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Dr. Jack Wheeler

FEAR OF FLU

One more calamity to freak out about now, it seems, is an impending “pandemic” of the Asian Bird Flu virus known as H5N1.  Every day we read about five billion more chickens or turkeys or geese in China or Romania or some other country being infected and killed.

A batch of folks in Vietnam have died of it, and the scare stories mount about how any day now, the virus will mutate, enabling not just bird-to-human infection but human-to-human.  Then, the stories claim, the pandemic is on.

There are some protective measures you might consider to shield yourself from a H5N1 pandemic should it occur.  I don’t want to be dispensing medical advice, so I’ll just say that this is what I am doing myself.

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JAMES BOND IN AZERBAIJAN

Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, an oil-rich former Soviet republic on the western shores of the Caspian Sea, are scheduled for this coming November 6.   

They have all the trappings of a James Bond movie. In fact, the Bond film, “The World is not Enough,” which centered on the struggle to control Caspian Sea oil, was shot in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, in 1999.   

But now it is life's turn to imitate art. Today's intrigue in Azerbaijan includes power struggles, a clash between geopolitical giants – America, Russia and Iran – an ethnic conflict with neighboring Armenia, and almost one million refugees. Add corruption, lots of oil and gas, and serve hot. What a perfect recipe for a first-rate thriller.

 

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A BAD WEEK FOR JIHADIS

Moslem terrorists – Jihadis – really took it in the shorts last week. We’ll begin with Iraq. Iraqi voters, including Sunnis, voting in huge numbers to pass a constitution was a major disaster for the terrorists. Lots of Sunnis voted no – but lots of Sunnis voted yes, which means Zarqawi no longer has any chance of igniting a Sunni-Shia civil war. Too many Sunnis have turned against him and towards democracy... ...Now let’s go to the main attraction – the single worst disaster Jihadism has possibly ever suffered.

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EARTH TO MAUREEN

Due to time constraints, C-Span ended the broadcast of my speech last week, Why Liberals Are Incapable of Defending America , in the middle of my reply to a question about why most journalists are so liberal. I was about to use the New York Times liberal columnist Maureen Dowd as an example when C-Span switched to another event. This is because in February 2000 during the presidential campaign, I wrote a letter to the New York Times commenting on a column of Miss Dowd which was such a perfect instance of why liberals, and liberal journalists like her, really don’t care about individual people. So to complete the answer you couldn’t see on C-Span, here’s the letter:

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SHEIKHS OF DEATH

Here’s a story that should be on the front page of the New York Times but isn’t, since it’s actual news of global importance instead of phony scandals like “Plamegate” or attempts to criminalize conservatives such as Tom DeLay. A group of prominent Arab intellectuals has sent a letter, co-signed by over 4,000 Moslem authors, scholars, poets, and journalists worldwide to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan requesting the establishment of an International Criminal Court for the prosecution of Islamic terrorists and the Moslem leaders who incite them. The letter calls such leaders "Sheikhs of Death." Funny how you haven’t heard about this in the liberal “mainstream” media, huh?

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BLASPHEMOUS CARTOONS

In addition to Lafif Lakhdar in Tunis (see Sheikhs of Death ), there are folks in Denmark who also refuse to be intimidated by Moslem fanatics. The Copenhagen newspaper Jyllands-Posten, for example, which recently ran a story about a Danish author writing a book about Mohammed. In response to the author’s complaint in the story that nobody dared to illustrate the book – for fear of angering Moslems as it’s supposedly sacrilegious to depict their prophet – 12 illustrators sent in cartoons which the newspaper promptly published.

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SUICIDE IN AND OF SYRIA

On the morning of Oct. 12th, Syria's Interior minister, Maj. Gen. Ghazi Kanaan, was found dead in his office from a gunshot wound to the head. Kanaan's death was ruled a suicide, but there were doubters. "For those of you who don't know what 'committed suicide' means in Syria, it means someone committed it for him," said Anton Efendi, an American PhD candidate who lives in Lebanon. Kanaan's "suicide" may lead to the suicide of Syria as an intact country.

