DADvocate

Barack middle name Obama recently completed a visit to several nations including Germany, France and Great Britain. In one of his first speeches upon returning he states, "There's no doubt that when it comes to our treatment of Native Americans as well as other persons of color in this country, we've got some very sad and difficult things to account for,..." Later in the same speech Obama says, "I personally would want to see our tragic history, or the tragic elements of our history, acknowledged,..."

It seems that to liberals/progressives only the "sad and difficult things" are visible. Instapundit asked the question: "Does Barack Obama think that American history is unusually “tragic” as compared to the history of other great nations?" I decide to expand on this. Roger Kimball beat me to it. Probably because he has more time to devote to blogging than I.

A person even remotely aware of world history over the past 100 years of the mass killings by countries such as Germany, the old USSR, China and many smaller nations, African tribes, and in Arab lands. All told we are probably speaking of hundreds of millions.

In total, this century's battle killed in all its international and domestic wars, revolutions, and violent conflicts is so far about 35,654,000.

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From 1918 to 1953, the Soviet government executed, slaughtered, starved, beat or tortured to death, or otherwise killed 39,500,000 of its own people (the best estimate among figures ranging from a minimum of twenty million killed by Stalin to a total over the whole communist period of eighty-three million). For China under Mao Tse-tung, the communist government eliminated, as an average figure between estimates, 45,000,000 Chinese. The number killed for just these two nations is about 84,500,000 human beings, or a lethality of 252 percent more than both World Wars together

Source

Did Barack middle name Obama make in mention while in Germany of the "the tragic elements" in Germany's history? Attacking other nations and leading to WWI and WWII which lead to the deaths of tens of millions? The genocidal murders committed against Jews? Facts so well know they are not questioned by any reasonable person in the world.

In France did Barack middle name Obama mention France's long colonial history and the French's exploitation and oppression of colonial lands. Did Obama mention Sarkozy's refusal to apologize for atrocities committed in Algeria? Of course not, it may have threatened his rock star status.

Did Barack middle name Obama challenge the British for having established slavery in North America, or for the oppression of nations under the British Empire? Remember "The sun never sets on the British Empire?" Britain only returned Hong Kong to China in 1997. I have an old t-shirt commemorating the event. And, don't forget the British treatment of the Irish which spurred massive immigration to the United States and a century before inspired Johnathan Swift to write "A Modest Proposal."

You don't have to look far to see the "tragic history" of many nations. Italy and fascism. Or, go back to the Roman Empire and Italy's oppression of entire western civilization. Reaching into America's distant past makes no difference to the American hating liberals.

Look at Spain, the Spanish Inquisition, the plundering of lands in the New World. Even tiny Belgium has a checkered past.

Yet Belgium's pride in its colonial past has always been shadowed by a darker history, one marked by two decades of perhaps the cruelest rule ever inflicted on a colonized people and, half-century later, by a violent intervention in Congolese politics after the country's independence in 1960. This history, long buried, neither taught in schools nor mentioned in public, is now beginning to surface.

Indeed, in the scope of history, the United States may be the most humane powerful nation ever. Like every person striving to become smarter, stronger, more successful, etc, the U.S. should continually work to become better. But, I'm tired of all the crap of all the "very sad and difficult things to account for" coming from the lips of liberals/progressives.

Where would the world be today had the U.S. not been there to fight fascism, communism, and to lead the world in virtually every technological, scientific area? Despite whatever faults she may have, one can rightfully argue that the U.S. is the greatest nation ever. And I won't vote for a politician who says or implies otherwise.

In Knoxville today a gunman entered one of the local Unitarian churches killing two and injuring several others, some critically. As this is the church to which my daughter and her family belongs, my son-in-law and oldest grandchild were present when this happened. Very scary stuff.

