Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

I’m being overcome by the Dark Side. The last couple of days have been evil, and it is trying to envelop me. It goes beyond Dan Rather, but he is the catalyst.

We have many people in this country, folks like MoveOn.org, Michael Moore, and the DNC heirarchy, who celebrate in their hearts every death in Iraq. They bemoan the deaths of American soldiers with pity, and the deaths of Iraqis and others with false angst. Because these haters despise Dubya, any death is part of their tally toward his defeat, another stone on the scale. I resent that. Life is precious. Apologizers might say these folks really don’t want people to die, and they are trying to prevent death. Bull. They weren’t crying about all the deaths in Iraq prior to our invasion. They aren’t crying about all the deaths in Sudan.

I’ve had to reassess my view of the Democratic Party and its supporters. Death and misery seem to be at their core. It is as if they feel they can succeed in gaining power only if people in the world are dying or near death. They claim to be passionate about helping folks, sharing their altruistic nature in campaigns. In reality, they do nothing to help once they have power. Charity begins at home, yet how many of them actually contribute anything more than words to helping others? Talk is cheap.

Aligning themselves with despots of the world, Democrats/Socialists seem to thrive on the misery those dictators create. The deaths of thousands in North Korea, Iraq, and Sudan do nothing but make them wring their hands. Deaths of thousands on 9/11 here did nothing but make them even more adamant that we were to blame. People like Kofi Annan and Jacques Chirac making millions from a mass murderer is fine, as long as they like us and don’t talk bad about us.

That carries over to domestic issues. Giving needy people a pittance, subsistence, will make them grateful enough to vote the right way, but it will do nothing to get them out of their personal rut. Misery is good for the DNC. And death. I saw a sonogram of our next grandchild last week. That baby is moving, has a strong heart, ten fingers and ten toes, and moves its mouth. It is alive. All I could think of when watching the video was, “How can someone say that’s not a human being? How can someone believe it is okay to kill that baby?” Death is okay if it serves their purpose. Death is good.

I dislike the political process, and am ready for it to be over this year. But it has been going strong since 2000. For the last year in particular, Democrats have offered nothing positive. Throughout their primaries, they seldom even talked to and about one another. The topic was always Bush. When the Swift Boat Vets came out against Kerry’s candidacy, the major media ignored them. Until they couldn’t any longer. Now they are again ignoring them by spending all their time on imaginary wrongs committed by or for benefit of George W. Bush. Yes, they are imaginary. I’ve found absolutely none of them to be true. And I have tried. Perpetuation of lies. Yet none can respond to the charges by the Swift Boat Vets. All they can do is try and find dirt on individuals in the group, attempting to destroy their credibility. How about Rather’s credibility? Where is the outcry?

Death and misery. Is that not evil? Are we not now in a fight between the Force and the Dark Side? In my view, the Dark Side in this country want politics to govern our society and culture. That is the opposite of what our Constitution was written to accomplish. I need to resist the Dark Side. I don’t thrive in that the way some seem to.

Alex and Paulie have had an ongoing discussion both on blogs and through email regarding the concepts of good and evil, religion, and Islam. All these have coalesced as this post at The Commons.

It is a long one, one in which Paulie attempted to put all of it into perspective. Last night I printed it out so I could read it at leisure and not on a monitor screen. That’s how we old guys have to do things as our eyesight deteriorates. I suggest it to you all, and Paulie is very interested in seeing the discussion continue in his comments.

I agree with the general concepts he presents. But I wanted to add my own thoughts both here and on his site.

I look back at a film series which has the essence of it all in three episodes: Star Wars. The most recent episodes have lost the flavor and are really nothing more than productions meant to fulfil the thirst of fans–both of Star Wars and computer generated visuals. The stories don’t have much to them. But the first three are extremely symbolic of the concepts of Good and Evil, God and Satan.

My personal religiosity fits well with the concepts in the trilogy. We humans are quick to think of God as something in human form with thought processes much like our own. Likewise for Satan. But my sense of the Almighty is very much like The Force. God is the synergism of Good. Likewise, Satan is a collective of the Dark Side, of evil people and their own energy. It matters not which religion they claim to follow, the Good or Evil they do is their adherence to a god.

For that reason, I see no organized religion which completely fits my view of God. I am a Christian. I view Jesus, as does Paulie, as an embodiment of Good in this world. But I do not align myself with any sect.

Now, as I say that, I understand there are people out there who will repeat the chant, “If we could all just get along.” Yes, that is what Jesus advocated. But there is another force working out there which refuses to “just get along” except on their very personal terms. Do you reconcile this conflict through appeasement? That is the only avenue they offer, and that only for long enough to become overpowering. Getting along is not their goal.

The United States has the power to be overwhelming, both economically and militarily. Yet we aren’t, because we choose not to be. Is there any doubt that given the same powers we have, those we are supposed to get along with would eliminate us from the face of the Earth?

So, which side works for Evil, and which side works for good, albeit imperfectly. Which will eventually prevail? It really comes down to what the people of this world view is best. Right now, there are a lot of folks both here and abroad who want the Evil side to win, even though they won’t say it aloud.

Slatts started my morning reading off on the right foot:

So, a form of Tourette’s Syndrome for leftwing reactionaries kicks in: “Nazi”, “Racist”, “Enemy of Diversity”, they sneer, and inevitably, “Simplistic moron”, because we all know the left occupies the intellectual high ground.

What he’s talking about is the reaction in some political circles to Andrew Bolt’s article.

We need to know the depravity of what was done in Beslan because we need to understand there is now moving in the world an ideology that spurs men to commit horrors beyond even our nightmares.

Some folks simply don’t want to recognize a depraved ideology when they see it. I think it’s important to see just what happened in Beslan. Photos of body bags tell of the horror, Photos of the destroyed buildings gives some perspective.

Danielle Pletka, writing an op-ed in the New York Times, believes the difference in approach to solving our problems in the Middle East, and the final settling of discord is key in this year’s election.

Early last month, John Kerry devoted 11 days to fleshing out his foreign policy priorities. Promoting democracy in the Middle East, he made clear, will not be high on his agenda. Sadly, Mr. Kerry’s decision could not have come at a worse moment. For the first time in half a century, democracy is the talk of the Arab world