It seems like I am always in a collection mode of some sort when I find images of something that is the topic of the day. I find and save to the computer hard drive every image that I like and will return at another time to compare and review the images on the computer hard drive. I had an unfortunate experience a long time ago when my web host got hacked and all the files were lost. I didn't have any backups so I basically lost two years worth of blog posts and comments. I've learned the hard way so nowadays, I perform a daily backup my WordPress database and make sure I have a backup of all my theme, plug-in and other miscellaneous files that I use on my blog. So the key to anything is not to loose what you have saved.

By Jason Miller

7/26/08

For Sylvia

We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.

-William Ralph Inge, Outspoken Essays, 1922

Mr. Hannity: "The Bush administration's assessment of the challenges we face from terrorists, and their state sponsors, is serious, thoughtful, and realistic. The antiwar activists of the Democratic left, on the other hand, have expressed a vision that is naïve at best, dangerously out of touch at worst." (p. 177)

My response: Serious and thoughtful the president's picture may be, but to call it realistic is utterly absurd. President Bush claims that terrorists are consumed with unconditional hatred for America and everything good it stands for, and that thus we have no choice but to wipe them off the face of the earth. In the president's mind, Islamic terrorists are portrayed as sub-human agents of the devil, and given up for hopeless because we cannot do anything to change their evil plans. This is not just unrealistic, it is defeatist.

Mr. Hannity: Saddam Hussein was an evil outlaw, a cruel tyrant who deserves death.

My response: News of the evil character of Saddam Hussein has been greatly exaggerated. Hussein did flaunt the UN by refusing weapons inspectors entry into some parts of Iraq between 1987 and 1991 and between 1998 and 2002. He invaded Kuwait in 1990, and a few dishonorable troops in his army butchered scores of innocent people during that invasion. He unquestionably ran a tight ship of the central Mideast country, denying the Iraqi people many freedoms we take for granted and executing thousands of political dissidents. And when some treasonous Kurds and revolutionary Shiites plotted to overthrow Saddam's government in the 1980s, he overreacted by killing 175,000 people, most of whom were innocent.

Mr. Hannity: "The primary evil we face today is terrorism." (p. 3)

My response: With the traumatic images of September 11 burned into our consciousness, it can be tempting to look on international "Islamic" terrorism as the greatest evil inflicted by human beings upon our civilization. However, this view is erroneous, pathetically myopic, unconsciously self-pitying, encourages unlawful revenge, and is hypocritical.

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

o, what if abortion IS killing a human being? Evidently it's one of those millions of human beings who are simply destined to never see the outside of its womb. And what's so wrong with that? We have too any people on the planet as it is. Why all the mourning for what amounted to a clump of cells, whether or not it DID have a soul?

Because when you get right down to it, this is a human being who never felt any emotion, never SAW anything of the world it was going to miss, never BREATHED AIR. Meanwhile we've got millions of ACTUAL human beings, you know, ones that are BREATHING AIR and all, with LIVES to be saved or bettered.