Sheryl Crow Way to Wipe Out Male Poverty

Toilet Paper Use Offset Marketing


Borrowed from Are We Lumberjacks

The Liberals who want us out of their bedrooms (but then post videos of what goes on there all over the Internet) now want to get into our bathrooms.

Sheryl Crow, who uses her celebrity to showcase her intellect, wants to limit the toilet paper we use to one square per bathroom visit.

Since guys often don’t use any on many of their bathroom visits, isn’t this placing an unfair burden on women? I’ll be glad to sell “toilet paper use offsets.”

According to another Liberal intellectual, Rosie, her description of her needs based on her physiognomy would indicate there will be a vast demand for “toilet paper use offsets.”

It reminds me of the story my buddy Arthur told me of going through British Army training during World War II. At that time, just about everything, including toilet paper, was in short supply and rationed. The British had to stand in line to buy anything worth purchasing. It was said the British had their own national letter, the “queue.”

At any rate, Arthur’s training sergeant called his group to attention in formation, to inform them that they were violating the restriction on use of toilet paper of three squares: “One to wipe with, and two to polish off!”

I’ll be thinking of Sheryl Crow and her unpolished bottom whenever I hear that she and her entourage are on tour, with their four buses, three tractor trailers, and six cars, or as I hear her chartered Gulfstream jetting overhead.

I'll gladly deposit the checks she and Al Gore send me for the carbon offsets I sell them from my hundred redwood trees, and add to that the checks for the toilet paper use offsets.

Global warming is a swindle, but with Liberal intellectuals like Sheryl Crow leading the way, the profit potential is half vast, or in the case of Rosie, vast indeed.

UPDATE: "We're just so happy that people are talking about global warming, even if it's brought on by a joke," Crow told ABC News.

Aside from the fact that the news and commentary is "all global warming, all the time," and only skepticism about global warming doesn't get heard, we all got a laugh at, or with, Sheryl Crow. Now we are still wondering about the carbon credits or offsets - farce or swindle?

ABC, rather than noticing all the equipment used to transport Crow and show, chose to mention their "environmentally friendly biodiesel bus." Since I just read articles about how environmentally unfriendly biodiesel is, with the high particulate and nitrogen oxide emissions characteristic of diesels (toxic soot and smog forming emissions exceed gasoline engines), and the small decrease in CO2 they achieve, I can only conclude that when doing interviews, it is best to limit yourself to ignorant or supporting "news" networks.

Even the radical Concerned Scientists are wary of biodiesel, and other environmentalists are concerned about increased production of biodiesel causing loss of habitat, and increased pollution from fertilizer and pesticide use.

I might add that with the scarcity of water and food in many parts of the world, the increased competition for resources to grow non-food along with food crops, and meet increasing urban needs for safe and reliable water supplies, will create more problems by producing biodiesel than would be solved.

Don't tell ABC that it is dumb to have their entertainment reporters handle their science reporting, just as it is dumb for the global warming crowd to grab most of their headlines with celebrity airheads.

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How I Became a Man

I remember vividly the day I became a man.

No, it wasn’t when Marilynn and I took the walk to the top of the hill with the huge rocks north of her home on Gypsy Flat.

It was nine years before that, when I was a Fifth grader at Point Arena Elementary School and the school got a large number of tickets to the Shrine Circus in the COW Palace, San Francisco. Unfortunately, there weren’t enough tickets for all the students to go, so they drew names.

I was drawn for a ticket, but my younger brother Ron wasn’t. I wanted to go to the circus so badly, that it made me very sad to think of Ron not going too.

So then and there, with tears hidden or choked back, I gave my ticket to Bruno.

Bruno had recently arrived with his mother from Italy. He was a year older, but was in Ron’s class while working his way up through the lower classes as he learned English. Bruno learned so well, that two years later when he graduated from elementary school, and four years after that when he graduated from Point Arena High, he was his class Valedictorian each time.

Giving my ticket to Bruno was one of the happiest sad events in my life. Years later, after I’ve seen my share of circuses and other enthralling entertainments, and forgotten a lot of what I’ve seen, I still remember my unselfish act when I was ten years old with pride.

It helped me realize that I was a thoughtful person, and even though Ron and I didn’t go to the circus, we shared the good feeling of helping Bruno adjust to his new life in America by showing him that he would have friends here.

The circus packs up and moves on, but it leaves its memories.

And sometimes it leaves a man where a boy had stood.

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Blame the Collective

Who is Responsible for the Virginia Tech Murders?

All the votes are finally in and tallied about the Virginia Tech murders, and as expected, it’s our entire fault. Society murdered those poor students just as certainly as if each of us pointed the guns and pulled the triggers.

We allow easy access to guns.

We allow divisions in society by wealth, social class, talent, athletic ability, race, scholastic achievement, and all sorts of other factors too numerous to mention.

We don’t effectively identify and treat mental illness.

We allow a culture of violence on TV, radio, music, and video games.

As is always the case, when all are at fault, none can do anything about it.

Oh woe is us.

My position is, as expected, to remark that all of this is a huge pile of male bovine excrement.

We may allow easy access to guns, but we have strong laws governing their purchase and use. The problem is, our existing gun laws are not enforced. Law abiding citizens obey the laws, but they’re not the ones who commit the crimes.

In San Francisco two separate murders were committed by felons who previously could have and should have been charged with unlawful possession of firearms. Had they been successfully prosecuted and convicted, two people would be alive today.

If any of Cho’s parents, teachers, counselors, or medical examiners had taken firm and appropriate actions, Cho would have been blocked from purchasing the deadly weapons, and authorities would have been alerted by his attempt.

One of my friends noted that society was at fault because Cho was exposed to students who had nice cars, expensive clothes and toys, and who could spend extravagantly on entertainment. He felt society should do something about that.

Interestingly, that gives society two options. It can either give Cho and those in similar circumstances all the goodies the rich kids enjoy, or they can forbid the rich kids from having their goodies or take them away.

Or, if you are a Democrat, the preferred option is to redistribute wealth until all are at the same economic level.

Obviously, society then has to solve the other problems such as different talents and abilities. The only way to do that effectively is to handicap all factors. College admissions would be based solely on meeting diversity quotas. All students would receive the same grades. Taking a page from the egalitarian Chinese Communists in their pre-capitalist phase, all students will wear the equivalent of the Mao jacket. The clothing step is necessary because, even though wealth has been equalized, if left to their own devices some students would capitalize on their natural good looks, and the Mao jacket would go a long way towards leveling the appearance field.

Of course, making everyone the same won’t guarantee that all will be treated the same. Observer groups must be formed to watch social interactions and correct instances where individuals receive too much or too little attention.

Awards based on achievement must be eliminated. Even with the best handicapping, not every event will end in a draw, and winners will feel superior to losers.

The identification, then treatment of mental illness, presents many issues of privacy rights and personal freedom. Who will be responsible for identifying individuals in need of help? Who will pay for the attorneys fighting out each determination with the ACLU? Can someone who has mistakenly referred someone for mental illness be sued for unfairly stigmatizing the person? Conversely, can that person be sued for not correctly identifying someone who proved to be a danger to society?

