On this day, September the 11th, 2,974 innocent men and women lost their lives in what is arguably the greatest display of evil in the 21st century (and maybe the second half of the 20th as well).

While the image of what happened on that Tuesday may be permanently burned into our minds, the lessons learned have quickly faded; just as the lessons learned from Pearl Harbor, World War II and previous conflicts have faded from our collective memory.  Appeasing an enemy, whether it be Radical Islam, Hitler and the Nazis, or any other, will never succeed in bringing a favorable outcome. By giving into our enemy, we lose our honor and they gain a hunger more of our prized freedoms to fall.

Instead, the free peoples of the world should band together in an effort to protect our own Inalienable Rights and to pass on the great gift to other societies and cultures. When the world is truly free, we will be one step closer a peaceful world.

I can only hope that those 2,974 people who lost their lives on that day, 6 years ago, will have saved the freedoms and the lives of many more by awaking the world. That is the most fitting legacy for our heroes and even just the regular people who died on that day.

God Bless America and God Bless the Free World.

Posted under History, Other, Terrorism by Will Gries on Tuesday, September 11th 2007; 6:13 pm

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These days, many more people feel that the Government isn’t releasing the full truth, or at least a portion of the 9/11 story. Skeptics may point to “evidence” that shows that there were explosions ever 10 floors instead of just at the crash or may say that a plane never even touched the buildings (despite the fact that so many people actually saw it happen). Some might even say that Flight 93 passengers who fought back against the terrorists were not killed in a plane crash but in some hanger and that the damage in the Pennsylvania field was caused by a bomb or missile of some sort.

The reason why people are doing this is because people are desperate to discredit the war and the President. Granted, it never hurts to make sure the Government is doing what it is supposed to, so on some level I am happy people care enough to try and explain this catastrophe in such roundabout ways. On the other hand, I can not imagine what if feels like to be a family member of somebody who died in September 11th. To suggest that our Government had something to do with it must seem like the most painful idea ever.

I’d say all of the evidence points the contrary. It’s much more realistic to blame the Government because they didn’t give the threat enough attention but it doesn’t make any sense to me to try and say the Government actually carried out the attacks.

• Firstly, it just so happens that somebody actually claimed credit for the attack… Osama bin Laden and co (al Qaeda). I guess if the Government really did carry out the attack it works out really nicely for them that somebody else claimed responsibility for it. Some do argue that Osama bin Laden must be an operative of the US but lets look at this logically:
  • bin Laden, whether directly (ordering an attack against the West) or indirectly (inspiring somebody to carry an attack against the west), would have an incentive just to damage the US and not destroy it (obviously, if he brings us toppling to the ground he’d
    lose his “flow” of money from the US.
  • By positioning himself against the US (whether actually or just acting) he puts his life in danger. It doesn’t make sense that he’d be willing to do that for just some cash.
  • Also, if al Qaeda is on our payroll, why would we want to destroy them? Wouldn’t it make much more sense to hire al Qaeda to carry out the attack and then blame some other group (one that we would hypothetically want to get rid of?)
• Secondly, the conspiracy theory leaves one thing out. They claim the Bush Administration used the attacks to gain power over all of us and establish the US as a dictatorship. Or, they push an older conspiracy theory that says that many Presidents (including Reagan, Bush Senior and Bush Junior) seek to establish a New World Order. But as Bush loses more and more power over his own administration everyday, these theories loses more and creditability.
• Thirdly, due to the fact that most Presidents desire to some good and also have fairly large ego’s it would be stupid for them to act in a way that would diminish the way the way they are viewed by history. President Bush is no exception. I guess just for the the sake of argument, one might argue that President Bush is indeed stupid (because of his terrible speaking skills) but somebody who says this might want to re-examine the facts. President Bush was smart enough to get elected President twice, smart enough to prosper even without his father’s help.

I hope that helps put some of the misplaced skepticism into place.

Posted under Other by Will Gries on Saturday, September 8th 2007; 6:39 pm

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I felt like I was funding terror when I went to see Michael Mooron’s, I mean Moore’s, new movie SiCKO. I knew from the start that it wasn’t going to give an objective view (maybe I wasn’t been objective there) and the movie didn’t disappoint.

Moore is correct about saying Health Insurance companies shouldn’t be able to force sick people not to have life saving operations. I can’t argue with that. However, when he starts to try and push his left wing agenda is where he becomes wrong. What could be fixed with a simple law must be overhauled into a huge money burden and a huge waste of time and effort.

Moore also points out how “good” foreign countries have it because their health insurance is “free”. He correctly says the money must come from somewhere (taxes) but says that “it isn’t a burden”. Hey, Michael, what about all the poor people who can’t afford all of this crap they don’t have to pay for in our system.

