We have gotten to a point in our society where people can pursue courses of action that we know, they know, that everyone knows are highly likely to end in disaster. But then, when the aforementioned tragedy inevitably occurs, there is a demand that the federal government "fix the problem."

"In the early decades of the Republic, equality meant equality before God; liberty meant the liberty to shape one's own life....A very different meaning of equality has emerged in the United States in recent decades -- equality of outcome. Everyone should have the same level of living or of income, should finish the race at the same time. Equality of outcome is in clear conflict with liberty. The attempt to promote it has been a major source of bigger and bigger government, and of government-imposed restrictions on our liberty."
-- Milton Friedman

People should remember that the history of the world is not that of great countries rising to prominence and then staying there eternally. To the contrary, the landscape of history is littered with nations and empires that became great, lost the spark that made them exceptional in the first place, and then dissolved or came to ruin.

Face of Defense: Air Force Recruit Drops 128 Pounds to Enlist

When Will Sims entered basic training yesterday as one of the Air Force's newest recruits, it culminated an effort to overcome an obstacle that might keep others with less determination and resolve out of the military.

When Sims first met with Air Force Tech. Sgt. Damon Andrews, a recruiter, he weighed 128 pounds more than the Air Force's maximum allowable weight for a man of his height. Eight months later, he swore to serve the country as a member of the U.S. Air Force.

"Stuff isn't given to you; you have to work for it,” he said. “But if you have a goal and you want to achieve something in life, then go for it. Don't let anyone tell you it's not possible.”

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Iraqi Girls' School Gets Computers, Internet Service

Thanks to the Wasit Provincial Reconstruction Team, the Kut Girls Secondary School received an Internet center, complete with 10 computers and furniture. The school, established in 1932, educates 1,000 girls in grades 10 to 12.

Girls from throughout the province will use the center, School Manager Zahrah Aljdrey said. In addition to giving students the ability to do research and work on projects, the center will allow girls to complete exams they otherwise would have to travel to Baghdad to take.

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Young Iraqis turn against religious extremism

[HT:HS]

One of the claims of leftist critics of the war and occupation in Iraq is that we have supposedly alienated Iraqis and now Al Qaeda has a strong presence there. The latter claim is at odds with the reality that AQ is on the run and has turned to places like Somalia and Pakistan's frontier as havens.

In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives.

"I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us," said Sara Sami, a high school student in Basra. "Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don't deserve to be rulers."

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Web Hosting Company caves to Islamists

Web hosting company Network Solutions has suspeneded the website for Geert Wilder's anti-Muslim film Fitna, citing possible [only possible, as no one has seen it as yet] violations of their Terms of Service:

Wilder is a verbal bomb thrower. His statements about banning the Koran in the Netherlands have elicited the strongest possible response from religious freedom advocates while his pronouncements on continued Muslim immigration have set off a debate about the nature of society in the Netherlands.

Still, should Wilder be granted the freedom to spout his ideas about Islam to the world? Given the freedom radical Islamists enjoy to spout their hatred on the internet one wonders why Wilders unseen film should suffer from being banned arbitrarily.

[A: 'dhimmitude']

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Czech backs anti-Quran film

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - A Czech far-right party has offered to help a Dutch lawmaker distribute an anti-Quran film on the Internet if it is banned from being released in the Netherlands. The offer was made after a U.S. company that provides Web hosting services suspended the site promoting Geert Wilders' 15-minute film, which has sparked demonstrations in the Netherlands even before it has been shown.

[the home of free speech. for some]

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Saddam's Terror Links

Five years on, few Iraq myths are as persistent as the notion that the Bush Administration invented a connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Yet a new Pentagon report suggests that Iraq's links to world-wide terror networks, including al Qaeda, were far more extensive than previously understood.

It's true that the Pentagon report found no "smoking gun," i.e., a direct connection on a joint Iraq-al Qaeda operation. Supposedly this vindicates the view that Iraq's liberation was launched on false premises. But the Administration was always cautious, with Colin Powell alleging merely a "sinister nexus" in his 2003 U.N. speech. If anything, sinister is an understatement. The main Iraq intelligence failure was over WMD, but the report indicates that the CIA also underestimated Saddam's ties to global terror cartels...

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Iranian Nuclear Program Remains In Full Flow

The threat posed by Iran to Coalition troops in the region is considerable. Iran has for a number of years run a systematic campaign of targeting all Coalition troops based in Iraq, Afghanistan and the wider region. However, this campaign may well be considerably more deadly if the Iranian regime were to acquire a nuclear weapon, a scenario which is now becoming an ever growing prospect...

