Ok! It's time to change topics for awhile.
Some people, reading my discourse on humor and war, might think that I am a pacifist. I am not at all. It's like the Bible. In the ten commandments it doesn't say "thou shalt not kill" it says "thou shalt not murder". There is a great difference between the two.
Let's try to differeciate the different wars that have been fought by this nation and others.
We must first start with the War of Independance. That created the nation and allowed the flourishing of democracy, unless you believe that there is another nation in the world that has given more towards the rights of man and democracy, that was a good war.
The War of 1812, again a war fought to preserve our nation as an independant state.
The Civil War, a war fought over culture and preservation of the nation. It brought about the end of slavery.
I doubt if I need to discuss the World Wars.
The question is what are we fighting for in the war on Islamic terrorism? We are fighting for our freedom and culture. So what does Iraq have to do with the war on terror?
In order to win this war we need both a carrot and a stick. The stick is the direct fight against the major Islamic terror organizations like Al-Qada and Hezbollah. That is the obvious battle. So what is the carrot? The carrot is a long term plan to create a relative democracy with a stable growing economy within the Islamic world so that parents of young Islamic children can see the possibility of their children living better and therefore teaching them to live rather than teaching them that dying for Allah as a suicide bomber is what they are here for. This is not easy but it is necessary. Why is it necessary? Because there are over one billion Muslims in the world. If only 5% are radical and only 1% of them are willing to die in a suicide attack there are still 500,000 people who are willing to die to destroy our nation and our culture. The only way to beat that number would be to use nuclear weapons across the Muslim world, and I don't think many in our nation would be able to handle the mass murder required to win. On the other hand if we can teach about a modern society where people with different ideas can line together and have enough faith in their G-d that they don't feel a need to kill those with different beliefs.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Politics and Poker
It's a new year and the presidential elections are around the corner.
We are on the brink of a recession and we are at war.
I was recently asked how we can have a recession while we are at war since war usually has taken us out or recessions. The answer is that the war is such a small part of our gross national product that it has very little economic influence on the country as a whole. World War II took more than our gross national product(prior to the conflict) and therefore was a massive stimulation to the economy. It also took 10% of our population into the military. This war, Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror takes about 5% of our GDP and our military is less than 1% of our population. That is not enough of a stimulation to our economy to matter. What we need is a national program to make the nation energy independent and repair our infrastructure. Now that would be worthwhile. The problem is can we do all that with efficiency, minimal waste and pork?
We need to develop solar power, both on the planet and in space. If global warming is at all a fact, man or natural, then solar power and wind power are the only ways to go. All other forms of power add to global warming to some extent or another.
You ask can we do it? Yes, all we need is tax credits for the placement of solar energy panels. There are in development solar energy shingles which can be used on every house in the U.S.
By using tax credits and guaranteed loans we can turn our nation back to energy, as well as political, independence. As long as we are buying oil from totalitarian regimes we are not independent politically.
We have a great heritage and in order to give our grandchildren the opportunity to live better than our grandparents, we need to act now.
For once I have to agree with Mr. Obama. Just lowering the gas tax is silly. It's not 10% of the cost of fuel, therefore not very helpful. We need the US auto industry to realize that their survival is linked to fuel Independence of the nation. Stop holding back on electric cars. WE need nuclear power, we need to drill off shore. If we don't drill off shore around Florida, the Chinese will from Cuba. We need an aggressive policy towards energy independents, and we need it now.
We are on the brink of a recession and we are at war.
I was recently asked how we can have a recession while we are at war since war usually has taken us out or recessions. The answer is that the war is such a small part of our gross national product that it has very little economic influence on the country as a whole. World War II took more than our gross national product(prior to the conflict) and therefore was a massive stimulation to the economy. It also took 10% of our population into the military. This war, Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror takes about 5% of our GDP and our military is less than 1% of our population. That is not enough of a stimulation to our economy to matter. What we need is a national program to make the nation energy independent and repair our infrastructure. Now that would be worthwhile. The problem is can we do all that with efficiency, minimal waste and pork?
We need to develop solar power, both on the planet and in space. If global warming is at all a fact, man or natural, then solar power and wind power are the only ways to go. All other forms of power add to global warming to some extent or another.
You ask can we do it? Yes, all we need is tax credits for the placement of solar energy panels. There are in development solar energy shingles which can be used on every house in the U.S.
By using tax credits and guaranteed loans we can turn our nation back to energy, as well as political, independence. As long as we are buying oil from totalitarian regimes we are not independent politically.
We have a great heritage and in order to give our grandchildren the opportunity to live better than our grandparents, we need to act now.
For once I have to agree with Mr. Obama. Just lowering the gas tax is silly. It's not 10% of the cost of fuel, therefore not very helpful. We need the US auto industry to realize that their survival is linked to fuel Independence of the nation. Stop holding back on electric cars. WE need nuclear power, we need to drill off shore. If we don't drill off shore around Florida, the Chinese will from Cuba. We need an aggressive policy towards energy independents, and we need it now.
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