The Black Republican

Is there anything Anti-American which that idiot will not say? Now Churchill suggests attacks on our military officers, by our soldiers!

You cannot maintain a military projection of force in the field when your own troops are taking out the line officers who are directing them in combat. It is as simple as that. Conscientious objection removes a given piece of the cannon fodder from the fray; fragging an officer has a much more impactful effect.

That traitor needs to be arrested, immediately.

I think Gitmo is actually too good for him, as the recent Congressional visit showed, it is a very nice place, as prisons go. (Too nice for those bastards they have there already, but I deviate). I wonder, do the Geneva Conventions apply to enemy combatants who are also citizens of the attacked nation? A loud dose of teen queen pop music blaring at him 24/7/365 for say the next forty years should have the appropriate effect on his sick mind. And, it would have the additional benefit of drowning out his voice.

Over at It Comes In Pints it has been proposed that college professors should be fragged. And, while I can not support that notion, (and neither do they), I also find myself wishing I had thought of it first. j/k

Churchill will no doubt be left alone by the law on First Amendment grounds. At least until one of his followers actually kills an officer. Then, of course, it will be too late for the officer killed.

I strongly suggest this piece by Walter E. Williams as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Peggy Noonan as "Recommended Reading".

Stranger than fiction.

TTLB

First let me say this; I have not believed the polls. Polls have gone the way of statistics; polls lie, and liars poll. Secondly, I confess, this post will not represent, analyze, or even reference, anything the liberals have to say about President Bush's speech. I did not listen to Joe Biden, I chose his name because he was the first of the liberal Democrats I saw reacting to the President's speech, and he was negative so he wins the liberal standard-bearer label on this day.

I feel that most Americans feel as I do. I feel that we are doing the right thing in Iraq. I feel we are doing the right thing in defeating the terrorists across the globe. I feel that our efforts are done in a fashion which we can feel proud about. We fight hard, we are the fairest of all, even in battle, even with captured combatants who will kill each of us if allowed. We, the Americans, are the epitome of civilization thus far in all of human history. We have done nothing to diminish that status.

For me, and I believe, because I feel it, for most of America; President Bush's speech tonight was not necessary. We understand that the battle against terrorism is inherent in the work our people are doing in Iraq. We understand that the criticism this administration and our soldiers have recently received is bogus. We understand that Karl Rove was right about the liberals, they would not support the things which will produce a lasting peace. The liberals want what they want, regardless of the lack of a practical plan to achieve their goal. They want some pie in the sky visions realized. They want something our enemies will never allow, even if it was workable in the real world. And, they, the liberals, believe the way to achieve the unachievable is to destroy their fellow Americans, starting with our current President, and including the soldiers fighting to preserve our liberty.

I did not need to hear President Bush tonight, in fact, meaning no disrespect, I did not listen that closely because he was saying what I already knew.

"It demands the perseverance of our citizens"- GWB 6/28/05

This fight, against terorism, is going to last for a long time. I will not lose my nerve in this fight. I want us to finish the mission. I want the world to understand that all people on this planet have no greater friend than the USA, or they can choose, their choice, to have no greater enemy than the USA. And, I, especially, want our own citizens to repel the insurgency within, to denounce and isolate those who do not understand the larger picture. Politically disenfranchise those who can not be a part of the solution. Condemn to the ash heap of history those who are willing to diminish the USA's reputation.

Those who are willing to give our enemies fuel for their propaganda are not patriotic. Those people are not worthy of being Americans.

This is just too precious for words. It seems, as James Taranto would put it, life often does imitate the parody and sarcasm of Scrappleface or the Onion - or specifically in this case, The Therapist.

I strongly suggest this piece by Michael Barone as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Jonathan Turley as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page as "Recommended Reading".

Steve asked me the other day why I haven't been posting. The best answer I could come up with was, "Same old, same old." We are cursed by living in interesting times - so interesting, that I've lost interest. A confirmation battle or three may be looming over the Supreme Court - and where I have little confidence Originalism will win out. The media is obsessed with lost children, missing floozies, and manufactured scandals. And through it all, the Democratic Party manages to sustain a majority mindset from out of the jaws of minority election results.

