Tuesday, August 30, 2005

 

Welcome to Sanity

Antonin Scalia:

"Now the Senate is looking for moderate judges, mainstream judges. What in the world is a moderate interpretation of a constitutional text? Halfway between what it says and what we'd like it to say?"

Monday, August 29, 2005

 

Confessions of a Doubting Conservative

I supported the invasion of Iraq for one reason. It is true that Saddam was a menace who had to be dealt with sooner or later. We could have waited for later. The real virtue of the war was that we could put a democratic capitalist regime in power. These regimes are self-sustaining and mostly peaceful. These regimes also act as a virus. The spread of democracy in Eastern Europe in the 1990s is a perfect example of this. The idea of democracy spread from nation to nation without a single country invading another.

The argument against this is not that we cannot put a democracy in place. Countries have forced regime changes on one another for centuries. Ask Germany, Japan, or Panama how they "chose" their current regime. The argument against regime change is that America does not have the will to implement regime change on a mass basis. We will not risk enough money and blood to get the job done. Consider:

1. U.S. public opinion is now against the Iraq war.

2. Iraq suffers from consistent terrorist attacks on a regular basis.

Point 2 requires that we put more money and blood on the line. However, Point 1 negates are ability to do this very thing. The 2006 election will decide this fate. If the Republicans lose the House or Senate, the Iraqis will soon find themselves on their own.

The sensible thing is to keep fighting, but that is not my concern here. My concern is about first principles. Of course, it is not moral to advocate wars that the nation cannot finish. In 2002, the country was pro-war and a reasonable person would not have expected a prolonged insurgency. Now we know different. Was it foolish to think that we could act as an Imperial power? Is it time to recalibrate our foreign policy to match the American people's apparent unwillingness to shed blood for anything less then dire threats to this nation?

 

Not Applicable

While the history of my relationships with the fairer sex may show that I am not the more intelligent party, science states otherwise.

Some Brits, damn troublemakers, have released a study that claims men, on average, have higher IQs then women. This is the sort of study that could cause a mild uproar in the U.S. As I wrote below, anything that challenges our sense of individualism and blank-slate equality is unacceptable. Although maybe this is not a bad thing. Willfull ignorance has gotten us pretty far in the last 225 years.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

 

Don't lie about scotch. Lie about women.

Once again I have been falsely accused. Minus has accused me of consuming all, or most, of his scotch. Well, maybe "falsely" is a little strong. And maybe "accused" is more accurately described as "pointing out the facts." However, I have two points in my defense.

1. It has been weeks since I have been to Minus's shanty er...apartment. If it takes him that long to drink his scotch then he doesn't deserve it anyways.

2. The last time I was at Nemesis's place he bragged about his growing bar. A bar that is stocked completely with bottles I BOUGHT. How is that for chutzpah.

So Minus, go over to Nemesis's and take a bottle of anything. It's on me, buddy.

 

Race, Rules, and the American Civilization.

I have spent the morning reading Steve Sailer's webpage and blog. Sailer is a pundit and a writer for the American conservative who spends a large amount of time applying evolutionary psychology to public policy issues.

Read his review of Thomas Sowell's new book or his article on racism and sports. He points out the simple fact that racial differences are ignored in the United States; that maybe, just maybe, having been descended from Africa may give you a different genetic heritage than having been descended from China. His ideas are fascinating and troubling. The elephant in the room always is both.

Assume that his points are valid. How do we deal with this? If it was accepted that African-Americans had a different family structure than European-Americans due to genetic or culturally inherited factors, what would this men for public policy? I think that this would create a nightmare. Sailer thinks other wise.

Another source of misplaced anger: mistaking theories of racial diversity for assertions of racial supremacy. As I wrote in "Seven Dumb Ideas about Race"

"Much of the Race Does Not Exist cant stems from the following logic (if you can call it logic): 'If there really are different racial groups, then one must be The Master Race, which means -oh my God - that Hitler Was Right! Therefore we must promote whatever ideas most confuse the public about race. Otherwise, they will learn the horrible truth and they'll all vote Nazi.'"

Look, this is one big non-sequitur. There is no race that's supreme at all thing.

