3615

Global warming and the god complex

This article in Science Daily puzzles me. On the one hand, it says there have been far more drastic changes in temperature in the past in shorter periods of time, but that the current change is happening because of human activity creating greenhouse gases. Huh? Just who was responsible before? If the earth didn't burn to a crisp before, why will it this time?

"Several large international projects have succeeded in drilling ice-cores from the top of the Greenland inland ice through the more than 3 km thick ice sheet. The ice is a frozen archive of the climate of the past, which has been dated back all the way to the previous interglacial Eem-period more than 120.000 years ago.

The ice archive shows that the climate has experienced very severe changes during the glacial period. During the glacial period there were 26 abrupt temperature increases of about 7-10 degrees. These glacial warm periods are named Dansgaard-Oeschger events after the two scientists first observing them.

The global warming we experience presently will cause a temperature increase of perhaps 2-5 degrees in the next century if greenhouse gas emissions continue, researchers claim. This will lead to increased sea levels and more severe weather with terrible consequences. The temperature rise during the glacial period were much larger and happened much faster.

Temperature increased by 10 degrees in less than 50 years with changes to the ocean currents and the whole ecosystem. These changes have caused sea level rises up to perhaps as much as 8 meters and large changes to the vegetation."

The second anniversary: Am I the only one who notices that the same folks who think we pea-brains control the climate are the same ones who thought it was OK to remove food and water from a woman who wasn't sick or dying, just helpless and dependent, and let her starve and dehydrate? Or that it is OK to kill babies because they come at an inconvenient time or have defects and anomalies? Or that it is OK to use human embryos to get grant money for research as long as it is for a worthy cause? Or that it is OK to deprive 3rd world peoples of DDT so that millions of them die, but the bird eggs will be strong? There seems to be a god complex infecting the liberals. And the humility vaccine seems to be in short supply.

3614

My take on the John Edwards' campaign

People who have criticized John and Elizabeth Edwards for their decision to continue in pursuit of the White House are being pilloried in the media. Even the WSJ had nothing but brave, kind thoughts for the family.

My take is this. Blunt and short. For God's sake, woman, you have stage IV cancer--spend the time left with your kids.

In 1963 our oldest son died when he was a year and a half. I knew then that I'd lost the rest of his life. Then a miscarriage; then another boy who died at birth. But it wasn't until we were blessed with a second family in the late 60s and I was a stay-at-home mom (I had worked part days before and he died while I was at work), that I realized I'd lost the few months we did have him by the decisions I'd made about working and going to grad school. Even when we were together as a family, my head was somewhere else frantically trying to juggle a schedule of graduate classes, translating Russian medical newspapers at home, working at the office, and child care. No, this isn't guilt speaking, just experience. I did what I thought was right at the time. I was 23 and just wrong. I've forgiven myself for my warped view of time, but it doesn't change history.

The Edwards have already experienced something that most parents never face. They have outlived one of their sons who died when a teen in an automobile accident. They will never face down that fear--at least I haven't--it colors every thing they do today and seems to have made them a stronger family unit. But their other children lost a brother (2 born after his death), and for the last 2.5 years have probably heard a lot of happy talk from their parents about mommy's illness and how they are winning the fight. Now it has metastasized to her bones. It's treatable, but not curable. Maybe she'll live five years; maybe five months.

(See medical opinion here.)

Elizabeth Edwards

3613

Stretching the Constitution

Daniel Henninger had an op ed about the Bong Hits 4 Jesus case (Morse v. Frederick) coming before the Supreme Court in yesterday's WSJ. He traces the problem of the Supremes inappropriately moving the free speech border to a case in 1969 when during the Vietnam War it ruled that high schoolers could violate school policy and call it "protected speech."

