Tentative Decisions

I used to listen to the Talking Heads quite a bit back in the day.  One of their songs, "Tentative Decisions" has been running through my head lately.  Considering that the only thing I may have known about Afghanistan when I used to listen to the song was that the Soviet Union was fighting insurgents there, it is curious that it now serves as my personal soundtrack for our nation's current policy on the war in Afghanistan.

What a difference a year makes.  Candidate Obama, in a pre-election interview with Rachel Maddow (Shudder!) on October 30, 2008, admits that our troops in Afghanistan are "under-manned".  You may want to just check out the last minute or two of the interview below.



In March, President Obama announced his "plan" in Afghanistan.  At that time Obama pledged to send 4,000 trainers to Afghanistan, while recognizing the importance of continuing efforts there:

Obama called the mountainous border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan “the most dangerous place in the world.”

“This is not simply an American problem — far from it,” Obama said. “It is, instead, an international security challenge of the highest order. Terrorist attacks in London and Bali were tied to al-Qaida and its allies in Pakistan, as were attacks in North Africa and the Middle East, in Islamabad and Kabul. If there is a major attack on an Asian, European, or African city, it, too, is likely to have ties to al-Qaida’s leadership in Pakistan.”

The president added: “The safety of people around the world is at stake.”

To recap, Obama believes that we are under-manned in Afghanistan and world safety is at stake if the problem is not addressed.  Yet, Obama is still fumbling around for a decision.  How can you have a plan, and 7 months later still not be able to make a decision.

James Taranto had an interesting opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal today entitled, "While the President Golfs - Afghanistan, once a necessary war, is downgraded to someone else's mess."  Taranto points out White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's interview last week where he opined:

Before you commit troops, which is--not irreversible, but puts you down a certain path--before you make that decision, there's a set of questions that have to have answers that have never been asked. And it's clear after eight years of war, that's basically starting from the beginning, and those questions never got asked.

Then Taranto hits it out of the park in my opinion:

Hang on a second. It has now been 51 weeks since Obama was elected president, and more than nine months since he took office, and he's just now getting around to asking the "questions . . . that have never been asked"?

But that's not really fair to Obama. After all, he has a busy schedule, what with golf games and pitching the International Olympic Committee and date nights and Democratic fund-raisers and health care and the U.N. Security Council and Sunday morning talk shows and saving the planet from global warming and celebrating the dog's birthday and defending himself against Fox News and all.

"I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way," FoxNews.com quotes the president as telling servicemen. As for the servicemen who are already in harm's way: Jeez, guys, be patient! He'll figure out what to do about Afghanistan as soon as he gets around to it.

And that really is the point, isn't it?  This is the guy with the finger on the trigger that he says he will never use.  God forbid we ever have a crisis that requires an immediate response.  Playing a game of Horse with his advisors to decide which one to listen to is not really the kind of decision making paradigm that the Commander-in-Chief should be using. 

In the words of Taking Heads frontman David Byrne:

I wanna talk
I wanna talk as much as I want
I'm gonna give
I'm gonna give the problem to you

Decide, decide
Make up your mind

Obama Is A Feminist?

When it comes to my knowledge of the ins and outs gender politics (a phrase I recently learned) I could probably be compared to Fred Flintstone.  I generally rely on a mix of common sense and experience to guide me in most things, but feminism has me baffled.

I thought that feminism was about empowering women to be equal, but it turns out to be much more complicated than that.  For example, I thought that only women could be feminists.   I learned that this is not true, at least in some circles.  In fact, I was quite surprised to learn that President Obama is a feminist according to feministsforobama.org.



Well, Obama was a feminist during the Presidential campaign anyway.  Many feminists supported candidate Obama over candidate Hillary Clinton, because "his support for gender equality has been unwavering."  I wonder if the support of these feminists for Obama remains as unwavering as Obama's support for gender equality.

Obama has wavered on the public option for health care, on support for the war (at least in Afghanistan), and is apparently a basketball chauvinist.  That's right. I said it.  In March, Obama failed to fill out an NCAA Women's tournament bracket after all of the fanfare of filling out one for the men's tournament.  Now it comes out that the President has not invited any females to participate in White House basketball games.  Perhaps the President is uncomfortable with setting a pick on a female opponent or guarding her too closely, although perhaps that is not a feminist way of thinking.

