Why I Am Voting for Mitt Romney

Earlier this year, I would have told you that I was voting against Barack Obama because I didn’t expect to have a candidate I could vote for.

Four years ago, America faced a choice that would decide whether the country would continue on or embrace change while in the middle of a crisis. When the latter was decided on, many voters assumed that change for change’s sake was a great thing. However, many did not understand anything about Obama because much of his past was buried deeply by the main stream news media. As a result, change did come and things got far worse.

Change for change’s sake is a teenager’s concept of improving life. The results of four years of President Barack Obama has resulted in things listed in this post by anonymous blogger Zombie. Please read them since they include a great deal that you will never hear from the national media.

The Media Used to Love Presidential Scandals

Until Obama was elected, that is. One of the uglier cover ups in U.S. history has been playing out since September 11 of this year. The 9/11 anniversary attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya gets more upsetting with every new bit of information that comes out. Ostensibly caused by an anti-Muhammad film on YouTube, that story has been torn to shreds and now looks like it was put in place to protect the failure of the administration to protect our ambassador.

But it is worse than that, we now know. The attack was known to be a terrorist attack and we had special forces who could have intervened and saved Ambassador Stevens. They were ordered to stand down even when they had the enemy in their sights. Repeated requests for support and help were turned down.

In the past, this would be enough for the mainstream media to raise hell until heads rolled. Now they are actively participating in the cover up, with Candy Crowley in the second presidential debate being a prime example.

We have a government that can’t be trusted. We also have a news media that can’t be trusted. That’s a bleak place to be in and doesn’t bode well for the country.

Yet what sticks in my head is the realization that this administration has no desire to protect its citizens or soldiers. Assassination lists are fine with them, but actually protecting the people? I thought they could at least be relied on for that. Sadly, I don’t think they care one whit and only care about their political careers.

This should be bigger than Watergate, bigger than Iran-Contra, and bigger than Monica Lewinsky. I guess American lives don’t have any value anymore.

Third and Last 2012 Presidential Debate

Foreign policy is the subject of the last and probably least watched debate. On the anecdotal side, multiple people I know will not be watching this one who did watch the preceding debates. Make of that what you will.

Both candidates seemed a bit off at the very beginning. Lots of verbal stumbling and stuttering going on shows how the debates have worn them down.

President Obama was a jerk early and made things personal during the Libya question. Hitting Romney on saying Russia was the biggest geopolitical threat was predictable. Mitt was prepared for that and gave a very strong response. Obama said “clear” which is always a telltale he is about to fib big time. Seriously, he always does that.

It looks like his gambit will be to try to put words in Romney’s mouth, just like the previous debates and entire campaign. It must gall him that Mitt stands up for himself.

A Short Comment on the Embassy Attacks

Weakness is never a virtue and never, ever respected in the long run. What we are seeing in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen is the end result of trying to appease evil. Nothing good can come of that, so I expect a lot more to happen now that the United State is perceived as weak.

I have always advocated spreading democracy and republicanism to all states on all continents. Once I believed that it would encourage peace, but then I grew up and ceased being a teenager. Now it is because I believe that everyone must have their chance and be judged upon their resulting behavior.

Does that sound ominous? It should.

The Obama state department has been an abject failure since the beginning, insulting allies and cozying up to people who genuinely hate the West. Fear of offending our enemies and a perverse desire to offend friends has been a hallmark of this administration. So it was only a matter of time before the chickens came home to roost.

Al Qaeda and their associates coordinated the initial attacks on 9/11/2012 with the hope they would spread. Killing Osama bin Laden turned out to be as meaningless as I expected. This is a much bigger movement than one man.

Watching the media rally around the President and try to make Romney a bad guy for making a rational, not to mention needed, statement about the groveling message from the Egyptian embassy staff has been a depressing sight.

Once again, I repeat that weakness is not a virtue.

Let’s Twist Again

To all those who are so insulated by wealth and luck, it will come as a shock when things do fall completely apart economically. Part of being insulated from reality requires having limited and/or censored information to look at that reinforces willful ignorance. Watching how the media distorts and outright lie on many things has been rudely educational for me.

So when when the employment participation rate plummets to its lowest level since Reagan took over from Carter’s disastrous presidency, I was not surprised to see attempts to twist things into a rosier picture:

Still, the report was not all negative. The government revised upward its earlier estimates for payroll growth in February and March by a combined 53,000.

That was the best they could do, given the grim numbers, but hey, they tried. The emphasis on the unemployment rate has been deceptive because it is artificially lowered by not counting those who have given up on finding a job.

