????

Sometimes I question my own beliefs, opinions, esp in the face of contrary ones. I am often left to wonder if I am wrong or if other people are seriously naive. But, although successful diplomacy is certainly preferable to war (of course, we may differ on "successful"), for some people, "war is the answer." (See my earlier blog, last week I think.) Do some people not at all recognize there are some not-very-nice other people out there? Who do they think strap bombs on their kids? Who do they think beat women for having a beer? Who do they think put prices on the heads of certain authors? And so on.... How does one negotiate with these kinds of people? How does one take their words seriously?

I also wonder how some people live. That is, they are free to spout off whatever they want. They are able to take advantage of the weath of this nation to pursue whatever interests they want. Yet, they continually badmouth the US. Should we become like other countries? Of course we should strive for "a more perfect Union." But tearing down the rights and the wealth of the US isn't the way to become "more perfect." That is, unless Zimbabwe, the Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Red China are the models of perfection. How can these people live like they do, taking full advantage of what is here, then, well...then do and say what they do and say?

I've blogged about dishonest people before and I think also hypocrites. Again, it's easy to voice an opinion in a country that allows dissent. It's easy to rant and rave about the worse plight of others on the globe--but why don't these people give up their own creature comforts and donate all of the rest to the others on the globe? Can't one live in a $40,000 house, drive a clunker, take no vacations, etc. and then give $50K or more to others? Well, why not?

Isn't it great that those who take their ideas from Michael Moore rip on those who get their ideas from Glen Beck--and vice versa? While we stress passing the state-wide tests in the schools, we are failing to educate our future citizenry if this is what we've taken as our intellectual matter.

Interesting how a liberal columnist last week wrote about the "violence" of the right protests recently. Hmmmm. Maybe there was a bit, but compared to what--the Vietnam protests, for instance?

Walter Williams made just a great point in his column this AM. He wrote of the hundreds of millions of people who have been killed by nations that allowed the centralization of power in the 20th C. It's worth reading.