When he takes 9/11 heroes to Cuba he really starts bending the facts. He praises Cuba for their great system of health care but fails to mention that the WHO (World Health Organization) ranks them behind the United States. He also fails to mention that in Cuba, there is always the risk that good old Fidel (who he praises in the movie) will come and kill you if you disagree with him.

What bothers me the most is that the line of thought that you are owed something by the rest of society is sinking in quickly. Moore obviously thinks it, and pushes the idea. He wants the government to do his laundry, as he stated in the movie. He didn’t even consider that maybe I don’t want the government to do mine.

I like how the comedy, I mean documentary, was put together, something I’ve said for the last three documentaries I’ve seen. This movie was uniquely formated and I liked how Moore brought comedy into his crazy ideas; even Conservatives can laugh at some of the jokes in his movie. I didn’t like how Moore loaded the movie to Socialism instead of providing productive solutions to problems and I didn’t like how he just bends the facts at his own discretion. Because of this I give the movie a 2 out of 10 (10 is the highest). Don’t go see this movie unless you want to waste your money.

Posted under Other by Will Gries on Tuesday, July 17th 2007; 10:56 pm

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No doubt an interesting movie; I am glad that I saw this one.  That said, there are some serious flaws and errors with some of the statements that were made.  In fact, sometimes I even was in shock that some of the statements were even made.

The basic premise of the movie is that the ‘Military Industrial Complex’ is increasingly controlling the United States Foreign Policy.  The term was coined by Dwight Eisenhower and to his credit what he says in is valid.  The movie quotes Eisenhower many times within the movie warning Americans the problems that might occur with huge standing armies.

They also interview a whole host of relevant individuals about the ‘Military Industrial Complex’ including John McCain and policy advisers to the Bush administration.   However what is unfortunate is that they also include interviews with pawns that admittedly don’t understand any part of the larger War on Terror.

This movie had some pretty odd statements such as a couple from some lefty that I never actually caught the name of.  He said, “America is using economic colonialism by spreading free markets to sell our products”.  How evil of us!  Bring in a market where people have a choice in decided what product is best for them?  Sounds like a pretty oppressive action.  He also said, “[America is a] constant struggle between Capitalism and Democracy.”  As far as I can see, that is the biggest bullshit I heard in the movie?  Democracy and Capitalism go hand in hand.  The problem is that our government has made so many regulations and market controls we don’t actually have a free market so instead Big Business and Democracy are struggling.  He shows that he really doesn’t know what he is talking about in that statements, which was one of the last statements in the movie.

Another one of the shocking statements came from an Ex-CIA official who was against the Iraq War.  In an attempt to debunk our reasons for going in (which were WMD’s) he said that he knew Iraq had the Weapons because Washington had the receipts.  So I guess by trying to tell us how bad it was for us to go in he proved it was the right decision.

I also heard arguments against an All Volunteer Army, which also surprised me.  I wasn’t even aware people were against a Volunteer Army, it isn’t exactly controversial.  Apparently, the makers of the movie are just against only having people who want to volunteer they want people who don’t want to volunteer to be forced to serve (via the Draft).

The movie had a couple good parts however when they brought attention to the fact that the Defense Budget is way too large.  I agree.  It is too large in a time of War and it is way too large in times of Peace.  We should cut at least a third away from the Defense Budget, because so much of it is going to wasteful projects and not even to Defense.

In conclusion, the bad way out weighed the good in this movie.  In a rating out of 10 (with 10 being the highest), I would have to give this movie a 4.  I did like the format of the movie though and they did a good job of hunting down their News footage.

Posted under Other by Will Gries on Tuesday, July 17th 2007; 1:17 pm

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Take the The Factor Quiz.  AT&T will donate one phone card to the troops for each person that takes the quiz.  Just take the quiz!  Even if you hate the Factor (or O’Reilly).

Posted under Other by Will Gries on Tuesday, June 5th 2007; 8:12 pm

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On this Memorial Day, I would like to thank all Soldiers and Veterans who have sacrificed for our country.  Their service is/was very important for our continued freedom.

Posted under Other, Site Announcements by Will Gries on Monday, May 28th 2007; 10:32 am

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Ask any almost any American and the answer that you will receive will be no. The idea that the government would forcibly keep the poor at the lowest level of society goes against the American spirit, yet this is what is happening.

The schools that are the worst schools are the intercity schools where a large majority of poor Americans live. Rich families can avoid sending their kids to these schools; they can afford to have them schooled at a private school, however poor families do not have this option. They are forced to live with whatever the government provides, which, often isn’t adequate.

This problem can be solved, however the solution seems to be too controversial to gain bipartisan support. Ironically, the solution is easy enough to figure out. Let the students and their families choose which school they want to attend and have the government pay the tuition costs (with the money that would have been given to the original assigned school).

