Bill O’Reilly Sex Tapes

Al Franken dancing around the room naked.

PC run amok.

School officials there have designated “no Halloween, costume-free zones” to stop kids from coming to school in costume. They say ugly witch costumes, with their pointy hats and crooked noses, are insensitive to real-life practicing Wiccans.

A real-life witch who lives in nearby Tacoma agreed that the superintendent in Puyallup must be off his broomstick.
“I see Halloween more as a holiday, a fun time for them. Some of us Wiccan have a deeper meaning under it, but I don’t think we should take away from the kids,” Wiccan Marjenna Gittings said.

Unfortunately, a similar thing happened at my kid’s school where the principal - who has appeared in this journal before (see Crushing of Dissent - 2nd Grade)- decided to cancel the Halloween Parade, for fear of offending some in “our diverse community". So instead she pisses off “most” in “our diverse community". I’m too busy to fight this one, but dang!

Okay, how else to explain this story from the Lancet?

The survey indicated violence accounted for most of the extra deaths seen since the invasion, and air strikes from coalition forces caused most of the violent deaths, the researchers wrote in the British-based journal.

“Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children,” they said.

While scientists often go to extremes to avoid bias, no attempts were made with this study. After all, we wouldn’t want the facts to get in the way of our bias now would we?

“I emailed it in on Sept. 30 under the condition that it came out before the election,” Roberts told The Asocciated Press. “My motive in doing that was not to skew the election. My motive was that if this came out during the campaign, both candidates would be forced to pledge to protect civilian lives in Iraq (news - web sites).

“I was opposed to the war and I still think that the war was a bad idea, but I think that our science has transcended our perspectives,” (emphasis added)Roberts said. “As an American, I am really, really sorry to be reporting this.”

Of course, under Saddam life was idyllic:

The most common causes of death before the invasion of Iraq were heart attacks, strokes and other chronic diseases.

Notice how there is no mention of infant mortality caused by the sanctions regime - which the Lancet along with Bin Laden - blamed for over a million deaths between 1991 and 2003. These causes of death are not found in this study. Poison gas, the Iraqi Secret Police, and Oday didn’t make the list. Neither did al Zarqawi - who pledged in January to start a civil war by targeting the Shi’a.

Survey methods? Blog polls are more scientific:

The researchers estimated the nationwide death toll due to the conflict by multiplying the difference between the two death rates by the estimated population of Iraq — 24.4 million at the start of the war. The result was then multiplied by 18 months, the average period between the invasion and the survey interviews.

Either the sanctions killed over a million children - or the USA did during the invasion.

Note to the AP writer: Where are the kids that died under the sacntions?

This is nothing but junk science peddled by ax-grinding “scientists” doing their best to influence an election. I’m beginning to wonder if putting Saddam back in power isn’t a bad idea after all.

Is it possible we are having a Dying Despots Month in October?
All we need is Kim Jong-il and we could have a possible Trifecta of Terrorists biting the dust this year - making it the best year for freedom loving peoples since 1989.

Arafat Holds On For Dear Life

Matt Drudge has broken a story that ABC News has been sitting on an al-Qaeda tape threatening to make American streets “run with blood". Evidently the nutjob hiding behind a kaffiye is “American” Adam Pearlman aka “Assam the American” aka “Adam-the-self-hating-Jew-like-Noam Chomsky“. An ABC News VP has said that ABC News has held on to the tape until it confirms its authenticity.

Why?
The tape came out of Pakistan, has a threat on it by someone with an American accent. What more do you need to prove?

Al-Qaeda has a long history of empty threats. Here a link going back to Spring ‘02 when we dared them to “bring it on". It has threatened numerous attacks in the USA, Europe, Iraq and Afghanistan. All for nothing.

Sun Tzu once wrote “a weak adversary threatens, a strong one attacks". Why not broadcast the threats far and wide?

Unless you were afraid they would influence the election… Of course, ABC News isn’t partisan. Or is it?

