To paraphrase a verse familiar to most Christians, what shall it profit a man if he gains the White House, but loses his own soul? Christians are also fond of saying God never closes one door without opening another door. The "door" of the Center for Reclaiming America has closed. |
What next? Does the United States not suffer a loss of credibility in the world's eyes for again failing to finish a job it started? Do the millions who voted for the first elected government in Iraq conclude they risked their lives for nothing? |
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists called the Court's decision "shameful and incomprehensible." What is incomprehensible is a society that would allow for the destruction of a generation, depriving the nation of talent and unknown contributions. |
Political hearing aid: It is said of Thompson that he has always "answered the call" of his country, whether it was serving as minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee, or in other capacities, including United States senator. |
Twisting himself even further, Giuliani said denying a poor woman tax dollars to pay for an abortion would deprive her of a "constitutional right."
While the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and a free press, it does not follow that the government should buy me a newspaper if I can't afford one. |
In the scandalous, shortsighted sellout of American troops in Iraq, a slim Democratic House majority passed a measure that speaker and top vote buyer Nancy Pelosi claimed would "end the war in Iraq." The claim is preposterous because, even if the Senate were to pass such a measure, there are insufficient votes to override a presidential veto. |
Snow spoke about the importance of "faith and attitude. You have to make a choice about whether you want to live." |
The poet Robert Browning said that our reach should always exceed our grasp. By expecting more, we get more from our institutions and ourselves than if we were to "settle" for less and get less.
|
In the six years since he left the presidency, Clinton has taken in nearly $40 million - between nine and 10 million of it last year. |
As outlined to me in a telephone conversation with Deputy National Security Adviser J.D. Crouch, this agreement is the result of pressure exerted by five countries - the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea - something critics said would never happen. Critics said that Kim would never agree to six-party talks and that the Bush administration was making a big mistake in not accepting Kim's demand for bilateral negotiations. President Bush held out and, so far, his strategy seems to be working.
|
Consider what occupies and diverts our attention from substantive matters: Anna Nicole Smith; Britney Spears; the astronaut gone wild, Lisa Nowak; the sleeping, dating, marital and divorce arrangements of film stars. It is all about the base, the tawdry and the anti-heroic. Today's heroes are cartoon characters and those (Superman, Batman, etc.) are from another era in which real heroes mattered.
|
Writing from Mosul, Army Sgt. Daniel Dobson, 22, of Grand Rapids, Mich., says he appreciates the freedom Americans have to protest, but adds: "The American military has shown a stone-cold professional veneer throughout the seething debate raging over Iraq. Beneath that veneer, however, is a fuming, visceral hatred. We feel as though we have been betrayed by Congress."
|
On the Web site "Jihad Watch" (a good place to keep up with what the Islamofascists are planning for us), Robert Spencer writes, "...the West is facing a concerted effort by Islamic jihadists, the motives and goals of whom are largely ignored by the Western media, to destroy the West and bring it forcibly into the Islamic world - and to commit violence to that end even while their overall goal remains out of reach."
|
In Iowa last weekend, Sen. Clinton showed why she shouldn't - and I believe won't - be president. She deliberately misled the audience about her vote to authorize President Bush to use force against Saddam Hussein. The big media has, so far, ignored her flip in favor of pursuing their storyline about the "historic" progress women are making in politics. But thanks to YouTube and other Internet sites, Sen. Clinton will not be able to escape even her recent past.
|
Why do these people always oppose America's efforts to defend itself and others? Why did they not protest in Washington, or in Baghdad, when Saddam Hussein was practicing genocide and his sons were raping and torturing their fellow Iraqis? Will we ever see an anti-Taliban protest? How about a demonstration against suicide bombers, or even those who produce and detonate roadside bombs in Iraq? Why do these people think only their country is evil?
|
Sen. Clinton ticked off the issues about which she is ticked off, because she says the Bush administration has failed to deal with them. They include health care, Social Security, Medicare and Iraq. The Bush administration has attempted to address all of these, but Democrats have blocked any progress. It's an old political trick. You work against success and then blame failure on the president.
