The Flavor of Life

A Ladies’ Man Everyone Fights Over - New York Times:

THIS time six years ago, Flavor Flav, the flamboyant clock-wearing member of the groundbreaking rap group Public Enemy, was living in a low-rent apartment near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. He was scalping baseball tickets for extra cash, battling a long addiction to drugs and racking up arrests for driving without a license. These days life is looking a lot brighter. His reality series, “Flavor of Love,” a ghetto-fabulous spoof of the dating series “The Bachelor,” has been a colossal hit for VH1. The show’s first-season finale in March drew nearly six million viewers, making it the highest-rated show in the cable channel’s history. More than three million people tuned in to watch the second-season premiere early August.

You’re not going to see this kind of reaction on any other conservative site.

Some people are accusing Flavor Flav of being a Stepin’ Fetchit, or of perpetrating racial stereotypes. Then there is the other issue of risqué TV in general. You’ve got the whole Madonna on a crucifix issue, the old Christ in urine controversy, MTV as a medium for children, and recently the Paris Hilton video where she is seducing a young boy in one of her songs.

As far as Flavor Flav perpetuating racial stereotypes, who cares? There are enough positive African-American icons now in American pop culture that this noble race can withstand a bit of foolery. If Whites can endure its Archie Bunkers and Lucky Louie’s, then Blacks can live with personas like Amos and Andy, Stepin’ Fetchit, and Flavor Flav. They’re just personas. Adaptive characters that got or get people what they want or need. Humor. Satire. Exaggerations. They aren’t role models, just fun.

Nor am I offended by the Las Vegas, wild Roman, orgiastic, Playboy, Penthouse, risqué, Flavor Flav or Madonna sexy side of our culture. I love HBO and cable TV, including all the “adult” shows like Sex in the City, steamy MTV videos, and on up to Passion Cove and beyond.

I don’t want these things invading my family space, however. So I don’t like the sexualizing of little girls, which I see not only on MTV but also in our schools—with little girls baring their midriffs, in low-cut blouses and miniskirts, smearing “whore” or “thug” makeup on their innocent faces. So, though I can understand the appeal of the Paris Hilton video, I believe we need to be careful when we go in this direction. I do think it’s dumb to criminalize every young boy’s fantasy of making it with the hot young math teacher. On the other hand, it is true that young boys’ egos and personalities are not formed yet, and they are in a one-down power relationship in any affair with an older person. It can be dangerous for the young man, or young woman. They can lose themselves, be manipulated, and descend into criminal activity or drugs because of it. Witness Pamela Smart and other such cases.

So, some kind of a line needs to be drawn. I agree with the hubbub over the Janet Jackson breast-baring incident at the Superbowl. Families were watching and she shouldn’t have done it. MTV too needs to be careful. They should not sexualize young people, nor entice them into a too-early sexual existence.

Flavor Flav, however, is okay with me. I wish the purists would get off his back and let him do his thing. It’s not my cup of tea, but so what?

I’m an artist and writer. I am a firmly committed conservative, but this implies getting the government out of our lives. I want the government out of television, except to protect young people and families. Stop the breast baring during family hour, yes. Watch out for sexualizing youngsters. Don’t encourage child molestation. After all this, stop. Lay off HBO.

Overall, I want freedom. I want the public and critics to allow a wide range of entertainment to delight and inform us—from the risqué Rome to the controversial Crucifix in urine. No subject, from pimps to the Pope, should be off limit to artistic expression, satire, or ridicule. Flavor Flav is fine, as is bashing the Pope to bashing Mohammed to bashing Bush. That’s what art does. (This is one reason fundamentalist Islam hates the West.)

Which is why I continue to bash liberals. Plus, they deserve it.

Rock

(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)

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The Need to be Cool

It seems that there is an innate need in the human being to be fashionable, to be cool, to be on the cutting edge, to be “with it,” to be part of the “in crowd.” Even when I was a child in Munster, Indiana back in the 1950’s, the big thing was always to be “cool.” We had our Elvis pork-chop sideburns and wavy hair, our blue jeans, and our Mickey Mantle. I think it’s always been that way. I believe that the cavemen probably had the coolest clubs and axes. The barbarians had the coolest scars on their arms. Eighteenth-century men thought snuff was cool. In my Dad’s generation it was cool to be patriotic and to smoke. In the 60’s it was cool to wear long hair, smoke pot, and use lava lamps.

Watch any fashion show, with a know-it-all fashion commentator, and you get an idea of what an appeal to the coolness-need looks and sounds like. This year browns are in, and miniskirts are back, and high heels are more spiky, and on and on and on. It’s a bunch of cow dung.

I have a problem sometimes of misanthropy. I wonder at the flaws of human nature, and ask why did God make us this way? I shrink from our dark side, our pettiness, our greed, our viciousness, myself included, oh yes. Why? Why did God do this to us? We are such noble creatures on the one hand, and such cruel animals on the other. I have to catch myself when I get to thinking this way and submit to the Almighty. God is bigger and wiser than I. The universe has a plan, and all this is a part of it. Here I agree with Wayne Dyer and say that things are this way for a reason. It’s all good. So, I accept it.

One of the things I don’t like about us, we humans, is our need to be cool. I’ve never worried about being cool myself. I’ve always thought it was cool just to do the right thing. I never worried about being fashionable. This is probably a fault of mine to some extent, since fashion will affect how others perceive you. On the other hand, I’ve seen humans do some pretty silly things in order to be cool—like wear baggy pants, like “sagging,” like rings in their ears and “bling,” and body piercings and tattoos all over their bodies, and Leisure Suits.

I won’t analyze what’s cool now, except in politics. To a certain extent, it’s cool to be a liberal, and uncool to be conservative. Clinton was cool when he played the saxophone on David Letterman. Bush was cool when he flew an airplane onto an aircraft carrier. Al Gore is cool again because of global warming. Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert are cool in politics, as are all the late-night talk-show hosts, Letterman, Leno and O’Brien.

The Democrats have made a conscious effort to be cool. Bush bashing is cool. Appealing to the MTV crowd is cool. Hollywood, they think, is cool. The liberals have made it uncool to be Republican in a lot of places, especially in areas like California and Massachusetts. It’s uncool to be Republican in Hollywood.

So, does being cool give Democrats an advantage? Yes, and no.

Being cool might get the Democrats more votes. On the other hand, in my opinion, it takes their focus away from the issues, and from the things that are really important. Since Bush-bashing, for example, is cool, then the masses of liberals will reject anything and everything that Bush says or does. This will include all of Bush’s good ideas and projects too. Take Social Security reform. The Democrats reject S.S. reform even though it will mean more money in the pockets of their constituents. I can’t understand liberal logic on this issue, except that they imagine that the uncool Bush must have a sinister motive in mind when proposing anything. The greedy, uncool Republicans must be trying to screw us, right?

