THE FOUNDATION

“Political right and public happiness are different words for the same idea.” –Samuel Adams

INSIGHT

“From all that terror teaches/ From lies of tongue and pen/ From all the easy speeches/ That comfort cruel men/ From sale and profanation/ Of honor and the sword/ From sleep and from damnation/ Deliver us, good Lord!” –G. K. Chesterton

ICTUS IMPRIMIS

“Fascism and Communism, like all other evils, are potent because of the good they contain or imitate…. And of course their occasion is the failure of those who left humanity starved of that particular good. This does not for me alter the conviction that they are very bad indeed. One of the things we must guard against is the penetration of both into Christianity…. Mark my words: you will presently see both a Leftist and a Rightist pseudo-theology developing – the abomination will stand where it ought not….” –C.S. Lewis

FAMILY

“To me the foundation of American life rests upon the home and the family. I read into these great economic forces, these intricate and delicate relations of the Government with business and with our political and social life, but one supreme end–that we reinforce the ties that bind together the millions of our families, that we strengthen the security, the happiness and the independence of every home.” –Herbert Hoover

CULTURE

“If we want to run our politics like a tea party that’s fine. But it is deeply, deeply disturbing – and dangerous – when we confuse this desire with what the First Amendment is supposed to be about. Banning child porn – in any form – is precisely the sort of ‘speech’ the Founders and successive generations of Americans believed the state could and should ban. At least conservatives, on the whole, still believe that. …But the dominant political culture – in the courts, the universities, Congress, and the media – which too many conservatives bow to, doesn’t want to ban anything on the fringes of our society for fear of being called – heaven forbid! – a censor or a prude. In other words, the freedom of the fringe is rock solid in this country precisely because free speech is rotting from the inside out.” –Jonah Goldberg

LIBERTY

“Liberty is a gift from God Almighty, and I believe with all my heart we are obligated to the Author of the Universe to guard it vigilantly and well, with dignity, with honor, with charity – and with energy.” –Alan Keyes

THE GIPPER

“To the terrorists of the world, heed this message, and learn from it: You can run, but you cannot hide.” –Ronald Reagan

OPINION IN BRIEF

“What America holds in common with the tiny state of Israel is rooted in what the terrorists resent and hate: the rule of law, justice, tolerance and respect for freedom. Those willing to become human missiles and bombs scorn those values, having been persuaded that tolerance and respect for the beliefs of others is decadent and weak. That’s why the Islamists were so disbelieving when September 11 did not shatter and fragment us.” –Suzanne Fields

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“The Middle East breeds myths faster than it can digest them. The latest is Jenin, the Palestinian West Bank refugee camp and the scene earlier this month of a bloody battle. The Israeli military laid siege and overran the camp after eight days of fighting. … But that was nothing compared with the propaganda battle now going on to persuade the world that something far worse really happened. … Pardon us if we stick to the few facts anyone really knows. Home to 14,000 Palestinians, Jenin was not Mayberry RFD. It was a stronghold of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, where extremists trained and armed young people to kill Israeli civilians. By the terrorists’ own admission, about 20 of the 50 suicide bombers since September 2000 came from Jenin. … Scores of well-armed Palestinians were ready when the Israelis moved in on the morning of April 3. They had burrowed tunnels, booby-trapped doors and set up snipers. Palestinian militants also placed the civilians of the camp, including children and wives, directly and deliberately in harm’s way as human shields. Homes became their bunkers. One Islamic Jihad commander told the Palestinian press that, ‘Believe me, there are children stationed in the houses with explosive belts at their sides.’ … As Israeli soldiers moved from house to house one night, a Palestinian ambush killed 13. But even then the Israelis did not call in an aerial assault that would have killed far more Palestinians while protecting Israelis. Instead they sent in bulldozers, which demolished homes and created the ugly photos carried by the press but also carried greater risk of Israeli casualties. After eight days of fighting, 23 Israeli soldiers were dead, making Jenin among Israel’s bloodiest military operations since 1973. … As a democracy, Israel will of course hold itself to a higher moral standard. And it ought to, since the best defense of its own military operations is that they are targeted not at civilians but at terrorists; meanwhile, the Palestinians target pizza parlors and school buses. Israel ought to welcome international scrutiny, if only to offset the propaganda of its enemies. … If war crimes were committed or the army acted dishonorably, the perpetrators will be held to account by Israel’s democratic institutions. Yet from what we know so far, Jenin wasn’t a crime. It was another tragically bloody battle in a war that the Palestinians started 18 months ago.” –Wall Street Journal

