Democratic Hypocrisy

It has been amusing to watch Barbara Boxer and John Kerry in their proxy roles as Democratic Party front people trying to rake Condi Rice over the coals in the confirmation hearings. The disingenuous left is showing its sleeze factor to be in rare form as they repeatedly insult this incredibly talented, brilliant and successful woman. They should be celebrating her success rather than denigrating it, but rather, they diminish her because she dares to be a conservative, which to them is unforgivable. They apparently learned nothing at all from their recent election defeat, and they are barrelling down the path to alienating an even bigger chunk of Middle America than they did previously. To top things off, Teddy Kennedy periodically crawls out of his bottle long enough to drive a few more nails into the Democratic coffin.

What is of particular note is how hypocritical the Democratic Party actually is. They have always presented themselves as the champions of the poor, protector of the minorities and women. The liked to imply that these groups have been oppressed by the evil society, especially as represented by conservative Republicans. But wait a minute...here you have George W. Bush appointing minorities and minority women to some of the highest and most powerful positions in America. This fact is driving the Democrats absolutely bonkers, because Dubya doesn't just pay lip service to these ideals, he repeatedly does what none of the Dems ever did in actuality: really put qualified minorities in positions of real power and influence. No president has appointed more minorities to exceptional positions than has GWB. The Dems depend on these groups being endlessly down and out, because otherwise they have no cause to champion. The prospect of a lack of "oppression" is most disturbing to them. They are losing their "cause celebre."

So Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton speak for black America? I don't think so, and I doubt that many Blacks think so, either. These two men in particular are utter umbarrassments to their race. There are a great many conservative blacks speaking out on this very thing, but of course the mainstream media make sure their comments are played down. Colin Powell and Condi Rice in particular have successfully broken down the color barrier, which is how it should be. The Jessie Jacksons and Al Sharptons of the world should be ashamed of themselves, because it is people like them who work overtime to keep race constantly in the forefront. Colin Powell and Condi Rice have proved that race can and should be a non-issue.

Disaster Beyond Comprehension

The TV news today is entirely dominated by coverage of the tsunami in Asia. As details emerge bit by bit, the horror of it only increases. I don't know how they arrive at these figures so quickly, but estimates currently stand at perhaps 25,000 dead. And now they are saying that figure could be double. The extent of the loss is simply not yet known, it can't be known, and perhaps it will never be known. Vast numbers of people were swept out to sea in the jaws of the tsunami's undertow. They were seized as if they were mere grains of sand in the grand scheme of cosmic importance.

In the Maldives for example, the capital city and island (they are one and the same) of Male sustained flooding and damage and some deaths. But there is no contact with the far flung other islands of the Maldive atoll, so what happened elsewhere is not known. I feel a particular connection to this spot since I spent two wonderful dive vacations there. From what I remember of the various other islands (all tiny--each one usually a single hotel/resort, mostly just a mile or two around the island, and each one barely above sea level.) There is great likelihood that all the other islands were entirely swamped, and all that existed on them and all unfortunate humans on them had to have been swept away. I would guess nothing is left there at all. I also went to Sri Lanka twice, and many were lost there as well. And the Seychelles. And India. And the beautiful spot of Phuket, Thailand, where I went in 1982 or so when it was a quiet, cheap little backwater...huts on the beach for $10, only one little run-down cement block hotel with 18 rooms, and the most beautiful beaches and bay imaginable. I can't imagine the horror of what occurred there.

If I were an overly religious person, I would wonder if God did not send down a major catastrophic event as a diversion away from the world's obsessive pre-occupation with terrorism. Shake people out of this lunacy, was that the purpose? Is this what it takes to blast Islamic terrorists and Bin Ladin from the front pages?

They are saying this may well be the greatest natural disaster of the last 200 hundred years!
It is simply all beyond comprehension for those of us safe in our homes tonight.

Revenge of the Swifties was Sweet

Now that the election is thankfully over, I thought I was done contemplating idiotic politics. However, something I read today was just too delicious to pass up. The article is as follows:

"Mary Beth Cahill, the pro-abortion radical who mismanaged Sen. John Kerry's failed presidential bid, admits her worst mistake was underestimating Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Astonishingly, Cahill said Kerry's campaign at first thought there would be "no reach" to the first low-cost ad, which originally aired in only three states.

Does the left still fail to grasp the power of Internet, radio and cable news?

"This is the best $40,000 investment made by any political group, but it was only because of the news coverage that it got where it did," Cahill, a former underling to Sen. Teddy Kennedy, snapped Wednesday at Harvard University, where she appeared with Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager.

"In hindsight, maybe we should have put Senator Kerry out earlier. Perhaps we could have cut it off earlier," she fumed.

