Events

A lot has happened since my last regular posts. I got married to the love of my life.

And we bought a house together. It is 1.8 miles from my office so I either walk to work or bike it every day.

Success

At last, after years of blogging silence, I have the ability to post blog entries while at work.

I can send them using my blackberry and sending the posts as emails to my blogger account.

I will savor this victory later, I have to get back to work. Running this empire is not easy work.

Test post

Let's try that again. Maybe this approach will allow me to make blog posts from my Blackberry.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

New from Detroit

Ahhhhh.....we get to pay money to Detroit, even if we don't buy their cars.

Rapture Of The Bees

There have been news reports over the last several months considering the mysterious disappearance of bees. The link above is to a NY Times story regarding die-offs in the past. Apparently, these die-offs are not unprecedented.

I have another theory. HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY had it wrong…it is not the mice who were the secret masters of Earth’s destiny. It was the bees. They are departing now right before the Vogons demolish Earth to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. No doubt, someone will find a message from the bees: “So long, and thanks for all the pollen.”

The Change is now complete

My earlier photo got some fun attention over at Opinionjournal.com. So here is the rest of the story:

Seeing Is Believing

I really don't have anything to say about this sign.

Russian Arrogance [link]

So Russia is aggravated by US plans to deploy 10 anti-missile interceptors in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Russia views the U.S. plan to base 10 missile interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic from 2012 as a major threat to its national security.

Oh my...10 missile interceptors versus HOW many Russian intercontinental range or intermediate range missiles? If the Russians get t'eed off at Europe, all they would have to do is launch 11 missiles or more.

Maybe they have a point, though:

Putin told Czech President Vaclav Klaus at a Kremlin meeting that the proposed missile shield would be used to track Russian military activities.

"These systems will monitor Russian territory as far as the Ural mountains if we don't come out with a response," Putin told Klaus. "And we will indeed do this. Anyone would."

Radar and other systems only have limited ranges. Satellite based surveillance can cover a wide range of territory, but is also usually focused on a suspected area. This looks more like a Russian effort to keep Central Europe totally defenseless.

Ok, an appropriate US response. If we give in and choose not to deploy the defense system, just make sure that Russia knows that any missile attack (presumably a nuclear missile attack) launched from any middle eastern country against Europe or Israel will be treated as an attack BY Russia. If we deploy the system and Russia deploys countermeasures, then any middle eastern missile attack is able to avoid the system will be presumed to have used the Russian technology to defeat the defenses. This would also be treated as a Russian attack. In both cases, a presumed Russian attack would be met with an overwhelming US nuclear attack in response.

Gee...back to the good old days of the Cold War. Anyone up for a game of "Duck and cover?"

Sunny Saturday

It was dark and raining in the morning, but the sun came out. I did not care. I was with a good friend watching the Muppets on the big screen at the Wexner Center. Then I went home and took the VW out for a spin.

The cursed Beetle was working fine. Who knows what evil lurks in its mechanical heart. But for now, it is being good.

Offensive comments [link]

The MSM is beating up on Ann Coulter for a comment she made at CPAC:

“I’d say something about John Edwards, but if you say ‘faggot’ you have to go to rehab.”

Ann Coulter's comment was rude and offensive. However, plenty of liberals say equally offensive things about Bush and Cheney. Witness what Kurt Vonnegut said about the president this week in Ohio [see the link above]:

"The only difference between Bush and Hitler is that Hitler was elected."

I have heard liberals make this remark before. Yet no one seems to call for people who say THIS to apologize.

Some Thoughts on Total War

How often have you heard someone say (or write on a blog), "Nuke [fill in the blank]!" Nuke Iraq. Nuke Iran. Nuke 'em all and let God (or the deity of your choice) sort them out.

Is the mass destruction of civilian populations ever justified? I wish I could say that it is not. But, I am afraid that if the world allows militant Islam to continue to expand and experience perceived successes, we may find outselves in a seemingly never ending struggle with a decentralized, violent, uncompromising enemy. The non-militants Muslims will either be frightened into silence, or maybe quietly and waiting on the sidelines hoping for their more violent brethren to succeed. We must defeat them...totally. We must make them suffer. Not out of revenge or a desire to make them suffer. We must hurt them so that they learn that they were mistaken. If they can keep attacking us and suffer minimal casualties, they will never have incentive to change.

The First World War was not fought to total victory. When the winter of 1918 arrived, the German military was in headlong retreat. The German government realized that if the war continued in the spring, their armies would be driven back and destroyed. Then Germany would be occupied and at the mercy of the Allies. To prevent this, they negotiated an end to the war. The Allies imposed punitive terms on the Germans, but they were spared to horror of total defeat. The result? The German population came to believe that they had really not lost the war...that they had been betrayed by the politicians. They felt wronged and they wanted revenge. Adolph Hitler was able to build on these feelings of betrayal and outrage and lead his country to war two decades later.