I can’t reform human nature. I wish we didn’t have the need-to-be-cool gene, but we do. I hope we fight it, though. I hope, for mankind’s sake, that we allow ourselves to be uncool in the name of truth and justice and all that is right. I’d like for us to one day think it’s cool again to stand up for liberty and justice for all; to fight our common enemies, like the terrorists; and to continue to elect uncool people who, despite being uncool, are good, honest, decent, courageous people, like George W. Bush, about the uncoolest dude in the universe.

I think truth and doing the right things are cool.

Rock


(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)

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Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

You on the left will not take the advice given for you from time to time in this blog, which is fine. Today you will get the most valuable lesson of all, how to win the November election and take over the House, if not the Senate.

The only ones who can lose for liberal the upcoming election are the liberals. That’s right, you guys have the power to win, or lose.

I am a bellwether on elections, believe it or not. How I behave in November will be typical for a large number of independents and wavering conservatives. Polls in the last few months have shown that the Democrats were likely to take over the House, and maybe even the Senate. As is reflected in the polls, for many months I was mostly feeling that I was going to sit this election out. Bush and Republicans have let us down on immigration, overspending, and the execution of the Iraq war, among other issues. Governor Schwarzenegger has proven to be mostly liberal. As opposed to what many people believe, I feel that staying at home is a vote. It is a vote for none-of-the-above. That has been my inclination, both on a state and on a national level.

As I say, I am representative of independents and wavering conservatives. This is how all of us have been feeling. But, have you noticed, the polls are starting to swing Bush’s and the Republicans’ way now. Now it is iffy whether the Democrats can take over control of the House, let alone the Senate. If the trend continues, the Democrats may accomplish the impossible, lose another election to an unpopular President fighting an unpopular war with an unpopular Congress. How is this possible?

Again, things as they were, I’d just as soon remain home, and not vote. But the more Bush-bashing I hear, the more hatred, the more irrationality spewing from the left, and their lack of any rational plans for anything—this is going to drive me to the polls. I simply will not, without a fight, let the country be put in the hands of lunatics who cannot engage in rational political discourse.

You want to win the November elections, Democrats? Then stop the Bush-bashing, stop the hatred, start speaking rationally, and tell me your realistic plans to handle Iraq, the war on terror, defense issues in general, the economy, health care, poverty, the environment, and so on. I know the accepted political wisdom is that negative campaigning works, but it’s not working now. I can’t think of a single thing the Democrats are for, besides raising taxes. They want a better Iraq strategy. What strategy? They want a more effective war on terror. What are they going to do differently? They want a better economy. Good luck on that one. The stock market is at an all time high; the unemployment rate is low; there are more homeowners than at any time in history; oil prices are down; and on and on.

Tell me your plan, your vision for the future. Otherwise, the more Bush-bashing I hear, the more motivated I will be to get out and vote. Notice that the rational Joe Lieberman remains ahead in the polls in his run as an Independent, up against What’s His Name, the irrational, Bush-bashing far left guy who will lose that election. Another bellwether event. Thank you Democrats for your help in blowing the November elections for yourselves. Only you guys could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Rock


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Plus, I have added a special poll each week, where I craft the poll questions, Rock's Poll Question of the Week. This week's question is, "Who do you think is politicizing 9/11?"

The Tone of Political Discourse

This blog is now igor-free, forever. Thank God for me, and for my audience.

The tone of political discourse varies from blog to blog and person to person. I’ve used various tones in this blog and probably haven’t settled yet on the final tone I’ll choose (if I do). So, I guess you can say in this regard that I’ve been erratic. Michael Savage, the iconoclastic, rabidly conservative radio talk show host of The Savage Nation is also an erratic guy in this regard. He operates totally on his feelings at the moment. Sometimes he is professional, and others he is juvenile. I am guilty as charged.

Dennis Prager’s tone is totally professional, totally respectful. He hates evil people, like murderers, rapists, and Al-Queda, but he is not hateful even when he speaks about them or to them. Rush Limbaugh’s tone is bombastic, iconoclastic, filled with humor and fun, and self-righteousness. Sean Hannity’s tone is earnest and patriotic, almost to excess. Bill O’Reilly’s tone is arrogant and know-it-all. Larry Elder’s tone is fun and rational. Bill Krystol’s tone is utterly rational.

On the left, Larry King’s tone is sweet and suck-up. Katie Couric’s tone is Pollyanish and syrupy. Matt Lauer’s tone is tough-sounding and matter of fact. Air America’s tone is vicious and cynical. Move-On.org’s tone is gleefully hateful. Chris Matthew’s tone is pugnacious, as is John Mclaughlin’s.

I think that each person must find his own tone. It is good if it is consistent, but I don’t think it helps if it is manufactured. I try, for example, to be civil and rational in my dealings with people. On the other hand, I do believe in being brutally honest, at least in my blogging life, as opposed to being polite. In real life it is better to be polite, and follow every rule of etiquette. In politics it is better, it seems, to be “politic.” In a blog, though, unless you are going to run for political office or unless your blog is for your business or public relations, it seems to me it is better to be honest, even if that means being offensive sometimes. Honesty, after all, is what the blogosphere is all about.

We wonder sometimes if being honest matters at all in the blogosphere. Well, it does. I know most of us don’t yet reach a big enough audience to make any kind of difference. Yet, all of us taken together do make a difference. In fact, it is well-known that the blogosphere has become a kind of “fourth estate,” to not only supplement, but sometimes even replace traditional forms of journalism. We owe it to our audience, and to ourselves, to do our homework and try to stay true to our principles. We need to be open too, and examine those principles in light of the feedback and reactions we get. This is difficult, but it is the dilemma of every public figure. What you see in the world, what you report about what you see, and the way you do it determine not only your tone, but your veracity, and your use to humanity.

I once more salute all you political and non-political bloggers out there, left and right, who spend your valuable time creating messages for the universe. God bless you in your noble work. I love reading what you write, and I hope some of you get something from what I do too.

Rock

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Plus, I have added a special poll each week, where I craft the poll questions, Rock's Poll Question of the Week. This week's question is, "Who do you think is politicizing 9/11?"

Knee-Jerk

People confuse me and some of my fellow ideologues of being knee-jerk Republicans. We aren’t, as I have proven on numerous occasions.

My colleagues are perhaps knee-jerk conservatives, but not knee-jerk Republicans. There is a difference. The Republican Party is often very liberal. So, true conservatives cannot support the Republican Party on many issues, like immigration policies.

