'Signposts in Cyberspace'

I found this news heartening - the U.S. government ordered a study of the Internet and the naming systems way back in 1998 – and though it took 7 years I couldn’t be happier about this recommendation from the study:

'It urged minor technical improvements to secure the system from hackers and prevent outages from natural disasters, such as moving some of the Internet's 13 key traffic-directing computers outside Washington and Los Angeles. It also recommended those traffic-directing computers continue to be operated by volunteers, organizations and corporations around the world rather than governments.'

I'm sure more news on the result of this study will come our way in the days and weeks ahead, but I couldn't be happier that they (the government) sees the folly in governmental control of this important tool of freedom. So far we have been free from inordinate governmental intrusion and taxation as it relates to the Internet. Sen. John McCain deserves some credit for keeping the tax man from forcing Google, eBay and Amazon.com into becoming tax collectors for Uncle Sam. Let's hope it stays that way.

Genetically Modified Farce

Please take a minute and read the article linked here - "Beware blind faith of food fundamentalists" by DICK TAVERNE in the online version of the Scotsman newspaper. When you're finished ask yourself how these people, these same people, the ones who are so willing to accept science in the name of global warming and every other perceived threat to mother nature posed by human activity but won't trust the scientific claims regarding the safety of GM foods.

It should be perfectly clear by now that the truth - scientific or otherwise, means nothing if it doesn't fit neatly into the premise that man is bad and nature is good.

Protohuman Meets His Match!

My son was interested in learning how to paint so I let him pick the subject matter and we worked on this together...


Spinosaurus - a meat eater
I hope he keeps this painting forever as something to remember me by... We had fun!

Life or Death: The Extinction of Man

As I was reading a fascinating piece called "Death By Environmentalism" by Robert James Bidinotto I kept thinking there was a much broader theme emerging. Mr. Bidinotto's article made it abundantly clear that rabid environmentalism clearly favors the extinction of the human animal from the face of the Earth. Groups like Earth First and E.L.F (Earth Liberation Front) make no apology with regard to their ultimate goal. While they, like Islamic terrorists, need to be taken seriously because they pose a real threat to anyone and anything they target, they are rightly considered the lunatic fringe by most clear thinking people. The overarching theme I saw emerging was really about who supports life for humanity, warts and all, and who supports death under its many guises.

In a litany of well-documented examples Bidinotto exposes the carnage inflicted on human life by enviromentalist driven policies and obstruction. Notably the reemergence of malaria as an epidemic due to the concerted effort to eradicate DDT from the Third World where it had nearly wiped out this menacing scourge. To save a few obscure species the environmentalists are willing to sacrifice millions of people, and mostly children at that. But that's exactly the point. In a theme that presents itself over and over we see an agenda that seemingly does not favor the continuation of the animal known as man. And when you examine what side of the political spectrum these people hail from the truth chills you to the core. Leftists, socialists and yes, even Democrats, favor death over life. There is one notable exception, but even that is telling...

If we go through each issue one by one the pattern is overwhelming:

Abortion - Pro-Choice, supported by the left, results in the death of the unborn. Pro-Life, supported by the right and the religious right, results in life and the perpetuation of the species.

Healthcare - Government controlled health systems supported by the left result in poor quality, rationing, deadly waiting periods, denial of procedures and access to medical testing equipment, subdued research and innovation all inevitably leading to premature death. Privately run, privately insured healthcare supported by the right results in the finest medical and pharmaceutical products in the world. There may be serious problems with the system itself, but where the profit motive has been allowed to be a factor we enjoy the most advanced medical testing equipment and the most advanced medicines in the world. Nearly all of the innovation in pharmaceuticals happens in the U. S. The end result is longer healthier lives for human beings.

Mercy killing - Doctor-assisted suicide is supported by the left. Nothing frightens me more than this one. This is the slipperiest of all the slippery slopes. Compassion for the terminally ill and especially those in severe pain may seem to make doctor-assisted suicide a merciful measure, but who will draw the line. The Dutch (the state) are now killing the elderly and deformed children. Keeping doctors and the medical system working to save and prolong human life is supported by the right.

AIDS policy - Condom distribution and clean needle programs supported by the left offer false hope and literally encourage dangerous behavior that ultimately results in death. Abstinence programs and AA-type programs supported by the conservative right and those with a belief in a higher power who looks with favor on mankind result in healthy, clean human beings.

