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I wonder . . .

Posted by Deadpan on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 4:01:00 PM
if the Clintons made Eliot Spitzer an offer he couldn't refuse.  His dropping this "licenses for illegals"  proposal is about the only thing that could take Hillary's gaffe off the burner.
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Why we need a tariff on imported oil

Posted by Deadpan on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 3:51:08 PM
OPEC says "No!" to increased oil production.  In order to get our own oil shale industry up and running it has to be assured that foreign producers won't be allowed to undercut the prices of shale petroleum.   Normally, I'm a free trader, but this is a matter of national security, not to mention the fact that we're sending huge amounts of money to dictatorships and enemies of our entire way of life.  There are no caribou in the areas where America has huge undeveloped reserves of oil shale.  Environmentalists and wilderness advocates probably need to be told no for once, as well.
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Is McCain a great man?

Posted by Deadpan on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 7:09:43 PM
That seems to be the theme of David Brooks' column today.  It's true that McCain has shown real character in his endurance as a POW in Vietnam, but his Senate career hasn't made him a hero to me. He has often seemed more interested in being the center of attention than in getting something done for his party and the good of the country.  And his "logic" about how allowing torture endangering our own future troops taken captive really puzzles me.  It seems to me that the countries and terrorists we've fought have never been reluctant to torture, murder our troops unlucky enough  to be captured by them.  What makes our enemies honor the Geneva Conventions is the fear that they'll be defeated and be tried as war criminals.  I don't think even that is any concern to members of Al Qaeda or other Islamist radical terrorists.
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Having sold their souls, . . .

Posted by Deadpan on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 6:56:57 PM
the Democrats have been unable to deliver for their new masters.  They were supposed to end the war NOW, but after 40 shots, they have nothing to show.  Meanwhile they've managed to override Bush's veto on one spending bill, but the funds still need to be appropriated for that.
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Introduction

Posted by Deadpan on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 2:30:10 AM
I've been blogging since early in 2002, under the name Cockalorum.blogspot.com, then to-god-and-country.blogspot.com.  I tried a blog on Townhall, but found it more difficult to use the tools than I was used to.  But today, I thought I'd try it again. 

I live in a rural county in East Central Utah, on the edge of a desert to the east at the foot of the Wasatch Plateau  to the West.   We like to say  this isn't the end of the earth, but you can see it from here.   In a way, we're isolated here, but through the internet we see the other ends of the earth out there.  We get radio shows where the transmitters can't reach.  We get TV stations via satellite and so we're not as isolated as it sounds. 

There is still no real traffic light anywhere in this county, no shopping malls, no traffic jams.  The only serious crime to speak of comes from elsewhere.  We generate power here and mine coal, ride horses and herd cows (I, myself, am a tenderfoot descendant of a grandfather who was the real deal when it came to cowboyography).  We're closer to the Old West in some ways that we are to the modern world.   We like it that way. We have the best of both (all?) of the ends of the earth.  
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What are we memorializing?

Posted by Deadpan on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 2:08:59 AM
Duncan Maxwell Anderson considers the trend toward memorials that seem more like cemeteries.  Actually, the Vietnam Memorial in its way was apropos, but not because it honored the heroism of the people whose names are there, maybe a gateway should be placed that points out the people who did so much to make sure those deaths were in vain, starting with Robert McNamara.  The 9/11 memorial could be in honor of the firefighters and cops who helped save so many and prevented thousands of deaths by evacuating people from the Twin Towers before they collapsed.  I'd add a special statue of John O'Neill, just to remind people of the bunglers who got to keep their jobs in the FBI. 

The saddest of the "monuments to wimpdom" is the one in Shanksville, PA, where Flight 93 crashed.  The heroes on that flight deserved to be remembered as fine examples of the American spirit.  Instead: "For their heroism in overpowering four Islamic hijackers and foiling their attempt to destroy the White House or the Capitol, the passengers are to be honored with . . . an empty field. It's little comfort that the field is surrounded by a stand of red maple trees planted in an arc that eerily resembles the crescent of Islam. The design's original name: 'The Crescent of Embrace.' " Yes, it was a sad event, especially for the survivors of the crew and passengers on the flight, but there's something kind of weak and sickly about a society, in this case the politically correct wimpy part of our society, that responds to an heroic deed only with a place to mourn and give hugs.  The Oklahoma City Memorial with all the empty chairs was appropriate, because the people who died there really were the victims of a madman or men.  They had no chance to respond heroically, although one might have wanted to honor those who did so much to rescue those who did not die.  I haven't heard anything about them being honored. 

