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“To the distinguished character of patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.”  — George Washington   http://PatriotPost.US/fqd/

PATRIOT PERSPECTIVE

Onward Christian Soldiers...
By Mark Alexander

Last year, I was invited to fly with a Carrier Air Group fighter squadron. I had met the commander some years earlier at an Air War College seminar. He is a devout Christian, which cemented our brotherhood for life, and it was an honor to visit his Wing.

Navy and Marine aviators (OK, and you Air Force and Army pilots) are an impressive lot, but what impressed me most about this commander’s squadron was how unabashed his F/A-18 drivers were about their faith.

The image most folks have of fighter pilots is one of arrogant brawn, and that image is often affirmed when aviators start talking about their skill set, and who is the best among them. Such bravado seems discordant with the humility advocated in the Gospels, but most of these guys leave that boastful icon on station.

What was entirely concordant with the Gospel message is the underlying service ethic displayed by all of this wing’s personnel, from green E-1s to career O-6s. I inquired of my friend whether there were aviators matriculating through his squadron who did not have reverence for their Creator. He replied with a smile, “Yes, but they don’t last long.”

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to train with a lot of military officers and senior enlisted personnel, many of whom were of strong faith. Yes, most were also type-A’s — some to a fault — but unlike too many of their countrymen, most military personnel understand the order of command, their place in the ranks, and that their ultimate Commander in Chief is the sovereign God of their oaths.

Ah, yes, their oath — “I will support and defend... so help me God.”
http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=321  Another general, George Washington, once queried, “[W]here is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths...?”

These would be the same oaths repeated by politicos who are elected or appointed to national office, although the very same words have a far different meaning
http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=505  to the men and women serving our nation in uniform.

Most politicos on the Left, and a few to the right of center, think of themselves as lords over those they are elected, ostensibly, to serve. Conversely, military personnel are prepared to lay down their lives in service to others. As Jesus said in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

Over the years, I have asked military leaders from each service branch about the disparity between the prevalence of faith within the ranks and within American culture at large. Some respond that because the majority of those serving in uniform are conservative, there is a higher instance of reverence for God. Others suggest that the real potential of coming face-to-face with one’s own destiny tends to bring one closer to God. Still others say that those who are self-centered, those who believe that they are “little gods,” rarely make it beyond the first weeks of basic.

As a former commandant of the Marine Recruiting Station in San Diego put it, “Most young people either enter the service with the right frame of reference for who is in charge, or they best learn that order quickly.”

Unfortunately, at the prompting of congressional Leftists, military leaders are under increasing pressure to ensure they maintain an “inclusive environment” for personnel under their command. That is code for a “don’t ask — don’t tell” constraint on the expression of faith.
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Typical of that mandate is the 2005 case against Brig. Gen. John Weida, who, when serving as commandant of cadets at the Air Force Academy, was accused of commingling character development with Judeo-Christian principles — as if the two are mutually exclusive.

General Weida sent an email to cadets promoting “national prayer week,” and encouraging cadets to “ask the Lord to give us wisdom.” He even had the audacity to suggest, “Remember, you are accountable first to your God, this great nation, our great Air Force.”

Worse yet, the USAFA’s football coach hung a banner in the locker room proclaiming, “I am a member of Team Jesus Christ.”

When Americans United for the Separation of Church and State got wind of these acts of intolerance, they accused Weida of violating the First Amendment’s
http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=557  establishment clause and protested, “There is a general climate of religious coercion and official hostility toward those who do not practice evangelical Christianity.” They whipped up a congressional storm of protest on the Left.

Apparently, AUSCS, congressional Demo-gogues and half of the Judicial Supremacists
http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=296  are unable to comprehend the plain language our Founders used in that clause, stipulating that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” but offering no restriction on anyone else.

Gen. Weida was rebuked. His cadets and instructors were ordered to attend a 50-minute sensitivity training class entitled “Respecting the Spiritual Values of All People,” still in use at the USAFA.

