10 thoughts on “The Challenge”

  1. Ye Cats! (Or should that be Katz?) The Fusileers are taking no prisoners:

    Castle Argghhh! Fighting Fusileers for Freedom! $10755.5
    The Victory Coalition $7718
    Liberty Alliance $3314
  2. Umm, every single taxpayer out there already did make a contribution to the Iraqi campaign. Discounting the military expenses, it came out to $18 billion dollars. To put that in perspective, $18 billion dollars is about $64 dollars for every man, woman, and child if you assume 280 million people. That’s not counting interest on that tab as well.

    So a family of four, a couple and two kids, would have already contributed on average some $257 dollars.

    I feel sorry for the people of Iraq but frankly I think I’ve already been sufficiently generous considering everything involved. To be honest, a bunch of my conservative friends feel the same way. Conservatives if you will recall have never been exactly thrilled about shelling out money for foreign aid.

    So sorry if this is not pc and all, but thanks but no thanks.

  3. Well, Oldman, here’s how I see it.

    We solve this problem, or we’re faced with a choice between an escalating series of WTC-scale attacks, a police state, and committing genocide.

    So I’m sad that you feel overcommited on this, and sadder still that people may join you in digging a hole in the sand for their heads.

    A.L.

  4. Hey Oldman, you’re giving conservatives a bad name. I don’t think anyone has an issue with aid of any kind, conservatives just don’t have much faith in it getting to the right place when the middlemen are liberals. Oil for fraud, anyone?

  5. Well, it’s like this.

    The Saudis give billions of dollars to support Islamic terror. Billions more come from ordinary Muslims and their little zakat donations.

    The Saudi Connection”

    “. . .How billions in oil money spawned a global terror network . . .

    . . . The Saudi funding program, Alexiev says, is “the largest worldwide propaganda campaign ever mounted”–dwarfing the Soviets’ propaganda efforts at the height of the Cold War. The Saudi weekly Ain al-Yaqeen last year reported the cost as “astronomical” and boasted of the results: some 1,500 mosques, 210 Islamic centers, 202 colleges, and nearly 2,000 schools in non-Islamic countries. . .

    . . . Over the past decade, according to a 2002 report to the United Nations Security Council, al Qaeda and its fellow jihadists collected between $300 million and $500 million–most of it from Saudi charities and private donors. . . ” http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/031215/usnews/15terror.htm

    So, you’ll excuse me A.L. if I decline you kind invitation. Charity begins at home. Besides, I am saving my shekels for the tax man. He and the piper will surely want a BIG chunk for years to come. And then there is that big hole in Social Security and Medicare—which I was hoping to collect one day. . .

  6. “And then there is that big hole in Social Security and Medicare—which I was hoping to collect one day.”

    Hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

  7. You know what drives me totally up a wall about people who say, “um, like, no, my $64 was enough” is that they are totally missing the point. This is charity, not taxes.

    I can tell you from experience that what Spirit of America is doing is the biggest bang for the charity buck as far as foreign giving goes. When I was in the Peace Corps, what we had over everyone else working in Uzbekistan were the boots (it was too sandy, we had to put away the Birks:) ) on the ground that could cut through the BS and identify needs. And it wasn’t just that, we stayed and made sure the aid/project/what have you got the support it needed. You want long term impact on the cheap? Support aid delivery models that require “us” to have a relationship with “them.” With SoA, it’s doubly impactful as its soldiers delivering the aid, boosting their reputation.

    We’re now all working together to get $50,000 by 3 AM Eastern tonight! If you haven’t given yet, please consider doing so.

  8. I hate to jump in and join in the mauling of Oldman but I see this matter like that of a reader:

    http://www.instapundit.com/ (sorry don’t have permalink; dated April 29, lots of links and support by instapundit)

    My idea was spawned by “reader Joe Zwers” who seems to think that the U.S. Marines and the general public are somehow more efficient than the bureaucracy in the Pentagon.

    From thence I then stopped by the blog of some big mucky muck at Camp Pendleton:

    http://www.americandigest.org/mt-archives/001196.html

    and picked up the fact the project is already off the ground and in the air…..

    ….and not to be missed are photos of the event, the Marines packing up equipment, assorted media (good PR for bloggers!)

    http://soa.exposuremanager.com/scripts/expman.pl?rm=overview_gallery&dir=galleries/1

  9. Official Website of Shri Srinivasa Ragavaswamy charitable Trust in South India working towards constructing a temple for Sri Srinivasa Perumal (balaji) with Raja Gopuram which is named as Kovai Thiruppathy.

Leave a Reply to ld Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.