Posted on Democrats, George W. Bush

is this president bush the one we elected?

i’m reserving judgment on harriet miers, president bush’s pick to take the next seat on the supreme court. i’m not thrilled with it, because it does suggest to me that he isn’t taking on these democrats while they are this vulnerable. she may very well be the answer to conservative prayers and maybe we are all wrong. i do think that the president could have found someone better than miers, and i’m disappointed by this pick.

this is part of a broader concern with president bush. conservatives right now are feeling betrayed on some level by this guy. we voted for him because we wanted a president strong on terrorism, and we wanted someone who reflected our values on smaller government and tax cuts. most of all, we wanted someone who would appoint justices like scalia and thomas to the supreme court. while we got some of what we wanted, this president has not been the guy we expected or voted for. dare i suggest that he might end up being like bush 41 (except for raising taxes)?

bill kristol has some excellent advice for the president. i hope he takes it.

i’ve never been an apologist for the bush admin. but i’m ready to stop giving him the benefit of the doubt.

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Posted on Democracy, Iraq

the war on terrorism

the terrorists struck again over the weekend in indonesia. there has been a long history of terrorist activity in that country. the fact it took this long for an attack to happen again is neither reassuring nor comforting.

perhaps we are taking the wrong approach in this war on terrorism. i’m not sure that military force will stop the true militant ideologues in the muslim world in al Qaeda from being evil and blowing things up. that said, getting rid of saddam was a good thing, and i’m not sorry he’s not ruler of iraq right now. i also believe that aside from the WMDs, he was complicit in aiding and abetting terrorists. this alone should be a good enough reason to remove him from power. my complaint is not with the iraq project, it is with the PR effort.

throughout our history, we have tried to solve problems by brute force and sometimes even diplomacy. the right approach is a balance of both. we need to come to an understanding that changing hearts and minds in the middle east is an incremental process. even countries with a long history of democracy still struggle with it, so we can’t expect iraq or its neighbors to embrace all the changes right away.

president bush has the right idea in trying to spread the ideals of freedom and democracy around the world. but when he appoints karen hughes to spearhead the effort, it makes one wonder whether he is taking this seriously. we should be able to come up with someone better to share our message and counter the anti-american rhetoric often represented on arab tv/radio. al-jazeera for example. when the voices of anti-american muslims are the only ones heard, what alternative do their listeners have? we have a good case to present to them. we need to do a better job in presenting this case.

even with our best diplomatic argument presented, it is possible that there will still be fanatics with explosives who remain unconvinced of america’s good intentions. there’s nothing we can do about that. the goal should be to convince the arab-speaking world not to support the fringe elements among them. we can achieve this. we just need the right people to represent us to the arab world.

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Posted on Baseball

yanks/sox and attack pigs

in the spirit of the yanks/sox rivalry this weekend, here are some fun links for your entertainment and enjoyment.

chewbacca’s throwing heat at fenway
Sox fans trash free Yanks caps

from the technology will save the world department:

ROBOTS IN COMBAT
Remote-controlled rats could save lives
Gas prices high? Try an eco-friendly, $3.5 mil Skycar –neiman marcus does their part for fuel conservation. if you buy any of the suggested items in this article, the capitalists will have won.

stupid human tricks–

Parents sue university for son’s fatal dorm fall–because after all, when you intentionally do something stupid, the consequences are never your fault.
Eviction escape: Man flees, pig attacks— some headlines just write themselves.

other fun links–

rock, paper, scissors–now with 25 gestures. it used to be such a simple game.
Teletubbies In Cocaine Bust–(courtesy of TSG) jerry falwell should have warned us about this.

i’ll be back to some serious stuff on monday. check back then.

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Posted on Baseball

the anti-yankees official FAQ

who are these new york yankees?

the earthly expression of pure evil in the universe. they steal your job, the love of your life, and the best players from YOUR team, and then they break your heart into little tiny pieces. they are owned by a guy who stole his nickname from bruce springsteen, and is also known to red sox fans as “the emperor”. no word yet on whether anakin would join this evil empire. but my spies tell me that yankee GM brian cashman, possibly looking to return from the dark side, has been seen taking meetings with yoda.

why hate the yankees?