GOVERNMENT

“Presidents, regardless of party, face constant pressures from the Left – from the Big Brother government, neofascist, high tax, property-confiscating liberals, from the econazis and global warmists, from the pro-abortionists, from those who are pro-one world and anti-American and from those who advocate cradle-to-grave socialism. (Have I left anyone out?) And, unless there are constant counter-pressures from those on the Right who believe in small government, low taxes, America first and individual liberty, presidents, under Left-wing pressure, tend to drift that way.” –Lyn Nofziger

RE: THE LEFT

“[T]here’s…a blazing double standard at work. Let’s reflect back on the Clinton era, when the hard-charging media gave us eight years of calming Muzak over noise about illegal fund-raising – unless the donors were funding a ‘vast right-wing conspiracy,’ of course. The Clintons could have their picture taken with a cocaine smuggler, Jorge Cabrera, and there was no ‘long-running controversy.’ There wasn’t even a story. The Clintons could look the other way as large donors like Loral handed missile secrets to the Chinese, and the Chinese handed their soft money to Hillary’s aides. They could send ‘heavily censored’ documents to investigators without worry. So what? Nor were the Clintons ever scolded by these same reporters for refusing to meet on their socialized-medicine schemes with the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and Citizens for a Sound Economy. Isn’t it just odd that liberals expect to be coddled and consulted when they’ve lost the White House, but think of Democrats meeting with conservative groups as less than politically necessary? And when, oh when, can we start describing liberal activists as liberal activists? Take it from Washington Post automotive reporter Warren Brown, as he wrote in a recent Internet chat: ‘We tend to believe that any nonprofit group is telling the truth because the group is, well, nonprofit. We overlook the fact that nonprofit groups hustle for money just like any other organization.’ Brown suggested, ‘It’s time that we in the media take away that carte blanche believability from nonprofit organizations and start treating them the way we treat everybody else.’ It’s also time we take away that carte blanche believability from many in the ‘news’ media, too.” –Brent Bozell

POLITICAL FUTURES

“What’s clear since September 11th is that Bush’s foreign and defense heavyweights – Rummy, Condi, even Colin on his good days – are in a different league from his domestic team. This is not good news for the American people: At best, Underperformin’ Norman Mineta, the Transportation Secretary, will merely inconvenience them; at worst, he’ll kill them. Meanwhile, the big-government Left and the authoritarian Right have a new wheeze: Americans will be more secure with a National Identity Card! And who will issue the new card? Why, the INS! Just as soon as they finish up the paperwork on this temporary agricultural-worker permit for a Mr. O. B. Laden. The post-9/11 amnesty needs to end: If Republicans can’t use Mohammed Atta’s visa as a cue to clean out these federal agencies, then it’s the GOP that needs to get some student visas and go back to school, because they’re obviously the world’s slowest learners.” –Mark Steyn