I also learned today that the President has gone on more golf outings in his 10 months in office than President George W. Bush did his entire presidency.  It took President Bush over two years to accumulate his total, and you may recall that he stopped playing golf because he believed it was inappropriate during a war.  But I digress...  The important thing is that in all those rounds of golf, President Obama reportedly has not played with any female golf buddies until yesterday.   Maybe he just remembered that playing golf with only guys is not what real feminists do?

The feminist President isn't going to get over that easy is he?  He won't if the National Organization for Women has anything to say about it.  NOW President Terry O'Neill doesn't like this hint of gender segregation.  O'Neill wants a 50/50 cabinet and presumably 50/50 everything else as well.  That sounds more like forced parity to me than equality.  If you choose someone using gender as a qualification, isn't that discrimination by definition?

I tell ya its almost too confusing for a cave man like me to absorb.  Maybe you can help me figure out what really troubles me with all this.  If everybody is equal and White House basketball games go 50/50 co-ed, will they still play shirts and skins?  More importantly, if they do, will the games be televised on CSPAN?

Scattershots

A selection of uplifting stories from around the web...

• According to a story from Chicago's CBS affiliate, 115 out the 800 girls that attend Paul Robeson High School are pregnant. Though some do, not all girls are getting support at home - "some girls get thrown out of the home." Many factors are believed to be at play, but absentee fathers were cited as a crucial component. Is this enough to start banging the traditional family values drum and discuss some of the negative ramifications of feminism, or is that still not politically correct?


• Foxnews.com is reporting that with 11 child deaths added to the toll this past week, the total is up to 86 children who have died from H1N1 since the illness resurfaced last spring. In September and October 43 deaths have been reported, of note since the CDC has seen winters where 40-50 child deaths total.


• On Wednesday the President announced that he would like to send a $250 "economic recovery payments" to every American senior. This would total about $13 billion. Economic recovery payments. Right. You know, it used to be that bribe money would be in the form of cash, slid under the table in a dark corner of a mob-run restaurant. Nowadays you apparently hold a press conference and let the postman deliver the check.


• This dude just turned 18. He's from Nepal, is 22 inches tall, weighs 10 pounds, enjoys karate, and is single, ladies. "I keep on telling my father to find me a small wife,” he said. “Now it’s up to him to find a right match. I would love to have children but have not yet decided about the numbers.”


• In the late 1960's, Captain Kirk encountered a being from another planet and was forced to put the smackdown. And by smackdown I mean throw a few punches then run away.
  
  

Times, They Are a Changin'

Back in fourth grade we had a special day where we were supposed to come to class dressed as what we wanted to be when we grew up. Well, at the time, I wanted to be a detective or a P.I. - you know, some tough guy with a gun like on all those 80's cop shows.

So I donned some dress pants and a button down shirt. I think I may have even had a toy badge that I put in my wallet. But a real cop doesn't hit the streets with merely a badge. I took my black, toy cap gun - it looked something like a trimmed down .44 magnum - and wore it all day in my dad's shoulder holster. On my belt I wore a speed loader case. That was empty, which, to a fourth grader, severely hampered the authenticity of the charade.

That was a great day. And I couldn't help but think of that day when I heard the story yesterday of that six year old Cub Scout in Delaware who was initially going to have to spend 45 days in reform school for bringing his camping knife with. Just last night, the school board amended the code of conduct, and the little menace known as Zachary Christie could be back on the monkey bars as soon as - right now.

How ludicrous. This "weapon" had four attachments - fork, spoon, bottle opener and knife. He brought it with to have lunch.

"He eats dinner with it," Zachary's mother said, "breakfast, and everything else, so it never occurred to him that this would have been something wrong to do."

I really don't know what to even think when I hear stories like this. Are we collectively losing our minds? Are we really so unable to use common sense and judgment that a situation like this needed to get national media attention before a reasonable decision could be made?

