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.