THE FOUNDATION

“Freedom can exist only in the society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights.”

INSIGHT

“If our confidence in God had to depend upon our confidence in any human person, we would be on shifting sand.” —Francis Schaeffer

“He who is unaware of his ignorance will be only misled by his knowledge.” —Richard Whately

“An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.” —Robert Heinlein

“Once the government becomes the supplier of people’s needs, there is no limit to the needs that will be claimed as a basic right.” —Lawrence Auster

“A government can be compared to our lungs. Our lungs are best when we don’t realize they are helping us breathe. It is when we are constantly aware of our lungs that we know they have come down with an illness.” —Lao-Tzu

UPRIGHT

“The war now being waged in Congress over illegal immigration is mostly about which philosophy will prevail in the Republican Party. Will it be the conservative wing that brought the GOP to power after years of wandering in the political wilderness as a minority party, or will it be the moderate-liberal wing that became comfortable in the wilderness?” —Cal Thomas

“As members of the House and Senate head for a conference to try to reconcile the stark and probably irreconcilable differences incorporated in their two immigration bills, Republicans are between a rock and a hard place. And another rock. And another.” —Robert Novak

“House Speaker Dennis Hastert became the longest-serving Republican speaker in history. While he has kept a fractious GOP caucus together, it’s safe to say the Republican base has become increasingly unglued during his tenure and voters may end the dozen years of Republican House control this November.” —John Fund

“There is a curious dissonance in American politics at the moment… [W]e keep hearing, from people who should know, that Republicans are…headed for huge losses in 2006, and maybe in 2008 too. If so, why aren’t Democrats more confident? Why are they still acting like embittered losers, wallowing in fantasies about past persecution?” —James Taranto

“The vision of the left, full of envy and resentment, takes its worst toll on those at the bottom—whether black or white—who find in that paranoid vision an excuse for counterproductive and ultimately self-destructive attitudes and behavior.” —Thomas Sowell

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“If you think government isn’t accountable to elected officials now, thank five Supreme Court justices last week for not making it far worse. A 5-4 majority stopped an attempt to give on-the-job First Amendment protection to government workers who disagree with official policy. In Garcetti v. Ceballos, a lawyer in the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office claimed to have had his free-speech rights violated because he wrote a memo disagreeing with an office decision and was punished for it. The ever-creative Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, thus turning the First Amendment into a weapon for every unhappy government worker to say what he pleases whenever he pleases. Imagine a government in which every Joe Wilson or Michael Scheuer could go to a federal court claiming First Amendment protection for trashing the policies of an elected President—and still stay on the job at the CIA. Writing for a majority that included new Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Anthony Kennedy noted that the Ninth Circuit’s ruling would have stripped government officials of the power to run even a marginally efficient shop. Moreover, it ‘would commit state and federal courts to a new, permanent, and intrusive role, mandating judicial oversight of communications between and among government employees and their superiors in the course of official business.’ Justice David Souter seemed to endorse precisely this kind of systematic judicial intrusion in his dissent. But as Justice Kennedy noted, this would represent another expansion of judicial power into the operations of state government or the federal executive branch, and would be ‘inconsistent with sound principles of federalism and the separation of powers.’ What’s amazing is that four Supreme Court Justices could endorse this idea, but then again judicial ascendancy is one of the animating principles of modern liberalism. None of this means government workers can’t speak out freely in their private capacities, as earlier Supreme Court rulings have underscored. But they owe some allegiance to employers in their official duties. And if employees really can’t abide the policies they signed up to implement, they can always do the honorable thing and quit.” —The Wall Street Journal

DEZINFORMATSIA

This week’s “Gratuitous Nazi Reference” Award: “[Al] Gore wants to do something admirable like save the planet…and what do critics call him? Hitler. The ‘Swift-Boating’ of Al Gore already in full swing.” —MSNBC’s Brian Unger The only guy we know that has been called Hitler is President Bush. ++ From the “Garbage in—Garbage out” Department: “The U.S. economy was charging ahead at an annual rate of almost 5 percent [actually 5.3%] in the first quarter of this year. But now it appears we’ll be lucky if it grows half that rapidly in this quarter. There are new signs this evening that the economy is slowing down.” —CBS’s Russ Mitchell *Like unemployment falling to 4.6 percent? ++ From the Clintonista Sycophant Files: “Hillary Rodham Clinton has fashioned a political persona that generates intense passions but defies easy characterization.” —Dan Balz of The Washington Post ++ “The President’s image of compassion was shaky to begin with, even though he calls himself a compassionate conservative. Bill Clinton felt your pain. George Bush flew over it.” —CNN’s Bill Schneider