This solutions has several advantages. Firstly, poor students are restrained because they can’t afford to attend a better school. The simply aren’t restrained by their parents income level and are given a chance at making it in the real world. Secondly, letting students choose encourages competition among schools. The bad schools will be forced to either get their act together and make their school a good place to learn, or lose the business of students and be shut down. Thirdly, it gives lower middle class students and their families relief (from having to pay tutution and have to have tax money be sent to the local public school).

Also, this plan would encourage higher teacher pay across the board because public school teachers would be in direct competition with their private school counterparts.

This plan also has a disadvantage. Some private schools only allow a certain number of students in or only allow an elite number of students in. This could be perhaps countered by a law saying that private schools must allow a certain number of students in. Of course, I hate to impose regulations on businesses, so private schools would be allow to make the student sign a contract saying that they will meet the school’s regulations or be subject to being dropped.

Overall, student vouchers would be a great way to reform our system. And to counter any skepticism, this plan has already been proven to work. The voucher program has already been implemented in several countries in Europe, and as it turns out, all of those countries place above the US in education rankings.

Posted under Other, Politics, School by Will Gries on Tuesday, May 8th 2007; 6:34 pm

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The fact that people actually say this makes me wonder about their mental sanity. I am not going to sit up here and say that smoking doesn’t cause cancer or otherwise death, because, newsflash smoking causes all sorts of problems. I just cannot understand the claims that the tobacco companies are out to kill anybody who smokes.

Frankly, saying that the tobacco companies want to kill people doesn’t make any sense. In theory, the tobacco companies want their customers to live because the longer that they live the more money they will pay in cigarettes. Now of course, it is true that cigarettes do kill but this is true not because the companies are trying to kill you.

Also, when you purchase a pack of cigarettes from a tobacco company the company isn’t killing you (voluntarily or not)… you are doing that by smoking the cigarettes. All deaths that result from cigarettes are the fault of the person who bought that cigarette in the first place, not the people who manufacture it!

Posted under Other by Will Gries on Friday, May 4th 2007; 9:57 pm

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I was skeptical at the beginning… about whether I would actually like the movie (of course it didn’t change my mind). The first thing that I noticed when starting the movie was that it was very professionally done. Al Gore and co did a very nice job of mixing the scenes together with video (from Gore’s presentations). That balance between video/pictures and music/speaking/silence is really what sets this movie aside from other documentaries.

While I still disagree with Gore on much of what he said, An Inconvenient Truth really did a good job of making him relevant in today’s society. Also, the movie served to put a person with the face (often times I think that we forget that politicians are just people). Although this movie was about Global Warming, they mixed with moments from Gore’s life. Gore talked about when he was a kid, when he was a senator, when his child almost died and when he lost his bid for President. I have to say it, but that part about him losing the bid for President made me really respect him. Although I would not ever want to see him actually as President; his attitude about his own fall and the fact that he picked himself back up is important.

Finally, I would point out that a few of the graphs that he uses are deceiving. While technically correct, the graphs use broken scales to make it seem as if the problem is worse than it really is. I did however back check the information on the graphs and as far as I can tell, the information is accurate.

Also, the last part of the movie, actually during the credit might even be the best part! The letters appear on a blank screen and re-arrange themselves to give you ideas on how you can help out. Basically; conserve, re-use, recycle and it even suggested writing to congress. I was surprised to see a movie made by a Democrat to include ways of fixing the problem (instead of just talking about it).

Posted under Global Warming, Other by Will Gries on Friday, May 4th 2007; 4:12 pm

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It is well know that the US intelligence agencies knew about 9/11 long before it happened. The reason that 9/11 was not stopped was the hefty layers of Government that surround the entire operation.

To stop the next attack we need to focus on not giving the government more power, but getting the government to use the power it already has to stop the next terrorist attack. Just adding more money and more people isn’t going to solve the problem. If we had the Department of Homeland Security back in 2001, the attack probably still would have occurred.

I think the best way to solve the problem is to cut the funds going to the Intelligence services. Cutting the funds will force them to layoff the extra people that are on the job. Less people, less problems. We need to have a plan for where we want the intelligence to go. Perhaps Homeland Security can act as a center for the whole operation. Foreign intelligence can go to the CIA, while domestic intelligence would be routed to the FBI. As far as I am concerned, the NSA can be picked apart and the appropriate pieces can be reassigned to the CIA and the FBI (perhaps Homeland Security, if we are using that as a hub).

Overall, there has to be less people involved. Government bureaucrats just make the situation worse. Perhaps the military should play a larger role in Intelligence management.

I realize that much of what I have just described is already happening (layout wise) however, they still have a surplus of people and that is dangerous as far as I am concerned.

Posted under Cultural Battles, Legal, Other, Politics, Terrorism by Will Gries on Sunday, April 29th 2007; 3:44 pm

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