Sadly, I cannot exclusively blame a dishonest government and a dishonest media alone. With most people being intellectually lazy in the States, they do not bother with digging for information themselves. Heck, we are lucky if the masses even pay attention to superficial sound bites on serious issues. The excuse I always hear is that “nobody has time to.” Yet they have time to watch Dancing with the Stars or other things of little import. Entertainment is the priority now, which is another twisted thing in my opinion.

Facts and statistics are twisted in every possible way these days and I suspect the horror of fully realizing how bad it is may be too much for people to confront. But you cannot hide from reality forever for it will confront you eventually.

And people wonder why I put faith in God above that of the efforts of man…

Odds and Ends 4-10-2012

Since I have not done this in awhile, I will throw some links up to what has caught my attention lately.

Locally, the apple orchards that are such a part of the region are under threat thanks to the cold snap this week. The combination of unusually warm temperatures followed by unusually cold ones is lethal to apple buds. Not much can be done but hope there will be Honeycrisp’s this year.

Ah, those wacky Japanese using high tech to better humanity. Oh wait…

At least they are diverting resources from making robot women. Don’t get me started there.

Having watched the dot com bubble of the late nineties, I have been getting the feeling of déjà vu again. It turns out I am not alone in worrying over how the latest Internet startups are over priced. I suspect we are headed for a dot com bubble 2.0.

The media in all its forms is increasingly dishonest as things crank up for the elections this year. Race baiting is one of the more evil ways to stir things up and it is being employed fully as a rallying tactic for the left. Outright fabrications are being spread around to inflame tensions. The ends justifying the means rarely leads to anything good, but people never seem to learn that.

The mainstream media cannot be trusted to be guardians of the truth or public good and I wonder if they ever were worthy of it. Given how partisan they have become, they resemble the state controlled media of totalitarian states more and more. Maybe the idea that yellow journalism died out was an illusion in the first place.

One thing that has bothered me for a very long time is how humanity lost its willingness to take risks by the end of the 20th Century. We need to go to space, take chances, colonize, and build. Yes, people will die in the endeavor, but there are far worse things than death. One of them is stagnation. So it is sad to see plans from the 1950s aimed at going to Mars and realizing there is little chance that will happen this century.

I am probably not alone in that. An anime adaptation of Space Brothers has started airing in Japan and streaming worldwide at Crunchyroll. It is a rare thing these days to see an anime featuring characters that are all adults and dealing with adult problems. Set in the near future, it is about a pair of brothers hoping to make it to the Moon and beyond as astronauts. Warm and sentimental, it also catches some of the current cultural malaise in Japan. Man, it makes me wish we had real space programs and not the token jokes we have today.

In Memoriam: Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)

In Memoriam: Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)

This was a shocker to read this morning. Breitbart had done a lot of good in getting the conservative message out there and especially in giving the libertarians and conservatives in Hollywood a place to voice their views. Like a shooting star, he blazed brightly and all too briefly.

My prayers and condolences go out to his family, friends, and coworkers.

Wikipedia May Go Blank in Protest Against Bill

There is an odious piece of legislation called SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) being pushed in Congress right now that jeopardizes a large amount of the Web. Wikipedia is considering blanking their pages in protest of this corporate paid for bill. Intellectual property (IP) rights have gotten out of hand as failing movie and music industries try to stem the bleeding in lost profits. Instead of blaming their very poor products for the decline, they would like to censor the entire Internet in pyrrhic fashion thinking it would up sales.

While legislation against pirate sites is a reasonable goal, this implementation is dangerously excessive. Wikipedia would go under due to it and many a blog would as well. Linking to photos, pictures, and articles would be potentially criminal under this law. That kind of kills the whole concept of the Web, doesn’t it?

It is not the only attack on freedom of speech online. A recent ruling against a blogger by an Obama appointee is a direct attack on the idea of the “citizen journalist” that has flourished on the Net. Not a good precedent, but one I had been expecting for some time. The desire to control others gets stronger the bigger a government gets.

I can only hope this bill fails, for it will be a disaster for free speech not just in the United States.

Odds and Ends

It is Thursday and I am behind on just about everything I wanted to do this week. Going to the Renaissance Festival in Shakopee last Saturday went well but eventually I had to pay the piper. But I’ll take having it spread mildly out over several days rather than being out of commission for a couple any time.

