Thought for the Day

Nico Machiavelli discussing the cautious Roman general Fabius Maximus methods versus Scipio’s desire to take the fight back to Africa during the war with Hannibal and the invading Carthaginians:

…if it had been left to him, Hannibal would still be in Italy, for he did not see that times had changed, and that new methods of warfare were called for. So that, if Fabius had been king of Rome, he might easily have lost this war, since he was incapable of altering his methods according as circumstances changed. Since, however, he was born in a republic where there were diverse citizens with diverse dispositions, it came about that, just as it had a Fabius, who was the best man to keep the war going when circumstances required this, so later it has a Scipio at a time suited to its victorious consummation.

For this reason a republic has a fuller life and enjoys good fortune for a longer time than a principality, since it better able to adapt itself to diverse circumstances owing to the diversity found among its citizens than a prince can do. For a man who is accustomed to act in one particular way, never changes, as we have said. Hence, when times change and no longer suit his ways, he is inevitably ruined.

-- from The Discourses, “Adaptation to the Times”

Italics are mine.

Thirteen Days (2000) Review

Kevin Costner stars in a meticulous dramatization of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Painstaking attention to detail breathes life into the true story of when an untested President John F. Kennedy found himself challenged by the Soviet Union with the fate of millions on the line. But the superb performances of the actors is what makes this piece of history a great film.

The movie begins with a rocket launch followed by a serious of nuclear explosions. It is a grim and unsettling presentation made more profound by the realization that this is real footage of tests, not special effects. Boldly confrontational, this sequence sets the tone for how serious the consequences could be in 1962.

Chronologically laid out, Thirteen Days follows the events of each day complete with documentary style titles. Things start on October 16, 1962 when a U-2C spy plane comes back with fresh photographs of construction by Soviet military personnel in Cuba. Quickly the cylindrical objects are identified as being SS-4 Sandal medium range nuclear tipped missiles.

The reconnaissance pictures shown are the real thing, by the way.

An interesting choice by director Roger Donaldson was to portray certain scenes in black and white to convey a feeling of the era. In fact, many of these scenes recreated photos from Life magazine. It is the kind of stage gimmick Orson Welles would have approved of and succeeds in evoking nostalgia.

We are introduced to Kenny O’Donnell (Kevin Costner) and his family. O’Donnell is John F. Kennedy’s right hand man; the one you have to go through to see him. Like Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood), O’Donnell inhabits the hardball side of politics filtered through the prism of a jock’s attitude.

That’s also a trait shared with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (Steven Culp in an eerie performance) which becomes very obvious as the dynamic between the three shows. They are young by Washington, D.C. standards and very aggressive. Bobby enters the picture after the briefing given on the missiles by McGeorge Bundy (Frank Wood) from the NSA.

The untried trio are the focus of the movie and everything revolves around them as the crisis unfolds at break neck speed. With over thirty missiles serviced by 3,400 Soviet technicians and soldiers in Cuba, the Soviet Union finally is building a first strike capability against the continental United States. To say this is a major problem would be a truly drastic understatement. In fact, Washington, D.C. is only five minutes away after launch. But the news gets worse – the missiles will be operational in twelve to fourteen days.

The Kennedy brothers take this as a betrayal by the Soviets since there had been a verbal agreement not to station any offensive weapons in Cuba. They are also afraid of looking weak, since their father had been involved in the Munich Conference of 1938 where the West gave the Sudetenland to Hitler in an effort to appease him. Compounding this fear is the ghost of the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion earlier in the Presidency.

 

Having a bunch of people around a table talking doesn’t sound like a recipe for riveting cinema in this era of big explosions and crazy plot twists. This movie shows how compelling and tense these scenes can be as we witness officials being gathered together to figure out the situation. Standouts are Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Dylan Baker) and General Maxwell Taylor (Bill Smitrovitch) representing the defense establishment. The nerdy arrogance of McNamara is on full display throughout the film and you can see the roots of his mismanagement of the Defense Department.

