Always Wrong But Never In Doubt

It is amazing that environmentalists are always absolutely certain they are 100% correct about their predictions of disaster. Perhaps it is because of their appalling track record that they believe sooner or later they have to be right. After all, a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then. These folks give new meaning to the phrase "always wrong but never in doubt".

One of the first on record to predict that human beings were doomed was Thomas Malthus in "An Essay on the Principle of Population", published in 1798, stating that population would outrun the food supply, leading to widespread famine. Even though he was pathetically wrong, there always seems to be a large number of people who deny reality and believe mankind is irreversibly creating its own demise. They reject the concept of progress, and don't understand the ability of man to adapt to the circumstances and fix problems before they become unfixable.

The earth is doomed movement did not really get rolling until the last half of the twentieth century. In 1968, Stanford professor Paul Ehrlich published "The Population Bomb". He wrote that "the battle to feed humanity is over. In the 1970's and 1980's hundreds of millions of people will starve to death. In the United States alone, famine will kill 65 million in the 1980's." There may be no other book ever published that got the future as wrong as this one.

Never-the-less, the belief that the earth has a destiny of disaster caused by man continued to gain popularity. Many organizations, such as Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth, were formed to save the earth from the evil deeds of mankind, growing into religious cults that proclaimed economic progress must be stopped or else. The Club of Rome published a report called "The Limits of Growth" in 1972 predicting earth would exhaust its supply of raw materials by the late 1980's. Even though these doomsayers are always wrong, they never admit it or give up the quest.

From 1945 into the 1970's the earth experienced a period of global cooling, accompanied by scholarly predictions of a new ice age. In the mid-1970's the National Science Board and National Academy of Sciences published reports on the phenomena, and Newsweek produced an article in 1975 called "The Cooling World". Of course human activity was seen as the primary culprit, with aerosols from fossil fuel combustion increasing the number of tiny particles in the air and reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the earth's surface. Predictably, the phenomena ended about the same time the mass media discovered it and began hyping its apocalyptic predictions.

The same folks who went ballistic over global cooling in the 1970's are the same people who are now hysterically panic-stricken over global warming. Now the problem is too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect that is warming the earth's surface. It certainly is happening, but whether it is a long term trend or another in the long history of periodic climate cycles is not yet known. Of course the Greenies blame it all on SUV's and the energy wasting lifestyle of you and me. They would rather tell us how to live our life in pristine harmony with nature and give up all the benefits of progress, without any proof at all that would solve the problem. Regardless, not one of the Greenies will admit that one of the primary causes of the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere stares at them every time they look in a mirror.

The biggest source of carbon dioxide is from coal fired electricity generating power plants. The reason so many new coal fired power plants were built was because Greenie hysteria effectively halted the construction of environmentally clean nuclear power plants in America nearly 30 years ago, causing the electric power industry to default to building more carbon dioxide producing coal fired power plants. But they aren't about to acknowledge that inconvenient truth.

If the Greenies want to focus on global threats that truly are a clear and present danger they might consider spending their time attacking the problem of deadly bacteria that are becoming resistant to antibiotics and threaten our very existence. A growing number of Americans are dying each year from these superbugs, and very little is being done by medical scientists to develop new drugs to fight this menace. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal said that only 10 new antibiotics have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration since 1998. Right now there are only 13 new antibiotics in development by drug companies compared to more than 60 a decade ago. It appears the American health system is not putting a very high priority on stopping these microscopic killers. Now that is a real problem.

Unfortunately, the Greenies track record with these types of threats is not so stellar either. In fact, perhaps the most damning evidence of the results of their self-righteous crusades hits at the very heart of environmental religion. Rachel Carson is the patron saint of environmentalism, and is often credited with being its progenitor. She published a book in 1962 called "Silent Spring", describing how the insecticide DDT, though non-toxic to humans, was very harmful to a wide range of wildlife. The book created such extensive panic that the chemical was soon banned by most countries in the world.

Prior to Carson's book, DDT was used to control the mosquitoes that spread malaria, which has killed more people than any other disease in history. In fact, according to a recent article in National Geographic, some scientists believe malaria has killed one out every two people who have ever lived. DDT was discovered in the 1940's by a Swiss chemist, and was by far the most effective insecticide for killing mosquitoes ever developed, and at a cost 4 times lower than previous ones.

DDT worked so well that over the decade of the 1950's malaria was basically eliminated in the developed countries of the world, and nearly wiped out in most developing countries. Unfortunately, DDT was heavily overused for agricultural purposes and did create collateral damage to many species of animals. But instead of adopting the more rational approach of limiting the DDT use for agriculture, the result of Carson's book was to eliminate its use altogether.

The unhappy consequence has been the rapid resurgence of malaria around the globe. The World Health Organization estimates that 300 to 500 million people are now afflicted with the disease every year. According to the article in National Geographic, malaria today kills 3,000 children every day in Africa alone. In Zambia, nearly 1 in 5 children die from malaria before they reach the age of 5. A researcher for the National Institutes of Health was quoted as saying, "The ban on DDT may have killed 20 million children". These dreadful statistics are the result of environmentalism taken to the extreme, but no one in the cult will ever acknowledge their culpability.

So the real question is, why would anybody ever believe anything the environmental lunatics have to say? Their arrogantly self-righteous prophesies turn out to be false alarms, and sometimes even deadly as evidenced by the results of the Mother of the Movement's call to action. Never-the-less, they continue to pat themselves on the back, declare their moral virtue and slobber over new-found heroes that are "always wrong but never in doubt".

