Beware the Chavez-Belarus Alliance

Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom has a great post about Hugo Chavez's "alliance" against the United States . . . and it's similarities to another anti-US group. This guy's a great writer. You need to check him out.

Election Night 2006 - Pre-Preview

What fun we have in store for us in November! That is, if you consider political nail biting fun. (You know I do.) Here's a list of some races I'll be watching Tuesday evening, November 7.

Texas Governor - Perry(R) vs. Bell(D) vs. Strayhorn(I) vs. Friedman(I)
As I write today, it's a horse race. First, there's Chris Bell, the Democrat. I certainly won't vote for him since he's not conservative. Second, there's Carole Keaton Strayhorn Rylander (fill in her latest last name here), who wanted to be called "Grandma", who is running as an Independent. I certainly won't vote for her since she's not conservative. Then there's Kinky Friedman, who is also running as an Independent. I certainly won't be voting for him as he's not a conservative. Finally, there's the incumbent Governor, Rick Perry, a Republican, who has a marvelous head of hair. But I certainly won't be voting for him as he's not a conservative. Wait . . . um . . . oh well.

New Jersey Senate - Kean(R) vs. Menendez(D)
Another horse race. New Jersey is the 13th least conservative state, yet Kean is still in the race.

Michigan Governor - Granholm(D) vs. DeVos(R)
Jennifer Granholm is in a battle to keep her governorship in a state with serious economic problems.

Connecticut Senate - Lieberman(I) vs. Lamont(D) vs. Schlesinger(R)
Will a recent Clinton assist really help? If Joe wins as an Independent, watch the Democrats pee in their pants with fear for their futures.

Maryland Senate - too many to list
The primary is not until September 12, so it's really too early to comment. But if Michael Steele wins, the leftist media won't be able to avoid their worst nightmare—a black conservative.

More to come.

California: "We need more power! Again!"

Here's some shocking news - Californians need more power.

Now, please understand, I'm not a heartless individual. I don't want there to be rolling blackouts like we saw years ago. In fact, now that my memory is kicking in, those rolling blackouts were caused by the evil, greedy people at Enron. Well, it's 2006 now, and Enron is gone. So why hasn't the problem gone away? Because, when you grow supply at a lower rate than demand (that is, not building enough power plants), you have problems.

Don't worry, the Lefties will still find a way to blame Ken Lay and maybe even what's left of Enron.

UPDATE - Stage 2 emergency declared.

Kerry: "If I was President..."

What is it about John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, that prevents him from believing he should have been president?

"If I was president, this wouldn't have happened," said Kerry during a noon stop at Honest John's bar and grill in Detroit's Cass Corridor.

Bush has been so concentrated on the war in Iraq that other Middle East tension arose as a result, he said.

Poor Democrats. They take Lenin's principle to heart: "A lie told often enough becomes the truth." And, sure it worked during the Clinton nightmare, but I think the country has learned a lesson or two since then.

I'm back. Anything happening?

Geez. I go away for just one week and look what happens - Hezbollah acts up, the New York Times is at it again, and Cynthia "Loony as a DoDo Bird" McKinney is forced into an August 8th runoff election.

Time to make the doughnuts.

July 20, 1969

One of the few things our government has done well has been to put men on the Moon. America first accomplished this feat on this date in 1969 with less space ship computing power than a present-day caluclator.


It's good to remember good things.

On vacation

Posting will be light for the next week while my family (wife, kids, parents-in-law) and I visit the Happiest Place on Earth. And we're driving (it's genetic in my family). Please pray for us, for our car, and for our budget.

And try not to let anything really big happen while we're gone. OK?

"Islam" does not mean "peace"

It means "submission".


More similarly peaceful pictures here. Thanks to KW for the reference.

Bring back firing squads

You've probably heard about this article by now. Ralph Peters, writing in the New York Post, makes a great point:

Violent Islamist extremists must be killed on the battlefield. Only in the rarest cases should they be taken prisoner. Few have serious intelligence value. And, once captured, there's no way to dispose of them.

Killing terrorists during a conflict isn't barbaric or immoral - or even illegal. We've imposed rules upon ourselves that have no historical or judicial precedent. We haven't been stymied by others, but by ourselves.

