Michael Vick’s Redemption

The debate over Michael Vick’s recent football antics is once again dominating the news circle; and although the redemption is taking root, there are those who will still want to punish Vick further… even though he has served his time. The Vick phenomenon is a display on how much our values have changed, specifically that of equating the rights afforded to humans to animals. I am not here to condone what Vick did to the dogs in his charge, but the outrage by some of us was overboard and unwarranted. Where is the outrage over the ongoing slaughter of the innocents under the guise of ‘abortion rights’ and how many of us would and have criticized those pro-life supporters who display pictures of actual, gruesome aborted fetuses?

In contrast, we extolled the virtues of those who have abortions, not because of rape, incest, or a threat to the mother, but for the simple, venerated sake of God choosing the female species to replenish the human race. No doubt that there are still going to be protests and influence brought to bear on the National Football League, if they could, not to ‘big-up’ Vick’s spectacular exploits in the last three weeks or so… engaging in the vocation he loves - while some of us will engage in our Constitutional right of moral indolence by walking pass our shame… on our way to wax poetic about the spotted owl or to boast about how green we are in our support of the much maligned environment. 

I too used to be cavalier on the abortion issue until I saw my daughter in my wife’s womb; since then, I have pondered how deluded one must have to be to have seen an ultra sound and go home and chalk it up to just globs of tissue, which just happen to have the DNA of his or her parents. Permit me to digress a little, but I must convey a story I heard about a couple residing in Hawaii who had many a problems - the least of which was the interracial nature of their relationship. In the middle of the chaotic relationship, a child was sired-no one knows if sometime during the pregnancy, the mother contemplated an abortion; however, the child that was born in the midst of all that chaos… made epochal history by becoming the first African American President of these United States. In the mean time, Michael Vick to many is still among the ranks of the notoriously wicked of our age - Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Bin Laden….

-Verily Prime

The United Nations Maintains Its Bias

Was anyone surprised that the paper tigers at the UN, who authored the biased report on the Flotilla incident, came out against Israel? The only thing that surprised me was how long the report took, or perhaps it was prolonged… so to give the appearance of objective deliberations. The United Nations personnel, most of whom seem to have been born Anti-Semitic from their respective mother’s womb, basically said that Israel used disproportionate force… I can only imagine what the report would have said if there were no pictures, which can be seen currently on YouTube, showing the self defense tactics engaged in by the Israeli military during the incident in question.

When one juxtaposed the UN report to what can be seen on You Tube, it is tantamount to something out of George Orwell’s 1984. The fact that one can see evidence contrary to what is written in the UN report maintains that organization’s constant refrain of bias against the Jewish State… I have written before that somewhere in the UN, there are biased reports on the ready against Israel… with only the date needed to be attached… and in case where there is a new Secretary General, then the attachment of his name as signatory. Just once, the UN should come out with an objective report concerning incidents between the Israelis and the Arabs. How are fair minded people supposed to look at the Unite Nations in light of the empirical evidence readily available?

This latest United Nations report against Israel should be another object lesson for the Jews, which confirms that they are alone in this world – and make no mistake as to where our secular messiah president sentiments are in this internecine conflict between Jew and Arab.  And a broader note and similar vein, if Israel is going to carry out a preemptive strike against the Mullahs in Iran, I hope that Netanyahu does not inform the Obama administration until the payloads are delivered… such is the lack of trust between a once storied alliance.     

General Colin Powel Is Turning Into President Jimmy Carter

Anyone familiar with modern pop culture has seen celebrities holding on to fame by any means necessary – some of these celebrities have the lucrative fruits, mammon, of their past fame, but sorely miss being in the news. This ‘vanity gone bad’ posture is what has been chronically afflicting President Jimmy Carter for years now and is now afflicting General Colin Powell.  One could understand why President Carter would be obsessed in being in the news, perhaps to rehabilitate his failed Presidency – lest we forget the misery index and the Iran hostage crisis and the rescue debacle. But General Colin Powell has no such baggage to rehabilitate, yet he goes into these venues opining on issues from a slanted, biased Liberal point of view… foregoing his past Republican take on some of these topical issues.

You watch General Powell and he is like the aged celebrity parroting the verbiage in vogue to appeal to the young or in this case, the loons on the far left. As I have said above, General Powell has made enough money from speeches and his memoirs – so it must be some addiction to regain fame in the political circles the general once enjoyed… discarding values he once held and making blanket statements about the Republicans. The general speak about the sickening discourse about President Obama – and he is right - but he was a mute during the same cancerous discourse, which was said relentlessly about President Bush.     

