U. S. Permanent Bases in Iraq

Many believe the U. S. invaded Iraq with the intention of staying there permanently. It is a strategic location in the Middle East. To prove the point that the U. S. never intended to leave, advocates point to the number of permanent bases the U. S. is building in Iraq.

In regards to the permanent bases the U. S. is building in Iraq, I was searching for the "permanent" bases the U. S. built in Vietnam and I came across this article, written in June 2006. Imagine, trade and diplomatic ties with a nation which we feared so much we had to kill a million plus of them and 58,000 American men and 8 American women, to keep them from invading us! All those lives lost, for what? If the U. S. returns to Vietnam, maybe they will do it right this time. A war by the way, that was started by the democrats. It does not matter which party is in power, most men, given an army the size of the U.S. Army, wants to use it. If you have the best in the world you want to play the Superbowl. There's no greater Superbowl than war.

All should heed the advice of President Eisenhower in his address to the nation- http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?pageno=5&fk_files=187741 -about the conflict in the Formosa Straits on the ironic date, Sept 11, (1958), "This means that, in our view, negotiations and conciliation should never be abandoned in favor of force and strife."Thank goodness President Eisenhower did not go to war with China over their actions in the Formosa Straits. He had seen war and no longer needed to play toy soldiers. Am I suggesting we negotiate with terrorists? No. I'm suggesting we would be better off had we continued negotiating with Saddam Hussein, who is a secularist, and would have kept Iran at bay. Look at us now, negotiating with the Vietnamese Communist. Who would have thought it! At the end of the article there is a quote by Lord Palmerston that nations have no permanent enemies or friends, only permanent interest. I think this is also true of people. Free trade, when goods and services cross borders, armies do not.

Bilbo Baggins
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Dr. Jack Wheeler*BrookesNews.Com
Monday 12 June 2006

One of the first things George W. Bush did as his presidency was getting off the ground in 2001 was to sign a bilateral trade agreement with Vietnam. Since then, trade between the US and Vietnam has grown 400 percent to $7.8 billion last year. Last week, the US and Vietnam signed an agreement that paves the way for Vietnam to join the WTO, the World Trade Organization.On Monday, June 5, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was in Hanoi meeting Vietnam's Defense Minister Pham Van Tra and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. Noting that a US Navy ship will soon be visiting a Vietnamese port for the fourth time in four years, a reporter asked Rummy if the US was seeking basing rights in Vietnam."We have no plans for access to military facilities in Vietnam," was Rummy's reply. When diplomacy requires it, Rumsfeld can lie with the best of them. For the very purpose of his Hanoi sojourn was to discuss just such access. His meetings, and all the cooperation that proceeded it have been in preparation for one announcement.This November, President Bush will go on a state visit to Vietnam. On November 18, he will address the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit hosted by Vietnam in Hanoi. During this visit, it will be announced that the United States Navy will once again have an operating base at Cam Ranh Bay.Cam Ranh Bay was the major port facility of the US Armed Forces during the Vietnam War.

Blame for 9/11

I'm proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill. -Thomas Edison, (1847-1931)


The blame game is on as the November 2006 elections approach. Some are blaming former President Clinton and others are blaming President Bush. It is purely political.

Five years after 9/11 no government employee has been charged with negligence over 9/11. No government employee has been fired or lost their pension over the horrors of that fateful day.

The blame should be placed on Big Government. The big government policies of meddling in the affairs of foreign countries. There are too many think tanks in Washington, D. C. that advocate such meddling. It is rare to find a major think tank that opposes the support of Israel, yet most of the world countries think the United States middle east policy is wrong. The blame for 9/11 rests on the hearts of those who would try to impose their will on others.

Former New York city mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, said no one should shoulder the blame. This is typical rhetoric from government employees when the government fails. Had Wal-Mart Corp been in charge of protecting the World Trade Center Mr. Giuliani would have no problem blaming "big business", but he will not blame "big government".

Suppose the World Trade Center had hired a private security organization to protect it from a terrorists attack. That private security firm would be held accountable by the market forces and the liability courts. The customers and the victims would have recourse against the private security firm. The families of the dead from 9/11 have no such recourse against the FBI, NSA, CIA and the many other government agencies who failed to do their duty.

