Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Back from vacation, so much to do.
It will be a busy week but there are things that need to be discussed. Obama celebrated his 100 days with a glowing media circus that reflected more of the main stream media's slobering love fest despite over 100 gaffs and real problems of his 100 days that they would have skewered Bush for but they gave Obama a blind eye and an A+++ with big smiley faces and gold stars despite blinding evidance to the contrary. The H1N1 flu media scare is beyond reason as they try to keep themselves relevant by scaring the crap out of Americans, killing the pork industry, and setting the stage for rushed passage of a failed ideology of the past century farce of nationalized, or socialized for us intelligent people, health care in an attempt to keep the love fest going. All the while it has become taboo to talk bad about Obama. He is the second coming, he is the golden boy, he is the answer to all ills and troubles in our lives. This is not healthy to free speech, free thought, or freedom as a principle and ideal by which we Americans live our lives. The media refuses to hold Obama's feet to the fire, point out the inconsitencies, falicies, double talk, and utter hypocracy of what Obama says and does. This is too important to not address as only bloggers, right wing idiots and talk radio hosts, and those who realize Obama is a false profit are doing this. The NY Times, LA Times, USA Today, Network TV and Cable TV outlets fail to cover, well someone has to be a voice of reason, the more of us conservative who do this time and time and time and time again as it needs to be done as it was for the last 8 years. Where are the Obama daily calendars with Obamaisms? Where is the coverage showing his lack of speech when his teleprompter is off? Where are the hard and real questions about his policies that are impact of them on freedom and free market capitalism that the dismantle and threaten to distroy?
Rant of the Month - April 2009
Yes, its that time again, time for another rant of the month. Thanks to an early holiday break, Labor Day in the Communist world, this rant is coming before the end of the month.
Domestic issues – guns, guns, guns everywhere! It's the ‘shark attack’ tactic of 2009! You remember the shark attack news blitz of the 2001, every week it seemed someone was getting bitten by a shark, well by the end of the year shark attacks were down significantly from the previous year. This time its guns, and my friends this is no coincidence. The radical left is giddy over their political win and the left wing elite are taking notice. In a time when newspaper sales are slumping and news agencies dropping like flies we are seeing gun violence plastered on page one articles, lead stories in news broadcasts, and linked up to online news services everywhere. First ask why all the coverage. Columbine is holding its big 10 year anniversary since the horrid day of that true tragedy. A filibuster proof and leftist leaning executive branch can offer the best chance to repealing the 2nd amendment in decades. And lastly, in our modern times do we really need firearms? I believe yes. Hunting is a vital economic industry for many states, a good source of food for many citizens, and a way for families to bond with themselves and the land off of which they live. Firearms, when stored and used responsibly, offer property and personal protection until police can arrive, vital in rural, high crime, and suburban areas where it can take a long time for police to respond, or you can’t call them. Lastly, the FACTS about guns tell the real story. Over half of gun incidents, shootings, are self inflicted, yet the deaths from these are reported as gun violence, again ask yourself why. The next largest section comes from accidental discharge, the old unloaded gun cleaning thing. Then we get to gun crimes. You are more likely to get killed by a bee mowing grass then shot to death. You are more likely to get killed by food poisoning at the local restaurant then shot to death. You are more likely to die from medical errors at a hospital then shot to death. Yet the news is telling us all different, why is that? Remember the old cliché, guns don’t kill people, people kill people? Well, its true. If stored and used irresponsibly a gun can lead to a tragic accident or stolen and used to hold up a store, but so can a hammer, baseball bat, kitchen knife, ice pick, pair of sheers, pipe wrench, plumbing pipe, section of 2x4, you get my meaning. Kids will play with anything and everything, run with scissors and lollipops, and ride bikes without hands. Criminals will use anything threatening to commit their crimes. If a criminal wants to kill you access to a gun will not stop them. 90+% of criminals who use guns obtain them illegally, period. The few who use guns in the news lately obtained them legally and there was no way to stop their intent, if they did not have guns they would have used other means, knives, bludgeoning, fire, auto exhaust fumes, poison, people are creative when inspired to be, and the pain and grief people who kill their families or groups of others will just move to the next most lethal alternative. We just need to enforce the laws we have in place better instead of monkeying with the Constitution because of a cause.