During the Second World War, the Allies did not stop until their enemies were totally defeated. Civilian targets were legitimate because the destruction of the civilian infrastructure was seen as a means of destroying the enemy's ability to resupply their war machine and continue fighting. However, it also served the purpose of making the populations of the defeated powers (which had been deluded by the NAZI fascists and the Japanese military government) realize that their visions of glory were wrong. The German and Japanese civilian populations of the 1940s probably would not have reassessed their values and become the progressive, representative and (essentially peaceful) countries that they are today without the devastating losses they suffered in the 1940s.

So, what are we to make of the Middle East and the global hot spots? We no longer allow wars to be fought to the bitter end. When one side starts to lose badly, the UN (or some other entity) steps in and negotiates an end to hostilities. The result? The losing government (and the subject people) don't bear the full weight of their defeat...they can rationalize away their loss (just as the Germans did after their loss in the First World War).

There is an old episode of classic STAR TREK named "A Taste of Armaggedon." In that episode, Kirk and the Enterprise find two planets at war. The battles are fought by computer, but the casualties are real (if the computer indicates that you are a fatality, you have to report to a termination center). Kirk destroys this system and explains that it was immoral. If you sanitize war....if you make it less painful and less dreadful, then you make it more likely that you will HAVE war.

Thus, our modern age of limited war allows aggressive regimes like Iraq, Iran, and the others (think of all those warlike states in Africa) to consider war as a viable option. If it goes bad...well...the UN will step in before they are totally conquered. Hence, we get more war and more suffering.

Thus, it may be necessary for the US and the western world to end this era of limited war. If someone wants to make war on us, we will fight with every weapon at our disposal and we will not stop fighting until the enemy is totally destroyed. The opposition population must suffer horribly as a lesson so that other countries won't want to repeat that mistake.

War must be horrible. War must be the ultimate nightmare. Countries must realize that they cannot be hostile and aggressive without facing their own destruction. The militant Islamists must not be permited to feel that they can attack us with impunity.

Democrat Wishful Thinking [link]

The Washington Post writes:

Within hours of trouncing Sen. Mike DeWine (R) to become the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Ohio since 1992, Rep. Sherrod Brown heard from a trio of Democratic well-wishers: Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama, presidential aspirants all.

The calls were hardly surprising.

"This is an important state," Brown said. "People know that."

Political strategists girding for 2008 are already studying Ohio, which this week produced a Democratic sweep of the most important statewide offices after backing President Bush and the Republicans in 2004. No Republican has ever reached the White House without winning here.

The political climate for the GOP this year was the worst in three decades, largely because of the Iraq war and corruption scandals. But Brown and his advisers believe his populist appeal to the middle class on economic issues was central to his decisive defeat of DeWine, a two-term incumbent who lost by nearly 500,000 votes.

Does Sharrod Brown really believe this? Do other Dems believe this? If so, then they may misread public attitudes.

Although the Iraq war provided a crucial opening, Brown hammered DeWine not just for backing Bush on matters of national security but also for being part of a Republican majority that worked closely with drug and energy companies on legislation that affects average Ohioans. Early and often, he accused DeWine of betraying the middle class.

This may just be an attempt by the Washington Post to stoke up support for the Dems by pointing to the one state where they made the most gains.

In truth, Ohio was a disaster for the Republicans because of horrible mismanagement by the Republican leadership in this state. George Voinovich was sworn in as Governor in 1991 and people expected that the Republicans would take a conservative line in governing the state. Instead, we got increased spending and higher taxes...and the spending was not well done. Looking back, it seems that the Republicans were afraid that if they cut government programs that they would scare away the political center. They were afraid that the Dems would paint them as heartless spending cutters.

So, in order to deny the Dems that argument, the Reps increased spending in certain areas: social services and education. But these programs were not really important to them...or maybe they did not really believe in them...because these programs were poorly managed. The result, Ohio has become a high tax/low service state.

Kimberley A. Strassel described the situation very well in an Opinion Journal column: http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/kstrassel/?id=110009100

Sadly, the national Reps seem to be following some of the same playbook. Witness the President's "No Child Left Behind" program and the drug benefit program for senior citizens. Republicans accepted these programs (and many conservatives opposed them) because they felt that it was window dressing necessary to make the political center feel safe with Republicans. "Gee, Eileen, thems Republicans really ain't so heartless."