Currently, military leaders, including chaplains, have a cloud of congressional Leftists hanging over their head, just waiting to pour down judgment should they be accused of advocating Christian principles.

Nonetheless, a few military officers have figured out a work-around.

Major General Mastin Robeson, Commanding General, 3rd Marine Division, has this notice tacked up around his base: “My Personal Priorities. There are three priorities in my life. You need to know them in order to understand some of the decisions I will make. First — God. Second — Family. Third — Service to Country. All of us (and our families) make sacrifices in order to wear this uniform, but I expect each of you to have priorities that are more important than your profession. My rationale is simple. God is an eternal commitment; my family is a lifetime commitment; and my service to country (though very dear to me) is limited in the number of years I can serve. I will never make a decision that jeopardizes my faith or my family in order to further my military career, nor should you.”

The notice concludes, “When bullets start flying, the spiritual welfare of your warriors will be as important as any. I ask that every member of this command be offered a worship opportunity weekly, and be encouraged to attend. As such, I ask that training not be scheduled on Sunday mornings.”

Of course, he is not proselytizing, just letting his command have an insight into his motivational criteria.

Army Major General Clay Buckingham, now retired, says of Christians in uniform: “The highest Christian value is that human life is infinitely precious in the sight of God, and therefore whatever protects and enhances life is good, and that whatever destroys or degrades human life is evil... In its purest and most fundamental essence, the purpose of military force is not to destroy life but to protect life — to protect the lives of the citizens of the nation so that they may live in peace and security... This purpose is entirely consistent with, and actually flows from, the highest Christian ethic — that which protects and enhances life is good.”

Of course, the atheist Left is always looking for new ways to abolish the vestigial remains of faith from our military.

Democrats in Congress have now instructed the Department of Veterans Affairs to scrutinize the ceremonial folding of flags after being removed from the caskets of fallen warriors.

An appropriately proportioned flag folds 13 times on triangles, representing the original 13 colonies. But at many interments, there is a secondary recitation with each fold pertaining to faith. The National Cemetery Administration now prohibits that recitation, it claims, “to create uniform services throughout the military graveyard system.”
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Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) is demanding the VA reverse its decision. “If a family member would like the 13-flag fold recitation at the funeral of their loved one, they should not be prevented by Washington bureaucrats. The VA is being manipulated by out-of-control secularists who wish to banish the word ‘God’ from American history and culture. What’s next? Disallowing the playing of Amazing Grace at military funerals?”

Don’t give ‘em any ideas, Ken.

Thomas Jefferson once proclaimed, “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure [without] a conviction... that these liberties are a gift from God?”

Some seem to think so. According to most Democrats, God is an impediment to liberty.

Quote of the week

“My Christian home and education did not teach me what God wanted to do with my life. It taught me that I am to be obedient to His direction and leading in spite of my personal desires. I stayed in the military because I felt God’s call... The Marine Corps still embeds corps values of courage, honor and commitment in the heart of every recruit — that these young men and women understand that the only thing worse than war is believing that there is not anything worth dying for.”  — Maj. Gen. Mastin Robeson

PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Our nation lost another Patriot from the Greatest Generation this week — Brigadier General Paul Warfield Tibbets. As a 30-year-old colonel and pilot of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay, Tibbets flew the mission that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on 6 August 1945. Then Col. Tibbets, who served in the Air Force until 1966, was challenged to defend his actions for most of his life. As he noted, “I knew when I got the assignment it was going to be an emotional thing. We had feelings, but we had to put them in the background. We knew it was going to kill people right and left. But my one driving interest was to do the best job I could so that we could end the killing as quickly as possible.” One person who has never questioned ending WWII with two nuclear bombs is my father. He was a carrier pilot, flying F4U Corsairs. His Wing would have been in the early waves over the invasion of the Japanese mainland had those bombs not forced Japan to surrender. He and his wingmen resigned themselves to the fact that they would likely die in that invasion, along with hundreds of thousands of other Americans and many more Japanese citizens. God bless you, Sir, and thank you for your service to our country.

GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

News from the Swamp: Budget battles

On the Hill: President George W. Bush criticized Congress this week for not getting appropriations bills to his desk. “The House of Representatives has wasted valuable time on a constant stream of investigations, and the Senate has wasted valuable time on an endless series of failed votes to pull our troops out of Iraq,” the President said. The fiscal year began 1 October, and there are many spending bills still to be finished. President Bush also blasted Democrats’ propensity for adding new taxes to several bills, saying that Democrats “haven’t seen a bill they could not solve without shoving a tax hike into it.”

War funding continues to be a point of contention as well. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared, “The Iraq war has been a waste of money.” The President fired a return volley, saying, “When it comes to [war] funding, some in Washington should spend more time responding to the warnings of terrorists like Osama bin Laden and the requests of our commanders on the ground and less time responding to MoveOn.org bloggers and Code Pink protesters.” Ooorah, Mr. President!

As for greatly expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Republicans, as is far too often the case, are still quibbling over who and how much, rather than whether or not. The House last week passed (by a less-than-veto-proof majority) a slightly revised version of the expansion President Bush vetoed. The revised version limits health coverage for “the poor” to families of four making $62,000 or less — 300 percent of the poverty level and $14,000 a year above the median household income. Another sticking point is the 156-percent increase in the tobacco tax, which brings the federal tax on cigarettes to $1 per pack. Sounds like Congress should be recruiting smokers pretty aggressively or revenue might dry up. The Senate will take up the bill again next week.
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In the Executive Branch: Nominees face Senate

President Bush’s nominee for Attorney General, Judge Michael Mukasey, is predictably under fire in his Senate confirmation hearings. Judiciary Committee Democrats are “concerned” that Mukasey has not denounced strongly enough the interrogation technique known as “waterboarding”  — a tactic that creates the sensation of drowning and often produces great results (just ask Khalid Sheikh Mohammed). As a judge, Mukasey often ruled on terror cases but refuses to pretend to know enough about the use of waterboarding by the CIA to call it illegal torture. He noted that Congress had outlawed the practice for the military, but not the CIA. The Judiciary Committee plans a vote on the nomination next Tuesday, but it doesn’t look promising. The President is digging in, saying that if Mukasey is not confirmed, “That would guarantee that America would have no attorney general during this time of war”  — Mukasey or no one.

Another cabinet nomination was submitted this week — former North Dakota governor Edward Schafer for the Department of Agriculture. Former agriculture secretary Mike Johanns resigned in September in order to run for Chuck Hagel’s Nebraska Senate seat. The Department oversees food safety, economic development in rural areas and the food-stamp program. President Bush said, “Ed Schafer is... a leader on agricultural issues during his eight years as governor of North Dakota.” We don’t expect that Schafer will be a leader in trying to cut farm subsidies, however. Congress is currently considering a $288-million farm bill.

New & notable legislation

Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) introduced the REAL Supplemental Act (H.R. 3857), requiring that each supplemental appropriations bill represent a single emergency, authorize only emergency spending and contain no earmarks.

The House followed the Senate and passed the Internet Tax Freedom Act (H.R. 3678), a seven-year ban on Internet taxes, after having already approved a four-year ban. “Seven years is better than nothing,” said Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI). True, but a House bill establishing a permanent ban has 238 co-sponsors, clearly a majority. For some reason the Democrat leadership is not allowing it to come to the floor.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed to the full Senate the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, more commonly known as the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST)
http://PatriotPost.US/opinion/entry.asp?entry_id=28280  . The committee vote was an appalling 17-4 in favor of this attempt to cede sovereignty to the UN. There is still hope for defeat, however. A two-thirds vote is required for ratification, meaning only 34 votes are needed to kill it.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) has called the lack of diversity in the representation of minorities in Capitol artwork a “disgrace,” and he has called on the Architect of the Capitol (AoC) to diversify its artwork. Rangel’s diatribe may have landed him in the news, along with other minority legislators who have made similar complaints, but the facts tell a different story. While the Capitol’s 100-piece Statuary Hall depicts only nine minority figures, it is up to the individual states to submit the statues, not the federal government. A recent law has given the states the right to submit new art pieces for the collection, but the AoC does not commission artwork and thus has no responsibility to diversify the collection to Rangel’s liking.

