Brief for Monday, December 14, 2009 - Editions

Brief

Monday, December 14, 2009

The Foundation

"In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." --Thomas Jefferson

Liberty

"I reread ['Atlas Shrugged'] recently and was stunned. It was as if [Ayn] Rand had seen the future. Writing half a century ago, she predicted today's explosion of big government in shockingly accurate detail. The 'Preservation of Livelihood Law.' The 'Equalization of Opportunity Law.' The 'Steel Unification Plan.' Don't these sound like laws passed by the current Congress? All were creations of Rand's villain, Wesley Mouch, the evil bureaucrat who regulates business and eventually drives the productive people out of business. Who is today's Wesley Mouch? Barney Frank? Chris Dodd. Tim Geithner? ... 'Atlas' is still a big bestseller today. This year, it reached as high as NO. 15 on Amazon's bestseller list. Pretty amazing. Clearly there's some magic in 'Atlas Shrugged.' The Library of Congress once asked readers which books made the biggest difference in their lives. 'Atlas' came in second, after the Bible. ... The embrace of freer markets has lifted more people out of the misery of poverty than any other system -- ever. The World Bank says that in just the last 30 years, half a billion people who once lived on less than $1.25 a day have moved out of poverty. But now, Wesley Mouch -- I mean, Congress and the bureaucrats -- tell us they are going to 'fix' capitalism, as if their previous 'fixes' didn't hamstring the free market and create the problems they propose to solve. Who are they kidding? Rand had it right. She learned it the hard way in Soviet Russia. What makes a country work is leaving people free -- free to take risks, to invent things -- and to keep the rewards of their work. Critics say Ayn Rand promotes selfishness. I call it 'enlightened self interest.' When free people act in their own self-interest, society prospers." --columnist John Stossel

Insight

"The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government." --author and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

Bill of Rights Anniversary

Tomorrow, Dec. 15, is the 218th anniversary of the adoption of the Bill of Rights, the first 10 Amendments to our Constitution, as ratified in 1791.

The Bill of Rights was inspired by three remarkable documents: John Locke's 1689 thesis, Two Treatises of Government, regarding the protection of "property" (in the Latin context, proprius, or one's own "life, liberty and estate"); in part from the Virginia Declaration of Rights authored by George Mason in 1776 as part of that state's Constitution; and, of course, in part from our Declaration of Independence authored by Thomas Jefferson.

Read in context, the Bill of Rights is both an affirmation of innate individual rights and a clear delineation on constraints upon the central government. As oft trampled and abused as the Bill of Rights is, Patriots should remain vigilant in the fight for our rights.

Calling All Patriots

As of this morning, we have raised about 75 percent of our 2009 Annual Fund budget.

There are only 18 days left in this critical campaign, and we have only $156,850 to raise in order to meet budget.

Our mission and operations budget is a small fraction of other influential conservative organization budgets. (View our expense graphic here.) We are able to do this in large part because our dedicated staff members are motivated by mission, not the modest wages they receive.

Please, if you're able, make a secure online donation today to The Patriot's 2009 Annual Fund. If you prefer to support us by mail, please use our printable donor form.

Thank you and God bless!

