Michael Reagan: "John McCain Hates Me"

If anyone could identify a Reagan Conservative, surely it would be Michael Reagan. How do you think he sizes up McCain?

Until last night, when I watched the Republican debate, I had no idea how much John McCain dislikes me and just about everybody else but Rudy Giuliani, who if you believe The New York Times is a pretty good hater himself.

As I watched McCain and Governor Romney go at it during the debate at the Reagan Library I was struck by the huge gap that separates McCain -- whose contempt for his fellow humans is patently obvious -- and my dad, Ronald Reagan, who had nothing but the deepest affection and respect for the American people.

The feeling is mutual between McCain and me. I don’t like the way he treats people. You get the impression that he thinks everybody is beneath him. He seems to be saying, “I was a war hero, and you had damn well better treat me as your superior.”

He has contempt for conservatives who he thinks can be duped into thinking he’s one of them, despite such blatantly anti-conservative actions as his support for amnesty for illegal immigrants, his opposition to the Bush tax cuts which got the economy rolling again, and his campaign finance bill which skewed the political process and attacked free speech.

I am appalled by his contempt for the intelligence of his listeners when he flat-out lies and expects them to believe what he says even when the truth is staring them in the face.

By all means read the rest of Reagan's piece. I just can't understand why people can't see through McCain. He epitomizes the Washington DC arrogant class of elitists and if nominated many conservatives may opt to stay home. Ann Coulter suggests that it might be better to have Hillary in the White House than McCain because at least republicans in Congress would know who to vote against whereas they would, out of party loyalty go along with a RINO, er, republican president. Here's Coulter's say on the matter:

At least under President Hillary, Republicans in Congress would know that they're supposed to fight back. When President McCain proposes the same ideas -- tax hikes, liberal judges and Social Security for illegals -- Republicans in Congress will support "our" president -- just as they supported, if only briefly, Bush's great ideas on amnesty and Harriet Miers.

David Limbaugh calls McCain the Anti-Conservative:

But perhaps most troubling about McCain is his habitual resort to class warfare. While he now says that he opposed the Bush tax cuts because he received insufficient guarantees that they'd be coupled with spending cuts, his stated reason at the time was that they were cuts just for the rich. This is demonstrably untrue.

The reductions were across the board and skewed, if anything, in favor of the middle- and lower-income earners. Only liberals mouth these disingenuous and destructive platitudes -- destructive because they alienate and polarize people, stirring resentment and demonizing producers and wealth. And don't forget that McCain was only one of two Republican senators who opposed the plan. That speaks volumes -- and it should open the eyes of those resisting the truism that McCain is not a reliable Reagan conservative. They're the ones with blinders on, not those of us laboring to unveil the truth.

Lest you think McCain's opposition to the Bush tax cuts was just a single exception to his stellar conservative economic credentials, I cite the recent California debate, in which McCain similarly disparaged big business, profits, producers and wealth. This constant harping against the engine and fruits of capitalism is tantamount to waging war against the American ideal. McCain's liberal instinct once again rears its unflattering head.

Whoa, you object. When it comes to the most important issue of all -- the war -- McCain is more hawkish and more conservative than anyone. But even that is not entirely true on closer inspection. He's been good mostly on Iraq -- from a conservative perspective -- but very disappointing on opposing tough, life-saving interrogation techniques, in wanting to close down Gitmo, and in favoring constitutional protections for enemy combatants. Only liberals think like that. Only liberal instincts tell us that if we are tough on them, they'll be tougher on us -- as if they need any excuse to be barbaric toward us. They just are.

Tuesday is going to be a historical day in this country. I'm hoping McCain loses in a very big way.

Cheeta lives!

If you grew up in the 1950's and '60's, you're going to love this story... Boozy chimp to write memoirs:

A CHIMPANZEE which co-starred in a dozen Tarzan flicks back in the 1930s is publishing his memoirs after overcoming addictions to booze and cigars.

Somehow Cheeta the Chimp managed to survive to old age. Now 75 years old, he is officially listed in the Guinness World Records as the oldest living non-human primate.

The California resident, whose real name is Jiggs, has nabbed a literary agent and is working with a ghostwriter on a "funny, moving and searingly honest" autobiography.

Who would have thought he was still alive? I grew up with Cheeta and "Boy." Can't wait to read the book...and what a brilliant title; "Me Cheeta." You had to be there!

No Co-Presidency!

Mike Luckovich gets it!

Essential Weekend Reading

George W. Bush Destroyed the Republican Party -- Peggy Noonan

"Maverick" and "Conservative" Aren't Synonyms -- David Limbaugh

The Real Fairy-Tale -- Monica Crowley

Putsch in Hillaryland -- Michelle Cottle

First, they came for Piglet -- Mark Steyn

Bill Clinton, Nasty Man -- Bruce Feirstein

Two Women Die After Receiving Cervical Cancer Vaccine

The FoxNews headline reads, Two Women Die After Receiving Cervical Cancer Vaccine:

The death of two young women who received the cervical cancer vaccination is causing some in the U.K. to question a strategy that calls for hundreds of thousands of schoolgirls to receive the shot next fall, the Daily Mail reports.

The young women who died received the vaccination, marketed under the name Gardasil, in Germany and Austria, respectively. The European Medicines Agency has not released their ages.

The two deaths follow the deaths of three U.S. females, ages 12, 19 and 22, who were reported to have died days after receiving Gardasil, which protects against the human papillomavirus — believed to be the leading cause of cervical cancer — was administered.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently reported that 28 women miscarried after receiving the vaccine.

This is the same drug that our Governor Perry mandated for Texas schoolgirls by executive order last year. Fortunately, that Bill was rescinded.

Change....indeed!

A snifter click to Glenn Beck for this great video:

A Prime Example of Liberal Fascism

Okay, it didn't happen here, but it happened in London and hopefully we can learn from it. This is a prime example of liberal fascism and it's coming to a country near you!

