I haven’t been to a nightclub since Ice Cube released Predator sometime back in the 90’s, but I can make the safe assumption that guys are still under the wrong impression that they’re going to meet the girl of their dreams at one of those meat markets. Well, you’re not. In fact, places where there’s an option to dance, where music is playing, and where a bar is serving alcohol is probably one of the worst places to meet someone. Here’s why:

- The guys are drunk
- The girls are drunk
- The guys want to get laid
- The girls want to get laid, but they will tell everyone in the world that they just wanted to go out to “blow off some steam.”

Hint: In girl talk, “blowing off some steam” means they want to get laid. I had an ex who used to go out for “a night with the girls,” and after I found out that she cheated on me, I put two and two together and found out that the “blowing off some steam” line was just girl-talk for wanting to find a hot guy who they would never have to talk to again.

As a general rule of thumb, if you’re in a place where you have ever considered more than one to be a good place to pick up a girl and get laid, then there’s a strong chance that the women there have the same thing on their mind. Not to break anyone’s heart, but women are just as big of dogs, if not bigger, than men.

I remember when the old rule about not calling a girl for a few days was considered to be golden. Guys, I can’t tell you what a mistake that is. If you meet someone and you think she’s cool, just be upfront and tell her. In fact, using the line, “I think you’re cool,” combined with, “we should get together sometime, I know a great Cuban restaurant…” should be the first thing out of your mouth. Here’s why: if you’re serious about meeting someone who you would like to date, possibly get to know better, and turn it into a serious relationship, you’ve got to come to the conclusion right now at this point in time that you’re going to have to be friends with this person. In fact, your significant other should be your best friend. Therefore, use this opportunity to make a new friend.

Now, everyone has heard the line about how you don’t want to make a girl a friend because that’s all that she’s going to look at you as from that point forward. That is untrue on every level. I seriously doubt if you would try to become intimate with your friend, nor hold their hand, nor kiss them after seeing a movie and sharing a plate of papas rellenas. It just doesn’t happen. As long as you have the clear distinction in your head that you like the girl and you gradually put the moves on her, she’ll want to turn the “friend thing” into the “relationship thing” as much as you do.

The key here is to not mess around. Avoid the games, avoid the double-talk, and be upfront. Do you like it when your friends pull all sorts of crap with you? No, you don’t, and I serious doubt it if the person you want to get serious with will like it either.

Follow these simple rules, and you’ll do fine in the dating world.

Hopefully this will be a regular feature here on the ‘Rants. Please feel free to submit any and all questions to helo(at)drumwaster(dot)com. I’ll be posting answers to any and all questions and comments I receive.

A strong rumor circulated in afternoon of this Wednesday in means of press of Latin America with respect to which it would have died in the last hours in his residence of the Laguito, in Havana, longevo Cuban dictator Fidel I castrate.

According to a bulletin of the Bío-Bío radio, based on the news emanated of the network, sources officials did not indicate that the governor was some days ago in delicate state of health after to have undergone a sudden infarct.

Fidel I castrate took the power the 1 from January of 1959, after an insurrection, demoting to Fulgencio dictator Batiste and since then one has stayed in the power.

Mentioning the Argentine vestibule Indymedia.org, the transmitter added that official sources of the government, its brother Raul I castrate and stops leaders of the regime have not even wanted to present the news the supposed decease from Fidel the Cuban town, awaiting an international reaction.

Consulted with respect to this going beyond doubtful origin, Lautaro Carmona, member of the political commission of the Communist Party of Chile, it indicated that these versions to his to understand are absolutely infundadas and emanate of blog like Indymedia that does not deserve any type to them of confidence.

Carmona, Secretary General of the PC, said that they could not ignore of any way the news of similar magnitude. Radio Bío Bío also consulted to representatives of the coordinator of Chilean solidarity with Cuba, who expressed themselves in similar terms, denying absolutely veracity to this rumor. 

Christian history shows that there have been schisms and Reformations and wars and fights and killings and Crusades...we all know this.  Of course, most schools show all of this in a negative light, preferring to tell the story as if the Christians of the 1300’s were cavemen. 

I say nay, brave scholar.  A Christian in the 1300’s bears a striking resemblance to a Muslim of the late 1900’s.  Now, of course, there was no television or cellular phones in the 1300’s, but the tenants of the faith were similar, with the greatest similarity being between Sh’ia of the 20th Century and the Catholic Church of the 1300’s. 

Yes...yes, I’m getting to the comparison. 

