Baghdad Bob Is Still in Business!

New York Times shock columnist, Bob Herbert, has taken up the cause and tactics of Saddam’s ex-communications director, Baghdad Bob. In a March 19th column, Bob revealed that the ACLU is initiating a lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld. Their client is an Iraqi named Arkan Mohammed Ali. Ali claims to have been: stabbed, shocked, beaten, hooded, striped naked, urinated on, and buried alive. The ACLU joins seven other former detainees and the Human Rights First group in the suit. They claim that Secretary Rumsfeld personally authorized unlawful interrogation techniques. Herbert excoriates Rumsfeld without evidence and surely without proof. He vaguely references “a myriad [of] newspaper and magazine articles”, none of which he quotes, he mentions “U.S. government reports”, none of which he sites, and “such reputable groups as the International Committee of the Red Cross”. He does not tell us what the supposed authorities have to say about Rumsfeld, nor does he explain why he might consider the International Committee of the Red Cross a reputable group.

It is disheartening to me that Baghdad Bob “II” refuses to give Donald Rumsfeld; a man who has done more than most to protect Mr. Herbert and the ACLU’s freedoms; the same “innocent until proven guilty” defense they demanded for Michael Jackson and the terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay. Realizing that any half-baked or vengeful idiot can shark up a lawyer to file a law suit; I challenge the motivation of these litigants and their propagandists in the “Media”. Their motivation is to condemn the administration, the Secretary of Defense, and our military. Once again, filled with “Bush hate”, they inspire the assault on America.

I maintain that Donald Rumsfeld has done a great deal to protect and spread the blessings of freedom thoughout the world. Remember when and where it was that our military failed. Under Bill Clinton, our troops were driven, tail between their legs, from Mogadishu; America stood by while at least half a million Rwandans were hacked to death by machetes; it took 250,000 murders in the former Yugoslavia before Clinton, concerned for his legacy, took action. When a bunch of drunken hoods turned back the US Marine Corps in Haiti, Bin Laden made his decision. Bin Laden believed that the cowards in charge of America’s government during the Clinton adminitration were representative of all Americans. Hence he set in motion the bombing of our embassies in Africa, our ships in the Red Sea, and our citizens in New York and Washington D.C. But on 9/11 the enemies of American found out there was a different administration in power. A very important part of that administration was and is Donald Rumsfeld.

Whenever I hear groups like the ACLU, the International Red Cross, Human Rights First, or their lackeys in the media attacking Rumsfeld, I recall the claims they made in the days before the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. With eager confidence they told us that America would be defeated by the Taliban; after all the left’s heroes – the USSR - had been. It was interesting to note at the time that the "News" Magazine articles predicting the defeat of America in Afghanistan came out on the stands after the surrender of the Taliban. Victory in Afghanistan came so quickly that the Media "know-it-alls" couldn’t even pull their fraudulent stories in time to print reports of America’s success. Perhaps you remember the left’s predictions that America's army in Iraq would be bogged down and slaughtered along the banks of the Euphrates. The left predicted 20,000 American deaths in the days before our troops were thrown back into the sea. It never happened – so the enemies of American have had to cook up new definitions of failure, new exaggerated disasters, to support their design of embarrassing America. Rather than showing America’s military and its leaders the respect and gratitude they are due, the ACLU, the Human Rights First group, and the New York Times set about to use the courts to raise yet another false screen of stomach-turning propaganda to shame the United States in the eyes of the world.

I might not know everything about America's War on Terror, but if the world the ACLU and Baghdad Bob II hope for comes to be, none of us will be here to discuss it.

The Trial and Death of Terry Schiavo: To Kill a Mockingbird

Socrates died unjustly, but he died in obedience to the law. Five hundred and one citizen jurors decided his fate and he would not flee the consequence of their folly. The judicial murder of Socrates demonstrates that legal injustice is nothing new.

Let’s examine the termination of Terry Schiavo with this thought in mind.

