End of Year

"In a civilized and cultivated country wild
animals only continue to exist at all when
preserved by sportsmen. The excellent people
who protest against all hunting, and consider
sportsmen as enemies of wildlife, are ignorant
of the fact that in reality the genuine sportsman
is by all odds the most important factor in
keeping the larger and more valuable wild
creatures from total extermination." Teddy
Roosevelt, 1905


WHAT'S ALL THE FUSS?

"Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we?
Was it or was it not started by Islamic people
who brought it to our shores on September 11,
2001? Were people from all over the world,
mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that
day, in downtown Manhattan, across the
Potomac from our nation's capitol and in a field
in Pennsylvania? Did nearly three thousand
men, women and children die a horrible,
burning or crushing death that day, or didn't
they?

And I'm supposed to care that a copy of the
Koran was desecrated" when an overworked
American soldier kicked it or got it wet? Well, I
don't. I don't care at all.

I'll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns
himself in and repents for incinerating all those
innocent people on 9/11.

I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in
the Middle East start caring about the Holy
Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime
in Saudi Arabia.

I'll care when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi tells the
world he is sorry for hacking off Nick Berg's
head while Berg screamed through his
gurgling, slashed throat.

I'll care when the cowardly so-called
"insurgents" in Iraq come out and fight like men
instead of disrespecting their own religion by
hiding in mosques.

I'll care when the mindless zealots who blow
themselves up in search of nirvana care about
the innocent children within range of their
suicide bombs.

I'll care when the American media stops
pretending that their First Amendment liberties
are somehow derived from international law
instead of the United States Constitution's Bill
of Rights.

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a
brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to
obtain information, know this: I don't care.

When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked
Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in
what amounts to a college hazing incident, rest
assured that I don't care.

When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the
head when he is told not to move because he
might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the
bank that I don't care.

When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a
Koran and a prayer mat, and fed "special" food
that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining
that his holy book is being "mishandled," you
can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts
that I don't care.

And oh, by the way, I've noticed that
sometimes it's spelled "Koran" and other times
"Quran." Well, Jimmy Crack Corn and -- you
guessed it!

END QUOTE

Edited to add:
I went to Snopes.com to find out who wrote
this. It was attributed to Pam Foster, but that
was an error. She only sent it along to
someone else. It was written by Doug Patton,
who apparently is a speechwriter. Here is a
link:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/foster.
asp


Seven Warriors of the 173rd Airborne Brigade

Afghanistan

"Out of every ONE HUNDRED men, TEN
should not be here, EIGHTY are nothing but
targets,
NINE are the real fighters, and we are lucky to
have them, for they the battle make."

"Ah, but the ONE, ONE of them is a WARRIOR,
and he will bring the others back."

Heraclitus 500 BC

"In the darkest hour through which a human
soul can pass, whatever else is doubtful, this at
least is certain. If there be no God and no
future state, yet even then, it is better to be
generous than selfish, better to be chaste than
licentious, better to be brave than to be a
coward."
Frederick W. Robertson




From the Federalist Patriot:
The real America...
Over the course of the past year, this column has focused its analysis on policy matters or political malfeasance by both Democrats and Republicans.

We note the latter without apology. Democrats led by Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean have dealt treacherously with our military forces in the field, never missing an opportunity to rally them with rhetoric about "a war fought for a lie." Republicans, for their part, have all too often abandoned their legacy as the party of constitutional government, buying into the notion that Washington holds the cure for all our nation's ills. Indeed, a Republican-controlled Congress recently passed a budget that brought the increase in discretionary spending to 39 percent over the past three years, with overall spending topping $20,000 per household (constant dollars) for the first time ever, and they had the nerve to proclaim it "pork-free."

President George W. Bush apparently believed them; how else to explain his signature?

As an advocate for federalism, constitutional constructionism, free-market capitalism and social conservatism, The Patriot has a duty to serve as a critical voice in defense of everything that's good and right about America, which is to say, our focus is on the prize, while our content tackles those standing in its way. As we approach the end of the year, however, it seems appropriate to take a hiatus from the "critical" part of our mission and focus instead on what too many take for granted—the fact that we have the privilege to take the name "American."

Too many take for granted the fact that we have the privilege to take the name "American."

Herewith, we invite you to take a moment to consider what is good and right about our great nation.

John Stuart Mill once penned, "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

Perhaps the best thing about America in 2005 is those better men, serving on the frontlines of the war against Jihadistan, even as our more "miserable creatures" deride that service here at home.

Amid the political rancor about justifications for Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, it is worth remembering the words of Admiral Jeremiah Denton: "It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag."

Hundreds of thousands of young Patriots in uniform, sworn to uphold our Constitution, serve in very inhospitable places that we may enjoy the peace and tranquility so many take for granted. Not only have they successfully held the warfront on Jihadi turf, but they are winning stability in the midst of chaos in the Middle East—stability that is well within the critical national-security interests of the United States. Contrast the joyful faces of millions of Iraqis citizens (no longer Saddam's slaves) voting for their Parliament yesterday with those of American politicos protesting our policy in the region.

With so many of our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coastguardsmen serving in danger far from home at Christmastime, we would ask each of you to enlist your friends and associates to join more than 145,000 other Patriots who have signed our Letter of thanks to America's Armed Forces.

In tandem with our Armed Forces, we can be grateful for their Commander in Chief, who has both the understanding and the resolve required to keep a nation free and secure. In no small part thanks to the Bush Doctrine of Pre-emption, the United States has not suffered a terrorist attack on its own soil in more than four years—a circumstance all but unthinkable in the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001. Now, the President's "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" seeks to extend that condition by bringing security, stability and freedom to the heart of the Middle East.




