HAPPY NEW YEAR

I hope everyone had a good New Year's Eve.

Let's hope 2009 is a turnaround from the free-fall we have been in since October.

"No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [within his own lands]"

--Thomas Jefferson

"If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy."

--Thomas Jefferson

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

--Thomas Jefferson

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world."

-- Thomas Jefferson

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe ."

-- Thomas Jefferson

The UAW's Money-Squandering Corruptocracy

By Michelle Malkin

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. The UAW golfed. While carmakers soak up $17 billion in taxpayer bailout funds and demand more for their ailing industry, United Auto Workers bosses have wasted tens of millions of their workers' dues on gold-plated resorts and rotten investments. [Read more]

Teaching Economics

By Walter E. Williams

Many professors, mostly on the liberal side of the political spectrum, use their classrooms to proselytize students. [Read more]

Israel's Proportionate Response

By Michael Gerson

WASHINGTON -- There is no question -- none -- that Israel's attack on Hamas in Gaza is justified. No nation can tolerate a portion of its people living in the conditions of the London Blitz -- listening for sirens, sleeping in bomb shelters and separated from death only by the randomness of a Qassam missile's flight. And no group aspiring to nationhood, such as Hamas, can be exempt from the rules of sovereignty, morality and civilization, which, at the very least, forbid routine murder attempts against your neighbors.

Israel's response has been criticized as "disproportionate," which betrays a misunderstanding of proportion's meaning. The goal of military action, when....

The State of Our Borders 2008

By Michelle Malkin

If you think the bad economy has "solved" America's immigration problems, welcome to your end-of-the-year reality check. [Read more]

The So-called International Community

By Mona Charen:
Just for a lark, I decided to google "international condemnations of Hamas" this morning.
[Read more]

Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks,
it was called witchcraft.

Today, it's called golf.

Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me! I want people to
know why I look this way.

I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved..

Axis of Evil gifts: ICBMs from N. Korea to Iran

World Tribune

WASHINGTON — The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that North Korea could export intercontinental ballistic missiles or technology to Iran over the next year.

"North Korea, I think, does have intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach the United States," Adm. Timothy Keating, chief of U.S. Pacific Command, said. "Remember, that would include Hawaii and territories of the United States in our area of responsibility in the Pacific. So yes, I think they do have that capability."

In a briefing on Dec. 18, Keating said the U.S. military was preparing for......

ANALYSIS/OPINION

By Wesley Pruden
Washington Times

It's time once more to blame the Jews

The Israelis finally get enough of the constant rain of rockets on their border towns and villages, fired by Hamas thugs recognized by nearly everybody as international jackals, and strike back to stop it. Guess who the villains are.

The sea-going Chinese navy and its rapidly-expanding submarine fleet

Sol Sanders
World Tribune

The Chinese decision to send a contingent to engage, under the umbrella of a United Nations resolution, in the multinational operations against pirates off the Horn of Africa is of enormous significance. It comes at a moment of severe crisis in the Chinese economy, a reflection of the worldwide credit squeeze and the onset of what looks to be a severe worldwide recession.

[Continue reading]

For Israel, Glimmers of Support in Europe
(CNSNews.com) - As European Union foreign ministers met late Tuesday to push for a humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas, Israel received a rare expression of support from the government due to assume the E.U.’s rotating presidency on Thursday.

Schools Led by Obama's Ed Secretary Designee Failed No-Child-Left-Behind Standard for Five Years
(CNSNews.com) - The Chicago Public Schools, whose superintendent, Arne Duncan, has been tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to be the next education secretary, failed to meet the Illinois state standards set under the No Child Left Behind Act for the last five years.

United Auto Workers Union Worth $1.5 Billion in 2007
(CNSNews.com) – The United Autoworkers Union (UAW) had a total net worth of $1.5 billion for fiscal year 2007, according to financial disclosure forms on file with the U.S. Department of Labor.

"The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position."

--George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796

You Are Not a Loser!

By Robert Ringer

Right up there with the Abu Ghraib prison and Gitmo, a shopping mall is one of my most unfavorite places. My annual Christmas trip to the mall this year was especially bad ... rather depressing, in fact.

