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00Publius Contributor - Religion - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Through the Storm into Sunlight

January 19, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Thomas E. Brewton

With God’s help we can get through our tribulations.

The Reverend David Smith delivered today’s sermon at the Long Ridge Congregational Church in North Stamford, Connecticut (a Bible-based, non-UCC church).

His text was James 1:2-6, Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

That text had special relevance. Rev. Smith is the director of Pivot Ministries, a highly successful group that rehabs men who are victims of alcohol and drug abuse.

All of us have private pains, suffering, anxieties, even terrors. We can’t deal with them alone. But with God’s help can we re-orient our lives and hew to the path of righteousness. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)

Rev. Smith then discoursed upon one of history’s most heart-rending trials, recounted in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 21, verses 1-18. The message is put your faith in God and He will provide.

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife.

As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”

The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

Thomas E. Brewton is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance, Inc. The New Media Alliance is a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets.

His weblog is THE VIEW FROM 1776 http://www.thomasbrewton.com/

Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Thomas E. Brewton

00Publius Contributor - Congress - Constitution - Economy/Finances - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Stoking the Fires of Inflation

January 19, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

The Fed doesn’t need help, but the Democrats already are putting logs on the fire.

Democrat Barney Frank, the new chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has served notice that he won’t tolerate efforts by the Federal Reserve Board to forestall inflation, if such measures might curb employment numbers.

The Wall Street Journal, in a January 13, 2007, article by Greg Ip, reports, When Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies on monetary policy next month, he is likely to get far more scrutiny than usual……… Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who took over the House panel this month, said he plans to hold an additional day of hearings in which witnesses, such as economists and labor experts, will give their views on what Mr. Bernanke said.
Continue reading “Stoking the Fires of Inflation”

00Publius Contributor - Congress - Constitution - Founders - History - Patriotism - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Bloggers Might be Fined $200,000 by the Federal Gov’t

January 19, 2007 by

Thomas Paine wrote one of the most famous tracts of the Revolutionary era. Titled “The Rights of Man”, it was a tract that many said, should it not have existed, the Revolution could not have occurred. In fact, historians contend rightfully, that the writings of our founders and their contemporaries were incredibly important as much for their content as for their ability to spread the ideas over which we went to war with Great Britain across the hard to travel geography of early America.

Our Founders were true “grassroots” organizers. Without their words, we could not have won the Revolution.

Now the Federal government wants to destroy that same sort of process used to spur our citizens to free themselves from Monarchical despotism. The Federal government today wants to quash the ability of small citizen’s groups to disseminate information to like minded people by instituting oppressive reporting rules and by claiming they are “lobbyists” bound by Congressional oversight. And if they don’t they face oppressive fines.
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00Publius Contributor - Congress - Constitution - Patriotism - Religion - Society/Culture - The Law - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Statistical Virtue

January 19, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Liberal social justice is based on statistical averages relating to an abstraction called “humanity.” Individual morality is not an element in that liberal cosmology.

One of the first legislative acts of the newly ensconced Congressional liberals was increasing the minimum wage. Countless studies have demonstrated that the legal minimum wage is counter-productive. But it sounds good and it can be applied at one shot without the tedious process of arriving at fair wages in individual cases.

The minimum wage is an example of the sound-good, feel-good statistical virtues of liberal-socialist-progressivism. Another is Al Gore’s championing the Kyoto Protocols that would eliminate millions of workers’ jobs in the Western world to reduce greenhouse gases, a statistical virtue that state-planners hypothesize will prevent the current high-point cycle of sun spot activity from warming the earth.
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00Publius Contributor - Frederick Meekins - Religion - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized

A Review Of Moral Choices: An Introduction To Ethics

January 19, 2007 by

-By Frederick Meekins

It has been said that we have come as far as we have only because we stand on the shoulders of giants. One of the strengths of ethics when studied as part of a survey of Western civilization has been the discipline’s emphasis on consulting the accumulated wisdom of the past. However, in doing so one must not fail to apply these principles to the situations arising in our own time.