I have already given up on President Carter – even the Democrats try to hide this man when they are having their conventions. As for General Powell, there is hope for you, but you must stop your pandering to the loons of the Democratic Party - it is why there is a flood of Biblical proportion about to destroy the secular messiah president’s party in the coming mid-terms elections. There was a time when General Colin Powell could be counted on to give measured objective advice on the issues of the day – instead, he has become a pundit for the sake of punditry.

Lowering The Moral Bar

It is the old Chris Rock joke… where the comedian laments about fathers who boast about taking care of their children. As Chris Rock says, who are supposed to take care of them – these fathers want praises

for essentially doing what it is their duties of taking care of the children they have sired.  This is the state of the world now whereby the moral bar has been substantially lowered, and moreover, where many of us, like those fathers are expecting rewards for duties that should be obligatory and selfless. This perverted thought process is not only relegated to these fathers, but it has permeated our thoughts on a spate of issues… including our current debate on the Ground Zero mosque and the burning of the

Koran.

The fact that we had to practically beg a Florida preacher not to burn the Koran for fear of Muslim uprising in the world is also a testament how far the bar is lowered. No one is advocating that anyone to burn the Koran, but the fact that many Muslim would harm others if this disrespectful act is carried out says that there is a dis-connect to relative morality. As a traditional Christian, I would not want anyone to burn the Bible - but I dare say that if this act were to take place, you would not see Christians or their leaders advocating for the death of the misguided perpetrators.  Yet, we seem to accept and it is indeed a reality that this wanton violence, as a given, were the Florida preacher to have carried out his burning of the Koran. 

This is the moral bar that we have set and tolerated by the denizens of political correctness. It is why that it is opened season and that there is license in Hollywood to berate all other religions, especially traditional Christianity, but yet there is fawning reverence for Islam.  Case in point, in the recent movie 2012, the director saw fit to destroy every religious icon, but those of the Muslims. What cowards… borne out of fear for the so called… “religion of peace.”

Why They Hate Us

We all remembered the somber day when 911 occurred, and since then the America haters have rationalized why terrorists did what they did and continue planning to murder us. Many who rationalize wanton murder against innocents live here or will move heaven and earth to be here. I found it ironic that a couple years ago, when there was an earthquake in the Qom in Iran, that America sent supplies, which was received, notwithstanding we being the “Great Satan.” As I write, there were tragic floods in Pakistan, and of course, the bulk of the aid will come from these “satanic” shores. To all you America haters I have taken the liberty of listing why this country is special

It is a mark of greatness for a country that its citizens who were born impaired can become handy-capable because of the services said country provide. Somewhere in some baseball farm system, a poor immigrant young man will start the journey of becoming a highly paid athlete; in some park or mall, a little girl or boy will be discovered and become some future matinee idol; somewhere in a small town, someone will randomly choose numbers that will net him or her millions in winning the lottery; many across this country make a good living without breaking a sweat; and somewhere, some murderer will be given gratis a mouth peace advocate to defend him vigorously.

Somewhere, there is an immigrant berating the country or perhaps addressing someone in authority with colorful metaphors - something that would have gotten him or her incarcerated or killed in his native country; somewhere, there are Africans, Cubans, Haitians, Chinese, Arabs, and West Indians, are paying great sacrifices to get to these shores; somewhere, someone is putting lyrics to a beat, which will shortly be paying dividends because it will become an anthem; somewhere, there are those working in garages who will come up with some technological advent and change our way of living for the better; the coming fiscal years, much will be tabulated of the donated monies, that ended up in the coffers of various charities, which will worth more than the GDP of many a country.

For those who may hate America, look around you and probably all the amenities you see in your homes… were invented in America. The author of this blog, with many odds against him, came here, obtained a GED, joined the United States Army, and used his GI Bill to pay and go to college and then Law school; in addition, because of the education he received, which made him even more aware of the freedoms afforded here, he thank God through his Son Jesus Christ that he has the freedom to worship in peace.

