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Viewpoints

by James Reza

Mon, Aug 4, 2008, 11:26 PM

Back in the 1970s I loved to vacation in Corpus Christi, Texas. I loved the city so much that I wanted to move there. Coincidently, the Corpus Christi Caller (city’s newspaper) used the same computers (Photon Pacesetters and AKI Keyboards) that I operated here in Fort Worth. When I went for a job interview, I not only was offered a great salary, but the newspaper was willing to buy my house in Fort Worth and aid me in purchasing one in Corpus Christi. Obviously, individuals with my computer skills were hard to find in the "Sparkling City by the Sea." Moving to South Texas not only excited my wife, but my children as well.

I usually took my vacations right before my kids started their school year in August. Unbeknown to me, the hurricane season was right around the corner in the following month of September. Coming back to Fort Worth I made plans to tell my employer that I would soon be leaving to go work in Corpus Christi. Also, I had the difficult task of telling my parents, in-laws, close family members, and friends that we planned to move to Corpus. However, in a flash everything came to a halt. Yes my friends, a severe hurricane slammed the city of Corpus Christi, which got the undivided attention of my wife and me. Driving back to Corpus to meet with my soon to be employer, I got a full view of the devastation caused by a hurricane. It was incredible how this beautiful city was left in shambles in a few hours. Even the beautiful motel we stayed in previously was blown away. Living in North Texas, I have seen the damage tornadoes have done, but they pail in comparison to the destructive power of a hurricane. As I drove around the city observing the destruction, I decided then that that was not what I wanted for my family and me. I called my soon to be boss and told him the deal was off, I was staying in Fort Worth.

Every year during the hurricane season I hear predictions of how many hurricanes will develop in the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Most often such predictions are wrong. However, for as long as I can remember, hurricanes have pounded the Eastern Seaboard and the states along the Gulf of Mexico. It’s during this time that I ask myself, "Why do people want to live at in a city or town where a hurricane one day could destroy all they have worked for all of their lives? Who in their right mind wants to endanger the lives of their love ones by placing them in a hurricane risk area?" Thus, when a hurricane blows away a coastal city in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, or Texas, I, somewhat ashamed, don’t feel sorry for them. These people know full well the dangerous area they live in. I feel that coastal dwellers play Russian roulette with their lives every hurricane season.

Today, coastal dwellers due to our weather satellites are made aware of an approaching hurricane and consequently many lives are spared. Some however don’t heed the warnings and stay to ride out the often-dangerous storms. Anybody out there remember Katrina?

This year California has experienced vast uncontrollable wild forest fires. Many have lost their lives and homes due to these wild forest fires. Again, and sad to say, I have zero pity for Californians who have lost every thing in a forest fire. Individuals who buy or have their homes built in and around a forest are toying with danger. California’s forests consist mostly of Sequoia and pine trees. These trees are highly flammable. A cigarette tossed out of a car by a careless driver or a lightning strike can quickly ignite a tree. In a relative short while, a wild fire erupts, destroying in its path vast acres of forest and any dwelling within. Unlike victims of a hurricane or a tornado, who can find shelter or flee the danger, forest fire victims are most often helpless. And to add to their woes, environmentalists with the support of federal judges forbid homeowners in those areas to cut down trees to put a barrier between their dwelling and an approaching forest fire. In other words, federal judges, along with environmentalists prefer to see a forest and homes go up in smoke rather than cutting down the trees to protect existing homes, build more homes, make paper products, wood cabinets, etc.

I recently found the following three paragraphs off of a California environmental website:

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer ruled in San Francisco in late August that the "Forest Service's interest in harvesting timber has trampled" environmental laws protecting timberland in and around California's Giant Sequoia National Monument. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1997.

In a much broader ruling, another federal judge in California used scolding language two weeks ago in tossing out a Bush administration plan that allowed governors to decide what national forest land is suited for logging, mining or energy development.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth D. Laporte largely reinstated a Clinton-era "roadless rule," which had put nearly a third of the national forests off-limits to development.

Finally, I sign off with this: California, a very Democratic state, and their elected representatives it seems, tend to protect trees more than they do human life and property. California voters in my opinion, fall into this old saying, "You Made Up Your Bed, Now Lie In It!"

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Solzhenitsyn on Modern Russia and the West

by Charles Ganske

Mon, Aug 4, 2008, 06:14 PM

To mark the publication of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's memoir of exile, My American Years, the German magazine Der Spiegel recently published an interview with the 88 year-old Russian writer. While many Westerners today argue that Putin's Russia is resurrecting the Soviet Union, Mr. Solzhenitsyn, who actually survived the Gulag, has a very different view of modern Russian history.