The nation's economy has logged its tenth straight quarter of growth.

Here at home, the nation's soaring economy just logged its tenth straight quarter of three-percent-or-better growth. Inflation remains in check, and after-tax income, household net worth and total employment are all at record highs. Three consecutive years of substantive tax cuts have made America stronger and more competitive, and only the most hopeless of partisans can deny their effectiveness.

Equally important to America's economic future, our bloated entitlement programs are finally receiving some much-needed scrutiny. In 2005, the President focused on Social Security reform and then courageously introduced the only possible solution to the problem: privatization. Likewise, steps taken to restructure Medicare on more market-oriented principles and private Health Savings Accounts that offer an alternative to traditional medical insurance hold promise for more real reform in the future.

Thanks to a growing commitment to free and fair markets, the U.S. is still leading the way in technology and innovation. People from around the world are still coming to American universities, first and foremost, for their education. Despite its pervasive liberalism and political correctness, our system of higher education is still the finest and most accessible of all: More than a third of Americans possess college degrees, while fewer than a quarter of Europeans do.

The bedrock of our Democracy is the American family, and, fortunately, most of them are still intact.

The American people reign as the most generous in the world, not only donating time and resources in their own neighborhoods, but also in disaster relief across the nation and around the globe. In spite of what we see on the nightly news, the vast majority of Americans are good-hearted, dedicated to their families and faithful to God. As Founding Father Benjamin Rush reminds us, all of what's good and right about America is based upon "Christianity as the strong ground of republicanism." The bedrock of that ground is the American family. Fortunately, most of them are still intact.

Finally, and most essentially, our 229-year-old experiment in democratic republicanism is still the freest, most opportunity-rich place in the history of the world. Indeed, the United States remains a bastion of the belief that Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness are divinely bestowed inalienable rights, not "rights" granted by government.

As 2005 draws to a close, then, let each of us remember George Washington's Farewell charge: "The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations." May this be truer of us all in the year to come.

The Patriot will return to its police analysis and "critical" responsibilities next year, firm in our conviction that America's greatness lies in her heritage and her people, and unabashed in our belief that her best days are yet to come.





"No sooner had the [Los Angeles] Times story
about the killing of al-Qa'ida's number 3
covered the details of the event...than its
writers sought to diminish the significance of
that event. '[Unnamed] experts cautioned that
the killing was likely to have a limited effect
because al-Qa'ida is less a hierarchical
organization and more a movement that can
carry out missions without directions from top
leaders.' Oh, like 9/11. What this malicious
subterfusion conceals is the fact that while The
Los Angeles Times and the Democrat
leadership were busily sabotaging the
American war on terror, the
Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld team was destroying
al-Qa'ida as we knew it. Yes, today al-Qa'ida
may be a decentralized collection of local
terrorist cells, as the Times claims. But that is
because America has taken the offensive,
killed al-Qa'ida's leaders and driven them into
hiding, destroyed much of its infrastructure and
reduced its capabilities so dramatically that the
United States has been safe from terrorist
attack for more than four years. Thank you
George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld
and the thousands of men and women under
arms who have had to fight a war against a
ruthless enemy with half the country either on
the sidelines or actively stabbing them in the
back." —David Horowitz




"This is what I fear about our elites in
government and media, who will decide our
immigration policy. It is that they will ignore the
human questions and focus instead, as they
have in the past, only on economic questions
(we need the workers) and political ones (we
need the Latino vote). They think that's the big
picture. It's not. What goes on in the human
heart is the big picture. Again: What does it
mean when your first act is to break the laws of
your new country? What does it mean when
you know you are implicitly supported in
lawbreaking by that nation's ruling elite? What
does it mean when you know your new country
doesn't even enforce its own laws?... Our elites
are lucky people. They were born in a suburb,
went to Yale, and run the world from a desk.
Which means this great question, immigration,
is going to be decided by people who don't
know what it is to sleep on a bench. Who don't
know what it is to earn your space, your place...
The problem with our elites as they make our
immigration policy is not that they have
compassion and open-mindedness. It is that
they are unknowing and empty-headed."
—Peggy Noonan





"[Democrats] are the same people who
rediscover poverty every election and promise
to cure it. They've cured it so often that they've
now made a profession of it. They thrive on
failures, on righting wrongs, aiding victims, and
so forth. It must be understood that success in
those tasks would put them out of business. No
matter how many programs are set up and
operating, their proponents never claim
success for them. To do so would be to say the
problems have been solved, meaning the
programs are no longer needed. And the
programs, not the problems, are their very
reason for being." —Ronald Reagan




From the states, convicted murderer Stanley
"Tookie" Williams was executed in California
this week for the grisly murders of four people
in 1979. Williams robbed a 7-Eleven with a
sawed-off shotgun and murdered Albert
Owens. Later he murdered Yen-I Yang and
Tsai-Shai Chen Yang and their daughter Yu
Chin Yang Lin at the motel they owned. The
supposedly "pro-victim" Left decried the
execution and worked hard to stop it, while
news stories ignored the names of the victims,
instead portraying Williams as the victim. As
the dust settles, we are convinced justice was
(finally) served.




OurIvy League friends, who won't allow military
recruiters on campus due to the "don't ask,
don't tell" policy, still want taxpayer dollars.
Now it seems they are also willing to take
Saudi dollars, despite their policy of executing
homosexuals. Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal
bin Abdulaziz al-Saud has donated $20 million
each to Harvard and Georgetown
Universities—with the small string attached that
it is for promoting Islamic studies. Former New
York Mayor Rudy Giuliani rejected $10 million
from the Prince after 9/11 because the Prince
said that the U.S. should "re-examine its
policies in the Middle East and adopt a more
balanced stance towards the Palestinian
cause. Our Palestinian brethren continue to be
slaughtered at the hands of Israelis while the
world turns the other cheek." No such concern
from Harvard or Georgetown—the latter
announced that its Center for Muslim-Christian
Understanding will be renamed the H.R.H.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for
Muslim-Christian Understanding. Money over
principle every time.




