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THE FOUNDATION

"To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." --George Washington

FOR THE RECORD

"Obama says that his START [Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] will be a great boon, setting an example to enable us to better pressure North Korea and Iran to give up their nuclear programs. That a man of Obama's intelligence can believe such nonsense is beyond comprehension. There is not a shred of evidence that cuts by the great powers -- the INF treaty, START I, the Treaty of Moscow (2002) -- induced the curtailment of anyone's [nuclear] programs. Moammar Gaddafi gave up his nukes the week we pulled Saddam Hussein out of his spider hole. No treaty involved. The very notion that Kim Jong Il or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will suddenly abjure nukes because of yet another U.S.-Russian treaty is comical. The pursuit of such an offensive weapons treaty could nonetheless be detrimental to us. Why? Because Obama's hunger for a diplomatic success, such as it is, allowed the Russians to exact a price: linkage between offensive and defensive nuclear weapons. This is important for Russia because of the huge American technological advantage in defensive weaponry. We can reliably shoot down an intercontinental ballistic missile. They cannot. And since defensive weaponry will be the decisive strategic factor of the 21st century, Russia has striven mightily for a quarter-century to halt its development. Gorbachev tried to swindle Reagan out of the Strategic Defense Initiative at Reykjavik in 1986. Reagan refused. As did his successors -- Bush I, Clinton, Bush II. Obama, who seeks to banish nuclear weapons entirely, has little use for such prosaic contrivances." --columnist Charles Krauthammer

LIBERTY

"The Soviet empire fell not because radicals like Obama called for the US to destroy its nuclear arsenal, it fell because president Ronald Reagan ignored them and vastly expanded the US's nuclear arsenal while deploying short-range nuclear warheads in Europe and launching the US's missile defense program while renouncing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. On Monday Obama arrived in Moscow for a round of disarmament talks with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. According to most accounts, while in Moscow Obama plans to abandon US allies Ukraine and Georgia and agree to deep cuts in US missile defense programs. In exchange, Moscow is expected to consider joining Washington in cutting back on its nuclear arsenal just as the likes of Iran and North Korea build up theirs. Of course, even if Russia doesn't agree to scale back its nuclear arsenal, Obama has already ensured that the US will slash the size of its own by refusing to fund its modernization. In short, Obama is working to implement the precise policy he laid out as an unoriginal student conformist 26 years ago. ... What Obama's radicalism tells us is that he is not a man who is moved by rational discourse. He is not a man who is willing to be convinced that he is mistaken." --Center for Security Policy Senior Middle East Fellow Caroline Glick

OPINION IN BRIEF

"Those shipments of paper bags to the House and Senate Office Buildings over the weekend are to treat the hyperventilating of Members and staff over the news that the CIA did some spying about which it did not tell the Congress. The New York Times front pager [Saturday] started thus: 'The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency's director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.' ... Speaker Nancy Pelosi will use this latest report as evidence that she was correct in her assertion that the CIA lied to her about waterboarding in spite of the fact that this activity had nothing whatever to do with waterboarding. Pelosi has been scrambling for a hand-hold in this CIA thing and she now has been handed a scaffold. If the CIA lied about this surveillance program, doesn't it stand to reason it would lie about the waterboarding thing? No. It doesn't but this is not a college debating society, this is the Congress versus the nation's spy agency. The problem is, the nuances of this fight will be lost on our enemies. The Taliban is killing Afghans and Americans in Afghanistan. Iran is looking for any cracks in the dam of Western opposition to its nuclear program. North Korea is ... North Korea. One or all will see this as further evidence that America's leaders are more focused on scoring cheap domestic political points than protecting the nation from outside attacks." --political analyst Rich Galen

GOVERNMENT

"Health care 'reformers' keep talking about getting us more health insurance. Then they talk about cutting costs. This is contradictory nonsense. Insurance, whether private or a government Ponzi scheme like Medicare, means third parties pay the bills. When someone else pays, costs always go up. Imagine if you had grocery insurance. You wouldn't care how much food cost. Why shop around? If someone else were paying 80 percent, you'd buy the most expensive cuts of meat. Prices would skyrocket. That's what health insurance does to medical care. Patients rarely even ask what anything costs. Doctors often don't know. ... Patients rarely ask, 'Is that MRI really necessary? Is there a cheaper place?' We consume without thinking. By contrast, in areas of medicine where most patients pay their own way, service gets better, while prices fall. ... This shouldn't be a surprise. What holds costs down is patients acting like consumers, looking out for themselves in a competitive market. Providers fight to win business by keeping costs down and quality up. Yet politicians keep telling us the solution is more insurance. And they mean insurance not just for catastrophic diseases that could bankrupt us but also for routine treatments. The politicians are so oblivious to reality that they are on course to make things worse." --ABC's "20/20" co-anchor John Stossel

INSIGHT

"People unfit for freedom -- who cannot do much with it -- are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a 'have' type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities. The desire for power is basically an attribute of a 'have not' type of self." --writer and philosopher Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)