Sorry, Mary Beth, you no longer get to decide what news to "cut off," outside of the New York Times, PBS, NPR, CBS, ABC, "Today" and the other shrinking Old Media outlets.

Mehlman noted that of course the ad created waves, because Kerry had made his few months in Vietnam decades ago the centerpiece of his campaign, rather than anything he might have accomplished in the Senate (which is very little) or as Michael Dukakis' lieutenant governor.

"Because Senator Kerry was so focused on that part of his biography, it came out as an issue," Melman observed.

Even though it was congressional Democrats who sponsored legislation to renew the military draft, Mehlman acknowledged that the donkeys succeeded in fooling some ignorant voters into thinking that was Bush's idea.

"I think that was something that worked. It wasn't true, but it worked," he said."

WHEW! All I can say, is my two contributions to the Swiftvets were the best possible political donations I could ever have made, and I'm beyond pleased that my contributions went to a cause that actually made a difference in this election!

On another note, I found those last two paragraphs most illuminating, but not at all surprising. Before the election, I met a great many people (especially young people) who thought the Bush administration was re-instituting the draft, so that donkey diversion apparently worked quite well with those who get their news from MTV.

Meanwhle, the Donks will be scratching their heads for a long, long, long, long, long, looonnnnngggg time in trying to figure out why the good ship Kerry ended up at the bottom of the harbor. Any why if their light bulbs of reason don't go on soon, more of their ships will end up beached as well in the near future. Right now, they've got a thinkin' problem, it appears.

The Veggie Vacation--Escape from Reality

A week in Maui leaves one curiously relaxed, and I've been trying to figure out why. It's beautiful, of course, and the weather is hard to beat. But it's more than the physicality of the place that immediately lulls the visitor into a dreamy state of limp bliss.

The first thing that happens is a fairly complete withdrawal from world events. In Maui, pretty much anything that happens in the world is relegated to, at best, a tiny little block of text at the bottom right of page 1, almost like an afterthought, or more likely, buried deep on page 6 next to some timeshare ads. Only local events have the importance to merit a headline. All sorts of local trivia fill up the pages of the papers, and the result is strangely calming: the rest of the world subtly recedes into the background of life. What terrorism? What war? The ugliness of the world becomes very shadowy, all those ugly realities cease to exist for a short time. Does that mean for the locals, those things never exist at all??? Maybe that's why everyone seems to deliriously happy. They smile a lot. There's no need to rush for anything at all. This makes for a very different energy on every level.

An interesting phenomenon is the unimportance of hot cars. You'll see a nice car here and there, but for the most part, cars are tools to get to different places, nothing more. A bus would do just as well. The majority of people on the island drive those fuel efficient little economy rental cars which all look alike. Actually, that's exactly what they're all driving: ex-rental cars. There are a gazillion rental cars which must be turned over fairly frequently, so of course it's the locals who buy them up. In any case, one car is just as good as the next, nothing is really special, people don't seem to judge each other by their cars, and in general, the driving rate is fairly relaxed. The biggest danger seems to be that cyclists get creamed more than they do elsewhere. In the week I was there, a bicyclist and a guy on a motorcycle got the bad end of a collision. I suspect that most accidents are caused because drivers tend to be trolling inattentively around the isle in a blissfully relaxed stupor, and there don't seem to be many speeders. It's like all the drivers are stoned.

There are a few touristy things to do on Maui, but in general, the real state of relaxation comes from nothingness: Doing nothing, thinking nothing, reading nothing, having nothing whatsoever to do that matters, no deadlines to meet, no phones to answer, getting up whenever you wake up, eating whenever you feel like it, just a total, utter absence of anything resembling structure.

This affects the mind, it empties the head better than any meditation. I'm a voracious reader, yet I couldn't even motivate myself to read a single book while I was there; it was too much effort. I barely perused the newspapers. My head was empty for the first time in years. The propellers in my head came to a total stop. This was strangely relaxing and very liberating. For the first time, I was able to lay down at night and actually go to sleep without reading first to lull myself to sleep. I was walking around in a continual state of that "still" mind one attempts to reach through meditation. I didn't know, nor did I care, what was happening across the seas from this time warp paradise.


Yes, there is definitely something to be said for the veggie vacation. Vegging out, as they call it.I came back so relaxed I have been experiencing serious trouble getting back into the usual frenetic groove of my life. I'm ready to go back to Maui or any other tropical island, and I've not yet been back a week. In my head, I'm still there...a little bit.

Santa's on the Lam

Now that the election is a thing of the past, certain inquiring minds are out of work. What to be against now? What to yap about ad nauseum? What to make trouble over now? Let's see....

