Help fight teenage affluenza...

... it's rampant across the U.S.

A Random Rant from "Zo"

Posting has been on hold for some time, but this seemed too good not to share!

This guy is now officially one of my conservative heroes:


While you're at it, check out The comprehensive argument against Barack Obama.

...and for a little comedy, Palin breaks the tie in the dance-off:


And Fred Thompson chimes in too:

Looking for Conservative Leadership in Congress?

Start with Jim DeMint. The junior senator from South Carolina has stepped up as a true conservative hero. I've had a number of posts recently that focussed on the great work that Sen. DeMint is doing. Here's another one with some of his comments from CPAC last week.

Senator DeMint answers whether or not the GOP is still lost:

A year ago we were coming off a stinging defeat at the polls. There was a strong debate within the Party about why we lost so badly. Some argued that the electoral rebuke was a direct result of the war in Iraq, which at the time was not going well. Many who made this argument felt that there were no other significant factors in our loss. In other words, they felt that absent the war in Iraq, the Republican Party would have been just fine and therefore we should change nothing about our Party and just hope for good news in Iraq.

Others, like those of us on this panel, argued that there was something much bigger going on. We argued that the Party had forsaken the principles on which it was founded. We looked around and we saw the seeds of our own destruction all around us.

Skyrocketing federal spending, unprecedented growth in the size of government, a failure to address the looming entitlement crisis and the shameless proliferation of congressional earmarks were all hallmarks of Republican rule in Washington. It was no wonder that we lost.

One reason I think we are still lost is that those of us who saw these warning signs ahead of time have still not convinced a majority of our colleagues to see things our way. That said, we are making some progress.

Many of us here have paid special attention to the congressional earmarking process this year because we believe that it has been a root cause of our downfall. After all, if Republicans cannot be responsible with the little things like earmarks, how are we going to address the big problems facing the nation?

...

But it isn’t just on the fiscal front that we have fallen short. Conservatives believe that the Republican Party succeeds as a coalition. We believe in the three-legged stool of limited government, national defense and traditional American values. We need to get back to that third leg of the stool.

Since the 1970s evangelicals and faith-based voters have cast their lot with the Republican Party. These voters, of which I am one, have put their trust in the Republican Party to do everything in its power to end the legalized killing of the unborn. They have trusted us to defend the sanctity of marriage. And, just as important, they have trusted us to preserve the basic family unit, because they understand that strong families make strong nations.

Without a proper emphasis on the role of the family in our society, we are missing a huge part of the puzzle. It is families that instill character in our young ones. It is families that provide stability and structure as children grow into active citizens.

Now, many voters are looking around and feeling a cultural slide. They are feeling again under attack from forces that they cannot control. Whether it be the elites in academia who preach absolute moral equivalence or the mainstreamers in Hollywood pedaling a degrading product, folks are feeling as if they are under assault. Conservatives need to do a better job of leading in this regard.

...

I still have an unshakeable belief that at their core, the American people are conservative. The problem in Washington, and in our Party in particular, is that we have stopped listening. As conservatives, I believe it is important that we remain optimistic about the future of the country and our Party.

Remember, President Lincoln understood that he could win the Civil War while losing every battle. He and Grant understood that in the end it was a game of numbers. Not only was their cause Just and True, it was backed by numbers.

Our cause today is Just and True and we have the numbers to make it happen. We just need to stay focused on our principles and remain persistent. Our beliefs are sufficient to lead this country and our Party as we go forward.

Preach on my brother!

Bonus video: Newt at CPAC - A Conservative Declaration of Independence

Send the ACLU a Christmas Card...

(Crossposted from Stop The ACLU)
Its become a popular yearly tradition now to send the Anti-Christian Liars Union grinches a Christmas card. I personally think its ineffective, and that the money you waste on a stamp for the organization to toss in the shredder would be better served towards a good cause. So, I encourage you to save that money, dig a little deeper, and contribute to an organization that fights the ACLU and defends Christmas. The Alliance Defense Fund, and the ACLJ are both great organizations that defend Christmas each year. The Alliance Defense Fund does it for free. Why not help groups like that out this year?