‘Talbot School of Theology Professor Scott Rae in “Moral Choices: An Introduction To Ethics” maintains this balance by not only analyzing the foundations of this field as set forth in Biblical and historical sources as well as more contemporary systems but also by examining a number of issues arising from advances in technology.
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00Publius Contributor - Entertainment - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - Military - Patriotism - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

CBS News: We Report From the Middle, No Bias Here

January 17, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

When CBS launched their blog Public Eye in Sept. of 2005 they claimed it would give us “the journalists who make the important editorial decisions at CBS News and CBSNews.com” and that those journalists “will now be asked to explain and answer questions about those decisions in a public forum.”

While the jury might be out on the success of their task, we can certainly wonder at their ability to step away from themselves to render balanced judgment. Especially in the case of their recent story, “Biased In Both Directions”, where they declare that the MSM is reporting “in the middle” where it concerns stories about Iraq.

Viewers from the left and right might occasionally be annoyed by the tenor of the coverage, but they gravitated to the evening newscasts anyway, since … they remained more or less in the middle…

Continue reading “CBS News: We Report From the Middle, No Bias Here”

00Publius Contributor - Frederick Meekins - Religion - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

Boozing Epidemic Among Young Adult Church Groups

January 17, 2007 by

-By Frederick Meekins

In discussing her book “Thrill Of The Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On” on the Albert Mohler Show, journalist Dawn Eden made an observation that many young adult or singles ministries are centered around drinking.

This author is to be commended for exposing what is probably a little known and shocking fact.

I myself came across this startling truth when I was visiting a PCA Presbyterian Church (a supposedly more conservative denomination) off and on a few years back.

Though I never attended any of the functions since I could just as easily stay home and feel like less of a total outcast since hardly anyone in the Sunday school class would hardly even speak to me at church so why bother elsewhere, it always seemed an inordinate number of the e-mail invitations for class social functions mentioned alcohol would be present.
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00Publius Contributor - Book Reviews - Gregory Stewart - History - Religion - Science - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

Review of Discover Magazine’s: “The God Experiments by John Horgan”

January 17, 2007 by

-By Greg K. Stewart

This story has been in and out of the news last few years. Can one measure the existence of “God,” or “Spirituality” via the scientific method? That has been a question that has haunted science for years.

In the beginning of the article by John Horgan, he advocates science desire to answer the ineffable question, he says

“The science of religion has historical precedents, with Sigmund Freud and William James addressing the topic early in the last century. Now modern researchers are applying brain scans, genetic probes, and other the physiological causes of religious experience, characterize its effects, perhaps even begin it explain its abiding influence.”

Understandably, religion and science has considerable influence on the social paradigm over the past centuries. Horgan use of the word “perhaps” misleads his audience, the scientific method must always be followed not perhaps be deployed. He later redeems himself by providing case studies for each camp of the debate.
Continue reading “Review of Discover Magazine’s: “The God Experiments by John Horgan””

00Publius Contributor - Entertainment - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - Military - Patriotism - President - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Paper: Conservatives Have ‘No Qualms About Torturing’ Prisoners

January 17, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Are you a Conservative who likes the TV show “24”? If so, then Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer Eugene Kane has divined why you like it so much. It’s because you have “no qualms about torturing” prisoners.

In a gratuitous insult to all intelligent Conservatives everywhere, Mr Kane has declared you all to be slobbering Neanderthals who would rather beat your enemy to death with a club than use diplomacy and that the law obviously means nothing to you.

Some speculate one reason “24” is such a favorite of the Bush crowd is that Bauer is presented as a guy with no qualms about torturing his prisoners in order to get information as quickly as possible. In light of criticism the Bush administration gets for its torture policies, it doesn’t take a think-tank expert to see why some hail the show as a breath of clean air.

