ChristiansUnite Forums

THE FOUNDATION

"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection." --Thomas Paine

UPRIGHT

"One of the weirdest, most perceptually jarring things about the economic crisis is that everything looks the same. We are told every day and in every news venue that we are in Great Depression II, that we are in a crisis, a cataclysm, a meltdown, the credit crunch from hell, that we will lose millions of jobs, and that the great abundance is over and may never return. ... And yet when you free yourself from media and go outside for a walk, everything looks . . . the same." --Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan

"Unemployment is still below 7 percent; it was around 25 percent when Franklin Roosevelt became president. Less than 20 banks have failed, not the 4,000 that went under in the first part of 1933." --Hoover Institution historian Victor Davis Hanson

"There is a condign symmetry about this financial crisis. A government-induced crisis is getting a government-insured resolution. The excesses of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are being mopped up by huge federal spending, made all the more massive by all the reckless endeavors of the politicians, the regulators and the financiers who frivoled with the intemperance of Freddie and Fannie." --American Spectator editor in chief R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.

"I desperately hope that circumstances will force Obama to repudiate his past. At present we do not know whether this will happen; and so far, I have seen nothing to suggest that it will. Unlike those who see in the emerging shape of his administration evidence that he will be a pragmatic centrist, I do not think it necessarily shows anything of the kind." --British journalist Melanie Phillips

"If we don't know the constitutional limits placed on Congress and the White House, politicians can do just about anything they wish to control our lives, from deciding what kind of light bulbs we can use to whether the government can take over our health care system or bailout failing businesses. We just think Congress can do anything upon which they can get a majority vote." --George Mason University economics professor Walter E. Williams

INSIGHT

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." --President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools." --British author and economist Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

"Reaching consensus in a group is often confused with finding the right answer." --American writer Norman Mailer (1923-2007)

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed." --American author and humorist Mark Twain (1835-1910)

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

"While Americans sat through football games, planned their 'Black Friday' morning shopping, and all in all enjoyed a quiet and peaceful Thanksgiving, terrorists in India were slaughtering more than 200 innocent people. Westerners, particularly U.S. and British citizens, were primary targets. The fact that it was a peaceful American Thanksgiving went unnoticed by most. The fact that this has been the case since the Al Qaida attacks on America of Sept. 11, 2001, also went little noticed. That all of this coincides with and is a result of President Bush's prosecution of the war on Islamist extremism is never highlighted. Our final editorial today notes general news media bias in favor of Barack Obama. Imagine what that media would have had to say, and where all the blame would have gone, had America been attacked at home again on Bush's watch. We aren't suggesting that President Bush's strategy is the sole reason for our relative safety here at home. But it has certainly contributed in great measure. And before the new President and his eager Congress get to work dismantling what Bush has built, they better think very carefully. Bush's much-maligned Patriot Act, with its access to international communications traffic; his seizure and confinement of enemy combatants at Guantanamo, and his buildup of security forces at home and abroad, all of these things have helped to keep America safer. America is not safe from attacks such as just occurred in Mumbai, India. Indeed, a credible threat to the New York subway system was being watched this weekend. But we are safer than we were seven years ago and President Bush's administration deserves much of the credit for that this Thanksgiving weekend." --New Hampshire Union Leader

THE BRUSHFIRE OF FREEDOM

Founding Patriot Samuel Adams noted, "It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." That describes YOU!

"Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions." --George Washington

DEZINFORMATSIA

Gushing: "They're very -- I don't know how to put it. I don't want to gush. They're very cute, and very -- and very funny in this interview together." --ABC's Barbara Walters previewing her "Good Morning America" interview with Barack and Michelle Obama

Checking the cabinet: "Two initially surprising centrist choices for [Barack Obama's] so-called team of rivals -- Senator Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, and of course Bush Defense Secretary Robert Gates. In a way, this inoculates President-elect Obama from criticism that he is somehow soft in the area of foreign policy, doesn't it?" --CBS News anchor Katie Couric ++ "We have not seen this kind of combination of star power and brain power and political muscle this early in a cabinet in our lifetimes." --ABC political analyst George Stephanopoulos

Good grief: "Enough with the Lincoln analogies; Reagan is the president that Barack Obama is most closely modeling himself after." --Newsweek's Eleanor Clift **Of course! We're always confusing the two.

Hope for change: "There are many who had such an optimistic and hopeful opinion of things, and you certainly can't expect things to change on a dime overnight, but there are many who suggested that with the outgoing Bush administration and the incoming Obama administration there would be something of a lull in terrorism attacks. There had been such a global outpouring of affection, respect, hope, with the new administration coming in, that precisely these kinds of attacks, it was thought -- at least hoped -- would be dampered [sic] down." --MSNBC's Alex Witt on the Mumbai attacks

Please, no: "Will the mountain of crises our country faces make Barack Obama do great things?" --MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews with another tingle running up his leg

Caution is foolish?: "I mean this is an enormous crisis, you've got to hit it with an enormous stimulus to buck the economy up. I'm still worrying that they're going to be a little bit short, because you just have to put all your notions of what is prudent aside. Being cautious is actually a very foolish thing right now." --former Enron advisor Paul Krugman in The New York Times

Newspulper Headlines:

Good Thing No One Listens to Records Anymore: "Atlantic Hurricane Season Blows Away Records" --Associated Press