What happened in the Christian Church in the 1200’s and 1300’s?  Well...the Church worked hard to maintain a CIVIL and POLITICAL authority, including levying taxes, forced baptisms, submission to Papal authority, and persecutions of heretics and Jews.  There were concerted attempts in the mid-1200’s to bolster the central authority of the Pope, notably Licet ecclesiasrum, and the OK’ing of the use of torture with heretics.  In 1215, the ‘extermination’ or heretics was discussed.  In 1378, because of the rise of France as a Catholic power and a rival to the power in Rome, the Great Schism began as a pope and an anti-pope were both named by rival factions of cardinals. 

How about Islam in the 1900’s?  Well...the Imams in Iran worked hard to maintain a CIVIL and POLITICAL authority, drumming out the Shah, forced conversions, submission to Sharia, and the persecution of ‘heretics’ and Jews.  There were concerted efforts in the 1970’s and 1980’s to bolster Islamo-political authority, notably the Ayatollah, Taliban, the fascist leaders of Syria and Iraq, and the Wahabbist leaders of Saudi Arabia, and the use of secret religious police to imprison, torture, and/or kill non-believers and heretics.  In 1979, because of the power of Mecca and Sunni Islam, the Islamic of Iran was formed, and war broke out between the two strongest nations (Iraq and Iran) because the historic authority and dominance of Sunni Islam was challenged. 

Now, the Schism and the Iran-Iraq war were both fought for more political and economic reasons (the power of a rising France and a rising Iraq and Iran were both reasons that were behind the religious fervor), but the analogy is solid.  The relative histories of the two religions also parallel in addition to what I noted above.  Christianity was persecuted, then spread quickly, had a large splitting after several centuries, waged war attempting to expand and in attempts to subjugate other faiths, persecuted non-believers and Jews, became entrenched in the political fabric of the day, kept the followers purposefully ignorant, reduced them to vassalage, and attempted to dominate every aspect of their adherents’ lives. 

When was the Greek/Roman Christianity schism?  The Iconoclastic Controversy?  It was the time between 865 and 1054, when the bishops of Rome and Constantinople excommunicated each other.  Islam was formed in the early 600’s, and in the 9th century, the Sh’ia-Sunni split (the closest analogy between the East-West Schism) occurred.  The Muslims have warred against each other and in wars of expansion and subjugation, have persecured heretics and Jews, become entrenched in the political fabric of the area, worked to keep the followers ignorant, reduced them to serving Islam, and has attempted to dominate every aspect of Muslim lives. 

So, the parallels are there, aren’t they?  Christianity of 1300 and Islam of 2000.  What is clear in both of these examples?  I mean, what rises to the top?  What I see is archaic, 1200-year old organizations using outdated means to qwell voices for change and reform.  What I see is a tightening of central authority as a defensive mechanism.  What I see is a social/political/religious movement that is under siege buth by change and the spark of progressive, classically liberal thought.  I see a defense against education of the masses and individual liberty. 

What happened at the end of the 1300’s that is analogous to the technological revolution of the current era?  How about the invention of the printing press and the translations of books from Latin into the local languages.  How long after the beginning of printing press use did the Reformation take place? 

Well...the Bible was first translated in 1380 by Wycliffe (the ‘godfather’ of the Hussites), but the printing press was invented in 1438.  The Reformation officially started in 1517, just three generations afterwards.  79 years.  A lifetime. 

This is where I believe Islam is today. 

In the 1300’s and 1400’s, there were voices that spoke against the Church.  Wycliffe and John Hus, to name two.  They saw the problems and tried to work within the system to fix them, and they were killed for it.  As books were printed in the native languages of the followers of Christianity, the fact that the religion was being perverted by those at the top was realized.  Education started to seep down to the masses, and when they found out about this, the momentum started to build.  The Church spread its propoganda around as best it could, but the Reformation, once started, would not be stopped. 

This is happening to Islam.  However, we aren’t seeing theses stapled to church doors, we are seeing people like this woman, and this woman, this man, and this writer.  All risk death and/or torture within Islam for their statements and beliefs.  All want Islam to reform, and the archaic institutions of Islam are resisting with everything at their disposal.....but mostly with fear. 

Like the Christian Church did in the 1300’s and 1400’s.  The parallels are clear. 

So, what? 

