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“It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” —Samuel Adams

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Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander Publisher, PatriotPost.US

INSIGHT

“Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it.” —Woodrow Wilson

FAMILY

“It’s not complicated, but we’ve complicated it. There is good in this world and there is evil. There has always been an objective morality. We ignore it at our own peril—and our culture has been ignoring it for a while now. …That is why more than one-third of American births are to unwed mothers—double what they were in 1980. It’s why popular culture has gotten excessively vulgar and cynical. It’s why many experience a breakdown in civility and good manners every day… We’ve loosened up plenty. That’s why so many worry that basic morality is in swift decline in America.” —Tom Purcell

CULTURE

“[T]here are three kinds of people in this world: Sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. The sheep form the largest segment of our society. According to Grossman, these are the people who are living in a constant state of denial. They are generally incapable of doing violence to another person and largely unaware of the existence of evil in this world—the true evil which is, thankfully, confined to a minority of the population…[T]here are others among us who are fully aware of the existence of another class of persons we will call the ‘wolves.’ These people are sociopaths who prey upon the sheep and wish to do them evil…[T]he third class of people: the sheepdogs… unlike sheep, are fully prepared to kill other human beings. But, unlike the wolves, they do so in order to protect those whom they love—most of whom are unable to fend for themselves. Their willingness to kill is a function of their love for their fellow citizens…[T]he wolves are still out there and we do not know when they will attack. But they will. And, for most of you, the sheepdog is your best and only hope.” —Mike Adams

LIBERTY

“Self-appointed, so-called professionals who represent special interest groups, often funded by government grants, lend their expertise to the hard sell of the philosophy that government enforced fairness makes a better society than does individual freedom… The genius of the American system of government is the idea that government power is limited by the consent of the governed. This consent is conveyed when representatives are empowered at the ballot box to enact rules of behavior. When the rules these representatives adopt do not receive the consent of the people, then the representatives can be sent packing, and new representatives elected. When the rules of behavior are developed, enacted, and enforced by people who are not elected, the people have no way to convey or deny their consent. Government usurps the power from the people and imposes its will—as it wills. This is the kind of government Hillary [Clinton]—and a great many others, want. This is the kind of government they describe as the government they will continue to build. It is the kind of government in which freedom will continue to diminish, and eventually fade into oblivion.” —Henry Lamb

THE GIPPER

“Fellow Americans, our duty is before us. Let us go forward, determined to serve selflessly a vision of man with God, government for people, and humanity at peace. For it is now our task to tend and preserve, through the darkest and coldest nights, that ‘sacred fire of liberty’ that President Washington spoke of two centuries ago, a fire that… remains a beacon to all the oppressed of the world, shining forth from this kindly, pleasant, greening land we call America.” —Ronald Reagan

OPINION IN BRIEF

“Here’s a good question for you: Why have public schools at all? OK, cue the marching music. We need public schools because blah blah blah and yada yada yada. We could say blah is common culture and yada is the government’s interest in promoting the general welfare. Or that children are the future. And a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Because we can’t leave any child behind. The problem with all these bromides is that they leave out the simple fact that one of the surest ways to leave a kid ‘behind’ is to hand him over to the government. Americans want universal education, just as they want universally safe food. But nobody believes that the government should run nearly all of the restaurants, farms and supermarkets. Why should it run the vast majority of the schools—particularly when it gets terrible results?” —Jonah Goldberg

GOVERNMENT

“Six months ago, the Democratic Party regained its majority in an election that was not just about Iraq. The new House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said the American people ‘called for greater integrity in Washington, and Democrats pledge to make this the most honest, ethical and open Congress in history.’ The history of the intervening months has only confirmed that promises in Washington have a very short shelf life. Any promise not fulfilled within 60 days after an election is apparently considered expired, to be replaced with new promises… The most recent, and serious, backtrack on earmark reform is the unilateral declaration of House Appropriations Chairman David Obey that pork projects would be ‘airdropped’ into conference reports once appropriations bills pass the House and Senate. Mr. Obey’s move is a brazen attack against the platform his own leadership enthusiastically endorsed and many of his colleagues campaigned on. Placing pork into bills at the last possible moment would circumvent new House rules and make it vastly more difficult for members of Congress, outside groups and activists to identify and challenge egregious projects. Rather than setting a new standard of openness and honesty, it would set a new standard for secrecy and subterfuge.” —Sen. Tom Coburn