What Is Wrong With Us?

It seems obvious that every human being's goal in life would be to lead a happy and productive life, free to pursue the living of their choice and to reap the rewards of their efforts. No country in the history of the world has provided better opportunities to achieve those objectives than the United States of America.

Yet the attainment of previously unknown levels of freedom and prosperity in the last few decades has resulted in unimaginable polarization of American society. It has generated a society of greed, arrogance, selfishness and hate - human characteristics that are incompatible with happiness and productivity.

Modern civilization lacks civility. America no longer values the concepts of honesty, integrity, common sense and respect for others. Those who think they have a monopoly on values and principles believe theirs are the only ones that are appropriate, and feel compelled to force them on others. There is no attempt to understand the opinions of others or compromise for the greater good. Everyone is talking and no one is listening. The attitude is I am right, and if you don't agree with me you are an idiot.

What are the causes of this polarization?

1. Politics and Political Parties. They do nothing but demonize and vilify their opponents, constantly portraying the other side as the personification of evil while declaring themselves the saviors of mankind. Furthermore, corruption is rampant as big money allows special interest groups to buy influence, favors and contracts, creating hostile divisions between those who are the beneficiaries of government spending and those who have to pay for it. Americans need to have more choices, whether it be third and fourth parties, or independents. And the campagn system needs to be reformed in a manner that will allow them to get their message across.

2. Journalistic Bias. The mass media is not interested in truth or facts. They publish and broadcast little but opinions designed to influence and control the thinking of the public. They choose what to publish, what not to publish, and slant it in a manner that will convey only their point of view. In a free society there may not be much we can do about that. All one can hope for is that Americans are smart enough to know the truth about journalism and will never allow censorship to silence opposing points of view.

Unfortunately, the current reality of political acrimony and media manipulation of the news has resulted in an American public that is highly misinformed and brainwashed about the most important issues facing modern society.

National Defense and the War on Terror - There seems to be a lack of belief or understanding that brutal, violent people exist who hate us (or more accurately, are jealous of our freedom and prosperity) and will do anything to eliminate us from the face of the earth. It is not important to be liked by the rest of the world. It is important to be prepared to defend what you have when others try to take it from you.

Economic Progress - Capitalism, free markets, fair competition, low taxes and limited government interference have produced the great wealth America has achieved, not redistribution of income, government mandated industrial engineering and high taxes. The tax system should never be used to confiscate the rewards of the productive nor to favor chosen industries or sectors with tax breaks. Socialism works only if the goal is to make everyone equally miserable.


It shouldn't be that difficult to realize liberty means freedom of thought and toleration of opposing views; that our economic system of capitalism and free markets works; and there are bad people out there who want to destroy us because they are insanely jealous of our way of life. Why can't we all understand that and try a little harder to just get along.

A New Method of Governing?

On April 24, 2007, congressional Democrats approved a wide range of new subpoenas for investigations of just about everyone in the duly elected Republican administration of George W. Bush. Specifically, the investigations focused on: Anyone involved with the firings of U.S. Attorneys, who serve at the pleasure of the President and can be fired at any time for any reason; Anyone engaged in political activities at the White House (primary target - Karl Rove, President Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff whose current job IS to provide POLITICAL advice to the President); Anyone involved in providing the President intelligence reports or other advice justifying the war in Iraq (i.e., anyone who relied on reports from every intelligence agency in the free world, previous comments from every politician in the DEMOCRATIC Party leadership, plus undeniable evidence that Saddam Hussein had used weapons of mass destruction in prior wars and against his own people).

In other words, the Democrats have found a new definition of governing. In the United States we no longer have a government focused on legislation to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Instead, we now have a government of accusations, allegations, investigations, character assassination and unwarranted indictments of people trying to do their jobs - who have the unfortunate circumstance of being members of or appointed by the leaders of the opposing party. The congressional Democrats have no interest in doing anything but creating phony scandals and conducting hysterical witch hunts to discredit their opponents.

Few would argue that Karl Rove is not a devious political manipulator whose main function is to embellish the image of his boss and protect him from the partisan attacks of his political adversaries. In an ideal world his services would not be necessary. But in today's political environment they are. Political enemies are constantly dreaming up fraudulent allegations of illegal conduct, unethical behavior, incompetence and/or contentions of disreputable and failing policies. Some may contain grains of truth, but in most cases they are obstructionist at best and at the worst nothing more than obvious efforts to undermine the President. Politics has become more public relations than public service. Karl Rove is not the first administrative aide to have this duty. Those who seriously think he is any worse than James Carville or George Stephanopoulis have very short memories.

Perhaps the Democrats should spend some time doing what they were elected to do - work on fixing the very real and very serious problems associated with social security and medicare. And it would be helpful to our nation's security if they could propose some realistic strategies on how to protect American citizens from Islamic terrorists. But they won't, because they have no answers for those issues that are the most important to the future of America. All they can do is demean and vilify those who actually are on the front lines of attempting to solve these problems.

Life Goes On - Maybe

The Democrats won. Life goes on. But perhaps for not as long given their views on national defense.

The Democrats just don't seem to be interested in national defense. Instead of keeping the bad guys locked up at Gitmo, they want to let them out to go kill again. They don't want to monitor terrorist communications in order to prevent them from planning and executing further atrocities. They don't want to use a little coercion to gain critical information that would also be helpful in preventing future attacks. They would rather leave our country's security up to the United Nations, where most of the members would rather see the United States disappear from the face of the earth.

