An End To Nation Building

We often talk about our overseas troop deployments as "Nation Building", an attempt to bring the freedom that we enjoy to countries around the world. In Korea, Viet Nam, Bosnia, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan we have diligently applied outside influence to create what we hope will be another democracy in the world like the United States with little apparent success. 

 What utter nonsense! 

The United States (Colonies) of America came about when those colonies themselves decided to seek independence and freedom. Defining the goals that they sought in the Declaration of Independence, they went on to seek that freedom through separation from Great Britain. Fighting a war of rebellion against the British crown, they finally achieved that freedom in 1783. 

 This is not to say that these United Colonies did not receive help in their efforts. There is little doubt that independence could have been achieved without the help of the French, who were traditional enemies of the British and therefore served their own interests simultaneously. The French however, did not embark upon a nation building effort in coming to our aid. In fact it was many years after declaring our freedom before and entering into war against what was at the time the greatest army and navy in the world that any significant aid was forthcoming from these allies, and that was achieved only as a result of the extensive efforts of such colonial luminaries as Ben Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. 

We have to ask ourselves therefore, what right do we think we have to interfere in the governance of other nations? What hubris is it to believe that we can force what for us was an internal revolution on other parts of the world by the application of external force? 

Looking at the success rate that we have achieved in the past, what makes us continue a practice that has proved a dismal failure time and time again? In saying this, I cast no aspersions on the men and women of our armed forces. I have family currently overseas, many who served in past conflicts, and have nothing but the greatest respect for their service to this country. These people serve bravely and honorably around the world, performing whatever and wherever they are asked, and sacrificing on a level that few of us can understand. 

Their goal however is winning however, something that cannot be said of the political leaders who expect them to succeed while tying both their hands and feet with so-called political necessities and rules of engagement. This insanity goes far beyond political parties, as Democrat and Republican Administrations share in the blame for these overseas excursions, and usually for equally nonsensical causes. 

We go to war to prevent Communism in Korea and Viet Nam, only to have it appear in our backyard in Cuba. We battle to prevent evil regimes in Kuwait and Panama from reeking harm only to watch it flourish in Venezuela. We attempt to build democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, while watching it begin to crumble once again in Bosnia after over 13 years of effort. 

Perhaps it's time that we learn that we can neither create nor impose a democracy on any country from the outside. While we should deny no country the help that we once ourselves required to achieve our independence, we should make it clear that we will do so only once those people have worked towards it themselves. We should learn that as it happened here in America, the movement towards freedom and democracy is one that must be made from within, and put an end to nation building. 

Jay Leno Is Back & Television Is Saved?

This week, Jay Leno premiered his new prime time show on NBC. I would like to tell that having announced this, I can now say that television is saved ... but I can't. 

I'm not saying that the new Leno show is bad, as quite frankly, I haven't watched it. Then again, I hadn't watched Leno on his previous effort "The Tonight Show" for many years. As a consequence, when he turned that venue with great fanfare over to Conan O'Brien, it went pretty much without notice in my home. When he debuted this week with interviews of Jerry Seinfeld (another person who's show I didn't watch when it was on) and Kanye West (someone who I had barely heard of), it was fairly easy to pass up watching.  

Quite frankly, most of television today falls within the bounds of something fairly easy to ignore, as I have written before. Recently in fact, it has reached astonishing new lows with such things as a series about people whose house has become filled with filth because they can't throw anything away, another that sees entertainment in showing an addict's intervention, and an increasing number of shows featuring dysfunctional members of the Kardashian family doing whatever it is that they do. 

They even ruined my crab fisherman show "The Deadliest Catch" by adding one in which swordfish and tuna are caught (unless "Charlie the Tuna" gets caught, not so much); and the networks may finally kill the "CSI" shows in the same way that they did the "Law and Order" series for me, with the addition of yet another (CSI, CSI Miami, CSI NY, NCIS, and now NCIS LA). 

And don't even get me started on the overabundance of talent shows with their and incipient cast of talentless judges. I mean come on people! I know that creativity pretty much died in movies and network television years ago, but the rabid level of crap currently being broadcast ought to qualify as abuse of the air waves. 