I am even less “knee-jerk” than my fellow ideologues. I am not a knee-jerk Republican, and not a knee-jerk conservative. I am, though, a knee-jerk Truthian. If the truth lies with the liberals, I support them. If it lies with the conservatives, I support them.

For example, I think big government is a good idea on some issues, like homelessness. I think we as a society ought to solve this problem, now. Before the Reagan years, many homeless were being treated in hospitals. Now, they are on the street, in their pathetic existences of begging and wiping windshields. These poor people. Who is to blame? Unfortunately, Reagan, Democrats and liberals, Republicans and conservatives, and all of American society.

The conservatives are to blame because they eliminated the programs. The liberals are to blame because they championed the “human rights” of the homeless, and mandated that they couldn’t be hospitalized against their will. So now there are no programs, first of all. Second, many of the homeless are victims of poor judgment and refuse help, or don’t know how to access it. Dems ease their conscience by giving dimes and quarters to the homeless. Repubs say every man for himself. Neither solution is enough. We need a major national response, a good old liberal program for the poor on this one.

Yes, I am a knee-jerk Truthian. The problem for Libs at this time in history, is that they have utterly abandoned their liberal fundamentals. They don’t care about truth, and, to be honest, they don’t care about people. They are vicious in their attacks of their political opponents, and they care little for their constituents. They are racist and pandering. They support thugs like Castro and Chavez, and ideologies like communism and socialism. They have become a cruel party of liars and demagogues.

Let them return to their true compassionate, humanistic roots, and I can support them on some issues.

Rock

(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)

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Plus, I have added a special poll each week, where I craft the poll questions, Rock's Poll Question of the Week. This week's question is, "Who do you think is politicizing 9/11?"

Thank You Charlie Reingold

The Clown got up and proclaimed our leader “the devil,” and the reaction to this is silence. The Silence is deafening in most of the liberal world on this, including the major newspapers like the New York Times. I see nothing of it mentioned in their RSS feeds at all. This bespeaks of the level of incivility that the world has reached. When many in the U.N. clapped at the Clown’s speech, I saw confirmed before my eyes that the U.N. is a useless gathering of thugs, whom we should not support with a single dollar more of our precious money.

I also call upon all Americans to boycott the movies of Danny Glover, who embraced the Clown at the Brooklyn church, along with hundreds of Glover’s fellow racists and goons. People are afraid to criticize gatherings like this because they are filled with African-Americans, and they don’t want to be considered racists. The time for such fears needs to be over. These people are ignorant, regardless of their color, I don’t care if they are pink—which is not a bad analogy, since Chavez is a socialist and damn near a communist. Glover, Harry Belafonte, and their ilk have several screws loose, and this needs to be pointed out.

Anyway, I happened to see Democrat Charlie Reingold give his reaction to the Chavez speech. I can’t find this reaction printed anywhere in the New Left Times, but I want to mention it here. Reingold, a rabid liberal, told the Clown to stuff it. I’m paraphrasing, but Reingold said something like “Don’t come into my country and insult my president. You’re not welcome here when you do this.” God bless Charlie Reingold.

Several of my Repub buddies dismiss Reingold’s remarks as electioneering. They say he smells a backlash that could hurt the Dems in November. Yes, this is true. There will be a backlash, as Independents are tired of the liberal crap and lies, and goonish attacks by people like the Clown and Cindy Sheehan. Thank you Dems for giving us back the election. Only you guys could lose when you’ve had such an advantage for so long.

Still, I do not join my fellow Repubs in dismissing Reingold and other Dems who are condemning the Clown’s message. I don’t care if it is electioneering. Motives don’t bother me. Actions are what I want, and words. I respect Mr. Reingold for saying what he did, no matter what his motives are. If more Dems would say things like this, we the American public could start to respect them again.


Rock

(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)

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Plus, I have added a special poll each week, where I craft the poll questions, Rock's Poll Question of the Week. This week's question is, "Who do you think is politicizing 9/11?"

The Left and Conspiracy Theories

For many years I was involved in research as a psychologist. If there is not a study on the subject I propose, then there ought to be. I predict that the outcome of it will clearly show that Democrats, and leftists, are far more prone to believe in conspiracy theories than Republicans and right-wingers.

Let’s take, for example, how people feel about Bush. It just doesn’t make sense to me, a rational person, how anyone could hate Bush, an obviously good man. There are five reasons you could hate him, I believe, if you are irrational:

1. He waged a pre-emptive war, in Iraq. We struck first, supposedly. Even this isn’t true if you consider that Iraq invaded Kuwait, was ignoring U.N. directives, was shooting at American airplanes, and was paying $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers in Israel. How much more provocation do you need in order to strike back? Facts to liberals, though, are like kryptonite to Superman.

2. He is a devout Christian. Lefties hate him for this because they imagine that he runs the country according to religious doctrine and not according to rationality. The key word here is “imagine.” When lefties imagine, they always imagine the worst. Bush is devout; therefore he must be a kook.

3. Bush is stupid. At least this is what lefties perceive. I can see how people might believe this, if they want to believe it. He has a hard time communicating. There are hundreds of “Bushisms.” ("I said I was looking for a book to read, Laura said you ought to cry Camus. I also read three Shakespeares. ... I've got a eck-a-lec-tic reading list." --George W. Bush, interview with NBC's Brian Williams, New Orleans, La., Aug. 29, 2006 ) These lefties, though, are the same people who will “ooh” and “aw” over an autistic child’s innate intelligence that they can see through the child’s behavior, despite that child’s outward appearance of retardation. The truth is, Bush is a brilliant man in many ways. He fails the test of communicative ability. He probably has an intelligence quotient of about 120, which is above average, but his mouth and his brain are not hooked up properly. He has some sort of disorder, probably akin to dyslexia. Lefties are not smart enough to see behind the disorder. They’ll give an autistic child credit for being bright, but not their president if they disagree with his policies or his political leanings.

4. The world hates Bush. The clown Hugo Chavez got up before the world and called George Bush the devil. And the U.N. clapped. Why? The same reasons that lefties hate him. There are no rational reasons. It’s all based on primitive, gut level brutishness. It is also the fact that Bush is good and is doing something about the world’s problems, and the world doesn’t like it.

5. Lefties are conspiracy theorists. There are no rational reasons to hate Bush. If you hate him, you hate him for things that are supposedly going on behind the scenes. He is dumb and run by a cabal led by Dick Cheney. He has secret designs to take over the world. He started the war in Iraq to get oil for his buddies. He wants to usurp more power for the federal government.

