Read this now!

Everyone who has linked to this essay by Bill Whittle has said just that. It is true. Read this essay now.

A couple of my own observations. Bill writes that the disease of Liberalism (it's not a disease, it's a choice) is odd, but "the cure is simple." It is not simple. If we knew how to make the world safe from liberals we would have done it by now. Just like there will always be born new murderers and psychopaths, there will always be born new people who want to live off the labor of others and, notwithstanding their uselessness, feel the parodixical right to be able to tell everyone what to do.

60 Minutes makes the case for the death penalty

Leslie Stahl had a 30+ minute piece on last Sunday's 60 Minutes showing how California's gangs are run out of prison by the imprisoned "generals." The story focused extensively on the "Nuestra Familia" gang, or "Our Family" as Ms. Stahl so helpfully translated. The jist of the story was that it was pathetically easy for arrested "generals" often times serving life sentences at California's most secure prison, Pelican Bay, to communicate to the "troops" on the outside and run their criminal enterprises even from the most secure and isolated lockdown prison.

I doubt Ms. Stahl realizes that she just made the most compelling pragmatic argument for the death penalty out there. The typical liberal mantra is that the death penalty doesn't deter anyone and locking the perp up in jail forever, with no possibility for parole, is just as good as killing him. Well la ti da, it doesn't appear so in this case now does it?

The interesting part of the piece, to me, was the proposed "solution" - disperse the "generals" throughout the county in the Federal prison system. What a great idea! Give the generals more contact with potential recruits! Allow them to easily expand beyond California! The one idea that never came up was kill the SOBs.

Back to blogging...

To all my loyal 5 readers, I've been occupied the past two weeks preparing for, and trying, my first solo trial. (I won, by the way.) So expect blogging to resume to normal.

So surfing around the blogosphere tonight, I notice many bloggers writing about the Discovery Channel's list of 100 Greatest Americans. Professor Bainbridge has the list, and his take on same, here. The list was taken from more than half a million nominees from AOL users, giving you a clue as to the list's composers' average intellect and grasp of U.S. History.

Anyway, here's the list, with my take. Those in Bold actually belong.

