Patriot No. 05-44 Brief | 31 October 2005

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Patriot No. 05-44 Brief | 31 October 2005 - Page 1

THE FOUNDATION

"The Constitution of the United States is to receive a reasonable interpretation of its language, and its powers, keeping in view the objects and purposes, for which those powers were conferred." —Joseph Story

INSIGHT

"Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of government is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is the history of the limitation of government, not the increase of it." —Woodrow Wilson

LIBERTY

"Most of the labels people use to talk about judges, and the way judges decide [cases] aren't too descriptive... Judges should be judges. They shouldn't be legislators, they shouldn't be administrators... The Supreme Court is an institution that I have long held in reverence. During my 29 years as a public servant, I've had the opportunity to view the Supreme Court from a variety of perspectives—as an attorney in the Solicitor General's Office, arguing and briefing cases before the Supreme Court, as a federal prosecutor, and most recently for the last 15 years as a judge of the Court of Appeals." —Judge Samuel Alito, nominated this date to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

If responses from the Left are any indication, this nominee meets the President's "constructionist" criterion. Teddy Kennedy rants: "Rather than selecting a nominee for the good of the nation and the court, President Bush has picked a nominee whom he hopes will stop the massive hemorrhaging of support on his right wing. This is a nomination based on weakness, not strength." Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid followed: "The nomination of Judge Alito requires an especially long, hard look by the Senate... [T]the Senate needs to find out if the man replacing Miers is too radical for the American people."

IChThUS IMPRIMIS

"There have been men before now who got so interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God Himself...as if the good Lord had nothing to do but exist! There have been some who were so occupied in spreading Christianity that they never gave a thought to Christ." —C. S. Lewis

FAMILY

"First, the good news: American teenagers are more religious than many adults seem to think. And now the bad news: American teenagers are less religious than many adults seem to think... Instead of learning the basic tenets of their religion, teens are simply absorbing a belief that if you try to be good all the time, you'll be happy—and being happy is what life's all about...Teenagers aren't getting this vague, consumer-based version of religion out of nowhere...[A]dults preach at teenagers about defying authority, spending too much money, watching too much TV, being sexually irresponsible, and more—and yet adults engage in these practices to a far greater extent than teens do... Teens who compartmentalize their faith, or just don't take time to understand it, are a natural result of adults who do the same things... [T]he kids we're so concerned about are in many ways simply reflections of us." —Chuck Colson

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Patriot No. 05-44 Brief | 31 October 2005 - Page 2

CULTURE

"[N]o big deal. By definition, that's what a 'major social norm' is: no big deal. But in fact it is a big deal—whether the grown-ups in their lives are prepared to say so or not—when kids too young to lawfully buy a pack of cigarettes are routinely engaging in sexual activity that most of them don't yet have the maturity or understanding to handle. In its potential to inflict internal damage or cause lasting pain, sex far surpasses tobacco. But while kids are warned repeatedly and stridently about the dangers of smoking, school-age sex is widely regarded as inevitable. The same people who enforce 'zero-tolerance' strictures when it comes to guns and knives push a very different message when it comes to sex: Keep it 'safe' and legal, and you'll hear no complaints from us... Shouldn't those charged with the education of teenagers be pushing back against the relentless sexualization of the culture instead of knuckling under to it? With sex bombarding them everywhere they turn, don't kids need more than ever to be taught that sex is for grown-ups?... There is something awfully sad and strange about a culture in which teenage sex is condoned so long as it is 'safe,' while teenage smoking is denounced as categorically wrong. Sex has become a mere issue of health and the law, while morality is reserved for tobacco." —Jeff Jacoby

THE GIPPER

"The problem of terrorism has become an international concern that knows no boundaries—religious, racial, political, or national. Thousands of men, women, and children have died at the hands of terrorists in nations around the world, and the lives of many more have been blighted by the fear and grief that terrorist attacks have caused to peace-loving peoples... rave soldiers [have] died defending our cherished ideals of freedom and peace. It is appropriate that we honor these men and all other victims of terrorism. Let us also offer our profound condolences to the families and friends of the victims of these unprovoked and contemptible acts of violence... I urge all Americans to take time to reflect on the sacrifices that have been made in the pursuit of peace and freedom." —Ronald Reagan

OPINION IN BRIEF

"The American people have made themselves clear: our borders must be secured and our laws must be enforced before any guest worker plan can go into effect... Even with the President's backing, no plan that offers amnesty to illegal aliens will pass this Congress... Slowly, the President's team is coming to realize that they have a political revolt on their hands. And, it's no longer just the conservative base that's angry about illegal immigration—there's widespread discontent about our broken system from coast to coast, from left to right... I sincerely hope the Administration's [recent] language is backed up by action." —Rep. Tom Tancredo

