THE MOUNTAIN OBSERVER

Vol. 3                                                   Issue 6                                                08/01/03

 A FREEWHEELING CONSERVATIVE COMMENTARY DEDICATED TO THE DEFENSE OF FREEDOM, THE NEXT

 GENERATION, AND THE WAY THINGS OUGHT TO BE.    READER DIALOG ENCOURAGED.

Produced occasionally when I decide to do it.     J. E. Sohmer, P. O. Box 129, Jefferson, CO 80456

Flyover country, where the air is thin and the hunting and fishing are good.

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SECOND AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES:

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."                             (It's not about hunting ducks.)

www.iraqwatch.org                           WMD search, etc.                

Blowing off steam:

The implications of the deaths of Uday and Qusay Saddam, and how they died, are huge for Iraq and the United States.  A new sense of liberation from 30 years of oppression is bound to animate the Iraqi people.  The capture of Saddam should now be easier, and while no less important, of more symbolic value than the more practical value of the death of his sons.  Uday and Qusay were the future of the Baathist nightmare of Iraq, and now that future is gone.  I think, on several levels, that it was more important to have killed them, as we did, than to have captured them, which would only have initiated an international process of victim building.   Even more important, their deaths end any possible ambiguity over the matter for a traumatized Iraq.  More than anything else, Iraq needs to purge its national soul of the horrors of the Hussein regime, and the hard physical evidence is necessary to produce that finality.  This result was also a valuable demonstration, not only to Iraq, but to the international peanut gallery, that America, under principled leadership, can be counted on to defend our own interests and not be held hostage to United Nation’s busybodies.   Three cheers for some arrogance, unilateralism and American cowboys.   To quote Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, “Next question”.   Now Iraqis can truly begin to turn toward a more positive future, and to the extent that we can help them succeed, the potential implications throughout the Middle East are enormous, but in the end it will be up to them.   However, the general Arab nightmare can not end until they are willing to rethink their relationship with Israel.  I am not encouraged that that will happen anytime soon, and while I respect the President’s intentions (I believe he means what he says) concerning his “road map”, I think he is, shall we say, profoundly optimistic and ultimately in error.

On the matter of continued violence and missing WMD’s in Iraq, it apparently needs to be pointed out to some people, including the mainstream press, and Democrats, that continued encouragement of early American withdrawal plays right into the hands of the Baathist/terrorist strategy of the Mogadishu theory, and is not an option.   The Mogadishu theory, central to the strategies of both Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, is that American’s have no appetite for a long struggle, and will cut and run at the first signs of difficulty.  They are familiar with the fact that many Americans have a very short attention span, and are poor at strategic analysis.   The general Iraqi population is also aware of this general American tendency, at the cost of thousands of lives after 1991, which explains much tentative behavior toward cooperation with the Coalition effort.   The miscalculation here is a failure to appreciate the significance of September 11 for most Americans, and to do so

in the context of  eight  years of total foreign affairs and defense planning incompetence at the hands of OJ Billyboy, including events in Mogadishu.  The announced, and clearly articulated, reasons for the preemptive action against the regime of Saddam Hussein were several:

-Weapons of mass destruction (WMD).  The documented evidence over the years, including much supplied by and through the United Nations, was substantial.  Without the cooperation of the Saddam regime to honor 17 U.N. Resolutions since 1991, and without Iraqi cooperation with inspectors over a period of 11 years, it was becoming increasingly difficult to properly assess the scope of the implicit threats.  In the context of threatened and demonstrated hostility toward his own neighbors, as well as the United States and Great Briton, any American president would have been guilty of a dereliction of duty, especially after the events of September 11, 2001, to allow the matter to continue to fester unchallenged.

In the matter of prewar assessments of Iraqi WMD capabilities and status, the Administration was working with intelligence resources that have been screwed up by self-serving Congressional meddling for many years.  It was in this same context that Islamist extremists were able to arrange for the attacks of September 11, apparently without leaving sufficient pre-attack detectable evidence to enable assembly of an effective defense.  In spite of this fact, it is also a fact that Hussein did employ gas against both the Iranians and his own people, that the UN inspectors did document an Iraqi program, and certain stockpiles in several areas, and that there were Iraqi self admissions to this effect.  There was a plethora of credible evidence to support Administration concerns in this area, fully subscribed to on a bi-partisan level, and the Administration was absolutely correct to say that it would be unacceptable to require absolute proof in the form of another attack to justify pre-emptive action.  There had already been a long string of attacks, of which the attack on New York and Washington were only the most recent.  

