I want to use today as a day to play catch up. It seems the anti-Bush faction has made some seriously flawed analysis over the last few weeks, and I just want to see how the scorecard reads.
Lets start with the Karl Rove story. Just two months ago I was on the air on the WAC (which can be heard weeknights from 8-10 on Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket) getting an earful from the liberal contingent on how Rove should step down – how he was going to be exposed for the political hack that he is, how he lied, compromised an “undercover agent”, etc, etc. I can’t recall hearing a single story in the last two months on this. What happened?
What about the Katrina, Bush hates black people, story? Just 5 or 6 days after Katrina hit, every man women and child in the blue states was blaming the entire fiasco on President Bush. Blaming him for everything from causing the hurricane (you know – because he didn’t sign the Kyoto treaty. Never mind it was the full Congress that completely rejected the treaty), withholding guard troops because he doesn’t like black people, to staffing FEMA with unqualified political cronies (well…you maybe on to something on this one).
Now that the dust has cleared, or the water has settled, it turns out that the un-informed/ill-informed are getting a civics lesson in how our republican form of government works. You know, states rights and all. Having a President conduct operations in a state without being granted permission by that state is tantamount to King George taxing the colonies without representation. Our founders specifically did not allow this in the new form of government. There are very few instances where the President can control state actions regardless of whether he has an invite or not. And what about the cause of the hurricane? I mean, hurricanes these days are way stronger and more frequent than they use to be – right? Uh, wrong. In fact, here is the homework assignment for today. Provide me a list of all category 5 hurricanes since 1900 – and then, attempt to explain to me how global warming has caused the increase. If you can do that, I will donate $25 to the Red Cross in your name – no joke. Here is a hint though: you wont be able to win this bet. Category 5 hurricanes are DECLINING in frequency!
Anyways, I would love to hear from my liberal friends out there on their thoughts on today’s topics. I wonder if anyone is willing to admit their hatred for President Bush has slightly impeded their ability for sound reasoning. I didn’t really plan on writing this much. I haven’t even touched on Iraq yet. Seems that the Iraqi’s have 82 battalions of combat ready troops as of this morning (according the Gen Richard Meyers). I only tell you that as a public service – you won’t be reading about that in your local paper.
Have a great weekend. I hope to be getting my membership packet this weekend for the Secret Neo-Con Society. We are working on our next vast conspiracy. Details to come.
Friday, September 30, 2005
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Thoughts for the day
The ‘Great Storm of 05’ came through my area last night - serious rain, thunder and enough lightning to knock my power off for over an hour. The power going off was not a major deal for me at first. I actually enjoyed the darkness and semi-quiet for a bit. That is, until the kids got over their initial excitement and became bored. So, I did what any father would do, I loaded the Wiggles into my laptop’s DVD player for some instant entertainment.
Now, of all nights, this was the night my insurance agent was suppose to come over for me to sign new insurance documents. He shows up around 7:45 or so and my wife and I start signing by candlelight. I’m pretty sure we were authorizing new coverage for our house and car, but given the poor lighting, I may have sold my oldest son to a goat farmer in Iraq – not sure. I’m either saving $60 a month or receiving 60 goats in exchange. I guess only time will tell.
The electricity came back on around 9 – thanks to those hard working Reliant, or is it TXU workers (I never really know where my electricity comes from). I immediately turned the thermostat down to 72 to make up for lost time. I suppose by doing this I am responsible for another child dying over in Iraq for President Bush’s oil – but hey, I’m a Republican. I’m supposed to be a heartless consumer of scarce natural resources. Shortly after the house cooled down, I went outside and shot a few spotted owls.
One final thought for they day. This doesn’t really go with the first story, but not significant enough to warrant its own space. Is it just me, or is it really rude to talk on the phone while you’re in a public restroom? Not standing at the urinal mind you, but sitting in the stall. This incident occurred this morning at work – and it just really struck me as odd.
Now, of all nights, this was the night my insurance agent was suppose to come over for me to sign new insurance documents. He shows up around 7:45 or so and my wife and I start signing by candlelight. I’m pretty sure we were authorizing new coverage for our house and car, but given the poor lighting, I may have sold my oldest son to a goat farmer in Iraq – not sure. I’m either saving $60 a month or receiving 60 goats in exchange. I guess only time will tell.