Bilbo Baggins

George Orwell, 2084

One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results. -Milton Friedman, economist, Novel laureate (1912- )

Back in 2001 the world was shaken by a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. What followed was a world at war against terrorists. Many freedoms were lost over the years. On the tenth anniversary of the World Trade Center attack, 9/11/2011, world Commissar Committees on Equality came up with the finally procedure for making the world a fair and balance place to live.

The committees decided to divide up all the arable surface land of the earth and give each citizen of the world a plot of land. This plot of arable land equaled to two acres of land for every citizens.

Next the committees decided to make everyone beneficiaries of the natural resources of the world. All natural resources were pooled into a world corporation and each citizen received and equal number of shares.

Everyone was wealthy and relaxed. Many poor people married and combined their resources. Soon families and groups combined their resources. Some people sold their land and shares to purchase the vices that have tempted humans since Eve ate the forbidden fruit. These people began to live in poverty.

The Commissar Committees gathered in 2084 to decide how to help the poor people. They decided it would only be fair for those who had resources to share with those who did not, so they created an income tax. They decided it would be best to tax the white males the highest rate since they were the ones who benefited the most by the work of the minorities during the past centuries. Some white males had profited by buying assets of others since the time the Commissar Committees had divided up the world.

The income tax failed to eliminate the problems of the poor so the Commissar Committees decided to tax all income at a 100% rate and distribute the money to the best uses. Soon no one was working, just waiting for their check from the Commissar Committees.

During the 100th anniversary of the World Trade Center attack, 9/11/2101, the World commissar Committees declared and emergency, saying the earth was cooling. This cooling was caused by humans, humans who would not produce babies. Since the world population is declining the world is cooling. The chair of the World Commissar committees, Osaka Abdul kumbawa, the latest hermorphite to declare his lifestyle, said there needed to be more babies. More babies would create global warming and a balance would be attained by the committees' policies. Therefore they set rules that would allow flexible hours for female workers and provide universal day care.

This lack of productivity also caused the Commissar Committees to decide some were stronger and more capable of work than others. The committees decided the white males should work more because they had benefited in the past from the work of slaves and other minorities the white males had conquered. All white males were therefore assigned to specific industries and work details. Only the members of the Commissar Committees lived happily everafter.

Bilbo Baggins

Changing the Mind of a Crowd

Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

The Taliban has stepped up its attacks in Afghanistan. Women are threatened for not wearing the Burka to cover their face. Schools that teach girls are threatened by the Taliban. This despite five years of military force and billions of dollars spent on the forceful attempt to change the centuries old tribal culture of Afghanistan.

Charles MacKay said, "crowds go crazy quickly and come to their senses, slowly, one person at a time". In order to change the minds of a crowd the crowd must think each individual approves of the change. No one wants to go against the wishes of the tribe, even when they know the tribal behavior is wrong.

In the United States the crowd used to think blacks did not have equal rights. It was only after TV images of police dogs attacking blacks in Birmingham, AL that the crowd starting changing its mind, slowly, one person at a time. Images did not change some old minds, but they did change many young minds. Young people have their opinions formed for them, but, those opinions have not been hardened, as in someone who is too old to change. Young minds are still malleable.

Changing the minds of the oppressive culture of Islam should be attempted by dropping propaganda leaflets of the U. S. Bill of Rights. Web sites should be created to counter the recruitment sites for young Muslim terrorists. Ipods, cell phones, videos, and computers should be distributed to the towns and villages, along with medicine and food for the poor. The minds of young Muslims will be changed, slowly, one at a time.

Bilbo Baggins

Black Coaches

"A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business." -Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)


A group of black college coaches are complaining about the small percentage of black coaches in college. The group thinks affirmative action may be the only way to solve the disparity. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14938013/ I have heard other supporters of hiring more black coaches as saying there should be more black coaches because there are so many black players. To this I say there needs to be more white players.

