Harrison Ford, a long time favorite of mine, has stuck his foot in his mouth, and lost a lot of respect, at least in my mind. He gave an interview on the current world political situation, something no actor should do unless they know what they are talking about, which he onviously doesn't. One comment he made that really stuck in my mind was that the United States should do more to alleviate the conditions which ahve led to terrorism in the Middle East. You know what has led to terrorism, Harrison? Brutal dictatorships that treat their people like cattle. These same tyrants also rejected millions of refugees from the Palestinian Mandate back in the late 40's in order to create refugee camps to use as political fodder against Israel. Somehow I am able to connect the United States' quest to end tyranny and bring democracy to the Middle East to alleviating the conditions which led to terrorism, whereas Mr. Ford doesn't see such a connection. Perhaps if we helped prop up these dictators, and give them more weapons and more power to control their people, terrorism will end. Great idea. If you really feel bad, donate the proceeds from your next movie to the poor people of Iraq who are dying for the chance to be happy and not live in daily fear for their lives. Otherwise, shut up and mind your own business.

Here's a particulary good article I found on Jewish World Review, which, if you've never checked it out, I highly recommend you do so. Great pro-Israel site, with a definite Conservative bias, but not ridiculously Conservative, maybe even a bit Libertarian. In other words, I love it!

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0803/dershowitz_2003_08_28.php3

I made a mistake in my earlier column today. After doing a bit more research, I discovered that Howard Dean realizes that it would be a serious mistake to pull out of Iraq, acknowledging that he expects our troops to be there for two years or more. My apologies. Maybe he's not as left-wing-naive as I had thought. Time to do more research before I write more on the subject.

The United States is by far the most powerful country in the world. This makes us the target of not only terrorism, but criticism from countries that should be our allies. Jealousy? Fear? A lot of both, I'm sure. Much of the western world seems to want us to get international approval for everything we do. This, despite the fact that we have something like 29 other countries supporting us with troops in Iraq. I wonder what would happen if we decided to call their bluff. Bring back every single American soldier to within our own borders, and say to the world, "You didn't want us, so we're granting your wishes." I wonder how long it would be before everyone comes begging at our door? How many more terror bombs in India, Bali, Baghdad, etc., would it take before the rest of the world will say, "We were wrong, you were right, please helpus?" Not long, I bet. The problem is that we have too much integrity, and care too much about the safety and freedom of people that no one else cares about to do something like that.

Actually, I mispoke. If Howard Dean is elected President in 2004, I suspect this turn of events may come to pass. There will be a difference, however. Dean will pull us out because he doesn't care. He'll pull us out because to him, America makes the world an unsafe place. To him, we might as well be the suicide bombers and the terrorists. He seems to think we're worse than Saddam and the rest of the world is better off without us. If Bush followed my idea of pulling out of the world, he would make sure to protect our own territory as much as possible from terrorists. Dean, however, thinks that the terrorists would stop if we stop bothering them. Dean hasn't read his history, he thinks he's smarter than everyone else, but that would change very quickly, as soon as terrorists begin to attack within our borders, as they ahve already done. That will be the end of the Democratic Party in this country. You heard it here first, if Dean is elected, we will begin a downward spiral resulting in a lot of American deaths on our home soil, and, though the Democrats will try to blame the previous administration, the American people will be smart enough to know who tried to make the world safe for Americans, and who thought that the world needed to be made safe from Americans.

Today is day two of The Burning Man out in Nevada. My sister and brother-in-law are there, and I am very jealous. I've never been, but their stories from years past leave me drooling for the chance to join them. Forget next year in Jerusalem (too dangerous now, anyway), I say "Next year in Black Rock City." Check it out at www.burningman.com, and don't forget to bring plenty of water!

United States Senator Lugar has decided that a U.N. approved, U.S. led NATO force should go to Israel, separate the antagonists, and clean out the terrorists. How stupid can a man be? Israel has the military power to wipe out the Palestinian terrorists, at least the ones in the territories, anytime they want, but because of international scrutiny, and the very high chance of innocent civilians meeting untimely ends in such an event, they have not yet taken extreme measures. Their patience, however, is probably wearing as thin as mine. I believe they are very close to the breaking point where they would be willing to trade the lives of Palestinian civilians in order to protect their own citizens from butchery. Why would Lugar want to send a NATO force into such a situation, especially when American forces are already stretched over a number of fronts. Israel, given the same U.N. approval he thinks the U.S. led force should get, can take care of itself. Add to that the fact that most extremist Islamic terrorists would count Lugar's plan as just one more mark against the U.S., and one more reason to find a way to equal or surpass 9/11, and Lugar comes off looking like he was on LSD when he made the statement.

A big blast in India killed a bunch of people. Although no one has taken responsibility so far, supposedly they suspect Muslim terrorists. A few more of these and maybe people will realize this is a war against the rest of the world. These extremists aren't going to say, "Oh, hey, they're trying to crack down on us, we better stop." This is a war like no other in history, and the sooner the entire non-extremist world wakes up to this and stops making excuses, the sooner we can get on with winning it.

