THE MOUNTAIN OBSERVER

   Vol. 4                                       Issue 2                                    02/02/04                     

A FREEWHEELING CONSERVATIVE COMMENTARY DEDICATED TO THE DEFENSE OF FREEDOM,THE NEXT GENERATION, AND THE WAY THINGS OUGHT TO BE.   TO UNDERSTAND THIS NEWSLETTER, IT IS NECESSARY THAT YOU ARE ABLE TO READ AND TO THINK.

Produced occasionally when I decide to do it, but at least 6 times a year.                                                                                           

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.operationac.com          IF U REALLY WANT TO SUPPORT THE TROOPS, CHECK THIS OUT

“Moderates” are Liberals in slow motion.            -Unknown.    

Brain activity shrivels in direct proportion to the lack of accepted challenge.  The anecdote is the infection of curiosity for its own sake.  Sadly, it seems that most people prefer to withdraw into intellectual cocoons.

THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST- MEL GIBSON

I have not gone to see a new Hollywood flick in many years, but I will see this, and put it in my library.   If Jesus Christ could take it, and forgive us in the process, then we should certainly be able to watch it, and perhaps take some time to think about it.

Blowing off steam:

I am absolutely beside myself on the Administration’s proposals for dealing with our border problems, and I am equally vexed by the Federal spending.  This is why I have been proposing for years that the Republic actually left the rails on February 3, 1913, with the adoption of the 16^th Amendment, authorizing the income tax.  From that day forward, politicians, lawyers, and those able to wheedle from the federal treasury, have been sucking  the blood out of the nation, individual freedom and wreaking the family as the fundamental social unit.  Ultimately, the nation will not continue to survive this anymore than it will continue to survive the attempt to demonize God.  A future generation of Americans will discover this, with consequences yet to be determined.

The Mountain Observer has been, and will continue to be, a strong supporter of this President with regard to his initiatives and actions concerning Afghanistan, and Iraq in the “War on Terror”.  His leadership on these issues, alone, requires our support and his re-election.  The whole issue of WMD and Intelligence has been grossly distorted, and mis-represented, in a political year, and will command my attention in the next letter.  David Kay’s successor, Charles Duelfer, continues over the ISG.  The initiatives of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani require a measured response.  However, the President, and his political advisors, should understand that domestically, his version of the GOP will not survive.  In 1988 it was “kinder and gentler”. In 2000 it was “compassionate conservatism”.  This sort of equivocation will not defeat Statism, of any strip, foreign or domestic.  It is them or us.  The current centrist politics in Washington D.C. is shameful.  “Moderates” are Liberals in slow motion.

Bush Score Card:

            Excellent:

            You put Judge Pickering on the 5^th Circuit Bench.  How about a few more?

Damned good thing that the energy bill, which morphed into runaway pork, got defeated, thanks to a handful of principled Republican Representatives and Senators.  Score 1 for the GOP.

Not So Good:

Perhaps, Sir, you are right.  Perhaps we should be about spending billions and trillions of dollars that do not exist, and will never exist, and let the electorate choose national bankruptcy.  Of necessity this would force sobriety on a future generation of taxpayers, and as national bankruptcy ensues, a great, and probably very bloody, rebellion might follow, sort of an Americanized French type of thing, you know.  Since 9/11 discretionary spending has increased about 30%, with nothing to do about fighting terrorism.

Your newest proposals have the additional merit of accelerating the further destruction of the Constitution by calling for additional Federal activity for which I can find no authority in anything those old dead European white guys discussed and wrote years ago.  What did they know, anyway?  Besides that, they were all evil, sexist, slave owning bigots, but worst of all, most of them were Christian.  The consequence of what you seem to be proposing, is that the role of the Federal Government should rightly be Family Father, Mother and Parish Priest, as inspired by FDR and Ted Kennedy.    To hell with the Constitution; nobody pays attention to it or gives a damn about it anymore anyway.   And by all means, let us ice the cake, so to speak, by opening up all the borders and simply declaring everyone on earth to be a US CITIZEN.  Why, “can’t we all just get along?”  Surely the millions who came through Ellis Island were all fools for bothering to learn English, obey the law, and to rely on themselves to build what we have.  (We bigots used to call this “the melting pot”).  Over the years, Liberals have shown the way; the Constitution only means what nine judges say it means day-to-day, and the Constitutional amendment process is only a nuisance.  Let’s just keep it up, and we’ll see what happens.  (It’s called “Balkanization”, aka “diversity”, and it’s well underway).

