GOP looks like the party of diverse ideas By Mark Steyn

Only five weeks left to the earliest Primary Day in New Hampshire history, and still, whenever I'm being interviewed on radio or TV, I've no ready answer to the question: Which candidate are you supporting?

If I could just sneak out in the middle of the night and saw off Rudy Giuliani's strong right arm and John McCain's ramrod back and Mitt Romney's fabulous hair and stitch them all together in Baron von Frankenstein's laboratory with the help of some neck bolts, we'd have the perfect Republican nominee. As it is, the present field poses difficulties for almost every faction of the GOP base.

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Mankind 'shortening the universe's life' By Roger Highfield

Forget about the threat that mankind poses to the Earth: our activities may be shortening the life of the universe too.

The startling claim is made by a pair of American cosmologists investigating the consequences for the cosmos of quantum theory, the most successful theory we have. Over the past few years, cosmologists have taken this powerful theory of what happens at the level of subatomic particles and tried to extend it to understand the universe, since it began in the subatomic realm during the Big Bang.

Cosmologists claim by observing dark energy the universe has been nudged closer to its death

But there is an odd feature of the theory that philosophers and scientists still argue about. In a nutshell, the theory suggests that we change things simply by looking at them and theorists have puzzled over the implications for years.

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A Proposed Constitutional Amendment :: Foehammer's Anvil

The following article was submitted to me from a reader in Arizona after he saw some of my statements over in the Jihad Watch comments sections concerning my dedication to the notion of amending the U.S. Constitution and, more specifically, the First Amendment. This is a subject I first discussed in any real detail in an article titled: The Threat Worse than Islamic Terrorism.

Before anyone reacts from the gut on this, read this proposal carefully. This in no way strips anyone of religious freedoms that actually follows a peaceful religion, but Islam itself does not fit into this category and must be opposed. This idea, along with my other proposal of boycott, can do much to stop the Islamic Glacier and Sharia Creep.

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Yet More Evidence that the Majority of Foreign Fighters in Iraq Come from Saudi Arabia By Evan Kohlmann

Almost since the beginning of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq in late 2003, there has been an ongoing public debate about the significance and origins of foreign-born jihadists who have traveled to Iraq intent upon joining Al-Qaida and killing Americans and Muslim "apostates". Despite a veritable avalanche of evidence suggesting that these foreign fighters have had a disproportionate role in destabilizing Iraq and that a large cross-section (if not outright majority) of these fighters are coming from Saudi Arabia, a host of journalists and experts have wasted no effort in downplaying their impact. Regular readers of the Counterterrorism Blog will recall Jonathan Finer's article in the Washington Post, similar pieces published in the Christian Science Monitor, and a litany of commentary from Tony Cordesman (based almost entirely upon facts spoon-fed to him by Saudi intelligence and paid Saudi lobbyists).

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In Praise of Prejudice By Elaib Harvey

There is a new series of books coming out of the American publishing house Encounter Books, calling itself Brief Encounters. The latest is this articulate polemic from Theodore Dalrymple and quite a blast of cold air it is.

He takes as his theme the way in which in today's world to be prejudiced in any way, or indeed to show discrimination has moved from being the epitome of civilisation to being nigh on the nadir of existence. This he firmly rejects.

To be prejudiced is to have a preformed idea of the good, to lack prejudice is today the greatest moral attainment, but he shows how not only is it impossible, but at a deeper level utterly wrong.

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Madhi Army: NY Times Zigs, AFP Zags :: Bruised Orange

Interesting contrast between the NY Times Baghdad correspondent’s sniffing dismissal of the effectiveness of the troop surge and their assessment of Moqtada al-Sadr’s role in the reduction of the violence in Iraq, on Monday:

It’s not a simple cause and effect. The surge is a factor — but there are others, too, including the shifts in tactics among the violent elements in the Sunni and Shiite camps.  

On the Shiite side, the decline in violence against Sunnis comes mainly from a cease-fire by Moktada Al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric, which began after a scandalous bit of violence involving his militia in one of Iraqi’s holiest Shiite cities.

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Road to Nowhere By Richard Baehr

The effort to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians is today premised on the belief that if Israel withdrew from the West Bank, there would soon be a basis for achieving a stable two state solution and an end to the violence between the parties. Both recent history and the current state of the conflict suggest this is nonsense.    Nonetheless, there are so many people invested in the logic of the argument that "the Israeli occupation is the real problem", that it is worth one more time reiterating why this is not the case.

The peace processors -- whether from the EU, the UN, the US State Department, or the current government of Israel --assert that not only would Israel and the Palestinians rapidly achieve peace following a withdrawal of the IDF and a dismantling of many settlements in the West Bank, but soon thereafter, there would be much good will in the Muslim world toward the United States, presumably earned for pressuring Israel into taking this step

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Speak English, Get Ahead by Michael Reagan

It's no secret that in America knowing how to speak the English language is the basic requirement for success -- if you can’t speak the language everybody else speaks, you are back at the Tower of Babel wondering what everybody around you is trying to say.
For any youngster starting out in life, knowing and speaking the common language is the first step in moving up the ladder. And in the United States, English is the common language, and has been from the beginning. The Constitutional debates were conducted solely in English. Only English is spoken in Congress and in the world of business, not only here in America, in most of the world.

Bill Cosby recently spoke about the vital necessity of youths learning and speaking English.

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The Problem For Our Country By David Horowitz

I guess it’s noteworthy when George Soros singles you out for attack.[1] On the other hand, when you have been targeted by as many leftists as I have, one more billionaire doesn’t make much difference. These assaults have been inspired by my efforts to organize an “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,” whose goal was to identify America’s enemies as more than just “terrorists,” and specifically to link them to a radical movement within Islam, which has declared war on the West. One salutary aspect of the Week is to have exposed the breadth of the coalition that now functions as a frontier guard for our enemies. Members of this coalition are apparently determined to run interference for America’s enemies, because, in their view, a greater danger to America is posed by conservatives such as myself and George Bush.

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Women Who Refuse to Have Babies Just To Save the Planet

Satire By John W. Lillpop

Goreism is a newly discovered disease that impairs one's judgment, dulls the senses, and replaces rational thought with leftist pap. Known in old school medicine as liberalism, Goreism is actually far more potent and aggressive than the garden-variety version of leftist insanity.

This deadly disease is especially prevalent among science-challenged liberals looking for a way to wipe out capitalism, Christianity, and Democracy, and replace said vices with socialism, godlessness, and fascism, all in one foul swoop.

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Glenn Beck: "I have read the Koran and can tell you that I unequivocally believe that Islam is a religion of peace" :: Jihad Watch

So says Glenn Beck in his bestselling new book, An Inconvenient Book.

And wouldn't it be nice if it were so? But -- inconvenient as it may be -- saying "I have read the Koran and can tell you that I unequivocally believe that Islam is a religion of peace" is like saying, "I have read the Qur'an but I read it with my eyes closed."

The Qur'an counsels warfare -- hot warfare, with casualties and prisoners -- against unbelievers in numerous passages, including 9:5, 9:29, 2:190-193, 8:60, 2:216-217, 8:65-67, 9:111, 60:8-9, and 47:4, and that's just off the top of my head. There are many other such passages as well. I am not talking for the moment about whether such fighting is defensive or offensive, or prescribed for all time or only for the believers of Muhammad's day, or justified or not for whatever reason. I am merely pointing out that the Qur'an -- regardless of (as the common objections will surely come) what the Bible or any other sacred text says or does not say -- at face value mandates warfare against unbelievers in numerous passages. Anyone who reads it attentively will see this.

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ACLU Brings War on Christmas to Fort Collins, Comes Up Short by John Bambenek

Much like the Christmas shopping season, the ACLU's War on Christmas begins earlier and earlier every year. This year in Fort Collins, Colorado, the city council decided to revise their policies to honor appropriately the holiday that almost ninety percent of America celebrates as Christmas. A task force was drawn up, given their task, and put to work.

Like most task forces set up by governing bodies, the result is only as good as the people you put in charge. In this case, the head of the ACLU in Fort Collins was tasked with running the committee. The result was obviously predictable.