This week's "Braying Jackass" award:
"[T]he presence of our troops itself is a part of
the current reality on the ground that presents
food for the insurgency, and you need to
reduce that presence..." —Sen. John Kerry
(D-Cambodia), regurgitating the embarrassing
line that we're making the Jihadis attack us






The BIG lie...
Readers of Monday's New York Times were
greeted by a full-page advertisement on page
entitled, "The World Can't Wait; Drive Out the
Bush Regime!"

In the spirit of the season, we'll let this one
speak for itself...

"YOUR GOVERNMENT, on the basis of
outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and
utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other
countries in their [sic] sights.

"YOUR GOVERNMENT is openly torturing
people, and justifying it.

"YOUR GOVERNMENT is moving each day
closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and
hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will
rule.

"The Bush regime is setting out to radically
remake society...in a fascist way, and for
generations to come. We must act now... There
is not going to be some magical 'pendulum
swing.' People who steal elections and believe
they're on a 'mission from God' will not go
without a fight. There is not going to be some
savior from the Democratic [sic] Party. This
whole idea of putting our hopes and energies
into 'leaders' who tell us to seek common
ground with fascists and religious fanatics is
proving every day to be a disaster, and actually
serves to demobilize people."

The ad calls for massive nationwide
demonstrations in January "to create a political
situation where the Bush regime's program is
repudiated... Bush is driven from office... and
the direction of society is reversed."

Signers included the Revolutionary Communist
Party, Queers for Economic Justice and
Hollywood has-beens like Martin Sheen,
Margot Kidder, Casey Kasem, Edward Asner,
Ed Begley and, of course, Hanoi Jane Fonda.

A Christmas Message

This is from the “Federalist Patriot” and it is their Christmas edition. I thought it says better than any Christmas message I can put together,,,,,JF



THE GOOD NEWS
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." —John 1:14 (NKJV)




"Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"' —Luke 2:8-14 (NKJV)

IChThUS IMPRIMIS
"More than 2,000 years ago...mankind received its Savior, and to those who had dwelled in darkness, the light of hope had come. Each Christmas, we celebrate that first coming anew, and we rejoice in the knowledge that the God who came to Earth that night in Bethlehem is with us still and will remain with us forever. Christmas is a season of hope and joy, a time to give thanks for the blessing of Christ's birth and for the blessings that surround us every day of the year.... [This] Christmas, we pray [especially] for freedom, justice and peace on Earth. We remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and for our freedom, and we ask for God's blessing on their loved ones. We ask God to watch over all of our men and women in uniform. Many are serving in distant lands, helping to advance the cause of freedom and peace. Our entire Nation is grateful to them and prays for their safe return. Laura and I send our best wishes for a blessed and merry Christmas." —President George W. Bush

"Christmas is a season of hope and joy, a time to give thanks for the blessing of Christ's birth..." —President Bush

INSIGHT
"He rules the world with truth and grace." —Isaac Watts

"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." —Charles Dickens

"The Incarnation...illuminates and orders all other phenomena, explains both our laughter and our logic, our fear of the dead and our knowledge that it is somehow good to die, and which at one stroke covers what multitudes of separate theories will hardly cover for us if this is rejected." —C.S. Lewis

"Regarding not the day, let us give God thanks for the gift of His dear Son... If it be possible to honor Christ in the giving of gifts, I cannot see how while the gift, giver and recipient are all in the spirit of the world... [B]ut we have a Christ gift the entire year." —Charles Spurgeon

"The concerted effort to minimize Christmas has resulted in it being our national Happy Holiday holiday. The Christmas season is now the holiday season. Christmas parties are now holiday parties. Christmas is a time for giving and receiving presents and in many homes, nothing more. Who is this fellow, Jesus Christ, anyway?" —Lyn Nofziger

"Holiday and Holy Day, Christmas is more than a yule log, holly or tree. It is more than natural good cheer and the giving of gifts. Christmas is even more than the feast of the home and of children, the feast of love and friendship. It is more than all of these together. Christmas is Christ, the Christ of justice and charity, of freedom and peace." —Francis Cardinal Spellman

"The place that the shepherds found was not an academy or an abstract republic; it was not a place of myths allegorized or dissected or explained away. It was a place of dreams come true." —G.K. Chesterton

"More than any gift or toy, ornament of tree, let us resolve that this Christmas shall be, like that first Christmas, a celebration of interior treasures." —Ronald Reagan

"He rules the world with truth and grace..." —Isaac Watts


CHRISTMAS 2005—THE PERFECT GIFT
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." —James 1:17

Christmas, 2005, comes at a markedly inauspicious time for celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace. Our country has entered the fourth year of a strange, shadowy global war, and, despite battlefield successes that portend ultimate victory, our nation's political leaders are warring over the war here at home: how best to wage it, and whether to treat it as a military conflict or as a courtroom battle. Also on the home front, we are warring over Christmas itself. Added to the common complaints of crass commercialism, the frenzied dashes through shopping malls, and the fast-clicking through e-commerce websites are sharp-edged debates this year over commercial establishments following government schools and public venues in banishing Christmas. This is stunning hypocrisy to say the least, with large-scale sellers coveting Christmas shoppers' business while simultaneously signaling their greater fealty toward the multicultural secularism of the liberal elite.

