I feel there are many reasons to support Israel, from its human rights record, to the fact that it is the only non-racist, non-apartheid state in the Middle East, the list goes on and on.
But one of these reasons is very simple. Israel is the canary in the cole mine. Israel is the front line in the war the West is fighting with Islamic extremists. There are some people, who are either misinformed, leftists or both, that believe that groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah only hate Israel and would sit around and be good citizens if God forbid, Israel fell. This is the furthest thing from the truth. Our enemies, would be emboldened and they would start on their next target, which would probably be Europe. From there, they would seek to force the world to become Islamic. There is no appeasing these people. Their goal is an Islamic caliphate. In Islam, the caliphate is a religious and military leader of the Muslim world. Very similar to the pope, but different in that he is not only a religious leader but a military leader as well. This position started with the death of Muhammad and continued up until the early 20th century, when it was abolished and Turkey, the home of the last Caliphate, was declared a secular republic.
Anyway, over 1200 years ago, before the advent of Islam Jews, Christians and Pagans all lived together in what is now known as the Islamic world. Was everything always perfect. No. Absolutely not. There was a lot of fighting, it was the seventh century after all. There were tribes. Some were Jews, some were Christian, some were Pagans. Wars went on between clans, there were alliances, kingdoms rose and fell. However, what we now know as jihad was not a developed concept. In the Middle East, outside of the Christians, there wasn't the heavy (there was some) anti-semtism. Many of the Pagans and Persians were allied with the Jews. Many of the Christians were allied with the Byzantine empire. But every tribe had its own priorities. In fact, one of the kings of Persia was a Jew. One of the kings in what is now Syria was a Jew. While there was fighting between the various tribes, there wasn't this complete, pervasive racism and hatred that we see today against Jews, Christians and other "infidels." Medina was a JEWISH city, before Muslims stole the land. In fact, when Muhammad was persecuted in Mecca, which was a pagan city, Jews were the only people who gave him and the early Muslims shelter.
Anyway, Muhammad came and first fought certain Jewish tribes. And then when these were destroyed or subjugated he moved onto the Christians. These tribes were subjugated by the Muslims and then the other tribes fell. This fall was do to the fact that the other tribes didn't unify, band together and fight the Muslims. Due to their far superior numbers they could have defeated them. Even after the Muslims had conquered the Arabian peninsula, things were still not too late. If the remaining Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus and Pagans had joined together, they could have handled the problem. But everyone thought, well they are just angry with the Jews and some Christians. Who cares. The problem has nothing to do with us. In fact we have a shiny peace agreement with them. Which, in the end ended up being worthless. Absolutely worthless. The Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, spoke positively of Africans and then his followers when into Africa and killed over 100 million defenseless Africans, not to mention the hundreds of millions of Hindus, Jews, Pagans and Christians that were killed in cold blood by these people. None of these groups thought to unite. I can imagine, they probably thought, "the Jews deserve their fate." We aren't Jews so we don't have to worry about what they are doing or something similar.We can't bring the hundreds of millions of innocents that were killed at the hands of Muslim jihadists back, but what we can do, is learn from the mistakes of the past.
And, like many things, the instigator started with the Jews. What starts with the Jews NEVER ends with the Jews. So, the failure of some Christian, Jewish and Pagan tribes to join against the Muslims and destroy them, which they could have done so as their numbers were far greater than the early Muslims, resulted in hundreds of millions being slaughtered.
Does this mean every Muslim is bad. No, absolutely not. It means that certain Muslims, the ones that carried out these acts are bad however.
Today, we have a repeat of this situation. We have extremists, terrorists, racists, who say they want to "wipe Israel off the map." However, due to the enormous advances in technology between the seventh century and today, it would not take over a thousand years to kill hundreds of millions of innocents. It would only take a few well placed nuclear blasts. Blasts which the perpetrators believe will ensure them a place in heaven, which is the thread which links the earliest jihadists to the present day ones. In the seventh century, the goal was a global caliphate and today, the Islamic jihadists have as their goal, a global caliphate. In other words, the entire world living under Islamic, called Shariah, law, subject to the whims of the Caliphate. So while in the past we didn't unite to defeat the evil which eventually cost the lives of so many of our brothers in sisters, today we must unite and defeat this evil and the extremist ideology that spawned it once and forever.
Friday, May 7, 2010
The Republican Party and Gays
I am a staunch conservative, but one thing I disagree with some of my fellow conservatives is when it comes to gays. Frankly, I don't care what a person does behind closed doors. Just as long as they are with a consenting adult, I could care less. I think that the party spends too much time talking about gays and instead needs to focus on the real issues -- terrorism, growing size of government, deficits, etc.
Having said that, I don't believe in gay marriage, simply because I don't want this taught in schools and many of the organizations pushing gay marriage want it, once it is passed, to be taught in schools. And I consider that offensive and obscene. For the record, I'm against any kind of straight sexual education as well. I consider that offensive and obscene as well. Children should be going to their parents for sexual information, not getting it from some school teacher or official. It would be one thing if the sexual education that children were being taught was factual. But it is not. It is politically correct nonsense. All sexual choices are not the same. The choice of a girl to sleep with 10 boys in high school is not on the same moral level as a girl deciding to wait until she is in a committed relationship.
I also disagree with the whole idea of forcing churches to perform marriages for gays. Personally, I don't care if someone wants to affirm their relationship, but no priest should be forced to marry anyone they don't want to marry.
