The Noble Pundit

Addition To The Blogroll

Reading aroudn this morning, I found a link off of Dean Esmay's site to Babalu Blog, a site written by Val Prieto, one of the good guys of the 'sphere, that deals mainly with all matters Cuban. I wish I had found his site earlier. It is very well written and very interesting, as I like keeping up with what's happening in Cuba these days.

Go over and take a look around. At the very least, he's a Dolphins and Hurricanes fan so he can't be all bad :-)

Dow 10,000. What Does It Mean?

Everyone seems to be making a big deal about the Dow Jones Industrial Average passing through 10,000 again. Republicans are simply gushing with excitement; Democrats are simply moaning as if they had been mortally wounded. So what does Dow 10,000 really signify?

Nothing.

It merely means that the 30 stocks of the average have combined to reach a certain level at which there aggregate average works out to 10,000. It doesn't mean the economy is booming. It doesn't mean that everything will be a utopia anytime soon. It's a number, that's all.

I remember the first time the Dow went through 10,000. People were excited. It was an amazing psychological achievement, but in the grand scheme of things, it really didn't mean anything then either. The stock market isn't an accurate guage of the economy. Sometimes it leads the economy; sometimes it lags. Dow 10,000 was, and still is, a psychological barrier. Just like 9,500 or 10,500. Passing it is nice, and it feels like an achievement, but it really doesn't mean anything.

Show me unemployment dropping. Show me steady gains in the GDP. Show me something tangible in the economic numbers. The hubbaloo around Dow 10,000 is much ado about nothing.

What A Wierd News Day!

OK. Today has definitely had a few odd articles floating around.

First we have Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United States, actually praising the fight against terror. He also agrees that the obstructionists like France and Germany don't deserve to get any reconstruction contracts. Did we ever expect to hear any Saudi official make such blunt statements?

And then, courtesy of Opinion Journal's Best Of The Web today, we find out that some of our friends over at Democratic Underground are actually upset that the economy is starting to show signs of rebound! And then to make it even better, is their link to a post from Lance Collins in whcih he bemoans the fact that low income folks like Republicans too. So according to these two, the Democrats are damned if they do, and damned if they don't. Such is the state of confusion amongst their ranks. And they wonder why Dean, who seems to be pandering to both sides, sounds like he contradicts himself so often...

Saudi's supporting the war on terror and Democrats admitting that they don't want the economy to rebound solely for political reasons. What an odd day!

Once More On The Sidebar

OK, I've made one more modification to the right hand sidebar putting it on a lower layer than the content so if worse comes to worse, the content will overlap the sidebar making all of my stuff visible, regardless. I'll keep working, but for now this seems to work. Any suggestions or comments are appreciated.

More Gun Violence

How long before the anti-gun nuts latch onto this story about a homeowner who attacked a teenager with a Revolutionary era musket? They will, of course, fail to mention that the kid was breaking and entering into the guy's home or that the kid was merely clubbed, not shot.

Too bad that the kid probably still didn't learn his lesson.

Just one more example of how having a gun in the home can help to promote home safety.

Outing Activist Teachers

The Sierra Times has a great column todayexposing some of the ways in which activist teachers try to indoctrinate our kids in school.

Their main tactic is to promote the idea of "critical thinking," but while critical thinking is important to developing your own beliefs it does not neccessarily mean a complete and total rejection of values previously held. Too often, teachers talk about critical thinking, but instead push for the student to take up a position in line with the values of the teacher.

There seems to be a real and genuine identity crises going on in the educational world between the teachers who truly want to teach and those who want to be intellectual parents. The teachers want family to be involved, want parents to help guide their children through life. The activists want to indoctrinate, which means that they really want to cause a schism between the kids and the parents so as to make the reeducation easier. Anymore, it seems like the members of the profession can't decide who or what they should be.

There need to be more administrators, like the one in the article, who recognize the problem for what it is. Parents need to spend more time being involved in their child's education.

But most importantly, we need to figure out how to rein in the activists.

Tune In To The NRA Channel?

John Kerry has written a letter to the FCC urging them to deny the NRA the ability to purchase a media outlet so as to get the news organization exemption from campaign finance laws.

