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America’s rise to the status of the world’s premier power, while inspiring much admiration, has also provoked widespread feelings of suspicion and hostility.

…According to the French analyst Jean François Revel, “If you remove anti-Americanism, nothing remains of French political thought today, either on the Left or on the Right.” Revel might just as well have said the same thing about German political thought or the thought of almost any Western European country, where anti-Americanism reigns as the lingua franca of the intellectual class.

Anti-Americanism rests on the singular idea that something associated with the United States, something at the core of American life, is deeply wrong and threatening to the rest of the world. This idea is certainly nothing new. Over a half-century ago, the novelist Henry de Montherlant put the following statement in the mouth of one of his characters (a journalist): “One nation that manages to lower intelligence, morality, human quality on nearly all the surface of the earth, such a thing has never been seen before in the existence of the planet. I accuse the United States of being in a permanent state of crime against humankind.” America, from this point of view, is a symbol for all that is grotesque, obscene, monstrous, stultifying, stunted, leveling, deadening, deracinating, deforming, and rootless.

It is tempting to call anti-Americanism a stereotype or a prejudice, but it is much more than that. A prejudice, at least an ordinary one, is a shortcut usually having some basis in experience that people use to try to grasp reality’s complexities. Although often highly erroneous, prejudices have the merit that those holding them will generally revisit and revise their views when confronted with contrary facts. Anti-Americanism, while having some elements of prejudice, has been mostly a creation of “high” thought and philosophy. Some of the greatest European minds of the past two centuries have contributed to its making. The concept of America was built in such a way as to make it almost impervious to refutation by mere facts. The interest of these thinkers was not always with a real country or people, but more often with general ideas of modernity, for which “America” became the name or symbol. Indeed, many who played a chief part in discovering this symbolic America never visited the United States or showed much interest in its actual social and political conditions. The identification of America with a general idea or concept has gone so far as to have given birth to new words that are treated nowadays as normal categories of thought, such as “Americanization” or “Americanism.” (By contrast, no one speaks of Venezuelanization or New Zealandism.) Americanization today, for example, is almost the perfect synonym for the general concept of “globalization,” differing only in having a slightly more sinister face.

See Full article here
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Can ANYONE tell me what the fetid french have ever done FOR the world? The last good frenchmn ever born was Alexis de Tocqueville!

Automatic Citizenship – Change It Or Understand It?
– By Warner Todd Huston

The issue of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment has been heating up more and more since my last editorial over the issue in November (Automatic Citizenship?). The popularity of somehow changing or clarifying the clause to exclude the children of Mexican immigrants is amazing and saddening.

Since my original editorial, I have been contacted by several people who have further explained their reasoning for excluding citizenship for the children born here of illegal immigrants. They say I don’t understand the real intent of the amendment and that properly understood the meaning is pretty clear that Mexicans simply don’t qualify, anchor baby or no, to have their children become automatic citizens.

Naturally, I have also been excoriated as an “open boarders” advocate, been told that I am somehow against the health of the American character, and have been called as many anti-American names as you can imagine. This would be news to some of my left leaning friends who imagine me to be as stodgy an old Founder worshipper as exists! Such is the fate of anyone who wishes to opine, as we all know.

In my original piece I wondered aloud how we could exclude citizenship to Mexican immigrants in a country built upon immigration and I said that this inordinate fear of Mexican immigrants is counterproductive. This I still believe, but with the many messages I have been sent I now better understand the reasoning of those who claim the 14th Amendment never meant to include the children of illegals under the citizenship clause.

And I now believe they are right, to a certain extent. Unfortunately for them, being right isn’t the solution they imagine it to be……………

Click HERE To Read On

Illegal Immigration and Your Security
– By Greg Stewart

Recently, a fellow online-blogger, Warner Todd Huston, wrote an article on the “rethinking” of 14th Amendment. In his article, he conveys the nonsensical, the heresy of, one of my US Representatives from Colorado, Tom Tancredo, of the 6th District, as wanting to redefine the 14th Amendment in the name of controlling illegal immigration. Yes, most of us understand the history of why the 14th Amendment was needed and added to the US Constitution. Simply, it was to correct the wrongs of servitude and slavery of black Americans.

Nevertheless, some would have one believe that the 14th Amendment is the causation of bureaucratic, debt-ridden, high security threat to the nation. In that, by tweaking the amendment that our crises to our welfare services would dissipate, shrivel, and go bye-bye. Okay…that might work. But! What about the illegal immigrants already here? Surely, we would have offer some sort of amnesty, or a grandfather act to ensure the fairness of those who already in the system? Right? Or do we do some sort of deportation (internment camp) round up and start shipping them back over the border?

