Mitch,

Send Hugh all three links for your "Bush Endorsement" posts, including Unfit to Lead and Commons Decency. Altogether, they make a powerful argument. (well, they do individually as well, but you know what I mean).

Temporary Monkey

Posted by: James Ph. at October 18, 2004 11:02 PM

The first time someone tried to kill me was when I was 10. My mom's drunken piece of shit boyfriend tried to strangle me to death in his bedroom after we argued about him beating my mom up. He was a full-grown man and I was a kid. But he was on the small side, I was big for 10, and he was really drunk. We ended up sort of half-on and half-off the bed. He had his hands around my throat and he was using his weight to dig his thumbs into my windpipe. My shoulders were on the floor, my torso up against the side of the bed, and my legs were wrapped around his chest. His arms were just a little shorter than my torso was long. I was using my leg and back muscles to keep him from being able to bring his full weight down on my throat.

I held him there until he passed out. It took a really long time. It was a stupid unequal fight with life and death in the balance. Most of them are.

And after he was out, I didn't cave in his skull with a wrench. I didn't go to the kitchen and get a knife. I went back out to the living room and curled up under the blankets in the corner, where I slept. I knew he'd forget what'd happened by the next morning. He was that kind of drunk. And if I killed him, I knew my mom would go out and get another one just like him. There wasn't much point. And it wasn't like I'd be any safer in juvie.

Since that night I've had guns pointed at me on three separate occasions. Two people have tried to mug me with knives. There've been baseball bats, pool cues, broken bottles and blackjacks. One guy tried to run me over with an SUV. And with the exception of three attacks that were all about money, every other person I've ever gotten into it with had their own reason for doing it— but every reason was a common one; religion, politics, racism, mental illness, various combinations of the above.

That's life. The realization that there are crazy people in the world who may try to murder me is neither new, nor particularly interesting.

One of the many frustrations of living a life where people occasionally try to kill me is that the psychology behind why people kill people is generally quite clear to me. But, almost by definition, I don't have the resources required to fix the problem. I know people who do have the resources to fix the problem but, by and large, they prefer to spend their time enjoying their resources and ignoring the problem. Until, by some weird chance, the problem bites them in the ass. But when that happens, it's not like they do what needs to be done to fix the problem. What they usually do is they either get much more paranoid and install better alarms and heavier locks, or they get really angry and call people at city hall and demand tougher laws and more cops and they buy a gun.

The first solution is like seeing a brush fire on the hills outside your house, and just closing the door and hoping it will go away. The other solution is like trying to put it out by kicking at it and scattering sparks everywhere.

Until September 11th, many Americans were, somewhat intentionally, unaware of a problem. Then it bit them in the ass. Now a narrow majority of Americans are proponents of the "buy a big gun and kick at the fire" approach to fixing the situation. George W. Bush is their president.

Many of Bush's supporters believe that John Kerry and his supporters want to close the door and hope the problem just goes away.

Of course, the smart play is to, yes, put out the fire. Preferably with water. But it is then necessary to change the whole ecology (or the whole psychology, as the case may be) in a constructive way. John Kerry may not be entirely adequate to that task, but he discusses the problem in those terms much more convincingly than George W. Bush does.

I'm 32 years old. I've had my nose broken five times. I've pulled people's arms out of their sockets on two occasions. I once chased a burglar down the street and broad daylight and had him turn around and point a revolver at my head from a distance of less than 10 yards. I have an English degree. I am a published author. I'm an administrative assistant. I own a condo. I am not naïve about violence or its causes and I know enough about the cultural mindset of violence to have extricated myself from it. I recognize attitudes and behaviors that lead to violence, and I have a long history of dealing with institutional and social failures that exacerbate problems of violence.

I believe that George W. Bush's foreign policy is regressive and dangerous. I believe that John Kerry's foreign policy plan is *less* regressive and dangerous and may, if properly executed, be constructive.

That's why I'm voting for John Kerry.

Posted by: Joshua at October 18, 2004 11:30 PM

I'm voting for Bush because I agree with his Iraq policy. However, even more than that, he has my vote because of his stance on the 5 essentials of my catholic faith. Abortion, euthanasia, Embryonic Stem cell research, Gay Marriage & Cloning.

Kerry who is NOT catholic because of his stance against the churches teachings on these 5 items, as well as anyone else who has simular record (republican or democrate) will also Not get my vote.

