Notable Quotables 2004

Dear Friend,

The Media Research Center is pleased to report to you the winners for the Best of Notable Quotables 2004: The 17th Annual Awards for the Year’s Worst Reporting. A panel of 43 radio talk show hosts, magazine editors, columnists, editorial writers and media observers chose the winners for this year, which are listed below.

If you like this report, take action and forward it to a friend. In 2004, the liberal media pulled out all the stops to advance their agenda. Let’s spread the word of just how bad they were—in their own words!

Thank you for your support in fighting liberal media bias. May you enjoy a great New Year!

Sincerely,
L. Brent Bozell
President and Founder

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Winning Quotes in MRC's Annual Awards
for the Worst Reporting

Quote of the Year

"What drives American civilians to risk death in Iraq? In this economy it may be, for some, the only job they can find."
-- Dan Rather teasing a report on the CBS Evening News on March 31, the day four American civilians were killed and mutilated in Fallujah, Iraq.

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Blue State Brigade Award (for Campaign Coverage)

"He [John Kerry] also could make a virtue, it seems to me, of the so-called flip-flopping. The greatest flip-flop in American history is Lincoln, [who] in his first Inaugural was not for emancipation and then two years later he was. Is that statesmanship or is that a flip-flop?"
-- Newsweek Managing Editor Jon Meacham during live pre-debate coverage on MSNBC, September 30. [66 points]

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GI John Award (for Saluting John Kerry's Vietnam Record)

"Okay, time to do morning papers....Stars and Stripes starts it off: ‘U.S. Troops Control Most of Fallujah,' the headline. 'U.S. Officials Believe Most Insurgents Have Fled the City.' Look at this picture here, if you can. 'Troops' Bravery Honored in Iraq.' These are all Purple Heart winners. Someday, one of them will run for President and someone will say they didn't earn the Purple Heart. Welcome to America."
-- CNN's Aaron Brown on the November 10 NewsNight displaying a front-page photo of a line of U.S. troops in Iraq receiving their medals. [63 points]

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Darth Vader vs. "The Sunshine Boy" Award

"One of the obstacles for Dick Cheney tonight is the fact that he has become a dark figure....There are those who believe that Dick Cheney has led this administration and this President down a path of recklessness, that maybe his approach, his dark approach to this constant battle against another civilization, is actually the wrong approach for ultimately keeping America safe."
-- NBC White House reporter David Gregory during live convention coverage on MSNBC about 8:30pm EDT on September 1, about two hours before Cheney spoke at the Republican convention. [53 points]

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The Madness of King George Award (for Bush Bashing)

"Even if Mr. Bush wins re-election this November, he, too, will eventually be dragged down by the powerful undertow that inevitably accompanies public deception. The public will grow intolerant of partisan predators and crony capitalists indulging in a frenzy of feeding at the troughs in Baghdad and Washington. And there will come a time when the President will have no one to rely on except his most rabid allies in the right-wing media. He will discover too late that you cannot win the hearts and minds of the public at large in a nation polarized and pulverized by endless propaganda in defiance of reality.... "Even now the privates patrolling the mean streets of Baghdad and the wilds of Afghanistan make less than $16,000 a year in base pay, their lives and limbs are constantly at risk, while here at home the rich get their tax cuts -- what Vice President Cheney calls 'their due.' Favored corporations get their contracts, subsidies and offshore loopholes. And even as he praises sacrifice, the President happily passes the huge bills that are piling up onto children not yet born...."
-- PBS's Bill Moyers on his weekly newsmagazine Now, March 26. [73 points]

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Bedazzled in Beantown Award (for Democratic Convention Coverage)

"John Kerry working himself literally into a sweat. Or as my high school English teacher would prefer, into a high state of perspiration. An almost literal thunder inside the hall, shaking the Fleet Center in a way that it seldom shakes, if ever, even during a Celtics basketball playoff game or a Bruins hockey playoff game. These Democrats, as the speech built, having what amounted to maybe a three-thousand-gallon attack about every three minutes, united in a way the Democratic Party has not been for about half a century."
-- CBS's Dan Rather moments after John Kerry's speech to the Democratic convention, July 29. [72 points]

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Bitter in the Big Apple Award (for Republican Convention Coverage)

"You and Olympia Snowe, the other Senator from Maine, are known as moderate Republican women. You have no place in this convention. The [Republican Party] platform does not seem to speak to a lot of women in this country. It's anti-abortion, it does not expand stem cell research, and other social issues in which women have some interest, for example, gay unions, is firmly opposed to that. Do you think that this platform and this party is doing enough to reach out to moderate women across the country?"
-- Tom Brokaw to Senator Susan Collins on his 4pm EDT MSNBC show Brokaw in New York, August 31. [47 points]

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Captain Dan the Forgery Man Award

"The story is true. The story is true....I appreciate the sources who took risks to authenticate our story. So, one, there is no internal investigation. Two, somebody may be shell-shocked, but it is not I, and it is not anybody at CBS News. Now, you can tell who is shell-shocked by the ferocity of the people who are spreading these rumors."
-- Dan Rather in a September 10 sidewalk exchange with reporters, denying rumors that CBS would investigate whether or not the "memos" were forged. [62 points]

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Damn Those Conservatives Award

"You have made so many offensive comments over the years. Do you regret any of them?" "You seem indifferent to suffering. Have you ever suffered yourself?"
-- Two of the questions posed to National Review founder William F. Buckley by the New York Times Magazine's Deborah Solomon, July 11. [83 points]

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Kooky Keith Award (for Keith Olbermann's Conspiratorial Rants)

"John Dean, who was at the center of the greatest political scandal in this nation's history, has produced a book with perspective, and that perspective is simply terrifying. The bottom line: George Bush has done more damage to this nation than his old boss, Richard Nixon, ever dreamt of....John Dean, joining us here in the studio...." "The feeling that I had been left after reading Worse Than Watergate was that this could have been the historical, essentially, prequel to George Orwell's novel 1984, that if you wanted to see what the very first step out of maybe 50 steps towards this totalitarian state that Orwell wrote about in his novel, this [President Bush's policies] would be the kind of thing that you would see...."
-- MSNBC's Keith Olbermann to former Nixon aide John Dean on his Countdown program, April 5. [56 points]

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Media Hero Award

"The best reaction shots were those of Ted Kennedy, whose stature seems to grow right along with his nose year after year after year. Kennedy has now reached a grand moment in the life of a Senator; he looks like Hollywood itself cast him in the role. Seriously....Kennedy looked great, like he was ready to take his place next to Jefferson on Mount Rushmore. He gives off the kind of venerable vibes that some of us got from an Everett Dirksen way back when."
-- Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales in a January 21 Style section review of the State of the Union address. [69 points]

