BlackFive: The General Militia of Flight 93

04/21/2006: Next Friday, the movie Flight 93 is coming out. I plan on watching it. Meanwhile, readers need to check out BlackFive’s commentary on the General Militia of Flight 93.

Because of the great work of the General Militia of Flight 93, future terrorist hijack plans are in peril. Any such hijackings will be met with decisive passenger revolt of the first order.

Those box cutters won’t be worth a Shi’ite.

Michael Reagan is Right: Carter is a Disgrace

04/21/2006: I have numerous problems with our current President, George W. Bush (hereinafter known as Dubya). His spending record is the worst since LBJ; his immigration policy is lackluster; he wasted his political capital on no-win situations; he has advanced big government at every turn; his vision of using America to export democracy–the way the Soviets exported communism–is costly in American dollars and lives.

That said, I empathize with him for one reason: he is the President faced with crises handed him by his predecessors.

September 11 was–as Bibi Netenyahu put it–the “wakeup call from hell.” We learned, the hard way, the sorry shape of our intelligence agencies. That was, perhaps, the number one blunder of the Clinton Administration. Dubya is now fighting an uphill battle to repair that network.

Then there’s the Middle East.

Modern Islammunism is the unintended consequence of Carter’s foreign policy. Jimmy Carter undermined the Shah, serenaded Ayatollah Khomeini into power, and thus the Islammunism of antiquity was reborn. Khomeini proceeded to hand us Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas.

Carter and Clinton were the most ardent caterers to terrorists and thugs. The most frequent foreign visitor to the White House was the original terrorist raghead, Yassir Arafat. It was Carter who cozied up to Nicolae Ceaucescu, kissed Leonid Brezhnev, and sucked up to Kim Il-Sung, coming home with more crap on his nose than my cat has left in her litterbox.

As a result, the Israelis have seen deluges of suicide bombers (in spite of her many peace deals and photo ops with Palestinian leaders), North Korea is pushing their nuclear program, and Venezuela has a Marxist President with Carter’s stamp of approval.

Whenever the choice is between supporting the United States versus her enemies, Carter has been a dependable fortress of support for every anti-American cause.

This is why I have no respect for Jimmy Carter.

Why Ann Coulter is Right…

04/21/2006: In her most recent column, Ann Coulter addressed personal responsibility with respect to three recent events:

(1) The disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba
(2) The alleged rape of a stripper by three or more Duke lacrosse players
(3) The rape and murder of Imette St. Guillen.

In the reporting of these tragedies, we rarely address the matters that should be taught in schools (but are not due to political correctness).

(1) Partying with strangers is a very, very bad idea, especially in a foreign country
. One of them could slip something into your drink to sedate you (ever heard of GHB?), then he can have his way with you, and then what else. If you are lucky, the worst you’ll end up with is a sexually-transmitted disease.

(2) When a bunch of young, testosterone-crazed guys arrange for a stripper to entertain them, that is a disaster waiting to happen. What were the lacrosse players smoking? Even if they had done nothing, they were wide-open to a frivolous charge. If they committed rape, they should go down for a very long time. That said, perhaps we ought to teach our boys and girls that catering to–and participating in–certain professions (porn industry, prostitution, etc.) is tantamount to living dangerously.

(3) Staying at a bar until 2 AM is not a good idea, particularly if you are female.

(4) Going to a bar alone is also not a good idea, irrespective of your gender.

(5) Your IQ is inversely proportional to the square of your blood alcohol level. The drunker you get, the stupider you get. As that great philosopher–forrest Gump–says, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

None of this is to suggest that Holloway deserved her demise, or that the stripper deserved to be raped, or that Imette St. Guillen deserved to be raped or murdered. Quite the contrary.

However, because schools will not, parents should take these cases as wakeup calls to teach their kids the dangers of risky behavior.

When I was a senior in high school, our student body vice president–a very popular, outgoing person–was killed in an ATV accident. Just a couple days before that, he had been playing in a pickup basketball game with me and some of my friends.

Unfortunately, one Friday, he had chosen to skip school, and–according to students who were usually in the know–had been smoking pot. While he was riding the ATV, he struck a tree limb and was thrown from the vehicle. He snapped his neck, which killed him almost instantly. He was pronounced dead at about the same time that school let out that day.

He was a good guy; he was a good student; he was the kind of person who had no enemies. Even good kids can be tempted to engage in high-risk behavior. For Chuck, it was fatal.

This was 2 weeks before graduation. 21 years ago this year. He should have been walking with the rest of us in June 1985. He should have been attending the University of Pittsburgh that Fall. He should be a successful businessman today. Instead, he is just as dead today as he was 21 years ago.

That you may have once engaged in risky behavior does not excuse you from warning your kids to avoid it.

This isn’t about a federal law or a state law or what political party to which you belong. This is about being a grownup, and being your kids’ parent rather than their buddy.

You owe it to them to point out that needless risk will increase their chances of being raped, killed, murdered, or otherwise seriously injured.

One bad decision can end your child’s life or send him or her into adulthood with a serious disability or a felony conviction.

It is your responsibility to teach this to your children. Government will not.

As a personal aside, I used to drive well in excess of the speed limit (another example of very high-risk behavior). In 1990, I came within a ten-degree angle of being killed in an accident with a truck barely a week after I graduated from college. That convinced me to become a conservative driver, and–even today–people kid me about how I drive at the speed limit.

Five years ago next month, I was nearly killed when a drunk driver in a semi made a U-turn in front of me. Because I was driving at the speed limit, I was able to keep from going under the trailer, and was able to walk away from an accident that would have otherwise been fatal.

That I once used to be a speed demon hardly makes me a hypocrite for warning people not to speed; it just means I’m getting wiser in my old age!