Just do whatever you need to do, Bill. Be yourself -- that's what we all come here for. To see what's going on in that brilliant mind of yours next.

ps -- Yay!

No rush, Bill. If you rush a Miracle man, you get rotten miracles.

Bill:

The funny thing is.....I'll continue to check "eject cubed" first on my list whenever the need to read hits me. That need is pretty much daily thanks to you and your wingmen.

The best part is that you could take a year to make a post and all of us would read it the day it was posted.

We'll be here.

Mmm...souveniers and packages...I LOVE souveniers and packages :-)! Do you feel like a kid at Christmas?

Welcome back, and I'm glad that good things have happened to you!

"One Tribe flies into space with all the drama and majesty of someone grabbing a Cessna 172 and hopping into the pattern to do a few touch and goes."

But (I thought to myself) that's how it's supposed to be! Guess that puts me firmly in the first tribe, huh?

Bill,

Didn't even finish reading your post...just scrolled down to the bottom to write these words:

Damn, it's good to see you again.

Now back to reading....

Capt Smythe

I too check every day, always ready to hit the name on my list of blogs, even before the page has loaded. It's always nice to find something to read. Like Special (Mr.) Ed noted, you can't rush the Miracle Man... I always am willing to wait for your *good* miracles.

Ahhhh, the master wordsmith has returned. Pay attention, children, he speaks great wisdom!

Welcome back, Bill! Rest assured, we are girded and anxious. The inky blackness of ignorance, deceit and lies will soon leak from Boston, and we need your farsight to help in the fray.

Although I don't check DAILY, I was thrilled to see words instead of a blank page this morning. WOOHOO! BILL'S BACK! I said aloud to myself. Even if it is just a teaser, we can be patient. Sometimes you just gotta let things simmer to make them extra special, which all of your writing is.

Waiting patiently.

So...

How's that micropublishing thing coming?

Good to see you again! Take your time on the essays. The wait is always worth it.

Just a kind reminder, sir-- we all wait with great anticipation for the chronicle of your adventure in Mojave.

And for the book.

The book!

I feel like such a leech. Post please post...but please keep the quality up. I'm awful, self centered and can't comprehend the work that goes into your quality writing. It looks effortless from our end! Please accept my apology...but post man post!

I'm an awful person. Thanks for pouring so much into the posts. Thanks for caring enough about us that you want to make it your best.

I am a faithfull reader, but seldom attempt to gild these lillies with comments. But Mr. Whittle's closing paragraph prompts one. Dragons everywhere indeed. Approaching the nausea-fest that will be a week of televised Democrat tub-thumping, I think a bug in the ear of the rational people that frequent this site is in order.

I am not an alarmist. I wouldn't think of irritating people by ringing a bell in a public place. But dark forces are afoot. Those who would easily qualify as "dragons" are showing a level of desperation that befits their character, or lack of it. They know the reality of their chances in November. They know what a dial-tone candidate they have fielded. That choice, in, and of itself, is a revealing glimpse of desperation.

The court challenge of the voting results in Florida in 2000 threw the process into a chaos that required the SCOTUS to untangle. Imagine a dozen such challenges across the land...two dozen. Don't believe for one second that these dragons wouldn't prefer chaos to defeat. If they can't heave thier Age of Aquarious back, then deliberate sabotage is the next best thing in their black hearts.

There has even been a request to the UN for monitors to oversee *our* election! Can one see a pattern here? A setting of the stage? Other than a reckless comment about what a nice contrast pale blue makes against blackened iron sights, the less said about this fiasco, the better. Just keep in mind the mentality of such a request, and those who would make it.

I only ask for awareness, not some clanging call to arms. Watch the follies with the knowledge at the forefront that these people know no bounds. Vigilance friends, vigilance.

Arch Stanton

(eagerly awaiting the next essay)

Count me amongst the faithful who come here often. Hopeful, and absolutely never disappointed.

For there are always the archives, and one can find refreshment there, too.

That said, there's nothing like finding a new post here, from the master himself.

Welcome back, Bill. You've been sorely missed, and your wise counsel will be greatly needed in the coming days.

Jim
Sloop New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Halle-freakin-lujah.

P.S. Was it my threat of coming up there to kick your tuchas in person that prompted your post? ;^)

"I was profoundly inspired by Boyd: The Fighter Pilot who Changed the Art of War."

Amazing. I just finished this book for the first time about a month ago, and your site is the second in my reading list to mention it (Belmont Club being the other).

Can't wait to read more of your posts.

A

It's.....ALIVE!

