THE FOUNDATION

“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.” –John Adams

INSIGHT

“Our Government rests upon religion. It is from that source that we derive our reverence for truth and justice, for equality and liberty, and for the rights of mankind. Unless the people believe in these principles, they cannot believe in our Government.” –Calvin Coolidge

GOOD NEWS

“The Lord said to Abram…, ‘Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.’ So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the Lord.” (Genesis 13:14-18) [**Editor’s Note: Hebron is in the West Bank of the state of Israel, part of the so-called “occupied territory.” It’s “occupied territory” like New York City is “occupied territory”….]

“Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:10-18)

ICTUS IMPRIMIS

“Make no mistake about it. This war is first and foremost a spiritual war. It is not a political war. It has never been a political war. It is not about politics. It is a spiritual war. It has its roots in spiritual conflict. It is a war to be fought to destroy the very fabric of our society and the very things for which we stand…. It is not just simple greed that motivated these people to kill. This war has been launched against the United States of America. It is a spiritual attack. It is an attack that was created in the mind and heart of Satan. It is a demonically inspired attack. It is not just the selfish ambitions of an egotistical leader. It is not just someone wanting to hold on to power. This is nothing more than a satanically inspired attack against America created by demonic powers through the perverted minds of terrorists.” –Senator James M. Inhofe (R-Oklahoma)

FAMILY

“While America enjoys a voyage of choice and freedom, our education system missed the boat. It’s surprising that a country that says it values education hasn’t powered it up with the energy of choice. But it’s not just a surprise. It’s a disgrace.” –Secretary of Education Rod Paige

CULTURE

“In his role as gadfly, [Princeton’s University Center for Human Values Professor] Peter Singer renders the very useful service of making clear that the logic supporting the unlimited abortion license imposed by the Supreme Court in 1973’s Roe v. Wade decision necessarily extends to infanticide, euthanasia, eugenics, and other measures that he espouses, and for which many who support that license wrongly criticize him as an extremist. Peter Singer, with his scheme of individual preference utilitarianism, has simply thought the matter through more consistently than most supporters of the pro-choice position, which is a position of – although such people may never have heard the phrase before – individual preference utilitarianism.” –Richard John Neuhaus

LIBERTY

“A danger exists that the United States is becoming a police state. Just a few decades ago, this would have been unimaginable. The American republic was not designed with federal police powers, which should be the sole prerogative of the states. The military should not be used as police. Unfortunately, many Americans now welcome the use of military troops to police our public places, especially airports. Even before Sept. 11th, more than 80,000 armed federal bureaucrats patrolled the countryside, checking for violations of federal laws and regulations. That number since September has increased by nearly 50% – and it will not shrink any time soon. Meanwhile, a military takeover of homeland security looks certain. Can freedom and prosperity survive if the police state continues to expand?” –Rep. Ron Paul

THE GIPPER

“If we continue to accommodate, continue to back up and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand – the ultimatum.” –Ronald Reagan

OPINION IN BRIEF

“[H]ow does a fellow become a political leader in an Arab country? Perhaps he (here I do not have to employ the politically correct piety, ‘he or she’ do I?) hires a political consultant, say, James Carville or Paul Begala, and runs a populist campaign. Carville and Begala always look sufficiently angry to sit with those Arab leaders at one of their summits, but we all know that their talents are not needed in the Arab world. There are no free elections there. What elections are held are similar to those once held in the Soviet Union; elections, that is to say, free of the clutter of a loyal opposition. In fact, in the Arab world there is no opposition of any kind.” –R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“The national defense, as we were reminded last September, is the first task of the federal government. Whether the federal government should subsidize the purchase of prescription drugs is a debatable question; whether it should defend us from attackers is not. Too often, defense spending is seen as a competitor to domestic spending. Liberals say that more money for guns means less for education and health care. But our ability to protect ourselves – our lives, our independence – is a precondition for providing any of these other things. Yet even after last year’s reminder, we are still short-changing defense. …[E]ven President Bush’s proposed $48 billion increase in defense spending for next year falls short of our military needs. Our global responsibilities require a military that can handle two wars at once. Otherwise, China might be tempted to make a play for Taiwan, or North Korea for South Korea, while we were tied down in Iraq. If, that is, we get to Iraq in the first place: Reports indicate that one reason we have hesitated to move against Saddam is that we don’t have enough munitions to do the job properly. The Democratic alternative is even paltrier. Kent Conrad, the North Dakota Democrat who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, has drawn up a budget that short-changes defense by $245 billion over the next decade compared with Bush’s budget. Before the war started, the defense shortfall was estimated at $50-100 billion per year. The war has put further strain on military resources: Almost half of the president’s requested increase is necessary merely to fund continuing operations in Afghanistan. And we will not always be blessed with enemies as quickly and cheaply defeated as the Taliban. To fight future enemies – and better still, to deter them – we will need more ships, more army divisions, more weapons systems. The armed forces need reform, of course; they always have, and always will. But what they also need, and more urgently, is more money.” –National Review

