Heartwarming Heroes

Yoni the Blogger posts a wonderful news item about New York firefighters who are volunteering their time to help in Israel. It's certainly refreshing to read an upbeat report about the war-torn Middle East.

You can't do better than firefighters for positive attitude and action under stress and pressure. Guys, you do the U.S.A. proud. Shalom, and come safely home.

The Spoken Word

A team of horses can not pull back the spoken word.
~ Anonymous

An open letter to Mel Gibson:

Well, Mel, you screwed up, big time. Yes, you know it, I realize that. But apologies, no matter how responsible or sincere, are not going to make things right. You've got a ton of hard work ahead of you.

I've always thought you were a bit of a maniac. Never had the school-girl crush on you. In fact, I thought you were just another low-talent Hollywood pretty boy who had gotten lucky. Then, my teenaged (at the time) daughter dragged me to see you in "Hamlet" for some extra credit in her English class. I was dreading the experience, thinking "Mad Max Does Denmark, UGH!"

But, you shocked me: you were good! You were so good, in fact, that I felt compelled to re-evaluate you on all levels. I started watching all your movies from then on, and I became a full-fledged fan. "Braveheart" is one of my all-time favorite movies. I own a copy and watch it a couple of times a year. I also own a DVD of "The Passion of the Christ," and I watch that sometime during Lent each year. It's a riveting movie, very courageous film-making.

I never found "Passion" to be anti-Semitic, but what does a nice Catholic girl know? To me, it appears to be telling the story as the Gospels present it. In my opinion, the superpower Romans come off as the bad guys in the movie, just as they do in the New Testament. But, as you yourself said in your statement, "this is not about a film." This is about your issues, and Mel, you'd better get a grip on them if you want to live to see all of your kids grow up.

Alcoholism kills. It is a fatal illness if left untreated. You've got it in quite a robust presentation. You're suffering from alcoholism severely enough to drink yourself stupid, get into a car inebriated, drive drunk at the speed of light, endangering every human being anywhere near your vehicle, including the peace officers who apprehended you. You were angry enough at having your drunken fun spoiled that you threw up all over the cops, so to speak. You launched an intoxicated verbal attack and, in the process of hurting others, you wounded yourself badly. Now, quite justifiably, you have to live with the consequences of all the ugly things that you said.

Your enemies, as I'm sure you know, are having a field day. Everyone, both inside and outside Hollywood, who hated your success with "Passion" are spewing almost unbelievable venom about you. They are erupting in orgasmic frenzies of hate-speech about your hate-speech. Odd that they don't seem to catch the irony in that.

But you can't let that deter you from what you need to do to stay alive, and I don't mean as an A-lister. First, get well. Get yourself into rehab, stay there. Work the Steps. Live one day at a time. Come home to your family clean and sober. Any possible good that can come of this mess starts there.

After all that, and only after all that, start making amends to all the people you have wronged, most particularly the Jewish community, of course. You may want to do something reparational for the officers involved in your arrest, too. And, incidentally, how your wife puts up with all of your nonsense is beyond understanding. Be good to your family, Mel; you've brought them a lot of heartache.

I wish you a happy ending, but that's entirely up to you. Good luck, Mel. See you at the movies.

A Miraculous Message

"This is really a miracle find"
~ Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland

There are plenty of skeptics who will scoff at and dismiss the idea of a supernatural message attached to the archaeological find in Ireland a couple of weeks ago, during the early days of the Israeli-Lebanese conflict. A construction worker noticed that his bulldozer had unearthed a 1,ooo+ year old book of psalms in a soggy bog, open to Psalm 83.

The discovery of the ancient book is the first of its kind in Ireland, unusual enough in itself. But the fact that it was laid open to such a pertinent piece of Holy Scripture gives me goose bumps.

Call it the Druid in me, but I, for one, am given pause to consider the possibility of something beyond our ken signaling us to take heed of current events in a biblical context. Just have a look at the opening verses of Psalm 83:

1Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.
2For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
3They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee

Coincidence? Maybe. But those pesky Druid bones tell me that there is no way this is an accidental find.

The Logic of War

The only solution is the destruction of the aggressor. Otherwise the logic of the aggressor is to keep up the aggression. The aggressor doesn’t want peace, he wants victory. The only way to block that is to inflict defeat on him. There is no third way.
~ Greg Richards

Read the full article. It may sound like an oxymoron, but Greg Richards' logic is poetic.

On the Bubble

The good life sometimes can be lost quite unexpectedly and abruptly when people demand rights more than they accept responsibilities, or live for present consumption rather than sacrifice for future investment, or feel their own culture is not particularly exceptional and therefore in no need of constant support and defense.
~ Victor Davis Hanson, Real Clear Politics 7/27/06

In political discussions, I often offer my observation that modern Americans are soft, spoiled, and have no concept of the daily struggle to survive that most of the world's population endures. No one illustrates this truth with more factual grit and historical backup than Victor Davis Hanson.

"The Fragility of the Good Life" is not comfortable reading, but it is important for us to understand how quickly and easily the "American Dream" bubble could burst.

World War III?

We are not going to beat this enemy unless we get serious about it.
~ Jay Bryant, Real Clear Politics

Newt Gingrich thinks that WWIII has already started. Jay Bryant agrees.

Wherever one stands in answer to this question, it is clear to me that Israel's fight is our own fight. Their mortal enemies are ours. Israel is doing battle for itself and also for the U.S.A.

Hezbollah has always been one of the inevitable fronts in the GWOT, one that the United States would have to face eventually--again. It is the butchering force that murdered our Marines in 1983, and given the chance, it would certainly return to the continued killing of Americans. Our nation owes Israel full gratitude and support for stepping up to Hezbollah's brutal challenge.

Whether or not the current situation is World War III, one thing is certain: it is one war, worldwide.

A Troop's Viewpoint

Islamists who are killing thousands globally do not desire land or high profile UN resolutions. They don’t care about public opinion or battlefield victories. They want 6 to 8 million dead burning Jews. They want to party like its 1939. But make no mistake… the destruction of Israel is lock in step with their desire to destroy in its totality everything that is the United States.
~ From: VFF Troop's Blog - July 23, 2006

The Money Quote

$ $ $ $ $ $ $

"We will fight terror wherever it is because if we do not fight it, it will fight us. If we don't reach it, it will reach us"
~ Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz

$ $ $ $ $ $ $

Saturation Point?

In National Review Online, Victor Davis Hanson poses some excellent questions and answers about the unusual atmosphere of international restraint surrounding the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict.

Maybe, finally, the world had grown weary enough of terrorism to quietly support Israel as it digs in and takes a firm stand.

The Right Time

There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
~ Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, IV:3


Or, as Michael Ledeen puts it in his excellent article in National Review Online:

"It (Israeli-Hezbollah conflict) is a wondrous window of opportunity. As so often in our history, it was opened by our enemies. Let’s go for it."