Bill - glad to have you back among the land of the living. Looking forward to your latest and greatest.

5 WORDS: Damned glad to read you!

Take you're time with the spellcheck (or thoughtcheck as it were).

Russ

Don't rush it - we'll be here waiting for you (even in Canada).

Woot! Welcome back!

Waiting is.

Welcome back Bill. I was sure you were either dead, or still passed out from excitement over the SpaceShipOne launch. :)

Hey, Bill and Steve!

Among my lady friends, I also used to be known as "40 seconds or 40 dollars."

For different reasons than John Boyd, I think.

--David March

Welcome back, Bill. The dragons will always be here, and you're not alone in doing battle with them... Though there are few who, I think, do so with such elegance and passion.

Yeah, we're here when you aren't, but when I'm in the mood, if there's nothing new here, there's still essays like History which are rewarding no matter how many times I revisit them.

Ahhh the day just became a little brighter. Shall be manning the widows walk, scanning the horizon for your sails in full, your guns manned and ready.

I found this site through a reference just a few weeks ago, so I've been thinking all along that GHS was my "Daddy." Imagine how I must feel now to open the door tonight to find out that some guy who says he's "Proteus" is my REAL daddy! Not only that, but all his friends call him "Bill!"

Love your site, I'll be reading every chance I get. [By the way, don't worry...I will never refer to you and GHS as "my two daddies."] |:)

It goes without saying, I think, that we want a new post every day and we want all of them to be insightful and well-written and in every way up to your usual standards. However, we do (normally) remember that you're human too, and also that you don't work for us. Thanks to the miracle of RSS, we can even avoid having to obsessively return to your site every day just to be disappointed by the lack of new material.

Rest assured...even when you don't check in for a while, we all still love your stuff. And when more is ready, we will happily devour it.

Ahh... the scent of mellowed, long-steeped ruminations drifts across the cybersphere...

Can't wait! :P

Usually one of these posts pops up the day after my Pavlovian clicking stops, and when I return, there's 150 plus comments.

I hope you've had enough rest; there's work to be done.

Phew.

Glad I can stop worrying now.

wow first Rachel returns and now E3 promises to.

Glad to see supper's on the stove. I have been ruminating the cultural divide as well. Last night's Larry King interview with Bill Mahr was insightful. I don't think I ever heard anything more offensive in my life. According to Bill, Born Again Christians are superstitious chicken killing fanatics. Most Southerners are dumb and the President has a messianiac maniacal mindset.

Then came the hard questions from the callers: Mr. Mahr, you are so intelligent, does this come naturally or do you work really hard at it? (I had to choke down emesis at that one).

He mentioned Michael Moore a few hundred times, I think they are doing each other.

Kathy in CNY

Maybe next time you can put up a message that says "Watch this space..." or whatever. I spent *weeks* trying to figure out what was wrong with my browser.

Again, thanks for being there. And I think that I speak for much of the readership here when I say 'take all the time you need to get it the way you want.'

-lr

Bill:

Remember: Blue-side goes UP! Turn 'em!

There is more to do than is possible; the DNC convention and the coming media love-fest, Bill Mahr, propogandists, unfocused national policy, etc. The worst is that we are not making convincing arguments outside of our comfortable sphere of friendly faces. No one EVER gets pissed on NBC news about the repeated lies and distortions, they do a fine job of venting on the web and on Laura Ingraham but never where the large numbers of less-informed people could be influenced. How about an e-mail campaign to "Today", Larry King", "Peter Jennings", et al ?

Keep up the good work.

Dan Patterson
Winston-Salem, NC

I don't know about everyone else, but I read E3 with the expectation of long silent periods interspersed with occasional moments of outstanding brilliance. There are plenty of right-of-center blogs that post every day - and I read them - but I come here for something different. I come here, every month or so, for a dramatic renewal of purpose.

Personally, I'd be dissapointed if you rushed things Bill. Like Special Ed, I prefer infrequent but genuine miracles to the more common and less impressive variety.

S

The quality of your thoughts and essays are well worth the wait.

I never post on sites, as I am nowhere near articulate or insightful, but your clarity of voice encourages me, and others to whom I have pointed out your pulpit, to stand strong under the pressure of emotional and unrational dialogue.

Thanks, and remember, many of us do not take you for granted.

Bill, glad you're around. Next time, why not leave up a sign saying "Be back soon," or something, so we don't have to wander the blogosphere wonder where Whittle is?

Can't wait to read about the Two Tribes.

