A New Direction for America… Backwards.

Guest post by Part-Time Pundit.

Today, after months of waiting, the Democrats have come up with an agenda for 2006. First, some noticeably missing items.

Iraq. For as much as the Democrats continue to criticize the President’s mishandling of the war, the peace, or whatever you want to call it, their direction does not highlight any meaningful alternative. How do they believe a free and secure Iraq should be created? Well, if Murtha has his way, apparently by surrendering to Al Qaeda.

National security. Apparently terrorism is not a problem because the polar ice caps are melting. Perhaps we were mistaken, it wasn’t planes that flew into the World Trade Center on 9/11, it was chunks of ice from the North Pole. So while they are ignoring national security, they’re stumping for Gore’s movie.

Immigration. Millions of immigrants took to the streets in protest in recent months. Millions more legal residents have also made their views known. No matter where you stand, this is one of the most charged and important issues on the minds of the people, and on this issue the Democrats are silent.

Moving on to some of the core items of the Democrats platform from items that simply haven’t been on the public radar to making current problems worse…

Raising minimum wage. Despite the fact that every time the minimum wage has been raised unemployment has gone up; they believe that having no job is better than being paid some less than some arbitrary number. There are more intelligent ways to get people earning enough to provide for their families, raising the minimum wage isn’t one of them. There is a finite amount of money in circulation, those wage increases need to be paid for somehow. It ends up being either lay offs, cut benefits, higher prices (and cost of living), or a combination of all three.

Price gouging. Who isn’t against price gouging? However, for as much as that legal term has been thrown around, there has not been any evidence provided to support that it is happening. After about two years of hearing that companies are breaking the law to stick it to Joe Consumer, I’d expect that someone would be able to prove it to nail their ass to the wall for it. However, after two years of complaining they haven’t found any evidence, it is doubtful that giving them a majority will accomplish anything except more hearings with legislators bloviating on TV so it looks like they are “doing something”.

Fiscal responsibility. One of the most appealing parts of the platform is restoring fiscal responsibility, however, the likely way of doing this will be to increase income to the treasury, not reducing spending. One of the key items to pay attention is that they specifically reference the fiscal discipline of the 90s… i.e. when Congress was run by Republicans. Cutting taxes is one thing, you have to cut spending along with it. At least on this point the Democrats are intellectually honest. They’ll at least raise taxes to pay for their spending. If we want to talk about fiscal responsibility, let’s start with earmark reform.

Slash student loan costs. This is pandering at its worst because student loans are almost essentially free. I know, because I have them. My wife’s student loans are consolidated for an APR of 1.65%. In other words, I could take the money, put it in a savings account, and use the interest to pay off the loan and still turn a profit on the loan. I know students who take student loans for the express purpose of using that money and investing it earning 8%+. Student loans are an incredible deal. Inflation is about 3%, which makes those loans essentially trivial interest. The only thing that could be done to make those loans cheaper would be to pay students interest for taking them out.

Stop tax giveaways for outsourcing. If by tax-giveaways you mean that other countries don’t tax the crap out of companies like we do, than you’re right. However, how exactly are you going to start taxing companies that aren’t in the US? Tariffs? Bring the entire world under the United States tax structure? No one is paying businesses to leave the US and outsource, it’s simply far cheaper to hire labor overseas in some industries.

Stop wasteful subsidies, Support stem-cell research. These two items are directly at odds. If there are wasteful subsidies, by all means eliminate them. However, funding stem-cell research (particularly embryonic which is what they are talking about) is in itself a wasteful subsidy. Adult stem cell research is curing people, it works. Private money is coming in hand over fist for adult stem cell research. Embryonic stem cell research does not work, which is why they have no investors and need a handout. While it might give the Democrats yet another chance to kill millions more babies and start treating people less as human beings and more as crops to be cultivated for parts, it remains that this science doesn’t work.

The Democratic platform here doesn’t address most of the issues important to Americans. The three top issues are Iraq, gas prices, and immigration for Congress. Health care is low on the list. Social security is absent. Stem cell research is absent. The minimum wage is absent.

