Defending the War on Terror

On Thursday, October 6th, President Bush delivered the speech we have all been waiting for. I have it before me and have listened to all forty minuets of it five times. I didn't play it for my Art History Class – but all the rest of my classes got it beginning to end – then commentary.
Here are some highlights. I have divided the speech with my own headings, but the numbered quotes are the President’s words.

Since the founding of The National Endowment for Democracy by President Reagan American sacrifice has spread freedom and peace to much of the world.

1. ". . . all the cost and sacrifice of that struggle has been worth it, because, from Latin America to Europe to Asia, we've gained the peace that freedom brings."

The world now faces a new world wide enemy set on destroying peace and freedom – and we must sacrifice again.

2. ". . . freedom is once again assaulted by enemies determined to roll back generations of democratic progress. Once again, we're responding to a global campaign of fear with a global campaign of freedom."

3. "Recently our country observed the fourth anniversary of a great evil, and looked back on a turning point in our history. We still remember a proud city covered in smoke and ashes, a fire across the Potomac, and passengers who spent their final moments on Earth fighting the enemy. We still remember the men who rejoiced in every death and Americans in uniform rising to duty. . . We will confront this mortal danger to all humanity. We will not tire, or rest, until the war on terror is won."

President Bush then listed many other places were terrorists have attacked and the innocent nature of their victims. This is a world wide war, a real war against a real and determined enemy. The President described this enemy which he calls ISLAMIC RADICALISM.

4. 'Yet while the killers choose their victims indiscriminately, their attacks serve a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs and goals that are evil, but not insane."

5. "This form of radicalism exploits Islam to serve a violent, political vision; the establishment, by terrorism and subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom."

6. "Many . . . are part of global, borderless terrorist organizations like al Qaeda . . . Other militants are found in regional groups, often associated with al Qaeda . . . insurgencies and separatist movements . . . Still others spring up in local cells, inspired by Islamic radicalism. . . Yet . . . [all] . . . share a similar ideology and vision for our world."

President Bush then presents that ideology and vision.

7. "We know the vision of the radicals because they've openly stated it. . . First . . . to end American and Western influence in the broader Middle East, because we stand for democracy and peace, and stand in the way of their ambitions. . . . Osama bin Laden, has called on Muslims to dedicate, quote, their "resources, sons and money to driving the infidels out of their lands." . . . They hit us and expect us to run. They want us to repeat the sad history of Beirut in 1983, and Mogadishu in 1993 – only this time on a larger scale, with greater consequences."

8. "Second, the militant network wants to use the vacuum created by an American retreat to gain control of a country, a base from which to launch attacks and conduct their war against non-radical Muslim governments. . . . They achieved their goal, for a time, in Afghanistan. Now they've set their sights on Iraq. . . . The terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity. And we must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war on terror."

9. Third, the militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia. With greater economic and military and political power, the terrorists would be able to advance their stated agenda; to [1] develop weapons of mass destruction, [2] to destroy Israel, [3] to intimidate Europe, [4] to assault the American people, [5] and to blackmail our government into isolation."

10. ". . . Zarquwi has vowed. "We will either achieve victory over the human race or we will pass to the eternal life."

The past teaches the clear lesson of why we must fight:

11. ". . . the civilized world knows very well that other fanatics in history, from Hitler to Stalin to Pol Pot, consumed whole nations in war and genocide . . . Evil men, obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience, must be taken very seriously – and we must stop them before their crimes can multiply."

President Bush then goes on to explain how the radicals plan to and can grow in power.

12. ". . . it thrives, like a parasite, on the suffering and frustration of others. The radicals exploit local conflict to build a culture of victimization, in which someone else is always to blame and violence is always the solution. They exploit resentful and disillusioned young men and women, recruiting them through radical mosques as pawns of terror. . . . Islamic Radicalism is also magnified by helpers and enablers. They have been sheltered by authoritarian regimes, allies of convenience like Syria and Iran. That share the goal of hurting American and moderate Muslim governments, and use terrorist propaganda to blame their own failures on the West and American and on the Jews. These radicals depend on front operations, such as corrupted charities, which direct money to terrorist activity.
They're strengthened by those who . . . fund the spread of radical, intolerant . . . Islam . . . aided . . . by elements of the Arab news media that incite hatred and anti-Semitism, that feed conspiracy theories and speak of a so-called American "war on Islam"."

President Bush then deals decisively and brilliantly with those in the blame America crowd, showing the folly of appeasement.

13. "Some have also argued that extremism has been strengthened by the
actions of our coalition in Iraq. . . . I would remind them that we
were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001 – and al Qaeda attacked us anyway. The hatred of the radicals existed before Iraq was an issue, and it will exist after Iraq is no longer an excuse. . . .
Over the years these extremists have used a litany of excuses for violence – the Israeli presence on the West Bank, or the U. S.
military presence in Saudi Arabia, or the defeat of the Taliban, or the Crusades of a thousand years ago. In fact, we're not facing a set of grievances that can be soothed and addressed. We're facing a radical ideology with inalterable objectives; to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world. No act of ours invited the rage of the killers – and no concession, bribe, or act of appeasement would change or limit their plans for murder.

14. "They target nations whose behavior they believe they can change through violence. Against such an enemy, there is only one effective
response: We will never back down, never give in, and never accept anything less than complete victory."

President Bush then aptly applies the lessons of History to the War on Terror. The perilous battle we must now win is eerie in its resemblance to the fight against the monster murder mania that was world wide communism.

15. "Like the ideology of communism, Islamic radicalism:

a) . . . is elitist, led by a self-appointed vanguard that presumes to speak for the Muslim masses. Bin Laden says his own role is to tell Muslims, quote, "what is good for them and what is not."

b) "Like . . . communism, our new enemy teaches that innocent individuals can be sacrificed to serve a political vision. And this explains their cold-blooded contempt for human life."

c) ". . . in spite of this veneer of religious rhetoric, most of the victims claimed by the militants are fellow Muslims. When 25 Iraqi children are killed in a bombing, or Iraqi teachers are executed at their school, or hospital workers are killed caring for the wounded, this is murder pure and simple – the total rejection of justice and honor and morality and religion. These militants are not just the enemies of America, or the enemies of Iraq, they are the enemies of Islam and the enemies of humanity. We have seen this kind of shameless cruelty before, in the heartless zealotry that led to the gulags, and the Cultural Revolution, and the killing fields."

d) ". . . our new enemy pursues totalitarian aims. Its leaders pretend to be an aggrieved party, representing the powerless against imperial enemies. In truth they have endless ambitions of imperial domination . . ."

e) "Under their rule, they have banned books, and desecrated historical monuments, and brutalized women. They seek to end dissent in every form, and to control every aspect of life, and to rule the soul, itself. While promising a future of justice and holiness, they terrorists are preparing for a future of oppression and misery."

f) our new enemy is dismissive of free peoples, claiming that men and women who live in liberty are weak and decadent. . . . But let us be
clear: It is cowardice that seeks to kill children and d the elderly with car bombs, and cuts the throat of a bound captive, and targets worshipers leaving a mosque. It is courage that liberated more that 50 million people. It is courage that keeps an untiring vigil against the enemies of a rising democracy. And it is courage in the cause of freedom that one again will destroy the enemies of freedom."

g) . . . like the ideology of communism, contains inherent contradictions that doom it to failure. By fearing freedom – by distrusting human creativity, and punishing change, and limiting the contributions of half the population - - this ideology undermines the very qualities that make human progress possible and human societies successful."

h) Those who despise freedom and progress have condemned themselves to isolation, decline, and collapse. Because free people believe in the future, free peoples will own the future."

