Monday, December 31, 2007

Congress Mandates Massacre on US Highways!

Congress Mandates Massacre on US Highways!

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In 2006 there were approximately 40,000 Americans killed on this nation’s highways. Compare that to the nearly 4,000 Americans killed in the Iraq War in nearly five years. But this is not an article about the war. This is an article about the grace of God.

God MUST REALLY LOVE Americans. How else does one explain how we have managed to survive, this long, considering the stupidity of those we elect to govern us? There IS no other explanation!

On Tuesday, December 18th, 2007, the Congress passed a bill the President says he will sign into law, which will mandate boosting automobile mileage by 40 percent to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. On top of that the bill will mandate the increase in ethanol use by six times as much as we use now to 36 billion gallons a year by the year 2022. And another annoying mandate in the bill eliminates the use of incandescent light bulbs and eventually phases them out in favor of the god-awful fluorescent light bulbs which do not give you as much light as the incandescent, no matter what they say, and cause migraine headaches in a lot of people including “yours truly”! I tried the damn things and had to remove them from my home… or continue to eat migraine medication. I got rid of the bulbs… no more migraines… not yet, at least.

You can read an excellent article about this bill at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22313314

About that massacre on the American Highway: The only way the American car manufacturers can get to the 35 MPH mandate, with today’s technology, is to reduce the weight of autos. That means less steel and more plastic and aluminum. That means less safety in a car on the highway…. less protection of the fragile human body in a car crash. It adds up to a frightening increase in highway deaths. It happened before… when America bought into the fabricated oil shortage in the 70’s. The car manufacturers began making smaller, lighter, cars and the highway death toll ratcheted up at a fantastic rate. Plus, the smaller cars are just plain UGLY! The so-called “crossovers” on the highways today are some of the “ugliest” automobiles ever designed by man! If one of those tiny little “crossover” SUV’s happened to run into my daughter’s big ole Yukon that Yukon would crush the “crossover” like “a stomped-on beer can”. My daughter’s vehicle is a TANK compared to the crossovers. But, by golly, she and the grandchildren are safe in it!

In the meantime, what is going to happen to cars and trucks like mine? I have a Dodge pick-up. I love it, and I intend to continue to drive it until one of us is dead! You can bet millions of American owning cars and trucks made out of honest to goodness steel will hold onto to those vehicles as if they were gold plated. Eventually, we’ll begin to look like Cuba with all their 1950’s model autos roaming the Cuban roads.

Ok, so millions of people holding onto their old cars and trucks means millions of auto owners will NOT BE BUYING NEW CARS and TRUCKS! How long do you think the American auto industry will survive? Not long, you can be sure of that.

Nanny (Not a misspelling) Pelosi was quoted as saying this bill was “ground breaking”. Yes it is! Digging a grave is also “ground breaking” and that is what she and her cohorts in Congress have just done for the American Auto Industry.

Oh, and about those rising prices at the grocery store…. Blame it on ethanol. Corn, or some derivative of corn, is used in nearly every product we buy across the counter in the grocery store. Every item with any substance derived from corn will continue it’s upward trek in price as more and more ethanol is burned up on America’s highways. Not to mention the price at the pump, for gasoline and ethanol, will NOT BE COMING DOWN! (Ok, so they’re going to start making the stuff from grass. Who’s going to tell America’s farmers this bit of news? Huh?)

Can you spell: D-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-O-N

Well, what would YOU call it? Thousands of auto workers out of jobs, the poor and elderly unable to afford to buy food to eat, people starving around the world because the price of corn, a daily staple in their diet, is unattainable? Add to that the slaughter on the American highways… and if that doesn’t depress you, then there is something seriously wrong with you.

I had thought this Congress was the most disconnected Congress, from the American people, I had ever heard of, or read about… and that was bad enough. But now, their “disconnectedness” from reality, and from sanity, worries me even more! We’d better pray for an extension of that grace period from God! Something tells me we’re going to need it!



Longstreet

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Sunday, December 30, 2007

Bring on the Government Gridlock, PLEASE



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I was thinking, just the other day, what a wonderful thing Government Gridlock is. It brightened my day, decidedly, when I realized that once again we are headed for the blessed relief of gridlock in both houses of the Congress. The only time I feel completely safe, as an American, is when the Congress is in recess... and the second safest time for American citizens is when the government is in gridlock.



A productive Congress means more laws... and more laws means... more regulations on the people of the country. It also means more money is needed to keep the government in a financial position to enforce those new laws and to finance the everyday operations of the various agencies that must be funded to enact and enforce those new laws. That, of course means more money is needed, therefore more taxes are levied on the American taxpayers... and the cycle continues. Big government only gets bigger. But... when gridlock occurs, the growth of government is brought to a screeching halt. And that, Dear Reader, is always good news!



... And already I am tired of hearing the word “Bipartisan” tossed around. Bipartisan means absolutely nothing, and shouldn't, in today’s Congress. If one loves government gridlock, as I do, then one cannot have both bipartisan AND gridlock. When everybody agrees with everybody else, that’s bipartisan (ship) and THAT is the most effective curb on gridlock. So, I am not interested in bipartisanship. I want the GOP to fight the Democrats at every turn. Get down and dirty, wrestling in the aisles of the House and Senate, as in olden days, if needs be.



We have a nation absolutely divided and when it comes to "law making" that is a good thing! When each side must consider the other side seriously, that is a good thing, too, for America.



Government gridlock is as American as Apple Pie... (Which, I believe is actually Dutch, or German?). The Founders wrote it into the rules for the conduct of business by the bicameral Congress. Think about it: Two parties, at least, which drive everyone mad. Filibusters, Presidential vetoes, 60 vote majorities in the Senate, etc, etc. The Founders set the US government up for gridlock as a safety valve to protect the governed, you and me. As long as we have gridlock, the government will serve the people. Without the threat of gridlock, the citizens serve the government.



I have noticed that the TV media, especially, (where youth and good looks are at a premium rather than age and sagacity) almost NEVER gets the story on Government gridlock right. They actually believe it is government's business to spend money and raise taxes. The truth is, it is just the opposite. But when a Congress does not pass a massive hopper full of laws then the Media attaches the name of a "Do Nothing Congress" on them". Often, doing nothing is the exact right thing TO do!



Someone has said that government gridlock is another of those checks and balances The Founders intentionally created to slow down government intrusion into our lives. I'm all for that!



Longstreet

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Saturday, December 29, 2007

America's Painful Future... A Retrospective.