I think where gays go wrong is flaunting their sexuality all over the place. This turns the general public off. What they should do is reach out to people, show them that they are normal people and deserve rights and handle it through talking. But these loud protests, with naked people and offensive banners are not the way forward. Again, as I said before, I don't care less what a person is doing in private or with whom they are doing this with, provided that the participants are consenting adults.
If there were a bill to give gays more rights, without at the same time violating the above two principals, I wouldn't oppose it. But when certain gay groups, insist on violating these two principals, I must oppose them.
Having said that, I don't believe in gay marriage, simply because I don't want this taught in schools and many of the organizations pushing gay marriage want it, once it is passed, to be taught in schools. And I consider that offensive and obscene. For the record, I'm against any kind of straight sexual education as well. I consider that offensive and obscene as well. Children should be going to their parents for sexual information, not getting it from some school teacher or official. It would be one thing if the sexual education that children were being taught was factual. But it is not. It is politically correct nonsense. All sexual choices are not the same. The choice of a girl to sleep with 10 boys in high school is not on the same moral level as a girl deciding to wait until she is in a committed relationship.
I also disagree with the whole idea of forcing churches to perform marriages for gays. Personally, I don't care if someone wants to affirm their relationship, but no priest should be forced to marry anyone they don't want to marry.
I think where gays go wrong is flaunting their sexuality all over the place. This turns the general public off. What they should do is reach out to people, show them that they are normal people and deserve rights and handle it through talking. But these loud protests, with naked people and offensive banners are not the way forward. Again, as I said before, I don't care less what a person is doing in private or with whom they are doing this with, provided that the participants are consenting adults.
If there were a bill to give gays more rights, without at the same time violating the above two principals, I wouldn't oppose it. But when certain gay groups, insist on violating these two principals, I must oppose them.
Teachers Unions, the Black Community and Education
Anyone wondering whether Leftist ideas work need not look further than their nearest ghetto. Black "leaders" keep on talking about how blacks are being oppressed, but they are 100% wrong as to the source.
Our condition is not due to "oppression from the white man," "the Jew," "the Uncle Tom" or any other convenient target who has not paid off Al Sharpton or any one of the other failed black "leaders." The real source is the Teachers Unions and other Leftist organizations who have taken the black community away from God, the Church and self reliance and systematically taught us to instead, rely on the government. This is something which has failed time and time again.
Let's take schools as just one example of this. We have nearly 50% of black children dropping out of schools. We have many of the children graduating these schools completely unprepared for life. Many of them are not in fact not prepared to enter the work force. They are a product of teachers and school administrators who are failing their students. Who graduate children who may know all about gay marriage, Harvey Milk, condoms and every other pet subject of the left but don't know the basics. They don't know Algebra. They haven't read our Constitution. They have a 6th Grade literacy level, or worse. In most cases they are not educated to the point where they can take a book of average complexity, read it and understand it. That is the problem. There are some teachers who try to teach children, try to do their best, but they are bogged down in a million and one useless regulations from the state and federal government regarding teaching. These restrictions are lobbied for, in most part, by Teachers Unions and other Leftist organizations. And that is a major problem. Things are so bad that my late grandparents, who went to school in the early 20th century and left after the fourth grade to work on the family farm, had a higher literacy rate than many college graduates. Failed ideas, such as sight reading where a child is expected to memorize words instead of actually being able to sound them out and understand them, a technology which is a complete and utter failure, are pushed heavily by the Teachers Unions, despite the fact that sight reading is a proven failure.
And then, we look at sex ed. This is the most useless subject ever. Trust me, teenagers do not need to learn from schools about various sexual positions and techniques. If someone is interested, they can learn from their friends. In fact, the way sex ed is done today it is actually destructive. This is very old fashioned, but my belief is that young people should not be having sex. Period. End of story. When I was in high school, I did not have sex. I am not an ugly guy. But I made the decision that I was not going to have sex, get a girl pregnant and ruin my life like so many young black men do. I love children, don't get me wrong. But they need a stable family environment and married parents, a mother and father. And a teenager is not able to provide this kind of environment. There are some wonderful people who were raised by their mother. Their are some wonderful teenage parents who put everything together, despite the bumps in the road. But it doesn't change the fact that sex is best in a monogamous, committed relationship, ideally marriage.
Yet, in the average Sex Ed class, children are not being taught these basic, key, core values. They are instead being taught that they are sexual creatures, and whatever kind of sex they decide to do is OK. Don't want the baby? Have an abortion. Whatever sexual perversion you feel like is OK. Parent's say no. Report them to us because they are obviously "stifling your sexual freedom." Having been a teenager, I can tell you first hand, that it is possible to control yourself. You do not have to run around and have sex with 10 different girls or guys, if you are a girl. You can be responsible. You can make responsible choices. And when you get older and are in a committed relationship at the very least, or marriage, it will be wonderful exploring this part of you with someone you really care about. But this is not what children are being taught and that is the problem. They are being taught everything but this simple truth.