I'm not sure what to think or feel about this exactly. Obviously I'm relieved that my daughter and her family are fine. I've known members of this church for over 40 years, and dated one in high school. One of the previous pastors performed my wedding ceremony. This was a church that took an active, constructive role in the community. I never remember hearing criticism coming from this church but always a willingness to help in any way they could.

A neighbor of the shooter says the shooter had a problem with Christianity. (Hat tip Instapundit.) If that is the case, he chose the wrong church as Unitarians don't consider themselves Christian, at least not this congregation.

I suppose I'll never understand the level of insanity, anger or hate that drives a person to blindly kill others. Right now I feel much the same way I do whenever I hear of senseless killings anywhere. Saddened and mystified. Please say a small prayer for the victims of this incident.

I've posted occasionally about the unfairness towards men of divorce courts in the U.S. DrHelen addresses the subject subject more frequently than I.

But Patrick at Hurricane Radio has found the mother of all cases.

Men (or women) who decide to get on bended knee: Be warned. You could find yourself on both knees, facing a judge instead of a justice of the peace.

That’s what happened in Florida this week, when a woman was awarded $150,000 after suing her former fiancé for calling off their wedding.

The writer politely adds the "(or women)" but I can guarantee you that that won't be the case.

What's next? Paying damages for breaking a date? How much further into the pit of idiocy can our society descend? A lot further, I'm afraid.

Many are criticizing Barack middle name Obama for his travels in Europe. Obviously, many Americans don't understand the importance of all 57 states. I compliment him and invite him to stay there for the next decade or two.

However, I have found it ridiculously hypocritical slightly embarrassing that he didn't speak in the native languages of the countries he has visited. Hopefully, he'll do better with this in Britain.

I can only begin to tell how Obama's speeches in Europe, especially to the useful idiots in Germany, has aroused my feelings for him. Gaining the support of the country which brought us one of the most infamous and murderous madmen in history will certainly sway many American voters to Obama's side.

Indeed, it's much more important Obama visit Europe, and those other places over there, than meaningless destinations such as Arkansas, Hawaii or Alaska which he would actually help govern if he is elected.

Hopefully, more Americans will awaken and realize the great buffoonery vision of Barack middle name Obama.

Starbucks has announced it is closing 600 stores and now various municipalities are scrambling to keep the stores open.

In towns as small as Bloomfield, N.M., and metropolises as large as New York, customers and city officials are starting to write letters, place phone calls, circulate petitions and otherwise plead with the coffee giant to change its mind.

"Now that it's going away, we're devastated," said Kate Walker, a facilities manager for SunGard Financial Systems, a software company, who recently learned of a store closing in New York City.

Emphasis added.

Devastated. Wow! Just over a cup of coffee. What would happen if ...., uh, well, nothing else could possibly be this bad.

I suggest some enterprising local entrepreneurs open coffee shops that serve coffee just as good at a lower price, which would not be difficult at all. Of course, it wouldn't be Starbucks. How could the coffee snobs drink coffee that wasn't Starbucks, even if it was just as good or better and cost less?

Three women are being "ordained" as priests today in Boston.

The move has angered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, which has sent out an email to local priests reminding them of Vatican law that women are allowed to have key roles within the church, but cannot become priests.

The Archdiocese says the three women will be automatically excommunicated. Historically, the Vatican's position has been that women cannot become priests because Jesus did not have female apostles.

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Dana Reynolds of California, a women consecrated as a bishop in Germany earlier this year, will perform the ceremony.

Reynolds and the others are members of the organization Roman Catholic Womenpriests, holding ordinations for women since 2002. The organization reports 28 women Catholic priests in the United States.

The organization claims its ordinations are valid because its first bishops were ordained by Catholic bishops in good standing. The identity of the bishops is kept secret to protect them from being sanctioned by the Vatican.

