The Sewer of Inequity...

Mr.Atos

In The Winter of 2004, we moved to Portland... my wife newborn son and I. We had left Seattle where we were finding it increasingly difficult to find a home anywhere near our jobs downtown or in anyplace in the Metropolitan area that we actually wanted to live. We left a place we loved, sacrificing friends and desires, for a place that promised us more opportunity. We were young, smart, professional, upwardly mobile, financially responsible. We had one old wreck of a truck, little cash, lots of (good) credit, and what's more, we understood our limitations.

Knowing the level of house we would be offered by the loan any bank would be willing to provide us, we nevertheless selected a conservative little home in a transitional neighborhood. We did our homework, balanced our budgets, cut corners where we had to, and secured the best loan possible, from a competitive and highly competent lender. We bought our first home... all 960 square feet of the dull little modern ranch-style fabrication. In the Summer of that year, the local newspaper ran a story of another young couple who had just bought their first home in teh Portland Metro Area. By that time real estate here was booming, Portland being consistently listed in the top ten best places to live in the country. The couple was celebrated to be ethnically diverse, having a child the same age as our own. They were about the same age as my wife and I. The wife did not work. "Wonderful, I thought genuinely, "a stay-at-home Mom. The child was fortunate." The father, it was reported washed dishes at a local restaurant. "Okay," I thought, "aren't we fortunate to live in such prosperous times." I started out myself as a bus boy and this too was the first home I ever lived in in my life; 'home' being defined for me as living in a place you owned.

The story's attached photo was the kick in the stomach for us... the blow that wiped the smile off both my wife and my faces. The house had to be in excess of 2000 square feet. It was nearly brand new in what looked to be a new subdivision. The happy couple stood in front of their driveway which contained a new car and truck. Their little boy played in the drive, behind the wheel of a $400 dollar electric car. For our part, we had just purchased a used car for my wife in order to make her 40 minute commute. Our other recent purchase was a second hand tricycle for my son, via craigslist. Our old wreck of a truck was to be stolen the following winter.

The story went on to fill the gaps in the mystery. The couple had attained their loans with the help of new government program that allowed them to take on far more burden than any responsible lender would ever have allowed. The Oregonian was not only celebrating the tenuous achievement, it was promoting the practice.

Five years later, as we prepared to sell our little home, I read another story in the same newspaper lamenting the poor judgement and so-called cannibalistic tactics of mortgage lenders, who had violated the tenents of better financial judgement and extended credit and loans far in excess of what applicants could reasonably afford. I thought about that couple from years before, wondering now what was their fate... and who was really to blame.

By thi8s time, we were doing reasonably better than before. Now, we had two children, both in daycare. We had the same used car and had replaced the stolen wreck of a truck with a lesser wreck of an old truck. You see, knowing we wanted to buy a bigger home in the next few years, I passed up the chance to buy a new truck for myself and payed 2,200 for a used SUV and bought a new bicycle instead. We had refinanced our home years before, locking into a very low rate 5 year ARM. We used the equity from our home to help pay for city mandated neighborhood sewer improvements. You see, the city of Portland will fund risky loans to 'underprivileged' couples and build apartments for the homeless all with taxpayer dollars, but then refuse to pay for necessary infrastructure.

Neverthless, we were able to squeeze out some money for a few home improvements.W e payed off some outstanding debt and payed every bill on time for the next several years. Working very hard, we had transformed our modest home into one of the jewels of the block. So by the time the ARM came due, our home had sold for a good price and we were moving on up.

Selling faster than we expected, our new home search became a bit more frantic. We had seen many that we liked, but few that we could reasonably afford. We still understood our own limits. Finally finding the house that we both liked and wanted, our agent prepared the offer. It was more than we wanted to spend, but a good house in a great neighborhood was worth the sacrifice, right?! After a restless night's sleep, however, running numbers in our dreams and having them come up dangerously close to red, we phoned our agent first thing and stopped him from making that offer. Instead, we purchased a smaller home, in need of moderate care in a similar neighborhood. And despite our dissappointment, 2 months later, with gas prices doubled, the grocery bills edging higher, and our 401K's getting crushed once again, we breath a comfortable sign of relief.

Until we read things like this,

Mortgage rescue plan draws Senate support:

...The Senate voted 76-10 Monday to advance the bill, a broad array of housing measures including overhauls of the Federal Housing Administration, the Depression-era mortgage insurer, and government-sponsored home loan giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Its centerpiece is a new $300 billion FHA program to allow debt-ridden homeowners who are currently too financially risky to qualify for government-backed loans to refinance into safer, more affordable mortgages.

The measure is on track for passage by an overwhelming margin, possibly by week's end. It has survived several test votes in the Senate, repeatedly demonstrating that there's enough support for it to override President Bush's promised veto.

We work hard. We make smart, responsible choices. We earn trust and extend it wisely. We expect a system to award us accordingly. What we get is higher taxes as reward for our efforts with the money getting flushed down a sewer of inequity, to pay for the perks and the political pull of Salem and Washington peddlers...

... and more blindness and misery for those too ignorant to know better and to pampered by mother government to learn from their mistakes.

Here we go again!

Surging Unemployment?...

Mr.Atos

As evidence of recession, this is AP's idea of "surging" unemployment...

WASHINGTON - Employers buffeted by talk of recession slashed 80,000 jobs in March, the most in five years and the third straight month of losses.

At the same time, the national unemployment rate rose from 4.8 percent to 5.1 percent, the clearest signal yet that the economy might already be shrinking.

4.8 to 5.1%! A three tenths of a percent increase is an unemployment surge according to AP Economics Writer, Jeannine Aversa. Considering that 5% is considered statistically to be full employment, once again one might question the objectivity of AP reporting.

Earth Hour...

Mr.Atos

Earth Hour!

While the ignorant world cowars in the darkness of their irrational fear, light the torch of freedom in insolence at their stupidity.

Turn your lights on. All of them!