First of all – everything done as this tragedy has unfolded has been legal according to the small “ l ” sort of law; the laws that are made by men and placed on the books of the Florida state and the American federal governments. The state judge acted under the law by declaring Mike Schiavo, Terry’s guardian. According to Florida law, the Guardian does have the power to dictate the fate of a helpless person if that person has not taken the opportunity to let their own will be known in a written document. The Congress of the United States had the duty to pass a law mandating the federal court to review the case. The President of the United States followed the law of the land when he signed the bill passed by the Congress. Once in the federal court the federal judges followed the law when they chose to uphold the original ruling concerning Mike Schiavo’s authority over the life and death of his wife. The Governor of Florida followed the statues of the state when he asked a department of social welfare to intervene. The Florida judge acted legally when he placed an injunction on saving Terry’s life until after he has ruled on its legality. And on and on it goes.

Secondly – many heart-wrenching truths and conjectures make this a challenging situation to the consciences of observers. These include:

1. There is no way of knowing Terry’s true desires in this situation.

2. Mike Schiavo has acted in a way that questions the quality of his guardianship.

3. Terry’s condition is open to interpretation and debate.

Thirdly – The law has neither a heart nor a conscience; its course is not dictated by truth or justice

As I have read and discussed the Trial and Death of Socrates I have often wished I could have been there. I have wondered if I might have saved him. The truth is that I could not have stopped his poisoning any more than he was able to. The law demanded obedience. However, I have long rejoiced in the belief that, had Socrates been accused of “disrespecting the gods of the state”, “teaching false gods”, and “corrupting the youth” in an American court, he would have been acquitted. I believe that centuries of reflection on truth and justice have crafted laws that would have done right by Socrates.

I found myself helpless in my desire to spare the life of Terry Schiavo. I look upon her cruel death with all the disgust I hold for the hemlock that killed the “best of men”. I call for an examination of the small “ l ” law that could force such injustice. We must reexamine this death so that, in future, we might align our legal power with the right. To make this transition I call for two maturing evolutions to our system.

First, we must make a careful examination of the role of the courts in our government. Like the two hundred and fifty one votes that decided every case in ancient Athens, our present judiciary seeks to place itself above all other authority. There must be a reexamination of judicial supremacy. The law is not solely the province of the courts and to pretend it is places the natural rights of citizens in jeopardy to the caprice of an oligarchy of diploma touting tyrants. The separation of powers was originally intended to be between the President (the monarchy) the Senate (the Aristocracy) and the House of Representatives (the people – the democracy). The creation of a court of last resort in the judiciary is an extra Constitutional concoction of the courts themselves. Their elevation from the subordinate role spelled out in the Constitution, to that of equal (even superior) to the elected representatives of the people; is something that needs to be carefully reexamined in the light of this week’s disaster.

Secondly – a careful examination of the unalienable right we call life is demanded. Modern technology and medicine have vastly extended the possibilities of life. Those who crafted our government to defend life did not comprehend the ambiguity that would engulf the term. Like a rising tide, possibilities have swamped the simple “on\off” switch marked life and death. Man’s every evolving abilities have created in our present world a problem of understanding which must be clarified if truth and justice are to be obtained.

I close by asking you to think about the story presented in To Kill a Mockingbird. Remember that the folks of Macomb, GA accepted without too much question the "facts" of the law. Black men could not be trusted, white jurors could not doubt a white man or trust a black one. Are we to be like Jem and Scout, and in a childlike way accept the failings of our legal system, or are we to take the broader lesson of Lee’s warning and reach out for truth and justice. I can’t help but think that most Americans would choose not to live like Boo, but not knowing “Boo’s” will, isn’t it a sin to kill a mockingbird?

Marx Is Dead - Privatize the World

My students and I have been discussing the effects and impacts of the Industrial Revolution. With the Bush Social Security Personal Accounts in mind . . . wouldn’t it be wonderful if the enormous aggregation of energy, resources, and capital produced by the twentieth century were to have a result that was the exact opposite from Marx’s prediction? Wouldn’t it be one of the sweetest ironies in history if through the privatization of Social Security – made possible by the gigantic surplus of wealth produced by industrialization -- a bourgeois world appeared? Rather than the human economy evolving into a socialist super state were the individual disappears and where no one owns anything, what if there is created a society were each individual has enough wealth to live as he pleases and where, after a life time of ease and progress, he can pass his fortune on to his heirs?