Science – It's a Pandemic! So the news is trying to tell us, see above. The current swine flu going around is a major test to see how well the world lives in a post SARS and HN51 (Bird flu) world. What lessons were learned, will it follow the Hollywood script, how will nations and citizens react? Here is Asia is has hit New Zealand and Australia within 48 hours of first being reported in the US. It will be in mainland Asia in 12 hours I predict. China, Japan, and others are better prepared for this due to experience and practical realization. The US response was lethargic, unrealistic, and reminiscent of Katrina, too little too late. Why didn’t we start to monitor our borders better, our ports, get our metro hospitals into alert status quicker? The flu went from 2 locations to over 8 very quickly, why? Returning spring breakers. Of course if spring break had been used for its intended purpose, Easter break, then we would not be in the pickle but that is a different topic. The reality is kids went to Mexico, business men went to Mexico, and Mexicans came to the US. We are hearing the Democrats blaming the GOP for stripping funding, it was the Dems who offered to do this to ‘buy’ GOP support but that is little reported, but we are beyond pointing fingers (3 always point back at you!) and into reality. The US needs to use this opportunity to prove FEMA has learned from its Katrina debacle, the CDC has authority and power to protect the country, and we are better equipped and able to deal with a medical state emergency then others, sadly this is not the case. In China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan every passenger everyday is screened at the airport for fever, international especially. Here in Asia face masks are common year round, and I still see antiseptic gel dispensers in many locations where public gathering occur. In Mexico City public gatherings are postponed, why not in the US? Obama has pledged 3% GDP to science, that is good and well, but we should use more energy to prove we can cope with a global crisis when it occurs, from here it is looking like the news is trying to incite a panic, the president say to stay calm, and the DHS and CDC running in circles and politicians laying blame and not taking real tangible actions.
Sports – Enough with the madness, please! The NFL wants to expand the season 2 weeks now. Come on, give us fans a chance to catch our breath and relax, have some family time, and just gear up for a new season. Currently we have NBA and NHL playoffs going on, MLB season is a couple of weeks old, and the NFL just completed its draft weekend and already pre-season coverage is gearing up. Why, revenue! They all want more and more of our wallets. Cable TV packages, season tickets, parking fees, concessions, memorabilia sales, official licensing rights. Come on, we all know it's a business and people go into business just to make more money but can we stop this before it becomes pure insanity? What is wrong with a 12 game football season? Do we really need over a hundred baseball games to prove who has the best team? Can the atheist’s bodies really take these longer seasons plus harder competition seen these days? Sure, we can all choose to not watch but what fun is that? Sports for us is more then just watching people run around a field, it's a time honored tradition and way to connect with our neighbors and share a sense of belonging. Why must it be manipulated to such a degree? I want shorter seasons, shorter seasons put more emotion into each game because that game means more. Less games means the time is cherished more because it happens less often. It also means we get more opportunity to spend with family and friends outside of the sports area (we started a family because we liked them at one point, better to keep that feeling then the alternative). In design there is a field of thought that has a strong motto, less is more, its time we applied that to our professional sports.
Society – All the talk in the news is on Obama’s first 100 days. A media created event from FDR to measure the president’s progress. Realistically its much ado about nothing. Bush played a lot of golf and vacationed a lot in his first 100 days. Obama is busy shifting the country from free market capitalism to government controlled socialism. The media is continuing their slobbering love affair with Obama. From morning news programs praising inauguration paper dolls, cable news lauding his and his wife’s every move and appearance it is still an utter love fest. Why, how many negative news articles can you recall about Obama and his administration since November? Come on you can do it; 5, 10, 15, 20? Criticism of Obama in the main stream media is about as token as Jim Carey was on In Living Color. The media’s glancing over his blunders, they lauded Bush’s incessantly, miss steps, they made Bush’s them week long events, and his policy contradictions, Obama gets a free pass while Bush got grilled, all prove that Obama is their darling and he can do no wrong. The media has a fundamental responsibility to be fair, objective, and apply the same standards to all. Thus far Obama gets softballs, free passes, and allowances no GOP person ever got. From the grilling of Palin and McCain to the Bushisms of W., the media has only showered praise and accolades on Obama. He can do no wrong, from praying in a Muslim temple, smiling with Hugo Chavez and Raual Castro, to pulling a John Kerry on Bush administration memo concerning interrogation tactics he gets accolades and 5 big gold star reviews with smiley faces. Where is the media of 6 months ago? Where is the picking apart of each facet of everything we say 12 months ago? Where is the critique and criticism of all possible bad outcomes imaginable 2 years ago? Where is the ‘sky is falling because of the war’ crowd now? Ask yourself why, it isn’t because Obama is perfect folks, its because he is their perfect answer to their perfect world.