Light the torch! Wyatt's Torch...



...in utter defiance of stupidity's oppression.

Man is the light, the motor of the world.

The Gospel Madrassa (Part 5)...

Mr.Atos

Imagine the confusion of Florida in November of 2000, combined with the chaos, rage and violence of LA, 1992... spread across a nation hopelessly divided: politically, socially, philosophically.

There is a darker side of the issue looming before the American electorate. And let's be certain to understand that the term 'dark' refers to a malevolent intent and not the color of one's skin. Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a black soul indeed, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with race. Dark is the content of the man's character, speaking as he does in the cadence of Arafat, Bin Laden, Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Castro, and Krushev, directing the passion of hate like a primed and timed explosive projectile at his philosophical enemies... America, Americans, "the Whites", the Jews, Capitalists, "the Rich", Republicans, and other assorted "Theys." Like his Islamists brethern herding the Palestinians, Wright has stoked emotions and planted suspicions and fears beyond the tolerance of rational restraint. To what purpose? Is it hate for hate's sake? Or is there motive behind such madness?

An Obama candidacy would unify an enormous pool of electoral and emotional Pull, worldwide; from the Muslim Madrassas of the East, to the Universities of Europe and America, the World's media, Television, Newspapers, Hollywood, and of course the Gospel Madrassas of south side Chicago and other inner cities. After August, that political force would slam into the McCain ticket like a Hurricane.

John McCain however, is proving to be a stong and able contender. Traveling to the Middle East and Europe this week, he is seen to be above the bickering and the rhetoric, simply behaving as if he already were the President. If the America electorate continues to view him this way, come September his election may be little more than a foregone conclusion. Yet make no mistake, it will be close. Previous elections have demostrated the reality of political division in America today. Where opposing candidates once battled for States, now they battle for precincts, and votes by the dozen. As the 2004 Gubernatorial election in Washington State demonstrated, even a victory by a few hundred votes can be challenged and stolen. Everyone recalls the debacle of the the 2000 Presidential Election in Florida, where a solid State victory was widdled away by recount after dubious recount until no doubt remained. And still Democrats claimed foul. A victory like that will not stand in 2008 with passions flared, emotions charged, suspicions honed, and the haunting resentment of historical injustice ignited like a fuse ready to trigger a bomb exponentially larger than the one that exploded in Los Angeles in the Spring of 1992 and far less confined. Make no mistake in doubting that there are those who would be eager to use such a bomb. They follow the Alinsky model of sociopolitical evolution whereby any means necessary are acceptable to gain their desired end, even violence and chaos. And clearly, Barack Obama is a student of his fellow Chicagoan, willing to use the suggestion of unrest to further his ends. Fear is a powerful weapon, primarily meant to gain concession.

America might well be facing a climactic moment. With European opinion said to be turned sour, a World War raging against the forces of Islamic Fascism, aggressive trade competition with China, and increasing hostility rising in South America, America can hardly afford another Civil War. It may not even be able to survive it... not as a single Nation. Yet, the threat might easily be neutralized with the selection by the Republican Candidate for President of a running mate that demonstrates once and for all, to all Americans, that the content of one's character is truly the only quality that merits confirmation in the United States of America.

Senator McCain, please choose wisely!

The Gospel Madrassa (Part 4)...

Mr.Atos

On the face of it, the strategy suggested in part 3 - whereby McCain selects a Black running mate - would seem in itself to be catering to racial politics. Indeed in a sense it is. But, the race card has already been played by the leading Democrat Candidate. Obama continues to double down with his speech today, whereby he asks people to look beyond the content of his character, as represented by his beliefs and the messages he entertains with his family for 20 years. Look beyond, he asks America, the character's of Jeremiah Wright and his own racist grandmother, and consider the color of their skin first and foremeost this election. What other conclusion can one come to when in the middle of a Presidential campaign the leading Democrat Candidate, who happens to be black, delivers a public address on race in America? Barack Obama is making this election about race over ideas. Indeed the gambit is afoot. The victor will be the Candidate who uses the situation at hand on the proverbial battlefield to their best advantage. At the moment Clinton and Obama are engaging one another on that battlefield. Clinton seems to be losing an election about race. She may however be winning an election about ideas, as more of what Obama believes is exposed by the words of his philosophical mentor, Jeremiah Wright. It has clearly caused some level of discomfort among the Aristocracy. Now it seems, with delegates split, the Democrat National Convention and the choice of its super delegates will ultimately decide the primary. Senator McCain has the luxury of opportunity to choose his ground for the battle that is surely to come after the Convention, be it an election of character and ideas or just race and prejudice.

If Clinton is able to overcome Obama's current primary advantage, by nevertheless gaining the support of a majority of delegates, securing her Party's nomination for POTUS, there will be trouble. A great number of Obama supporters will feel cheated... and perhaps rightly so. The system and its rules as they understood it will have been undermined in favor of the preference of the Aristocracy. As has been pointed out in part one, this is the methodology of Liberal Progressivism - preference over merit. Liberalism is in itself an institution of bias, prejudice and discrimiination. What will those disenfranchised Democrat voters do when their preferred candidate has been sandbagged? Dejection and rage will be one immediate reaction, and who really knows how that will play out. Here's where the allusions to 1968 Chicago have been offered, cautiously yet repeatedly. In the aftermath of a riotous tantrum, maybe Democrat voters will reunite once again behind one inevitable candidate and organize their pull with the Hillary Clinton faction for the November's election offensive. On the other hand perhaps, in total rejection, the Obama faction will simply abandon support for the Democrat candidate altogether... in a sense, pull the pull from the pool.

How would that occur? Will they simply stay home on election day?

Or might they lend their support to the Republican Candidate, John McCain? That is doubtful to be sure, given the rhetoric emanating from the Gospel Madrassas and their Institutional surrogates. Republicans are both the party of the evil white man and patriotic America, the Great Satan. What reason would an Obama supporter, fueled on the audacity of hope for change, have to vote for a McCain ticket? What reason indeed might there be.