DD

Great to see you back, Bill. You might want to check the site itself, though. I can't get your latest post through your url; I have to follow Frank J's link off IMAO to get to it.

That said, keep it up! Take your time and do it right; we'll all be waiting patiently . . .

"Do you want to be someone, or do something?" So far Bill you seem to do both. Glad to see you back.

Welcome back Bill.

I'll pour two fingers of Bookers tonight knowing that you're well and good.

Cheers!

I have read and re-read all of your essays, and pass them along to friends, family and acquaintances whenever a new one comes out. Bill, your essays are rock solid in supporting our Founders and their beliefs, and explaining clearly what makes America great and unique.

My only problem is my "friends and family" includes lots of people like my parents, pastor etc. Bill, any thought given to creating a "PG" version of your essays, similar to DVD movies that edit out the "bad words"? For example, I have a hard time recommending an essay that says "How totally un-fucking-cool", even though the other 99.9999% of the essay is pure genius. If you said "How totally un-freaking-cool" we would get the same point, and could pass it along to a wider audience.

Anyway, Bill, I appreciate your essays and I think if every American would read them, we would be in MUCH better shape as a country today.
Thanks,
Peter

Please check out my political enquiry blog:

http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/07/republican_tax_.html

Peter,

it's my understanding that the upcoming book will contain the PG version of the essays.

Bill,

Welcome back. Personal happiness counts big. Take your time, do it right, as always. Sorry, but no one else said it soooo:

"Dude, where's your book?"

Bob

It's all part of the distillation process, Bill. Just like you don't want to drink what comes directly out of the still's mash tank, but want it to age and distil into the pure quill.

I can wait.

BTW, please pass on my congratulations to the guys at Scaled Composites. Live the Dream!

Sapper Mike

Was begining to get concerned that you had died ruefuly middle aged in that ridiculous plane of yours.

Welcome back Bill.

Arch Stanton cracks me up! Any good Clint Eastwood fan should understand the significance of that! I'm still waiting for the book with a baited credit card!

I figured ol' Bill went on a peyote bender and woke up with amnesia in some Atlanta alley with a naked barbie doll, a half-empty tub of butter, and a disturbing notion that he'd left his oven on back home, wherever that was.

Wait, nooo, mustn't project...

Looking forward to the next essay whenever it comes out Bill.

I can't believe no one is speculating on the 'very, very good thing that has happened to Bill in the past few weeks...'

Wild guess: Bill has a girlfriend.

Let's hope he bumped into Moxie and it was kismet -- she is looking for a father to help her create a VRWC love child.

[http://moxie.nu/blog.php]

Welcome Back!!!

Rich

Just 'cause we didn't mention it, SallyVee, doesn't mean we ain't speculatin'. ;) We can speculate with the best of 'em.

whistling nonchalantly...

Bill,
I've missed you. You have a new girlfriend? There goes my plan to become your Grace Kelly Lady in White from "Confidence." Darn...
But I am still excited to read your new essays.

Only 50 or so comments ahead of me, I am fairly secure that I will be ignored. Bill, you brought me back to reality, you showed me a better America, you have a gift. We all have gifts, no question, some are willing to give for others, some very willing to USE others. I find myself thinking in more positive terms, that can not be a bad thing. Right or wrong, stupid or smart, decent or indecent, you taught me history...those that win, NEVER give up. That is my lesson, we can not lose unless we give up. A lesson well taught, and for very good reason.

Rik

Was begining to get concerned that you had died ruefuly middle aged in that ridiculous plane of yours

What a good line :) I flew into oblivion once, noone missed me...but the concern is noted :)

Rik

Like the rest, I welcome Mr. Whittle back from his recent endeavors. Stocks and Bonds, I understand...

I just hope the stocks didn't chafe too much, or that the bonds didn't interfere with your circulation.

You have my sympathy and admiration for persevering in your labors.

Welcome home.

It's like Shane did come back. Welcome, Bill, and we'll read what you write as you have time to craft it the way you want it. Tom

I think we have in the post above, clear evidence that the web phenomenon of "Spam haiku" is mutating.

Okay, Michael Moore’s film for the gullible has taken in (what a perfect phrase, eh?) 100 million dollars gross box office receipts. That means there are something like 12.5 million idiots out there that are willing to piss away their money to listen to each other cheer his ordure.

It would be interesting to do some follow-up later and document how Mr. Moore chooses to use his wealth. I suppose that could be done today. On the other hand, people have exposed the cynical hypocrisy of many liberals, showing how little of their own wealth many prominent liberal candidates contribute to the causes they promote.

