The Life Guard

“We’re at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars. And it’s been said if we lose that war and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours. History will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening. Well I think it’s time we ask ourselves if we still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the founding fathers.”
-Ronald Reagan, Rendezvous with Destiny speech, 1964

Today I finished re-watching “In the Face of Evil- Reagan’s War in Word and Deed.” This documentary, based on the book Regan’s War, is a fantastic review of Ronald Reagan’s crusade against defeat Communism. The movie reviews the different forms evil took in the twentieth century, Bolshevisms, Fascism, Communism, Nazism, and collectively refers to this evil as the “beast.”

In each of its forms, the beast exploits the dark side of humankind to enlist followers to gain power. Once in power the beast removes the basic forms of freedom from those under its control, freedom of religion, a free press, the power to express ones self, as well as anything representing the individual. In turn the movie reviews how time and again free society hopes the “wolf will pass the door” and leave it alone. Again and again mankind tries to negotiate with and to appease the beast, while at the same time vilifying as “war mongers” anyone who stands up and calls the beast what it is, evil.

Ronald Reagan, along with Pope John Paul II and Margaret Thatcher were the modern day crusaders against the beast represented by the U.S.S.R. Ronald Reagan called Soviet Communism what it was, an evil “insanity” that murdered over 100 million people over the course of its history, and enslaved millions more in its Gulags.

Today, both liberals and conservatives (okay mostly liberals) assume that Ronald Reagan was a typical conservative Republican. This couldn’t be farther than from the truth. As the movie points out, Reagan was the only “true outsider” elected to the Presidency in the twentieth century. He was a radical. Reagan rejected the Nixon/Kissinger policy of Détente that sought peaceful co-existence with the Soviets. Gerald Ford’s almost total denial of the dangers of Communism in Eastern Europe pushed Reagan to run against him, a sitting President, for the Republican nomination in 1976.

Once in the White House, Reagan unleashed an all out war with the soul aim of destroying the Soviet Union. The documentary reviews the economic, political, and psychological attacks the U.S. launched against the Soviet Union (and the U.S.S.R’s fight back). Along with a close band of fellow crusaders, Bill Casey, Casper Weinberger, Ed Meese, Jean Kirkpatrick, and others, Regan’s agenda took root around the world in myriad forms.

This movie should be required viewing for every school child in America, both as an example of true courage in the face of evil, and as a warning against the beast. To my liberal friends who (hilariously) insist the Soviet Union collapsed under its own weight, watch this movie. To those who snicker at Reagan’s vision of the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), watch this movie and understand how critical that one program was, and why we may all be alive today because of "Star Wars."

Ronald Reagan, with the help of many others saved the world from a heinous form of the beast that murdered millions upon millions of human beings. I find it amazing that we can so clearly trace so much good and so many saved lives to the actions and faith of a single, great man.
Alas, the movie ends with images of September 11th, and points out that the beast lives on, just in a different form today. The beast reemerges in the guise of Radical Fundamentalism. Funny how even today they call those that call the beast what it is, “warmongers,” “Neo-cons,” “paranoids.” Someone (W?) must call it what it is, and never let up. Never surrender.

“Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid”
– Ronald Reagan 1981

Whither Russia?

There's an interesting and at the same time terrifying op-ed in the WSJ today by Garry Kasparov (yes, that Garry Kasparov). Mr. Kasparov has contributed to the WSJ a number of times about the state of post-communist Russia.

I'm as guilty as most Americans in forgetting about Russia now that the cold war is over. Mr. Kasparov's editorials give me pause and make me wonder if we're all in the midst of a colossal international blunder. Whether you subscribe to Margaret Thatcher's view that "Ronald Reagan won the cold war without firing a shot," (okay, guilty :-), or the view some of my liberal minded friends take that the U.S.S.R simply collapsed under its own weight (yeah right), no one can deny that the cold war was an undertaking that pulled in the entire world. Ronald Reagan dismissed Detente and pushed through his vision that communism could be beaten. He won us the war, but have we now failed him by not properly nurturing and protecting the "win?"

