Call Me On My BS

Now, Rocketman's Revenge is pleased to present a new feature to this website, fast, reliable (well, fast anyway) definitions for words that I use, which I may not always fully know. Simply double click on any word in the body of any post, and a new window will open with a definition of the word, along with some synonyms and antonyms. So anytime I try wrangling with a big word, call me on my BS! I can take it.

Perspective

Via Hot Air, it turns out that 12 Americans are murdered by illegal aliens every day in America. Interesting by itself? No. However, compared to the Iraqi death toll in the "Quagmire" that this war has "become", it seems as though aliens living in the states are more of a problem than the "civil war" that has "broken out" in Iraq. Hmmmm.

A Good Quote

I don't usually pay much attention to the quote of the day on the right side of this page, but there's a good one today, of the variety that makes one think "ain't that the truth". Sir Alexander Hamilton says: "A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous."

MIA

It's been exactly three weeks since I last made a post, I realized today. Time flys. I've been really busy with school, and I just came off a 24 hour marathon of work, no sleep in between. A lot of newsworthy stuff has happened in three weeks; Russian spies popping up all over, interesting semantic evolutions in Canadian indentity, etc etc. School work is coming to a close for the holidays soon, which is welcome, so I'll be back in full force. Stay tuned....

The Votes Are In

Looks like the Dems have captured Congress, and at this time Senate is still up for grabs. I'm going to bed now, but I still think we'll see a Republican-controlled Senate. Not the best news for Libertarians, but it could be worse. In fact, despite all the negative press the GOP and the Admin get on a daily basis, it's remarkable that the Dems have picked up less seats than historical averages for the sixth-year ballots. most mid-second-term elections see larger gains for the opposition party in both houses. So if there's a silver lining for Republicans, it's that.

Seeing The Unseen

Proteus, at Ejectejecteject.com, has a fantastic essay here that just debunks just about every bumper-sticker lefty slogan that I've ever heard of. Man it's good. This site is going on my Blogroll.

Hey Adam Nagourney

Looks like The New York Times is already bracing for the worst: Not winning enough seats to take control of either house. Looks like over-confidence may cost the Dems, which The New York Times manages to ludicrously blame the GOP:

"Republicans, of course, may have decided that they have a Machiavellian interest in setting up Democrats with inflated expectations." says the NYT. Yeeeeaaah. The evil political mastermind Karl Rove has somehow manipulated events to make the Democrats foolishly believe that they'll easily take both houses. This style of thought is the most telling revelation about that paper and party's complete lack of self-awareness. They both can't believe that the majority of people don't actually agree with them, and will conjure up an 0verly-complex and improbable cause of their failures every time they fail. And they actually have so little respect for the average person that they don't think s/he'll notice that what they're saying is ridiculously irrational.

Hey Adam Nagourney. Find out about Occam's razor.

Chapters Finally Caves

Chapters/Indigo/Coles/Smithbooks has finally gotten Steyn's book, America Alone into inventory. How does it feel to capitulate to the imperialist capitalist dogs, Ms. Reisman?

Vicious

David Olive of the Toronto (Red) Star, trumpets the "End of The Neo-Cons", seeing the result of the mid-term elections as a foregone conclusion. He is truly venemous and slanderous in his review of "neo-con" policy, and really does not hold back. It's very educational reading. He might be interested to find that the Democratic lead is diminishing as his piece is raced to print, and that the Dems are performing very poorly in the polls, historically speaking. Add to that widespread speculation that polling is as biased and inaccurate as it was in 2004 when exit polls showed a Kerry victory, and you get a man who may find out that his foot doesn't taste very good.

November Surprise?

The New York Times has just undermined their buddy, the anti-war movement. According to the Times, recently declassified documents, obtained by the US in 2003 and released under intense pressure from the anti-war left, show that Iraqi nuclear research had progressed to being a year away from building the bomb in 2002. So for the last 3 years, the memes that there were no WMDs in Iraq, or 'Bush Lied, People Died" have been based on a false premise.

The Times comically manages to blame the Bush Admin for declassifying and publishing sensitive nuclear information that 'might help Iran', which makes me think that either the Times just hasn't allowed for the possibility that this revelation has just vindicated the Admin completely in their intent, or they have no respect whatsoever for the intelligence of the populace in general.