Practical-minded shoppers tend to dismiss such contentiousness, returning to their search for "the perfect gift," but has anyone ever purchased such a thing? We know there cannot be true perfection in this world, as all the warring amply attests. Instead, gift-givers are seeking something that is well suited to the intended recipient—something that perhaps will even delight the receiver. Who can gainsay a giver's motives?

Undeniably, Nativity accounts treat giving as an important part of the Holy Birth. Historically, the actual year of Christ's birth is thought to be between 6 B.C. and 4 B.C., at the end of Herod's reign in Judea. The first mention of Christmas as a formal Nativity feast occurred in a Roman almanac dated A.D. 336.

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light..." —Isaiah

The Christmas star that guided the Wise Men to Bethlehem may have been any of a number of recorded astronomical events coinciding with the likeliest dates of that first Christmas. Halley's Comet appeared in 12 B.C., and ancient Chinese texts note "exploding" stars, or novas, observed in both 4 and 5 B.C. Exceptionally bright planetary conjunctions occurred in 2, 6, and 7 B.C.; among these, the most promising candidate for the Holy Star was the triple conjunction of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in 6 B.C. The Wise Men followed the Holy Star to lay gifts, symbolic of His life, before the Baby Jesus: gold, because He was a king; frankincense, as he was a divine king; myrrh, to foreshadow that His suffering and death would be our preservation.

The prophet Isaiah wrote of the coming Messiah, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light..." Well before the birth of Jesus, man longed for light in the days of greatest darkness. Early Christians selected December 25th for the Nativity feast to proclaim that Jesus Christ was the real Light of the World, the true "Son of Righteousness," the foretold Messiah. As Jesus later said, he had not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them, just as He fulfilled the deepest longings of human minds and hearts.

The Christ Child was Himself referred to as a Gift—given by Our Heavenly Father to redeem sinful humans. The Holy Birth involved the Incarnation first; the spiritual wrapped in material form—holy, eternal God, enshrined in perishable human flesh. Such was our Perfect Gift, for restoration of full fellowship between God and humans.
God, in His mercy, has bestowed many gifts on this blessed land.
God, in His mercy, has bestowed other gifts—and many on this blessed land. We consider many Decembers, reasserting hope during dark days, as heavenly gifts to America, coming at critical junctures in our nation's Founding. On December 11, 1620, prior to disembarking at Plymouth Rock, the voyagers signed the "Mayflower Compact," often cited as America's original document of civil government and the first to introduce self-government. On December 16, 1773, the "Sons of Liberty" tossed chests of tea from British ships into Boston harbor in protest of Britain's unjust taxes. This, of course, was the Boston Tea Party.

Our American Christmas heritage as celebrated during early colonial days (and continuing today) derives, like so much else here, from the mingled Christmas traditions of immigrants from many lands, with differing religious beliefs and customs of worship and celebration. Our name for this Holy Day arises from the old English Cristes Maesse, or Christ's Mass. As the name suggests, the holiday was first observed in Early America among the Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Lutherans and Moravians who settled predominantly in the Middle Atlantic colonies and the South. Influenced by Puritanism and Calvinism, the New England Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists treated the new celebration with greater circumspection.

In fact, New England colonial authorities outlawed Christmas from 1649 until 1658—and the General Court of Massachusetts in 1659 set a fine of five shillings per offense, punishing the observance "of any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forebearing of labour, feasting, or any such way." Contemporaneously, the Assembly of Connecticut forbade the reading of the Book of Common Prayer, the keeping of Christmas and saints days, the making of mince pies, the playing of cards, or performing on any musical instruments.

National acknowledgement of Christmas returned during the Revolutionary War, and mirrored its ebb and flow. The so-called Christmas Campaign victories of General George Washington in 1776 at Trenton and Princeton were followed a year later by the Revolutionary Army's retreat to Valley Forge, the trail marked by bloody footprints in the snow. Washington wrote in discouragement of "A character to lose—an estate to forfeit—the inestimable blessing of liberty at stake—and a life devoted, must be my excuse," and about how "it was much easier to draw up remonstrances in a comfortable room by a good fire-side, than to occupy a cold bleak hill, and sleep under frost and snow, without clothes or blankets."

Massachusetts was the first state to make Christmas a legal holiday, in 1856. By that time, most of our shared Christmas traditions were set, and Harper's Weekly, on January 3, 1863, featured a drawing of encamped soldiers receiving Christmas gifts from home. Christmas become a federal holiday under President Ulysses S. Grant's 1870 declaration.

Nearly all Americans celebrate Christmas today in some way, a uniformity that belies the variance with which, as in colonial days, Americans approach this holiday. The Babe of Bethlehem's birth was announced by angels saying, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord... Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!" Is the Christ Child's American birthday still that universal? Indeed! His earthly arrival brings true delight to believers—but perfection for doubters and deniers too. "O come let us adore him" is neither threat nor coercion, but instead a personal invitation. It is in the nature of a gift to be freely given, and freely received, for true gifts are not forced in either way. As George Washington acknowledged, in his despair in 1777, another gift God has bestowed upon Americans is "the inestimable blessing of liberty." Indeed, the first freedom enshrined in the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights is religious liberty—including the liberty to honor Christmas freely and publicly. Our troops in harm's way, surely, are fighting for Christmas in that very sense—so that we all may freely proffer adoration for that miraculous and perfect Gift of the first Christmas.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Regarding our Christmas edition (as with our Easter and Thanksgiving editions), we take leave from the rigors of research and analysis of contemporaneous news, policy and opinion in order to focus on an eternal message, indeed a Christian message. To our Patriot readers of faiths other than Christianity, we hope this edition serves to deepen your understanding of our faith—the faith of our Founders, the faith upon which our nation's Declaration and Constitution were conceived.

