Happy Holidays...

I sincerely wish all of you a very happy holiday season. I don't care what religion you are (or aren't) or what you choose to do this time of year. I'm wishing you a Merry Christmas because that's what me and my family celebrate during this time of the year. If you are Jewish, please wish me a happy Hanukkah. If you are Muslim, please wish me a prosperous Ramadan, etc. I respect your traditions, even if your tradition is to have no tradition.

What I don't get is people fighting over what is appropriate to display or not to display. And don't get me started on the hypocracy involved in all of it. It seems that the same groups that are for "free speech" are the same ones tearing down the parts that they don't like. Free Speech is the right to offend. Free Speech is the right to criticize. Free speech is the right to give a message that others may not agree with. The ACLU will defend the right for anyone to say anything, but will make sure that citizens of a particular city or county can't display their traditions or their speech. The same people pushing for sexual educational messages in the public arena are the same groups that are pulling the religious symbols (or rather Christian Religious symbols) down. If it is not hate speech, or a vulgar obscenity, then why is there even a question? When I go into an old Italian neighborhood, I enjoy watching the old Catholic customs that they practice during a wedding or funeral procession. I would love to walk through a Muslim neighborhood during Ramadan and see the various lanterns on display of their faith. The feeling I get walking through a predominately Jewish neighborhood during the nights of Hanukkah gives me a sense of peace. Next, the ACLU will be taking away the ancient American Indian traditions in their communities in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona. Losing the Christian traditions has exactly the same impact on our culture as it would if you took away those traditions from their respective cultures. A vital and important part of that culture would be lost.

Please, if you get the chance, take a look at a post at the Daily Kos. Read the descriptions of all of these religious symbols. Then read the one about the Christmas Tree, which in their opinion is the Christian Symbol for Christmas (I personally feel it is more secular). Why is it that all of the other symbols are very respectfully described yet the Christmas Tree (which is now apparently religious) is described like this: "We all know that the Christmas tree is really a pagan symbol adopted by our culture to honor crass commercialism at its worst. But in this instance it will stand in as a symbol of Christian rejoicing at the birth of the Savior and the enlightenment he tried to bring to the world."


This isn't just on the Daily Kos. This is the leftist blogosphere that you've been hearing so much about. There is no war on Christmas. There is a war on common sense by the looney left that has been slowly raging into the mainstream. To be honest, it pisses me off that these people are so far gone and dishonest with even the simplest of truths. What does something like this accomplish? Don't offend anyone's religion, unless they happen to be Christians.

I am sure that you will find the same kind of garbage of the far right loonies blogs as well. But to be honest, I don't know where they are because they are not spouted by the media as fact. There are a lot of right wingers that I don't agree with (You know who you are Ann Coulter). But other than her and a few like her, I don't know where to find this kind of unabashed spewing of hypocracy and hatred that is so prevalent on the left. If you know where, please let me know so that I can get pissed off about them as well. On the right, people like them are already thought of as crazies. Find me a normal right leaning person who agrees with the likes of Fred Phelps and his family of escaped mental patients (i.e. Westboro Baptist Church) and I will agree that they are far right crazies.

By the way you can visit their website at http://www.godhatesfags.com/ and read their page on why they are thanking God for today's bridge collapse in Nepal that has left many dead. In my opinion Westboro on the right = Loons on the left (Daily Kos, Randi Rhodes, Al Franken, Rosie O'Donnell).

Isn't it time we were honest with ourselves? I don't know if that will ever happen, but I do honestly have a wish for all of you (even Ann Coulter and Rosie O'Donnell). I wish you a very Happy New Year. And a special wish goes out to those Americans and other countrymen who are away from their families this year fighting for those all over the world. We hope you are all able to come home in 2008. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

mR

The "Greatest" Generation

I always smirked at the older folks when they said that they didn't understand what was happening to kids these days. I always thought that we were fine and that the older generation just didn't know what they were talking about. We treated it as a "barefoot in snow, uphill both ways" story. Now that I've reached my early 30's I'm not quite sure if I look at their stories the same way. I don't think it's just my age, I think it's more than that. Society is going to hell in a handbasket, and my generation is one of the largest contributors.

