Robin Hood Story

“I’m after a man whom I want to destroy. He died many centuries ago, but until the last trace of him is wiped out of men’s minds, we will not have a decent world to live in.

Robin Hood.

He was the man who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. Well, I’m the man who robs from the poor and gives to the rich – or, to be exact, the man who robs the thieving poor and gives back to the productive rich.

This is the horror which Robin Hood immortalized as an ideal of righteousness. It is said that he fought against the looting rulers and returned the loot to those who had been robbed, but that is not the meaning of the legend which has survived. He is remembered, not as a champion of property, but as a champion of need, not as a defender of the robbed, but as a provider of the poor. He is held to be the first man who assumed a halo of virtue by practicing charity with wealth which he did not own, by giving away goods which he had not produced, by making others pay for the luxury of his pity. He is the man who became the symbol of the idea that need, not achievement, is the source of rights, that we don’t have to produce, only to want, that the earned does not belong to us, but the unearned does….Until men learn that of all human symbols, Robin Hood is the most immoral and the most contemptible, there will be no justice on earth and no way for mankind to survive.”

– Ragnar Danneskjold, from Atlas Shrugged

Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

• The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
• The fifth would pay $1.
• The sixth would pay $3.
• The seventh would pay $7.
• The eighth would pay $12.
• The ninth would pay $18.
• The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. “Since you are all such good customers”, he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20″.

Drinks for the ten now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his “fair share?” They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so: The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings). The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings). The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings). The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. “I only got a dollar out of the $20,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, “but he got $10!” “Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!” “That’s true!!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!”

“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!” The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

Hat tip to Liberty Portal.

Maximus Is Back!!!!!

100 Reasons to love John Wayne

May 25, 2007, 7:03PM

On his 100th birthday, 100 reasons to love John Wayne
By SCOTT EYMANCox News Service

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — John Wayne was born May 26, 1907, in Winterset, Iowa, 100 years ago. Alone among his generation of movie stars, he remains an apparently permanent image of American masculinity.
You can accept his representation of manhood or you can reject it, but you can't ignore it.
Like Elvis Presley, he was a pure product of America, unthinkable in any other culture. Unlike Elvis, he never went crazy, never lost his faith in his essential rightness — in several senses of the word — never really tried to adapt to changing times. Blessedly, he never hid behind irony.
He was John Wayne, and here are 100 reasons to cherish his memory, some of them from his movies, some of them drawn from Wayne in conversation.
1. Because he loved the movie business.
2. That walk.
3. "You may not like every film, but my fans will always come back because they know I won't be mean, I won't be small, and like an old friend, I won't let them down."
4. Because nobody else started out as such a bad actor and got so good.
5. Because he embodied American masculinity at midcentury and imposed an image on our idea of masculinity's past.
6. "A man ought to do what he thinks is right" (Hondo).
7. For the gentle way he could treat a fragile woman.
8. For the rump-slapping way he could treat a strong woman.
9. Hondo.
10. Because of his work ethic — in an acting career that spanned nearly 50 years, he starred in, by actual count, 156 movies.
11. "I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to others, and I require the same from them" (The Shootist).
12. Because at one time or another he worked at nearly all the crafts that go into making movies, from props to costumes to stunting to acting to producing to directing.
13. "I'm going to kill you, Matt" (Red River).
14. For the incredibly cool way he cocks his rifle by twirling it in both Stagecoach and True Grit.
15. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
16. Because all he has to do to dominate a scene is to enter it.
17. Because, in spite of his reputation for invulnerability, he eagerly took on the task of playing deeply lonely men who die.
18. Red River.
19. For his abiding good taste in directors: John Ford, Howard Hawks, William Wellman, Henry Hathaway.
20. For the way a supposedly limited personality actor could match anything gifted younger actors like Montgomery Clift threw at him.
21. "Lest we forget" (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon).
22. Because when he worked with Maureen O'Hara they created believable domestic relationships that were about sex as well as love.
23. Because he possessed a stubbornness that was practically biblical: 100 cigarettes a day for decades, and after he lost a lung to cancer he promptly began smoking small cigars.
24. Because he had a sense of humor about the construct known as "John Wayne."
25. Rio Grande.
26. Because he was the first one on the set in the morning and the last one to leave.
27. For the implacable way he walks through a herd of cattle at the end of Red River.
28. "I wouldn't do that if I was you" (Hondo).
29. The Long Voyage Home.
30. Because he would play anything except weak.
31. Because he created Ethan Edwards, one of the darkest characters in the literature of the movies
32. Because he was a huge man who moved like a dancer.
33. Because it didn't make any difference whether the movie was great, good or terrible, it was still John Wayne.
34. The voice.
35. "That'll be the day" (The Searchers).
36. Island in the Sky.
37. Because he could hold his liquor.
38. Because he wore a bunny costume on Laugh-In.
39. For the look on his face when Kim Darby asks him to be buried next to her in True Grit.
40. Because when he said something, he meant it.
41. They Were Expendable.
42. "Republic . . . I like the sound of the word" (The Alamo).
43. The Quiet Man.
44. Because he was completely different for different directors. For Ford, he was a lonely romantic; for Hawks, he was a low-key professional.
45. Because all his wives were Latinas.
46. For being among the first actors to take responsibility for his own career by starting his own production company after World War II.
47. For producing Seven Men From Now, a great Western, and the second-best movie (after Ride the High Country) Randolph Scott ever made.
48. "I have faith in a supreme being. I don't believe in organized religion because there are too many of them and I just don't think God could be so disorganized as to have all that many churches claiming his authority."
49. Fort Apache.
50. For providing the matrix for generations of Marines in The Sands of Iwo Jima.
51. Because he appeared in the Motion Picture Herald's Top Ten Box Office Stars every year from 1949 to 1973.
52. Because he was never afraid to play against another dominating leading man: Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Lee Marvin, etc.
53. Because he survived playing Genghis Khan in The Conqueror.
54. Because he didn't mind playing a one-eyed old fat man.
55. Because of the reason he became an actor: "For $75 a week, you could be a star. I jumped."
56. "Westerns are closer to art than anything else in the motion-picture business."
57. Because he never gave a damn about critics.
58. Because on-screen he always wanted a woman who was his full equal.
59. Because his characters were always willing to endure the consequences of their actions.
60. For having the integrity to put his money where his political mouth was and produce, direct and star in The Alamo and The Green Berets.
61. For the look on his face when Dean Martin fishes for a coin in a spittoon in Rio Bravo.
62. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
63. For the maturity and grace of his love affair with Patricia Neal in In Harm's Way.
64. Because he played a very good game of chess.
65. Because he was loyal.
66. "You're awful pretty when you're angry" (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance).
67. For the way he stops wearing his toupee in the second half of The Wings of Eagles and the performance is so intense that nobody ever notices.
68. Three Godfathers.
69. "Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!" (True Grit).
70. Because he never had a sense of entitlement toward his career.
71. Because until middle age, he would do most of his stunts himself.
72. Because he had a superb collection of Navajo kachina dolls, as well as of Frederic Remington and Charles Russell sculptures.
73. "I know how to get my way. I don't argue; I become adamant."
74. Because he loved dogs, and not the ones you'd think. He had springer spaniels and dachshunds.
75. Because he could suggest a terrible sorrow beneath a heroic exterior.
76. Because the dog in Hondo was actually played by Lassie, and when he won the dog in a card game from trainer Rudd Weatherwax, he gave him back.
77. Because for 30 years, the BBC ran a John Wayne movie on Christmas Day.
78. "I've been in more bad pictures than just about anybody in the business."
79. "Give the cameraman a chance to photograph something besides walls and doors and tea tables. Don't let your story expire for lack of air."
80. "I stopped getting the girl about 10 years ago. Which is just as well, because I'd forgotten what I wanted her for."
81. Because his favorite hobby was deep-sea fishing.
82. "I never had a (expletive) artistic problem in my life, never, and I've worked with the best of them."
83. "Come up and see a fat old man sometime!" (True Grit).
84. Because his favorite drink was tequila.
85. "All I do is sell sincerity, and I've been selling the hell out of that since I started."
86. For the graceful way he confronted the disease that was already taking his life in The Shootist.
87. Because when he was dying of cancer, in excruciating pain, he never complained.
88. Because the more a director challenged him, the better he got.
89. Because the words "John Wayne" imply a point of view encapsulating not just movies but the world.
90. Because he owned all 20 volumes of Edward Curtis' The North American Indian.
91. "Maureen O'Hara is the female equivalent of me. She could rough me up, and I could rough her up."
92. Rio Bravo.
93. "I made Rio Bravo because I didn't like High Noon. I didn't think a good town marshal was going to run around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking everyone to help."
94. "All I ever cared about was that the public liked my pictures."
95. "For years I've played the kind of man I'd like to have been."
96. "As sure as the turnin' of the earth" (The Searchers).
97. "The hardest thing to do in a scene is nothing. The trick is making every nuance minimal. One look that works is better than 20 lines of dialogue."
98. Because his greatest achievement was creating John Wayne.
99. For the way he lifts Natalie Wood above his head in The Searchers, then quickly brings her down to cradle her like a child.
100. For his kindness and generosity to a young writer 35 years ago.

