Finding Happiness During the Fall of Western Civilization

Seems Vladmir Putin, that old KGB retread from the dark days of the Cold War has assassinated another political enemy, this time with radioactive poisoning. Putin is still KGB and about as committed to democracy as Karl Marx. What's more, the old Commie is providing an air missle defense system to Iran in case either Israel or the US decides to bomb Iran's nuclear plants. Putin is an old despot who is just plain bad news, as if we needed any more right now. Putin should be an acknowledged enemy of the West and Russia should be added to the states that support worldwide terrorism.

In January we have a new pacifist Congress taking power as they are cheered on by their terrorist and communist supporters and fans, just at a time when Syria and Iran feel increasingly confident about destroying Israel and furthering the worldwide jihad against Infidels. I do not feel at all optimistic about reversing the continuing and accelerating decline of Western Civilization. I am thinking of buying a good rifle like an M-16, though I really don't know what I would do with it. I just like the idea of having one in case of some nightmare scenario where it might be needed.

I have a feeling that I won't be happy with the political situation for a while, so I am looking for other things to make me happy in the interim. I have two things right now, a warm puppy and music. Let me explain.

My son and I went to see a rancher in Half Moon Bay a couple of days ago to buy one of his Bullmastiff pups. My son owned a Bullmastiff who contracted cancer and died back in July and he has been wanted another one to help plug the crack in his heart. The rancher we bought it from was a gun-toting survivalist type who drove a big Ford pickup truck, Harley-Davidson edition. He had long hair and a goatee and wore a white baseball cap. He told us there are 4,000 mosques in American and "there should be zero." He also mentioned he smokes fine cigars and believes every American citizen should own a gun. Obviously, the man was a right wing redneck gun nut who is completely out of touch with sensitivity and multiculturalism. In other words, my kind of guy.

We picked out a female red fawn pup with a black mask and brought her home. In two days she has charmed everyone in the house, including my pet-hating wife, and we all just love her. Happiness is a warm puppy indeed. Her name is Prudence. She is eight weeks old and will be around 120 pounds when full grown.

During the Fall of Western Civilization I want to imitate Nero who played the violin while Rome burned. Only I will be playing my string bass. When dirty bombs are ravaging Cleveland and anthrax is wiping out Chatanooga and Jihadis are beheading our citizens in the streets, I will be on my balcony overlooking the burning scene as I lay down some funky bass lines. I'm exaggerating - I don't even have a balcony.

But I really am working on those bass lines. I just bought a whole handfull of Vince Guaraldi Trio CD's (smooth jazz) and one by the Stanley Clarke Trio and another by the David Benoit quartet. For those who would play cool jazz, you have to listen to a lot of it first.

Vince Guaraldi was a piano player from San Francisco whose jazz trio provided much of the theme music for Charles Schultz's "Peanuts" cartoon. Two CD's I recommend are "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "A Boy Named Charlie Brown," both with original music by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. There is nothing lovelier than Christmas music played as smooth jazz (also called mellow jazz).

Vince Guaraldi died suddenly in early 1976 of a heart attack, while playing at a club in Menlo Park, California. He was on break between sets and went into a private room, sat down and just died. He was 46 years old and had just that morning completed recording the theme music to "It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown." David Benoit, another fine jazz musician, took over the Peanuts theme music after Guaraldi's death.

I love to practice string bass to Guaraldi's music, but it is also a potent antitode for the blues. I recommend it.

Time for a Christian Jihad?

Atlas Shrugs is running atrocity pictures of Muslim violence against Christians in Indonesia. Lots of heads minus a body. It's a great advertisement of the disgusting, vile, inhuman and animalistic "religion" called Islam.

Disgust and a desire for revenge is growing in the non-Muslim world. In fact, Mark Steyn speaks of "non-state actors" in his book "America Alone." Non-state actors are people who act on their own against an enemy, without the advice or assistance of their government. The passengers of Flight 93 were non-state actors. It's why Mark Steyn believed that any dirty bombs exploded in the West will soon motivate non-state actors to begin reprisal bombings in Cairo or Tehran.

At what point do Christians invoke their own form of jihad? At what point does pay-back begin?

I don't know the answer to that question but it is interesting to contemplate. And Muslims are the ones who had better do the contemplating.

The Greatness of Music: Two Films

My No. 1 Son and my No. 3 son were home yesterday. All of us love music, an important part of Western culture. My sons are so much like me, they love the same things I do, even when we discover them completely independently of each other.

No. 3 brought two DVD movies with him, "Mr. Holland's Opus" and "Amadeus." Both are great movies to watch if you have a music student in the family or just love music yourself.

