24.6.04
Rest in Peace, Mr President: Well, President Reagan is dead (God rest his soul, and as my grandfather noted, it's probably a blessing, given his Alzheimers'). It is late and, besides, I cannot eulogize him nearly as well as some folks who worked in his administration, or otherwise knew the man, personally or professionally. I will merely say that I started to notice politics in the latter stages of his administration, and really started paying attention to politics during the administration of Bush pere. One of the first memories I have of any political event was the liberation from Soviet communism of the several eastern European states. Considering that President Reagan was the one who spent the Soviets out of their empire, the credit for the democratization of it belongs largely to him, and political allies like Lady Thatcher (whose eulogy was incredibly touching). One hopes that Bush fils, like Reagan, has the fortitude to see his uncompromising vision through of liberating the world from Islamofascism and terrorism, especially of the lunatic Islamic variety. If the younger President Bush can draw on Reagan as inspiration, then Reagan's legacy, now bright, will burn even brighter.
College World Series: That's what I've been watching over the past week, and considering that Texas has (a) gone undefeated in the tournament thus far and (b) has played exactly three close games - two of those early on against Oral Roberts in the regionals - over the course of the tourney, I cannot see how South Carolina or (more likely as I type) Cal State Fullerton will win once against them, much less twice.
Stanley Cup Finals: Well, I despise the Lightning. But I must say that they left it all on the ice in games 6 and 7. Calgary did too. That is what makes the Stanley Cup playoffs so great. I hope against hope that next season isn't lost. And Martin Gelinas scored in game 6, thank you very much.
NBA Playoffs: The Detroit Pistons acted like the Calgary Flames - that is they busted their asses and worked as a team. The L.A. Lakers looked like a bunch of overpaid, over-the-hill scrubs who didn't play at all as a team. Tell the truth, it kind of reminds me of the Red Wings losing to the Flames in six, even if the Red Wings won a couple of games in that series.
Beheadings: When I saw that President Bush had called the beheading of the South Korean "barbaric", I immediately thought of the origin of the word. Lest we forget, the term is derived from the treatment of American sailors about 200 years ago by the (Islamic) pirates of the Barbary Coast (present-day Libya or thereabouts). Let us just say that I found the reference appropriate. I would describe large swaths of Islam "barbaric" (intolerance of other faiths, both within and without Islam, and the actions taken because of that fact, come to mind). And I hope that the South Koreans help us destroy the hotbeds of terror in Iraq, such as Fallujah. I am getting to the point that I hope, to paraphrase Bull Halsey (I think), that at the end of the war on terror the only place that radical Islam will be practiced is in hell.
Geneva Conventions: I am glad that we are only using the Geneva Conventions consistent with military necessity. Suffice it to say that, considering that the terrorists that we capture (a) wear no uniform, (b) have no clearly defined command structure, (c) are in the service of no nation, (d) purposefully target civilians and (e) do not follow the Geneva Conventions when they capture one of their enemies, we have no legal obligation to follow the Conventions. I think that we have a moral obligation to follow the Conventions when possible, but if military or other security necessities dictate otherwise, I have no problems ignoring the Convention. And I find it more than ironic that the ones protesting the actions taken in Abu Ghraib prison the loudest are the ones who are not only most likely to engage in such actions themselves, either as giver or recipient, but are most likely to engage publicly in such actions.
Zuletzt: I saw a letter in the Los Angeles Times the other day that said it wasn't good that "unde God" wasn't removed from the pledge, saying something to the effect of "the heavy burden of religion is weighing this society down". The statement still puzzles me. Suffice it to say that I have no problem pledging allegiance to these United States as "one nation, indivisible" or as "one nation under God, indivisible". But I have no idea how the author can make that claim. I would argue that the "burden" (if, indeed, burden it is) of religion is its lightest in the history of the Republic. Most statesmen in the early days of the Republic would talk of things like God and Divine Providence, and invoke them much more meaningfully than many politicians of today. Perhaps we suffer from the burden of secularism, or, as some folks like Alan Keyes puts it, "agnostic atheism". Those are by far heavier now than at any earlier point during the history of the Republic.
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