Gutsy Topic!

The portrayal of the man as the MORON in the relationship has ingratiated itself in our nightly sitcoms. "Everyone Loves Raymond", "Kind of Queens", "The Simpsons", among others. All representations of the fact that the woman is the only smart one in the house and the man keeps f**king up everything. Pathetic, but it sure seems to set the sexual statement, no?

One of the wisest things that I've ever heard is "Women marry men hoping they'll change, Men marry women hoping they'll never change". How relevant is this in Tilam's discussion? Spot on. Women hope to change the man in their lives to be more what THEY want, rather than accept them for who they are and love them for this (although MY wife it the exception, she loves and and accepts me, warts and all). This is assinine a premise. If men did the same thing to women, they'd all have breast jobs, the body of an aerobic goddess, and platinum blonde hair. But we don't, for the most part. Why do women insist on "molding us"?

I have to applaud Tilam for jumping into THIS snakepit with both feet and taking it like a man on the chin. Dumbass...

So Tiger is pooh-poohing the Ryder cup as "the same shots but missed putts". Sure. I hope it helps you sleep at night. Cuz the US SUCKED!!!

Farewell to Byron Nelson. 11 professional tournaments in a row, 18 total in 1945. Lord Byron will do down as one of the great forefathers of today's massive sports machine that is the PGA. We will miss you. By the way, get 2 strokes each nine from Bobby Jones up there. :)

And btw, Calista Flockhart is skinny and ugly...

Ally McBeal

John Derbyshire of the National Review Online stepped into it with this post. As you might imagine, the reaction from the male populace was strong. So with everything that is going on, sex is the hot topic.

I blame the women's movement. The sexes are by no means "equal." It is not to say one is better then the other, but that they are different, as the book says, like Mars and Venus. But there has been raised two (going on three) generations of women whose expectations of a man and a relationship will never be met. I have said before, these women believe men are simply defective women. As such, they can remedy the defects and make us women.

Ladies, you can't, because we aren't.

The "Ally McBeal" syndrome is an offshoot of this. The women's movement destroyed the "objective" standard of what is a "good man." What was left in the vacuum is a relative standard of what any one women thinks is a "good man." The problem in application is that each woman thinks her man can be made better. Smart, faithful, good job, handsome...you don't do enough around the house! Spend any time with a woman and she will list all your "faults" as she sees them. Getting the big things right does not seem to count.

This is not a matter of lowering standards nor is it a matter of keeping silent at all times, but rather appreciating the good qualities in your mate.

Above all, men want to feel respected. For the past 40 years, we have gone from "Father Knows Best" to "The Simpsons." That is 40 years of destroying the image of men in society. So, when it comes down to it, you can't show respect, if you don't feel respect.

General Meanderings...

Today the dinosaurs become extinct again. We bid a fond and knuckle-laced farewell to Tie DOmi of the Toronto Maple Leafs. If anyone made a living the hard way in sports, it was Domi. Completely undersized at maybe 5'10", he took on the game's heavyweights when his team was physically threatened, and frankly, sometimes just for the hell of it (read: Bob Probert). As the NHL changed, goonage became less and less important, Domi still kept his enforcer role but actually started to play hockey while on the ice. He was rewarded with more ice time, more points to reward his efforts, and even playoff shifts! And he's a genuinely nice guy, quick to laugh, humble, and all around fun to speak with. Yes, there was that instance with the cheap shot on Neidermayer in New Jersey which was dirty, but he'll probably always be best known for his altercation with a FAN who was hecklingh him, threw beer on him, then stood on the glass of the penalty box to taunt him a second time when it FELL IN and he started scrapping with Tie. If you've ever seen it, it's HILARIOUS. Some old beer swilling average joe laughing and hooting at the opposing team when it's "holy shit batman, I'm in a fight with Tie Domi, I'm gonna get my ASS kicked". Life's little amusing moments.

Ryder Cup time...so what? We're gonna get smoked.

And as one door closes, another one opens. Welcome back Peter Gammons, ESPN baseball analyst. He has recovered from a near fatal aneurysm on June 27th, and is back at work, in the booth, and on the computer. Providing you can deal with his itty bitty little mouth and the funky way he moves it when he talks, he's an excellent analyst, engaging, in-the-know, and the best there is (sorry Joe Buck) in baseball.

