just another goofy Ensign, he was horrified and did not use that quote."

My guess is that this assessment, is probably the most accurate to use in the assessment of the true nature of the future Junior Senator of Massachusetts. I don't consider it that negative or an outright indictment of the man, its just a simple straightforward way to describe an average man in average circumstances. Let's remember, its not whether or not he served that is at issue, its the way he seems to have inflated a rather average experience into that of a modern day Sea-going Audie Murphy.

It is incredible to me that we are talking about the Vietnam war today, a full 6 wars ago.

Vietnam was

A war fought when Color Television was still a novelty.

When aircraft crossing the Pacific did not have wide range navigation aids and still relied on sextants.

When the words "via satellite" appeared at the bottom of your TV screen, you said "wow".

When TV news was restricted to 30 minutes per day, and presented as simply being read by the likes of Douglas Edwards or Walter Cronkite with just a simple picture displayed behind them.

When most cities had atleast two newspapers, each of a different political stripe, delivered in the morning and afternoon allowing the average citizen to get a wide variety of opinion on the news.

Computers filled entire buildings, and "terminals" were teletype devices with rolls of paper for displays.

40% of Americans didn't even own a clothes dryer, but used "clothes lines" instead.

Long distance phone calls were so expensive, that it was a major breach in manners to use someones phone for a long distance call.

It was - a war fought a very long time ago, in a world that hardly even exists anymore. So why are we talking about it today? We are talking about it today because to talk about anything else is to begin examine the record of the man the Democrats have nominated to run the worlds preeminent superpower in the midst of mankinds most recent, most desparate struggle for survival.

The Democrats have nominated a man who since Vietnam has remained consistently on the wrong side of history. That nomination is an indictment of everything that is wrong with the Democrat party.

They have chosen at this crucial turning point in history:

A man who slandered the men whom he fought with, who were still fighting,even imprisoned in Vietnam on his return to the US.

A man who supported the cause of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.

A man who after the invasion and subjugation of Kuwait, perferred that we do nothing in their defense.

If Senator Kerry is lucky, we will talk about Vietnam until election day. Kerrys "semester in Vietnam" is acting as a shield for the Senators horrific record in the past 35 years. It is his only grappling hook on the cliff of legitimacy. If we begin to talk about anything else, Kerry will be exposed as the weak candidate who was getting his patrician ass handed to him by Howard Dean, not 9 months ago. If the election were about anything else but the existance of a military record, no matter how wafer thin it may be, Howard Dean would be in this fight, and if I may add, He would have done a lot better the how John F. Kerry will do.

John F. Kerrys military record appears to me to resemble that of LBJ and not the other JFK as he would imply.

As I said on Vodkapundit theres really only one more question to answer in this election "When Bush wins, Will the NY Times bother to cover the story"?

Posted @ August 20, 2004 10:16 PM | Kerry File | Comments (4)

Varifrank Channels the Ghost of Andy Rooney

Didja ever notice how before the summer of 2004, all Vietnam vets portrayed by the media were mentally scarred desheveled homeless men shooting at college students from rooftops, but now that one Vietnam vet is running for president, he and he alone is a hero for his acts in Vietnam, while those Vets that oppose him still remain portrayed as scarred desheveled homeless men shooting at college students from a rooftops? Whats worse, they're obviously republicans who can't be trusted, the enemies of mankind... whisper....whisper....whisper

Didja ever notice how the words "Texas Oilman" has become a substitute for "klansman" by many people who consider themselves enlightend by NPR beyond the shoddy banks of bigotry?

Didja ever notice how people who call themselves "Democrats" are the first to argue that "Democracy isnt for everyone" and are willing to tolerate the most undemocratic leaders ( stalin-mao-mihn-hussien-mugabe-chavez) the world has ever known, as long the "dear leader' uses the magic words " but it's for the people"?

Didja ever notice that it used to be Democrats who worked and believed in freedom and liberty for all mankind and Republicans worked only for big business and now its Republicans who want to make everyone free and the Democrats working for big business?

Didja ever wonder when it was that Democrats became the conservatives and Republicans became the liberals?

UPDATE I: A reader writes to advise me that Andy Rooney is not dead. My response -"Have you seen his act lately"? Unless I see a doctors note, I'm going to assume hes been replaced by a character from Disneys Animatronics display, from the "hall of forgotten gasbags"
UPDATE II:Captain Ed gives both testimony and evidence backing my parody.

Posted @ August 19, 2004 10:07 PM | Election 2004 | Comments (6)

How do you know when you've gone too far?

When even your friends and allies think your a fraud. Matt Taibbi explains it all for you here.

Posted @ August 18, 2004 03:25 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)

Why do they hate us?

Bruce Bawer of Hudson Review has an answer

Posted @ August 18, 2004 03:21 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4)

Ever feel like you're caught in a loop?

Take a look at this, and see if you can read my mind.

Is the Silver Star the military equivalent to the SI curse?

Posted @ August 18, 2004 10:44 AM | Kerry File | Comments (0)

Shhhh!, You hear that noise?

That banging, it goes on all hours of the night, it sounds, just - like - someone - banging their head on a desk. ......