This is a straw man argument. The fear is not that we could trigger a revival of Nazi ideology in the United States. The fear is that we could undermine the respect for individualism that lays at the foundation of our Constitutional structure. For example, the conservative argument against affirmative action is predicate on this very foundation. Also, how would affect this society if the educated openly accepted that there were genetic differences between the races. How would that filter down to mass society? If we are lucky it will be as reasoned and clear headed as the debate over teaching evolution in schools....right.

Just wanted to throw a monkey wrench into your Sunday morning. Have a nice day.

Friday, August 19, 2005

 

Pudge in Sox

I am not a big sports fan. But let's get something straight here; if you want to show a picture of Carlton Fisk put him in the right uniform. I don't care if your talking about his years in the hinterlands playing in a town that brags about being a 2nd city. Show him in the uniform he hung in the Hall of Fame. The man was a Red Sox player.

 

Better than liposuction?

Designer vaginas...

And sometimes I think I have issues.

On the other hand you may have thought that the sexual revolution was an ongoing war. Boys the war is over. The feminists have lost.

 

My favorite lesbian

Camille Paglia is, once again, waging war against the Post-Modernists, Theorists, and everyone else who has made literature classes suck.

She is so cool I'd buy her a house. But, you know, she's a lesbian.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

 

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

This is bad. VDH is right. Clinton is saying conservative things and voting for conservative causes. She will actually be a moderate by the time she runs.

No? You don't think so. Ok, you yell about her attempt to take over the health care system ELEVEN years ago. Americans will get all worked up about it. Really, trust me. By the way, have you sat for three hours to see a doctor for five minutes and then looked at your monthly health insurance bill? Americans will like anybody that has gone after the HMOs.

So she runs right, trashes Governor "Take your pick", and takes over the Oval Office. And the nightmare of a completely feckless foreign policy and higher taxes begins.

This is serious. I am serious. Don't make me do it. I will if I have to.

I'll vote for McCain.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

 

When to speak....

Of course, there is this entire Cindy Sheehan mess. Long story short: her son was killed in Iraq. She met the President. She later decided that the President is to blame. She now wants to meet with him again, so he can explain himself.

Now a grieving Mother is not someone you want to attack. I would guess that she is being manipulatated a little, and that she is truly suffering from the tremendous loss of a her child. But there is one thing about her situation that strikes home.

I joined the service in the Summer of 2000. I expected a Gore Presidency. This I did not want. I disagreed entirely with the Clinton administration on foreign policy. However, I still joined the military. I joined to serve my country. And at that point I knew if we went to war for a cause I did not agree with, I had no ethical recourse. I had made my decision to support my country and my country's President. Every Soldier makes that decision when he raises his right hand.

The point is this: the last thing a Soldier would want is his Mother repudiating that decision. This man chose to serve his country. And he gave the ultimate sacrifice. No protest will bring him back. And no protest will blemish the honor that Soldier earned.

 

A bit too busy

Well. Thank you all for your support. With friends like you who needs friends.

I have been busy moving into the new place, and I still do not have a home PC. And considering that my job has quickly become a spirtual abyss that I can only find my way out of with copious amounts of Irish whiskey; I am not using the computers there to blog.

Also, the news has been boring lately. Supreme Court Justice Roberts? That future is a foregone conclusion. It is just another step in the march to overturn all of that Warren Court silliness. Roe v. Wade is gone folks. Kiss the penumbra goodbye (ah that may have been Griswold, damn.)

Israelis leaving Gaza? Also inevitable. Back out, build a wall, and everytime someone lobs a grenade over it, hit them with a cruise missile. That has been the only possible solution to this problem for ten years. All I will say about North Korea is that we would have been better off if Clinton had played hardball with them in the 90s. He tried. No, really. But that abject failure Jimmy Carter went over there and negotiated a peace settlement, aka cover for the Norks nuclear program. Thanks for kissing a psychotic dictator's ass and creating a nuclear North Korea in your quest for a Noble Prize. Jimmy you're the best.

My old enemy Nemesis has commented on my lack of blogging and referred to my service in the Air Force Reserve. While I am loathe to mention personal facts on my blog, Nemesis did mention his time in the Army. Frankly, he knows as well as I do that you are not actually in the Army if your Field experience consists of that patch of grass in front of your townhouse that you make your wife mow. I am sure that she is looking forward to a change this winter, when she can shovel snow while Nemesis sleeps off his hangover. Loser.

No links today my friends. This public computer is a little too slow for that. But you can find the Minus the Nemesis link on my blog roll. At least Minus isn't a schmuck.

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