(As we approach the beginning of a new year, we thought a retrospective might be in order. A "look back" at where the staff of INSIGHT on Freedom felt we were one year ago in January of 2007.)
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America’s Painful Future


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At no time, in our history, has this great nation approached the abyss of total destruction as we do this day in January 2007. And, yet, Americans go about their everyday business with barely a thought for their national safety, for the safety of their families, and with no thought for the survival of American democracy.

All the while, waiting in the shadows, the grinning faces of the enemy peers upon their hapless American victims as they strive to feed their insatiable hunger for world domination. Their craving for establishment of a one-world theocracy reaches beyond the cravings of sane men and women. They have soared above the plain of mere mortals and, safe in their self imposed cocoon of everlasting life in paradise, which they are certain they can gain by murdering as many non-believers as they possibly can, they willingly sacrifice their own lives on the alter of delusional covetousness.

It is power they crave. They seek not to save men’s souls, but to enslave them. They seek not to bring harmony, but discord. They seek not the betterment of mankind but the enslavement and bitter destruction of their fellow human beings… all in the name of their god. They covet… the world!

The American Congress, comfortable in it’s self imposed certitude that no threat to America exists, goes on about it’s daily task of re-enforcing the public’s alternate reality of security by belittling a President who has committed himself, and his administration, to keeping the country safe and secure from it’s enemies without… and unfortunately… within…even when the American people, and their Congress, demonstrate an obvious desire for selfish comfort in oblivion.

America is hip-deep in a war for it’s very existence and the American people have crafted a “daydream world” in which they move, and breathe, and have their being.

The Democrat Propaganda Machine (referred to often on this site as the Main Stream Media or MSM) is nothing more than “lapdogs of the American Political Left”. They move their lips… and it is the voice of the American Left. They move their pens, across the paper, and it is the words of the American Left. They daily churn out their messages of deceit, and misinformation, assuring the American people that there is no lasting threat from the Islamofacists. They prop-up the Left’s message that the “terrorists only need our understanding”. They mean us no harm; it is we, the American people, who are at fault as a result of our repression of the hordes of dysfunctional people, in dysfunctional countries, with dysfunctional governments. If only we had taken the time to learn why they hate us they would hate us no longer.

It is deceitful pabulum! It is designed to salve the restlessness of some of the American people who read between the lines, and look beyond the shadows, in search of the truth. For, you see, the Truth Seekers are a threat to the American Left. The American Left shares the Islamofacists desire for power. In order to assure that power they are more than willing to ignore the primary duty of any government and that is to guarantee the security of those it governs.

Wars cost money. Freedom is not free! And unfortunately for the world, the American Left now has it’s fists tightly clinched on the purse strings of the American treasury and are now threatening to cut-off funds for our men and women in uniform which they need to fight the enemy on distant shores. They are threatening to cut off ammunition, and war fighting material, in order to force the Commander-in-Chief to retreat and give in… and, as it were… run from the enemy. They will not recognize that fact that we fight an enemy, which will press its advantage even unto the shores of America itself. There is no disengagement with this enemy until either defeat or victory.

There is no commitment on the American Left to victory. None whatsoever. They relish America’s failure. Each day America continues to exist, as a capitalist nation, is an embarrassment to them. Their socialist dream, of each man suffering equally, is very real to the American Left. And… they are willing to sacrifice the only nation left on this planet able to resist pure, raw, evil.

America drifts in a sea of chaos as a ship without a rudder. The American military now has 535 Commanders-in-Chief instead of the constitutionally mandated one Commander-in-Chief, the President. The old joke of a camel being, in fact, a horse… designed by a committee, is illustrative of our military’s efforts in the Middle East today. In truth, a committee is running the war.

(The number of new troops introduced into the theatre of war in Iraq, is, as it turns out, significant. Our troops have gotten a toehold and have made some inroads among the residents of that war torn land. The US Military had been stymied, not by the Islamofacists, but by the American Left, which is still determined to “cut and run” at the earliest opportunity.) The lasting shame of Americans defeating Americans will never be forgotten. Henceforth, shameful memories will haunt the dreams of older Americans, such as I, who remember a day when one was actually proud to be an American. For America, in her glorious, and not so glorious, past was a country, which could not be defeated on, or off, the battlefield. Much as the states of the Old Confederacy still hold deep seated distrust for the states of the Old Union, there will be searing memories which will be handed down from generation to generation… and the scars will never heal. American military men returning from the battlefields in the Middle East will carry distaste and distrust of the American Left to their graves.

To leave the battle, before the battle is won, is to either leave in defeat… or leave in cowardice. There is no other option. As the Spartan mothers told their soldier sons… return “with your shield… or upon it”.

It is a painful time for Americans of my age. We have the memories of an America, glorious and honorable in her past… a past, which has been forgotten and erased, in many cases, from the history books of America’s students. Above all things America was honorable. A young American today would be hard pressed to define “honor”. To define “dishonorable” is much easier. One has only to turn one’s attention to the actions of the American Congress, ruled by the American Left, for a real-time view of dishonor.

As we Americans view ourselves in that inner mirror, we can know that even today, America can be defeated… only by herself. And that is the shameful path we have chosen.

Longstreet

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Friday, December 28, 2007

Terrorists? Not Us Say Muslims... by Alan Caruba

Terrorists? Not Us Say Muslims
By Alan Caruba

In lieu of the assassination of Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, it is necessary once again for those in the West to gain some insight into the culture of Islam and, in particular, of the Middle East. What can be easily observed is the abject refusal to take any responsibility for anything done in the name of Islam.

While the memory of September 11, 2001 recedes for Americans, our British cousins have been subjected to a number of Islamic terrorist acts since then. On July 7, 2005, there were four separate suicide bombings in London that killed 56 people and injured 700. More recently, on June 30, 2007, there was the attack on the Glasgow International Airport in Scotland.

On December 27th I received an email from the London School of Islamics with a text by Iftkhar Ahmad titled “Terrorist V Terrorism.” It is a window into the mind of Muslims living in the United Kingdom.

“The recent events have strengthened the prejudiced belief that ‘Islam is the religion of the sword”, said Ahmad who asserted that, “Islamophobia is not only a cause of discrimination against Muslims, but also an open threat to world peace.” The peace of the Middle East has once again been put in jeopardy by the instability of Pakistan. One might conclude that American and British troops are in Afghanistan because of an open threat to world peace posed by al Qaeda and the spread of Islamism, but not Ahmad.

So far as he was concerned “There is not a single day when Islam and Muslims are not attacked by the mainstream news media outlets.” Apparently, reporting on Muslim atrocities around the world constitutes an attack. It is worth noting at this point that no Muslim community in America has suffered an attack and I cannot recall any reports of comparable attacks in England. Who then is afraid of another suicide bombing? It is Americans and British citizens who are not Muslim.

