Category: Uncategorized

Scott comments: As an American who has lived in Israel for over 10 years, I consider myself very sensitive to the assault on American liberties. I got a firsthand look at the new reality in my short trip to Los Angeles last May. The TSA, at the very least, irked me. Everything they were doing was wrong. It’s like they stole the “form” of security, as done correctly by El Al, without adopting the “substance.

I experienced the uselessness of the TSA myself a few weeks ago. I was dropped off at the door with far more luggage than I could possibly carry by myself, while there was a huge line to check in. I flagged down a passing man in a TSA uniform and asked him if he could help me move the luggage to the back of the line, some 50 yards away, from where I could move things along, piece by piece. He said, no, he couldn’t, and was unmoved by my warning that I was just going to leave it there and get in line – I knew the line would eventually take me where the luggage was.

Now, I could see this big pile of baggage from my spot in the line 50 yards away, but the rest of the TSA people didn’t know that. And in the 20 minutes it took for the rest of the party to join me and collect the luggage, not a single passing TSA employee bothered to check out this big pile of anonymous suitcases. What a joke.

The order to kill every pregnant Jewish woman had been issued that morning. So when a Nazi guard patrolling the Jewish ghetto in Kovno noticed a pregnant Jew walking past the local hospital, he shot her at point-blank range. She died on the spot. Hoping to save the baby, some passersby rushed the dead woman into the hospital. An obstetrician determined that she had been in her last weeks of pregnancy, and said that if surgery were performed immediately, her baby might be rescued…. Then came a horrifying postscript. “The cruel murderers . . . came into the hospital to write down the name of the murdered woman. . . . When they found the baby alive, their savage fury was unleashed. One of the Germans grabbed the infant and cracked its skull against the wall of the hospital room. Woe unto the eyes that saw this!”

Abortionettes, Nazis, they’re all the same to me, except I have slightly more respect for the historical NASDAP than NOW. Calling a feminist a femi-Nazi is an insult to National Socialism.

LL writes: What a wonderful article. For the women who read, and heed this article life will be better. Many men stay in painful relationships for years, until their children are grown. Once their children are grown, it is not uncommon for them to leave their wives of many years. The pure and simple fact is: women control relationships from the ages of 6-45, they decide who they will date, they decide how serious the relationship will become, and in most cases they decide who they will marry. After the age of 45 there is a complete role reversal, women control almost nothing. The sex-induced fog of youth is mastered, and the simple fact of life is that there are far more available over-45 women than there are available over 45 men.

Yet when men leave wives of many years the wife is stunned. The only thing that the wife can come up with is that they have been left for a younger woman. They look for the “easy” answer, they are being left for youth. In actuality the husband decided years before to leave when the time was appropriate. The reality is that the husband is not leaving for a younger woman, but rather, is leaving for a more loving, more civil, caring partner who just happens to be younger. What also happens frequently is that many of these middle aged women go through menopause and lose all sexual interest in their husbands. Their rationalization is: “oh well, I don’t need it, so he will just have to do without.” Sorry…nope, nope, nope, nope…no only means no for as long as the receiving partner decides that he will accept no. Once “no” is no longer the acceptable answer he looks elsewhere, and if sex is of interest he passes right by the post menopausal set, on this way to the younger crowd.

I think the significant insight there is that “the husband decided years before to leave when the time was appropriate.” On occasions I’ve spoken with older, divorced men whose children are grown, I’m often struck by how happy many of them are. “The best money I ever spent” is a commonly heard theme. This is why I think that it is absolutely necessary for men to marry a Christian woman who embraces the notion of duty and responsibility within marriage, as opposed to a woman who views a relationship solely in terms of rights and happiness. A man should no more marry such a woman than a woman should marry a man who beats her, cheats on her or treats her disrespectfully.

Golden Gryphon has published THE ATROCITY ARCHIVE, by Charles Stross. If you have any interest in brilliant science fiction that combines computer technology and Cthulhu, that conflates MI-5 and the Mythos, you must seriously consider buying this novel. In addition to being the first writer to ever work Austrian economics into a novella, Stross was a finalist for the Nebula last year and his SINGULARITY SKY is up for the Hugo this fall. His ACCELERANDO is one of the most thought-provoking, mind-bending works of fiction I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. He writes like a William Gibson who actually understands technology.

Pat Buchanan thinks about an unthinkable that is a little less unthinkable than mine: The president calls failure in Iraq unthinkable. But the alternative may be an open-ended war the American people never signed on to, and, if present polls are any indication, may not be willing to support indefinitely. Iraq is not Vietnam, but, for President Bush, there are troubling similarities to other unhappy moments in American history. Truman’s presidency was broken by the “no-win war” in Korea. LBJ’s presidency was broken by his failure to “win or get out” of Vietnam.

What does a president do if he believes a war is just and necessary, but the people come to believe it is the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong enemy? We are not at that point yet, but we are getting there. And President Bush had best begin to think the unthinkable.

Bringing the troops out of Iraq and taking a step backward after several steps forward in the war against the global jihad isn’t really all that unthinkable in my book. The unthinkable that concerns me far more is how elements within the federal government are using the conflict to war on American liberties and take a few quiet steps forward towards selling out national sovereignty to the United Nations. The problem is that whether we fight the war that’s been declared against us or not, the sell-out continues apace. President Clinton turned over the rivers and parks, President Bush is in the process of turning over the seas and possibly the Internet, and neither of these things required a war to excuse them.