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Bring Back Saddam Award

"The Sami sisters, ages 17, 15 and 11, listen to Madonna and Britney Spears. They read Agatha Christie novels and watch movies starring Russell Crowe. They also rarely venture outside their upscale home in central Baghdad out of fear of explosions and violence....Their teenage world was simpler when Saddam Hussein was in power. Back then, they said, they hung out with friends at the Pharmacists Club, a swanky place with a swimming pool to which their father, the vice president of Iraq's Pharmacists Union, belonged....Iraq's new freedom -- or chaos, depending on your point of view -- has imprisoned the girls."
-- Chicago Tribune's Deborah Horan, May 24. [59 points]

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Real Reagan Legacy Award

"Before Reagan, people sleeping in the street were so rare that, outside of skid rows, they were almost a curiosity. After eight years of Reaganomics -- and the slashes in low-income housing and social welfare programs that went along with it -- they were seemingly everywhere. And America had a new household term: 'The homeless.'"
-- Reporter Kevin Fagan in the San Francisco Chronicle on June 10, five days after Reagan's death. [69 points]

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Debbie Downer Award (for Economic Doom & Gloom)

NBC's Carl Quintanilla: "They're calling it the middleclass blues....the feeling that happy days aren't quite here yet..." Woman: "I've never been in a, like, depression, but I think this is pretty close to it." Quintanilla: "The numbers, of course, say different. A million new jobs added since February, gas prices back below $2, the cheapest in a month. Enough to give comfort to some....But overall, the price of life in America is up from last year, everything from hospital visits to tuition. Last month alone, milk prices made their single biggest jump since World War II."
-- Report aired on NBC's Today, June 16. [35 points]

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Barbra Streisand Political IQ Award (for Celebrity Vapidity)

"People don't realize that by voting Republican, they voted against themselves....I worry that some people are entertained by the idea of this war. They don't know anything about the Iraqis, but they're angry and frustrated in their own lives. It's like Germany, before Hitler took over. The economy was bad and people felt kicked around. They looked for a scapegoat. Now we've got a new bunch of Hitlers."
-- Singer Linda Ronstadt, as quoted by USA Today reporter Elysa Gardner in a November 17 profile. [64 points]

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Politics of Meaninglessness Award (for the Silliest Analysis)

"When you tell me, 'Let the states decide,' that scares me, okay? I've got a little map here of [the] pre-Civil War [United States], free versus slave states. I wish you could see it in color and large. But if you look at it, the red states are all down in the South, and you have the Nebraska Territories, the New Mexico Territories, and the Kansas Territories. But the Pacific Northwest and California were not slave states. The Northeast was not. It looks like the [Electoral College] map of 2004."
-- Former World News Tonight/Sunday anchor Carole Simpson, who travels the country for ABC News to talk to high schoolers about how to consume news, at a November 8 National Press Club forum shown on C-SPAN. [62 points]

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Good Morning Morons Award

Katie Couric: "Time magazine's Person of the Year issue hits news stands today and this year it honors the American soldier. Jim Kelly is Time's Managing Editor and veteran war photographer James Nachtwey was embedded with the Army's First Armored Division in Baghdad and took the remarkable images in this week's issue. He was also wounded while on assignment. Gentlemen, welcome, good morning, nice to have you both. I was so, I have to say, just personally, I was so pleased to see this....Tell me why you all decided to honor the American soldier? Wondering why there's no woman on the cover, too?" Time's Jim Kelly, pointing to cover: "This is a woman." Couric: "Oh, there you go, oh sorry....I couldn't tell because of her helmet."
-- Discussing a Time cover showing three U.S. soldiers in combat gear, NBC's Today, December 22, 2003. [65 points]

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Admitting the Obvious Award (for Acknowledging Liberal Bias)

"Let's talk a little media bias here. The media, I think, wants Kerry to win. And I think they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards -- I'm talking about the establishment media, not Fox -- but they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards as being young and dynamic and optimistic and all. There's going to be this glow about them that some, is going to be worth, collectively, the two of them, that's going to be worth maybe 15 points."
-- Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas on the July 10 Inside Washington. [67 points]

1,000 Hits

Today, my site crossed the 1,000 hits mark since I started counting in late November.

This is a milestone, if only a small one.

Thanks to all who visit.

The U.S. Response: Too Late and Never Enough

So, President Bush didn’t react quickly enough after the tsunami disaster, and embarrassed the U.S.?

And President Bush’s reaction when it did come was “stingy,” and embarrassed the U.S.

These are today’s criticisms of Mr. Bush by the Left in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world.

The Left solves each and every problem by throwing money at it. That’s the easy way, the “caring” way. Its solution to the tsunami would have been to immediately give $1 billion, or some equally foolish act designed as much for effect as for actually helping.

It really doesn’t matter what Mr. Bush does, the Left will find cause to criticize him. He’s not quick enough or he’s too quick, his actions are too little or too much, and his goals are all wrong. It’s pitiful to watch people so consumed with envy and political ambition that they can only snipe and nit-pick. That, however, is the sum and substance of the Democratic Party and liberalism in the United States.

Several other nations are jealous of or despise the United States. “Old Europe” has forgotten what the U.S. did for it in WWII. Much of the world forgets the generosity of the U.S. year after year when disasters strike. “What have you done for me lately?” is the dominant attitude, and “lately” means “today.”

Despite this, the United States leads the world in helping out in times of emergency and tragedy year after year. Because of the opposition to the war in Iraq, the United States’ popularity has dropped dramatically around the globe, as the anti-war faction both in and out of the media often tells us. Nowhere and by no one is this unpopularity reflected by hatred so much as in the Muslim world, where a generation of young Muslims has been taught to hate the U.S. from the time they can walk and talk. Now we have taken to wondering if the tremendous outpouring of generosity and direct help will have a positive effect on the perception of Americans by Muslims who are the direct beneficiary of our generosity?

“But Christians and Jews at the White House are whistlin' Dixie (ever so discreetly, of course) if they think the vast outpouring of American tsunami aid will win any hearts or change many minds,” writes Wesley Pruden in The Washington Times. “The sight of Marines dropping food and clothing from the air, or of Navy corpsmen consoling children with shots and pills,” he continues, “can make Americans feel good about themselves for doing what good Christians and observant Jews know they ought to do. Gratitude in the wake of a tidal wave, on the other hand, is as scarce as a dry shirt and pants,” he concludes.

