I want to make Hay

Why am I not here? I love books, I love castles, thus, I must love Hay! Whet your appetite for Hay here. Added to my summer reading list is William Hague's book on Pitt, the youngest British Prime Minister...ever. He (meaning Hague) apparently wooed the audience with his humor at Hay.

My heart is beating faster now with all this talk of books because now I can read for fun!
For the last three years I've been pursuing a masters degree in Christian Theology and Philosophy and now I'm DONE! I finally get to read for fun, for pleasure, for giggles. I may even read a NOVEL. A real hefty beast like The Brothers Karamazov or a fluffier bit like Kate Atkinson's Case Histories, the first book recommendation by Litblog Co-op. I'm already committed to reading Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey during the month of July. to get into the mood of all things Victorian I will be taking trips to the oceanside to collect seaweed for pressing. I may even post my efforts. Oh, and I MUST read the biography of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. My father gave me the complete set for my birthday right around the time I started my master's program. For three years he's been asking me if I've read it and for three years I've disappointed him with my response. Perhaps I'll surprise him with a 'yes" this August.

Abdullah Ocalan--PKK Terrorist

Ocalan headed the PKK a Kurdish terrorist group that committed violence all over south eastern Turkey during the 1980's and the 1990's. Though a Kurd, he didn't discriminate between Turks and Kurds in his murderous campaigns. He claimed he was fighting for a Kurdish homeland, Kurdistan. Ocalan escaped Turkey and went into hiding but then was caught by Israeli Intelligence in Kenya about six years ago. They turned him over to the Turkish government for trial and punishment.

While visiting Diyarbakir, Turkey (the unofficial capital of the Kurds) last summer we happened to stumble upon a political rally for Leyla Zana. Leyla Zana was a political prisoner for ten years. She was imprisoned for wearing the Kurdish colors and speaking in Kurdish during her swearing in ceremony. Since all things Kurdish were illegal at the time, the Turkish government immediatly arrested her. While we were in her home town of Diyarbakir we learned that she had been released five years early. We stood in 100 degree heat for over an hour waiting to hear her speak. Rallying the crowd during the wait was a woman draped in the Kurdish flag. I don't know what she was saying (I think she was speaking Kurdish), but I do know that every now and again the people would chant "Apo, Apo" the nickname for Ocalan or wave their hands with the symbol for the PKK (unbeknownst to us at the time the sign for the PKK looks exactly like the sign for victory. So what I thought was showing solidarity for victory of the early release of Leyla Zana, was actually support for the PKK. I figured it out eventually, but not before I felt a fool.) Many of the people we talked to didn't express hope for a separate Kurdistan though they dreamed of one. I think most of them just wanted the freedom to be Kurdish in Turkey meaning the freedom to speak Kurdish, hear TV programs in Kurdish etc. The Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without their own homeland.

Ok, sorry for the tangent...but the question of the Kurds is not going to go away. I'm sympathetic to their plight, but don't condone terrorism as the means to achieve their goal of a free state. The homeland they desire runs through Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria and includes the fertile and oil rich areas of all these countries. Call me skeptical but I doubt that they'll get this homeland any time soon.

How Turkey handles terrorism will determine how many other Kurdish groups will resort to violence to get their way. But back to Ocalan, why bring him up now? The prissy European Union has determined that he should be re-tried since he wasn't given a lawyer upon arrival in Turkey. The guy is a TERRORIST! Would the EU rather he go free? Should criminals and terrorists be treated the same? I think he was lucky enough to escape the death penalty and get a life sentence. And that only because Turkey abolished the death penalty out of respect for European sensibilities. If that didn't happen, there wouldn't be any talk today of a re-trial 'cause Ocalan would be dead. What is the point of the new trial? Won't it be just for show? After all, the body count of 30,000 from his past terrorism isn't going away. He's still the one responsible for the indiscriminate killing. Is this justice?

One Man's Journey

This is a compelling read about one man's journey from the left to the right (?). Of course it's compelling to me since I'm already a woman of the right. A few highlights:

A turning point came at a dinner party on the day Ronald Reagan famously described the Soviet Union as the pre-eminent source of evil in the modern world. The general tenor of the evening was that Reagan's use of the word "evil" had moved the world closer to annihilation. There was a palpable sense that we might not make it to dessert.
When I casually offered that the surviving relatives of the more than 20 million people murdered on orders of Joseph Stalin might not find "evil'" too strong a word, the room took on a collective bemused smile of the sort you might expect if someone had casually mentioned taking up child molestation for sport.
My progressive companions had a point. It was rude to bring a word like "gulag" to the dinner table.

AND

These days the postmodern left demands that government and private institutions guarantee equality of outcomes. Any racial or gender "disparities" are to be considered evidence of culpable bias, regardless of factors such as personal motivation, training, and skill. This goal is neither liberal nor progressive; but it is what the left has chosen. In a very real sense it may be the last card held by a movement increasingly ensnared in resentful questing for group-specific rights and the subordination of citizenship to group identity. There's a word for this: pathetic.

AND

In the name of "diversity," the University of Arizona has forbidden discrimination based on "individual style." The University of Connecticut has banned "inappropriately directed laughter." Brown University, sensing unacceptable gray areas, warns that harassment "may be intentional or unintentional and still constitute harassment." (Yes, we're talking "subconscious harassment" here. We're watching your thoughts ...).

US vs. Them

That's US as in United States versus other countries. Every now and again I'm going to post an US vs. Them tidbit to highlight why America is superior to all other countries that are not democracies (and many of those that are). Such an idea should be "no duh", but considering how much "hate America first" garbage gets promoted by the "non-biased" American media, I believe an antidote is needed for that mushy moral equivalence.

In the ring today is US vs China:

Hundreds of women in Shandong Province forced to have abortions
(China Information Center (CIC), 5/13/2005)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(From a CIC correspondent in China) Township authorities have forced hundreds of women in Chewang Township, Cangshan County, Shandong Province to undergo abortions since March of this year. Many of these women have been beaten and illegally detained for resisting the authorities, and this mistreatment even resulted in the death of one woman.

Around June of last year, officials of the CCP Committee and government of Chewang Township traveled to every part of the township to persuade couples who had only one child to have a second child. For each second birth, couples were required to pay the government 4,500-6,000 yuan as a "birth guarantee fee". By March 2005, the township authorities had collected over 20 million yuan.

In late March of this year, when new township authorities were appointed to their posts, the first thing they did was to force the pregnant women who had paid the "birth guarantee fee" to the previous authorities to have abortions. Hundreds of women were captured and driven to undergo abortions by force. Even those women who had been pregnant for eight months were not spared. According to statistics, more than 160 women who were eight months pregnant were forced to have abortions.

Media Bias?

From John Leo in U.S. News and World Report:

"The disdain that so many reporters have for the military (or for police, the FBI, conservative Christians, or right-to-lifers) frames the way that errors and bogus stories tend to occur. The antimilitary mentality makes atrocity stories easier to publish, even when they are untrue. The classic example is CNN's false 1998 story that the U.S. military knowingly dropped nerve gas on Americans during the Vietnam War. On the other hand, brutal treatment of dissenters by Fidel Castro tends to be softened or omitted in the American press because so many journalists still see him as the romanticized figure from their youth in the 1960s. Another example: It's possible to read newspapers and newsmagazines carefully and never see anything about the liberal indoctrination now taking place at major universities. This has something to do with the fact that the universities are mostly institutions of the left and that newsrooms tend to hire from the left and from the universities in question."

It's what media choose NOT to report on that makes me so mad. They ignore a lot of the real stories in favor of those that bolster their own narrow world view. It's maddening I tell you!

Corrupt and Wasteful

That's what the EU is corrupt and wasteful. Every week seems to bring new stories of corruption and waste. I've never understood why Europeans are so enamoured with having a centralized governing body like the EU. How much history do they need to understand that such bodies have very little accountability and that the citizens of each country will have little to no voice in the governing body. Why would any citizen want to give up control of their country to a centralized governing body? How many shades of wrong is that? Give me one example where layers of entrenched bureacracy is a good thing. Give me one example in which the farther away the common person is from their elected officials the better it has turned out for the common person. They're nothing but a bunch of pantywaste bureaucrats! Bureaucrats don't care about efficiency or creative problem solving; they care only about creating work for themselves to ensure they keep their cushy jobs and enormous expense accounts. They started the banana brouhaha when they attempted to regulate what the proper shape of a banana should be. They're being given power to meddle in details that shouldn't concern them. A recipe for large scale disaster is brewing in Europe.