10 Good Reasons Not to Vote For Bush
1. His administration has encouraged a military that is concerned more with public opinion than winning objectives. “Hearts and minds” becomes a viable strategy when “total annihilation” is the only alternative. This continues to be my greatest problem with President Bush and the way the Iraq War has been fought.
2. He has presided over the largest surplus-deficit swing in American history.
3. He encourages the outsourcing of jobs.
4. He supports dumping foreign labor in the USA to drive down wages.
5. He defends the ability for companies to incorporate offshore to save on taxes.
6. His support of free-trade is dogmatic and undermines his nationalist principles.
7. He weakened the EPA rules to the point where Christine Whitman (remember her?) quit the administration.
8. He has needlessly disenfranchised the gay rights community with support of the FMA.
9. He has alienated large segments of the population for no good reason. A uniter not a divider? Who was he kidding? Obviously some of those who voted for him 4 years ago.
10. His neutering of John McCain may have netted him the presidency, but his Machiavellian excesses during the South Carolina primary of 2000 have not been forgotten by many of McCain’s supporters – including me.

10 Good Reasons To Vote For Bush
1. I can forsee how he will govern over the next 4 years and while I have a significant difference of opinion with him on many issues, I believe that America will be safer under his leadership than anyone else’s.
2. He believes in attacking root causes of problems.
3. He is a staunch defender of Israel (much to the surprise of many).
4. He says what he means and means what he says.
5. He is a nationalist (although an economic transnationalist).
6. He ignores the criticism of his enemies (does he take it from his friends?) and does what he believes is the right thing to do. He is a principled man.
7. He has disrupted terror networks around the world.
8. He has devoted more money to AIDS research than any other world leader, past or present.
9. He sees the UN for what it is: a failed experiment dominated by undemocratic dictatorships that oppose basic human rights, democracy and a successful America.
10. He handled the crisis of September 11 with finesse.

Put the two lists together, and I’m on the fence. Then you add in this one fact - He’s NOT John Forbes Kerry - and it swings me over to his side.

W in ‘04

Just a note that we added Obsidian Wings to our blog-roll on the left.
The header graphic alone explains why.

Oh, and the posts are good too.

Update 10/28:
Yes they were swept by the Red Sox, but so what! The Sox beat the stinking Yankees, and if you’re going to lose, why not lose to a deserving team like the Boston Redsox - home of some of the best players in the history of the game?

From a life-long Cardinals fan to any Boston Red Sox fan, hearty congratulations to you and your team! You deserve the victory!
Just take back your Senator, okay?

Cardinals win! Cardinals win!

Babalu Blog has a lesson on what not to say to your Cuban born wife in the morning.
I’m also trying to think of a good caption for the photo below:

Jimmy Carter is delusional.
And Chris Matthews, who once worked for the lunatic, goes down on him in this article. Powerline comments on this bit of political pornography.

The Volokh Conspiracy has an interesting post on anti-semitism in the 1930s.

The poll also asked: “Would you support” “a widespread campaign against the Jews in this country"?
FDR voters: 13.0% yes.
Landon voters: 9.5% yes.

Dem voters for Congress: 14.7% yes.
Repub voters for Congress: 9.8% yes.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty startled. Volokh comments on the significant difference between Repubs and Dems on the issue (Dems are more anti-semitic). I’m shocked that anyone would support such a thing.

I just stopped by Den Beste’s site. As some of you may know, he has given up on blogging, which is fine with me as long as he takes up writing articles and books. Steven Den Beste has the rare ability of explaining complex scientific phenomena and showing how it relates to everyday life. He replaced a void in my life left by the death of Stephen Jay Gould, who himself replaced the great Carl Sagan. However for whatever reason he has decided to give up on the blogosphere.

I can’t say I blame him. He wrote that he felt USS Clueless was becoming a chore, and given his readership which numbered at its height hundreds of thousands, it must have felt like one helluva chore. I’ll admit that I’ve been plugging away at The Razor for 3 years now and have yet to enjoy similar success, and do succumb to the occasional “I’m writing for the Void", but nevertheless come running back to write and sort my thoughts out on something that interests me.

I feel similarly about Day By Day. It has been on hiatus for six months just as it was about to hit the big time. Chris Muir called off the strip for reasons of a “family crisis". The good news is that there is announcement saying that the strip will be back Dec 1. Has the Kerry campaign kidnapped his cocker spaniel and threatened to feed it to a hundred hungry squirrels unless he stopped the thoughtful - and Right-leaning - comic? Only Chris knows and he’s not talking (Don’t worry, Chris: Sparky will be back soon). Nevertheless I’ll be happy to see the misadventures of the Day By Day crew back on my monitor at work soon.