The following info will definitely affect the Catholic vote Kerry so desparately wants to obtain. No Catholic, strong and practicing or luke-warm would vote for anyone excommunicated by the Catholic Church, for President. I'm hoping this Blog will get the word out.....

thanks
trobles
(see below)

Kerry said to be excommunicated

Los Angeles, Oct. 18 (CWNews.com) - A consultant to the Vatican has said Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has incurred the penalty of excommunication from the Catholic Church, according to Marc Balestrieri, a Los Angeles canon lawyer who formally sued John Kerry in ecclesiastical court for heresy.

Balestrieri, who launched his unusual case earlier this year by filing a heresy complaint in Kerry's home archdiocese of Boston, told EWTN's "World Over" program on Friday that he had received an unusual communication from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding the pro-abortion stance.

That communication provides a basis, he said, to declare that any Catholic politician who says he is "personally opposed to abortion, but supports a woman's right to choose," incurs automatic excommunication. It also provided a basis for Balestrieri to broaden his canonical actions and file additional complaints against four more pro-abortion Catholic politicians: Democrat Senators Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Tom Harkin of Iowa; Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine; and former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, a Democrat.

The current action could be significant as it could undercut the entire debate over denying Communion to pro-abortion politicians. An excommunicated Catholic may not receive any of the sacraments of the Church, including the Eucharist, marriage, and even Christian burial. The type of excommunicated outlined in the new information is called latae sententiae, which means that it occurs automatically and does not require a formal pronouncement by any Church official.

Balestrieri said he went to Rome in late August to discuss his canonical case with experts, including an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Less than 10 days later, he received a letter from Father Basil Cole, a Dominican theologian and consultor to the congregation based in Washington, DC, who said he was delegated by Father Augustine DiNoia, undersecretary of the congregation, to respond to the question that Balestrieri had submitted.

"I went to Rome in person to submit two critical questions to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith," said Balestrieri. "The first: Whether or not the Church's teaching condemning any direct abortion is a dogma of Divine and Catholic Faith, and if the denial and doubt of the same constitutes heresy. The second: Whether or not a denial of the Church's teaching condemning every right to abortion also constitutes heresy. Father Cole, an expert theologian who studied the matter carefully, responded in the affirmative on both counts."

Father Cole wrote, "If a Catholic publicly and obstinately supports the civil right to abortion, knowing that the Church teaches officially against that legislation, he or she commits that heresy envisioned by Can. 751 of the Code [of Canon Law]. Provided that the presumptions of knowledge of the law and penalty and imputability are not rebutted in the external forum, one is automatically excommunicated ...."

Balestrieri said the response was unusual in several respects: That a response was provided to a layman at the request of the undersecretary in only 11 days in writing, decisively clarifying the matter and in far greater detail than a typical official reply. "Normally, only a bishop may request such clarification of doctrine from the CDF, such responses usually take a much longer time to be received, and they are rarely made public," he said.

He also said that the original legal complaint of heresy against Kerry had received so much response from the public that the tribunal of the Archdiocese of Boston has been deluged with thousands of letters from ordinary Catholics who wish to add their names to the complaint. The head of the archdiocesan tribunal reportedly told him that the case had not been rejected and was "now in the hands of the archbishop," that is, Archbishop Sean O'Malley of Boston.

Balestrieri, a self-identified political independent, says that his actions come as a defender of the faith and Holy Eucharist from sacrilege and scandal, not as one focused on an electoral outcome. "Our victory can come as early as today: It would be for Sen. Kerry, who publicly calls himself a Catholic and yet in violation of Canon Law continues to receive Holy Communion, to repent of his grave sin and publicly recant his abortion advocacy."

The complete text of Father Cole's response as well as other details of the pending cases are available on the DeFide.com web site.

Victor R. Claveau
Web Site: http://www.victorclaveau.com

Posted by: trobles at October 18, 2004 11:46 PM

Used to be a nightclub DJ. I talked my way out of a lot of jams. And I had to beat my way out of a bunch of other jams with a cutoff pool cue. I've pummelled the shit out people.

Point? Negotiation is hunky dory, as long as you're negotiating with someone who has any rational interest in rapprochement. I don't see that in our opponents today. Or, for that matter, most of the "allies" that Kerry is yammering about.

BTW, I also have the English degree, have been published, and have taught myself three careers and ten musical instruments. Also not naive about violence - far from it.

And dealing with violence from weakness never, ever works. I knew it, deep down, even when I was a liberal. Now that I'm a conservative (20 years, now) and have kids to worry about, it's not an idle intellectual game to me.