"Mr. Holland's Opus" is about a high school music teacher whose instruction and inspiration touches many lives. "Amadeus," of course, is about the life of Mozart.

The latter film is only loosely based on the life of Mozart; it is mostly a work of fiction. In it a jealous Vienna Court Composer, one Antonio Salieri, prays fervently to Jesus to make him a great composer. However, his prayers go unanswered and his career, though successful, never rises to the level of greatness. When he realizes he cannot achieve greatness like Mozart, he believes that God has betrayed him. He burns his Jesus image in the fireplace and plots to undermine Mozart.

"Amadeus" has some great moral messages. God is not a genie in a bottle who grants wishes in exchange for loyalty or faith. Salieri was an accomplished man in many respects, wealthy and respected. He should have had an "attitude of gratitude" for the many blessings he did enjoy. Instead, he became bitter and obsessed with what he didn't have.

Greatness is not an end in itself, but a by product of the passionate pursuit of an interest, whether it be music, science, business, sports or art. Son No. 1 loves the guitar as much as I love the bass. We both strive to master our instruments, not to achieve the accolades of strangers, but to satisfy a love for the music and the instrument that creates it. Of course, we hope to play for audiences and hope they will enjoy the music. But our first goal is to please our own souls through the creative expression of music. The goal is not to become great, but to become as good as we can.

Rebooting the World: Christian Nihilism and the Second Coming

Nihilism is the a doctrine or belief that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility. In other words, the system sucks and we can't fix it.

There is a kind of Christian nihilism that I find disturbing. It is the belief that the Second Coming of Christ is eminent and that this world will be destroyed almost any minute. For this reason, Christian nihilists believe we shouldn't waste time opposing Muslim oppression because God is going to reboot the world momentarily and that will fix all problems.

Well I don't believe it. I think the world will exist for many more millenia. The question isn't whether the world will be physically destroyed, but who or what will inherit it. Will the world be ruled by pluralistic and tolerant democrats or will it be ruled by Islamic religious fanatics under sharia law?

Putting all your money on the Second Coming number is not a good bet, for several reasons. One is that it forces you to believe that all human effort for progress is futile and that literally nothing, except religion, is worthwhile.

Religion should add zest to life but not replace life altogether. I will not set around in fearful paralysis in my darkened room, looking for signs and wonders as I await the Second Coming. That is not living life.

People who believe that the Second Coming will occur at any minute need never worry themselves with long-term plans or thinking. No need to plant any oak trees to provide shade for future generations: there won’t be any future generations. No need to enroll in college; who needs a degree in Heaven? No need to start a retirement fund: you won’t need it in the next world. No need to take up a musical instrument, write a novel, save for a new home, or marry and start a family. Why bother? Tomorrow or the next day Jesus will appear in the sky with throngs of angels and all of us reprobates will be in deep doo-doo.

What a miserable way to live your life. That’s not for me, sorry. I hope its not for you either, because it is a cop out. Such a belief relieves you of any long term planning and the effort, risk and worry of opposing evil. It tends to produce the illusion that effort is not needed. The result will be fewer, or maybe no Christians in the world of tomorrow.

Our ancestors, who crossed the seas in wooden tubs, cleared the forests, fought savage Indians, disease, famine and bad weather, were mostly Christians. Christians wrote the Magna Charta, the U.S. Constitution and created the great nations of the West. They didn't sit on their butts waiting for the Second Coming.

Christians also saved their faith and their freedom from the barbarians. In 732, one Charles "The Hammer" Martel and his Christian army stood their ground outside of Tours and finally halted the previously unstoppable Muslim forces who had conquered much of the world.

The Muslims returned in 1683 and were again stopped, by a Christian army, at the gates of Vienna. The Christian army of 70,000 men was led by Charles V. Duke of Lorraine, against a much larger Muslim force (Turkish Ottomans). The battle marked the turning point in the 300-year struggle between the forces of the Central European kingdoms and the Islamic Ottoman Empire.

The Polish Cavalry gave the Muslims what-for that day and sent them into retreat, saving Europe from the imposition of an alien faith and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of "infidels."

Now those are my kind of Christians.

Save the West: Get Someone Pregnant Today!

Well my wild ride courtesy of Mark Steyn is slowing down. Thanks for all the hits, Mark.

I finished Mark's book, "America Alone" last night. This book really should be required reading for everyone in the West (USA, Canada and Europe). We are committing cultural and demographic suicide and it's time we did something to reverse those trends.

