If you haven’t already heard then you soon will about the European Unions own “bailout plan.” The plan is as simple as it is predictable. Simply ask President Obama to give a trillion or so American taxpayer dollars to those great American bashing, spoiled “allies” like France, Germany, Spain, and England; and for good measure let’s throw another trillion or so at the world’s poorest countries as well. It isn’t enough that we have had to listen to these governments bashing our own democratically elected government for the past eight years. It isn’t enough that we have to pay them for the privilege of building, funding, staffing, and maintaining military bases in their countries and whose primary reason for existence is to defend these same American bashing nations from Russian military attacks. Now that the great European love-fest is coming to a financially premature end, what better way to keep the party going than on those evil and filthy rich Americans backs? Backs like yours and mine.

    The EU was created for two purposes. One, to eliminate the sense of nationalism among the independent European nations. If British, French, and German nationals would just quit thinking of themselves in those nationalistic terms then the idea of warfare between the European nations will prevent any future hostilities as were seen during WWI and WWII. Secondly, the EU was supposed to become a dominant superpower that would rival and hopefully even surpass the great heathen Americans.

   I must admit to a fondness for the people of Great Britain as they are one of the few nations that have stood beside the U.S. in many a tough spot in our shared history but I fear they will be such an ally much less in our future. As for the prissy French and the taciturn Germans, their history has been more in keeping with other anti-American countries and that is a simple fact. The French have traditionally voted against the U.S. on more U.N. initiatives than they have been in agreement. Does anyone remember which country was wantonly helping the ruthless dictator Saddam Hussein in building his nuclear reactor in Iraq in the 1980’s? The same nation which just happened to be the willing world bank for Hussein’s Iraq that was somewhat embarrassingly brought into the light after his ouster? I am sure that you have already guessed it to be France and of course you are right.

   Which nation member of the EU is currently the largest trading partner with Iran? The same Iran who has been under years of UN and U.S. sanctions. The same country which only grudgingly supplies a few soldiers to the war in Afghanistan but refuses to let them actual seek out and kill bad guys? Yep, our good allies the Germans. The old saying, “with friends like these you don’t need enemies” is certainly appropriate here. I have lived and travelled in these countries and know first hand the deep resentment, bordering on open hatred, exhibited by the average French citizen towards Americans. The Germans are a tough hardy breed but all to willing to be followers and followers without any strong moral compass at that. Were you aware that we continue to pay these countries for the privilege of maintaining the vast cemeteries that mark the final resting place of thousands of our brave American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines that died fighting two world wars? Yep, defending the right to live as free men and women in France and ending the German’s death wish that had precipitated both world wars has earned us the right to pay for the land to bury our dead in. That and a couple of Euro’s will buy you a cup of coffee. So much for gratitude.  

   Now these countries who are allies in name only are expecting our new socialist leaning President, a man bereft of his own moral compass, to once again bail them out of a financial meltdown which they themselves are unwilling to take seriously. Let the good times roll. It would be very belligerent of America to refuse to give these EU nations vast sums of money that America no longer has, to ensure that those EU citizens can continue to party on. Thirty two hour work weeks, jobs guaranteed for life, protectionist trade policies (which they throw a tantrum over at the slightest hint that America would even think of any such reciprocal treatment), seven weeks of guaranteed vacation time, free medical care, free college schooling, and on and on. These EU government leaders understand the potential upheaval of their populations if they are suddenly cut off from their government welfare teats. Why the screams of outrage alone would be heard around the world and the dire events would prove disastrous for the ruling party élites in each of these countries. The specter of public lynching's could once again become fashionable.

   Once American politicians bought into the concept of “plugging” in to the worldwide community and took our nations wealth off the gold standard it was only a matter of time before this economic meltdown would become a reality. Economists are now saying that this current economic meltdown may well last until the end of 2010 and even then may never rebound to the days of old. If ever there was a time that America needs to put America’s interest first, this is that time. I personally believe it may well be the last such opportunity for our nation to do so. I hope for my children’s sake that I am wrong.

  According to a recent article from the Associated Press the suicide rate of our military personnel is at the highest rate (2008) since such records began to be tracked in 1980. The so called main-stream media picked up on this story and set out under the pretext of compassion for our service men and women but really used it to once again portray to our nations myopias that the often touted Hollywood view of our combat veterans being psychotic rapists and cold blooded killers appears to have been the real agenda. The MSM does this of course even as they continue to report that our veterans have a slightly higher unemployment rate than the “average” American.

   While I certainly agree that our veterans don’t receive the quality of care that they are most deserving of, I have only two words for this liberal view of our brave men and women who, as a whole, have done their best to serve our nation with honor and courage. After telling the reader in the first third of the article that the suicide rate of 20.2 per 100,000 military service members was the highest ever recorded and was higher than the national non-veteran population, the reader is required to read through to the bottom half of the article to see that the “Army says the civilian rate is more like 19.5 per 100,000 when adjusted.”

   In other words it took our nations fighting two foreign wars simultaneously over a period of more years than WWII lasted for our young men and women to reach the same suicide rate as the “general population” of non-veterans. And let’s not forget that we haven’t seen our military forced to serve in a combat zone for such prolonged periods since WWII. Nor should we forget that during WWII our military personnel generally knew who the enemy was from the uniforms each wore. It has not been since the Vietnam War that our troops have had to deal with an enemy that does not wear a uniform, and an enemy that intentionally uses women and children as human shields. A enemy whose battle cry appears to be something along the lines of, “We love death more than you love life.”

   Think about that for just a moment. You are fighting for your country and understand that a possible consequence of serving your nation in a combat zone can cost you your limbs, brain damage, and even your death; but your adversary appears to have no qualms about causing the death of innocents, and who is willing and even eager to die in their “holy war” as this ensures them a special place in heaven with 72 doe eyed virgins that must submit to their every sexual fantasy. As an American warrior you understand the sacrifices that may be borne by you, as well as the legal perils of fighting for a country that believes in the sanctity of life, even as your enemy is held to no such obligations.

   If our troops take these enemy terrorists, for that is the definition of their real status let us make no mistake about that point, they will treat their wounds, feed them, clothe them, and the worst of these terrorists would be sent to Guantanamo Bay where they get video games, some of the best medical treatment in the world, the right to practice their barbaric religion, a very well stocked library, and their guards having to kow-tow to them. Despite what the liberal MSM, ACLU, Amnesty International, and other such groups would have us believe, compare our treatment of these savage butchers of all peoples with the treatment that our soldiers receive at the hands of our terrorist foes. Rape and true torture is only a couple of the dehumanizing and demeaning methods almost always used on the prisoners of our foes. Not water boarding some monster that has time sensitive information that may save many innocents lives in the very near future.

      I bet most Americans don’t know, because our MSM never told them, that the vast majority of our servicemen and women captured during the first Iraqi war were raped. That’s right, rape of the women was pretty much a given but they raped the men as well. Can you imagine a more despicable psychological assault than being gang raped, raped with whatever filthy implements they found close to hand, along with the physical pain and torture that almost always accompanies such violent acts; and that was from the uniformed military of Saddam Hussein’s military? Why do these terrorist Taliban, al Qaeda, L.E.T., Abu Sayyaf, Hamas, Hezbollah, and so many other seemingly disparate groups from almost every country in the world today have in common? Islam.

   Have we already forgotten Iran’s takeover of the American embassy in 1979 and the subsequent hostage ordeal of American citizens for 444 days? The bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon and the Khobar Tower in Saudi Arabia? The attempted slaughter of our forces in Somalia, and the literally hundreds of other such Islamic driven terrorist incidents. Instead of showing our self-avowed enemies some back bone we tucked our tails and ran, or attempted to “negotiate” with our enemies. What has that brought us so far? 9/11 that’s what. More death, more demands, and more appeasement than ever before! Ask the typical Israeli citizen what their appeasement has earned them so far.   