Republicans did poorly nationwide for the same reason they did poorly in Ohio. In part it was because of an unpopular and expensive war. But in part, it was also because there was a feeling that Republicans just were not properly managing government business. When you have leaders promoting expensive new programs that they really don't believe in, it should come as no surprise that these programs are not well managed and the money well spent.

Brown, Strickland, and other Dem leaders believe that Ohio (and American as a whole) are coming back to the Democrat idea that big government programs are good and necessary. The Dems have the advantage of really believing in the programs they are promoting. But they have the disadvantage of not realizing that, no matter how well they are managed, these programs will never work terribly well.

Americans are not pining for more government programs. They just want a well managed government. If Dems read last Tuesday's results as a cry for new spending, they will find themselves in for a horrible Wednesday morning someday in the not so distant future.

Battlestar GOP-actica: Beyond the Red [States] Line

The Democrats have won for now. But let's remember a few good quotes from William Adama:

"Mourn the dead later. Right now, best thing we can do is get this ship into the fight."

"You can run if you like. This ship will stand and it will fight."

The Democrats are victorious for now. But we will take a jump beyond the red line (err...the red STATES line), reorganize, and rejoin the battle.

It's Still The Same Old Story [link]

In Nevada, the political scene has been shaken by charges that the Republican candidate for Governor, Jim Gibbons, assaulted a woman in a parking garage. Why does this story seem familiar?

Because it is right out of the Democrat playbook. Take a look at the 1990 Minnesota race for governor. Republican Jon Grunseth was ahead in the polls. Then shocking charges were made against Grunseth...that several years earlier he had been swimming naked with a teenaged girl at a political fundraiser. The scandal destroyed Grunseth and he was forced to drop out of the race.

Only...a few days AFTER election day, it was discovered that charges were absolutely false. The mother and daughter team who made the claim were discovered to be life-long Democrats. It was unlikely that they would have been at a Republican fundraiser. Better yet...the pair had made identical claims against another Republican candidate a few years earlier.

Oddly enough, you can't find much information about that old story online. There are a few DEM sites that reference it...all of which embellish the lude elements (some say there were 2 naked teenaged girls in the pool, some say there were 4). NONE of them make note of the fact that the charges were proven to be totally false.

I sent an email to the Powerline boys. They are the authorities on all things political in Minnesota and they might be in a better position to make comparisons.

Earth to John Kerry...there is no draft [link]

It occurred to me earlier today that John Kerry's remark was a throw back to the a line from old movies.

"You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Yes, in old movies, some poor kid would get in trouble with the law and the judge would give the kid a choice...join the army or go to jail. Later, during the Viet Nam era, boys enrolled in college were (at least for a time) exempt from the draft. Stay in school and you stayed out of the war. Of course, the college deferrment was later repealed.

But this is the 21st Century. We have not had a draft since the 70s. The military has enough potential recruits that it keeps high standards about who will be accepted into the service.

So, John Kerry was talking about a situation that no longer exists. I am not the only person to notice this. Here is a quote from Clarence Page (the entire article is linked to above):

As a fellow Vietnam veteran, I received Kerry's remarks as a political version of Vietnam-era flashback syndrome. Back in the 1960s, it was common to say, "Study hard or you might go to Vietnam." That's because we had something then that young people now don't have to contend with--a military draft.

Today's military is all-volunteer and a much broader mix by age, education and background than the Vietnam-era military. In fact, America's military has never been better educated. Recent enlistment shortfalls because of the Iraq war have pressured the Pentagon to relax some of its standards. But discussion of that problem, among others, is muffled by the uproar over Kerry's callousness.

Foot in mouth disease....I think John Kerry may have the first FATAL form of this illness!

Political Danger for the GOP in Ohio [link]

According to a report this morning in the Columbus Dispatch, Dems in Ohio are making a major push to match Rep GOTV. And Rep volunteers are finding an electorate that is surly, fatigued, and unhappy.

This year, the Republicans have the same machinery in place that has delivered victory after victory in Ohio. But, privately, GOP officials worry that some of their most loyal voters might stay home.

A Franklin County Republican who has campaigned door-to-door observed, "There is a fatigue among Republicans. It’s going be a real test of our (turnout) ability, let’s put it that way."

This could spell danger for Republican office holders in Columbus and in DC.

Two years ago, a skilled Democratic get-out-the-vote operation enabled Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to defeat Bush by a staggering 226,000 votes in Cuyahoga County — usually enough to win the state.

But Bush won the state — and the presidency — because Republicans’ "72-hour plan" turned out huge percentages of voters in numerous smaller, more-Republican counties. In some precincts, turnout topped an unheardof 90 percent, and Bush reaped a large majority of those votes.