British newspapers are superior to our dying ones in the States for many reasons. The main one is that they actually do real reporting yet. But I have to say I am envious of Daily Telegraph subscribers right now. They get bonus premiums included with the papers on occasion and this coming weekend’s are doozies. Free Rat Pack CD’s featuring Sinatra, Dino, and Sammy are making me wish I lived over there despite the riots.

The Republican Presidential debate last night was entertaining from an old political hand point of view. Extremely hostile moderators trying to start wars between the candidates made things interesting from the beginning and gave Newt Gingrich an opportunity to shine. From a technical stance, he won the debate but didn’t win the debate. These aren’t real debates, these are forums so command of facts and figures doesn’t matter a whole lot.

Instead I would say Mitt Romney came out with the win due to Rick Perry stumbling badly late during the “lightning round” part of the forum. But many will say he won and I attribute that to Brian Williams screwing up by serving up a batting practice ball of a question on the executions carried out in Texas. Watching him be stunned by the audience’s loud approval of capital punishment was priceless and gave Perry a rare chance to look presidential.

Back to Romney. He had some minor flubs but kept turning the debate back to focusing on Obama. Right there he showed leadership and people will pick up on that unconsciously. The too cautious Romney of 2008 was not to be seen and I was impressed by his poise.

Michelle Bachmann is on her way out despite a carefully restrained performance. But she has shown that women are now accepted as serious candidates, something made possible by Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin the last cycle. Constantly citing the amount of children and foster children she raised got her tweaked last night and deservedly so.

Rick Santorum was there and that is about it. Which is too bad, since I like his stances on most things. In this group he doesn’t have the presence to make it, but he would be someone to consider for VP if Romney doesn’t get the nomination. East coast cred would be of help to a Southern candidate.

Ron Paul was Ron Paul and walked into every trap set by the moderators. That lack of self control always gets him in trouble.

My candidate, Herman Cain, did absolutely great with quite a bit of applause from the audience. It is a pity he isn’t gaining any traction, but the establishment doesn’t want a political outsider. With the mood of “anybody but Obama” on the Right and growing in the center, it looks like a Perry or Romney nomination is coming. Cain had solid answers and plans to deal with the problems we are facing economically and they resonated during the debate. I wish more people would take a good long look at him.

Biggest loser of the debate had to be the moderators. They were vibratingly partisan with irritation and hostility showing in their voices. Audience reactions clearly bothered them as well. Nobody should think MSNBC and Politico are neutral after that.

Now to get to work on a special post for the weekend’s grim tenth anniversary.

Come and Get It

A rather large scandal has hit Rupert Murdoch over in the United Kingdom. While there might be those like The Wall Street Journal who think this can be downplayed, it is bad. Very bad. In a nutshell, employees of one of News Corporations tabloids, News of the World, was found to have hacked cellphones of various people including politicians. Check out the Daily Telegraph’s live page for all the latest details.

I despise tabloids for they are utter trash and the embodiment of the worst aspects of yellow journalism. Sleaze merchants publish them and I’ve always disliked Rupert Murdoch for making his money from them. Far too many conservatives defend him simply because he owns Fox News with the rather uncomplicated view that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But the truth is the man doesn’t appear to have any values other than the desire for money and took advantage of the need for a “conservative” alternative to the monolithic news media in the States. Those quotation marks are there for a reason. Most employees at Fox News are Democrats, no joke – the donation records make that clear.

The scandal has been a classic example of how they happen in England, with things rapidly spiraling out of control when fed by a tabloid based news system. That means people who don’t deserve blame will get it too. But the heads of those responsible are guaranteed to fall, unlike here where you can tough it out much more easily. Already arrested and out on bail is Murdoch’s number two in the corporation, Rebekah Brooks. One of his sons has been implicated as well.

Sadly, this sordid tale of breaking into cellphones for information has also led to the discovery of police officials being bribed for information by News Corporation’s rags. Sometimes I think the thing bringing the world down today isn’t massive debt, but pervasive corruption through all walks of life. Not a cheery thought, is it?

As scandals go, it isn’t impressive in the damage done in reality. The gun walking scandal here in North America has resulted in multiple deaths, for contrast. But it is already having a bigger political effect, proving that perception is reality for far too many people.

I’m trying not to enjoy seeing Murdoch’s tabloid empire coming apart. It helps that there is concern over whether Fox News will end up in trouble of some kind due to a ripple effect. While I’m not a huge fan of the channel, it is needed as a counter to an extremely leftist media. There must always be countering views available to the populace for them to be able to make decisions on serious issues. Though with television, I have to wonder just how much depth can be given on anything.

