THE MOUNTAIN OBSERVER ON-LINE      

                             ISSUES, PEOPLE, OBJECTS & POLICIES- CLOSE UP                           
 

                      Vol. 06                                           Issue 04                                               Start JUNE 01, 2006

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.

Updated occasionally on this website when I decide to do it.                               

 J. E. Sohmer   Jefferson, CO  Flyover country, where the air is thin, the heavens bright, and the hunting and fishing are good.   

Serious Considerations: 

07/31/06  It is with a mixture of rage and sadness that I read about the mis-adventures of Mel Gibson, most particularly the anti-Semitic remarks made in a drunken rage.  He has done damage to himself from which he can never recover in this life.  It is a matter that can be reconciled only between himself and his Maker.  In this world, he has taken himself out of the discussion.   No explanations or excuses will suffice.  We wish him well with the Lord.   JES

07/29/06  The fact of the matter is that things are not going well in Iraq.  For months, all kinds of criticisms have been hurled at the Bush Administration, and while errors have been made, most of the complaint falls wide of the mark.  The underlying premise of most of the complaint is that our intervention in Iraq was an option ill chosen.  It was an option only in the sense that the alternative was to do nothing about the existence of the Saddam Hussein regime.  In the opinion of the Mountain Observer, that was not an option, and the President was correct to act.  Today our real problem, inclusive of Iraq, is the larger issue of Arab culture in the extended Islamic sense.  It was recently called to my attention that there is no direct translation in Arabic for the word, or concept of, "curiosity".   Think about that, and the implications.  Absent curiosity, one must be so self focused as to exclude consideration of others, and others ideas.  Invested heavily in an Islamic perspective, there is no room for openness or tolerance.   We are confronted by a culture never touched by the Enlightenment that so opened up the cultures of the West.  The Marines can't fix that.

The Mountain Observer has, at times, expressed our concern that our efforts in the Middle East have occasionally strayed from the priority of staying focused on matters of our own national security and tempted toward broader irrelevances.    I have been patient with the President's argument for regional "democracy" as a utility to serve our interests, and in theory he is correct decades in the future.  The learning curve for all of us has been to understand the practical limits of deploying this idea today in the face of the existentialist threats of terrorism, including WMD, against us.  Wading into the Iraqi thicket has been productive in forcing the IslamicFascist disease into the open.  Better there than here.  The destruction of Saddam destroyed the only credible center of Sunni military power, allowing attention to be focused on the more dangerous matter of Persian based Shia pretensions out of control.   Which is the point of the current distraction in Iraq.  We cannot "cut and run", but neither can we long afford the burden.  The Mountain Observer has no easy answers to this problem, other than perseverance and patience.   Pulling the plug on Iranian nukes would be helpful.  There is a Sunni (Wahhabi) v. Shia death struggle to be exploited so as to distract.   Disarming Iranian nukes is a task that must be done sooner of latter anyway.  There are those who argue that there is a current opportunity to do so.  I would certainly agree with that.  To delay and wait could be fatal.   JES.

07/28/06  The President and Tony Blair push for an international peacekeeping force in Lebanon, and an early end to the violence.  However, if you read carefully between the lines and consider their qualifications, do not expect anything in this department to happen so soon.  While undoubtedly sincere on a theoretical level, what has been set up, at least by the President, is a straw man, and a challenge, to the United Nations, the Lebanese, and everyone else with a stake in the issue to either put up or shut up.  The Israelis have not been put under any deadlines in so far as I can tell.  The first priority is their own assessment of their own national security, which is as it should be.  True peace can only come when IslamicFascists are defeated, not coddled.  War is hell, but sometimes it is the only road to peace.  JES

Current Reading Recommendation:                        

DECADE OF NIGHTMARES: THE END OF THE SIXTIES AND THE MAKING OF THE EIGHTIES

PHILIP JENKINS                                                                                                                                

OXFORD UNIV PRESS                                                        52 PGS                                                    $28.00