Gunns Don't Kill People, Gunns Rob People: "Gunn Pleads Guilty to Robbery Charge" --Paris (Texas) News

The Same Thing He Says About Everything Else: 'Arf!': "What Your Dog Says About You" --Forbes.com

Maybe With His New Job, He Can Afford Tires and Air Conditioning: "Richardson Seen as Tireless, Warm" --Boston Globe

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "Russia Turns Away From Vodka in Hard Times" --Daily Telegraph ++ "Vatican Warns That Mobile Phones Threaten the Soul" --Cellular-News.com

News You Can Use: "Tips to Stop Wild Turkeys From Terrorizing You" --Boston Globe Web site

Bottom Stories of the Day: "Obama Doodle Not for Sale, Owner Says" --Chicago Tribune

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto)

THE DEMO-GOGUES

Look out: "Understand that I will be setting policy as president. The buck will stop with me." --Barack Obama **Somehow, that's not reassuring.

Not exactly: "I hope and believe that the American people will come to feel as I do that we brought together one of the most talented national security teams ever assembled. A team prepared to meet the serious challenges we face today and the emerging threats that will confront us tomorrow." --Joe Biden

Don't forget what he said then: "What exactly is this foreign policy expertise? Was she negotiating treaties? Was she handling crises? The answer is no. ... It's what's wrong with politics today. Hillary Clinton will say anything to get elected. ... She'll say anything and change nothing. ... The question is, what kind of judgment will you exercise when you pick up that phone ... In fact, we've had a red-phone moment. It was the decision to invade Iraq. Sen. Clinton gave the wrong answer." --Barack Obama during the campaign on his pick for secretary of state, Hillary Clinton

Uh oh: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. Things that we postponed for too long, that were long-term, are now immediate and must be dealt with. This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before." --Obama chief-of-staff select Rahm Emanuel

For the children: "In the first weeks [of the new administration], we will pass the bill for insuring 10 million children in America right off the bat." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

VILLAGE IDIOTS

From the Moral Equivalence File: "We have an FBI and, and, and, and, and we're not prejudiced against somebody who's worked at the FBI. It's an honorable place to work. And the KGB, I think, was an honorable place to work. And it, it gave people in the former Soviet Union, a communist country, an opportunity to do something important and worthwhile." --CNN founder Ted Turner

More moral confusion: "Get rid of the phrase 'war on terrorism.' Ask for a creative solution in which we all participate. ... You know, terrorists call mechanized death from 35,000 feet above sea level with a press of a button also terror. We don't call it that, because our soldiers are wearing uniforms. They don't see what is happening, and innocent people are being killed. So, you know, terror is a term that you apply to the other." --author Deepak Chopra

Post cards from Obama's buddy: "And the question is, what is terrorism? And what is violence?" --former Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers ++ "I think this election is automatically a historic moment. It automatically restores a certain amount of goodwill in the world. I hope he uses it. I hope [Obama] closes Guantanamo immediately. I hope he withdraws from Iraq immediately. But those hopes aren't idle. They are built on building an irresistible social movement to see that those things happen." --Bill Ayers

Goodbye capitalism?: "I think, really, what we're seeing here right now with them, with the banks, we're seeing the end of capitalism -- the end of capitalism as we know it. And I say good riddance -- it hasn't helped the people or the planet." --documentarian Michael Moore

SHORT CUTS

"In the old days -- from the Venetian Republic to, oh, the Bear Stearns rescue -- if you wanted to get rich, you did it the Warren Buffett way: You learned to read balance sheets. Today you learn to read political tea leaves. If you want to make money on Wall Street (or keep from losing your shirt), you do it not by anticipating Intel's third-quarter earnings but by guessing instead what side of the bed Henry Paulson will wake up on tomorrow." --columnist Charles Krauthammer

"We've moved beyond show me the money. This is throw me the money." --economist Lawrence Kudlow

"The costs of Washington's bailout fiesta are now so huge, you can see them from space. The latest number, which includes the Citigroup rescue, is $7.7 trillion. That's roughly half of America's GDP." --National Review editor Jonah Goldberg

"Bill Clinton agreed to extensive scrutiny to help get Hillary the secretary of state post. He may have to give up his speaking engagements. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton will have to grapple with age-old battles between mortal enemies, like Sunnis and Shiites, Israelis and Palestinians, and Bill Clinton and spare time." --comedian Argus Hamilton

Jay Leno:

Welcome to "The Tonight Show." I have some wonderful news for you. Everyone in our audience tonight is getting a Federal bailout. Congratulations!

This week, they will flip the switch on the White House Christmas tree, which has over 25,000 lights on it -- one light for every CEO that's looking for a bailout.

Last Friday was, of course, Black Friday. And if you had money in the stock market, [Monday was] Black Monday. The stock market lost 679 points. Not even a stock market, that's a flea market.

I tell you, the economy is bad. In fact -- you know the White House turkey? Turned down the pardon. Said all his money's in the market. Nothing left to live for.

In political news, President-elect Barack Obama has named Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state. I am no political expert. I don't pretend to know much about international affairs. But speaking strictly as a late-night talk show host, a Clinton back in office? Yes!

During her confirmation hearings, Republicans could force her to answer a lot of embarrassing questions about Bill Clinton's financial affairs. To which Hillary said, "What kind of affairs? Financial? Oh, no problem!"

*****

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.)