Sunday, March 30, 2008

Hilarity with Hillary

"I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."
. . .Hillary Clinton,March 22, 2008, describing her March 25, 1996, arrival in Tuzla, Bosnia. She said she had to run from the airplane into an airport building for safety. The then-first lady's traveling party included 15-year-old daughter Chelsea, the comedian Sinbad and singer Sheryl Crow.

"Actually Mrs. Clinton was too modest. I was there and saw it all. When Mrs. Clinton got off the plane the tarmac came under mortar and machine gun fire. I was blown off my tank and was exposed to enemy fire. Mrs. Clinton without regard to her own safety dragged me to safety, jumped on the tank and opened fire killing 50 of the enemy. Shortly after that a suicide bomber appeared within 5 feet of Mrs. Clinton, she stopped the guards from opening fire on him and took control of the situation. She
talked to the man in his own language and got him surrender. She found that he had suffered terribly as a result of policies of George Bush 1. She defused the bomb vest herself and then helped me. Since there was no doctor around and I was in a desperate state she again took control. She stopped my bleeding and saved my life. Chelsea donated the blood. Thankfully we were the same type. I want Mrs. Clinton answering that phone at 3am."

GI Joe
Blog poster
Politico
Ben Smith's blog
Politico.com
March 25, 2008



Saturday, March 29, 2008

Grampa's Sunday Drive

A friend, who worked away from home all week, always made a special effort with his family on the weekends.

Every Sunday morning he would take his 5-year old granddaughter out for a drive in the car for some bonding time. Just he and his granddaughter.

One particular Sunday however, he had a really bad cold and didn't feel like being up at all. Luckily, his wife came to the rescue and said that she would take their granddaughter out. When they returned, the little girl anxiously ran upstairs to see her grandfather.

"Well, did you enjoy your ride with grandma?"

"Oh yes, PaPa" the little girl replied, "and do you know what? We didn't see a single dumb bastard or lousy shit head anywhere we went today!"

Brings a tear to your eye now doesn't it?

Only in New York?

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Irish Beer: I'll Drink to That

At a world brewing convention in the States, the CEOs of various brewing organizations retired to the bar at the end of the first day's conference.

Bruce, CEO of Fosters, shouted to the Barman: "In 'Strylya, we make the best bloody beer in the world, so pour me a bloody Fosters, mate."

Bob, CEO of Budweiser, calls out next: "In the States, we brew the finest beers of the world, and I make the king of them all, gimme a Bud."

Hans steps up next: "In Germany ve invented das beer, ferdamt. Give me ein Becks, ya ist der real King of beers, danke."

Paddy, CEO of Guinness, steps forward: "Barman, would ya give me a diet coke with ice and lemon? Tanks."

The others stare at him in stunned silence, amazement written all over their faces.

Eventually Bruce asks: "Are you not going to have a Guinness, Pat?"

Paddy replies "Well, if you fookin' sissies aren't drinkin', then neither am I!"

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Patriot Micro Chips

The Patriot Micro Chip


To be implanted in Communist/Jihadist/Islamofascist foreheads by God fearing,
hard working, freedom lovers.

When properly done, will allow the implantee to speak to God instantly.


Comes in various sizes:


Implantee may or may not get to choose size.

May contain some information or precious metals:



May or may not be painless. Some bleeding and or swelling may occur at injection site.


Enjoy the security we provide for you.


U. S. Armed Services.

Obama is Toast

. . . and an explanation of why will be posted in the next day or two.

However, the senator has performed at least two great services. One of these is set forth in another, earlier post about him that appears below in this blog. In addition, Obama has inoculated whites against spurious charges of racism and thus destroyed, or, at least, seriously limited the ability of those who exploit the racial divide for power and profit to continue manipulating white guilt to their advantage.

Selected H.L. Mencken Observations

"Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under."

and

"Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies."

Global warming or climate change can be substituted for communism in the latter observation without detracting from its accuracy.

Ideal Legislator

From The Wall Street Journal Best of the Web today:

"In the 16 months since he was sworn in, state Rep. Michael R. DesRoches did not cast a single vote," reports the New Hampshire Union Leader:

Colleagues in the House say they have not seen him in Concord this session.

They won't be seeing him in the future, either. DesRoches announced his resignation yesterday, explaining he was recently evicted from his apartment in downtown Manchester and no longer lives in the district he was elected to represent.