As Dr. Mirriam Grossman, the brilliant psychiatrist points out, condoms don't protect from every sexually transmitted diseases. There are some activities, for example, Anal, that are much, much more likely to transmit these infections than other activities. And 25% of young people are infected with these kinds of diseases. And I'm not even covering the psychological wounds that come along with this kind of behavior. Too many psychologists and psychiatrists, many of whom are leftists, go along with the politically correct line, that girls are just like boys. In fact, if a girl or boy wants to random, causal sex with a different person every other night this is "normal experimentation." Nothing could be further from the truth. This kind of activity has real consequences. Young people who engage in this kind of activity are far less happy than young people who abstain. And when these teenagers get depressed, too often this is misdiagnosed as some major psychiatric condition, when in fact, it is the natural result of engaging in this kind of behavior. Sometimes some of these psychological wounds can heal if a person simply stops engaging in this kind of lifestyle and instead does something constructive.
And you can see the results of this kind of education all over the black community. Back in the days of Jim Crow laws, things were horrible. There was overt discrimination, blacks were oppressed, it was simply awful and unacceptable. But despite all this oppression, most black children were being born in two parent families, they were graduating high school, they were working hard and trying to overcome the racism inherent in that system. Today, we have most black children being born out of wedlock.
In order to solve these problems, we need real school choice. We need to be able to take black children out of these failing Leftist schools and put them in schools where they will get real values. A real education. Not a fake education. Then they will have a much better chance to succeed.
Our condition is not due to "oppression from the white man," "the Jew," "the Uncle Tom" or any other convenient target who has not paid off Al Sharpton or any one of the other failed black "leaders." The real source is the Teachers Unions and other Leftist organizations who have taken the black community away from God, the Church and self reliance and systematically taught us to instead, rely on the government. This is something which has failed time and time again.
Let's take schools as just one example of this. We have nearly 50% of black children dropping out of schools. We have many of the children graduating these schools completely unprepared for life. Many of them are not in fact not prepared to enter the work force. They are a product of teachers and school administrators who are failing their students. Who graduate children who may know all about gay marriage, Harvey Milk, condoms and every other pet subject of the left but don't know the basics. They don't know Algebra. They haven't read our Constitution. They have a 6th Grade literacy level, or worse. In most cases they are not educated to the point where they can take a book of average complexity, read it and understand it. That is the problem. There are some teachers who try to teach children, try to do their best, but they are bogged down in a million and one useless regulations from the state and federal government regarding teaching. These restrictions are lobbied for, in most part, by Teachers Unions and other Leftist organizations. And that is a major problem. Things are so bad that my late grandparents, who went to school in the early 20th century and left after the fourth grade to work on the family farm, had a higher literacy rate than many college graduates. Failed ideas, such as sight reading where a child is expected to memorize words instead of actually being able to sound them out and understand them, a technology which is a complete and utter failure, are pushed heavily by the Teachers Unions, despite the fact that sight reading is a proven failure.
And then, we look at sex ed. This is the most useless subject ever. Trust me, teenagers do not need to learn from schools about various sexual positions and techniques. If someone is interested, they can learn from their friends. In fact, the way sex ed is done today it is actually destructive. This is very old fashioned, but my belief is that young people should not be having sex. Period. End of story. When I was in high school, I did not have sex. I am not an ugly guy. But I made the decision that I was not going to have sex, get a girl pregnant and ruin my life like so many young black men do. I love children, don't get me wrong. But they need a stable family environment and married parents, a mother and father. And a teenager is not able to provide this kind of environment. There are some wonderful people who were raised by their mother. Their are some wonderful teenage parents who put everything together, despite the bumps in the road. But it doesn't change the fact that sex is best in a monogamous, committed relationship, ideally marriage.
Yet, in the average Sex Ed class, children are not being taught these basic, key, core values. They are instead being taught that they are sexual creatures, and whatever kind of sex they decide to do is OK. Don't want the baby? Have an abortion. Whatever sexual perversion you feel like is OK. Parent's say no. Report them to us because they are obviously "stifling your sexual freedom." Having been a teenager, I can tell you first hand, that it is possible to control yourself. You do not have to run around and have sex with 10 different girls or guys, if you are a girl. You can be responsible. You can make responsible choices. And when you get older and are in a committed relationship at the very least, or marriage, it will be wonderful exploring this part of you with someone you really care about. But this is not what children are being taught and that is the problem. They are being taught everything but this simple truth.
As Dr. Mirriam Grossman, the brilliant psychiatrist points out, condoms don't protect from every sexually transmitted diseases. There are some activities, for example, Anal, that are much, much more likely to transmit these infections than other activities. And 25% of young people are infected with these kinds of diseases. And I'm not even covering the psychological wounds that come along with this kind of behavior. Too many psychologists and psychiatrists, many of whom are leftists, go along with the politically correct line, that girls are just like boys. In fact, if a girl or boy wants to random, causal sex with a different person every other night this is "normal experimentation." Nothing could be further from the truth. This kind of activity has real consequences. Young people who engage in this kind of activity are far less happy than young people who abstain. And when these teenagers get depressed, too often this is misdiagnosed as some major psychiatric condition, when in fact, it is the natural result of engaging in this kind of behavior. Sometimes some of these psychological wounds can heal if a person simply stops engaging in this kind of lifestyle and instead does something constructive.
And you can see the results of this kind of education all over the black community. Back in the days of Jim Crow laws, things were horrible. There was overt discrimination, blacks were oppressed, it was simply awful and unacceptable. But despite all this oppression, most black children were being born in two parent families, they were graduating high school, they were working hard and trying to overcome the racism inherent in that system. Today, we have most black children being born out of wedlock.