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U.S. report finds U.S. intel consistently wrong on China buildup :: World Tribune

A congressional commission on China reported last week that U.S. intelligence agencies have failed to properly assess Beijing's military buildup and capabilities and were taken by surprise on key developments, including new submarines built in secret.

“The pace and success of China’s military modernization continue to exceed U.S. government estimates,” stated the annual report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

“Indeed, on occasion the U.S. defense and intelligence communities have been taken by surprise, as in the case of the launching of the Jin class submarine by the navy of the People’s Liberation Army.”

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E Pluribus Unum, Comprende? By INVSTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants employers who require English in the workplace to be sued for discrimination. Workplaces like the House of Representatives? To continue this editorial in English, press one.

Supporters of open borders like to point out we are a nation of immigrants, which is true. But until recently, the newest immigrants were largely legal ones who didn't just come to America, but also wanted to be part of America — to be Americans.

America was called a melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities. The process of becoming an American was called assimilation. That included learning English. Lately we've seen the balkanization of America, a kind of cultural apartheid run amok.

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Critics think it's in a crisis, but in reality America is in decent health By Gerard Baker

Americans paused at Thanksgiving yesterday for the traditional annual audit of their blessings. If they'd been listening at all closely to the morose lucubrations of their opinion leaders, however, it would have been pretty slim pickings.

The pundits have finally run out of bad news to report from Iraq, where, unmolested by the morbid fascination of misery-seeking reporters, the locals actually seem to be belatedly enjoying the first fruits of their liberation. So attention has turned again, as it has tended to do from time to time these past 50 years, to the inevitable collapse of the American economy.

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On Iraq, a State of Denial By Charles Krauthammer

It does not have the drama of the Inchon landing or the sweep of the Union comeback in the summer of 1864. But the turnabout of American fortunes in Iraq over the past several months is of equal moment -- a war seemingly lost, now winnable. The violence in Iraq has been dramatically reduced. Political allegiances have been radically reversed. The revival of ordinary life in many cities is palpable. Something important is happening.

And what is the reaction of the war critics? Nancy Pelosi stoutly maintains her state of denial, saying this about the war just two weeks ago: "This is not working. . . . We must reverse it." A euphemism for "abandon the field," which is what every Democratic presidential candidate is promising, with variations only in how precipitous to make the retreat.

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Obama's State Government Records Missing By Warner Todd Huston

The media has been on a low buzz about the fact that Hillary and Bill Clinton have made efforts to slow the release of millions of pages of documents that pertain Hillary's actions during Bill's White House years. What, these critics wonder, are the Clintons hiding with their reticence to release these documents? It is a good question, indeed. But, flying low under this Clinton document-gate radar is the stonewalling of a release of documents by another candidate for the Democrat Party nomination for president; Barack Obama.

While in State government here in Illinois, Barack was known as a "nice guy," but has little to show for his years in state government. He was never particularly known by the public at large as a vocal leader and was rarely out in front of any issue. In fact, few Illinoisans even knew his name at all until he ran for the Senate seat against Alan Keyes. He was an unknown, a non-entity as far as state politics was concerned.

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America Could Learn a Thing or Two from Texas By Colonel Ken Allard

In the era of political correctness, it’s always surprising they still allow us to celebrate Thanksgiving. But until the PC police catch up, know what I’m most thankful for this week? That God allowed me to live long enough to become a Texan.

It’s not because I haven’t lived anywhere else. I grew up just north of Baltimore, living there until college and the draft took me elsewhere. The military moved me around a lot too but after almost two years of living in Texas, I have learned to accept the grackle (graculis horribilis) as State Bird and the other day, even helped my wife hang a picture of longhorns going off to water. But the real reason why a veteran – especially one recently returned to his Christian roots - feels so at home here is faith, faith in God and faith in country, established by the very first generation of Texans in that embattled mission called the Alamo.

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Revisiting "Operation Downfall" of World War II By Jack L. Key

I read with great interest a column in the Knoxville News-Sentinel on Sunday, November 18, by Robert Stolz concerning my earlier guest column on Gen. Paul Tibbetts, the pilot of the “Enola Gay,” and who passed away recently.  Gen. Tibbets piloted the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb on August 6, 1945, on Japan in World War II.  Stolz is an assistant professor of history at the University of Tennessee.

        My earlier article was meant to be a tribute to Gen. Tibbets rather than a historical examination of the bombing decision by Democratic President Harry Truman.  However, I’ll attempt to clarify some of my recollections and statements that are questioned even in honoring an American Hero of that war.

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Al-Dura Raw Footage? It Doesn’t Exist By Nidra Poller

On November 14, 2007, before a packed courtroom with an overflow of dozens left outside, a three-judge appellate court panel screened raw footage turned over by France 2/Charles Enderlin, plaintiffs in a defamation case against Philippe Karsenty, director of the French news watchdog site Media-Ratings. Convicted in October 2006 for declaring the al-Dura news report a scandalous hoax, Karsenty is conducting a vigorous counterattack that has been met with a heavy silence in France and that has repercussions in high profile international media. Throughout seven years of controversy, France 2/Enderlin had consistently refused to show the raw footage shot by France 2 stringer Talal Abu Rahma at Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip on September 30, 2000, the day when twelve-year-old Muhammad al-Dura allegedly was shot in cold blood by Israeli soldiers.

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Hugo Chavez vs. the Catholic Church By Bridget Johnson

Cardinal Rosalio Castillo Lara wasn’t an oracle, but he did point out in a Mass sermon last year what too few were seeing in Venezuela.

“A government democratically elected seven years ago has lost its democratic way and shows signs of dictatorship, where all powers are in the hands of one person who exercises them in an arbitrary and despotic way, not for the purposes of bringing about the greater common good of the nation, but rather for a twisted and archaic political project: that of implanting in Venezuela a disastrous regime like the one Fidel Castro has imposed on Cuba, at the cost of so many human lives and the progress of his nation,” he said.

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Clinton Judge Keeps Flying Imams Aloft By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

A federal judge had a chance to add a layer of protection for the American people. But she missed it, and in the process might have become the useful idiot of a terrorist setup.

U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery on Tuesday denied a request by U.S. Airways and the Metropolitan Airports Commission in Minnesota to dismiss a lawsuit brought against them by the six Muslim men now known as the Flying Imams.

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Islam is the Enemy of Freedom by Amil Imani

A great irony of the age is that the seemingly most diehard proponents of freedom—the useful idiots of our time—are the most dangerous unwitting accomplices of liberty’s enemy—Islam. Keep in mind that the very name “Islam” is a derivation of “taslim,” the Arabic word for “surrender,” surrender to the will and dictates of Allah as revealed by Muhammad and recorded in the Quran.

This non-negotiable surrender to Islam requires the individual as well as the society to disenfranchise themselves of many of the fundamental and deeply cherished human rights. Below is a brief presentation of what this surrender to Islam entails and why it is imperative that all freedom-loving people arise and defeat the menace of Islamofascism.

Amendment I of the Bill of Rights enshrines some of the most cherished ideals of freedom-loving people:

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Ashqar Gets 11 Years for Contempt :: IPT News

Abdelhaleem Ashqar said he'd rather go to prison than disclose the secrets of Palestinian militants. On Wednesday, a federal judge in Chicago made that so.

Ashqar was sentenced to 11 years in prison for criminal contempt and obstruction of justice after refusing to testify before a federal grand jury investigating Hamas support in the U.S.

Ashqar had been accused of racketeering for his alleged support for Hamas. Jurors acquitted him of the racketeering in February, but convicted him for contempt and obstruction for refusing to testify despite being granted immunity. Fellow defendant Mohammed Salah, an acknowledged Hamas member, also was acquitted of racketeering. He was sentenced to 22 months in prison after being convicted of lying in a civil suit concerning Hamas support.

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Al Qaeda attacks the Awakening; Senior al Qaeda leaders killed, captured By Bill Roggio

Al Qaeda in Iraq may be down, but it is not out. While al Qaeda has suffered a major setback after US and Iraqi forces launched multiple offensives throughout Iraq, the terror group still retains some capacity to conduct attacks. Today, al Qaeda attacked the Awakening movement two villages north and south of Baghdad. The battles resulted in scores killed on both sides, including 10 al Qaeda fighters. Meanwhile, Iraqi and Coalition forces have killed or captured several senior al Qaeda leaders over the past week.