A woman running a vegetable stand in London's West End is facing fines of up to $130,000 and the possible loss of her business because she was caught by the government selling her produce by the ounce and pound.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Janet Devers, 63, was notified of the criminal counts with a 67-page letter that arrived in the mail, outlining 13 criminal charges relating to the "improper" pricing of goods as well as the offense of selling vegetables in bowls.

"It's disgusting," she told the newspaper. "We have knifings. We have killings. And they're taking me to court because I'm selling in pounds and ounces."

That, of course, isn't allowed under a European Union-mandated rule that all its nations must use metric measures, so veggies have to be weighed in grams and kilograms.

But pounds, pints and miles are what Britishers know best, said Scott Lomax, another vegetable stall owner. "Who's to tell us to change?"

Big brother, that's who!

McCain Still Claiming to be a Conservative

In Thursday's republican debate, McCain continued to claim he was a conservative even though the pundits claim that Reagan conservatism is dead. Why are all the republicans claiming to be conservative if conservatism is dead? The selfsame "conservatives" are also saying talk radio is dead and Rush is a "has been."

In their dreams! Those who are rashly proclaiming the demise of talk radio (i.e.Rush), are the same people who have been wishing that for the last 20 years.

Conservatism isn't dead...just you wait and see!

UPDATE: Has the New York Times ever endorsed a conservative? I don't think so. Today, they endorsed Clinton and McCain. Most conservatives would be mortified at the thought of the old gray lady's seal of approval. Not McCain!

The Sleaze Factor

When you see the words, "sleaze factor," who or what do you think of in the context of this campaign? What party comes to mind? Honestly, I don't see that much sleaze on the republican side. Dishonesty and disengenuousness, sure, but not the kind of sleaze that compels you to take a shower or at the least become a compulsive hand washer (I don't go anywhere without my little bottle of Purell®.)

We'll probably be hearing much more about the "sleaze factor" any day now and don't be surprised if the Clintons beat everyone to the punch by accusing Obama of being the sleazy one in this campaign. You know that's how it will play because the Clinton camp has mastered the diabolical art of projection. Yes, diabolical.

Essentially, that's what's happening right now as the Clintons accuse Obama of doing a political 'hit job'. Hit job....really? Yet another example of "projection."

How is it the dems continue to put up with the sleazy nastiness of the Clintons? Why would anyone put these people back into the White House knowing what we're going to get...the same old sleaze, lies and cover ups. Surely, even the dems have to realize this if they just step back and observe what they do and say and how they say and do it.

How can any self-respecting democrat not see through the insincerity and just plain "ickyness" of these people?

Stop the rioting!!! No more destruction!!!! Keep the Peace!!!!!

No doubt Christians the world over are rioting even as I write! I implore them to stop immediately! No more strife! No more killing! No more kidnappings! No more suicide bombings! Just stop it!! We can all get along even though a Western journalist has desecrated and cursed the name of Jesus.

I know, it was horrific what that so-called sports reporter said about my Lord and Savior, but I don't worship a wimp and He's never asked me to come to His aid in battle even though I ask Him to come to my aid all the time. He can quite handily do whatever He wishes in the case of Ms. Smart Mouth. Quite frankly, when I first read the above linked piece, I feared and felt sorry for her. But, she admittedly was not speaking from a sober point of view.

I now give her the benefit of the doubt as will most Christians around the world. And that's why we're not seeing riots, killings, kidnappings, overturned and burned cars, suicide bombings, and beheadings. My loving God and Savior is more than willing to forgive this errant ESPN reporter if she is willing to be sorry for what she did.

And that's the way Christianity works!

"Saving the Trees and Killing the Children"

Here's what must be the question of the century asked by Kyle-Anne Shiver in her American Thinker piece, Saving the Trees and Killing the Children:

What can be said of a society that has reached such a ludicrous level of moral confusion that it cannot even make the simplest value judgment, cannot even distinguish between the value of a tree and the value of a newly conceived, perfectly innocent, unique human being formed in God's own image?

She goes on:

Can we rightly call this "enlightened"?

Dare one call it "progressive"?

Well, yes, actually. Believers in this absurd value system call it those things all the time, as though anyone with a single grain of common sense could fall for such diabolical rubbish.

Yet a great many among us have fallen for this absurdity, are indeed still falling for it, everyday and in almost every place one looks.

It's been 35 years now since abortion was made legal via Roe v. Wade, and although the numbers of abortion via conventional means are down, the use of RU-486 is on rise. Regardless of the method used to abort, the result is the same.

Ms. Shiver leads up to her poignant conclusion like this:

In 1973, due to a dire lack of valid information about life in the womb, it was quite possible for good people to look the other way and somewhat reasonably expound a pro-abortion position. But advancements in medical technology, ultra-sound especially, have turned those arguments to the kind of meaningless, ignorant gibberish, which has been used to defend the purely indefensible genocides that we modern people had supposedly left behind to less "enlightened," less "progressive" folks.

Thanks to a relatively small cadre of militant feminists and their judicial enablers, we Americans have permitted what is, I believe, the most heinous genocide ever perpetrated against a class of completely helpless human beings. Our own offspring.

Never perhaps in the whole history of civilization, has a situation so begged the question:

What were we thinking?

This question has a pretty simple answer actually.

We were thinking what humans have been prone to think since the very beginning of our existence on this planet.

We were thinking we are so all-powerful that we could permanently alter our own inherent human natures, and throw the laws God designed for our protection into the rubbish bin of antiquated silliness.

We were thinking that we could, in one fell swoop, reorder the world to our own specifications, instead of accepting the world as God made it.

We were thinking that this world and its glittery counterfeit vision of pleasure is all there is.

The shed blood of 48 million innocent human beings does not wash off easily. And a trillion trees does not add up to the value of a single one of our innocent babes in the womb.

We are a generation that will implore, perhaps more than any other yet:

Oh God, have mercy on our souls.

We knew not what we were doing.

Apart from urging the reader to read her entire article, I can only say, Amen.

Bill has a 'Dream'

Hat tip to DRUDGE for this "BILL HAS A 'DREAM'" link.

Stein's Expelled: "No Intelligence Allowed"

A friend sent me this movie trailer a few days ago. It's Ben Stein's new flick, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Watch the trailer, explore the site and discuss it amongst yourselves.