"We recognize that the Republican machine is very good at this," said Lee Fisher, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor. But he said his party’s operation is "better than what we did two years ago, although we did very well two years ago. The difference is that we’re not only going to be turning out in urban areas, we’re turning out in every county in the state."

Carlos Todd, a former Butler County GOP chairman who is close to the party’s conservative religious base, acknowledged that many conservatives have been "somewhat complacent and maybe a little disgusted with some of the things that have happened with the (Republican) party." But he predicted religious conservatives will turn out.

"They can’t live with the consequences if they don’t," Todd said.

Libby Cupp of Allen County, whose husband, Robert, is running for the Ohio Supreme Court, also has sensed a change. When she telephoned likely Republican voters in early October from a phone bank in Lima, people either hung up or tersely said, "Well, if it’s short, I’ll answer a question."

During the past two weeks, though, Cupp said she has received a warmer reception and senses a change in GOP attitudes.

Still, Democrats and their allies are almost giddy.

Of course, as always, the Dems have THEIR source of "volunteer" labor (if you can call paid employees of a tax exempt organization "volunteers").

As Pryce walked through Upper Arlington on Sunday, an organized-labor phone bank just a couple of miles away hummed with activity. Tucked in the basement of the Service Employees International Union local on Dublin Road, it can accommodate 48 callers. Volunteers from unions and Democratic campaigns such as that of Pryce’s opponent, Mary Jo Kilroy, can make thousands of calls daily.

Todd Hornyak, a letter carrier and union member from Hilliard who has spent hours in that basement, said about 80 percent of the union members he has telephoned pledged to support union-endorsed candidates — Kilroy, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ted Strickland, Democratic Senate hopeful Sherrod Brown.

"It’s the economy and the war," he said.

During the final four days of the campaign, the AFL-CIO will focus on 500,000 Ohio union members who voted in the 2004 election but not in 2002. The labor organization says it will make 1 million telephone calls and knock on 280,000 doors. The Ohio Democratic Party says it will have its own 20,000 volunteers contacting 1.9 million households.

Where would the Dems be without organized labor to give them money and a source of people to knock on doors and man the phone banks. Paid for by union dues (including MINE...curse curse).

Ohio is a political disaster right now. A few nights ago I got a call from a former office holder asking if I could work door-to-door. I had to say "no" because I am a classified civil servant. We had a long talk anyways. It's nice to know that I still rank high enough to get a call from a former state rep instead of just some ordinary phone bank volunteer.

But it was not a happy call. I was glad to hear from Bill, but he did not have much happy news to give me. He said that there would be little joy for Republicans running statewide in Ohio.

I guess we will find out in less than a week.

Microsoft's Browser Stinks if you are a Blogger

I have the new Internet Explorer 7.0 on my computer. And, God bless its evil little heart, it will not let me consistently post to this blog.

I have things to do today and I cannot afford to waste time sitting with this computer trying to get blogs to post.

Grrrrr....may the fleas from a thousand camels infest Bill Gate's you-know-what!

Fishy Ohio Senate Polls [link]

The poll linked to above, by SurveyUSA, seems unbelievable. It shows Democrat Sherrod Brown with a commanding 57% to 37% lead over Mike DeWine. The other two major polls out show that this is an 8 point race.

DeWine has been a popular senator and has not been tied to any of the recent scandals (including the Bureau of Workers Comp scandal that mostly involved Dems but which the statewide media have long since forgotten). Things just don't feel THAT bad in Ohio. I checked out SurveyUSA's track record and they supposedly have done a fairly good job in the past. But this just does not feel right.

Ahhhh....and it helps to read the small print. Very cute. The composition of the 563 "likely voters" was 35% Rep and 42% Dem. That is a rather small sample (1,000 total people were called) and it is biased towards the Dems.

What is the potential fallout from biased polls? The Republican GOTV effort seems to be going well. I have been called countless times to come and volunteer (I am a state employee so I can't). Yard signs are popping up. Most of the Reps will crawl over broken glass to get to the polls. Will the Dems be so motivated? This is an off year election. If they feel it is in the bag (whether or not the polls are accurate) will they turn out?

We shall see.

Getting married? Have a GAY old time in New Jersey! [link]

Debra! Megalon! If you can't find the men of your dreams, move to New Jersey and marry each other!

I have not had a chance to read the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision (I have linked to several postings at the Volokh Conspiracy that I will read later today that will hopefully have an intelligent discussion of htis issue).

My first guess, knowing little of what has happened, is that this is good news for Republicans in New Jersey, and nationwide. A story showing the public what will happen if we allow liberals to continue to exercise judicial powers. Some of those purple states might start looking a little redder today.