Your original purpose in Afghanistan and Iraq was the defeat of terrorists, state sponsored or otherwise, who posed a clear and present danger to the United States and our interests.  In this regard you were, and you remain, exactly correct.  Nation building for cementing achievements in this regard is reasonable, measured against a yardstick of objective reality.  However, nation building for its own sake, in our image, Wilsonianism, is unrealistic, and could be counter-productive.   The distinction is subtle and vulnerable to intellectual subversion.  I understand that mistakes will be made, but we need to be quick to adjust.  I also continue to be troubled by your public approach to the Palestinians which continues to suggest moral equivalency with Israel.   I am sure that there are some good Palestinians, but they are not running the show, nor do they appear capable of doing so.   Yasser Arafat, and probable successors, are in charge, and are dictating the discussion.

Terrible--or even worse:

-Your proposals regarding what to do about illegal immigration clearly establish your credentials as a Republicrat.  The issue is respect for the law.  Your proposals, at the very least, are defacto amnesty and a reward for criminal behavior.  What is proposed is clearly insulting to millions of immigrants who have endured the difficult process of legally entering the country, learning the language and becoming proud citizens.  Furthermore, the implications for national security are horrendous.  I have seen nothing in these proposals that secures the borders, as with a big high electrified steel fence from Brownsville to San Diego.  We need to get serious.  I would suggest that you discuss these matters with your friend Vicente Fox, whose own agenda, on several counts, appears to be pointed directly at defacto, if not actual, Mexican annexation of the Southwest.  Whatever your rationale, it would be helpful if you proposed to Congress an end to automatic citizenship for babies born in the United States of illegal immigrants and an end to all “automatic” so-called “rights” under the Constitution for those who are not citizens.  Where are the proposals to end un-funded mandates on the states?  Where is the determination to actually put employers of these illegals in jail?  The solution to their so-called problem is to actually pay market wages to legal citizens, and assume responsibility for doing so, including gardeners, nannies and lettuce pickers.  There is no shortage of American labor.  The notion that American citizens “won’t do this kind of work” is an urban myth that conveniently rationalizes a dodge around the costs of legal employment requirements, dumping the consequent social costs on the taxpayer and indirectly providing a form of welfare payment to employers themselves.   The current system merely subverts the free (legal) labor market by failing to pay free (legal) labor market prices.   If some special federal worker program appears to be necessary through proving the absence of domestic labor resources at free (legal) labor market prices, then it should be specifically targeted, time limited, with the employer beneficiaries specifically liable for the marginal consequent social costs.   But none of that will work without total control of the border.    Failure to be straight about this is duplicitous and Libertarian.  As a Conservative, I find backdoor welfare benefits allowed, effectively, in behalf of  employers as obnoxious, if not more so, than the “old fashioned” kind of welfare paid directly to able-bodied no-income folk.   As for the price of lettuce, it may go up, but a free (and legal) economy is remarkably inventive at responding to new challenges.  In years past I’ve picked apples and cherries myself, but I also witnessed the invention of mechanical fruit harvesting equipment.   Let’ get off this kick about how best to subvert a free (legal) labor market.   If the legal burdens on employers are too much, or unnecessary, and they are, then that should be the focus of our attention.   At the same time, reduction of some of these same employer burdens might relieve pressure to export jobs overseas.   You may not realize it, but you are taking Jeb out of the discussion, and antagonizing a constituency that got you into office in the first place. 

