Light a Candle...: 12/01/2005

Saturday, December 17, 2005

All the news that's fit to print...

NOT!! This report from the Media Research Center details what the Major New outlets aren't telling you.

Not that the media is biased - just ask them!

Monday, December 05, 2005

Treason...

I more than sick and tired of the obvious (and not so obvious) political pandering and anti-Bush sentiment that is now come to be a matter fact state of our major media outlets.
I don't want to get off on too much of a rant, but much of what is occurring would have been considered treason in WWII. The picture being presented to the public about Iraq is so far from the reality that our own troops are reporting that it makes one wonder how anyone could possibly believe that there would be no challenge to this. Which just demonstrates the absolute arrogance of the media.
I could point you to all the various milblogs and other sources of information that support a more positive view of the state of Iraq. Instead, I'll point you to this website for a think tank that has a research paper just released that pretty well summarizes the true current state of affairs. http://www.heritage.org/Research/MiddleEast/wm932.cfm What you will find if you choose to research this independently, as I did, is that there is a lot of misrepresentation taking place (our grandparents called it lying, but I'm trying to be Politically Correct). Contrary to what is being reported, it is not the administration that is shading the truth but our major news outlets.
I don't pretend to know all the reasons for this, or why anyone would think that they are performing a public service by trying to cast our efforts in the most negative light possible. Part of it is, I think, a Watergate/Tet Offensive mindset, where everyone in journalism wants to be the next great expose'.
Another is the devolution of the Democratic left from ideas to ideology. Their ideal appears to be a world socialism; ignoring the reality of how brutal that is for the majority of people. It more of the Mommy state - don't trouble your heads, the state knows whats best for you, even if it kills you (as it has under Stalin, Khmer Rouge, N. Vietnam, N. Korea, etc.) Like Plato, I believe most of the intelligensia that makes up the left feel that they would naturally be part of the elite and thus exempt from the strictures that the realization of their ideology would place on the great mass of humanity. History tells us that this same intellgentsia is usually the first victim of suppression, but lets not let facts get in the way of the discussion.
Then there is the outright madness (or instigation of revolution) that is found at the Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground. I will not link to those sites, but suffice to say in their more rational moments they appear to be looking for/planning an armed uprising in the 2006 elections if the Democrats get their clocks cleaned again. What they wish would happen to our troops is beyond reason; what they show is the triumph of ideology over reality and reason.
Now that I've got that off my chest…

Merry Christmas!!

The True Meaning of Christmas

Much has been said and more will be said in the battle to remove Christianity and Christ from the Christmas season. Watching public media, one could justly come to conclusion that the entire year has been spent in preparation for a gigantic orgy of spending. But this is not the reason for the season...

No, the true meaning of Christmas is all together different and really has no dependence on the giving or receiving of gifts. It is the sentiment that those gifts are meant to symbolize that is so vastly important, a sentiment that should transcend religious and political intolerance.

If you are a Christian, then you believe that Christmas primarily celebrates the birth of Christ, the Son of God. Yet in addition to that Christian belief, is the sentiment of love, forgiveness, and sharing with our fellow men that this season also symbolizes. In its more ancient roots, this season celebrates life itself. You may, dependent on your personnel beliefs, agree or disagree about the nature of Jesus. That does not, and should not, prevent you from celebrating family, sharing, and love your fellow man as part of the season.

John Whitehead at the Rutherford Institute says it far better than I can. See his commentary here.

Have a very Merry Christmas!!

Illegal Immigration - there is only one cure...

Illegal immigration is a topic that Democrats trot out when they want to seem that they really care about minorities and that Republicans not living on the border seem to prefer to ignore.

However you may feel about illegal immigration, the inability to control our own borders is a significant threat to our sovereignty. The nature of illegal's has changed significantly since my childhood. When I grew up, I believe that illegals (wetbacks in local parlance) were almost exclusively economic immigrants; in other words they were here to earn money they couldn't at home to keep their families from starving.