Dickinson vs. Hickson

Why do I have such a hard time keeping these two women straight? Whenever I hear Angie Dickinson mentioned my mind immediately conjures up Joan Hickson. They do have similar sounding last names, but sheesh, they couldn't be more different. Dickinson was (is) apparently a sexy bombshell from the 60's and Hickson is, well, Miss Marple. Die hard fans of Angie should go here and rethink if they're that hardcore. I've adored Joan Hickson ever since I first watched her delightful performances as the perspicacious detective on PBS's Miss Marple Mysterys. Many a Thursday night our family crowded around a borrowed black and white TV to watch Tommy & Tuppence /Hercule Poirot / Miss Marple /Sherlock Holmes. Mystery and Masterpiece Theater were our favorites shows as kids and now as adults. These shows redeem PBS from all the other krep they put on.

An Eye on Cuba

From Jay Nordlinger's diary on NRO:

Tomorrow, an astonishing event is scheduled to take place in Cuba: the General Meeting of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba. This is a great democratic gathering, and those participating have put themselves at great risk: For days, Castro has been arresting democratic activists, and otherwise flexing the muscles of his police state.

Various groups and institutions around the world have expressed their solidarity with the Cuban democrats, including the U.S. Congress. The House passed a resolution — and 22 congressmen voted against. Oh, yes.

Who were they? Oh, you know — the usuals: Charles Rangel, Dennis Kucinich, Maxine Waters, John Conyers, Barbara Lee, Jim McDermott, Cynthia McKinney, Pete Stark . . .
You’ve heard me say a thousand times before that Rangel is about Castro’s best friend in the United States — at least in the political class. This is doubly a shame, because Rangel is so beloved of the American media. “Good ol’ ‘Chollie,’” they say (because Rangel is a New Yawker, and he talks like that — irresistibly charming guy, most people find).
Guess what he told Meghan Clyne of the New York Sun? He said that he voted against the Cuba-democracy resolution because American politicians “refuse to give the government the respect that it deserves.” He was referring to his friend Fidel’s regime, of course: a regime that imprisons, tortures, and executes at will. That denies its subjects all rights. That is listed by the State Department as terrorist.

We hear all the time that all Americans — certainly those in our political class — love freedom and democracy. We’re all joined in the same cause, no matter what our (minor) differences.
But guess what: It isn’t so. It just isn’t. We are not all on the same side, even broadly speaking. It is sometimes called McCarthyite to point that out. I regard it as realistic.

If you're interested in how democracy, freedom, and human rights play out in oppressed countries, keep reading Nordlinger. He highlights people and events all over the world trapped in tyrranous regimes. Such perspective gives me pause before complaining too much about current events in the U.S. for the simple reason that I CAN complain without impunity.

Why I'm a Conservative

Yes, I'm a conservative. Jonah Goldberg has a wee essay about what a conservative is in quite general terms. The most fundamental reason why I am a conservative is that conservatives believe in a human nature that is NOT naturally good. They know how evil men can be, but more importantly they know WHY men are evil. From this understanding, they are in a much better position to tackle policy issues and foreign affairs. Reagan was right on when he called the USSR an evil empire. What Liberal would ever have said that? My problem with most Liberals is that they believe people are basically good and simply need more education or more money to do what is right in the event they go bad. Therefore, their first answer to most policy and foreign affair problems is to have the government get involved to spend more money, or to dialogue (educate) their opponent into submission. True these can be solutions, but only in a very limited number of situations. Unfortunately, most Liberals view these as one-size-fits-all solutions. They simply do not understand the human heart. The dividing line between good and evil passes through every man's heart. This the conservative knows. This the Liberal ignores.

On This Day

On this day, May 2nd, in the year 373 A.D. one of my favorite characters from the time of the early church died--Saint Athanasius. In the forward to Athanasius' book On the Incarnation (St. Vladimer Press), C.S. Lewis said of him,

"Saint Athanasius stood contra mundum for the Trinitarian doctrine 'whole and undefiled,' when it looked as if all the civilized world was slipping back from Christianity into the religion of Arius--one of those 'sensible', synthetic religions which are so strongly recommended today and which then, as now, included among their devotees many highly cultivated clergymen. It is the glory of Saint Athanasius that he did not move with the times; it is his reward that he now remains when those times, as all times do, have moved away."

Indeed. Athanasius contra mundum--Athanasius against the world!

Large Orange Objects--LA Style

We saw one of these driving down Los Feliz Blvd this past Sunday. Apparently these people feel Gated Communities are eeeeeevil. I don't completely disagree with them. I'm not a fan of the fortress mentality either and I agree with their third bullet point especially.

Anti-Christian Bias and Bigotry

Stanley Kurtz has an excellent article at NRO on anti-Christian bias and bigotry perpetrated by the Left. The Left is reluctant to engage in honest debate about cultural issues like gay marriage since they know their arguments aren't persuasive. Their positions do not resonate with most Americans, therefore they can't take a chance with letting the people decide their laws, which is why they're emphatic that none of Bush's judges get confirmed. The Left shows over and over again their utter contempt for democratic processes whenever they force decisions through the judiciary rather than the legislative branch. They've shown they'd rather have an oligarchic form of goverment, a government ruled by an elite few, than the democratice form they vowed to uphold. Instead of doing the honorable thing (engaging in debate), they resort to ad hominem attacks on those they disagree with, who in this case are Christians. We're seeing more and more bigotry against Christians by the very political party who proclaims the loudest that they're the most tolerant. The political left today is a joke and a disgrace to their own traditions.

Armenian Genocide

April 24th is Armenian Martyrs Day. How do I know this? Oh perhaps it's the 100 young blood Armenians in cars festooned with the Armenian flag cruising up and down Los Feliz Blvd all afternoon honking back and forth to each other while blaring Armenian music. So much for my Sunday nap. In 1915, the Turkish goverment with the help of Kurds committed genocide against the Armenians. They forced them out of their homes and their towns and killed them. Somewhere around one million died. The Armenian genocide was the first such event of the 20th Century. Hitler used it as a precedent for his own Holocaust against the Jews. He took note that the world didn't respond when the Turks started the bloodshed (probably because they were in the midst of the Great War) and determined he could get away with it as well. To this day, the government of Turkey refuses to acknowledge their atrocities against the Armenians. Turkey will not apologize and Turks will not admit any such event even happened. Armenians are justifiable angry at Turkey's denial of the genocide and have tried for years through protesting and petitioning the Turkish government to get official recognition for the event. Diplomatic relations between the two countries is strained to say the least and reconciliation can't happen until the truth is admitted. Sadly the Kurds became the next victimized people group during Ataturk's campaign of national and cultural unity.

Last summer a group of us toured South Eastern Turkey. Time after time we visited what once were Armenian churches or Armenian quarters but were now mosques or burned out buildings. Sanliurfa and Diyarbakir had vital church communities which were then decimated at the hands of the Turks. I'm not Armenian, but after touring these churches I understood their anger and frustration. In Sanliurfa an Armenian community sought refuge in their church trusting the local Turkish officials who said they'd be safe there during the riots. They were slaughtered. The church was left unoccupied for decades. Then, about a decade ago the local governor decided he wanted it turned into a Mosque. Hundreds of families within Urfa protested saying they didn't need or want another mosque. Such behavior from Muslims is odd. Of all the cities we visited, Urfa had the most conservative Islamic population. After the genocide many families who were once Christian converted to Islam to stay alive. However, most families had grandparents or friends with roots in Christianity and this Armenian church in particular. Thus, it appears that they wanted to honor that part of their heritage (although this isn't known for certain). Once the governor got wind of the resistence to his plan, he threatened the protestors that he would "out" them in the newspaper as Christians if they didn't play along. That ended the protesting. However, as work on the minaret began people protested again that they didn't want a minaret on the mosque (which is simply unheard of for a mosque, it's like saying a Christian church shouldn't have a cross). After several years, the minaret has remained incomplete. Instead of being a spear that pierces the sky it's a square stump level with the roof.

Turkey has an amazing history extending back centuries and centuries. Yet, the religious diversity that once marked Turkey has vanished. Hopefully as they prepare for EU membership they'll allow religious freedom.

Humanity...is the great clue to the existence of God.

This guy's thoughts on God, reality, and Christ's humanity resonate with what I've been thinking about these days. Life, existence, our very selves are absurd and meaningless without the existence of a personal God. Yet so many people go through life thinking they can ignore the ultimate questions about reality. They avoid the questions because they're avoiding the answers. They convince themselves that sex, fame, money, success, personal fulfillment, or even just the immediate moment are ultimate reality when they are mere trifles compared to what God really wants for us.

When it comes to ultimate reality and our humanity, there are really very few options.
If there is no God, there is no such thing as the "human" in the classically Judeo-Christian sense. There is an existential human, thrown into existence and forced to determine his own identity by choices that are, ultimately, absurd. There is the pagan human, a struggler against forces that he cannot understand or control, but can only hope to religiously placate or nobly ignore. In this contemporary time, the human is a category in the pages of science, an observation in the notebook of the psychologist, yet these disciplines do not give us our humanity, but increasingly take it from us. They tell us we are dancing to our DNA while being no more than one species among millions briefly occupying a warm rock in a third-rate solar system in a second-rate galaxy in a universe that doesn't care.