So the only sensible thing to do is to ignore the fools and ingrates, and go on about our business of being the most generous, most courageous, most successful nation in the world.

Thanking Allah for Christians and Jews

Wesley Pruden of The Washington Times is one of my favorite writers. He does not mince words, and is a master at choosing just the right ones to express his ideas. The following column is not only an example of his gift with words, but expresses a point of view all Americans ought to agree with, or at least to know about.

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By Wesley Pruden
Published January 7, 2005

A devout Muslim in Indonesia or Sri Lanka, listening to the growl in his empty belly and watching the sky darkening with American rescue helicopters, might offer a prayer of gratitude to Allah for Christians and Jews.

The rich and oily Middle Eastern kingdoms, fiefdoms and oligarchies have donated only pittances for tsunami relief, like alms tossed to beggars at the village gate. The greedy rulers are no doubt grateful to the imams who are telling their mosques that most of those who drowned, Muslims as well as vacationing infidels, deserved to die because they were only on the beaches to "fornicate." Islam is not about grace, amazing or otherwise.

Saudi Arabia first said it would donate $10 million, about what King Fahd might spend when he takes his wives and concubines to Paris or New York for a week of shopping and imbibing the forbidden pleasures of the satanic West. He raised it to $30 million when certain chagrined Muslims made grumbling noises about what can only be called Arab piggery. All told, the four big oil states, which collect $15 billion in oil revenues every month, agreed to spend $70 million to assist brother Muslims.

But Christians and Jews at the White House are whistlin' Dixie (ever so discreetly, of course) if they think the vast outpouring of American tsunami aid will win any hearts or change many minds.

The sight of Marines dropping food and clothing from the air, or of Navy corpsmen consoling children with shots and pills, can make Americans feel good about themselves for doing what good Christians and observant Jews know they ought to do. Gratitude in the wake of a tidal wave, on the other hand, is as scarce as a dry shirt and pants.

Nevertheless, the learning curve along Pennsylvania Avenue looks to be a steep one. The well-meaning Colin Powell told reporters after his inspection flight over hell, as he described the scene of death and destruction in Indonesia, that he's a cockeyed optimist. "I hope that as a result of our efforts, as a result of our helicopter pilots being seen by the citizens of Indonesia helping them, the value system of ours will be reinforced [in the minds of the Muslims]."

Alas, not likely. Gratitude and politics, like oil and water, rarely mix short of a tsunami. Muslims may like the taste of the groceries, particularly on an empty stomach, and may even admire the American efficiency in delivering the groceries, but after decades of being poisoned by embittered imams and other merchants of hate, the Islamic masses are not likely to do much admiring once their hunger abates.

"It's not because [Americans] are not generous enough," James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, tells the San Francisco Chronicle. "It's because [American] generosity of spirit has not applied to the issue that's most problematic for them. It's not responsive to why people in the Arab world are furious with America. The region has its own tsunami."

Most of the Muslims who died under the waves were not Arabs, of course, but it's the Arabs who have poisoned the masses against modern civilization. Islamic hatred of America is mostly about Israel, for "one-sided" support for Israel's life-or-death defense against the Palestinian campaign to kill the Jews.

Even in Indonesia and Malaysia, where a generation ago Muslim and "infidel" lived together in an easy and companionable way, resentment has been nurtured by Islamist agitators, Jew-baiters and America haters. Al Jazeera, the network of Osama bin Laden's jeremiads against civilization, is working now to establish a broadcasting service in Kuala Lumpur to broadcast to South Asia from the Malaysian capital.

The rich Islamic governments are too absorbed in their own indifference to notice the suffering of others. Without the generosity of Christians and Jews, in America and elsewhere, a lot of Muslims would be starving this morning. The Europeans, even the French, have surprised themselves with their generosity. The Israelis are sending food and medicines to those who revile them, no questions asked. The value of American aid, including military and private charities, will run into the billions. The compassion circus keeps expanding.

Gratitude is not necessary. God will bless us, every one. That's enough for any Christian or Jew.

Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Times

Sometimes Wisdom Comes from Unexpected Places

Not long ago, my son Ryan, who’s 18, and I were having a bonding session involving cigars and watching Larry the Cable Guy.

Now, if you’ve not seen Larry, or if you’ve seen him only in the company of Jeff Foxworthy and a couple of other “southern” comics, Larry may set you back on your heels when you catch his solo stand-up performance. He’s a bit sharp and crusty in his humor, but he certainly is entertaining, once you accept his perspective.

Larry treated us to some “red-neck” humor. But the term “red-neck” is a loaded term, and it will take your eye off the ball if you let it.

Larry said, among other profound things: “If guns kill people, then I can blame misspelled words on my pencil.”

Ol’ Larry nailed it. The so-called “rednecks” get a bum rap, not that some who are so identified aren’t truly obnoxious. But the term is broadly applied, and frequently it is used to demean people who don’t deserve such treatment. Like Larry, and, like a whole lot of Americans who don’t fit the elitist view of what Americans should be.

Just like every other sub-group in America, “rednecks” have their good points as well as their bad ones. They’ve been ridiculed in redneck jokes for years.

I recently got the same basic email about rednecks from two friends. One of them started out this way: “If I had to stand before a dozen terrorists who threaten my life, I'd choose half a dozen or so rednecks to back me up.” That says a lot, all by itself. But the rest of the message says even more about the type of people who are branded “rednecks.” These people represent a culture that values home, family, country and God, and that isn’t bad.

You might be a redneck if:

· It never occurred to you to be offended by the phrase, "One nation, under God."

· You've never protested about seeing the Ten Commandments posted in public places.

· You still say "Christmas" instead of "Winter Festival."

· You bow your head when someone prays.

· You stand and place your hand over your heart when they play the National Anthem.

· You treat Viet Nam vets with great respect, and always have.

· You've never burned an American flag.

· You know what you believe and you aren't afraid to say so, no matter who is listening.

· You respect your elders and expect your kids to do the same.

· You'd give your last dollar to a friend.

A few more from Straight Face Test:

• You might be a redneck if "Christmas" is not a four-letter word to you.

• You might be a redneck if you actually know where Muskogee is.

• You might be a redneck if you respect older people and value their lives.

Career Counseling

My advice for people seeking a career: psychology. At the rate we’re going, there just won’t be enough psychologists in the world in a few years.

Americans are a “complex” people. We have this complex, and that complex, and the other complex. Everything that appears slightly abnormal today, however mild, is some sort of psychological disorder.