Oh! thats me! That explains the big goose-egg sized hematoma on my forehead every morning.

Here's whats going on. Im busily building the Moveable Type Hosted site behind the scenes. Moveable Type is not for the squeamish and I might have to betray my chromosonal makeup and actually "Read The Flipping Manual".

What's the difference between MT and Typepad? at 15 minutes, I was up and running on Typepad. At 18 hours, I'm still trying to get columns to appear in the right order and get rid of the ridiculous colors that they load into the MT CSS Template.

If youre not technical, Avoid MT. If you are technical, its not too bad to get installed. I am graphically challeged and work in my alternate life almost exclusively by command line interface, so by the time something Im making gets to the GUI stage, I'm usually long gone. I think I will be ready to cut over to the "new cruelty" by this weekend, but I may have to pull in mercenary support. If I have to spend another day working to get the colors of my links to appear in something other than mauve, I may have to hurt someone.

Posted @ August 17, 2004 11:40 PM | Comments (2)

A reader asks about my stance on utopia.

A reader caught a statement I made in my bio:

I believe that the "Road to Utopia" always leads to the ovens of dachau

Their statement to me was

" The one thing that struck me is that your bio lends its self to your own verison of utopia.

Really?

Let me clarify what I mean when I say that the "Road to Utopia" always leads to the ovens of dachau".

The expansion of Human Liberty is my goal. I talk a lot about that, I'm pretty passionate about that, Im very happy to live in a rather unique time in history of humanity where people can pierce their cheeks with safety pins, wave offensive slogans publically and tie up downtown traffic, sleep with whomever they choose to, whenever they choose to without fear of reprisal, condemn the president loudly with no fear of real repercussions, its great to alive today. That's freedom, more correctly its an expression of Liberty. Over the course of human history the conditions we live in today are quite unusual, and I'm very happy as hell to be living in a time where liberty is pretty wide open for almost everyone, It sure as hell wasn't like that for my ancestors. But I don't think I've ever said "if only we did x-y-z, everything would be heaven or that this itself is heaven. We all need to do alot of work, its a continous process that every generation has to add to for it to work at all.

It's not perfect today, far from it, and frankly I dont think we should ever try to make it "perfect". "perfection" gets people killed. It's just not achievable, and in our frustration of trying to achieve it , we begin to think out loud and to ourselves " If only we got rid of "those people". It's just a short step from that to rounding them up and feeding them into barb wired camps.

All humans are corrupt and corruptible. All humans are susceptible to excess and the desire for power. Their faith, creeds or politics cannot shield them from their basic human failures. By signing up for a religious doctrine or joining a political party, contributing to greenpeace or the sierra club or living in the right zip code, it doesnt excuse you from your basic humanity, it doesnt make you a better person than someone else. I know, we all hope that by doing things like this that it will result in a pass for all our other transgressions, but it just doesnt work that way.

All humans get frustrated when their plans are disrupted our their visions of reality are disturbed. The desire to establish a 'heaven on earth" is always destroyed by the fact that the "heaven on earth" is to be filled with flawed corrupted human beings. When you think you are building a "utopia for all mankind", you get really angry at those who keep you from accomplishing your goal. After awhile, you begin to rationalize their elimination by making them into subhuman creatures, who are working against the greater good and thus must be eliminated from the body politic 'for the greater good", and that makes it easy rationalize killing "those people" off.

And then, it's no time at all before you too have created ovens for which to burn their bodies. You started out wanting to feed all babies, clothe the hungry and feed the starving, but you end up feeding their parents to the lions, its a pattern repeated over and over again in history. No political dictrine is is immune, its something we all collectively own as humans. It's not the other guy who's the problem when we try to achieve utopia, its us.

I personally prefer American Representative democracy and American culture, but I hardly thinks its "Utopia". But thats freedom for you, you get to choose. When people choose differently than you would prefer, thats freedom too, More correctly its liberty. I like liberty. I like it alot. The tough part of being free is accepting other people and their vision of liberty. My vision of liberty is more about respect that domination. I want to live in a world where people of a wide variety of opinions feel free to express thier opinions and respect others for thiers. I dont want to live in a world where to express political thought that may not be popular will get your car vandalized or your person harmed or fired from your job. When I lived in Texas, the People there considered me an arch communist, when I worked in San Francisco,The people there said I was a hitlerite fascist. My views hadn't changed a bit in my moves to either place, but bigotry and bias belongs to all zip codes and what makes you a hero in some places will get you killed in others.

In every case that I've seen where someone sets up a government or a social structure to create a utopian vision of the world, it has lead to people being killed or subjugated. The only way for utopia to exist is to impose it on the people it is trying to serve with or without their consent.

For the record, I am not of the opinion that the American form of government was intended to be a utopian answer to the world. It recognizes only that human beings and their desire to be free as a natural state and provides a framework for the restraint of government, but thats all. Everything else are things that the citizenry has created through mutal accord.

I hope that helps clear that up.

Posted @ August 16, 2004 02:33 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (5)

Olympics Hit by Crisis Over Iran-Israel Contest

ATHENS (Reuters) – Iran's world judo champion Arash Miresmaeili refused to compete against an Israeli Sunday, triggering a fresh crisis at the Olympic Games where race, creed or color are not allowed to interfere with sport.

