Happy New Year!

With three minutes left in 2005, I just wanted to get in one more post before 2006 is upon us. Best wishes for a New Year! Just think, 2006 should be interesting seeing as how it is an election year.

Happy New Year to You, Sir

The Worst Generation

One of life's great ironies is that America's "Greatest Generation" that lived through the Great Depression and was victorious in World War II, gave birth to America's Worst Generation, which introduced abundant drug use, abundant divorce, promiscuous sex and the mainstreaming of teen pregnancy and single-parent families, a blurring of the roles of men and women, and a level of rudeness, debauchery, and a coarsening of our society not contemplated by the generations which had lived before.

I have a subscription to American Heritage magazine. In their October 2005 issue, their flagship article for that issue was entitled, Boomer Century - How the Baby Boom Generation Changed Everything. On page 41-42, there is an article entitled, Is It Really "The Worst Generation"?, by Benjamin Cheever. A boomer himself, Mr. Cheever's article defends his generation against the charges that they changed this country for the worse. But at times, even he concedes that some damage has been done, especially in the raising of the subsequent generation(s) that were produced by the boomers. Mr. Cheever explains what his generation has wrought by giving an example of the behavior of today's youth:

We were spoiled. No denying that. And we have spoiled our children. Is this a moral failing? I think not. More a philosophical development. Freud startled parents with his news about the tender childhood psyche and the terrible predictive force of rejection and pain. Since then, we've had Dr. Spock, Mr. Rogers, Bob Dylan. Authority has been unhorsed, declawed, and even taunted.
We weren't nearly as frightened by our parents as they were frightened by theirs. The generation that we've raised is not afraid at all. Or not of us.
Do I miss the ranks of silent, tidy children who used to dress for dinner and call their parents Father Dear and Mother Darling? You bet I miss them.
A flock of teenage girls came and settled in the seats around me recently when I was on the train to New York City. I had a laptop and was trying to work. Too much noise. I attempted to read the [New York] Times. Too much noise for that. The girls poked one another, shrieked with glee. The one seated directly behind me plucked the batter out of one of her electronic toys and blew hard on it, in attempt to clean the contacts. She blew so hard that all my hair went up in the air and then fell back down in a horribly emparrassing display of the stratagems of the partially bald. Furious, I bit my tongue.
When the train wheezed into Grand Central, I stood and saw that I had not been the only adult seeded among this gang of noise hooligans. The other grownups looked as sour and angry as I was. Nobody peeped. We were like Jews sitting with SS troopers. Kids rule. For decades now, we've treated them as gods. Has this been a terrible miscalculation? Perhaps. They are happy. Isn't that what we had hoped for?

As a middle school teacher, I can certainly identify with the fact that respect for authority has gone out the window. I deal with the children of baby boomers and the children of children of baby boomers on a daily basis, and it isn't pretty. My authority is indeed taunted regularly.
And are today's children really happy? Not really. Too many of them live in a single-parent home where they do not see or even know one of their parents - overwhelmingly the father in most cases. They are angry because many of today's parents are afraid to enforce standards or boundaries of behavior or are unaware that there are any standards or boundaries in the first place. The cliche really is true; children appreciate and seek boundaries. They purposely test the will of their parents or other authority figures to see if those adults really mean what they say. It is a relief to a child when that adult follows through. If the adult doesn't follow through, that is when children begin to treat that adult with contempt. This permissive method of raising children was exacted upon the baby boomers by their put-upon parents who did not want their brood to suffer the privations experienced during the depression and World War II. Unfortunately, the coddling backfired, and instead of thanking their parents for their kid-glove treatment, baby boomers rebelled instead.

I do agree with Mr. Cheever when he writes that you can't generalize 76 million people (the approximate number of baby boomers). I know that not every baby boomer dropped acid or belonged to the SDS, or firebombed an ROTC office. But as anyone can easily see, the cultural history of the United States can easily be divided by the 1960s. There was the culture before that decade, and now we're living in the culture after. With the exception of the condition of black civil rights in the southern states, tell me one cultural benchmark that is better now than it was before the baby boomers got their hands on our national culture in the 1960s.

Good Day to You, Sir

A Disturbing "Holiday" Called Kwanzaa

After a five-day hiatus, I am back to the blogosphere. What was I doing during those five days? Celebrating Christmas of course, a holiday steeped in 2,005 years of tradition where we wish peace on earth and good will toward men as we come together to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ with our friends and family. The day after Christmas marks the beginning of another celebration; this one being observed by about 1% of our country's population. That celebration is known as Kwanzaa. I don't know how or why this "holiday" entered our mainstream conscience except as a paean to political correctness. It was simply a matter of too many people being afraid of offending American blacks regarding their new "holiday" no matter how ridiculous it is. Kwanzaa always reminds me of the famous "Festivus" episode from Seinfeld where Kramer and Mr. Costanza come up with their own holiday.