  Only after 9/11 did we get serious about this worldwide threat and fight back. In the process Iraq now has at least the chance of a freely elected government, and Afghanistan, though lagging behind Iraq, may still have a glimmer of hope. I personally don’t believe that either will be successful because in both cases a befuddled American policy allowed these countries constitutions to declare that no law may supersede Islamic law. On the other hand, al Qaeda was dealt a series of body blows that emasculated and denied this vile organization the follow on attacks it had hoped for. The only reason al Qaeda’s command and control survives to this day is the duplicity of other Muslim nations. Saudi Arabia’s massive financial support, Pakistan’s allowance of its country as a sanctuary area, even as they continue to accept billions of American dollars to “support” us in this “war on terror.” And let’s not forget the appeasement, if not active assistance, of the European Union, Russia, and China.

   Why do we see a resurgence of beheadings over the past decade? Because the most revered personage of all mankind (at least to Muslims) was and continues to be the Prophet Muhammad himself, and he was really, really big on beheadings, rape, torture, and pillage. Not that you will hear such things from either our government, our academic “intelligentsia,” and certainly not from our MSM. Yet even our homicidal enemies realized that the beheading and internet posting of those beheadings was actually hurting their cause. Until President Obama’s election that is.

   How did our nation respond after 9/11? On 9/12 President Bush went on the offensive against those terrorists responsible, but in almost the same breath, insisted on defending the very same religion that provoked 9/11 by telling all the listening world that Islam was indeed a “religion of peace,” despite all evidence to the contrary. Do I believe that all Muslims are my mortal enemy? Of course not, but I believe that the vile “religion” called Islam is the enemy of all freedom loving peoples anywhere. Islam is a 7^th century Arab-political-supremacist ideology of world domination wrapped within a 7^th century religion as a façade.  

   While our MSM continues praising President Obama’s “bipartisan” efforts at “reaching across the aisle” to his Republican foes, is it any coincidence that since he took over as President, beheadings have seen a sharp increase, Pakistan has released the infamous Dr. Khan, other Muslim countries are releasing known and suspected terrorists by the dozens,  Pakistan has caved to the Taliban’s fundamentalist demands for Sharia Law, and our own FBI is now planning on transferring agents from the counter-terrorism mission to the more mundane fraud investigations such as those perpetrated by the now infamous Madoff. Could it just possibly have anything to do with Obama’s blatant appeasement of Muslims worldwide?

   I personally have no doubt and I am deeply concerned about what our near future holds in store for our nation from the rapid expansion of this worldwide Islamic terrorism that comprises both overt and covert, as well as economic, arms to achieve their global domination and the forced return to the 7^th century Arabic lifestyle. 9/11 should have been sufficient to awaken the peoples of our great nation, if not the world, as to the greatest peril faced by all free peoples in many decades, but alas, we appear determined to spill more blood and tears to relearn what we should have already known. What a shame.

   As to the image our liberal brethren would have us believe about the many wonderful men and women who volunteer to go in harms way, to both protect and serve our great nation, don’t believe it for a moment. I currently serve in a management position that authorizes me to hire personnel for my department and I have no problem giving our recent combat veterans a job. In fact I have hired a number of these men and women and have generally found them to be excellent people and employees. I would like to think that others in similar positions are doing the same. It seems the very least we citizens who have benefitted from these heroes sacrifices should do. The very least.  

   So, by now you have no doubt seen or heard about the pair of size 10 shoes hurled at President Bush as he was addressing a room full of journalists while in Iraq. You have probably seen our own liberal media types such as Michael Ware, Jack Cafferty, and Rick Sanchez trying to “report” this incident without showing their own personal glee at the images of the President of the United States of America being assaulted in a war zone by an Arab Muslim journalist “dissing” the leader of this great country.

   While our own unprofessional and personally biased journalists are having a great deal of fun with this image and already calling the arrest of this Arab thug a violation of his “civil rights”, we should be asking a few questions of our own journalists. For example, if the purpose of journalists is to obtain facts and provide a factual report of events as they unfold in an unbiased manner, then how is what this thug did right? Journalists are not supposed to be the story and they are expected to treat people with at least a modicum of objective professionalism, if not respect. Regardless of the unethical behavior of the Ware’s, Cafferty’s, and Sanchez’s from an obviously biased profession of anti-American values and traditions, every American should be angered at the sight of an Arab Islamic thug being so rude to our President.

   Does anyone remember the not to distant past when an American soldier in Iraq used a Quran, the Islamic holy book, for target practice? President Bush personally apologized to the Iraqi Prime Minister and a top U.S. General personally kowtowed, kissed a Quran, and begged the forgiveness of an assortment of Islamic thugs. Here we have a Muslim Arab male doing the most disrespectful thing he could possibly do, at least in the backwoods area known as the Middle East, to the representative of the greatest nation on the face of the planet.

   And what is the reaction of the Muslim world? Once again thousands of Muslims in Iraq, and other Muslim countries, are protesting this Arab thug’s arrest, and once again our seditious and complicit MSM appear to be urging the same! Note the man was arrested for throwing his shoes while the Iraqi PM was standing next to President Bush, not for his assaulting President Bush. Nor, have I heard or read of any apology forthcoming from the Muslim world’s governments. Apparently this Muslim thug and supposed journalist is yet another “hero” to the Muslim world but why is no Muslim government condemning this behavior? But hey, how can we ask even that much of the Muslim countries when even our own journalists refuse to condemn this action?

   Now let’s just imagine that the shoes were on the other feet. What would the U.S. Government’s reaction have been if, oh say, a U.S. journalist or cameramen had thrown both his shoes at ANY Muslim government official during a news release? How many Muslims around the world would have rioted, plundered, raped, and murdered, regardless of the profuse apologies that we all know would have been offered by almost every level of the U.S. Government? And what would the reaction of our MSM “professionals” have been to that incident?

   That’s a rhetorical question by the way as I don’t believe there is any real doubt but that it would have been, at least in the eyes of the American MSM, President Bush’s fault as well. I just wish Ware would get his nose fixed, Sanchez would go live in Argentina and Cafferty would retire. I know its just a fantasy, but I can’t help myself.   

     It would appear that the American values that have made our country the greatest nation in the history of the world are being discarded as quickly as many a Hollywood celebrity sheds their latest spouse. It is very discouraging to see the nation that has served as the greatest hope to the world shaking itself apart at an alarmingly rapid rate.

   The gay “rights” movement that has insisted that it is a civil rights movement on par with the black civil rights movement of the 60’s, failing to get their way, has revealed themselves for the very narrow minded thugs which they would have the “straight” community believe they were the victims of. They show themselves to be intolerant of religion, democracy, civility, and compassion that surpasses any stereotypes that they have insisted, without much evidence to support such assertions, that they themselves have been the alleged “victims” of. Not satisfied with the fact that most states in this country now recognize “civil unions” that provide all the same legal entitlements of, but with out the title of “marriage,” has been behaving like a group of spoiled 4 year olds that didn’t get their way. Despite the overwhelming evidence that the majority of their society has repeatedly demonstrated a tolerance for such lifestyles, the gay community wants to force on their society, using the very same strong arm, close minded prejudices, which they have been screaming bloody murder that they were the victims of, is simply another indication of how small (and in this case very small minded) interest groups have turned this country on its head.