Although the "Bootleggers and Baptists" theory applies primarily to regulation, the concept of two diametrically opposed value systems joining forces for unrelated goals is apparent in this case. Christian groups have filed friend of the court briefs for this pro-drug speech case. Why? So their kids can wear t-shirts proclaiming pro-life and other Christian slogans in school. I don't think the Bloods and the Crips have filed, but they probably could on colors being protected speech. What a can of worms!

What are the unintended consequences of the Supremes throwing local schools overboard, expecting principals to wade to shore in a sea of confusing cases? Rich liberals like Al Gore and Jesse Jackson just sent their kids to private schools (don't know about Jackson's love child), as do conservative Christians, and millions of parents have decided to homeschool their kids rather than have local standards set in Washington.

Story here

Supreme Court, Morse v. Frederick, unintended consequences

3612

Congress continues to try to cripple Bush

Don Surber writes:

"Rather than work on new legislation — fulfill those 100-hour promises of Grandma Pelosi (minimum wage is still $5.15 an hour) — congressional Democrats have decided to spend the next 2 years chasing rabbits down the holes in their quest for the liberal Secular Grail: Watergate.

Today’s scandal is that the Bush administration wants to replace 8 assistant attorney generals. Bush appointed them. He can fire them.

The media — which fails to keep track of that First 100 Hours promise by Pelosi — is (are) eating it up.

The fact is this administration went after Wall Street corruption that the incompetent Janet Reno sat on. The fact is this administration pursued congressional corruption regardless of party.

The fact is these deputies failed to pursue Harry Reid’s purchase and sale of federal lands, failed to track down Philadelphia election fraud and allowed this William Jefferson case to dangle in the wind."

Don Surber here.

This isn't about the firings or even Karl Rove, although the thought has them salivating. It's about getting us defeated and shamed in Iraq.

Poetry Thursday #12

Today's challenge is: "Write a poem motivated by an image — preferably one that is in the form of a photo you can post with your poem. If you don’t have a picture of it, that’s okay. Tell us about the image in the backstory, which you can post before your poem. Or, if you’re really daring, grab your camera and get out there and capture an image and use it as motivation for a poem."

This was written some time ago. I've enjoyed pulling it out and rereading it, and didn't change a word. It was inspired by a very real yellow rose in a real garden on a July day so hot it was breathless, but with a slight breeze. The rose's participation with the two not-meant-to-be lovers, including its dried and desicated end, is all imagination. Or maybe it's a memory--like the rose, I've forgotten. Lamentations might have been a better book in which to place such a flower, but it had too many syllables. It has fabulous phrases and images of bitter tears if you ever need that for a poem. However, isn't the book of Job closer to the symbol of all that can go wrong, will?
















The last rose
by Norma Bruce
July 1997

Yellow rose in the garden
Blushed peach by her cheeks,
Splashed pale with his white passion.

Yellow rose in the sunlight
Fragrant in their hands,
Waving good-byes to July.

Yellow rose in the clippers
Snipped between kisses,
Pricking her finger crimson.

Yellow rose in the crystal
Filled with his hot tears,
Shedding thorns against the glass.

Yellow rose in the Bible
Faded summer joy,
Pressed between pages of Job.

3611

I shouldn't be surprised, but I was

Medical staff need special training to learn to use alcohol hand disinfectants properly. Who knew?

There was an alarming story in the WSJ this morning about antibiotic resistant super bugs (Henry Masur, President of Infectious Diseases Society of America). He said that annually nearly 2 million U.S. patients acquire infections in the hospital and nearly 1 in 10 die, and more than 70% of those infections are resistant to at least one of the drugs used to treat them. We have so over regulated big pharm and the market is so limited, that research on new antibiotics is stalled. In the past 15 years FDA has approved approximately the same number of new antiviral medications that target HIV as it has antibiotics to treat all bacterial infections combined. Yet, thousands and thousands die of resistant strains of bacteria. It's market forces and length of time to get approved. Many, many people with HIV, but limited number in the groups affected by all the different bacteria. Also, there is no political lobby or Hollywood movie stars putting on benefits for the rest of us who develop a raging infection in the hospital.

