Tribes and toilet bowls

Evidence continues to mount that the world* is little more than a swirling toilet bowl of blood.

Kenya's Rift Valley burns as death toll soars:
NAIVASHA, Kenya (Reuters) - Protests erupted in western Kenya and machete-wielding mobs faced off in the Rift Valley on Monday after scores of people were killed in ethnic violence, complicating mediation by former U.N. boss Kofi Annan.

Hezbollah demands inquiry into Beirut killings:
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah, Lebanon's most powerful faction, on Monday demanded to know who was behind shooting that killed eight opposition supporters in some of Beirut's worst street violence since the 1975-90 civil war.

Gunmen free Pakistani school children and surrender:
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Gunmen who took up to 250 Pakistani school children hostage on Monday in a northwestern town freed them all and surrendered to tribal elders, a government spokesman said.

Can you see the common thread in all of these stories gleaned from today's headlines? It's tribalism, one of the most primitive forms of society in existence. Tribalism is the forerunner of socialism and shares many of its tenets, the idea that an individual is subservient to a group being chief among them. As long as any people embrace tribalism, they will behave in the above manners. When the individual is looked at as a means to an end, be that end social, political, or religious, rather than as an end unto themselves, they will be seen as expendable and the value of life will be cheap.

The West, and the United States in particular, could expend all of their resources and not change this primitive way of life. The West would, however, end up changing its way of life, and not for the better. But what would that gain the West? Even more enmity than it now has from peoples who do not understand and therefore cannot value liberty and its concomitant political/economic systems of a representative republic/capitalism. That old saying, "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still," is no more true than it is when using force to drag tribalists to reason.

The United States must get back to being a shining example of a better life through the exaltation of the individual and the protection of his rights on its own shores. We must once again become the model primitives look upon as what life could be like and wish to work towards. Becoming involved in every internecine conflict around, inciting coups, backing any group over another, and generally meddling in affairs that have no direct or indirect bearing on the people of the United States--the only people of the world the U.S. government should be concerned with--serves only to tarnish our image AND, most importantly, to weaken our country. As harsh as it may sound, the primitives of this world are not worth one drop of American blood.

Yeah, I know it's a dream. But you know what? The coming economic calamities the United States is facing in the future (not-too-distant and medium term) just may turn out to be a good thing IF it causes us to rethink our dealings with clueless primitives and return to a constitutional form of government. Hey, I can dream, right?

Take care.
DAL357

*One notable exception being, even with all of its burdensome problems, the United States.

Books read in 1998.

By the way, below is a list of books I read in 1998. I started this list to keep track of what I read and when; it's difficult to believe it's been 10 years since I read some of these classics. As you might guess from the list, I absolutely adore Victor Hugo.

Reading is one of the most important acts a human being can engage in, especially when it involves good literature, as opposed to a steady diet of periodicals. Periodicals have their place, but too much information/chatter can circumvent clear, thorough thinking on issues. Plus, I really enjoy it for its own sake, in case you couldn't tell.

Books Read in 1998

January: “The Last of the Mohicans” by James Fenimore Cooper 430pp.
“The Call of the Wild” by Jack London 105pp.
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson 126pp.
“Calumet ‘K’” by Samuel Merwin and Henry Kitchell Webster 345pp.
“Toilers of the Sea” by Victor Hugo 356pp.

February: “The Odyssey” by Homer 306pp.
“The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” by Victor Hugo 416pp.

March: “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky 472pp.
“A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens 227pp.
“Candide” by Voltaire 120pp.

April: “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo 1222pp.
“Lysistrata” by Aristophanes 123pp.

May: “Fathers and Sons” by Ivan Turgenev 207pp.
“Around the World in Eighty Days” by Jules Verne 208pp.

September: “Iliad” by Homer 391pp.

October: “The Last Day of a Condemned Man, and other prison writings” by Victor Hugo 198 pp.
“The Gambler” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 117pp.
“The Laughing Man” by Victor Hugo 573pp.

November
&
December: “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy 1444pp.

Take care.

DAL357

Happy(?) New Year!

A bit late--unless you are following the old-style Russian calendar*, which is exactly two weeks behind the modern calendar and would make today the first day of the year--but HAPPY NEW YEAR! Of course, it remains to be seen how the year will actually turn out: Will it be happy or will it be dismal? Check back in about 11.5 months.

This is the time of year when tradition dictates that predictions be made for the next twelve months. I really have none of my own, save for one. This year I predict that one of the presidential candidates somewhere, sometime, will actually say something logical, intelligent, and harmonious with reality, but then be pilloried for it by the press and public and quickly retract it. This does not include Ron Paul, a Libertarian in Republican clothing, who is 180 degrees opposite any other candidate and always in tune with reality.

To quickly recap some of the 2008 predictions of others I agree with, I'll start with these: Oil's price per barrel will bounce around, but it will hit $125 to $150 per barrel ($4+ per gallon at the pump). We'll experience a recession this year (we may already be in one). The federal reserve will vastly inflate the money supply to pull the economy out of the doldrums, thereby fueling inflation and enabling Wall Street to hit record on-paper highs. 2008 will see Obama-Hillary or Hillary-Obama ticket slide into the White House, however, they will only reside there for one term. Why? Because the next few years are going to see some hard economic times and the White House occupants will get the blame. So, in the long run, the party who loses this election will actually be winners, of sorts. (I say of sorts because, to me, both of these parties are losers for so many reasons that I won't delve into now.) Gold will go over $1000/ounce, silver will top $25/ounce. I suppose that's enough for now.

Take care.
DAL357

*Side note: This difference in calendars actually had a profound effect on history. Although the exact year escapes me, Napoleon won a battle that almost assuredly he would have lost had his enemies been using the same calendar. In concert with other Napoleonic foes, Russia was to attack the French dictator at a set time and date. The battle plans were drawn up, dates set, and everything was agreed upon. Somehow, though, the calendaric differences between the allies was overlooked and the Russian army showed up for battle two weeks after Napoleon triumphed. Doh!