However, from experience last year...I know that many will insist on sending the ACLU a Christmas card. Afterall, it is tradition. If that is how you want to make your message...we have some great greeting cards and postcards available at our online store. Plenty of other great Christmas gifts too.

Send your Christmas card to the ACLU at:

ACLU
125 Broad Street
18th Floor
New York , NY 10004

Giles: We're heading for 'more trouble than a naïve, giggly good-looking drunk chick sportin’ a mini skirt at a Tommy Lee keg party'

Doug Giles is (accurately) shooting from the hip again:

Hey America... we’re not invincible. I know it looks like it, but believe it or not there have been powerful civilizations that are now a cartoon of what they use to be, and it would be the height of hubris to think that this party will never end no matter what we do.

...

So what can the young God- and country-loving dude do? Well, you (and 45 year old guys like me) can do the opposite of what the secularist weeds want us to do, namely:

1. Embrace our faith like never before.
2. Revolt against the immoral vomit.
3. Cheer on traditional values.
4. Applaud and own our culture.
5. Quit being squishy wusses and steel up our will.
6. Spit out babies.
7. Tell foreign invaders to come here correctly or go back to their sucky countries.

To be continued...

Check out Doug Giles at www.clashradio.com. Read his weekly columns here.

Thanksgiving links...

Start with Mark Alexander at the Patriot Post. Then check out their Family Thanksgiving Quiz with your kids.

Then check out Newt Gingrich discussing how to Make Thanksgiving Meaningful Again.

Robert Huchinson talks about The Biblical Roots of Thanksgiving.

Jennifer Rubin says we have a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.

Ken Connor wonders if Americans really understand to whom they should be thankful.

Michelle Malkin says before Thanksgiving brings out the worst in you, stop before you gripe.

Archbishop Charles Chaput thinks this is a time for acknowledging our dependence on God.

Ollie North is thankful for people like John Bolton who expose the U.N.

God bless you all... have a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving.

Prager on the latest issues of Rolling Stone...

Dennis Prager says To Understand the Left, Read this Issue of Rolling Stone:

... But even if no foul language were used by so many of those interviewed in Rolling Stone, the absence of serious thought would be enough to fear leftist influence on the country.

Some examples:

Jane Goodall: "We seem to have lost the wisdom of the indigenous people, which dictated that in any major decision, the first consideration was, 'How will this decision we make today affect our people in the future?'"

The romanticizing of "indigenous peoples" is a popular leftist myth, believed not because it is true - "indigenous people" were just as cruel and raped the land just as much as later groups - but because it is a way of attacking the Western societies and cultures that replaced "indigenous peoples."

Bill Maher: "... [in 2003], it was a relatively small number of young Muslim men. Now, thanks to this clash of civilizations we've created, the threat could come from anywhere."

According to Bill Maher and many others on the left, we Americans created this clash of civilizations. Presumably, prior to 2003 the Islamic world was morally similar to Western civilization. This, too, is a dogma of the left: Before our invasion of Iraq, the Muslim world was populated by peaceful young men; violent Islamists were made by America, not by any aspects of Islamic culture and values. Maher should tell that to the Armenians, to the blacks of the Sudan, to the Israelis, to the Algerians who have lost tens of thousands to Islamic terror, and to the others murdered and maimed by young Muslim men prior to America deposing Saddam Hussein. As noted by a Labor member of the British Parliament in the Guardian this past Sunday:

"Ten years ago, in November 1997, 50 Swiss tourists rose early to visit the Valley of the Kings across the Nile from Luxor in Egypt. Suddenly from the hills came a group of Islamists. They shot, disembowelled and decapitated the tourists." While the American president was Bill Clinton, not George W. Bush.

Bill Maher on Republican opposition to radical changes and expenditures to fight carbon emissions: "I don't understand what any person doesn't get about 'You're going to die too!' I mean, do they have their own air? I could understand that, because they're selfish pr--ks by nature: 'I've got my own air. What do I give a s--t?'"

Another central leftist dogma: Conservatives aren't merely wrong, they're "selfish pr--ks by nature." That's why, as regards manmade global warming leading to catastrophe on Earth, the left doesn't address the challenges posed by many dissenting scientists. The left merely dismisses them as either paid by industry (the Newsweek cover story explanation for all dissent on this issue) or as human beings so selfish by nature that they even deny their own impending deaths.

