Monday, October 31, 2005
Eugenics
AND OTHER EVILS
by G.K. Chesterton
..."I believe there is such a thing as witchcraft. Believing that there are spirits, I am bound in mere reason to suppose that there are probably evil spirits; believing that there are evil spirits, I am bound in mere reason to suppose that some men grow evil by dealing with them. All that is mere rationalism; the superstition (that is the unreasoning repugnance and terror) is in the person who admits there can be angels but denies there can be devils. The superstition is in the person who admits there can be devils but denies there can be diabolists. Yet I should certainly resist any effort to search for witches, for a perfectly simple reason, which is the key of the whole of this controversy. The reason is that it is one thing to believe in witches and quite another to believe in witch smellers. I have more respect for the Eugenists, who go about persecuting the fool of the family; because the witch-finders, according to their own conviction, ran a risk. Witches were not the feeble-minded, but the strong-minded --- the evil mesmerists, the rulers of the elements. Many a raid on a witch, right or wrong, seemed to the villagers who did it a righteous popular rising against a vast spiritual tyranny, a papacy of sin. Yet we know that the thing degenerated into a rabid and despicable persecution of the feeble or the old. It ended by being a war upon the weak. It ended by being what Eugenics begins by being."
A Big Halloween Day Shout-Out to Mikey S., Judge G. and the whole Pinellas Park Gang o' Goblins!
by G.K. Chesterton
..."I believe there is such a thing as witchcraft. Believing that there are spirits, I am bound in mere reason to suppose that there are probably evil spirits; believing that there are evil spirits, I am bound in mere reason to suppose that some men grow evil by dealing with them. All that is mere rationalism; the superstition (that is the unreasoning repugnance and terror) is in the person who admits there can be angels but denies there can be devils. The superstition is in the person who admits there can be devils but denies there can be diabolists. Yet I should certainly resist any effort to search for witches, for a perfectly simple reason, which is the key of the whole of this controversy. The reason is that it is one thing to believe in witches and quite another to believe in witch smellers. I have more respect for the Eugenists, who go about persecuting the fool of the family; because the witch-finders, according to their own conviction, ran a risk. Witches were not the feeble-minded, but the strong-minded --- the evil mesmerists, the rulers of the elements. Many a raid on a witch, right or wrong, seemed to the villagers who did it a righteous popular rising against a vast spiritual tyranny, a papacy of sin. Yet we know that the thing degenerated into a rabid and despicable persecution of the feeble or the old. It ended by being a war upon the weak. It ended by being what Eugenics begins by being."
A Big Halloween Day Shout-Out to Mikey S., Judge G. and the whole Pinellas Park Gang o' Goblins!
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Rights and Duties
RIGHTS AND DUTIES
Say it with me; "Rights...AND duties".
We've gone "rights"-crazy in the West.
In our "all rights, all the time" culture, we have granted lush welfare benefits to terrorists in England, made a personal history of terrorism a reason FOR granting someone a visa to enter Canada, and in America, we registered five of the 9-11 hijackers to vote. Just as bad money crowds out the good, our obsession with faux-civil rights is chasing out our ancient & actual rights.
For example, in the context of a representative democracy, there is no more profound right than the right to have honest elections. That is more important than Muhammed Atta's right to vote for John Kerry, or your housepet's right to vote for Howard Dean ten or twenty times:
"What's that, Fido? You think steel tariffs are great and agree with me that Dr. Dean should be president?"
"Arf!" "Arf, arf!"
"Good boy! Let's go down to the precinct house and exercise our rights. Here; have a little walkin' around biscuit!"
Remember Atta's attempt to secure a crop-duster from the Department of Agriculture? At first, he wouldn't even speak to the LowlyFemale(tm) in charge. He then threatened her physically, demanded cash, threatened to rob her, praised bin Laden and demanded aerial photographs of the White House to go along with his crop-duster.
He even came back later with a fellow hijacker, dressed in women's clothing and impersonating an attorney. A cross-dressing terrorist lawyer--talk about your three strikes.
But the years of coerced tolerance and mandatory sensitivity-training had done its work; all that the poor woman at the Dept. of Agriculture could think about was li'l Muhammy's "civil rights".
This war is about civil rights--REAL civil rights-- both here and abroad. There is no more basic civil right than being free to go to work in the morning and not being blown to shreds by evening at the hands of 7th-century Death-Cultists.
And Mid-Eastern countries, with precious few exceptions, are now getting their very first taste of democratic rights & freedoms. Despite the very best efforts of Cindy Sheehan, The National Council of Churches, Brent Scowcroft, The People's Organizing Committee for Whatever, Albert Armand Gore, Jr., The Times, The Post, The Daily Non-Worker, Pat Buchanan, Students and Democrats Against Growing Up, Arianna Huffety-Tuffet, the so-called 'human-rights' gang, Tupac Chopra, Michael Moore...and that one-man Cult-of-lack-of-a-Personality, John Kerry. Not to mention the Communists, the Ba'athists and al Qaeda.
But I'm a conservative; I know that there has never been a right that came unaccompanied by a corresponding duty. And we have been lax in our duties.