DesRoches, a Democrat, said he did not expect to win when he agreed to put his name on the ballot in 2006. Once elected, he said, he was sidetracked by a series of personal and financial problems, including a bad knee, a breakup and a bout with depression.

"I was concentrating on myself," he said yesterday. "Because if I didn't have a clear mind, with everything going on with my depression, how (would) I be able to actually vote correctly?"

Resigning? He should be running for Congress! If there were more guys like Michael DesRoches on Capitol Hill, imagine how little harm they'd do.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Given the Candidates We've Got, This Is the Campaign Button of the Year:

FYI - California's Speechless Senators

No response has yet been forthcoming from either Senator Barbara Boxer or Senator Dianne Feinstein to the inquiry I sent to them and posted below on this blog two weeks ago today about whether they are prepared to allow development of domestic sources of oil to reduce our (i) gasoline prices, and (ii) dependence on foreign sources and the flow of our dollars to the Middle East.

P.S. - The morning paper indicates that Ms. Boxer is busy trying to ensure the well being of polar bears. The polar bears apparently are more important to her than the burden of high gas prices on her constituents.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Having Earned It, Congress Deserves Contempt

Can anyone who has watched our Congress in action since January 2007 have anything but contempt for it?

In one wing of the U.S. Capitol we have what used to be the peoples' house. By jiggering district boundaries its members now choose their voters instead of having voters choosing their representatives, and it has transformed itself into the House of Reprehensibles. Fittingly, this clown show is led by a loony left dim bulb squeaker from San Francisco.

In the other wing, what once was referred to as the world's greatest deliberative body has degenerated into a national sty, a house of gasbags, in which the majority is led -- thankfully ineptly -- by Nevada's pathetically whiny version of Uriah Heap.

All in all, our national legislature probably is the greatest collection of self-seeking, time-serving poseurs ever assembled in one place.

I am in contempt not of, but for Congress.

Our Great National Farce

Our elections have disintegrated into extravagant farces, theatrical enterprises in which the great amalgam of gullible fools selects, from the most pernicious among us, ego-maniacal charlatans with insatiable appetites for adulation and power, the reckless but persuasive, pandering parasites we all must suffer, engorge, and submit to for the next short while.

Second Amendment Speculation

A reader mindful of Kerr Mudgeon’s legal background inquired about how he thinks the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to decide the District of Columbia gun ban case it currently is considering. On the assumption that the court will decide the case rather than sending it back to a lower court for further consideration there or otherwise ducking the issue, K.R. responded as follows:

“My guess -- and it is only a guess -- is that they will rule that the second amendment guarantees an individual (as opposed to a collective or state) right, and that they will uphold the lower appellate court ruling striking down the DC law but leave the way open to ‘reasonable’ regulations and not resolve the question of what is reasonable. This would not be as bad as it might be but still far from perfect in that such a ruling would be tantamount to rewriting "shall not be infringed" as meaning "shall not be infringed except . . . . ? ? ? ?" Thus I expect the decision to be a political one with something for everyone rather than a clear constitutional ruling.”

Keep in mind that in recent years the court has ruled:

• In upholding Senator McVain’s incumbent protection legislation, that the first amendment prohibition on abridging free speech includes an exception that allows curbs on political speech for purposes that the court favors such as campaign finance reform.

• In upholding racial preferences at the University of Michigan Law School, that the fourteenth amendment provision guaranteeing everyone the equal protection of the laws does not preclude a state from favoring one individual over another on the basis of race if the preference advances a purpose that the court favors such as diversity.

• In allowing government to seize an individual’s home to turn it over to another private owner planning a development that will pay more taxes, that a person’s home is his castle only so long as some governmental unit doesn’t want it for something else.

K.R. plans to write and post more in the near future about how judges are fulfilling Thomas Jefferson’s expectation that, not being elected by, or accountable to anyone, they would become black robed despots. Under such judges the courts are abdicating their role as guardians and protectors of our liberties and becoming political handmaidens of oppressive government.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Curiously Uncurious: A Question the Intrepid Media Haven't Asked

Has anyone noticed that, and wondered why our news media haven't asked Barack Obama where he stands on whether our government ought to pay reparations to blacks?