From the Left: Clinton fraud in new documentary

A new documentary detailing the long battle between Bill and Hillary Clinton and businessman Peter Paul received its first screenings this week at universities around the country and the Metropolitan Club in New York City. “Hillary Uncensored” is Paul’s answer to what he claims is a campaign by the Clintons to ruin his reputation and tie him up in unending legal proceedings.

Once a friend of the Clintons, Paul put together a million-dollar fundraiser for Hillary’s 2000 Senate campaign in exchange for Bill’s services as a rainmaker for a media concern put together by Paul and Marvel Comics founder Stan Lee. The fundraiser ran afoul of federal campaign-finance laws and led to the arrest of former Clinton fundraising chair David Rosen. Rosen was later cleared of the charges, but Paul lost millions when Bill reneged on the deal. Paul filed a suit against the Clintons for fraud, demanding that Hillary be deposed to detail her role in putting the fundraiser together. She claims that she played no part in organizing the event, despite Paul’s videotaped evidence of a conference call in which Hillary is heard discussing details of the event, a big no-no when it comes to campaign-finance regulations.
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The California Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court ruling last week that Hillary did not have to appear as a defendant in the Paul suit, but now the court of public opinion will have an opportunity to view the evidence that the courts deemed as inadmissible in the new documentary. Since the MSM has no interest in reporting information detrimental to the Clintons, it’s now up to concerned citizens to spread the word about the film and the latest in a long line of questionable Clinton campaign tactics.

Campaign watch: Campaign cash for earmarks

Speaking of Hillary, she and fellow New York Senator Chuck Schumer received thousands of dollars in campaign cash from Nobel prize-winning scientist James Watson, while requesting a $900,000 earmark for his Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. According to federal filing reports, earlier this year Watson donated $70,000 to Demo candidates, Schumer and Clinton among them, just days before the earmark was submitted. Watson, who co-discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, recently retired after drawing public ire for telling the London Sunday Times that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really.” Amid the all-too-predictable firestorm that followed, the 79-year-old Watson was cowed into apologizing for his remarks. Still, those remarks are likely to kill the earmark.

Liberal infighting in the Obama camp

Homosexual activists’ ceaseless battle to impose their “standards” on the public has now landed the Barack Obama campaign in hot water. A recent fundraising tour of the South led by Grammy-winning gospel singer Donnie McClurkin was attacked as hypocritical by the Human (read: Homosexual) Rights Campaign (HRC). McClurkin’s view that homosexuality is a lifestyle that can be changed supposedly runs counter to Obama’s overall message of bringing people together around faith and family values. McClurkin, who suffered sexual abuse from adult-male relatives as a child, refers to himself as an “ex-gay” man who accepted Christ and became a changed person. HRC and other such groups have called upon Obama to sever his ties with McClurkin, even though the issue of lifestyle choice is not a part of McClurkin’s work for Obama or his campaign in general. So far, Obama has not buckled, which may have something to do with a recent poll that found 74 percent of blacks in South Carolina believe homosexuality is “unacceptable.”

This week’s ‘Tin Foil Hat’ award

During Tuesday’s presidential debate, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Roswell) was asked about his recent UFO sighting. Kucinich indignantly responded, “It was an unidentified flying object, OK? It’s, like, it’s unidentified. I saw something.” He continued, “You have to keep in mind that... Jimmy Carter saw a UFO and also that more people in this country have seen UFOs than I think approve of George Bush’s presidency.” Jimmy also tried whacking a “rabid” rabbit with his canoe paddle once, which brings to mind “the most foul, cruel and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on” from the 1975 Monty Python flick, but we digress...

Earlier in the day, believe it or not, Kucinich said, “I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about [President Bush’s] mental health. There’s something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact.” Dennis, phone home.