Once again, we’re faced with a party unwilling to tackle the big issues that Americans care about. It would be nice in 2006 to have a real choice between candidates, and it looks like the Democratic party has deprived us once again.

John Bambenek is an academic professional at the University of Illinois. He’s a columnist for the Daily Illini and blogs at Part-Time Pundit.

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Celebrities and Heroes

Americans have long been enamored with celebrities. The glamor and glitz of their whirlwind travels, their on-again, off-again relationships, and their tragically charmed lives appeal to a large portion of the population. American Idol recently saw more votes cast than any presidential campaign in the history of our nation, and magazine covers broadcast every detail of celebrities’ tawdry affairs and seemingly never-ending divorces.

Why does America care so much about a group that, in all reality, offers so little to society in the way of actual substance? Perhaps more interesting is the question of what role they should play in public life. The answer is simple: None.

Celebrities have the potential to be role models; they have the platform and the ability to influence a generation and shape the course of our society’s way of thinking. However, as the fictional hero Spiderman was warned, “With great power comes great responsibility.” They have squandered their power on themselves and bought into the myth that they are somehow better than the man who goes to work in a factory every day to provide for his family.

Hollywood is in almost every home, almost every American life. They are lauded as heroes, as American royalty. They have the power to teach dedication, honor, courage, and love of country. They have the capacity to show boys how to respect girls, and girls how to respect themselves. They could teach us all how to be better husbands, better wives, better citizens. Instead, we are treated to a steady stream of their excesses; we are shown time and again that they are perhaps even more human than we are. We watch their divorces, their affairs, their arrests for drugs or shoplifting or drunk driving. We see them treated with a level of deference that the average citizen would never be given. We are taught that love is cheap, fidelity is overrated, and life is only fulfilling if your house is worth a few million.

Actors and actresses are fond of pontificating about society and the government, global warming, starving children, and a host of other causes they claim are dear to their hearts. They are political activists, fancying themselves enlightened revolutionaries in a dark time. They travel to Africa to be photographed feeding children; they travel to New Orleans to be filmed “helping the victims,” they adopt children from overseas and proudly tell us about what they’ve done to help the “global situation.” In reality, they are just hired spokespersons, being paid for what they do best: become someone they’re not, in front of a camera.

Meanwhile, the real heroes, the real role models, are down in the shelters serving soup to the needy. They are quietly volunteering at their local Big Brother/Big Sister charity. They are going to work every day and raising their kids to know what the meaning of honor and integrity are. They are coaching Little League and counseling unwed mothers and helping abused wives. They are standing in an airport at 2 in the morning so troops coming home from the horrors of war can have some warm food and a free phone to call their families. The people we should be paying attention to are regular guys from places like Indiana and Iowa who spent thirty days fighting on Iwo Jima so that fifty years later an actress could call them terrorists while wearing a dress–once time–that cost half a million dollars. The role models we should be looking to are the kind of men James Bradley wrote about in Flags of Our Fathers: strong, determined, brave; the kind of men who willingly laid down their lives for our freedom. Instead, our country idolizes people who slip in and out of identities so easily that they don’t even know themselves, so devoid of character that the only job they’re fit for is being something they’re not.

If the meaning of life is cars and diamonds and being on the cover of magazines, then celebrities have it made. I happen to believe the meaning of life is deeper than an Olympic-sized pool, and a lot more precious than a Brad Pitt DVD.

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May 1st - A Day Without Latinos

Great - I’m ALL FOR IT!!

The organizational geniuses behind the latest slew of illegal immigrants rioting in our streets are planning a Day Without Latinos on May 1st. Based upon the self-indulgent and utterly stupid premise of the movie, “A Day Without A Mexican”, and believing that the American economy with absolutely collapse if Mexican workers don’t show up for a day, they are rallying illegals to do exactly that on May 1st.

I suggest that able-bodied American workers, especially those hundreds of thousands of unemployed Katrina victims, show up and just TAKE back those jobs the Latinos will be walking away from.