AMERICAN GOSPEL: GOD, THE FOUNDING FATHERS, AND THE MAKING OF A NATION

JON MEACHAM                                                                                                                                       

RANDOM HOUSE                                                                 416 PGS                                                  $23.95

THE CHURCH AND THE MARKET: A CATHOLIC DEFENSE OF THE FREE ECONOMY

 THOMAS E. WOODS JR.                                                                                                                        

 LEXINGTON                                                                         280 PGS                                                  $19.95

Serious Considerations: 

07/22/06  Conservatism v. Liberalism.  God v. Self.  American liberty, won and defended at the cost of so much  American blood and treasure, not informed by an acceptance of the Western foundation of Judeo-Christian thought and belief, is but an empty can to be kicked down the street.  Failure to understand and respect this reality in the face of an IslamicFascist challenge will be fatal.  Our understanding of the Crusades must be put in a more truthful perspective.  Seemingly abandoned by EuroArabia, America and Israel are on their own.   JES

07/19/06  People who are jumping on Israel as "over reacting"  are either uninformed or just plain nuts.  Israel hasn't come close yet to deploying the force it could, and perhaps should.  Cease fires are no different than pushing a "pause" button on your VCR player, affording an opportunity for the animals to rest and re-arm.  Nothing is acceptable short of the destruction of Hezbollah.  Do not even talk to the Mountain Observer about the United Nations, international club of crooks and thugs.  And yes, Pat Buchanan, you are displaying your historic prejudice against Israel again, with unclear purpose.  Perhaps you should re-register as a Democrat and go sit at the table of John Murtha.

Folks, during the 1930's, there were those who said of the Nazis that "first they went after the Jews, but it did not affect me.  Then they went after the Catholics, but if did not affect me.  Then they went after the Protestants, and the Liberals  and people of color, but it did not affect me.  Finally they came after me, and it was too late."  America, you really need to wake up.  JES

07/19/06  The President does the right thing and vetoes the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, just passed by Congress, concerning federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.  Anybody who has followed this discussion over a stretch of time knows that this has not so much to do with science but rather with the funding of scientists and the pursuit of the principle that life does not start at conception.   There are far more scientifically promising avenues open for stem cell research which can only lead to the conclusion that those who insist on focusing on an embryo, however it is engineered, really have a more distant political agenda.  If you want to pursue the medical promises of stem cells, the science shows you need not invade human embryos, artificial or otherwise.  If you insist on doing this, then you are up to something else altogether.   Those in Congress who supported this bill either are smart enough to understand this, and are either cowards or cheap panderers, or are so stupid that they are unworthy of their office.   In contrast, the President, you know that stupid cowboy from Texas, stood up and said "NO".  God bless cowboys.  JES 

07/17/06    George Guilder in National Review: "----at its root, Darwinian theory is tautological.  What survives is fit; what is fit survives.  While such tautologies ensure the consistency of arguments based on them, they could contribute little to an analysis of what patterns of behavior and what ideals and aspirations were conducive to a good and productive society." 

07/17/06  I am impressed so far with the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the current battle with Hezbollah and Hamas.   Under his leadership, Israel is finally coming to grips with reality, forcing open the splits, always there, between Shia and Wahhabi, Arab and Persian and calling the bluff of IslamicFascists and gutless Western Francophiles, including most American Democrats.  Ehud Olmert, just keep sending your pilots in hard and low: pound, pound, pound.  Just chase Hezbollah back into Syria, and I would hope, follow the road to Damascus.  Do not be afraid of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, lurking in the background.  Hopefully he will be lured into a truly foolish act providing the pretext we need to "make our day".  Meanwhile, we pray for the protection of the Israeli people, and the souls of those who have paid the highest price.   America, real Americans that is, stand behind you.  JES

07/13/06  Finally, finally, Israel is responding to its tormentors as it should.  My only concern is that Israel will back off.  I hope that the real target is not Beirut, but Damascus: we are long past due to straighten out a mis-understanding about American and Israeli willingness to confront the thugs, and that has only made matters worse.  Let the return of 3 Israeli soldiers, welcome as it would be, only serve as a proxy for what really needs to be done.  Terrorist Arab regimes need to be destroyed, and there is only one way to do it.  Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, don't back off; run them into the desert and blacken their cities  There are occasions when war is the surest way to peace.  Cut and run American Democrats, go to France, and may the door slap you on the ass on your way out.     JES

