Congress Comes Through

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Even after you find some fault with Congress, they come through with a 234-197 vote on extending the 15% tax rate on dividends and capital gains. I guess when they set their mind on doing something based on principle, they can get something passed that encourages the economic well being of this nation and its people.

The Digital Divide

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If you read George Will's column today, you'll find a pretty good slap down of the ever increasing welfare-state junkies in Congress with the most recent decision to pass a $3 billion dollar subsidy for folks who have failed to convert or make their TVs ready for digital signals. So what this means is that the folks who shell out their own hard earned money every month on cable and satellite service or who have decided to buy the TVs that are digital ready, will also have to shell out some of their money to help these "poor folks" get their much needed TV.

As with the BCS investigation, excessive pork spending, and other spending boondoggles, our Republican controlled Congress has followed the lead of their Democratic colleagues and continue to demonstrate that they are so willing to alleviate some problems or please some group that they just throw away their principles of fiscal restraint and personal responsibility. Instead of finding ways to waste money, they could cut that $3 billion from the budget and send to LA, reform Social Security, make President Bush's tax cuts permanent, reduce farm subsidies, and secure our borders, which would at least do something worthwhile and have a positive and lasting impact on this nation. But being Congress, they prefer to waste yours and my money to make sure that folks can watch Jerry Springer, Soap Operas, and reruns of Murder She Wrote. And the media and folks in D.C. wonder why Congress is the least popular branch of our federal government.

An Thread In The American Tapestry

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I have to say that this piece by Peggy Noonan over at OpinionJournal (E-Mail Registration) is probably one of the best arguments against illegal immigration that I've read in a long time. Take a look:

There are people who want to return to the old ways and rescue some of the old attitudes. There are groups that seek to restore border integrity. But they are denigrated by many, even the president, who has called them vigilantes. The New Yorker this week carries a mildly snotty piece by a writer named Daniel Kurtz-Phelan in which he interviews members of a group of would-be Minutemen who seek to watch the borders with Mexico and Canada. They are "running freelance patrols"; they are xenophobic; they dismiss critics as "communists" and "child molesters."

How nice to be patronized by young men whose place is so secure they have two last names. How nice to be looked down on for caring.

And they do care, that's the thing. And pay a price for caring. They worry in part that what is happening on our borders can damage our country by eroding the sense of won citizenship that leads to the mutual investment and mutual respect--the togetherness, if that isn't too corny--that all nations need to operate in the world, and that our nation will especially need in the coming world.

This is what I fear about our elites in government and media, who will decide our immigration policy. It is that they will ignore the human questions and focus instead, as they have in the past, only on economic questions (we need the workers) and political ones (we need the Latino vote). They think that's the big picture. It's not. What goes on in the human heart is the big picture.

Again: What does it mean when your first act is to break the laws of your new country? What does it mean when you know you are implicitly supported in lawbreaking by that nation's ruling elite? What does it mean when you know your new country doesn't even enforce its own laws? What does it mean when you don't even have to become an American once you join America?

One thing you have to give Noonan credit for is her ability to really understand the American people and their concern that millions of people flood across our border illegally every year and no-one aside from the people seems to care about returning to a more sane immigration policy. I just hope the folks in Congress read Peggy Noonan's piece and get a better understanding of what pulls the strings of the American tapestry, if not, then we have bigger problems than I thought.

Sprawling, After Midnight

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Glenn Harlan Reynolds has a great review of Robert Bruegmann's new book Sprawl: A Compact History over at Tech Central Station. While a lot of people at various college campuses, newspapers and in the government have been tying themselves in knots lately about "urban sprawl," - which is when various people have take flight from the large metropolises to settle in outlying areas thus taking the city's tax base as well as it stores with them - Reynolds notes that Bruegmann shows in his book that people have been moving out of these cities for hundreds upon hundreds of years to escape the dangers of epidemics, a desire to be in the countryside away from the frantic concrete jungle, escape from pollution, crime, or high priced homes/apartments like in Los Angeles or New York. Reynolds also points out the Bruegmann's book also quashes the critics complaints that urban sprawl causes people to get "above themselves" or seriously degrade nature and its infinite beauty. During college I did a little research and writing on "urban sprawl" but I doubt it reads as good as Professor Reynolds has to say about this interesting book, just take a look:

The biggest complaint against sprawl, as Bruegmann repeatedly points out, seems at core to be that some people are getting above themselves. Nobody, he writes, complained about sprawl when it involved the spectacular country estates of the rich: "Sprawl is subdivisions and strip malls intended for middle- and lower-middle-class families." He notes the irony of Pete Seeger's condemning "little boxes made of ticky-tacky" when they represented working people's hope for a better life, and compounds the irony by noting that those same houses are now "being reappraised by hip, young urbanites who see them as charming period pieces."