Democrat Party - D. P. - Despise and Prevent

It is painful to see a party once considered progressive; a political force once famous for caring “for the little guy”; my father’s party; decay into a spiteful monster determined to prevent anything that might bring success to American. Here are some examples you might consider:

1. Democrats will stop at nothing to support abortion on demand (call it the right to kill) -*- How they must despise the unborn to be so determined to prevent their birth. The most helpless of human beings – the voiceless unborn - have no defense against the judicial legislation of Democrat appointed judges who, as Democrats once fought to support slave owners right to property over black peoples right to liberty, now fight for a “woman’s right” to choose death for a baby over that baby’s right to life.

2. Democrats and their appointed judicial lackeys block the law of the land and the will of loving parents to force the removal of Terry Schiavo’s feeding tube - *-With no way of knowing what Ms Schiavo wants Democrats opt for her death. Democrats demonstrate how they despise life and are determined to prevent it even though this means the most gruesome sort of suffering – slow and agonizing death by thrust and starvation. To “right to kill Democrats”, if a person has no voice they have no right to life. Democrats fear that Terry’s voiceless cry might call attention to the 1,000,000 other children cut off each year from their feeding tubes while in the womb. Realize, if our prison wardens killed by thirst and starvation the murdering terrorists that have slaughtered our heroes and assaulted our nation, those wardens would be justly condemned as Monsters. Yet judges, legislating their despite for this precious life, seek to prevent Terry from living. The President has called for “erring” on the side of life. Just to prevent Bush from saving a life Democrats find themselves cheering for death by torture.

3. Democrats seek to stop drilling for oil in ANWR and elsewhere in the Artic Oil Reserve -*- While our enemies rejoice in our economic challenges and seek to override our prosperity by withholding or overcharging for fuel, the Democrats attempt to prevent Americ from using its own resources. Democrats do this because they despise American success, success that will bring vindication to George Bush and force the Democrat's failed policies into the wilderness.

4. Democrats, who despise President Bush, are determined to prevent him from saving Social Security -*- While admitting that the security of future generations is in danger Democrats, and I quote Nancy P. from CA, call out to, “stop, stop, stop! the reform of Social Security.” Here we see bitter Democrats poking holes in our national lifeboat in an attempt to drown the captain!

5. To defend their last foothold of unjust power Democrats unconstitutionally block the up or down vote on Judges appointed by the President. George Bush was chosen by a clear majority in open and free elections. If his picks as judges are unfit for service, Democrats can prove this in open debate. Knowing they have no case Democrats seek by subterfuge to prevent the will of the people, the President, and the Majority of the senate. American wants the Senate to confirm Judges that will strictly interpret the Constitution rather than legislate from the bench. Democrats, knowing their last hold on power is to control judges, seek to keep the judiciary in the hands of their cronies. Thus they despise and prevent the progress of the Senate.

6. Most painfully, Democrats do everything they can to destory success and discover failure in Iraq. Remembering their last great victory at despise and prevent - the Vietnam anti war movement - they seek to drag our nation back down the road of self doubt and dismay. Despising President Bush they seek to prevent the spread of freedom.

Democrats need to return to their roots – to the needs of the “little guy”, to the defense of the weak as they seek to do right. The White House and the Congress have been placed in the hands of the Republican Party by the American people. If the Democrats believe this was a mistake they can do and say the things necessary to convince the voters to vote for them, but they do not. Bankrupt of ideas, bereft of morality, and sinking daily further and further towards irrelevance and extinction they have chosen to Despise and Prevent!