And what do they do with this obscene Frankenstein-like majority of Democrats and weak-kneed Republicans? Why, they demoralize American troops in the midst of battle, of course.

President Bush plans to speak about Iraq tomorrow, and we hope he points out that this Beltway panic is hurting the war effort. General John Abizaid of the U.S. Central Command stressed this point last week. Troop morale, he said, has never been better. But "when I look back here at what I see is happening in Washington, within the Beltway, I've never seen the lack of confidence greater."

He added that, "When my soldiers say to me and ask me the question whether or not they've got support from the American people or not, that worries me. And they're starting to do that." Mr. Bush will no doubt remind Americans of the stakes in Iraq, but he also needs to point out that defeatism can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

For when the time came to confront the greatest moral challenge this nation has ever faced, this all too human man did not pass the challenge on to future generations. He neither demonized the fathers and sons who did battle on the other side nor sought to diminish the terrible costs of his war. In the midst of slavery's dark storm and the complexities of governing a house divided, he somehow kept his moral compass pointed firm and true.

I guess Republican ideals are only worthwhile when the Republicans are dead, co-opted by Democrats, and totally irrelevant to the conversation at hand.

I strongly suggest this piece by Douglass K. Daniel as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Martin Schram as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Debra Saunders as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by David Hampton as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Real Clear Politics Commentary as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Christopher Hitchens as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by John Stossel as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Jay Bryant as "Recommended Reading".

There is a rally today at the Corner of Church and Liberty in in New York City. The group Take Back The Memorial is holding a press conference and rally at Ground Zero. But if you're like me, regardless how much you may want to attend and lend support to their cause to keep the Political Correct blame America crowd from spoiling the WTC memorial site, you live too far away or have too many other obligations to attend (not a work obligation though - cause we know that us white Christians have never made an honest living in our lives!). But there is something that those of us who live in the rest of the country can do to contribute to the cause - sign the petition! We cannot let the people who hate what America stands for change the focus of the WTC 9/11 memorial, or rewrite history.

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." - Edmund Burke

Cox and Forkum

I strongly suggest this piece by Debra Burlingame as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Richard Baehr as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Cathy Young as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Star Parker as "Recommended Reading".

Science has given us many new understandings of this world. And I generally believe that the rest of the answers are there for our finding. Though from what I have been told of quarks, whose very existence is only known via an educated supposition, (the very act of looking at these most tiny of particles changes them), some things may not be knowable using the five senses. Some things may have to be taken on faith, an intelligent supposition not directly sensed by taste, touch, smell, sight or sound.

At some point, from what I've learned of the science around reproduction, I came to the conclusion that a new human life begins when the sperm unties with the egg. That event creates a unique set of DNA molecule which divides; creating an exact duplicate of the original, more cells form the same way, and then are formed pluripotent stem cells, those cells form specific parts of the human anatomy, this intelligent design continues and a being is built, this initial process of cell division continues until, not birth, but death occurs, (after birth the being continues to grow and change right up to the moment when life ends, at whatever age that may be).

Now, I am certain to have left out a step along the way. But, that isn't important. That first meeting is what is important. For, in a fundamental way what occurs, from the union of the DNA carried by the sperm, and the DNA carried by the egg, goes on uninterrupted except by death. It can thus be argued, scientifically, that life begins at conception.

But, that really is not the question that consumes our society. What we find ourselves arguing about is, when do we care about that life enough to protect it from termination?

That is the question at the heart of the abortion debate.

And science can not answer that question, it is a moral choice. Science can describe the world and its working; it can not answer questions of right and wrong.

All of this came to mind from reading a post at Begging To Differ concerning the prospect that science can develop a consciometer; a device which detects whether an entity is conscious. The function of which would be to determine when a fetus is conscious so that an exact point of development can be set for when the fetus is aware/thinking/feeling/etc. The use of that information? Well, that is not the province of science, it is a moral decision. The choice: do we allow people to end life if it happens before that lifeform can taste, touch, smell, see, or hear a quark; or do we accept that that lifeform already knows as much about the great mysteries as we will ever know and forbid its harm.