Nate Jackson
Managing Editor

Culture

"The USA has descended from its special position as the principled guardian of Western civilization and joined the club of sentimentalists who have until now depended on American power. In the administration of President Obama we see the very same totalitarian sentimentality that has been at work in Europe, and which has replaced civil society with the state, the family with the adoption agency, work with welfare, and patriotic duty with universal 'rights.' The lesson of postwar Europe is that it is easy to flaunt compassion, but harder to bear the cost of it. Far preferable to the hard life in which disciplined teaching, costly charity, and responsible attachment are the ruling principles is the life of sentimental display, in which others are encouraged to admire you for virtues you do not possess. This life of phony compassion is a life of transferred costs. Liberals who wax lyrical on the sufferings of the poor do not, on the whole, give their time and money to helping those less fortunate than themselves. On the contrary, they campaign for the state to assume the burden. The inevitable result of their sentimental approach to suffering is the expansion of the state and the increase in its power both to tax us and to control our lives. As the state takes charge of our needs, and relieves people of the burdens that should rightly be theirs -- the burdens that come from charity and neighborliness -- serious feeling retreats. In place of it comes an aggressive sentimentality that seeks to dominate the public square. I call this sentimentality 'totalitarian' since -- like totalitarian government -- it seeks out opposition and carefully extinguishes it, in all the places where opposition might form. Its goal is to 'solve' our social problems, by imposing burdens on responsible citizens, and lifting burdens from the 'victims,' who have a 'right' to state support. The result is to replace old social problems, which might have been relieved by private charity, with the new and intransigent problems fostered by the state...." --columnist Roger Scruton

Government

"One of the ways the country is going in the wrong direction is not simply with huge government spending but with huge government period. Ordinary Americans are uneasy about trusting their fate to huge government. They know that government services are inefficient, expensive, and occasionally repressive and subject to corruption. More than that, huge government is unreliable. The healthcare debate has got to be reminding ordinary Americans of their unease over government promises. Think about it. The same big government Democrats who are promising government-secured healthcare are promising 'healthcare savings' that are clearly the denial of Medicare services to the elderly. That is to say, Medicare services that were once promised to seniors by Medicare's advocates are being taken from them under the false claim that they are savings. Face the facts: the Democrats' healthcare savings are actually healthcare denials to those who have been counting on those services for years. Government does not keep its promises. Yet government is the Democrats' solution to practically all our current problems. ... Once again government cannot be trusted. What government gives to us, government can take away." --columnist R. Emmett Tyrrell

For the Record

"The hacked emails from the global warming center of the universe -- the Climate Research Unit at Britain's East Anglia University -- could be the climatology equivalent of discovering the bones of Jesus. If the veracity of the emails is confirmed and if they contain evidence of data 'trickery,' as some global warming skeptics have suggested, their content could perhaps point to a vast cover-up of scientific evidence that some believe will disprove the 'doctrine' of man-made climate change. So who are the real flat-earthers? Are they the ones who won't listen to any evidence except that which supports their cult-like faith, or are they the growing number who say the science is anything but settled and needs more study? Leonard Weinstein has scientific credentials no reasonable person can deny. Dr. Weinstein is a former senior research scientist who worked more than 30 years at the NASA Langley Research Center. He is now senior research fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace. Last April, he wrote an essay 'Disproving the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) Problem'.... Dr. Weinstein wrote: 'In order to support a theory, specific predictions need to be made that are based on the claims of the theory, and the predictions then need to happen.' He lists six theories on which the AGW model is based and then proceeds to dismantle each of them. ... Dr. Weinstein concludes: 'The final question that arises is what prediction has the AGW made that has been demonstrated, and that strongly supports the theory. It appears that there is NO real supporting evidence and much disagreeing evidence for the AGW theory as proposed. That is not to say there is no effect from Human activity. Clearly human pollution (not greenhouse gases) is a problem. There is also almost surely some contribution to the present temperature from the increase in CO₂ and CH4, but it seems to be small and not a driver of future climate. Any reasonable scientific analysis must conclude the basic theory wrong!!'" --columnist Cal Thomas

