Dean’s already asked for Confederate aid in the South

Headline Chicago Tribune: Union aid crucial to Democrats in Iowa

He’s back in action after usurping Snap’s role in Libya last week. Now he’s expanded his field of operation.

Headline AP: Brazil Asked to Allow Spot Nuke Checks

At work, we received a nice glossy newsletter that included an article about the new corporate building just opened in London. It had this interesting statement about the Blackfriars area where the new building is located.

The City of London is a section of London that serves as the metropolitan area’s Wall Street. Its Blackfriars neighborhood where the new *** Centre is located, has a history of hosting strong performers, including the Romans in the first century, the Normans in the 11th Century and Shakespeare in the 16th Century.

It is odd that they left out the way London hosted the strong performing Vikings in the tenth century and the German Air Force in the twentieth century. It is also odd that they want to compare moving into the company’s new building with foreign invaders conquering the city. That’s not the kind of neighbors they want to be know as. And what is Shakespeare doing in a list of foreign invaders?

What an odd way to put it. London hosted the Romans in the sense that Baghdad is currently hosting the United States military. Or as a co-worker put it, “London hosted the Romans like a deer hosts a tick.”

Source: Steve S.

In completing our all National Review evening, Carl E. Olson writes about how much of Evangelical Christianity is fixated upon the end times, and how they see every world news event, especially from the Middle East, as a fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy. They are fascinated with the quest for unmasking the Antichrist and continue to see major world leaders as the Antichrist.

The first person I remember hearing people talk about as the Antichrist was Henry Kissinger. But then Kissinger left the world stage and people focused upon someone else. I also recall people saying Mikhail Gorbachev was the Antichrist. One of their major points proving this claim was that he has a mark on his forehead (I always thought it looked like a map of Italy rather than the number 666, but what do I know).

Olson points out that after Iraq invaded Kuwait, many Evangelicals saw Saddam Hussein as the Antichrist. Particularly after he was defeated but not removed from power, they believed he would return from this “fatal” blow to lead an attack on Israel and bring on the great battle of Armageddon.

Now that Saddam Hussein has been removed from power, apparently not to return, it is time to move on to the next new Antichrist. But there is no thought about how wrong they were in proclaiming Saddam or any of his predecessors as the Antichrist. Olson points out an example of how one “end-times analyst” (Mark Hitchcock) deals with the fall of Saddam, their latest proclaimed Antichrist:

After explaining how Saddam has set the stage for a glimmering New Babylon, Hitchcock argues that “the ouster of Saddam from power actually makes the rebuilding of Babylon much more likely” because now the sanctions on Iraqi oil sales will be lifted, opening the door for a flood of “billions of dollars, euros, and yen.”

Such comments highlight the unrelentingly negative and fatalistic character of popular Bible-prophecy books and authors. You thought Saddam was bad? Wait until you see the next guy. You thought life was going to get better? Wait until you experience the coming Tribulation and the rule of The Antichrist. If conditions improve, it’s only so they can become twice as bad in the very near future.

I can attest to how unrelentingly negative it all is, having grown up in that environment. Anything good is only to pave the way for evil. Anyone who works to try to improve things is working for the devil and against God. Things must continue to get worse, and we shouldn’t fight against it.

So now that Saddam isn’t the Antichrist, who’s next in line? Yes, I hear the calls from the left: George W. Bush.

Ion Mihai Pacepa was chief of Romanian foreign intelligence in the 1970’s. Before defecting to the United States, he was Moammar Gadhafi’s handler in the Soviet bloc’s attempt to use Libya as a weapon against the United States. In his National Review article, he describes how he worked with Gadhafi to develop chemical and biological weapons for Libya in exchange for Libya’s oil money.

Pacepa believes it is no coincidence that Gadhafi renounced weapons of mass destruction when the US invaded Iraq and captured Saddam Hussein. (He also spells Gadhafi as Khaddafi. But he’s met the man, so he probably knows better how to spell Gadhafi than I do.)