A bad week for Colorado

In one week’s time, Colorado suffered the indignity of its home baseball team, the Rockies, being unceremoniously swept out of the World Series by the Boston Red Sox, followed by Rep. Tom Tancredo’s announcement that he will retire from the House next year after serving out his fifth term. Tancredo has been a champion for serious immigration reform, but he told reporters this week, “I really believe I have done all I can do in the House” to improve America’s immigration policy. Tancredo will continue to speak and write on immigration reform and he intends to remain in the presidential race, though the conservative stalwart remains quite a long shot for the nomination. His retirement adds to the uphill Republican task of winning back the House.
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The Electoral College and California

Every few years or so, it seems someone (usually a Democrat) wants to make an issue of the Electoral College. Apparently, the American educational system is incapable of explaining that ours is a federal system, much less the value of such a system. So consider this: Think about the 2000 election. Think Florida and hanging chads. Now think Florida spread across the entire country, with lawyers running rampant across every precinct, trying to “find” votes. Does the Electoral College make the Founders seem omniscient?

Recently, some nice folks out in California, mostly Republicans, have sought to change the state’s Electoral College voting system to one that allocates votes by House district, with the state winner getting the two “Senate” votes. Now, under our federal system, Californians should be able to do whatever they wish (Maine and Nebraska already use this system), but is this really a good idea? Though this fight might demonstrate the hypocrisy of those power-mongering faux populists opposed to the Electoral College, won’t this just further demonstrate the Great and Holy Power of the Nearly Almighty Gerrymander?

Seems to us that if self-proclaimed populists are really concerned about power to the people, they should spend their time fighting gerrymandering, a state topic, rather than advocating the circumvention of the Electoral College.

NATIONAL SECURITY

Meso-stable Mesopotamia

Offering more evidence that lasting stability in Iraq will require deeply pondered solutions, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan flatly dissed Iraq’s proposal to use U.S. troops to broker peace along the Iraq-Turkey border, a region populated predominantly by Kurds. The proposal highlights Iraq’s eagerness to prevent Turkey from invading Northern Iraq to suppress raids by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (P.K.K.) into Turkey. The most recent of these raids resulted in 12 dead and eight captured Turkish soldiers. Notwithstanding Iraq’s offer, however, the U.S. is understandably gun-shy about poking its nose into this mess. Since both Turkey and Iraq are allies, siding with either would only exacerbate matters. Add to this tar baby the fact that neither country wants an independent Kurdistan carved from its topography (but each is more than happy to carve such a region out of its neighbor’s, of course), and the true magnitude of the problem begins to emerge.

The good news is that under the new Iraqi government, the Kurdistan Regional Government (K.R. G.) exercises near-autonomy over most of Northern Iraq, the first truly Kurdish rule in nearly 50 years. Even so, approximately half of all Kurds (15 million) live in Turkey, roughly 20 percent of its population (71 million). Evidently, some Kurds would like to annex part of Turkey in addition to Northern Iraq, hence, the P.K.K. raids. Prime Minister Erdogan has been under pressure to end P.K.K. violence in Turkey, going so far as to threaten sending Turkish troops into Iraq to fix the problem, if need be. He is expected to meet with President Bush next week. For his part, President Bush could help Erdogan at that meeting by reminding Kurdish separatists that near-autonomy over peaceful, largely uncontested governorates is far superior to continued war with Turkey, along with a likely loss of self-rule.

Profiles of valor: Marine Corps Staff Sgt Bogart

Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Daniel Bogart, leader of the 1st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Platoon serving in Iraq, had just completed the disposal of two IEDs while under enemy fire. A traveling Humvee suddenly detonated another IED mere feet away from Bogart and a fellow team member. The explosion left Bogart’s eardrums damaged, and his fellow Marine sustained shrapnel wounds. As medics attempted to assist the injured Marines, Bogart insisted they stay clear, knowing there was another live IED in the area. Bogart then located and dismantled the explosive device, evacuated his partner, and then came back to conduct post-blast analysis before finally allowing medics to treat him.
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Bogart is credited with disposing of over 11,000 pounds of unexploded ordnance during a seven-month tour in which his team conducted 170 missions. The father of two was recently awarded the Bronze Star with combat “V” for valor. “I wish they could give this award to my whole team,” Bogart said. “Nobody gets anything done on their own. When your team sets you up for success like this, you can’t go wrong.”