At what point do we start looking at society and start worrying about the future. I'm not talking about global warming, social security, or even medicare. I'm talking about a lack of leadership in the generation that is coming up behind me and the new generation behind that. What is going to happen after my generation is too old to lead. What happens when we are the retired and aging generation.


We have only ourselves to blame. Parents of today are corrupting our future. For evidence look no further than Lindsay's, Britney's, and Paris' parents. All in the name of entertainment and free speech. There may be nothing wrong with educating our children about the real world, but what's lacking is the education. Allowing children to make the moral choices without education is a recipe for disaster.

Who is educating our children? Is it a representative cross section of society? Absolutely not. In 2001, 34% of educators claimed to be center of the road politically. That sounds great. Until you look at the other numbers. Only 18% claim to be right leaning. A whopping 48% claim to left leaning. That's a stunning statistic. It's all about freedoms and speech, etc. That's all well and good, but there is no such thing as freedom of speech inside the family.

Who is raising our children? Video games, cell phones, the internet, and television. Teachers are running movies like "Brokeback Mountain" in middle school classrooms. Recently a friend told me that their children were taking field trips to see Spiderman 3. When I was in school it was trips to a dairy factory, a museum, or a zoo.


Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with "Brokeback Mountain." Free speech should be alive and well and I personally found the movie boring and pointless. Even for a love story, it lacked content. But I don't think that a movie that is rated PG13 or R should be shown in a middleschool classroom setting. I don't want my nieces or nephews watching "Bachelor Party" or "Cruel Intentions" during English Class. They need to watch it at their friends house when their parents aren't around like we did. At least then we knew it was wrong. It wasn't legitimized by a teacher or a parent who says that kind of portrayed behavior is "OK".


Instead we end up with Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton filling the vacuum left by today's parents.

Is The Looney Left Falling Apart?

Three major blows to the Far Left happened these last weeks. I feel that their true colors are finally showing, and they aren't red, white, or blue. Is a self-imploding event finally happening. I fear not, although it is well overdue. People destructive to the cause (or Kos) are still out there to take up the slack for those that have bitten the dust.

Now, don't get me wrong. I consider myself a moderate (independent-use your own word here). I'm not celebrating that misguided people are crashing and burning. What I am pleased with is that these mainstream "newsworthy" (notice the quotes) hateful and destructive voices have been marginalized, or rather been shown for what they are.

Cindy Sheehan (pictured with Speaker Pelosi, below) is selling her Crawford ranch du-jour to move back to her home state of, wait for it, California. It seems that the left is not far enough left for her. Now, maybe the grieving process can finally get started and the healing can begin. While I have great sympathy for her sacrifice and respect for her rights to speak out. Sympathy only lasts so long, and she overstayed her welcome on our sympathies.

Perhaps the most notable (or is it notorious) collapse this week for the kos is the complete true-color exhibition by Venezuela president Hugo Chavez (pictured below) of what he is--a power-hungry dictator. Far left = free speech, right? Isn't that one of their pillars of truth or something? What is the opposite of free speech? Closing down an independent television station? I don't know how you could get more opposite. Other than maybe harassing those that are speaking out against you--wait, what? Oh, I guess that is happening as well. Yet I've heard no comment from far left angels Belefonte or Danny Glover. All praise to fidel!

The third implosion happened as Rosie O'Donnell quit mid-contract at The View. The Diva can dish it,

but walked away when the dish came back at her.

