There is still hope

In Texas today, the rule of law prevailed and a tiny bit of my faith in the system was restored. State-sponsored child abduction is not condoned by Texas courts. The Supreme Court of Texas ruled that the Child Protective Service illegally seized 468 children from their parents at the West Texas polygamist cult compound. The court stopped short of calling the CPS abduction of the polygamist's kids what it really was - collective punishment and an assault on the freedom of association.

The court ruling was based on common sense - if a case is to be made that abuse has occurred/is occurring, then present the evidence. And if there is no evidence, then send the kids home. I was happily surprised to hear that the state says that it will take immediate steps to comply with the ruling. However, I will believe it when the kids are actually returned to their parents. The state rarely relinquishes power so freely.

See various media coverage here, here, here and here.

Update: As I suspected, the state is dragging it's feet on returning the kids to their parents.

McCain shoots Republican base the bird, again

John McCain told business leaders today that immigration reform should be a top priority for the next president. Quoting the New York Times, in regard to the failed McCain-Kennedy immigration bill that would have granted amnesty to 20 million illegal aliens, "Mr. McCain expressed regret the measure did not pass, calling it a personal “failure,” as well as one by the federal government.

“Senator Kennedy and I tried very hard to get immigration reform, a comprehensive plan, through the Congress of the United States,” he said. “It is a federal responsibility and because of our failure as a federal obligation, we’re seeing all these various conflicts and problems throughout our nation as different towns, cities, counties, whatever they are, implement different policies and different programs which makes things even worse and even more confusing.”

Saving the best for last, McCain said, “They are also God’s children, and we have to do it in a human and compassionate fashion.” After all, they are honest, hardworking people - except for these POS (pardon my abbreviated French) and thousands more like them (see here, here, here and here) .

Is McCain trying to not get elected? You would think that he would at least wait until after the general election in November before stabbing the Republican base in the back.

Lipstick on a pig

"You can put lipstick and earrings on a pig, and call her Peggy Sue, but it’s still a pig." Patrick J. Buchanan

See here Pat Buchanan's commentary on the California court's gay marriage ruling. Buchanan is right on the money, as usual.

See here Jesus on marriage: "And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” " Matthew 19:4-6

McCain's supposed principles

From a McCain press release today regarding Obama and national security:
"With respect to Cuba, it is not America that needs to make unilateral concessions to the Castros -- a 'gesture of good faith' as Senator Obama said yesterday -- it is the Castro brothers who must allow the freedom they have so long denied to the Cuban people. Free the political prisoners, open the media, allow people to worship, schedule free and fair elections, and the United States will be happy to meet and talk. Until then, we cannot compromise our principles."

I, for one, believe that the US government should stop punishing the Cuban people, end the trade embargo and establish diplomatic relations with Cuba - but that is not the point. The point is McCain's hypocrisy regarding his supposed principles. He has no qualms about dealing with China.

Even though he acknowledges the "suppression of rights in China," McCain says, "Our relationship with China is important, and we value our ability to cooperate with the Chinese government on a wide variety of strategic, economic, and diplomatic fronts." So what McCain is actually saying is that we cannot compromise our principles unless you sell us a bunch of cheap crap.

Update: Cuba is listed alongside US trading partners China, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia in a report on the world's most oppressive societies prepared by Freedom House.

So why should the US establish relations with Cuba? To quote Ron Paul, "History clearly shows that free and open trade does far more to liberalize oppressive governments than trade wars. Economic freedom and political freedom are inextricably linked--when people get a taste of goods and information from abroad, they are less likely to tolerate a closed society at home. So while sanctions may serve our patriotic fervor, they mostly harm innocent citizens and do nothing to displace the governments we claim as enemies." This is the approach that we have taken towards China. Why does it not apply to Cuba?

McCain's Pipe Dream

I've read the text of John McCain's speech from May 15 (see text here) about what he hopes to achieve during his first term as president. It was one of the most idealistic, utopian pieces of fantasy that I've ever read, with no basis whatsoever in reality. The intended audience was apparently a class of grade school kids. In the first paragraph of the speech, McCain states, "We [candidates] spend too little time and offer too few specifics on that most important of questions". McCain then goes on to deliver a 3,000+ word speech with no specifics. Here are a few examples:

• "The Iraq War has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy..."