In my judgment Khaddafi is not a man of honor in the making. Rather, he is afraid for his life. He does not relish Saddam’s fate. Tyrants are always paranoid — for good reason. Ceaucescu never ate anything unless it had been tasted for poison by somebody else. Khaddafi calculates that his best chance of holding onto wealth and position for his golden years is by cutting a deal and getting Libya delisted as one of the world’s worst rogue regimes….

Appeasement never works with such men. But fear does.

Mark that last paragraph, all you who keep saying that diplomacy alone led Gadhafi to offer to give up his weapons of mass destruction.

He also includes this little lovely little description of these three dictators: “Khaddafi, Saddam, and Ceaucescu were all physical cowards who compensated by acting like kings.”

Michael Fumento in his National Review article Opt-Out Military writes about how a Federal judge recently ruled that military members can refuse anthrax vaccinations (known by its initials as AVA). The ruling comes despite the real threat our military faces of terrorists using anthrax as a weapon against our troops, and the relatively low risk of side effects from the vaccination. The anthrax vaccination was first approved by the FDA in 1970 and has been used for vaccinating over a million military members to date.

As the NAS [National Academy of Sciences] indicated, no vaccine is risk-free. Nevertheless, in government statistics on all self-reported adverse reactions to all U.S.-licensed vaccines, out of 27 vaccines tracked in 2001 only six had a lower percentage of adverse events than AVA. One vaccine (combined diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus) had an adverse-report rate 35 times that of AVA. Interestingly, the 2001 AVA rate was merely a sixth that of 1999. Why? Because 1999 was the height of the anthrax-vaccine hysteria.

The driving force behind the suit to allow service members to opt out of anthrax vaccinations is the hype about the supposed Gulf War Syndrome (GWS). Anthrax vaccinations are one of the supposed causes for GWS. Fumento includes this interesting fact to show that GWS is a myth.

In fact, extensive epidemiological studies have shown that Gulf vets are just as healthy as matched vets who didn’t deploy and healthier than matched civilians. They are somewhat less likely to have died than non-deployed vets and are dying at less than half the rate of the general population. This is not only the case here, but in the U.K. as well. There is no GWS.

Our staff Gulf War Veteran here at MJ did not get an anthrax vaccination prior to deploying in 1990 since he was sent to Diego Garcia and not to Saudi Arabia. But he did get the malaria and hepatitis vaccinations. He does tell us that those vaccinations worked quite well for him as he got neither malaria nor hepatitis, even after eating at a Chi-Chi’s about five years ago.

We are pleased to know that he is healthier than comparable civilians and he is dying at half the rate of the general population. There are benefits of war time service.

Q.70. What is the seventh commandment?

A. The seventh commandment is: You shall not commit adultery.

Headline Pittsburgh Tribune Review: Holiday obituary deadline for Tribune-Review

In an earlier article, we presented a Democrat’s analysis of the Lord of the Rings. But as some of our readers pointed out, that analysis didn’t make much sense (Bush destroys Ashcroft?). So we here at MJ decided to send Barmy, our staff Democratic apologist, to watch the movie and report back with a more cogent analysis. Thanks for doubling as our movie reviewer, and take it away, Barmy.

I really enjoyed the series of movies. As movies, and as a story, they really stand on their own. However, I believe the screenwriter, J.R.R. Tolkien, clearly was writing an allegory. Please beware, I will give away some of the plot in the final movie in this analysis.

To really understand what he was saying, we need to understand the rules Tolkien followed in coming up with the story line for this movie.

1. First of all, just like any allegory, it will fall apart if you try to analyze it too much. So just go with the general impressions without thinking too much. If you try thinking too much, this analysis will no longer make sense.
2. Secondly, the characters do not necessarily represent one and only one thing throughout the movie. The representations clearly change from scene to scene in the movie. One character might represent one real life person in one scene, and someone else in another scene. A real life person might be represented by different characters in different scenes. You must pay close attention and be always thinking through out the movie.
3. Finally, Tolkien is not a seer. He is not foretelling the future. So, I am sorry to say, but my Democratic friend is wrong to suggest that this is about 2004 election. Rather he is commenting on events in the past, mainly the 2000 election.