Yes, I agree

Quote of the Day

"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." - George Orwell

Israel's Fight

Staying the Course in Iraq

"If we left Iraq prematurely - as the terrorists demand - the enemy would tell us to leave Afghanistan and then withdraw from the Middle East. And if we left the Middle East, they'd order us - and all those who don't share their militant ideology - to leave what they call occupied Muslim lands, from Spain to the Philippines, and then we would face not only the evil ideology of these violent extremists, but an enemy that will have grown accustomed to succeeding in telling free people everywhere what to do."
-- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in Aug. 2006 testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Quote of the Day

"When the fight begins within himself, a man's worth something." - Robert Browning

Reality Check

Sick, but true. Are civilized people supposed to act like this?

I don't care what their religion or cultural mores are, guerrillas hiding behind innocents like this are the very worst of cowards and worthy only of a bullet.

Soccer Season Returns

Quote of the Day

"Talk low, talk slow and don't say too much."
- John Wayne

The Difference Between

Quote of the Day

"A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues. " - Theodore Roosevelt

Quote of the Day

"I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline... I firmly believe that any man's finest hour - this greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear - is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious" - Vince Lombardi

Blasphemy, Indeed.

Ted Nugent - Gotta Laugh & Cheer

From an interview by a British reporter with Ted Nugent...

Reporter: "What do these deer think when they see you coming? Here comes the nice guy who puts out our dinner or there's the man that shot my brother?"

Ted Nugent: "I don't think they are capable of either of those thoughts, you Limey asshole. They're only interested in three things: the best place to eat, having sex and how quickly they can run away. Much like the French."

ROFL>>>>

Quote of the Day

"A team effort is a lot of people doing what I say." - Michael Winner

Take a Stand Against the UN

Sign this declaration and file it away somewhere safe.

A Declaration

I _____________________, in recognition of my propensity to ignore small intrusions upon my liberty, will now swear this oath before God Almighty,or whatsoever it is that I make promises to when I think I'm in going to die.

If United Nations military forces ever set foot on United States soil, for any reason, I promise that I will recognize them as a clear and present danger to our freedom as Americans, and I will take any, and all, forceful actions I can muster, without regard to my own safety.

I do this in recognition of prior sacrifices made by the many to protect these freedoms, and for those yet unborn who will have expected this of me.

Signed this day ___________, 2006.

Quote of the Day

“For every human problem there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong.”
-- H.L. Mencken

Immigration Double Standard

Listen to the end when the key point is made.

Appeasers On The March in Eurpoe

The European Union will soon distribute new guidelines to its 25-member nations that recommend using "non-emotive lexicon for discussing radicalization." EU officials say that the guidelines, which are not legally binding, will ask European governments to shun the phrase "Islamic terrorism" in favor of "terrorists who abusively invoke Islam." "Jihad" would be called a "spiritual struggle."