Some of you might dismiss me as a stick in the mud. You might be thinking, "C'mon Chanman, just let them celebrate whatever holiday they want to and get over it." Allow me to introduce you to the problems I have with the "holiday" called Kwanzaa:

1. The holiday's creator - His name is Ron "Maulana" Karenga. He is currently a professor of Black Studies at Cal State Long Beach. I was reading a Sacramento Bee article about Kwanzaa the other day, and that is as detailed as the reporter got about Mr. Karenga. What the reporter forgot to include was that Mr. Karenga is an avowed Marxist, a black racist, and most importantly, a violent felon. He created Kwanzaa during the beginning of the Black Power movement in 1966 as an obvious move to further separate and alienate blacks from whites. In the late 1960s, Karenga decided that the Black Panthers were not violent or ideological enough, so he created an even more psychotic organization known as United Slaves. Eventually, U.S. and the B.P.P. fought for control of the newly created Black Studies department at UCLA, and some U.S. members ended up shooting and killing two B.P.P. members on the UCLA campus. How's that for peace on earth and good will toward men? It gets better; in 1971, Ron Karenga himself was convicted and sent to prison for the torture of two female members of United Slaves. Among other things, he put a hot soldering iron into the mouth of one woman, crushed the other woman's toe in a vice, and forced water and detergent down both of their throats with a hose. I wonder how many observers of Kwanzaa know this about the person who created the holiday?

2. Kwanzaa is based on seven principles; among these are "collective work" and "cooperative economics". Essentially, Kwanzaa is a celebration of Communism and Socialism. Ask a citizen of Ukraine what he thinks of "collective work" as Ukranian farmers in the early 1930s were forced by Stalin to give up their farms and work collectively or they would be shot or starved to death. Ask any Chinese old enough to remember the collective work farms under Mao that led to the starvation death of tens of millions of Chinese. And cooperative economics? I have the perfect example for you from the Kwanzaa article in the Sacramento Bee Metro Section on page B1 in their issue for 12/26/2005. One black woman who celebrates Kwanzaa was quoted as saying that she observes the principles of Kwanzaa all year. The example she gave was that when it was time for her to buy a used car not long ago, she made sure to only patronize black-owned car dealerships in her car search. Now of course she has every right to do that, but let's think of the implications of that for a sec. What if I told you that I was only going to patronize white-owned car dealerships in my search for a car? Would that fly? Of course not. I would be considered a bigot, just as this woman should be. How about looking for the best deal you can get, regardless of the skin color of the person(s) who owns the establishment?

3. The language of Kwanzaa - The word "Kwanzaa" is Swahili for "First Fruits". The African names for the seven principles of Kwanzaa are also Swahili. Africa, we have a problem. The vast majority of black Americans are of West African descent. Swahili is an East African language. To impress upon you the absurdity of this, author Paul Mulshine gives a great example by asking you to imagine the Irish celebrating St. Patrick's Day by speaking Polish. It makes no sense, and neither does using Swahili as the basis for Kwanzaa when very few black Americans can trace their roots to east Africa.

I have given my two bits on this subject, but for more in-depth analysis, I strongly advise you to read Paul Mulshine's 2002 article, Happy Kwanzaa, or read this post by black female lawyer and well-known blogger, La Shawn Barber.

Good Kwanzaa to You, Sir

Gutless Republicans Strike Yet Again

Once again, drilling in ANWR came up for a vote in the Senate, and once again, the Republicans snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The Republicans are the majority party in the Congress right? Just checking.

Good Day to You, Sir

Hate Crime Double Standards

I am totally against hate crime laws. It is too easy to use them selectively, and selectively they are used - quite often. According to U.S. Department of Justice crime statistics, when you have a crime take place where the perp is a different race than the victim, 90% of the time, the perp is black and the victim is white. White-on-black crime is very rare, and yet those are the crimes that are considered for hate crime prosecution. When a black commits a crime against a white, police officers and prosecutors bend over backwards and contort themselves in unimaginable ways in order to not charge the black perpetrator with a hate crime.

