Thursday, 23 September 2004

Kerry Trashes Prime Minister Allawi

Shortly after the interim prime minister of Iraq gave thanks to the U.S. forits work in freeing Iraq, Kerry came out and blasted Allawi by sayingthat the premier was painting an unrealistically upbeat picture of thesituation in his homeland.

It is appalling to watch a presidential candidate embarrass the country hehopes to represent. Here in Allawi, we have a man who risks his life daily torebuild his beloved country. He travels here to thank the United Statesfor making it possible for the Iraqi people to run their own government. And Kerry calls him a liar painting an unreal picture of his own country. He has also insulted our allies like Britian, Australia, Poland, and South Korea by calling them the coalition of the bribed and co-erced. I am wondering if Kerry is planning on showing this same class and sensitivity when he "rebuilds" relationships in the world. If so, I am sure we will gain lots of new friends under a Kerry presidency.

Posted by elendil at 9:53 PM in National Politics
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Mitch McConnell Loop Trail

The McConnell Loop trail is located within Jefferson Forest near LouisvilleKentucky. The trail is 5.4 miles in length and takes about 3 hours to hike.It is a hilly trail that goes up and down along a number of ridges insouthern Jefferson county. Fortunately, none of the hills are especiallysteep or overly long making it a moderately difficult but vigorous trail.

The underbrush of the forest is not dense allowing views of the surrounding nature. The views down into the forest from the top of the ridges are the highlights of the hike. Even though the trail follows a number of ridges the trees deny panoramic views of the surrounding countryside.

The only downside of the trail is the intermixing of horse trail with largeportions of the Loop trail. This means you have to dodge horse pies and mud pits during extended portions of the trail.

Overall it is a good hike and one I would give a rating of 2.5 stars.
Posted by elendil at 1:11 PM in Travel
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Value of Talk Radio

Last night, I was watching the O'Reily Factor on Fox News. Normally, I don't watch his show, but he had an interesting segment on the impact of talk radio on the world of politics. The guests acknowledged that talk radio was overwhelmingly conservative and male dominated. They also concluded talk radio was preaching to the choir and had minimal impact on the election cycle holding up Clinton's election as proof.

What they failed to see was what I call the "water cooler" effect of talkradio which I believe is only recently beginning to surface. To understandthe water cooler effect, it is important to understand what service talk radiois performing.

First it is providing relevant news information to those who areconservative. This is news that was not available to conservatives fromtraditional news sources. Stories like the 60 minutes forgeddocuments and the swift boat ads might never have been known without thehelp of talk radio.

More importantly, talk radio provides education in conservative theory.It provides a form a mentoring for those in the conservative movement. Itprovides a foundation that allows us conservatives to go forth and spreadour philosophy intelligently to those around us.

Thus it is the conversations around the water cooler that allow us to winconverts to conservatism. To help others understand the logic thatdominates conservative thought. It is this grass movement effect that isbeginning to sway the people of this country to a more active conservativeposition.

We are seeing the effects of this everywhere
  • Bush is leading the election even though he has been pounded mercilessly by the left and media
  • Democrats hide from the liberal label and try to cast themselves asconservative
  • Republican registration is up over democratic registration in new registration
  • The younger generation which is traditionally left wing is moving closer to a 50-50 split between conservatives and liberals.
These trends do not bold well for the left in this country. And I believetalk radio has been a major force in this gradual demographic shift.
Posted by elendil at 11:04 AM in National Politics
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