Enviro-Jihad

Last Week's WSU class covered Environmental Revolution. I had "faced" the "instructor" before. In a seminar on Eco-terrorism she had justified spiking trees and burning down sky lodges by claiming that 100 species a day are going extinct. I had asked her to name the last species which had become extinct. She said she didn’t know. I asked her to name any species which had gone extinct since the passenger pigeon. She could not. She said these lists were kept somewhere. Where? I asked.. She sugested the web sittes of several activist groops. My son later explained to me how environmentalists come up with the estimated "100 species a day extinct" number. They dig through the ruins of a harvested rain forest tree and see how many creatures they can discover that they don’t have a name for. They then assume these were new and unique species and that now their tree is gone they are extinct. Multiply that number of species by the number of trees cut down a day and you come up with the per-day number of species becomeing extinct. Weard isn’t it!?!

This week the professor unleashed her assault on America and modernization. An attack which probably goes over wonderfully well with the entranced "tweens" of her WSU classes. There were many flashes in the running two hour battle that the “discussion” developed into. Here I note only the climax. She handed round a “quiz”. It was a Sierra Club survey from the January/February 2003 Sierra magazine. It claimed to be able to determine how many acres of land one requires to live. No effort was expended in explaining the rational behind any of the formulas: – vegens are scored at 0.46 while those who almost always eat meat get a 1.14, a person who eats unpackaged local food is graded at 0.69 while those who eat out of package imports rate a 1.1. Then these numbers are run through a mysterious formula Q1 X Q2 X 5.5 = the number of acres required to provide your food. Other factors including shelter and mobility are cranked through equally obscure formula and in the end one’s total “foot print” on the earth is established. Though no questions could get the professor to justify the math; she boldly claimed that the average American exploits 24 acres in living while there are only 5 acres of land per person in the world. Her conclusion: the rest of the world cannot develop the standard of living that Americans enjoy. Her implication: Americans use more than their fair share - therefore it is OK to hate them. The Sierra Club’s quiz culminates with this ominious perdiction: “Population growth will reduce resources available to each person in the future.” -- Oh yah, there was a special “TAKE ACTION note” “ . . . go to the Sierra Club’s Web site at www.sierraclub.org/footprint . . . A second section invites you to "become a member of the Sierra Club’s activist network. It’s one good way for busy people to work for changes that will reduce everyone’s footprint. – K. T.” The Professor went on to list a host of ecological disasters: deforestation, shortage of fresh water, global climate change, depletion of the ocean fisheries, the continued production of DDT. She said that it was impossible for the people of the Africa to ever live at the standard of living that “we here in the US enjoy.” I asked her how her predictions of gloom and doom differed from those of Malthus from the 19th century. She replied that Malthus may well have been right – that the earth will someday reach its carrying capacity. I pointed out the technology had trumped Malthus, She said she preferred the word postponed. I asked here if she was aware of the aqua farming that was producing the endless supply of seafood Americans now consume at the Sizzler’s all you can eat buffet. She said that there are reports that indicate there are higher levels of Mercury in Farm Razed fish. I replied if such was the case – surely that could be fixed. She said she didn’t want to live in a world were there were no wild salmon. I said if it came down to African people having a decent standard of living or maintaining populations of wild salmon; I was for the Africans. She said it didn’t have to come to that. I said, that I knew that and that people say these things just for political purposes. Realizing that the discussion had led her in the opposite direction from where she had intended the class to go, she ended her lecture. As you consider my “arrogant” rant against my professor please also consider these two articles available last week.