I haven't heard anything about this movie, but then, when you watch the trailer, maybe you'll understand why. Maybe people are afraid to talk about it.

Did you know there was a draft Ben Stein for President in 2008 movement taking shape?

Essential Weekend Reads

Speak Up! Now is the time to sort things out. -- Mark R. Levin

Hillary's Oedipal Problem -- James Lewis

McCain and the Gang of 14 -- Mark R. Levin and Andrew C. McCarthy

Answering Fred's Call -- David Limbaugh

The Fictional Horrors of War -- Mark Steyn

Quiz: Select a Candidate 2008

Here's an interesting bi-partisan quiz which, upon answering 14 questions, will show you the candidate with whom you are most alligned. Go to Select a Candidate 2008 and take the quiz. My results indicate I have more in common with Fred Thompson than with any of the others.

Hillary's Oedipal Problem

My friends, there are weekend reading assignments and then there are "must reads" of the highest magnitude, of which this is one. With all sincerity, love and concern for this once, and in many ways, still, great country, I beg and implore you to print out and read Hillary's Oedipal Problem in The American Thinker.

It's a lengthy piece but never stale or boring. It's instructive and horrifying. Please take the time to read this very important piece. I'll be very surprised if this column written by James Lewis, is not discussed all over the New Media today and in weeks to come.

The High Cost of Roe at 35

It's been 35 years since Roe v. Wade and more than 50 million abortions have been the result. Have we, as a country, had to pay a price for this atrocity? Cal Thomas, in his most recent column, writes about the high price we've paid, are paying and will continue to pay as long as abortions continue to take place.

Thirty-five years after the Supreme Court unilaterally struck down state laws restricting abortion, the cost of that decision continues to increase our moral deficit, which will have far greater (and eternal) consequences than the impact from economic challenges during a possible recession.

Depending on how one counts the number of abortions per year since 1973, more than 50 million people who might have been are not. These were people who, regardless of the circumstances of the women who carried them, had the potential to contribute to the country and to the world. But now they cannot, because they are not. Would we be fighting the battle over immigration had we not rid ourselves of a generation of humans who likely would have done the work for which we are now importing illegal aliens? Actions have consequences.

Abortion is easier dealt with if we just don't think about it, right? Maybe that's what we do all too often. It's good to see the abortion numbers coming down, but it's still not a rare thing if close to a million helpless lives are being destroyed each year.

As Thomas points out, we're already paying a price for this egregious national sin, but it's the cause and effect price that naturally occurs when immutable laws of nature are broken. The punishment phase may be yet to come.

Palestinians fire big rockets amid peace talks...say it ain't so!

Who would have ever thought this would happen?

Lifetime Achievement Award For Bob Grant Yanked by Publication

Long time radio talk show host, Bob Grant, one of the "founding dads' of talk radio as we know it, was recently awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the trade publication, Radio & Records. Today, however, they rescinded the award. It seems that they may have come under some politically correct heat from the left.

Here's their statement:

Upon further review and consideration of Bob Grant's complete body of work, Radio & Records has withdrawn its decision to present the 2008 News/Talk/Sports Lifetime Industry Achievement Award to Mr. Grant. R&R is sensitive to the diversity of our community and does not want the presentation of an award to Mr. Grant to imply our endorsement of past comments by him that contradict our values and the respect we have for all members of our community.

Brian Maloney has the full story over at The Radio Equalizer.

Hannity interviewed Grant this afternoon. According to Hannity, many in the industry are considering a boycott of the ceremony where Grant was to be given his award.

Mark Levin, in his opening comments, blasted R & R for caving to the p.c. pressure. I urge you to go to Levin's site and listen to his opening comments. They are rich!

More on the story at the Mark Levin Fan blog.

UPDATE from The Radio Equalizer: Bob Grant Award withdrawal leads some hosts to boycott the Talk Radio Seminar of 2008.

Satirical Observation of the Day

From Ann Coulter's most recent column:

Unluckily for McCain, snowstorms in Michigan suppressed the turnout among Democratic "Independents" who planned to screw up the Republican primary by voting for our worst candidate. Democrats are notoriously unreliable voters in bad weather. Instead of putting on galoshes and going to the polls, they sit on their porches waiting for FEMA to rescue them.

Huckabee's Non-smoking Policy

Apparently Huckabee has changed his policy on smoking:

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has reversed his position on a federal ban aimed at workplace smoking and now believes the issue should be addressed by state and local governments.

Wrong answer!

It should be up to the individual busniness owner and not the city, state or the federal govt.

Not Under Enough Stress?

Just when you thought you couldn't take any more stress, an article like this comes along!

Death of the Bush Doctrine

Jeff Jacoby opines about the death of the Bush Doctrine which was announced yesterday by Condoleezza Rice:

THE Bush Doctrine - born on Sept. 20, 2001, when President Bush bluntly warned the sponsors of violent jihad: "You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists" - is dead. Its demise was announced by Condoleezza Rice last Friday.

"The 'road map' for peace, conceived in 2002 by Mr. Bush, had become a hindrance to the peace process, because the first requirement was that the Palestinians stop terrorist attacks. As a result, every time there was a terrorist bombing, the peace process fell apart and went back to square one.

So since the Palestinians refused to stop being terrorists, Israel is going to be forced to treat them like peace loving folk who just need more territory. How bogus is that concept?

Does anyone think this is going to bring peace to Israel? Has land for peace ever worked with terrorists whose sole desire is to eliminate the State of Israel?

No wonder it says in Psa 122:6, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem..." (now, more than ever?)

Be sure to read the rest of Jacoby's peace and keep your eye on Israel.

An Immediate Solution for Man-Caused Global Warming

Pat Sajak lays out a real solution to the "problem" of global warming, if only the believers would unite. Check it out!

