More Evidence That Liberal Ideas (Almost) Never Work

On June 22 of this year I posted an argument concerning our government’s “solutions” to any number of issues. It was with a smug horror that I find that my words were almost prescient.

I argued that America is a wealthy nation. We, as barely four percent of the World’s population produce fully twenty-five percent of the World’s wealth. And I stated that it is this wealth that causes liberals to make us believe that we are greedy or just too self-centered and they must come up with solutions to cure this sinful selfishness.

And so we are now in the midst of the worst financial breakdown in America and on Earth since at least the fiasco of the Carter Administration and quite possibly the Depression of the 1930’s. In the 1930’s, in the throes of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt came up with the “Alphabet Agencies” which expanded the US government exponentially and militarily socialized society. It is felt by many historians and economists that this effort actually lengthened the downturn by as much as 100 per cent. One of the programs introduced during FDR’s tenure in 1938 was the Federal National Mortgage Association, or “Fannie Mae.” When Richard Nixon took over from Johnson’s Great Society, his populist conversion led to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, or Freddie Mac in 1970.

I previously said that I understand that all these programs are based on the best of intentions, and that I also know to that the Road to Hell is paved with those same intentions. And so it is with Fannie and Freddie. Our benevolent government decided, with some real evidence, that homeowners are more stable, less likely to commit crime, and are therefore more responsible and better citizens. So, the US Government jumped into the mortgage business in order to boost the ability of the average American to own a home, and then be more stable, become responsible, and raise a family. This would all, then, contribute to a stronger, more stable nation. It seems all so logical.

So, during the Clinton administration, Fannie, Freddie, and the private banks and institutions that are dependent on them, were ordered to ease their lending requirements and give loans to nearly anyone who wanted to buy a home. Great idea! Except, there were no real rules to ensure that EVERYONE was going to make the proper decision. In fact, the financial institutions were threatened by the Clinton Justice Department with criminal charges if they refused to go along!

Nevertheless, it soon dawned on managers of banks and other lenders that huge money could be made by lending to people who were traditionally high risk, AND THAT THE LOANS WOULD BE GUARANTEED BY THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER! No muss, no fuss, and it was ALL LEGAL! Why? Because Congress, whose job it is to control and manage these agencies were more interested in catering to their constituencies than in the dangers of a potential global financial meltdown. Warned of the potential problems repeatedly over the past decade, Congressional committee chairs Christopher Todd and Barney Franks refused to increase oversight or tighten regulations.

How were they warned? Shoot, even the liberal New York Times in an article published in 1999 stated as much.

But, the government decided some social engineering was a good thing, and that we could MAKE people responsible if they owned their own home. This same entity also thought that welfare was a great idea. That is why today a black child is less likely to be raised in a two-parent household than he was during Slavery.
The point of all this? Simply that the government is incapable of properly and effectively performing those things that the free market does so well. When the government puts its hand in where it should never have ever been, it brings catastrophic returns to our nation. In this case, it also brought it to the World.

Don’t be fooled. Capitalism didn’t cause this catastrophe. It was the intrusion of government into the mortgage market that was the prime reason for this melt-down. Capitalism, as it is wont to do, took advantage of government foolishness and a small group of people got rich. And you and I are left holding the bag. Christopher Todd, Barney Franks, John McCain, Barack Obama, and as far back as Lyndon Johnson and even Franklin Roosevelt, and a host of others are the real culprits in this. These are the people that WE elected to run our government.

And, so, we too are to blame.

FEAR & LOATHING IN JUSTICE

In 1985 I and a friend were in an underground mall in Pusan, South Korea. It was a fascinating moment for me, as I hadn’t been in a foreign country since leaving (then) West Germany in 1963 as a three-year-old Army brat. As we walked down the corridor, darting in and out of the shops to sample the wares, our attention was diverted to a disruption ahead of us.

The packed Korean humanity parted like Cecil B. De Mille’s Red Sea as people quickly moved against the walls and glass fronts of the shops, or quickly ducked inside suddenly filled stores, as three Korean National Police Officers, walking abreast, strode down the middle of the corridor. Some people pulled others out of the way, ensuring that those unaware did not impede the progress of the KNP officers.

Why such a spectacle? The people feared and respected these approaching officers. Truly.

Could you imagine anything of the sort today in America? I can’t. American police are almost universally portrayed in police dramas as something short of incompetent, frustrated Neanderthals barely able to think without the canny prosecutor, DA, or CSI expert there to guide them through.

Additionally, constant efforts by the media and the courts to emasculate American police forces ensures that on almost every occasion, a cop has to completely outsmart, outrun, or out-drive a suspect. Why is this? I get so frustrated when I watch police videos that show an officer having to holster his weapon and take chase of a suspect. Incredible! Why is this person running?

Seriously, if the suspect is innocent, why would he run? Invariably, the suspect/runner will say "I was scared," or something in that vein. But of what?
The cop has a weapon, but he can't use it. He knows it, the runner knows it, and everyone in society knows it.

But, the police officer should be able to use it. Period.

I can already hear the cries of indignation! Police brutality! Sanctioned murder! Give me a break. It occurred to me some time back that if a police officer in pursuit of a murder/rape/assault suspect would just pull his service weapon and shoot that suspect, I’d bet that a whole lot of others who normally take flight would stop, put up their hands, and peacefully lie down on the ground the next time. Hey, suspects run because they think they might be able to outrun the police. They're only fear is that they WON'T be able to outrun that cop.

And if they can outrun the police, that means that they get more opportunities for murder, rape, and assault. I can assure that a South Korean citizen would stop, put up their hands and peacefully get on the ground. If not, the NKP would shoot. And Koreans KNOW this, beyond a doubt.

I’ve seen dashboard cameras of cops getting run off the road by people who will do anything to get away. These people will run over others, ram other cars, hurt other people, and if that cop making the arrest hits the driver or strikes him, the COP will be investigated for assault!

Really, does it make any sense to arm a cop if he can’t use the weapon? We need to get serious about STOPPING bad people immediately, instead of giving them more opportunity to do bad things. And as for hitting someone because he’s an idiot and a criminal, they really probably deserve it.

Really.

A White Cloud AND A Silver Lining?

I sit here two days after the second most historic Presidential election in United States’ history – the first being George Washington’s, of course – and wonder what other silver linings could there be.

I watched as throngs of Americans – black, white, yellow, brown, and all colors in between – celebrate a truly historic occasion. I listened to a story on National Public Radio of a 109-year-old daughter of a slave who saw a son of a black man win the highest office in the land. And I saw a nation change right before my eyes. It was an amazing thing to witness.

I also watched as infamous race-baiter (and fellow South Carolinian) Jesse Jackson crying his eyes out in Chicago. And I was struck by the question that popped into my mind: “Was Jesse crying tears of joy? Or was he crying because he saw his meal ticket flying away in the Chicago wind?”

“Huh? What could you possibly mean, Rupe?” you are surely saying. Jesse watched as Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., bled out in Memphis after being shot down by an assassin’s bullet. Jesse fought hard for that very moment when Senator John McCain conceded defeat in Arizona and Barack Obama became the President-Elect of this multi-racial nation. Jesse even ran for president on a few occasions, being soundly thumped when his rhetoric fell upon too many deaf ears even in the Democratic Party. So, what could I possibly be writing about?

Simply this: Jackson’s and Reverend Al Sharpton’s raison d’etre’ can no longer stand up to any public scrutiny. America can no longer be called a racist nation.

With a majority of whites, Hispanics, and nearly every black person in the United States voting to vault Obama to the presidency, any notion that race is still a factor in America goes right out the window.

Liberal “African America” can no longer stand on the platform that every social ill suffered by it is caused by racism. The Bradley Effect is dead. America has just proved what many in America have said for years – racism as an institution is dead.

So, for conservatives, there just may be a silver lining after all.

THE MORAL HIGH GROUND?

Our nation is a nation based on laws that regulate our daily lives. Generally, they are based on the intent and writings of our founding fathers, which were based on English Common Law, Biblical Law, and the notion that each person has certain rights that were granted by God, not man. That these principles have survived for over 200 years proves the fairness and insightfulness of the system. And yet, there are people who live in America who feel the need to break these laws and principles.

Today the United States in the freest nation on Earth, and generally has been for the past two-plus centuries. And despite this, there are those who feel the need or desire to break the few rules that the nation has placed upon us. One of the most basic of rules of the nation and of civilization in general is that against murder. And even then, we codify and grade murder in America – Premeditated Murder, Manslaughter, Third Degree Murder, Malicious Homicide, Negligent Homicide, ad infinitum, it would seem. Of all of those, First Degree or Premeditated Murder is almost universally set aside for those who are the most vile and dangerous. It is for those who plan for and then commit murder.

Now, any way you look at it, anyone who can plan and then actually murder another is truly a horrible being. Many of us plan arguments and things we want to say to others and can’t pull it off. So, to actually visualize, plan and execute a murder takes a deeply mean, vicious, vile and violent person. There is just no two ways about it.