President Bush then sets out three goals and describes five strategies that we are now and must continue to use in the fight against Islamic radicalism.

16. "Defeating a broad and adaptive network requires patience, constant pressure, and strong partners in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia and beyond.

17. "First . . . prevent the attacks of terrorist networks before they occur. . . . Together, we've killed or captured nearly all of those directly responsible for the September the 11th attacks; . . . the United states and our partners have disrupted at least ten serious al Qaeda terrorist plots since September the 11th, including three al Qaeda plots to attack inside the United States. We've stopped at least five more al Qaeda efforts to case targets in the United States, or infiltrate operatives into our country."

18. "Second, we're determined to deny weapons of mass destruction to outlaw regimes, and to their terrorist alls who would use them without hesitation."

19. "Third, we're determined to deny radical groups the support and sanctuary of outlaw regimes. . . The united States makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and harbor them, because they're equally as guilty of murder."

20. "Forth, we're determined to deny the militants control of any nation . . . and so we will defeat the enemy in Iraq."

President Bush then contrasts the efforts of our troops and our allies with those consumed by pessimism.

21. "Our coalition, along with our Iraqi allies, is moving forward with a comprehensive, specific military plan. [1] Area by area, city by city, we're conducting offensive operations to clear out the enemy forces, [2] and leaving behind Iraqi units to prevent the enemy for returning. . . . [3] we're working for tangible improvements in the lives of Iraqi citizens. [4] And we're aiding the rise of an elected government that unites the Iraqi people against extremism and violence."

22. "Some observers look at the job ahead and adopt a self-defeating pessimism. It is not justified. With every random bombing and with every funeral of a child, it becomes more clear that the extremists are not patriots, or resistance fighters – they are murderers at war with the Iraqi people . . ."

23 ". . . elected leaders of Iraq are proving to be strong and steadfast. By any standard or precedent of history, Iraq has made incredible political progress – from tyranny, to liberation, to national elections, to the writing of a constitution, in the space of two-and-a-half years. . . . the Iraqi military is gaining new capabilities and new confidence with every passing month. . . . no fair minded person should ignore, deny, or dismiss the achievements of the Iraqi people.”

President Bush then goes on to challenge those who doubt the commitment to democracy and freedom of Iraq and its people.

24. “We’ve heard it suggested that Iraq’s democracy must be on shaky ground because Iraqis are arguing with each other. But that’s the essence of democracy. . . “

25. “As Americans, we believe that people -- everywhere – prefer freedom to slavery, and that liberty, once chosen, improves the lives of all.”

President Bush next deals with those who would cut and run!

26. Some observers also claim that America would be better off by cutting our losses and leaving Iraq now. This is a dangerous illusion, refuted with a simple question: Would the Untied Stats and other free nations be more safe, or less safe, with Zarquwi and bin Laden [or Saddam] in control of Iraq, its people and its resources?

27. “There’s always a temptation, in the middle of a long struggle, to seek the quiet life, to escape the duties and problems of the word, and to hope the enemy grows weary of fanaticism and tired of murder. This would be a pleasant world, but it’s not the world we live in. The enemy is never tired, never sated, never content with yesterday’s brutality. This enemy considers every retreat of the civilized world as an invitation to greater violence. In Iraq, there is no peace without victory. We will keep our verve and we will win that victory.

President Bush next describes how free people can deny the militants future recruits; gain the support of the Muslim world. He give evidence that this process is in progress.

28. “The fifth element of our strategy . . . is to deny the militants future recruits by replacing hatred and resentment with democracy and hope across the broader Middle East. . . . If the peoples of that region are permitted to choose their own destiny, and advance by their own energy and by their participation as free men and women, then the extremists will b marginalized . . .”

29. “Many Muslim scholars have already publicly condemned terrorism, often citing Chapter 5, Verse 32 of the Koran, which states that killing an innocent human being is like killing all humanity, and saving the life of one person is like saving all of humanity. After the attacks in London . . . an imam in the United Arab Emirates declared, “Whoever does such a thing is not a Muslim . . .”

30. Many people of the Muslim faith are proving their commitment at great personal risk. . . . Afghan troops are in combat against Taliban remnants. Iraqi soldiers are sacrificing to defeat al Qaeda . . . “

President Bush unites the War on Terror with the “ancient” struggle.

31. “. . . the fight we have joined is also the current expression of an ancient struggle between those who put their faith in dictators, and those who put their faith is the people. Throughout history, tyrants and would-be tyrants have always claimed that murder is justified to serve their grand vision – and they end up alienating decent people across the globe. Tyrants . . . have always claimed that regimented societies are strong and pure – until those societies collapse in corruption and decay. Tyrants . . . have always claimed that free men and women are weak and decadent – until the day that free men and women defeat them.

**** Well I hope you have read and considered the President’s words. I am eager to add commentary in any discussion on the justice of the war or the importance of the President’s words.

Cindy Shewho? Misguided Matron Makes Massive Miss

Cindy Sheehan was bitter last week. Having sharked up some thousands of 60’s retreads, professional protestors, and one mentally unbalanced congressperson; “Ms Smarty” gave a party and nobody came to play. Bitterly berating the media – and not just Fox News – for spending their collective attention on Hurricanes, wars, the conformation of the Chief Justice, and other such trivia; she marched off to the White House to get her self arrested. The image of queen Sheehan, grinning with pleasure, as she was haled off – as if in a sedan chair – by officers of the D.C. police, left me cold. This is the “Mother Inferior’s” attempt to link her sinking, and stinking, cause to the noble tradition of civil disobedience? Her failure would be laughable if it weren’t for the bitter consequences that even a minuet of fame for this gorgon gets, brings upon those who risk their lives to defend freedom throughout the world.

Sheehan has totally missed the formula for actually performing an act of civil disobedience. Three elements and one condition are key to invoking the power by which Gandhi drove the British from Empire and M. L. King lead our nation out of racial segregation. These three important elements and condition are: 1) an unjust law, 2) nonviolent disobeying of that law, and 3) taking the consequences for disobedience to that law. The one condition is that these actions must take place in a nation that accepts the rule of Law (justice). Gandhi and King would have vanished, along with millions of others, had protested the injustices of Nazism or Communism.

Sheehan’s protest doesn’t pass the smell test. Were is her suffering in Birmingham Jail; where her beating at the hands of apartheid driven jack troops? Instead Sheehan is gently carried off into the evening’s news cycle.

Where is the great injustice against which she fights? Where the enforced poverty, the inequality of opportunity, the oppressive brutality against a race or group? The law Sheehan chooses to break is nothing more than jay walking. How are laws against blocking public access unjust? Of course they are not. She does not even have the grace of protesting in the name of one brought down by oppression like the mothers of the disappeared n Peru. Her mock protests degrade the sacrifice of her son, who was not sent to war by any mother, but who freely gave his life in the battle to bring hope and freedom to millions.

Modern relativists cannot discern these concepts. Thus, eco-terrorists endanger lives and destroy property from secret web-cells and never gain one ounce of sympathy for there unjust causes, thus PETA attacks the livelihoods of honest farmers and ranchers, and cannot understand why the masses do not embrace their agenda, thus terrorists must murder to get attention but garner only righteous wrath.

Not all mothers are loving care givers, some are abusive monsters, Sheehan continues to abused her son, his memory, and the just cause for which he gave the ultimate gift of love. You’ve missed it Ms Sheehan. Your moment of fame may be fanned by those who seek to use you – but you have only harmed the cause justice.

Perception Is Everything - NOT!!!!