In fact, I suggest that true Americans show exactly how they feel and refuse to accept any and all labor from illegal immigrants! You can’t do anything about the behind-the-scenes employment of businesses everywhere except boycott them if you know they hire illegals. But there are things you can do to free yourself from personal dependence on illegal labor! Get your kids off the computer and away from the TV and get them to mow your lawn! Fire your Mexican nanny and spend time with your own sweet kids, or hire an American babysitter. Wash your own dishes or hire an American teenager, flip your own burgers or hire an American cook, clean your own house or hire an American maid service! We’ll see exactly what happens to the American economy when Americans do the work that had always been done by Americans before. And an added side benefit? We’ll have better kids who know how to work!

How about making that your lifestyle?! I have, and I’m none the worse for wear. I get along JUST FINE without ever hiring an illegal alien. Try it!

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UPDATE: I found some interesting info on this particular date they’ve chosen for a Day Without Latinos:

International Workers’ Day is an international holiday in many countries around the world, but not English-speaking countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. In most of the world, except in the US, Labor Day is celebrated on the 1st of May in remembrance of the 1886 Haymarket Riot. The adoption of May Day around this time by socialists and communists as their primary holiday cements official resistance to this expression of the day in the US.

Nevertheless, May Day has long been a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist, and anarchist groups. In the 20th century, the holiday received the official endorsement of the Soviet Union; celebrations in communist countries during the Cold War era often consisted of large military parades and shows of common people in support of the government.

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An Upside-Down Flag

Among the crowd of 500,000 in LA last week, the Mexican flag was everywhere. Protest organizers unsuccessfully tried to force American flags on the crowd in order for them to seem “more American”. The few American flags that were unfortunate enough to end up in the hands of presumably illegal aliens that do not love or respect it, were treated with disrespect - many were dragged along the ground, walked upon, and in a few instances, burned in front of cheering hordes. On Monday, student protesters in California stepped over the line when they lowered the American flag at a high school, and gleefully replaced it with the Mexican flag flying OVER an upside-down U.S. flag.

For those of us real Americans who love our country and the flag which symbolizes it all, seeing photos of our flag desecrated in such a way were gut-wrenching. The kids that did such a thing may or may not have known that what they were doing was incredibly offensive - and it doesn’t really matter to me. The point is that they’ll NEVER understand why or how it is offensive. They do not have American parents to teach them, nor patriotic adults to guide them. It’s a whole generation for which America has no value, and our heritage has no meaning. Nothing will change that.

It does not bother me so much that our flag was flown upside down, as it does by WHOM. That is a traditional signal of dire distress, which has been co-opted by people who wish to make a shocking political statement against the government of this country. John Kerry and his ilk used it when protesting the Vietnam War, and people since use such a means to make political statements all the time. They are completely mis-using the symbology of it, but to such people as they, it likely doesn’t matter. Their regard for the flag is less a matter of the heart than it is something to abuse to shock or dishearten their opponents.

THE FLAG CODE
Title 36, U.S.C., Chapter 10
As amended by P.L. 344, 94th Congress
Approved July 7, 1976

§ 176. Respect for flag: No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.

(a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.

One might successfully argue that due to the fact that our country is overrun with millions of illegals that neither love it or respect it, we are in dire distress. I cannot deny that our country’s straits pose a direct “danger to life and property”. But since we are not in need of rescue from outside sources, and we still have avenues of action available to us, an upside-down flag, as flown by beleaguered Americans, is a pre-mature unnecessity. However, when flown that way by Mexicans, it is a jeering affront.

What shocked me to my core, though, was the Mexican flag raised OVER our American flag. That is NOT supposed to happen on our soil. Ever. It is a deliberate dishonor and not to be tolerated.

When flown with flags of states, communities, or societies on separate flag poles which are of the same height and in a straight line, the flag of the United States is always placed in the position of honor - to its own right.
..The other flags may be smaller but none may be larger.
..No other flag ever should be placed above it.
..The flag of the United States is always the first flag raised and the last to be lowered.

My kids know this because it’s important to me, and so I’ve taught them. But the kids that abused our national treasure in such a way do not know (or care), and will never have such teaching in their lives. They have been raised to have a bitter regard for the American flag and all it stands for, though they are freely enjoying our nation’s largesse. They have been raised with a totally inexplicable pride in Mexico, therefore they prize the Mexican flag and feel the need to raise it up at the expense of dishonoring the American flag.

