Thought for Today

"I would rather die than do something which I know to be a sin, or to be against God's will."

~~~~~ Joan of Arc

Thought for Today

"It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause."

~~~~~ H. L. Mencken

Thought for Today

"We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind of self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

~~~~~ James Madison

Sarah Palin on the Holocaust Museum Shooting

Yesterday, Governor Sarah Palin issued this simple, elegant statement following the National Holocaust Museum shooting:

"Our hearts and prayers go out to the shooting victims at the National Holocaust Museum. The museum itself remembers and honors the lives lost in one of the world's most horrific genocides. To have an act of intolerance further spread hatred at this place of reflection, further adds to the grief. My heart goes out to all those impacted, especially the brave guards who acted so selflessly to prevent further injury. May God Bless the Jewish community."

President Reagan couldn't have said it better.

John McCain – A Personal Glimpse

Ann Landers wrote, "The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good." Here's an almost forgotten story illustrating how John McCain lives by that creed: The Great McCain Story You've Probably Forgotten

What an old anecdote about Mo Udall in the hospital reveals about McCain's character.
By Michael Lewis

Back in 1996 and 1997, before John McCain was a presidential candidate or object of media fascination, Michael Lewis followed the Arizona senator around as he campaigned for Bob Dole and worked to reform campaign-finance laws. Lewis' pieces for the New Republic and the New York Times Magazine portrayed McCain as a passionate, cantankerous, astonishingly honest political character who frequently acted in ways that brought him no political gain. In the recent back-and-forth over whether McCain is a regular politician or a true outlier, we remembered a wonderful moment from Lewis' 1997 New York Times Magazine profile of McCain, "The Subversive." The passage below comes at the very end of Lewis' article.

Read it and learn about a man who doesn't need to fake good character because he personifies it.

Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, who in turn got it from one of his readers.

Putting Israel At Risk

Israeli author Naomi Ragen tell us about Learning the Hard Way. Here's a pull quote:

I know that I am helpless to stop this juggernaut towards disaster. Perhaps it is America's turn to experience first hand what we in Israel experienced: the consequences of electing a leadership which does not have the best interests of the country in mind; which has an agenda that has nothing to do with those interests. Sometimes people have to make horrible mistakes in order to learn that they are horrible mistakes. In Israel, this included over 25,000 terrorist attacks. Children dying in the streets. Being afraid to walk to the bus stop or enter a store.

Kyle-Anne Shiver read it, then wrote this Open Letter to Americans Who Love Israel. It begins like this:

Please, dear reader, do call me a skeptic; I am one. I started learning the price of gullibility in first grade. I traded my chocolate chip cookies to a third grader for his promise of a new pencil sharpener at recess. He lied; I learned.

My grandfather helped. He taught me to “always consider the source” before believing a promise and to never place my trust in an untrustworthy person. I lived and I learned.

Now that I’m well into my sixth decade of life, I’m a very hard sell. And the higher the stakes riding on the promise, the more care I put into my decision to proffer my trust.

When it comes to Israel and her survival as a free nation, the stakes are so high that it behooves even the most trusting American to examine closely the words and records of our candidates in this regard. And, sadly, we are forced to admit that the only reason Joe Biden had to make the reassuring statement above to Jews in Florida is that his candidate, Barack Obama, has the most tenuous, nearly nonexistent, and utterly unreliable “record” of any candidate ever to seek the presidency.

Especially in the arena of foreign affairs. Especially with regard to Israel and the Palestinians.

If you care at all about the fate of Israel, you'll want to read both columns carefully.

"In his world … intentions and words do all the heavy lifting."

In Evil Under the Sun – Barack Obama and American exceptionalism, Noemie Emery presents a sobering assessment of Obama's worldview.

Yes, way back on June 17th, I predicted that Obama's Going to Lose, and I still believe it. But if I'm wrong, we're in for a very rough ride during the next few years.