-The real and continuing potential cooperation between the Baathist regime and Islamic fundamentalist terrorists was real, ideological differences not withstanding.   Liberal fellow-travelers of the Palestinian cause conveniently choose to dismiss the possibility of such cooperation, but it is the very appearance to westerners of such an improbability that helps provide the necessary cover.  Whatever the mutual differences may be within the Arab/Persian/Muslim orbit, hatred of Israel, and the United States, is the fundamental bond.  It was the assessment of the Administration that, coupled with the WMD threat, of whatever maturity or magnitude, the implications of such cooperation demanded preemptive action.  Post war, the documented link between Osama Bin Laden and Iraq is coming out in gobs, hard copy irrefutable.  So it is in this sense that the events of September 11^th were connected to the Saddam regime in terms of present and future threats.  The evidence supporting Iraqi WMD programs will surface more slowly, but the potential and intent that existed is beyond any doubt.   The issue is not whether such programs existed.   The issue is where is the stuff, or how was it destroyed.  On all of this, the President has been exactly correct.

This most recent flap about African yellow cake will come to haunt the critics.  I would fault the Administration for admitting any error at all with the State of the Union address, because there was none. The Bush Administration faces enormous challenges in the area of quality intelligence, issues not correctable even within a few years.   The audit trails on intelligence sourcing with regards to the African yellow cake are several, and complex, and not about to surface soon on Sunday morning TV.  Few Americans today understand the enormous amount of time (years) and patience required to develop embedded and reliable human intelligence sources overseas, and today we are still living with the consequences of destructive political meddling that reaches as far back as the 1970’s.  It is a symptom of these problems that one of the reasons British Intelligence may not be able to share with us all it may know about the matter of the yellow cake is that, in their assessment, or under the rules of acquisition of the data, they cannot fully trust us to protect the sources.  Secret is secret, not something to be shared with ambitious American politicians, or editors.

Those who would attempt to politically capitalize on our intelligence problems, in my opinion, are genuine anti-American slime balls, especially in view of the fact that prior to hostilities there was considerable bi-partisan agreement as to the announced intelligence analysis of Iraqi WMD capability.  Substantial documented WMD assets remain unaccounted for.   However, American preemptive action was clearly in order, and the twin primary justifications of disarming the Iraqi regime and severing its capacity to arm and fund others has been vindicated.  The additional bonus of freeing an enslaved population was a commendable happening, but it was not the framework of a very proper decision to proceed.   Those who chose to impugn the motives or the decisional thrust of this Administration on any of these matters deserve to have their own motives questioned.  Presidential election cycles tend to bring the worst to the surface, and pandering to public ignorance on matters of national security is despicable.

There is a further point for the critics to ponder.  I believe there was another reason for our action in Iraq, unstated, but critical nonetheless, in the War on Terror.  Our actions in Iraq set the stage for executing an exit strategy from Saudi Arabia, the unpublished member of the Axis of Evil.   Furthermore, in the world of realpolitik, it would never be possible to crush the various threats of Islamic terrorism, in the Middle East or elsewhere, without overwhelming the entire Axis of Evil, 2, or 3, yet to go.  For example, Hamas has now lost a major source of funding, as has France. The alternative is to allow yourself to be overrun by Islamist terrorist culture, which is, perhaps, what has already occurred in France.  Reportedly, Brigitte Bardot has already come to that conclusion in her new book, A Scream in the Silence.   Hollywood, are you listening?   Perhaps Liberals should go visit France, and stay.   I have no interest in re-ordering the Middle East, except as is necessary to defend America, and France is Brigitte’s problem.  I wish her well.  Finally, my friends beware of self described presidential candidates who have nothing constructive to offer about anything, but only negativity and criticism, of America, in a pathetic attempt to advance their own political interests.

