Internet Radio

It really chaps my hide when Michael Savage is cut off mid-rant for a grade school basketball game or some such. And it happens all the time. Now, I firmly believe that it is better light a single candle than to curse the darkness. So after I got done cursing, I looked for a candle.

http://streamingradioguide.com has become my candle. I don't even turn on the radio anymore. This site has everything: religion, progressive talk, conservative talk, financial, comedy, Spanish language, and local programs from all over the country. Check it out!

Drop the Partisan BS and Support our Troops!

I am fed up with Bush Derangement Syndrome sufferers using veterans’ issues to take jabs at the president. Helping our vets is too important an issue to be hijacked by ranters and ravers with ideological or partisan political agendas.

If you want to help our troops, here’s some advice: Find a credible veterans’ advocacy organization and volunteer your time or donate money. What are the hallmarks of a good veterans’ organization?

1. It is non-partisan. It enjoys the friendship of Democratic and Republican politicians alike. It turns away help from no one.

2. It doesn’t engage in name-calling or other inflammatory language. It stays focused on the mission of helping our troops.

3. It is influential and has an effective lobbying effort (yes, there are good lobbyists.)

4. It avoids being co-opted by other people or organizations with political or ideological agendas unrelated to helping vets.

5. It won’t be represented at anti-war rallies or peace protests.

6. Many good veterans organizations can be found at patriotic events such as holidays or memorial dedications for fallen heroes.

7. It doesn’t diminish its message by gratuitously criticizing elected officials.

8. It often criticizes government policies, but does so in a constructive manner, offering solutions along with criticism.

There are many good ways to help our veterans. Joining in with the haters and hidden agenda crowd isn’t one of them. They are exploiting people of good will, (and most despicably, our veterans) to their own ideological ends. Avoid them. Below are links to some of the good guys: Visit them and give.

Links:

http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/

http://www.saluteheroes.org/

http://www.woundedwarriors.org/

http://www.rollingthunder1.com/

http://www.dav.org/

Government-Sponsored Hunger, High Prices

The Grocery bill keeps Going higher. No news there for anyone who eats. Brett Arends over at the Wall Street Journal explains why.

“The main reason for rising prices, of course, is the surge in demand from China and India. Hundreds of millions of people are joining the middle class each year, and that means they want to eat more and better food.
A secondary reason has been the growing demand for ethanol as a fuel additive. That's soaking up some of the corn supply.”

Can’t do much about increased prosperity in the developing world… What we can do is write our congress persons and senators and demand they end the perverse government incentives that are skewing the grain markets and sowing further panicked speculation in other commodities. If ethanol is such a great idea, let it stand on its own. Our government encourages taking from the mouths of hungry humans to feed our hungry vehicles. Another fine example of our tax dollars at work.

Political Joke of the Day: Danes For McCain

The average European male is still manly and chauvinistic despite the best efforts of the ruling class to neuter him. Danes, like all European men, appreciate sports, beer, and women, so they have a unique take on our presidential election. The joke may lose some of its zing since I had to clean it up, but it’s still funny. Here goes:

“We in Denmark cannot figure out why you in the United States are even bothering to hold an election.
On one side, you have an Ivy League lawyer, married to an Ivy League lawyer…
fighting for the nomination against an Ivy League lawyer, married to an Ivy League lawyer.
On the other side, you have a war hero married to a good looking woman with big breasts who owns a beer distributorship…
Is there a contest here?"

--Props to daddy Silverfiddle for sending me this

Protesting Those Who Protect The Right To Protest

I love this picture. It reminds me of that great patriotic poem about how the soldier guarantees our freedoms. Click on the picture for a full-size view. WARNING: Contains a vulgarity.

It Has Always Been The Soldier.
It is the soldier,
not the President who gives us democracy.
It is the soldier,
not the Congress who takes care of us.
It is the soldier,
not the Reporter who has given us Freedom of Press.
It is the soldier,
not the Poet who has given us Freedom of Speech.
It is the soldier,
not the campus Organizer who has given us the
Freedom to Demonstrate.
It is the soldier,
who salutes the flag;
who serves beneath the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
that allows the protester to burn the flag.

(Father Dennis O'Brien, US Marine Corp. Chaplain)

Poem source: http://www.vfwpost1503.org/it's_the_soldier.html

CENTCOM Happenings: Ralph Peters Analysis

I like Ralph Peters. He's a retired Army Intel Officer who as a civilian has spent a lot of time in Iraq looking things over for himself. He is not a blind cheerleader: He really laid the wood to the Bush administration over their pre-surge ineptitude. He is a big fan of the surge, and can expertly explain why. Here he explains the personnel changes going on in CENTCOM and why they bode well for our efforts the Middle East. General Petreaus's star keeps rising. A good read.
Enjoy!

Brazilian Oil Find Could Dwarf Saudi Deposits

Bloomberg reports on new Brazilian oil finds that could be huge. This and other major finds could offset increased demand by the developing world, bringing prices down. Here is the most interesting part of the story:
Brazil may be pumping ``several million'' barrels of crude daily by 2020, vaulting the nation into the ranks of the world's seven biggest producers, Zeihan said in a telephone interview. The U.S. Navy's presence in the Persian Gulf and adjacent waters would be reduced, leaving the region exposed to more conflict, he said.
``We could see that world becoming a very violent one,'' said Zeihan, former chief of Middle East and East Asia analysis for Strategic Forecasting. ``If the United States isn't getting any crude from the Gulf, what benefit does it have in policing the Gulf anymore? All of the geopolitical flux that wracks that region regularly suddenly isn't our problem.''
What a delightful thought: Being able to turn our backs on that hell on earth known as the Middle East, sleeping peacefully knowing we'll no more have to send our sons and daughters over there. Old Europe might actually have to field a credible military...