There is some good news: Red State (conservative) citizens reproduce faster than do the inhabitants of Blue States and big liberal cities. Religious families are generally bigger than non-religious families. Perhaps we conservatives can bury the liberals over time through our birth rates. I doubt it though: even conservative birth rates are in decline, just not as fast.

One of the most interesting points of "America Alone" is that socialism really dampens human reproduction. Seven of the eight countries with the lowest birth rates were all members of the Soviet Union. Communism made life so miserable that its inhabitants just stopped reproducing. Who would want to raise children in such a hell hole?

Ah, now that they are free they can "get busy" again, hey? No, unfortunately, once a people stops giving birth they apparently find it difficult to get back in the groove.

Save the West folks. Throw out your condoms and your television set. Do your duty - you may be saving civilization as we know it and it sure beats the hell out of war. A lot more fun too.

Oh horrors, I just realized the San Francisco Hippies of 1968 were right after all! They said we should "Make Love Not War."

Smoking that funny stuff is not a prerequisite, however.

As Nike says, Just Do It.

Mark Steyn Honors Saber Point With a Link

Starting a web log (blog) is easy; getting noticed is not. Many times in the past eight months I have considered adding the sound of crickets to my main page to acknowledge the sparse visitors. Yesterday things changed.

Yesterday morning I sat down and knocked off a post about a book I am reading, Mark Steyn's "America Alone." Around 2 PM I checked my blog stats and noticed a huge spike in the number of visitors. I checked further and found many new visitors were being directed from Mark Steyn's website where Mark had placed a link to my review of his book (see my post of yesterday, immediately preceding this one.)

Thanks to Mark Steyn, who is, by the way, one of my favorite conservative pundits, Saber Point received the largest number of one-day hits in its eight months of existence. They are still coming today. The number of countries visiting this site are now at 100.

Mark Steyn is a very talented and humorous writer. He entertains you at the same time he is educating you. Needless to say I am honored that one of my heroes has acknowledged my existence.

Check out his website at www.steynonline.com or www.marksteyn.com. Either link will take you there.

The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization

It's cold and raining here in Podunk County where I live among garlic and onion fields, the cows, the sheep and the horses. In season, we have big red strawberries or cherries you can buy from stands along the road. Not at this time of year, however.

The weather has turned cold and it's beginning to feel like winter, or as winter as it gets in California anyway. It's so cold I may have to put on a sweater before I go outside.

I am currently reading Mark Steyn's new book, "America Alone." It is a fascinating page-turner for sure. He talks a lot about the demographic decline of Western civilization, how birth rates are so low in Europe, Russia and Japan that the populations there are not sustaining themselves and are being cut in half every thirty years or so. Modern, pluralistic and enlightened civilization is dying, effectively committing suicide, while Islamic populations are expanding vigorously. Unless things change, the world will be Islamic and the Jihadis won't have to fire a shot.

Why is this happening? Steyn points out that government entitlements and unsustainable social programs are a major factor. Steyn argues that such programs sap the survival instinct of the people who live under socialistic systems and that they lose their confidence and their will, becoming fearful and dependent.

My theory is that children are a financial luxury that many overtaxed working couples can no longer afford. They are forced to provide more and more support to the aged and the retired and so have less funds to raise a family, so families are smaller than they once were. My mother-in-law had eight children, but her three sons have no children at all, and each of her five daughters has two or less. My wife's current generation is therefore not even at sustaining level.

Because our tax burdens are so much greater than a generation ago, most married couples have to work. It isn't like the 1950's where the father went to work and the mother stayed home to raise kids and maintain the household. Today both the husband and wife work - they have to in order to live at a middle class level. Working women do have children, but no doubt their need to work dampens the birth rate.

There are various cultural trends that are a factor as well. The invention of the Pill around 40 years ago, the widespread acceptability of abortion (with women even bragging about their abortions via T shirt slogans at the Democratic Convention), the foolish and wrong-headed notion of the "Population Bomb." This latter was a theory advanced in the early 70's by some nut root who believed our populations would soon grow to an unsustainable level, devouring all the food and resources, finally resulting in widespread starvation. (The theory was the "global warming" BS of its day.)

And even without a belief in the population bomb, girls today are raised with the belief that if they choose motherhood over career, they are cheating themselves, marginalizing themselves, giving in to the tyranny of a male-dominated society and all that liberal rot.

Marriage is also in decline. Recent news stories indicate that more and more Western couples are choosing not to marry, but just to live together.