-If 400 billion for Medicare is a good thing, why not a Trillion, or two, which is what is likely to happen anyway?   In the good old days, politicians just handed out free beer on Election Day in exchange for votes.  That is how these things develop.  Medicine should be a matter between a patient and a doctor.  If a patient has arranged for private insurance, on his own terms, that is fine.  A truly free market would bring all the costs and Ted Kennedy crashing down.  Lawyers, government, insurance industry bureaucrats and corporate so-called Human Resources Departments (In my day it was called Personnel) would languish.  It would also help relieve Washington DC beltway traffic.  Sir, what you and Congress have done is throw gasoline on the fire.  Free beer would have been cheaper, and probably healthier.  Don’t give me this business about the built in experiments leading to privatization.  It will never happen.  Democrats will eventually prevail with Hillary’s socialist scheme because, in spite of your best efforts, they are more practiced at buying votes than Republicans.  Anyone who has actually paid any attention to the aggressive activities of the AARP for several years should understand the tactics of Left Wing moles.

-Your education initiatives have further inserted the Federal Government into what is properly a State and local issue.  There is no authority whatsoever in the United States Constitution for a Department of Education, and for good reason.  I fear where it is leading us, as in Statist direction of the culture.  Returning federal dollars to the states not only empowers federal control, but skims off a subsidy for federal bureaucrats who historically contribute nothing but irritation.  That money never should have found its way to Washington in the first place.  The Department of Education is only a “starter”.

-I applaud your intent with respect to bolstering the role of faith based institutions in the role of functioning as social safety nets.  In-so-far as you can get the government out of the way, that is good.   In-so-far as you propose to supply tax dollars as a direct subsidy, that is not good.  It is an invitation to corruption on several levels and will prove to have effects opposite that which is intended.  Indeed, you should be scrubbing the budget of tax funded social “volunteers” of every strip.  The notion of federal subsidy of religious initiatives, and the “arts”, is an oxymoron, and corruption, theological and otherwise, will ensue.

-Now, I understand, you are proposing to spend 1.5 billion dollars to fix the “marriage problem”.  Better you spend your time helping to get an Amendment passed (not talked about, but introduced and passed) to get marriage defined as a legal relationship between a man and a woman (human) only, as originally born.   There’s not a lot of time left.  The traditional purpose of marriage is to provide a proper climate for children, in which the state also has a proper vested interest, irrespective of religious investment.   I know many Conservatives view this matter as a state rather than a federal issue, and as a matter of specific implementation, it is.  The problem here has been the gradual perversion over the years by federal courts with respect to the intent and meaning of the First Amendment with regard to religion.  Let’s get a new Amendment on the table that correctly defines the institution of marriage consistent with the Founding intent of the family unit (father, mother and kids) as our basic social foundation and then leave the rest up to the states, churches and synagogues.   None of this requires federal subsidy.

-By signing “campaign reform”, you engaged in a direct attack on the First Amendment and its fundamental purpose of protecting political speech and debate.  Meanwhile, Hollywood carries on.  You could have stopped this, and you had a Constitutional responsibility to do so, and you screwed up.

-This business about going to the moon and to Mars is great, arguably even a national security imperative.   The problem is getting the horse in front of the cart, as in where is the money coming from? 

Perhaps before you re-inflate NASA too much, we should consider structuring incentives for private initiatives in this adventure lest we wander off track again as has happened with the Space Pig Trough (Station).  One would hope that fiscal discipline would be guided by more than Art Bell’s imagination.

-You haven’t vetoed anything coming out of Congress.  That is wrong.

-I could continue, but SPENDING NEEDS TO BE REVERSED, and so too the octopus of Federal Control.

-I have too much respect for Ronald Reagan just to sit by and watch it all get mucked up.  Today, you are right, Conservatives have nowhere else to go, except that many might just choose to stay home.

Wall Street & Main Street:                        

A small personal anecdote about the economic prospects for 2004.   At 04:30 AM, January 1, 2004, I am running north across Indiana with a load of industrial warehouse shelving framework.  The previous day I had picked up this load from a small manufacturing plant in eastern North Carolina (not affluent, and not Mexico) and was headed for Milwaukee, Wisconsin.    Somebody is putting capital investment money on the table (otherwise necessary to pay taxes?) to accommodate the need for new inventory reflecting customer demand, and a little manufacturing plant in NC is working overtime to meet the needs of a rustbelt city, and two days of work for me.   America is going back to work.