And if it doesn't work out as planned, then McCain says 100 years in Iraq "would be fine with me".

• "The Government of Pakistan has cooperated with the U.S. in successfully adapting the counterinsurgency tactics that worked so well in Iraq and Afghanistan to its lawless tribal areas where al Qaeda fighters are based."

Pakistan has only marginal control over the tribal areas. Future Pakistani leaders are not likely to be as friendly as Musharraf, and he hasn't been particularly helpful. And I guess that the successful counterinsurgency tactics McCain refers to are another future event in fantasyland.

• "The size of the Army and Marine Corps has been significantly increased, and are now better equipped and trained to defend us."
  

The US already spends more on the military (defense is a misnomer) than the rest of the world combined. The US has troops stationed in 135 countries. Do we really need to "significantly increase" the size of our military?

• "Encouraged by the success (in Sudan), the League is now occupied with using the economic power and prestige of its member states to end other gross abuses of human rights such as the despicable crime of human trafficking."

McCain promises to expand our role as self-appointed policeman of the world.

• "Community colleges and technical schools all over the country have developed worker retraining programs suited to the specific economic opportunities available in their communities and are helping millions of workers who have lost a job that won't come back find a new one that won't go away."

What are these new jobs that won't go away? I may want to steer my kids in that direction.

• "Public education in the United States is much improved thanks to the competition provided by charter and private schools...Test scores and graduation rates are rising everywhere in the country."

Charter and private schools. Don't we have those now?

• "The United States is well on the way to independence from foreign sources of oil; progress that has not only begun to alleviate the environmental threat posed from climate change, but has greatly improved our security as well."

How does McCain intend to do this? Ethanol? Invading and annexing Iran?

• "Construction has begun on twenty new nuclear reactors thanks to improved incentives and a streamlined regulatory process."

Apparently nobody has told McCain that the nuclear power plant licensing process takes several years. Submit a completed license application into the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission tomorrow and you will not have started construction by the end of McCain's first term.

• "Voluntary national service has grown in popularity in part because of the educational benefits used as incentives, as well as frequent appeals from the bully pulpit of the White House, but mostly because the young Americans, no less than earlier generations, understand that true happiness is much greater than the pursuit of pleasure, and can only be found by serving causes greater than self-interest."

If you are providing incentives, then it's not really voluntary is it. And McCain's whole shtick about serving causes greater than self -interest reminds me too much of the Karl Marx slogan, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

And who can say no to:

• "The United States has experienced several years of robust economic growth, and Americans again have confidence in their economic future."

• "The world food crisis has ended, inflation is low, and the quality of life not only in our country, but in some of the most impoverished countries around the world is much improved."

• "Health care has become more accessible to more Americans than at any other time in history."

It all sounds great to me (jn). The sad thing is that there are probably American sheeple out there thinking that this was an inspiring speech (aside from McCain and his speech writers).

Definition of Marriage

According to my version of Webster's (touted on the cover jacket as "Today's Most Up-To-Date Dictionary" when published in 1984), marriage is defined as: Legal union of a man and woman as husband and wife.

According to the California Supreme Court (comprised of six out of seven Republican-appointed judges) , CA law limiting marriage to a man and woman violates the constitutional rights of same-sex couples.

Apparently a dictionary was not available during deliberations of the court.

C.S. Lewis Quote of the Day

“If individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a civilisation, which may last for a thousand years, is more important than an individual. But if Christianity is true, then the individual is not only more important but incomparably more important, for he is everlasting and the life of a state or a civilisation, compared with his, is only a moment.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

I've been pondering on this quote for the last couple of weeks. I'm not sure it means what I think it means.

McCain Won't Jaw-Jaw

John McCain was on the Hugh Hewitt show today and talked about Barack Obama's willingness to meet with and talk to the leaders of Iran and Cuba. (see transcript) McCain said, "...but I do now that he does not, has not displayed the judgment which comes from experience and knowledge and background, whether it be saying that he would sit down with Ahmadinejad and talk face to face with him, or Raul Castro and talk directly to him..." I personally don't see Obama's suggested attempt to settle disputes with our enemies peacefully as some outrageous betrayal of God, mom and apple pie. As Winston Churchill said, "To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war." And Churchill was quite the war-monger himself.