RE: THE LEFT

“A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll last year found that voters favor a photo ID requirement by 80%-7%. The idea had overwhelming support among all races. One reason for such large public support is that the potential for fraud is real. Many people don’t trust electronic voting machines. And in recent years Democratic candidates have leveled credible accusations of voter fraud in mayoral races in Detroit, East Chicago, Ind., and St. Louis. [Recently], election officials in San Antonio, Texas determined that 330 people on their voter rolls weren’t citizens and that up to 41 of them may have voted illegally, some repeatedly. In 2004, San Antonio was the scene of a bitter dispute in which Democratic Rep. Ciro Rodriguez charged his primary opponent with voter fraud. In Florida, a felon named Ben Miller was arrested last week for illegally voting in every state election over a period of 16 years. The Palm Beach Post discovered that in Florida’s 2000 infamous presidential recount, 5,643 voters’ names perfectly matched the names of convicted felons. They should have been disqualified but were allowed to vote anyway… Voter suppression and fraud both deserve to be vigorously addressed. But those concerned with the first who would paint those worried about the second as racially discriminatory are engaged in a form of willful blindness.” —John Fund

POLITICAL FUTURES

“There is this thing known as an ‘earmark.’… Otherwise known as ‘pork.’ The Library of Congress estimates that in appropriations bills for fiscal year 1994 there were about 4,126 earmarks. Ten years later that number had grown to 15,877. But that was when the GOP controlled the Congress… Yeah, well elections have consequences. The other day the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, David Obey (D-Wis) announced that there were now some 30,000 earmarks piling up in the back rooms of the Capitol which would be smoke-filled if smoking in them were still allowed.” —Rich Galen

FOR THE RECORD

“[O]ne reason that people are upset by gas prices is that the price is in your face every time you drive by the gas station. But it may surprise [you] that this year the price of lettuce, broccoli and apples increased much more than the price of gas. You probably don’t know that because they don’t post big signs like gas stations do. And think about what it takes to bring us gasoline. First, oil has to be sucked out of the ground, sometimes from deep beneath an ocean or underneath ice, or from places where workers risk their lives. And just to get to the oil means the drill has to bend and dig sideways through as many as seven miles of earth. What they find has to be delivered through long pipelines or shipped in monstrously expensive ships, then converted into three different formulas of gasoline, trucked in trucks that cost more than $100,000 each, and then the gas stations have to spend a fortune on equipment to make sure drivers don’t blow themselves up while filling the tank. Even after all that, gasoline is still cheaper per ounce than the bottled water gas stations sell.” —John Stossel

SELECT READER COMMENTS

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“I would like to thank you for your compelling essay on the importance of fatherhood. Not only does it come at a time of epidemic fatherlessness, as it points out, but also makes a brilliant case as to why this is unacceptable.” —Sacramento, California

“Thank you for a great site. I wish I had more money to send you because The Patriot means truth and honor for all that read it.” —Omaha, Nebraska

“I would like to know the reference for Mitt Romney’s statement you published in the 07-24 Chronicle regarding ‘gay couples raising kids.’ This statement taken alone can suggest a lot of suppositions. I would like to know what else he said, if anything, to generate this statement so that I can make a more accurate judgment of what Mr. Romney meant.” —Boston, Massachusetts

Editor’s Reply: The quote was from the Associated Press, and, frankly, taken in larger context, it gives greater pause to question the veracity of Romney’s canned comments. He was responding to a question from a lesbian mother of a six- and eight-year-old, who asked Romney to “explain to me more, why if we are sending our troops over to fight for liberty and justice for all throughout this country, why not for me? Why not for my family?” Romney replied, “Wonderful, I’m delighted that you have a family and you’re happy with your family. That’s the American way… People can live their lives as they choose and children can be a great source of joy, as you know. And I welcome that. Marriage is an institution which is designed to bring a man and woman together to raise a child and that the ideal setting for society at large is where there is a male and a female are associated with the development and nurturing a child.” He then added this “fine” addendum: “There are other ways to raise kids, that’s fine. Single moms, grandparents raising kids, gay couples raising kids. That’s the American way, to have people have their freedom of choice.” This is a masterful example of Romney base covering.