More basic yet, how do you know when someone is the one who will snap? What are the signs?

We are exposed to violence as entertainment throughout our society. Our TV shows feature tens of thousands of murders and assaults each year. Movies are constantly improving and employing special effects and applying vivid imaginations to raise the threshold of acceptable gore. Rap music celebrates the most violent and demeaning relations between people. Finally, video games draw upon the violence of TV, movies, and music to distill a product that glorifies fast, intensive, graphic slaughter.

We can’t give ourselves all the credit for living in a violent world.

For the most part, most of us live peaceful lives, which make us all the more shocked when mindless violence enters our lives, even if only on the news.

We could be Hutus, who killed almost a million of their countrymen, their neighbors, because they were Tutsis, a different tribe, even though an outsider couldn’t have told them apart.

We could be Shiites, or Sunnis, both reading the same Koran, both worshipping Allah, and killing each other over events that took place over a thousand years ago.

Or we could be Germans, Japanese, Soviets, Chinese, Cambodians, Iraq under Saddam, Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini, each engaging in the slaughter of millions, often their own citizens.

So it’s obvious we don’t have a monopoly on violence, but where have we gone wrong?

Maybe it’s better to ask, when do we get it right?

We get it right when parents know their children, and stay in constant touch with them. Who else will know if they have a serious problem? Who else can give them the love, respect, discipline, attention, whatever it takes to make them socially aware and responsible citizens?

It will only be by accident if someone other than a parent or close relative takes an interest and learns enough about a child to be a positive influence in their life.

Just staying in contact with their children is going to be too much for a lot of parents to handle, and they will have a lot of excuses why they can’t. They will be too tired, and too busy. They’ll want to sit there and watch the violence on TV themselves. They’ll be happy when their kids spend time playing video games, instead of demanding their parents’ attention.

Their own bad attitudes and poor personal habits will be what their children learn. Their children won’t learn morality from immoral examples. Or civil discourse from rude and angry elders.

In the final analysis, we take care of our obligation to society when we support and demonstrate taking responsibility for our own actions.

We can’t make anyone change, but we can each be a good example.

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Imus Taken Out by Friendly Fire

I was shocked to see a Lefty taken down, until I realized that all the Lefties I heard comment on Imus’ remarks thought he was a Conservative. The cowboy gear and his love of country and western music threw them off.

Plus his audience is primarily Liberal white males, so disparaging remarks about young Black women didn’t ring any alarm bells.

Yep, Imus f’d up, was found guilty of “talking while looking like a Conservative.”

It didn’t take the Los Angeles Times long to sound the alarm, but by then the damage to Democrats had been done.

THE IMUS SCANDAL: POLITICAL IMPACT
Democratic politicians lose a soapbox with Imus
His show gave many of them a way to reach a national audience of white males -- a crucial voting bloc. By Peter Wallsten, Times Staff WriterApril 13, 2007

“Damn it, we done done a friendly fire f-up!" (Many journalists were educated in our public school system and talk and write like this).

"We only do this to Conservatives,” are the words echoing in the halls of the Liberal national press – please excuse the redundancies: “Liberal press,” “national press”- just simply “press” would suffice. The press doesn’t do this to Liberals, only Conservatives, and right now the press is reviewing their labeling system to make sure they don’t take out another one of their guys.

They don’t have any on radio to spare.

Anyone remember the Left’s answer to Rush Limbaugh, Al What's-His-Face?

Franken got the most publicity in his career as the press agonized over why no one was listening to him and Air America, stillborn on March 31, 2004, still awaiting interment.

Franken has now left Air America, and still no one listens to it.

I think the way the press handles these kinds of issues was clearly demonstrated by their treatment of Senators Trent Lott (Rep-Miss) and Robert Byrd (Dem-WV).

When Lott made a remark at the 100th birthday party for Strom Thurmond that he supported Strom’s bid for the presidency over half a century before, Liberal outrage at Lott’s implied, not explicit, racist comment cost Lott his position as Senate Majority Leader. The facts that Lott was making the remarks jokingly to a Republican (Thurmond was a Democrat when he ran against Truman for his party’s nomination in 1948), and in a private setting (birthday party) not intended for a national audience, did not mitigate the Liberal outrage.

Robert Byrd, former Ku Klux Klansman, personal filibuster participant against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, leading light of the Democrats for over half a century, and the top Senate Democrat, mentioned “white niggers” twice on March 4, 2001 while being interviewed by Tony Snow on Fox News Sunday. Senator Byrd wasn’t forced to resign any of his Senate positions.

In fact, he received less criticism for his “nigger” remarks than non-politician commentator Ann Coulter did for saying “faggot” when discussing John Edwards.

So here is a white male, former KKK officer, opponent of the Civil Rights Act, who used demeaning racial words on national television, and he is given a free pass because he is a Democrat.

Then you have black males, rap stars, who can say anything demeaning or nasty they want about women of any race, and they continue to reap riches from their misogyny. One of them, Ludacris, not only demeans and insults women in almost every line of his “songs," like “Ho,” he also enjoys a special relationship with Obama, who piously announced he would never go back on Imus’ show.

There are no words adequate to describe the hypocrisy of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, so I’ll just mention a few: “Twana Brawley,” and “Heimietown.” ‘Nuff said?

I want Imus’ show back for one reason: to make a righteously indignant statement against hypocrisy.

Personally, I can’t stand shows like his (or Oprah’s, Howard Stern’s, or …and the list goes on and on) and I never listen to radio or watch TV any more (NFL football games don’t count, do they?). Life’s too short, and I’m a better judge of what are interesting and entertaining ways to occupy my time than the network dealers serving up their opiates to the masses.

Still I wish Imus well, because as a retired military officer I've heard that the greatest hurt comes from being taken out by “friendly fire.”

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Good News and Bad News about Global Warming

This is a public service announcement. It contains good news and bad news.

The bad news first.

There is no man-caused global warming.

The good news.

There is natural global warming.

For those of you who believed Al Gore when he said mankind could give you warmer weather, healthier and more abundant crops, gentler weather (when temperature variation is reduced, so is storm intensity), and less frost and freezing damage to fruits, I’m sorry to bear the sad tidings that mankind just can’t do it. The more CO2 we pump into the atmosphere, the marginal effect of CO2 on warming steadily decreases.

And CO2 increases can’t overcome other, stronger forces, like solar and orbital variations.

That’s why it was warmer 1,000 years ago during the Medieval Warm Period than today, without any regard to increased CO2 from industrialization – because there wasn’t any.

It was even warmer during the Holocene Climate Optimum from 9,000 to 5,000 years ago. In fact, without benefit of mankind's production of CO2, temperatures in northern latitudes increased by much more than the most alarmist predictions of Al Gore's global warming apostles and acolytes.

Bad news for polar bear phobics. Polar bears survived both of these extended warm periods.