The next step in the War on Terror is the removal of the Iranian nuclear option.  This would seem to presuppose the removal of the Mullahs.  The preferred option for removal of the Mullahs would be a successful internal revolt, lead by the students, and the Administration is encouraging such a development behind the scenes.  It should be recognized, that as in Iraq, the position of Iranian students has been considerably strengthened by the capture and elimination of Uday and Qusay.   Saddam, too, must go.  These events are the necessary prerequisite to a sea change in the political orientation of the Middle East, and a further prerequisite to settling the matter of Palestine.  However, the issue of a Persian nuclear capacity remains, and irrespective of the politics, such capacity must be removed, for it has only one purpose and that is not the generation of electrical power.  At some point before we get backed into the position we face in North Korea, positive action will be required.  I believe the flight time from Diego Garcia is about 3 hours.

Then there is North Korea.  The relocation of most of our troops from the DMZ to points south is an interesting move, and several things are accomplished.

-This move presents to the North the hard fact that a preemptive ground assault on their part across the border will include a more difficult early dismemberment of American forces.  American forces on the border were always a trip wire to buy time for the arrival of larger ground backup, but the strategy has changed.  Now the backup will come in the form of massive American air strikes using sophisticated guided weaponry, and our ground forces will remain available to mop up what remains.

-Logically, a new American reliance on sophisticated air power to counter a North Korean ground assault turns the North’s advantage of artillery and tanks into a liability.

-Coupled with our recent demonstration of tactics and ability in Iraq, the North will need to rethink its continued ability to bully with its nuclear capacity.  New options are open for the Americans.

-The government in the South is reminded that the option of any American presence will be theirs to contend with if it is determined that we are no longer welcome.

-The Peoples Republic of China will need to contend with the fact that if the Americans pull out, Japan will have no choice but to assemble its own nuclear deterrence, and given Chinese complicity in these matters, such deterrence will not be directed strictly against North Korea.  Japan may do it anyhow.

-One way or the other, the North Korean program will come to an end, an essential specification of the War on Terror.

In view of the recent Supreme Court’s complicity with the Liberal agenda of wrecking the traditional family and traditional marriage, perhaps, on this issue, the time has come for a genuine Conservative counterattack.   What I think we need to do is recognize the construction of a separate and parallel culture and society, in the image of the original American Experiment and consistent with traditional (Founding) Conservative standards.  Family and marriage is the right place to start.  In this matter, what I would suggest is pushing the political system for legislation that recognizes a “new” traditional category of marriage that would be recognized by the state in parallel with existing legal definitions.   Give people a choice between marriage as it has become, and marriage (and related family values) as guided by traditional Judeo-Christian values.  I am suggesting a huge effort, and, sad to say, a concession to the current system that it can’t be fixed.   It is a dilemma similar to what we have faced over the issue of abortion, except in that matter you can’t just walk away from murdered fetuses.  I’m rambling a bit, sharing my frustrations with you, but somehow I think we just have to stand up and say enough is too much.  Actually, a careful observer will recognize that this process has already, spontaneously, begun, which is as it should be.

It is long past time due for Republican Senators to kick this nonsense about the “Senate Club”.  Right thinking Americans have been in a civil war with the Left for 70 years, and we’ve been backed into a corner by Republican mission creep until there is now little room left for us to maneuver.   It has come down to the Courts, and Republicans for years have been fooled by Liberal Democrats with all this clubby business.  I know you Republicans would prefer to play golf, and even bask in the comfort of a minority status, but it has gotten to the point where nothing less than the survival of the Republic is at stake.  The future direction of the Courts is the cutting edge and you all need to wake up, get off your asses and go to work.

The European Union is attempting to draft a constitution for itself, with vast implications concerning the national sovereignties of its member states.  Frans van Daele, Belgium’s ambassador to the United States,^[1] says “When you make the sailboat bigger, you need a deeper keel.  It’s the law of institutional physics”.  It seems to me that that is exactly the problem with the whole idea.  It is an attempt to trump nationalism with socialist ideology on a massive scale, and I don’t think that will work.

Bush Score Card:

            Excellent:

            The United States Army got Uday and Qusay.  Saddam is next.

Your coordinated defense, with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, on July 17^th, of our policies and activities in Iraq, was excellent.  I know that several historic trails of domestic dissent are converging against you, and your leadership of an America, as it ought to be, is respected, applauded and appreciated by most of the country.  We know that there is no alternative to success in Iraq, and that you, as President, face enormous challenges that others have, and would, abandon.  Those who are playing the political game must eventually be held accountable.

Your Education Secretary, Ron Paige, is to be congratulated for overseeing the cleanup of massive fraud and abuse within the Department of Education.  The next step is to eliminate the Department of Education.

