Humbugery

I have no idea if the title of this rant is a real word or not but it should be. Let me set the table first. I have no problem with Jews celebrating Chanukah, Muslims celebrating Ramadan, Wiccans celebrating whatever it is they celebrate. Buddists, Toaists, Pagans or whatever, knock yourselves out. But Christmas is Christmas. The ACLU and much of the left have been mounting an all out assault on this religious holiday and I am having some decidedly un-Christian thoughts about this pond scum.

Every year, like clockwork, the ACLU whittles a little more of our rights to worship and celebrate the Christmas holidays. Don Feder writes in Front Page Magazine:

America was founded by Christians and based on Judeo-Christian values. The
signers of the Declaration of Independence and drafters of the Constitution all
were Christians – not Buddhists, or Wiccans, or Zoroastrians. Were it not for
Protestant Christianity, we wouldn’t have limited government, separation of
powers, a Bill of Rights, or religious tolerance. In short, without Christians,
the United States of America would not exist.

He goes on to add something that many forget:

The brave men who fought and died for America in every war from the
Revolution to Iraq, overwhelmingly were Christians. Count the number of crosses
in Arlington National Cemetery (on federal property, no less). Add the Stars of
David. Now compare them to the number of crescents.
Yet in a nation founded
by Christians on Christian values, defended by Christians from Bunker Hill to
Falluja, primarily populated by Christians, and whose public institutions are
financed by Christians, most references to the holiday that celebrates the birth
of the founder of Christianity have been expunged.

It is an excellent article and should be read in its entirety. Another article worth reading is from The Reporter.com , here is an excerpt:

The actions of the ACLU are clearly subversive in that they are actively
pursuing a course of perverting and corrupting by undermining the morals,
allegiance and faith of Americans, and of America and its institutions. They are
attacking the original intent of our Constitution and in doing that are
attempting to overthrow or overturn the Constitution and its amendments. That is
subversion. Its name, American Civil Liberties Union, masks its true
intent.

I will continue to follow more of this but it is something that Americans need to pay more attention to lest our freedoms become eroded so much that it will be even more difficult to get this genie back in the bottle. Getting freedoms back is harder than losing them. "evil triumphs when good men do nothing".

Oh Really, O'Reilly?

I watch Bill O'Reilly and his "No Spin Zone" on Fox and have always had a love/hate thing going for the star pundit. I find myself agreeing with him on some things and yelling at the TV on others. My wife thinks it is silly to yell at personalities inside a box but I just can't help it. But Bill and I have parted ways in his (probably pre-emptive self defense) taking up the cause of Dan Rather. I am not alone in this observation. Captains Quarters has a couple of thoughts that I agree with completely. More at Wizbang. Dan Rather took forged documents that he knew were questionable and ran with a story for the sole purpose of affecting an election. He was not just a talking head reading a script, he was managing editor. O'Reilly is using the airwaves to come to the defense of Rather as a way to focus attention away from his "indiscretions" and have a way of defending himself of being "slimed". Credibility has dropped to zero in this household.

Just a little more advice

I wrote in one of my previous rants about some advice for the losers in the last election, trying to do my part to help. Some of the advice can be recycled in an advice column to the Media.

Get out more and expand your horizons. Visit exotic places and taste the culture of the aboriginies in the "middle world". There is a vast and varied world out there that needs to be explored. Ohio, Iowa and the unknown expanses of Texas and Alaska. Think of the adventure of being one of the first in your circle to discover the unwashed and stupid masses that inhabit the land known as it was in old maps "Beware, here be Dragons" and find out that armadillos and horned toads aren't really dragons and people from New Mexico are actually Americans. The South is not really an inbred re-run of Deliverence and most everyone in the red states really do know how to read.

It seems that one of the problems with the MSM is that they only consort with people in their own little circle and cannot fathom that there may be "another world" out there that might not fit the pigeonhole scenario.

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

What seems like a long time ago I saw an image that reminded me of a poem I had read in a literature class even longer ago. Watching the toppling of the statue in Freedom Square, Bagdad.

Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land,Who said: Two vast and
trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a
shatter'd visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamp'd on
these lifeless things,The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed;And on
the pedestal these words appear:‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my
works, ye Mighty, and despair!’Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that
colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away.