As a result of solar and orbital variations, the Earth warmed more during the first half of the 1900’s, and actually cooled from 1940 to 1980, even though CO2 increased steadily and dramatically.

For those who want the benefits of warmer weather, we have good short-term news. The Earth is warming naturally, and has been sporadically since the high point of the last glacial period was reached 18,000 years ago.

All the good things warmer weather can bring will be lavished on us – for the next 2,000 years.

Then global cooling will set in.

The current interglacial period will be replaced by the next glacial period.

Just as it has hundreds of times before.

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The Illiterates

You know when you can't read, but how do you know you're a history illiterate?

I wrote about The Irrelevants, now it’s time to address The Illiterates.

Actually, they are the Selective Illiterates. They can read. They just won’t read anything that doesn’t agree with or reinforce their Leftist ideologies.

For example, a couple of years ago I had a brief argument with a local pacifist and serial peace protester at a dinner fundraiser at the Gualala Arts Center.

She began by deploring the atomic bombing of Japan, and then stated that the United States forced Japan to attack us because we were unfairly embargoing iron and oil from being shipped to Japan. In her view, and from many Leftist articles she had read, the United States was practicing economic imperialism against Japan.

As the discussion continued, it became apparent that she had no knowledge of events prior to the United States and Australian iron embargo in 1940. The “Rape of Nanking” rang no bells in her memory of historical events. However, she was sure that if we had just listened to the Japanese and paid attention to their concerns about their economic security, all would have been peaceful and harmonious.

Kumbaya.

A little historical background for the one or two Leftists reading this, necessary in light of their inveterate historical illiteracy. The Empire of Japan invaded China on July 7, 1937. Next to the Soviet Union, China had more civilian deaths in World War II than any other nation – twelve million civilian deaths in the Soviet Union, seven million in China. In addition, two million Chinese military were killed. In contrast, not counting Holocaust victims, the Germans only had two million civilians killed, and the Japanese only six hundred thousand.

Almost all of the Japanese civilian deaths occurred in the last months of the war, and about half were Okinawans who became part of Japan, under duress, only sixty years before the Battle of Okinawa. When defeat was inevitable, the Okinawan’s Japanese “brothers” urged and assisted them in committing suicide in vast numbers.

More “Japanese” civilians were killed in the invasion of Okinawa than by both atomic bombs combined. One of the largest causes of Japanese civilian deaths was the fire bombing of their cities during the first stages of preparations for the invasion of the Japanese mainland. Had the atomic bombs not been dropped, and the invasion of Japan by conventional forces had commenced, it is estimated that ten million Japanese would have died from starvation alone.

Getting back to China, after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the invasion of China in1937, and the Nanking Massacre in early 1938, the United States did negotiate fruitlessly with Imperial Japan for two years before following Australia in 1940 with an embargo on iron.

The bottom line: the United States did what my pacifist friend said they should, and as usual, all our peace efforts produced were a lot more dead victims of aggression.

“When will they ever learn?
Oh when will they ever learn?”

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Playing Hard to Get

A lesson lost on the young ladies of today is the power of “playing hard to get.”

Not impossible to get, but hard to get.

Being easy never brought anyone long-term advantages.

As we used to say, back when I was a boy and half the country were farmers, “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk free?”

The lesson of playing hard to get may be lost on our young, lissome lovelies, but not on our legislators. They know the goodies, the earmarks, the set asides, go to the legislators whose votes must be seduced, not to the ones who vote their principles.

For example, suppose a bill comes up for vote that is favored by a legislator, who now and then will be referred to as Legislator X. So he/she/it votes for it. The party leadership says “We knew we could count on good old what’s-his/her/its-name.”

Suppose the same bill, the same legislator, but this time he/she/it says for some idealistic reason the bill is bad.

“It goes too far.”

“It doesn’t go far enough.”

“It will cost too much.”

“Not enough resources have been allocated to make it effective.”

In this way, the legislator can, in good conscience, oppose any bill, and not look like a hypocrite.

Now what happens? First, the party’s senior membership, who never gave good old what’s-his-name a second thought, now confer and ask, “What can we offer good old what’s-his-name to get his/her/its support on this?”

Meanwhile, what’s-his-face now finds he/she/it is the center of attention, and all are eager to ask what happened to support for the bill? Particularly, why no support for this bill, when passing it was the main reason our subject legislator said drove him to run for office?

What happened?

Now is the time for Legislator X to shine. The world is watching. The world is listening.

Will X blow it?

Actually, regardless of X’s eloquence, or more likely lack thereof, and regardless of any semblance of logic on the part of X, X is playing a winning hand.

Like the girl who said “no,” but with a twinkle in her eye, Legislator X has now become “one to be wooed.”

The girl who said “no” may eventually have gotten everything she would have if she said “yes,” plus she also got wined, dined, danced, and romanced.

So it is with our Legislator X, who in addition to seeing his pet bill passed, now has lots of porcine products to take back to his constituents. Reelection is assured by no longer being “taken for granted.”

Just like the girl showing her new ring to admiring girlfriends, there is a lot to be gained by playing hard to get.

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The Irrelevants

A dedicated peace activist can be both.

A couple of weeks ago I parked at the Gualala Post Office to pick up our mail and buy a few things at the Surf Super Market across the street. On my way to and from the super market, I passed through a small crowd of about fifty peace protesters, many of whom are my friends and neighbors. Several recognized both me and my politics, and thoughtfully invited me to join them.

I gave them a cheery, “Thanks, but no thanks,” and continued on my merry way, thinking of all the peace protests and vigils I have seen and read of over the years, and of how they never accomplished anything.

The idea then formed that the peace protesters and activists should be named, “The Irrelevants.” No matter what they do, nothing changes. Further, their protests have spawned protests, and now any protest worthy of the name will include “Free Mumia,” “Liberate Palestine,” “Gay-Lesbian-Transgender-Bisexual-Interspecies Rights,” “Fight Global Warming,” “Save the (Whales) (Sea Otters) (Salmon) (Desert Kangaroo Rat) (pick one),” “Stamp Out Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO),” “Medical marijuana for all (because everyone is sick!),” and of course, how could you have a protest without “Socialists Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything (SWINE).”

In other words, the protests have taken on a life on their own, and the only unifying factor is a mindless hatred of President Bush.

I wrote a letter to my local weekly newspaper, the Independent Coast Observer, and observed that it was a beautiful day for all the Irrelevants to gather and enjoy the sun and fresh air while they accomplished nothing.

One of my neighbors replied in a letter to the Editor that since I was outnumbered fifty to one, might I not be the irrelevant one?

That reply inspired the following response from me:

Relevance is not determined by numbers but by accomplishments. If one hundred thousand peace activists chanted to their crystals at sunrise on Mount Tamalpais, the world would not be moved one millimeter closer to peace.

The twenty-three million inhabitants of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are few in number, and are leading a miserable existence that starves both their bodies and their souls. Surely the world could send a vast contingent of peace activists to North Korea and overcome their belligerence with the power of love. After all, they are Democrats and it is a People’s Republic.

