... In the cases of women and children recruited to be suicide bombers, the media often delve deeper into the story to see why they would want to die. Male suicide bombers are so common that their deaths are usually accepted at face value as the macho acts of sacrifice professed in their “martyrdom” videos. But I suspect that many of these men do not fear death simply because they just don’t have that much of a life. They are the insecure, the insignificant, the unloved, and the ambitious but unsuccessful. Were they born in Poland or China or Illinois, they would be reassured and told to keep trying if they were despondent. They would dream of being a rock star if they craved fame. They would dream of riches if they craved success. They would dream of finding acceptance and even love if they were lonely and isolated.
But they were born in Fatima-land. So they are told to land on a Jew … or an American, or a Hindu, or a Shiite, or a Russian, or a whomever.
... The fact is that Christians have been at the forefront of expanding and defending human freedom around the globe ever since the First Century Church was founded. Christians, for example, were the ones who campaigned against the gladiator games in ancient Rome as well as against the slave trade in Britain and in the United States. It has been our Christian compassion that has led us into wars around the world to defend the downtrodden and to preserve freedom for individuals. (Alvin J. Schmidt, Ph.D., clearly explains this in his excellent history book, “How Christianity Changed The World.”)
Elton John’s ability to speak freely and attack Christianity in Britain is due to the fact that Britain has based its laws upon the Ten Commandments and Christian principles about free speech and freedom of conscience. John might not fare so well under Sharia law nor would his music be freely marketed under a Communist dictatorship. ...
... Among those placing ahead of Kerry were about a dozen potential 2008 White House rivals, including Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
"This is bad, bad news for Kerry," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Hamden, Connecticut, which conducted the survey.
"Americans know who he is, and have pretty much decided they don't like him," said Brown. He noted the poll found that 95 percent of respondents said they had heard enough about Kerry, who lost the 2004 White House race to U.S. President George W. Bush, to rate the Massachusetts Democrat. ...
I’ll grant that some of my male brethren can be brutish, but . . . uh . . . at the end of the day . . . unless you’re a pre-teen girl who’s part of a Warren Jeffs-like FLDS cult, nobody forced you to date or marry said jackass. Ultimately, it’s your fault if you find yourself in cahoots with a creep. Somewhere along the line you blew off wisdom, counsel and common sense. I know that’s tight, but it’s right.
DOBSON: I don’t blame homosexuals for being angry when people say they’ve made a choice to be gay because they don’t.
It usually comes out of very, very early childhood, and this is very controversial, but this is what I believe and many other people believe, that is has to do with an identity crisis that occurs to early to remember it, where a boy is born with an attachment to his mother and she is everything to him for about 18 months, and between 18 months and five years, he needs to detach from her and to reattach to his father.
It’s a very important developmental task and if his dad is gone or abusive or disinterested or maybe there’s just not a good fit there. What’s he going to do? He remains bonded to his mother and…
KING: Is that clinically true or is that theory?
DOBSON: No, it’s clinically true, but it’s controversial. What homosexual activists, especially, would like everybody to believe is that it is genetic, that they don’t have any choice. If it were genetic, Larry—and before we went on this show, you and I were talking about twin studies—if it were genetic, identical twins would all have it. Identical twins, if you have a homosexuality in one twin, it would be there in the other.
KING: Right.
DOBSON: So, it can’t be simply genetic. I do believe that there are temperaments that individuals are born with that make them more vulnerable and maybe more likely to move in that direction, but it usually is related to a sexual identity crisis.
... The images were created for the programme Animals In The Womb, a two-hour show to be broadcast on the National Geographic Channel in America next month and on Channel 4 and the National Geographic Channel in the UK next year.
Researchers used scans to track elephant calves developing for almost two years in the womb - the longest gestation period of all mammals. ...
The Georgia Republican is spearheading a program called "American Solutions for Winning the Future” in an effort to revitalize the GOP with Ronald Reagan conservatism. ...
Newt is the only visionary I see out there that can pull this off... stay tuned!
... It is a sign of the times that the latest James Bond film has prohibited 007 from smoking a cigar. One of the most benign practices a person can engage in was banned, but our macho hero can be shown drinking alcohol and bedding women (and without any mention of condoms!), not to mention killing people and engaging in behaviors infinitely more dangerous than cigar smoking.
We live in the Age of Stupidity. This new age has been induced by widespread college education and widespread secularism -- Psalms is entirely accurate: "Wisdom begins with fear of the Lord" -- which explains, for example, why only well-educated secularists came to believe that there were no innate nonphysical differences between men and women.