|
New Jersey legislators have unanimously passed a measure that includes a provision to remove the state mandate to teach about Veterans Day in the public schools. The ban on teaching about such holidays is included in a larger bill that passed the legislature last month. It is designed to help control New Jersey's spiraling property taxes. Gov. Jon Corzine has not indicated whether he'll sign it. He'd better not if he knows what's good for his Democratic Party. |
Tony Blair gets it. Gordon Brown doesn't. President Bush gets it. The anti-war American left, including Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) who wants to ban funds for any additional troops, doesn't. |
Here's one major difference between the 1994 election and the one in 2006 and the aftermath from each. In 1994, Republicans told voters, before and after the election, precisely what they would do. Speaker Newt Gingrich did not promise fealty with Democrats, nor did he promise to practice a political Golden Rule ... |
It would have been a travesty in not trying and executing Saddam. Saddam mocked the innocent lives he took, showing disrespect to the relatives of the dead who had a valid claim to see justice done.
|
With Democrats about to assume control of the House and Senate for the first time in 12 years, Republicans in general, conservatives in particular and conservative Christians especially have an important choice to make. For at least the next two years, they can forget about confirming many, if any, judges who disbelieve in legislating from the bench. |
This is why "original intent" of the Founders is important to consider, because what they meant by the phrase and what we think we believe about it differs considerably.
|
This week, the "Proposed Charter of Muslim Understanding" is being presented to the European Parliament. According to Gerard Batten, a member of the European Parliament from London, who contributed the foreword, and the charter's author, Sam Solomon, a Sharia law expert, the charter will "enable Muslims from all strands of belief to make it plain that they reject those extremist interpretations of their religious texts that promote or excuse violence and bring Islam into conflict with the modern world." |
Rumsfeld, however, prefers the Cold War comparison because, like the Cold War "which lasted 50 years, you couldn't say (in the middle of it) whether you were winning or losing." |
Jim Wallis, editor of the left-of-center evangelical magazine, Sojourner, wrote, "A significant number of candidates elected are social conservatives on issues of life and family, economic populists, and committed to a new direction in Iraq. This is the way forward: a grand new alliance between liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, one that can end partisan gridlock and involves working together for real solutions to pressing problems."
|
Ultimately, O.J. Simpson getting millions to spill his guts after being convicted in a civil case and in the public consciousness of spilling the blood of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman should not surprise anyone. It is what happens, not when a line is crossed, but when a line has been erased.
|
Europe is in a permanent state of denial....They believe if America prematurely withdraws from Iraq, Europeans will be safer. In fact, Europe will be - and, in reality, already is - in its greatest danger since World War II.
|
I decided to visit the infamous "torture center" to see for myself. Unlike some critics, I began with the premise that my fellow countrymen and women are honorable people who care about their nation and are willing to do whatever it takes within our laws to protect us from killers. Call me duped, but having served in the Army and having many relatives in service, this has been my personal experience and observation over many years.
|
When Republicans behave like Democrats, they lose. Why should people settle for counterfeits when they can have the genuine article? Republicans can take some solace that President Bush might veto much of the Democrats' stealth agenda, which they hope he will do. Their objective is to win the White House in 2008, and they will turn the tables on the president if he vetoes their agenda, calling him an "obstructionist," a label he has tried to pin on them. |
Sitting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in her office recently reminded me of why I loved a professor I had in college. Like him, she is so interested and enthusiastic about her subject that the depth and breadth of her knowledge becomes contagious. |
The Founders gave us the parchment equivalent of a GPS system that, if followed, gets us where we ought to go, but if ignored, causes us to become lost. No, the system has worked quite well until recently. Rather, it is the way Republicans, now, and Democrats when they last had the majority, have made a mess of it. The system is crumbling under the weight of too many expectations.
|
Rendell invoked biblical mandates to justify his view that God meant government, not individuals or the church, should help the poor and "disadvantaged."
Rendell was asked what he would do about Iraq if he were president. He said he is not running, but if he were and he won, on the day after his inauguration,"I would go to Iraq and ask to be on TV throughout the Middle East and I'd say, 'We came here with the best of intentions and wanted to create freedom and democracy for all and 3,000 Americans have died. |
For roughly 4,000 years, there has been "unrest" and war in the Middle East. It possibly began when the ancient Israelites drove out the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. Modern Israel is attempting to drive out Hezbollah-ites, Hamas-ites, Islamic Jihad-ites and the rest.
|
In a column for The Times of London, Libby Purves descends to the level of immoral equivalence when she writes, "'our' side can be just as blind." Her comment is about the terrorists and the negligible value they place on human life. I wonder why she put quote marks around "our"? Purves continues, "If we cling to any hope that we are different from murderers, we should not dismiss any human death as a PR stunt."