Well, that’s just being consistent. After all, the whole point of their strategy is to persuade everyone else to vote to confiscate money from taxpayers and give it to some corrosive bureaucracy set up to at least APPEAR to be concerned about this issue, that victim group, or some entirely other cause. The liberals can always say “HEY! I’m paying all the taxes the law imposes on me!” In the case of someone like Kerry, who jointly controls hundreds of millions of dollars of personal and corporate holdings, those taxes are simply a triviality. To the rest of us, they are NOT.

In one sense, I have to allow that it is Mr. Moore’s right to whatever income he can fleece from the dimbulbs that fall for his lies. It’s pretty small potatoes compared to the trillions of dollars that have been siphoned from the wallets of citizens by crooked corporate bandits, scientifically absurd but emotionally charged lawsuits, and plain old corrupt school boards around the country.

The sad thing is that the audience doesn’t just believe the easily disproved allegations and conspicuous mutual contradictions. They also seem to believe that buying the tickets at the box office has some deep power to affect REALITY beyond enriching the gluttonous one and his distributors.

Kinda pathetic, really.

It calls to mind the South Pacific Island “Cargo Cult” believers who firmly believe that building little folded palm frond representations of the C-47 airplanes that brought such splendid treasures in World War II, will persuade those gods to return to enrich them. Six decades after the war, there are still shamans that hide caches of coins and trinkets in the hollow of a tree. Later they bring credulous villagers to the clearing, after collecting some advance fees. Once the shaman has performed the proper rituals, a villager spills a few coins into a basin, swirls them about, and is lead miraculously by the entranced shaman to the hoard.

Of course, the “winners” become the most convincing advertisement for the scam.

Wasn’t it within the last two years that a nation-wide “Ponzi scheme” that induced thousands of presumably intelligent women to part with HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars to participate in a “Birthday Gifting” pyramid? The wonderfully shameless script of the “con” described the investment as a way of helping women help each other, while helping themselves.

Just like the logic of a whole lot of government programs.

Christ on a Crutch! I hope the Terrorists are stupider than we are.

David March, animator & fiddler

David,

If I may be forgiven for being so presumptuous, I think you may have missed the singular genius of Michael Moore's film.

He's figured out a way to make people who hate the US, give the US money (via income tax receipts on both Moore, and the distribution company).

There is something spectacularly American about getting even those who loath you to support you financially.

But, past that, it's still a crock.

BRD

Woohoo! He's baaa-aack!

I, too, seldom comment, and I check less often than most, but when I do find something, it's always worth the wait. Never rush genius, so no worries, Bill.

However, I did notice something...

So bear with me, please, a little longer. On with the armor and the helmet and the scabbard. Dragons everywhere, these bastards! Much slaying and hewing to do in these critical months ahead.

It would help if there were a sword in the scabbard. *pulls out her two-handed Sword of Re-Education* Will this do?

So Bravo Romeo Delta, Michael Moore is secretly in league with the devils he publicly denounces.

Very cunning!

DM

I'm sorry. John Kerry doesn't of course actually CONTROL H.J. Heinz Company, just because he's married to the woman who inherited the company on the death of her husband Republican Senator Henry John Heinz III. (His plane crashed into a schoolyard April 4, 1991, after being struck by a helicopter that was attempting a mid-air inspection of his airplane's landing gear.

DM

I'm into it. you're talkin sense. i'm on board.

Here’s an interesting letter from the website http://www.davidstuff.com/

It is reached by clicking on the button marked “politically incorrect” which opens a page with a clickable list of articles, essays, etc.

Here’s the intro to the letter:

My Apology To The Arab World
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mike S. Adams
June 14, 2004

Author’s Note: the following editorial contains mildly offensive language. Given the subject matter, the author is sorry that it does not contain highly offensive language.

Ummm... David March, I might be outta line, but could you cool it, please? This is Bill's blog, not yours.

Bill,

Your posts are a genuinely rare combination of humor, insight and inspiration. Take your time. The main event doesn't even start for five more weeks.

Bill

OT: SpaceShipOne flight on Sept. 29

Rutan and his team have given its official 60-day notice, with the first X Prize attempt set for September 29 from the inland Mojave Spaceport in California. To win the $10 million, SpaceShipOne will need to make a second flight within two weeks, by October 13.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/07/27/x.prize/index.html

Keep up the good work. Just don't forget to vote!

Welcome back, Bill. The withdrawl symptoms will be going away soon, I can hold on now. Take the time you need and give us your best.