Princeton Professor Cornel West: "... a morally insensitive period from Reagan to the second Bush, when it was fashionable to be indifferent to the suffering of the most vulnerable."

Again, the vileness of conservatives.

Cornel West: "Black folk in America have never been optimistic about the future -- what have we had to be optimistic about?"

No matter how improved the lot of the vast majority of black Americans, leftists like Cornel West continue to argue that there is no reason for a black American to be optimistic.

Read and listen to Dennis at Townhall.com.

Polling data: America's Most Widely Held Views

I am a huge fan of Newt Gingrich. I hope he get's traction with the change initiatives he's promoting.

From Newt's American Solutions comes America’s Red, White and Blue Platforms: (read here)

96% It is important for the President and Congress to address the issue of social security in the next few years.

95% We have an obligation to be good stewards of God’s creation for future generations.

94% Children should be allowed a moment of silence to pray to themselves in public school if they desire.

93% Al Qaeda poses a very serious threat for the United States.

93% In the worker visa program, each worker should take an oath to obey the United States law, and to be deported if the worker commits a crime while in the United States.

93% It is important to acknowledge today that the reference to God in the Declaration of Independence – that we are endowed by our Creator with the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

92% Our focus should clearly be to provide long-term solutions instead of short-term fixes.

91% We should dramatically increase our investment in math and science education.

91% We should hold city governments to the same standards for cleaning waste water as are applied to the private industry.

90% We favor a law that allows public school children to take a moment of silence for prayer if they desire.

90% We approve of a Christmas tree or a Menorah being placed on public property during the holiday season.

90% We should give tax credits to homeowners and builders who incorporate alternative energy sources in their homes, like solar, wind, and geothermal energy.

Click here for video of Newt speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on November 6th.

You may also want to check out Newt's new movie called Rediscovering God in America.

Estonia's 'Singing Revolution'...

Brent Bozell is a hero in the culture war. Read his columns regularly if you can, and be sure to check out his organization called the Media Research Center too. Great stuff.

His latest talks about an inspirational new movie called The Singing Revolution, which he describes as follows:

Some documentaries entertain. Some educate. "The Singing Revolution" will bring you to your feet, cheering. It is the quintessential celebration of the human spirit.

Go to the movie's website (linked above) and enter your zip code and e-mail address to request a screening in your area.

Here is the trailer:

The South Rising...

Ed Lasky writes a great article today over at the American Thinker:

For generations, American elites from the North have treated the South as a benighted land of knaves, fools, and charlatans, a proper subject of scorn and satire and certainly not a region to be admired or emulated. They are comically wrong.

The South has long risen from the ashes of the Civil War, and by many measures it the most admirable region of our nation. It may well be on the verge of becoming America's dominant region, eclipsing the Eastern Seaboard that has reigned from our nation's birth, and sprinting past the ambitions of the West Coast challenge, as the reference point for where America is going and as the heart of American culture. ...

Read it all, y'all.

Update: Right on queue... a story blaming white southerners who voted Republican. Don't be too shocked that it came from a NY Times columnist either.

Celebrating thuggery

From Gateway Pundit:

This photo shows Bryant Purvis and Carwin Jones of The ‘Jena 6′ having a cool time at the 2007 BET Awards that aired this week on BET. This photo also shows the real victim Justin Barker in the hospital after he was beaten unconscious on Dec. 4, 2006 in Jena, LA by six black students. Barker, who was cold-cocked unconscious, was treated and later released from the hospital. The photo was released by the LaSalle Parish District Attorney’s Office.

Here's the video.

Noel Sheppard has more.

Miller beer for American values...

Not so much.

Michelle Malkin vents with Laura Ingraham

Michelle Malkin and Laura Ingraham together in a five-part interview that Michelle did with Laura last week.

I don't listen to Laura much as she's not on here in Richmond, but I catch her when I'm on the road. She's fantastic.

Michelle is one of my favorites... from her blog, to HotAir.com, to her columns, to her appearances on The Factor... she's one of the absolute best.

