Moving On

It's been months since my last post, but this one will officially mark the end of this chapter in my life.

I've learned a lot over this break. For about four months I interned with the most well-known think tank in DC and probably the country: The Heritage Foundation. It was a dream come true. Being able to shape the political atmosphere was an awesome feeling and I hope to be able to be part of that again. I've learned the importance of limited government and free and open markets. And whatever my future brings, I will always be part of the Conservative movement and work on its behalf.

Unfortunately, however, our movement has lost one of its strongest advocates: my fellow blogger, Hurricane74.

Over Thanksgiving break, my good friend was tragically killed by a worthless drunk driver. And I was there to witness it.

It goes without saying that life has been difficult these past few weeks. But I am trying to make a difference by increasing awareness of drunk driving as we can all be victims of it. This threat transcends all political philosophies and parties. And for me, it is now the time to focus on that.

Politics will always be here. But my friend won't.

So on behalf of Candidly Conservative, I want to thank all of the readers and visitors. It's been a great.

For those of you who have Facebook and would like to join my cause dedicated to my friend, please visit Help Fight Against Drunk Driving and The Pain It Causes HERE.

Never Say Never, Again

Hello Friends and Visitors,

Some may be wondering why I haven't posted anything in over a month. Well, it's because I didn't want to burn myself out, so-to-speak.

I spend much of my time watching political programs, listening to political radio talkshows and reading political books. Yes, it can get overwhelming at times. But politics is what I am passionate about and will continue to follow this path in life.

However, this is why I have decided to suspend my blog entries (at least for the time being); I felt constrained by time. After a day of watching, listening, and reading about politics, it became difficult to concentrate on writing at night for this blog. I am also preparing for an internship in D.C. this coming fall.

But I see that I still have a constant stream of visitors to this blog, and for that, I am thankful to everyone who has taken time out of their day to read my postings because I am only one of the tens of thousands of other bloggers out there. Also, thank you to all who have left comments that have added to our interesting and spirited debates on this blog.

I hope to be able to come back to writing for this blog. In the meantime, I will continue to visit all of your blogs and continue to be part of the blogging community.

-The Candid Conservative (and Hurricane74)

Surrounded By Libs

I assumed that summer courses would offer a pleasant environment of unbiased education.

Unfortunately, 'tis not the case.

I've now found myself in a situation where I'm surrounded by a lib hackademic professor and lib students for two hours a day for a whole month.

There are about 9 students in the class, all libs, except for the one lone conservative- me.

And after only two classes, I can already tell this class will cause my blood pressure to rise.

Day one consisted of the lib students embracing the notion of having Obama-style meetings with leaders of foreign countries who are enemies of the United States. I objected and said as President, I would continue the Bush foreign policy plan (as well as the plan of just about every President before him) which meant NOT talking (without "preconditions" of course) to sworn enemies. I wondered how as President I could have fruitful discussions with a leader, like Ahmadinejad, who denies the Holocaust and wants to wipe Israel off the map. It would be foolish to think that I would make a compromise with that man since the UN and EU have yet to deter him from his current course of action: continuing Iran's nuclear program.

The lib students also wanted to renew relations with allies that "we have lost". I don't know of any allies that "we have lost", do you?

Then we moved onto energy. One girl regurgitated the old phrase that "The US is only 3% of the population but uses 25% of the world's resources".

I'm sorry, but should the US not continue to buy resources on the free market to sustain its growing economy? As I understand it, spending money on resources fuels other economies and jobs around the world. If other countries need the resources, they can buy them, too.

The girl then mentioned how the US is taking too much of the global "pie" of resources. Now this is just a Socialist viewpoint. Instead of wanting the US economy to grow, those that buy into this Socialist ideology want the US economy to regress instead of progress. They want the US to become part of the poorer third world.

Everyone seemed to support eco-friendly this and that even if it meant weakening individual liberty. They wanted the government to "mandate" the use of eco-friendly devices like solar or wind power.

I objected and said that the people do not want the government to dictate to them how to power their home or what car to use. That this type of government intervention was tyranny. The professor looked surprised and said, "Oh, so you believe that seat belt laws are tyranny?" I said no, but I'm sure Libertarians do.

Lastly, another lib said that the government could mandate eco-friendly measures if only it had the money that is all being used for Iraq.

