The graphs tell the story of our future. I'm no economist but I understand control systems and feedback loops. Despite what every politician is saying, the science says we are looking at a downturn in the economy and the only question is how long that downturn will be. Assuming all other factors remain static, the bail out presents us with a simple hard truth. The down turn will last longer as a result of the bail out. The underlying basis upon which all of our misery is based is the real estate bubble that just burst. It happened because Congress and the Executive branch allowed Fannie Mae to underwrite loans that should never have been approved. The Banks hedged their risk by feeding loans into Fannie Mae. Dubious real estate agents, mortgage brokers, lending houses such as Countrywide fed into the system. Wall St go caught out because they (knowingly or ignorantly) packaged those very loans into securities and fed them into any outfit that would buy them. No one really knew what they were worth and they certainly didn't know the risk.

Now the Federal government insists that we somehow bail out the Banks and or Wall St. The theory goes that the Banks will suddenly and immediately be able to begin lending again. But the reality is that the Banks will not unlock their funds for very long when they realize that the underlying value of the mortgage backed securities will not recover for the same period of time it takes for the underlying value of real estate (which does grow over time) to reach the break even point (as though the bubble had never occurred in the first place). The Banks will experience a temporary period of money lending artificially propped up by the Federal government tax payer funded program. This period will be brief while the Banks reassess their financial positions. But ultimately and inexorably, the Banks will begin to realize (as they kind of already do) that the recovery in real estate prices will only occur when a) financially irresponsible owners cease ownership (ie: foreclosure followed by renting) and, b) enough time passes to allow the over priced homes to realign with pre bubble real estate values (factoring in the "normal" inflation of real estate value).

The result is as the graph shows. The only outcome of the Federal bail out will be a longer period of time before GDP, real estate values, growth and lending patterns assume normality.

The Government claims that the mess we face will slow down and stop the economy. Main St will fail because Wall St is not lending money. Truth is, money would move as soon as the Government got out of the bail out business. Money would move as soon as the Government announced the removal of draconian regulations such as Sarbanes Oxley. Money would move as soon as Government announced a program to wind down Fannie Mae - permanently!

But no, the current "wisdom" is the exact opposite. We need to regulate more. We need to expand Government programs more, we need to bail out more.

The only guaranteed result of all of this Government hubris is that we'll be lengthening and intensifying the pain of the recession that is about to come.

Get your Bailing Buckets ready for the "Great Turn"!

Here's the "conventional" wisdom on this:

1. There is no other way to fix this massive cash flow problem.
2. The only way to fix this cash flow problem is to take 700,000,000,000 of American tax payers dollars and give it to ah... well some people that need it really bad.
3. Don't slow things down because that would make things so much worse.
4. Don't slow things down because that would be political.
   
5. We are in a precarious position if we don't act now.
6. We don't want no judicial review.
7. We just want the Treasurer to divie it out as he pleases.
8. We want an ex Goldman Sachs treasurer because he'll be fair and transparent and he understands the little people don't need that money as much as his crony friends do.
   

This all sounds like Stalinism. In fact, if you look up Wikipedia for "Stalinism" you will see that we have all of the ingredients for the "Great Turn". Here's what Stalin used as reasons for taking over the Russian capitalist system.

1. Russia had seven years of war. The United States has seven years of war.
2. Russia had a massive class struggle. The United States has a massive class struggle.
3. Russia demonized the evil capitalists, bankers and other "elitist" groups (even though Stalin was doing business with them the whole time). The United States Congress has been demonizing the "Banks", "Wall St" and "greedy Executives" (even though they've been in bed with them the whole time).
   
4. Stalin promoted Leninist policies as the ONLY way to improve the lot of all Russian citizens. President Bush (and the Democrats claim the ONLY way to save the national economy is by taking 12,000 dollars of your income as collateral to save the American economy.

But is the sky really falling?

1. Private equity firms are ROLLING in cash. Billions of dollars remain locked up in Blackstone, Cerberus, Hathaway and numerous other private equity firms.
2. Why did Berkshire Hathaway just commit 4 billion to Goldman Sachs if they need a bail out so bad?
3. Why does AIG continue to make excellent profits on core insurance businesses?
4. How come insurance products have so easily and smoothly shifted to companies such as AXA group without problems?
   