Nearly 100 years ago, before widespread college education and before widespread secularism, when America tried to prohibit a vice, it chose alcohol, not tobacco. It knew that there were immoral consequences to alcohol consumption -- most child abuse, most spousal abuse, about half of violent crimes and most rapes are accompanied by alcohol. Nobody has ever raped because smoking a cigarette or a cigar numbed his conscience. And no one fears smoking drivers; we rightly fear drinking drivers.
Both in my hometown and on the road, I find great joy in visiting cigar stores and schmoozing with the owners and with the guys smoking there. In fact, cigar stores may be the last place men can get together without women. ...
It's easy to characterize religion as a blood - thirsty enterprise. History seems to be strewn with the wreckage of witch hunts, crusades, and religious jihad. If God does exist, a caller to my radio show offered, He ought to be tried for crimes against humanity.
The recent terrorist attacks have added a new twist: Our battle is not against terrorism per se, but against any religion that claims to be true. Thomas Friedman writing in the New York Times called it "religious totalitarianism."
Friedman’s solution: pluralism, the idea that "God speaks multiple languages." No one faith is exclusively true. Instead, all faiths are legitimate paths to God and anyone who claims otherwise is the enemy. Friedman’s call to arms, however, is misguided for three reasons. ...
There's too much good stuff to copy and paste here, but read the whole article at Townhall.com.
I'm glad to see Greg publishing at Townhall.com. You can find more information about him and his apologetics ministry at Stand To Reason.
Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) has made it possible for George Soros and other billionaire transnationalists to effect and determine the outcome of our elections and thus U.S. destiny, indeed world destiny. And that is exactly what the wealthy internationalists have always craved.
Certainly, McCain was aware that if the most liberal member of the Senate, Russ Feingold (D.-Wis.), was pushing a piece of legislation, its purpose was not to help conservative causes but the far left ones that are Feingold's life's mission. Indeed, Feingold had a hard time finding a sponsor across the aisle willing to proffer the "bipartisan" aura he needed to gain passage for this liberal dream.
Feingold understood, as we now all do, the Achilles’ heel of John McCain. To wit: I am the "cleaner" and wiser Republican. I stand out from the pack. "Take the dirty money out of politics" became McCain's slogan. He did, and now we have the "clean" money of George Soros and Peter Lewis, so clean that it can be spread around, infinitely, for every left-wing cause. It was noble, a campaign finance "reform," so befitting of Mr. Noble. ...
Feingold understood, as we now all do, the Achilles’ heel of John McCain. To wit: I am the "cleaner" and wiser Republican.
... Democrats since Bill Clinton do one thing: they campaign every day as if it is the day preceding an election. They demonize Republicans, our motives. The message they telegraph is not so much about our policy but our "sinister" goals. It is Halliburton, profiteering from war, mean-spiritedness, dogmatism over compassion. It is 24/7/365.
The purpose of the ads is not to illuminate their political positions. It is to destroy the Republican candidate and officeholder, the persona of the conservative. Through osmosis - after a five year daily barrage of ads on radio, TV and in newspapers - it appears to have worked.
Republicans, on the other hand, don't begin serious campaigning until the month before the election and have never learned the Goebbles technique so familiar, and comfortable, to Democrats: demonize the person, demonize the group. Do so every day, until respectable people find it offensive to be associated with, let alone vote for, such terrible people. The Muslims are doing it against Israel, against Jews, and they are indeed swaying Europe, prevailing. ...
He would win in a general election, but he won't get through the Republican primary. The "gang of 14", illegal immigration amnesty, and McCain-Feingold have made sure of that.
Laura Ingraham filling in for O'Reilly... (updated)
Laura Ingraham does a great job filling in for Bill, and last night was no exception. I imagine that she'll have her own show on Fox News soon.
This video from HotAir is the only clip that I can find from last night at this point, but it's a good one with Robert Spencer.
I'll add more clips if/whenI can find them. (FoxNews.com videosdoesn't have any yet either) Her talking points on how the decision to pull the OJ book/interview is a cultural victory are worth watching if you missed.
Someone finally had to say it, might as well be me.
How many are actually paying attention to this?
There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, Native Americans, etc. and then there are just Americans, that would be ME!!
You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction.
You call me “White boy,” “Cracker,” “Honkey,” “Whitey,” “Caveman” and that’s OK.