Aside from the impossibility of being legitimate Catholic priests, why don't these ladies just start a new denomination? They could follow the road of Martin Luther, John Wesley and many others. I suspect the answer is not that they want to be priests as much as they want to destroy something with which they disagree. Feminist fascism marches on.

jau at just muttering posted about a wine library this morning. She mentions a $4 wine called Big Moose Red. Personally, I've had it with these expensive, over-priced wines.

A few years ago, a co-worker found the only wine list you'll ever need, BumWine.com. I guarantee you won't pay $4 for any of these fine wines: Cisco, MD 20/20, Night Train Express, Thunderbird and, the ever delicious, Wild Irish Rose.

At work, we gave our boss a "sampler" of these fine wines. We pitched in $1.25 a piece, wrapped the wines in a coat box and there you go, a fine wine sampler with full size bottles. Unfortunately, we ended up helping him consume the wine.

Night Train Express was the only wine we had trouble finding, which you can reasonably expect with rare, fine wines. I called and visited 15-20 liquor stores before I found the exquisite nectar of the gods. The proprietor of the store complimented my taste in wine and that I had had a bath that day.

Sure you can pay $4 for some over-priced Big Moose Red. But, why bother when you can drink the finest for as little as $1.99.

I really have to wonder what kind of schizophrenic world our liberal, Democratic politicians live in. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called George W. a "total failure."

I'm not writing to argue the point of whether or not Bush is a total failure. I'm writing to wonder out loud how one of the leaders of the worst, most disapproved Congress in history can dare speak of someone else's failures.

Does Pelosi and her ilk think that by pointing their collective fingers at George Bush we will forget or not notice how bad our Democrat lead Congress is? If so, it's not working.

One earmark we do need, money for Thorazine for our Democratic "leaders."

Just a few weeks ago, Barack middle name Obama said there is "no way that allowing offshore drilling would lower gas prices right now. At best you are looking at five years or more down the road." Then, a few days ago, Bush lifts the executive ban on offshore drilling.

Today, in the Cincinnati area, gas prices have dropped 10-20 cents at virtually every station I passed. Plus "Oil futures closed down $5.31 at $129.29 a barrel." After oil had been above $140 a barrel.

Seems that just saying we're going to drill helps. Think what would happen if we really did. Of course, not everyone is happy. One liberal blogger notes, "Aren't we lucky Democrats are in control of Congress?" As in, hopefully Congress won't lift its ban.

I thought the Democrats were for the little guy, the everyday person struggling to get by. Guess not. And "lucky Democrats are in control of Congress?" If you think having what is possibly the worst Congress in the history of our nation is lucky, then we are lucky. What ever happened to The 100 Hour Agenda?

I haven't seen any improvement. They raised minimum wage which was promptly eaten up by increased oil prices and rising cost of living. The Democrats did manage to attain the lowest approval rating ever. The Democrats seem more interested in pleasing as many special interests groups as they can rather than help the average American.

The primary objection to domestic drilling is environmental. Thinking on a global scale, domestic drilling is more desirable than importing. U.S. regulations would not begin to allow pollution such as in Nigeria. Yes, domestic drilling is good environmental policy. Britian has been drilling offshore since the 1970s without catastrophe.

But, like the blogger quoted above, when you have no children, can run out and buy a Prius at whimsy after decades of driving gas guzzlers, and have an income several times the national average, why try to lower gas prices anyway?

Yes, little guy, the Democrats are about you as long they don't have wind generators in their sailing areas, or oil rigs within sight of their beaches and don't need to drive too far to work or the grocery store. And it's OK for the poor of Nigeria to live in squalor as long as the elitist Democrats can sip mai tais on the back patio without a reminder of the hardships that ordinary Americans and, even worse, the rest of the world endures.

Recently I bought a new digital camera which has the capability of taking videos also. It is a Canon 560 which only cost me $120 on sale at K-Mart. I was testing it out at my daughter's basketball game yesterday when I was lucky enough to catch her making her first three pointer in a regulation game.