The electricity came back on around 9 – thanks to those hard working Reliant, or is it TXU workers (I never really know where my electricity comes from). I immediately turned the thermostat down to 72 to make up for lost time. I suppose by doing this I am responsible for another child dying over in Iraq for President Bush’s oil – but hey, I’m a Republican. I’m supposed to be a heartless consumer of scarce natural resources. Shortly after the house cooled down, I went outside and shot a few spotted owls.
One final thought for they day. This doesn’t really go with the first story, but not significant enough to warrant its own space. Is it just me, or is it really rude to talk on the phone while you’re in a public restroom? Not standing at the urinal mind you, but sitting in the stall. This incident occurred this morning at work – and it just really struck me as odd.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Old Hippies
Mike Adams is one of my favorite columnists. His satire and wit is only rivaled by my favorite flame-thrower, Anne Coulter – yet he is not as hateful as she. Mr. Adams is a professor at UNC-Wilmington (I think) and often writes about his real life experiences with liberal leanings in academia. Today’s topic is not academic related, but a fun read nonetheless.
You can find Mr Adams’ work on www.townhall.com
Sugar MountainMike S. Adams
September 20, 2005
When Neil Young wrote the song “Sugar Mountain” in the 1960s, he was just a teenager. The song wasn’t about a real place. It was about coming to terms with growing up and leaving one’s childhood behind. I was 18 the first time I heard him sing the line, “You can’t be twenty on Sugar Mountain.” Today it’s still one of my favorite songs.
Last winter I went to an actual place in North Carolina called Sugar Mountain. The occasion was a youth ski trip organized by a local church. I was a chaperone. One of the other chaperones was a former hippie from the 1960s. He’s not really a hippie anymore, although he’s still a liberal. Now he’s raising four kids.
I learned a lot about both the 60s and liberalism, just by spending four days in the mountains with that former hippie. I wrote this column to pass on what I learned. I would hate for my readers to have to experience such a trip firsthand in order to get the knowledge I obtained through so much frustration.
My fellow chaperone got to go skiing for free since he paid for one of his children to go on the ski trip. I was a little perplexed when he showed up with, not one, but three of his children, since two of them had not paid for the trip. He just thought that he would bring them along in case some of the kids who paid didn’t show up. That way, along with him, two of his kids could ski for free. Even though that wasn’t the case, he asked if they could bum a ride to the mountains to spend some time with their older sister (who also ended up joining us later). The youth director graciously complied with his request.
When we got on the bus, the former-hippie-turned-chaperone began to take charge. He approached the bus driver (who happened to be black) and offered to tell him how to get from Wilmington to the location just east of Asheville where the group was staying. For those who don’t know, it is a straight shot up I-40, just one road for six hours.
But the former-hippie-turned-navigator had another route in mind. It involved going to South Carolina to pick up I-26. He spoke real slowly to the bus driver, hoping that he could sell him his “short-cut.” When the driver refused, he warned us that “this guy is going to need a lot of guidance.” When we looked at him, we only saw a professional bus driver. When the former hippie looked at him, he apparently saw an unintelligent black man. I have found that you can usually identify a liberal by the way he talks to black people. This was certainly no exception.
By following the route of the bus driver, we made it to our destination in less than six hours. But the driver had never been to Sugar Mountain, so we needed someone to navigate the next morning. The former hippie volunteered. The youth director consented. I didn’t voice my concerns because I thought it would be funny to watch him get lost. I also planned to time him before I offered to get us home later that night, betting that I could do so in half the time.
No one on the bus realized anything was wrong until we saw the signs saying “Welcome to Tennessee.” A sixth grader asked why we would go from a place in eastern North Carolina to a more central place in North Carolina via Tennessee. I said “by dropping lots of acid in the 60s.” Fortunately, she didn’t get the joke.
As we were entering Tennessee, I thought about the former hippie’s daughter who was wearing black leather boots and a ton of mascara. She had a pin on her jacket that said “Bush is stupid.” I wanted to ask her whether she thought that Bush was stupid enough to wind up in Tennessee while traveling westward through North Carolina (on the way to western North Carolina). But I didn’t want to interrupt her. She was reading Chomsky.
