The "Perfect Storm"

So, we are now several months removed from the Hurricane Katrina and Rita disasters. The Congress of the United States is holding hearings about the government's "inept" and "inadequate" response. And REAL people are still suffering.

This really was the "perfect storm." But not for the reasons that the American Left and the mainstream media want us to believe. It was the "perfect storm" not because it illustrated how the current administration is totally corrupt and incompetant, but because it showed the limitations of government and the welfare state, especially in the media age.

Let's review. Hurricane Katrina is bears down on the City of New Orleans and the Gulf coast of the U.S. The mayor of the City of New Orleans issues an "evacuation" order, then before the storm is even settled, announces that all is well, the city has dodged a bullet, and everyone should come back. Then the levees, which have been deemed inadequate for YEARS, finally do break. The city is flooded. And the fault lies with the president of the United States?

There are hundreds of thousands of people (both black and white, though since New Orleans is predominantly black, mostly black suffering is highlighted in the media) wandering the streets, or looting the Wal-Mart, or whatever. Some shown simply sitting on the highway waiting...for? But it was "Bush's fault." "Bush hates black people" (Kanye West), or "Bush allowed the levees to be purposefully blown up" so that New Orleans could be remade as a Republican stronghold (head of the NAACP). Sad, but ironically funny.

So President Bush, whose response was "so slow ", does what any politician does, especially to please the Left and his critics in the media....throws money at the problem. And both sides of the aisle in Congress happily comply with his request, and send billions(!) in aid to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Now, Congress says that there has been found to be mass corruption (debit cards being used for $450 tattoos and "Condoms-to-go") and ineptitude. Surprise! Surprise!

This goes to show how bad it has become in our welfare state. New Orleans has generations of people who are accustomed to putting their hands out and waiting for the welfare check. Then when a storm like this hits, the infrastructure is destroyed, and no one knows what to do. So they wait. And die waiting. And it is the government's fault. What a load of fertilizer.

Even if I had no car, no money, no anything, if I knew a storm like this was coming and I needed to get myself and my family out of harm's way, I would GO. And then I would rebuild my life. But when you are used to waiting for the government to pay your bills, or solve your problems, and the government suddenly isn't there, I guess you just give up and die.

Ironically, many on both sides of the aisle wanted the president to create the Department of Homeland Security, which the administration at first resisted. But DHS became a reality. And then when the huge new government bureaucracy can't get the job done (imagine that...a bloated government bureaucracy not getting the job done!!), Congress turns around and criticizes the Bush administration.

I always have heard it said to "be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it." Well, some in our past wished for a welfare state and demanded a Department of Homeland Security. What we have is a bloated government bureaucracy and money wasted and people needlessly dying. Be careful what you wish for, indeed.

Pearl Harbor remembrance and a warning...

"...December 7, 1941...a day which will live in infamy..."--Franklin D. Roosevelt (D-NY) President of the United States, describing an attack by the empire of Japan, all while they were engaged in "diplomatic" negotiations with the U.S. over their takeover of much of the western Pacific Ocean. (I suppose there is some irony in that FDR was a New York Democrat.)

64 years later we (barely) remember "Pearl Harbor Day" and the entry of the U.S. into the Second World War. A generation that had known the Great Depression entered into that war with a sense of foreboding, but also a sense of adventure, and sense of duty, and sense of national pride.

September 11, 2001...terrorists using jumbo jetliners destroy the twin towers of the World Trade Center, severely damage the nation's military headquarters, the Pentagon, and bring down a jetliner in Pennsylvania. Once again the nation's finest, first the policemen and women and firefighters of New York, and then our military, were on display for the world to see.

So what is the difference between Pearl Harbor and "September 11", as it has come to be known? Franklin Roosevelt had his critics, sure. But then people knew that America's interests were being threatened. Just as they are today. The difference is that America had just come through a time of hardship. We were already of like mind on many things even before the war began. There were "legitimate" nation-states to fight, like the empire of Japan and the Nazi empire of Adolf Hitler.

The problem today is that many people, particularly on the political left, see everything through the prism of the counter-culture of the 1960s and 1970s. They think that any war is a losing prospect and that we should just come home now! "Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 terrorists!," they say. That, and there is no "real economic benefit" to our involvement in the Middle East. Back in the 1940s, it was the war, not the "New Deal", that got us out of the Great Depression. Now, the left would just as soon have us believe that we have no need of having a permanent presence in the Middle East. "We are already too dependent on foreign oil," they say. "This is all about oil!," they say. "We should just get out now," they say.

Make no mistake. We are now engaged in World War III. This is a fight with a much more shadowy enemy. Yes, there may not have been a conventional connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. But there was an ideological one. Just as there was between the empire of Japan and the Nazi regime. Now the naysayers on the left say our military is "broken" and that if we think we can win this war we are mistaken.

They are wrong. If we "lose" this war, we will cease to be a legitimate force for good, peace and democracy in the world. Everything we have stood for, like democratic principles and the liberty of the individual, will be subborned by a theocratic regime that will be worse than anything of which Benito Mussolini could have ever conceived. We can and must win this war. Progress has been made in Afghanistan and in Iraq. Too bad the "Bush-haters" will lean towards TREASON every time, rather than support our military and our foreign policy goals.

So may God bless our troops and their mission--they are not the enemy. We have met the enemy, and he is not us. He is a shadowy figure that hates the western world, hates freedom, hates women, and hates liberty of the individual.

Support our troops. Not with a hollow support that says "I support the troops, but not this war of Bush's!" Support them in their mission to bring stability to a troubled region of the world and freedom to those who have seldom known it. God bless them, and God bless this great nation of ours.

Thanksgiving Musings

This is the time of year everyone's thoughts turn to giving thanks. Now, originally, this "holiday" was set aside as a feast day to give thanks to God above for his bountiful harvest in an otherwise harsh and sometimes brutal land back in the days of the Puritan separatist pilgrims' first years in North America. Of course, we're not supposed to mention things like "God" or pilgrims (bunch of land-hungry zealots!) in public discourse today.

So these days, we think about being thankful to (or for) friends and family, or thankful for what we have (mostly too many material things anyway). We are grateful for our houses, cars, jobs, etc. But to whom are we thankful? I mean, if not God, then who? Some people actually think the pilgrims were thankful to their indian friends for saving their butts after the first hard, cold winter at Plymouth!

Thanks be to GOD, people! Thanks for putting up with our sorry, sinful butts when He should be giving us what we have earned...nothing. We have done NOTHING to deserve the gifts we have been given. Our lives, material goods, wealth, jobs, family and friends are "ours" for one reason...almighty God allows us to have them.

I am thankful that God continues to tolerate us. I am grateful for people like those who populate the United States military today...they might have joined up for job training or money for college or whatever. But they are really selfless. But when the call goes out, they are there for us.

I am grateful for a system, our Constitutional system, put in place by intelligent men, that in 229 years, despite the best attempts of incompetants on both sides of the political spectrum, still manages to protect us and our freedoms at the same time.

And yes, I am grateful to God for friends, family and material things. I don't have A LOT, but I have enough. And thanks be to God for that!