Recommended Reading

The Left Can't Seem to Get Enough When It Comes to Attacking Western Values
How long will we allow them to corrupt us?
By Walter Williams

The 'Nuclear' Option is not Nuclear
Since when is it a bad thing to follow the Constitution?
By David Limbaugh

Property Rights Under Assault
Is the U.S. following the European path?
By Thomas Sowell

Third Party Liability

"Why anyone would expect better decisions to be made by third parties who pay no price for being wrong is one of the mysteries of our time."
----Thomas Sowell, Dec. 31,2004

New Year Wishes

J.F. Kelly, Jr. is a retired Navy Captain and bank executive who writes on current events and military subjects. He is a resident of Coronado, California. He has some New Year suggestions for the the Bush administration. He says instead of New Year’s resolutions, he offers some suggested national priorities for President Bush and the Congress in 2005. He had 10 suggestions of which I have listed five. They are:

A.) Muster the political courage and will to deal with illegal immigration. In a post 9/11 world, we can no longer afford to ignore the fact that we do not have effective control of our borders and have little idea of the identity and location of those millions who are here illegally. This is clearly not what a majority of Americans want and it is time for them to demand that their government put a stop to it. (HeavyHanded strongly endorses this suggestion.)

B.) Begin reform of our convoluted tax code. It should not require eleven hours for the average short form filer to complete a tax return. The hopelessly complicated tax code fills volumes and is largely incomprehensible to the average American who must hire experts in order to comply with the law. This is a stupid waste of manpower and energy that could be put to more productive use. We need to simplify the process through a flat tax or some sort of value added tax that will produce the same amount of revenue as the current system at a fraction of the cost and aggravation.

C.) Practice honesty and candor in foreign relations. America should stand up for what’s right, (ed. says -this might mean that we would have to use, may I dare say, heavyhanded tactics) not necessarily what’s “balanced” or “even-handed” in an attempt to please everyone. Diplomacy is a means to an end, not an end in itself, as some career diplomats in Foggy Bottom seem to think.

D.) Demand real reform in the United Nations as a condition for continued U.S. support. The problem involves more than just the well-documented corruption. It’s also the fact that the UN doesn’t work as it is currently structured. It is worse than ineffective. As a peacekeeping force and protector of victims of civil strife in such places as Bosnia and Ruanda, the UN has been counterproductive, permitting massacres to take place while blue helmeted “peacekeepers” just watched. The ad-vantages of committee membership are extended to corrupt, dictatorial regimes that use the UN as a forum to denounce us. Security Council membership includes France but not India, a much larger country. What sense does that make in today’s world?

E.) Maintain the political courage to carry through with social security and Medi-care reforms. We are living longer and need to delay retirement benefits to help save these vital programs. The challenge will be to keep older, healthy people in the workforce paying into the system longer.

To see the complete list of his 10 suggestions, go here.

Feminism, Yes, Equality, No

According to an article written by Lydia Lovric of the Winnipeg Sun, feminism is all about revenge, not equality. "One of the biggest lies perpetuated by modern-day feminists is the contention that feminism is about equality. Feminists aren't interested in equality. What they want is revenge. "

FULL STORY

The Fate of the U.S.

Victor David Hanson responds to a question on how long the United States can last as a country:

We are doing very well at over 200 years, and more if we count colonial America. Aren’t we the longest democracy in continuous existence? I will say at least another 200, longer if we solve this dichotomy between a multiracial society (good) and a multicultural society (very bad). It takes generations to build a multi-ethnic state allied to common values and ties, and just weeks for some firebrand to tear it all down.

(emphasis mine)

Watch also our elite in politics, letters, universities, and the media. Do they argue for public service and sacrifice, and talk unabashaedly about honor and shame or do they descend into metaphor, allegory, sarcasm, irony, and nihilism? Some days the op-eds of the New York Times seem right out of late Roman literature with their smug dismissal of the hoi polloi, and the in-the-know uncovering of various machinations and conspiracies by the bogeymen of the military, church, or corporation.

On the right, watch the concentration of vertically integrated concerns that mimic big government and have no loyalty other than to its own profit-mad elite. We have some symptoms of decline, but have a long slide to enjoy, primarily because of the wonderful work of our parents and grandparents, and a constitution and 200 years of allied democratic exegesis to guide us.

Environmental Nonsense

It was just a couple of days ago that I mentioned to my 13 year old son (quite sarcastically) that somehow the eathquake and ensuing tsunamis that caused such horrific devastation and loss of life must be George Bush's fault. Somehow, some way, global warming caused by the big bad USA and most certainly by George Bush was to blame.

I thought this tongue-in-cheek sarcasm was so over-the-top that it was laughable, and so completely and thoroughly removed from reality that no one could possibly reach this conclusion. It was a joke. Ha ha. You know? A JOKE!

Then I read this in Neal Boortz's blog:

The world is finding more ways to blame America for the tsunami tragedy. Already, as I predicted, we have "environmentalists" suggesting that the earthquake, and thus the tsunami, was triggered by global warming which, of course, is triggered by greedy Americans driving SUVs. Now we are learning that the tragedy in these countries was multiplied because they're so poor, and the reason that they're so poor is because the evil United States refuses to end their poverty through some device or another.

Ya' gotta' love it, don't ya'? And not only is it George Bush' fault, but he is also insensitive. Insensitive, you might ask. How so? Well, again form Neal Boortz:

BUSH ACCUSED OF INSENSITIVITY
As predicted, the media is well on its way to blaming the Asian tsunami disaster on the President of the United States, George W. Bush. Didn't take long, did it? Why is he being accused of insensitivity? Apparently, because:

--He was on vacation when the tsunamis hit. An American president is never on vacation. The White House travels with him.

--He didn't rush back to Washington and hold a press conference at the White House

Explaining Bush's absence from public view, a White House official said "The president wanted to be fully briefed on our efforts. He didn't want to make a symbolic statement about 'We feel your pain.' " In other words, he rightly concluded that there was no point to seizing
the tragedy for political gain and making public statements that won't do anything to help the people affected by the Tsunami.

This type of thing has come up before. During the Iraq war, people have criticized Bush for not attending the funerals of soldiers killed in action. The president stayed away because he didn't want to make people in attendance go through metal detectors and be disturbed in their time of grief.

Bush is a man of action, not words. Even after 4 years, the media still hasn't gotten used to it.