We made it to Sugar Mountain in just less than three hours. Later that day I heard the former hippie telling several of the kids that our tardiness was the bus driver’s fault because he missed several turns. Later someone (I wonder who?) reported the driver to the bus company for bad driving. The driver got in trouble with his boss, but at least the former-hippie-turned-whistle-blower was spared the embarrassment of taking the blame for getting everyone lost. I guess you could call it a little white lie.
At the end of the day, the former hippie was delighted to learn the youth director was not going to ski all weekend due to an ailing foot. He was also glad to hear that I would not be skiing because of an old Achilles tendon injury. That meant extra passes for the rest of his family. Now he could rest easy while I navigated the trip home in just one hour and 21 minutes.
In the morning, when we met for a buffet breakfast, the former hippie sat down with an enormous plate of food. He had a bowl of fruit, eggs, biscuits, five cartons of milk, and (literally) a bunch of bananas. I thought there was no way he could eat all of “his” food. I was right. He stuffed most of it in his coat and offered it to his (now four) children on the bus. Apparently, none could afford breakfast, even though four of the five members of the family were now skiing for free.
I almost felt sorry for the family until I found out they were wealthy. The oldest daughter went to a private college and paid $40,000 tuition her freshman year. Her father went there, too. It seems they were old money liberals.
The youngest child of my former-hippie/fellow chaperone was nine. He refused to drink the free milk and eat the free fruit that daddy had stolen for the rest of his family. Instead, he ate a whole carton of chocolate fudge cookies for breakfast. By the end of his breakfast the hyperactive child was shaking so badly he couldn’t hold his gloves anymore.
But before the trip was over, the kid started bragging about how his family had twenty pairs of ski goggles, although they hadn’t paid for a single one. “When someone leaves them at a table in the ski lodge, we just take them, don’t we daddy?” My fellow chaperone quickly replied, “No, son! Shut up and stop being so annoying!” It was the only form of discipline to come from former-hippie-turned-daddy all weekend.
Later, when the youngest child of the hippie-turned-ski-goggle-looter asked me to watch “his” goggles, I considered it a “teachable moment.” I told him, “Don’t you know that private property is the root of all evil? From each according to his ability…” I was interrupted by a swift kick under the table from the youth director.
And that was pretty much how the whole weekend went. The adult chaperones spend most of their time looking after the hippie-turned-chaperone to make sure that he didn’t get anyone lost, fired, or thrown in jail for stealing food or ski equipment. I was so focused on controlling him that I just ignored his daughter when she started crushing hundreds of croutons with her fist at the Pizza Hut salad bar.
When we got back from the trip, I was unsurprised to learn that the liberal chaperone once decided to have picnic with his family underneath a tree in a neighbor’s front yard. Of course, he didn’t ask his neighbor first. He just laid out a blanket and started playing his guitar and munching granola with his wife and four children. We must always remember that friends don’t let friends drop acid - at least not every day for a whole decade. The effects tend to linger for years, sometimes even decades.
Of course, I’m not suggesting that every liberal hippie from the 60s is a full-blown sociopath like my fellow chaperone. But the symptoms are always the same, aren’t they? His condescension towards blacks, his unwavering arrogance in the wake of his own obvious stupidity, his looting and hoarding of limited resources, his lack of respect for the truth, his the lack of respect for the property of others, and, mostly, his refusal to grow up.
My weekend in the mountains reminded me that liberalism is not really a political philosophy. Instead, it is a state of arrested emotional development. It is a way of thinking, which leads to no place in the real world. It is a place existing only in the imagination.
Perhaps Neil Young said it best in the 1960s: “Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain, with the barkers and the colored balloons. You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain, though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon…”
You can find Mr Adams’ work on www.townhall.com
Sugar MountainMike S. Adams
September 20, 2005
When Neil Young wrote the song “Sugar Mountain” in the 1960s, he was just a teenager. The song wasn’t about a real place. It was about coming to terms with growing up and leaving one’s childhood behind. I was 18 the first time I heard him sing the line, “You can’t be twenty on Sugar Mountain.” Today it’s still one of my favorite songs.