For more on why this question is relevant, see:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/03/obamas_anger.html

Friday, March 21, 2008

How to Get the Most Bang Out of Our Tax Rebate Bucks

The government has promised to send a tax rebate check to each of us. The idea is for us to spend the money and thus stimulate the economy, which is faltering largely because the government has siphoned so much money -- a lot more than it's giving back -- out of us through the Internal Revenue Code.

Now, if we spend that money at Wal-Mart, almost all of it will go to China. If we spend it on computers, most of it will go to Korea or India . If we spend it on gasoline it will go to the Arabs. None of these expenditures will help the American economy.

We need to keep that money here in America . . . and the only way to do that will be to spend it to drink beer or gamble, or on prostitution. These seem to be the only businesses remaining in the U.S. that are still owned and operated by Americans.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Great Movie Line

We Get to Put $30 Billion Frosting on JP Morgan Chase’s Tasty Bear Stearns Cake

Were it not for the fact that they own a bank the folks at JP Morgan Chase would be laughing all the way to one over the deal they cut over the past weekend to acquire Bear Stearns in a shotgun wedding like transaction.

While the shotgun was being wielded by the government, doing business as the Federal Reserve, Morgan Chase hornswoggled the Fed into giving it a great deal and a very sweet dowry for getting Bear Stearns and its messy subprime portfolio mess off the street and out of sight.

At $2 for each outstanding Bear Stearns share, Morgan Stanley is paying $236 million for making what had been the nation’s fifth largest investment banking firm disappear. In the 52 weeks that preceded the start of its meltdown Bear Stearns stock sold for a high of $170 and a low of about $26 a share.

Among the assets that Morgan Stanley is getting is Bear Stearns’ Manhattan office building which alone is estimated to be worth $.1.4 billion. Therefore, were it not for the bad mortgage portfolio that goes along with Bear Stearns the deal would appear to be a very good one from Morgan Stanley’s perspective.

So what about the problem subprime mortgage portfolio?

If you go down a couple of items to the one I posted on Sunday as the deal was taking shape you will see the following:

“The $2 a share sale seems bogus and reminds one of the days that [problem] savings and loan institutions were being sold in shot gun transactions forced and overseen by the government. The buyer would take the ailing institution for some nominal price and the government would give the buyer some multiple of that price in a combination of (i) cash, (ii) guarantees of the acquired institution's bad and questionable loans (and also pay the buyer for administering those loans), and (iii) waivers of certain regulatory requirements and restrictions.”

Well lo and behold, it now has been revealed that the Fed has guaranteed the problem portfolio to the extent of $30 million, meaning that it – in reality you and I and our fellow taxpayers -- and not Morgan Chase will bear the first $30 million in losses from the Bear Stearns subprime mortgages.

The S&L transactions supposedly reduced the payout by a government agency which insured S&L deposits. There is no such insurance and hence no similar rationale in the case of investment banking firms.

There is no way of telling whether there are any additional terms of the JP Morgan Chase – Bear Stearns transaction that have not yet been revealed, or, if there are, whether and when they will be made public.

In the meantime, J.P. Morgan Chase deserves a congratulatory tip of the hat. And I’ll leave to you the question of what the fed and the government deserve.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Benefit of the Obama Candidacy

The presidential candidacy of Barack Obama is having a significant and much needed salutary effect on our country. His run for the White House and the focus it has brought on his pastor and spiritual advisor have shattered the idea that racism afflicts only white people, and clearly shown that blacks (and presumably members of other racial and ethnic minorities) also can be bigots and racists, and harbor virulent prejudices and racial hatreds.

Not a Lonely Jeremiah

Readers who think I have been and am unduly pessimistic about the American dollar and our economy would be well advised to:

1. Take a look at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/17/ccview117.xml


and

2. Think about what is likely to occur if and when the economy slows enough to cause some real contractions and layoffs. That would result in defaults on the enormous bubbles of outstanding credit card and leveraged buyout debts. Were this to occur the government would see its tax revenues and social security payments shrink. This, in turn, would cause the federal deficit to soar and quite possibly hasten the government's inability to meet its social security, medicare, prescription drug, and pension guarantee obligations without further debasing the dollar by simply printing or borrowing even more dollars and thus vastly expanding the deficit to levels never before seen (assuming there's still anyone out there willing and able to loan to our feckless deadbeat government.

