Archive for Politics
April 17, 2007
The Wrong Answer
6:10 pm | Culture | Politics | Comments: 3
The question on everybody’s mind is why, as always. Why did this guy decide it was time for 32 random people to die? I can give you the answer: sin. That much is obvious. Sin itself is a problem which also has a solution, that solution being Lord Jesus Christ. What I want to address at this time is the wrong answer being trumpeted by ignorant morons everywhere, which is that America needs more gun control.
I was angry enough to yell at my computer monitor when I read the statement of that Australian official who gloated about having tightened the noose around his own citizenry by increasing gun-control laws. The idea that gun-control legislation will stop shootings, as I’ve pointed out several times in the annals of Set It Off, is absurd. The reasons for this are plentiful, the most obvious being the fact that gun-control laws only apply to people that care about the law - something which most criminals don’t seem to care much about. The only way it could work is if you physically removed every single weapon from the world - which will simply never happen, and even then would-be murderers would just get more creative in how they murdered people. Remember Prohibition? It drove the alcohol industry underground, making alcohol trafficking a goldmine for the underworld. Gun-control laws will never reduce crime, they will only make criminals who sell illegal weapons richer and criminals that buy illegal weapons more powerful.
America’s gun culture did nothing to facilitate Cho Seung-Hui’s heinous crime. In fact, if students had been allowed to carry concealed firearms on campus, he could very well have been dead long before the thirty-second person was killed. The fact that U.S. citizens are banned from carrying concealed firearms in many public places in the United States should be a matter of grave concern to us all because it leaves us at risk of having no effective way to fight back when someone threatens us with our lives. I know that the moment I can afford a decent handgun, I will buy one legally and obtain a permit to carry it concealed on my person. As citizens of the United States of America, that is our right and I think that we should all be aware of it, and when we arm ourselves we should remember the 32 victims of Cho Seung-Hui that found themselves defenseless and at the mercy of a cold-blooded killer.
November 9, 2006
Fade to White
11:54 am | Politics | Comments: 8
Snowboarding season is coiled in the corner like a large cat, waiting to pounce upon us. The difference between this and the type of cat that might make an attempt on your life is that this cat is nothing but a purring fuzzball of love. Yes that’s right, very shortly the great army of Michigan’s snow machines will start cranking, churning the air with stinging little bits of water which will then land as a particularly icy form of snow. Isn’t winter great?
In other news, it’s rumored that a large amount of democrats won elections recently. No my friends, the world is not ending. No, the country isn’t going to hell in a handbasket any faster than it was before. No, I don’t like Jennifer Granholm’s mole. All I know about her is that she owes me alot of money.
October 16, 2006
Pull the Trigger, Fatso
11:57 pm | Politics | Comments: 10
Hardly seems like 10 days have past since the 6th of October. But they tell me that numbers don’t lie. I’m inclined to believe them. I was wondering to myself if North Korea’s government could be any more ridiculous than it is. It would give itself a run for its money, that’s to be sure. Does it really matter that they now seem to have nuclear capability? I don’t think so. They aren’t any crappier now than they were before. If they actually use a nuke, the international community will stomp that fat little zit Kim Jong Il into the ground like a cockroach under a bootheel. Having nukes in North Korea’s position is like holding a rifle that’s ready to fire, only the weapon is pointed at their own faces. If I were Kim Jong Il, I’d take my 8 holes-in-one on my last golf trip and shove them up my butt. That would be alot more productive for the nation as a whole than spending tens of dollars (U.S. equivolent) on a nuclear program. Don’t you just love fat little dictators with a ludicrously warped view of reality?
January 30, 2006
Democratic Process, the Terrorist Way
9:12 pm | Politics | Religion | Thoughts | Comments: 14
Was anybody not skeptical about how Palestine would handle democratic bric-a-brac like elections? Only the hardcore idealists. The Palestinians made the very wise and forward-looking move of electing a terrorist organization to run their pseudo-country. Funny thing about Palestine holding these elections; it was supposed to legitimatize the Palestinian goverment. Instead, the country is now in the hands of Hamas, a bunch of crazy Moslem nutjobs. The alternative to Hamas was Fatah, which, in contrast to Hamas, is a bunch of crazy Moslem nutjobs.
The Democratic Way was given a whole new flavor last saturday with the addition of the Crazy Moslem Nutjob Way. Terrorists Moslems with guns, members of Fatah, stormed the Palestinian parliament building in protest of the election results. Democratic Process says let the people decide; Crazy Moslem Nutjob Process says kill the infidels. Sounds to me like a match made in heaven.
