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Thursday, June 09, 2005

Blogging

I haven't blogged much lately. I've been thinking about why, and I think it is because for whatever reason, I've been trying to make this blog something that it isn't. We ain't no Powerline or The Corner, that is for sure.

I read those two blogs pretty much religiously, and I could pretty much link to articles there all the time, but then this blog would be nothing more than "Me, too!" and thus not worth reading. The only news articles I really read are ones that those folks point me to, so if I point to those, then I'm just hat-tipping, and there's no point in reading that either. It would be great if our blog were a destination for insightful commentary on the news of the day, but I don't have the time or inclination to be ahead of the news curve like the Powerline guys and Cornerites are. That's what they do well, and I think it's foolish for me to try to keep up with them. Shoot, I have a hard time reading all the excellent stuff the put out, much less trying to match them.

But I do have tons of stuff running through my head, and I'm going to try to blog more about that instead of a stream of links to articles that everyone else is linking to and commenting on in a far more interesting manner than I ever could.

For instance:

I'm driving to work today, and I see, for the millionth time, that inane bumper sticker "Peace is Patriotic". What the heck is that supposed to mean? Of course peace is patriotic. Everyone wants peace. Everyone. No rational person wants war. No soldier or politician every thinks "Sweet, we can start a war! I've been waiting years for this! I can hardly wait to start watching my friends get killed in battle!"

In the specific case, all rational people wish that the murdering terrorists in Iraq would stop being murderous terrorists and wake up every morning and go to work and provide for their families and take Sunday drives and play with their kids. (If you don't think that, then you aren't rational) But they don't. They wake up every day and scheme of new, horrible ways to maim and kill people who are sipping latte's and buying bread for their children. The only way to deal with insane, irrational people like that is to fight a war to stop them. You must kill them. Plain and simple. That is the only thing that will stop them.

Sure, you can have peace. The USSR was a pretty peaceful place. North Korea has been a very peaceful place for the last 52 years. But peace at all costs simply lets the tyrannies of the world win out. Where would the world be if we had insisted on peace in 1940? I can see it now -- England refuses to elect Churchill, and Chamberlin makes "peace" with Hitler, and all the Jews are murdered and Europe spends the next 60 years living in the oppressive, murderous world that a successful Nazi regime would have been. Great -- we have peace! All the Jews are dead, but hey! We have peace! Whatever.

So I see that blasted bumper sticker, and it grates on me as I think about the vast majority of folks in Iraq that merely want to be able to go the market and get some things for making dinner without worrying that they will be embedded with car parts. Sort of like we do here. We don't have to worry about such things. But I guess any sacrifice at all is too much to ask to make sure that the comforts that person sporting said bumper sticker enjoys also be enjoyed by the folks in Iraq. Nope -- no sacrifice is worth it. Peace, after all, is far more important than, say, simple freedom from being murdered. After all, Peace is Patriotic.

posted by Nick at 11:43 | [Permalink] (0) comments

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