Ace:

Sometimes "Never Again" just means "Not Until It's Our Turn."

Steve H., at Hog on Ice:

It's funny; the hippies call the earth--an inanimate object--"Gaia," and they claim it's our mother, and that it wants to take care of us. The truth is that the earth has been working hard to kill us since the dawn of time, and it succeeds in numbers that would make Hitler and Stalin and Mao weep with admiration.

Maybe once or twice, sure. I wasn't always an angelic son. But she had her chance to do me in while she was here tending me, and didn't take it, so I presume I'm now safe.

On discourse and debate:

I’ll never understand how anyone can regard being disgusted as no better than being disgusting.

About our saviour Barack Obama's plane troubles yesterday:

If it were a boat, he could get out and walk to safety.

Patrick Henry:

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.

In FrankJ's world, Supreme Court Justice Antonin "Tony the Bull" Scalia renders a slightly more forceful opinion in D.C v Heller:

The issue of incorporation was not brought before the Court, but our next step will be to grab our guns, form a posse, and head to Chicago. The citizens are disarmed, so they will be easy pickings and their stereos will become mine. See the barrel of my gun. I shall kill Mayor Daley and place his head upon a pike in the town square as an example to others. Usually the execution of laws falls on the Executive Branch, but I have the summer off and it sounds like fun.

Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit:

When the stormtroopers wear clown shoes instead of jackboots, it's easy to forget that they're still stormtroopers.

Glenn Reynolds:

I can think of no better reason to vote against Obama than the prospect of an administration where any criticism of the President is treated as racism.

I can think of a few other reasons, myself. But that's a pretty good one.

John Hinderaker, at Powerline:

There's a sucker born every minute...

... but a sucker like Jimmy Carter comes along only once or twice in a century.

If he'd stuck to building houses for the poor, he might have been forgiven for being the worst President we've ever had. Until a few years ago, I was certainly prepared to let him off with a wrist-slapping. Now? Not only is he the worst President we've ever had, he's the worst ex-President, too. Quite an accomplishment.

Best ex-President ever? I'm undecided, but I'd consider Herbert Hoover, if for no other reason than his creation of the Hoover Institution.

Allapundit, at Hot Air:

There's something about an 81-year-old veteran and the phrase "And then I kicked him in the teeth" that's simply magical.

Follow the link to see the video of the news report.

His Imperial Rottiness, on helplessness:

Remember: When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

On firearm ownership:

The next time someone asks me what I'm compensatin' for, I think I'm gonna tell 'em, "The fact that I can't throw a rock at 1400 feet per second."

The Pistolero, via Steve H.

Patterico:

I’d like to think that maybe the spirit of Dred Scott really was hovering over his pen — whispering “I didn’t have a choice, but these people do”....

Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory... lasts forever.

Parts one and three of that quote (source) are pretty much true.

How about part two?

Chicks: I'm totally available. Ignore the thinning thin hair. Unless you think it's the sign of an exceptionally active brain, in which case, by all means, pay attention.

Just don't expect me to take you dancing quite yet.

Actually, it's from last week Wednesday....

So last Sunday I did something against doctors orders: I read the New York Times. On the front page - a piece on American war veterans. The Times says they're all homicidal maniacs, committing up to 121 murders total, stateside. But this is the Times, of course - so you know what they leave out is always more important than what they leave in. I'm talking context. Oh - and a soul.

In the New York Post, writer Andy Solstis, along with other bloggers, point out that the murder rate for returning vets is only one-fifth of that of young Americans who did not fight. The take home message: if you want to make peace, make warriors.

Greg Gutfeld, in his nightly Gregalogue.

You're Tivoing/DVRing Red Eye, right?

Tanker at Mostly Cajun, in the latest installment of "The Name Game," notes:

No, people, exactly what are you supposed to do when you come to an apostrophe in a name? Stop and hiccup? Stomp your foot for emphasis? Ring a tiny little bell?

The late great Victor Borge would have instinctively known what to do.

On Hillary!'s propensity for gathering campaign funds:

The thing about donations from the Chinese is that no matter how much you get, you'll want more an hour later.

Snark:

A word of advice: People who live in glass dunce caps shouldn't throw stones. Or, you know, those snub-nosed scissors gradeschoolers are always using.

Via Tim Blair:

"They’re probably going to use it to commemorate the day they expelled Greenpeace from the town,” he added.

Rachel Lucas:

I am in love with any article that uses the words ‘melee’ and ‘buttocks’ . . .