The leaders of today's Democratic Party would rather spend their energy demonizing the domestic opposition and promising benefits for alternative lifestyles than dealing with the fact that brutal tyrants acquiring weapons of mass destruction and intent on using them still exist in the world. FDR did not hesitate to inflict collateral damage on German cities in order to defeat the global ambitions of Adolf Hitler. Harry Truman understood that collateral damage was necessary in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to bring Japan to its knees. Our leaders used to know that to win a war you have to not only destroy the enemy's capability to fight but his will to fight.

But Democrats don't seem to want to deal with the clear and present dangers America faces. They choose to focus on handing out entitlements to people who vote for them, to be paid for by those who didn't. But unless they begin to take the War on Terror more seriously, the Americans that do survive may be surprised to find out the islamic fundamentalists in control frown on abortion, gay marriage, affirmative action, womens rights and freedom of any kind.

Out of Control

The elections are over, and the Democrats won. Good for them. The Republicans forgot why they were elected, and they needed to be reminded. But the polarization problems are not getting any better. Everywhere you look in America today you see a country that has lost its moral compass. Half the country seems to believe America is the cause of world problems, not the last line of defense against murderous tyrants, dictators and despots. Half the country thinks more government bureaucracies and higher taxes is the answer to economic problems, not the roadblocks to prosperity.

Journalists no longer report the news but slant it in such a way as to turn the public against their elected leaders by ignoring the good deeds and magnifying the bad through misrepresentation and clever editing (maybe that will change now that their boys and girls are back in charge). There is close-minded devotion to questionable causes, with blind hatred and demonization of those who dare to think differently. There is a large portion of the population who view themselves as victims of society, and become dependent on government welfare instead of taking advantage of the opportunities that exist to educate themselves and improve their lives.

Capitalism has lost its focus. Financiers and corporate leaders no longer believe in creating great companies with innovative new products that benefit and improve society while providing meaningful and satisfying jobs for American workers. Instead they now believe capitalism means to maximize their own personal wealth at the expense of everyone else, by doing deals that put millions of dollars in their own pockets while destroying the jobs and lives of competent, dedicated workers.

Good high quality companies with superior products and services no longer attract investment capital. Professional investors, in the guise of unaccountable and unregulated hedge funds and private equity funds now play high stakes games with leverage and derivative securities to attack, acquire, restructure and destroy perfectly good companies in order to obtain obscene profits for themselves.

There is no longer personal responsibility for one's actions. If something bad happens it must be somebody else's fault, and all one has to do is file a lawsuit and get rich. In fact, that attitude has evolved into inventing a grievance and getting rich by accusing somebody of something and filing a lawsuit.

Something is very wrong here. America no longer seems to believe in personal responsibility, freedom, democracy, capitalism, free markets, ethical behavior and respect for others? How did that happen? Perhaps the fault lies with We The People. We have fallen asleep at the switch. We have let the mud-slinging politicians, opinionated journalists, slick lawyers, clueless educators, airhead celebrities, greedy financiers - the people who control the money and information in America - poison our brains with politically correct bullshit and condescending instructions on what we are to believe and how we are to live our lives.

And maybe a lot of us are perfectly happy with that. After all, they are the elite and obviously smarter than us. And we don't want to do anything but watch "reality" shows and Dr. Phil, see what Hillary or Oprah are wearing to the next gala, hear what George Clooney or Barbra Streisand have to say about important issues, listen to Howard Stern or read check out line tabloids anyway.

If that is true, then it may be too late. But the next time a nuclear or biochemical weapon destroys an American city, a company goes bankrupt because of a frivoulous lawsuit, your federal tax payment skyrockets, you lose your job because of an unnecessary corporate takeover, a freed criminal kills again, or your social security check is cut in half because the government has run out of funds to pay for both your retirement and somebody's abortion - then some of us might realize we have been taken advantage of.

I have never heard anyone on the editorial pages of American newspapers, in the ivory towers of academia or the beautiful people hangouts of Hollywood explain why we have an immigration problem if America is such an evil place. Obviously people throughout the world still know that the United States of America is the land of freedom and opportunity. Too bad that so many who have spent their whole lives here have fallen victim to the incessant brainwashing from those with the poison pens and films filled with falsehoods. But when you have your head up your ass, you can't see the light.

America's Choice

Although a number of issues exist that shape political discussion in America, the ones that really need to be at the forefront are the issues that threaten our very existence. There are apparently two forces working in the world today capable of destroying civilization, and each political party in the United States is associated with recognizing one and not the other.

Liberal Democrats are believers in global warming, which they see as the major threat to humanity. Conservative Republicans are seen to be focused on preventing radical Islamic extremists from killing or subjugating all they consider infidels (everyone who is not a believer in Islam) and establishing a worldwide religious state based on their strict interpretation of Islamic religious law (Sharia).

There is certainly evidence the earth is currently going through a phase of global warming. Even though logic would indicate that human beings are contributing to the process, there is not undeniable evidence that the warming period is nothing more than a natural cyclical occurrence exacerbated by worldwide urbanization. Furthermore, there has been nothing proposed by anyone other than shutting down modern industrialized economies and returning to an agrarian society that would have any impact on the problem, the Kyoto Treaty being the primary example.

