It's YOU ARE, Stupid!

If Facebook has taught us anything, it is that people posting on the social networking site have real difficultly figuring out which words to use in certain common sentences. "Your" and "you're" may be the most often misused words. Now, for your edification and possible amusement, is a list of the most misused words.

YOUR - use: Is that YOUR gun?
YOU'RE - use: YOU'RE not going to use that gun!

COARSE - use: Don't use COARSE sandpaper to clean your gun.
COURSE - use: Of COURSE you may use my gun.

TO - use: You better go TO the gun store.
TOO - use: I will use your gun, TOO!
TOO - use: It's not TOO often you let me borrow your gun.

THERE - use: I keep my guns over THERE.
THEIR - use: It's THEIR gun you drunken fool!
THEY'RE - use: Let's rob my friends because THEY'RE not home and don't have guns.

We here at Random Thoughts... hope the preceding has been useful and informative. Otherwise, the grammar police will show up at your house and you may wind up looking like this:

 

Things We've Forgotten - What?!?

EXTRAORDINARY WARNING: Profane language used in this blog post.

(photo by Tammy Harrel-Fraley)

BP Oil Spill - oh shit! That is soooo yesterday! We all know that the ocean is so vast that it can swallow anything we cram into it like a cheap whore paid $150 to do a bukkake scene. And I'm being polite here. Have you forgotten what the fuck really happened there? Have not you seen the public service announcements paid for by BP extolling you to, please, please, please, come back to the Gulf and spend, spend, spend your enormous tourist dollars???? Oil? What oil? There's no oil in the Gulf!!!!
Why?
Because it is at the bottom of the Gulf! Bwahahahahahaa!
Please!

IT'S THE ❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚!!!

As I'm sure you have heard by now, the interweb is under attack by sinister forces which ❚❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ ❚❚ ❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ ❚❚ ❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚.

❚❚❚❚❚❚❚, ❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚❚ ❚❚ ❚ ❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚ ❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚. ❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚ ❚❚ ❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚❚ ❚❚❚ ❚❚❚❚❚.


< This blog post has been removed by SOPA >

Rod's Top Ten Blog Posts For 2011

The author contemplates a glass half full! (Photo credit: Tammy Harrel-Fraley)

And so we scamper toward another end of the year. If there's something more Americans like at the end of the year than reading lists, it is creating lists. Although I only started blogging last July, here are the top ten blog posts from Random Thoughts Of A Random Guy From A Random Place Up In The Sky for 2011:

1. http://rod-harrel.blogspot.com/2011/10/obama-extrajudicial-mass-murderer.html
"Obama: Extra Judicial Mass Murderer" was by far the most popular blog in terms of page views. I'm pleased as I feel it is one of my best works.

2. http://rod-harrel.blogspot.com/2011/11/jfk-conspiracy-proof-is-in-warren.html
"JFK CONSPIRACY-The Proof Is In The Warren Report" was one of two postings concerning the 48th anniversary of JFK's assassination.

3. http://rod-harrel.blogspot.com/2011/08/strange-deadly-journey-of-navy-seal.html
"The Strange And Deadly Journey Of Navy Seal Team 6" while placing third was certainly first in the amount of comments it generated. It is one of my best on-the-spot postings.

4. http://rod-harrel.blogspot.com/2011/09/in-short-stark-raving-theatre-brief.html
"In Short, A Stark Raving Theatre Brief" is my theatre memoir about the halcyon days of Stark Raving Theatre. Informative and historical, as they say.

5. http://rod-harrel.blogspot.com/2011/08/presidents-who-owned-people.html
"Presidents Who Owned People" was my personal favorite. Pictures and history! I got the idea after reading a well researched article about our Presidents.

6. http://rod-harrel.blogspot.com/2011/09/wall-street-protests-news-blackout.html
"Wall Street Protests News Blackout Disinformation" was one of those "I can't believe people are falling for this" postings. The interweb was abuzz with how MSM was blacking out the Occupy protests, which was completely untrue. So, this was my most informative essay toppling nasty rumors.