The late D. James Kennedy, former Chaplain of the Senate.

But for those for whom the very mention of Christ is an offense, I sometimes feel that what I would like to say is: Dear friend, in case you haven't noticed, in America over two hundred years ago, we gave up any supposed "right not to be offended by anything anybody might say" when we accepted the right of Freedom of Speech.

You can't have both. You've got to choose one or the other; and if everything offends you then I would suggest you're in the wrong place. You ought to pack up your offense and ship it off to China... and leave us alone.

Er... maybe not so much.

"There is only one plausible answer: Ours is a just and decent God."

Apropos of nothing....

The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men.

Even though America is a happy place, there are still some unhappy people here. They are unhappy that the president stole an election and that the government is spying on their phone. That's how happy America is: In other countries, people have real things to be unhappy about, but in America you have to make things up to be unhappy about.

The inimitable Frank J., in "A Happy Editorial About America"

See also Eiland's Theory of Compensatory Misery.

Nehring, on The Simpsons:

Think of it this way, it takes less people to crew ships into space than to write jokes about Homer poking himself in the eye with a hammer.

Heh.

Dennis Miller, on Senator Harry Reid, D-NV:

I think that he believes that getting his negative comments in early could be the one chance that a non-entity like he has at a place in history. His is a mediocre man's Thermopylae.

Go see the whole rant. It truly is a thing of beauty.

Spotted earlier this week... Jeff Foxworthy, on why he loves country music:

It doesn't take political sides, even on things as ugly as war. Instead, it celebrates the brave men and women who go to fight them, the price they pay to do it, and the longing we have for them to return home to the ones that they love.

Country music doesn't have to be politically correct. We sing about God because we believe in Him. We're not trying to offend anybody, but the evidence we have seen of Him in our small little lives trumps your opinion about whether or not He exists.

You can call us rednecks if you want. We're not offended, 'cause we know what we're all about. We get up and go to work, we get up and go to church, and we get up and go to war when necessary.

I do believe I need to listen to more country music.

Now go over and catch the whole video at Hot Air.

Bono, during the last year's UK Music Hall of Fame induction of Brian Wilson:

I know that Brian believes in angels. I do, too.

But you only have to listen to the string arrangement on "God Only Knows" for fact and proof of angels.

Sometimes human talent reflects something... higher.

There’s a big difference between volunteers and mercenaries. Our fighters are where they are because, by and large, they believe in something bigger than themselves, they have learned that you can live in a community where virtue does not equal narcissism, and they know that they are far more than a nuisance. They’re in it for all of us, and if they lose it’s going to be bad for all of us.

Michael Ledeen, in Those Who Serve.

Steve H., in the midst of riffing on college athletes:

Probability dictates that a certain percentage of jocks will be in the smart-to-brilliant range. They must be as lonely as waxing salon owners in Tehran.

I'm sure my brother (smart guy, All-American football player) could opine further.

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Martin Luther King Jr.

The very quotable Steve H.:

Oh, yeah. While you're having fun, remember that Christmas has something or other to do with that "Christ" guy. In a world where most religions see God or the gods as selfish, capricious jerks or apathetic administrators who don't care about human suffering, Christianity alone recognizes God as a person who loved us so much He came to earth in the form of a man and allowed Himself to be tortured to death by His jeering enemies so we could be free of the consequences of our own evil deeds.

A lot of religions require the sacrifice of human beings to please gods. Christianity's God sacrificed Himself for the benefit of human beings.

As end-of-the-year gifts go, that one is hard to top.

Pretty hard indeed.

On Christmas shopping:

So how do I do it in 45 minutes? It's all thanks to a little wonder drug I like to call testosterone. Or, more likely, it's the relative absense of estrogen, which poisons the mind and causes people to wander in random directions in malls and on highways. A woman thinks, "I need to decide what to buy, so I'll go to the mall and shuffle around at two miles an hour until I bump into something appropriate." A man thinks, "I need to buy A. I can find it at store B. If I go at hour C, the crowds will be light. Then I will be able to get home early and view midget porn DVD D."

Steve H. of Hog on Ice, who is, I'm fairly sure, only kidding about the midget porn.

Eric Cartman, South Park:

Hippies. They're everywhere. They wanna save the earth, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad.

I was in a Whole Paycheck Foods grocery store today. 'Nuff said.