As a result of the above cultural trends, many couples think it undesirable if not irresponsible to have children. In any case, Europeans, Russians and Japanese are not having enough babies. These populations are in decline. It takes 2.1 births per couple to just sustain current population levels at a no-growth rate, but rates in England, Spain, Italy, Greece and France are substantially below that. Russia and Japan also have low birth rates (1.5 or lower) and their aging populations are dwindling.

The good news, if there is any, is that the USA is still at the 2.1 births per couple rate. We are sustaining our population but it is not growing. If we continue to follow the Democrats desire to emulate Scandinavia, however, that will change sooner or later. We will then move from a static society to one in numeric decline.

Socialism is a big factor in population decline and European countries are quite socialist. These nanny-governments provide many entitlements to older citizens, paying such things as their rent, medical bills and prescription drugs. The problem with this is that ambitious, unfunded social programs depend on expanding populations to pay for them. Our own Social Security system was set up on that basis. Socialism is a kind of pyramid scheme, depending on an ever expanding number of participants to make it to work.

But the problem is that the number of participants is decreasing, not growing. A declining population spells the ruin and bankruptcy of unfunded social programs. One day, in the middle of winter, with bad chest colds and nothing in the pantry or the bank, ma and pa will find that the government check has ceased to arrive. That's a scary thought for old folks who are dependent on the system.

These facts of life greatly influence European views on immigration. Since Europeans are not replacing themselves, a new source of workers must be found in the form of immigrants to come in and prop up the social systems with their taxes. Surprise, surprise, there are millions of Muslim immigrants who are willing to do that, come to Europe! So the two factors that are the root causes of Islamic immigration into the West are these: (1) declining birthrates and (2) socialism.

But why would anyone want to invite in millions of hostile, unassimilable foreigners just to pay taxes? That's crazy, you say? Maybe it is, but an aging population does not take the long view. Many or most of them don't care what happens in 20, 30, 40 or 50 years, because they'll be dead.

But what about their grandchildren? Don't they care what happens to their grandchildren a few decades down the road? Don't they care that their grandchildren will be raised as Muslims in a new Dark Ages?

Uh, excuse me....What grandchildren?

Beginning to get the picture?

Day After Thoughts on the Midterm Elections

In life, you’ll have your back up against the wall many times. You might as well get used to it. Just remember, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.

-- Paul “Bear” Bryant

Well the election results were bad, as we expected them to be. The Democrats took back the House by winning around 20 seats and they may still take the Senate, as the two seats they need are dead heats in Virginia and Montana. I suspect they will take Virginia at the very least, giving them an even vote in the Senate.

Even so, this election is not a disaster by any means. The party out of power normally gains seats in both houses in the 6th year, as voters get tired of the same party and imagine that a new crop of fresh faces will somehow be better for the country. The tide rolls out but will roll back in again too. Politics, like the seasons, is cyclical. There will always be days when the sun shines but also days when it rains or even snows. If you don’t like the weather, be patient. Sooner or later it will change.

In any case, in two years we Republicans will have another shot at control with the 2008 Presidential and Congressional elections. If we don’t come up with a candidate a lot better than the lackluster George Bush, we’ll lose that too.

A sad note is that Tom McClintock was not elected as Lt. Governor of California, even though he was ahead in the polls. McClintock is a highly competent, knowledgeable, honest gentleman who would have been wonderful for the State. But he didn’t have a “D” after his name so they elected instead an uninspired, lackluster Democrat apparatchik in John Garamandi.

To hell with it all, I voted and the chips can fall where they may. I did everything I could and I am going to let go of the frustration and anger and focus on my bass practice, helping my son and enjoying the coming holidays.

UPDATE: The Democrats have taken Montana and it appears they will win Virginia too. They are ahead by 8,000 votes in Virginia but the results have not yet been certified. In any case, Democrat control of the Senate appears a certainty.

The Dems win, but not by a blowout and not by a mandate. The new political boundaries are close enough that they may quite possibly be regained in two years. Let’s hope that this election result scares the shit out of the remaining Republicans and forces them to get their act together.

Why did the Republicans lose? By way of analogy, it’s as if the Republican candidates were elected on a platform of sobriety and morality and then threw a drunken orgy to celebrate. No that really doesn’t work, fellas. Getting elected is one thing, staying elected is another. You’re never safe. You have to earn your office every day by honest, principled service.

GOP politicians cannot win without the support of their conservative base, so if they want to stay in office they had better return to the basic principles that got them there in the first place. Guess what, politicians: you do need us rank and file members after all.

Democrats, UGH!