Not Too Subtle Warnings From Imam Who Wants Mosque At Ground Zero

In listening to the Imam on Larry king Wednesday, we are told that he could not and would not recommend changing the site of the scheduled mosque because it would put us in the cross hairs of radical Muslims… making us a target, so much. The Imam even chalked up his concerns and relegated the backlash to a matter of national security. The reporter, with her puppy-dog eyes, did not remind the Imam how come all of sudden America is against Muslims when the landscape is replete with mosques. We are to believe that the vast majority who oppose the mosque are racist… when no retaliation was taken against Muslims during the rawness of 911 – and rightfully so - but now we are a nation of raging racist people… engendering hard feelings against Americans by the radicals.
I have questions for the Imam and those who think that our actions caused the radicalization of some Muslims: what was it that caused radicals to blow up the Khobar Towers; the attack on the USS Cole; the destruction of the embassies in East Africa; the 2002 destruction of the Bali night clubs where dozens of innocent died; and the first attempted destruction of the World Trade Center where lives were lost? Perhaps, the intrepid CNN reporter should have asked the Imam about all these acts that were done prior to any American invasion of Iraq or Afghanistan… and underscoring that many of these terrorist acts occurred when President Clinton was in office. Preventing radicalization and anything we may do now is of little consequence - that ship seemed to have sailed.

It Is Not Easy Being Afghan President, Hamid Kazai

The last time Afghan President, Hamid Kazai visited Washington and he was toasted with state dinners and the like to impress, or moreover, to compel him to continue to assist us in our ongoing prosecution of “The War On Terror.” This was the proven diplomatic strategy of applying the “carrot and stick” approach to influence the Afghan leader to buy into our resolve… concerning our war on terror; in essence, we are quietly conceding the fact that the “stick” option has, obviously, failed.

In all honesty, it is not easy being the Afghan president and this is not because Kazai still has to deal with those pesky Taliban fighters…who still want to keep Afghanistan in the Stone Age or the fact that the central front of our war on terror” is mostly in the Afghan theatre. No, it is not easy for President Kazai because politicians of all stripes, including Secretary of State, Clinton, are loudly calling for him to be more pro-active in fighting corruption and the lucrative heroin drug trafficking trade, ironically being allegedly perpetrated by his very own blood brother-What is a President to do?

The Biblical David wept for the death of his son, Absalom, even though Absalom tried to overthrow his him; let’s not even mention the blood letting, which rivaled the waters of Niagara Falls, done by many of the Caesars to secure the crown. Circa, modern Afghanistan, imagine a family dinner of lentil and lamb for the Kazai family… around a table with mother, father, and all the extended family sitting down, as is the wont in Afghan culture, but with President Kazai’s, alleged drug smuggling brother conspicuously absent because he was jailed or worst, killed. Also imagine the countenance of each member of the Kazai family, especially the matriarch and patriarch of the Kazai’s clan, saying to President Kazai, you were responsible for your brother’s demise by being a puppet of the “Yankee Imperialists” or an agent of the “Great Satan.”

Which one of us would be secure in our resolve to do what the American politicians and Secretary of State Clinton is asking of President Kazai… concerning his prodigal brother? Which one of us could sit around the dinner table and face a mother in a similar situation like that of President Kazai? Anyone familiar with the Biblical story of David and his son, Absalom, mentioned above, knows that it was one of David’s generals who carried out the execution of Absalom… resulting in David’s weeping profusely- this underscores the difficulty President Kazai wrestles with. Perhaps, President Kazai can gently remind the American politicians and Secretary of State Clinton that prodigal brothers have also been a problem for America too, maybe not to the extent of Kazai’s brother- but lest we forget, President Carter’s brother, Billy, and President Clinton’s brother, Roger… no need to rehash their respective problems with the law.

From the confines of cold objectivity, absent the warmth of filial emotions, it is easy for one to say to President Kazai: do what is right and arrest your brother or talk him out of partaking in trafficking heroin. One may even remind and show President Kazai the incentives of doing what is right - the fact that Afghan girls can attend school in relative safety; that women now enjoy relatively more rights than they were afforded under the brutal Taliban regime; and that Democracy, though a sapling in unfamiliar soil, has taken root, of all places, in Afghanistan… with the hope for all of its potential, positive attributes….

One Sided Tolerance

CNN’s Rich Sanchez show is reporting that General Petraeus has chastised a church in Florida and its preacher, Terry Jones, not to carry out its scheduled September 11th burning of the Koran. General Petraeus believes that such an act of the burning of the Koran would put the troops stationed in the Afghan theatre in danger, but even if there were no troops in harms way, I would still strongly recommend that Pastor Jones not undertake or disrespect the Muslim bible and faith. This is what tolerance is about notwithstanding the church’s right to carry out this burning under our Constitutional First Amendment’s rights. What you did not conveniently hear from Mr. Sanchez is the obvious juxtaposition of the mosque scheduled to be erected in the vicinity of the Ground Zero to Pastor Jones’ scheduled 911 burning of the Koran.

