Some things I think I think

Environmental groups, like the Natural Resources Defense Council, have filed multiple suits, and have won injunctions, limiting the use of active sonar in training exercises. The injunctions often granted exemptions for war, but the problem was that war is the wrong time to start learning how to use active sonar. The appeals court, though, recognized that the U.S. Navy would not get any re-takes in war, nor could it re-float a sunken ship or to bring back dead sailors and Marines. Future attacks on sonar training will not go as well, thanks to the precedent established in the higher court. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered a lower court to re-write the restrictions it has placed on the Navy's use on active sonar in training missions. This means that the Navy is going to have some more leeway - how much leeway there will be is open to question - in terms of training sailors with their sonar gear. The courts should have rejected the case altogether; imagine putting whales and fish above national security - only in America. What do you think our 'enemies' Russia and China would do in similar circumstances?

The name ‘Mohammad’ is supposed to be one of the most popular boy’s names in the world. How then is it a ‘crime’ to name a teddy bear Mohammad? Should we assume all boys named Mohammad are named after the false prophet? Should we assume all boys named ‘George’ are named after George Washington? Etc. The teacher, now apparently pardoned, was condemned (almost to death) because the 7-year olds in her class chose to use the Mohammad name; and we thought teachers in this country have it rough.

I am concerned that the liberal news media (the “Drive-by media”, as Rush Limbaugh calls it) is unduly influencing the presidential nomination process. Recognizing the media bias, it certainly appears that the news hype at any given time is directed to the Republican candidate felt to be the most likely to lose in the election against a Democrat nominee. Presently the media is pumping up the Huckabee candidacy while continually knocking Juliani’s personal life and his purported abuses of city security funds as Mayor. Of course, Democrat personal lives are off limits and part of the “campaign of personal destruction” (remember the reaction to Bill Clinton’s ‘dalliances’?). Fred Thompson is portrayed as a campaign sloth and Duncan Hunter is too conservative and ‘out of the mainstream’ to be a presidential candidate. Romney’s Mormon religion is always described a ‘political problem’ for him. On the other hand, all of Hillary’s loony proposals are glorified as helping the ‘working class’ (who isn’t a member of that class?) and against the ‘rich’; of which Hillary and Bill are clearly members, and Obama is a ‘rock star’.
The game is to keep Republicans divided; sometimes one Republican candidate is glorified and sometimes another. Remember when John McCain was the media darling?

It is more than a little troubling that the United States is now proposing negotiation of a new ‘Global Warming Pact’ before 'Kyoto' expires in 2012, according to recent reports. Furthermore, American delegates at the U.N. climate conference insisted Monday they would not be a "roadblock" to a new international agreement aimed at reducing potentially catastrophic greenhouse gases. Although seemingly against mandatory emission caps, Harlan L. Watson, a top U.S. climate negotiator, told reporters - "We're not here to be a roadblock, we're committed to a successful conclusion, and we're going to work very constructively to make that happen." As the loan hold-out since Australia under new leadership said they would sign onto Kyoto, it looks like the U.S. may be weakening under world pressure and we Americans and our lifestyle will be the losers in a false cause.