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Chapter Thirteen: THE BROMAS

Chapter Thirteen:  The Bromas

Upon reaching Villa Rica there was a welcome surprise: a ship had arrived from Cuba with a detachment of seventy soldiers, nine horses, and a goodly supply of arms, commanded by Cortez’s friend, Francisco “Pulido” de Saucedo. His nickname of Pulido – Dandy – came from his handsomeness and immaculate appearance. “I and my men have come to place ourselves at your command and seek our fortune with you!” he grandly declared to Cortez. All rejoiced at the reinforcements, but when Dandy sat down with Cortez in private, the news was not so good. “Governor Diego Velasquez’s procuradore – representative – in Spain, Friar Benito Martin, has persuaded the Court in Seville to grant him a license for exploring this territory, with the profits going to him,” was the message. “Only one-tenth of any gold found goes to the Crown, not the Royal Fifth. You, of course, and those loyal to you, will get nothing.” “My old enemy once again,” mused Cortez. He called in Alonzo Puertocarrero and his closest officers, had Dandy repeat the news, then said, “Gentlemen, the only solution is to petition the King directly. Here is what I suggest we do…”

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WHY LIBERALS ARE INCAPABLE OF DEFENDING AMERICA

[This is the text of a speech I gave yesterday, October 13, at the Accuracy in Media luncheon in Washington DC. It was taped by C-Span and will be nationally broadcast at various times over the C-Span network � check www.c-span.org for schedules. Video/DVD copies of the speech may be ordered via the C-Span website. I began the speech by holding up an actual shrunken head.] I’d like to show you a concrete example of why liberals cannot defend their country. This is a human shrunken head. It was made by the man who gave it to me, Chief Tangamashi, who adopted me into his clan of Shuara Jivaros in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador when I was 16 years old. The Jivaros call such a shrunken head a tsantsa. When an enemy is killed in battle, his head is taken via a machete and skinned. The head skin is sewn up and hot sand stuffed in the cavity, drawing out all the moisture and oils until it is dried and shrunken. Now, what would lead the Jivaros to engage in such a practice as shrinking human heads? Because they believe that all death is murder. All death that is accidental or unexplained is for them murder by envious black magic, which must be avenged. The Jivaros, like most primitive and traditional cultures, live in constant fear of the magical aggression of others. They attribute all unfortunate events to the malicious, envious black magic of another Jivaro. Sounds like the Democrats blaming everything on George Bush, right?

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Chapter Twelve: ANGRY GODS

Chapter Twelve: Angry Gods The Spaniards now devoted themselves to building Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. On a plain half a league from Quiahuitztlan (qwee-ah-weets-tlan), a fort was erected with high wooden walls and watchtowers, followed by a church, market place, arsenals, barracks, and officers’ quarters. Cortez himself was the first to work, digging trenches and hauling foundation stones. Cajoling his officers to join him, they all set to work, as did all the soldiers at whatever task they could do ? making bricks, nails, and lumber, working the lime kilns ? while over a thousand Totonacs labored with them. Within less than three weeks it was habitable enough for the colony to be formally founded (1). A few days after "Villa Rica" had been established, a delegation of Mesheeka nobles arrived, led by a military commander named Motelchiuh (mo-tell’-chee-you), and including two of Montezuma’s nephews. Motelchiuh grandly presented Cortez with the gilded helmet requested by Tendile at the sand encampment of San Juan de Ulua. It was now filled with gold dust ? as Cortez had requested.

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THE WRATH OF ALLAH

This is Rakaposhi, a 25,000-foot Karakorum giant that towers above the hidden kingdom of Hunza in far northern Pakistan. It is one of the world’s great sights to wake up in the morning and watch the sunrise light up Rakaposhi from the balcony of your room in Karimabad, Hunza’s capital.Far northern Pakistan is far and away one of the most spectacularly scenic regions of our planet. Today unfortunately, it has become one of the most tragic. Tens of thousands of people lie dead and millions are homeless with their villages and lives turned to rubble by an enormous earthquake.Having spent quite a bit of time exploring the region over the years, it is heart-breaking for me to think of what has befallen all of the friendly folks I met there. The region, however, had become infested with numbers of decidedly unfriendly folks as well. There are many hidden valleys that were used as Al Qaeda refuges and training camps for Jihadi guerrillas launching attacks into Indian Kashmir.