Last winter I went to an actual place in North Carolina called Sugar Mountain. The occasion was a youth ski trip organized by a local church. I was a chaperone. One of the other chaperones was a former hippie from the 1960s. He’s not really a hippie anymore, although he’s still a liberal. Now he’s raising four kids.
I learned a lot about both the 60s and liberalism, just by spending four days in the mountains with that former hippie. I wrote this column to pass on what I learned. I would hate for my readers to have to experience such a trip firsthand in order to get the knowledge I obtained through so much frustration.
My fellow chaperone got to go skiing for free since he paid for one of his children to go on the ski trip. I was a little perplexed when he showed up with, not one, but three of his children, since two of them had not paid for the trip. He just thought that he would bring them along in case some of the kids who paid didn’t show up. That way, along with him, two of his kids could ski for free. Even though that wasn’t the case, he asked if they could bum a ride to the mountains to spend some time with their older sister (who also ended up joining us later). The youth director graciously complied with his request.
When we got on the bus, the former-hippie-turned-chaperone began to take charge. He approached the bus driver (who happened to be black) and offered to tell him how to get from Wilmington to the location just east of Asheville where the group was staying. For those who don’t know, it is a straight shot up I-40, just one road for six hours.
But the former-hippie-turned-navigator had another route in mind. It involved going to South Carolina to pick up I-26. He spoke real slowly to the bus driver, hoping that he could sell him his “short-cut.” When the driver refused, he warned us that “this guy is going to need a lot of guidance.” When we looked at him, we only saw a professional bus driver. When the former hippie looked at him, he apparently saw an unintelligent black man. I have found that you can usually identify a liberal by the way he talks to black people. This was certainly no exception.
By following the route of the bus driver, we made it to our destination in less than six hours. But the driver had never been to Sugar Mountain, so we needed someone to navigate the next morning. The former hippie volunteered. The youth director consented. I didn’t voice my concerns because I thought it would be funny to watch him get lost. I also planned to time him before I offered to get us home later that night, betting that I could do so in half the time.
No one on the bus realized anything was wrong until we saw the signs saying “Welcome to Tennessee.” A sixth grader asked why we would go from a place in eastern North Carolina to a more central place in North Carolina via Tennessee. I said “by dropping lots of acid in the 60s.” Fortunately, she didn’t get the joke.
As we were entering Tennessee, I thought about the former hippie’s daughter who was wearing black leather boots and a ton of mascara. She had a pin on her jacket that said “Bush is stupid.” I wanted to ask her whether she thought that Bush was stupid enough to wind up in Tennessee while traveling westward through North Carolina (on the way to western North Carolina). But I didn’t want to interrupt her. She was reading Chomsky.
We made it to Sugar Mountain in just less than three hours. Later that day I heard the former hippie telling several of the kids that our tardiness was the bus driver’s fault because he missed several turns. Later someone (I wonder who?) reported the driver to the bus company for bad driving. The driver got in trouble with his boss, but at least the former-hippie-turned-whistle-blower was spared the embarrassment of taking the blame for getting everyone lost. I guess you could call it a little white lie.
At the end of the day, the former hippie was delighted to learn the youth director was not going to ski all weekend due to an ailing foot. He was also glad to hear that I would not be skiing because of an old Achilles tendon injury. That meant extra passes for the rest of his family. Now he could rest easy while I navigated the trip home in just one hour and 21 minutes.
In the morning, when we met for a buffet breakfast, the former hippie sat down with an enormous plate of food. He had a bowl of fruit, eggs, biscuits, five cartons of milk, and (literally) a bunch of bananas. I thought there was no way he could eat all of “his” food. I was right. He stuffed most of it in his coat and offered it to his (now four) children on the bus. Apparently, none could afford breakfast, even though four of the five members of the family were now skiing for free.
I almost felt sorry for the family until I found out they were wealthy. The oldest daughter went to a private college and paid $40,000 tuition her freshman year. Her father went there, too. It seems they were old money liberals.