We're losing more people to this than to HIV. What good will it do the gay guy if you save him from his past only to have him die of a bug that's resistant to antibiotics?

Anyway, back to the hand rubs. I searched Medline for "antibiotics AND resistance" and got something like 35,000 hits, so I reentered the search adding hospitals, and eventually I found this little gem: "Introducing alcohol-based hand rub for hand hygiene: the critical need for training." Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2007; 28(1):50-4.

RESULTS: At baseline, only 31% of Health Care Workers (HCW) used proper technique, yielding a low reducation factor (RF) of 1.4 log(10) colony-forming units (cfu) bacterial count. Training improved HCW compliance to 74% and increased the RF to 2.2 log(10) cfu bacterial count, an increase of almost 50% (P<.001). Several factors, such as applying the proper amount of hand rub, were significantly associated with the increased RF. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate that education on the proper technique for using hand rub, as outlined in European Norm 1500 (EN 1500), can significantly increase the degree of bacterial killing.

Well, what do you know! Makes me think of kindergarten when we were taught how to wash our hands. Is that still taught in public schools?

Bad bugs need drugs campaign

3610

The anti-Bush obsession at my library

Yesterday I picked up a book about President Bush from the sale truck at my public library branch for $2.00, The Right man; the surprise presidency of George W. Bush, by David Frum, Random House, 2003 (colophon says First Edition, but I know nothing about that sort of thing and don't care). Seems to be in perfect condition with just a tiny coffee stain on the cover. I flipped through it, didn't see anything just awful and ridiculous, so decided to buy it. Then I went to the computer terminal and looked up Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946- , which had 81 matches. Now that's not all the titles, because catalogers like to add subdivisions and they get pretty silly about it. His ethics--17 titles; his friends and associates, 15 titles; his political and social views, 14 titles. A lot of these overlap, some books get two or three subject headings, especially GWB books, and I didn't want a research project. Besides, I already knew from glancing through the 973 Dewey classification number on the new book shelves, that someone at Upper Arlington Public Library hates and despises the Bush Administration. But 81 titles--I was curious! So I started plodding my way through the excrutiatingly awkward browse feature of this library's on-line catalog. Truly a challenge for this librarian who has been using on-line catalogs since their infancy in the 1970s.

I'm guessing about 10 of the 81 were balanced, fair or just PR titles, including The Right Man. A few were about him as Governor of Texas, some appeared to be more about his family or Karl Rove than him (I'm judging from the photographs on the covers which clutter up the screen--if Bush wasn't cross-eyed, or flap earred, or the word "scandal" or "outrage" wasn't in the title or subtitle, you could sort of figure it out). UAPL LOVES Bob Woodward and Michael Moore. Oh. my. gosh. They must own stock in those men. Woodward's latest book had 15 copies (I noticed the other day they are ALL on the shelf--nothing checked out--just taking up space collecting dust). I think Farenheit 911 had 17 copies (and it has been proven to have so many errors from a number of sources that I'm surprised they hang on to so many copies.)

Anyway, I jotted down the call numbers--and UAPL doesn't mind reusing a call number/author number combination, so don't worry if you see dups. I personally think that is outrageously sloppy, but I know a number of libraries do that now. I noted 51 that I guessed from the title and full record are anti-Bush--and the number of copies. Some I combined that had separate records, like large print, regular print, and audio. But still, even if you figure publishers will turn out more negative than positive titles about a President, does Director Anne Moore (yes, her name) have to buy them all and in so many copies? Whew! What a waste of taxpayer's money. Especially in a community where Republicans outnumber the Democrats. This woman really believes books change lives, and political beliefs.

My library prints full color posters of upcoming events on sheets of paper the size of wall board, but only gives us scrap paper at the terminals.

David Frum's column

George W. Bush
Libraries, librarians

3609

Are you filthy rich?