As each day unfolds, something new happens to make things even worse than the previous day. With the perceived weakness of the Kennedy’s, the military doesn’t trust them to do the right thing after the Bay of Pigs. On the administration’s side, they felt betrayed and misled by the military over that operation, so conflict was unavoidable. It didn’t help having a loose cannon like General Curtis LeMay (Kevin Conway) openly champing at the bit to attack the Soviets. Speaking of him, Conway is a scene stealer every time he appears.

1962 was a midterms election year. As a result, efforts to hide what was happening meant the President had to go on the campaign trail, much to his annoyance. It also made rounding up Congressional leaders very difficult on short notice. This was a time before cellphones and the Internet; communications were slow in ways younger people can’t begin to imagine.

Subsequently, the military buildup begins, the media starts sensing something is going on, and the Kennedy brothers float a dangerous idea that sends things spinning out of control. All the while the actions of the Soviets are a mystery to the Americans. A beleaguered JFK eventually is forced to go public with what is going on and a stunned public worries about World War III.

The reaction shot above right is cleaned up and colorized from actual media footage during the crisis. It is said a picture can say a thousand words and that face speaks volumes about how the public received the news.

The blossoming power of television is ever present in the movie. After all, Kennedy was our first “TV” president. Real footage of Walter Cronkite adds to the feeling of being there. Younger folks don’t know him, but that man was considered something close to being the voice of God to most Americans for decades. What he said was considered the absolute truth, not to be doubted or questioned. It isn’t something people in this more cynical time can relate to.

Weaving all the events with a very candid and personal look at JFK and RFK through Kenny O’Donnell’s eyes was a brilliant decision. Their humanity is ever present driving what could have been a very dry retelling of historical bullet points. People in power seem remote and more than human, but the reality is they aren’t that much different than us.

That isn’t to say the events are portrayed in a boring fashion. There are some very memorable scenes and the one that stood out to me the most was a low level reconnaissance run by two RF-8 Photo Crusaders over the missile sites being worked on. Between the political maneuvering around the mission and the intensely executed sequence you get a good impression of how everyone was walking on a razor’s edge of danger. The special effects here are superb, being a mix of the practical and computer generated that make for a thrilling run through the jungle at tree top level.

The verbal duel at the United Nations between the Soviet ambassador and Adlai Stevenson is another worthy scene out of many. Like most of the dialogue, it was taken verbatim or condensed from the records of the time. It is a moment of high drama watching a once powerful politician in the twilight of his career having to come through while the world was literally watching.

Once the naval “quarantine” is imposed by the United States, the tension mounts in the movie like it did in real life. Confusion reigns as conflicting messages are received from Premier Krushchev via teletype and a backdoor offer comes from a KGB spy to an ABC newsman.  The drums of war are beating and it seems like nothing can defuse the situation.

In the end, the “will of good men” saves the world from nuclear war. There can be no spoilers, since I’m sitting here typing this review. What a different world it would have been otherwise.

I particularly liked the ending of the movie at the O’Donnell residence as the kids react to their father finally breaking down now that things were over. Once again, showing the humanity of the participants in the crisis is what makes this a great movie.

Thoughts

Thirteen Days takes its title from the book written by Bobby Kennedy with that as the basis for some of what is portrayed. The bulk of Kenny O’Donnell’s side of things was derived from an interview he did in the late 60’s. More information and dialogue was taken from recordings of the meetings from the National Archives.

While meticulously factual, this is not an unbiased film since the makers of it are clear fans of the Kennedy’s. Watching it with the commentary track on reveals that very quickly and it is interesting to hear what conclusions they came to on the famous brothers. What’s more interesting is how I came to different conclusions from watching their final result. This is most likely because I am not a Boomer and never held the myth of modern day “Camelot” in high regard.

I did not find Jack or Bobby to be as strong as the film makers did. Much of the problems they faced were of their own creation due to showing weakness and ineptitude in dealing with the very complicated political landscape of the Cold War. That impression was reinforced by additional documentary features I’ll discuss later.

The fact I came to these conclusions actually pays tribute to just how honest they film makers were in producing Thirteen Days. They show the flaws of the Kennedy brothers without shying away from them, though some of these won’t be apparent to those viewers who don’t know the history of the time. From showing JFK being in chronic pain and popping pills to their foul mouthed tendencies, we get a relatively unvarnished view of the real men.