Originally as I wrote this post, I inserted the word “radical” in between “crazy” and “Moslem” throughout the post. I removed it, because the truth is the sort of terrorist behavior we see out of these Hamas and Fatah lunatics isn’t all that radical within the Moslem system. What I love about all this is that we’re no longer seeing Moslems mad at “Zionists” and Israelis; now they’re hopping mad at each other. I can’t wait until the ultimate show-down when they all die in one massive mutual car-bombing and a real government can be set up in Palestine.
September 15, 2005
Michael Moore Transvestism
8:07 pm | Culture | Politics | Thoughts | Comments: 10
How can you go wrong with a title like that? Last night I witnessed a debate between Victor Davis Hanson and Arianna Huffington. The topic of the debate was “Is the United States an empire?”, and the outcome was what you might have expected it to be considering the people involved. Hanson is a noted scholar, learned historian, conservative author, long-time farmer, and university professor. Huffington is a lib columnist. Yes, that’s all she is. And it showed.
Hanson’s opening statement was excellent. He made a point-by-point comparison between the United States and all the common denominators of all the great empires of the past, noting that the United States only matched up in one category: the ability to influence the entire world. Huffington made it immediately and abundantly clear what her agenda was: Iraq. Her entire opening statement was taken almost straight from the screenplay of Farenheit 9/11. In fact, at one point I could almost imagine Michael Moore himself standing up there spouting off all the buzzwords and baseless accusations. Huffington loves throwing “facts” out and giving no support for them, then simply continuing on to the next false fact. For instance, at one point in her anti-Iraq raving she said that America is less secure now than before 9/11. How is that so, Arianna? Give us at least a mere morsel of your vast knowledge. Not likely; she just made the statement and continued on her senseless rampage. The insurgency is only getting stronger! How do you know that, Arianna? Please, share with us.
A great moment was when, in her opening statement, Ms. Huffington attempted to score a point against Hanson by going back to the Peloponnesian War and comparing our mission in Iraq with the Sicilian Adventure of the Athenians during their war with Sparta. Bad move, considering Hanson is possibly the foremost national (if not global) expert in classical military history and especially Thycidides. He blasted her analogy to tiny pieces then landed a stunning blow as well by quoting from Thycidides, who said that Athens would have defeated the Sicilians if there hadn’t been so much grumbling and complaining at home. Huffington must have said the phrase “our Imperial Adventure in Iraq” a thousand times, even after the basis for that statement was completely obliterated.
Not all went well for Hanson, however. He made some shady statements, such as that due to our operations in Iraq Pakistan has relenquished her nuclear arsenal and that Bush wouldn’t have attacked Iraq if there had been no 9/11 (that one nearly turned the audience into nothing better than a mob of angry people). He also rebutted Huffington on a point which she never even made - a phantom reference to Vietnam which likely he only heard in his head. That didn’t detract from the validity of his rebuttal, but it did make him look bad.
Overall, Hanson won the debate simply because he’s the only one that actually spoke to the topic. Had the debate been about the validity of the Iraq war, he would have been given a run for his money. Without the Iraq war and Michael Moore, Huffington would have had absolutely nothing to say. Although I suppose she still would have been able to insult all our nation’s leaders to the raucous applause of the audience. In reality the debate was a mismatch, as noted by Prof. Sidelko. Hanson has more brains in his pinky finger than Huffington does in her entire body.
(Here is the G.R. Press write-up of the event)
August 29, 2005
Death to Polo Shirts
4:08 pm | Politics | Style | Comments: 55
As I write from Grand Valley State University’s Pew campus in glorious downtown Grand Rapids, I am seeing dude after dude after dude walk around with baggy shorts and a polo shirt. Let it be law: all baggy-shorted, polo-shirted dudes are to be stood up against the wall and shot for criminal conformity.
On a less extreme though equally political note, I would recommend reading Victor Davis Hanson’s article The Paranoid Style. I was introduced to Mr. Hanson today, and after reading some of his stuff it would appear that he and I share a brain. At any rate, the article in question does a great job, if nothing else, of pointing out some of the ridiculous opinions there are out there on various subjects including 9/11, the U.S. involvement in Iraq, and even the Wishing-Dubya-was-Jeff-Davis types (you know who you are). Look forward to more commentary on Hanson in the future.
