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The good and the bad...

web posted August 18, 2003

"In larger part, the sleepwalking Clinton administration was just a reflection of the emptiness of the Nineties, with its assumption that history was over and all that remained was the tidying up. The country had simply fallen back into its traditional, perilous forgetfulness. Which seems to precede every December 7th and September 11th." -- Paul Greenberg

"This country is in the midst of its second civil war. It only differs from the first civil war in that it is, thank God, non-violent. But the passions are as deep, and the stakes are just as high. Among the stakes is whether America will remain a Judeo-Christian country with a secular government or become a secular country with a secular government. Organizations such as the ACLU (and your local university) devote massive funds and effort to changing the nature of this country; and with the help of like-minded judges, often prevail. That the ACLU would write a letter protesting three little plaques at the Grand Canyon with verses from the book of Psalms provides a clear example of how intent the organization is on destroying the Judeo-Christian moral foundations of this society. This, after all, is the same ACLU that went to court in Florida to protect a Muslim woman's right to be photographed for her driver's license ID wearing a veil! If it ain't Judeo-Christian, the ACLU is a big fan of religion." -- Dennis Prager

"...Republicans don't run for elective offices for the sake of holding elective offices. We don't get elected to be something; we get elected to do something. And my fellow committee members, we have much more to do. For this is not just a critical moment in the history of our party, it is a critical moment in the history of our nation. The United States, the heroic members of our Armed Forces, and much of the free world continues to wage a war against terror. We are now constantly vigilant against a cowardly and stealthy enemy who seeks to strike our allies and us where we live and where we work. We must root them out of their shadowy training camps across the world, and we must strengthen our homeland security in the U.S." -- Ed Gillespie

"If you're a jihadist in Iraq, and watching al-Jazeera TV and seeing the ongoing debate between the American Republicans and the Democrats, primarily with the leadership of Governor Dean suggesting the current approach to Iraq is all wrong, that is only going to fuel the enthusiasm and tenacity of those resisting and hoping for a resurrection of the Ba'ath Party." -- Robert Maginnis

"Conservatives and libertarians who once viewed the judiciary as the final bulwark against government tyranny must now accept that no branch of government even remotely performs its constitutional role. ...It's time for the executive and legislative branches to show some backbone, appoint judges who follow the Constitution, and remove those who do not." -- Ron Paul

"Liberals observe certain flaws in human nature that make them distrust the spontaneous order; compassionate conservatives recognize that these same flaws are present in political authorities and can just as easily doom government solutions to problems." -- W. James Antle III

"Thinking isn't always the strong suit of either the Left or the Right. And thinking is our best weapon in the war on terror." -- Lou Dobbs

"The societies of 'Old Europe' remind Americans of the Arab Street. Preferring comforting delusions to challenging realities, Europeans talk a great deal, do very little, and blame the United States for homegrown ills." -- Ralph Peters

"...[B]ecause we are products of an affluent and leisured West, we have a special burden to remember how tenuous and fragile civilization remains outside our suburbs." -- Victor Davis Hanson

"Too many Americans live by Republican principles of faith, family, hope and opportunity, but vote for Democrats out of sheer habit." -- J.C. Watts

"How many candidates are there? Nine, ten? I could probably name them if you forced me to, but I could probably give you the Cubs' starting line up a lot easier." -- Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich on the presidential "team" the Democrats are fielding

"Democracy is the fragile flower, and nowhere more fragile than in the places that need it most. You could ask almost anyone in the Philippines (or maybe even in California, if you could get a word in edgewise)." -- Wesley Pruden

"A cautious political hack whose only strength is selling out to unions and trial lawyers, Gov. Gray Davis is Bill Clinton without the conscience, Al Gore without the charm." -- Rich Lowry

"In my humble opinion, things could be worse. Democrats could have wings." -- Norman Liebmann

"The difference between Congress and drunken sailors is that drunken sailors are spending their own money." -- Florida Republican Rep. Tom Feeney