The excellent performances by Greenwood and Culp contribute immensely to this. Greenwood is closer to the JFK of myth in that he has a lower more authoritative voice and better looks than the real man. For the record, I don’t understand why anybody thought President Kennedy was good looking. Maybe it was the fact he had hair and it had been decades since we’d had a president with hair. As Bobby Kennedy, Culp simply becomes the man I’ve seen in historic interviews and footage.

I better not leave Kevin Costner out of the praises. His Kenny O’Donnell is the kind of guy that was needed to ground things. Through him we get a feeling of normalcy in what was a highly romanticized administration. It is a part Costner threw himself completely into and at one point during the early commentary he lapses into the Boston accent of the character without realizing it. It’s a superb performance from an often underrated actor.

There isn’t a bad performance in the sprawling cast. I get the sense everyone in the movie knew they were working on something special and put out their best effort. New Line Cinema lost money on this movie and probably knew they would. $34 million gross on an $80 million investment isn’t something studios are willing to do today.

Something that struck me on watching this that I hadn’t caught before. That is how the Roman Catholic faith is quietly present throughout the film with a couple of church scenes being the most obvious. But it is the phone call between Kenny and the U-2 pilot near the end of the movie that made me notice it. It is an exceptional scene made all the more so by what follows.

I highly recommend Thirteen Days with one warning. The PG-13 rating is earned exclusively due to the large amount of profanity in it. That prevents it from being a family friendly movie and while faithfully accurate to the records it wasn’t really needed. So parents, be aware of this and watch it before showing to children. It is an excellent movie and should be required viewing for anyone interested in history.

Technical

The movie is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen and is of superb visual quality. 5.1 Dolby Surround sound is well used when needed, but this is a talky movie.

What sets this DVD apart from any I’ve seen is the “infinifilm” option that allows you to watch it with popups you can click on to see more information. Include in this feature is documentary footage, interviews, making of details, extended and cut scenes, plus the standard actor resumes. All of these extend the film another extra hour plus but are well worth it.  To me the interviews with Nikita Krushchev’s son, Sergei, are the best part of the extras. Here you finally get the Soviet side of events and I never realized just how much of the Cuban Missile Crisis was directly controlled by Premier Krushchev.

The option to watch them separately from the movie is available on the DVD menus, but they suffer from being cut to be inserted into the film and do not flow on their own.

The commentary track is better than average though it suffers from redundancy with the “infinifilm” features. The film makers are relaxed and even develop a running joke throughout. Many times commentaries don’t really add to a movie, thankfully this is not the case here.

If watched on a PC, there are additional features that I didn’t check out including the ability to read the scripts while watching the film. Online extras are listed, but I didn’t check to see if they still worked.

Extra Screen Shots

Philippine Air Force F-5E Tiger’s and defunct F-8 Crusader’s were used in the flight line shots on location. Repainted to depict American aircraft they did a good job conveying the look of the period, though the F-5A only started production in 1962 for foreign countries. The F-5 program was saved by the Kennedy Administration so it is appropriate to have them in the film.

 

One thing the makers of the movie did that was interesting to me was the restoration and colorization of period footage. A lot of good views of military equipment rarely seen anymore. Check out the very rare McDonnell F3H-2 Demon fighters in the last shot.

The Debt Ceiling Mess

This it going to be a purely my point of view entry under the personal category. This way I have something written to look back on in the future. I’m getting the feeling events are history in the making with a capital H. So time to organize my thoughts for posterity.

The debt ceiling expansion is a political no win scenario for the Republican Party and possibly extremely damaging to President Obama. No matter what is passed it will not address the massive debt the government has accrued.

The Left can jack up taxes all they want and it won’t work. There is a phrase called “capital flight” and we’ll see the wealthy move what is left of their money overseas if this happens. That will not generate revenue or jobs here. No employers equal no jobs and the socialist model of all working for the government is unsustainable. The Twentieth Century proved that repeatedly.