7. http://rod-harrel.blogspot.com/2011/09/why-i-wont-vote-for-barack-obama-again.html
"Why I Won't Vote For Barack Obama Again" now here's a posting that will be used for the next 11 months!

8. http://rod-harrel.blogspot.com/2011/10/what-if-there-was-book-about-you-and.html
"What If There Was A Book About You And You Didn't Know It?" oh, by far the most surprising thing to have found on the interweb. Yes, Big Brother is watching you and he wants to make a few bucks off of you, too.

9. http://rod-harrel.blogspot.com/2011/11/random-thoughts-of-random-guy.html
"Random Thoughts..." is the only fiction posting to have made the list (which tears a little bit at the original writer in me).

10. http://rod-harrel.blogspot.com/2011/08/shooting-on-shoestring-budget-part-2.html
"Shooting On A Shoestring Budget, Part 2" was part of a series of postings I wrote regarding the shooting of that fabulous new short film, "Our Neighbors"!

Why Obama Wants To Veto The NDAA And Won't

There has been a great hue and cry, mostly from the left, over last week's Senate vote on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The usual Facebook petitions and calls to your congressperson sprang up rather quickly after the passage in the democratic controlled Senate by an astounding 93 to 7 vote. Most of these were imploring President Obama to veto the bill; which he said he would when it reaches his desk. As usual, when it comes to Obama, there is more to this story than meets the eye.

(photo via: usahitman)

Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican from South Carolina) declared: “If you’re an American citizen and you betray your country, you’re going to be held in military custody and you’re going to be questioned about what you know, and you’re not going to be given a lawyer if our national security interests dictate that you not be given a lawyer.” Yeeeee-ikes! Thankfully, there are plenty of articles which point out the real reason for the Obama veto threat and that reason is the matter of the continuing battle between the Judicial and Executive branches and has nothing to do with protecting your precious freedoms.

President Obama has already staked out his claim as extra-judicial mass murderer-in-chief and the proposed legislation is infringing upon his territory. In essence, Congress wants to codify the Executive branch illegalities which would place Obama and Company under legal restrictions it does not want! His veto is merely a threat because it can be easily overrode unless, of course, he chooses to use the pocket veto.

So, there you have it. What you don't have: any debate or statements in Congress, by the President or in the MSM defending the Constitution! They certainly don't want the American public at large to realize that they truly want to destroy the 4th, 5th and 6th Amendments.

Don't you Obama loyalists realize he takes your blind, ignorant, apologist support for granted? Obama gives you loyalists no credit for the intellectual capacity to realize the true nature of his decisions. The folks at Reader Supported News (RSN) are all over the true nature of this so-called fight and point out the craven nature of both the Obama administration and Congress.

UPDATE:
Obama did not veto the bill since there was some mild language changes. So, buckle up, America! It's time to drive into the abyss of no Bill of Rights!

Walter Cronkite Was The Source Of The Core "JFK Conspiracies"

President John F. Kennedy was killed, Texas Governor John Connally and James Teague were wounded during an assassination ambush in downtown Dallas on November 22nd, 1963. The shooting occurred at approximately 12:30pm Central Standard Time (CST). CBS-TV broke into regular programming with a bulletin about ten minutes later. Since television cameras back in 1963 took nearly thirty minutes to cold start, all audiences saw were a CBS News Bulletin card and heard the voice of Walter Cronkite. He reported from the Associated Press that three shots had been fired at the motorcade and that Kennedy was "seriously wounded." Cronkite advised, to what was probably a stunned audience, "stay tuned to CBS News for further details".

Well, the "further details" that Cronkite reported during the next thirty minutes are the source material for the core "conspiracy theories" about the assassination. Yes, and not without a definite caveat dolloped on at the end! These reports, of course, disappeared from the broadcasts as the story became the arrest of the possible assassin.

Iconic Polaroid photograph taken by Mary Moorman.

Below, I have transcribed the relevant portions from a recording of the actual broadcast.