The Readers Digest (Not the most prestigious scientific journal but considered quite reliable) carried an article by Gregg Easterbrook (A visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of The Progress Paradox) He begins, “So here’s the good news: our air is cleaner, our lakes are purer, our forests are healthier, endangered species are recovering, toxic emissions are down, and acid rain has diminished dramatically.” (pg81) Easterbrook goes on to support these claims specifically. Among the arguments for good news no the environment is some pretty convincing impractical evidence. “Improved Air Quality – Los Angeles went from 150 days per year in violation of smog standards in 1990 to just 27 in 2004” (pg82); “Better Water Quality – just a generation ago, factories and municipal plants actually discharged untreated wastewater directly into rivers; today . . . almost all wastewater in the United States is treated before discharge.. . The Chicago River went from smelly and dirty to sparkling , and is now the setting for dinner cruises.” (pg 85); “Animals are Back – Only one animal species is know to have gone extinct in the United States in the last 15 years, the dusky seaside sparrow. During the same period, numerous other species once described as certain to become extinct – including the Arctic peregrine falcon, the brown pelican, the gray whale, and the bald eagle. . . have recovered sufficiently enough that they are no longer classified as imperiled.” (pg 85) “Forests Are Growing - . . . early in the 19th century, the state of Connecticut was 25 percent forest; today, Connecticut is fully 59 percent forested, though its population has increased twelve fold, from 275,000 to 3.46 million” (pgs 85 – 86). Least anyone claim that these gains are not to be credited to Reagan and the Bush as well as Carter and Clinton; “ Steady environmental improvements have taken place across th4e board, regardless of which party is in the White house or controlling Congress. During the last four years air pollution has continued to decline improvements in technology have reduced emissions, the amount of protected lands is on the uptick . . .”(pg 86) Easterbrook goes on to paint a most hopeful and positive picture of the environment under the “1st world” control of the United States. It seems clear that giving Africans the same standard of living as we enjoy here in the US would probably greatly improve the world’s environment.
The Readers Digest is not alone in recognizing the success of technology and nature. Surprisingly, Nicholas D. Kristof, took a partial break from Bush Bashing in the New York Times to dedicate his March 12th column to debunking the “natural disaster on its way myth”. The following quotes are from “I Have a Nightmare”
1. Kristof begins by quoting Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus:’s web article “The Death of Environmentalism”. “. . . modern environmentalism, with all of its unexamined assumptions, out dated concepts and exhausted strategies, must die so that something new can live.”
2. “The fundamental problem, as I see it, is that environmental groups are too often alarmist. They have an awful track record, so they’ve lost credibility with the public.”
3. “In the 1970’s, the environmental movement was convinced that the Alaska oil pipeline would devastate the Central Arctic caribou heard. Since then, it has quintupled.
4. “When I first began to worry about climate change, global cooling and nuclear winter seemed the main risks. As Newsweek said in 1975: “Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the cooling trend . . . but they are all most unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century.”
5. “Environmentalists were right about DDT’s threat to bald eagles, for example, but blocking all spraying in the third world has led to hundreds of thousands of malaria deaths.”
Unfortunately Kristof’s break from bashing the President couldn’t be sustained for a single page editorial. He claims in paragraph three of his piece that “Oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may be approved soon, [It is now in the budget] and there’s been no progress whatsoever in the U.S. on what may be the single most important issue to Earth in the long run: climate change.” He then ends his editorial with this self-contradictory claim. “ . . . irreversible changes are precisely what are at stake with the Bush administration’s plans to drill in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, to allow roads in virgin wilderness, and to do essentially nothing on global warming. “

Kristof can’t see that his fears about ANWR and global warming are just as “alarmist” and incredible as the promised devastation that was to have followed the Alaska pipeline or the Ice Age that was bearing down on us in the 70”s. Even as Kristof attempts to present objective truth his hate for Bush pulls him back into Lahlah land to make the same silly claims with which enviro-fanatics are embarrassed themselves out of existence. Kristof probably doesn’t expect his readers to finish his article or to see it in context of “The Death of Environmentalism”.

Oil exploration on ANWR will do almost no environmental damage. If the precedent of Connecticut and the Alaska Pipeline are accepted, it will no doubt improve the Alaskan environment. The resulting fuel supply might well power the wealth necessary to bring a higher and safer standard of living to millions in the US and around the world. But environmentalism has been co-opted by anti-American politics. The purpose of its propaganda is to fuel the hatred of America. By justifying the anger of the people of other nations against America, environmental alarmists join many others in their drive to destroy America and the freedom America seeks to spread throughout the world. Wheather these people are motivated by money, like the Sierra Club, or politics, like the New York Times; rather than channeling the world energy resources into solving the challenges of living on earth and improving the lives of all peoples, such fanatics stir up fear and hate that topples reason.

NPR Stupid

Listening to NPR has long been an adrenalin rush for me. I’m not much for biker bars – but listening to our tax funded propaganda machine gives me my daily dose of suffering. This morning I decide to keep track of the News and Feature stories presented to see if my opinion of the daily does of disaster was real or imagined. Here’s a total report of every topic discussed. Feel free to draw you own conclusions – I have already tipped my hand.

