In 1865 the Army of the Potomac, under the leadership of Ulysses S. Grant was hammering the Army of Northern Virginia lead by Robert E. Lee. Today we all realize that the defeat of Lee’s army and the surrender at Appomattox effectively ended the civil war. But what most people don’t realize is that defeat and surrender was not General Lee’s only option. His army was defeated, but Robert E. Lee could have ordered his army to disperse and set up a sustained guerrilla warfare effort against the Union. Some of his junior officers recommended that exact strategy. It is possible that the civil war could have gone on for decades. It would have been difficult, if not impossible, for the Union to put down such an insurgency. Instead, Robert E. Lee not only surrendered, he openly appealed to confederates to accept defeat.

This is one article Salon magazine got right:

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/11/21/south_civil_war_lee

This is the real challenge in Libya today. Gaddafi is unlikely to accept defeat and it is far from certain that he will be captured and killed. He has lost control of Libya, but he still has a lot of followers and he may conduct an insurgency that could last a long time. It will be a lot harder to defeat such an effort with NATO warplanes. Even if he is killed or captured, Libya was dominated by the military, which was controlled by Gaddafi. Unlike Egypt, where the military remained in control, no one appears to be capable of controlling Libya. There is little evidence that the rebels have a government capable of re-establishing order. That means all those rebels currently chasing after Gaddafi are very likely to start shooting at each other. In the meantime there are reports of large supplies of mustard gas, hand held surface to air missiles and even radioactive material that could be used to produce dirty bombs. These are all likely to be available to the highest bidder. There are also reports that some of the rebel leaders have direct ties to al Qaeda.

We are very fortunate that Robert E. Lee ultimately chose to surrender and spared our country this disaster. Obviously no one knows what would have happened if he made a different decision, but we do know that the decision he did make was an enormous help in ending the war. I doubt Libya will be that lucky. A lot of people, including conservatives who should know better, are calling this a good result because Gaddafi is out of power and no Americans were killed. I will withhold judgment until we learn who or what replaced him.

TDM

When we first moved to Marin County in 1987, we quickly learned about the Harmonic Convergence.  This was described as the first globally synchronized meditation.  Astrologers were ecstatic about the unique alignment of the Sun, Moon and six of the eight planets in a grand trine.  Throw in some Mayan cosmology and Shirley MacLaine’s announcement of a window of light allowing access to higher realms of awareness and it became irresistible.  Some people were predicting that the Harmonic Convergence would usher in a five-year period of Earth’s “cleansing”, where many of the planet’s “false structures of separation” would collapse.  Since we had recently moved to Marin Country from Michigan, where there are real people, we were unprepared for the excitement.  On August 16, 1987, thousands of people flocked to Mt. Tamalpais to hum in the new world.  We began to have serious doubts about our decision to relocate to California.

The next morning the only noticeable result was several thousand tired and hungry people sitting on the top of a mountain worn out by excessive humming.  The world, as we know it, didn’t seem to even notice.

What was so intriguing was that so many, supposedly intelligent and well-educated people, fell for this nonsense in the first place.  But, while gathering on Mt. Tamalpais to try and hum in the new era was weird, it wasn’t particularly dangerous.  Eventually they all came back down and returned to their teaching positions in Berkley.

But the problem is that more and more people, egged on by the liberal main stream media, began to believe in this perfect liberal world.  In 2006 they were able to put a Democratic party dominated by left wing liberals in control of our congress.  Then to make the deal complete, in 2008 they managed to elect Barack Obama President of the United States and gave him a super majority of liberal Democrats in both houses of congress.

While humming in the Harmonic Convergence didn’t do much harm, liberals taking over our government was a whole different matter.  Liberals really thought the 2008 election, like the Harmonic Convergence, would speed us on the glorious path to world peace and universal prosperity.  They did manage to gain almost complete control over our government, but power without principle is pathetic.  Humming can be great fun, but it is a lousy management strategy.  The results were what should have been expected.  There was no world peace.  There was no universal prosperity and ultimately the liberal left finds itself, once again, stranded on a mountain top, tired, hungry and bitterly disappointed with results.