Last Friday I had the privilege of participating in my second “Late Start Day” of the school year. Our most excellent Principal arranged a very informative training for the first part of our extra two hours without students. This training culminated in a discussion on the fact that my school had failed the “No Child Left Behind” standards for last year. The presentation soon degenerated into a lot of excuses and complaints about the entire testing program. Finally one of my most respected colleagues, with a pointed stare in my direction, suggested that our only salvation was to elect a new President. At this point I put in my two bits worth. “What does it matter that we got a “No” on the level of success of our Hispanic students? Isn’t the purpose of the standard test to help us find students that need help? Perhaps we would be better off with a President who allow us to continue to sweep our failures under the rug – but wouldn’t it be much better if we were to work together to make these students more successful and quit worrying about whether we beat Davis High or not!!” At this point another dear friend and fellow teacher said loudly and pointedly, “Perception is everything!” Then my Principal intervened to explain that I was stealing his final remarks.

But I was deeply troubled at Mr. Brimhall’s comment. It is at the foundation of what I call Relativism. Reality does not matter – it is what one chooses to believe that matters.

Please consider these examples:

1) I spent many hours last week watching the “questioning” of Judge John Roberts. (Thank goodness for CSPAN) It soon became obvious that many of the questioners were far more interested in perception than in Judge Roberts. For those of you who have listened and watched, I am sure you are aware of a thousand examples, but the most blatant, to me, was Ted Kennedy EEOC attack. Toward the end of his second set of questions, the twenty minute round, Kennedy started reading a lengthy description of the EEOC and its great value to America and to the civil rights of all those who Kennedy pretends to champion. He then read one phrase from a memo that Roberts had written while advising President Reagan some twenty years ago. Kennedy read from Roberts’ memo: “. . . we should ignore the assertion that the “EEOC is un-American”, the truth of the matter not withstanding.” Kennedy’s hope was that the perception would be that Roberts was implying that it was true that the EEOC was un-American and that Reagan should just ignore that fact. Kennedy wanted to propagate the perception that Judge Roberts truly believed the EEOC to be un-American. When Kennedy pompously demanded an explanation of this abhorrent claim, Roberts promptly provided one – the TRUTH!!! He pointed out that Senator Kennedy was only reading the last half of a sentence. The first half of that sentence referred to a person who had written to President Reagan demanding that he fulfill an alleged campaign promise to abolish the EEOC. Roberts explained that he had been unable to prove or disprove that Reagan had made any such promise – but was advising the President to ignore such a claim – the truth of the matter of whether Reagan had made such a promise or not, “not withstanding”. It then became obvious that Roberts was defending the EEOC to Reagan not disparaging it. Kennedy was left gasping like a great fish out of water. He tried to obfuscate and to withhold the memo from the record and from Judge Roberts, but fortunately Chairman Specter provided the Judge a chance to prove the truth by providing him the memo and time to explain.

Now an observation, which I hope my many friends who were most successful policy debaters in high school and college, will not consider in any way a slight on the merits of that activity. In Kennedy’s folly I see all the trappings of the card quoting and brief building of certain high school debaters. What Kennedy had done was set loose his army of aids and interns to scour the 100,000 or so pages of documents provided from John Robert’s paper trail. One of these eager beavers had found this little treasure and wrote page after page of brief for Kennedy to read in the hearing. The entire purpose of the charade? – To try to create a pernicious perception. This CARD was to carry the day for the relativists and sully the reputation of a great man, because, to them, perception is all that matters. What Roberts’ brilliance and Specter’s fairness proved was that it is the TRUTH that matters!!!!

2) The endless yammering about the “failed” policy in Iraq. Now I hear that George McGovern and Bill Clinton have joined the chorus calling on America to desert democracy in Iraq.

3) The constantly inflated casualty numbers, the lies about dikes being blown up, the constantly casting of the “race card”, the endless blame game, of the hurricane disaster.

4) The endless griping about the costs for wars and disaster clean ups.

It would be nice to consider some facts for a change:

Consider the fact that both Iraq and Afghanistan have had more successful elections than Germany.

Realize the fact that leaving Saddam to grow in power and brashness would have inevitably brought upon the world far greater costs in lives and treasure. Saddam demonstrated his brashness and earned his destruction by ignoring multiple UN resolutions.

Understand that leaving Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in ruins, will do this nation far more damage than spending enough money to revitalize and rebuild them. I would point out that the deficit spending of FDR together with the Marshal Plan and the rebuilding of Japan, at great expense to Americans; enunciated the second great economic boom of the twentieth century. By the way, the roaring fifties far surpassed the roaring twenties. I would add that Ronald Reagan’s deficit spending and tax cuts allow the US to spend the USSR out of existence without nuclear war, and lay the foundation for an economic prosperity that it took Bill Clinton seven years of mismanagement to deflate.

The truth is out there – but I fear it will have little effect on those to whom Perception Is Everything.

The Cannibals Are Choking

Last week a media personality, and enemy of President Bush, claimed that poor people in New Orleans were eating the bodies of the dead. This nameless blip on the media screen later retracted his pernicious and deliberate lie, but the damage had already been done. The flood of misinformation flows from the enemies within our country to buoy up and embolden our enemies without. Americans eat themselves up to the cheers and delight of Alkada murders, South American dictators, French snobs, and German politicians.

Now for some facts:

1. Thousands of Americans were NOT KILLED by the most devastating storm to hit our country in many years. Previous storms have been just as powerful but there was far less to devastate. The devastation was not what our enemies had hoped for, but that did not deter them. Without a real failure of America, its enemies set about sharking up corpses in order to dismember our county.

2. Realize that not one American has died of starvation or thirst due to Katrina. These important necessities were made available not only to the hundreds of thousands that followed the directions of their chosen leaders and fled the city to safety, but to the thousands who did not leave the city when they could have. Many still refuse to leave. They and are being fed and hydrated by their fellow citizens, at great cost and sacrifice to us all. America’s government and President, and the leaders of States and Cities, communities throughout this land, have and continue to do all that is possible to alleviate the danger and mitigate the suffering of our fellows smitten by an over whelming act of natural power. To seize upon that suffering; fabricating specifics which the facts do not support; as a way of increasing one’s own political power; to misrepresent the extent and causes of disaster in order to bludgeon ones opponents to get gain in the next election is to truly cannibalize the dead.

3. This hurricane and the devastation it has wrought is neither the result of the anger of Ala nor global warming. Storms like Katrina, and greater, have been boiling about the oceans of this planet since before our ancestors crawled out of them. When such storms come ashore were people are - they hurt those people. Environmental and Islamic fanatics have long abandoned reason; now they search for sustenance by feeding on the dead. To blame an act of nature on God or man is to devour the dead to strengthen one’s selfish ambition.

4. The resurrection of the areas affected by the storm and flood is progressing at a rate ahead of all predictions and at a level which promises to improve the standard of living for those affected. I listened to a German Reporter on the NPR gushing with pleasure that the “One Superpower” had been brought to its knees by the might of nature. What a pleasure to see this ghoul made a fool. America has not been brought to its knees; it stands taller than ever as we reach out to serve each other. Those who wishfully speak of the failure of America are devouring themselves. Trying to sharpen their teeth on the bones of our lost loved ones they are consumed by their own lies.

We have seen this all before. The cannibals counted the slaughter on 9/11 - predicting 50, 000 dead and America weakened beyond recovery; they choked on the truth. The cannibals predicted the utter defeat of the United States in Afghanistan, licking their chops as they predicted our nation would follow the USSR into the morgue of history; they choked on the truth. The feasters on human flesh predicted that 20,000 Americans would be killed in the first days of the charge up the Euphrates, and that that many more would fall before the walls of Baghdad; they choked on the truth. Still smelling blood the naysayer call for another Vietnam in Iraq. They will find the truth hard to swallow. And now, baying for blood, those who would devour their fellows for their own gain condemn the Bush administration and other selfless servants of our nation, who rushed into the storm to bring safety and support to our countrymen in danger. Of these cannibals I say, "Let them choke!!!"