With considerable irony, on December 13, a Federal judge in Miami declared a mistrial after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the trial of six men accused in 2006 of plotting to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago and several other government buildings. A seventh suspect was acquitted in what analysts describe as a setback for the US government's domestic counterterrorism program. Jury selection for a retrial of the other six suspects will start next month. The group was described as being “inspired” by al Qaeda. A new trial will try to find a jury that will look at the overwhelming proof of their intentions.

Meanwhile, in England, according to Ahmad, “There is an undeclared World War III going on in the name of (the) War on Terrorism. The fact of the matter is that Islam is all peace and hence this war is (a) war of terrorism and not against terrorism.” A person has to be seriously deluded or making a serious effort to delude others to conclude that, “Islam is all peace.” Just consider the victims of Islamist attacks from Bali to London to New York, to name just a few places where Jihadists have killed people who were not at war with them.

Ahmad, like a great number of Middle Eastern Muslims is easily offended by anything. He cited that uniforms of the Milan Italy soccer team whose uniforms sport “Crusader-Style red crosses which is offensive to Muslims.” In his view, the crosses “symbolized ‘western racist superiority over Islam.” He also railed against the “republication of Danish cartoons (that) clearly shows the prevalent ignorance about Islam.” It is hard to be ignorant of the many Islamist terror attacks in recent years.

Ahmad concluded that, “It is the fundamental duty of Muslims settled in the west to raise awareness of spirit and core of Islam.” I think the terrorist attacks have done that.

Ahmad was far from finished in his diatribe. He attacked the UK’s National Curriculum in which “There is no mention of (the) Muslim contribution in the world.” And what might that be, given the centuries of oppression that have existed wherever Islam is the dominant religion. These days, Arab Christians are literally fleeing for their lives from Iraq and other nations where they are under constant attack, including murder.

Ahmad concluded with the proposal that, in “those state schools (in England) where Muslim pupils are in majority may be designated as Muslim Community Schools, managed and controlled by Muslim Educational Trusts and Charities.”

There’s a Yiddish word for this. It’s called chutzpah!

The Islamists in England, throughout Europe, and here in America do not lack for nerve. Indeed, they are carrying out a process by which Islam has imposed its will wherever the Muslim community has achieved a near majority or majority status.

It is reflects the intention of Islam to subjugate any nation in which Muslims gain a population foothold. Where Islam is the dominant religion, it also expects to be the law of the land, rejecting a secular approach to government. This is its threat to Western nations whose tradition of tolerance permits juries to deadlock over trials of terrorists, whose loss commitment to their own religious beliefs allows the nation to be undermined by claims of prejudice.

Islam was never the religion of England, though the schism between Catholics and Protestants had its bloody chapters. The English by any definition are Christians. If Ahmad and his deceptions succeed, they may yet see their nation fall into the pit of ignorance, corruption, and oppression that defines Muslim nations to this day.

Finally, it should be noted that many of the terrorist acts perpetrated in England were by Muslims who were born and raised there. It’s a warning sign to all of Europe and to America as well.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/. His blog is http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/.

© Alan Caruba, January 2007


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Thursday, December 27, 2007

Coming to America? Islamofacists Kill Their Way To America.




Islamic Terrorists Strike and Kill One of Their Own… Again!

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Benazir Bhutto is dead! Killed by… whom else???? Islamic Terrorists!

Bhutto was killed in a suicide/homicide attack that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.


Sardar Qamar Hayyat, a leader from Bhutto's party, said he was standing about 10 metres away from Bhutto's vehicle.

"She was inside the vehicle and was coming out from the gate after addressing the rally when some of the youths started chanting slogans in her favour," he said. "Then I saw a thin, young man jumping to her vehicle from the back and opening fire. Moments later, I saw her speeding vehicle going away."
Party supporter Chaudry Mohammed Nazir said that two gunshots rang out when Bhutto's vehicle pulled into the main street and then there was a big blast next to her car.
But Javed Iqbal Cheema, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told state-run Pakistan Television that Bhutto died when a suicide bomber struck her vehicle.


Now… I have to ask… was anybody surprised by this… I mean those of us in the west? The day Bhutto’s intention to return to Pakistan was announced… I bet my wife that she would not last three weeks. I lost that bet… but not by much.

If there was any doubt in your mind that the Middle East is NOT READY FOR DEMOCRACY, this brutal act by the practitioners of the Religion of Peace, Islam, is it!
The Islamic nations have managed to convince me they are not nearly ready to move into the modern world and accept a place among the civilized nations of the world. They have also managed to convince me that the US has no business wasting our treasure, and our blood, in a thankless attempt to purchase THEIR freedom FOR THEM only to be rejected at every turn with reminders of the brutal, hellish, religious faith, by which, they absolutely demand to be ruled. Enough… more than enough!

I am now convinced that a strongman government, headed up by a ruthless dictator is the only workable form of government suited for those who practice Islam. The practice of Islam simply defies any beneficent form of government.

The murder of Bhutto is animalistic behavior. Actually, it’s worst than that. An animal will not foil it’s own nest. Yet the Islamofacists have no problem slaughtering their own people, their own brothers in the faith. It is incredible. It is totally uncivilized behavior. It cries out for isolation from the remainder of a world, where most nations seek to live in peace and brotherhood.

I am not buying the propaganda that Islam is a “religion of peace”. Events, like the murder of Bhutto, teach me it is anything but! Just allow your gaze to wander around the globe today. Where are the trouble spots? Where are people starving? Where are people slaughtering each other with abandon? Where are people continually stoking the fires of war in order to wipe people of another faith from the face of the earth? Cut through the propaganda and what do you find? Islam.

Bhutto’s murder is just another wake-up call piled on top of wake-up call after wake-up call. Diplomats… forget it! Forget talking. Forget trying to reason! When you have a viper in your midst, you kill it! You do not try to tame it!

Islam is spreading its hate, its bloodlust, and its "hell on earth" mentality all over the globe. Europe is lost. Africa is lost. Asia is lost. Parts off South America are lost… and there are huge communities of Muslims here in America with madrassas all over the country. The stated goal of the Islamofacists is to bring America to her knees, destroy our democratic form of government, toss out the Constitution, and have Sharia Law the law of the land in America. God forbid it should ever happen, but… if it does, what you are seeing on your TV screens today, from Pakistan, is exactly what you will be seeing on the streets of America.

America should immediately amend the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution and outlaw the practice of the religion of Islam within America. If we do not, we will rue the day we had the opportunity to act, to defend ourselves, and did not. But then, it will be far too late.