The place was mobbed, as though people were determined to have one last go at the good life, perhaps sensing that next Christmas the shopping malls might be turned into homeless shelters. I watched with great interest as people stood in long lines to pay for the on-sale merchandise they clutched tightly in their arms.

Strolling through Foot Locker, I examined a number of tags to see where the goods had been manufactured. No Honduras or Sri Lanka here. No sir. Virtually everything I looked at was made in none other than Cambodia.

My mind became an instant time machine. It hasn't been that long ago that Richard Nixon was explaining that the reason he secretly bombed Cambodia was to "end the Vietnam War sooner." Hmm ... as I recall, that one didn't work out too well.

It also hasn't been that long ago that Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge slaughtered 2 million of their own countrymen, leaving their skulls neatly stored on rows of shelves in warehouses. Cambodians have always been fastidious about such matters, you know. Just one of those unfortunate things that seems to happen when communist revolutions are carried out in the name of "the people."

But all is well now ...
Please Click Here to read the rest of the article.

Palestinian girl loses sister, blames Hamas

Makes daring accusation live on terror group's official television station

Atheists: No praying at inauguration!

Atheists are planning to crash the inauguration invocation, claiming the government is choosing between "believers" and "those who don't believe" and imposing religion on atheists and agnostics.

Michael Newdow, a California attorney who pushed a case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in an unsuccessful effort to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, is joining.....

As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.

In Moscow, Igor Panarin's Forecasts Are All the Rage; America 'Disintegrates' in 2010

WSJ.com

MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media.

In recent weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about....

RNC draft rips Bush's bailouts

Washington Times-

Republican Party officials say they will try next month to pass a resolution accusing President Bush and congressional Republican leaders of embracing "socialism," underscoring deep dissension within the party at the end of Mr. Bush's administration.

Those pushing the resolution, which will come before the Republican National Committee at its January meeting, say ....

NY Times Sued Over McCain Affair Story

The Smoking Gun-
Lobbyist: Paper "brazenly published" piece about non-existent tryst

Senate Dems say they won't seat Obama replacement

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democrats are refusing to seat the man picked by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill the seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

Blagojevich snubs Senate, taps Burris for seat

Brushing aside charges that he tried to sell Illinois' vacant U.S. Senate seat, Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the post today in defiance of Senate leaders who said they would not admit anyone he selected.

"It will not be denied that power is of an encroaching nature and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it. After discriminating, therefore, in theory, the several classes of power, as they may in their nature be legislative, executive, or judiciary, the next and most difficult task is to provide some practical security for each, against the invasion of the others."

--James Madison, Federalist No. 48, 1 February 1788

Taliban Are Beheading Their Way through Former Pakistan Tourist Haven

Scenic Pakistani Valley Falls to Taliban Militants

CNSNews - Islamabad, Pakistan - Taliban militants are beheading and burning their way through Pakistan's picturesque Swat Valley, and residents say the insurgents now control most of the mountainous region far from the lawless tribal areas where jihadists thrive.

Mexico Sentences Man Who Smuggled Hezbollah Sympathizers into U.S.

CNSNews.com

Mexico City - Mexican prosecutors say they won a 60-year prison term for a human smuggler who helped about 200 people sneak into the U.S., including Hezbollah supporters.

North Korea Steps Up Reports of Alleged Kim Jong-il Outings
(CNSNews.com) - Amid continuing speculation that Kim Jong-il is gravely ill – or even dead – North Korean state media have stepped up reports about purported appearances by the dictator, most recently a reported public classic music event.

Israel Braces for Hezbollah Threat
(CNSNews.com) - Israel is concerned about the likelihood of an attack by Hezbollah – the Shiite terrorist organization based in southern Lebanon – and it has “no doubt” that the long-range rockets used by Hamas terrorists are coming from Iran.

Obama Report Raises Questions: How Many Calls Did Emanuel Make to Blagojevich?
(CNSNews.com) – The report, issued by Obama attorney Greg Craig, cleared all Obama personnel, including Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), Obama's soon-to-be chief of staff, of any wrongdoing. But Craig failed to ascertain how many phone calls Emanuel actually made to the embattled governor.

Cholera deaths soar in Zimbabwe

BBC NEWS

The latest figures from the UN and Zimbabwe's health ministry reveal that two-thirds of the victims of the cholera outbreak have died this month.

