ChristiansUnite Forums

THE FOUNDATION

"In disquisitions of every kind there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasoning must depend." --Alexander Hamilton

POLITICAL FUTURES

"Anyone who relies solely on MSM outlets ... may not even know that Obama has, to this day, not authorized the state of Hawaii to release his Certificate of Live Birth -- the 'long form' -- to prove that he is a 'natural born citizen' (NBC), a Constitutional requirement of all presidents. Instead, We, the People, have online access to an Obama document known as a Certification of Live Birth, which, as Randall Hoven explains at American Thinker blog, is a computer-generated short form that is not even accepted by the Hawaii Department of Home Lands as adequate verification of Hawaiian identity. ... Further dimming the online document's Holy Grail aspects, it has been altered -- the certificate's number has been redacted -- which, according to a statement printed on the document, actually invalidates it. But that's not all. Back on Oct. 31, Hawaii's director of health, along with the registrar of Vital Statistics, released a statement verifying that the Hawaii's Department of Health has Obama's 'original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.' Well, that's just great. But no matter how many times this statement from 'Hawaiian authorities' is cited as the NBC clincher, it doesn't prove a thing. It turns out, as Hoven reports, that Hawaii issues birth certificates even for babies born elsewhere, so simply having an original Hawaiian birth certificate 'on record' doesn't answer the key questions. Namely: What exactly does this original birth certificate say? And why doesn't Obama simply authorize the document's release and be done with the question? ... I think it is nothing less than good citizenship to seek to verify that Obama is a 'natural born citizen' since our elites, which include the major political parties and the MSM, failed to bring the matter to its extremely simple resolution long ago. But while important, this isn't just a story about whether we as Americans are right or wrong to ask our president-elect the question about his original birth certificate. It is about whether our president-elect is right or wrong not to answer it." --columnist Diana West

CULTURE

"In the final analysis, we, the people, are responsible for the corruption of our leaders by failing to demand a higher standard of conduct from our politicians. Increasingly, Americans have grown accustomed to a culture characterized by moral relativism and individualism. We have mocked Judeo-Christian values -- humility, virtue, honor -- and in the process, eroded restraints on social conduct. The results have become painfully obvious in the business arena and are becoming increasingly obvious in the political arena. When we do not demand honor, virtue, and accountability from ourselves, can we really expect more from our leaders? Have we merely gotten the leaders we deserve? The path to reform in the political arena runs straight through the people. We, the people, must first find a renewed appreciation for virtue, honesty, and humility in ourselves and our fellow man. If private virtue is reestablished in society, it will eventually become public and inevitably find its way back to the halls of government. Quite simply, it is up to us." --author Ken Connor

BILL OF RIGHTS ANNIVERSARY

Today, 15 December, is the 217th anniversary of the adoption of the Bill of Rights, the first Ten Amendments to our Constitution, as ratified in 1791.

The Bill of Rights was inspired by three remarkable documents: John Locke's 1689 thesis, Two Treatises of Government, regarding the protection of "property" (in the Latin context, proprius, or one's own "life, liberty and estate"); in part from the Virginia Declaration of Rights authored by George Mason in 1776 as part of that state's Constitution; and, of course, in part from our Declaration of Independence authored by Thomas Jefferson.

Read in context, the Bill of Rights is both an affirmation of innate individual rights and a clear delineation on constraints upon the central government. As oft trampled and abused as the Bill of Rights is, Patriots should remain vigilant in the fight for our rights.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

(Our servers automatically delete "Reply" messages to this e-mail. To submit reader comments, visit our Contact Us page.)

"I want to personally thank each and everyone of you for your work at The Patriot Post. I have learned more and gotten more enjoyment from this great read than you will ever know. I just donated to your Annual Fund, though it was not much. It was the best I could do at this time. However, I forward each edition to many friends and family, and suggest they do the same. Once again thank you!" --Hurricane, West Virginia

"Thank you for the wonderful work that you do. I sent in my donation though I wish I could send more. If I were lucky enough to win a lottery, I would probably send money to all the people that request it in larger donations. I guess I would have to play the lottery in order for that to happen." --Mobile, Alabama

FAITH AND FAMILY

"The annual Christmas assault -- In Olympia Washington, an atheist group named the Freedom From Religion Foundation has placed an anti-religious placard next to a nativity scene and 'holiday' tree in the capitol building. The message: 'At this season of the Winter Solstice may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.' Since the United States Constitution guarantees freedom OF religion as opposed to freedom FROM it, one might be forgiven for wondering exactly whose hearts are 'hardened' and whose minds are 'enslaved.'" --columnist Arnold Ahlert

LIBERTY

"How much congressional involvement do we want with the Big Three auto companies? I'd say none. Congressmen and federal bureaucrats, including those at the Federal Reserve Board, don't know anymore about the automobile business than they know about the banking and financial businesses that they've turned into a mess. Just look at the idiotic focus of congressmen when the three auto company chief executives appeared before them. They questioned whether the executives should have driven to Congress rather than flown in on corporate jets. They focused on executive pay, which is a tiny fraction of costs compared to $73 hourly compensation to 250,000 autoworkers. The belief that Congress poses the major threat to our liberty and well-being is why the Founders gave them limited enumerated powers. To our detriment, today's Americans have given them unlimited powers." --George Mason University economics professor Walter E. Williams