   From physically assaulting little old ladies exercising their legal right to express their view points, to publishing the names of every donor in California who voted against the gay rights demands to change the definition of what a marriage is, to wild demonstrations that were meant to intimidate and cow any party or individual who was not “one” of them. The ridiculous law suit filed by a gay man in New Jersey against an online dating service that had the temerity to not offer a “gay” section was ridiculous enough. The fact that a judge agreed and demanded that the owners of a private business had to pay off this miscreant, as well as change their private business model to allow for gay dating on the web site, certainly shows how far this land that was supposed to be “of the people, for the people” has fallen.

   Outrageous court rulings against private businesses such as gun manufacturers, cigarette companies, energy companies, et al, is rapidly diminishing what being American was supposed to be about.  The fact that many of these unethical court cases were brought about by municipal, county, state, and federal government entities should have been met with an outraged howl from the masses but were only met with barely a whimper has ensured the fate of American’s every where.

   The “Tight Blue Jean Defense,” the “Twinkie” Defense, and the many similarly ridiculous legal defenses and challenges from well known anti-American groups have all had the ultimate effect of denying responsibilities of the individual. This has necessitated the burgeoning role of government to step in and be responsible for its citizens in unintended and unprecedented ways. The ACLU has made it clear that it will challenge and undermine any reference to Christianity, not just from any level of government, which includes schools, but private enterprise as well. Yet other religions such as the religion of Islam are perfectly fine within those same institutions.

   We have now reached the point that illegal aliens are permitted to openly protest and demand their “rights” to drivers license’s, their right to even be here, albeit illegally, and to live and work here despite their illegal means of doing so. Their demands to be given “special rights,” that are not even accorded to the legal residents of this nation. City and state governments openly break their own states laws, and the laws of the federal government in openly providing “sanctuary” for these self same illegal’s, while spending the tax dollars of its legal residents, without their consent (in most cases) to house and protect these very same illegal aliens.

   The recent talk about how America needs to “earn” its right to be a productive member of the “global” community, as though we have anything to be ashamed of. That our torture of homicidal fanatics, using the water-boarding technique, which appears to be about the worst interrogation technique used, is somehow comparable to the extreme violence that is simply the norm in most countries of the world with far less justification.

   For example, were you even aware that the vast majority of our POW’s captured during the first Iraq war were raped? Yep, men and women, it made no difference. And remember these were uniformed military personnel engaged in open warfare against another countries military forces and as such were supposedly bound to the Geneva Convention, which outlines the proper treatment that all POW’s are supposed to be treated in accordance with but which only the civilized countries like the United States actually adhere to. Just look at the way that our military personnel have been treated by the Japanese, Germans, N. Korean’s, Chinese, Russians, and the Vietnamese. They have all routinely tortured (and I don’t mean the use of just water-boarding) our POW’s and then look at how their captured soldiers, airmen, and sailors were treated by America, Canada, Britain, Australia, etc.

   The difference with the animals that are being held at Gitmo, and the 3 or 4 animals that have reportedly been subjected to the water-boarding technique, is that they are not government military service personnel just following the orders of their commanding officers. These are stateless terrorist thugs who brought us such acts as 9/11, the Madrid, Spain bombings, the U.S.S. Cole bombing, the Daniel Pearl beheading, the 7/7 tube bombings in London, and the more than 15,000 other Islamic terrorist atrocities committed around the world since 9/11. They have no regard for Muslim and non-Muslim alike. Men, women and children are all fair game. To equate these animals with military POW’s, or even with the typical criminal within the justice system is, and would be sheer madness.

   Sadly, there are far too few American’s that are even aware of what is going on in their country (let alone the world) or seem to care. Just look at all the reports now showing how little the average American even knew about the basic facts of our recent presidential politics. Or the intelligence report that was just released, projecting that America will not be the superpower by 2025 that it is today, will ultimately be the fault of a lethargic society that will have earned every bit of its pathetic existence. God bless America, because no one else will.

    I believe the American government chose to lose both the war on terror in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan in the first 12 months of each of those fronts but not for the reason that so many on the far left would have us believe. We lost because our government has not only refused to understand the so called “religion of peace” (Islam) but has actually insisted on choosing the very Islamic supremacist type of Muslim’s that are allied with the Islamic terrorists we are supposedly at war with.

   I don’t believe in the “Bush lied, people died” mantra, but I do believe that seven years after 9/11 Bush is no better informed about who or what the real enemy is, than he was pre-9/11. What a shame, but more to the point what a complete failure of our leader’s clarity of vision. None the less, I do recall a united bi-partisan agreement to both the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars and the fact that nearly 70% of our citizenry now believe it was all a President Bush/Republican “plot” to settle an old score with Saddam Hussein simply high lights the power and duplicity of our liberal mainstream media’s ability to alter the facts to whatever they choose to make of them. It’s like that book, “Animal Farm” come to life.

   The reasons I believe that we have lost both the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars are as follows.

1.       We allowed both governments to install Sharia Law (Islamic law) as the highest authority of both countries governments. This means that no matter what else we achieve during our endeavors in either country, we had already lost.

2.       We have allowed both governments to openly display their Islamic supremacist pathos in many unchallenged ways. For example, neither country allows non-Islamic religious leaders into their countries even as America allows hundreds (if not thousands) of these countries own Islamic religious leaders into our own country. We continue to allow both countries governments to openly snub and belittle all the positive and often costly rebuilding efforts by our American soldiers. For example the Iraqi government is actually tearing down some of the schools, playgrounds and other construction projects built with the American taxpayer dollars and with the blood of our service members, and then rebuilding them just so the Iraqi government can point to these projects as Iraqi (Muslim) built.

       Don’t even get me started on the support or lack thereof, shown by our many so called “allies.” I am a firm believer in taking the war to our enemies and fighting those necessary battles on their ground in their countries but I am also a firm believer that the moment we allowed these two Muslim governments to install Sharia Law as the foundation of their constitutions we had already lost; and every drop of American blood, sweat, and tears, not to mention the many billions and billions of American dollars, were all spent in vain.

   The really depressing part of this mess is that it isn’t as if America didn’t have experience in how to rebuild former enemy governments, as we have successfully done in both Germany and Japan. It would appear that none of our current political leaders, as well as our military leaders, bothered to study those successes choosing instead to believe that the Iraqi citizenry would simply greet us with joy and an equally pervasive Multicultural love fest. Apparently nobody in power ever thought about the history of Islam or the fact that Shiite, Sunni, Kurds and Christians all occupied this country in one of the most violent and turbulent regions of the world.

   This failure of any firm grasp of reality or a “plan” is equally obvious in almost every international endeavor the U.S. is currently involved in. From the abortion that is the U.N., the ludicrous NATO organization, and even to low-tech, extremely violent Islamic “pirates” attacking ships under the noses of the impotent American navy, who don’t want to “hurt anyone” because that may cause more anti-American sentiments among our “allies” and certain NGO’s.  

   I have news for our politically correct leaders, we are already the favorite whipping post for the rest of the world so why not use the conviction of our own belief in America and do the right thing regardless of what our sniveling “allies” think. I, for one, actually believe that showing a little back bone would actually garner the very support that our government seems to crave from the majority of the worlds leaders.

    Actions speak louder than words. I learned this lesson early in my life and it has never failed me yet. If you want to learn about a person’s true character then you watch what they do, not what they say. This is a much better “test” of individuals and of the governments of nations. What has always managed to baffle me is that so few people ever seem to learn this incredibly effective lesson. School teachers, police officers, judges, college professors, prison wardens, psychiatrists, the young and the old, men and women, black and white, the well educated and the uneducated, rich and poor, have all shown a very real lack of understanding of such a simple concept.