Environmental policy on GM foods - The curtailing or banning of genetically modified and genetically enriched food supported by the left finds them in a paradoxical conundrum. By "building" crops that are naturally resistant to disease and infestation we would not only would we be able to feed more people we would do it without sacrificing even more forests and without chemicals. It sounds like a win-win situation, except for the - more people - part. The same leftists oppose genetically enriched food that even right now is aiding in the fight against malnutrition for Third World children. Why? Are they in favor of sick and dying children? Oh, am I being harsh? Again, why would anyone oppose modifying food that could save lives? The profit driven industry supported by the right, continues to research and bring more value to each acre of land cultivated for food crops. We now stand at the cusp of being able to end human hunger world-wide.

Environmental policy on global warming - The Kyoto Protocol supported by the left, ultimately intended to stifle America's economic might, would cost billions of dollars for a negligible effect on the climate. It would rob funds that could be used to build sanitation and public health systems in the emerging world. These efforts would save more lives and end more suffering than any perceived negative effect a couple of degrees increase in the mean temperature of the planet would have. A profit driven system of research and development of new products and systems that will allow a rising quality of life while minimizing the pressure on nature - supported by the right - is already achieving amazing results since the environmental enlightenment of 60's and 70's.

The "Peace" movement - The world-wide peace movement or anti-war movement if you will, which is enthusiastically supported by the left is the shakiest of all the leftist ideas. The whole ridiculous notion of being for "peace" is akin to being for "air". Yes, Virginia, war sometimes IS the answer. The liberation of millions of people over the centuries from tyranical, murderous dictators and regimes could only have been accomplished through war. What could possibly be the motivation for allowing tyrants like Napoleon Bonapart, Adolph Hitler, Joesph Stalin, Hiro Hito, Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein to continue their quests? The continued suffering and death of millions of human beings was at stake each time. For all it's ugliness war works. America's building, maintaining and yes, even using its awesome war machine, as incomprehensible as it seems, is ultimately humanitarian. We on the right support a large and strong military.

The death penalty - The end of the death penalty, supported by the left (let it be known the this writer does not support the death penalty for the simple reason that I support life and particularly the innocent ones) would seem to be the fly in my theoretical ointment. But wait, follow me with this one. The death penalty is applied to murderers; those who kill other human beings. While those on the left can be at peace with themselves supporting the killing of innocent pre-born babies they are beside themselves with despair when a cold-blooded killer is executed. The death penalty, supported by many on the right can be justified. In some situations even I would support it.

In example after example the left supports positions that do not necessarily favor the survival of the human species. We have to look no further than the glorification of a career over motherhood for the modern woman. Even the push for societal embrace of homosexuals can be cynically perceived as a way to keep people from reproducing. There is, of course, the left's naked hatred of the Catholic Church and its position on contraception, a policy intended to encourage human reproduction. However, it is the leftist cause above all else to eradicate the Judeo-Christian based society that at its core is all about family and children. This battle just may be the undoing of socialism and its anti-human agenda. The most powerful nation on earth still believes in God and it is a nation that, while losing ground around the fringes, is still solidly in favor of mankind and the perpetuation of the species.

CW

Air of Superiority

From time to time when talking with co-workers or friends I am shocked and sometimes saddened by the attitude I hear regarding people they deem lowly. It could be that I make friends easy and am not afraid to strike up a conversation with someone who may be "outside" my elevation in life. I have been looked at with ridicule because I have handed money to beggars, even when I know it isn't really for bus fare. When I hear a co-worker refer to another person as defective and dismiss anything he or she might have to say I am sickened. I look at him and say to myself, "now that's the pot calling the kettle black." It's especially evident with people who grew up within a safe, sheltered existence. The only real diversity they ever faced was at the frat house during college when a foreign born student of wealth spoke with an accent while they put down everyone else. Perhaps the most shocking is when an avowed liberal - you know, those champions of the multicultural tolerance brigades - treat someone who they see as below them with scorn instead of pity whether or not they deserve either.