There's much more to Bruegmann's book, both in terms of numerous statistics, charts, and graphs, and interesting arguments (among other things, he suggests that low-density living may be more environmentally friendly, and may encourage its occupants to be more interested in the environment than they would be if they lived in urban warrens, since people move to suburbia and exurbia in order to be close to nature).

As Artemus Ward famously observed,

"It ain't so much the things we don't know that get us into trouble. It's the things we do know that just ain't so." Bruegmann's book makes a strong case that a lot of the things we think we know about sprawl just ain't so. I hope that it gets the attention it deserves.

All in all it looks like Robert Bruegmann's book Sprawl: A Compact History, has finally introduced some sanity to the hysteria that seems to have emerged lately on "urban sprawl." So my best advice is for ya'll to get the book and learn something interesting.

Stretch Play

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While we have a lot of people clamoring on about how our efforts in Iraq are failing and that we should get out of there as soon as possible, there is also a large part of America that sees the war in winnable but will just take some time. In fact, Harvard Law School Professor William J. Stuntz has an article over at the New Republic (Registration Required) that notes how the US should continue to keep pushing forward in our fight for democracy and freedom in Iraq rather than tucking our tails and booking out of the region that some folks in the US want us to do. Stuntz opens up his wonderful piece by noting that more often then not that when nations achieve quick and easy victories much like Hitler's blitzkrieg attack on Norway, Denmark and France in 1940(2 months) or Napoleon's conquest of Spain in 1808(2 months) they generally have never achieved lasting results but when you slough through a long and protracted war with a goal or a set of goals and fight for what's right, you will discover that you end up greater results. Stuntz points out that we only have to look at our own history and our experience during the Civil War to see how a long war can achieve greatness. The professor noted that even though massive quantities of blood and lives were spilt and lost to achieve victory during the Civil War, it was necessary to rip up all the roots and branches of ideas of succession and slavery once and for all to ensure that this great nation would never again become a "house divided." Well, Stuntz believes that the same principles of staying in the fight for the long haul that Lincoln promoted during the Civil War can apply to our fight in Iraq. I'd say we're approaching a "tipping point" towards achieving a sea change of freedom and democracy within Iraq if we continue to stick it out and fight the good fight. I think the good professor pretty much summed up our efforts in Iraq in the following paragraphs:

Today our forces and Iraqis are fighting together and, slowly, winning a good and noble war that holds the hope of bringing to millions a measure of freedom they never knew before. And yet today, America seems ready, even eager, to concede defeat and withdraw: a sad twist on the famous George Aiken formula for extricating American soldiers from Vietnam. It sounds bizarre--why would anyone want to throw away the chance of such a great victory, when victory seems within reach? But it isn't bizarre. On the contrary, it has happened before.

Again, consider the politics of the Civil War. In 1863 the Northern street--the term didn't exist then, but the concept did--rose, and New York saw the worst rioting in our nation's history. The rioters' cause was ending the draft on which Lincoln's war depended. A year later Lincoln seemed headed for electoral defeat, even as Grant's and Sherman's armies seemed headed for decisive military victories. Victory often seems most elusive to civilians when it is most nearly within soldiers' grasp. And noble causes often do not sound noble to the nation whose sons must fight for them. (Those who do the fighting understand: Lincoln had the overwhelming support of soldiers in the field, and I would bet my next paycheck that today's soldiers overwhelmingly support fighting through to victory in Iraq.) In many American towns and cities, then as now, the cause of freedom for others did not seem a cause worth fighting and dying for.