Opinion in Brief

"On the day Copenhagen opened, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claimed jurisdiction over the regulation of carbon emissions by declaring them an 'endangerment' to human health. Since we operate an overwhelmingly carbon-based economy, the EPA will be regulating practically everything. No institution that emits more than 250 tons of CO₂ a year will fall outside EPA control. This means over a million building complexes, hospitals, plants, schools, businesses and similar enterprises. ... Not since the creation of the Internal Revenue Service has a federal agency been given more intrusive power over every aspect of economic life. ... Forget for a moment the economic effects of severe carbon chastity. There's the matter of constitutional decency. If you want to revolutionize society -- as will drastic carbon regulation and taxation in an energy economy that is 85 percent carbon-based -- you do it through Congress reflecting popular will. Not by administrative fiat of EPA bureaucrats. Congress should not just resist this executive overreaching, but trump it: Amend existing clean air laws and restore their original intent by excluding CO₂ from EPA control and reserving that power for Congress and future legislation. Do it now. Do it soon. Because Big Brother isn't lurking in CIA cloak. He's knocking on your door, smiling under an EPA cap." --columnist Charles Krauthammer

Political Futures

"In [last] Tuesday's primary election, Massachusetts Democrats chose as their Senate nominee a woman who kept a clearly innocent man in prison in order to advance her political career. Martha Coakley isn't even fit for the late Teddy Kennedy's old seat. (What is it about this particular Senate seat?) During the daycare/child molestation hysteria of the '80s, Gerald Amirault, his mother, Violet, and sister, Cheryl, were accused of raping children at the family's preschool in Malden, Mass., in what came to be known as the second-most notorious witch trial in Massachusetts history. ... Of all the men and women falsely convicted during the child molestation hysteria of the '80s, by 2001, only Gerald Amirault still sat in prison. Even his sister and mother had been released after serving eight years in prison for crimes that never occurred. In July 2001, the notoriously tough Massachusetts parole board voted unanimously to grant Gerald Amirault clemency. Although the parole board is not permitted to consider guilt or innocence, its recommendation said: '(I)t is clearly a matter of public knowledge that, at the minimum, real and substantial doubt exists concerning petitioner's conviction.' Immediately after the board's recommendation, The Boston Globe reported that Gov. Jane Swift was leaning toward accepting the board's recommendation and freeing Amirault. Enter Martha Coakley, Middlesex district attorney. ... Coakley put on a full court press to keep Amirault in prison simply to further her political ambitions. By then, every sentient person knew that Amirault was innocent. But instead of saying nothing, Coakley frantically lobbied Gov. Jane Swift to keep him in prison to show that she was a take-no-prisoners prosecutor, who stood up for 'the children.' As a result of Coakley's efforts -- and her contagious ambition -- Gov. Swift denied Amirault's clemency. Thanks to Martha Coakley, Gerald Amirault sat in prison for another three years. Remember all that talk about President Bush shredding constitutional rights? Overzealous liberal prosecutors and feminist do-gooders allowed Gerald Amirault to sit in prison for 18 years for crimes that didn't exist -- except in the imaginations of small children under the influence of incompetent child 'therapists.' Martha Coakley allowed her ambition to trump basic human decency as she campaigned to keep a patently innocent man in prison. Anyone with the smallest sense of justice cannot vote to put this woman in any office. If you absolutely cannot vote for a Republican on Jan. 19, 2010, write in the name 'Gerald Amirault.'" --columnist Ann Coulter

Reader Comments

"I just made a small donation to The Patriot in honor of a family I have 'adopted.' This family has a father unable to work due to disability after toiling in the workplace for over 35 years, a mom who has had more than here share of life's trials and tribulations, and four sons, the third of which is a corporal in the Marine Corps. He just got back from Afghanistan in time for the birth of his daughter. They represent the true American spirit, which will overcome the current obaminable situation we are currently in. Thank you, Patriot Post, for your diligence, intelligence and honesty. No wonder the 'Lie'berals fear you." --Dean

"I am a student of political science so I read a lot. The recent essay in The Patriot Post by Mark Alexander is something that we need to put in front of the American reading eye everywhere. I am not a big joiner or contributor but these essays are so good that I will break my rule next payday and send my modest contribution to The Patriot. For goodness sake -- keep up the good work!" --Connie