Like the two bathroom house in the 50s and the three car garage in the 90s, the new status symbol is multiple laundry rooms. Today's WSJ shows a 12,000 sf house on 2 acres in Payson, AZ that has nine(!) combined washers and dryers, a main laundry room and a pet washing station. It's listed at $7.9 million (price includes $1 million of collectibles, 5 classic cars and a stocked wine cellar).

The amount of laundry we generate surprises me, but we have enough clothing and bedding that really, I do laundry only every 10 or 11 days. And the laundry room is in the basement. I incorporate the trips up and down the stairs into my exercise routine. I change the sheets weekly, pillow cases about every 2-3 day; towels get about 3 days use; dish towels about 2 days; bathroom hand towels maybe a week. But yesterday I gathered everything in the closets that was red, rust or fuchsia, and loaded them into cool water. I usually ignore the labels that say "dry clean only," especially if it was made in China and written in Spanish. I can't even remember the last time I had a 100% red load of laundry. I don't wear much clear, deep red--I'm terribly pale, and my husband even moreso, so we go for the warmer tones of rust, peach, coral, etc.

If you flip this, and put a space between the sink and units with counter space, my laundry room looks like this (photo from the internet), installed with the former kitchen cabinets, and it's all behind bi-fold doors, sharing space with the kitty litter unit.
Still, I wonder what rich people do to get their clothes so dirty that they (or their house staff) need so many laundry units, don't you?

3608

March 21 poetry selection

from my daily book of poems has one I could not resist, but I've changed "Father William" to "Lady Blogger," and made it a bit more edgy and updated.

The Lady Blogger's Comforts
being lifted from Robert Southey's "The Old Man's Comforts"

You are old, Lady Blogger, the young man cried,
The brown locks which are left should be grey;
You are hale, Lady Blogger, a hearty old gal,
Now tell me the reason, I pray.

In my twenties thirties, Lady Blogger replied,
I remember'd that youth would fly fast,
And abused not my health and my vigour at first,
That I never might need them at last.

You are old, Lady Blogger, the young twit cried,
And pleasures with youth pass away;
And yet you lament not the days that are gone,
Now tell me the reason, I pray.

In my forties fifties, Lady Blogger replied,
I remember'd those days could not last;
I thought of the future, whatever I did,
That I never might grieve for the past.

You are old, Lady Blogger, the rude kid cried,
And life must be hastening away;
You are cheerful, and love to write about it all,
Now tell me the reason, I pray.

I am cheerful, young man, Lady Blogger replied,
Let the cause your attention engage;
In the days of my youth I remember'd my God
And he has not forgotten my age.

The notes say that Southey wrote "Old Man's Comfort" in 1799 at the age of 24. He died when he was 70.

3607

Pick up the phone!

if you are

• a Republican anything or
• a gay man or
• trying to get your kid into an exclusive pre-school or
• having an affair with a fellow astronaut or
• with one of your students or
• a Wal-Mart executive having an affair with a subordinate.

You can commit any sort of flagrant misconduct via e-mail or text messaging or even drive off a bridge with a staff assistant if you are a Democrat--it's expected of you, and you guys know how to stonewall it (no pun).

The latest story about the Wal-Mart VP, Julie Roehm, who was trying to portray herself as a victim of bad old Wal-Mart management problems in the aftermath of her firing, but in fact her trail of e-mail dropped little crumbs through the woods dark and dank to the bed of her subordinate Sean Womack. Now it's public; it's all documented. And his wife turned some of them over to the company. Roehm was using company money for lavish lovers' trysts. (story in today's WSJ)

When will executives and politicians learn to 1) be faithful to their marriage vows; 2) obey company policies about expense accounts; and 3) pick up the phone instead of e-mailing or texting their smarmy thoughts, longings and private yearnings?

You've come a long way baby, but Julie, you've proven women can be equal opportunity chumps and philanderers.