With those ground rules, lets get to some of the details.

The one ring of power is clearly the office of the Presidency. Thus we can see that Gollum represents both George Bush the father and the son. George H.W. Bush was the president and had the ring for a period of time. But through his own incompetence, he lost it to the kind and loveable Bilbo (Bill Clinton). As George W. Bush, Gollum seeks to regain what his father lost.

After holding the ring for a long period of time (8 years), Bilbo seeks to hand it over to his chosen successor, Frodo, who obviously represents Al Gore. Bilbo struggles with his desire to hold on to the ring, but voluntarily gives it up. If you recall, there were many people calling for a change in the Constitution to allow Clinton to run for a third term. Had that change been made, Clinton most certainly would have been able to keep the "ring". Also, note how in the movies, everyone else is corrupted by the power of the ring except for Bilbo and Frodo (Clinton and Gore). The rest all fall to the allure of the power of the Presidency and will use the Presidency for their own personal gain.

Gandalf, the wise and powerful, who councils Frodo in his flight from the Nazgul, is Bill Clinton. His fight with the evil Balrog in which he falls to his supposed death is his battle with the Republican Congress in which he is impeached. But just as Gandalf returned from the dead to be more powerful, Clinton was not convicted by the Senate and rose from the impeachment even more powerful than he previously was.

Sauron is the evil power behind all the trouble. Notice that he does not have a body. That is because he does not represent a person. At least not a single person. Sauron represents the right wing, conservative media, sometimes correctly referred to as a vast right wing conspiracy. His Nazgul are the Republican appointed Supreme Court Justices who stick a dagger into Frodo, representing their selection of Bush as President over the majority vote of the nation, almost fatally wounding Gore.

The Two Towers are a clear allusion to the World Trade Center. The powers of evil use the two towers to conquer the world, just as Bush uses the destruction of the World Trade Center as an excuse to launch his world wide war of conquest.

The Steward of Gondor, Denethor, makes a brief appearance as George W. Bush, ordering the troops into a hopeless battle while he sits at home feasting, careless of their deaths. This obviously was a last minute addition that Tolkien made to the film in reaction to what is currently going on in Iraq. The Bush administration obviously got wind of it and sent Bush to Iraq for two hours on Thanksgiving to try to make the more gullible of the public miss the obvious intent of the scene.

In the climactic scene of the movie, Gollum attacks Frodo, biting off his finger to gain the ring of power. But it ultimately proves to be his undoing as he is destroyed while reveling in his victory. Gore clearly won the election as a majority of the American people voted for him to be the President. But Bush, in his unconstitutional grab for power, attacked him with lawsuits and ripped the Presidency away from Gore. But what he did not realize is that in gaining the Presidency, he ultimately caused his own undoing. He is the President select who has no right to the office he holds. Everywhere he goes, he is opposed by the right thinking people of the world. Just recall his recent visit to England and the hundreds of thousands who showed up to protest his illegitimate leadership of the United States, and his imperial conquests of foreign nations. That is the picture Tolkien intended with his picture of Gollum sinking into the molten rock to be finally and completely swallowed and forgotten. In 2004, Bush will be voted out of office to be forgotten in history, remembered only for his brazen act of taking the ring that was not his. Gore, not Bush, is the true Lord of the Ring.

So folks, there is our MJ Democratic analysis of LOTR. We hope you have enjoyed it. See the movie. Make your own decisions. And thanks, Barmy.

Senator Joe Lieberman has possibly committed what is considered blasphemy by the Democratic party. He said something that could be construed as meaning that Roe vs. Wade ought to be reconsidered by the courts in light of recent medical advances. Joe is now in furious backpedal mode declaring his staunch support for killing the unborn before this statement hurts him in the primaries.