Let's Play Nice Mr. Chocolate!

I spend all summer with bears – although I almost never see them. Each night before I retire to my room of heavy logs, three stories above the forest floor, I kick the crew out of the lodge and send them out to their tents and tepees. Then I make my daring dash to the generator shed. It’s at that time that I think most about bears. I know they are out there just beyond the circle of light, with slobbering jaws, big empty stomachs and long, long claws. I flip the breaker, and wait a couple of minuets for the oil to settle out of the engine. I pull the door shut – just in case. Then I switch off the generator and make a mad dash back to the safety of the kitchen door; the giant grizzly of my imagination lumbering behind me.

Now let’s talk about Timothy Treadwell. For thirteen years this “fellow” spent his summers sitting a few feet from some Alaskan grizzly bears. He claimed to be protecting them from poachers – though the park authorities who had charge of them say they were never in danger. And for five years he filmed the entire idiocy; a kind of Crocodile Hunter of the tundra. I have not seen the movie so I must quote from Louis Witting of the National Review Online’s article “Grizzly Love” Aug 24, 2005:

“He [Treadwell] crouches in the bushes as two behemoths tear each other apart, then creeps up on the loser, within easy range of a paw swat, and gives it his post-fight analysis. He crawls within whispering distance of the bears, calls them by their names – Mr. Chocolate, Aunt Melissa, Sergeant Brown – and tells them how much he loves them . . . At the end of his 13th summer among the bears, federal park rangers found the majority of Treadwell, and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard, in the gastrointestinal track of a male grizzly.”

Mr. Chocolate I believe – who had to be executed to retrieve the four garbage bags full of body parts.

I have four bears of my own, all dead. I love them – they make great decorations. Two are skulls; one at home the other on one of my classroom book shelves, and two are hides for hanging on the Lodge wall at camp. I also have a bear scalp, I souldn't forget that! I have eagerly contributed to the capture of two bears at Camp over the years. I enjoyed very much seeing them hauled off in traps made of chunks of culvert to parts of the forest where hunters would soon turn them into pot-roasts and wall hangings.

I spend a good deal of each summer keeping the bear attractants of 250 campers locked up in big steal boxes, and tamping bags of ash and rot into the bear resistant dumpsters a mile up the hill from my nice safe bed.

My point in all this – any eleven year old Boy Scout knows that bears are deadly dangerous – not cuddly friends for pet names and petting. Those who are dumb enough to make touchy-feely with grizzly bears will end up in garbage bags.

NOW THINK OF THIS – THERE ARE THOSE IN THIS COUNTRY WHO WOULD CONVINCE US THAT ISLAMIC FANATICISM IS SOMETHING WE COULD SNUGGL UP TO IF WE WOULD JUST BE NICE. GET OUT THE GARBAGE BAGS!!!!

Three Missiles That Missed

The radio reporter’s voice was tense with excitement. “Today,” he gushed, “the US Navy faced its most serious attack since the onset of hostilities. Three missiles were fired at American Navel vessels anchored in the Gulf of Aqaba.” Then in a recognizably disappointed undertone, “All missed!” He then went on to explain the gravity of this attack and described the horrific damage done to the empty warehouse and deserted street where the misguided missiles landed.

The inept, bumbling murders with which our military is now engaged are hardly worthy to be called enemy combatants. Their miserable attempt at war – while painful to those precious heroes who suffer - pale in comparison to the damage done to our countrymen by drunk drivers, slips down stairwells, or falls from kitchen stools. I don’t dismiss the danger of drunk drivers and celebrate the nationwide efforts to crack down on them this Labor Day holiday, but they hardly seem capable of bringing Western Civilization to its knees.

Consider these statistics from some wars in which we faced truly powerful opponents. At the battle of Verdun; the defense of the city lasted from February 21 – July of 1916. French casualties totaled about 315,000, while the Germans lost 280,000, killed or wounded. The city was all but destroyed. At the Battle of the Somme, between July and November of the same year; over 600,000 Germans, 400,000 Brits and 200,000 French became casualties. Total Casualties in WWI.

The Allies: Dead- Wounded

Belgium: 14,000 - 44,700
British Empire: 908,400 - 2,090,200
France: 1,384,000 - 4,266,000
Greece: 5,000 - 21,000
Italy: 650,000 - 947,000
Portugal: 7,200 - 13,800
Romania: 335,700 - 120,000
Russian: 1,700,000 - 4,950,000
Serbia and Montenegro: 48,000 - 143,000
United States: 116,516 - 234,428

The Central Powers

Austria-Hungary: 1,200,000 - 3,620,000
Bulgaria: 87,000 - 152,400
Germany: 1,773,000 - 4,216,000
Ottoman Empire: 325,000 - 400,000

Total Casualties in WWII

The Allies: Dead - Wounded

Australia: 23,365 - 39,803
Belgium: 7,760 - 14,500
Canada: 37,476 - 53,174
China: 2,200,000 - 1,762,000
France: 210,671 - 390,000
Great Britain: 329,208 - 348,403
Poland: 320,000 - 530,000
Soviet Union: 7,500,000 - 5,000,000
United States: 405,399 - 671,278

The Axis

Austria: 380,000 - 350,117
Bulgaria: 10,000 - 21,878
Finland: 82,000 - 50,000
Germany: 3,500,000 - 7,250,000
Hungary: 140,000 - 89,313
Italy: 77,494 - 120,000
Japan: 1,219,000 - 295,247
Romania: 300,000 - ?

These figures are all military casualties and are from The World Book Encyclopedia 1994. The encyclopedia also sites the following on Civilian casualties: “No one knows how many civilians died as a direct result of World War II. Bombing raids destroyed many of the records needed to estimate those deaths. In addition, millions of people died in fires, of diseases, and of other causes after such essential services as fire fighting and health care broke down in war-torn areas. The Soviet Union and China suffered the highest toll of civilian deaths during World War II. About 19 million Soviet civilians and as many as 10 million Chinese civilians died.”

On the first two days of the Normandy invasion there were 10,360 allied casualties, that’s 216 per hour. Of the 15, 500 American Airborne troopers whose sacrifice made the success of D-day possible 6,000 – that’s more than one in three – were killed or seriously wounded. On February 19th 1945, 250,000 American troops on 900 ships attacked the 23,000 Japanese defenders of Iwo Jima By the end of March 5,391 American Marines were dead and 17,400 were wounded. Only 216 of the Japanese survived the battle. In the battle for the tiny island of Okinawa, between April 1st and June 21st, 1945, kamikaze suicide bombers sank 30 ships and seriously damaged 350 others. By the end of the battle for Okinawa, 12,520 American troops had been killed 37,000 wounded and 110,000 Japanese were dead.

The World Book goes on to say that, “aerial bombing during WW II rained destruction on civilian as well as military targets. Many cities lay in ruins by the end of the war, especially in Germany and Japan. Bombs wrecked houses, factories, and transportation and communication systems. Land battles also spread destruction over vast areas. After the war, millions of starving and homeless people wandered among the ruins of Europe and Asia.” In other words, entire continents were laid waste by the monsters we fought and beat in WWII.

[I could point out that all this destruction was repaired by the generosity of the American People, but that should go without saying!]