Moreover, some would have one believe that illegal immigrants are “birthing” there stay in America, and thus, creating an anchor, or as the term goes an “anchor baby” so they can stay here, in case they get caught in the US illegally. That may be, but these people are not Tribbles, and for the record, they are human, and therefore entitled to not only their civil rights but their inalienable rights endowed by the universal creator known as the human community. … ………
Click HERE To Read On

Dhimwit of the Month Honors

dhim·mi (dm) – A Qur’anic term that refers to a subjugated non-Muslim person living in a society dominated by Muslims. Second-class status is confirmed by the legal system and dhimmis do not share the rights of their Muslim masters. (ex. of use: “Hey Jimmy, if you want to be a Dhimmi, then you’d better learn how to shimmy.”)

dhim·wit (dmwt) – A non-Muslim member of a free society that abets the stated cause of Islamic domination with remarkable gullibility or guile. A dhimwit is always quick to extend a sympathy to the enemy that they are unwilling to allow their own defenders.

June 2005 Dhimwit: Senator Dick Durbin

One really wonders what goes through the head of a United States Senator when he compares American guards at Guantanamo Bay to “Nazis” and likens the prison itself (where inmates are fed better food than U.S. soldiers) to a “concentration camp.”

Does he not understand that people will die because of this unbalanced anti-American screed? Does he not see that it merely causes his country’s enemies to think that their depraved acts of violence are justified?

What would cause an otherwise normal person to lose such moral perspective. Why would he disparage those serving their country in battle with terrorists who have not the slightest concern for the welfare of captives?

In choosing to reserve criticism not for the Islamists that torture and behead their abductees, but rather for those trying to stop them, we can only guess that Dick Durbin is trying to make a name for himself . Let’s hope he succeeds.

Other Dhimwits:
December 2005 Dhimwit: Steven Spielberg
November 2005 Dhimwit: Ramsey Clark
October 2005 Dhimwit: Charles, Prince of Wales
September 2005 Dhimwit: George Galloway
August 2005 Dhimwit: Cindy Sheehan
July 2005 Dhimwit: Peter Jennings

See all the Dhimwits’ citations at thereligionofpeace.com
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Durban is an embarrassment for sure. he is the worst case of a demagogue in the Senate today and THAT is really SAYING something!

He’ll say anything that throws mud at the GOP. I don’t believe this fool would know the truth if it walked up behind him and hit him in the head with a baseball bat.

Dreaming of a Black Christmas nothing new
– By Michael M. Bates

National Public Radio is sometimes unintentionally funny. Propped up with tax dollars from average Americans who have more sense than to waste their time listening to liberal twaddle, NPR delights in its reputation for appealing to a highly educated audience.

I thought of that audience this morning when looking at NPR’s Web site. One page described “Dreaming of a Black Christmas,” a commentary heard last week on the News & Notes with Ed Gordon program. There NPR’s highly educated fans learn:

“This time of year it’s hard to avoid the figure of old Saint Nick. With very few exceptions these Santa’s are white. Commentator Carole Boston Weatherford says she’d like to see a little more color in the complexions of the Kris Cringle candidates.”

Kris Cringle? Isn’t his last name Kringle with a K? And then we have “these Santa’s are white.” Just between you and I, although tossing in an apostrophe every so often may make you look highly educated and even grammatically correct, it isn’t always required. ………………..
Click HERE To Read On

A Happy New Year to all our readers. To you and your family we wish a prosperous and safe 2006.

We want to thank you for your loyalty and interest and we look forward to a growing and momentous 2006. There are a lot of issues for us to address in the coming year and we hope you are there with us every step of the way.

Predictions for 2006?

Always a dangerous road to travel, but I will offer a few:

-G.W. Bush will continue his bounce back IF he continues presenting his case to the people
-The MSM (Mainstream Media) will continue falling with a few major newspapers having further troubles and ever lower subscription rates
-The internet will increasingly be the focus of the Political parties
-Iraq will look better and better for Democracy
-Iran will get further isolated
-Michael Moore will get fatter and uglier still

In any case, have a great holiday and we will get back to posting some of our great Op Eds on Monday morning.

Thanks again,
Warner Todd Huston- proprietor, Publius’ Forum

Teen’s empathy led him to Iraq

Journey draws world’s spotlight, stuns his parents.

He was born into money and privilege, the son of immigrant parents who came to this country from Iraq looking for freedom and a better life.

But Farris Hassan, a tall and lanky straight-A student who loves to debate world politics and shuns typical teenage hangouts, didn’t want it.

After leaving for the Middle East, Hassan sent out an e-mail in opposition of terrorism, saying more people needed to get involved in the Iraqi struggle for democracy

He left his bedroom unadorned, kept his friends few and, two weeks ago, stunned those who knew him by walking away from his life here. The teen boarded a plane to the Middle East alone, knowing the journey he embarked on might kill him. His ultimate destination: Baghdad. His plan: to stand with those struggling for democracy in Iraq.

As family and schoolmates awaited his safe return from Baghdad this weekend, they described a young man who feels guilty about the comfort he enjoys, who is brilliant but foolhardy, a boy brimming with idealism and the desire to make a difference.