As of 2000, nearly 1 in 7 employed white men worked in their own business, as compared with about 1 in 18 employed African American men. Why are black leaders not calling for more blacks to start their own business?

A small business will become your master. It requires long hours and commitment. A small business will consume the owner. Only a handful of small businesses survive more than five years. Individual accountability is front and center. The owner must deal with the jungle of laws and regulations that burdens a business. These laws are local, state and federals. Occupational Health and Safety, Equal Employment, IRS, liability, etc.

The small business owner must learn accounting, marketing, production, and all aspects of the work place to survive.

A small business owner cannot fire an employee without cause, but an employee can fire an owner without cause.

Contrast the challenges of a small business owner to that of an employee, who is by law protected from the employer, and you see why there is no pressure by black or women leaders to require an equal population ratio of their group to be small business owners. It is much easier to be an employee and demand someone else provide you with pay, vacation, health coverage, pensions, and a lunch break. Many small business owners are under so much pressure they cannot take a vacation or lunch break.

The Small Business Administration makes loans available to minorities and offers special assistance and training to them, but, there are no requirements from the EEOC for there to be a percentage of minorities as owners of small businesses.

Bilbo Baggins

The Happiness Industry

Human beings are by nature not good; they are concerned with self preservation: Niccolo Machiavelli

Many generations ago life was short and brutal. People had no expectations of happiness. In the past people just hoped to survive another day. There were no antibodies to fight infectious diseases. There was no television, radio, or glossy magazines telling one how to be happy. There were no exotic vacations, nor adventure vacations. There were no therapists for one to spend thousands of dollars talking about how to be happy. There was no publishing industry publishing millions of books about how to be happy. There was no big government promising a utopian world were everyone would be happy.

The happiness syndrome has affected the American life and psychic. When young people were married many years ago they expected to spend a life together. There were cultural influences and religion that committed married people to stay together. They had a synergistic relationship for survival. The male as protector and the female to raise the young. It was also easy to commit to an unhappy marriage because there was a low expectation of happiness. The marriages were also easier to keep because people did not live long lives.

Today a young married couple finds it difficult to commit to a long marriage, 50 years or more, when there is so much temptation for happiness all around them outside the marriage. Each person in a marriage that is not happy cannot fathom the idea of living another 50 years in this unhappy situation. They perceive happiness is in their grasp if they only can get out of the marriage.

In previous generations only the aristocracy lived in comfort and leisure. They had time to contemplate happiness. The masses were involved in toil that was hard and endless. Today middle class people work short hours in air-conditioned offices and glance at glossy magazines with faked photographs of beautiful people having a wonderful time. Companies today are graded by Working Mother magazine on which ones are best at making working moms happy.

As people live longer lives and have more leisure, their illusions of happiness conflicts with reality. They blame their spouse, the opposite gender, their employer or some myth. They never understand that happiness comes from within, not without. Their frustration never stops them from expecting happiness to be delivered to them by others; their therapist, employer, family, etc. Some expect happiness from their God. The new temple where people worship and pray for happiness is the temple of The State. The Big Government God is where people can demand happiness, safety, health, and freedom. After all, this is what they are promised by the political candidates during the campaigns season.

Charles Tolleson

Universal Health Coverage

"Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm — but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves." T. S. Eliot


Mr. Krugman gives an example of health insurance being canceled in one instance. "NY Times, Insurance Horror Stories. By PAUL KRUGMAN. Published: September 22, 2006." He sees a "trend". This is his excuse for having another huge government program, Universal Health Coverage, which is unconstitutional, like most other big government programs. I know some will spout the "General Welfare" clause as a reason for the Federal Government to do anything anyone wants. I submit that most of the programs done under the general welfare clause has not promoted the general welfare, but has created a nation of dependents and harmed the general welfare. The general welfare clause and the commerce clause has allowed congress to pass laws in an attempt to make everyone live happy, healthy and free. What they have created is a stack of laws that perverts the meaning of law, which is supposed to be written to protect persons and property.

As the example given by Mr. Krugman of an insurance cancellation instead of paying for a procedure, each state has an insurance commission that deals with such problems.