With all the freedoms we have in America, what would be the necessity of murder? What is it that would cause someone in a personal world of rage and frustration to do such a thing? And once they have done such a thing, why would we as a people then provide an unbiased jury, find that person guilty, place that person into an institution, feed them, give them medical care, clothe them, give them a place to sleep, and provide them with most of the amenities of life, all until they die? Have they not proven their inability to live in a free and just society?

And how about all those who live within the rules every day? They work, pay taxes, provide for their families, and give back to the society, and never once hurt anyone on purpose. Those people have to give their money to a system that is required to sustain the lives of people who cannot live within the rules. There are many cold-blooded killers who today, or have in the past, lived the vast majority of their natural lives in prison supported by good, decent, honorable people. These killers provide nothing for the community or society, yet we are required to provide them with all the amenities of a reasonably comfortable life.

Susan Smith murdered her own children in cold blood in order to try and win the heart of a man. Wayne Williams, the Atlanta child murderer is another. Richard Speck raped, tortured and killed eight nursing students in Chicago all for his own, sick pleasure. George Emil Banks, who murdered thirteen, including six children ranging in age from one to eleven (ironically, he has attempted suicide on at least four occasions). Brian Uyesugi killed seven of his co-workers in Hawaii. Jerry Brudos murdered four women on separate occasions for sexual satisfaction, and died in prison of natural causes after 37 years of incarceration. Randy Steven Kraft who is suspected of killing and castrating 67 homosexual men, though 22 of his victims have yet to be found. He’s been in prison 25 years. In all these cases, these people not only killed fellow people, but PLANNED the killings. And then we Americans paid or are paying to keep these people comfortable and alive in prison, until death by natural causes. It’s all paid for by you and me.

While in prison, they can obtain everything from GEDs to Masters Degrees, all on the taxpayer’s tab. They can choose to work in the prison industry system, or do nothing at all, all on the taxpayer’s dole. They’re fed, clothed and housed in some comfort, again with taxpayer financing. They can even legally worship the devil, and taxpayers have to provide them the opportunity.

Then, if they are somehow non-repentant inside this system, we build super-prisons for them, at HUGE expense to us, regimenting their miserable lives to the nth degree in order to ensure that they can murder no more. The cost of this is in the millions annually.

And somehow, this proves that we are a moral people? How is that a moral thing to place upon a citizenry? Why should good, moral, hard-working people be required to provide everything a person would need for as many as 80 or 90 years to anyone who have proven that they are not capable of living within those rules – AND feels the need to take away the life (or lives) of those who can live within the rules? I truly don’t understand this morality. What is moral about requiring a moral society to supply and support grossly immoral people?

I believe that it is not.

And that is why just societies perform and enforce the penalty of death. It is imposed on those who have proven themselves to be incapable of living in just, free and tolerant societies. Just, fair, and righteous people should not be forced to support those who are not, those who are societal leaches, those who refuse to live by the rules we all live by, those who are so coarse and callous as to plan, plot, and execute the murder of others.

Life in prison for this type of person is just only for that type of person. The rest of us continue to pay until after that person has died.

But wait! There is more! How about after their death? Yes, we citizens continue to pay.

The taxpayer also buries the murderer.

Where’s the justice in any of that?

A Prediction of Evil

When it comes to the Democratic Party of the USA, I am a virulent cynic. Their past three presidential candidates (Bill Clinton, John Kerry and Barack Obama) would never be able to pass a standard US Government security investigation in order to hold a government job. And this is also true of many of their Federal office-holders in both houses of Congress.

Now they have nominated Barack Obama, who his so far to the left that his views line up as more socialist than the one Socialist member of Congress! I’m not kidding – this has been documented but totally ignored by the media. Frighteningly, they have been making huge attempts to convince us that this man is a moderate, middle-of-the-road politician! And the US media is lining right up behind this claptrap. It is truly amazing.

Ironically, he defeated a candidate whose sole claim to fame is the blatant attempt to nationalize and socialize one-seventh of the American economy. Hillary Clinton’s aborted attempt to take over American medical practice is still her dream. Unfortunately, the cabal of she and her husband still hold great sway over the Democratic Party, despite the overwhelming evidence of their self-centered and evil ways.

So, it was with much trepidation that I read that the Democrat’s Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden will drop out and that he will be replaced by Hillary Clinton. Of course, this would be a violent knee-jerk reaction to the nomination of Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin. This is a frightening prospect, though, considering the fate of many of the Clinton’s political foes, and even friends.

With this in mind:

- If Joe Biden drops out;
- If Hillary Clinton replaces Joe Biden;
- If Obama-Clinton win the November election;
- And if they are sworn in:

I believe that Barack Obama will be dead before the end of his first (and only) term and that Hillary Clinton will become president in accordance with Constitutional succession.

Mark these words.

The Queen has Called us Back!

I have a fine friend in the north of England who has a wonderful, Christian sense of humor. I’ve played Rugby with him and he is a good man with a fine, traditional family. He sent me the following, soliciting my comments. Below are the message and my reply interspersed. I enjoyed this so much that I decided to share. Enjoy:

Message to the Citizens of the United States of America:

In light of your acute failure in recent years to nominate even slightly competent candidates for President of the USA, and thus having the ability to govern yourselves, current Presidential candidates included, we hereby give notice of the Revocation of Independence, effective immediately.

That would be perfectly fine, IF you think you can do any better than you have in the American Colonies, Africa, India-Pakistan-Afghanistan-et al, Ireland, The Falklands, and of course, Scotland.

Her Sovereign Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, districts and territories (except California, which Her Majesty does not fancy).

Honestly, nor do we. Do what you will with San Francisco and L.A. We’ll keep San Diego, if you please.

Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor General of America without the need for further elections.

Just like it was when we WERE still colonies, right?

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded and replaced with the Chamber of Commons, which is much more appropriate considering the IQ of the majority of contestants on the Jerry Springer show.

Will he or The Queen also ban the Jerry Springer Show? Please? Pretty please? Pretty, pretty please, with sugar on top?

A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. Look up "questionnaire" in the Oxford English Dictionary.

You mean those dusty brown books that you find back in the corner of the reference shelves in libraries?

To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
1. American Heritage dictionary is banned. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary.

See previous statement above.

1a. Then look up "aluminium", and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrong you have been pronouncing it.

But, it is PROPERLY spelled with but one (1) 'i'. Use what we call “phonics.”

2. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour', 'favour', 'honour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be eliminated.

OK, but for what good reason. We threw out those letters because they had no use. Kind of like what we did with the Crown (See 'War for Independence - 1775-1783'). Oh, and might as well get rid of '-ate' while you're at it. Oh, and we only throw out slightly more than a third of ‘donut’s’ letters. Can we keep our math? You liked it enough to go to decimals for your money years ago.

2a. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to Junior High School levels (look up 'vocabulary'). You will be required within 3 months to sit a written English exam, personally, by yourself, on your own, with no help. If you fail you will be deported to Mexico. A fleet of buses stretching 320Km has been assembled in San Diego.

Sorry about that, but all our English pretty much evolved from the Scots and Irish you didn't like and threw our way, and perhaps half of Yorkshire. Throw in all the Africans you shipped here in order to prop up the English and Colonial economies and you see the language problem you left us. And that would be 199 miles, correct? I thought you still used the imperial method, not having bowed down the 'perfect' French system of measure. Dang those French.

3. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" and "not" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as US English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of -ize.

Sounds bloody good, and no bloody shite, eh mate? Bloody good!

4. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday. This will be replaced by RI day, today!

While you're at it, do you think we could eliminate all those ridiculous abbreviations and spell out everything, like "Revocation of Independence?"

5. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

Whatever. It still beats having a socialist/fascist government make all my decisions. Although, if we made all our lawyers wear powdered wigs, we probably wouldn't have that many, either. As for therapists, I’ve been unable to trust them since I realized that it’s spelled the same as ‘the rapists.”

6. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a plastic vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

Then that means I'll have to endure a huge rise in violent crime, just as had occurred in GB? I'll just have to be a criminal. May God bless our Constitution and its attendant 2nd Amendment. An armed populace is Citizens. An unarmed populace is subjects. Oops, sorry. That is the point, right? What with the monarchy and all?

7. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

Outside of Monty Python and Benny Hill, I didn't realize the English had any humor (American spelling!)

8. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) roughly $6/US gallon. Get used to it. You will also adopt UK taxes. Get used to that too. And you will be taxed heavily if you live more than 10kms from your place of employment. So there! Don't expect any sympathy for being the all-time greatest wasters!

We're almost there on petrol, hah! As with taxes, that means we'll ALL be poor and if we want to be able to buy our own homes we'll have to take five years of our lives, move to some armpit of a country in order to be able to move back and buy it. Damn. As for all-time great wasters, I find it interesting that we Americans, with four (4) percent of the World's population, use 24% of the Earth's energy in order to produce 26% of the world's wealth. That over an 800% return on human capital, and over 8% return on financial capital. So there!

9. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed, not with catsup, but with salt & vinegar.

Now this I can live with. I've never been a big fan of catsup/ketchup. FYI, look up the Mt. Horeb Mustard Museum online.

10. The cold tasteless piss you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, only Guinness will be referred to as draught, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine and Weasel's Pee. This decree so that all beers can be sold without risk of further confusion.