But it is, partly because--as Lincoln saw better than anyone--others' freedom helps to guarantee our own. A world where Southern planters ruled their slaves with the lash was a world where Northerners' rights could never be secure; if birth and privilege and caste reigned supreme in the South, those things would more easily reign elsewhere, closer to Northern homes. Lincoln had it right: Either democracy and freedom would go on to new heights or they might well "perish from the earth." So too today. A world full of Islamic autocrats is a world full of little bin Ladens eager to give their lives to kill Americans. A world full of Islamic democracies gives young Muslim men different outlets for their passions. That obviously means better lives for them. But it also means better and safer lives for us.

It'd be nice if Dean and company would read Stuntz's piece and realize that preaching defeat or calling for a early retreat from Iraq is the last thing we need to do. We've come too far and have devoted enough money and lives towards reaching this goal to just foolishly throw it away because a poll shows diminished support. In the long run people tend to favor principled leaders rather than the finger in the wind politicos. I guess that's why Lincoln is a role model to us all.

Ultimate Baseball Fan Gift

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Now this would be a sweet Christmas present, if you've got $600,000 to spare. This blows my $30 limit on gifts out of the water big time.

This Day We Shall Never Forget

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December 7, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy...

FDR



As you go about your busy day today, take time to reflect and honor the thousands of people who were killed on this tragic day.

Turn Out the Lights On Tookie

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As I was watching The Jaime Foxx Show yesterday on BET, I came across an advertisement for a special in which a collection of Hollywood stars will speak out for "their brother Tookie Williams and his fight against crime and gangs." Now I'm all for standing up for someone who has been railroaded or wrongly convicted but Tookie Williams is not an innocent man. Yeah, he might get various accolades from the press and his Hollywood friends - who seem to be in this because of their opposition to the death penalty - because of his denunciation of gang violence, the publication of kid's books and his nomination for the Nobel Piece Prize but the simple fact is that the co-founder of the L.A. Crips street gang is a vicious murderer. Though I've read several accounts of Tookie's crimes, I think this piece by Jack Dunphy over at National Review Online provides a detailed description of the heinous acts committed by Hollywood's current cause celebrity. Here's just a sample of Tookie's blood deed:

On February 28, 1979, Stanley "Tookie" Williams and three other men drove in two cars to a 7-Eleven store in the city of Whittier, California, a suburb southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The lone clerk on duty at the time was 26-year-old Albert Owens, who was sweeping the store's parking lot when the men arrived. Owens apparently believed the men to be legitimate customers, for he put down his broom and dust pan and followed them into the store. Williams, armed with a sawed-off shotgun, forced Owens into a back storeroom. After ordering Owens to lie on the floor, Williams fired a shotgun blast into the store's security monitor. Then, though Owens had offered no resistance at all, Williams fired two blasts into the prostrate man's back, killing him. When an accomplice asked Williams why he had shot Owens, Williams explained that he didn't want to leave any witnesses. The accomplice would also later testify that Williams told him he killed Owens "because he was white and he was killing all white people."

Williams and his three accomplices netted about $120 in cash for their efforts that night.

Less than two weeks later, at about five in the morning on March 11, Williams went to the Brookhaven Motel at 10411 South Vermont Avenue, less than a ten-minute drive due east from Los Angeles International Airport. After breaking into the motel's office, Williams shot and killed 76-year-old Yen-I Yang and his 63-year-old wife, Tsai-Shai Yang. Next he killed their daughter, 43-year-old Yee-Chen Lin. As in the Owens killing, the murder weapon was a 12-gauge shotgun. The take in this crime was about $100.

Williams was identified as a suspect in the killings and arrested. In March 1981 a jury convicted him of all four murders and also found true the "special circumstances" that under California law exposed him to the death penalty, to wit, multiple murders and murder committed during the act of robbery. The jury recommended the death penalty, and on April 15, 1981, the trial judge did in fact sentence Williams to death.