I am sure you are all familiar with the famous case of James Byrd, who was dragged to his death behind a pickup truck by racist whites in Jasper, Texas back in 1998. Those men who committed that crime were sentenced to death for the murder. James Byrd's murder brought the issue of hate crime legislation to the forefront. First of all, I'm not sure what a hate crime charge could have done in the Byrd case; for goodness sake, they got the death penalty!

Now we have a crime committed recently where another dragging occurred, but this time, it was a white man being dragged by two black men. Were the perpetrators charged with a hate crime? Of course not. Neither were the black men who dragged Ken Tillery - a white man - to death. Yes, I know, you are right now asking yourself, "Who the heck is Ken Tillery?". Back in 2002, in Jasper, Texas of all places, Mr. Tillery was murdered by four black men who beat him then crushed him under their pickup truck. These men were not charged with a hate crime either. Nor were the Carr brothers, who in Wichita in 2000, robbed and murdered five whites in a week-long crime spree. The last four murder victims were taken to a dark snowy soccer field and shot execution-style in the back of the head. A fifth victim was also shot, but lived to tell the tale.

The bottom line is that in this country, it is not against the law to hate other people no matter how misguided or petty the reasons. What is against the law is when you act upon your hatred and cause death or injury. Ask yourself, if you are approached by a criminal who then shoots you, does it really matter why he did it? Whether he wanted your wallet, or he didn't like the color of your skin - you were shot, and the bad guys need to pay. You may not be able to prove what the criminal was thinking, but you can certainly prove what he was doing.

Good Day to You, Sir

President Bush Doesn't Care About White People

Hear now, some of the sounds of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:

"Yes it was an issue of race. Because of one thing: When the city had pretty much been evacuated, the people that were left there were mostly black." -Patricia Thompson, New Orleans Evacuee.

"And I came because the 'ism' that's really bothering me the most is 'racism'". -Dyan French Cole, New Orleans community activist speaking to congresscritters at Katrina hearings on Capitol Hill.

"I heard from a very reliable source who saw a 25 foot deep crater under the levee breech. It may have been blown up to destroy the black part of town and keep the white part dry." -Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam leader.

"George Bush doesn't care about black people." -Egotistical rapper Kanye West, speaking during a live NBC Katrina fund-raising program.
_______________________________________________________________

So, I'm sure that you all know the common wisdom about what happened in New Orleans as a result of Hurrican Katrina: All of the whites evacuated, and the city was left to the poor blacks who couldn't afford to leave, and subsequently drowned as a result. And of course the reason this occurred is because New Orleans was full of black people, and as we all know, we live in a racist country where the white population, right up to our president, "doesn't care about black people."

Well, here come the statistics to burst that carefully constructed bubble. The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has been keeping record of the race of all the dead hurricane victims that they processed, and they recently released the results that they have so far compiled. The first thing you have to keep in mind is that prior to the hurricane, New Orleans, like many large cities in the south, was a city with a heavily majority black population - to the tune of 67% of the population of New Orleans. Whites only made up 28% of the population. So did more blacks than whites die in New Orleans? In raw numbers, yes. But that only makes sense seeing as how blacks make up over 2/3 of the population and whites make up less than 1/3. But raw numbers do not tell the whole story. The bottom line is that while blacks made up over 67% of the population, they only accounted for 59% of the deaths. Whites on the other hand, who made up only 28% of the population, accounted for 36.6% of the deaths. So in the New Orleans death tally, blacks were underrepresented, and whites were overrepresented.
Bush doesn't care about black people? One could make the argument that it is white people he more likely didn't care about, but only if you make the argument that it was George Bush's responsibility to take care of New Orleans in the first place.

Good Day to You, Sir

Iraqi Troops Are Beginning to Kick Some Butt

Yesterday, Powerline Blog posted a story that really got to me. It tells about the thoughts on the war from Minnesota Congressman, Colonel John Kline (USMC, Ret.). Col. Kline has traveled to Iraq and has nothing but good things to say about not only the morale and performance of our troops, but the progress of the Iraqi troops as well, as they are trained by our military to eventually take over the job of protecting their country. Isn't that something? In 1991 and 2003, we were fighting Iraq's military; now we are training their military. I was especially touched by what Col. Kline had to say about one Iraqi unit he witnessed as they carried out a live-fire training exercise:

There is a unit called the Iraqi counterterrorist force that was trained by our special operations forces. These guys are the elite of the Iraqi forces. They are composed of Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Shia. They fight all over the country, they are a focused unit in that they are going after Zarqawi and the like. And they are darned good and they are very very proud of themselves. That’s something that Americans can’t have a sense for, how proud the Iraqi forces are. Their allegiance is to an Iraqi nation, not to a militia, not to a warlord, not to a particular religious sect.