This month, the central topic of obsession for lazy minds appears to be Christmas, and by extension, the jolly old man in red. There are those who have left GW by the wayside for the time being, and all focus is now on that evil Christmas and everything insensitive that goes along with it. Certain people express the worry that those of "minority" religions (i.e. any and everything except Christians) are upset over various Christmas (and Christian) displays that are seen this time of year. Blast those decorated, brightly lit trees. The utter vulgarity of those beautifully wrapped presents. That horrible, sappy music you hear everywhere. Say what?

Now I myself come from that maligned group referred to as wasps. When I see displays for Hannukah, for example, I absolutely love it. I love to see Buddhist things, and in fact, I'll even admit to owning a few Buddhist icons. Kwanza is fun, and so is Hinduism. I used to enjoy Muslim festivities as well (especially the Shiite celebrations) until I developed a healthy fear of being blown up in the name of that particular group. If they reform themselves, I'll enjoy certain things Islam again, too. So I'm just not threatened by icons of any of these other religions; rather, it is part of the richness of life here in America. It's part of our fabric, what makes America the crazy quilt that it is. What is this obsession with equalizing everything? Why can't we all enjoy the diversity of this great country without being threatened by something different from ourselves? Actually, I suspect that MOST Americans are like me; it's only a select few fanatics who are succeeding in making an overblown issue of this whole thing.

Clint Black was being interviewed on O'Reilly tonight, and he mentioned that he sometimes feels reluctant to say "Merry Christmas" for fear it will "offend" someone, and he was in turn disturbed that he would actually feel that way. This is how much PC mind control has crept into our lives, and those slimy PC tentacles have now slithered into Christmas as well. I admit to having had this feeling of "awareness" myself. I have found myself thinking almost subconsciously, Do I say "Happy Holidays" for fear that "Merry Christmas", if delivered to a non-Christian, would be somehow "upsetting?" Jeez Louise, enough of this drivel. To begin with, Christmas has expanded well beyond its Christian center. I've known Jewish people who had the tree and presents and liked the season and all its festivities. Just subtract the church services and they are good to go with it all, it's a nice culmination to Hannukah. I suspect those of a great many religions dabble a bit in Christmas, it's just a national thing, in a way.

I did notice today that in its own little way, Fox was thumbing its nose at all the anti-Christmas babbler scrooges; at one point they put on a screen saying "Merry Christmas", played distinctly merry Christmas music with it, and in the corner of the screen was a little angel-like cherub. Yikes! Three cheers for Fox!

Freedom is Not Free

Despite what the anti-war people think, they need to wrap their one-track minds around this fact: FREEDOM IS NOT FREE. A price tag is most definitely attached to freedom, and that price tag doesn't say to be a protestor and slap anti-war bumper stickers on your cars as a means to achieve world peace. Michael Medved, who is seriously knowledgeable about history, once said he looked for an instance in which a sensitive, peaceful negotiation ended a major conflict. He couldn't find one.

In thinking of these things on Pearl Harbor day, remembering those who served in the past and those who serve now, we simply need to remind ourselves of this most important fact that FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE. I never fully understood this until I spent a total of nearly 20 years of my life living abroad and traveling in a great many distinctly and painfully NOT FREE places around the world, and I soon came to realize the true value and extent of our freedom in America. Interestingly, I never fully appreciated these things until I left America.

Most Americans take our freedoms completely for granted, believing that nothing could ever change things here, that nothing is really that much of a threat to our way of life, and many seem to assume that most of the world enjoys much of the same freedom that we do, but I'm here to tell you that nothing could be farther from the truth. America is a completely unique place, even when compared to Europe. Like it or not, freedom is NOT handed to you on a platter and it is not achieved without cost, and from time to time we have to defend it or it will slip away. Or in some cases, it could be blown up and eliminated pretty darn quickly if we sat and did nothing.

It's hard for some people to believe our freedom and way of life here in the U.S. is actually threatened by events in the Middle East, but I spent 10 years living and working in the Middle East and I can tell you from my own direct experience and observations there that the worldwide threat of the Islamic terrorism is all too real and should not be dismissed for even one second. What we are experiencing today has been simmering on the pot for a good 20 or more years, and now it's boiling over. And anyone who has doubts about the ultimate intentions of the various Islamic terrorist groups operating around the world today, I'd say go back and read your history--more importantly read THEIR history, and you'll understand what really motivates these terrorists and why they behave as they do and what they want to do to all of us in the west! Let's just say that "freedom" is not a concept they share with us, and they would replace it with their own concept of "total submission" to their twisted, stone age mentality. Submission or death, that would be your choice. Or most likely you would have no choice at all, it would just be death to all you infidels. Death to as many infidels as possible, that is their goal.