OK, but realize that Budweiser is STILL the WORLD's best selling beer, with about 40% of the market. That's a 1000% return on human capital. So there, again!

11. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

Hollywood? I've seen English flicks do a fair job of mutilating the Scottish inflection, and do a fair job of mutilating logic, but I digress.

12. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play Rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full Kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies). However, we suggest you don't try Rugby until well educated - the Kiwis and South Africans will thrash you, like they regularly thrash us.

As for football, personally I've never considered soccer football to be a proper anything. Why have arms if you can't use them? We know where I stand on the greatest sport ever to be produced by mankind - Rugby. 'Nuff said! By the way, the US is still the reigning Olympic Rugby champions, and we destroyed the in 1928 French (in Paris, mind you) to do that.

13. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It will be replaced with 'rounders'. (look up 'rounders'). It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn Cricket. You will also study Geography. Your 2nd written test will be to list all of the Capital Cities of each country, personally. If you fail you will be deported to Mexico. Another fleet of buses stretching 1320Km has been assembled in San Antonio.

When 'rounders' can become an Olympic sport, then surely we could consider it, kinda like team handball, y'know. Cricket? That might be acceptable, but only if beer is involved. I can't argue the geography thing. But then we have never tried to rule the whole of the world for God and King through force of arms, and so never needed to know where Queen Maud Land is or was, or if it ever actually existed. But if you must, I would suggest additional busses on the end of that 820 mile long queue.

14. You must tell us who killed JFK.....and who blew up the WT Towers.....and what happened to all the gold in the basement of Building 7?

There you go with the initials and abbreviations again. OK, but we’ll trade the World Trade Towers if you tell us who killed Diana. As for the WT Towers: probably some guys whose history had some British influence. Also: Gold? What gold? There was no gold. I swear it!

15. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

Kinda like those pagans in ancient Rome, eh? Render unto Caesar, oops, I mean the Crown.

16. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 pm with proper cups and saucers, and never mugs, with high quality chocolate biscuits (cookies), scones (biscuits) and cream cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

OK, being as that we an overweight nation and all, we can probably live with this. BUT, you will have to shut down all the McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants currently operating in GB and its dependencies, if there are any others left outside of random denuded, overly militarized islands in the middle of some unknown sea.

God save the Queen

And may God bless America. I would never assume the God has blessed America or the Queen. It's a Protestant, American, God-fearin' thing.

Evidence We Won Iraq

Four months into my tour at Qayyarrah-West, Iraq, about January 2005, I wrote this. It seemed appropriate at the time and it still does. It started one night during our tour when my colleagues and I were discussing a variety of things before one of our seemingly never-ceasing meetings. We were discussing home, the war and our jobs, both in the military and in civilian life. We also were “smokin’ and jokin’,” just laughing, and enjoying good company. It’s really amazing what a soldier can find that will amuse him or her in a war zone. Some of the most mundane things will bring howls of laughter in the proper, and sometimes improper, context.

Of course we discussed this war, “Our War” if you will, and how long America will be in Iraq. Opinions range from two years to “till forever.” Of course, we can’t and won’t know when we will leave until it actually occurs. We won the Gulf War and we’re still in Kuwait, though we have left Saudi Arabia.

We’ve also won three wars in Europe over the past ninety years (World Wars I and II, and the Cold War) and we’re still there. It’s the same in Japan and Korea, of course. Promises or assurances when it comes to war and politics are normally useless. Most of us understand this. America was assured by President Clinton that we would be out of Bosnia-Herzegovina within a year. That was in the middle of the last decade and we just pulled the last of our peacekeeping “Implementation” and “Stabilization” forces out of that nation about ten years later. There isn’t a soldier alive then that didn’t know that those words were a pure, unadulterated lie. And we have troops just a few miles south of there in Kosovo still today.

Well, all this got me to thinking. Occasionally soldiers do that, you know. I decided that as a public service it might be good to let you know how to tell when “Our War” is over.
So, in keeping with the craze pioneered by late-night television host David Letterman, I present to you a list of “The Top Ten Ways to Know the Iraq War Has Been Won” in descending order from 10:

10. Your neighbor’s son (or daughter) returns home from Iraq with an Iraqi bride (or husband);

9. The Iraqi Liberal Democratic Party accuses the Iraqi Conservative Party of wanting to make the old people of Iraq eat pork and send their retirement funds to New World corporations because of proposed changes to Iraqi pension laws;

8. The political spending of the Iraqi presidential elections, run by American experts hired from inside The Beltway by Iraqi political parties, is being compared to the spending in California gubernatorial elections;

7. Iraqis protest the impending departure of American troops and bases from their towns, and form committees to go to Washington to lobby the latest Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission, Congress, the Pentagon and the President;

6. Your new state-of-the-art laser satellite receiver/gaming box/movie cube/television combo was manufactured in Fallujah, Iraq, deep in the heart of the Sunni Triangle;

5. Iraq’s leading retailer is Wal-Mart;

4. Iraq’s biggest new hip-hop group, Hezbollah’s Hellions, hit number one on the Billboard pop chart in the US;

3. American labor unions lobby Congress for protection from cheap Iraqi imports;

2. Hooters announces the opening of their new Baghdad restaurant;

And the number 1 way that Americans will know when we’ve won the Iraq War:

1. Teams of Iraqi lawyers arrive at the 9th Circuit Federal District Court in San Francisco and at The World Court in The Hague, Netherlands ready to file suit against the United States Department of Defense for damages incurred during Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and The Iraq War.

Again, America will have freed the oppressed.

Why I'm A Rugger

I’m a rugger. I’ve been one for thirty years now. For those of you unaware, a rugger is a rugby player. I’ve been hooked since my first match in 1978 at Mississippi State University and have never looked back. I have learned much more in Rugby about sportsmanship and honor than I ever learned in baseball, track, football (all of which I played in high school and in recreation) and all other sports I’ve played. Rugby taught me respect for my opposition, and what goes on the pitch (or playing field) stays there.

I continue to learn. Two recent incidents have taught me just how great this sport truly is.

In April, the managing organization of the high school club that I founded and coached, Lugoff-Elgin Rugby Football Club (RFC), released me as their head coach. When I moved to get the parents to form the managing group, it was my intent to ensure that the player’s parents had full control of the club of which their kids were members. While I was upset at my release, I continued to follow the club through its final two matches because it was ‘my’ club and because my son, Ian, played.

Before ‘my’ club’s final match of the year, I volunteered as a match official for another match as a touch judge, and ran touch for that playoff match. The match was well played, but the losing side, a very new club who had yet to understand all that was involved in the sport, came off the field very upset. I made an effort to calm the situation and the team captain mocked me and made somewhat vulgar motions toward me. To my eternal shame and horror, I struck him on his neck with my touch flags.

To this day I don’t know what or why it occurred. I just know that it did. I will regret it till I die. The Palmetto Rugby Union promptly suspended me for a minimum of eight months from any and all activity with Rugby, outside of being a spectator, and placed on me a lifetime suspension from youth Rugby. I applaud their decision. It was clearly the right one and I fully support the decision that was fully vetted by PRU president Bill Bell, South Carolina High School Rugby commissioner Jeff Smolka, and PRU/SCHSR disciplinary chair John Myers. It was undoubtedly the right decision.

I know fully that if I had been a coach for football, soccer, lacrosse, baseball, or any other sport out there, I would likely have received a minor rebuke and perhaps a suspension of two or three games. This would have been likely much less had I been involved with a winning team of any of those sports, such is the state of sports in America today. Nevertheless, I know that USA Rugby is where I still want my sporting dollar to go, because despite my regret and anger at what occurred, the correct decision was rendered.

Then, less than two weeks ago, one of my young ruggers – one of my first in fact – died in a very tragic accident. The team had thrown a surprise party at a lake to send off one of their teammates who was entering the US Navy. There was adult supervision and, like the fine men and women they were, they had no alcohol or anything else that they weren’t supposed to have. The young victim, Tyler Austin Narr, rode there with Ian to the celebration and was quite excited as he had been unable to play any sports due to a severe knee injury, and some attendant complications.

During the party many of the ruggers went swimming, as did Tyler. He suddenly went under in full view of many people and never resurfaced. Ruggers and many others nearby attempted to find him, but couldn’t. It was a diver who recovered him some time later that day. It was a traumatic and tragic day for all involved, obviously.

He was a wonderful young man, who had just returned to high school for his junior year. He played football, wrestled, lifted weights competitively, and played Rugby, all while maintaining a ‘B’ average. And he was the spitting image of Scooby-Doo’s Shaggy.

He so loved Rugby that his mom asked the team to act as pall bearers. The funeral was packed. The team wore slacks and their club jerseys. Some of the football team acted as honorary pall bearers. And, showing all what Rugby is truly about, opposing players from another club, Sumter RFC, also showed up wearing their jerseys, all to honor a fellow rugger. It was a wonderful and touching tribute, and a credit to their coach John Etheridge.

This, all this, along with many other things, is why Rugby is my sport. It will always be. And while I clearly have regrets, two of which are very recent, I will never regret that I was, am, and will always be a rugger.