Here's the interview courtesy of my favorite blog... HotAir.com. I'll add the remaining parts as Bryan posts them.

Part I:


Part II:


Bryan has some collateral video on his post that's worth checking out too.

Part III:


Update: Dennis Prager interviews Laura on her book Power to the People. Click here for the audio.

Technology flashback to 1967... (updated)

This is very cool... a look back at how some futurists were thinking life would be in 1999.

From the 1967 film 1999 A.D. in which we see the family of the future shopping, paying bills and using electronic mail from home:


“What the wife selects on her console will be paid for by the husband at his counterpart console.”

That's wild how right they got it... more here.

(Hat tip AP... "Amazon, the early years" indeed. )

So how about technology for our future? How about replacing our dependency on oil... with an ability to use water for fuel! Now that's awesome.

Update: Some cool technology that's available today? OK... this is insane:


The Onion has a solution:

Jackie Mason on Political Correctness:

The Ultimate Jew:


Right on Jackie!

Recent related: Baron Bodissey takes a shot at Ten Postulates of Political Correctness:

1. America is uniquely evil.
2. America is never justified in defending itself.
3. Illiterate people from poor societies are superior to Americans.
4. The Earth would be better off without human beings.
5. Making a profit is always immoral.
6. Differences between individuals or groups are unfair.
7. For Designated Victim Groups, strong feelings excuse all behavior.
8. Policies informed by Judæo-Christian principles are inherently suspect.
9. Conservatives are hypocrites; liberals are sincere.
10. There are no acts of God; there are only acts of Government.

Read the details here.

Excitement undermines happiness...

Dennis Prager is right and wise as usual:

(listen here!)

If you want your children to be happy adults and even happy children - and what parent does not? - minimize the excitement in their lives. The more excitement, the less happy they are likely to be.

In both adults and children, one can either pursue excitement or pursue happiness, but one cannot do both. If you pursue excitement, you will not attain happiness. If you pursue happiness, you will still experience some moments of excitement, but you will attain happiness only if happiness, not excitement, is your goal.

[...]

The solutions are as simple to offer as they may be difficult to enforce. Limit the amount of excitement in your children's lives: the amount of video games, the amount of non-serious television, the amount of music whose only aim is to excite. If they are bored, they will have to remedy that boredom by playing with friends, finding a hobby, talking to a family member, walking the dog, doing chores, reading a book or magazine, learning a musical instrument or foreign language, memorizing state capitals, writing a story or just their thoughts, exercising or playing a sport, or just thinking.

The younger the age from which children are deprived of superficial excitement, the longer they will remain innocent - i.e., not jaded - and capable of real happiness. For as long as they live under your roof, and therefore (hopefully) under your control, you can implement excitement detox. If you do, they may hate you now, but they will thank you later, which is far superior to liking you now and hating you later. And in parenting, that is often the choice we must make.

Read the entire column, or listen to him discuss the subject on his radio show.

If you want to check out more of Dennis, listen to any/all of Dennis' podcasts of his radio show... he's truly fantastic.

The best interest of the child...

The great Phyllis Schafly on why Children's Rights Should Include Life With Both Parents:

Debates about same-sex marriage and gay adoptions always include the argument that a child has the right to both a father and a mother. If that is true, why is a child usually deprived of that right when heterosexual couples divorce?

It would seem that maintaining the father's love and authority would be crucial when a child's life is turned upside down by divorce. Yet, family courts routinely deprive children of one parent, usually the father, restricting his time with his child to about six days a month.

The courts pompously assert they are invoking "the best interest of the child," but how can it be in the best interest of children to make them forfeit one parent?

We hear many pious comments about the need for fathers to be involved in the upbringing of their children. This need should be even more important in times of emotional stress, such as divorce, than the need for fathers to play ball with their kids in an intact family.

Some states are considering legislation that establishes a presumption of shared parenting whereby divorced parents divide equally both time and authority over the children. This enables children to maintain strong ties to both parents.

When primary or sole custody is given to the mother, the father becomes merely a visitor in the child's life (that's why it's called "visitation"), whose only value is to mail a paycheck and be an occasional baby sitter. The father loses his parental authority and fades out of his own child's life. ...

