Tucson Sammy

One of the beauties of the blogoshpere is that fellow travelers are quick to help each other maintain high standards of truth and accuracy.

After I made a posting regarding a Democrat propaganda book targeting children, my friend Jim sent an article from the New Republic to me that reports on a series of Republican “children’s books” that denigrate Democrats. You can read the article here The books appear to be as repugnant as the one about which I originally reported.

Perhaps the article is a joke… well, probably not.

I made the assumption that this sort of thing would occur only with Democrats, since that’s what they do.

I also want to stipulate that, in both cases, I do not see rank and file party members as complicit in the actions of the leadership/activists.

I do not know why this whole thing has me so enraged. After all, I’m a big fan of Gran’pa Jack. Perhaps the difference is that Gran’pa Jack really does teach principles, rather than claim them.

So, What’s a citizen to do? Well, there is always the Libertarian Party…

They say that the Internet is a dangerous place for children and the faint of heart. I am beginning to believe it.

O.K., I need a little help here. I was poking around on the Internet and clicked an ad for a book entitled Why Mommy is a Democrat; by the way, here is the link – http://littledemocrats.net/index.html. I included the link so that you would not think that I was making this up.

My problem is that I cannot tell if this book is for real, or the whole thing is some sort of The Onion style parody. The main page could be interpreted either way. As I went deeper into the site, I began to sense that this is either a very clever joke, or that Democrats are in need of serious counseling.

In the interest of digging deeper, I clicked on the review by the National Center for the Study of Children’s Literature (yuk,yuk). There I found a very complimentary “review” that included such classic stupid lines as “…exemplifying abstract beliefs like tolerance and accessible health care.” Calling health care an abstract belief is right up there with “Poverty is Violence.” This is clearly beyond serious, so I suspect a joke is being played.

Though I do think it is very clever, the author did take a kind of short cut by taking all virtues Republican and calling them Democrat. While this is in fact what Democrat propagandists do, it is a bit formulaic for a great parody.

It occurred to me that Republicans could take this parody and publish it as a real children’s book, only reverse the roles! At least it would be more or less accurate; but then, it’s not the nature of Republicans to abuse children by robbing them of their childhood by indoctrinating them in partisan politics before age five. They generally leave that sort of “education” to the Democrats and National Socialists.

Anyway, if any of you find out for sure, one way or the other, let me know. Thanks.

I recently read an article, in one of the local dailies, which told of an incident involving the Border Patrol and some undocumented pharmaceutical importers.

The importers were traveling on the U.S. side of borderline when the Border Patrol approached them. They ran from our border agents, who gave chase. Without further provocation, the importers began shooting at our agents, who returned fire. Eventually, the importers abandoned their vehicle and ran across the borderline to the Mexican side. Our agents arrived at the vehicle and began to search it. The importers, now in Mexico, began shooting at our agents again. Our agents did not return fire this time because they could not see the targets.

I mention this event not because it is unusual, quite the contrary, these sorts of events have been occurring with alarming regularity – so common are they that they have lost their significance.

What can be gleaned from this incident? Let’s take a look:

1. There is no border security. The smugglers through their contraband in the back of an SUV and drove north on a dirt road. The only precaution they took was to choose a road a few miles outside of town.

2. Our border agents are no threat to criminals. Why did the importers gratuitously fire on the Border Patrol, then fire on them again when they were no longer being pursued? Did they do it for fun? Would they do the same to, say, the Mexican Federales?

3. The government of Mexico is not our friend. I heard of no outrage on the part of the Mexican government, no apology, and no promise of action to prevent this sort of thing in the future. Apparently the government of Mexico is just fine with it’s frontier being used as a springboard for criminal activity in our country, and sees no problem with Mexican soil being used as a safe haven from which Americans can be shot.

These truths lead to some interesting questions. Why do we put up with this treatment from the Mexican government? Of what are we afraid? Are we experiencing such internal decay, that we now bow before the Iberian despots? Can we recover our nationhood, or are we too far gone?

América, donde esta tu cojones?

Let me first start by saying that my wife and I do not watch television. It’s not the hardware – we do rent movies – it’s the content. I am a big fan of the new media, and am a regular listener to talk radio.

I first heard of “24” on the Rush Limbaugh Program. I remember “America’s Anchorman” spending a big chunk of broadcast time talking about the show. He told about visiting the set, and generally yucking it up with Kiefir (is “kiefir” a type of liquid yogurt, or marijuana pollen? I forget) Sutherland, the writers, and the directors. I made a mental note.

Within a few weeks, Hugh Hewitt, talkshow host, author, constitutional law professor, and blogger extraordinaire discovered the show. People called in to share in his excitement, and described themselves as being “hooked” on, and “addicted” to the show. A few days later, Hewitt sounded almost giddy when he reported that some blogger of prominence described him as the “Jack Bauer of talk radio.” At the time, I had no appreciation of the magnitude of the compliment – for those of you who don’t know, Jack Bauer is the hero/protagonist of 24.

So, when it became time to rent a movie, I said to my lovely wife, “Let’s try something different. Let’s check out this television show about which everyone is talking.” She said, “O.K.”, and our fate was sealed.

Our intent was to try an episode. After forty-five minutes (no commercials on DVD), the first episode ended. We looked at each other, and without saying anything, I punched up the next episode. We watched all for episodes on the disk – and would have continued on had we disk number two.

8:08 P.M. Nine days before the California primary

I rented disk two. My wife cried desperately, “Will there be any resolution at the end !?!”

“No, it never ends,” I said flatly. My hands trembled slightly as I placed the disk in the player. The haunting techno theme music began.

“O.K.,” she said with a hint of fear in her voice, “but I can’t watch just this from now on, we’ll have to watch a chick flick.”

“Of course,” I said, doing whatever was necessary to buy some time… Jack would approve.

9:28 P.M. Nine days before the California primary

Things seemed to be going well, then, after a mere two episodes, a wrenching twist in the plot: “I have to get ready for bed,” she said as she rose from the couch, then added, “I don’t think I can keep watching this. You know, the things you see affect you.”

I had to think fast. “You know, if you stop us now, you will never know how the season ends – I’m your only chance,” I said.

She gave me an odd look, “I’m not saying that we can never see it again – ”

“Nina, there isn’t time – “

“Did you just call me ‘Nina’ – “

“Look, I promise everything is going to be O.K. I have to go now, I’ll call you back when I know something.”

“Are you alright? When was the last time you meditated?”

Cue the theme music