The Church of Global Warming

I received an email from a local community activist. The email expressed great concern vis-à-vis global warming. I believe this person to be sincere. Sincerity is not, however, an end in itself. The closing statement astounded me:

Global warming is THE MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEM facing us. The war on terror is big, but global warming is MUCH more important in the long term. We must act NOW.

This manner of belief in the reality of global warming demonstrates a fantasy ideology; a belief in fantasy. Rather than me carry on, the following link will take you to an article that really targets this approach to global warming for what it is …a secular theology.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IUK/is_2002_Wntr/ai_82802447

Kerry's Discharge: Honorable Or ?

John Kerry has repeatedly refused to sign Standard Form 180, which would allow the release of all his military records. (This is the form the national press badgered President Bush to sign releasing all his military records for public viewing; which he did.) Mr. Kerry has stated that all his records are already posted on his Web site. But the Washington Post already noted that the Naval Personnel Office admitted that they were still withholding about 100 pages of files. Click on the link below to read the column by Thomas Lipscomb in the October 13 edition of The New York Sun for the complete story.

http://www.ksfo.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.nysun.com/article/3107

Prayer Rugs, Prayer Rugs, Get Your Prayer Rug

The Islamic Society of Boston is building a new 22 million dollar mosque. Who's paying the bill? Our good friends the Saudis. And what might the religion of peace teach in this holy place? How about Wahhabism? That's the fundamentalist form of Islam which preaches the idea that "Muslims are at war with the rest of the world and Infidels need to be fought." So the brand of Islam that has made the Middle East a nest of snakes will be cultivated right here in America.

That 22 million - where did it come from really? Out of the pockets of Americans through the purchase of Saudi oil (And nary a peep from leadership or the mainstream media in support of our developing nuclear power the cleanest practical form of fuel known). I won't be here 50 years from now. Future generations of Americans will, however, pay the price for our allowing tolerance to run amuck.

Yogi Explains Jazz.

Interviewer: Can you explain jazz?

Yogi: I can't, but I will. 90% of all jazz is half improvisation. The other half is the part people play while others are playing something they never played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the wrong part, it’s right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong.

Liars on the Left

I received an email from those wounderful non partisan folks at "Rock The Vote". It was a missive perpetuating the shuck and jive regarding the institution of a draft. They of course don't mention that the only draft proposal was from a big time of lefty in the US Congress; the House of Reresentative's Charlie Rangel of the 15th Congressional District.

He did it specicically for the political propaganda that could be generated by such a proposal. Rock the Vote has been using it for just that. Neither do they mention that a vote was forced on the Bill by the Republicans and the Bill went down to defeat on a count of 402 to 2. More evidence? Charlie voted against his own Bill. What a guy!

Don't get this? You're Beyond Help.

There was a Wall Street Journal piece that showed that the effective tax rate that Teresa Heinz Kerry pays is 15%. I was wrong about that, and I want to apologize. I want to correct the mistake. Teresa Heinz Kerry's effective tax rate is not 15%; it's 12.8%. Stephen Moore today of the Club for Growth, he's the president, has a piece in the Wall Street Journal. "According to the Kerrys' own tax records, and they haven't released all of them, the couple had a combined income of $6.8 million in income last year and paid $725,000 in income taxes. That means they're effective tax rate was a whopping 12.8%. Under the current tax system, the middle class pays far more than the Kerry tax rate of 12.8%. In fact, the average federal tax rate, combined payroll and income tax for a middle-class family is closer to 20% or more. George W. and Laura Bush, who had an income one-tenth of the Kerrys, paid a tax rate of 30%," and here's Kerry talking about how Bush is the guy skimming away not paying taxes, he's part of "the rich" and we've got to get him to pay more.

Civilization's Enemies

That's the title of the book I'm currently reading. It's short (200 pages) but I have to read slowly and some passages a couple of times. Sounds like a real slog huh? It is, however, one of the best I've read. What's it about? Oh about 200 pages. I couldn't begin to tell you. Well, I guess I could begin. It's about concepts, how we (western civilization) got to where we are and where we may be going. The author is very erudite and, therefore, able to support his reasoning with examples from history and analysis of philosopher's writings. He makes the complex, relatively speaking, not easy but, easier to comprehend.

He told a vignette about Diogenes "the first cynic". He was the Greek guy (I refuse to say dude) who walked about in the daytime with a lantern looking for another honest man (he considered himself one). Anyway the story goes that one day in the argos (marketplace) Diogenes was admonished for masturbating in public. He shrugged it off with an aside asking, rhetorically I'm sure, Wouldn't it be wonderful if one could satisfy their hunger by just rubbing their belly?

You may ask "What about civilization's enemies?" You may, it is true. That, however, is for another time.

Music stuff

Went to an acoustic guitar round earlier this evening. I always learn something. I played a song I recently wrote called "The Blue & Grey". It went over very well. It is an exceptional song. The cool thing is that you can't tell which side the soldier is on. Could be blue. Could be grey.