When kids don’t pay attention in class, or act up in class, they aren’t lazy or undisciplined. They have Attention Deficit Disorder, or they have Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, or they have some other named disorder. They require analysis or drug therapy.

The other day on TV, there was a segment on a newsfotainment show about how to deal with a five-year-old and his screaming temper tantrums. The solution recommended to the parents of this brat was therapy, in which the child was isolated with the therapist for some period of time, and when the kid threw a screaming fit, the therapist would “work the child through the tantrum,” a process that took about twenty minutes. They gave us no idea of how much this cost the parents, or of how successful this approach to taming a screaming five-year-old was.

When I was growing up – back in the Dark Ages of black and white TV, when we were ignorant of the multitude of psychological disorders that plagued mankind – when a kid behaved like that, first a stern warning, then swiftly applying a hand to the backside usually took care of it pretty quickly. From experience I can tell you that a five-year-old is developed enough to understand the words “be quiet” and “stop screaming, or you’re going to get it.” But these days, therapy sessions are required. Maybe drugs.

As I have aged, humans have discovered an ever-growing number of psychological disorders deserving treatment. Nearly everything has a disorder named for it. Just after the election, a rash of PEST (Post-Election Selection Trauma) disorders appeared. People who refused to accept the reality that their candidate had lost suddenly needed therapy.

The Boca Raton (Fla.) News reported that “[m]ore than a dozen traumatized John Kerry supporters have sought and received therapy from a licensed Florida psychologist since their candidate lost to President Bush.

“Boca Raton trauma specialist Douglas Schooler said he has treated 15 clients and friends with ‘intense hypnotherapy’ since the Democratic nominee conceded… ‘I had one friend tell me he’s never been so depressed and angry in his life,’ Schooler said. ‘I observed patients threatening to leave the country or staring listlessly into space. They were emotionally paralyzed, shocked and devastated.’

“Schooler’s disclosure comes after the weekend discovery of a Kerry volunteer’s corpse at Ground Zero in New York City. Georgia resident Andrew Veal, 25, reportedly killed himself with a shotgun blast to the head due to Kerry’s loss and a girlfriend problem.

“Some mental health professionals in South Florida said Monday they have already developed a new category for the Kerry-related stress reactions. Because Palm Beach County voted heavily for Kerry, the therapists said, many residents hurt themselves by so anxiously expecting the Massachusetts senator to win – especially those who maintained unrealistic recount hopes after their candidate’s concession.

“’We’re calling it ‘post-election selection trauma’ and we’re working to develop a counseling program for it,’ said Rob Gordon, the Boca-based executive director of the American Health Association. ‘It’s like post-traumatic stress syndrome, but it’s a short-term shock rather than a childhood trauma.’”

Whether you’re a five-year-old brat, a kid who doesn’t pay attention in class, or a John Kerry supporter who can’t accept the results of the election, there is a psychosis for you in the vast land of psychological disorders. You are the victim of something or someone, and you deserve specialized help. In fact, victimhood is itself becoming a psychosis.

Wesley Pruden, The Washington Times Editor-in-Chief, describes America’s victimhood crisis in this paragraph addressing one of the nations great newspapers’ view of life:

The Washington Post's “view [is] of a world where all news is bad, the sun shines only on the rich, the rain falls only on the frail, and everyone is a victim — of homophobia in Peoria, AIDS in Afghanistan, an outbreak of teenage pimples in San Diego, a tsunami in Sri Lanka, the scarcity of vegetarian restaurants in Topeka, a woman who got winked at in Cleveland, a shortage of condoms in St. Paul. Some days there are so many victims there's hardly any room for the news on Page One.”

Amen.

Hypersensitivity to certain attitudes like those described earlier has resulted in the easily excitable believing these attitudes are full-blown psychoses requiring clinical personnel and therapy in abundance. This sad development really devalues actual psychological disorders like post-traumatic stress syndrome experienced by American military personnel stationed in Viet Nam. Sorry, folks, but a soldier suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome and a John Kerry supporter who can’t accept defeat are not equivalent.

I believe that America’s pioneers, the ones who pushed through the wilderness to the Pacific, and who experienced real hardships, would be doubled over laughing at how psychologically frail Americans have become.

No wonder the country can’t take on terrorism without going through spasms of delirium and guilt over it.

But this foolish hypersensitivity and blowing things so wildly out of proportion will some day be our downfall if we don’t soon get a grip, develop a thicker skin, fire the thought police, and go back to being Americans in the mold of those courageous and ingenious folks who put this country together.

Iraq: Missing the Point

Sometimes people focus on little things, and miss the big things. Hardly anybody hasn’t heard the old saying “you can’t see the forest for the trees.” This is precisely the case with the war in Iraq. Quite a few want to see it as, to quote Democrat Senator John Kerry during the presidential campaign, “the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Maybe they subscribe to this view for partisan political reasons, seizing upon this cute phrase in order to criticize a President they intensely dislike. They most often recite some dopey factoid like the one that blames the Bush administration for falsely thinking there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, ignoring the truthful fact that everybody in the world thought there were WMD in Iraq.

Perhaps they have not thought through the issue very well, instead believing the mass media reporting that leads one toward a gross misunderstanding of the circumstances in the post-9/11 world.

Or maybe they are simply unable to pull back and see the bigger picture, seeing a tree here and there, but ignoring the forest right before their eyes.

They fail to understand the full significance of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a third target suspected to be either the White House or the U.S. Capital building. It was on that day that Americans should finally have understood that Islamic terrorists had the United States in their sights, even though it was not the first such attack, which occurred nearly thirty years earlier, nor even the first on American soil, back in 1993 when the first World Trade Center bombing took place.

Americans are a little slow on the uptake where Islamic terrorism is concerned.

Islamic terrorism predates the first WTC bombing by more than 20 years, since the kidnapping and subsequent deaths of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympic games. America has been a target for nearly as long. Fifty-two American citizens were taken hostage when militant students of radical Islam stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979. Since then some of our embassies have been bombed, the Marine barracks in Beruit was bombed, airplanes and cruise ships have been hijacked, Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, the USS Cole was attacked in a harbor in Yemen.

Despite this decades-long history, many Americans still do not understand the threat posed by radical Islam. Among the good, the bad, and the ugly that came from the presidency of Bill Clinton was “compartmentalization,” referring to the then-President’s ability to separate unpleasant things from the larger whole to which they belong, as if they didn’t exist. Many Americans want to compartmentalize the Iraq war, to separate it from the whole to which it belongs – the war against Islamic terrorism – and instead imagine the two are not connected. In addition to this failure to correctly connect the dots is a second failure, that of misunderstanding the true nature of Islam.