If the NRA wants to start the NRA Channel and wants to run a news program that presents news from the gun lobby's point of view, they should be able to do that. That is free speech. John Kerry, nor anybody else, has the right or ability to determine what is or is not news. News, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

If the NRA wants to run ads on network TV or in national newspapers endorsing one candidate or attacking another, they should play by the same rules as everyone else. That is fair. But if they want to purchase a media outlet of their own for the same purpose, they should be allowed to do so without hinderance. After all, if someone tunes into the NRA Channel they should have a reasonable expectation of hearing the NRA party line. They have the option of not ever turning that station on.

There is a difference between an ad slamming John Kerry during Everybody Loves Raymond, on network TV where you have tuned in for (hopefully) humor and an ad slamming John Kerry during Gun World Daily News on the NRA Channel, where you have tuned specifically to hear the NRA message.

Sorry, Kerry, but the NRA Channel should be (in my opinion) a go.

Another Plane Hit By A Missile?

The AP is reporting that a C-17 appears to have taken "a direct hit" on one of it's engines during take-off from Baghdad International Airport. It is described as being "like the DHL" incident. The plane returned to the airport safely (although I'm sure the crew was lass than thrilled).

If they keep hitting these aircraft with shoulder fired missiles, which have a limited range, and we know the direction in which the aircraft will be departing, why don't we send more patrols out under the flight path to try to effectively seal it off from these terrorists? Don't get me wrong, I'm not accusing anyone of misdeeds, I'm just wondering if beefing up the presence under the flight path (and to either side for a certain distance) might not help the situation. Of course, it still wouldn't stop the suicidal nutcase, but it might improve things some....

North Korea Still Playing Nuke Games

South Korea is reporting that they have some evidence that the North Koreans may be firing up the coal plant at their nuclear facility.

Any activity at the facility would seem to make rational discussions with North Korea somewhat more difficult than they already were, if that is possible. If these reports are accurate and North Korea is trying to weasel around, why are we even going to bother with talking to them? Agreements and concessions mean nothing to Kim Jong-Il, who apparently has dropped out of sight lately. Something smells in North Korea and I don't think that it's the smell of burning coal.

Not A Good Day To Be Jewish

Two explosions today, one in Tel Aviv, the other in Modena, Italy.

Deadly Explosion Rocks Tel Aviv Coffee Shop - 2 dead, 12 injured, but it may not be the Palestinian's fault. Apparently there are reports that Ze'ev Rozenstein, Israel's top mafia boss, was seen leaving the area early this afternoon and it has been confirmed that he was injured in the blast.

In Modena, a Jordanian man, appears to have been attempting suicide through self-immolation in his car. However, his car was parked along the outside container walls of a synagogue and it just happened to be powered by propane. Needless to say, it made quite an explosion when the propane went. There are no reports of injuries, but the synagogue did sustain some blown out windows.

No overt terrorist acts yet today, but isn't it odd how two explosions can happen in different parts of the world and both are still in some way related to Judaism?

The Mayoral Imperium In Orlando

Yesterday, I expressed my anger with the vote of the Orlando City Council to allow the demolition of the Jaymont Block in downtown Orlando. Today, I actually found myself in agreement with Orlando Sentinel columnist Myriam Marquez and her assertation that Mayor Buddy Dyer is acting like he possess the purple.

What he did was even worse than I had originally thought. At first, I must have overlooked certain words in the original articles I linked to as I thought that the City Council vote the other night was a real vote on the action. Turns out that it was simply a non-binding resolution. Even if the City Council had voted against the demo work, the permits were already pulled; the preliminary work had already begun. How secret was His Majesty Dyer's dealings with the developer? City Council members who voted for the resolution even expressed surprise at how advanced the preperations and such were.

Dyer claimed that we should accept his process because the public was allowed to comment. Unfortunately, the public comments meant just as much as the Council resolution - not a damn thing. Dyer claims that the process was open and public, yet he allowed everything to be hidden with confidentiality agreements and stifled any potential public debate by allowing the destruction of the property before anyone could use the courts to try to reign in his Imperial Mayoraldom.

Like I said, I rarely agree with Mrs. Marquez when it comes to opinion pieces, but in her column today she levelled some pretty serious factual charges. Conflicts of interest. Skirting of the State Sunshine Laws (laws in Florida designed to make sure that all government meetings are open to the public so that backroom dealing is minimized). Attempting to bypass the checks and balances in place to prevent an executive imperialism.

Buddy Dyer is an arrogant, apparently ethically challenged politician, who is in desperate need of a recall. Reviewing his actions, I would have to seriously question if he has the best interests of the citizens of Orlando at heart. If I lived within the city limits, I would be leading the charge to throw the bum out of office.