The symbolism of such an act was cheap, uneducated, dishonorable, tawdry, and unfortunately, completely inevitable. The illegals who would de-value our country, dishonor our flag, and demean our heritage are all around us every day. They have neither respect for, nor allegiance to, our laws or our government-run-amok which stands so ready to harbor them at all costs to you and I. If our government disregards the will of the people and chooses such rabble over the upstanding and contributing citizens of our nation, then I will consider our nation in direst distress.

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Recent articles:

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Guest Editorial: America Is Supposed To Be About Heroes

The America I grew up in was in black and white and was all about heroes. Most of them were cowboys, like John Wayne, Roy Rogers, or the Lone Ranger. America and “hero” used to be synonymous. Now, to most of our enemies around the world, America has become synonymous with “sucker.” Why? Because many of those with political ambition have no clue about being a statesman anymore. They sell out the Commander-in-chief and our troops for the sake of trying to get votes. They want to appear to be heroes so we will vote for them. How? It is simple, they do their best to rock the boat, so that each can make us believe that he or she is the only one who can save us from that raging storm. They try to become the great American hero, but real heroes never even realize they are heroes. When a real hero does things that really count, they never stop to count them. And on the sidelines stand our irresponsible news reporters, each seeing themselves as a media hero, the next Woodward or Bernstein, and they each do their best to paint these negative naysayers with a brush of courage. However, their paint is often cloudy yet very transparent.

Saddam Hussein’s senior advisor and air force deputy commander General Georges Sada, wrote a book called SADDAM’S SECRETS (Integrity Publishers, January, 2006), in which he tells how a dam in Syria collapsed causing destruction and loss of life. When the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, asked Saddam for assistance, Hussein used that as an opportunity to smuggle his weapons of mass destruction out of Iraq along with aid supplies. More specifically, they were taken out in 56 sorties on 747 and 727 commercial jets. Fearing US discovery, he also sent more into Syria by truck convoys to be hidden there. Previously, according to the General and other Hussein advisors and Iraqi leaders, like Ali Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein had WMD’s hidden in schools, mosques, banks, homes, and moving in trucks all around the country to prevent UN weapons inspectors from ever finding them.

Top Secret Senate Intelligence Committee reports, just declassified and released this week by US Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, show that Saddam Hussein, Usama bin Laden, and the al-Qaida did indeed have a close fiscal and logistical relationship going all the way back to the early 1990’s, that bin-Laden visited Hussein in Iraq, and that Hussein agreed to train terrorists in Iraq in explosives and other terrorists’ endeavors with the goals of attacking the U.S. and Israel. Most Presidential candidates, the ones who were in Congress, knew all about this, but feign ignorance just so they can keep taking shots at the President and the Administration and further their own political ambitions.

We are winning the war in Iraq, decisively. Most insurgents now refuse to even shoot at us, just use IED’s, (which are “booby-traps” for us common folks), and of course homicide bombers. “Ooh, Syriana, what a nice son you had. I remember him before he was all blown up!” But they are becoming better at Psychological Operations than us - much better. They play our news media like cheap fiddles and use the short-sightedness of our so-called political leaders as their most effective propaganda tool. I won’t even mention Hollywooden-heads. Ask the soldiers who are there, especially SpecOps personnel who know what really is going on. Iraqis want us out - yes - Iraq is their country, their home, and they have pride. That is great, but most all of them love us and appreciate what our troops did for them, and want us out only when the time is right.

But our faux heroes and negative press want to compare Iraq to Vietnam! However, the real-life facts don’t jive with their propaganda. For example, in 2005, every single one of the Army’s 10 divisions exceeded their re-enlistment goal by 136% to 178%. This has never happened in U.S. history. Remember Tom Brokaw’s “greatest generation” from WWII? We even needed the draft then. Not now.

