Stupidity in “top” American Universities

I thought you had to be smart to get into MIT or Columbia University. Apparently not.

How stupid do you have to be to falsely represent yourself as someone carrying a bomb into the airport where two of the four 9/11 attack planes launched from? A lot of people risk life and limb in non-productive endeavors as the MIT sophomore did, but they don’t intentionally do things that are likely to shut down major transportation hubs. That takes a special kind of self-absorbed, ignorance-cultivated, stupidity - the kind that can only be cultivated in a “top” American university.

How stupid do you have to be to give the leader of the world’s leading terrorist state a global platform to propagandize against America? Once again, it is the kind of self-absorbed, over-indulgent, head-in-the-sand type of stupidity that can only be cultivated at a “top” American university.

How stupid do you have to be to allow the leader of the worlds leading terrorist state to maneuver you into a no-win situation?

There is nothing new to learn about this man. We know it all. He has told us what he stands for. Even if, as the university claims, he will be “challenged” by the students, what will it accomplish? Well, again, he holds all the cards. His mind will never be changed. He can filibuster so that only a limited number of questions can be asked, effectively eliminating the so-called challenge. If the students react to him as they did to the minutemen (which we all know is extremely unlikely), he is given propaganda to take back to his world showing the evidence that Americans are “rude and unholy.” It’s a no win situation, you idiots. Checkmate – he wins no matter what.

Once again, I ask “How stupid do you have to be to let this happen? How hungry for your 15 minutes of fame do you have to be to be eager to play a part in this fiasco? Apparently, you have to be stupid enough to believe the politically correct crap that is fed to students in our “top” universities in 2007, completely ignoring the lessons they should have learned on 9/11. Personally, I think it’s time for a major revision of the syllabus.

New York City officials, by contrast, saw right through the ruse to visit ground zero to lay a wreath in honor of the fallen – his fallen, not ours. What’s the moral of the story?

There are two really:

First, it makes you question the value of a college education, if these are the results.

Second, if you want a real education in New York City, join the NYPD or the FDNY, and stay as far as you can from Columbia University lest it infect you.

What’s Wrong with Iraq Again?

Call me stupid if you must and think you are able to defend it, but what is the problem with the Iraq war again? As far as I can see, Iraq is THE right war at THE right place and THE right time. All the criticisms I hear daily are hollow, oft-repeated lies and/or irrelevancies that gain traction with weak politicians incapable of fighting for principle any more and people stuck in the sixties. Live in the now, people.

Let’s review the criticisms one by one.

• Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction: So what? That wasn’t the basis for the attack. The basis for attacking was that the dictator who lost the first Gulf War that he started 12 years earlier ignored the terms of his surrender. Prior to being invaded, he led us, and the world, to believe that he would retaliate with WMDs in hopes of preventing the enforcement of 17 U.N. resolutions. Anyway, we know he had WMDs because he used them on the Kurds in the 1980s. Verdict: criticism is an irrelevant lie.
• Saddam was not in league with Al Qaeda: Again, so what? That wasn’t the basis for the attack either. Besides, who says that Al Qaeda is the only enemy we should attack? In any case, they follow the same philosophy of ruling the world through terror. It’s a little like the triple-Axis of WWII where if you pay too much attention to Germany, Japan would come after you. Yeah, we should have waited for that to happen (heavy sarcasm). Verdict – the criticism is irrelevant, but given past human history, would probably have become a lie given a few more years.
• We should be going after Al Qaeda; they are the ones who attacked us: You might want to wake up and see that Al Qaeda is who we are fighting in Iraq. Oh sure, there is the Iranian influence aiding and abetting Al Qaeda, but without Al Qaeda, the Iranian government is nothing. Verdict – the criticism is a denial of what we are already doing – a flat-out lie.
• Soldiers are dying in Iraq: That’s right. Soldiers die in wars. The only way to prevent soldiers from dieing in a war is to surrender. The real issue is whether the current engagement and risk of lost treasure is worth the cause. The cause is the survival of civilization since there is no civilization on earth that does not violate Islamic law as interpreted by Al Qaeda. Verdict – True, but irrelevant, fact based on all the other factors on this page and elsewhere.
• We are less safe now than on 9/11/2001 – 3,000 Americans died on 9/11/2001; 0 since then to-date. Verdict: A lie told to you by people who believe you are a retarded, cool-aid drinker. Don’t be.
• The world is less safe now than on 9/11/2001 – Since 9/11/2001 there have been a number of attacks around the globe by terrorists in Madrid, London, and elsewhere. Most of the socialist governments in Europe have lacked the balls to deal with internal threats and many have paid the price. If they haven’t had an attack yet, they will. Russia has seen the terrorist threat to the United States as an opportunity to attempt to revive the old Soviet Union, by making our task more difficult, blocking efforts at every turn. Vladimir Putin, like all socialists, is just not smart enough to realize that he also is a target of Al Qaeda. Verdict: This one is true, but not because of the Iraq war.
• World opinion is against us – Who gives a rat’s ass? Do we have the moral courage to stand up for what is right and, in the process, our own survival or not? The United States is the greatest country the world has ever known, and it did not get to be that way by following world opinion? We ought to be ignoring the U.N. like Saddam did. We, except for the liberal Democrat leadership, are unlikely to attack ourselves over U.N. resolutions, and nobody else has the resources or the guts. Verdict: irrelevant.
• If we stopped the aggression in Iraq, everything would be OK: Yeah, because that worked so well in the days leading up to 9/11/2001 (heavy sarcasm). Incidentally, what is going on in Iraq is not aggression; it is the enforcement of 17 UN resolutions. If you like the U.N., you should be happy that someone is giving it teeth. If you don’t, then let me hear you argue for U.N. dissolution. Verdict: doesn’t deserve a response, but here is one anyway. Try not to criticize while on hallucinogenic drugs from now on.

So I ask again, what is the problem with the Iraq war? It is none of the above for sure. The only real problem is that the Iraqi people have not yet won it. And if WE surrender, THEY never will win it and we all lose.

Wake up and defend your world while you still have one to defend.

Why We Put Up with Hollywood

Americans are the most generous people in the world, despite what the decidedly anti-American Kofi Annan claimed in late 2006 in a particularly idiotic moment – even for him. There is good reason for Americans to be generous. We have been the most blessed in the world as far as material things are concerned, and the breathtaking vistas in many part of the United States cannot help but make the most ardent atheist wonder whether God dwells in their majesty (or at least has a vacation home there).

But the statistics on how much Americans give to charity is incomplete. By most standards, big government, pushed by bleeding heart liberals since the 1960s to give our tax dollars to the poor, has screwed this up as it does with everything that falls outside its three real jobs. It has also skewed the picture dramatically, by taking away some of the money we used to give to the charities we deemed most worthy, and giving to those that liberals deem most worthy.

So what does this have to do with Hollywood? Everything. Hollywood is filled (mostly) with liberal, high-income, entertainment industry types who most of us at the bottom recognize as having unique talent. Most of us also don’t believe that it’s really worth $20 million per movie. But we do pay the ticket and DVD prices that give them that money. So why?

There is a piece of the American psyche that sympathizes with the socialist principle of “from each according to their ability; to each according to their need.” It’s not a huge portion of the American psyche, but it is there. That portion is heavily represented by the entertainment industry.

We conservatives might get extremely irritated with the likes of Rosie and others from time to time, but it is hard to deny that there are many (including Rosie) who do good, noble, and spiritually uplifting work outside the political arena.

Their role in American society is to redistribute a portion of income. That’s what socialism does; it redistributes income. That is what people in Hollywood do. They earn large sums of money from people who can afford their services and redistribute it to those they deem worthy. It is, essentially, the socialist arm of our capitalist society.