While we all love the soaring rhetoric of "rights"--indeed, judges and other such politicians are addicted to it--we need to think about duties, too. It is, in fact, a duty itself.
Duty calls:
"When great causes are on the move in the world...we learn that we are spirits, not animals, and that something is going on in space and time, and beyond space and time, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."--Winston Churchill
"The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these two concepts fall into disrepute, get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed."--Robert Heinlein
"One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty in finding someone to blame your troubles on. And when you do find someone, it's remarkable how often their picture turns up on your driver's license."--P.J. O'Rourke
"Where there are no rights, there are no duties."--Henri Benjamin Rebecque
"...the people who have more rights than duties have gained a notable and distinguished ethical position in our modern world. The selfish we had always with us. But the divine right to be selfish was never more ingeniously defended, in the name of the loftiest spiritual dignity, than it is sometimes defended and illustrated today."--Josiah Royce, Lowell Institute, Boston 1907
The fact is, there have been too many specious 'rights' in the West, too few real civil rights in the Muslim world--and too damned little duty everywhere.
Except at Ft. Benning.
Say it with me; "Rights...AND duties".
We've gone "rights"-crazy in the West.
In our "all rights, all the time" culture, we have granted lush welfare benefits to terrorists in England, made a personal history of terrorism a reason FOR granting someone a visa to enter Canada, and in America, we registered five of the 9-11 hijackers to vote. Just as bad money crowds out the good, our obsession with faux-civil rights is chasing out our ancient & actual rights.
For example, in the context of a representative democracy, there is no more profound right than the right to have honest elections. That is more important than Muhammed Atta's right to vote for John Kerry, or your housepet's right to vote for Howard Dean ten or twenty times:
"What's that, Fido? You think steel tariffs are great and agree with me that Dr. Dean should be president?"
"Arf!" "Arf, arf!"
"Good boy! Let's go down to the precinct house and exercise our rights. Here; have a little walkin' around biscuit!"
Remember Atta's attempt to secure a crop-duster from the Department of Agriculture? At first, he wouldn't even speak to the LowlyFemale(tm) in charge. He then threatened her physically, demanded cash, threatened to rob her, praised bin Laden and demanded aerial photographs of the White House to go along with his crop-duster.
He even came back later with a fellow hijacker, dressed in women's clothing and impersonating an attorney. A cross-dressing terrorist lawyer--talk about your three strikes.
But the years of coerced tolerance and mandatory sensitivity-training had done its work; all that the poor woman at the Dept. of Agriculture could think about was li'l Muhammy's "civil rights".
This war is about civil rights--REAL civil rights-- both here and abroad. There is no more basic civil right than being free to go to work in the morning and not being blown to shreds by evening at the hands of 7th-century Death-Cultists.
And Mid-Eastern countries, with precious few exceptions, are now getting their very first taste of democratic rights & freedoms. Despite the very best efforts of Cindy Sheehan, The National Council of Churches, Brent Scowcroft, The People's Organizing Committee for Whatever, Albert Armand Gore, Jr., The Times, The Post, The Daily Non-Worker, Pat Buchanan, Students and Democrats Against Growing Up, Arianna Huffety-Tuffet, the so-called 'human-rights' gang, Tupac Chopra, Michael Moore...and that one-man Cult-of-lack-of-a-Personality, John Kerry. Not to mention the Communists, the Ba'athists and al Qaeda.
But I'm a conservative; I know that there has never been a right that came unaccompanied by a corresponding duty. And we have been lax in our duties.
While we all love the soaring rhetoric of "rights"--indeed, judges and other such politicians are addicted to it--we need to think about duties, too. It is, in fact, a duty itself.
Duty calls:
"When great causes are on the move in the world...we learn that we are spirits, not animals, and that something is going on in space and time, and beyond space and time, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."--Winston Churchill
"The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these two concepts fall into disrepute, get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed."--Robert Heinlein
"One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty in finding someone to blame your troubles on. And when you do find someone, it's remarkable how often their picture turns up on your driver's license."--P.J. O'Rourke
"Where there are no rights, there are no duties."--Henri Benjamin Rebecque
"...the people who have more rights than duties have gained a notable and distinguished ethical position in our modern world. The selfish we had always with us. But the divine right to be selfish was never more ingeniously defended, in the name of the loftiest spiritual dignity, than it is sometimes defended and illustrated today."--Josiah Royce, Lowell Institute, Boston 1907
The fact is, there have been too many specious 'rights' in the West, too few real civil rights in the Muslim world--and too damned little duty everywhere.
Except at Ft. Benning.
Name All The Babies
YOU GUTLESS BASTARDS
The New York Times version:
"I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances."
The truth:
"I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."
You know, I'd thought I'd seen it all. The outright fiction. The selective emphasis. The manipulation of images. The manufacturing of quotes. But censoring a dead soldier?
To call you people vultures is a disservice to repulsive carrion-eaters everywhere. Human flesh-eating bacteria, perhaps, only without the bacteria's sense of humility.
Rest in Peace, Corporal Starr.