What is seen and what is unseen when a law is passed. If there is UHC, people will not look after their health. The smokers will be covered the same as non smokers. Obese people will be covered the same as those who jog and eat healthy.

Why does someone have a right to health coverage? Was this true before there were doctors? Why does someone have the right to a doctor's time and services? The doctor spent many years of study and effort to train himself to earn a living. Why does someone else have a "right" to his time. Does someone have a "right" to food produced by a farmer? Does someone have a right to clothes produced by a clothier?

The way to reduce health cost is to get the government out of the health industry. They regulate everything in the industry; insurance, drugs, licensing, etc, and the government's own Medicaid and Medicare programs contribute to the rising cost. Anything the government is involved in increases the cost. Industries that are not regulated and run by the government provide the best products at the lowest cost to the most users. The computer industry is a good example.

When I was born in the backwoods of Mississippi in 1935, my dad had no health insurance, and he was poor. Did he have a "right" to a doctor's time? A doctor came out to our shanty and delivered me. Dad paid for his services with a sack of peas from the garden. That was when the health industry was a free market industry. Today, a mother doing a natural act of delivering a baby is in a hospital surrounded by a staff of professionals. After delivery mothers want to stay in the hospital a few days and have free care. The insurance industry caught on to this and said, no more than two days in the hospital for this natural act. Update, 4/22/2010. The Health Care Act of 2010 changed many insurance procedures.

If the insurance industry decides what procedures will be covered, as Mr. Krugman implies, then one can only think of the horrors of a government bureaucrat deciding which medical procedures are approved. I'm sure a patient needing breast cancer surgery will go in front of the line, while a patient needing prostate surgery will go to the end of the line.

Many low income people will buy cigarettes, alcohol, lottery tickets, DVDs, and other unnecessary items, but, they will not buy health insurance.

When congress passed a law requiring all emergency rooms to provide care for anyone who showed up, even illegal aliens, or others without insurance, the emergency rooms became overcrowded as more people sought medical attention for minor illnesses. The same will happen with Universal Health Care. More people will go to the doctor with minor illness. Universal Health Care will become community property and some will abuse the common property. http://dieoff.org/page95.htm The American Psychology Association will lobby for UHC to provide counseling for anyone who is under stress. The pharmaceutical industry and the AARP have already lobbied successful for insurance to cover---VIAGRA! No wonder health care cost are increasing. With UHC the hospitals and doctors will be overburdened. You know what will be next? Rationing. The bureaucrat who will be deciding what procedures to authorize cannot help playing God.

Most of us can remember when our parents did not have health insurance. Back then one could buy morphine at the pharmacy, without a prescription! Midwives delivered babies at home for a few dollars or exchange of goods. Since then the health industry requires licenses. Doctors want you to "pay" them a visit to get a prescription for pain medicine. The FDA is on the fix also. No drugs unless they approve them. 10 years of costly research before a new drug is approved. In the meantime you deal with what drugs are available, and they may not be enough. Thank goodness Edward Jenner did not live in our day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Jenner

We live in a happiness society where we expect big government to make us happy. The mantra that "everyone is entitled to good health care" has become like a verse in the bible and it has it's born again true believers. A true believer is one who denies facts. http://skepdic.com/truebeliever.html

Many societies in the past, tribal societies, were very communistic. They did not have private property rights. They shared every piece of food. No one could eat until the food was shared equally. This community property societies destroyed incentives. Why should someone walk a long way and take risk in killing game if he is going to have to share it before he can eat? These community property societies were surpassed by societies that had property rights and free trade.

I watched a friend fight ovarian cancer for over two years, and then pass away. It was a house of horrors. Four major surgeries and 100 days in the hospital. Illness is something that frightens us all. I count my blessings that I get up each day, mobile and not taking any medication. Some of us are luckier than others. How we deal with the unlucky events in our lives will continue to be a topic of debate. But if we put the task of making others deal with our unlucky events, we will never learn how, and we will never be able to teach our children how to manage risks.

Charles Tolleson

Violence and Superstition

Just before Aurora displayed herself this morning, I was sitting on my deck with a coffee. Despite urban lights I was able to see the constellation, Orion. As I gazed at Orion, I wondered if someone there, was gazing at my star.