Perhaps it's just trickling down from the top. What does it mean about common sense and judgement when our President seems to think that a decision on health care has to be made right away, today, now, NO DELAY! Yet we apparently have all the time in the world to determine how we're going to deal with the war in Afghanistan.

And while we're waiting on that decision, we were able to make the decision to allow Russia to inspect our nuclear facilities and COUNT OUR WARHEADS?!

I really don't know what else to say, folks. You take it from here in the comments. Since I touched on 80's cop shows, I'd like to leave you with arguably the baddest television cop of all time: meet Mr. Sledge Hammer...

Not For Self, But Country

The Navy currently has no official motto, but I understand it used to be the title of this post. I guess that kind of describes what was on my mind earlier today.  It was a mixture of pride for my country and personal melancholy that I felt when I saw that the USS New York left New Orleans on its maiden voyage to New York to be commissioned on November 7th.  The New York is a transport/cargo ship that is suited for carrying a Marine amphibious force, including related landing craft and aircraft. 

As you may know, the USS New York, USS Arlington and USS Somerset are three sister ships that were named in memory of the 9/11 attacks.  The USS New York is the first to be commissioned, and includes 7.5 tons of steel in its bow reclaimed from the wreckage of the World Trade Center.  Please check out the great website dedicated to this ship.

As an Army vet, I can attest that there has always been a rivalry with the other branches of the military service.  However, it is with the utmost sincereity and respect that I wish smooth sailing to the Squids that crew the New York, and straight shooting to the Jarheads that deploy from it.

A Political Circus - Six Tips to Being a Better Candidate

One complaint I often hear from other Regular Bros and Gals is that candidates for national office can't relate to the average person.  You may not have the money or name recognition to immediately start campaigning for federal office, but if you have the urge to serve you can start out at the local level and work your way up.  The words hockey mom, city councilperson, mayor, governor, vice presidential candidate, and potential presidential candidate come to mind. 

Any political campaign can be a circus.  I'm certainly no expert, but I'd suggest aiming to be more like the ringmaster rather than one of the clowns.  If you do decide to start your political career by campaigning for a local election, I have some tips for you.  

After living in Minnesota during Jesse Ventura's campaign and moving to Southern California just before the recall election that eventually ushered in Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar, I thought I'd seen just about everything.  It made me wonder whether I was perhaps the harbinger of non-traditional political campaigns.  So it was that I waited with bated breath for the political circus to come to town after I moved to Memphis a couple of years ago.

I did not have too long to wait.  Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, recently resigned amidst scandal (and also so that he could focus on running for U.S. Representative - go figure).  As a result of Herenton's resignation, a special election is now in the works. This campaign does not feature any porn stars or former child actors like the California special election, but it does include a former professional wrestler and a diverse cast of characters.

WWE commentator and Hall of Famer Jerry "The King" Lawler, perhaps best known for his 1980's feud with comedian Andy Kaufman, has once again cast his hat in the ring.  Lawler lags in the polls but may be looking to bolster his campaign by bringing the National Education Reform Tour to Memphis.  The tour includes, Al Sharpton, Newt Gingrich, and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and if it happens is supposed to shed light on Memphis city school's dismal record.

Brohica's first tip for candidates. This is a case of too little too late.  Last minute ploys don't often work well unless they highlight something great about you that nobody knew already or unless they effectively smear your opponent.

 Lawler is the tamest of the less traditional candidates, and a wrestler as a candidate is old news post Jesse Ventura.  Possibly the most colorful candidate is Robert "Prince Mongo" Hodges.  Hodges defies description, as the excerpts below from a recent debate illustrate. 


 

Brohica's second tip for candidates. No electorate, local or national, is ready to take a candidate seriously who may be a space alien or is simply a space cadet.

Another candidate in the race may have walked out of a Cheech and Chong movie.  Leo Awgowhat appeared at the same debate wearing a t-shirt that looked sort of like a Wheel of Fortune puzzle which read “Go _ _ _k Yo_rself”.  Awgowhat's platform is in part:

I will go decriminalize marijuana and focus on the hard drugs, the real drugs, the junkies, keep them out of Memphis, and it’ll be a better place to live. And I would use The Pyramid. It’s not being used for anything. Well, let’s let Memphis take it for [unintelligible] — Let’s be known for something in the world. Let’s be known for having the best pot. It sounds like a good idea to me.