The youngest child of my former-hippie/fellow chaperone was nine. He refused to drink the free milk and eat the free fruit that daddy had stolen for the rest of his family. Instead, he ate a whole carton of chocolate fudge cookies for breakfast. By the end of his breakfast the hyperactive child was shaking so badly he couldn’t hold his gloves anymore.
But before the trip was over, the kid started bragging about how his family had twenty pairs of ski goggles, although they hadn’t paid for a single one. “When someone leaves them at a table in the ski lodge, we just take them, don’t we daddy?” My fellow chaperone quickly replied, “No, son! Shut up and stop being so annoying!” It was the only form of discipline to come from former-hippie-turned-daddy all weekend.
Later, when the youngest child of the hippie-turned-ski-goggle-looter asked me to watch “his” goggles, I considered it a “teachable moment.” I told him, “Don’t you know that private property is the root of all evil? From each according to his ability…” I was interrupted by a swift kick under the table from the youth director.
And that was pretty much how the whole weekend went. The adult chaperones spend most of their time looking after the hippie-turned-chaperone to make sure that he didn’t get anyone lost, fired, or thrown in jail for stealing food or ski equipment. I was so focused on controlling him that I just ignored his daughter when she started crushing hundreds of croutons with her fist at the Pizza Hut salad bar.
When we got back from the trip, I was unsurprised to learn that the liberal chaperone once decided to have picnic with his family underneath a tree in a neighbor’s front yard. Of course, he didn’t ask his neighbor first. He just laid out a blanket and started playing his guitar and munching granola with his wife and four children. We must always remember that friends don’t let friends drop acid - at least not every day for a whole decade. The effects tend to linger for years, sometimes even decades.
Of course, I’m not suggesting that every liberal hippie from the 60s is a full-blown sociopath like my fellow chaperone. But the symptoms are always the same, aren’t they? His condescension towards blacks, his unwavering arrogance in the wake of his own obvious stupidity, his looting and hoarding of limited resources, his lack of respect for the truth, his the lack of respect for the property of others, and, mostly, his refusal to grow up.
My weekend in the mountains reminded me that liberalism is not really a political philosophy. Instead, it is a state of arrested emotional development. It is a way of thinking, which leads to no place in the real world. It is a place existing only in the imagination.
Perhaps Neil Young said it best in the 1960s: “Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain, with the barkers and the colored balloons. You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain, though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon…”
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Hiking Trip
“Somebody in Chaco Canyon Loves Me” is what the T-shirt says. Well, actually, it doesn’t. In fact, I don’t think the ranger station even sold T-shirts, but it should. I spent 8 hours this past weekend in an area of New Mexico that is regarded by many Native Americans as sacred, and is regarded by the Parks Department as a World Heritage site – Chaco Canyon. It is such a “worldly site” that our tour guide on one of the excursions was an exchange student from Italy.
Chaco Canyon is about 2 hours northwest of Albuquerque. An hour and half of which is on a paved highway – not a bad drive. Even the last 30 minutes of dirt road wasn’t bad either, until we came to the low water crossing. As our luck would have it, it rained the night before (being that this is the desert, rain is a rarity). The sign clearly said “Do not cross if water is flowing over the road”. Forget that! I didn’t fly 1.5 hours, and drive another two to turn back at that point. It took me about 15 seconds to convince my dad that our Mitsubishi Gallant could make it – and it did. The argument I presented went like this, “Dad. This is a rental car and the water aint that deep.” End of story - adventure #1 out of the way.
The Chacoan ruins are spread throughout the canyon on an 8 mile paved loop. It sure was nice of those ancient people to build close to the pavement. You can park you car and walk about 100-200 yards to the structures. The buildings range from being partially excavated to fully excavated to the point that you can walk through many of the rooms. One of the most impressive and the biggest, fully excavated was Pueblo Bonito. This thing was huge. It was at least 4 stories tall back around 900 – 1150 AD; currently the walls in some places are still 3 stories. Half of the pueblo is accessible – everything but the Kivas – which are round pits built into the ground for religious ceremonies and such.