Quite frankly, I can't tell these days whether Armageddon is upon us because of all of the shows on the subject on the History Channel, or if I should simply be convinced that it is already here from looking at the new fall line up on TV. 

Thank goodness for a good bit of the talk radio being broadcast and a great deal of the literature out there. As for radio, while some of the national programming can only be taken in small doses, due to the constant self-promotion and non-stop pontificating and bloviating of the hosts; the local stuff here in Toledo continues to provide something well worth the effort of listening. 

As for the written word, it has always provided a great deal of knowledge, insight, and solace to me (especially when it's not my poor efforts). As well as my continued attempts to read both novels and original reference material, I always enjoy falling back on blogs when I have the chance. With the current state of mainstream media news, they my be the future of news in this country. 

So thanks Jay Leno for coming back to television! You may not have saved it from the dismal state that it has been reduced to, but you have proved that entertainers and audiences alike may not know when a good thing has gone bad or when to walk away from the tube. (Hey, maybe on one of your upcoming shows you could interview Bret Favre, and compare notes on knowing when to step away from the game.)

 

TFP Column: Congressional Apology

Somehow this week I once again managed to throw a column together for the Toledo Free Press, this time giving my take on the breach of decorum that occurred during the President's speech to a joint session of Congress on health care reform. While I cannot promise any real insight into the affair, I do hope to put a little historical perspective on the matter. 

There are a number of interesting pieces in the Opinion section this week, including some that I find myself at odd with (but I'll let you read them and guess which ones). Tom Pounds and Michael Miller once again have some well chosen words worth reading, election results are recapped and evaluated, and for those less politically minded there is a great deal going on in the Arts, Community, and Sports sections to keep anyone interested. 

 Toledo is looking to be blessed with yet another beautiful weekend, and spending a bit of it reading the Toledo Free Press will make it even better.

Women Rule?

Politico cited a study on 9/15 performed by Stanford University and the University of Chicago that reached the conclusion that women legislators are better than men. I'm not sure that I disagree with this conclusion, though I fear that my judgment is based more on instinct than on scientifically gathered data. 

While I believe that the study comes to the correct conclusion, I believe that they do it in spite of using an improper measurement however. I say this because the criteria used for their judgment, as noted in the Politico posting, is that these women legislators are better because they introduce more bills and bring more money home to their districts than their male predecessors. 

Now if I were to fall back on the chauvinism that many of my gender were guilty of in the days of my youth, I would say something like: "Why of course ladies introduce more bills! That's like talking, and we all know how women do love to talk. And as for bringing more money back to their districts, that's just spending. Now as a man who's been married twice, let me tell you that I know more than a little bit about how women can spend money, so why should we be surprised to find out that they can do it when we elect them." (Please note that I would in fact never actually say anything like this. Besides knowing this statement to be completely false, I know that if I intend to live a long and happy life, making such comments would substantially reduce my potential for reaching my goal.) 

As a Constitutional Conservative however, my objection to this measure of success is quite simple and rather strong. Quite frankly, I believe that we have far too many laws already (and far too much government along with it). Anyone, man or woman, who in any way adds to the already onerous burden of laws on the books is quite the opposite of success as I measure it. In fact, I would consider a legislator who never proposed legislation (unless it was legislation which either took other legislation off of the books or simplified any existing laws) to be far more successful than one who added to the ponderous pile of nonsense that make up the body of laws in this country. 

As for being a legislator who brought more of the federal largess back to their district being used as a measure of success, again I would strongly disagree. We all know that government spends far too much as it is today, having long since passed drunken sailors in this ability. I would rather consider a legislator a success who not only didn't bring much money back to the home district, but who likewise championed less spending in every district in the country. 

Give me such a champion of fiscal responsibility, who is above burying their face in the public trough as their measure of true success. Give me someone who is able to convince other legislators of such responsible spending, and I will show you someone who garners my admiration. 