"The battle is not to the strong alone, it is to the vigilant and the active and the brave. So said Patrick Henry in 1775. It was true then, and it's true today." -- Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore

"[In a recently released audiotape, Saddam] Hussein praised his sons for putting up a brave fight, noting that U.S. forces had surrounded their compound with advanced weaponry, ground troops and warplanes. In case that didn't work, U.S. forces were prepared to tell Janet Reno that a small Cuban boy was inside the house." -- Ann Coulter

"Over in Liberia, President Charles Taylor resigned from office today and left the country after handing power over to his Vice President, Moses Blah. Vice President Blah? Wasn't that Al Gore's Secret Service name." -- Jay Leno

"The Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson Seyed Khomeini lauded America's war in Iraq Monday and invited U.S. troops to bring freedom to Iran. This family catches on fast. His grandfather the Ayatollah released all the U.S. hostages on January 20th, 1981, before Ronald Reagan could take his hand off the Bible and get it over to the button." -- Argus Hamilton

web posted August 11, 2003

"If feminism deprived a woman of the myth of the man on the white charger and the illusion that someday her prince would come, post-modern women are looking for Mr. (Word) Perfect to pop up on the screen in front of them. The damsel in distress suffers from data overload.... Computer dating is a reflection of our cyberspace sensibilities. If cupid is a cursor, rejection is as close as the delete key. Workaholics can have a conversation online without ever leaving their terminals. This gives new meaning to 'office romance.' ...Caught between the sexual revolution and high technology, courtship has come upon hard times. Gone is the delicious face-to-face process of discovery. The seductive tentativeness of romance is replaced by the deadly earnestness of seeking a 'relationship' -- love at the end of a search command.... If you feel the urge to merge today, you simply go to the toolbar and click. Copy. Paste. Send." -- Suzanne Fields

"Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a safety hazard don't see the danger of the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use this same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like." -- Alan Dershowitz

"...[Leftists] think outside the box. For example, the Left's 'cherished worldview' prohibits racial profiling. But after 9-11, liberals approached the issue with an open mind. In recognition of the fact that 19 Arab immigrants with the identical hair color, eye color and skin color, half of whom were named Mohammed, had just murdered thousands of our fellow countrymen, [Leftists] decided to keep prohibiting racial profiling." -- Ann Coulter

"Currently, only half of the adults who say they are Christian contend that they are 'absolutely committed' to the Christian faith. Although that number has remained stable since 1996, Barna indicated that a highly significant outcome was how few Baby Busters claim to be absolutely committed to Christianity (just 38%). 'That statistic is not only the lowest figure among any of the four adult generations and way below the national norm,' explained Barna, 'but it is consistent with the low levels of spiritual investment among young adults. Although young people are very comfortable with faith matters and are open to integrating faith into their life, the data portray Busters to be generally disinterested in typical faith pursuits, long-accepted Christian beliefs and long-standing religious events and institutions'." -- Barna Research

"Free men will never succumb to the ease or expedience of The Lie [of terrorism] because we will never forget that when fighting evil, determination is destiny." -- Tom DeLay

"In a free society, government has the responsibility of protecting us from others, but not from ourselves." -- Walter Williams

"Americans are becoming increasingly addicted to government, and politicians are becoming the dealers of the drug named 'dependency'." -- Rep. Jim DeMint

"We need an opposition in wartime and peacetime to maintain balance in our decision-making process. But it should be a 'loyal' opposition, not one that's willing to sacrifice the nation's welfare merely to secure its ascendancy." -- William Goldcamp

"Is it fair to make a political issue of the impact that a litmus test has on a religious group? Absolutely." -- Ramesh Ponnuru

"Federal spending is growing faster now than at any time since Lyndon Johnson was in the White House launching the Great Society welfare state. In just the past three years the budget has grown by $500 billion." -- Steve Moore