Adam Smith’s invisible hand has guided the course of Capitalism in the United States for the 200+ years representing the greatest (and by greatest I mean the most successful and most far-reaching) economic and political experiment the world has ever known. The genius of the invisible hand continues to exert its influence in the charitable sector of our society as well as it reflects the American psyche in matters of money, whether we utilize that money to improve our lives through the enterprise that earns more money or use it to improve our lives through helping our neighbors.

The rants and raves of Rosie O’Donnell, Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn, and on and on are part of the price we pay to run the socialist arm of American Society. We need to remember that when we observe them behaving in this fashion.

I desperately wish that I could formulate the same sort of cost/benefit analysis that would allow me to tolerate the bad behavior of liberals in Congress and the media. I can’t.

The Road to Damascus

First the bad news - Nancy Pelosi has arrogantly followed though on her plan to undermine U.S. foreign policy by lessening the isolation of one of America’s enemies. It has been plausibly argued that this act has provided aid and comfort to all of America’s enemies by virtue of providing aid and comfort to Syria. After all, if she is willing to talk to Syria over the objections of the officials we have elected to actually carry out foreign policy (and, by extension in our democracy, against the wishes of the American people), why would any of our enemies assume she would not talk with them as well? The answer is that they wouldn’t; in fact, they would assume exactly the opposite. When done consciously, aiding and comforting the enemy is the definition of treason. Since I have always doubted the speaker’s consciousness, this is where I must halt my logic. Unfortunately, the damage is the same, conscious or not.

Now the worse news - Statistically, someone in the Democratic Party has to be smart enough to know that these actions aid and comfort the enemy. Whoever that is and however many of them there may be, since they are conscious, they must call for her replacement as Speaker, since her continuing as Speaker would continue to aid and comfort the enemy. I don’t know who they are – but they do, and they have a responsibility to act. If none act, what am I to conclude? Should I conclude that Democrats place partisan politics above the welfare of the country or that none of them are both smart enough and ballsy enough to hold responsible office? I am uncomfortable either way.

Here is the Speakers latest report to the American people. "The road to Damascus is a road to peace."

Well, I guess that depends on who is on the road and what they are driving. If it’s an American-made fleet of tanks driven by anyone on its way to eliminate the current leadership of that once-proud country, then it’s the road to peace. Too often it has been state-supported Hezbollah terrorists driving bomb-delivery trucks toward Israel. That is not the road to peace.

The road to Damascus – Where are Bob Hope and Bing Crosby when you really need them? If Damascus is such a wonderful, peace-loving place, why not take the Speakers activism to the next level? If the Speaker is such a successful ambassador, why not just offer to be the ambassador to Syria, since she seems so anxious to do that job?

Oh yeah, I forgot for a moment – lack of consciousness.

Now the good news – The U.S. Congress, as a body, did no damage today, as its members were either on an undeserved 2-week Easter vacation or overseas meeting with our enemies.

At least, that’s the way it looks down here at the bottom.

Mystery of the Great U.S. Economy

One of the growing number of things that President Bush gets little or no credit for is the fantastic U.S. economy over the course of his administration. This appears to run in (or against) the family and is the fault of the liberal mainstream media in the U.S. encouraged and fueled by liberal Democrats, hungry for ever-more power, both of whom appear to just make stuff up as they go along.

The attacks of 9/11 struck a blow to the U.S. economy that many thought would take years to recover from. According to a September 28, 2001 report from the Fiscal Policy Institute in New York, the economic cost to New York alone was $16.8 billion. The stock market reflected these fears. So I think the fact is pretty well-established that when a skyscraper is destroyed in New York, it tends to depress the economy.

It is now generally agreed among reputable economists that the Bush tax cuts were instrumental in sparing the nation and our trading partners much worse economic performance than what actually came to pass.