On the other hand, radical Islamic extremism is a clear and present danger that most of the world and a significant portion of Americans are trying to ignore while the danger to civilization grows more serious as the perpetrators and their sponsors develop more lethal weapons of mass destruction. These people do not want to negotiate or co-exist. Their goal is to eliminate freedom and democracy from the face of the earth.

Of course the situation is not quite that simple, as there are people in both political parties in America that consider both issues to be a major problem. However, the Democratic party is led by such anti-war demagogues as Howard Dean, John Kerry, Al Gore, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy - each of whom declare that the the United States should abandon the war on terror. They want to cut and run and pretend terrorism doesn't exist. Republicans, however, do recognize global warming is a serious issue - they just don't believe acceptance of the terms of the Kyoto Treaty is the answer.

The question is, given these two major threats to our survival, which party should be in charge of leading the country? That is the question Americans will have to answer when the go to the voting booths.

Why Are Democrats Trying To Destroy Our Country?

The Democrats in the senate have again blocked legislation to allow drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Given that we are as of now dependent on unstable Arab countries and increasingly unfriendly Venezuela for our supplies of oil, and given that the northeastern shore of Alaska is not exactly a vacation garden spot for neither man nor beast, this continued obstruction boggles the mind. One has to wonder if Democrats are on the side of the United States of America or our enemies.

Environmentalists and their protagonists in the mainstream media loudly proclaim that it is the fault of SUV drivers in fly-over country that we have an energy shortage and resultant high prices. I wonder if any of these greenies want to give up their grossly oversize houses, which also consume massive quantities of energy, or cut down on their jetting from coast to coast or to Europe in gas-guzzling private jets or first-class seats to lecture the rest of us about saving energy.

I really try to be independent in my political thinking. I am not ideologically tied to either party. I think Tom DeLay is a sleazeball, just as is nearly every other senator or representative in Washington today. An honest, dedicated, rational and qualified person finds it nearly impossible to get elected in the current environment of lying, cheating, interest group pandering, and character assassinating election campaigns. But even if the nature of politics tends to attract the less admirable among us, one would still think they would try to act in the best interests of our country.

I am very disappointed with the Republican party as they seem to be no better than their opposition in addressing out of control government spending for entitlement programs. Nor do they seem to understand the basic stimulative qualities of Ronald Reagan's tax policies - low rates accompanied by overall fairness through the elimination of tax loopholes.

But I simply do not understand why the current leadership of the Democratic party advocates doing all the wrong things. They want to raise taxes, which is a guaranteed way to derail economic growth. They want to give up the fight against terrorists, which would allow them to regroup and rebuild to come back even stronger down the road. And they act to keep a lid on development of natural resources, which indicates they are intent on forcing a return to the dark ages. Those aren't exactly ideas that will "promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity" (From the Preamble to the US Constitution).

Historically Democrats have advocated the same things as Republicans. JFK cut taxes. FDR led us into war to preserve our freedoms. They have in the past always supported free markets, capitalism and progress. But no more. They have devolved into lunatic, power mad obstructionists whose only goal is to overthrow our democratically elected government through any means possible. Their stated plans are a prescription for the destruction of individual freedom, equal opportunity and rising standards of living - and the eventual return to serfdom, tyranny and economic stagnation.

Great civilizations have risen and disappeared throughout history. We shouldn't be so smug to believe that it can't happen again. No nation on earth can bring us to our knees. Only we can do that to ourselves, and the Democrats are trying their hardest to make it happen.

Ultimate Weapon of Mass Destruction

Isn't it interesting that George Bush is accused of lying by Democratic Party leaders when he states that American intelligence agencies reported Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in 2003, when every one of them knows that every intelligence agency in the world said Saddam Hussein not only still had them at that time but was continually working to acquire more. Meanwhile, the 9/11 commission, comprised of many of these same critics, is caught red-handed lying about critical information received from the "Able Danger" intelligence operation during their investigation. It appears that Democrats not only attempt to rewrite history, they also try to redefine the word lying.

There are certainly enough legitimate differences of opinion to be discussed about George Bush and the Republicans conduct of the war and American policy. I don't agree with much of what they are doing either, and I personally believe they seriously misunderstand the nature of Islam and the culture of the Middle East. But do the current leaders of the Democratic Party offer a viable alternative? I think not. Their continued obstructionist behavior, intentional misrepresentation of the facts and reliance on demonization of Republicans instead of logical debate of the issues demonstrate they do not have the character, honesty or the intelligence to lead this country.

Why do the Democrats think it is necessary to create unsubstantiated lies and vilify Republicans in order to turn the public against them? The answer - because it is the only weapon they have. They have no ideas or policies of their own that realistically address the issues of our time. They have no plan to deal with out of control government spending, particularly concerning social security and medicare, nor do they have any concept of how to sustain economic growth or provide for a defense against terror that America faces. They can talk all they want about abortion, the environment, gay rights, etc., but those are not the issues that will determine the future of our country. The Democrats have nothing of substance to offer.

So they create lies, deceive, misrepresent, rant, rave, demonize and vilify. They utilize any means at their disposal to turn Americans against their elected government. They obstruct any progress against seriously dealing with ballooning entitlement programs, and they work to create another military defeat for America on the verge of victory. Nothing is sacred, nothing is immoral in their blindly ambitious quest to seek power. If they succeed, the real economic problems that confront us will be ignored and our country will be left defenseless against our enemies. Sounds to me like Democrats are the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.