Steyn's Take on Michigan

Regarding Romney's win in Michigan, Mark Steyn has this to say:

Huck seems very two weeks ago now. It's obvious he has a base, but he can't build on it. McCain's loss is bad, too: He needed a win not just for poll momentum but for cash-raising. As for Fred, I'd love it if he won South Carolina and he's been great in the last couple of debates, and is brilliantly well-informed in the more leisurely interviews, but he could use a couple of big campaign themes, and even a slogan.

As for Rudy, Florida seems a long way off. His best chance is that, for all the talk of Fredmentum and Momittmum and MomentMc and Momuckamee, this season is a momentum-free zone.

Start preparing your apologies to the conspiracy theorists!

The time may be rapidly approaching that we have to humbly apologize to those who have been relentlessly warning us of the encroaching globalist "conspiracy of international socialism" that is unfolding before our very eyes.

The conspiracy folks have long been demonized, marginalized, denigrated, laughed at, etc, etc and yet when we see international socialism taking shape, hidden in plain view, we dare not mention it for fear of facing the same fate as the "whacked out conspiracy" buffs.

Dearie dear...we're as doomed as doomed can be!

Romney Gets Critical Win In Michigan

Romney Wins In Michigan...okay now what? Will Huckabee drop out because he came in third? Is this the end of the McCain comeback? The MSM has been saying Romney had to win tonight, but didn't McCain have to win? Is there a little duplicity in the media camp?

Or maybe the MSM will continue to coddle McCain and Huckabee while disparaging the Romney campaign.

Ya think?

From Hugh Hewitt's blog:

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 9:01 PM

John McCain lost a sizable lead in Michigan lead and with it the MSM momentum.

Mike Huckabee threw everything trying to recreate the Iowa upset and fell far short, and has now wounded himself with the argument about amending the Constitution to reflect "God's law." (See Andy McCarthy's short but devastating commentary.)

And Mitt Romney has now re-established himself as the candidate to beat over the very long campaign.

The key? As Rush said this morning: A McCain or Huckabee nomination would be a disaster for the GOP because they are not Reagan conservatives. Republicans are now voting in large numbers, and they are voting for the Reagan conservative. There is no reason to believe that John McCain will be able to recapture his New Hampshire moment or Huck his Iowa surprise.

Romney certainly isn't a Reagan conservative, but he's comes much closer to that moniker than McCain and/or Huckabee could ever hope to, regardless of their wannabe rhetoric.

Tonight, Michigan was good for the conservative movement. It weakened the Double Talk Express, and that's a good thing. It marginalized Huckabee...and that's a good thing. It also marginalized the MSM and that's always a good thing.

If we get down to a Romney/Thompson showdown, that too will be a good thing. We need nominees who will "out conservative" one another!

Please Sir, we need more oil......

When President Bush went to Saudi Arabia and made the case for more oil production, they basically said, "What? You want moooooooooorrrrrrreeee?

Maybe one of these days we'll have a president and congress who will recognize the necessity of energy independence so we don't have to go begging to those arrogant rogues. Then again, if you elect Hillary or McCain, you can kiss any possibility of energy independence good-bye!

Iran Plans on Destroying Tomb of King Cyrus, Friend of the Jews

The ultimate in history revision or just pure hatred of Jews? Iran Plans on Destroying Tomb of King Cyrus because he was friendly to the Jews:

Iran is planning on submerging the tomb of King Cyrus (Coresh), the Persian King known for authorizing the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Holy Temple.

The Iranian ayatollahs are planning on destroying the tomb as part of a general campaign to sever the Persian people from their non-Islamic heritage; Cyrus was thought to be a Zoroastrian and was one of the first rulers to enforce a policy of religious tolerance on his huge kingdom.

“The government is in the final stages of constructing a dam in southern Iran that will submerge the archaeological sites of Pasargad and Persopolis – the ancient capital of the Persian Empire,” the report states. “The site, which is considered exceptional in terms of its archaeological wealth and historical importance, houses the tomb of the Persian King Cyrus.”

Today's Classic Example of Projection

By one of the masters of projection, Bill Clinton:

“This is what happens any time anyone tries to question a statement or a position of Senator Obama,” Clinton says in an interview now airing on Sirius satellite radio. “The response is, ‘You’re attacking me personally,’ and that relieves him of the obligation to address the substance.”

Carl Karcher, Founder of Carl's Jr. Chain, Dead at 90

Carl Karcher, founder of Carl's Jr. chain of restaurants has died.

It wasn't until his ads started drawing criticism from the politically correct types that I started going out of my way to find and patronize Carl's Jr. I can honestly say Carl's Jr. immediately became my second favorite fast food hamburger, second only to the legendary In-N-Out Burger, which, unfortunately is unavailable here in Dallas.

There's a really nice tribute to Mr. Karcher if you go to the above linked Carl's Jr. website.

I'm starting to crave one of their $6.00 hamburgers even as I write!

Are Americans Oblivious to their Oblivian

For decades now, proponents of homeschooling and conservatives alike have been warning the populace that the bloated and left leaning education system in this country has been performing a grave disservice by dumbing down curricula and being more concerned with indoctrinating than educating. The fruits of their efforts, be they intentional or not, may very well be coming home to roost. We now have an entire generation (or more) of people who, for the most part, are ignorant of the founding documents and fundamental concepts and precepts on which this country was built. They are oblivious of their rights and the specified limitations of government set forth in the constitution.

How convenient that we have an ignorant and/or apathetic generation of pleasure seekers who care not about issues, trends or politicians who will truly have life changing effects on all of us in one way or another unless we wake up.

The American Thinker has an excellent piece titled, The Race for the American Mind that deals with the New Media and the battles we've won. Among them, the "shamnesty bill" congress and the president tried to sneak past us last year.

Talk Radio and the Internet were all over that one and the New Media continues to "watch the watchers" and "police the police" as this piece points out.

But is the New Media winning the race for the American Mind or is it too late? This is where it's gets interesting and this is when you need to go to the above linked piece and read what Selwyn Duke says in his American Thinker article. It's a good piece, if not a bit discouraging.