"Most people outside of Washington know that when Uncle Sam steps in to solve one problem, he usually only ends up creating two more." -- Edwin J. Feulner

"Christopher Hitchens, a decidedly non-credulous international journalist, [reports] 'It's quite extraordinary to see the way American soldiers are welcomed. To see the work that they're doing -- and not just rolling up these filthy networks of Ba'athists and jihadists -- but building schools, opening soccer stadiums, helping connect to the Internet, there is a really intelligent political program as well as a very tough military one.' Because the daily lives of Iraqis are improving and political stability is increasing, Wall Street Journal editor Paul Gigot reports from Najaf that, 'The majority aren't worried we'll stay too long; they're petrified we'll leave too soon'." -- The Washington Times

"I opposed the war in Iraq because it was the wrong war at the wrong time. Military intervention in Liberia represents an appropriate use of American power." -- Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean

"California is the most progressive state in the union. I don't think anyone here will have a problem with a smut peddler as governor." -- Larry Flynt announcing his official candidacy for Governor of California

"My two cents' worth -- and I think it is the two cents' worth of everybody who worked for the Clinton administration health care reform effort of 1993-1994 -- is that Hillary Rodham Clinton needs to be kept very far away from the White House for the rest of her life." -- Berkeley economics professor J. Bradford DeLong, who worked on Hillary-Care with Hillary Clinton

"Such human scum and bloodsucker is not entitled to take part in the talks. We have decided not to consider him as an official of the U.S. administration any longer nor to deal with him." -- North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman, responding to U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton's remarks recently characterizing DPRK leader Kim Jong Il as a "tyrannical dictator" and citizenship there as "life is a hellish nightmare"

"I was not a Bill Clinton fan.... To me, Clinton's the sort of guy who always volunteer to help you move, then when you've got four of you picking up the sofa, he's the one who'll fake lifting." -- Dennis Miller

"Congress is in recess until after Labor Day, which means we're safe for another month." -- Lyn Nofziger

"And any Democrat can outbid any Republican when it comes to compassioneering." -- John O'Sullivan

"The Democratic field this year looks like the Great Dismal Swamp, and to call the pretenders to the throne the seven (or eight or nine) dwarfs is to insult dwarfs. Even Al Gore is said to be thinking again about his rash decision to abandon the field to the little people." -- Wesley Pruden

"In my humble opinion, the new expression for backing down from a fight should be called 'frenching out'." -- Norman Liebmann

"As you may have heard, the U.S. is putting together a constitution for Iraq. Why don't we just give them ours? Think about it -- it was written by very smart people, it's served us well for over two hundred years, and besides, we're not using it anymore." -- Jay Leno

"What amazes me is how many people are happy for Saddam to stay. They ask why we don't get rid of [the Zimbabwean leader Robert] Mugabe, why not the Burmese lot. Yes, let's get rid of them all. I don't because I can't, but when you can you should." -- British PM Tony Blair, in a private statement from the days leading up to the second Gulf War

web posted August 4, 2003

"Guess what? For the first time since the '50s, stay-at-home moms are on the rise. Ten and a half million children have full-time stay-at-home moms, up 13 percent over the last decade, according to the Census Bureau. ... A funny thing seems to have happened on the way to the gender revolution. But what exactly? Were not full-time mothers supposed to have disappeared by the 21st century? Does not research show most children in day care to fine? Why would any modern woman choose to stay home with her kids? ... I have nothing against working mothers. I am one. But something in me rejoices to see the deeply countercultural impulse of motherhood rising and winning over mere economic forces." -- Maggie Gallagher

"When most demands for censorship were coming from the right, ideas and art were suppressed as shocking, obscene, or un-American. Now that campaigns against free speech are becoming a specialty of the Left, the instinct to suppress is the same, but the rhetoric of the censors is drenched in concern about hate and violence. ... Explaining free speech to the cultural Left is becoming harder by the day. The rise of identity politics has produced the attitude that hurt feelings and fear of hurtful expression trump free speech." -- John Leo