For tracking the equities market, I like the S & P (Standard & Poor’s) 500 Index as the most stable and reliable single measure for gauging the market’s health and performance.   It ended 2003 at 1140, up from 1112 at the end of 2002.  Snow Snakes aside, I would expect about a 4% gain this year.  I think profits are going to be harder to come by than is generally appreciated.  Federal Reserve policies and the tax cuts have provided a powerful stimulus to kick-start an economic rebuild, and I believe both of these items will continue to be effective, especially if Congress can find the political courage (yes I know that’s a stretch) to make current time-limited tax reductions permanent.  The good news is taking place on Main Street, where small and medium sized business is rebuilding, but exercising caution in doing so.  However, success is a function of profits, and I think there will be a greater disposition to re-invest profits directly back into the business rather than pay large dividends.  For now, any loans that are required are cheap to come by, and the need to pay dividends will be more likely to be regarded as a maintenance issue.  Hiring decisions will be tempered by regulatory burdens and the costs of providing health care benefits.  The actual cost of an employee is actually about double what that employee sees on his take home check, assuming the employee is legally in the country.  Over time, the result of careful re-investment will be a higher quality business climate, with higher quality opportunities for income oriented market investors in the long haul.  New hiring will be deliberate and considered, and take awhile.

If I am in error in predicting only a 4% growth of the S & P 500 in 2004, then I will most likely be on the down side.   There are some real concerns, however, some Snow Snakes that could upset the applecart, in descending order of likelihood:

1.)    Further terrorist attacks on this country or our off shore interests.

2.)    A sudden interruption in the international oil market.

3.)    Our international balance of payments problem.  Keep a close eye on the price of gold, the value of the dollar, and foreign decision making with respect to US Treasury investments.

4.)    A collapse of the very delicate politics of Pakistan and corresponding destabilization of Pakistani relations with India.

5.)    A Chinese attack on Taiwan.

6.)    A North Korean attack on anybody.

7.)    A Republican loss of the White House and/or the Senate, at the moment unlikely, but possible at the rate and direction this Administration is moving on trade, spending and the border.

All Conservatives want to see a strong US dollar, based on free markets, at home and abroad.   I am glad to see that Treasury Secretary John Snow agrees, and has had the guts to reverse years of meddling that attempted to “prop up” a dollar value that was artificial.  The consequence is that years of trade imbalances now are manifested in a dollar very cheap compared to major foreign currencies, but that is the medicine required to correct the imbalance problem.  The additional consequence is that American manufactured products are a cheap bargain for foreign buyers, an important part of the Administration’s recovery strategy.  Watch for more loaded containers headed toward the docks, rather than away from the docks.  It’s called jobs.

The Feds will reconsider the current low rates at such a time as they sense that low rates have become more to do with subsidizing dividends than actually promoting business growth.  The immediate problem remains that there is no inflation, which means that there is no pricing power, which is why good profits remain elusive and hiring a tough proposition.  A lot of focus will continue to be on containing costs.  As I pointed out months ago, the fastest way to improve productivity is to lay people off, or go slow with re-hires, but this process seems to have turned in a favorable direction, thanks to the tax cuts.  It will just take time.

With respect to the Enron matter, justice is beginning to emerge and the culprits will go to jail.  Corporate executives need to understand that as they presume to rule others there must be consequences for malfeasance.  Notice, Dems, that these prosecutions are being accomplished under Republicans.

Ad Nausium:

Too frequently lost in discussions about the American Constitution is the fact that the protections of citizens from the government identified by the Bill of Rights, individual rights, are inalienable, which is to say they come from God, not the Founders.   At the time, in fact, there was a spirited debate about the wisdom of adopting a Bill of Rights, lest the identified issues be misrepresented in the future as being originated by the Founders, rather than God, leaving these items vulnerable to tampering.   It has turned out these concerns were well founded, but what the Founders did not, and could not, anticipate, was the outright rejection of God.  In the context of modern Secularism, we must be thankful to those who insisted on a Bill of Rights as a condition of ratification.  Most were Southern, congenitally skeptical of large central government and the Enlightenment, and properly so.  It is the duty of Conservatives to point out that Inalienable Rights are not subject to Amendment, by Mankind, or the Courts, and attempts to do so are subversive.