5. How did JP Morgan Chase manage to buyout Washington Mutual with such ease if the financial institutions are in such a bad cash flow crunch situation?
6. Why is Bank of New York, DTCC and other clearing houses not altering the cost of overnight overdraft rates if the "meltdown" is so imminent?

Here are the primary causes (in order of importance) of this mess:

1. Idiots in State and Federal government, yes that would be people like Chuck Schumer, decided that money to buy a house was just too difficult for people to get at. Why there is a class bias against those in minority groups who live in tough areas. So we will first develop studies that propose that minority groups are not being given a fair deal by Banks when those banks charge higher interest rates, extra charges or require additional insurance before approving a loan.
2. The media repeats the class warfare premised "predatory lenders" accusation so that the banks cave in to political pressure and the recommendations of bone headed and spineless (nay, economically clueless) public relations departments.
3. Then, the Chuck Schumers of the world go and develop lending programs that specifically target sub prime lenders so that the torrent of loans descends upon them.
4. Those programs will include bringing together the worse elements of race baiting shakedown experts (aka Jesse Jackson), dubious Banking organizations out to make an extra buck and a quasi private/public enterprize called Fannie Mae.
5. Now we have all of the components brought together to provide money at low interest rates and no strings attached to the most unreliable borrowers in the country.
6. Oh except I forgot one thing, when the lending has turned into a tidal wave, we won't turn off the spigot even when economists and others tell us it would be good idea to do so. So in 2005 it was recommended that the laws regulating Fannie Mae should be changed so that Fannie Mae would be required to operate according to private Banking rules and regulations but the Democrat's blocked the legislation to do it. Even Alan Greenspan, in testimony to Congress, supported the bill.
7. Oh hang on, there's another thing,... Yes, now that we discover that there is a big problem with these mortgage backed securities, Congress will intervene so that all of the private equity firms and anyone with ANY skin in the game (especially the Banks themselves) will stop what they're doing to fix it all and wait for the Government to bail them out. Think about it, why would the banks foreclose on a home if they thought they could wait it out and get the Government to subsidise the loan? And that is exactly what the banks have been doing for 18 months. Instead of accepting the loss on some of these mortgages. Instead of recalculating the real value of their depressed mortgage back securities. They are now lobbying Congress to bail them out. And their best lobbyist on hand turns out to be an ex Goldman Sachs executive himself, none other than Paulson, the United States Federal Treasurer.
   

There's something very disturbing about watching a country make a dramatic turn to Socialism.

Call your Congresman and Senator's today!

No Bail Out for the Banks!

The underlying problem with the American economy was caused by Congress and the President by not turning off the granting of loans to sub prime borrowers in 2005/6 despite no less than Alan Greenspan and others warning of a meltdown occurring if they did not do so. Democrats voted against shutting down the granting of such sub prime loans out of Fannie Mae. Since early 2007 the affected Banks have been lobbying Congress and the President to bail them out. What they have should have been doing was spending their time working through the debtors to determine new rates and conditions for those who could afford to pay and foreclosing and selling the rest. Instead, they have waited on the sidelines because they did not and do not want to accept the losses. Well, we tax payers should not and cannot allow this bail out to proceed. First and foremost, those bad borrowers are not going to disappear. Second, no bureaucrat is going to foreclose on anyone, even the most irresponsible and responsible bad debtors will get to keep their house. Even though such families ought to be living in rented accommodations. Third, many of these bad loans were just plain fraudulent - prosecute first. Fourth, there are billions of cash dollars locked up in private equity firms such as Blackstone, Hathaway etc. We need LESS regulation - the total repeal of Sarbanes Oxley for example - so that private equity firms are more likely to buy and invest in the banks. Do you ever wonder why London is now the financial capital of the world? Over regulation of Wall St - that's why. And also, while Wall St was trying to comply with all these regulations, were these regulations able to predict the housing problem? Gee, those regulations really worked didn't they.

Do the math - 70 billion divided by 120 million tax payers comes out to about 6,000 dollars each. I can't afford that, nor do I want or need to take the risk of being on the hook for it! Congress had better not do it because there will be a revolt. Enough about the sky is falling. We live in a capitalist free market economy, not a socialist central command and control economy - for better or for worse. Do we?

Is Barack Hussein Obama a Radical? And why isn't the American media asking?