I also wondered if someone there, or on any other planet, would they be critical thinkers who reacted to reason and facts, or would they be victims of their emotions; their fears and superstitions, like humans on earth.

I wondered what our world would be like if humans were non violent and free of superstitions. There is so much destructive energy used in violence. What if all this energy had been used for creating and exploring. Would we be on our way to Orion?

Superstitions exist despite facts that prove the myths are unreal. There is something in the human brain that will deny facts and cling to false beliefs. Despite individuals receiving 12 years or more of government education and despite millions of books, individuals still believe in myths and superstitions. The true believer syndrome has done more to hold us back than any other emotion. http://skepdic.com/truebeliever.html

As I looked at Orion and wondered if there were any human like creatures out there, I decided if they were free of violence and superstition, and were critical thinkers, they will find us before we find them.

Charles Tolleson

Boeing C-17

A few weeks ago there was a news story that Boeing was going to cancel the production of the C-17 airplane, manufactured in Long Beach, CA. The story told about the jobs that would be lost in southern California. Other job losses would come from sub contractors located in 42 states!

The two California senators, Feinstein and Boxer, released statements with the usual sophistry designed to please those affected. I'm sure the senators from the other 41 states with the sub contractors also heard from their constituents about how important the C-17 contract is to the country, even though the Air Force does not want any more C-17 aircraft. I predicted the C-17 program would continue. By subcontracting out work to many other congressional districts, defense contractors like Boeing can bring pressure on congress to force tax payers to pay for something they do not want or need for defense.

Sure enough, the C-17 aircraft production was granted a reprieve. There will be 10 more C-17 produced at a total cost of $2 billion, even if the air force does not want them. The military was out of this legal plunder, though they probably want the $2 billon for another project. What saved the production of the C-17 was the congressional/industrial/labor complex. http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/060922/1350536.html?.v=1

Bilbo Baggins

How to Fight Terrorism

The military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost billions and will cost billions more. Death and destruction has been the result. Also the United States has more enemies now than they had a few weeks after 9/11 when we had the sympathy of most of the world. With so many more enemies, it is only a matter of time until another disaster strikes the United States

A better strategy in winning the war on terror would be to address the poverty in the Arab world. On another blog I discussed forming the Iraq Oil Corporation and giving shares to each Iraqi adult male. http://f4u.blogspot.com/2006/08/iraq-oil-corporation.html

I doubt however if the world leaders want peace. They need some kind of crisis to make themselves important. Osama Bin Laden and President Bush are both enablers to each other.

In both Afghanistan and Iraq the large military helicopters should be used to deliver goods to the poverty stricken villages throughout the countries. These helicopters could be used to deliver donated goods by American companies. Each company would be assigned one or more helicopters, flown and operated by military personnel. The helicopters would have the company's name and logo painted in large letters on each side of the helicopter, along with the words United States of America. The companies could donate their products at cost and the military would pick them up at the factory and ship them to the villages.

Coca Cola could deliver cases of coke and have their name advertised. Apple Computer could donate ipods with their name and logo on the helicopter assigned to them. Proctor and Gamble, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and many other companies could donate products, which they would receive enormous positive publicity.

Pharmaceutical companies like Merck and Pfizer could donate medicine and medical supplies. Motorola could donate free cell phones, traceable of course.

Hewlett Packard could donate small portable computers. With a wireless network in different villages there would be opportunities to change the minds of young people and compete with the propaganda of the Imams.

If deliveries by helicopters becomes too dangerous, supplies could be dropped by parachute. The supplies would still have the company logo. Propaganda leaflets could be included in the supply drops.

It is much better for goods to cross borders than for armies to cross borders.

Bilbo Baggins

Mr. Gingrich

Mr. Gingrich's article in the "War" Street Journal, Sept 7, 2006, is an excellent campaign speech. Of course campaign speeches are for getting votes. Once in power the special interest groups take control and those in power do anything they can to stay in power. Remember how the Republican Contract With America in 1994 was supposed to eliminate the Department of Education? Since that victorious election by the Republicans the Department of Education's budget has increased from 29 billion in 1998 to around 60 billion in 2006! So much for campaign promises.

