It does appear that the H1N1 is yet another of the over-hyped events - like anthropogenic Global Warming, Y2K, the total collapse of the world economic system, Acid Rain, the Terrorist threat and all the other efforts where molehills were made into mountains to induce a state of fear in the population to build support for ever expanding government powers.

The shackling of American troops with rules of engagement while the enemy remains free to improvise new means of dealing death is quite reminiscent of Vietnam. The military should either be free to win by whatever means are necessary or we should withdraw or surrender. We won WWII by carpet bombing German cities filled with civilians, by using Nukes on Japan, by using flamethrowers and starvation in the island campaigns. The key is that we won. Either fight to win or don't fight and live as a slave.

Walesa is a true hero of liberty. His comments nail the current situation.

Should US banks or any other US company have to divulge information about American bank accounts to a Chinese or Russian government seeking to hammer dissidents? I don't think so. We are a sovereign nation. Same for Switzerland. The reality is that this is a political effort to find people to make examples of that is undermining the national sovereignty of a country used the world around as a haven from all sorts of intrusions by criminal states.

Exactly. Precisely the people who should be paying the taxes are recipients not payers. A key strategy for the Democrats is to increase the number of people riding on the wagon, living as parasites on the working - since those people then become committed Democratic voters.

--- On Fri, 1/29/10, IntenseDebate Notifications <notifications@intensedebatemail.com> wrote:

He was a good writer. Catcher was a decent read. Not in the top 100 books in my life but well written, somewhat interesting. Lead character was clever in a neurotic way but hardly the source of great insight. I had largely forgotten the book until it was resurrected in a surreal way in the movie "Conspiracy Theory" :-) Anyway, Salinger was a part of a self absorbed generation, paralyzed from finding any substantive values by a self-indulgent iconoclastic pose. Personally I think that life is better viewed through a more value-rooted stance -- it just leads to a happier, more productive life.

Unlimited ability for Democrats to squander money and load the debt on us. Criminal. This debt should be covered by the people foolish enough to vote for Obama.

Being in government allows people to waste money in the service of their ego at a rate far exceeding what even the most profligate billionaire would accept. It is always less painful when it is someone else's money (i.e. taxpayer money).

It is amazing how threatened the secular people are by the very thought that a young man believes in his religion and is not shy about it. The seculars are unbelievably insecure.

So everybody in Berkeley should be equally mediocre. Don't make available any opportunity to excel to those with the motivation and heart to use it since their very subsequent success makes the people who were unmotivated or too lazy to seek out the extra work feel bad about themselves. Instead we should make certain that nobody has a chance to compete with the larger world and everybody can ultimately be unsuccessful, mediocre and angry about it - perfect future Democrats. Think of how meaningful it is to be able to blame all future failures on the fact that you never had a chance.