It seems the Democrats have won control of the House and may yet win control of the Senate before the night is over. So we will have Nancy Pelosi's detestable mug grinning out of all major newspapers in the morning. It will be interesting to see what mischief the Party of Treason will conjure up for America in the next couple of years. Hope all of you are really intent on higher taxes, less spending for defense, a forced evacuation of Iraq, and a thrilled and jubilant Jihadist movement planning and carrying out bigger and better terrorist attacks.

On the other hand, I will shed no tears for Rino Republicans like Lincoln Chafee and Mike DeWine, Republicans in name only, though I would have preferred them to Democrats, only because they could help the GOP retain control of the Senate.

There are certain truths that have to be acknowledged, one of which is that the American people have insufficient patience, will and moral clarity to put up with any war that extends beyond their rather short attention span. People who like their pizza delivered in half an hour or they don't have to pay, also like their wars wrapped up in a similar time frame and hopefully before prime time when the really good shows air. Bush should have known this before he invaded Iraq, but it is not the only thing he has badly misjudged. We should have bombed Iraq into ruins and then gotten out, and never tried to imagine that barbarians would embrace democracy or Democrats would side with their own country in a fight.

Apart from the war, there is another good reason we lost the House tonight. Luke-warm, tentative "conservatives" who shed their principles at the first sign of a pork barrel are not likely to keep voter loyalty for long. Republicans who came to Washington to drain the swamp learned that the swamp makes a pretty good sauna, so they ordered champagne and jumped in.

If we are going to be just a bad imitation of Democrats, why not go for the real thing?

Well, we got 'em. Enjoy.

I'm going to bed.

The Looming Tower and Other Worthy Books

I cast my vote this morning in California, using one of the new electronic voting machines. It was my second time to use one, and once again it was easy, easier than those old paper ballots that had to be manipulated into machinery so they could be punched. I have no idea why everyone else in the country is so confused about electronic ballots. My experience was entirely positive.

I cast my vote, now let the chads fall where they may. I did my duty. Did you?

It will be good to stop worrying about the vote, whatever the outcome. I plan to practice my upright string bass (I love the twangy resonance and my command of the instrument grows daily), visit with my oldest son Stogie Jr. who is coming to visit from Washington State. Finally, I plan to continue reading my latest book purchase, "The Looming Tower."

In the past month I read David Limbaugh's "Bankrupt," a book title but also his (accurate) description of the moral state of the Democratic Party, as well as "The Truth About Mohammed" by David Spencer. The latter contained little new information for me, and if anything, Spencer was kinder to Mohammed than other writers, like Craig Winn, the author of "Prophet of Doom" who covers the same material in his book.

Now I'm reading "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright and it is very well written! It reads like a novel and describes the history of Al Qaeda and the events leading up to 9/11.

Lawrence Wright, I understand, is a liberal but his political affiliation does not seem to overly influence his opinions or attitudes. He seems like a scholar who is sincerely seeking the objective truth. Nevertheless, he does make a few mistakes in his text. He describes the Islamic hatred of Jews as being born of Nazi propaganda in the years before World War II, which he says infected Muslims with this "ancient Western prejudice." That's probably the dumbest thing I've read in the book so far. Muslims have hated Jews since the 7th century and have persecuted, enslaved and massacred them in great numbers since that time. See Walid Shoebat's book for many examples. Prejudice towards Jews is ancient all right, but it is an ancient Middle Eastern prejudice more than it is a Western one.

Another mistake he makes is to quote the Qur'an surah which states that murder is evil, and that to murder one person is the same (morally) as murdering all humankind. Wright naively believes this admonition was meant to include the murder of infidels, which it does not, of course. Infidels are always open season for Jihadis. I wonder if Wright has read about the millions of Infidels killed by Muslims over the centuries? If so, why would he make such a patently stupid remark?

His third mistake (so far) is that he gives credence to the apocryphal story of Mohammed talking about the "inner struggle for righteousness" as the "Greater Jihad," whereas fighting in battle is only the "Lesser Jihad." My readings indicate this tale comes from less reliable sources (it does not appear in the Quran or the most trusted Hadiths) and that it is rejected as true by many (or maybe most) Muslims. But it sounds great for gullible Westerners.

I don't want to over emphasize Wright's mistakes, however, as the book strikes me as excellent. Wright does not sugar coat or rationalize the extremist, murderous views of Bin Laden or his followers, or the Muslim Brotherhood or other bloodthirsty groups that preceded them. He could, however, have put them into a more accurate context within Muslim history and doctrines.

Nevertheless, the book gives details of the life of Osama Bin Laden, his father and other prominent Jihadis and describes the culture and experiences that shaped their radical vision.

I highly recommend it.