The group is very liberal politically. I keep my mouth shut as to my thoughts in this regard. I'm there for the music. One fellow played a song he'd heard at a song camp event. A very soppy piece. When he'd finished every one was commenting on the song. I volunteered that if John Belushi were alive and had been there, he would have taken away his guitar an smashed it.If you didn't see "Animal House" you won't understand. Anyway, everyone saw the humor and were good sports about it. Nighty night.

Oh Well.

I've been remiss; not keeping up my blog. The Cheney/Edward debate? If you like Kerry you probably think John Edwards won and if Bush is your guy you probably think Cheney did. The debate of the #2,s probably doesn't mean much. Neither of them made a faux pas and that's what is most important to both camps. I think Cheney "won" but Bush is my guy. So there you are.

Tolerate this!

I recently received an email from a friend. Attached was an article she wanted me to read. It was written by a Mr. Doctorow. His credentials were cited as follows:

E.L. Doctorow is one of America's most accomplished and acclaimed living writers. Winner of the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award (twice), the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the National Humanities Medal, he is the author of nine novels that have explored the drama of American life from the late 19th century to the 21st.

So you get the idea. Because of his awards, whatever comes out of his mouth I should believe. WRONG!

So in response, I'll start with an absurd quote from "one of America's most accomplished and acclaimed living writers."

"But you study him(President Bush), you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it."

What hubris; obviously an educated man (Mr. Doctorow), still woefully ignorant. His credentials are nothing more than awards from liberal organizations founded and funded by liberals to promote guess what? ...liberals and their ideas. The universities and colleges, institutions of higher learning, have done much to promote the kind of mentality expressed by Mr. Doctorow.

I just received a book today written by Lee Harris who I'd heard interviewed a couple of weeks past. On the book jacket it notes, "We are all naturally reluctant to face a true enemy. Most of us cannot give up the myth that tolerance is the greatest of virtues and that we can somehow convert the enemy to our beliefs. Yet as a tour through the past of civilization demonstrates, from Sparta to the French Revolution to the present, civilization depends upon brute force wielded by a sovereign."

America has become fettered by overdeveloped sensibilities. Many in the media and the intellectual community who, combined have far too much sway in society, wring their hands over events in America's past such as the fire bombing of Dresden and Tokyo, and the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Lucky for them, America had the insight and willingness to act forcefully. We are told thousands upon thousands of "innocent" civilians were needlessly killed by America. I could not disagree more and am thankful to those who acted. Those "innocent" civilians were supporting their country's leaders; leaders who were waging war on us.

Those bombings brought Germany and Japan to surrender. Sure, we may have eventually won without the bombings. At the cost of how many more American lives? If we had to kill 2, 3, whatever, hundred thousand of our enemy to save even a handful of Americans the ammunition was well spent. Many Americans don't get it or don't want to. Islamo-Facisim is a challenge unlike any we've faced before. I don't think we are acting forcefully enough. President Bush is held back in large part by a timidity that has been bred into America's population over many decades. It may be too late. I don't know. I hope not.

There were three Punic wars. That would be wars between Rome and Carthage (Punic). Who was right is of no consequence. Carthage is long gone and Rome, at least a vestige of it, exists to this day. Why was there not a fourth Punic war?

After beating the Carthaginians twice, Rome was still, in their opinion, being plagued by them. A third war ensued. This time the Romans annihilated Carthage. To annihilate means to make non-existent. Those Carthaginians who were not killed were dispersed and sold into slavery. Carthage itself was dismantled down to the last brick and the land given to its next-door neighbor. Problem solved.

Many Romans lost their lives in these battles. Many Roman wives lost husbands or sweethearts. Many Roman children lost fathers. Many parents lost sons and many grand parents lost grandchildren. This is to say nothing of the thousands of Romans who were not killed but left with the scars of war. War is not fun; it is mean, brutish and ugly. It is, however, sometimes necessary. Yes, I know there are those who say this is not a necessary war. They say President Bush lives in a fantasy world. On the contrary, it is they, not the President, who live in a fantasy world.

This war was instituted by Islamo-Facists. Islamo-Facists and their friends are not found in only Afghanistan. We are told that our presence in Iraq is causing Al Qaeda and supporters to cross the borders into Iraq and take up arms against the Coalition army. The implication being that this is a bad thing. Is it? Only if we fail to take advantage; better to fight them there than here. If we have the courage and willingness to act, as they collect in larger numbers attracted like a moth to the flame, we can kill more of them.

I don't know all the twists and turns this major challenge is going to take. No one does. Mistakes will be made. Many failures, appearing to be mistakes, will be due to our leaders being constrained to do no more than is politically possible. This contest will be won. The question is ...by whom?

Who do want in charge of the troops?
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No comment!
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Which couple would you rather be?
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Which would you want on your team?
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He really said it!

John Kerry, on his plans to kill al-Qa'ida Jihadis with kindness.

I will fight this war on terror with the lessons I learned in war. I defended this country as a young man, and I will defend it as president of the United States. I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side and lives up to American values in history. I lay out a strategy to strengthen our military, to build and lead strong alliances and reform our intelligence system. I set out a path to win the peace in Iraq and to get the terrorists wherever they may be before they get us." -- Kerry, Aug. 5


Per Boston Globe ..."I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."