Only harsh spending cuts will do any good at stimulating the economy, but that is impossible given two thirds of the government is under Democratic Party control. The House GOP freshmen have badly miscalculated what their real power is. So even if the Boehner plan is passed it will die in the Senate or be vetoed.

I’ve felt for some time we passed the point of no return vis a vis the national debt and that it is impossible to pay it off. Eventually it won’t be possible to borrow any more money, since Europe and Asia are in trouble too. The only thing allowing this charade of solvency to continue is that there is nowhere else for investors to move to than the dollar and US bonds.

Meanwhile, there is zero leadership being exhibited by Obama. His main concern is with kicking the ceiling issue down the road past November of 2012. Even raising taxes is secondary to getting reelected. Harry Reid is not much better. The Senate Democrats haven’t passed a budget in over 800 days. That’s years!

Many of my fellow Tea Party types want a default. Like the House GOP Caucus, they’ve badly overestimated their power in a split government. I don’t always agree with Charles Krauthammer, but his advice to focus on 2012 and taking the Senate is sage. But most in the Tea Party movement are political neophytes and believe taking a principled stand will win the day. Sorry, our government is far too corrupt for that to work.

The fiscal irresponsibility of decades by the Democrats and Republicans has gotten us here. So has the same irresponsibility of the citizens who have run up the same kind of debt. Right now many citizens are paying the price for their screwing up and it won’t be long until everyone will pay for the federal level screw ups.

I’ve often thought Wall Street and stock markets in general live in a fantasy world with little attachment to reality. The fact traders are just now tumbling to the idea there will be a default is a fascinating case of denial. It is much like both sides of the political aisle thinking the other is bluffing.

Default is coming in the future due to the way politics works. It is a matter of when, not if. It is also a matter of who will take the political blame. It doesn’t matter who is in the right or who was really responsible when the blame game begins for real. With a detached political class out of touch with the common man, frictions are going to grow until combustion happens. Why do I keep thinking about the aftermath of the French Revolution?  It isn’t a comforting reflection.

We are in a genuinely hopeless situation barring something utterly improbable and unpredictable happening. Instead of doing necessary things, we have political theater which is pretty much the norm when collapses happen. Neither the political class or the masses are willing to do what needs to be done.

I think it was Mark Twain who said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.” In this case, I think the Great Depression may not be the proper model. It may be more like the fall of an empire with a massive earthquake followed by many severe aftershocks rippling across the globe.

We haven’t hit the really bad parts yet. But it is so very galling seeing what is coming and knowing nobody will stop it. Procrastination goes hand in hand with corruption and this may be the most telegraphed disaster in recorded history. Why do we have to be so Epimethean rather than Promethean? Bet that’s been thought many times since the age of the ancient Greeks.

The sole comforting thought is that humanity has gone through all this many times and survived. The wheel of history keeps turning and people find a way to make it through the darkness. Eventually, light returns.

Major Tom

Forty two years ago the Apollo 11 Moon landing took place. It was the first of six manned landings with the last one in 1972.  That makes it nearly thirty nine years since a human last set foot on the Moon. There are no concrete plans to ever return.

This induces a feeling of melancholy in me, since I’ve been reading classic science fiction the last few years. Those wonderful books of adventure, especially those aimed at teens, predicted a vast new frontier to be conquered.  Most authors expected us to have large functional space stations and a lunar colony before the year 2000 rolled around.

But somewhere along the line we lost the spirit of adventure and exploration. Most likely it is the extreme wealth that has been generated in the West and developing parts of the globe that has ironically hampered this impulse. If we had really wanted to, those predicted things would have been made into reality.

I’ll concede that relying on governments to implement space programs is a huge culprit. Wasteful and always subject to the political whims of the moment, these bloated bureaucracies are rife with incompetence and  corruption. Perhaps if private corporations had been allowed to pioneer in the starry skies things would have been different.

Instead, man has to be content looking at the Moon through a telescope with no hope of touching its dusty surface. Our dreams have fled, drowned out in a cacophony of cellphones, Twitter, video games, and all the myriads of distractions of our day. We are too content and lazy to dare anymore.

This actually bothers me more than the financial doom that looms overhead.

