CLASSICAL FASCIST CHINA
Even though they still call themselves communists, and the Communist Party rules the country, classical fascism should be the starting point for our efforts to understand the People's Republic. We are certainly not dealing with a Communist regime, either politically or economically. Chinese leaders are keeping a firm grip on political power while permitting relatively free areas of economic enterprise. Their political methods are quite like those used by the European fascists 80 years ago. The short history of classical fascism suggests that it is only a matter of time before China will pursue confrontation with the West. That is built into the DNA of all such regimes. Sooner or later, Chinese leaders will feel compelled to demonstrate the superiority of their system, and even the most impressive per capita GDP will not do. It follows that the West must prepare for war with China, hoping thereby to deter it. A great Roman once said that if you want peace, prepare for war: Si vis pacem, para bellum. This is sound advice with regard to a fascist Chinese state that wants to play a global role.
BLUE PLANET IN GREEN SHACKLES
[Vaclav Klaus is President of the Czech Republic] It is a great pleasure to announce the English translation of my book Blue Planet in Green Shackles, published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Authors often claim their books speak for themselves. I cautiously agree and will, therefore, speak not about the book itself but about my motivations to write it. My thinking today is substantially influenced by the fact that I spent most of my life under a Communist regime which ignored and brutally violated human freedom, which wanted to command not only people but also nature itself. To "command wind and rain" is one of the famous slogans I remember since my childhood. This experience taught me that freedom and rational dealing with the environment are indivisible. It formed my views on the fragility and vulnerability of free society and gave me a special sensitivity to all kinds of factors which may endanger it. I do not, however, live in the past and do not see the future threats to free society coming from the old and old-fashioned communist ideology. The name of the new danger will undoubtedly be different, but its substance will be very similar.
WHY THE LEFT HATES THE GOOD NEWS IN IRAQ
Whenever retreat-now activists or their favored presidential aspirant are confronted with our progress in Iraq, their stock reply is, "Al Qaeda wasn't in Iraq in 2003." Well, I happen to agree with Sen. Barack Hussein Obama and his supporters on that count: At most, the terrorists had a tenuous connection with Saddam's regime. But it's 2008, not 2003. And our next president will take office in 2009. It's today's reality that matters. And today's reality is that Al Qaeda is nearing final collapse, Iran has failed in its bid to take over Iraq, and the democratically elected government is gaining in popularity. What don't the critics like? Democracy? The defeat of Al Qaeda? Moslems turning to the US military for help? Troop cuts? The dramatically improved human-rights situation? What's the problem here? The answer's simple:
THE AMAZING GAFFE-MAN: STUPID, IGNORANT, OR INSANE?
"We have not exhausted our non-military options in confronting the Iranian threat; in many ways, we have yet to try them," Sen. Barack Hussein Obama says on his Web site. "If Iran abandons its nuclear program and support for terrorism, we will offer incentives like membership in the World Trade Organization." It was Albert Einstein who first defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." "Perhaps Mr. Obama is unaware that one of (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad's first acts was to freeze Tehran's efforts for securing WTO membership because he regards the outfit as 'a nest of conspiracies by Zionists and Americans'," wrote Amir Taheri in the Wall Street Journal Wednesday (5/28). Sen. Obama can escape Einstein's charge of insanity by pleading ignorance. He didn't know about U.S. overtures to Iran, or Mr. Ahmadinejad's rejection of them. But shouldn't a candidate for president know these things? It's gotten so absurd that, after Sen. Obama took opposite sides on successive days last week on whether Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez should be engaged or isolated, ABC's Jake Tapper described him as "a one-man gaffe machine." And that was before The Amazing Gaffe-Man's Memorial Day twofer.
THE GIFT OF OBAMA – TO REPUBLICANS
Rupert Murdoch is one of the world's savviest businessmen - but his prediction today (5/29) that Obambi will defeat McCain next November in a landslide is straightforward idiocy. Someone could make an intelligible argument that he could come out on top in a close contest - but a landslide? That's nuts. For the odds are far, far greater that it will be the other way around. McCain is going to wipe the electoral floor with Obambi. Obambi is going to be torched by white women, Reagan Democrats, Hillary supporters, and most everybody else except blacks, academics, college kids being taught by the academics, and urban-elitist liberals whose brains have been similarly damaged by the academics. He'll carry Oregon, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and maybe New York - maybe. Not a lot more. Not even California. Murdoch would have been on much firmer ground predicting a Dem landslide in the House and Senate - but that wouldn't be news, for that's the universally accepted wisdom. Predictions are ubiquitous that the Pubs are going to lose 10 to 20 House seats and 4 to 6 Senate seats at a minimum. It could be much worse, a lot worse. So much worse that the Dems will gain a filibuster-proof majority of 60+ seats in the Senate, preventing the passage of any decent McCain legislation or the confirmation of any decent McCain judicial appointment. How ironic, then, that the hero who can save the day and rescue the helpless Pubbies from certain disaster is... the Dems' very own champion, Hussein Obambi.