If there is a God, then our humanity stands in reference to God. If it is the God of pantheism, we are God every bit as much as anything else is God. Humanity is a meaningless concept. If it is the God of Deism, we can only look for his fingerprints on the project and hope to derive some significance for our existence from that distant being. So far, the message isn't promising for our humanity or our future. If it is the God of eastern spirituality, our humanity is one level among many, a place we pass through from one existence to another, and posessing no special significance and, ultimately, illusory.

If it is the God of the great theistic religions who truly exists and has made us to be who and what we are, then humanity has meaning. "Special" meaning. Real, endowed, created meaning. All three religions share the creation accounts in Genesis, and agree that human beings do not just reference God as a social or psychological fact, but in the essence of our identity. Without God, we do not know who we are. Without God, we lose our humanity, and all reference points for what it means to be human.

Read more Mark Spencer.

More Reasons to Smile

Add China, North Korea, and Iran to the list of tyrannies that will be toppled in the next few years. Yes, the three biggies are being smacked down by their own people. The people have reached the end of their tolerance for oppression and are starting to riot and rebel. They see freedom at their borders, but now want it for themselves. Freedom is a universal human longing that cannot be suppressed forever. Read Michael Ledeen's hopeful article about the future of democratic revolution in the big three. I had a huge smile at the end of it. Yet, it makes me wonder what I'd be doing if living in any of those three countries. It's so easy to cheer on others risking their lives for freedom and liberty from the safety of your own free country. I hope that I would be willing to risk my life in similar circumstances.

Viva La Revolution

The Cedar Revolution in Lebanon that is. Keep abreast of how the Lebanese people are taking back their country from the Syrian overlords.

Ah, the toppling of dictators and tyranny always makes me smile.

Why Mainline Churches are Dying

I came across this quote at the Institute of Religion and Democracy, an organization that promotes democracy and religious freedom while also documenting the outrageous behavior and beliefs of the dying mainline denominations in order to revive them to their true calling:

2005 Outrageous Quotes of the Week
Week of April 10 - 16
"In Pakistan, the United States is deeply concerned with the madrassahs, that is, the private fundamentalist Islamist schools. Here we have so-called Christian academies and home schooling, our own form of madrassahs."
- Jim Winkler, General Secretary of the United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society

Another example of disgusting moral equivalence. He's comparing HOME SCHOOLING to Islamic schools that teach kids to hate the Jews and that they have a religious right to kill the infidels. Yep, they're exactly the same Jim. What awards have you gotten lately for that bit of brilliant moralizing? Yech. I spit on him.

Seriously though, mainline churches are dying because they are turning away from the truth. The truth is the only thing that invigorates churches. Christians believe Jesus Christ is the way, the TRUTH, and the life. Therefore, when churches stop preaching Jesus Christ, they stop preaching the truth and people stop attending. People crave the truth, although they may not always realize it. I believe most people want to live their lives according to what is true and good. Humans have an inherent desire for something greater than themselves, they want to know they matter and have purpose in life, but the answers cannot come from within us. What ideologies, religions, worldviews offer anything close to the Christian understanding of who we are and why we're here? NONE. How can anything compare to the fact that a personal God created us in order to fellowship with Him? I was reading John 15:15 recently where Jesus says I no longer call you servants, but friends. That is GOD calling us friends. That should blow your mind.

Freesia Phobia

I must get this off my chest. The other day I was cleaning up after a party function. The friend I was helping asked if I wanted to take home some flowers from the table decorations. Without pausing I said no. Surprised, my friend said she's never known someone to turn down free flowers. I couldn't tell her that these flowers weren't worth taking home. They were freesias, one of the more insipid flowers in my book. These were especially lacklustre being a striped variety in pale shades of pink and tan. What flower looks good in tan? I love the smell of freesias in body sprays and bath bubbles, but the stand alone flower has nothing remarkable about it. If planted in bunches in the ground they can look perky with a girl-next-door appeal, but plucked they're not worth the trouble of watering in my humble opinion.

Dismaying

Get a load of this statistic from a George Will column:

In Britain, more babies with Down syndrome are aborted than are allowed to be born. In America, more than 80 percent of the babies diagnosed prenatally with Down syndrome are aborted.

I can't express how disturbing this is. Parents killing off their own flesh and blood because that child doesn't meet their expectations, because they're not perfect. This is where abortion on demand has led us. What right do parents have to determine that some lives are desirable and others are not? Seriously, where do they think this "right" to kill off their kin comes from? They are literally killing persons because they are not perfect. Does this sound familiar?

Fighting Back

I work in the hood of North Hollywood. One year the police found a dead body in our alley. Alcoholics loll under our trees. Most mornings new graffiti trails across a wall or door. Bums wash themselves in front of our office windows. Men come and go from the porn video shop across the street. Car stereos of any quality were routinely stolen from employee cars. A delightful neighborhood.

About a year or so ago, a youngish couple was hanging around our building. They were walking back and forth along the side and then around the back. After about three hours of this, an employee came rushing in saying they saw them near one of the cars. Three of us ran outside catching the couple in the act of breaking in to steal a stereo. They took off and we chased after them across a busy intersection. The two men pursued them helped by a sympathetic woman in an SUV who drove them through the neighborhoods to search for the culprits. I was yelling THIEF, STOP THIEF at the top of my lungs at the intersection to get people's attention. The cops were called. They canvassed the area and detained the woman. They then drove each of us separately by the woman to identify her. I wasn't positive, but the two others were. She was booked. Who knows what happened to her, but I have to say it was pure pleasure giving them a run for their money. They didn't even get the stereo. I wondered later if they would try to do it again. Who would want to take the chance of getting caught by angry victims? We haven't had any more car break-ins since that day.

According to LA Observed, “There are 9,000 unsolved murders since 1960 on the books in Los Angeles.” That’s roughly one unsolved murder a day for this city. Is that good for a city this large? I guess it depends on who you talk to. My biggest frustration living in a metropolis is the inability of the Police to prevent or punish those engaged in non-violent or petty crime. They don’t have the resources of money, men, or minutes to expend on crime that doesn’t have any greater damage than the victim’s dented wallet. We’ve had two stereos stolen in two years and Steve’s ’64 Falcon was the victim of a hit and run that cost us $1500 to fix. Steve tried to fill out a police report for the Falcon, but they persuaded him not to since they wouldn’t do anything about it anyway. I’ve wondered if we should fill out police reports for every crime simply to have a record of it in case anyone runs statistics on unsolved petty crime. Maybe if the numbers were astronomical they would do more to prevent it. But then you think they haven’t solved 9,000 murders so why should I bother them with these petite crimes. There seems to be very little incentive to report, but a whole lot of incentive to live a life of minor thievery and dishonesty since the cost to do so is so low.

A few months ago Steve turned off Los Feliz Blvd to avoid traffic congestion and nearly ran over a large well-built black man without a shirt beating on a slim black woman. The man was punching the woman in the stomach and kicking her in the middle of the street while a “friend” sat on a low wall watching. We pulled over to call 911. The man ran off, the woman jumped into her car and immediately slammed into the side of a car slowly driving up the street. The car, now with a crumpled rear panel, stopped. The old man driving was obviously confused about what just happened. Meanwhile the woman took off. The old man continued driving. Steve and I tried to flag him down yelling for him to stop since we saw what happened. The old man never looked at us. The man who beat the woman would probably never get caught or if he did the woman would probably not press charges. The man whose car was now crap wouldn’t get her insurance to cover his damages.

I remember feeling so helpless. I remember thinking that this stuff happens all the time and the police will never arrive on time and will never have the resources to really do anything helpful. I hate injustice. I hate knowing that some criminals may never pay for their crimes or at least for particular crimes. I hate feeling that I have to accept the possibility of being a victim of a non-violent crime. I hate feeling that there’s virtually nothing I can do to prevent it. I hate being passive.

Materialism's Dystopia

This little essay posted by the Acton Institute is an accessible summary of the perils of materialism as seen through the works of C.S. Lewis. We live in a schizophrenic society that lives off the benefits of a Judeo-Christian worldview or an anti-materialist perspective, but wants to believe that the "truth" about existence is materialism. Materialist "values" could never create a Western Civilization the very foundation for our comfortable, safe, and opinionated lives. Freedom, equality, and human rights can not come out of a materialist worldview. They come from Judeo-Christian ideas. Materialism leads to society's suicide.