Continue reading “Paper: Conservatives Have ‘No Qualms About Torturing’ Prisoners”

00Publius Contributor - Constitution - Dan E. Phillips - Elections - Founders - History - Islam - Islamofascism - Military - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized

Anti-war Conservatives vs. Foreign Policy Realists

January 17, 2007 by

-By Dan E. Phillips

Reports indicate that Bush will advocate an increase in troop strength in Iraq when he publicly announces his new policy for Iraq. This policy has been dubbed “surging” and is also supported by Sen. McCain and other hawks. Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid have already spoken out against a surge. How this will all play out from a public relations and political standpoint remains to be seen.

Planning for a surge may well have been in the works for some time, but the timing of Bush rethinking the policy in Iraq was clearly precipitated by the unfavorable results (.pdf document) of the Iraq Study Group (ISG). Ironically, if the ISG was suggesting a de-escalation and eventual withdrawal, they may end up precipitating the opposite. In the name of “doing something” or “changing tactics” the findings of the ISG arguably give Bush some political cover for increasing troop numbers that he might not have had otherwise.

The liberal media celebrated the ISG’s findings as a severe blow to the Bush administration and its policies in Iraq. Predictably the conservative punditry reacted indignantly to the report and cried that the recommendations were tantamount to surrender. An apparent RNC talking point is that the Commission should be renamed the Iraq Surrender Group, an admittedly catchy but obviously simplistic formulation.
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00Publius Contributor - Congress - Constitution - GOP - History - Military - Patriotism - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - The Law - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Cultural Momentum

January 17, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Will enough traditions and customs of civility and decency survive long enough to keep the United States from internal disintegration and conquest by Islamic Jihad?

Liberal historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., often referred to his father’s theory that political standards follow a thirty-year cycle, first conservative, then liberal, and back to conservative, and so on. There is some truth to that observation, but the problem is that meanwhile the underlying social standards trend downward as a nation becomes more prosperous and life becomes easier. People vaunt their own intellects and come to believe that they no longer need God, that they are sufficient unto themselves for all matters.

After the United States emerged from the fiery furnace of the Civil War, on the road to becoming the most powerful economy in the world, liberal secularists in the 1880s believed that, having shed religion, they were directing us along the path of progress toward social perfection.
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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Islam - Islamofascism - Military - Security/Safety - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Bush to Welcome 10,000 Saudi Students to American Schools

January 15, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

–Foreign Student Visas, Easy Avenue for Terrorists Entry to US

Directly following the monstrous attacks of 9/11, the US government took a step back from the routinely lightly vetted approvals for student visa applications, especially from Saudi Arabia. Previous to 9/11, Saudi citizens were also offered quick entry to the USA with a policy called “visa express” where their applications routinely escaped close scrutiny and were easily rubber stamped ahead. Three of the 9/11 hijackers took advantage of this easy access.

After 9/11/01 the quick visa approval slowed. It was also a prudent policy to approve fewer foreign students from certain segments of the world after 9/11 (as it would have been before), but it is a policy that seems to have come to an end.

In 2003 I wrote an Op Ed (What is wrong with Foreign Student Visas?) warning that the student visa program offers an easy access to our shores for faux students who are really terrorists seeking an unguarded entry. In 2004, according to Stephen Schwartz of the Weekly Standard, only about 1,000 visas were granted to Saudi men wishing to attend an American University as a result of our government’s 9/11 heightened concern.

But, that number could climb to as much as 10,000 Saudi students in the 2006/2007 fall semester. And that climb is being blessed by a Bush administration initiative to increase the number of Saudi men approved for these student visas.

How soon we forget.
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00Publius Contributor - Congress - Elections - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

Lollapelosi diverts attention from Democrat mischief

January 15, 2007 by

-By Mike Bates

The intensity of Nancy Pelosi’s coronation last week was almost too much for the heart to bear.

There was Madam Speaker-to-be surrounded by her grandchildren with an adoring media nodding its collective approval. The New York Times noted “this nurturing image dominated the news.” No allusion was made to the many children victimized by taxpayer funded abortion, a particular enthusiasm of Ms. Pelosi.