 TDM

George Bush overthrew Saddam Hussein in just a few days.  It was one of the greatest military victories in world history.  A well-established dictator with a modern army was quickly and surgically removed from power.  Then Bush tried to handle the results like a Democrat.  He switched from a military operation to a exercise in nation building.  We poured in billions in aid, concentrating on re-building the infrastructure and training the Iraqi police and military.  Democrats were urging Bush to avoid having too much of a U.S military presence since we didn’t want to look like “occupiers.”  It didn’t work.  Iraq quickly came unglued with rapidly escalating violence.  Finally, in an act of desperation, Bush sent in the infamous surge, defeated the insurgency, restored order, created security and gave Iraq a chance at becoming a stable democracy.

It looks like the rebels, with the help of NATO, have been able to overthrow Gaddafi.  At a minimum, he has lost control over much of Libya.  The real question is what comes next. 

Perhaps it is time to remember what happened during the Cuba revolution.  Castro’s army rolled in to Havana on January 8, 1959.  Castro said that “power does not interest me and I will not take it.”  Jubilant crowds poured into the streets with automobile horns honking and the black and red flag of the July 26 Movement waving all around.  The world rejoiced.  It didn’t quite turn out like people expected.

According to the following article in Investors’ Business Daily, things are not going that swimmingly in Egypt:

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=582346&p=1

We may have lost our best Ally in the Arab world.  At best, this could hardly be considered an upgrade.

No one knows what will happen in Libya, but if Egypt is any indication, this is very unlikely to end up well.  In Egypt the military remains in control.  In Libya, once Gaddafi is gone, no one is likely to be in control:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8716115/Libya-now-for-the-hard-part.html

I fear we have done nothing more than remove a brutal, but aging dictator, who was no threat to the U.S.  and replaced him with chaos and anarchy.  It is always nice to see someone like Gaddafi bite the dust.  I just hope we didn’t trade him in for something worse. 

Note:  There are reports that Special Forces teams were sent in to “manage” the ground assault on Tripoli.  If you see the pictures from the media outlets, it looks like utter chaos.  These people don’t look capable of organizing a brawl at a Raiders game.  That seems to lend credence to the Special Forces rumors.  It would help explain why things changed so quickly.  However, it could also mean that this is far from over. 

TDM

There is no more courageous act for an American politician than to say one don’t believe in evolution.  The liberal left heaps piles of scorn on anyone who dares question global warming.  But they absolutely gag at the thought of someone disagreeing with evolution.  If you dare express doubt about the theory of evolution, you are doomed to be considered too ignorant and naïve to hold federal office.  Sadly, this has resulted in far too many politicians who have failed to address this issue honestly.

The truth is that there is no “one” theory of evolution.  The term evolution means very different things to different people, including scientists.  For example; most scientists believe that dinosaurs existed and that plants and animals evolved to some degree over time.  But there is wide disagreement with regard to the origin of life.  Some people believe that all of life developed spontaneously from the accidental combining of amino acids.  I don’t have near enough faith to buy that!  Others believe that man evolved from the apes.  But I find the evidence for that to be underwhelming.  The so-called missing link is still missing.   Scientists are always searching for the missing link:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/07/26/dna-evidence-confirms-humans-and-neanderthals-mated/

In May 2010, scientists, led by ancient-DNA expert Svante Pääbo of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, reconstructed about 60% of the Neanderthal genome, using DNA of Neanderthal bones from Croatia. They found that a 1 to 4 percent overlap between the genomes of sample subjects from New Guinea, China, and France and that of the Neanderthal. They did not find the same correlations with DNA samples from southern and western Africa, suggesting again that the interbreeding occurred shortly after humans migrated from Africa. They also did not find any trace of human DNA in the Neanderthal genome, and the appearance of the Neanderthal DNA seemed to occur randomly indicating it does not confer evolutionary advantages.

The most significant line of this paragraph is the last.  It does a better job of explaining the development of liberal thought processes than the theory of evolution. 