Does this study therefore prove that women legislators are not as good as men? I don't believe so. What I believe that it proves instead is that women are far better at playing the game of US politics than the men who set up those rules in the first place. Quite frankly, it's my opinion that women are better at many of these "labors of men" and have long proved it. I would prefer however, that rather than proving their worth by playing better at such childish rules than their male counterparts; that they instead change them and used their natural advantages to improve the system. 

It was Timothy Leary, one of the counter culture gurus of my generation, who stated it very clearly: "Women who seek to be the equal of men lack ambition."

 

What Health Care Reform Doesn't Say

To say that I watched with interest the President's speech to a joint session of Congress last week would be stretching a point (OK, it would be flat out lying). In fact, the only bits of it that I managed to catch were in the process of channel surfing in order to see if it was over yet. 

You see, political speeches are for the most part well choreographed pieces of water ballet. They can be beautiful if viewed from the proper angle. They can even be exhibitions of athletic prowess when performed by professionals (as the President is). They are in the end however, performances that for the most part contain about as much intelligence and importance as a Marx Brother's movie in which Zeppo sings. 

This is no offense to the speechwriters, carefully crafting phrases to stir patriotism, fervor, and zeal among the faithful (and sometimes even among those not so faithful), after running each word and phrase through spin groups of various ages and ethnicity, and just as carefully tracking the results. This is no offense either to the actors/politicians who attempt to bring out the nuances of each written word and every pregnant pause, read them to their audience with the proper reverence, and hopefully manage to play their role in the piece with proper respect and without laughing at the insanity of it all. 

No matter how well crafted the speech however, or skilled the performance; in the end it's never what is said in these speeches that is important, but what is not. For example, in spite of the furor over the Joe Wilson "liar" remark, it was at least stated in the speech that illegals would not be provided care under the latest plan. What was of more importance however was that it was not said that no one was going to check those asking for treatment if they were a citizen (but there's no need to look behind that curtain). Likewise, what no one talked about and no pundits questioned in the later analysis was who wasn't going to be forced to participate under the plan.

• No one for example, asked if the President or the members of Congress, blessed with some of the best medical plans that money can buy, were going to be forced to give up those plans and participate ... they aren't.
• No one asked if an ever-growing number of union government employees at the federal, state, and local levels, who are the fastest growing number of workers in Washington DC (and the fastest growing percentage of union workers in many parts of the country ) were going to give up the health plans carefully negotiated by their union leaders and participate ... they aren't.
• No one even asked if workers at auto manufacturers who had just received government bailouts and have reorganized in such a way that the union workers had received substantial cash and stock to pay for retirement and health plans for current and retired workers were going to give up that money and stock and sign on to this government plan ... they aren't.

So while once more we were presented with a great deal of pomp and circumstance, while we are provided with information that is likely to change faster than the weather, and while we were presented with facts and figures that are subject to more dispute than the basis of many religious conflicts, in the end what we were given a piece of prose that would make the former writers of the episodes of "The West Wing" proud (and be almost as full of carefully crafted fiction). What we were left once again were far too many questions unasked and far too much left unsaid. 

Civic Duty Completed

Update: Concerned that I didn't have a current utility bill, I made sure that I had plenty of valid ID with me when going up to the poling place. I find it interesting (and curious) that a valid passport is not considered proper ID, but a Social Security card or Driver's License with a Social Security number was. 

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By the time that most of you read this and in spite of my diminished physical condition (yeah I know, mental too...), I expect to have been able to make it a couple of blocks down the road to my local poling place in order to perform my civic duty and vote in the Toledo primary. 

I will not bore you with the choices that I intend to make, as I am a great believer in the sanctity of the secret ballot. Besides, I normally close my eyes in the voting booth to prevent revealing such choices even to myself. (This is more commonly known as the "pin the tail on the jackasses" voting method.) 

Those of you recalling my shady upbringing in Chicago may likewise be surprised to discover that in spite of what might be considered a questionable electoral heritage, I nevertheless pledge to restrict myself to doing so only once. Likewise I vow to restrain myself from the almost overwhelming desire to vote for a Toledo resident now deceased. (I guess you just can't go home again.) 