So for months I've been wondering what it is about Barack Hussein Obama that catches me in the back of throat. There's something about his "words" that just don't jive - they sound phoney. Yeah sure, they lack substance but then there are many politicians (almost all) whose words are nebulous, ambiguous and non specific; especially in an election cycle. No, there's something else about Obama's populist "message" that makes me cringe.

And now I know what it is. It would be the fact that he is a phoney. Not a phoney in the typical politician way. No, his phoniness is based upon a revolutionary Marxism. And he learned it from a well known revolutionary's writings. His name is Saul Alinsky and to gain an insight into the ideological underpinnings of Obama one must understand Alinsky and his world view. To do this I encourage you to read all of the following links and then ask yourself: Does America want a radical leftist as President? And then also ask yourself: What will the "change" be that Obama speaks of? Could that change be toward a more socialist America? Is Obama being honest when he talks of change without specifying exactly what that change really will be? Is Obama being less than honest with the American people about who he is and what he stands for?

Melanie Phillips - The Spectator (UK)

Wikipedia - Saul_Alinsky

News Alert blog

American Thinker

Now, using all of that information as your foundation - what does Obama really mean by "change you can believe in"?

My September 11th, 2001:

What happened to me on September 11th 2001 is not important nor very memorable. There were real heroes that day and there were many victims. I was just a spectator. My involvement with the actual events was small. But I was there, five blocks away and the event changed me forever. I write this for the record, for history and for my family.

I began work at Tullett, Tokyo and Liberty on May 8th 2001. I was employed there as the senior network design engineer and security architect. I worked out of 80 Pine St which runs parallel with Wall St and is about five blocks away from the World Trade Center. I had intended to go to the New Jersey office in Pavonia that morning. The plan was to leave at 9:00AM. The trip would have required walking into the World Trade Center complex to get to the “Path” train which then heads under the Hudson to get to New Jersey. However, a technical problem with the company Internet firewalls delayed my trip - thankfully.

8:03AM - On September 11, I arrived at 8AM in the morning. I remember walking down Wall St that morning, looking up at the sky which had that distinct blueness of spring when the air is crisp, fresh. You just want to look up and take in a deep lung full of air. I felt a lift, I felt good. “Life is very good to Mike” I thought. I walked into my office and as is my way I quickly set about the tasks of the day. Task one - firewall problem. I head to the desk where a maintenance computer is located on the 27th floor.

Just after 8:46AM - I was sitting on the 27th floor of the 80 Pine St building. I faced a computer which was sitting on a desk facing south west. There are wide windows on that floor and I was facing them directly. My attention was on the computer screen but after sitting there for about 10 minutes I was distracted by something out the window. I looked up to see hundreds of sheets of paper floating down from out of the sky. I gave a quizzical look to no one but myself. Then, I got up, walked around the desk and stood at the edge of the window. I peered out and up. My eyes slowly scanned upward as high as I could see and could see more and more paper coming down from a great height. I wondered where it could be coming from. The papers were coming from so far up that the entire sky was filled with it. There was a lot of it. I stood there wondering for maybe a minute. I thought, 'who could be throwing this paper out of a window somewhere? Which disgruntled employee has gone stupid somewhere?" It briefly went through my mind that an aircraft might be involved but I discounted that immediately because 'how could a plane be full of paper like that'. Someone had to be throwing paper out of a building.

Rewind: I arrived in the United States on 9th March 2001. I had never been to New York before. I married Stella on March 15th. We were married at 10:30AM on the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building. I had no job but found one by May. Due to the more restrictive job market, I ended up working downtown. So I was working in the downtown area for only four months before the World Trade Center attacks. This meant I didn't really know my way around town, I didn't really comprehend the size and imposing height of the World Trade Center towers. Had it not been for a job I did in Tower B (51st floor) three weeks before September 11 I would never have even set foot in either of the towers. I certainly didn't "understand" the towers. On my visit three weeks beforehand I remember standing at the foot of tower B and slowly looking up and up and up. It was only then that I began to realize that I was standing at the foot of a truly immense and incredible building. And what's more, there were two of them.