In order to solve these problems, we need real school choice. We need to be able to take black children out of these failing Leftist schools and put them in schools where they will get real values. A real education. Not a fake education. Then they will have a much better chance to succeed.
Obama's failure on Jobs
It never ceases to amaze me how left wing politicians can't spot the obvious economic laws which drive a country. They are so simple and easy to grasp if one simply observes, I can't help but wonder about the extremely low level of intelligence of the "very best people" in our government.
The complete lack of an ability to observe in so many graduates of our Universities is frankly depressing. They graduate as loyal foot soldiers for Greenpeace, AFL-CIO or some other left wing organization, but when it comes to common sense, especially among too many of our economics and history Phds, they are lacking in these skills.
Let's take the economy. Jobs and the economy are actually very easy to understand. Factors leading to job growth are actually very simple. You reduce taxes and regulations, it is easier for small companies, which make up the bulk of new job growth, to add new jobs. If you create more regulation, if you force people to buy their employees health care or force them to pay more taxes, obviously they won't hire more people. They don't have limitless amounts of money and these things cost money. This isn't hard to understand. Yet it is so difficult for our President and his other useful idiot leftists who have gone to all the best schools, are part of all the "best" organizations, yet can't spot the obvious.
The excuses that politicians make, are frankly, specious. They seem to make sense but are lies. I hear all of this imaginary concern from the Left about poor people, and how people are struggling. Well, the solution to that, as I have said in earlier blogs, is to cut regulation, deep business tax cuts, so that money is freed up to hire new employees. Cut welfare and other programs that allow able bodied people to live off the government without doing anything. Get these people trained for jobs. As companies have more capital, they will increase hiring, including hiring for entry level positions. Gradually these people, if they work hard and apply themselves, will move out of poverty. This is the real solution. Not another government program. Not another government handout.
The complete lack of an ability to observe in so many graduates of our Universities is frankly depressing. They graduate as loyal foot soldiers for Greenpeace, AFL-CIO or some other left wing organization, but when it comes to common sense, especially among too many of our economics and history Phds, they are lacking in these skills.
Let's take the economy. Jobs and the economy are actually very easy to understand. Factors leading to job growth are actually very simple. You reduce taxes and regulations, it is easier for small companies, which make up the bulk of new job growth, to add new jobs. If you create more regulation, if you force people to buy their employees health care or force them to pay more taxes, obviously they won't hire more people. They don't have limitless amounts of money and these things cost money. This isn't hard to understand. Yet it is so difficult for our President and his other useful idiot leftists who have gone to all the best schools, are part of all the "best" organizations, yet can't spot the obvious.
The excuses that politicians make, are frankly, specious. They seem to make sense but are lies. I hear all of this imaginary concern from the Left about poor people, and how people are struggling. Well, the solution to that, as I have said in earlier blogs, is to cut regulation, deep business tax cuts, so that money is freed up to hire new employees. Cut welfare and other programs that allow able bodied people to live off the government without doing anything. Get these people trained for jobs. As companies have more capital, they will increase hiring, including hiring for entry level positions. Gradually these people, if they work hard and apply themselves, will move out of poverty. This is the real solution. Not another government program. Not another government handout.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
The Failure of Western Foreign Policy
I have gotten numerous messages saying that I never criticize Israel and therefore I think they are perfect.
Well I can tell you that I do not believe that Israel or any other country in the world is perfect. They are ALL extremely flawed. America has made tons of mistakes. The United States government (apart from the military) is extremely stupid, inflexible and bureaucratic. It is a wonder that they get anything done. The same applies to a degree to the Israeli government. The Jewish state has more Phds per capita than probably any other country, yet I see its government make stupid decision after stupid decision. It show their and America's complete lack of understanding when it comes to the Arab world and to a lesser degree foreign affairs with other countries.
The reason for this deep stupidity when it comes to these things is because both countries, and many other in the West rely on Ivory tower intellectuals. These are people who have been to universities for many years, have studied all about an area, are considered "experts," but have no practical experience in that area outside of the government or academia. For example there take an "expert" in economics who has a PHd in economics and has been teaching it in Harvard for 20 years. This person has never run a business or done anything of value outside of teaching at Harvard. These are the kind of people the government loves to hire, because everyone agrees they are "brilliant" but they are actually some of the worst people to hire, since they have no practical experience.
A five star example of a group that represents this in spades is the Council on Foreign Relations. The CFR is filled with ivory tower intellectuals. Everyone is "so smart." Everyone has been to school and graduated with the best degrees. Everyone graduated at the top of the their class. Everyone agrees that these people are the "best and brightest." But they can't understand even the fundamentals of a foreign policy. And while the CFR is primarily a United States organization, their influence allows their stupid ideas to spread around the world. And that is the problem. Stupid foreign policy ideas originated by leftist intellectuals talking to other leftist intellectuals in some University somewhere with no actual experience.
You look at Obama, where does he get these stupid ideas from. Why is he encouraging Middle Eastern countries to allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, which it says it will use to kill 15 million Muslims and at least 5 million Jews. On its surface it seems extremely unintelligent to allow a regime like this to develop these kinds of weapons. Yet we have two ivy league intellectuals, writing in the pages of Foreign Relations, the official magazine of the CFR, recommending that America allow this country to develop nuclear weapons and even to setup an alliance with them!?!?! You see Zbigniew Brzezinski, Obama's advisor recommending that America actually shoot down Israeli jets if they try to take out Iran's nuclear facilities. This is clearly madness.
