Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
A Turning Point
So yesterday I was bellyaching about this whacked-out stupid crazy quote from Sen. Ted Kennedy in his upcoming book about how much like Axis Japan our country has become, since we elected to use pre-emptive military force just like they did when they attacked Pearl Harbor.
You know, I just missed the point about what makes the Senator’s musings so incredibly dangerous and irresponsible. Let us look them over again:
Preventive war is consistent with neither our values nor our national security…It gives other nations [emphasis mine] an excuse to violate fundamental principles of civilized international behavior, and the downward spiral we initiate could well engulf the whole planet.
What’s so dangerous about that?
It has to do with the time in which we live. We are at a critical turning point. Within my lifetime (I’m 39) the idea that a borderline lunatic lacking in any dictatorial, constitutional, plutocratic, or any other political power, could take a crapload of money and raise as much of a ruckus in the national security of one or several nations, as if some other nation was attacking them, has been a truly novel and unthinkable idea. Check that — in the world of unclassified and declassified information, it has been unthinkable. Such a thing has had sufficient irony to drive the plot of a whole fistful of James Bond movies, and Bond-knockoff movies.
Well, heh…you know what, you just can’t make a movie like that anymore. Nowadays, it is our news. Bad guys with unlimited money, but limited power, who want unlimited power, and don’t care who they’ll hurt in order to get that unlimited power. Bad guys who play by no rules, exerting their will over governments which have craploads of rules. Release these prisoners or we’ll blow up that metropolis. Withdraw from this front or we’ll strike you who-knows-where. Or…screw it, we’re just going to start killing you no matter what and there’s nothing you can do about it.
This is the point that Sen. Kennedy seems to be missing. He wants to discuss new ways of running national security, principles by which we should abide when we consider an action against other nations. Osama bin Laden is not a nation. He’s a bad guy straight from a James Bond movie. He doesn’t have a sexy nubile daughter that some secret agent will be screwing before the credits roll, and he’s not orbiting above earth in some deadly killer satellite with a laser beam threatening to obliterate London unless someone pays one…hundred…million…dollars! The differences end — right there.
Other than that, there is no difference between bin Laden and your typical James Bond villain. None. He’s filthy stinking rich, has lots of “minions” at his disposal, he’s got an inner sanctum somewhere that our “good guys” can’t find. He’s plotting. Who knows what he’s plotting, and who’s to say how much our people know about what he’s plotting, and what they don’t know.
And he has no borders.
No government.
He is a signatory to no treaty, anywhere, whatsoever.
And for that reason, waiting for him to shoot first, means…waiting for him to shoot first. Period. End of story. Not only that, but bin Laden is just the first of many terrorists just like this. It’s a new era. They can all shoot first if they want to. And when they do, they can “shoot” however they want. Anywhere they want. Under any circumstances. And there is no place you can file a grievance to express your moral outrage or righteous indignation about what they did.
The fact is, you’re not going to see a villain in a movie like Ernst Stavro Blofeld too often from here on in (except for remakes). Because the plot of such a movie would resemble the evening news too much.
In this new era, Ted Kennedy’s “principles” are dangerously out of place. That is what I’d be saying if every nation on the face of the planet agreed to those principles…which they haven’t.
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