Back to the morning:

As I stood there at the window, wondering, pausing. I began to think that something was going on that was not part of the usual work day. I walked up the length of the computer room to talk to two of my colleagues. Stefano was agitated and almost shouted at me "a plane crashed into the world trade center"! From where I had been sitting, the towers are both obscured by other buildings. But as Stefano was shouting the words, I turned to see that tower A was on fire. From this different vantage point I could see the entire top of the building engulfed in thick, black, solid smoke. I looked at it for only a few moments and realized that the last thing I wanted was for Stella to be worried about me. So I walked straight into the nearest office and phoned her. Stella didn't know anything about it, so I told her to put Foxnews channel on. She did and I reassured her that I was OK and would be OK. It was probably a small plane, in fact, I was certain it was a small plane. Someone had said it was a small plane so I was certain of it. I don't know why I was so adamant.

9:03AM - As I was speaking, Stella was watching Foxnews and suddenly she told me that she saw another plane hit the tower. I can't remember whether she said it was the other tower or not, but I insisted several times that she was wrong. "You are watching a repeat of the first crash." Stella insisted to me, over and over, that it was another plane. "Get out of there!" she said, "Be careful, I love you." I still did not believe her. I told her I loved her, I would be OK, I'll go and see what's going on and call her back. I went back to the windows where Stefano was. Stefano's eyes were wide - he was shocked! He exclaimed "Another plane crashed into the other tower". I said "No way!" in surprise, I think Stefano thought I was literally saying no way because he repeated "I saw it with my own eyes - another plane dived straight into the second f#@king tower"! I stood there, looking at both buildings burning. I stared and stared and stared.

At this point I realized being outside was better than being inside. I made my way with everyone else down the elevators (NOTE: DO NOT ever use elevators in an emergency - use the stairs!). The best point of vantage on Maiden Lane was across the street. By chance, that's where a few of my colleagues, including Joe, ended up. I remember commenting to Joe, "I think those towers could collapse". I didn't realize at the time that the possibility was actually a certainty. It just seemed obvious that with flames visibly pouring out of three or more floors across two entire faces of a building there was enormous destructive process at work that would result in structural failure. What I did not envisage or even contemplate at the time was the ramification of a total structural failure of buildings that are 1,300 ft high. Joe and I remained in place on Maiden Lane. We watched and we watched. Fire engines barreled past us constantly - sirens wailing constantly. People were standing around everywhere. Everyone was looking up. Right next to where we were standing is a small photo shop. I went in and purchased almost the last disposable camera they had. I took photos. As we watched I could see small, distant objects, unidentifiable falling from some of the windows. I was again bemused. I thought they might have been panes of glass falling out of the towers but I couldn’t understand how the same size objects could be falling out of numerous different places from windows. I just couldn’t understand what I was seeing. I later learned they were people.

Not really knowing my way around New York City, I was at a loss as to what to do about the situation. And seeing an event of such magnitude leaves you somewhat dumb founded anyway so for the next 40 minutes or so I just watched and talked and gawked. Eventually, I decided I would go back up to the 27th floor and take a few photos. I went into the lobby of 80 Pine St walked up to the elevator bank and pressed the elevator call button.

9:59AM - At the moment that I pressed the button there was a muffled rumbling sound and strong vibration through the floor. I stopped frozen and waited while I felt the rumble. I didn’t understand what the rumble was but at a deep level I “knew” but I didn’t. My mind was locked. It seemed like only seconds while I was trying to comprehend the sound and suddenly it stopped but the room had become darker. I slowly turned around and my attention was drawn to the security staff that had congregated at the glass doors into the lobby area. I was struck! The outside was pitch black - as black as the darkest recess in a closed room with a blindfold on – pitch – black. The security staff was asking everyone to stay inside and to stay away from the glass front. Within a few minutes the dust gradually settled out enough that the picture outside slowly came back into view. It was very much like slowly turning up dimmed lights. Outside people were hurriedly making their way down Cedar and Pine St from the vicinity of the WTC. I have no idea who those people were or where they came from. Some may have been close to WTC some not so close. But they were all covered in a thick layer of dust and many of them were struggling to breath. Their eyes were watering profusely and their hair was full of dust. Their appearance was transformed from polite office worker to disaster survivor. It took me only a few moments to realize that these people needed assistance (but I really wasn’t functioning well). I took a quick moment to snap a picture of one of the dust covered. The man gave me a quizzical look as I lined him for the shot. Was I being insensitive? Probably but I ushered as many of them as came toward me around to the Au-Bon-Pain. Then I walked up to the counter and asked the staff to give me as much water as they could. The server offered me two bottles of water which surprised me so I said “how about you give me a whole case?” She looked surprised, hesitated but then agreed and I took my 24 bottles of Evian out onto Pearl St and began offering them to people as they made their way away from danger and toward clean air. 22 out of 23 people were grateful but one woman caught me quite off guard when she asked if she could have two bottles. I must have looked at her quizzically but I relented and let her take two. Perhaps she was going to give one to someone else. In retrospect, Hanlon’s razor comes to mind. I went back in to Au-Bon-Pain but they had quickly shut the shop. I will never forget them shutting shop like that, they’re hurried closing of the shutters and cash register seemed a little crass but then, if it was my shop to manage would I have done the same? They didn’t close the store though. It remained open so that people could still use the restrooms. Eventually the dust was fully settled and people were being looked after so I went back up to one of the broker’s floors and took a snap shot of the remaining brokers huddled around the cable TV. They all nearly jumped off of their chairs when the flash went off. I apologized and they went back to their watching. I went back to my office, IM’d Stella that I would be talking to my boss and working out how to go about getting home in Connecticut. Then I grabbed my bag and headed downstairs with my boss and we sat in a corner of Au-Bon-Pain and I waited. I commented to our CTO that we probably shouldn’t be sitting next to such large floor to ceiling panes of glass so we shifted position into the cornet where we had solid wall between us and the street. As we shifted I first noticed the layer dust and debris covering every horizontal surface on the streets of downtown New York.