12:40pm CST (all times approximate)

CBS breaks into regular programming with a special report by Walter Cronkite, voice only over a “CBS Bulletin”  logo.

Only twenty minutes after the assassination, Cronkite is reporting about the discovery of two possible assassins: a man and a woman! Rarely reported in pro-conspiracy books and articles and not at all in the anti-conspiracy one, this odd imagery, as it were, would be repeated five years later with the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Also, the infamous grassy knoll makes its first appearance.

12:50pm CST

CRONKITE: After these three loud bursts of gunshot, Dallas motorcycle officers escorting the president quickly leaped from their bikes and raced up a grassy hill. At the top of the hill a man and woman appeared huddled on the ground. In the turmoil it has been impossible so far to determine whether the Secret Service and Dallas Police returned the gunfire that struck down Kennedy and Connally, or whether this couple at the top of the hill, crouched down in their inert forms as the police rushed them were the would-be assassins.

This report contains the first overt mention of shot(s) coming from the grassy knoll and automatic weapon fire. Also, he is reporting "a crowd" surrounding the previously mentioned couple.

12:57pm CST

CRONKITE: Some of the Secret Service Agents thought the gunfire, however, was from an automatic weapon fired to the right rear of the Chief Executive’s car. Possibly from a grassy knoll. And that’s that knoll to which motorcycle policemen were seen racing and where the huddled figures of a man and a woman were seen on the ground with a crowd surrounding them. Which suggests of course, that perhaps, this is where the shots came from. This we do not know as yet positively.

The CBS network now switches to its local affiliate in Dallas. The first report of a Secret Service agent in the President's motorcade being killed is aired.

1:03pm CST

Reporters from Dallas station KLRD-

EDDIE BARKER: One of the Secret Service Agents who was riding with the President was killed. Is that correct?

DICK ?: That is the report at this moment.

BARKER: Dick, has there been any report as to whether or not the assassin was apprehended?

DICK ?: Nothing on the apprehension as yet…

1:06pm CST

Still from Dallas station KLRD.

BARKER: Uh, the report is that the attempted assassins, we now hear that it was a man and woman, who fired the shots, were on the ledge of a building near the Houston Street underpass. Uh, just from memory, that would put…

After this interesting bit of news, a major confirmation of what Cronkite had reported less than twenty minutes earlier, Barker is cut off and the image returns to CBS news headquarters in New York and Walter Cronkite.

CRONKITE: That was a report from Eddie Barker at our affiliate KLRD in Dallas, Texas.

1:11pm CST

Back to Dallas and the caveat of unconfirmed stories, however the reporting of the death of a Secret Service agent continued.

BARKER: As you can imagine there are many stories that are coming in now as to the actual condition of the President. One is that he is dead. This cannot be confirmed. Another is that Gov. Connelly is in the operating room. This we have not confirmed. Another is, and apparently this is correct, that one of the Secret Service Agents, whose job it was to guard the life of the President was killed in his line of duty. The President was whisked from the scene of the attempted assassination, or assassination, depending upon his condition of course at this hour, by bus to Parkland Hospital…

Walter Cronkite reads the official bulletin of JFK's death. (photo source: obrag.org)

As these initial reports quietly disappeared, even the reports about the heroic dead Secret Service agent, Cronkite eventually reported the awful, obvious news about Kennedy.

1:38pm CST

CRONKITE: From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: "President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time." 2 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.

We Hold These Truths...

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

THAT Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin who killed John F. Kennedy and wounded Governor John Connally and James Teague; in spite of the fact "he" stayed at the assassin window for several seconds, ran in a direction away from the exit to secret "his" rifle, ran to the exit, down five flights of stairs, go into the lunch room, buy a coke from the machine and then be confronted by a Dallas Police officer only 90 seconds after the last shot.

THAT the Gulf Of Tonkin Incident, which got us in a shootin' war with them Viet Cong, actually happened; in spite of the fact, revealed years later, that it did not happen.

THAT Sirhan Sirhan was the lone assassin who killed Robert Kennedy and wounded six other people; in spite of the fact that he was standing in front of Kennedy, whose wounds were all from the back.