Sometimes these "low-lifes" are the most interesting and thoughtful people you would ever want to meet. Sure some of them are defective - who the hell isn't? One thing I do know is that they feel it when they are being put down - no matter how subtly. At one time or another it happens to all of us. We are bound to find ourselves in the company of people that would rather not be seen with us. Admit it, you know how it feels.

Now turn that on it's head: consider that it's the ones we deem lowly and backwards who look at us as less than human. This is how the average Muslim in Europe feels about you and me.

We may look at their lives in those godforsaken places on the other side of the world and feel so superior sitting in our suburban ramblers with a dusty Bible on the shelf and a mark on the wall where the crucifix used to hang. It's hard to imagine anyone from that backward, unenlightened part of the world setting our worth as humans on par with pigs and goats. So superior to lowly Christians and Jews they are. We are not to be "tolerated" but rather converted, subjugated or killed.

In Europe the Muslim immigrants don't even try to hide their outright scorn of the locals. In America it's a little different, but in their mosques and their Saudi funded schools they quietly teach same hate we see in the streets of Ramallah. Europe is going to wake up some day and realize that all their so-called tolerance and diversity has lost them their continent. Only the Dutch appear to be seeing the truth of Muslim intolerance. Why did it take the brutal death of Theo Van Gogh at the hands of a militant islamist before they finally got the wake up call? It is debatable whether the rest of Europe will ever step up to defend its own culture from the Muslim onslaught in the same way they resist American cultural exports. At least Mickey Mouse and David Hasslehoff don't strap on a bomb belt... Be not afraid, though, the Germans are facing the problem head on - they recently voted in a national Muslim holiday.

Obviously, there are those Muslims who don't feel this way about the rest of us, but they are afraid to speak out. These are the people we need to focus on. We will not win this crucial cultural war or the war on terror by voting in national Muslim holidays or by dropping bombs. President Bush knows this and after the dust settled in Iraq he began using the power of words in the hopeful quest to spread of democracy in the Muslim world. If we get even one of these nations, be it Iraq or Lebanon to break free of the culture of hate and intolerance and succeed as a partner with the rest of the free world then indeed the dominoes will fall.

My heart be tempered - just last week I saw Iraqis taking to the streets because Saturday was named as a weekend day. 'But that is the Sabbath for the Jews' they cried. 'We will not rest on the Jewish Sabbath'. There is such a long way to go. Pray to Jesus or to G-d or even to Allah if you wish for the end of this hatred and intolerance.

And, oh, just for me, be nice to the people who live on the other side of the tracks. You may need bus fare some day...

CW

And the Dream Goes On...

The American Dream is Alive and Well, Thank You

In Andrew Morasvcsik's America the sky is gray and the grime of poverty and despair clouds the view at ground level. In a cover story for Newsweek magazine Mr. Morasvcsik shows his complete lack of understanding of the American Dream as I know it. His all out hatred for everything that is America is stunningly evident in this piece. The very fact that is published as a cover story in a leading national news magazine is further evidence of how sturdy and forgiving this country and its dreams really are. I don't know much about Andrew Morasvcsik other that he is a professor at Princeton, however the things I need to know about him I can glean from the article. How many of these self-loathing Americans do they employ over there at Princeton?

The fine professor no doubt draws a decent salary, drives a nice (foreign) car and lives in a big, comfortable home. He probably has a pension and a decent 401k or retirement plan. If it's any different then I will stand corrected, but this sounds like the epitomy of the American dream. To his credit Mr. Morasvcsik is probably a self-made man. Sounds like a pretty wonderful life. Not good enough for Mr. M. Only European society can truly provide what ails the gloomy professor.

Me, I grew up in a lower middle class family during the suburban migration. My folks were working class stock raised by working class stock without lofty expectations for their seven kids. With the power of the American dream driving us my six siblings and myself have all surpassed anything my parents ever achieved professionally and economically. It was not easy for any of us, but we have all succeeded in this land of milk and honey. Our professions include computer networking, a transportation director, a welding engineer, a paralegal and an international businessman. For some, our dreams are incomplete, but none of us feel particularly trapped by the system.

I guess the thing that bothers me about people like professor Morasvcsik is the blanket of hatred that they have for America, as if nothing here is any good at all. It hits you everytime you go into a convienience store owned by a newly imigrated arab family. They have come here to do what they can't do in their own homeland. The southern border leaks Mexicans and South Americans all coming to participate in the American dream whether they are here legally or not. Why do they still come to America from all over the world - even from Canada? For a better life than they can live at home? That would be my guess. The dream is not guaranteed, no one ever said it was nor should it be expected. One must be willing to work for it.