Buddy needs to have his imperial arrogance taken down a notch or two.

I Think I Fixed The Right Column

Ed Flinn of MonkeyWatch and HobbyBlog pointed out earlier that there was a problem in IE6 with the new right hand sidebar overlapping the content, making reading rather difficult. I think I've corrected the problem, but if there are still problems, please leave a comment and let me know!

Quick Links

New boy Poland flexes its muscles - The Guardian notices that Poland is an up and coming nation (although much further along than the Guardian would ever admit). How does the Guardian respond? By painting Poland as a troublemaker, of course!

The privatisation of war - The Guardian has also noted the fact that there are private military contractors out there, a fact that I noted way back in July.

The 2004 Political Landscape: Evenly Divided and Increasingly Polarized - Hmmm. I think I hinted at the polarized part in my last post. Why, yes. Yes I did.

Blair 'to strip Mugabe of knighthood' - "In an effort to force a 'regime change'?" This will be the most wholy ineffective measure Blair could come up with. Absolutely a useless gesture.

Words that Kill - This is a tough one. I'm really glad that this isn't a case involving Americans, because I would then be forced to defend these two and their First Amendment right to free speech - no matter how distasteful. But since they're not American, I don't have to feel so bad. What does concern me though is that this is a step on the path towards policing thoughts, and the UN and the ICC are setting themselves up as the determinants of acceptable thought - a scary precendent.

U.S. Shuts Out France, Germany for Iraq Work - Aww, gee. Don't you just feel so bad for France and Germany after the way they tried to screw us? I don't.

Stone Age sites found under North Sea - Way cool stuff here. One day, I would love to be able to take some time out to help in an archaelogical exploration. I think that would be such a blast.

Am I Mistaken?

I'm sorry, but I was always under the impression that one of the tenets of leftism in America was a religious belief in the absolute goodness and virtue of colorblind and religiously neutral equality. So it goes without saying that I was rather surprised to see displays such as these over at IndyMedia - the home of the loony left:

First they take their shots at Condoleeza Rice. Then the take on the fact that there are actually some people in the world who are opposed to anti-Semitism.

Now the first post is distasteful in the extreme, but I can understand it to an extent as Dr. Rice is in fact a political figure.

But the second....How can there be any justification for such tripe? How can you explain that as anything but pure, unadulterated hatred? How? Someone please tell me.

The more I see the extremes of the extremes that are forming in this country, the more I wonder if they won't end up being the death of all of us.

Both links courtesy of the Allah Pundit, again.

I'll Just Use My Anti-Matter Phaser!

Ah, the kids at IndyMedia are at it again. Today they have figured out that all that Buck Rogers technology, like lasers that can melt metal and kill people, might actually be real!

I suppose that no one over there has ever heard of the Airborne Laser, a 747 with a laser nose cone designed to shoot down missles in flight.

Read this quote from early 2001:

The technology works in fact as well as theory. The Air Force has used a test laser on two simulated missile tanks -- one made of metal, the other made of a thick polymer mesh -- at a testing facility at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Their gaping holes bear silent proof that the proposal is more than blue-sky wishing. "Everything we have has all been based on good solid science development over the last 20 years," said Pawlikowski.

This isn't new technology. And who's to say that we couldn't mount a powerful enough laser on a tank to melt down a bus?

I'm guessing that the Dillon guy in the article hasn't exactly been keeping up with any of the advances in military technology. And I'm sure that, given the IndyMedia source here, the figures of 500 to 600 people cooked is just a wee bit on the high side.

But I don't doubt that this al-Ghazali guy might have seen a tank mounted laser in action. I wouldn't even be surprised by it. If you're the US military, why not take your new toy out for spin? Give it a test under battlefield conditions; see if it actually works.

I'm guessing that if this was some sort of new weapon and not a fanciful story, that it wouldn't be the only new one tested during the war. There are probably more than a few Iraqi soldiers sitting around in disbelief at what they saw. Same thing probably happened the first time knights met muskets.

A paradigm shift can be a painful event to witness.

IndyMedia link courtesy of Allah, the Most Merciful

This Site Is Kiddie Porn Free!

I was just quickly glancing through my referrer logs and came a search that someone did on MSN for "pictures of naked kids."

This site does not, has not, and will not ever contain any pictures of naked kids, baby pictures of me included. So if that's what you're here looking for, you will be sorely disappointed.

And now, with that out of the way, on to something more fun!

