Real Thought

After Mayor Nagin’s comments about how Hurricane Katrina was the “wrath of God”, I just heard a great quote from Harry Belafonte on “Democracy Now!” on one of the local PBS channels here in the SF Bay area.  On dismissing the Venezuelan opposition’s concerns about President Hugo Chavez’s rule, “I didn’t go down as an investigative reporter, I went there to ascertain facts.”

Pardon me, Mr. Belafonte but isn’t investigating the only way to acertain facts?  I believe that what you really meant to say, but didn’t, is that you went to Venezuela to have your preconceived ideas about the United States confirmed.  At least the Left in this country could try to be intellectually honest.  Of course, that would presume that the left actually has an intellect.  Perhaps Mr. Belafonte shoud just stick to singing Calypso.  What I really want to know is while he was in Venezuela, did he find Matilda who took his money and ran there?

Today, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council voted to tell the International Atomic Energy Agency that it must report to the Security Council on the “steps” which Iran must take to prove that its nuclear program will be used for peaceful purposes. But it also stated that it would not take any action against Iran until March, stating that a “confidence building period” is needed. Now, I don’t know how others may feel, but the thought of Iran having any possibility of developing a nuclear weapon scares the holy living crap out of me. Iran is not a transparent society in any definition of the term and the mullahs who actually run the Islamic Republic are just as hostile to the west and specifically the United States as they were right after the Revolution in 1979.

I think the UN could give Iran an eternity as a “confidence building period” and I would have no confidence that they would not develop a bomb and use it. We are talking about a society which is totally under Islamic law, where women have very few rights and where “Religious Police” enforce the strictures of Sharia. They view the United States as the “Great Satan” and Israel as “Little Satan”. The Iranian leaders have repeatedly stated that they would destroy the US and Israel if they could and the development of nuclear technology gives them the ability to carry out that threat.

Again, the UN appears to be dragging its feet, allowing a barely civilized, rogue state to potentially develop the ability to slaughter millions. The UN will eventually act by passing resolution after resolution and issuing sanctions it has no intention to enforce. The end result will be the same, Iran will develop nuclear weapons capability and the world will become a much more dangerous place.

A report from the Associated Press states the tens of millions of dollars earmarked for the rebuilding of Iraq have been misappropriated, misspent or just plain stolen.  Why is this news?  Anyone with any grasp of history knows that graft and corruption go hand in hand with government funded relief or rebuilding efforts.  It is only natural that bureaucrats, who are not generally accountable to the pubic, will play fast and loose with public funds.  Billions are wasted every year here in America, do we expect Iraq to be any different?  From the Revolutionary War to the present day there are those who will simply steal from the public treasury to enrich themselves.  After all, look what happened during the so-called Reconstruction of the Confederate states after the Civil War.

The real news is that the theft and mismanagement wasn’t much worse.  You can bet that if the UN or some other NGO’s had been in charge the loss would be hundreds of millions.  How do we solve the problem?  Cut the size of the government and get rid of those who believe that it is acceptable to steal from the rest of us.  

Please tell me that this is a joke.  Cindy Sheehan has stated that she is thinking of running against Senator Diane Feinstein in the California primaries.  I can hardly wait!  This should show the country just how delusional Ms Sheehan is.  All I can say is that I will do all I can to support Ms Sheehan in the primary.  If she wins then the Democratic party will lose another seat in the Senate.

 

Run Cindy, RUN!

This idiot should have never been given a teaching credential.  It is the actions of morons like this that make me embarrassed to be a teacher.

I have been an adult Scout leader since I turned 21.  I really don’t understand the animosity which some people hold for the Boy Scouts or Scouting in general.  The idea that the Scouts are some how homophobic is a myth.  I have had several gay scouts in my unit over the years.  I am happy to say that most of the scouts I have led have become honest, hard working, upright members of the community.  Yes, that includes the gay scouts.  The crux of the problem seems to be that the Boy Scouts of America does not allow openly gay men to become adult leaders.  Once you are 21, you’re through.  Now, this policy is no secret and yet many “activist” groups see this as some form of evil discrimination.  I see it as a simple rule for self preservation.  There are very few parents who would trust the care of their children to an openly gay stranger.  The trust that a parent places in a scout leader is the very heart of the Scouting program.  Destroy that trust and the program could not survive.  Scouting does not permit pediphiles or convicted felons to be leaders either, yet I see no protest over those discriminatory rules.

There is a deeper problem  and that is that all of the “traditional” pillars of our society are under attack by the disaffected minority.  The Boy and Girl Scouts, Catholic Church, churches in general, our education and justice systems, parental rights, property rights and our military have all been eroded during my lifetime.  Why is this?  I believe that it is a misunderstanding of the word liberty.  Liberty does not mean that you have the right to destroy that with which you disagree nor silence that which offends you.  Liberty does not mean that you have the right to do whatever you wish at any time.  Liberty is not absolute freedom but is bordered freedom, constrained by laws and tradition and community values.