And they are good. We saw a live-fire demonstration of them taking down a building with a simulated hostage in it. It was lightning-fast, very professional. And when it was over they came and formed up ranks and we went over and talked to them and told them how good they were and even though all the soldiers had balaklavas on, you could see their smiles right through it. They were really proud of themselves.

As the guys from Powerline Blog put it,

How can it be that the press fawns over every pronouncement from Jack Murtha, while studiously ignoring the observations and opinions of the far more experienced and better-informed John Kline?

How indeed?

Good Day to You, Sir

Where Do These Crazies Come From?!

Over the last few months, I have been hearing and reading inklings about the relatively new president of the absolutely wack-job country of Iran. His name is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (say that five times fast!). Lately, good old Mahmoud has been making quite a name for himself by saying some of the most outrageous public statements since, well, since Saddam Hussein was still in power (and last week in the courtroom during his trial). Ahmadinejad's latest gems included his belief that the Holocaust was a hoax, and that Israel should be "wiped off the map". Now you could just chalk this up to the rantings of a two-bit dictator running a two-bit rogue nation and cast it aside, but I wouldn't advise it. You see, Iran is working on a serious nuclear weapons program. The Iranians say that their nuclear program is intended only to produce electricity and not weapons, but c'mon, isn't that what Iran's fellow member of the Axis of Evil, North Korea, said as well? I would be hard pressed to think of a more nutty country in the middle east/central Asia than Iran. You don't want them to be in possession of nuclear weapons.

So what to do? Israel has already expressed its intention to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities if necessary, just like they did to Iraq in 1981. That is what I love about Israel; they are the only country with the balls to pull off something like that. Our sometimes wishy-washy president has made overtures about taking care of problems like this when yesterday, he said, "In an age of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, if we wait for threats to materialize, we will have waited too long".

Keep in mind, Ahmadinejad has not just called for the elimination of Israel, he has also publicly called for the elimination of the United States as well. Again, pooh-pooh his statements at your peril. Pretty soon, he will be in control of nuclear weapons.

Good Day to You, Sir

It's Hot Down There, Isn't It Tookie?

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, Stanley "Tookie" Williams is no longer among the living. The people of the state of California executed him just after midnight today. Perhaps now his victims can truly rest in peace, and the victims' families can live their lives in peace without their loved ones' killer being fawned over by a bunch of starry-eyed psychopaths.

What psychopaths do I speak of? Allow me to illustrate. In California's Bay Area, there is a rather proactive - and absolutely hilarious - individual who goes by the name "Zombie", who just loves to crash the abundant left-wing protests in said Bay Area and take photos and film of the goings-on. Zombie was at the protests taking place outside the gates of San Quentin Prison, and recorded the Moonbat Left in all their unmitigated glory. As he so succinctly put it, these people weren't just anti-death penalty, they were pro-Tookie.

Good Day to You, Sir

Brokeback Hollywood

The following article is entitled Plummeting 2005 Box Office Sparks Hollywood Crisis. For the last two years, box office receipts have gone down along with dwindling theatergoing. I'm sure there are a myriad of reasons; from DVDs being watched on home theater systems, to people being fed up with rude thoughtless moviegoers who won't shut the hell up during the movie. One factor that cannot be ignored is the dwindling quality and subject matter of the movies that are being released. The "gay cowboy movie" as people are calling Brokeback Mountain, is a prime reason for the loss of theater revenue. I don't care how good the acting or cinematography is, people don't want to see a couple of 1960s gay cowboys gettin' it on. Does that sound insensitive and behind the times? I sure hope so.

Good Day to You, Sir

Those Evil Americans: How Dare They?!

It seems that we Americans have no compunction about torturing Saddam Hussein and his poor henchmen. It seems that one of Saddam's underlings who is on trial complained to the press that he was not supplied with cigarettes for four months - NO CIGARETTES! FOR FOUR MONTHS!. Those Yankee bastards....

Good Day to You, Sir

What Does the Left Hate More: Evil or Inequality?

One of my favorite radio talk hosts is Dennis Prager. He is rather soft-spoken and cerebral; sort of the anti-Michael Savage, who I like to listen to when I am in a pissed off mood. Dennis Prager writes a great column, and here is one of his better columns that I have read lately. He lays out what exactly makes the left mad. Here is a little taste for you:

How else can one explain the Left's enchantment with Fidel Castro, the totalitarian ruler of Cuba? Clearly his evil is of little consequence. What matters to people on the Left is that there is free health care and almost universal literacy in Cuba. Whereas non-leftists believe that it is far better to be illiterate but free, leftists believe that it is better to be a literate slave.