A question which science can not answer for us.

(We were alerted to this great cartoon, and a pretty good blog, thanks to a comment from frequent visitor. Thanks Karen!)

This is why we evoke the name of Lincoln every chance we get, support originalism, and rage against the revisionism (there were so many examples to choose from) of the left.

There is an ongoing culture war between Americans who are ashamed of this nation's history and those who acknowledge with sorrow its many sins and are fiercely proud of it anyway. Proud of the 17th century settlers who threw their entire lives overboard and set sail for religious freedom in their rickety little ships. Proud of the new nation that taught democracy to the world. Proud of its ferocious fight to free the slaves, save the Union and drag (lug, shove, sweat, bleed) America a few inches closer to its own sublime ideals. Proud of its victories in two world wars and the Cold War, proud of the fight it is waging this very day for freedom in Iraq and the whole Middle East.

If you are proud of this country and don't want its identity to vanish, you must teach U.S. history to your children. They won't learn it in school. This nation's memory will go blank unless you act.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war...

hy·poc·ri·sy ( P ) Pronunciation Key (h-pkr-s)
n. pl. hy·poc·ri·sies
The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
An act or instance of such falseness.

I strongly suggest this piece by Clint Bolick as "Recommended Reading".

Nancy Reagan Falls, Son Ron Jr. Blames Slow Stem Cell Research

Seriously now, we hope that she is not hurt, as it appears she is not.

I simply can not resist a dig at those, like Ron Jr., who exagerated the potential of stem cell research if only the Federal government would fund it.

I need add nothing, just read what the great one had to say about the siege tactics of Janet Reno and the so-called torture at Guantanamo.

Didn't Janet Reno Use Torture, Heat at Waco?

Now, that's a reality check!

Addendum: Cap't Ed has a story about the Cook County jail, in Dhurbin's home state.

Let's see if we can guess where the following abuses took place -- Gitmo or Cook County:

In one incident, an elite squad of 40 guards took over a maximum-security [unit] ... for the sole purpose of beating and terrorizing the prisoners. A jail investigator determined that the guards' misconduct was covered up by ... medical personnel, who filed false reports and refused or delayed treatment to the prisoners, and by the ... inspector general, who refused to cooperate with the investigation. In the other incident, five inmates in a special incarceration unit ... alleged that they were beaten by 20 or more ... as they lay cuffed and shackled on the floor.

And, brought to my attention by a commenter to the CQ post, read the Durbin correspondence. And smile.:)

I strongly suggest this piece by Thomas Sowell as "Recommended Reading".

I worked hard again Tuesday, a real days work, and while I had planned to continue reading We Are Lincoln Men, by David Herbert Donald, I instead decided to veg out in front of the television. Channel surfing brought me to, near the beginning of, the new Kyra Sedgewick series, The Closer.

I have always had a curiosity about Kyra, she is visually very interesting, in spite of her abnormally oversized lips. But, more than that, she usually plays interesting roles, in interesting vehicles. And I hoped this would prove to be another example.

What a disappoinment. This show is a cartoon using real actors. An absolute turn of the tables on the current actors doing cartoon voices for animated movies trend. This show skips the animation and simply puts real people into caricatures of stereotypes. All the while giving lessons on political correctness.

The thrust of the premier episode seemed to be to establish that the murder suspect is a sexually frustrated Catholic woman who is still living with her Mother as she approaches thirty. And, then, when it is revealed that the murder victim was a lesbian cross-dressing homicidal computer genius aids activist identity thief; then the important matter at hand for the writers was to insinuate that the killer, the sexually repressed Catholic virgin, was actually a lesbian as well. They accomplish portraying the killer as a lesbian by having her repeat time and time and time again that she isn't a lesbian. Thereby, employing a situation which Shakespeare coined as protesting too much, in order to paint her as exactly that which she declares, repeatedly, against being. And, this was not the only way in which the writers revealed their obcession with lesbianism.