Beautiful Losers

Steve and I visited the Orange County Museum of Art located in Newport Beach for the show Beautiful Losers. "Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture celebrates the extraordinary creative production and cultural influence of underground youth subcultures." Basically disaffected youths disenchanted with the "bourgeois" culture into which they're born and therefore needing to create a subculture to feel good about themselves. I do give them props for creativity, for activity (not to be confused with activism) and not passivity. Yet, much of their angsty art is either boring or depressing. I really don't care how society has "damaged" or "disppointed" them. Mostly I hate preachy art that attempts to tell all those who come to view it what bastards they are for mostly getting along quite well in society. There is some technically interesting art in which the design element is fetching but the content is ho-hum. But then, there was one room that made the trip to the hinterlands of OC worth it. The work of Evan Hecox, Thomas Campbell, and Ryan McGinnis was a delight to view. It was like stumbling from gloomy, rat invested, pee reeking alleys riddled with bums to wide sunny spaces vibrant with color and the smell of fresh cut grass. Granted I do not know (or care to know) the philosophy behind the work of these artists, but the work itself expressed a joy and delight in living that positively refreshed me after the previous boughts with depression experienced in the former rooms. Perhaps because of the happier frame of mind they seemed to be working from, they're work was visually more vibrant, alive, and explorative.

3:20pm

3:20pm Lunar Eclipse. We tried looking through our fingers. That didn't work so we got sunglasses. That combined with our fingers worked a bit better, but not great. While standing in the red zone a guy pulled up and asked what we were doing. Duh, dude. It's a lunar eclipse. He gave us the brilliant suggestion to look at the sun's reflection in a car window. Who knew, but it worked! We witnessed the moon moving in front of the sun and creating a disc of darkness over it. Amazing!

Report from the unknown

Do you ever wonder about the unknown? Do you wonder what people are eating, reading, or planning in towns or cities you've never heard of in parts of the world you're not sure to place on a map? Places that would never appear on your radar, unless catastrophy or war struck them? Well here's one of those places.

Pepperwood Grove

During a heated game of Scrabble Steve and I drank a bottle of Pepperwood Grove Syrah (which is probably why he won, but that's a whole other story). While I was drinking I realized how much I love this particular Syrah.

Until one or two years ago, I wasn't much for wine drinking. I just didn't have the taste buds for it. Then came my first glass of a chilled Riesling. The Gerwurtztraminers followed and the next thing I knew wine was pleasant. However, I still had no taste for reds whatsoever. They were too dry and usually left a burning sensation in the back of my throat. No more! I've developed a love affair with the Pepperwood Grove Syrah. Not only is it super tasty, but it's super cheap. Only $6 a bottle but highly recommended. It's an excellent everyday wine that you probably won't get tired of. I've tried the Cote de Rhone's and the Burgundy's, the Cabernet's and the Merlot's and though I now like both the Cote de Rhone and Burgundy, I can't drink it on a regular basis like my beloved Syrah (The Cabs and Merlots do not get drunk in my house). I've tried other labels roughly the same price, but I always come back to Pepperwood Grove. I have no idea what makes them petite, but next on my list are the Petite Syrahs.

Sublime

If I could be in love with weather, then I was in love last night. I walked around Griffith Park just before sunset. A mild breeze blew, not too cold, not too warm. The breeze started the tree leaves rustling which evoke memories I've never lived. Memories infused with intrigue and adventure. On the breeze wafted the frangrance of plumeria trees and jasmine. Chartreuse leaves and dark bark glowed in the setting sun. How easily I could have missed a moment of pure sensory pleasure. A taste of heaven on earth.

To top off the experience I strolled through a row of 40 ft high Cyprus that flank the sidewalk. I look straight up so that the trees and sky fill my vision dwarfing me. I feel like I spent five seconds in a David Lynch movie with the song Harmony as the soundtrack.

The State of Nature

I've been reading Aidan Hartley's book The Zanzibar Chest. I couldn't put it down once started and once finisished started bawling. The horror, misery, and destruction of life in Rwanda and Somalia overwhelmed me. In my heart I wondered how people could do such horrorific violence to their neighbors, yet in my head, I knew the answer. Human nature is depraved and prone to evil. Here's one passage from the book:

The city was a fragment of what it had been but the atmosphere was electric. The militias had liberated the nation not only from dictatorship but also from modern civilization. A Dionysian orgy of destruction was now taking place across Mogadishu in which everything was smashed within the space of hours: priceless Muslim artifacts from the museum and the mosques, hospital equipment, factory plants, power cables, computers, libraries, telephone exchanges. The Somalis thoroughly enjoyed themselves and I got a contact high off them. On days like this in the news business I grew to understand how easy it must be for normally ordinary people to want ot participate in riots adn football match hooliganism.

A queue of civilians was huddled at a roadblock before a gang of rebels. As each person was waved through, another came forward and began uttering a litany of names. My guide with the flaming red hair said the people were reciting their clan family trees. The genealogies tumbled back generation after generation to a founding ancestor. it was like a DNA helix, or a fingerprint, or an encyclopedia of peace treaties and blood debts left to fester down the torrid centuries. I was thinking how poetic this idea was, when bang; a gunman shot one of the civilians, who fell with blood gushing from his head and was pushed aside onto a heap of corpses.
"Wrong clan," said my flaming-haired friend. "He should have borrowed the ancestors of a friend."

What infuriates me about this is their delight in destroying, in tearing down. The casualness with which they kill. It takes but a few moments to obliterate what took centuries to build. I wonder how many of those brutalized by this civil war think they are better off now than when they were under colonial rule. Since "liberation" from the colonialists, their quality of life as descended dramatically to where they are now living out Thomas Hobbes description of the state of nature: "The life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." No rule of law, no beauty, no clean water, no life. They simply exist waiting for the day they die.

Where is God in all this? Perhaps He is waiting for one heart to turn towards Him. One heart that acknowledges the evil and wastefulness of the present situation and cries out to God to end it all.

It's been over ten years and to this day Somalia still doesn't have a real government. The new Transitional Federal Government is trying to step in; however, they haven't been able to move to Mogadishu the capital of Somalia since warlords still control the city and don't want to give up their power.

Migration

While gazing out my window at work, I noticed what appeared to be leaves blowing in the wind. But they weren't scuttling along the ground like most leaves gusted by a draft, they were higher than head level. I thought to myself, "my there must be a strong wind blowing" until I looked closer and determined they were butterflies! Hundreds of butterflies fluttering down Burbank Blvd. They look tipsy. They aren't en masse, but a constant stream of little groupings. They must be migrating Monarchs from Mexico heading to Northern California. One year around Easter I visited Santa Cruz and the migrated butterflies had settled in a thicket of trees completely covering the trunk and limbs. Today is gorgeous with brilliant blue sky edged with plump white and silver clouds, the air is clean, crisp, the type of day that gives you extra clarity because of the intensity of colors. And then the butterflies came making today perfect.

UPDATE: The Monarchs turned out to be Painted Ladies. A variety that also swarms in from Mexico every now and again.

More Mark Steyn

Steyn identifies why the left is in a dither over Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the U.N.:

Yet the assumption behind much of the criticism of Bolton from the likes of Kerry is that, regardless of his government's foreign policy, a U.N. ambassador has to be at some level a U.N. booster. Twenty years ago, Secretary of State George Schulz used to welcome the Reagan administration's ambassadorial appointments to his office and invite each chap to identify his country on the map. The guy who'd just landed the embassy in Chad would invariably point to Chad. "No," Schulz would say, "this is your country" -- and point to the United States. Nobody would expect a U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union to be a big booster for the Soviets. And, given that in a unipolar world the most plausible challenger to the United States is transnationalism, these days the Schulz test is even more pertinent for the U.N. ambassador: his country is the United States, not the ersatz jurisdiction of Annan's embryo world government.

Reporting on the Bolton appointment in the Financial Times, James Harding wrote,''Mr. Bush is eager to re-engage with allies, but is unapologetic about the Iraq war, the policy of preemption and the transformational agenda." "Unapologetic"? What exactly should he be apologizing for? The toppling of Saddam? The Iraq election? The first green shoots of liberty in the desert of Middle Eastern "stability"? When you unpick the assumptions behind Harding's sentence, Bush's principal offense is that he remains "unapologetic" about doing all this without the blessing of the formal transnational decision-making process.

He ends with:
Bolton's sin isn't that he's "undiplomatic," but that he's correct.

Of Words

I do believe today was the first time I've ever seen this word in use. It's not a common word either in speech or writing. You'd think it would be used more often since its antonym enjoys frequent use.

Cat Stevens Schmevens

If PBS was on life-support, it's now dead based on this listing:

Cat Stevens: Majikat PBS 28 Mar 18 09:30pm Add to My Calendar
Special/Music, 30 Mins. The concert recorded on Cat Stevens' Majikat North American tour in 1976 in Williamsburg, Va.
Original Airdate: March 5, 2005.

Am I missing something? Is there a groundswell of love for Cat Stevens these days? Is a revival afoot? Why do we need to view his 1976 Majikat (the name alone makes me shudder, shudder) concert twice in one month? Why does PBS persist in thinking viewers care about this crap? Seriously Pom Pom, who is their audience? Perhaps it's a closed circle, they air what they want to watch and the public be damned.