We are told that Islam is as a religion of peace. However, evidence suggests otherwise. Islam dictates the social, economic and political life of the twenty-one different Arab nations of the Middle East that includes Syria, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq. According to the League of Arab States, the Arab people enjoy common bonds of history and tradition, and consider that they are all part of one nation.

The teachings of Islam are comprised of both faith and duty. One branch of Muslim learning defines all that a man should believe, while the other branch prescribes everything that he should do. Islam’s advocates must perform duties, the “five pillars of faith”: Creed, Prayer, Almsgiving, Fasting, and Pilgrimage. A sixth religious duty associated with the five pillars is Jihad, or Holy War, which requires that if the situation warrants, men are required to go to war to defend or spread Islam. If they are killed, they are guaranteed eternal life in Paradise.

Despite that the five pillars appear to be elements of a religion, Islam is not merely a religion. Far more comprehensive than that, it is a culture, a way of life of which religion is but one component. Islam also has an economic component and a political component. Islam is an intolerant philosophy that brands Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, believers of other faiths and creeds and those who believe in no supreme being as infidels who deserve to die to cleanse the earth of non-Islamic influences.

Terrorism is the political component of Islam, and today is the prime force of its three components. It easily subjugates the peaceful tenants in the religious component, if any truly exist.

Islamic terrorism is Jihad, and today Jihad is the face of Islam.

It is an ugly, evil face. If “good Muslims” oppose the evil deeds of their brutal, murderous brethren, that opposition is whispered, if spoken at all.

Islam as described by the League of Arab States unites all Muslims in a common culture with a common cause: spreading Islam across the world. In this, Saddam Hussein was a major influence.

Deroy Murdock, a Senior Fellow with the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, published a well-documented report, Saddam Hussein's Philanthropy of Terror, highlighting Saddam's ties to Islamic terrorism, in the Hudson Institute's American Outlook magazine's fall 2003 edition. In it he states: “Many critics of the war in Iraq belittle claims of Saddam Hussein's ties to terrorism. In fact, for years, he was militant Islam's Benefactor-in-Chief.”

The U.S. went to war against a brutal Islamic dictator whom the world believed possessed weapons of mass destruction, a dictator who had previously used these weapons against his own people, and who was a source of support for Islamic terrorism. That war was won in short order. But Islamic terrorists have not given up, and will not give up. They ignore Hussein’s brutality against his own people, and his support for Jihad against the West, because they share his belief system: Islam. Radical Muslims fear freedom, they hate the infidels of the West and of the free world and will do all they can to see that Iraq remains a place where radical Islamic fundamentalism can thrive, and the Jihad against the West can fester.

Failing to comprehend that the war in Iraq is an integral part of the war against terrorism is to ignore reality.

Some day, just as it has come to appreciate the United States for its brave and noble stand against the Japanese and Germans in World War II, the world will hopefully come to understand that the U.S. once again has stood tall in the face of this menace and threat to peace and freedom.

Holiday Greetings

Common Sense: R.I.P.

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Mr. Common Sense. Mr. Sense had been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such value lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm and that life isn't always fair. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not kids, are in charge).

His health began to rapidly deteriorate when well intended, but overbearing regulations were set in place. - Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Mr. Sense declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer aspirin to a student, but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Finally, Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense finally gave up the ghost after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot, she spilled a bit in her lap, and was awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust, his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. Two stepbrothers survive him: My Rights and Ima Whiner.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on; if not, join the majority and do nothing.

Author Unknown

My Holiday Greeting To Everyone!

Happy Solstice
Happy Hanukkah
Merry Christmas
Happy Kwanzaa
Happy New Year 

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday(tm), practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all . . . and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year (insert year), but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "AMERICA" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual orientation of the wishee. 

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Chevy Chase soils both the Kennedy Center and People for the American Way in One Fell Swoop

The phrase “I’m Chevy Chase, and you’re not” probably was never more ascribed to than after the awards ceremony staged by People for the American Way at the Kennedy Center last Wednesday. Even the Hollywood elite were dumbfounded by Chevy’s comments, and running in all directions to distance themselves from his stupid tirade. If Chevy was looking for a way to get his staggering career shocked back to life, no doubt this will be of some help. You know what they say: Even bad publicity is good publicity.

What is it about the beautiful people in Entertainment Land that causes them to believe that what they think about every subject is important and must be voiced? What is it that prohibits them from exercising good judgment and decorum in situations where decorum and good judgment are appropriate?

The answer is that their gigantic, yet sensitive egos survive on the idea that they are special; that the adoring masses will swoon at their every word; that the world needs their guidance if it is to survive these tumultuous times.

Many of these “special” people exhibit juvenile qualities associated with young, spoiled brats. When they don’t get their way, they lose control, and are unable to behave like adults, unable to exercise restraint or self-discipline.

Chevy, in his whining, four year-old, foot stomping, I’m-gonna-hold-my-breath-‘til-I-get-my-way tirade actually offended Norman Lear, founder of People for the American Way, no conservative, who said: "I thought it was utterly untoward, obviously unexpected and unscripted and all that stuff. And, uh - it was Chevy Chase. He'll live with it, I won't." People for the American Way also distanced itself Wednesday from the actor's rant.

Poor Chevy was so upset he didn't return for a curtain call or to savor dessert at the reception after the event. Sources told news agencies that he hurt his back and needed to call it a night by 9. Maybe his yellow streak was acting up. His PR person said Wednesday she was unable to reach him. He’s probably gone into hiding.

Perhaps he is embarrassed. Lord knows he deserves to be. Maybe he’ll do the right thing, and apologize.

Prediction: He won’t. That would be the adult thing to do, something one does when one realizes he’s made a fool of himself, and has embarrassed his host. That’s not Chevy. He imagines himself a hero, in some perverted way. “Boy, I really told him off, didn’t I?”

The election was more than a month ago. Even John Kerry realizes that he lost and George Bush won. But the beautiful people who make up the Hollywood Left can’t get past it. They are still campaigning, claiming massive vote fraud, still fighting a losing battle, still staggering in disbelief that 53 percent of the American voters do not agree with their worldview.

It’s just sad.

Six years, 400 lawsuits

Wes Pruden had a piece in The Washington Times this past Tuesday about a man who has filed 400 lawsuits against various businesses charging them with violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

This man's story strains belief. Here is a brief excerpt to whet your appetite:

So Jarek Molski, 34, who lost his mobility in a motorcycle accident six years ago, has used the Disabilities Act aggressively, asserting his rights. In fact, Mr. Molski has filed 400 such lawsuits, against restaurants, wineries, bowling alleys, banks and just about any place he thought infringed his right to use the facilities. He has made a living at it.