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Jihad indoctrination on U.K. campuses now "even worse" :: Dhimmi Watch

No surprise, as nothing has been done about it, and jihadists are allowed to behave in a way that is a clear and present danger to British society in the name of academic freedom, which would be one of the first things to go under sharia law, which they are working to impose. An update on this story. "British universities extremist hotbeds?" from Reuters:

British universities are coming under the spotlight in the country's fight against terrorism, with critics calling them a hotbed of extremism while lecturers say any clampdown threatens their freedom of speech.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown highlighted universities as one of the key areas where the authorities needed to "act against extremist influences".

However, a row is brewing over how officials can clamp down on radical groups recruiting students for militant causes without infringing on genuine academic debate.

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The Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789 by Lawrence Auster

George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation of October 3, 1789, issued five months after the start of his presidency, repays careful reading, both as an expression of Washington's mind and religious beliefs, and as a profound meditation on God's providential relationship with America as it was understood by the Founding generation. Imbued with the pious and humble spirit of the Anglican Prayer Book, every phrase in this document--from its thanks to God for delivering America through the War of Independence and the creation of the Constitution, to its call to the people to pray to God that he may "pardon our national and other trangressions ... [and] render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws"--unfolds a distinct aspect of the American people's relationship and service to God, conveying in the clearest terms a sense of the American people as a people under God.

PROCLAMATION.
A NATIONAL THANKSGIVING.

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and

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Thankful to God for America By J. James Estrada

From the Pilgrims' William Bradford to George Washington to George W. Bush, I am thankful that this nation is led by those who recognize the hand of God that both guides and provides.  May His blessings be abundant in your homes and communities this and every year we observe Thanksgiving and remember its commencing.

"Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth."

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BUSH PARDONS TURKEYS WHILE EAGLES REMAIN CAGED

by Dan W. Howard

Fellow Americans and patriots, I would give anything if I could write a syrupy-sweet, all-is-fine Thanksgiving Day message for you today. However, I have always taken pride in my endeavor of not being politically correct, but rather just ˜correct". Yes, we do have every reason to be thankful for our health, our livelihoods, and our loved ones. And, we also should give thanks for our dedicated military personnel that protect us, as well as our peace officers, firefighters, and other front-line public servants that honor us with their dedication. But, when it comes to the health of our nation, while we should obviously offer thanks that we are still technically free, I believe we should be praying long and often for the strength, resolve and courage to continue our battle to save our country. We must ask for guidance and wisdom so that we may be victorious in our fight to save what our founding fathers sacrificed so greatly for, America. But, it was a 50+ year national tradition that made me think of other Americans that are in dire need of our prayers.

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The Thanksgiving Of A Grateful Nation—And The Ingratitude Of A Few By James Fulford

Recently I wrote about a bunch of ungrateful people in Seattle who aren't happy about Thanksgiving. [Thanksgiving–History From The Enemy’s Point Of View].

The idea is that we're supposed to feel guilty about the settling of America by people from England, because the descendants of the original inhabitants aren’t happy about it.

The Seattle Public School Board, and some irredentist Indians at Oyate.org say

“Fact: For many Indian people, 'Thanksgiving' is a time of mourning, of remembering how a gift of generosity was rewarded by theft of land and seed corn, extermination of many from disease and gun, and near total destruction of many more from forced assimilation. As currently celebrated in this country, 'Thanksgiving' is a bitter reminder of 500 years of betrayal returned for friendship.”

But for the rest of us, it would presumably be a celebration of victory, right? No one's suggesting that we refrain from celebrating VE Day for the sake of Nazis and Fascists, or refrain from celebrating VJ Day for the sake of the Japanese Imperialists, are they?

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NYT: Suicide Manual for Dems by Ann Coulter

Here's a story that may not have been deemed "Fit to Print": In the six months that ended Sept. 25, The New York Times' daily circulation was down another 4.51 percent to about a million readers a day. The paper's Sunday circulation was down 7.59 percent to about 1.5 million readers. In short, the Times is dropping faster than Hillary in New Hampshire. (Meanwhile, the Drudge Report has more than 16 million readers every day.)

One can only hope that none of the Democratic presidential candidates are among the disaffected hordes lining up to cancel their Times subscriptions.

The Times is so accustomed to lying about the news to prove that "most Americans" agree with the Times, that it seems poised to lead the Democrats -- and any Republicans stupid enough to believe the Times -- down a primrose path to their own destruction.

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Petition condemns Iran for "disorder" in S.Iraq :: Reuters

More than 300,000 Iraqis including 600 Shi'ite tribal leaders have signed a petition accusing Iran of sowing "disorder" in southern Iraq, a group of sheikhs involved in the campaign said.

The sheikhs showed Reuters two thick bundles of notes which contained original signatures. The sheikhs said more than 300,000 people had signed the pages.

Such a public and organized display of animosity toward neighboring Shi'ite Iran is rare in Iraq. Iranian influence has grown steadily, especially in the predominantly Shi'ite south, since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

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Freedom vs. Equality By Patrick J. Buchanan

"Our Enemy, the State" was the title of libertarian Albert Jay Nock's classic that was once widely read by conservatives.

Nock was not an anarchist but a Jeffersonian. Government was necessary, but in its centralization lay the roots of tyranny.

"Our Enemy, the State" was the title of libertarian Albert Jay Nock's classic that was once widely read by conservatives.

Nock was not an anarchist but a Jeffersonian. Government was necessary, but in its centralization lay the roots of tyranny.

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The Case Against Despair by Fred Barnes

The safest of all assumptions in Washington is that year after year federal spending will rise. Over the past 25 years, spending increased 84 percent in real, inflation-adjusted terms as the population of the United States rose 30 percent. Spending per capita grew 41 percent. And though President Bush is now trying to curb spending, the federal budget crossed the $2 trillion mark and is likely to exceed $3 trillion during his presidency. That's nothing to brag about.

The relentless rise in spending, unstopped even when Republicans controlled the White House and Congress, has thrown conservatives committed to limited government into despair. Their view, fashionable at the moment, is that nothing can be done to limit spending to any significant degree. It's hopeless. Even conservative voters "aren't that concerned about spending," Ramesh Ponnuru lamented in National Review.

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The 1,800-year Israeli drought By Joseph Farah

Have you ever wondered why the Holy Land was a wasteland during the 1,800-year dispersion of the Jews that lasted until they returned in significant numbers beginning in the early 20th century?

read more | digg story

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PILGRIMS, THANKSGIVING AND GOD By J. Grant Swank, Jr.

The Pilgrims had a spiritual impetus to what they did, where they went, and what they thought. It was not a political agenda that governed their futures. It was belief in God and His guidance that would propel them and their future generations into what God had planned for the new country.

With the Pilgrims, there was a conviction that they were to separate themselves unto the holiness of God. They took seriously the admonition of the apostle Paul in II Corinthians: "Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord."

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The Pilgrims, Thanksgiving and the common good By Mike M. Bates

The notion of a common good has traditionally been popular in this democratic Republic. In recent years and among certain public figures, however, the expression has taken on a more collectivist connotation.

When Senator Clinton said, “We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good,” we knew she meant the government would do the taking as well as the determining of what is defined as the common good. Decision making by individuals would be replaced with state edict.

Last year Mrs. Clinton’s husband gave a speech on the common good. Using the term no fewer than two dozen times, he said it means a covenant for equal opportunity, shared responsibility and an inclusive community.

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Another American Century or Another American Civil War? By Fjordman

Americans tend to be skeptical of any criticism of their country coming from Europeans, which understandable given the amount of anti-Americanism spewing out of the European press these days. However, there is some truth in the old maxim that “clarity is gained from a distance.” Just as Americans may sometimes see more clearly than Europeans how Muslim immigration is destroying their continent, perhaps it is possible for a European to notice some developments in the USA, too.

The following account is written by a European who wishes your country well, partly because I like it and partly because I, unlike too many of my countrymen, understand that the USA is still the best insurance we have for a civilized world order. It worries me all the more to see that many of the same negative trends that are threatening to destroy Europe are also present in the US.