Michelle's Love & Pride

Back in April of this year Michelle Obama told a highly partisan crown that, "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country..." That comment brought a huge ovation from the crowd and an even larger cry from Republicans, conservatives and patriots denouncing her comment.

The Barack Obama presidential campaign went into high gear claiming the mantra of “out of context,” “misunderstood,” and the usual panoply of whitewash, excuses and spin. I’ve read this statement over and over. It was NOT taken out of context. She said it, she meant it, and her audience loved it.

Fast forward to the 2008 Democratic National Convention a mere four months later. Again Michelle Obama is speaking to a highly partisan crown and states "I love this country." I’ve read this statement over and over, too. It was NOT taken out of context either. She said it, she meant it, and her audience loved it.

And I’m sure that BOTH statements are true.

We all love where we’re from. No doubt about. Our homes emote a certain passion from us no matter where we are from. Germans who were born and raised in Nazi Germany, even victims of the government then in power, love their country. It’s only natural. They are certainly not PROUD of Nazi Germany, though. Make no mistake.

And I’m positive that Michelle Obama loves America. It’s her home. America, Illinois, Chicago’s South Side. She loves them all, as I’m pretty sure she loves Princeton and Harvard. But, I’m also sure that out of all those, she isn’t proud of America until April. There is a difference between love and pride.

It’s just a shame to me that a woman, ANY woman, from a working-class family can excel, graduate high school, and graduate from two of America’s elite universities, and not be proud of the nation that allowed her to do that. There are many nations where a Christian, a minority, or a woman would never be allowed the chance to even go to school, no less practice as a lawyer.

I’ve not accomplished any of those things. I’m white and male. And I’m still proud of this nation.

I wonder if she’d be proud to be First Lady?

Jerusalem and Georgia

Obadiah is the shortest of the books of the Old Testament of the Bible , a mere twenty-one verses long. Most religious scholars believe it was written by one of seven “post-exile prophets,” the book is self-titled, and has much in common with the Old Testament books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Amos in their criticism and condemnation of the ancient Middle-Eastern nation of Edom. It clearly must also be associated with other prophecies of Hebrew/Israelite/Jewish restoration within the community of nations on Earth, such as those noted in Joel 3:17-21, Amos 9:11-15, and Micah 7:8-20.

Little known outside the halls of biblical scholarship, the book of Obadiah may well be one of the most profound in dealing with the rights and justice of nations toward one another in the eyes of the single God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Almost nothing is known of the prophet Obadiah. His name is translated as “servant of the Lord” and is one of at least a dozen others by the same name referred to in the bible and there is no autobiographical information within the scriptures or in any other known source about the prophet. There, too, is some question as to exactly when the Book of Obadiah was written. It is felt that there are two potential eras in which it could have been recorded – after the Arab-Philistine attack on what is now the Holy Land, c.844 B.C., or more likely two-and-a-half centuries later in the years after the sacking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian Empire in 586 B.C.

Edom, a nation to the south and east of the Hebrew monarchy of Judah, aided and abetted Babylon in the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem. This might be considered a continuation of Edomite-Judean antagonism whose origins stretched back at least as far as the Exodus of the Hebrew nation from Egypt 839 to 651 years previously. During this initial encounter between the nations, Edom refused to grant the Hebrews passage toward their destination of Canaan. And while there was a period of peaceful co-existence in the intervening years, by the time of Jerusalem’s destruction relations were poor. Soldiers of Edom helped to sack the city, carrying off innumerable riches and wealth alongside their Babylonian allies. All this antagonism, ironically, occurred despite the common lineage of the nations to the biblical patriarch Isaac’s sons Esau and Jacob – Edom descended from Esau and Judah’s lineage traced to Jacob. Whatever was the cause and reasons of the animosity, the result was that the destruction of Jerusalem led to a long Diaspora of the Israelite nation that would continue for some 2534 years.

Edom straddled what is today’s southern Israeli border areas with Egyptian Sinai to the west and Jordan to the east, from the central Negev to the north, down to today’s Red Sea seaport of Eilat on Israel’s southern tip. Edom’s capitol was Bozrah, today the small Jordanian town of Bouseira.

Interestingly, many modern Christians believe that Bouseira will be one of the major venues of the Last Judgement. It is their belief that here the Messiah will return to earth to judge the holy and the wicked.

Nevertheless, it was the destruction of Jerusalem and the following Diaspora that apparently led to Obadiah’s short Biblical book.

Today, Edom’s most widely known city is the famed cave-city of Petra, of which there may be some reference within Obadiah’s work: “…Your capital is a fortress of solid rock...” although Bozrah’s ruins appear to have also been built of rock. But there is no doubt that Obadiah accurately predicted the utter and total destruction of Edom and its eventual absorption by a Hebrew nation some two-and-a-half millennia after the sack and destruction of Jerusalem. Obadiah 19 states, “People from southern Judah will occupy Edom; Those from the western foothills will capture Philistia; Israelites will possess the territory of Ephraim and Samaria; The people of Benjamin will take Gilead…”

This eventually occurred beginning in 1947 the newly established United Nations (knowingly or otherwise) began the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy and mandated the re-establishment of a Jewish nation. And it did indeed lead to the fulfillment of Obadiah’s prophecy when on May 15, 1948, Israel declared independence. Outmanned and outgunned, owning a rag-tag air force and navy barely deserving of the names, and an army of militia, the new Israeli nation fought overwhelming and incredible odds beginning even before independence. This new Hebrew nation, miraculously, was able to defeat the combined might of six Arab nations, the Palestinians living in the region, and the benign neglect of its British colonial predecessor. It conquered Israel, Judah and Philistine of Biblical times, and drove south to secure what had been the Edomite heartland of 2500 years before. The Israeli Order of Battle followed the prophecy of Obadiah almost to the letter, though its complete fulfillment would eventually come within a generation in later years and in later wars.

Obadiah’s prophecy is clearly a lesson to all nations that they are their brothers’ keepers. Edom was a neighbor and, by their common ancestry to Isaac, a brother nation in the region. With Edom’s lack of assistance to Judah and support of the Babylonian Empire, Nebuchadnezzar was able to effectively destroy Hebrew governance in the area for two-and-a-half millennium. While for the vast majority of that period this looked to be the end of the Hebrew nations of Israel, Judah, and the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, clearly it was not. Israel’s re-establishment in 1948 is ample testimony of God’s power over the nations. Over seven million Jews live today within the borders of the State of Israel, the new Hebrew nation, as do millions of others all over the World.

God stated in the prophecy of Obadiah 8-10:
On the day I punish Edom, I will destroy their clever men and wipe out all their wisdom.
The fighting men of Teman will be terrified, and every soldier in Edom will be killed.
Because you robbed and killed your brothers, the descendants of Jacob, you will be destroyed and dishonored forever.

Today, one can see and tour the sites and ruins of Bozrah and Petra and marvel at the incredible architecture and craftsmanship of the artisans and workers who built an apparently talented, great and wealthy nation. Thousands do today and the Edomite city of Petra has even been featured in an Indiana Jones movie. Yet today there is not a single Edomite alive.

This is a stark and important lesson to other nations today. I would even argue that even now God is at work through his lessons in Obadiah. Barely three generations ago the earth saw two of the World’s greatest nations refuse to come to the aid of their fellow weaker nations and those great powers have since paid a heavy price.

In 1938 France and Great Britain, at the time the greatest colonial and military powers on Earth, pledged to stand by Czechoslovakia as a resurgent, newly bellicose, Godless and pagan Germany threatened. Both nations failed to assist the endangered nation, approving an agreement allowing Germany to roll into the disputed western Czechoslovakian region of Sudetenland effectively destroying the nation’s sovereignty. Eleven months later, to the day, Germany invaded Poland as both Britain and France again stood by. The best that either nation could or would do was when the Royal Air Force dropped propaganda leaflets instead of bombs over the German Ruhr and the French Army occupied three square miles of uninhabited Germany territory for three days before retreating back into France.

Of course, these tepid responses plunged the earth into the Second World War, which then led both directly and indirectly to the nearly complete dissolution of both the French and British empires within a single generation. Today, both nations are slowly being absorbed into the greater nation of the European Union and may be but a memory by the end of this century.

The lesson of Obadiah’s writing and prophecy is that God is the king over the Earth and of all nations and man. It is the responsibility of man and the nations of man to assist and defend their neighbors, and to do so for the glory of God and his people on Earth. The failure of the great European powers led to the loss of empire and their relegation to rump nations and their eventual loss of sovereignty into the European Union. The failure of Edom to do the same two-and-a-half millennia previously led to the total and utter destruction of the nation. Today, Edom has its portions divided between Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, with a vast majority within the boundaries of Israel.

Does this lesson bode poorly for America’s and Europe’s response to Russia’s aggression in the tiny Republic of Georgia? What happens if we do not stand up to an identically resurgent, newly bellicose, Godless and pagan Russia? Is Georgia a new Czechoslovakia?

This is an issue that needs to be closely and carefully studied. Edom will never be restored as a nation as there is not a single Edomite left to return. God’s prophecy has been fulfilled – completely and totally.

She Blinded Me With Science

“She blinded me with science!” It’s a line from British musician Thomas Dolby’s 1982 song of that same title. I love the song – it’s catchy, fun, and has that great catch phrase. And it so reminds me of the world today.