10:28AM – As we sat there in Au-Bon-Pain the same rumbling sound was felt through the floor and the same darkness soon followed. Most people had evacuated the area when the first tower came down so there were very few people on the streets by then. After the dust settled yet again, I could look outside and see just how thick the layer of debris was on the streets. It had to be about a half inch thick. Papers were scattered everywhere (I actually regret not having picked up at least a few of those documents to keep as a permanent testament to the innocent office workers who died that day).

11:00AM – Finally, the horror was over and it was time to work out how to get home. For the next hour I spent time walking around with our CTO and my boss trying to get some sense of where people were and who was left in the building. We took brief stock of the situation with our data systems but quickly decided that all that could wait for now.

Approx. midday - I ended up with Alberto from desktop support and we headed off together walking up to Grand Central railroad station. It took us two and half hours or so to make the trip. Neither of us knew New York very well and we ended up walking through Avenue A, a somewhat “rough” area. We were followed a bit by some young miscreants too asking me “for the time”. I brushed them off and we headed toward the sanctuary of a nearby fire house. We weren’t bothered by anyone after that.

Approx. 2:30PM - We made it the Grand Central and parted company. I hopped onto an unscheduled Metro North train and waited about half an hour before we departed. It was a very quiet trip for a train that was so overcrowded. I didn’t speak to anyone and no one spoke to me.

4:00 PM – Arrived in Stamford. As soon as I jumped into the car, seeing Stella and the boys in the back, I broke down crying. It lasted only a few moments, but for me to break down at all was quite something. We spent the rest of the time as most people did that day. We watch the news, we watched WTC 7 collapse, we watched our President Bush and we watched the world change. I changed that day. Did you?


I didn't know anyone personally who died that day but I work with many people who did that had either one or many friends or co-workers who did die that day. My relationship to the event is a little offbeat in that I arrived in New York in May of 2001 and was only just beginning to become accustomed to the New York way. A month prior to Sept 11th I was just beginning to lift my head up and really absorb the city and downtown and the larger than life character of the Twin Towers. Because of this, I see the towers as new friends who were suddenly taken away from me. My anthrapomorphised towers are a husband and wife. And the people jumping from them are the married couple crying and as tower B crashed to the ground I see its mate mourning the loss and seeing its fate, hurried to be with its partner. Of course, this is just a wild distortion of reality because the buildings were just steel and concrete (and tons of gypsum) and as such, the buildings can be replaced (or not as of 2008, which is a disgrace in and of itself).But the people are what matter and that principle and that ideal is what the western world now faces as a challenge. What matters to me most, and what I took from the experience as most profound, was that freedom and democracy must be brought to those parts of the world that remain barbaric and retrograde. We should not be embarrassed or cringe at our western world mistakes but we should hold our head up high and reassert ourselves for the path ahead. Onward and upward, the world will be a better place when radicalism and extremism of any kind reduced to nothing but a threat. The debate will always be how to achieve that. Let's debate, agree and take action.