A Tense World

I’m going to preface this post with a bit of whining.  It is annoying that I’ve had multiple grim postings on this blog and I’d rather be writing about more positive things.  It is time for me to do another review just to break the monotony, so my next post will be a long delayed review on a Smallville episode from last season.

On to the dark and dreary…

A Latter-day Saints bishop in Fresno was murdered yesterday after services by a stranger asking to see anyone in charge at the Visalia 2nd Ward.  My prayers go out to his family and congregation.  With all the Mormon bashing ramping up because of Prop 8 and Glenn Beck’s growing popularity, I wouldn’t be surprised if this doesn’t get classified as a hate crime.  But it could easily be a suicide by police situation given the gloomy economic times.

Speaking of Glenn Beck, I’m not a fan of his.  But I thought his “Restoring Honor” rally was a very good thing and am glad it wasn’t a political rally like the left made it out to be.  It was an old fashioned revival and correctly made the point that the people of America need to get their act together if anything good is to be done.  We certainly can’t rely on governments to be moral authorities.  Predictably, the political left have savaged the event and tried to paint it as racist.  They completely missed the point and that is very sad indeed.

Meanwhile, the West continues to be clueless as to how the Middle East actually operates.  While all cultures have difficulty understanding each other, the governments of the West perpetually assume that everyone else wants the same things we do.  Foolish is a word that barely begins to describe that assumption. Watching the jockeying in the Middle East with Iran and Turkey making a bid for dominant influence in the area is fascinating and underscores the fractured divisions weakening the Arab states.  With little Arab unity they are unable to resist their rivals influence.  Syria’s falling into Tehran's sphere of influence would have been unthinkable decades ago.  This interview of Jonathan Spyer by Michael Totten illustrates some of the problems with America and Europe’s view of the Middle East.  It is lengthy and worth every minute spent reading it.

Ever wondered what the United States looked like during the lead up to the Civil War?  A panorama of Cincinnati, Ohio’s waterfront has been scanned in from daguerreotype photos made in 1848 and put out for the public to see.  That type of photographic process is an amazing thing in itself and the detail that can be pulled from the old plates is incredible.  It makes me wonder what modern lenses combined with the old technology could do.

The Fall of Roman America

Is America repeating Western history? Victor Davis Hanson has an interesting piece up comparing the Roman Empire to the United States.

It isn’t uncommon to hear people talk about how America is going the same way Rome did.  I’ve muttered about ‘bread and circuses” and have heard others make similar statements. Obviously, it is easy to make comparisons based on military, economic, and political parallels with the phrase “pax Americana” having been bandied about in the past. Rome was a republic, had the best military of its time, and were an economic powerhouse; all things that the United States was in the 20th Century.

It is the latter comparison that is the crux of Hanson’s article.  After giving an overview of how Rome succeeded economically and then was emulated by conquered provinces and neighbors who eventually outstripped them, he points out how rising countries such as China and India are doing the same to us.  Romans became rich and sedate by farming out the work to the outer provinces; losing their innovation and fire in the process.

Quote of the piece:

But as in the case of Rome, there is a price for all these sudden riches. Just as the Iberians, and Libyans, and Thracians were hungrier and more enterprising than Italians back in the bay of Naples, so too we, the beneficiaries of this wealth, lost the values that were at its heart, in a way that the Indians, Chinese, and others have not — yet.

Of late, I’ve had that horrible feeling of living history from within a failing culture.  Always wondered what it would be like to witness such a thing firsthand and I’m not too pleased at realizing I’m living it now. Like VDH, I think it is caused by psychological decisions and was preventable – maybe even reversible if we just had the will to take action.  But he puts it better than I can:

We could do this all right — but too many feel such medicine is worse than the malady, and so we probably won’t and can’t. An enjoyable slow decline is apparently  preferable to a short, but painful rethinking and rebirth.

That stubborn refusal to bite the bullet and do what is uncomfortable is normal for humans.  In our spoiled and entitled culture there is no desire to make personal sacrifices. Oh, we are good at making other people make sacrifices; usually through expanding government. Alas, being unselfish is a lost virtue.