In the years since 1994, when he returned to a hero's welcome in post-Soviet Russia, Solzhenitsyn has received both praise and criticism in his homeland. One modern Russian commentator, writing a few months ago here at Russia Blog, described Solzhenitsyn as "an aging prophet hurling thunderbolts". In America, his remarks have often been ignored, especially since his famous commencement address delivered to Harvard University graduates in 1978. In that speech, Solzhenitsyn attacked what he saw as a rising tide of spiritual decay and materialism in the West, which seemed to be losing the will to defend itself and the moral principals that made it great. Needless to say, some people did not care for this jeremiad and have subsequently ignored the old dissident. But regardless of whether one agrees with Solzhenitsyn's worldview, he has certainly earned the right to speak about the state of his country, and to tell the West where he believes Russia has come from and where it is going.

Here are some excerpts from the Der Spiegel article:On Russia's President, Vladimir Putin:

"Vladimir Putin -- yes, he was an officer of the intelligence services, but he was not a KGB investigator, nor was he the head of a camp in the gulag. As for service in foreign intelligence, that is not a negative in any country -- sometimes it even draws praise. George Bush Sr. was not much criticized for being the ex-head of the CIA, for example...""Putin inherited a ransacked and bewildered country, with a poor and demoralized people. And he started to do what was possible -- a slow and gradual restoration. These efforts were not noticed, nor appreciated, immediately. In any case, one is hard pressed to find examples in history when steps by one country to restore its strength were met favorably by other governments."On the Need to Build Democracy from the Grassroots Up in Russia:

"I have always insisted on the need for local self-government for Russia, but I never opposed this model to Western democracy. On the contrary, I have tried to convince my fellow citizens by citing the examples of highly effective local self-government systems in Switzerland and New England, both of which I saw first-hand."

"In your question you confuse local self-government, which is possible on the most grassroots level only, when people know their elected officials personally, with the dominance of a few dozen regional governors, who during Yeltsin's period were only too happy to join the federal government in suppressing any local self-government initiatives."

"Today I continue to be extremely worried by the slow and inefficient development of local self-government. But it has finally started to take place."On Conflating the Russian Federation with the USSR:

"...that conflation of 'Soviet' and 'Russian', against which I spoke so often in the 1970s, has not passed away either in the West, or in the ex-socialist countries, or in the former Soviet republics. The elder political generation in communist countries was not ready for repentance, while the new generation is only too happy to voice grievances and level accusations, with present-day Moscow a convenient target. They behave as if they heroically liberated themselves and lead a new life now, while Moscow has remained communist. Nevertheless, I dare hope that this unhealthy phase will soon be over, that all the peoples who have lived through communism will understand that communism is to blame for the bitter pages of their history."

"If we could all take a sober look at our history, then we would no longer see this nostalgic attitude to the Soviet past that predominates now among the less affected part of our society. Nor would the Eastern European countries and former USSR republics feel the need to see in historical Russia the source of their misfortunes."

"One should not ascribe the evil deeds of individual leaders or political regimes to an innate fault of the Russian people and their country. One should not attribute this to the 'sick psychology' of the Russians, as is often done in the West. All these regimes in Russia could only survive by imposing a bloody terror. We should clearly understand that only the voluntary and conscientious acceptance by a people of its guilt can ensure the healing of a nation. Unremitting reproaches from outside, on the other hand, are counterproductive."On How Russians View the West:

"When I returned to Russia in 1994, the Western world and its states were practically being worshipped. Admittedly, this was caused not so much by real knowledge or a conscious choice, but by the natural disgust with the Bolshevik regime and its anti-Western propaganda."

"This mood started changing with the cruel NATO bombings of Serbia [in 1999]. It's fair to say that all layers of Russian society were deeply and indelibly shocked by those bombings. The situation then became worse when NATO started to spread its influence and draw the ex-Soviet republics into its structure. This was especially painful in the case of Ukraine, a country whose closeness to Russia is defined by literally millions of family ties among our peoples, relatives living on different sides of the national border. At one fell stroke, these families could be torn apart by a new dividing line, the border of a military bloc."

"So, the perception of the West as mostly a 'knight of democracy' has been replaced with the disappointed belief that pragmatism, often cynical and selfish, lies at the core of Western policies. For many Russians it was a grave disillusion, a crushing of ideals."On Why the West Needs a Strong Russia:

"At the same time the West was enjoying its victory after the exhausting Cold War, and observing the 15-year-long anarchy under Gorbachev and Yeltsin. In this context it was easy to get accustomed to the idea that Russia had become almost a Third World country and would remain so forever."

"When Russia started to regain some of its strength as an economy and as a state, the West's reaction -- perhaps a subconscious one, based on erstwhile fears -- was panic...but even before that, the West deluded itself -- or maybe conveniently ignored the reality -- by regarding Russia as a young democracy, whereas in fact there was no democracy at all. Of course Russia is not a democratic country yet; it is just starting to build democracy."

"It is all too easy to take Russia to task with a long list of omissions, violations and mistakes....but did not Russia clearly and unambiguously stretch its helping hand to the West after 9/11? Only a psychological shortcoming, or else a disastrous shortsightedness, can explain the West's irrational refusal of this hand.No sooner did the USA accept Russia's critically important aid in Afghanistan than it immediately started making newer and newer demands. As for Europe, its claims towards Russia are fairly transparently based on fears about energy, unjustified fears at that."