A few thoughts:

a) They say this as if Iran had a chance to win anyway. Iran is the "Washington Generals" to Israels "Globetrotters".

b) Yeah!, more medals for Israel!

c) I guess Iranians dont like to fight unless its with someone elses kid with a bomb strapped to them.

d) When losing to an Israeli means you and your family will be fed into meatgrinder at home, you begin to understand his reticence, and in an odd way, you sympathize.

e) This was a simple translation mistake, Iran thought "Judo" translated into the "hostage taking" event, when they disovered that the Israelis get to fight back on equal terms, that changed everything.

f) Now you know how little Israel beat the entire arab world in the six days war.

g) This is the perfect metaphor for the Islamic world " cant compete - wont compete"

h) How long till people stop wanting to compete with Americans?

Posted @ August 15, 2004 11:19 AM | HDTV Olympics | Comments (0)

A Little Trip In Mr. Peabody's "Wayback" Machine

Take a step with me into the "wayback machine". Forget what you know about history and observe history in the past and how it effects you in the present.

We set the dial on the "wayback" machine to 1939.

Jan. 4 - In his annual message to Congress, the President calls for "all methods short of war" to defend the nation.

Jan. 23 - A Douglas DB-7 bomber crashes in California - A French national who was acting as the aircraft test pilot was at the controls is injured in the crash. The press discovers the administrations plans to sell advanced U.S. aircraft to England and France,which would be a violation of the current neutrality acts. The President responds to the negative press editorials and critiques that the U.S. frontier was "on the Rhine" and not here behind the Atlantic.

March 15 - Germany occupies Czechoslovakia in violation of the Munich agreement. A year earlier, Pime Minister if Great Britain is championed as a "man of peace" for going to Munich to seek peace with the German chancellor. His adversary, Winston Churchill is derided publically in the press and by members of government as being a "warmonger" for his abrasive speeches and in advocating the need to prepare for war.

March 17 - The President announces that he wants a revision of the Neutrality law to aid the democracies.

April 12- Charles Lindberg returns to United States after spending 4 years in Europe. At one point Lindberg considers moving to Berlin. Lindberg often speaks publically against U.S. intervention in war in Europe and has becoming a rallying force behind those increasingly known as the "isolationists". They are largely anti-semetic and sympathetic to Nazi Germany and to world fascism. Those forming the growing isolationist movement have among their members, Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Press editorials applaud the effort of Lindberg to keep the country in peace by becoming an advocate for isolationism. In the previous year, Lindbergh has accepted the German Eagle from Hermann Goering, the Nazis' second in command. While some question Lindbergs patriotism, many people till admire Lindberg for his heroism.

May 1 - Cash-and-carry neutrality law has now expired, yet 72% approve discretionary embargo of aggressors.

June 29 - House approves the Vorys amendment to keep mandatory arms embargo but allow export of"implements of war" . Only 51% of the public approve, public opinion mixed and vacillating. The press editorials take on an increasingly sharp tone against his administration.

July 10 - Senate Foreign Relations Committee votes 12-11 to postpone neutrality revision, putting a stop to the presidents plans to increase shipments to european democracies.

August 1st. Minister Ribbentrop of Germany has begun meeting with Minister Molotov of Soviet Russia. It is believed by the Presidents intelligence service ( less than 25 people) that the intent of the visits is to sign a non-agression treaty. The presidents diplomatic officers in europe assure him that this cannot be true as Germany and Russia are diametrically opposed politically.

The gauges of the "wayback" machine stop. You read the dashboard dial. Today is August 2nd.
You are in Washington D.C.

You see the president of the United States of America. He is crippled with the effects of polio, a disease which in you time, no longer exists. In 1939, polio is a constant threat to the lives of children throught the world.

The country is in the midst of the worst economic depression in its history. While the presidents party is predominates in congress and in most statehouses, he faces a hostile press who is made up almost entirely of the opposition party.

The President rolls into his white house office to begin his day of work. In the mail, his secretary has brought to his attention a letter from the person thought by many as the smartest man in the world, Albert Einstein.

It is a letter detailing the facts of recent research into the new science of nuclear power. It is also a warning.

The warning is that the power that is possible to be generated from atomic power makes the possibility of a bomb of extraordinary strength a very likely possibility.

The warning is also that it appears that the Nazi regime of Germany is also working in atomic power. They have begun to lock up the key natural resources that can serve as stock for atomic power, such as uranium. czechlosovakia, recently overrun by germany is one of the worlds key sources of uranium.

Germany is also the worlds leader in advanced sciences. While his country is struggling in the depression, Germany is an economic powerhouse. While the president has managed to get many of the brightest minds of europe to re-settle in the United States, there are many, many more still in Germany and Europe.

He sits silently and stares at the letter, and thinks to himself....

The Nazis....... With access to the core power of the sun itself

He picks up the phone, he calls his chief of staff and ask him to assemble his cabinet for a meeting.

At the meeting, he reveal the contents of the letter. These men, all leaders of industry, the top of the very top of the leading classes of American society, sit ashen faced as the cold realization of what might happen when the Nazis accomplish the task of capturing the very power of the Sun.