I'm not sure the mayor has the power to supersede state law in that regard, but at least Awgowhat has goals I guess.

Brohica's third tip for candidates. If you are running for office in the Bible Belt, look up the term in Wikipedia before you pay the cost of an application.  If you are too stoned to look it up in Wikipedia, you probably aren't candidate material.

On a blog entitled The Chief, I discovered some other great tips for would be mayors, including a summary of Awgowhat's ramblings.  Rather than belabor the point, I'll go straight to the tips I gleaned from that article.

Brohica's fourth tip for candidates. If you are running for office and you like to tip back a few every now and again, remember that the local police may some day work for you.  When you get belligerent with them and ask them "Do you know who I am?" chances are they do and they no longer want to work or vote for you.

Brohica's fifth tip for candidates. Don't cheat on your spouse.  If you have cheated on your spouse and your ex-lover suddenly wants you to start talking dirty on the Internet, you might first consider whether they have an ulterior motive such as ruining your campaign.  Incidentally, this is a good general purpose tip as well.

Brohica's sixth and final tip for candidates. If you have a disagreement with the local elections board, try to work it out in private.  If a public meeting is necessary, it is generally a breach of decorum to ask anyone (even a frustrating election board) to suck any part of your anatomy.

If you do consider running for office, I hope these tips have been helpful.  If there is no way on God's green earth that you would ever enter the center ring, I hope you have at least seen how entertaining politics can be.  Either way, get out there and participate.

Morning Constitutional

I couldn't agree with you more Bro.  I heard about the Apologist-in-Chief's award shortly after my morning constitutional.  As the Brits might say, interesting timing that.

Speaking of relieving oneself, did you see the quote from Democratic National Committee communications director Brad Woodhouse?  "The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists – the Taliban and Hamas this morning – in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize."  What a load of... well I think you can see the theme here.

If Khadafi, Hugo Chavez and Kim Jong Il also had a morning constitutional, does that mean I am an evil dictator or that they also had burritos for dinner last night?  Obviously not, but what would you expect from the mouthpiece of the party of change?  Perhaps repealing the First Amendment is the change we need?

The Nobel Peace Prize is greatly coveted, but lets face it, it is hardly objective. You have to wonder about any award that has recognized Yasser Arafat and snubbed Mahatma Gandhi.  I mean, the panel is made up of five former Norwegian parliamentarians, "two Labour, one Socialist Left, one Conservative and one Libertarian."  According to my old friend Wikipedia, the Labour Party is officially a social democratic party committed to social democratic ideals.  The political stance of the remaining members is pretty clear, and it sounds like a 3-2 vote for Obama based solely on political grounds.  Even Kanye West couldn't have kept this panel from giving the award to a "progressive" rather than a deserving recipient.


We don't need Nostradamus to forecast that this is the shape of things to come.  The more the President apologizes, the more he will be publicly acknowledged and our country will be privately reviled. It is strange to think of Obama in contrast with another American President and Nobel Prize winner who is perhaps best remembered for his favorite phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick."  Teddy Roosevelt was, among other things, a war hero and the patron of the conservation movement in America.  He won the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering an end to the Russo-Japanese War.  I'm just not seeing the similarities.

One good thing has come out of this story for me.  If I run out of TP I have some new fodder for my morning constitutional.  

Nobel Peace President

I understand that I should be proud that the President of my beloved United States was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Yet, as has already been frequently stated, I do not feel he has earned it yet. I'm no Norwegian, but I would suggest that someone be awarded the prize based upon their accomplishments, not what they symbolize.

Perhaps you've already heard the story of Irena Sendler. She was one 180 candidates for the award in 2007 when the award was bestowed upon the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change and former Vice President Al Snore for his sequel to The Day After Tomorrow. Okay, maybe not specifically for the movie, but they were sympathetic with his efforts to propagandize what is, at best, scientific theory.