If you're offended that I posted this picture of Muhammed about to blow his own head off then you're probably a Muslim. I make no apology for offending you. Be offended. You don't have to kill anyone because you're offended. You don't have to torch an embassy because you're offended. You don't have to violently demonstrate - because you're offended. Just be offended. With 4 billion of us living on one planet people are likely to get offended many times. But people don't have any excuse for killing people, demonstrating violently or torching embassies because they are offended. Sometimes people offend me because of their opinions about numerous things that go on in this world. I don't kill people who offend me, and if it's good enough for me and the people I live with then it should be good for you to act that way too. The Muslim religion needs to reform itself so that it can handle being offended by the publishing of derogatory pictures of Muhammed. Muslims need to be able to handle being offended. Only then will the Muslim world get the respect that it now craves but isn't getting. I call upon all Muslims of the world to reform your own religion so that no one shall die as a result of your being offended. It isn't right that you belong to a religion that has people in it who excuse murder in the name of Muhammed. I mean after all, Muhammed was a peaceful man.

Texas A&M University students definition of political correctness:

"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the radical, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is sometimes draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag. -- Father Dennis Edward O'Brian, USMC

The War on Terrorism is no where near an end. No matter what some may want to say, this is not about just Iraq. Believe me, terrorists are EVERYWHERE because we allowed it to go on for so long. It was a growing cancer since the 1970's. On this July 4th, we have a great deal to be grateful for. I don't need to tell you that. But I will say this.

The Declaration of Independence was and is an incredible document. But what good would a piece of paper have been, if it were not for the men who fought in the Revolutionary War? It would have meant nothing. Same applies today.

Following is the Army Posture Statement of 2006.....not much has changed.

Happy 4th to all.....and God Bless America.

Army Posture Statement 2006:
We remain an Army at War. It is a war unlike any other in our Nation's history, prosecuted not by states, but by extremists employing irregular means to erode our power and resolve. Our adversaries threaten the ideas that form the bedrock of our society, endangering our freedoms and way of life. Fueled by an ideology that promotes intractable hatred, this war will endure in some form for the foreseeable future. The Army, in service to the Nation, must therefore be prepared to sustain operations during a period of persistent conflict -- a blurring of familiar distinctions between war and peace. This is the most significant aspect of the 21st century security environment.

One of the best truism's from the past.
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his persons safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” - John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873

Nuclear is for Western Democracies ONLY!

Any dealings that the West has with Iran must be based upon the fact that Iran is a religious dictatorship that has little to no respect for individual human rights, property rights as well as freedom of religion nor freedom of the press. Nations that do not respect these rights should never be permitted to possess the tools needed to develop Nuclear weapons and those tools would include Nuclear power stations. If you're not a real democracy then you don't get to go Nuclear. Why? Because going Nuclear implies possessing the power to destroy hundreds of thousands of people and if you don't respect your own people then you can't be expected nor trusted to respect other humans in other Nations. In fact, we can and should expect that you will use your Nuclear arsenal as leverage to advance your lack of respect for Humanity. That is precisely why Iran would want to pursue Nuclear technology.

And this is why the current U.S. and E.U. methods for dealing with Iran and their pursuit of nuclear technology will not work, not now - not ever. Toying with the political words surrounding Nuclear technology itself is a waste of time. We need to use human rights issue to paint Iran into a corner where it must acknowledge and deal with its constant abuses of its own people. Presenting Iran the no Nuclear argument alone is easily refuted by the clever doublespeak of Iran 's leaders and brilliant photo shopped propaganda. The regime must be confronted with its major failings to its own people. Those failings are the ones that we consider to be Democracy's greatest achievements.

For example, I get to write my blog and not get imprisoned, tortured then beheaded. You get to read this without fear of your family being turned out of their home before you too are sent to a kangaroo court.

Refusing Islam

I'm just a lonely blogger. One or two of my friends have looked at some of my blogs. I don't exactly blog much. What does my contribution mean? Will it be here 20 years from now? 100 years from now? 1,000 years from now? Not if Islam takes over it won't. Because despite my patience and analytical mind, I can honestly say that I will NEVER adopt Islam. And this small blog is a very small statement of my declaration of refusal to submit to Islam. I am no Christian fundamentalist. I go to Church maybe four times a year. I was brought up in a staunch Christian household. That experience taught me the dangers of religious supremacy.

