THE FOUNDATION
“We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.” — George Washington
INSIGHT
“Let each man resolve to be victorious, and that the right of self-government, liberty, and peace shall find him a defender.” —Robert E. Lee
“[M]y religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me. That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave.” —Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson
Editor’s Note: Today we take a moment to remember the birth anniversaries of Robert E. Lee (19 January) and Stonewall Jackson (21 January). These soldiers were great men of faith who gave their all (Jackson his life) for the cause of freedom and states’ rights, which we at The Patriot hold so dear. Many may question our decision to honor men of the Confederate States of America, but we encourage those readers to consider our correction of the record. The honor we give these men has its roots in the founding of this great nation.
ICHTHUS IMPRIMIS
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” —Acts 2:17-21 (KJV)
FAMILY
“[A] recent article in The New York Times practically celebrated the phenomenon of the growing number of women living without spouses. For the first time, the number of women living without a spouse exceeds the number of women living with one. ‘For better or worse, women are less dependent on men or the institution of marriage,’ says Brookings Institution demographer Dr. William H. Frey. ‘Younger women understand this better, and are preparing to live longer parts of their lives alone or with nonmarried partners. For many older boomer and senior women, the institution of marriage did not hold the promise they might have hoped for, growing up in an “Ozzie and Harriet” era.’ The Times quotes one recently divorced 57-year-old, ‘I’m in a place in my life where I’m comfortable. I can do what I want, when I want, with whom I want. I was a wife and a mother. I don’t feel like I need to do that again.’ Another divorcee agrees, ‘The benefits were completely unforeseen for me. The free time, the amount of time I get to spend with friends, the time I have alone, which I value tremendously, the flexibility in terms of work, travel and cultural events.’ Wasn’t the ‘women’s movement’ about choices—the choice to have a family or not, the choice to have a career or not, the choice to have children or not? But, [Senator Barbara] Boxer’s Law says that [Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice’s choices effectively disqualify her from the position of secretary of state, given her support of the war. I thought we’d come a long way, baby. Guess not.” —Larry Elder
CULTURE
“Life is beautiful. One’s value is not contingent upon external features, such as one’s bank account, one’s successes or one’s lineage. A human being’s value is intrinsic, not earned. Without this basic moral understanding, few of our laws would make much sense. Laws against murder, for instance, would fail to make sense if we did not deem human life to be intrinsically valuable and worthy of protection. Rather than choose an arbitrary starting point for valuing human life, we should go to the point when life begins. For this, science gives us clear understanding of when a new human life begins. Science tells us that life begins at the moment of conception, when the combination of 23 chromosomes from each pronucleus results in the 46 chromosomes present in the zygote embryo. From the moment of conception onward, a new human being is present until that life is ended in a laboratory, by an abortionist, or at some point after birth. Sadly, our current life-related policy in the United States ignores science, choosing capricious points at which to protect innocent human life. Our current policy is inconsistent, defying both logic and decency.” —Senator Sam Brownback
LIBERTY
“The most fundamental difference between President Bush and his critics has not been in who has made mistakes, because both have. The biggest difference has been that the President has taken a long-run view of the worldwide war on terror, while his critics are seeking a quick fix. Critics claim that there is no connection between the war on terror and the war in Iraq. They don’t seem to notice that the terrorists themselves obviously see a clear connection, which they express in both words and deeds. Terrorists are pouring into Iraq, even at the cost of their lives, in order to prevent a free, democratic government from being established in the Middle East. They see victory or defeat in Iraq as having major and long-lasting repercussions throughout the region and even throughout the world.” —Thomas Sowell
THE GIPPER
“[A]bortion is not a harmless medical procedure but the taking of the life of a living human being. This tragic and terrible toll continues... Our national commitment to the dignity of all human life must begin with the respect for our most basic civil right: the right to life... America will never be whole as long as the right to life, granted by our Creator, is denied to the unborn. Together we can overturn Roe v. Wade, and end this national tragedy... Each woman who chooses life for her child affirms our reverence for human life and ennobles our society. Each child is a unique, unrepeatable gift, and every child who escapes the violence of abortion is an immeasurable victory for life... Together, with God’s help, we will finish the task and heal our wounded nation.” —Ronald Reagan
OPINION IN BRIEF
“There’s nothing like the passage of time to give the past, no matter how sad or scary or dangerous it was at the time, the golden glow of nostalgia. Maybe that’s why some of us prefer the past to the present; we know how it came out. We are freed of the tension of suspense. Most comforting of all, we no longer have any responsibility for the outcome. There’s nothing we can do about it now. It’s too late. What’s done is done. It’s a relief in a way. Now we can just sit back and remember it, running it over and over again in our mind like a favorite movie.” —Paul Greenberg
GOVERNMENT
