PEP in San Antonio

Allison and I are in San Antonio this weekend for a PEP Train the Trainers. We have additional duties being on the Steering Committee. PEP is a great program for parents with kids with bleeding disorders. We are talking about some exciting efforts to really expand PEP. More details to follow.

Dawn of the Dead

I woke up this morning to find that Hillary Clinton has staggered to her feet, zombie like, and has started walking again arms outstretched. Barack Obama meanwhile has been distracted by a renewed interest in his relationship with shady character Tony Rezko and his Canada/NAFTA doubletalk.

I mean sheeezz, she was down and he didn’t put her away. Didn’t he watch any zombie movies at Columbia and Harvard? No Halloween or Friday the 13th movies? No Elm Street movies? Apparently not, because he made the same mistakes.

When you get the monster down, FINISH IT OFF! But no, he dropped his weapon, turned his back, hugged his wife and said, “We’re safe now.”

Finish the deal! You’ve got to hack off the head, cut off the arms and legs and burn all the parts. And then don’t turn your back.

Had Jamie Lee Curtis done this in 1978, no more Michael Myers, Had the kids at Crystal Lake done this, no more Jason (although they did lop off Jason’s mother’s head in the first Friday the 13th – no more mom).

Like the zombie-monsters and the zombie-monster movies themselves Hillary keeps coming back because Obama won’t or can’t finish her off. You’d think with his record fundraising his campaign could afford a machete.

Teach your children well...

Rock artist Sting worried about nuclear war and once sang that he hoped the Russians loved their children too. We might say now with confidence that the Russians did and do indeed love their children. Perhaps the commonalities between the Russians and their Western European brethren (and by extension the United States) was greater than the ideological differences. The existential struggle between the democratic/capitalist Western NATO and the communist Soviet Bloc will be studied and debated for a long time to come. But ultimately the struggle resolved without apocalyptic war because of the simple fact that neither side was willing to take the ultimate step and use the most destructive and most horrible weapons at their disposal.

What about now? Despite arguments to the contrary Western liberal democracies face another existential threat in the form of radical Islamic jihad.

Do Islamic extremists love their children too?

Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz explores the question in this Wall Street Journal commentary.

Quotes from the piece.

Mother to son; "if you're not going to follow the steps of the Islamic resistance martyrs, then I don't want you."

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah; "We are going to win, because they love life and we love death."

Osama bin Laden; "We love death. The U.S. loves life. That is the big difference between us."

Sheik Feiz Mohammed, leader of the Global Islamic Youth Center in Sydney, Australia; "We want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam. Teach them this: There is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a
mujahid."

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; : "It is the zenith of honor for a man, a young person, boy or girl, to be prepared to sacrifice his life in order to serve the interests of his nation and his religion."

So maybe they do love their children…but not in the same way. Not in a way we understand or accept as rational or moral. It is more than competing socioeconomic systems. It is entrenched in the most basic religious and cultural underpinnings of this radical subset of Islamic society.

It is something that prevents them from understanding the meaning of Golda Meir when she said; "We can perhaps someday forgive you for killing our children, but we cannot forgive you for making us kill your children."

It is something poignantly illustrated in this now widely distributed cartoon:

Texas Primary Day

Its Primary day in my two 'home' states. Born in Ohio, lived the majority of my life in Texas.

Will this be the day that finally rings the death knell for the Hillary Clinton campaign and ring in the coronation of Barack Obama. Or will it merely be the bell between the latest rounds in this heavyweight bout. We shall see in a few hours.

One thing is sure. No more campaign calls in the middle of dinner (or bedtime routine), no more political ads on T.V. on the radio or in the mail. At least for a few more months.

Big Money for Big Ben

Eight years, $102 million makes Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger one of the highest-paid players in the game and by far the highest in Steelers history.

"This is about being a Pittsburgh Steeler for as long as I can be. I love Pittsburgh," Roethlisberger said.

Pittsburgh loves Big Ben. Roethlisberger brought the 'one for the thumb ' Super Bowl to Pittsburgh two years ago becoming the Super Bowl's youngest winning quarterback.

Here's hoping for a bunch of jewelry for the other hand in the next 8 years.