Our fighting men and women are all volunteers, and are indeed heroes. President Bush is, too. Never has the White House been so besieged - but he has stayed the course, despite poll abuse; despite having horrible taste in picking PR people; despite the daily character attacks by the wish-they-were’s and want-to-be’s. Like the wounded cowboy in a black and white movie, with a quiet strength and a Technicolor positive outlook he has tried to lead us forward, warning us this would take a long time and would be a tough fight. He asked us to be strong and patient, but those with political ambition have learned well from public dissent in the past, and so have our enemies. They remember well the words of our former enemy General Vo Nguyen Giap, commander of all Communist forces during the Vietnam War in his 1985 memorandum of that war, when he wrote “…if it were not for the disunity created by…stateside protests, Hanoi would have ultimately surrendered.” So our enemies remember and hang in there, waiting us out, wanting us to implode from within, while self-absorbed politicians embolden and reinforce them with their criticism and negativism, playing right into their hands with the word “sucker” invisibly tattooed on their foreheads.

They think they are the heroes. Our future leaders? They each say they have what it takes, but what that really means is that they want to take what we have - but not just our money, although most all of them coincidentally suffer from acute Spendicitis. They want to take our security, our confidence, or whatever it takes to get them elected, while their cheerleading squad in the media want that coveted Pulitzer. But in so doing, they each climb over the bodies of dead American and Iraqi military heroes to what they envision as their rightful perch in world history. You know - “perch,” like what vultures use.

We are at war. Do you want John Wayne, with a black and white view, in the White House, or do you want a pretend hero with rose-colored glasses and the latest media poll to make his or her decisions? I’ll take the Duke.

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About the author Don Bendell

Don Bendell’s newest novel, a modern day military thriller, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DETACHMENT, was released worldwide by Berkley (Penguin) in January, 2006 and has been getting nothing but 5-star reviews. Don served as an officer in four Special Forces Groups, including a tour on a Green Beret A-team (Dak Pek) in Vietnam in 1968-1969, and was in the Top Secret Phoenix Program. He is a top-selling author of 21 books, with over 1,500,000 copies of his books in print worldwide. A 7th degree black belt master in four martial arts, he is a 1995 inductee into the International Karate Hall of Fame, and owns karate schools in southern Colorado. Don’s pro-Bush/anti-Kerry editorials were widely published in newspapers and magazines, and circulated by millions all over the world on the Internet. He has been interviewed on FOX NEWS LIVE and on many radio shows and speaks all over the country.

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Third Anniversary Of The War In Iraq

Today marks the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, three years ago. I remember I was absolutely glued to Fox News coverage of the start of the war for a full three days. I even slept on the couch so that I could monitor the shock and awe campaign as it was being filmed live. In the past three years we’ve seen the very best and the very worst of Americans. These are my thoughts on the War in Iraq…

First of all, let me say that I love our soldiers. I do. They are the very best that America has to offer. My heart swells with pride for their accomplishments, for their clear-eyed devotion to duty, for their compassion and mercy amidst the ugliness of war. They have done exactly what their nation has asked of them - and they’ve done it with excellence. Here at ER, we’ve posted photos, video footage, and numerous editorials praising the conduct of our soldiers, and defending them to their detractors. We’ve honored their passing, and the grievious sacrifice of their families. We’ve cheered their mind-boggling accomplishments - incredibly proud of what they’ve accomplished in a mere three years.

I will never judge a soldier’s decisions under fire. They are trained to kill the enemy and win our wars. We send them, and they have to be free enough to do exactly that! I refuse to second-guess their actions in combat, and will go after anyone who tries to destroy a soldier for killing the enemy in a combat zone. The sporadic cases of brutality and murder from our soldiers are so few and far between, that I reserve the right to treat all such accusations with extreme skepticism until proven otherwise. Our soldiers, by and large, abide by a code of ethics that is unmatched in the history of the world. They have earned and deserve the benefit of the doubt.

I believe the best of our troops - not because I have a “romanticized” view of them - but because I know them; I was numbered among them once; I know how they think; I share their values; and because time and again they have earned the entire world’s trust and gratitude. No matter what they are accused of, I would absolutely, unequivocally choose to err in favor of our troops first, rather than automatically assume the worst of them. And I would give them whatever they require to swiftly and safely complete their mission - no questions asked.