My point - The barbarians we are now combating are in no way comparable to the giants we have met and matched in the past. This “war on terror”, while tragic, does not compare to the earth shaking conflicts of our father’s. Bin Laden’s band is a miserable little spider, poisonous perhaps – but no Shelob. The only significance they have has been given them by America’s enemies within; media types seeking bygone “glory” and politicians trying to derail America’s rediscovery of values so they can regain their control over the electorate. The terrorists can’t hit their targets – their missiles go astray and it’s up to the NPR to give them virulence. Without the constant scream of the press these Al-quida insects would remain less significant than so many rickety stepping stools.

Thank You Justin

If you have not seen the stars in Lake of the Woods it will be hard for you to imagine how incredibly beautiful it is to be at the campfire bowl at my camp on a clear and moonless night. No wind, the lake turns from gold to black glass. Three weeks ago I was there. Beyond the glowing embers of the fading fires, two skies appeared; one above and one below, with Milky Way and friendly summer constellations, and all the stars I know. As the summer of 2005 wound down, I sat on the rocks and thought. My friends sang softly as the last scouts walked down the honor trail toward their tents in the pitch black forest, under hill. I had just watched a flag retired; listened as a perfect Boy Scout recited “The Ragged Old Flag” by Johnny Cash. Then I listened as my sweet friend, so young to be so wise, talked about the rights and privileges, the obligations and responsibilities of being an American. We had sung the national anthem “one last time to that ragged old flag”; the big guns had boomed and echoed. Softly, Taps came back to the bugler across the lower sky. In the tower of flame the scouts had blinked back tears.

I had been thinking about the wonder of being an American, of belonging to a nation so wise and wonderful that it set aside vast tracts of wilderness to be the playgrounds of generations yet unborn. I was in wonder of its citizens, men and women I knew, who with incredible goodness “give up a week of vacation away from their families” to teach boys to love God’s creations as He made them. I thought of the friendship that makes camp worth attending, life worth living. I considered all my great staff members, this year, and years gone past, stretching back to when I was a little boy, and there was a different war. I was filled with gratitude for the parents that wait at home with clean beds and good food and great dreams for their sons. This night I was thinking of the friends that would be leaving the next day. CIT’s back home after weeks of service, a great friend from your youth, now a BYU professor, who had selflessly served for weeks on end as a Camp Commissioner; parking cars and fixing KYBOs and planning great adventures of little boys. That night we had with us the parents of a past staff member. They had spent all the hours of their week’s visit rebuilding our broken fire place and shoring up the lodge’s battered rails against the winter snow. I tried to craft words to thank these people; something to say as we stood arm in arm between the fires and underneath the lights of heaven. Then I remembered Justin. It was Justin’s parents who had built the fireplace and rail. For five years Justin had been one of my guys. He had led scouts across that desert island and through forest cathedrals decorated beyond the dreams of Michelangelo. And then I recollected that in a month Justin would be in Iraq, a US Marine at war!

How do you thank people for service done with love and joy? What do you say to a mother who sends her son to war? There, surrounded by my friends and precious family, there safe and free in a world of beauty beyond the dreams of kings; beauty that belongs to you and me, I could only think to say this: “To you dear parents of my dear friend, to my dear friend, who for a year has learned to carry his SAW rifle and his 120 lbs of battle gear, THANK YOU!” To my new friends, realize that all this beauty, this friendship, this joy of service, the chance to teach the young and support the old, this beautiful wilderness we revere, this beautiful camp we love; would be absolutely nothing if we did not have our freedom. Jesus has said, “Greater love has no man than this - that he lays down his life for his friend.” But what everlasting charity must motivate the heart of a Hero that he would risk, even give his life, for those he does not know. 1800+ American Heroes and many more Iraqi ones have died so that we, who love the woods and mountains, the forest and the sea, and each other, can share in their wonder and be free.

Mother Inferior

"How about that woman in Texas?" my colleague demanded Tuesday morning. I have just returned from over two months in the wilderness were I had barely heard a rumor of the attacks by terrorists murderers on our British Allies and nothing of the bitter squabbles of political showmanship and fame grabbing grandstanding by those who exploit tragedy for power.
"I don't know anything about a woman in Texas," I replied.
"Well, she's sure embarrassing YOUR President!" he mocked.

Now I have heard something of the "woman from Texas". Her exploitation of her own son's death made me think of Meda's reply to Jason when he asked for the bodies of his murdered sons. "No," she says, "you would trade even their broken bodies for power, buy advantage with their little corpses."

I suppose it was inevitable that, as precious lives are spent in defense of our nation and the world, there would come a "Merchant in bones" to sell out the cause for which our heroes paid the ultimate price in order to buy the adulation of the mob.

How the ghouls that exploit the dead must delight to be joined in their repast by this made for media monster mother. How those who murdered her son must triumph in their victory over her spirit and the circus-like frenzy of the media coverage her betrayal of his sacrifice provides their propaganda machine.

It is a bitter irony that the same politicians that define and defend a "mothers right to kill" her own children, seek to promote and exploit this woman's misguided bitterness over her child's death. Isn't it amazing that the same people that will celebrate the deaths of the million children to be butchered in the abortion factories of America this year as an immutable right of a woman's free choice, mock the choice of a hero to die in defense of freedom?

Four Enemies for the Price of One

In the spring of 1971 I found myself at the Naval Training Center in San Diego. I was there for the one week of my military carrier, as the Commander of the NJROT unit from Box Elder High School. My senior year had been an exciting time for me. My dreams of military glory seemed to all be coming true – and now I had a week of training, leading, and fantasizing about a future were I would command "my" ships and save the world from Communism. It had been a year of turmoil as well. That Fall someone had thrown a gallon cider jug full of gasoline through the window of our ROTC building and burned it down. Then there was the May Lie massacre to deal with. For a supporter of the war in Viet Nam, especially one with aspirations of military glory, the humiliation Cowley and crew had brought on our nation was heart breaking. It was also dangerous. There were many in the “pro war” wing of American Politics who supported these murders – but my instructors in our NJROTC program had taught us the truth. At the end of the week in at the Training Center I found myself in an interview with the Base Commander and two other officers. I had been nominated as the outstanding cadet. The last question of the interview was, “What do you think about what happened at May Lie?” I knew the answer. “We are fighting Communism in Vietnam because Communists mass murder defenseless people to force their will upon the world; it is unjust to do the thing we have gone to stop." Achilles would agree! So did the review board. I was awarded the Top Cadet banner that week. In the months and years that followed, John Kerry and others enemies of the United States, used the atrocities at May Lie to give credibility to their fabrications against the entire US led efforts to maintain the freedom of South East Asia. In the end the credibility Cowley gave to Kerry and his ilk legitimized the disaster that was America's retreat from Vietnam.

In America’s “Global War on Terror” and particularly the battle being waged in Iraq, I see the defenders of the Right facing AT LEAST FOUR ENEMIES:

Enemy One: The Terrorists. We must never forget that we are fighting a determined enemy who is bent on our destruction and the total subjugation of humanity to its beliefs. Bin Laden and his cronies have stated their objectives, made their claims, and mapped out their plan of attack. Their “victory” leads directly over the lives and rights of the American people; their dream of power consumes the world. The naive fantasy held by the appeasers and pacifists – that, to use Gollum’s words from the Lord of the Ring, “We be nice to them if they be nice to us,” was and is a lie!

Enemy Two: Those in the American military and its “defense” infrastructure, (yes, our own soldiers and spies), who – like Lt. Cowley – commit atrocities which seem to validate the accusations of Bin Laden, Amnesty International, the ACLU, and News Week. If our own warriors commit the atrocities we are determined to prevent, the justice of our cause can be questioned by those who want that cause to fail. Those "sex perverts" that took pornography photos of defenseless, though criminal, detainees at Abu Grab are partially responsible for the death and suffering that continues in Iraq and the rest of the world. They have given a weapon into the hands of Islamic Terror as surly as those who supply the terrorists with explosives, guns, and bullets.

