Truth, Reality, and the Misuse of Language

Dr. Sanity has a wonderful post today about truth, reality, and the misuse of language. She concludes that truth and reality do matter, and will ultimately win out. Our opponents on the left and among the terrorists more and more are using language not to seek the truth, not to discover reality, but to silence opposition. She urges those of us who are "not deluded by this madness" to fight it with every ounce of energy we can muster. Read the whole thing at www.drsanity.blogspot.com.

Hugh Hewitt Wows Them In Colorado

Radio talk show host and blogger extraordinaire Hugh Hewitt gave a speech to a very large and enthusiastic crowd at the Radisson Hotel in Aurora, Colorado last night. Hugh urged the Republican crowd to work harder than ever this year in order to prevent Democrats from taking control of the legislative branch in this fall's elections.

One of the most interesting things Hugh did with the crowd was to take a straw poll of their preferences regarding Republican presidential candidates. He only gave the crowd five choices: Romney, Frist, Giuliani, McCain, and Allen. Virginia Senator George Allen was the runaway favorite in this crowd, probably because he is strong on all of the issues that these particular Coloradans hold dear. Giuliani was next, and Frist and Romney seemed pretty even in the show of hands vote. McCain was far and away the least popular. One woman was upset that Hugh did not include Newt Gingrich. Hugh said Newt has no chance, because he has been too outspoken, and had put his views down in written form for a very long time. My own favorite candidate would have been Condi Rice. Hugh said that he believes that Dr. Rice realizes that running for President would be a very difficult way to initiate a person's first run for elected office. I still believe she would be capable of meeting the challenge. Another person was really pissed that Hugh did not include Dick Cheney. Hugh said he has been a guest in the Cheney home, that he formerly worked as chief counsel for Mrs. Cheney, and that he knew that the Cheneys no longer wished to serve in public office after they complete their current term.

Hugh revealed that he is writing a book to be titled, Mitt Romney, A Mormon in the White House? He wants to know if voters would vote against Romney just because he is a Mormon. He said Romney seems like a great candidate. He believes Romney is very bright. He likes the way Romney is taking on the challenge of "Big Dig." Hugh's point is that we should elect whomever is the best candidate, without regard to his or her religious preference. Hugh said he would support whomever the party nominated.

Hugh urged the crowd to come together and support the Republican candidate, even if it is McCain. That comment produced some groans in response from the audience. However, Hugh warned people not to limit themselves to one or two issues. Strong defense, a reverence for life, stopping illegal immigration, gun rights, and reigning in government spending were some of the issues that seemed important to this crowd. But Hewitt warned that we may not get a candidate who is good on all of these issues. Hugh, like myself, believes that the most important priority is to find a candidate who is strong on national defense. We may get someone who is strong on national defense, but not so strong on one or more of those other issues. Hugh asked how many in the crowd had walked a precinct. Many had. He reminded the audience that "this is entertainment; the real impact can best be made by people willing to do the hard work of walking a precinct."

Hugh said he worries most about the threat from the Chinese, and he urged the crowd to read a book written by Jed Babbin on the Chinese threat. He said that the Chinese are very likely to make a move for Taiwan. Second would be the threat from Islamofacists. Third would be the Russians, who are seeing a resurgence of the KGB. Hugh, though, said we must remain allies with Russia in the war on Islamic terror, because the Russians face an Islamic threat in Chechnya. Hugh said he lies awake at night worrying about those threats, in the above-mentioned order, then falls asleep.

There were other issues that were important to the audience. For example, one person drew a huge applause when he said we could better spend elsewhere the nearly one and one-half billion dollars we give to prop up the enemies of the U.S. who seem to be in charge at the United Nations. Hugh agreed, but reminded the crowd to"keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer." Hugh seemed to think it would even be possible some day to make the United Nations actually become an effective force for good in the world!

One woman asked if it were possible to do anything any more that might be considered treasonous. Hugh said yes, unless you happen to be employed by either the New York Times or the Los Angeles Times. That got a huge roar from the crowd. Hugh urged the people in attendance to write to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and ask that the Justice Department find and prosecute the leaker(s) of our nation's secrets to those two financially struggling members of the old media. Why didn't Congress name the two newspapers in its recent resolution against revealing national secrets? Because the politicians are afraid of them! They either have something they do not want disclosed about themselves personally, or they have a family member who does, and they worry about the power of the vicious press to embarrass or destroy that person. How sad and scary is that?