  • they are bent on world domination and hostile takeover of baseball, and they kick puppies in their spare time
  • because capitalistic monoliths must be stopped

why does everyone love derek jeter?

it must be because he’s a great shortstop… no, that’s not it. maybe it’s because he always thinks about the good of the team. it must be because he always has one very good month at the end of the baseball season. frankly, there are some mysteries in life that will never be solved.

why hate their fans?

  • because they have the nerve to whine about only winning the WS 26 times.
  • for wearing yankee gear and knowing nothing at all about the team.
  • because it’s the right thing to do.

why do i hate the yankees?

there’s no room to explain it in just one blog post. so i won’t.

enjoy the weekend baseball. if you see the afflecks at fenway, tell ’em i said hello.


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Posted on Baseball

AL playoff-related hostilities this weekend

much can change in a few short days. the a’s are now out of the picture. too bad. i like watching that team. so now we are left with the white sox, indians, red sox, yankees, and angels.

at the beginning of this whole preview, i was ready to put the yankees and red sox both into the playoffs. i couldn’t decide which one was the wild card. i have changed my mind about this.

the boston red sox–you ARE the WEAKEST LINK. goodbye. i love boston’s offense very much. i adore david ortiz as a hitter. what gets it done in the playoffs? pitching. the yankees have been making better use of their pitching staff. they have rivera. he’s pretty good. they also have an offense that’s almost as good as boston’s. i think the yankees have the edge here, and they are going to win the AL east. this is still a series worth keeping an eye on this weekend.

the pitching edge also goes to the indians over boston. their starters have been terrific and they have one of the best bullpens in the AL. that’s more than a significant advantage. i love the way the indians have been playing down the stretch, and while they might not sweep the white sox, i say they win more games than the red sox.

to summarize — the yankees and indians join the angels and white sox in the playoffs. more analysis to come after the matchups are finalized.

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Posted on Random Musings

i still hate j.j. abrams.

suspicions among fellow alias fans have been confirmed. if you just saw tonight’s alias, you know what i’m talking about. what kind of stupid move is this? grrrr. i would be lying if i said that i would quit watching it after tonight, but that doesn’t mean i have to like what happened. there are not many other ways to interpret that final scene, unfortunately. michael vartan will be missed…no question about it.

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Posted on Iraq

saddam’s links to terrorism (long post)

how are saddam and iraq linked to terrorism? even though there was a sunday telegraph article linking iraq and al-Qaeda based on documents provided to them, i am not going to argue their validity here. there is a more obvious connection between saddam and iraq to terrorism, or at least supporters of terrorist activity. i am referring to saddam’s long association with the PLO (palestinian liberation organization). i also contend that the israeli/palestinian struggle is also related in a peripheral manner to 9/11. i will explain why i think the muslims keep referencing that struggle. here are a few articles discussing this.
(most titles are mine… they were changed for clarity) if you want to skip to my summary of all these articles, it’s after all the links. 🙂

saddam pays off palestinian suicide bombers
iraq and terrorism–from national review
terrorism: q & a–council on foreign relations summary also points out saddam’s past use of WMDs
chronology of the first gulf war
THE PERSIAN GULF CRISIS AND THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT –from a senate discussion –an article talking about saddam’s relationship with the PLO and how the PLO supported his invasion of kuwait
israel holds back during the gulf war — suggestion that israel was influenced by the U.S. not to retaliate against iraq during the kuwait conflict so as not to inflame other arab states against the U.S.

what prompted this post was a book called al-jazeera, by mohammad el-nawawy and adel iskandar in which it is noted that the PLO was kicked out of kuwait after its liberation. why? they were kicked out, and rightly so i might add, for supporting saddam’s invasion of kuwait. it would naturally follow that israel would support this, being a sworn enemy of most PLO foreign policies. the opposition to saddam and the general aims of terrorist supporters of the PLO was not helpful to gain support for the U.S. we have always supported israel. in the arab world, some would consider us the enemy because of this. this book even suggests that some arabs/muslims believe that there is a zionist conspiracy at work in our media to unfairly portray palestinians. (wait ’til ted turner hears about this!!)

saddam and the PLO were obviously connected. he paid off some of their suicide bombers. the PLO supported saddam’s invasion of kuwait, and even provided logistical support for it. when the U.S. came in and liberated kuwait, and kicked out the PLO, this annoyed saddam and israel’s main opposition group. that’s the connection to the israel/palestinian conflict. it’s also the seed of muslim resentment toward the U.S. that continues post 9/11.

bin laden and the PLO were also quite chummy, according to this piece. it’s not that much of a stretch to believe that a mutual hatred of the U.S. and Israel and a mutual support of the PLO would bring bin laden and saddam together. an attack on america would hurt israel too, and would no doubt be a motivating factor.

just my opinion.