Hockey pre-season is starting...it seems I'm just getting over my post-Hurricanes hangover! Welcome back boys!

So there is more debris floating around outside the shuttle. Am I the only one thinking "oh shit"? NASA cannot identify the objects. WTF? They are taking a detailed survey and once-over (actually, thrice-over) of the shuttle to ensure there is no damage to the heat shield so we don't turn the astronauts into a flaming ball of wax again. Oh Shit. I might be the only one, but I think the shuttle program is currently flawed big time, and frankly I'm concerned that we've essentially compromised the safety of our folks in space again "just to save a buck"...time will tell, though.

More Pope Scoop

TigerHawk has a nice vent against the Islaminuts. See also the Anchoress' review of the Pope's comments.

I will make a couple of comments. First off, there is nothing incompatible with Arabs or Islam or Persia or their history and a modern, functioning government. We seem to forget that a liberal, secular West concerned about human rights is a recent phenomenon: the Christian West has done a fair job - even recently - of producing mass murdering despots. In fairness, the Arab world has quite a bit of catching up to do if they want to match such 20th century examples, such as Nazism, Communism, etc., for crimes against humanity.

As for religious violence, both the Irish and the Basques are overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, yet that has not prevented these groups from using terrorist violence to achieve their aims to this day, in one case openly supported by money from the United States. This does not justify "Muslim rage," but it merely shows that such violent and infantile behavior is not exclusively Muslim. So let's check our "holier than thou" attitude at the door.

Further, when this was Shiites v. Sunnis, we did not care so much. Like Darfur or even black on black violence in the inner city, we have traditionally had other things to worry about. But fly a few planes into buildings and open up the possibility of a nuclear dirty bomb in Atlanta and you have our attention.

The United States can not solve this problem. This is a problem for Islam and the Arab world. We can help; we can encourage certain behaviors; we can even GBU or Hellfire a few key terrorists, but structural changes are necessary. Structural changes (such as the emancipation of women) that the West has already made.

TigerHawk is also wrong about the relative progression of the West over the Middle East. This acceleration has happened since the First World War and has coincided with the Wests embrace of human rights and the value of the individual, in particular women. We still have a ways to go, but unleashing the potential of all your citizens is a powerful force...one that Islam has yet to embrace.

PB16 and the Islaminuts

The Muslim world is in a dither again. This time they are aghast that Pope Benedict spoke about "jihad" and the Prophet. The various Muslim organizations condemn the Holy Father for linking the "spread of Islam" with the "sword." The Pope's remarks, of course, do nothing of the sort. The Pope quotes the 14th-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus. The Holy Father calls the quote "brusque."

The "religion of peace" reacted by burning the Pope in effigy.

I can not believe that PB16 was naive enough to think that qualifications of his quote of other's remarks were enough and that he expected someone to actually read his words for context and understanding. Pope Benedict XVI is very smart. I am curious how this will play out.

UPDATE: I should be clear...the Pope's comments do link the spreading of Islam with the sword, but it is unclear to me that he is making that point personally. It is clear he feels that bloodshed and the name of God are incompatible.

As if to prove his point, the religion of peace reacted violently to the accusation that they are violent, including murdering a Catholic nun. You simply can not make up this level of stupidity.

No Habla...

In the immortal words of Chris Tucker...

"Man, can't nobody understand the words that are coming outta your mouth!"

It's All About the Ladies

Two quick off topic points. First, I would stress that you have the freedom to walk down the street in Tehran; burn the American flag and call President Bush names. Second, let me take moment to savor "kudos to him for his coherent thoughts." Ahhhhh.

My point about the women is not original. I have posted that one of the great books to influence my thinking is Robert Wright's "Non-Zero." Wright is an "evolutionary psychologist" and is scary bright. You can see him in person on Bloggingheads.tv with Mickey Kaus. (Note that I don't think he is as good as a political commentator as he is a psychologist.)

One point Wright makes is that monogamy is bad for women, but good for society. Ignoring the emotional costs, it would be better economically for Bill Gates to have lots and lots of wives...or at least better for his wives. As an abstract point, women should have the freedom to go where the money is. Now, of course, if it takes about $1MM to support a family and Bill can support 60,000 wives (!), what of the men who would otherwise marry the 59,999 that are not Belinda?