7:00 AM - TOP OF THE HOUR news presented the following reports:
1. Two Baghdad bombings kill 10 Iraqi soldiers.
2. Gunmen kill one of Saddam’s judges and the judge’s lawyer son.
3. Hong Kong Head being forced to resign after Beijing loses faith in him.
4. Debate in Congress – Democrats push bankruptcy exemption for combat vets.
5. Ten Commandments to be debated before Supreme Court today.
6. Death Penalty of juveniles ruled unconstitutional.
7. Bush assignation plotter held without bond.
8. Rejection of “Gay Bashing” law in Kansas.
9. Home mortgage applications down although sales are up. Price of homes up 11.2% for the last year.

KUED comes on for their “local” report;
1. Three Legislative bills discussed
a. Call for money for nursing home for vets.
b. More freedom for midwives stalled!
c. Different colored drivers-privilege card being forced on Undocumented Aliens
2. Springdale town manager pleads guilty.
3. Utah home prices go up! Utah now 37th in nation – well below national average but headed up.

FETURE STORIES:
1. Supreme Court on the Ten Commandments – Most displays put up in the last 50 years were publicity stunts for the Ten Commandments Movie.
2. (Utah Report) 5A Basketball state scores – Jazz to play.
3. Howard Dean – Like a Rock Star in Mississippi reenergizes the party from the ground up.
4. Dateline Vermont: - statewide town meetings vote to oppose the use of Vermont National Guard Troops in Iraq war.

Bottom of the Hour news:
1. Killing of Iraqi Judge
2. Killing of Iraqi soliders
3. Ten Commandments debated at Supreme Court.
4. Bill before congress will make it harder to erase debut through bankruptcy – Dems want more exclusions.

Utah at the Bottom of the Hour
1. Drivers permit for aliens is called raciest.
2. Attack on No Child Left Behind blocked
3. Sales Tax (State portion) earmarked for road repair – taking money away from education and other programs.
4. Privacy destroyed by driving privilege card – the opponents of the bill hold up picture of dead Marine to show that undocumented aliens serve their country and then are humiliated by raciest color coded cards. Undocumented labor [exploited] for the advantage of Utah’s economy.

Next FETURE STORIES:

1. Home land security putting ankle bracelets on illegal aliens rather than putting them in prisons while awaiting their court dates. Reporter claimed that “runaway aliens” are the government’s fault.
2. Bernard Evans World Com. trial.
3. World of Work – “What is Tom Daschle up to now that he is out of office?” Sounds fun!! Boy we miss him! Options: Think Tanks? Law Firms? Investment Institutions? US Senate?

TOP OF THE HOUR NEWS – repeats 7:00 AM stories.

NEXT FEATURE STORIES:
1. Car Levin (Democrat Senator who voted against the war) is brought on to assess the successes in the war on terror of the last few months. His assessment – there have been no real success yet – everything could still fall apart – give us ten years to know for sure.
2. Egypt’s President has released opposition leaders and called for multi party arrangement – This is discussed by an Egyptian Enemy of Mubarak who is asked if it can be attributed to Bush – when he says yes, his interviewer points out that the most powerful opposition groups are terrorist organizations. He is asked if associating democracy with Bush will damage its chances in the Middle East.
3. Full story on court striking down juvenile death penalty and predictions that “life without parole” will also be considered cruel and unusual punishment. NPR gave support to the idea that other nations could determine US law.
4. Dead Cubin author memorialized by a movie maker – This was a Cubin living in excel and trying to keep freedom alive for his people.

BOTTOM OF THE HOUR NEWS:
1. Giant Lobster that no one could eat – it just wouldn’t be right!.
2. Killings in Baghdad
3. Bombings in Baghdad
4. Madrid bombers linked to New York Subway
5. US concerns about Iranian Nuclear program
6. Ten Commandments debated in Supreme Court

BOTTOM OF THE HOUR FROM KUER:
1. Colored licenses for illegal aliens
2. Utah angry over No Child Left Behind – bill HB135 blocked for now. Utah’s “Red State” status makes White House nervous.
3. State budget limitations – highway investment fund. HB 18
4. Driving Privilege card once more mentioning “extorting” labor and racial profiling.