Liberal Fascism--a review of Jonah Goldberg's book

I haven't read Jonah Goldberg's new book yet, but I certainly intend to. Wouldn't you know that Lucianne.com (Lucianne is Jonah's mom) linked to a wonderful review of Liberal Fascism. Here's a teaser from Bruce Thornton's book review:

Given that “fascist” is the most abused term in the political lexicon, Goldberg’s first task is to correct all the misconceptions about historical fascism, the most important being that it was a “conservative” political movement, one created by bourgeois capitalism to ward off a decline created by its own contradictions and the socialist alternative. In reality, fascism is a phenomenon of the left, not the right — an “inconvenient truth,” Goldberg writes, “if ever there was one.” This confusion about fascism’s origins if furthered by the misleading contrast usually made between fascism and communism. But as Goldberg shows, “they are closely related, historical competitors for the same constituents, seeking to control and dominate the same social space,” a space opened up by the decline of Christianity, to which both were hostile, and by the utopian pretensions of scientistic politics. Moreover, both shared the belief that “the era of liberal democracy was drawing to a close,” that it was time to abandon “the anachronisms of natural law, traditional religion, constitutional liberty, capitalism and the like”: “God was long dead, and it was long overdue for men to take His place.” Thus both were “utopian visions and the bearers of great hopes,” international movements attracting believers throughout the world, including America. The key difference between these two socialistic philosophies was the question of nationalism. Communism located the essence of human identity in transnational economic classes, whereas fascism “offered a new religion of the divinized state and the nation as an organic community.”

By all means read the rest of the review.

The left can summarily be described as projectionist. Whatever they accuse others of doing, you can be sure they are most guilty of doing it themselves.

Essential Weekend Reading

Enjoy!

The Real McCain Record -- Mark Levin

Capitalism, not government, is the real 'agent of change' -- Mark Steyn

Who's Crying Now -- Peggy Noonan

Conservatism's Identity Crisis -- David Limbaugh

John Vincent Coulter -- Ann Coulter

HUMAN EVENTS Endorses Fred Thompson

HUMAN EVENTS (Ronald Reagan's favorite periodical) is endorsing Fred Thompson:

We begin by recalling the profound words of Ronald Reagan at the Conservative Political Action Conference Feb. 15, 1975: “A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.” We believed that then, and we believe it now. The issue for us -- and for the conservative community -- boils down to which of the candidates is most representative of the fundamental conservative principles we believe in. The answer is Fred Thompson.

Thompson came out swinging last night. If you missed the debate here's a good clip:

Some Future Headlines

It's not often that I post emails that make the rounds, however, these are pretty good, which should scare the whey out of you because we can all see where we're headed:

HEADLINES FROM THE YEAR: 2029

Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest country in the world, Mexifornia, formerly known as California . White minorities still trying to have English recognized as Mexifornia's third language.

Spotted Owl plague threatens northwestern United States crops and livestock.

Baby conceived naturally! Scientists stumped.

Couple petitions court to reinstate heterosexual marriage.

Iran still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least 10 more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.

France pleads for global help after being taken over by Jamaica. No other country comes forward to help the beleaguered nation!

Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking.

George Z. Bush says he will run for President in 2036.

Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesdays only.

85-year $75.8 billion study: Diet and exercise is the key to weight loss.

Average weight of Americans drops to 250 lbs.

Global cooling blamed for citrus crop failure for third consecutive year in Mexifornia and Florexico.

Japanese scientists have created a camera with such a fast shutter speed they now can photograph a woman with her mouth shut.

Abortion clinics now available in every
High School in United States.

Senate still blocking drilling in ANWR even though gas is selling for 4532 Pesos per liter and gas stations are only open on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative.

Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals violates their civil rights.

Average height of NBA players is now nine feet, seven inches.

New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters and rolled -up newspapers must be registered by January 2030 .

IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75 percent.

Florexico voters still having trouble with voting machines

Ann Coulter pays tribute to John Vincent Coulter

Condolences to Ann Coulter for the loss of her father John Vincent Coulter who died last Friday at age 84. When you read Ann's tribute, you'll see where she got some of her wit as well as her conservatism. It's in her genes. Coulter fans will want to read this. She exposes much more of her personal side and even in mourning she's able to bring a few smiles to your face.

CFP: " United Nations and crusading celebrities are simply wrong"

The Canada Free Press headline is: Environmental extremism must be put in its place in the climate debate:

Many people are starting to realize that much of what they’ve been told about climate change by governments, the United Nations and crusading celebrities is simply wrong. Not surprisingly, the assertion that “the science is settled” in a field the public is coming to understand is both immature and quickly evolving, is triggering growing public skepticism. Alarmists respond by upping the anti, making even more extreme and nonsensical forecasts, which in turn further fuels healthy public disbelief.

This pattern of exaggerated, and finally ludicrous assertions influencing debate in society is an old story. Extremists and extremism have always defined the limits for the majority. Climate extremism will increase in the near future as purveyors of politically correct but flawed views of climate change attempt to defend the indefensible.

Realization of this misdirection, and in many cases, deception, leads to the next stage in the life cycle of such mass delusions. People begin to ask, “What is the motivation for the scare? How was society so easily misled? Why did so many otherwise intelligent people accept or even promote the scare?

Please read the entire article; it's an important piece. It's refreshing and encouraging to see people waking up to the massive hoax perpetrated by Al Gore, the United Nations, socialists around the world and the entire democrat party, for the sole purpose of financing socialism and redistributing our wealth to undeveloped countries.

(cross posted at Reject the U.N.)

You're Not informed about the Candidates unless you're listening to Mark Levin

If you're not blessed to have the Mark Levin show broadcast in your town, don't despair...you can listen to his show at the above link if you just scroll all the way down. He'll tell you who the worst republicans are and what makes them so bad...maybe egregious is a better word.

He'll also tell you why we shouldn't be so hasty to "take out" Hillary this early in the campaign. Levin is brilliant; he's witty and adoringly offensive to the leftists. How can anyone not like him?

There is no excuse to not hear him. Like I said, go to the above link, scroll down and listen to him! It's free! You'll soon see why they call him the "great one."