Now each event alone probably isn't worth writing about. Put all of these events together and within a two week period is almost apocalyptic. Are the Looney's falling apart? I sincerely doubt it. Debate is healthy. But, savage and hateful speech is deconstructive on both sides. It seems to be taking its toll on those involved in it. I just hope that some of the far left-speak activists are paying attention.

mr

One Equals Two

Nancy Pelosi among other of our fearless members of Congress decided on a recent fact finding trip to play diplomat to Syria, even delivering a message to the Syrians from Israel. Simple enough. One would think. Last time I read the Constitution the Executive Branch of the federal government was responsible for diplomacy and foreign policy. We'll I've been wrong before. She was chastised by the president for going and then by the Israelis for screwing up the message. Come to find out, our foreign policy is not to negotiate with terrorists or terrorist nations. Hmmm--Hamas, Hezbollah, terrorists sponsored by Syria.

It doesn't take a genius to realize that a single trip by democrat and republican lawmakers, led by the Speaker of the House, totally tried to reverse U.S. foreign policy. But it's OK, the 911 Commission said so. Huh?

Cut to this week....

Secretary Rice this week went to Egypt to an Regional "help us fix Iraq" conference which included diplomats from Iraq, Iran, Syria, and other nations. In the process, Rice did take the time to discuss Iraq issues with her Syrian counterpart.

OH MY GOSH! Condoleeza did the same thing that Nancy Pelosi did! You could see the left wing pundits turning red with excitement! Some of them even blogged about it. Some of them even spewed that crap all over cable news! Damn her! See--Republicans are doing it too!

Wait a minute....

Did I miss something? Last time I checked it was the Executive Branch's prerogative to change it's foreign policy when things weren't working. Didn't the State Department say a few months back that if paths crossed, then the U.S. would discuss specific issues with these terrorist states? You would think the gotcha crowd on the left had just found Deep-Throat. The difference is this--Secretary Rice is the chief diplomat for the United States. The president can approve or deny any action that the Secretary is going to do in reference to U.S. foreign policy. That is his/her job. Last time I checked, madame speaker's job was to keep the House of Representatives in order and work on legislation--not conduct foreign policy.

Next time maybe the speaker will realize that diplomacy on the professional level is best left to the professionals. She taught the Syrians and any future terrorist nation (i.e. Iran) a very dangerous lesson.

The Lesson:

If you want to talk with an Senior U.S. official and they aren't paying attention to you, all you have to do is open your borders to terrorists so that they can get into a country involved in a conflict with the United States to fight and kill American soldiers. All you have to do is continue to hold out long enough and keep your agents fighting long enough, keep sponsoring suicide bombings long enough and the Speaker of the House--third in-line to the presidency-- will make a personal appointment, listen to what you have to say, take a few photos with you, and legitimates your cause to the world, giving hope and life to your effort.

What I don't understand is that some Democrats and some Republicans just seem to be purposefully undermining this country's effort to do something good in this world. They can only be doing it because they are 1) ignorant of what they are doing, or 2) purposefully undermining this effort. To do this at a time when our soldiers and marines are in harm's way is unfathomable to me. Congressmen and women are elected to represent the people of the United States in the United States. Their place in this is in approving and denying funding and in confirming or denying the Secretary of State and other Executive Officers that represent us overseas. That's it, nothing less, nothing more.

Madame Speaker, we are weaker today because of you.

A Letter to Our Civil Servants and Elected Officials

The legacy of our beloved former Secretary of Defense is back again. I sometimes wonder if our public servants get elected or appointed simply because they are incapable of doing anything else.

Case-in-point: Most media organizations reported recently on the inacuracies of the Pat Tillman and Jessican Lynch stories that were fed to the media during the early stages of the Iraq War. The ultimate authority in this case was ole Rummy. Why in the world did he allow the release of a story to the media that was completely flawed and untrue? Let me rephrase: Why did he allow the release of a story to the media which was almost certain to be disproved? Didn't he learn the lessons of the past decades? After all, he was in the Nixon Administration and I'm sure he read the papers during the Clinton Presidency. Public servants are hired or elected to do what is right. If they don't like it, they need to follow another line of work.

The refusal of people to change with the times just mesmerizes me. Rummy felt until the end that he was running a war from the 1970's. He still believed that if he didn't want the information to get out, he could stop it. He believed that people in general are stupid and will believe what their government tells them. How long will it take before our top civilian commanders realize that eventually most of the dirt and truth comes out? I don't get it.