But if I call you, Nigger, Kike, Towel head, Sand-nigger, camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink, you call me a racist, why is that??
You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you, so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?
You have the United Negro College Fund, you have Martin Luther King Day, you have Black History Month, you have Cesar Chavez Day, you have Yom Hashoah, you have Ma’uled Al-Nabi, you have the NAACP and you have BET.
If we had WET (White Entertainment Television) we’d be called racists, if we had a White Pride Day you would call us racists, if we had White History Month, we’d be called racists, if we had any organization for only whites to “advance” their lives, we’d be called racists.
You have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce.
If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships, you know we’d be called racists.
There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US, yet if there were any “White colleges”, they would be labeled as racist colleges.
In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights, if we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists, or worse.
You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you’re not afraid to announce it, but when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.
You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us, but when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug-dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist.
I am proud of MY race, just as you are of yours, but you call me a racist.
Why is it that only whites can be racists?
Do you suppose hypocrisy could have ANYTHING to do with it??
Fox News Channel might air two episodes of a "Daily Show"-like program with a decidedly nonliberal bent on Saturday nights in late January, with the possibility that it could become a weekly show for the channel.
The half-hour show is executive produced by "24's" Joel Surnow and Manny Cota and creator Ned Rice, who previously wrote for "Politically Incorrect" and "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson" through This Just In Prods. It would take aim at what Surnow calls "the sacred cows of the left" that don't get made as much fun of by other comedy shows.
... Biology professor P. Z. Myers at the University of Minnesota, Morris, has demanded “the public firing and humiliation of some teachers” who express their doubts about Darwin. He further says, “It’s time for scientists to break out the steel-toed boots and brass knuckles, and get out there and hammer on the lunatics and idiots.”
Whatever one’s personal view of Darwinism, the current atmosphere of intolerance is unhealthy for science, and it’s unhealthy for a free society.
Conservatives who are discomfited by the continuing debate over Darwin’s theory need to understand that it is not about to go away. It is not going away, because the accumulating discoveries of science undercut rather than confirm the claims of neo-Darwinism. It is not going away, because Darwinism fundamentally challenges the traditional Western understanding of human nature and the universe. Finally, it is not going away, because free people do not like to be told that there are some questions they are not allowed to ask and some answers they are not allowed to question.
If conservatives want to address root causes rather than just symptoms, they need to join the debate over Darwinism, not scorn it or ignore it.
In 1995, House Republicans wrote the following in one of their first governing documents:
America stands at a crossroads. Down one path lies more and more debt and the continued degradation of the Federal Government and the people it is intended to serve. Down the other lies the restoration of the American dream...we choose the second of these roads.
We are once again at a historic crossroads in the nation's future.
The result of last week's election means that America is poised to go down the other path--the wrong one.
Our Minority must stand in the gap and point the path to the other road. We must be a light in the darkness. I brought a weathered pocket copy of the Ten Commandments with me this morning. The card is yellow from nearly twenty years of use. As I was preparing to speak, my eyes fell on a passage I had not noticed before. Exodus 20:20 reads, "Do not be afraid for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you."
Men and women of the Republican conference, Providence has come to test us and I know we will pass this test. We will do the work the American people elect Republicans to do; defend our nation, defend our treasury and defend our values with all we've got.
In the words of the founder of our Republican Party, "with malice toward none and charity toward all," I ask for your support for Minority Leader of the 110th Congress.
Update: Jimmy has simply become the liberal, globalist, socialist, UN-loving definition of wrong. Allah has a great update on Jimmy's recent apprearance with Leno... video too! As has been said many times before... stick to building houses Jimbo.
The ascension of Trent Lott as Minority Whip seems especially significant in this regard. Many tried to excuse this by saying that the GOP needs infighters, or that Lott somehow was less egregious than Lamar Alexander on pork, but those are just excuses. Lott has attacked people who want to reform government abuses of taxpayer money and derailed reform legislation intended on exposing the use of earmarks by individual members in order to show taxpayers how influence is bought and sold on Capitol Hill. It's a sorry display of expediency over principle, and every Senator who voted for Lott has underscored the cluelessness of the post-midterm GOP. If Lott truly was the lesser of two evils -- and I don't think he was in this race -- then the GOP has a personnel problem that needs fixing immediately.