Hitler has the means to accomplish this task.
Hilter has the motive to accomplish this task.
Hitler has the opportunity to accomplish this task.

By The presidents own estimation and that of all of the members of his staff and research teams, who have all concluded that it is inevitable that the Nazis under the madman Hitler, will create an atomic bomb.

And when they create it, they will most certainly use it.

He resolves to begin a crash program to catch up with the Nazis as fast as possible. His ecomonists tell him that it is hard to estimate the cost of a project like this, but as it turns out over the length of the war, he spends 5% of the countries GDP on this one project. It is estimated that the project takes enough resources and manpower that it has the effect of extending the war in europe by as much as 14 months.

And everyday he goes to bed hoping against hope that America accomplishes its goal before Germany does.

He dies in April 1945, America still well short of its goal of creating atomic weapons before Nazi Germany.

However, Nazi Germany is defeated in May 1945. After the defeat, a large international team of intelligence officers begins to scour the german countryside in search of atomic research and materials and personnel.

The new president is a former Senator from Missouri. While in the Senate, he investigated war profiteering. In one investigation, he discovered obscene amounts of money being spent on something called "Manhattan". At the time, He was asked by the President himself to "please not look into it any further".

Now that he is President, he is given a briefing to hear what "Manhattan" really is.

The concept of the weapon is staggering, the project to develop it is even more so. Event now in May 1945, its still unknown if it will all work, even though 20 Billion dollars have been spent on it. Entire towns have been created to house the amount of workers necessary to create the technology, and yet, not one bomb has been created, and whats worse, no one on the development staff can be exactly sure what the effect will be when the bomb is used. Dr. Oppenheimer estimates that the bomb will generate 5 kilotons of explosive force, while others guess that the weapon will possibly ignite the entire earth's atmosphere.

After 60 days of intense research by the intelligence services in newly occupied Germany, they have come to a rather stunning conclusion:

At no time were there any atomic weapons programs in Germany. Germany has done little research at all in the subject. While ballistic missles have been found that were theoretically capable of carrying an atomic weapon, while a submarine bound for Japan was found with a large amounf of uranium oxide on board, no actual atomic fissile material ever seems to have been created in Germany. To some it even appears that the lead Atomic scientist in Nazi Germany was quietly,secretly misleading the Nazis in their research.

The country has spent billions of dollars and diverted thousands of manhours in the effort to create something that turns out not to have been needed at all. The smartest man in the world has given his predecessor honest advice and he acted on it in good faith, it appears that it was actually completely and totally false.

Many things are found in Germany and Poland, Czeclosovakia, Hungary and Italy, the horrors of the Nazi regime are beyond unbelievable, beyond human comprehension, so much so that the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces orders an all out effort to document fully the deprivation of the Nazis. So appalled is General Eisenhower that is is quoted as saying " I am ashamed that my name is Eisenhower", in reflection of his families German heritage.

Yet, no "weapons of mass distruction" are ever found in Germany. Upon seeing the death and distruction and raw unhumanity of the Nazi regime, one could argue, that the true "WMD" was the Hitler regime itself.

The President is not the slightest bit upset that the Germans did not actually build a bomb, he like the rest of the world of 1945, is actually relieved. No recriminations have been brought against the President by the oppostion party of the press. The world knows and understands the simple fact that a genocidal madman has been removed from power and the forces of fascism who just a short time before were the leading political power in the world, has been destroyed.

You then return to the present in the "wayback" machine. You turn on the television to see James Carville and Michael Moore scream and rant about President Bush not finding any "weapons of mass distruction" and you just shake your head and laugh at the raw ignorance of these petty little men.

Epilogue
You sit and reflect on the world you saw in your trip and the world today. 21 days after your arrival in the "wayback" machine, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, two of the most diametrically opposed political powers will sign a non-agression treaty. This treaty partitions Poland into two sections, Russia is also given the countries of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania in return for not opposing Nazi Germany.

The Ribbentop/Molotov Treaty makes WWII possible, Only one army in europe is big enough, powerful enough and in opposition to Nazism enough to hold off Hitler. Instead of stopping Hitler, Stalin joins him in his desire to expand.

In 30 days after your arrival, On September 1st, The Nazis invade from the west into Poland, the Soviets invade Poland from the east on the 17th. Mutual assistance treaties signed by the UK and France for Poland are invoked, although both countries are totally unprepared to assist Poland, as the invasion is complete in 27 days. They are however, in a "state of war". Less than a full generation after millions of men were killed in WWI, a new war in Europe is underway.

France now has the biggest and most modern Army of the free democracies. In 1940, it falls to the Nazis in 32 days. By the time America enters the war, the United Kingdom will have faced defeat against the Germans in France and Norway, with a stalemate in the Battle of Britain. The only winning battle by the allied forces in Africa is offset by the stunning losses soon to come in Asia.

World War Two, as it is later called, goes on to kill an estimated 52 million people world-wide. While the worlds Democracies where being threatened abroad, while our former allies in WWI were being bombed in their homes, America sits out the first two years of the war as it battles with the forces of isolationism at home. Celebrities and heros and noted statesmen abound in the isolationist movement, while getting a good deal of positive support from the press.

