immigration talk

With all the hubbub about the large marches that happened this weekend and the stupid marches by high school students still going on, I felt I had to opine. Mainly, since everybody is stating that Latinos (ie Mexicans) are "taking jobs that Americans don't want" can we now safely do away with the welfare system? Since Americans now have the option of eschewing work because they feel it is beneath them, do we really need to subsidize them and their life-style decisions? It only makes sense to me that if we actually have 12 million illegals doing these menial jobs, then there are jobs to be found. Think about it and try and tell me that this question doesn't really reveal a lack of candor about the whole debate (and the welfare system).

the joy of sharia

I wish that this weren't true. Actually kind of funny. Sad when one is so literal.

immigration march

I would feel a lot better about this march if any of the marchers had acknowledged the difference between legal and illegal entry into this country. Yes, my ancestors immigrated into the US. My ancestors also did so legally and quickly assimilated into the dominant culture. If these marches would demand the same thing, I would be much more sympathetic.

higher education

Colleges are rapidly becoming jokes. The taliban at Yale story isn't surprising given the amount of multi-cultural, western-civ hating Marxists running through the formerly prestigious halls of our universities. During grad school I often wondered if I were being taught or attacked. It's sad to see how fall and how quickly things have fallen.

this isn't new

No, the fact that I've gone a while without writing is no shock. And why shouldn't it be? I have honestly had nothing to write about lately, plus I've been busier than Bill Clinton in the oval office. Holding the full-time job, going to school, hope to learn web design at some point in the future, and had a site made for writing copy, check out www.mc-copy.com. Doing some work in it right now, hope to make it a full-time gig within a year. Combine that with web design and right there and boom, you see where my career is heading. Quite exciting.

There have been no shocking stories lately. I can't locate the study that showed whiny, overly dependent children being conservative and self-reliant, confident children to be liberal. The study was done in the unofficial war protest capital of Berkeley and it actually made me laugh. If I can find the article, I'll link it. But I really hope conservatives don't get upset by it, you really have to take it at face value.

Aside from that, I browse through article headlines but I haven't been following politics like my brother. And I don't get outraged when I hear the garbage the left is spewing these days, it's old news.

So I don't know if I'm uninspired right now as much as my mind is in other places. I've been pretty happy lately, so I really don't feel the rant. But don't worry, something will send me over the edge and have me adding more rhetoric to the ever popular Muller Brothers site.

I fear this will grow rather than shrink

Reports that Neo-Nazi's intend to turn this year's World Cup into a blood-bath should not be taken lightly. It is thoroughly depressing to think that we gave the lives of almost a half million men to rid the world of this and a similar (i.e. Japan) menace. These thugs need to be stopped, but I am afraid Europe doesn't have the fortitude for it.
What is even more depressing is that it needn't be this way. Europe is being radicalized in a way we can't fathom in the US (yes, I have travelled often to Europe and have many friends there who say the same thing, so don't accuse me of being a provincial American). The problem arises from two facts: the youth can't find jobs or disdains them and masses of unassimilated immigrants are menacing Europe in a way it has never known. Europe has let in millions of Muslims, and not only has it made no effort to assimilate them, it actually glorifies their culture whilst denigrating its own (google the 1977 Strasbourg Concord). When pressed with economic depression (to which they are very close-25% unemployment for youth), Europe tends to go nuts. The last 60 years that has manifested itself in Communist and Socialist politicians rather than the far right. However, they usually were too inept or corrupt to do any Soviet style destruction, so Europe just chugged along. This all changed with the advent of mass immigration from Muslim countries.
The average European sees their culture seamingly falling apart where the authorities are terrified to do anything about the festering problem of unassimilated Muslims besides build them new mosques. Many neighborhoods in Europe are now verboten to the police. To the police!!! Sharia is being implemented in many of these neighborhoods and the government does nothing. A clash of cultures between the East and West is being waged in the banelieus (sp) and Europe's leaders refuse to stand up for their own culture. When people feel that their government is not protecting them, they tend to try and take matters into their own hands. It's usually destructive, random and full of malice. I'm not excusing the Neo-Nazi thugs. Far from it. What I'm saying is that Europe's elites have been ignoring the problem for about three decades and as the conflict escalates, people will take more and more radical paths.
Government's first job is to protect it's people, not provide them jobs or health care or homes. When government fails in its primary role and also fails in its secondary roles, people, especially Europeans will look to the extremes of the political landscape. As much as it saddens me, I expect much more blood to flow in Europe in the years to come.