One of the great ruses used by the modern neo-atheist is to use science to prove that God, religion and the supernatural do not exist. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, et al., have been trying to use logic to point out that there is no scientific laws, rules, definition or reason justifying the existence of God. I can accept that.

I do know, though, that the hand of God has been guiding me, and that those people I know who have given their lives to God and his service are the happiest I’ve ever encountered. I KNOW these things. I see these things. I also know that many have given themselves over to IDEOLOGY, and are violent, miserable, sad or just frustrated. These latter people are the true fodder of the books of the atheists.

What is far more unfortunate is the tendency of people in our culture to want science to prove their faith, or whatever belief they may have. And this is where things can get dangerous.

We are all born with certain strengths and weaknesses, talents and foibles, desires and urges, that we have to deal with and handle in our lives. I know, as I’ve had to handle a few. I have a violent temper that has gotten me very close to serious trouble in the past. I am also a VERY sexual animal, with quite a powerful libido. Yet, I have been able to control these things, mostly through the realization that to lose control of them is to commit sin and to do wrong.

God challenges us all with various things. Some of us are born with an urge to drink way too much. It can kill us eventually. I’ve known at least two people who have died from destroying their internal organs with alcohol.

I’ve known people who have destroyed promising lives with drugs. A close friend in college did just that. A classic image of a Preppie – penny loafers, khakis and button-down shirts were all that occupied his closet – he left after our freshman year with a 0.0 GPA and a habit that included marijuana, pills, acid and cocaine.

Still others suffer from kleptomania. This is a disease that makes people totally incapable of not being a thief. They MUST steal to satisfy their urges. I had a soldier some years back who was jailed and discharged because he had an insatiable desire to steal. He was an excellent soldier otherwise, technically and tactically one of our best. But he was convicted of theft, jailed, and eventually kicked out of the army. Tragically, he had a wife and children, but his moral compass had been crushed.

We now know from modern science that in almost all these cases, there is a genetic or chemical reason for these illegal and immoral actions. It is the same with homosexuality.

But, in our society, we justify homosexuality’s ‘morality’ by using science and genetics. By this logic, we should scrap Alcoholics Anonymous, get rid of all laws concerning drugs and narcotics, toss out DUI and DWI laws, and make stealing legal. Why? Because these ARE lifestyle issues. And since these issues are illegal or immoral, we are causing these people great suffering by making them feel as though they are wrong. It hurts their feelings to find out that what they desire is immoral.

Some people get satisfaction from hurting others. They enjoy torturing animals or people. It gives them a sense of power and well-being. Being homosexual does the same for those who a predisposed as such, despite the obvious fact that homosexuality is a practice that has caused many deaths due to disease. What, really, is the difference?

We have embarked in our society on a wave of empowerment that uses science to usurp morality. We grey in the areas that some groups have been able to convince us are white and aren’t, or vice versa (no pun intended). Seriously? Why are drugs and alcohol illegal in some or all cases? Because, first, they are immoral, and second, they are dangerous. Stealing is immoral as it hurts us all as a society. Homosexuality should still be immoral because every society in history that adopted homosexuality as ‘normal’ soon found itself destroyed. Not because of homosexuality, per se, but because the idea that what is wrong is actually right destroyed those nations’ moral compasses. And they were then destroyed.

Now, illegalizing homosexuality is not what I advocate. But allowing homosexuals to take over the nation’s moral compass is wrong. Homosexuality is and always has been wrong in moral societies. Using science to justify immoral behavior is at once perverse, and is aberrant and abhorrent. Science is NOT morality, though morality IS based in logic and science. Don’t let us be fooled.

She Blinded Me With Science

I must apologize. This most recent post was issued without my usual effort to edit, read, and proof. It was rushed. After I posted and slept on it, I realized that I didn't say what I wanted and that it would probably read way too harsh and in the end did not convey what I meant. I will rewrite it and repost it soon.

Could Obama Hurt Race Relations?

So, Barack Obama is the candidate of choice of the Democratic Party. All during the Democratic primary season, all I could think of was that the choices that the party had were unequivocated Evil (Hillary Clinton) and complete, total Naiveté (Obama). It’s a scary scenario, but what can you expect of a party that foisted the new Narcissus on America sixteen years ago?

Now a note on how I was raised. My father and mother were both Southerners born and bred. They came from a generation that still believed in the dignity, courage and righteousness of the Confederacy, and that believed blacks were a severe problem. Incredibly, though, my parents raised their three offspring that ALL people should be judged by nothing except their actions and character. I never heard them utter a single racist profanity during the time I was in their home, and was frankly surprised (maybe I was just naïve) at some of the actions I saw fellow Whites perform when I went to college.

It excited me to see General Colin Powell, a black man, become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, because it showed me that Mom & Dad were right. And it distresses me to no end when we are continually bombarded today when such “firsts” as the recently-installed Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court being a black woman is considered newsworthy by the media. Why should it be? This is America, and the best person for the job should be placed in that job. Why should race be an issue today?

But, that is what has me worried. Barack Obama could very well become President of the United States. Yes, he is half-black (though in our Liberal nation that means he is “really” fully black), and he is considered by the Democrats to be the best person for the position. And that is part and parcel of what I find frightening. Why? you may ask.

Barack Obama is completely unprepared to perform the job. Except for less than one six-year term in the Senate, all his political background is local and populist. He has no military, foreign policy, administrative, or commercial experience of which to speak, except for “bringing home” the troops in Iraq. This does not bode well for a nation that leads the World in all those categories. Like President Jimmy Carter in 1980, he is running on nothing but rhetoric and sound bites. He has yet to elucidate a single sound policy on any issue, except to say that he will change America.

So, the problem? Every politician today touts “change.” And that is quite alright, though I’m pretty sure that “change” really means more of the same. What worries me is that a naïve populist, having not a single solid policy, being a “minority,” could be just as bad as President Carter and truly set back race relations in America twenty-to-thirty years.

A poor presidency by this man and you could have every racist kook and nutcase, egged on by a media who truly cares less about integrity than winning awards that they bestow upon themselves, gain some legitimacy and point to race as a factor. Can you see the next presidential race with a black candidate, regardless of party, being boiled down to what Obama did? That is not what America needs. It's not a good thing for our nation. What America needs is a capable, effective leader, regardless of race, who has vision, policies, moral integrity and the knowledge to do what the nation requires.

And I’m afraid Obama can’t do that today.

Why Is AIDS Not STD?

I’m getting older. We all do every day; it’s a fact of life. When we’re young we question things and we allow ourselves to soak up knowledge and ideas and opinions. These things, of course, form us and eventually help to make up who we are.

When I was young, in my teens, I was lucky. When it came to Sexually Transmitted Diseases, we called it Venereal Disease in those days - “VD.” We were pretty lucky I’ve learned. “The Clap,” the slang term used for all VD, could all be fought with drugs, and there were only a couple or three. I only knew one person who had contracted it by the time I left college at the age of twenty.

Then came Herpes. Now Herpes scared us, because it’s not curable. It wasn’t as bad as the others, but sores all over you when you were trying to impress the opposite sex were not at all helpful. It was a nuisance then, and is now manageable with drugs, but it was a venereal disease. Interestingly, VD was treatable for years much like Herpes is today, though no cure was known until the advent of antibiotics in the name of Penicillin and the like in the 1940’s.

Through it all, though, we had condoms, which many of us used anyway because The Pill wasn’t 100-percent effective. But condoms kept you more-or-less safe from parenthood and likely disease-free.

Then, in 1981, a strange series of ailments began to pop up in the male homosexual population in places like New York and San Francisco. Soon dubbed Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (GRID), then soon after Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in an effort to recognize that it could infect heterosexuals, it was quickly recognized as a sexually transmitted disease, or ‘STD.’ In this age of the ‘politically correct,’ which I prefer to call the ‘politically confused,’ STD sounds nicer than VD. But, by any measure, AIDS is “an illness that has a significant probability of transmission by means of sexual contact.” At THAT is and was the definition of VD.

Now, AIDS is a disease of choice and of morality. Except for a very small group, AIDS is transmitted by immoral behavior. And it is because of this that AIDS is NOT VD! That’s right. Gonorrhea, syphillis, and herpes are VD. But AIDS is a disease that affects lifestyle. Mind you, immoral lifestyles can be affected by VD, but most are curable. AIDS to date is not.

AIDS has affected the homosexual community dramatically. Now the homosexual community will never admit that their very choices are what drives the AIDS epidemic, nor would the Free Love Generation of the sixties have done so either, I’m sure. But it IS these choices that have caused the spread of this horrific disease. As an example, one of the small groups noted above, those who suffered from hemophilia, have suffered disproportionately from AIDS. Hemophiliacs have a deficiency in the agent that causes blood to clot, and desperately require infusions of clotting agents. Once known as ‘bleeders,’ these innocent people received clotting agent that was a cocktail extracted from the blood of many, including AIDS-infected homosexuals, many who knew they were sick. But, in many cases these infected people donated plasma for money. As a result, many hemophiliacs were infected and died of AIDS. The homosexual community generally ignored their plight, as did the media. Hemophiliacs are well represented in the media, mind you.