Read what Wal-Mart has done for the poor.

3606

Bootleggers and Baptists

There's an economic theory called "Bootleggers and Baptists" that refers to social regulation: "durable social regulation evolves when it is demanded by both of two distinctly different groups. Baptists point to the moral high ground and give vital and vocal endorsement of laudable public benefits promised by a desired regulation (and they flourish). Bootleggers who expect to profit from the very regulatory restrictions desired by Baptists, grease the political machinery (they are in it for the money, so they too flourish)." [Bootleggers and Baptists in Retrospect" by Bruce Yandle, Regulation Magazine Vol. 22. No. 3] Like Sunday sales. Baptists wanted alcohol banned on Sunday; bootleggers get that much more business. It's sales, not consumption. Like stricter FDA approval. The longer it takes, the more the holders of the current permits and patents benefit. Stricter emissions standards. These benefit established businesses while stifling new competition. Saving the owl (Baptist/environmentalists) put thousands of acres in storage and drove up lumber prices (the bootleggers/logging companies). So environmentalists (Baptists) may be touting the moral high road, and industry (bootleggers) goes along because they benefit, but someone else (you and me) always pays, either in higher prices, higher taxes, or loss of jobs.

I think Al Gore's new religion is going to bring about many more federal government regulations that benefit business and agriculture with the backing of the global warming cartel. Like ethanol. Like the phony carbon exchanges. I'm sure that rich capitalists and energy barons are eager to run up the sawdust trail waving their hankies and shouting "Alleluia, I believe" testimonies. Al, tears running down his cheeks, will be there to bless them.

3605

The contaminated pet food

There will probably be law suits over this, even though last I heard they had still not determined the source. Just a quick reminder for those of you who think "natural" is the way to go for food--it isn't. Perfectly natural aflatoxins kill people and animals.

But, that's not my topic. In Columbus, a woman has been charged with killing over 650 animals "to save them." Problem is, she encouraged people to bring the animals to her, telling them she'd find a good home for them. Story here.

"I just want people to know that I was trying to prevent a long, protracted, horrible life on the streets with a 90-second death," [Maureen] McLaughlin stated. "It was only 90 seconds. I know it was awful, but it was only 90 seconds."

Prosecutors described those 90 seconds as "pure hell" for the animals.

"She put the crates in the water, put cement blocks in the crates and she would stand back while it was going on and she would pray for the animal in question," said assistant city prosecutor Bill Hedrick. "I mean, it's just sick."
McLaughlin will now undergo a psychiatric evaluation before standing trial.

"I think she's competent, that she's aware of what she did was wrong," Hedrick said. "At no point was she deluded in what she was doing."

I think I heard on the radio that even if she is found guilty on every charge, it is not a felony and it won't keep her from owning animals in the future, unless someone changes the law.

So here we have the terrible tragedy of a few pets dying or being made ill through no one's fault, and then a person who deliberately kills animals "to save them" (reminds me of the pro-choice argument) will go free. I'm guessing that because the pet food company has deep pockets, they'll be punished much more severely than Columbus' own Ms. Jo Black who helped hundreds to the Rainbow Bridge prematurely.

3604

Denial isn't the name of a river

Two weeks ago I blogged about my daughter's DVT--she put up with the pain in her leg making excuses, first that it was the antibiotic for her sinus infection, second that she'd forgotten to take her calcium (lack of a thyroid causes leg cramps). The blood clot meanwhile was moving up her leg toward her heart or lungs. Tomorrow a friend of ours goes in for a quadruple by-pass--one 100% blocked, and three 95% blocked. He was having chest pain and sweating profusely, so he drove himself about 30 miles to the hospital. Our friend was busy doing the Lord's work, and almost ended up in the heavenly choir. My father lived into his 90th year instead of dying at fifty, because when he started coughing up blood at 39, he quit smoking, cold turkey.

