Some of you may be wondering about what ‘The Secret Fire’ actually is. Well, if you don’t already know, it is from Lord of the Rings. Gandalf is the “Servant of the Secret Fire.” He says this while facing the balrog on the bridge of Khazad-Dûm. (aka the giant fire monster over the bottomless pit where Gandalf ‘dies’) The Secret Fire is the good force in the world that is constantly striving against the evil. This is not some ‘yin-yang’ thing, but more like a Holy Spirit, thing. This is where the name came from. This is not specifically a Lord of the Rings site, but ‘Shadow of the West’ and I are both fans, so there will probably be numerous references to it. My name comes from the elvish word for sun. The Flame of Anor is also known as one of the three elvish rings of power that is ‘wielded’ by Gandalf. As for Shadow’s name, well you’d have to ask him because I’m not sure myself.
Hope that clears things up!

-Flame of Anor

Cheerio to The Drudge Report for picking this up.

General Normal Schwarzkopf (wow, that could possibly be harder to spell than Schwartzenegger) released a statement today stating

The Democratic National Committee is making fraudulent phone calls claiming that I have endorsed Senator Kerry. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I demand that they stop immediately.

Senator Kerry opposed the Reagan defense build-up that won the Cold War. Senator Kerry opposed the removal of Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. Senator Kerry proposed billions in intelligence cuts after the first attack on the World Trade Center. Senator Kerry voted against funds to equip our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with supplies like body armor and ammunition.

I am supporting President Bush for reelection, because he is the candidate who has demonstrated the conviction needed to defeat terrorism. In contrast to the President’s steadfast determination to defeat our enemies, Senator Kerry has a record of weakness that gives me no confidence in his ability to fight and win the War on Terror. His attempt to make up for these deficiencies by falsifying my endorsement only confirms my impression that he is not the man we need to lead our nation.

What on earth was the person behind this thinking? Republican, Democrat, Camel, doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t take an ounce of brains to figure out that you’re not going to get away with this sort of thing. Now, don’t mind me while I forge a letter from Michael Moore stating that he has changed his mind and is now supporting President Bush for office.

Now that I have calmed down and thought it over, listening the sage advice of friends (namely brenton), I have decided to rethink my position on writing about politics. The reason I wrote that was because I had a stressing day involving a political debate where all participants ended up assuring me that they really knew almost nothing about the subject and were basically repeating party lines. No one would directly answer a question and much of their information was plain wrong. I am ashamed at my impulsive behavior, but you can hardly blame me for wanting to chuck politics out the window, even though our country would go depot. I would like to reiterate, though, that the purpose of this blog won’t be mainly about politics.

-Flame of Anor

no comments from the peanut gallery.
(if you don’t understand this then it isn’t to you)

I can’t do it. Just to let you know, I can no longer stand the election, and will not talk about it any more. If you have any questions about politics, I might answer them in our forum, which you can link to from our home page, www.thesecretfire.fdns.net.

Soon, there will be forum topics where you can talk about this, but I WILL NOT POST POLITICS IN THIS BLOG!!! Never. Period. I shouldn’t even be talking about it now, but I had to let you know.
-Flame of Anor

Well, according The Guardian (wow, using the Guardian as a news source. I never thought I’d see the day) Arnold Schwarzendru-er *ahem* Schwarzenegger has announced his interest in running for President in 2008.

Obviously, in order for this to happen, a relatively radical change in the Constitution would have to change. As interesting as it would be to have Arnold as President (you that that President Bush didn’t speak English well?) my objection to it can be nicely summed up by this article. In a nutshell, not only would the change to the Constitution be relatively radical, but it would open the door for other amendments to Presidential restrictions, such as term limits and residency, which I believe are vital and important restrictions.

On a side-note, I am tempted to say that I would like to see the age restriction of presidential candidacy lowered from 35 to 21, if only for the reason that Carmen Pettus, a friend of mine, would make the best President of the United States ever, but that wouldn’t be very consistent, would it?

Cheers,
Aaron