GOVERNMENT

“Tax time approaches, and Americans are as always paying H & R Block billions to help them save some of their wealth from their ravenous government. Pitiful, in a way: it underlines the grim but unacknowledged fact that the government is their enemy and they have to hire protection from it. But don’t we enjoy ‘self-government’? Well, if we have it, I’d hardly say we enjoy it. True, we aren’t being taxed by the monarch of Great Britain, but our American-born rulers claim far more of our wealth than the British monarchs ever did.” –Joseph Sobran

RE: THE LEFT

“The left always focuses its attention on dividing wealth – rather than producing it – and they do so because of their love affair with government power. Bureaucrats can work to apportion riches in a manner they deem fair, but government never produces the riches in the first place – only private enterprise can do that. In other words, the left sustains the sense of eternal grudge that fuels its lunatic projects by persuading people to focus on the attainments of others, rather than celebrating achievements of their own. Liberals love to highlight the ‘growing gap between rich and poor’ – without noting the far more salient fact that poor people in America have progressed so dramatically that they now enjoy a standard of living that would have qualified as middle class in previous years. There will always be someone with a bigger business, a better car, a nicer house, a prettier wife – and it can drive you crazy if you concentrate on the blessings of that other guy.” –Michael Medved

POLITICAL FUTURES

“Anti-Semitism is always the calling card of a new despotism. Anti-Semitism and the killing of Jews always precede a new wave of terror whose purpose is to impose an ideological slavery. It does not matter whether it was Lenin’s Communism, the rise of Nazism or the call for Islamic jihad. In Israel, the barbarians are in the streets. In America, this time the barbarians aren’t just at the gates. They are right here, thousands of dedicated militant Muslims and we have no idea who they are or where they are.” –Alan Caruba

FOR THE RECORD

Some figures to bear in mind if you are computing your tax overpayment this week: “It’s a well-kept secret how much money the elite colleges receive outright from the federal government, in addition to billions of dollars in all sorts of student financial aid. Here is a sampling of the latest available annual figures: Johns Hopkins $793 million, Stanford $391 million, Harvard $349 million, Washington University (St. Louis) $347 million, MIT $301 million, Yale $300 million, Emory $248 million, Cornell $247 million, Duke $218 million, and Northwestern $204 million.” –Phyllis Schlafly

SELECT READER COMMENTS

“How come we never heard Leftist Sociocrat Senators asking about an ‘exit strategy’ from the War on Poverty? And why, of the literally thousands of government programs, are national defense and tax cuts the only ones we ‘can’t afford’?”

“HR 3991 has just turned the ‘Taxpayer Protection and IRS Accountability Act’ into the ‘IRS Protection and Taxpayer Accountability Act.’ This LAW, although not passed yet, will be used to label ANY assertion of ANY right or section of law, as ‘frivolous,’ and fine you $5000.”

“So, Bill Clinton claimed this week that he wishes he had not pardoned Marc Rich because of all the political damage to his legacy. Will he ever get it right? Instead of addressing whether the pardon was legally and morally right, his concern is limited to ‘political damage to his legacy’.”

“I am a Midshipman at the United States Naval Academy and a faithful reader of The Federalist. Because of the ‘Constitutional’ challenge against prayer at Virginia Military Institute, the USNA is now conducting research to determine if this activity is ‘permissible’ under the Constitution.”
Editor’s Reply: Did the United States Congress mandate prayer at the USNA? That is the only “Constitutional test.” Leftjudiciary has seen fit to extrude the limitations specified in the First Amendment “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”) to prohibit all manner of religious expression.

“Just wanted to thank you for the expressly Christian perspective you evidence. I receive many conservative publications but few that recognize the Lord’s sovereignty in the affairs of men.”

THE LAST WORD

“Is it possible the Clinton legacy is our nation trying to live down the Clinton legacy? …When they call Bill Clinton the first black President, are they referring to his heart? And, as the first black President, will Clinton claim he is eligible for reparations for slavery – and can we deduct from that amount the stuff he and Hillary stole from the White House? …How come people in the federal government never have time to do anything right, but always have time to do it over? …Shouldn’t Clinton’s political spokes-flunkies be named James Carload and Paul Bologna? …As a result of heavy bombing of the caves in Afghanistan, will they have to dig up Osama bin Laden before they can bury him? (And if it turns out bin Laden is still alive, shouldn’t the FBI look for him in San Francisco, which is the perfect place for him to blend in with the other freaks?)” –Norman Liebmann