"Affirmative action is great for black millionaires, but it has done little or nothing for most people in the ghetto. Most minority business owners who get preferences in government contracts have net worths of more than $1 million." -- Thomas Sowell

"Howard Dean's 15 minutes of pop celebrity is just about up, John Kerry's still trying to get the ketchup stains off his tie, Joe Lieberman can't remember whether he's supposed to be a shark or a chicken, John Edwards has lost sight of the ambulance, Bob Graham can't decide whether to write about the bacon or the eggs he had for breakfast, Al Sharpton has lost his rhyming dictionary, and nobody has seen Dick Gephardt since St. Louis quit making shoes. But it doesn't matter. The real action begins early next year, when Bill and Hillary ride at last to the rescue, but only of their own fortunes.... The notion that Ma Clinton can wait until 2008 is nuts, as any pol who remembers his blue-back arithmetic book could tell you. It's in the numbers. If a year in politics is an epoch, four years is eternity." -- Wesley Pruden

"Our response to terrorism has changed, because George W. Bush is President of the United States. For decades, terrorists have waged war against this country. Now, under the leadership of President Bush, America is waging war against them." -- U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney

"We are living in a dangerous security environment. Adversaries are pursuing weapons that can allow them to kill not 3,000, as were killed on September 11th, but 30,000 or more. And our job is to try to prevent that." -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

"Bob Hope made us laugh. He lifted our spirits. Bob Hope served our nation. We will mourn the loss of a good man. Bob Hope served our nation when he went to battlefields to entertain thousands of troops from different generations. We extend our prayers to his family. God bless his soul." -- U.S. President George W. Bush

"The Right's kind of society cannot be indefinitely sustained alongside the Left's kind of government." -- W. James Antle III

"Sen. Hillary Clinton's apocryphal memoir...reminds all serious students of the Clinton saga that the Clintons never let you down. They are always true to their nature. They lie." -- R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.

"Frankly I'm sick and tired of journalists who prefer to honor a profession more than the country that makes that profession possible. I believe strongly ... that you can be a good journalist and a good American at the same time. The two are not mutually exclusive. I ask just as penetrating questions and probe just as critical issues. But I do so with a firm appreciation of the place from which I'm doing it ... the United States of America." -- Neil Cavuto

"One trip through the government is acceptable for somebody in journalism, but not two." -- NBC reporter Pete Williams, on why he's turned down an offer to repeat as Pentagon spokesman

"The latest debate about the possibility that the Bush administration ignored intelligence information that discounted reports of Iraq buying nuclear material from Africa may be linked to the conservative intolerance for ambiguity and need for closure." -- Jack Glaser, University of California, Berkeley, one of four coauthors of a Psychological Bulletin article entitled "Political Conservatism as Motivated by Social Cognition," which erroneously likens U.S. conservatives to European Nazis and fascists, then errs further in discovering common "psychological factors" among these groups

"...[T]he national Democrat party seems to have lost its marbles. ...Just look at their presidential candidates: it's like they're lost in a time warp. ...And Dennis Kucinich -- a long-time member of Congress -- now calls for legislation -- I love this -- to ban 'mind control' weapons in outer space. ...It makes you wonder if at their next presidential debate, the Democrats are all going to show up wearing aluminum-foil helmets to protect their brain waves from the mother ship!" -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay

"The reward for information that leads to Saddam is $25 million. That's what I love about our priorities -- we spend $25 million to get Saddam, and the Republicans are spending $50 million to get rid of Gray Davis. .... I'm not saying Gray Davis is on the run, but today he released an audiotape on al-Jazeera from his underground bunker somewhere in the Sacramento area." -- Jay Leno

"CIA Director George Tenet briefed a Senate panel ... about the current situation in Iraq. He described how cash was being stolen and women were being assaulted with impunity. Senators love to attend these continuing education seminars." -- Argus Hamilton

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