Why is Obama insulting our allies, such as the United Kingdom, and coozing up to dictatorships like those in Russia and Venezuela. Since Obama himself is an intellectual and was a college professor things are far worse than with any other President. Not only are all of his advisers straight from various ivory towers, he is as well, with no real experience outside of left wing organizing and government. He probably spoke at length with other professors and other "smart" people about how we simply need to talk to these foreign countries, how nobody has ever talked to these people. All of his leftist friends such as Bill Ayers, probably agreed to this. But the problem with these ideas is that they only rarely work in the real world.
It would be beneficial for the US government to lay off everyone who solely has experience in college and hire people with actual real world experience.
I am not pro-war. I don't think that war is always the solution. But I will tell you something interesting, which Obama and his advisers don't seem to be able to grasp. If you have force and you are willing to use it, often you don't need to use it. But if you display weakness, if you are afraid to use force you are weak, you will actually end up in more fights. This is not a rule I invented. It is simply life. That law is why many people who learn Karate or another Martial Art often find that they don't need to use it. Because they know how to handle possibly violent situations, they are not afraid of them and therefore end up in less of them. Compare that to a frail person who is completely terrified of everything and will do anything to not get into a fight. He will be much more likely to get into a fight.
Europe is like this but far, far worse. There foreign policy consists of appeasing any foreign power that may be hostile. They just role over and agree to any demand. You see threats from Islamic terrorist groups against the Europeans and what do they do in the face of terrorist groups? What do they do in the face of critical foreign governments? They bend over backwards to try to do what these groups want. This is the losing path. This is the path to enslavement. The only way to handle any adversary is to display strength and that has to be the key point to any foreign policy strategy. Because European governments are filled with these intellectual types, far more than in even the United States government, their heads are filled with stupid ideas that would only work in the back of a university. Just look at Spain. Al-Qaida bombs Spain and they promptly withdraw from Iraq. This is the WRONG thing to do. In the face of terrorism, it is vital that a country NOT do what the terrorists want and show strength. That is the real way to handle the problem. Display strength. In other words, they should have sent MORE troops to Iraq as a result of the bombing.
Then across the ocean you have Israel. A country with, as I said before, the highest IQ per capita of probably any country in the world. They have developed so much wonderful technology. For example parts of the Intel microchip were developed in Israel -- our computers rely on Israeli technology. And that is just one example, there are many other things these people have developed.
Yet when it comes to terrorism and foreign policy, the Israeli government, while being more realistic than either the European or United States governments, having dealt with the problem longer, is still kind of stupid. Because suffer from the same disease that afflicts Europe and the United States. Leftist intellectuals, giving their leaders flowery ideas that will never work in the real world. A five star example of this is the silly dream of a two state solution, where all the Arab states will recognize Israel and a state of Palestine will be near Israel and will live in peace with the Jews. I have a whole blog post on why this is idiotic and would never work, but anyone who has even casually studied current Islamic teachings regarding Jews would realize that this is a fantasy, no more realistic than the tooth fairy. The heart of the problem is not, like some leftist intellectuals say, "settlements." In other words, according to the leftist narrative, Jews building a garage or a new home is somehow a "barrier" to peace. What a completely silly idea. The real barrier to peace is the fact that many Arab Muslims have an extremely deep racism and hatred towards others. By others, I mean anyone who is not a Arab Muslim. For example, if Israel was replaced by a country populated by dark skinned Hindus, they would be fought as well, since in the Arab Muslim mind, these people are racially and spiritually inferior. If there was a group of African Muslims in the middle of the Middle East, these people would and have been considered racially inferior, "animals." There have been cases on record where black Muslims have had stones thrown at them in Islamic countries. Blacks are regularly called "Ibid" which is Arabic for black slave, in English, the word would be "nigger." During the 1970s, the King of Saudi Arabia stated that he didn't want any Blacks, including Black Muslims to work in the country because Africans "pollute" the country. Despite their persecution under the Islamic regime in the Sudan, the only country that gives African Muslims shelter is Israel, the Jewish state. Just shows how racist the rest of the Arab world is. I'm sorry if this offends you, but this is just the way it is.
So my whole point in bringing this up is, if these people are unable to live with each other, how are they going to live in peace with a JEWISH state when their religion teaches them to hate Jews and others. This idea of negotiating a settlement is a fantasy. If Israel wants a real foreign policy that will work, they need to bring in my mentor, a total hero and my strongest influence, the head of Islam for Peace, Dr. Tafwik Hamid. He would tell them to stop talking and communicate a very simple message that anyone can understand. Bother me and I will f*ck you up. Leave me alone and I will leave you alone. Another message they need to get out is NO LAND FOR PEACE. PEACE FOR PEACE. These messages needs to be reiterated over and over again until the Arabs get it. It isn't complicated. Even the stupidest leaders can grasp this. Again, no negotiations over land. Just repeat the message over and over again in words and actions. Let's say Hamas launches some rockets. Israel's response to this should be expelling Hamas and taking over Gaza and building some "settlements." Let's say there is violence from Fatah, in the West Bank. The perpetrators say they do it because they are frustrated over settlements. Ok. Israel kills the individuals who committed the terrorist acts and creates far more "settlements." At least double or triple the number of "settlements" before the incident of terrorism. Repeat the cycle and suddenly you have peace. Throw the whole idea of freezing construction or freezing "settlements" in the trash.