Lefties are more prone to conspiracy theories than right-wing folks. Lefties believe in astrology, alternative medicine, homeopathic remedies, Echinacea, alien visitations and abductions, and Oliver Stone movies. They believe that Oswald did not kill John F. Kennedy (Kennedy assassination). Their chant is something about the “magic bullet” theory.

It’s easy to see where all this started. It began in the 1970’s when Richard Nixon proved all the conspiracy theorists correct. (Watergate) Nixon actually was engaged in wholesale deception, corruption and conspiracy to undermine his political enemies. He had the whole government working to destroy people like Martin Luther King, hippies, John Lennon, and in fact, the Democratic Party. He was spying on Americans, and on and on. Our government betrayed us. The lefties never forgot this, and never will. They are scarred for life from it, and so are their philosophical heirs.

That’s the problem. We human beings, and especially lefties, are simple-minded. Nixon was bad, therefore all politicians are bad. Nixon was engaged in conspiracies; therefore all government officials have secret meetings on how to screw their electorate.

We tend to fight the last war instead of this one. Lefties are stuck in Vietnam and Watergate. They are blind to terrorism, Al-Queda, and the goodness of George Bush.

I so much admire President Bush for his tireless attempts at communicating his vision. Though he will never reach the superstitious left with his message, when he makes this kind of vigorous effort, his poll numbers rise, and the rational middle of the country starts to understand what he is saying, despite his Bushisms.





The Clown






I and my compadres can only persevere in speaking the truth. We will continue to be attacked by ignoramuses like igor (the dumbest and most psychopathic of my liberal audience), and by liberals who aren’t smart enough to see Bush’s intelligence. Judging by the reaction to the clown (Hugo Chavez) yesterday at the U.N., the world at this time is ruled by superstitious thugs and left-wing sympathizers who believe that aliens are walking among us, that Elvis is alive, and that the Bush family starts wars for oil profits. God help us and give us the strength to continue in the face of this mass hysteria and ignorance.

Rock

(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)

This Post’s Technorati Tags: Bushisms, Hugo Chavez, conspiracy theories, homeopathic medicine, Oliver Stone movies, magic bullet theory, Richard Nixon, Martin Luther King, Watergate, George Bush, truth

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Plus, I have added a special poll each week, where I craft the poll questions, Rock's Poll Question of the Week. This week's question is, "Who do you think is politicizing 9/11?"

Egypt and Nuclear power

Mubarak’s Son Proposes Nuclear Program - New York Times: Remarks on nuclear power by Gamal Mubarak, the son of Egypt’s president, raised expectations that he was being positioned as a successor. By MICHAEL SLACKMAN and MONA EL-NAGGAR, Published: September 20, 2006.

Gamal Mubarak, the son of Egypt’s president, proposed Tuesday that his country pursue nuclear energy, drawing strong applause from the nation’s political elite, while raising expectations that Mr. Mubarak is being positioned to replace his father as president.

The carefully crafted political speech raised the prospect of two potentially embarrassing developments for the White House at a time when the region is awash in crisis: a nuclear program in Egypt, recipient of about $2 billion a year in military and development aid from the United States, and Mr. Mubarak succeeding his father, Hosni Mubarak, as president without substantial political challenge. Simply raising the topic of Egypt’s nuclear ambitions at a time of heightened tensions over Iran’s nuclear activity was received as a calculated effort to raise the younger Mr. Mubarak’s profile and to build public support through a show of defiance toward Washington, political analysts and foreign affairs experts said.

“The whole world, I don’t want to say all, but many developing countries, have proposed and started to execute the issue of alternative energy,” he said. “It is time for Egypt to put forth, and the party will put forth, this proposal for discussion about its future energy policies, the issue of alternative energy, including nuclear energy, as one of the alternatives.” He also said in a clear reference to the White House: “We do not accept visions from abroad that try to dissolve the Arab identity and the joint Arab efforts within the framework of the so-called Greater Middle East Initiative."

I think it’s interesting that the signal to the pundits and electorate of Egypt that Hosni Mubarak’s son is a serious candidate for the presidency is that he is challenging the U.S. and the world by announcing he wants his country to go nuclear. All I can think of is, what have we wrought?

The peace crowd might ultimately be right on this one. During World War II there was a race to obtain nuclear weapons, with the U.S., Germany and even Japan scrambling to become the first to have this deliverer of hell on earth. Luckily, we won that race, and because of it, we won the war.

Then Russia got nuclear weapons and Israel and India and on and on. Now, the truly bad guys are getting them, like Iran. Egypt is not necessarily one of the bad guys. They have been pretty good neighbors to Israel and the world since 1978, so I don’t have a great fear of their irrationality like I do with Iran, which wants to wipe Israel off the map.

Still, the overall picture is grim. Nuclear bombs “mushrooming” all over the place. (List of countries with nuclear weapons) One day at least one of them is going to go off, on people. You just know that. All you need is one maniac organization, like Al-Queda, or one maniac country, like Iran, and there you go.

How do we get rid of all the nukes? I don’t know. I have no idea. We’d better get smart about this, though, because the clock is ticking.

Rock

(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)

This Post’s Technorati Tags: Gamal Mubarak, nuclear weapons, Egypt, Greater Middle East, Hosni Mubarak, Al-Queda, truth

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Plus, I have added a special poll each week, where I craft the poll questions, Rock's Poll Question of the Week. This week's question is, "Who do you think is politicizing 9/11?"

Paradox

I warn you, this post will not be easy. Read it only if you like James Joyce or William Faulkner, and are interested in philosophy. I am applying in this post, in an undisciplined, stream-of-consciousness fashion, the laws of relativity and paradox to politics, and most of you could give a rat’s patootee about such things.

Ever since Albert Einstein explained to the world his theories of relativity, Western thought has never been the same. He introduced the idea, for example, that time is relative. Someone traveling in a spaceship for a long period would age less than someone remaining on earth, and so on. Recently, the big thing in science has been quantum physics. Some interesting related findings are the fact that particles at the subatomic level can be found at two different places at the same time, and even theories like parallel universes.

I believe that we humans, as a collective race or species, evolve not only physically, but also morally and philosophically. I think we are on the verge of a great leap forward in our understanding of our universe.

I realize that we gravitate towards the simple, and the easily understandable. Our brains can usually hold only one kind of thought at a time. We are a bright species, but not that bright. Which is why slogans work with us. We are brilliant in the first place for having the capacity to think and speak. We are capable of creating religions and philosophies. Yet we still prefer the simple, en masse that is.

This is why proclaiming the truth is such a difficult task. It is difficult, but not impossible.

People have to understand paradox. They have to understand relativism versus absolutism.