According to his father, an anesthesiologist, the teen spent two weeks traveling from Kuwait City to Beirut to Baghdad. He interviewed soldiers and everyday citizens to understand their plight, before walking into a war zone office of The Associated Press news agency, which called the U.S. Embassy, already on the lookout for him. Officials took him into custody Wednesday and put him on a plane to begin the long trip home Friday.

“He wouldn’t take it from anyone else. He had to see for himself,” said his mother, Shatha Atiya, a psychologist, who said she was furious and terrified when she first learned where her boy was headed.

According to family and schoolmates, he is an honors student at Pine Crest School, an expensive preparatory in Fort Lauderdale that is often a gateway to the Ivy Leagues. A junior, standing 6-foot-2, he is enrolled in several advanced-placement classes, is a member of the debate team, the Renaissance Club, and a vocal Republican.

“He was kind of unusual,” said Chris Rudolf, 17, who eats lunch with Hassan. “He wasn’t really popular, but everyone knew him. He was shy about most things until you started talking about something he was passionate about. He was very passionate about the war in Iraq.”

After leaving for the Middle East, Hassan sent out an e-mail in opposition of terrorism, saying more people needed to get involved in the Iraqi struggle for democracy — people like him. He wrote:

“To love is a not a passive thing. … When I love, I do something, I function, I give myself. When I do that, I am freed from guilt. Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. … I want to experience during my Christmas the same hardships ordinary Iraqis experience everyday.”

A Muslim, his interest in Iraq grew from his family background — both of his parents were born there — and his voracious appetite for books and current events. The only reason he joined the football team his sophomore year, his uncle said, was to round out his college resume:

“He’s not your typical teenager,” said Ahmad Hassan.

When rumors about his trip began spread at school — Hassan skipped a week of classes before winter break started — classmates were dubious.

“We thought it was a little joke. I mean, we get in trouble for sneaking out of our house to go to the movies,” said Anjali Sharma, who attended classes with Hassan last year….

See the rest of the story- Sun-Sentinal News

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Now HERE is a teen to be proud of.

The Fourteenth Generation
– By Hans Zeiger

The first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel opens the New Testament with a genealogy. It is a Christmas list-not a wish list, but a Providential list. It is the outworking of God’s Hand in the generations through history, culminating in the birth of Christ.

Matthew 1:17 summarizes the genealogy. “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.” Fourteen is a Providential number.

Today, two thousand years after the incarnation, we are no less a part of God’s great story than the Old Testament prophets and kings, or the New Testament disciples. What wonders might God have in store for America at the brink of 2006? Is there a Fourteenth Generation somewhere in the nation’s wings, ready to act upon some great plan of destiny? ………
Click HERE To Read On

BABEL ON
– By Resa LaRu Kirkland

Speaking of Speaking

The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well someday become the foundation of a common citizenship

-Winston Churchill

Much has been made of words in recent years, and we can lay every outcry at the feet of Political Castration. Every single one.

The first has to do with language itself. We live in a nation where approximately 215 million people (A PDF file) speak English. That’s right; out of the approximately 300 million in America, the vast, vast, vast majority speaks English, and in case you’re retarded or liberal-a bit redundant, I know-the majority is the rule in this nation, and has been since its inception.

Now the hippy press would have you believe that this is because we are an arrogant, racist society that crushes the individual spirit by demanding that everyone conform to us. They see this as a “How dare Americans make us speak their language in their land!” scenario rather than what it really is: an absolute necessity for the creation and maintenance of a healthy nation and a cohesive citizenry. They utterly ignore the most glaring fact of all that is logical and reasonable. No nation, group, race, or religion can expect to come together for a cause if they can’t even do the first act necessary to find like-minded compatriots: communicate. This is why all successful nations have met that initial requirement of affiliation by endorsing one national language; without it, no one would ever get past the original idea, because there would be no way to come together and begin the process of building a country. ………
Click HERE To Read On

NEW ORLEANS – Four months after Hurricane Katrina, analyses of data suggest that some widely reported assumptions about the storm’s victims were incorrect.

For example, a comparison of locations where 874 bodies were recovered with U.S. Census tract data indicates that the victims weren’t disproportionately poor. Another database, compiled by Knight Ridder of 486 Katrina victims from Orleans and St. Bernard parishes, suggests they also weren’t disproportionately African-American.

Both sets of data are incomplete; Louisiana state officials have released no comprehensive list of the dead. Still, they provide the most comprehensive information available to date about who paid the ultimate price in the storm.

The one group that was disproportionately affected by the storm appears to have been older adults. People 60 and older account for only about 15 percent of the population in the New Orleans area, but the Knight Ridder database found that 74 percent of the dead were 60 or older. Nearly half were older than 75. Many of those were at nursing homes and hospitals, where nearly 20 percent of the victims were recovered.

Lack of transportation was assumed to be a key reason that many people stayed behind and died, but at many addresses where the dead were found, their cars remained in their driveways, flood-ruined symbols of fatal miscalculation.