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American Treasure By Mark Steyn

Speaking as a misfit unassimilated foreigner, I think of Thanksgiving as the most American of holidays. Christmas is celebrated elsewhere, even if there are significant local variations: in continental Europe, naughty children get left rods to be flayed with and lumps of coal; in Britain, Christmas lasts from December 22nd to mid-January and celebrates the ancient cultural traditions of massive alcohol intake and watching the telly till you pass out in a pool of your own vomit. All part of the rich diversity of our world. But Thanksgiving (excepting the premature and somewhat undernourished Canadian version) is unique to America. “What’s it about?” an Irish visitor asked me a couple of years back. “Everyone sits around giving thanks all day? Thanks for what? George bloody Bush?”

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The Vindication of Rush H. Limbaugh By Kathryn Jean Lopez

After years of lies and deception, on Tuesday news broke from the world of science that there are indeed dramatic, significant, and exciting alternatives to embryo-destroying stem-cell research. Researchers — God bless them — were able to reprogram regular ol’ human skin cells into embryonic-stem-cell-like cells. The Brave New World debates are heading into a whole new world, one where there’s a whole lot more room for a practical life-affirming compromise.

While the full implications of the news are still unfolding, one thing should be crystal clear to any reasonable person willing to look at the facts: Those who oppose embryo-destructive research are not heartless; and Rush Limbaugh does not hate sick people.

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Please Send Another Teddy Roosevelt ASAP!

By John W. Lillpop

In 1907, America had an intelligent, articulate, and patriotic president.

100 years later, we are stuck with an inarticulate alcoholic dyslexic who speaks better Spanish than English, and who believes that American sovereignty and homeland security are less important than cheap lettuce!

Face it tribe, George W. Bush is a Mexican mole pretending to care about America.
Read President Teddy Roosevelt's words below and mourn for the America we have lost:

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Waving The Flag Of Fear By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

One day after the United Nations issued a doomsday report on global warming, it admits it has grossly exaggerated the seriousness of the AIDS problem. The cycle of fear-mongering at the U.N. continues.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the U.N.'s "top AIDS scientists plan to acknowledge this week that they have long overestimated both the size and the course of the epidemic, which they now believe has been slowing for nearly a decade, according to U.N. documents prepared for the announcement." We're still waiting for an expression of remorse for dragging the world through a swamp of anxiety.

Remember the 1980s, when we were told that AIDS was a nondiscriminatory disease destined to wipe out large segments of the population and bring untold ruin to humanity?

When Life magazine declared on its cover in 1985 that "Now No One Is Safe From AIDS"? When the new Black Plague, worse than the first, was upon us? Who could forget Oprah Winfrey's dire warning that a fifth of heterosexuals would be dead by 1990?

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Hillary's Record By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Lamenting the healthy U.S. economy, a certain senator from New York says "it takes a Clinton to clean up after a Bush." But the Clintons' brand of soap always seems to be a mix of sleaze and socialism.

Campaigning in Iowa on Monday, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., spread doom and gloom about an economy that has produced more than 8 million new jobs over the past 50 months amid a powerful economic expansion.

Hillary has been pushing the theme that being first lady for eight years gave her the experience that will make her a good president.

"Every day spent learning the ropes is another day of rising costs, mounting deficits and growing anxiety for our families," she said in an obvious negative reference to her opponent, Sen. Barrack Obama, D-Ill. "And they cannot afford to keep waiting."

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No evidence to support CAIR-backed Muslim schoolgirl's claim she was harrassed and threatened! :: Jihad Watch

Now, everyone knows CAIR is a neutral civil rights organization that is scrupulous about telling the truth. Never mind that CAIR's spokesman Ibrahim Hooper has defamed me on national television, or that the organization's website even featured a link, for a time, to a tissue of lies about me and Jihad Watch penned by a mendacious and pathetic thrice-convicted felon.

Never mind that CAIR's Ahmed Bedier, quoted in this story, has posted a vile hate message at this site, and has never bothered to answer my questions to him about the Islamic supremacist ideology. Never mind also that Bedier characterized two men who are now under indictment after being found with pipe bombs in their trunk -- one of whom has admitted to making a video about how to use remote-controlled bombs against American soldiers -- as a couple of "naive kids." Never mind the terror convictions of CAIR officials. Never mind the Islamic supremacist statements made by CAIR reps. Never mind the unindicted co-conspirator status. Alan Colmes says they're ok, they must be ok! They're as pure as the driven snow!

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POPE GETS RADICAL IN ORDER TO BEGIN THE CATHOLIC REFORMATION :: Real Clear Religion

Here is a very interesting article from the Times Online about Pope Benedict and his ambitious commitment to reform and liberation of the Latin liturgy. This, despite attempts from many bishops including those in England and Wales to halt the reform. It seems his pontificate is having a tremendous impact on many break-away groups including the conservative Traditional Anglican Communion.

"Two and a half years after the name "Josephum" came booming down from the balcony of St Peter's, making liberal Catholics weep with rage, Pope Benedict XVI is revealing his programme of reform. And it is breathtakingly ambitious.
The 80-year-old Pontiff is planning a purification of the Roman liturgy in which decades of trendy innovations will be swept away. This recovery of the sacred is intended to draw Catholics closer to the Orthodox and ultimately to heal the 1,000 year Great Schism. But it is also designed to attract vast numbers of conservative Anglicans, who will be offered the protection of the Holy Father if they covert en masse.

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Giuliani, Thompson, Romney Beat Hillary in Latest Mason-Dixon Poll

Republican Rudy Giuliani while campaigning yesterday at the NASCAR Nextel Cup Ford 400 race in Homestead was told he is the most popular presidential candidate in Florida, with 57 percent of voters willing to consider voting for him, according to a new Mason-Dixon poll.

In a potential matchup with Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, Giuliani wins 50-43 percent. Republicans Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney also beat her, although their wins are within the margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

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Democracy and Justice Under Siege By Paul Belien

Last week, I attended a colloquium in Hungary on “Morality and expediency in politics.” Our group included political scientists, historians and philosophers. Most of them were Eastern Europeans; the majority were Hungarians. One evening, while having dinner in an expensive Budapest restaurant, the Hungarians at our table noticed that one of the former communist leaders of their country had entered the restaurant.

He was a shallow octogenarian who had reserved a table for his entire family. The Hungarians told me that this man was a former printer, who had made his career in the Communist Party (CP), rising to the position of the country’s senior economist, although he did not know anything about economics. The man had ruined the life of many fellow citizens, but after the fall of communism none of the former dictators had been taken to account, and certainly not this fellow, who the media used to describe as one of the CP’s “moderates.” The previous week the man had been on television, declaring that he regretted nothing.

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Staticidal zealotry By Gen. Paul Vallely

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice behaves like a zealot. In her ever-rasher pursuit of a Palestinian state, she exhibits the syndrome defined by the philosopher George Santayana as one who redoubles her efforts upon losing sight of the objective.

Let's recall: The objective laid out by President Bush, when he decided in June 2002 to support the creation of a homeland for the Palestinian people, was to provide a stable, secure neighbor for Israel, committed to leaving peaceably with the Jewish State.

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Is U.S. gov't infested with terrorist moles? :: WorldNetDaily.com

Thanks to lax background checks, even after 9/11, the Hezbollah spy who managed to obtain sensitive jobs at the FBI and CIA is not the first terrorist supporter to infiltrate the U.S. government.

An alleged al-Qaida operative also infiltrated the Environmental Protection Agency, according to federal investigators and court documents obtained by WND.

The case, details of which are revealed here for the first time, involves Waheeda Tehseen, a Pakistani national who obtained a sensitive position with the EPA in Washington as a toxicologist even though she was not a U.S. citizen.

Like the Lebanese national suspected of passing secrets to Hezbollah, Tehseen lied about her citizenship on her government application, a falsehood that the government failed – in both cases – to catch in its security background investigation.

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Politicized Science and the IPPC By Bob Myer

Just in time for Thanksgiving, the IPCC has delivered another warning of impending doom.  This time, it has to do with the world's oceans' ability to absorb carbon dioxide.  While I am not qualified to get into the science of this, I think it is instructive to dissect how the message is being delivered to the masses.  For this, I'll use the Drudge-linked article from The Independent, a newspaper from the UK.

