Growing up

Here’s a link to retired General Odom’s testimony about the war in Iraq. I don’t see how its refutable.

Money Quote:

Second, it is insisted that chaos will follow our withdrawal. We
heard that argument as the “domino theory” in Vietnam. Even so, the
path to political stability will be bloody regardless of whether we
withdraw or not. The idea that the United States has a moral
responsibility to prevent this ignores that reality. We are certainly to
blame for it, but we do not have the physical means to prevent it.
American leaders who insist that it is in our power to do so are
misleading both the public and themselves if they believe it.
The real moral question is whether to risk the lives of more
Americans. Unlike preventing chaos, we have the physical means to
stop sending more troops where many will be killed or wounded. That
is the moral responsibility to our country which no American leaders
seems willing to assume.

|Got an email from Y

From Newsweek:

“We have enemies for which no attack is too cruel.”

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, in a major address to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, in which he argued that the United States has a moral duty to remain in Iraq

I know that he’s just trying to appear strong and defense and what not, but when you unpack what he’s trying to say here, it’s scary.  What happened to the guy who was opposed to torture?  Presumably the Vietnamese thought similar thoughts about us when they captured and tortured him since the Vietnamese didn’t do anything to us but we blew the fuck out that country.  Presumably he didn’t think they had a right to torture him (or maybe he did).  If he doesn’t think it was right for the Vietnamese to do cruel things to us, how does he think it’s right to do cruel things to them?

Because he’s insane?

Its amazing how, because they have more incentive to meet the needs of their customers, private business is more efficient in helping after a disaster.

Backyard Missionary drops a lengthy quote from N.T. Wright. I wish everyone in Christendom could read this passage.

Man, I absolutely love hearing stories like this. What makes me angry is that, often times, those that react to violence this way are not Christians. Well, then again, maybe they are. They are the ones that are acting like Christ. Unlike many of us who resort to violence as a first defense.

but this stuck out at me over at Lew Rockwell’s site. Apparently in the UK, 4 of 10 women in labor are turned away at the hospital (this is not the exact link I wanted, but its broken right now) their health system has stopped paying for a drug that saves people with a lung disease, and a 61 year old woman was turned down for a 10,000 dollar heart surgery because she was too old.

Man… its great that these people are being served by selfless bureaucrats and not greedy capitalists.

A government that is powerful enough to give you universal health care is also powerful enough to deny you care.

Glenn Beck asks why politicians aren’t doing anything about this? I wanna know why more citizens aren’t worried about this? And why they still think we need more government programs.

Somebody help me out here…

I watched American Idol last night. I do every week. Its not my favorite show, but Carrie loves it, so I do what any good husband should.

Anyway, Carrie and I have been noticing a phenomenon recently regarding who stays and goes on Idol. Pretty much, no matter how bad you sing, if Simon says its good, you’ll be back in the next round. I have yet to see America vote differently.

Now I will tell you, one might ask whether or not Simon just says bad things to bad singers. Not necessarily. This season, Kristy Lee Cook is STILL on the show, and to be polite, she sucks. Hard. Also, David Hernandez lasted two weeks longer than he should have, on Simon’s comments alone. One week he was so out of tune that I had to mute the television, and Simon said it was his “best performance of the competition”.  And he didn’t go home that week. Basically, what Carrie and I have noticed is that the viewers of Idol are easily manipulated by Simon… which I’m sure he knew going into this TV show. He could essentially pick the winner, and make the ratings good, all by how he doles out his praise and criticism.

My question is, how much does the media affect the election? Would people have thought Ron Paul was crazy if they hadn’t heard story after story after story  where the mainstream media said that he was? Can the American people elect a President against the will of the media?

I can’t comment on this. Its absolutely revolting. Realize my friends, that our governments are trying to ban homeschooling.