I mean, there were so many other reasons for invading Iraq than WMD, but the only thing the looney-left had against the Admin that gained traction was the fact that no WMDs. But first of all, many hundreds of Sarin nerve gas shells have been found, there were nuclear centrifuge parts found buried in backyards, and now there is strong evidence of an intent and capability for nuclear weapons. And finally a Weapon of Mass Destruction is about to be condemned for his crimes against humanity.

So that should be the end of it.

America Alone

Even lefty rag The New York Times can't keep Mark Steyn off the bestseller list.

October Surprise?

This is just disturbing. Democratic Senate Candidate Jim Webb has been exposed. Turns out he's a fiction writer who does erotica involving underage boys and girls, and parent/child sexual expression. Can you say moral bankruptcy?

Stupid Americans

The stupid Americans have won three out of three Nobel science awards, and the Nobel economics award this year. "The stupid Americans must have bought the awards, they're not smart enough to win fairly" a typical anti-American might say, and s/he'd be half right. The fact is, America does buy their science achievements. With dollars. Cash. It has a way of working for them every time. And that cash, earned by hard-working, optimistic people, including the scientists themselves, is the core of the American social contract, and it's a fact that the far left will tragically never understand.

The Americans excel at virtually all sports (except for soccer). Why is that? Cash. Their athletes are allowed to earn virtually as much money as the market will bear, through professional sports organizations and endorsement deals. Whereas here in Canada, with the noteable exception of hockey players, athletes are virtually obligated to live at the edge of subsistence, depending on government handouts to get by. And don't get me wrong, Canada's star does sometimes shine. But not consistently. And those hockey players are successful because of the American dollar, not government.

Update: Mark Steyn's new book, America Alone, is number one on Amazon.ca. Still unavailable at Canada's only major bookseller. It has reached number ten at Amazon.com.

Hostages

Jack Schafer of Slate.com has a good article on the hostage taking that is done by government and big media regularly these days. First he takes government to task for holding essential services hostage (ie. Fire-fighting or Crime-fighting) in order to preserve the tax revenues that support other crappy/unnecessary services (ie. community centers/social services), and then he moves to big media claims of their importance to freedom of speech and how it's necessary to continue to patronize them in the face of better and more reliable sources of information. It's an interesting comparison.

America Alone

is the title of Mark Steyn's new book, which has been out less than a week and is already in its fourth printing in the states, and is number 2 at Amazon.ca.

Funny thing is, Chapters/Indigo/Coles didn't order any. That's because Ms. Heather Reisman, Canada's book police chief and CEO of the company, is a pinko, and she knows better than you do what you should read and what you shouldn't. Steynonline.com will ship it to you autographed, and based on my previous experience, within a couple days. I haven't read it yet, but as soon as Amazon sends out my order, I will post a review.

This Man is Brilliant

Al Gore, a presidential loser most famous for inventing the internet and destroying the environment while trying to save it, has decided that America's space policies will create an Iraq-like quagmire in space! Wow.

He goes on to say “It has the potential, down the road, to create the [same] kind of fuzzy thinking and chaos in our efforts to exploit the space resource as the fuzzy thinking and chaos the Iraq policy has created in Iraq.” Well, I guess if it's coming from the expert on fuzzy thinking, it must be true.

But seriously, he may have a point. If you don't believe (as I don't) that Iraq is a terrible mess, then there is a way for him to be telling the truth. If you believe that this project will yield tremendous results for Iraqis 5 or 10 years down the road, and that the glory of Mesopotamia will be restored by a responsible democratic society whose seeds have been already sown, then perhaps yes, space will one day be like Iraq.

The New Tet Offensive

"George Bush Sees Possible Iraq/Vietnam Parallel" shouts Reuters, mouthpiece to terrorists world-wide.

You know, Democrats have been warning of this possibility for years. "Quagmire" is the preferred term, and the comparison between the 'Quagmire' in Vietnam and the difficulties in Iraq has long been made. Some of the loons out on the far left have been fairly triumphant as a result of GWB's 'admission', completely oblivious to the irony he is pointing out.

He is not comparing military failures, first of all. What he's saying is that the Tet Offensive in 1968, which was a complete failure for the Viet Cong, was part of the enemy's overall strategy of manipulating Big Media and other 'useful idiots' in the States to turn the public against the war effort. He sees Al-Qaida and other radical Islamic groups as trying the same thing, which judging by the complete corruption of Reuters, Associated Press, CBS, CNN, CBC, BBC, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and others, has had at the least limited success. All they have to do is find a way to keep killing people, and with that in mind, they will continually try to turn people off of the greater good that the Americans intend.

