Standing Tall Against McCarthy

Molly's got a good article here about the McCarthy era and a lone radio personality who, with the help of Edward R. Murrow, helped bring an end to the terrorists of that time. We can learn something from it in today's Patriot Act and other efforts to destroy our Bill of Rights.

Competing Views

My wife and I were at a bookstore the other day, I won't mention which one, but prominently displayed on the new books were titles that indicated they were to show how the Republicans stole Christmas and another title about how the Democrats want to destroy Christmas. I suspect they both say virtually the same thing about the role of religious values in the Christmas message. We thought they should have put them side by side on the rack. At night, then, the spirits of the books could come out with their mistletoe and duel.

And, as another Christmas thought, I wish some people would read their history before they spout off. In a recent letter to the editor of the Outpost, the Shepherd think-less tank claimed that the Christmas celebration is a heritage from the Puritans. Now, it's funny but the Massachusetts Bay Colony, for a short time in its early days not only did not celebrate Christmas, but had a law (for about 20 years) forbidding its celebration. Christmas celebrations were brought to this land probably in 1607 when the English gentlemen arrived in Virginia. They were high church Anglicans who had no problems with celebrating the pagan holiday with glee, merry-making and high times.

Tired of the crap

I'm getting a bit tired of Vice President Cheney's comments about those of us who opposed and oppose the Iraqi war. And also about those of us who believe that our Administration in Washington lied to us. One, there were those of us who followed the daily news who were certain (unlike our fancy-fed intelligent designers in Washington) that Saddam Hussein did not have the WMDs or nuclear arms. I believe our strike into Afghanistan was correct since that nation had abetted and was still abetting those who had struck us on 9/11. But Hussein had nothing to do with that. Unfortunately, we didn't go into Afghanistan with enough forces or enough planning to end it quickly and we are stuck there for awhile. It was obvious that the only way that we could win over there would be a quick in and out strike to get the terrorists and to topple the Taliban. We should have made it quick, painful and out of there.

Now, as far as Bush lying to us, let me give you a hint: every time the man drops his left shoulder and leans forward on the podium, he is lying to us. I don't know, for sure, whether it is the facts his detailing at that moment that he's lying about or whether it's his sincerity of the moment that's the lie, but that shoulder movement is a dead giveaway that he's not convinced of the truth of what he's saying and is lying in an effort to make us believe it. So, what his left shoulder when he talks to the nation. A forward dip on that side says he is not telling the truth as he knows it.

Getting Out Of Our Pickle

Molly asks the basic question: How do we get out of this mess? We've got a tiger by the tail in Iraq that we are not going to be able to get away from for generations. And she certainly makes a point about education. She doesn't say anything about it, but it seems to me that with the creationists and IDs running around, we really do need to fix our education system. Somehow, we have developed a nation of active, deliberate ignorance. How do we fix that?