The addresses where bodies were recovered were compiled by Louisiana state officials and released earlier this month. Knight Ridder charted the locations on a map of Orleans and St. Bernard parishes, then compared them with census data on income in those neighborhoods. The analysis excluded 216 bodies that were recovered from hospitals and nursing homes, as well as 63 recovered at collection points where people had dropped off bodies in the days after the storm; those victims probably came from locations other than the census tracts where they were found.

The comparison showed that 42 percent of the bodies found in Orleans and St. Bernard parishes were recovered in neighborhoods with poverty rates higher than 30 percent. That’s only slightly higher than the 39 percent of residents who lived in such neighborhoods, according to the census data.

Similarly, 31 percent of the bodies turned up in areas with poverty rates below 15 percent, where 30 percent of the population lived.

The median household income in neighborhoods where Katrina victims were recovered was about $27,000 a year, just under the $29,000 median for the overall area.

One-fourth of Katrina deaths fell in census tracts with median incomes above $35,300. One-fourth of the area’s pre-storm population lived in tracts with median incomes above $37,000.

About 67 percent of the mapped deaths fell in the central and western portion of New Orleans, an area thought to have flooded primarily because of the failure of man-made structures.

The separate Knight Ridder database of 486 Katrina victims was compiled from official information released by state and federal authorities and interviews with survivors of the dead. It cataloged deaths according to location, race, age, name and cause of death.

In that database, African-Americans outnumbered whites 51 percent to 44 percent. In the area overall, African-Americans outnumber whites 61 percent to 36 percent.

In Orleans Parish, 62 percent of known Katrina victims were African-American, compared with 66 percent for the total parish population. In St. Bernard Parish, 92 percent of the identified victims were white. Census figures show that 88 percent of parish residents identified themselves as white.

Among hurricane victims on the Knight Ridder list, men outnumbered women 51 percent to 49 percent, about the same as in the overall area before the storm.

See full report at Myrtle Beach On-Line
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Well, anyone who is smart enough to doubt everything the News talking heads say knew this even while it was going on!

Dr. Hollyweird Enviro Barf Alert!
– By Warner Todd Huston

I have just come back from seeing the trailers shown before The Chronicles of Narnia, the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe(as well as the movie itself, of course). Before I go on with this I simply must encourage you all to go see this movie at the theater. Don’t wait for the DVD release. The richness and excitement of this film must be seen on the big screen. I took my nine year-old and he says go, go, go.

Now… on with the show. Boy, what a cliche. And this won’t be the only one.

Of course we are all familiar with the wonderful world of movie trailers, those snippets, those commercials for upcoming films we are treated to for at least one half hour before we get to see the film we really came to see. It has been my experience that the trailer is unfortunately often far better than the full film.

Anyway, that aside, I saw a few trailers tonight, but few that made me interested enough to watch for the release dates of the full film. We saw the trailers for a few comedies that seemed boringly familiar and cliched. A few action pictures that seemed, well, boringly familiar and cliched. A few cartoon films that … well, I think you see a pattern here…………..

Click HERE To Read On

The Flight of the White
– By David Tatosian

Apparently the desire of white parents to provide the best education they can for their children is racism. Even if you’re a self-loathing liberal who shudders involuntarily at the mere mention of the word “white”; If you remove your child from a school with a significant or overwhelmingly Hispanic (in this case) student body, you’re Tom Tancredo.

Get used to it gringo.

But what are we to think when liberals, alternately blustering or swooning at the Ka’ba of Multiculturalism, remove their offspring from an educational environment that they insist is good for the rest of us?

Minority parents seeking to enroll their children in the best possible school is good parenting. Why is it racism when white parents do the same thing?…………
Click HERE To Read On

Europeans missing their Kyoto targets

Britain and Sweden are the only European countries honouring their Kyoto commitments to cut greenhouse gasses, according to a think-tank report.

Although the US is portrayed as the ecological villain for refusing to sign up to the agreement, 10 out of the 15 European Union signatories – including Ireland, Italy and Spain – will miss their targets without urgent action, the Institute for Public Policy Research found.

France, Greece and Germany are given “amber warnings” and will only achieve the objectives if planned policies are successfully carried out.

Read full Independent.UK article here

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First of all, the EUists never had any intention of meeting these foolish “requirements” in the first place. The only reason this treaty was created was to destroy the USA’s economy. When the US opted out, the EUists had no choice but to pretend to adopt it anyway to save face.

And second of all, you can bet the EUists will totally ignore this “warning”. They never gave a darn in the first place, why bother now?

Democrats Still Trying to Find Themselves
– Eric Reikowski

“I actually did vote for the 87 billion dollars before I voted against it.”