POLITICAL FUTURES

"As if the recession hasn't been rough enough on those near the bottom of the economic food chain, fresh bad news is on the way. Beginning July 24, the federal government will be making it more difficult for employers to hire low- and unskilled American workers. Thanks to an ill-advised law enacted with bipartisan support in 2007, the cost of providing an entry-level job to individuals with few skills or minimal experience will be going up by more than 10 percent. Those who cannot find a job paying at least $7.25 an hour will not be permitted to work. Welcome to the latest chapter of America's minimum-wage folly. ... Those who press for a higher minimum wage often claim that making entry-level jobs more expensive won't reduce the number of entry-level jobs. ... But that's exactly what it does. Artificial price floors -- mandatory minimum prices set higher than what the market will bear -- generate surpluses. Minimum-wage laws are no exception. The price floor imposed by the government on the supply of low-skilled labor results in a labor surplus, which is just another way of saying higher unemployment. ... It is bad enough that Congress and the president would deliberately price so many workers out of the market. What is worse is that they claim to be helping the poor when they do so." --columnist Jeff Jacoby

CULTURE

"Courts split along ideological fault lines in cases like the New Haven firefighters' case, where the crucial facts are not even in dispute. The only real dispute is over whether a test is automatically biased if different groups pass it at different rates. Apparently the groups themselves cannot possibly be different, according to 'disparate impact' theory. Facts play a very small role in such issues -- including the facts as to whether social engineering -- especially a lowering of standards for blacks -- actually helps blacks on net balance. But empirical studies indicate that black students do better at colleges and universities where their qualifications are similar to those of the other students at those institutions and worse where they are admitted with wide disparities in qualifications. Where in fact have blacks been most successful? Sports and entertainment come to mind immediately. These are areas where blacks have to meet the same standards as anybody else. If Derek Jeter swings at three pitches and misses, he is out, just like any white ballplayer. If people stop watching Oprah Winfrey's program, it will get cancelled, just like anybody else's. The biggest beneficiaries from the 'disparate impact' dogma are those who claim to be helping minorities. They benefit by feeling noble, winning votes or attracting money. The actual consequences for blacks -- or for the polarization of American society -- seems to be of little concern." --Hoover Institution economist Thomas Sowell

FAITH AND FAMILY

"How often does your family have dinner together? That simple question often evokes an answer of, 'Ummmmmm......' What used to be the most basic of activities has become increasingly difficult to schedule in today's busy world. But bringing back the time-honored practice of 'breaking bread' with your own family could be the single greatest step you take toward saving your family from all kinds of ills. ... The pop culture constantly tells parents the pernicious lie that teenagers don't want them around. But teenagers say something very different. ... When your children know that your being with them is a priority for you, they feel valued and loved. They also begin to understand that the sacred bonds of family will sustain them through any challenge life throws at them." --Heritage Foundation senior communications fellow Rebecca Hagelin

THE GIPPER

"I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual. And let me offer lesson No. 1 about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be an American, let 'em know and nail 'em on it. That would be a very American thing to do." --Ronald Reagan

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

(To submit reader comments visit our Letters to the Editor page.)

"I would like to commend Mark Alexander on yet another excellent essay, this one taking apart the global agenda of the Climate Nazis. In his essay, Commissars of Cool, on House passage of 'Obama's Orwellian legislation to regulate and tax CO2,' Alexander notes this quote from Albert Gore, addressing the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University: 'I bring you good news from the U.S. The House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey climate bill ... very much a step in the right direction. [This bill] will dramatically increase the prospects for success... But it is the awareness itself that will drive the change and one of the ways it will drive the change is through global governance...' This is about global governance, not about climate. Here in California, we are in a crisis because we passed a state version of this suicidal climate legislation folly. Brace yourself America!" --Sacramento, California

"While I agree that there was excessive coverage related to the death of Michael Jackson, your 'morphed' comments are racially insensitive." --Sandy, Utah

Editor's Reply: Utter a critical comment about a black icon and I am a "racist"? For all you Jackophiles out there, who just can't get enough coverage of Michael Jackson's life and death, this is how absurd the idolatry has gotten... Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (no relation to Michael or Robert E.) introduced a 1,500-word congressional resolution to ensure that Jackson "will be honored forever and forever and forever and forever and forever." Meanwhile, in the days since Jackson died, a dozen American soldiers and Marines have died in Afghanistan, engaging jihadis as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Specifically, they were killed in offensives against the Taliban, now being led by a former detainee from GITMO. It is these uniformed American Patriots who deserve to be honored by Congress and the MSM, and revered by their fellow citizens every day -- not a moonwalking, race morphing child molester.

THE LAST WORD

"According to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, we only have 96 months left to save the planet. I'm impressed. 96 months. Not 95. Not 97. July 2017. Put it in your diary. Usually the warm-mongers stick to the same old drone that we only have ten years left to save the planet. Nice round number. Al Gore said we only have ten years left three-and-a-half years ago, which makes him technically more of a pessimist than the Prince of Wales. Al's betting Armageddon kicks in January 2016 -- unless he's just peddling glib generalities. And, alas, even a prophet of the ecopalypse as precise as His Royal Highness is sometimes prone to this airy-fairy ten-year shtick: in April, Prince Charles predicted that the red squirrel would be extinct 'within ten years', which suggests that, while it may be curtains for man and all his wretched works come summer of 2017, the poor doomed red squirrel will have the best part of two years to frolic and gambol on a ruined landscape. So, unless you're a squirrel, don't start any long books in 95 months' time, because time is running out!" --columnist Mark Steyn

*****

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.)