07/13/06  Regarding the elections this Fall.   Republicans certainly have problems with their conservative base rebelling against a wimpy GOP.  However, consider the plight of Democrats.   Far leftist race baiting Cynthia McKinney D-GA is wildly popular in her home district, while moderate Joe Lieberman D-CT is being shunned by the party.   This all adds up to the worse national political polarization that I have seen in my lifetime.   Not a surprise, really, as the long festering pimple of moral and intellectual relativism, riding the horse of Marxism in a different form, is now in a death struggle with the Right.  At issue is whether American voters will recognize the need to keep management of the struggle against IslamicFascism in the hands of adults.   JES

07/10/06  George W. Bush and "cowboy diplomacy" according to Time magazine.  I have my differences with George W. Bush, mainly over the issues of immigration management, spending and the size of government.  However, once again I have to come to his defense on the issue of confronting IslamicFascism and pre-emption.  He has been exactly correct.  We do not wait for others, because it is not in our national interest to let others take charge of determining our foreign policy, especially when many wish us ill.  We cannot afford to sit back and wait to be hit first in an age when such strikes could easily make 09/11 seem as child's play.  We need to confront these realities over there, not here.  Policies of reaction, and "cut and run" only feed the snake and make things worse.  The facts of life in the real world compel our leadership in an increasingly dangerous world as a matter of our own defense.   The fact of the matter is that our efforts in Iraq have been very successful in drawing out the infection, better there than here.   The fact of the matter is that in Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad we have this generation's Hitler, ever so more dangerous with weapons of mass destruction and an American MS Press, such as Time Magazine, totally out of line, with subversive results.  Our times are a replay of the 1930's, and some of us remember, and have learned a lesson or two.  This time around we will not face Stuka bombers and fast Tiger tanks, but some very hot stuff delivered right to our shores, perhaps even to the offices of Time Magazine.  Imagine that.   It would appear that Europe, sadly, is being sucked into the IslamicFascist vortex, lead by the French and Germans.  So it goes.  Russia is sponsoring Iranian mischief, as China sponsors North Korean mischief, except that this is much more than mischief.  The fact of the matter is that WWIV has started, and some folks just don't get it, so drunk with hatred for George W. Bush.   Oh, and I have one more complaint about George W. Bush: he is a nice guy, too nice to American Liberals.   Come on, George; what we need is a really mean son-of-a-bitch.  God bless you.  JES

07/09/06  Illegal immigration.  Let's keep up the pressure on the North Carolina legislature to fix their problem with issuing drivers licenses willy-nilly.   Go to www.alipac.us/index.php  , and keep going.  JES

07/04/06  North Korea launches its Taepodong-2  missile, which fails after 36 miles, as we launch a space shuttle, praying it holds together.  There will be those who will say that the failure of the Taepodong-2  missile proves any concern is not warranted, and those who will say upon the safe return of the shuttle that NASA's got everything under control.  The Marines have a term for these kinds of situations: SNAFU.  You, of course, can fill in the blanks.  JES

07/04/06  Independence Day.  As usual, we Americans start this day faced with great challenges to our very existence, and yet, here we are.  Our most challenging Independence Day was the original, July 4, 1776, and we have certainly been through a string of tough days since.  The current concern of astute American observers has to do with the nature of our current challenge, which, in fact, are the twin challenges of Islam turned fascist, and the West turned against itself, of which this observer considers the latter to be the primary problem.  The American people have never looked kindly on instructing others, or interfering in other's affairs.  It is not in our nature.  We have built our own nation, often suffering self inflicted wounds in the process, but it has been the case from time to time that it was necessary to engage those beyond our borders who wished us ill.  We have rarely done this out of preference, but out of self defense.  Our problem today, I dare say, is that most Americans have yet to come to grips with the true nature of the IslamicFascist challenge to our very existence.  A major part of this problem is, among many, a loss of self confidence in the legitimacy of America itself as a function of guilt about our own worldly successes and a shunning of our theological foundation.   Many Americans have abandoned themselves to the quicksand of moral and intellectual relativism that left uncorrected can only lead to disaster. 