What I find hard to believe is that even after reading these facts not to mention this fact sheet of Tookie's crimes that have been compiled by L.A. County district attorney Steve Cooly, the "Save Tookie" campaign is still running with all cylinders and is begging Governor Schwarzenegger to give him clemency and prevent his December 13, 2005 execution. These celebrities might find it fashionable to raise Tookie up on their shoulders but they seem to forget that he did kill four people thus forever robbing them from their grieving families. I can assure you that had Tookie rolled up in Beverly Hills or some other ritzy neighborhood and killed some family member of theirs, they would probably be clamoring for Williams execution much like the family members of Tookie's victims. Since we are a nation of laws that are grounded on principles of rights and wrongs, Tookie Williams must lose his life for the gruesome killing these four people who weren't doing anything but trying to earn their own way of life in America. If you are willing to gun down four people for $220 then you should be prepared to pay for your crime, which in Tookie's case will be death by lethal injection. (Its a shame his death will be more humane that what he doled out on his victims.)

Keep On Keepin' On

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While we have various politicians out there calling for a rapid withdrawal from Iraq or note (in the worst impersonation of CBS's Walter Cronkite I've ever seen) that the situation is "un-winnable," there are also others who see the matter in a different light. Looking through the press, I came across this piece by Gerard Baker over at The Times that provides an honest yet positive look at Operation Iraqi Freedom. While he admits there has been some obvious problems of the US and its coalition partners getting out of the starting blocks in Iraq but noted that the ongoing work has not only freed the Iraqi people from the iron fist of Saddam and put them on a path to become a democracy but has also been a catalyst for an explosion of freedom throughout the region. I particularly like these paragraphs in Baker's commentary:

This is a wholly understandable reaction. We'’re overwhelmed every day with the hard statistics of loss: Britain may soon endure its 100th death of a serviceman in Iraq; America has just passed the 2,000 mark; tens of thousands of Iraqis have perished. We have spent billions of dollars, not always efficiently. These are tangible, measurable losses; hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, billions.

Success is less tangible. It is articulated not in the indicative but in the subjunctive: potential threats removed; future wars that don'’t have to be fought. It is numbered in the unenumerable: the slow awakening of human freedom; the steady, incremental spread of dignity it brings to people cowed and trampled for decades.

And yet it leaves its mark in tangible ways, even in the turmoil of Iraq. In a couple of weeks, Iraqis will go to the polls in their millions for the third time this year (the exercise of democracy can be habit-forming, can'’t it?). This time they will choose a government that will have real power over the direction of the country. It will be a genuine first in the history of a region where medievalist tyranny has enjoyed five centuries of extra time.

Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein, the most powerful living expression of that legacy, the tormentor of his own people and oppressor of others, stands trial for his crimes.

And the success in Iraq, intangible as it is, was never just going to be confined to the country itself. Look at the broader map of the Middle East.

In neighbouring Syria, another unlovely old regime is cornered. The push for freedom that began in Iraq is steadily wresting Lebanon away from its status as a fief of Damascus. The Syrian dictator is feeling the painful consequences of his attempt to halt the spread of liberty by the old fashioned method of assassination.

In Iran, the proximity to a liberated Iraq is alarming the theocratic thugs who run the country and energising their enemies in the rest of the population.

I guess Dean and company are so preoccupied with the thought of enacting some kind of takeover of the Republican controlled Congress via their anti-Iraq, anti-Bush campaign that they're willing to sacrifice the success of our nation and the future of freedom in the Middle East. Maybe they should move away from focus groups and polls and focus more on standing by the President and this nation when its at war.

Death By Multi-Culturalism

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Have you ever heard the statement "death by a thousand cuts"? Well, Leo McKinstry has an excellent piece over at the Weekly Standard that demonstrates how the whole hearted embrace of multi-culturalism on the British Isles is slowly but surely destroying everything that's special and distinctive to ensure they're not insensitive to the feelings of various cultural, ethnic and religious groups. By being so devoted to the concept of multi-culturalism and turning away from the English language, history, laws and culture in general, the British government fails to properly assimilate its immigrants to society thus creating an powder keg in England that will eventually blow-up like it did in France. When you have hundreds of groups asking the government for a special accomodation when it comes to education, law, language, voting and Lord knows what else they can think about, you slowly add an extra cut to a pretty steady society/culture until you eventually kill it. To truly understand the detrimental effects of this religious conviction to multi-culturalism in Great Britain, you only have to read the following paragraphs from Leo McKinstry:

Another extreme episode that was much discussed in the media five years ago illustrates how multiculturalism can undermine the management of social services. At Haringey Council in north London in February 2000, an 8-year-old child from Ivory Coast, Victoria Climbie, died after suffering a catalogue of cruelty, beatings, and neglect by her great-aunt, Marie-Thérèse Kouao, who claimed that Victoria was possessed by the devil. Social workers and the police, alerted repeatedly to Victoria's plight, were reluctant to intervene because they did not want to appear culturally insensitive to Kouao's beliefs or methods of discipline. Indeed, the prevailing mood in the Haringey social work office was one of perverted antiracism, where the woefully incompetent casework manager, Carole Baptiste, held meetings in the dark to discuss African witchcraft and spent much of her time talking about oppression of black women. "It is hard to say how mad it was," recalled one black social worker. "There were some black staff members who would not speak to white people. Aggressive racial politics permeated the office."

The English patriot and maverick socialist George Orwell wrote in 1941, "England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their nationality. In left-wing circles, it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution." More than 60 years later, multiculturalism has provided the ideal vehicle for the left, which now predominates in civic Britain, to exercise its destructive influence. The neurotic official obsession with the politics of racial identity has destroyed any shared sense of national belonging. As the Asian writer Kenan Malik has put it, "The problem is not that ethnic minorities are alienated from a concept of Britishness but that there is today no source of Britishness from which anyone--black or white--can draw inspiration."

Britain is fast replacing nationhood with a hierarchy of victimhood, with different ethnic groups living in conflict, each trumpeting its own sense of grievance. Age-old liberties, like freedom of speech, are disappearing; a play in Birmingham was recently closed down because a mob of Sikhs threatened to destroy the theater, claiming to be offended by the content of the production. Meanwhile, the endless British accommodation of Islamic extremism, in the name of racial tolerance, has allowed terrorism to flourish in our midst. According to one recent survey, 13 percent of British Muslims support home-grown terrorism, a terrifying thought given that there are 1.6 million Muslims in Britain.

I just hope someone gets a hold of this situation before the UK becomes a dying state like France, that has no direction or identity because the government wanted to assuage the feelings of various identity groups.

It's a Democracy Thing

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I just finished reading Duncan Curre November 23, 2005 article in the Weekly Standard on President Bush's week long trip to Asia and noticed how unwavering the President is in his devotion to the democractic values we hold dear. If you could hack through all the anti-Iraq rhetoric in the US Congress and the media's continued promotion of such feather ruffling, then you would know that the President held Japan, Taiwan and South Korea as nations that have fully embraced democracy and how China and North Korea could learn a lot from these beacon's of freedom. Now I know that their is a lot of critics out there who keep yammering on and on about how the President shouldn't naively impose American styled democracy on the rest of the world but I think they fail to see that the President is actually promoting the time honored principles of freedom and democracy that Presidents like Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, FDR and Reagan have always promoted. In fact, the President presented a clearly defined and well reasoned argument for how countries with differing societies and cultures can flourish by adopting the various ideas of democracy. Here's a look at the President's views on democracy promotion:

The president also made a broader point about democratization: Each nation must find its own path. That is, exporting democracy does not mean exporting American democracy. It means exporting such values as freedom of expression, property rights, the rule of law, constitutionalism, and representative government--and then letting individual cultures sort out the details. Seen in this light, the Bush Doctrine is hardly a function of cultural imperialism (as its critics on the left charge) or Utopian idealism (as its critics on the right protest).

"As you embraced democracy," Bush told his Japanese audience, "you adapted it to your own needs and your own circumstances. So Japanese democracy is different from American democracy. You have a prime minister--not a president. Your constitution allows for a monarchy that is a source of national pride." Which is how it should be. Democratic practices and institutions, if they are to survive, must be tailored to a people's distinct traditions and social mores. You can't fit a square peg into a round hole; and you can't expect the seeds of democracy to flourish without taking proper measure of the soil in which you're planting them. As Bush put it, "Japan is a good example of how a free society can reflect a country's unique culture and

history--while guaranteeing the universal freedoms that are the foundation of all genuine democracies."

"I have experienced this transformation of your country in a highly personal way," he explained. "During World War II, my father and a Japanese official named Junya Koizumi were on opposite sides of a terrible war. Today, their sons serve as elected leaders of their respected nations. Prime Minister Koizumi is one of my best friends in the international community. We have met many times during my presidency. I know the prime minister well. I trust his judgment. I admire his leadership. And America is proud to have him as an ally in the cause of peace and freedom."