Well, there is a chain effect that basically leaves the least desirable men in the world without wives. Now, one other salient fact is that married man are generally non-violent. Statistically, you are about as likely to be attacked by a married male as a non-married female. (Okay, I need to find that study.) The point is that frustrated single men without a moderating female influence are FAR more prone to violence. And this cuts across economic status lines.

Now if you have monogamy (eliminating the "Bill Gates gets all the chicks" problem), but do not allow women the freedom to chose a mate, you do not incent men to get a job to support a family. So economic liberty creates jobs, female emancipation creates competition among males to be responsible, ipso facto, less disgruntled single men to wage jihad.

Capice?

Discussing Tilam's point(s)...

When I hear him say the word "honesty", I actually believe that is nearly the right word. Certainly I think he is referring to "self-awareness of the real issue(s)". Frankly, people are lousy at looking in the mirror and telling the reflection the God's honest truth. It doesn't matter whether it's the war on terrorism, our weight or physical appearance, we stink at self-analyzation and honesty with the person in the mirror.

I have stated before that we are a quick hit, immediate gratification, results NOW society. That pervasive outlook in all our facets of life permutates its way into the view that we have on the war on terror. "What have we accomplished?". The honesty that WE as a society has to face (and even if you dispute the dates that Tilam states, i.e. the 43 year cold war) is that this will be an ongoing thing. We HAVE to face that and not expect it to be over quickly because the US kicks ass.

5 years after 9/11 and I believe we are safer in the air, but ultimately NOT AS SAFE in our buses and trains. And as a whole, we are not as safe in general because of our lack of self-honesty. Frankly, as a society, we "remember the attack" but seem, for the most part, to have forgotten the lessons. We are back to the stupid inconsiderate ignorant selfish group of people we were before the horrendous wake-up call. We are not honest with ourselves: just because the people being killed and attacked are thousands of miles away, that doesn't mean we are not in danger!. And we don't consider it an issue because it doesn't DIRECTLY affect us. So our self-delusional dishonesty is "this war on terror doesn't affect me", so we don't have to worry about it as much. The other side of the coin is that the leaders don't do a good job in convincing us a) of any progress we are making with CONCRETE examples, and b) speaking of the true, long ugly drawn out nature of this issue.

I need some info on the "demand side". Are you saying that the primary source of hate propoganda from the Immams are the facts that a) our females can choose their own mate, and b) our men can work where they want and earn what they want to attract a mate? I'm not sure I understand that point. Tilam says "without female empowerment and economic liberty, we will continue to have disgruntled men willing to wage jihad". You gotta 'splain Lucy. Are you saying that the men are willing to wage holy way because their women are not free and they themselves are not able to establish their own career? Yer shitting me, right? OMG it is SO much more than those 2 points, and can frankly be summed up in one word: FREEDOM. I can walk down the street and burn the US flag and not get in thrown in jail. I can stand up in a park and say "president bush is an asshole" and not get shot. They cannot stand our whole society, where we can do almost anything we want and not have the night police break into our homes and drag us to an internment camp. They resent that all encompassing freedom, and despise us for it and all that it represents. And the fact that THEIR people are a bit jealous of us and might be tempted to look at their regime a bit differently forces the leaders that be to denounce us and preach hatred towards us and incite this jihad. I'm not sure I'm getting your point correctly, but I will not limit it to those 2 items.

Tilam's clarification post is a good one, kudos to him for his coherent thoughts.

Honesty...

In my prior post, I mentioned that I was unsure we had the "honesty" to win WWIV. The lack of honesty, to be clear, cuts both ways.

In our blame focused society and in the high spirit of ultra-partisanship, the Left seeks to "blame" President Bush for 9/11. In response, the Right points out that the plot developed under President Clinton and it was President Clinton's policies and lack of action that encouraged Osama bin Laden.

They are both dead wrong; and both are knowingly wrong. It is clear that the 9/11 plot had nothing to do with who was President during 2001; a President Gore would not have caught the hijackers, noone would have.

It is equally clear that President Clinton - like President Bush pere; President Reagan, President Carter, President Ford and President Nixon - did not appreciate the rise and potential lethality of terrorism. Further, in retrospect, the Monica Lewinsky scandal was a big distraction at an important time. While it is true that President Clinton brought that upon himself - and I yielded to no one in my desire to have him resign - the zealous prosecution by the Right was not in the best interests of the country.