Longstreet


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Stepping Back from the Precipice ... by Alan Caruba

Stepping Back from the Precipice
By Alan Caruba


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The end of a year, any year, is a good time to give some consideration to the reason we have arrived at a particular state of affairs and whether a new direction is required. This is particularly true at a time when the campaigns to be the party’s choice for the presidency is more drenched in debate of religious issues and assertions, than in domestic and foreign policy issues.

The religious views of President George W. Bush may have gotten us to where we are at this point and our national policies could do with far less of it and a far more dispassionate review of our history. Our greatest need is to literally protect and preserve the republic.

I think I first noticed a problem when Bush used the word “crusade” to describe what the U.S. was doing in the Middle East. A born-again Christian, Bush has worn his faith on his sleeve ever since, during the 2000 campaign, he announced that Jesus was his favorite philosopher.

Americans generally are believers. They are predominantly Christian and they have always expected their president to demonstrate some faith in God. We have historically encountered problems when a president believes he was chosen by God for the position and that his actions are sanctioned by God. It’s one thing to pray for guidance. It is quite another to believe one’s action are divinely authorized and approved.

Woodrow Wilson believed God wanted him to be President and, with considerable irony, was re-elected on the slogan, “He kept us out of the war”. When Germany began to attack American ships providing military and other provisions to England, he put American troops into battle in a strictly European war. The result was a disastrous 1919 Treaty of Versailles that became a roadmap to World War II and some present problems.

The U.S. Senate had the good sense to reject membership in Wilson’s dream of a League of Nations, but following the end of World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s legacy was the United Nations, an international institution that ignores genocides, embraces intolerance, and is seeking to foist a totally bogus “global warming” crisis on the world.

The “entangling alliances” that George Washington warned against are now a vast matrix of treaties that puts America’s military power on the line for an atlas of nations around the world.

In his latest book, “Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart”, Patrick J. Buchanan argues that, “If we are to make the twenty-first century the Second American Century, the first imperative is to recognize that not only is the Cold War over, the post-Cold War era is now over. Pax Americana is finished. We must stop trying to conquer or convert the world to our way of thinking or our way of life.”

At this point, I have to confess that my initial instincts after 9/11 betrayed my good sense and my knowledge of history. I most certainly favored driving the Taliban out of Afghanistan, but I also favored removing Iraq’s Saddam Hussein from power. My reasoning was that Saddam had waged war in the 80s against Iran and against Kuwait in the 90s. Left in power, one had to assume he would set his eyes upon Saudi Arabia at some point. It was this concern that accounted for the presence of U.S. troops on the “sacred sands” of the Kingdom; one of the reasons cited by Osama bin Laden for 9/11.

There was logic to removing Saddam, but there was no precedent. America had never engaged in a preemptive war or any war in which we had not first been attacked. Buchanan says that, from the beginning, Bush saw the removal of Saddam in messianic terms and, though Iraq had never been a democracy, he believed that America could create one in the heart of the Middle East where no democratic nation exists, save tiny Israel.

The war, as President Bush defined it, was one between good and evil. Those are religious, moral judgments, hardly a good yardstick for foreign policy and most certainly not for going to war. A quick glance around the globe reveals there is a lot of evil.

As Buchanan put it, “This is Manichaean. This is messianic. This is utopian.” One goes to war to protect national security and national interests. Going to war to bring democracy to oppressed people is a nice slogan once you’re engaged, but it is not a good reason if you or an ally are not under attack.

The attack on 9/11 was an act of war, but it was not by a sovereign nation state. It was a terrorist act. The price of empire is to suffer terrorist attacks. They are the weapons the weak use to drive out foreign nations or effect changes in policy.

Buchanan makes a very strong case for an America that needs to review its policy of being the world’s policeman in favor of policies that advance our economic power and protect our strategic interests. Democracy is slowly advancing in the world, but doing so at the point of a gun doesn’t work.

Given the right to vote, history is filled with evidence that people will frequently choose dictatorship or authoritarian rule. In Venezuela a leftist demagogue has been elected to office. In Palestine, the militant Hamas was elected in a democratic election. Left to their own choice, the Muslim Brotherhood would be running Egypt. The fragile democracy that Lebanon has long prized may fall to the Islamists of Hezbollah.

America cannot decide what kind of governance 1.3 billion Muslims want for their nations. To try to do so puts our nation at risk of more 9/11s. We can, however, put our own house in order, reduce our vast debt, strengthen our national defense, rescue our educational and social security systems, invest in our infrastructure, and turn our attention to stopping the invasion across our southern border.

There is work to be done in America to preserve and protect America. We are not electing a high priest. We must elect a man who understands that even a great power has limitations. He should put our economic life in order, not go searching for foreign enemies to vanquish and utopian goals to fulfill.

It is time for America to step back from the precipice that lures us with the siren song of empire. Empires have been known to die.


Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/. His blog is http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/.

© Alan Caruba, December 2007



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Wednesday, December 26, 2007

To Go Where No Man Has Gone Before…When?


(From July of 2005)
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To Go Where No Man Has Gone Before…When?
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Why is the US still using those old space trucks… the Shuttles? Why haven’t we gone on to fulfill man’s dream of one day walking on the stars?

It is long past the time when men should have been colonizing the moon and Mars. Why have we not done it… yet?

NASA is in deep trouble. She is on the verge of becoming irrelevant. That which the government will not do… private enterprise WILL do.

NASA has lost it’s focus on the one thing man craves more than anything else. Exploration. Just too see what’s over the next hill. In the case of space… just to see what’s out there. (Maybe WHO is out there!) It is a natural yearning buried deep within mankind and it will not be denied. Even the Scriptures tell us “without a vision the people perish”. We might add that without a vision NASA will most certainly perish!

Mars beckons! She hangs there, in the heavens, all her mysteries yet to be unveiled for the eyes of man. Oh yes, we have landed robots on the surface of Mars. But, try as they might, a robot is still a machine and cannot see the beauty and the poetry in the lines of the horizon of a distant world now devoid of habitation. A robot cannot feel the exuberance, the overflowing of joy in the human heart, to tread where no other human has trod before him. The metal machine cannot sense that unique feeling of accomplishment, in the human mind, upon the recognition that we have done what not other has been able to do.

All this can be summed up in one word: “ADVENTURE!” Humans crave adventure. Especially Americans. It is inherent in Americans. Our forefathers settled this new land by seeking adventure. They forever sealed our fate as adventurers. The inflowing of immigrants in recent years has damped that adventurous spirit somewhat. For the most part, they do no bring with them a thirst for adventure. That is not a “put down”. They bring many other gifts with them, but that singular craving for adventure is almost uniquely an American thing.