This mosque scheduled to be erected down at Ground Zero is surely the right of Muslims to build it, as is their rights under the Constitution - but all that are convenient under our Constitution should not always be had. Where are the talking heads and pundits who have deemed everyone who opposed the building of the Ground Zero mosque as racist? It is their wont to be typically taciturn or loudly quiet when tolerance is asked of others, but they are vociferous if the proverbial shoe is on the other foot. Just like how Pastor Jones down in Florida should forgo his Constitutional right to protest - which includes his choice of burning the Koran - so too must the advocates of the Ground Zero mosque find another site to erect their place of worship.

Like Mr. Sanchez, the rest of the biased media will not make the obvious, academic juxtaposition of what is scheduled down in Florida to the scheduled erection of the Ground Zero mosque. I cannot wait to hear the tortured logic that will excuse the juxtaposition… but yet still give credence and deference to the advocates of the Ground Zero mosque… rationalizing why those who lost loved one on 911 should put their feelings aside for the Muslims First Amendment’s right to assemble and worship. I will say again that tolerance is a two-way street, notwithstanding the like of Rick Sanchez and the media in general bias.

News From Circa 2012 And Beyond

The famous author Dan Brown, author of the Da vinci Code, whose plot centered on Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene, decided that it was only fair to give the Devil his due. As a consequence, Dan Brown has been trying to get an interview and photograph with former President George Bush, preferably with cloven hooves and horns. You may be salivating wanting to know whatever happened to the members of the troika Obama administration (Barrack Obama, Harry Reed, and Nancy Pelosi). Of note, all the faces on Mount Rushmore were replaced with that of President Barack Obama, but Harry Reed is now a professor... teaching revisionist history.

Nancy Pelosi didn’t fare so well under the socialized medicine she helped usher in; she has repeatedly sued the government for cutting back her psychotropic drugs. One only has to go down to Christopher Street in Frisco to see Nancy wearing her trade mark shirt with the caption, “Zoloft is a right, not a privilege.” Bin laden is now teaching Comparative Law, with an emphasis on Sharia Law, at Columbia University. The other members of al Queada are living it up at the Upper East Side with multiple wives; they successfully sued the government for the psychological harm attributed to water boarding and won millions - John Edwards was one of their attorneys. In a related story, some members of the Mormon faith claimed that if they had known that Bin Laden cohorts would be allowed plural marriages, they would have carried out Jihad in Utah.

You may ask what happened to Verily Prime…he was jailed for blasphemy. Apparently, he insisted in reading the original New Testament, and not the new version, which replaced the “Sermon On The Mount” found in the Gospel of Matthew, with Obama’s Inauguration 2009 speech. During the allocution of Verily Prime, the judge asked Verily Prime if he were contrite. Verily Prime answered no because President Obama appeared to be “flesh and blood” and, moreover, hadn’t walked on water during his tenure in office. The presiding judge admonished Verily Prime about being willfully blind and not paying attention to what took place between January 2009 and 2012.



After being convicted for blasphemy, Verily Prime begged the judge to be incarcerated in the best jail in the world at Guantanamo, but alas, he was turned down and sent to Fort Leavenworth. Incidentally, Al Gore, sometime in April 1st of 2012, went for a drive in his spanking brand new hybrid and was never seen again. Fox Moulder and Dana Scully from X-files fame were called in to work the case. It is said their findings were turned over to the authorities; one of the persistent rumors… or urban legend is that a thumb print belonging to Vice President Dick Cheney was found on Al Gore’s abandoned hybrid….

The Imperial Presidency

To our shame many of us were quiet when the employees of AIG were asked to give back the monies negotiated in legitimate contracts; moreover, when their wives and children were being threatened. What was their crime? They had the gall to have signed contracts which allowed them to be paid generous salaries and perks. No contractual conditional language was involved in the contracts for these AIG employees to give back the fruits of the contract, but many politicians and members of the public wanted the employees to give them back. We repeated that same moral indolence when we sat quietly by while bond holders of GM were relegated to second class citizens, while the union members were given primacy.

In the same vein, we have had a pay Czar who told private companies via presidential fiat, what they could and could not pay their CEOs. This happened under a president who claimed to respect the rule of law - it is even more grating because President Obama was a Constitutional Law professor. There are many in President Obama's administration and many in his party, if they had their way, would have Cheney incarcerated, not for any malfeasance vis-à-vis his stewardship of Halliburton, but for sanctioning water boarding of stone cold killers. These same champions of the rule of law had nothing to say while President Obama cast aside codified contractual law principles, which have been part of our Constitution and way of life for over 230 years.