Continuing on the social issue category, Iowa in now proudly gay. Not that there is anything wrong with that, yes Seinfeld rip-off. Now the 3rd state to allow gay marriage the zaniness seen in California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, with Vermont joining the sisterhood in September. This is telling for American society and world events on many levels. First off, sexual alignment is now equal with age, race, religion, and gender. The debate is one of tolerance. How far is American society willing to go toward tolerance? Our Constitution states all men are created equal and free to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. The nation was founded out of flight from religious persecution, at first only Protestant Christians were allowed to own land and vote, then eventually Catholics, and then eventually Jews. The only religions never tolerated were my ancestors, not even during or after the Civil Rights movement. The first test of this was recognizing slavery as wrong and contrary to this great document. Next came women’s rights and eventually their right to vote. Then we had civil rights, which only applied to African Americans, Latino descendants had suffrage but not as blatant as others. Native Americans were not allowed many rights until the 1970’s which is the time equal pay for gender was instituted. Now LBGT peoples are achieving the last hurtle, marriage. But what is the meaning of this equality? Civil Unions, identical to Civil Marriages on the books for many decades, granted gays many if not all the same rights as marriage. Marriage is essentially a social contract between a couple explicitly stating sexual union and creating a path of survivorship and family bond as recognized by the church and the state, civil marriages are only recognized by the state as a justice of the peace marries the two, not a person of any church. So, in order for gay marriage to be actual marriage there has to be a church involved, and yes we have gay churches, not that there is anything wrong with that. In this drive for equality it is important to ask, where is the line? Is our discrimination against polygamy next? What about child marriage, both kinds? Sexting, is it to be a juvenile offense or child porn? What about nudists, sadomasochists, and the final big one… d-r-u-g-s. You see, all these fit the same reasons for gay marriage. It's a society question, not a legal one. As our society becomes more and more tolerant we need to step back and ask when does tolerance become deviance? Where is the line and when do you know when you crossed it? What lasting societies before ours has thrived and survived in such a tolerant atmosphere? The reason I ask is that the more we push the envelope the more we paint ourselves into a corner instead of freeing ourselves. Eventually something breaks if you push on it long enough, this could result in anarchy or outright rebellion, which is never good for those in the fringes of society. We need to slow the change bus down a tad to see where it is going, if we are on a cliff on a dark and winding road we may want to exercise a little more caution before turning up the radio and letting all our hair down. There is such thing as changing too fast, that creates a back lash and that ain’t good for anyone.
International – Pirates of the Caribbean they aren’t, scoundrels and a serious threat they are. The Somali pirates finally went and did it, attempted to hijack a US flagged and crewed ship and it did not turn out well for them at all. Since then the crew got publicity, the captain lauded as a hero, the US Navy a saint, and the pirates dejected and sore. The pirates just attempted to hijack a cruise liner, thwarted by onboard armed Israeli paid security forces, mercenaries. The pirates may just provide their own stimulus to the world economy, private navies and high sea mercenaries. Shipping companies refuse to arm their crews and vessels, for good reason, but the need is still there, with hundreds still being held for ransom and millions of tons of cargo and shipping held as well. The navies of the world can’t make a difference, the governments will fumble and stumble their way towards nothing as it is a local problem that can only be solved locally, as usual. Maybe they should all apply for asylum in Iowa. Seriously, this problem is going to get worse before it gets better. The more navies that deal with it as the US Navy did the higher the risk and less attractive the pirate profession becomes. This is only 1 prong in a multi-pronged effort needed. The next is to get security on the ground, with security comes stability and that begets opportunity as business takes root and people can make an honest living. I do not condone killing, but I do applaud consequences for actions, extreme actions call for extreme consequences and if done by the letter of the law. Now the ship’s cook is suing the shipping company for sending them into traitorous waters without proper training. Only in America can you be a hero one minute and then sue your employer for making you one the next, or having your employer fire you to save money, as former US Airways pilot hero Sully. This cook needs a judge to laugh his case out of court, but then again all he needs to do is file in Iowa, I am sure a judge there will treat his case with fairness and respect it deserves.