New Feature!

Sorry about the lack of posts this afternoon, I've been messing around with learning more about CSS so I could add the now visable right hand sidebar. I'm going to use the sidebar to complement my existing book recommendation page by providing a sampling of 10 books from the list. 6 are random and the first four are static, although that will probably change at some point as I get more politically oriented books on the list, I'll probably have a rotation that ensures that you will always have a certain minimum percentage of politics type books.

So go ahead, click away and order! I'll still be here when you get back.

Special Mid Day Quick Links

I'm not done posting for today, but I've already got a few articles I'm likely not going to get around to today, so I'll go ahead and clear them out of the way with a midday quick links!

On the issue of religion in Europe:

France split by proposal to ban Islamic headscarves and crucifixes in schools - I don't think that Chirac and Co. would want to admit it yet, but this is merely a minor battle in the war to protect France from radical fundamentalism, the greatest threat of which is being presented by Islam. If the French government loses this battle, it will likely be the beginning of the end of the French Republic as an egalitarian institution.

Do Jews Have a Future in Europe? - It's becoming an age old question, but still as important as ever. Daniel Pipes looks at the question in light of the suppressed and now released-with-disclaimer report on anti-Semitism in Europe.

And a grouping on the Israeli/Palestinian part of the world:

Comfort and Joy, Palestinian Style - Another assertation that the PA might actually be corrupt? With examples of said corruption? Surely it must be a Zionist plot! </sarcasm>

The 'Times' embraces Geneva - The JPost has a pretty good fisking of the New York Times recent support for the Geneva Accord and why the Times is (surprise, surprise, surprise </Gomer Pyle Accent>) wrong.

In Sharon's plan, settlements may be 'moved' - And Ariel Sharon shows what an evil monster he is by risking his government to propose unilateral movement along the Road Map, specifically the dismantling of some of the settlements.

And People Wonder Why There Is No History In Orlando

Orlando's City Council laid a giant egg last night, voting to allow the complete demolition of the historic Jaymont Block in downtown with a mere "promise" to try to preserve the terra cotta of the old Woolworth's facade and with no attempt to save the 1942 facade of the old McCrory's building - one of the more familiar and unique storefronts in the downtown area.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not opposed to progress or even to redevelopment of the Jaymont Block - one of the prime downtown real estate parcels. I just think that there should be more of an effort made to preserve the history of Orlando as much as possible. Sometimes that might require making compromises. In this case, I think a fair compromise would have been for the developer to incorporate the historic facades into the new complex.

But instead, we have the midnight demolition. Mayor Buddy Dyer says the public had ample time to make their point of view heard - 4 hours during a City Council meeting. I think that he's wrong. He claims that the whole process was conducted openly - yet he allowed the City Preservation Board to be bypassed and asked Council members to sign confidentiality agreements before seeing the details of the plan a few weeks ago. Is that open? Or does it fail the smell test? Personally, I give it a big, fat F.

So now the Jaymont block facades go the way of the San Juan Hotel, the Beecham Theater, and numerous other historic structures in the city. Orlando has little history outside of Church Street because our city leaders are too weak to try to keep something of our past around. Progress is important and should be given priority, but not at the complete expense of heritage and history. Orlando deserves better.

John Kerry - Proof Of My Point

How many times have I ranted here about the coarsening of language and how it is leading to a general decline? Well, at least three times (and I know more, I just don't have the ambition to go find them all): here, here, and here. And now, John Kerry is proving my point, to an extent, by reaching out to younger voters by swearing - dropping the F bomb. It didn't work too well. The College Republican National Committee is blasting Kerry in a recent press release about the statement (I couldn't find a link to the original release on the CRNC website so here is a link to a reproduction of it at Stars 'n Stripes.)

Kerry dropped the bomb because he felt that it was needed in order for him to "connect" with younger voters (as was his admission of pot use). It never occurred to him that as a person in running for the ultimate role model position in America (and a large chunk of the world also) that he might want to present a more educated, more refined persona.

What purpose did his curse serve? Did it really add anything? Did it enrich his statement? "Did I expect George Bush to f--- it up as badly as he did?" Does that communicate his idea more effectively than say "Did I think that President Bush would act in a manner so contrary to what I believe?"

Read his statement with both phrases in place.

First the original:

"When I voted for the war, I voted for what I thought was best for the country...Did I expect George Bush to f--- it up as badly as he did? I don't think anybody did."