GOVERNMENT

"Americans...are getting increasingly angry with out-of-control government spending, waste, fraud, and abuse... It is the sense of increasing disgust about blatant overspending and our ability to make the tough choices people on budgets have to make each and every day... In the State of Washington alone there are 17,590 homeless people, and we are going to take money from Housing and Urban Development and we are going to build a sculpture park. I think that is not the right priority. It may be a good idea, but the priority is certainly out of line with what the fiscal needs are, and certainly out of line with the expectations of the American people on how we are spending their money... I also remind our fellow Members [of Congress] that if you read the Constitution, there are great difficulties—regardless of what our history has been—justifying, looking at the Constitution and saying this is a role for the Federal Government... It is probably a great project, but not now, not at this time, and not with Federal money." —Sen. Tom Coburn

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Patriot No. 05-44 Brief | 31 October 2005 - Page 3

RE: THE LEFT

"The Left...offers an appeal to moral virtue: It's better to pay more in taxes and to share the burdens as a community. It's kinder, gentler, more compassionate, more equitable. Unfortunately, as recent European election results demonstrate, nothing makes a citizen more selfish than socially equitable communitarianism: Once a fellow's enjoying the fruits of government health care and all the rest, he couldn't give a hoot about the broader societal interest; he's got his, and if it's going to bankrupt the state a generation hence, well, as long as they can keep the checks coming till he's dead, it's fine by him. 'Social democracy' is, in that sense, explicitly anti-social." —Mark Steyn

POLITICAL FUTURES

"News that President Bush's tax reform panel will eschew more sweeping plans in favor of incremental changes has conservatives again scratching their heads and feeling a bit deflated. The panel...might have sought a clean break from the tyranny of the IRS and proposed a postcard flat tax or a national consumption tax... Almost everyone agrees that the commission...would tilt the tax system in a pro-growth direction. Lower taxes on savings and investment would be accompanied by steps to rein in some sacred-cow but expensive tax loopholes. Almost everyone likes the panel's idea of phasing out the hated alternative minimum tax, which now hits one taxpayer in six. Chuck Schumer and other liberal Democrats from high-tax states are trashing the commission's idea of limiting the home mortgage deduction, the state and local tax deduction, and the health care deduction. Some conservatives are too. Larry Hunter of the Free Enterprise Fund frets that this could be perceived as a 'tax increase on the middle class.' With the approval ratings for Mr. Bush and the Republican Congress tanking lately, the hope was that tax reform—a boilerplate Republican issue—would help change the subject in Washington and jump start a moribund national party. But while the tax reform panel seems set on endorsing some useful surgical repairs to the tax system, many grassroots activists were counting on [the panel] to sweep away tens of thousands of pages of incomprehensible tax code and the IRS. For the past decade, the tax reform movement has been split down the middle between the flat taxers and the national sales tax crowd. Neither group is filled with happy campers this week." —Stephen Moore

FOR THE RECORD

"What's most worrisome is how quickly the Republican leadership in Congress exhibits signs of panic. Mid-term elections are a year away, and yet this week's announcements of record profits by some oil companies are causing GOP leaders to stampede into panic over high gas prices. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist called for Senate hearings in which the heads of the nation's major oil companies would be called to justify the fact they are making money. I had thought such a scene—common during the 1970s government-induced energy crisis—wouldn't return in a GOP Congress. But political expediency seems to trump principle and common sense if the price at the pump goes high enough. House Speaker Dennis Hastert went even further than Mr. Frist when he urged U.S. oil companies to invest in building more refineries. He noted, correctly, that it has been 30 years since a new refinery was built in the U.S., but that has far more to do with environmental objections than it does energy company stinginess. Indeed, oil companies have invested billions to make dramatic improvements and expand capacity at existing facilities. Total refining capacity has increased 10% in the past decade—the equivalent of building seven to eight new refineries... Polls show that some two out of three Americans believe that high energy prices are caused in part by the greed of oil companies. But such attitudes have been consistently present in the body politic for decades, and it is the job of political leaders not to pander but instead act to solve real problems. Jawboning energy companies and hauling their executives before Congress may make for temporary headlines, but in the long-run Messrs. Frist and Hastert would do better politically to focus on ways to increase domestic production. Cheap stunts will do the GOP little good in next year's elections if they haven't addressed the real causes of today's energy squeeze." —John Fund