Al Gore, champion of global warming

I'll let this link speak for itself.
http://www.wwtdd.com/post.phtml?pk=1958
(beware strong language for those of you offended by that)

Prayers

I don't know who all still reads this that was reading it while I was still in Iraq, but I got to thinking about some events from over there today and realized I don't think I've ever offered my deepest gratitude to everybody that prayed for me and my fellow Marines while I was over there. I wouldn't call myself any kind of outspoken religious type, but I can tell you that the collective prayers for me were answered, and worked to the great fortune of myself and the Marines around me. We were too lucky too many times for it to be luck. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all for your prayers.

Observations on a song

I don't like country. Just to clear that up. I've never been into country music.

I don't care if you think you're some kind of Marxist. I don't care if you're both a hardcore cynic and a flower-wearing peacenik. I don't care if you hate country music, can't stand to listen to it. If you're an American and Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" doesn't stir you up at least a little, you must have been in a coma for the entire month of September in 2001.

I remember when it came out I heard some noise specifically about the line "We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way", along the lines of the 'American way' shouldn't include aggression, something like that. People thought it misrepresented some kind of progressive ideals they believe the United States ought to have in which we should be against war, that we shouldn't want to fight. First of all, if you watched the towers fall like I did and somehow managed to not take it personally, then you're Mr. Roboto. Your blood is boiling, your brain IBM. Now, even assuming you're the kind of inhuman so guided by serenity that you didn't get the fight reflex that pretty much every human got that day, I still don't think you could deny that the most logical answer to an attack like that is to seek and destroy every son of a bitch on the planet with mass murder of that scale in their hearts. Personally, I don't see how anybody with a brain or a heart, one or the other, could not agree that the destruction of those who seek to assert their will over others by force and oppression results in a significant net gain for the whole world. September 11th gave us the motivation to get that done now, though we should have been doing it all along.

So anyways, I guess the point I'm trying to make is if you don't believe in the necessity of war in general, you're delusional and haven't ever watched the news. If you believe that those words in their context had anything to do with aggression instead of long-overdue policing of the trash of the world, then you definitely slept late that Tuesday morning and didn't wake up for at least a few weeks.

Some insight from Robert Heinlein

I found this quote from Robert Heinlein's "Take Back Your Government: A practical handbook for the private citizen who wants democracy to work" at QuotableHeinlein.com. It's incomplete in explanation but offers some conclusions that I like and agree with, so I thought I might offer it for your consideration.

From politics I have come to believe the following:
(1) Most people are basically honest, kind and decent.
(2) The American people are wise enough to run their own affairs. The do not need Fuehrers, Strong Men, Technocrats, Commissars, Silver Shirts, Theocrats, or any other sort of dictator.
(3) Americans have a compatible community of ambitions. Most of them don't want to be rich but do want enough economic security to permit them to raise families in decent comfort without fear of the future. They want the least government necessary to this purpose and don't greatly mind what the other fellow does as long as it does not interfere with them living their own lives. As a people we are neither money mad nor prying. We are easy-going and anarchistic. We may want to keep up with the Joneses -- but not with the Vanderbilts. We don't like cops.
(4) Democracy is not an automatic condition resulting from laws and constitutions. It is a living, dynamic process which must be worked at by you yourself -- or it ceases to be democracy, even if the shell and form remains.
(5) One way or another, any government which remains in power is a representative government. If your city government is a crooked machine, then it is because you and your neighbors prefer it that way -- prefer it to the effort of running your own affairs. Hitler's government was a popular government; the vast majority of Germans preferred the rule of gangsters to the effort of thinking and doing for themselves. They abdicated their franchise.
(6) Democracy is the most efficient form of government ever invented by the human race. On the record, it has worked better in peace and in war than fascism, communism, or any other form of dictatorship. As for the mythical yardstick of 'benevolent' monarchy or dictatorship -- there ain't no such animal!
(7) A single citizen, with no political connections and no money, can be extremely effective in politics.