If you're able, please support The Patriot today by making a contribution, however large or small, to The Patriot's 2005 Annual Fund. If you prefer to support us by mail, please use our Donor Support Form.

We will publish a year-end note next Tuesday followed by the first edition of 2006 (Patriot Chronicle No. 06-01) on Wednesday, 4 January. Until then, a blessed and peaceful Christmas to you and yours.

(Please pray on this day, and every day, for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world in defense of our liberty, and for the families awaiting their safe return.)

*PUBLIUS*

The Federalist Patriot (FederalistPatriot.US) is protected speech pursuant to the "inalienable rights" of all men, and the First (and Second) Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

In God we trust.

2005 © Publius Press, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

A quick addition:

Last week, the House of Representatives passed a resolution to protect the symbols and traditions of Christmas. The vote was 401-22 in favor of the resolution (5 voted "present"); below are the representatives that voted "nay."

Gary Ackerman (D-NY)

Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)

Lois Capps (D-CA)

Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO)

Diana DeGette (D-CO)

Jane Harman (D-CA)

Alcee Hastings (D-FL)

Michael Honda (D-CA)

Barbara Lee (D-CA)

John Lewis (D-GA)

Jim McDermott (D-WA)

George Miller (D-CA)

Gwen Moore (D-WI)

James Moran (D-VA)

Donald Payne (D-NJ)

Bobby Rush (D-IL)

Janice Schakowsky (D-IL)

Bobby Scott (D-VA)

Fortney Stark (D-CA)

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)

Robert Wexler (D-FL)

Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)

Notice any common thread among them? Remember this when you vote in the next election,,,JF

Lieberman's Trip, Christian Pacifism and Mr. Heston revisited

By Joe Lieberman
Op-Ed
November 29, 2005

I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress there. More work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood--unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.
Progress is visible and practical. In the Kurdish North, there is continuing security and growing prosperity. The primarily Shiite South remains largely free of terrorism, receives much more electric power and other public services than it did under Saddam, and is experiencing greater economic activity. The Sunni triangle, geographically defined by Baghdad to the east, Tikrit to the north and Ramadi to the west, is where most of the terrorist enemy attacks occur. And yet here, too, there is progress.
There are many more cars on the streets, satellite television dishes on the roofs, and literally millions more cell phones in Iraqi hands than before. All of that says the Iraqi economy is growing. ...
It is a war between 27 million and 10,000; 27 million Iraqis who want to live lives of freedom, opportunity and prosperity and roughly 10,000 terrorists who are either Saddam revanchists, Iraqi Islamic extremists or al Qaeda foreign fighters who know their wretched causes will be set back if Iraq becomes free and modern. ... If the terrorists win, they will be emboldened to strike us directly again and to further undermine the growing stability and progress in the Middle East, which has long been a major American national and economic security priority. ...
In the face of terrorist threats and escalating violence, eight million Iraqis voted for their interim national government in January, almost 10 million participated in the referendum on their new constitution in October, and even more than that are expected to vote in the elections for a full-term government on Dec. 15. Every time the 27 million Iraqis have been given the chance since Saddam was overthrown, they have voted for self-government and hope over the violence and hatred the 10,000 terrorists offer them. ...
None of these remarkable changes would have happened without the coalition forces led by the U.S. And, I am convinced, almost all of the progress in Iraq and throughout the Middle East will be lost if those forces are withdrawn faster than the Iraqi military is capable of securing the country.
The leaders of Iraq's duly elected government understand this, and they asked me for reassurance about America's commitment. The question is whether the American people and enough of their representatives in Congress from both parties understand this. I am disappointed by Democrats who are more focused on how President Bush took America into the war in Iraq almost three years ago ... than they are concerned about how we continue the progress in Iraq in the months and years ahead. ...
While U.S. public opinion polls show serious declines in support for the war and increasing pessimism about how it will end, polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today. ...
The leaders of America's military and diplomatic forces in Iraq, Gen. George Casey and Ambassador Zal Khalilzad, have a clear and compelling vision of our mission there. It is to create the environment in which Iraqi democracy, security and prosperity can take hold and the Iraqis themselves can defend their political progress against those 10,000 terrorists who would take it from them.
Does America have a good plan for doing this, a strategy for victory in Iraq? Yes we do. ...
Nationwide, American military leaders estimate that about one-third of the approximately 100,000 members of the Iraqi military are able to "lead the fight" themselves with logistical support from the U.S., and that that number should double by next year. If that happens, American military forces could begin a drawdown in numbers proportional to the increasing self-sufficiency of the Iraqi forces in 2006. If all goes well, I believe we can have a much smaller American military presence there by the end of 2006 or in 2007, but it is also likely that our presence will need to be significant in Iraq or nearby for years to come. ...
These are new ideas that are working and changing the reality on the ground, which is undoubtedly why the Iraqi people are optimistic about their future--and why the American people should be, too. ...
Mr. Lieberman is a Democratic senator from Connecticut

HOW COME THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA ISN'T REPORTING THIS ON THEIR FRONT PAGES? DON'T TELL ME THAT THE MSM DOESN'T HAVE AN AGENDA AND LIBERAL BIAS !!!!,,(excuse the rant,,JF)









"Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... [W]e have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." —Theodore Roosevelt








"Republicans have a majority...so why can't Republicans do something about immigration or spending or taxes or energy or missile defense or marriage or right-to-life? I have a two-word answer: liberal Republicans. The media calls them 'moderate Republicans.' There is nothing 'moderate' about them." —Paul Weyrich





"In recent weeks most Democrats seem to have concluded that the war effort is a sinking ship, the American people have already jumped overboard, and if Democrat politicians follow them off the side, the people will reward them by putting them in charge of the life rafts." —James Taranto





