A TIME FOR CELEBRATING WESTERN CIVILIZATION
The second week of October offers a triad of heroic anniversaries worth celebrating by any admirer of Western Civilization. Yesterday, October 11, was time to celebrate the 1,277th anniversary of the Battle of Tours in 732 AD, when Charles Martel (686-741), forever known as The Hammer, and his 30,000 Christian soldiers crushed an invading horde of 200,000 Moslem Jihadis in what is now central France. Tomorrow, October 13, is for celebrating the 84th birthday of the great Lady Champion of Liberty, the most heroic woman of the 20th century, Margaret Thatcher. The story of how she, with Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II, saved Western Civilization from Soviet Communism is told in Now There Is One (April 2005). Today, October 12, is for celebrating the 517th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America. We commemorate this as a true discovery in contrast to all the claims of Vikings, Chinese, Irish, and others who supposedly came earlier - for once and only after Columbus discovered America, it stayed discovered. Unfortunately, Columbus Day is for most Americans just an excuse for a three-day weekend. What it should be is a commemoration and celebration of Western Civilization - which is why the Left hates Columbus and his holiday.
HOW NOT TO STIMULATE AN ECONOMY
Has the Obama economic stimulus program helped or hurt? Administration officials keep saying the stimulus program has been beneficial, but where is the evidence? There are several ways to see if it is working as advertised. First, what did the proponents say would happen when they were pushing the plan versus what has happened? Second, how has the United States fared compared to other nations that had smaller or no stimulus programs? Third, how have the results to date compared to what pro-stimulus, Keynesian-school economic theorists advocated versus what other theorists (principally Austrian-school) who largely opposed the stimulus plans said?
HALF-FULL REPORT 10/09/09
The conversations at the Cosmos Club this week were very subdued. As it has been for generations, this is where the true power elite of Washington gathers. Whether it was in the East Garden Bar, the Old Club Room, or the Members Dining Room, the savviest veterans of Capitol Hill and K Street - Democrat and Republican - had a tone of fear and seriousness you didn't hear the week before. Something had scared them. Scared them like an earthquake had fractured their political foundations. The one whispered word you could overhear more than any other was "Copenhagen." For them, President and Mrs. Zero flying off to Copenhagen to beg the International Olympics Committee for Chicago and being rejected was not a matter of humiliation. It was scales falling off their eyes, and in an eye-blink realizing the enormity of the mistake America made last November. And at breakfast in the Garden Dining Room this morning (10/09), there were hardly conversations at all, just shocked silence. The consequences of giving a president afflicted with pathological egomania combined with pathological amateurishness the Nobel Peace Prize were so grave they were speechless.
A MAGICAL REFUGE
There is a magical island where everything grows - forests of fir, cedar, and sycamore trees along with forests of giant tropical tree ferns, fields of corn and fields of taro (the starchy staple of Polynesia - Hawaiian poi is made from taro), and every kind of flower in riotous abundance. Orchards produce every kind of fruit from tropical to citrus. Herds of cows produce every dairy product including fabulous cheeses - and great steaks. Due to its unique ocean location, the sea swarms with fish and seafood. It's on a main migration route for sperm whales and a dozen types of dolphins. The sport fishing, such as for blue marlin, is fantastic. So is the trout fishing in the mountain streams. So is the golf, the sailing, the scuba-diving, the surfing, the hiking on mountain trails to hidden waterfalls and hot springs. The coastline is dotted with beaches, picturesque fishing villages, and tiny coves with natural rock swimming pools. The interior is dotted with crater lakes, among which is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. Temperatures are in the mid-60s in the winter and mid-70s in the summer, the sun shines most every day, when it rains it usually pours for 15 minutes then out comes the sun again. There are neither snakes nor mosquitoes. Nor is there any pollution - the air is sparkling clear, the land preserved spotlessly clean by the islanders. The place is so peaceful it's virtually crime-free. The beer the islanders make is good, the wine even better. The islanders are friendly, hospitable, devoutly Christian, and proud members of Western Civilization. A great many speak English, but there are not a great many of them. They number 150,000 spread out over 300 spectacularly scenic square miles. They love liberty so much they've had this motto emblazoned on their coat of arms for centuries: Rather die free than live in peaceful subjugation. You can fly here from the US East Coast in four hours for 300 bucks. If you're looking for a Plan B refuge - or just a momentary escape - from ObamaLand, this magical place could be it.
THE HONOR OF GENERAL MCCHRYSTAL
In 1998, an Army officer with a Silver Star for bravery in the Gulf War and a Ph.D. in American history, H. R. McMaster, wrote a revalatory book, "Dereliction of Duty." The thesis of the book (which was based on his doctoral dissertation) is that members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff knew President Lyndon Johnson and his Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, were pursuing a strategy in Vietnam based on domestic political concerns that was likely to lead to defeat, but none resigned in protest. All preferred keeping their jobs instead of their country's honor and the welfare of their troops. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the man President Obama chose to command in Afghanistan, has made clear what he thinks is needed to turn around our deteriorating fortunes there. But President Obama is reluctant to commit the resources necessary to implement the strategy he signed off on in March. Gen. McChrystal may thus soon face the kind of test of character the Vietnam-era Joint Chiefs failed.