PC Gestapo and The Triple F's Out of Control

O.K. Enough is enough. You can't even read the sports page any more without being over-exposed to politically correct bullshit. Yesterday they complain about there being no black players on the Houston Astro's roster. Today they double the dose with front page stories about a WNBA pro basketball player "heroically" coming out of the closet and then the Air Force Academy's football coach's supposedly inflammatory comment that "Afro-American kids can run very, very well". The only rational response to these non-issues is so what, who cares, and they can.

There is no law that says blacks have to outnumber whites (or latinos) on every baseball team, like they do in nearly every other sport even though they are only 12% of the population in America. No one really cares any more whether some guys like guys and some girls like girls - it is a fact of life. And you don't see many white guys running the sprints on the track team.

Political Correctness is out of control in America. The Triple F's - feminazi's, faggots (the word is in the dictionary, so bitch to Webster, not me) and freeloaders - loudly proclaim to be victims of white male oppression. It is way past time for these people to shut the hell up. They are not oppressed or victimized. They are just exceedingly vocal, arrogant, self-absorbed, spoiled brats who think they are entitled to get their own way, and that the rest of us owe it to them. This is the only country in the world where they can get away with their bullshit.

The vast majority of us don't give a damn about their behavior, while they want to control ours. They don't give a damn about our opinions, but are outraged when we don't agree with theirs. We are more than willing to co-exist, but they need to get out of our faces. We are not obligated to condone or support their lifestyle. I, nor anyone I know, has ever enslaved or discriminated against anyone, disrespected or demeaned any women, or gotten in the face of a faggot and called him a pervert. I am not, nor are any other white people I know, "The Man". We are not keeping anyone "down".

But if you are a heterosexual white male (or any hard working straight man of any race) in America working your butt off to make a decent living for your family instead of sermonizing from some academic ivory tower or left wing think tank, you have experienced your share of being kicked around. Most likely you were not born with a silver spoon in your mouth, have struggled to get ahead, and been disrespected, demeaned and discriminated against many times in your life. And in this day and age, you are demonized. Sooner or later white males will start to take this abuse seriously and snap, and it won't be pretty. That is not a threat, that is a prediction. So it might be about time for the Triple F's to shut the hell up.

Most of what I have written here will offend a lot of people. So what! It's certainly O.K. for the Triple F's to offend us. They can say anything they want (ever listened to a rap song, watched an R or X rated movie or listened to a conservative bashing political rally?), but the rest of us can't. That is bullshit, and it is way past time to call it bullshit.

In America today you can't say this stuff. The Triple F's are working as hard as they can to outlaw the truth, and any Neanderthal white male chauvinist pig who utters the truth is ostracized at best and hung by his gonads and stoned at worst. I, for one, have had enough of political correctness. I am tired of left-wingers telling me how I should think, how I should live my life, and that I am a mean and evil demon oppressing and victimizing humanity. In reality, I am guilty of nothing more than not blindly and contritely accepting their bullshit. And if you are a white heterosexual male who because of incessant bombardment of pc theory has started to believe and accept their bullshit, pull your head out of your ass before it is too late.

No Good Deeds Go Unpunished

I returned a few days ago from eight days in Pass Christian, Mississippi, helping clean up and remove the slimiest, smelliest debris you can possibly imagine from black families homes that were completely submerged by the storm surge from Hurricane Katrina. And the first thing I see in the news when I get back is another million man march on Washington organized by Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

I cannot speak for what happened or is still happening in New Orleans or any other town hit by Katrina. I can only address what I witnessed. The eye of the storm did not hit New Orleans. It hit just west of Pass Christian along the Louisiana - Mississippi border. The town is a scene of total devastation. It is like Hiroshima without the radiation. The eastern part of the town contains the remains of homes that were ripped apart by the winds and flooded by the storm surge. There is not a house without major damage. The western part of town is just gone - nothing but a pile of rubble. Less than ten miles to the west was the town of Waveland, which I understand no longer exists.

Our volunteer group consisted of 13 members of our church, all white, and we were the third of four groups the church has sent to the area from our home in Texas. Throughout the area many more Christian groups of all denominations were doing the same thing we were (didn't see any muslim groups), as were several groups of kids from colleges from as far away as South Carolina. All of us were volunteers, gladly doing the work for free, one house at a time. Except for a few of the college kids, we were all white.

We went into houses that had been sitting untouched for 6 weeks, with black and green mold covering the walls and still wet furniture. Every room was nothing but a 3 to 4 foot deep mess of damp displaced and upside down furniture, fallen sheetrock, insulation, clothing, mud and backed up sewage. The smell was indescribable. It took two days at each house to remove the debris, tear down the remaining saturated ceilings and walls, haul it all out to within ten feet of the street so the trucks could scoop it up with their huge shovels, and powerwash the whole inside of the house to restore the interior to something that could be rebuilt. All that was left when we were done was brick on the outside and studs on the inside.

We completely gutted two houses during the week. One was for a black family that had come back once since the hurricane, looked inside and turned around and went back to Texas to stay with relatives a while longer. The second was owned by a black family that had just paid off their mortgage after 28 years. The lady of the house was raising 3 of her grandchildren following the death of her daughter, and was obviously still in a state of shock. That was certainly understandable as I don't think any human being could look at the rubble of their home and know where to begin the recovery. When we were done, she gratefully told us we had restored hope that life could go on.