While America looks to NH, the World is Watching the Middle East

JOEL C. ROSENBERG, author and astute observer of all things Middle Eastern, is focusing on the significance of President Bush's trip to Israel while Americans are being distracted by the hoopla in New Hampshire. So what's the big deal of Bush's trip?

It's all well and good that (some, if not, many) Americans are interested in the presidential primaries to see who will be on the ballet in November, but for right now, the really earth shaking events may be taking place in Israel and its immediate environs.

Here's some of what Joel C. Rosenberg has to say from his blog regarding President Bush's trip to Israel:

President Bush leaves today for Israel and the West Bank where he will spend two days meeting with Prime Minister Olmert and President Mahmoud Abbas....he will then fly to Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt for meetings with President Hosni Mubarak....from there, he heads to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait....I suspect he will also make an unannounced visit to Baghdad....the trip comes at an important time for the Bush administration....on the positive side, violence in Iraq has plummeted dramatically in the wake of the U.S. military "surge"....violence in Israel is at a seven-year low....Lebanon has not imploded, as has been feared for much of the past year....Syria has not retaliated against Israel for the fall airstrike that took out a North Korean nuclear facility under construction....severe internal divisions are surfacing within Iran's government, and there are fresh reports that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be losing favor with the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei....that said, the big question is: What will 2008 hold?....the recently-released National Intelligence Estimate on Iran notwithstanding, top Israeli officials I have spoken with are convinced Iran most certainly is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, and could have a workable device by 2010....President Bush is saying publicly that he is convinced Iran remains a serious threat to U.S. and allied interests in the Middle East, and that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to another Holocaust...."If I were an Israeli, I would take the words of the Iranian president seriously, and as President of the United States I take them seriously," Bush said yesterday during an interview on Israeli army radio....he also vowed to defend Israel if Iran were to attack the Jewish state...

Rosenberg has more to say...just visit his above linked blog and earmark it to stay abreast of what's going on over there...from an insider.

Sprittibee's "Garden of the Heart"

My blogging buddy, Heather, who may be better known in the blogosphere as Sprittibee, has landed herself a monthly column in a new homeschooling magazine, The Heart of the Matter.

The title of Heather's first article is Garden of the Heart and here's what it's about in her own words:

Proverbs 4:23 ~ Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

The heart is the center of homeschooling – and homeschooling is a “choice of the heart”. Chances are if you are reading this, your heart is already tied in some way with Jesus and your kids. You probably already know what a Homeschool day looks like. You might have even been homeschooling for a while now. No matter what stage of home education you find yourself in… the newbie, the elementary 3-5 year homeschooler, the old pro with high-schoolers and graduates… we all need to have our hearts recharged. It never hurts to stop and reflect to see what our heart’s purposes are.

The Bible asks that we "guard" our hearts – not to keep them under lock and key – but to carefully and deliberately choose the things we allow our hearts to focus on. Homeschool moms are the heart of our homes… another reason to be watchful of what our hearts are set on. Are we hiding God’s word in our hearts? Are we weaving cords of loving-kindness for our mate? Are we looking for ways to bond with our kids and show them our love? Or have we allowed the holy calling of God to educate our children to become a list we are checking off or a rushed routine? Are we seeing God in the details of our daily moments?

There's much more to her thoughtful piece, of course, and if you're into homeschooling or if you're a parent, you're going to get a lot out of this article, and, no doubt, her future articles.

The new publication looks like it's going to be an outstanding inspirational tool for homeschool families.

My wife and I homeschooled in the "olden days" of the '80's and 90's (okay, my wife did the homeschooling, but I observed the entire process with awe and inspiration of my wife and our kids) and we would have loved to have had access to a magazine such as The Heart of the Matter and homeschool websites such as Sprittibee's.

Congratulations, Heather, not only for getting published in a top notch start-up magazine, but for landing a monthly column. Then again, it was only a matter of time!

HUMAN EVENTS Man of the Year: Rush Limbaugh

Major DITTOS to HUMAN EVENTS for making Rush Limbaugh their Man of the Year for 2007.

Rush fans and haters alike will want to read the above linked tribute written by Mark Levin which delineates some of the great things Rush accomplished on the air this year and how the left continually attempted to vilify him. The left lost.

Levin's tribute is an excellent primer on the modus operandi of the left. Their playbook never changes; they project and accuse their opponents of the very things they are guilty. But more importantly, Levin points out why Rush is the most influential and articulate conservative in America.

I've been a huge fan of Rush from the first day he came to the Dallas airwaves. He's always been much more than a great talk show host. He's an educator, a humorist, a patriot, a political analyst without peer, but more than anything else, he's an inspiration. Daily he inspires his listeners to think positively, to be of good cheer and be the very best Americans we can be.

The conservative movement is a napping giant and Rush has been instrumental over the years in successfully waking people up. He's a one man media giant who has changed single-handedly the way we get our news. He gave new life to talk radio and is considered by most on the right to be the founding father and titular head of the New Media.

That he is so hated by the left, as well as by moderate and liberal republicans, speaks volumes to his effectiveness. There's never been anyone like him in Media and there never will be.

Congratulations, Rush! You deserve to be Man of the Year!

(photo borrowed from rushlimbaugh.com)

Question of the Day

"Is this what it would have been like had Elvis been reduced to playing Reno?"

The Elvis legacy improves with age. The Clinton legacy is what it always will be.

Ya just don't see this in other states!

I drove by this house in an upscale neighborhood in North Dallas recently and just had to stop and get a pic. You just don't see state flags on garage doors in too many other states. God bless Texas!

(photo by rich glasgow...all rights reserved)

It's Time for a Real Jack Bauer to Bust the Writer's Union

Enough is enough. The country misses Jack Bauer and the weekly fix of 24. What this country needs is a good union busting and it could all start with the good folks that produce 24.

The producers could issue a 48 hour dictum stating that unless the writers return and begin writing the new season, they will be fired and new non-union writers would take their places. This would send a chilling message to the Hollywood union thugs.

The bold move would probably require a total relocation for the production company to some open shop state, like Texas. If the production crew refused to go along with non-union writers, a new crew would have to be hired. Likewise the actors would have to go along with the move.