The oft-cited, seldom-read Geneva and Hague Conventions define legal combatants as those who visibly identify themselves by wearing uniforms or distinguishing insignia (the latter provision covers honorable partisans - but no badges or armbands, no protection). Those who wear civilian clothes to ambush soldiers or collect intelligence are assassins and spies - beyond the pale of law.

This is the very same argument voiced by my hero and one of our nation's best thinkers, Dr. Thomas Sowell, back in June of 2002. And he used United States history as precedent.

During the Battle of the Bulge, near the end of World War II, some specially trained German soldiers who spoke English put on American uniforms and infiltrated the American lines to disrupt and confuse U.S. military operations. When caught, they were lined up in front of a firing squad and shot. The protections of the Geneva Convention's rules of war are for those who play by those rules.

Terrorists who infiltrate the American homeland are combatants, not criminals, and they are combatants out of uniform who disregard the rules of war, forfeiting the protection of those rules. "Rights" are not things plucked out of thin air. They are products of particular arrangements -- and apply only to those who are subject to those arrangements and who respect those arrangements.

Our nation had no problem with firing squads sixty years ago. The bad people were coming after the good people to utterly destroy them. Instead of letting the bad people win, the good people rose up and eliminated the bad people. Problem solved.

In sixty years, what has changed?

"Federal" does not equal "Professional"

On my morning drive to work, my radio is usually tuned to AM 700 KSEV and the Edd Hendee show. This morning Edd talked about this article in the Houston Chronicle. Here's the facts:

1. A man with a Middle Eastern name tried to go through a Hobby Airport security checkpoint on June 26.
2. The man shook his head "No" when asked if he had a laptop computer in his luggage.
3. It turns out that he did indeed have a laptop in his luggage.
4. And a clock.
5. With a 9 volt battery taped to it.
6. And a copy of the Quran.
7. And the "entire soles of both shoes were gutted out."

By this point, you're probably thinking (as I did) something along the lines of "arrest this man, he's trying to bomb a plane!" Let's see what our Houston Police and Transportation Security Officers did.

No explosive material was detected, the report states. A police officer was summoned and questioned the man, examined his identification, shoes and the clock, then cleared him for travel, according to the report.

A TSA screener disagreed with the officer, saying "the shoes had been tampered with and there were all the components of (a bomb) except the explosive itself," the report says.

The officer retorted, "I thought y'all were trained in this stuff," TSA officials reported.

The report says the TSA screener notified Delta Airlines and talked again with the officer, who said he had been unable to check the passenger's criminal background because of computer problems.

Did you get that? Let's break it down:

1. The TSA employee, after finding nearly all of the components of a bomb, tries to hand-off the problem to a cop.
2. The cop fails to see a problem with allowing a bomb-component-possessing passenger on an airplane and clears the man for travel.
3. Rightfully, the TSA officer disagreed with the cop.
4. Rightfully, the cop assumed the TSA officer was trained for such situations.
5. Amazingly, instead of detaining the passenger, the TSA allows him on the airplane.

Remember back in 2001 right after the terrorist/jihadist attacks when people said we needed airport security under the direct control of the government? This is the result: airport security run by government employees. I hate to say it, but it's only a matter of time.

Every party has an end, even a really good one

Each election year, we hear that the world of politics is becoming meaner and nastier. We hear that name-calling and political advertising have hit a new low. Well, I've heard it said before, and I completely agree: the election cycles of 2006 and especially that of 2008 will be the nastiest, most mean-spirited, and cut-throat elections our country has ever seen. The Democrats have no plan of their own. All they can do is try to tear down Republicans, and their attempts will be relentless.

We on the right, however, have had to come up with reasons we believe what we believe. We have had to construct logical arguments about why our beliefs are good for the country and why theirs are bad. It is with that impetus in mind that I ask all of you who think similarly to read an essay titled "The Endless Party", written by William Voegeli, Vice President of the Claremont Institute. Mr. Voegeli has presented the two sides of the discussion with exquisite clarity. My favorite passage:

The "no message" interpretation of the 2004 election claims that this gap has now closed, finally and completely: liberalism cannot become politically strong again until it stops being so theoretically weak. But Democrats need to recognize how far back, and how far down, liberalism's confusion goes. The notion that liberalism is fundamentally indecipherable was voiced frequently during the 1930s, when liberals absolutely dominated American politics. Raymond Moley, an erstwhile advisor to FDR, wrote of the New Deal in his memoirs, "To look upon these programs as the result of a unified plan, was to believe that the accumulation of stuffed snakes, baseball pictures, school flags, old tennis shoes, carpenter's tools, geometry books, and chemistry sets in a boy's bedroom could have been put there by an interior decorator." In 1940 another New Dealer, the economist Alvin Hansen, admitted, "I really do not know what the basic principle of the New Deal is. I know from my experience in the government that there are as many conflicting opinions among the people in Washington as we have in the country at large."

But the complaint that it's impossible to figure liberalism out has, until recently, typically been voiced by exasperated conservatives. For decades they have watched liberals rushing around with wheelbarrows and ladders, busy, busy, busy at building the welfare state. New programs are created, old ones expanded, urgent needs discovered and rediscovered. Conservatives marvel at this vast construction site and ask prosaic questions: What is this thing going to look like when it's done? How big is it going to be? How will we know when it's finished? And just in case there's any doubt that they are conservatives, how much is all this going to cost?

The replies have not been illuminating.

I gave paper copies of this essay to some of my family members near the end of last year. I urged them then, and I urge you now, to read this essay thoroughly a few times. (Yes, Playwriter Girl, it's non-fiction. But it won't hurt, I promise.) Print out a few copies, and give them to your family members. When the liberals turn nasty in the coming months, and they will, we as conservatives need to be ready with well-formed, thoughtful responses, not emotional reactions. Happy reading.

Real border control - been there, done that

Not only can it be done, but we've done it before.

Fifty-three years ago, when newly elected Dwight Eisenhower moved into the White House, America's southern frontier was as porous as a spaghetti sieve. As many as 3 million illegal migrants had walked and waded northward over a period of several years for jobs in California, Arizona, Texas, and points beyond.

President Eisenhower cut off this illegal traffic. He did it quickly and decisively with only 1,075 United States Border Patrol agents - less than one-tenth of today's force. The operation is still highly praised among veterans of the Border Patrol.

Boy howdy, President Eisenhower didn't mess around. The more I learn about him, the more I like him. Here's how he did it.

In 1954, Ike appointed retired Gen. Joseph "Jumpin' Joe" Swing, a former West Point classmate and veteran of the 101st Airborne, as the new INS commissioner.

Influential politicians, including Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D) of Texas and Sen. Pat McCarran (D) of Nevada, favored open borders, and were dead set against strong border enforcement, Brownell said. But General Swing's close connections to the president shielded him - and the Border Patrol - from meddling by powerful political and corporate interests.

One of Swing's first decisive acts was to transfer certain entrenched immigration officials out of the border area to other regions of the country where their political connections with people such as Senator Johnson would have no effect.

Then on June 17, 1954, what was called "Operation Wetback" began. Because political resistance was lower in California and Arizona, the roundup of aliens began there. Some 750 agents swept northward through agricultural areas with a goal of 1,000 apprehensions a day. By the end of July, over 50,000 aliens were caught in the two states. Another 488,000, fearing arrest, had fled the country.

History can be such a great teacher, if only we'd listen.

One order of Presidential birthday cake please

Our President turns 60 years old today.


Happy Birthday, Mr. President.

Jesus: the Fulfillment of the Old Testament

I've been a Christian for over twenty years. (Note: the definition of the word "Christian" is a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, not one who attends a church.) I've been the student of many good teachers in those twenty plus years. However, what I'm about to share, while seemingly fundamental and obvious to the most casual of observers, is something I only learned within this past year from my current Sunday School teacher, Mark Lanier, a self-confessed Bible Nerd.

In our first lesson from the New Testament, an overview of the book of Matthew, Mark told us that the main theme of Matthew was that Jesus is not a contradiction but a consistent fulfillment of the Old Testament. Matthew was primarily written to the Jewish people as an attempt to both confirm the faith of Jewish Christians and to refute Jewish opponents of their faith. His audience would be knowledgeable of Israel's journey from Egypt to the Promised Land and of the record of that journey, to wit, Matthew quotes both the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek Septuagint in his gospel to show Jesus fulfilling Old Testament prophesy.