Enter the Iraq war, one of the most brilliantly executed and strategic wars in history, the crowning touch to a uniquely patriotic and successful career for which Donald Rumsfeld will never be justly recognized in his lifetime. We won, incidentally, back in 2003. What you currently see in Iraq is the Iraqi revolution – the attempt of the Iraqi people to free themselves from the tyranny of Islamic terrorists (Islamic terrorists are terrorists who have hijacked Islam, incidentally.).

Iraq became a magnet for terrorists because a free and democratic Iraq would mean the expansion of American influence and the loss to terrorists of a safe haven and ally. The fact that terrorists are focused on retaking Iraq means that they are not knocking down skyscrapers in New York or Chicago. That is a good thing. It is a good thing for the people (Americans and legitimate non-citizens) living and working in those buildings. It is a good thing for the U.S. and global economies.

It is the current Iraqi revolution that is enabling the great U.S. economy. It is the current Iraqi revolution and our participation in it (which we should be proud of, just as France was proud of participating in ours) that the anti-war crowd screams about because they have to scream about something, apparently. The anti-war crowd is, by extension, protesting the fact that the U.S. economy is too good, too many skyscrapers are being allowed to remain standing, too many people are being allowed to remain alive in those buildings, and too many families are not being destroyed by the loss of loved ones living and working in those buildings.

For more information on how many lives are at stake in the short run, please see my article of 3/26/2007 – “Dead Heroes=9/11/Victims – The Ignored Upside.”

Thank you again President Bush.
Thank you again Secretary Rumsfeld.

Congress Doesn't Even Disgrace Itself Well

Not only has the U.S. Congress passed bad war funding bills, buying souls and votes for pork in an effort to pass bills that every single person in both houses of congress knows will not be signed into law, but they couldn’t even agree on a unified, bad bill to send to the White House before Easter vacation – a vacation that they neither need nor deserve.

In a time of war, the U.S. Congress takes two weeks for an Easter break rather that complete work on a bill (even a bad one) that would go to the President to fund our troops so they can protect our country.

As long as I’m at it, how many of us get 2 weeks off for Easter? How many of us here at the bottom (You know, the people who pay these hardy vacationers their hefty salaries and fund their ample staffs.) get anything more than 1 day off, usually for Good Friday, and that is usually a floating holiday. The U.S. Congress, however, which continually disgraces itself by passing legislation designed to turn the middle-east over to terrorists, needs a 2-week vacation from its otherwise grueling 3-day work week – not the 5-day work-week we were promised pre-election. On the bright side, it’s 2 weeks during which the Congress is likely to do no further harm.

Not that I hold President Bush blameless. I don’t. Why is he not calling members back for an emergency session of Congress? I thought we were at war. I know we are at war. The soldiers in Iraq are not getting an Easter vacation; neither should the U.S. Government as long as their futures are being held up by partisan politics.

Remember that new direction we supposedly voted for back in November, 2006? It’s now almost 5 months later, and this wasn’t it! We did not vote for the American people to be forced to fight the war on terror on 3 fronts - Iraq, Afghanistan, and the U.S. Congress.

Wake up, people.

Congress Disgraces Itself Yet Again, Part 4

The U.S. Senate joined the House of Representatives in disgrace today by selling out for the same dirty pork that the House members sold out for. Who gets the blame today in addition to the Democratic Party leadership, written off long ago as hopeless, America-hating, white-flag marketers and the Democrats who sold out for pork and/or rubber-stamped the House pork? It’s the Republican members joining them.

Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is seeking the presidency, and has turned on the administration in an apparent effort to court the anti-war vote that the Democrats have convinced him carried the 2006 election. I encourage Senator Hagel to switch parties as quickly as possible. His presidential ambitions are over. Conservative Republicans are not defeatists and will therefore never choose him to carry their banner. The Democrats cannot respect him because of the ease with which he flipped, so despite the fact that they are happy to use him as their pawn, he won’t carry their banner either. But at least if he switches parties, the good people of Nebraska can see who he really is and vote him out of office.

Gordon Smith of Oregon represents the state where our troops are being burned in effigy. Coincidence?