Up until this point, the trip was very cool, in an ancient sort of way. But we came for some hiking and hiking is what we did. Just up the road from Pueblo Bonito is the Pueblo Alto trailhead. This is the beginning of a 2.5-mile direct hike to Pueblo Alto or a 6-mile loop hike. The elevation change was only 500 feet from the canyon floor to the top of the mesa, but it was a fairly vertical ascent up large boulders and through an impressive rock chimney that would cause many people’s claustrophobia to act up. Once on top of the mesa it was about a half mile hike back above Pueblo Bonito for an excellent photo opportunity – taking in the entire Pueblo form on top. Another mile up the terraced steps to the ultimate top of the mesa and you arrived at Pueblo Alto - not nearly as well excavated but still worth the trip. The view looking out one of the doors of that Pueblo out into the canyon below was awesome.
After leaving Chaco, we made the 2-hour drive to Santa Fe National Forest. Just north of Santa Fe and close to Los Alamos. What a difference 2 hours makes in the change of scenery. Scouted out the trailhead #137 that we were looking for and then went back to find some place to camp for the night. I won’t bore you with the camping details. It was pretty uneventful - other than to say we made a serious mistake by getting a cheap 2-man tent. Note to self, cut the occupancy in half based on what the box says.
Started the morning hike at 7 am after eating a breakfast of nothing. Breakfast was one of the things we overlooked when preparing for this excursion. We did have plenty of trail mix and some apples, which I quickly devoured about 45 minutes in. There are two trails you can take from the starting point. The first is a casual quarter-mile stroll to a really scenic waterfall – very easy. We did that in about 10 minutes, and then made it back to the “real” trail. This one is about a 3-mile trip to the McCauley Hot Springs. The first mile is mostly downhill and not too difficult. About 30 minutes in, there is a split in the trail off to the left – unmarked. Taking this split would prove to be one of the best experiences I have ever had. About 50 yards down you come to a jagged rocky overlook that peeks out of the forest. The view from the top of these rocks is unbelievable. The entire forest valley spreading out below and wilderness as far as the eye can see.
The next mile or so was up and down and varied from easy to strenuous. The final mile or so was mostly uphill. After about 2 hours we arrived at the springs. And after removing my shoes and getting in, I realized they should rename it the “Warm Springs” instead of “Hot Springs”. We rested here for about 30 minutes and started back. It was much harder going back given the uphill nature and being out of hiking shape.
That’s it. I would recommend this hike to anyone – from beginners to intermediate hikers. Those serious trailblazers may not find this super challenging, but it was about as much as I could take. Enjoy the pictures below and give me a ring next time anyone wants to take off to nowhere.
Friday, September 02, 2005
Unemployment Rate
Good news on the economy. Unemployment rate fell to 4.9%. Just a shot in the dark here, but I'm guessing the fact that over 1 million people in New Orleans and surrounding areas may be without a job for a while, this number is going to climb.
Surprising Speach From the Left? Hardly.
Chrenkoff has a list of representative quotes from the left regarding Katrina. He calls them "exploitation quotes", I call them discraceful. Its a good sampling of hatred from political characters to the man on the street. Here is one of my favorites:
"10. Joseph Cannon at BradBlog was initially feeling just as compassionate, but then he changed his mind - somewhat:
So why was I thinking of starting a movement against giving aid to the stricken areas?Because these are red states. They voted for Bush. These ninnies obviously wanted these policies, and they deserve to live with the consequences of their votes.A large part of me still believes that many of these W-worshipping numbskulls deserve to suffer and to die. They brought it on themselves. Let them look to Jayzuss for aid: It's time they stopped leeching off the more productive blue staters...But then (to paraphrase the old song) I thought I'd better think it out again.Many of the victims, the ones who have suffered the most, are poor. The hardest hit were the blue state folk living among the red state maniacs. New Orleans, we should note, went heavily for Kerry.And that's why we must help. Although it was very tempting to say otherwise.