The whole meltdown brings to mind H. L. Mencken's observation that democracy is the theory that people deserve to get the government they want and they deserve to get it good and hard.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Bear Stearns Bailout Addendum

Since the preceding post was published, the purchase of Bear Stearns by J.P. Morgan Chase for $2 per share was announced. In the 52 weeks that preceded the collapse of Bear Stearns late last week, its stock sold for at a high of $170 per share and a low of $26.85 a share. The $2 a share sale seems bogus and reminds one of the days that the savings and loan institutions were being sold in shot gun transactions forced and overseen by the government. The buyer would take the ailing institution for some nominal price and the government would give the buyer some multiple of that price in a combination of (i) cash, (ii) guarantees of the acquired institution's bad and questionable loans (and also pay the buyer for administering those loans), and (iii) waivers of certain regulatory requirements and restrictions. Can't help but wonder whether/when we're going to find out what J.P. Morgan Chase is getting for taking this sick puppy and its mess off the street and out of sight.

Anyone who thinks the government hasn't been complicit in creating this mess should recall that ever since the Carter administration the government and its financial regulators have pressured financial institutions to adopt community lending and similar programs. These programs have called for lenders to make loans to poor people and others whose credit worthiness normally would have precluded them from purchasing homes. The idea was to loan the full purchase price and even more to enable these people to buy houses, and it was based on the concept that housing prices would rise to give these people some equity in the collateral property and that this would enable them to refinance their loans before the artificially low initial rate reset. Another bonkers government Ponzi scheme gone the way they inevitably do.

Just wait till such other off-the-books Ponzi debacles in waiting as Social Security, Medicare, and the prescription drug and pension guarantee programs bite the dust the same way.

Hello Fellow Suckers: We're Really Getting Stuck Big Time!

Financial powerhouse Bear Stears Cos., the nation's fifth largest investment bank, was rescued from the brink of collapse last Friday by our government, doing business as the Federal Reserve, which together with another wall street concern extended loans to the troubled institution for 28 days. This presumably will allow it to be acquired by or merged with another financial house that is presumed to be stable.

Doesn't it make you feel warm and cozy to see the public treasury bailing out one of the firms that got into trouble by participating as a major player in the subprime mortgage business and earned $233 million in 2007 and $2 billion in 2006 by doing so? Bear Stearns in 2006 compensated the executives that led it into this mess to the tune of more than $38 million to its chairman of the board, more than $35 million to its president and chief executive officer, more than $26 million to its chief financial officer and chief operating officer, and . . . well the list goes on and on. I wasn't able to find the compensation figures for last year, and I wasn't able to determine how much these geniuses are chipping in to rescue the company they led into helping create the company's mess and our current economic debacle.

Contrast the bailout that -- make no mistake about it -- we are supporting with our tax dollars -- with what happens to Joe Sixpack, the ordinary citizen who doesn't sit behind an expensive desk in a fancy Manhattan office, but works hard, plays by the rules, and supports his family, if he makes a few bad decision or has his job shipped overseas. Joe's mortgage holder forecloses on his house. He is forced into bankruptcy, stripped of his assets, and spit out onto the street. And thanks to the bankruptcy "reform" legislation enacted by "our" Congress and signed into law by "our" president, Joe probably doesn't even get to start out anew. His indebtedness to the bankers that brought us the subprime meltdown no longer is certain to be discharged through the bankruptcy process so he still is likely to be saddled with his debts to the institutional lenders for which "our" political leaders always show so much consideration and compassion.

The government of course will do nothing for Joe because doing so would remove the risks of, and encourage irresponsible decision making and poor financial management by Joe and others like him . . . but keep in mind that although others like him probably includes you and me, it definitely doesn't include Bear Stearn or its executives.

We have a wonderful system in which the poor and the middle class have free enterprise but are plundered by government to support socialism for big corporations and the rich.

Friday, March 14, 2008

It's Not Gas Price But Government Inflicted Pain You're Feeling

Actual gas and oil prices haven't risen in decades. If you doubt that, go back to any date you wish since our government ceased backing up our currency with gold.

Gold today sells at a bit more than $1,000 an ounce while oil and gas, respectively, sells at a bit over $100 a barrel and $3.50 a gallon. Thus oil goes for about 10% and gasoline goes for about .0035 percent of an ounce of gold. Thus it is clear that for decades the real prices of these commodities have remained steady in the same proportions.

