THE FOUNDATION

“I hope it is practicable, by improving the mind and morals of society, to lessen the disposition to war; but of its abolition I despair.” –Thomas Jefferson

INSIGHT

“The natural order, which is suited to the peace of moral things, requires that the authority and deliberation for undertaking war be under the control of a leader.” –Augustine of Hippo

“Happy is he who dares courageously to defend what he loves.” –Ovid

“Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.” –Shakespeare

“It is, when strictly judged, an act of public immorality to form and lead an opposition on a certain plea, to succeed, and then in office to abandon it.” –William Ewart Gladstone

“I am not sure I should have dared to start; but I am sure I should not have dared to stop.” –Sir Winston Churchill

“Those who have given themselves the most concern about the happiness of peoples have made their neighbors very miserable.” –Anatole France

“Two lawyers can make a scandal out of anything they have anything to do with. One hundred will bring a revolution.” –Will Rogers

“I think I can say, and say with pride, that we have some legislatures that bring higher prices than any in the world.” –Mark Twain

“The more I observed Washington, the more frequently I visited it, and the more people I interviewed there, the more I understood how prophetic L'Enfant was when he laid it out as a city that goes around in circles.” –John Mason Brown

“A man always has two reasons for what he does – a good one, and the real one.” –J. P. Morgan

“As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.” –Josh Billings

“Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The chief cause of problems is solutions.” –Eric Sevareid

UPRIGHT

“There can be no peace in the world where differences and grievances become an excuse to target the innocent for murder. Against such an enemy, there is no immunity, and there can be no neutrality.” –President George W. Bush

“When you lose your national memory, you risk losing what you need for understanding your own time – and you risk losing the future as well as the past.” –Thomas Sowell

“The problem for the Left is that Sept. 11 really may have changed everything – that a near-constant state of mobilization against terror may permanently cripple the politics of multiculturalism at home and anti-globalization abroad.” –Stanley Kurtz

“Since September 11, the gray zone for facilitating terror has shrunk.” –Austin Bay

“President Bush has reminded us that in foreign policy – as well as in domestic – ideas that spring from a Christian worldview make for a safer, saner, and stronger society. And there’s nothing ‘simplistic’ about that.” –Charles Colson

“Evil will not be overcome by stepped-up security measures; it will be overcome by good, as light drives out darkness.” –John Fischer

“While secular and religious evil do equal damage to their victims, religious evil is more destructive because it does immense damage to the only things we believe can solve the problem of evil – God-based morality and moral religion.” –Dennis Prager

“If there is an Islamist version of gallantry in war, the Palestinians have obviously never heard of it, and are thus armed with the Jewish conscience.” –Wesley Pruden

“Anti-Semitism is always the calling card of a new despotism.” –Alan Caruba

“Anti-Zionism and anti-Americanism go hand in hand.” –Don Feder

“Yasser Arafat says all of his defensible stuff in English and leaves the red meat for his Arabic speeches.” –Jonah Goldberg

“We should restrain our inclination to believe that laws in and of themselves create a just society. It is a common morality, validated by law, that accomplishes that.” –William Goldcamp

“The Founding Fathers believed that faith and morality were important to self-governments and freedom. At the same time, the Founders did not want to impose religion on anyone.” –Alabama Rep. Robert B. Aderholt

“The Constitution is not the property of judges and lawyers alone, or even of politicians. We the People also have a constitutional role to play.” –Ramesh Ponnuru

“It’s a curious fact about Americans that in their most fiercely patriotic moods they are willing to set aside their Constitution, the guarantor of their freedom, in order to prosecute war – yet they insist that the war is for ‘freedom’.” –Joseph Sobran

“Without judges who limit themselves to interpreting the law, we can’t protect our democratic process. Judge Pickering is a man who will leave lawmaking to the legislative branch.” –Ken Connor

“The worst thing that could happen for the Democratic Party is an economic recovery. I’m not saying Tom Daschle is opposed to having good things happen in America. He’s just opposed to good things happening to America before the 2002 election.” –Rush Limbaugh

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“Would Winston Churchill have sat down for negotiations with an enemy whose ultimate goal was to drive the British into the North Sea? That essentially is what is being asked of Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon by those who claim that the alternative to today’s escalation of violence is a ‘peace’ plan, say along the lines of the one being promoted by Saudi Arabia…. The Saudi plan is more PR exercise than peace mission. …Israel is at war once again. The dispute is not over a chunk of real estate, settlements or holy sites; it is over the Jewish state’s right to exist. This isn’t new, but it’s easily forgotten by those who believe peace is just a question of the right plan with the right diplomats pushing it.” –Wall Street Journal