“Supporting” the troops: “[T]he American military is not a fearsome force in potentia, but a depleted, demoralized and disparaged force trapped in Iraq trying to police a civil war. The invasion that was supposed to help terrorism has made it worse. The invasion that was supposed to make America more feared and beloved has made us more hated. The invasion that was supposed to banish post-Vietnam syndrome has revived it.” —Maureen Dowd ++ “There are some who are already making comparisons between Haditha and My Lai in Vietnam, the massacre in which hundreds of Vietnamese civilians were killed, an incident that you well remember. Is that a fair comparison, a fair, a fair analogy?” —CNN’s Wolf Blitzer ++ This week’s “Leftmedia Buster” Award: “I never read The New York Times anymore for information. I read The New York Times only to find out what the left-wing slant on stuff is.” —Morton Kondracke

Newspulper Headlines: Hang Out With That Crowd and You’ll Never Meet Anyone Nice: “Security Council Meeting Degenerates” —Associated Press

Awkward Headline in Newspaper Was: “Reported Gunfire at Capitol Wasn’t” —Arizona Republic

How Can We Be Sure?: “A Warmer World May, or May Not, Be Wetter” —USA Today

This Is Boring! Give Us Some New Poll Results!: “Poll: Americans Like Instant Gratification” —Associated Press

They Used to Eat It Alive?: “Indonesia Begins Slaughtering Poultry” —Associated Press

Why Not Just Go Cold Turkey?: “Bush Admin. Wants to Cut Meth Use 15 Pct.” —Associated Press

Not Guilty by Reason of YAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!: “Dean to Enter Plea in Leg-Biting Case” —Associated Press (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

THE DEMO-GOGUES

“Supporting” the troops II: “Well, I think it’s just as bad, if not worse than that. And, and My Lai, if I remember the circumstances, you’re out in the field and, and, and they killed civilians, but they used the excuse that they looked like they were the enemy. Here there was [sic] no shots fired. There was no enemy action at all.” —John Murtha Keen sense of the obvious

“Whether it’s alcohol or drugs, any impaired driving is wrong.” —Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-UI) *Mary Jo Kopechne was not available for comment.

This week’s “Diversity” Award: “Think about how much more interesting you are than the Princeton Class of 1906—a bunch of boring white guys like me.” —Bill Clinton, our first “black President,” speaking to Princeton University graduates

Open mouth, insert foot: “The man who, how do I phrase this diplomatically, who will put a bullet between the President’s eyes if he could get away with it.” —New York State Demo Comptroller Alan Hevesi introducing Sen. Chuck Schumer at commencement exercises at New York City’s Queens College Hevesi has since apologized for his “incredibly moronic” words.

From the “Blow Hard” Files: “A vote for this [Marriage Protection] Amendment is a vote for bigotry, pure and simple.” —Sen. Teddy Kennedy

From Webster’s Dictionary: “Our citizens are literally choking on the lack of alternative fuel.” —Sen. Featherweight Reid We’re figuratively laughing!

