The Patriot Post® · Chronicle
THE FOUNDATION: EDUCATION
“It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue.” —John Adams
EDITORIAL EXEGESIS
“The Boy Scouts’ Philadelphia branch, called the Cradle of Liberty Council, had been renting the Beaux Arts building, which stands on city-owned land, for $1 a year. The city has now ordered the Scouts to pay a ‘fair market’ rent of $200,000 on the grounds that the group refuses to admit openly gay Scouts and Scout leaders…[T]he Boy Scouts, who require a belief in God and therefore also ‘discriminate’ against atheists, are not comfortable with the idea of openly homosexual men leading young boys into the woods. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision (with justices Rehnquist, O’Connor, Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas in the majority), upheld the group’s right to bar scoutmasters who are openly gay based on the principle of freedom of association… But the state, or in this case the city of Philadelphia, apparently doesn’t have to give the Scouts a break on their rent. Isn’t it hypocritical, though, to be intolerant in the name of tolerance, to say that it’s wrong to disapprove of the lifestyles of others but OK to condemn the religious and moral beliefs of others?… If America is about anything, it’s about the right to hold beliefs and views with which others disagree, the right to express and act on those views, and the right to freely associate with others holding similar views. That’s not bigotry; it’s true diversity. So a venerable, well-regarded youth group that has done nothing worse than instill formerly uncontroversial values into the millions of young men it has prepared for responsible adulthood is being successfully demonized.” —Investor’s Business Daily
INSIGHT
“Failure is only postponed success as long as courage ‘coaches’ ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.” —Herbert Kaufman
“We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.” —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“A just fear of an imminent danger, though there be no blow given, is a lawful cause of war.” —Sir Francis Bacon
UPRIGHT
“Not everything you may care about is in the Constitution. It is a legal document that had compromises in it. What it says it says; what it doesn’t say it doesn’t say.” —Justice Antonin Scalia
“Our sovereignty is the foundation for our freedom. Sovereignty should rest strictly with the American people. We cannot allow a foreign country or an international organization to make decisions that should be our own exclusive province, based on our own national interests.” —Sen. John Cornyn ++ “Our republican form of government requires lawmakers who carefully consider the consequences of every law they pass and every treaty they approve.” —Ed Feulner
“Bad ideas don’t die. Nor do they fade away. They just translate themselves into different forms, in different places, in different times.” —Matthew Continetti
“Political competition is the lifeblood of American politics. The ability to vote out incumbents has proved to be far more effective than selectively enforced ‘ethics’ rules.” —John Fund
“While I’m crying inside and my heart’s breaking, my chest is puffed out and I’m saying, my son, this is what he did and I hope the country appreciates it and realizes it.” —Dan Murphy, father of Medal of Honor recipient Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy, KIA in Afghanistan
DEZINFORMATSIA
Global warmism: “The world is heating up fast, and we have ourselves to blame.” —NBC’s Matt Lauer ++ “[W]hat do you believe about global warming? See whether Americans are getting greener or whether they’re still in the dark.” —CNN’s Miles O’Brien
Getting it right: “[O]n the trail, Hillary comes across more as a pile of diligently digested data than a joyful flesh-and-blood creature.” —The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd with a rare insight
It’s all politics, baby: “Having the President in the position that [Democrats] can go out in the campaign next year and say this President vetoed health insurance for little children. That sounds pretty good on the stump. And maybe that’s one reason the Democrats are not fighting him that hard on this.” —CBS’s Bob Schieffer on SCHIP
For the… children?: “You may not like it. You may want parents to go in and take care of their own children and make sure that they’re not sexually active that young, but it’s happening. It’s happening.” —ABC’s Diane Sawyer defending the use of birth control by middle-school age children
Still hawking the BIG lie: “When senior administration officials leaked [Valerie Plame’s] name to reporters, they may have exposed other spies and damaged operations targeting Iran… When all is said and done, the top aides to the President and Vice President leaked your name to reporters, do you think President Bush was in on this?” —See BS’s Katie Couric hawking Plame’s new book, Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House
Newspulper Headlines: Our Glorious Two-Party System: “Elephants Electrocuted in Drunken Rampage” —MSNBC.com ++ “Donkeys Disappear in Greece as Cars Take Over” —Times of India
Sandy Berger Has a New Best Friend: “Man Puts Puppy in Pants and Slips Off” —St. Petersburg (FL) Times
Why Not Replace Them With STERN Ones?: “LAX Screeners Fail 75% of Bomb-Detection Tests” —Los Angeles Times
Help Wanted: “Cross-Dressing Bandit Sought” —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
If He’s So Independent-Minded, Why Is He Consulting an Oracle?: “An Independent-Minded CEO Faces Oracle” —The Wall Street Journal
News You Can Use: “Mental Disorders Are Disorders of the Brain” —Science Daily
Bottom Story of the Day: “Pa. Woman Accused of Being a Potty Mouth” —Associated Press (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)
THE DEMO-GOGUES
We heard you the first 17 times: “Demanding nearly $200 billion for Iraq while vetoing healthcare for ten million children exemplifies the Bush administration’s misplaced priorities… For the cost of less than 40 days in Iraq, we could provide healthcare coverage to ten million children for an entire year.” —San Fran Nan Pelosi with the same old talking points ++ “President Bush wants us to rubber stamp another $200 billion in war funds—all borrowed money, none of it paid for—for next year alone. But when we sent a bipartisan CHIP bill to his desk to provide health insurance for the children of working families, the President called it too expensive. Let’s remember, every dime of the money for CHIP was paid for.” —Harry Reid
Heaven forbid: “I sure don’t want Democrats or the supporters of Democrats to be engaging in the politics of personal destruction. I think we should stay focused on what we’re going to do for America.” —Hillary, who practically invented the politics of personal destruction ++ “Sons respect and admire their fathers, but they love their mothers against cheating gd* husbands… I’m sorry this d**ed thing turned out so early because, really… it would have bombed his a* out’.” —longtime Hillary booster Rep. Charlie Rangel, not on Bill Clinton, but Rudy Giuliani
Men of the people: “The soul of the Democratic Party—when we’re at our best, we stand up for people who can’t stand up for themselves.” —John Edwards on keeping constituencies in their place so they continue to vote Democrat ++ “People are tired of a government that isn’t listening… that doesn’t think that the role of government is to give people a little help.” —Barack Obama
Sorry you were offended: “I want to apologize to my—first of all, all my colleagues, many of whom I’ve offended, uhhh, to the president, his family, to, uhhh, the troops that may have found in my remarks, as were suggested in, uh, the motion that we just voted on, uh, and I do apologize.” —Rep. Pete Stark “apologizing” for saying that our troops in Iraq “get their heads blown off for the President’s amusement.” A vote of censure failed.