None of us volunteers in Pass Christian are here for the big pat on the back. We are here gladly doing what human beings should be doing for each other. The point of this narrative is that the devastation and destruction from Katrina is beyond comprehension, and after viewing it first hand you realize there is no way to adequately prepare for or plan for recovery from such a natural disaster. Whole cities cannot be rebuilt overnight. Relief workers can only do so much to help shelter, clothe and feed the victims. Government agencies are doing as much as they can given the limitations of functioning within a bureaucracy, but if not for the volunteer work of the mostly white church groups, the gulf coast would never recover. Everything that is humanly possible is being done, but that evidently does not seem to be enough for Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

I am a white male. I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, and in fact the house I grew up in was smaller than the two we cleaned out in Pass Christian. The vast majority of white people are not handed the key to the good life on a silver platter, and most of us have to overcome a lot of obstacles to earn a decent living. I am not a racist, and neither are the people doing the relief work as most of the work is being done by white people while a large portion of the victims are black.

Personally, I know many couples where one is white and one is black, and I could care less. Every black man I have ever gotten to know is an outstanding person with the same goals in life as me, to do your best to successfully raise your family and instill within them the qualities of honesty, high character and respect for every human being. Most of them are much smarter and more accomplished than I am.

Black men have been integral to the successful development of the United States of America for generations - from well before social giant Frederick Douglas and scientist George Washington Carver to Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell and beyond. Today black men are CEO's of major corporatations, Nobel prize laureates, successful doctors, engineers, inventors and astronauts. Every black athlete and entertainer is obviously someone who has worked very hard to get where he is.

But there is something very wrong with a large segment of black American men. Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have for decades sustained and capitalized on the issue of race to maintain their status in the limelight. They have created a whole class of parasites on society, who sit on their asses, won't get a job, live off of government welfare, and then protest that America is not doing enough for them. These supposed "black leaders" are destroying any chance the people who are deceived by their divisive lies have of ever becoming real members of a society that has achieved the highest living standards mankind has ever known.

Of course there is a small segment of weak-minded, irrelevant white Americans who are racists. They no longer have any influence whatsoever on American public policy or culture. The America denounced by the "Reverends" Farrakhan, Jackson and Sharpton has not existed for quite some time, and its memory is only prolonged by the absurd actions these men undertake. They continue to create and capitalize on the false images of America because they know that if the issue of race disappears they have no relevance to anyone, and their days in the spotlight are over. They have done nothing more than create and perpetuate a culture of victimhood, dependency and expectations of entitlement. And no matter how much anyone does for this minority of black citizens that fall within their web, it is never enough.

Anarchy in America

Subsequent to hurricane Katrina, anarchy and barbarianism broke out at the New Orleans Convention Center among the victims of the disaster that took shelter there. Armed gangs were reported to have roamed the Center committing murder, raping teenagers and terrorizing the traumatized victims with no intervention whatsoever by the authorities. The media, and many Americans, seem to want to blame this on the lack of swift response by government agencies to the disaster. There is no doubt the response could have been much better, but this uncivilized behavior has much deeper roots, and is the result of decades of welfare state federal policies as well as local government corruption and inaction.

Millions of federal dollars allocated over the years for disaster planning and the building of levees in Louisiana were not spent for their stated purposes, and more than likely ended up in politicians and their supporters pockets. If the citizens of Louisiana want to keep electing corrupt politicians who keep the poor poor and the uneducated uneducated, then that is their business.

But Louisiana is also a microcosm of the ultimate result of the socialist welfare state policies advocated by the Democratic party on a national scale. I have always viewed the philosophical difference between the Republican and Democratic parties on domestic policy embodied in the old saying "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life."

The Democrats idea of compassionate leadership is to give a man a fish every day because they believe he is incapable of providing for himself, and the better off in society owe it to him and can afford to do it. But that philosophy breeds dependency and gives the man no ability or opportunity to control his own destiny. It also creates a life of idleness, desperation and a sense of victimization. Many of those caught in this situation come to believe there is no hope, often leading to a life of gangs, drugs, violence and lawlessness.

New Orleans was one of the poorest, least educated, crime ridden cities in the country, aided and abetted by a traditionally corrupt city and state government. What happened in New Orleans was the result of decades of welfare state policies in action. No one could imagine that the senseless savagery and barbarism witnessed in New Orleans could happen in the United States of America. But it did. No one can imagine this could happen on a national scale. But if government policies continue to give a man a fish rather than teaching him to fish, it can.

Do Democrats Love Tyranny, Or Are They Just Suicidal?

Democrats have done such a good job of misleading the American public on Iraq lately that George Bush had to go on TV last night to remind Americans why we are fighting the War on Terror. If the democrats are successful in brain-washing the public, as they appear to have been on killing any meaningful reform of social security, future generations of Americans will again suffer the consequences. And what is at stake in this case is the most basic human right of all - survival.

Headlines this morning proclaim that democrats are outraged President Bush had the audacity to connect the war in Iraq with the events of 9/11. Once again, the ability of the democratic party leadership and their mouthpieces in the mainstream media to manipulate public opinion is almost beyond comprehension. They are desperately working to turn Americans against the war by relying on their typical strategy of separating cause from effect, because if that can be done then doubts begin to surface about the legitimacy of the effect.

But guess what, folks. THE WAR ON TERROR IS DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO 9/11. Nothing can change that fact, but a continuous stream of misleading "news" stories and editorials misrepresenting reality by highlighting the bad and ignoring the good can cause people to forget it.

A friend of mine, who like most thinking Americans is concerned about the situation in Iraq and often questions his own support of the war, sent me the following email. "The question I struggle with is the statistic that up to 150 million people were murdered in mass, politically motivated killings in the 20th century. As a citizen of the one country in the world that has the greatest ability to stop the murders, should we insist our military save these people? Or should we close our borders and tell everyone else 'good luck' "?