As might be expected with any article, the headline attempts to grab the reader's attention.  In this case the headline reads, "A world dying, but can we unite to save it?"  The "we" does not mean to imply that all the people of the UK should unite.  This is a global vision; the "we" is global.  The mission is messianic -- save the world -- which is all fine and good as long as the reader, or the believer, truly understands the intent of such an outlook.

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Is "Allah" A False God? By Amil Imani

The New Testament tells how the Christians have to regard Islam. The apostle John wrote in his first letter

"Every spirit which does not acknowledge that Jesus has come in the flesh... is the spirit of the antichrist..."

“We must therefore confess with all humility that the spirit in Islam is the spirit of the antichrist. Muhammad had heard much about Jesus, but, in spite of all, he denied the crucified Son of God.” – 1 John 2:18-23; 4:1-6

Before the advent of Islam, the Arabs were idol worshipers.  One of the historians by the name of Vaqqidi said that the Arabs had 360 Gods for each day of the year and the largest and the main God was called “Allah.” They were pagan, a polytheistic culture. Interestingly enough, not many Muslims want to accept that Allah was already being worshipped at the Ka’ba in Mecca by Arab pagans before Muhammad came along.

So that’s where Allah comes into the picture; eventually this idol becomes Islam’s God. When the Muslims say: Allah-o-Akbar or God is great, in reality; they refer to this large statue which was worshiped by the Bedouins in the Arabian Peninsula. Islam is paganism cult wrapped in monotheistic dogma.

"The Religion in the sight of Allah is Islam." – Qur'an 3:19)

Christians have come to believe that the Wisdom of the Lord is greater than the Muslim Sword commonly used to conquer and force its victims to obey the Allah’s manifestation: the Quran.

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Utopian Delusions: Communitarianism By Lance Fairchok

"We are witnessing a seizure and redirection of power through legitimate means. This is not a dictatorship but something more complex: the tyranny of popularity." – Alberto Barrera Tyszka, co-author of a best-selling biography of Hugo Chávez

In a coup d'état careful to cloak itself in the trappings of legitimacy, Hugo Chavez hopes to become the dictator of Venezuela for life. To accomplish this goal he has subverted, undermined and destroyed the democratic institutions of a once prosperous nation. Using oil money to buy and bribe votes and fuel his appeal to immigrants, government workers and the poor, Chavez will remake Venezuela into South America’s Cuba. Store shelves are already going empty and violent crime has exploded. Peaceful student demonstrations are now being put down with bullets. This latter day Che Guevara can only destroy what has come before, and as all would-be populist dictators will remake something merely flawed into something vile. His supporters, even those breathless ideologues dressed in red, will find that in the years to come their joy in the “dictatorship of the people” will turn to ashes. Utopia is a glittering illusion, a malevolent myth that torments and deludes humanity.

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Nickelodeon’s Slime for Kids by Katie O'Malley

Many parents have, at some point, watched various celebrities coated in a layer of Nickelodeon Television’s famous green slime.  How innocent and amusing to watch Mike Meyers or Justin Timberlake covered in ooze.
But it was another type of slime that hit the Nickelodeon screen during a segment of Nick News, hosted by Linda Ellerbee.  Presented as a news program for kids, the recent episode “Rebels with a Cause”, featured, among others, two anti-war teens.

In pitch-perfect leftist speak, Ellerbee introduces the show with talk of "taking on the establishment."  It takes only a nanosecond to recognize that Ellerbee does not mean just any establishment, certainly not her own leftist establishment of Hollywood and the Mainstream Media.  No, Linda and her rebels mean “the man”.  And by man, they mean George W. Bush. 

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A New Entry in the Campus Hall of Shame By Katherine Kersten

Does anyone still wonder why college culture is the laughingstock of the larger community? Our campuses seem to lurch from one politically correct knee-slapper to the next.

Does anyone crack a book at these places anymore?

Meet Gabriel Keith, an aspiring journalist who attends Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Keith has served as news editor of the campus paper, volunteering many hours and even quitting his part-time job when it interfered with the paper's needs.

Keith came to MCTC after three tours of duty in Iraq as a Marine. He saw some pretty scary stuff there. But now he knows that a combat zone is a Boy Scout camp compared with a standard-issue college inquisition in 2007.

We join Keith sitting in the college newsroom one afternoon last month.

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The Problem For Our Country By David Horowitz

I guess it’s noteworthy when George Soros singles you out for attack.[1] On the other hand, when you have been targeted by as many leftists as I have, one more billionaire doesn’t make much difference. These assaults have been inspired by my efforts to organize an “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,” whose goal was to identify America’s enemies as more than just “terrorists,” and specifically to link them to a radical movement within Islam, which has declared war on the West. One salutary aspect of the Week is to have exposed the breadth of the coalition that now functions as a frontier guard for our enemies. Members of this coalition are apparently determined to run interference for America’s enemies, because, in their view, a greater danger to America is posed by conservatives such as myself and George Bush.

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Because She's a Woman By Selwyn Duke

It's very easy to fall behind the times.  It is for this reason that you find parents who never seem to really know what the younger generation is involved in, older folks who still act as if a hot dog should be 10 cents, and people who fight yesterday's social battles.  As to the last thing, there are those who ask if a woman can be elected president.

The real question is, can a man running against a woman be elected president?

With androgyny being the order of the day, it has often been lamented that men no longer know what is expected of them.  Is being chivalrous courteous or condescending?  Do I hold the door or let her roar?  A similar quandary is apparent when watching the men who must run against Hillary Rodham Clinton. 

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The Sky Is No Limit By Jay D. Homnick

One of the most time-dishonored methods for cultists to entrap their acolytes is by building a logical loop into their thinking. The formula goes something like this: B is a system independent of A, and only things recognized by B are considered, so A must not matter. Today's scientists are adept at this. They "prove" that God does not exist by defining existence as things identifiable by science and defining science as the identification of all things tangible.

A second group that mimics this strategy is the collective of modern journalists. They operate within a matrix that presumes the following: Our job is to report news. Reporting is conveying in words what was seen. Things not seeable are not reportable; ergo, they are not news. God cannot be seen; ergo, God cannot be news. On the other hand, foolish statements and behavior about God can be seen and heard, thus newsworthy. By this system, only articles mocking religion are worth doing. When the mockers get a comeuppance, that is censored.

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Lords of Ill Discipline By James Bowman

A visit to the Ethics and Public Policy Center recently by Dr. Anthony Daniels, who writes under the name of Theodore Dalrymple for the (London) Spectator, the New Criterion and City Journal, among many other publications, painted a desperately gloomy picture of life among the British underclass -- which he had spent many years as a prison doctor observing at close quarters. Only his wit and unfailing good humor -- though it is often of the gallows kind -- kept his rapt audience from sinking into the darkest despair. But there is or ought to be hope in the fact that, as the doctor always stresses, the social pathologies he observes are invariably the result of individual choices and the resulting cultural breakdown. In theory, if he and others who can see what he sees can also persuade enough people of what is wrong with those choices and that culture, both can be corrected.

In theory.

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Crybaby Kerry By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

Most informed Americans have heard about "anger management counseling." It is a widely prescribed therapy for those who lose their temper uncontrollably in public or in private or while watching the Hon. Henry Waxman pretend to be the late Andrei Vyshinsky, prosecutor at the Moscow Show Trials. Well, during the past few days I have been following the Hon. Jean-Francois Kerry's (D-Mass.) controversy with Boone Pickens, and I believe I am in need of "laughter management counseling." Every time I think of this ponderous stone-headed senator bellowing phony pieties, I suffer a dreadful agitation in the funny bone. I only hope that my health insurance is applicable.

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The Tragedy of the Commons By John Stossel

Every year around this time, schoolchildren are taught about that wonderful day when Pilgrims and Native Americans shared the fruits of the harvest. "Isn't sharing wonderful?" say the teachers.

They miss the point.

Because of sharing, the first Thanksgiving in 1623 almost didn't happen.

The failure of Soviet communism is only the latest demonstration that freedom and property rights, not sharing, are essential to prosperity. The earliest European settlers in America had a dramatic demonstration of that lesson, but few people today know it.

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Hillary's Faux Experience By Tony Blankley

Having spent much of my adult life in politics, it would be silly at this late date to be shocked by the discovery of insincerity and misleading statements coming from leading candidates for president. But if I have seen too much of the world to be shocked, at least I still can be appalled. And the gentle lady, the junior senator from the Empire State continues to appall.

