The American Spectator

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Shatner Shattered

8.4.08 @ 12:01AM

BEAM ME UP, McCAIN
Re: Larry Thornberry's Three Hotheads:

"[T]he Prime Directive, Starfleet's General Order #1, is the most prominent guiding principle of the United Federation of Planets. The Prime Directive dictates that there can be no interference with the internal affairs of other civilizations, consistent with the historical real world concept of Westphalian sovereignty." -- Wikipedia

The Prime Directive is the logical extension of the "Leave Us Alone" philosophical position stated by our Founding Fathers in the Constitution. These ideas were taken up by such conservative/libertarian luminaries as Ayn Rand, William F. Buckley, Grover Norquist, and many contributors to The America Spectator. That Captain Kirk (Mr. Shatner) himself doesn't see his position on the "2% Solution Campaign" as directly violating of the Prime Directive is a sad irony for any Trekkie to bear.
-- Ira M. Kessel
Rochester, New York

As concerned Americans, we should be dialing back our energy consumption. I think our government offices should lead in this effort. First, we should encourage IE: DEMAND that our Federal representatives dial back their own air-conditioning use between the months of April and September...to zero. Yes, the halls of Congress and other federal entities would be uncomfortable, possibly stifling enough for those officeholders to seek relief elsewhere...outside of Washington. This would in turn provide some relief to the American taxpayer in the form of less legislation and perhaps preserve liberty for a few moments longer.

As we watch the energy saving pile up from these efforts, and we know they will. This effort can be refocused and used locally to further save the taxpayer much needed money and possibly further preserve liberty on the local level as well.

I am all for this -- how about you?
-- P. Aaron Jones

The essential hypocrisy of the most ardent environmentalists is this: not one of these nitwits struggles to make ends meet, and no economic setback caused by their zealotry, no matter how severe, would ever affect them directly.

That's all you need to know about such "noble" and "self-sacrificing" creatures as Al Gore, William Shatner, Nancy Pelosi, and John McCain.
-- Arnold Ahlert
Boca Raton, Florida

TRANSFORMER
Re: Philip Klein's The Obama Uncertainty Principle:

Since Mr. Klein brought up Werner Heisenberg, it should be pointed out that the Uncertainty Principle connotes a whole variety of interesting phenomena (Bose-Einstein condensates, quantum entanglement or Bell's theorem, and many others). One of them is called quantum "tunneling." In this phenomenon, since the position of a particle, like an electron, is distributed over a wave-length (wave-particle duality, the basis of the Uncertainty Principle, which is expressed mathematically as h=lambda/p, where h is Planck's constant, lambda is the wave-length of the particle, and p is the momentum of the particle, e.g., the greater the momentum, the smaller the wave-length, and the smaller the momentum the larger the wavelength), the particle has a statistical probability of being anywhere within that wave length, sort of like a probability distribution. If an electron is close (within the distance reflected by its wave-length) to a barrier that does not allow the electron to cross it, the electron nevertheless can with a statistical probability be found on the opposite side of that barrier, even though it did not cross the barrier. Just one of the mysterious little quirks of quantum theory, well established to be a fact. One might say that Barack Obama, by applying the idea of the Uncertainty principle to him as Mr. Klein is wont to do, can be understood to be found on the completely opposite side of political barriers or issues that it is not possible for him to cross and be consistent, with quantum tunneling.

The bright side is that the more political issues he shows up on the opposite side of, one day to the next, the longer his wave-length is bound to be, which means that his momentum would have to decrease to allow for the longer wave-length. That might explain his static position in the polls. It just a question of applying simple quantum theory calculations...
-- Kent Lyon
College Station, Texas

According to Philip Klein, Barack Obama will eventually conclude that "humility offensive" is his key to the White House. Don't bet on it, Mr. Klein. A "hubris narrative" can become a "phony narrative" just as quickly as Mr. Obama "morphs" from one persona to the next.
-- Arnold Ahlert
Boca Raton, Florida

OUT OF AFGHANISTAN
Re: George H. Wittman's The Endless War:

I do not always agree with Mr. Wittman in his analysis of current situations in which the United States finds itself embroiled militarily, but in this instance, he is correct. Afghanistan has already been an American victory. We have accomplished what we initially set out to do there. That was simply to destroy the Al Qaeda presence in-country and to punish the Taliban government which allowed it to exist there. As I said, those goals were achieved. If Osama Bin Laden had been captured or killed during the initial pacification of the country, then there is a good chance that NATO forces would no longer be there. Because, for good or ill, there is simply nothing in Afghanistan that the West wants or needs.

Afghanistan, as Mr. Wittman mentioned, has no national identity, as such. Virtually all of the centralized governments, that have existed there, have been either installed by foreign powers or maintained by foreign powers. The history of Afghanistan is one of a succession of Imperial governance including several Persian dynasties, a couple of Greek empires, not a few Indian regencies and most recently British and Russian hegemony. Add to this the natural topography of the country, plains to the south, southeast and north which are separated by large area of rather inhospitable mountains in the central and northeastern sections of the country, that limit easy travel between parts of the country. Because of this, there is no common heritage among the inhabitants. Small self identifying groups, tribes if you will, are the basis for the society that exists there.

Letter to the Editor

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Education, John McCain, Barack Obama, Environment, Constitution, Law, Founding Fathers, Military, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Pakistan, NATO, Immigration, Energy, Oil