Immigration front: New York sanctuary state

One of many federal dictates in the wake of 9/11 is the REAL ID Act, an effort by Washington to standardize state drivers’ licenses. Homeland Security’s aim is to add more stringent requirements to the process of obtaining these and similar forms of identification by requiring proof of citizenship or legal residency. Many civil libertarians have derided the program as an intrusion on states’ rights and yet another unfunded mandate, as Congress appropriated only a small portion of the estimated $23 billion needed for full implementation.

Despite the deal reached by the state of New York and the Bush administration on compliance with REAL ID, Governor Eliot Spitzer still angered federal Homeland Security officials by planning to maintain a three-tiered system for drivers’ licensing as part of his state’s compliance effort, with the third tier being a driver’s license tailored for “undocumented” (read: illegal) immigrants. Spitzer claims that this will bring illegals “out of the shadows,” but it is likely that folks will acquire this more legitimate form of identification using forged or stolen information. In other words, the shadows will grow.

The issue even worked its way into Tuesday night’s Democrat presidential debate, where frontrunner Hillary Clinton (D-NY) bobbed and weaved around the question of her support for the new provisions. She first praised Gov. Spitzer for “fill[ing] a vacuum” left by the Bush administration but then responded to criticism from other candidates, “I did not say that it should be done.” When moderator Tim Russert pointed out her waffling, she whined, “You know, Tim, this is where everybody plays ‘gotcha’.” Wednesday, Clinton’s campaign attempted to clean up the mess by taking a stand for Spitzer’s plan once again. Whatever, Hill.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Income Redistribution: AMT ‘relief’

Few would argue the faults of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Even Democrats — those of the same party that concocted this “tax-the-rich” ploy nearly 40 years ago — have come to grips with its detriments. But if the AMT is harmful to the American taxpayer, New York Demo Rep. Charlie Rangel’s alternative to the Alternative Minimum Tax  http://archive.PatriotPost.US/pub/07-43_Digest/page-4.php  is nothing short of disastrous.

On the surface, Rangel’s proposal, the “Tax Reduction and Reform Act,” seems acceptable: extend the current AMT relief provisions for one year and eliminate the AMT completely in 2008. However, as former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey notes, “the static price tag for this ‘relief’ is where the trouble starts.” Rangel’s proposal, more accurately labeled “the mother of all tax reform,” would offset the “reduction” in the AMT by imposing a four-percent tax increase on individuals earning more than $150,000 and on couples earning more than $200,000. According to Michael Shuyler, Senior Economist for the Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation, taxpayers now in the 25-percent income-tax bracket would pay 29 percent; those in the 28-percent bracket would pay 32 percent; taxpayers in the 33-percent bracket would pay 37 percent, and those paying 35 percent would dish out a whopping 39 percent. Moreover, these hikes will come on top of the elimination of President Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. “The combined result,” Armey notes, is “America’s top income-tax rate will skyrocket from the current 35-percent rate to a top rate of 44 percent. Let’s be clear — that’s a 25-percent hike.”

Twenty-five percent is big even by Democrats’ standards. It’s no wonder House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has begun to backtrack from her initial support for the great Rangel Reduction. After all, who can afford such a tax cut?
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Regulatory Commissars: Emissions are bad

Greenhouse-gas emissions exceeded the worst-case scenarios peddled by the United Nations, according to a report appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The report claims that carbon-dioxide emissions have grown by 3.3 percent a year between 2000 and 2006, after the UN forecasted that the increase, at worst, would be 2.4 percent. “There’s even less reason to think we have time to fiddle around,” worried one of the report’s authors. Meanwhile, as the human race continues to live on, we’re left to wonder: Could it be that the UN scientists were overzealous in their predictions? Could it be that there’s a political agenda at stake here?