I have been kept going by the glorious reappearing of Texas Sunshine, Rachel Lucas, and now you are back, too This is turning out to be a good summer.

REPORT FROM THE FRONT – the Vietnam Veterans against Kerry demonstration at the DNC.

Wow! This was my first experience of Political Theater since the Vietnam War. There I was in the van holding one side of a huge “Hanoi Jane/Hanoi John” banner shouting HO HO, HO CHI KERRY followed by a couple hundred of my brother Vietnam Vets and their supporters, including my own wife and nine year old daughter Barbara Jeannette.

My wife later excitedly described the excitement she felt chanting along with the guys while carrying a VETERANS AGAINST KERY sign and the pride she felt as our little daughter did the same...

http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/07/report_from_the.html

Plug your ears with wax Jason. Screw writing for now, get your instrument ticket; the joy of living the dream greatly exceeds writing about it. Sic itur ad astra.

Go Canadian Air Force!

REPORT FROM THE FRONT DAY TWO – the Vietnam Veterans against Kerry demonstration at the DNC. REPORT FROM THE FRONT DAY TWO – the Vietnam Veterans against Kerry demonstration at the DNC.

Double WOW! Around 500 folks gathered at Bowdoin Square. These guys were really ready to change history. While most of them were fifty something white guys like me, there were a few men of color and a significant showing from the Vietnamese American community including beautiful women and children and, of course, my enthusiastic wife Cindy and daughter Barbara Jeannette.

Just before kickoff, the organizers from VietnamVeteransAgainstJohnKerry.com kindly allowed me to address the crowd about my experiences earlier in the day. Two forty something friends of mine had seen me on TV the night before and asked me what we had against John Kerry. Each of them thought all Vietnam veterans loved Kerry. I explained that:

“To the best of my understanding, at least TWO THIRDS OF ALL VIETNAM VETERANS HATE JOHN KERRY and consider him a traitor who came home early and betrayed us.” I went on:

“They thought John Kerry was my hero.” And the crowd got angry.

I then said “They think John Kerry is your hero.” And the crowd exploded.

Then “IS JOHN KERY YOUR HERO?” And the crowd went wild.

A couple guys came over and hugged me and patted me on the back. My daughter came over and hugged and kissed me and announced proudly to the world “He’s my Daddy.”

Little Barbara then told me sincerely “Daddy, this is the beginning of my political career!”...

http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/07/report_from_the_1.html

Excerpted - click for

You might think that I'm turning into a CommentNazi...

Adrian, please stop spamming other bloggers' comment sections. This request to cease and desist has come up at other blogs, too.

And what is up with augurwell??

Happy Friday!

NOW IS THE TIME FOR VETS TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT VIETNAM!

Comrades, John Kerry reopened the door of the Vietnam War by making his few months service there the centerpiece of the DEMOCRAT NATIONAL CONVENTION and his campaign, ignoring his accomplishment-free nineteen years in the Senate and his years as Lieutenant Governor under hyper liberal Michael Dukakis. His plan to fool America is working so far as illustrated by my experience two days ago:

http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/07/now_is_the_time.html

"augur-WHO?"

GHS

You got a new girlfriend? Mazeltov!

But as I type, a formations of 8 P-51's is running up their engines. Yesterday a C-5 did low passes, and an AV8B nodded to the flightline while hovering. Jimmy Franklen in his jet powered Waco biplane, Sean Tucker, a formation of B-25's. It's cool.

And we had an extra bed for you and everything!

Bill,

Take your time and please dont feel that you are under any obligation to us, it is we who are in debt to you for the effort you have thus far extended and the insights you have so brilliantly shared.

Iknow it takes time to write the high-quality essays you provide, but don't forget that it takes just as long to read, re-read, memorize, internalize and make study guides based upon these same essays.

Anticipation can be a good thing too.

patiently anticipating,

Roller Dave

John Kerry will never win when the electorate finds out that two thirds of all Vietnam Veterans can’t stand him.

This is the issue that can determine the outcome of this election if we can get the word out. It will have no impact on the 30% of the electorate who hate Bush and America, but it will keep some Bush haters from voting and it will flip enough of the undecided to totally preclude a Kerry victory.

I recently asked a Viet Vet buddy if he knew any Viet Vets who liked Kerry and he thought for a moment. He then said...

http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/08/john_kerry_will.html

Bill,

Glad to see you're still in the fight.

Your essays have been spot on.

Don't worry about the need to decompress; you can't man the battlements 24/7.

Thanks for your words so far, and hoping to see many more.