For that reason (and others) I have started writing a letter to all of those who have been elected, appointed, or are planning such. This letter is written to all political persuasions. For we are pretty much sick of all of them. If you would like input, please post a comment. Here is what I have so far...

Dear Civil Servants and Elected Officials:

Gosh, how times have changed. They really haven't changed all that much, but we're giving you the benefit of the doubt. There are a few things that your loyal subjects want to remind you. First of all, we are not subjects, we are citizens. And unlike many of you, we have standards. Our standards are simple and are based on a few key underlying principles. Regardless of anything else, we want you to tell us the truth. We want you to uphold a common sense of humanity. We want to be able to trust you to make the decisions that need to be made, regardless of difficulty, for the betterment of society and our environment, both national and international. Below are a couple of suggestions that we make to help you do your job.

1. There is a media. The media is more driven, more savvy, more obnixious, and more corrupt that it has ever been before. The story is now more important than its readers and sometimes more important than the facts. If you know this, then you will know that anything you do is subject to the scrutiny of a competitor that is just as scrupulous as you are. You are held to a higher moral standard than anyone else. If you don't like this, then you might want to rethink your career path.

2. Tell the truth. Everything that you say will be twisted and turned around regardless of what it was that was originally said. But you will always be able to explain the truth--you will never be able to explain a lie.

3. Any lie that you tell, will be read back to you by a member of the oposition party, Chris Matthews, or worst case, Bill O'Reilly. If the truth is on your side, then you will survive.

4. Get a back-bone. Stand up for what you believe in. If you made a mistake, admit it and move on. The art of the cover-up is no longer available to you. Even non-coverups will be shown to look like cover-ups by media types who are opposed to you. (Questions about non-coverups? Ask Alberto Gonzalez and Scooter Libby.)

5. Don't do anything in your private life that you don't want the world to hold against you. If you don't want pictures of you with your intern splattered all over CNN, DON'T SLEEP WITH YOUR INTERN! If you get caught, take credit for it. Have a back-bone and don't lie about it. (See #1, 2, 3, & 4.) For questions on this one, I think you know who to contact. Hint: there isn't just one.

6. Appoint only people qualified for a job to that specific job. Don't appoint your boyfriend, girlfriend, lover, or best friend to a position unless they are the best qualified person for the job. Do not appoint a horse association president to the head of FEMA unless they have coordinated rescue and rebuilding efforts for 2 million horses and their homes in a hurricane. One last note: THEY HAVE TO HAVE DONE IT SUCCESSFULLY.

7. Only accept a job if you are qualified for it. If you don't know anything about Emergency Management, don't accept a political appointment as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And if you weren't successful in a previous war, don't try to regain your reputation by screwing up another one.

8. Don't argue for the sake of arguing. Do what is right, even if you don't believe everything you hear about it. For example: If helping the environment is good for the environment, then it doesn't matter whether or not you believe in global warming. If you believe that social security needs to be improved--improve it! No one cares if it will go bankrupt in 15 or 50 years.

9. Don't stop legislation that is good for the nation simply because your name will not be on it or the competitive party will get credit for it. The heirarchy of your allegiance should be as follows: Nation, State, Party, Self. Those of you doing it any other way are traitors to your nation. Do what is best for all of us, not what will give you or your party the most credit. At what point did leaking information that is vital or even just merely important to our nation's success become an innocent bi-product of leaking information to discredit a political opponent or the opposition party. Leaking information is leaking information. When the outcome of the information is more important the the potential consequences, then it is O.K. And you will hear our praise from your jail cell. Here is another example - don't screw your soldiers in battle just to win the next election!

10. Be the bigger person. During a time when it seems like a race to the bottom, it's important to remember what is important. The glee in the voice or the light in the eye of those taking delight in our nations' defeat for the sake of political victory or "I told you so" is sickening. You may think that you are hiding it, but you are not. (Mr Schumer - we can see the sparkle in your eye even when you are giving us one of your heart felt scowls.)

