MAY THIS STRIKE LAST FOREVER
From Islamabad to London to Paris to Moscow to Los Angeles - wherever a flickering video image could reach - the nerves of the world became more frayed this week with the images of mass demonstrations in the streets and the stunning announcement that Hollywood writers have gone on strike for more humane working conditions. The contract between the 12,000-member Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) expired Oct. 31. (Who knew it took 12,000 writers to produce the dreck coming out of Hollywood these days?) Imminently we will be seeing the pathetic consequences of the strike: heartbreaking images of Jay Leno telling lame jokes (well, not all things will change), Jon Stewart silently making mere faces at the camera (his clever lines having been unwritten due to the strike), Stephen Colbert, denied the words written for him to mock Bill O'Reilly, forced to pointlessly over-gesticulate.
MOSLEM NAZIS
During the Second World War, the Nazis worked on plans to build the Messerschmitt Me 264 Amerikabomber, an airplane specially devised to fly suicide missions into Manhattan's skyscrapers. Albert Speer, the Nazi minister for armaments, recalled in his diary Inside The Third Reich: "It was almost as if [Hitler] was in a delirium when he described to us how New York would go up in flames. He imagined how the skyscrapers would turn into huge blazing torches. How they would crumble while the reflection of the flames would light the skyline against the dark sky." Hitler hated Manhattan. It was, he said, "the center of world Jewry." Less than 60 years later, Hitler's plans were executed by Moslem immigrants living in Germany. At the 2003 trial of the network around Mohamed Atta (the pilot who flew into the World Trade Center), Shahid Nickels, a German convert to Islam and a friend of Atta's, said that the Islamists had targeted Manhattan because it is "the center of world Jewry, and the world of finance and commerce controlled by it." The parallels between Nazism and Islamism are overwhelming. Yet the subject is a taboo.
DEMOCRACY, DEMOCRATS, AND TAXES
In response to The Salvation of 2008, TTPer "Bogie" was thoughtful enough to post on the User Forum a list of 50 reasons for The Fair Tax. Together, they make a pretty convincing case for replacing all personal/corporate income taxes, FICA payroll taxes, gift/death taxes and the AMT with a national retail sales tax. I would add #51, the end of the depreciation schedule for a business' capital expenditures. Yet there is another overarching reason for the Fair Tax replacing our present tax structure, which is that it is vastly more democratic, and provides a far firmer and more stable foundation for a democracy. Which is why Democrats are against it because they don't want a real democracy. Take a look at the Who Pays Income Taxes charts from the National Taxpayers Union. You'll see that over the last several years, the percentage of total income taxes paid by the top 1%, top 5%, top 10% of taxpayers has gone up, while that paid by the bottom 50% has gone down. 1% of taxpayers now pay almost 40% of all personal income taxes, while 50% pays 3%. How dangerous this is for a democracy can be seen with this simple image: imagine balancing a pyramid on its point.
WE NEED PROTECTION FROM POLITICIANS TRYING TO PROTECT US
Skiers sometimes die, as do mountain climbers and motorcyclists and bicyclists, because what they do routinely is dangerous, risky. Indeed, there is very little in human life that does not entail some measure of risk, even fatal risk. When I moved into Silverado Canyon in Orange Country, California, I did so with full knowledge that the place is exposed to certain serious hazards - earthquakes would hit harder because the houses are on steep slopes, fires would spread faster because vegetation is abundant, even mudslides are likely because after a fire the ground is ready to move around quite freely. Yet I liked the area a lot. The Sierra Madre atmosphere, the funkiness of the neighborhood, the rustic abode in which I would be living meant enough to me to take on the risk of living there. The region was also near enough to more populated and developed areas so that one wouldn't be out in the boonies like a hermit. So, I decided that the risk of my home burning down wasn't great enough to override the benefits I would gain from living there. And to this day, even after the fires that may still consume my home, I would insist on this. But California Senator Diane Feinstein and her cohorts disagree with me, think the risks of living in places such as Silverado Canyon are too great and no one ought to be permitted to assume them. You might ask, "The risks to whom?"
MARCO THE WIZARD?
