My latest salvo...

Hi Rick!

I do not mind you sharing my thoughts...although I will let you continue to make that decision...I don't want to mass reply to anyone that doesn't want my wonderful thoughts!!

I think your religious choice is often geographic, cultural, & hereditary. Why is Mexico predominately Catholic? Because the Catholic church spent hundreds of years missioning Mexico and most children follow their parents footsteps in religion...myself excluded of course! I do not think religious extremists view themselves as punishing Christians for past sins...from what I have read Islamic religious extremists view Christianity as trying to convert Muslims as well...they view it as a struggle for the faithful.

I did not say that we don't need a strong powerful Navy or military in general...I said we need to reorganize our thinking and realize that the huge, lumbering navies & armies that we needed to win both world wars & the cold war are not needed in the scale we have them today...in other words create a faster, more responsive military that can handle quick-fire, short-term, situations...we don't need an armored division as much as a mobile & reactive light infantry regiment in many of today's situations, IMHO.

By the way...the carrier does not turn them into loyal Americans...it breeds hate & resentment that last long after the carrier sails away...nobody likes to be bullied (that's how they see us...not that we are bullying them)

Shock and awe works well on opposing armies...we haven't seen shock & awe work well since 2003 when we defeated Saddam. Shock & awe does not work well for insurgencies...see Iraq after the "mission was accomplished"

Ok...sorry...I have to get sarcastic here...who exactly would embark on a path of "world dominance" if we were not around?! Regional, yes (Iran would...but wait...we did it for them when we removed Iraq as a counter-balance in the region!!!)...world, no! There's no one with a 1/10th of our resources that could start "world domination"...

The ACU is very anti-government regulation and as such is very anti-democrat & anti-Obama. In a nutshell, I think you see a national majority moving away from teh ACU approach towards a more Democrat-minded approach where government is more involved in making sure you have the opportunity to prosper. The middle class has shrunk by over 20% since Reagan took office in 1980...the beginning of a Republican-dominated leadership run...the top 1% of wage earners make 31% of total income...up from 18 % in 1970.

I think letting business run unregulated only benefits those in charge...not every American. The "trickle-down" theory is a joke...just look at the data for the last 30 years.

Just my thoughts ;-)!!!

Best to you & your family...Jon