   There are many examples but I will only use a few here to make my point. When Jeffrey Dahmer was about 22 years old (1981) he was arrested for exposing himself at a Wisconsin state fair but he only received a slap on the wrist. In 1986 he was again charged for masturbating in front of two boys. This time he actually served 10 months of a 12 month sentence. In 1988 he was again arrested for sexually fondling a young boy in Milwaukee, for which he served another 10 months, this time in a work release camp. He should have served a longer sentence but he convinced a judge that he needed therapy and so was released on 5 years probation.  

   Officials would later learn that it was shortly after this release that Dahmer would begin killing his victims in extremely brutal ways. In the early morning hours one May morning in 1991 a 14 year old victim would be found wandering the residential street where Dahmer lived. The boy was naked, bleeding from the rectum and appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcoholic beverages. When police questioned Jeffrey Dahmer, he told them the boy was his 19 year old lover who had become drunk and argumentative. Despite the boy’s apparent condition and over his pleas for help, the police officers released the boy back into Dahmer’s custody while ignoring the foul stench emanating from Dahmer’s home. The stench would later turn out to be the decomposing corpses in a back room of his residence. Dahmer would kill the boy shortly thereafter. The police officers would later be fired but after appealing their case they would be reinstated on the police force and even be named officers of the year by the police union.

   This is a pretty clear case of exactly what I am talking about. We can see a disturbed young man’s actions continuing to escalate in the severity of his crimes. From “simple” exposure which could easily be explained away as the act of an overly intoxicated young man with no prior criminal record, to openly masturbating in front of young boys, to sexually assaulting another young boy, to killing his victims, all between 1981 and his final arrest in 1991.

   Despite the evidence of his actions, both judges and the police officers involved obviously paid more attention to his words. He was the victim, and just needed therapy, certainly not incarceration. He counted on a homophobic response from the police officers and his plan worked better than he could have possibly hoped for. Then you have the extremely unprofessional actions of the police officers who were able to “talk” their way back into the police force despite their actions which so obviously supported the initial termination decision.

   Then we have all those “moderate” Muslim “civil rights” groups which continually bombard us with just how non-violent and misunderstood is their “religion of peace.” Yet where are these so called moderates when the Danish cartoon riots were taking place around the world? Where were they when Theo Van Gough, the Danish film maker and “artist” was killed for exercising his right to free speech? These same moderate Muslim civil rights groups that claim they are the persecuted ones even as they openly demand “special rights” not accorded any other religious or minority group, who openly support terrorist organizations and express their intentions of overthrowing the society that they have joined and their stated intention of imposing Sharia Law and Muslim supremacy over all Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

   Yet the thousands and thousands of violent acts committed around the world today are not committed by any significant numbers of Christians, Jews, Hindus, or Buddhists, but they certainly are committed by the followers of that religion of peace. Remember the images of tens of thousands of Muslims dancing and celebrating in Muslim communities around the world at the death and destruction wrought on 9/11? Anyone who attempts to so much as criticize the smallest aspect of the Islamic violence and the horrendous ways with which they treat non-Muslims always seems to bring a firestorm of violence or the threat of violence to those who dare speak out.

   Yet we see people in many Western cultures continue to listen to the words of these totally supremacist religious zealots, even as their 1400 year history is full of the violence which they initiate against the infidel populations unfortunate enough to live within striking distance. Again, I don’t believe that every self professed Muslim is a stone cold killer or even a supporter of Islamic terrorism, but they are not the true Muslims they claim to be as they fail to adhere to the Arabic ranting of their prophet and his god.  Anyone who has ever bothered to take the time to actually read what the Quran, the Hadith’s and the Sira demand of all true Muslims, and understand the Muslim concept of the Medina, or essentially the “new testament” of the Quran, which makes null and void any earlier teachings or similar statements such as those found in the “old testament” portion of the Quran, or Mecca period of Islam’s history should be able to add two plus two equals four. Barring that, the sheer numbers of Islamic violence perpetuated around the world today should put any doubts about the true nature of this so called “religion of peace” to rest.

   Again, deeds not words speak to the true character of people and governments. No one is perfect and we all make our mistakes but the way we arrived at those mistakes and perhaps most importantly, the way we deal with the aftermath of those mistakes will always show the true character of us as individuals and nations alike. Be that for the better or worse, the answer will almost always be clear to those with the eyes with which to see.

   Recently, the Uniontown Area School Board in Pennsylvania proposed equipping their school police with Tasers, a non-lethal device which fires two metal prongs or can be pressed directly against an offender, delivering a controlled electrical shock that incapacitates rather than kills. It should be mentioned that this same school board already refuses to allow their school police to carry any firearms and to date they are only equipped with nightstick-type impact weapons and pepper spray. The proposed guidelines for the use of the Tasers would only be for “outsiders” and would never be authorized for use on school students or staff members.

    At a contentious meeting with several groups and parents the director of safety and health tried arguing that the issuance of the Tasers would be a proactive step as opposed to a reactive measure, while also noting the increase in serious crime in the Uniontown area. One of the many vocal opponents from nearby New Salem implied that if the students saw school police officers with the Tasers that they may think it was alright to bring Tasers of their own to school! Ignoring the fact that even the cheapest “civilian” model of the Tasers cost about $300 dollars a pop, what world does this person live on if they believe that students would one, be able to go right out and shell out that kind of money for such a device and two, would ever think it would be ok to bring such a device to their school? They already have to abide by a fairly lengthy list of prohibited items which they are not permitted to bring to school.

   Perhaps the most shocking statement was made by a Uniontown parent who said, “I can’t see using violence to combat violence. It’s wrong. There’s got to be another way to conduct this. Kids’ lives, security guards lives are in danger.” Eventually the proposal to equip the school police with this non-lethal device was aborted and the meeting turned to looking at security training and the possible use of metal detectors in future sessions.

   Again, all we have to do is look at the past actions of kids in the numerous school shooting that have been taking place around our country since the mid-90’s and ask ourselves how on earth a well intentioned (not to mention incredibly brave or recklessly stupid) and unarmed person, school police or anyone else, would have ever been able to stop the focused killers such as those two killers at Columbine, Colorado? Even school police armed with Tasers would have been useless against two or more heavily armed homicidal killers such as the ones who ravaged the Columbine school. The concept that only “bad people” use violence is so far removed from reality as to defy any cognitive thought. Violence is the weapon of choice for the bad guys to be sure, but violence has also been a tool of necessity for the good guys to.

   Hitler wasn’t defeated with pleasant thoughts. World Wars I and II were not won by turning the other cheek and greeting the bad guys with hugs and salutations. They were defeated by the good guy’s courage, sacrifice and determination not to simply roll over for evil, period. Today with the Russian – Georgian conflict we see the Russians repeatedly paying lip service to peace and treaties, while their actions tell a vastly different story. If you were a Georgian which Russian activity would you be giving the most credence to? 

   For me the answer is very simple. Actions not words!

  I am sure you have noticed how our congress loves to point the finger of blame at one another, or better yet someone else, but how can our current woes be anyone else’s fault but theirs? They are the ones who pass bills, establish trade regulations and policies, and generally steer the great ship of America for better or worse. How do you think we got to the current state of affairs we now find ourselves in?

   A gallon of gas is costing $4 a gallon, millions of illegal and undocumented aliens moving in and out of our countries borders unchallenged, our children continuing to fall further and further behind school children of many other countries and school drop out rates are at a seldom mentioned crisis level. Thousands of tons of illicit drugs and other contraband continue entering our country along with many of those illegal immigrants. Major U.S. business corporations fleeing the U.S. like rats from a sinking ship and our governments insistence on issuing visa’s to foreign workers, allegedly to fill our nations own shortage of skilled (read more expensive) workers.