-2004 Presidential Candidate John Kerry

Earlier this year, Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg stated that the reason his party has lost so many elections in recent years is because it has failed to “run with conviction.” He said the main weakness of Democrats is that “they do not know what they stand for, they don’t know their policy direction, they don’t know their underlying values, and they don’t know who they fight for.” Yes, in a shocking moment of clarity, somebody actually articulated why electoral politics have been so unkind to the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, few Democrats seem to have bothered listening………….
Click HERE To Read On

As we take the day off to celebrate with our families, here is a bit ‘O Christmas history for your enlightenment…

Christmas as we know it, with gift giving, a Christmas tree, the birth of Christ and Santa Claus, was invented in the USA around the 1820’s and cemented into the national consciousness in 1863, during our great Civil War. Christmas is a uniquely American tradition and, along with much of what the US does, it has spread across the world.

It is possible that the first Christmas celebration that took on the airs of the one we are familiar with occurred only in the heart of one of America’s most famous early authors, Washington Irving.

In 1819, Irving wrote and published a story about a Christmas celebration in an English Manor House in a series called “The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, gent”. In Irving’s day, Christmas was celebrated in a raucous, even dangerous fashion. Fights and riots, pranks and drinking were the common celebratory means in the early 1800’s in the US and other countries. But Irving wrote a kind-hearted story of a Gentleman who invited his servants and their families to a quite, contemplative gathering at his expansive home. They shared camaraderie, good food and wine. The children played games and everyone was welcomed in the spirit of Christmas.

“Everything conspired to produce kind and happy feelings in this stronghold of old-fashioned hospitality,” Irving wrote.

Irving was at the cusp of an American society that was in flux. The era of Democracy was on the march and Americans began to think about their children, families and home. The raucous celebration of Christmas fell out of favor and the family oriented holiday took its place.

Also, in the tradition of Americans since the Pilgrim’s crossing, we looked to religion to guide us. America’s many Christian denominations b to urge their parishioners and members to celebrate the birth of the Christ child bringing back the Christian religious tradition established centuries before, but since gone into disuse. During the Reformation, celebrating Christmas was considered a pagan idea and the holiday was no longer observed.

Certainly several different traditions were included into our uniquely American celebration of Christmas; the Christmas tree from Germany, St. Nicholas from the Catholic Saint of the 4h Century, England for Christmas cards, Poinsettas from Mexico, etc. But Americans brought them all together for our celebration.

And what all envision as what Santa Claus looks like is certainly an American creation. During the American Civil War, famous cartoonist, Thomas Nast, invented the look of how most of us envision Santa Claus for his illustrations in Harper’s Weekley newspapers. Nast envisioned St. Nick to look as the older American poem “The Night Before Christmas”, by Clement C. Moore, published in 1822, described him.

He was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes how they twinkled! His dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow.
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly
That shook, when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, —a right jolly old elf—
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.

NO, Santa was NOT invented by Cocoa Cola to sell soft drinks, by the way!

So, enjoy this American holiday. Have a great day with your families, remember Christ whose birth we celebrate and take some well-deserved time off from your daily grind.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

How to Turn the Tables and Win the Fight for Christmas
– By Justin Darr

Merry Christmas! Strange how such a pleasant greeting could become ground zero in America’s culture war year after year. As in almost everything else, liberals have been trying, and largely succeeding, in perverting this conversational pleasantry into a statement of intolerance and bigotry.

There are a multitude of reasons the left hates Christmas. First, it is a religious holiday celebrated as a national holiday. Makes it kind of hard to deny the Christian heritage of the United States with that one on the books. Second, it portrays Christianity in a positive light. As you know, liberals hold that peace, hope, and happiness can only come from a large bureaucratic state, not an infant child born to die for our sins. And third, above all other holidays, Christmas is a celebration of the traditional values of faith, family, and giving that have made America great. ………….
Click HERE To Read On

Christmas, tax cuts and the Bible
– By Michael M. Bates

Last week on WGN Radio’s Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg program the topic turned one evening to the increasing secularization of Christmas. The panel included an official from the American Jewish Committee, a lawyer specializing in religious issues, a state ACLU board member, and this columnist.

The representative from the ACLU is a multitasker. He is also a Protestant clergyman and an executive in a church association. Bright and amiable, it’s easy to understand why he’s a leader in his organizations.

One of the arguments he advanced is a common one, if not among ACLU types, then certainly with many self-identified religious progressives. The word “liberal” in such circles has generally gone the way of Nehru suits. ………………..
Click HERE To Read On

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. officials have secretly monitored radiation levels at Muslim sites, including mosques and private homes, since September 11, 2001 as part of a top secret program searching for nuclear bombs, U.S. News and World Report said on Friday.

The news magazine said in its online edition that the far-reaching program covered more than a hundred sites in the Washington, D.C., area and at least five other cities.

“In numerous cases, the monitoring required investigators to go on to the property under surveillance, although no search warrants or court orders were ever obtained, according to those with knowledge of the program,” the magazine said.

The report comes a week after revelations that the Bush administration had authorized eavesdropping on people in the United States. U.S. President George W. Bush has defended that covert program and vowed to continue the practice, saying it was vital to protect the country.