I have to say that the same can emerge within Iraq, China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Burma, Cuba and other nations darkened by tyranny. The only problem is to get the media to pay attention to what the President has been saying about freedom and democracy since 9/11. In fact, this lack of the MSM attention is the main reason why blogs, talk-radio and internet news-sites are so popular.

Allen could become GOP Quarterback in 08

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According to this piece by political watcher Lee Bandy in South Carolina's The State, Senator George Allen of Virginia is making strides with the conservative base and will be a viable alternative to the squishy conservatism of John McCain when it comes to 2008 Republican Presidential nomination. Though I'm still hoping for Dick Cheney to run, I have to say that I'm clearly in the Allen column and will make it my duty to promote his run in 08. For me, anyone who is a proven conservative through and through, and truly promotes conservative ideas like less government, lower taxes, energy independence, the promotion of judges in the mold of Scalia, Thomas and Roberts, and a former governor of a southern state like Virginia, they've got my backing. He also resembles my kind of president because he likes to chew skoal, wear cowboy boots & hats, loves hunting, fishing and football and listens to country music. Though McCain would get my vote on issues like his opposition to wasteful pork-barrel spending and his unwavering commitment to our fight in Iraq and the overall War on Terror, he loses it on issues like campaign finance reform, taxes, economics and countless other policies that he favors that are way too progressive (really they're liberal) for me to deal with. So unless Ronald Reagan or Barry Goldwater(the 1964 one) re-materializes within the next two years, Allen is my racehorse in the 08 sweepstakes. So let the games begin.

BCS Wackiness

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Last night a friend of mine called a we got on a conversation about College Football and how we both looked forward to USC thrashing the Longhorns in the Rose Bowl, so we didn't have to hear the "Texas is awesome" speak on ESPN. (Now if the Mack Brown's Texas boys had to go through the SEC gaunlet unscathed, then I'd be celebrating for their success, but a big 12 Championship doth not make the National Champs and the same goes for USC.) As we carried on about the various games and teams that would be playing today, he told me that the US Congress was thinking about holding hearings on the BCS system and its various problems. Now I'm all for people having some sanctioning body providing some oversight over college football but I think the federal government and our Congress can find better things to look over. Instead of bringing some college presidents and head coaches before the American people, I think they should set their sights on things that they've been elected to do such as: Fighting Islamic terrorism, securing our borders, simplifying our tax code, cutting pork and wasteful spending, fighting crime, easing constrictive regulations on businesses, passing an energy bill that promotes more exploration and allowing more refineries, securing our electricity transmission lines, ensuring social security for future retirees or find a way to crack down on crime or the silly judges who have made a mockery of our criminal justice system by giving rapists, murders and other low-life's light or silly sentences. At least with my list, they can find ways to return America back to the American people or ensure that our way of life is structured and safe from criminals and terrorists. While I hate the current BCS system and all of its problems, I still prefer the current system with all of its warts than the mess that would be created by Congress. I prefer that he NCAA, college coaches/athletic directors/presidents, and everyone else involved to sort the system out because they know more than Congress will ever know about college football.

Since I'm one who loves tradition and would hate it if college football lost its allure of historic rivalries and pageantry because someone felt they "wuz robbed," because their team didn't get a chance. So my advice is that they should go back to the pre-BCS days, where at least it seemed to work out pretty good for the 100 plus years of college football. At least you had a more sporting chance that any team could be in contention for a good bowl game and have a chance of winning a national championship rather than the two teams that were ranked 1 and 2 at the beginning of the year are at the top at the end of the year. The one thing I can say is that for G-d's sake, keep Congress out of college football before they sally this great sport.

There's Got to Be a Lawyer Joke in There Somewhere

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Here's Christopher Hitchens' take on Saddam's addition of former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark to his defense team. It's interesting what kind of people crawl out of the wood-pile when a murderous tyrant is put on trial for their crimes. I'm just wondering if folks like Clark would be defending folks like Saddam if President Bush wasn't the president but Clark jumped at the opportunity to defend Slobodon Milosevic at the Hague after Clinton launched a war with Serbia over Kosovo, so you could say he's an equal-tyrant opportunist and seems to crave the spotlight by hovering around folks like Slobo, Saddam or Kim Il Jong. Well I'll let you read Hitchens' views on this septuagenarian peace activist and his continued attraction to defend some of the world's most horrific dictators.

