Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/30/2003 07:06:00 PM (Archive Link)
This past Tuesday, Hillary Clinton chastised the EPA for, as she claims, declaring the air around New York ok after September 11th when it really wasn't. Furthermore, she says that the supposed lie was the result of a coverup that came straight from the White House. To quote, "I know a little bit about how White Houses work. I know somebody picked up a phone, somebody got on a computer, somebody sent an e-mail, somebody called for a meeting, somebody in that White House probably under instructions from somebody further up the chain told the E.P.A.: 'Don't tell the people of New York the truth.' And I want to know who that is." The interesting thing to keep in mind is that she doesn't actually know how White Houses, plural, work. She knows how one White House worked. And if this is what she assumes happened after 9/11, then we now have a pretty good idea of how the Clinton White House did, in fact, operate.

Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/27/2003 06:23:00 PM (Archive Link)
Once upon a time, there was a boy who wasn’t really a boy. Oh sure, he looked like a boy on the outside, but on the inside he was really a girl. So he asked his fairy godmother to change him and it was so. Now he’s a she, people talk about her not him, and everything that was his is now hers (well… not EVERYTHING). Such is the story of James/Jennifer Boylan.

I have some definite qualms about the whole concept of “gender reassignment.” It seems like one of those areas where man just wasn’t meant to meddle. Even the term sounds arrogant. Nature assigned one gender but obviously got it wrong, so it’s now up to us to reassign it. Aside from that issue, though, the other troubling aspect is the effect it has on the gender-confused’s loved ones. They have to deal with some very difficult issues brought on by one person’s selfish desire to be something or have something they currently are not or have not. It follows along the same lines as men leaving their families to “find themselves,” to pursue other women, to pursue other men, or to pursue some idiotic single lifestyle that properly belongs in the fantasies of 20-year-olds. So that Boylan could feel fulfilled, he created a strange new reality for those around him. He has 7 and 9 year old sons who are reportedly dealing with the situation just fine. That likely belies the truth and does little to convey how things will go as their childhood progresses and they have to explain to other kids why their father has breasts.

Our culture has gone off the deep end in making sure that everybody is true to themselves and achieves a transcendental state of doing whatever they think is their pure purpose in life. Should people pursue such things? Sure, but only to whatever extent their current circumstances allow. If you can’t do what you seem to feel is your higher purpose in life because you’re married with kids, you don’t get a divorce and leave the children. You made other decisions earlier in life and those decisions have consequences. One of the best descriptions of being an adult is doing what you don’t want to do. It means that you have commitments and obligations to honor that supercede your own personal desires. It means looking beyond your self.

Finally, if you do decide to buck what you are supposed to be doing in order to do what you would rather be doing, at least don’t make the new set of circumstances you’ve created into something neutral. Referring to himself and his wife, Boylan says, “We're two pretty average people thrown into remarkable circumstances and we're just making it up as we go along, trying to do the best we can.” It’s as if he was walking down the street, a piano fell on him, and when he crawled out from under the wreckage, he was miraculously a woman. They were not thrown into remarkable circumstances by circumstance itself, they were thrust there by Boylan’s decision to change his whole persona. Try to be accountable for your actions.

Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/27/2003 06:22:00 PM (Archive Link)
I hesitate to bring this up, but if you’ve never heard or seen the Star Wars Kid, you should look him up. The poor portly guy was caught on tape doing what just about every male adolescent has surreptitiously done since Star Wars came out in 1977… he was imitating a light saber battle. More specifically, he was pretending to be Darth Maul from Episode I. He’s the ugly guy with the double light saber staff thing. Our good SWK, though, was using a golf ball retriever and, well, when you see his skills, it’s obvious that the Force is not strong in this one.

When you watch the original video, it’s funny but you also kinda feel sorry for him. He is, in fact, suing the kids who found his tape and uploaded it the web. However, when you look at the editing that people have done with him, it’s just the funniest thing out there. You can find some of the clips here and here. I think the Dork Clones edit is my favorite.

Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/19/2003 11:12:00 PM (Archive Link)
Not surprisingly, Iraq has become a hotbed of activity for Al Qaeda terrorists. They’re flowing into the country from other places in the region because, well, that’s where the Americans are. Most people will see this as a very bad thing because it may mean more American military casualties and in this respect they are right. However, it’s also very advantageous for us. Whereas these terrorists were previously spread all over the Middle East (and possibly beyond) they are now predominately located in one place. Instead of us having to go to a number of different countries, which would not have been practical for a number of reasons, to root out the slime, they have conveniently come to us in a place where we have the best resources available for eliminating them. And despite recent appearances, they do not have the upper hand.

Though in the last several days the terrorists have perpetrated a number of attacks on waterlines, oil pipelines, and bombing attacks on embassies and the UN headquarters in Iraq, this will eventually work against them. These militants are able to stay and thrive in Iraq only under the good graces of its inhabitants. The problem with committing terrorist attacks against American targets abroad is that they always wind up killing far more natives than Americans and they do more damage to the native infrastructure, economy, psyche, etc. In the case of Iraq, they’re hurting the very folks on whom they depend. Before long, these very same folks are going to get fed up with the jihadists disrupting their lives and stalling improvements. It is difficult to blame American occupiers for a burst waterline when you were the one who blew the dang thing up. So the good, hard-working Iraqis will start turning on the terrorists in their midst either directly by doing some undercover snuffing or indirectly by ratting them out to American forces. Al Qaeda is making a grave error by sabotaging Iraq itself.

So it is really rather ironic that these terrorists have come to Iraq in order to hunt Americans when they will very quickly become the hunted. It is also ironic that in seeking to further their almighty jihad against America, they will in effect weaken it by coming to the best place for us to combat them. It’s quite likely that American planners and policy-makers realized this sort of thing would happen and are now maneuvering to take advantage of the situation. Let’s hope they do.

Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/12/2003 11:28:00 PM (Archive Link)
Thankfully, there are those in the black community who are working against the extortion racket run by Jesse Jackson. This is sorely needed. There are plenty of folks who have seen past Jesse's mafia mentality, but a scant few of them have been prominent black leaders. Since they're the only people who have any credibility in arguing against Jackson, that's a shame.

Here's the good part, though:

"'Balking at the word “shakedown,' Walters said, 'This goes all the way back to the civil rights movement -- it’s an exchange we are talking about. You invest in our community and we will continue to see you as a partner.'"

This is, of course, quite different, from saying, "You invest in our organization and we will continue to protect your store."

Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/12/2003 10:51:00 PM (Archive Link)
One has to wonder why Fox News ever decided to sue Al Franken over the title of his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Granted, Fox has a right to sue over it. However, nothing short of the pope's personal endorsement could have given this book better publicity. This likely lame tome was sure to suffer in relative obscurity or at least to bad sales. Now everybody knows about it and the folks who think Franken produces intelligent and/or humorous comentary (he does neither) will buy it up. Good move, Murdoch.

Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/09/2003 01:10:00 AM (Archive Link)
I’m a little backed up so this article is actually from a while ago. It concerns John Kerry’s views on whom he would support as a Supreme Court nominee… or any other judicial spot, for that matter. While he says he doesn’t “believe in litmus tests,” he also says he’ll filibuster any nominee who is anti-abortion. Uh-huh. Maybe somebody should fill him in on what the term, “litmus test” means, politically speaking.

Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/09/2003 01:09:00 AM (Archive Link)
This article is from early July. You have to get about 2/3 of the way down before you get to the really entertaining part. There’s a big brouhaha going on right now in Texas politics. The legislature is supposed to redraw the Congressional district map based upon the latest census data, but it isn’t going so well. The Democrats are up in arms about the map that the Republican ted congress has come up with. They’re accusing the Republicans of gerrymandering when really they’re just upset that the new map would eliminate the gerrymandering they committed after the 1990 census when they had control of congress. In Texas, all the statewide offices are held by Republicans, yet Democrats hold a disproportionate share of the U.S. Congressional seats. It makes sense that’s something’s amiss.

The whole mess has resulted in some truly childish behavior on the part of the Democrats. First, the Democratic representatives in the House skipped town… skipped the entire state… and hung out in Oklahoma so that they could prevent a quorum. Eventually they came back to their jobs. Ok, here’s that entertaining part. It occurred when the map’s sponsor, Rep. Phil King took the floor.

“As King began his argument for the new congressional boundaries Monday afternoon, about 30 Democrats in the gallery donned white socks as hand puppets to mock King. Every time he spoke, the little white mouths flapped.”