Like anything else, the blogosphere is changing. In some ways it’s good: we have seen the rise of Dean Esmay’s Dean’s World - which is hands down my favorite blog out there. We’ve also seen the humor of Allahpundit (who hasn’t posted in 9 days, hmmm…), as well as the power of the blogosphere to uncover an “institutional lie” (Rathergate). In some ways it is bad though: Instapundit has consolidated it’s hold as the “homepage” of the blogosphere. Andrew Sullivan has lost his senses. There has definitely been a big die-off over the past years of blogs, many of which appeared soon after Sept 11. Call it a DenBestian extinction after an Instapunditian Boom.

So we live in a blogosphere that has changed alot over the past few years. The Razor remains a part of that blogosphere, for whatever it’s worth - and it is worth alot to me. It is my mouth that allows me to scream at the world, and while it may not change it, who knows? Maybe, just maybe, it will.

I wanted to write something about The Razor’s 3rd anniversary, so I guess this is it.

“We have no right to tell other people how to live their lives.” “We shouldn’t force our culture on anyone else.” These are all variants of this argument: “We should not overthrow the status quo.”

And the people who believe this call themselves “liberal”.

Actually, the “we” in the above arguments really needs to be qualified as “The United States” – since it’s okay for anyone else to initiate change. When Yugoslavia fell into civil war in 1991, the USA stood back and let the EU handle the situation. How did they handle it? By handing over 8,000 Muslim men and boys to be slaughtered in Sbrenica, allowing genocide in Bosnia and the “change” of ethnic cleansing.

During the mid 1990s the USA was criticized for not intervening. Finally, when it did in 1995 it did so on the side of the Muslim region of Bosnia. It doesn’t hurt to be reminded that the year after the Dayton Accord was signed, Bin Laden’s group al-Qaeda struck the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia killing 19 American servicemen, ostensibly in defense of Islam. Al-Qaeda then struck the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in August 1998.

Similarly, in 1999 NATO, under American leadership, launched a 72 day air campaign against Serbia to protect Kosovo. Note that this attack occurred without a UN mandate of any kind since Russia had promised Serbia that it would veto any such measure.

What does this tell us? It tells us that the EU, United Nations, or any other trans-national group cannot act effectively without the backing and support of the United States. Since the American economy remains the world’s largest, economic sanctions will fail unless the USA takes part. Because the militaries of the EU have atrophied under the Cold War umbrella supplied by the USA, an aggressor has nothing to fear unless confronted by the US military. For example, France has one aircraft carrier that spends more time in dry dock than it does at sea. What does North Korea have to fear from France?

The majority of people who say, “We have no right to tell other people how to live their lives,” actually believe that the United States has no right to unilaterally tell other people how to live their lives. It’s okay as long as trans-national organizations like the UN or EU say it’s okay.

The problem is that by promoting this belief, they are sowing the seeds of something much more dangerous: cultural isolationism – or multi-culturalism taken to its logical conclusion. Cultural isolationism is the belief that cross-cultural norms such as human rights for gays, minorities and women do not exist. If Japanese society does not recognize that eating whale meat is wrong, then the world does not have the right to tell that nation to stop killing whales. If female circumcision is practiced in some cultures, we do not have a right to put a stop to it.

When someone says, “We shouldn’t force our culture on anyone else,” one should respond by asking if he or she supports honor killings in Brazil or crushing to death of gays in Afghanistan? Ask him or her if slavery should be allowed in Saudi Arabia, especially since it is allowed under Islam and continues today.

But why stop there? If we are unwilling to recognize universals such as human rights, why not allow slavery back into the American South? As a straight American male, why shouldn’t I be allowed to discriminate openly against gays and lesbians since my (former) religion, Roman Catholicism, allows it?