Consider the following Associated Press story from earlier this week:

"The economy needs help and fast, Hillary Rodham Clinton declared Monday, claiming the experience for the job and saying the nation can't afford to break in a newcomer. ...

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Shades of Things to Come? By Erik Rush

In December of 2003, the U.S.-based Home School Legal Defense Association released an article entitled “German Homeschoolers Under Attack” which addressed difficulties German families were having with their government in attempting to home school their children.

In 2001, HSLDA helped German homeschoolers start their own legal advocacy group, Schulunterricht zu Hause. In 2003, Schulunterricht zu Hause successfully represented a family who had been charged with flouting German mandatory school attendance laws. This was the first step toward legitimizing homeschooling in Germany.

Unfortunately, as the article stated, due to the jingoistic legal atmosphere in that country, the courts have been able to keep the fight against home schooling alive; some families have actually had to go into hiding.

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Cambridge vs. the Boy Scouts by Robert Maginnis

It’s no surprise that the war in Iraq is unpopular with residents of Cambridge, Massachusetts but it’s wrong for some of Cambridge’s finest to attack their Boy Scouts for reaching out to local national guardsmen deployed to combat.  This situation reveals Cambridge’s liberal attitude towards just about everything traditional and conservative.

The Boy Scouts received the approval of city officials to set-up donation boxes at polling stations during the city council elections.  The money was intended to buy care packages for guardsmen deployed to Iraq.  On election morning, a poll worker complained that the donation boxes represented an illegal “pro-war” message. The boxes were yanked. The city manager defended the decision stating “The law, on ‘political statements’ is very clear.”

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A Debate of Dwarves By Dennis Prager

If you want to know what the Democratic presidential candidates and the Democratic Party believe, the debates, often derided as intellectually inconsequential, reveal a great deal. The problem is that news media almost never report the most important statements the candidates make. Here then are some of those statements from the most recent debate, followed by a comment on their significance.

Joseph Biden on how he'd handle Russia: "Who among us is going to pick up the phone and immediately interface with Putin and tell him to lay off Georgia because [Georgian President] Saakashvili is in real trouble?"

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It's 1984 at the University of Delaware By Sara Dogan

In a tersely worded statement issued on November 1^st, University of Delaware President Patrick Harker brought an end to an Orwellian reeducation program run through the Office of Residence Life and affecting thousands of students living in residence halls at the University of Delaware. Published accounts of the residence life education program and publicly available documents show it to be a systemic model of leftist and politically correct indoctrination, foisted on vulnerable students by a publicly-funded university. Although the program has now been temporarily dismantled because of the adverse publicity it received, the very existence of such an insidious indoctrination camp at one of our public institutions of education should be a wake-up call to all Americans about the lengths that college administrators will go to enforce their ideology on the students under their charge.

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Free American Heroes Ramos and Compean for Thanksgiving!

By John W. Lillpop

American patriots engaged in the war against the invasion of American by third world illegal aliens have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, including:

* Growing public awareness of the invasion crisis and public outrage over the
fact that upwards of 38 million illegal aliens are already in America.

* Defeat of amnesty and "Dream Act" legislation on multiple occasions in the U.S. Senate.

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Training terrorists with American dollars By Judi McLeod

Within the space of just days, the term “humanitarian NGOs” is taking on a troubling new meaning.

Only yesterday Canada Free Press (CFP) reported an ABC Australia story that the International Red Cross has begun training Palestinian militants in Gaza under cover of its worldwide effort to teach the rules of international law in areas of armed conflict.

Today it’s A Fox News report that reveals USAID has been “inadvertently” funneling American tax dollars to terror related groups.

How do you inadvertently funnel American tax dollars to terrorists?

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Diversity Boot Camp Closed At The University Of Delaware—But Big Brother Is Still Going Strong By John Derbyshire

Compare and contrast, as examination questions used to say, these two passages:

“[University training] is the education which gives a man a clear conscious view of his own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them. It teaches him to see things as they are, to go right to the point, to disentangle a skein of thought, to detect what is sophistical, and to discard what is irrelevant.”

      —John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University, 1852

“Citizens capable of contributing to the development of a sustainable society must first develop empathy. This empathy will be developed through an advanced awareness of oppression and inequity that exists at a local and national level. Students will become aware of inequities, examine why these inequities exist, understand the concept of institutionalized privilege, and recognize systematized oppression (e.g. individual, institutional, and societal). Students will also examine forms of oppression related to specific social identities (e.g. race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, SES, religion, and age) and will recognize the benefits of dismantling systems that support this oppression. By having this knowledge, students can then learn how to change these systems and other systems which impact equity of resources.”

      —University of Delaware, Residence Life: Competencies: Narritive [sic] 2, 2007.

Things have changed, eh?

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A History of Thanksgiving in America by Jonathan Falwell

It was a bitter two-month sea journey the Pilgrims endured on their passage from England to Plymouth Rock. Upon landing, they gathered for a prayer service before setting out to build shelter. They were severely unprepared for the harsh New England winter that was approaching.
After that winter of 1620 killed almost half of their population, the Pilgrims were befriended by members of the Wampanoag Tribe. The Indians taught the naive colonists about fishing, planting and hunting, thereby ensuring their survival. When the fall of 1621 began to set in, they had reaped a bountiful harvest and preserved enough food to allow them to survive the coming winter, thanks to their Indian neighbors.

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Left to the Wolves By Rocco DiPippo

How a man who risked his life in Iraq was abandoned by the United States

There are stories in this world that were it not for the injustice that forever curses humanity, would not need to be told. This is one of them. Still, I am hesitant making it public, since doing so further endangers a man I love like a brother. Since he is now desperate enough to gamble with his life in seeking the justice he needs, justice so far denied, my brother, who is Iraqi, gives me permission to tell his story. Nevertheless, to lessen the odds that harm will come to him and his young family, I withhold his real name and instead refer to him as Nabil, an Arabic name which means "noble."

Nabil helped protect me and my country in a time of war. He risked his life doing it. He should have been protected by the United States for his deeds, but he was not. I am ashamed that my country treated him like that. He deserved better.

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Global Warming, Inc. :: Opinion Journal

Al Gore no longer needs to make claims about creating the Internet, because the former Vice President deserves much of the credit for creating an entire new industry--the global warming business.

And like the energy barons of an earlier age, Mr. Gore has the chance to achieve enormous wealth after being named last week as a new partner at the famously successful venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. No fewer than three of his new colleagues sit on the Forbes list of wealthiest Americans. If Mr. Gore can develop market-based solutions to environmental challenges, we will cheer the well-deserved riches flowing his way. On the other hand, if he monetizes his Nobel Peace Prize by securing permanent government subsidies for nonmarket science projects, he'll have earned a different judgment.

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The Liberty Alliance: Championing Liberty and Dignity in our Human Community by Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter

The poster-child of failed hopes, today’s United Nations (UN) is a global Tammany Hall lethal to the liberty and dignity of our human family.

First, the UN’s membership is stacked against free people.  According to Freedom House, of 192 UN member states, 89 are “fully free” and 103 are not.  Thus, a solid majority (54%) of member states know liberty directly threatens their survival, which requires the suppression of their own peoples and, through their UN membership, the entire human community.

Yet, since 1945, the U.S. has been the UN’s largest annual contributor.  In 2006, American taxpayers forked over $423.5 million in dues (or 22% of the UN’s regular budget) and over $5.3 billion in total to the UN.  Still, we and all free people remain the UN’s tyrants’ favorite targets.

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The Biblical Roots of Thanksgiving by Robert J. Hutchinson

Unbeknownst to many Americans, Thanksgiving is yet another legacy of the Biblical heritage that shaped American law and culture over the centuries. 

There is at least some evidence that the deeply pious Pilgrims -- who, as Puritans, believed the Old Testament law was binding on Gentiles as well as Jews -- may have been partially inspired by the Jewish harvest festival of Booths (Sukkot). 

Sukkot is a week-long celebration, mandated in Leviticus 23, in which the Jewish people remember and give thanks for their deliverance from bondage in Egypt.  It is usually observed in October -- as was the original Thanksgiving in 1621.