My personal response to that question is if we could be 100% certain we could close our borders and escape the carnage occurring throughout the rest of the world, then I would be all for closing the borders and telling everyone else "good luck and God bless." But the history of human behavior has proven that course of action would be dangerously naive - and suicidal. Once tyranny rules the rest of the world, they wouldn't allow us to sit alone on our little utopian pedestal. Eventually, they would come for us. We have already allowed the forces of evil to grow to dangerous proportions. If we don't take them on now, it will soon be too late.

From their behavior it seems that democrats are either advocates of tyranny and rule of the self-appointed elite (as long as it is them), or are dangerously uninformed and naive about history and human nature. Terrorists have declared war on western civilization. They have been murdering anyone who happens to have a different opinion (and any innocent who happens to be in the vicinity) for decades. 9/11 was just one event of this war. It is a war western civilization cannot afford to lose.

It is tough enough fighting terrorists who kill indiscriminately, know no bounds of decency and easily blend in with the local population. It does not make it easier that most of the countries in continental Europe have already surrendered, as usual. But it makes it even tougher when, for purposes of nothing more than political and personal gain and with complete disregard for the survival of the American people, politicians in our own country conspire to mislead the public and turn it against our efforts to defend ourselves from those whose goal is to eliminate freedom and democracy from the face of the earth.

It's Called Capitalism, And It Is The Foundation of Our Economic System

It has been well known for some time that Democrats are opposed to capitalism and free markets. There is no hope of enlightenment for these close-minded socialists, who are blindly dedicated to fighting anything the Republican administration wants to accomplish. But it appears there are also quite a few Republicans who have no faith in the economic system their party advocates. Social Security Reform is really a no-brainer, but the debate is becoming filled with demagoguery, misinformation and obstructionism - and many Republicans are just as guilty as the Democrats.

The foundation of the American economy is capitalism and free enterprise - i.e., private ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods and services. Yet many Americans, and Congressmen of both stripes, do not seem to understand what that means. Although much of American business is conducted by privately owned family enterprises and small entrepreneurs, the pure embodiment of capitalism is represented by the stock market. The stock market is the way the majority of ordinary citizens, who don't have the means or the desire to own their own businesses, can participate in the wealth creation generated by free enterprise.

Democrats can be in denial all they want, but the fact remains that changes must be made to the current social security system. The problem is quite simple. Sometime around 2018, only 13 years down the road, the system will start paying out more than it takes in, becoming cash flow negative. Sometime around 2042, only 24 years after that, all the current cash "surplus" now invested in Treasury bills will be gone - meaning that all benefits paid to retirees must be totally funded by payroll taxes. At that time, unless payroll taxes are raised, benefits to retirees will only be 73% of what is promised - and less each year after that. In other words, today's 30 year old's and everyone younger are screwed.

George Bush wants to let the dynamics of free enterprise and private ownership solve the problem by directing payroll deductions to private investment accounts for each citizen rather than disappearing into the vast pyramid scheme that currently exists. Democrats and weak-livered Republicans argue that the stock market is too "risky" to let the average citizen expose his retirement assets to the stock market. Well, THAT DEPENDS ON HOW YOU WANT TO DEFINE RISK.

If each person was allowed to invest his private retirement account in individual stocks of his choosing, then of course it could be argued that the level of risk is relatively high. But that would not be allowed to happen, as the only equity investments that would be allowed would be in a broadly diversified market index fund. Today the social security "surplus" is supposedly invested in U.S. Treasury issues, securities that over time have returned on average more than 6.5% per year less than the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index. To me, investing in low return securities creates a VERY HIGH RISK of minimizing investment returns, and is irresponsible money management. It is the primary reason why the social security trust funds will be depleted by as early as 2042.

Now comes the good part. The research firm of Ibbotson Associates has been compiling for quite some time the annual returns generated by various investments since 1926. Over 78 years, the average annual return of the stock market, as measured by the S&P 500 index, has been 10.4% (The average return for treasury bills is 3.8%). For any individual year the worst return was a loss of 43.3% in 1931, and the best a gain of 54.0% in 1933. So, for any individual year, the risk of loss in stocks is relatively high.

But over time the risk of loss diminishes dramatically. In fact, there has never been a 10 year period (1926-1935, 1927-1936, etc, through 1995-2004) that has experienced a loss. And if you are 42 (25 years until retirement) or younger, you might want to know that the lowest annual return generated by the stock market for any 25 year period is 6.0% (and for 35 year periods the lowest return was 8.0%), significantly above the low returns produced by treasury bills.

Let's assume you are a 30 year old today, making $30,000 a year. Under the current program, you have 6.2% of your salary, or $1,860, deducted from your paycheck for social security. Your employer matches that, so you have a total of $3,720 "invested" for you in your retirement account. Assuming the government invests the $3,720 in treasury bills (which of course it doesn't since most of it is paid right back out to current retirees), in 37 years at 3.8% that would be worth $14,786. Now assume that instead of the $3,720 going to the government, it all went into your equity indexed private account. At the average annual return of 10.4%, in 37 years it would be worth $144,677. That's right, $144,677, nearly 10 times as much. Do the math. The government would have blown $129,891 of your money from just one year's deduction. Mind-boggling, isn't it.