   The establishment of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agency which was supposed to bring connectivity and better focus to many other federal bureaucratic agencies but which has in fact just added to the utter chaos and bureaucratic malaise that all Americans have come to know and hate, even as our tax dollars continue supporting this madness. Our government still inspects a miniscule number of the containers shipped into our country while refusing to enforce our border security, even while ensuring that every single passenger (at least the ones who use public air transport) goes through the ridiculous security charade at every major and minor airport in the country.

   Our government continues secretive meetings with other countries on trade agreements (I wonder why they have to be secret?) while allowing an ever increasing number of frivolous law suits from illegal aliens suing American schools and other American institutions for their “English only” policies to those anti-American “civil rights” groups like the ACLU. You know the group that is quick to sue any bastion of American history and traditional moral values. Children used to pledge allegiance to their country, engage in brief group prayers and actually learn the three R’s that have always been the foundation of all education at the public schools level. Teachers used to actually be held accountable for their demonstrated teaching abilities and spent more time on teaching history than they now do teaching “revisionist” history which might have been found offensive to the odd person here or there. Our education system has been turned on it's head more times than I can remember but Congress keeps making the process sound so complicated, which it certainly is not. Unless you don't want to hold anyone accountable that is.

   But where is the ACLU when Muslim groups insist on “female” only times in public pools, gyms and other public (read our taxpaying dollars built and supported) to the exclusion of the vast majority. Where is the ACLU when Muslim’s hold Arabic prayer sessions in our public schools in class rooms with the drapes drawn and the American flag covered? How is it that groups like the ACLU not only survive but thrive in our country? I don’t blame the ACLU but our Congress. Regardless of whether you believe in a supreme deity or not, what was the harm in raising our children to at least understand that they may be held accountable for the actions of today in the here after? Look what has happened when they have no reason to believe in anything but those material possessions they can aquire and the way they treat everyone around them? It's not that they are bad kids but that through the wonders of our rapidly changing technologies they are able to have less and less real contact with other people while being exposed to depictions of violence never seen in human history at younger and younger ages. Remember that not to long ago there was a movement in this country condeming those Bugs Bunny, Road Runner and Yosemite Sam cartoons, but look what is now allowed through the medium of games and movies where every blood splatter and exploding head looks so very real through enhanced high definition.

   How do we account for the fact that there are at least 20 Muslim governed countries which forbid American non-Muslim religious leaders into their countries even as we continue to allow hundreds of their own Muslim religious leaders to travel into the United States, and despite the factual knowledge that a surprising number of these “religious” leaders have direct ties to numerous terrorist organizations. Oh, and did I mention that two of those Muslim nations include none other than Afghanistan and Iraq? You can read for yourself here: http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/022253.php  

   And since I am on the subject of those “religion of peace” Muslims, how else do you explain the fact that our government is seriously considering paying our newest ally Moammar Gadhafi of Libya, for the Reagan era bombing of his country! He committed horrific atrocities which our government not only knows but can prove, but we will pay him to continue to be our “moderate” Muslim ally.

    How else can you explain that our Congress continues to pump billions and trillions of our tax dollars to foreign countries, while we maintain tens of thousands of our military forces in more "allied" countries where we pay those countries for the privilege of helping to defend their anti-American governments; even as Congress continues to bicker and argue about the 1.5 trillion dollars desperately needed to repair and replace our aging roads and bridges?  

   There is only one group consisting primarily of only a few hundred Americans that are directly responsible for the current state of our nations affairs; the United States Congress. Yet when it comes time for taking responsibility for any of these things they continue to point the finger of blame at anyone or anything but themselves. Like the old saying goes; Only in America!

   Howard Dean says it again! During a recent speech he points out that in his opinion the Republican Party is essentially the party of white (read racists) evangelical centrists (read sexist racists of dubious lineage). This isn’t the first time he has brought this up during his speeches but it is another clear indication of what I have certainly commented on before. That in our topsy-turvy black is white, and up is down world, if you are white, at least according to many of those elitist DNC political leaders today, you are by definition a racist-sexist-supremacist and therefore incapable of any open discussion of race, sex, or supremacy issues facing our country today.

   If you don’t vote for Barrack Hussein Obama it is as obvious as the nose on your face that you are a racist. If you are a card-carrying member of the Republican Party you must be a racist. If you are a registered Independent but vote for anyone but Obama, then it follows that you must be a closet Republican racist, and simply to stupid to understand which party you should be claiming.

   Again, I want to make it very clear that I believe people are people, regardless of the color of their skin or the sex they were born into. People generally work hard to provide the basics of shelter, food, and heat, find a loving mate, raise their family and hopefully live a full and productive life. During the course of my lifetime thus far I have assisted in dozens and dozens of life saving situations and never once did I ever give a moments thought to the sex or color of the person whose life I was trying to save. I have also had my life saved by the prompt, and in at least two of those instances, courageous actions of others, nor did I worry about what sex or color my savior would be.   

   I believe that most people, both young and old, have encountered a sudden serious emergency where they have been faced with a situation in which their prompt action, or lack of action, would have a direct impact on the life of another person. And many of us have been in situations where we owe our lives to the prompt actions of others. I believe that is the norm, not the exception of people every where. I also believe that these are not the people who tend to be in politics. Some may have started out like that. They may even have really believed they could make positive changes for their fellow citizens but the temptations of today’s politicians, the fame, the power, the money; coupled with a culture of greed, corruption and a “you scratch my back and I will scratch yours,” stifles those initial ambitions if ever they existed to begin with.

   Still, I can’t say it enough. American’s have got to be willing to band together and use their voice along with their vote to hold our politicians accountable and help put our country back on a path of both security and prosperity for all our nations’ peoples. Heck you might even say liberty and justice for all!

   “Our government is nothing but a bunch of self-serving crooks, but what can you do?” These words were spoken by a co-worker to me during a break at work just the day before yesterday and I think it is a pretty common sentiment among most American’s today. I reminded him that our government is designed to serve “We the People,” but he simply shrugged as if to say, “What of it? There’s nothing we can do.” It is this lethargic response that is ensuring the myth that the average Joe or Jane Citizen can never truly create any really positive change in our government, let alone our lives. Of course, it is this very belief which our power-mongering career politicians rely on, thus continuing the cycle. This is certainly one of the more negative truisms of all humanity.

   Most people are productive, honest and gentle creatures; more interested in starting and raising families, providing the basic needs for themselves and those families, developing careers, etc., but there are always those who care only about their own wants and who have learned that most people won’t fight back when threatened. They then use violence and fear to enforce their will onto others, without any concern for those whom they “rule.”

   Not that those same people can’t be capable of committing extreme violence themselves under the right circumstances. Mob mentality, if made to feel they have no other choice, desperation, protecting loved ones, being under the influence of drugs or alcohol; but the vast majority of humans anywhere would much rather live and let live than engage in a constant battle to the death. Our forefathers understood that there came a time when enough was enough and good people of conviction had to stand up for themselves.

   The only people who truly believe the old adage of “the pen is mightier than the sword,” have in the main, never had to stand up and fight for a belief. For any one example anyone can name where the saying is possibly true, and I don’t know of any, there will easily be thousands and thousands of cases where violence destroyed those only wielding pens.

    The concept behind that statement about the pen wielder is really about the Ideals of the need for humans to express themselves and live their lives as free men and women, but those same people must be willing to fight, and if necessary die, for those ideals and beliefs. Far too many people, and particularly those peoples of the Western nations, are quick to speak of freedom, but tend to run at the first taste of resistance from others. Americans have certainly been well neutered over the past few decades through elitist ideals of the particularly rich and pampered, and the mentally insane.