Many Americans have grown tired of watching space shuttles blast off to nowhere… and return from nowhere. We need to go SOMEWHERE!

We have, for the most part, the technology. What we do not now have… we will invent as we go. Let’s be about it. Times a wasting!

There are those who believe the stars are man’s original home. That may be. It may explain our urge to make our way back to the heavens from whence we came. Maybe our yearning, as we look at the brilliance of the night sky, is simply our desire to “go home again”.

I know the writer has said: “You can never go home again.” He’s wrong. You can go home again. It may not appear as it did when you left it, but you most certainly can return to it.

I think it’s past time to visit the stars… and in doing so; maybe we WILL go home again. We MUST find out! We MUST!



Longstreet


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Monday, December 24, 2007

Will THE CLINTON MACHINE DEFEAT HILLARY ?



WILL THE CLINTON MACHINE DEFEAT HILLARY ?

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I came across a blog titled “Pulling No Punches” the other day… and was stopped dead in my tracks! This blogger, known as “Realityo6”, had written a piece that kept me tied to the page, for sometime, reading and re-reading his, or her, work. It is an excellent piece and one we recommend to you. The title is “Clinton Machine Defeats Hillary”. You’ll find it at:

http://reality06.blogstream.com/v1/pid/277361.html

There is nothing I would add, if I could, to this excellent piece of work. Except this: When one looks at the Republican field of candidates…. Hillary is the best thing the GOP has going for it right now!


Longstreet

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Sunday, December 23, 2007

Taxes by the Mile!



(From Feb. 2005)
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“Taxes by the Mile!”

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Not buying as much gasoline as you used too…you know, before the price skyrocketed…this time? Well, guess what? You’re going to have to pay anyway. The government, I mean. You know…as in TAXES!!!

Yep, those folks in California, ever looking for a way to hit the “peons” up for more loot are looking…longingly…at the probability of charging you, by the mile, for using the California highways! Oh, yeah!

So, you thought you’d be smart and save the planet from global warming and cut back on your “gas guzzling” by riding yourself of that big ole (safe) SUV and buying one of those tiny, little, one-lung skateboards with wheels, huh? Didn’t work. Nope! You just can’t out smart those “left coasters” when it comes to innovation in levying taxes!

See, the deal is, they are investigating the possibility (probability is more like it) of placing a GPS (a Global Positioning monitor) device on every auto in the state of California. It will track every mile you drive and when you go to the gas pump to fill up, a computer, in the pump, will total your taxes for the miles you have driven since your last fill-up, and tag the additional costs onto the price of the gasoline and the already present gasoline taxes.

Oh, one other thing…with a G.P.S. device on your car, or truck, you never have to worry ever again, about getting lost. The government will always know where your vehicle is located. (Privacy? What privacy?) Oh, by the way, who do you suppose will get stuck with the bill for all those GPS devices? Guess!

Oregon is checking out the same set-up for their state, too. That’s where California got the idea in the first place.

I guess its time to park the old “blue bomber” and place it up on the cement blocks, in the side yard, and begin walking to work. But, hey, somebody’s got to pay for all the “up-keep” on those sidewalks!

How far did you say you walk to work, both ways, each day??? Huh?

Longstreet



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Saturday, December 22, 2007

Russian Scientist Predicts Global Cooling!

(From August 0f 2006)

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Russian Scientist says Global Cooling on the Way! AAAA-HA!

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Khabibullo Abdusamatov, a Russian scientists, says his research shows the earth is cooling, not continuing to warm, as the Global Warming enthusiasts would have us believe.

It is the return of The Little Ice Age, which caused some dreadful times in parts of Europe back in the 1500’s.

Get the full report from UPI here:

www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060825-091321-7556r

Why, you may ask, am I posting this report? Simple. I don’t believe in Global Warming. I DO believe the “Global Warming Theory” is a hoax.

Weather patterns on the earth are cyclical. There are periods of warming and periods of cooling.

So dig out those fur coats and rabbit fur-lined gloves and get ready to shiver!

Longstreet




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Friday, December 21, 2007

WHO was Jesus' Father?

WHO was Jesus’ Father?

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Something the Archbishop of Canterbury is reported to have said has rankled me and has me more than a little disturbed.

The article from the “timesonline” says:

“He (The Archbishop of Canterbury) said he was committed to belief in the Virgin Birth “as part of what I have inherited”. But belief in the Virgin Birth should not be a “hurdle” over which new Christians had to jump before they were accepted.” From the artilce at:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3076008.ece

Now, wait a minute!!! The Archbishop is a "learned man” but, in my opinion, you certainly couldn’t discern that from the paragraph above!

Now, before I go on, let me declare, up front, that I am not ”a preacher”, a pastor, a minister, a bishop, or anything other than a layman Christian who happens to be a Lutheran on the “outs” with his OWN church… as well as with any church infected with Leftist theology. I have wrestled with bishops in the past. Some I became friends with, while others… well, lets not go there!

Look, for those of you outside the Christian faith and even to those of you inside the Christian faith (these days) it is absolutely necessary that you believe the Virgin Birth happened. Why? Because without the Virgin Birth, then who exactly WAS the father of Jesus. If any entity other than God, by the Holy Spirt, impregnated Mary, then Jesus is NOT God’s Son… and… as those of us who believe in the Holy Trinity proclaim, Jesus is NOT God, who came to us in human flesh and lived among us as a true man.

Taking it further, who was it, then, who was crucified? Who was it, then, who was buried… and what happened to the body of that entombed person when the tomb was found empty three days later? If the Virgin Birth did not happen, then Jesus did not rise from the dead. He couldn’t have! If the ressurection did not occur then we Christians have bought into a horrible hoax which was perpetrated on mankind for… what end?

This is serious stuff!

Look, I admire Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father…. as we Christians have been taught for a little over 2, 000 years. It took great courage to do what he did with a pregnant teenager as his wife. Not many men, then or now, would have that kind of courage. I do not believe Joseph married Mary because the baby was his. No! I think he married Mary because he believed she was bearing the Messiah and his mission was to care for her and the infant Son of God. Joseph must have wrestled with misgivings and with outright doubt from time to time, but he did what was right and proper and what God knew he WOULD do. But he was NOT the father of Jesus. Not in the Christian faith!

And there is where I feel the good Archbishop used poor judgment in what he said in the quote above. For, plainly put: if one does not believe in the Virgin Birth, then one cannot be a Christian. The archbishop is just plain WRONG!

The summation of what Christians believe is the Nicene Creed quoted by Anglican Congregations at most every service, also by Episcopals and Lutherans. It reads as follows:

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.




We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.





We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father [and the Son], who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.