Read the whole thing.

 

 

del.icio.us Tags: Rome,fall,America,Victor Davis Hanson,history repeats

Odds and Ends for the Weekend

Haven’t been feeling very well and it has killed my writing the last few weeks.  Adding insult to injury, I broke a tooth 5 minutes before the local dentist closed for the weekend and have to wait until Monday to get something done.

Anyway, I ran into quite a few interesting things on the Net during all this and will put them in this post while I plot out a rather large one on the very bad economic news this month.

First up is a low budget docudrama aimed at educating kids about the Battle of Bunker Hill.  Since we live in a very visual age, I think the idea for the whole series has a great deal of merit.

Next is a fascinating find of the earliest known Hebrew writing. It dates 400 years earlier than the previously oldest Hebrew discovered and suggests the Old Testament is well, older than thought.  The content is very much like the scriptures and contains commandments on how to treat orphans, the poor, and slaves.

Ever buy expensive running shoes?  That may be making a fundamental mistake about running if this article is correct.  All I can say is that is my natural way of walking when barefoot so I wouldn’t be surprised if the theory pans out. No matter what, the prices commanded by these shoes is ludicrous.

Finally, a cautionary story about how success can corrupt the creative process to the point of destroying a project.  Duke Nukem 3D was a hugely successful videogame released in 1996 and the sequel was promised almost immediately.  Last year it was cancelled after an insanely prolonged development that showed no sign of completion. At least it no longer is the king of vaporware!

Bloodhound to Run 1000 mph

Except this is no dog, this is a car.  The Brits who officially broke the sound barrier on wheels 12 years ago are back with a project to go 1,000 mph in South Africa.  The SSC Thrust hit 763 mph for an average using two jet fighter engines but that isn’t enough now that others want to break the record.  With a hybrid rocket motor this project is aimed at more than setting an amazing record.  They are hoping the involvement of schools and universities will have an effect like the Apollo moon shots did back in the 1960’s by bringing in more students into science degrees.

Quote of the article:

Put it this way, if you fired what used to be the most powerful handgun in the world, Dirty Harry's .44 Magnum, at the tail of the rocket/jet car as it passed and Green toggled the 20,500lb thrust hybrid rocket as the revolver went off, the bullet would never hit the car.

I wonder how big a speeding ticket he’d get for that?

But seriously, I’m skeptical they can do it because the low level speed record for an aircraft is only 994 mph.  An aircraft has a lot less friction to deal with -- not only involving air but with no energy being lost to contact with the ground. The other thing worrying is the dual engine concept with a jet engine and a hybrid rocket motor.  That won’t be the easiest thing to work out. It reminds me of Chuck Yeager’s flight in a similarly augmented NF-104A Starfighter that ended in a crash so vividly depicted in The Right Stuff.

Speaking of Starfighters, I’m looking forward to seeing if the North American Eagle team can break 800 mph with an adapted F-104 Starfighter fuselage on wheels. Being very fond of the F-104 in all its incarnations, I’m rooting for their success.  They’ve been ramping up test runs and have run into some problems lately but it doesn’t look project threatening.

Most people don’t know of it, but back in 1979 Stan Barret broke the sound barrier in the Budweiser Rocket Car built by Hal Needham’s team.  Sadly, the first supersonic car run couldn’t be recognized because it had three wheels and only did a one way trip.   Check out the story at YouTube:

Aerial Recon Photos from WWII

I saw this at the Telegraph and had to share, the photos are amazing.  In the US, the motto “Unarmed, Alone, and Unafraid'” was used by photoreconnaissance squadrons as they flew incredibly dangerous missions.  Usually they flew solo with no weaponry, relying on speed and surprise to stay alive.  The pictures of Operation Market Garden and the D-Day landings are particularly compelling.

Oh Joy, History Repeats Itself

When Hitler decided he wanted to invade Poland, he sent SS troops dressed as Polish soldiers to attack German outposts on the border. With this false flag attack, the Nazi regime had their justification to go to war -- after all, those villainous Poles had attacked the Fatherland! So how does this relate to the title of the post?

