THE FOUNDATION: WORK

“Work as if you were to live 100 Years, Pray as if you were to die To-morrow.” —Benjamin Franklin

THE GIPPER

“It gives me great pleasure to pay tribute to the working men and women of America on Labor Day. This occasion brings deserved attention to those who have toiled to build our nation and to shape a prosperous life out of the dreams of early immigrants. Today we recognize the honor and value of all work and the great distinction that flows from a job well done. From those who first carved a nation out of the wilderness to those who helped cross, settle and build this country, the working people have made immeasurable contributions to the advancement of our way of life. Through their spirit, minds, and muscles, America’s workers have created a modern industrial giant. They have sustained the traditional values of family, work, and neighborhood while serving as the bulwark of American democracy and lending support to the fundamental tenets of our free enterprise system.” —Ronald Reagan

INSIGHT

“The only freedom deserving the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.” —John Stuart Mill

SELECT READER COMMENTS

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“‘Labor Day State of the Unions’ was an EXCELLENT commentary and perspective! I definitely passed this one on to all on my mailing list. I only added some personal comments about what Labor Unions have done to the Steel Industry and Auto Industry. The Steel Industry is virtually done, gone and over with, and the Auto Industry looks like it is going in the same direction.” —Rome, Georgia

“I am a loyal conservative and supporter of The Patriot, however, I have to differ with you on the subject of unions. My father retired from a large company (which is still in business) in 1976; it was the first year he made a five-figure salary. His union protected him many times. My husband’s job was saved when a younger, less-experienced ‘friend of the supervisor’ was selected over him. Our son has been able to make a good living for his family because of the union to which he belongs. I agree that unions aren’t all good, but neither are businesses. Perhaps if employers paid their employees a fair wage, we wouldn’t need unions. ‘Til then…” —Lawton, Oklahoma

“I completely agree with your article on unions in general and government unions in particular. I worked for the federal government for 21 years as a manager. It took me a full year of documentation, counseling, etc. to get rid of an incompetent employee. I received no support from our personnel officer or from my superiors. The union made veiled threats but did nothing because my case was indisputable and the employee knew it and did not try to dispute it. Still, it took one year to show him the door. Small wonder most supervisors and managers don’t make the effort to fire a person with career status.” —Grants Pass, Oregon

“We need to stop using the term ‘gun control.’ Call it what it is, ‘victim disarmament.’ The term gun control just plays into the hands the of the anti-gun crowd the same way our acceptance of the term ‘assault weapon’ has. Can anyone define exactly what an assault weapon is?” —San Antonio, Texas

“Fantastic site! I’m a Marine Corps Captain and I receive The Patriot Brief, Chronicle and Digest. It really keeps me going and gives me insight on what actions I need to take with public officials.” —MCAS Miramar, California

Editor’s Reply: Ooohrah! Semper Fi!

FAMILY

“Most married women are second-earners. That means their income is added to that of their husband’s, and thus taxed at his highest marginal rate. So the married woman working as a secretary keeps less of her paycheck than the single woman who does the exact same job. This is the ultimate in ‘inequality,’ yet Democrats constantly promote the very tax code that punishes married working women.” —Kim Strassel

CULTURE

“I would like to know the name of the buffoon who first decided that competition was a bad thing. Who was the silly goose who woke up one morning with the goofy notion that kids shouldn’t keep score in their games so that the members of the losing team wouldn’t suffer from low self-esteem? And what fathead decided that high schools shouldn’t have valedictorians because all the other seniors would feel like a bunch of underachievers? No doubt it was the same idiot who determined that a level playing field didn’t really mean equal opportunity, but equal results.” —Burt Prelutsky

LIBERTY

“You can’t send two sons off to college, as my husband and I now have, and expect them to succeed if you haven’t taught them some sense of self-reliance. Indeed, that virtue has long been recognized as a foundational mark of the American character. It enabled our forefathers to establish a nation that still serves as a beacon of freedom to the world. No free republic can survive without it. Which is why, like many conservatives, I’m alarmed by the attitude one finds among many Americans today. It’s on display particularly during a heated campaign season, like we’re in now—people across the country seem to have a sense of entitlement and demand that politicians ‘do something’ to solve every problem. Gone is the sentiment behind President Kennedy’s famous exhortation: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.’ That line may have drawn applause in 1961, but it’s alien to the thinking of Americans who look to government as some sort of glorified nanny. … Where does this warped view of the state come from? What is the origin of this dependence on government, so dangerous to the concept of individual freedom?” —Rebecca Hagelin