Posted by: mitch at October 19, 2004 12:19 AM

What a coincidence you mention growing up under the soviet threat. I was pondering that myself. I agree with you whole-heartedly that we should do everything in our power to ensure our children do not have to grow up under the threat of annihilation. Deterence is not an opion when dealing with suicidal maniacs. This is not the first time we've faced such a threat. Kamikaze pilots come foremost to mind. It seems to me it is going to a mobilization as large as the Pacific theatre to put this new country-less threat down. Thanks for the post.

Posted by: Idris at October 19, 2004 12:24 AM

Mitch, in an earlier post, hits the problem right on the head - "Point? Negotiation is hunky dory, as long as you're negotiating with someone who has any rational interest in rapprochement."

John Kerry and his ilk truly don't get it. There are people in the world that want to take us, including the islamic world, back to when the Mohamadums rulled a larger part of the world. This is not a debating point. This is the start finish and end point of their position.

Even Bush won't go this far but at least he is working to fight as opposed to negotiate with these people. I vote for Bush.

Posted by: davod at October 19, 2004 04:18 AM

I think Joshua's story above points up an interesting idea: his mother should have been the one to want something better in life...to protect her child ( her first responsibility) and to get the hell out of there and not pick such scum to "liason" with in future. Sounds a lot like the US in this day and age to me.

Posted by: Colleen at October 19, 2004 07:49 AM

Kerry won't be able to negotiate anything with anyone. Not North Korea, Not France. He has already telegraphed that his real goal is a diplomatic solution, an agreement, no matter how bad it is. He can't leave the table without proving he succeeded in negotiations. Thus his "Partners" in this agreement know that they can bleed us dry before signing on the dotted. Line. They know they can push Kerry to the edge of the table, because he has told them so. Bush on the other hand, they know they can't push. We'll get better agreements with bush once they know he is here for the next four years.

Posted by: rick at October 19, 2004 08:34 AM

Joshua:

The bad guys want to kill us. Our only salvation will be conversion to Islam (Maybe). Other than that, it's death. To the enemy, talk is weakness. They do not respect weakness, it just makes us more vulnerable.

And it's not just about fundamental Isalm. It's about history. The tyrants of history have never respected talk and negotiation, except when it allows them to re-group and grow stronger.

And comparing the desire of funadmentalist Islam to destroy the West to scumbags, drug dealers, and other assorted low-lifes and criminals is simply absurd.

We've seen Kerry's foreign policy. It was called the Clinton Administration. They offered Arafat 95% of what he wanted. Result: the Intifada. How many more dead Jews do you need to finally understand?

The Clinton Administration gave us the USS Cole, the 19932 World Trade Center, the Khobar Towers, etc. Result: 9/11. How many more dead Americans do you need to finally understand?

Peace through Strenght is not just a motto. It's the reality of history.

Posted by: James Ph. at October 19, 2004 08:31 PM

I don't know how anyone can vote for a man, or a campaign as unctuous as this year's Democratic choice.

Posted by: themarkman at October 19, 2004 10:32 PM

Oh Lord, if your five essentials of Catholic faith are limited to abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, gay marriage and cloning, you have a lot to learn about being a Catholic. Think a little bit about Channels of Grace, it'll do you some good.

Posted by: Mark at October 19, 2004 10:50 PM

Joshua, with all due respect, if an adult is not a long-time bouncer, prizefighter, or similarly employed, and has had their nose broken five times, he likely has been pretty damned incompetent at threat assessment and risk management. I think I'll take your analysis as a contrary indicator.

Posted by: Will Allen at October 20, 2004 11:02 AM

I can understand Joshua's point of view, I see things a bit differently.

In 2000 a lady I worked with said, "If Bush gets elected we'll go into Iraq." I said, "Good, if you tell your son to give you the lighter and he hides it in his room, you have no choice but to go into the room and take it away." Everyday I say what I mean and do what I say I will. That's it.
I see similar direction in the actions and speech of President Bush. I know the direction he will take and more importantly his opponents do. Joshua by his own pen says he doesn't know what Senator Kerry will do, the real question is whether he himself knows.
People have hard lives, that's a fact, picking yourself up and facing tomorrow is far more fruitful than running from yesterday.

Posted by: Matt at October 20, 2004 02:33 PM

Please! The U.S. is not the parent and Iraq is not the son. I wish I didn't understand that analogy.

That is just racism, pure and simple.

Posted by: Joe at October 31, 2004 10:18 PM