What did you learn from your visit to the past?

Even the worlds smartest people can make mistakes. BIG Mistakes.

Doing nothing in the face of an obvious threat only increases the theat.

Maintaining a democracy is hard. Just being a Democracy is no guarantee of success against tyranny.

Treaties with madman are not just a "waste of time", they can actually help get you killed.

Human Beings are capable of enormous evil.

Allies arent all they are cracked up to be.

The only time you can be absolutely sure your enemies have a WMD, is when its used against you.

We could have lost WWII, if the people in America hadn't first been convinced of the necessity to fight it.

Until the Japanese attacked, it wasnt entirely clear that they would be convinced to fight.

The job of President is not a place for men of nuance.

UPDATE: "Big Stephen Green- The blogging machine" has a parallel post up at Vodkapundit

Posted @ August 14, 2004 11:59 PM | History file | Comments (8)

What I saw at the HDTV Olympics( Part II)

Second day of the HDTV Olympics, and guess what I saw?
Come on, just guess.....

I saw the same thing I saw last night, over and over again. That's right, the local affiliate has decided to replay the opening ceremonies.

over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

Oh wait, it gets better. The local affiliate is only playing one commercial. Oh, they still have commercial breaks every 10 minutes, but they only play one commercial. Oh, its gets EVEN BETTER!.
Guess what the commerical is for? come on guess? pizza? beer? running shoes? cialis? viagra? Pills that stop explosive diahrrea? Cristy Lane?

Nope! its even better.

The local affiliate is only showing one commercial on the HDTV feed, and its.......

It's a commercial for HDTV. Get it? As Alanis Morrisette would say, "isnt that ironic".

That hissing sound you hear is steam coming out of my ears like a special effect in a three stooges episode.

Posted @ August 14, 2004 09:28 PM | HDTV Olympics | Comments (3)

Gun At Your Head: One Party Rule In Venezuela

The case before you is one where a government of an oil state is exploiting its power and its corporate extentions to crush dissent and remove Democracy from a third world country. Why hasn't the press made a story of this? Simple,the government is headed by a leftist, as we all know the press template states that "left is compassionate", therefore no crime committed in the name of socialism can be said to have been committed.

You just stepped into "The Tyranny Zone...."

CARACAS, Venezuela Aug. 13, 2004 — If President Hugo Chavez loses a bitterly contested weekend recall referendum on his rule, one of the biggest challenges for the opposition would be to stabilize labor relations within Venezuela's government-run oil company. An opposition government would have work with Chavez loyalists currently running Petroleos de Venezuela, known as PDVSA, while appeasing almost 19,000 employees fired last year for participating in a crippling strike many of whom have poured their energies into the recall effort and are desperate to get their jobs back.

The situation in the world's No. 5 oil exporter could further upset global markets, where prices are already soaring to record highs of more than $46 a barrel.

Industry experts have said disruption to Venezuelan oil production is unlikely if Chavez wins Sunday's vote, which most analysts and pollsters say is too close to call. While street protests could erupt if opposition leaders allege fraud, Chavez loyalists tightly control PDVSA, making another damaging strike unlikely.

And heres where it gets interesting

The scenario of Chavez winning the referendum is "perhaps the best in terms of calming the market of fear of losing additional supply," said Roger Tissot, the head of markets and countries for Washington-based PFC Energy. "The oil markets will react positively."

Apparently, You can have Democracy or you can have a stable oil market, its your choice.

But Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez, a staunch Chavez loyalist, fueled fears of unrest if Chavez were to lose, suggesting Friday that PDVSA workers would rebel if they thought the opposition won through fraud.

Fraud is defined by leftists as any time democracy doesnt suit their needs.

"There is no way that our public will accept including our oil workers a defeat of the 'No,'" Ramirez told a news conference. "The only way that the 'no' could lose would be through fraud."

On Sunday, citizens can vote "no" to keep Chavez in office or "yes" to recall him.
Tough choice, you can eat and feed your family or overthrow a thug. Leftists argue that democracy can't be forced onto people, but apparently it can be pried out of their hands if you make them weak enough from hunger.

Chavez, for his part, has repeatedly promised to abide by the outcome of a vote and urged followers to do the same. But Ramirez's comments underscored tensions at PDVSA, where the staff consists of government-friendly managers, military officers and an anti-Chavez minority that managed to hang on to their jobs.

We have a name for a place here in North America that operates much the same way, its called "New Jersey".

Fired oil workers argue they were sacked illegally and deserve their jobs back. If the opposition wins the election, partisan oil workers say they will not unfairly target Chavez supporters, but any employees accused of corruption or other crimes must go.

You follow that? Vote for the referendum, you get fired and then we kill you, that's the message. The compassion of socialism. It makes your heart swell doesnt it?

Opposition leaders must "convince those who are running the company that their jobs are not going to be threatened because of their political affiliation," Tissot said. "They would basically have to depoliticize PDVSA, and that would be a challenge."

Ya think?