The New York Times version:
"I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances."
The truth:
"I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."
You know, I'd thought I'd seen it all. The outright fiction. The selective emphasis. The manipulation of images. The manufacturing of quotes. But censoring a dead soldier?
To call you people vultures is a disservice to repulsive carrion-eaters everywhere. Human flesh-eating bacteria, perhaps, only without the bacteria's sense of humility.
Rest in Peace, Corporal Starr.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Questions
TROUBLING QUESTIONS
Deeply troubling. And saddening. Also disturbing. Profoundly so. And...oh, sorry; I was channeling my inner Tom Daschle for a minute there.
*Since every government program in the last twenty years has been sold with the claim 'it will pay for itself', how come we have a gazillion dollar deficit?
*And just how many is a Brazilian anyway? A cotillion here, a cotillion there and pretty soon your talkin' old money.
*Although Lance Armstrong has been blazing through France unimpeded for years, he has not yet recieved honorary German citizenship. Vy not?
*Didn't the Left used to be against "rogue" intelligence officers & "out-of-control" diplomats "running their own foreign policy"? Isn't that what they said about Ollie North & Elliot Abrams?
Of course, unlike Valerie & Joe Plame, North's & Abrams' exertions were made AGAINST dangerous anti-American dictators...
*If you take an oath to a "Living" Constitution, what have you actually agreed to 'preserve'?
*What if NFL referees awarded visiting teams 4 points for a field goal instead of 3, citing a "Living" Rulebook?
*What if your bank suddenly told you they considered your mortgage contract a "living document"?
*Or your spouse informed you that the wedding vows you took together were, in fact, "living, breathing" words "adaptable to current circumstances" and subject to the trendiest "latest thinking in an evolving society"?
*Why can't Scooter Libby claim he took a "living" oath?
*And how is it the Constitution is a "living thing"... but unborn children are not?
*Rouge dictator Mohammar Khadaffi-- can we really trust a man who doesn't even know how to spell his own name? And wears white dresses with gold brocade after Labor Day?
*How come we never see the headline "Arrested Man Claims Duties Were Violated"?
*Why does the Left support everything 'consensual'...except consensual government in Iraq?
*What would be the worst thing about a HILLARY! presidency? Would it be
a.) A new federal Department of PMS?
b.) new mileage standards and unlimited power-train warranties for vibrators?
c.) Americans forced to eat an all-beef diet to prop up cattle futures markets?
d.) White House press corps begin to wet themselves at the mere mention of the words "cat-o-nine-tails"?
or
e.) no slots in registers for exciting new three-dollar bill?
The answer is, of course, f.):
all efforts would be expended not in defending this country, but in covering up the failed policies, the criminal negligence and the blatant criminality--up to and including treason--of the last Clinton administration.
And that's no joke. Smoke.
Deeply troubling. And saddening. Also disturbing. Profoundly so. And...oh, sorry; I was channeling my inner Tom Daschle for a minute there.
*Since every government program in the last twenty years has been sold with the claim 'it will pay for itself', how come we have a gazillion dollar deficit?
*And just how many is a Brazilian anyway? A cotillion here, a cotillion there and pretty soon your talkin' old money.
*Although Lance Armstrong has been blazing through France unimpeded for years, he has not yet recieved honorary German citizenship. Vy not?
*Didn't the Left used to be against "rogue" intelligence officers & "out-of-control" diplomats "running their own foreign policy"? Isn't that what they said about Ollie North & Elliot Abrams?
Of course, unlike Valerie & Joe Plame, North's & Abrams' exertions were made AGAINST dangerous anti-American dictators...
*If you take an oath to a "Living" Constitution, what have you actually agreed to 'preserve'?
*What if NFL referees awarded visiting teams 4 points for a field goal instead of 3, citing a "Living" Rulebook?
*What if your bank suddenly told you they considered your mortgage contract a "living document"?
*Or your spouse informed you that the wedding vows you took together were, in fact, "living, breathing" words "adaptable to current circumstances" and subject to the trendiest "latest thinking in an evolving society"?
*Why can't Scooter Libby claim he took a "living" oath?
*And how is it the Constitution is a "living thing"... but unborn children are not?
*Rouge dictator Mohammar Khadaffi-- can we really trust a man who doesn't even know how to spell his own name? And wears white dresses with gold brocade after Labor Day?
*How come we never see the headline "Arrested Man Claims Duties Were Violated"?
*Why does the Left support everything 'consensual'...except consensual government in Iraq?
*What would be the worst thing about a HILLARY! presidency? Would it be
a.) A new federal Department of PMS?
b.) new mileage standards and unlimited power-train warranties for vibrators?
c.) Americans forced to eat an all-beef diet to prop up cattle futures markets?
d.) White House press corps begin to wet themselves at the mere mention of the words "cat-o-nine-tails"?
or
e.) no slots in registers for exciting new three-dollar bill?
The answer is, of course, f.):
all efforts would be expended not in defending this country, but in covering up the failed policies, the criminal negligence and the blatant criminality--up to and including treason--of the last Clinton administration.
And that's no joke. Smoke.