Don't you just love the United Nations? A bunch their humanitarian officials are killed by a suicide truck-bomb, and Kofi Anan is "shocked and horrified." Apparently he felt that because his people weren't militants, that the terrorists would leave them alone. Just like they left the peaceful workers in the World Trade Center alone. Just like they left the peaceful Orthodox Jews returning from prayer at the Western Wall alone. When, and if, the United Nations gets it through their heads that this is a war, and that to the extremists Muslims, there is no such thing as a innocent, maybe the rest of the world will realize that Bush was right all along. There will be no peace until the world is purged of people who think that life has no value except as a bargaining point to get what they want. Delusionals like Kofi Annan need a kick in the butt, but apparantly having 20 of his underlings killed and another 100 or so injured is not enough. If Kofi lived in Israel and faced this sort of thing on a daily basis, he might have a different outlook. Unfortunately he chooses to shelter himself from reality, the same boat most American liberals seem to be in.

New suicide bomb in Israel. At least 20 dead, and 80 injured. What do I see as a quote from a US State Department official? "We call upon the Palestinian Authority to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure." Haven't we called upon them to dismantle the infrastructure before? Now we can make more excuses for them and their murders, yet decry Israel for building a fence to try to protect against this sort of thing. This has gone on long enough. When the US was attacked (see September 11), we invaded a country to try to stop more from happening. Israel builds a fence and is condemned. If I were in Israel, I know I'd be ready to go in and kill off every Palestinian in any way related to any terrorist organization, and that includes the "political arm" of whatever group it is, not just the militant arm. As it happens, I'm not in Israel, I'm just an American Jew, feeling the pain of my brethren in Israel. It's time to stand up say to Bush, Arafat, and the rest of the world, "We will not stand by and allow this to continue. Death has sought our people long enough. Now we will turn death upon those who attack us. We will no longer set aside our anger and grief in the hopes that peace will come through diplomacy. Our people continue to die, and all anyone wants to do is talk and make excuses. No more! If the Palestinians will not dismantle their terrorist infrastructure, we will do it for them, and we will do the same to anyone who stands in our way. Anyone that tries to protect these murderers will be destroyed along with them. No more! No more! NO MORE!"

I got to meet and argue with an honest-to-god Liberal last night at a Chinese food place (you know who you are). We didn't really get into it too much, yet it was instructive. She actually lauded Canada's socialist programs for the exact same things that Canadians I have talked to denigrated their state for. I mentioned how the roads were falling apart, and how the health system was failing because of the lack of decent doctors willing to work for practically nothing, and the lack of good medical equipment because that stuff doesn't come free. She said that Canada has great roads. I guess the only way to settle that is to take a trip up there together and drive around for a while. Apparantely the real bastion of liberal hope is Sweden, where everything just rocks! The productive people support the non-productive people, and everything is hunly-dory. I actually believe socialism can work in some places, as long as there are enough people willing to take up the slack. Personally, I'm too much a social-Darwinist to ever be able to watch my hard work get eaten up by others, whether they are less productive out of laziness or because they just aren't capable of producing as much as I. I think, deep down, most people want to be rewarded for doing a better job than others. The Swedes are just wierd, I guess! I can't really argue the point too much, because I really have almost no knowledge of Sweden, but it was a hell of a fun conversation.

Oh yeah, when I mentioned how I worship at the altar of Ayn Rand (I didn't say that, just that I enjoyed the books, but everytime a socialist hears me say that, they take it way too far), she said, "Oh god, you should slit your wrists after reading that." I ask her to tell me what book explaining her side of the story in such a convincing and enjoyable manner I should read. I promise to go in with an open heart. Of course I've never heard of a book like that, probably because it would be impossible to write such a text in a realistic manner. There is, of course, Das Kapital and the Communist Manifesto. To those I can respond easily. Check out the Bolsheviks and Soviet Russia. Check out Cuba with Castro and his torture and imprisonment of dissenters. Sure, maybe you can have a socialist society that works, but your brain either has to be frozen by the cold of the northern steppes, or you have to kill or imprison everything who wants what they deserve.

Can't wait for you to write back. benskott@hotmail.com

Just about everything I believe about how society should be starts with a few basic tenets. People should work hard and to the best of their abilty. They should take responsibility for their own decisions. They should be able to do whatever they want, so long as what they do does not DIRECTLY adversely affect others. I say directly, because a lot of people would look at that statement and say that my being successful in business adversely affects my competitors. That is an indirect effect of my actions. Most of all, I believe that people should be able to choose. These basic tenets underly the Constitution of the United States of America. No major contemporary political party, however, seems to follow what to me seem to be very basic, obvious points. The closest is the Libertarian Party, but I have some problems even with them. It's difficult for me to imagine that anyone could look at my list of ideals and disagree, yet programs like welfare, medicare, income tax, tax credits, food stamps, unemployment insurance, etc belie these points. For an ideal society in which everyone can reach their potential, everything has to be based on simple points like these with no compromise. In my heart and my head, I know that the founding fathers of our country would agree with me, not with power-hungry, vote-grabbing politicos like Hillary Clinton, or shakedown artists like Jesse Jackson. Someday I hope groups like the Free State Project will help this country moce toward a reality I can be proud of.