We have less than two weeks till election day. Hopefully this story will start a little Republican momentum to build. I really do not want to be represented by Sherrod Brown in the US Senate.

Bureaucrats GONE WILD! [link]

How's this for madness. A man joins a voluntary trash recycling program and accidentally puts a piece of junk mail into the wrong bin. The result? He gets charged with a crime and prosecuted! Even worse, they also charged him with the additional crime of putting his trash bins out on the wrong day.

Let's see, this is a VOLUNTARY program. So who in their right mind is going to sign up for this VOLUNTARY program if the slightest mistake can land you in jail?

Mr Reeves said his first mistake was to put his rubbish out a day early, but only because he was going on holiday the next day. It was met with a warning that any further slip-ups would result in legal action.

"Duly warned I carried on separating the rubbish,' he said. Then came the summons accusing him of breaching the order. "I was shocked and had no idea what to do,' he said. "I couldn't sleep. At one point I even thought I might end up in jail."

He added: "The irony is that I would have been better off not recycling at all, just loading everything into a single rubbish bag. But like most people I supported the principle and was happy to play my part."

Well, we know better now. Recycling can be harmful for your health!

The BIG Bang Theory [link]

Interesting reading over at The American Thinker (see the link above). J.R. Dunn writes that, according to columnist Bob Novak, there are members of congress who are trying to encourage the US Navy to recommission the last two battleships (the Iowa and the Wisconsin).

One suspects that much of the passion comes from people unwilling to see an era die. It’s easy to be sympathetic with that position. For a large portion of the 20th century, the battlewagons were the Kings of the Seas, unmatched for firepower, armor, and sheer elegance. Certain individual battleships – the Bismarck, the Yamato, the Arizona, and the Missouri – have entered into legend in a way that ships of no other class can match. Truly, something has vanished now that the battleship sails no more.

But the weight of the argument lies with the other side. Iowa-class battleships, requiring crews of over 1,500 sailors, are extremely hard to man. They utilize obsolete technology that is difficult, and often impossible, to replace or repair (not to mention problems in training info-age sailors to operate it), and they are expensive, even by modern standards.

The single unanswerable contention lies in those big 16-inch guns, unequaled by any weapon in any fleet on any ocean. (The naval standard these days is the puny 5-inch gun). The Mk. 7 gun is capable of firing a 1,900 lb. round over 25 miles – a hammer that would make any anvil ring. That’s a hard argument to beat – it’s a shame that we can’t take the guns and leave the old hulls, with all their associated problems, to their honored rest.

Yeah, this really excites me! Those big guns are impressive...most impressive. And Mr. Dunn points out that we can keep the guns and lose the warships:

And that may well be possible, through a revival of a nearly forgotten naval configuration – the big-gun monitor.

* * * *

So there’s our answer. Remove the guns from the Iowa and Wisconsin, and place them on new hulls, configured as monitors for the mission of infantry support. The old ships can go on to become museum pieces, while their offspring, perhaps given related names, carry on the tradition.

That would actually work quite well...provided you have a hull that can support the massive turrets and give adequate stability.

It would be great fun to see how Muslim militants cope with 1,900 pound shells raining down on their heads! Send them on an express elevator to hell...GOING DOWN!

****AMUSING DIGRESSION****

For another type of "big bang" you should take a look a this article in the Wikipedia. Sometimes those scientists with the pocket protectors and the coke bottle bottom glasses make the tiniest little error and then...oops!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo

Maybe a major OOPS [link]

The Democrat candidate for Governor of Ohio may be in trouble. It seems that he may not be properly registered to vote in Ohio. If he is not a properly registered voter, then he may be ineligible to run for office.

The controversy was sparked by a complaint filed last week with the elections board by an East Liverpool woman whose son, Larry Long Jr., is a volunteer worker for the Blackwell campaign.

The complaint questioned whether Strickland lives where he is registered to vote — in an apartment above his field office in Lisbon. Strickland listed the field office as his principal residence for purposes of voting after he was elected as the area’s new congressman in 2002.

Records show that in 2003 Strickland and his wife purchased a condominium in Columbus and on the paperwork listed it as their principal residence.

Strickland has to be a registered voter to run for office, and being disqualified as such by the elections board could mean, at least in theory, he no longer could be a candidate for governor.

The New York Times published and editorial yesterday condemning the Ohio Secretary of State's office for attempting to enforce Ohio's election laws:

Voters in Ohio can be forgiven if they feel they have been beamed out of the Midwest and dropped into a third-world autocracy. The latest news from the state’s governor’s race is that the Republican nominee, Kenneth Blackwell, who is also the Ohio secretary of state, could rule that his opponent is ineligible to run because of a technicality. We’d like to think that his office would not ultimately do that, or that if it did, such a ruling would not be allowed to stand. But the mere fact that an elected official and political candidate has the authority to toss his opponent out of a race is further evidence of a serious flaw in our democracy.