At least News of the World is no more.

The Shutdown

The big news in Minnesota is the state government shutdown due to an inability to get a budget passed. As I expected, the media is backing Governor Dayton and one of the main line of attacks is hammering on incessantly about the closure of state parks during the popular camping season of the 4th of July weekend. All very predictable and probably very effective in swaying public sentiment. Portraying the Republicans as only cutting spending when they actually presented an increase in spending is all part of the dishonest game.

I have to give credit to the state Republican leadership who didn’t cave in despite knowing this was exactly what Dayton wanted, contrary to his protestations to reporters. The surprising thing is how many Republicans I know who didn’t think the shutdown would happen. When a reversed version of this happened while Pawlenty was in office in 2005, the Democrats used it to great advantage to vilify the Republican party and it was believed it contributed to the rout of the GOP in 2006. Of course Dayton was going to return to that playbook!

In the end, there is a high probability that doing the right thing on holding back spending will damage Republican chances statewide in 2012. The power of the media is still great and that can’t be ignored. For all the talk of how the new methods of communication like Twitter and Facebook have changed things, the old partisan media is still where most people get their information. However, there is a lot going on nationally that will effect the local races, especially the economy. That keeps things unpredictable for the moment.

Frankly, I don’t think the public has the intestinal fortitude to deal with the extensive cuts that are really required and we will see Minnesota and the nation collapse into economic ruins. Cynical pandering and class warfare are already being used to buttress the Left’s insane devotion to Keynesian economics. Spending when you have no savings will never get a person, a state, or a nation out of debt. So all of that stimulus into the economy just made things worse and yes, both political parties are to blame for it. You would have thought the lessons of the 1970’s would have been remembered.

Dark times are ahead, far darker than most expect because it is a systemic problem with how our government “works.” People look to the demonstrations and riots in Europe while wondering if it can happen here. It can and could get much worse with the Left’s history of violence.

I would like to be wrong about this.

Freedom of Speech in Peril… From the Media?

As previous posts on ACTA have shown, I’m not a huge fan of Intellectual Property rights as they are currently handled.  While there needs to be a way to make money for ideas, those ideas shouldn’t be perpetual money machines – that inevitably leads to a decrease in new inventions and works. A little while back I read about a problem with Righthaven, a group suing bloggers for daring to quote from their clients’ publications.  Quoting small amounts from articles is covered by Fair Use, or should be. 

Now it has turned into a big business for the lawyers of Righthaven and they are going after bloogers big and small including ones who don’t even make money from their blogs.

For a glimpse of what is going on that involves some heavy irony, please read this thread at Broadband/DSL Reports.  The discussion is interesting and takes quite a turn on page two.  Yes, Righthaven is suing over content posted by a user on the forums, not content put up on the website.

So now we have media companies shaking down everyone and anyone in an effort to get money.  Free speech isn’t even considered as these intellectually bankrupt corporations look to hoover every last cent out of somebody else’s pocket.  What’s worse is that it is working. They are making serious money with these take down and lawsuit threats.

The explosion in blogs and forums has allowed more information to be shared than ever before in history.  While it often seems the Internet is a cesspool of the pornographic and the trivial, information that actually matters has proliferated changing much.  From politics to economics to wrong doings of totalitarian regimes, people have been able to get their messages out. 

It is appalling to think that the United States of America, a country founded on freedom and inalienable rights, would become the home to persecutors of opinions using quotes to back their arguments.  This along with the ACTA treaty show that things have gotten very out of hand.

Odds and Ends

Will be working on a post about the Tea Party in Winona last week and about the Republican Congressional District 1 endorsement convention this past Saturday to put up this week.

In the meantime, a few items that caught my eye the last two weeks:

A follow up on the couple beaten in New Orleans last week by leftwing protesters.  The Palin pin part of it has been debunked, but it is very clear this was a politically motivated attack. The mainstream media shows that they are well beyond simple bias by ignoring this one.  If conservative protesters had done this to a pair of Democrats it would be the overkill story for weeks.

Dr. Helen aka the Instawife has an interesting piece up about how psychologists are moving to social activism in their therapy.  This is damning stuff and worth checking out. The desire to control other’s lives is getting to be the hallmark of the left.

Speaking of controlling people, the FDA is going to start regulating salt in prepared foods.  This serves two goals:  controlling the population even in the most miniscule way and to inflate the number of government employees (they’ll need to hire more to administrate this, of course). Idiocy. Look for more of this under the guise of lowering the government’s cost of providing healthcare.