ABC’s Charles Gibson (The Anchor Formerly Known as Charlie Gibson) gushed:

“But in a picture perhaps even more symbolic, the new Speaker was on the floor for a time, holding her 6-year-old grandson, all the while giving directions on how events were to proceed. It seemed the ultimate in multitasking: Taking care of the children and the country.”

I’ve heard rumors that a few stouthearted Americans still remain who don’t want, or even need, to be taken care of by politicians. They’re not children and they don’t need Big Grandma looking after them.
Continue reading “Lollapelosi diverts attention from Democrat mischief”

00Publius Contributor - Elections - President - Selwyn Duke - Uncategorized

Mitt Romney: A Massachusetts Liberal for President

January 15, 2007 by

-By Selwyn Duke

With the 2008 presidential campaign looming just on the horizon, speculation about political fortunes abounds. On the Democrat side, Lady Hillary is waiting in the wings, and the media’s profilers have found their fair-haired boy in Barack Obama. On the Republican side, the picture is murkier. Often the Vice-president would be the logical choice to carry the incumbent party’s torch, but Dick Cheney won’t be running and, even if he did, he wouldn’t win. Of course, Arizona Senator John McCain is still around, but he arouses suspicion among conservatives. Seeming worn, tired, erratic and untrustworthy, many think the old soldier should just fade away.

Enter Mitt Romney. Inching ever closer to a presidential run, the former CEO and outgoing Governor of Massachusetts is emerging as the Barack Obama of the GOP. And the analogy is apt. He has the resonant voice, the good looks, the statesman-like bearing and, going Obama two better, great hair and unobtrusive ears.

But Romney shares another commonality with Obama: He’s a liberal in his party masquerading as something more palatable. Yes, sugar and spice and dealing the deck twice, that’s what little politicians are made of.
Continue reading “Mitt Romney: A Massachusetts Liberal for President”

00Publius Contributor - Elections - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

CNN Hires Clinton Operative as 2008 Presidential Polling Unit

January 14, 2007 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a move that throws all claims of being fair and balanced out the window, CNN has hired a polling company owned by a long time activist for the Clintons as their newest polling organization to track the 2008 election cycle.

Any guesses who THIS polling company will say is “winning”?

CNN has announced that Opinion Research Corporation has been chosen to serve as their polling unit for the upcoming 2008 presidential race because of its “reputation for independent, objective analysis and its excellent reputation”.

Opinion Research Corporation, however, was recently acquired by InfoUSA a company controlled by one Vinod Gupta, a very active Clinton supporter (of Hillary as well as Bill).
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Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Can Voters Make the Decision to Pull Out of Iraq?

January 14, 2007 by

By Thomas E. Brewton

If voters are well enough informed to make the complex decision about pulling out of Iraq, why do we need liberal-socialist-progressive government to tell them how to live their daily lives?

Liberal Republicans and liberal Democrats say that the American people voted in the latest Congressional elections to pull our troops out of Iraq, sooner rather than later. Is that the whole story, and is it a valid basis for forming life-or-death foreign policy?

On the one hand, liberals are, in effect, adopting Ross Perot’s idea that all voters should have computers and internet connections that would permit continuous referenda on every policy matter before Congress.

On the other hand, liberals’ stock-in-trade is the firm conviction that voters need to be protected from their follies and must be coddled and comforted by government, from cradle to grave. Why does government have to keep such purportedly well informed voters from eating the wrong things, driving the wrong automobiles, and borrowing money on terms they can’t meet?
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00Publius Contributor - Frederick Meekins - Uncategorized

Trump An Enemy Of Free Speech

January 14, 2007 by

-By Frederick Meekins

One of the more recent James Bond movies was titled “The World Is Not Enough”. It would seem the expression also summarizes Donald Trump’s worldview and philosophy of life.