VILLAGE IDIOTS

Apocalypse Now?: “People need to lighten up about this. Monday, we always hate Mondays. Wednesday is hump day. Friday sometimes has the 13th attached to it. But Tuesdays and Thursdays, they don’t ring for me as days when bad things happen or good things happen. They’re filler days.” —Brian Jones, a religion professor at Wartburg College in Iowa, rebutting the hoopla over yesterday being “666” (6/6/06)

From the Junk Science Files: “[I]n some quarters there’s still a debate over whether the moon landing was staged [or] whether the Earth is flat instead of round.” —Algore, trying to slam critics of his “global warming” scare-mongering

Repent, for the end is near: “Global warming is real. It is caused by human activity. Mankind and its governments must begin immediate action to halt and reverse it. If we do nothing, in about 10 years the planet may reach a ‘tipping point’ and begin a slide toward destruction of our civilization and most of the other species on this planet. After that…it would be too late for any action. These facts are stated by Al Gore in the documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth’.” —movie critic Roger Ebert on “fact” and fiction

This week’s “Village Victimitis” Award: “People think it’s bad behavior and that you just need an attitude adjustment, but what they don’t know…is that there’s a biology and cognitive science to this [disorder].” —Dr. Emil Coccaro, chairman of psychiatry at the University of Chicago’s medical school on a new-found “disorder” called “intermittent explosive disorder” (ironically, IED) Take one dose of personal responsibility and call us in the morning.

SHORT CUTS

“Rep. William J. Jefferson appears to be that one-in-a-million rarity, like a buffalo nickel or a four-leaf clover: a corrupt Louisiana politician… Jefferson has strayed far from the Democratic mainstream. After all, Sandy Berger taught us that proper procedure for concealing important documents is to shove them down your pants.” —Jonah Goldberg

“The ‘path to citizenship’ that Bush and the Senate are trying to pawn off on Americans requires that illegals pay huge fines and back taxes, with ‘huge’ being defined as a $2,000 fine and taxes for three of the last five years. Even with the special ‘Two Years Tax-Free’ package for illegals, this is about as likely as me paying my dad back the money I ‘borrowed’ from him when I was in college.” —Ann Coulter

“As Will Rogers famously observed, every time Congress makes a joke, it’s a law. And every time it makes a law, it’s a joke. If we could simply harness congressional hot air, America’s energy problems would be history.” —Paul Driessen

“Hillary kicked off her Senate re-election campaign the other night. Bill came onto the stage and hugged her. It was a fine image, the power couple in a loving embrace. Hillary got a standing ovation when she said he was ‘an inspiration, a mentor, a partner.’ And he is an inspiration, a mentor, a partner. He’s inspired dozens of investigations, he’s mentored an untold number of interns, and you couldn’t find a Harvard CPA able to tally the number of partners he’s had.” —Tom Purcell

“Congressman Patrick Kennedy finishes a month in alcohol rehab this week. The investigation into his car accident continues. Last night three FBI agents were seen staggering out of the Capitol after they raided the congressman’s refrigerator.” —Argus Hamilton

David Letterman: “Top Surprises In Al Gore’s Global Warming Movie”: The role of Al Gore was played by Bruce Willis; During summer months, Al and Tipper host nude barbecues; Hilarious outtake of Al Gore saying, “Wobal Glarming”; It’s a musical; Claims global warming melted Kenny Rogers’ face; Blames the crisis on a creepy Albino; The scientist who supports all his claims is Al Gore in a mustache; Best solution is to contribute heavily to Gore-In-2008.com; It felt longer than the Florida recount.

Jay Leno: President Bush gave his weekly, regular radio address on Saturday and the theme was pro-marriage. And then right afterwards, Bill Clinton gave the rebuttal. … Do you notice gay marriage didn’t become a big Republican priority until all their members started going to prison? … A person was caught trying to jump over the White House fence after throwing a package over it. Turns out it was just Hillary Clinton with carpet samples. … How annoying is this? Senator Hillary Clinton is calling for a return of the 55 mile an hour speed limit. When people in L.A. heard about this, they said, “What? Cars can go that fast?” … Here’s something fascinating. Honda has announced it’s developed technology that links a person’s thoughts to a machine. It uses brain signals to control a robot’s movements, to which Al Gore said, “Been there, done that.” … Scientists have confirmed they found the remains of Christopher Columbus, in a cathedral in Spain. As you know Columbus discovered America in 1492 looking for a western route to China and India. Do you know why he was looking for western route? This is true. To avoid Islamic extremists. Well thank God that problem is gone.

Lex et Libertas—Semper Vigilo, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for the editors and staff. (Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm’s way around the world in defense of our liberty, and for the families awaiting their safe return.)