Culture – Counterculture was the term used to describe the extreme left wing liberals in the 1960’s. You know the type, hippies, college campus elites who rebelled against the system and the ‘man’. Well, here we are 40 years later and guess what, they grew up and got real jobs, well most of them anyway. These counterculture people have went from fringe to mainstream. They are now professors, industry leaders, media moguls, politicians, presidents, and policy drivers. The 60’s love children and anti-establishment types are now the man. They are doing their elders and teachers proud, passing socialists and communist policy left and right and dragging the country kicking and screaming into a new liberal nirvana. Those of us on the outside, conservatives, are now the counterculture. We don't know how to do what the lefties where doing for the past 40 years, until this year. The tea parties held across the country demonstrated that there is a groundswell of backlash brewing, pun intended, against the establishment. While the man is getting smitten in his new threads and digging on his rad new gig, we conservatives are picking up the dropped playbook and becoming surprisingly apt at using it. The tea parties were riled against on all fronts, mass media, celebrities, politicians, police, everyone. That goes to show how much fear organizing a dejected group can stir in the new guard. This counterculture is going to result in a new branded conservative group, hopefully not a new GOP. We conservatives need to shed the errors of our past and embrace the change and rise to the challenges of re-branding. Inclusion, tolerance, respect, and intelligence need to be the new ideals to build off of. We all know the liberal arguments for 90% of what they do is flawed, we only need to expose it for what it is, the rest will take care of itself. Stop the in-fighting and get rid of the GOP, where is the Bull Moose, Wigs, and past Sons of Jefferson now. The new counterculture will not be founded on drugs, sex, and rock & roll, but on values like; integrity, honesty, humility, and caring, on ideals like; tolerance, inclusion, intelligent debate, and issue driven policy, and on one last thing, approachability and empathy. We won’t be sticking flowers down gun barrels, we will be buying more guns for hunting and stress relief. We won’t be beating up those who oppose us, but use intelligent and honest debate to let them beat themselves. The greatest lesson we need to learn from them is humility, their lack of it will be their undoing, and if we grow from the grass roots the tea parties came from correctly, it will happen soon and then all things in the world with be right again, yes pun intended. Have a great month and God Bless America, even the lefty liberal insane part, because it shows us where we don’t want to be.