DEZINFORMATSIA

This week’s “Leftmedia Non Compos Mentis” Award: “…Gray Davis essentially picked his own opponent. Gray Davis, the governor, spent $10 million in ads attacking Dick Riordan, who was the moderate in the race. … So now they’re left, the Republicans, with a candidate who is a political neophyte, Bill Simon, never run for office before, has no political experience, and is very conservative. And Gray Davis is just salivating at the opportunity to paint him as anti-abortion, anti-environment, anti-gun control, anti-everything, which just doesn’t sit well with the California electorate.” –New York Times reporter Rick Berke

From the “Historical Revisionist” Files: …[T]here’s a history [in California] that every time the Republicans have nominated a conservative, the Democrats have won because the state is moderate.“ –Congressional Quarterly‘s Gebe Martinez, "conveniently” forgetting Ronald Reagan, George Deukmejian, and how Pete Wilson was losing his 1994 gubernatorial race to Kathleen Brown while running as a “moderate.”

From the “Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy” Files: “…[T]here really was a conspiracy against Bill Clinton on the right …[by] Republican extremists [bordering] on being unpatriotic. … Fifty, 75 years out from now I think that we in the media and the Republicans are going to be judged every bit as harshly as Bill Clinton for creating the atmosphere where things got so out of control in the '90s.” –Former Newsweek Lefmedia dribbler-scribbler Joe Klein explaining how Clinton couldn’t have successfully opposed terrorist – even had he tried.

“What about the, the, the sentiment that, that these new initiatives are intended to help energy suppliers? That the White House is in essence paying back its friends to the detriment of public health in this country?” –Katie Couric with a now-chronic Leftmedia sentiment.

SOCIOCRATS

White-Washing Gray’s Blackouts: “Bill Simon is a true-blue think-tank conservative. I am a practical problem-solver.” –Gov. Gray Davis, the only Californian who considers the state’s power problems practically solved.

From the “BureaucRATi Ignoramus” Files: “We’ve purchased some interesting new videos, and we will even have a live play on diversity!” –Memo to bureaucrats about this year’s agency-wide diversity training activities at the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste. **At least they got that “solid waste” part right!

From the “Clinton Presidue” Files: “I have trouble with a war that generates so many concerns about individual liberties.” –Florida Demo gubernatorial candidate Janet Reno. **This from the Sociocrat who made famous the “Waco rules of engagement”?

VILLAGE IDIOTS

This week’s “Periplaneta Americana” Award: “Not within the next 20 years but within 80 years. I may not live to see the Hispanic homeland, but by the end of the century my students’ kids will live in it, sovereign and free. …It could happen with the support of the U.S. government.” –Charles Truxillo, Chicano Studies Professor of at the University of New Mexico, predicting secession of the southwestern U.S. states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and southern Colorado, as part of “La Republica del Norte” (AKA “La Reconquista”).

This week’s “Leftpinkie” Award: “…[T]his other disaster that we faced in this country – a disaster that … has done as much damage to our country as any terrorist attack could do, in some ways. I know that’s a harsh thing to say, perhaps, but I believe that what happened in 2000 did as much damage to the pillars of democracy as terrorists did to the pillars of commerce in New York City. …When Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon spokespeople say to you, ‘Well, this is going to be a long war, we’re going to be in Afghanistan for the long haul,’ what that euphemism means is that the moratorium on criticizing the government must be extended longer and longer and longer – ideally, beyond the 2002 election.” –Hollywonk Alec Baldwin

This week’s “Heterophobia” Award: “GLBT [gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans-gendered] people certainly make the best, or at least the best parents as anyone else in our nation.” –Human [read “Homosexual”] Rights Campaign Executive Director Elizabeth Birch

From the “Village Academic Curriculum” Files: More than 80 percent of Ivy League professors who voted in 2000 picked Democrat Al Gore, and just 9 percent voted for Republican George W. Bush, according to a new survey. The poll by Luntz Research Companies also found that only 3 percent of the professors describe themselves as Republicans and that Bill Clinton was the Ivy League faculty’s pick for best president of the past 40 years. “All that this survey shows is what we already know, that the elite universities are subsidiaries of the Democratic Party and political left,” said David Horowitz, president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, which commissioned the poll.

SHORT CUTS

“…[A] little purity about human life would be good in an age when humanity suffers from so many impurities that if life were water or air, the Environmental Protection Agency would do something about it.” –Cal Thomas

“If the government can be run by 75 to 150 people and there are about three million federal employees, guess what? About 2.999 million of you federal employees have just been told that you’re irrelevant.” –Rush Limbaugh

“Iron chains are nothing compared to the shackles made of red tape.” –Paul Greenberg

“Clinton-era sleaze is like a stubborn toe fungus. It just won’t go away.” –Michelle Malkin

“Watching Democrats in action often feels like being the target of a ‘Candid Camera’ set-up. You constantly find yourself wanting to scream, ‘Is anyone else watching this?’” –Ann Coulter

“In my humble opinion, the only relevant argument among members of the Republican Party is over whose turn it is to throw in the towel.” –Norman Liebmann

“Islamakazis.” –Mark Steyn’s sterling coinage referring to Jihadi suicide attackers.