During the Cold War, one security policemen standing guard over a bomber on nuclear alert, on a cold, rainy night on an Air Force flightline somewhere in the middle of Kansas, or Nebraska, or some other place where they don’t think peace comes from chanting and burning incense, did more for world peace than all the peace activists of the world for all time.

Actually, having a lot of peace activists in Muslim countries would be a great idea, except then the world would have a lot of dead and imprisoned Muslim peace activists, and the world would continue as before. Lots of North Korean, Cuban, Sudanese, Congolese, and Chinese peace activists would be a good thing too.

Among the world’s great ironies is that the only place peace activists thrive are in peaceful places, and those places are peaceful because of victories in wars and the accumulation and development of military might.

It is sad but true that the despotic rulers of the world brutally suppress their peace protesters while encouraging ours.

My offer still stands, and in over two weeks now no one has suggested a potential war that peace protesters prevented. Or one they stopped. Or even slowed down.

The above letter will probably appear in Friday the 13th issue of the ICO, which will be in our mailboxes on the 12th.

So once again, the gauntlet is flung down.

When I’m dealing with Leftists, and the odds are fifty to one against me, I feel I have them outnumbered and surrounded.

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Pass It On

Assad to Pelosi:"I'm glad Jimmy Carter sent you, but next time don't forget the head scarf. On reflection, a burkha would look even better and more appropriate on you."

At some time in our life we have all played the game, “Pass It On.” Sometimes it wasn’t a game, but a real life event called “gossip.” Norman Rockwell did a marvelous Saturday Evening Post cover that illustrated a message being passed, and finally getting back to its originator in a totally unrecognizable and thoroughly embarrassing form.


"Gossip"

In school someone would write down a simple sentence and whisper it to another student, and the message would pass student to student around the classroom until the last one in the chain recorded the message received, and then compared it to the original. Invariably it was hilariously transformed into something nonsensical.

“Pass It On” has also been used in management classes and seminars to illustrate the importance of clear communications – and why you shouldn’t trust the “grapevine” to do the job effectively.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has just provided another example of how “pass it on” communications are fraught with peril, and she was able to muck it up completely even though she was the only communicating link in the chain.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Ms. Pelosi that "although Israel is interested in peace with Syria, that country continues to be part of the Axis of Evil and a force that encourages terror in the entire Middle East."

Mr. Olmert then went on to repeat exactly the same conditions for peace with Syria that Israeli governments have stipulated over and over for many years: Syria’s willingness to "cease its support of terror, cease its sponsoring of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, refrain from providing weapons to Hizbullah and bringing about the destabilizing of Lebanon, cease its support of terror in Iraq, and relinquish the strategic ties it is building with the extremist regime in Iran."

However, Ms. Pelosi announced that she had delivered a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that "Israel was ready to engage in peace talks" with Syria.

But Olmert’s statement said he had not communicated to Pelosi any change in Israeli policy on Damascus.

The Washington Post, almost as stalwart a mouthpiece for the Democrats as the San Francisco Chronicle (“All Pelosi, all the time”) and the Los Angeles Times, included the following in an April 5, 2007 editorial, “Pratfall in Damascus - Nancy Pelosi's foolish shuttle diplomacy.”

"We came in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace, Ms. Pelosi grandly declared.

Never mind that that statement is ludicrous: As any diplomat with knowledge of the region could have told Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Assad is a corrupt thug whose overriding priority at the moment is not peace with Israel but heading off U.N. charges that he orchestrated the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. The really striking development here is the attempt by a Democratic congressional leader to substitute her own foreign policy for that of a sitting Republican president.

Again, for those with short memories, a gentle reminder that the above statements are from a Washington Post editorial. The Washington Post is, and has always been, a key component of the vast Left-Wing Conspiracy.

Ms. Pelosi, in her erroneous overtures to Syria, is taking the heat off Mr. Assad for the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri.

Ms Pelosi has also unfairly put heat on Mr. Olmert and Israel to make concessions to Mr. Assad and Syria to revive a peace process that Syria has done everything possible to subvert.

Ms Pelosi received the blessing of Jimmy Carter for her efforts, thereby completing the Foreign Policy Foul Up trifecta.

If she could have in some way revived the ghost of Arafat in her “negotiations,” she would have achieved classic Democrat Four Blunder Diplomacy, something that only Jimmy Carter himself accomplished.

Many times.

As it is, she has reinforced the copyrights the Democrats have on “foolish” and “amateurish” to describe their foreign policy initiatives.

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The State of Education in America - We’re Doomed

"I think we’re being educated for failure. We learn math in case the calculator fails. We learn to read in case the TV breaks , and we learn to spell in case the spell-checker doesn’t work."

I just returned from our weekly Rotary luncheon at renowned St. Orres Restaurant. Our speaker was a charming young lady completing her Freshman year at Stanford. She is very bright and energetic, a straight-A student, and a poster girl for my statement that we are doomed. Her majors at Stanford are Creative Writing (English) and Italian. Add her to the long list of bright, energetic, well educated Americans who won’t be going into math, science, or engineering.

As she talked, I listened and smiled politely, and had a friendly chat with her and her father afterwards, while I seethed inwardly. It would do absolutely no good towards any purpose for me to abuse the cordial atmosphere of our luncheon to complain about how our best and brightest are using our citadels of higher learning to pursue their hobbies.

I have heard from so many Americans over the years that the greatest good is done by people who love what they are doing. Who am I to throw cold water on such self-congratulatory conventional wisdom?

However, I contend that that love, that personal fulfillment, is a result of exposure to a particular culture, or set of values, and in a different environment, our best and brightest would chose more challenging paths to personal fulfillment. Unfortunately, at the moment our culture is becoming softer and fuzzier, more feminine, and young men have become a minority in higher education. At the same time, areas that contain our largest concentrations of young people also provide them totally inadequate public educations, educations that qualify them for nothing except remedial education programs when and if they ever attempt higher education.

I was caught up in the joy and enthusiasm of our young Stanford Freshman, and I almost felt ashamed as curmudgeonly thoughts passed through my mind as she described her African culture themed dormitory and its activities. Apparently half the students in her dorm are African Americans or Africans, and the rest are from other cultures.

As she spoke, I imagined life in the dorm as an unending chorus of “Kumbaya.” She described the many hours spent in rehearsal of "native" songs and dances, including "hip hop," and many more hours devoted to original compositions reflecting the multicultural ethos, and I was happy for her and sad for our nation, and the developing nations of the world.

Why the double dose of sadness?

Sadness number one, we are not recruiting our best and brightest to fill our greatest needs by taking the “hard” majors. We are rapidly developing our nation into a fool’s paradise of happy hobbyists.

Sadness number two, we’re taking developing nations’ best and brightest to fill our needs. The developing nations suffer “brain drain,” and our culture devolves into dependency, where our technical and skilled work is done by educated foreigners, and our menial tasks by unskilled and uneducated foreigners.

Our colleges and universities will continue as first-rate educational institutions, more and more serving the higher education needs of foreign students who receive excellent basic educations in their own countries. They will continue to come to America to fill the spaces in math, science, and engineering that our own inadequate public education system cannot.