Let’s take a simple question. Is George Bush a good man? (You can ask similar questions like, is he intelligent, or wise, or effective, and so on).

My answer is, yes, he is a very good man. The liberals will say no, he is not a good man. Simple answers to a complex question.

The difference between liberals, and me though, is that I choose to say George Bush is a good man, knowing that the truth is more complex. Liberals operate only on one level. They don’t see the question as complex, and they don’t see the answer as complex. To them, George Bush is evil, period. Liberals cannot see paradox. They cannot see relativism.

The inner workings of my mind are this: George Bush is a good man, and George Bush is not a good man. This is the paradox—two opposites existing at the same time. For me, though, the good in George Bush far outweighs the bad. So, he is good.

Liberals literally cannot see anything good in George Bush, and they don’t want to. If liberals saw the world as it really is, as complex, then this would take the steam out of their slogans. All of the late night talk show comics are liberal. They see the world in black and white. If they appreciated the complexities of politics then they couldn’t bash Bush. They couldn’t pummel Fox News.

I choose to present my blog as a simple and unified message. As an absolute, I see America as one of the best countries in the world. I see conservatives, at this time in history, as the guardians of truth. I see liberals as demagogues and charlatans. I see political correctness as cowardice. I see the Muslim faith in need of a major reformation. I see that God is still talking to us, as opposed to fundamentalist religions that believe God spoke to us in the past but not anymore.

Isn’t the above contradicting the message of this post, that life is complex? Yes. That’s the paradox.

There are absolutes, and there are relatives.

One absolute that is true is, there are good guys and bad guys. Bush is a good guy. Osama bin Laden is a bad guy. This is an absolute.

A relative truth is conservatives, at this time in history, operate on a higher moral plane than liberals. This, of course, is definitely not an absolute. There are many liberals who are good people, and there are many conservatives who are not. And vice versa. This truly is a relative pronouncement. I believe it is true. Liberals don’t. Who is right? I am. Yet, the truth on this matter is complex.

Now that I’ve thoroughly confused you, let me explain one more thing—my feelings. Do I love George Bush? Sometimes. Do I respect George Bush? Sometimes. I love him and I hate him. I love him for his brilliance in going into the war in Iraq (I know the Igor’s of the world, and 80% of humanity, cannot understand Bush’s brilliance in this move), but I hate him for ruining our country with his immigration policies. I love/hate him.

How do I feel about liberals? I hate/pity/love/scorn them. I hate them for ruining our country with their demagoguery, lies and cowardice. I pity them because they don’t have the brains to see the truth. I love them for their great hearts, and their intention of doing good in the world. I scorn them for not being honest with themselves.

How do I feel about conservatives? I love/hate/admire/scorn them. I love them for being right about most issues, for being courageous in standing up for their mostly correct views, and for saving what is best about our world and country. I hate them for their cowardice in being politically correct, in seeking sometimes only to be re-elected, and for taking a great country and running it into the ground with their immigration policies. I admire them for seeing the truth when all the major media broadcast liberal propaganda. I scorn them for squandering the greatness that Reagan and Newt Gingrich brought to our country and the world.

The ultimate paradoxes for me are that I must accept living in an imperfect world. I can only do my best to communicate God’s message and the essence of truth. I must trust others to do their part. I accept that liberals have their own point of view, and that their expression of these views will also help make our world better, no matter how much I disagree with them. I must, in the end, after being so certain, so proud, so absolute, allow that I am only a speck in the universe, and that my views are important, but so are yours.

If you disagree with me on issues, then you are probably right. I am right too, though. That’s the paradox. There is an absolute truth on some things, and I believe that I see it clearer than you. I am a genius. Yet, don’t be upset—I am also an idiot. I realize this. To be honest, I am an idiot savant.

What you and I think, and do, and say matters. Yet, we are insignificant. It’s not about us. It’s about life, about God, about humanity, about the universe.

That’s the life God has given us. I humbly accept this reality.

Black Conservatism

NPR and FOX news host,
Juan Williams





This will be the first in a string of “shorts” that will, taken together, make a “long” on the subject of Black Conservatism. Since most media today still is liberal, these great Americans do not get their fair share of airtime.

Of course, a few African-Americans do get some negative, or at least controversial, notoriety when they take a conservative position on anything. Note Bill Cosby, and recently, Juan Williams. Cosby has been criticized by his own community for taking African-Americans to task for concentrating on old shibboleths like racism, instead of taking responsibility for their own lives and concentrating on hard work, education, and positive artistic expression.

Juan Williams, recently, has gotten negative notoriety from the liberals and from some members of the African-American community for similarly chastising Blacks in his groundbreaking book, Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America -- and What We Can Do About It. I’d like to go into detail in the future on both Cosby and Williams. For now, I’m just giving a preview.

As food for thought in today’s post, I’m going to list for you a partial compendium of accomplished Black conservatives.

I think it’s instructive just to see how long and distinguished this list is. I’m going to start with politicians:

Notable Black Conservatives

Politicians

Janice Rogers Brown, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

Condoleezza Rice, United States Secretary of State, former National Security Advisor

Colin Powell, United States Secretary of State

Michael Steele, Lieutenant Governor of Maryland.

Clarence Thomas, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, former Equal Employment Opportunity Commission chair

J.C. Watts, former U.S. Representative from Oklahoma,

Michael Powell, former FCC chairman

Anne Cools, Conservative Senator from Ontario

Donald Oliver, Conservative Senator from Nova Scotia

Ken Blackwell, Secretary of State of Ohio

Keith Butler, minister, Detroit councilman, candidate for U.S. Senate from Michigan

Rod PaigeFormer Secretary of Education

Wallace Jefferson, chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court

DeForest "Buster" Soaries, former Secretary of State, New Jersey

Winsome Sears, member of Virginia House of Delegates, candidate for U.S. House

Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, senior fellow at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution

I dare you to call all these people “Uncle Toms.”

These are the brightest and the best politicians that the African-American community has to offer, with some notable exceptions on the left (like Barack Obama).

The message, if you are African-American and are conservative, deep down in your heart, if you believe in family values and a strong defense, low taxes and personal responsibility, you don’t have to hide in the closet. You can make it out there and contribute to the world as a conservative.

The message for liberals is that you don’t own the Black community. Stop pandering to them. Stop talking down to them. Stop using them. Their conservative ranks are growing, in numbers and in prominence.

In future posts, I’ll be getting more into this issue, and also list notable Black conservatives from several other walks of life.

Rock


(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)

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Plus, I have added a special poll each week, where I craft the poll questions, Rock's Poll Question of the Week. This week's question is, "Who do you think is politicizing 9/11?"