Compounding tensions, Venezuela would be in political limbo for at least a month if Chavez were to lose Sunday. Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel would take power until new elections are held, and Chavez has already said he would seek re-election.

You cant separate a leftist from power, its like taking a junkie away from the needle.

"During those 30 days, I would say markets would be extremely nervous," Tissot said. "Demand has been very strong, and that's what makes markets nervous. Any barrel lost translates immediately into very high prices."
Chavez and his "sugar daddy" Fidel Castro are very interested in making the price go higher. A disrupted oil suppy will sink the American economy and thus help assure that the President is defeated. The title of this piece " Gun at your head" - Its your head, and the gun is held by Chavez.

Regardless of who wins Sunday, PDVSA faces a dire need for investment in oil exploration and production, Tissot said. The industry has not fully recovered from last year's strike, which cost Venezuela an estimated $7.5 billion and plunged the economy into a wrenching recession.

Critics also say the firings cost the company crucial expertise and manpower, though Chavez insists they helped cut costs and trim a bloated bureaucracy.

Chavez claims Venezuela is pumping more than 3 million barrels a day, equal to the amount produced before the strike.

Oil industry insiders disagree, placing output at 2.5 million to 2.6 million barrels per day. Production will not fully recover without a massive investment, they say.

Ignacio Layrisse, a former PDVSA production manager designing the opposition's proposed oil policy, said $18 billion must be invested over two years to boost output.

Bear in mind lovers of democracy who call yourselves "Democrats", Chavez has flown Cuban troops to enforce order in towns and cities throught Venezuela. I blame Ashcroft and I blame the timing of this story, Im sure Hallburton is proping up Chavez.

UPDATE: As of Sunday night 21:00 PST, no official word has been received. Reports have been made of stunning turnout. The Oil futures markets may be a clue, as they are climbing higher, thus signalling that Chavez may may just be going "buh-bye".

Posted @ August 14, 2004 12:36 PM | Comments (0)

A Good Question With Bad Timing

If Florida is right in the path of most hurricanes and is sure to take some form of significant weather related damage almost annually, why does Florida allow to use "Mobile homes" since the construction methods employed by "mobile homes" has shown repeatedly to not be capable of surviving the weather conditions that are all to frequent in that area.

It's a question to put to the civil authorities and to those who underwrite insurance. It seems to me that you either only allow "mobile homes" constructed to withstand winds in excess of 100 miles an hour or you dont allow people to put their lives and property at risk by allowing them into the state of florida in the first place.

My sympathies for everyone in the path of Hurricane Charley, but if I build a house in the sierra foothills with a "wood shake" roof, I'm not going to get anyone to give me a building permit or fire coverage for my house.

Why? because a wood shake roof in a fire prone area is a disaster waiting to happen.
And so are little tin sheet prefabricated houses on wheels in Florida.

Posted @ August 14, 2004 10:01 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

What I saw at the HDTV Olympics

Five Observations:

1) Apparently theres an obscure Olympic rule that if your country has an active space program, a flag on the moon, 12 Nuclear carrier battlegroups and a profound respect for human rights that you can't wave your own flag at the olympics. You learn something new every day.

2) I'm struck by the fact that we are in the midst of a war that will determine the future of western civilization, and we are gathered the very place that gave birth the the very concepts that we are fighting for today. Thank god the greeks fought for and built their civilization. We truly stand on the shoulders of giants.

3) While the moslem world strives to lock its women up and turn them into farm animals, our women lead olympic committes that bring the olympics to their countries. Gianna ANGELOPOULOS-DASKALAKI, A hero.

4) I was proud to see Afghanistan and Iraq, but I'm also proud of and for the greeks. Hellas!

5) Now THATS a torch baby!

Posted @ August 14, 2004 12:41 AM | HDTV Olympics | Comments (1)

Press Sez to Democracy: Drop Dead!

Those who've been to a class in journalism will tell you that there is alot of discussion about the role of ethics in the world of journalism. Should a journalist have an opinion, they are admonished to do their level best to keep it to themselves.

There are lots of reasons for this, but the one I want to talk about is this:

The press and the world of journalism has a role to play in liberal democracy, a role every bit as important as the constitution, and the branches of representative government.

Sounds obvious? Sure, but stay with me here. The whole purpose of the First Amendment is to ensure that a legal framework exists to protect the expression of ideas. It also exists to ensure that an independant non-government "agency" exists to provide a check against tyranny.

In other words, the press exists to help put a check on unrestrained institutional power. Free people, with free access to information are in the best postion to vote, which is the deadman brake on the will of the tyrant in a free society.

BUT

What if the power of the press itself has become corrupt?

Imagine living in a small town along a major highway, where the law is administered by a sheriff and two deputies who are all related to each other. Imagine that the county judge is also related to the sheriff. It's a small town, everyone knows everyone else, everyone likes everyone just fine. No ones is too rich or too poor, the government and leading citizens are largely made up of the familes who orginally settled in the area.

One day, people from out of town rent a home on the edge of town. They keep to themselves. Occasionally the neigbors complain of a noxious unexplainable odor of chemicals comes wafting from the home. Eventually, the local sherrif decides to stop by and investigate.