Quote of the Day

"I mean that there is no way to disarm any man ...except through guilt. Through that which he himself has accepted as guilt. If a man has ever stolen a dime, you can impose on him the punishment intended for a bank robber and he will take it. He'll bear any form of misery, he'll feel that he deserves no better. If there's not enough guilt in the world, we must create it. If we teach a man that it's evil to look at spring flowers and he believes us and then does it - we'll be able to do whatever we please with him. He won't defend himself. He won't feel he's worth it. He won't fight. But save us from the man who lives up to his own standards. Save us from the man of clean conscience. He's the man who'll beat us."
- quote by Dr. Ferris in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged

Trapshooting

Quote of the Day

“It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.”
-- David Hume

Remember 9-11

States I've Visited

America - Living Up To The Left's Rhetoric

What if the United States and the Bush Administration in particular actually decided to live up to the absurd rhetoric from the left at home and around the world.

The People's Cube article "America Takes Off Gloves, Puts on Brass Knuckles" is a Friday must read.

A Christmas Story

Only the greatest Christmas movie ever!

Quote of the Day

"It's amazing how much panic one honest man can spread among a multitude of hypocrites."
- Thomas Sowell

Quote of the Day

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other forhis faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State."
-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to a Committee of the Danbury BaptistAssociation, Connecticut, January 1st 1802)

Christmas Is Sweet in a Sucking Kind of Way

From a funny MSNBC article by Steven Fried:

"I run into my friend Tom shopping at a jewelry and crafts store. He has a look of sheer panic in his eyes, and his lips are so tightly pursed that his beard and mustache practically meet. I know that look. It's a very specific form of performance anxiety that starts gripping married men this time of year. It's fear of "gift impotence," and Tom has an especially bad case."

. . . The holidays are hell for husbands, in all kinds of ways that wives will never appreciate. And most of us are smart enough not to complain about these pressures (except to one another) because how much sympathy can we really expect?"

Audio Book Review

KITE RUNNER
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Unabridged Fiction

Afghanistan of the 1970's through the Taliban (pre U.S. invasion) is the backdrop for this remarkable story of shattered childhoods, betrayal, redemption, and human suffering.

Read by the author, an Afghan emigree from the early 1980's, the audio read is simply remarkable. With such a passion for telling his story, enough personal relationship to the country and its suffering to convey it, and a thick Afghan accent and proper pronunciation the listener is drawn into the story and the setting. About a third of the way into the book I had to remind myself that this was fiction, not autobiography.

Amir is the son of a wealthy and highly-respected Afghan businessman in the final years of the Afghan monarchy, which was toppled by a coup and then eventually the Soviet invasion. Hassan was Amir's playmate, the son of the house servant. Amir, blessed with a wealthy father and cursed with the death of his mother in giving him birth, he struggles with his identity and the serious cultural issues of his country.

I won't give away the story here, but Amir and Hassan are split apart in a shocking set of betrayals. With the arrival of the Soviet invasion, Amir and his father flee for a new life in the U.S. A life tortured by guilt, the adult Amir is called back to Afghanistan to see his countryland devastated by the Soviets and then the Taliban. What he is really called back for is an opportunity to right his very deepest wrong and to demonstrate courage for the first time in his life.

A truly remarkable story, the Kite Runner (a title referencing a boy's game in Afghanistan) is also a fascinating look at Afghan history and the unbelievable tragedies experienced. The first half of the book, focusing on Amir's childhood is the best part of it. The second half is somewhat predictable and just a tad bit hokey, maybe because it is so heavily weighted in the Taliban context (horrible, indeed) that the author is unlikely to have experienced himself. This is not a book of cheerfulness, but is filled with sorrow and enlightenment about Afghanistan, it's people, and the horrible things that people can do to each other.

Drama Queen Moron

As John Wayne said it once: "Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid."
___________________

Enough of this woman! Cindy Sheehan in an article in The Guardian, as part of an interview during her trip to Great Britain to bash Blair and Bush as "terrorists."

"I don't blame the people who killed Casey but the people who brought us into this, who lied and deceived the world," she says. "But the anti-war movement is growing at all levels. Congress is starting to talk about bringing the troops home and you never saw any of that before."

Enough. First, how does a mother mis-speak in saying that she doesn't blame the people who killed her son? She doesn't blame the enemy? But the second sentence of the quote really underlines her motivation. As she has been accused, the death of her son is simply a tool for her to argue against the war. She is so entralled with her celebrity status that she will do or say anything to stay in the limelight, to justify her behavior. It's going from sad to infuriating.

Secret Presidential Authorization to Spy on Americans

The New York Times is credibly reporting that in early 2002 (shortly after 9/11) President Bush signed an executive order authorizing the National Security Agency (NSA) to eavesdrop on international phone conversations placed by from within the United States. Aimed at monitoring thousands of suspect phone lines for terrorist communications, the authorization allowed the NSA to conduct this surveilance without a court order.

Clearly, this is a disturbing development. Constitutional protections against unreasonable searches are certainly being seriously tested here by what is, by any reasonable look, a broad net of surveilance. Without a court order, the only protections allowed U.S. citizens is the confidence in unknown bureaucrats not to abuse this special power to listen-in.

I am really torn on this issue.

We are at war. Not so much the Iraq war here is a concern, but the war against al Qaeda that has not ceased since 9/11. Better put, the war to defend ourselves from continuing efforts to attack the U.S. homeland. The threats involved here, the technologies, and the speed of response required are so out of alignment with the realities of the 18th century constitution that one has to do a reality check.

If we place protecting our comfortable sense of privacy and constitutional rights purity over very dire security issues, what price may we pay in the not so distant future. How many thousands of lives might be lost if we tie one hand behind the backs of our intelligence and security forces fighting to prevent domestic terrorism?