Education outside of what the imams and clerics give will be the catalyst for the Islamic Reformation.  There will be blood, and war, and it won’t necessarily be the Sh’ia and Sunni fighting one another, but the two sects trying to repress the liberalization of their ranks.  Within that fight will come a slow and steady shrinking of the political and socio-economic power of the religious leaders.  They will be detached from the political power structure and will come to be seen more as we see the Papacy now....an authority on religion only, and not a head of state.  There will be a a personal interest in religion, not the one we see in Iran now, or the one we saw in France in the late 1300’s.  It might take a generation or two, but after this Islamic Reformation is over, a secular Arabia will form, with modernity and economics taking over, as it did in post-Reformation Europe.  It will be a time of social growth and a reflowering of Arab culture, having been repressed by the brutal hands of those who have, for all intents and purposes, used Islam as a choking noose for a thousand years. 

Think of the Renaissance...what precipitated that?  The loosening of Church dogma and the breaking of the Churches secular authority, added to the spread of books due to the invention of the printing press.  Figure on a modern Renaissance for Islam, spreading humanist and secular beliefs outard from its starting point. 

Where is that, you may ask? 

Baghdad.  Basra.  Mosul. 

Iraq. 

Could we be the catalyst of a massive shift in Islam?  With our propensity for sharing information, for our humanist bent, our protections for individual liberty and social demands for literacy and the sharing of information, and our ideal that people have free will, will we be able to break the stranglehold of Islam that has been manufactured by its leadership for four hundred years? 

I am optimistic....but the caveat is patience. 

Patience.  We can’t expect the world to change in the course of an episode of Mr. Ed.  It will take years.  It will take an effort like what we gave in the Second World War.  We affected the world mightily then, gave rise to democracies all over the world, led an economic revolution, and defeated the single-most destructive political system ever dreamed up....Marxist Socialism/Leninist Communism.  Now, with patience, and the desire to effect change over the long term, we can do it again. 

But we can’t be afraid.  We can’t be Border’s Book store, and be afraid of Neanderthals with Korans.  We can’t look away as Danes are threatened for drawing pictures.  We can’t be fearful of showing those strengths that propelled the West away from the Dark Ages and to world supremacy. 

Yes, I said World Supremacy.  Economic, social, technological, and political supremacy.  Sorry....but the truth is the truth. 

The West was broken, and it fixed itself with the influx of knowledge and the desire for economic and civil liberty.  Islam can do it to. 

And I believe it will. 

Robin Williams’ plan…
(Hard to argue with this logic!)

“I see a lot of people yelling for peace
but I have not heard of a plan for
peace. So, here’s one plan.”

1) “The US will apologize to the world for our “interference” in their
affairs,
past & present.
You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Tojo, Noriega, Milosevic, Hussein,
and the rest of those “good ole boys”, we will never “interfere” again.

2) We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with
Germany, South Korea, the Middle East, and the Philippines.
They don’t want us there.
We would station troops at our borders.
No one allowed sneaking through holes in the fence.

3) All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave.
We’ll give them a free trip home.
After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately,
regardless of whom or where they are.
They’re illegal!!! France will welcome them.

4) All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days
unless given a special permit!!!! No one from a terrorist nation will be
allowed in.
If you don’t like it there, change it yourself and don’t hide here.
Asylum would never be available to anyone.
We don’t need any more cab drivers or 7-11 ! cashiers .

5) No foreign “students” over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If
they don’t attend classes, they get a “D” and it’s back home baby.

6) The US will make a strong effort
to become self-sufficient energy-wise. This will include developing
nonpolluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil
in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.

7) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for
their oil.
If they don’t like it, we’ll go someplace else.
They can go somewhere else to sell their production.
(About a week of the wells filling up the storage sites would be enough.)

8) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will
not “interfere.” They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement
or whatever they need. Besides most of know that what we give them is stolen
or given to the army.
The people who need it most get very little, if anything.

9) Ship the UN Headquarters to an isolated island someplace. We don’t need
the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, the building would make a
good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.

10) All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can
call us “Ugly Americans” any longer.

11) The Language we speak is ENGLISH...learn it...or LEAVE…

Now, isn’t that a winner of a plan?

The Statue of Liberty is no longer
saying “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.
She’s got a baseball bat and she’s yelling, ‘you want a piece of me?’ “

I talked a lot about demographics in this article. I want to put a quote here:

“Europe is in similar straits.  France, to use a good example, had a population of 41 million in 1950.  Today, it is 60 million.  In 2050, it will be in total decline, having hit a maximum of 64 million at a point between 2020 and 2040.  Spain has a population of 43 million now....in 2050, it will have a population of 42 million.  Germany’s numbers are 83 million and 79 million.  Great Britain’s are 60 million today, and 67 million in 2050.  Italy?  From 58 million to 51 million people.  However, the median age in France is 39 now...in 2050, it will be 46.  Spain is at 39 now....in 2050, the median age will be 50.  Germany’s median age is 42 now...it will be 47 in 2050.  Britain’s numbers in this measure are 39 and 43, and Italy’s are 42 and 53.  To compare, Japan’s population will drop from 128 million to 112 million, and the median age will go from 43 to 52 years old.  See the link here. 