Not satisfied trying to maneuver New Orleans residents and little old ladies out of their property standing in the way of his expansive domain, the famed tycoon is now taking it upon himself to acquire the rights to the First Amendment, grant access to it to whomever he pleases, and demand the masses venerate him like some deluded Roman Emperor. Responding to remarks made by Rosie O’Donnell on The View regarding the irony of someone of Trump’s questionable reputation standing in judgment over the propriety of Miss USA’s inebriated deportment, Trump is threatening to sue.

But on what grounds does he have standing? It is pretty much public perception that Trump got his boost in life with the help of daddy’s money and that Donald has come perilously close to bankruptcy.

He must think he is so rich that he ought to be able to expunge the historical record to suit his own fancy.
Continue reading “Trump An Enemy Of Free Speech”

00Publius Contributor - Media Bias - President - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

WA Post: In Review of TV’s ‘24′, A Shot at Dick Cheney!

January 13, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

What is it about the Washington Post where they can’t even do reviews of TV shows without attacking some Republican or another?

This time it is the TV series 24 that gets used as a platform to attack the Bush administration, namely in the target of choice, Vice President Dick Cheney.

In a review that is mostly a light hearted take on the adventures (and implausibilities therein) of Jack Bauer and the constant threat to national security — that always seems to happen only in Los Angeles — The WaPost slips in a shot at Dick Cheney.
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00Publius Contributor - Religion - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Proclamation of God’s Word

January 13, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

In this new year, we must live to show that the word of God is full of living power.

The Reverend Jason Pankau preached today’s sermon at the Long Ridge Congregational Church (non-UCC; in North Stamford, Connecticut). His text was Psalm 90:1-17:

A prayer of Moses the man of God.

Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You turn men back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, O sons of men.” For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning- though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered. We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan.
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00Publius Contributor - Chuck Busch - Congress - Constitution - GOP - Islam - Islamofascism - President - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized

Looking for the Easy Exit Out of Iraq

January 13, 2007 by

-By Chuck Busch

It is completely fair to accuse Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi of refusing to “change course” in Iraq. Unfortunately, the “course” they are stubbornly and steadfastly sticking to is withdrawal of US forces from the Middle East regardless of the tribal maelstrom certain to occur as a result of the subsequent power vacuum left in the region. For the past many months and years, the Democrat leadership has spoken of nothing else but a sudden retreat from the central battlefront in the war with terror, which happens to be Baghdad.

This position was clarified once again in a joint letter by the new Senate and House majority leaders to President Bush expressing their total opposition to the increase of more troops to quell sectarian violence. They wrote, “We, therefore encourage you to reject any plans that call for our getting our troops deeper into Iraq.” Their rejection of a possible new strategy was made public even before President Bush had presented his new plan and explained its many aspects.
Continue reading “Looking for the Easy Exit Out of Iraq”

00Publius Contributor - Congress - Constitution - Elections - GOP - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - Military - President - Religion - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Sec. Rice Attacked by Sen. Boxer Over Childlessness

January 12, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Is it not outrageous that Senator Barbara Boxer (Dem, Cal) verbally attacked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for not having children as Rice appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday to discuss the Administrations position on Bush’s Iraq military “surge” plans? Is this an acceptable criticism of a political official? Is the fact that an official might not have children reason to doubt their capacity for policy making or ability to advise an administration?

Is this the Democrat’s new era of niceness, their less rancorous way of governing?

I was shocked to see this intemperate verbal assault by Boxer in the New York Post, but I became curious to see how other MSM sources treated the outrageous comments of the unbalanced Boxer. So, I did a little search of the reactions of the press.
Continue reading “Sec. Rice Attacked by Sen. Boxer Over Childlessness”

00Publius Contributor - Islam - Islamofascism - Patriotism - President - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

More Of Jimmy Carter’s Advisers Quit Over Book

January 12, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I reported a few days ago that one of ex-president Jimmy Carter’s aides quit after his recent book was published. That aide called the book “filled with errors”.