The Islamofascists do not care who is in office. The cowboy Bush...they hate him. But it defies reason that a "liberal" President would be tolerated by them. Given the Islamofascists position on gays, women, blacks, etc. , it is illogical that they would find common cause with a "liberal" president.

My own feeling is that Munich 1972 was the first major "shot" in WWIV. We need to understand that. The taking of the US Embassy in 1979 was the enemies first real action against us. It has escalated ever since and will continue to escalate (if we do nothing) in the future.

Let's be honest about this.

The "War" on Terror

Five years after 9/11 and I am still not sure we have the honesty to win World War IV. I use the word “honesty” on purpose as it describes the internal problem we face in the United States. We are not honestly facing our terrorism problem and we are not honestly discussing what lies ahead.

World War IV is an apt description when you see the Cold War as World War III. Further, the Cold War as WWIII begins to give you a sense of the pace and duration of the struggle against radical Islam. If you see the descent if the Iron Curtain (Churchill’s speech in 1946) as the start of WWIII and the Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) as the end, that struggle took 43 years to “win.” At times – Korea, Vietnam, Middle East, Afghanistan – it blew hot, but mostly was cold. But “cold” in the sense of guns going off between the proxies of the combatants, the ideological struggle was continuous. I suspect that the “war on terror” will be similar.

I also think there are other parallels between WWIV and WWIII. In the 1950s, communism was a very chic political perspective for the Western intelligentsia…utopia for the masses. It is not that anyone really wanted to LIVE in the USSR, but it imbued a sense of revolutionary thought for those who needed it. Similarly today, the hatred of American of the Islamic fascists shares a common cause with the anti-American intellectual left. Not that they really want to LIVE in Iran or Saudi Arabia, but it does give them a sense of moral superiority…to make common cause with the beheaders.

Further, it took some time for the US and the West to stop playing into the Communists hands by getting directly involved in shooting wars (Korea and Vietnam) that they were incapable of “winning.” By the late 1970s, the US was getting the Soviets into a shooting war (Afghanistan) that THEY were incapable of winning. Similarly, the use of proxies by the Jihadists has been superb for the past 30 years and will take some time for the US and West to understand how to play that game better. I suspect that we will by using local rebels; Special Ops and Western “security firms” (read mercenaries) to help us with “plausible deniability.” Finally, as stated in the prior paragraph, the use of non-military power (economic and cultural) must be merciless.

I would also note that the Jihadists have evolved the use of proxies from nation-states to various "group du jours" that will rise and fall in prominence. They understand that they cannot win a straight up military battle, so have developed a "whack-a-mole" strategy, where we spend a ton of effort to "destroy" "God's Islamic Sword only to find out Allah's Virtuous Heroes are doing the bombing, followed by Son of the Jihadis. As time has past, the half life of the terror organizations is diminishing: we are learning and adapting.

This is not to say WWIII and WWIV are the same…rather WWIV is the next evolution of asymmetric warfare. The use of proxies by the Soviets was asymmetric; the West took some time to develop an appropriate response. The use of economic power by the US was asymmetric; and the Soviets never could respond and ultimately “lost” WWIII.

My concern is that the War on Terror will be treated like the War on Drugs. The War on Drugs was (is?) a feel good effort focused on ridding the world of cocaine at the source. A “supply side” war, as it were. This was (and continues to be) an intellectually dishonest policy, IF YOU DON”T ADDRESS THE DEMAND. Similarly, we need to address the supply and demand side of the terrorism question.

By “demand side” I mean that we need to address the combination of hate messages (from imams) and willing young men. I am not close enough to the problem to be specific about a course of action, but it always strikes me that “female freedom” (the ability of an educated woman to chose her mate) and economic liberty (the ability of a man to provide for a family – hence attract a mate) are two fundamental ingredients. Without female empowerment and economic liberty, we will continue to have disgruntled men willing to wage jihad.

WWIV is a long war. It will blow hot and cold. We will suffer defeats (9/11; 7/11; Madrid) and have our victories. I am hopeful that there will be an event, such as the Fall of the Berlin Wall to mark the end of WWIV, but that is wishful thinking.