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THE MOSQUE OF NOTRE DAME DE PARIS

The great cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris has been called "the noblest architectural conception of man." Its construction was begun in 1163 by Maurice de Sully (c.1110-1196), the Bishop of Paris, and completed 87 years later in 1250.The small island in the River Seine has been a sacred site for millennia. It was a sacred grove for the Celts who held their most holy rituals there, then for the Romans who built a Temple of Jupiter. Upon the ruins of this temple, Childebert (496-558), son of Clovis who founded the French Merovingian dynasty, built a basilica to St. Etienne in 528. Since that time, the site has been sacred to Christians.Elena Chudinova thinks it won’t be for very much longer. One of Russia’s most popular writers, her latest novel, The Mosque of Notre Dame de Paris is currently a runaway best seller in Russia. So current that it has not yet been translated into English. Let’s hope it soon will be.

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WHY WAR WITH IRAN IS INEVITABLE

One of Marx’s more intriguing concepts was that of a "correlation of forces." If you have a sufficient number of factors coming together in the right way at the right time, it’s very hard to avoid a particular outcome. However much George Bush would like to avoid a war with Iran on top of the current war in Iraq, he’ll soon have no other choice.His hope is that somehow a Democratic Revolution will be sparked or spontaneously emerge to sweep away the fascist ayatollahs. The hope is in vain, for it is soon to be OBE: overtaken by events.War is coming between America and Iran because the mullahs in Tehran see war as their only hope of keeping their power. They see war as the only way to prevent the coming democratic revolution that will sweep them away. They have convinced themselves that – get ready – that it is a war they can win, that Iran can militarily defeat the United States of America.

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HOWARD AND HARRIET

OK, now that I’ve gotten the outrageousness of the Miers nomination off my chest, let me tell you a story about a wonderful guy named Howard Papush. In 1980, Howard had one of the all-time coolest jobs in Hollywood. As the “talent coordinator” for the Tonight Show, Howard was a primary gatekeeper deciding who got to be a guest and sit in that chair talking to Johnny Carson on national television. Let me tell you how Howard reminds me of Harriet Miers.

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Chapter Eleven: THE SPANISH ULYSSES

Shortly after Bernal resumed his post as look-out over the sandy dunes of the camp, he spotted five native men walking on the beach. With smiles and bows they approached, and their gestures made it clear they wanted to be taken into the camp. Bernal sent a messenger to bring Do񡠍arina and Aguilar to the tent of Captain Cortez, while Bernal took the five men to the Captain himself. Bernal had never seen such men. While they cut their hair and wore their loincloths differently than the Mesheeka, it was their lip plugs that distinguished them. They all had a large hole in their lower lips, filled with heavy stone disks of turquoise or covered with thin sheets of gold ? so heavy that they pulled the lip down over the chin exposing the teeth and lower gums. Their ears lobes were also pierced with large holes also filled with turquoise or gold-covered stone disks ? but it was the hideous lip plugs that repelled Bernal. "Lope Luzio, Lope Luzio!" they cried out as they bowed deeply to Cortez while rubbing dirt on their foreheads as a sign of supplication and respect.

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THAT TEARS IT

Harriet Miers tears it for me with George Bush. It’s the last straw. John Roberts was no straw at all. Clearly a conservative constitutionalist, overwhelmingly brilliant and qualified, he was an inspired choice. Objections to him by certain conservatives were paranoid. But we are going from the sublime to the ridiculous with Miss Miers. This ludicrous nomination is the bottom of Bush’s barrel. It is as ludicrous for Bush to claim that she is more qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice than J. Harvie Wilkinson, Janice Rogers Brown, or any of a score of distinguished conservative candidates, as it is unbelievable for him to claim that he “knows her heart” but has never discussed abortion with her. Yet there is good to come of it: in the form of a conservative Congressional rebellion. The good that is coming out of Bush’s inept Katrina performance is an end to profligate spending, and deep (hopefully real deep) cuts in both discretionary and mandated programs.In his press conference today (the 4th), Bush predicted Miers will do well in her Senate hearings. She may never get to them. The outcry from Republicans on Capitol Hill may get so loud so quick that Bush may be forced to withdraw her nomination. That will provide the chance to rebuild the Bush Presidency.

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WHAT’S WRONG WITH W?

“Jack, what's wrong with W? It seems he has a serious deficit of energy and strength. Maybe it's just me, but he doesn't seem right, and hasn't for some months. I’m worried.”This inquiry by TTPer Paul Rosenberg is typical of many I’ve been receiving. It’s obvious to Paul and lots of others that the Bush Presidency is running out of steam. The deficit in question is not, however, physical - as anyone who tries to keep up with W on a mountain bike at the Crawford Ranch can attest - it’s mental.Which means neurochemical.