I have had people say that to me before: "Well, Cuba has free health care and everyone can read!" I always tell them, "What good is it to have free health care if your doctor is out of medicine? What good is it to be literate if your government tells you what you can and cannot read?"

Good Day to You, Sir

"The Rich Need to Pay their Fair Share"

In conversations about paying taxes, how often have you heard the above statement? This subject grates me more than almost any other one I can think of. The reality is, not only do the rich pay their fair share, they go way above and beyond what they should be paying. Every year, more and more of the tax burden is transferred to the so-called "rich", while the "poor" in our country have very little, and usually, no income tax burden. The IRS has recently released the tax figures for 2003, and the percentages say it all.

They show that the top 1 percent of taxpayers, ranked by adjusted gross income, paid 34.3 percent of all federal income taxes that year. The top 5 percent paid 54.4 percent, the top 10 percent paid 65.8 percent, and the top quarter of taxpayers paid 83.9 percent.

And so it goes. That deadly sin, jealousy, continues to drive some mad as they curse the rich for being "greedy", when it is actually the rich that pay almost all the income taxes in this country.

Good Day to You, Sir

God's Country

I am way overdue for an installment of God's Country. The fam and I drove north for the Thanksgiving holiday. We took a drive one day on Highway 89 near McCloud, which is a small town on the southeast side of Mount Shasta. The mountain was pretty clouded over, so instead, I took a shot of the late autumn sun setting behind these Ponderosa Pines. I love the forest in that area: flat, very little underbrush (just some Manzanita bushes and pine needles all over the place), and pine trees spaced far apart. And the smell - ssssssssssniff - there is nothing like it, especially in the summer when the heat warms up the pine needles and they really give off their aroma.
I do love the woods...

Good Day to You, Sir

NBA Dress Code Update

A few weeks ago - or was it longer? - I blogged about the new dress code in the NBA. Players could no longer wear the clown gear while on duty. You know: sagging pants, baseball cap on sideways or cocked way over to one side, big poofy jackets... essentially, hip-hop attire. Of course some of the younger black players didn't like this and insinuated it was a racist rule.

In this column from Star Parker, she posits that this dress code just made good business sense, and please remember that the NBA is a business. Although, 78% of NBA players are black, 85% of the viewers are white and pretty well educated. Since the players cost money, and the viewers provide the money, David Stern, the NBA commissioner, isn't stupid; he knows who butters his bread. The mostly white middle class audience doesn't want to see a bunch of preening ghetto wannabes sitting in the stands trying to look as menacing as possible; so consequently, it is not the corporate image that Stern wants to project.

One of life's rules is that perception is reality. If you dress like a street thug, you may not be one, but you might as well, because that is how people will perceive you. I tell my students this all the time. The problem is that they see these multi-millionaire basketball players dressing that way, so guess how my students want to dress; as if that will also make them multi-millionaire basketball players. Unfortunately for them, they won't be looked at as preening multi-millionaires, they will just be looked at as street thugs. Not a good way to get a regular job.

Good Day to You, Sir

Ahhhh, Democracy in Action

In this column from Paul Jacob, we are introduced to some good old fashioned gutter politics in the great state of Oklahoma. The citizens there are in the process of attempting to get an initiative on the next ballot that limits government spending. Naturally the teachers union (and other unions) are opposed to this. So do they go out there and engage in a healthy debate with their opponents and try to convince the people of Oklahoma why they should see things the unions' way? Lord no! Are you kidding? This is America we are talking about. Instead, the unions' marching order to its goons and thugs is to complain to businesses that they are being harassed by initiative petitioners that are standing out in front of these businesses with their clipboards. Here is a charming narrative from one of those said goons:

The other day I saw one of these people outside a store. I went into the store and told the manager that he cussed me and my mother out for not signing. He called the security people and they ran him off. Now, sure this isn't true . . . he didn't cuss me out. But the way they are subverting democracy is a heck of a lot worse than me dealing with them in a manner I did.

Doesn't that just warm your heart? The political left believes in free speech... as long as they agree with what you are saying. And notice that according to the lying goon, it was the petitioner who was "subverting democracy". Straight out of Orwell: Freedom is slavery, up is down, black is white, and campaigning for a ballot initiative is subverting democracy.