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Making Thanksgiving Meaningful Again by Newt Gingrich

This Thanksgiving, it's time to ensure that every young American and every immigrant who would become a new citizen learn about the historic origins and meaning of Thanksgiving.

In the popular media today, Thanksgiving is a time of turkey, too much food and the beginning of the Christmas shopping rush.

Yet, historically, Thanksgiving is about much more than food.

Historically, Thanksgiving is about renewing the bond between Americans and their Creator. It's a time when we are reminded that our rights come from God and that we have responsibilities to God as free citizens.

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Cambridge vs. the Boy Scouts by Robert Maginnis

It’s no surprise that the war in Iraq is unpopular with residents of Cambridge, Massachusetts but it’s wrong for some of Cambridge’s finest to attack their Boy Scouts for reaching out to local national guardsmen deployed to combat.  This situation reveals Cambridge’s liberal attitude towards just about everything traditional and conservative.

The Boy Scouts received the approval of city officials to set-up donation boxes at polling stations during the city council elections.  The money was intended to buy care packages for guardsmen deployed to Iraq.  On election morning, a poll worker complained that the donation boxes represented an illegal “pro-war” message. The boxes were yanked. The city manager defended the decision stating “The law, on ‘political statements’ is very clear.”

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Delaware U’s Illiberal Education By Sara Dogan

In a tersely worded statement issued on November 1^st, University of Delaware President Patrick Harker brought an end to an Orwellian reeducation program run through the Office of Residence Life and affecting thousands of students living in residence halls at the University of Delaware. Published accounts of the residence life education program and publicly available documents show it to be a systemic model of leftist and politically correct indoctrination, foisted on vulnerable students by a publicly-funded university. Although the program has now been temporarily dismantled because of the adverse publicity it received, the very existence of such an insidious indoctrination camp at one of our public institutions of education should be a wake-up call to all Americans about the lengths that college administrators will go to enforce their ideology on the students under their charge.

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Ohio State Does Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week Right By Patrick Poole

As an alumnus of The Ohio State University (B.A. Political Science, ’95), I take great pride my alma mater, though not just for the globally renowned academics, nor the world-class facilities, or even the unparalleled pageantry that is Buckeye football (especially following a win against Michigan). Instead, I take great satisfaction in being associated with an educational institution whose faculty, staff, students and supporters regularly display unmatched ingenuity.

Take, for example, how two Ohio State student organizations, the respective campus chapters of both the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Student Association (MSA), decided to participate in the recent Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week in a very unique way. Not content to bring just critics of Islamofascism to campus to warn of seemingly distant dangers, such as David Horowitz, Daniel Pipes or Robert Spencer, these two student groups actually hosted at our fine university one of the prime examples of homo islamofasciae in North America, Dr. Jamal Badawi.

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First Woman, First Black, First Latino, or First Honest President? By Joel Hirschhorn

The phrase honest politician has become an oxymoron. We should not be impressed by the prospect of having the first woman, first black or first Latino president. What would be far more radical would be to have the first honest president, if not ever, certainly in a very long time.
Presidents in recent memory have been excellent liars, contributing mightily to our culture of dishonesty. Bill Clinton had the audacity to look right into the TV camera and blatantly lie to the American public. George W. Bush has probably set a record for official lying, though it might take many decades to fully document them. Carl M. Cannon saw the bigger truth: "posterity will judge [George W. Bush] not so much by whether he told the truth but whether he recognized what the truth actually was."

Things have gotten so bad that hardly anyone can even imagine an honest president. But if we don't expect an honest president, how can we expect to trust government?

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Charles Johnson’s Obsession :: Gates of Vienna

First of all I would like to say that I am at least as tired of this public spat as I suspect many of my readers are. I had no intention of writing a post about this topic today, and was in the process of reading Ibn Warraq’s excellent book Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said’s Orientalism and preparing a positive review of Robert Spencer’s latest book Religion of Peace?: Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn’t. I guess that’s one thing Charles Johnson and I have in common. However, Mr. Johnson of Little Green Footballs apparently wants to keep this story going. It is tempting to ignore LGF completely, but since a few readers will probably believe some of the nonsense posted there about me and others, I guess I have to respond, however reluctant that may be.

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Time to Affirm 2nd Amendment Rights by Susan Heathfield.

I have long affirmed the rights of the American people, under the 2nd Amendment to the Bill of Rights, to keep and bear arms. The Supreme Court should choose to hear the Parker v. the District of Columbia case to, once and for all, affirm that citizens have gun ownership rights under the 2nd Amendment.

Need I hold my breath to think that the court might also affirm that the 2nd Amendment can be invoked against states, as informally other amendments have been used since the Civil War? I think not. Parker does not involve a state and the court may limit its opinion to the fact that our constitution does not allow a complete ban on guns as the D.C. law did.

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Global Warming, Or Global Con? By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

A U.N. that can't save the world from war, famine, disease and pestilence now releases a report saying global warming will cause all of the above — and it's your SUV that's doing it.

The fourth and final assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reads like the Bible, but gospel it is not.

It is a "consensus" in that it started with a foregone conclusion — that man-made pollution is dooming the planet — and gathered in any and all opinions that supported it.

The report incredibly warns that the 630,000 cubic miles of the Greenland ice sheet will virtually disappear in the near future, raising sea levels by almost 30 feet, and the Amazon rain forest will become a dry savannah.

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Iraq 'N' Rolling By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

This Thanksgiving week, Americans and Iraqis alike have much to be thankful for. By most measures, we are winning decisively and Iraq's future is looking brighter than ever.

Our forces in Iraq released data Sunday showing attacks have fallen to their lowest level since January 2006, the month before the Golden Mosque bombing in Samarra that unleashed a huge increase in sectarian violence.

The data the U.S. military released measured car and roadside bombs, mines, surface-to-air missiles and other armed attacks.

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The AP Reports on Itself :: Power Line

We wrote here and elsewhere about Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi stringer who has taken many photographs for the Associated Press, some of which are in evident collaboration with Iraqi terrorists. Hussein has been held for 19 months in Iraq after being captured in the company of two terrorists. Now, the AP reports that new evidence has emerged against Hussein, on the basis of which a criminal case is likely to be pursued against him:

The U.S. military plans to seek a criminal case in an Iraqi court against an award-winning Associated Press photographer but is refusing to disclose what evidence or accusations would be presented. *** In Washington, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell explained the decision to bring charges now by saying "new evidence has come to light" about Hussein, but said the information would remain in government hands until the formal complaint is filed with Iraqi authorities.

Morrell asserted the military has "convincing and irrefutable evidence that Bilal Hussein is a threat to stability and security in Iraq as a link to insurgent activity" and called Hussein "a terrorist operative who infiltrated the AP."

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Texas Judge: Kansas Group Not a Tribe :: ASSOCIATED PRESS/AP ONLINE BY ROXANA HEGEMAN

WICHITA, Kan. - A judge in Texas on Monday ordered a group that claims to be an American Indian tribe to stop selling memberships to immigrants with the false promise that they would become U.S. citizens.

State District Judge Noe Gonzalez ruled that Malcolm Webber and his Wichita-based Kaweah Indian Nation admitted the allegations by default by failing to respond to a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.

The lawsuit, filed in August, alleges that the tribe violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by selling memberships for up to $400 per person to immigrants by saying that members could get a Social Security number.

The lawsuit also alleged that immigrants were told they would be entitled to receive U.S. citizenship once the tribe was federally recognized.

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Israel, the hope of the Muslim world By Spengler :: Asia Times

The state of Israel embodies the last, best chance for the Islamic world to come to terms with the modern world. Received wisdom in the foreign ministries of the West holds that relations with Muslims would be ever so much easier without the annoying presence of the Jewish state, which humiliates the Muslim world. Just the opposite is true. The Israeli presence in the territory of the ancient Jewish commonwealth, on land that once belonged to the Dar al’Islam, offers the single, slender hope for the future of the Muslim world, precisely because it constitutes a humiliation.