I would suggest that those of you wallowing in guilt and self deprecation about yourself and America, get over it.  This is the greatest nation on earth.  While we may prefer it to be otherwise, we are confronted with the need to provide leadership in a world war against an IslamicFascist challenge not only against ourselves, but everyone, worldwide, unwilling to bend before the instructions of the Mullahs.  We are confronted with a decades long struggle, and to prevail, it will first be necessary to believe in ourselves, and our historic values.  So, my fellow Americans, have yourselves a good day, and pray for the success and well being of thousands of Americans deployed around the world confronting those who wish us ill.  To those so serving, I love you.   JES

07/03/06  Israel this time is correct: No Negotiations.  Turn our soldier loose and healthy.   The Mountain Observer has thought from the beginning that this Gaza experiment was a fantasy.   Let them rot in hell.  JES

07/03/06  Mexico.  The United States has ducked a bullet with the apparent election victory of presidential candidate Felipe Calderon, subject to possible re-count.   Election of his far left rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, mayor of Mexico City would likely have lead Mexico into the Venezuelan orbit.  Incompetence and corruption any day are preferable to Cuban Communism on our border.  However, Calderon is a political unknown, so, perhaps, there is opportunity for improvements.  We will wait and see, although non of this changes our need to secure our border and purge the illegal immigration.  JES

06/28/06    It is past due time to unload a train load of lumber squarely onto New York Times chairman “Pinch” Arthur Sulzberger Jr's pea sized brain.   It seems that the job always falls to Vice President Dick Cheney to load the logs.  We have witnessed, too often, the New York Times going way beyond what is defensible under the first Amendment, and venturing rather deep into the area of facilitating treasonable leakage by a Liberal "shadow government" (Well put, Rush) within the D.C. bureaucracy.  The Mountain Observer has been making this point for years.  What is stunning, even allowing for the ancient bias of The Times, is the brazen disregard for the security interests of the nation, and the lives of so many on the front lines of the fight against international terrorism.  Public revelation of details concerning a covert program designed to follow financial trails in the international banking/financial system is totally inconsistent with our current national security needs.  As an American citizen, I have no need to know those details; the government does.  As an American citizen, I expect the government to be doing it's job in pursuing those who are a threat to this nation, and I recognize and respect the need for aggressive government covert activity to this end.  We have several problems here, beginning with the leaks themselves by rogue government sources, surely both illegal and treasonable.  Then we have, at a minimum, a lack of discretion on the part of The Times, following legitimate pleas by government officials for restraint in publication.  The Times cannot plead ignorance as to the sensitivity of the matter.   What we have here is a deliberate act of political sabotage at the clear expense of national security interests.  A prosecutorial investigation is compelled which must pursue the question of reporter sources, not good for the First Amendment, but necessary for national security.  An Executive bureaucracy deliberately working at fundamental cross purposes to the direction of the President presents us with a Constitutional challenge that cannot be lightly dismissed.  Freedom of speech has limits, and so should traitorous behavior.  JES

06/23/06  I confess to losing patience with all this "negotiating" going on over the issue of nukes in Iran and long range missiles in North Korea.  We don't seem to understand that these people are using us and buying time; they regard us as weak and defeatable, and at the current rate they may be right.  The only effective way to rearrange the discussion is to drop a 2000lb bomb directly on that North Korean launch site tonight; it would send everyone that matters a message and re-invigorate a more useful discussion.  South Korea, and Senator Richard Lugar, R-IN, will get over it.  The Iranian nuke sites should be close behind.   Let's all grow up and get on with what everyone knows has to be done.  JES