So when you have a solution that could be implemented so simply, why doesn't the Israeli government implement a common sense solution to this problem like the above. Leftist intellectuals filling their heads with idiotic ideas or reasons that have nothing to do with reality. If Israel would only project strength, discard this stupid land for peace policy they would be able to achieve the peace they have sought for so long in very short order.
Well I can tell you that I do not believe that Israel or any other country in the world is perfect. They are ALL extremely flawed. America has made tons of mistakes. The United States government (apart from the military) is extremely stupid, inflexible and bureaucratic. It is a wonder that they get anything done. The same applies to a degree to the Israeli government. The Jewish state has more Phds per capita than probably any other country, yet I see its government make stupid decision after stupid decision. It show their and America's complete lack of understanding when it comes to the Arab world and to a lesser degree foreign affairs with other countries.
The reason for this deep stupidity when it comes to these things is because both countries, and many other in the West rely on Ivory tower intellectuals. These are people who have been to universities for many years, have studied all about an area, are considered "experts," but have no practical experience in that area outside of the government or academia. For example there take an "expert" in economics who has a PHd in economics and has been teaching it in Harvard for 20 years. This person has never run a business or done anything of value outside of teaching at Harvard. These are the kind of people the government loves to hire, because everyone agrees they are "brilliant" but they are actually some of the worst people to hire, since they have no practical experience.
A five star example of a group that represents this in spades is the Council on Foreign Relations. The CFR is filled with ivory tower intellectuals. Everyone is "so smart." Everyone has been to school and graduated with the best degrees. Everyone graduated at the top of the their class. Everyone agrees that these people are the "best and brightest." But they can't understand even the fundamentals of a foreign policy. And while the CFR is primarily a United States organization, their influence allows their stupid ideas to spread around the world. And that is the problem. Stupid foreign policy ideas originated by leftist intellectuals talking to other leftist intellectuals in some University somewhere with no actual experience.
You look at Obama, where does he get these stupid ideas from. Why is he encouraging Middle Eastern countries to allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, which it says it will use to kill 15 million Muslims and at least 5 million Jews. On its surface it seems extremely unintelligent to allow a regime like this to develop these kinds of weapons. Yet we have two ivy league intellectuals, writing in the pages of Foreign Relations, the official magazine of the CFR, recommending that America allow this country to develop nuclear weapons and even to setup an alliance with them!?!?! You see Zbigniew Brzezinski, Obama's advisor recommending that America actually shoot down Israeli jets if they try to take out Iran's nuclear facilities. This is clearly madness.
Why is Obama insulting our allies, such as the United Kingdom, and coozing up to dictatorships like those in Russia and Venezuela. Since Obama himself is an intellectual and was a college professor things are far worse than with any other President. Not only are all of his advisers straight from various ivory towers, he is as well, with no real experience outside of left wing organizing and government. He probably spoke at length with other professors and other "smart" people about how we simply need to talk to these foreign countries, how nobody has ever talked to these people. All of his leftist friends such as Bill Ayers, probably agreed to this. But the problem with these ideas is that they only rarely work in the real world.
It would be beneficial for the US government to lay off everyone who solely has experience in college and hire people with actual real world experience.
I am not pro-war. I don't think that war is always the solution. But I will tell you something interesting, which Obama and his advisers don't seem to be able to grasp. If you have force and you are willing to use it, often you don't need to use it. But if you display weakness, if you are afraid to use force you are weak, you will actually end up in more fights. This is not a rule I invented. It is simply life. That law is why many people who learn Karate or another Martial Art often find that they don't need to use it. Because they know how to handle possibly violent situations, they are not afraid of them and therefore end up in less of them. Compare that to a frail person who is completely terrified of everything and will do anything to not get into a fight. He will be much more likely to get into a fight.
Europe is like this but far, far worse. There foreign policy consists of appeasing any foreign power that may be hostile. They just role over and agree to any demand. You see threats from Islamic terrorist groups against the Europeans and what do they do in the face of terrorist groups? What do they do in the face of critical foreign governments? They bend over backwards to try to do what these groups want. This is the losing path. This is the path to enslavement. The only way to handle any adversary is to display strength and that has to be the key point to any foreign policy strategy. Because European governments are filled with these intellectual types, far more than in even the United States government, their heads are filled with stupid ideas that would only work in the back of a university. Just look at Spain. Al-Qaida bombs Spain and they promptly withdraw from Iraq. This is the WRONG thing to do. In the face of terrorism, it is vital that a country NOT do what the terrorists want and show strength. That is the real way to handle the problem. Display strength. In other words, they should have sent MORE troops to Iraq as a result of the bombing.
Then across the ocean you have Israel. A country with, as I said before, the highest IQ per capita of probably any country in the world. They have developed so much wonderful technology. For example parts of the Intel microchip were developed in Israel -- our computers rely on Israeli technology. And that is just one example, there are many other things these people have developed.