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BURIDAN’S ASS IN GERMANY

Jean Buridan (1300-1358) was a 14th century medieval French philosopher famous for his paradox known as Buridan’s Ass. If a perfectly rational ass or donkey were placed exactly equidistant between two bales of hay exactly the same, there would be no reason to choose one over the other - and given no reason to choose, the ass would be unable to do so and starve to death.Buridan meant for his thought experiment to demonstrate the irrational barrenness of pure reason and the superiority of emotion to rationality. How medieval.Yet it is just the position of Buridan’s Ass that the German electorate has placed itself in, exactly equidistant between the free market solutions required for their economic survival and the government subsidies to which they have become addicted.

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AFGHAN POPPIES UPDATE

Two years ago, in Afghan Poppies: What The Bush White House Should Really Be Afraid Of, I told you about CIA collusion and incompetence regarding opium production in Afghanistan. That was in 2003. Since then, Afghanistan’s poppy crop has exploded. According to Robert Charles, in his capacity as chief counternarcotics official at the State Department, the poppy crop went from 152,000 acres in 2003 to 515,000 acres in 2004 - producing $7 billion in opium and heroin money. This money is financing Al Qaeda, Abu Musab al Zarqawi in Iraq, and international Moslem terrorism - yet the CIA is too impossibly incompetent to stop it, and the Pentagon simply refuses to.

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Chapter Ten: VERA CRUZ

Malinali and Bernal returned to the camp to find all the Spaniards assembled in front of Cortez’s tent, talking loudly and arguing amongst themselves. In response to Malinali’s questioning glance, Bernal smiled. “Ah, the Captain’s trap is being sprung.”Taking her aside, he explained. “Remember that I told you my cousin, Don Diego Velasquez, was governor of Cuba? The truth is that he is a greedy fat man who has many friends and many enemies - and our soldiers here are made up of both. Those who are friends of Velasquez want to return to their haciendas in Cuba. They think that Velasquez will share most of the gold Montezuma has given us with them. The enemies of Velasquez want to stay and found a colony with lands and haciendas of their own. They will get nothing from Velasquez if they return to Cuba.”“And which side is Captain Cortez on?” Malinali wanted to know.Bernal laughed long and hard. “Ah, Doña Marina, the stories of Cortez and Don Diego are already legendary in Cuba! I must tell them to you someday, then you will laugh as well. No, Cortez made such a fool of Don Diego that he has no thought of returning to Cuba. That is why a few days ago he asked for my help, which I was happy to give.

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SOLAR WARMING

It was to be expected that in response to NASA releasing satellite photos this week showing that the ice caps on Mars have been retreating several feet per year for some time now, former vice-president Al Gore claimed this was “the inevitable result of George Bush’s disastrous environmental policies and his unconscionable failure to sign the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty.” At a joint press conference held with Mr. Gore, Democrat Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) denounced the warming of Mars as “demonstrating once again George Bush’s racism - Mr. Bush cares as little for the well-being of Martians as he does about African-Americans.” Democrats and enviro-loonies on space patrol aside, serious people here on earth know the NASA announcement dealt a major blow to the theory of Man-Made Global Warming (MMGW). Here’s another: Axel Heiberg fossil

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INFANTILIZOMANIA

Yes, I invented this term. You won’t find it in Webster’s, the OED, or Google. At least not now. Hopefully soon you will, as it becomes the accepted term for the neurosis with which all those on the Left are afflicted. Just as a pyromaniac is driven by a compulsion to set fires, a kleptomaniac by a compulsion to steal, and - everyone’s favorite example - a nymphomaniac by a compulsion to have sex, an infantilizomaniac is driven by a compulsion to treat adult human beings as children. The compulsion to infantilize people is the neurotic compulsion of liberals. Liberals of course do not call it infantilizomania. They call it compassion.

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Chapter Nine: MALINALI’S PRAYER

Chapter Nine: Malinali’s Prayer When Malinali finished her story, Cortez spoke to her directly. She had learned enough Spanish to mostly understand him. “Doña Marina, you know now that I am a man, and not this Mesheeka god, yes?” She nodded. “Yet the Mesheeka king does not think I am a man just like him - he believes instead that I could actually be one of his gods?” She nodded again. Cortez crossed himself. He looked at Aguilar. “These Mesheeka are stranger and more evil than I thought possible, Jeronimo. Their religion is the worship of Satan himself, the gods they worship are devils - except for one god, this Quetzacoatl, who preaches good not evil. And it is him they are afraid of, it is him they have somehow confused with me. What is it they are afraid of?” Aguilar shrugged. Cortez’s dark eyes shifted to Malinali.