Enough reduction ad absurdum. The reality is that the meanings of “liberal” and “conservative” have flipped. Today’s conservative champions universals like human rights. People on the right distrust China for its human rights abuses much more than those on the Left who appreciate its Communist roots. I cannot understand how gays and lesbians (like my Kerry-supporting colleague) are so anti-Bush while he stopped the persecution of women, gays and lesbians in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

President Bush believes that the way to stop terrorism and secure America is to “drain the swamp” where terror breeds and spread democracy. This is a truly revolutionary doctrine, much broader in scope than anything imagined by Castro or Che Guevera. Bush understands at a deep and fundamental level that America can no longer be secure in the world as long as people aren’t free to choose their own destinies. People in the Middle East have been oppressed for time immemorial. They have never known freedom, and those that champion it are silenced – often permanently. They cannot choose their own destinies in the way that we can.

America has never imposed its values on a people: it has imposed human values on people. Today nations such as Germany, Japan, Bosnia, Philippines, South Korea, France, Italy, Great Britain are free because of America’s direct intervention to impose human rights on sometimes reluctant populaces. Ask any Japanese, is Japan today better off than it was 60 years ago?

America is doing the same to the Middle East. It is attempting the transformation of an entire region, and is being resisted by terrorists, autocratic regimes, and even those it liberated sixty years ago. If America fails in its revolutionary mission, the French and Germans can pat each other on the back for stopping American “hegemony” – the same hegemony that liberated their nation twice over the past 90 years. They can rest assured that should America fail in its attempt to transform the Middle East, there will never be a third.

I support the legalization of drugs as many libertarians do. I am also what 80’s punks would call “Straight Edge": I don’t drink, smoke or do illegal drugs nor have I for many years. I believe that you should work to change the laws first before you break the law. Why?
One of the most compelling arguments against illicit drug use is that by buying illegal drugs for your “high that doesn’t hurt anyone else", you are funding the assassinati0n of journalists and judges in Colombia. The money that you pay for a “dime bag” of pot goes to pay for bullets that often end up in youngsters playing in our inner cities. Your money funds the intimidation and enslavement of entire swaths of the 3rd World, yet you probably consider yourself “liberal", “enlightened” and plan to Vote Kerry.
Dean Esmay believes that anyone who sees Michael Moore’s propaganda piece are just as guilty.

Michael Moore’s film “Fahrenheit 9/11″ is now used as a recruitment film by terrorist networks. Mr. Moore is aware of this fact and has done nothing to even protest it, let alone try to stop it. His film has also created a serious morale problem for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly our younger ones, because Moore has arranged for it to be distributed over the Internet to them for free.

This film tells them that they went to war for no good reason, and horribly killed a lot of innocent people, simply to make evil men in the U.S. government wealthy and powerful.

In short, this film is no different from a Nazi or Stalinist propaganda film. It kills. Especially when it goes unanswered.

If you paid to see this film over the summer, or bought it on home video or DVD, you probably didn’t realize you’d have blood on your hands.

Do you feel dirty now, knowing that you supported the death of your countrymen and the enslavement of your fellow man by the Islamofascists? Well, Dean has a plan of absolution for you, so check out what he says you can do to atone for your crimes against humanity.

I’ve already begun entertaining ideas about this election. My bet?
If Bush wins in ‘04: John McCain vs. Hillary Clinton
If Kerry wins in ‘04: John McCain vs. John Kerry - or if Kerry’s impeached - John Edwards.

The good news for you Hillary haters is that a Kerry win will most likely knock her out of the running in ‘08 as the Kerry machine clears out the Clinton apparatus from the Democratic party. A Kerry win would also prep John Edwards for a run in ‘12.

Either way, the Presidency is John McCain’s if he wants it in 4 years. There has been talk about Cheney running in ‘08, which could be the only fly-in-the-ointment for him; however a Kerry win would prevent that from happening.

Ahh, politics… The names change but the game remains the same.

Some Norwegian artists and politicians placed a $50,000 ad in the Washington Post yesterday (link). The group collected donations from 4,000 Norwegians that called on the Bush Administration to apologize for the war in Iraq and pay restitution. This of course ignores the fact that the US is ponying up about $80 billion to rebuild the country - which is about a third larger than the entire gov’t budget of Norway, and about 40% of Norway’s GNP.