Lies, Lies, and More Lies

What do Abortion-On-Demand and Campaign Finance Reform have in common? Lies, lies, and more lies. Although different causes, the same "truth be damned" arrogance drove both.

As reported in the New York Sun, Sean Treglia's job while at Pew Charitable Trusts, was to "create" the "truth" for why Campaign Finance Reform was needed:

Charged with promoting campaign-finance reform when he joined Pew in the mid-1990s, Treglia came up with a three-pronged strategy: 1) pursue an expansive agenda through incremental reforms, 2) pay for a handful of "experts" all over the country with foundation money and 3) create fake business, minority and religious groups to pound the table for reform. (emphasis mine)

"The target audience for all this activity was 535 people in Washington," Treglia says — 100 in the Senate, 435 in the House. "The idea was to create an impression that a mass movement was afoot — that everywhere they looked, in academic institutions, in the business community, in religious groups, in ethnic groups, everywhere, people were talking about reform." (emphasis mine)

How is this similar to the abortion issue? Read on, read on!

Dr. Bernand Nathanson, one of the original founders of NARAL who performed 75,000 abortions himself, had this to say about the foundational lies of the abortion-on-demand movement:

Knowing that if a true poll were taken, we would be soundly defeated, we simply fabricated the results of fictional polls. We announced to the media that we had taken polls and that 60% of Americans were in favour of permissive abortion. This is the tactic of the self-fulfilling lie. Few people care to be in the minority. We aroused enough sympathy to sell our program of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U.S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000 but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was 1,000,000. Repeating the big lie often enough convinces the public. The number of women dying from illegal abortions was around 200-250 annually. The figure we constantly fed to the media was 10,000. These false figures took root in the consciousness of Americans convincing many that we needed to crack the abortion law. Another myth we fed to the public through the media was that legalising abortion would only mean that the abortions taking place illegally would thenbe done legally. In fact, of course, abortion is now being used as a primary method of birth control in the U.S. and the annual number of abortions has increased by 1500% since legalisation. (emphasis mine)

Because the decision was taken away from the law-makers and given to an un-elected judiciary, the lies were not exposed during normal debate and inquiry in the legislative branch.

I'm not saying that abortion on demand and campaign finance reform are morally equivalent. Abortions kill millions of human beings. Campaign Finance Reform has only "killed" political speech, which although it's a cherished freedom and necessary right for a democracy, it's not the same thing as a dead human being. However, I thought it noteworthy that when the truth of their positions doesn't sit well with the American public, the Left resorts to lying and manufacturing "facts". They don't attempt to persuade using the truth, but instead manipulate public opinion through well-placed lies. In both cases the American public believed the oft-repeated lie. Most likely neither abortion-on-demand nor CFR would have been enacted, if the public knew the truth.

ANWR

Read the ugly truth about ANWR.

America is not Saudi Arabia

We are different than most parts of the world. We are humane and decent in our treatment of prisoners who are terrorists NOT prisoners of war as understood under the Geneva Convention. Abu Graib was an anomoly not a norm. The Church report gives evidence that our interrogators are scared more of being victims of political correctness, than of being victims of terrorism, which is why they are "clamping up". At least that's how I'm interpreting their actions. When women interrogators using their femininity to psychologically confuse and disorient terrorists is considered "torture", then you know the West has been castrated by political correctness.

What's that you say, the Lebanese Love America?

As reported by Claudia Rosset in Lebanon during the LARGEST pro-democracy rally EVER in the Middle East. Let those words sink in....the largest in Middle East HISTORY:

In Beirut yesterday, it was clear that message has been heard. Unlike the Hezbollah demonstrators with their chants of "Death to America," many in the crowd were friendly to Americans. "Thank's Free World," (sic) said one poster, held high by a woman in a bright red jacket, Rawya Okal, who told me: "We thank Mr. Bush for his position." Overhearing this in the throng, a middle-aged man in a green baseball cap, Louis Nahanna, leaned over to say, "We love the American people" - adding, "Please don't let Bush forget us. Your support is very important."

Asking more people what they thought of Americans turned up the same refrain. From a young driver, Fadi Mrad, came the message: "We want to change. We need freedom. Please don't let Bush forget us." From a group of young men came not only the message "Our hope is America," and "We believe in democracy in the Middle East," but also praise for Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. There was also an invitation from one of them, young Edgard Baradhy, for his heroine, Ms. Rice, to come to Beirut "and I am ready to take her for coffee."

America cannot waste this opportunity to pressure Syria to end their occupation of Lebanon. Look what true lovers of democracy and freedom have done to help the Lebanese regain their sovereignty. Perhaps Bush should push aside all the leftists for a Free Tibet and take a whack at ending the Chinese occupation of that country. I'm sure he could accomplish more in a month then the leftists could do with a lifetime supply of bumper stickers.

Have you had your Lileks today?

I read the man every day with my morning cup of tea. Sample a bit of his writing:

That’s what William Wallace shouted to rouse the troops. I’m not quite sure what it means – it’s one of those sentiments that falls apart when you interrogate it too closely, but on the other hand it makes sense, somehow. Except that you would be dead, but free. But Free! But dead. On the other hand, if you quibble about such things, you live in a society where Quibbling is the main intellectual activity, because the real struggles of life took place before you came along, and you’ve inherited peace and stability and freedom, and define “tyranny” as the actions of a town council that votes to ban body-piercing parlors within 1000 feet of an elementary school. Fargin’ fascists, man.

There's more:

And what of Syria then? Assad has been taking pains to assure the world he is not Saddam – which might well mean he’s a dead man. Saddam would have purged things to his liking long ago. Assad, I suspect, may well suffer at the hands of the people in his government who are stronger and more serious. The sort of guys who flip between pictures of him and his dad and ask the old eye-doctor question: Better? Worse? Better? Worse? How about now?

If I could rip off the writing styles of three people they would be James Lileks, Jonah Goldberg, and Mark Steyn. Do your civic duty and check them out.

"God is a Person, Not a Pudding"

So said Peter Kreeft my favorite teacher of philosophy. He's erudite yet accessible; serious yet witty. The above quote is from his article "The Divinity of Christ" found under Arguments for God's Existence. Kreeft is also a Christian apologist who uses logic and philosophy to argue for the Christian faith. If it's logic you're interested in (and really, all of us should be if we're at all interested in the truth), check out his book Socratic Logic. It's extensive without being overwhelming.

UGH.

Could the LA Mayoral race have been more uninspired and lacklustre? LA needs a Rudy Guilliani, someone with charisma, smarts, and VISION. On to the May runoff between Hahn and Villaraigosa. Now I have to decide IF I will vote. If I vote, it has to be for Hahn since Villaraigosa is a snake. I don't get the sense that Villaraigosa loves America or even California as much as he loves what America /California has done for him politically. He strikes me as one who would jump at the chance to annex California to Mexico. As a member of MECHA, it must have been a dream of his. Without the huge Latino population /illegal immigrants would there even be a Villaraigosa? Probably not. Which suggests to me that his loyalties lie south of the border.

Al Gore Was Right...sorta.

The answer to Social Security reform IS a lockbox. A lockbox in the form of a Personal Retirement Account. Donald Luskin of NRO sums it up nicely:

The fact is that personal accounts are nothing less than a Social Security lockbox. Yes, a lockbox — what Al Gore went on and on about in the 2000 election.
It’s obvious when you think about it. When your payroll tax dollars go into your own personal account — which you can invest in private markets, and in which you have heritable property rights — that account is a lockbox. Government can’t spend the money in there, because it’s yours, and you’ve invested it. (emphasis mine)

Under the current system, some of your tax dollars pay for the benefits of today’s retirees. Whatever’s left over goes into the Social Security Trust Funds, which use the money to buy Treasury bonds. That means, effectively, that the Trust Funds get an IOU from the general fund of the government — and the government gets to spend the money.

Sure, as the Left always points out, those IOUs are legitimate moral claims on the government, just like any Treasury bond. But they don’t represent actual savings — because the government spends the money the moment it receives the money. When it comes time to redeem the bonds in the Trust Funds to pay benefits, the government will have to either tax or borrow to raise the needed money.

To me, the most important point is that the Government cannot spend the money you put into your Personal Retirement Account. That's all I need to hear to know I want Social Security changed now. Read the rest of Luskin's argument here.

Left on the Wrong Side of History

The Left has been on the wrong side of history for at least half of the twentieth century and all of the twenty-first. They were wrong about Vietnam, wrong about central America, wrong about the Soviet Union, and wrong about the Middle East. They couldn't bring themselves to call Communism or Islamism evil like Reagan and Bush had the moral clarity to do. As such, they have zero credibility on the freedom, liberty, and democracy issues. As Mark Steyn says:

I hope if ever I find myself one of the unfortunate subjects of a totalitarian dictatorship, that it’s Bush and the Republicans who take up my cause rather than the Left.