THAT James Earl Ray was the lone assassin who killed Martin Luther King; in spite of the fact that King's son doesn't believe it is true.

THAT Watergate was just a third rate burglary.

THAT the United States had nothing to do with the hostage crisis in 1979-80.

THAT the John Lennon shooting was the work of a lone gunman.

THAT the Ronald Reagan shooting was the work of a lone gunman.

THAT all the wars of the Reagan/Bush era were merely unending coincidences that had no relation to each other at all, step away nothing to see here.

THAT the Waco fire was a mere tragic accident.

THAT lying about who sucked your cock is a high crime and misdemeanor.

THAT the presidential election of 2000 was fair and balanced.

THAT September 11th was achieved by box cutter wielding terrorists hired by Saddam Hussien, no wait, Osama bin Ladin, well you get the idea.

THAT the presidential election of 2004 was fair and balanced (see above).

THAT it is okay for a private corporation called the Federal Reserve to print worthless money and sell it to the United States government and charge interest.

THAT we must pepper spray peaceful protesters.

THAT we must pepper spray peaceful protesters who think Wall Street is corrupt.

The Portland Police/Occupy Portland Lament

[with apologizes to Lennon-McCartney]

I'm so tired
I haven't slept a wink
I'm so tired
My mind is on the blink
I wonder should I get down
Pepper spray another fink
Yeah, yeah, yeah

I'm so tired
I don't know who to berate
I'm so tired
My club is set on you ape
Thanks to you filthy hippies
I was late to another call of rape
Yeah, yeah, yeah

The Mayor he's been putting you on
Well it's no joke
He's doing you harm
You know I can't sleep, I can't stop my brain
You know it's three weeks, I'm going insane
Funny how the media don't notice we cover our badges and names

I'm so tired
I'm feeling so upset
Although I'm so tired
Put out that cigarette
And curse Sir Walter Raleigh
You deserve everything you get
Yeah, yeah, yeah

The Mayor he's been putting you on
Well it's no joke
He's doing you harm
You know I can't sleep, I can't stop my brain
You know it's three weeks, I'm going insane
Funny how the media don't notice we cover our badges and names
Funny how the media don't notice we cover our badges and names
Funny how the media don't notice we cover our badges and names

Portland Mayor Sam Adams walks with members of the police. (photo source: seattlepi)

THE JFK CONSPIRACY: The Proof Is In The Warren Report

I believe it is safe to say that no one will ever be arrested, let alone tried and convicted, of deed or complicity, in the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963. Mainly because almost all of them are dead. It is unlikely that a notarized document from Oswald or a member of the military/industrial complex exclaiming, "Yes, I shot that son of bitch Kennedy dead!" will suddenly be discovered. Yet, even a cursory examination of the available evidence reveals that a coup d'état was accomplished in America that day.

It is easy to forget, given the distance in time of almost 50 years, that almost every conspiracy theory began with the publication of the very document created to refute conspiracy: The Warren Report.
More importantly, even though the Report's conclusion was that a lone assassin fired three shots from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building, the evidence included in the Report completely refutes its own conclusion!

What I would like to do is focus on three examples of evidence which explicitly show that the official version is incorrect and hence a conspiracy in the truest sense of the word did exist. With this knowledge we can see that a coup did happen and we as a people and as a nation have suffered from the repercussions that reverberate to this day. To begin, let us look at the well worn official version of the assassination in Dallas, Texas. President Kennedy, his wife Jackie, Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie were riding in an open air convertible as part of a motorcade through downtown Dallas.

The presidential motorcade in downtown Dallas. Left to right: Texas Governor John Connally, his wife Nellie, President John F. Kennedy, his wife Jackie.

Obama Thinks You Are An Idiot

President Obama's Veteran's Day remarks expose his belief that Americans are a bunch of idiots. We are incapable, he believes, to look beyond his statements to see how hypocritical he is, what a mass murderer he is and that he continues to receive support from Wall Street. We are apparently incapable of doing simple google searches which easily belie his remarks. See this and this for some background.