The one character, surrounding Sedgewick's ball-busting slut who slept her way to the top and isn't done spreading it around persona, who is even remotely fleshed out is the Archie Bunkerish investigator who calls the deceased a "lesbo". The term, "lesbo", sets off Sedgewick who castrates castigates him for using "lesbo" as an abbreviation for lesbian, when she asserts it is not any such thing. Which is wrong, of course, though it may be a disparaging abbreviation for lesbian, lesbo is an abbreviation for lesbian as surely as homo was a common abbreviation for homosexual in the olden days. The writers attempt a political correctness insurgency with this one. Insurgency repelled.

The solution to the crime is provided when Sedgewick orders an underling to take the bullet recovered from the body to ballistics. What a genius idea, test the bullet, why haven't the police thought of this before (I ask sarcastically)? Sedgewick tells her brood that testing the bullet may tie it to a previous crime which may bring them to the present criminal. Voila! The deceased had shot dead a law enforcement type person decades ago, and in spite of being a computer genius who ran a major company in the industry, she did not have the common sense to dispose of the gun she had used.

Since her flight, after murdering the man, she had assumed the identity of a man, plundered ATMs for cash until she had enough to open a corporation rivaling Microsoft, and lived an affected life as an incubated eccentric man. And, from the tone of this show, her one mistake was to become involved with a Catholic, repressed lesbian, woman, and then revealing her true identity which angered and humiliated the virgin leading to homicide.

Naturally, (heavy sarcasm) the virgin had to use the gun from the old murder to kill the phony man/lesbowhackjob, (what other choice did she have?) and, thus Sedgewick had all she needed to draw out a confession to the murder, and to the woman's implied sexual preference. That is the whole story, I left out nothing.

So, to review, (according to thie writers of The Closer) being a Catholic virgin who is fooled into falling in love with a cross-dressing lesbian crook murderer proves that those who practice abstinace are lesbos.

Are they really going to have a week two for this loser show?

The Schiavo autopsy report is in, and every effort has been made in the Press to paint the results as proof that her condition was the equivalent of non-existance.

Prediction:- Time will bear out that the impressions the MSM is currently bombarding upon us are not factually consistent with the tenor and conclusions of the doctors who wrote the report.

I spoke before about the inadequacies of an autopsy versus testing on a live person. And, be certain, when the actual report is read it will say that the doctors can not speak to the actual level of brain activity, but can speak to the size, weight, percentage, and distribution of her brain matter. But, not her actual capacity of function.

Again, ascertaining the actual brain function and consciousness of a dead person is as imprecise as ascertaining the color of dinosaurs by looking at their fossils. It can not be done.

And, beyond her level of awareness, there remains the issue of how she was killed. We now know that Terri is dead, even the support of loved ones could not stay that sentence, is compassion dead as well.

"There are those who will use this autopsy report to claim that the death by dehydration imposed on Terri Schiavo was compassionate or merciful," said Brown. "Others would say such a life is not worth living. Such thinking is misguided and absolutely wrong. Those decisions are not ours to make."

I strongly suggest this piece by Mason Weaver@The New Underground Railroad as "Recommended Reading".

I read this Modest Proposal for Saving Our Schools by Tom McClintock (Don't recognize the name? He ran against Arnold for Governor of California) and my jaw about hit the floor. As Chris mentioned to me after he read it, these facts have always been assumed but no one ever took the time to actually quantify them. I knew it was bad, but I had no idea it was this bad!

As you read the proposal, notice how Mr. McClintock goes over and above in every single aspect of funding - often to the point of ridiculousness:

I also propose setting aside $3 billion to pay an additional 30,000 school bureaucrats $100,000-per-year (roughly the population of Monterey) with the proviso that they stay away from the classroom and pay their own hotel bills at conferences.

Kudos to Mr. McClintock for framing this debate as it should be, and in a manner that is crystal clear (even to those from Rio Linda) and absolutly brilliant. While you read over his proposal just remember, the Washington DC schools spent $11,847 per student last year.