Then (and this is where I had my "awe" moment) Mark showed us how the narrative of Matthew's gospel would be clearly seen by his Jewish audience as a reflection of the Torah. Mark shared the following parallels between events in the life of the nation of Israel from the Old Testament and events during Jesus' life and ministry from the New Testament.

Israel	Jesus
Comes out of Egypt	Comes out of Egypt - 2:21
Baptized by the Red Sea	Baptized in the Jordan River - 3:16
Wanders in the wilderness for 40 years	Tempted in the wilderness for 40 days - 4:1-11
Moses ascends Mt. Siani to receive the law	Jesus ascends a mountain and expounds on the law - 5:1-7:28
God feeds Israel with mana and quail	Jesus feeds the multitudes with loaves and fish - 15:29-38
Israel walks through the water	Jesus walks on the water - 14:22-32
5 books of the law	5 discourses: Sermon on the Mount - 5-7 Commissioning of the Apostles - 10 Parables of the Kingdom - 13 Life in the Kingdom - 18 Olivet Discourse - 24-25

At once I'm embarrassed for not knowing/seeing these things in all my previous years, but then I'm so thankful for the continued unfolding of the mystery of God's love for me. What a treasure it is to see the wonder of Almighty God in the intricate design of his Word and the events He orchestrates throughout history.

This is merely a sample of what I've learned from Mark. And, of great benefit to you, his lessons are on our Sunday School web site. They are well deserving of your attention.

NASA lights a candle on July 4th

Space Shuttle Discovery successfully blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center this afternoon in a first-ever Indepence Day launch for NASA.

“I have to say the very first time I experienced a launch I thought, ‘Well this is pretty cool,’” Shana Dale, NASA’s deputy administrator, told SPACE.com before today’s launch. “But I never expected the sense of patriotism I felt when the space shuttle went off…it’s just one of those proud moments that you have. You think, ‘Wow, I’m proud to be an American and this is the United States space program.’”

Godspeed, Discovery.

Independence Day

Our nation turns 230 years old today. Happy Birthday America!

When I think of what it took to win the freedom I far too often take for granted, I am so humbled. Here are the first, second, and last paragraphs from the Declaration of Independence:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

...

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The men who signed this document knew they were jeopardizing their very lives, yet they signed it still. They placed freedom and their future nation, our nation, above themselves.

John Adams words to his beloved Abagail the day after signing are both prescient and sobering:

The second day* of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore.

You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toll, and blood, and treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even although we should rue it, which I trust in God we shall not.

Have a great Fourth of July.

* The delegates voted July 2 to approve the Lee Resolution on Independence. The Declaration was voted on July 4.

"Superman Returns"

I recommend it. My wife and I saw it today at the Studio Move Grill (which I also recommend). I don't know if the sound was intentionally LOUD (as in a Director choice) or happened to be LOUD (as in a facility setting), but it was LOUD. This served the movie exceedingly well (IMHO), especially during the beautiful opening and title sequence. The explosion of Krypton shook my bones. I'm serious. After the explosion was finished, I turned to look at my wife . . . and realized that I needed to exhale. Evidently I had been holding my breath because the movie was so frighteningly LOUD. Highly cool. (Those of you who know me know my penchant for all things loud when it comes to film audio and exercising my 15 inch subwoofer, so you know that I know of which I write.)

Cast. Spacey was expectedly great. It is always fun to play the bad guy, and you could tell he enjoyed it. Parker Posey, spot on. Kate Bosworth . . . well, Louis Lane is supposed to be an intrepid reporter. Bosworth was not an intrepid reporter. She's pretty, but she just didn't convince me. Routh did well. Let's face it, when casting Superman you're probably not looking for Olivier or Branaugh. You're probably looking for a specific-looking body that has a specific-looking head attached to it that has a brain inside it that can take direction. And he did that well.

The film was beautifully photographed. The flying sequences were AMAZING. The first action sequence (which Singer has admitted was an homage to Donner) was an E-ticket rollercoaster ride. You could tell that bits of the flying were computer generated, but I could get over it. The story was good with a couple of possible directions to go for the next one.

Overall, a definite add to my DVD collection when it appears. Can't wait to see Krypton blow up again.