I am continually heart-broken when I see a young heterosexual person on TV, a talking head for HIV/AIDS, explain how they never thought they were in danger. How it was ‘just once,’ or he/she didn’t know their partner was infected, or even worse – I don’t even know his/her name. These poor victims are trotted out by AIDS activist organizations and used to somehow make us all believe that we can catch this horrible disease, just by being heterosexual. They’ve been victimized twice – first by the disease and then by the activists.

I will readily admit that a huge group of heterosexuals in the Third World have contracted AIDS. But, without a doubt, the underlying reason that it has spread there is through prostitution, an inherently immoral act. Throughout the world today, if a married couple is free of AIDS, and stays monogamous, the chance that either will contract the disease are so infinitesimally small as to be unreadable. These are facts.

AIDS is caught almost exclusively but those who are participating in immoral acts, many of which are aberrant or abhorrent. This includes homosexuality, drug use, multiple sexual partners, anonymous sex, and the like. These are simple truths. And until we begin to look at AIDS as what it is, a Venereal Disease, it will continue its toll.

Liberal Ideas (Almost) Never Work

I’ve described myself politically for years as a conservative-leaning independent libertarian (I’ve emphasized the title so as to make clear that none of those words is meant to be capitalized). I have never belonged to a political party, although a number of so-called third parties look better as I grow older – and hopefully wiser.

The reason I bring all this up is probably obvious. This nation is heading into an election, the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long number of years. We will have on opposing major party tickets opponents who are not incumbents in the sense that they are from the previous or preceding administrations. The Republican is a “Maverick,” known for his strong personal and moral views on some subjects, but on others he will take a totally unexpected tangent and surprise everyone. The other candidate, though currently presumptive, is a political unknown. His record screams far-left liberal, but he spouts “change.” (That’s weird because the USA has been in the throes of liberalism since about 1932. For true change, the nation would have to move to the hard right or extreme libertarian, and I’m pretty sure that’s not what he means.)

I’m almost fifty. I’ve seen a lot, but nothing close to what others older than I have seen. I sat up late one night in 1969 and watched a human being walk on the moon for the first time in history. I’ve seen a younger generation in the span of ten years nearly tear asunder everything that was built by this nation over the previous 200-plus years. I’ve seen phones go from single rotary-dial appliances in most homes to nearly Star-Trek-sized communicators in the pockets of nearly every man, woman and child in America. Computers now have more power in a single chip than was used in the whole of the Apollo manned moon missions utilizing gigantic rooms full of six-foot tall computer cabinets. It has been truly amazing, and I am awed and excited by all of it.

America is a wealthy nation. We, as barely four percent of the World’s population produce fully twenty-five percent of the World’s wealth. America’s poor are, on average, wealthier than nearly all other people on earth. And it is this wealth that causes liberals (or Progressives as they prefer to be called) to make us believe that we are greedy, or not benevolent, or just too self-centered to see the problems around us. So, they must come up with solutions to make us fix our problems.

Sorry, but I don’t have any problems, except with liberals. Really. I don’t see a single issue out there that liberals and government can fix any better than I or my fellow citizens can. And while I understand that all these programs are based n the best of intentions, I also know to that the Road To Hell is paved with those same intentions. The examples are profuse, but I’ll dwell on but a handful.

In the 1930’s, in the throes of the Great Depression and the dustbowl and drought of the era, the liberal-hero-administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and its Soil Conservation Service and Civilian Conservation Service planted innumerable acres of kudzu, a decorative, Japanese vine, for use as a measure to combat erosion. The result? An incredibly invasive weed that has no natural predators and that can grow as much as one foot per day. They can overgrow whole sections of forest, cutting out sunlight to the engulfed trees, destroying it.

We all know of that Great Society program introduced during the administration of Lyndon Baines Johnson – welfare. To date in America, welfare has been a boon to no one except politicians and government employees and bureaucrats. The original estimate of the cost of the program was well less than $100 Billion dollars. To date it has cost well over ten times that, and the amount of poor in the nation has stayed approximately the same, as a percentage of population. Additionally, the social destruction caused to the American family, especially those it was meant to help, has been catastrophic. Single-parent homes, especially in the minority community, have grown exponentially. This has had an arguably detrimental effect on at least two generations of children, and will likely be the same on many more. The result of this program? No fewer poor and the average American family giving well over one-third of their hard-earned income to the government. On top of that, today a black child is less likely to be raised in a two-parent household than he was during Slavery.

Energy policy in America has been driven by two items in the past two generations: fading memories of the Arab Oil Embargo and the subsequent Energy Crisis of the early 1970’s, and the environmental lobby. Ironically, America has more coal reserves than the Middle East has oil! We also have huge oil reserves. And the environmental laws that have been enacted forbid American companies from using much of the coal available or drilling for and extracting much of the oil that is sitting under US territory. On top of all this, as America expands and needs more energy, environmental laws have made the construction of new, expanded, or upgraded refineries impossible. So, the result of these liberal programs and laws? Nothing less than $4.00-per-gallon gasoline.

And while we’re on the subject of energy and gasoline – in the 1980’s there was a great hoopla over oxygenated fuels for cars. At the time, the mixing of ethanol into gasoline was detrimental to some autos, so an alternative was needed. MTBE, this new alternative, was hailed by the liberal environmental community. It would lower emissions, including ozone, and lead to cleaner-burning engines, and was legislated into the gasoline supply. At the time I was in Colorado and Denver and Colorado Springs embraced the new chemical as the way to help clean the smog in the air! The result of this program? MTBE, short for methyl tertiary butyl ether, has now contaminated innumerable groundwater aquifers. The EPA has concluded that MTBE may cause cancer in high doses. The cost of this well-intended, liberal fiasco will be as much as $30 Billion.

So now, we have Hillary and Obama, both with Liberal and Progressive stamped all over them, wanting to continue in the mold of nearly every American president since Johnson (except for Reagan). Nationalize healthcare! Bush 41 wasn’t any better with a massive expansion of government with Medicare Part D, a liberal program barely started and already grossly over-budget. Welfare as it exists, were it a privately-run charity, and would be on most attorneys’ general Grinch Lists at Christmas. At yet, these people want more.

Outside of Civil Rights, which was too long in coming, I have yet to see a liberal social program that did not eventually become stagnant, old, despotic, and too cumbersome. America doesn’t need new programs, America needs to get rid of many, if not most, of the ones it has.

And the sooner it happens, the better off we will be.

MILITARY CONTRACTORS

Over the past decade a lot of press has been devoted to the contractors supporting war and peacekeeping efforts. Most of this attention has been directed toward the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, or “KBR” as it’s known universally in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout the military and contracting. The simple fact of the matter is that despite, or in spite of, the fact that Vice President Richard Cheney was Halliburton’s CEO before becoming the Vice President, KBR is the only company in the world today capable of handling the job that they perform.

There are many logistics, security, and service companies today that drool over the prospect of winning the sort of contracts that KBR have been awarded. Unfortunately for them, KBR got there “the firstest with the mostest.” When the US military of President Bill Clinton was looking for civilian assistance for the International Force (IFOR)/Stabilization Force (SFOR) mission in Bosnia, it was the deep pockets of KBR parent Halliburton that put up the money for then small KBR to perform the mission. And perform they did.

KBR’s business acumen and expertise built a relatively small subsidiary ready to fill the needs of the Clinton Administration’s military requirements into the powerhouse company it is today serving the military of the Bush Administration. Ironic, no? But, no matter the history, what can be said is that little KBR has learned what they needed to learn, built up a base of expertise second to none on this earth, and has performed quite admirably for America’s fighting men and women, and for its stockholders. THAT is how American capitalism works, and how it should.

In fact, the only organization in the world today outside Halliburton that is capable of performing the job they are doing is the US military. And despite what some in Congress and the media may say, outside of the US military only Halliburton’s KBR can ensure the successful performance of the support they perform under one umbrella. KBR trucks move cargo, KBR employees cook and serve the meals, KBR builds the infrastructure. The only thing that they don’t do is provide security.

And there’s the rub.

Contracting in support of the US military clearly has its place. Port-a-john maintenance and service is clearly a non-military profession that can be clearly filled by contractors. There are other jobs that could be filled with civilian personnel, but those jobs are highly specialized – manufacturers’ representatives and the like. But, the wholesale use of contractors is clearly becoming detrimental to the ability of the nation to fight wars.

This is a lesson that has been learned (and unfortunately forgotten) over and over by this nation and others. Rome’s army was essentially a mercenary and contractor army by the end of that empire and, with no loyalty to the command or nation, Rome’s army and navy fought poorly and the nation was lost. All the while Rome’s citizens all felt that serving in the military, and therefore defending the nation, was beneath them. Their job was commerce, and, of course, participating in the public debate of how to defend the nation.

America’s Continental Army utilized contract personnel, a large group being mule skinners and teamsters, early in our War of Independence to transport its equipment and goods. Those same contractors turned and ran when gunfire began. They were concerned that their investment in wagons, horses and mules, and equipment would be lost. Why should they care? The Continental Army was a pack of rebels to the British Crown, and if they lost, the contractors and their equipment could find other work. It wasn’t worth losing their property over. The Continental Army soon formed its own units to handle its cargo and transportation needs. And in a pinch, those Continental Army transporters could be put into the front lines to fight.

