Tag: liberty

Retired USAF Major Brian Shul delivered an address at March AFB on Veteran’s Day 2001. Powerful stuff:

Yes, I believe God has blessed this nation in many ways, although sometimes we forget just how fortunate we really are…and now, after a horrific attack on our homeland, we find ourselves embattled in a war once again. And yet, there are many who seem unsure of the response we should take. Today, we honor so many who have given their lives, in defense of this country…row upon row of tombstones, silent vigils to their ultimate sacrifice. If the dead could speak today, they would tell you that all it takes for evil to succeed in the world if for good people to stand by and do nothing. They would emphatically declare to you that you negotiate with the enemy with your knee in his chest and your knife at his throat. And they would remind you that those who forget their history, are condemned to repeat it.
We are a nation guilty of forgetting these lessons. Had we learned them better, our cemeteries would be less full.
We fought a Cold War for so long, that perhaps we became weary and complacent, and when we won that war, we became soft. We indulged ourselves in the notion that the world was all-safe, and we thought a booming economy was ample substitute for a strong military. Did we really think electing self-serving politicians would make us stronger as a nation? Somehow we came to accept the notion that freedom was free. It never has been. The price of freedom has always been eternal vigilance. We need to understand that there are those in the world who would destroy us because our way of life threatens their quest for world domination.

Brian pointed me to this political quiz, established in 1994 by Democratic consultant Victor Kamber and his Republican counterpart, Bradley S. O’Leary.
I’m a Bob Dole conservative, with a score of 35 out of 40.
Big surprise.
Take the test and leave your score in the comments.

Ann skewers the leftists once again over the U.S. victory in Iraq:

They said chemical weapons would be used against our troops. That didn’t happen. They predicted huge civilian casualties. That didn’t happen. They said Americans would turn against the war as our troops came home in body bags. That didn’t happen. They warned of a mammoth terrorist attack in America if we invaded Iraq. That didn’t happen. Just two weeks ago, they claimed American troops were caught in another Vietnam quagmire. That didn’t happen.
Now the biggest mishap liberals can seize on is that some figurines from an Iraqi museum were broken–a relief to college students everywhere who have ever been forced to gaze upon Mesopotamian pottery. We’re not talking about Rodins here. So the Iraqis looted. Oh well. Wars are messy. Liberalism is part of a religious disorder that demands a belief that life is controllable.

The notorious Bill Maher admitted on his April 25th show that he was incorrect in his belief that there is a right to privacy in the Constitution. Yes, that’s right, you constitutionally-ignorant plebeians on the Left: there is no guaranteed right to privacy in the Constitution of the United States of America. Yes, that means that despite what the Supreme Court says, Roe v Wade is constitutionally invalid.
Not that U.S. citizens shouldn’t expect a reasonable degree of privacy in some matters. But the fact is that the government already mandates what we can or cannot do with our bodies on many levels.
We are told we cannot put illegal drugs into our bodies. We are told we cannot put alcohol above a certain level in to our bodies, then get behind the wheel of an automobile. We are told that if our vision is not up to par, we cannot get behind that same wheel. Some states insist that those riding motorcycles wear helmets (since some are obviously too stupid to wear one without being told to do so). In many locales, it is illegal to commit suicide (though you can only be prosecuted if you fail). Legally, you cannot smoke until the age of 18, or drink until the age of 21. You have to wear a seat belt while driving in an automobile in every state in the Union (if there is one where you don’t, I am simply ignorant of that fact, and, unlike most in the Left, am welcome to enlightenment).
The fact of the matter is that the “right to privacy” was made up by the Supreme Court, beginning in 1965, and cemented in 1973 with Roe v Wade. And for those of you who may bally-hoo me on this issue, if the federal government was in its Constitutionally-limited role in the first place, we wouldn’t have to worry about it encroaching on our individual privacy.
(Thanks to Brian for the link.)

Yes, Virginia, there are still people who believe that there were no ties between bin Laden’s al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein. I wonder what they’ll say about the Iraqi secret police documents just discovered that refute that claim, that show Saddam actually met with an al-Qaida operative and sought out a meeting with bin Laden himself?

“Welcome to the new preschool curriculum: play dough, finger painting and pacifism 101.”

Saddam Hussein was providing about US $1.5 million a month to various Palestinian agents and supporters, and now that money channel is cut off. And none too soon.
Let’s get this straight:
1. The PLO began as a terrorist organization, and continues to be a terrorist organization, directly or indirectly threatening the security of the state of Israel.
2. Israel is not “occupying” any piece of land it did not rightfully gain as the result of the wars launched against it since the modern Israeli state came in to existence in 1948. Wars Israel did not provoke, did not seek out, but wars Israel won nonetheless. If you have a problem with the fact that Israel owns the Gaza Strip and other areas, then point your questions to Jordan, Syria, Egypt, the PLO, Hamas, et al.
I’m not saying the Israelis are blameless in all of this, and their overall treatment of the Palestinians could be better. But the fact you have to remember is that the Palestinians, as well as most other Arab nations, are not interested in an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. They have wanted, since 1948, and to this day, the utter annihilation of the state of Israel and the Jewish people. That’s their idea of peace in the Middle East.