Our soldiers are important to me. They are who I choose to associate with, be friends with, and support whole-heartedly. In the past three years, they have carried the entire Global War on Terror on their shoulders - alone. What’s the worst that we’ve suffered? $4 gas at the pumps?! In fact, I would even go so far as to say they, and by extension, their families are more important to me than the average American who has never served and scorns the service of those who have. That’s my opinion, it’s how I honestly feel. If you don’t like my opinion on the matter, sue me - write a nasty email - bitch me out in comments - preach to me about how everyone in America is equal. I won’t apologize, nor will I take it back - because I do believe some are more equal than others.

So back to the War in Iraq…

I’ve hated that there are American-in-name-only shmoes that traipse around the globe deliberately portraying America as the big, bad bully. There’s just nothing like buying into the Islamist mindset that we are the “Evil Satan”. It’s abhorrent to me that there are so-called Americans who believe America is inherently evil, and that everything bad in the world - from poverty to natural disasters to death and disease - is our fault.

Over the past three years, I’ve watched and vocally decried every sickening effort by liberals and the media (pardon the redundancy) to demonize our soldiers, to belittle their progress in Iraq, to give aid and comfort to the enemy, to exalt the enemy as honorable “freedom fighters”, and to carelessly undermine the entire Global War on Terror.

I have always believed that Saddam Hussein was yesterday’s psychotic Ahmandinejad: cruel, zealously deranged, and fully armed. I never once backed down from my belief that there WERE and ARE WMDs in Iraq - and now finally, the evidence of exactly that is coming to light - no thanks to the media. I’ve never doubted that Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein had mutually benficial ties in their shared goal of the destruction of Israel and the United States. They would be utterly stupid not to join forces - and neither of them have ever been accused of gross idiocy. And finally, evidence is coming to light that they were indeed conjoined in purpose and in fact - again, no thanks to the media.

So, as to the necessity for the War in Iraq, I’ve never wavered. Now let me tell you where I have changed my mind…

I used to believe that radical Islam was like a weird tiny cult - loony from the ground up, but virtually harmless due to their small numbers and isolation in the wastelands of the Middle East. I’ve since studied the Koran and its associated teachings, and have completely changed my mind about Islam. I now know it to be insidious, violent, rabid, aggressive, and completely ruthless - much like its founder, Mohammed. I believe I have learned more about the true nature of Islam than most so-called moderates know about their own religion.

Have you ever noticed the more religious a Muslim gets, the more prone he/she is to violence? It’s a slippery slope. The only safe Muslim is a secular one - at which point they can’t really be considered Muslim anymore - merely “Arab” or “African” or whatever ethnicity they are. If you remove the fervent religious component from Islam, then it’s no longer Islam at all, but merely a charming ethnic tradition.

Another thing I’ve changed my mind about is the Iraqi people. I used to believe a score of Iraqis was not worth one American life. I used to think they were sorry, weak, and completely incapable of reform - much like the down-trodden communists of Eastern Europe. After all, I believed that you get the kind of government you deserve. Since then, I’ve come to better understand what almost four decades of mass murder, torture, terror, starvation, and hopelessness can do to a people. My heart has softened toward 25 million people who were so broken that they could NOT help themselves. I am less judgmental of a people who had lived without hope for so long that they defeated themselves. I admire their recent attempts to protect themselves and stand against the terrorists mudering their own people. Yet, I still hold in reserve my estimation of their worth until I see if they do not waste this miraculous chance at freedom that our soldiers have paid for with their lives. Time will tell…

What made me change my mind about the Iraqis? The testimonies of the soldiers who ARE THERE. If they say these people are worth it - then they are. I’ve recently posted about the miraculous shift in the mind-set of average Iraqis. They are grabbing the hope of freedom from tyranny and terror, and are starting to believe in their own future. They are choosing to safeguard that hope themselves - and are finally stepping up to the plate.

There is only one reason for that - ONE - and that is because they trust our soldiers. They see our troops shouldering the lion’s share of the burden, and sharing their risks in every way possible. They have watched our soldiers lay down their lives again, and again, and again. That is what speaks to them, not the empty promises of our government tucked safe and sound in D.C. There is no reason for them to trust the likes of our two-faced, vacillating, self-preservatory politicians, but they DO see our soldiers following through on the promise that accompanies them wherever they fight on the planet - the promise of VICTORY and PEACE.