The dollar price increases for all of these, as well as of most other commodities are illusory. What they really reflect is the drop in the value of our dollars.

When the government stopped backing up our currency with gold it proclaimed that the dollar would have the full faith and credit of the government behind it. And that backup has been losing and is continuing to lose credibility. The loss has been precipitous and it is accelerating.

Behind the collapse of confidence in the dollar is the government's feckless and unending tax and spend policies -- the same policies that our elected officials use for their pet programs and earmarks, aiming to have the public treasury buy constituencies for their reelection. Most elected officials haven't cared as their policies sent American industries and jobs overseas because they assumed that the pain would become widespread enough for the public to focus on what was happening only on their successors' watch after they had moved on.

Another aspect of this has been the appeals to environmentalists that have placed some 85% of our potential sources of domestic oil, both onshore and under the outer continental shelf, off limits for exploration and development. They also have made it impossible to build additional oil refineries, modernize our outdated ones, and to construct nuclear power plants -- all steps that might have reduced energy prices, halted our dependence on oil imports, and stopped or reduced the flow of our cash to the Middle East.

Our politicians love to talk about how they support programs to develop alternate sources of energy. None of these programs are sure to be successful, and the only thing certain about them is that even if they achieve their goals their benefits will be realized in the far distance future. The one program that they have inflicted on us is involves ethanol, a boondoggle that is driving up the price of gasoline, food, and virtually everything else working Americans routinely need.

None of our "leaders" seem to realize that the pain is here and it is here now.

The government is printing and distributing dollars even faster, hoping to prop up our faltering economy a bit longer. Cheapening the dollar faster and accelerating inflation has an added attraction for those who fashion our public policies -- it may enable the government that has no other way to meet the huge debt obligations it has taken on to nominally pay its bills as they become due with dollar worth only a dime or even less. Of course the flip side of this is that the rest of us will need wheelbarrows full of currency to buy loaves of bread as well as gasoline.

Well folks, the chickens aren't just coming home to roost. They have arrived.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Brazenly Biased News

Letter to My Local Newspaper:

Because it is difficult to the point of being almost impossible to determine the party affiliation of Eliot Spitzer from your accounts of his disgrace while your published reports about Larry Craig as well as every other transgressing Republican prominently and repeatedly mention his/their party affiliation, one can only conclude from your fair and nonpartisan publication that the New York governorship is a nonpartisan office.

Readers may wish to send something like the above to their newspapers if warranted by their editorial policies. Perhaps we can shame them into pretending to be fair.

P.S. For the record: K.R. is not a Republican. Insofar as politicians go, he views with contempt and disgust, and despises almost all of them equally.

Nifong North: Spitzer Was More Than a Private Creep and the Press Assisted His Public Transgressions

Disgrace could not come to a more deserving creep than Eliot Spitzer. But had the press performed properly rather than assisting him when he was abusing his powers as a prosecutor and unjustifiably ruining the lives of innocent private citizens by doing so, he long ago would have been brought to justice for his public misdeeds rather than the private ones that now have brought his low character to light.

See the details by copying the following address into your web browser and going to where it takes you:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120528114453028807.
html?mod=djemEditorialPage

Note: You won't reach the right site unless you copy the entire address and get all of it into your web browser. It may be necessary to do this in two steps - once for each line.

P.S. In addition, one has to wonder about where the judges with oversight reponsiblities and where their respective bar associations were when Messrs. Nifong and Spitzer were misusing their authority and the legal system to savage their targets. Though zealous about protecting their turf, the judiciary and the organized bar appears to have been unfazed, failing with calm equanimity and dignified aplomb to react to egregious assaults on the rights of citizens who aren't members of their elite fraternities.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Global Hokum

Folks caught up in the global warming hysteria would do well to note the observation of H. L. Mencken quoted in the column at the lower right under the Observations, Wit, and Wisdom heading. Charles Mackay's classic book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, is a more detailed exposition on such phenomena.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Letter to Congressional Representatives

Dear XXX:

To what level will gasoline prices have to rise, and to what extent will our economy have to sink before you will relent and drop your opposition to exploring for and extracting our own oil domestically?

This is a serious question to which I would appreciate a real rather than a form response.

Current policy, for which you share responsibility, puts about 85% of our potential land and outer continental shelf sources of petroleum off limits to those who would develop that potential.