It was clear that Mr. Hewitt was very popular with this group of Coloradans. In fact, he said his ratings are higher in Colorado than anywhere else his program is aired. He attributed that fact to the long time success of a Denver talk radio show hosted by Mike Rosen. He said that because of Rosen, Coloradans respond favorably to "smart" talk radio. One person asked Hugh if he would ever consider being a candidate for public office. Hugh said that if it were up to him he might, but that because of objections from "the fetching Mrs. Hewitt," and the fact that, like Newt Gingrich, he has a long record of publishing his opinions, he would not.

Serial Killer

140 I.Q., always respectful, polite and courteous, and Robert Charles Browne may have killed as many as 49 people, young women between the ages of 13 and 26. He had six wives, all still alive, and all petite, weighing between 95 and 125 pounds. Those are some of the highlights mentioned in a story by John C. Ensslin in today's Rocky Mountain News.

Another fact I found interesting is that Lou Smit, who is the man who arrested this killer, is also the same highly respected former homocide detective who continues to look for the killer of Jon Benet Ramsey. He believes Jon Benet's killer was an intruder.

Blacks and Hispanics Get Free Advice

Former Governor Dick Lamm is back in the news (today's Rocky Mountain News) in an article by Myung Oak Kim. Lamm's hair is now whitish/grey, with a matching beard, so he is no longer talking about elderly people having "a duty to die," in order to keep down health care costs, as he did in a 1984 speech. Now he is telling blacks and Hispanics they should be more like Jewish and Japanese Americans, so their kids will do better in school and be more economically successful. His remarks have evoked anger from some black and Hispanic persons contacted by the writer of the Rocky article, but Lamm is not surprised, because, as he modestly asserts, "All great truths begin as heresies." Lamm has written a book on the subject, and will profit, even if blacks and Hispanics don't. Isn't that the point? Even if Lamm's criticisms are valid, it is the individual black and Hispanic who must choose which road to take.

Andrea Yates Not Guilty: "Boomer Narcissism Knows No Bounds"

The brilliant columnist Mark Steyn reprises a column he wrote five years ago, just a few days after Mrs. Yates methodically murdered each of her five children, then phoned her husband to come home and have a look. Quoting Steyn: Five years on from this column, we now have a new verdict on Andrea Yates: "not guilty". Yes, she killed them, in the sense that they are dead at her hands. But no, she's not "guilty" of their deaths because she's "psychotic". Which means she's too ill to know enough not to kill her children but not too ill not to know how to find a legal strategy to get her out of jail. What a pathetic comment on the "justice" system. I can't wait for the first Islamist terrorist to try this defense. Read the whole thing!

As Dr. Helen Smith states in her blog post at www.drhelen.blogspot.com, My bet is she will be out within seven to nine years--wish her five children could have been so lucky.

Where are the Best Writers?

Almost any guy will tell you that the best writers in the old media are on the sports pages. A case in point is the superb column today in the Rocky Mountain News by Bernie Lincicome. Lincicome writes about phenomenal golfer Tiger Woods.

What if, instead of writing about sports, wonderful writers like Lincicome were the ones we were reading on the front pages, writing about national and international politics? Would more men become involved in the affairs of the nation that really matter?

Decline of Old Media Spreads to Colorado

The E.W.Scripps Co. announced yesterday that The Rocky Mountain News lost $8 million dollars in the first six months of 2006. The Rocky and The Denver Post "share profits" from the Denver Newspaper Agency, but the Post does not disclose their financial results. I don't know how much longer Denver will have the luxury of two competing daily papers. Hugh Hewitt has more on the loss of classified ad revenue for the "old" papers.

Saying What You Mean, and Meaning What You Say

One of my favorite bloggers, Dr.Sanity, has a post today in which she mentions the importance of parents saying what they mean and meaning what they say! I made the same point yesterday, and Dr. Sanity is making it additionally with regard to terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Well, if children are not given the limits they need, they become terrorists, too, maybe with a small t!