These two senators had the power to stop the Senate from joining the House in the disgrace that is the surrender movement. They declined to step up.

I am sorry to say this as well, but I must. I am sick to death of the people in government (and in the media for that matter) referring to each other as great Americans and patriots. Here at the bottom, people who pander, and surrender, and sell out their principles for pork are never, ever seen as great Americans or patriots. They are seen as third-rate politicians who fear for their own petty, cushy, careers (and little else) while squandering taxpayers’ money and being effective only at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Anyway, that’s how it looks today from here at the bottom. We wanted Victory – You gave us Surrender by a vote of 51-47.

Lies – The Price of Discrimination

On 3/14/07, I published an article titled “Why Did America lie to my generation.” I promised more and I am promising more yet. It’s important and is yet another issue our politicians should be paying attention to but are not because they are too busy trying keep themselves in office.

This article outlines some of the costs of discrimination of various kinds. Knowledge of the cost forces us to ask ourselves if maintaining prejudice is worth the cost. You may think this is a no-brainer in 2007 and if so, good for you. Unfortunately, that is not everyone’s reality as some discrimination is still widespread despite its lack of affordability and stress level increase.

The price of discrimination is that you lose the unique contribution of the class of people that you discriminate against. The price of lying about discrimination is that you lose the contribution of the class of people you are pretending not to discriminate against, plus you further alienate them, plus you will eventually have to eliminate discrimination for real, resulting in at least a double-billing of the investment required to accomplish real non-discrimination.

Sometimes the price can be counted in dollars. Sometimes the price is that we just feel like crap because we know we did the wrong thing. That is a valid cost because that’s what dollars do for us too. Dollars make us feel better because we can bask in the financial security they provide. Either way we, as humans, need to feel good regardless of the feel-good dimension or cause.

Race – we instinctively know it’s wrong to discriminate on the basis of race (at least most of us do). In terms of dollars, we are deprived of the perspective and ideas as well as the maximized economic and tax contribution of about 13% of the U.S. population. We also deprive ourselves and our children of the fruits of our labor as we pour tax money into a welfare system doomed to failure from the beginning, hated by both those who fund it and its recipients.

Gender – Again, we know this type of discrimination is wrong. Discrimination against 50%+ of the population is no longer discrimination; it’s civil war. We also know it’s futile because women will have their revenge no matter what. They always have; they always will. They also see things differently than men, which makes them invaluable in businesses where reaching out to women is essential, which includes every business worth mentioning.

Disabled persons – We are inspired by seeing the disabled being productive in much the same way that we are inspired by putting a human on the moon. There are, obviously potential downsides, hence the word “disabled.” However, these are the people who point out the mistakes we make in taking people and things for granted – the things we never thought about before we allowed them to contribute – ramp access on sidewalks replacing curbs, for example.

Sexual orientation – About the only way to understand anyone who discriminates on this basis any more is that we all know that it’s annoying to have homosexuality thrown in your face, just as it is to have anything thrown it your face. I am not suggesting a “don’t ask, don’t tell” scenario. I am suggesting an “I don’t care, don’t bother me with it” scenario. This is almost totally within the control of the affected class. Having said that, we welcome the creativity and other contributions brought to the table by these community members and miss them when they are absent.

Veteran Status – It doesn’t seem right to be discriminated against because you defended your country. It is currently popular to give war veterans a break. Well, I’m one of them and I don’t remember any breaks, mainly because my war was very unpopular. In fact, I remember some pretty crappy treatment courtesy of Jane Fonda and Jane Fonda wannabes. They are currently at it again, so beware active veterans. The tide can turn on you quickly. For what it’s worth, you’ll always have me. From a dollar perspective, there is the potential for a substantial loss of experience – and not just any experience. We throw away the dogged determination, thorough-training, and crisis-seasoned experience that we need in the business world of 2007 and beyond.