The election of the same two top Republican leaders in the House is as short-sighted and indeed asinine a reaction to a devastating election defeat as has been seen in modern political history. Clearly, the Republican solons have no clue what the country wants, no clue how institutionally corrupt they look, and no clue how badly they have betrayed the rank and file of their party, not to mention how badly they have insulted the conservative movement.
George Santayana said “those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” but barely a week has passed since the GOP lost the congressional majorities it held for 12 years, yet it seems the Capitol Hill Republicans have learned nothing. So much is obvious in Sen. Trent Lott’s return to the GOP Senate leadership and the way in which the lame-duck majority is moving to approve hundreds more secret earmarks.
The Lott decision is simply dazzling in its willful rejection of the obvious.
Regardless of how tomorrow's minority leader vote turns out among House Republicans, conservatives made clear today they overwhelmingly support Rep. Mike Pence (R.-Ind.), the underdog who has waged a principled campaign against the establishment candidate, Rep. John Boehner (R.-Ohio).
According to a survey taken Thursday on HumanEvents.com, Pence won an astonishing 89.29% of the vote. Boehner did so poorly, in fact, that the choice of "neither" took a greater share of the vote than he did.
...For a party that effectively stressed a Republican climate of corruption in the recent campaign to consider placing Murtha and Hastings in its leadership astonishes a wide range of Democrats. They do not believe Murtha can defeat Hoyer, but the imminence of Hastings stuns them. Well-placed Democrats have told Pelosi she cannot permit this to happen. What they hesitate to contemplate is what lies ahead based on Pelosi's performance before she has taken the oath.
"Since September 11, many Muslim Americans have been subjected to searches at airports and other locations based upon their religion and national origin... We must make it illegal."
... In 1989, Gorbachev told the Politburo: “Gentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about glasnost and perestroika and democracy in the coming years. These are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant change within the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes. Our aim is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep.”
Canadian environmental guru Maurice Strong and Gorbachev are co-architects of the Earth Charter, which both arrogantly boast is a replacement for the Ten Commandments of Moses.
As the song says, House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi has come a long way, Baby. Her long climb to the top came courtesy of two anti-Americans global Pooh-bahs.
`San Francisco’s Nanny” was a useful tool for UN heavy Maurice Strong and one of Mikhail Gorbachev’s most useful idiots.
Self-important Washington analysts are all asking why Pelosi nominated Murtha when she didn't have the votes. Republicrats are celebrating her lack of acumen. Demoncats are worried she may be too "inexperienced" for the Speaker's position. My analysis brings me to a different conclusion. Murtha became so engorged on his own image(as a result of his calling our troops "Nazis" and demanding a French-like retreat) that as near as a few months ago he was vying to become the Speaker himself! In other words he challenged Pelosi herself for the top-dog position. By nominating Murtha instead of Hoyer the new Speaker did, in fact, count the votes in advance. And she may have KNOWN Murtha would lose. So why would she do this? To publicly humiliate Murtha, to be rid of him and his radical, left-wing consortium which threatens to swamp the centrist (i.e. business) wing of the Democrat Party.
... Local liberal elites long have believed The Washington Times to be an oafishly right-wing rag, while viewing The Washington Post as the dictionary definition of detachment and straightforward reporting. The 2006 campaign proves this to be nonsense. When it came to Allen, the Post completely lost its bearings, treating him with left-wing aggression and loathing, as if he ripped out the fingernails of small children every night as a giggly hobby. Today, Allen's political scalp hangs on their newsroom wall.
Now, the Post would have us believe it had nothing to do with his defeat. With a shockingly false faux-objective voice, the Post printed a headline on Nov. 10 declaring it was a "stunning breakdown," as if it was uninvolved. Reporter Michael Shear declared that Allen's jovial farewells were odd, since "the relentlessly cheery politician who was an up-and-comer in the national GOP spent most of the fall during his campaign against challenger James Webb in a defensive crouch, trying to deflect accusations that, down deep, he is a bully or a racist."
What Shear failed to mention was that it was a defensive crouch against relentless bullying by the Post. They beat him up, stole his lunch money and now are pretending they were little angels who had nothing to do with the assault. ...
They beat him up, stole his lunch money and now are pretending they were little angels who had nothing to do with the assault.
... In the end, the Post so co-managed the Webb campaign that we ought to consider identifying Sen. Webb not as "D-Va.," but perhaps as "D-Washington Post."
"Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction ... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real..." - Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003 | Source
"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force -- if necessary -- to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security." - Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002 | Source
"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line." - President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998 | Source
"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." - President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998 | Source
"We must stop Saddam from ever again jeopardizing the stability and security of his neighbors with weapons of mass destruction." - Madeline Albright, Feb 1, 1998 | Source
"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983." - Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998 | Source
"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." Letter to President Clinton. - (D) Senators Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, others, Oct. 9, 1998 | Source
"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." - Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998 | Source
"Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies." - Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999 | Source
"We begin with the common belief that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a threat to the peace and stability of the region. He has ignored the mandate of the United Nations and is building weapons of mass destruction and th! e means of delivering them." - Sen. Carl Levin (D, MI), Sept. 19, 2002 | Source
"We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country." - Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002 | Source
"Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power." - Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002 | Source
"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction." - Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002 | Source
"The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October of 1998. We are confident that Saddam Hussein retains some stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to build up his chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Intelligence reports indicate that he is seeking nuclear weapons..." - Sen. Robert Byrd (D, WV), Oct. 3, 2002 | Source
"There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years ... We also should remember we have always underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction." - Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D, WV), Oct 10, 2002 | Source
"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members ... It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons." - Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002 | Source
"We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction." - Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL), Dec. 8, 2002 | Source
Drawing a direct analogy between Iran and Nazi Germany, Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu asserted Monday that the Iranian nuclear program posed a threat not only to Israel, but to the entire western world. There was "still time," however, to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, he said.
"It's 1938 and Iran is Germany. And Iran is racing to arm itself with atomic bombs," Netanyahu told delegates to the annual United Jewish Communities General Assembly, repeating the line several times, like a chorus, during his address. "Believe him and stop him," the opposition leader said of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "This is what we must do. Everything else pales before this."
We must fight for good against evil... with committment, stamina, perseverence, strength, and a long-term vision to stay that course.
What can you do in two years? The common wisdom says not much. But here's a governing attitude: First things first.
Do all you can to keep America as safe as possible as long as possible. Make sure she's able to take a bad blow, a bad series of them. Much flows from this first thing, many subsets. Here is only one: Strengthen and modernize our electrical grid. When the bad thing comes we will need to be able to make contact with each other to survive together. Congress has ignored this for years.
Make America in the world as safe as possible by tending to and building our friendships in the world, by causing no unnecessary friction, by adding whatever possible and necessary emollients. In your approach to foreign affairs, rewrite Teddy Roosevelt: Speak softly, walk softly, and carry a big stick.
Much flows from this, including Iraq. This involves a huge and so far unanswered question: How to leave and not make it all infinitely worse. America will never accept a long war whose successful end even its most passionate proponents cannot convincingly envision or articulate. And America will never allow a repeat of the pictures of 1975, with desperate people who'd thrown their lot with us clinging to the skids of helicopters fleeing the U.S. Embassy. We will never get over Vietnam. And it's to our credit that we won't.
Those to me are the two big things. Much follows them, and flows from them. But to make some progress on these two things in the next two years would be breathtaking.
Just when you think no one can come up with a genuine modern analogy to Nazi Germany, someone does. Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the conservative Likud Party in Israel, offers a scary and wholly plausible comparison. "It's 1938 and Iran is Germany," he told the annual General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities the other day in Los Angeles. "When someone tells you he is going to exterminate you, believe him -- and stop him."
When you look around and see your small town that you were raised in turned into a third world country and as you walk down a sidewalk of what used to be so familiar to you has now been desecrated and soiled?
When you have to pray in private because it is against the law to in public?
When the flag that you or a family member fought for, sacrificed their life, limb and sometimes sanity to serve and protect, is now banned?
When you watch a neighbor or friend being attacked, beaten, or even killed on the street corner and you stand by helplessly looking on too afraid to get involved?
When you try your best to soothe you sick child's fears away, try to heal them yourself of their illness because going to a hospital is a last resort due the inadequate care and exorbitant costs that you cannot afford just because it has come down to a decision of putting what gas you can afford into your vehicle so you can go to that job that you hate to gather what ever type of paycheck you can get to feed them and put shelter over their heads?
When your children and grandchildren look up at you with tears in their eyes because you were supposed to lead the way and ensure their future and they ask, what happened?
When these same children reach back in their short memories of better times, days when there was no hunger, no fear and America was a land of plenty and ask why did our lives change?
When you have to debase yourself and stand in line to buy whatever food may have been shipped in that day, and despite the constant of rice, beans and whatever else may be available, your body craves for fresh vegetables, fruit and meat that is now considered a luxury and only the rich can afford ?