1939... 2006:

Chamberlain's diplomacy ultimately failed: Hitler wanted war too much. But Chamberlain stayed true to his countrymen, yielding his place to Churchill and strenuously supporting him when Britain was in peril.

Can we expect as much of our Left? It seems doubtful.

Michael Barone (link via Mr. Minority)

As my quote of the day today, I was going to go with something from John Wayne, as Jacob 'Big Jake' McCandles. Maybe you know the one — "your fault, my fault, nobody's fault" — one of the all-time great movie quotes.

Probably not a good idea today, though, lest charges of making threats ensue. Pity.

These boys and girls are not spare parts.

President Bush, explaining his veto of Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

When I’m done with you, Deb, you’re going to be an internet verb.

Jeff Goldstein, righteously pissed off.*

Robert Fisk became a verb. So let's work on a definition, shall we? Here's my contribution:

frisch: to lose one's job or prospects thereof due to public utterances which cross the thresholds of legality, sanity, or both. "Bob really frisched himself with that letter to the editor."

Hmm. Needs work. Help me out here, folks.

^{* This all assumes, of course, that he's not being spoofed by a Deb Frisch imitator.}

Update, 8Jul06: Jeff's site is undergoing a denial-of-service attack, presumeably by those who sympathize with Deb's toddler-threatening ways. For more info, see Captain's Quarters and/or Blackfive.

Update 2: GMTA.

Amusing:

"It would be done differently in Britain." How, exactly? Did Mr. Buckhaven believe that the cook merely left a loaded revolver with the lobster and expected it to do the right thing?

Robert, of the Llamabutchers, who perhaps should consider reworking his moniker to reflect his knowledge of crustacean-cide.

On one of our days to come, there will be another test. You'd best have an answer prepared.

Gerard Van der Leun, at American Digest

Over the last couple of years, I've been trying to see things from a liberal perspective. Unfortunately, I can't get my head that far up my ass. I guess it takes a lot of flexibility to be a liberal. It also takes a considerable lack of backbone.

Mike Adams

Jay Tea, at Wizbang! writes:

Gravity, you may be the weakest of the four fundamental forces, but you are certainly the cruelest.

The icons of my youth keep going downstream, and as they pass, they are eroding the bank upon which I stand. Sooner or later, I'm going in too.

[AngryWhitey has begun a link roundup.]

Thomas Jefferson, writing about George Washington after his death:

His mind was great and powerful ... as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was slow in operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, but sure in conclusion.... Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting until every circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed; refraining if he saw doubt, but, when once decided, going through his purpose, whatever obstacles opposed. His integrity was the most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known.... He was, indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good and a great man ... On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect ... it may truly be said, that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great....

"Presidents' Day," my eye. We don't celebrate Polk, Hayes, or Cleveland. Today we remember George Washington.

I'd rather hunt with Dick Cheney than ride with Ted Kennedy.

Michelle Malkin reader "C.T."

The latest Islamic outrage over the Danish cartoons represents an erosion in the very notion of Western tolerance. Years ago, the death sentence handed down to Salman Rushdie was the dead canary in the mine. It should have warned us that the Western idea of free and unbridled expression, so difficultly won, can be so easily lost.

. . .

[O]nce one starts down the road of self-censorship, there is never an end to it.

Hey, uh, guys? Would you act like winners a little more often?

It's one thing for Democrats to be in denial about steady Republican election victories since 1994. It's quite another for Republicans to be in denial about them, too.

Ann Coulter, in Alito ... Boo!

Truth, from Scrappleface:

A spokesman for Microsoft said it would phase out of the television news venture [MSNBC] in order to focus on its core business of providing free security patches for its popular Windows software.

[Emphasis mine.]

Playah Grrl, in response to a feminist blogger:

Have you ever been discriminated against? I never have. I’ve been discriminated for. And I’ve seen women play the gender card when they got a bad PAR (Performance Appraisal Review), or didn’t get the raise or promotion they thought they should have. And we all knew they sucked at what they were doing and didn’t deserve any better.

It’s over, babe. We’re liberated.

You're dismissed.

In comments at Protein Wisdom

Who's your daddy Emperor? Misha, that's who.

At Stop the ACLU today, a rare — no, unique — interview with the man behind the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler.

The money quote:

Most of all, we need to learn to be proud of our American heritage and all that we’ve achieved. We need to relearn the pride and gratitude that comes from living in the only superpower in the history of the world that didn’t use its power to force itself on others or steal what was theirs, we need to learn to not apologize for being the richest, strongest nation on Earth because we worked very hard for everything we’ve got, and we need to be constantly reminded that all of this, this blessing that is our homeland, was built on individualism and courage and not on collectivism and fear.