That is the crux of the Christian faith. Notice the affirmation of the Virgin Birth.

If one wishes to explore the reasons for the terrible crisis the church finds itself in today, one need look no farther than the Princes of the Church many of whom need, desperately, to re-accquaint themselves with the Christian faith they have so ruinously led.

Longstreet

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Trouble in the Family?

Trouble in the Family?
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Some feel the New Prime Minister of the UK does not share Tony Blair’s love for the US. There maybe trouble brewing.

In the December issue of the American Legion Magazine, there is an article by Alan W. Dowd. Mr. Dowd is a senior fellow with Sagamore Institute for Policy research and a contributing editor to The American Legion Magazine.

The title of Mr. Dowd’s article is: “Britain after Blair”. You’ll find the entire article inline at:

www.legion.org/?section=publications&subsection=pubs_mag_index&content=pub_mag_blair_1207

We recommend this piece very highly. It may well assist you to understand some of the wrangling which may be in the offing between the Mother Country and the Colonies.

Blair is gone. Gordon Brown is the new Prime Minister. The long and the short of it is… they are VERY different.

Some of those differences:

Brown has jettisoned the Bush-Blair terminology and calls terrorism “a crime,” pointedly not using the phrase “war on terror.”

Brown has labeled Afghanistan “the front line against terrorism,” highlighting a distinct difference with Bush, who calls Iraq “the central front in the war on terror.”

Brown stoically talks about “duties to discharge and responsibilities to keep” in Iraq. Gone is Blair’s rhetoric about con-fronting tyrannies and terrorists.

Yet some of Brown’s critics are not so diplomatic about the new prime minister – or sanguine about his grasp of the “struggle” he inherited. They note that during Brown’s tenure as chancellor, defense spending as a percentage of GDP fell to its lowest level since 1930. Liam Fox, the shadow defense secretary, blames a rash of friendly-fire deaths in Af-ghanistan on cuts in defense spending. “As chancellor, Gordon Brown never gave defense much priority,” Fox argues, adding that the British military is now reaping the consequences. (From: “Britain after Blair by Alan W. Dowd.)

Brown has already ordered the UK Forces in Iraq to withdraw from bases in Basra. Many now think this signals a complete pullout of British troops from Iraq. Some country’s soldier must replace the Brits in, and around, Basra. Most likely it will require the US to re-deploy some 3500 Marines or soldiers to take the place of the UK’s troops in that very troubled part of Iraq.

There is definitely a new day dawning in the US/UK relationship. The US can no longer expect unconditional support from the Mother country. At least… not under Brown. Nobody expects Brown to “stick his neck out” for the US. Tony Blair did… but not Brown. Gone are the days of Winston Churchill, and Margaret Thatcher. Long gone! Now we have: Mr. Brown.

Longstreet


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Thursday, December 20, 2007

Is the Christmas Story Just a Legend? Ask the Archbishop of Canterbury!


Is the Christmas Story Just a Legend? Ask the Archbishop of Canterbury!
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The “timesonline” has the following story:

It’s all a Christmas tall story”
“The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, dismissed the Christmas story of the Three Wise Men yesterday as nothing but “legend”.

You really need to read the entire article. You can do so at:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3076008.ece

Dr. Rowan Williams, is the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head, if you will, of the Anglican Church, the Anglican Communion, which includes over 80 million members in 44 regional and national member churches around the globe in over 160 countries, including the Episcopal Church, USA.

Now, isn’t it enough that the Anglican Communion is about to tear itself apart without the help of the Archbishop? This interview has done the Anglican Church/Communion no favors! And they wonder why so few folks in the UK attend church regularly?

It is called “faith” for a reason. The instant we try to rationalize faith, we enter troubled waters. Of course, there are those among us who are simply too smart to be taken in by faith! It is they who proclaim belief while questioning the tenets of the faith to which they claim to adhere. It’s called “having it both ways”. The sane among us know that isn’t possible. Why, even Christ, Himself, said a man can not serve two masters….

Just a few weeks ago, the Archbishop was here, in the colonies, trying to patch up the rift caused in the Anglican Communion by the Episcopal Church’s insistence on the acceptance of homosexuality, and ordaining homosexual bishops, and blessing homosexual “marriages”… you know, things that most Christians... and... apparently, most of the remainder of the Anglican Communion, feel are not countenanced by the scriptures.

It did not work.

ECUSA is bent on going it’s own way and the majority of the Anglican Communion is bent on either tossing the Episcopal Church out of the communion… or failing that… leaving themselves. Seems to me if the latter happens, the good archbishop will have a much smaller job than he has now. He didn’t help his case any, at all, by calling into question those things taken on faith by the members of the communion he is supposed to lead.

There is a simple solution for the believing Christian. “Come out from among them.” Many of us have followed the advice of Saint Paul to the church at Corinth. You’ll find it in 2 Corinthians 6: 14-18.

6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?


6:15
And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.


6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.


6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

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Merry Christmas!

Longstreet
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FCC Tries “Bail-Out” of the Newspaper Industry! WHY???

FCC Tries “Bail-Out” of the Newspaper Industry! WHY???


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On Tuesday, December 18th, 2007, the Federal Communications Commission, managed to screw-up the broadcasting industry with a move to “ease the reins on media companies seeking to own newspaper and broadcast properties in the same market in the nation's 20 biggest markets”.

Granted, the proposal is intended to affect the top 20 broadcast markets, but, rest assured… it will, as these things always seem to do, eventually affect the entire US. This is truly a case of “the camel’s nose under the tent”. Eventually the entire camel will be under the tent!

Under (FCC chairman Kevin) Martin's proposal, one entity would be permitted to own a newspaper and one broadcast station in the same market. But it must be among the 20 largest media markets in the nation, and following the transaction, at least eight independently owned-and-operated media voices must remain. In addition, the television station might not be among the top four in the market.
There is an excellent article over at: "RADIO ONLINE".
We recommend you read the entire article at:
Take it from a fellow who spent his working life, all thirty years of it, in the broadcasting Industry… this is , indeed, a bad move by the FCC… and you, as a consumer of “news”, would be well advised to contact your Congressperson, and your Senators, and ask them to block this “BlockHead” move by the FCC.

Look, the LAST thing we need is less diversity in the way news is gathered, edited, and dispensed, or disseminated to the public. If this move is allowed to become law it will create a “Giant” press machine in all the top 20 Broadcast Markets in America. Even with eight independent operations remaining on the air, "The Giant" will immediately become the “leader of the pack” and... all the others will follow. The Giant will set the standard for that market. Top stories will be decided by The Giant. News cycles will be decided by The Giant. Basically, The Giant will decide what news consumers in that market see, hear, and read. THIS is NOT a good thing.