Yet when it comes to terrorism and foreign policy, the Israeli government, while being more realistic than either the European or United States governments, having dealt with the problem longer, is still kind of stupid. Because suffer from the same disease that afflicts Europe and the United States. Leftist intellectuals, giving their leaders flowery ideas that will never work in the real world. A five star example of this is the silly dream of a two state solution, where all the Arab states will recognize Israel and a state of Palestine will be near Israel and will live in peace with the Jews. I have a whole blog post on why this is idiotic and would never work, but anyone who has even casually studied current Islamic teachings regarding Jews would realize that this is a fantasy, no more realistic than the tooth fairy. The heart of the problem is not, like some leftist intellectuals say, "settlements." In other words, according to the leftist narrative, Jews building a garage or a new home is somehow a "barrier" to peace. What a completely silly idea. The real barrier to peace is the fact that many Arab Muslims have an extremely deep racism and hatred towards others. By others, I mean anyone who is not a Arab Muslim. For example, if Israel was replaced by a country populated by dark skinned Hindus, they would be fought as well, since in the Arab Muslim mind, these people are racially and spiritually inferior. If there was a group of African Muslims in the middle of the Middle East, these people would and have been considered racially inferior, "animals." There have been cases on record where black Muslims have had stones thrown at them in Islamic countries. Blacks are regularly called "Ibid" which is Arabic for black slave, in English, the word would be "nigger." During the 1970s, the King of Saudi Arabia stated that he didn't want any Blacks, including Black Muslims to work in the country because Africans "pollute" the country. Despite their persecution under the Islamic regime in the Sudan, the only country that gives African Muslims shelter is Israel, the Jewish state. Just shows how racist the rest of the Arab world is. I'm sorry if this offends you, but this is just the way it is.
So my whole point in bringing this up is, if these people are unable to live with each other, how are they going to live in peace with a JEWISH state when their religion teaches them to hate Jews and others. This idea of negotiating a settlement is a fantasy. If Israel wants a real foreign policy that will work, they need to bring in my mentor, a total hero and my strongest influence, the head of Islam for Peace, Dr. Tafwik Hamid. He would tell them to stop talking and communicate a very simple message that anyone can understand. Bother me and I will f*ck you up. Leave me alone and I will leave you alone. Another message they need to get out is NO LAND FOR PEACE. PEACE FOR PEACE. These messages needs to be reiterated over and over again until the Arabs get it. It isn't complicated. Even the stupidest leaders can grasp this. Again, no negotiations over land. Just repeat the message over and over again in words and actions. Let's say Hamas launches some rockets. Israel's response to this should be expelling Hamas and taking over Gaza and building some "settlements." Let's say there is violence from Fatah, in the West Bank. The perpetrators say they do it because they are frustrated over settlements. Ok. Israel kills the individuals who committed the terrorist acts and creates far more "settlements." At least double or triple the number of "settlements" before the incident of terrorism. Repeat the cycle and suddenly you have peace. Throw the whole idea of freezing construction or freezing "settlements" in the trash.
So when you have a solution that could be implemented so simply, why doesn't the Israeli government implement a common sense solution to this problem like the above. Leftist intellectuals filling their heads with idiotic ideas or reasons that have nothing to do with reality. If Israel would only project strength, discard this stupid land for peace policy they would be able to achieve the peace they have sought for so long in very short order.
Healthcare Reform
Barack Obama has really shown his true colors, as the Socialist he actually is with the passage of the health care reform bill.
A complete power grab a taking over of 1/6th of the American economy and a complete disgrace, not only because it is the absolute wrong thing to do, not only because it was opposed by the majority of the population, but also unconstitutional. There is absolutely nowhere in the constiution where our founding fathers outlined healthcare as a basic right and in fact, this kind of socialized health care has failed time and time again.
The government health care programs that now exist, Medicare and Medicaid are abject and utter failures. They never should have been passed into law and if Republicans had some real backbone they would work to privatise these programs, along with Social Security. Due to the massive amount of waste, these three programs alone take up over 50% of the United States budget. It is obvious adding another program will only hurt our country.
So the question is, why did the Democrats support this bill and overrule the will of the people. Was it because they are dedicated Socialists? Was it because they want to destroy the country? Is it both?
A complete power grab a taking over of 1/6th of the American economy and a complete disgrace, not only because it is the absolute wrong thing to do, not only because it was opposed by the majority of the population, but also unconstitutional. There is absolutely nowhere in the constiution where our founding fathers outlined healthcare as a basic right and in fact, this kind of socialized health care has failed time and time again.
The government health care programs that now exist, Medicare and Medicaid are abject and utter failures. They never should have been passed into law and if Republicans had some real backbone they would work to privatise these programs, along with Social Security. Due to the massive amount of waste, these three programs alone take up over 50% of the United States budget. It is obvious adding another program will only hurt our country.
So the question is, why did the Democrats support this bill and overrule the will of the people. Was it because they are dedicated Socialists? Was it because they want to destroy the country? Is it both?
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Trial Lawyers
A lot of my conservative friends disagree with me when it comes to trial lawyers and tort reform.
I actually (gasp) agree with some liberals when it comes to tort law. Many in the Republican party have called for restricting lawsuits against doctors because they say that it drives healthcare costs up and all of these lawsuits are without merit. They are partially right but mostly wrong.
Yes, there are junk lawsuits and this is disgusting. There should be some sensible regulations put in place to cut down on these types of lawsuits. But eliminating tort law, like many Republicans have proposed, is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. For example, take Texas, a state which has passed tough tort reform legislation. Yes, there are less lawsuits and therefore fewer costs are passed on to doctors. But things have gotten so crazy that there was a famous case where a doctor in a case of blantant malpractice, cut off the wrong leg, and the patient was unable to sue! This is absolute madness. Yes, if the doctor looked at you the wrong way, you shouldn't be able to sue. But a healthy leg was cut off. This is going to impact the person for the rest of their life, they sure as hell should be able to sue over this. But in Texas they aren't able to.