Read the rest.

Related resources:
All Pro Dad
John Eldredge - Wild at Heart and Way of the Wild Heart
The Fatherhood Coalition
Heartbreaking fatherhood stats

Memorial Day

Honoring the Fallen
by Ericka Andersen:

... Former Marine Sergeant Brandon Nordhoff has helped lay many of his unknown brothers to their rest. After his deployment to Iraq in 2003, Nordhoff began volunteering to appear at the funerals of soldiers. The U.S. military honors ceremony includes an honor guard detail and according to law, the honor detail must at least perform a ceremony that includes the folding and presenting of the American flag to the next of kin and the playing of “Taps.” At the funerals of 20 Midwest soldiers, Nordhoff presented the American flag to mothers, wives and kin.

“We didn’t know them but you might shed a tear because you feel a brother hood with them,” said Nordhoff. “Then you hear ‘“Taps,”’ which is probably the saddest song I’ve ever heard.”

Flag presentation is one of the most sacred moments of the ceremony, performed at the end, and presented, “…on behalf of the President and a grateful nation.” Grieving mothers and wives often define the war at home. When a soldier presents the flag to these women or next of kin, they embody the absence of the fallen. ...

... Most of us don’t do more than take the day off on Memorial Day. But each of us owes the fallen the greatest debt: it is to them we owe our allegiance because they have preserved our freedom. Every Memorial Day we owe them a small prayer, and to remember them, one and all.

A Memorial Day Message from Michael Yon:

... Both men often lamented to me how frustrating it was to be back home and realize that the average American is not aware of practically any of the progress that’s been made in Iraq. Both men darken with something closer to anger when they consider the sacrifices made by fallen soldiers and the fact that while the media most likely counted the deaths in all instances, they also most likely failed to mention any of the good things their fellow soldiers had accomplished while in Iraq.

I plan to stay in Iraq for the rest of 2007, doing my part to tell of these and other accomplishments, and both of these men would not have it any other way. But when I do finally get home, I want to see these heroes, and be reminded what Memorial Day is all about.

Again, thank you Michael.

And Fred Thompson correctly remembers:

... Memorial Day is about remembering. It’s about remembering those who died for our country; but it's also about remembering why they believed it was worth dying for. Too many Americans, though, have never been taught our own history and heritage. How can you remember something that you’ve never learned?

I'm going to take the kids to the Memorial Day ceremony in Williamsburg tomorrow. Hopefully that will help them learn that the freedom they have has come at a huge price... a price that others have paid for them. God bless our soldiers.

On a tangent... how's this for teaching kids right from wrong. Unfortunately, evil breeds.

Glenn Beck: Rap music industry is enslaving our kids... (updated)

I watched this last night and thought it was worth posting. The video from FOXNEWSFANS is not good quality, but this is an important subject that doesn't get enough play... take a look: (update...better video here)


Sharpton is hate-mongering slime, but it sounds like he's at least trying to be on the right side of this issue. I don't trust him for second though.

Great job Glenn.

Update: Good news from todays Play of the Day from All Pro Dad...

According to the Associated Press, after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is now struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture's negative effect on society. Rap sales slid a whopping 21 % the past year, and for the first time in 12 years, no rap album was among the top 10 sellers of the year. A recent study by the Black Youth Project showed a majority of youth think rap has too many violent images. In a poll of black Americans by The Associated Press and AOL-Black Voices last year, 50% of respondents said hip-hop was a negative force in American society.

I don’t think all rap/hip-hop music is bad. But there are definitely some cancerous elements within it. The good news is that our society is now addressing it. And wouldn’t it be ironic that the violent strain in rap is headed for a slow death itself? Let’s hope so.

Click here for positive, uplifting music for your kids.

Update: Michelle Malkin chimes in with this great Vent:

'Feelings, not objective standards, are what society deems most important'... (updated)

Feelings... nothing more than feelings.

Unbelievable. From Dennis Prager's latest: Compassion and the Decline of America...

This past weekend, a friend of mine attended his 13-year-old son's baseball game. What he saw encapsulates a major reason many of us fear for the future of America and the West.