"Terrorists are also winning the psychological warfare, partly because the jihadists are unified behind a goal and we often are not. They want territory and they want to kill 'infidels.' American leftists want 'peace,' without realizing that peace is a byproduct of defeating evil. The left also wants to use the war for partisan political gain and will seek to deprive President Bush of any credit for victory because it could benefit him politically. How sick is that?" —Cal Thomas





"Our college campuses have become the last safe haven of Marxists, largely because its adherents have never had to survive in the real world, much less in a communist dictatorship. Indeed, there are more communists teaching in the State of North Carolina than there are in the former Soviet Union." —Mike Adams





"In early 2009 [Hillary Clinton] could become not only the first woman president, but the first president to bring White House furniture in with her." —Joseph Sobran

Is this a Clinton version of "Rooms to Go"??,,,JF

"Fed up with being endlessly told 'the American people' have turned against the war in Iraq, Republicans asked the Democrats to show what they had in their hand and vote on a resolution to withdraw the troops. By a vote of 403-3, the House of Representatives wasn't willing to bet that 'the American people' want to pull out of Iraq. (This vote also marked the first time in recent history that the Democrats did not respond to getting their butts kicked by demanding a recount.)" —Ann Coulter





The Folly Of Christian Pacifism

Sword of David

At a dinner with some friends recently one man commented on the subject of Christian Pacifism and asked how a Christian could own, carry weapons, and (good heavens) even be willing to use them to kill.After I wiped the food I unintentionally launched at him via my astonished mouth, I kindly explained why he was wrong, and why his pastor, regardless of how learned he may be, was wrong.Some modern Christians believe that we are all called to be pacifists and turn our backs on weapons of any sort. They believe that we are to be docile and submissive to any government or governing authority, and by extension, never resist anything with violence as it is not our job to do so. Moreover, they believe that we must never use violence against anyone, and that we must always turn our cheek to an aggressor. In short, these misguided Christians believe that we should leave all earthly things in other hands and focus exclusively on spiritual matters. I believe that these well-intentioned Christians are mistaken. I believe they have been misled by clergy who misunderstand the Scriptures…or who for otherwise personal reasons have intentionally misinterpreted God’s word. I believe that God calls us to be faithful, and to rely on Him for all things, but He also calls us to be watchful, and being watchful, able to act upon that which we see. What good is it to be watchful if when something is seen, no one was going to do anything about it anyway? Watchfulness is only useful when there is a capacity to act.I also believe that He does not call us to meekly (popular meaning) submit to those who would do us evil (either physical or spiritual). How can any man not fight for his wife, his children or his nation when they are put in harm's way by an evil man? And how can any Christian submit to any group who forbids them from raising their children by the Word of God?God calls us to be strong and courageous (Joshua 1:9) as much as we are spiritually or physically able. God calls all of us to be alert (Eph 5:15), some to be armed (Luke 22:36), and all to resist and abhor evil wherever it is found (Rom 12:9). I have included biblical references to back up what I write.I am not a Pastor, nor even a theologian. I am just an interested sinner, a man at arms that God called. And when He called me, He did not make me discard my “sword”. I have read the Scriptures and this is what I read in them. The lions are NOT our legacy. I will discuss this issue in several parts.One, God does not call us to be pacifists. He calls us to love one another, and that part of the manifestation of that love is the willingness to fight, kill, or die for those you love. Possibly to kill or if needed, possibly to die for them. As Christians we may try to love the enemies whom we face in battle, but we certainly love those whom we are fighting for, our families and country, even more. When the two come into conflict, whether on a dark street, or in a big battlefield, a choice must be made. Who do you love more? Not choosing is the luxury of the coward. Some Christians that argue the point, refer to Jesus’ teachings, and proclaim that Our Lord was Himself a pacifist. They argue that we are supposed to love one another, and if we love as God asks us to love, we can never use force or violence against another one of God’s creations. Furthermore, they point out Jesus’ words “about turning the other cheek”. They also point to Our Lord instructing Peter to “put the sword in its place”. And that those who live by the sword shall perish by it. First of all, the turning cheek business has a different meaning than a simple slap. A slap on the face was an insult, not necessarily thought of as a physical attack. Think of a 21st Century slap as someone rudely giving you the finger. God is NOT telling us that if a man punches us full force in the face we are to allow him to also kick us in the crotch! Nor does it follow that if a man comes in to rape your wife, you will also offer him your daughter. Only a fool or a coward without the guts to keep from getting kicked in the crotch or to defend his family would suggest such a thing!The sword episode with Peter is especially important, and shows us that had Jesus not approved of swords, there would have been no swords in evidence that night. I'll bet you my 401K that none of the remaining apostles had any idols, prostitutes, or anything of the sort on hand. Yet there were two swords among them. Hmmm.When Peter stood and drew the sword, Jesus told him to put it in its place, not to get rid of it. Hmmmm. Also what many of the pacifists forget is that Christ gave Himself up willingly because it was His mission to do so. He wasn't taken, He wasn't murdered, He gave Himself to this to obey His Father. It’s no mystery. Its there for those who wish to read it.Later Christ also said that those who live by the sword shall perish by it. "Those who live by" it, not those who use it. We are not to live by the sword, but by the Word of God. That doesn't mean we aren't to use them WHEN APPROPRIATE TO DO SO.Two, He does not expect us to unconditionally submit to authority. As soon as an authority (any authority) prevents us from living as He calls us to live, that authority has turned from God and no longer has His blessing. We must not submit to such an authority, rather we must resist it.The Word is full of situations where rulers turned from God and were thwarted. Moses' mother defied the Pharaoh by not allowing Moses to be killed as a boy, Rahab lied to protect the Israelites, Joseph and Mary defied the government by taking their son away to Egypt. I read and do not see the unconditional submission that some pastors call for. When an authority prevents you from living as a Christian, that authority is no longer from God. It makes me wonder what some of these unconditional submission crowd would have done with regards to Hitler, Stalin, Castro, or even our own Saddam. Would they have burned bibles or turned in fellow believers to "submit to government"??Three, that we, with His help and blessing, are responsible for our own selves, family, and community. He calls us to provide for our own. We rely on His help, but that it is an active reliance, not a passive one. Part of that provision is security."But if anyone does not provide for his own, and specially those of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever".1 Timothy 5:8Part of "provide" is security. This can no more be shirked off to the authorities than the feeding, clothing, and spiritual training of your children can. If you do, you are worse than..well, you know.Four, that to insure our freedom to live as Christians, to insure the security and freedom of our loved ones, able Christians that are called by God to do so, must “sell their cloaks”, and as Jesus our Lord asked His men to do in Luke 22:36, purchase the means to insure all these things we discussed. In the 21st Century, those means are firearms.Those who would prevent you from "selling your cloak to buy a sword", which by chronological application today means a handgun, and by extension carrying it around with you, are in effect preventing you from exercising your religious beliefs, and living your life as your God calls you to live it. Such prohibition is a heinous violation of your God given right to religious freedom. So, to recap. God calls us to be strong in faith in Him. He calls us to attempt to live in peace with all men as much as lies on us. He calls us to be alert to the evil around us, and to abhor it. He calls us to provide for our own (part of which is security). And finally, through reading His Word, we are called...some of us..to pick up the sword of a mighty man of God and wield it in faith.
__________________Gabe SuarezSuarez International USA, Inc.303 East Gurley Street, Suite 461Prescott, Arizona 86301 USAOffice 928-776-4492Fax 928-776-8218Mobile 928-308-1512info@suarezinternational.comMany shooting schools arewilling to stand behind their students -We are willing to stand in front of them!