   How else do you explain the current state of affairs we see all too evident in our world today? The richest, most powerful nation the world has ever seen, our very own U.S. of A., is now the most indebted nation in the history of the world. We refuse to utilize our own natural abundance of resources, even as we continue a suicidal policy of sending billions and billions of our dollars to countries who wish us nothing but the worst.

  Our own roads, bridges, dams, sewers, and critical infrastructure is falling into an ever more degraded state of disrepair and neglect, and although we wont spend but a tiny fraction of our currency on that, we continue giving billions and trillions of dollars to others outside our borders! Our political system, in my opinion anyway, broke down years ago. People have become fanatically polarized along party lines of a long defunct system, while refusing to acknowledge facts staring them right in the eyes.

   If you don’t vote for Obama, and you’re white, it’s because you are a racist. If you don’t vote for Obama and you are black, then you are an uncle tom. If you don’t vote for Hillary and you are a male, then you are a sexist. If you don’t vote for McCain you are un-American. Law suits have become increasingly frivolous and judges are legislating from the bench. The main stream media is now owned by hostile and foreign entities. We have no control of our borders and if you question our current immigration policies were back to being called racists. We now have at least 70 major U.S. cities that refuse to follow a federal law, which means their leaders are felons yet no one is arrested and they continue to receive their millions in federal monetary handouts.

   Our law enforcement agencies are only allowed to fight crime that isn’t against people of color, and without the use of violence. Powerful police unions prevent these same agencies from responding in anything like a prompt fashion to specific criminal trends, without long expensive negotiations and salary renegotiations. You want to take some of your beat cops out of their patrol vehicles and put them on foot patrol? The union screams that’s not in their contracts and will require additional pay.

   Then the “civil liberties” groups such as the ACLU will sue the officers, the police department, the city, and any other entity they believe they can drag into the nearest courtroom on any pretext. The favorite complaint of all these groups in a nut shell is racism. It makes no difference to them what color of the officer involved, any more than they care that well over 90% of all crimes where the victim is a person of color, is committed by people of color. To put not to fine a point on this, the vast majority of violent felonious crimes committed in our country are committed by people of color. The vast majority of victims are also people of color. Any sane rational person would look at the facts and understand why it is people of color that are the vast majority of our criminally institutionalized. Nor am I saying that whites are any better or worse than any other persons of color, I am simply stating what organizations that track these sorts of trends clearly, factually prove.

   We hear of illegal aliens committing extreme violence against our citizens and being given ridiculously lenient treatment, and who, once released go right out and commit even more violent crimes against other innocents. Our nation has the second highest business tax in the world and then both our politicians, who set these ridiculous taxes on the profits of businesses, along with the average American citizen complain about the huge “outsourcing” of American jobs. We reelect politicians such as the Ted Kennedy’s and the Marion Berry’s despite their despicable past actions, even when they lead to imprisonment for criminal offenses. Yet all we can say is, “What can you do?”

     It was only a matter of time before the pressure cooker of Russia – Georgia tensions finally blew up. We have been repeatedly told by our politicians that the cold war with Russia has been over since the fall of the Berlin wall. Our own President Bush told the world that he had looked into the eyes of then Russian President Putin, seen into his soul, and found him to be an essentially good and honorable man. This despite the increasing hostility and continued aggression of our new world “ally,” while our elitist, wimpy liberal State Department officials have consistently missed opportunity after opportunity to check that growing Russian menace.

   Georgia, a former part of the USSR, took the first opportunity to declare its national sovereignty from nearly two hundred years of Russian oppression and has been desperately trying to align itself with the “good guys” of NATO and the United States. Only a few months ago the North Atlantic Treaty Organization rejected Georgia’s bid for membership. The primary reason being that they would have been obligated to provide full military assistance in the event it was attacked by Russia. Russia has been fomenting a “separatist” movement in the Georgian province of Southern Ossetia, among other provinces of Georgia in an obvious ploy of regaining Georgia one piece at a time since the early 1990’s when they deployed elements of the Russian army as a “peacekeeping force” which has remained ever since.

   Russia has also been very concerned about Georgia, along with Albania, Croatia, Macedonia and Ukraine, all former members of the USSR, and all who have shown a keen interest in joining NATO as soon as possible may, in the words of one Russian diplomat, “We are particularly concerned by the possibility of our immediate neighbors becoming a bridgehead for the deployment of  strategic elements of a military machine,” and then he added that Moscow expects all neighboring states to follow a responsible approach toward such matters. The Russians are particularly concerned about the idea of the U.S. placing it’s highly touted “missile defense system” inside one of the former USSR states. Georgia also has some valuable natural resources such as oil which the Russians would no doubt like to regain control of.

   After years of terror suffered by the Georgian people, and more recently months of missile attacks, kidnappings and murders, the Georgian government has apparently decided enough is enough and has taken a huge gamble to stand up to its enormous and aggressive northern neighbor. Georgia is a country with a very small, but well equipped and trained army, that has been supporting the U.S. war in Iraq with about 2000 soldiers. I strongly suspect that the Georgian government is counting on world pressure to keep the Russian army at bay. If that is the case, I fear they are doomed already.

   The Georgian government has been between the proverbial rock and a hard place for quite a while and I believe this perhaps final act, was a decision to pick the time and place to make a courageous stand while they were still capable. Their response is no different than you would expect from any other nation with any backbone who, when faced with the choice of watching their sovereignty disappear one province, county or state at a time, realizes that it must either acquiesce to the hostile intentions of its aggressive neighbor or fight for its very survival. Oppression or freedom is the only two choices they have.

   Imagine one of our neighboring countries deciding to inject a massive influx of spies and covert special forces into one of our states, committing terrible atrocities and terroristic acts against the citizens of that state, as well as the surrounding states, and then declaring that the majority population of the targeted state was actually waging a “secessionist movement” in its demands to become part of that neighboring and hostile nation. That would be Georgia’s situation in a nutshell. They either roll over and play dead, or fight to maintain they’re national sovereignty while hoping that freedom loving nations will come to their aid.

   Naturally our American Main Stream Media (MSM) has shown a propensity to simply turn a blind eye to the plight of Georgia by giving it very minimal coverage, even as it heavily slants what coverage it does provide to the American viewers. The same MSM which essentially conducted an absolute “black out” of any coverage of the John Edwards affair with a former female staffer which started in 2006, is now flooding the airways with coverage of this very same scandal now that John Edwards has confessed to the story first reported by the National Enquirer last October. It’s a pretty damning testimony of the failure of our MSM when the National Enquirer is going out and actually breaking news worthy stories which once reported, are then ignored by an incredibly biased MSM. Does anyone really doubt that had the subject been Mitt Romney or Mike Hukcabee, both Republican counterparts of Edwards, the story would have received weeks, if not months of coverage ad nauseum? However because it was a former Democratic presidential candidate the MSM determined to conduct its biased “black out” on the entire story.

   It should also be mentioned that another “great ally” of the American people, Saudi Arabia, has quietly been buying major controlling interests in our nations largest MSM corporations. One of those Saudi Royals once bragged during the 2005 French Muslim riots that after watching an American MSM stations coverage which kept factually referring to the “Muslim rioters,” he called the MSM CEO to complain, and within twenty minutes witnessed the use of the term “Muslim” dropped from all further reporting.  It must also be remembered that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi born nationals and the most virulent form of Muslim fundamentalist teaching is directly exported throughout the world by those great American ally’s, the Saudi Arabian government.   