All that being said it is interesting to examine just what makes the rest of the world so much more attractive to professor Morasvcsik: (italics)

...The gulf between how Americans view themselves and how the world views them was summed up in a poll last week by the BBC...

Consider the source, the BBC is hardly a disinterested statistician, helping spread anti-American sentiment around the world through its global network. Besides, Americans self-esteem would be crushed if they read this stuff.

still on the poll ...Only one third, disproportionately in the poorest and most dictatorial countries, would like to see American values spread in their country...

Well no kidding, the richest countries have already been liberated from their dictatorial pasts by - ta da - America!

...Futurologist Jeremy Rifkin, in his recent book "The European Dream," hails an emerging European Union based on generous social welfare, cultural diversity and respect for international law—a model that's caught on quickly across the former nations of Eastern Europe and the Baltics...

Jeremy Rifkin has discredited himself in so many ways, cheifly by proclaiming expertize in areas he is not expert in, but leftists give him a pass because his rhetoric is the right flavor.

...Blinded by its own myth, America has grown incapable of recognizing its flaws...

For crying out loud, America pioneered the self correcting system. Sure we have flaws but because the light of freedom shines on them they do get fixed eventually.

...After American planes and bombs freed the country, Kosovo opted for a European constitution...

Where were the Europeans that Andrew loves so much while the people of Kosovo were being slaughtered? Why did it take Americans to do the dirty work?

...Nearly all countries reject the United States' right to bear arms as a quirky and dangerous anachronism. They abhor the death penalty and demand broader privacy protections...

From these cold dead hands... So what if they think were quirky. Yes, and I see that most Islamic countries do not consider beheading a death penalty. We Americans use the barbaric lethal injection method

...This year's ranking of the world's most competitive economies by the World Economic Forum awarded five of the top 10 slots—including No. 1 Finland—to northern European social democracies...

We'll see just how competative they are when the entitlement train they are driving crashes into the wall in the next 10 to 20 years. These are apples to oranges comparisons anyway. Try to stand these shining economic examples against the economic output of California alone. The fifty United States count as only one set of statistics but Europe can be sliced and diced to make any statisical argument you want

...the British, like Europeans elsewhere, "will try their own way to achieve a proper balance." Certainly they would never put up with the lack of social protections afforded in the American system...

I defy these people to show where America doesn't provide for the welfare of poor. Yes, we can continue to throw money down the rat hole like Europe does or we can get people to work. There is no dignity living on the dole when you are an able bodied person. Last time I looked America's unemployment rate was half again what it is in most European countries

...public spending in Britain represented 43 percent of GDP in 2003, a figure closer to the Eurozone average than to the American share of 35 percent...

This is something to be proud of?

...U.S. leaders have long believed military power and the American Dream went hand in hand. World War II was fought not just to defeat the Axis powers, but to make the world safe for the United Nations, the precursor to the —World Trade Organization, the European Union and other international institutions that would strengthen weaker countries. NATO and the Marshall Plan were the twin pillars upon which today's Europe were built...

This is something all Americans can be proud of!

...Following European criticisms of the Iraq war, the French became "surrender monkeys." ...

Finally the truth out of this guy

...No single policy has contributed as much to Western peace and security as the admission of 10 new countries—to be followed by a half-dozen more—to the European Union...

And what made this possible? Was it Europe's courageous and commited stand against Soviet aggression? What a load of manure this guy is peddling. So this great step toward peace and security made possible by America winning of the Cold War is evidence of how great the EU is?

And finally

...The United States can take some satisfaction in this. After all, it is in large part the success of the mid-century American Dream—spreading democracy, free markets, social mobility and multilateral cooperation—that has made possible the diversity of models we see today. This was enlightened statecraft of unparalleled generosity. But where does it leave us? Americans still invoke democratic idealism. We heard it in Bush's address, with his apocalyptic proclamation that "the survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands." But fewer and fewer people have the patience to listen...

A big stick upside the head will get some attention.