An Epic Fight between Good and Evil

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"Now that I am 50 I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness."
--C.S. Lewis


Though I noted in a previous post that I'm waiting to see Peter Jackson's forthcoming version of King Kong next week, it pales in comparison to how much I'm anticipating the release of Disney's film adaptation of C.S. Lewis's epic series The Chronicles of Narnia:The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe(TLTWTW). If you liked LOTR with its epic battles of Middle Earth, the fight between the forces of good (Hobbits, Humans, Elves, Gandolph, Emps) versus the forces of evil (Sauron, Sarumon, Orcs, Wraiths) then you'll enjoy TLTWTW with its coverage of the fight between the evil White Witch who has turned Narnia into her wintry hell and the Christ-like Lion Aslan and his loyal following that includes four children from Earth. While I'm no scholar of C.S. Lewis or his work, I still know about his works and writings and since I'm a Science Fiction/Fantasy/Mythical movie junkie I know when I see a flop and see something that has legs. From what I've read and have seen about the movie, I believe that Disney will see some LOTR like numbers out of this movie and expect the sequels to do the same as well. For those who want to dwell more into the world of Narnia and how some individuals have tried to but failed to tarnish the great work of C.S. Lewis, then you should check out this piece by Michael Nelson over at the Chronicle of Higher Education or if you want to read more about C.S. Lewis the man and his inspiration then read this piece here.

My best advice is for ya'll to go out and watch this great movie and feel free to immerse yourself into the wardrobe and get lost in Narnia. One has to look real hard to find a decent movie out of all the sludge that is being produced in the studios and I think TLTWTW is a bright and shining gem. What's even better is that the same person who made Shrek and Shrek 2 is the same guy behind the camera on TLTWTW, so expect another masterful picture when you go to the theater. So do yourself a favor and go see this excellent movie.

Border Order

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Iraq is slowly but surely demonstrating that it is taking hold of it's security with today's announcement that until after the December 15, 2005 election, the Iraqi border is closed to all non-Iraqi Arabs. Now with this barring of non-Iraqis, the Iraqi government has demonstrated that it can control its borders and makes it easier for the US military, Iraqi military/border guard forces to identify terrorists entering the country because they're the only ones who are trying to enter Iraq. So chalk this one in the improving column.

A Bootstrap Strategy

Fire of Liberty

Anyone who reads my blog are aware that I'm strongly opposed to our nation or any other nation sending massive quantities of money to the poor areas within Africa. Now I'm all for helping folks out who need help but I'm also aware of the detrimental effects to a nation when it continues to receive what is basically welfare payments from more benevolent nations. As long as the West continues to pump money in Africa all they do is create an environment of sloth, irresponsibility, corruption. What's even worse, the leaders within these nations have discovered that the West has created an enormous ATM that seems to never run out of cash. So even after these nations rake in such massive transfers from the West, they generally refuse to tackle their problems because they know that a gaggle of "do-gooders" in the West will bemoan the dire straits in Africa and call for more money to be sent into these countries. Since there is an open cash-box that seems to be full all the time, you'll continue to see these nations get back in the queue with their hands open waiting for more. To understand this mentality, you only has to look at Charles Murray's Losing Ground or Marvin Olasky's The Tragedy of American Compassion to realize that when the you pour massive amounts of money at the problem like poverty, you create a culture of dependency that only knows that their checks will continue to roll in on the first of the month and thus have no incentive to change their behavior or improve their lot in life.