Senior U.S. officials, including FBI Director Robert Mueller, have repeatedly said Islamic militants appeared intent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction for an attack against the United States.

Mueller said in February he was “very concerned with the growing body of sensitive reporting that continues to show al Qaeda’s clear intention to obtain and ultimately use some form of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-energy explosives material in its attacks against America.”

Read the rest at Yahoonews.com

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Can anyone say that if a nuke was hidden in a Mosque but the Bush administration didn’t do its best to discover such a fact ahead of its usage, the Democrats wouldn’t scream from the rooftops that “Bush knew” and that such an attack would be all his “fault”?

Further, can anyone in this day and age imagine that a Mosque would never be used for such a purpose? Can anyone still be that naive?

December 21, 2005–The President’s Sunday night speech has increased the nation’s confidence concerning the situation in Iraq and the War on Terror. Confidence is up among Republicans and unaffiliateds, but not among Democrats.

Fifty percent (50%) of Americans now believe that the U.S. and its allies are winning the War on Terror. That’s up from 44% immediately preceding the speech. It’s also the highest level of confidence in more than a year.
Just 25% of Americans believe the terrorists are winning. Rasmussen Reports has asked this survey question more than 70 times over the past two years. Just once, in April 2004, has a smaller percentage of Americans believed that the terrorists were winning. When December began, 28% believed the terrorists were winning.

Forty percent (40%) of Americans now give the President good or excellent marks for handling the situation in Iraq. That’s up from 35% before the speech.

The number giving the President poor marks on Iraq declined to 39% from 42%. This is the first time all year that the number giving the President good or excellent marks has matched the number saying poor.

Rasmussen Reports
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Now HERE is a lesson for Bush that he has YET to learn. Go to the people, speak your piece, bypass the media, stay your course, and the American people will give you an up or down vote of confidence.

Bush’s biggest problem in his tenure in office has always been that he refuses to bring his case to the people often enough.

How to Turn the Tables and Win the Fight for Christmas
– By Justin Darr

Merry Christmas! Strange how such a pleasant greeting could become ground zero in America’s culture war year after year. As in almost everything else, liberals have been trying, and largely succeeding, in perverting this conversational pleasantry into a statement of intolerance and bigotry.

There are a multitude of reasons the left hates Christmas. First, it is a religious holiday celebrated as a national holiday. Makes it kind of hard to deny the Christian heritage of the United States with that one on the books. Second, it portrays Christianity in a positive light. As you know, liberals hold that peace, hope, and happiness can only come from a large bureaucratic state, not an infant child born to die for our sins. And third, above all other holidays, Christmas is a celebration of the traditional values of faith, family, and giving that have made America great. ………….
Click HERE To Read On

Optimisticonservatism
– By Hans Zeiger

Conservatives are too pessimistic. A few leading conservatives are wondering whether the Right has a future, in part because long-running conservative expectations of a smaller government seem altogether frustrated. Conservative leadership seems stultified, past victories and opportunities seem let go, purpose seems a shadow of what it was when Reagan was around.

Christopher DeMuth laments the decline of limited government in the December issue of The American Enterprise, and Jonah Goldberg echoes with a call for a “Republican Reformation” at Townhall.com. David Brooks has lately described an identity crisis within conservative ranks, headlining in the New York Times that conservatives are “running out of steam.” When Brooks keynoted a recent conference at Princeton on “The Conservative Movement: It’s Past, Present, and Future,” he was not the only pessimist there. ………
Click HERE To Read On

Upon Reflection
– By Greg Stewart

There is a benefit in attending school when you are an older adult one has the ability to exercise, to tap, one’s own life experiences. In so being, that one’s accessible experiences to debunk the philosophy of “theory” versus “practical” applications, which are examined in the enchantment of youth, and the various entrapments, has its benefits. Oh, one can still explore the esoteric, the obscure, but attending school as a more seasoned individual gives perspectives on the nature of things ; the way of things-if you please. In as much that life can be often be viewed personally, as a mere card game, in that, one’s own personal narrative lets an individual not only examine the qualities of life’s as a card game, but allows one to expand one’s purview, such that, life’s experiences may evolve into a more complex game for the mature adult-such as chess.

The evolution of growth from this game of life, chess that is, is far more representative, the subtle machinations of life workings can be viewed remotely, and objectively. Life’s pitfalls such as dealing with death, illness, and aging are “on par” for the more mature person’s journey of life. In the card game of life, however, the brevity of each hand reflects the short term perspective; chess can be both. The choices an individual makes, good or bad choices, guide the individual toward the either shorter or long term path. These paths may render the complexity of life’s games, chess or cards. … ………
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LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH

GUANGZHOU, China — A Chinese company has begun marketing kidneys, livers and other organs from executed prisoners to sick Britons in need of transplants.

Hospital Doctor, a British magazine, earlier this month reported that a firm called Transplants International was trying to recruit British patients.