On the other hand, might some Obama supporters see the promise in a third alternative? ... one that would begin to fracture the narratives and undermine the invective and divisive agitprop that has been built by the messages of the Gospel Madrassas of the Reverends Wright, Jackson, Sharpton, used by race pimps like Rangel, Conyers, Brazil, Nagen to imprison a good people in sociopolitical slavery and keep a Nation permanently divided for the benefit of the Aristocracy of Pull? Condoleeza Rice or Colin Powell could offer that glimpse of promise... a true audacity of hope, if you will. A Vice presidential Candidate of true merit and superb character linked with an identity consistent with Obama's own superficial marketing and packaging, could be an attractive ticket for those American's who truly do hope for 'progress.'

Of course, there would be fierce criticisms, from all the usual suspects. America could even be witness to one of the most amusing hypocritical philosophical catastrophes in the history of Western Civilization if its lucky. When the uncontrolled invective tirades let loose from the fringe Left, directed at someone like Powell or Rice, the utter collapse of civility and rational public discourse could be both magnificent and highly educational to the world. Most would see it for what it is, especially those members of communities who have been asked to sacrifice far too much and far too long for the puney little nobles of a political Aristocracy that has enslaved them as chattel means to serve its bitter ends. And in the end, who can really argue with the facts as considered by each individual sitting alone with their ballot making the right choice about the future of America?...

...one vote at a time toward their own meaningful ends.


But, what if Obama prevails?

(continued...)

The Gospel Madrassa(Part 3)...

Mr.Atos

As the official Republican Candidate for forty forth President of the United States of America, Senator John McCain must insulate both his Ticket and the Nation from the ugly realities of the forthcoming election. Unfortunately, whether his team knows it or not, he is left having to play the game of racial politics better than either of his potential opponents. With the selection of his Vice President he has a very unique chance to claim mate to their check. McCain must also select a Black candidate as his running mate. But, he must do so in a manner that illustrates Republican's favor of substance over symbolism. He must select a candidate whose character is sound, and whose political substance, regardless of popularity, is without question. There are only two such candidates in the pool of Republican politics at present: Colin Powel and Condoleeza Rice. For the sake of this Nation, one of them MUST be Vice President of the United States.

The contradiction of racial politics is that it promotes the primacy of race foremost over the recognition of ability. To turn a famous phrase, it judges a man (or woman) by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character. For that reason it is incredibly destructive both for the people that purport to be the beneficiaries of a such a mechanism and for the culture of which they are a part. The culture continues to be pre-occupied by race and skin color, albeit in reverse fashion... enslaving the American people to a hyper-enfranchised minority of its citizens. Worse yet, ratial politics continues the enslavement of that very minority for the purpose of Pull for its noble Aristocracy. And while it is arguable that the Reverend Jeremiah Wright is one of its nobles, he most certainly speaks for its class of Wizards and Mullahs, on behalf of its Princes like Barak Obama, today's leader of the Aristocracy of Race. And a vast majority of the Nation's inner-city minoritues have been listening to the fomentations of the Mullahs of the Gospel Madrassas like Wright and their counterpart Muslim Mullahs, like Farakan.

After August's Democrat Convention in Denver, the selection of their candidate will be certified and the campaign for President will officially begin. That leaves little time for the Candidate to mount an effective drive against a Republican opponent who has been campaigning as the Party's Presidential candidate for over 6 months. The longer the primary goes on for Democrats the uglier and more desperate it is sure to become. The weapons turned in will be targetted more savagely and indiscriminately in an attempt to secure pull over the other. After August, they will be turned outward with the same and even greater savage fury. The Clinton's play a brutal politcial game as America has bore witness in the past. They are experts at its perverted machinations. But, Barack Obama relies heavily, albeit abstrusely, on the Pull of ratial politics. His greatest weapon is the innuendo of conseqence; the foremost electoral effect being the pull of the Black vote form the Democrat base of supoort, should Obama not be the Party's Candidate. The suggestion of violence however, hangs over Denver and the Nation like the front of a pending storm, with whispered allusions of a 1968 redux. Should Barack Obama be the Democrat Party's Candidate and the Presidential Election is similar to that of 2000, is it a 1992 redux that is really at hand?

(continued...)

The Gospel Madrassa (Part 2)...

Mr.Atos

The goal of racial politics is to promote the advantage of privilege over merit. Privilege in modern politics is bestowed by favor of preference. That which is preferred, is promoted. Preferential treatment according to the Liberal Progressive social model is granted by favor of political affiliation. Politics being the primary vehicle for social evolution, its not enough to be black (or even female for that matter). To be preferred, one must be a 'correct' black - a Liberal black. Since political beliefs are easier to achieve than actual merit, those that advance in privilege by preference need only say the correct things and be seen to do what is expected. Meanwhile, most persons of true merit have no need of such a model, since it affords them few rewards, and often punishes true achievement. Clarence Thomas and Condoleeza Rice are particularly good examples. By merit alone, both have achieved the pinnacles of their particular professions. They are experts... who just happen to be black. Yet, they are despised for their beliefs and especially for their political affiliations. Barack Obama on the other hand, a Man of little merit, heralded nevertheless for his political charisma, is being propelled by nature of his rhetoric alone to the Nation's highest public office.

The problem with racial politics is that the United States Constitution establishes the principle of merit over privilege. Racial politics is therefore, fundamentally at odds with founding American principles. The Constitution secures the blessings of liberty by promoting an environment of opportunity where individuals are free to achieve (or fail) by choice. Racial Politics, on the other hand, like much of Liberal Progressivism, seeks to replace the rewards of achievement, with the endowed privilege of a new nobility... an Aristocracy of Pull.