Our inadequate public education system will continue to build on its ineptitude, meaning in translation that it will go from bad to worse as the poor quality of its product provides the infertile soil for the next crop of teachers and administrators.

Kumbaya.

(The following letter appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle today - well, on 31 March 2007, anyway. It is from a member of a Chinese immigrant family, and eloquently illustrates the cultural differences that inspire America's best and brightest to pursue "soft" educations, and immigrant families to choose math and science. )

Living the dream
(Please scroll down to the Harry W. Tong letter, and while you're at it, you can read my letter on "Porky Pelosi's Prowess)

Editor -- I disagree with Ashley Jones (Letters, "Poverty and schools," March 24) that "hopelessness springs from abject poverty."

Our family grew up in "abject poverty" in Chicago's Chinatown ghetto without any government social programs or financial assistance, surrounded by high-crime public housing. My father was hospitalized and my mom had 25 cents in the house to feed five children.

We broke every child labor law that existed, as all five of us took any job we could find and we worked seven days a week , sometimes at two to three jobs, each into the wee hours of the night to survive.

We knew the only way out of the ghetto was to use our brains and study hard as million-dollar contracts in sports were not yet an option and, at 5-foot-5, I knew no basketball scout would beat a path to my door.

Today, our parents, in heaven, would be proud of our accomplishments for we have capitalized on the American dream as immigrants from China. Among our extended family are four Ph.D.s, five M.D.s (with two more soon to be in residency training), five Master's degree holders and one lawyer.

Only in America can immigrants escape their "abject poverty" and poor schools by applying their God-given brains in spite of all the barriers imposed by the miserable school systems.

HARRY W. TONG
Foster City

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Wake Up the ACLU and Congress!

Iran took an act of war against our NATO ally, Britain, and the sovereign state of Iraq. That’s what an armed invasion of a nation’s territory is, and that is what the capture of British military personnel performing their lawful duties in Iraqi waters is.

That’s what the meaning of “is” is.

This is an act of war.

Where are all the anti-war protesters?

The same place they were when the Palestinians invaded Israel from Gaza and captured an Israeli soldier, and the same place they were when Hamas invaded Israel from Lebanon and killed and captured Israeli soldiers.

The anti-war protesters are sitting on their hypocritical asses ignoring that Iran has taken unprovoked, belligerent, and unjustifiable actions against the persons and territory of sovereign states. Apparently, the United States is the only nation whose actions the anti-war crowds protest.

Even when those actions are taken under United Nations resolutions, and even when in compliance with the Geneva Conventions.

The ACLU and anti-war protesters are total hypocrites about violations of the Geneva Conventions. Their concern about the treatment of unlawful combatants not covered by the Geneva Convention is balanced by their lack of concern about the treatment of British sailors actually entitled to all the protections of the Geneva Conventions.

Of course, since a state of war does not exist – yet – between Iran and Britain, the Geneva Conventions may not apply. What Iran did was totally illegal, even in the kangaroo court of international law, and was more an act of piracy than warfare. Since the act was sanctioned and conducted by the Iranian government, that government is now an outlaw by the standards of international law.

Although no one should hold their breath waiting for international justice, the following is just a brief description of obvious violations so far.

The first violation is invasion of the territory of a sovereign nation. Satellite and GPS data, and the statements of the Indian and other uninvolved nationals on the scene, prove that the incident occurred 1.7 miles inside Iraqi territorial waters.

The next is kidnapping of British nationals and theft of British property seized in Iraqi territorial waters.

The third is extortion of “confessions” and false statements from the lone female captured, the most vulnerable member of the kidnapped group. Apparently statements from other British personnel have also been coerced, and will be produced as the Iranian bandits feel the need.

The fourth is making a public display of the captured British.

The fifth, and a particularly egregious violation of the Geneva Conventions, is threatening to try the British as spies. In the murky world of international law, nothing could be clearer than the standard that no military member captured while wearing his or her uniform may be tried as a spy. Instead, all military captured in uniform in the service of their country must be afforded all the protections of the Geneva Conventions.

Even Russia, so cautious of offending the mullahs that they sell so much military hardware, must admit, regardless of the laughable “plausible deniability” of the Iranians that the British were captured in Iranian waters, that the Iranians have not given their captives the treatment and protections absolutely required of the Geneva Conventions.

Even allowing the charade that the British were captured in Iranian territorial waters, the treatment of the British military members required under the Geneva Conventions is not altered an iota.

Again, the protections required under the Geneva Conventions in these circumstances are not vague and subject to interpretation – or misinterpretation. The captured British are members of their country’s armed services, and when captured were in uniform under orders to discharge British responsibilities in accordance with United Nations resolutions.

Where are the demonstrators? Where is the ACLU?

Why can they get it all wrong on unlawful combatants, and then ignore real violations of UN resolutions and the Geneva Conventions?

How do these hypocrites sleep at night?

And why does anyone listen to them?

On Captain's Quarters, Cap'n Ed lays out the situation masterfully, but all his commenters are deep into tactics to prevent something from occurring that already has, or to take actions to try to make the mullahs of Iran give up the British personnel. Conspicuously missing is any call for or reliance on the United Nations, the world organization formed and chartered to take effective actions when these sorts of things happen.

I think the only country in the world that wants the UN to step in is Iran, because then they know they can continue their outrages without fear of military reprisal.

Where are the Democrats, where are the peace protesters, demanding that the one governmental agency in the world they most support and admire do the job for which it was established? If the United Nations cannot be expected to control the outlaw actions of a member nation, why is there a United Nations? So far, all the UN seems to do is give cover for Muslim violations of international law and the Geneva Conventions.

That's right, the United Nations primarily aids and abets international criminal acts rather than preventing or punishing them.

And then asks us for more money and support.

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Soaking Wet, Wearing a Big Smile

Celebrities have iconic images, a look that is clearly stamped in the public eye and is readily associated with them. Back in the good old days, when we had few TV channels and everyone watched the same shows, an impersonator didn’t have to say a word to conjure up images of Ed Sullivan, Jack Benny, or Jackie Gleason. The way an arm was held, an eyebrow raised, a pained expression, and we all knew who the subject was.

Today, with the proliferation of celebrity status, it’s much more difficult. A woman on her knees barfing could be Paris Hilton, but it could be Halle Berry or one of our many celebrityettes. It’s the modern measure of celebrity: name recognition today, rehab tomorrow.

For those of us who are not celebrities, we may have as many iconic images as we have lasting associations with others. My image of Alice is soaking wet (fully clothed) with a big smile. Usually a bicycle is also in the picture.

After Marilynn died, and I joined Great Expectations, I noticed most of the young ladies wrote they loved outdoor activities and exercise. However, when I dated them, I discovered that a “love of outdoor activities and exercise” was very elastic. It seems that to many a walk through an uncovered shopping center satisfied both the outdoor and the exercise components.

This then brings me to Alice and her description of herself. If anything, she understated her love of outdoor activity, exercise, and of particular significance, adventure.