According to author James Bradford's best-selling Body of Secrets and other sources, the NSA actually has been monitoring telephone, internet, fax, and other communications of U.S. citizens sent overseas for some time. The key distinction is that their targets were the overseas end of the connection. For instance, John Smith in Chicago calls someone in Madrid, Spain. The NSA could listen in on the Spanish side of the connection. This splitting of hairs effectively allowed the NSA to keep listening to international communications when U.S. citizens were involved.

The difference in the current controversy over the Bush executive order is that the NSA could target the U.S. side of the call, target U.S. citizens, and do so without a court order. The advantage of this for the NSA is that by monitoring outbound calls on particular U.S. suspects they can determine any number of international sites that a U.S. caller (potential terrorist) is calling. For instance, if John Smith in Chicago were calling his al Qaeda handler in Istanbul. This allows the NSA to find overseas bad guys faster and get information quicker.

Fine. This may be necessary. But how do we balance the potential for abuse.

I can't say that I'm completely comfortable with even a Bush Administration having this power and the potential for it to be abused for political, business, or personal purposes. When I think about how this could be used by a Clinton or Kerry administration to spy on political opponents, help compliant corporations spy on competitors as rewards for campaign contributions, blackmail, etc. then I get really nervous.

Where do we draw the line? Can we build in protections? I think its the lack of a court order to conduct the surveilance that gives me the most unease. While I understand that some judges would hamstring the NSA in very honest, credible surveilance work just to demonstrate their ACLU fitness, some level of oversight is certainly necessary.

Quote of the Day

"Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal."

- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, 1844-1900.

Not Much Time Left

4 weeks left until Little Ms. Maximus' scheduled arrival.

However, reportedly only 4% of babies are born on their due date. So it is just about alert time for Maximus to spring into action.

Stinking Hippies

Anti-war activists greeted the President in Philadelphia on Tuesday. This just speaks volumes about the anti-war movement.

Quote of the Day

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
- Theodore Roosevelt

Iraqis Very Positive; ABC Poll Finds

A new ABC poll of 1,700 Iraqi's shows that 70% have a positive view of their own situation and two-thirds expect their lives to improve in the next year. Similar percentages indicated support and confidence in the new elections and the new Iraqi constitution.

However, less than half of Iraqis think their country is better off than it was before the war (curious how they asked that question) and two-thirds oppose the presence of U.S. forces.

This apparent contradiction between the very positive view that individual Iraqi's have of their own condition and that of their country and the U.S. is probably partly a result of uncertainty about national events they cannot control. However, the economic indicators for Iraqi citizens have skyrocketed in the last year, certainly a factor in their positive views about their own condition:

• Household incomes have increased 60% in the last eighteen months.
• The % of households with cell phones has grown from 6% to 62% in the last year, along with similar explosions in consumer goods such as satellite TV, air conditioning, etc.

Quote of the Day

"In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit."
- Ayn Rand

Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Threat Update

John Kyl's April 16, 2005 op-ed Unready for This Attack from the Washington Post provides a worst-case scenario for a terrorist EMP threat.
_____________________________

Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack (2004)
__________________________

And from GlobalSecurity.org:

"High-altitude EMP (HEMP), is the most significant and, potentially, the most hazardous to our security (of EMP weapons). The explosion of a nuclear burst at an altitude greater than 30 to over 500 kilometers above the earth's surface will produce the above scenario. Due to the very thin to non existent atmosphere at these altitudes, the gamma rays emitted from the explosion will travel radically outward for long distances. Those gamma rays traveling toward the earth's atmosphere are stopped by collisions with atmospheric molecules at altitudes between 20 and40 kilometers. These collisions generate Compton recoil electrons which interact with the earth's magnetic field to produce a downward traveling electromagnetic wave. This high altitude burst will not generate any other nuclear effect at the earth's surface.

However, this type of nuclear explosion also produces a vast ground coverage. Significant HEMP levels occur at the earth's surface out to where the line of sight from the burst contacts the earth's surface. Consequently, a nuclear burst over the central part of the United States at an altitude of 500 kilometers would produce an EMP field that would incapacitate all communications systems in the continental United States. "

Source: Electromagnetic Pulse-From Chaos To A Manageable Solution, Major M. CaJohn, USMC. Global Security.org.

Elegance and Power

Ah, Maximus can dream of a new Kimber Royal II .45 ACP. :-)

But Maximus will be angry if Santa or his elves plot and don't let him buy it for himself when he's ready. :-)

Asteroid Impact in 2036?

News is coming out about an asteroid named Apophis (after the Egyptian demon of evil and destruction), a 390 meter wide asteroid that computer simulations suggest could strike the Earth in 2036.

The damage would be inconceivable, but one has to wonder if it would be a global species killer. A 390m asteroid is only about three football fields wide. That's huge and the destruction would be immense on a sub-continental basis with global impacts, but its manageable size would suggest that options might exist to deflect it at some point.

Tracking these asteroids is quite a challenge and estimating their trajectory made all the more difficult based upon various gravitational tugs. Until recently downgraded, Apophis had been rated the most likely major strike identified since such projections began to be developed with a one in 37 chance. Now, we are talking about chances of one in thousands or tens of thousands, but still something to watch and wonder about.

Read more.

The EMP Nightmare

If you aren't familiar with the threat from an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), created by a nuclear detonation in the atmosphere above a continent (as opposed to a traditional nuclear near-ground detonation), Rick Moran over at Right Wing Nuthouse provides a good and sobering description.

You could be in your car driving to work one morning when, in a blink of an eye, American civilization would be destroyed. The first inkling you would have that something was amiss is when your car suddenly died. You turn the key to start it again and…nothing. The engine doesn’t even turn over. The next thing you would notice is that the exact same thing has happened to everyone else on the road. You reach into your pocket and grab your phone to call your boss to tell her you’ll be late and find to your horror that the phone is completely dead – not only no signal but the phone itself is gone.

Perhaps you run into the bank to try and get some cash. The bank employees are frantic. The back-up generators that were supposed to supply electricity in the case of a power outage aren’t working. Later, you find out that your account records have been wiped along with trillions of gigabytes of data stored in millions of other computers around the country.