Enemy Three: The Pacifist and Appeasers. Those who, defended by the “Blanket of Freedom” our heroes provide, turn their hate to the propagation of lies and half truths that tear down and demoralize our efforts at self defense. The truth, including the painful revelations about “Enemy Two” above, should be presented; but to present the traitors at Abu Grab as if they were representative of America or its military is to carry water for Enemy One.

Enemy Four: The ignorant and uninformed. Those in America who are more interested in the “American Idol” TV show than in the Ideal of America. To be driven to and fro by the deceits and half truths of Enemy Three, the people of America must be so ill informed and so lacking in understanding of the nature of this conflict that they can be cowed by Enemy One, shamed by Enemy Two, and misled by Enemy Three. When the American people make the effort to know the truth, they will unite in the just defense of freedom and the rights of all men. If there is dangerous weakness in ignorance; there is power in knowledge of truth.

I have not attempted a complete catalog of examples or justifications for the claims I have made above. I invite all to discussion and discovery. History is full of examples of all the enemies above, of their defeat by great and just forces, and of their triumph over equally just causes that could not marshal the strength to defy them. May our nation be the former and not the latter.

Summer is upon us. In two weeks I will be leaving computer terminals and the internet links behind for over two months. I will also be away for newspapers, radios, and televisions. The world will go on without me, but I like to think that I will be doing my part to make it better. I am grateful that such places as the one to which I am going can still be found. I am humbled by the fact that for nine weeks I will be blessed to spend 24/7 in a place of peace and bliss; Heaven with challenges. My thoughts and prayers will always be with those who defend our precious peace and freedom. As I enjoy the privileges that my heroes purchase at such great cost, I will do my best to give to those I serve the joy that America offers to the world. See you in September!

As always,

Lysis

School Spirit and World War Three

After going for over a year with out a victory in football, the team from Layton High won a game. It was before school starts, Friday night, a non-league one, when nobody was watching, but it was still a win. The first week of school went by with the regularity of ritual which makes watching it the definition of deja vu. At the opening assembly, the Lancer rose from the mist. It is one of the sweetest bits of luck that the mascot of the school at which I teach is the Roman Lancer. So year after year, with tears of pride starting in my eyes and heart rushing with enthusiasm, I watch the breastplate clad and helmet masked hero rise from the fog covered stage; search out his lance and shield; and mount the steps between the columns to raise his arms in triumph. The strobe light pulses, the music soars, and the crowd roars. On this particular fall morning as we sat, still tingling with “school spirit”, the captain of the football team stepped to the podium. Perhaps I saw him as beautiful because of the way I was feeling at the moment. Maybe it was the result of long weeks of working out under the hot summer sun, but as he stood there with his shaggy mane, shirt stretched tight by muscles, he was beautiful. But more that the way he looked it was the purity of his humility that made a sob rise in my throat. He thanked everyone for their support, and then with quiet dignity he made a promise. “I can’t promise you we will win tonight,’ he said, “but I promise we will do our best.” I thought the tiles would peel off the sealing, torn free by the sonic blast of cheers and applause. I had never felt more pride in being a Lancer. Our team won the game that night. The stands were filled, I was even there, or at least playing with my children on the lawn beside the bleachers. That next week we had a pep rally, again! We cheered and stomped in the gym; and our school’s new, young coach, called “Buns” by the girls in his classes, spoke of the return of the glory days to Layton football. Sure enough, that Friday night brought another stunning Lancer victory. The newspaper referred to us as “that upstart suburban school.” It was good to be alive! And that week; another pep rally. This one much more elaborate – no doubt Buns was earning his keep! This time we met in the auditorium and once more the strobe lights pulsed, the music blasted. But what a wail of anger, boos, and hisses, filled the air as the “Weber Warrior”, complete with red cape and large W painted in red on his bare chest rose from the mist and mounted the “marble” steps. He stood between the papier-mâché columns and shook his sword at us. The wails of anger and dismay turned to a defining shout of joy as a swirl of fog revealed “The Lancer”, muscles bulging beneath cape and plate, rose to defend our honor. Spear raised and shield advanced he marched up the stairs. The Warrior crumbled beneath the Lancer’s advance and, accompanied by an explosive burst of joy and lust, he walked across the Warrior’s prostrate body to turn and lift his arms in weapon brandishing triumph!!!! The shouts of Kill, Kill were straight from Lord of the Flies. Now as our sun-tinted and muscle covered quarterback stood to speak, there was no hint of humility in his delivery. He trumpeted past victories, and punctuated by wild acclamation, described the destruction our superior training and “Lancer Pride” would reek on Weber that night. It was a bit much. I looked about; mine were not the only eyes nervously downcast. But the gods seemed to overlook our hubris. That night the Warriors were trampled; Buns’ head grew bigger than his backside. Monday morning’s announcements brought a play by play description of “our” victory. At the end of the narrative the voice panting over the intercom intoned, “We’re Layton Football, and we’re back.” The gods rolled their eyes and smiled, and so did I. That week’s pep-rally was something I had never seen at Layton. We all assembled on the football field, packing the “home side” bleachers. The dancing girls danced, the cheer leaders exhorted us to kill the Darts, and the band played on! At last Buns rose to speak to us. Did we really display the awe he deserved? There was no young quarterback with stretched tan skin and a sun streaked bush of hair; this speech could not be trusted to a boy. The coach himself took the mike. Buns told us how much we hated Davis High, how all our dreams of greatness had been trampled by their unworthy deceptions of football glory. He told us how the people who moved to Mutton Hollow just to call their children Darts would soon regret their high priced houses; how truth and justice would at last prevail, revealed to the universe by another stunning Lancer Victory. “And,” he cried, “Tonight, when we have broken their dreams and crushed their team, we invite you all to come down onto their football field and dance our victory dance, and RUIN THEIR HOMECOMING!!!! If the sky could have cracked, it might have. The cheers were that loud. I was at the game that night. My family squeezed into Davis High’s visitor bleachers, among the masses and amid the splashes of brown and gold. By halftime, there was no joy “in Mudville”; not, at least, on the Lancer side of town. The score was 20+ to two, when the Davis Marching band took the field. Every kid in Kaysville must have been in that band; all but the football team. Back and forth and round and round they marched. The west side bleachers rose to their feet as the Darts sang their school song and then the band member executed brown and yellow patterns on the field. A young man began a celebratory lap around the green grass field. He held high a long silken banner, brown and yellow, and it streamed behind him in the wind of his speed. It sparkled in the bright lights of the football field. As he passed the Layton bench there was a flash of blue and blue. The team was not on the field, so it must have been some pep person, a representative in student government, or a Buns toddy that tackled the color bearer and brought him down. Police and sheriff’s deputies rushed the field, every vice principal in Utah converged on the spot, and out of nowhere Mini Cam Five from KSL TV appeared to record it all for the evening news. I can’t remember the final score. It didn’t matter; no Lancers danced that night. The next Monday, the vice principal came to visit me. Rather an honor, as I now look back. He was a good friend; his children had worked for me at camp. He had tears in his eyes as he talked to me. “How,” he asked, “how could anyone embarrass our school like that? On state wide TV?” I replied, “Have you been to our own pep rallies?” To me the embarrassment was not the issue. Even worse than this specific “tackle on the field” was the week after week bitterness and dislike that is routinely spawned between schools and communities in the name of school spirit. I am particularly saddened by the fights that go on after games. Here students who have put no effort into developing skills to make the school and themselves “proud” gather, to pick fights and bully and beat up on kids, always weaker and smaller than themselves; behaving shamefully to redeem their “honor”. I was not, am not, innocent, when debate season came I couldn’t help making my dig – at the football team at least. Hoping Buns was listening, I ended each Monday morning announcements of the Debate Team’s successes of the weekend with the line, “We’re Layton Debate, and we never left!!!!”