Then there is Ms. Sendler. Ms. Sendler, born on February 15, 1910, in Warsaw, was a Catholic social worker who helped smuggle some 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto, saving their lives. Ms. Sendler died in Warsaw on May 18, 2008.

"Every child saved with my help," she once stated in a letter to Polish parliament, "is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory."

Is the Nobel Committee a recognizer of accomplishments or a political activist group? I wish I could be proud that my President had received such a prestigious honor, but I find myself only able to hang my head and laugh in embarrassment. I hope that my attitude toward Obama will change, and that he will accomplish something during his tenure as Commander in Chief that will make him truly worthy of the honor. But that's just it - he will have the honor regardless.

In a piece about the decision on Reuters, I came across a couple of interesting quotes.

The first came from a man named Issam al-Khazraji, a day laborer in Baghdad. "He doesn't deserve the prize," he said. "All these problems - Iraq, Afghanistan - have not been solved... The man of 'change' hasn't changed anything yet."

The other comes from Liaqat Baluch, "a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a conservative religious party in Pakistan." In the article he is said to have called the decision an embarrassing "joke."

There are those that will say that anyone who is critical of Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize are Republican idealogues at best, racists at worst. So I leave you with these comments to once again that show that wherever you go - wherever you go - you can find a Regular Bro.

144% Better Healthcare?

An interesting column went up today at Politics Daily by Wendy Button, a writer who has penned speeches for the likes of Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John Kerry, and Barack Obama.

In it, she discusses how the simple act of moving from Washington, D.C. to Massachusetts - the current Mecca for governement intervention in United States healthcare - resulted in a 144% increase in her insurance premium. She had no change in her health and no change in coverage. Just a significant change in price. I wonder if it makes her feel 144% better?

I do not agree with all her points, but she does ask one very good question: "How could all of these weeks and months go by and no one is examining and talking about what has worked and what hasn't worked in Massachusetts?"

That's easy: congress likes to think they're 144% smarter than the rest of us.

Hocus Pocus Blowing Smokus

Finally, some good news from inside the beltway. It has been reported that health care bill pending before the Senate Finance Committee “would cost $829 billion and cut the budget deficit by $81 billion over 10 years”. Don’t you just hate those infomercials or news teasers where you think, “Hey this sounds pretty cool!” only to be tricked into wasting your time waiting for the inevitable letdown.  The phrase "blowing smoke up my a$$" comes to mind.

First of all, my handy dandy U.S. deficit counter indicates that we are about at $11.93 trillion and climbing. So $11.93 trillion less $81 billion, carry the one… leaves approximately an $11.85 trillion deficit. Whoo-hoo!

Not to question the Washington Wizards (not the basketball team), but I sense some sort of strange alchemy going on here. The bill requires all individuals to have health insurance and subsidies to help some people pay for it. So either you, your employer or the government is going to be paying someone since everyone is required to have health care. I wonder what will happen to you if you roll the dice and don’t have insurance.

Also included in the bill are new regulations for insurers. Among them are a prohibition on rejecting coverage for pre-existing medical conditions, and a tax on higher-cost insurance plans. I think I am beginning to see where the money to subsidize people who can’t afford the mandatory insurance is going to come from. Insurance companies are not going to make these changes free of charge. Oh wait, the government can bail them out, so it’s all good.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said the bill would “probably” result in continued budget deficit reductions in the years after 2019. Now there is a ringing endorsement. Further, original CBO estimates indicated the plan would cost $774 billion and cut $49 billion from the deficit over 10 years. So, by spending $55 billion more, we are able to save $52 billion?

On top of all that, Committee Chairman Max Baucus called the bill "a smart investment" and gushed, "Our balanced approach to health reform has paid off yet again". This is the typical DC shuffle, call it good and sidestep or pass the blame for the fiasco later.

I’m not an economist or a math whiz, but I did grow up in South Dakota. Please believe me when I tell you that it doesn’t take too many times of stepping in BS to recognize BS when you see it.

Health Care Spin in Obamamerika

 As reported at foxnews.com, Obama apparatchiki have invited 150 doctors to participate in his health care speech today.  This is reminiscent of the health care town hall meetings with the invite only guest list, and raises some questions in my mind.