Mr. Gingrich seems to have an admiration for President Lincoln's abuses of power. Anthony Gregory wrote on another web site, "Many have pointed out that Lincoln suspended habeas corpus to jail war protesters, shut down hundreds of newspapers that disagreed with his war, established a draft for the first time in American history (except in the seceded South, which had adraft a year earlier), instituted restrictions on firearms, and sent troops to violently suppress the New York draft riot. He also used the war to push through the "American System," a program of de facto nationalization of the transportation industry via massive subsidies to corporations that would agree to build "internal improvements" - railroads, waterways, and canals. The victory of the Union in 1865 not only established that, contrary to popular political theory in the antebellum era, the federal government was completely supreme over the states; it also established that a president could do literally anything he could get away with, no matter how many liberties were suspended, innocents jailed, and people killed in the process."

I believe Mr. Gingrich would like to conquer the world. He should heed the words of Jesus in Matthew 16:24-28, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul." Mr. Gingrich seems to want to destroy those who hate America. Actions he prescribes will instead destroy America for them. Mr. Gingrich said "they" wish to destroy us. That is more fear mongering. He does not say who or how many 'they' are. The sheep who love authority will see visions of the Muslims hordes approaching our shores in their dhows.

"They" also love us, which is why so many of "them" wish to come here. Their women wish to have rights, the birth control pill, and go shopping. Mr. Gingrich fails to say why "they" wish to destroy us. He wants it to be only about dogma. It is much more. It is our foreign policy. Our foreign policies will create more of "they" who hate us, as India, Russia, China, Venezuela, Europe and any other nation we cannot buy off, sees our desire to conquer the world as a threat to them.

Poverty is another problem in the Arab world. It is a seed for envy and hatred. We should have been dropping Dollars and Euros on the poor villagers instead of dropping bombs. It would have been a lot cheaper and would have created more who love us. Bombs create more of those who want to destroy us. As it stands now our oil revenue goes to the leaders in the Muslim world, which use the money against us.

Plato had it right when he described leaders like Mr. Gingrich; "Quick intelligence, memory, sagacity, cleverness, and similar qualities do not often grow together. People who are high-spirited and generous are not built by nature to live in an orderly, peaceful, settled manner. Instead, they are driven every which way by their impulses and all firm principles leave them. On the other hand, those stable and steadfast and, it seems, more trustworthy natures, which in a battle are impregnable to fear and immovable, are equally immovable when there is anything to be learned. They are always in a torpid state and are apt to yawn and go to sleep over any intellectual toil." The Republic, Book 6 503c Benjamin Jowett 4th Ed.

Charles Tolleson

Herman Goering, leading the people to war

Herman Goering said people do not want war but they can be led to war simply by telling them they are in danger. I partly disagree. I think many people want war. Others have to be led to war. During the beginning of the Iraq war most Americans were in favor of the invasion. There was flag waving and tribalism fevor at its highest pitch. Three years later more than half of Americans think the invasion and occupation of Iraq was a mistake. In a few more years a presidential candidate will run on a platform of, "I will bring the troops home from Iraq!"

Many people do not want war, but there are always enough young men willing to volunteer, and march off to the sounds of bugles, and the promises of kisses from young maidens. These are enough to form a fighting force. Then there is the military, industrial, labor complex, and all the other war profiteers, and religious zealots who are doing God's work; the seamstress who makes military clothing, the drug industry who makes pain medicine, the funeral services industry who buries the dead soldiers, the VA employees who care for the wounded, and the biggest lover of war is the State. During war the State gains power and sells itself as being indispensable. Soon those who do not want war are dragged along.

Are war presidents reelected? Many are. Are most men who want war irrational? Maybe not. Lincoln and other war presidents were re-elected. Wilson who said he would not go to war, did, then was reelected anyway. The only president I recall loosing office over war was LBJ, only because he decided not to run for reelection. Maybe Harry Truman also who chose not to run for reelection. After WW II people were war weary and not ready for the Korean War. They probably were afraid Harry would drop another WMD, this time on North Korea. Even Bush One may have lost re-election because he did not continue on to Baghdad, like a good war president should.