Let me pose some questions about School Spirit:

1. What role does competition play in developing feelings of love and support for your school? (Think country)

2. Can we have competition without competitors? (Think victories without enemies)

3. How does it improve us to tear down our advisories? (Think France or Russia or China)

4. Are there other ways to promote excellence and school spirit than in picking fights? (Think!!!)

5. What if the kids that attend “Davis” attended our school? How would we feel about them? (What if we lived in Mexico?)

A point of interest might be to note that Layton’s number one rival is North Ridge High – when I started teaching at Layton half the kids at Layton lived in the part of town that would someday attend North Ridge.

Now let’s turn our attention to the hate and rivalry that places the world in daily danger. Some will argue that Nationalism came into existence at the end of the Napoleonic era, others that its seeds were sown during the Hundred Years War. I tend to believe that Abraham was a nationalist; that nationalism drove the Roman Empire; that every Greek City State throbbed with nationalism. Be that as it may; let’s consider Nationalism. My thesis is that there are TWO VIEWS OF NATIONALISM. I will present them in outline form, hoping our readers will fill in all the blanks in dialogue.

I. Nationalism based on Emotional, Romantic, and Relativist Ideas such as:

A. Factors:
1. Religion
2. Race
3. Ethnicity
4. Mythology

B. Examples:
1. Balkanization
2. European History since the fall of Rome
3. Genocide/Ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda
4. France
5. Collapse of the USSR
6. Chechzen separatism
7. Pakistan vs. India since independence
8. Anti- Semitism
9. Palestinian Terrorism
10. Zionism

C. Negative effects on many aspects of history:
1. Crusades
2. Jihads
3. Inquisition/Reconquista
4. Imperialism
5. African Slavery
6. Extermination of the American Indians
7. The failure of the British Empire
8. The disintegration of the USSR
9. Genocide in Tibet

II. Nationalism based on Reasonable, Classic, Enlightenment, and Absolutist Ideas:

A. Factors:
1. Cicero’s ideas that gods and men are all one commonwealth
2. Equality before the law (civil rights) – freedom of religion, speech, assembly, press, etc.
3. Human rights _ Life Liberty< Property, etc. The separation of Church and State; integration of opportunity of all regardless of race, color, creed, gender, sexual preference, etc. See George W. Bush’s Second Inaugural Address.

B. Examples:
1. The positive side of many of the World’s “great religions” Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, etc.
2. Hellenistic Culture
3. Pax Romana
4. The United States of America
5. Free enterprise
6. Scientific advancements – agriculture and medicine
7. America’s sacrifice to save the world from Fascism, Communism, and Islamic Fundamentalist Terror.

III. Conclusion: There has only been one successful multinational (ethnic) state in the modern world – The United States. This was made possible by setting aside the Relative definitions of Nationalism and adopting a reverence for and allegiance to the ideas of the Enlightenment which are universally applicable to all people. We are thus approaching a new world order, Cicero’s Commonwealth of men and gods.

The Filibuster: The Last Gasp of Relativism

Saturday night I spent some very valuable time with my Philosophy Professor: He is a Relativist disciple of Wittgenstein. He proceeded to divide the debaters of the world into rationalists, and empiricists. He sketched out a chart to help the "old man". Introducing me to knowledge “a priori” and “a posteriori". Once he explained the whole system of Rationalism and Empiricism and how one discovers A Priori knowledge by instinct but A Posteriori knowledge through scence experenct, he reduced the world of truth into analytical and synthetic logic, with premis leading to premis. I asked him to please tell me how understanding all this – which I did not pretend to do, would help me answer any of the important questions that I needed answers to. He demanded an example of such a question. “Is the war in Iraq just?” I asked ( I could have asked if Bush's judges should get a vote.) He asked me why I needed to know about the justice of the war. I explained that I needed to know if I should support it or not. “Then," he asked, “don’t you need to know if one should support just wars?" Here I told him that to me that knowledge was a priori. "What if someone disagreeded?" he demanded. I said, “Then they must be misguided.” But he explained that a priori knowledge didn’t need explaining, it was like 2 + 2 = 4. I reminded him of how he had really not always known that; that at one time a teacher had laid out the blocks and got him to remember that truth. I claimed that had he been asked the right questions he would have remembered that just wars must be fought. But I asked, "If that is not true how does your chart help me to understand that?" Then the argument started going round and round. We were in filibuster. Every time I asked if “the war was just” he would ask me to define justice. When I offered a definition he told me it was “not interesting.” I asked him for a definition and got a lot of talk about “cats on mats” and 2 + 2 = 4 and he wondered at the number of rocks on the top of a hypothetical mountain. My Professor then insisted that he knew “2 + 2= 4” instinctively but had had to be taught about justice; that in some other world justice might be something else than it is here. He told me that P and not P cannot be, but that my belief that “freedom was worth fighting for" depended on how I had been taught. I, of course, disagreed. He told me that I had read my Plato and falling in love, I told him he was enamored of his WSU professors and the writings of Kant. He said that no one had to prove to anyone that “p” and “not p” could not be; I told him that before anyone existed man had a right to be free. In the end the discussion stalled. He is still my dearest friend but tired of argument we said goodnight with no answer on the justice of the war. Thus when I had forced an end to the filibustered – when argument came to an end and I called for a vote, he took his balls and went home. The Democrats are similarly bound to circular agreements; as are relativists and the empiricists at all. . When absolutists, rationalists, seek to understand the justice of a war they are fighting, relativists want to talk of the nature of killing, when rational folk want to defend the life of the dieing, relativists want to redefine death, when believers in eternal truths try to deal with politics those who name truth as they see it want to quote Aristotle – and if "we" disagree with the quote and call of a vote, "they" take their balls and go.

By way of ilistration let me give an example. I had a very different sort argument with a friend the other day. He claimed that if he had known what Hitler was to become before he had come to power, he would have been justified in killing Hitler before he had committed any crime. This is a very different way to argue than charts and make believe mountain rocks. I told him I thought he was wrong about killing Hitler and then I told him why. He may or may not have been converted by the power of the arguments that followed; he may yet offer some counter ones to try to bring me round to his way of seeing things; but we will be debating the issue and in the end those who have listened will cast their vote by how they see the truth.

Here were my arguments against “prior restraint” even on Hitler. Until Hitler had done anything wrong, there was no justice in apprehending or killing him. What should have happened was preventing his rise to power in the first place. Once he had accomplished that, the world should have acted on his first violation of justice and removed him from power. Much could and should have been done beforehand to prevent “Hitler”. America should have followed Woodrow Wilson and “made the world safe for Democracy” at the first of the last century! There should have been no treaty of Versailles with the subsequent reparations, collapse of the German economy, and world-wide depression. Having said this, there was no excuse for the path Hitler chose. The time to stop Hitler was when he committed his first act of “illegal” aggression. When he began German rearmament, he should have been stopped, when he seized Austria, he should have been thrown out, when he demanded Czechoslovakia, he should have been brought to London in chains. Again – there is little point in re-fighting WWII but what we must realize is that before Hitler committed a crime he was innocent and could not be judged by any prophesy of the future. (You might consider watching a movie called “The Minority Report”.)

Now let’s apply our reasoning to our nation’s present problem. When Osama Bin Laden first murdered Americans, he should have been stopped. When the Saudi Princes offered him to Clinton, Clinton should have had the courage to take him down. When Saddam first violated the terms of his surrender in the First Gulf War, the United Nations should have brought him to justice. Under Clinton none of these things happened.