thoughts about moderation

I was musing whilst looking at an article linked by the inestimably great www.gatewaypundit.blogspot.com (point of disclosure: he's a St. Louis guy and an internet friend) of some women in the chador juxtaposed with a Western protest (maybe Ukraine, I don't know) where men and women freely mixed and it made me start thinking about the way that society treats women in both, ie usually pretty immoderately.
Sex is a powerful thing and, let's by totally frank, women are the gatekeepers. That is not to say we men are helpless walking phalli, but women usually control when and where coitus occurs. Islam has dealt with this power by almost completely obliterating it by subordinating women in every aspect from divorce to beatings to polygamy and most infamously displayed by the veil. It is not a very nuanced way of acknowledging the inherent power and beauty of women (and it's a damn shame because Persian women are amongst the hottest in the world) and reeks of insecurity and helplessness.
We in the west, in my opinion, haven't a much more nuanced attitude towards sex and women. The current strain of thought is that women are exactly like men, as best typified by "Sex and the City" and the "Vagina Monologues" exept that we have different reproductive parts. There is almost no thought that women are equal but different than men. There is no acknowledgment of the unique and miraculous role that woman, and woman alone, play in childbirth and child nurturing. We have taken sex and, instead of acknowledging its power, we act as though it's no big deal. Furthermore, the corrollary of this is that we act as though motherhood is only a "lifestyle" choice no different than becoming a doctor or teacher. Both are extreme positions, the utter breaking of the woman in Islam and the utter debasing of their sexuality and motherhood in the West.
I don't know if we ever got it right, but it seems as though the Golden Mean no longer exists in society. People seemed doomed to take things to their logical extreme rather than say there are times where we must say "stop." This could be said of abortion, war, the death penalty, taxes, or relationships. We need to study up on our Greek culture, where the Golden Mean was first proffered, if we truly are to tackle the infinitely complex issues we face today. Sex is one of them, and, some would say, the most vital.

reading

I just read Oriani Fallaci's "The Rage and the Pride." Moving, powerful, no holds barred stuff. What shocked me was not the plentiful invective spewed towards the islamic terrorists, but the fulsome condemnation of the intellectual and ruling classes of Europe which have allowed these cretins to reside in their countries with the express reason of destroying them. It is a profound wake up call for those who wish to see Western civilization live and thrive in the new millenium.
A person on some left-wing blog (I don't remember which) stated something along the lines that since we westerners believe that Islamic societies are so primitive, why do we fear them? Fallaci correctly writes that it doesn't take the technical genius of creating to co-opt and use a technology for ill ends. Rome wasn't conquered by a greater society, but by primitive, tree-worshiping, bear-skin clad Germans. Remember that when one looks down their nose at the uncouth proveyors of Jihad.

sorry

Blogging has been very light lately. Between the death of my grandmother and buying a new house, I've been swamped. I promise to be better.

France is doomed

These are the best and brightest in France? Rioting because they may have the possibility of getting fired the first two years of employment?! What is wrong with these people. In a real society, one always faces the risk of being fired and avoids it, not by gathering in mobs and skirmishing with the police, but by workng hard and making oneself valuable to the company. American students at least have the decency to stay drunk during college. The spirit of '68 is slowly rotting the core of European self-reliance.

Clooney is a loon.

Displaying why the Democrats have won the hearts and minds of America, Clooney unleashes with his usual rapier wit: "F— you!" (George Clooney has a message for Democratic office-holders who voted for the war in Iraq, only to claim later that they'd been misled by President Bush)
This guy is a clown. Does he really think that anybody should take him seriously. The fact that he thinks he has somehow done something brave in making two lame, anachronistic yawners in the face of the oppressive, evil Bush regime is pathetic. I feel sorry for the moderate, dwindling Democrats who care about national security that guys like him are becoming the mouthpiece of their party. Keep diggin, George and when the Democrats are so far out of the mainstream that you can't win dog-catcher, you can reward yourself with being out of touch with the filthy hoi poloi.

Long live Steyn!

Mark Steyn is being taken off Britain's papers. He was on the Telegraph and the Spectator and was unceremoniously dropped for some reason. It's a dark day for Britain when even the right-wing Telegraph is too scared to publish the one lucid writer in England (ok, so he spends most of his time in the USA). Luckily we still have him at www.steynonline.com and the chicago sun. Hey, post-disgrace, why don't you start running him? He's only the most witty, hard-hitting and intelligent writer in the world who somehow manages to write as an insider for about ten different countries.

