Real Thought

Breaking news: Saddam Hussein has been executed! One less murderous, fascist bastard the world has to worry about. While I realize that in the short term not much will change, in the long run this sends a message to those who are the enemies of freedom and democracy.  That message is simple.  If you earn the enmity of the American people, if you support those who would do us harm, if you attack our allies, if you bluff and do not comply with reasonable international requests, eventually you will be brought to justice and swept into the dustbin of history.

Today, Reuters has an article with the headline, “How will Saddam Hussein be hanged?“  Gee, I don’t know.  How about by the neck?  Really, I don’t make this stuff up.  The article goes in depth about provisions in Iraqi law which outline the rights of the condemned but honestly, I can’t think of a more idiotic headline.  Are the writers and editors at Reuters that moronic that they don’t understand how people are executed by hanging?  Let me spell it out for them.  Usually a noose, which is a loop tied in the end of a rope or wire is placed over the condemned person’s head and tightened around the neck.  Then, either a trap door is opened underneath the person or the support upon which they are standing is removed.  The rope or wire, which is tied off and supported above the condemned’s head, then tightens either snapping the neck of the condemned person or, if done incorrectly, causing death by slow asphyxiation.  That is how a person is hanged.

Next, I will explain how to inflate a balloon or perhaps how to get out of bed or perhaps I’ll explain how to make your own cold fusion reactor.  Maybe not.  After all, there is some math involved in the reactor bit.

I have returned after taking a few days off for the Christmas holidays.  I hope everyone had a happy Christmas even though mine was marred by sadness.  More importantly a few things have happened that I wish to acknowlege:

James Brown passed away.  The “Godfather of Soul”.  His music influenced so many artists and became part of our popular culture.  Is there anyone who doesn’t recognize the song “I got you (I feel good)”?  Who can forget the brilliant Eddie Murphy skit “James Brown Hot Tub Party” on Saturday Night Live?  He was a great entertainer and his legacy is without question.

President Gerald Ford died.  Here was a decent man who took a job he wasn’t elected to, never campaigned for and restored some dignity and grace to the Presidency after the “national nightmare” that was Watergate.  He was an All American at Michigan in football and played in the East-West Shrine game.  He was an Eagle Scout.  He was a good man who did his best in sevice to his country in WWII and was a member of the Warren Commission as well as serving in Congress.  Too bad he will be best remembered because of the bumbling characture of him by Chevy Chase.  After his abbrieviated term as President, he retired from political life and went on to an active retirement, giving many lectures and speeches.  There are not many like him on the current political horizon and he deserves every bit of respect we can give him.  Go with God, President Ford.

I had to put my Basset hound, Jello, to sleep today.  She became very ill last night and started to go into shock.  The emergency vet diagnosed her with pancreatitis but the internalist found that she had a mass near her pancreas that was bleeding into her abdomen and that even with surgery her prognosis was not good.  After talking to my wife and consulting with my regular vet, we had her put to sleep.  I held her until she was gone.  She was Daddy’s little girl and I will miss her.

Our new Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, has just make a tour of Iraq and met with American commanders and Iraqi leaders.  Their advice according to Reuters?  Send more troops.  Really?  No kidding?  I am surprised!  I could have told Bob Gates that from here, in my bathrobe and slippers, eating a danish and drinking a cup of coffee.

Someone please make this idiocy stop!  Let’s do what we have to do to end the lives of the terrorist bastards in Iraq.  It ought to be simple enough.  Declare martial law.   Give the entire populace 72 hours to disarm.  Kill those who are found with so much as a letter opener in their possession.  Then rebuild an Iraqi police and security force like we did in Germany after WWII.  If anyone so much as lights a firecracker with the intent to harm Iraqi police or US occupation forces, exterminate them.  Kill or capture all of the leaders of the so called “insurgency” which, in reality, is nothing more than a bunch of street gangs with Russian made weapons.  Imprison anyone who preaches or advocates the violent overthrow of the government .  Let the Iraqis make it through at least two election cycles.  Leave.

