Posted on 06/05/2008 7:17:44 AM PDT by Rummyfan
Now that the two parties have finally selected their presidential candidates, it is time for a sober — if not grim — assessment of where we are.
Not since 1972 have we been presented with two such painfully inadequate candidates. When Election Day came that year, I could not bring myself to vote for either George McGovern or Richard Nixon. I stayed home.
This year, none of us has that luxury. While all sorts of gushing is going on in the media, and posturing is going on in politics, the biggest national sponsor of terrorism in the world — Iran — is moving step by step toward building a nuclear bomb.
The point when they get that bomb will be the point of no return. Iran’s nuclear bomb will be the terrorists’ nuclear bomb — and they can make 9/11 look like child’s play.
All the options that are on the table right now will be swept off the table forever. Our choices will be to give in to whatever the terrorists demand — however outrageous those demands might be — or to risk seeing American cities start disappearing in radioactive mushroom clouds.
All the things we are preoccupied with today, from the price of gasoline to health care to global warming, will suddenly no longer matter.
Just as the Nazis did not find it enough to simply kill people in their concentration camps, but had to humiliate and dehumanize them first, so we can expect terrorists with nuclear weapons to both humiliate us and force us to humiliate ourselves, before they finally start killing us.
They have already telegraphed their punches with their sadistic beheadings of innocent civilians, and with the popularity of videotapes of those beheadings in the Middle East.
They have already telegraphed their intention to dictate to us with such things as Osama bin Laden’s threats to target those places in America that did not vote the way he prescribed in the 2004 elections. He could not back up those threats then but he may be able to in a very few years.
The terrorists have given us as clear a picture of what they are all about as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis did during the 1930s — and our “leaders” and intelligentsia have ignored the warning signs as resolutely as the “leaders” and intelligentsia of the 1930s downplayed the dangers of Hitler.
We are much like people drifting down the Niagara River, oblivious to the waterfalls up ahead. Once we go over those falls, we cannot come back up again.
What does this have to do with today’s presidential candidates? It has everything to do with them.
One of these candidates will determine what we are going to do to stop Iran from going nuclear— or whether we are going to do anything other than talk, as Western leaders talked in the 1930s.
There is one big difference between now and the 1930s. Although the West’s lack of military preparedness and its political irresolution led to three solid years of devastating losses to Nazi Germany and imperial Japan, nevertheless when all the West’s industrial and military forces were finally mobilized, the democracies were able to turn the tide and win decisively.
But you cannot lose a nuclear war for three years and then come back. You cannot even sustain the will to resist for three years when you are first broken down morally by threats and then devastated by nuclear bombs.
Our one window of opportunity to prevent this will occur within the term of whoever becomes president of the United States next January.
At a time like this, we do not have the luxury of waiting for our ideal candidate or of indulging our emotions by voting for some third party candidate to show our displeasure — at the cost of putting someone in the White House who is not up to the job.
Senator John McCain has been criticized in this column many times. But, when all is said and done, Senator McCain has not spent decades aiding and abetting people who hate America.
On the contrary, he has paid a huge price for resisting our enemies, even when they held him prisoner and tortured him. The choice between him and Barack Obama should be a no-brainer.
— Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution
If Obama wins, his coattails will bring such a Rat majority that not enough Pub members of Congress would exist to apply any effective brake.
Silly me, all these years I've always heard it was because they were Jewish!
I ran into this type of policy in the 1980’s. If you purchased via credit card they would refund to the credit card.
If you purchased via check or cash you had to wait for a mailed refund. However, they did not have the restock fee.
This restock fee is similar to manufacturer policies to wholesale customers. My vendors charge an average 20% to 25% restock fee for a return of merchandise. This is for wholesale clients!
I distinctly remember how Nordstrom’s generous return policy turned things around in the 1990’s. Others copied it, but it seems that now we are in a tight retail market, things have reverted back.
Sorry to see this happen. It is not cool to change policies and not VERBALLY inform your customers at the point of sale.
OR... at the very least post it clearly at the register.
Sneaky on the part of BB.
Our choices will be to give in to whatever the terrorists demand — however outrageous those demands might be — or to risk seeing American cities start disappearing in radioactive mushroom clouds.They have already telegraphed their intention to dictate to us with such things as Osama bin Laden’s threats to target those places in America that did not vote the way he prescribed in the 2004 elections. He could not back up those threats then but he may be able to in a very few years.
Our one window of opportunity to prevent this will occur within the term of whoever becomes president of the United States next January.
Dr. Sowell didn't say American Cities will immediately be Nuked. He said one window of opportunity to prevent Nuclear blackmail by Iran or Terrorists will occur in the next Presidential term.
If we allow a weak President to be elected, his appeasement will allow us to be broken down morally by threats and then eventually be devastated by nuclear bombs. I believe Obama would welcome this and hasten our destruction.
I know it sounds crazy, but I have dreams of the same type I had before 911.
Two nights ago another one...
I also had these same dreams for one solid week before the Aero Mexico Jet crashed about a mile from my home in Cerritos, CA.
Sorry... I know some don’t hold to this type of thing here - always have had premonition dreams that herald challenges.
Thanks for the ping!
Hey ... we have a 28 foot Lancer (1979)- which we will very soon not be able to afford any longer....
Interested??
; ~ )
I stayed home. This year, none of us has that luxury. While all sorts of gushing is going on in the media, and posturing is going on in politics, the biggest national sponsor of terrorism in the world -- Iran -- is moving step by step toward building a nuclear bomb. The point when they get that bomb will be the point of no return. Iran's nuclear bomb will be the terrorists' nuclear bomb -- and they can make 9/11 look like child's play. All the options that are on the table right now will be swept off the table forever. Our choices will be to give in to whatever the terrorists demand -- however outrageous those demands might be -- or to risk seeing American cities start disappearing in radioactive mushroom clouds... Just as the Nazis did not find it enough to simply kill people in their concentration camps, but had to humiliate and dehumanize them first, so we can expect terrorists with nuclear weapons to both humiliate us and force us to humiliate ourselves, before they finally start killing us.
This person is lucky. I’m told once you activate a GPS you cannot return it....PERIOD esp the Garmons.
My comments were about people who say they will sit out the election, not that they have to vote for McCain or Obama.
People died to ensure their right to vote. You don’t want to vote for either on? Fine. Libertarian, Constitutional, Green, whatever. Just friggins vote.
Higgmeister, are you kidding?
If it was all hunky-dory in 1972, why did we have to put missiles in Europe in 1983?
These treaties were basically meaningless, even at the time. We were both spending to beat the band on military hardware and nuclear armaments, and we would for the next 15 years, except during the Carter years.
The throw-weight of the nuclear arsenal aimed at us was enough to destroy the planet a few times over.
In 1972, we were still fighting a proxy war with the USSR in Vietnam. We were at hair trigger alert in Western Europe, facing down hordes of Russian and Eastern Bloc land forces, expecting a possible land invasion of West Germany.
As I said, the Cold War was at its height.
The nuclear threat facing us in 1972 is no way comparable to today.
You’re the one who needs to go back to school.
And I voted for Nixon also, in 1972.
I’m a christian. I refuse to worry about that. I understand how you feel about big government. But if we’re nuked, you won’t have to worry about that anymore, LOL.
loss of a city or two is on the table.
How much and where is it? : ) My problem is that I have Prout tastes and a Mcgregor budget.
My fellow Jews may seem moronically attached to lunatic liberalism, especially in the U.S., but at the most fundamental level, they do not want themselves or their children to be murdered. It is a safe bet that a large portion of Middle Eastern Jews plan to get out of the path of obliteration before it arrives.
At the current pace of events, Iran will have workable nuclear weapons within the next 3-8 years and will certainly use them unless by some miracle the homicidal maniacs running these sand-filled hellholes of countries change their beliefs and their ways (fat chance).
A look at the world’s Jewish populations suggests a pattern of where surviving Middle Eastern Jews are likely to settle. The United States, Canada, South Africa, and Argentina stand out, as do possibly Australia, Brazil, Denmark, and Gibraltar. Other places with current significant Jewish populations such as France, England, and Holland will be out due to their exploding Muslim populations and concurrent attacks upon Jews and Jewish life. Aside from South Africa, there may be opportunities in a number of blighted African nations that are even now committing depopulation suicide through runaway disease, tribal genocide, and a general devolution back into savagery after being abandoned by the colonial powers that forced nationhood upon them.
Remaining Muslim populations will find themselves the pariahs of the world and will be forced to seek a living in those marginally habitable regions bordering the radioactive waste of their former nations.
Amid this major redistribution of the world’s populations and destruction of most of the Middle East’s oil production, a new and severe world order will quickly emerge. It will take up to five years for the U.S. to destroy those Muslim countries blackmailing the world with nuclear weapons and another 10-15 years to put into full production the U.S.’s oil reserves. In this 15-20 year period much of the U.S. will find itself thrown back into the year 1900, with all that means, plus the burden of having to work around the radioactive hot spots that were some of the country’s large cities. Sea trade with Europe and Asia will remain the main method of shipping and receiving goods among nations, especially in light of the lack of aviation fuel. Infant mortality will soar to 19th century levels for decades and average life expectancy will drop to match levels of that period. Coal will make a huge comeback and will be the main source of fuel for shipping and power generation. The reciprocating steam engine will enjoy a short but powerful resurgence. We will deal with a vast population of mutant births for a century, and while most will be incompatible with life, an already overwhelmed health system will be further brought to its knees.
The United States will be just one of many nations to fall back into a relative isolation brought forth by these events and forces. The divide between the educated haves and the less-educated have nots will deepen, and when combined with vast stretches of land uninhabitable from radiation and a small but politically vocal mutant population, the chance of another civil war becomes real. Our grandchildren may live to see a better world.
Excellent prediction. Also, search for BBC’s “Threads” on youtube.com. Frightening stuff.
Dangerously Inadequate pretty much sums up Obama, or Carter.
The most useful (not perfect) GPS - after trying several and having no problem returning them (not bought at Best Buy) - was the Magellan 4040, which has “text to voice” capability and talks you through your turns and exits by name. The 3040 may be similarly good but has a three inch screen rather than four inch for the 4040.
Do not get sucked into the 4050, which costs more and is “voice activated” - except you cannot speak an address into it, only access predertermined points like gas stations or points of interest by voice command.
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