"Dear Fellow Patriot Readers, I wish to encourage those who have not donated to The Patriot fund to do so. I realize there are perhaps many of you, like myself, that may have fallen victim to the economic times and find yourself without employment. Despite this fact I made a minor donation due to the importance of this newsletter to motivate our defense of the Constitution. I took an oath over 30 years ago to defend the Constitution. It is my hope that the donation in some way will contribute to that defense by expanding the public knowledge of the attack the Constitution is under." --Stephen

The Last Word

"I guess we all have our own favorite Christmas memories, for this is the time of year when most of us try to be better than our everyday selves. For the past few years in this great house, I've thought of our first real Christmas as a nation. It was the dark and freezing Christmas of 1776, when General Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware. They and Providence gave our nation its first Christmas gift -- a victory that brought us closer to liberty, the condition in which God meant man to flourish. It always seems to me that Christmas is a time of magic. Each December we celebrate a Prince, the Prince of Peace, born in utter poverty. And the fact of his birth makes hearts turn warmest at the coldest time of the year." --Ronald Reagan (Dec. 13, 1984)

Comments

Jack

The assult on our feedoms and the ignoring of our constitution continues unabated. Are we a Republic or a Dictatorship?

Posted December 14, 2009 at 11:30:44 AM

Rifleman

What typically -- always -- happens with the Socialist arguments is that ever more control over the unwashed and ignorant hoi polloi is needed but then the current crisis fades only to be replaced by a different crisis which must be immediately solved with an expanded expenditure of billions of "government" dollars and the creation of new heads of the bureaucratic Hydra. It is a pustule all coming to a head through Obama who has assumed the mantle of Tyrant. He knows that only he can lead us to the Elysian Fields of Socialist happiness and equality but he wears a velvet glove over his iron fist. Make no mistake. Look into his lackluster eyes which gaze across the gathered masses without recognition. Those eyes see only chattel. He is the surgeon who emerges from the O.R. and tells the anxious family that "The operation was a success but the patient died" and then walks away disinterestedly, heading to the next surgery. Over the millennia, the question persists: How is a tyrant best dealt with?

Posted December 14, 2009 at 11:51:36 AM

shebalynnx

I believe this administration is reading and taking notes. Been awhile since I read it so I don't remember the name, but Dagny's brother.... near the end of the story, when all the world has gone to hell and he found himself in a position of power, he said he would rather have power over "this" than be just a nobody, something to that effect. I'm butchering it without looking it up. I think that is how this crowd of cowards operates.

Posted December 14, 2009 at 12:00:33 PM

Mark Roth

Concerning your essay of 12/10, I sight only one point of disagreement. While you are right that 95% of all consumers live outside of the U.S., 68% of what is purchased worldwide is purchased in the U.S.

Now, more than ever, the Founder's way of collecting revenue should be observed. No income tax. No sales tax. Only a tax on goods entering our country for resale within this country that could be made in our country.

This was the successful model we ran on until the "temporary" income tax was started to pay for WWI.

Our Founders understood the idea of industry. Farmers working the land who produce a crop for their bins have made wealth. That crop can feed his family, be traded for other crops or taken to town to trade for cash. In any event, it is truly wealth that has been made.

It is no small wonder that or economy expanded from nearly nothing prior to WWII to the economic power of the world by the 1960s. It was the value-added manufacturing that produced that wealth. For the last thirty years we have lived as if we still made that wealth here, doing so by ever extending credit at all levels. A car loan in 1965 could not exceed 24 months. Today 86 months so that we can live the same lifestyle without generating wealth.

To solve 85% of what ails this land, return manufacturing by promoting new efficient, green factories to produce our consumables. The other 15% of our problems lie strictly in value structure of the human spirit in America. Morals must be restored. This is where liberalism is the most dangerous.

Please consider this. Service industries will not exist if no wealth is generated to begin with.

Merry Christmas to all at the Patriot!