[With the passing of Dennis Turner, author of TTP's Dennis The Wizard column, last June, TTPer Mark Gilligan - known to denizens of our User Forum as "Marco" - has stepped up to the plate. For those of you who have met him at a TTP Rendezvous, you know Marco is one of those fellows for whom it is impossible not to like. We at To The Point are so appreciative of his support. Let us know what you think of his explaining the iPhone. Thanks, Marco!] This article will attempt to inform you about the relatively new device from Apple called the iPhone. Some would call it a smart phone, a Palm/Treo-like PDA phone. This is not exactly true, although the iPhone does have the capability to store different types of information, like multiple email accounts, stock data, movies, pod casts and sms messages. It also has an interactive calendar, a photo storage area, and a 2 megapixel camera. There is a weather button available and of course an alarm clock and calculator button. A web based browser called Safari is also included along with an iPod button to store digital audio and visual. An iTunes button is included for connection to Apple's iTune store.
TECHNOLOGY, FREEDOM, AND SAVING LIVES
When a super-genius tells you that you may have saved millions of lives, it really makes your day. You read about Durk Pearson last August, that he has an IQ M.I.T. was unable to measure as it was so far above the upper measurable limit of 220. And you read about my having dinner with Chief Justice John Roberts last week in The Only Issue. I was telling Durk about the dinner and how it wasn't appropriate for me to ask him substantive case questions, but that I was able to contribute to the conversation. The connection between technology and freedom was raised and I offered to give an example. The technology of gene sequencing, I said, can now, at the cost of many millions of dollars, sequence the entire genome of an individual person, identifying all the recognizable mutations and genetic defects that person has. Gene sequencing technology is improving at such a rapid rate that a Moore's Law is now kicking in regarding it.
WHY OBAMA IS A FIZZLING MILQUETOAST
The House Democrat leadership delayed a planned vote this past week on ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007. The bill, introduced by Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, makes employment discrimination against homosexuals and bisexuals illegal. One reason that momentum on moving the legislation has stalled is because Rep. Tammy Baldwin from Wisconsin wants a provision covering transsexuals and transgenders, originally in, then removed, put back in. President Bush has indicated that, if passed, he will veto this legislation. And he should. But beyond the bill's many technical constitutional difficulties, it's worth considering it in the context of the ongoing cultural war taking place in this country. It's also especially instructive as to why the presidential campaign of Barack Hussein Obama has fizzled.
RUNNING WITH RUDY
So many folks here in Washington are taking it for granted that Bill Clinton's wife has the Dem nomination sewed up that they've gone on to handicapping who her running mate will be. Her ridiculous performance in the Dem debate this week (10/30) may have given them a moment of doubt, but just a moment, for she has, they will tell you, no serious opposition. Hillary supporters can't take bat-eared neophytes like Obambi or the Breck Boy seriously. The rest of the Gang of Eight up on the debating stage with her are just there for the media spotlight. Except for one fellow who's really not running for president, but running for running-mate. That's New Mexico's Governor Bill Richardson, and he's everyone's odds-on favorite to be Hillary's pick. He's dumb as a stump (which he confirmed this week when he said the government should "come clean" over what it knows about aliens crashing their spacecraft in Roswell 60 years ago - just about nine months before Hillary was born, by the way.) Nonetheless, word is he's her #2. More interesting is who will run with Rudy.
THE PELOSICRAT PREREQUISITE FOR GOP VICTORY
Perennial presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat congressman from Ohio, told a group of bloggers last week he plans to force House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to take up his measure to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney. Ms. Pelosi "is working very quietly and very effectively behind the scenes" to gather votes to impeach President Bush, Rep. Diane Watson (D-Cal) told a town hall meeting in Los Angeles Oct. 17. Mr. Kucinich, Ms. Watson and Ms. Pelosi are three of the reasons why I think historians will regard the Democrat sweep in the 2006 midterms as the essential prerequisite to the Republican victory in the 2008 presidential election.
THE ONLY ISSUE
Until a few nights ago at a small dinner at a private home in Washington, it never even occurred to me that I might someday actually call the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by his first name. Yet for several hours as we sat next to each other, it was "John" and "Jack" for the evening. I cannot tell you what we talked about, and he of course did not say anything untoward or inappropriate. What I can tell you is that besides being seriously smart and having a funny albeit dorky sense of humor (he came up with some real groaners), he is a Great American in every sense that you and I understand it. He is one of us. I couldn't help glancing at his profile inches from me in gratitude to President Bush for placing him in his office - then shuddering to think of who his next fellow Justices will be should Bill Clintons' wife get to choose them. For a large number of voters, one issue is of overriding importance to them. Judicial appointments is a good example. National security is another. Or illegal immigration. Or abortion, homosexual marriage, cultural degradation, increasing government control of our lives and economy, the list goes on. For me, the only issue that matters is preventing the Democrat Party, the Party That Hates America, from winning the White House.