My grandfather, a small rancher, employed one or two and even had a 'regular' that returned each year to work in the summers for a while. It wasn't that my grandfather didn't want to hire local people to do the work needed, but that they wouldn't work since welfare was a much easier option. I remember riding with him in his truck to the corners where groups of young men sat around and asked them for any one that wanted a job. It never got far enough to discuss wages, the answer varied from a polite no sir, to angry stares and a negative shake of their heads. Never did I ever see one accept the job offer. Only then, would he contact some other ranchers in the area to see if they had any illegals that could be spared or were ready to move to another job.

This story points to the two fold cause of the immigrant problem:

our welfare system was/is a positive economic inducement to not work, just as it is a destructive influence on families since it provides the an increasing economic inducement for out of wedlock children.
Lack of criminalization for the hiring of illegal immigrants.

The second is perhaps the most pervasive and yet the easiest to fix. Its not that I would have wanted my grandfather to be arrested, but as long as there is no real and significant criminal risk to employers, there will always be a job market for illegals. As long as that persists, the draw will be there to subvert our borders.

Change the hiring of illegals to a criminal felony charge with a 5 - 10 year sentence and/or a $100k fine for a first time offence. Increment upwards for each offence, with a three strike rule for a third offence. And then rigorously enforce it by going after the high profile/high volume employers of illegals (Brown & Root comes to mind from my own experience). Dry up the job market, and the draw for economic immigrants will go away.

That still leaves criminal and political immigrants that may still try to come across. However, they depend in large part on the infra structure developed to support the economic immigrants. Again, dry up job market, and the infrastructure to support the other illegal immigrants will begin to break down.

As things currently stand, without serious criminalization of the hiring of illegals, the problem will remain unsolvable.

A side note on the story about my grandfather; there was one rancher that Grandad would always check with to try and provide a 'move to' job if he could. The reason? That man would wait until the work was just about completed, then call the INS and report himself so that they would come and pick them up and he wouldn't have to pay the last of their wages. As Grandad said, that man was just plain mean.

The Big Lie

When I was growing up, one of the topics that was covered in some detail was the run up to WWII, and social/political changes in Germany that allowed the Nazi party and then Hitler to assume so much power.

One of the methods discussed at length was that tactic called the Big Lie. The tactic is simple enough; a politically self serving and/or inflammatory statement is broadcast loudly, forcefully, and (most important) repeatedly. People are at first astonished by it, but then begin to assume that no one would possibly lie about something so outrageous, so easily disputed. The victims of such an attack often ignore the Big Lie, simply because the statements are usually so outrageously false. This allows the attack to continue uncontested, until doubt has begun to fester in the listeners. By this time, any belated defense can contrarily act to enforce the Big Lie, since others that had ignored the issue begin to listen, thinking where there is smoke there is fire.

We were told in school to be aware of this type of political demagoguery, that it had been used here as well, with McCarthy as the favorite example. People used this type of political attack to inflame people and quell/stifle debate, to hijack the political process for their own ends.

I believe we are seeing/have seen this type of politics practiced throughout most of Clinton's presidency, and now again by the far political left. The subject now is the 'quagmire' in Iraq and everything that is going wrong there.

Very little research is needed on the web to find that MSM's dismal picture of Iraq bears almost no relationship to reality there. James Phillips at the Heritage Foundation presents a very complete and compelling portrayal of how far from reality the current MSM mythos on Iraq is.

His research shows a completely different picture of Iraq than what is shown in most news programs and what is heard from our supposed leadership in the US Senate. Please read it all and make up your own mind.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Who are they trying to kid...

I admit to having heard (and even given) some pretty lame explanations/excuses for different things over my life. However, this is ridiculous, just how stupid do they think people are.

What am I referning to? (Hat tip to Yea, Right, Whatever) An American Arlines pilot reported an observed missle firing at his aircraft (complete with missle smoke trail) while departing LAX. There has been no media coverage of this, and the FBI is attempting to pass this off as a bottle rocket or flare. At the time the jet was climbing and already out over the ocean.