Some notes on Norway:
Norway is a country in northern Europe with a population of 4.4 million.
Norway is one of the dominant nations in skiing, second only to Russia/Soviet Union in the amount of medals won in alpine skiing.

(link)"In 1940, the Germans occupied Norway. Norwegian newspapers and media were full of anti-Semitic propaganda and the Norwegian government was taken over by Nazis (Quisling). Two years later, in 1942, 750 Jews were deported to Auschwitz. Of these, only 25 survived. The remainder of the Norwegian Jewry managed to escape to Sweden, where they lived as refugees until the end of the war. Over 100 Jews served in the Free Norwegian Forces, mostly stationed in Britain. “

For comparison’s sake:
There are as many Norwegians in the world as there are Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals in the entire USA (link)

There are more 400,000 more Episcopalians in the USA than Norwegians in Norway.

There are about half as many in prison in the USA as there are Norwegians in Norway (2 m - op cit).

Ditto Americans of Norwegian ancestry (2.6 m).

Of course, the funding for the ad only came from 1/1000th the population of Norway. That equates to 294,000 people in the USA. Since each Norwegian kicked in an average of $12.50, if these 294,000 Americans each kicked in the same amount to buy an ad in a Norwegian paper telling Norway to “Shut the F*** Up and Mind It’s Own Business“, we could buy $3.68 m worth of ad space in VG, Norway’s largest newspaper with a circulation of 1.2 million (source)

I recently discussed Bush with a Kerry-ite in my car. While we agree on many things, we don’t on the following issues.

About Iraq: She believes that people need to politically evolve on their own “like we did”. I ask her if that means that forcing democracy upon people is wrong, and she said “yes”. I then asked if that means people have “a right to oppression.”

I also pointed out that her logic was incredibly reactionary: Might was right, and you were on your own if you were on the wrong side of that equation. You can slap as many “Free Tibet” bumperstickers as you want on your car, but you will not dislodge China from the province it killed 250,000 people and has called “Xijang” for 45 years.

She responded that well, she was talking about the ideal world and that in such an ideal world people would be able to throw off their oppressors themselves. I pointed out that Bush didn’t have the luxury of being president in an “ideal world”.

By her reasoning, it would be immoral to stand up against any of the great genocides of the past 100 years. The Turkish slaughter of Armenians. The Holocaust in Europe. The Killing Fields in Cambodia, the Rwanda Genocide, the “ethnic cleansing” in the Balkans, and now Darfur in the Sudan.

On Afghanistan: She says that even though the people are happier today than they were three years ago under the Taliban, there are without a doubt some older people who long for the past. I point out that the Taliban came from the Madrassas in Pakistan in 1995-96 and laid siege to Kabul – in which the Taliban killed tens of thousands of people by shelling the city indiscriminately, so the nostalgia for the past would no doubt be limited.

She’s openly gay, and doesn’t like the fact that Bush wanted “to criminalize her personal life in the Constitution.” I told her that the FMA was Bush’s playing to his base, Kerry’s position wasn’t that much different from Bush’s (depending on the group he was talking to), and the bill had a snowball’s chance in Havana of getting passed. I then pointed out that the Taliban collapsed walls on homosexuals, and that while Bush may disagree with her lifestyle, there are terrorists out there who would like nothing more to behead her and her partner for it.

She stated that what really bothered her then was Bush’s stupidity for not being able to express these ideas without “getting all defensive”. I warned her “you underestimate Bush at your peril.” Stupidity was Bush’s schtick – the same way feeling people’s pain was Clinton’s. For Bush, it keeps him in power. For Clinton, it allowed him to cop a feel.

I then reminded her that I disagree with Bush on most of the issues. Deficit spending to Bush is like Wendy’s Triples to Michael Moore: he just can’t get enough. His compassionate conservativism is even more oxymoronic today than it was 4 years ago. His offshoring position seemed crafted by CEOs in their boardrooms in Bermuda.

But I lived through the Carter years once, and I’m having nightmares that I’m about to do so again.

She’s a registered voter in Pennsylvania.