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TONY AND TOYNBEE

Tony Blankley, the erudite editorial editor of The Washington Times, certainly knows his Toynbee. I can attest to this, with all 12 volumes of Arnold Toynbee’s masterwork, A Study of History, residing on my bookshelf. Toynbee studied the rise and fall of entire civilizations rather than individual countries or ethnic groups. His model for the success and failure of civilizations was challenge-and-response. Those that rose to a challenge flourished, while those that didn’t failed. Tony, however - who is both my neighbor and friend of long standing - focuses on one of the most fascinating yet little understood insights of Toynbee’s model: that without challenges, a successful civilization will stagnate and culturally implode. In other words, Western Civilization will die unless there is a challenge to it. Islam, the whole civilization or culture of Islam with Jihadism as its most extreme manifestation, has become that challenge. “In the strangest possible irony,” writes Tony in his new book, Jihadism is giving the West a “chance to regain its faith in itself.”

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BENEDICT SHOULDN’T SURPRISE YOU

This week, the Catholic World News leaked word of an “Instruction” to be issued by the Vatican next month banning the admission of homosexuals to Catholic seminaries. This will come as no surprise to you, as you learned in To The Point last April this was coming in The De-Homosexualization of the Catholic Church . Approved by Pope Benedict XVI three weeks ago, the Instruction argues that: “homosexual men should not be admitted to seminaries even if they are celibate, because their condition suggests a serious personality disorder which detracts from their ability to serve” the Church.

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NERVOUS IN MECCA

It was certainly no coincidence that on the 4th anniversary of 9/11 last Sunday, front page headlines appeared in the nation’s newspapers entitled Pentagon Revises Nuclear Strike Plan . It was a public shot across the Jihadi Terrorists’ bow, meant to make them and folks in Mecca nervous. You know why, since you read Mad in Mecca in To The Point back in October, 2004, and George Bush and the Sword of Damocles: Why There Hasn’t Been Another 9/11 last January. It’s the clearest sign yet that Mecca is being held as a nuclear hostage.

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WHO’S NEXT?

Now that Bush has utterly outfoxed the Dems on his first Supreme Court nomination - John Roberts is a done deal for Chief Justice - everyone inside the Beltway is handicapping his next choice. He has confided in no one, including me. Maybe Laura knows, but she’s only given hints. Those hints and everything else points to a feminine direction. The next nominee, replacing Sandra Day O’Connor, almost has to be a woman.It could be Priscilla Owen, it could be Edith Jones, but I am crossing my fingers for Janice Rogers Brown.

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Chapter Eight: MALINCHE

Chapter Eight: MalincheAguilar found Malinali cowering in the lee of large sand dune. Perspiration was pouring off her, her chest was heaving with rapid breaths, and her eyes were glazed with panic and terror. “Doña Marina!” he cried, “What is wrong?!” He got a wet cloth and patted her brow. Her eyes slowly focused on him. Finally, she stammered “I… must talk… to Captain Cortez…”Aguilar was startled. Nonetheless, he said he would relay her request. A few moments later he returned and beckoned, bringing her to the Captain’s tent. Cortez was sitting in his chair and looked up at her. Malinali stood still, legs quivering, desperately trying to subdue her breathing and her emotions. Cortez quickly saw the girl was abjectly terrified. He motioned for Aguilar to bring her a drink of water.“Doña Marina,” said Aguilar, “What is it that you wish to speak of to the Captain?”Malinali closed her eyes to listen to her father’s voice. “Ixkakuk!” she heard her father say, “a true queen is always in command of her feelings and fears!” As she opened her eyes, Cortez saw her transformed into a different person. Instead of a shaking slave girl scared out of her wits, suddenly standing before him was a regally erect woman of extraordinary beauty, poise, and calm. A woman who looked directly into his eyes as she said to Aguilar:“I must ask Captain Cortez if he is a man or a god.”