06/24/06  ANN COULTER for President

06/23/06  The Mountain Observer has consistently pointed out over a long period that the issue of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq was never over whether they existed, but rather, where are they.  It has also always been our consistent position that the status of that existence was irrelevant to the decision to oust Saddam, as opposed to the future threat.  Apparently shy, for diplomatic reasons, about distracting from perceived useful working relationships with the French, Russians and Chinese, the Bush Administration has been reluctant to tell all that it really knew about WMD in Iraq.  Part of our beneath the table information for close to 3 years has been that in early 2003, the Russians were instrumental in assisting Iraqi evacuation of materials into Syria.  While some evidence supporting this theory has existed for some time, additional hard documentation is necessary.  All along, this and other WMD evidence, including linkage to al Qaeda operations, has existed under the table.  Warehouses full of files in Baghdad, Bahrain and Dubai have cooked in the sun awaiting the qualified hands and feet to disseminate, translate and piece together the great puzzle.  Congressional pressure, thank you Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-MI, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, to begin release of these materials to the public has resulted in some movement in this direction, and is yielding some results; still only the tip of the iceberg.  Now watch Lefties deny that Sarin gas is a WMD.  However, we have only gotten started.  The Mountain Observer has a list of what to expect, and it will be amusing to watch Democrats, and their allies in the MS Press twist in the wind as this process unfolds.  George W. Bush did not lie, and the Left will go down hard on this issue.             Go to IRAQ-WMD        JES

06/23/06  I've always loved Italian women; crazy, nuts, pan throwers and great for a good time.  Years ago I dated one for awhile, ending with a thrown pan, and a great good time.  So I guess it is through this prism that I regard Italy, which is to say in a serious fashion, not much.  Accordingly, we lament the recent ouster from office of Silvio Berlusconi, also crazy, nuts, and apparently great for a good time in addition to being the best leader Italy has had since?  Coming in his place as Prime Minister we are greeted by Romano Prodi, an apparent intellectual clone of Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of the Socialist Workers Party, making Ted Kennedy look like a mean spirited Republican.  Italy, like Spain, like France and like Germany is going straight to hell in a hand basket.  Hard to believe, but the stench of real Communism still hangs in the air.  Sad, such a rich and important history for the West, and even today, some great intellectual contributors.  However, it is small wonder that Oriana Fallaci, an Italian woman to be taken seriously, author and conservative defender of freedom of the press, is living in New York.  Italy is in a lot of trouble.  JES

06/23/06  CBS News finally shows Dan Rather the door.  I have mellowed with age, however if there is one corner of my soul that still flies into a rage with little provocation, it is on the matter of Liberal Arrogance, and specifically its manifestation in the 1960's media and academia.  It is not on matters of differing viewpoints.  It goes way beyond, to the point of treason.  So Lord forgive me, but Dan Rather can go rot in hell, and so can CBS.  About Liberals, the old tailgunner had it right from the beginning.  JES

Current Reading Recommendation:                        

LE LIVRE NOIR DE SADDAM HUSSEIN  (THE BLACK BOOK OF SADDAM HUSSEIN)

CHRIS KUTSCHERA, ED                                                                                                                     

 OH! EDITIONS                                                                        701 PGS                                                29.90 EUROS

MAN IN THE SHADOWS: INSIDE THE MIDDLE EAST CRISIS WITH A MAN WHO LED THE MOSSAD

 EFRAIM HALEVY                                                                                                                                

ST. MARTIN'S PRESS                                                            292 PGS                                                $24.95

Serious Considerations:

06/21/06  Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-IL, wisely calls for "more hearings" on immigration reform legislation, putting the brakes on a traveling train wreck.  Effectively, an election cycle will be inserted into "the process" of reform.   We would have preferred passage of the House version, but the dangers lurked in the inevitable compromises with the Senate, a non-starter.  Amnesty is amnesty however you slice the cake.  Current law, submarined for decades by special interests, is entirely adequate, were it to be enforced until proper reforms can be worked out.  We do not need new law that is designed to be subverted as it is sold as a solution.  What we need is enforcement, and existing law will be just fine until we can beef up the border and cause a political attitude adjustment on the issue of illegals.  Forget the crap about Ellis Island; that's irrelevant and an insult to honest immigrants.   The order of the day is national security, conservation of the culture, respect for the law, and a single legal American economic system.  Go pick your own strawberries.  JES