In World War II, US marines and sailors at Wake Island were assaulted by Japanese forces immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack. This was a full-scale air and sea attack by elite Imperial Japanese troops, steeled by years of fighting in China and other places in Asia. There were numerous civilian construction contractors on the island who soon found themselves armed and in the front lines with their military employers, totally ill-equipped and ill-trained to fight the battle-hardened invaders. Wake was lost and the tragic loss of those civilian construction contractors and the manner in which they were lost led to the formation of the US Navy’s Seabees.

History has taught that trained warriors are needed to fight wars. As the previous three examples of history demonstrate, contractors have not the training, expertise, or loyalty to properly function in a combat environment. And they can quit at any time. They are not required to have any loyalty to anyone but themselves and their wallets.

In Iraq and Afghanistan only specific contractors (those hired by such entities as the State Department) are allowed to carry weapons. Most contractors – those performing vehicle and aircraft maintenance, cooking and serving food, driving civilian trucks – are unarmed and are REQUIRED to be unarmed in the war zone! They are protected by soldiers and other contractors. In a fight, they are totally useless. And, just in case you didn’t know, there are big fights going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Iraq, the largest US base is Logistics Support Activity (LSA) Anaconda, a large former-Iraqi Air Force base about forty miles north of Baghdad close by the Tigris River. Of all the personnel there, about one-in-three is a civilian. This ratio places an undue burden on the military personnel there.

The major reason behind civilian military contracting has been to place the soldier in jobs that the military specifically does well, such as killing the enemy and “blowing things up,” as GIs jokingly say. But at LSA Anaconda, with one-third of the personnel unarmed civilians, the responsibility of securing the perimeter and providing security FOR 100% OF THE PERSONNEL falls on the GI. Nearly all this duty falls on soldiers whose jobs are to perform paperwork, maintenance, transport, and any number of myriad jobs that a soldier may be required to perform in their regular duties.

Soldiers perform guard and security duty twenty-four hours at a time. Once their duty is complete, they are (generally) released from all duty for another twenty-four hours to rest and recuperate. So the unit loses the services of that soldier for two days. Now, normally a unit will have five, ten or fifteen soldiers on details on any given day. That of course means that there are the same number of soldiers resting from duty the day before. In many units this can be as much as ten percent of the unit! These soldiers are not maintaining equipment, repairing parts, performing maintenance, or doing any of the jobs they are regularly required to do. This burden would be reduced by fifty percent at LSA Anaconda if all those civilian contractor positions were filled by soldiers! The WHOLE burden of security falls squarely on the soldier.

There are other issues involved, too. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the rules of war as laid down by the Geneva Convention consider contractors as mercenaries, and as such are not covered by these rules. The military’s jurisdiction is non-existent. In one case in Bosnia, a contractor was found to be running a prostitution ring with some locals and a colleague. He was fired and shipped home. The Bosnians had no clear jurisdiction, nor did the US judiciary. The military could do nothing. A soldier would have been subject to military prosecution.
This is just one example of where the military and the contracting worlds collide.

In Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, and elsewhere, soldiers are required to wear their uniform and to wear certain equipment. Additionally, they lug around weapons, ammo and other items as required. Contractors technically are supposed to mimic the requirements of the military, except of course the weapons, but they feel no real need to do so. It aggravates soldiers to no end when in 130 degree heat they are wearing helmets, body armor, full uniform, weapons, ammo, canteens, and whatever else they may need, and then they see a contractor in sorts, a t-shirt and a ball cap with his helmet and body armor slung over his shoulder, “because it’s just too darn hot to be wearing that stuff.” Soldiers are being held to high professional and personal standards, and the very people who they are told are working for them, and who the soldier must protect, flaunts his freedom. It breeds a lot of resentment.

And the single greatest injustice to the soldier is the pay differential. A contractor who never leaves the base and does nothing but maintenance, may make twice-or-three-or-four times the pay of a soldier performing the exact same job. But, that soldier has to perform guard duty on the perimeter.

The bottom line is this. War is the business of the military. Contractors are mercenaries and should not be needed in a nation of citizen soldiers, the standards of which are the highest in the world. Contractors end up reducing the fighting power of the very people they support and are useless to those people if the situation were to spiral into a real fight. We need to keep contractors out of our military operations and get more troops into the military.

Period.

Talk Radio IS The Alternative

I consider myself politically to be a conservative-leaning independent libertarian. Yeah, it’s a mouthful, but I believe it best identifies me. And yes, those are all lower-case. I don’t belong to a party. There are things I believe staunchly that you would put into the libertarian column, and others that would throw me into the conservative line. I have voted for independent candidates, Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Independents, and one or two other parties. I have NEVER voted for a socialist, Socialist, Communist or National Socialist (Nazi) candidate. I’m independent, not stupid.

I used to be, though. When I was young, I believed that a European form of socialism (i.e. Christian Democracy, Social Democracy, etc.) was the natural state of things and the next logical step for stable nations. That was, of course, before I grew up. Growing up and seeing the world as it really is, and experiencing what it is like to have a family, raise children, service a mortgage, turned me into what I am today.

In other words, I’m a realist.

But, politically, one thing of which I am sure is that America’s media is in-and-of-itself, Liberal - with a capital ‘L.’ No question. I’ve debated this with a lot of people and every time I do, they will concur, even if only grudgingly. And every time –EVERY TIME - they always bring up Fox News as a clarion for Conservatism and the Republican Party.

I always answer with the question, “That’s it? Just Fox?”

I can name almost a dozen major media outlets right here that espouse liberalism and claim that’s it’s ‘mainstream,’ or ‘middle-of-the-road’ or whatever tag or moniker they place upon it. ABC, Bloomberg, CBS, CNN, ETV, Link TV, MSNBC, NBC, NPR (radio), and pretty much every other network out there, except Fox.

You’ll notice that I only mentioned a single radio source. There’s a reason. Right now, today, outside of Fox the only other true conservative news outlet is talk radio. Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Mike Savage, Mike Reagan, and their ilk, are all financially successful and are doing well. Limbaugh claims, probably quite accurately, the he single-handedly saved AM radio. And the reason? Because, outside the emergence of Fox, this outlet is the ONLY alternative for truly opposing points of view in the media.

And it could be argued that talk radio is the reason that Fox is here today.

The only alternative to conservative talk radio, and a non-television mirror to the broadcast networks, is Air America.

Air America debuted with great fanfare and a lot of cheering from the visual broadcasters. Ah, FINALLY, an alternative to Rush, Glenn, and all those horrible, right-wing, hate-mongers. All we really needed was someone to put up the bank roll (in this case, for a goodly portion of the sum, Al Gore). Well, poor Al is failing just as spectacularly as his presidential bid. Air America is in bankruptcy and has floundered since its first broadcast.

It just proves the point. Air America is not needed. Americans tune to talk radio for an alternative, an opposing view. ABC, Bloomberg, CBS, CNN, ETV, MSNBC, NBC, NPR, and Link TV, etc., all say the same thing. Only Fox and talk radio are different.

And THAT is why they are successful.

AMAZING, BUT TRUE

An amazing thing is happening in America today. Nearly every other nation on earth avoids it so fiercely and completely that an international organization has been formed to perform the act in their stead. This thing occurs in but a handful of nations and it is the United States that has and will likely be the leader in this field for the foreseeable future.

What am I writing about here? War crimes trials. That’s right. Since the Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal at the end of the Second World War, the US has been the leader in the prosecution of war crimes BY ITS OWN TROOPS. Really. Outside of Western Europe and North America it’s almost unheard of. But to date, we have or are prosecuting at least a dozen soldiers and marines for war crimes ranging from mistreatment of prisoners, to torture to murder of enemy soldiers and combatants, and even the rape and murder of a teenaged girl and her family, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That’s an amazing thing in this world. Can you imagine Syria prosecuting a soldier for shooting a handcuffed Israeli prisoner? Or Mexico trying its military personnel for torturing Zapatista rebels? Neither Japan, Germany, the Soviet Union, or Italy ever prosecuted any of their troops during World War II for committing war crimes. Certainly, the Soviets never did for any of the war crimes committed by their troops in Afghanistan, which was an ugly, vicious contest that saw children targeted with booby-trapped toys.

So why do we? I have a hypothesis.

We Americans are immigrants all. Most of us left our homes to escape persecution, poverty, injustice or for the adventure. Almost none of our ancestors were wealthy. Some of us were forced here through indenture or slavery. The wealth of the nation and we as a people was built from hard work and the honesty of a handshake, in many cases. These are facts. So wealthy a nation are we that even our poor are wealthier than most of the rest of the world. We expect to be able to have one’s word and believe in it. We believe that there is justice for all and that most people deserve what it is they get and have.

And so, when we see injustice in the world we cringe. We feel that we must do something to make things right. And so it is in war.