Domestic issues – guns, guns, guns everywhere! It's the ‘shark attack’ tactic of 2009! You remember the shark attack news blitz of the 2001, every week it seemed someone was getting bitten by a shark, well by the end of the year shark attacks were down significantly from the previous year. This time its guns, and my friends this is no coincidence. The radical left is giddy over their political win and the left wing elite are taking notice. In a time when newspaper sales are slumping and news agencies dropping like flies we are seeing gun violence plastered on page one articles, lead stories in news broadcasts, and linked up to online news services everywhere. First ask why all the coverage. Columbine is holding its big 10 year anniversary since the horrid day of that true tragedy. A filibuster proof and leftist leaning executive branch can offer the best chance to repealing the 2nd amendment in decades. And lastly, in our modern times do we really need firearms? I believe yes. Hunting is a vital economic industry for many states, a good source of food for many citizens, and a way for families to bond with themselves and the land off of which they live. Firearms, when stored and used responsibly, offer property and personal protection until police can arrive, vital in rural, high crime, and suburban areas where it can take a long time for police to respond, or you can’t call them. Lastly, the FACTS about guns tell the real story. Over half of gun incidents, shootings, are self inflicted, yet the deaths from these are reported as gun violence, again ask yourself why. The next largest section comes from accidental discharge, the old unloaded gun cleaning thing. Then we get to gun crimes. You are more likely to get killed by a bee mowing grass then shot to death. You are more likely to get killed by food poisoning at the local restaurant then shot to death. You are more likely to die from medical errors at a hospital then shot to death. Yet the news is telling us all different, why is that? Remember the old cliché, guns don’t kill people, people kill people? Well, its true. If stored and used irresponsibly a gun can lead to a tragic accident or stolen and used to hold up a store, but so can a hammer, baseball bat, kitchen knife, ice pick, pair of sheers, pipe wrench, plumbing pipe, section of 2x4, you get my meaning. Kids will play with anything and everything, run with scissors and lollipops, and ride bikes without hands. Criminals will use anything threatening to commit their crimes. If a criminal wants to kill you access to a gun will not stop them. 90+% of criminals who use guns obtain them illegally, period. The few who use guns in the news lately obtained them legally and there was no way to stop their intent, if they did not have guns they would have used other means, knives, bludgeoning, fire, auto exhaust fumes, poison, people are creative when inspired to be, and the pain and grief people who kill their families or groups of others will just move to the next most lethal alternative. We just need to enforce the laws we have in place better instead of monkeying with the Constitution because of a cause.
Science – It's a Pandemic! So the news is trying to tell us, see above. The current swine flu going around is a major test to see how well the world lives in a post SARS and HN51 (Bird flu) world. What lessons were learned, will it follow the Hollywood script, how will nations and citizens react? Here is Asia is has hit New Zealand and Australia within 48 hours of first being reported in the US. It will be in mainland Asia in 12 hours I predict. China, Japan, and others are better prepared for this due to experience and practical realization. The US response was lethargic, unrealistic, and reminiscent of Katrina, too little too late. Why didn’t we start to monitor our borders better, our ports, get our metro hospitals into alert status quicker? The flu went from 2 locations to over 8 very quickly, why? Returning spring breakers. Of course if spring break had been used for its intended purpose, Easter break, then we would not be in the pickle but that is a different topic. The reality is kids went to Mexico, business men went to Mexico, and Mexicans came to the US. We are hearing the Democrats blaming the GOP for stripping funding, it was the Dems who offered to do this to ‘buy’ GOP support but that is little reported, but we are beyond pointing fingers (3 always point back at you!) and into reality. The US needs to use this opportunity to prove FEMA has learned from its Katrina debacle, the CDC has authority and power to protect the country, and we are better equipped and able to deal with a medical state emergency then others, sadly this is not the case. In China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan every passenger everyday is screened at the airport for fever, international especially. Here in Asia face masks are common year round, and I still see antiseptic gel dispensers in many locations where public gathering occur. In Mexico City public gatherings are postponed, why not in the US? Obama has pledged 3% GDP to science, that is good and well, but we should use more energy to prove we can cope with a global crisis when it occurs, from here it is looking like the news is trying to incite a panic, the president say to stay calm, and the DHS and CDC running in circles and politicians laying blame and not taking real tangible actions.
Sports – Enough with the madness, please! The NFL wants to expand the season 2 weeks now. Come on, give us fans a chance to catch our breath and relax, have some family time, and just gear up for a new season. Currently we have NBA and NHL playoffs going on, MLB season is a couple of weeks old, and the NFL just completed its draft weekend and already pre-season coverage is gearing up. Why, revenue! They all want more and more of our wallets. Cable TV packages, season tickets, parking fees, concessions, memorabilia sales, official licensing rights. Come on, we all know it's a business and people go into business just to make more money but can we stop this before it becomes pure insanity? What is wrong with a 12 game football season? Do we really need over a hundred baseball games to prove who has the best team? Can the atheist’s bodies really take these longer seasons plus harder competition seen these days? Sure, we can all choose to not watch but what fun is that? Sports for us is more then just watching people run around a field, it's a time honored tradition and way to connect with our neighbors and share a sense of belonging. Why must it be manipulated to such a degree? I want shorter seasons, shorter seasons put more emotion into each game because that game means more. Less games means the time is cherished more because it happens less often. It also means we get more opportunity to spend with family and friends outside of the sports area (we started a family because we liked them at one point, better to keep that feeling then the alternative). In design there is a field of thought that has a strong motto, less is more, its time we applied that to our professional sports.