Religion & National Origin – Let’s face it. The problems we face in today’s world – the important problems, the issues of survival – are foisted upon us through the vehicle of religion, and implemented through the tools of state (nationalism). It is time we resurrected a basic truth. Your freedom ends where my space begins. That having been said, no serious person in America believes in this type of discrimination. Profiling is a different matter. That being said, it is the members of these classes who, by attempting to protect the few bad seeds or by rubbing our noses in a known dimension of danger (like the Minnesota Imams did), make the rest of us wary of them all. The vast majority of us want to give you opportunity and benefit from your unique culture. Help us.

Age – We don’t want to go quietly into our golden years. We weren’t raised in quiet times; we didn’t grow up in quiet times; we didn’t foster quiet times; we don’t see quiet times ahead; we aren’t ready for quiet times. We also don’t relish the idea of draining the Social Security system and depriving our children of this valuable resource. This is the dollar cost of age discrimination. If the Social Security is depleted, it will be through the discriminatory actions of those who put us out to pasture.

The common thread through all these elements of discrimination is expressed in a very old, very good book – the best-selling book of all time, in fact.

“…for whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)

Dead Heroes=9/11 Victims - The Ignored Upside

Not too long ago we reached a grizzly milestone in Iraq – to the apparent glee of the blathering anti-war crowd so deeply invested in American defeat. Almost as depressing is the fact that the conservative commentators that I have heard have blown this off as irrelevant. If they don’t believe that they haven’t blown it off, they certainly haven’t emphasized or embraced the silver lining in this dark cloud enthusiastically enough to suit me. They are wrong. It is extremely relevant and extremely silver.

What is most relevant is that the grizzly milestone was reached more that 5 years after 9/11/2001 and after 4 years of combat in Iraq. To see what is most silver, let’s do a little math, keeping in mind that the purpose of the military is, ultimately, to protect the citizenry who supports them at home while they implement and support diplomatic policy and initiatives at home and around the world.

I’ll use round nice numbers in an attempt to keep this simple enough for even the most logic-challenged anti-war activist to follow. On 9/11, 3,000 people were killed by terrorists in an unprovoked attack here on United States soil. REMEMBER? In the months after 9/11, the military disrupted ongoing terror operations that would have killed more Americans – by most estimates, many more Americans. How many? Although I firmly believe that there could have been the equivalent of a 9/11 about every 3 months, I am willing to concede a minimum of 1 per year.

Doing the math based on the minimum yearly 9/11-equivalent, the military and related intelligence has saved about 15,000 (3,000/year for 5 years) American lives at a minimum. The more realistic scenario of a 9/11-equivalent every 3 month would yield a total of 60,000 (3,000/quarter for 5 years) American lives. And this doesn’t even take into account all the dead terrorists who will never harm anyone again, American or other – BONUS! Keep in mind that a single dirty bomb would likely triple this number and a single nuclear strike could send the number soaring into the hundreds of thousands if not millions. Overstated you say? Not with maniacs out there who already have nuclear capability or are trying desperately (happily risking the well-being of their citizens) to develop nuclear capacity and are unrestrained by instructions from their God that using it would be wrong.

So is the military doing its job? You betcha! Has the cowboy from Texas done his number one job? Yep! Do Americans recognize and appreciate it? Based on the polls, I must conclude that they apparently do not.

Are the anti-war, cool-aid drinkers really that anxious to have us all incinerated or do they require some remedial math? I have done my best to provide the remedial math, but, truthfully, I have no clue. Maybe you do.

But I do know two things:

• Right now, this much maligned cowboy-President from Texas, his Vice-President (hated in America for once running a successful American corporation successfully, of all things), and his team are all that stands between you and the next holocaust.
• We have less than 2 years to find someone as tough and principled as President Bush to take his place and be willing to stand between us and the next holocaust despite the politically-correct pressure to surrender and the lack of appreciation demonstrated by the American public.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen of the armed services and intelligence services as well as to your chains of command.