If this blog is here one hundred years from now then I think it safe to say that Islam lost this round and The Renaissance won.

Amir Taheri New York Post Op-Ed

This is what the main stream media would never admit.

The good news comes in slowly. The bad news from the MSM is relentless but still - wrong.

The West is in Denial
As of today this is my general statement about the stupidity of our (US) foreign policy as pertaining to the ongoing denial that we are fighting an ideology of hate spawned from a religion that professes peace but that generally advocates violence and hatred of our peaceful and just Western principles. Sooner or later, we are going to have to face the same choices that were forced upon the West during World War II. Are we going to force our righteous and just system of governance and civility upon our enemy and their failed culture? Are we going to defeat them by imposing our workable systems upon them? Are we going to kill them until they accept those egalitarian systems? Are we going to use the bomb or not? Our culture is better than theirs. They must accept our system of democracy, justice and individual human rights. If they don't, they'll be destroyed.

Courageous Good People Sign Up For The Army

Here is a link to why one brave soldier signed up for the Army that you must read in its entirety.

Army 2nd Lt. Mark J. Daily, 23 went to Iraq and was killed.

What he wrote, I wish I wrote. What he did, I wish I did.

Those are wonderfully eloquent words of wisdom from a courageous young man. Through his writing you get to know who he was - he was a good man who held high ideals and lived according to his morals.

It is a shame that a volunteer military only takes in those men and women who want to sign up because too many of them die and we are left with a society full of those dregs who don't want to go because they are not the sort of the person that this great man, as an example, was.

Instead we are surrounded by shallow, selfish fools who say they support the troops but if they ever met these individual troops they supposedly support they would never agree with that troop's thinking.

God Bless and Rest in Peace Mark J. Daily

And here is another courageous woman who gave here life for others. A civilian.

God Bless and Rest in Peace Andrea Parhamovich

Here is why I continue to support the Democratization of Iraq. Do you? Would you ever support an American invasion of another country to remove an evil, murderous dictator and bring - say even attempt - to bring freedoms, liberties and happiness to another group of people?

There will always be evil people in the world. And there will always be evil systems. That is to say, political groups, religious groups, national groups, splinter groups of people. Over time, many of those benign, well intentioned groups evolve into entities that they were never intended to be in the first place. Sometimes they involve into better groups, sometimes not. That does not change the fact that they do evolve and sometimes evolve into evil groups. Evil groups end up containing evil people. They may not have been evil to begin with but they became evil and the individuals within those groups often think of themselves as being good, doing good and belonging to a good group. But they're not.

So how do I know if you are good or I am good? And how do you or I know if we belong to good or bad groups? Scrutiny under rational thought processes. So spare me your moral relativism.

The more I see of what's happening in the great nation that is the USA the more depressing it seems right now. We have just entered into a regressive period. The collective group think (Democrats and Republicans, liberals and some conservatives) is that the war in Iraq was a mistake and that we should have left it all alone. Why else would Democrats be able to take control of the House and Senate? When the outrage against global evil is not there and people are not aware of the risk to their future. When a majority believes that democracy is only good for us and, no matter how bad things might be in another part of the world, it is just not worth giving, even attempting, to give what we have to "them". It is just not worth 3,000 US soldiers lives, 50,000 Iraqi's lives, whatever the number, it's not something we want to give anyone else. I call it selfishness.

Due to that, we (the peoples of the USA) will have to suffer another huge attack. Then we will be reminded that all of our selfishness will have actually made us less safer than if we had been loving and saw ourselves as human as all humans are. But I fear that the peoples of this Earth will have suffered much greater and for far longer before we (the USA) get truly involved. Nations are going to be destroyed or overrun and millions may die before the USA wakes up. The sleeping giant is sound asleep - hibernating. So sad for those unlucky enough to not live inside the sleeping chamber.

When that brave soldier took his own talisman and gave it to a small girl he was doing what every one of us should take and live as a defining principle. He was equal to her and he was as human as her. She deserved what he had. He was only able to give her a small gift but what he was really giving was something beyond. It was liberation. If was freedom. It was social. It was civil. It was just. It was good. It was loving. It was selfless.

So many of our soldiers are selfless. Why are they called murderers?