Hear, Hear!

Who for Mayor?

Yup, I'm still so very not impressed with any of the candidates. I did get a message from Tony Strickland (propane and propane assecories) urging me NOT to vote for Hertzberg since he's just a "partisan Democrat pandering to get Republican votes". Thanks for the update Tony. Hertzberg has been stricken from the list. Who does that leave? Ah yes, Villaraigosa. No way, no how am I ever voting for a man who once was (and is?) a member of the racist organization MECHA. He wants illegal immigrants to have more rights than honest citizens. Villaraigosa is a socialist at heart who wants to solve problems through government mandates. His own constituents are trying to recall him as their councilman since he reneged on a promise, a promise that got him elected in the first place. The promise? He said he wouldn't run for mayor, but would complete all four years of his councilman duties. If the man cannot keep a promise over which he has complete control to accomplish; a promise that simply requires character to fulfill (i.e. he's a man of his word), then why should we trust him to keep any of the promises he's spouting now as a mayoral candidate? If he can't handle the most basic and ethical promise of keeping his word to his constituents, then I don't trust him to keep any other promise that may be more difficult to accomplish. The "V" in Villaraigosa stands for vile.

Can You Believe It?!

I just read the following in the Corner on National Review Online. More good news regarding the Middle East and Lebanon in particular. You know its bad for Syria when both Egypt and Saudia Arabia are pressuring them to get out of Dodge. When was the last time you read about Arabs urging other Arabs to do the right thing!

IRAQ, ETC. [Rich Lowry]
Just talked to someone in-the-know about administration Middle East policy. I took a quick tour of the region with him. He warned against giddiness, but says things are definitely heading in the right direction.
He says attacks against Americans in Iraq are ebbing near an all-time low since the insurgency really got going. Attacks against Iraqis, of course, continue unabated. But the public seems to be turning increasingly against the insurgency, especially in Baghdad, partly under the influence of a nightly anti-insurgency television program. We're locking up more of the bad guys, which means we need more prisons (something we should have taken care of a long time ago). Overall we seem to be at--to use a terrible cliche--a potential “tipping point” in Iraq. The elections changed the entire atmosphere, although if the process of choosing a prime minister goes on much longer it will begin to test the patience of the Iraqi public and squander good will.
In Afghanistan, Taliban attacks on both Americans and the government have hit an all-time low.
Of course, events in Lebanon have been stunning. The administration is using every possible lever against the Syrians--pushing them in a serious, serious way. That the Saudis have gotten on board is a sign that they know which way the tide is headed and that it is no longer sustainable to look the other way over an Arab country's occupation of another Arab country. There has been a useful convergence of interests between the US and France over Syria, prompted by Chirac's personal relationship with Hariri and outrage at his assassination.
On Iran, the administration seems to be coming to the conclusion that the EU3 approach will fail one way or another, so it is better if the US is part of the process so it can't be conveninetly blamed when it doesn't work. We may see the administration dangling some carrots Tehran's way. If (when) this doesn't work, perhaps we will apply the lesson we are learning with Syria--pressure works.
In general, people shouldn't be unrealistic. There will still be plenty of bad news in the future. But the tectonic plates have shifted in the Middle East the last few weeks and there's no pushing them back.
Posted at 08:50 PM

If you're not reading National Review regardless of your political persuasion, you should be. They've been the heart, mind, and soul of the conservative movement since William F. Buckeley started the magazine back in the day. Check it out NOW! Go already....

Voting Update

Ok so I was wrong about the Republican voter guide. I was wrong to doubt. When I expressed my incredulity to Steve that the Republican party endorsed Parks, he dryly noted that the piece of literature in question was probably sent out by Parks' campaign. He was right. A slick ad with Republican endorsements suckered me.

More info on Egypt

Read this article for more information about the pro-democracy forces happening in Egypt. I cannot wait to read the history books regarding what's happening in the Middle East today. Who will get it right?

Confused Voter

Back to the LA Mayoral race. So I'm thinking about who I should vote for. I ask my friends and none of them know what to do either. What's a Republican to do? Well, according to the Republican voting guide that just came in the mail, they say I should be voting for Parks. What?! My concern is that Parks will attempt to remove Bratton as Chief of Police if he's elected and that would be bad for LA. Thus, the question is, how much do pride and ego control Parks? 'Cause if he becomes Mayor wouldn't he be obliged to can Bratton to save face? Or could he play the bigger wiser man and acknowledge the gains Bratton has made in fighting crime? My other concern is that Parks has only focused on issues that effect his black constituents. What does he have to say to the rest of us? What's his big picture view of the problems and opportunities for LA? What vision does he have that can inspire a cross section of LA populace? I'm still searching for the answers.

Exciting Times Part II

President Bush's resolve to bring down Saddam Hussein has led to exciting changes in the Middle East. For the first time in years, people in Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, and even Syria (!) are protesting FOR democratic reforms with positive results. This ain't your mama's Middle East! Hopefully Iran will be next through the peaceful demonstrations and protests of the huge student movement. Even the Palestinians are acting more responsibly at news of the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. You'd think we entered the Twilight Zone. All of us were getting far too comfortable with the status quo thinking that the Middle East could only be "contained" but not reformed. Granted we're in the early stages yet, but hopefully these sparks will start a flame of freedom that cannot be extinguished. Michael Ledeen of National Review has an excellent article summing up the revolutionary fervor that has spread and is spreading throughout the world

Iraq
The Iraqis are protesting the terrorists and in doing so they're taking ownership of their own safety.

Lebanon
Lebanon asserts their right to sovereignty and protests the Syrian occupation of their country. Assad may even comply and pull out his troops! Following is the sentiment of a Druze leader long a critic of the US, as reported by David Ignatius:,

"It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq. I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world. The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it."

For more info about exciting times in Lebanon check out the Muslim American Society.

Egypt
Protests in Egypt forced Mubarak to change the constitution to allow other candidates to run against him in the next election. Condi Rice played a huge role in encouraging the protestors by cancelling her visit to Mubarak after he arrested a dissident political voice.

Syria
After witnessing the effects of the protesting in Lebanon, intellectuals and dissidents are attempting to protest the tyrannical government of Assad.


Palestine
Remember all the dancing in the streets whenever Israelis were killed by suicide bombers? Not this time. They want the truce to hold between them and Israel so they're not real happy about the lastest suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

Iran
Students will bring down the mullahs in favor of democracy.

Why is America so slow to reform Social Security?

Social Security has to be reformed. There are no other options except reform. The status quo will lead to a full collapse of the system. I'm surprised (not really) at how vehement Democrats (and even some Republicans) get about the possibility of change to the system. Their only "solution" is Gore's, leave the money in a lock box. If that's the solution, why haven't they done it before now? Because they know that should a pet project come up that will make them look good to to their constituents they will be the first to grab the money "saved" for retirement. For a political party made up of the baby boomers who spent their youth squawking about how the government can't be trusted, how can they then, with a straight face, tell us that placing our social security tax into a general fund that can be raided by the government is the best thing for us? Do they think we're stupid? Who really thinks the government knows best about how to INVEST or SAVE for retirement? Given the choice of putting my money into a personal retirement account that is mine alone and that I can then pass onto my children OR putting it into a pool of money that the government then uses for other pet projects and says I can't will to my next of kin if I die before retirement, why would I EVER want to choose option two, complete government control of my retirement fund? When is the government more efficient than the free market ESPECIALLY when it comes to investing? Not only that, but America is BEHIND the rest of the world on this. I read the following at the National Center for Policy Analysis:

Currently, some 80 million workers in 20 countries have access to personal retirement accounts. These countries include Chile, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, Uruguay, Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Poland, Latvia, Sweden, Hong Kong, El Salvador and Croatia (roughly in the order in which they adopted the plans).
Macedonia, the Dominican Republic, Kosovo and even China have passed reform laws, which they are now in the process of implementing. Other countries are moving in that direction. Interestingly, the United States is not yet on this list.

Exactly. The US is not on the list. Why are we behind BOLIVIA in getting PRA's?

If the liberals really want us to keep Social Security the way it is, then they need to reverse themselves on the abortion issue. You can't advocate for the current social security system, but then allow women to kill the generations needed to keep the system afloat.

Social Security was supposedly to help people have money for their retirement. It was a reaction against the depression. Now that we've entered the 21st Century, let's all admit that we've come a long, long way in understanding investing since the reign of FDR. The government will screw all us future retirees for the short term benefits OUR money will give them with their constituents. MY money will not be there for me if I have to retire on social security. The government isn't accountable for all the money they've taken so far through social security taxes. Who do I complain to and demand satisfaction from when I reach 65 or 70 and want to retire, but can't 'cause I've been robbed blind by Big Daddy Govmint who supposedly had my best interests at heart. Social Security is a big slap in the face to any reasonably sane and responsible person since it assumes we're too stupid to know how to save for our own retirements. Why not hand over all major life responsiblities that require vision and planning to the government? Why stop at retirement? I'm sure the government knows me better than I know myself. That sounds like government thinks its God. Oh wait, that's exactly what the lefty liberals DO think about government. They love playing God and that's their crack.