The full editorial can be found here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/opinion/17tues1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

I guess technicalities only count if they work against a Republican candidate. One need only look at the efforts in Florida where Dems are suing to keep election officials from posting signs informing voters that votes cast for disgraced Congressman Mark Foley will count for a different candidate. And the Dems successfully sued to keep Tom DeLay's name on the ballot in Texas.

I have seen other candidates knocked out of Ohio races because of errors. In the last 20 years there have been two uncontested races for mayor of Columbus because of errors with nominating petitions.

Compliance with the technical requirements of the law is not optional. If the Dems made a mistake...too bad.

You're a Frakking Awesome Machine [link]

You're my new battlestar and you've come so far.
I love your slanted walls and your A shaped halls.
You're full of Cylon clones and those old fashioned phones.
You're a frakking awesome machine.
So much better than the one with Lorne Greene!

Follow the link above to the best Galactica laugh I've had in a long time!

I love your blue-ish glow and your drunk XO.
I love that you've brought back old Richard Hatch.
You're a frakking awesome machine.
So much better...than the one with Lorne Greene!

Blame for No Ko Nuke

Liberals are trying to blame the Bush administration for North Korea's nuclear provocation. In their dream world, President Clinton and former President Carter negotiated an agreement in 1994 that kept the NKs from developing nuclear weapons and that alleged diplomatic failures by the Bush administration caused the NK's to break out of that agreement and restart their nuke program.

The liberals are ignoring reality. 1994 was the last time the world had a chance at stopping the NK's while they were still lacked the ability to actually build nuclear weapons. The NK's gratefully accepted the incentives offered by Clinton and Carter, then secretly continued with developing nuclear weapons in secret. By 2001 the NK's had the ability to build weapons and they no longer needed to hide that fact. When evidence of their violation of the 1994 "Agreed Framework" was brought to their attention, the NK's promptly announced that they were no longer going to follow its terms.

So what did Clinton and Carter accomplish? They gave billions of dollars in aid to the NK's and they allowed the NK's to continue developing their nuclear program past the point where they could be stopped. By 2001, there was nothing the Bush administration could do, short of war, to keep the NK's from building weapons.

Liberals will howl that the NK's did not build nukes during the Clinton years. They conveniently ignore the fact that the NK's violated an agreement reached with the Clinton administration and secretly continued developing those weapons. Clinton's failure of nerve, incompetence, and stupidity allowed NK the additional time needed to complete their nuke program and build weapons in secret making any effort to stop the NK's too expensive to consider.

Atomic Weapons and Perversion [link]

Over at CNN, Jeff Greenfield writes:

So does the North Korea test trump the Foley scandal? Here's one point to keep in mind: there's a month to go before Election Day. The North Korea story may well fade by then (not that it won't resurface in months or years to come); the Foley follies are likely to stay front and center for weeks.

How perverse. A rogue state tests a nuclear weapon, yet a CNN writer says that this is less important than a scandal involving a pathetic homosexual politician chasing teenaged boys.

Perhaps Mr. Greenfield is correct. But I hope that the American public is wiser. I hope that the American public realizes that the Foley scandal is merely entertaining silliness and that Kim Jong Il is a growing danger.

POP goes the weasel

Just when things were looking absolutely desperate for the Republicans, Kim Jung Il goes nuclear. That should take Marky Foley off the front pages for a day or so. And when the media goes back to Foley, it will seem unimportant.

The fear for the GOP is that Republican voters will be demoralized and not show up at the polls on November 7th. The Foley scandal demoralized Rep voters just as their enthusiasm was showing upward momentum. At the same time, the scandal was increasing the moonbats' anger at Reps and increasing their enthusiasm. The result could have been explosive: lower Rep turnout and higher Dem turnout (with a signficant moonbat component) could have resulted in a 30 to 50 seat pickup for the Dems in the House and a 7 to 8 seat pickup in the Senate.

But now we have an international crisis of maximum importance...one that highlights the failures of the Jimmy Carter/Ned Lamont kumbayaa approach to foreign policy. Excuse me, exactly WHO negotiated the 1994 agreement with North Korea to keep them from developing nuclear weapons? Hmmmmm.

Hastert should resign - LATER

I believe that the time has come for Speaker Hastert to announce that he will step down as Speaker of the House at the end of this current session of Congress. An immediate resignation would do more harm than good.

Hastert is a weak hand at the controls and everybody knows this. Today there are columns by Bob Novak, Ann Coulter, George Will and others describing the disfunctionality of the House leadership. New blood is needed.