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CREDENCE IN GAZA

With apologies to John Fogerty and Credence Clearwater Revival: I see the bad Palestinian moon arising. I see trouble on the way. I see earthquakes and lightning. I see bad Gaza times today. Don't go around in Gaza tonight, Well, it's bound to take your life, There's a bad Palestinian moon on the rise.

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2006: YEAR OF THE BLACK REPUBLICAN

The thunderous boos of New England Patriots fans in Boston Stadium during the performance of black racist singer Kanye West during the NFL Kickoff Show September 8th are only the start of a massive backlash. West’s earlier claim - at a fundraising telethon for Katrina victims - that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” was appropriately condemned by First Lady Laura Bush as “disgusting.” That’s going to be the view of more and more Americans towards the left’s deranged politicalization of Katrina. The Left Stream Media’s warnings of how Bush’s alleged “failures” regarding Katrina are going to hurt Republican candidates in 2006 is just wishful thinking. One reason is that 2006 is shaping up to be The Year of the Black Republican. This coming revolution in US politics will take place in a huge swath of America, from Chesapeake Bay to Lake Superior, and it has the potential to gut the Democrat Party.

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STERILIZING SEWER CITY

With people dying from infected water in New Orleans, which won’t be drained for weeks, it is critically important to disinfect the flood water as quickly and efficiently as possible.The Army Corps of Engineers has many years of institutional experience at safely chlorinating sewer water. They can scale up that experience for the “Sewer City” that New Orleans has become.Chlorine is a standard treatment for disinfecting sewage. It would take a few railroad tank cars of liquid chlorine for the job.

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CLEANING OUT N’AWLINS

What’s the difference between a disaster and an election in New Orleans?The buses run during an election.Why isn’t New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin worried about all the dead people being found in Katrina’s aftermath?Because they’ll keep right on voting anyway.Tasteless? Here’s what really tasteless: Cleaning up New Orleans physically without cleaning it up politically. Not draining New Orleans’ political cesspool of organized crime and corruption. Not evacuating Mayor Ray Nagin and every city official and police officer on the take before they get their greasy hands on all those billions of taxpayer dollars to rebuild the place.

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Chapter Seven: QUETZACOATL

Chapter Seven: QUETZACOATLDon Alonso was unlike any of her previous masters. True she had never been abused or raped either by her Xicalanca captors or the rulers of Pontochan. But Don Alonso exhibited a courtesy to her, treated her with a dignity, that the others had not. Was it because he recognized her royal birth, or did he and the other Spaniards treat women differently in general?To her Pontochan masters, she didn’t really exist in a certain way. She had been invisible to them - an invisibility Malinali strove consciously to maintain. She did all she could to hide her beauty, for example. She didn’t walk straight, tall, and proudly - she compressed herself and slunk around the palace doing her chores.She decided to abandon this shrunken invisibility with the Spaniards. She no longer wore her cloak over her head. Her bountiful long black hair was now free to glisten in the sun. She carried herself as her father taught, tall and proud, head high. She was never insolent and obediently did as she was asked without resentment. She could do this because Don Alonso always made requests of her, not dismissive demands. He treated her as an individual person, not an invisible non-entity.Now being so clearly visible, Don Alonso could not help noticing Malinali’s beauty.

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PROCRUSTES IN IRAQ

The founding hero of ancient Athens was Theseus, son of the god Poseidon and a human mother. On his initial heroic quest, he encountered a giant named Procrustes who promised his victims he wouldn’t rob and kill them if they could fit into his bed of iron. If they were too short or long, Procrustes would stretch or amputate them to death. Theseus’ killing Procrustes was a common theme of classical Greek art:The Bed of Procrustes has ever since been the symbol of forced conformity. Such a bed has been built in Iraq - the proposed Iraq Constitution , which Iraqis will vote to pass or reject on October 15. The question is: who are the Mesopotamian Theseus and Procrustes? The great fear is that Islam will force Democracy to fit in the constitutional bed. But it just might turn out the other way around. For that’s the bet its American designers have made.

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MARX AND MOHAMMED

It matters not a whit whether Marx was an atheist, for that only meant he wanted to supplant other religions with his own. Or whether Mohammed believed in a god named Allah, for Allah was only the name of the voice he heard in his head dictating a Recitation (thats what Koran means in Arabic).Allah is just as much a figment of Mohammeds imagination as the New Socialist Man (the different species of humanity that will come into being with the triumph of The Proletarian Revolution) was of Marxs. Both are delusions of tyranny.Marx and Mohammed are ideological brothers. More than that, Marx and Mohammed are metaphysical brothers. They share the same view on the nature of reality. Their fundamental bond is a denial of the Law of Non-Contradiction.