Today it's France. Tomorrow, who knows?

I have watched this famous island descending incontinently, fecklessly, the stairway which leads to a dark gulf. It is a fine broad stairway at the beginning, but after a bit the carpet ends. A little farther on there are only flagstones, and a little farther on still these break beneath your feet.

Winston Churchill

Steve H., on hurricane preparedness:

Even in the modern socialist Nanny Paradise, you are responsible for your welfare and that of your family. So buy some batteries and shut the hell up.

Why re-enlist?

... because as I look around at the state of this nation and see all of the weak little pampered candy-asses that are whining about this or protesting that, I'd be afraid to leave the fate of this nation entirely up to them.

Thank you, troop, whoever you are 1Lt Bruce Bishop.

Found at Greyhawk's place.

On Saturday, the Iraqi people will make another public stand in favor of peaceful political change. We will again see long lines of voters, ink-stained fingers, happy faces, and children playing in the streets. Democracy on the march. It's enough to make a terrorist weep.

James S. Robbins

In memory of the man who gave us the "laser," Gordon Gould:

"If I were creating a world, I wouldn't mess about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers, eight o'clock, day one!"

– Evil personified, in "Time Bandits"

(But could he give us sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads?)

Gould passed away Friday. (via Ace.)

Jonah Goldberg, on the Senator from Delaware, Joseph Biden:

The man loves his voice so much, you'd expect him to be following it around in a grey Buick, in defiance of restraining order, as it walks home from school.

Mr. Goldberg has additional thoughts on the Senator, worth reading.

On lawlessness and looting:

That many progressives I’ve been reading are so willing to advocate for an anarchic condition wherein stronger, better armed, and more ruthless civilians are able to lord it over the weaker victims of Katrina — all for the sake of maintaining their critique of materialism — is, frankly, astounding.

Jeff Goldstein

Describing Cindy Sheehan's current mental/emotional state:

"Munchausen-by-Casey"

Confederate Yankee, in a comment at Protein Wisdom.

Google for more info.

"Where do you guys keep the Hitler postcards?"

Read the story.

Nehring reviews the movie Constantine:

When you see dogs sniffing one another, they’re actually checking to make sure the other dog doesn’t have the stench of this film on it. This thing is truly awful. It is a grand, brilliant gem of vile stupidity.

And those are among the nicer words he has to say about the movie.

In today's WaPo, an Aljazeera.net reporter complains about the inconvenience in crossing the line from Palestinean areas into Israel — said inconvenience being entirely due to the Palestinian habit of sending explosive-laden goons into Israel to kill civilians.

Cliff May, in The Corner on NRO, answers:

Apparently, she believes the suffering of a Palestinian mother standing in line is infinitely greater than the suffering of an Israeli mother standing next to a grave.

Bingo.

On the subject of "awareness bracelets" (and the vanity of many of those who wear them):

Like nearly everything else these days, it's all about moi. Here's the trick: While publicly declaring your deep concern via colored ribbons and embossed bracelets, you get to draw attention to yourself. It's not enough to care quietly or to commit private acts of conscience. You have to erect a billboard on your forearm.

Kathleen Parker.

The repetition calms them.

Mental patients often rock back and forth as a means of trying to keep themselves under control. People in great agony rock back and forth and repeat the same movement or sound in an attempt to soothe themselves.

Same idea applies to the liberals, so crushed and distraught. We should be compassionate, and let them wail.

No attribution, but via Pirate's Cove.

At the end of the day, lovers of freedom, decency and enlightenment must prove themselves as dedicated to preserving their civilization as the Islamists are to destroying it. Surely a healthy step in that direction would be simply to stop "tolerating the intolerant."

Mona Charen: Can you fight an idea?

^{Fly the Union Jack today.}

If, however, there is to be a war of nerves let us make sure our nerves are strong and are fortified by the deepest convictions of our hearts.

Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valor, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar.

You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terrors. Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.

News roundups by Instapundit, Smash, Wizbang.

We’ve all heard about how great living constitutions are. The most extreme, but essentially representative, version of this "philosophy" can be found from the likes of Mary Frances Berry or the Los Angeles Times’s Robert Scheer. They matter-of-factly claim that without a "living" constitution, slavery and other such evils would still be constitutional. This is what leading constitutional legal theorists call "stupid."