You can read the entire piece, entitled, In a blue state, a little relief .

America the Beautiful: A Poem by Judge Roy Moore

The following poem was written by Justice Roy Moore, Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, who was sued by the ACLU for placing a 5,280-pound monument to the Ten Commandments in the lobby of the state Supreme Court building. Judge Moore was subsequently removed as a sitting Justice by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary for disobeying the order of a Federal Court Judge to remove the display.

Judge Moore appealed his removal to the Alabama Supreme Court, but all eight remaining Justices recused themselves from the case. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Judge Moore's appeal of the state court ruling, in effect upholding the decision to remove him from the bench.

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

America the Beautiful, or so you used to be.
Land of the Pilgrims' pride; I'm glad they'll never see.
Babies piled in dumpsters, Abortion on demand,
Oh, sweet land of liberty, your house is on the sand.

Our children wander aimlessly poisoned by cocaine,
Choosing to indulge their lusts, when God has said abstain.
From sea to shining sea, our Nation turns away
From the teaching of God's love and a need to always pray.

So many worldly preachers tell lies about our Rock,
Saying God is going broke so they can fleece the flock.
We've kept God in our temples, how callous we have grown.
When earth is but His footstool, and Heaven is His throne.

We've voted in a government that's rotting at the core,
Appointing Godless Judges who throw reason out the door,
Too soft to place a killer in a well deserved tomb,
But brave enough to kill a baby before he leaves the womb.
You think that God's not angry, that our land's a moral slum?
How much longer will He wait before His judgment comes?

How are we to face our God, from Whom we cannot hide?
What then is left for us to do, but stem this evil tide?
If we who are His children, will humbly turn and pray;
Seek His holy face and mend our evil way:
Then God will hear from Heaven and forgive us of our sins,
He'll heal our sickly land and those who live within.
But, America the Beautiful, if you don't then you will see,
A sad but Holy God withdraw His hand from Thee.

Judge Roy Moore

Positioning for 2008 begins

There is great speculation as to which and how many Democrats will run for their party’s nomination in 2008. Hillary Clinton tops most lists, and some even have John Kerry trying again. But it’s too soon to give much serious thought about this particular subject. All we can do is sit back and watch as the Democrats try to figure out what to do to get their party back into the mainstream of America.

But today NewsMax reports that Republicans have begun thinking actively about who will run to replace George W. Bush in 2008, and John McCain is already heading in that direction.

NewsMax reports that McCain talked openly of his plans during a recent visit to London.

There, he and his Senate ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, met with leading political and media figures for lunch. They left their audience with little doubt a 2008 race was in the works.

A source who attended the lunch said, "McCain never said he decided, but it was clear he was preparing to run."

McCain acknowledged that his age, 72 if elected in 2008, might be an obstacle, but not an insurmountable one.

McCain told the audience that John Kerry had asked him to jump party lines and join him on the 2004 Democratic ticket.

McCain said had he done so, Kerry would have certainly won the 2004 election. But McCain said he was a lifelong Republican and such a move would not have been good for the country.

Though McCain said he has supported President Bush, our source said all of his references to President Bush "had a total lack of warmth."

McCain has been a pretty good soldier, leaving aside the obvious “looking-out-for-what’s best-for-John-McCain” behavior. He supported his party when that support was needed, and that earns him some points. But McCain, like Bush, is not a true conservative, and what the country needs in 2008 is a true conservative.

We’ll just have to sit back and watch this contest develop, too.

Re: Regulating the Blogosphere

An interesting note appears on the Townhall.com blog relating to the above title. The piece features an email to Townhall.com from Richard Poe, author of Hillary's Secret War: The Clinton Conspiracy to Muzzle Internet Journalists. Here is Poe’s message:

I expect that the VLWC (vast leftwing conspiracy) will be turning up the heat on dissident journalists between now and Hillary's Senate reelection bid in 2006. Look for revisions in McCain-Feingold to close the "Internet loophole."

Down the road a bit, Internet users should expect to see major connectivity outages caused by alleged overloading of the Internet's root servers. As the old Internet becomes increasingly unreliable due to negligent maintenance; ineffective security and destructive viruses, corporations and other well-monied interests will be advised to transfer their online operations to Internet2 -- an alternative broadband Internet which the Clintons, along with a consortium of universities and corporations, have been spearheading since the mid-1990s -- accessible only to those who can afford the annual subscription fee (which I have heard may reach as high as $10,000 per year).

Aside from being expensive, I suspect that Internet2 will be tightly regulated, on the argument that the project was government-generated and its bandwidth "public property," subject to the same sorts of government controls that govern the use of radio and television frequencies. That's just a guess, [b]ut we'll see.

Townhall C-Log

Whenever freedom of speech becomes too free, some entity or group will rise up to squelch it. Vigilance and protest are in order.

Europe – Thy Name is Cowardice

The column excerpted below reflects the opinion of many Americans about European nations and their political personalities. The entire article can be found at the site of Republican Dan .


Europe – Thy Name is Cowardice
by Mathias Döpfner

A few days ago Henryk M. Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Europe – your family name is appeasement." It’s a phrase you can’t get out of your head because it’s so terribly true.Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives as England and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to agreements. Appeasement stabilized communism in the Soviet Union and East Germany in that part of Europe where inhuman, suppressive governments were glorified as the ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities. Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo and we Europeans debated and debated until the Americans came in and did our work for us.

The Twelve Rules of Christmas

John Whitehead of The Rutherford Institute has begun to fight back against the efforts to remove Christmas from the American culture. The piece that follows outlines the Twelve Rules of Christmas that explain why it is constitutional, legal, and otherwise okay that the religious significance of Christmas to be celebrated and taught.

This was not the mother’s first trip to her child’s classroom, where parents regularly volunteered to lead story time. Because it coincided with the holiday season, she thought the ideal story to tell would be the original Christmas story that began nearly 2,000 years ago. But she remembered the memo.

Sent weeks earlier, it was a stern reminder by the school principal that children in public schools could not celebrate Christmas. The sensitive kindergarten teacher added in her own handwriting, “It’s that old ‘separation of church and state’ thing.”

While the children seemed to enjoy A Pocket for Corduroy, the mother felt a certain injustice in her eventual decision to change her choice of books. There was no reason the children should not have been allowed to hear a story about the first Christmas. But she had given up the fight long ago when, after generating a few ripples when her first child was going through school, well-meaning family and friends had advised her to be a help, not a hindrance, to her child’s education.

Unfortunately, far too many parents, students and teachers think they cannot do anything to celebrate Christmas in the public schools. Whether it is ignorance or fear, Americans are painfully misguided about the recognition of religious holidays. Ironically, the most targeted religious holiday for exclusion is Christmas—also the most popular in American culture.

Are children really forbidden from learning about one of the most culturally significant events because it is religious? For that matter, are adults forbidden at work or in public places to celebrate the religious aspects of Christmas?

The truth is simply that no, they are not. In fact, there are constitutionally sound principles that, if followed, will allow the religious significance of Christmas to be celebrated and taught. The following twelve rules are offered:

1. Public school students’ written or spoken personal expressions concerning the religious significance of Christmas (e.g., T-shirts with the slogan “Jesus is the Reason for the Season”) may not be censored by school officials absent evidence that the speech would cause a substantial disruption.

2. So long as teachers are generally permitted to wear clothing or jewelry or have personal items expressing their views about the holidays, Christian teachers may not be prohibited from similarly expressing their views by wearing Christmas-related clothing or jewelry or carrying Christmas-related personal items.

3. Public schools may teach students about the Christmas holiday, including its religious significance, so long as it is taught objectively and for its historical or cultural importance and not for the purpose of promoting Christianity.

4. Public school teachers may send Christmas cards to the families of their students so long as they do so on their own time, outside of school hours.

5. Public schools may include Christmas music, including those with religious themes, in their choral programs if the songs are included for their musical quality or cultural value or if the songs are part of an overall performance including other holiday songs relating to Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or other similar holidays.

6. Public schools may not require students to sing Christmas songs whose messages conflict with the students’ own religious or nonreligious beliefs.

7. Public school students may not be prohibited from distributing literature to fellow students concerning the Christmas holiday or invitations to church Christmas events on the same terms that they would be allowed to distribute other literature that is not related to schoolwork.

8. Private citizens or groups may display crèches or other Christmas symbols in public parks subject to the same reasonable time, place and manner restrictions that would apply to other similar displays.

9. Government entities may erect and maintain celebrations of the Christmas holiday, such as Christmas trees and Christmas light displays, and may include crèches in their displays—at least so long as such items are placed in context with other symbols of the holiday season as part of an effort to celebrate the public Christmas holiday through its traditional symbols.

10. Neither public nor private employers may prevent employees from decorating their offices for Christmas, playing Christmas music or wearing clothing related to Christmas merely because of their religious content so long as these activities are not used to harass or intimidate others.

11. Public or private employees whose sincerely-held beliefs require that they not work on Christmas must be reasonably accommodated by their employers unless granting the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the employer.

12. Government recognition of Christmas as a public holiday and granting government employees a paid holiday for Christmas does not violate the law.

We must remember that those who founded this country and established the freedoms we still cherish were a religious people, and they passed these traditions down to us. Hopefully, we will not be too timid to continue their legacy of freedom.

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org.

Will the intelligence overhaul make us safer?

First, the Democrats complained that George W. Bush wasn’t acting fast enough to enact the recommendations of the September 11 Commission. Apparently, they would have prefered that the President automatically endorse, and the Congress automatically pass the Commission report into law without considering its provisions. That’s no way to run a railroad.

Now that the President has endorsed the bill and the conflict among Congressional Republicans has been worked out and the bill has passed, the Democrats are complaining about the bill that was passed.

There’s just no pleasing some people.

But in the haste to appease the Democrats and the families of 9-11 victims who are vocal critics of the President, the bill passed with some serious problems. We are assured, as were the reticent Republicans, that these problems can and will be addressed next year. We can only hope that really happens.

"We remain a nation at war, and intelligence is our first line of defense against the terrorists who seek to do us harm. I am pleased the measure also contains many critical law enforcement tools that I have called for that will help make America more secure. I look forward to signing this landmark piece of legislation into law," said the President in after the Senate vote.

But the best intelligence in the world won’t be enough unless we get a few aspects of national security under control.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., wrote a column appearing on the TruthNews Website on October 23 that said, in part:

The 9/11 reform bill is currently snagged by the Senate's refusal to address three critical issues: Should states continue to issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens? Should we tighten our asylum system that terrorists exploited to such deadly effect? Have we ensured the military chain of command is not broken in our intelligence restructuring?

Intelligence-reform efforts will be wasted if we fail to address other security loopholes that the 9/11 hijackers studied to hatch their deadly plans. Once the 19 hijackers arrived here, they were able to secure 63 validly issued driver's licenses. Using these licenses, they were able to blend in and eventually board U.S. planes. Learning from this, the 9/11 Commission Report -- which this legislation is based upon -- recommends that the federal government "set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and other sources of identification, such as driver's licenses. Fraud in identification documents is no longer just a problem of theft." … What is controversial about setting strong standards to stop another [terrorist] from receiving a driver's license?

The chain of command issue was resolved, but the other issues remain. After the bill’s passage, Mr. Sensenbrenner held a press conference outlining a bill he will introduce in the next session that addresses the issues omitted from the intelligence reform bill.

However, nobody’s talking much about doing something to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S., particularly from Mexico. It is a no-brainer that allowing this to continue is stupid and, worse, dangerous.

Numbers USA reports that “Census 2000 results indicate that there between 8 and 11 million illegal aliens living in the United States in 2000. The Center for Immigration Studies has reported that Census Bureau stats show that 700,000 to 800,000 new illegal aliens were settling in the U.S. during the late 1990s and that around 1 million settled in the most recent year of record. Far more than that enter illegally each year, but there is a lot of back and forth. The 1 million represents illegals who truly settle in for at least a couple of years, and usually much, much longer.”

Even if none of those illegals is a terrorist or criminal, this trend is unhealthy and expensive for taxpayers. An estimated $20 billion net taxpayer dollars go to support illegal immigrants each year.

Of God and Country

The Declaration of Independence states, in part:

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, …” The Declaration of Independence

In those two paragraphs are two references to God/the Creator. Those paragraphs tell us that the Founders believed that certain rights are given to mankind by God/the Creator, and that government ­– the government of the United States that they are about to create – gets its power from the people.

The U.S. Census Bureau tells us that 78% of Americans are Christian/Catholic, 2% are Jewish, 2% are Mormon, 8% are Other (specific), and 9% either claim no religion or did not designate a religion. The report also tells us that 65% of Americans are members of a church or synagogue. Census data

Therefore:

Since the Founders believed that the most fundamental and important rights of mankind are derived from God/the Creator, and

Since Americans are overwhelmingly religious people, and

Since the government is empowered by people who are by choice religious,

Why should the majority of the American people accede to the wishes of a minority of Americans that objects to references to God/the Creator?