The Reverend Al Sharpton, our recommended candidate for the Democrat Potty based on his superior honesty about what they are really all about, has again earned our regard.   He is the only one of the bunch, so far, to state the truth that OJ Billyboy remains their biggest problem.   OJ Billyboy, and the so-called moderates, or centrists, of the Party, are the most dishonest about who they really all are.  (e.g. Joe Lieberman revels in his claim to be an Orthodox Jew, while at the same time defending “a women’s right to choose”.   Sorry, but that doesn’t work.)  Conservatives recognize that the most dishonest Democrats are those that Howard Dean identifies as “the Republicans among us (Democrats)”.  The so-called moderate center of the general electorate is easily confused by all this double talk and falls back on the intellectually vacuous claim that they vote “for the best man”.  I would suggest that polarization brings clarity.  The Hillary/Billary team brings obfuscation, dishonesty and confusion, as do Northeastern Republicans.   The fundamental problem faced by Liberals in either party is that they cannot be honest about what they are really all about and still win elections in the Heartland.  It is a central purpose of the Mountain Observer to help clarify the discussion in a more popularly intelligible way.

Al Gore was the big loser in Iowa, but neither have Democrat “centrists” been rescued.  The whole Party is milling in circles, flopping about like a boatload of wet tuna.  Their only hope is that some unforeseen misfortune will befall the country and George Bush.  Howard Dean has already “gone mental”.  Next will be Lt. Col. (Collin Powell’s term) Wesley Clark who just keeps walking into doors.  That guy Kerry, from Taxachusetts will prove about as credible in the South and West as tank driver Michael Dukakis.  John Edwards, the little short guy from North Carolina, trial lawyer he, supposedly is good at speaking on the stump while standing on a stump trying hard to stump everyone with class envy warfare, which is the petri dish of lawsuits.

Howard Dean gets sillier every day.  Democrats are making donkeys look bad.  The case could be made that we have been talking about this too much, and that certain radio talk show hosts should just shut up and quit giving advice to Democrats until Boston this summer where they will all walk off the end of the dock anyway. 

We can thank OJ Billyboy for one thing.  He woke up the Heartland electorate.  Americans are instinctively conservative in the sense that they are congenitally suspicious of politicians of all stripes.  Politicians mean taxes, but also government goodies, a conflict.  More recently a popular connection has been made between politicians and activism, as in meddling with my personal affairs, my family affairs and the affairs of my community and my way of life.  The costs of dependency on government are being weighed and folks are conflicted.  The need to actively respond, and the knowledge of how to do so, does not come naturally given the day-to-day priorities of ordinary folks.  How this will all eventually work out remains to be seen, but meanwhile, Republicrat Elites should ponder the possibility of real rebellion in the heartland.  Most Americans are aware of Thomas Jefferson’s thoughts on this matter.   Imagine what might happen if Election Day was in May?.

Attention left wing “progressive” Democrats, aka commie/Libs: It is one thing to run against George W. Bush, it is another thing to run against God.  Real Americans know the difference, but this year will most likely vote for both.  You have a problem from which Hollywood, or the New York Times, may not be able to rescue you. 

Georgia today more nearly reflects Zell Miller than Jimmy Carter, and the dwarf from NC is not the answer.

Further concerning Liberals, only Liberals could devote so much attention and concern to the care, feeding and “legal rights” of an incarcerated Saddam Hussein.  It is interesting that these tend to be the same folks who will identify old American Communists as civil rights workers and not bat an eyelash at the deliberate murder of 1.3 million babies per year.

Meanwhile, it will be fascinating to watch Iraqis prescribe some Old Testament justice to Saddam Hussein.