Mark Roth

Valley Station, KY

Posted December 14, 2009 at 12:02:54 PM

Mike

Our country is being politically and culturally assaulted in a manner unprecedented in US history. I am among those who have asked the common question "What on earth can I do about this?". The answer has finally come to me - pray, hold fast to your convictions, teach your children well, and support those who are taking the fight to the front lines. We know information is power, and the PatriotPost is spreading the best information to any who will listen. I believe any investment in the PatriotPost is an investment in our Constitutional Republic, and I'm a proud supporter.

Posted December 14, 2009 at 12:18:47 PM

Bob H.

I recently turned 65 and had my first real negative experience with government-run healthcare aka Medicare. I had a hip replacement several months ago at age 64, and recently had to return for more physical therapy. Seeing that I am now 65 and on medicare the federal bureaucracy has placed a 90-day limit on my therapy. After 90 days, healed or not, my medical coverage for therapy ends. If that's not rationed care then what is?

Posted December 14, 2009 at 12:29:34 PM

RayC55

Brief:for Monday12/14

Is Wesley Moucher related to Minnie the Moocher?

Ray Curiale

Posted December 14, 2009 at 12:32:54 PM

Robert G.S. Plant, USN, Ret.

The term African-American continues to permeate the pages of National press. Why? American denotes Nationality, not a race. Africa describes a continent, not a race, and not a citizen. Afrikaans, as a word, referred to the emigres of Europe to the conitnent of Africa. We desire unity: why persist in defining separateness?

Posted December 14, 2009 at 12:48:43 PM

Paul Nitz

Global warming is real, but not felt in your home town. It is a result of too much CO2 and other pollutants. These used to be 'scrubbed' from the air by rain forests and green areas. Human intervention and destruction are to blame, but the governments refuse to take any blame for allowing the rape and pillage of the natural resources. AlGore has it all wrong. He's just a monkey in the old three monkeys picture, "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". So the end result in your home town is assumed to be global cooling, which is what we feel, unless you live at the earth's poles.

Posted December 14, 2009 at 12:48:45 PM

Bill Williams

Anywhere I can buy a "Wesley Mouch for Congress" bumper sticker? I would like to give several out as Christmas presents! Bill in Boulder

Posted December 14, 2009 at 1:00:07 PM

DAVID JOHNS

Thank you, thank you and thank you for for publishing THE PATRIOT POST. Today was especially great.

Posted December 14, 2009 at 1:39:04 PM

Gilia Rethman

A BIG "mahalo" for your excellent publication! I read The Patriot Post from start to finish each day and have recommended it to many friends and family members. Your insightful commentary - and clever humor - are exactly what we need in these troubled times. I just sent my contribution to your annual fund....keep the great content coming!

Posted December 14, 2009 at 2:00:32 PM

Herbert Kondo

I would like to see an article about Haym Salomon, a great American Patriot in the "The Patriot Post." Readers of The Patriot Post should be informed about Haym Salomon who was responsible for raising most of the money to finance the American Revolution.

Posted December 14, 2009 at 2:18:49 PM

Connie

It's truly frightening and sad that so many Wesley Mouch's and Martha Coakley's find their way into powerful influence in the free world. It's even more frightening when the the bad guy is beginning to dictate from our own White House; dictates that harm our liberties and freedom from government oppression.

Posted December 14, 2009 at 2:22:29 PM

Howard Last

You noted that Dec.15 is the Bill of Rights Anniversary. How about listing the various laws and the authors that are destroying the Bill of Rights? Two to start with are McCain-Feingold and the unPatriot Act. Could this be two of the reasons McRINO lost and Dubya had a low approval raiting? James Madison call your office.

Posted December 14, 2009 at 3:35:03 PM

Frank Waterstraat

12/14/09

After my reading"RIFLEMAN",thoughts i've never

harbored make me afraid for our country.The law

being formated by congress for the would tyrant

to sign,Will take away the means to best deal

with an absolute potential tyrant

Posted December 14, 2009 at 3:44:41 PM

Bill Hamblin

Yes, I humbly thank Algore everyday for the Internet and the ability it affords us to gather and dispel his views.