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Will the 25 Days of Christmas Be More Peaceful Than the 30 Days of Ramadan? By Chadd De Las Casas

I just read something interesting and baffling - specifically, a content producer trying to compare the Christian attempt to keep Christ and Christmas with Islamic enforcement of Sharia Law. I'm sure I don't even need to think of an analogy to illicit the kind of cynically comedic response we should all feel at the notion, nor do I really need to explain that wanting to celebrate the birth of a figure who we base our calendar off of is pretty rabidly different from wanting women to wear veils and killing gynecologists.

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Artists too frightened to tackle radical Islam By Ben Hoyle

Britain’s contemporary artists are fêted around the world for their willingness to shock but fear is preventing them from tackling Islamic fundamentalism. Grayson Perry, the cross-dressing potter, Turner Prize winner and former Times columnist, said that he had consciously avoided commenting on radical Islam in his otherwise highly provocative body of work because of the threat of reprisals.

Perry also believes that many of his fellow visual artists have also ducked the issue, and one leading British gallery director told The Times that few major venues would be prepared to show potentially inflammatory works.

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Identity Politics At Its Dumbest by Jay Tea

Over at the Huffington Post, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh (who's pretty much been resting on the laurels of My Lai for almost literally my entire life) discussed how the United States needs to elect Barack Obama as president if we wish to mend our relations with the Muslim world.

(Hat tip: my colleague Steve Crickmore at Blue. By the way, Steve, Hersh did not "break" Abu Ghraib; the US Army broke the story itself. He was just the first to actually report what they said.)

I read Steve's piece, then over to HuffPo (after having all my shots) and read the piece. In a nutshell, the fact that Obama's biological father was a Muslim (as was the man his mother married next) will somehow win over those who currently dislike and distrust us.

This is so barkingly stupid, it can only have been first published at HuffPo.

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Hillary's Secret Police Returns By: Dick Morris & Eileen McGann

Are the Clinton secret police back on patrol?

It looks like they may be making a late campaign comeback.

In a week-end column, Robert Novak alleged that “agents” of Hillary Clinton are “spreading the word that she has scandalous information” about Barack Obama, but decided not to use it. (How considerate of her!)

Obama has come out swinging, accusing the Clinton campaign of trying to swift-boat him and demanding that Clinton either release the information or admit that there is none.

The Clinton camp is shocked that anyone would ever think that it would use such tactics!

Clinton campaign Communications Director (and KGB enforcer look-alike) Howard Wolfson claimed that the campaign had “no idea” what Novak was talking about. Absolutely!

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U.S. #1 On Health by John Goodman

Which country produces the highest quality health care? In a sidewalk survey, the USA would probably come in first place. Among health policy wonks, however, the results would be very different. The Commonwealth Fund regularly produces studies showing that the US lags behind other countries by one measure or another. The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks the US system 37th in the world, even trailing Costa Rica. (Costa Rica? Yes, Costa Rica.)

On his way to get health care at the Cleveland clinic last year, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Burlusconi probably flew over a half dozen higher ranking countries, not to mention his own (rated number two!) or neighboring France (rated number 1!). What could he possibly have been thinking? Doesn't he read WHO reports?

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Dirt That Hillary Will NOT Find Under Rug in the Oval Office!

By John W. Lillpop

The sheer arrogance surrounding Hillary Clinton is exceeded only by her wretchedly poor judgment in selecting a marriage partner.

Example: While on the campaign trail in Iowa some months ago, Hillary had to audacity to say, "When I walk into the Oval Office in 2009, I’m afraid I’m going to lift up the rug and I’m going to see so much stuff under there. You know, what is it about us always having to clean up after people?"

Hold on there, you waffling socialist thugess!

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A Response to Andrew Sullivan By Norman Podhoretz

In my article “The Case for Bombing Iran” (COMMENTARY, June 2007), in my book World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism, and in various public appearances (including a televised debate with Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek), I quoted the Ayatollah Khomeini as having said the following:

We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.

My source for this statement was Amir Taheri, the prolific Iranian-born journalist now living in London, who has also contributed a number of articles to COMMENTARY. Now, however, the Economist, relying on another Iranian-born writer, Shaul Bakhash of George Mason University, has alleged on its blog “Democracy in America” that Khomeini never said any such thing. “Someone,” says Mr. Bakhash, “should inform Mr. Podhoretz he is citing a non-existent statement.”

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Culturism or Racism? By Dymphna

What the Left is describing as racist is very often culturalist. For example, is it cultural or racial to perform genital mutilation on infant females? Is it cultural or racial to celebrate Thanksgiving? Is it cultural or racial to honor the dead in some form?

You won’t agree with all of these statements or the questions that appear below. But some of them may seem to you to have sensible answers. Here are the questions:

1. Do you believe that defining, protecting and promoting majority cultures should be a legitimate policy consideration?

2. Do you believe that cultures are so diverse that some people make more desirable immigrants than others?

3. Do you believe that some behaviors, such as polygamy and female genital mutilation, may be lauded in other countries but run against the grain of our culture?

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The Truth About "Islamic Science" By Fjordman

According to University of Columbia's Arabic and Islamic Studies Professor George Saliba, "Islamic science" virtually created the modern world. This is a bit odd, since Saliba has reviewed the work done by scholar Toby E. Huff, which concludes that Islamic countries largely failed in developing modern science. I have made a series of posts about this issue myself at Jihad Watch. These posts have also been translated to German, and I also wrote a slightly longer essay.
I have also had the pleasure of reading Huff's book The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West, second edition. If anything, I believe he is sometimes too kind with the Islamic world.

He writes: "Our concern is with the fact that from the eighth century to the end of the fourteenth, Arabic science was probably the most advanced science in the world, greatly surpassing the West and China. In virtually every field of endeavor - in astronomy, alchemy, mathematics, medicine, optics, and so forth - Arab scientists (that is, Middle Eastern individuals primarily using the Arabic language but including Arabs, Iranians, Christians, Jews, and others) were in the forefront of scientific advance. The facts, theories, and scientific speculations contained in their treatises were the most advanced to be had anywhere in the world, including China."

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The Civilizing Power of Marriage and Family Elizabeth Wright

For reasons that have been endlessly chronicled and analyzed, tens of thousands of black men have removed themselves from playing productive roles as fathers and husbands. These men are in prisons across the country, roam the streets of cities and towns, and are attached to activities that undermine the cohesion of every community they pass through. It is this missing masculine drive and energy that is at the heart of why the poor black community continues in its downward spiral, seemingly to oblivion. The loss of productive masculine input is an incalculable one. The condition of the black masses will never be altered until men are restored to their right and proper place within the bonds of family life.

For those who hold firmly to the soundness of the previous statements, George Gilder's "Visible Man" has long been a special book. In it, Gilder first introduced a basic theme that he developed in later works, that is, when bureaucratic institutions undermine or replace the economic function of men, men are unlikely to play positive roles in the ongoing sustenance of community life. Society suffers, and may not long survive, when men are no longer under the influence of what Gilder calls, "the civilizing power of marriage and family."

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Barry Bonds - Racist Nicholas Stix

Barry Bonds not only loves steroids, he also hates white people. In an excerpt from Ron Kittle's Tales from the White Sox Dugout, that appeared on May 31, 2005 in suburban Chicago’s Southtown News newspaper, former Chicago White Sox player Kittle quotes Bonds as saying, "I don't sign [autographs] for white people."
The setting was the visitors’ clubhouse at the Chicago Cubs’ Wrigley Field home in 1993, when Bonds’ San Francisco Giants had come to town. Kittle, by then retired from the game, had asked Bonds to sign two jerseys he’d worn in games, so that Kittle could auction them for Indiana Sports Charities, his charity helping kids with cancer.

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Maureen Dowd, Sexist By Bernard Chapin

How fondly we look back on the old days. This is particularly true if you happen to be one of the few (okay, very few) readers who regularly peruse my work. Countless times I have opened up an email to discover sentences that evoke Stardust Memories: “I liked your early columns best, especially the Maureen Dowd ones. Why don’t you write some more of those?”

The reference alludes to my old “Maureen Dowd Two Minute Mock” feature on Mensnewsdaily.com which ran in 2003 and 2004. Ms. Dowd, the ancien debutante of the New York Times, is the perfect embodiment of all things that conservatives despise. Her reflexive leftism, misandric inclinations, disdain for America, obsession with race, devout elitism, and appalling self-righteousness made her an obvious target.

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