There is no way ObamaCare can be funded, it is simply impossible.  But the Democrats will keep trying and one way they want to raise taxes is by adding a VAT (Value Added Tax). That hasn’t worked out so well for the Europeans and is yet another way to retard the growth of an economy.  In our case, it would kill it dead. Best quote:

In 2008, the average resident of West Virginia, one of the poorest American states, had an income $2,000 a year higher than the average resident of the European Union, according to economist Mark Perry of the University of Michigan, Flint.

Oh yeah, we really need to emulate those Europeans.

Denial of reality seems to be a big part of leftwing big government.  Over in California they are doing their best to be like Europe and ignore the financial catastrophe they are in.  Entertainment comes first but the piper will have to be paid eventually.

Meanwhile, that unpronounceable volcano in Iceland is still hampering flying and a bigger eruption is possible.  But just how unsafe was it to fly?  Turns out that the grounding was based exclusively on computer models and nary a single weather balloon was sent up to get real data. The religion of computer models has already given us the fraud of man made global warming and now this is going on. Once again reality is being ignored in favor of theory.  I’m afraid science is dead.

The relationship between Israel and the United States is on life support as well.  The hostility of Obama and his cronies toward the Israelis  has been palpable of late and has generated a great deal of concern. I’ve been warning people he is slowly building a case for armed conflict with Israel and been greeted with dismissal.  Better look again, as this refusal by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to rule out shooting down Israeli planes crossing Iraqi airspace to hit Iran. The ghost of Jeremiah Wright is alive and well in the Obama administration.

The Smell of Astroturf

Or the fumes Wafting from the Coffee Party.

Astroturfing in politics is the process of creating a a fake grassroots effort to sway public opinion or sitting politicians. David Axelrod of the Obama administration is a living legend at doing this and it is what has made him politically powerful. Much of it is centered around unions and isn’t anything close to being grassroots.

So it was interesting to see accusations against the Tea Party movement that they were astroturfed and controlled by sinister Republican interests.  Except when they were controlled by the sinister insurance companies. Or when they were controlled by Fox News.  Sorry, the conspiracy theorists/spin doctors never could make up their mind who really controlled the Tea Party rallies.

Sadly, the left are so far divorced from the people of the land that they are incapable of recognizing a true grassroots movement born of frustration with out of control government growth.  Character assassination and ranting about astroturfing have failed to dent the movement simply because it isn’t astroturfed.  That should scare them as big populist movements tend to change things.

So a change in tactics has happened and the left have formed something called the “coffee party.”  Interestingly, instead of having multiple movements with much in common springing up independently (and fighting with each other a good amount) there is one person behind the formation of this group, Annabel Park.

Ms. Park and her new group instantly received a lot of attention from The Washington Post and The New York Times.  To be expected as they are not fans of the Tea Partiers.  She has stated that they are not the opposite of the Tea Party and may have common ground. But wait, what is that smell in the air?  Smells like artificial grass to me.

Turns out that Ms. Park has a history with The New York Times and also was a big organizer for Obama’s presidential campaign. Over at Legal Insurrection, William Jacobson has presented the details on her activities including Twitter messages that are extremely hostile towards the Tea Party.  I agree with his summation that this is just a continuation of “the perpetual Obama campaign.”  I’d add that it is clear the media want something, anything to derail the Tea Party movement.

I wonder if Axelrod is involved?

 

 

del.icio.us Tags: Coffee Party,Annabel Park,Tea Party,astroturf,politics

What Recovery?

I find it fascinating how government agencies such as the Commerce Department fudges numbers for media consumption. They put out projected numbers that are usually rosy and then revise them downward after the media has forgotten about them. Somehow we’ve gone from a 3rd quarter figure of 3.5% growth to 2.8%  to 2.2% in three months!

Captain Ed has a great dissection of the announcement and explains how even the 2.2% is inflated by the Cash for Clunkers and new home owners tax credit stunts. Without those the growth was 0.7% and I have to wonder if even that happened. I don’t think things can be hidden forever when people are losing jobs and pay raises. 

Then there are the disastrous home sales figures that came out today.  A rise of 6.2% in sales was expected for November. Instead, they fell 11.3%.  I think this is the quote of the article:

November’s performance was a “hangover from the tax-credit-induced binge in the July thru October period," Peter Boockvar, market strategist at Miller Tabak, wrote in a note.