In all wars there are always those who oppose any and all military action, and those who don't want to serve. As any military person will emphatically tell you, they don't want that sort of person in the military anyway, which is why an all-volunteer military is most desirable and why there is never likely to be a draft again. But God bless those who do choose to serve each and every year, because they are the brave ones who protect and ensure that our freedom continues. They are absolutely 100% the reason why our freedom has been intact all these years. We are free not because of any politicians, not because of writers or journalists, most certainly not because of anti-war protestors. We are free because of all those brave souls who serve, and sometimes die, in the cause of freedom.

Tiptoeing Among the Terrorist Tulips

The mainstream media, and in particular Chris Matthews, is in a flap again and obsessing anally about the alleged shooting of an unarmed Iraqi terrorist by one of our Marines. Honestly, enough is enough. I'm a woman, I've never served in the military, I'm not a violent person, but even I understand that war is war and you don't fight anything resembling a "sensitive" war, either. There's no pussyfooting around with this stuff. Sometimes it's a matter of kill or be killed. Sometimes it just might happen that you shoot first and ask questions later. This is WAR, not a little protest in the park. This is a matter of life or death--yours!

Who was it that said something like this: "The essence of warfare is to kill the enemy before he kills you." I wish I could remember who said that, but never mind. I agree with the sentiment completely. Any day of the week I'll give one of our boys the benefit of the doubt in such a situation. The fact was this: the terrorists had been known to booby trap bodies. How was our Marine to have really known for sure this wasn't the case? Has that fat stupid puffball moron Chris Matthews ever once even imagined in a wet dream a situation where it just might be a case of him or the other guy? Would Matthews as a Marine have been concerned and sensitive and tiptoed over to the body of that terrorist to check and see if he was either alive and injured, or worse, booby-trapped and ready to explode, taking him along for the ride to meet Allah.


Here's a message for Matthews and all the other critical armchair generals and "journalists" out there. Shut the **** up. You don't know what you are talking about, you pansies who have never set a toe in the fields of war. You don't know, and you can't know until you have been there and experienced it yourself. Put your poison pens down and go tiptoe through the tulip fields. Better yet, gather your courage and take a trip to Sadr City in Baghdad where you can conduct some "sensitive" interviews with those patriotic terrorist boys. Then see how long your head stays connected with your body. See if you would condemn our Marines again for how they react in war.

Ding-Dong the Terrorist is Dead!!

Yassir Arafat finally assumed room temperature, thank goodness. A week or two after he most likely went to join his buddy Allah the Most Compassionate and Merciful, he was finally officially declared to be among the not so dearly departed by his platoon of PLA toadies. All hell broke lose among the loyal populace back home. These people can't even bury someone peacefully, it seems, with violence and near riots occuring right over his newly dug grave. It was truly a sight to behold. This is civilized behavior?

Arafat obviously wasn't overly concerned about how the Palestinian "cause" would continue after his exit because he evidently prepared no successor, named no lackey to carry on his good works. What "good works", you might ask. Arafat already turned down a pretty good deal in which he got around 97% of what he asked for. Turned it down flat because he well knew that making peace would be the end of his very lucrative gravy train. At his death, he had stashed away a massive fortune, and who cared what happens after he was gone? Arafat sure didn't appear to care, judging fron the disarray that followed his announced demise. Poof, he's gone, and what now, his helpless and hapless followers are asking themselves as they shoot their guns into the air in dismay and sorrow.

And where the heck did Arafat stash the cash he'd been squirreling away all these years? I doubt if the little "wife" knows——everyone who has even a smidgen of awareness about Arafat is cognizant of the fact that Arafat wasn't the, ummm....how could I say it, the "womanizing" type. To put it nicely, Arafat was not so quietly known to play for the other team. The wife was merely politically correct window dressing for the world. After all, good and pious Muslim men aren't supposed to date other men. So the wife obviously got paid off for her efforts as Mrs. A, but after the "marriage" ceremony she didn't waste any time getting out of Dodge, and she was said to have spent at least the last 4 years in Paris without seeing her dear husband even once. Poor woman had to "make do" with $10K a week, which put her somewhere near the poverty level. Yesk, she got payoff money, but it's not likely that she was given the keys to the till.

Questions remain about the cause of Arafat's death. It has been suggested that it was the last stage ravages of Aids. Possible, but he didn't look like he had Aids when they hauled him into that French hospital. He looked more like he was suffering from Alzheimers or some other sort of dementia. No doubt he just didn't look like his usually chipper, scruffy, murderous self. The fact that everyone refuses to admit to the actual cause of death is interesting....what is there to hide? What could be worse than being the terrorist that he was, being responsible for all those terrorist, murderous acts? How could anything at all be "embarrassing" about this monster?

Meanwhle, the loony disorderly conduct continues in Ramallah, with all the pent-up Palestinian energy being lobbed towards the hole in the ground which contains the rotting carcass of the terrorist Arafat. That's apparently all they can think about for now. Ding-dong, the terrorist is dead, the big bad terrorist is dead.