   Now that John Edwards has confessed that he is a narcissistic liar, it seems to be the ONLY newsworthy story today. The same day as the Russia – Georgia situation erupts into open military war; and how does the MSM respond? With a brief mention which does no justice to the situation but intentionally obscures the blatant aggression of that other good old ally of America, Russia. The MSM is to busy trying to put some positive spin on the Edwards story with lots of references to the numerous sex scandals involving that even bigger narcissistic liar Bill Clinton. After all they are terrified that this may have negative consequences for that MSM “messiah” Barrack Hussein Obama at the upcoming DNC convention later this month.

   Meanwhile, thousands (of mostly defenseless civilians) will likely die within the next few days or so, and the MSM will simply impose the now standard tactic of enforcing yet another “black out” with the hope that by not giving the Russian – Georgian war very much attention, Americans will simply figure it must not be that important. The sad truth is that the MSM tactic will probably work. Still, who would have ever thought that the National Enquirer would prove to be one of our better sources of “journalism” in the country today? For whom does the bell toll? It just may be tolling for the death of the American MSM. May they rest in peace?

     If nothing else, this election promises to be one of the most entertaining presidential races that Americans have seen in years. We have a liberal Republican in the personage of Senator McCain, running against one of the most liberal Democrats in Congress. All one has to do to see how utterly corrupt and broken our “democratic” system is, is to look at what American’s choices are in this presidential race.

   McCain has supported the asinine “no drilling or exploration here” policy, before he was for it. McCain was all for granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, before he was against it. He was all for gay marriage, before he was against it. He was all for Roe v. Wade, before he was against it. McCain was against taxes, before he decided that “nothing was off the table.”

   Not that Senator Obama has done any better. Obama was against both the war in Iraq, as well as the “surge,” and has routinely demanded an immediate withdraw of all U.S. troops. Then he said he would allow for a timeline dictated by events on the ground. Then he said he would withdraw troops within 16 months, while admitting that he would probably have to leave an undisclosed number stationed there for an unknown time frame like we currently do in Europe and the Republic of South Korea. He was against any off shore drilling, before he wasn’t.

   Obama staunchly claims he “was never a Muslim,” yet records clearly show that he spent two years attending a Muslim school as a registered Muslim. Records also show he then spent the next two years attending a Christian school though he was still registered as a Muslim. The fact that he was born to a Muslim father in a country with a large Muslim population would certainly lend credence to the idea that he was a Muslim, as it is a Muslim tradition that the children born to a Muslim father are in fact Muslim. Then there are interviews with childhood friends who remember Obama going to the local mosque with his father on a pretty regular basis. Now, for the record I don’t believe that Obama is a Muslim now. He has attended a Christian school for nearly twenty years, and I believe he considers himself a Christian.  

   The point is he has denied he ever was a Muslim, despite the evidence, which the MSM seems content to remain mute on. I can certainly understand his reticence on admitting he ever was a Muslim, and in fact he was so young at that time, he may even honestly believe his statement himself. Then again, Obama has been extremely reluctant to give any details about very many of his beliefs or ideas. On the plus side for Obama, he is so new to the political scene he doesn’t have as much history as does McCain to challenge. Despite this, he has managed to be rated as one of the most liberal politicians in congress today.

   Today on the Lou Dobbs Show, they highlighted the growing shortage of licensed nurses in the medical community. They also revealed that nursing salaries actually dropped from 1996 through 2000, before the wages began slowly moving upwards. Our government’s response to the estimated 500,000 nursing shortage by 2025? To grant 60,000 worker visas’s to allow foreign workers to come in and work in the nursing positions! Of course they would make less than American nurses make now. The Lou Dobbs Show also revealed that more than 40,000 nurse want-a-bees were turned down last year alone. The reason? Lack of classrooms, instructors and funding.  

   Why would our elected politicians, supposedly elected to do the bidding of the people of their state or precinct, at a time of great economic angst in America today, not look into expanding funding, classroom space and qualified teachers to fast track American’s who want to serve their communities, while also looking into the suspiciously low nursing salaries with hospitals, which we must remember are generally business corporations looking to make a profit.  

   Do Americans really believe that people who obtain such positions of power (and through the unethical use of that power, often find wealth) are really in touch with the Americans needs? The Kennedys, Rockefellers, and many, many others; officials who have been in power for more than 30 years, care one whit about the “needs and wants” of the average American. Are we to believe that we ever had any real choice in a politician who would “serve” the best needs of the American people?

  It should be patently obvious to most Americans that we need to stand up and enforce our will on our government, and do whatever it takes to clean out our government and start from scratch, with the understanding that at some point in the future we will have to do the same thing again because its a simple fact that power does corrupt, especially if unchecked. What would be so wrong with a country run by the majority wishes of its people, as opposed to the current “special interest” groups driving our destinies? It’s a dog-gone shame that so many Americans are suffering and dying so needlessly in our country today, for no good reason. Americans have got to wake up and realize that a government like ours requires hard work and constant oversight to keep on track with the wishes of the people.

   Look at the total lack of reality our politicians currently exhibit on an increasingly dizzying basis. We have elected officials who have been caught with government “sting” money frozen in their freezers, announcing the fact that they are running for reelection. The Democrats, but make no mistake the Republicans are far from blameless in this issue, are insisting that if we develop our nations considerable natural resources like oil, natural gas, coal, etc., that this won’t have a significant impact in our current energy crisis? If we truly committed on a national level to energy independence we would not only create millions of well paying jobs, pump trillions of dollars into U.S. companies, and therefore our national and state coffers, while simultaneously stopping our best national interests being held hostage by countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and France, but also organizations like the United Nations (which they most certainly are not) and Greenpeace.

 “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” This is the first paragraph, known as the preamble, and is worth re-reading. The fact that the very first three words, “We the People” says it all, and People we need to wake up and get to work right now.

     More news today from the Seoul government’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission from South Korea. This group is working on investigating allegations of U.S. military units killing defenseless Korean’s during the Korean War (1950 – 1953). Of course the purpose of our good ally the Republic of South Korea, which only exists today because of the sacrifice and support of the American military and people; is to obtain an official apology from the American government and financial compensation for the loss of civilian life.  

   Here is my response to that. I say the U.S. government should agree to compensate those people AFTER the ROK government has repaid the U.S. for the cost of every dollar spent to ship military forces to the embattled country, every American life lost, every American wounded or listed as MIA, every piece of military equipment that was lost during the war, along with a reasonable yearly fee for the tens of thousands of U.S. service members that have been stationed in the ROK ever since.     

   After we have collected the agreed to amount from the ROK government we should be willing to pay those civilian “survivors” of the American use of military force in the defense of our poor Korean allies. I for one wouldn’t want to hold my breath awaiting that ROK payment.

   This is the kind of crap that drives my blood pressure up! Yes, innocent civilians die during war. Innocent civilians have died in virtually every war since the first war ever fought. It is one of the many reasons that wars are terrible things for all involved. No matter who “wins” the war, the civilians always pay the highest price. Now the ROK government wants to demand an apology and financial compensation from the country that pulled their lousy bacon out of the fire? I say let them keep their Reebok’s and Nike’s, and we will keep our apology and money thank you very much.

    Have you seen that commercial where a young couple is sleeping in bed and the woman wakes her man and tells him she thinks she hears something? The man gets out of bed, opens the bedroom door and looks down stairs just in time to see a man (dressed all in black) kicking in the door! The “mans” response is to immediately retreat back into the bedroom closing the door behind him and cower in a corner of the room while his wife is left on the bed speaking with the alarm company monitoring operator. What has happened to that vaunted “courage” of Americans?