I guess that lib would rather NO money go to Iraq so as to prevent US soldiers from doing their job and getting the food and armor and supplies they need. In any event, the CBO shows that outlays like Social Security and Medicare (among others) account for OVER 10% of GDP!

These libs are so poorly educated, its almost too easy.

The Koran Criminal

Greetings all. The Candid Conservative is BACK! Also, a special thank you to those who wished me well on my tests.

Now, back to the good stuff!

For starters, I am a firm believer in the Constitution. I support freedom of speech even if its offensive, too. But, for years there has been a silent war on our freedoms- it's called political correctness.

The PC crowd has brought us the canning of Imus and Bob Grant. Being PC has removed the term "islamofascist" from the government lexicon. It also prevented the publishing of those cartoons that depicted Mohammed in a way that Islamists found offensive.

And now, the latest PC attack:

An American sniper was removed from Iraq after he used a copy of the Quran for target practice, the military said Sunday, a day after a U.S. commander held a formal ceremony apologizing to Sunni tribal leaders.

Major Jeffery Hammond had this to say:

The actions of one soldier were nothing more than criminal behavior," he added. "I've come to this land to protect you, to support you — not to harm you — and the behavior of this soldier was nothing short of wrong and unacceptable.

But the Major has forgotten that while he has come to protect Iraqis, so has the soldier he has smeared as a criminal. This volunteer soldier has been thrown under the bus in the name of political correctness!

Yes, maybe he shouldn't have done it, but it was in no way necessary for the military to respond in the way that it had.

Have the terrorists apologized once for any of their ruthless, neanderthal-like murders of our soldiers and innocent civilians? Well, we know what that answer is.

In this country, it is art to throw urine and human wastes on the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. It is also acceptable to mock religious people. In the UK, it is OK to throw the Bible in the trash, but not the Koran (see article HERE).

When are we going to stand up against this politically correct bias?


Article referenced can be found HERE.

Off The Bandwagon

Is it possible that we are wrong about global warming ruining the world? Tom Knutson a research meteorologist for the government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration thinks so.

Let me start this off by saying that I have been a hardcore supporter of action against the climate change we seem to have increased with carbon emissions and such, however I am no expert... and this researcher is. Tom Knutson's home page can be found here and the article surprisingly enough was seen on the extreme liberal AOL website, though reported from the AP who aren't exactly very conservative themselves. You can find the article yourself here.

According to the research, global warming is not the cause of the jump in hurricanes around the Atlantic. Surprisingly enough it is suggested that warmer weather actually reduces the number of hurricanes to make landfall.

What makes this study different is Knutson, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fluid dynamics lab in Princeton, N.J. He has warned about the harmful effects of climate change and has even complained in the past about being censored by the Bush administration on past studies on the dangers of global warming. He said his new study, based on a computer model, argues "against the notion that we've already seen a really dramatic increase in Atlantic hurricane activity resulting from greenhouse warming."

According to this study in fact, by the end of the century hurricanes in the Atlantic
will fall by 18%! The downfall however is that according to many other experts this model is poor because it does not take into account storms with winds greater than 112 mph. According to many such as Kevin Trenberth who is the Climate Analysis Chief of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado it is not the amount of hurricanes we should worry about but the intensity of them.

A side note here, living in debatably the worst area for hurricanes... including the fact that it is indeed the name of the athletic teams at my university, hurricanes are nothing to mess around with. However when thinking of hurricanes we think of Katrina which had a max wind of 175 mph. Hurricanes like this cause damage, sure... but much of the damage caused in New Orleans was from faulty levees. Lt. General Carl Strock, Commander of the Army Corps of Engineers admitted that the pre-Katrina levees were insufficient: “We have now concluded we had problems with the design of the structure. We had hoped that wasn’t the case, but we recognize it is the reality.” Source. The damage caused by hurricanes is not to be discredited; however the damage in New Orleans was greatly caused by poor engineering.

There is an average of 5 hurricanes per year in the US, will this season show us more? I suppose we'll have to wait to find out. AOL however did provide a section with pictures and quotes from those who would benefit from climate change. Wow, I think that's the first time I've heard that stated.