Jonah Goldberg, in "Better Off Dead":

He then goes on to explain why a "living Constitution" is antithetical to the Rule of Law. Read the whole thing.

Reminder: I'd be an ideal Supreme Court justice.

Hitler is supposed to define the outer limits of evil, not the lowest threshold. Something can be very, very bad and be far "better" than the Holocaust.

The mere fact that Durbin and his fans don't understand this is no reason to excuse it.

Jonah Goldberg, in Nazis Über Alles

Victor Davis Hanson:

A war that cannot be won entirely on the battlefield most certainly can be lost entirely off it — especially when an ailing Western liberal society is harder on its own democratic culture than it is on fascist Islamic fundamentalism.

Ain't that the truth.

Maybe YOU don't think curare suppositories are funny. I beg to differ.

Steve H.

(And be sure to follow the link he's posted.)

(Yo, Wizbang.)

I think it's an affront to their memory that we have a tax on the books in this country today that says if you work and earn some money and you pay your income tax on it, and you try to give it to your kids or your family — the natural object of your bounty — you're going to get taxed again.

— Lieutenant Lynn "Buck" Compton, one of the Band of Brothers

In honor of the 61st anniversary of D-Day and the beginning of the end of the Third Reich, Lieutenant Compton made an appearance on Fox and Friends this morning. As well as telling some of his own story, he has an issue he stands for. He laid his life on the line for this country. He deserves the courtesy of a respectful hearing.

I've tried, thanks to the DVR, to make a decent transcript of the entirety of LT Compton's appearance on the program. A generation is passing away; things like this should not disappear down the memory hole.

Steve Doocy: We mentioned it just a moment ago, sixty one years ago today: D-Day, a moment in history that played a huge role in ending World War Two. Our next guest won a Purple Heart and a Silver Star in the Normandy invasion.

E.D. Hill: From Seattle, please welcome retired U. S. Army Lieutenant "Buck" Compton. You know, you're amazing. I often wonder if there are many Americans like you left, that would take the risks that you did. You were one of the paratroopers coming out, I think you were the 101st Airborne... a huge chunk of you lost your lives. What was it like that day as you were dropped in?

Compton: I don't know how to answer what it was like. It was a... obviously an exciting or momentous event, but we'd been pretty well trained, and we, sort of did it by the numbers. It wasn't something that I can, you know, describe to you other than that. We did what we....

Hill [interrupting]: But you were out... you were outnumbered, incredibly outnumbered.

Compton: Well, we were actually, but that wasn't a factor. I mean, we were behind their lines, trying to pave the way for the troops that were coming ashore on the beach, and they were coming ashore in huge numbers and even though our force was smaller than what the Germans had there, that was not really a factor.

Doocy: Gotcha. Alright, so you jumped out of an airplane before the actual beach assault and I understand that you lost all your equipment in the jump. What did you do?

Compton: Well, yeah, we jumped about 1:00 in the morning, and I was equipped with one of these, heh, "leg bags" that they developed to put equipment in so that you could release it and have it away from your body at the time you hit the ground to prevent injury. The jolt of the opening shock of the 'chute jerked the thing off my leg and I lost all my equipment, so when I hit the ground, yeah, I was without a gun, without [chuckle] food, without anything going in. I soon rectified it.

Hill: And you had to connect up with the other people, and as you say, it was in the middle of the night, you're jumping out over Normandy, just inside the coast there, and you had to find the other people. How did you do that?

Compton: Well, just getting out on the road and walking through the countryside in the general direction of the objective that we'd been assigned; and we were scattered pretty badly, we didn't land where we thought we were going to, it was sort of a hit-and-miss proposition, but there were jumpers landing all around and they got together even though we were from different units we eventually got together and got to the objective and... although we were not as well organized as we might have been.

Doocy: Yeah, but what a story, Buck, because not only are you telling it to us, but it was featured on HBO, your story, in Band of Brothers, as well. And now I understand what you're doing is you're taking aim at something else, and that is, you want to repeal the death tax, because you say it unfairly targets veterans of World War Two. Explain it to me.