THE GIPPER

"The most dangerous myth is the demagoguery that business can be made to pay a larger share, thus relieving the individual. Politicians preaching this are either deliberately dishonest, or economically illiterate, and either one should scare us. Business doesn't pay taxes, and who better than business to make this message known? Only people pay taxes, and people pay as consumers every tax that is assessed against a business. Begin with the food and fiber raised in the farm, to the ore drilled in a mine, to the oil and gas from out of the ground, whatever it may be -- through the processing, through the manufacturing, on out to the retailer's license. If the tax cannot be included in the price of the product, no one along that line can stay in business." --Ronald Reagan

GOVERNMENT

"The 20th century experimented with every possible variant of socialism. We had democratic socialism in Western Europe, totalitarian socialism in Eastern Europe, and fascist socialism in South America. We had atheistic socialism and we had 'liberation theology.' We had the 'scientific socialism' of the Soviet central planners and the chaotic jungle socialism of the Khmer Rouge, who executed anyone with an education. We had 'socialism with Chinese characteristics' and socialism with African characteristics and socialism with Hindu characteristics. We tried it all, and every time it led to poverty and oppression. Those results have been proven with scientific thoroughness. There is no excuse for trying it all again." --Intellectual Activist editor Robert Tracinski

RE: THE LEFT

"The nation's economy is causing great anxiety, and no corner seems untouched by the blight of layoffs, or the fear of further stock-market erosion. It probably should come as no surprise that in this crisis, the journalists who have hailed Barack Obama for two years as the Messiah would want their savior's arrival to be accelerated. They've broken out in cold sweats, displaying a bad case of Inauguration Impatience Syndrome. You can't reason with them and suggest that several months of transition are necessary to build a new administration, and for Obama it's not different. They certainly aren't showing the slightest sign of remembering 2000, when the Left, with the news media cheering them on, dragged the election results out 35 days trying to install Al Gore. Obama's inauguration needs to happen immediately if not sooner, and George W. Bush should be tossed out like spoiling Thanksgiving leftovers. ... Would we be surprised if they all demanded that Obama's too important to be rushed out of office when his departure time comes, and can't the whole swearing-in thing be delayed until March?" --Media Research Center president L. Brent Bozell

FOR THE RECORD

"[New York Times columnist Paul] Krugman and others suggest that since the New Deal ran moderate deficits and the Depression persisted, then Roosevelt should have run bigger multiyear deficits -- and so should Obama. 'It's basically money we owe to ourselves. ... The best course of action, both for today's workers and for their children, is to do whatever it takes to get this economy on the road to recovery,' Krugman wrote. This is the wrong lesson to learn from the 1930s. The New Deal didn't fail because its deficits were too small. As Amity Shlaes shows in 'The Forgotten Man,' the New Deal failed because it interfered with the market's natural regenerative processes. By raising taxes, hamstringing producers with arbitrary regulations and creating uncertainly about what the government would do next, business people were unwilling to invest and hire workers. Uncertainty about taxes, regulation and government policy similarly threaten recovery today. Obama must realize that government has no wealth of its own and that commandeering scarce resources from the private sector only stifles the economy. Deficit spending does this two ways. When the Treasury borrows money, it outbids private borrowers who would have put the money to productive use. When the Fed creates money, it depreciates the dollar, shifts purchasing power from the people to special interests, and -- by tampering with the price signals -- creates an unsustainable recovery that will collapse and throw people out of work when the inflation stops. The 2009 deficit is projected to be $438 billion. Obama's 'stimulus' could take it up to a trillion and beyond. That's just the beginning since the Democratic Congress's spending wish list and Medicare's $35 trillion unfunded liability loom. We should all worry about the deficit." --ABC "20/20" co-anchor John Stossel

THE LAST WORD

"For the more historically minded, it's a time for nostalgia. The past comes alive as Chicago's grand tradition of corruption is sustained for another generation. As the Chicago Tribune once wrote, 'corruption has been as much a part of the landscape as corn, soybeans and skyscrapers.' According to the Chicago Sun-Times, as of 2006, when Blago's predecessor, George Ryan, was sent to prison for racketeering, 79 elected officials had been convicted of corruption in the past 30 years. Among the perps: 27 aldermen, 19 judges, 15 state legislators, three governors, two congressmen, one mayor, two turtledoves and a partridge in a stolen pear tree. Especially in this holiday season, it's so very important to keep traditions alive for the kids. In a sense, Blago did it for the children. For partisans, there's the schadenfreude that comes with watching the Democrats -- self-proclaimed anti-corruption zealots in recent years -- explain why Blagojevich shouldn't be lumped in with Congressmen Charlie Rangel (cut himself sweetheart deals), William Jefferson ($90,000 in his freezer) and Tim Mahoney (tried to bribe an aide he was sleeping with not to sue him; and you thought romance was dead) as part of a new Democratic 'culture of corruption' storyline. There's the enormous I-should-have-had-a-V8! moment as the mainstream press collectively thwacks itself in the forehead, realizing it blew it again. The New York Times -- which, according to Wall Street analysts, is weeks from holding editorial board meetings in a refrigerator box -- created the journalistic equivalent of CSI-Wasilla to study every follicle and fiber in Sarah Palin's background, all the while treating Obama's Chicago like one of those fairy-tale lands depicted in posters that adorn little girls' bedroom walls. See there, Suzie? That's a Pegasus. That's a pink unicorn. And that's a beautiful sunflower giving birth to a fully grown Barack Obama, the greatest president ever and the only man in history to be able to pick up manure from the clean end." --National Review editor Jonah Goldberg

*****

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.)