Chew on this: Myths

Myth:A traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a god, a hero, the origin of the world or of a people, etc.

1. The US must bend over backwards to appease Russia. Missile defense wont work and will provoke them.: This one comes from the pro-communist camp and those who still live in the Cold War. To them Russia is still the old Soviet Bear who we need to appease or it will nuke us. “Better Red than dead.” The truth is that the Red with Rusting Rockets are dangerous but not our friends. NO matter what concessions we make, they will still try to take advantage of us. Russia is a midget with a big right arm. Aside from their nuclear forces, they are a hollow force. They know it. They hide behind treaties and MAD to make their fear of becoming a third world power.
2. US guns fuel the war in Mexico: From out Secretary of State to our Rock Stars , this one has legs. For starters, automatic weapons are NOT for sale to anyone. You must pay lots of money to the BATFE to own any ‘machine gun’ made before 1986. The same BATFE that let guns walk into Mexico. There are plenty of guns aviable on the wrold arms market, not to mention from deserting Mexican Army and Police. The world is awash in guns from Europe, Russia, China and others. Anti-gun zealots here need a story and they blame American gun owners.
3. We are all socialists now: with the collapse of the housing bubble, the bailouts and the economy, the MSM said socialism was the new black. It was going to fix our economy. Take it away Doug Powers:
   

   As easy as it could be to assume, Socialists in Spain aren’t necessarily losing because of a backlash against Socialism (though it’s welcome where it’s occurring). Some Socialist politicians in Spain, or plenty of other places for that matter, are being run off because people are angry at their failure to deliver on undeliverable promises. State sponsored nirvana makes a state sponsored scorched earth policy against the Primrose Path inevitable. Spain’s situation is the Socialist Paradox personified

   ‘Nuff said.

These myths are part of the narrative of the left. Where America is a scary place only they can fix. Like a movie set, the myths look good from far away. Get closer and it’s all fake.

Chew on this: Instapundit shows us teh stoopid

It burns us!

Just four links from Instapundit:
(how he can read these and stay sane? )

• TSA Drill Almost Results In A Law Enforcement Shooting.
• ‘Western Civ’ Courses Have Declined Since 1964, Report Says.’ Hey hey ho ho!
• RIAA Backs Warrantless Search Bill in CaliforniaEvil is as evil does
• “Do Kids Need College?“: If you like working at Starbucks 40k+ in debt, then sure!

And the hits will keep on coming. On the go? Check out http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/pda/ for Prof. Reynolds’s mobile site.

Liberals out of fashion

Seems with their man in the White House, liberal trolls gadflies, grabasstic pieces of amphiban shit activists are finding it so hard to get noticed.

“Will the same networks that found it irresistible to cover the Donald Trump birther antics make any time for black radicals claiming Obama isn’t really black? On page A-6 of The Washington Post on Thursday, Post reporter Krissah Williams found Princeton professor Cornel West stirred up debate among black bloggers and academics for calling the president a “black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats.” The Post skipped over the next line: “And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.” ”
—
“Black Princeton Professor Calls Obama a ‘Black Mascot’ and ‘Black Puppet’ of Wall Street; WaPo Skims the Surface” Newsbusters

“Ted Rall’s cartoons and opinion pieces were all the rage when he was attacking George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and American soldiers.

But now that there’s a man in the White House the press absolutely adore, the once syndicated polemicist claims he’s having a hard time getting anyone to publish his work”
—
“Liberal Cartoonist Can’t Get Anyone To Publish His Anti-Obama Pieces” Newsbusters

See, there are real facts and there are good facts. The real fact is that those in power have as much depth as a pothole. The economy, the jobless recovery, inflation etc.

But if you own the press, ya gotta have your story straight.

They made this presidency, the press did. And they’ll spend lots of airtime and ink to protect it. Even as it sinks.

Good. This ain’t the summer of love. No Cronkite to lie to middle America. This is the age of 500+ channels, blogs and YouTube. The counter-revolution will not be televised, it will be blogged and YouTubed. Now that’s change.

See this example of leftist new media fail road at “Days of our Trailers.” (h/t: Sharp as a marble )

Iran, Iran so far away

Looks like things are not well in the wacky land of Ayatollahs and WMDs. (h/t: Instapundit)

In the increasing tension between Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, supporters of each faction, who have been drawing lines in the sand for the past few days claiming that there will be blood, took their disputes to the streets of Tehran.