Did these doctors bring their own lab coats or were they issued?

How much did these lab coats cost the taxpayers?

Were the doctors' travel expenses paid for with my dime?

How many patients are receiving poorer health care today because their doctor is in D.C.?

Is the spin ever going to stop long enough for a real debate?

Is this really part of the change that America needed?

Keep the faith Regular Bros and Gals.  As someone said, its going to get worse before it gets better.

Give Me Liberty - Politically Correct Remix

There are a number of stirring declarations that bring out my inner patriot.  Among them, in no particular order, are:

• "Give me liberty of give me death!" Patrick Henry
  
• "(W)e here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Abraham Lincoln
  
• "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." Thomas Jefferson
• "Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I'm not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be." John Wayne 

There are many more of course, but among them is not likely to be, "We're not gonna be impeded by sinners and nuts."  Nor am I printing up any T-shirts that say, "We're back in the game because they're screwing up... It's nothing we've done."  South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is apparently not fond of cynics like Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly.  Graham does not want to be affiliated with demagogues like Rush Limbaugh or nut jobs like those crazy birthers.  Graham does want us to support the Democrats, but does want us to support our President so we can win the war.  OK, 0.5 out of three ain't great.

I think Graham could well be the poster boy for those who want to embrace the grass roots groundswell, except for all the crazy hut jobs.  Beck, O'Reilly and Limbaugh are entertainers, but they are entertainers who are supported by millions of conservative fans.  It sounds to me like there are a lot of regular bros and gals who are going to be left out in the cold if Graham speaks for his peers.

Perhaps I need to be clear.  I am not a Republican, I am a conservative. Being a conservative does not make me an RBD (Republican By Definition).  Yes, I am probably more likely to support a Republican candidate, unless there is a better conservative option.  However, like many others I have had my fill of professional politicians.  It is because of career politicians that our country is in the mess it is in now.

Graham was part of the Republican Revolution and came into office with the Contract With America crowd.  He was part of the Repulican majority that ruled both houses of Congress for a while.  You may recall the majority that did nothing to slow the growth of big government?

If you boil down the backlash that is going on in this country, it becomes apparent that it is ultimately a protest against big government.  Taxes, health care, bailouts and the creep of socialism are all the stepchildren of big government.  Republicans are supposedly the fiscally and socially conservative party, right?  If Graham and other namby pamby Republicans are going to marginalize the "nut jobs" (i.e. independents, libertarians, disillusioned conservatives, patriots, etc.) along with the Democrats, the Republicans will be wondering why their numbers have again dwindled in Congress after the next election.  I can just see the future Wikipedia entry dedicated to the Conservative Exodus.

In the hope that some candidate out there is interested in addressing the concerns of displaced conservatives, I have a message from Thomas Paine. "Lead, follow, or get out of the way."

Familiarity Breeds Respect

I'm sure that some find this proposition contemptible, but I really do think that familiarity breeds respect.  I'm not talking about street respect, I'm talking about old school traditional respect.

American poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Men are respectable only as they respect."  While I don't hold with all of Emerson's transcendentalist philosophy, I do agree with some of his assertions about the power and responsibility of the individual.  Emerson's essay entitled Self-Reliance is about one of the human characteristics that I respect the most.  Consider this passage:

And truly it demands something godlike in him who has cast off the common motives of humanity, and has ventured to trust himself for a taskmaster. High be his heart, faithful his will, clear his sight, that he may in good earnest be doctrine, society, law, to himself, that a simple purpose may be to him as strong as iron necessity is to others!

If any man consider the present aspects of what is called by distinction society, he will see the need of these ethics. The sinew and heart of man seem to be drawn out, and we are become timorous, desponding whimperers. We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death, and afraid of each other. Our age yields no great and perfect persons. We want men and women who shall renovate life and our social state, but we see that most natures are insolvent, cannot satisfy their own wants, have an ambition out of all proportion to their practical force, and do lean and beg day and night continually. Our housekeeping is mendicant, our arts, our occupations, our marriages, our religion, we have not chosen, but society has chosen for us. We are parlour soldiers. We shun the rugged battle of fate, where strength is born.