I decided to write this little musing now because of the things I see going on in the world and how it relates in my mind to the 'shatter'd visage' of Ozymanias. Idi Amin, Mugabe, Milosovic and so many other despots and thugs have joined Saddam and met their end as dictators. Others whose time is short, such as UBL, Zarqawi, Mullah Omar etal may hopefully join this august club soon.

The Freedom and Democracy train seems to keep rolling with the response to the election in Ukraine. Leonid Kuchma and his handpicked Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych are finding out, that to openly steal an election through the use of thugs, intimidation and outright fraud doesn't seem to work anymore. Putin needs to pay close attention to this watershed event in Ukraine. Even with blatent string pulling by Moscow and the attempt to stifle the press, the world and the Ukraine people know the truth and the Russian people are learning the truth. Despite Putins attempts to bring back some of the Communist type government with crackdowns on the Russian press, he needs to worry about another Yeltsin moment. If you keep betting the wrong horse you will run short of capital sooner or later. Even Jimmy Carter would have a hard time certifying this election, and that says a lot.

Happy Thanksgiving...A Look Back

General Thanksgiving
By the PRESIDENT of the United States Of America
A PROCLAMATION
WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"
NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.
(signed) G. Washington

How many straws does it take?

As a follow-up on my previous post on Mr. Annan and the UN, this in from Reuters.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The United Nations is investigating
about 150 allegations of sexual abuse by U.N. civilian staff and soldiers in the
Congo, some of them recorded on videotape, a senior U.N. official said on
Monday.....More
here.

Why has this not been more widely reported? Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Kobe Bryant and Scott Peterson plus the Basketbrawl stories are more newsworthy. What was I thinking? Trivia like this news about the UN, and Darfur and the good news out of Iraq and Afghanistan pale in comparison to "hard hitting news stories". I almost forgot too about Rather "resigning" and Klien being the new head of CNN News.

Meanwhile back at the rant, I bring you this on the OFF.

"....For many months, allegations have been circulating about the
complicity of U.N. officials in Saddam's trickery, including the son of U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan. For his part, Annan has so far refused
Congressional requests calling for U.N. witnesses to testify on their handling
of the Oil for Food program. Annan says he is conducting his own internal
investigation and will cooperate when he is ready.
Such contempt of the rule
of law by the U.N. is revealing. Published reports have suggested that as many
as 270 U.N. and foreign officials may be caught up in the Oil for Food scandal,
including those from some of the nations which opposed U.S. military operations
in Iraq - France and Russia.
It was Annan himself who told a BBC reporter in
September that the Coalition invasion of Iraq last year was "illegal." Last
week, it was suggested at congressional hearings that Benon Sevan, the U.N.
official in charge of overseeing the Oil for Food program, could have benefited
from the under-the-table deals with Saddam....."

Happy Thanksgiving....Tom

Bill Clinton "My Life" and Legacy cont.

The actual video was better. He was pointing at Jennings just as if he was getting ready to say those famous words again "I didn't have sexual relations with that woman". The man refuses to take credit for any of his faults and blames the vast RWC and Starr for everything.
The narcissism and sense of self is astounding. As some would say MUST reading.

The Associated Press
Nov. 19, 2004 - In a prime-time television
outburst, Bill Clinton ripped old nemesis Kenneth Starr and what the former
president portrayed as a gullible media eager to report every "sleazy thing"
leaked from a prosecutor bent on bringing him down.
The exchange came in an
interview with ABC news anchor Peter Jennings that aired Thursday night, hours
after Clinton opened his $165 million presidential library. Clinton blasted
Starr and spoke disdainfully of a national media that he suggested was complicit
in a scheme to ruin his presidency.
"No other president ever had to endure
someone like Ken Starr," Clinton said. "No one ever had to try to save people
from ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, and people in Haiti from a military
dictator that was murdering them, and all the other problems I dealt with, while
every day an entire apparatus was devoted to destroying him."
The former
president said he would go to his grave at peace that, while he had personal
failings, he never lied to the American people about his job as
president.
Clinton added that he doesn't care about what his detractors think
about him. Jennings then said it seemed to him that Clinton did care.
The
former president responded, "You don't want to go here, Peter. You don't want to
go here. Not after what you people did and the way you, your network, what you
did with Kenneth Starr. The way your people repeated every, little sleazy thing
he leaked. No one has any idea what that's like."....more

Can we say petulant little child when refering to an ex-President? Hell yes!