This is just the beginning. When you finally make it home you realize that you have no electricity, no water, no refrigeration – nothing. Your battery operated radio doesn’t work. In short, you have been propelled back more than 100 years in time and, for the foreseeable future, must live as your great grandparents lived.This nightmare is the result of a relatively small (10 kiloton) nuclear device exploded approximately 300 miles above Kansas. The 2 million degree heat generated by the nuclear chain reaction lasts for only a millionth of a second or so. But then as it cools, that thermal radiation becomes gamma rays which interact with the atmosphere and the earth’s magnetic field and generates an electrical field a million times more powerful than anything on earth.

Quote of the Day

"...there is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit." - Ronald Reagan, January 21, 1981

Audio Book Review

Leadership
Author: Rudolph Giuliani
Abridged Non-fiction

Leadership is a word that seems perfectly chosen for a book by former NYC mayor and 9/11 legend Rudy Giuliani. However, as much as the word and title might make for good book sales, the content is decidedly weak in this regard.

Not that Giuliani doesn’t offer up some interesting perspectives, but if you’re looking for a how-to on leadership skills and tools or want any sort of in depth look at Rudy, pass on this one. The book not only covers a limited set of examples and stories, but there is little depth provided about the process, personalities, or politics involved. It’s a relatively good technical reminder about the value of good management practices to changing government and the services provided (and Giuliani deserves huge credit for NYC’s pre 9/11 rebirth).

Giuliani enjoyed packaging all of his decision making as being alternatively rational or emotional as it suits him (he seems to go out of his way to paint a picture that he is a man who cares, maybe to compensate for his technocrat image or something). Crass, ego-centric political maneuvering in his history is couched in terms of rational, business-like analysis and decision-making, not ambition. Most annoying (OK, there were many) is his penchant for talking about loyalty, but his glossing over his history of sticking it to fellow Republicans when it suited his own political interests.

Still, it is an interesting listen and a reminder that good management and good practices can be employed in government.

Squirrel Wars

Reagan 2020

I've just stumbled across a fabulous website Reagan 2020 dedicated to Ronald Reagan's conservative philosophy and, most importantly, to preserve and promote it in the future. The website organization's opening explanation of their purpose sums it up perfectly:

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the first -- and last -- modern conservative President of the United States.

There is a ton of fascinating, persuasive, and positive information for Reagan-conservatives to be found at the website. Great idea and site!

Audio Book Review

Saving The Queen: A Blackford Oakes Mystery
Author: William F. Buckley, Jr.
Unabridged Fiction

As a first time reader of the Blackford Oakes series from legendary conservative writer William F. Buckley, Jr., I looked forward to a slightly different read. Oakes novels were billed as basic mystery/spy tales without all of the silly gadgetry and ridiculously unrealistic stories that abound in spy novels like the .007 series.

I was not disappointed in this regard. Buckley's writing style is intelligent, flows very well, and is intelligent without the pretense. This fact was most surprising, as Buckley's writing can at times be so over the top pretentious that it borders on hostile. That was not the case in this novel. While the story was not particularly exciting or creative (OK, it was fairly lame, but well-told in a brief book), the story was crisp and concise enough to make it worth a read/listen.

Newly recruited and trained, Oakes is dispatched to London with the assignment to weave his way into British high society with the cover of being a marginally wealthy, playboy American engineer. He excels at his assignment to the point of reaching the queen's side in no time at all, much to the delight of his handlers. The story is two-thirds how Oakes became a CIA agent and the actual mystery embodied in the title is really the playing field for this opener to how Black ford Oakes got started.

Next to Reagan, Buckley and his National Review magazine was probably the greatest influence in shaping my conservative philosophy. I recommend a reading excursion into the Blackford Oakes series. I know I will travel this road again.

The Problem with Fox News

The "Fair and Balanced" news network appears to believe that its catch phrase means that by having a definite right-leaning bias the network promotes "fair and balanced" coverage across the entire TV news genre. I'm not going to elaborate here on the fact that Fox News is slanted. Frankly, only the completely blind GOP or conservative activist could miss it. And, judging by the angry response I've gotten from some Fox defenders, I'm convinced that deep down they know it is true but don't like to have their comfy little biases revealed or challenged.

What really irks me is that on a morning when a U.S. Congressman pleads guilty to absolutely outrageous bribery charges that Fox News would bury the story as the fourth in a list of "Latest Headlines." Bad winter weather in the West leads.

Now on one hand, I could accuse Fox of downplaying the story because we are talking about a Republican congressman. OK, I'll do that. But even more frustrating is this network's obsession with entertainment over hard news. They have a good set of reporters and commentators that have the resources and capabilities to do solid research and reporting. However, they tend not to push these issues to the forefront for coverage.

Quote of the Day

"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them." - John Wayne

Top 5% Pay Over Half Fed Taxes

Hat tip to Rush Limbaugh.

7 Weeks and Counting!

Seven weeks until Little Miss Maximus enters the world! Mr. & Mrs. Maximus can hardly wait.

The Conservative Split

I have always said that I was a conservative first, a Republican second. In other words, it is the philosophies, policies, and objectives that make good societies, economies, governments and nations that are my primary concern. My experience has been that those who place party faithfulness first are interested primarily in the "game" and the pursuit of power. Not that they don't have ideas, just that these ideas exist more as items in a playbook to be played out on a sports field to achieve personal or party (tribal) supremacy.

Concerned Americans should participate in government and political action to achieve and implement ideas. Power should be sought and employed to achieve legitimate policy objectives, not primarily as a spoils system for the victors. Republicans and Democrats, once in power, basically behave the same in their focus on preserving power. The issues they talk about, the interest groups that support them, the places they spend the money may differ, but the arrogance, abuse of power, and growth of government can be counted on regardless of which party is in power. This occurs when either party is in power for too long and backed up by an establishment that cares only about access and the privileges of the majority.