What if there had been no Churchill to face down Hitler? We can only speculate on what a continuance of the appeasement of Hitler would have wrought. What if Britain would have handed over Poland and France? What if the US would have stood by and allowed Stalin’s USSR to starve? What if on Pear Harbor Day, America would have handed the Japanese Hawaii and crawled back to the coast?

What if Clinton or Gore would have been in the White House when Osama came knocking? Perhaps confronted by such an atrocity even they would have acted, but I am not hopeful. Within weeks of 9/11 Clinton gave a speech blaming America for the attack, and Gore has claimed that the war on terror has been a betrayal of America. Even as the U.N. sank into its own refuse, Kerry wanted to hand it a veto over American action. Perhaps under such “leadership” the world would have seen the Islamic Super State from Spain to Indonesia. Would there now be the fanatic’s dream of a nuclear weapon armed monster whose purpose would be world wide domination and the extermination of all who do not bend the knee? We will never know. What we do know is that, at last, the free peoples of the world drew the lines and the armed forces of the US paid the price for our freedom. Now in thr “relative” safety of the world such sacrifice has preserved, those politicians who want power in the U.S. are willing to condemn as unnecessary the war which has kept them free. Here is a place for discussion, but leave the P’s and Q’s out of it.

So I await Rumpole’s reply, or perhaps some discussion from Shadow, or Silver Lining, Areas, Apollo, or some legal instruction from DannyBoy or Aeneas, some light from any anonymous, or any of you who so kindly read and post. Here in the Agora we call for debate and no mandatory 60% conscientious is needed before discussion can go on. To dodge the topic by name calling and “scholarly head wagging” will not serve, and refusing to participate does no one any good. Thus we see the tactics of the opposition reveled. When reason deserts them, when the truth calls for action, they can ether filibuster or go home.

Dancing the Pelosi Two Step

Once more we see the “magic” power of relativism as Democrats scream obscenity out of both sides of their political mouth at once. While attacking John Bolton for criticizing the incompetence and corruption of the United Nations they pretend to attack “corruption” in the US congress in the person of the Majority Whip – Tom DeLay.

Let’s review the attack on Bolton. Accusations against him come down to these petty and unfounded complaints:

1. Bolton intimidating intel professionals. While screaming for the total destruction of the US intelligence community, liberals – led by that little caustic congresswoman from San Francisco – are angry at Bolton for questioning the opinion of some low level nameless bureaucracy?

2. Bolton is a grouchy boss. Having often been accused of being a grouchy boss by people who were incompetent and unworthy of their positions – I am not surprised that a successful administrator would stir the ire of some underling. What is amazing is that Bolton, who has been forced to interact with a host of agenda driven liberals at the State Department, has been so tolerant.

3. Bolton is critical of the UN; suggesting that it is of lesser significance than the United States in the world. Whoa – Talk about being challenged for saying the obvious! The UN, dripping scandal from the criminal and dangerous mishandling of the Iraq Oil for Food program, has further sullied their integrity by covering up child sexual abuse perpetrated by their operatives in Africa. At the moment the Genocide in Sudan goes on unabated by the impotent UN presence in the country. Proof, if there was ever any needed, of the legitimacy of President Bush’s decision to act in Iraq without full UN support. Again I remind you that UN action was blocked by France and Russia both of whom were being bribed by Saddam with the money the UN was leaking and kicking back to that Monster. The failure of the UN everywhere in the world is a justifiable reason for criticism from John Bolton – and a reason for the world to support the appointment of a US ambassador who is willing to deal with the failing of the UN rather than perpetuating and covering them up to curry support from the Liberal Media, and the French! I remind you that the only power France has in the world is their veto in the UN. France is sinking so fast that the rats can’t find a place to jump from! If anything, Bolton has been to kind to the UN – and his restraint should indicate that he will make a sincere effort to reform rather than destroy the organization.

Let’s now consider the De Lay circus:

1. Tom DeLay has not committed any crime – had he done so he would surely have paid the penalty. He has hired people from his own family to help in his campaign. Who would have been better choices? I have often hired my family members. They have consistently been among my most valuable employees. There is no law or even convention against it. More hot air to boil the teapot. The Democrats and their supporters in the Media are truly creating a tempest in a teapot in the hopes of helping their political chances in the 06 congressional elections. They are so desperate that they have to throw mud scraped from the grave of Terry Schiavo. The real reason the Democrats are attacking DeLay is his constitutional success in redistricting Texas in a way that allows the majority of Texans to have true representation in the Congress.

2. Pelosi – has been found guilty of crimes in the House – she has been fined $26,000 for improperly using campaign donations to support the campaigns of representatives which then voted her in as minority leader. Her pot is so black that she can’t see the kettle.


3. When asked in a news conference to explain her double standard, Pelosi and Senator Reed of Arizona, who was with her before the press, replied that they were there to talk about Tom DeLay.


Meanwhile the Democrats led by their screaming Dean, continue to disparage American success in Iraq, villainize the President’s efforts to reform the admittedly broken Social Security System, and stonewall against the constitutionally prescribed advice and consent responsibility of the Senate to vote on Presidential appointments and judicial recommendations. Read, Dean, Pelosi and company have nothing to offer to help our country or the world. They offer up constant hatred and endless sniping against anything that might bring success to America or credit to our government. With two mouths going you would think the Democrats would have something good to say about America; you would think!

NOTE: Rules that are not good should be changed. Cases in point:

1. Sixty vote majority in order to vote on a presidential appointment or judges.

2. House ethics committee policy that allows either party to prolong investigations for partisan reasons. A majority should be required to maintain an investigation of ethics in the house past a reasonable time.

All We Are Is Dust in the Wind, Dude

Achilles did not choose immortality. He longed for home, wife, and children. He hoped his grandchildren would remember him and then he would be gone. But Fate had it differently. For love of a friend, Achilles struck the blow that would shake and shape the world. Since that day, many have been tempted to be Achilles, to live forever in the soul, body, and consciousness of man. Man or Myth, Achilles drives us all.

John Paul the Second is dead. This week we watched the “greatest funeral of all time” and then went on with life. Has John Paul II changed us forever? In 3,200 years will men read his story and be filled with wonder?

A Soviet author, Lydia Chukovskaya, a forgotten writer from a now forgotten country, tells how the communist party “faithful” struggled to support that forgotten dream. In the story “the party ladies”, Sophia Petrovna and Natasha, spend a day decorating for the “New Year’s” celebration. They decorated the “New Year’s Tree” with red stars and Stalinist slogans. Beneath the tree, Sophia carefully arranged the Baby Lenin in his manger box and the gifts the baby Lenin will “bring” the children. In the midst of all their “New Year’s joy”, both women are consumed by their love for the same child, Koya, Sophia’s son and Natasha’s lover. When the communist monster takes Koya away, the child Linen and the Christ Child too, are rendered meaningless. In the horrible ending of the story, Natasha disappears and Sophia is forced to forget her son.

As a history teacher I spend a lot of time making lists of men and women; folks who sought immortality in the twentieth century might include:

Teddy Roosevelt
Baden Powel
William II
Woodrow Wilson
Lenin
FDR
Hitler
Mussolini
Tojo
Joe Stalin
Mao
Winston Churchill
Macarthur
Gandhi
JFK
Gorbechov
Ronald Regan
Bush and Bush
And what’s his name
John Paul Two
And me
And you.

Where have all the heroes and monsters gone? Even the gods grow dim. Wouldn’t it be best to share Achilles dream and not his fate; to have family and friends, to know our grandchildren, and then be gone?

In the end there is only Achilles and fate, the rest of us are dust in the wind, dude.

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!