Good heavens. These are grown men and women. s. Elected representatives. Officials of the state. Supposedly mature and responsible individuals. And here they are, mocking a man with sock puppets. Ms. Lambchop Goes To Washington? Or Austin, as the case may be? Honestly… this just goes beyond absurd. These people should be impeached just for being colossal idiots. Of course, if that were a qualification for impeachment, we wouldn’t have much of a government left.

The Democrats’ games don’t stop there, however. Currently, the Senate Democrats are AWOL in Albuquerque, New Mexico, playing the same tricks as their twits-in-arms in the House. They don’t want to act on the new district map so they’ve just decided to leave and not do their jobs. I wish I could do that

Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/09/2003 01:04:00 AM (Archive Link)
If you’ve never heard of the Flat Earth Society, do take a look. I still haven’t figured out if this is a big put-on of if there really are folks out there who believe in it. I’m pretty sure it’s the former. Nevertheless, it’s still very funny. The absolute best part is this from their FAQ:

“20. Does Idaho exist?
No. The existence of Idaho is a lie, fabricated by a conspiracy of cartographers, as is England (see question 10).

21. What about North Dakota?
That doesn't exist either.”

Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/09/2003 01:03:00 AM (Archive Link)
You have to check out this article in Middle Eastern Quarterly. It’s written by a former “peace” activist who was part of a group that opposed the war in Iraq. It’s fascinating reading as he recounts how blissfully ignorant are the people in the anti-war movement and how they suppressed any details of Iraqi misdeeds in order to preserve their access to the country. The account is long, but definitely worth it

Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/09/2003 01:02:00 AM (Archive Link)
You gotta love North Korean saber rattling. They recently warned the U.S. to keep their little nuclear issue away from the UN. Specifically, they said, “The U.S. intention to bring up the nuclear issue on the peninsula for the discussion at the U.N. at any cost is a grave criminal act to hamstring all the efforts of [North Korea] for dialogue and escalate the tensions on the peninsula. Any move to discuss the nuclear issue at the UNSC is little short of a prelude to war.” Of course, taking this to the UN would be no reasonable call for war. However, NK wants to keep the UN out of the picture and so it threatens the U.S. with war.

You would need a calculator to keep track of how many times Kim Jong-Il’s folks have threatened us with war for some reason or another. They always do it because it’s the one and only card they have. They have zero political and economic leverage on the U.S. The only thing they can do to get our attention is to use that one bargaining piece, the threat of war. It’s starting to get ridiculous, though. It brings up images of a crotchety old man laying in bed with a shotgun. He can’t do anything reasonable to anybody who annoys him so he threatens anyone who comes into the room with his shotgun. Extreme, but it’s all he can do.

Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/09/2003 12:59:00 AM (Archive Link)
While Al Gore has repeatedly stated that he’s not running for president in 2004, it isn’t stopping Mario Cuomo from trying to push Al into the race anyway. Cuomo’s reasons for doing so are… well… bad. He says, “Right now, the Democratic voice is not a single voice. It is not a chorus. It is a babble.” He wants Gore to join the race because there’s no single voice for the Democrats to rally around. People… it’s August of 2003. The primaries aren’t until late January and the general election isn’t until next November. That’s six and fourteen months away, respectively. Of course there’s no single candidate to rally around. Of course there’s a lot of babble. That’s what happens when you have multiple candidates vying for one spot. It’s natural. By late February, though, it will be pretty apparent who the Democratic nominee will be and that person will be your guy to rally around. So stop whining.

Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/09/2003 12:57:00 AM (Archive Link)
For some truly frightening judicial activism, look to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. She openly admits that the Supremes are looking more at international law and the laws of other countries and taking them into consideration when forming their opinions. Since when do the laws of England, Belgium, or Luxembourg have any bearing on what is law in the United States? The Supreme Court is supposed to base its rulings upon the Constitution and American law. To think that the thoughts and moods of the French are influencing how Ginsberg decides cases is shudder-inducing. The Supreme Court needs judges, not self-appointed legislators.

Posted by Dan Ewert : 8/06/2003 12:13:00 AM (Archive Link)
I have been on the summer vacation, haven't I? So many good stories I could have commented on... lost. Oh well, I'll be back soon with some good stuff. Keep an eye out.