“It’s not that I dislike government... I just don’t trust government. Which brings us to the Democrats. Democrats love government. They think government and good intentions can solve all the woes of the world. And now that they’re running Congress, they’re going to try to do just that. They’ll promise to ‘fix’ our health care troubles by having the government take over, which will increase our troubles and limit our health care. They’ll ‘fix’ Social Security by raising taxes and growing the program, only to hurt the economy and damage the program. They’ll ‘fix’ the gap between rich and poor by raising taxes on the rich, which will slow the economy and make all of us poorer—especially the poor. The Democrats will unwittingly unleash a legion of federal meter maids who will regulate, monitor and punish—and unwittingly accomplish the opposite of whatever they set out to accomplish.” —Tom Purcell
RE: THE LEFT
“Most of our politicians don’t have high self-esteem, so they have to have people doing things for them all the time, telling them how great they are. The system is broken, and the only way it gets fixed is by throwing the vast majority of the incumbents out... Robert Byrd—he knows exactly how to rape the U.S. Treasury and mortgage the future. It’s sad. There are two kinds of members, with two different lifestyles. There’s the guys that come home every weekend, fly in Monday or Tuesday morning for the week, and live a real life in their district the rest of the time. And then there’s the guys that live in Washington. I spent one weekend there in six years, and I don’t ever want to spend another.” —Senator Tom Coburn
POLITICAL FUTURES
“So let’s accept the fact that whoever the GOP nominee is, he’ll be facing Hillary Clinton. If the Republicans want to win, they will have to decide which Mrs. Clinton they plan to run against; just plain Hillary Clinton, or United States Senator Hillary Clinton, D-NY. If they choose to run against Hillary Clinton, they’ll lose. If they choose to run against Senator Clinton, they’ll win hands down. If we run against Hillary Clinton as the former first lady, if we run against her as the wife of Bill Clinton, if we run against the cherished darling of the media who spent eight years all but canonizing her as America’s patron saint, she’ll win. Running against that Hillary is the wrong argument. If, however, you run against Senator Hillary Clinton and her record, or her abysmal lack of one as a senator, you can win. If you focus on her dismal record of accomplishment and not on her carefully created image as St. Hillary and her hyped-up public personality you’ll beat her hands down. You can beat the senator; you cannot beat the cardboard saint... It’s no wonder Senator Hillary Clinton, who has the media in her pocketbook, wants you to attack her as Hillary Clinton and not as Senator Clinton who has accomplished nothing meaningful as a senator. Matched against a Republican with a solid record for getting things done, she’s a sure loser.” —Michael Reagan
FOR THE RECORD
“Voters tell pollsters that they crave a fresh start in Washington, with new ideas and, presumably, younger, more energetic leadership. Instead, what they’ve got is the most elderly Congress and one of the oldest crops of presidential candidates in history. No wonder so many members of the younger generation feel disenchanted with the political process! According to the Congressional Research Service, the average age for senators just went up by nearly two years to 61.7. House members also got grayer—reaching an average age of 55.9 (for a job that’s open to all citizens 25 and older).” —Michael Medved
SELECT READER COMMENTS
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“It’s remarkable how dead wrong the left can be. Newsweek declares we need to high tail it out of Iraq. Just wave the white flag and run. It encourages the enemy, and makes life more dangerous for our troops. It’s stupid, it’s dangerous, it’s discouraging. But liberals think every issue is about them. We’re concerned about policy and the troops, they’re concerned about their own reputations. And they call it ‘patriotism’. Thanks for nailing them!” —Little Rock, Arkansas
“Since there are supposedly so many rich Republicans, I often wonder more of them don’t own any of the newspapers or magazines like Newsweek, Time and other liberal rags. Maybe if they did, we’d have a less distorted view of what is really going on, not only in Iraq, but the rest of the world. Also, if our weak-kneed elected Republicans would stand up for themselves and our President once in awhile things might look a little brighter...” —Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
“John Edwards says, ‘We need to show we are serious about leaving...’ Wouldn’t it be better to show we’re serious about winning? Of course, Mr. Edwards and his ilk aren’t serious about winning the War on Terror, just the war against President Bush.” —Hammond, Indiana
THE LAST WORD
“This is the new era of bipartisanship. I know this because I hear it on TV all the time, so it’s got to be true. Therefore, I call on all patriotic Americans to seize this golden opportunity for real change by speaking with one clear voice to Washington. Don’t let John Kerry run again. Yes, yes, it’s true: I am biased. I have never been kind to Brahimin Lurch. After his ‘botched’ joke suggesting that American troops are uneducated losers, I wrote that Kerry ‘is an awful politician, a human toothache with the charisma of a 19th-century Oxford Latin tutor.’ In response, countless readers wrote in to complain that I’d been unfair to Latin tutors. But balancing out my personal animosity is my professional self-interest. As a conservative columnist, there is nothing I should want more than to see Kerry whack his forehead against the concrete wall of history one more time. Why? Because attacking Kerry is always good copy. And, if my North Star were the GOP’s good fortune, I would light a candle every night at my Lee Atwater shrine in prayer that the Kerry baloney leap once more into the grinder. After all, he’s the most beatable of Democrats. His political instincts are duller than a prison-cafeteria spork. And never in my lifetime have we seen a presidential candidate with a more thumbless grasp of the way average Americans talk or live. Which brings me to the really salient point: Disliking John Kerry isn’t just for right-wingers anymore. It’s as American as apple pie.” —Jonah Goldberg
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 have died in defense of American liberty, while prosecuting the war with Jihadistan.)