Vaclav Havel Supports Cuban Dissidents

Vaclav Havel supports Cuban dissidents. Does the liberal left? Probably not. The American left is more interested in using Castro as a stick to beat America with than in using their liberty to end a tyrannous regime that jails dissidents who would like the freedom to protest but can do so only with the threat of arrest and the gulag. I'm on the side of Havel. If you had to choose between the panderings of Chirac and Schroeder who haven't met a dictator they didn't want to appease, or a courageous one time imprisoned dissident of a brutal communist regime who then played a massive role in overthrowing through peaceful means that oppressive government, who would you listen to? Havel every time. You listen to Havel because he knows oppression. You listen to Havel because he knows brutality. You listen to Havel because he knows evil. And you listen to Havel because he speaks the sweet sweet words of truth, freedom and liberty to the pampered bureaucrats of the EU to shame them. How sad that the countries of Old Europe who once believed in freedom have to be shamed into doing what's right by the New Europe. Havel is my hero.

George W. Bush's Speech in Slovakia

This speech made me cry. I'm a sucker for heroic people. I'm a sucker for people who have suffered, and yet overcome. I'm a sucker for great and noble causes that call for courage and sacrifice. I'm a sucker for oppressed people who know that some things are worth dying for. What an honor it is to have the Slovakian people, a people who know what it means to fight for truth, as our ally. My hope is that Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Estonia and all the other countries who freed themselves from the chains of communism will be beacons of light during the coming dark ages of Old Europe. My hope is that New Europe will not succumb to the philosophies that have crippled the mental and moral faculties of Old Europe. How ironic it will be when Old Europe is enslaved by radical Islamists using the weapons of multiculturism and pluralism to deal the death blow, all while the Middle East experiences a democratic revolution.

Rotten Apples

In choosing a candidate for LA Mayor we're simply choosing the least rotten apple from an entire basket of rotten apples. I'm registered Republican, but I may be voting Democrat this election given the options. This is the first time in my voting history that I have ever even considered punching the chad for a Democrat. I'm tempted to ignore the whole race and just not vote, but the thought of a possible Villaraigosa win sickens me. Too bad we can't check off all the people we don't want to win and then let the leftovers duke it out. I can easily identify those I absolutely without hesistation do not want to win, but I'm having a difficult time determining who should win. They're all political wankers with no real passion or vision for this great city.

Bernard Parks

Bernard Parks is next up on the docket for mayoral consideration. I can honestly say he's a distinguished looking man. If Hollywood were making a movie about an LA mayor, he could play the part 'cause he looks so good. But that's the problem with Parks, he can only play the part if someone else is feeding him all the good lines. There's nothing in Parks professional history, especially as head of the LAPD, that distinguishes him as a leader. In fact, he made a complete mess of the LAPD and now he wants to focus his "strengths" on the city? Uh, please no. Although this article by City Beat tries to show he has turned himself into a model pol since he was fired as police chief. His run for mayor is a personal vendetta against Hahn for having him replaced as Chief of Police with William Bratton. Politics is much too personal for Parks. So ixnay on arkspay.

Voting Guide for LA Mayor

I have no idea who any of the mayoral candidates are other than Hahn, Villairagosa, and Parks. So this is an uninformed guide to voting based on the one minute video clips KCAL 9 News is doing each evening for those candidates who cannot afford a TV ad and on first impressions from the very brief description given of them in the voter guides put out by the city.

First up is Wendy Lyons. She's a meatpacker and is registered with the Socialist Workers Party. That should be enough information to make a very informed "no" decision. The gist of what she said in her one minute TV clip was that she will work hard to make the streets safer for criminals and illegal aliens and do everything she can to jail cops. She wants to make LA a city of crime and protest. Oh, and she wants to bring back the troops from Iraq. So not only is she wiggedty wiggedty whacked on local policy, her larger agenda is irrelevant to LA politics. YEAH! She didn't exude much authority or presence of mind when she couldn't manage to memorize a one minute speech. She kept looking at her notes and "umming" her way from one bullet point to the next. Her ideas (if you can call them that) were not complex so the fact she couldn't remember them doesn't bode well for a future Mayor. Also, if she couldn't persuade any of the many millionaires in Los Angeles to give money to her campaign for an actual TV ad, how is she going to persuade key players to cooperate with her "agenda" for the city? Is she just trying to gain street creds to run for a foreman (forewoman?) position at the local meatpacking plant? Lyons promises, if elected, to create "a massive federally funded public works program to put millions to work at union wages building housing, schools, mass transit, hospitals." To sum up, Wendy Lyons is a joke.

I'm not a Philistine!

I want it to be known that I do appreciate and enjoy art, a lot of art. I'm not a complete philistine just because I don't like conceptual art. I love the work of Andy Goldsworthy. I'm amazed at what he can create using only the effects of nature as both content and tools. One of my all time favorite pieces is the tree stump encircled with icicles (what a lovely word icicle is. When you start to spell it out the sounds describe what it is: i-c-i-c...!). Another artist who fascinates me is Sophie Calle. I don't know if she's considered a conceptual or performance artist (both forms that don't appeal to me much) or something completely different, but I like what she does. Probably because I feel an affinity to her desire to snoop, investigate, and generally pry into strangers' lives. She appeals to the voyeur in me. However, if she did to me what she does to her subjects, I'd be quite angry at the invasion of privacy. I think of her as a guilty pleasure.

If THIS is art, what ISN'T?

Is this really art, some woman gnawing her way through apartment walls for a conceptual "art" project with the LMAK galleries in Chelsea, NY. Whatever. It reminded me of a piece (if it can be called that) I saw at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago a couple years ago. The "artist" had bought several hundred old photographs from garage sales and estate sales. Some were of family vacations, others were candid shots, or school portraits etc. The photos were all pinned to the wall in a space about 10 feet by 8 feet, but with the picture side turned into the wall so only the white backs faced the viewer. That was it. The artist didn't even come to the gallery to arrange the photos; the gallery workers put up the entire "piece". There obviously was no right or wrong way to pin each photo other than to make sure the picture couldn't be seen. What is the friggin' point of such "art"? Conceptual art is for "artists" who can't create real art, but can't write either. They're like the million and one wannabe script writers that haunt hollywood saying they have a great idea for a movie they just need someone to help them write it. Right. Anyone can have an idea, but getting the idea on paper in such a way that people want to read it or into a physical piece of art that doesn't suck is what separates the wannabes from the pro's. Most conceptual artists are just wannabes.

Eason Jordan and Sharon Stone?

I just read this from Jay Nordlinger's Impromptus column for NRO:

"Hang on, did you read in the gossip pages that Eason Jordan has wound up with SS (I'm speaking of the actress, not Germans)? Not a bad deal for having offended his way out of CNN."

My first thought: Is Sharon Stone a masochist? Eason Jordan is probably in full fulmination mode right now. I can just imagine the two of them together. Jordan whining and moaning about how unfair it was that he had to resign because of tenacious no-name bloggers oblivious to the beautiful, glamorous woman by his side. How galling to be taken down by nobodies! He moping and pouting replaying the moment in Davos when he stated what he thought was an obvious fact even if it couldn't be proven with evidence, her whispering and cooing about what a powerful and great man he was (no, is, she meant is!) soothing his ego making him feel like a man again (or ever). ACK! What was she thinking?! Is it method acting? Perhaps she's preparing for a part.

Brouhaha in Central Park: the Gates

Apparently you either love the Gates or you hate them. I'm impressed that Christo and Co. footed the entire bill of $21 million! I'm not a fan of conceptual art, but I do appreciate that Christo and Jean-Claude did not feel compelled to bloviate on the "meaning" of their orange gates. They simply said you need to experience them. I will never "experience" the Gates, but I must admit that I like the idea of large, colorful structures arching over the footpath. Like much of their other work, I find it whimsical. If I lived in New York and had to endure its harsh and dismal winters, I'd like a bit of color in my park to perk me up. Is it necessary? No, but then most art isn't. Does it need to have a purpose or meaning to be enjoyed? I don't think so. However, I read this quote in city-journal by Myron Magnet:

"The opposite of cheerful, the gates are oppressive, claustrophobic, even on a brilliant winter Sunday. They crowd as inescapably together as riot police, and are just as lumpish in their inelegant proportions and angular profiles. Like the riot police’s plastic shield and shiny helmets, their materials proclaim Industrial Man’s brute mastery over the elements, producing by unimaginably powerful forces, in white-hot furnaces and giant petrochemical vats that only legions of technicians could design and run, the steel and nylon that shoulders aside the trees and sky."