The United States and the world failed to learn its lesson after World War I and punished Germany by extracting reparations from that country-- virtually tee-ing up the rise of the Third Reich and Adolf Hitler. The U.S. learned from that, and in the aftermath of the second World War constructed the Marshall Plan to prevent a repeat of the Nazis. That was largely a success. Germany, as well as Japan went on to become two of the most productive economies in the world.

However, because the cold war wasn't a "hot" war with a defined front line (admittedly unfairly discounting the pain and anguish of Afghanistan, El Salvador, etc.) I think most Americans tend to think the job is over. Certainly we've put billions of dollars into Russia in the form of aid since the break up of the U.S.S.R., but did we drop the ball along the way? It's not as straight forward as imposing our form of democracy on that country (now countries) , but did we pass up a chance to give them a the full "bear hug" of capitalism and democracy (pun intended ;-).

Mr. Kasparov's warning should be heeded by the U.S. immediately. One of the pillars of democracy, the rule of law, is almost non-existent in Russia. According to Mr. Kasparov, " the Russian court system currently boasts a conviction rate of over 99%." That can't be right.

Certainly September 11th has shifted the U.S. and the world's focus to radical fundamentalism. This is a real and present danger and needs to be confronted. At the same time, as the world's lone super power, the U.S. has a responsibility to engage Russia as a topic that is "very important, not yet urgent" before it becomes that way. As Mr. Kasparov points out, " The consequences of this transformation may only seem relevant to Russians today, but a Russia with a disintegrating economy and no respect for the rule of law will soon make our problems yours. "

Relentless

I watched Walter Payton, Beyond the Glory the other night and it’s a good thing that I was the only one home, because I balled my eyes out.

Walter Payton was my first sports hero. It was 1985, I lived in Northern Virginia, I was just getting into sports, and my friends, two brothers, Mark and Scott, used to live in Chicago. It happened to be the year that the Bears stomped everyone. The year of Refrigerator Perry. Jim McMahon. Mike Singletary. Willie Gault. Richard Dent. But the heart and soul of the Chicago Bears that year, and many before that, was Walter Payton.

The Beyond the Glory was a retrospective. It moved you to see just how many people absolutely loved this man. This guy from Mississippi who just showed up, and played SO hard. Someone in the show described him as “relentless,” and that is what stuck with me. He fought and he fought and he fought and just would not stop. Who wouldn’t love this man on his team? Who wouldn’t be inspired.

I had a book on tape that I got a year or two after that. It was Walter Payton on being successful in life. It was a series of thoughts and interviews, and I ate it all up. What a total inspiration this man was. What a horrible loss at such a young age. It’s been a few years since he passed on, but any time there’s ever a mention or a highlight reel on TV, stop and watch Walter Payton run.

The Columbine Drill

Very matter-of-factly my seventh grader informed me that her school was going to have a “lock down” drill this week. “What’s a lock down drill,” I asked. I always thought “lock down” was what they talked about during a riot in a prison movie. Well, it turns out that it is pretty much the same thing here. “It’s where we practice what to do if something really really bad was happening in the school.”

Welcome to 2005. Kids practice “lock down” techniques in the case of a crazy person (student or otherwise) should enter the school with guns a blazing. As a parent, this is totally petrifying to even ponder. School is out of your grasp and out of your protection. On the one hand you’re thankful they’re prepared (sort of), on the other you damn the fact that they need to be.

I suppose this is the 2005 equivalent of “the Russian’s are coming” bomb drills you see in 1950’s education films. Those must have been an ever present scare in some minds as well. In the late 1970’s in Michigan, all of our drills were for tornados. The only thing you needed to remember in a tornado drill, save keeping your head between your knees and a textbook over your head was to…open the window. You see a tornado could cause a sudden change in air pressure outside, and if the window were not open could cause the large plate glass windows to shatter all over the place. At least at Winans’ Elementary.