I am sure that you already know this, but I just wanted to spell it out. You are not respected by the world. You are seen as little kids fighting back and forth. Our political landscape is starting to look like the silly battles in the British Parlaiment that we used to see on Sunday night television. Once a respected institution, the international view of congress has moved from respectful disagreement to a complete loss of respect for our political process. You should all be ashamed.

Worse than this, you have lost respect from your nation. It is truly a sad day when this happens. You are now no better than other nations that once looked up to us. We are no longer a bright beacon, but an embarassment to the world community. Not because of the stands we take, or our mistakes in a war, but because of the serious and juvenile division that you have created--not just in congress, but in the media, in your news conferences, and in the rediculous diatribes that you use to further your party's agenda.

Now that we have come to the end of my rediculous diatribe, I have one more thought. At present, many Americans are not dissatisfied with their particular representative, just with every other member of congress. Well, the time is coming when a majority of voting Americans will be willing to sacrifice their sitting member of congress for the betterment of the whole. I'm ready now. Let's throw them all out and start over.

mr

Democrats: "The War Is Lost"

It is indeed a sad day when a leader of the US government conceeds defeat to an enemy of our country. According to Reuters and Fox News, Harry Reid (NV), the top Democrat in the United States Senate informed the media Thursday that he had told the president that "this war is lost" referring to the Iraq conflict. Only just into the beginning of the ramp-up of U.S. forces into the country, he is ready to give up. Is that anything new? Of course not. The majority of the democratic party joined the extremist left and the media's white flag years ago.

I still don't know if I agree or not with Senator Reid. While I have a firm belief that it is imperative that we win this war, I don't know if we can win in Iraq but i'm hardly ready to concede.

There are too many things against us. And shame on the president that he didn't fix this years ago. This is a Almost Average American's take on why this war may never be won.

1. No one did their homework before this conflict began. Incompetent, god-complexed Rumsfeld put together the war plan. Don't be confused--our top generals didn't come up with that rediculous plan. Rumsfeld did, and rammed it down everyones' throat. The president trusted him and was too weak to fire him when things started moving from bad to worse. He may have waited to long to turn this around.

The president didn't know any better and followed Rumsfeld blindly into the desert. He sold a war to the public under points that turned out not to be true. Don't be fooled, the democrats believed those points too. They were just able to back off of them, deserting the president when our nation needed all of them to stand together. But no, they saw a way to win the next election.

There were 10 good reasons to take action in Iraq. It just so happens that the 3 the president used in his State of the Union and on his "Iraq War Bus Tour" were wrong. Our democratic friends seem to have forgotten this too. They want us to go it alone in Darfur, but when 1.5 million people were slaughtered in Iraq, we should have used diplomatic efforts and followed the good judgment of the UN. Yeah, good strategy.

I will try to address some of the reasons why the Iraq incurrsion was a good thing to do in an upcoming post. Things like putting an American base right in the middle of Syria and Iran. There's no Korea, Japan, or Germany in the Middle East. Things like ending the tyranical reign of a murderous dictator. Things like showing the Middle East up close that we are a benevolent society and aren't as bad as we are made out to be. Things like keeping a religious fanatical government from controlling the entire balance of power in a very dangerous part of the world.

2. Never admit your mistakes. The poor decision making at the beginning of the war continued to the middle of the war because our commander in chief was too afraid to admit that his administration might have been wrong. At what point are we so afraid to admit mistakes that our country and our armed forces must suffer for it? At the point where the looney nutso's of the fringe of any ideology are the people who hold the power.

3. Minority Rule. Just to complete a thought... We are at a point in our history where it's no longer "We the People." It's "We the Extremists." At what point did we allow Michael Moore and George Soros (not originally from the U.S.) on the left and Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell on the right to hijack our political process? Apparently at this point. When lawyers from Pat Robertson's school of law are working in powerful positions in the Justice Department. When eccentric billionaires born in other countries can effect U.S. elections, then is all hope lost? I hope not, but I wouldn't bet my measley net worth against it.

To Be Continued....