Random Thoughts. Just Random Thoughts...

Havent posted online for a little while, but I've had a lot of thoughts rolling around in my head the last couple of weeks.... such as:

If you have to be better-than-good to get a prime-time television spot, and if TV time is so precious and expensive, and as we’re often told, why does MSNBC’s Keith Olberman still have a show on TV ?

Actually, I wonder the same thing about Larry King sometimes.

Then again, we live in a culture where more people know who Paris Hilton is, than who Hugo Chavez is. So maybe nothing should surprise me. (Hugo Chavez, by the way, is the Venezuelan president/dictator. But you knew that, of course.)

Interestingly, defenders of Hugo Chavez like to remind us that he was “democratically elected” as leader of his country. Then again, so was Adolf Hitler, so maybe that’s not saying much.

I wonder if the media will ever admit that Bush was right when he made that "Axis of Evil" comment about Iraq, (nuclear) North Korea, and (soon to be nuclear) Iran? Say what you will about Bush’s handling of certain issues, but the fact is, the man really “gets it” when it comes to understanding the security dangers we, as a nation, face. And the fact is, too many of his critics really don’t really get it at all. Maybe after the next terrorist attack they will.

Iran’s president is not just a maniac driven by hatred of Israel and the West. He’s driven also by his adherence to the doctrine of the 12^th Imam, a key teaching in Shiite Islam, with apocalyptic implications. Why don’t the media report on this angle? Nuclear weapons in the hands of a fundamentalist maniac who thinks he’s doing Allah’s will… coming soon. The way things look now, it’s not a question of “if” Iran will go nuclear; it’s a question of “when”

Lou Dobbs of CNN should win an award for his coverage of the illegal immigration issue. But of course, he probably won’t.

After all that blather and bluster of not too long ago, (nuclear) North Korea has gotten rather quiet lately, in case you haven’t noticed. Makes me wonder what they’re up to.

Iran is a supporter of terrorism (see Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad). Iran is nuclear-capable. What happens if Iran passes off a few containers of nuclear materials to these terrorist groups it supports? The possibilities are scary, to say the least. But Michael Moore thinks “there is no war on terror”, and John Edwards says the war on terror is simply a “bumper sticker”.

But of course, some liberals don’t even like the use the term terrorist. "Too judgmental", they say. Such a position is so amazingly stupid, it’s just breathtaking.

Why is it that in some oil-producing nations, their people have a good standard of living (Kuwait, for example) , while in others like Nigeria and Mexico, poverty is so widespread?

And on that note, why don’t people pay attention to the fact that illegal immigration into the U.S. is a convenient way for Mexico to be accountable for the way it has failed its own people economically? After all, it’s not the Mexican nurses, accountants, and other professionals who are coming over here in droves. It’s the desperately and hopelessly poor of Mexico, of which there are many. Mexico’s corruption and mismanagement of its economy is something you don’t hear discussed very often. I wonder why?

Mexico doesn’t want us to block their people who attempt to cross our border with them. But at the same time they have armed border guards preventing Nicaraguans from crossing the Nicaragua/Mexico border. The word quickly “hypocrisy” comes to mind here, but maybe that’s just me.

Is American on its way to becoming a bilingual nation (English/Spanish) they way Canada is (English/French)? I wonder sometimes. Anyway...

(Random thoughts. Just some random thoughts…). Thanks for stopping by.

Wife Who Killed Preacher Set Free

Amazing. This story has me so mad, I can barely express it. Preacher's wife kills him, then walks after 7 months. Part of the reason she ended up getting a light sentence is because during her defense she claimed to have been abused by her husband (although she never filed a single complaint against him during the time of her so-called abuse) . Then, after smearing his name during her trial , she gets to plead to a lesser charge, and after 7 months, now she's a free woman. Of course, she also wants to seek custody of the couples' three kids, after blowing their father away... in his sleep!

(CNN) -- After spending a total of seven months in custody, the Tennessee woman who fatally shot her preacher husband in the back was released on Tuesday, her lawyer told CNN. Mary Winkler, a 33-year-old mother of three girls, was freed from a Tennessee mental health facility where she was treated for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, lawyer Steve Farese said.

Are you kidding me? "Injustice" is the first word that comes to mind. But beyond that, there's a clear element of gender bias here. Let me ask this, have you ever seen a case where a man killed his wife, admitted it, got convicted for it, then walked away after only 7 months in jail? Then again, the "I was abused" murder defense doesn't really work as well for men now, does it?

15 Months to Go??!! My Early Impressions of the 2008 Race.

Ok. Its a long election season. Too long. The campaign and the debates started way too soon, and frankly, in the end, it doesn't even matter to me who wins. I know who I want to win, but to me, the Democrats and the Republicans will both end up destroying America as we know it, just in different ways. But that being said, and after browsing a few political websites today, including one of my favorites, TownHall.com, I decided to put down some of my early thoughts on this campaign, especially in light of the Barack Obama phenomenon that's getting so much buzz lately.

