Opinion: Putting things in perspective

If you listen to the pundits you would think that Bush is doomed to go down in defeat to Kerry come November. It would be prudent to remember that just a short time ago those same pundits were claiming that Dean would be the democrat nominee. This is a perfect example of what happens when pundits are required to say something when they have nothing useful to say. They just read the polls and make a 24 hour determination that they change when the polls do. This is as useful as the five day weather forecast, which we also watch, and which is almost always wrong. And while they be fools for making those claims, what then, does that make us?

Preble: Is Flying J coming back?

That's a question I get often. Everyone asks it. Even people who live far away. Flying J and all truck stops have built on all the easy spots. Spots where a truck stop is not unwelcome, industrial areas and so forth. Now the only spots left are in contested areas such as Preble and Salina. Both places turned Flying J away but Flying J would come back if the opportunity presented itself. The Preble site, owned by Nice N Easy is still vacant. The site across the road, owned by Peter Knapp, is bigger, zoned commercial and will be available someday. During one of the early meetings with Flying J their representative said that they get 85 or 95% of their business from the side of the interstate they are on. The Preble site is on the south bound lane. The closest south bound truck stop is north of Syracuse. That makes for a long stretch on 81 with no truck stop. If the climate were to change in Preble they would come back in an instant. That is why the provision was added to the Aquifer Protection District that was submitted to the Water Committee last year. It said:

178-45. Restrictions and requirements.

A. Prohibitive uses and activities.

(7) Gas stations, Truck Stops, solid waste disposal facilities and junkyards are prohibited in Areas I and II.

As you can see, truck stops are prohibited. Shortly, the town board will get the final suggested APD from the water committee.

If the town board takes the Truck Stop prohibition out of the APD then we will know that the town board wants to have Flying J come back. If it is left in the APD then you can rest easy that Flying J nor any other truck stop will ever come to Preble.

We'll have to wait and see what the town board does before we will know for sure. Hopefully, the new town board will leave the prohibition in the APD and we can all put these last few years behind us and start the healing process in Preble. I certainly hope so, but only time and the town board will tell.

View the Aquifer Protection District for the Town of Preble New York that was submitted last year.

Opinion: Speak softly and carry a big stick

A proverb quoted by Theodore Roosevelt as a brief statement of his approach to foreign policy. There is an important truth about this that I will get into in a bit.

There can be no question that America is the most powerful country in the world. Our military is the best. Our solders are the best. Their equipment is the best. Our generals are the best, (although Wes Clark may have shaken that belief.) The entire world follows and tries to emulate our culture. And while we are the best and the most powerful there were countries that defied us and made us look like fools. Countries like France, Germany and others who defied our desire to fight terrorists by invading Iraq. Even Iraq defied us, or rather Saddam Hussein defied us. The reason, I believe is that they thought we were a paper tiger. We had a big stick and we spoke softly but they believed we wouldn't use the stick and they were right. For too long we did not stand up for our beliefs and the result was 9/11. Had we not tolerated the terrorists attacks before 9/11 we may have avoided it. I don't blame previous administrations, I blame us. We, all of us, did not put our foot down. We became soft and we let the appeasers rule when we should have taken a stronger stand. It happened so slowly we didn't realize it. How could that happen? Political Correctness, that's how. Political Correctness ruled our lives. Political Correctness dictated how we spoke, what we said and how we thought. "Be careful because what you say may not be Politically Correct." Political Correctness made us into a country of sissies, not able to stand up for the truth. Who, you might ask is behind Political Correctness? Nobody! We are all behind it. We, all of us, used Political Correctness so we could be Politically Correct and the terrorists saw that as weakness. They thought they could hit us and we would not respond and they were right. For a decade we did little or nothing when we were hit, time and time again. We were too big and too afraid that we would hurt somebody's feelings if we struck back. We didn't have leaders who had courage enough to fight the Political Correctness…

Until 9/11

9/11 quieted the Political Correctness. 9/11 shut up the appeasers. We were lucky that we had a president who didn't listen to the media, who wasn't afraid to use the power that is US. A president who knows that to defeat terrorists you can't listen to the Political Correctness, the appeasers and the weak. That you have to kill all the terrorists and anyone who helps them. And when the world finally realized that not only did we have a big stick, and we were not afraid to use it, then that made a difference. When Libya's Kadafi saw us go into Iraq against the demands of weaklings like France and Germany he became afraid for his life and he gave up his WMD. Others will follow. Iran is opening it's country to inspections, Syria and North Korea are next. They know that we are no longer afraid to use our big stick and the world will be a better place for it. Sure, we can all get along, as Rodney King said, but to do so the evil in the world has to believe that if they mess with us we will beat the hell out of them with our big stick. It is only then that they will 'get along'. Having a big stick is useless if you are afraid to use it. When I was a teenager there was a guy who was a body builder. He could have beaten any of us up, he was that strong. But he was a coward and as soon as you challenged him he would back off. His big muscles were meaningless and nobody was afraid of him. That is what we had become after years of Political Correctness and the media giving so much time to the appeasers. The media is still doing that and there are many who still follow the god that is Political Correctness. Thank god our president is not one of them and thank god we are no longer ruled by Political Correctness. We now follow this version of that old proverb:

Speak softly and carry a big stick… and be willing to use it.