I know...this could mean the end of Jack Bauer as we know him, but I'm pretty sure the fans of 24 would be enthralled with a bold, in your face to the unions who are paralyzing the industry.

Now that would be great theater!

It would take us back to the good ol' days when Ronaldus Magnus fired the PATCO union members who refused to return to work. Ah yes, those were the days!

Quote of the Day

From the wit and wisdom of Henry Ward Beecher:

The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government.

Because the venerable Mr. Beecher lived so many years ago (1813-1887) when government was minuscule, by comparison, I will humbly add to his brilliance by saying that the only thing worse than government is BIG government! (Please see my previous post)

WND: "Vacate room when CFL bulb breaks"

When it comes to Big Govt dictating how we must live our lives, I'm reminded of the mournful words of Ed Grimley, "we're as doomed as doomed can be!"

How else are we to think when congress mandates a light bulb that contains mercury and it's necessary to vacate the room when the CFL bulb breaks:

Less than a month after the U.S. Congress passed an energy bill banning the incandescent light bulb by 2014, the UK Environment Agency issued guidelines calling for evacuation of any room where an energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulb is broken, releasing toxic mercury.

The warning comes a month before the British government begins its phase-out of tungsten bulbs, scheduled to be completed in 2011. The switchover to CFL bulbs will save at least five million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year, the government said. (editor's note: this assumes CO2 is a BAD thing!)

Health experts warned this week that people with certain skin ailments will suffer from the new eco-friendly bulbs which cause conditions such as eczema to flare up.

Additionally, the bulbs have been linked to migraine headaches in some people.

There will be many more downsides to this newly mandated light bulb; be watching for them. If Big Govt is going to mandate which light bulbs you have to use and you passively sit back and allow them to do it, then you can count on more and more mandates in your life.

Congress and President Bush, who signed the bill into law, need to be held accountable for this nonsense.

If all this is new to you, then you probably missed this, this and this.

Andrew Ferguson, a senior editor at The Weekly Standard wrote an objective piece in the Dallas Morning News, today titled Sucked in by the Swirl. It's well worth reading.

There are pluses and minuses to this expensive little bulb, but the market should be the final arbiter here, not Big Govt!

Why I, as a Christian, Will Not Support Mike Huckabee

The American Thinker has a good piece by Bruce Walker on Mike Huckabee that fully explains why I, as a Christian and Home School dad (our kids have since matriculated from college), will not be supporting Mike Huckabee in the primaries.

I don't have a problem, necessarily, that he wears his Christianity on his sleeve, but I do have a problem that he wants Big Govt to play the role of the charitable Christian.

Here's a blurb from Walker's article:

Mike Huckabee said last Sunday on Meet the Press that his faith was important to him and that it drove his views on everything from the environment to poverty to disease and to hunger. Huckabee then went on to say that he thought the Republican Party needed to take a greater leadership role on these sorts of issues and that, as a Christian, he wanted to make sure that Republicans spoke out more on these issues.

Excellent. As a Christian Republican myself, I will express support for protecting God's Creation, fighting sickness, and ending hunger. All are profoundly Christian ideals. But Mike Huckabee, as a Christian, is not really talking about protecting Creation, fighting sickness or ending hunger. Mike is talking about using the coercive power of government to force other people to pay taxes and to comply with onerous and arbitrary laws to do what Mike thinks, as a Christian, he should be doing.

That is the salient fact: as a Christian, Huckabee can be a witness to Christian behavior; he can exhort others to themselves become a witness to Christian behavior; but he cannot demand the enslavement of others to do those things which, as a Christian, he feels that he should do. The term "enslavement," of course, is relative. Americans are comparatively free. But everything that Huckabee feels government should do requires a loss of freedom for every American. Moreover, Huckabee is not just asking for the greater enslavement of Christian Americans, but he is asking for the greater enslavement of all Americans. This is most un-Christian. Does my verdict sound extreme? Substitute "Rome" for "America" and substitute "publican" for "tax dollars."

Did Christ ever say his followers should ask Rome to do more for the welfare of its subjects? Or did Christ ask each individual Christian to personally do more to feed the hungry, to comfort the sick, to care for the widows and orphans, and to seek justice and mercy? Rome was a welfare state. The urban masses of Rome lived on bread and circuses. Roman power, outside Rome, build good roads, aqueducts, baths, bridges, libraries and undertook many other public works projects. Pax Romana was a very real blessing to nations who had fought wars around Mare Nostrum for centuries.

The entire article couldn't be more right on. Be sure to read the entire piece.

One's religion has no place in government. Our government should be secular, and the populace should be religious. The constitution makes no provision for a "religious" government.

The very reasons I do not and will not support Mike Huckabee in the primaries are the very reasons democrats like Susan Estrich see Huckabee as a dream come true. They know full well they can blow him out of the water because of his beliefs and how he'll apply them to his would-be administration.

I truly hope Huckabee doesn't turn out to be the republican nominee. He won't have a leg to stand on and I hope his Christian supporters and my fellow Home Schoolers will soon wake up to that.

Will this be the start of the scorched earth policy?

The Clintons play for keeps. They play mean and hard and when they don't win woe be unto those who oppose them. For political junkies and voters at large, the campaign for the White House just got more interesting.

Will the Clintons get down and really get dirty? To be sure!

If they can't win, nobody is going to win! This is going to be fun, but at what cost?

Stay tuned!

Quote of the Night (and hopefully for the future)

From Peggy Noonan's column:

"She had the money, she had the organization, the party's stars, she had Elvis behind her, and the Clinton name in a base that loved Bill. And she lost."

May God continue to bless America! Read the rest of Noonan's column. One can hope and do whatever else is necessary to make sure this is the wave of the future and not just a fluke.

Fanning the Fire of Conservatism

David Limbaugh wrote another good column about conservatism and complacency among our ranks. Are conservatives going to "settle" for a candidate who is contra-conservative? Have conservatives given up or are they beguiled by a candidate who espouses Christianity and hanging their hat on someone they can be assured will be anti-abortion? Is this how it's going to be with single issue voters. But wait, with the exception of Giuliani, all of the republicans are anti-abortion. So what gives?