It's Rather Pathetic

The CBS mess regarding the forged documents is fascinating to observe don’t you think? CBS is claiming they were misled. What a spin. We’re to believe that this Burkett guy with a known history of “unusual” behavior and some patently phony documents of questionable origin, misled a tough and seasoned news organization?

CBS (read Dan Rather and team) thought that because of who they are, and because they had some document props, the focus would go to the story not the credibility of the documentation they were offering in its support. This was not a news story. According to them they had been working on this for 4 to 5 years; and it came to fruition just a few weeks prior to the presidential election? It was an agenda item.

They failed to figure on some Internet bloggers with contact to the world via the Internet who, while “working in their pajamas”, would be looking over their shoulder. It’s too, too, delicious. The interesting thing will be to watch as the debacle moves through its denouement.

Rather's Blather

Jonothan Goldberg sums it up. Here are a couple of paragraphs from his column this date.

"Indeed, Rather's thinking has become axiomatic: Good reporting offends conservatives. I am a good reporter. Therefore, anyone who objects to my work is a conservative. And, of course, conservative objections are, by definition, illegitimate objections. After all, liberal media bias is a myth.

The fact is, good reporting isn't liberal or conservative — though it can be either. What good reporting does is expose those who would lie for a "higher truth." Which, ironically, is why so much of the criticism of Rather is not really "partisan" at all — it's good reporting."

Copyright (c) 2004 Tribune Media Services

Re Photos

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Max our designer cat
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View of Boulder Creek from our back yard
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The 4 Horsemen of Paradise or ???

It’s an overcast morning here in Boulder Creek, probably the entire Bay Area. I just returned from the local coffee spot where I got Rella and I a double vanilla latte’. No not one, but one each. Rella is downstairs reading this month’s Weekly Standard (the one zine Dubya professes to read) and I’m here in the music room trying to formulate if not profound thoughts, at least regurgitating the profound thoughts of others.

I’ve quickly arrived at the realization that it’s easier to think about what I want to communicate than to act on that want. Of course I all ready knew that. Which causes me to consider what I was re-reading this AM.

One of my favorite books is “The Metaphysical Club”. I read it for the first time 4 or 5 months past. It is, as is most of my reading, non-fiction. Because I highlight points along the way as I read, none of my books will ever qualify as a collector’s item. Few of the tomes I peruse are treated in a “been there read that” manner. I like to pick them up and review pages - sections again. It is sometimes necessary to read again and again to grasp not only the nuances in an idea, but the fundamentals as well (did I say sometimes?)

This book is about the lives of four persons; four persons whose careers intersected at many points. The author’s position is that these four men, together, had, and have, enormous influence on American life and the way Americans thought - and continue to think – about education, democracy, liberty, justice and tolerance. He says, as a consequence of their ideas and the fact that they were positioned to introduce those ideas into American thought and did so …“they changed the way Americans live - the way they learn, the way they express their views, the way they understand themselves, and they way they treat people who are different from themselves.”

I can’t make his case here. The book has 546 pages including epilog, notes, etc. He does make a strong case. You may, or may not, like some or all the ultimate effects these men had on our society but affect it they did. The book is well written and will give you a understanding of how we got to where we are today as a country, as a people.

Oh! You want to know their names? This may surprise you as they are far less known than many others in history: Oliver Wendell Homes, William James, Charles S. Pierce and John Dewey.

Over one hundred years ago, the German bard Heine warned the French not to underestimate the power of ideas: philosophical concepts nurtured in the stillness of a professor’s study could destroy a civilization.

The Rape of the Masters

I'm reading a new book. In a word it's ...excellent! It does many things at once. The author, Roger Kimball, has taken seven famous works of art (beautifully reproduced in the book) and shows how they have been manipulated by professors of art in various universities, as well as soi disant art critics or interpreters, to support a political agenda.

This is not a book made laborious with the jargon of art that only those from that world would understand or find of interest. The writing is lucid. The subject is relevant. He shows how the work of art is subordinated to the political idea making the political view more important than the art work itself.

Here are a couple of spartan quotes. "Rothko's picture is just that: a picture. It's not a 'text' to be read or a puzzle that needs to be deciphered or unravelled. It's a painting to be looked at."

" ...in seeking deep significance in abstract art, generally the first thing to be sacrificed is the art.

If you enjoy politics, art, a good laugh and wish to expand your education, all at the same time, read "the Rape of the Masters.

Here we go!

My first posting as you can see below was a test. I was going to erase it. Then I thought no, it's descriptive of what this is. So I'll leave it. I often find myself wanting to make comment, express ideas, offer analysis of a variety of things such as news and political events, religion, the media, newsmakers, errant thoughts, etc. In other words pretty much everything that crosses my field of vision be it the eye of mind or body. You are welcome to comment. In fact you are invited to comment. We'll see how this goes and modify as necessary.

Testing 123

This is a test.