When you catch yourself speaking English and your grandchildren look at you and chastise you for speaking the Old language that brands you as outdated?
When your government is now a fascist regime and you have no choice but to follow their orders and ideology?
When you look back at all the warning signs that were given and yet you ignored them because you were too absorbed and self-obsessed in your own little world, secure in the fact that these were missives and declarations of the misguided and conspiracists. What will you say?
I will say... You got what you deserved.
We are half way there and you - my neighbors, my friends, my family, my fellow Americans - are allowing it to happen.
Don't fear warming... fear the unwillingness of the West to recognize the threat of Islamic extremism. Fear political correctness. Fear the homosexualization of our culture. Fear the circling socialism. Fear our collective inability to recognize right from wrong.
... In private conversation, Republican members of Congress blame Majority Leader John Boehner and Majority Whip Roy Blunt in no small part for their midterm election debacle. Yet, either Boehner, Blunt or both are expected to be returned to their leadership posts Friday. For good reason, the GOP often is called "the stupid party." ...
Listen to analysis from Hewitt, Medved and Prager here.
I'm with Harvard Law student Ben Shapiro who says "the vaunted Republican Congress turned out to be all hat, no cattle" in his latest column:
What happens next? A return to conservatism for the new Republican minority - a minority that is only a minority because it abandoned conservatism to begin with. A revival for President Bush, despite predictions to the contrary - for the first time in a long time, he can credibly target Democrats for inaction and radicalism. Don't expect Congress to remain Democratic for long. Americans put the Republican Party in the repair shop. When it emerges, it will be stronger for its foray into minority status.
...it is increasingly difficult to see a bright spot in a future that includes human cloning, gay marriage, continued abortion on demand and an open border policy that threatens to erase our national sovereignty.
In the words of Jefferson, I tremble for my country.
... On April 15, 2005 - less than three months after President Bush had begun a second term won in part because of his pledge to fight for sound judges - Senator McCain appeared on Hardball and announced he would not support the "constitutional option" to end Democratic filibusters. Then, stunned by the furious reaction, the senator from Arizona cobbled together the Gang of 14 "compromise" that in fact destroyed the ability of the Republican Party to campaign on Democratic obstructionism while throwing many fine nominees under the bus. Now in the ruins of Tuesday there is an almost certain end to the slow but steady restoration of originalism to the bench. Had McCain not abandoned his party and then sabotaged its plans, there would have been an important debate and a crucial decision taken on how the Constitution operates. The result was the complete opposite. Yes, President Bush got his two nominees to SCOTUS through a 55-45 Senate, but the door is now closed, and the court still tilted left. A once-in-a-generation opportunity was lost. ...
... Western nations that show any signs of standing up for self-preservation are rare exceptions. The United States and Israel are the only western nations which have no choice but to rely on self-defense -- and both are demonized, not only by our enemies but also by many in other western nations.
Australia recently told its Muslim population that, if they want to live under Islamic law, then they should leave Australia. That makes three western nations that have not yet completely succumbed to the corrosive and suicidal trends of our times.
If and when we all succumb, will the epitaph of western civilization say that we had the power to annihilate our enemies but were so paralyzed by confusion that we ended up being annihilated ourselves?
Politics aside, the clock is ticking. Do we kick the proverbial can down the road, or pick it up and deal with it?
... The tragic irony with all of this is that after winning stunning military victory after stunning military victory in the early war – crushing and vanquishing the Taliban – instead of setting in to seal the victory, we squandered it and ran off to Iraq, and the Taliban re-inflated and returned. At the current rate we, the Brits, Aussies, Canadians, French, Germans, Italians, and all the rest who are there, will lose the war in Afghanistan. We must change course with great haste. ...
Some great photos from Michael... a must-read too.