Angry Columbine kids seem so much more real, more regular, and more dangerous than those nuclear bomb films.

Celebrate Record Profits!

"And there's always a place for the angry young man,
With his fist in the air and his head in the sand.
And he's never been able to learn from mistakes,
So he can't understand why his heart always breaks.
But his honor is pure and his courage as well,
And he's fair and he's true and he's boring as hell!!!!!!!!"
-Billy Joel

For the love of GOD! Can we please get some sense in our politicians and news media in this country! Is it possible that so many people were asleep in class when they taught the basic premise of the “American Way?” Folks the "profit motive" *IS* the American Way! It is profits that protect the United States of America! It is profits that enable us to do all of the good around the world that we do. As former GE CEO Jack Welch says, “Industry is the engine of Democracy!”

Exxon Mobile recently announce it’s largest single quarter profit in history, $9.9 Billion dollars. Talk is rampant in the media and in congress (both sides of the aisle – unbelievable!) that these profits are some sort of an outrage. Proposals for special taxes on these profits are running amuck. Lunacy! Does America not understand that profits pay for all new growth in this country?

Our country has myriad ways to raise money, but the primary two ways are both based on profits. The first way is to tax company profits or to tax individual’s income (i.e. personal profit ) or capital gains (i.e. profit) on realized appreciated value on property (never mind that that gets taxed twice). The second way our country raises funds to run itself is to borrow money based on its ability to pay the borrowed funds back (which it can do by taxing…profits).

This issue is a feeding frenzy of politicization in both the media and in congress. These are the same people with bees in their bonnets over America’s dependence on foreign oil. The same people that cried foul when hurricane Katrina wiped out much of the South’s oil drilling and distribution facilities. The same people who are against oil companies building new refineries in the U.S. (which incidentally could only be paid for with profits or borrowing backed up by earnings (profits))!

As an aside, ExxonMobile is a public company. Anyoney can purchase ExxonMobile stock and share in the same profits as the company does. In fact, anyone with a 401k or pension plan likely has some amount of money in large cap equity funds which because of Exxon's size almost inevitibly own stock in the company, and profit from the company's profits!

I worry that Joe Sixpack hears “10 billion dollars” and doesn’t place this number in perspective. This is such an astronomical sounding number that I worry most people say, “yeah, stick it to the man, tax his ass!” Typically when I get worked up about something like this I take a deep breath and say to myself, “trust the people.” They get it right in the end, but the “Angry Young Man” in me wants to rail against this insanity!

Hewlett Packard was famous for a new way of treating its employees. Values that placed respect on the individual and valued innovation and treating people right. For decades the “HP Way” as it came to be called has been heralded as the right way to treat employees, the right way to treat humans. An interesting and vital tenant of the HP Way that David Packard pointed out on more than one occasion made all the other good stuff possible, “run profitably.”

Who is Lying about Iraq?

There is a must read article in yesterday's Opinion Journal by Norman Podhoretz entitled, "Who is Lying About Iraq." Totally debunks the democrats claim that they were somehow "hoodwinked" into voting to give "W" the power to remove Sadaam Hussein. Also illustrates the lunacy of the whole Joe Wilson charade.

"He's Halfway There," according to Steve Forbes

So I've been anxiously waiting for the Steve Forbes "Fact and Comment," where he gives us his take on Ben Bernanke. Mr. Forbes, Editor-In-Chief of Forbes Magazine (best Magazine ever), provides a symposium on pragmatic economics in his Nov. 28th column. Given my "gut" feeling that Ben Bernanke's predisposition to inflation targets, I have been looking forward to Mr. Forbes take.