Steve

My Personal Experience of the Vietnam War

I am a US Merchant Marine Vietnam veteran and a Vietnam era US Navy veteran. I was never a hero but I knew plenty. this is my little story:

I’ll never forget September 1964. The long voyage from Bombay and through the straits of Malacca was marked by my poignant view of Singapore as we sailed by. Much to my regret it had been scratched from our itinerary at the last minute but that didn’t keep us from sailing close enough to get a view of that great Asian city. Then, on a steamy hot day, the Clipper wended its way up the Saigon River towards the capital city of Saigon. My watch partner Manny, my buddy Willie and I were leaning on the railing enjoying the breeze in our faces and admiring the translucent green “lawns” that bound the river on both sides. “Oyez, Manolito, what’s with all those lawns around here?” I asked curiously. “Estupido! – Them are rice paddies.” he answered as he and Willie laughed knowingly at me, the no-commonsense college-kid.

I will forever be grateful for the experience of working with those street-smart unlicensed seamen as one of them. In those days, the globally-wise working guys on US flag ships were mainly white-trash, Hispanic and or black. Even though they continually made fun of me, I made great friends among them and admired their manly competence and unpretentious bravery.

My buddies at MIT and I all thought we were so much smarter than everyone else, and that that was very important and that obviously entitled us highly evolved cognoscenti to rule over the great unwashed masses. Perhaps that explains why, today, I am so unimpressed by the over-educated social theorists who feel so compelled to control our lives so that they fit their ivory tower theories.

I was recently reading about a Harvard professor’s research in to why so many highly intelligent people are hopelessly unable to effectively navigate everyday life. It seems that...

http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/08/my_personal_exp.html

Related to Whittle's essay, Power:

Military readies directed-energy weapons
A few months from now, Peter Anthony Schlesinger hopes to zap a laser beam at a couple of chickens or other animals in a cage a few dozen yards away.

If all goes as planned, the chickens will be frozen in mid-cluck, their leg and wing muscles paralyzed by an electrical charge created by the beam, even as their heart and lungs function normally.

Among those most interested in the outcome will be officials at the Pentagon, who helped fund Schlesinger's work and are looking at this type of device to do a lot more than just zap a chicken.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/08/02/directedenergyweapons.ap/index.html

If I don't get an e-mail pretty soon with information about this girlfriend thing, I'm going to get really pissed.

Wheee! I know something that the Mrs. doesn't.

Crawling back into the brat fort now...

The Vietnam War was the Right War at the Right Time for the Right Reasons and it was worth it!

President John F. Kennedy decided to stop the locust swarm-like advance of Communism in Southeast Asia for morally right and geopolitically correct reasons. He continued in the tradition of President Harry Truman and the old patriotic Democratic Party. President Lyndon B. Johnson loyally continued and expanded that effort to contain Communism.

Contain Communism? Modern Americans are prone to laugh at such a goal because they are totally ignorant of the bloody history of Communism because the Left liberal controlled Media-Academic Complex has done its best to erase it from our collective memory.

Here is the truth about Communism;

http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/08/the_vietnam_war.html

This reminds me of a scene from Starship Troopers where the Captain walks into the soldier's room and barks: "Report in ten minutes!"

He then sees the trooper is in the sack with the girl trooper who has loved him all his life, and the Captain grins and says: "Twenty minutes!"

I'm so happy for you, Bill. Just don't forget there's a war on.

Republican Tax Cuts Create Jobs and Democrat Tax Cuts Don’t

When you look at the graph of the value of a stock or an economy you see that analysts break it down into fluctuations around trend lines. The fluctuations are noise and the trend lines are the real signal. The noise should be ignored and the signal is valuable information to be used in your planning.

Noise is all over the place and is fairly meaningless in the long run. Trend lines can be up or down, a little or a lot. This characteristic of a trend line is its slope.

Proposed Democrat tax cuts (I say proposed because no Democrat has ever actually passed a tax cut in 40 years although they’ve promised plenty) are always temporary give-aways to their middle, low and no income constituents and are supposed to “stimulate” the economy when they are spent at McDonalds or Target. From a long term perspective these illusory Democrat promises are never more than noise.

Republican tax cuts are real and actually...

http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/08/republican_tax_.html

Bill, I am not patient or the least bit beguiled by your secretive behavior.

Who IS she, dammit?

Enquiring minds need to know ; )

Well. A Recovering Liberal makes it a pretty obvious well placed assumption that Mr. Whittle does indeed have himself a g/f.