HALF-FULL REPORT 052308
The HFR's goblet is raised this week in sympathy to this young lady and not to her murderer. She is Mary Jo Kopechne. Her death at the hands of a drunk Ted Kennedy served one purpose for which America must be forever grateful: it prevented his ever being elected President of the United States. The HFR goblet contains no mawkish, treacly, fawning oleaginous encomiums to a man who has done more objective damage to his country than any American alive today. Millions more would be alive today if it were not for his truly fanatical crusade in the Senate to allow mothers to murder their unborn babies for any reason whatsoever. Those millions have been replaced by countless hordes of illegal aliens thanks to his immigration bills of 1965 and 1986. No one - no one - has done more to destroy American culture on purpose by being the key advocate of every culturally destructive left-wing lunacy for the last 40 years. On purpose because there is clear evidence he was a traitor, offering to work with Soviet leaders such as Yuri Andropov to thwart Ronald Reagan's efforts to win the Cold War. The HFR does not gloat upon the pain and suffering of any fellow human being. His type of brain cancer is fatal and cannot be cured. It affects the area of the brain that controls speech, writing, and reading. The HFR hopes that his suffering will be minimal and his passing peaceful - but nonetheless raises a full glass of gratitude that he will soon no longer be in the Senate and in a position to do further damage to America.
DOING BUSINESS WITH GERMANS
Forty years ago I found out what it's like to do business with Germans. The lessons learned, I've discovered since, can apply to dealing with businessfolk in general who don't play fair. During my stay as a director in a Belgian steel mill I was in direct competition with the biggest steel mills of Germany. I was the first to export our special steels to Germany, something like selling sand to the Arabs. When I started travelling to Germany I found a closed market from the heavy steel industry down to the smallest distributor. They had one price list and the biggest buyers, the German coal mines, still had to buy rigidly from the local distributor. The mines bought thousands and thousands of tons per week and the local distributor got rich while asleep. It was an ironclad market, completely locked up. When I visited the distributors they laughed me out of town. So I went to the German coal mines and the German ship yards with impossibly low prices. What I expected happened, those consumers called their distributors, who called the big steel mills. Within a couple of weeks I was called out of the blue by a "Herr General Direktor Wolff" who from very high in his steel blue sky ordered me to cease my foolish interference in the German market or else! I told him politely that I was going into the German steel market no matter what...
CROSSING OVER IN NOVEMBER
Imagine the election this fall as a gigantic Democratic primary in which independents and Republicans can cross over. I suspect this is how John McCain is looking at it. Sen. McCain is running for president de facto as an independent. This gives conservatives heartburn, but considering the parlous state of the Republican brand these days, it's probably wise. The more swing voters view Sen. McCain as independent, the more likely they are to choose between him and Sen. Obama on the basis of the major differences between them on issues, or on their characters, or on their experience, all of which work to Sen. McCain's advantage. And by stressing his independence, Sen. McCain undermines one of Sen. Obama's campaign themes. Sen. Obama has presented himself as a reformer who would reach across party lines. But he's never actually done it. Sen. McCain has. In a "where's the beef?" contest, Sen. Obama is tofu.
UPDATING YOUR SECURITY
If you run Windows OS software on your computer I kindly ask you to read the article linked below for your personal protection. My "Wizard" predecessor Dennis Turner and I have mentioned some of the items listed below, however this is a pretty complete documentation on how to be safe in a dangerous world. How to Secure Your Windows Computer and Protect Your Privacy Last week, Microsoft released Service Pack 1 (SP1) for its Macintosh 2008 Office suite. It has a variety of fixes and changes that have promised to improve performance and security to the suite of apps that closely parallels the Office Suite for Windows users. You can read about it here ... Description of Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 (12.1.0) And download it here... Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 (12.1.0) If you work in an organization, you may be surprised to find out that the most important factor in attaining organizational security is you. Do you know what your local IT policies or where your IT policies can be found? You can find out, and learn how to be part of the solution rather than any problem by reading: Attaining Organizational Security.
OUR HATEAMERICA MEDIA HATES OUR WINNING IN IRAQ
Do we still have troops in Iraq? Is there still a conflict over there? If you rely on the so-called mainstream media, you may have difficulty answering those questions these days. As Iraqi and Coalition forces pile up one success after another, Iraq has magically vanished from the headlines. Want a real "inconvenient truth?" Progress in Iraq is powerful and accelerating. But that fact isn't helpful to elite media commissars and cadres determined to decide the presidential race over our heads. How dare our troops win? Even worse, Iraqi troops are winning. Daily. You won't see that above the fold in The New York Times. And forget the Obama-intoxicated news networks - they've adopted his story line that the clock stopped back in 2003.