In Emery County, Utah, where I live, we're dedicating a new memorial to the six miners and three rescuers who were killed in the Crandall Canyon Mine.  I don't know why we feel the need to build monuments, when we keep taking the same unnecessary risks and don't seem to learn anything from the disasters of the past.  The Crandall Canyon Mine was worked out.  It should have been closed, instead of sending men to try to remove the last coal pillars that were holding its roof up.  Apparently, as in The Ballad of Springhill, "blood and bone are the price of coal." (U2  render it "bone and blood is the price of coal.")

I think that perhaps the age-old practice of composing ballads about such events may be the best memorials they will have.  Neil Young did so about Flight 93, in a song called "Let's Roll."  Of course, the Vietnam War was mostly covered in protest ballads and songs like John Fogerty's "Fortunate Son."  There have been others about the plight of Vietnam Veterans who were treated like war criminals when they came home.  The Grateful Dead recorded "My Brother Esau," about it. 

I miss hearing songs like Toby Keith's Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.  It deserves to be our Battle Hymn of the Republic."  It's as representative of our soldiers today as that was of the Northern Cause in the Civil War.  I know that a lot of Americans who are belittled by the left and the media elite, remember 9/11 with a cold resolve to take freedom to the homelands of the psychopaths who attacked us repeatedly with impunity until one plan unthinkable to sane people succeeded brilliantly.  As I googled songs about 9/11 and Iraq, the tide was definitely against the war, but I remember all the protest songs during the Vietnam era, and the people singing and marching and "demonstrating" back then weren't any more peace loving than they are today.  They were angry, nasty, vicious and cruel, just as the Nutroots are today.  We need a popular ballad not just to memorialize 9/11 and its heroes, but to convey, just as The Battle Hymn did, the conviction that free people will never let such an assault go unanswered, but not in the way those who committed it would dream, not solely in vengeance, but in returning good for evil, freeing the enslaved, bringing light to those in darkness, and demonstrating our creed of equality and human rights with power, destroying the cause of terrorism.   Without our faith in freedom and men's ability to better their own lives when given the chance, America loses its meaning and becomes just another decaying empire like Rome, Greece and the rest.  Maybe it's time for us to dust off the words of an old Brit, Rudyard Kipling:

God of our fathers, known of old--
   Lord of our far-flung battle line
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
   Dominion over palm and pine--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies;
   The captains and the kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
   An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away;
   On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
   Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
   Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe--
Such boasting as the Gentiles use
   Or lesser breeds without the law--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
   In reeking tube and iron shard--
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
   And guarding, calls not Thee to guard--
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord!


 
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Why there are no gays in Iran

Posted by Deadpan on Monday, November 12, 2007 11:41:49 PM
If you thought Ahmadinejad was a little naive when he said there were no homosexuals in Iran (I doubt that any of them are gay.), Don Surber may have the explanation.   It's a little different from Don't Ask/Don't Tell.  More like Don't Break During Torture.  And our elites worry about waterboarding.
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A Humble Thanks

Posted by Deadpan on Monday, November 12, 2007 11:22:56 PM
Yesterday was Veteran's Day, but it's also observed today, and I wish I were Bill Gates so that I could create an endowment fund for the various groups who provide help to our troops in harm's way or those wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I've sent what I could afford, but I know it's a pittance.  How do you thank someone who puts his life on the line for you? 

I grew up believing that soldiers in all the services are larger than life.  I know I'd never be able to do what they do in combat.  If I broke my  glasses, I'd be crawling around almost blind.  The Marine recruiters took one look and said no thanks. 

I love the men and women I see serving this country and especially those who have been so seriously injured and yet want to go back to Iraq.  It suggests to me that they saw something there that was worth doing--helping an oppressed people find the hope of freedom and prosperity where piety is real, not forced at the point of a gun.  I feel a lot of pride at the training and discipline they exhibit and take comfort in knowing that we have one of the finest military services in the world.  (I wish I felt the same about our CIA and our education system.)  I lost an uncle before I was born in WWII and my mother's oldest brother spent most of the war as a POW of the Japanese.  I honor them as heroes. 

There will always be wars, because there will always be despots, warlords and fanatics, and we will probably be their main obstacle to extending their power.  We will therefore need a class of warriors, and those who deny it will only cost us more deaths in the long run. 

Thank you.  We're not worthy.
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