You may see this as paranoia; I don’t care. The head-in-the-sand brigade has already been proven wrong about the EU (“it’s just a trade zone, it’ll never be a political entity”) and will be proven wrong over time about the UN as well. Whatever we do with regards to Iraq, turning an oil-producing country over to the United Nations in any way should not be one of the options. The UN is desperate to achieve an independent source of revenue; once it succeeds in that, it will begin asserting its self-proclaimed right to govern.

This isn’t rocket science, people, just an ability to think in terms of decades instead of election cycles. When power is centralized, it attracts those who wish to rule over others like a bitch in heat attracts male dogs.

U.S. radio broadcasters have asked federal regulators to bar rival satellite radio services from offering content tailored to local markets, according to a petition obtained on Friday. The National Association of Broadcasters, which represents radio conglomerates like Clear Channel Communications Inc. , filed the request due to concerns the up and coming satellite services are trying to replace local radio outlets. Both XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. now offer traffic and weather for several cities on its national service, but are barred from using ground-based transmitters that extend service into hard-to-reach areas to air programming aimed specifically at a local market.

“This foray into local content is directly contrary to … repeated and express promises that satellite radio service would be limited to delivering national programming to serve the unserved and underserved,” according to the petition filed this week and obtained by Reuters. NAB said the two companies may also be developing satellite radios that can receive advertisements, news and other content targeting a local market by using Global Positioning Satellite (GPS). The broadcasters’ group demanded that the Federal Communications Commission, which licenses satellite services, explicitly ban their rivals from using any technology to offer content in one area that is different from another location.

This is a good example of the absurd notion of the inherently conservative big corporation. Big corporations love socialist governments, because instead of having to compete with competitors spawned by new technology, they can simply lobby the government to ban their competitors altogether. The left’s attempt to create a dichotomy between big business and big government is a false one, as the two, in fact, tend to feed off each other. This is why the PRC has massive corporations, and why Hitler had no trouble reaching accomodation with the industrial giants of Germany. I always find it ironic that the environmental and anti-globalist left believes that government will somehow help them seriously rein in the big corporations.

I’m not a big NBA fan, but I’m pleased to see the Wolves do so well. Back when all the talk of the next Michael Jordan was revolving around Vince, Kobe and AI, I always felt that KG was the only possible heir to the throne. If he can lead the Wolves to a championship, this will become obvious to everyone. He’s that rarity of rarities, a true superstar of genuine humility and civility. Best of luck to you and the pack, KG.

From the Washington Times: Two of Fox News Channel’s most ubiquitous military analysts, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney and retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely, are out with a new book on how to win the global war against al Qaeda and other terror groups. In “Endgame: The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror,” the two Vietnam combat veterans call for ratcheting up the global conflict by taking on Iran, North Korea and Syria — now.

It has to be Saudi Arabia, not North Korea, and the enemy needs to be identified specifically in order to rally the nation, but I note that I am not alone in failing to be terribly sanguine about the current conduct of the war on method. And for those Bush defenders who argue that this has really been the secret plan all along, well, any commander-in-chief whose strategy is escalation by inevitability should be removed for incompetence. Not to mention violating the Constitution, the oath of office and the right of the American people to decide if and when they will go to war, and with whom. I don’t believe George Bush lied the nation into Iraq – the many violations of the 1991 peace treaty were sufficient justification to invade and unseat Hussein long before Bush was even elected – but at this point it remains possible that he is lying the nation into a far more serious conflict.

The problem that libertarians and conservatives have in looking at this conflict is that both tend to look at Iran, Iraq and the other Arab nations as being distinct countries equivalent to the USA, UK and France. They aren’t, they are more properly viewed like Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas in the loosely federated Islamic nation. On the libertarian side, for all that war is the health of the state – and the present administration is certainly attempting to use its war-on-method to ratchet up central federal power – war has been declared on the USA by the Dar-al-Islam for the last 20+ years. That is the well-established fact, and it must be recognized that the war does not persist because of the noxious global American troop presence, but because the Dar-al-Islam seeks global sharia. A global American troop presence did not cause Northern Africa, Egypt, Spain, Hungary, Romania, Southern Italy and parts of Austria to be overrun 1200 years ago and it is not causing the global jihad now. As was the case in 1940, the real war lies below the Phony one.

Conservatives, on the other hand, must recognize that the Bush administration is as power-hungry as its predecessor, and if it is to be trusted to fight this war, it must significantly change its ways. One reason that the present administration pretends to be so focused on terror – even as it protects Arafat and warns Israel about killing terrorist leaders – is that it can eliminate the rights and liberties of its citizens, whereas these things aren’t necessary in fighting a proper, Constitutional war against the jihad. It is wrong, both historically and morally, to give the administration a pass simply because there is a war to be fought. FDR and LBJ are anathema to conservatives for the many evils they committed during WWII and Vietnam, no more should George Bush or any Republican be excused for similar unconstitutional excesses under the aegis of war-fighting.

The lessons of history are clear. If a free people do not go willingly and knowingly into battle, they will lose. Attempts to manipulate them are not only wrong, they are likely to lead to failure.

Hello Cthulhu, that is. This is easily the best Internet comic. It was gone for about a year, but it’s finally back. Oh frabjous day! The new Spring Break one is hilarious.

From the AP: An Israeli missile strike killed Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi as he rode in his car Saturday evening, hospital officials said. Rantisi’s son Mohammed and a bodyguard were also killed in the attack. The militant Hamas leader was one of Israel’s top targets after it assassinated Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin in an airstrike last month.

The Brits are saying that this was a counter-productive action. Meanwhile, Debka reports that Hamas is afraid to tell anyone who its next leader will be. The number of suicide bombers are down. But I guess you could say it’s counter-productive if you’re a fan of the terrorists.