Perhaps it is the Christian in me, but President Obama should place himself in others shoes. Our president recently signed a $5,000,000 contract to write a book; I supposed he will put pen to paper sometime in 2012 or 2016 to write his memoirs. Let us supposed that his popularity ratings are lower than they are now, should the publisher take back some of the millions, for the lack of popularity, if the contract is lacking this “conditional” language? Our President’s wife, Michele, once had a position at hospital in Chicago hospital that paid her $300,000, should the hospital board be able to come back and arbitrarily ask for the money back - again, without the contractual language support? I have searched to find a similar time in history to compare what it is we are now facing, but I only could come up with one similar epoch.

In ancient Rome, when the Republic was threatened, the Patricians (wealthy class) and the Plebeians (common folks) would agree to allow a dictator to take charge and combat the outside threat and then return the Republic to the Senate when the danger was gone - I supposed the recession is our outside threat threatening Rome (USA). Does anyone believe that the pay Czar, who was a lawyer, would have wanted someone to determine his generous partner pay at the prestigious white shoe law firm whence he came? Have you noticed that President Obama, via his pay Czar, has not told Lady Gaga, LeBron James, Derik Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Tiger Woods, Tom Cruise, Will Smith, or Bruce Springsteen how much they should earn for their respective vocations? It is a wonder that President Obama’s pay Czar did not determine what the Green Bay Packers should pay its quarterback; after all, it is the only football team that is owned by the public….

To My Liberal Colleagues In The Media: Treat President Obama Like He Is The President - Not The “Black” President

Juan Williams of NPR was called a “house negro” by someone this blogger went to law school with… simply because Mr. Williams dared to criticize President Barack Obama - ironically, Mr. Williams voted for President Obama and has never voted Republican in his entire voting life. The gentleman who unfairly deemed Mr. Williams by the racial stereotype is Black, but White Liberals who defend the President, even when objective critique is warranted, are themselves racist.

It may not be the kind of racist vitriol you hear spewing from a Klan member, but although subtle, it is just as devastating and patronizing - it is also call paternalism… and no different from the proverbial pat on the back of a Blackman…, which says, “good job, boy.” President Obama should be left to face the music like those presidents who were white – for when Liberals interfere with legitimate criticism and shut down dissent, when said dissent is supported by facts, they are, in essence, saying that he does not have the back bone to take the heat. How racist is that?

One of the greatest positions one can hold in law school is being the head of Law Review - one of the many positions our current President had in law school. Do you think that President Obama did not put in the time and study to achieve this position? What if the criteria were truncated because of his color… how isn’t that patronizing and racist? When White liberals interfere with legitimate criticism of our first Black President, they are in essence saying, here comes the good white liberal, whose help is integral, to help the Black President out of his predicament - how emasculating is that (it’s rhetorical).

When I was fifteen yeas old, I read the autobiography of Malcolm X, penned by the Alex Haley of “Roots” fame; there is one memorable sentence that’s apropos to the theme of this blog…where Malcolm opines that the difference between most Liberals and Republicans is that the Liberal will call the Black man the “N” word in the privacy of his or her room. The truth is that no matter how great a job President Obama does… there are those who will hate him because he is Black. I pledge that because I do not see the “truth” as being relative… I will call those people out too.

JLO For American Idol – What, Milli Vanilli Not Available?

I must confess that most of my blogs on current pop culture, I have do a lot of research or get an assist from my wife or little sister – however, American Idol is a show that I actually watch because my daughter and wife love it. With that said, I feel that I am more than qualified to chime in the contestants rumored to be vying to be part of the Idol’s judge’s panel. I have heard, via the Los Angeles Times, that the Idol producers are looking at Stephen Tyler, the raspy voice gifted front man of Aerosmith - that I could live with, but JLo? What?! That’s like having Paris Hilton visiting James Lipton at “Inside The Actor’s Studio” or OJ teaching anger management.

The fans should have the producers of American Idol insist that the new judges for American Idol be musicians: have JLo sing a song without the benefit of lip syncing. If indeed JLo is negotiating with the Idol’s producers for one of the opened judge’s vacancy, I say, nyet. “What makes “Jenny From The Block” qualify to be an Idol judge? Yes, she has “nough back,” but what about a voice? … what about being able to mentor the kids on pitch, range, cadence, etc,? I supposed that the water was muddied when they chose past judges like Paula Abdul and Ellen Generes, but at least Abdul knows the craft by theory and that she was the perfect foil for the less than charming Cowell. I would be remised not to convey that Simon Cowell is an accomplished music producer.