His son's team was winning 24-7 as the game entered the last inning. When he looked up at the scoreboard, he noticed that the score read 0-0. Naturally, he inquired as to what happened -- was the scoreboard perhaps broken? -- and was told that the winning team's coach asked the scoreboard keeper to change the score. He and some of the parents were concerned that the boys on the losing team felt humiliated.

In order to ensure that the boys losing by a lopsided score would not feel too bad, the score was changed.

As is happening throughout America, compassion trumped all other values.

Truth was the first value compassion trashed. In the name of compassion, the adults in charge decided to lie. The score was not 0-0; it was 24-7.

Wisdom was the second value compassion obliterated. It is unwise to the point of imbecilic to believe that the losing boys were in any way helped by changing the score. On the contrary, they learned lessons that will hamper their ability to mature.

They learned that someone will bail them out when they feel bad.

---

They learned that they do not have to
deal with disappointment in life.
Instead, someone in authority
will take care of them.

---

They learned that they do not have to deal with disappointment in life. Instead, someone in authority will take care of them. (This is how reliance on the state for personal problems -- the worldview of the Left -- is formed early in life.)

They learned that their feelings, not objective standards, are what society deems most important.

They learned that they are not responsible for their behavior. No matter how poorly they perform, there will be no consequences -- sort of like tenure for university professors.

They also learned to think in the feminine -- with an emphasis on feelings -- rather than to cultivate their innate masculine sense that winners win and losers learn to deal with it and move on to the next game.

At the same time, the boys on the winning team learned not to try their best. Why bother?

Building character was the third value trumped by compassion. People build character far more through handling defeat than through winning. The human being grows up only when forced to deal with disappointment. We remain children until the day we take full responsibility for our lives. Our increasingly feelings-based society has created a pandemic of immaturity in our society. And there are fewer and fewer maturity-creating institutions in our society. Indeed, the opposite is more often the case. Schools, for example, keep young people immature, none more so than college, which serves primarily to postpone adulthood.

The fourth value that compassion denied here was fairness. It is remarkable how often compassion-based liberals speak of "fairness" in formulating social policy given how unfair so many of their policies are. It was entirely unfair to the winning team to have their score expunged, all their work denied. But for the compassion-first crowd, the winning team is like "the rich" who earn "too much" and should therefore be penalized with a higher tax rate; the winning team scored "too many" runs to be allowed to keep them all.

Compassion in social policy almost always produces unfair results. Compassion for murderers allows them to keep their lives after taking the life of another. Compassion for minorities leads to affirmative action, which means that individuals who are not members of a designated minority will be treated unfairly. Compassion for immigrant children led to bilingual education, which subsequently prevented most of those children from advancing in American society.

Compassion as the primary determinant of behavior is effective in personal life. In making public policy, it is a morally and socially destructive guideline. In fact, it is so bad that thinking people must conclude that its primary purpose is to enable policy makers who are guided by compassion to feel good about themselves.

Spot on as usual.

Update: Michael Medved ties this into the larger view of todays liberalism with his latest titled The Essence of Liberalism: Embracing Life's Losers:

...The rhetoric of today’s left shows that they see society divided between the privileged and the powerless, the favored and the unfortunate, victors and victims.

Liberals feel an irresistible instinct to take sides with the less fortunate.

While the right wants to reward beneficial choices and discourage destructive directions, the left seeks to eliminate or reduce the impact of the disadvantages that result from bad decisions. In place of the conservative emphasis on accountability, the left proffers a gospel of indiscriminate compassion.

This leads directly, and inevitably, to the liberal passion to sanctify victimhood.

"Enlightened" lefties long to embrace and exalt all those who claim to have suffered from hard luck or oppression: the homeless, single mothers, "people of color," homosexuals, AIDS patients, feminists, convicted criminals, Native Americans, atheists, immigrants and many more. Recent Democratic Conventions have resembled festivals of fine whines, with countless testimonials from one victim group or another expressing hopelessness and helplessness unless the Donkey Party returned to power. ...

Read it all here.

Update: Bill O'Reilly says "Be careful what you vote for. Compassion can easily turn into chaos."