New blog on the block

Please welcome my friend, Playwriter Girl, to the blogosphere. My wife and I have known Playwriter Girl and her husband for over a decade. She posesses a wonderful wit and is indeed a playwright. A good one. A really good one. She's won awards. No lie.

Shadow Government

Yes, there is a Shadow Government in our land. And it HATES our Elected Government.

Mr. Light Bulb, have you taken your pills today?

Yes, I have. Let me explain. I have heard others say it, and I believe it as well. There is a concerted effort by left-leaning government employees and their like-minded friends in the media to derail any success the Bush Administration might have. They lost control of the Legislative Branch in 1994 via the Contract with America revolution. The remaining members reside primarily within the State Department and the CIA.

When President Bush won the presidency in 2000, they were livid. Then, September 11, 2001 happened. National focus shifted from diplomacy with the world (a State Department concern) to defense of our land (a Defense Department concern). No longer were they the favored ones. Moreover, they were pointed out as the ones who failed our nation, and they were not happy to have their inadequacies revealed to the world. George Tenet, the CIA leader through the Clinton miasma, was replaced with Porter Goss. Mr. Goss was given orders to "clean it up". And when that didn't work, the CIA got an even tougher boss, General Michael Hayden. Meanwhile, at the State Department, Colin Powell replaced the pompous Madeleine Albright. The Shadow Government was pacified until Secretary Powell allowed the Defense Department to take the lead after September 11. When Condoleezza Rice took the helm, you can bet the Shadow Government didn't like her plan for Transformational Diplomacy.

They hate George W. Bush. They hate those around him. They want to see President Bush fail at every turn. To accomplish this, they will leak government secrets to their media friends in an attempt to threaten our national security. They will actively work against their own Defense Department. They will tell our enemies that their calls are being tracked and their finances monitored.

If these actions had occurred during World War II, is there any doubt about what would have happened to this Shadow Government?

USA Today "cannot confirm" their story

Back in May, I posted about Leslie Cauley and her work to become the next Mary Mapes. Sure enough, just as CBS did with Ms. Mapes screed, USA Today has issued a correction to its readers. Here's the substantive paragraph:

Based on its reporting after the May 11 article, USA TODAY has now concluded that while the NSA has built a massive domestic calls record database involving the domestic call records of telecommunications companies, the newspaper cannot confirm that BellSouth or Verizon contracted with the NSA to provide bulk calling records to that database.

Can you imagine being so blinded with hatred that you'll do anything and say anything just to make your President and your Government look bad?

But Mr. Light Bulb, you right-wingers did the same thing with Clinton!

No, no, no. We simply pointed out the truth, snickered at his incompetence, and sneered at his vileness. He did the rest for us.

Happy Birthday, Thomas Sowell

Another day, another birthday. This time for Thomas Sowell. Dr. Sowell is one of our nation's most sound thinkers. His writings on culture, economics, race, and children are among the best you will read. They include numerous books and a regular column.

Here's a couple of paragraphs from one of my favorites of his books, The Vision of the Anointed:

To those with the vision of the anointed, the public serves not only as a general object of disdain, but as a baseline from which to measure their own lofty heights, whether in art, politics, or other fields. Systemic processes which offer channels of expression of the public's views and values are to be circumscribed and circumvented. Art, music, and ballet are to be financed by compulsory exactions from the public, while ignoring or disdaining what the public itself wants or does not want. Similarly, so-called "public television"—taxpayer-subsidized television—is in fact the least responsive to the public's desires and most reflective of the vision of the anointed. Shamelessly one-sided propaganda for the environmentalist movement, for example, has become a staple of so-called "nature" programs on "public television" for years.

Failure to use tax money to finance things not liked by the taxpaying public is routinely called "censorship." If such terminology were used consistently, virtually all of life would be just one long, unending censorship, as individuals choose whether to buy apples rather than oranges, vacations rather than violins, furniture rather than mutual funds. But of course no such consistency is intended. This strained usage of the word "censorship" appears only selectively, to describe public choices and values at variance with the choices and values of the anointed. If a public library declines to buy some avant-garde book approved by the anointed, because either the librarian of the taxpaying public does not like it, that is called "censorship"—even though the book remains freely available to all who wish to buy it and no library can possibly purchase even a tenth of all the books published, so that discretionary preferences are inevitable and the First Amendment does not guarantee either an audience of money.