Photo source: C-Span

Random Thoughts Of A Random Guy...

I was alone in the desert. I was hot. I was sweaty. It was dry. The sun was beating down. I was beating down. There was no bush to beat around.

How did I get here? This was not typical. Normal, some would voice. Abnormal, I knew. Certainly against nature. Nevertheless, here I was and maybe it was Abby Normal after all.

But it was summer and it was cool. The sort of summer that drove me to write like this. Like Hemingway? But there was no white entry parlor. No white staircase. No shotgun in my hand, muzzle stuck in my mouth. And no reason to pull the trigger. There was no need. The image of brain matter slung like a bloody rice against the wall...no. Not for me.

AS THE BLOOD Drips From The Lips Of The Left

The Left, the Democrats, the Progressives, have blood dripping from their lips as they relate the latest Obama murder in the form of Moammar Gadhafi. As with every other murder done in the name of this administration, the Left licks its lips describing yet another "head" in the Obama trophy room. I find it sickening and repulsive coming from a party (the Democrats) or a so-called movement (the Progressives), this satisfaction of murder. This is coming from the same folks who branded "war criminal" and "murderer" (and rightfully so) on Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, et al. But, there it is, lying there naked in its own sordid truth: the bloodthirstiness of the Left equal to and more grotesque than that of the Right.

President Obama and Libyan Dictator Gadhafi in happier times. (photo by Michael Gottschalk; Associated Press)

Overlooking for now how this continuing excuse for perpetual war, this Libyan War, has dragged on well past it's original "days, weeks" assessment, it is worth noting how it was declared "over" many times, much like Osama was declared dead many times, or even the Americans Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, and now, at long last, that butcher of Tripoli, Gadhafi. Hillary Clinton's wish that Gadhafi were killed apparently came true! Because, dead men tell no tales. And like Saddam, Osama, etc., Gadhafi certainly had a lot of tales to tell. Oh well, so much for that. And so much for the Left examining these conveniently timed murders for being just that, or how Obama seems to be "cleaning up" so many of the Bush/Cheney enemies.

Because the Left now wallows in death and bathes gleefully in the blood, they sicken me more than Republicans who do the same. For the Left should find these murders, extrajudicial or otherwise, repugnant. For calling the Republicans "murderers" they now stand in the shameful light of hypocrisy. Wipe that blood from your lips before you speak to me again.

AH, Saturday Morning Cartoons

When I was a kid, getting up at 7am on Saturday morning was not a chore because the television spewed out cartoons. It seemed like it did for hours. Then the parents would send us outside to expend the rest of our cereal sugar rush until lunchtime.

In the later life, You Tube offered me a chance to try out one of their contraptions. This one they dubbed "Go Animate". Since I am a poor artist, I stretched out this promo offer of Google, er, uh, I mean You Tube's and managed to get to produce 2 [wow a lot of twos] cartoons out of the deal. Using templates a casual viewer of ye ol' You Tube would recognize, here are the only cartoon's I've produced so far, as they say....

"Osama Dead? Osama Alive?"

CARTOON #1

"Illegal War"

CARTOON #2

Enjoy it fer cryin' out loud....

OCCUPY PORTLAND - Day 1 - new video documentary

It was certainly an interesting day in the annuals of marches in Portland. The crowd, which I estimated to be near 10,000 at one point, was, how can I say, cordial. Of course, as you will see in this short documentary, there are many underlying causes to bring out an overnight camp out in downtown Portland. I mean, Portland! Home of the sit-lie ordinance among others, and here the mayor let's them stay overnight, but gotta be out of there by 9am! What will happen next? What do you think? Portland has not seen a mass occupation of property in a long, long time.

So far, as of Day 5, Occupy Portland continues to occupy two downtown parks. The Portland Marathon went off without a hitch, despite some shrill interweb postings predetermining what the protesters would do to their marathon. The police are now trying to get Main St. between the parks reopened.