I strongly believe that freedom cannot triumph in Iraq if Islam infects the government. There is no possible way. Islam is utterly anathema to human rights and civil rights. If Iraqis can commit to the separation of their religion from their government, then they can survive and thrive. Anything less will squander their chance at liberty.

I have my doubts that they can do that - but that doesn’t take away from the cause. There is NO SHAME in trying! There is no waste in the noble effort to free a people from the bondage of an evil dictator and the ceaseless violence of religious hatred. Our American soldiers have sown the seeds of freedom with their own blood. They are to be honored for that - for it lifts the purpose of their lives ABOVE that of the rest of us enjoying the cushy luxuries of life in America. It is one thing to debate the philosophies of human rights, freedom, and government - and it’s completely another to risk everything to actually ACCOMPLISH the cause of liberty.

“The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class - it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity. ”
–Anna Julia Cooper

So as fat and lazy and ungrateful and otherwise completely vapid Americans protest the War in Iraq in their lovely and SAFE little communities today, I can only spit and declare that they have irredeemably demeaned themselves. They are a stain on America’s legacy, and a blight on our birthright. They are not worth the sand on the bottom of a soldier’s boot. That’s all I have to say about them.

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One Year Ago Today

One year ago today, the forces of evil were allowed to triumph, because good men were kept from doing something about it.

A year ago today, the liberals were more worried about the government “interfering” than they were about public and brutal murder. Depravity was rewarded, and as a country we lost just a bit more of our innocence.

Many of us embarked on fasts of solidarity, certain that we wouldn’t have to do it for long. Certain that in the end, sanity would prevail and we would see justice done. Sadly, the lunacy went on for longer than we could healthily sustain our fast, and ended in the death of a woman whose only crime was being married to a monster.

A year ago today, Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed, against her will and the will of her family, by a man who claimed to have her best interests at heart but whose actions at every turn showed him to be nothing but a selfish, greedy, corrupt little man.

Just in case you find yourself still on the fence in this story, read this. It’s got the whole sorry, disgusting, brutal story. If you can read that and still think Michael Schiavo was a loving husband caught in an impossible situation, then you’re beyond hope.

We must, must, must remember Terri. Forgetting her will allow the Michael Schiavos of the world to continue their agenda of “euthanasia” murder. Forgetting means that we let yet another wave of evil flow unchecked, free to wash its filth upon the shore of humanity. If we forget, someday we could be Terri.

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A Breath of Fresh Air

One thing we consistently preach here at ER is personal responsibility. Choices have consequences. This view is frowned upon by liberal society, since the first rule of being a moonbat is that nothing’s a choice. You have a propensity for molesting children? You must have been molested yourself as a child. You killed someone? You must be insane. You have a drinking problem? It’s an addiction. Anger problem? Other people push your buttons. No one seems to have any free will in this country. We’re apparently all just floating along, pushed into situations out of our control, at the mercy of those around us. All the bad things that happen must be someone else’s fault, because God knows we can’t control anything ourselves.

What a miserable existence.

In today’s must-read, Richard Cohen of the WaPo asks, what happened to our free will? He mentions several stories in the news, bad things happening to (assumedly) good people. All of them were drunk, and Cohen makes the shocking point that perhaps they wouldn’t have found themselves dead or beaten or raped had they not handed over control of their body and decision-making to a completely immature idiot; namely, their drunk self.

In New York, for instance, a cop was buried last month with full honors and called a hero. His name was Eric Hernandez and while off duty and out of uniform, he had gotten into a fight with some goons. Hernandez was being beaten pretty badly when he pulled his gun just as more cops arrived on the scene. There was a mix-up, confusion. Hernandez was shot by another cop. He was without a doubt a victim. But none of this might have happened had he not been drunk.

In Aruba last year — as every devotee of cable TV’s “justice” shows knows — Natalee Holloway never returned from her last night out on her traditional senior year trip. The high school student simply dropped from sight — a victim of foul play, no doubt. She, too, is a victim, but from published reports, she too was doing quite a bit of drinking that night. A sober Natalee Holloway might have made that plane home.