Posted December 14, 2009 at 3:50:11 PM

Howard

You noted, "U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claimed jurisdiction over the regulation of carbon emissions by declaring them an 'endangerment' to human health." I am still looking for that section of the Constitution that authorizes an EPA. I am a Licensed Professional Engineer who practiced Sanitary Engineering for more than 40 years. I butted heads with the jokers at the EPA many times. They were political appointees who if they fell would get lost before they hit the ground (apologies to Isaac Newton). Prior to the EPA, the requirements the effluent from a wastewater treatment plant had to meet were determined by the assimilative capacity of the receiving stream. The EPA sets arbitrary requirements.

Posted December 14, 2009 at 4:01:16 PM

J O'Brien

I like Stossel, but not the phrase "enlightened self-interest." It's a euphemism for the erosion of the free markets and liberty that enabled America to free the world in the 20th century with Roger Scruton's "totalitarian sentimentality." It's on par with "soft power" and it's advocated by the defeated 19th century colonial powers that now simply mask their imperialistic aggression with politically correct globalism.

Posted December 14, 2009 at 4:02:16 PM

Burton Wallace

The last six months ive read and watched a lot of news shows about all the doings of the house and senate and president, and the biggest problem i have with politics nowadays is a total lack of truth and honor.. it seems allmost everyone in both partys has lost the ability to seek the truth, its all about an agenda or party loyalty or money, but what is the truth, pick a subject any subject, what is the truth, I just finished watching 2 movies, both were about true stories, one was :DEFIANCE, and one was VALKRYE, both told the results of what happens when a society is taken over by deceivers and a populace that went into hiding because of fear, history shows predictable results of those kind of senarios.. it far better to stand for the truth than build a house on the sand.

Posted December 14, 2009 at 4:31:56 PM

Ronald Nicely

I hate to add sanity to the Global Warming insanity, however it is important to note that history shows us that our DNA changes due to the envionment in which we live. Any slow and changing invionment will allow future generations to survive in conditions our current generation may find to be a problem, An example is found in the Eskimo's whose extremitis became shorter in order to remain close to the body to allow them to survive in the colder temperatures. Another is how people who live in higher altitudes develop greater lung capibilities to handle the thinner and lower oxygen air. This is still a world of the "Survival of the Fittest" and those species that evolve and chage will be here in the future. I also take exception to the change in the temperature (if indeed there is a change) of 1% being a severe problem. The temperature between the northen states and the southern states in the US is around 10 degrees. The people in the south are not dying and the production of food is not being reduced by the additional temperature. I moved from the North to the South and did not die since my body adjusted. I later returned to the north and I have adjusted to coming back. The genius's of the Global Warming religion have a one track mind and I suspect it has more to do with control of the money and the population and a definite restriction of our freedom, not only in the US but in the world.

Posted December 14, 2009 at 6:17:28 PM

Roger

I,m going on 86 now and hope another man comes

along with Ronald Reagans brilliance soon so I can

pull the right lever probably for my last time. God

Bless America !

Posted December 14, 2009 at 7:32:24 PM

Nathan

As a student with no income outside of what I earn through summer internships, I recognize the value of money. But the value of the Patriot to my education and growth has been incalculable. Consequently, I make my small but sincere contribution. My one regret is that any amount donated to the Patriot will never adequately reflect its worth.

Posted December 14, 2009 at 10:19:50 PM

Cheri N.

Ronald Reagan - one of the greatest Presidents in American history.

Posted December 15, 2009 at 12:15:19 AM

Keith Hamilton

It always makes me feel good to read various renditions of the Founders' intent for limited government as outlined in our Constitution. And it really doesn't matter whose writing I read; it all sounds the same; undoubtedly because truth always sounds the same regardless of who is speaking it.