The death toll at the end of last week stood at 1,564, with 29,131 suspected cases since August, the UN said.

Figures from the health ministry on 1 December put cholera deaths at 484.

The UN has warned it could take six months to control the outbreak that has been fuelled by the collapse of the health, sanitation and water services. [Read on]

Stalin voted third-best Russian

BBC NEWS

Former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was beaten by medieval prince Alexander Nevsky in a poll held by a TV station to find the greatest Russian. [Read more]

The Prime Question

By Robert Ringer

As religious fanaticism continues to pester civilized people, one wonders how civilization has managed to advance as far as it has. One would have thought that by this time, religious fanaticism and intolerance would have become pass?.

Religion aside, it would seem that the least everyone could agree on is a single, self-evident point: that a Universal Intelligence exists. I guess if an individual chooses not to believe that there is a Universal Intelligence ("God," "Conscious Universal Power Source," "the Universe," "Supreme Being," etc.), there's nothing wrong with that - provided he doesn't try to interfere with the rights of others to connect in their own way.

Over the past twenty-five years or so, an increasing number of scientists have arrived at the conclusion that there is something unknowable beyond science, primarily because science cannot answer the "how" and "why" questions: Why do scientific laws work the way they do? Why do human beings have the ability to discover and understand these laws? If the universe is "dead," how could we have evolved from dead cosmic dust into cognitive beings? And so on.

To those who insist that humankind is the result of one big accident, I must confess that I don't know what they mean by the word accident in this context. How does dead matter "accidentally" become conscious matter - atoms combined in such a way that the resulting mass can reflect on its own existence? Quite an accident, to say the least.

Please Click Here to read the rest of the article.

Terry Paulson : The Coming Entitlement Crash of 2010

Taking a lead from Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol," the “Ghost of America’s Future” could point to a frightening future for America—a perfect storm of forces racing toward its natural conclusion, the Entitlement Crash of 2010! The Democrats gaining political dominance, the growing economic crisis and looming entitlement shortfalls, the cultural expectations of American citizens and the tax fatigue successful Americans will face are coming together to overwhelm the entitlement nirvana that many Americans have wanted to create.

Politically, Obama has the power, the media support and the precedence to make radical changes in America. Obama feels his election victory has given him ............

Thomas Sowell : Random Thoughts

Random thoughts on the passing scene:

Maybe the current bailout fever is Congress' way of getting into the spirit of the season-- saying in effect, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." They will undoubtedly also be saying, "Yes, New Jersey, there is a Santa Claus... Yes, Ohio, there is a Santa Claus. . ."

A reader suggests that members of Congress should wear uniforms, like NASCAR drivers, so that we will know who their corporate sponsors are. Many of those in Congress should also wear logos representing the teachers' unions, environmentalist extremists and other special interests.

They say we live and learn. Often what we learn is what damn fools we have been.

If there are still any educators or others who think that....

Michael Barone : Obama May Be an Aloof President

Barack Obama and his family are vacationing in his native Hawaii, far from the wintry snows of Chicago -- and far from almost every other American politician. There's a metaphor here for how I think Obama is going to conduct himself as president: He's going to try to keep his distance from other politicians, including his fellow Democrats. I see him trying to remain aloof from his party, much as Dwight Eisenhower did five decades ago. Like Eisenhower, I think he's drawn the conclusion that his party needs him more than he needs his party.

What's my evidence for this? Well, for one thing Obama......

Steve Chapman : In 2008, a Democracy Recession

Once upon a time, Americans had the idea that stock markets traveled on an escalator that went only one direction: up. Once upon a time, Americans also assumed that the rise of democracy and freedom was the worlds unstoppable destiny. The best thing you could say for the state of human rights in 2008 is that they didnt sink as far as the world economy.

When Beijing was awarded this years ......

George Will : American Czars

WASHINGTON -- In 1966, the price of eggs rose to a level that President Lyndon Johnson judged, God knows how, was too high. There were two culprits -- supply and demand -- and Johnson's agriculture secretary told him there was not much that could be done. LBJ, however, was a can-do fellow who directed the U.S. surgeon general to dampen demand by warning the nation about the hazards of cholesterol in eggs.

Johnson, the last president with a direct political.......