Unlike all the others, who said they loved the wind and the rain, but didn’t want to mess up their hair, Alice loves the wind and the rain and never gives a thought to her hair.

While I was auditing hazardous material and waste management at Lockheed in Sunnyvale, California in the early 1990’s, Alice accompanied me on all my audit travel projects, one of which started at Cape Canaveral, then up coast to Kings Bay Naval Base near St. Marys, Georgia, and finished at the Naval Base at Charleston, South Carolina. At Kings Bay we rented a bungalow on Amelia Island and while I worked, Alice explored the island on her rented bicycle.

We had already learned from previous travel on Lockheed business to Cape Canaveral that just about every day in the Atlantic Coast South includes a short but heavy thunderstorm. A particularly powerful one hit one afternoon after work just as I was driving back to our bungalow. When I got to the place we were staying, Alice and her bicycle were gone. Just as I was hoping that she hadn’t been caught out in the storm on her bike, I heard her on the front porch.

When I saw her, I had to laugh. I had never seen a person wearing clothes who looked so wet in my life. And I had never seen such a big smile anytime, anywhere. Alice had been totally thrilled and energized by her experience pedaling through the storm. Instead of being a discomfort and a bother, to Alice it was a great adventure. I could tell by her expression and energy that she was eagerly anticipating biking through the next thunderstorm to come along.

In the years since, we have experienced several memorable soakings. Once was in 1998 biking back to Rothenberg ob der Tauber from Wurzburg, and another was in Scotland in 2002 pedaling to Stirling on our way south to Edinburgh.

Now we live on the beautiful Northern California coast, and except for the few periods when health problems make her take it easy, Alice and Buddy take several walks every day. The morning and evening walks are usually along our road and through the woods, but their afternoon walks are to the beach, regardless of weather. Since she’s not on her bike, the combination of umbrella, rain gear, and raincoat usually keep Alice fairly dry. However, Buddy comes back looking like a happy drowned rat, and it usually takes me at least two towels to dry him. Needless to say, Alice and Buddy both love their walks, rain or shine, and Buddy loves the attention and towel rubdown, and his milk-bone reward.

My special reward is looking at their happy faces, and hearing Alice say “God, I love this beautiful place.”

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Celebrating Campaign Finance Reform

Anniversaries are causes for celebration, and today is the fifth anniversary of the signing of Campaign Finance Reform. As at each celebration, the central point of an anniversary is to celebrate the accomplishments of the event being honored.

(This space intentionally left blank)

OK, now we’ve covered that.

Seriously, what has campaign finance reform accomplished?

Did it enable the Democrats to take the House and Senate from the Republicans? Or did the mid-term election of 2006 closely resemble the mid-term election of 1994, and most other mid-term elections, when the party not in the White House usually does very well?

Is there less money in politics?

The last time I checked, there was more money in political races than ever, even after being adjusted for inflation.

As one door to political contributions was shut, many more were opened.

You can tell when something is a total failure, when its creators don’t grab spotlights and take bows and congratulate themselves.

I heard that when John McCain was asked about campaign finance reform successes, he started giving it credit for things like the proliferation of televised news outlets, and blogging.

Great shades of “Al Gore invented the Internet!”

John, you’ve been out in the Arizona sun without your hat too long. This is the fifth anniversary of campaign finance. CSAN, CNN, Fox News, et al occurred long before campaign finance reform became law.

It is reminiscent of Diane Feinstein’s assault weapons ban, which was circumvented by gun manufacturers before the ink was dry from its signing ceremony. The only reason gun violence has gone down is that the country is getting older. If Feinstein and friends were really serious about reducing gun violence, they would push to have existing legislation concerning use of a gun in the commission of a crime strictly enforced.

Legislators love to penalize and annoy honest citizens, and to protect and extend the rights of law breakers.

Feinstein’s beloved San Francisco provides many examples of this. Basically law-abiding citizens are taken to court and fined for traffic tickets, building code violations, and the like, while the scofflaws need fear nothing. The homeless in San Francisco make themselves into public nuisances, turning city streets and storefronts into filthy eyesores and urban cesspools.

Protesters in San Francisco violate laws with impunity, then sue the city for arresting them, or have their violations thrown out because the city can’t afford to tie up resources in endless court appearances.

The only ones who obey the laws are the ones who would never dream of violating them in the first place. All the rest see the laws for what they are, vain posturing to take rights from good citizens, and provide opportunities for abuse by the rest.

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2008 Republican Straw Poll

San Francisco Chronicle becomes first Non-news Newspaper

St. Brigid Catholic Church in San Francisco, closed in 1994, the subject of a front page Chronicle story for three days in a row.

I haven’t written many posts lately, and it’s all because of the San Francisco Chronicle. For most of the past year, the Chronicle has daily provided ignorant and inane articles and editorials that inspire me, that overcome me with waves of righteous indignation, to write responses.

Unfortunately for me, lately the Chronicle has changed a lot, and the biggest change is they have become a “non-news” newspaper. For example, the Sunday Chronicle for March 25, 2007 did not have one newsworthy article in its entire first section.

For example, the Page 1 Headline article was “Food bloggers dish up plates of spicy criticism – Formerly formal discipline of reviewing becomes a free-for-all for online amateurs.”

(Food on the Web - Some sites relating to the search, discovery and criticism of Bay Area cuisine:

• www.yelp.com
• www.tablehopper.com
• www.chowhound.com
• www.becksposhnosh.blogspot.com
• www.sfgate.com/food/ )
  
  Stop the presses!
  
  Below and occupying a third of the front page was “The lost parish,” the first of a three-part story about a Catholic Church in San Francisco that was closed in 1994!
  
  Hold page one!
  
  At the bottom of the first page was an opinion-editorial article, “War at home for hearts and minds.”
  
  Oh, the breathless excitement of anticipation!
  
  On the left side of the front page were three blocks introducing articles within. The first, in the Sunday Magazine, page 8, “A second try at pregnancy – In the wake of a still-birth, a woman’s diary relates the worry, the hope and the joy en route to motherhood.”
  
  Then, in the Bay Area section, page B1, “The buzz of the bee – Kids and their parents get caught up in the modern theater of competitive spelling.”
  
  Finally, in Real Estate, page K1, “Homes with a conscience – Developer builds in Sonoma County with an environmentally sustainable attitude.”
  
  In tiny print at the bottom, in World News, page A15, “U. N. Security Council bans arms exports, freezes some accounts over Iran’s nuclear program,” and Conflict in Iraq, page A16, “Hundreds, including actor Sean Penn and Rep. Barbara Lee, gather in Oakland to denounce Iraq war.”
  
  In terms of news to blog about, the Chronicle has totally under-whelmed me.
  
  Just to prove it wasn't a one-time anomaly, the Monday, March 26 Chronicle Front Page headlined "Disabled placards proliferate," the second part of "The Lost Parish," "Proposed car-smoking ban angers foes of 'nanny' laws," and Campaign 2008 - Unity08 challenges Dems, GOP online."
  