As Limbaugh asks in his above mentioned column, have conservatives lost the fire in the belly?
Complacency is a dangerous state in which to find oneself. Is that where conservatives are? If so, the conservative movement is scarily in danger of being the frog in slowly heating water from which he is too comfortable to bail out of before being cooked. It could happen. It may very well be happening.

Maybe we're just getting used to a Big Govt that provides more and more for us; or maybe we're just too tired to keep fighting against what appears to be inevitable socialism creeping upon us. Yes, it can be discouraging when Big Govt mandates toilets, light bulbs, air bags, seat belts, non-smoking buildings, and regulates speech and thought via hate crimes.

Conservatives and conservatism have taken it on the chin since the era of Reagan. We're still out here, mind you...but unfortunately our ranks may be fewer. I hope I'm wrong.

The dems know we're out here. They won the last election by putting up what appeared to be conservative dems (I know...what could be more oxymoronic!) But why do the republicans treat conservatives like stepchildren?

It's not the politician's fault, it's OUR fault! The silent conservatives have been too complacent. Like the lukewarm Laodicean church of Revelation 3:14-22 who was "rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked...." They weren't in a good place, ideologically and theologically speaking. They were complacent. They were ho hum about what was going on around them because they had it pretty good.

So do we!

We can't afford, as conservatives, to sit idly by and let Big Govt moderate or liberal republicans bastardize conservatism.

Wake up, conservatives! Demand that someone adopt real conservatism...smaller government, lower taxes, stronger military, smaller government, fewer regulations, energy independence, smaller government, fewer taxes, no socialized medicine, secure borders, disincentives for illegal aliens, fewer taxes, smaller government, energy independence and fewer regulations. Did I mention border security and energy independence as opposed to mere conservation?

Conservatives need to let their opinions be known before it's too late. Find the most conservative candidate, hold his feet to the fire and run with him, support him and determine to make conservatism the mainstay of the republican party

But, whatever you do, don't sidle up to some liberal or middle of the road RINO and adopt him as a conservative just because he's a wannabe conservative. Make sure he's the most conservative one out there and then vote against the dems.

MSNBC: "Nature's role in Arctic thaw"

NEWS FLASH FROM MSNBC: "Natural Causes May Also Play Role in Arctic Thaw"

Ya think?

Last Minute Surge for Thompson--The Power of Limbaugh

There's a late-breaking surge for Fred Thompson, according to Zogby. Could it be the power of Limbaugh? Don't forget about David's most recent column, either!

Quote of the Day

From the inimitable Mark Levin: (a paraphrase)

"You know what else I like about Fred Thompson...the media hate him!"

Ya gotta love Levin

Time for a Conservative to Step Up

Where are the conservative republican presidential candidates? Some conservative, if there's one out there, needs to step up soon and show some down to earth leadership. David Limbaugh, in his most recent column, makes some good arguments that Fred Thompson may be the one who fits the bill.

Limbaugh lays out the good points of the republican candidates, but also points out why none of them deserve to run under the "conservative" moniker.

Thompson may be the guy who is closer to conservatism than the rest, but sooner than later, he needs to get out there and show us his stuff. According to Limbaugh:

I must confess that Fred is the only one I don't have major reservations about -- apart from his electability. Yes, I worry that he supported McCain-Feingold and that he might not be a strong supply-sider. But on most issues, he seems reliably conservative and appears to have a solid and strong character. I do believe that with Fred, we know what we are getting.

I find his lack of "fire in the belly" refreshing. He strikes me as one of the few presidential candidates since Ronald Reagan whose primary motivation is not personal aggrandizement but rather serving and leading the nation in very troubled and dangerous times. I see him as almost being drafted into this project, and his refusal to drool publicly over the prospect of becoming the most powerful man in the world is positively delightful.

Read the whole piece and see his take on the republican players.

Are "Man-Caused Global Warming" Believers Beginning to Cave?

It must be disconcerting to Al Gore and the faith-based believers of "man-caused global warming" when the New York Times runs a piece suggesting that the global warming scenario is pretty much bogus:

Critics are calling it clear evidence that the climate of opinion on alleged global warming is shifting in favor of skeptics, especially since it comes from the New York Times, until now a fervent acolyte of climate change guru Al Gore and his doctrine of ongoing and disastrous climate change.

In his Times column for the first day of the new year, "In 2008, a 100 Percent Chance of Alarm," columnist John Tierney took a close look at the global warming debate and found that the climate change scenario being peddled by Mr. Gore and his legion of followers is anything but the settled scientific fact they claim, with the sole doubters being the equivalent of those who believe the earth is flat. Tierney, critics say, has nailed the climate alarmists and exposed their propaganda!

This is a pretty significant admission by the NYTimes!

It may not be a full-fledged refutation, but it may very well be a CYA "just in case the Al Gore/Ted Danson/Hollywood Left/incredible Nobel committee/United Nations/Kyoto types" aren't able to achieve the catastrophic scenarios they are promising.

Not everyone on the left can afford to be associated with the Al Gore/ global warming doomsayers if you consider that there is no way man can have any control over the cyclical inevitabilities of climate change. Like it or not, climate change has been around far longer than SUV's and way longer than the advanced and progressive Western Civilization, which has been so demonized by the left.

Thankfully, the entire subject of global warming and climate change is being thrown open to debate, as well it should.

Society can hardly afford to change national economic policy and wield to the leftist United Nation's wish that unprecedented international taxation be imposed based on a totally undocumented leftist philosophy, regardless of the "consensus" of a number of scientists.

There are an ever growing number of scientists who dispute the "man-caused global warming" belief. This debate is welcome in the arena of ideas and it should be an integral part of the presidential debates.

Let's see who falls in line with the Al Gore followers and let's see who has reasonable arguments against his faith-based belief in "man-caused global warming." Those on the right side of this debate will welcome more debate. Those on the wrong side of this debate will want to marginalize and debase anyone who oppose them.

With that in mind, it won't be difficult to determine who's right and who's wrong.

More at NewsBusters.