I also love Dr. Sanity's emphasis on the power of victimhood, and the need for the world not to buy into that manipulative technique. Children are experts in playing the victim, if parents allow it!

Parental Authority

A few months ago I wrote about our family's decision to put our house up for sale and look for more land with animals. We were unable to sell our house, but we actually reached a win-win solution (I had not wanted to move, especially to the prairie east of Denver). Now I get to stay in beautiful Golden, Colorado, and my wife has found a wonderful ranch fifteen minutes from our home. This ranch allows people to board all kinds of animals. We have bought two horses, and two cute goats are also in the fold. Our children work off the monthly boarding charges, and have been spending big chunks of their days at the ranch.

My wife, a very astute psychologist, has made an observation about parental authority in the ranch setting versus the non-ranch suburban setting. In the ranch setting, obedience is more likely to mean the difference between life and death. If we say, "Stay here," "Don't run" or "Stay next to me" and they choose to ignore the parental command, they could be run over by a tractor, two horses who are fighting over some grain, or a charging ram. If they mindlessly scream or yell, they are likely to spook the horses, with dangerous consequences. In the park in Golden, or at the mall, if we say, "It's time to go," there is no life and death issue, so the kids are more likely to ignore the statement, and the parents are less likely to demand obedience.

The whole concept of the necessity for someone to be in control is not really a construct we think about that much in our modern families. In fact, it is politically incorrect to think of control as a good thing! We do not discipline like we mean it. The result is that parents no longer say what they mean, or mean what they say, and children don't take very seriously the need to obey. Ask anyone who works in a school setting, and they will tell you that establishing control, especially with boys, is more and more difficult each year.

"Too Close To God?"

The Anchoress links to a story in the New York Times about embryonic stem cell research in which the cells were implanted into the brains of some patients who have Parkinson's Disease. The results were nightmarish. The chief researcher stated that there should be no more research done on humans. The Anchoress wonders if the embryos are just "too close to God," as the cells caused terrible uncontrolled twitching of various body parts. There is no date on the New York Times story. The Denver Post regularly carries articles from the New York Times, but somehow missed this one. But its July 21 editorial page did not fail to throw this in the face of President Bush when he came to Denver today.

More Clarification on Reagan Versus Bush

Fred Barnes has an editorial in today's Opinion Journal (I am sorry, I was unable to link to it) on how President Reagan's record is being distorted by those who want to make President Bush look bad. Unfortunately, some Republicans are falling for the distortions, as I have mentioned in an earlier post.

Reagan's greatest accomplishment was standing up to the Communists. His feelings about Communists were deeply personal. His dislike for them stemmed from the days in which he was President of the Screen Actors Guild. Communists were feverishly trying to infiltrate Hollywood. He experienced their evil first hand. He knew what they were about. Standing up to the Commies was just being true to his own experience.

Maybe that is why so many of us are able to stand up to today's "liberals." We have experienced first hand how they operate, how they distort the views of people who disagree with them, how they personally attack when they cannot persuade on the merits of the argument, how vicious they can be when they have power, and, most importantly, how the programs they advocate have been dismal failures. Mona Charen has written a great book detailing the importance of that last point. It is called "Do-Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim To Help (And The Rest Of Us!)"

Victor Davis Hansen Answers My Question!

In my last post I asked why President Reagan deserves praise for his inaction when the U.S. Marines were slaughtered in Lebanon. Victor Davis Hansen has the answer: President Reagan does not deserve the praise he has been getting! Here is what Hansen has to say: "And when Americans are butchered, are we to skedaddle, as both Presidents Reagan and Clinton did, from Lebanon and Somalia respectively?

Our present muscular policy - and we also hear this all too infrequently - grew out of just such past bipartisan inaction that led to 3,000 murdered Americans. The truth is that the old way of doing business, rightly or wrongly, was seen by jihadists as encouragement to up the ante with Sept. 11." Dr. Hansen's full article can be found here.