06/21/06  Speaking of matters Iranian, go to www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/Ahmadinejad%20letter.pdf .  You may not be impressed, but millions of Muslims are.   JES

06/17/06  The President has had a good week on Iraq, and he deserves it.  Aside from the timely passing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a treasure trove of intelligence data was captured, enabling our team effort with the new Iraqi government to really run down trouble makers.  All indicators point toward a further collapse of al-Qaeda in Iraq. 

Our next problem in the "War on Terror", aka WW IV, is Iran.  The issue here is not whether to take out Iran's developing nuclear weapons program, but when, a largely political matter on several levels.  The military effort called for here would involve massive highly targeted air strikes, and aside from some very limited Special Ops assignments, no boots on the ground.  Post Nuke, Iranians can work through their own political problems, which are considerable, although we should be standing by to assist pro-democracy elements in their political battle from a distance.  The critical political challenge will be continuing good relations and cooperation with Iraqi Shia, now the dominate force in Iraq.  At play are the loyalties of Arab v. Persian, or common Shia v. new Iraqi national freedom.  We also need to be prepared to counter, from Iraq, any possible ground assaults from Iran against Iraq, but again, I would imagine this to be a largely tactical air problem.

Now it so happens that as this is written, reports are coming in that North Korea is possibly immanent with a long range missile test.   It occurs to the Mountain Observer that a highly targeted air strike on the launch pad would accrue a number of productive results politically, diplomatically and militarily, about the world.  It is sad that, perhaps, none of this discussion might have been necessary had The West been more alert and responsive to these threats years ago.  Left unattended, cancer spreads, ultimately requiring radical surgery.   JES

06/17/06   Senator John Franchurian Candidate 2008 Kerry, D-MA, the French looking guy who served in Vietnam, puts forth a resolution to set a hard deadline for withdrawal of our forces from Iraq.  Even Left Wing icons Hillary Rodham  and USA Today can see the error of the idea as strategy against an enemy they are reluctant to admit even exists.  However, in a stunningly rare moment of lucidity, the Senate defeats the Kerry proposal 93-6.  Republicans in the House, go one step further, luring Democrats into a need to vote, and go on record, on a non-binding resolution, up or down, on the "War on Terror", including Iraq, walking away with a 256-153 result in support, including 42 Democrats faced with tough election races this Fall.  What Democrats on the Upper West Side, and New York Times chairman “Pinch” Arthur Sulzberger Jr. fail to understand is that in most of the country politicians need to face real voters.  JES

06/17/06  Congratulations are in order for Philadelphia restaurateur Joe Vento, who insists that his customers order in English.  A real American.  JES

Wall Street & Main St: 

06/14/06  Worldwide equities markets take a dive.  No surprise to the Mountain Observer (see mo 06 03 05/15/06).  The Federal Reserve has chosen to chop off the legs of "irrational exuberance".  The markets should be making that call; not The Fed.    Or am I giving The Fed too much credit (bad pun).  JES

Serious Considerations:

06/13/06 The President slips out the back door from Camp David and fly's to Baghdad to the surprise of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and to cheer the troops.  The Left will call it grandstanding.  I call it an excellent leadership move, among other things making it clear that Iraq belongs again to Iraq, with the responsibility that goes with it.  With the termination of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the finalization of appointments for the Iraqi government, the liberation of Karl Rove and rising poll numbers, the President is having a good week.  So sorry about the border.  JES

06/13/06   Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald finally cries "uncle" and gives up on his pursuit of Karl Rove.  Now after 2 years of political persecution, perhaps the President's chief political advisor can get back to his job undistracted, and Fitzgerald can take a good hard look at Valerie Plame, her sorry husband and New York Times chairman “Pinch” Arthur Sulzberger Jr.  JES