So America is the parent of the world practicing what is known in the pscychobabble world as "tough love". Sure the little brats hate hearing it over and over but they know old Dad is right when he says "this is going to hurt me a lot more than its going to hurt you". I think this professor's love affair with all that is Europe blocks out the part that reminds us that every evil, diabolical, genocidal and failed "ism" ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting world was hatched in Europe to the detriment of the every nation on the planet. And just what is wrong with liberty?

The Democratic Republic of Iran?

It would be impossible to be unimpressed by what is happening in the Middle East and the Muslim world in the year 2005. The cynics of the world will soon be, if they are not already, eating crow. To borrow a phrase from U.S. President George W. Bush, freedom IS on the march. In Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories, possibly even in Egypt and Syria the call of freedom is loud and clear. The muslim people of the Middle East and South Asia have seen that the reign of tyranny and dictatorships need not continue in perpetuity. Its early and the darkness that has enveloped this part of the world has not been washed away by the light of liberty just yet, but the signs are encouraging.

Yes, it is is too early to celebrate, but nothing that has happened thus far would have been possible if not for George W. Bush and his "vision" of a free and democratic Iraq. The Iraqi elections of January 30th were most certainly a turning point, this cannot be denied. However, the momentum toward democratic reform in the region ultimately rests on the fate of one nation, that nation is Iran.

It has taken 25 years to undo some of the damage that Jimmy Carter has done to cause of freedom in the world. It is truly shameful the way the media covers for Carter by portraying him as a respected elder statesman. President Jimmy Carter, had he won a second term, would have been responsible for the over running of the western hemisphere by Soviet supported communist regimes and eventually the loss of the Cold War by the West. But his agenda didn't stop with merely covertly inviting communism into our own backyard, he was also bent on destroying the fuel supply of the West by aiding radical elements of Islam to come to power in Iran. Iran had been an American ally nestled in the underbelly of the Soviet Union. It can't be over stated what his disasterous presidency did to the muslim world. For 25 years the people of Iran have paid for what Carter did by his tossing aside the Shah of Iran in favor of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

Well, friends, from what I have been reading Iranians have had enough. There is real unrest in Iran. The government of the mullahs and ayatollahs are on notice. When President Bush looked squarely into the camera during his State Of the Union speech and said point blank to the Iranian people that if they rise up in support of their own liberty that America would stand beside them. It was, to my mind he most dramtic moment in the speech and also the most dangerous.

The youth of Iran are perhaps the most pro-American people on the planet. They believe President Bush when he says he will stand beside them. While many might even be waiting for GI Joe to drop in and kick some mullah ass it would be the biggest mistake we could ever make. Any invasion would bring about Iranian patriotism and turn our biggest potential allies inside Iran into our biggest nightmare.

For the President it is a double edged sword; on one hand allowing the mullahs to obtain the ability to make nuclear weapons would be insanity, on the other any attempt at negotiations with the theocratic Islamic government would make him look weak in the eyes of ordinary Iranians. In an interview with FrontPage Magazine Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi and her husband Elio Bonazzi, writers, activists and Middle East pundits, recount the chilling history of the 1979 revolution. They also put down in no uncertain terms that any "talks" between the mullahs and the United States would be seen as a victory for the repressive regime holed up in Teheran. In a candid remark from the interview they state: "The Islamist establishment that unfortunately today governs that country is not interested in making the best possible deal with the West. Its only interest is the destruction of the infidels and their corrupt world."

I found it interesting as well that it is former Carter Administration National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski who is advising the West to engage in a dialouge with Islamic Republic of Iran. It seems the Carter Adminstation's tenticles have a long reach. Again from the interview: the exiled Ayatollah Haa’eri strongly instructed Brzezinski and his fellow panelists that engaging the mullahs would simply embolden their aspirations to destroy the West, because in their mind they would smell a weak adversary prepared to make concessions.

This is the dilemma faced by President Bush as he contemplates joining the European Union's futile attempt at preventing a nuclear Iran. We need to pray for the President and hope he makes good decisions; the consequences are enormous. Now that he has the CIA and a the State Department in his corner my advise would be subversion. A good old fashioned coupe is in order. He can't let the braying asses disuade him. If democracy has any chance in the muslim world it has to visit Iran eventually - preferably before they go nuclear.

CW