According to the theory of evolution, plants and animals involve into superior more developed models.  But if you research the science of mutation, it shows the exact opposite:

http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/genetic-mutation-1127

A single mutation can have a large effect, but in many cases, evolutionary change is based on the accumulation of many mutations with small effects. Mutational effects can be beneficial, harmful, or neutral, depending on their context or location. Most non-neutral mutations are deleterious. In general, the more base pairs that are affected by a mutation, the larger the effect of the mutation, and the larger the mutation’s probability of being deleterious.

Let me summarize.  The theory of evolution depends on mutations.  Most mutations are bad.  Evolution requires several small mutations to have an effect.  The more mutations involved, the more likely they are to be bad.  Finally, the bigger the change, the more likely it is to be bad. 

The science of mutations does a good job of explaining why some species become extinct, but it makes the likely hood of man miraculously evolving from the apes a mathematic miracle of gigantic proportions.

So why is the theory of evolution so widely supported among the scientific community?   Why is it so fiercely defended?  The answer is that these scientists start with an assumption that there cannot be a creator.  If there is no creator, then there has to be some other logical explanation for what we observe.  Since they have no theory, other than evolution,  they cling desperately to this wildly improbable explanation.

 They primarily convince themselves and other people who start with the assumption that there is no God.  After decades of requiring every student in the United States to learn the theory of evolution and forbidding even the mention of “creationism” the most recent Gallop poll shows that only 40% of Americans buy the theory of evolution. 

Rick Perry is that rarest of creatures.  Someone who will stand firm against the winds of opposition on subjects like man-caused global warming and the theory of evolution.  That looks a lot like a leader to me.

TDM

Rick Perry challenged the Federal Reserve and the backlash was loud and sustained.  But I wonder how many people even understand the Federal Reserve.  The following article gives an excellent short history.

http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1095269452.php

The bottom line is that in 1913 near total control of our national banking policy was given over to people we don’t know, we don’t elect,  and who can’t be removed from power.  To make things worse, the fed refuses to disclose to congress what they do and why they do it.  The purpose of the Federal Reserve was to stabilize our banking system.  Apparently only the few, the proud, the cultured banking elite could be trusted with this great responsibility.  But if that is the justification, how does one explain the near total banking collapse that led to the great depression?  How does one explain the near meltdown of the international financial markets in 2008?  If nothing else, we should consider firing the directors of the Federal Reserve for incompetence.

Rick Perry has taken on two issues that were avoided by everyone else.  He is the first major politician to publicly state that he does not believe in global warming.  Everyone else, including George Bush, danced around the issue.  Rick Perry is right on.  The so-called science behind the global warming alarmists will not hold up to scrutiny.  It is not just wrong, it is embarrassingly wrong.  He has now taken on the Federal Reserve.  It is about time.  At a minimum, there needs to be far more oversight of this non-public super-secret society that has such enormous power to regulate our lives.  By calling out the reserves, Perry has shown himself to be exactly the kind of leadership we need.  Let’s see if anyone else rises up to the challenge.

TDM

Rick Perry and Sarah Palin share one thing in common.  They are both very real people.  Virtually everyone who actually knows Sarah Palin describes her the same way:  “she is just the same off TV as she is on TV.”  While the main stream media tries to portray her as naïve and inexperienced with a huge cast of professionals covering up for her inabilities, the opposite is true.  She has very little staff, she makes her own decisions, she writes her own blogs and her husband Todd runs her Television studio.

 Rick Perry is starting to show very similar attributes.  The following article gives a first-hand view of how he campaigns:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61366.html

 He has already demonstrated that he is not terribly concerned about playing the political game.  He participated in that national prayer meeting because he thought it was the right thing to do and he didn’t really care if anyone agreed or not.  On several occasions he has said it is time for conservatives to stop apologizing. 

Democrats and Republicans have underestimated this man for years.  There is no doubt that the Republican establishment is not all that thrilled with Rick Perry.  That is why they ran Kay Bailey Hutchison against him in the primary last year.  He won easily.  Then the Democrats were sure they had a good chance of beating him in the general election.  They hated him, so they stupidly assumed everyone else would agree.  He beat Bill White, the former Mayor of Houston, 55 to 42.  It wasn’t even close.