Not So Good:

Now I see that you’ve let your Health & Human Services Secretary go off tie us up with another international treaty commitment, this time involving tobacco.  I am disgusted.

When are you going to get us out of the Balkans?  We never had any proper business there in the first place.  Liberia?  Don’t even think about it.

You are a nice guy, honest, trustworthy and moral, and your tendency is to believe that collegiality with those who are, in fact, your political enemies, will be reciprocated.   Quite the opposite is what happens, and your “reaching out” is falsely regarded as weakness; truth not comprehended.   Mr. President, sad but true, we are at war domestically and civilly as much as we are at war abroad.  Left-wing collectivism comes in many colors, but all domestic hues tend to adhere to those overseas who would do us ill.  These forces cannot be fixed, they must be defeated.

Terrible--or even worse:

We still have the issue with the borders.  We do not yet have illegal immigrates under control and you have yet to push for a slowdown (shutoff?) of all immigration, tightly qualified, pending a proper assimilation and sorting out process including relief for old ladies at the airport check-in.   Much of this problem lies with the State Department, that nationally subversive bunch, who, if they can’t now be fired, could all be re-assigned to Midway with the specific assignment of scooping up gooney bird dung.   Meanwhile, if I have to make a choice between attending to the welfare of Mexican gardeners and mothers in advanced stages of pregnancy, on the one hand, and our national security, on the other hand, I would prefer to explain to Vicente Fox that Mexican promotion of dual citizenship for the purpose of subverting our southwestern states is not acceptable.  In these various regards, many of us look forward to helping you get on board with your own War on Terror.  Ask the Vice President if Halliburton knows how to build fences.  I would hope that we are more successful around the perimeter of Iraq.

I think this $15 billion you are sending to Africa will prove to be money down a rate hole.  It will accomplish nothing and impress nobody.  Africa generally is a basket case, and God will have to sort it out.  The most effective fix for AIDS is for men to keep their pants zipped up, which does not require $15 billion dollars.

Wall Street & Main Street:

Lawrence Kudlow is at it again.  We do not need just for “the Dow to soar”.  We need sober growth based on actual profits based on the actual production of products and services for which there is an actual market, but I am not optimistic that the lesson has actually sunk in.  Healthy growth needs to be framed on actual earnings (profits), which is the point of tax cuts, hopefully for the wealthy, who, according to Democrats, is anyone earning over $28k.   If all the right things actually happen, then the Dow can do what it will.  The very enthusiastic Larry Kudlow, and all the creative financing of the 90’s, should be taken with a spoonful of salt.

Things continue to look more encouraging for the general economy, but I would feel a lot better if specific steps were taken to correct the balance of payments problem.   Failure to confront this issue directly has come to haunt us.  Job creation has gone overseas.  To quote my ex-wife, we are now “taking in each others laundry”, productively, of course, now on Windows.  This is at least partly the result of a public education system that pours forth a product of little economic value and enormous political mischief.  As the free market forces a continuing collapse of the dollar, foreigners should be better prepared to run our affairs.  But wait, foreign currencies are framed on sand if you examine their socialist foundations.  The road in the years ahead could be bumpy, but the perseverance of American freedom is our best bet.  At some point this will include the reversal of the 16^th Amendment.

From a historical perspective, I think we are still all too close to events to put things in proper perspective, but it is my belief now that in the years ahead it may very well be judgment of our heirs that the 16^th Amendment was the key to the destruction of the Republic.  If you back off and analyze the forces that led to the creation of the income tax in the first place, and examine its subsequent impact on the configuration of our culture, I don’t think you can come to any other conclusion.  Don’t misunderstand.  I am not proposing a conspiracy theory, I don’t think that way.  I am talking about a historical process that has taken place that has been too huge and complex for anyone to have designed or “implemented”.  I am talking about historical events that have occurred en macro about which our Founders fretted and worried, and did everything they could to anticipate.  It has been the central complaint of conservatives through the ages that, given enough time, a democracy will self destruct by voting itself out of existence, and that is exactly what appears to have happened with the 16^th Amendment. 