Now...A Recovering Liberal...is it you?

I can neither confirm nor deny any allegations regarding any recent excellent news on Mr. Whittle's homefront social agenda... except to say that it is in fact good news (I've seen the pictures), you don't know her... er, um, I mean, the "good news" exists completely outside the blogosphere -- yeh, that's what I mean... and Bill fully intends to enlighten you all in good time... probably within the next couple of days, he says.

But remember, you didn't hear anything from me.

GHS

By the time Bill returns, I predict he'll be married with children. Next essay: FATHERHOOD.

Take your time Bill. You are worth the wait !

In the preface to the hardcover edition of The Great Unraveling: Losing our Way in the New Century, you make ironic use of Henry Kissinger’s Ph.D. thesis at Harvard as a way to understand the radicalism of the Bush Administration. Could you explain that a bit more?

Well, it’s really good for explaining how reasonable people can’t bring themselves to see that they’re actually facing a threat from a radical movement. Kissinger talked about the time of the French Revolution, and pretty obviously he also was thinking about the 1930s. He argued that, when you have a revolutionary power, somebody who really wants to tear apart the system -- doesn’t believe in any of the rules -- reasonable people who’ve been accustomed to stability just say, "Oh, you know, they may say that, but they don’t really mean it." And, "This is just tactical, and let’s not get too excited." Anyone who claims that these guys really are as radical as their own statements suggest is, you know, "shrill." Kissinger suggests they'd be considered alarmists. And those who say, “Don’t worry. It’s not a big deal,”are considered sane and reasonable.

Well, that’s exactly what’s been happening. For four years now, some of us have been saying, whether or not you think they’re bad guys, they’re certainly radical. They don’t play by the rules. You can’t take anything that you’ve regarded as normal from previous U.S. political experience as applying to Bush and the people around him. They will say things and do things that would not previously have made any sense -- you know, would have been previously considered out of bounds. And for all of that period, the critics have been told: "Oh, you know, you’re overreacting, and there’s something wrong with you."

We just saw it with the increased level of terror alerts. Among those of us who had made a judgment about what kind of people we’re dealing with, the reaction was, this timing was awfully convenient. After all, they’ve done this sort of thing before. Of course, this was criticized as completely unreasonable to say -- after all, this time we’ve got "specifics." But here we are with this morning’s headlines: Oh, it’s all three-year-old information.

Headlines in mostly The Washington Post and The New York Times revealed the information predated 9/11.

Right.

There was an article, as you know, in The New Republic, which said the Bush Administration had put pressure on the Pakistani government to come up with a "high-profile al Qaeda target" in the last two weeks of July, and preferably during the Democratic Convention. That article was met with a lot of skepticism, although it was quite detailed and written by three people for a prestigious publication. And indeed, what has happened is it has been announced that a high-target al Qaeda individual was arrested by the Pakistanis. He had actually been arrested the Saturday before the Democratic Convention, but it was only announced, I believe, on Wednesday or Thursday.

It was Thursday, a few hours before Kerry’s speech.

So exactly what had been foretold, but dismissed by some as a conspiratorial theory, was proven to be true. On top of that,it was three-year-old information, the pre-9/11 information, that was the primary basis, even the Administration admits, for the so-called specific terror alerts. (They said "specific," even though the information was more than three years old.) The information came from the computer of this high-target al Qaeda figure who was captured by the Pakistanis at the request of the Bush Administration, basically, to drown out the message of the Democratic Convention.

Well, you know, just about a year ago, in one of the new columns in my book, I said that the stakes are very high for the Bushies, because we all know that there are terrible suppressed scandals. And that was before we even had any hint about Abu Ghraib. They will do anything to win. You have to expect that it’s going to be the dirtiest campaign in American history, and so it’s proving. We probably ain’t seen nothing yet. Over and over again, the people who made a judgment about the motives of the Administration, and assessed the facts on the basis of that judgment, have proved again and again to be getting it right in interpreting the latest story. People who keep on clinging to the belief that these are reasonable people who behave like a conventional government have been snookered.

I want to talk about the media a bit. You’ve had some recent columns on the media, including one that caused a bit of a dust-up with CBS. But do you think the two articles that appeared in The New York Times and Washington Post regarding the terrorist information being three years old are, for lack of a better word, a sign of progress in the media?

Yes. Something has happened, although I’m not entirely sure how much it’s the media and how much it's the intelligence professionals who were responsible.

Yes, one newspaper cited 12 different intelligence sources that anonymously said this was dated information.