The Republican party's control of Congress happened because of: (1) Democratic extremism, heavy-handed rule, corruption, lack of leadership, and a general intellectual arthritis; (2) a legislative revolution lead by Newt Gingrich, based upon a positive, conservative set of ideas with a foundation in decades of conservative intellectual work and grassroots politics from Goldwater through Reagan; and (3) grassroots politics fueled by intellectual vigor, cooperation, and money.

I was proud to be part of that revolution, how ever little part I played. However, I am no longer proud to be associated with the hangers-on, panderers, and establishment the Republicans have come to in Congress (and to a lesser extent, in the White House) today.

Since the late 1990's, the Congressional Republican party and the web of business and other institutions it has spawned in the nation's capital and beyond have taken us on a murky course to no where. Part of it is the lack of great ideas or great threats (the end of the Cold War, welfare reformed, taxes cut, etc.). Yes, we have a war in Iraq and terrorism underway, but this is not a war of economic and political factors. It is primarily one of religious-ideology where rationality is an afterthought.

Republicans in Congress have become obsessed with little more than their reelections and holding on to power. This White House has encouraged the behavior. Yes, Bush and the GOP Congress cut taxes (starving the beast), passed tort reform, and have appointed a number of conservatives to the courts. However, they have failed miserably to trim the size and scope of government. They have chosen to protect their political positions by pandering to issues and interest groups. There are no big ideas. Maybe Social Security reform was the last great one and the President deserves kudos for trying, but congressional Republicans proved they lacked any backbones to address it.

Big Government Republicanism, hiding behind a mask of conservative rhetoric, is a deplorable development and one worthy of tearing down.

Likewise, the GOP establishment's obsession with pandering to religious conservatives has really begun to bother me. Every speech, every column, every policy is couched in rhetorical terms of "faith", "values", "families", etc. Now I understand the strategy here - religion and appeals to faith are key associative factors for the Republican party at the grassroots level - but it has become so naked an approach that the pandering has become obscene and ought to appear more than a little insulting to Christians.

As a conservative activist, I have worked down in the trenches with religious conservatives on any number of campaigns, projects and objectives over the year. We came at issues and sought outcomes from a different set of priorities, but we worked together to advance real change, elect new leaders, and generally push a conservative agenda forward.

However, the leadership we put into place has become drunken with their own self importance and determination to stay in power. They scare the bee-geebers out of us by talking about "it would be a lot worse if the other party was in power..." We have to agree. In doing so, we reward their policy slothfulness. We encourage them to take us for granted. We appease them. Then when we demand they show some backbone and do the right thing (e.g. Harriett Miers, cutting spending, Medicare drug benefit, etc.) they scream bloody murder that we aren't being team players, care more about ideas than holding the majority from the barbarians, and generally being an unruly mob.

Let me take this point to an extreme that might offend and infuriate some. I believe that the Republican party's pandering to Christians with such strong and consistent religious rhetorical code words, is of the same approach as Democrats and African American leaders take to the black community. Code words, painting opponents as enemies, building up fortress mentalities that everyone is out to get them and only the self-appointed leadership speaks for them, fights for them, and can be trusted.

Religious conservatives are being insulted on a daily basis by Congressional Republicans and a White House that want to simply associate with their faith to hold them into the political camp, while not doing much at all to actually implement an agenda - whether it includes Christian priorities or a larger conservative philosophical/political agenda that they all pay lip service to.

A good friend of mine from Republican wars of the past is a decidedly economic conservative and social liberal. He warned me several years ago of a growing frustration with the GOP's social right obsession that drove him away. At the time, I wasn't very sympathetic because it was the religious conservatives who were providing the armies of workers who made possible the great policy work going on under Gingrich. We needed to keep the "big tent." But the great policy work has ended. The GOP establishment is all about protecting its power and privileges.

The Republican establishment has become adrift and has apparently chosen pandering to religious voters over actually taking on tough issues (Iraq isn't the only important issue, folks).

George Will has written a very thought provoking column What Next for Conservatives for publication today.

"It does me no injury,'' said Thomas Jefferson, "for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.'' But it is injurious, and unneighborly, when zealots try to compel public education to infuse theism into scientific education. The conservative coalition, which is coming unglued for many reasons, will rapidly disintegrate if limited-government conservatives become convinced that social conservatives are unwilling to concentrate their character-building and soul-saving energies on the private institutions that mediate between individuals and government, and instead try to conscript government into sectarian crusades.
But, then, the limited-government impulse is a spent force in a Republican Party that cannot muster congressional majorities to cut the growth of Medicaid from 7.3 percent to 7 percent next year. That "cut'' was too draconian for some Republican "moderates.''

Will goes on to make the case that the Republicans have failed to control spending and are making the Democrats look fiscally conservative. I won't go into the plethora of examples here.

No wonder that the Democrats are starting to use rhetoric about "fiscal responsibility" and putting the country's "house in order."

Congressional Republicans and their enablers in the White House and on K Street have become every bit as big a supporters of Big Government as the Democrats. The difference is, rather than cloaking it in class warfare, they use the rhetoric of "compassion," "opportunity," "values," and "faith."

Book Review

Born In Blood
The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry
Author: John J. Robinson

Can the origins of Freemasonry be found in the bloody suppression of a powerful Middle Ages Catholic order called the Knights Templar?

The Knights Templar was an order of Catholic monks, but not in the traditional images that come to mind. They were warriors, accomplished in the Crusades to the Holy Land, and a super-secret order. According to Robinson, they were also extremely wealthy and powerful, operating as a quasi bank of sorts in their day.

A major threat, whether perceived or real, to the Pope and the French monarchy, the Vatican sought to destroy the order in the early 14th century. Plotting with childhood friend and Vatican protector French King Philip, Pope Clement moved quickly on Friday the 13th in 1307 to have Templar Knights throughout Europe arrested. Outrageously charged with various blasphemous violations, the Knights were tortured horribly (and Robinson delights in the details) to solicit confessions. All were executed.