First, I've made this flight/departure on an occasion or two, and no handheld flare or bottle rocket is going to be noticable or even visible to the pilot at that altitude and flight attidue/speed. Bottle rockets do good to reach a 100 feet in ideal conditions and their speed isn't a significant fraction of an airliner's, same for a hand held flare.

In one of the transgressions of my youth, some friends and I spent a holidy night chasing each other through town shooting bottle rockets and roman candles at each others cars. This called for some rather STUPID driving stunts to avoid hits (taking into account the entire thing was STUPID, but that was a long time ago in a different era). The thing is, that the bottle rockets were almost completely invisible until the exploded at the end of their run, invisible that is to a vehicle moving at any speed along their path. The roman candles/flare were much more noticible, as were their hits. In both cases, it wasn't really that difficult to avoid being struck unless the vehicle was stationary. Moving along the flight path of the rocket/flare, the relative speeds were not so great as to make avoidance too difficult, but it was exhilirating.

The point is, don't try to tell me that this was a bottle rocket or flare. At that point of departure, the aircraft should have already been over 1000 - 2000 ft agl, and climbing rapidly (usually a circling departure). No bottle rocket or hand held flare, is going to come close to reaching, much less overtaking a jet airliner as described.

So we have a binary solution set; either the pilot is a complete idiot, or the FBI is trying to hide that something significant occured. What is your pick?

No Sense of Humor, none at'all...

Have you ever had to spend any time around someone who took themselves (and everything else) too seriously? So seriously that everything was about them, a walking talking, chip on the shoulder, just waiting for an excuse to be insulted, prima donna?

Usually, you only see this for a brief (in retrospect) period during adolescence. I've always felt on of the hallmarks of both maturity and the wisdom that comes with it, is the willingnes to laugh at your self and your own foibles. Part and parcel to this is the realization, is the ability and willingness to admit your own fallibility and mistakes, in fact to admit them first and not try to hide them.

One of the stand out features of Islam, is its absolute unwillingness to admit any fallibility, and conversely, a complete lack of any sense of humor about anything. As a result everything is about them, and EVERYTHING is insulting. Hat tip again to Atlas Shrugs, on this reward being offered from a group in Pakistan for the death of a cartoonist who dared to draw something about Islam that wasn't fawning and worshipful.

Boycott Marriott

Hat tip to Atlas Shrugs:

It seems that Marriott Corporation feels that allowing an anti-terrorist symposium to be held at their facilities to just too controversial and risky. However, its just fine for CAIR to hold an event at their facilities. Read all about it here at Atlas Shrugs.

Is this the first case of coporate cave-in/intimidation by Islamic groups in the US? This is a dangerous trend on the road that Europe(Eurabia) has already followed.

Friday, December 02, 2005

N. Korea Government sponsored counterfeiting

Counterfeiting of another governments money is one method used in wartime to work at undermining the economy of the enemy government. It devalues the currency and undermines the confidence in that currency necessary for successful flow of goods and services. While the value of the currency holds it also gives the counterfeiting government 'free money' to pursue its other agendas.

It was a tactic used on both sides in WWII and in the Confederate war here. It is rumored to have been practiced by at least the Soviets during the Cold war.

So we shouldn't be surprised to find that the North Korean Government has been actively involved in producing counterfeit US currency and using Asian banks to get it into circulation. (Free registration required at the Washing Times).

One thing should be apparent by now is that, like it or not, we have been involved in a 'hot' covert war with an alliance of N. Korea, and thus their alliance consisting of Communist China, Venezuela, Iran, Syria, and (previously) Iraq and Afghanistan. The 'world war' does not involve the great battlefields and troup movements of WWII, but it is ongoing non the less. I feel that China is the real threat within this alliance. It is using the Islamofascists in conjunction with Venezuela's oil money as the public straw man, under the presumption that it can take them out when needed once the US in on the ropes. The long term goal is most likely to keep the US distracted and it military/economy drawn down in a wide ranging low level conflict while China build's its own forces.

Light a Candle...