THE FEAR IS GONE: Has everyone forgotten what the world looked like when America (and Israel) was feared? Have the foreign policy castrati taken over? Does no one sing baritone anymore? The terrorists in Iraq, and among us, use fear as a primary tactic. We form study groups and issue statements saying we must "act wisely." Iraq's dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vows to obliterate Israel and U.S. diplomats recommend we talk to him. Whatever happened to "if you touch us, it will be the last thing you touch"? Ah, but that was before political correctness and sensitivity training. Now, the only thing the thugs have to fear is fear itself. They certainly don't fear us. -- Cal Thomas, www.realpolitics.com, 12/05/06

ALL THE BLAME FOR DEFEAT: President Bush's policy had led to the best, most peace-loving Shiite leaders being predominant in Iraq; civil war will lead to the worst Shiites rising to leadership. ... Shortsighted, ignorant, or malicious "anti-war" Democrats misled the American people into thinking our war effort was a failure and was doing no good. The result is that now our war effort is failing, not because of President Bush, but specifically and directly because of the Democratic victory. ... From this moment on, if we come to defeat in Iraq, it will not be President Bush's fault. It will be, completely and exclusively, the fault of the Democratic Party. And it is the responsibility of the Democratic Party -- or at least the saner members of that party -- to speak up and do all they can to prevent that defeat. Here is the message that must be sent to the Iraqi people -- and to all the pro-democracy heroes in every nation in the Muslim world, who take their lives in their hands by standing against the Islamo-fascists: "America will not let you down." -- Orson Scott Card, www.ornery.org, 11/26/06

THE MYTH OF MIDDLE CLASS SECURITY: Three uncomfortable but incontrovertible facts about some of the most popular of the proposed government initiatives meant to provide more security for the middle class -- 1) Many, if not most governmental "security" programs simply don't work 2) Even the security programs that do work come with a steep, sometimes punishing economic cost, and 3) Any effort to assure economic security inevitably involves a loss of freedom. -- Michael Medved, townhall.com, 11/30/06

EURABIA A MYTH? Don't let Europe's current round of playing pacifist dress-up fool you: This is the continent that perfected genocide and ethnic cleansing, the happy-go-lucky slice of humanity that brought us such recent hits as the Holocaust and Srebrenica. The historical patterns are clear: When Europeans feel sufficiently threatened -- even when the threat's concocted nonsense -- they don't just react, they over-react with stunning ferocity. -- Ralph Peters, New York Post, 11/26/06

DONE IN BY TOO MUCH: Rarely, we know, are civilization's suicides a result of the influence of too many of the poor rather than of the wealthy. -- Victor Davis Hanson, opinionjournal.com, 11/29/06

WHAT CHANGES? Members of Congress don't change Washington; Washington changes them. -- Cal Thomas, townhall.com, 11/29/2006

DEFANGING CORRUPTION: There is only one way to fight corruption in government and that's to scale down the scope of government and limit the control that politicians have over our lives and money. It's what the founders of this great country had in mind to begin with. -- Star Parker, townhall.com, 11/20/06

TOOTHLESS DIPLOMACY: Diplomacy without even the distant possibility of military action is impotent. North Korea is a perfect example of what multilateral diplomacy without a unilateral military option looks like. -- George Friedman, Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report, 10/10/06

IRRELIGION IS A RELIGION: The battle of ideas is not between religion on the one hand and bland neutrality on the other. It is between religion as exemplified by the Judeo-Christian tradition and another religion. It is not called a religion, but it has every characteristic. Call that other religion Political Correctness or the New Age. -- Maurine Proctor

DIRTY SECRET OF MORAL RELATIVITY: Here lies the hidden and dirty secret of a morally relative viewpoint. Once the sense of morality and right and wrong have been abandoned, people are ripe to be dominated by others exercising sheer will. If what ever a man does is no crime, "mere anarchy is loosed upon the world." -- Maurine Proctor

A WAR ABOUT GOD: Most scholars agree that the cultural war that is raging comes down to this: What we think about God influences everything else. The essence of the culture war is the great rift over the issue of God. -- Maurine Proctor

AMERICAN SERVITUDE: [T]he founders of our nation were suspicious, if not contemptuous, of government... Today's Americans hold a different vision of government. It's one that says Congress has the right to do just about anything upon which it can secure a majority vote. Most of what Congress does fits the description of forcing one American to serve the purposes of another American. That description differs only in degree, but not in kind, from slavery. At least two-thirds of the federal budget represents forcing one American to serve the purposes of another. Younger workers are forced to pay for the prescriptions of older Americans; people who are not farmers are forced to serve those who are; nonpoor people are forced to serve poor people; and the general public is forced to serve corporations, college students and other special interests who have the ear of Congress... You say, 'Williams, don't you believe in helping your fellow man?' Yes, I do. I believe that reaching into one's own pockets to help his fellow man is both laudable and praiseworthy. Reaching into another's pockets to help his fellow man is despicable and worthy of condemnation. The bottom line: We love government because it enables us to accomplish things that if done privately would lead to arrest and imprisonment. -- Walter Williams

FOR YOU OR TO YOU: Here is the Golden Rule of sound citizenship, the first and greatest lesson in the study of politics: You get the same order of criminality from any State to which you give power to exercise it; and whatever power you give the State to do things FOR you carries with it the equivalent power to do things TO you. -- Albert Jay Nock

MORALITY IS KEY: Upon our material well-being must be built a superstructure of individual and national life in accordance with the laws of the highest morality, or else our prosperity itself will in the long run turn out a curse instead of a blessing. We should be both reverently thankful for what we have received, and earnestly bent upon turning it into a means of grace and not of destruction. -- Theodore Roosevelt

NO DIPLOMACY WITHOUT MUSCLE: The dustbin of history is littered with remains of those countries that relied on diplomacy to secure their freedom. We must never forget... in the final analysis... that it is our military, industrial and economic strength that offers the best guarantee of peace for America in times of danger. -- Ronald Reagan

ACRONYMIC ABOLITION STRATEGY: Given our monstrous, overgrown government structure, any three letters chosen at random would probably designate an agency or part of a department that could be profitably abolished. -- Milton Friedman

FREEDOM OF RELIGION, NOT FROM IT: It is the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the SUPREME BEING, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe. And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping GOD in the manner most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; or for his religious profession or sentiments; provided he doth not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship. -- John Adams (Thoughts on Government, 1776)

WHAT NOW?
What is clear is that the U.S. electorate has shifted away from supporting the Bush administration's conduct of the war. What is not clear at all is what they have shifted toward. -- George Friedman, Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report, 10/8/06

PROVE IT: Before the Iraq war, the United States suffered a series of terrorist attacks: the bombing and destruction of two American embassies in East Africa in 1998, the terrorist attack on the USS Cole in 2000, and the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Since the Iraq war started, there have not been any successful terrorist attacks against the United States. That doesn't mean the threat has diminished because of the Iraq war, but it does place the burden of proof on those who argue that it has increased. -- Robert Kagan, Washingtonpost.com, 9/26/06

[The proof is in the numbers, and I don't think we have enough hard numbers to declare how the Iraq war affects the picture, for good or ill. Look at the terrorist headcount, for example -- who knows what it is? But we can make some assumptions... Subsequent attacks: 0. Increase in terrorist headcount: X. If subsequent attacks were, say 3, I think it is clear the terrorist headcount would be significantly greater than X, solely because the illusion of terrorist WINS is more attractive to potential recruits than terrorist LOSSES. People naturally gravitate to the winning side. I don't see evidence that terrorism has a winning side at this point. In terms of numbers, known or unknown, where is the evidence of increased threat? -- Kirt]

FIRST LADY? President Clinton lost his temper in an interview with Chris Wallace. He might not be the pleasant and polite first lady Hillary needs after all. -- Jay Leno

WHITEWASH THIS: The bottom line is that Bill Clinton, the commander-in-chief, could not find the will to order the military into action against al Qaeda, and Bill Clinton, the head of the executive branch, could not find the will to order the CIA and FBI to act. No matter what the former president says on Fox, or anywhere else, that is his legacy in the war on terror. -- Byron York

WINNING TERRORIST STRATEGIES

Our enemies in the Middle East have learned three important ways to win the current war and those of the future.

1. Use terrorism on civilians to frighten them and to break down their resolve.. . .

2. Control the media to better distribute propaganda so as to further manipulate the civilian population and also lower morale of their troops. . . .

3. Infiltrate American schools, colleges and political organizations to retrain as many youth as possible so that new generations sympathize with the Middle East problems and regard their own country as an imperial nation, interested only in dominating the world to gain control of oil and other riches. . . .

There will be a fourth strategy added to the other three in the future. This will happen when the terrorists have access to nuclear bombs.

-- Lee Ellis, opinioneditorial.com, 9/25/06

EXTINGUISHING THE LIGHT: A Western civilization that will not recognize the essential role that Judaism and Christianity played in its development and will not defend its faith in these religions and the right of other faiths to exist unthreatened, will fall victim to the irrationality and violence of Islam, and the light of reason will be turned off. -- Alan Caruba

ARMAGEDDON TIMELINE: Here is what al Qaeda says they will do if they succeed in driving us out of Iraq: The terrorist Zawahiri has said that al Qaeda will proceed with "several incremental goals. The first stage: Expel the Americans from Iraq. The second stage: Establish an Islamic authority or amirate, then develop it and support it until it achieves the level of Caliphate . . . The third stage: Extend the jihad wave to the secular countries neighboring Iraq. And the fourth stage: . . . the clash with Israel." -- George W. Bush, whitehouse.gov, 9/9/06

SUCKER-PUNCHED AND HEADED FOR A KNOCK-OUT: The Democrats' mistake --ironically, in a year all about Mr. Bush -- is obsessing on Mr. Bush. They've been sucker-punched by their own animosity. "The Democrats now are incapable of answering a question on policy without mentioning Bush six times," says pollster Kellyanne Conway. . . . Mr. Bush's White House loves what the Democrats are doing. They want the focus on him. -- Peggy Noonan, opinionjournal.com, 9/15/06

COST OF ALLOWING A NUCLEAR IRAN: In the region, Persian Iran will immediately become the hegemonic power in the Arab Middle East. Today it is deterred from overt aggression against its neighbors by the threat of conventional retaliation. Against a nuclear Iran, such deterrence becomes far less credible. As its weak, non-nuclear Persian Gulf neighbors accommodate to it, jihadist Iran will gain control of the most strategic region on the globe.Then there is the larger danger of permitting nuclear weapons to be acquired by religious fanatics seized with an eschatological belief in the imminent apocalypse and in their own divine duty to hasten the End of Days. The mullahs are infinitely more likely to use these weapons than anyone in the history of the nuclear age. Every city in the civilized world will live under the specter of instant annihilation delivered either by missile or by terrorist. This from a country that has an official Death to America Day and has declared since Ayatollah Khomeini's ascension that Israel must be wiped off the map. -- Charles Krauthammer, townhall.com, 9/15/06

WAR-TIME POPULARITY: There has never been an unpopular winning war or a popular losing one. -- Peter Worthington

WHO IS DEADLIER? Of the two suicide cults America confronts, liberalism is by far the more lethal. -- Don Feder

FIGHT THE RIGHT ENEMY: On September 11, 2001, our guard was down. America vowed that morning that we would never let that happen again. And yet, after five years many of us have grown weary of maintaining our defenses. America is in danger of losing sight of the enemy. (Many of us already have.) We have become so distracted by the political fights over how to defend ourselves that we seem to have forgotten why we need to. Today would be a good time to stop bickering and remember that we are all Americans, and therefore all targeted by a resolute army of fanatical warriors. The enemy does not care if we are Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, believer or atheist. It just wants us defeated. Polls report that more than a third of Americans, and nearly half of New Yorkers, believe that our own government either orchestrated the attacks or deliberately allowed them to happen. Such insanity can only be spread in a society that has lost its bearings. We must refocus on our common enemy: the Islamic radicals who want to establish their own despotic empire and view us as the most important obstacle in their path. America was attacked five years ago by agents of radical Islam. Their successors are fighting us in Iraq and Afghanistan and awaiting their chance to wound us again on our own soil. That is not a fantasy. It is the world in which we all live. Despite discouragements and setbacks, America can win this new and challenging war. But only if we fight the right enemy. -- The New Hampshire Union Leader

PATRIOTIC . . . NOT: [I]t's time to face a hard cold fact: Militant Islam wants to kill us just because we're alive and don't believe as they do... Now, this threat is not just going to go away because we choose to ignore it... But some Americans, sadly, are not interested in victory. And yet they want us to believe that their behavior is Patriotic. Well, it's not. -- Rush Limbaugh

ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? Darwinism has freed our modern generation from faith. Humanity is purposeless. We're concoctions of impersonal forces in a meaningless universe. Just naked apes. Morality is out, ME is in, and there's no such thing as sin. So look how happy this godless philosophy has made us! The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. (Psalm 14:1) -- Don Martini, Let's Talk A Little Science, christinternational.org, 2004

HISTORY REPEATS: The parallels between the rise of fascism in pre-World War II Germany and the rise of Islamic fascism today are startling. And just as it was in the 1930's, the world is refusing to confront the growing danger. . . .So why is history repeating itself? Why can't we Americans wise up and see the Islamic fascist threat? I blame the news media first, and irresponsible politicians like Howard Dean second. . . . Americans are certainly entitled to debate the wisdom and effectiveness of the current campaign to defeat Islamic fascism, but defeat it we must. For if we don't, it is just a matter of time before more of us lie dead in the streets. Like Hitler and his evil ambitions of seven decades ago, the Jihadists of today are not going to stop until we make them stop. -- Bill O'Reilly, billoreilly.com, 9/7/06

BUSH AND LINCOLN

In April of 1861, in response to the firing on Fort Sumter, President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to serve for 90 days. Lincoln had greatly underestimated the challenge of preserving the Union. . . .

By the summer of 1862, with thousands of Americans already dead or wounded and the hopes of a quick resolution to the war all but abandoned, three political factions had emerged. There were those who thought the war was too hard and would have accepted defeat by negotiating the end of the United States by allowing the South to secede. Second were those who urged staying the course by muddling through with a cautious military policy and a desire to be "moderate and reasonable" about Southern property rights, including slavery. . . .

By late summer, 1862, Lincoln agonizingly concluded that a third faction had the right strategy for victory. This group's strategy demanded reorganizing everything as needed, intensifying the war, and bringing the full might of the industrial North to bear until the war was won. . . .

The first and greatest lesson of the last five years parallels what Lincoln came to understand. The dangers are greater, the enemy is more determined, and victory will be substantially harder than we had expected in the early days after the initial attack. Despite how painful it would prove to be, Lincoln chose the road to victory. President Bush today finds himself in precisely the same dilemma Lincoln faced 144 years ago.

-- Newt Gingrich, opinionjournal.com, 9/7/06

IRANIAN SNARE: Iran has set a clever trap, and the United States has walked into it. Rather than a functioning government in Iraq, it has chaos and a triumphant Shiite community. The Americans cannot contain the chaos, and they cannot simply withdraw. Therefore, we can understand why Bush insists on holding his position indefinitely. He has been maneuvered in such a manner that he -- or a successor -- has no real alternatives. -- George Friedman, Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report, 9/6/06

WHY WE'RE DOOMED: 1) We found highly enriched uranium in IRAN and 2) Iran still exists. -- Jerubaal, 9/2/06

NUCLEAR MAD NO MORE: The real threat posed by Islamic fascism comes in the form of a nuclear device in the hands of a terrorist surrogate. In the present case, the Cold War's deterrent doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) does not apply. A nuclear strike against the United States won't come in the form of a missile launch from silos on the other side of the world, or a submarine lurking off our shores. Rather, as a recent RAND study speculates, a nuclear terrorist attack against the U.S. will come from a cargo container aboard a freighter arrived in a U.S. port, or, alternately, transported across the porous southern border with the same mechanisms used to smuggle tens of thousands of illegal aliens every year. . . . For these reasons -- the nature of our enemy's threat and his determination to see our destruction -- the only applicable defense is the doctrine of pre-emption. . . . Our only strategic option and our best hope of averting a nuclear attack, though it's certainly no guarantee, is pre-emptive warfare against our enemies. -- Mark M. Alexander, townhall.com, 9/1/06

AMADINEJAD IS DEAD WRONG: God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism. -- Mahmud Amadi-Nejad

SOROS IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT: The dominant position of the United States cannot be long maintained by a feel-good society that is unwilling to confront unpleasant realities. -- George Soros, The Age of Fallibility

THE GOP: It is a party of incredible ingratitude. . . . [But] at the end of the day, we have to stay with the Republicans. We have to stay with the Republicans because the Democrats are so bad. -- Bob Lonsberry, 9/1/06

COMMUNISM vs CAPITALISM: Often, when people evaluate capitalism, they evaluate a system that exists onEarth. When they evaluate communism, they are talking about a non-existent Utopia. What exists on Earth, with all of its problems and shortcomings, is always going to fail miserably when compared to a Utopia. The very attempt to achieve the utopian goals of communism requires the ruthless suppression of the individual and an attack on any institution that might compromise the loyalty ofthe individual to the state. That's why one of the first orders of business for communism, and those who support its ideas, is the attack on religion and the family. Rank nations according to whether they are closer to the capitalismend or the communism end of the economic spectrum. Then rank nations according to human rights protections. Finally, rank nations according to per capita income. Without question, citizens of those nations closer to capitalism enjoy a higher standard of living and a far greater measure of liberty than those in nations closer to communism. -- Walter Williams

WHAT'S THE USE? If a GOP Congress working with a Republican president fails to address immigration, many voters will question what exactly they are capable of accomplishing. -- John Fund

DEATH BY ATTRITION: Newsweek tries to stuff perhaps the biggest story of our time -- the sudden collapse of childbearing to below-replacement levels in virtually every free, democratic and affluent nation on this Earth -- into a happy tale of a new generation's lifestyle liberation from that old ugly 'social corset' of marriage and family... What lies beyond babies? Death. Death of the individual, and of his or her family. Death of the nation, tribe or culture that adopts a set of beliefs, practices and institutional arrangements that fail to respect and support generativity. -- Maggie Gallagher

WHO ISN'T ANTI-WAR? It is staggering that anyone could be so self-infatuated as to single out their own particular policy preferences as "anti-war." Anyone who is not a sadist or an idiot is anti-war. The only serious issue is how best to limit, deter or conclude war. But responsibility for confronting this issue is evaded by those preoccupied with the moral preening of being "anti-war." -- Thomas Sowell, townhall.com, 8/29/06

DIVERSITY SUCKS: Can you cite one speck of hard evidence of the benefits of "diversity" that we have heard gushed about for years? Evidence of its harm can be seen -- written in blood -- from Iraq to India, from Serbia to Sudan, from Fiji to thePhilippines. It is scary how easily so many people can be brainwashed by sheer repetition of a word. -- Thomas Sowell, townhall.com, 8/29/06

MEDIEVAL SUVs: Climate statistics show that, with all the "global warming" hysteria today, our temperatures are still not as high as they were back in medieval times. Those medieval folks must have been driving a lot of cars and SUVs. -- Thomas Sowell,townhall.com, 8/29/06

SCHOOLS NEED COMPETITION: Every economics textbook says monopolies are bad because they charge high prices for shoddy goods. But it's government that gives us monopolies. So why do we entrust something as important as our children's education to a government monopoly? -- John Stossel, townhall.com, 8/30/06

CLEANEST WAR IN HISTORY: From the first moment of the war, [the Iraqi civilian] death toll was lower than it had been under the rule of Saddam Hussein. . . . Our rules of engagement made it the cleanest war in history, in terms of civilian damage caused by an invading army. -- Orson Scott Card, "Lies and Catastrophes," ornery.org, 8/13/06

OUR LEFT BEHIND: Often we can see where the American left is headed by seeing where the European left has arrived. -- Thomas Sowell, townhall.com, 8/23/06

GOOD GUNS, BAD GUNS: Here's my credo. There are no good guns, there are no bad guns. A gun in the hands of a bad man is a bad thing. Any gun in the hands of a good man is no threat to anyone, except bad people. -- Charlton Heston

DEMOGRAPHIC DEATH SPIRAL: The most geriatric jurisdiction on the planet, Nippon's rising sun has now passed into the next phase of its long sunset: net population loss. 2005 was the first year since records began with more deaths than births. The world's other elderly societies have complicating factors: In Europe, the successor population is already in place -- Islam -- and the only question is how bloody the transfer of real estate will be. But Japan offers the chance to observe the demographic death spiral in its purest form. It's a country with no immigration, no significant minorities and no desire for any: just theJapanese, aging and dwindling. -- Mark Steyn

ALLOWING OUR HANDS TO BE TIED: Both domestic opposition and the international community, unhappily, are "defining torture down. The things they're calling 'torture' now have never been and have no business being considered torture. . . . It is an effort to disarm us that's succeeding to a frightening extent. No, it's worse than that. They're trying to make it impossible to fight terrorism. . . . Every weapon that's been developed to protect us from terrorism, and the Iraqis from internal terrorism, is under assault." -- Joseph Rago, quoting Norman Podhoretz, opinionjournal.com, 8/12/06

LOW COST WAR: We've paid an extraordinarily small price [in the war on terrorism and in Iraq] by any reasonable historical standard for a huge accomplishment. -- NormanPodhoretz, quoted by Joseph Rago, opinionjournal.com, 8/12/06

ISLAMIC DIPLOMACY? When will people realize that Islamic terrorists are not diplomats, nor can they conduct themselves diplomatically. They are warriors . . . -- Nicholas P. Giordano, opinioneditorials.com, 8/17/06

ENORMITY OF THIS WAR: The reality is peace will not exist within the Middle East for decades, and perhaps, centuries. It is important for the world to realize that we are on the cusp of an enormous war that can only be described as the Clash of Civilizations. It is incumbent upon us to realize, we are not only fighting to defend ourselves against death and destruction, but we are also fighting to perserve our way of life. -- Nicholas P. Giordano, opinioneditorials.com, 8/17/06

APPEASERS HURT ALL: To those who want to appease the barbarians of the east? You lack conviction, and your cowardice gets painted onto the rest of us by the media fools. Quit wearing your ignorance like a badge of honor! -- R. A. Hawkins, opinioneditorials.com, 8/18/06

RELYING ON THE ARM OF MAN: Those who hold out their hope to the politicians to fix our problems are mostly ignorant of how the real world works so we in our ignorance always pick the wrong ones. It's all about personal responsibility. There was a lesson given to each of us in the US last year. That lesson was Hurricane Katrina. How did the people do during that lesson? Yes. It's that simple and that obvious. -- R. A. Hawkins, opinioneditorials.com, 8/18/06

ISRAEL: The Arabs can fight, and lose, and return to fight another day. Israel can only lose once. -- Golda Meir

WISING UP: Example is the school of mankind, and our enemy has an ambitious lesson plan. -- Jonah Goldberg, townhall.com, 8/18/06

IT'S NOT OVER: Within the memory of most people over 40, the free world could distinguish between good and evil. But today, fewer make such judgments and "one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter." Instead of the World War I lyric "we won't come back till it's over, over there," we - or in this case Israel - comes back before it's over. As a result, it isn't over and it won't be over until Israel and the West get over moral equivalency and political correctness and fight to win. The evil guys are fighting to win. -- Cal Thomas, townhall.com, 8/15/06

WHAT WE FIGHT FOR: The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty -- that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men. -- George Washington (General Orders, 23 August 1776)

UNBIASED JUDGES: Judges . . . rule on the basis of law, not public opinion, and they should be totally indifferent to pressures of the times. -- former Chief Justice Warren E. Burger

UNENFORCIBLE LAW: Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. -- Albert Einstein

WORLD OPINION: It is vital to understand that while world opinion may be just the random collective judgment of mankind -- it is usually not random, but rather, in part at least, a propaganda-manipulated opinion. -- Tony Blankley

WORLD OPINION: If you are ever morally confused about a major world issue, here is a rule that is almost never violated: Whenever you hear that 'world opinion' holds a view, assume it is morally wrong. -- Dennis Prager

NO PEACE WITH PALESTINE: Islam does not want peace. Most of Islam wants the destruction of Israel. Palestinians could have had a state in 1948 but they rejected it. They could have had a state eventually by adhering to the Oslo accords but they prefered terrorism. They could have had most of what they pretend to be asking for with the generous offer at Camp David in 1999 but they rejected that. They don't want a state as long as there is also an Israel. There is no such thing as Palestine except for the British Mandate. There are no Palestinians except those who made themselves up and they don't want peace so the Road Map and talk of a comprehensive peace treaty is malarky. -- ProfGene, townhall.com, 8/5/06

GOVERNMENT: It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve. -- Henry George

PEACE IN LEBANON: Simply delivering a cease-fire won't deliver peace. Peace isn't the absence of fighting -- it's what exists when people would rather co-exist than fight. Hezbollah wants to fight and kill non-Muslims, and especially Americans. Unless we want to see the terrorist group succeed, we'd better get serious about stopping it. First we have to allow Israel to finish off Hezbollah. Then we can talk about a cease-fire and maybe even build peace with people who want it. -- Rich Tucker, townhall.com, 8/7/06

UNITED NATIONS IMPOTENCE: Going to the U.N. [for help in securing a cease-fire in Lebanon] is pointless. The U.N. Security Council already demanded, in 2004, that Hezbollah disarm. And while there are U.N. troops in Lebanon, they've never taken steps to enforce that resolution. So there's no reason to believe the U.N. can accomplish anything. . . . The real problem is that Iran and Syria are supporting terrorists, and these terrorists are heavily armed and eager to kill. The only way to stop them is to kill them or force them to disarm. The U.N. isn't going to do that; only a powerful military can. -- Rich Tucker, townhall.com, 8/7/06

IRAN: With al-Qaeda in decline, Iran is on the march. It is intervening through proxies throughout the Arab world -- Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine, Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army in Iraq -- to subvert modernizing, Western-oriented Arab governments and bring these territories under Iranian hegemony. Its nuclear ambitions would secure these advances, give it an overwhelming preponderance of power over the Arabs and an absolute deterrent against serious counteractions by the United States, Israel or any other rival.

The moderate pro-Western Arabs understand this very clearly. Which is why Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan immediately came out against Hezbollah and privately urged the U.S. to let Israel take down Hezbollah. They know that Hezbollah is fighting Iran's proxy war not only against Israel but against them and, more generally, against the United States and the West. -- Charles Krauthammer, townhall.com, 8/4/06

DEMOCRATS: When Democrats form a firing squad, they tend to form it in a circle and end up shooting each other. -- Mo Udall

THE PRESIDENT: It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge [that he is our] commander-in-chief. We undermine the President's credibility at our nation's peril. -- Senator Joe Lieberman

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES: [Rudy] Giuliani and [Newt] Gingrich are on their third marriages, and [George]Allen and [John] McCain are on their second, while [Mitt] Romney's been married to the same woman for 30-plus years. Thus, the candidate in the race with the fewest wives is the Mormon.

JUDGING A PARTY BY ITS WEB SITE: A quick review of the Democratic Party's web site exposes a party so consumed by its loathing of President Bush and the GOP that it fails to offer voters any substantive information on where it stands on the issues of the day. . . . Every issue area on the Democrat's web site begins with such nonspecific statements followed by attacks on the President and the Republicans in Congress. In fact, more web space is devoted to attacking Republicans than to advancing Democratic positions. . . . Out of curiosity, I also navigated my web browser to the Republican Party's web site in search of the GOP's agenda for America. Remarkably, I found a party that laid out clear positions on every political issue imaginable, while devoting almost no space at all to attacking the Democratic Party, its positions, or its members. . . . There are virtually no attacks and no hateful rhetoric, just clear, detailed positions on where Republicans stand. -- Greg C. Reeson, opinioneditorials.com, 8/3/06

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: The . . . diabolically crafted corrective idea [intended to address the "mental illness" of social conservativism] is political correctness. The strong suggestion here is that in order for one not to be thought of as racist or fascist, then one must not only be nonjudgmental but must also embrace the 'new' moral absolutes: diversity, choice, sensitivity, sexual orientation, and tolerance. Political correctness is a Machiavellian psychological 'command and control' device. Its purpose is the imposition of uniformity in thought, speech, and behavior. -- Linda Kimball, opinioneditorials.com, 8/2/06

COMMUNISM: Both communism and the New Left are alive and thriving here in America. Code words by which they can be recognized are: tolerance, social justice, economic justice, peace, reproductive rights, sex education and safe sex, safe schools, inclusion, diversity, and sensitivity. All together, this is Cultural Marxism disguised as multiculturalism. -- Linda Kimball, opinioneditorials.com, 8/2/06

ISRAELI WARFARE: We [Israelis] are doing something that no other country would do. . . . We warn the people using Lebanese television, radio and flyers that we spread over the affected areas. We ask the people to leave their homes and get themselves to safety. -- Tzipi Livni, Israeli foreign minister, quoted by Suzanne Fields, townhall.com, 7/31/06

HEZBOLLAH: What so many . . . fail to understand is that there is no "compromise" possible with a group such as Hezbollah whose sole mission is to destroy Israel and eventually every nation and person that they deem to be an infidel. . . . No one questions that Iran is supporting Hezbollah and there is no doubt that Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if Hezbollah could launch a nuclear weapon into Israel, they would do so. They have no fear of death and no fear of retaliation. . . . There is nothing that will deter them. There is only one way to stop them and that is to destroy them and prevent the states that support them from having the weapons that they would use to accomplish their goals. -- Jan Larson, opinioneditorials.com, 7/31/06

LEBANON WAR: The word that obviates all thinking and magically inverts victim into aggressor is "disproportionate," as in the universally decried "disproportionate Israeli response." . . . The perversity of today's international outcry lies in the fact that there is indeed a disproportion in this war, a radical moral asymmetry between Hezbollah and Israel: Hezbollah is deliberately trying to create civilian casualties on both sides while Israel is deliberately trying to minimize civilian casualties, also on both sides. . . . Creating human shields is a war crime. It is also a Hezbollah specialty. -- Charles Krauthammer, nydailynews.com, 7/28/06

HEZBOLLAH: Those who believe that Hezbollah is simply an Israeli problem need to think again. . . . Hezbollah is -- and has always been -- America's enemy. -- Oliver North, townhall.com, 7/28/06

LEBANON WAR: The mini war that is taking place between Israel and Hezbollah is, in fact, a proxy war in which Iran's vision for the Middle East clashes with the administration in Washington. What is at stake is not the exchange of kidnapped Israeli soldiers with Arab prisoners in Israel. Such exchanges have happened routinely over five decades. The real issue is who will set the agenda for the Middle East: Iran or America? -- Amir Taheri, quoted by Cal Thomas, townhall.com, 7/27/06

BUSH DOCTRINE: The Bush Doctrine states that governments or organizations that harbor or aid known terrorists are just as liable as the suicidal/homicidal terrorists themselves. . . .If the Bush doctrine is valid, there are only a few questions that need to be answered:
(1) Is Hezbollah a terrorist organization? (2) Which governments are sponsoring, aiding, sheltering, harboring or otherwise supporting Hezbollah? (3) How should Israel respond to the governments that are supporting a known terrorist organization?
If the Bush doctrine is valid then overwhelming, disproportional military force may be unleashed, not only upon Lebanon, but upon Syria and Iran as well. -- Monte Kuligowski, opinioneditorials.com, 7/28/06

HISTORY LESSON: The real lesson of WWII was not failing to try diplomacy and negotiations. The lesson was that America and the West should have moved militarily against Hitler in the mid 1930's. It was already clear that Hitler was rapidly re-arming Germany for a coming war of aggression, but was not yet ready to attack. A pre-emptive attack by the West against Hitler at that time could have destroyed Hitler and his Nazi war machine while still confined to German soil. There would have been casualties on both sides but far, far, fewer than the millions killed later while much of Europe was destroyed.

The world seems inclined to forget the lessons of history rather than learn from them. The West should be supporting Israel's attempt to demolish the Islamic terror threat surrounding them rather than lecturing Israel about its "disproportionate response." Iran and Syria are clearly backers of Islamic terror, not only against Israel but also against America. The longer it takes to deal with them the greater the risk of a wider and more lethal war with an enemy possessing nuclear weapons and the means to reach America. -- Rachel Neuwirth, opinioneditorials.com, 7/28/06

HEZBOLLAH: The problem is that Hezbollah has woven itself into the very fabric of Lebanon, masquerading as a political party much as the Nazis did in Germany. The terrorists have in fact converted an entire nation into a human shield. -- editorial, Investors.com, 7/26/06

JOHN BOLTON vs THE UN: Republicans support Bolton's nomination [as U.S.ambassador to the U.N.] precisely because of his clarity of thought and speech -- and his unapologetic representation of America's interests. Democrats oppose him because they sympathize with the negative view of Bolton held by foreign envoys who have anything but the best interests of the United States in mind. -- David Limbaugh, townhall.com, 7/25/2006

GEORGE W. BUSH: For the next two years, we will continue to have the only President since the Vietnam War who is not an appeaser. . . . George W. Bush is called dumb, but he's smarter than any of his immediate predecessors, because he understands that when your enemy has no scruples, has no vital interests to protect, and desires war, it is absurd to wait for them to get stronger and more dangerous. The trouble is, he lives in a country where, when he wages the most successful, cleanest war, with the soundest military doctrine, in the history of the United States, he is vilified in the press and lied about so incessantly that the people now largely believe that the war has been badly handled. Compared to what war? -- Orson Scott Card, ornery.org, 7/20/06

ISRAEL: Israel has pursued a policy of appeasement for years, giving concession after concession to the Palestinians and their supporters. No matter what they gave in on, two things happened: The Palestinians and their supporters broke every promise, and the rest of the world demanded that Israel make even more concessions.. . . .The only thing that has ever brought concessions from Israel's enemies is victory in war. The negotiating table has never brought Israel even a moment's peace.The opposite is true -- the more they gave in, the more their enemies came to believe in Israel's weakness and the more Israeli civilians they killed. -- Orson Scott Card, ornery.org, 7/20/06

IRAN: Unless the Iranian people get rid of their present government, open war between the United States and Iran is inevitable, because they are grimly determined to force their brand of Islam on the rest of the world, and to kill any who stand in their way. . . . Because of its relationship with Syria, Iran effectively controls both the eastern and western borders of Iraq. Every dead American soldier in Iraq since the initial invasion can be laid largely to the charge of Iran and Syria; they are the reason the insurgents in Iraq are so well-supplied. -- Orson Scott Card, ornery.org, 7/20/06

WAR ON TERROR: Will Americans pay the painful price to win the war on terror? Or will we retreat to our BlackBerrys and iPods and video games? Will we continue to allow partisan politics to divert attention from the real threat, or will we demand that our leaders win the conflict? In the summer of 2006, that is the hot question. And, at this point, there is no clear answer. -- Bill O'Reilly, billoreilly.com, 7/21/06

WAR: There is only one war. It is global in scope and varied only insofar as there are certain and obvious differences among those who seek to wrap their tentacles around the innocent. They are united by their hatred of America and their desire to shatter the West. There is only one war. At some point the West will have to accept that it must either defeat or succumb to its enemies. That is unquestionably a horrible realization. No wonder so many prefer denial. -- Joe Bell, OpinionEditorials.com, 7/21/06

ISRAEL: Will we agree to live under this evil threat or will we fight. . . . There is no more just struggle than that we are now engaged in. . . . And I say to everyone: Enough is enough. Israel will not be held hostage -- not by terror gangs or by a terrorist authority or by any sovereign state. . . . There is nothing we want more than peace on all of our borders; Israel will not agree to live with rockets fired on its citizens. Only a nation that can protect its freedom deserves it. -- Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Israel National News

ISLAMOFASCISM: Much of the world, and unfortunately, much of America, refuses to get it. This is World War III. Islamofascism seeks our destruction -- not accommodation, not conciliation, but complete and total destruction. Islamofascism does not end with the "recapture" of "historic Palestine." Our very existence -- democracy, freedom, religious tolerance and gender equality -- threaten Islamofascism. . . . Nothing short of civilization is at stake. -- Larry Elder, townhall.com, 7/20/06

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: There are two dirty little secrets behind the debate over the illegal alien issue that even the advocates of securing the borders first have failed to discuss.The first secret is that the estimated twelve to twenty million aliens living and working illegally in the United States have to commit identity theft to secure employment. The second secret is that without illegals' payroll tax contributions, filed under stolen or fraudulent Social Security numbers, the Social Security system would collapse years earlier than estimated. -- Herman Cain, townhall.com, 7/19/06

GLOBAL WARMING: If global warming is real, and if it is new, and if it is caused not by nature and her cycles but man and his rapacity, and if it in fact endangers mankind, scientists will probably one day blame The People for doing nothing. But I think The People will have a greater claim to blame the scientists, for refusing to be honest, for operating in cliques and holding to ideologies. For failing to be trustworthy. -- Peggy Noonan, opinionjournal.com, 7/20/06

WAR: One would not expect a French president to know that the point of war is a completely disproportionate use of force culminating in victory. For the French, a proportionate response is, presumably, surrender. -- Ben Shapiro, townhall.com, 7/19/06

WAR IN LEBANON: The road to a solution is ... clear: Israel liberates south Lebanon and gives it back to the Lebanese. -- Charles Krauthammer, nydailynews.com, 7/19/06

WAR IN LEBANON: One cannot understand the significance of the current Mideast war being fought out in Lebanon and Israel without seeing it as part -- however ambiguously connected -- of the larger struggle between radical Islamists and the rest of us. -- Tony Blankley, washingtontimes.com, 7/19/06

GOD-GIVEN KNOWLEDGE: The Greatest discoveries are yet to come, if we are willing to see all useful things through a sacred lens. When scientists combine the classic scientific method with an intense spirituality and longing for revelatory contact with God; when the laboratories of medicine and the conservatories of music also become institutions of prayer; when brilliant creative types align their talents with the infinite genius of God's creativity; when artists are motivated by charity for mankind and a yearning to understand God's character and work; then will knowledge and happiness vastly multiply beyond our present measure. . . . We [Mormons], who believe all valuable knowledge is spiritual and not temporal, should of course seek the world's knowledge that has been amassing over the centuries, but then have the bravery to break with secular restraints and add to our various disciplines the principle of pure revelation. If this happens, I believe unimaginable wonders will begin to unfold. -- James T. Summerhayes, Ancient Prophets of Genius, meridianmagazine.com, 7/18/06

WAR IN LEBANON: If Hezbollah is going to be destroyed, Israel will need to do this, heavily backed by U.S. military reserves. -- William F. Buckley, townhall.com, 7/19/06

SUPREME COURT: The Supreme Court's supremacist views will continue to expand if the other branches of government continue to accept the arrogant notion that whatever a judge says is the law of the land. Congress and the President can fix the problems created by Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, but only if they have the courage to rebuke the supremacist justices. -- Phyllis Schlafly, townhall.com, 7/18/06

WESTERN SURVIVAL: Of all the Western democracies, only two have no choice but to depend on their own military forces for their survival -- the United States and Israel. The rest have for more than half a century had the luxury of depending on American military forces in general and the American nuclear deterrent in particular. -- Thomas Sowell, townhall.com, 7/18/06

ISRAEL: Regardless of fashionable rhetoric, there is no Middle East "peace process" any more than trading "land for peace" has been a viable option. Nor is a Palestinian "homeland" a key to peace. -- Thomas Sowell, townhall.com, 7/18/06

GUN CONTROL: The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others.

GUN CONTROL: What part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand?

IRAN: Gaza, Hezbollah, Iraq, Al Qaeda: It is all the same fight. "No one should have any lingering doubts about what's going on in the Middle East," writes Michael Ledeen, an expert on terrorism and Iran. "It's war, and it now runs from Gaza into Israel, through Lebanon and thence to Iraq via Syria. There are different instruments, ranging from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon and on to the multifaceted `insurgency' in Iraq. But there is a common prime mover, and that is the Iranian mullahcracy, the revolutionary Islamic fascist state that declared war on us 27 years ago and has yet to be held accountable." ... We will never win this war, Ledeen and others argue, until the Iranian theocracy is brought down. That does not have to mean military action. Our aim instead should be to empower Iran's restive population, which is largely pro-Western and moderate. Give them as much support as possible, much as the Reagan administration did for Lech Walesa and Solidarity in Poland -- and let them find the means to reclaim their government for themselves. -- Jeff Jacoby, townhall.com, 7/17/06

ISRAEL: The difference between Israel and America is not simply language ...; rather, Israel is fighting for her survival and will do anything (even if politically incorrect) where America is worried about public and international opinion. ... Differences are striking between how the two nations operate not because one cares more or less for her population or military, but because the United States cares about the all important and never successful quest to look diplomatic. Israel cares about results and it will not stop until her mission is achieved. -- Steve Yuhas, opinioneditorials.com, 7/13/06

POLITICS: I have only three thoughts [on political decision-making]. One: It is good to keep in mind ... that we must let as many questions devolve into the private sphere as possible. Not all can but many can, and on so many issues it's better to err on the side of individual freedom than the authority of the state. Two, in making big decisions do not lose simple common sense, which is common human sense, which is, for instance: If you start to clone humans it will have an ugly end. Three: Do not let go of your faith. Do not lose it. In the age in which too much is demanded of the slim wisdom of politicians, it is our only hope, and theirs. -- Peggy Noonan, opinionjournal.com, 7/13/06

ISRAEL: Despite the forlorn (and fatuous) hopes of so called peace advocates, there is to way to compromise or negotiate for the resolution of an implacable conflict. One side or the other must clearly and completely reject its most cherished dream for its future. Either the Israelis must abandon their now-realized dream of maintaining a Jewish homeland in the Middle East, or else the Palestinians must altogether reject their own cherished dream of obliterating and eliminating the Jewish State. President Reagan changed the world with his clear, unequivocal (and repeatedly expressed) recognition regarding the Cold War: that ultimately one side was going to win, and the other side was going to lose. There was no other way to settle the struggle. In this same spirit, those who honestly wish to see an end to the bloodshed and suffering in the Middle East must first give up their sick infatuation with negotiation, compromise and empty promises on paper. It's not a peace process that the world needs when confronting relentless terrorist demands. Only a victory process can finally end the violence and the pain. -- Michael Medved, townhall.com, 7/12/06

GUN CONTROL: When a government seizes citizens' ability to protect themselves, that government becomes a usurper. It is for this reason that the Second Amendment guarantees both the individual right to self-defense and the communal right to fight any deprivation of the right to self-defense. -- Ben Shapiro, townhall.com, 7/12/06

SOCIAL SECURITY: According to the National Council for Capital Formation,Social Security lowers private saving and investment and, as a result, GDP is at least five percent lower than it otherwise would be. Moreover, had people been able to use the money for private retirement plans, they'd earn much more than the paltry sum Social Security pays out. -- Walter E. Williams,townhall.com, 7/12/06

MEDIA: The press is on of the most secular institutions in American society. It just doesn't get religion or any idea that flows from religious conviction. -- Bill Schneider, LA Times

Marxist Methodology

[In the 1960s] the New Left began infiltrating and taking control of America's culture-shaping "idea producing' institutions. Their goal was to psychologically manipulate Americans into committing spiritual, cultural, political, and ultimately demographic suicide. This would be achieved through Psychopolitics, the science of sinister psychological manipulation.

The multifaceted attack began in America as it had begun in Russia under Lenin and Trotsky?with attacks upon the patriarchal family and Christianity.

Before long, the notion that marriage, domesticity and family are types of slavery began to be heard. Temptations such as 'free-love,' porn, and drugs were held out to husbands and fathers while the ears of wives and mothers were filled with the poisonous notion that they were sex-slaves to their husbands. "Liberation and personal fulfillment," it was suggested, "were to be found outside the home in the workplace." Easy divorce, abortions on demand, and plenty of daycare centers, it was insinuated, were necessary to achievement of self-fulfillment. Government-controlled schools helpfully offered various social programs, including feeding programs.

The idea that 'unisex is cool' was smoothly slotted into position. This was eventually followed by the idea that sodomy and erotic fantasies were the same thing as having black skin or being Irish or Italian. People who do these things, itwas inferred, are a 'species' or 'class' of people who ought to have the same rights as everyone else. This new species or class is called 'gays,' it was intimated. The word 'pride' became attached to everything about the new class. Through judicial chicanery, sodomy laws were declared unconstitutional and struck down, thus awarding the new 'species' of 'gay' people with the right to engage in sodomy. "Gays ought to have the right to marry and have children (even though theycannot procreate),' we were told. Then very quietly, so no one would notice, the word 'gay' acquired an expanded meaning ... sexual continuum. Almost immediately, the newly expanded definition was redefined to 'polymorphous," also known as androgynous, thus bringing us full circle to unisex. The gospel of unisex (also known as queer theory) began being taught in America's universities. It crept into lower schools disguised as "safe school" programs. ...

"All of the very best people -- the progressively enlightened, tolerant, and broadminded type of people -- support the 'gay civil rights' movement while only backwards, superstition-believing Christians and red-state rednecks don't," we were instructed to believe. "These latter are hateful bigots who ought to be forced into'shutting-up' by having hate-crime laws imposed upon them," Trotskyites slyly suggested.

-- Linda Kimball, opinioneditorials.com, 7/10/06

NORTH KOREA: Bush needs to announce in [a] nationally televised speech that the very next time North Korea even moves ICBMs onto the launch pads that those missile installations will be destroyed. End of story. This kind of strength by America would not only serve to defend our own country, it could also hasten the end to the murderous regime of Kim -- a real blessing for the Korean people. It would also send the right message to all our enemies abroad. -- Joseph Farah,wnd.com, 7/11/06

ANTI-BALLISTIC MISSILES: This North Korean threat dramatically confirms the need for the anti-missile defense system that President Ronald Reagan called for in his famous nationally televised address of March 23, 1983. ... If we shoot down a North Korean missile with our own anti-missile system, that would send a powerful message to North Korea that its tactics are a loser. It would also reassure Japan and other U.S. allies that we have the will to protect them from rogue madmen. ... The best way to discourage nuclear proliferation would be to demonstrate that the United States is willing and able to destroy their missiles before they hit their targets. It's time for the United States to let the world know that we have an anti-ballistic missile defense system to protect our people and our allies, and that we will use it. -- Phyllis Schlafly, townhall.com, 7/10/06

IMMIGRATION: No small part of the outrage over the immigration issue [ "it's not an amnesty bill" -- kjk ] came from people's sense that their intelligence was being insulted by those they elected. -- Thomas Sowell, townhall.com, 7/11/06

DEMOCRACY: Never think that you don't count. You are what count most of all. Politicians understand votes if they don't understand anything else. They are virtually obsessed with public opinion polls. ... Democracy means that each individual voter cannot expect to prevail on every issue because there are other voters with other views. But that does not mean that the public is powerless when a clear majority knows what it wants and doesn't want. -- Thomas Sowell, townhall.com, 7/11/06

WAR ON TERROR: According to the Populus survey conducted for the London Times and ITV News, more than one in 10 British Muslims believe the bombers should be regarded as "martyrs." Sixteen percent of British Muslims - about 150,000 adults - believe that while the attacks were wrong, the cause was right. Seven percent of the 1,131 Muslim adults surveyed believe such attacks can be justified "in some circumstances." Sixteen percent would be "indifferent" if a family member joined al-Qaida. Since terrorists are known to lie, these figures could be much higher. There are an estimated 1.6 million Muslims in Britain. Do the math and see if this is a tolerable number of extremists, who might be terrorists and are certainly in sympathy with the killing of "infidels." A similar study should be conducted in the United States. -- Cal Thomas, townhall.com, 7/11/06

CENSORSHIP:
I went to the Titanic Burger place and ordered a giant cheeseburger with everything on it except onions.
"I can't do that," said the clerk.
"Why not?"
"Well, a U.S. district judge has ruled that removing part of the whole Titanic Burger experience injures the creative expression of our chef. It's a copyrighted recipe."
"But onions make me sick!"
"Sorry. What if somebody else accidentally got a Titanic Burger without onions? They might think that's the way we intended our burgers to taste."
"Can't you just put a label on it that says NO onions?"
"Nope. You'll have to take them out yourself -- if you can find all the pieces."
"I guess I won't be eating any more Titanic Burgers!" I said, and drove away.
For burgers or DVDs, we could soothe the creative temperament of chefs and producers alike with a simple disclaimer that parts have been deleted. In the meantime I won't be buying a copy of "Titanic" on DVD. I really don't want to see Kate's onions.
-- Margaret Leigh, letter to the editor, deseretnews.com, 7/11/06

HOW TO HONOR

What follows was written by Vicki Pierce about the funeral of her nephew James M. Kiehl who died serving our country in Iraq. Please read it and remember it.

"I'm back. It was certainly a quick trip, but I have to also say it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. There is a lot to be said for growing up in a small town in Texas. The service itself was impressive with wonderful flowers and sprays, a portrait of James, his uniform and boots, his awards and ribbons. There was lots of military brass and an eloquent (though inappropriately longwinded) Baptist preacher. There were easily 1,000 people at the service, filling the church sanctuary as well as the fellowship hall and spilling out into the parking lot.

"However, the most incredible thing was what happened following the service on the way to the cemetery. We went to our cars and drove to the cemetery escorted by at least 10 police cars with lights flashing and some other emergency vehicles, with Texas Rangers handling traffic. Everyone on the road who was not in the procession pulled over, got out of their cars, and stood silently and respectfully. Some put their hands over their hearts.

"When we turned off the highway, suddenly there were teenage boys along both sides of the street about every 20 feet or so, all holding large American flags on long flag poles, and again with their hands on their hearts. We thought at first it was the Boy Scouts or 4H club or something, but it continued .... for two and a half miles. Hundreds of young people, standing silently on the side of the road with flags. At one point we passed an elementary school, and all the children were outside, shoulder to shoulder holding flags -- kindergartners, handicapped, teachers, staff, everyone. Some held signs of love and support. Then came teenage girls and younger boys, all holding flags. Then adults. Then families. All standing silently on the side of the road. No one spoke, not even the very young children.

"The military presence -- at least two generals, a fist-full of colonels and representatives from every branch of the service, plus the color guard that attended James and some who served with him -- was very impressive and respectful, but the love and pride from this community who had lost one of their own was the most amazing thing I've ever been privileged to witness.

"I've attached some pictures; some are blurry (we were moving), but you can get a small idea of what this was like. Thanks so much for all the prayers and support."

POLITICS: Political figures don't like to make choices; they don't like to reward some groups and not others; they don't like to admit that they can't do it all. They are political. Not rational. -- Kimberley A. Strassel, opinionjournal.com, 7/08/06

MORMONISM: The [new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg] poll found that while anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism are fading among voters, anti-Mormonism is not. Thirty-seven percent of those questioned said they would not vote for a Mormon presidential candidate. Article VI of the U.S. Constitution forbids a "religious test" for those wishing to serve in public office, but it can do nothing about voters who wish to apply a religious test to candidates. ... If an ambulance hits me, I care less where or how the driver worships than I do about his sense of direction to the nearest hospital. It troubles me not that a Mormon might be president. It does trouble me a great deal that so many people would think a person's faith - whether one shares it or not - should be the only reason to deny someone the presidency. -- Cal Thomas, townhall.com, 7/6/06

IDEOLOGY: There is no more a "political middle" than there is a family in America with 2.3 children. People with opinions take sides. Contrary to what you've heard, it's actually more important to stand for something than it is for everybody to "just get along." -- Ann Coulter, townhall.com, 7/6/06

SUPREME COURT:
The Court lacked jurisdiction to hear [suspected terrorist SalimAhmed] Hamdan's appeal, but once assuming jurisdiction, it ruled incorrectly that the Geneva Conventions apply to his case. ...

[Justice Antonin] Scalia said that judges inclined toward the "living Constitution" approach think "there really is a brotherhood of the judiciary who indeed believe it is our function, as judges throughout the world, to determine the meaning of human rights. And what the brothers -- and sisters -- in one country say is quite relevant to what the brothers and sisters in another country say. And that's why I think if you are a living constitutionalist, you are almost certainly an international living constitutionalist."

To grasp the magnitude of the arrogance of the Court's majority in extending Geneva protections to Hamdan, you really need to understand that it had no power to decide this case. ...

On Dec. 30, 2005, Congress passed the Detainee Treatment Act (DTA), in which it expressly and unambiguously stripped all courts, including the Supreme Court, of jurisdiction to consider habeas corpus petitions of Guantanamo Bay detainees,such as Hamdan.

It is inconceivable that the Court's majority was in doubt about Congress's intent to deprive it of jurisdiction in these cases. ...

Once it usurped jurisdiction of the case, the majority further demonstrated itsdetermination to go the extra mile for Al Qaeda (and thus please its international brethren) by straining to interpret "Common Article 3" of all four Geneva Conventions as applying to Hamdan even though Al Qaeda is not a nation, not a Convention signatory, and the conflict is clearly international in scope.
-- David Limbaugh, humaneventsonline.com, 7/5/06

AMERICA: There is no question that we have failed to live up to the dreams of the founding fathers many times and in many places. Sometimes we do better than others. But all in all, the one thing we must be on guard against is thinking that because of this, the system has failed. The system has not failed. Some human beings have failed the system. -- Ronald Reagan

SCIENCE: If a scientific heresy is ignored or denounced by the general public, there is a chance it may be right. If a scientific heresy is emotionally supported by the general public, it is almost certainly wrong. ... It is not so much that I have confidence in scientists being right, but that I have so much in nonscientists being wrong. ... It is those who support ideas for emotional reasons only who can't change. -- Isaac Asimov, "Asimov's Corollary," 1977

MORALITY: The Gay Cult minority in this country has manipulated our society into believing that homosexual practices in any form are moral and right---otherwise we are "Intolerant." They justify their behaviors by claims of "we were born this way," that what they do is a "civil right." Yes, they have a right to pursue their own happiness, but not at the expense of strangling the moral, objective truths of civilization itself. -- Bonnie Alba, opinioneditorials.com, 6/30/06

MORALITY: The safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best security of law as well as the surest pledge of freedom. -- Alexis de Tocqueville

TREASON: Before the Vietnam War, this country took treason seriously. But now we're told newspapers have a right to commit treason because of "freedom of the press." Liberals invoke "freedom of the press" like some talismanic formulation that requires us all to fall prostrate in religious ecstasy. ... But freedom of the press does not mean the government cannot prosecute reporters and editors for treason -- or for any other crime. ...

The federal statute on treason, 18 USC 2381, provides in relevant part: "Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States ... adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000." ...

The greatest threat to the war on terrorism isn't the Islamic insurgency -- our military can handle the savages. It's traitorous liberals trying to lose the war at home. And the greatest threat at home isn't traitorous liberals -- it's patriotic Americans, also known as "Republicans," tut-tutting the quaint idea that we should take treason seriously. -- Ann Coulter, townhall.com, 6/29/06

DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE: It is not bigotry to insist that there is a good reason why marriage has existed in every known human society, and why it has always involved the uniting of men and women. It is not bigotry to acknowledge what reams of scholarship confirm: Family structure matters, and children are more likely to suffer problems when they are not raised by their married mothers and fathers. It is not bigotry to resist the dishonest comparison of same-sex marriage to interracial marriage -- skin color has nothing to do with wedlock, while sex is fundamental to it. And it is not bigotry to fear that a social change as radical as same-sex marriage could lead to grave and unintended consequences, from the persecution of religious institutions to a growing clamor for legalizing polygamy. -- Jeff Jacoby

LEGACY: One day, our grandchildren may ask us what we did when Islamic fascism threatened the free world. Some of us will say we were preoccupied with fighting that threat wherever possible; others will be able to say they fought carbon dioxide emissions. One of us will look bad. -- Dennis Prager

IRAQ WAR: [D]uring World War II, the Japanese...gave their psychological warfare script to their famous broadcaster 'Tokyo Rose' and every day she would broadcast this same message packaged in different ways, hoping it would have a negative impact on American GI's morale. What was that demoralizing message? It had three main points: 1. Your President is lying to you. 2. This war is illegal. 3. You cannot win the war. -- David Horowitz

GOVERNMENT: The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem. -- Milton Friedman

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: Political correctness is really a subjective list put together by the few to rule the many -- a list of things one must think, say, or do. It affronts the right of the individual to establish his or her own beliefs. -- Mark Berley

CHARITY: Repairing the breach [Isaiah 58:12] -- or closing the rapidly widening gap between rich and poor -- and Turning the hearts [Malachi 4:6] and our priorities from the world to our families are the two greatest causes and challenges of our time, and the two tasks most relevant (and most prerequisite) to the Lord's second coming. ... One powerful way of working at both scriptural admonitions at the same time is to bring the very rich together with the very poor. Doing so solves the problems of both. The rich overcome self-centeredness and hedonism by helping, thus turning their children from spoiled brats to serving and world-aware stewards. And the poor begin to receive the help they need on a personal level. Each time it happens, the breach is repaired (even if just a little) and the hearts are turned. -- Richard Eyre, meridianmagazine.com, 6/23/06

POVERTY: Sometimes the easiest way to understand the macro is to reduce it to the micro. Say the whole world were a single family (it really is, by the way). What parent could tolerate a situation where one of his six children is hundreds of times poorer than another one -- where one has wealth and food and education and opportunity while another one has none of the above? How does God tolerate it in his family? How long and how patiently will He wait for the one son to help the other (first to notice and then to act)? -- Barbara Kingsolver

GOVERNMENT: What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? -- James Madison, Federalist No. 51, 8 February 1788