That is, except for the Templar that managed to escape. Needing to find protection from the Crown and the Vatican, they slipped deep into hiding. They also needed a means to network in secret and to protect each other. Robinson makes a strong case by demonstrating historical examples showing very plausible parallels between the Knights and Freemasonry. Basically, Robinson argues that Freemasonry was founded by the Knights Templar as a means to hide who they were and to provide some protection.

Just as the Knights Templar were condemned and persecuted (murdered) by the Catholic Church so as to maintain and enhance it’s own power, Freemasonry has been roundly condemned by the Vatican for centuries as a super-secret, anti-Christian institution (Masons require belief in a single god as part of their membership requirements, not necessarily Catholic dogma). The Masons have been a threat to the Church’s domination because they operated as a safe haven for religious men who stood up to Catholic persecution.

A very plausible argument, if you accept a lot of historical claims here that are somewhat suspect only in that they happened 700 years ago. Still, very interesting.

The most interesting (and shocking) element of the entire book can actually be found in the appendix. In 1884, Pope Leo XIII issued an encyclical Humanum Genus offering a sweeping condemnation of Freemasonry and urging Catholics everywhere to oppose it. Very, very weak on logic or valid arguments, the Pope’s absolute disdain for liberal democracy (surely with American and French versions in mind), the following passage made my blood absolutely boil:

Here naturalists teach that men have all the same rights, and are perfectly equal in condition; that every man is naturally independent; that no one has a right to command others; that it is tyranny to keep men subject to any other authority than that which emanates from themselves. Hence, the people are sovereign; those who rule have no authority but by the commission and concession of the people; so that they can be deposed, willing or unwilling, according to the wishes of the people. The origin of all rights and civil duties is in the people or in the State, which is ruled according to the new principles of liberty. The State must be godless; no reason why one religion ought to be preferred to another; all to be held in the same esteem.

Now it is well known that Free-Masons approve these maxims, and that they wish to see governments shaped on this pattern and model needs no demonstration. It is a long time, indeed, that they have worked with all their strength and power openly for this, making thus an easy way for those, not a few, more audacious and bold in evil, who meditate the communion and equality of all goods after having swept away from the world every distinction of social goods and conditions.

From these few hints it is easy to understand what is the Masonic sect what it wants. Its tenets contradict so evidently human reason that nothing can be more perverted. The desire of destroying the religion and Church established by God, with the promise of immortal life, to try to revive, after eighteen centuries, the manners and institutions of paganism, is great foolishness and bold impiety. No less horrible or unbearable is it to repudiate the gifts granted through His adversaries. In this foolish and ferocious attempt, one recognizes that untamed hatred and rage of revenge kindled against Jesus Christ in the heart of Satan.

This from Pope Leo XIII makes me boil in that it drips with such contempt for democratic ideals and stands as a naked condemnation of liberty and democracy in that it might challenge Vatican domination. That which is not the Church or is not done in furtherance of the Church - as the ultimate authority over the dominion of man - is evil and worthy of destruction. The parallels with Islamic radicalism are scary.

Quote of the Day

"Too often management recommends plans that look like Bob Hope’s nose or a hockey stick. The numbers go down the first year or so and then up in the later years. If you accept hockeystick plans, you will find they will be proposed year after year." - Donald Rumsfeld

Audio Book Reviews

Sleeping With The Devil
Audio version (abridged non-fiction)
Author: Robert Baer

Former CIA agent Baer is back with a timely opinion piece on the ins and outs of the Saudi kingdom, support for radical Islam, and big money and influence buying at the highest level of the U.S. political and business circles.

Baer leads off with a very sobering analysis on the importance of Saudi oil to the U.S. economy and the tremendous damage a terrorist disruption to the flow might cause. The intricate relationships between the Saudi royal family and U.S. officials is interesting and informative, but there really isn't much new information here. Baer has stretched the topic so thin in places and attempted to weave odd stories in that it appears he is straining to fill enough pages to rush out a book in a good market on middle east issues . . . particularly from a former CIA agent.

Not bad, but nothing earth shattering here.
_________________________________

Anti-Americanism
Audio version (unabridged non-fiction)
Author: Jean-Francois Revel

Written by a best-selling French writer (and known American-supporter), the book is an interesting calling-out of European governments and "intellectuals" for their unending attacks on the U.S. and shameless hypocrisy. A refreshing in their face slap at French intellectuals and their unceasing American bashing to cover up their own faults and scheming, it is heavily rooted in modern day issues. However, you will find enough historical context to be useful, particularly in Europe's colonial history.

Written and published in France, the book had to be viewed as a vitroil attack. Hearing America's political and cultural systems enthusiastically defended is quite entertaining at times, although I was left wondering if a French intellectual hearing a similar attack by a Berkley liberal against the American system would find the same satisfaction.

Quote of the Day

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
-- Winston Churchill

Chavez Sides With Iran on Nukes

No, this isn't a joke. Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez has built a friendly relationship with the Iranians. Who is next? Zarqawi? Are we going to see Chavez in a video with Bin Laden blasting the vicious Americans?

Venezuela voted against the recent resolution of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors to condemn Iran's nuclear programs.

One for the Gipper

The Chicago Tribune features a great article here about Indiana Congressman Mike Pence and the struggle for the soul of the GOP caucus in the U.S. House.

"One more expansion of the Department of Education, one more big expansion of entitlements, and that [Republican] coalition will be shattered," Pence said. "If Republicans keep answering every problem with an expansion of big government, eventually people are going to get the professionals, [the Democrats] the guys who do big government."

Rapidly making a national name for himself as a talented and positive leader for the conservative movement, Pence may very well be the "real deal" for conservative political activists (if you've watched the early West Wing TV show, you'll get the reference).

Hat-tip to old friend and fellow political warrior Jon for the story.

Audio Book Review

Reagan in His Own Voice: Ronald Reagan's Radio Addresses

From 1974 to 1979, with a short break in between for the failed 1976 campaign for the Republican nomination for President, then private citizen Ronald Reagan gave over 1,000 daily radio commentaries on stations across the country. Often forgotten, these daily radio segments provided a tremendous platform for introducing both Reagan's persona and his conservative ideas to a national audience.

