Good morning, Lowell! Welcome to the Dawg Watch! 8-)
Lowell C. Savage wrote: > That's true, his legacy will live or die by what happens in Iraq. > Although I don't really hold the "end of major combat operations" speech > against him. He was attempting to bring in "partners" who had promised to > help keep the peace and some of whom had probably never had any intention > of keeping those promises. Well, yes, admittedly there is that. However, next time Bush decides to self-destruct in public doing a public relations gaffe, at least can we have the Commander-in-Chief wear a "proper" military uniform? > But I think betting against Bush is a bit like betting against Bill Gates. > It's just plain a losing proposition. For a real good case history, look > at > McCain. Every time he comes out and criticizes Bush for something, > something goes very right for Bush within a couple of weeks. Dunno if > that > "magic" still applies, though. Maybe McCain has figured it out by now. <chuckling> I dont' like McCain either, and for some of the same reasons I distance myself politically from Bush. However, you do make an interesting point there I didn't take into consideration, prior to this time. McCain a foil for Bush? <musing> Yes, I can see that. [The Baathist Empire] > I'm not sure that it's much of a standoff at this point. If you look at > where they are now compared to where they were before 9/11, would you > really want to be them? Not to change the subject here, but while we're poking around the ruins of the fabled city of Baghdad, looking at the remnants of the sheer wealth of the Baath Party and Saddam Hussein and discussing the future of this hotbed of Middle Eastern culture and history, dare we look, even in passing, at the comments and pithy predictions embedded in the Book of Revelations? If one examines the words of this Biblical tome, some say we are reading a Biblical fantasy, while others submit we are reading a true prediction of the last days of Babylon. No, I would not want to be a member of the Baath Party right about now, but I certainly WANT to be there when we end 2000 years of violent warfare and bring peace and democracy to the area. [The Chaos Theory] http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/2004/09/dark-networks-vladis-krebs-has-case. > html > And follow links as you find them and they interest you. But this gives > you a pretty good overview (once you move down the page out of the > beginning > stuff that deals with specifics.) Teaser: "Because security comes at a > price in performance and flexibility, Robb arrives at an astounding > conjecture: you can have small, operationally secure terrorist groups, but > you can't have large, operationally secure cells without a state sponsor." > > BTW. I consider Belmont Club "must reading." (Even more than libnw. :-) Fascinating reading, indeed! If someone were to suggest that, under the auspices of Homeland Security, we were losing our civil liberties, I would have to contend we are still a nation of word and thought, and that none of those rights have been abrogated YET. Then I would point at both the Belmont Club and Liberty Northwest as proof of concept. The world of ideas is still very much alive. ;-) >> Thus it is my opinion that when one encounters any religious faction >> that, as part of its belief structure, advocates the use of chaos, >> through randomly-occurring events that, by design, will unsettle the >> entire world, that faction should be immediately and effectively rendered >> powerless by any and all means necessary short of genocide. I also submit >> this same process of decision should be applied to some of our so-called >> allies, as well, for although they appear to be allies, their >> sanctimonious pieties speak volumes against our determination to achieve >> world peace. > > Uhm. Was that a typo here? Did you mean "their" instead of "our > determination to achieve world peace."? Oh, that was a gaffe, no doubt about it. > But personally, I think our "allies" should simply be ignored. (Probably > something they would consider a worse fate.) > >> Fascinating. We end up on essentially the same page and perspectives on >> world peace, and how best to attain it, and our paths that led us to our >> conclusions were categorically different. > > Yes, I find that fascinating as well. And I certainly appreciate the fact > that we've been able to have a lively, yet polite discussion about it. Yes, there is that, too. Over the years Frank and I have had MANY heated discussions, but somehow we always manage to maintain our civility, something that I particularly admire in anyone. There is/was a gentleman who wrote here, frequently, who operated an apple orchard near Wenatchee who, years ago, basically painted a very clear picture of how the agricultural policies would eventually drive people such as himself out of business, and with the status of foreign trade, which just slipped into a deficit for the first time in decades, I remember his simple, moving but well-thought opinions quite frequently. > I figure that free trade is good in its own right and needs no > justification > in terms of whether anything else goes along with it. I say move our > troops > out of Germany. Then, buy their stuff if you like and sell them as much > of our stuff as you can. And otherwise ignore them. ...and while we're at it, let us not forget a few other "choice" countries whom delight in exporting to the United States, but do not share their markets with us at the same level. [Ah, the UN...] > who runs China, and Chirac are treated as the equals of Bush. That's > really all you need to know to know that the UN is never going to be > worthwhile as > anything except a forum to keep a lid on things. And now that the WW III > (aka, the Cold War) is over, I think the UN has outlived whatever > usefulness it ever had. One has only to cast a wavering glance at Haiti to see how utterly useless the UN is in a time of true need. I'll second that emotion that the UN has outlived its usefulness. > Yes. I'm a bit disappointed here as well. However, looking back, the > Texas Governor is one of the weakest Governors of any state (in terms of > their > constitutional powers). Bush had to succeed by convincing people from the > other side to help him out. Then, given the partisanship and the > closely-divided nature of the Senate (in fact, for part of the time, under > the control of his opponents), it appears that he never got very far out > of > the habits he learned as Governor. But I do like his cabinet moves...so > far. I haven't heard that Norm Mineta is leaving DOT. Despite my other views of the Bush Administration, I'm utterly fascinated with Dr. Condolessa Rice. I would give just about anything to hear a discussion between her and Hizzoner in the Oval Office on nearly any important issue. The news media have treated her as if she is a mouthpiece for Bush's policies, both foreign and domestic. However, I have read some of Dr. Rice's writings, and have found her to be a more than worthy adversary for anyone, including George W. Bush. Unlike Bush, who probably didn't entirely earn his degrees, Dr. Rice, being both female and black, had to work twice as hard to earn her doctorate, and from some of what I have read, she has a brilliant mind. It remains to be seen whether Bush will allow her a more free hand in her next post, thus allowing some of that brilliance to be applied to the many tasks at hand. Some time back, the Boston Globe did an uncharacteristically fair and even-handed piece on her rise to power in the Bush administration, and despite their obvious bias against anything Republican, even the Globe had to admit her tenacious qualities and very critical thinking. In retrospect I wonder how badly that must have hurt. 8-) Dave -- Dave Laird ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) The Used Kharma Lot Web Page: http://www.kharma.net updated 11/24/2004 Usenet news server : news://news.kharma.net Fortune Random Thought For the Minute "Life sucks, but death doesn't put out at all...." -- Thomas J. 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