I believe history repeats itself as variations of a theme, as composers have done their own takes on other compositions. Much of the tune stays the same, but enough changes to make the new version distinct. Today we have a struggle against an ever encroaching government and those who wish to keep their constitutional rights. The current administration is a product of the Chicago political machine, which means anything is allowed against opponents. Think mafia, because organized crime is a big part of the machine.

So we've seen SEIU goons beat Ken Gladney down and shove a camera in the face of a woman capturing their thuggery. That's the obvious behavior that the ObamaCare supporters had hoped would go the other way for propaganda purposes. Then there is the more sly method of propaganda staging.

Much ado has been made by Nancy Pelosi and others about the swastika's and Hitler pictures at the Tea Parties, with an inference of the protesters being Nazi racists themselves. It has been carefully worded to make that impact, while retaining the core of truth that the signs were depicting Obama and company as the Nazi's. At the Tea Parties I've attended, I haven't seen any and the comparison has been to the communists. That isn't to say there haven't been comparisons or signs elsewhere.

But look at this, we have a bonafide false flag operation being run by Democratic Representative John Dingall's supporters. Having someone carry that around and then hand out lit pieces for Dingall afterward smacks of complete arrogance. Or is it just the security of knowing the media will cover up for you? Still, the purpose is clear, to justify continued verbal demonization of the opposition to the health care bill.

So we have false flag operations going on, as I'm sure this isn't an isolated case, plus we unions being used to pack townhalls to prevent dissent. It may be the Chicago way, but it isn't the American way.

It's like they want a war.

Whither Moderate Islam?

For years, we've been hearing from the media about all the moderate Muslims who only want peace, but are made to look bad by the extremists. As I've delved more into Islam in an effort to understand the current world situation, it became apparent that the more devout the Muslim, the more true to the Koran and the Hadiths, the more likely to be intolerant and violent toward non-Muslims that Muslim will be. So reading this article at The Washinton Post, I felt sorrow because of the fact that American Muslims are not assimilating, but are actually separating themselves from the rest of America. The oft reviled "melting pot" is what made the USA such a strong and vibrant free society, with a marketplace of ideas and beliefs bouncing off of each other in creative fermentation. We can see in Africa and the Middle East how tribalism keeps violence alive in a perpetual cycle with no end in sight. Over in Europe, we have unassimilated Muslims poised to be the majority around the middle of the century, if not earlier. Forced conversion and conquest are integral parts of the religion since its founding, with dreams of the worldwide caliphate still strong. Lately the terrorist threats being stopped have been from "home grown" Muslims in the USA, UK, and Germany, not from Saudi Arabia or Egypt like the hijackers of 9/11. So reading about the Muslims here becoming more like the Muslims in Europe is alarming to say the least.

Most people don't want to face it, but we are in an epic clash of cultures that most likely won't be resolved peacefully unless Islam itself changes radically. Given that change is forbidden by Islam (there are those who bend the rules, but the reality is everything is supposed to be set in stone), I don't see it happening anytime soon. We are seeing the Muslim world grow more fundamentalist thanks to the petrodollars of Saudi Arabia funding madrassas around the globe. Malaysia and Indonesia are getting more intolerant of other religions with the classic blame the Jews meme being repeated over and over. In Thailand, Muslims are killing schoolgirls walking to school and leaving their heads at the roadside, all in the name of Allah.

As time goes on, we either successfully weaken Islamic fundamentalism with democratic ideals or we face what is really coming. It is something that nobody wants to think about, something that most are doing their best to avoid talking about. And what is it? War on a scale that has never before been seen in the modern era. Something that makes WWI and WW2 look like Sunday picnics. It will be a war of survival for the West and it will have to be won. Otherwise, we will be seeing our women in burkas and praying toward Mecca five times a day. Not pleasant thoughts at all, but something that has been brewing since the 6th century. Me, I'd like to avoid it, which is why I support our efforts in Iraq and wish we could stop Iran developing nuclear weapons.