According to reports from Iran, serious clashes between the rank and file supporters of Khamenei and the supporters of Ahmadinejad erupted on Saturday. Many were severely injured with clubs and machetes. The clashes are said to have been so fierce that the security guards did not intervene and stood aside, watching the brawl.

Rift in Iranian Leadership Spreads to the Streets of Tehran, by Reza Khalili, May 8, 2011.

Seems the President thinks (or wants people to think) he’s a messianic figure. Ayatollah Khamenei says that’s his job. These things don’t often turn out well. Of course the MSM is paying more attention to other things (seems Seinfeld put his comedy online…damn waste of bandwith).

No one thought an asthmatic would be painter would become the leader of the Nazi party. Just as no one figured that a spoiled rich boy would become the worlds most wanted. We need to pay attention to Iran, whoever emerges from this pissing contest could either make peace or make lots and lots of trouble.

However, the more the crazy mullahs fight amongst themselves, the less trouble we get from them.

UPDATE: Things are not looking good in Egypt…

Defen$e: Or Why I Don’t Miss the Clinton Years.

Ah the ’90s….me in college, dial-up Internet, DOOM, and the military that was stretched to the breaking point. Army recruiting numbers were so low DA gave diploma waivers (and watched the quality go down). During the Clinton years, we had various panels and experts who hallowed out the military. They said it was to save money. They used the end of the Cold War as an excuse to gut the military. It was common to cannibalize two air craft to get a third into the air. As out leadership was busy with other things, our enemies began to build themselves up. Pay and benefits suffered too. That was the age of soldiers on food stamps.

And now the country is at another fork in the road. We’re broke (or close to it).
Two fellows at the USNI try to come up with a cut. They want to see the big deck super carrier gone.

With smaller and lighter unmanned aircraft coming into the mix, the United States can also deploy smaller and lighter—and less expensive—ships to carry them.

We can’t know for sure in what ways future adversaries will challenge our Fleet, but we can assess with some certainty how technology is affecting their principal capabilities

Of course there is a rebuttal. XBradTC makes a good case for the large, big deck carriers many want to see cut.

The Navy has operated smaller carriers almost since they started operating carriers. But every time they have, they have relearned the lesson that bigger is better, both from a warfighting perspective, and in fact, in spite of the mindboggling up-front price tag, cheaper in the long run.

Every time there is a new technology, every new administration, every time the seasons change we have a host of “pundits” who have a “solution.” Cut this, kill that. Fred Kaplan wanted to kill the AH-64 Apache helo. POGO just hates the military. Eric Palmer is a loon. Everyone has the right to an opinion, especially if they are wrong. POGO’s damming report on the M-1 Abrams was proven flat out wrong during Operation Desert Storm . The less Kaplan says about defense the better. Eric Palmer is one of those special loons. When he’s wrong is dead wrong. But when he’s right, watch out…

The truth is that while the DOD does pull off some mighty bad foul balls (SGT YORK, I’m looking at you), the brass doesn’t just burn cash. Things change, threats change. XBrad points out that the drones those two chaps love so much don’t exist yet. Big carriers are still 4-5 acres of sovereign US territory. That can attack most of the countries of the world. A carrier is part of a battle group, always has been.

Same with missile defense. We do what the pundits said is “impossible” every day. Tanks were supposed to be on the way out (not happening, if anything combat vehicles will be heavier and have treads). And the list goes on.

Most of the time it’s people who think they have an answer. Other times its lefties with a axe to grind. They want to see the US become a has-been. What I fear is that the coming SecDefs listen to the “experts” and gut our military. That is the danger. Scott O’Grady was shot down because he did not have the ASPJ that would have stopped the SAM that got him. Thankfully he lived and left Bosnia. Thank you POGO and GAO for taking that piece of equipment from him.

Let’s see what the future brings, I was in the field the past week. I hear we may have a new SecDef.

Till then let the pundits murder electrons and kill trees. It’s a free country. We’ll defend them with the weapons they hate so much.

Justice for the people of the Twin Towers

UBL is dead. A US drone and our brave men and women have ended the reign of terror.

Justice for the crew of the USS Cole.

Justice for the staff of our embassy in Kenya.

Justice for the 3,000+ of 1 World Trade Center, the Pentagon, Flight 93.

They hate us, they want to kill us. But those who build their world on hate, build on shaky ground.

It was not our hate that killed the evil one, it was duty. A duty to see that he could not hurt anymore, could not kill anymore.

To those who follow UBL, we will come for you. We will place the mission first. We never accept defeat. We NEVER quit.

To those who lost family and freinds, God Bless.