Bilbo Baggins

Appeasement

"To be governed is to have every opinion, every transaction, every movement noted, registered, counted, rated, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, refused, authorized, endorsed, admonished, prevented, reformed, redressed, corrected." Pierre Proudhon - "The General Idea of the Revolution of the 19th Century" (1842)


The derogatory use of the word "appeasement" has arisen from the Bush administration in an attempt to silence those who wish to criticize current strategy on fighting terrorists. The Bush administration has implied those who dissent against the administration's policies are equivalent to Neville Chamberlin appeasement of Hitler's policies.

I believe death and destruction would have happened even if Chamberlain had not reached an agreement with Hitler. What would have stopped Hitler? If there had been more Germans who were willing to appease the German Communist Party, or dissented against the loss of individual freedoms to either evil, instead of submitting to Hitler's fear mongering, Hitler would have never risen to power. It is the Germans who appeased Hitler that should be critized, not Neville Chamberlin.

If the Communist Party had taken over in Germany there would have been death to many Germans, including Hitler, but World War II might not have happened. Both fascism and communism are evil, so to say one is better than the other is foolish. Any country that has tried either has ended up in the dust bin. Still, the ideas of communism and fascism will not die. The ideas are like a virus that can infect a crowd quicker than any known disease and bring misery to any group who thinks they have been vaccinated against the horrors of communism and fascism.

Political leaders do not want resistance from their own people. While criticizing the United States dissenters of the strategy on fighting terrorism, the Bush administration wants its own citizens to be appeasers when it comes to the Bush administration taking away Americans' liberty with unwarranted wiretapping, secret searches, and prohibiting passengers from carrying an ounce of toothpaste onboard an airplane.

Charles Tolleson

Point of No Return

The believer is happy; the doubter is wise. -Hungarian proverb

Mr. Thomas Sowell wrote and article titled "Point of No Return?" http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/08/point_of_no_return.html

I agree with Sowell's article that it is only a matter of time until a terrorists will use a nuclear device against its enemies. Like other war mongers, Sowell's theme is, "We are good, they are bad". Like other war mongers, Sowell never asks why terrorists hate us so much. His theory that they are humiliated by our success is more plausible than the old propaganda line, "They hate our freedoms".

War mongers like to scare us into giving up our freedoms for protection against some "crazy" terrorist. I would like to point out that the only nuclear bomb ever used was by a "sane" Christian democratically elected president, who used the WMD against a defeated and dying enemy.

Yes, there will be more terrorists attacks. However we must remember that governments kill more of their own people than do terrorists.

Most of the killing in unnecessary wars was done by "sane" leaders who were doing "good". Others were killing in "God's" name. None of these leaders were considered terrorists, but their horrors are a thousand times more than the horrors of terrorists.

It was sane men, Christians killing Christians, not terrorists, who killed 2% of the population in the U.S. Civil war, just because one group would not let another group leave. It was a sane man, not a terrorist, Woodrow Wilson, who contributed the death of millions in WWI, to spread democracy.

So how do we fight the hatred and humiliation many countries like North Korea and Venezuela feel towards the U.S.?

If suddenly the U.S. disbanded and became 50 independent countries without troops in the rest of the world, which country would North Korea want to attack? Probably none of the 50 countries. Instead they might concentrate on their long time enemy, Japan, in an attempt to gain through blackmail.

We should fly the unmanned predators over poor countries and drop leaflets that show the differences in the standard of living between North and South Korea and point out the reason South Koreans have such a better life is the free enterprise system.

We should drop leaflets over North Korea and Iran describing our Bill of Rights.

We should drop leaflets over Iran promoting reason instead of mythical religions and religions that promote violence.

As long as terrorists have a match there will be danger lurking. I am against appeasement of violence. I do think much bloodshed and horror could have been avoided if the Germans had not appeased Hitler's fear mongering.

Charles Tolleson