War, by definition, is unjust. Waged flagrantly, it kills all people in its way – men, women, children, the elderly, the young. We have developed weapons in this country that have changed the face of war. We can target specific people, places or things and eliminate them with a minimal chance of hurting others. The US has built a military that is as discriminate as any that is available with current technology. It is all because of the nation’s sense of justice, of what is fair, of what is right and wrong.

So, when we see the people who have volunteered to defend us and the nation do something we believe is wrong, it is we who want justice as much as the people who have been harmed. This is perhaps unique in the world. We see ourselves as moral, kind and helping. And we expect all Americans to be the same.

This, clearly, is a good thing.

My hypothesis is that, “Americans expect all Americans to be as good, moral and honorable as we expect or want ourselves to be.” It’s as simple as that. We have expectations that our children, who inevitably are the young troops that fight the wars, are moral, chivalrous, kind and fearless at the same time. Occasionally, some stumble.

Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq was an incredible stumble by some of these same troops. I know a bit more about it than the average American as I know someone who was there. I’ve asked all the questions everyone would want asked, and the answers are frightening, but somewhat understandable in context.

How many of us have teased the geek or nerd in high school? Or made fun of someone we believed was “beneath” us? How many of us wanted revenge on people who did that to us? And how many have taken their anger out on someone who didn’t deserve it? We all have. And without someone or something there to correct, calm or counteract us, we would continue to do it. That is what crime and punishment is all about.

Those young soldiers at Abu Ghraib Prison were undermanned by about half, overworked and forced into positions and responsibilities that they weren’t trained to do. Animal instinct took over. I asked my contact, “So, just what happened in that cell block?” His answer was, “Remember that study years ago where they divided up kindergarten children into blue eyed and brown eyed kids and then told them that blues eyes were better?” Within two days the blue-eyed children had set up a hierarchy of violence and abuse that caused the study to be shut down. “That’s what happened at Abu Ghraib.”

Deprived of proper supervision due to the lack of personnel, they made their own decisions and their own rules. All this despite frequent requests up the chain for more personnel, equipment and materiel to perform their jobs.

The result? One young soldier reported the abuse and now a number of troops directly and indirectly involved have been tried or have been convicted and are serving time for war crimes. This is something that no Middle Eastern nation outside of Israel has ever done to its own troops. Does that really surprise anyone?

The United States, despite its detractors, is STILL the beacon of justice that it has been for 200 years. And we will continue to prosecute and punish our own, because that is what a just and fair nation should do. And we won’t need the U.N. or any other organization to do it for us.

WAS MARILYN MONROE FAT?

Marilyn Monroe has been invariably lauded as the world’s greatest sex symbol, American model, Hollywood icon, cultural icon, and fashion icon – you name it. And she certainly was an incredible woman. Norma Jean Mortensen, as she was christened at birth, came from simple origins – she worked in an aircraft factory during World War II – to become the dream of nearly every American male. She was truly incredible.

And yet today, most would call her fat.

Marilyn Monroe was a size 13. That’s before the sizes were surreptitiously bumped upward by the fashion and apparel industry to fool Americans into believing they weren’t REALLY becoming fat. (When I was in college and much thinner I wore XL. Today I wear Large – but that’s another story.) Think about that. The world’s most amazing sex symbol WAS A SIZE 13.

I prefer the Marilyns of this world. You know the ones. Those awesome, busty, curvy, women with beautiful legs and the occasional blemish. Those that really need a bra to support their cleavage, not just cover it up. This is perfection in my world. It boggles my mind that a woman as beautiful as Alyssa Milano can be skewered by the paparazzi for being ‘fat,’ which incredibly has happened recently. Are these people insane? If she’s fat, I’m the Michelin Man. Okay, I may be a bit overweight, but I’m NOT the Michelin Man. And Alyssa Milano is NOT fat.

We constantly see this tilted view of women today, and thankfully there has been a backlash both socially and even medically. We’ve all seen the horror stories of bulimia and anorexia. These are recent sociological and psychological ailments, brought to us since the 1960’s by a warped view of feminine beauty. But, truly for many women it is too little, too late. And we have yet to address one of the roots of the problem:

Why do we, as a society, allow homosexual men to set the standard for female beauty?

Watch a fashion show. Any fashion show presenting women’s fashions. Every model is overly tall, incredibly thin and has no curves. Black, white, oriental, blonde, brunette, no matter. No cleavage, no hips, no bottom. Nothing. Even when I grew up, in my high school of 750 students, there might have been two or three girls built like that. And I assure you that of those, only one was in any way attractive. So, where do they find all these undernourished models?

Then the men who are hiring these women to act as moving manequins almost invariably are homosexual. Now, their selection probably makes perfect sense to them. What would a homosexual man find attractive? Probably a tall thin man with few features. Or the opposite – a man who’s really incredibly built, with large pecs and muscular, who ripples when he moves. If you’re dealing with a woman though, you’re likely going to have to go with the former rather than the latter when you are dealing with women’s fashions. And that is their idea of feminine beauty. A woman with absolutely none of the physical feature that truly make them a woman. A woman who looks more like a … well … a boy.

So, why do we, as heterosexual men and women, allow this to occur? What is the logic here? I see these rail-thin women on TV, in commercials, on movie screens, and notice the occasional ‘normal’ woman. They, of course, are invariably shown as ugly, or bossy, or bitchy, or ditzy. I revel, though in Alyssa, and even in Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), Tisha Campbell (My Wife & Kids), Delta Burke (Designing Women) and Kirstie Alley (Cheers). Hey, these women are beautiful even if they are large and occasionally fat. They’ve got cleavage. They’ve got legs. They’ve got a butt, and they generally carry it all well. They DO NOT look like boys. They are real women, just as God intended.

A lot like Marilyn Monroe.

PROM NIGHT REGRETS

My son is going to the prom. Unfortunately, I will be in the field with my National Guard unit and will miss the festivities, though I am sure he’ll be quite handsome in a tux, and he and his date will make quite a couple. But, this night caused me to reminisce and think of one of my greatest regrets.

Quite a few years ago, when I was younger, I was always worried about what others thought of me. It bothered me deeply when others made negative comments about me, or thought poorly of me, for whatever reason. It’s no great revelation. At eighteen many of us are worried about our social status and stature. We look around and see those more popular and wish we were as popular as the others, or at least more popular than we are.

And we act based on these perceptions, whether we act rightly or wrongly.

In high school, I was the odd one. Subliminally, I’m sure I was proud of it. But on the surface and a bit deeper, I wanted to not be the odd one. I wanted to be ‘popular.’ I played sports, but was never a part of the ‘in’ crowd. I was shy, naïve, and a bit on the clumsy side. I tried a little too hard and was really nervous around girls.

I did date, and I had quite a few girl friends, if not girlfriends. I went out with an older girl to the Junior-Senior Prom when I was a freshman. That was cool, but she wasn’t ‘in.’ I was harassed about it and felt bad, despite the fact that those doing the harassing were likely at home that night.

So, by the time I was a Senior, football letterman, big-man-on-campus I was a little more confident, but still conscious that I wasn’t THE big man on campus. Teenage angst really does suck. Naivete’ does too.

Amongst all my angst and worry, cruel people lived all ‘round me. I was aware of this. I was forced to deal with some of these people quite often on a daily basis. You know the types – they’re the fodder of many teen movies. Throw in the homely but naïve victim, and you’ve got the plotline of Carrie. And in the case of this true tale, the victim was Darla (not her real name).

Darla was a proud young lady. Three years behind me in school (I was a Senior, she a Freshman), she was a talented member of the band and a devoted Christian. And she was a homely girl – there was no two ways about it. Additionally, like me, she tried to be a member of the ‘in’ crowd, but her looks and fashion kept her from it. So, it was with great excitement that she accepted an invitation from an older boy to attend the Prom late in my senior year.

Her parents bought her a prom dress. When the boy explained he couldn’t get the money for a tux or a corsage, mom and dad bought the arrangement. He explained that he would wear a suit, the same he wore to church. The day of the prom, he explained that his car had broken down. He explained that he had arranged for a get a ride and would meet her there at the arena where all the county’s proms were held. He apologized that he couldn’t pick her up. She said she understood. She was excited and quite happy.

Darla’s parents dropped her out front of the county-owned facility. It was the largest venue in the county, and may still be today. She waited patiently for her date, but the whole arrangement was a charade. It was one big joke on Darla, and all for this boy’s and his friends’ amusement. I don’t know how long it took her to realize the cruel joke of which she was the butt. Still, Darla went inside, sat down at a table next to the dance floor and sat there all night, with great dignity and stoicism. The word soon spread of the great prank that was pulled on her that night. Darla never flinched at her seat and I never saw a tear.

And to this day, I’m ashamed of what I did that night.

I did nothing.

My son will attend a prom this year with his girlfriend – if they don’t break up for some reason between now and then. I know that if it was he in my place all those years ago that he would have done the right thing. He has always done the right thing – even if it was wrong. That is another story, though, one I’ll relate some other time.

I wish I had the guts then to gather all my friends together and gone to Darla. We all needed to ask her to dance, and to get her a cup of punch, and to talk to her. But, instead, I looked on her with pity, and enjoyed my night and time with my date. I had fun. Darla was miserable.

I’m sorry Darla.