The truth of the matter is that it could be all over, but we are Americans, and however tattered the Constitution, we still have one.  It is my sole purpose here to get people to think.   As for the individual income tax, I think it is the key issue that must be corrected.  I don’t mean “reformed”, I mean corrected.  I mean canceled.  There are some weak kneed proposals about a “flat tax”, but if you look closely, all of those proposals are actually progressive, not flat.  Suppose some kind of “flat tax” was passed.  I guarantee you that the following day the politicians would be out there engineering its reversal, probably for the children.  Some propose a sales tax, which I think would be akin to jumping from the frying pan into the fire.   Basically, the sales tax idea is to commandeer the entire private business sector as tax collectors, which would set up a climate for corruption on a scale that would put anything we now know to shame.  We would be talking about big money, and a government effort to contain the problem would put the “war on drugs” to shame.   No, my friends, when you are confronted with a snake it is better to simply lop off its head.

I think the only answer is an enhanced repeal of the 16^th Amendment, meaning that you not only reverse the 16^th, but that you bar forever, without equivocation, any form of direct taxation at the Federal level, including sales taxes.  In a free society, any form of taxation must leave the individual with free market options, including the freedom in the United States to relocate from one mis-guided state to another, and that is the key to controlling the size of government.  The only truly dependable way to castrate politicians, congenitally statist, and the trial lawyers, is to permanently remove their ability to fund themselves on their terms.

As for funding the Federal government, you go back to the Founders.  You impose a flat, neutral tariff across the board on all imports.  The difference between this and the flat income tax is that the pressure for growth is disciplined by free market choice.   The tariff tool, of course, can be abused, such as being selectively tailored for the purpose of job and sector protection.   It must be flat and neutral, and if the discipline of a Constitutional Amendment, and a Conservative Court, is required, so be it.

The charge might be leveled that this is all pretty inflexible, but not really.  The option of the single rate change is there, and on an emergency basis, the option of borrowing continues, but the system I am proposing is self regulating in a way that forces fiscal correction of short term imbalances by market discipline.   Overall, it is a system that uses free market forces to control the size of government, and the designs of those who attempt to use government as a tool of extortion of others.  I cannot emphasize that point too much.   You have to starve the ability to extort, and starve out the incentive to try.   That is why I call my tax proposals true campaign reform.  The new institutional and free market prejudice would be towards shrinkage.

There is another point to be made about the current U.S. Tax Code.  It has gotten so large and complex that nobody, literally, completely understands it.  It is a feast for attorneys, and many others with a vested interest in the current state of deliberate confusion.  The Code is beyond reform, and we have become its prisoners.  That this is so, by and of itself, is a threat to the Republic, although one could argue that even greater threats are posed by (2) abortion, (3) militant homosexuality, (4) open borders and (5) revisionist history as seen through the eyes of postmodern deconstructionists.  Choose 1,2,3,4,5 or all of the above.

I am not under any illusions.  I am one old man on a mountain top, but I sincerely believe what I am saying about the threat to the future of this Republic is caused by all of the above.

Note on the natural gas issue.  The only real option to getting prices and supply back under control is to facilitate domestic drilling by relaxing environmental over-regulation.  NG can be imported, but ocean transportation of gas is tricky, dangerous and expensive, requiring specially designed ships which are not produced like cookies.  There are large reserves of gas in the United States.  It is only necessary to get the wackos out of the way.

The destruction of BIG TOBACCO is proving to be so successful that the financial services industry has begun to do a double take on bond anticipation notes, underwritten for New York City, dependant on future tobacco settlement payments.  NYC, counting on huge settlement payments into the future, has borrowed huge amounts of money to run the city, mostly not for health care.  The premise is a strong tobacco industry that could continue indefinitely to be extorted for these payments, but the industry can only take so much of that from those who also work so hard from its destruction.  The ultimate logical conclusion to this shell game is that eventually, NYC taxpayers will be burdened with millions occasioned by bond defaults.   Meanwhile, Kentucky tobacco growers are pushing hard for a one time government bailout to assist in shifting to other crops.

Perhaps New York will go after Ben & Jerry’s next.  What irony.

Speaking of NYC, Democrat politicians (there are virtually no Republicans), in the best tradition of the wild west they all profess to abhor, engage in wild shootouts at City Hall.