On the Mediterranean last year, George Smith vanished from his cruise ship, Brilliance of the Seas. (This was another “justice” show staple.) Smith was on his honeymoon and both he and his bride Jennifer had been doing some hard partying. She was in fact so drunk that she remembered nothing of the night her husband disappeared. Did George Smith fall overboard? Was he pushed? She’s a victim, he’s a victim, no doubt about it. But, in truth, they both might be back in Greenwich, Conn., had they been a bit more sober.

Cohen’s view is refreshing: Free will? What a concept. Is this to say I’m one of those morons who thinks drinking is some mortal sin? Of course not. I’ve been drunk many a time myself–and that’s another reason why I can understand and agree with Cohen. I think we’ve all done things drunk (or stoned, or angry) that we’d never do sober. So why do so many refuse to take responsibility for letting themselves be put in that position?

It bears repeating: I am not blaming the victims for their own deaths. But I am suggesting that by being drunk, they put themselves in jeopardy. I am also courting what is now considered shockingly bad taste — assigning some blame to the victims — for a reason: Stupid behavior ought to be called that. Shame serves a purpose. Maybe others will not follow.

It’s a favorite fantasy of the feminist Left that a woman never does anything to bring on a rape. No matter what she does, no matter where she is, how drunk she is, or what she might have said to the male, if he doesn’t have close to a notarized consent form, he is a sexual predator that deserves to rot in Hell. Yet in the case of the Navy quarterback accused of rape, the accuser doesn’t remember whether or not she gave consent because she was drunk. In court, she testified that had she been sober, that encounter would have never happened. Was it rape? No one knows–not even, to be honest, the accuser herself, since she admits she may have given consent and just doesn’t remember.

And where is the societal standard that tells people certain activities are considered poor conduct? Is it just gone? Instead of telling teenagers that they should keep their pants on until they’re married or until they are old enough to appreciate the responsibility and intensity of a sexual relationship, we offer them free birth control and teach them how to give oral sex. Instead of telling women to take some responsibility for their actions when they have unprotected sex, we tell them to go ahead and kill the baby. Instead of viewing gangs, drugs and violence as being an abomination in an educated, free society, we hold them up as models and give them awards. Is it any wonder no one expects anything to be their own doing?

That sort of moral condemnation, a fulsome old-fogeyish reprimand, has been distinctly missing in all these cases. It’s as if a person is entitled to be drunk, to be senseless, to act like a dope. You hear that sort of thing all the time. On some college campuses, young women are being dissuaded from binge drinking by being told about all the calories they will be downing: see, it can make you fat. Not, see, it can make you disgusting and, maybe, pregnant — or get you raped or infected with some sexually transmitted disease. No one, I take it, is calling these young women jerks or is brave enough to tell them that they are not, really and truly, the same as men. When it comes to drinking, women and men metabolize alcohol differently. As any sleazeball knows, women get drunk easier and faster. That is not a sexist comment. It is a scientific fact.

Cohen wraps up his article with a serious bang.

When did binge drinking become a team sport? When did young women decide it’s cool to be disgustingly drunk? When did parents stop slapping their kids for getting drunk — over and over again? When did getting drunk become so acceptable that Bode Miller, the Olympic flop, was downright proud of it? When did society get to a point that few people want to mention that it’s dangerous for armed cops to be drunk, for young women to drink with strangers, for cruise ship passengers to get so soused that they could fall overboard. They were all victims — in the end, of someone else, but first of their own behavior and the widespread belief that getting drunk is, really, cool. [emphasis mine]

Of course, I’m guessing that his column will go unnaoticed, save for the few liberal blogs that will pick it up and tear it apart piece by piece, claiming that Cohen is dead wrong, he’s oppressive, he doesn’t believe in women’s rights, or whatever other fashionably insulting label you give to someone with a clue. Bottom line is, Cohen’s right. People need to wake up and realize that their free will is still there, and it still works. Until they figure that out and start using it, they will consistently find themselves in situations that are dangerous to their health, their emotional well-being, or their status as a non-felon.