WWIV will be a test of this country’s ability to adapt its values to a changing environment. It will be a challenge for those in the political extremes (at least the intelligent ones) to distinguish their criticism from the value system of the enemy. It will involve using a broad range of the strengths of the United States and the West. We need Europe involved. We need moderate Muslims to stand strong.

And we need one other thing: for years the IRA was supported by Americans. It is an ugly tale the needs an open airing to help us understand the support of terrorism can come in many forms…even that lovable Irish cop on the corner of Boylston. We, as a nation, need to understand that our enemy will take comfort and draw strength from us if we are irresponsible. We need debate, decision and then action. And our lives depend on it.

Piling On Michelle

I do love watching Thew in a lather over this.

But I was amazed that he did not include her comments that she wanted to play on the Ryder Cup. The lack of self awareness is..well, like a 16 year old.

Please stop paying attention to her! Then we won't point out how underserving she is.

One more time, because TIlam loves it...

Michelle Wie struggled to an 8-over 79 Friday at the European Masters, missing the cut at a men's event for the ninth time in 10 attempts.

"I didn't even know which sport I was playing out there," Michelle Wie said.
The 16-year-old from Hawaii, who shot a 78 in Thursday's first round, finished at 15-over 157.

When will the side show, the lunacy, the vain attemps end?

Great Minds...

The National Review Online thought my email was worth quoting in full.

Though reading it again, it sounds a bit "thrown together." I usually try for "libertarian wacko." Oh, well, no one is perfect.

NRO is funny though, they actually answer the e-mails. I have received replies from Kathryn Lopez and John Podhoretz as well as Jonah Goldberg.

And me, simple citizen of the Republic...

Next up, a big pat on the Thew back for wading into political discourse...

Dipping my toes into the Political Pool

Hezbollah is the current (and by "current" I mean "terrorist of the weak") little whiny butt kid on the playground who is running around screaming and throwing a fit for attention. Meanwhile, in the background, there is someone who is much bigger, more organized, probably tougher, but perfectly content on letting the little people roar on his behalf, who is whispering in the ears of the Hezbollah "go fight that guy", "now go attack that guy", and so on. That big strong silent type, the true threat to the people of the world, is the guy we need to track down and take on, not the current group of people hopping up and down and waving guns.

However, I must digress a little from Tilam's point. I, and I have no proof of this other than my inherent cynicism of politics, have full belief that our government KNOWS this is a civilian war. As a matter of fact, THAT is the main reason they keep to their ideological dogma of the "war on terror". They KNOW that this war is losing support, yet they cling to that catchphrase to keep the civilian population behind them, keep their approval ratings, and otherwise garner public backing for this effort. THAT wording, stating "whooooo, this is dangerous to YOU Mr USA citizen, to YOU Mr John Q Public, this is a war on terrorists who target YOU", presents the fact that their propoganda war is internal as well, offering this reasoning to the american public, protecting their safety against the enemy via our "war on terror". So I think they know FULL WELL this is a civilian war, and while support is waning, they continue to hammer home that phrase as their rallying cry to the american people. Sometimes, when you hear about normal people subduing threats or identifying shifty people, it only seems that we regular shmoes are the only ones actually DOING anything concrete about it. :)

The american people need to see more results, not less. One of the big reasons that President Bush might be falling into liability, as Tilam states, is that truly, we have NO FIRM RESULTS of our "war on terror". Although Tilam might be able to summon some specific successes, I offer the following: we had Bin Laden and let him go, we continue to lose good american men in Iraq, Iran isn't disarming their nuclear program, and I won't even GO into China. Where are our successes? WMD? Where were they? We freed Iraq? No we didn't, least not yet IMHO. Hezbollah? Umm, well, not much there either. In the country of the long TD pass for a score, the long ball for a home run, the fast-break layup, and the power play, we are a society that needs constant attention and success, we hunger for immediate gratification, and this spills into all our phases of operation, sport or political. So what do we see? A game that is dragging on with what is perceived as little progress...