There's lots more where that came from. Happy Birthday, Dr. Sowell.

Happy 50th Birthday, Interstate Highway System

Today is the (generally accepted) 50th anniversary of the Interstate Highway System. I say "generally accepted" beacause — and this is how we know that it's a creature of government — June 29, 1956 is the date that President Eisenhower signed the legislation that created the system. And that's the date we celebrate as its birthday. Ah, Government!

In case you couldn't tell, I'm a "Limited Government" man. I think our governments (all levels) do far too many things. (For a list of the things our Federal government is supposed to do, please see Article I, Section 8 of our Constitution.) National highways, however, are indeed a Federal responsibility. And while few things governments do are done well, the Interstate Highway System is pretty decent; a standardized system of highways allowing us to travel between states without difficulty. Just by the numerical designation of the road you can tell if it runs North-South or East-West, if it's a loop, or if it's a spur. It's a commonly accepted infrastructure element now, but a radical idea at it's start.

Here's an "Interstate Density Map", or a map of interstate highways over time. And here's an analysis of what the system has meant to the country (written back in 1996, for the 40th birthday).

The English are drinking Germany dry

Never would I have believed I would read a story about too little beer . . . in Germany!

In Nuremberg, organisers revealed 70,000 England fans who flooded the city drank 1.2 MILLION pints of beer - an average of 17 pints each.

Astonished bar keeper Herrmann Murr said: "Never have I seen so many drink so much in such little time."

His bar at a fans' tent in the city ran out after they drained all 32 of his 50-litre (11 gallon) barrels.

You gotta read the rest. If beer drinking were the measure of might, the English would rule us all!

Another bad week for the Lefties

Can you believe it? Two bad weeks in a row for the moral relativists. Consider:

• The Immigration compromise bill seems doomed.
  
• The House voted FOR America.
  
• The Senate voted AGAINST a troop withdrawal plan.
  
• A European leader spoke well of America.
  
• The FBI arrested seven Al-Qaeda allies in Miami who wanted to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago.
  
• The New York Times exposed a financial monitoring system we use to catch terrorists.

Yes, I know. The lefties don't really consider that last one a bad thing. But — and this is the bad part for the lefties, the part they don't understand — most Americans do consider it "a bad thing" when you sell-out your own country. Telling our enemies, the lunatics who want to destroy our civilization, exactly how their financial transactions are being monitored is "a bad thing." Telling our enemies that previously-thought-unmonitorable communications can indeed be monitored is "a bad thing."

A few weeks ago, I was having doubts that the Republicans would retain control of either the House or the Senate in November. Now it seems like the Lefties want to help us keep both. Of course, it's only June.

FOUND: European leader speaking well of America

I couldn't believe it. Today I watched the Chancellor of Austria say this:

I think Austria is really a good example to show that America has something to do with freedom, democracy, prosperity, development. Don't forget I was born in '45. At that time, Vienna and half of Austria laid in ruins. And without the participation of America, what fate would have Europe? Where would be Europe today? Not the peaceful, prosperous Europe like we love it and where we live.

Nothing -- I will never forget that America fed us with food, with economic support. The Marshall Plan was an immense aid and incentive to develop industry, agriculture, tourism. And by the way, I said it to the President, the Marshall Fund is still working in Austria. It's now transformed into a kind -- in a fund for research and development -- still working.

The American people, at that time, the American government invested billions of dollars in Europe to develop the former enemy. And now we are a partner. So I think it's grotesque to say that America is a threat to the peace in the world compared with North Korea, Iran, other countries.

Here’s the entire transcript. How refreshing to hear a European leader saying good things about our country. His answer was in response to a line of questioning that began with this gem of ridiculousness:

…if I may, to President Bush, you've got Iran's nuclear program, you've got North Korea, yet, most Europeans consider the United States the biggest threat to global stability. Do you have any regrets about that?

Our President’s answer was appropriately direct:

That's absurd. The United States is -- we'll defend ourselves, but at the same time, we're actively working with our partners to spread peace and democracy. So whoever says that is -- it's an absurd statement.

That’s the kind of thing a true leader says.