Surprisingly, nothing happens. The sheriff gives a plausible explanation that the new folks are just amature photographers who were having a problem with their developing room.

Time goes by, The sherrif and his deputies are seen with new cars and buying new homes that their salaries can't possibly support. The strangers move in town with increasing ease. More strangers arrive, more homes begin to emit the odor.

Eventually, someone crosses the strangers and ends up dead. The sherrif says " suicide", but you dont know how you can commit suicide, but shooting yourself 12 times. With a shotgun. One that only carries two rounds.

It becomes clear to all, that the town is being used as a place to create and move methamphetamines. Whats worse, the towns governmental power now is owned wholly by the gang.

The sherrif has taken sides. He's decided what the law should be. You dont have any more say in the matter. The result is that even though all of the institutions of liberal democracy are in place, but they no longer work. They have all been paid to look the other way.

We've always worked with the assumption that the press, being a part of the open marketplace was incorruptible. I'm here to argure that the press of today has become as corrupted as the small town sheriff in the previous example. The press is no longer just biased, it has actually taken sides. The side they have taken is not the liberal side, the press has taken its own side. That side is opposed to everything liberal democracy stands for. The press, in its desire to "make the world a better place" is willing to do whatever it takes to stop their greatest enemy from achieving power. Their enemy is not George W. Bush, The enemy is you and I. George W. Bush is just the totem around which they all rally. When they laugh at George Bush, they are really laughing at you and I.

The press is no longer simply favoring the Democratic candidate but is actively campaigning for "their man". While thousands of man hours were spent looking for George Bushs National Guard pay stubs, they cant be bothered to even open a book that says that Kerry might not be the hero he claims to be. Agencies that report the "Christmas in Cambodia" story are threatened with lawsuits if any unfavorable information is released. Someone said something about a "chill wind" blowing but its not coming from Washington D.C. ,its coming from Hollywood, and New York.

When the Administration issues a terror alert, the press questions the timing of the alert, more concerned with how the alert affects "their man" rather than help inform the populace of the gathering threat against the country.

When the Administration says to citizenry "Be aware of suspicious behavior" the press says " racism! Bigotry". The effect is to allow our enemies uneffered access to the country, and further weaken our defenses.

While economic news is decidedly better than it was during the end of the first term from the previous Clinton adminsitration, the press has decided that we are in conditions equivalent to 1933, where soup lines are the only source of food for most Americans. While no country on earth can match the American ecomony who while saddled with the cost of war still outperforms every other country on earth, The press tells Americans that the "situation is grave" and that we should all fear for our jobs.

While 60 countries as varied as Poland and Japan fight side by side with Americans to bring liberty to an abused and neglected populace in the middle east, the press will only discuss the Franco-Prussian non-participation.

While Hugo Chavez has flow in Cuban troops to restore order and supress the vote in venezuela, the press talks about the Ashcroft Patirot act, while neglecting to remind that the Senate and House voted for it. The impression is given that the Patriot act was done by imperial edict.

When a corrupt govenor annouces that he will resign from office (someday)because he as had an extramarital affair, with a man, the press applauds his expression of sexuality. When a good man runs for office who has had a divorce, the press insists that the divorce records are public record, despite both parties in the divorce insisting that they stay closed. The result is that two kids learn something about their parents that no kids needs to learn and the skids are greased for "their man" to win. A good man is shamed for a private act, while a bad man is applauded for his.

Ladies and gentleman, the press of today is no longer about journalism and providing information to perform its duties within a liberal democracy.

This is thuggery.

.

Posted @ August 13, 2004 06:48 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (3)

The Self Loathing of HDTV

I really want to like HDTV, but its hard. When I was a kid, we moved from LA to Sacramento. To put it mildly, Sacramento is and was a much smaller town than LA. When we arrived, I found that there was only one UHF channel ( Channel 40), and its was, shall we say, light on content. Until 3:00 in the afternoon, They only showed Public Service Announcements, like "take the bus to work, you know you want to!", or "trash, its all your fault!". At 3:00, Cap'n Mitch and his "Cartoon Lagoon" started. At 4:00, two mid 50's sitcoms. at 5:00, the Dinner movie at 7:00, two more sitcoms, then "The Big Movie". after the big movie, it was "The Late Movie", by Midnight, they signed off.

Thats right kids, in the old days Ron Popiel, Christy Lane, and Guthy/Renker didn't rule the late night airwaves, they just turned the damn thing off. Off! can you believe it!

Oh, and if youre wondering about cable? Sacramento didnt get cable till after Leningrad got cable.

HDTV is like UHF channel 40 in 1972. You want to like it, but frankly, theres not a whole lot there.

Now, I love HDTV. My problem is the providers dont PROVIDE HDTV. Content for HDTV is equivalent to the mid '70s UHF channels. Travelogs, an occasional movie, not much. Why do I bring it up now? Because tonight is the start of the Olympics. So, I say to myself "oooh booy! the Olympics in HDTV, that'll be great.

Oh, you dont live in New York or LA? dang. Sorry, No HDTV Olympics for you then.

I get on the phone, 1800-DIRECTV, ask them whats the story on NBC HD. Ha! Unless I live in a city with an NBC "Owned and Operated", I'm hosed. When I say hosed I mean I have to watch the local affiliate.