In responding, please do not cite your support for programs to develop alternate sources of energy. These programs have uncertain prospects for success. Their only certainty is that any benefits will be in the distant future. In addition, ethanol, the sole alternate source of energy that Congress has created, is contributing to the escalating prices of energy, food, and all every-day needs for those for whom you profess concern. This is happening and real pain is being inflicted and felt by every American working family right now.

Meanwhile, we continue to send countless billions of dollars to the Middle East where they finance terrorism against America and Americans, and atrocities against Israel.

Thank you for in advance for your thoughtful attention to my question. I will look forward to receiving your response.

Will advise of responses if, when, and as received.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Question: What Does GOP Stand For?

Answer: Grand Old Profligates.

When Republicans won control of Congress they promptly set about increasing the size and scope of, and spending by the government at a rate exceeding that of their Democrat predecessors. They squandered our tax money and by doing so they did the same with their majority.

Republicans campaign as conservatives, speechifying about individual rights and responsibilities, small and limited government, controlling spending, . . . blah, blah, blah, blah. It’s all sound and fury signifying nothing. The inescapable fact is that Republicans do a far better job as a minority in opposition than as a governing party.

They're Not the Three Stooges and They're Not Funny


Contrary to popular belief the still standing candidates for the presidency are not Larry, Curly, and Moe.

Instead, they are stand ins for three characters from modern literature. On the Republican side we have Captain Queeg while the Democrat contenders are Elmer Gantry and Nurse Ratched.

The three stooges would make us laugh and never hurt us. This cannot be said about the candidates we have, and the trick is going to be to decide which of them is likely to do us the least harm.


Who's Laughing?




Friday, March 7, 2008

The State Wants Our Kids

Remember This?
If You Live in California They May Be Coming Into Your Home to Seize Your Kids Just Like This Any Day Now


Just over a half decade ago Attorney General Janet Reno sent these paramilitary gunmen – does the term jack-booted thugs seem out-of-line --into a private home in Florida to seize the frightened boy in the above photo, and she then delivered the boy to Cuba to be raised and educated there under the aegis of Fidel Castro.

Now a California appellate court has ruled that parents, unless they hold teaching certificates, have no right to home school their children and that the state can enforce the state’s superior right to determine how our children should be educated. Under the court’s ruling, the state can enforce this right by (i) removing children from the care and custody of their parents, and (ii) criminally prosecuting resisting parents.

If this isn’t tyranny, nothing is. And what further evidence is needed to demonstrate that the state is the enemy of liberty and of all citizens irrespective of whether they wish to home school their children?

In addition, the notion that the state has any, let alone superior, ability to determine how and by whom children should be educated is sadly mistaken as demonstrated by the dismal performance of government schools and their certified pedagogues.

Anyone surprised by the failures of the public dumbing down indoctrination factories would do well to pause and reflect on the far greater breadth of governmental ineptitude. Case in point: the subprime mortgage/financial crisis was bestowed and inflicted on us by government licensed and regulated mortgage brokers and financial institutions. Fear not though -- they'll get bailed out and the failures will get covered up by the government with our tax money.

Monday, March 3, 2008

On Religion, Man and God, and How Islam Is Different

Notwithstanding the Bible's assertion that God created man in His image, in the Judaeo Christian and most other religious traditions humans have turned that topsy-turvey, creating their gods in their human images. In almost all cases gods are constructed to reflect the societies' ideals and values and imbued with the finest and most noble qualities to which their people aspire.

Islam is different in that Muslims and especially the radical Islamists among them find in their faith excuses, justifications, and even mandates for committing the most horrendous acts and for the most barbaric practices human beings are capable of imagining.

On the Brink?

Has anyone noticed the similarity of our circumstances in the U.S. today and those that the Soviet Union faced as it began imploding?

Our Pathetic Options

As if we still needed proof after witnessing the unending spectacle of Congress conducting business, the three individuals who have emerged as the only viable candidates in the pool from which we must select a president clearly demonstrate that scum indeed does rise to the top of every rain barrel.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Question to Ponder

How can a tax protester get a fair trial when his case is heard by a judge who depends for his livelihood on the taxes we pay? How can a judge whose livelihood depends upon the government's ability to compel us to pay taxes claim to be impartial and unbiased in a case in which the government's legal ability to do this is challenged?