If the clash does develop the way I think it will, it won't be the end of the world. It will be catastrophic, but the West has been through that kind of thing before with rampaging hordes of Ghengis Khan and the earlier attempts by Islam to conquer Europe. Even earlier, the Persians (we call them Iranians these days) were turned back by the combined city states of Greece. That war was notable for the famous last stand of a badly outnumbered contingent of 300 Spartans and several thousand supporting troops from other areas against at least 100,000 Persians. They did what had to be done to save all of Greece and I hope that we will be brave enough to do the same for Western culture and Judeo-Christian values when the time comes. Great sacrifice will be required and I fear that we have become terribly weak.

If you want to understand what happened with the Spartans, I have to plug a brilliant novel about the battle of Thermoplyae, Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield.

It's a pity Hollywood will never adapt it, mainly because of the carnage involved and a non-Hollywood ending, but it is a great depiction of honor and duty, two things not taught enough these days. Instead we get The 300 adapted from Frank Miller's graphic novel, complete with gratuitous sex and surreal orc like villains. Ah, well.

Hate

As I've grown older and gotten personally involved in politics, I've noticed a trend that has been gaining steam of late. That trend is the use of the word "hate", usually in relation to those who oppose your politics. Occasionally, I see it on the Republican and conservative side, but most often it comes from the mouths of those on the left, especially Democrats. It usually comes out in the form, "I hate Bush, he's destroying our country." Lately, I've seen it spread to other Republicans, especially relating to incumbents in Minnesota. What used to be mainly confined to Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) has been applied to the governor and others without any hesitation or real thought. I fail to see any good coming out of this behavior as it polarizes things even further.

But perhaps polarization is what the DNC wants after losing three elections in a row. When Howard Dean said, "I hate Republicans and everything they stand for," it became a defining moment for the direction of the Democratic Party. Instead of reaching out to the middle ground, they didn't just drift toward the far left, they ran screaming to it. Hmm, maybe that's why they wanted Dean to be chairman. The recent ouster of Joe Lieberman in Connecticut's Democratic primary is further evidence of the radicalization going on. Because of his pro-Iraq war, pro-security stance, they railroaded him out of the party despite having a liberal voting record that equals Ted Kennedy! That is plain stupid, as Joe will easily win re-election as an independent. But that is only the beginning, take a gander at Michael Moore's threat to Hillary Clinton here.

This reckless rhetoric is a danger to those moderate Democrats who are still in with the other Donkeys. Right now, it looks like they are getting kicked around by the party base which has abandoned all common sense, not to mention the common folk that make up the majority of our country. So what does all this have to do with the word "hate"?

Hatred is a base, primal emotion that leads to rash decisions (or more accurately, reactions) when confronted with any kind of opposition. What I've been seeing is people reacting emotionally more than carefully contemplating issues. So they say they hate a candidate, usually on one issue and only based on a surface understanding of what is going on. The kicker is that they don't want to hear the facts and don't want to know the context because they enjoy the anger. Anger can be highly addictive and I have known a people who admitted to enjoying being angry.

Many people have a "fight or flight" reaction to anger and that is why the word "hate" is especially dangerous. People will react fearfully in some cases, being cowed and bullied, while others will greet hatred with hatred. Both are dangerous outcomes, with the latter the worst, as it can spiral into a tit-for-tat escalation. I'm getting the uncomfortable feeling we have entered an era much like that of the 1830's, when growing divisions started to ferment into the cauldron that became the Civil War a mere thirty years later.

It takes a great deal of self discipline and true sense of caring about others not to reciprocate hate. Both these attributes are in decline in our society, as the basic family structure has eroded since the 1960's. We learn diplomacy in families, we learn to love those we don't necessarily like, and we learn our morals from our parents. With a solid family foundation missing so often these days, people go out into our communities with an attitude of "me first" and an inability to see the needs of the greater good. Of course this is a generalization, but looking at how people treat each other now compared to when I was growing up, there has been a stark change.

Hate is getting in the way of open dialogue and I wish people would think before they bandied that word around. Nothing constructive can come of it. We need at least a thin veneer of civility in order to work together and it isn't that hard to do, is it? United we stand, divided we fall... And we have too many threats in the world coming at us now and in the future. Me, I'm refusing to hate any politician as my small contribution to America.