As she plays post or strong forward, she rarely gets an opportunity for an outside shot. She's no Chris Lofton. Yet. :-)

You also get to hear my southern, hillbilly voice as a bonus.

If you want to see a gun control advocates dream, watch this video. You get to see brutish police slam an tiny old lady to the floor of her own house plus the total lack of respect the New Orleans police have for our constitutional rights.



The Constitution is the highest law of our land. It can't be overlooked just because some police chief says so. It takes an amendment which is a long, involved process.

Hat tip Instapundit.

When evaluating candidates for public office, laws, government programs and such I generally use a set of values I've developed and come to hold dear over my lifetime. Often, when reading and listening to what others think, I wonder just what are their overriding values. Often they don't seem to look at things anywhere close to the way I do.

Indeed, when I look at the political spectrum entry at Wikipedia, the major political thinkers categorize things differently than I. For me, conservative, liberal, Republican, Democratic have little real meaning.

I evaluate everything according to how it compares to my values. Unfortunately, it seems many don't. You can easily see this in all the about faces liberals and progressives are doing in response to Barack middle name Obama's flip flops.

Here is a list I came up with. It is a modified form of the Rokeach Value Survey in order to be more oriented towards politics.

• Freedom - independence and free choice
• Honest - sincere and truthful
• Participation - democracy; citizen participation in government
• Family Security - taking care of loved ones
• Health - physical and mental well-being
• Wisdom - a mature understanding of life
• Responsible - dependable and reliable
• Courageous - standing up for your beliefs
• Loyal - faithful to citizens concerns
• Compassion - caring and concerned government
• Independent - self-reliant; self-sufficient
• A World at Peace - a world free of war and conflict
• National Security - Terminal Values protection from attack
• Equality - brotherhood and equal opportunity for all
• Fairness - everybody plays by the same rules
• A Comfortable Life - a prosperous life
• A World of Beauty - beauty of nature and the arts
• Broad-minded - open-minded
• Capable - competent; effective
• Forgiving - willing to pardon others
• Helpful - working for the welfare of others
• Imaginative - Instrumental Values daring and creative
• Intellectual - intelligent and reflective
• Logical - consistent; rational
• Pleasure - an enjoyable, leisurely life

The values are ranked in the order that I hold them. Freedom comes first. Aesop got it right with "Better starve free than be a fat slave."

I put honesty up high because it is the foundation of the other values. Without honesty it is easy for the others to become a sham. Equality is further down the list because equality can be misleading. Prisons probably have more equality than anywhere else in society.

I put pleasure at the bottom because, while I obviously enjoy please, I don't see it as a goal to pursue but as something that comes along when you do enough of the other things right.

Diversity doesn't even make the list. I consider it something nice that happens but not a legitimate interest of the government.

I find constant threats to our freedom, including freedom from government intrusion into our personal lives, re: the recent surveillance bill which Obama and McCain voted for. Hillary Clinton did not. I never thought I'd wish she was running for president but I did in the primary and I still do. She's a much better alternative to Obama.

I hope you value our freedom as much as I, or more. What are your values? Have you considered them in relation to the upcoming elections?

England has strict gun control laws. Here are some of the results.

Police have arrested 1,214 people in London during a six-week crackdown on knife crime, Scotland Yard said on Wednesday.

Officers found 528 knives after conducting nearly 27,000 searches during Operation Blunt 2, launched after Boris Johnson was elected London Mayor in May pledging to tackle knife crime in the capital.

Emphasis added

Next they'll be cracking down on wooden club crime or brass knuckle crime. England if fully on the path of becoming a police state.

If someone attacked me with a knife, I'd prefer to be able to defend myself with a gun. A gun takes the physical size aspect out of the conflict. The old Colt 45 wasn't called "The Equalizer" for no reason.

Gen. Wesley Clark says, "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president,..."

Does riding in a torpedo boat and getting sunk qualify you?

Of course, Barack middle name Obama has done neither of these.