This may be 6 years old, but still relevant,,JF





Charlton Heston's Speech to the Harvard Law School Forum, Feb 16, 1999


I remember my son when he was five, explaining to his kindergarten class what his father did for a living. "My Daddy," he said, "pretends to be people." There have been quite a few of them. Prophets from the Old and New Testaments, a couple of Christian saints, generals of various nationalities and different centuries, several kings, three American presidents, a French cardinal and two geniuses, including Michelangelo. If you want the ceiling repainted I'll do my best….. There always seem to be a lot of different fellows up here. I'm never sure which one of them gets to talk. Right now, I guess I'm the guy.As I pondered our visit tonight it struck me: If my Creator gave me the gift to connect you with the hearts and minds of those great men, then I want to use that same gift now to reconnect you with your own sense of liberty of your own freedom of thought ... your own compass for what is right.Dedicating the memorial at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said of America, "We are now engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether this nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure." Those words are true again. I believe that we are again engaged in a great civil war, a cultural war that's about to hijack your birthright to think and say what resides in your heart. I fear you no longer trust the pulsing lifeblood of liberty inside you, the stuff that made this country rise from wilderness into the miracle that it is.Let me back up. About a year ago I became president of the National Rifle Association, which protects the right to keep and bear arms. I ran for office, I was elected, and now I serve ... I serve as a moving target for the media who've called me everything from "ridiculous" and "duped" to a "brain-injured, senile, crazy old man." I know ... I'm pretty old ... but I sure, Lord, ain't senile.As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the only issue. No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated. For example, I marched for civil rights with Dr. King in 1963 - long before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride, they called me a racist.I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe. I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out Innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite. Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh.From Time magazine to friends and colleagues, they're essentially saying, "Chuck, how dare you speak your mind. You are using language not authorized for public consumption!" But I am not afraid. If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys-subjects bound to the British crown.In his book, "The End of Sanity," Martin Gross writes "blatantly irrational behavior is rapidly being established as the norm in almost every area of human endeavor. There seem to be new customs, new rules, and new anti-intellectual theories regularly foisted on us from every direction. Underneath, the nation is roiling. Americans know something without a name is undermining the nation, turning the mind mushy when it comes to separating truth from falsehood and right from wrong. And they don't like it." Let me read a few examples. At Antioch college in Ohio, young men seeking intimacy with a coed must get verbal permission at each step of the process from kissing to petting to final copulation ... all clearly spelled out in a printed college directive.In New Jersey, despite the death of several patients nationwide who had been infected by dentists who had concealed their AIDs --- the state commissioner announced that health providers who are HIV-positive need not ..... need not ..... tell their patients that they are infected.At William and Mary, students tried to change the name of the school team "The Tribe" because it was supposedly insulting to local Indians, only to learn that authentic Virginia chiefs truly like the name. In San Francisco, city fathers passed an ordinance protecting the rights of transvestites to cross-dress on the job, and for transsexuals to have separate toilet facilities while undergoing sex change surgery. In New York City, kids who don't speak a word of Spanish have been placed in bilingual classes to learn their three R's in Spanish solely because their last names sound Hispanic.At the University of Pennsylvania, in a state where thousands died at Gettysburg opposing slavery, the president of that college officially set up segregated dormitory space for black students. Yeah, I know that's out of bounds now. Dr. King said "Negroes." Jimmy Baldwin and most of us on the March said "black." But it's a no-no now. For me, hyphenated identities are awkward ... particularly "Native-American." I'm a Native American, for God's sake. I also happen to be a blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux. On my wife's side, my grandson is a thirteenth generation native American ... with a capital letter on "American."Finally, just last month ... David Howard, head of the Washington D.C. Office of Public Advocate, used the word "niggardly" while talking to colleagues about budgetary matters. Of course, "niggardly" means stingy or scanty. But within days Howard was forced to publicly apologize and resign. As columnist Tony Snow wrote: "David HowardGot fired because some people in public employ were morons who: (a) didn't know the meaning of niggardly, (b) didn't know how to use a dictionary to discover the meaning, and (c) actually demanded that he apologize for their ignorance."What does all of this mean? It means that telling us what to think has evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can't be far behind. Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why did political correctness originate on America's campuses? And why do you continue to tolerate it? Why do you, who're supposed to debate ideas, surrender to their suppression?Let's be honest. Who here thinks your professors can say what they really believe? It scares me to death, and should scare you too, that the superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason.You are the best and the brightest. You, here in the fertile cradle of American academia, here in the castle of learning on the Charles River, you are the cream. But I submit that you, and your counterparts across the land, are the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation since Concord Bridge. And as long as you validate that ... and abide it ... you are - by your grandfathers' standards - cowards.Here's another example. Right now at more than one major university, Second Amendment scholars and researchers are being told to shut up about their findings or they'll lose their jobs. Why? Because their research findings would undermine big-city mayor's pending lawsuits that seek to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from firearm manufacturers.I don't care what you think about guns. But if you are not shocked at that, I am shocked at you. Who will guard the raw material of unfettered ideas, if not you? Who will defend the core value of academia if you, supposed soldiers of free thought and expression, lay down your arms and plead, "Don't shoot me."
If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist. If you see distinctions between the genders, it does not make you a sexist. If you think critically about a denomination, it does not make you anti-religion. If you accept but don't celebrate homosexuality, it does not make you a homophobe. Don't let America's universities continue to serve as incubators for this rampant epidemic of new McCarthyism. But what can you do? How can anyone prevail against such pervasive social subjugation? The answer's been here all along. I learned it 36 years ago, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, standing with Dr. Martin Luther King and two hundred thousand people. You simply ... disobey. Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of course. Nonviolently, absolutely.But when told how to think or what to say or how to behave, we don't. We disobey social protocol that stifles and stigmatizes personal freedom. I learned the awesome power of disobedience from Dr. King ... who learned it from Gandhi, and Thoreau, and Jesus, and every other great man who led those in the right against those with the might. Disobedience is in our DNA. We feel innate kinship with that disobedient spirit that tossed tea into Boston Harbor, that sent Thoreau to jail, that refused to sit in the back of the bus, that protested a war in Viet Nam. In that same spirit, I am asking you to disavow cultural correctness with massive disobedience of rogue authority, social directives and onerous laws that weaken personal freedom.But be careful ... it hurts. Disobedience demands that you put yourself at risk. Dr. King stood on lots of balconies. You must be willing to be humiliated ... to endure the modern-day equivalent of the police dogs at Montgomery and the water cannons at Selma. You must be willing to experience discomfort. I'm not complaining, but my own decades of social activism have taken their toll on me. Let me tell you a story.A few years back I heard about a rapper named Ice-T who was selling a CD called "Cop Killer" celebrating ambushing and murdering police officers. It was being marketed by none other than Time/Warner, the biggest entertainment conglomerate in the world. Police across the country were outraged. Rightfully so - at least one had been murdered. But Time/Warner was stonewalling because the CD was a cash cow for them, and the media were tiptoeing around it because the rapper was black. I heard Time/Warner had a stockholders meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills. I owned some shares at the time, so I decided to attend. What I did there was against the advice of my family and colleagues. I asked for the floor. To a hushed room of a thousand average American stockholders, I simply read the full lyrics of "Cop Killer"- every vicious, vulgar, instructional word."I GOT MY 12 GAUGE SAWED OFF. I GOT MY HEADLIGHTS TURNED OFF I'M ABOUT TO BUST SOME SHOTS OFF. I'M ABOUT TO DUST SOME COPS OFF..."It got worse, a lot worse. I won't read the rest of it to you. But trust me, the room was a sea of shocked, frozen, blanched faces. The Time/Warner executives squirmed in their chairs and stared at their shoes. They hated me for that. Then I delivered another volley of sick lyric brimming with racist filth, where Ice-T(Doesn’t he now do a cop show as a detective solving sex crimes?,,JF) fantasizes about sodomizing two 12-year old nieces of Al and Tipper Gore."SHE PUSHED HER BUTT AGAINST MY ...." Well, I won't do to you here what I did to them. Let's just say I left the room in echoing silence. When I read the lyrics to the waiting press corps, one of them said "We can't print that." "I know," I replied, "but Time/Warner's selling it." Two months later, Time/Warner terminated Ice-T's contract. I'll never be offered another film by Warner's, or get a good review from Time magazine. But disobedience means you must be willing to act, not just talk. When a mugger sues his elderly victim for defending herself ... jam the switchboard of the district attorney's office. When your university is pressured to lower standards until 80% of the students graduate with honors ... choke the halls of the board of regents.When an 8-year-old boy pecks a girl's cheek on the playground and gets hauled into court for sexual harassment ... march on that school and block its doorways.When someone you elected is seduced by political power and betrays you...petition them, oust them, banish them.When Time magazine's cover portrays millennium nuts as deranged, crazy Christians holding a cross as it did last month ... boycott their magazine and the products it advertises.So that this nation may long endure, I urge you to follow in the hallowed footsteps of the great disobedience's of history that freed exiles, founded religions, defeated tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an aroused rabble in arms and a few great men, by God's grace, built this country.If Dr. King were here, I think he would agree. Thank you