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Posted on Random Musings

games played for political advantage

i just want to address the theory behind “outing” closet homosexuals who don’t vote the way that group thinks that they should. how counter-productive could a strategy possibly be? sacrificing one of their own to score political points and to punish such a person is not the way to encourage total disclosure. criticize the vote if you have the need to do so. if you are opposed to a certain piece of legislation, then you feel that everyone voting for it is wrong. the opposite of that is also true. so why should it matter what the person’s sexual orientation is?

i sincerely believe that the whole agenda here is to make homosexuality not only tolerated, but completely accepted in our culture. this should be the purpose behind “outing” people — to say, look, here’s someone else who is perfectly normal and agrees with our lifestyle choice. why are such examples important to this group? it’s simple, really. gays and lesbians seek validation from society. it’s not enough to live their own lives in their own way making their own choices. everyone else should accept them without question and without making any moral judgments.

i think this is an impossible dream for the gay/lesbian community. those of us who are not sympathetic to their lifestyle are not likely to be convinced otherwise. we want them to have successful, productive lives just like anyone else. they should not be subject to abuse because of their choices. just don’t ask those of us with moral problems with that lifestyle to accept it, because we can’t.

send flame mail here. i’m expecting it.

Posted on Conservatives

bowties and the alleged link to the VRWC

just as some of us would make negative judgments about tongue rings and tattoos, there are those who would go nuts over a simple knotted piece of fabric. what does this craziness come from? i really can’t say. bowties are not a pre-requisite to join the VRWC. kim jong il wears ’em. no one ever accused him of right-wing conservatism. the argument for the other side is quite convincing, however — when you include george will, winston churchill, and the son of chief justice nominee john roberts as representatives of that side.

there’s more to this than dislike for the bowtie in tucker carlson’s case. i believe that both liberals and conservatives are wrong about him. liberals lose their minds when discussing tucker, but i really don’t think they have him figured out. conservatives don’t either, and this annoys them. conservatives generally gravitate toward the predictable…and that’s the last word that would describe tucker’s views on anything.

thatÂ’s precisely why I love him. he is irrepressible, unpredictable, and totally contrarian. it also should be noted that he has great hair. i may be the only tucker carlson apologist in the entire blogosphere that doesn’t write creepy fan fic about him. to those people…just stop it.

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Posted on Liberals, Moonbats

liberals and fringe groups

responding to a comment i received to my previous post:

it’s not debatable that liberals attract fringe groups in general, and also to the anti-war cause. if you have any doubt about that, just look at the list of groups that supported cindy sheehan’s d.c. protest. i wasn’t really making this point in my previous post because it’s obvious. at no point in this post did i say that liberals are a fringe group. i find their ideas of dependence on government provision and the welfare state abhorrent, but it’s a mainstream liberal position and they are entitled to it.

as far as the argument that children hand out anti-abortion literature and Christian/Jewish literature and it’s no different from what these kids were doing…i absolutely disagree. promoting the concept that life is valuable and worth saving is a good thing. trying to sell socialism or the radical agenda of these fringe groups is not. i will concede the point that both liberals and conservatives use children in their fundraising pitch letters, and i’m not too crazy about that. but this is not what i was talking about.

what i am opposed to is the corruption of the school system by special interest groups pushing their own agendas. i also think the liberals, mostly democrats, are hurt by their associations with groups like codepink, A.N.S.W.E.R. and moveon.org. it destroys their credibility when discussing iraq and the appropriate strategy to follow there.

the majority of americans do love our military. they exist to protect american interests around the world, and for the most part, they do an outstanding job. we believe that their existence is necessary and important to our security. keeping them home would not serve this purpose.

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