Questioning the Timing of the Mt. St. Helens Eruption
The crack investigators at
NRA News are on top of the partisan actions of this geologic feature near two battleground states. One savvy caller noted the violations of the Kyoto protocol by this seismic event, clearly indicating its partisan behavior.
Kerry Raises Questions Where Once Were None
So in the debate just now, Senator Kerry talks about being one of the first Senators in Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He then spoke of going to the KGB offices and seeing the halls filled with files.
The questions he raises are: Why was it important to him to be the first into the KGB file room? What was important to him in there?
Do I think that Senator Kerry was a Soviet operative during the Cold War? Hell no…well, probably not… Actually, now I have a lot more questions about his involvement in various anti-war groups than I did before he opened his yap about going to the secure files rooms of the KGB. That was a deeply stupid thing to say regardless of his involvement with the KGB.
An Appreciation of Zombies and Mount Saint Helens
I watched "
Shaun of the Dead" this weekend with my wife this weekend. It was a great movie for a number of reasons, the central one for me was the obliviousness of the average citizen. Great scenes of flipping through cable TV showed how even crucial messages can be lost when you are channel surfing. A few heavy hits on the self-absorbed behavior of people with cell phones are "fried gold" as well. If you see one zombie movie this year, you probably are a fairly well adjusted individual. You should see this movie anyway. Best British comedy in years and it is a real shame that this isn't saying much.
As a blogger, it was a revelation to me to look at my fellows in this perspective. The people around me are not particularly well informed or paying attention. My frustration in dealing with people who don't check Instapundit several times a day is reasonable. Most people are simply letting their routine and pettiness get in the way of understanding what is going on.
As an example of this, I live downwind of Mount St. Helens, which is showing every indication of being about to blow again in the next couple of weeks. Yesterday I went to Harbor Freight (six blocks away, to my wife's chagrin) to buy some filter masks and cheesecloth. To my pleased surprise, they were fully stocked. The clerk asked if I was going to do some painting. When I explained that the volcano within sight of the store was going to explode soon, he expressed surprise. It turns out that virtually nobody else in Portland had put together imminent volcano eruption and need to purchase filter masks and cheesecloth.
Thanks to
Cam at NRA News for taking my call on this today. He says he wants me to call again. I did stop talking before I made idiotic mistakes, and I thank Cam again for graciously allowing me to do so.
Irrational Obsession Religious and Secular
Irrational obsession is not the sole property of Islam, and I hope the people horrified by today's murder of
dozens of Iraqi children take the time to remember this. There are elements of Fundamentalist Islam attempting to corner the market, but there can be no monopoly on idiocy. There are people in the West actively competing for market share of stupidity. Although the most active groups are stuck with industrial age ideology, like a rust belt manufacturer, it is their good fortune to be competing with foreign rivals attached to late bronze-age ideology.
The key thing here is that the terrorists and their apologists have no rational view of history, and so they have no rational view of power. The greatest power is accomplished by free individuals working together to achieve measurable goals through a variety of creative ways. This is one of the reasons why Coalition military commanders are driving authority to junior officers, to let them use initiative to accomplish the peace. As long as we maintain the will to endure the vicious attacks of delusional idiots, both violent and rhetorical; Iraq will become free and great.
Hat Tip:
IRAQ THE MODEL
Why You Are Losing the Election
An acquaintance of mine who is quite Left recently re-established contact with me by sending me a blog post of a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who took issue with President Bush's leadership. I emailed back a link to the overwhelmingly positive response by Guard troops heading to Iraq when
Bush greeted them on their plane as it refueled in Maine. I also sent links to two other bloggers who had done
tours in
Iraq, were critical of Bush on a variety of topics, but could clearly distinguish Kerry's failures as a candidate. Over the course of a few emails, my acquaintance completely misunderstood what I was trying to tell him. He denounced
Roger Simon for slamming various news sources, regardless of the validity of the critique. I did not correct him in his misapprehensions because by then it had become clear to me what the problem was; if he actually took the effort to understand me, he would have to admit that he was wrong.
From Rather's denouncement of bloggers as partisan operatives to any number of idiotic comments I have seen on articles I have posted elsewhere, there is a pattern of willful incomprehension on the Left. If understanding makes you wrong, choose not to understand. If the numbers show that your candidate is losing, fail to understand the numbers. If
Christopher Hitchens shows your behavior contemptible, rail against Hitchens.
I suspect that what I am seeing is a cultural artifact peculiar to the Left. Generations of accepting propaganda that excused Soviet brutality have made cognitive dissonance a primary cultural identifier. You simply cannot be part of the Left culture while maintaining intellectual integrity. This has made the peoples of the Left a perfect tool for acquiring political power, as long as nobody pays attention to the facts.
In the information age, the ability to ignore facts is no longer a survival trait worth having. What we are seeing is the collapse of a failed culture that tied its identity to an unsustainable characteristic. In the lifetime of my mother, we have seen the death of the cultures of the isolationist Right and the racist Dixiecrats. Cultural failure happens, and what matters is how you deal with the transition.
Governor George Wallace, for all his many faults, crimes, and sins, is probably one of the best examples of how to recover from a failed culture. He re-examined his life and changed to make things better. This is not the end of the world, even if your friends are telling you to believe it is. Establish your friendships on the basis of how they help you thrive, not on their adherence to party dogma, especially if that dogma is suicidal.
