James R. Rummel

I am a self defense instructor who lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Revising History

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I was alive during the 1972 Olympic Massacre, though I was rather young to have recognized the events as marking a fundamental shift in how the world functions.

Still, my own level of self-awareness notwithstanding, it was a turning point in that it made the nations of the world sit up and realize that Palestinian terrorist organizations had a very long reach, and that they weren’t going to go away on their own. One indirect result from this terrible act of mass murder was that the UN decided to grant legitimacy to the PLO a mere two years later, an attempt at appeasement that we’re still trying to deal with more than 3 decades later.

Steven Spielberg recently came out with a movie entitled Munich. In the film, a team of Israeli professionals are tasked to track down and assassinate the terrorists responsible for the Olympic murders. Although an undeniably well crafted film, Spielberg bends over backwards in an attempt to portray both sides of the conflict as being morally equal. This, in my opinion, is one flaw that simply cannot be overcome.

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Sometimes You Need Some Straight Talk

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The Canadian government has had a great deal of trouble in replacing their obsolete submarine fleet. It came to a head last year when the Canadians purchased four British Upholder class submarines. One of the subs, renamed the HMCS Chicoutimi, suffered from a series of accidents while it was being sailed to Canada from England. One crewman lost his life, and the boat was abandoned and had to be towed back to Britain by American and English vessels.

This has been a very embarrassing episode for the Canadian government and military. The civilian press has questioned the need for a silent service at all, something that appears nothing less than surreal to those of us who pay attention to military affairs. Last time I looked, Canada has more coastline to patrol than any other country in the world. Removing a vital asset such as a submarine fleet from your navy is a sure way to open gaping holes in the national defense.

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Business as Usual

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France has had some troubles lately, mainly about 10,000 torched cars. The powers that be are trying to assimilate the disenfranchised and arson prone youth by getting them involved in the democratic process. This is something I heartily approve of in principle, but I think they’re going about it the wrong way.

According to this news story, a Get-Out-the-Vote rally in the same ghetto where the rioting started didn’t turn out too well. The crowd was made up of Muslims of African ancestry, but one canny heckler pointed out that not a single elected official in all of France’s National Assembly shares their heritage.

Yep, they’ve got a ways to go.

Science in the Classroom

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I used to raise dogs professionally. (Golden retrievers if anyone is interested.) Get involved in the business, or any biological industry, and you’ll see that selective breeding works.

My thing was breeding dogs with short haired coats. Everyone always complains about the hair littering the couch when their golden starts to shed, so I decided to do something about it. I simply chose dogs with short hair for breeding while keeping those with longer hair penned up. I didn’t do it long enough to see a significant change, but just a glance at all the different breeds out there will show that it would have worked eventually.

That is pretty much at the heart of evolution. Some sort of environmental cause either reduces the chance for organisms with a certain inherited trait from breeding, or it increases the chances for individuals from the same species with a different trait. Undesired traits are bred out of the species while those that increase the chance of hooking up become commonplace. This is, in fact, the basis for just about all of our modern biological science.

Today a judge in PA banned the teaching of Intelligent Design in public school biology classes, saying that it was thinly disguised religion.

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Their Mouth is Writing a Check They Might Not be Able to Cash

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According to this news report the US Ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins, has given a speech where he warns Canadian politicians against bashing the United States in an effort to gain votes in the coming election.

The issues that concern me the most are self defense and national defense (with the environment coming in a distant 3rd), and I’ve been frustrated with the way the Canadian government has acted on those issues for the past few years. But what’s been even more maddening is the way that the Canadian government and media has insisted that they’re better than the Americans in some way, even though they appear to be failing miserably while we’re actually making progress.

Ambassador Wilkins’s remarks indicate that there may just be some payback for using the US as their favorite whipping boy….

“It may be smart election politics to thump your chest and constantly criticize your friend and your No. 1 trading partner. But it’s a slippery slope and all of us should hope it doesn’t have a long-term impact on our relationship.”

American disgust with what we saw as French duplicity had a profound effect on their economy, even without any action by the US government. It sounds like the current administration in Washington has decided that enough is finally enough. If this is pushed as an issue in the States, and Canadian rhetoric is brought to the attention of US voters/consumers, then Canada could be in for a rather rude awakening.

Another thing that many “world leaders” seem to have forgotten is that George Bush is going to be President for the next three years. It’s in their best interests to try and improve relations with America, instead of destroying any good will in an effort to garner short-term advantage at the polls.