Now, from a business point of view, I can readily see how this would be desirable, especially for newspapers, which seem to be sinking like rocks in quicksand. What this ruling by the FCC actually is… is a bailout for large newspaper companies who already find themselves in that watery quicksand.

Here’s the thing: This is (Industrial) evolution at work. Newspapers are on the way out. It is the way of dinosaurs! Consumers of news, in the future, (even today, for that matter!) will be getting that news from their electronic devices such as this computer screen from which you are reading this article, or from the screen on their cell phone, or other electronic device. Even if Newspapers continue to print hard copy versions, it has become entirely too expensive to deliver the papers to the consumer’s home. I’m experiencing that very thing in my newspaper market today. One major daily has stopped home delivery in my market... and another cannot get enough carriers because it cost too much for the carrier to drive a gas operated vehicle , deliver the papers, and make a decent profit.

The point is, no matter what the government does to bail out the newspaper industry, it is doomed to failure. But then, there is simply no reason to drag the broadcast industry into the newspaper industry’s problems , or use the broadcasting industry as a “life preserver” for the newspaper industry and, at the same time, deprive the public of diversity in the “news” business. And that is what the FCC has done… if… the Congress doesn’t stop them.

Longstreet


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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Saying “No” When Everyone Else Is Saying “Yes” ... by Alan Caruba

Saying “No” When Everyone Else Is Saying “Yes”
By Alan Caruba
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I have been witness to the complete subversion of science in the service of an utterly corrupt new religion called environmentalism.

In the Middle Ages the Church determined what “truth” was. Today the Green Church seeks the same power. From the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the 15th century, civilization experienced a period of ignorance and superstition. Globally, via the media and the classroom, a distorted and debased science is being used to advance the fraud of global warming.

The challenge is to say “no” when everyone else is saying “yes” to global warming.

There is no dramatic warming of the earth. There is no indication of a near-future warming. Carbon dioxide (CO2) plays such a minimal role in the atmosphere that an increase would have no effect beyond the very beneficial boost in the growth of forests, crops, and everything else that is truly green. Indeed, climatologists will tell you that CO2 increases follow, not precede, warming cycles. They are not a trigger. They are a response.

During the United Nations’ Bali climate conference, a hundred prominent international scientists released an open letter warning that any attempt to control the Earth’s climate is “ultimately futile” and would constitute “a tragic misallocation of resources that would be better spent on humanity’s real and pressing problems.”

“It is not possible to stop climate change, a natural phenomenon that has affected humanity through the ages.” The notion that mankind has any impact on climate or weather is absurd.

In November, in Valencia, Spain, delegates from more than 140 nations agreed to what they and the media echo chamber that disseminates the global warming lie, called “an ‘instant guide’ for policy makers stating more forcefully than ever that climate change has begun and threatens to irreversibly alter the planet.”

A science that can barely predict the weather next week is being perverted for purely political purposes.

Having followed the IPCC since its inception and the environmental movement in general for decades, I can tell you that what we are hearing is a shrill message of desperation coming from those who fear that people around the world may yet reject the global warming lie. An Associated Press report said that the draft and coming IPCC report “is intended to launch a political process on international cooperation to control global warming.”

How do you control something that is not happening?

Why is everything the IPCC proposes lead to “cap and trade” laws that would impose limits on carbon dioxide emissions, something that reflects human activity, from exhaling to the making of steel, the harvesting of crops, the heating of one’s home, and virtually all forms transportation except bicycles.

Why do all of the proposed controls aim at crippling the industrial advances that underwrite the success of Western nations in particular and improvement of human civilization everywhere?

In Bali, there are voices calling for a global “carbon tax.” It would be collected by the United Nations and we know how well they handle such funding. The Oil-for-Food fiasco is but one example. The funding of the Bali conference is another.

Wouldn’t limits put on the United States and European nations be instantly cancelled by emissions from nations such as China and India that are exempt from the Kyoto agreement? The answer, of course, is yes. Doesn’t the failure of the current agreement and the billions in fines it portends for signature nations suggest still more failure?

Despite this, there is legislation making its way through the U.S. Congress that would impose cap-and-trade limits on every industry and business in America. At a time when the U.S. dollar is falling in value and our national deficit has skyrocketed, why would Congress even consider anything that would harm the economic engine of the nation?

This is, however, the same U.S. Congress that refuses to permit exploration and access to our national energy reserves, leaving us dependent on imported oil and natural gas while at the same time calling for “energy independence.”

If I were to devise a plan to destroy the greatest economy, creator of wealth, center of innovation, and exemplar of individual liberty that has ever existed in human history, I would patiently create fear of a global disaster involving the one thing over which humans never had and never will have control, the earth’s climate. I would then propose a “solution” that would cost that economy billions in “carbon credits” to keep it from occurring.

What the former Soviet Union and its failed Communist system could not achieve in some 45 years of the Cold War, the environmental movement is seeking to achieve in its place. By undermining the economy of the United States and Western nations with draconian limits on CO2 emissions, those behind this effort will create a world ripe for a single ruling government composed of unelected bureaucrats whose only purpose will be to feed at its trough.

The single greatest determinant of the Earth’s climate, the Sun, will continue to shine, but the world will be plunged yet again into the darkness of ignorance and submission to the false religion of environmentalism if the global warming lie succeeds.


Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, “Warning Signs”, posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/.

© Alan Caruba, December 2007


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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Being Slapped in the Face by the Obvious!


Being Slapped in the Face by the Obvious!


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With sincere apologies to Mr. Limbaugh: “I TOLD YOU SO!”

Just a few days ago we postulated on this site that the NIE report, which declared that Iran had stopped attempts to make an Atom bomb as far back as 2003, was wrong and that this kind of erroneous information was likely to start a war in the Middle East. Some thought that was a stretch on my part. Others knew exactly what I was saying. Well now, the Israelis have confirmed what we warned about on this very site last week. The article is entitled:

Israel: US report on Iran may spark war”

We recommend you go over and read the entire article. You’ll find it at:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/2007
1215/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_us_iran

Look, the NIE report is the kind of dumb mistake rookies make! Any “fool” would know that the release of that kind of intelligence assessment could very well light the fuse between the Israelis and the Iranians… unless… that is exactly what the intention was from the very beginning! NAHHH, I don’t believe our intelligence community is that James “Bond-esque”.

The fact of the matter is… I’m not that smart. I’m just your average Carolina County Boy, who makes an effort to stay abreast of the happenings in the world. My point is… if this ole country boy can look far enough ahead to see and predict the reaction of a country when confronted with, what amounts to their “back-up” being withdrawn, the surely the guys and gals in US intelligence, with all their degrees, and training, and electronics, and “humint” (Human intelligence…. meaning spies on the ground in enemy territory) should have seen this one coming ten miles out! I think they did!