It is not as if sit-down talks with our nation's enemies are unprecedented. As Obama has said, "Ronald Reagan and Democratic presidents like JFK constantly spoke to the Soviet Union at a time when Ronald Reagan called them an evil empire. And the reason is because they understood that we may not trust them and they may pose an extraordinary danger to this country, but we had the obligation to find areas where we can potentially move forward.” Numerous US-Soviet summits were held during the Cold War. Eisenhower and Kennedy both met with Khrushchev. Johnson met with Soviet Premier Kosygin in 1967, while the Soviets were supplying and training our enemy in Vietnam (the same thing that we have accused the Iranians of doing). Nixon, Ford and Carter each met with Brezhnev. Reagan met with Gorbachev, leading up to the peaceful end of the Soviet Union.

Instead of showing leadership, McCain sounds more like a child whose feelings have been hurt. He is going to take his ball and go home (or bomb Iran).

And by the way, I'm no fan of Obama. I believe that he is a far-left liberal and there is not a snowballs chance in h&!! that I would ever vote for him (I also think that Hugh Hewitt is a wanker).

McCain shoots Republican base the bird

McCain proves yet again that his views on immigration are more aligned with Ted Kennedy than with the Republican base. McCain used Cinco de Mayo to launch a Spanish language website and reach out to Hispanic voters. Why the Spanish language website? The ability to speak English is supposedly a prerequisite for American citizenship (and the right to vote that comes with citizenship).

McCain said that "everything about our Hispanic voters is tailor-made to the Republican message." Well, not quite everything. In fact, Hispanics don't share traditional conservative social values with the typical Republican voter. The illegitimacy rate for Hispanics is double that of whites (roughly 50% to 25%). The high school dropout rate is 3.5 times that of whites and double that of blacks (22%, 6% and 10% respectively). [Note that these numbers are from the US Dept. of Education, so I'm guessing that the numbers for all three groups are probably twice as high in actuality.] I could go on... So much for the strong Hispanic family values touted by the open borders crowd (McCain included).

McCain also said, "A lot of times it saddens me to see these conflicting approaches toward the issue of illegal immigration because we would not have this problem if the federal government had carried out its responsibilities." Wait, does he mean that the government should have carried out its responsibilities and enforced the law, secured the border and deported illegal aliens. No. McCain means that the government should have granted amnesty to the 20 million illegal aliens that reside in our country.

Republicans that turned a blind eye to the real John McCain will get what they deserve if he is elected president.

Federal Gas Tax Holiday Just a Gimmick

Candidates Clinton and McCain are both doing what politicians do best - pandering for votes and making empty promises. They have both tried to take advantage of voter's concerns over high gasoline prices by talking about a federal gas tax holiday (pandering for votes). I calculated that a suspension of the 18¢ a gallon gas tax for the summer months would save my family around $60-75. That assumes that I would actually see any savings. I'm guessing that the 18¢ a gallon would actually end up in the pockets of the oil companies and that I would pay roughly the same for gas. The gasoline tax is actually one tax that I don't mind paying. The gas tax finances road building projects nationwide, which is actually a legitimate function of the federal government. Of course, neither Clinton or McCain has yet to introduce any legislation to enact their plans (empty promises). Hopefully the voters are not gullible enough to fall for this ruse.

It would be refreshing if one of the candidates actually presented a long-term energy plan instead of feel good platitudes. Maybe something like leadership on promoting nuclear technology as an alternative power source. Or how about a $70 billion prize to makers of the first alternative fuel vehicle that people would actually want to drive (I just threw $70 billion out there because that is the amount Bush just requested to fund the continued occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan for another year). Instead we get farm subsidy-driven ethanol (more pandering for votes) leading to food riots in the third world.

Big Law Day Blowout

Yesterday the country celebrated the 50th anniversary of Law Day. I had never even heard of Law Day, but here is the President's proclamation regarding Law Day. Pretty ironic from a president who has done little to halt an invasion of our country by 20 million illegal aliens (immigration laws apparently were not being celebrated). And of course the rule of law does not apply to the Bush/Cheney administration. Bush has shown little regard for the Fourth Amendment ''right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." Of course, the end justifies the means when waging the "war on terror".

The President called upon all the people of the United States to observe Law Day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. I complied with the President's request by obeying all traffic laws during my commute home from work.