Folks. Listen up. Pain is a gift. Pay attention to it!

3603

If you were a kid

which father would you prefer? There are many styles of parenting. . .

3602

How to deal with college debt

At a time when fewer, not more, young adults should be considering college, law makers are scrambling to find more ways to loan more money--long proven to be the road to more debt. How will the student loan industry be fixed? By you and me picking up the debt, betcha?

What do students with $20-60,000 debt do when they graduate with an almost worthless B.A. that will get them a $30,000 a year job? They go to graduate school and take on more debt, of course. And why shouldn't they when the federal government subsidizes the poor decisions they made when they started college?

The federal government gave out $12.7 billion in Pell grants, and Bush, the education president, is promising $15 billion. Students take on almost $70 billion a year in debt. Education, even learning to read, can dramatically improve living standards in 2nd and 3rd world countries. In the U.S. it has become a status thing, especially which college or university. The actual monetary return for a Harvard or Yale education is less, if compared with other investments--stock or real estate or just going to work after high school--over forty years. The push to get into college, particularly high profile, prestige schools, does little except keep faculty, staff, and administrators employed. The return on a public school education is 4.2%, and on a private school 1.9% (statistics here).

Senator Kennedy and President Bush both have grandiose ideas on how to increase debt for students by making it less painful to repay (it's called making it more affordable, but the real word is debt). If this were one of these payday loan companies in the inner city, we'd call it a scam and there would be congressional hearings. Both men inherited wealth. Bush actually was a business man, so I give him a bit of credit for economics 101 (and his wife was a librarian), but Kennedy has never held a "real" job in his life. He's gotten fat, literally and figuratively, at the public trough. They both need to take a second look at why and how people sign on for debt. The ordinary American, even one with an income of $100,000, is not just drawing on a trust fund set up on grandpa's wealth.

I graduated from college in the 1960s with no debt. I paid for two years, and my parents paid for two years. There were government programs then for indigent and special cases. But most of the people I knew--didn't spend years paying off debt. In the 1930s, my father received a small scholarship from the Polo, IL women's club, for "the worthy poor" (his words, not theirs), and he spent a number of years paying it back in full, and the college gave him a scholarship to play football. Repaying debt is always difficult. Rather than just prolonging the pain, shifting the blame, and doing the same, let's do some review and see why during an era when everyone had less, we had more for our future.

3601

Only 7,000 dead and wounded

Today I was reading about the Battle of St. Mihiel in northeastern France in September 1918 during WWI. The chart says there were low losses--only 7,000 between the Americans and the Germans in the one week campaign. Usually I don't use Wikipedia as a source, but WWI battles are pretty well researched.

"For all historians, the battle of Saint-Mihiel is an example of advancing an army against one that preferred to leave a difficult to supply bulge. Overall casualties were low as defense was mainly rear-guard oriented. Strategically it was good news for the Allies. Compared to huge battles such as Verdun or the Somme, this was merely a skirmish. Its real importance is in the huge boost that this advance had on the US and Allied morale."

I had looked up this battle because in reading War Record of Mount Morris I noticed a WWII veteran from our town, Eli Raney, I considered "old" when I was young (although truthfully, I thought anyone over 25 was old). Born in 1892, he was 50 when he reenlisted during WWII and he served 14 months in frontline construction in New Guinea and the Philippines. So I flipped to the back of the book for his WWI service and see that he was a member of Company D, of the 104th infantry, and arrived in France in August 1918, just in time to be in this battle in September. He was not among the wounded, but was wounded in the Argonne campaign.

This is a public service announcement for the war protestors and peaceknickers who forget that most people don't want sons and brothers lost in battle, certainly not one that historians see as a "morale boost." Our recent marchers in Washington want the US to shame the memories of those who've died and to run out on the people it has liberated.

Iraq War

3600

Exercise

some horse sense.

Photo by my niece Amy who says it's time for the new foals.