06/11/06  ANN COULTER for President

06/11/06  The Mountain Observer has long pondered over the problem of why certain seemingly bedrock constituencies of the American Democrat Party are as they are when logic from a distance would suggest different affiliations.  While the sensibilities of Black Americans has been widely discussed, the political habits of Jewish Americans has received less attention.  I have had a theory for a long time that part of the problem has been that, for whatever reason, many Jewish Americans are prone to react to conservatism through an European prism of experience.  Jews in America have been slow to recognize that their place in America has always been less threatened than in Europe, and especially so since WWII.  What is particularly missing is a recognition that there has been a growing reconciliation on the political right, and a long dormant political hostility on the political left.  On these issues, America is not Europe.  As an American Nationalist Conservative, and a Christian, Jews, and Israel, are friends and Allies against the larger world's assault on historic western, and American, values and traditions.  I defer to George Washington, not hide behind a rock isolationists, which George Washington was not.

So it is that we come to the matter of EuroArabia, as IslamicFascists disguising themselves as "peaceful muslims" (a different discussion) , swarm the continent.  Under assault, the French once again reveal their historic Gallic tendencies, a combination of flight and assimilation with their attackers.   So it is reported that Jean-Marie Le Pen's ultra-right National Front, apparently so invested in anti-Americanism and historic European anti-Semitism that it has become blind unto itself, is actually welcoming the invaders.  Such a path is neither conservative, nor in the French national interest, but rather an irrational policy of national suicide.  The exploding anti-Semitism, and anti-Americanism, in all of Europe is no secret.  I confess my own naiveté concerning the true nature of the National Front.  Now it is time for American Jews to look hard in the mirror.  JES

06/11/06  Something happened at Haditha, Iraq, 11/20/05.  But was it as has been reported?  There are reasons to suspect that we may have been snookered again by a press on high levels of sugar.  Meanwhile, Marines are in the brig.  Developing.   JES

06/10/06  Ministerial appointments completing formation of the new Iraqi government include Sherwan al-Waili, Shiite, as Minister of State for National Security, Gen. Abdul-Qader Mohammed Jassim al-Mifarji, Sunni, Minister of Defense, and Jawad al-Bolani, Shiite, Interior Minister.  These were the key posts to be filled, but Iraqi democrats finally did it.  Now their challenge is to pull together and build a nation, the key to a new era for the entire Middle East.  JES

Current Reading Recommendation:   

WHITE GUILT: HOW BLACKS AND WHITES TOGETHER DESTROYED THE PROMISE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA

SHELBY STEELE                                                                                                                                 

 HARPERCOLLINS                                                                   192 PGS                                                $24.95

Serious Considerations:

06/08/06  Great day for democrats in Iraq: bad day for Democrats in America.  Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is gone, killed yesterday by a teaming up of Iraqi citizens and the American military.  Good job, however that's only half the good news.  New Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announces permanent ministerial appointments for the Defense and Interior posts.  Developing.    JES

Current Reading Recommendation:   

VOICES OF THE SILENT GENERATION: STRONG WOMEN TELL THEIR STORIES

BARBARA BAILLET MORAN  

AVISSON                                                                                 389 PGS                                             $29.95

Serious Considerations:

06/01/06  On the subject of the current illegal immigration debate, you are encouraged to visit a new web page on this website.  

Go to THE USCCB ON IMMIGRATION          

06/01/06  The world's Left, long exercised about American detention of terrorist prisoners at Guantanamo, continue to instruct us to shut it down and release these poor fellows to strike again.  At last count, 89 detainees are on a hunger strike and six are being force fed.  This force-feeding is an outrage, and is evidence that our own side is going soft.  Let them all go on a hunger strike and that will conclude the issue properly.  JES

06/01/06  It's now official: Helen Thomas is so much fun.  Conservatives love her entertaining style.  Her latest gastrointestinal attack seems to have originated over the appointment of Karl Zinmeister as a Bush advisor.  Tony Snow acquitted himself well.  JES  

                                                                   God Bless America

                                                                    Jim                         

                                                                    American Nationalist Conservative

                                                                    Jefferson, CO 80456