I am convinced this entire fiasco with the NIE report was a rigged attack on the Bush Administration…. nothing more… and nothing less. It would appear that forces, within our government, hate Mr. Bush so much they are willing to sacrifice the security of the country to damage his reputation, or his legacy, or his current administration, just a year ahead of the 2008 elections.

I try, very hard, not to use profanity on this site. But, I must tell you … what the US intelligence community has done with the NIE report is a “profane” way to do business. It may wind up costing thousands of lives, US lives included.

Have we Americans come to hate each other, so much, that we will destroy each other even if it causes bloodshed? Look, we’ve done it before! So, do not think it can’t happen again! Because it can!

The scriptures tell us “A house divided cannot stand” … another truth from that old book of wisdom. Has it not occurred to Americans that we are destroying ourselves? We are nearly as divided now, as we were during the War Between the States. In some ways, we are MORE divided. Those of us who have studied that period in American history see parallels that are frightening in today’s America.

The Left has waged a war beginning with the election of George Bush, right on up to the current day, to destroy him and his party. Already, the Right is planning similar warfare against the Left in anticipation of their winning the Presidency in 2008, including the impeachment of the Democratic President.

Where does it stop? Does it stop? If not… this nation is doomed.



We close with this reminder from a fellow who was decidedly NOT stupid: "The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct." — Cicero

Longstreet



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Monday, December 17, 2007

Feel Guilty Yet?... UPDATE!!!!

(There is an update on this story posted at Texas Fred's site, of which, we want to make you aware. There have been some developments in this ongoing story. You can follow the excellent reporting at:
http://texasfred.net/archives/845 )
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Feel Guilty yet?
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We are all used to getting a ton of “begging calls” and “begging letters” from various charities this time of year. Some will send you a calendar or some of those little sticky return address labels, in hope that enough guilt heaped upon your head will motivate you to send them money. I have a “guilt drawer” in an end table in my den where goes all this “stuff”

So call me a Scrooge, a Grinch, whatever, I don’t send ‘em any money. Why? Follow through. Do your own research and you will soon find out.

Now, let me be clear… if I were to participate in this transfer of wealth, I’d most likely donate to veteran’s groups. Most veterans seem to lean toward that persuasion as well. And there are a host of veteran’s charities out there.

Ever wonder how they did in distributing the funds they received from people with kinder hearts than me? Ever wondered how well they did at it?

Well the Washington Post has an article you may want o to see. It’s entitled: “How they fared”. You’ll find it at:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/12/AR2007121202439.html

The article presents a list of veteran’s organizations and how they fared: they are graded with a letter grade. You might want to see if your favorite veteran’s charity is on the list and how they fared.

For more on this and the reaction of another veteran, we suggest you make you way over to Texas Fred’s Blog site at:

http://texasfred.net/

Fred is seething about this and it shows. We admire his zeal!

Longstreet




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Why THIS Republican Will NOT Vote for Mike Huckabee

Why THIS Republican Will NOT Vote for Mike Huckabee
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I am a Republican and I will not be voting for Mike Huckabee.

Why?

Simple.

Because of Jimmy Carter.

I am convinced Mike Huckabee and Jimmy Carter are cut from the same cloth. I was bitterly opposed to Jimmy Carter when he was running for President, while he was President, and, even today I find him a meddling, “busy body do-gooder” interfering in the affairs of the world. Most of the conflict in the Middle East today, especially Iran, can be traced directly back to the Carter Administration. The seeds of today’s war in Iraq, the coming war with Iran (and between Israel and Iran) ALL can be traced back to the Carter Administration.

Religion is a wonderful thing. I endorse it. But, by all means, in moderation, please! Huckabee has said he is defined by his religion, his faith. That being the case, and he says, openly, that it is, then, in my opinion, he has no place in the White House.

There used to be an old expression, the exact words of which escape me, but the jist of it went something like this… “When you need a lawyer, get the crookedest lawyer you can find.”

When we elect a President, we are hiring a Commander-in-Chief of the US military. We are hiring someone to defend this country, first and foremost. I want a “junkyard dog” defending me! If our President wishes to carry a bible in his hand, then he ought to carry a cannonball in the other! Remember the expression: “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition… and we’ll all stay free!”? THAT’S the sort of MODERATION I’m speaking of here.
I don’t trust Mike Huckabee to have that sort of sternness, that sort of steel, the sort of unflinching grit to order men to give up their lives in defense of this country, and the willingness to TAKE the lives of hundreds of thousands of this country’s enemies, personally, and then go to bed and sleep like a baby. I just do not think he has that quality about him. Jimmy Carter didn’t either. We are still paying for Carter’s lack of will today.

The person we elect to the office of President will be shadowed, day and night, by a member of the US military with “The Football”. Everything the President needs to order a nuclear holocaust on our enemies is always within a few steps of wherever the President is at any given moment. Our enemies, indeed the world, MUST know that the President of the United States of America has the will, the determination, the guts, if you will, to press “the button” and rain down death and destruction upon the heads of those who would do this country harm.

Nobody feared Jimmy Carter. Not our friends, and certainly not our enemies! I am very afraid things would be much the same with Huckabee in office.

Whoever the next president is, he/she, will inherit a war. Why? Because this nation is at war! Deny it, if you must, but the plain truth is… we are at war… and… we are going to be at war for at least a half century. Bringing the troops home will do nothing to ease the war on America by the Islamofacists. None whatsoever. They are resigned to a never-ending war until either they are all dead… or… the US is no more. Whoever the next president is, he/she must understand that fact, going in, and prepare for all hell to break loose from both the Peaceniks, the flower children in the Congress, and... the war hawks. Then, of course, there is the “declared” enemy, the Islamofacists.

The next president will be a wartime president. If doesn’t matter what he or she wants, it will be thrust upon him, or her. Actually, the next president will assume that mantle from George Bush. Not a single one of the candidates, from either party, is admitting that in public, even though it IS a fact. They all know they cannot bring the troops home from the Middle East. But they’re not telling the American public that. Both parties fear the Peaceniks. They are all old enough to remember the peace riots in the 1960’s and 1970’s and they have nightmares about that happening on their watch.

Let’s face it: the next President will, of necessity, have to be one tough SOB. I do not see that toughness in Mike Huckabee. I did not see it in Jimmy Carter and time proved my intuition correct.

No, I cannot support Mike Huckabee for President of the US. Why? Because of Jimmy Carter.

Longstreet




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