Ad Nausium:

As Liberalism and the Democrat Party continue with their political collapse, the Republican Party continues to move in from the right to mop up votes and support.  But it is like a check valve in a water line, it all moves in one direction, and can never come back.  Very discouraging.  It has gotten so bad that the President’s political pandering to “soccer moms” is actually working, which will preempt an early reduction in the size of government.   The typical modern husband, of course, will consciously do as he is told.  The question is whether Democrats are becoming Republicans or are Republicans becoming Democrats, which in the mushy middle does not address the issue of the ability of principled Conservatism to prevail.

As Democrats continue to crack up, their rhetoric has evolved to the point of embarrassment.  Conservatives should demand of themselves continuous reality checks so as to not fall victim, intellectually, to our own successes.  We need to keep “our feet on the ground.”

Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas is not the sort of fellow who needs help from anyone to defend himself, for he is entirely capable of doing so himself.  So it is that my comments here should not be misconstrued as an attempt to do so.  What is tripping my trigger is a column by Dewayne Wickham, popular black racist, about a speech by Justice Thomas^[2] in which he (brother Wickham) disapproves of an analysis by the good Justice of the words of the 19^th century abolitionist Frederick Douglas.  Apparently in his written dissent in the Grutter vs. Bollinger case (Michigan Law School reverse racism), Justice Thomas quoted Douglas, as follows: “Do nothing with us! You’re doing with us has already played the mischief with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall!...And if the Negro cannot stand on his own two legs, let him fall also. All I ask is give him a chance to stand on his own two legs! Let him alone!...(Y)our interference is doing him positive injury”.  At this point in his column brother Wickham, apparently nervous about the direction of this logic, insists that this all has to be “put in proper context” by additional words from the Douglas speech, again, as follows: “Let him alone. If you see him on his way to school, let him alone, don’t disturb him! If you see him going to the dinner table at a hotel, let him go. If you see him going to the ballot box, let him along, don’t disturb him! If you see him going to a workshop, just let him alone,-your interference is doing him positive injury.”  Brother Wickham then continues to ramble on about Jim Crow.  Brother Wickham, all the words you have reported from the Douglas speech, both sets of words, are absolutely self consistent, and absolutely supportive of the point Justice Thomas clearly was making in his dissent.  Brother Wickham, you and your fellow race baiters deliberately continue to be blind to the fact that all the issues that fire your imagination were legally ended by the civil rights legislation passed in 1964 and 1965, by Republicans, primarily over the objections of Democrats, however since convoluted by Liberal mischief into reverse racism.  The problem at the University of Michigan Law School, and most others too, is the implementation of the very kind of “help” of which Mr. Douglas was begging to be freed of.  You are so full of racial hate that you choose not to see this, and white Liberals are so full of Guilt that they snivel at your feet.  The real victims in this sorry state of affairs are many ordinary black Americans who are just trying to get ahead on their own merits which they will always find twice as hard to demonstrate in a climate of artificial “assistance”.  Justice Thomas, and Condoleezza Rice, carry on.  Yes, this old white man has a right to say these words, which are the truth.  So it goes.

In trying to follow the diplomatic twists and turns of the War on Terrorism, it is timely to be reminded of the wise counsel of Lord Palmerston, mid 19^th century, before the House of Commons, when he observed that “We have no eternal allies and we have no perpetual enemies.  Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.” ^[3]   A better statement of British National Conservatism is not possible, but it has universal application.  Tony Blair, before you finally walk Britain off the plank into the shark infested waters of “European Union”, wake up.  Go read the old American Articles of Confederation.  I would recommend you not go even that far.

In driving through Arkansas the other day tuned to an early morning farm show^[4], it was reported that the Vietnamese government in Hanoi has seen fit to extend a tax break to the nation’s rice farmers to help them through some current difficulties.  Arkansas farmers, being serious rice growers, are sensitive to the international market.  But isn’t it truly amazing that what Democrats profess to not understand about taxes, is apparently well understood by Vietnamese Communists: high taxes can interfere with promoting a stronger economy, an absolutely stunning idea.   Mayor Michael Bloomberg, call your soul-mates in Hanoi immediately for advice and counsel!  For Grayout Dufus in California, it is probably too late.

Contemplation of what transpires in the mind of Hollywood Proletarian Michael Moore is challenging.  Among other things, left-wingers are supposed to be underfed.

Over the years it has been my frequent experience to witness the destruction of enterprises, large and small, by the second or third generation of a founder’s family  So it appears that might be the case with Arthur Sulzberger Jr., spoiled little brat, as The New York Times, paper of left-wing Liberal record, glides toward complete irrelevance.