"The Whitewater investigation never proved anything about the Clintons and was a waste of taxpayer money"
"Prayer in schools is unconstitutional"
"Democrats are the party of the little guy"
"The Reagan era was a Decade of Greed during which the rich got richer and the poor got poorer"
"To stimulate a slow economy, we should increase government spending"
"The Democratic Party best represents the interests of women"
"The 2nd Amendment does not guarantee an individual's right to own a gun -- only the right of states to maintain militias"
"Gun control laws eliminate guns and prevent crime"
"America needs a government-run health-care system like Canada's to keep costs down and solve the problem of the uninsured"
"The death penalty doesn't deter violent crime"
"Sex education in public schools reduces the number of unplanned pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases"
"There is no liberal bias on college and university campuses"
"Global warming is real, and results from human activity"
"Drilling in Alaska's ANWR region will degrade the environment and kill wildlife"
"Nuclear power is dangerous and potentially harmful to the environment"
"Our planet is grossly overpopulated"
"The 9-11 attacks occurred because of U.S. support for Israel"
"America's wealth is responsible for breeding the global poverty which creates terrorism"
"Bush exaggerated the case for war in Iraq by lying about Weapons of Mass Destruction"
"Bush stole the 2000 election, which was actually won by Al Gore"
"Bush won in 2004 because of a smear campaign by the Swift Boat vets, coordinated with Karl Rove"
"Banning 'gay marriage' is akin to banning interracial marriage"
"Children raised by homosexuals are as well-adjusted as children raised by heterosexuals"
"Ten percent of the population is homosexual"
"Affirmative action 'levels the playing field' and gives disadvantaged minorities a fair chance to compete"
"Social Security is solvent; Republicans are engaging in scare tactics by saying it's in danger of collapse"
"The GOP plan to privatize Social Security is risky, and would unfairly benefit the rich over the poor"
"Tax cuts cause budget deficits"
"Higher marginal tax rates for the rich are only fair - progressive taxation levels the playing field"
"The American colonists stole America from the Native Americans and the Mexicans"
"Western civilization is not superior to any other culture -- all cultures are basically equal"
"Democrats represent the best educational interests of minorities"
"Spending more money on our public schools will improve results"
"Conservatives oppose welfare because they don't care about the poor"
"Illegal immigrants do the jobs Americans won't do -- and our economy depends on cheap illegal immigrant labor"
"The Founding Fathers were slave-owning hypocrites who only gave lip service to liberty and equality"
A few other healing thoughts:
Chafee and DeWine are out.
Lieberman is in.
Santorum and Steele have strengthened their national presence.
The Democratic majority in both Houses for the next two years will bode well for Conservatives seeking the Presidency in '08.
There is a high probability that the left and the old media will futher highlight their unpopular agendas over the next few years, educating the general electorate in the process.
Conservatives now have an opportunity to get back to core principles like smaller government, lower taxes, reform, pro life, strong military, less spending.
Tomorrow night, those who sent 2,800 of our soldiers to their deaths -- all because of a lie the president concocted -- will find out if America chooses to reward them -- or remove them. ...
Talk about someone who's easy to hate... vote against Michael Moore while you're voting against Hollywood, the Old Media, San Francisco liberals, Cindy Sheehan, Hugo Chavez, the 12th Imam...
Democrats are set to gain 19 House seats, two Senate seats, and five governorships in tomorrow's elections. It is a sign of Republicans' sorry state that, at this point, this is actually a very favorable outlook for them.
In the last day of the midterm election campaign, we offer a final run-down of how candidates are doing in each contested district or state. We aim to give a complete forecast on tomorrow's competitive election contests in this final-hour newsletter, which will be followed up by a post-election analysis on Wednesday.
Expectations Game: At this point, there will be no new polls, no major news events capable of significantly disrupting the election cycle.
We know one thing for sure: Republicans are going to lose ground in both houses of Congress. The White House presents, as its rosiest scenario, a loss of 12 House seats. This is not entirely impossible, but it is too optimistic for the realistic observer.
If Democrats fail, it will set off an even worse intra-party bloodbath than came after the 2000 and 2004 elections.
If Democrats succeed, it will be for two reasons:
The first is an arrogant and politically tin-eared Republican establishment in Washington. In the handling of key issues such as the occupation of Iraq, the response to Hurricane Katrina, and a meaningful follow-through on Social Security reform, the White House displayed incompetence.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Republicans encouraged practices (such as earmarking in the appropriations process) that let corruption run free. When scandal hit, they handled it badly, particularly in the most recent case of disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.). They also went to great lengths to alienate their base on the issue of immigration reform, and they created an issue for Democrats in the form of embryonic stem-cell research. Recall that federal funding for embryonic research received a vote on the House floor only when the House Republican leadership made a deal with moderates in order to pass their budget in 2005.
Last, but not least, comes the brilliant candidate recruiting and fundraising on the part of two men – Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chairman Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). And should it occur, Democratic victory will come in spite of the total incompetence of Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean.