A few of the benefits they have given according to AOL:

Fisherman in Greenland where much of the ice is melting are thrilled by the return of cod, and farmers are showing higher yield.
A NY Apple grower has diversified his farm with peach, apricot, and plum trees to prepare for warmer weather.
Warmer weather could reduce the oil dependency for northerners in the winter.
Foreign tourism in Canada would increase 220%

So, where can we stand on this issue? It is a known fact that we have sped up the natural process of warming. It is however less certain as to what this really means. Many predict that certain areas such as parts of Manhattan and South Florida will be under water fairly soon. Many also predict that this is the #1 greatest cause for concern above Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear threats... Maybe we all need to wait for more brave scientists to do their research and hope that they submit it even if it goes against the norm.

Be Back Soon!

Hello Readers,

The Candid Conservative will return with new posts next week when final are over.

Take Care and thank you for reading.

-TCC

No More Conservative Professors

My last bastion of hope for conservatism on campus has died today: the only conservative political science professor I have ever had has turned into a McCain Republican.

And we all know that McCain Republicans are moderates or centrists at best and liberals at worst.

He calls himself a "card-carrying Conservative" but took a completely liberal stance on my paper about illegal immigration. His remarks included: "the sentiment against illegal immigrants comes from xenophobes and racists" and "industries will suffer" if illegal immigrations are deported. Also, "7-20 million illegal immigrants is a gargantuan number. How can we possible deport them?"

Firstly, the argument against illegal immigration is not from being xenophobic or racist. Conservatives are against illegal immigration because it runs counter to the rule of law and national sovereignty.

Secondly, I believe industries won't suffer if illegal immigrants are forced to return to their country of origin. My reasoning comes from an article (read the article here) that wrote that when INS raided a meat-packing plant and removed illegal immigrants, scores of legal citizens lined up for jobs.

Lastly, the way to fix illegal immigration is to close the border- period. With that wound bandaged-up the US can focus on cleaning up the blood. If the federal government can control our healthcare system, then they sure as hell could be able figure out a way to remove the millions of illegals. One way to get the ball rolling is to have the federal government remove funding for states that have sanctuary cities. Then, like the government did with "Operation Wetback", send hundreds (if not thousands) of security agents to track and remove illegal immigrants.

Republicans want to preserve their support from large businesses and corporations and gain support from the Hispanic community by endorsing “comprehensive reform” but do not want to alienate their conservative constituents who liken that to amnesty. Similarly, Democrats want to preserve their support from the Hispanic community by advocating comprehensive reform but do not want to alienate the “working-class” who face competition from cheap labor provided by illegal immigrants. But unless both parties can put this country before their political expediency, this problem cannot be solved

The Protestors Have Come And Gone

Two years ago, hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and their sympathizers took to the streets to protest the United States. They showed their disgust of America by burning its flag and waving the flag of Mexico. Immigration law, it seemed, was subject to debate by those who didn't even have a right to be here in the first place.

These illegal immigrants (henceforth referred to as criminals) protested against the same country that has allowed them to prosper in ways they could never have dreamed of in their country of origin.

But they didn't care.

The fact that politicians attempted to tackle the immigration crisis (yes it is a crisis) was reason enough to stage boycotts and riots. Words like "racist" and "xenophobe" were thrown around to any person who was against illegal immigration on the basis of the fact that it is exactly that: illegal.

So two years later and still no immigration reform, the criminals have come out again, only in lesser numbers. This year, only several thousand have participated in public protests, much less than the estimated million+ in 2006. This was blamed on aggressive enforcement by Border Patrol and police (Kudos, to you men and women). According to Margot Veranes, a volunteer organizer:

"People have been stopped and deported in the last week. This is a community living in fear," said Veranes, a researcher for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. "You never know when you're going to be stopped by Border Patrol and now the police."

Gee, if only these criminals crossed the border legally, they wouldn't have to live in fear.

But it is the sense of entitlment that these criminals have that angers me the most. They have disobeyed the law and feel they should be granted citizenship in return. According to Newsday:

From Washington to Miami to Los Angeles, activists demanded citizenship opportunities for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and an end to raids and deportations.

Eric Molina, a criminal himself even said, "We come here to fight for legalization. We're people. We have rights."

But what rights are he referring to?

And just to show how skewed people's thinking really is, student Vicente Campos said, "Immigrants come here to support their families in Mexico. They're not all here to do crimes."

I guess entering illegally doesn't count.

On another note, here is a quite saddening video about the murders of American citizens by illegal immigrants:

Article referenced can be found HERE.