I'm Sorry for Calling You Violent, Please Don't Hurt Me

Meeting with the representatives of science at the University of Regensburg:

APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO MUNCHEN, ALTOTTING AND REGENSBURG (SEPTEMBER 9-14, 2006) MEETING WITH THE REPRESENTATIVES OF SCIENCE LECTURE OF THE HOLY FATHER Aula Magna of the University of Regensburg Tuesday, 12 September, 2006. Faith, Reason and the University Memories and Reflections.

Pope Benedict XVI speaks of the

“erudite” Byzantine Emperor Manuel II, Paleologu, who in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara wrote:

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached". The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable.

Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God", he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably (F×< 8`(T) is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death..."

He concludes by saying:

“’Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of God’, according to Manuel II,” and “we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures.”

Can Muslims understand this? Dialogue? Heavens no. Some of them must react by violence, and the rest refuse to condemn them. Animals. That’s all they are.

Aljazeera.Net - Pope admits to shock and sorrow: Pope admits to shock and sorrow. Sunday 17 September 2006, 14:25 Makka Time, 11:25 GMT

Pope Benedict has said he is 'deeply sorry' for the angry reaction to his remarks on Islam and that the medieval text which he quoted from about jihad did not reflect his own opinion.

He told pilgrims, standing in heavy rain at his Castelgandolfo summer residence near Rome on Sunday, he was shocked by the reaction to his speech given at the University of Regensburg in Germany on Tuesday. “I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims,” he said. “These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought. I hope this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with mutual respect."

Can’t we have a leader who will stand up to evil?

Muslim Brotherhood: Pope's apology is 'sufficient' | Jerusalem Post: Sep. 17, 2006 11:18. Muslim Brotherhood: Pope's apology is “sufficient” By ASSOCIATED PRESS.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood announced Sunday afternoon that it accepted Pope Benedict XVI's apology, issued earlier in the day. “We see the Pope's latest statement as a retraction of his previous statements,' Mohammed Habib, the group's second in command, said. 'We see it as a sufficient apology, even though we would like the Pope to give a picture of his position on and vision of Islam.”

We, the free world, are so grateful that the Pope’s apology is “sufficient.” How about an apology for 9/11?

BBC NEWS | Africa | Italian nun shot dead in Somalia: "Italian nun shot dead in Somalia.”

Gunmen have shot dead an elderly Italian nun and her bodyguard in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

The attackers shot the nun three times in the back at a children's hospital in the south of the city, before fleeing the scene.

It is unclear if the shooting is connected with strong criticism by a radical Somali cleric about the Pope's recent comments on Islam.

The nun, who has not been named, is believed to be in her seventies.

The religion of peace.

I am an equal-opportunity offender. I will be offending all the world’s religions at one time or another. The worst religion in the world, at this time, though, is Islam. It is estimated that 20% of the world’s population, or 1.3 billion people, belong to this religion of peace. (Statistics on the World’s Religions)

Nobody can criticize Islam, not even the Pope. You can’t say they are violent, or they will kill you! That’s it, in a nutshell.

I’ve been looking into Pope Benedict XVI’s thoughts on Islam in the past, and I see that he is almost as critical of Islam as I am.

WorldNetDaily: Pope believes Islam incapable of reform?: "Pope believes Islam incapable of reform? Priest reports pontiff's thoughts from private gathering. Posted: January 24, 2006.

Again, Pope Benedict XVI believes that, unlike other religions, Islam cannot be reformed and, therefore, is incompatible with democracy, according to a Catholic leader who participated with the pontiff in a secretive meeting on the subject.

Now, he has come out and publicly stated some of his ideas, but he did it in such a way as to provide deniability. He encased it in such gobbledygook that you have to be a theological scholar to understand anything of what he said. If you study it carefully, though, you can see that what he meant is this—Islam is a violent religion, founded on violence, maintained on violence, and preaching violence for the future.

He won’t say it, but I will, and to all the 1.3 billion people out there who adhere to this barbaric religion, you are involved in evil. You may not be evil yourselves, but you enable it.

Why can’t even the Pope speak straight about issues of religion? Two reasons: fear of violence, and political correctness. Violent protests are occurring. A nun has already been killed. Salmon Rushdie and other artists and authors have had fatwahs on their heads, and some have paid with their lives for speaking out. Fear of violence is legitimate. It should not stop anyone, though, from speaking the truth. The Catholic religion was not founded on fear of reprisals. I expect courage from the world’s Catholics, and Christians.

Political correctness is the second reason for not speaking the truth. Blame our old buddies, the left. Why in God’s name, pun intended, can’t you liberals allow people to say reality? Who are the terrorists of the 21st century? Muslims. Who preaches hate? Muslims. Who wants to take over the world and impose their value system on others at this time? Muslims. This is an evil religion. Until it has a reformation, this religion is a scourge on the world.

Am I risking my life by being honest about this? Yes, I believe I am. I don’t care. I promise you, if I had the opportunity and it would advance truth in the world, I’d march into the center of Baghdad with this message, or Syria, or Mogadishu. Then again, there is safety in numbers. If enough people start speaking out, including the Pope, then the danger will lessen for any individual who speaks the truth on this.

The blogosphere is full of people speaking their version of the truth. Long live the blogosphere. Honorable mention for these (out of hundreds) of blogs and posts that condemn Islam as I do. To the courageous! To the people who have the courage to speak the truth!:

My Space commenter
Live Journal
Freedom and Justice
The Maverick Conservative
Freedom’s Zone

See my previous posts, The Pope and Islam, and Letter To A Terrorist Getting Ready For His Day of Blowing Up Babies

Rock

(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)

This Post’s Technorati Tags: Pope Benedict XVI, Islam, Emperor Manuel II, Muslims, Muslim Brotherhood, nun shot dead, Salmon Rushdie, fatwah, truth

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Plus, I have added a special poll each week, where I craft the poll questions, Rock's Poll Question of the Week. This week's question is, "Who do you think is politicizing 9/11?"

The Pope and Islam

Vatican Says Pope Benedict Regrets Offending Muslims





Did I hear that right?

CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) -- Muslim leaders have condemned Pope Benedict XVI over comments he made about Islam on a visit to Germany and demanded he apologize. The head of the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood called on Islamic countries to threaten to break off relations with the Vatican unless the pontiff withdrew his remarks. And a top religious figure in Turkey suggested the pope should reconsider a trip he was planning to Turkey later this year. The Vatican issued a statement to say the pope had never meant to offend Islam.

In his speech at the University of Regensburg on Tuesday, Benedict quoted criticism of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad by 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who wrote that everything Mohammad brought was evil and inhuman, “such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” Benedict, who used the terms “jihad” and “holy war,” repeatedly quoted Manuel's argument that spreading the faith through violence was unreasonable, adding: “Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul."

I can’t add much to what a pope says about Islam. I just hope this pope has enough cajones to stand up to the inevitable violence that will follow this spoken truth, perpetrated by the religion of peace.

Rock

(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)

This Post’s Technorati Tags: Muslim, Islam, Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammad, Palaeologus, jihad, truth

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New! Join Rock's Chatroom and Rock’s Truth Forum, both uncensored. You’ll be a bit lonely for now, until traffic starts to discover these new venues, but whenever I’m on line, I’ll check to see if anyone’s chatting. It’d be nice if I could program an email to myself when someone wants to chat, we’ll see.

Plus, I have added a special poll each week, where I craft the poll questions, Rock's Poll Question of the Week. This week's question is, "Who do you think is politicizing 9/11?"

Economic Realities under Bush

The economy under George W. Bush:

Oil prices are down, despite the war in Iraq, threats of terrorism, and problems with Iran and Venezuela.

Unemployment is low. (5.5% for August, 2006)

The stock market is close to an all-time high (11,584 at 10:04 am, 9/15/06).

GNP is humming along, faster than any European country.

Watch all this disappear if you vote in the Spendocrats and the tax-the-rich crowd. Not only are the libs weak on defense, they will be disastrous for the economy.

Am I telling you the whole truth on the economy? No. There are other figures you can find to counter the above. Deficits are up. The trade imbalance continues to grow. Some industries are in trouble, like autos and airlines. The quality of American jobs seems to be sinking.

Most of these problems, though, are a result of globalization. Bush can't stop globalization, and neither can America. This monster is a fact. It can be a good monster, or a bad one. We have to learn to live with it, and use it. It will not go away.

Another factor is that we continue to import cheap labor through illegal immigration. This undercuts the wages of the middle class, and hurts Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics. The result is goods become cheaper, but wages continue to fall. Wall Mart and Macdonald's have taken over the world, and this is another trend we cannot stop. We all pay for the invasion of illegals, too, with massive law enforcement, social services, and medical care costs, plus lost tax revenue.

Anyway, despite Bush having inherited a recession from Clinton, despite 9/11, despite terrorism, and despite oil supply problems, the part of the economy Bush's policies can effect is doing well. Bush's tax cuts are responsible for this. Bush is responsible for the deficits, though. He has been a major over-spender, acting like a lib on this one. The larger picture of the economy, though, is more influenced by globalization and illegal immigration. We Americans must learn how to handle these two issues intelligently.

Back to my template mission:

Sorry to be addressing this post about template issues, but it's urgent, and any advice I get you can use for your own sites. Plus, I will be happy to share whatever I've learned with any of you if you just let me know in Comments or by emailing me.

I have a diploma in computer programming, but I get so frustrated sometimes with browser issues that I want to scream. I know there are millions of you out there in my same predicament. So, if one or more of you kind Geeks happen to read this post and reply with help, I'd be very grateful.

First Problem: Firefox and some other browsers now force me to clear cache now to see my new posts. If this is happening to me, it's probably happening to my readers. Can you help me devise a strategy to avoid this?

Second Problem: Internet Explorer doesn't display my "blog within a blog" that works perfectly well on other browsers. I get the "blog within a blog" by inserting

object data code

into the Main section of my Template.

Any suggestions?

Feedback: Can anyone who reads this post please take the time to tell me which browser you use, and how does my site appear on your browser. Be as detailed as you can.

Thank you so very much.

Rock

(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)

This Post’s Technorati Tags: oil prices, unemployment rate, stock market, GNP, trade deficit, budget deficit, globalization, illegal immigration, truth


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Join me in the war on error, in the fight for truth, justice, and the American way! Support this site! Wanna swap links? It’ll help us both. Truth—The No Spin Politically Incorrect Zone

Join Rock's Political Blog Ring. Both Liberals and Conservatives are Welcome. (see left side bar or below these posts)

New! Join Rock's Chatroom and Rock’s Truth Forum, both uncensored. You’ll be a bit lonely for now, until traffic starts to discover these new venues, but whenever I’m on line, I’ll check to see if anyone’s chatting. It’d be nice if I could program an email to myself when someone wants to chat, we’ll see.

Plus, I have added a special poll each week, where I craft the poll questions, Rock's Poll Question of the Week. This week's question is, "Who do you think is politicizing 9/11?"

Cut Off, Gazan Economy Nears Collapse

As Gaza Parents Go Unpaid, Children Go Hungry - New York Times:

Zidan Abu Reziq preparing dinner by candlelight and flashlight for his family in the Gaza Strip because of a lack of electricity, a recurrent problem.

KHAN YUNIS, Gaza Strip, Sept. 12, 2006. For the last week, Zidan Abu Reziq has been sleeping outside, next to his plantings on a small square of sand he expropriated.

Khan Yunis is home to large and destitute refugee families.

The Abu Reziqs, like many of the large, destitute refugee families in this shrapneled, tumbledown slum, need to plant to eat. They took the land and planted it with vegetables, an investment of about $50, most of the money that the United Nations Relief and United Nations Works Agency gave them to buy school uniforms for the children.

Good. These people elected Hamas. They support the indiscriminate bombing of Israeli citizens. Let them suffer. Maybe next time they will elect a moral and responsible government. Maybe next time they will opt for peace, as the Israelis have wanted for years.

Back to my template mission:

Sorry to be addressing this post about template issues, but it's urgent, and any advice I get you can use for your own sites. Plus, I will be happy to share whatever I've learned with any of you if you just let me know in Comments or by emailing me.

I have a diploma in computer programming, but I get so frustrated sometimes with browser issues that I want to scream. I know there are millions of you out there in my same predicament. So, if one or more of you kind Geeks happen to read this post and reply with help, I'd be very grateful.

First Problem: Firefox and some other browsers now force me to clear cache now to see my new posts. If this is happening to me, it's probably happening to my readers. Can you help me devise a strategy to avoid this?

Second Problem: Internet Explorer doesn't display my "blog within a blog" that works perfectly well on other browsers. I get the "blog within a blog" by inserting

object data code

into the Main section of my Template.

Any suggestions?

Feedback: Can anyone who reads this post please take the time to tell me which browser you use, and how does my site appear on your browser. Be as detailed as you can.

Thank you so very much.