THE BIG QUESTION in tomorrow's election is whether Democrats capture the Senate, the House, or both. But there are other contests and issues at stake that have gotten little press attention but are nonetheless important (or at least interesting). Some of these are actually eye-catching or may have implications for future elections. Here are 10 of these significant but not quite media-centric matters:
Click [here] to see how your incumbent Congressmen, Congresswomen and U.S. Senators rate with the ACLU for the current 109th Congress as well as for the 108th & 107th sessions on the various issues. The higher the rating, the more likely you are dealing with an ACLU supporter and you need to take such into consideration as you cast your ballots.
If your member of Congress is running for governor such as in the state of Ohio, you need to take this information seriously as you consider who you want to represent you the next 4 years.
For more details and to guide you on Tuesday, please read my article An Educated Voter is the ACLU’s Worst Nightmare. There is a lot at stake in this election and given the many close races there are this year, your vote may well be a deciding one as to whether we have a Congress that stands with ACLU and its anti-American immoral agenda or one that will stand up to them.
I cannot adequately stress how important it is for you to avail yourself of this information and to share it with those in your network.
“I hope that someday your children and grandchildren will tell of the time that a certain president came to town at the end of a long journey and asked their parents and grandparents to join him in setting America on the course to the new millennium — and that a century of peace, prosperity, opportunity, and hope followed. So, if I could ask you just one last time: Tomorrow, when mountains greet the dawn, would you go out there and win one for the Gipper?”
"It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country." - Noah Webster (1790)
"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." - G. K. Chesterton
"It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn." - George Washington
"Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late." - Thomas Sowell
"It’s getting close to the point where Osama bin Laden could deliver the keynote speech at the Democrat National Convention." - Rush Limbaugh
"Contemporary politics is all about phony energy, about running around slamming doors for the sake of it—or, more to the point, opening them and tossing through a huge sack of taxpayer dollars." - Mark Steyn
"In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution." - Alexander Hamilton
"You cannot slander human nature; it is worse than words can paint it." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
"Without gratitude, it is hard to appreciate, or be satisfied with, what you have: and life will become an existential shopping spree that no product satisfies." - Theodore Dalrymple
"It is only the warlike power of a civilized people that can give peace to the world." - Theodore Roosevelt
"If we can’t enforce our laws inside the building where American laws are made, where can we enforce them?" - Tom Tancredo
"Just about every generation has some horrific evil that it must fight. For the Democratic Party today that evil is carbon dioxide emissions. For the rest of us, it is an ideology that teaches that its deity is sanctified by the blood of innocents." - Dennis Prager
"Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all." - Voltaire
"It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong." - Thomas Sowell
"The firm basis of government is justice, not pity." - Woodrow Wilson
"Not everything you may care about is in the Constitution. It is a legal document that had compromises in it. What it says it says; what it doesn’t say it doesn’t say." - Justice Antonin Scalia
"Liberals believe in burning the American flag, urinating on crucifixes, and passing out birth control pills to 11-year-olds without telling their parents -- but God forbid an infidel touch a Quran at Guantanamo." - Ann Coulter
"A community that allows a large number of young men to grow up in broken families, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring any set of rational expectations about the future - that community asks for and gets chaos." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checked by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt
"Though God alone is competent to judge the heart, we can and must judge whether objective behavior is bad or good, right or wrong." - Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio
"While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader." - Samuel Adams
"If any group of citizens is uniquely unqualified to tell someone else how to vote, it’s those of us who live in the sheltered, privileged arena of celebrityhood." - Pat Sajak
"The believer in God has to account for the existence of evil and suffering. The atheist has to account for the existence of everything else." - Dennis Prager
"Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid" - Ronald Reagan
"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." - Barry Goldwater
"Appreciate the good in your life, and the good will appreciate." - Tal Ben-Shahar
"The dustbin of history is littered with remains of those countries that relied on diplomacy to secure their freedom. We must never forget... in the final analysis... that it is our military, industrial and economic strength that offers the best guarantee of peace for America in times of danger." - Ronald Reagan
"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire
"But America can still survive, prosper, and defend its freedom only if it continues to believe in itself, in the sturdier virtues of self-reliance (not government), in the centrality of family, and in the conviction that our country really is the world's last best hope." - Mark Steyn
"Compassion should be applied in the personal (micro) arena, but standards should be applied in the public (macro) arena. Too often compassion is applied in both." - Dennis Prager
"If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism. " - Thomas Sowell
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." - John Stuart Mill
Do yourself a favor and make it your new year's resolution to read everyone's favorite medical researcher - Mac Johnson - every week.