I remember in the 2004 campaign, Howard Dean was the hot flavor of he month, with all this grassroots internet support, etc.. and seemingly cruising to the nomination. Some guy named John Kerry was a virtual afterthought. Remember how quickly things turned around. Before you knew it, JK was the front runner and Howard Dean became an also-ran.

I predict the same thing for this Obama in 08. Sure he's hot right now, but the more he speaks, the more he'll expose himself as an inexperienced lightweight. Just give him time. Hillary is much smarter than he is politically. I predict she'll probably pick Bill Richardson because he's Hispanic. The Democrats already will get 90% of the black vote so Obama doesn't really bring votes to the table like Bill Richardson does.

My early prediction... Hillary and Bill Richardson vs. Giuliani and Fred Thompson. I think Richardson will carry the Hispanic vote and help the Democrats to win. Of course, I don't want them to win, but if they play their cards carefully, this election seems to be theirs to lose.

Of course, Al Gore "should" have won in 2000 and didn't. Then John Kerry "should" have won in 2004 and didn't. So, since the Democrats have shown themselves to be skilled at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, there might still be some hope for us conservative folks in '08. Time will tell.

Lutherans to allow pastors in gay relationships

The madness continues. It's reported today that the 4.8 million member Lutheran Church in America denomination has voted to allow clergy members who are in homosexual relationships to serve as pastors.

Simply breathtaking. I dont even feel like going on one of my "fire and brimstone" rants here. At the end of the day, you just arent going to stop some people from going to hell. They'll just rush headlong into it like they just want to go there. The Bible speaks plainly: "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is the way of death".

Of course, these people obviously dont pay that much attention to the Bible anyway; they couldnt have , of course, or they wouldnt have reached the decision they just did.

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From the news story: CHICAGO - Clergy members who are in homosexual relationships will be able to serve as pastors, the largest U.S. Lutheran body said Saturday.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America passed a resolution at its annual assembly urging bishops to refrain from disciplining pastors who are in “faithful committed same-gender relationships.”

The resolution passed by a vote of 538-431. “The Church ... has just said, ‘Do not do punishments,’” said Phil Soucy, spokesman for Lutherans Concerned, a gay-lesbian rights group within the church. “That is huge.” ...

China Flexes Its Muscles, and Bush Flexes Back (...Sort Of)

Bill Gertz wrote about it years ago in his book, The China Threat. In a nutshell: China is not our friend.

So it was interesting to see in the news yesterdsay that China sent a message, loud and clear, that if the US government keeps pressuring them on trade issues, they have the ability to crash our economny by selling off the $900 billion dollars in US currency reserves it now owns. Whether or not they'll actually do this is an open question, but the fact is , they CAN do it. That by itself, should be a sobering thing for us all, and espcecially our politicians, to consider.

Our politicians have rung up huge budget and trade deficits, which now puts China in the position of being able to crash our economny by simply dumping its huge reserves of US dollars. If it even decided to not buy US Treasury bonds any more, or to buy less, it would send a chilling message to the world finanancial markets, undermine the dollar's position as the world's reserve currency, and possibly trigger a major recesssion here, or worse.

Bush responded a day later (today) by saying it would be "foolhardy" for China to do that; but that by itself shows us the deeper problem. Imagine a home intruder putting a knife to your neck, and your only defense is to tell him thast it would be foolhardy for him to kill you, because he'd get arrested. The fact is, if that's the best defense you have, you're already in trouble , because you've allowed yourself to be vulnerable, and you're totally at the mercy of your attacker. That's how it is with China and the American economy.

We're totally at their mercy, and they know it. Militarily , we still have a sizeable edge, and they know it. But economically, they hold all he cards. Sure, their economy would suffer too, if they triggered a collapse of the dollar and the US economy. But they're now in a position where they have the option to do it if they wanted to... and there's nothing Bush, with all his false bravado, or America as a whole can do about it.

One way or another, I expect the US econony and the dollar to collapse one day. The Euro is already in position to become the world's reserve currency of choice. That would just be one more step in the process of rearranging the current world order, and bringing in the inevitable New World Order.

Sad to say it, but America's best days are behind it, militarily, socially, politically, and even economically. Many Americans dont seem to be aware of this. But without a doubt, China is very aware of it. Watch for China to flex their muscles more and more in the future as they continue to grow stronger.

Bottom line is, China is not our friend. Not even close. And dont let anyone tell you otherwise.


Excerpt from the UK Telegraph article:

The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.

Fistful of dollars - China's trade surplus reached $26.9bn in June

Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.

Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.

Described as China's "nuclear option" in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic support levels.

It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds