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)