Speaking of the mental disorder otherwise known as modern Liberalism, it would appear that the problem might not be an absence of brains, but rather that people don’t use the brains they’ve got.  (Republicans are vulnerable in their love affair with Libertarians).  Like un-used muscles growing flabby, the lack of pressure to force the use of the brain can cause it, too, to go soft.  Such lack of exercise can be further aggravated by a diet of government grants, something akin to putting a tugboat in reverse while confronting a strong headwind.   Such is the result of the material “success” of the American Experiment, and the tenure of teachers, professors and self important judges.  However, it is amazing how the threat of starvation and getting fired can concentrate the mind.  On the other hand, it is ordinary human nature for people to default mentally into the cocoon of their immediate daily surroundings, and to imagine conspiracies (someone else to blame) whenever the cocoon is threatened.   So it is that most people stumble through life.   I make all these trite observations in the hope that some bright graduate student will recognize the potential of further development of the general point.

One wonders at the ability of Liberals, and some others, to look reality in the face and deny it.  The older one gets the more difficult it is to emotionally and intellectually release from an invested perspective.   The Baby Boomer Generation has never matured into adulthood, and they have even been known to brag about that.  Some say that Liberals are obsessed with the acquisition of power.  With the exception of Hillary/Billary, I think this is backwards.  Secular humanism has been ascendant for well over a hundred years.  What Liberals are obsessed with is the loss of power, long since considered to be rightfully theirs.  At the bottom of all the Bush hating is the horror of domestic exile.   I owe my parents more than they, or I, ever realized.  It was a close call.

Our Italian partners in the Iraqi Coalition have earned their strips.  Sadly, friends like Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berusconi are rare in Statist Europe.  The Italian people, as remnants of the Roman Empire, and as powerful contributors to the development of the American nation, have always been of special interest to me.  Today we thank them as allies in the War on Terror.

While it may have been personally convenient for OJ Billyboy to bomb the aspirin factory in Libya, we must concede the possibility that he was acting on good intelligence.  Out of the scraps of evidence beginning to emerge from Iraq are items that suggest a common interest between Saddam and Osama in the Libyan plant.  Still too early to draw definitive conclusions.

It is necessary to be direct about something that is ripping the heart out of America.  That is the subversive function of the word “privacy”, which has become legal code for the ascendancy of Man over God.  Left unchallenged, and it may already be too late, the American Nation may be doomed.  This is at the bottom of my problem with the contemporary American legal system, and, incidentally, the distinction between Conservatives and Libertarians.   On this issue, Libertarians are mis-guided, but Liberals are complicit, as in Marxist.

The Russians appear to be rejecting the logic of the Kyoto Treaty, and the treaty’s basic premise that global warming, if, indeed, it is a fact, can actually be linked to human activity, with the additional premise that it is within our power to reverse the matter.   In rejecting this junk “science”, the Russians are making a rational choice between clearly unacceptable damage to their economic recovery effort, and the intellectual fog of “environmentalists” hell-bent on wreaking civilization.  It was this same Russian ability to think rationally that made the policy of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) result in the absence of nuclear exchange during the Cold War.  Good for them.  In an added note, they point out that, given their Siberian climate, if global warming is occurring, it can only work in their favor.  This also points out the fact that 10,000 years ago, at the height of the last Ice Age, Manhattan was under 1 mile of ice, and who is to say that won’t happen again, something, perhaps, for Liberals to ponder.

On another matter that is less clear in direction, it appears that Vladimir Putin has chosen to crack the whip on the “oligarchs” with the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Yukos Oil tycoon, on tax and fraud charges.  I sense that this matter is more complex than the reporting that is available to me is making it out to be.  As has been the case with Chechnya, all along, viewing these matters through a filtered western prism does not always reflect good analysis.  I think some time is necessary to actually sort this out.

At some point downstream Eastern European nations, recently freed from the Soviet yoke, are going to discover that embracing the European Union is somewhat like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.  They need not fear tanks, yet, but they will come to fear the bureaucrats and the subversion of their unique national identities.  Statism comes in an assortment of colors, generally the product of intellectual laziness, and is a bad habit not conducive to a good economic or cultural future.