Somehow, the ancient battle of fluoridation of public water supplies has reappeared in the press, now a contemporary concern of left-wing environmentalists.  As a technical matter, I have always sided with the argument that, for the health of our children’s teeth, treatment of public supplies seems to be the right thing to do, as it has been the right thing to chlorinate water for years as a general health precaution.  Lost in the dialogue, however, is another issue that needs to be addressed, and that is the matter of individual free choice.   To begin with, this is clearly not the business of the Federal government, but a matter of local option.  This still leaves open the issue of individual choice, and at the local level, there is room for a reasonable discussion.  My personal circumstances are that I have my own well, and I will decide for myself what treatment is called for, if any.  Others do have a choice, off store shelves.

Liberals don’t defend a standard, in leveling a charge of hypocrisy against Conservatives, they are defending the lack of standards.  The charge of hypocrisy by Liberals against Conservatives is an attempt to inoculate against Conservative “judgmentalism”.  Civilization, by definition, is a community of standards, and standards presuppose an ability to exercise judgment of performance against those standards.  The absence of standards is the absence of civilization, and the absence of judgment is the abdication of civilized behavior.  Every single one of us has, on occasion, violated the standards, deliberately or otherwise.  It is our individual burden to correct the matter, and it is our community burden to help others in this regard.  To use the charge of hypocrisy to disable the process of personal growth is a disingenuous ploy to excuse continued self cannibalization of civility, which is the fundamental premise of moral and intellectual relativism.  And so it is that Liberals have taken themselves out of the discussion.  Full disclosure requires me to say that I am both judgmental, and a hypocrite, just like you.

In a Liberal world where our President is seen as a greater threat to liberty than Saddam Hussein, perhaps the days of campus equivocation about America have peaked out.  Perhaps conservative views can reassert control and begin the process of flushing out the subversion that has poisoned a couple of generations of academic product.

I have been reminded that the New York Times still has good crossword puzzles.

At the risk of oversimplification, nothing better illustrates the different orientation of Conservatives vs. Libertarians than the matter of how to approach the problem of controlling unwanted e-mail.  The Libertarian priority of unrestrained “free markets” and total absence of government regulation dictates that the deflection of unwanted e-mail is a matter for those receiving it to manage.  Conservatives, of course, support free market principles, but exclusive of invasion and unsolicited cost to others, preferably accomplished by good manners.  Of course that is not going to happen, and so a new appreciation of the 37 cent stamp arises.  For e-mail, some Conservatives would prefer a technical/legal imposition of a cost imposed on the sender sufficiently high so as to set a bar requiring consideration of the economic worthiness of the transaction, at first class rates, before it occurs.  For Conservatives, the burden more properly belongs on the sender, as with “snail mail”.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is not actually a Republican, much less a Conservative, something you people in California need to think hard about before you all go ga-ga over who should be you’re next Governor.

Prediction:

The Iraqi WMD threats will be documented in support of our preemptive action against Saddam Hussein, and left-wing Americans will be exposed for their subversive activities, but it will not matter as they will not change.

CURRENT READING RECOMMENDATIONS

1.)  A LOOK OVER MY SHOULDER: A LIFE IN THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

            RICHARD HELMS                                                        

            RANDOM HOUSE                                  512 PGS                       $35.00

2.)  THE VENONA SECRETS: EXPOSING SOVIET ESPIONAGE AND AMERICA'S TRAITORS              

HERBERT ROMERSTEIN & ERIC BREINDEL

            REGNERY PUBLISHING                        400 PGS                       $29.95

3.)  RACE EXPERTS: HOW RACIAL ETIQUETTE, SENSITIVITY TRAINING AND NEW AGE THERAPY HIJACKED

THE CIVIL RIGHTS REVOLUTION                           

            ELISABETH LASCH-QUINN

            NORTON                                              267 PGS                       $29.95

                                                                God Bless America

                                               JIM

                                                               JIM SOHMER                      

                                                               AMERICAN NATIONALIST CONSERVATIVE

                                                               JEFFERSON, CO 80456

^[1] Wash. Times Weekly June 9-15 pg 24

² USA Today 07/01/03

³ American Spectator, June/July 2003

⁴KARN 102.5 FM (07/08/03)

                                                                       IN GOD WE TRUST