This is the only sure course for true and lasting peace in the world.

And… it's working.

Opinion: The politics of hate

In the days of the clan, not so long ago, southern whites hanged blacks for no reason other than the fact of their blackness. In Germany before and during World War II the SS murdered 6 million Jews and other 'undesirables.' Idie Amin murdered 200,000 in Uganda to suppress opposition and maintain control of his state. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein murdered hundreds of thousands for the same reason. Hate is an evil thing, it destroys reason, obliterates common sense and brings any nation to the brink of disaster. In America, in 2004, millions of democrats profess hate for their republican rival. We hear that the hate is a visceral thing, that democrats will do anything to remove Bush from office. Anything? This hate is feed by the candidates running for office for the democrat nomination and this hate is seen by those in the world who would like all of us dead. At what point will irrational hate turn this nation into the next Nazi Germany, the next Idie Amin's Uganda, or the next Iraq. And who besides ourselves will we be able to blame or even talk to when that happens. I am most troubled by the hate I see, hear, and read about, fed and fostered by those democrats who wish to lead us. Where? To what end? Do we really need to worry about the terrorists destroying us when our own hate will do the job just as well?

I don't hate anyone, never did. When you hate someone you destroy yourself, you feed on your own bile, you become nothing. Hate produces nothing, and destroys everything. Don't hate, just to hate, don't follow those who encourage hate. The world is a simple place but it's not sound bite simple. Learn to look beyond what you are being told for what is the real truth. But most of all, reject hate.

Cat of the Day - Every day a new cat photo and story

For cat lovers... duh.

Transcript: David Kay on 'Fox News Sunday'

Money Quote:

KAY: I think Iraq was a dangerous place becoming more dangerous, because, in fact, what we observe is that the regime itself was coming apart. It was descending into worse the part of moral depravity and corruption. Saddam was isolated in a fantasy land capable of wreaking tremendous harm and terror on his individual citizens, but corruption, money gain was the root cause.

At the same time that we know there were terrorist groups in state still seeking WMD capability. Iraq, although I found no weapons, had tremendous capabilities in this area. A marketplace phenomena was about to occur, if it did not occur; sellers meeting buyers. And I think that would have been very dangerous if the war had not intervened.

WALLACE: But what could the sellers have sold, if they didn't have actual weapons?

KAY: The knowledge of how to make them, the knowledge of how to make small amounts, which is, after all, mostly what terrorists wants. They don't want battlefield amounts of weapons.

No, Iraq remained a very dangerous place in terms of WMD capabilities, even though we found no large stockpiles of weapons.

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Lies My Teachers Told Me by J.D. Cassidy

"Just over a year ago, I received a degree in history from the largest state college in Massachusetts. Having enrolled as a history major with the hope of acquiring a well-rounded historical perspective, I assumed that my professors would encourage my disinterested ambition. I was wrong.

With just a few exceptions, my professors were leftists who infused their lectures with political opinion and assigned reading material that reinforced their leftwing views. For information that would help me develop a balanced perspective on history, particularly the history of the West, I was forced to look beyond the confines of my formal education."

"For those conservative students still trapped behind enemy lines in academia, I offer the following list of lies, told to me either directly or indirectly by radical professors, and my personal response to each. It is my hope that this list will be of use to any student who is searching, as I often was, for intellectual ammo to ward off the false gods of the left."

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I HATE SNOW, AND I'M NOT CRAZY ABOUT FREEZING TEMPS EITHER

Not that saying that will do anything, but I thought you should know my feelings on the matter. There, now I feel better... No I don't, I still hate the stuff. Ah the dream of sunny and WARM days, sitting on the beech, watching boats sail by. The warm slap of waves on the beech. The sunburn, bugs, snakes, more bugs. Hmmm, Mars is making more sense every day.

DICK MORRIS Dick Morris's New York Post oped

This is a column by Morris that covers what he said on FoxNews last Thursday. ie "He said that the dems always put up a liberal nominee in Iowa and NH and then pick a moderate in the other primaries." As I said then, it is an interesting theory as Morris's theory's often are. However, Morris is often wrong too. But it's worth a read.

Car Talk Now Available via the Windows Media Player

Car Talk will now be available via the Windows Media Player, rather than RealMedia. That's right, we're unceremoniously dumping RealMedia.

Why? Because, for a long time, we've had tons of complaints about RealNetworks. And the one that ticks us off the most is the perceived trickery they use to sell their premium products. This is just our opinion, mind you, but it's shared by enough of our listeners, that we finally decided to take action.

Here's the problem. In order to hear our audio, you have to go to Real.com and download their "free" RealPlayer. But when you get to the web site, the free player is harder to find than Osama Bin Laden at night. And the site seems to do everything it possibly can to get you to "buy" a player instead. You have to work very hard to get the free player. And we think that stinks. And get this. It stinks so much that it even makes Microsoft look good by comparison. That's something, huh?