So, what is wrong with the Boy Scouts?  I believe the answer is this, there are many who hate the Boy Scouts because of what we teach, that the individual is a part of something larger than him or herself.  We teach that one has a duty to God and country.  That one should help others in need and be physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.  Scouting teaches that one’s personal honor actually means something.  These are very frightening concepts to those who cannot think of anyone but themselves and to lash out against something that frightens you is a normal, if irrational, human reaction.

Who suffers when the Boy Scouts are denied the use of public facilities?  Not the adult leaders.  After all, I could find other things to fill my time like stamp collecting, gardening or even blogging.  It is the youth who suffer.  They are the ones who are directly affected by the attacks of Scouting’s critics.  And to those critics I have a couple of parting thoughts, the next time you need a firefighter or police officer just remember that he or she may have been a former Scout and remember that the Boy Scouts are not the Hitler Youth nor the Young Pioneers.  We help little old ladies across the street, not into a gas chamber or Gulag. 

Yes, folks, I have a renter. His site has some very interesting commentary. Please have a look.

According to a study by Brown University, New Orleans could lose up to 80% of it’s black population due to the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina.  Why does this come as a surprise? Anyone who has visited the Crescent City knows that much of the African-American population of New Orleans lived in appalling poverty and terrifying violence.  Now that many have been relocated and have a chance to start over, why would they go back?  What would they go back to?  More of the same?

Why should we even be concerned about this?  Populations have relocated since time immemorial in response to natural disasters.  Why should this time be any different?  Unfortunately, this study will probably lead to massive planning by “urban planners” who will attempt to control we lesser mortals without realizing that cities and human habitation can never truly be planned on a large scale.  Their efforts will fail, huge sums of public funds will be wasted and the result will be the same, most of those who lived in New Orleans will never move back.  They will be replaced by new groups who will seek opportunity in the rebuilt city. 

Why not let the people exercise their choice instead of trying to plan it for them?   

It appears that the transition of power from Fatah to Hamas is going well.  According to this report from the Toronto Globe and Mail rioting has broken out in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  One Fatah “activist” stated that he would shoot anyone who cooperated with Hamas “in the head”.  Others are calling for an end to the cease fire between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.  Still others are calling for the arrest of Hamas members who have killed Palestinian Authority security officers, which, no doubt, will gut the party in the Parliament.

Why do we treat with these people?  Obviously they live in a state of near anarchy.  What else can you think of a place where the losers in an election threaten to kill those who cooperate with the winners; where murderers are not arrested? Where, given a choice, the majority of the people elect a violent, nationalistic, theocratic, anti-Semitic party, rather than one that may bring peace and stability to the areas where they live?  Let’s not dabble in platitudes here, the “Palestinian people” may have just sown the seeds of their own destuction.  With the election of Hamas, they have just announced to the world that they are and wish to remain an international pariah, bent on self destruction.  Perhaps that is the real reason their Jordanian brothers didn’t allow the refugees from Palestine to cross into Jordan.  They saw these people for what they really were, little better than animals and didn’t want their attitudes to infect Jordanian society.

The people who are the real losers in this election are the deluded masses of displaced “Palestinian” Arabs, who will continue to suffer until they realize that they must give up their nihilistic beliefs or simply be annihilated.  There is no alterative and no hope if they continue down this path they have chosen.  I believe they have just visited retribution for the sins of the father unto the seventh generation.

Hamas has been swept to power in the first Palestinian election.  The ruling Fatah party which has controlled the Palestinian Authority has lost it’s ability to speak for the Palestinian people.  This is going to be a major issue in the future.  While Fatah was duplicitous and corrupt at least it was dedicated to a somewhat “secularized” Palestinian state.  Hamas will have none of that.  It is and will remain staunchly Islamicist.  More importantly, Hamas is a terrorist organization within a terrorist organization.  Hamas represents the “extremeists” in the PLO.  You know, the baby killers and the suicide bombers.  It is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the extermination of the Jewish people.  Notice I did not say Israeli people but Jewish people.  That is because Hamas is no less racist and anti-semitic than the NSDAP which is really strange considering the Palestinian Arabs are themselves Semites.

More to the point, I have always believed that the so-called Palestinians are a ficticious group.  They are culturally and ethnically and liguistically no different than the Jordanians, yet the world goes along with the pretense that they are a separate nationality and that they deserve a separate homeland within Israel.  Why is that?  The answer is very clear, there are many, including many leaders in the United States that wish to see the Final Solution to the Jewish Question.  They are simply closet Nazis.  The plight of the “Palestinian People” is just a convienient excuse for them to carry out their anti-semitic plans.  It provides cover for them.  They are not “anti-semitic” but rather “pro-Palestinian.”  That so many in the US can view terrorists and murderers as heroes and “Zionists” as criminals deserving of death sickens me.

After all, don’t we believe in the right of self-determination?  Doesn’t that mean that  Jewish people have a right to their own homeland and nation state?  And where better than modern Israel, ancient Canaan, where so much of the history of the Jewish people occurred?  I think it is high time to call these people what they really are and expose their plans for not only the destruction of Israel but the entire Jewish population of the world.