But let us make one thing clear: We WILL politicize this issue.The Republicans did not shirk from making political use of 9/11, and we should not shirk from reminding the country that Bush turned what should have been a mere problem into Ragnarok.Conservatives may accuse us of lacking taste if we use this sad occasion to point out sadder facts of political life. Cable news pundits will try to pretend that now is not the time for partisan politics.If they say that, screw 'em.If the Bush-voters want Californians and New Yorkers and other blue staters to fork over dough, then they damn well had better take our words as well. Republican policies caused this catastrophe. Force them to hear that message -- again and again. That message is the price of the charity they now demand. "
You gotta love the compashion that these people show. What a great American this guy is. Willing to help out only those who voted against Bush in the last election. You want to know why I have become more vocal the past couple of years in my political beliefs? It is to counter the assholes like Joseph Cannon who epitomize everything the left stands for. And to be fair to my few level headed left leaning brethren, I will throw in the word "majority" when I say the left. I realize there are a few liberals who will do thier part without considering whether the person they are helping is a rebublican or democract.
"10. Joseph Cannon at BradBlog was initially feeling just as compassionate, but then he changed his mind - somewhat:
So why was I thinking of starting a movement against giving aid to the stricken areas?Because these are red states. They voted for Bush. These ninnies obviously wanted these policies, and they deserve to live with the consequences of their votes.A large part of me still believes that many of these W-worshipping numbskulls deserve to suffer and to die. They brought it on themselves. Let them look to Jayzuss for aid: It's time they stopped leeching off the more productive blue staters...But then (to paraphrase the old song) I thought I'd better think it out again.Many of the victims, the ones who have suffered the most, are poor. The hardest hit were the blue state folk living among the red state maniacs. New Orleans, we should note, went heavily for Kerry.And that's why we must help. Although it was very tempting to say otherwise.
But let us make one thing clear: We WILL politicize this issue.The Republicans did not shirk from making political use of 9/11, and we should not shirk from reminding the country that Bush turned what should have been a mere problem into Ragnarok.Conservatives may accuse us of lacking taste if we use this sad occasion to point out sadder facts of political life. Cable news pundits will try to pretend that now is not the time for partisan politics.If they say that, screw 'em.If the Bush-voters want Californians and New Yorkers and other blue staters to fork over dough, then they damn well had better take our words as well. Republican policies caused this catastrophe. Force them to hear that message -- again and again. That message is the price of the charity they now demand. "
You gotta love the compashion that these people show. What a great American this guy is. Willing to help out only those who voted against Bush in the last election. You want to know why I have become more vocal the past couple of years in my political beliefs? It is to counter the assholes like Joseph Cannon who epitomize everything the left stands for. And to be fair to my few level headed left leaning brethren, I will throw in the word "majority" when I say the left. I realize there are a few liberals who will do thier part without considering whether the person they are helping is a rebublican or democract.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
America's Most Wanted - Looters
I have struggled with writing something regarding the devastation left behind from Katrina. I have pretty strong opinions when it comes to political topics (no - seriously. I do). The destruction and clean-up stories are being covered everywhere. And each one I read brings me closer to tears.
But there are two topics related to Katrina that make me sick. The first comes from the leftist’s communists, eco-terrorists, represented by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who are blaming the hurricane on the Bush Administration’s rejection of the Kyoto agreement. I do not have the time or the will to discuss the ignorance of this argument right now. Judging by the majority of the comments on the leftwing Huffington Blog, most people (left and right) feel the same way I do. If anyone cares to argue the point we can do that later. It will undoubtedly be a very short argument.
The other issue that disturbs me is the looting and lawlessness that is taking place in New Orleans and surrounding devastated areas. This is disturbing, tragic, and sad and I am struggling to understand what type of American would do this. The same type of American who looted in New York in the 70’s, Los Angeles in the 90’s, and New Orleans today. At least, it appears to be the same demographics. Poor, mostly black men and women taking from those trusting individuals (of all races) who evacuated as told ahead of the storm. Individuals who trusted their fellow Americans to not take what was left behind.
I think it is important to separate looters into two types. The first group is people who have gone 48 hours or more without food and water and are breaking into stores to fulfill those basic life-sustaining needs. These people have my sympathy and I do not look down on them, as I would do exactly the same thing in that situation.