Abraham Lincoln
Albert Einstein
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Hamilton
Amelia Earhart [Um, what did she do again, besides die?]
Andrew Carnegie
Arnold Schwarzenegger [Those criticising Ahnold's inclusion on this list underestimate the impact he has on proving the American Dream. He is perhaps the best example of it in 230 years.]
Audie Murphy
Babe Ruth
Barack Obama [Foolish pandering. A commie-lib in sympathetic packaging. Maybe on there as proof of the exception that proves the rule.]
Barbara Bush [Wives who do nothing of note, except not offend, have no place on the list.]
Benjamin Franklin
Bill Clinton [Great at what? Never receiving more than 49% of the popular vote? Having his law license suspended for five years for lying under oath? Being fortunate enough to have a Republican Congress to thwart his and his wife's every attempt to destroy the prosperity brought about by Reagan?]
Bill Cosby (William Henry Cosby, Jr.)
Bill Gates
Billy Graham
Bob Hope
Brett Favre [Two words: Joe Montana.]
Carl Sagan [Popularized "pop" science for a brief period of time, which, sadly, did nothing to increase interest in real science.]
Cesar Chavez [Illegal aliens have soooooo much better working conditions today.]
Charles Lindbergh [One solo plane flight, which had been done before with a group of planes, and a Nazi sympathizer. Nothing else of note, except failed political aspirations. Mere popularity gets you nowhere on my list.]
Christopher Reeve [Puhleese. I liked Superman and all...]
Chuck Yeager [My gramps knows him so he stays on.]
Clint Eastwood [Makes great movies. Still going strong.]
Colin Powell [Good as a place holder, kinda like GHW Bush. No accomplishments of note at those places.]
Condoleezza Rice [Check back in 10 years.]
Donald Trump [A mildly successful businessman. Many others much more worthy.]
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Eleanor Roosevelt (Anna Eleanor Roosevelt) [Invented know-nothing celebrity moralistic lecturing. Responsible for Bono thinking he can end AIDS in Africa.]
Ellen DeGeneres [Perhaps the only actually funny female stand-up comedian. Close call, but no quotas on my list.]
Elvis Presley [Definitely. Responsible for the dominant musical genre of the past 50 years across the world.]
Frank Sinatra
Franklin D. Roosevelt [Yea, he gave us Social Security and prolonged the Great Depression for 10 years, but he won WWII.]
Frederick Douglass
George H. W. Bush [Of all the numerous public offices he's held, he accomplished nothing of note. Plus he raised taxes.]
George W. Bush [Check back in 20 years when the Middle East is democratized and he moves up the list dramatically.]
George Lucas [Three absolutely great movies - maybe the best three of all time (Star Wars, Empire, Raiders). Gets knocked off the list for destroying them with horrible sequals (though Last Crusade was quite good). Junior legislators?!?!?! Are we seriously to believe that a planet elected a 12 year old as queen?]
George Patton
George Washington [Not only the Greatest American but the Greatest Person Who Ever Lived. Until the U.S.A., not much changed in the lives of ordinary human beings - nasty, brutish and short. GW gave up absolute power in favor of a constitutional republic - by far the best political system devised by Man, and responsible for everything good about the world today.]
George Washington Carver [I like peanut butter, but...]
Harriet Ross Tubman
Harry Truman [The only Democrat president who I like. UPDATE - Grover Cleveland, too.]
Helen Keller [Yea, but what did she do?]
Henry Ford
Hillary Rodham Clinton [Failed co-presidency. Done nothing of note as a Senator in the minority party.]
Howard Hughes
Hugh Hefner [I admit it, I like looking at naked women.]
Jackie Robinson (Jack Roosevelt Robinson)
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis [See Barbara Bush.]
Jesse Owens [Not the greatest athlete, but because of so many who get knocked off, he can stay. Plus, did it all in front of Hitler.]
Jimmy Carter [Belongs on the list of 100 worst Americans; actually, probably in the top 10.]
Jimmy Stewart
John Edwards [I hope they don't mean the would be veep.]
John Glenn [Went into space once (not counting the geriatric trip in 1998), third, and accomplished little of note as a Senator.]
John F. Kennedy [Died too young and too early in his term to achieve greatness. Bonus points for cutting taxes, though.]
John Wayne [He is America to the rest of the world.]
Johnny Carson (John William Carson)
Jonas Edward Salk
Joseph Smith Jr. [Check back in 50 years to see if the Mormons have out bred everyone and taken over.]
Katharine Hepburn
Lance Armstrong
Laura Bush [See Barbara Bush.]
Lucille Ball
Lyndon B. Johnson [So disgraced that he did not run for an eligible term as President. No chance he's on the list.]
Madonna (Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone) [Of the five musicians on this list, who's music will be totally forgotten 50 years hence? Put another way, if you were stranded on a desert island with the music of only one American, how many hundreds of artists would you pick before Madonna?]
Malcolm X (Malcolm Little) [At least he saw how racist he was before his racist cohorts killed him.]
Marilyn Monroe [Celebrity means nothing.]
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
Martha Stewart
Martin Luther King Jr.
Maya Angelou [Of the pathetically few writers on the list, no one will read her stuff in 50 years.]
Mel Gibson [More deserving artists were omitted. Might make it on the second cut.]
Michael Jackson [Thriller.]
Michael Jordan
Michael Moore [If Mr. Moore actually had any influence...]
Muhammad Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.)
Neil Alden Armstrong
Nikola Tesla [Only invented AC current. More than anyone on this list, responsible for how Americans live.]
Oprah Winfrey [Not even close. UPDATE - what I mean by this is, when she's dead, what will she have accomplished?]
Pat Tillman [Tragic story, but no accomplishments but to remind us of the sacrifices all soldiers make.]
Dr. Phil McGraw [See Oprah.]
Ray Charles
Richard Nixon [We've had a lot of Presidents. Nixon is far down on that list.]
Robert Kennedy [Put away the mob, but cut short before he could really accomplish anything.]
Ronald Reagan [In the top 10.]
Rosa Parks [I'll give her props for the courage and the impact she had.]
Rudolph W. Giuliani
Rush Limbaugh [Unlike Michael Moore, Rush has influence. Who is now the majority party in the U.S.? When did that turn of events start?]
Sam Walton [You shop at WalMart.]
Steve Jobs
Steven Spielberg [The man makes great movies. His stinkers (read: AI) at least aren't sequals.]
Susan B. Anthony
Theodore Roosevelt
Thomas Edison
Thomas Jefferson
Tiger Woods [Jack Nicholas.]
Tom Cruise [I love his movies. Extremely underrated actor.]
Tom Hanks [I love his movies, too. Rated about right - the best actor of our generation.]
Walt Disney
Wrights Brothers (Orville & Wilbur Wright)


Ok, now who should have made the list? I'm tired and I'll update this but one name needs to be recognized:

Jimi Hendrix [America's greatest musical genius. His music will be played 100 and 1000 years from now.]

Not until you see the irony!

I don't normally watch the talking head Sunday morning shows, but I was up a bit early this morning with my daughter and I caught a bit of Fox News Sunday. They were talking about changing Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster for judicial nominations and the particular angle being debated was how each side could (or should) spin a rule change.

I've vaguely heard the name Juan Williams before. He was on the show arguing the Dem's position and his talking point was that the public would view a rules change as unfair because "you can't change the rules in the sixth inning of a baseball game."

[Pause until that sinks in.]

[Do you see the irony yet?]

[Now?]

Ok, if you still don't see the irony here it is. The entire reason Juan Williams and his ilk oppose such fine judicial nominees as Janice Rogers Brown and Pricilla Owen is precisely because they don't change the rules of the game in the metaphorical "sixth inning" of the Constitution. Rather, Juan Williams would much rather see judges appointed who routinely change the rules in the sixth inning to ensure the judge's own personally desired outcome.

Yet, as a talking point, Mr. Williams claims it is unfair to change the Senate's rules halfway through, even through the Senate is a legislative body that can Constitutionally change its rules any time it wants, while the Constitution can only be changed by amendment and the super-majority process of Article V.

Democrats and liberals are simply not serious people. [Extra points for spotting the reference of the title.]