Society – All the talk in the news is on Obama’s first 100 days. A media created event from FDR to measure the president’s progress. Realistically its much ado about nothing. Bush played a lot of golf and vacationed a lot in his first 100 days. Obama is busy shifting the country from free market capitalism to government controlled socialism. The media is continuing their slobbering love affair with Obama. From morning news programs praising inauguration paper dolls, cable news lauding his and his wife’s every move and appearance it is still an utter love fest. Why, how many negative news articles can you recall about Obama and his administration since November? Come on you can do it; 5, 10, 15, 20? Criticism of Obama in the main stream media is about as token as Jim Carey was on In Living Color. The media’s glancing over his blunders, they lauded Bush’s incessantly, miss steps, they made Bush’s them week long events, and his policy contradictions, Obama gets a free pass while Bush got grilled, all prove that Obama is their darling and he can do no wrong. The media has a fundamental responsibility to be fair, objective, and apply the same standards to all. Thus far Obama gets softballs, free passes, and allowances no GOP person ever got. From the grilling of Palin and McCain to the Bushisms of W., the media has only showered praise and accolades on Obama. He can do no wrong, from praying in a Muslim temple, smiling with Hugo Chavez and Raual Castro, to pulling a John Kerry on Bush administration memo concerning interrogation tactics he gets accolades and 5 big gold star reviews with smiley faces. Where is the media of 6 months ago? Where is the picking apart of each facet of everything we say 12 months ago? Where is the critique and criticism of all possible bad outcomes imaginable 2 years ago? Where is the ‘sky is falling because of the war’ crowd now? Ask yourself why, it isn’t because Obama is perfect folks, its because he is their perfect answer to their perfect world.
Continuing on the social issue category, Iowa in now proudly gay. Not that there is anything wrong with that, yes Seinfeld rip-off. Now the 3rd state to allow gay marriage the zaniness seen in California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, with Vermont joining the sisterhood in September. This is telling for American society and world events on many levels. First off, sexual alignment is now equal with age, race, religion, and gender. The debate is one of tolerance. How far is American society willing to go toward tolerance? Our Constitution states all men are created equal and free to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. The nation was founded out of flight from religious persecution, at first only Protestant Christians were allowed to own land and vote, then eventually Catholics, and then eventually Jews. The only religions never tolerated were my ancestors, not even during or after the Civil Rights movement. The first test of this was recognizing slavery as wrong and contrary to this great document. Next came women’s rights and eventually their right to vote. Then we had civil rights, which only applied to African Americans, Latino descendants had suffrage but not as blatant as others. Native Americans were not allowed many rights until the 1970’s which is the time equal pay for gender was instituted. Now LBGT peoples are achieving the last hurtle, marriage. But what is the meaning of this equality? Civil Unions, identical to Civil Marriages on the books for many decades, granted gays many if not all the same rights as marriage. Marriage is essentially a social contract between a couple explicitly stating sexual union and creating a path of survivorship and family bond as recognized by the church and the state, civil marriages are only recognized by the state as a justice of the peace marries the two, not a person of any church. So, in order for gay marriage to be actual marriage there has to be a church involved, and yes we have gay churches, not that there is anything wrong with that. In this drive for equality it is important to ask, where is the line? Is our discrimination against polygamy next? What about child marriage, both kinds? Sexting, is it to be a juvenile offense or child porn? What about nudists, sadomasochists, and the final big one… d-r-u-g-s. You see, all these fit the same reasons for gay marriage. It's a society question, not a legal one. As our society becomes more and more tolerant we need to step back and ask when does tolerance become deviance? Where is the line and when do you know when you crossed it? What lasting societies before ours has thrived and survived in such a tolerant atmosphere? The reason I ask is that the more we push the envelope the more we paint ourselves into a corner instead of freeing ourselves. Eventually something breaks if you push on it long enough, this could result in anarchy or outright rebellion, which is never good for those in the fringes of society. We need to slow the change bus down a tad to see where it is going, if we are on a cliff on a dark and winding road we may want to exercise a little more caution before turning up the radio and letting all our hair down. There is such thing as changing too fast, that creates a back lash and that ain’t good for anyone.