The second group, however, should be shot on site. Those breaking into stores and walking out with flat screen TV’s (hey idiots, you won’t have electricity for a month or so – good luck with that T.V.), jewelry, radios, etc. These people are so brazen in their looting that they are doing this in broad daylight within site of public officials who are frantically searching for survivors. Where is the Korean storekeeper who we saw in LA armed with his gun to keep away the looters? I’ll tell you – he is in Dallas, or Houston, or Shreveport – praying that he made the right decision to leave behind all he owned for the sake of saving his family’s life.
I pray these looters don’t make it into the evacuation buses headed for my city. This type of individual will have a field day in Dallas. We already have the worst crime rate in the country. I’m not sure this city is ready to handle the long-term effects of relocating hundreds of lawless individuals to a town already know for its lawlessness.
So the question is why? Why does one particular demographic have a proclivity, given certain situations, to take from others in the middle of such tragedy? Is it because they have “felt repressed by the man” for so long that they are fighting back? If so, then how do you explain the looting in LA by minorities in minority communities? Is this behavior prevalent in all races and we only see the manifestation of it in minorities because those just happen to be the sectors hit the hardest in the previously sited incidents? I don’t have the answers. And if you started reading this because you thought I did – I’m sorry. This is more of a “thinking out load” exercise for me. I’m trying to understand where all the good Americans went – the ones we saw in New York on 9/11. The ones we found out about on Flight 93. The ones we read about fighting in Iraq (well, at least those of us who read something other than The Times). I know they are there in New Orleans. I just wish they didn’t have to compete for airtime with the criminals.
But there are two topics related to Katrina that make me sick. The first comes from the leftist’s communists, eco-terrorists, represented by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who are blaming the hurricane on the Bush Administration’s rejection of the Kyoto agreement. I do not have the time or the will to discuss the ignorance of this argument right now. Judging by the majority of the comments on the leftwing Huffington Blog, most people (left and right) feel the same way I do. If anyone cares to argue the point we can do that later. It will undoubtedly be a very short argument.
The other issue that disturbs me is the looting and lawlessness that is taking place in New Orleans and surrounding devastated areas. This is disturbing, tragic, and sad and I am struggling to understand what type of American would do this. The same type of American who looted in New York in the 70’s, Los Angeles in the 90’s, and New Orleans today. At least, it appears to be the same demographics. Poor, mostly black men and women taking from those trusting individuals (of all races) who evacuated as told ahead of the storm. Individuals who trusted their fellow Americans to not take what was left behind.
I think it is important to separate looters into two types. The first group is people who have gone 48 hours or more without food and water and are breaking into stores to fulfill those basic life-sustaining needs. These people have my sympathy and I do not look down on them, as I would do exactly the same thing in that situation.
The second group, however, should be shot on site. Those breaking into stores and walking out with flat screen TV’s (hey idiots, you won’t have electricity for a month or so – good luck with that T.V.), jewelry, radios, etc. These people are so brazen in their looting that they are doing this in broad daylight within site of public officials who are frantically searching for survivors. Where is the Korean storekeeper who we saw in LA armed with his gun to keep away the looters? I’ll tell you – he is in Dallas, or Houston, or Shreveport – praying that he made the right decision to leave behind all he owned for the sake of saving his family’s life.
I pray these looters don’t make it into the evacuation buses headed for my city. This type of individual will have a field day in Dallas. We already have the worst crime rate in the country. I’m not sure this city is ready to handle the long-term effects of relocating hundreds of lawless individuals to a town already know for its lawlessness.
So the question is why? Why does one particular demographic have a proclivity, given certain situations, to take from others in the middle of such tragedy? Is it because they have “felt repressed by the man” for so long that they are fighting back? If so, then how do you explain the looting in LA by minorities in minority communities? Is this behavior prevalent in all races and we only see the manifestation of it in minorities because those just happen to be the sectors hit the hardest in the previously sited incidents? I don’t have the answers. And if you started reading this because you thought I did – I’m sorry. This is more of a “thinking out load” exercise for me. I’m trying to understand where all the good Americans went – the ones we saw in New York on 9/11. The ones we found out about on Flight 93. The ones we read about fighting in Iraq (well, at least those of us who read something other than The Times). I know they are there in New Orleans. I just wish they didn’t have to compete for airtime with the criminals.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)