"Isn't it a luxury for the West to be pushing Russia aside now, especially in the face of new threats? In my last Western interview before I returned to Russia (for Forbes magazine in April 1994) I said: "If we look far into the future, one can see a time in the 21st century when both Europe and the USA will be in dire need of Russia as an ally."

On the Quiet Revival of the Russian Orthodox Church:"Do not forget what a horrible human toll the Russian Orthodox Church suffered throughout almost the entire 20th century. The Church is just rising from its knees. Our young post-Soviet state is just learning to respect the Church as an independent institution. The 'Social Doctrine' of the Russian Orthodox Church, for example, goes much further than do government programs. Recently Metropolitan Kirill, a prominent expounder of the Church's position, has made repeated calls for reforming the taxation system. His views are quite different from those of government, yet he airs them in public, on national television..."

You Tube link.

Originally appeared in Russia Blog.com

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William Wayne Justice: high taxes in any language

by Bill Murchison

Sat, Aug 2, 2008, 05:52 PM

All you have to do is read the name “U.S. Dist. Judge William Wayne Justice” in a news story. You know trouble is coming — big, expensive trouble.

Texas’ long experience with the Emperor Wayne I, in matters like school desegregation and prison oversight, permits — nay, dictates — queasy feelings about the judge’s intervention in bilingual education policy. (see Federal Court orders better English tutoring, p. 1)

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Who is to Blame when the Good Guys go to Prison, and the Bad Guy goes Free

by Bob Reagan

Sat, Aug 2, 2008, 03:01 PM

As a former police officer, my visceral reaction to the U. S. Fifth Circuit upholding the criminal convictions and lengthy sentences of former Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean was, despite the late Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson’ dictum to the contrary, that our Constitution has become a national suicide pact. Before commenting, though, I thought it would be helpful to actually read the Fifth Circuit’s opinion in United States v. Ramos and Compean. You can, too, here. Such a reading is instructive. For one thing, it demonstrates the obvious miscarriage of justice that occurred, and makes it pretty clear where the blame lies. There is plenty to go around, much further than one would think.

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Running Down a Dream

by Eddie Allen

Tue, Jul 29, 2008, 04:29 PM

In 2006 the NBA changed its rules to require players to be 19 years of age and at least a year out of high school before they can be considered eligible for the league’s draft. While the move may have been intended to guard against a watershed of talent skipping over and thus devaluating the NCAA game and costing that NBA feeder system further revenue growth through the inevitable lack of relevance and public interest, it has none-the-less resulted in a precedent that may result in more harm than good. Oak Hill Academy (Virginia) point guard standout, Brandon Jennings, signed a three year deal with Vitus Roma according to the team’s web site.

This move will inevitably lead others make a similar jump to play outside the U.S. and score a career that may or may not lead them back to the NBA after they have satisfied the league’s extant eligibility requirements. This landmark move demonstrates to future talent that there is a creative solution to the problem of how to capitalize on their skill set in exchange for more than a token scholarship that, for most, holds little more attraction than the opportunity to grab the most attention from pro scouts.

I recently spoke to Arizona State University standout who graduated in 1998 as the school’s leading scorer, Jeremy Veal, about Brandon Jennings’ decision to seek a position with a foreign club. Veal, who currently plays for the Cocodrilos de Caracas (Venezuela), declared that he would have made the same move.

"I would have done it. Most guys would." Jeremy says.

After gaining experience in the NBA’s Development League as well as several other professional leagues including a few European leagues, Veal extols the virtues of working among professionals, "He’ll (Jennings) will learn a lot. The game’s a lot different over there. But so is college ball.

"European teams focus so much more on team play than the NBA does. That’s why the Dream Team was drummed in the Olympics. European teams will practice running the same play against every possible defensive look and you as a player are expected to adapt to anything that is thrown at you. The NBA is more focused on superstars and one-on-one play."

When asked what benefits Jennings may gain from serving in a foreign league, Veal responded positively. "The pressure is higher. Over there you’re playing with guys that are working to keep their jobs. If you don’t do your job, they may lose theirs. This guy next to you is working for a living. That’s not the case in college."

It would appear that not only will Jennings stand to gain invaluable work experience but, according to a statement by the general manager of his new team, he will still receive education and tutoring as well as media training. That skill alone may be more practical than any information he could receive in any four year turn in the NCAA. These details may be persuasive enough to sway any prospective collegiate athlete to consider foreign-based possibilities but it may simply come down to a more intimate factor.

If you didn’t grow up dreaming of a career ringing up three pointers at the buzzer or blocking a Kevin Garnett slam dunk back into the face of the NBA champion, then you may not appreciate the decision that faced Jennings and now every young and skilled player in this field. Consider the aspiring painter who invests every spare moment in the pursuit of the opportunity to receive adequate, if not abundant, exchange for their skills. Could anyone ever blame them for accepting the highest available position attainable?

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