This is not a matter of government instituting a national religion, which is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. America is a land of many religions among which citizens are free to choose, or to not choose.

This is simply a matter of upholding traditions begun more than two centuries ago that a substantial majority of Americans want upheld. The majority believes in God/the Creator, and does not want references to their God to be removed from traditional places or things.

America is the land of the free, and a large majority of its citizens – by a margin of ten to one – insist on maintaining their freedom to acknowledge the authority that endowed them with the power to create this nation, as they have ever since the nation was formed.

While our government is not a theocracy – there is no formal national religion here – religion and the birth and evolution of the United States of America are inextricably intertwined. Religion has been and is an integral part of America. Its benefits accrue to all, even to those who do not believe in God. As Irving Kristol said, religion is a vehicle for a moral tradition that plays a crucial role in the nation’s development, and nothing can take its place.

Those who wish to remove references to religion and to God are striking a blow at the very heart of America.

How liberalism destroys America

Columnist Walter Williams tackles a subject near and dear to me: The decline of our culture at the hands of liberal ideologues. Williams says:

The importance of customs, traditions and moral values as a means of regulating behavior is that people behave themselves even if nobody's watching. There are not enough cops, and laws can never replace these restraints on personal conduct so as to produce a civilized society. At best, the police and the criminal justice system are the last desperate lines of defense for a civilized society.

Customs, traditions and moral values have been discarded without an appreciation for the role they played in creating a civilized society, and now, we're paying the price. What's worse is that instead of a return to what worked, many of us fail to make the connection and insist "there ought to be a law." As such, it points to another failure of the so-called "great generation" -- the failure to transmit to their children what their parents transmitted to them.

Read Walter Williams complete column.

Danforth steps down

Are you wondering about John Danforth's early and surprize resignation as U.N. Ambassador?

Read the opinion of William F. Buckley, Jr. for his take on this recent development.

Taxpayers subsidize ACLU's liberal activities

Did you know that when the ACLU sues to challenge many of the traditional things that we do here in the U.S., you, the taxpayer, pay the ACLU lawyers fees?

42 U.S.C., Section 1988, of the United States Code now allows judges to award attorney fees to plaintiffs in civil-rights cases brought against local governments. This means that taxpayers often pay public money to the ACLU for its activities that are contrary to what a majority of Americans want.

A new online petition asks Congress to change this statute in hopes of preventing the American Civil Liberties Union from collecting attorney fees from taxpayers of local governments the ACLU takes to court.

The effort – spearheaded by Craig McCarthy of CourtZero.org, a site dedicated to stemming judicial activism – seeks to change this part of the United States Code.

To right-thinking Americans, this is a particularly offensive affront. If you would like to sign the petition, click on the link above.

The language of the statute follows:

Section 1988. Proceedings in vindication of civil rights

(a) Applicability of statutory and common law The jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters conferred on the district courts by the provisions of titles 13, 24, and 70 of the Revised Statutes for the protection of all persons in the United States in their civil rights, and for their vindication, shall be exercised and enforced in conformity with the laws of the United States, so far as such laws are suitable to carry the same into effect; but in all cases where they are not adapted to the object, or are deficient in the provisions necessary to furnish suitable remedies and punish offenses against law, the common law, as modified and changed by the constitution and statutes of the State wherein the court having jurisdiction of such civil or criminal cause is held, so far as the same is not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States, shall be extended to and govern the said courts in the trial and disposition of the cause, and, if it is of a criminal nature, in the infliction of punishment on the party found guilty.

(b) Attorney's fees

In any action or proceeding to enforce a provision of sections 1981, 1981a, 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1986 of this title, title IX of Public Law 92-318 (20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.), the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 2000bb et seq.), the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 2000cc et seq.), title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.), or section 13981 of this title, the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party, other than the United States, a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer's judicial capacity such officer shall not be held liable for any costs, including attorney's fees, unless such action was clearly in excess of such officer's jurisdiction.

(c) Expert fees

In awarding an attorney's fee under subsection (b) of this section in any action or proceeding to enforce a provision of section 1981 or 1981a of this title, the court, in its discretion, may include expert fees as part of the attorney's fee.

Canada is busy sending back Bush-dodgers

The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration.

The re-election of President Bush is prompting the exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they'll soon be required to hunt, pray and agree with Bill O'Reilly.

Canadian border farmers say it's not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, animal-rights activists and Unitarians crossing their fields at night.

"I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn," said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota.

The producer was cold, exhausted and hungry. "He asked me if I could spare a latte and some free-range chicken. When I said I didn't have any, he left. Didn't even get a chance to show him my screenplay, eh?"

In an effort to stop the illegal aliens, Greenfield erected higher fences, but the liberals scaled them. So he tried installing speakers that blare Rush Limbaugh across the fields.

"Not real effective," he said. "The liberals still got through, and Rush annoyed the cows so much they wouldn't give milk."

Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals near the Canadian border, pack them into Volvo station wagons, drive them across the border and leave them to fend for themselves. "A lot of these people are not prepared for rugged conditions," an Ontario border patrolman said. "I found one carload without a drop of drinking water. They did have a nice little Napa Valley cabernet, though."

When liberals are caught, they're sent back across the border, often wailing loudly that they fear retribution from conservatives. Rumors have been circulating about the Bush administration establishing re-education camps in which liberals will be forced to drink domestic beer and watch NASCAR.

In the days since the election, liberals have turned to sometimes-ingenious ways of crossing the border. Some have taken to posing as senior citizens on bus trips to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs. After catching a half-dozen young vegans disguised in powdered wigs, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed senior-citizen passengers.

"If they can't identify the accordion player on The Lawrence Welk Show, we get suspicious about their age," an official said.

Canadian citizens have complained that the illegal immigrants are creating an organic-broccoli shortage and renting all the good Susan Sarandon movies.

"I feel sorry for American liberals, but the Canadian economy just can't support them," an Ottawa resident said. "How many art-history majors does one country need?"

In an effort to ease tensions between the United States and Canada, Vice President Dick Cheney met with the Canadian ambassador and pledged that the administration would take steps to reassure liberals, a source close to Cheney said.

"We're going to have some Peter, Paul & Mary concerts. And we might put some endangered species on postage stamps. The president is determined to reach out."

---- Author unknown