The Republican establishment is firmly convinced that only moderates win elections.  Rick Perry is far from a moderate.  They fear that a truly conservative candidate will alienate the coveted independent vote.  That is why they preferred John McCain to Mike Huckabee and why they will prefer Mitt Romney to Rick Perry.  But this time the RNC is finding out that the Tea Party is for real, it means what it says and it has low tolerance for those who compromise with the extreme left.  The Tea Party is not a political party, it is a grass roots political awakening.  Unless I am missing something, they are going to love Rick Perry.

When George W. Bush first ran for Governor of Texas no one gave him a chance of beating Ann Richards, a Democratic superstar.  I didn’t even know who George W. Bush was, but I happened to be in Texas and saw one of his ads.  He just looked into the camera and said “Texas is not a state, it is a state of mind.”  He defeated her in a landslide because everyone understood what he mean.  At some point Rick Perry is going to say that the Tea Party is not a political party, it is just the loud voice of the American people who are fed up with the political establishment.

This could be the ultimate reality TV show.  At a minimum, it will be fun to watch.

 TDM

I don’t know if Rick Perry will win the Republican nomination for President of the United States.  I don’t even know if I want Rick Perry to win the Republican nomination for President of the United States.  But I do know that his decision to run for President will have an immediate and profound effect on this election.  The reason is that he is one of the best political speakers since Ronald Reagan.  The man can flat out talk.  He has a way of connecting with an audiennce that is remarkable.  The only other Republican who has this type of communication skill is Sarah Palin.  The difference between the two is that Perry looks and sounds like a President.  Watch the following video of his speech to the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans on June 18, 2011:

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-people/rick-perry/video-perrys-speech-in-new-orleans/

There will be an immediate all-out assault on him from the liberal left and from all the other Republican candidates.  There is a reason for that.  This is the most dangerous candidate to come on the political scene in a long time.  He is dangerous because we haven’t seen this kind of pure political ability in a long time.  Perhaps his biggest problem is that he is almost too good to be true.

I believe the people in this country are hungry for leadership.  George W. Bush wasn’t that bad at being President, but he simply could not connect with the American people.  As a result, he withered under the unrelenting assault by the liberal left in the main stream media.  Barack Obama is good at reading a TelePrompter, but he is not in the same league as Rick Perry with regard to speaking ability.  In addition, Perry simply does not back down from his personal values.  He organizated a prayer day in Houston that drew 30,000 people.  The liberal left was horrified that someone would “interject christianity” into a federal election.  I suspect they will be even more horrified to learn that the vast majority of people will like it.

Unless someone digs up some serious dirt on Rick Perry, or another candidate picks it up several notches, he is going to soar to the top of the leader board.  This is the best thing that can happen, but whether he wins or not, the remaining candidates are going to have to really pick up their game or they will be left in the dust.

We haven’t seen a Presidential candidate with this type of speaking skill in a long long time.  Grab your ankles, we’re going for a ride.

TDM

Sometimes a picture is worth far more than a thousand words.  Obama has visited returning casualties from Iraq or Afghanistan only twice.  The first time was on October 30, 2009.  Now he has done it again.  He refused to let the press cover the event, because he didn’t want any pictures.  But the White House photographer “accidentally” took this shot without anyone noticing:

The main stream media is pissed because they didn’t get the chance to post their own adoring photo.  The White House is already getting major pushback, so they released the following statement: 

“The White House routinely releases photos taken by the White House photographers in specific circumstances where it would be inappropriate to include members of the media,” Carney said. “In this case, the White House released the photo, in the interests of transparency, so that the American people could have as much insight as possible into this historic and sobering event.”

Bill Clinton, had more class than this, and it is really hard to under-class Bill Clinton.

TDM

The liberal left decided to take a stand in Wisconsin.  With wide media support they organized massive demonstrations against the Republican Governor for cancelling union contracts.  Many of us remember the pictures of all those teachers, calling in sick, so they could try and shut down Madison.  Additional progressive activists were bused in and the pressure on the Republicans was enormous.  Some even feared for their life.  But they did not flinch.  They stood their ground and they took on the dreaded public sector unions.  Few politicians in this country have shown such courage and determination.