Rest In Peace, Catherine Muller

As Joe noted, our younger grandmother passed away peacefully in Des Peres hospital on Friday, the 10th. She was 85, not 87 (get YOUR facts straight Joe). I will try to find a picture of her and post it ASAP.

Grandma was always good to me. As a child, I remember spending the night over there and she'd always make carmel popcorn. She was always there for holidays, birthdays, everything. I remember a time about two years ago, my parents were out of town and as a treat, my grandparents took me out to dinner cause they knew I was home by myself. It's little moments in life that become bigger as you grow older, and people pass on.

This is the 3rd "oldtimer" to pass away on my dads side of the family to pass away in the past three years. 2 years old, it was my great uncle Hank, who I got to know when I did housework for him. Always had weight problems but was lucid till the day he died. He was 83.

Last year, it was great aunt Aurelia. Poor woman, she had dimentia and was pretty much out of it for the last few years of her life. She was my grandmas sister and was 90 at the time of her passing.

Now it's grandmas turn. It's weird because as a child, I got so used to seeing all these people at family functions, get togethers; they were all mainstays in our life. One by one, they continue to pass away. As they die, you realize they had an impact on your life, even if you didn't realize it as a child.

I'm fortunate in the fact that on each side of the family, I have cousins, aunts, cousin in laws that I'm close with. It doesn't mean I see them everyday, or even every week. But I do enjoy their presence thoroughly and appreciate the fact that I have relatives that are not only good people, but they are good friends of mine. Most people are not born with such a wonderful family and I'm thankful that I was born into such a family, someone above has been looking out for me.

I will miss grandma but am glad that she longer has to suffer from an ailing heart. But I am happy for the relationship I had with her and have nothing but good things to say about her. I hope my grandpa is able to stay strong after this. He's 85 but still healthy and hope he stays with us for many years to come.

just so everybody knows

The grandmother that I spoke of and the one that turned 100 are two different women. My grandmother in ICU is 87 years old. The other grandmother will outlive us all. For the record, she buried four children (one stillborn), not three. Get your facts straight!

blogging will be light(er)

my grandmother is probably dying, so I might be taking a few days off, or at least the afternoon.

I will leave you with this article. See, St. Louis doesn't suck anymore and is turning into the first rate city it should be. About bloody time. For all those haters out there, I told you so.

where have I been?

Hello everyone, it's been sometime since I've opined, so I wanted to give a hello to everyone. I've been busy as heck with work, copywriting projects (hoping for paying ones soon), school and trying not to get sick. Haven't really been paying attention to the world this past week but I'm sure it's been crazy.

My grandmother turned 100 last weekend, pretty remarkable. She's funny because a few months back, a woman asked her for her age and she said 99. The woman responded with "you don't look a day over 80." My grandma, in her infinite wisdom, joked "I never thought looking 80 would be a complement." Quite a woman and a source of inspiration for me, no doubt.

But think about that, 100 years old. Teddy Roosevelt was president at the time. Women didn't have the right to vote. Streetcars, not automobiles, ruled the day in big cities. My grandmother has witnessed WW1, the Great Depression (and was raising a large family at the time) WW2, The Korean War, Vietnam, and both Gulf Wars. It's pretty astounding how lucid she is at her old age and I honestly think she's hit a point where she isn't aging anymore.

She's had to bury three of her children, plus her husband, so she's developed a thick skin through the years. She has always been a woman of faith, prays the rosary every night, and never cared much for doctors; she thought good nutrition and trust in God would take her further.

I'll post a picture of her once I find one on the computer; after all, she doesn't look a day over 80.

why politicians are crazy

I had originally proposed a long essay on the nature of government and it's corrupting influence. However, upon much reflection and more than a few aborted starts, I realized that the question can be boiled down to a simple concept: power. Governments entail a purposeful restriction upon our autonomy to provide for things we cannot provide ourselves. The first and foremost of these things provided is protection of our rights. But, essentially, gov't is about power. The power to enforce and to shape laws.
Ultimately, that power devolves into two seperate manifestations, the power to tax and the power to punish. It is no surprise that Lord Actum's saying "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" is so universally true. People are imperfect creatures and after awhile create reasons why they deserve this power. They delude themselves into thinking that theirs is a higher purpose, and that any sort of malfeasance is justified in the name of their goal. The consent of the governed is lost very quickly in the rush to justify one having power to shape society, jail human beings and make laws. That is why limited gov't is indeed best. The temptation to weild power is lessened when the power is lessened. The rationalizations explaing having to make decisions costing billions of dollars and affecting millions of people become less fantastical and byzantine. Most importantly, a sort of humility is convey to the politician, who not having to inflate themselves to ubermensch proportions can simply consider themselves servants of the people in the grand tradition of Harry Truman. I sometimes think that humility is the most important and most gallingly lacking attributes in politicians. Perhaps we have raised the stakes so high and made the decisions so powerful that we are stranded with the power-hungry, the venial and the corrupt?