People who keep on clinging to the belief that these are reasonable people who behave like a conventional government have been snookered.

That's a really interesting assertion, but backing it up with some proof might be even more interesting. This is a request I usually don't get a reply on. See, every time we come down to brass tacks and the papers come out, the current administration is exonerated by what's in the papers. (See: AWOL flap, 9/11 commission.)

I think the question here is who has really been snookered, and by whom. Both sides can't be right.

"Both sides can't be right", you say?

'No evidence that Bush's methods are radical', you say?

You are wrong on both counts.

Bill's own essays praise Bush for breaking with the past, and for having a radically-new perspective concerning the hostile post-9/11 terrain.

So thinkers on both sides agree that Bush is radical. The question is whether he's radically-good or radically-bad.

Yet that question isn't answered-- that discussion isn't allowed to even begin-- because the media & Andi are still stuck questioning the whole premise of Bush's radicalism.

It's like Economist said, those acknowledging the radicalism are personally-denounced as "shrill" and alarmist.

When Andi & the media are ready to catch up with reality; a real dialogue can finally begin-- here and elsewhere.

Ugh. I always love Bill's essays, but the spammers are ruining the comment log.
"Adrian Spindle", "A Recovering Liberal", "Operation Northwoods/Economist", why don't you start your own blogs rather than leech off the success of another?

Thomas Lane

What makes Adrian Spindle's views spam?

Seems ok to me.

It's not his views that are the problem. The problem is that he's abusing Bill Whittle's comments section by repeatedly posting blurbs and link to his own blog. If that's not spam, then I don't know what to call it. Maybe: "damn annoying".

Tom

Dear Thomas Lane,

First, I agree with you in principle that it is annoying for someone to post lengthy articles that seem to be promotions for their own website, rather than contributions to this site’s conversation.

You and at least one other reader have recently posed the question "Why don't you start your own blog instead of hogging space here?" To some points of view this might seem a very relevant question.

With some interruptions occasioned by life and matters arising from it, I’ve been visiting Bill Whittle’s E3 site for at least two years. Of course the first hook that sank itself in my jaw was the excellence and passion of his essays.

But the thing that set that hook was the variety of viewpoints expressed in the comment stream following his essays--- the diversity of opinions, the wealth of ideas and information, research, and documentation offered by readers responding to BILL and TO EACH OTHER. There may be other weblogs where you can find this richness, but I have yet to locate one. In most other cases, you get an essayist who may be acute, but the comments provide little additional nourishment.

And NO_WHERE_ELSE on the net have I seen the conversion of a troll-like poster to someone who finally admits in print that there may be some merit to the ideas that initially prompted the trollish ejaculations.

That can’t happen in a comment stream which restricts contributions too narrowly. Those conversions are important. If someone reads Bill’s essay who is reflexively hostile to conservatism, and posts a vicious taunt, Bill has the right to delete the insult, or respond to the post. But replies to the troll from other readers both take some of the weight from Bill’s shoulders, and offer a much wider potential for engaging the troll in dialog than any single mind could afford.

This is an interesting dilemma: the evolving etiquette of dialog in a “virtual lecture hall” of blogdom. In earlier days, if you admired a person’s writing or philosophy, you could read printed documents--- which admit of no conversation--- or attend lectures in a hall, along with possibly hundreds of other folks. You sit quietly until the speaker is finished, and if questions from the audience are allowed, time constraints limit those to a mere handful. Of course it only works to the extent that the audience behaves with courtesy, patiently waiting in turn.

With a blog, an essayist can present a carefully crafted thesis and get an enormously richer response. Instead of comparing it to dropping a stone into a pond and watching the ripples decay, it’s more like a demonstration of a nuclear chain reaction in which a thousand mouse-traps are set each with one ping-pong ball balanced on the trap. A single ball dropped into this mass sets off a chain reaction of ping-pong balls flying in all directions.

I occasionally grow weary of some boorish behavior by another reader. I have the right (thus far) to ignore that person’s posts, or to challenge that person with my own post, or if the boorish person has a personal link, to lambast the bastard with a sizzling e-mail.

There are several compelling reasons for anyone to post here.

• To congratulate or thank Bill for his efforts--- Let him know that his work is reaching people.
• To offer a rebuttal to a statement when you have some perspective or information or argument
• To encourage other folks to think and feel it's okay to express their own views, AND NOT BE INTIMIDATED by someone else, either because they don't have the credentials, or slick command of language. (I'm frequently humbled by some folks' ability to express really sophisticated ideas with plain language.)
• When Bill is occu