Again, that is from just one year's deduction. The effect is the same no matter what your age, only the future value of each years contribution falls marginally each successive year. And not only does the account grow, it is actually yours and your family's to keep, even when you croak - unlike the current system. On the payout side, the current monthly full retirement check at 67 is around $2,000, or $24,000 a year. In 37 years, at 3.0% inflation (the average rate since 1926), the monthly payout would go to around $6,000, or $72,000 a year. Certainly seems to me that putting each yearly deduction in a private account goes a lot farther toward meeting, and exceeding, that payout than the current program.

I am 56, so George's plan won't effect me at all. But if I was under the age of 55 I would be telling the AARP and each and every congressman that they had better get with the program, or else. And in fact, instead of just 4% being diverted to private accounts, as proposed, I would demand the whole 12.4%.

Steve Doud
March 4, 2005

Get A Grip

Howard Dean has just been elected as head of the Democratic Party. At this rate, before long the Democrats will become irrelevant to national politics and likely be surpassed by the Libertarians as the primary opposition party. They just don't get it. They continue to believe the religious right is solely responsible for their recent losses in the presidential and congressional elections.

If one is paranoid about something, they will see it everywhere they look. In order to explain why the majority of Americans do not buy into a particular point of view, there must be some sinister force at work the voters just don't understand. For the Democrats, the sinister force is religious zealots. It certainly could not be possible that the majority of clear thinking voters would actually prefer lower taxes or fighting against terrorists where they live. It has to be the religious nuts.

Do religious nuts exist? Of course. Do they all vote Republican? Probably. My mother is a perfect example. She wants the government to do everything for her - provide free health care and subsidized housing as well as clean air and the elimination of any bug that might enter her apartment. I tell her that she is really a Democrat, but since she is a religious nut she always votes Republican. Do I think religious nuts are scary? Yes, I do. But I am not arrogant and judgmental enough to believe I am 100% right and they are 100% wrong.

But the Democrats also have a significant number of rabid single issue nut cases who will always vote for Democrats. In my humble opinion, those who fanatically believe the world is a peaceful utopia and the United States of America is the source of global evil have severe intellectual issues. Those who unthinkingly hate George Bush because the New York Times, CBS and other major networks incessantly tell them to are downright scary. And those who believe abortion and gay marriage are the most important issues of our times are seriously mentally impaired. Yet those folks are arrogant, judgmental and self-righteous enough to believe they are 100% right, and they all vote Democrat.

Personally, I am not George Bush's biggest fan. I do not agree with many of the details of economic policies he has put into place, and I certainly could care less if democracy ever comes to the muslim countries. But raising taxes will not stimulate economic growth nor reduce the budget deficit, and the war against terror is not only a justifiable war, it is a necessary war - one that was declared on us way back in the late 70's but we ignored for too long.

Blaming the religious right for the Democrat's inability to sell their message is just plain wrong. And I see no evidence that every action George Bush takes is based on his religious faith. Again, in my humble opinion, it seems to me the actions he takes are designed to promote economic growth and protect American citizens from foreign enemies. That is his job. At the present time the economy is unmistakably growing, and those who dared to wage war on us are finally paying for it. And, last time I looked, women are still getting abortions, gays are still able to practice whatever disgusting behaviour they want, those who don't like the war don't have to fight it, and no government agency has closed down the New York Times or CBS News - and none of their biased writers, reporters or talking heads have been censored or incarcerated.

America At War

Western civilization is at war. We now live in a world where any small group of fanatics with a cause have access to biological, chemical and even nuclear weapons that can cause death and destruction on a massive scale. The current primary threat is radical Islam, which after centuries of dormancy due to its incapacity to spread influence beyond its borders, is now a violent malignancy that is metastasizing as weapons of mass destruction and strategies of terror have become effective methods in their battle against their perceived enemies.

The perceived enemy of Islam, as the murderous dictators, autocratic ayatollah's and ruthless jihadists have publicly proclaimed, are the naive, unsuspecting, fat and happy democratic societies and capitalistic economies of western civilization. Like any malignancy, if it is not diagnosed and defeated at an early stage, it will cause the demise of the organism it inhabits.

Unfortunately, there are many among us who still refuse to believe that we are at war, and criticize every effort to defend ourselves against this obvious threat. In America, the leadership of the Democratic Party and their propagandists have become more dangerous than Osama bin Laden. Osama and his sycophantic acolytes may cause the deaths of thousands of innocent people, but they won't cause the demise of Western Civilization. Only Western Civilization itself can destroy Western Civilization, from within, and that takes pathetic snake oil salesmen like Teddy Kennedy, Al Gore, John Kerry, Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer to spread their outrageous lies and unsubstantiated accusations against those responsible for defending American lives.

But the most dangerous enemies of western civilization of all may be Michael Moore and the Joseph Goebbels inspired leaders of the fourth estate, who publish and broadcast their left wing opinions and slanted coverage of events to the masses, and call it news. They are much more dangerous than Osama bin Laden and his terrorist organization, because the pen, and the directed motion picture, are mightier than the sword, because the pen and the movie can lie and deceive.

The Tactics of Those Without Substance

Last fall the Democratic Party's sole campaign strategy was one of making up outrageous lies about their opponent, and then accusing the opponent of lying. It appears, from the recent grilling of Condoleeza Rice during her confirmation as Secretary of State, that Democrats still believe that approach will eventually work.

Just What The World Needs

The one thing there is way too much of in this world is unsolicited advice. Therefore, I have started this new blog in order to add to the confusion.