Played trivia last night. I was one of the two big stars on my high school academic bowl team, and did a very good job holding my own against Georgia Tech's #2 in the nation team at the practice I went to my freshmen year of college. I never went back because it was the same night as pledge meetings, and at the time I was worried I would get blackballed if I missed meetings. Of course now I undertand I would have been fine. The point is, I was damn good. Trivia last night, however, was lame. We got free beer for being the lowest scoring team to actually answer all the questions. It was all this pop culture and entertainment bullshit. I think there are plenty of Jeopardy and bar trivia fans out there that hunger a for a real academic adult trivia league. Do it high school style, four people on a team, buzzers and all. I'd pay money to do it, and with the right marketing, I bet others would, too. Maybe not a lot fo money, but then you can get some sponsorships and such. Maybe it could even be televised eventually. It's funny, when you're in high school people look down on you for knowing a lot and being good at trivia, but as an adult, playing at bars, even drunks respect a man who knows a lot of wierd stuff.

I went to a wedding this weekend in Sylvester, GA. Sylvester is a small town in south Georgia between Tifton and Albany. I've been there before, visiting the bride, April, for Thanksgiving many years ago. I had gone with much trepidation, but left realizing that just because people are from a small town in the deep south, they are not neccessarily stupid rednecks. This weekend only reinforced that. I drove down Friday with Dave (from New York City) and Marisa (from Atlanta), and the first event was the rehersal dinner held at the Sylvester Women's Club. We sat down across from a very nice couple and their extremely cute daughter, Whitney, who was to be a bridesmaid. They were intelligent, funny, and very nice. They also were able to mock both their own small town existence, and Dave and Marisa'a lack of knowledge of life outside the big city. Although I grew up in Atlanta, my parents have friends in small towns who we have gone to visit before, and so I was not so completely ignorant. Marisa, who thought that cows die when you tip them, bore the brunt of the laughter, but she took it pleasantly, and the evening was thoroughly enjoyable. The food was BBQ pork and fried catfish. I stayed away from the catfish.

The next day we had to check out by 11 and the wedding started at 3. An hour at Waffle House and 20 minutes going to April's Uncle's roadside produce stand for onions and boiled peanuts left us with plenty of time to waste. We drove to Tifton (a metropolis compared to Sylvester) and went bowling. Then it was off to a short wedding at the First Baptist Church and a reception at a room in the town library. The only real disappointment was that the reception emptied out so fast. One strange incident. I was talking again to the Whitney's mother, telling her of our exciting adventures in Tifton, and then she starts going on and on about Whitney and how wonderful she is, almost like she was trying to sell me on her. The strange part is that Whitney is only 17, obviously too young for me, so I can only assume I was misinterpreting her meaning.

At any rate, I had a great time, the wedding was great, and April was stunning in her wedding dress. I wish her and Steven the best in life, and I hope that we can keep in touch as the years go by.

I got my first criticism of my blog this weekend. Up to now, everyone has basically said, "Wow, it's neat that you do this," or "You really made me think." But this time I was told that it sounds like I just listen to Neal Boortz in the morning and repeat what he's said. I think I out my own spin, but I ahve to admit that I agree with Boortz a lot, and he is an inspiration, so perhaps this criticism is not without merit. The other point that was made is that if I really want lots of people to read what I write, I shouldn't restrict myself to political commentary. Considering that I would prefer to be a newspaper columnist covering many issues, and not just a political columnist, this, too, has merit. Thus I will try to write on my life, and also relate funny and/or interesting stories, as opposed to just doing political commentary. That said, I do have one thing to say politically. Hillary Clinton is signing books at Barnes and Noble Buckhead on the 11th. Anyone want to meet me there and picket her? I was thinking of making a sign with a phrase I heard on a TV show, edited to this particular situation. "If Hillary is in Barnes and Noble, who's running hell?"

I've been thinking a lot about this whole Kobe Bryant thing. Mainly the idea that his accuser's identity should remain hidden, while his name gets smeared all over the place. Isn't he supposed to be innocent until proven guilty? In which case, one wonders why we are supposed to afford HER rights that we don't even think about allowing him. One might argue that Kobe, as a public figure, has given up his right to privacy. I counter that argument. I say that by fooling around with a public figure, the accuser has given up her right to privacy. It would be different if this was a straight-out rape case, but both sides have admitted that the encounter was initially consensual. Whether she changed her mind because it was going to far, or because she wanted to be able to get some money out of him in court is not up for me to decide. I don't care. I do care about the inequity in the media coverage. If Kobe has given up his right to privacy, so did she, the moment she walked into an unoccupied room with a celebrity. Thus, her name, as far as I could ascertain by 10 seconds of google research, is Katelyn Kristine Faber.