"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we
become." -Buddha

If you've frequented This Place before, you'd know  your host is, at heart, a capitalist. This is of
particular annoyance to the conservatively challenged crowd generally and to liberals specifically.
I am not aware of any edict that says conservatives hate the environment, are racist or warmongers,
although if you think like Cindy Sheehan, perhaps they are.

Allow me to elaborate.

Conservative and conservation go hand in hand. Perhaps this is common sense. It's also basic economics for
those who stayed in school. For example, I'd sooner trust a deer hunter with our environment than a
tree-hugger in San Francisco who's never seen one outside Golden Gate Park.

I believe in the party of President Abraham Lincoln-a  poor man who became president and who freed slaves
through the Emancipation Proclamation.

And let's not forget that after he got shot for his efforts, it was wealthy white men, also known as
Democrats, who passed Jim Crow laws keeping the black  man down for a century and a half. (Come to think of
it, it is wealthy white men keeping the proletariat down now.)

As the saying goes, "I'd rather hunt with Dick Cheney than drive with Ted Kennedy." (That would be a
reference to Republican Vice President Dick Cheney from the backwater state of Wyoming shooting his good
friend by accident, as opposed to Democrat Sen. Ted Kennedy driving Mary Jo Kopechne off a bridge on
Chappaquiddick Island.)

I suppose the question here is, whom do you really trust? An aging white man from Wyoming who made
millions of dollars working for Halliburton? Or an aging white man who made millions of dollars off a
trust fund telling others he'd make them better off in exchange for votes?

And as for warmongers-well, let's revisit history. (Note they are Democrats, all.)

President Woodrow Wilson: 1913-1921: World War I on  his watch.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt: 1933-1945: World War II on his watch.
President Harry S. Truman: 1945-1953. Korean "conflict" on his watch.
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy: 1961-1963. Vietnam  (Part 1) on his watch.
President Lyndon Baines Johnson: 1963-1969. Vietnam (Part 2) on his watch. (He did so well that he
declined a re-match and decided not to run for re-election.)
And then the backbone of the Democratic Party melted. (Wealthy white men, go figure.)
President James Earl "Jimmy" Carter: 1977-1981. No official count but apparently 52 hostages taken by
Iranian nut jobs, which perhaps overshadowed the millions who've died in the last century in the cause
of freedom and liberty. (On a positive note, he did give rise to Ronald Reagan-who helped shape me.)
President William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton: 1993-2001. Bosnia, Croatia, et. al. He had the "official"  oversight of the United Nations, which I'm sure is a great comfort to those who lost loved ones in the resultant bombing.
And oh yes, here was former President Clinton in the New York Times regarding the present war, saying that
he would not have attacked Iraq in the manner that President Bush had done. As early as June 2004, he
said, "I would not have done it until after Hans Blix finished the job," referring to the weapons inspections there before the war."

It may be that Democrats are warmongers after all. Or perhaps only with the United Nations' approval?
And that perhaps brings me back to Buddha.

Michael,
We'd be honored if you'd allow our posting your insightful, heartwarming column, on www.GoodNeighborLaw.com    
Thank you, Good Neighbor

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Good Neighbor,
That's probably the first time anyone has referred to my column as "heartwarming" but if you say so...
Anyway, I'm freelance talent so feel free to post away.  Actually your timing is fortuitous.  To this point my column has been a hobby but I've been encouraged to try for syndication.  All I ask is please be so kind as to send me a link when it's posted? 

I'd be curious to know how you came across my little column way out there?
 -Mike
 
Michael Lafferty
Right Hook, Reno News & Review
http://www.newsreview.com/reno/All?oid=36461