The ruler of that Aristicracy is granted to the noble who achieves the most powerful pull or influence. Once installed, the ruler commands all pull and influence, dispensing it by leave of preference, favor, and whim with the primary goal being the maintenance of power... and pull. Currently, two factions of the Democrat Party battle with their pull, for the ultimate power. Hillary Rodham Clinton was, by noble heredity, to be the presumptious Queen of Pull. Barack Hussein Obama, on the other hand, demonstated his own desire to be seated as the King of Pull... and his own pool of formidable pull it seems, to install him there. Both are fighting feircely, by means of their particular factions, just for their Party's nomination, and all of its unified Pull for the fiercer battle that is to follow. Eventually, one of them will need to unleash the Pull againt John McCain to win American's elective favor as their new executive, and leader... their President.

The battle for the Democrat Presidential nomination has gone on far longer than was expected. Because of that, the conflict has become more aggressive then desired with each faction deploying increasingly negative tactics against the other to gain favor in the form of electoral delegates. In a recent post at the Belmont Club, Wretchard looks at these Weapons Turned Inward,

... consider how hijackers and hostages takers get the authorities' attentions by demonstrating their seriousness.

The principle followed by kidnappers in Baghdad who sent five severed fingersbelonging to "four Americans and an Austrian taken hostage more than a year ago in Iraq" was that if you want to be taken seriously you have to demonstrate how far you are willing to go in order to get what you want. And although neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton have sent anyone actual severed fingers yet, both have amply shown their astonished supporters that they are willing to ignite race war, tear the Party apart or engage in political cannibalism to serve their own individual ambitions. What's really awesome about Hillary and Barack is not their resumes but the lengths to which they are willing to go.

His observation aptly describes the ugly nature of today's battle among the American Aristocracy of Liberal Progressivism for the control of their collective Pull. But, Wretchard stops short (for now) of looking at what happens later, when all of those threats and weapons are turn outward...

...at John McCain? At Republicans? And at the America people?

For as Wretchard so eloquently puts it, " The problem with the axiom "by any means necessary" is that it means "by any means necessary". " And the power of that ultimate Pull, is a insanely seductive end.

(continued...)

The Gospel Madrassa (Part 1)...

Mr. Atos

Some years back, I sat with my wife and children on the pew of our Lutheran Church listening to yet another sermon of condemnation delivered by the new Pastor from the old pulpit against the primary source of evil in the modern world... Israel. He had been with our church for a little over two months and this was his fourth such Sermon. Living in Portland, I'm used to a general deficit of faith and an abundance of progressive humanism... including a touch of anti-semetism. We sought a place of refuge where our children could be nutured by a sheltering community of faithful people who share our values and can help promote commensurate virtue. We returned home that Sunday afternoon, where I immediately drafted a letter to the Church Council on which I sat, explaining why I was resigning from the Council and leaving this church. I was not going to sit with my boys and have them believe of me that I, by default, shared the views of the man preaching before us any given Sunday, simply by tolerating his incessant invective. Children are peers. They will watch carefully and learn accordingly.

The American electorate should react likewise when they hear the message preached by the longtime Pastor and mentor of Senator Barack Obama. Much has been made as late, of Barack Hussein Obama's Muslim heritage. Is he still a Muslim? Does that matter? One could argue that it might, considering that the world is currently engulfed in a War between two clashing philosophies... one of them being a fanatical form of Muslim faith - Islam. Islamic Fascism has replaced moral principle with a feverish determination to displace human liberty with the shackles of a global caliphate, by any means necessary, including mass murder on a cataclysmic scale. Western Civilization and Islamic Fascism are struggling at present on the razor's edge of Armageddon. America is the primary picket separating liberty and slavery. As America approaches the 2008 Presidential Election, it is the responsibility of each American to exercise their judgment about the next leader of this ongoing struggle, asking one critical question: does that candidate have the passion, the determination, and the loyalty to the fundamental values of Western Civilization with a conviction necessary to do whatever is needed to achieve victory. Obama must be judged according to all the knowledge and evidence at hand.

Right or wrong, it is everyone's prerogative to judge as they see fit. Discrimination is nothing more than a set of personal preferences built on a series of judgments...and even prejudices. In absense of instinct, judgment is a human's primary means of survival. A choice exercised in favor of survival is a moral imperative. The choice between food and poision, for instance, is a mechanism of survival using a method of discrimination based on personal judgment. Choosing food is moral. Choosing poison is not. Similarly, the choice between Coke and Pepsi is a discriminate judgment, albeit not necessarily tied to survival. Some choices are simply based on preference; Hillary or Obama? Either is a judgment of desire. And while preference choices are no less valid than moral imperatives, they can be exercised with less intellectual consideration, for they carry less potential for negative consequences. Moral choices, on the other hand, decide fate. Survival or death.

The particulars of Obama's religious affiliations are not nearly as troubling as the nature of his actual beliefs. Islam in itself, truly in its intent a religion of peace, is of little concern to most people when considering the qualifications of a political candidate. Like Judaism, Christianity, Budaism, or Mormonism, the qualities of character contributed by the belief system to a dedicated practicioner would be a resume enhancement for the candidate in the eyes of most, regardless of to which he or she ascribes. Whether Obama considers himself Christian in fact, and or Muslim in spirit, it is the nature of his spiritual beliefs that define the Man.

So, when we listen to the messages emanating from America's inner city Gospel madrassas: notably, "God damn America...", it makes most Americans pause and re-consider the character of a candidate who has spent the last 20 years absorbing just such a message from a Pastor like Jeremiah Wright of Chicago's Trinity Church... A man who remains, ostensibly Senator Obama's primary spiritual and campaign advisor. Consider the message...

• "We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki. And we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians, and black South Africans. And now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost."

• "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three strike law, and then wants us to sing God Bless America? No, no, no. Not God Bless America, God damn America, that’s in the Bible, for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating us citizens as less than human."

