I do not usually like to copy entire articles and post them in any of my blogs, since I respect the right of authors to retain their intellectual property… however; I have to make an exception with this one since it is a great read, and something that amazingly enough came from an actor… yeap, an actor.

The interview was posted in the UK express.co.uk sp kudos to them for not stifling freedom of speech.

Up to a few weeks ago, I had no clue who Mickey Rourke was, even when I have always been a fan of wrestling since back in the days of when Rick Flair was young, that is an awful long time… but I digress, it seems that this kid found “new” fame with his movie “The Wrestler” and now is the rage… But, what woke a sense of respect for him, is common sense view of the September 11, 2001 attacks, his passion, and his realization that unless Britain does something about the Islamic terrorists and activists who are allowed to spew their nonsensical barrage of hate and stupidity and practice their distorted version of their religion, we all are in deep kimshee(sorry, my Hangul was never good).

Wow, the last paragraph sounds like a contradiction of the second, I praise freedom of speech while at the same time seem to advocate denying psychopathic murderers from theirs, hmmm… oh well, life is not perfect, get over it… Plus, quoting my childhood hero, “with great power comes great responsibility” (Ben Parker, Peter Parker’s uncle in Spider Man) and one of the greatest powers that anyone can have is “Freedom of Speech”, but that means that it is to be used in a judicious manner, thinking of the consequences of the message.

Rourke also comments on the Bush Presidency, and strangely enough, shows the common sense not to blame the maladies of the world in one man. That is profound coming from a guy Hollywood idolizes.

Here is to a man with common sense, and to freedom.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/79536/Rourke-Bush-was-in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time

ROURKE: 'BUSH WAS IN THE WRONG PLACE AT THE WRONG TIME'

Monday January 12,2009

Actor MICKEY ROURKE sympathizes with U.S. President GEORGE W. BUSH - insisting he doesn't know how any politician could have successfully navigated America after the 9/11 attacks on New York.

The Hollywood tough-guy spoke out about his political views in a candid interview with Britain's GQ magazine, and admits he doesn't understand why so many people blame Bush for a string of world issues - including Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism in the West.

And the actor, who claims he didn't follow last year's (08) historic U.S. election battle between Barack Obama and John McCain, urges the public to consider the tremendous pressure the controversial president was under following the terror attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001.

He tells the publication, "President Bush was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I don't know how anyone could have handled this situation.

"I don't give a f**k who's in office, Bush or whoever, there is no simple solution to this problem... I'm not one of those who blames Bush for everything. This s**t between Christians and Muslims goes back to the Crusades, doesn't it.

"It's too easy to blame everything on one guy. These are unpredictable, dangerous times, and I don't think that anyone really knows quite what to do."

Rourke also confesses he was so angry after 9/11, he wanted to fight the war on terror himself.

He adds, "I'm not politically educated. But I do know that after 9/11 I wanted to go over there, you know what I'm saying?"

And the star is baffled by the U.K.'s approach to fundamentalists - insisting he was taken aback by the freedom of speech allowed in the U.K.

He explains, "I was in London recently and I couldn't believe all these hate-talking fanatics you have over here who are allowed to carry on doing their thing even when a bus full of women and children gets blown to pieces.

"I know you've deported one or two of them, but it seems crazy. I think there is worse to come, something terrible will happen to either America or the U.K., or France even. I don't think these fundamentalists should be allowed to talk all this crap, and brainwashing these young kids."

When you face life and death on a fairly regular basis, you learn that there are not that many things that you would risk your life for. You develop a set of principles, and you live by them. No, I am not talking about religious or moral issues; I’m talking more about a set of specific ideas, principles, and techniques that you apply to everything in life. You double check what you do, you make sure that all your equipment functions, you take apart mechanical items and ensure that there are no frayed cables, and seals are serviceable, you pack extra batteries, and usually, two alarm clock, two of almost everything. Murphy, of the famous Murphy’s Law, is your pain in the lower portion of the back acquaintance. He enjoys showing up at the unexpected times. And, like the superstitious baseball player who wears his lucky socks to bat, you would not dare going anywhere without your pre combat checks and pre combat inspections. That is ingrained in you.

Moral principles are slightly different. Why you do what you do? What is the real reason you are in the military, or are a police officer… Those who answer that question by saying something about duty, will more than likely risk their life without hesitation in order to safe another. Those who say that is a job will almost always hesitate… That is the difference of conviction.

Conviction on your principles define your character, and make you either someone you can trust, or just another shmoe with no direction in life.

This long rambling came to mind after reading the last interview of Presidents Bush 41st and 43^rd.  

Critics, especially academia are fond of criticizing our 43^rd President. They blame him for everything, from global warming, to the polar bears being endangered (even though their population doubled in the past few years), to the sun not being as active as before. They are quick to forget the circumstances of his presidency, from hurricanes that would cripple any country’s economy, to terrorist attacks, to a war in more than two fronts (Iraq, Afghanistan, and wherever there are terrorists), to the final housing bubble pop (and again, conveniently, the media and politicians ignore that Republican Senators warning of the need for reform and accountability in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae; and how Barnie Frank, Maxine Waters, Chris Dodd, and others blew the warnings off).

But what impressed me the most was President Bush statement: “I didn't compromise that principle for the sake of trying to, you know, bail out my political party." 

He was referring to when his party came to him and told him that it would be best to retreat from Iraq, since the war was causing heartburn on the hearts of the populace, again, thanks to opportunistic politicians and the main stream media; thank you Murtha, Kerry, Reid, you are examples of what real patriots ARE NOT. Murtha, you still owe an apology to our Marines, Kerry, our military can read well enough; Obama, we are not air raiding villages that do not have Taliban or terrorist embedded with them, nor are we killing civilians on purpose. And, in case you had not noticed yet, we are winning the war in Iraq.