OK. He sounds like he's pretty upset. He sounds like he is mad at George Bush. But does it really express why? Does it really tell us anything about what John Kerry would do if he were in that position?

No. It merely expresses his anger at what he perceives as a failure on the part of President Bush (a feeling not shared by many Americans). It tells us virtually nothing about John Kerry the man, except that he has a temper and has a lack of intellectual and linguistic self-control.

Now read his statement with my suggestion substituted for the F-bomb:

"When I voted for the war, I voted for what I thought was best for the country...Did I think that President Bush would act in a manner so contrary to what I believe? I don't think anybody did."

So what about it? Does it express a similar train of thought? I think that it still captures Kerry's anger at what he perceives as a betrayal. But, I think that it also would have told us something about the man.

Had Kerry made this statement we could have deduced that he had an alternative plan for Iraq. We could have deduced that he maybe had a viable policy alternative to President Bush's foreign policy. We could have deduced that he felt anger at what he perceived as betrayal (which is not a bad trait in American politics - or in American foreign policy), but that he had the self-control to figure out the best course of action, rather than simply lashing out in a vulgar attempt to score a few cheap political points.

In short, we would have learned something about Kerry or at least been able to identify some reasonable lines of questioning to help in learning more about him. His actual statement teaches us nothing and shuts down any reasonable question about his statement beyond "So I can take it that you're mad, huh?"

What good does it really do us as voters to know that John Kerry is just hopping mad about something, mad enough to swear, if we can't be made to understand, or he's unable effectively communicate, the reasoning behind his anger? Are we to simply take his word when he says "Assad of Syria has f---ing pissed me off and we're going to take care of this once and for all!" or do we have a right to know why he feels this way, what his intentions are, and so forth. If Kerry were to be elected, would we still be a of the people, by the people, and for the people or would John Kerry use language (or a lack of language skills) to effectively shut down public debate and discussion of his policies and positions?

The fact that the interview was in Rolling Stone magazine and that he probably swore less than any other interviewee in that issue is irrelevant. If Kerry wants to be President, he needs to recognize that there is a dignity and responsibility that goes along with the office. Dropping the F-bomb in a magazine interview is not in line with that.

Kerry is trying to stifle debate or questioning of his position by swearing, stonewalling, and posturing. If this is allowed to be successful, it will become more commonplace as politicians trying to use cursing as way of debasing our language to the point that we simply accept their expressions of emotion as grounded in reality, regardless of what reality might be.

Free Trade Vs. Economic Health

The Weekly Standard has a pretty good article about the recent gyrations of the dollar in comparison to other currencies and how it might and does affect us in the US.

As I read the article one of the key points I picked up on was this:

Since China and Japan are intervening in currency markets to prevent the dollar from getting dearer in terms of their own currencies, the brunt of the readjustment is falling on the euro and sterling. And a heavy brunt it is. The euro is now above $1.20, a record, and the pound is above $1.70. That has made goods manufactured in Europe and Great Britain more expensive in America and, in the case of the eurozone, where domestic demand is weak, threatens to turn no-growth into slump.(emphasis mine)

The problem with Europe plunging into a contractionary environment is that it is one of our larger trade partners. The budding recovery in the US is still vulnerable. If our European partners become unable or unwilling to purchase from us, it could very well spell the end of the our expansion.

The author also points out how the Euro and the Pound absorbing the entire effect of the weakening dollar can harm the US economy through higher oil prices:

Oil prices have remained above the top of the OPEC cartel's target range of $28 per barrel. But producing nations are finding that they can buy less with their dollars. Whereas the Saudis would once have had to sell about 5,000 barrels of oil at the top of the cartel's price range in order to earn enough dollars to pay for a brief, £100,000 visit to their favorite haunt, London's Dorchester hotel, they now have to sell about 6,000 barrels at that same price to pay for enough sterling to cover the cost of their stay. So, they have in effect abandoned their $28 ceiling, and are keeping production low enough to support prices in excess of $30 to offset the reduced purchasing power of their dollars.

Bush asked for restraint. But Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi isn't restraint minded. So he used last week's OPEC meeting to announce, "The dollar is weakening, and purchasing power is quite weak, so [the current high price] is okay." After all, Naimi wouldn't want to risk his job, and possibly his neck, by allowing the living standards of the 5,000-7,000 Saudi princes to decline. Bad news for American consumers.