Emerson notes that society is comprised of individuals, and ebbs and flows through the actions of those individuals.  The strength of these individualists is respect. Almost 170 years later, it is hard not to see the parallels to current events. 

The President of the United States used to be one of the most respected public offices in the world, before it was reduced to being a pitch man for whatever private interests supported that candidate.  As reported by Raph in his post DENIED!, the President was unsuccessful in his attempt to sway the IOC to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chi-town.  I can't help but think that this was a move to reward Obama's Chicago backers.  The international community did not respect Obama's play, and neither did some black Americans especially in light of the many issues the entire country is facing.  One commentary that I found particularly interesting was the Sandra Rose post criticizing Obama for his Olympics junket while kids are dying in Chicago.

Of course, the post above was referring to the beating death of Derrion Albert.  The 16 year old honor student was walking home from school when he apparently got caught between to groups of kids that were fighting.  Derrion was reportedly hit in the head with a piece of broken railroad tie.  By the news accounts, it appears that Derrion was the kind of individualist that Emerson was talking about.  He sounds like he was struggling against the norm in his neighborhood by exceling in school and avoiding gang affiliation.  I can't imagine that it will be too long before we kearn that the altercation Derrion walked into was related to someone's perception that they had been dissed. 


I was also struck by Paul's comment to Raph's DENIED! post.  You see, Paul lives in the town where I spent my formative years, and I am happy to hear that it is still a place where a kid can walk home from school without fear of being accosted by thugs.  Of course, we never had the President showing the slightest interest in protecting our commuinity.  We never had to.  Most of the time a neighbor or someone else that knew us or our folks would have already alerted our parents to our misdeeds before we got home.  We had a healthy respect for parental authority, or at least parental punishment.

Hunting was big in Aberdeen, and firearms were and probably still are very prevalent.  I started shooting a bow in grade school, began hunting with firearms at age 12, had a permit to carry a handgun at age 16, and I occasionally brought my shotgun to school so I could hunt pheasants on the way home.  I did live in the country.  It never occurred to me or my friends to use a firearm in a fight, or a broken railroad tie for that matter.  We respected the power of firearms, and any respect earned from fighting was earned by old fashioned fisticuffs.

Don't get me wrong, this was not an idyllic country town where everyone said sir and ma'am. I also believe it isn't a place where you kill someone who disses you, or commonly call women bitches or hoes.  However, it was and is a place where lone motorists passing each other in opposite directions on a deserted stretch of highway acknowledge the other with a wave of some sort.  It's an unwritten code of respect.

Those of us who promote conservative American values, and respect for American tradition and history daily face the scorn of sycophants that have convinced themselves that such beliefs are contemptible.  That is because familiarity breeds contempt... among contemptible people.

No More Bad Guys?

I know, I know - some of you may be wishing I'd jump off the movie train for more than a single post. But after my American Grit post and Brohica's It's a Mad Mad Mad Administration, I just had to post this pic that was just released by Empire magazine from next summer's action epic, The Expendables.

You must know I'm an unabashed Sylvester Stallone fan. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that we were both born on July 6. I still wish Marion Cobretti was a real person so he could be named Secretary of Defense.

Regardless, I love seeing Sly with half a dozen bodies on the ground around him, his arms up in the air as if to say, "Are there no more bad guys that need killin'?"



The Expendables, sure to be a Regular Bros kinda flick, hits theatres August 20, 2010.

DENIED!

In what was just unleashed as breaking news at FoxNews.com, in spite of President and First Lady Obama's star power, the Windy City was eliminated from contention for the 2016 Olympics in the first round of voting. Or perhaps not "in spite of," but because of.

I have a sneaking suspicion that we're seeing the beginnings of some serious Obama fatigue. I know I'm experiencing it. I think our President needs to start learning that he can no longer lead on personality alone.

Did no one in the administration think that it might come off as just a smidge condscending to think that Obama could glide into Copenhagen and woo the Olympic voters with his platinum charm and million-dollar smile? I hate to say this, since I do have a soft spot for Chicago, but I think this is the best possible outcome.

Mr. President, time to realize you're a mere man like the rest of us. Enjoy your piece of humble pie.