Meanwhile, back in Kansas, a permit for a coal-fired power plant was denied because of — surprise! — global warming. “I believe it would be irresponsible to ignore emerging information about the contribution of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to climate change and the potential harm to our environment and health if we do nothing,” said Roderick Bremby, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. While the proposed plant’s owners will file an appeal, alternatives include bringing electricity from a plant in Missouri. If the state’s trend of denying energy permits continues, we’ll know who’s to blame when the lights go out in Kansas.

Deficits and declining dollars

There has been much consternation of late regarding the declining value of the dollar. However, despite the negative economic consequences, many are welcoming the decline and are encouraging the federal government to weaken the dollar further via monetary policy. The question is: Why? Those arguing for such interference believe it will give domestic industry an edge over foreign competition by making American exports relatively cheaper. It’s a protectionist tactic designed to decrease the much-maligned trade deficit, in particular, that with China. The U.S. imports far more from China than it exports, creating a drastic bilateral-trade deficit and resulting in all manner of political scheming as to how this “problem” can be remedied. Virtually all leading politicians agree with the Bush administration’s push to weaken the dollar in order to reduce the deficit with China.

The problem with this policy is that such a deficit isn’t really a problem. All it indicates is that millions of consumers and businesses are freely doing business with one another. An increase in imports naturally follows from a healthy economy. Furthermore, U.S. exports have been growing at a faster pace than imports for two years now, and the U.S. has a sizable trade surplus in important sectors of the economy — most notably the fast-growing service industry. As counterintuitive as it often seems, the principles of the free market do apply at the global level. Indeed, trade with China is a good thing.

CULTURE

Around the nation: Nebraska blood testing

Controversy swirled this week over Nebraska’s law requiring mandatory blood testing of newborns for various diseases. Recently, a couple would not allow their infant boy to be tested, citing religious reasons, but because the law has no opt-out provision, the county obtained an order from a juvenile-court judge to test the baby anyway. This permitted sheriff’s deputies to take the nursing six-week-old baby from his parents. Additionally, the next day, the judge ordered that the baby remain in foster care until the preliminary results came back and confirmed further testing wasn’t needed.

This is an example of what may happen if the government should become the only provider of healthcare. If the state can take a nursing baby from its mother for (relatively) arbitrary reasons and then place him in foster care, what will limit the state when it controls all aspects of healthcare? It seems a silly question to even ask, but who has superior rights to a child — the parents or the state? In Cuba, it’s the state.

The parents are suing the health officials for violation of their constitutional due-process rights. The so-called protectors of our civil liberties should be very concerned if this proves to be a trend. Will the ACLU leap to the defense of the parents? Don’t bet on it.
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Capital punishment challenged

As the U.S. Supreme Court stayed an execution this week in Mississippi, the third since it agreed to take a case challenging Kentucky’s lethal-injection procedures, the liberal American Bar Association (ABA) called for a nationwide moratorium on capital punishment. A three-year study conducted by the ABA concluded that the process by which states carry out executions is “deeply flawed.” According to Stephen Hanlon, chairman of the ABA’s Death Penalty Moratorium Product, “Capital-defense systems are being under-funded, and unqualified and under-resourced lawyers are defending death-row inmates.”

The study examined the death penalty in eight states — Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania — and found problems ranging from improper DNA handling to politically influenced judicial decisions. Yet, while the ABA seeks a stay of executions nationwide, it is also abandoning the true victims of murder. William “Rusty” Hubbarth of Justice for All contends that the ABA is taking “political stances” and “worrying about the rights of the defendant, rather than the rights of the victims, or the rest of society.”

We believe in the societal efficacy, constitutional provision and biblical support of capital punishment and have long contended
http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=138  that it serves its objectives of deterrence, retribution and incapacitation. After all, the recidivism rate of executed inmates is zero.