FOR THE RECORD

“Kellyanne Conway, president and CEO of the Polling Company in Washington, is still shaking her head over the results of her new poll showing the nation is vastly unaware of who – or even how many – justices sit on the United States Supreme Court. Nearly two-thirds of 800 Americans polled could not name a single member of the current court and just 32 percent knew that there are nine justices. Only five persons in the entire survey could name all nine. In contrast, a whopping majority – 75 percent – knew there are three Rice Krispies characters and 66 percent proudly cited their names: Snap, Crackle and Pop. ‘While pundits left and right breathlessly claim that Americans are gravely concerned about the composition and opinions of the Supreme Court, one might expect some fundamental knowledge among the masses,’ Conway says. ‘Sure, Kellogg’s spends more in advertising than the court, but no one runs around proclaiming (apparently unknowingly) that Snap, Crackle and Pop are threatening their right to choose or steal elections.’ Sandra Day O'Connor was the most frequently cited justice by both men and women (27 percent and 22 percent respectively), while the total name recall for Justices Stephen Breyer (3 percent) and John Paul Stevens (2 percent) was lower than the poll’s margin of error. Blacks were more likely to remember Clarence Thomas (26 percent) than other justices, but were no more likely to offer his name than whites or Hispanics. And if you thought we government junkies here in the East are more likely to know the makeup of the nation’s highest court, think again. Americans in the Mountain and Pacific regions were more likely to know the correct number of justices (39 percent and 37 percent respectively). The nine justices are: Sandra Day O'Connor, Clarence Thomas, William H. Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Stephen G. Breyer, and John Paul Stevens.” –John McCaslin

SELECT READER COMMENTS

“The Federalist took the position in No. 02-16: ‘AG Ashcroft issued a directive last November declaring – correctly in The Federalist’s view – that assisted suicide was not a 'legitimate medical practice’ and the several states do not have the authority under the Tenth Amendment to authorize such practice.‘ My copy of the Constitution says nothing about state regulation of drugs.”
Editor’s Reply: We do not believe that the Tenth Amendment assigns power to the states to revoke or reassign the inalienable rights to life and liberty, which remain vested in perpetuity with individual citizens as persons. The Constitution is subordinate to the “natural law” expression of those rights to life and liberty as explicated in the Declaration. Thus, neither the central government nor several states may establish a legal process to allow anyone to contract with another person for the end of their own life – or any other’s (abortion). In the case of the Oregon initiative, it creates an exemption for complicity in murder by explicit government approval for a contractual relationship between patient and physician in which a physician assists the patient in self-murder – in this case by writing a prescription that has the intent to facilitate that self-murder.

“You are grossly mistaken with your comment that the Constitution is subordinate to the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. The Declaration did nothing but state that the colonies considered themselves separate from England. It might be dressed up in pretty language but it has no bearing on constitutional considerations and, most importantly, has no force of law.”
Editor’s Reply: Do you mean to say we are still legally a colony of England, then? We hold that the Constitution is, indeed, subordinated by the Declaration, to wit: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them…. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it … it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

“No. 2-17 Faith Matters notes, 'the Holly Father’s decree’ …. Holly was holy to the Druids, not the Catholics.”
Editor’s Reply: OK, “Theodore Kennedy” was for fun but there was not enough coffee flowing last Friday at 0dark30 to catch “Holly”!

“To me, July 6, ‘Cost of Government Day,’ was mostly an abstraction until I realized that that day was about a week into the second half of the year. I then thought that if that were to be translated into the work week, it would mean that for all of Monday, all of Tuesday, and for more than half of Wednesday, my labors would be for others rather than for myself and my family. ‘Cost of Government Day,’ then, might better be described as Wednesday afternoon.”

“Brief No. 02-17 mentioned ‘earth day,’ but it, and the National Center for Public Policy Research Web site, omit a significant fact regarding the celebration: It is no coincidence that Earth Day is celebrated on V.I. Lenin’s birthday!”
Editor’s Reply: Indeed! And also why we often refer to environmental activists as “watermelons” – green on the outside, red on the inside!

THE LAST WORD

“Just askin’: How did Bush manage to detect evil in Iran, Iraq and North Korea, and miss it so completely in Bill Clinton? …Instead of amnesty for illegal aliens, how about declaring this Deport-a-Democrat Week? …Could a particularly bad environmental disaster be described as a lalapollution? …Is it called a subpoena because some lawyers have smaller poenas than others? …Where does Colin Powell get the cojones to threaten the Israelis with what he failed to do to the Iraqis? …Isn’t it time someone told the Republicans in the Senate about a new product on the market called Industrial Strength Spine Starch?” –Norman Liebmann