As we grapple with unlimited government at the hands of the "progressives", as the liberals are sometimes proud to call themselves, I wince at the glaring irony. Liberals like to think they're all about liberty. Well, true seekers of liberty (our forefathers) made "progress" back when they rejected King George III, all his regulations, and the entire notion of being ruled by a king. Today, witness the man-child Obama, of the "progressive" clan, endeavoring to regulate us into oblivion. So we made progress at liberty by rejecting monarchies, and now we have a "progressive" would-be-king who's derailing that progress by rescinding liberties wherever and whenever possible.

Posted December 15, 2009 at 12:25:37 AM

Dr. Norman L. Baqrrow

The words oif our former great president Reagan always makes my "heart wax" warm.

Posted December 15, 2009 at 1:41:29 AM

Ruth Ann Wilson

The comments of the readers to the Patriot Post are of great value to me. I especially, want to thank Howard for his astute contribution about the EPA, that nefarious office under the Office of the President, staffed by UNELECTED PETTY TYRANTS who love to eat out our substance daily.

It must have grieved your soul continually, what this "arbitrary power" required of you when you knew what to do and it was nowhere near "their rules and regulations."

When this "Office of the President" is DE-FUNDED from the Senate and returns to "A President and a cabinet which was the "intent of the Founders" minus "Executive Orders" (which is the legislative arm of this preposterous "office" as it now exists) We, the people, will have eliminated much mischief from our midst.

"That government being instituted for the common benefit, the doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind." Article I, Section 2, Declaration of Rights, Tennessee Constitution

December 15, 2009 commemoration of the Bill of Rights. Thank God for the Bill of Rights. We need no other contraptions, "human rights or civil rights" We must have our Glorious Bill of Rights and repeal all these other "contraptions".

For God & Country

Ruth Ann Wilson

Posted December 15, 2009 at 9:49:02 AM

Hank

Atlas Shrugged should be required reading by every registered voter. And it should be re-read before every election. For more than 40 years I have wondered how that woman could see so well into the future. I wonder how many more times I will read it.

Posted December 15, 2009 at 12:05:08 PM

Fritzie

God grant us another Ronald Reagan. May it be soon.

Posted December 15, 2009 at 3:51:41 PM

Howard Last

Great as Ronald Reagan was he made three mistakes:

Picking George Bush as VP. He is a Council on Foreign Relations member. He also gave us a tax increase, remeber "Read my Lips". We had his son as President.

Picking George Shultz as Secretary of State. Also a Concil on Foreign Relations member. Thomas Jefferson call your office.

And Anthony Kennedy to be a Supreme. Remember we must follow international law with regard to the death penalty for those under 18. Many times he sided with Ginsburg and company. James Madison call your office.

Posted December 15, 2009 at 7:46:44 PM

Bob Odom

Ann Ryand was right on, but we need to also re-examine George Orwell's "1984" with its government double speak covering up true intentions and the opiate of the masses in the form of drugs, pornography and cultural deprivation and "Big Brother is watching you" warnings, not to mention an education system that succeeded in dumbing down everyone to the point where they no longer knew what was happening to them. When "1984" was written it was a frightening look into the future. Now it simply seems to be describing the present!

Posted December 16, 2009 at 3:08:44 PM

Jacquelin

Re: "The Last Word -- Such a striking difference between Ronald Reagan's description of a Christmas memory and the Obama's reluctance to have the traditional creche on display at the White House.

Posted December 17, 2009 at 10:08:06 PM

Michael Tank

Regarding 'Atlas Shrugged' by Ann Rand, "What makes a country work is leaving people free -- free to take risks, to invent things -- and to keep the rewards of their work."

People also are free to fail, which is a large part of life and teaches us many valuable lessons, such as to stand back up and to keep trying.

Obama's form of government would have us all give up, lie down and to stop trying by accepting the government's handouts until we all die in the economic bondage of poverty. In the Left's Utopia, no one succeeds, no one fails, no one really lives.

Posted December 19, 2009 at 6:34:54 PM

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