Hezbollah and Other Terrorists

In recent days I have heard people I greatly respect, Hugh Hewitt, Sean Hannity, and Ed Morrisey, extol the virtues of Ronald Reagan regarding his dealings with terrorst groups. However, my memory of the 1983 suicide bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, is that Reagan did nothing. Can anyone explain to me why President Reagan should be remembered fondly for doing nothing, when over 200 U.S, Marines were murdered?

Intelligence, Memory, and Mental Health Epithets

Our adopted daughter, Sara Jane Agard, is now two and one-half. We were told that her birth mother was bi-polar, oppositional and defiant, severely retarded, schizophrenic, borderline personality disorder, and on and on and on. Because she was so defiant, the mental health professionals gave her every mental health diagnosis (epithet) that they could think of.

Sarah has been with us for all but the first sixteen days of her life. We have been told that she will be seriously delayed and have a severely low I.Q. We have seen none of that!

Let me give an example from today. A few weeks ago I bought her a bunch of books from the annual library sale. Because, unfortunately, there are not many blacks living in our county, many of the children's books on sale were books featuring black children. I bought seventeen such books. After the first read, my favorite book was Asana and the Animals, by Grace Nichols, with wonderful illustrations by Sarah Adams. I read it to Sarah a few weeks ago, along with the other sixteen books.

Today we read it for the second time. I got to the page where on the left side was the poem Grasshopper One. I started to read it, but Sarah started saying, "Don't Cry, Caterpillar!" that was the title of the poem on the right-hand side of the page! Even more startling to me was her comment later on in the book, when we were reading about elephants at the zoo. Again Sara interrupted me to say, "I want to read about the alligator!" Sure enough, I turned the page, where the next poem was entitled, Lying Still In Muddy River!

If Sara is severely retarded, what does that make me? I surely did not remember the Don't Cry Caterpillar story about a caterpillar who worries if she will still be herself when she has wings, and I did not remember that the alligator story followed the elephant story! We will just keep on loving Sara, and keep her as far away from the mental health professionals as we possibly can!

Forgiveness

Forgiveness seems to be an odd topic to write about this week. With all of the violence in the Middle East, forgiveness seems to be the farthest thing from anyone's mind. But Boinkie's Blog has a post that is one of the best I have ever seen on the topic.

Some of the topics she addresses are: Why forgive? So we can be "healed?" So we can get a "get out of jail free card?" To make ourselves "feel good and superior?" What is forgiveness? Does forgiveness equal "being a doormat?" Is forgiveness being passive-aggressive, "smiling and saying you forgive, while inside you hold a terrible anger?" Is forgiveness presented as a way for "the one harming to be free of blame?"

Thankfully, Boinke's Blog emphasizes the need "to correct the abuser." As she says, "A murderer may be forgiven because of Christ's love, but unless he lives his life in reparation, such forgiveness will be meaningless." I am glad that she also addresses the issue of "giving in to hatred," and what that leads to. For the answer to forgiveness, go here.

"Integrity and Courage Have Fled Washington"

Yesterday Ralph Peters wrote an oped in the New York Post that makes sense to me. Unfortunately, Washington is not the only place where integrity and courage have fled. We will only get leadership in Washington if Washington hears clear, unified messages from the rest of the country. When was the last time that happened?

Peters wrote that the rules of the battlefield should be clear: if you are in civilian clothes and you throw a grenade, detonate a bomb, or pull a trigger against our troops, you will be killed, not captured. Peters correctly points out that we will never win the hearts and minds of terrorists. Is there any doubt of the truth of that observation, after the recent episode in which terrorists beheaded and gouged the eyes out of two United States of America soldiers?

But, as Peters implied, political correctness rules the day in America, in Washington, in the dinosaur media, and even with some in our military. All of the restraints are placed against our brave soldiers, and none against the terrorist Islamic thugs. Things will change only when the American people let their politicians know that we want to win this war!

A Beautiful Eulogy

What a wonderful woman. What a beautiful love.

The Source of the World's Problems Has Been Identified!

The Anchoress has identified the source of the world's problems. Warning: within thirty minutes after clicking here you will go straight to your refrigerator, freezer, and/or blender!

Did God Make You That Way?

Four-year-old Greg today noted to his mother: You are tan in some places and white in other places. Did God make you that way?