There is the pacification  and exit strategy for Iraq and I didn’t even have to leave my comfy little house.

Kofi Annan of Ghana is set to retire as General Secretary of the United Nations. He has spent the last few weeks trying to bolster his “legacy” in a round of speeches. My take? If Annan had left the kind of legacy as Secretary-General that U Thant or Dag Hammarskold had left he wouldn’t have to make speeches in order to bolster it. Instead Annan has left the world a weak and ineffectual United Nations racked with scandal and where tin pot dictators like Saddam Hussein, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and enven Kim Jong Il seem to have more credibility than the legitimate leaders of major democratic and even semi-democratic countries. The UN, under his stewardship, failed to stop the genocide in Rwanda, failed in the Balkans, failed in the Middle East, failed in Darfur and failed in East Timor. It became mired in scandal and corruption and lacked the tiniest shred of resolve when it came to enforcing it’s own sanctions and resolutions.

I say good riddance to bad rubbish and good riddance to Mr. Annan, who, by the way, is retiring to Switzerland instead of his native Ghana.

My Sea Scout boat is going for it’s second official sea trial after repowering tomorrow.  On the first sea trial we had some significant overloading and timing problems with the new engines.  After a month of tuning and further adjustments, hopefully we will be able to cruise at somewhere above six knots.  If you wish to see pictures of the repowering project, please click here.

Some of you may know that the Republican governor’s conference was in Miami this year. Usually this conference is used to explain party positions, review the party platform and in general get input from the Republican chief executives. Most of the time, these conferences are good for a party because it allows for points of view from “beyond the Beltway” to be expressed and considered. This year was different. This year the Republican governors who gathered in South Florida were told that the reason the party lost control of the House and the Senate was, not that the party ran some very crappy campaigns with mediocre candidates. Nope, that wasn’t the problem at all. The real problem was that the “Republican brand” has been tarnished and is in need of repair.

I am so glad that the geniuses running the erstwhile “conservative” party in this country have figured that out. The cure? Less scandal and more fiscal restraint. Boy howdy! I could have told them that about two years ago.

So, let me try to explain my position, in clear simple terms that even the wonder kids running the Republican party can understand. First, the Republican party is not a “brand”. It is a coalition of people who all have the same core beliefs, fiscal restraint, strict construction of the Constitution and a belief in curtailing the size of the government. This is not completely the case as it also includes members who are libertarians, statists and progressives. More importantly, the party exists to win elections, nothing more, nothing less. In order to win elections, you have to be able to field candidates who have the following qualifications; a belief in the core values of the party, charisma and the ability to convince voters that they really do stand for something different than the other candidates running for a particular office.

This is where the Republican party has failed ever since 1992. Since that time the Republican party has moved closer to the positions of the Democratic party especially when it comes to government expansion and the expansion of entitlements.  Lesson one is that you cannot out liberal the Democrats.  Instead, the Republicans should have cut back entitlements, fostered the growth of small business and drastically cut the size of government departments.

Furthermore, the Republicans have found themselves in a social quagmire.  Rather than floating the idea of a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning, the Republicans should have led by moral example.  Yet, even there they failed being caught up in scandals in Ohio and Congress.

Finally, the Republicans need to find charismatic candidates.  Other than John McCain, who is there really?  George Allen?  Has anyone really heard him speak?  He is about as exciting as one of Disney’s animatronic presidents.  Mitt Romney?  About as convincing as a church warden. Unfortunately, this seems to be another area in which the Republicans need help.  A candidate has to make the people BELIEVE, not just mouth sound bite phrases.

When the Republican figure these points out, if they ever do, they will then be able to successfully campaign for office.  Becoming more like the Democratic party is not the answer and neither is fielding candidates who lack the courage of their convictions.  One more thing, the government isn’t a pair of sneakers, changing a brand’s image won’t help.