Radical Muslim or radical Christian, it makes no difference. If the message is "God Damn America!... America is the great Satan!... Death to America and Americans!..." Then the two messages define the exact same belief; the belief that led to the murderous attacks on 911; and that represent the motivating spirit of the enemies of Western Civilization, both foreign and domestic. It is a message of hate, lies, and agitation propaganda that has been pouring forth from radical madrassas of the Middle East spreading all over the world, generating radicalized armies of rampaging butchers and homicide bombers to do its bidding. And apparently it is the same sentiment being propagated in the American inner city, by Pastors like Jeremiah Wright...

... with the approval and support of Barack Obama?

Judge accordingly.

(Continued...)

Hillary Bin Lyin'...

Mr.Atos

Much has been made of Hillary Clinton's shrewd parsing of words in her recent 60 Minutes interview (HT: Politico) leaving the uncertain impression that Barrack Hussein Obama might or might not still be Muslim. To be clear, she did not use his actual middle name. And she didn't actually say that he was... or even that he wasn't for that matter. What she said in response to the question, "...a Muslim. You don't believe that he's…?" was this...

“No. No, there is nothing to base that on. As far as I know,” she said.

Now, regardless of the facts in the issue (because who cares, right?!) is anyone really shocked or surprised by a Clinton's ability to parse conjecture into invective while evading conviction?

Come to think of it, do we really know the answer to Kroft's question if it were turned against Clinton? A Muslim? You don't really believe that she's... (gasp!) Truth is, there's nothing to base that on. As far as I know. Just because My Sandmen say Hillary Bin Lyin'? there's nothing more to the rumors...

...started here.

The Price of a Headline...

Mr.Atos

The price of an Associated Press headline - and a purchased AP narrative - seems to be blood... lots of it. Terrorists in Iraq have proven time and agin that if you kill enough people at a given time, the Western Press will deliver their ultimatums, complete with conditions and the appropriate sprinkling of American condemnation. So it is again with a rampage of recent attacks in Iraq...

Group of Iraqis asks UN to take over

BAGHDAD - A group of Iraqi tribal leaders, former politicians and intellectuals appealed Wednesday to the United Nations to take control of Iraq in a move they say would help U.S. troops leave the beleaguered country.

Both the U.S. administration and the Baghdad government are unlikely to endorse the request, which was addressed to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and delivered to the Cairo offices of the organization.

"We believe that the only opportunity left for Iraq to be saved from a dark, but not inevitable future, is to engage the international community represented by the United Nations," the letter said. "Such a step will allow the American troops to leave and the occupation to be brought to its end."

Indeed! A group of Iraqi tribal leaders, former politicians and intellectuals would like the U.N. to arrest control of Iraq from Coalition Forces...

... a group like the Associated Press it seems as well,

... and a group like Al Quaeda.

Is Starvation The Price Of Sustainability?...

Mr.Atos

Is starvation the price of sustainability?... because the current devotion to corn-based ethanol and other bio-mass based fuels is quickly driving up the price of groceries. From the Dallas News,

Grocery prices getting fat on ethanol demand, weak dollar

Escalating food costs could present a greater problem than soaring oil prices for the national economy because the average household spends three times as much for food as for gasoline. Food accounts for about 13 percent of household spending, compared with about 4 percent for gas.

And consumers spending more on food have less disposable income to spend on items that keep retailers happy – from electronics to dining out. Food prices are rising while home values fall and the stock market falters – all of which can shake consumer confidence.

According to the Bureau of Labor statistics:

• Chicken prices are up 10 percent
• Whole milk was up at least 20 percent
• Tomatoes are up 25 percent
• Bread was up 5.4 percent
• Eggs gained more than 30 percent.

The story goes on,

Corn, a key foodstuff for farm animals, has shot up as ethanol demand increases. Corn prices have more than doubled in commodity markets over two years, and soybeans nearly tripled, according to DTN, a commodities-analysis firm in Omaha, Neb.

Soybean farmers, lured by higher margins, are growing more corn, causing soybean supplies to shrink and prices to increase, said Ephraim Leibtag, an economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's economic research service.

To make matters worse, the rising price of corn means higher beef prices. This all translates into an artificial inflation of overall food prices coming at a time, when American's are already facing a number of looming economic challenges. Not all ideas are good ones. Why for instance, should one grow fuel - consuming enormous amounts of water, fertilizers, soil, and external energy - to create a product that oozes freely from the bowels of the Earth?

Some facets of sustainability, it seems, are quite unsustainable. Starvation being one of them. Unless eugenics is one of the sublime goals of the modern Green movement...


...the darker spectrum, perhaps.

The Sorryness of Spitzer...

Mr.Atos

One might think being a Democrat, means never having to say your sorry. Does it?

From William Jefferson Clinton's impotent impeachment to William Jefferson's bribery indictment; Senator Reid's own silent bribery fiasco; Senator Obama's inescapable link to indicted doner, Tony Rezko, one might get the idea that Democrats can get away with all manner of malfeasance and walk away relatively unscathed, and most astoundingly, still holding office.

The latest addition to the list today, is New York Governor, Elliot Spitzer. Not two years into his office and Governor Spitzer is implicated in a prostitution ring.

Official: NY gov caught on wireta
By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press

NEW YORK - A law enforcement official has told The Associated Press that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement in a prostitution ring was caught on a federal wiretap.

The official says Spitzer is identified in court papers as "Client 9," and the wiretap was part of an investigation that opened in the last few months.

The official says the New York governor met last month with at least one woman in a Washington hotel. The law enforcement official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

A few moments ago, Mr. Spitzer essentially told reporters and the State of New York , he's sorry.

With his wife at his side, Spitzer told reporters that he "acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family."

"I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself," he said. "I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family."

When corruption, real or alleged, rears its ugly head on the Right side of the political spectrum, the America media and the Democrat political machine make certain the subject of the investigation is utterly destroyed... personally, professionally, and politically. Rightly so, perhaps. Corruption of any kind, moral or ethically, should be intolerable, Period! But, it seems that being a Democrat in this era of Media-defined degeneracy means simply having to say 'you are sorry.' Then you are off the hook.