Now....this is related to the problems that the Europeans are having...and that which the Chinese (who will be in population decline, and who will also see their median age rise from 33 to 44 years old) are facing.  They allow immigration (in Europe), but the immigrants come in and form a economic subculture....in France, Muslims are isolated, both geographically and socially.  In China, the practice of their faith is frowned upon by the state.  These conditions add to a building social tension...and both Europe and China will need immigrants from the Muslim countries in order to remain economically viable.”

There is a demographic nightmare being constructed within our main economic and geopolitical competitors.  China can’t feed her people....sure, she can make oil contracts with the Russians, but how is she going to feed herself in forty years?  Russian wheat is a good idea, but the Russians are in the middle of a demographic nightmare beyond question.  Japan’s population woes are something to behold, but the Russians are going to go from 143 million people to a hair over 111 million, and her average age will rise from 37 to 44.....only 44, because of the huge increase in her Islamic regions.  Add to that the economic nightmare that the Russians are dealing with (along with AIDS, alcoholism, infrastructure decay)...you get the picture.  China has to lean on a reed in order to stand up. 

Why is the United States in suc a good situation?  Why are we in a situation where our median age is still within the child-bearing safe zone? 

Immigration. 

I do not think that immigration is a big issue.  I really don’t.  The problem we have is secure immigration. 

The problem with people is that they see the problems as they exist at present, with spanish television news and bi-or tri-lingual signs.  I can’t see that as a problem...I really can’t.  It takes a generation to assimilate people into our culture.  Ask people who remember when their parents or grandparents came over from China or Japan or Poland.  The first generation rarely learned the language, the second learned it, the third spoke without a noticable accent. 

let’s look at Mexican immigration over the years.  There were around 800,000 Mexico-born Mexicans in the United States in 1970.  Now, there are 10 million.  That means that 92% of all native-born Mexicans that live in this country now came in the last 36 years.  Our own immigrant history speaks to us, and tells us that assimilation will take place...we have been a nation made up of a majority of 1st and 2nd generation immigrants before, and we will be again.  However, each time, the American culture came out on top....individuality, capitalism, liberty....it supercedes the immigrant’s culture, because ours is a different type of nation.  Economic freedom is hampered by an inability to assimilate, and assimilation is easy.  It takes a generation, and we’re still in the first generation for a huge majority of the Mexican immigrants. 

So, for that reason alone, I don’t believe the immigration problems are what the media and conventional wisdom make them out to be.  I think that the bigger problem is illegal immigrants, the ability for undocumented persons to cross and recross the border, and the use of illegal immigrants as political fodder. 

People were upset by the “Ports Deal”.  They were concerned about security.  Well, border security is the first issue we need to cover.  You know that border wall we were talking about?  Well, we need that wall.  We need a 20-foot tall wall with checkpoints.  We need to put that wall up, and staff it.  We need to check persons and materials that come over the border.  It isn’t about CLOSING the border...it’s about CONTROLLING the border. 

If someone from Mexico is working in the USA, they need to have explicit permission to do so.  Call it what you will...a green card, an ID Card....something that shows that I am paying taxes and LEGALLY working.  Any company that is using illegal immigrants for cheap labor needs to be stepped on, and stepped on hard.  Any company that makes it a practice of hiring undocumented aliens has to be hammered.  Each worker must be able to provide a state ID number, a verifiable, permanent address, and the proper credentials to work in the States.  If a company chooses to hire outside of those guidelines, it is their responsibility. 

I would also cease providing services to any alien that did not have current credentials and/or permissions to be in the United States.  Illegal aliens who were injured or ill would be deported immediately or immediately after life-saving treatment.  If the child of illegal immigrants was in a school, that child would be pulled from the school and forced to either attend a private school or return to wherever.  Welfare and public assistance checks would not be issued to anyone that was not an American citizen.  NO Medicaid or Medicare payments, no food stamps...nothing.  If you want to come here, get documented, and work for a living, then come on over.  However, the teat of the government is now off-limits. 

I would also enforce the existing laws.  Ain’t that a novel idea!

Lastly.....being here illegally is a crime.  I would forcibly deport illegals (just like Mexico itself does) as soon as they are caught.  I would also send back any illegal immigrants that are in our jails.  I would not allow money transfers to Mexican accounts for suspected illegal aliens.  There are a lot of enforcement programs that would work, and with border security strengthened, the illegals numbers would decline. 