3599

Happy Spring

It doesn't feel like it and I have on wool slacks today, but it is Spring. I've been using A Poem a Day edited by Karen McCosker and Nicholas Albery (Steerforth Press, 1999) and today's selection "Spring" is by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) and was written in 1877. Many poems of the 19th c. are quite predictable, but this one has some irregularities that I found quite charming, as the poet juxtaposes the freshness of spring with Eden before the fall. And don't we often have that same sense when walking out doors on a glorious day. In the notes it says that when Hopkins showed it to another, known poet he got a discouraging analysis because he used "several entirely novel and simultaneous experiments in versification and construction. . . and unprecedented system of aliteration and compound words. . ." I can't make my lowly blogger word processing component space appropriately, but I think I have the puncuation and lines recorded correctly.

Nothing is so beautiful as spring -
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. - Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worth the winning.

3598

From the front lines

This has been posted on many blogs, but I just saw it today when a high school friend forwarded it to me via e-mail. Sgt. Eddie Jeffers in Iraq writes: "Democrats and peace activists like to toss the word "quagmire" around and compare this war to Vietnam. In a way they are right, this war is becoming like Vietnam. Not the actual war, but in the isolation of country and military. America is not a nation at war; they are a nation with its military at war. Like it or not, we are here, some of us for our second, or third times; some even for their fourth and so on. Americans are so concerned now with politics, that it is interfering with our war.

Terrorists cut the heads off of American citizens on the internet...and there is no outrage, but an American soldier kills an Iraqi in the midst of battle, and there are investigations, and sometimes soldiers are even jailed...for doing their job.

It is absolutely sickening to me to think our country has come to this. Why are we so obsessed with the bad news? Why will people stop at nothing to be against this war, no matter how much evidence of the good we've done is thrown in their face? When is the last time CNN or MSNBC or CBS reported the opening of schools and hospitals in Iraq? Or the leaders of terror cells being detained or killed? It's all happening, but people will not let up their hatred of President Bush. They will ignore the good news, because it just might show people that Bush was right."

Full letter here.

Iraq War

3597

The fallout of Vietnam--dragons and tigers

As misguided but sincere Christians return home from the pitiful march on Washington on the 4th anniversary of the war, some trying to recapture their youth and energy of the 60s and 70s, it's instructive to note this article in the Jan-Feb 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs. I am not familiar with the author, Lee Kuan Yew who was Prime Minister of Singapore from 1959-1990, and I would have preferred some attention to the 3 million people we abandoned to be slaughtered by the Communists, but he does have a less parochial view than American peaceknickers who think everything is about us. He presents an Asian viewpoint as to what the benefits of that war were.

"I am not among those who say that it was wrong to have gone into Iraq to remove Saddam and who now advocate that the United States cut its losses and pull out. This will not solve the problem. If the United States leaves Iraq prematurely, jihadists everywhere will be emboldened to take the battle to Washington and its friends and allies. Having defeated the Russians in Afghanistan and the United States in Iraq, they will believe that they can change the world. Even worse, if civil war breaks out in Iraq, the conflict will destablilize the whole Middle East, as it will draw in Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey." p. 3

"Conventional wisdom in the 1970s saw the war in Vietnam as an unmitigated disaster. But that has been proved wrong. The war had collateral benefits, buying the time and creating the conditions that enabled noncommunist East Asia to follow Japan's path and develop into the four dragons (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan) and, later, the four tigers (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Phillippines, and Thailand). Time brought about the split between Moscow and Beijing and then a split between Beijing and Hanoi. The influence of the four dragons and the four tigers, in turn, changed both communist China and communist Vietnam into open, free-market economies and made their societies freer." p. 7

He also predicts the next president (I'm assuming a Democrat) will be facing a long-term fight against Islamist militants, a battle which is only in its early rounds. And I predict lots of career building activity for our leftist protestors as the older ones go into nursing homes and make way for the younger.

Iraq War