Operations were to be carried out at Guangzhou Air Force Military Hospital by doctors from a hospital affiliated with the nearby Sun Yat-sen Southern University.

Guangzhou is the fast-growing metropolis near Hong Kong in the heart of China’s southern manufacturing zone.

The Telegraph confirmed the story in an interview with the hospital’s Dr. Na Ning, in which a reporter posed as someone interested in getting involved as a business venture.

“We can sign an agreement,” Dr. Na said over a business lunch in a smart Western restaurant.

“We should be cautious — this is sensitive. There is no need to bring in lawyers or consultants. We should do the agreement on trust.”

Dr. Na is one of many doctors involved in a growing organ-transplant trade that has caused revulsion around the world. In China, the practice raises few eyebrows.

Executed prisoners are the main source of organs used in the country’s transplant operations, thousands of which are conducted each year.

See full story at: WashingtonTimes.com

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Now, how long do you think it would be before Chinese people are condemned to death not because they did something wrong but because some Party boss wants to sell their liver??

For all we know, it may already have happened!

Yeah, that Chinese government is “just like us”, eh? They are “just another world government deserving of respect”, huh?

Our Friends the Aussies
– By David Tatosian

The founder of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, Keysar Trad (referring to the unpleasantness in Australia), said “…The only thing I am worried about is that it’s going to further play on the minds of young Australian Muslims, particularly of Lebanese origin. It’s going to lower the morale which has already been lowered. They are young Australians who don’t have a sense of belonging…”

Gee, that sounds remarkably French doesn’t it?

Of course they don’t have a sense of belonging. And rightfully so. Islam doesn’t belong in Western Civilization. Islam doesn’t even belong in this millenium. It cannot assimilate. It is inherently intolerant and violent. It is an inhuman ideology that cannot blend in or shift allegiance or profess loyalty to anything but Islam…………
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A GERMAN art expert was fooled into believing a painting done by a chimpanzee was the work of a master.

The director of the State Art Museum of Moritzburg in Saxony-Anhalt, Katja Schneider, suggested the painting was by the Guggenheim Prize-winning artist Ernst Wilhelm Nay.

“It looks like an Ernst Wilhelm Nay. He was famous for using such blotches of colour,” Dr Schneider confidently asserted.

The canvas was actually the work of Banghi, a 31-year-old female chimp at the local zoo.

While Banghi likes to paint, she is not able to build up much of a body of work as her mate Satscho generally destroys her paintings before they can get to the gallery.

But this one survived long enough to give Dr Schneider a red face.

“I did think it looked a bit rushed,” she told Bild newspaper.

News.com,au

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So an “expert” couldn’t tell the difference between real “art” and the mindless scrawling of a CHIMP!? If THIS doesn’t prove that post modern anti-art has reigned supreme for far too long… what does?

Liberals and leftists have so perverted the art world that just ANYTHING qualifies as “art”. We don’t need skill, we have no use for craft, we couldn’t care LESS about ability. We just need a kitschy claim that it is “art” to qualify.

And here I thought the ultimate statement that art is dead came when Andy Warhol got HIS 15 minutes. Andy, you old queen, you have been upstaged by a CHIMPANZIE!

Retail Humbug
– By Frederick Meekins

Wal-Mart is renowned as one of America’s largest retail chains. The company earned this distinction in part by fostering a reputation based on traditional American values. However, in a manner similar to how the other institutions overseeing this nation have betrayed what this great country was originally based, this beloved weekend destination and rainy-day hangout has sold out to radical tolerance and diversity.

For retailers such as Wal-Mart, Christmas is really a joyous time since it is the time of year such establishments bring in the lion’s share of their profits. You would think these merchants would not be ashamed to publicly acknowledge the celebration contributing so abundantly to their own prosperity. However, from the shame exhibited at the mention of the word “Christmas”, you’d think the greeting was some lewd comment scrawled across a restroom stall.

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights brought attention to this linguistic trend by launching a brief boycott against Wal-Mart for censoring recognition of the festive occasion by muting the traditional greeting of “Merry Christmas” to the more subdued “Happy Holidays”. The boycott was originally started when it was discovered that searching “Christmas” on the Wal-Mart website returned “Holiday” results while Kwannza and Hanukah brought cybershoppers to results specific to these terms………
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BEIJING, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Corruption has been falling among Chinese Communist Party members overall, but the number of cases involving higher-ranking officials taking larger bribes has risen, a party official was quoted on Sunday as saying.

“Greed, hedonism and egoism have grown among a few officials during the development of China’s socialist market economy,” said He Yong, deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC (Communist Party of China).

He said an effective anti-corruption system had yet to be established, the state news agency Xinhua reported.

“At this transitional period of fundamental structural reform, loopholes exist in China’s administrative mechanism,” he said.

In the past two years China has prosecuted and punished nearly 50,000 party officials at various levels in the nationwide anti-corruption drive, according to the latest government figures.

But corruption remains a serious problem, He said. “The achievements of the anti-corruption campaign are still far below the requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the expectations of the common people.”