OPINION IN BRIEF

“A talk radio network launched last year by Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinman that was supposed to appeal to women ended up appealing to no one. It signed off the air permanently last Friday. [T]he talk-radio network, called GreenStone,… claimed it would deliver ‘de-politicized, de-polarized talk radio by women hosts for female listeners,’ and Steinem said it would offer an alternative to current radio talk, which she described as ‘very argumentative, quite hostile, and very much male-dominated.’ What Fonda didn’t reckon with was the fact that there are plenty of woman hosts already on talk radio. It’s just that most of them are conservative. Carrie Lukas, writing in the New York Post points out that talk radio stars like Laura Ingraham, Tammy Bruce, and Dr. Laura are already heard on hundreds of stations by millions of people. They appeal to both women and men while showing that the sex of a host is less important than their entertainment value to listeners. It somehow isn’t surprising that Fonda and Steinam would have neglected that fundamental law of capitalism; give the customer what they want.” —Rick Moran

GOVERNMENT

“Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) Porker of the Month for calling for a 5-cent increase in the federal gasoline tax in the wake of the deadly bridge collapse in his home state. Rep. Oberstar says the ‘temporary’ tax increase will raise $25 billion for a new bridge repair trust fund. Sadly and ironically, that’s almost exactly the same amount members of Congress siphoned off from the 2005 transportation bill to pay for nearly 6,500 pet, pork-barrel projects, including most notably $223 million for Alaska’s ‘Bridge to Nowhere.’ Rep. Oberstar himself was a participant in the earmark melee, securing $14.6 million that could have gone to highway and bridge repairs for five special-interest projects in his district, including $3.2 million for the Willard Munger State Trail. For seizing an opportunity to turn tragedy into a tax increase and an unnecessary new trust fund and for protecting transportation pork, CAGW names Rep. Jim Oberstar the August 2007 Porker of the Month.” —Citizens Against Government Waste

RE: THE LEFT

“Liberals want to return the office to the glory years of Attorney General Janet Reno!… Let’s compare attorneys general:—Civilians killed by (John) Ashcroft: 0—Civilians killed by (Alberto) Gonzales: 0—Civilians killed by (Janet) Reno: 80… From the phony child abuse cases of the ‘80s to the military assault on Americans at Waco, Janet Reno presided over the most egregious attacks on Americans’ basic liberties since the Salem witch trials. These outrageous deprivations of life and liberty were not the work of fanatical right-wing prosecutors, but liberals like Janet Reno. Reno is the sort of wild-eyed zealot trampling on real civil rights that Hillary views as an ideal attorney general…” —Ann Coulter

POLITICAL FUTURES

“You can almost hear the Democrats singing: There’s no way even we can lose the 2008 election. There’s upheaval in Iraq, uncertainty in the financial markets, unease in the country. President Bush’s disapproval ratings are at Richard Nixon levels… But here’s a word of caution to the Democrats and a word of perspective for the Republicans: Presidential elections are almost always easier to analyze in retrospect than in advance, and what appears to be clear 14 months before the voters go to the polls can often turn out to be muddied once the voting starts. Though any sober politician would rather be in the Democrats’ position today than in the Republicans’, a Democratic victory next November is no sure bet, and a new Democratic era, powered by public revulsion of the errors of George W. Bush, is an even less certain development.” —David Schribman

FOR THE RECORD

“Overall, the typical American defined as poor by the government has a car (31% of poor’ households own two cars), air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR, or DVD player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and is not overcrowded. By his own report, his family is not hungry, and he had sufficient funds in the past year to meet his family’s essential needs… A third of poor’ households have both cell and land-line telephones… If work in each family were raised to 2,000 hours per year—the equivalent of one adult working 40 hours per week… nearly 75 percent of poor children would be lifted out of official poverty… If poor mothers married the fathers of their children, nearly three quarters of the nation’s impoverished youth would immediately be lifted out of poverty… A quarter of legal immigrants and fifty to sixty percent of illegals are high-school dropouts. By contrast, only nine percent of non-immigrant Americans lack a high school degree. As long as the present steady flow of poverty-prone persons… continues, efforts to reduce the total number of poor in the U.S. will be far more difficult. A sound anti-poverty strategy must not only seek to increase work and marriage among native born Americans, it must also end illegal immigration, and dramatically increase the skill level of… legal immigrants.” —Robert Rector

THE LAST WORD

“The New York Times may prefer terrorist attacks to intelligence gathering, but [the] paper endorses ‘the screening of all veterans for suicide risk.’ Whatever. But what caught our attention was this howler: ‘It is an eminently good thing that the anti-suicide measure would require medical specialists to keep track of veterans found to be high risks for suicide. But that’s to care for them as human beings, under that other constitutional right—to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ Others have noted that ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ appears in the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution. But that’s a forgivable lapse—after all, there are Supreme Court justices who have no clue what’s actually in the Constitution.” —James Taranto

Veritas vos Liberabit—Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot’s editors and staff. (Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm’s way around the world, and for their families—especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)