Useful idiots. I believe it was Lenin who coined the term, and it was meant to describe those in America whose weak sense of morality could be subverted to promote the Sovet agenda. It was particularly descriptive of those in America and other Western countries who did not agree with the constitutional construction of their nations, and who would side with anyone else who opposed it. I think fondly of some in my parents' generation who would believe anything except for that which was spoken by the mouths of those in authority, and also of some of my peers who would foolishly believe any useless conspiracy theory that's out there (because it 'discredits' their political opponents), rather than the wisdom of those who are democratically elected to lead our countries and make the hard decisions that are necessary to protect our liberties.

To those that would retort "Jer, your sense of moral superiority makes you blind to the other possibilities and points-of-view that might be equal to yours"....I say that in a world of many choices, you have to make choices. I read literature that I don't agree with. I read the editorials of at least 4 newspapers with opposing views almost every day. I listen to punk rock, I love Propaghandi, Bad Religion, Rise Against, Strung Out, Anti-Flag, and many others who espouse a different point of view, I watch the Jon Stewart Show, CBC Newsworld, I read Slate, The Daily Kos.....

But I still have to make a choice. Being 'open-minded' doesn't mean that you can't chose. It doesn't mean that there isn't a black or a white. It's not all gray, contrary to what some people will tell you. In fact, being open-minded is only a tool to discover what is black or white, and to not be blind to either. Being empty-minded is what allows one to only see gray. And if you only see gray, you are a useful idiot.

So what was GWB talking about when he drew comparisons between the Tet Offensive and the situation in Iraq today? I would say that he sees massive defeats for the enemy, which continually seem to be perverted by mainstream media into useful propaganda for the enemy. I challenge readers of this blog to look at the situation with this in mind, and to make your choice.

Pining For The Old Days

Mikhael Gorbachev laments that the United States has squandered a chance to improve the world, since the fall of the Soviet Union. An excellent introduction to the regular socialist boilerplate, most tellingly revealed by this quote:

""At that point, the West focused more on its geopolitical interests," Gorbachev said, adding that Western countries had been more interested in cashing in on the "unbridled burst of globalization" that followed the end of the Cold War than in improving the international political climate".

Ah yes, it's all coming together; the world is falling apart, and it's because of capitalistic industry. Capitalism is also making the rich richer and the poor poorer. And it's also breeding extremists. And producing terrible Hollywood films.

Or,

it has created an environment where any able-bodied person (which the vast masses of humanity are, contrary to current liberal beliefs) can live a productive life full of joys and sorrows, during which science has produced virtual miracles that extend and enhance human experience, and believe it or not, has exponentially developed the social conscience; our concepts of right and wrong are so incredibly more complicated that generations before us that it's ridiculous to compare them. And directly contradicting Gorbachev's world-view, world-reality demonstrates that more and more countries every year have finally recognized that individual liberty, embodied by 'globalization'(read capitalism), is the catalyst.

Sure, there's some basket-case states out there still that haven't got it yet, as any good liberal will protest; "You know, there's shit going on in _______________ state in Western/Northern/Asian/South American that is just as _______________ as Iraq, but the States doesn't care about them - they only care about oil, man - you don't see them trying to reform the country if it doesn't have oil reserves."

But you know what? It's only a matter of time, if things keep progressing so nicely, before the silly little issues like Poverty-case North Korea or Somalia or Sudan become the only problems left, and the powers of the world at the time end up solving them (compare this with 50 years ago, when all of Europe, North America, major parts of Asia, Africa and Australia were all at war with each other). I think currently about the position China will end up taking on North Korea, as NK continues to 'threaten' to release thousands of refugees across the border into China. First of all, are the people of North Korea citizens, or hostages? But secondly, can China tolerate a nuclear-nutbag neighbour now that it realizes that the protection and encouragement of individual liberty is what is transforming their economy?

The governments of progressive, libertarian countries world-wide have recognized that their fundamental role, and only real legitimate role, is to protect the liberty of their citizens, whether it be from killers, rapists, thieves, or whatever.

My prediction: China will play a bigger role in the neutralization of North Korea than the Americans will.

My second prediction: In fifty years there will be complete world peace.

My third prediction: My grandchildren will at least visit Mars, if not live there.