According to Mr. Forbes, Bernanke is at least progress, but not all the way there:

"He (Bernanke) has advocated adopting formal infaltion targets. This is progress-of a sort. The problem, of course, in targeting inflation is in deciding whitch indexes and market indicators (such as inflation-adjusted Treasury bods) to use. Indexes tell us what happened in the past. Monetary errors don't show up in indexes for at least a year. think of the proverbial tanker and how long it takes for the vessel to change direction after the captain has made the decision to do so."

Mr. Forbes points to the commodity markets - specifically gold - to give a real time indication of whether a set monetary policy is correct. The rest of the column on Bernanke is a great read.

The Elegant Universe

I just finished Brian Greene’s “The Elegant Universe – Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory.” This is a great read for a “non-scientist.” The book is the right mix of basics on Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and String Theory, plus a good dose of information that requires stretching your comprehension skills. I don’t pretend to understand most of it to the point that I could re-explain it to someone else, but Mr. Greene’s descriptions do pull you in and give you some insight into the type of work top physicists and mathematicians are involved with.

The primary subject of the book is Superstring theory and it’s potential for finally uniting the theories both Relativity and Quantum Mechanics into a Unified Theory.

“According to sting theory, the elementary ingredients of the universe are not point particles. Rather, they are tiny, one-dimensional filaments somewhat like infinitely thing rubber bands, vibrating to and fro.”

One of the most challenging aspects of the book (and in String Theory in general) is the need to think in more than the four dimensions we are so familiar with (length, width, height, and time). Different versions of string theory actually propose that our universe is made up of ten and eleven dimensions. Many of the diagrams in this book are particularly useful in helping your mind “stretch” to imagine what this might be like. In addition, I found many of the descriptions and diagrams in the book explaining “just” relativity and quantum mechanics to be better than those found in some other popular physics books I’ve read. I found the picture showing how the sun “warps” the fabric of space time through gravity was particularly useful.

Go "W!"

Finally! President Bush has come out swinging in defense of the bold path he has set us on in the Middle East. He has presented a strong argument explaining why reshaping the Middle East is critical to both the U.S. and all humanity. He points out that the terrorists see Iraq for what it is,

“…Zawahiri writes that al Qaeda views Iraq as, quote, "the place of the greatest battle." The terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity. We must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war against the terrorists.”

Iraq is the central front in the war on terror and the President’s message is that the United States needs to show resolve and finish the job. I am reminded of a Ronald Reagan radio commentary (p. 58) discussing red China’s view of the United States in the late 1970’s. First he quotes their Foreign Minister:

“Go read American history, we have not seen such an instance in which the U.S. has had such resolve and courage to sacrifice for others. That is why we dare to conclude that the U.S. is a paper tiger.”
-Former China Foreign Minister Huang Hua, delivered in secret July 30 1977

And then comments himself:

“Now that isn’t the picture we have of ourselves and history (overall) does not support Huangs, image of us. But we should note the examples from recent history he used to support his view; the firing of McArthur in Korea because he wanted to win the war and our failure to be decisive in Vietnam… There is great danger to us in this false image making. It is more often than not the road to war.”
-Ronald Reagan, “China.” From his syndicated radio show April 3, 1978

Is there any doubt that the message being sent by today’s Democratic party and the antiwar left is that the U.S. lacks resolve? What message do they want to present to the world in their attempt to rewrite their post Sept. 11th views? The point has not been lost on Al Qaeda as the President notes from a letter from Zawahiri, “he points to the Vietnam War as a model for al Qaeda. This is what he said. "The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam and how they ran and left their agents is noteworthy."

The President is absolutely right to call out these critics on their hypocrisy on the decision to invade Iraq. He notes that over 100 Democrats in the House and Senate voted to give him the power to go to war based on the same intelligence the administration had. Dissent is fine and healthy, but especially in the total vacuum from the left on alternatives to the current course, Democrats need to seriously consider what message they are sending to the outside world with their revisionist version of the decision to go to war.