I think both ugly figures show the perils of government based stimulus efforts.  All the Feds can do is create a short term artificial bounce and that obscures the systemic problems at the core.  It looks good politically and might even get a country through a small recession, but it does nothing to solve the underlying weaknesses.  In this case, it may have done more harm by generating false expectations -- if not more credit bubbles.

Adding to the problem is the way the media portrays sales as increasing by only talking about month to month sales.  Comparing sales by year to year in the same period, things are not good.  Even the anemic 1.3% growth for November sales is from October.  This Gallup survey says holiday spending is actually down 22% from 2008, which was considered a very bad year. If the consumer is all we have to pull us out of the recession, we are in very bad trouble.

It seems we have a great many proverbial Nero’s fiddling while the American economy burns.  Bluntly, it probably already too late to do anything.  We are in for another major fall in 2010.

Is Science Losing Its Stature?

With the East Anglia “climategate” scandal slowly starting to get a little media attention, I’ve found out I’m not the only one worrying it will tarnish all scientific research.  At the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Henniger has an opinion piece warning that the credibility of all science is at risk.  In it he brings up some valid points why this may happen and this quote gets to the heart of the dilemma:

Global warming enlisted the collective reputation of science. Because "science" said so, all the world was about to undertake a vast reordering of human behavior at almost unimaginable financial cost.

There is great danger in mixing politics and science, but I’ll only address the biggest and possibly least perceived danger. That being the loss of stature in the public eye. Over at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey breaks down the Rasmussen Reports poll that shows 59% believe data on global warming has been falsified.  What is amazing in these polarized times is that majorities across the strata believe this. If that isn’t a loss of credibility, I don’t know what is.

I’ve always thought AGW was based on faith rather than hard science as that massive nuclear furnace in the center of our solar system dictates more than we fully comprehend. Perhaps it is because I remember two previous panics that were widespread.  In the 1970’s it was the fear of another ice age that some of the AGW scientists actually pushed back then.  Later on the terror of the hole in the ozone layer dominated the media and led to a banning of CFC’s to reduce damage to it. In these I see the arrogance of man combined with the allure of hysteria making for bad science driven by the politics of anti-capitalism.

Shifting gears a bit, it doesn’t help that we are starting to hit some hard walls with scientific research producing practical results. While the search for knowledge is a good thing, in the end most of it needs to deliver something of use to humanity in general. This is particularly true in medical research.

The Telegraph has a sobering article about the diminishing returns of the huge amounts of money thrown into medical science.  While I think the title of the article is overly pessimistic or sensational, it is hard to argue that we aren’t getting our moneys worth.  Such high hopes were placed on the human genome project that it couldn’t possibly live up to expectations.

Unfortunately, it is not looking good there and if science is done objectively as is suggested in this article, it may open a Pandora’s Box of political and racial problems.  The promise of finding the causes of diseases and ways to treat them with gene cocktails has not had much success so far, possibly due to the small sample. Geoffrey Miller posits that the research will instead go in another direction once wider sampling is done:

The trouble is, the resequencing data will reveal much more about human evolutionary history and ethnic differences than they will about disease genes. Once enough DNA is analysed around the world, science will have a panoramic view of human genetic variation across races, ethnicities and regions. We will start reconstructing a detailed family tree that links all living humans, discovering many surprises about mis-attributed paternity and covert mating between classes, castes, regions and ethnicities.

In the pop culture, the original Star Trek television series speculated that there will be a eugenics war between genetically enhanced and superior humans with the rest of humanity.  That is where we got the memorable villain, Khan.  If we do get the kind of research suggested, I don’t think that scenario is too far fetched.  The wealthy will want to tinker with their progeny and I can see state run programs in totalitarian states wanting to achieve dominance in a genetic arms race. Worse, I can see racial strife based on both rejection and embracing of the studies coming out of the research.

All of that could lead to an extreme neo-Luddite reaction, especially if science has already become viewed as just another political football. The last people to see that coming will be the scientists themselves due to their living in insulated academic bubbles.  Perhaps more transparency and less politics would help, but it needs to happen quickly before the public consigns science to the trash heap of politics.

Why I Don’t Listen to Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck has gotten very popular over the past few years on both radio and TV.  He is at times very amusing and comes off  as a mix between a sideshow barker and that crazy uncle every family has. The red phone to the White House is an all time classic of political satire and a good example of how pointedly funny he can be.  He’s also gotten some important things out into the public eye that needed exposure.