International – Pirates of the Caribbean they aren’t, scoundrels and a serious threat they are. The Somali pirates finally went and did it, attempted to hijack a US flagged and crewed ship and it did not turn out well for them at all. Since then the crew got publicity, the captain lauded as a hero, the US Navy a saint, and the pirates dejected and sore. The pirates just attempted to hijack a cruise liner, thwarted by onboard armed Israeli paid security forces, mercenaries. The pirates may just provide their own stimulus to the world economy, private navies and high sea mercenaries. Shipping companies refuse to arm their crews and vessels, for good reason, but the need is still there, with hundreds still being held for ransom and millions of tons of cargo and shipping held as well. The navies of the world can’t make a difference, the governments will fumble and stumble their way towards nothing as it is a local problem that can only be solved locally, as usual. Maybe they should all apply for asylum in Iowa. Seriously, this problem is going to get worse before it gets better. The more navies that deal with it as the US Navy did the higher the risk and less attractive the pirate profession becomes. This is only 1 prong in a multi-pronged effort needed. The next is to get security on the ground, with security comes stability and that begets opportunity as business takes root and people can make an honest living. I do not condone killing, but I do applaud consequences for actions, extreme actions call for extreme consequences and if done by the letter of the law. Now the ship’s cook is suing the shipping company for sending them into traitorous waters without proper training. Only in America can you be a hero one minute and then sue your employer for making you one the next, or having your employer fire you to save money, as former US Airways pilot hero Sully. This cook needs a judge to laugh his case out of court, but then again all he needs to do is file in Iowa, I am sure a judge there will treat his case with fairness and respect it deserves.
Culture – Counterculture was the term used to describe the extreme left wing liberals in the 1960’s. You know the type, hippies, college campus elites who rebelled against the system and the ‘man’. Well, here we are 40 years later and guess what, they grew up and got real jobs, well most of them anyway. These counterculture people have went from fringe to mainstream. They are now professors, industry leaders, media moguls, politicians, presidents, and policy drivers. The 60’s love children and anti-establishment types are now the man. They are doing their elders and teachers proud, passing socialists and communist policy left and right and dragging the country kicking and screaming into a new liberal nirvana. Those of us on the outside, conservatives, are now the counterculture. We don't know how to do what the lefties where doing for the past 40 years, until this year. The tea parties held across the country demonstrated that there is a groundswell of backlash brewing, pun intended, against the establishment. While the man is getting smitten in his new threads and digging on his rad new gig, we conservatives are picking up the dropped playbook and becoming surprisingly apt at using it. The tea parties were riled against on all fronts, mass media, celebrities, politicians, police, everyone. That goes to show how much fear organizing a dejected group can stir in the new guard. This counterculture is going to result in a new branded conservative group, hopefully not a new GOP. We conservatives need to shed the errors of our past and embrace the change and rise to the challenges of re-branding. Inclusion, tolerance, respect, and intelligence need to be the new ideals to build off of. We all know the liberal arguments for 90% of what they do is flawed, we only need to expose it for what it is, the rest will take care of itself. Stop the in-fighting and get rid of the GOP, where is the Bull Moose, Wigs, and past Sons of Jefferson now. The new counterculture will not be founded on drugs, sex, and rock & roll, but on values like; integrity, honesty, humility, and caring, on ideals like; tolerance, inclusion, intelligent debate, and issue driven policy, and on one last thing, approachability and empathy. We won’t be sticking flowers down gun barrels, we will be buying more guns for hunting and stress relief. We won’t be beating up those who oppose us, but use intelligent and honest debate to let them beat themselves. The greatest lesson we need to learn from them is humility, their lack of it will be their undoing, and if we grow from the grass roots the tea parties came from correctly, it will happen soon and then all things in the world with be right again, yes pun intended. Have a great month and God Bless America, even the lefty liberal insane part, because it shows us where we don’t want to be.
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