Where is the demand for Spitzer's immediate resignation?

UPDATE: 05.11.08

Where is the official (read: Democrat; read: Mainstream Media) demand for Spitzer's resignation?

Every day he stays in office, should be considered an official endorsement of Spitzer's malfeasance by the DNC and The New York Times.

Violent Environmentalism...

Mr.Atos

Another string of arson fires in a Washington neighborhood, demonstrates that radical environmentalists are increasingly turning to violence as a means to pursue their ends.

Ecoterror link eyed in Wash. fires

WOODINVILLE, Wash. - Fires gutted three multimillion-dollar model homes in a Seattle suburb on Monday, and authorities found a sign purportedly left by eco-terrorists that mocks claims that the homes were environmentally friendly.

"Built Green? Nope black!" said the spray-painted sign that bore the initials of the radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front.

Crews removed explosive devices found in the homes, said Fire Chief Rick Eastman of Snohomish County District 7. The FBI was investigating the fires as a potential domestic terrorism act, said FBI spokesman Rich Kolko in Washington, D.C.

No injuries were reported in the fires, which began before dawn. The sheriff's office estimated damage at $7 million. In addition to the three homes destroyed, two sustained smoke damage.

Video Here

As is known with the methodology of thugs, one form of violence begets the next in an escalating surrender to brutality as a substitute for intellectual persuation. How long will it be before their complete abandon of reason presents them with murder as an acceptable means to their ends? Such is the cycle of fascists and terrorism, and these radical environmentalists are no different than the Sturmabteilung of decades past.

Last night it was abandoned homes that burned in Woodinville, Washington. Next week, perhaps it will be families immolated to make the animals' point.

Directing The Gun...

Mr.Atos

Its another sad, grimly puncuated statement on the current state of the American culture, as it is being packaged and delivered via the Public Schools and Universities, and the headline of today's Oregonian says it all,

"Run, He's Reloading The Gun!"

5 Students are reported dead this morning, plus the insect who shot them at near point blank range as they completed a geology class at Northern Illinois University on Thursday. Another 15 are wounded.

The shooter, it is being reported, was a former student of Sociology at NIU. Interesting to note, that the Department of Sociology at Northern Illinois University as of this posting seems to have disabled their own website. It might have been interesting to view their mission statement and note the particulars of the faculty that might have helped cultivate a sensibility that ultimately converted other people's children into lifeless heaps, and a boy into their sociopathic predator. You see, even as renewed cries erupt in favor of tighter nationwide gun controls and bans in the face of a growing trend of school shootings, one really must ask the most poignant question at hand. What did more damage in that lecture hall on St. Valentine's Day, 2008?.... the guns loaded with bullets?

... Or the boy loaded with bad ideas directing the gun?

UPDATE: 02.16.08

"To a savage, the world is a place of unintelligible miracles where anything is possible to inanimate matter and nothing is possible to him. His world is not the unknown, but that irrational horror: the unknowable. He believes that physical objects are endowed with a mysterious volition, moved by causeless, unpredictable whims, while he is a helpless pawn at the mercy of forces beyond his control. He believes that nature is ruled by demons who possess an omnipotent power and that reality is their fluid plaything, where they can turn his bowl of meal into a snake and his wife into a beetle at any moment, where the A he has never discovered can be any non-A they choose, where the only knowledge he possesses is that he must not attempt to know. He can count on nothing, he can only wish, and he spends his life on wishing, on begging his demons to grant him his wishes by the arbitrary power of their will, giving them credit when they do, taking the blame when they don't, offering them sacrifices in token of his gratitude and sacrifices in token of his guilt, crawling on his belly in fear and worship of sun and moon and wind and rain and of any thug who announces himself as their spokesman, provided his words are unintelligible and his mask sufficiently frightening—he wishes, begs and crawls, and dies, leaving you, as a record of his view of existence, the distorted monstrosities of his idols, part-man, part-animal, part-spider, the embodiments of the world of non-A.

"His is the intellectual state of your modern teachers and his is the world to which they want to bring you.

"If you wonder by what means they propose to do it, walk into any college classroom and you will hear your professors teaching your children that man can be certain of nothing, that his consciousness has no validity whatever, that he can learn no facts and no laws of existence, that he's incapable of knowing an objective reality. What, then, is his standard of knowledge and truth? Whatever others believe, is their answer. There is no knowledge, they teach, there's only faith: your belief that you exist is an act of faith, no more valid than another's faith in his right to kill you; the axioms of science are an act of faith, no more valid than a mystic's faith in revelations; the belief that electric light can be produced by 'a generator is an act of faith, no more valid than the belief that it can be produced by a rabbit's foot kissed under a stepladder on the first of the moon—truth is whatever people want it to be, and people are everyone except yourself; reality is whatever people choose to say it is, there are no objective facts, there are only people's arbitrary wishes—a man who seeks knowledge in a laboratory by means of test tubes and logic is an old-fashioned, superstitious fool; a true scientist is a man who goes around taking public polls—and if it weren't for the selfish greed of the manufacturers of steel girders, who have a vested interest in obstructing the progress of science, you would learn that New York City does not exist, because a poll of the entire population of the world would tell you by a landslide majority that their beliefs forbid its existence.

(Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957)

Protect and Defend...

Mr.Atos

Either Vince Flynn is profoundly prescient, or Mitch Rapp is really out their.

Top Hezbollah militant killed in Syria...

DAMASCUS, Syria - One of the world's most wanted and elusive terrorists, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed in a car bombing in Syria nearly 15 years after dropping from sight. The one-time Hezbollah security chief was the suspected mastermind of attacks that killed hundreds of Americans in Lebanon and of the brutal kidnappings of Westerners.

The Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah and its top ally, Iran, blamed Israel on Wednesday for the assassination. Israel denied any involvement, but officials made no effort to conceal their approval of his death.