Stepping down at the end of the term would allow the party to look forward to a necessary change in leadership without the drama of being leaderless right before the mid-term elections. The expectation of new leadership would minimize (though not eliminate) the Dem message of "Had enough?"

Mark Foley - is he also a gay American?

Ok, in 2004 Jim McGreevey ... [pregant pause until Megalon stops laughing] ... deflects attention from his scandal ridden administration as Governor of New Jersey by telling the world that he is a "gay American" as he announces his resignation. The media applauds his "courage."

In 2001, California Congressman Gary Condit is discovered to have been having an affair with a young female intern, Chandra Levy, who has been missing (and who was later found to have been murdered). Rather than assist law enforcement officials by giving them pertinant information about her recent activities, he gave minimal and misleading information. It is possible that better participation on his part may have helped law enforcement officials uncover her fate and find more clues to her death. Condit refused to resign but was later voted out of office when he lost a contested primary.

In 1990, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank is reprimanded by the House leadership (controlled by Dems at that time) because it was discovered that his male lover, Steve Gobie, was running a prostitution ring out of Frank's Washington, DC townhouse. Frank had previously hired Gobie to serve on his congressional staff. It was also learned that Frank had fixed 33 of Gobie's parking tickets. According to the rumor mill, Frank was willing to accept a reprimand, but that if a more severe punishment was sought, he would "out" several Republican gays who were in the closet. Charming...isn't it? Massachusetts voters continue to elect Frank.

In 1983, Massachusetts Congressman (what IS it with Massachusetts Congressmen?) Gerry Studds admitted to having had sex with a 17 year old congressional page ten years earlier. The House of Representatives voted to censure Studds...who turned his back as it was read. Voters sent him back to Congress for five more terms.

What do all of these politicians have in common? They are all Democrats.

In 2006, Republican Congressman Jim Foley is discovered to have been sending dirty instant messages and/or emails to Congressional pages. There is, as of yet, no proof that he actually had sexual relationships with any underaged youths. The news breaks on a Friday...Foley resigns that very same day. He does not claim to be a "gay pedophile American." He is not called a hero. No one comes to his support. He is OUT. Yet, this is not enough for the main stream media. They condemn the entire Republican leadership.

The timing of this story is intriguing. Several news outlets had information regarding Foley for over a year...but the story does not break until five weeks before election day. Curious, huh? The Dems always claim that the Reps are going to pull some October Surprise...but it always seems to be the Reps who are on the receiving end.

Time for Hastert to Go [link]

The time has come... to say fair's fair; to pay the rent; to pay our share.

And the time has come for Denny Hastert to go. I do not know anything about his actions behind the scenes. I do not know how effective he has been organizing administrative matters in the House. But he has been a complete non-entity in an important leadership position.

Longtime readers (reader?) know that I believe that the Republican leaders in the House selected Hastert to be Speaker precisely because he lacked authority and power. A weak hand on the levers of control means that everyone has greater freedom to act. But this freedom has become chaos.

So Goes Ohio

In 1982, Ohio elected Democrat Dick Celeste, a young, media savvy, liberal, political opportunist as governor. Celeste was not terribly competent and managed to make himself dreadfully unpopular in the polls, but the Republicans could not say no to a tired old warhorse, former governor Jim Rhodes, who went down to spectacular defeat in 1986.

Celeste tripled the size of Ohio government and raised taxes accordingly. Sadly, he did not triple the benefits to Ohio citizens. Now Ohio is a high tax, low service state. Is it any wonder that people (and businesses) are fleeing and the economy is sputtering along? What is even more frustrating is that government just can't seem to do the job right. More and more mistakes are being discovered...expensive mistakes. Corruption is everywhere...but what do you expect with so much money being spent. And government workers are never careful when they spend money...it's not like it is their own money.

But also, there is insubordination. The vast majority of the Ohio civil servants are Dems and they don't appreciate working for Republicans. After 12 years of controlling most of Ohio government, we STILL see Dems in most government jobs. Reps just don't know how to hire other Reps.

Back in 1983, I was hired as a summer intern for the Department of Liquor Control. When I went in for my interview with the Chief Legal Counsel, he asked me, "If I had someone go down to the County Recorder's office and checked your voter registration, which primary did you last vote in?" I answered truthfully, "The Republican primary." He laughed. Turns out, that was a disqualifying answer. BUT, somehow, he had received my resume from the Ohio Democrat Party. Mine was the ONLY first year law student's resume given to him by the Party. So, he was going to assume that I was OK with them and he gave me the job. But I was given strict instructions NOT to tell anyone else that I was a Republican...that would get me fired.