   I don’t know about you but if the same thing happened in my home and the “burglar” was to continue into the home, he would be confronting an armed American family. I have three children (well the third will be here within the next few days, it’s going to be a girl :-}) as well as my wife and myself. My two oldest teenage children have both been taught gun safety and handling, and have been shooting since they were four and five, respectively. They started with a lever action BB gun, then a .22 rifle and then moved up from there; just as I was raised.

   They have been taught what to do (since the age of four or five) as to what action to take in cases where a “friend” was playing with a parents gun, what to do if a shooting were to occur while they were playing outside, or if they believed that another child had a gun in his or her possession. They have also been trained in unarmed defensive tactics, which for years they only thought was “wrestling with Daddy.”

   Foremost in that training was the concept of understanding consequences for their actions and the importance of taking responsibility for those actions. They have been taught the difference between right and wrong, to respect others and the property of others, and the importance of doing their best. They have also been taught to speak their minds and to stand up for their beliefs.    

   I am aware that many in our society today would gasp in horror at such advice and “training” for children so young. That’s fine with me, they can raise their clueless children to be as ignorant to the dangers of life as they are; but to ignore the reality of life is the true crime so far as I am concerned. I have no such illusions. I have seen first hand how quickly life can be taken by accident as well as intentionally. I have no illusions about the mindset of criminals the world over.

   Not convinced? Look at what is happening to that very peaceful religion of the Tibetan Monks. They truly believe if faced with violence that you should just respond with love. What has that achieved? They are now the minority within their own country! The Dali Lama continues insisting on only peaceful efforts to defend themselves. Meanwhile hundreds of monks in Tibet have ended up dead in roadside ditches and swamps. If a person has come to kill you and you insist on greeting him with only love you ensure the killers happiness at being able to achieve his intentions without fear of harm or apprehension to themselves. If a pack of wolves attacks a flock of sheep and all the sheep do is roll onto their backs and submit does anyone truly believe the wolves will abort their attack?  

   I have attended the autopsies and crime scenes of men, women, and children, many of whose lives were ended by the homicidal intentions of another. Sometimes the killer was a family member and sometimes they took their own life. I firmly believe in maintaining a level of “situational alertness” to whom and what is going on around me. I believe that the commonality shared by both the good guys and the bad is their use of violence as a tool. Violence should always be a last resort (at least for the good guys) but unfortunately violence is a reality of the world we live in, not just within humanity but among just about every living organism in the highly vaunted “greens” world. To believe otherwise is ignorance taken to the extreme of denial, and those who insist on such ignorance are what I, among many others, both the good and the bad, consider sheep. The key difference is that the "good guys" won't harm them, but they will defend them.  

   Hollywood and the MSM would have us believe that the majority of our military servicemen and women are simple minded, high school dropouts that are “trained killers.” They don’t mention the fact that study after study has shown since at least WWII that our military veterans, upon their return to civilian life, are less likely to commit a homicidal attack against another human being, than was the general population of non-military veterans! Why? Because the training that every military service member receives, and is carefully indoctrinated (trained) in Duty, Honor and Country, and the rules of engagement. That is there are “rules” to the use of deadly force, along with severe consequences to the unnecessary use of that force.

   Far from being mindless, PTSD suffering robots of the “establishment” these brave men and women are well versed in the use of violence as both a tool and a means of saving their own lives, and the lives of others, under the worst possible circumstances imaginable. There should be absolutely no doubt but that these predominantly young soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines are the truest representation of American’s and American courage.

   It is the rest of the American population that I have my doubts of. Why is it that we so seldom hear during our current presidential race, that Senator McCain is one of the very few elected federal officials, who has personally served in both the American military, as well as in combat, at great personal sacrifice, AND has children of his own serving in our military? How many of our current politicians can make the same claims?

   Why is the fact that Senator McCain’s own exemplary military service, often ridiculed, or at the very least ignored, by so many Americans around our country today? Why did our Vietnam veterans have to face the disrespectfully horrid treatment of their “fellow Americans,” after having served so selflessly in a war to which their government sent them? Why isn’t there more of a public outrage against nut jobs travelling around the country for the sole purpose of disrupting the funeral services of those Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, and causing even more grief for the poor veterans family?

   When I was a young boy sitting at the very top of some outdoor bleachers with my father while watching a local school baseball game, there were two women in their early 20’s sitting in the seats in front of, and below us. There was an older gentleman sitting about three feet from them who appeared to be in his seventies or better. During a brief lull in the game the older gentleman pulled out a pipe to light it and the young woman sitting closest to him snatched it out of his mouth with such force I could hear the chatter of his teeth on the pipe. Before I knew what was happening the woman threw the old mans pipe over her shoulder and it sailed over the top of the bleacher where it fell to the ground nearly twenty feet below. I sat there stunned as did the older gentleman, but before that pipe had hit the ground my father had grabbed the woman’s purse and threw it right after the man’s pipe!     

   When the woman spun around and looked up at my father he simply said, “Why don’t you get the pipe while you’re down there?” Several of the people sitting around us who had seen or discerned the situation began applauding and echoing my fathers call for the woman to get the man’s pipe. That was pretty typical of my father, and it wouldn’t have mattered one whit to him if it had been a man instead of a woman.   

   Nowadays we hear that our national deficit is going to hit $480 billion dollars and while our national “leaders” point fingers of blame at everyone and everything but themselves, the American public does nothing. Does the American public believe the excuses? Just who does the American public think is spending their hard earned tax dollars? Just last month Congress approved a $45 billion dollar AIDS package that will span the next five years. They had approved a $15 billion dollar AIDS package for the previous five year period (2003 – 2008). That’s $60 BILLION of our tax dollars being spent to fight aids in AFRICA!

   Yet the same Congress is bickering over how much to spend on America’s roads and bridges! Our elected politicians continue to spend hundreds of billions of our tax dollars on aid to the tsunami victims of the December 26, 2004 tragedy. Just this year the same Congress approved billions more to the relatively small Palestinian population of Gaza and the West Bank. We give billions more in aid to Egypt and other countries of the Middle East. We have been giving Pakistan $10 billion a year for their “assistance” in the fight on terrorism. But this same Congress refuses to reduce the ridiculous business tax (about 35 percent, which is among the highest taxation of any industrialized country in the world today) on American businesses. It refuses to expend money on any significant building of new electricity plants to ensure no further “rolling blackouts” in states like California, even though they know that our electricity needs are going to double by the year 2050. What has Congress done for New Orleans?  

   In fact Congress seems to have a great deal of difficulty in spending American tax payer’s money on American tax payers, and American infrastructure. Instead Congress seems to listen to tiny, but powerful special interest lobby groups demanding that we spend even billions of more American tax payer dollars to, get this, subsidize the countries of India and China’s electricity plants, in an effort to assist them with cleaner burning coal plants!

   You would think that the wealthiest nation in the history of the world giving so much of its wealth to other countries would have at least bought us a great deal of international good will, but no. If anything it has caused many of those nations to demand still more. Still, Americans do nothing! Worse than nothing, Americans continue reelecting the Rockefellers, Kennedy’s, Marion Berry’s, Nancy Pelosi’s, and yes the Clintons and the Bush dynasties. I find it hard to believe that out of the 300 million Americans today, these are the best we can find?

  Courage doesn’t necessarily mean confronting some huge machinegun toting thug. Just standing up and voting for the best person for the job can show courage. Refusing to join in the disrespectful actions of others that you know to be wrong is courage. Rising up in a grass roots response to the raping of America and its citizenry and ensuring those elected officials are truly held accountable, are removed from office, or imprisoned, depending on the severity of their actions needs to start soon. Otherwise; how will you answer your child’s, or grandchild’s question, “When did Americans lose their courage?”