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NO BLAME

One of the many markers distinguishing civilized from primitive and traditional societies is that the former possess the concept of luck, both good and bad, while the latter do not.There is no word for luck in the language of many American Indian tribes such as the Navaho, African tribes such as the Azande, Amazon tribes such as the Yanomamo, or New Guinea tribes such as the Dobu. The concept is absent, literally inconceivable, in their thinking about the way the world works.How could something, anything, happen out of sheer blind chance? Whatever happens to anybody, good or bad, it was caused by spirits placated to be benevolent or goaded to be malevolent. Man is always the toy of demons. That’s a primitive mind at work.Thus the primitive compulsion to find someone to blame for misfortune. Since there really is no such thing as sheer misfortune, tragedies must always be someone’s fault, the someone who incurred the anger of the spirits and brought down their punishment suffered by all.So the primitive mentalities of leftist intellectuals and politicians within hours of the horror of Katrina began a chorus of blame, pointing their spiteful superstitious fingers at President Bush.

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Chapter Six: DOÑA MARINA

“My third set of masters,” Malinali thought to herself. These people, these “Spaniards” were different from any others she had known or even imagined. They seemed to her to almost be not of this earth. Perhaps they were from the stars, she thought.

“Are you afraid of them, Little Miss Dry Grass?” she asked herself, summoning her courage, her sense of humor, and the memory of her father all at once. Yes, a part of her was afraid, of course. Who wouldn’t be? Then she heard her father’s counsel: “What reason do you have to be afraid? Have these strangers shown themselves to be cruel and unmerciful, or kind and forgiving? They are impossibly fierce in battle, yet impossibly generous in victory. Use your intelligence, learn how to gain the respect of these Spaniards. Never forget, Malinali, you are a still a Queen! Never show any fear!”

Her thoughts were interrupted by the words of the stranger who spoke Mayan. He addressed them all assembled on the floor of this great floating home.

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OFFING HUGO

Out of the mouths of babes and crackpots� There's no doubt Pat Robertson has a penchant for saying manically crackpot things like warning the city of Orlando, Florida in 1998 that if it allowed a Gay Pride parade, God would punish the city by sending “earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor.” The press has had a field day this week reciting past wacky Patisms in an attempt to deride his call for the assassination of Venezuela’s Marxist dictator Hugo Chavez. And yes, the point is well made that Christian ministers are not the sort of folks who should advocate such things. But what Pat said is nonetheless true. Of course, we or somebody, anybody, should knock off Chavez. Doing so would be one of the greatest contributions to peace and freedom in the world today.

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THE MAP OF THE MIDDLE EAST’S FUTURE

There’s been a lot of talk recently predicting the break-up of Iraq back into its constituent pieces. The country was glued together by the British after World War I from three vilyets or provinces of the dismantled Ottoman Empire: Kurdish Mosul, Shia Basra, and Sunni Baghdad. Now it’s seems on the verge of becoming unglued. Last week in The Persian Ratchet , we discussed how the break-up of Iraq would shatter Iran. Let’s talk now how an Iraq break-up would rearrange borders across the entire Middle East. Like how it would precipitate the break-up of Saudi Arabia.

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Chapter Five: THE LEADER

The leader of the strangers stood underneath the big ceiba tree he had slashed with his sword. He addressed the sub-chiefs assembled in front of him through the stranger who spoke Maya.“I come to you from the greatest king in the world, His Majesty Don Carlos of Spain. The mighty country of Spain lies on the other side of the Great Ocean, and we have crossed it to trade peacefully with you and to instruct you in the religion of the One True God.“His Majesty Dos Carlos commands us to come in peace, yet you attacked us and tried to kill us for no reason. We do not understand why you attacked us, but you must understand that if you try to attack us again we will kill you. You saw yesterday the power of our lightning-bearers. The lightning-bearers are still angry with you, and it is hard for us to control the death-fire they carry in their bellies…”Without warning, one of the huge metal tubes lined up on the edge of the square went off with an enormous explosion and belch of fire. No one was hurt, but just the same, Malinali fell to the ground terrified like all the sub-chiefs, who proceeded to call out to the strangers’ leader asking his forgiveness for their aggression and disobedience.

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