 The liberal left was outraged.  They immediately began a campaign to recall six Republican Senators.  It has been reported that they spent more than 30 million on these elections in an all-out effort.  If they could win three of the six seats, they would regain control of the Senate.

 If the Democrats had won, it would have returned control of the Wisconsin legislature to the Unions.  But they didn’t win.  The importance of this victory cannot be overstated.  The Ed Show on MSNBC ran live election results from what they expected to be a big Democratic victory party.  They really thought they had won and they were gearing up for a celebration.  They were gloating about the assumed victory of Sandra Pasch over Alberta Darling, because that is Paul Ryan territory.  Although Pasch was leading in the early results, Darling ended up winning 54 to 46.  Euphoria morphed into weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

 The days of Democrats automatically winning elections with massive union spending and smear campaigns are gone.  Voter turnout was at record levels, yet it was the conservative Republicans who prevailed.  It was a difficult fight and Republicans lost two Senate seats.  But the liberal left gave it their best shot and they came up short.

 In the past, high turnout almost always meant a Democratic victory.  That is why smart Republicans pray for a snow storm every November.  This election took place in the middle of the summer when a lot of people with jobs are on vacation.  The conventional wisdom was that Democrats would carry the day under these circumstances.  But, there was record turnout and the Democrats still lost. 

 Wisconsin destroyed the myth of the all-powerful liberal left voter coalition.  Obama, Pelosi and Reid have reminded people of why it is a mistake to put liberals in positions of power.  In every democracy where liberals have gained complete political power, they have mucked things up to a fare-thee-well and desperate citizens vote conservatives back into office.  Every time it happens, liberals stand there slack jawed in astonishment because they always think they are right and they disregard any factual evidence to the contrary.

 On Wisconsin.  Smile and say “cheese.”

TDM

In February of 1860 Cassius M. Clay was scheduled to speak in Hartford, Connecticut.  Five “Republican” dry goods clerks decided spontaneously to meet him at the train station and give him an escort.  They borrowed some whale oil torches, made some black capes to protect themselves from the dripping torches, and marched through Hartford with the Senator trailing behind wondering what happened. 

With a few days the organization had grown to about fifty members and they began marching silently, in unison, carrying torches and wearing black oil cloth capes and military hats.  Somewhere along the way they picked up the name “Wide-Awakes.”  By summer time there were similar bands all across the country.  They turned out to be one of the most effective grassroots political organizations this country has ever seen.  By November of 1860, there were several hundred thousand young men who had joined and they helped elect Abraham Lincoln President of the United States. 

The stock market may rebound, slightly, today, but the long term trend is down.  The real news is not the down grade by Standard & Poor’s.  What really matters is that a high percentage of American citizens agree.  Along with the rest of the world, the American people have lost faith in their government.  The American people have downgraded the American government.

We are on the verge of a revolution.  A clash is inevitable.  In Europe we are already witnessing what happens when governments run out of money and start to cut entitlements.  The demonstrations are becoming increasingly violent.  We got a taste of this in Wisconsin with the wide spread demonstrations designed to intimidate the government in to giving unions what they want.  We have been lucky that so far the demonstrations in the United States have been peaceful.  However, when one watches the fires in London, it is wise to be concerned.

In 1860 a grass roots organization rose up spontaneously to change the world.  This was not a political party.  There were no real leaders.  This was merely a vehicle by which concerned citizens found a way to send a message to their government.  The Wide-Awakes marched in silence, but they spoke with a loud voice.  They would no longer tolerate a government that compromised with slavery, something they considered to be evil.

The Tea Party movement has a lot of similarity with the Wide-Awakes.  Both are spontaneous grass roots organizations that grew exponentially, not because of great leadership, but because of the strength of their cause.  The Tea Party is already winning the war that really matters.  The latest polls show that a vast majority of Americans favor a balanced budget.  If the Tea Party sticks to its original principles and avoids becoming just another political organization, it has the potential to change the world.  Determined men and women, marching silently in unison with great determination, are an irresistible force.  When someone in the main stream media in 1860 watched the Wide-Awakes march through town he understood what really mattered.  Quiet men, he said, are dangerous men. 

TDM