The radio commentaries selected for the collection range from folksy, to populous, to bedrock conservative philosophies. Probably the most valuable thing to be gained from listening is the understanding that Reagan conceived and wrote all of these addresses himself, as he would later do the bulk of the work on most of his major speeches as President.

Reagan's historic speeches won't be found in this collection of short radio addresses, but it's an interesting collection from a purely historical standpoint.

Quote of the Day

"Courage is being scared to death . . . and saddling up anyway."
- John Wayne

Racism - White and Black

Thirteen year-old twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede have become poster-children of sorts for neo-nazi recruiting, carrying a message of white supremacy via early teen music and videos. Not exactly the Olsen twins, even if they look like them. Spewing forth nonsense ranging from basic white-supremacy to direct tributes to German Nazi leaders, this has to rank as one of the most outrageous examples of scary-stupidity.

But, they and their parents have that right as Americans. Unfortunately, they only recognize that those rights apply to white Americans.
_______________

Then, of course, there is the flipside of this racist coin. Dr. Kamau Kambon, a former affiliated faculty instructor at North Carolina University, said the following at a campus program also carried by C-SPAN:

“White people want to kill us. I want you to understand that. They want to kill you,” he said. “They want to kill you because that is part of their plan . . . And the one idea is, how we are going to exterminate white people because that in my estimation is the only conclusion I have come to. We have to exterminate white people off the face of the planet to solve this problem. *tepid applause* Now I don’t care whether you clap or not, but I’m saying to you that we need to solve this problem because they are going to kill us. And I will leave on that. So we just have to just set up our own system and stop playing and get very serious and not be diverted from coming up with a solution to the problem and the problem on the planet is white people."

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin.

The Retrosexual Code

A fun posting over at Hardcore Conservative on The Retrosexual Code, a handy teaching guide to those confused. Click "Comments" at the bottom to read the entire list.

1. A Retrosexual, no matter what the woman insists, PAYS FOR THE DATE.
2. A Retrosexual opens doors for a lady. Even for the ones that fit that term only because they are female.
3. A Retrosexual DEALS with IT, be it a flat tire, break-in into your home, or a natural disaster, you DEAL WITH IT.
4. A Retrosexual not only eats red meat, he often kills it himself.
5. A Retrosexual doesn’t worry about living to be 90. It’s not how long you live, but how well. If you’re 90 years old and still smoking cigars and drinking, I salute you.

Click the COMMENTS below to read the rest of the list.

Book Review

A Short History of Nearly Everything
Author and Narrator: Bill Bryson
Review from audio CD version

A catchy title for an intriguing book about the core concepts in science - space, atoms, evolution, biology, geology, and more. While not the exhaustive resource one might assume from its catchy title, the book has just the right balance of scientific rigor, balanced with a tongue-in-cheek style and good writing to make it an intriguing work.

The book gets started by drawing with words a picture for us of just how expansive our universe is. The shear scope of our universe - our own little solar system, for that matter - is explained in a manner no science book or lecture had ever before. It leaves one with an unshakeable "wow" factor.

In reverse, Bryson spends considerable time drawing readers/listeners into the atomic structure at such minuete levels that the reader is relieved to hear him confess that this is simply unimaginable to any human. One is so utterly taken by the tremendous complexities, inter-woven elements, and sheer scope in the large and small that I kept asking myself "how can this have become reality by chance, without a designer." Still, one is left with a healthy respect for science, research, and the great desire for knowledge.

The author deftly avoids an evolution vs. creation debate, sprinkling more than a few off hand remarks that "intelligent design" advocates will find comfort in. However, this is all discussed in terms of scientific study and the evolutionary theory, but with a recognition that science is fallable . . . but fascinating and important.

Bryson's piece is one of highs and lows in interest level, dipping into boredom at times as he recounts the histories of various discoveries, the scientists involved, etc. At these points, I found myself begging for a "tell me what we know now" moment, instead of telling me what the various historical figures from science thought (usually incorrectly). But he always brings you back to an interesting point.

This is a good read (or "listen" in my case) for anyone interested in science. You'll find it most interesting if you accept from the very beginning that, even today, we still really don't even know what we don't know about the universe, the atom, or our own beginnings as humans.

Bloody Hypocrites on Parade

CNN is reporting that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Zimbabwe's dictator Robert Mugabe have attacked the U.S. and British administrations in separate speeches at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization meetings in Rome.

Among the tirades, Mugabe labeled Bush and Blair as "two unholy men of our millenium" and compared them to Hitler and Mussolini's alliance during WWII. Chavez carried on with his typical anti-American ranting.

If not for the fact that these two control important countries and command world attention, they'd be laughable. But the truth is a bit scary.

Mugabe succeeded in bringing independence for Zimbabwe from Great Britain in 1980, but after decades of rule has turned his once peaceful country into a bloodbath. The bulk of the country's farms had been owned by white Zimbabwe citizens, but Mugabe succeeded in seizing most of their lands. Those who resisted faced Mugabe-backed gangs who indiscriminately slaughtered countless white men, women and children, while Mugabe smiled and said he had nothing to do with it. As white farmers were killed or driven from their land, Mugabe's thugs took charge and have failed miserably as farmers. The nation's agricultural output collapsed, plunging so many into starvation. This makes Mugabe's comments at the UN Food and Agriculture meetings all the more ludicrous.

Two years ago, Venezuela was in absolute turmoil as large segments of the country rose up against Chavez's dictatorial ways. Surviving the upheaval, Chavez has made American-bashing a top-priority since . . . in large part to have a villian to point to. This year alone, he has embraced Fidel Castro, hosted a world conference for young marxists, built alliances with China, and generally gone out of his way to try and be some sort of hip, anti-American hero to left extremists worldwide. Just last month, he was in New York telling audiences that he loved Americans and would attempt to improve relations with the U.S. Of course, this was after a meeting with Jesse Jackson, who encouraged him not to confront the Bush administration.