“Out of curiosity, what do they make Molotov cocktails out of in the Gaza strip? Gazaline?” –Lyn Nofziger

“Profiles In Carnage: Multiculturalism assails/ Common sense until it fails:/ Screeners x-ray granny/ And pat down the nanny,/ But ignore young Arab males.” –F.R. Duplantier

Moses, in a spontaneous reaction to reading the 10 Commandments: “The Libertarians are going to go bananas!” –Bob Thaves in the comic strip “Frank & Ernest”

Jay Leno…. Down in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, we are sending the Taliban prisoners reading glasses and hot tea. Reading glasses and hot tea? Who are we holding there, Angela Lansbury? …. Special Prosecutor Robert Ray released his independent report and – I’m not making this up – he concluded in his report that Bill Clinton lied about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Ray has moved on to a new case and he thinks, it’s still early, but he thinks that there might be some problems with the books at Enron. …. Bill Clinton was on an episode of “Jeopardy” last week. Did you see it? He just stopped in on the show. Originally he wanted be on “Blind Date.” …. Did you see the Monica Lewinsky documentary the other night? She answered questions from the audience. She did well. You know Monica – it’s hard for her to get tongue-tied. …. Up on Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Colin Powell says that our government has no plans of attacking Iraq – but the shadow government is ready to blow them to hell! …. By now you’ve heard about that. There’s a shadow government ready in case our government fails. We’re in a recession, half of Congress is having affairs, the other half is making deals under the table, and all these people are on welfare – what’s the shadow government waiting for? …. Tom Ridge has announced that there will be a fast lane between the United States and Mexico – if you have 12 people or less in your trunk you’ll get through faster. …Don’t we already have a fast lane? Isn’t that called San Diego? …. Thirty-eight students at the University of Virginia have left the school after being accused of plagiarism of some science reports. The ironic thing was that the papers were on cloning.

David Letterman…. This is a good night – I’m still here! …. I woke up this morning and read the New York Times to find out where I would be working today. …. It’s amazing. I’ve been in the middle of this contract negotiation and you’d be amazed – CBS can’t kiss up to me enough! Today, two years later, I finally got a get-well card for my bypass surgery! Two years later! …. You wouldn’t know it from looking at me, but I’m a thoughtful guy and I’m thinking my next move will be to get a face lift and go to Fox News. …. We are now sending the captured al Qaeda fighters to Cuba. There’s a prison camp there in Cuba – and if that doesn’t work, we’re sending them to Hawaii. …. Astronomers have figured out that the color of the universe is beige. God created the world in seven days and spent eight weeks waiting for the carpet to be delivered.

Argus Hamilton…. President Bush signed the economic stimulus bill Saturday. This year, he has raised tariffs, extended unemployment benefits and signed job creation bills. If he acts any more like a Democrat, he’s going to start taking roles away from Alec Baldwin. …. President Bush will go to Germany, France and Russia in May to discuss their roles in the war on terrorism. They’re all laid out. Russia is in charge of fuel supplies, Germany is in charge of ordnance and France is in charge of refreshments. …. David Letterman was offered $32 million per year by CBS Thursday to keep him from going to ABC. It’s nearly a record. No one’s paid this much for comedy since we gave the Independent Counsel $70 million for two years of Monica Lewinsky jokes. …. Tom Ridge unveiled a color-code system for labeling terror threats. They are labeled Yellow, Green, Orange, Red and Blue. The next day he was sued by Asians, Irish, Protestants, Indians and Viagrans for reducing them to the status of mascots. …. The Wall Street Journal says a security screener at JFK posted a sign saying he accepts tips. It’s an outrage. If these guys want to take tips from people they are supposed to be regulating, they’ll have to run for Congress like everybody else. …. Congress admitted that an accounting error in the farm bill means the legislation is $6 billion over budget. That’s insane. If somebody did this in the private sector, they would be whisked to the White House for a secret task force meeting. …. Bob Hope donated $1 million worth of political jokes to the Smithsonian…. The gift follows a $10 million donation of comedy material he made to the museum in 1998. Over the years, only the voters have sent more jokes to Washington. …. Yasser Arafat was allowed to leave his house by Israeli soldiers Monday. He told reporters he has no idea who is behind the wave of terrorism. Performances like this one make him the early favorite to win the Oscar for Best Animated Short.