On the future of anti-corruption measures, He said the CPC and government will focus on supervision and further improve the administrative mechanism.
The government has taken steps to prosecute corrupt officials accused of illegally confiscating farmers’ land, embezzling public funds and delaying payment of migrant workers’ wages.

State media said on Friday that the trial had begun of a local Communist Party chief for his role in one of the bloodiest in a wave of rural riots to strike the country in recent years.

In June, hired thugs killed six and injured dozens of villagers staging a sit-in on land confiscated by a state-owned power plant to protest against low compensation in Shengyou village in the northern province of Hebei.

The Shengyou sit-in was one of a series of protests in rural China, many of which have focused on land rights as rapid development encroaches on farmland. Corruption and the growing gap between rich and poor have also been flashpoints for unrest.

The government has said there were some 74,000 protests in China last year involving 100 or more people.

Ruters.com

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So this begs the question…Is the invasion of a somewhat market economy heralding the end of Communism in China?

Well, it may at least be overwhelming its system via corruption that may make the people rise up and overthrow it eventually.

It is hoped that this can happen BEFORE China decides to use its army and arsenal to lash out in a last gasp to attack either its neighbors of the USA itself, if not both.

The ACLU and what war on Christmas?
– By Michael M. Bates

It looks like it’s official. The war on Christmas we’ve heard about is nothing more than a figment conjured up by a few extremists.

The evidence accumulates. “What ‘War on Christmas?'” asked a column in last week’s Washington Post. Salon.com, preferred reading at the Clinton White House, in the article “How the secular humanist grinch didn’t steal Christmas” makes clear there is no war.

In recommending the piece, Fox News panelist Neil Gabler labeled three of his own network’s hosts as “demagogues” for suggesting there’s any assault on Christmas. We can only guess what that week’s staff meeting was like.

Los Angeles Times columnist Joel Stein also finds no indication there’s any antagonism directed at the day on which we commemorate the birth of Christ. Although he does admit: “We Jews find it a little embarrassing that adults can still make such a big fuss over Christmas.

To us, Jesus was just a cool guy everyone liked because he died young.” ………………..
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A festive group of high school choir students from Central Islip singing at an Islandia shopping center discovered over the weekend that some people were not in the holiday spirit.

After entering a Wal-Mart store, the choir was quickly asked to leave before even starting to sing its first song.

The Central Islip High School concert choir had just finished a performance at the United Methodist Church off Veterans Memorial Highway, when the students proposed to go caroling in the shopping center across the street.

Their director, John Anthony, approved the move and the group of about 30 students found warm welcomes at the Stop & Shop grocery store and other shops in the center. That is, until they entered Wal-Mart.

Right away, a store manager approached the award-winning group, announcing that they did not have an appointment and that the sheer size of the group posed a fire hazard, Anthony said.

The teens then sang one song – “Guide Me,” a classic Welsh tune – to the delight of the customers.

“Sing more!” Anthony said the shoppers were screaming. But Wal-Mart was adamant and even called police. The students left peacefully before police arrived and no arrests were made.

The choir’s merriment quickly disintegrated, the director said. “The kids were just ‘Bah humbug!'” he added.

Wal-Mart officials released a statement this week saying the choir’s appearance was unscheduled and created a fire code violation. “For their safety and the safety of our customers, we asked them to move,” the statement read.

Wal-Mart has offered the school an opportunity for the choir to return at a scheduled time. The store also made an undisclosed donation toward the choir’s trip next summer to Austria, where they will be one of three student choirs from the United States to perform at a celebration of the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s birth.

NEWSDAY

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Should we be surprised this happened in New York??

Dr. Rubio I Presume – Adressing a Reply to My Watchmen Review
– By Warner Todd Huston

Alexander G. Rubio recently penned a review of a review with a reply to my piece on Alan Moore’s Watchmen series, a comic book series originally published in 1986. I would like to thank Mr. Rubio for taking the time to engage in serious debate of the review I wrote, as well as the concepts and subjects of the Watchmen books. After all, these books are constantly presented to us as the pinnacle of the comic book arts and, therefore, deserving of serious consideration by comic book fans and social commentators alike. I treated the book in that light and Mr. Rubio has responded in kind. Bravo!

Unfortunately, Mr. Rubio either misunderstands many of the points I presented, or misunderstands what it was that Alan Moore, author of Watchmen, was trying to do. Perhaps it is both.

To start with, I find that it might be a good idea for me to fire my psychologist to rely on Mr. Rubio’s expertise in psychoanalysis instead. Mr. Rubio spent a large part of his comments on my review on my state of mind, my unstated motives, and my mental conundrums and less time on what it was that I actually wrote. I am sure Mr. Rubio’s couch would cost me less in the long run and his pseudo-psychological interpretations could easily be the same as what I might find in any dime store Psychologist’s office.

So, with that bit of banter done with, off we go into Mr. Rubio’s (psycho) analysis of my review………….

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