Now, fourteen more have ended their association with the disgraceful ex-president over the book’s lies, distortions and fantasies.
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00Publius Contributor - Congress - Constitution - Dan E. Phillips - Elections - Patriotism - President - Religion - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

Senator Obama and the Social Gospel

January 12, 2007 by

-By Dan E. Phillips

All the fuss over Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) and his possible presidential candidacy is hard to explain. He is a recently elected junior Senator. Under normal circumstances his candidacy would be considered premature at best and hubristic at worst. So why the fawning treatment, especially by the media?

Well, I have to admit the guy is smooth. I saw him on Jay Leno, and I was very impressed with his persona. He was funny, self-deprecating, and able to banter back and forth with Leno. He is able to engage in small talk without immediately mounting the bully pulpit as many politicians are prone to do. In this respect he reminds me a lot of Bill Clinton. He seems like a regular guy. How much of that is an act, I have no idea. He did graduate from Harvard Law which tends to tarnish your regular guy credentials. But much of politics is an act, and he seems pretty good at it.

A big question is how long he will be able to pull off the “can’t we just all get along?” act. Will the Democratic primary voters tolerate that shtick in the hope of victory, or will they force him to more clearly articulate where he stands on the issues? Despite all the talk that he is a bridge between left and right, his positions are cookie-cutter liberal. If the Democratic primary voters don’t force him to reveal his hand, I’m sure the Republican campaign machine will if he becomes the Democratic nominee.
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Congress - Constitution - GOP - Islam - Islamofascism - Military - Patriotism - President - Religion - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Bush This Step in the Right Direction Could be his Last Chance

January 12, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

“Imagine this war as a sort of grotesque race. The jihadists and sectarians win if they can kill enough Americans to demoralize us enough that we flee before Iraqis and Afghans stabilize their newfound freedom. They lose if they can’t. Prosperity, security and liberty are the death knell to radical Islam. It’s that elemental.”
—Victor Davis Hanson

A “new plan” for Iraq, at last some sense… Bush’s plan revealed

Bush finally acts as if he truly wants to win this battle to give Iraq a chance to stabilize its foundling government by desiring to send in 20,000 more troops to “clear, hold, and build”, as the phrase has it. Clear out the insurgent and terrorist’s cells, hold the territory taken and then give the nascent Iraqi government a chance to establish itself as well as give the common Iraqi citizen the feeling of safety that befits a civilized society.

Sadly, Bush should have done this at least two years ago. In fact, many said from the beginning that we hadn’t enough troops to win the peace from the beginning. Those who made that claim were 100 percent right. But, that he has seen the sense of it and is proposing it now is a good thing. Better late than never.
Continue reading “Bush This Step in the Right Direction Could be his Last Chance”

Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - Military - Patriotism - Resa LaRu, "Warchick" Kirkland - Uncategorized

A WONDERFUL DEATH — And Still the NYT Doesn’t Get It

January 12, 2007 by

Resa LaRu “Warchick” Kirkland

There’s something about hope. No matter how bad things get, man still clings to the tiniest shred of faith that things can change. It is innate within all humanity, a truly glorious thing.

Unless it’s applied to Islammunism and its co-conspirator the New York Times. That is when hope is pointless and dangerous.

Something wonderful happened on December 30, 2006. It was the perfect way to end the year. They hung one of the most vile human beings to ever walk the planet, and that’s saying a lot given mankind’s wicked past. Yep, snapped his neck like a twig, which was tremendously merciful considering what that narcissistic SOB did to millions of innocent people. In the end, the victims gave mercy to he who had never shown any…ever.
Continue reading “A WONDERFUL DEATH — And Still the NYT Doesn’t Get It”

Constitution - Crime - Economy/Finances - History - Patriotism - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Pizza Place to Take Mexican Pesos For Pizza

January 10, 2007 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

You may have heard the story kicking about the talk shows and the internet about the South Western Pizza chain that has announced that they will be taking US dollars as well as Mexican Pesos as payment for their pizzas?

In some circles this is causing quite a nativist outrage. Upstanding Americans are crying “anti-Americanism” against this pizza chain, Pizza Patron, which has stores in Southern Arizona, Southern California and other areas of the USA close to the Mexican border.