Another thing that we should do is invest in Mexico itself, and help her build her economy.  As she grows, and pressures on the job market increase, wages will climb, and people will be economically able to stay there and work.  Right now, it is better for Mexico that 300,000 illegals enter the American job market (which can support it) than to have them competing for limited low-paying jobs in Mexico (who cannot support it).  Vincente Fox isn’t stupid...he’s just brazen.  He knows what he is doing, and he knows that America needs the immigration in order to avoid becoming a country like Japan or France, both of which are standing on the edge of true old age. 

And Bush knows it, too.  That’s why he’s calling for time limits on green cards, immigrants being pushed towards citizenship, and beefed up border security.  I think that is the way to pursue this, and not by something unpragmatic and draconian.  We can’t throw them all back into Mexico (or wherever) and there will be no Reconquista.  The goal must be to allow absorption into the American Culture.  Make sure they know English.  Make sure that differences and resistance to economic and social integration are not rewarded in an institutional manner.  This is happening in the African-American (black) culture and population, and it is being done by people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who work to make sure differences and percieved persecutions are highlighted more than the need to socially and economically intergrate.  Latinos are already doing that better than many in the current generation of blacks, and with the growth of the Hispanic minority (much faster than the black population), that integration will do nothing but help them and hurt blacks.  If Hispanics follow the path of other immigrant groups (and I truly believe they will), then our country will be the stronger for it. 

OK...comment freely. 

Now, maybe one of you Bush apologists could explain to us why on earth Bush would sign a bill into law knowing that it was a version that had only been approved in the Senate, and not the House? Even though the difference between the two was minor - described as a “mere typo by a Senate clerk” - there IS a difference, making it mandatory to conduct the necessary compromises between the two versions. If it was “only a typo”, then it shouldn’t take very fucking long to fix it now, should it? A quick amendment to the bill, approved by a voice vote, and it’s done!

But noooooooooo..... Bush has to go and start acting as though he actually IS King George, deciding that he can just sign it into law.

No one disputes the central facts of the lawsuit: Last December, Vice President Cheney broke a tie vote in the Senate to win passage of a bill that would cut nearly $40 billion over five years by reducing Medicaid rolls, raising work requirements for welfare, and trimming the student loan program, among other changes.

Among those other changes was a provision to save $2 billion by restricting Medicare payments for durable medical equipment, such as wheelchairs and oxygen tanks. Under the Senate bill, government-funded leases for such equipment could last only 13 months.

As the measure was being sent to the House last month, a Senate clerk inadvertently changed that 13-month-restriction to 36 months, a $2 billion alteration. With the mistaken change, the measure squeaked through the House, 216 to 214.

After the mistake was revealed, Republican leaders were loath to fight the battle again by having another vote, so White House officials simply deemed the Senate version to be the law.

Excuse me? No, no, Mr. President, you don’t get to rewrite the Constitution just because you don’t want to follow the steps. Yes it’s a certainty to pass again (even though Senator Frist and Speaker Hastert have shown that they can’t keep the Majority in line), and yes it’s gonna take an extra day or two, but goddamit, there’s no shortcutting when it comes to following the rules that you and your staff are supposed to be enforcing!!

And if it isn’t passed when it comes up the second time, that’s a problem you’ll have to work out for yourself. You don’t ignore procedures because you’re too tired! 

The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys lyrics

(Winwood/Capaldi)

If you see something that looks like a star
And it’s shooting up out of the ground
And your head is spinning from a loud guitar
And you just can’t escape from the sound
Don’t worry too much, it’ll happen to you
We were children once, playing with toys
And the thing that you’re hearing is only the sound of
The low spark of high-heeled boys

The percentage you’re paying is too high priced
While you’re living beyond all your means
And the man in the suit has just bought a new car
From the profit he’s made on your dreams
But today you just read that the man was shot dead
By a gun that didn’t make any noise
But it wasn’t the bullet that laid him to rest was
The low spark of high-heeled boys

If you had just a minute to breathe and they granted you one final wish
Would you ask for something like another chance?
Or something similar as this? Don’t worry too much
It’ll happen to you as sure as your sorrows are joys
And the thing that disturbs you is only the sound of
The low spark of high-heeled boys

If I gave you everything that I owned and asked for nothing in return
Would you do the same for me as I would for you?
Or take me for a ride, and strip me of everything including my pride
But spirit is something that no one destroys
And the sound that I’m hearing is only the sound
The low spark of high-heeled boys