Tsk, Tsk Koffi

Koffi Annan, Secretary-General of the UN is ass deep in alligators over the Oil-for-Food fraud. He is being investigated by his own UN independent commission (paid for with Oil-for-Food money) and led by Paul Volker. He and the UN is also under investigation by the Senate sub-committee chaired by Norm Coleman(R) with co-chair Carl Levin(D). At stake is a 21 Billion dollar fraud and kickback scheme. Graft, bribes, nepotism and all the makings of an HBO drama series. This is the man and the organization that can't come to a consensus on the definition of terrorism, refuses to call the murder of hundreds of thousands in Darfur genocide, has always been the world voice of anti-semetism and has such august members of their Human Rights Committee as Libya, Sudan (of Darfur infamy), Syria and Saudi Arabia. All known for their high standards of civil and humanitarian rights. Uganda, also a beacon of civilization is also in there as well.

And what does the mangement staff of the UN do about these atrocities and scandal? (via LGF)

NEW YORK - United Nations employees were reportedly preparing last night to
issue a historic vote of no confidence in scandal-plagued chief Kofi
Annan.
The UN staff union, in what officials said was the first vote of its
kind in the UN’s history, was set to approve a resolution withdrawing its
support for the embattled Secretary-General and UN management.
Mr Annan has
been in the line of fire over a high-profile series of scandals including a UN
aid program that investigators said allowed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to
embezzle billions of dollars.
But staffers said the trigger for the
no-confidence measure was an announcement this week that Mr Annan had pardoned
the UN’s top oversight official, who was facing allegations of favouritism and
sexual harassment.

Nothing. But cover up a sexual harrassment we will vote "no confidence". Perhaps there should be a new UN Motto..."Billions for graft, but not one sou for copping a feel". Give me a freaking break. Send the whole bunch packing and say adieu.

I am not the only one that thinks that it is time to say bye-bye. With an extensive rundown of more UN perfidy, check out The Fourth Rail.

The New Cold War

Winds of Change.NET

Gee, I wish I had said this. Too good to pass up and should be read in full. I don't agree with all of the points made by Cicero but find this to be quite true.

O'Hehir ignores the corruption of the Europeans and their proxy the UN, who
make a mess of any meaningful application of hard or soft power. 'Soft power'
might be a euphemism for 'corruption' if it became absolute. Objectively corrupt
have become some offices of the EU and the UN: bowing at the terror master
Arafat's deathbed in France; nodding to Hamas, Saddam and Iranian nuke mullahs.
Soft power amounts to making deals. Anyone is a potential customer, regardless
of their moral standing or plain intent. Realpolitik has its place, but total
reliance on soft power may be Europe's weakness: they will deal
with the devil, no matter who he is---the more devilish, the better the
deal

"O'Hehir characterizes Europe as a wholly separate political universe spinning out of orbit from the United States, evolving into something smarter and with more to be optimistic about than America, which is still mired in history:...."

Considering the inflation rate, unemployment rate and GNP of the EU compared to the US I do not think smarter was the best choice of words.

A young Marine, wounded the day before in the face, returns to duty. Early in the day five of his unit are seriously wounded by a booby-trapped enemy body. The day before, one died of this type of incident. His brothers have been shot by white flag waving "insurgents". He and his squad have had to re-take a mosque that was taken the day before and had been re-occupied by the enemy and was producing small-arms fire on his squad. This is the picture that should be portrayed by a real reporter. Instead, we have another Abu Graib moment and an oppotunity for the left media to portray America and its soldiers as the enemy.

I can hear it now..."The inhumanity, the atrocities and the depths of perversion of the United States and its military Imperialist blah, blah blah". Margaret Hassan, Kenneth Begley and many others are just a footnote but let us see Iraqi prisoners with panties on their heads or a Marine doing what he needs to do to survive is a real atrocity!

Update: Bill at INDC Journal has much more. And he also link to me, thanks.

Update: Powerline has a powerful post about this also.

Belmont Club has a story that fits this Marines worldview and the context in which they are performing.