On the matter of Saudis and their problems, perhaps American Arabist elites should consider the possibility that the Saudis created exactly what they intended.  Over the years they have been very successful in frightening the west into servile oil dependency.  To hell with Saudi Arabia.  Let them pound sand.  The markets will adjust and the oil will flow in any event.  Perhaps France, embracing its growing domestic Muslim electorate, will come to their rescue.  I really do not care, oil is fungible.

A historical footnote on the “evil” British empire:  While the British themselves were fighting for their very survival in the early days of WWII, their island colony of Malta in the Mediterranean was likewise preoccupied, and surrounded on all sides by very determined German and Italian Fascist forces.  Malta started the war with an air force consisting of 3 old bi-planes, named Faith, Hope and Charity, and with these planes they fought like hell.  Eventually Britain was able to deliver some Spitfires.  The tiny island suffered thousands of air raids, naval blockades and bombardments, but the Axis powers never dared risk an invasion, partly, I’m sure, because Rommel was preoccupied in North Africa by Montgomery, but also because the Maltese fought like hellions.   Malta became an independent republic in 1974.  It is a lesson for Conservatives, continuing to struggle with the ravages Marxism, Rousseau and the French State of Mind.  Surrender is not an option.

Those of you who are convinced that the solution to the problem of expensive pills is to buy Canadian, listen up.

Canadian pills are priced as they are due, in no small part, to heavy government subsidies.  If we all rush to Canada to buy pills, how long do you think it will be before Canadian taxpayers, and the government, say enough is enough, and Canadian nationalism is further aroused. 

Taki appears to be having fits similar to those of Howard Dean. You all need to calm down.

Political Targets:

Those who choose to subvert the freedom, independence and the sovereignty of the people of the USA.

Prediction:

What will the economy look like by the end of 2004 ?     S & P 500 up 4.0%.    See Wall Street & Main Street above.

Those who continue to question President George W. Bush’s personal honesty and integrity in his leadership of this country will lose out in November.  That is not to say that there is no room for honest policy differences.

It is to say that challengers need to think out carefully what they have to say before they say it, no evidence of that yet from Democrats. Do not expect it to happen.

Heartland rebellion update:

Uncritical deference to the mass press these days could easily lead one to conclude that Republicans and Conservatives simply do not exist in Iowa or New Hampshire or anywhere else.  Terminal silliness.

CURRENT READING RECOMMENDATIONS

1.) IN DENIAL: HISTORIANS, COMMUNISM & ESPIONAGE      (AND THE SUBVERSION OF THE UNIVERSITIES)

JOHN EARL HAYNES, HARVEY KLEHR

            ENCOUNTER BOOKS                                        316 PGS                                   $25.95 

2.) UNCLE SAM’S PLANTATION: HOW BIG GOVERNMENT ENSLAVES AMERICA’S POOR

AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT           

STAR PARKER (WHO’S LIVED IT ALL FROM THE ABSOLUTE BOTTOM UP, AND FOUGHT HER WAY OUT)

            WND BOOKS                                                    240 PGS                                   $22.99

3.)  ARROGANCE: RESCUING AMERICA FROM THE MEDIA ELITE                 

            BERNARD GOLDBERG

            WARNER BOOKS                                             310 PGS                                   $26.95

                                                                 God Bless America

                                                                 JIM

                                                                 JIM SOHMER           

                                                                 AMERICAN NATIONALIST CONSERVATIVE

                                                                 JEFFERSON, CO 80456

The fact of the matter is that this President and I agree on a lot of things, not the least of which is that, as an

American citizen, I, and millions of others, can be direct and candid with him about the facts as we see them.  That’s what makes this the greatest country on earth.  I know we both pray a measure of the same for Iraq.

If the content of this newsletter occasionally appears disconnected within itself, that is because it is, and partly the consequence of having great thoughts at 02:00 while one is trying to get sleep in between loads.  I need an editor.

This has been one of the most difficult letters to write that I have written yet.