President Bush 43d made many mistakes, I am still mad about him not pardoning Ignacio Ramos and his partner Compean. I am still baffled by the nationalization of Banks and insistence of passing the bail out immediately, it hasn’t worked, and it will not work. But, when we needed a strong President to stand against terrorism, we got it.

For this, Thank you President Bush.

And, here is the global warming bit of the day…

Global warming caused a frustrated citizen to shoot at a snow plow operator in Spokane, Washington (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090107/D95I8DF00.html) where more than 6’ of snow have fallen creating a bloody mess. Ice, snow, sludge, roofs collapsing, you name it. And, all of this is the result of the infamous global warming that the prophet (Al Gore) in his infinite wisdom, with lousy power point presentations, and faulty scientific data brought to our attention, earning him an Emmy, a Nobel Prize, and who knows or who cares what else.

The bottom line, we might be very well headed toward a global cooling. As I was growing up, Chicken Little was screaming that the new ice age was coming; now, we all are going to fry, tomorrow, who knows.

Alarmists all over continue to push for global warming reforms in the hopes of averting a faux disaster. Even the Republican candidate for President of the United States was swindled by the alarmists.

It is time to continue sounding the alarm and prevent our politicians from ruining our economy even more by establishing harsher measures and regulations to our industries. Someone needs to stop our politicians from playing Ponce schemes with their constituency. Cap and trade policies are nothing more than a fancy name for a Ponce scheme, where the government charges those who want to be of use to society and produce jobs, and energy, a tax for their carbon emissions or pollution produced.

Bottom line: Cap and trade is a scam; global warming is a scam; our politicians (most of them) have less common sense than the camel I befriended a few days ago in one of my travels.

Don’t believe me? How do you explain the wackos trying to levy a tax on cows because they produce methane when they pass gas?

There are two kinds of people in this world; those who live in a world of fantasy, and those who live in a world of reality. Unfortunately, there are not that many who wake up every morning and decide to face life and confront it understanding that their future depends on the decisions that they make.

Unhhhh? Think about it. The main stream media have had a fest portraying Israel as a bunch of murderous thugs. They keep pointing at the many civilian casualties left behind by the rocket attacks launched by the Israeli Defense Forces, and every time there are some pictures or feed coming from that sector of the world, it is of children being taken to the hospital as victims of the bombings, or schools destroyed, or a bunch of self important reporters on a hill.

I have to give props to Anderson Cooper, whom has made it a point to indicate that Hamas stations their mortars, headquarters, and weapons cache among the people on purpose. Some other commentator tried to excuse Hamas by saying that there was no other place to put them on Gaza. Guess what… if you place rockets and base military operations in the middle of the civilian population, you are asking the enemy to kill your civilians. And, that is precisely the point.

Hamas and Hezbollah, and all other terrorist groups have amazing Public Relations people. They doctor the pictures, stage the same old lady on different destroyed buildings and send it over and over as an example of the damaged created by the Zionist and the American Armies. And, since it is a lot easier to live in a fantasy world, the press believes them, and the main media organizations work hard to give air time to these fabricated news pieces.

Now Ayman Al-Zawahiry is saying that Obama’s gift to Israel is his silence regarding Israel’s offensive on Hamas. I will not defend Obama, since I have no clue what is on his mind; I don’t think that anyone knows other than maybe his bride. He has send mixed messages; in the past, he has associated with pro Palestine organizations, while at the same time professing to be an Israel supporter. That is typical of his profession as a consummate politician.

But Al-Qaida, like almost most of society, lives in a world of fantasy. They want life Burger King Style: their way. They want Israel destroyed. They want their women submitted to their skewed vision of the Quran. They want all other individuals not belonging to their faith destroyed.

Franken believes that he won Michigan, again, another fallacy. ACORN thought that they could affect the elections, and they did. What the heck… They live and act according to their fantasies, and those fantasies affect everybody else’s life.

The loons are running the asylum. Now, the Democrats are in charge, and they will get away with most of their liberal agenda. We will see the results soon enough, and will be mostly unable to do anything about it. Like Rush said, elections have consequences.

I was talking to good friend yesterday, and he told me that people was tired of President Bush, and I added that even if the Democrats had written Donald Duck as a candidate, Mr. Duck would be the President elected today.

The reason is simple. People live in a fantasy world, they do not want to face reality and most will vote for the candidate who promised them Shangri-La; never mind who that candidate is, or how fantastic their claims are.

The Obama campaign taught us a few marketing lessons. We deserve to lose again if we do not adjust fire and fix ourselves.

While I do not advocate the violation of our principles, I do advocate the modernization of our tactics. We have a two front war: the culture war, and the battle for ideas. Unless we realize this and take proper action, we will fail.

I see some isolated efforts to bring the conservative movement to the 21^st Century. Andrew Breitbart started a new website, “Big Hollywood”, check it out at: http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/. He is targeting popular culture his way. We need to make use of social media, DIGG.com, stumbleupon.com, etc. We need to hang together and support those independent efforts. Let’s get the word out there. Along with Rush, Glenn, Sean, Mark, and others, lets join our voices to the choir, and propel the Conservative movement to the forefront of the ideological battleground.

And let’s not forget those with their head full of mush like Rush describe. We need to target those, and bring some sense into their otherwise senseless existence.

To my friends, I say, let’s keep the faith and continue to move forward. We have two years to make a difference. 2010 is around the corner.