I’m not the only one being chilled to the bone by this statement. Lileks. Instapundit. Volokh. All mention this. It’s the reason why I believe with all my heart that Kerry is the wrong man at the wrong place at the wrong time. He is now more than ever UNFIT FOR COMMAND. Let’s go with Lileks:

Finally, this from the NYT, ably dissected by the Volohkians:

When I asked Kerry what it would take for Americans to feel safe again, he displayed a much less apocalyptic worldview. “We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they’re a nuisance,” Kerry said. “As a former law-enforcement person, I know we’re never going to end prostitution. We’re never going to end illegal gambling. But we’re going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn’t on the rise. It isn’t threatening people’s lives every day, and fundamentally, it’s something that you continue to fight, but it’s not threatening the fabric of your life.”

Tony Soprano doesn’t take over schools and shoot kids in the back. The doxies of the Bunny Ranch don’t train at flight schools to ram brothels into skyscrapers.

A nuisance?

A nuisance? I don’t want the definition of success of terrorism to be “it isn’t on the rise.” I want the definition of success to be “free democratic states in the Middle East and the cessation of support of those governments and fascist states we haven’t gotten around to kicking in the ass yet.” I want the definition of success to mean a free Lebanon and free Iran and a Saudi Arabia that realizes there’s no point in funding the fundies. An Egypt that stops pouring out the Jew-hatred as a form of political novacaine to keep the citizens from turning their ire on their own government. I want the definition of success to mean that Europe takes a stand against the Islamicist radicals in their midst before the Wahabbi poison is the only acceptable strain on the continent. Mosquito bites are a nuisance. Cable outages are a nuisance. Someone shooting up a school in Montana or California or Maine on behalf of the brave martyrs of Fallujah isn’t a nuisance. It’s war.
But that’s not the key phrase. This matters: We have to get back to the place we were.

But when we were there we were blind. When we were there we losing. When we were there we died. We have to get back to the place we were. We have to get back to 9/10? We have to get back to the place we were. So we can go through it all again? We have to get back to the place we were. And forget all we’ve learned and done? We have to get back to the place we were. No. I don’t want to go back there. Planes into towers. That changed the terms. I am remarkably disinterested in returning to a place where such things are unimaginable. Where our nighmares are their dreams.

We have to get back to the place we were.

No. We have to go the place where they are.

Two bombs exploded at a gathering of Sunni Muslim radicals in the Pakistani city of Multan. The US wasn’t blamed on this one, unlike the attack that this was apparent revenge for.

Witnesses said about 2,000 angry Sunnis gathered outside the Nishtar hospital after the bombings, shouting “Shiites are infidels!”

So in the battle of survival between “us” and “them", if you decide to choose “them", make sure you are choosing the right “them” because otherwise you will be called the same thing as “us". Axis of Weasels take note.

Bill Gertz of the Washington Times writes that France, Germany and Russia resisted efforts within the UN to stop the abuse of the Oil-for-Food program.

France, Russia, China and Syria were among the members of a special committee overseeing the oil-for-food program that opposed U.S. efforts to stop corruption that led to more than $10 billion being stolen by Saddam and his regime, Mr. Kennedy said.

Gertz is the author of “Treachery: How America’s Friends and Foes are Secretly Arming our Enemies” that is sitting on my bookshelf. I’d better finish Unfit for Command and get cracking on that one…

Hat-tip to Powerline.
On Sunday the Lowell Sun of Lowell, Massachusetts endorsed President Bush in the editorial: “George W. Bush for President.”

In the ashes of ground zero, where nearly 3,000 innocent Americans perished, President Bush vowed to find the perpetrators, in domestic cells and distant lands, and bring them to justice. He said he will do all that is humanly possible and necessary to make certain that terrorists never strike again on U.S. soil.

Can anyone deny that President Bush has not delivered? America the terrorists’ No. 1 target has recovered from its tragic wounds and rebounded. It remains safe to this day.

What might a lesser leader have done, faced with the daunting task of deciding America’s course against withering, partisan attacks from Democrats, media propagandists, disingenuous U.N. officials and disloyal White House operatives selling their souls for profit during a time of war?

A lesser leader might have caved in. President Bush has stood his ground.

In this year’s election, the question isn’t whether we are safer now than we were four years ago. We already know the answer. Sure we are and that’s because of President Bush. The critical question is: Four years from now, will America be safer than it is today?