Good Day to You, Sir

Dean the Screamer Takes the Enemy's Side

Today, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi stated, "The idea that [the U.S. is] going to win the war in Iraq is just plain wrong..." One sec - Huh? What's that? Whoops! My mistake! According to the latest from the Drudgereport, that quote is from Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. God, what a slimeball that man is. If it were still the 1940s and we were in the middle of World War II, I swear on all that is good and holy that this man, and others like him would be jailed or shot for sedition. Can you imagine how his words embolden our enemies who want nothing more for us than to either convert to Islam, or even more conveniently, die? Just keep verbally shooting from the hip, Scream-o; you are doing wonders for your party.

Good Day to You, Sir

Could We Please Learn from Our Mistakes?

Today in Iraq, near the infamous city of Fallujah, 10 U.S. Marines were killed and 11 were wounded by a massive roadside bomb that was made up of several strung together artillery shells. Almost every day, you hear about roadside bombs killing a few American soldiers here, and few more there, and I for one am sick to death of it. I am sick of watching President Bush conduct this war like a pussyfoot version of Lyndon Johnson. They both looked at how they should truly conduct their respective wars, and all they could say was, "What would the neighbors think?!"

I was listening to Michael Savage on my way home from work, and he echoed my sentiments exactly- that we should either fight to win this thing, or get the hell out of there. But as long as we fight with both hands behind our back and limit our warfighting options for fear of (Allah forbid) offending the damn Muslims, we will continue to lose soldiers and marines to roadside bombs in the areas of Iraq that we should have carpet bombed and depopulated a long time ago. Many people don't realize that the vast majority of the problems in Iraq are confined to the Sunni Triangle between Baghdad, Fallujah, and Tikrit, and also the northern city of Mosul. Other than that, the country is doing quite well thank you very much (no thanks to the non-support of the Democrats/Leftists in our country).

The left is doing everything they can to make Iraq into another Vietnam. We won Vietnam militarily, but we lost the war at home. If Bush doesn't allow the military to start properly exterminating these cockroaches that the left-wing media lovingly refer to as "insurgents", another Vietnam is what we could have, because the American people (including me) are not going to stand for our soldiers being needlessly killed when we could solve the problem tomorrow with some good old fashioned violence. You think I am being too harsh? If all the terrorists in the areas surrounding Fallujah were bombed into paradise rather than hunted down and shot one by one, their will to fight (or to breathe for that matter), would be severely diminished. Evacuate the few civilians left in these places, and then wipe the problem areas off the map. The only message these cockroaches understand is violence. Playing nice and trying not to put bullet pock marks in their mosques is not going to improve our standing in their eyes, or the rest of the Muslim world for that matter. Now get on it President Bush!

Good Day to You, Sir

Another Great War Movie(s) On the Way!

I am already salivating thinking about the autumn of 2006. That is when two movies will be released in theaters, that I am just dying to see. Director Clint Eastwood just wrapped production on Flags of our Fathers, which is based on the book of the same name that chronicles the lives and deaths of the six men who raised the famous flag on Iwo Jima. The movie of course will show many scenes of the battle of Iwo Jima. But wait, it gets better. After the holidays are done, Eastwood starts up production again - this time to film Lamps Before the Wind; another movie about the Battle of Iwo Jima, but this one from the point of view of the Japanese.

I am pleased that so many patriotic American war films have been released in the last few years; especially after September 11, 2001. We have had Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot, and Blackhawk Down. Now we have Flags of our Fathers, and I hear Bruce Willis is planning a pro-American film about a decorated unit that just finished its tour in Iraq. As the Democrats in Congress and the political left in general continue to smear, insult, and denigrate our country and our troops, a patriotic backlash can only be inevitable.

Good Day to You, Sir

Yes, You Can Say "Merry Christmas"

I found an invaluable website today. As a teacher, I have had to constantly watch what I say concerning certain subjects, because God forbid I should ever offend anyone! One thing I no longer have to worry about are the ramifications of uttering the dreaded hate phrase, "Merry Christmas". This website has an info-loaded FAQ that tells teachers and students their rights regarding their desire to wish someone a Merry Christmas, or even (GASP!), refer to our time off as Christmas Vacation rather than Winter Break. Each answer to an FAQ is backed up by court decisions.

Yes folks, this anti-Christian/anti-Christmas crap has gotten so out of hand, that I have to check court decisions to ensure that I won't lose a lawsuit for wishing my students a merry Christmas. God save us all!

Good Day to You, Sir