[the West's silliness in hiding behind the incompetent skirts of the IAEA is leading to war - Israel {rightly} will not allow Iran to get nukes - we need apply any & all pressure now to prevent that eventuality or share the blame for having set the predictable stage for it]

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The Latin Crisis

By Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison

This month Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez opened the next phase of his dangerous political career by nearly provoking a war with Colombia. In the aftermath of his military threats, the Colombian government learned disturbing information about the relationship between Mr. Chavez and the terrorist group FARC — the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
[snip]
In the days after the raid, Colombia uncovered [PCs with] e-mails in which FARC operatives reported, after meeting with Mr. Chavez, that significant financial support and even munitions would be forthcoming from the Chavez government. Evidence suggests Venezuela may have provided as much as $300 million to FARC since Mr. Chavez came to power.
[more - snip]
Last year, Mr. Chavez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed plans for a $2 billion joint fund, part of which will be used as a "mechanism for liberation" against U.S. allies. Now there is evidence Mr. Chavez actively supports FARC as part of a strategy to destabilize the Colombian government, which is one of America's best friends in the region. There seems to be no limit to Mr. Chavez's reckless and anti-American ambitions.
[snip]
In light of those revelations, and their implications for U.S. national security, perhaps it is time the Bush administration placed Venezuela on the list of state sponsors of terrorism...

[meanwhile, Congress blocks ratification of a much-needed free trade agreement with Columbia...]

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A FARC Fan's Notes

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

A hard drive recovered from the computer of a killed Colombian guerrilla has offered more insights into the opposition of House Democrats to the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. The Reyes hard drive reveals an ardent effort to do business directly with the FARC by Congressman James McGovern (D., Mass.), a leading opponent of the free-trade deal. Mr. McGovern has been working with an American go-between, who has been offering the rebels help in undermining Colombia's elected and popular government.

Mr. McGovern's press office says the Congressman is merely working at the behest of families whose relatives are held as FARC kidnap hostages, but communications among FARC rebels suggest the goal was to isolate Colombia's government. A letter that Reyes wrote to top FARC commander Manuel Marulanda on October 26 reads: "According to [Jones's] viewpoint, [President Álvaro] Uribe is increasingly discredited in the U.S. . . He believes that the safe haven [for the rebels] in the counties can be had for reasons mentioned...

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American media ignores inconvenient science on global warming

Americans apparently have to look to Australia for truthful accounts of climate research conducted by our own space agency. Christopher Pearson' March 22 article in THE AUSTRALIAN concerns an interview of "Jennifer Marohasy, a biologist and senior fellow of Melbourne-based think tank the Institute of Public Affairs." When asked about "Global Warming", Marohasy stated:

"...actually, there has been cooling, if you take 1998 as your point of reference. If you take 2002 as your point of reference, then temperatures have plateaued. This is certainly not what you'd expect if carbon dioxide is driving temperature because carbon dioxide levels have been increasing but temperatures have actually been coming down over the last 10 years.

"The head of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has actually acknowledged it."

Further, she says:

"The policy implications are enormous. The meteorological community at the moment is really just coming to terms with the output from this NASA Aqua satellite and (climate scientist) Roy Spencer's interpretation of them. His work is published, his work is accepted, but I think people are still in shock at this point."

Isn't it odd that this "shocking" news hasn't been reported yet in the American Press?

[expect the fear mongering to reach a truly hysterical pitch as the alarmists face the fact that they're running out of time - they need enact legislation now-right-now as their chickens are on final approach...]

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Concealed weapons on college campuses gets House approval

Legislation that would allow concealed weapons on college campuses in Oklahoma was approved by the state House Thursday despite opponents who said putting more guns on campus makes no sense following recent massacres at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. “This has to be the craziest thing I have ever seen,” said Rep. Ray McCarter, D-Marlow, one of several lawmakers who said the measure is opposed by college administrators...

[it was the lack of opposing firepower that made them 'massacres']

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Man Declared Dead Feels 'Pretty Good'

Oklahoma City - Four months after he was declared brain dead and doctors were about to remove his organs for transplant, Zach Dunlap says he feels ''pretty good.'' Dunlap was pronounced dead Nov. 19 at United Regional Healthcare System in Wichita Falls, Texas, after he was injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident. His family approved having his organs harvested. As family members were paying their last respects, he moved his foot and hand.

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