Andy, via these comments to a very good La Shawn Barber rant.

Having mulled this question over in my mind a bit (remember, I'm an evil conservative Republican!) I must conclude that yes, justice was served. And here, IMHO, is why I think that:

1. A properly seated and instructed jury has found him not guilty of the crimes for which he was charged.


2. No parent in this country will (let us hope) ever let their child sleep with him, no matter how innocent he may claim his intentions are.


3. If the country believes the same way many of the jury stated they do - that there was a great deal of evidence that Michael Jackson is indeed a pedophile, just not enough to convict him of this crime - then the court of public opinion will punish him more surely than the California courts could have.
   

I strongly suggest this piece by Thomas Sowell as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Star Parker as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by George F. Will as "Recommended Reading".

The situation in Zimbabwe is a matter which I am not seeing reported in the MSM. The Belmont Club has compelling posts in recent days on the subject.

Here June 9

Here June 8

Here June 6

Impressions and reactions later.

In the June 7th issue of the Boston Globe the claim is made that all of John Kerry's service records have now been released to that newspaper.

On May 20, Kerry signed a document called Standard Form 180, authorizing the Navy to send an ''undeleted" copy of his ''complete military service record and medical record" to the Globe.

But, this may not be the case, this from Thomas Lipscomb.

"There is nothing magic about signing a SF 180," said former Naval Judge Advocate General Mark Sullivan. "It is sort of like your checkbook. You can fill out a check for one dollar or a million. It is the same check form."

"If you take a look at my SF 180," O'Neill said, "you will see I have authorized the total release of all my records to anyone requesting to see them. But without seeing how Kerry's SF 180 was filled out, everyone is only guessing about what was released."

So how an SF 180 is filled out is as important as signing it. But no one in the press has yet claimed to have seen a copy of Kerry's SF-180. When asked if she had a copy of Kerry's SF 180, the Globe's Managing Editor Mary Jane Wilkinson said, "I haven't seen it, and I don't know if anyone here has."

Kerry's Senate offices could not provide a copy of the Kerry SF 180 and would not answer inquiries. Is it possible that Kerry filled it out wrong or sent it to the wrong place?

Keep the clock running, it seems Kerry loopholed his way out of releasing all of his records.

Captain Ed

I strongly suggest this piece by Victor Davis Hanson as "Recommended Reading".

Since Chris missed his chance to be declared a political psychic I thought I would get my prediction in print before the event occurs. So here is my attempt to become a famous political psychic (I mean, I can dream can't I?): Some time after the end of the current US Supreme Court term (end of June) and the beginning of the next (October), Chief Justice William Rehnquist will announce his retirement and President Bush will nominate Janice Rogers Brown (login req.), now a member of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to replace him. And I don't mean just elevating one of the other sitting Justices to Chief, such as Scalia or Thomas, and having her as an Associate. No, I mean nominating her directly to Chief Justice. Doing that will result in only one Senate fight by the same Senate that just made a filibuster deal to allow her come to the floor for a vote and then proceeded to vote 56 to 43 to confirm her.

If this prediction should come to pass, let's see the Democrats that made that filibuster deal, as well as those facing re-election in 2006, try to say that a person they just voted to confirm all of a sudden somehow represents a new "extraordinary circumstance" that would thereby justify a filibuster. Personally, I hope all this does happen, and if it does, I really hope they do have the stones to filibuster. Then we will have a beautifully symbolic and historically ironic picture - Senate Democrats, led by Robert "Sheets" Byrd, leading a filibuster to deny the vote to an African-American daughter of Alabama sharecroppers.

I've rattled this headline around in my head for several days now, only to see that Chris Muir has come to this conclusion too, with Muir connecting the medical marijuana issue to Dean's unfortunate verbal outbursts. I suggest that Dr. Dean may be prescribing something stronger than grass for himself. And, he should check the dosage, because it isn't working. He remains as delusional as ever. Perhaps he should skip the pills and change his diet, eat some red meat Howie! It may be a nutritional deficit, not a chemical imbalance corrected by hallucinogenics and antidepressants Doc.