I urge each of you here in Toledo to likewise perform such duty in a renewed spirit of hope and change. (Excuse me, that last one is making me feel rather ill.)

Random Nonsense

"The loneliest time that I have ever spent was waiting for inspiration." 

This little bit of insight came to me some time ago, and as I once again sit in front of a keyboard with nothing coming out it, I am somehow reminded how difficult it can be to come up with something worth sharing. Since that appears to be beyond my grasp this weekend and in the true spirit of "Just Blowing Smoke", I thought that instead I would share some random and disjointed thoughts with you.

• Is anyone else offended by the president taking the commemoration of the anniversary of 9/11 and co-opting it as a "National Day of Service"?
• Is anyone else amused by the concept that the day after the President announces this first ever "National Day of Service" by the government, that thousands of people have gone to the very seat of power to protest at being "over-served" by that same government?
• Three days before the primary election in Toledo, I wonder how many of those longing for hope and change a little more than a year ago will show up at the polls this Tuesday?
• The Marina District development on the east side of the Maumee River is in trouble once again. The EPA says that there might be toxic chemicals still in the ground there and has told the city to get it (or at least it's paperwork) cleaned up. Meanwhile, Larry Dillin still has not delivered the promised funds to the city for the land (and with this hanging, who would blame him). Eventually this will of all get clear up of course, but my question is: Who is going to want to pay big bucks for a luxury home site or condo on a former toxic waste area to view a river that could also still use a good bit of clean up itself?
• One of our mayoral candidates is touting an economic plan that calls for eliminating the city income tax by increasing property taxes and adding a city sales tax, a plan that supposedly will bring residents and businesses back to Toledo. Now, setting aside that some or all of this may not be possible or even legal, isn't this like putting out a house fire by throwing in Molotov cocktails?
• Speaking of mayors, Toledo Mayor Carlton S. Finkbeiner has 113 days left in office according to my count. Has anyone else started counting down to the celebration?
• Toledo has a recently built baseball stadium and is about to open a new state-of-the-art Arena for hockey, arena football, and music events of every kind. Let us hope that 'Field of Dreams' was right and, "... If you build it, they will come."

OK, now that I've got all of that off my chest, I can go back to the serious business of taking a nap before going to bed this evening Have a great weekend!

9/11

While feeling in no way capable of expressing the sentiments required as we once again remember the events that occurred eight years ago today, I discovered a couple of interesting bits of trivia that I felt might be worth sharing:

• The twin towers of the World Trade Center were actually designed to survive being struck by an airplane, but only one the size of the Boeing 707, which was the largest commercial aircraft in service at the time that the towers were constructed.
• After the destruction of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York City.
• The Empire State Building was itself struck by an airplane on July 28, 1945. The plane was a B-25 bomber, which crashed into the 79th floor.

TFP Column: The Space Between

I know that I have been a little lacking in postings this week, but I hope to make it up to you in some part with the column that I have written this week for the Toledo Free Press. 

I apologize for that, but simply couldn't seem to put two coherent thoughts together to do so. (I know, I know, that's never stopped me before.) 

While being a little more esoteric than my normal offerings (look it up, I had to), I think that "The Space Between" may be one of the better ones that I have written for Mr. Miller. 

 With the primaries coming up in just a couple of days however, I feel sure that there is more than a little that you will need to catch up on. I urge you, in spite of the phenomenal weather that we are experiencing, to do so in preparation for that vote.

Coincidence?

The time is fast approaching for President Obama's health care speech to a joint session of Congress. I have no intention of listening to another speech either by the president, or by anyone on health care in this country again this week. 

 As a consequence the search for available options was on. Surfing around my limited cable service, I noticed that one of the alternatives was a movie on American Movie Classics (AMC). It is an old Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gabriel Byrne film from 1999, "The End of Days". I know that the movie played over the holiday weekend on this same channel, but I have to ask: "Could the timing of a showing a movie about the end of the world playing at the same time as the president's speech to Congress be a coincidence?"