As things look like on the ground right now, if we depart Iraq within the next five years, we will be letting it return into the hands of monsters. If the current Iraqi government wants us to leave earlier, that is one thing. But if we decide that we will give or let it back early into the hands of tyranny, violence, the criminals, then we will have forgotten that we are human and that all deserve what we have.

Well, all this talk from me about nuke'ing the Islamic world led me to this great American general.

General Black Jack Pershing 1860-1948

You don't read about THIS at the Wikipedia entry.

I wonder why?

Global Warming - How to Fix It

Today I digress into one of my other pet peeves with the ignorant world of humanity.

Global Warming - oh my god! We're all going to die!

Well maybe not, and maybe global warming is real but the Greenies of the world won't let us use the most likely energy producing candidate for solving our global warming problems.

Basic knowledge of physics points to nuclear and solar power as the two most efficient ways to get us out of any global warming problem we might have.

But look at this news article from Australia. So a reasonable politician suggests that nuclear power is a great way to help solve global warming but no we can't do that.

Bob Brown proves just how disconnected he is from reality when he says that the primary reason that nuclear power is bad is because John Howard is still in power. It is Bob Brown who is using tired old last century Chernobyl style scare tactics. Nuclear power and solar power are the ONLY forms of energy production that are going to get us out of our global warming problem. The sooner the "greens" work that out and can get past their own slavish pursuit of power, the better for all of us.

Dumb soldiers make great comedians

Look at this picture. What a great picture! Admire it. A brilliant executed combination of wit and withering critique.

If you're laughing, take a moment to thank a soldier.

If you’re not laughing, you’re not American.

If you’re an American citizen and you're not laughing then you’re un-American and don’t understand the value and importance of the very freedoms you have that allow you to have the thinking that is not making you laugh. Take a long hard look at yourself and say "Something is wrong with me because I should be laughing".

Oh, but Liberals don't like self examination.

He's a communist, Benjamin!

He's a communist, Benjamin. Communists don't change. It's a terminal illness." - Private Benjamin The Movie 1980

Communists, Socialists, Liberals - what's the difference?

5,000 terrorists have been captured or killed since 9/11 because of CIA operatives and the Military. We finally once again have a great General as the director of the CIA, Michael V. Hayden who is not afraid to be well....a General. Patton would be so proud.

Let's all think about when we go to the polls this Novemeber 7th. Although the Republican party has become "too soft" for me, the other option is not very appealing. The liberals in this country have become like the Europeans who think there is always two sides to every story and that there is never true right or wrong.

Let the Nancy Pelosi honeymoon begin for the liberals. I say, on November 7th, call off the wedding! Being in bed with a liberal is dangerous. You never know what you will catch .........or become.

Look at this picture.

Before the US and allies invaded Iraq and removed Saddam Hussein, this is exactly what I advocated setting off in the middle of the Persian Gulf. Give 48 hours notice to all shipping in the region to get out of the area. Then we would set off a nuclear weapon right there and let it be a warning to the middle east to sort itself out.

Now watching the Iraq war for a couple of years. Having intently watched as US soldiers have laid their lives down instead of using their own tax payer funded hitech superior weaponry to defend themselves. Having restrained ourselves, nay, twisted ourselves like pretzels to accomodate vicious, religious barbarians, I am reiterating my original position. Nuke 'em!

Sad to have to do it. Grave moral responsibility taken onboard. Illegal, of course. But ultimately, successful. And success is the sweet smell of victory.

When only just last week a 14 year old Iraqi boy was held down by four "insurgents" and summarily executed by beheading. His only crime being that he said admitted he was a Christian (and proudly too). When snipers are able to pick off our soldiers one by one. Or suicide murderers destroy groups of poor people at a city market who only want a job. Isn't it time that we just admitted that we need to get serious about destroying the enemy, accept the "collateral damage" and get the whole Islamic worlds attention with a nuclear detonation that kills at least 100,000, hopefully more. Hopefully, in the sense that the death of innocent, good people is horrible but those deaths MUST occur for the enemy to take notice and be defeated.

Take a look at that picture and imagine the stunned silence afterward. That is the silence heard when a nation, a religion and their rulers are forced to face a fundamental philosophical shift. We won, you lost. You're not going to succeed. Your mind set has failed you. We're right, you're wrong. Now, we tell you what you're going to do.

You either play nice in the world or we WILL destroy you.

The only alternative for us is to wait and let it to happen to us.

Nuke 'em! NOW!