|
The successful operation against al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, resulting in his unlamentable death, cut something off, but what was it? It wasn't the head of terrorism. It may not even have been an arm or a hand. It possibly was a finger that was severed, but the evil virus of islamofascism has a way of re-growing any extremity. In the days immediately following Zarqawi's death, some of his associates were on Web sites calling for unity and warning Sunni Muslims not to collaborate with Shiites in support of the new Iraqi government.
|
That a president of the United States would feel compelled, for whatever reason, to make a public statement that marriage should be reserved for men and women is a leading indicator of the moral state of the union. Imagine Calvin Coolidge saying such a thing, even in the "Roaring '20s." He might as well have stated the equally obvious that the sun rises in the east.
|
Why does Balz not know whether she has any strong convictions, other than the conviction she should be president? Indeed, Balz seems to invalidate his claim about Clinton's "experience" in the rest of his paragraph: "... but she is still trying to demonstrate whether these (roles) yielded a coherent governing philosophy. For now she is defined by a combination of celebrity and caution that strategists say leaves her more vulnerable than most politicians to charges that she is motivated more by personal ambition and tactical maneuver than by a clear philosophy."
|
Are politicians merely a reflection of this narcissism, or are they contributing to it by their failure to lead? What Democrat has had an interesting idea in recent years? Democrats mostly oppose whatever Republicans are doing and see no merit in any of their ideas. Republicans, who once had ideas, (the Reagan Revolution; the Contract with America) behave like the Democratic majority they replaced. |
President Bush's immigration address to the nation Monday night might have been more convincing had it come before political pressure from his conservative base made it appear that his motives might be suspect.
|
Documents authored by an al-Qaida operative and seized by U.S. soldiers during an April 16 raid in the Yusufiyah area (12 miles south of Baghdad) offer hope to the American side that success may be closer than we think. The author's name is not known, but his conclusion about the lack of progress by the insurgent-terrorists is revealing. In the translated documents released May 9, the al-Qaida operative says the insurgency is "disorganized and lacks a comprehensive strategy;" the Mujahidin are "not considered more than a daily annoyance" to the Iraqi government; the terrorists lack the proper equipment and have "very small numbers" compared to the personnel and equipment of the American and Iraqi forces; American and Iraqi troops are strong and resilient; American outreach to Sunni leaders is harmful to the terrorist cause; and "the policy followed by the brothers in Baghdad is a media-oriented policy."
|
Bob Greene's new book, And You Know You Should Be Glad, published by William Morrow is the best book I have ever read about male bonding. |
That Moussaoui will suffer for decades and possibly lose his mind, as some have done in similar circumstances, does not speak to the justice issue.
If I steal and wreck your car and am forced to pay a fine to the state and/or serve time in jail, is that justice? |
As with most hotly contested debates, the political fight over who has a "right" to be in America will be partly about who controls the language; not Spanish vs. English, but honesty vs. political correctness.
|
Director/writer Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy and Bloody Sunday) has created a profound and needed film that reminds us of what we must never forget: there are people who hate us and want us dead; they will not be reached by sympathy, empathy or anything approaching an appeal to our "common humanity." |
It is going to take an enemy to break our oil addiction. The perfect enemy is the oil-producing states with a track record for funding terrorism and whose brand of religion produces young fanatics determined to destroy the West. One of many excellent books on the subject is "Modern Jihad: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks" by economist Loretta Napoleoni. Napoleoni follows the money earned from the sale of oil and shows how it ends up funding terrorism and terrorist centers |
As President Bush has repeatedly stated, if we don't defeat them over there, they will come after us over here. That means 9/11 will not have been a unique event. |
Editor's Note: We're proud to introduce our newest Commentary Columnist Cal Thomas. With a twice-weekly column appearing in over 600 newspapers nationwide, Thomas is the most widely read and one of the most highly regarded voices on the American political scene. He is a panelist on the popular Fox News Watch show, which airs Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. ET. His new USA Today feature, Common Ground, provides insightful discussion of contentious social issues with his friend and political counterpart, Bob Beckel. Thomas's column will appear in The Evening Bulletin twice a week.
|
Anglicanism has suffered from probably irreversible corruption since the days of the late C.S. Lewis and John Stott, who is still with us. These men combined intellectual heft with orthodox belief and had little regard for trends, fads or cultural diversions. |
Starving the Iranian regime of oil and gas profits would be the fastest way to sink it. Anything less will prove, in Iranian eyes, that today's Britain is nothing like the Britain of 1982 and will encourage Iran to pursue strength while Britain and much of the West embrace weakness.
|
|