Frontiers of Junk Science: AWOL hurricanes

The Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies issued a release this week saying, “Unless a dramatic and historical flurry of activity occurs in November and December, 2007 will rank as a historically inactive TC [tropical cyclone] year for the Northern Hemisphere as a whole. During past 30 years, only 1977 has had less activity to date Jan 1-Oct 31.” 2006 was also a below-average performer. Gasp! There have not been enough hurricanes! We thought global warming was supposed to cause more and more Hurricane Katrinas each year, bringing devastation, death and career advancement for alarmists. Now, as it turns out, the inactivity will contribute to global warming because hurricanes serve to cool ocean temperatures. Oh well. There’s always next year.

’Non Compos Mentis’: Fires and FEMA

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) held a press conference Tuesday to discuss the agency’s response to the California wildfires, touting it as better than its response to Hurricane Katrina — not a grand feat, to be sure. The problem was the only “reporters” who attended the conference were FEMA employees asking softball questions. Kind of like Chris Matthews interviewing Hillary Clinton on “Hardball.” Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson, Jr., FEMA’s deputy administrator, said that the agency will be “reviewing our press procedures.” John P. “Pat” Philbin, FEMA’s director of external affairs, apologized, saying, “It was absolutely a bad decision. I regret it happened.” We’re sure Philbin also regrets the fact that he will not now be the top public-information officer for Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell.

As for the fires, CBS trumpeted that they cause global warming: “Wildfires Spew Tons of Global Warming Gas — SoCal’s fires added as much CO2 to air in one week as state’s cars and power plants.” On the other hand, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Searchlight) says global warming caused the fires. We’re so confused! The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming held a hearing yesterday “examining the scientific link between a changing climate and the frequency and intensity of wildfires.” Good luck with that. The Associated Press reports, “Officials blamed a wildfire that consumed more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes last week on a boy playing with matches.” At least one other fire was the result of arson, or “man-made global warming.” In a related tragedy, actor Sean Penn lost his trailer to the fire in Malibu.

And last...

“Eating Food Will Kill You.” So says conservative columnist Alan Caruba in a post at the National Anxiety Center. In a parody of the usual media reports on the latest disease- or death-causing food, Caruba simply makes the next logical leap: “No one who has eaten food in the past is alive today and everyone currently eating food will die.” He mocks the announcement this week by the World Cancer Research Fund International, based in the United Kingdom, and the American Institute for Cancer Research, that “eating meat will give you some form of cancer.” Just as a certain global-warming alarmist
http://PatriotPost.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=520  has staked his career on scaring the pants off of the gullible among us, so too do many publicly funded scientists rely on regular studies showing various links to cancer in order to put food on their tables — an unfortunate mistake, as we now know. Still, while the Psalms tell us that “the length of our days is seventy years — or eighty, if we have the strength,” Caruba says, “[T]hose noble people who seek to save us from eating every kind of food that the earth provides should be hailed and saluted for their efforts to keep us alive.”

Veritas vos Liberabit — Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot’s editors and staff. (Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm’s way around the world, and for their families — especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)

AMEN!

This guy is a crack up!
Although I do try to watch what I eat and don't usually eat alot of meat, not because I don't like it but because I can't afford it.  But I figure life is too short to not give into whatever it is you're craving.  Cheese Doritos being my biggest downfall!

If they would stop feeding cows meat, Hormone steroids, Ect. ect. ect....
That's not natural!
We've breed the nutrients right out of our vegetables!
We've introduced our soil to millions of Gals. of pesticides!
For being a Smart people we sure are a Stupid Country!(professing to be so wise, we've become Stupid)
Bent over with blinders on is what i've always have said, And they ain't changed my mind yet!
Gitty-up Horsey ;D

Brother Duane,

You just spoke volumes, and we've had blinders on in many ways. It's a lot more than just food. Our country and way of life UNDER GOD are being stolen before our very eyes. Brother, it's a very sad state of affairs. I just hope that every Christian prays for the strength to remain standing until CHRIST comes to take us home.

Love In Christ,
Tom

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 NASB
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

AMEN Brother

Everyday you can see another thread of fabric(GOD & COUNTRY)torn away!