A new record

The New England Patriots beat the Miami Dolphins to set a new record. They have won 19 straight regular season games going back to last year.

Now going into the game, it was obvious that Miami didn’t have a chance to beat New England. Still, I was hoping Miami would be able to stop the streak.

My question is, does that make me unpatriotic? (buh, dum, dum)

Score one for President Bush

I didn’t get to see the presidential debate last night, so I had to rely on media reaction. Most of the opinion writers say President Bush won the debate. Since I read a lot of conservative writers, I really wasn’t convinced until I found reaction from (left leaning)Slate.

When their writer admits President Bush won, it must have been a clear victory.

I think the most damaging answer from Kerry was when he showed he has no convictions and explained how religious convictions are irrelevant. He was asked for assurance that tax dollars would not fund abortion. His reply:

First of all, I cannot tell you how deeply I respect the belief about life and when it begins. I’m a Catholic, raised a Catholic. I was an altar boy. Religion has been a huge part of my life. It helped lead me through a war, leads me today.

But I can’t take what is an article of faith for me and legislate it for someone who doesn’t share that article of faith, whether they be agnostic, atheist, Jew, Protestant, whatever. I can’t do that.

So, because his belief is supposedly based on his religious views, he refuses to take action to support that belief. In that case, I have to say he really doesn’t have the beliefs he claims to hold.

What is most alarming is that this candidate for President is saying it is wrong for people with religious convictions to support public policies that support their religious beliefs. He thinks the ethical position is for religious people to support policies that do the opposite of what they believe. In this case, religious people should support laws that promote abortion.

Never mind that non-religious people are forcing their views on us with their public policy. John Kerry believes that is OK because it is supposedly not religious. So much for Freedom of religion.

Appeasement

Last night in the Presidential debate John Kerry was asked what the biggest security threat is. He answered nuclear proliferation.

Yeah, that is a concern. His answer to get Iran to stop developing nuclear weapons? Give them nuclear fuel as long as they promise not to develop bombs with it and let inspectors in. What the hell?

UN inspectors didn’t work in Iraq, they didn’t work in Korea, and empty promises from mad Islamic clerics will surely keep the world safe.

Appeasement is not a security policy. It didn’t work for Rome. In fact, it got Rome sacked. It won’t work now either. Especially when appeasing an enemy involves giving them the tools to destroy us.

Diversity failure is triumph

Last night, my technical writing class was discussing proposal writing. For an example, we reviewed an actual grant proposal submitted by the University of Colorado at Denver (UCD) in response to an RFP (request for proposal) seeking to fund new educational programs. UCD hopes to receive funding to offer a new certificate related to M.S. program I’m in.

One of the requirements of the funding organization was for the proposed program to involve women and minorities as part of a diversity initiative.

In their proposal the university sited a “diversity” statistic. Eighty percent of the graduates of UCD’s technical communication program are women. That’s 80%.

Remember back when there was a diversity failure if less than 50% of graduates were women? Now that it’s 80%, that is advertised as a success. It seems more like a failure from my position. Overall, college enrollment is approaching 60% women. This hurts women as well as men.

How? Well, this is why well educated women are having problems finding dates. It’s a fact, men are more likely to date women with less education than women are to date men with less education. That leads to a lot of single well educated women.

Back to the subject. Let’s face it. “Diversity” doesn’t really mean diversity. It means giving advantages to certain politically favored groups. Christna Hoff Sommers covers more about this in her book The War Against Boys.

The French don’t get it

Remember this statement from a terrorist web site?

“As if there was any question of negotiation. Far from it – they must obey the demands of the Mujahadeen. If you refuse, we slaughter.”

Here is the French solution to terrorism:

“France said Monday that it would take part in a proposed international conference on Iraq only if the agenda included a possible U.S. troop withdrawal…
Paris also wants representatives of Iraq’s insurgent groups to be invited to a conference.”

Strangely, France doesn’t take the terrorists at their word. Why does France want to negotiate with people who refuse to negotiate?