In our book, Americans have to place their trust in President Bush. He’s proven to be as sturdy as a mighty oak when it comes to saying what he means, meaning what he says and acting decisively.

When it comes to the war on terror, President Bush means to keep our military strong and our country secure.

John Kerry, on the other hand, has all the attributes of the shape of water when it comes to telling us what he believes and what he’d do for America. Like incoming and outgoing tides, Kerry is content to go with the flow. In a dangerous world infested with sharks, Kerry would be chum at America’s expense.

We in Massachusetts know John Kerry. He got his first taste of politics 32 years ago in the cities and towns of Greater Lowell.

In his 20 years in the U.S. Senate, Kerry, a Navy war hero, hasn’t risen above the rank of seaman for his uninspiring legislative record. He’s been inconsistent on major issues. First he’s for the 1991 Persian Gulf War, then he opposes it. First he’s for the war in Iraq, then he’s against it. First he’s for a strong U.S. defense, then he votes against military weapons programs. First he’s for the U.S. Patriot Act, then he opposes it.

Kerry’s solution to stop terrorism? He’d go to the U.N. and build a consensus. How naive. France’s Jacques Chirac, Germany’s Gerhard Schroeder, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and other Iraq oil-for-food scam artists don’t want America to succeed. They want us brought down to their level. And more and more, Kerry sounds just like them. In a recent campaign speech, Kerry said America was in the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

No doubt John Kerry sincerely wants to serve his country, but we believe he’s the wrong man, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Americans should think back three years ago to the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center. There among the mist lay the images and memories of fallen firefighters, police, a Catholic chaplain and ordinary working citizens moms, dads, sons, daughters.

President Bush, through heartfelt tears, told us never to forget the twisted carnage and the massacre of the innocents. Yet some of us are forgetting.

President Bush told us the attacks must never happen again. Yet some of us are wavering because of the brave sacrifice of soldiers that our nation’s security demands.

Well, President Bush hasn’t forgotten. Nor has he lost the courage and conviction to do what is right for America.

We know if there is one thing the enemy fears above all else, it is that George Bush’s iron will is stronger than his iron won’t.

The Sun proudly endorses the

re-election of President George W. Bush.

I recently wrote about a loved one’s battle with alcoholism here. The tone of that story is quite negative: I wasn’t convinced that she would take the first step - the highest of them all, if you ask any Twelve Stepper.

But she did, and by all appearances she is beating the odds. I mention this in the beginning to give you an idea where I’m coming from as I write this. Here’s an update.

Soon after she returned from rehab, her husband – an alky himself who once drank me under the table - slept with her. When she woke up the next morning she began talking about plans for Labor Day. Her husband said “I already have plans with E.,” his mistress. What she thought was reconciliation was nothing but a sick and twisted end to their marriage. Looking back it’s clear that her husband was pushing her back to the bottle, and unfortunately, she obliged him.

She found her stash, and given the condition of her liver, it didn’t take much for her to drink herself into a day-long stupor. Her husband went to work as usual, and after he returned they argued. She threw a glass of water on him, and get this, he called the cops.

The cops arrived and found both her and her husband intoxicated. The husband said that she had assaulted him with a glass of water, and the cops hauled her ass to jail. Mind you, he’s 4 inches and 50 pounds heavier than his wife, but the cops simply wanted to separate the two, and left it to the lawyers and judges to sort things out.

Her husband got a Protection From Abuse (PFA) order against her that prevents her from coming within 100 yards of him. Because of this, I have taken to referring to him as “Girly Man” or “GM". She can’t get near her own home when Girly Man is there, and worse, GM changed the locks so she can’t get inside her home when he’s away either. She can’t see her kids unless the eldest drives himself and his younger brother over to visit her. He’s changed the PIN on their checking account, and voided all their credit cards. She has in effect lost everything except the clothes she was wearing - all because of law that was meant to keep women away from abusive husbands is itself being abused. To make matters worse the PFA is for one year.

When she was released from jail, her parents took her in - against the advice of myself and several other Twelve Steppers. But her parents made a precondition: she must attend AA meetings or they will dump her on the street.

And guess what?