OUR OBAMA-IZED INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES
The current disagreement between our intelligence agencies and those of our allies regarding Iran's nuclear program reveals the debased state of the US $75-billion- a-year intel system. The Germans, French, Israelis and now the Brits agree that Iran has an active nuclear-weapons program, differing only as to how swiftly Tehran can field warheads. The US intel community's holding out. It's worried about political risks. A reassessment's supposedly under way, but we're clinging to our comforting conclusion that Iran gave up on designing nuclear weapons in 2003. Mounting evidence to the contrary hasn't made a dent. Not only is the intel community fearful of another Iraq-style weapons-of-mass-destruction mess, but the White House has made it clear that it doesn't want more bad news. Our intel agencies have been Obama-ized.
WHY I DREW THE MOHAMMED TURBAN-BOMB CARTOON
[As President Zero was being humiliated in Denmark, a courageous cartoonist from Denmark spoke at Princeton University. This is the text of his speech.] On Sept. 30, 2005, the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons, including my own depicting the prophet with a bomb in his turban, that took Islam and Mohammed as their subject. The Danish cartoon affair which ensued turned out to be perhaps the most important free speech case of our time. In the months after the cartoons' publication, protests against them morphed from peaceful objections to irrational violence which included serious threats on my life. The cartoons have become a watershed test for the ability of the press to comment and criticize all religions without fear of violent reprisal. All of us, and not least the students and faculty at an institution such as Princeton, will be on the center front of this debate for years to come. It is important, therefore, that we all understand what is at stake. It is for this reason that I speak to you. I would also hope to explain to you why I acted as I did, and especially why I have refused to apologize for my cartoon despite strong pressure that I do so.
THE METAPHOR OF COPENHAGEN
It was a metaphor for his young presidency. Barack and Michelle Obama travel to Copenhagen in regal splendor to lobby the International Olympic Committee to support Chicago's bid to host the Summer Games in 2016. They are given rock star treatment by our sycophantic news media. And then they get stiffed. When Chicago finished fourth, receiving just 18 of 94 votes, the question on the minds of many people was: How would Democrats contrive to blame the debacle on George W. Bush? The answer was not long in coming. "I thought we had really turned a corner with the election of President Obama," Illinois State Rep. Susana Mendoza told the Chicago Sun Times. "People are so much more welcoming of Americans now. But this isn't the people of those countries. This is the leaders still living with outdated impressions of Americans." Meanwhile, back in in Copenhagen the Danes thought the rejection had more to do with the behavior of Barack and Michelle.
HALF-FULL REPORT 10/02/09
It's pretty obvious that the HFR Hero of the Week is the author of Going Rogue. With her book going to #1 on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble within hours of the mere announcement it would go on sale in seven weeks (11/17), it's also obvious by now that Sarah Palin has become a conservative phenomenon the only comparison to whom is Ronald Reagan. That's not the Olympian icon Reagan has become for his presidential accomplishments - but the former governor and presidential candidate who ended up obliterating an incumbent president 489 to 49 in electoral votes in 1980. Palin is now acknowledged to be "the hottest brand name in politics." She is the comet flashing across the sky, while Zero is a shooting star flaming out while plunging to earth. She is everything he is not, which can be summed up in two words: for real. She's as genuine as he is phony, as honest as he is deceitful, as pro-freedom as he is pro-fascist, as experienced in the real world as he is ignorant, as American as he is un-. The left is in a hysteria of hate towards her because she is their greatest threat. While most of the left can only indulge in childish schoolyard insults, the savviest among liberals - like Willie Brown, who ran the California legislature and city of San Francisco as his private fiefdoms - now realize that Palin is a "political genius."
REPEAL 1913
One of the more fascinating features of To The Point is the Users Forum, where TTPers share their insights and expertise. An excellent example is the recent (9/26) thread initiated by "Spartan" - Van Kottis - in commemoration of his 1,000th (!) TTP post. He asks for suggestions on what TTP can do to help the TeaParty movement focus its opposition to Zeroism. I have two. The first is to offer specific language that explicitly defines what conservatives are for (not simply against) government-wise. I.e., we stand for not simply "limited government" but constitutionally limited government. This means we want to restore constitutional limitations on central government. It means to go on the constitutional offensive against laws Congress has no authority to pass and regulations the federal bureaucracy has no authority to enforce. The second is to form a movement to repeal 1913. Just between you and me (can you keep a secret?), it's actually a movement to repeal progressivism, repeal the entire liberal-left agenda, but we need a specific target to focus upon.