It seems the natural charge to make against the chain in this day of heightened sensitivity against illegal immigration. But, if one takes a little bit of time to think about this with a bit of reason, one might come to feel this story is just a humbug of a story.
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Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Some Funny Globaloney News

January 10, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I love to see it when the Global Warming crowd makes themselves look like the clowns they are. And here is two stories that made me laugh about the Globaloney nuts.

Story #1 :Monument to the Planet Suffers a Hard Fall to Earth

An artist who hoped to stir debate over global warming with his 175-ton quartzite and bronze sculpture “Spaceship Earth” is instead struggling to solve the mystery of its spectacular crash at Kennesaw State University last week.

Questions abound over whether vandals destroyed the sculpture, made by a Finnish-born artist known as Eino, or whether a combination of substandard adhesive and rain caused it to crumble in the middle of the night on Dec. 29 in a collapse the campus police said they felt from their offices around the corner.

The pictures were hilarious. One of this ridiculous giant world sculpture with some figures of kids walking on the top of it and the other picture was the jumbled mess of materials collapsed on the ground.

It’s great for a laugh.
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Congress - Constitution - Crime - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - Religion - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

UPI Report is Just a Muslim ‘Leaders’ Press Release

January 10, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is always amazing when a “news report” is merely just a rehash of some press release, or is, at the very least, a completely one sided report.

Such is the case with a recent UPI “report”, “Fight anti-Arab bigotry, Gonzalez told”.

UPI is wagging its finger at U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez via a group of “Arab leaders” who are warning the government “to fight anti-Arab bigotry.” The whole UPI “report” is nothing but the warnings of these so-called leaders about how filled with bigotry the USA is and how the government must fight it.

With all this hooplah, one would imagine that Arabs are being attacked, mistreated and discriminated against all across the country at an alarming rate. Arab “leader” James Zogby even makes the claim that the government must “reverse this disturbing and increasingly accepted trend of anti-Arab and Muslim bias”.
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Congress - Constitution - Elections - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

John Edwards and universal health care

January 10, 2007 by

-By Michael Bates

Taking a much needed break from primping, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards launched his 2008 presidential bid the other day. A campaign cornerstone is the promise of universal health care.

The emphasis here is on the word promise. Although he’s had literally years to work out the details, Edwards has few specifics, if any, that he wishes to disclose.

During a blog session on the liberal Daily Kos website last week, the Democrat said:

“I believe we need a universal health care system where ALL Americans have health care coverage. I’m working on a plan right now for universal healthcare, and if you have ideas I would love to hear them.”

Hold it. I thought HE was the guy with the ideas. Maybe not, at least when it comes to the tar baby (if you’ll pardon the expression) of universal health care.

We’re close enough to easily see the experience of our friends to the north in Canada. And what an experience it has been.
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Book Reviews - Constitution - Founders - History - Patriotism - Society/Culture - The Law - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Nock on Shaw’s Socialism

January 9, 2007 by

-By Thomas Brewton

Celebrated libertarian analyst Albert Jay Nock’s 1945 review of George Bernard Shaw’s Everybody’s Political What’s What exposes the fundamental flaw in socialism and its American liberal-progressive doctrine. As we begin a new Congress dominated by liberal-socialist-progressives, it is useful to have Mr. Nock’s perspective.

The Mises.org website posting titled The Socialism of Mr. Shaw is a reminder to us elderly, and a notice to the young, that however delightful Shaw was as a playwright, he was very far out in left field with regard to politics and economics. Not surprisingly, just as is true today of the media and theatre today, Shaw’s plays project pro-socialist views.

Most people today who know of Shaw at all probably acquired that acquaintance indirectly via the hugely successful Broadway musical My Fair Lady, which was an adaptation of Shaw’s Pygmalion. To appreciate Shaw’s role outside the literary field, it’s necessary to understand a bit more about the late Victorian period in England and its impact upon political and economic doctrine in the United States.
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