I know one of the members of Milli Vanilli is dead, but you might as well choose the surviving member to fill one of Idol’s vacancies. I mean he lip sync, but he does it better than JLo’s actual singing. Let’s be honest, JLo is only negotiating for this gig because her career trajectory is going south - it is rumored that Jessica Simpson wanted the position too and the Idol producers eighty-sixed that suggestion – For God’s sake, do the same to JLo’s inquiries, if indeed she is interested in one of the American Idol’s vacant judgeship. There are great seasoned artists out there to be added: Patti Labelle; Gladys Night; Smokey Robinson; Steven Tyler; Steve Perry; David Bowie: Diana Ross; Katy Lang; Sined O’Connor; Pat Benatar, Cyndi Lauper – I could go on and on – but please, not JLo!

Bring The Troops Home: Starting In Japan

Barely nine months into his new administration, the Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, was forced to resign. What is so telling about Mr. Hatoyama’s resignation was the fact that he was elected by nearly 70% of the votes. So what was the pressing issue that brought down the new Prime Minister - it was his support to extend the American troop presence in Japan. The Japanese public has been voicing its disapproval of America’s presence in Japan for some time now and didn’t help matters that a soldier the brutally raped one of its citizens… adding even more fodder for those who want the troops to go home. We are at the point where no amount of good will or the largess the United States dole out to these countries economies (Japan included) can change the peoples mind.

It is time to bring the troops home from these foreign shores; the younger generation doesn’t remember what America did for their grandparents. Our young Japanese brothers and sisters do not remember that General Douglas McArthur undertook what was tantamount to the Marshall Plan for the East… rebuilding Japan after America’s bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Revisionists and conspiracy theorists have also complicated matters by positing that FDR knew of the imminent attack on Pearl Harbor. I will not begrudge the young Japanese need for pride… but pride should be matched against the strategic reasons why the troops were stationed there in the first place.

I am afraid I will side with the Japanese in agreeing that the strategic reasons, which compelled the stationing of troops in Japan and elsewhere, are no longer valid. Maybe I am being blinded and biased because America’s fiscal house is in disarray and I see the monies saved by bringing the troops home as helping us out of said fiscal mess. The expenses alone to house our troops must be enormous; think of the billions that could be saved, if we were to bring the troops home. Why not bring the troops home and station them on our porous borders?

I know a little about the respective histories of all these countries that are clamoring for our exit from their shores. There is an element of ungratefulness on their part, but the truth is that they cannot be beholden to America forever. The younger generation will forget history and national pride will always trumped what grandma or grandpa has to say positively about the Americans. There are those who think that having a Presidential ambassador like Obama will foster more good will – this may be so now, but it is temporary and simply putting off the inevitable. Those familiar with the histories of Hegemonies should know what is happening to America: the Romans, the Brits... and the Saracens can testify.

There Is A Case Sometimes For Pre-emptive War

No policy undertaken by the past Bush Administration has caused more angst among the various pundits and public alike than “Preemptive War.” This concept is maligned because it is looked upon as the catalyst that got the United States involved in the unpopular Iraq war, and moreover, because it is a policy championed by the so called Neo-Cons, who are now out of favor in Washington.

Notwithstanding the advocates of pre-emption, there is merit sometimes in employing such a policy in our Geo-Policies, all in all to serve the greater and long time good. We all need not have walked the hollowed halls of Ivy League academia to have expertise in Geo-politics like Bismarck, Richelieu, Churchill, or Kissinger, to understand pre-emption. In our everyday lives, we practice pre-emption: we exercise to prevent obesity, which could lead to Heart problems and other ailments; we visit our doctors periodically to make sure that we are healthy; we take vitamins to help fight off maladies; and we save our monies for a so called rainy day - all this we do to pre-empt something bad happening in our future.

Countries are like human beings who practice pre-emption… only that they do so for the collective. With that said, there are many countries which are justified to employ the strategy of pre-emptive war. How many times have we heard the vitriol coming out of Iran on how it wants to bring about the utter destruction of Israel - should the Israelis wait until Iran developed Nuclear weapons and are nuked… before they protect themselves by carrying out a preemptive strike? During the morning of May 04 2009, General David Petraeus, thinking of the merits pre-emption, warned the Pakistani government that it has two weeks to confront the Taliban; the fear then was that the Taliban was going to soon have access to the fifty or so nuclear weapons because there were Taliban sympathizers in the Pakistani army - Again, should we have waited until this occurred?