Tilam makes a good point about the Knesset and the IDF. We have laughed about the arab countries in that region, they just keep messing with the Israelis and getting their asses spanked. Israel is getting VERY good (or has been very good) as practicing what I termed in an offline conversation with Tilam as "Patton politics". If you remember, George Patton said "you don't win a war by giving up your life for your country, you win wars by getting the other dumb bastard to give up HIS life for his country". The terrorists and such are willing to give their life, so the Jews are happy to oblige them. And the result is "another 1,000 terrorists I killed who I don't have to worry about in the future". So on many fronts, this appears to take on a war of attrition, with the Jews killing terrorists at an astounding ratio because the terrorists are willing to die for their country. And by doing so, they fight and attack and act recklessly, thus making Israel's job almost easier by comparison. This underscores Tilam's point (and my paragraph above) that there is someone behind these flavour of the weak terrorist groups who is egging them on and using them as fodder or shock troops; it's almost like they are doing this more to make a ideological stand than actually take out any country or group of people. Because I HAVE to believe that if the terrorists REALLY want to attack the Israelis, it would have been a much bigger offensive. But to me, their actions almost indicate "see me, I'm here, I'm not going away, and I'm going to chip away at you like a gnat that you can't squash". If they had any real agenda other than "public notice", it probably would have been much more intense. Or so I think...

Back from the Weekend

Today we mourn the passing of the "Crocodile Hunter", Steve Irwin. A wildlife ambassador and Australian icon, Steve was filming a special when, while swimming above a stingray of average size, he was stung by the barbed tail directly in the chest, and ultimately, in the heart. Resources were unable to save him. Steve was a character, known for saying things like "CRIKEY!" and "isn't she a byooootee!". He seemed fearless around predators and poisonous reptiles, but actually his knowledge and fear gave him the ability to interact with them and not get hurt. His death was the result of a freak accident (the stingray could have hit him anywhere but right in the heart, and stingray stings, while VERY painful, are almost always non-lethal) and shows that no one can preduct wildlife and what spooks them or sets them off. But the world is a lesser place for his passing, although he died doing what he loved most. He leaves behind a wife and young child. Our condolences and prayers are with them in their time of loss.

In the world of sports...

Tiger won his 5th in a row by shooting a reality busting 63 in the final round, head to head against Vijay. Oh how I love to see Vijay lose, especially by getting his ass SPANKED by a better golfer. Hopefully this will go a long way to shutting him up.

Speaking of Tiger, where's Phil been? Haven't heard much of a peep from him...

I posted his requiem earlier, but my final farewell to Andre Agassi, who was ousted in his swan song at the US Open. We'll miss you - but you lucky dog, you get to bone Steffi!

So the truth comes out about the World Cup. Materazzi said he didn't want the shirt off Zidane's back, he wanted his sister. Dunno, is she good looking? Is saying "I want her sister" like saying to Tiger "I want your wife's sister"? (for those of you who don't know, Elin has a TWIN!).

Someone wake up Thew, he's asleep on another long boring conference call...

Four More Mideast Points

Before I get back to everyday bitching about Michelle Wie, I would like to make some more points about the Middle East and the War on Terror. I have not seen any of this discussed elsewhere.

Point One. Despite the immediate media attention, Hezbollah is nothing. They are unimportant in the strategic direction of the Middle East. Yes, they are actors, but they are cannon fodder only. As soon as they have worn out the usefulness to their patrons, they will be done. It is useless to worry too much about them. Their patrons on the other hand....

Point Two. The War on Terror is a civilian war. The sooner the politicians understand that the better. (We average Joes know it. How often do you read about this or that airline passenger subdued by OTHER passengers.) The terrorists use civilians and they target civilians. The quaint late-20th century Geneva Convention idea that civilians are non-combatants is (pardon the pun) dead. This is having a profound effect on the GWOT and the ramifications are not recognized, let alone understood.

Point Three. While the pundits talk about Hezbollah re-arming little attention is being paid to Israel. The IDF and Knesset have learned a great deal in the last two months. When Act Two comes, I expect to be pleasantly surprised by the IDF.

Point Four. As much as I hate to admit it, President Bush has become a huge liability. It is a problem partly of his making (his consistent failure to clearly communicate the stakes), but mostly due to circumstances beyond his control. The 2000 election debacle cleaved off a large part of this country. While Bush is in office, the Bushitler crowd will not be able to think sanely about anything. (I am curious if they come to their senses afterward.) Further, they are prompting once relatively sane people (Kerry, Gore) to become hyperpartisan hacks. I had once hoped they would tire of this game. They have not.

I am not suggesting President Bush step down, but a President Romney or President Thompson (even another President Clinton) would go a long way in taking the wind out of the zealots sails and restoring some sanity to the discourse on national issues.