But I’ve had issues with Beck’s behavior. Much mockery has been made of his loss of emotional control on air and for good reason. There is a dark side to his shtick and that is the pervasive severe paranoia he exhibits accompanied by grandiose beliefs in his own power to sway people. In that way he is a classic populist and the danger of populists is that they are often one step from becoming demagogues. 

Beck has increasingly been acting messianic, first with the 9/12 Project and now with an undefined march on Washington scheduled for next year.  While these things look good on paper, please note that every time he does something along these lines there is a new book being released or about to be released.  Lately I’ve found myself asking if it is money or delusion that fuels him -- or both? One thing I never had questioned is his patriotism.

Until now.

Calling for our young men and women to stop enlisting in the military goes so far over the line as to negate anything positive Beck has done in the past.  At this point, any conservative credentials can only be considered partial as it is clear he does not understand the troops or why they serve. I consider strong defense to be second most important leg of the Reagan stool of conservatism.  Yes what is being done to the Navy SEALS is reprehensible at face value and if the story is true, we have reason to make heads roll in the military and White House over it.  Note to Beck: the country isn’t the government and THE COUNTRY WILL STAND BEHIND THE SOLDIERS.  This isn’t Vietnam where the public abandoned our veterans. I know lefties who show more support of the troops and their mission than Beck just did.

If he believes the military will be one day used against the people of the country (and I think he does) discouraging patriotic conservatives from serving will make that easier to pull off.  Right there is a logic fail of epic proportions.  When things finally do start falling apart, I personally believe a big chunk of the armed forces, active and retired, will be the ones fighting for restoring liberty to this land.  You don’t want the people who listen to talk radio and watch Fox News to leave the military.

Glenn was always a weak sister during the war in Iraq and has shown isolationist tendencies much like Ron Paul, another destructive pseudo conservative. The world will come to us like it did on 9/11 even if we ignore it.  Isolationism is the last refuge of the coward and often a mask for someone who wants total control of their country.  That’s why it is galling to see libertarian types fall for the philosophy when it is antithetical to freedom and individuality in the long run.

One might point out the emotion of Beck’s dealing with his family members who have enlisted.  I have a young friend who enlisted in the Army last year.  While he is not active duty, the opportunity to go to Iraq happened and I spoke with him about the decision.  Without going into the details, we spoke about the pros and cons of going now instead of waiting to get out of college and being commissioned an officer. Never once did it occur to me to dissuade him due to Obama being president or his safety being guaranteed.

The young man decided to go only to have the offer yanked out from under him – college it is, at least for a year.  He had my full support in his decision, as hasty as it might be.  I agreed with his mother’s assessment that “Dying in service is still dying in service to God.” 

In the end, service in the military is about service to our country and its people.  The oath sworn by every man and woman in our armed services is to the Constitution, not Congress, not the President. Glenn Beck would do well to remember that.

I don’t like how media figures influence things so disproportionately and I’m on record as not being a fan of them whether or not they are on my side politically. This episode illustrates why.  At some point, the perceived power they have goes to their heads.  Being entertainers first, they often shoot their mouths off and do damage to their own side. But a bigger problem is how much faith their listeners and viewers put into them.

That is why I don’t listen to people like Glenn Beck and prefer to cull my news from a wide variety of sources.  Broadcast and cable news/commentary are distorted by the lens of entertainment – or spectacle, if you will. I’m a Joe Friday kind of guy wanting “Just the facts, ma’am.”  We’ve got fiction for entertainment and it is dangerous when it passes for news.

Media Hack Picks on Teenage Girl

I’m late to the party on this one, but it allowed me to read what happened from the view of the teenager Norah O’Donnell decided she could trap in an interview.  The young woman dared to be in line for a Sarah Palin book signing while wearing an anti-bailout shirt. This provided a “gotcha moment” for O’Donnell to attack Palin for backing McCain in supporting the initial bailout and embarrass the obviously unprepared teen.  Terrific moment of showing what fools these Palin backers are, right?

Not exactly.  Turns out O’Donnell used a Blackberry to get info in order to set up the question while the teen acquitted herself well given the ambush style of the question. O’Donnell compounded things by lying on Twitter about the girl having voted last year. Read the girl’s blog Red, White & Conservative for a full account of what happened.

Be nice if MSNBC went to as much effort to find out where all the stimulus money actually ended up.

And people wonder why the media is viewed as biased?

Government Gone Wild

With various things going on including a very demanding abandoned kitten to care for, I let things slide as far as blogging goes.  The links to interesting bits of news will stretch back into last week as a result.