I hope you enjoy and share this video.

http://youtu.be/hVjTpOAOZwk

WHAT IF THERE WAS A BOOK ABOUT YOU AND YOU DIDN'T KNOW IT?

Yes, the interweb is still a bit of a Wild West kinda place all right. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Amazon books was selling a book about me (yes, me) starting at $39 [plus shipping & handling] all the way up to $50. It is a small 68 page paperback that seems to be available in several languages. How is this even possible I wondered?

It is because in this era of free content there are several publishing companies that exist for no other reason than to publish books complied from these free sources. The free sources in question are Wikipedia, as the cover proudly exclaims, "High quality content from Wikipedia articles". In the case of the book about me, the publisher is Betascript Publishing which is part of a company called VDM (which ironically has a Wikipedia entry), a company based in Germany (it's always the Germans!) with offices in Argentina and Latvia. There are three "editors" credited for the book about me whose names I'll pass on putting in the blog post. Nevertheless, they managed a 68 page book about me from this Wikipedia entry and another about Stark Raving Theatre and who knows where else (and now that you have read the links you know about me without having to spend $40!).

OBAMA: EXTRAJUDICIAL MASS MURDERER

[includes 2nd update]

"The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the 'devil' only in order to drive the 'TV watcher' to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money."
- Pierre-Henri Bunel

President Obama (source: Reuters)

President Obama has taken this propaganda and run with it, making George W. Bush almost blush. It is Obama who has now taken to using extrajudicial force against Americans with the supposed killing of Al-Qaida stalwarts Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. Like Osama bin Laden before him, al-Awlaki had also been pronounced dead many times before. Also, like bin Laden, the U.S. Government went after him, not to question, but to kill. Instead of capturing these men who must have had vast amounts of information on the supposed evil, check-under-your-bed terrorist network, the commander-in-chief did not hesitate to kill them. Now does that make any sense to you?

"JOHN LENNON WAS A CONSERVATIVE" - DISINFORMATION

Disinformation comes in all forms and from a variety of sources. Lately, folks on the interweb seem to be getting a bit of kick out of the proclamation that John Lennon was a conservative. Yes, the man President Nixon and his cabal tried so mightily to deport, was actually a dyed in the wool Republican! But it is disinformation, which in this case also doubles as a synonym for outright lies.

Iconic photo of John Lennon by Bob Gruen.

Real god fearing Republicans, who still haven't forgave or never bothered to research Lennon's statement about The Beatles being bigger than Jesus Christ, were able to squeal merrily that Lennon was a closet conservative.

A LIST OF REAL MSM NEWS BLACKOUTS

As shown in a previous post, the Wall Street occupation news blackout is pure disinformation. Here are some MSM news blackouts that are real (and some of these point up that, yes indeed, the shadow government CAN keep a conspiracy secret).

WALL STREET PROTESTS "NEWS BLACKOUT" DISINFORMATION ON FACEBOOK

I am beginning to wonder if people and some of my friends on Facebook have lost the ability to conduct a simple google search. The current example comes in the form of: "Media Blackout of Wall Street Protests" and the like. It appears all one has to do after posting such a provocative headline is to link to sites like Al-Jazeera or any so-called left-wing blog or whatever and PRESTO, instant (and in this case needless) controversy about the evil MSM.

And this image comes to us from the decidedly MSM outlet CNBC.

TAKING A TURN TOWARD THE SURREAL

You know things have taken a turn toward the surreal when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's annual speech before the United Nations General Assembly is beginning to make some sense. Oh, certainly he resolutely refuses to examine his own country with such a microscope and continues his obvious anti-Semitism, but that's what makes it surreal. I mean that's the way it is: he speaks of some truth but is vilified because, well, the United States describes him as a "madman".

Photo by Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

And the "madman" undermines legitimate research by co-opting ideas from others (I'm talking to you, too, Ron & Rand Paul) for his own country's agenda. In religious tone, his speech is not all that different from many given by George W. Bush or his recent heir apparent, Rick Perry. Yet, when viewing certain world affairs, his assertions defy the rhetorical questions.