My concern for his health, and ours if he keeps bothering our blood pressure with his bizarre perceptions, has me wondering if it isn't time to begin administering tox screens to the former Govenor. Just as we need to know that America's athletes are not hyped up when they take the field, we should know if our national clowns are doping. Of course we will need to establish standards for what I will call, Dean's PUI level, (PUI, paranoid under the influence), so that we may determine when it is the drugs that are making him see things, and when not.

Of course, this line of sensibilty led me to consider similar testing for other DNC moonbats.

A breathalizer test each time Ted Kennedy steps to the podium. (So obvious we must all wonder why we haven't thought of this one before now, eh?).

A polygragh for each member of the former Clinton adminstration. It will be necessary to closely define what is meant by "lie" before putting these folks to the test. ("Well, it depends on the meaning of lie, it could mean to hold your body in the prone position, (under his breath in a Beavis and Butthead voice, "he he, I said prone, and position, he he"), and it does sound just like lye, so it depends on which meaning...."- A Fake Wm J. Clinton quote). It may be a lengthy challenge for them to master the concept that to "lie" is to not tell the truth. First we will have to explain "truth". Oh, why bother, we already know what that test will show.

A retina scan for Nancy Pelosi, because we need to know that it is really her behind that surgically altered face, and not Kim Jong Il after a mug switch (ala Travolta and Cage in Face Off).

While magician's have fooled us for years in spite of the hoop test, it might still be useful to have a pretty woman pass a hoop over Harry Reid to somewhat assure us that Tom Daschle is neither pulling strings from above, nor has his hand from below, in manipulating the Senate minority leader. The test may be unreliable, but the scenery will make his appearances on the nightly news more bearable.

A brain scan for Jimma Carter, to see if there is any peanut inside that shell. I hear that we have the technology to make this determination, though it isn't always used when needed.

A simple bloodtest on James Carville. Check to see if it is red, and not alien green. If he is from this planet, one would be tempted to determine if there was some inbreeding in his past, but, then again, his wife Mary has enough burden without learning that her husband is his own grandpa. And, besides, my college anthropology professor assured us there is not a correlation between limited gene pools and insanity.

And, naturally, a look at Ward Churchill's mitochondrialDNA could resolve once and for all any doubt, even his own, about his native American heritage.

And imagine how much guessing would have been put aside if we had simply been allowed a look at Janet Reno's chromosones Should she really be on the list of theirs, vs ours?(previous link). We have the technology. Hey, as long as we are testing Churchill, this may be worth a glance on him too, he looks so much like one of theirs.

Maybe an INS investigation into the citizenship status of anyone who criticizes the Minuteman Project. Because interfering with these peaceable people interested only in monitoring our borders is clearly not in the best interest of the good ol' USA. (Do they have a test yet which reliably predicts anti-Americanism among citizens of this country? Maybe the person who can quantify that trait for detection hasn't been born yet.)

These are but a few of the scientific methods we might employ to explain and confirm the origins of the moonbat left and the influences that lead to their mindless ramblings, and their repeated attempts to institute policies that are proven failures. While this testing, and a consequent intelligent debate on the real solutions for our country's needs, may lead to a scarcity of hyperbole, with so much at stake can we afford to not make the investment. For the children. Because this era is the most, first, largest, unprecedented, worst, least, never before, whitest, unparralleled, Christianest, racistest, gulagest, whatever, ever. And we have a right to know......

I welcome your suggestions for other tests whose time have come. And watch for the television version, coming soon, CSI DNC.

I strongly suggest this piece by Jeff Jacoby as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Debra Burlingame as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Michelle Malkin as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Walter E. Williams as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by David Asman as "Recommended Reading".

After the Senate voted to confirm Priscilla Owen, I pondered aloud what the poll numbers must be telling Robert Byrd for him to work as part of the Gang of 14, then vote for Owen. I should have put that thought in print.

A new poll shows Sen. Robert Byrd and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito would run neck and neck in a possible campaign for the Senate seat now held by Byrd.

