PRESS ONE: “Are you tired of anonymous voices on the phone telling you to ‘Press 1 (or sometimes 2) for English’? The ability to speak and communicate in English is the litmus test of whether immigrants are assimilating into U.S. culture.” - Columnist Phyllis Schlafly
“After three days of screaming headlines about the CIA destroying videotapes in 2005 of the ‘harsh’ interrogation of two terrorists, it now comes to light that in 2002 key members of Congress were fully briefed by the CIA about those interrogation techniques, including waterboarding. One member of that Congressional delegation was the future House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
“…One certainly may hold as abhorrent the idea of aggressively interrogating ANY terrorists ever, either for fear of what they might do to our people, as John McCain does, or because one thinks this violates our values. What one may not do — at least not if one wants the system to function — is assent to such a policy in 2002 and then, when the policy is made public, put up the pretense that one is ‘shocked’ and appalled to learn of it. This is bad faith.”
- Review & Outlook, Wall Street Journal, 12/11/07
BATTLING THE HOG BUTCHERS
“The 110th Congress is about two things, pork and power. On both sides of aisle it is about bringing home the bacon so that the representatives can continue to live high on the hog. There are a handful of your representatives, Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) in the Senate and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) in the House are among the most notable, willing to battle the hog butchers who carve up the public largess, but the reformers are few and the takers are many. . . . Congress ranks well below the president, the war and probably spinach, heartburn and Barry Bonds in the public’s approval.”
- Herald-Democrat (Okla.) columnist Edward Southerland
IGNORANCE IS PUBLIK SKOOL BLISS
“We could focus on the latest worrisome news in education: the results of an international test released last week that show American 15-year-olds don’t know much about science and are falling behind their peers in other industrialized nations. But why get depressed? There is an aluminum foil lining: The test also found that our teens don’t let their ignorance bother them.
“They may not know as much as students in Finland, Canada or New Zealand, but they think they do. When asked to rate their own scientific abilities, they put themselves at the top with their better-educated peers. This is the real trend in American education. No one can match us when it comes to self-esteem.”
- Los Angeles Time editorial, 12/10/07
STRANGELY UNCONCERNED
“Americans differ on same-sex marriage and evolution, on the importance of sports and the value of phonics, on the right to bear arms and the reverence due the Confederate flag. Some parents are committed secularists; others are devout believers. Some place great emphasis on math and science; others stress history and foreign languages.
“Americans hold disparate opinions on everything from the truth of the Bible to the meaning of the First Amendment, from the usefulness of rote memorization to the significance of music and art. With parents so often in loud disagreement, why should children be locked into a one-size-fits-all, government-knows-best model of education?
“Nobody would want the government to run 90 percent of the nation’s entertainment industry. Nobody thinks that 90 percent of all housing should be owned by the state. Yet the government’s control of 90 percent of the nation’s schools leaves most Americans strangely unconcerned.”
- Columnist Jeff Jacoby
SUBSIDIZING ABSENTEE FARMERS
“Here’s today’s quiz: What do Scottie Pippen, David Letterman and Ted Turner have in common? Answer: None of them are farmers, but all three have received thousands of dollars in federal farm subsidies this decade. We could add to that list of non-farmer farm-aid recipients David Rockefeller, Leonard Lauder of the cosmetics firm, Edgar Bronfman Sr. of the Seagram fortune, and Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen. Our point is that you don’t have to drive a tractor, plant seeds, or even live anywhere near rural America to qualify for Uncle Sam’s farm largess. And you sure don’t have to be poor.”
- Review & Outlook, Wall Street Journal, 12/11/07
TIME TO END REEFER MADNESS
“At some point, we have to do an honest cost-benefit analysis for criminalizing marijuana. We jail tens of thousands of people and create legal burdens for hundreds of thousands more every year for using or selling a weed that grows almost everywhere. It puts an equal burden on law enforcement, courts, and the penal system. In exchange, we get a dubious effect on usage for a drug that has the same addictive and intoxicating effects as alcohol.”
- Blogger Ed Morrissey of Captain’s Quarters. Morrissey received the Blogger of the Year Award at this year’s Conservative Leadership Conference.
BRING ON FEC GRIDLOCK
“The FEC’s (Federal Elections Commission) policing powers may soon be splendidly paralyzed. Three current FEC members, two Democrats and one Republican, are recess appointees whose terms will end in a few days when this session of Congress ends — unless they are confirmed to full six-year terms. Four Senate Democrats decided to block the Republican, Hans von Spakovsky. Republicans have responded: ‘All three or none.’
“If this standoff persists until Congress adjourns, the three recess appointments will expire and the FEC will have just two members — a Republican vacancy has existed since April. If so, because four votes are required for all official actions, the commission will be prohibited from such actions including the disbursement of funds for presidential candidates seeking taxpayer financing.”
- Columnist George Will
Posted on December 11th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National
IGNORANCE IS PUBLIK SKOOL BLISS— This article points to one of the major problems in the U.S.A..
It says “No one can match us when it comes to self-esteem.” I believe it is not self-esteem as much as pride, and we are told in the “Good Book”, that is the Bible or “Word Of God” in Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” and we are warned about this many other times in the Bible.
We saw it on bumper stickers after 911 - “Power In Pride”. We see it in our saying “God bless America”, well God did and has blessed America. My generation has lived in the most prosperous times man has ever known. But we have also turned away from Father God during those times. I guess we don’t need God when we have so much prosperity.
I say “America Bless God!”.