I guess this is why I applaud the efforts of President Bush and the Paul Wolfowitz over at the World Bank that is stressing that the distribution of money to these nations shouldn't be spent willy-nilly but is much more principled and requires efforts on the recipient's behalf. Amongst the many requirements for these nations to receive this cash, they have to initiate or go about implementing effective economic/political liberalization, agree to accept money as a loan and not an open grant that you can go back to time and time again. So you could say that the President as well as the World Bank have decided to introduce a little bit of welfare reform in the field of foreign aid. While the West is taking this approach on the lending side, there are folks working on the receiving side or should say the dissolution of such massive transfers. One individual who is making great strides in helping Africa get out of this "culture of dependency" is James Shikwati, economist and author of Reclaiming Africa, who notes that folks in Africa have got to take a "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" mentality and push away from the hog trough or they will continue to be mired in poverty for more decades. Though it'll be a challenge to move the governments of Africa in this direction because of the objections within the elites, bureaucracy, populist leaders, NGO's (Non-Governmental Organizations) and the folks who are fearful of change or losing such cash, Shikwati notes that it can be done. Just check out what the Christian Science Monitor has to say about the Kenyan economist's ideas and how such a mentality is growing in Africa, here's a sample:

In this famine-prone area of eastern Kenya, he's begun a hunger-fighting project that involves changing attitudes, not doling out money or food.

He's encouraging traditional farmers to think like entrepreneurs and develop their own new methods and tools. And he's persuading agribusiness firms to view residents here not as famine victims but as potential customers. By connecting producers and suppliers, he aims to jump-start new markets, and break dependence on food aid.

And Shikwati isn't alone in challenging the Western aid system.

"Donors need to abandon the idea that the solution to Africa's problem is money," argues Andrew Mwenda, a Ugandan economist and radio talk show host. "In fact, money may be Africa's Achilles heel." Shoveling food and money into Africa "makes African governments lose the incentive to invest in long term solutions," he says.

I'd say that if the NGO's, IMF, UN, foreign governments and others offering more money would just listen to Shikwati's ideas and implement plans like the ones created by President Bush and World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, they'd see Africa rise out of the bog of poverty, starvation and illness and finally get to sit at the adult's table next Thanksgiving.

So bravo Mr. Shikwati!!!

Here's some more on Shikwati's thoughts from Germany's magazine Der Spiegel. Also check out George Ayittey's Africa Unchained and P.T. Bauer's Equality, the Third World, and economic delusion.

Monkey Business

Fire of Liberty


If you're a fan of LOTR and are waiting for the premier of King Kong, then you don't want to miss this interview with Peter Jackson in The Times. From the looks of it, Jackson seems like a down to earth film-maker, who as a young kid fell in love with the 1933 version of King Kong and with hard work and shear determination he worked his way from his room as a kid, up the ranks of the Independent Film scene to the multi-billion blockbuster like LOTR and hopefully a blockbuster hit with King Kong. Even after racking up tons of cash and fame, he says he wants to take it easy and hang with his kids. I'd say that the part about spending more time with his kids and a settled down life in New Zealand sets him apart from the typical Hollywood mover and shaker. So read the interview and go watch King Kong.

*The above illustration is by my friend Jason Crosby. Check out his blog.

Stopping Terrorism in Its Infancy

Fire of Liberty

Here's a chief example of why the battle against the forces of Islamic fascism is not only an American fight but a worldly effort. One thing I find amazing is that the folks in Belgium are utterly shocked that someone from their society, a women at that, would do such a thing. Well, all they have to do is look around Europe in places like the Netherlands and France that have failed to assimilate their large population of Muslim immigrants from Northern Africa to the Western way of life and realize that as long as you fail to confront Islamic fanaticism in its infancy, you'll continue to have suicide bombers killing folks in the streets of London and Madrid, the murder of film-makers in the streets of Amsterdam, death threats to politicians throughout Europe, people joining Islamic terror groups and slithering across the Syrian border to kill innocent civilians as well as American and Iraqi soldiers. Until these nation decide to take this united stand, civilization as we know it will go the way of the dinosaur. I don't know about you but I don't intend on reverting to the 7th century and submitting myself to some wild-eyed Islamic extremists that favor death and destruction. So lets hope people Europe will come around to our way of thinking and "nip this in the bud" once and for all.

Keeping the Faith

Fire of Liberty

Now here is an example of how efficient "faith-based charities" can be when they are allowed to flourish and spread their wings during trying times like post-Katrina. If most Americans are given the choice between a big hulking government entity or a religious charity that has ties with the local community, I can assure you they'll shun the feds because the go with the folks they know. I guess that's why when push came to shove these faith-based charities ran circles around FEMA and Louisiana's EMA after the storm.