Dear Mr McCain

Sir,

I found your recent commentary on David Frum insightful and honest, as usual. However, your closing argument was in effect an ad hominum attack based on Frum's Canadian nationality. As a man of impeccable honour, I am sure you understand completely when I say that I take umbrage.

I remember clearly the horror and rage that swept our communities the day the towers came down. Since that day, army recruiting (previously anemic) has grown to the point that training centres are housing candidates in tents for lack of barracks. This hasnt happened since WW2. In an army with approximately 12k combat troops, we have almost 3k in theatre, another 4k supporting them domestically and another 5k training. Most canadian soldiers, in a ten year contract have hit afghanistan four to six times. our troops, chronically underfunded and underequipped, have held the back gate for you in a land that ate three british armies of a kind that would have ended your revolution, and so frightened Alexander's army that it turned back. Our best have bled and suffered for you, with the same blend of insane courage and indomitable humour that kept our nations bonded in Korea and the fields of Europe. For all the draft dodgers we housed, remember that 30k Canadians volunteered for Vietnam. Visit the Wall in DC again. You will find small Canadian flags planted at its base wherever one of our fallen is listed.

David Frum is a pretentious blowhard, deserving of ridicule and public shaming. He is as much, if not more, of a blight on Right-thinking Canadians as he is on Americans. He has no right to question the fervour of any American's response to 9/11. However, it is his personality that drives his vitriol. Canada is no more responsible for his lunacy than America is for David Brooks.

I remain your humble servant in the Wilderness,

Morgan

Big Brother Really Is Watching You

(H/T Brass Balls Radio Episode 61)

For those of you not in the know, President Obama has set up a new White House email server to track those spreading "disinformation" on his new healthcare plan. He asked that anyone who sees "fishy" activity report it to flag@whitehouse.gov. Nice. Aside from his obvious discrimination against fish (do I report Crustaceous activity? The dilemma!), there are some serious legal issues with this. The White House as an entity MUST keep a record of all communications in or out. However, the White House is strictly forbidden from compiling information on those who disagree with its policies. Oops. Smart move there, ol' buddy. It's ok, though. The Wise Latina got confirmed, despite a 60% rate of failure as a judge. Somehow, barring Antonin Scalia going on a murderous rampage and assuming the role of SCOTUS Highlander style, I just don't think the White House is going to get spanked for this.

More important than the mechanical aspects of this, however, is the moral. President Obama has unilaterally declared that anyone spreading opposing points of view are actually agents of disinformation. It's "fishy", just like the peaceful protests at town halls are "Angry Mobs". The whole effort to demonize opposition seems to be getting desperate, and quite frankly ludicrous. Furthermore, President Obama is in effect asking people to Name Names. Doesn't it strike anyone as odd that the Democratic Party is using exactly the same tactics they've always accused Republicans of using? "Something must be done now or thousands will die of poor healthcare coverage"- the Politics of Fear, and false dichotomy. "My opponents are angry mobs spreading disinformation- or they are Nazis"- demonization of the opposition.

Interestingly enough, various Rasmussen polls have between 65 and 80 percent of Americans satisfied with the healthcare system as it currently stands. So in effect, we are going to punish 354 million Americans so that 46 million can have healthcare coverage. Except that at no point are these 46 million refused essential care because they can't pay. No one is lying on the sidewalk bleeding out as paramedics shake their heads and say "His credit didn't clear".

People always make the mistake of assuming that Capitalism isn't compassionate. This is patently false. Every poll administered, from the UN right on down to Gallup, has found that right wing Christian conservative Americans give on average at least twice as much of their income to charity as anyone else. Liberal Americans give next to nothing. Why? Because liberals think that charity is a government responsibility. But it is demonstrably true that dollar for dollar, government cannot give as much to charity as NGOs. Government inevitably has higher overhead, as they must create a Department of Charitable Works. Then it must be staffed, and stationery must be made. The staff will be unionized, so it has absurd sick days and wage rates. Meanwhile, a Methodist housewife donates 20 hours a week of her time on a rotating schedule with the rest of the ladies from the Parish council at the cost of...a couple of tins of instant coffee and a few boxes of cookies a month. The same thing applies to healthcare. Private sector health providers want to make money. Being efficient leads to making money. Doctors in private clinics do their own paperwork, nurses can also act as receptionists. They get paid by the hour, so they work longer. Meanwhile, at a public hospital, you have a unionized employee who does nothing but answer phones. The doctors work long hours because they are desperately understaffed, not because they want to. The janitors get paid as well if not more than the nurses.

Voluntary associations work better than government. Government healthcare is the epitome of Involuntary association. It. Doesn't. Work.

Killing mehsud not enough, but still a good start

From the field ( brewbaker's in freddy)

Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud is probably dead. News wires are already speculating as to the impact of his death, and naturally the Taliban claim no pain. The truth is that his death's impact has yet to be determined. Mehsud was young and charismatic, which is both a strength and weakness. His power came from the narrative of his life. Now that it is over, others now control the story. Will he become a martyr?

For the jihadi, faith is everything. Victory as proof it it, and defeat as proof of its absence. For the coalition to claim a win, mehsud's narrative must read that his fsith was a sham and allah guided the hand of his enemy as punishment for all the civilians he killed. Perhaps its time the coalitipn started employing theologians for psyops.