Now this description seems a bit overwrought, but after reading it I looked at the photos of the Gates again and I understand his point. They do look like lumbering robots draped with frippery to soften their hard edges. So maybe the execution wasn't as successful as it could have been, but would Mr. Magnet be happier if the Gates were in the Art Nouveau style? They wouldn't match his criticism above then. So is the problem with how the gates were built, or with the very idea of having colorful Gates trail the footpath? If it's the former, then I would agree. However if it's the latter, then I think it's much fuss over nothing and only shows a lack of imagination. However, if the very IDEA of the Gates is that they should be bulky behemoths so as to make us feel small and oppressed, then I too would say Kick Christo Out!

A Little Red in the Face

IMG_0184
Originally uploaded by heliotrope.

That's me in the bottle.

We Live in Exciting Times

I love this quote from Michael Ledeen in Nation Review Online:

"Thus, the great force of the democratic revolution is now in collision with the firmly rooted tyrannical objects in Tehran, Damascus, and Riyadh. In one of history's fine little ironies, the "Arab street," long considered our mortal enemy, now threatens Muslim tyrants, and yearns for support from us. That is our immediate task."

America is on the right side of history in supporting freedom and democracy in countries currently oppressed by dictators or tyrannical oligarchies. Regardless if we're ultimately successful in helping form long-term democracies, the process of shaking up the middle east was alone worth it. How was it advantageous for us or the oppressed people to accept the status quo? They were tyrannized and we were terrorized. Something had to change. At least now, the Iraqi, Afghani, and (hopefully soon) the Iranian people have a chance at something different. As President Bush has said, freedom is not a western concept but is yearned for by all those under oppression. The desire for freedom is not culturally bound. However, they need to accept responsibility for the opportunity that has been presented to them. America cannot make the tough decisions for these people or force them to value the same things we do such as free speech, rule of law, open business practices and fiscal accountability etc. The new "Arab Street" must determine what they want their future to look like, and their vision will lead to a brighter more hopeful system of government, or it will lead to more of the same.

David Horowitz Rocks!

David Horowitz has created a powerful tool for learning about the key people, players, and organizations of the political left at his new website Discover The Network. Ever wonder who is buying the Democratic Party? Curious about who funds all those lefty causes? Puzzled why someone would want to DEFEND Saddam Hussein? Look no further, for the answers are all here in one helpful location. Check it out!

Free Cuba from Castro

The Perfect Pot (tea that is)

Every tea must have lovely pots to showcase the leaves which is why these pots are fabulous. Mst if not all are made in Germany, which is fantastic since they make sturdy durable pots. I would love to have the wagenfeld special at a mere (!) $94. For that price, it better last long enough for me to bequeath it to the next generation!

Tea for me

I love tea. It has more refinement than coffee not only in taste but also in its rituals. Going through the ritual of boiling the water, choosing the tea, picking the pot, steeping the leaves, to finlly sipping the fragrant brew helps me transition from the stress of traffic and work to the tranquility of home. This Saturday I'm creating a Valentines Tea for some special friends. On the menu: shortcake biscuits, strawberries and lime curd, asparagus quiche, green apple and brie on pumpernickle, chocolate raspberry tart, lemon cake, and miniature pecan pies with whipped cream. Accompanying this feast of delicacies is a superb Blueberry /Pomegranate loose leaf tea (I abhor the bag!). Of course this menu was completely different yesterday and will probably change an hour before the guests arrive. I rarely bake although it's something I love to do, which is why I put on teas. It gives me the chance to try new recipes, but unfortunately that means I'm baking test cases (and realizing the result is not teaworthy) when I should be baking the done deal. All of which means that I'm baking until midnight on Fridays and slathering sandwiches up until the guests arrive. It's all part of the MO of a procrastinator i.e. me.

ChickenPieShop1

ChickenPieShop1
Originally uploaded by heliotrope.

A step back into the early seventies including the wait staff, this pie shop's specialty is the chicken pot pie. But from what I tasted, I don't know how they got famous for their pot pies, unless their fame is for being awful. Granted it was real chicken meat, but the crust was anything but flaky and the sauce was mostly a goopy cornstarchy slop. Still, I ate all but the last bite. And yes, I'd go back 'cause where else can you get soup AND salad, dinner roles that will remind you of your high school caf, the entree with potato of your choice, AND dessert for $6? Exactly.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Free Tibet

I recently saw the above bumper sticker on a Volvo and it got me to thinking. This is such a lefty trendy cause, but one that I totally agree with. In fact the website freetibet.com states, "Free Tibet Campaign stands for the Tibetans' right to determine their own future. It campaigns for an end to the Chinese occupation of Tibet and for the Tibetans' fundamental human rights to be respected." Nothing to disagree with there. So why am I fussing about this? Because the same people who put Free Tibet bumber stickers on their cars for the ostensible reason that they believe in human rights and self-determiniation, don't believe it applies to other countries such as Iraq (under Hussein) Lebanon (invaded by Syria), Cuba, or North Korea. In the case of these countries, bumper sticker liberals are just fine with tyrranical dictators marching in, occupying the land, and killing off its inhabitants. There are no protest marches for these people's fundamental human rights. When was the last time ANSWER protested Castro or lil' Kim of North Korea?

Dates to Remember during the War on Terror

These are important dates to remember as we approach the next presidential election. The War on Terror may have begun after September 11, 2001, but it's obvious that war had been declared against America long before that date. The War on Terror was a delayed response to a decade of violence against America and Americans throughout the world.

Nov 12, 2001: American Airlines Airbus Flight 587 crashed shortly after takeoff from Kennedy International Airport. Al Queda claims responsibility.

Sept 11, 2001: Airline Terrorism
8:45a American Airlines Flight 11 crashes into North Tower of World Trade Center
9:03a United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into South Tower of World Trade Center
9:43a American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into Pentagon
10:10a United Airlines Flight 93 crashes in Somerset, PA

Oct 12, 2000: Bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen

Oct 31, 1999: Intentional crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 off the coast of Massachusetts

Aug 7, 1998: Bombing of US Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaalm, Tanzania

July 17, 1996: TWA Flight 800 shot down off of Long Island

June 25, 1996: Bombing of Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

April 19, 1995: Oklahoma City bombing of Murrah Federal Building

Oct 3, 1993: Mogadishu, Somalia Clan leader Mohamed Aidid backed by Osama bin Laden

Feb 26, 1993: 1st World Trade Center bombing

Diary

I don't work. Not really. I show up to a job. But what I do there just doesn't seem like work. I don't mean that in the sense of I-love-my-job-so-much-that-it-doesn't-seem-like-work-but-a-privelege blah, blah, blah.

I'm the manager of a client services dept. That's right, I'm in middle management. The unknown cogs of thousands of corporations. The glue that holds companies together. The daily drones that are satisfied with a regular paycheck and the respect of their coworkers.

It's not a bad job or a bad company. I enjoy the people I work with and I have a good boss who is a little crazy. But there are days

diary

I've been driving Steve's '64 Falcon the last couple of days since he needs to commute to Claremont using the Jetta. I like driving the beast since I can cruise and look cool doing it. Heads turn to stare. Usually because I'm blocking traffic in my attempt to parallel park the tank. Steve thinks it's hilarious I think of the falcon as a tank since in its day it was a wee little thing, a compact car. I like at least three, preferrably four, feet in front and back when I park so I don't spend seven minutes, of back and forth stop and go with a whole lotta wheel cranking, exiting the spot.

I totally forget about traffic, speed, and all the other annoyances of traffic in the wee thing since I can't go above 60mph on the freeway. If I drive through Griffith park, I'm only going about 35mph, pefect cruising speed. Gives me the chance to take in my surroundings, like the dessicated geezer on a ten speed who looked like he needed an IV connected to him so that every ounce of energy expended in pedaling was immediately restored with life sustaining fluids. If he fell off his bicycle he could easily be mistaken for roadkill since his flesh looked as if maggots had already made inroads and were simply waiting to finish the job. He was really that gross looking. I audibly gasped when I saw him and as shiver ran through me. Ok, so the shiver was an exaggeration, but the gasp of horror was not.

But alas, we're selling the Falcon since it's impractical for city driving, freeway driving, and almost all forms of driving that are not on deserted country lanes. Besides, we're paranoid that another lunatic will hit the poor thing and mangle its rear end sending us into debt simply to make it pretty again. We cannot handle the heartache. She's been a sweet thing to Steve for the last TEN years. He's been with that car longer than with me. But we've only been together for three (maybe four if you count the confusing "what are we?" months) so that doesn't mean much.

The lady has class and style and that's why its hard to sell her. We're downgrading to a peasant in comparison.


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