She has. It’s been a month and she is still sober. That’s 30 days of not drinking – the longest period of sobriety she’s had since her kids were born it turns out.

Meanwhile, Girly Man’s mistress has pretty much moved into the house. I’m not sure how she can do it - living in another woman’s home, whose pictures are on the walls, who chose the drapes and furniture, whose clothing is in the closets. Personally, it creeps me out, and I’m a guy.

I’m sure that Girly Man hasn’t told his mistress the truth about his 26-year relationship with his wife. But look at that number: 26 years. There had to be some good times. Two kids. A large house in an upscale neighborhood in the suburbs. GM has told his wife that he has cheated on her for ten years. While her alcoholism impacted him, it doesn’t give him the excuse for his behavior now. As for his drinking, he views her inability to hold her liquor as a weakness. Girly Man is a simple guy, with simple thoughts. To him sickness is weakness no matter what the disease. Of course, not only is he a drinker, he’s a smoker and a diabetic – so evidently these thoughts don’t apply to him. Regardless, his wife was sick, and the vows that he took 20 years ago don’t let him off the hook.

The lawyers have begun to take over - which is the way it should be given the circumstances. Lawyers take one step at a time, and while the wheels of the court system grind slowly, they grind thoroughly. Girly Man will have his day of reckoning.

Meanwhile, the sister-in-law gets stronger. As my saving angel, John B., said about her, “Any day she doesn’t drink is a good day.” So today is a good day.

Sometimes it’s great to be wrong.

I am from St. Louis Missouri - an odd town where everything is 20 minutes away from everything else, and people act like its a small town when in fact 1.5 million people live in the metro area. When I was a teen, I couldn’t wait to leave the place. It wasn’t cool enough for me, nor as cosmopolitan as Chicago. Even during my twenties after I had left the place behind I had nightmares of being stuck there.

Well, here I am pushing middle age and I haven’t lived there in close to twenty years. So why do I get freaky when I learn that Tradesports is ranking the St. Louis Cardinals as the favorite of the 2004 World Series? Is it because I can still hear Jack Buck’s voice, “Here’s the windup, and the pitch… He struck ‘im out!” or Mike Shannon recommending KMOX listeners to pop open an ice cold Busch?

Maybe it’s because you can take the boy out of the town, but you can’t take the town out of the boy. Will I be doomed forever to mix up my “ar” and “or", so that when I say words like “horse", “corn", and “born” I sound just like my Irish immigrant ancestors who settled in St. Louis in the 1840s? Will Ted Drewes be the standard by which I judge all soft ice cream or frozen custard forever?
I would trade Krispy Kreme for Steak and Shake, and the wide open stretches of 55 for the claustrophobic 95 in a heartbeat. I would rather have a house in Ladue than the Philly Mainline any day. The haughty attitudes of the New York Times and Washington Post are annoying, compared to the mainstream Post Dispatch (and oh, if only the Globe Democrat were back from the dead…)

There’s a certain humility, naivete and frankness the combination of which you don’t find anywhere else. What you see is what you get, and St. Louisans don’t understand that the people outside of their area aren’t like that.

St. Louis suffers from tornadoes in the summer, and heavy snow in the winter. Globalization has taken away its industries and employers, yet it stubbornly persists and even better, thrive. Its son, Dick Gephardt stands as a symbol for what the city is: honest, hard working, polite and underappreciated. Gephardt deserves to be president just like St. Louis deserves to be celebrated for what it is: a wonderful place to live. It’s also a wonderful place to be from too.

So go Cardinals!

26 People were killed in Islamabad Pakistan today after a homicide bomber detonated a bomb at a crowded Shiite mosque. Of course the Shiite/Sunni violence - which has its roots in the battle for power after Mohammed’s death in 632 - was America’s fault.

A Shiite leader in the main southern city of Karachi claimed Friday’s bombing was retaliation for the police shooting of Farooqi.

“Definitely, it was the work of the friends Farooqi,” cleric Allama Hassan Turabi told AP, adding, “the people who planned this attack perhaps don’t understand that we are not supporters of America. … We are also against America.”

Yet another example of Cognitive Dissonance and Islam.

I suppose being considered heretics by 85% of Islam had nothing to do with it…