WIN

For the inaugural run of the second and final year of The Last Word in The North Star, I decided that my limited space would best be used to discuss the alarming extremes that this political season has gone to. This election season has seen mudslinging and personal attacks on an unprecedented level, both from the candidates themselves and from organizations on both sides of the aisle.

One of the forces driving the fiery rhetoric is the large number of radicals on both sides who are turning to methods that border on ridiculous. For instance, what’s the deal with the anarchist groups that plotted (unsuccessfully, thank goodness) to shut down the Republican National Convention by purposefully snarling security arrangements and leaving the door wide open for potential terrorist threats? Or the woman who was recently arrested for interrupting a speech by the First Lady—after giving an interview in which she expressed the desire to torture and murder the president? Or the union worker in West Virginia who ripped a Bush-Cheney ’04 sign from the hands of a three-year-old­ girl and tore it up? Or Dan Rather of CBS, who accepted unauthenticated, inflammatory documents and presented them on national television as factual in a desperate attempt to discredit President Bush?

While I have nothing against loud, vigorous debate—I’m a pretty big fan, to be perfectly truthful—and I am a staunch supporter of the right to free speech, the actions that we have seen in the past weeks and months have far overstepped the boundaries of reasonable political disagreement. In the words of Joseph Welch (Joe McCarthy’s questioner): “Have you no decency?”

Of course, one can hardly ignore the fact that nearly all of the outrageous acts that have been committed have come from hard-left, anti-Bush radicals who seem bent on not only getting John  Kerry elected,  but also smearing President Bush with ludicrous untruths and preposterous lies. Still, despite barrages of confrontational political books along with the endless number of ads from liberal 527 groups, the president has managed to stay well above John Kerry in nearly every major poll since the Republican National Convention.

I can only hope that America continues to see through the propagandist drivel of the likes of Michael Moore, Al Franken and Molly Ives.

Satellite shot of Hurrican Ivan heading north.

Here's an interesting tidbit - this guy was murdering a load of puppies that he didn't want by shooting them in the head, so one courageous puppy put his paws on the gun, causing the man to shoot himself! Ha! Puppy 1, Man 0.

And another interesting tidbit - this report claims that Ken Jennings the Jeopardy Guy finally ended his streak at 75 games, with total winnings of around $2.5 million dollars. Of course, since Jeopardy is taped so far in advance (they only just aired the episode with his 41st win), we will not see this episode until later in the fall.

Congress will not renew the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban that renews next week, as they will not get a chance to vote on it. I say good - the AWB was never an effective piece of legislation anyway. I personally am not in favor of civilians owning assault rifles, but this law was not the way to do it. For more information on it, head over to FlashBunny and see for yourself.