VILLAGE IDIOTS
This week’s “Non Compos Mentis” Award: “September 11 was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn’t that terrible. Some Americans will think I’m crazy. Many people died, two prominent buildings fell, but it was neither as terrible nor as extraordinary as they think. They’re a very naive people, or they pretend to be.” —Nobel Literature Prize winner Doris Lessing
From the eco-theology department: “I believe our children and grandchildren will look back at the year 2007 and ask one of two questions. Either they will ask about us—What were they doing? What were they thinking about and how could they let that catastrophe happen? Didn’t they listen to the scientists? Didn’t they see the glaciers and polar caps melting? Didn’t they see the fires?… I want them to look back at 2007 and ask: ‘How did they find the moral courage to rise up and solve the problem everyone said was impossible to solve?” —Al Gore
Village Victimitis: “I, like most other Americans, saw President Bush say on TV that he would fire anyone from his administration found to be involved in leaking my name. It turns out the President is not a man of his word.” —ex uber-undercover-super-secret-classified-covert CIA agent Valerie Plame
Quid Pro Homo: “I will continue to represent the Diocese in the ongoing Church and Communion-wide conversations on the full inclusion of LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] people.” —Bishop Marc Andrus of the Episcopal Diocese of California declaring the diocese will be approving religious blessings of same-sex couples and treating the ceremonies as if they were natural husband-wife marriages
SHORT CUTS
“In explaining any puzzling Washington phenomenon, always choose stupidity over conspiracy, incompetence over cunning. Anything else gives them too much credit.” —Charles Krauthammer
“Hillary tried to get a million dollars for the Woodstock museum. I understand it was a major cultural and pharmaceutical event. I couldn’t attend. I was tied up at the time.” —John McCain
“Now, let’s see if I understand this. In Chinatown, people who live in tenements are giving $1,000 and $2,000 in campaign contributions to Mrs. Clinton, but they can’t afford healthcare. Is that not just cute?” —Rush Limbaugh
“The Gallup Poll indicates that the presidential race is still up for grabs. The voters sound a bit disgruntled. In a match-up of the two most likely nominees, She’s No Bill Clinton has a three point lead over He’s No Ronald Reagan.” —Argus Hamilton
“Adults should take a course in common sense before they upset more kids’ lives over things like a hug or a silly game.” —John Stossel
David Letterman: “Top New Fall Shows on Al-Jazeera”: The Love Goat; Third Rock from the Sunni; Jihadin’ With the Stars; Two and a Half Mullahs; Betty Who May or May Not Be Ugly As She’s Concealed By a Burqa; The Abdul Van Dyke Show; Lets Rob Cat Stevens; Pimp My Turban.
Jay Leno: What a terrific audience we have. We have 500 people here tonight. We have straight people, we have gay people, we have white people, we have black people. It’s like a Dick Cheney family reunion. … Dick Cheney and Barack Obama are eighth cousins. Isn’t that amazing? Even more amazing: Dick Cheney, Darth Vader—second cousins. … Lynne Cheney says that Obama and Cheney’s connection was the result of one of Obama’s ancestors marrying one of Cheney’s ancestors in 1650. You know who introduced them in 1650? Bob Dole. … President Bush met with the Dalai Lama at the White House. One kind of awkward moment: When the Dalai Lama walked into the Oval Office, he was wearing the traditional robe, and President Bush started chanting, “Toga, Toga!” … [The Dalai Lama] was given the [Congressional] Medal of Freedom. As you know, the Dalai Lama does not engage in sex, drugs, alcohol or tobacco. Which raises the question, what was Congress honoring him for? This goes against everything Congress represents. … Republican Senator Sam Brownback’s campaign announced he will drop out of the presidential race. Now the hard part, of course, is breaking the news to his supporter. … I mean the writing was on the wall. You knew it was going to happen. Like at the last presidential debate, the only question he got was, “I’m sorry, what’s your name again?” … A new study found that screeners at L.A. International Airport missed 75 percent of the big bombs that were sent through the line as tests. However, they did confiscate 100 percent of people’s water bottles, which forced them to buy new ones at the airport gift shop.
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.)