random thought for the day

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and the lowest form of comedy. Think about it.

great article about European impotence

It's not written by a smug American, but an honest European.

stolen copy of a Jay Bennish geography quiz.

Awesome I think a few quizzes similar to this in college when obtaining a history degree.

I can't stand trial lawyers

Got this off Drudge. Where in the world is our society when being humiliated is an offense worthy of a law-suit? I have a lot of sympathy for this woman for her mental condition, but I hope she loses this suit and has to endure more "mental anguish." If not, I'm suing Becky Rink for turning me down in the 7th grade and causing me pain and humiliation. People really need some thicker skin, and to stop looking at life's problems as a chance to cash in from a big corporation. Sheesh.

Churchill - enough said

It is the anniversary in two days of one of Churchill's greatest speeches, the "iron curtain" speech at Fulton, Missouri. Here is a copy of the transcript. Typical brilliance from the greatest man of the 20th century. Where is our Churchill now to rouse our spirits, give us clarity about the world and impart a backbone to the civilized world?

Jimmy Carter delenda est

Jimmy Carter should just stay in the oppressive countries where he feels more comfortable. He would lie down with a den of vipers if they were sufficiently anti-American. Just go away, Jimmy, just go away.

Rummy pays tribute to Truman

Donald Rumsfeld recently visited the Truman library and paid homage to our 33th president, Mr. Harry S. Truman (no, not the one from Twin Peaks).

Mr Rumsfeld had nothing but praise for Truman, calling him a man that took "truly historic steps that have had a lasting effect on the nation and the world." Rumsfeld visited Trumans grave and talked about the low popularity Truman experienced during his tenure, namely due to the controversial decisions he was forced to make.

I respect Rumsfeld for paying tribute to the man. Truman was president when the world was at an impasse. Was democracy going to work in Europe and Japan? How far was the Soviet Union going to expand? Truman will always be remembered for "losing China" and firing Douglas MacArthur. Along with the "forgotten" Korean War, I consider these the biggest blunders of the Truman era (along with giving any power to Dean Acheson).

However, as we look back in history, we'll find that Truman was one of our bravest and most important presidents. Yes, he helped end World War 2, but without the Marshall Plan afterwards, it's uncertain how democracy would have worked in Europe (and MP was pivotal in rebuilding London). I'm not a big fan of subsidizing countries with government programs, I'm sure most of the money was squandered by blowhard bureaucrats. But it was something that had to be done.

Truman ended WW2, lowered FDRs ultra high taxes, supported Korea, Japan, and Greece against Russia (though I wonder what kind of health care the Soviet Union would have provided). But then he was the same man that essentially handed Poland over to Stalin. I'm not sure he understood the full ambition of the Soviet Union, which is why he practiced containment.

So for every good thing about Truman, you can find a major mistake he made. But the thing I admire about the man is he wasn't afraid to take a stand. Take the MacArthur firing. MacArthur was popular with the American people but Truman felt the man was being insubordinate and had to go. Not a good move but it's what Truman felt was the right thing.

The bottom line is that Truman always tried to do what was in the best interest of the US. Dropping the bomb is still debated today but Truman felt it was necessary to end the war. And unfortunately, we must deal with some of his mistakes today (namely, China).

Yet, unlike the modern left, he wasn't afraid of using military strength and was a proponent of democracy. Japan wouldn't be a world class nation were in not for Truman and MacArthur. I don't know what kinds of decisions the man would be making today in the fight against terror. My guess is that he wouldn't be taking advice from Jimmy Carter.

I'm sick today

and, unlike other bloggers when they get sick, I'll be posting more, not less. Perhaps it's because I have a job that when I get sick, I have a little free time.

In case you haven't seen this, check it out and laugh your ass off.

let's see if this gets any press over here.

Here they are, moderate Islam, intellectuals, thinkers, those who have lived under totalitarian Islam. This is what they have to say. See how fast the MSM ignores this.