What should India do if these weapons end up in the hands of the Taliban, knowing the bloody history of wars between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir? Tonight, before I go to bed, I too will engage in some pre-emption of my own by brushing my teeth - my goal is to prevent bad breath, tooth decay, and gingivitis… what of countries facing nuclear annihilation with enemies who think their rewards are in Paradise… rooted in perverse eschatological ideals?

The Food Police Are After McDonald’s And Parents

In law school, there are actual case law evidencing people suing God – I read those cases for a laugh because it proved how litigious we had become and that there were many people out there who were candidates for the “rubber” room. Dailey Finance is reporting that the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CPSI) is threatening to sue McDonald’s over its Happy Meals campaign. A few years ago, I would have chalked those who are threatening suit against McDonald’s, over its “Happy Meals” campaign, to those who have sued the Deity, but these people, who make up the “food police,” are educated… with, apparently, the time and money to engage in what I consider to be bogus litigation.

The CPSI must think that if you treat your children to McDonald’s Happy Meal, you must be a bad parent. CPSI’s beef – pun intended - with parents and McDonald’s is that the toy giveaway that comes with the purchase of a “Happy Meal” is the bait, which entices children to pressure their parents to go McDonald’s and purchase “Happy Meals.” The CPSI says that because these Happy Meals are full of fat and are unhealthy for the children, gives them the reason to litigate on children’s behalf; The CPSI further points to the rampant obesity in our society, which is responsible for many life threatening diseases - these people actually argue this point with a straight face. I supposed that parents that allowed their children to have Happy Meals are so dumb and abusive, that they need the CPSI to tell them how to take care of their children and to school us on the dangers of fatty foods and the like.

Let us supposed that the CPSI sued and some court, probably California’s Ninth Circuit, were to give this potential litigation credence – where does it stop? I now understand why those, like the CPSI, want to tell your children that they have the right to condoms and abortions without parental consent. Mind you, they are never around to provide food, shelter, and make other tough house hold decisions, which affect our children - my bad, they probably want to make those decisions too.

For all of you members of the CPSI, go make your own babies and raise them as vegans – incidentally, I have it on good authority, by someone who went forward in time, that in the near future, that the carrot, along with other vegetables - will be considered a sentient being. As a consequence, CPSI parents will be charge with murder and their children as accessories. The carnivorous group spearheading this litigation on behalf of the carrot and other veggies will be known as Meat Eaters Galore (MEG).

Cassandra Manifested In California And Washington, D.C.

In Greek mythology, Cassandra was a prophetess who would dream dreams, which were true, but was cursed by the Greek gods so that no one would believe her warnings she gleaned from her dreams. The state of California is like one of Cassandra’s recurring dreams/nightmares manifested, which warned us about the consequences of fiscal irresponsibility. The reason this is of import is because California is that negative template and the proverbial elephant in the room of what not do in dealing with our growing, alarming national crises we are facing vis-à-vis burdensome taxes, the advent of cap and trade, deficits, and the radical environmentalist agenda.

Late last year, we watched on the program “Sixty Minutes,” with mouths agape, while radical environmentalists engineered a scheme preventing thousands of farmers from farming their lands in California because, supposedly a Minot, a tiny fish, was supposedly endangered. As a consequence, the farms are now arid and literally thousands of farmers and their extended families are left in dire straits. I am not here to say that the choices that have to be made will be easy, but those same difficult choices will have to be made on the National level. If California who have so much - oil, gold, an exporter of Rice, vegetables, wine, apples, oranges, fish, and Hollywood movies - is struggling, then what of Michigan, New Jersey, Nevada, Ohio, New York, and the National Government who are all in similar dire fiscal straits?

I pray that we open our eyes and realized that we are not like those denizens in mythological Greece who ignored Cassandra’s warnings, and, moreover, the empirical evidence, as seen in the template of California or ironically modern day Greece. Years ago, the author of this blog was watching the show “Jeopardy” and the answer to one of the questions was that California was so rich that if it were a country, it would be the seventh richest - I longed for California to regain that mantle… for it bodes well for the rest of these United States.

