Thought I’d take a quick trip down the ‘ole blog roll and highlight some of the newbies I’ve found via BLOGEXPLOSION:
CAO’S BLOG has a link to an extraordinarily moving tribute to our troops. It’s in the form of a photo montage with the Brigham Young Choirs singing “Homeward Bound” from “The Road Home” in the background. Powerful reminder that not all families this Christmas are together…and that some never will be.
DAN AT CARNIVOROUS CONSERVATIVE has some hilarious stories from 2004 that never made the front pages. Not your usual roundup. An example:
British television watchdogs ruled that a pig which was sexually pleasured on camera by a minor celebrity did not feel degraded by the experience.
Nuff said?
RAVENWOOD is blogging the news that AP will no longer allow the Bowl championship Series (BCS) in college football to use its poll to determine rankings. Evidently, the negative publicity surrounding the BCS is rubbing off a little on the the pollsters.
BTW, RAVENWOOD also has this week’s “Carnival of the Vanities” in which yours truly participates with “In Defense of Cats.”
RIGHTWINGSPARKLE has some interesting thoughts about freedom in Afghanistan and the Middle East in general. To critics who are asking serious questions about this war, Sparkle has this take:
“One poster on the message board said that you cannot “impose” democracy on people not ready for it. What??? When are people not ready for freedom?? Perhaps we should never have fought for our democracy here. George Washington would have told you that was not a pretty war either.”
Good point. Can you see some of these critics in the months and even years following WW II? Who the hell says you can’t “impose” democracy? The Japanese, whose authoritarian dictatorship lasted more than 500 years, had democracy “imposed” on them by General Douglas Macarthur. In his excellent book “American Caesar” by William Manchester, the author points out that Macarthur created free trade unions, a powerful Diet, a constitution that banned the use of the military outside of Japan’s borders, gave women the right to vote and serve in elected office, outlawed the caste system, and generally overturned every autocratic and imperial tradition that lasted as long as the Showa Dynasty.
Macarthur didn’t ask permission of anyone in rebuilding post-war Japan…he simply acted. Sounds like “imposing democracy” to me.
DIGGER digs into the illegal immigration issue and how Rep. Issa (R-CA) may help fund a ballot measure in California that would outlaw drivers licenses and restrict other benefits for illegals.
This is one issue I’m really torn over. On the one hand, I sympathize with people who come here, work hard, and try to fit into our communities by learning the language, customs, and traditions of America. Then there are those who have no intention of doing any of those things and are simply here to work and send money home. They make no attempt to learn the language (yes, English is the National Language of the United States) and, in fact, resist every effort to immerse themselves in the “melting pot” that is America.
And groups that support illegal immigration in some cases, have a hidden agenda. By allowing illegals to vote (and vote Democratic) their political power increases. Then there are the fringe groups that actually encourage the flood of illegals thinking that eventually, California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado will be returned to Mexico. Called the “Reconquista” these groups are serious and becoming well funded.
Any way you look at it, for our own security we simply MUST get a handle on the immigration problem. I’m not sure this measure is the way to go about it. But debating the issue without being called a “racist” should be helpful.
FESTE AT FOOLSBLOG posts the Pentagon press conference about the brouhaha over the unarmoured vehicles. Feste makes this excellent point:
“Isn’t the point here that our military is adapting in the field as operations evolve as it always has? My father went into battle in Germany without winter gear or boots and ran out of ammunition. I am sure the media could point to stocks of stockpiled surplus or left-behind materials in forward staging areas that proved to be unsuitable in the field. You may note that the up-armor kits were described as “left-behind”. Anyone who has ever lived or worked on a forward staging base understands that logistics is not a science nor are shortages on the ground due to a lack of planning or careless leaders, it’s the shifting nature of war on the ground and the old bugaboo of inventory, whatever you’ve got in stock, something you don’t is always needed/wanted. Yesterday.”
To coin a phrase…Indeed.
Finally, the ART OF THE BLOG has a nice post on Neal Boortz’s article about the US role in the world:
“Throughout the history of the world there has always been one nation-state that dominated world affairs. Again, sometimes benignly, sometimes not. This world has been blessed for the past 100+ years by the fact that the dominate nation, the big dog, the 800-pound gorilla has been the United States. There were options. Nazi Germany comes to mind, or the Japanese Empire. Then, of course, there was Soviet Union and its determination to bring about one world living under communism.”
Spot on. Next time some moonbat talks about the “imperial” nature of US foreign policy, you might gently point out (always be gentle with moonbats…they may explode otherwise) that any nation with an economy and military the size of ours can’t help NOT being imperialistic. Or maybe they all want us to stop working, producing, saving, spending, while at the same time not protecting ourselves from attack. Come to think of it…that’s probably exactly what they want.
12/22/2004
NEWBIES ON PARADE
CATEGORY: General