  How un-newsy can a newspaper get?!
  
  Where will I go for inspiration?
  
  What is the URL for Al Gore's website?

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Global Warming - Religion of the Elites

And did you purchase an Apocalyptic Al indulgence?

Taking his cue from the Muslims, who actually seem to believe their mythology is sound scientifically, Al Gore has made Global Warming into a religion with all the trappings of a self-appointed priesthood.

Ayatollah Al and his Acolytes practice an ancient religion demanding both obeisance to its dogma and human sacrifice. Its priesthood live lives of opulent luxury in stately pleasure domes, employing private jets and limousines to traverse the world in Pharaoh-class style, purchasing carbon-offset “indulgences” to maintain their façade of “carbon neutrality.”


Gore's carbon footprint

Knowing that increased power production and energy consumption are the essential elements of economic progress, these self-anointed Saviors decree that the masses be kept in misery and poverty and be denied the means of attaining a comfortable life and a secure future for themselves and their families.

While liberals self-righteously congratulate themselves for replacing an incandescent bulb with a low-energy one, buying a hybrid car to accessorize their Hummer, and turning up the air conditioner thermostat a degree, on just about any street in Africa a man wishes his family had electricity for more than four hours a day, that they could afford a tire for their decrepit bicycle, and could find relief from the oppressive heat and malaria-bearing mosquitoes.

“You don’t want economic progress,” say the High Priests of Hypocrisy. “If you consume energy like we do to maintain our indulgent lifestyles, the world climate might get warmer.”

That’s right, it might warm up to resemble the Medieval Warm Period of AD 800 to 1400, when mankind made great progress both culturally and economically.

We can’t have a repeat of that.

If we did the people might forget how much they need Apocalyptic Al to lead them in sacrificial rites to placate the doomsayers and make him feel relevant again.


The four horsemen of Apocalyptic Global Warming - Poverty, Insecurity, Hunger, and Disease.

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Porky Pelosi’s Political Prowess

Pelosi trading pork for votes.
Al Gore buying carbon offsets.
It looks like the Democrats have their own commodity exchange!

In the San Francisco Chronicle’s paean to Porky Pelosi’s political prowess (House OK of Iraq timetable proves Pelosi’s prowess, Saturday, March 24, 2007), I noticed no mention that none of her “100 hours” legislation has become law.

Also not mentioned, that the House Democrats adopted rules requiring that appropriation "earmarks" for special purposes identify their authors, and then immediately violated their new rule.

Concerning the pork Pelosi lavished to bribe Democrats to support the Iraq funding bill, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind) noted: "Spinach, shrimp, peanuts and shellfish? That's not a war funding bill, that's the salad bar at Denny's."

The Senate bill has been further sweetened with aid to sugar-beet and sugar-cane growers.

Is Pelosi’s prowess demonstrated by inability to pass legislation? If so, she will go down in history as the Speaker with the most prowess ever.



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Global Warming Apocalypse

Climate change - a challenge and an opportunity for mankind to prove we can adapt to anything and everything Nature throws at us - and prosper!

"Before this century is over, billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic," predicted James Lovelock, a "renowned" environmental scientist.

I think I know what he is renowned for. He wants to be the next Paul Ehrlich, and this is his "Population Bomb" contender.

The first part of his prediction is about as true as true can be. By 2100, approximately twelve billion will die. First, almost all of the current world population of 6,697,969,970 will be dead, given that average life expectancy (at a very optimistic projection) will be somewhere around 70 years. Second, with a 70-year life expectancy, almost all of the over three billion born between 2007 and 2030 will also be dead by 2100. Finally, between 2070 and 2100, given current annual world mortality, at least another two billion will die.

So, as James Lovelock predicts: “Before this century is over, billions of us will die…”

You and I, and James Lovelock, will probably be among them.



Concerning the second part of his prediction: “… the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic," I think the world’s scientific community is equally at a loss as I am to understand how any mechanism of apocalyptic doom could cause the most adaptive creature on the planet to suffer such a fate.

Since most of the Arctic is ocean, I hope they’re good with boats and like fish. I also hope they don’t commit suicide when they find out about Norwegian taxes.

Leif Erickson’s lie when he named an icecap “Greenland” to fool and encourage potential settlers will finally become truth.

The vast uninhabited expanses of Siberia and Canada will become prime real estate.

Australians and New Zealanders will wonder what all the fuss is about.

Will it be caused by a doubling of atmospheric CO2? Many life forms survived – dare I say thrived? – when CO2 levels were several times higher than the present.

Will it be because of high temperatures? The several recent periods of higher temperatures than present were times of increased progress and prosperity for mankind. What evidence is there that mankind has suddenly become fragile and incapable of adapting to change, when advances in science and increasing resources are steadily improving mankind’s abilities to control and adapt to a changing environment?

Millions of years ago the earth was hotter, and ice free. At other times it was much colder, covered by ice to a far greater extent than the last glacial period 18,000 years ago. We are now near an end to an interglacial (warmer) period, and in about 2,000 years we will probably enter the next glacial (colder) period.

By then a quarter of a trillion humans may have lived – and died – and laughed about the Great Global Warming Panic that began the Twenty First Century.

Then they’ll shiver, bundle up more tightly in their warmest clothes, and pray: “God, when you have a minute, could you turn up the thermostat?”

“Come on, Global Warming!”

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Clinton Lied, People Died (Updated and reposted)

Yesterday was World Cliché Day, and about fifty of the usual Irrelevants gathered on the Post Office sidewalk on Highway One to chant the old chants, and wave the old banners.

As a Conservative, I can appreciate not wasting resources, and the same people and banners turn out to “Free Mumia” and other cop killers, fight genetically modified crops so that millions can continue to be sick and starve, and oppose military interventions anywhere at any time, even to stop genocide.

One of the oldies and perennials was proudly present, the ubiquitous Liberal bumper sticker, "When Clinton lied, no one died."

Of course, "When Clinton lied, no one died" is a perversion of the truth that only the history illiterates and delusionals on the Left believe. Far more died of terrorism during Clinton's presidency than under President Bush. It is a monument to Bush hatred and a defiance of reason that the Left, the custodians of academia, dare continue to feed lies to their ignorant followers when abundant truth is available in voluminous news archives on the Internet.

How many do the Left claim died in Iraq? The highest, wildest, unsubstantiated claim is 100,000, although official Iraqi estimates are under 30,000.

Of course either number pales when compared to the 100,000 to 230,000 Iraqis Saddam murdered during the Clinton presidency, when Bill Clinton and the United Nations waffled about holding Saddam to the commitments he made to end Gulf War I.

At the same time, Iraqi suffering was totally overshadowed by the 800,000 to one million killed in the Rwanda genocide. Again Bill Clinton and the United Nations studiously looked the other way as the widely reported slaughter proceeded. The Rwandans were under the “protection” of the United Nations, and at the time Bill Clinton was one of the strongest supporters of the UN of recent US presidents. Bill Clinton, also known as America’s “first black president,” lied about his knowledge of the genocide and let the slaughter of blacks by blacks continue for 100 hellish and horrific days.