So how does this relate to insubordination? Back in 1990, Bob Taft was elected Secretary of State. Rather than clean house, Taft left most of the senior people from the prior Dem SOS stay in their jobs. One of the tasks performed by the SOS is the publication of a biannual political almanac of Ohio. When the 1992 almanac was published it was filled with errors. Apparently, the holdover Dems working on this project did not care enough about the job to do it well. They had little to worry about; their supervisors were Dems and did not care that much either. After the almanac was published, it became a major scandal...embarrassing Taft. The careerist Dems screw up and the Reps take the blame. Granted, the leadership should have reviewed the work more carefully (and Taft has subsequently shown that he pays almost no attention to detail), but you can't monitor EVERYTHING your subordinates are doing. If you can't trust them, then nothing will get done.

The Pope is RIGHT [link]

Pope Benedict XVI uses a quote from an ancient source while giving an address on “Faith, Reason, and the University.” The reason for the quote? To make this point (courtesy of Thomas F. Madden at NRO):

The pope’s purpose in citing this passage is made clear almost immediately. “The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature. The editor [of Manuel’s dialogue], Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality.”

A dry, philisophical point. The Pope might as well have been discussing 13th Century tax law.

Of course, Muslim activists don't care about reasoned debate. They are looking for any reason to cry for violence and jihad. So, they will distort the Pope's words and howl with outrage. Mind you, these are the same Muslims who hurl insults at everyone else on a regular basis. They can dish it out but they can't take it.

Diplomatic niceties are lost on these people. They need to be taught a lesson: if they don't act like civilized people, they will not be treated like civilized people.

They claim that love death as much as we love life. Maybe we should take them at their word.
As long as they have nothing to lose, they will act as wild as they can. The wilder they act, the more subdued we are and the more they gain. This cannot continue forever...they will believe their rhetoric and use WMD against the Western World, and then all hell will break loose.

We need to use harsh language now...or else we will use nuclear weapons later.

Apologies for light blogging

Sorry readers (or dare I say, "reader") for the lack of content this week. I am at scenic Camp Perry in northern Ohio attending my annual military reserve duty.

I can only access the internet through a dialup connection that is painfully slow. And, being cheap, I am using a free service that only gives me ten hours of use per month...unless I want to pay them. Of course, it takes an hour to download all their commercials and content. Then I waste endless amounts of time waiting for pages to load. And there is a lovely little feature: every time Internet Explorer automatically closes a window, this causes a browser failure and ALL my Internet Explorer windows close. A painful event after I have spent ten minutes uploading a graphic to the web.

Ah well, I will be back online next week. Patience dear reader, patience.

Murphy - Farewell

A wonderful canine friend has passed on.

Murphy

1992 to 2006

Rest In Peace

Pamela at Atlas Shrugs

I called in to Pamela's BlogTalkRadio show...such fun! Next time I will do my homework so I can make a more intelligent contribution to her show. But, it was great to finally talk with Pamela after two years of emailing back and forth.

Thank you for being such a good friend Pamela! And I wish you continued success with your CRUSADE to save Western Civilization.

Apology

Sorry everyone for the lack of activity. I am getting ready for military reserve duty next week. I had to run around and mail some checks last night (and take one to Federal Express...whoa was THAT expensive).

Then I learned that a person I knew in Pittsburgh died...someone who had been a bit of an institution in my circle of friends.

I need to post my opinions about Ohio senate candidate Sherrod Brown...oh my...what a hack. He is a cartoon version of a liberal Democrat. He held statewide office back in the 80s, then lost to Bob Taft (spit *** spit) in an election upset back in 1990. The Ohio Dems created a US House district for him during the 90s (up in the heart of the liberal northeast of Ohio) and he has been your classic, big city, mindless liberal. Now he is running for US Senate. The polls right now have him leading Mike DeWine.

I have a hard time believing this. I have been unhappy with Mike since he has not been a reliable conservative, but he has always struck me as a statesman. I think that Mike's difficulties have more to do with the general low feeling that America has with the President AND the low feeling that Ohio has with Republicans because of the scandals surrounding Governor Taft and his administration.

I hope that as we get closer to election day, Ohioians will take a closer look at Brown and realize that he lacks substance. Brown is a thoughtless liberal...he would be a hand puppet for the Dem leadership. He is one of the most liberal members of the Senate too. Of course, Ohio has a tradition of sending annoying liberals to the Senate...witness Howard Metzenbaum...there was a man who was so liberal (and so unprincipled about it) that he made me embarrassed to be Jewish. Metzenbaum was predecessor to Chuck Schumer as the archtype annoying liberal Jew in the Senate.

Ok, off to work.