The thing is, I hate the local affiliate. Local news is whats keeping aliens from visiting earth. You ever watch the news locally? I dont think Saigon saw the kind of chaos and disaster that are reported on the local news nightly. If I have to watch local news, I'd rather watch someone elses local news. I dont care if a school in my town burns down, but if a school goes up in Seattle, Im fixated.

The other thing is, If I use the local affiliate, I have to use the HDTV over-the-air antenna.

Digital Satellite - 500 channels, but to get the crap content of ABC CBS and NBC, I have to use modern style rabbit ears. Now when I say crap content, you have to realize that a big chunk of the weekly HDTV time goes to two shows, both of which are CSI. And forget about using the Tivo, Tivo doesnt record in HDTv, so I have one more indignity to endure. I have to sit and watch the show live commercials and all. Its so degrading. If I want HDTV, I have to (gasp!) sit down and watch the show. I have to remember to be there at a specific time. I feel like my father listening to the Jack Benny show on the family radio in 1944.

I Really like the fact that I spent $1500 for a an HDTV capable TV. I'm ok with the $500 I spent on a directv receiver. I try not to think about the fact that its all for TV shows for which I wouldnt buy the DVDs if they became available.

Help me out here Directv. I really want to be a fan.

Posted @ August 13, 2004 10:16 AM | HDTV Olympics | Comments (6)

The Boss and The Gov

Well it seems that theres been trouble in the capitol of New Jersey. Seems the govenor there got himself in a bit of a jam. Its been hard for me though to get a picture of whats really going on. But thats because the "Sage of New Jersey", the man they call "The Boss" hasnt told me how to think about this yet.

You see, I count on the "The Boss" to tell me what is and what is not in the world today. How can I, a poor working class man like myself figure out the compexities of life without an aging rock star to tell me how to think. I mean "The Boss" must've known for some time that the govenor was as corrupt as anything produced out of tammany hall. I'm sure if I do a google search, we will find that he warned us all about the dangers that mcgreevy represented. I'm just waiting for the news conference where "The Boss" reminds us that he was right all along abut Mcgreevy and hes right about Bush.

It should be completely obvious to anyone with a brain that since "the Boss" has done such a fine job of warning us about "bushitler" that since Mcgreevy is a New Jersey Politician, that Bruce must've done his homework. I'll bet Bruce has a dossier a mile thick on this guy and hes just moving the information through channels. In fact, I'll bet it was "the Boss" who exposed the guy for the crook that he most clearly is.

I'll bet that Mcgreevy is really a Republican! He just used that "Gay thing" to cover up the shame of being discovered as a member of the GOP. I mean, if he was really gay, would his wife stand by him? I really question the timing of his coming out of the closet. This is only being done now to hurt Kerry and its clear that Mcgreevy was pushed by Ashcroft.

Come on Bruce, I need you to tell me how to think!

Posted @ August 13, 2004 09:14 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Pardon My Dust!

After a year of hanging around the blogosphere and making notes and comments, I have finally started the process of making my own blog. This Typepad account is just a way to get the discipline of writing daily and getting into the habits that come with setting up and maintaining a blog. I've begun the process in parallel of setting up a domain and hosting service, as well as contracting the services of the god-like sekimori for the final design.

Why not wait for that? well hell, I figure the process of setting up a real domain based blog is something that would be fun to write about, so its kind of a "chicken and egg" thing. Gotta have a blog to write about setting up a blog.

Heres What I hope to offer here at Varifrank:

I think a blog is like a good party. The host (thats me) brings issues to the table, and the guests ( thats you ) bring out the flavor of the dish. Good parties arent made up of vanilla people all from the same background, the best parties look like "Delta House", not "Omega House". I am - A Delta if there ever was one, Im practically a "dorfman legacy pledge". I encourage debate, I like arguments as long as they are about the issue at hand and not the person bringing the argument. The minute you make the argument about the person bringing the info rather than the info itself, you just lost the argument. This is not a democracy here at Varifrank, its a blog, correctly speaking, its my blog. Its like living in Washington D.C, you get to participate, but you don't get to vote.

I have my biases, I dont pretend to be an unbiased observer. If you are truthful you'll admit that you are biased as well. I like bias. I want you to be biased. I dont like fruity journalist weenies who couldnt cut drama class in school who now want to "make a difference" with their lives trying to tell me that they are disinterested observers. Im not 15 years old, if you were disinterested, you wouldnt be there covering the story. You want to make a difference? then put on a uniform and fight for freedom. "My human shield is a Marine" - get it?

I take hints, I listen to advice. I like people from the leftist paradigm. I even like Democrats and Socialsts. Heck, I used to be one! For the record, I dont hate anybody. I might argure with you for hours at a time and then go have a beer with you afterwards. Its been known to happen on more than one occaision. Don't confuse sprited defense of liberty as not "liking" you. Our unnofficial motto here at Varifrank is "Its not about you".

My first job is to figure out how to get my blogroll onto this toolset. thats probably worth 3 paragraphs right there.

Posted @ August 13, 2004 02:20 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)