The Creeping Balkanization Of America

We have heard how the French get irate if, while visiting one of their country’s restaurants, you dare to order a meal in English – this is so, right or wrong, because the French is implying that visitors should respect their language/culture. In America, we are not so uptight, yet there is merit in respecting certain seasoned and ingrained institutions that are Americana. This respect for America is perversely deemed in many quarters as an affront against immigrants, which has resulted in a creeping, ominous Balkanization of America – and, I am afraid we are heading the way of the Balkans. The immigrant of yesteryears, included yours truly, tried his or her best to assimilate into the existing culture, but today, in most quarters, this is frown upon and some perverted belief in placing one’s ethnic group heritage above important aspects of the American way of life is growing and it is rather troubling.

We have seen some immigrants insisting in flying their respective flags above that of Old Glory… and gratingly so during the Fourth of July holidays. We have also seen some immigrants insist that they speak their native language in schools or insist that personnel who are employed at social infrastructures, which are in place to assist said immigrants, speak their languages. One dare not bring up the fact that this travesty of insisting that the immigrants dictate to the host country how to accommodate them to have access to our largesse… would not be tolerated in the countries whence many of these immigrants came from. Pick up your telephone or if you frequent a bank machine, you will see what I am speaking about – you might say that it makes good business sense to cater to all ethnic groups, but respect for the institutions immigrants met in place when they came here should take precedence.

The tail is wagging the proverbial dog and in major enclaves, immigrants are dictating and changing American established ways of life. I am not saying that we are close to the situation we had in the Balkans with the internecine blood letting among the various ethnic groups, but listen to our discourse… and you’ll realize that we are getting there. No one is saying that you must lose your ethnicity completely; as a matter of fact, America welcomes your keeping many aspects of ethnic heritages… provided that they cause no cancerous effects. It is why we have so many ethnic parades right here in New York.

Take a look at what is happening in England; see what is happening in Minnesota; and remember the images we saw during the heat of the debate on the Arizona immigration law. I must convey this apt story to underscore the theme discussed above. I once saw in New York City, during the Christmas season, in the public square supposedly, representations of the Christmas Season: there was a Crescent Moon and a Menorah… but the baby Jesus was excluded.

Is Glenn Beck The Most Powerful Personality In The Media?

Let me be honest, every chance I get, I watch the Glenn Beck program on TV because if he says something, he tells you the source of his opinion and whence it came and where to find it. Moreover, Beck is an equal opportunity critic and anyone who creates such angst for the biased media for me is worth listening to – and indeed, Mr. Beck does. Who in the Liberal media you know could have amassed the amount of denizens that visited Washington, D.C. last Saturday? Could Keith Olbermann, Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, Chris Mathews, and Katie Couric do so… and have the juice to muster all those folks to come together peacefully?

We had the like of Al Sharpton and the current head of the NAACP… opining about taking back “the Dream.” This underscores the arrogance of these men… that the fact that Reverend Martin Luther King’s (MLK) niece, who was with Beck in D.C., espousing that same ‘dream,’ yet, Sharpton and the NAACP would have you believe that only they have a claim to and the correct interpretation of King’s ‘Dream and not MLK’s blood relative. When I look at many in the current Democratic Party, I often wonder if they would have embraced MLK, were he alive, because of his reverence for and penchant to have many references in his homilies to the Christ?

Back to Mr. Beck - I know what the critics say… that all of us who listen to him are rubes. This probably stems from the fact that he dares to be a critic of the secular messiah that currently occupies the White House or maybe it is his evoking of Jesus over the airwaves – oops! There are those who will tell you with straight faces that Mr. Beck preaches hate and instills in people the seeds to do violence. These same people forget the vitriol spewed at President Bush… but thanks to the Internet, said hatred can still be seen in splendid color. And guess what, had anyone tried to kill Bush or the current occupant of the White House, because of some pundit’s so called “hateful diatribe,” those people should be considered and would have been considered loons.

No one has the right to MLK’s ‘dream’ because he too spoke of all people coming together to foster goodwill to benefit the collective. Perhaps, Mr. Sharpton and the NAACP have forgotten the white brothers and sisters who died to secure the Franchise… and that President Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, and moreover, white. Mr. Beck’s display of his popularity by humbly convoking such a mass of peaceful people… invoking them to get back to God… are manifestations of what MLK stood and died for. And lest I be looked upon as being guilty of “secular blaspheme,” Becks convocation was not so much about MLK, but about the teachings of Jesus to enable us hopefully to piece back together the state of our tattered union. Props to you Mr. Beck…. indeed, no good deed goes unpunished.