LAST FIFTEEN MINUETS – Human Interest Stories:
1. Matsui’s wife – she is running as a democrat for her dead husband’s empty congressional seat. The story turns into a political commercial for Ms. Matsui
2. Basketball story by Frank DeForge which talks about the “White Man’s Disease” that makes European Basketball players better that American Whites and European style of BB superior to American – example – our loss in the last Olympics.
3. A discussion of capitalist patronage of 18th century music.

9:00 AM - At last the two hours were up. The only story that could be construed as “conservative” was the one about the Dead Cuban author. But how conservative can a Cuban be?. Boy could we use a good biker bar!

Oil and Water - and the Fall of Troy

As Clytemnestra saw the beacon blaze forth beyond Argos, she knew that Troy was destroyed. In her mind she heard the sounds of the fall of Troy; the joy of the Greeks, safe, and homeward bound after ten years campaigning; and the Trojan women wailing for their husbands, lovers, and sons – all dead – their city in flames; their future, slavery. A cacophony of joy and pain which, like oil and water, would not mix.

Back in 1988 “my” High School had a winning football team. I’m not sure that was the last time – but it seems like it was. Be that as it may; that year’s homecoming game was against Bonneville High – the top rated team in the state. Both banks of bleachers were packed – the excitement mounted as the clock ran down with a tie score on the boards. In the overtime that followed, our team got the ball halfway down the field, only seconds on the clock. Our handsome kicker came out onto the field, barefoot, his long blond hair bushing out of his helmet. Amid defining screams the blares of trumpets and the roar of drums and cymbals he kicked the ball fifty yards down the field and through the uprights as the overtime gun cracked. That beautiful fall evening under the lights there was a soft breeze blowing and the grass was so green it hurt your eyes. We cheered and cheered and cheered, the band played, the team left the field but the cheerleaders stayed to dance. The band played on. For fifteen minutes not one Lancer left; the joy went on and on. At last the crowd broke and laughing and hugging we started for the field. It was then I looked across to the Bonneville side. There was no one there! The Bonneville fans had left the field – the emptiness of the stands spoke of their dismay more clearly than tears and lamentation

Today voices cry out in similar discord; winners and losers bellowing forth in sounds that will not mix. Today, twenty five thousand Lebanese stood in the streets of Beirut calling for freedom, “the fire that burns in dark places”, kindled by our heroes sacrifice and by the courage of a President who does what he says. Meanwhile on the floor of the US Senate, Robert Byrd rants about Hitler, condemning the rule of law. In the Holy Land, Israelis and Palestinians standing together against terror – hopeful at last, that murderers can be faced down and sovereignty returned to the hands of the people. Their hope kindled in a world where, at last, power stands for justice. At the same time, the ACLU sues Donald Rumsfeld for torturing terrorists; charges which they cannot support – their only purpose, to voice their discontent with freedom's victory.

Let’s cheer for just a few minutes. Let’s cheer the field goals of freedom kicked as the clock ran down. The landslide victory of George W. Bush in November 2004, the ouster of Putin’s puppet in the Ukraine, the 8,000,000 votes cast “under fire” in Iraq, the Death of the terror monster Yasser Arafat, the election’s held in Gaza and the West Bank, the Courage of the Lebanese facing down Syria, the capture of Saddam’s little brother ( his name not worth remembering), the rebounding American economy, the return of the space shuttle, the flu epidemic that wasn’t, George W’s triumphant tour of Europe, Condoleeza Rice, the death penalty for children declared unconstitutional, Osama and Al Zarkawi on the run, the end of the drought in the west, global warming cooling, 200,000 Iraqi troops in training, North Korea returning to six party talks, Iran and France at each other’s throat. All right now, let’s head out onto the field. Hey,look at the other bleachers; they're empty. No, no wait, there’s Robert Byrd flipping us off from the fifty yard line. Isn’t he cute!