Mughniyeh was also on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists, and the U.S. State Department had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction. He was indicted in the U.S. for his role in planning the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed.

The United States welcomed Mughniyeh's death.

A car bomb may not be as satisfying a belt throttle, but dead is dead. Huzzah!

The True Carbon Impact...

Continuing threats from Dr. Suzuki notwithstanding (as yet), it should be pointed out that not only are rumors of Global Warming grossly exaggerated, they may be even completely at odds with the facts. A recent article from Investor's Business Daily reports that a new ice age may be upon us...

Now, Canadian scientists are seeking additional funding for more and better "eyes" with which to observe our sun, which has a bigger impact on Earth's climate than all the tailpipes and smokestacks on our planet combined.

And they're worried about global cooling, not warming. Kenneth Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada's National Research Council, is among those looking at the sun for evidence of an increase in sunspot activity.

Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century. Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The observation of sunspots showed extraordinarily low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no 11-year cycle.

This solar hibernation corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715. Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe.

As seductive (and egocentric) as it is for us to believe that Human activity is significant enough to alter planetary climates, do let us recall, that Mankind occupies a fraction of 1/4 of the planet Earth. The sun transmits daily, exponentially more energy to this planet's surface than the combined output of all nations on the globe since the advent of the industrial revolution, some 200 hundred years ago. Therefore, the idea that Human activity can affect global climate change should be understood as questionable at best and absurd in the very least.


Nevertheless, questionable scientists, opportunistic politicians, and environmental activists insist that Man's activities threaten to destroy the planet's so-called 'precious' ecosystems via dramatic temperature increases from intensified carbon footprints. In fact, the forces of the planet itself and those extraterrestrial forces acting upon it have far more effect on global climate change than those of biological manipulation. Clearly the immediate trends of climatic variation are quite uncertain. A mere 10,000 thousand years ago, glacial ice, miles thick, stretched well into the boundaries of today's United States. Sea levels lingered some 300 feet below that of current coastlines and planetary conditions yielded environments wholely unsuitable to human civilization. The possibiltity of a return to such unhospitable conditions should be an anathema to the judgement of any humanitarian. And yet, the current cult of Global Warming would have us believe that human development should be stifled in the face of a threat that is unsubstantiated and quite at odds with the geological facts. It lends a suspicion as to the motives of the advocates of so-called 'Global Warming' whether their fear of a carbon impact is with the activity of Man...


... or Mankind itself.

Global Warming Hits the Middle East

Major Mike

I guess there is no 'splaining this to the Global Warming mongers. Or I'm sorry, maybe this was caused by Global Warming!?! That way our "green" excuse-de-jour" can hold up under any circumstances.

As Atos points out below - way too early to tell where this is going and how much we can really affect outcome.

This Way to the Egress...

Mr.Atos

First of all, pardon the new look and the temporary mess. We're doing a little site renovation as we kick this thing back into gear. So, say goodbye to the Holocene, and Hello again to My Sandmen.

Robert Roy Britt of Live Science.com brings us the news over the weekend that Humans Force Earth into New Geologic Epoch.

Humans have altered Earth so much that scientists say a new epoch in the planet's geologic history has begun. Say goodbye to the 10,000-year-old Holocene Epoch and hello to the Anthropocene. Among the major changes heralding this two-century-old man-made epoch:

• Vastly altered sediment erosion and deposition patterns.
• Major disturbances to the carbon cycle and global temperature.
• Wholesale changes in biology, from altered flowering times to new migration patterns.
• Acidification of the ocean, which threatens tiny marine life that forms the bottom of the food chain.

The idea, first suggested in 2000 by Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen, has gained steam with two new scientific papers that call for official recognition of the shift.

Keep in mind that the previous three epochs, The Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene, lasted roughly 18.2 Million years, 3.5 Million years, and 1.8 Million years, respectively. The Pleistocene Epoch marked the beginning of Quaternary Period as defined by renewed Ice Ages and tremendous global climate change. The current Holocene epoch is accepted to have begun 10,000 years ago, marked by the termination of the last periodic glaciation of that Ice age, and subsequent global climate change, most notably, general warming of the Earth and a related rise of global sea levels; upwards of 300+ feet. Clearly, with that in mind, Geologically speaking, the Holocene Epoch has hardly begun.

Time will tell, what comes next. An end in the global warming cycle and return of Ice Age activity would naturally mark the beginning of a new Epoch of this current Geologic Period. A continuation of the current 10,000 year-old warming period, however, should mean a continuation of the Holocene Epoch by which it is defined. For now, however, one thing is certain. The structure of Geologic time is roughly determined by the nature of the Earth's biological activity. But, it is the Geologic mechanisms themselves which effects and defines the biological changes that are what is important to scientists studying and understanding the history of the Earth. It is those mechanisms effecting the periodic Geology of the Earth, as slow and persistent or contrarily sudden as they may be, that have proven to be far more powerful than any inconsequential biological staining of the outer patina of the Earth's lithosphere. Like lichens on Granite, human's are little more than a mechanism of geological weathering, and an equally weak one at that.

Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman who is best remembered for his entertaining hoaxes and for founding the travelling show that eventually became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. PT Barnum's original American Museum was located in New York City from 1841 to 1865. There he displayed all manner of oddities and curious attractions; some real, and some not. As it became more popular, Barnum noticed that people were lingering too long at his exhibits, limiting the number of patrons and no doubt encouraging an unwelcomed degree of speculation of their authenticity. He started posted signs indicating "This Way to the Egress". Most visitors at the time did not know that the word "Egress" was another term for "Exit." Baffled and curious, people followed the signs to what they assumed was another fascinating exhibit, only to find themselves outside the musuem unable to return... without revisiting the ticket booth.

In this era of heated debate regarding global climate change, and the nature of Man's effect on the Earth, it seems that many scientists recognize the threat of public scrutiny lingering too long on the spurious exhibits at hand. By redefining the Earth's Geologic record from within, using those very same questionable exhibits, they hope to christen the show, secure belief, and close the door on the subject once and for all, moving the mind toward the egress into a new Epoch defined by the abomination of human existence.