July 15, 2005
A Religion of War and Hate
7:39 pm | Politics | Religion | War | Comments: 5
In case anybody was wondering about what we’re actually fighting against over in the Middle East (and in our own Western city streets these days, as well), the Army Times brings you this video of an insurgent sniper attack on a single U.S. soldier - as filmed by the insurgents. Two things to note about this attack: first, it’s at a lethal range and the Insurgents, in true Arab marksmen form, fail to land a killing or crippling hit. Second, the shot is followed by repetition of the Islamic mantra “Allah Ackbar” by one of the imbeciles behind the camera, meaning “God is Greatest”. It’s the Islamic equivalent of the Hail Mary; say it enough times and it justifies anything you do. It also betrays the true nature of these people: motivated by Islam to kill all those who will not conform. The fact that this guy jumped up, located his attackers, hunted them down with this squad, and eventually administered first aid to the man that pulled the trigger is truly amazing.
In other news related to war and apparently insane people is the recent announcement by a crazy Chinese general of his nation’s intent to use nuclear weaponry against the United States in retaliation for any U.S. intervention in a possible China - Taiwan conflict. Here’s a couple great quotes from General Zhu:
“If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China’s territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons,”
“We . . . will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of Xian. Of course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds . . . of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese.”
If the statement is taken at its face value, the term “apocalypse” comes to mind. Don’t panic, everybody. The article is quick to point out that the People’s Liberation Army (which is independent from the actual Chinese government, for those of you who aren’t aware) would never allow somebody to simply go around spouting its war plans. That being said, the guy needs to realize that international relations are slightly more important than the need for war-mongers like himself to get off on how they’re going to really hand it to us if we try anything funny. One other thing about this which is actually mildly scary: the fact that “all of the cities east of Xian” are apparently expendable to this guy.
Would U.S. intervention in a Chinese-Taiwanese conflict be theoretically possible, not to mention valid? We once had a mutual defense treaty which provided for such an intervention. It was terminated by the U.S. in 1980, allegedly to pave the way for economic relations with China. However, we still have some documents which outline our policy in relation to Taiwan. This is from the Taiwan Relations Act (1979):
It is the policy of the US 1) to declare that peace and stability in the area are in the political, security and economic interests of the United States, and are matters of international concern; 2) to make clear that the United States decision to establish diplomatic relations with the PRC rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means; 3) to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means … a threat to the peace and security of the western Pacific area and of grave concern to the US; 4) to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character;
May 21, 2005
Murphy’s Law
12:34 am | My Life | Politics | Sci/Tech | Comments: 5
I can’t decide who’s having a rougher time of it. My dad’s computer has been completely overrun by spyware after a campaign of terror which began many months ago. Today I finally decided to end the war once and for all by backing up vital information and formatting the hard drive completely. My ace in the hole (as it were) was a free copy of the Microsoft Windows XP Professional operating system, provided by my school. Unfortunately, I need a serial number for that. Doubly unfortunately, I did not have it in an email as I expected I did. Rather, it was waiting for me online on my student MSDNAA account. Triply unfortunately, that account has been disabled for the summer months. So now I have a formatted hard drive with a church bulletin due to be printed by tomorrow backed up on a hard drive without access to a printer or the software to open the documents.
To get back to my thesis statement, I don’t know who has it worse right now; me, or the people that are getting sued by Saddam Hussein. That has got to be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of, and is something up with which this great nation should not put.
April 18, 2005
Thanks but No Thanks
10:41 pm | Politics | War | Comments: 3
A while ago I posted my thoughts about Israel. I’ve always been opposed to the idea that Israel should be constrained to acting multilaterally when dealing with terrorist attacks within its borders. Many times Israel has responded fiercely to threats to herself by herself, and history proves that those actions were necessary for the protection of her people. This is because the mindset of the Israeli people is such that they are fiercely opposed to the idea of being dominated again without putting up a fight, as was the case in the Holocaust of the mid 20th century. I think primarily of the Six Day War, which began when on June 5, 1967 Israel launched a preemptive aerial strike on Egypt and destroyed her entire air force on the ground. Again in June of 1981, perceiving the threat of Iranian nuclear capability, she launched another air attack which eliminated Iran’s Osirak nuclear reactor.
This all happened unilaterally - without consultation with other world powers. This word “unilaterally’ also appears in a recent article in the New York Times talking about the rebuilding process which has been going on at a furious pace for decades, and only more quickly since the death of the great terrorist Yassir Arafat. Israel is doing this herself without any outside meddling; I think it’s just more evidence that large powers like the U.S. should realize that while they may indeed be the hegemonic power in the world, there must still be reasonable respect for the sovereignty of nations to make their own decisions.
April 14, 2005
The American Political System at its Best
7:18 pm | Culture | Politics | Comments: 15
Many thanks to Chris House (csh.us) for bringing this to my attention. The government of Idaho now has written law commending the makers of the movie Napoleon Dynamite. Click here to view the entirety of the proposed bill. If you have not seen Napoleon Dynamite, we recommend you do so.