An RMS Strategies Poll released today reports that 46 percent of 401 registered voters in West Virginia would vote for Byrd if the election were held now.

A total of 43 percent picked Capito, R-W.Va., though she has not announced her intention to run.

And 11 percent said they were undecided -- a percentage that could sway the vote either way.

(Stovepipe hattip: Best of the Web)

I strongly suggest this piece by Brendan Miniter as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. as "Recommended Reading".

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants - Thomas Jefferson.

Just after the war in Iraq began, a young man living in the Fort Myers area, Marine Lance Cpl. David Fribley, was killed in action near An Nasiriyah, Iraq. This is a quote from a retirement letter he wrote to his co-workers as he left to join the Marines:

The following is my gift to you; may I honor you and our fellow countrymen and women. I will earn the privilege to wear Eagle, Globe and Anchor for all those that cannot. With all the strength of my fellow Marines, we shall always provide you with the comforting feeling of safety that you have each day.

I wish I was ten years younger!

Two years ago, with the wounds of 9/11 still fresh, and as I read about the sacrifices of Lance Cpl. Fribley and others, a though came to me. I wrote it down and liked it so much I made it into a signature for my Outlook e-mail. All of these thoughts and feelings, and that signature, came back to me today after reading articles by Ben Stein and Thomas Sowell:

The greatest examples of Heroism are the smallest deeds, done by the most insignificant of people, with no hope or expectation of reward... those are the deeds that change the world!

Chapinesque?

I saw this man collecting the bananas which fell from his truck and my first thought was, Thirty Thousand Pounds Of Bananas.

(Hey, at TBR we can't be serious all of the time. And besides, consider yourself lucky that I wasn't inspired to photograph a reminder of a Loudon Wainwright III song.

I strongly suggest this piece by Frederick Turner as "Recommended Reading".

Way back on June 23, 2004 TBR made note of having countered a reader's foolish argument comparing the US detention of terrorists to the Soviet Gulags. This past week has shown that the fellow who calls himself "upyernoz" did not get the message out to Amnesty International; for the folks over there went with the same theory as upyernoz, and have been soundly rebutted for it. If a liberal makes a stupid claim, they should realize by now, there are even thinking conservatives who will put the lib's argument in its place.

Even the NY Times [registration required] readers are calling AI out on this one.

By referring to the United States detention facility at Guantánamo Bay as the "the gulag of our times" ("U.S. 'Thumbs Its Nose' at Rights, Amnesty Says," news article, May 26), Amnesty International demeans and trivializes the suffering and deaths of millions of people in Soviet prisons, labor camps and death camps from the 1920's through 1991.

And well they should. The dumbing down of historical events and figures to make them somehow compare to today's events needs to end. For, as Ms Pinnis so aptly puts it; the comparison "demeans and trivializes". The corruption of history is not a permissible political strategy (or permissible for any purpose) and must be challenged and stopped at every turn.

Just a reminder, because we should never forget. The History Channel had a presentation yesterday wherein they used aerial reconnaisance photos from the day of the invasion and digitally worked up a moment by moment recreation of the troop movements. I was busy with something else and missed the program, hope it shows again. The recon photos have been in an archive, all but forgotten, until some enterprising historian decided to do the hard work of analyzing and compiling the information into a composite representing military history in real time motion. A new way to appreciate the efforts, strategies, and sacrifices made during the turning point of the war.

We are grateful for what happened that day, the beginning of the end of Nazi tyranny, and for the preservation of freedoms which followed forth.

I strongly suggest this piece by Victor Davis Hanson as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Timothy Noah as "Recommended Reading".

I strongly suggest this piece by Ben Stein as "Recommended Reading".

We have had many posts on this site regarding Terri Schiavo and the manner in which she died, all of which generated their fair share of comments. But no matter which side of the debate you fell on, or even if you were not really sure what the fuss was all about in the first place, the article Annihilating Terry Schiavo is something you absolutely must read. And don't cheat yourself - read the whole thing. It's long, but well worth the time.