General Sanchez vs. the MSM

dueler88

Retired Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez recently gave a press conference, the full text of which can be read here. (HT: Belmont Club)

When I first heard about the conference on the radio news, the narrative was stated in such a way that Gen. Sanchez was yet another in a long line of military brass that simply don't like Bush or his policies. If the media chose to report factually, rather than to support a political agenda, they might learn something. In this case, they might learn that both the Federal Government AND the MSM are quite simply really screwed up. News flash: when I say "Federal Government," I mean ALL policy members - not just the Executive Branch - are doing a piss-poor job at supporting the U.S. military in its efforts in Iraq.

The General's comments are spot-on. Would that there were more history majors that became journalists - then there might be some understanding of the power that information plays in warfare.

The U.S. Military is doing the best they can within the circumstances. The main difficulty of the circumstances is that the military must be as forthcoming as possible so as not to be presumed as hiding bad news, while simultaneously being subjected to a nitpicking news media that presumes the military is always dishonest - being an arm of the EE-VILLE Bush regime, of course.

The General is also correct in that the Bush administration has done an extremely poor job of communicating the importance of the Iraq campaign within the wider war against Islamic Militants. Although I do have to say that it's extremely difficult to get one's point across when those who distill and summarize one's message already have a preconceived idea of one's motivation. Not only that, but those messengers seem to posses a world-view in which any and every idea about human self-government is just as good as any other.

Okay, so I can sorta see the point of the MSM; that they should report news without showing any bias to a particular world-view. But what the MSM fails to recognize is that the world-views outside of their own situation leave much to be desired in regards to individual liberty, i.e. freedom of the press.

The biggest point the General makes, without explicitly making it, is that the officers (non-com's, too) in the U.S. military are light-years ahead of the MSM in understanding the lessons of history, the meaning and importance of individual liberty, and the role that information and intelligence play in both wartime and peacetime. He slapped the MSM upside the head, metaphorically speaking, and the MSM still didn't hear what he said. I don't suspect that the MSM will get the message until the lovely new NYT building is destroyed by Islamic militants (note to Lefty pundits that wish to presume otherwise about conservatives: I do NOT condone or support any such attack). But Islamic militants are much smarter than the MSM - they understand the value of information as much as the U.S. military does.

I fear a horribly fractured and violent time must be weathered before we can remember that the ideals expressed in the founding documents of the United States are humanity's best shot at realizing humanity's true potential for good.

Choices

dueler88

Today I had my once-every-four-weeks haircut. I’ve having it cut by the same nice woman for the past 15 years. Usually we talk about child-rearing or movies or something harmless. We talked politics for the first time today. Well, not really – she just expressed the determination that she would take her family to Canada if a draft was re-instituted in order to protect her young son (and possibly daughter). This was followed up by some brief expressions about how “wrong this war is.”

She’s probably in the majority here in Moscow on the Willamette. So I cautiously expressed a few alternate opinions about the complexity of the situation, worded in an open-ended fashion that invites additional contemplation. And as with most other verbal interactions I have with people, it is only afterward that I come up with what I should have said. This is not to say that my desire is to win a verbal argument, but to invite the other party to examine things from a different point of view.

On the way back from my appointment, I came up with this one: “One is always free to choose whether or not to fight. But a fight always involves two adversaries. And your adversary, facing the same choice, may just choose to kill you regardless of your choice.”

Then I came up with this one: “Would it be better for your son to be forced to believe in a certain god than it would for him to be drafted?”

The problem I have is that both of these statements, while very obvious to me, are not so obvious to most of the people I encounter. I often feel like nobody even considers such things to be possible in modern America. Sadly, I can’t make people go take a class in World History or Western Civ to learn how truly unique and recent our condition of personal liberty and self-determination is. Even more sadly, the hardest and most important lessons are learned first-hand.

Those statements I make are often met with hostility – either because the other person completely disagrees with the statement, or more perhaps because any statement that is outside of the person’s world-view is automatically met with hostility. Perhaps I should be clearer in such discussions by saying that it is not my intent to force somebody to believe as I do, but to ask that they see the situation from a different viewpoint.

Am I that bad in the art of verbal persuasion? Or are the people I correspond with so unwilling to hear another viewpoint that polite discourse isn’t possible?

What is right About This?

Major Mike

Someone please explain how we got to this point with family law.

A Tale of Two Soundbites

dueler88

I was walking down the street here in Moscow-on-the-Willamette a few days ago, when I observed a middle-aged woman getting out of her Subaru wagon (I think middle-aged leftists are issued these particular vehicles when they arrive in Portland). Most of these Subarus have idiotically trite bumper stickers on them, like "Buck Fush", "Hate is Not a Family Value," etc. This wagon, however, had the most short-sighted bumper sticker I've ever seen: "I'm Already Against the Next War."

News Flash (which won't make it to those who need to hear it): one's decision to engage or not engage in warfare has no bearing upon another entity's desire and/or determination to engage in warfare against you. How about this - since you're not going to do anything to prevent the destruction of my civilization, I suggest you get out of the way so I can put a cap in that Islamic Militant suicide bomber that is standing next to us with his thumb on the detonator. That's a metaphor, mind you; let's hope it doesn't become an actual incident somewhere.

Juxtapose this idiocy against a headline I saw in the USA Today this morning: Guard Passes Goal For Recruits. Wait a second - I thought that the military was supposed to be hard-up for body-bag occupants. The article goes on to say that, as it turns out, appealing to patriotism and "emphasizing the warrior-soldier" are good selling points. Who would have thought? You need committed, combat-minded people in order to be victorious in combat?

Pick a side: the one that won't fight and will therefore lose (and lose pretty much everything of value to them), or the one that will fight and will win if s/he has sufficient will to win.