So what's the answer? The problem really seems to lie in China's insistence (and Japan's to a smaller degree) that they will not allow an appreciation of their currency vis-á-vis the dollar. I'm not a big proponent of tariffs and restrictions, but I am starting to wonder if we may be at a point where our overall economic health would be best served by artificially "creating" an effective depreciation of the dollar versus the yuan and the yen. I hate the idea of our going down the road of protective tariffs, or even worse yet of a twenty-first century Hawley-Smoot, but if the alternative is allowing them to push our economy back into recession through their own protectionist monetary policies, well which evil is the lesser evil?

At what point does our national economic health trump the ideal of free trade? It's an interesting question.

How To Effectively Lose An Election

The Democrats running for President this year seem to be making a real effort at losing this election before they even get nominated. Every time they open their mouths they show themselves to be out of touch with the values and beliefs of the average American.

It's pretty bad when even the liberal commentators are saying that this year's election is starting to look like McGovern or Mondale against Reagan. It's bad when they point out how Dean could very well be positioned by the Bush campaign as a combination of McGovern and Mondale all rolled into one arrogant, distasteful package. At least Gephardt doesn't have the McGovernite smell to him.

But why is it like this? Why can't the Democratic contenders get it together to create, as Bob Graham (not exactly my favorite person, but pretty observant in this case) said, "an 'optimistic' set of alternatives to Republican policies"?

Well part of the reason is their latent anger. Rather than come up with positive policies, they try to out-hate each other on President Bush. Rather than to propose an optimistic agenda, they wallow in the morass of the recount fiasco. Rather than to come up with a winning strategy they whine about how Gore "should" have won in 2000.

Now given a choice would you prefer to vote for someone who has proven that they have the strength of conviction (whether you agree or disagree with that conviction) and has helped to lead - not to guide, not to steer, but to lead - the country through a very difficult coming of age for a large segment of the population or would you prefer to vote for a hateful, whiner, who is preaching doom and gloom, and who is a waffler whose most concrete stance is repealing the tax cuts?

The Democrats this time 'round have no plan; they have no core set of beliefs with which people can make reasonable decisions about whose positions they most agree with. They are assuming, in a very elitist manner, that the American people are capable of being swayed with a message devoid of content, but full of negativity.

If they persist in this course, McGovern and Mondale may end up looking like winners at the end of this election. Even DC might decide that Bush isn't all that bad a choice.

Hate is not the path to victory.

Carnival of the Capitalists #10 Is Up

A Penny For.... has the tenth edition of the Carnival of the Capitalists up and available for your reading pleasure. Go over and take a look!

A Day That Still Lives In Infamy

Dec. 7. Pearl Harbor. The entrance of the United States into World War II. It was and still is one of the turning point events in our national history. So what kind of things are being said about that Sunday in 1941?

Lessons learned? Pearl Harbor was easier than Sept. 11 - The Manchester Union Leader looks at the war on terror through the looking glass of 1941. It is really pretty good, not at all what I expected from such a clichéd topic.

Dec. 7 memories never fade - The Arizona Star Daily tells the story of petty officer second class Rex Bridgemon of the light cruiser USS Helena.

Pearl Harbor smoke burns in his memory - The Huntsville Times tells the story of Rob Robley who was a child growing up in Palama, Hawaii. Along the way, he points out that many people forget the casualties among the civilian residents of the island that headed out to Pearl to help.

The Pearl Harbor story: In the complexity of the Pearl Harbor story, one thing is certain: America was attacked and had to defend itself - The Austin American Statesman looks at the events of Dec. 7, 1941 and also the current movements to "balance" the story of Enola Gay and Hiroshima. Along the way they point out that we already have many, particularly amongst the historian sect, trying to rewrite history and how they are willing to dismiss the sanctity of a date such as Dec.7 in their effort to discredit the efforts and sacrifices of the American soldier in their quest for moral relevancy - "to tell the other side of the story."

As the number of survivors of that day dwindles, it will become more and more important to defend the memory of their actions and the immensity of their sacrifice. We cannot allow the appeasers and the relativists to marginalize and minimize their efforts in the name of political correctness. Pearl Harbor was not an event. It was (and still is) a seminal event in our history. It was AN EVENT. It cannot be allowed to be relegated to the status of an afterthought. It should be remembered with the great battles of American history like Yorktown, and Gettysburg It is the ultimate example of the resiliency of the American people. We were bloodied and down, but got off the mat not only to win, but to win twice simultaneously, both with full knockouts.

Dec. 7 is still a day that lives in infamy.