Recently, two top-tear democratic candidates have released agendas on an important issue. Both John Edwards and Barack Obama have declared their ideas on poverty. Edwards has made direct reference to Robert F. Kennedy’s crusade against poverty, obviously hoping to imply comparisons from old RFK supporters and draw a crowd of younger American’s who have grown to know the Kennedy story. Obama’s plan has similarities to Edwards’s. The amount of detail these top candidates are already employing indicates the breakneck pace that has been set for this campaign. However, such speed also places pressure on other candidates to do the same as Edwards and Obama already have. No doubt poverty is a key in the democratic arsenal that will be used to attempt exposure of conservative candidates. There are unintended consequences of such actions though, and democratic candidates need to be wary of who exactly they will expose.

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This past week has seen a number of reports released concerning the Iraq war and the war on terror in general. While many reports are somewhat mixed in overall outlook, the media has made sure to pick each report’s worst features and use them to encourage the defeat of American freedom. Nearly everyone in America would like to see success in Iraq. However, the media makes every effort to plant seeds of doubt in the heads of the American people.

Indeed the situation America finds itself in is precarious and complex. This war is perhaps the most perplexing one America has ever engaged in. The revolutionary war was to win our freedom from an oppressive ruler. World War II was a war waged to defend our country from world-wide imperialism. Vietnam was a war chiefly waged to combat Communism. A war on terror is significantly different. The logistics involved in winning are far reaching. Fighting an enemy who is very mobile is something our military has little experience with. Though the focus of terrorist groups is primarily on Iraq, they are not from a specific country. Nor are many of them actually natives of Iraq. They come from all over the world, and they wish to see more than just Iraq fail. This approach is different from that of past wars in which a certain country was the declared enemy. Having pointed out the differences, on a further look, the similarities this war has with historic conflicts are just as numerous. This war is no different than any before it. American victory is imperative. Here is why. (more…)

Another one from my blog.

The Jakarta Post reporting today on a new development in female genital mutilation in a piece entitled Police offer reward to stop female circumcision.

This offer is payed in part by the police, and part by the charitable organization Waris Dirie Foundation.

The Waris Dirie Foundation has thus made headlines twice in the past week, the first time being the presentation of the prestigious French award the Chevalier de la Legion d‘honneur to the group’s founder, Somalian model Waris Dirie, by President Sarkozy in recognition of the group’s efforts against female genital mutilation.

These stories demonstrate a big step for the humanitarian cause seeking to stamp out the religious practice which has its roots in North African tribal tradition. The movement, spearheaded by Islamic feminists such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, has found itself stopped by opponents citing the “wall of separation,” between church and state, particularly in a Europe which is continuously being overrun by North African immigrants. Though female genital mutilation (FGM), is illegal in most European Nations as well as the United States, there seems to be a deep unwillingness to prosecute due in part to the already mounting tensions between North African immigrants to Europe, and European society. FGM has been framed as a cultural practice, and a religious practice which cannot feasibly be clamped down upon by the state. (more…)

Here is a piece taken straight from my blog. It seeks to establish a point of comparison between the European Colonists of the nineteenth century and today’s Global Warming activists.
Rudyard Kipling’s 1899 poem, “The White Man’s Burden,” reflected the his time’s sentiments: colonize Africa to civilize the savage. Whether or not the ’savages’ wanted help was of no consequence to the Social Darwinists, eager to establish colonies in Africa for the exploitation of natural resources.

Today, global warming activists, such as Al Gore warn of man’s moral responsibility to protect the Earth. They urge using eco-friendly ethanol to help fight global warming. This would mean large scale purchases of corn, significantly altering the price of corn used for food. (more…)