Bill Clinton went to Rwanda in 1998 to “apologize” for not knowing how fast and lethal the Hutu attacks were, but recently released classified documents prove otherwise.

President Bill Clinton's administration knew Rwanda was being engulfed by genocide in April 1994 but buried the information to justify its inaction, according to classified documents made available for the first time.

Senior officials privately used the word genocide within 16 days of the start of the killings, but chose not to do so publicly because the president had already decided not to intervene.

…It took Hutu death squads three months from April 6 to murder an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus and at each stage accurate, detailed reports were reaching Washington's top policymakers.The documents undermine claims by Mr Clinton and his senior officials that they did not fully appreciate the scale and speed of the killings.

Clinton Lied, A Million Rwandans Died – How’d that look on your bumper?

While Clinton was visiting Africa in 1998 to "apologize" for not noticing the Rwandan genocide, he also didn't notice that the First and Second Congo Wars were raging all around him, and that almost four million died during his second term.

Bosnia provided Bill Clinton and the United Nations another opportunity to waffle and procrastinate while observing and doing nothing about ethnic cleansing. Over 100,000 were killed, and over a million were made refugees.

Before the Rwanda genocide, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in 1993, killing six and wounding 1,000. That attack set the stage for more dithering and fumbling by Bill Clinton as the terrorists became stronger and bolder.

Hizbollah bombed the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, killing 19 American servicemen and one Saudi, and wounding 372.

In 1998 Islamic terrorists simultaneously bombed United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 257 and wounding 4,000.

The USS Cole was attacked in the Yemeni port of Aden in 2000. Seventeen sailors were killed, and 39 were wounded.

During Bill Clinton’s second term, as he was being entertained by Monica , then lying about it, and trying to put a lid on “Bimbo eruptions” - Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick – Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda planned, organized, staffed, and trained for the attacks on 9/11/2001. When Osama was vulnerable to attack, to assassination, the Clinton presidency was tried and found wanting. The fact that the attacks occurred on President Bush’s “watch” should not obscure the fact that everything but the execution of 9/11 occurred on Clinton’s.

Three thousand died needlessly, like the million in Rwanda, the hundreds of thousands in Iraq, the millions in the Congo, and the hundreds in other places where terrorists struck.

The “Path to 9/11” was prepared and paved by Clinton’s inability to identify, understand, and to make any attempt at combating the growing threat of Islamofascism. As he lied, and denied, bin Laden and other terrorist leaders took heart and were inspired by our inability to face the reality of Islamic terrorism.

Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright, Sandy Berger, Al Gore – when we needed leaders, all we got were these clowns.

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Valerie Plame, Highly Trained Covert Agent

I heard a report on the testimony of Valerie Plame Wilson that she was asked about being tailed while going to work at CIA Headquarters at Langley, and she replied that in the CIA you are trained to lose anyone tailing you.

I was aghast to hear such lying by omission. I served as a Russian linguist in the Air Force Security Service, and the first security lesson we learned was that the enemy was not as dumb as we thought. We could think we were very clever and could easily outsmart them, but they knew where we worked and just watched our comings and goings.

As an example, I attended classes on Soviet missile test range activities at the National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade, Maryland in 1964. Our security briefing made it very clear that the Soviets already knew who we were, and had a good idea of why we were at NSA.

Did the Soviets assign an “Ivan Bondsky” agent to track us? No. Identifying and tracking us was low-level clerk work.

First, after completion of Basic Training the Air Force sent Russian language trainees to either the University of Syracuse or to Indiana University. At both Syracuse and Indiana the Air Force had faculty, classrooms, and dormitories separate from the university, and Air Force language students attended classes in uniform. For those unfamiliar with military uniforms, a group which now includes most Americans, I would like to point out that each of us, when in uniform, wore a name tag prominently displayed over a breast pocket.

Since Russian language school lasted nine months, even the dumbest, laziest Soviet spy-clerk had plenty of time to identify us all.

If, after we were in language school for nine months, the Soviets still were unsure what we were up to, our next assignment may have helped clear up any confusion. We were all sent to the United States Air Force Security Service Headquarters at Goodfellow Air Force Base, San Angelo, Texas, for three months of Radio Intercept School.

Of course the Soviets didn't know that Goodfellow AFB was a communications intelligence base, right?

From Goodfellow most Russian linguists were sent to work at bases in England, Germany, Italy, Korea, Japan, and Alaska. However, as I previously mentioned, some of us were sent to NSA for specialized training in intercepting Soviet missile test activities. After NSA we were sent to one of four bases – Karamürsel, Trabzon, and Samsun, Turkey; or Peshawar, Pakistan.

Since the Air Force chose these four sites because of proximity to the Soviet missile test ranges, we might credit the Soviets with enough intelligence to figure out why we were there too, mightn't we?

Maybe the Soviets were also smart enough to notice that we used both HF (high frequency) and VHF (very high frequency) antennas. Since aircraft used VHF instead of HF, they probably figured out that a bunch of Air Force Russian language specialists were interested in more than just aircraft movement. What Soviet activity was conducted on HF?

Of interest to the United States Air Force, only the missile test ranges.

Of course, we never told our wives and families anything about what we were doing. They were surprised many years later when we were finally “cold” for intelligence purposes to find out the details of our jobs. They knew all along that our assignment was to intercept Soviet radio communications, because our unclassified job title was Russian Language Intercept and Analysis Specialist. However, for over a decade, only those of us with specialized missile net training, and the Soviets of course, knew we were intercepting test missile developments.

So it is with Valerie Plame, “covert” agent. Only an idiot or a Democrat would think the “enemy” didn’t know she once was, but no longer is, a covert agent.

For those with limited abilities, let us run through it in simple terms. To aid your comprehension, I’ll type very slowly.

A woman is seen going to work daily at CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virginia. As is the standard practice, her identification is determined by tracing back from her automobile license plate and other bits of public information.

“It seems that she worked overseas for several years.”

“Interesting, isn’t it, that she now works at the CIA?”

“I wonder who she was working for in her overseas jobs before she started working at the CIA?” puzzles the simple agent of an unidentified foreign intelligence service.

“I see in Who’s Who that she is married to a former ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe, Joseph C. Wilson 4th.”

“I see that over ten years ago the CIA inadvertently gave the Cubans access to her identity. I wonder if Cuba told the Russians?”

“No, of course not. The CIA knows the Cubans and Russians are too stupid to trace Ms. Plame to where she worked then and after, and who she worked with and for.”

“It’s always good to have stupid enemies.”

“The motto of the Clinton administration: ‘Never overestimate the intelligence of your enemy.’”

“Lucky for the CIA and Ms. Plame that they taught her how to avoid being tailed to work.”

“I see she also notes that not everyone on the Georgetown cocktail circuit knew she was a covert agent.”

“I’ll drink to that.”

”для здарове, товариш!”

“çok güzel!”

“Bueno!”

“Proshai!”

“ 好运气！”



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