Or take the case of a California doctor, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, based out of the Bay Area. For years he was considered one of the top practitioners in his field. His speciality was children who had been abused and he was extremely well thought of. But he was hiding an extremely dark secret. He was molesting some of the children who came to him for treatment. Instead of treating them for their abuse, he was abusing them further and then threatening them in order to ensure there silence. This went on for 20 years. Each patient thinking he was the only one. Each patient terrified to speak out. Anyway, some years ago, the whole house of cards came crashing down around this doctor and he was exposed for what he is, a serial child molester and arrested. Dozens of former patients came forward and testified against him. Everyone knows that an experience like this can scar a person for life. It is more than fair for these former patients, these victims of a doctor who took advantage of his position, to be able to sue.
Or let's go into another example. A large pharmceutical company produced a drug which, according to their own studies, was dangerous for pregnant women. The drug, when taken during pregnancy, could cause birth defects in children. Anyway, the drug company submitted this drug to the FDA and knowingly witheld this study. One day, a young mother is prescribed this drug and assured by her doctor that it is safe to take during pregnancy, since all of the information he has shows no problems. She takes this drug and her child is born with major birth defects. She will NEVER live a normal life as her heart wasn't formed properly as a result of the mother taking the drug. This heart condition almost always results in death in the first few years of life. And the life the baby lives is very uncomfortable, with constant visits and stays in hospitals. Healthcare costs for this child could easily reach millions of dollars throughout her short life. Obviously, this mother should be able to sue. In fact she did sue the company, GlaxoSmithKline, won a settlement and also forced them to reveal the study and turn it over to the FDA. The FDA promptly placed a warning on the label of the drug to warn other pregnant women of the dangers of the drug. But none of this would have happened without a lawsuit.
Obviously, the kinds of things I have described above don't happen every day. But when they do happen, the only way to resolve them is to sue. I don't advocate suits every day, but sometimes lawsuits need to be filled in order to correct an injustice. And simply banning lawsuits isn't the solution. The FDA doesn't always have all the information. The FDA isn't always right. Again, sometimes the only way to get to the bottom of things, the only way in order to get justice is to sue someone.
I actually (gasp) agree with some liberals when it comes to tort law. Many in the Republican party have called for restricting lawsuits against doctors because they say that it drives healthcare costs up and all of these lawsuits are without merit. They are partially right but mostly wrong.
Yes, there are junk lawsuits and this is disgusting. There should be some sensible regulations put in place to cut down on these types of lawsuits. But eliminating tort law, like many Republicans have proposed, is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. For example, take Texas, a state which has passed tough tort reform legislation. Yes, there are less lawsuits and therefore fewer costs are passed on to doctors. But things have gotten so crazy that there was a famous case where a doctor in a case of blantant malpractice, cut off the wrong leg, and the patient was unable to sue! This is absolute madness. Yes, if the doctor looked at you the wrong way, you shouldn't be able to sue. But a healthy leg was cut off. This is going to impact the person for the rest of their life, they sure as hell should be able to sue over this. But in Texas they aren't able to.
Or take the case of a California doctor, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, based out of the Bay Area. For years he was considered one of the top practitioners in his field. His speciality was children who had been abused and he was extremely well thought of. But he was hiding an extremely dark secret. He was molesting some of the children who came to him for treatment. Instead of treating them for their abuse, he was abusing them further and then threatening them in order to ensure there silence. This went on for 20 years. Each patient thinking he was the only one. Each patient terrified to speak out. Anyway, some years ago, the whole house of cards came crashing down around this doctor and he was exposed for what he is, a serial child molester and arrested. Dozens of former patients came forward and testified against him. Everyone knows that an experience like this can scar a person for life. It is more than fair for these former patients, these victims of a doctor who took advantage of his position, to be able to sue.
Or let's go into another example. A large pharmceutical company produced a drug which, according to their own studies, was dangerous for pregnant women. The drug, when taken during pregnancy, could cause birth defects in children. Anyway, the drug company submitted this drug to the FDA and knowingly witheld this study. One day, a young mother is prescribed this drug and assured by her doctor that it is safe to take during pregnancy, since all of the information he has shows no problems. She takes this drug and her child is born with major birth defects. She will NEVER live a normal life as her heart wasn't formed properly as a result of the mother taking the drug. This heart condition almost always results in death in the first few years of life. And the life the baby lives is very uncomfortable, with constant visits and stays in hospitals. Healthcare costs for this child could easily reach millions of dollars throughout her short life. Obviously, this mother should be able to sue. In fact she did sue the company, GlaxoSmithKline, won a settlement and also forced them to reveal the study and turn it over to the FDA. The FDA promptly placed a warning on the label of the drug to warn other pregnant women of the dangers of the drug. But none of this would have happened without a lawsuit.
Obviously, the kinds of things I have described above don't happen every day. But when they do happen, the only way to resolve them is to sue. I don't advocate suits every day, but sometimes lawsuits need to be filled in order to correct an injustice. And simply banning lawsuits isn't the solution. The FDA doesn't always have all the information. The FDA isn't always right. Again, sometimes the only way to get to the bottom of things, the only way in order to get justice is to sue someone.
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