Serves New London Right

At Hot Air, Ed has a post filled with immense irony.  After the idiocy that was the Kelo ruling , the original case has turned into a classic bad joke. Pfizer got New London, CT to use eminent domain to take homes away from residents and now won’t be developing the property.  To make it even more painful, the jobs lured there by the deal are being moved to another town!

The Supreme Court badly damaged private property rights in America with this ruling and the end results show why government having absolute control over who gets to own what is foolish. Makes me wish the founding fathers had put something in the Constitution or Bill of Rights about private property.

Big Guy Picks on Little Guy, Government Doesn’t Care

Back when SEIU member continued the proud union tradition of beating people during a tea party protest, most of the media yawned about it.  Kenneth Gladney was the recipient of the attack because he dared pass out “Don’t Tread On Me” items outside a Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-CT) forum.  The left spun the story by claiming Gladney started the fight, but the police report says otherwise. Interesting to read the behavior of the SEIU members present, including another assault, resisting arrest, and one who tripped and tried to claim the police beat him!  The district attorney in St. Lois has yet to do anything about it and no charges have been filed despite the video and police report on the incident. This smacks of corruption and favoritism. Thank you Big Government for posting the report.

This Message Will Be Controlled

One thing that sets dictatorships and totalitarian states apart is they insist on absolute control of the news media. Censorship abound and everything has to be in line with what they want.  It may surprise people that totalitarians will suppress even those of the same ideological or political persuasion, not just their obvious opponents. No criticism is to small to be allowed. More and more the Obama Administration is showing these tendencies. Besides attacking Fox News there is the curious case of Indymedia, a left wing website. The demand by the Justice Department for information on people who browsed the site is a privacy rights nightmare list with the following info demanded: Social Security Numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and home addresses.  Read Ed’s post at Hot Air for the details of a truly bizarre story.

Secret Copyright Treaty Leaks

ACTA will affect Intellectual Property rights in the US and other countries beyond just dealing with counterfeit goods.  While this lecture at BoingBoing is a bit dry, it covers the concerns raised over this far reaching treaty. The idea of iPods being searched at the border is insane, but shows the reach of media companies into the government. Also, the ability to confiscate or destroy goods without compensating the owners is incredibly draconian. At around the 15 minute mark, the Internet provisions are discussed and I’ve touched on that before.

Orwell Predicted the Present

In Great Britain, phone companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will be forced to keep every telephone call, web visit, email, and any other thing done on Internet on record for one year. Originally the ministers had wanted this stored on one central government database, but backed off from that. Even so, this quote is chilling to anyone who believes in privacy:

653 public bodies will be given access to the confidential information, including police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority, the Ambulance Service, fire authorities and even prison governors.

It is rapidly getting to the point where the only private communications in the UK will be face to face, for Big Brother is watching. The British are lost and only people fighting for their freedom will keep it here in the United States.

Terrorism and Fort Hood

UPDATED

The media reaction to Nidal Malik Hasan’s attack on his fellow troops in Fort Hood has been disturbing to me.  Political correctness is acting like a lens distorting reality the way a funhouse mirror warps a reflection. As more facts emerge about Hasan, it is clear he was a jihadi. Someone just snapping from stress by proxy (what a ludicrous excuse) doesn’t try to contact al Qaeda months before shooting a bunch of American soldiers.  He doesn’t give away his belongings first and he doesn’t frequent strip joints like the 9/11 hijackers did.  Hasan did exactly that.


Many Islamic fundamentalists believe all your sins are forgiven on martyrdom, so they tend to party in forbidden ways.  That looks hypocritical to Western eyes, but it simply points out one of our cultural differences with the Islamic world.  Over at Forbes, Tunku Varadarajan has a must read piece on our problems facing what he dubs “going Muslim.”

UPDATED:
CNN proves the distorted lens by rearranging a wounded soldier's quote to make it look like he was unsure if Hasan yelled "Allhu akbar." Mudville Gazette has the details.

It isn’t like Hasan was the first to go on a killing spree in the name of Islam after 9/11. Next week on Tuesday the “D.C. Sniper” will be executed.  Seven years ago, John Allen Muhammad and his accomplice Lee Malvo  killed 10 people. Do people even remember this?  I wonder.

A big part of the problem is how the political left and their lapdogs in the media have depicted the war on terror.  J.R. Dunn at The American Thinker puts it better than I can.  I agree with him that relativism has done a great deal of damage:  allowing corruption to flourish and weakening our will to defend ourselves. Everything depends on the American people waking up.

I question whether another 9/11 would be enough.