Rock

(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)

This Post’s Technorati Tags: Israel, Palestinians, Gaza Strip, United Nations Relief, United Nations Works Agency, Hamas, truth

Subscribe to my feed
                                          

Join me in the war on error, in the fight for truth, justice, and the American way! Support this site! Wanna swap links? It’ll help us both. Truth—The No Spin Politically Incorrect Zone

Join Rock's Political Blog Ring. Both Liberals and Conservatives are Welcome. (see left side bar or below these posts)

New! Join Rock's Chatroom and Rock’s Truth Forum, both uncensored. You’ll be a bit lonely for now, until traffic starts to discover these new venues, but whenever I’m on line, I’ll check to see if anyone’s chatting. It’d be nice if I could program an email to myself when someone wants to chat, we’ll see.

Plus, I have added a special poll each week, where I craft the poll questions, Rock's Poll Question of the Week. This week's question is, "Who do you think is politicizing 9/11?"

Have You No Shame?

I'm going to keep these posts short until I solve my template problems. I will say to the Democrats, like Harry Reed, have you no shame? You are the one being political. A non-political response to the President's speech would have been somethng like, "We disagree on some important issues and on how to achieve our goals, but we join with the president in wanting a positive resolution in Iraq, and a fitting memorial for the victims of 9/11. But the Democrats won't go this route. No. They make this thing political. Have they no shame?

Back to my template problems. Sorry to be addressing this post about template issues, but it's urgent, and any advice I get you can use for your own sites. Plus, I will be happy to share whatever I've learned with any of you if you just let me know in Comments or by emailing me.

I have a diploma in computer programming, but I get so frustrated sometimes with browser issues that I want to scream. I know there are millions of you out there in my same predicament. So, if one or more of you kind Geeks happen to read this post and reply with help, I'd be very grateful.

First Problem: Firefox and some other browsers now force me to clear cache now to see my new posts. If this is happening to me, it's probably happening to my readers. Can you help me devise a strategy to avoid this?

Second Problem: Internet Explorer doesn't display my "blog within a blog" that works perfectly well on other browsers. I get the "blog within a blog" by inserting

object data code

into the Main section of my Template.

Any suggestions?

Feedback: Can anyone who reads this post please take the time to tell me which browser you use, and how does my site appear on your browser. Be as detailed as you can.

Thank you so very much.

Rock

To Comment on this post, go down past this scroll box.

Browser Friendly, Cache Friendly

Sorry to be addressing this post about template issues, but it's urgent, and any advice I get you can use for your own sites. Plus, I will be happy to share whatever I've learned with any of you if you just let me know in Comments or by emailing me.

I have a diploma in computer programming, but I get so frustrated sometimes with browser issues that I want to scream. I know there are millions of you out there in my same predicament. So, if one or more of you kind Geeks happen to read this post and reply with help, I'd be very grateful.

First Problem: Firefox and some other browsers now force me to clear cache now to see my new posts. If this is happening to me, it's probably happening to my readers. Can you help me devise a strategy to avoid this?

Second Problem: Internet Explorer doesn't display my "blog within a blog" that works perfectly well on other browsers. I get the "blog within a blog" by inserting

object data code

into the Main section of my Template.

Any suggestions?

Feedback: Can anyone who reads this post please take the time to tell me which browser you use, and how does my site appear on your browser. Be as detailed as you can.

Thank you so very much.

Rock

The Fog of Life

I was watching The Path to 9/11 last night, and some this morning. I’m not halfway into it yet, but I can definitely report on my impressions so far.

First, it’s not as bad, I think, for the Democrats, as one would have been lead to believe. I don’t think it’s an indictment of their administration’s behavior and judgment so much as an accurate representation of the fog of life. I haven’t read critics’ responses to the piece, but I was impressed with it.

Watching it, I was immersed in the chaos and haziness of life among teeming masses, including the teeming masses of government bureaucracies. Making decisions in this kind of atmosphere is not easy. First, you never know what the effect of your decisions will be. There is no single effect. The effect is one of combinations and permutations.

For example, informants have a tough life. The “good guys” suspect them as well as the “bad guys.” Their lives are in danger, and that of their families. They operate out of a desire to be virtuous, to save lives, to stop evil from happening. Yet, they are conflicted, because they are informing on “their people,” which is a taboo.

I was struck by the pure evil of the terrorists. Their depiction has to be accurate, because they must spend every waking moment concocting plans, building I.E.D.’s, and making secret connections to achieve their goal of blowing people up.

I also was impressed with the Path’s authors’ ability to immerse us in various cultures. Having lived in the Middle East, I can attest to the accuracy of their depictions. Part of the charm of these cultures is their inter-connectedness. This leads to a fuller life than some of us have in the United States. There are scores of aunts and uncles, brothers and cousins, friends and comrades.

The good of this is that they are surrounded with love and support. The bad is that they are pressured to conform in order to be accepted. The good of the American way of life is that we are more independent, and so not as susceptible to cult-like pressures. The bad of our way of life is that we are alone.

To the terrorists, we are a monstrous culture. Not only are we infidels, we foster a decadent culture of Las Vegas, naked women, broken families and moral chaos. It’s interesting that, on the days preceding their deadly missions, the terrorists often partake of Western pleasures. Wine, women, song, decadence. Then they kill people and themselves, going to meet their 72 virgins. Very convoluted.

Like I said, other than the terrorists, I don’t think Path is so much an indictment of particular individuals as it is an indictment of human nature. We are imperfect creatures. We do the best we can. We all operate in the fog of life and make the best decisions we can in a complex, ever-changing world.

There are some judgments we can make with regard to the path to 9/11, yet these are with the benefit of hindsight. We are all good quarterbacks on Monday morning. Knowing what we know now, we all would have snared or killed Osama bin Laden and his ilk before they carried out their plans. It was just human nature, though, to have difficulty believing that such Terminator-like evil exists in the world. Even after the several bombings, including Cobar Towers, the U.S.S. Cole and the World Trade Center bombing of 1993—even after intercepting intelligence that clearly showed our enemies' intents, we, the good people of the world, had a hard time really believing that monsters could fly airplanes full of innocent people into some of the tallest towers on earth, full of ordinary folks.

So, here we are. Now we know. What’s the next step? Terminator-like monsters are making plans for even greater destruction, and we are aware of it. We find it hard to believe, again, that what they say they are going to do, they will do. I hope we wake up. I hope we have grown. Only if we are vigilant, and smart, and clever, and ruthless, can we prevent the next actions, which will include mushroom clouds over L.A. and N.Y.C., or sarin gas (Wikipedia discussion) on subways. We are on the path to 9/13. Can we stop it this time?

Rock

(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)

This Post’s Technorati Tags: The Path to 9/11, I.E.D.’s, Osama bin Laden, Cobar Towers, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, sarin gas, truth

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