Compton: Well, you know, we spent a lot of blood and a lot of guys gave their lives and limbs fighting for what we generally describe as freedom, and the freedom that we fought for and that those guys died for was the freedom of private property, the right to work at the job that you want to work at and to enjoy the fruits of your honest labor. And I think it's an affront to their memory that we have a tax on the books in this country today that says if you work and earn some money and you pay your income tax on it, and you try to give it to your kids or your family, the natural object of your bounty, you're going to get taxed again. And to me, that is contrary to what I fought for and what I think these guys fought for, and the worst part about it is it's a socialist-driven mechanism for redistributing wealth. It's not a real revenue producer, it's just designed to redistribute wealth and that's a socialist or communist concept that we've been fighting against and we shed a lot of blood to try to defeat, and it just offends me that this country still has such a tax mechanism on the books.

Hill: Well, if people want to find out more information, please go to the website, www.nodeathtax.org. Lieutenant Glen "Buck" Compton, thank you very much for your time and your service for our country.

Compton: Well, you're welcome, and thank you.

Doocy: Thank you very much. [Seattle feed cuts.] Alright. Great guy.

Hill: Amazing.

A classic:

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling that thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

John Stuart Mill, writing in opposition to British support of the Confederacy during the American Civil War.

[Thanks to Firepower Forward for the reminder.]

Read further for the full (accurate) text from which the usual quote is taken.

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. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice, is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.

Found at Bartleby.com — a terrific online resource.

So, if you're an Islamic militant, an infidel flushing a Koran down a toilet is grounds for rioting and killing, but your own bombing of a mosque -- killing at least 17 Muslims and obliterating who knows how many Korans -- is fine.

Just want to make sure I have that straight. And we should care what they think about us because ... why?

Andy McCarthy, in The Corner

Mark Steyn:

In a way, both the U.S. media and those wacky rioters in the Afghan-Pakistani hinterlands are very similar, two highly parochial and monumentally self-absorbed tribes living in isolation from the rest of the world and prone to fanatical irrational indestructible beliefs. . . .

Bill Whittle has posted his newest essay, Sanctuary (part 1 and part 2.)

Reality has not been kind to far leftists, historically, as we shall soon see. Like many in the deepest, most pleasant and safe confines of our Sanctuary, they have never had a chance to see – or have chosen not to see -- the reality of human nature up close and personal. Reality told them it was just going to the bathroom, when in point of fact Reality left these Leftists alone at the table without paying the check, and it hasn’t returned their phone calls, either.

I need to read it through a few more times to get the full benefit (and to mine a few more golden Quotes of the Day) but after my first read-through, I can assure you that the time you take to read it (give yourself an hour or so) will be exceptionally well spent.

It's surely kept me up past my bedtime.

Argus Hamilton:

Mexican President Vicente Fox said Thursday he will formally protest the clampdown on illegal immigration in the United States. He knows the stakes are high. If Mexicans come flooding across the border into Mexico it could overwhelm his schools and hospitals.

Victor Davis Hanson, on World War II historical revisionism:

If there were any justice in the world, we would have the ability to transport our most severe critics across time and space to plop them down on Omaha Beach or put them in an overloaded B-29 taking off from Tinian, with the crew on amphetamines to keep awake for their 15-hour mission over Tokyo.

But alas, we cannot. Instead, the beneficiaries of those who sacrificed now ankle-bite their dead betters. Even more strangely, they have somehow convinced us that in their politically-correct hindsight, they could have done much better in World War II.

Yet from every indication of their own behavior over the last 30 years, we suspect that the generation who came of age in the 1960s would have not just have done far worse but failed entirely.

Contrary to all the bloviating jackassery about how conservatives are more dogmatic than liberals we hear these days, the simple fact is that conservatives don’t have a settled dogma. How could they when each faction has a different partial philosophy of life? The beauty of the conservative movement. . . is that we all get along with each other pretty well. The chief reason for this is that we all understand and accept the permanence of contradiction and conflict in life.

On the European Parliament cowering from the showing of the film Submission:

Good grief, this ‘parliament’ is so craven that if it had been the Reichstag in 1933 it would have burned itself down.

Andrew Stuttaford, in The Corner at NRO.

The always-amazing DoggerelPundit bats another one out of the park:

How did freedom’s institution
Garner privileged absolution?
With the bar to publish falling;
Unrestricted pages sprawling,
Now we hear of regulation
On the spread of information!

It’s Free Press! — read the whole thing.

Aristotle states that courage is the first virtue, because without it nothing else is possible. In Pope John Paul's messages and life, he showed no fear: He was not afraid to stand against tyranny any more than he was afraid to personally forgive others, including those who wanted him dead, even his would-be assassin whom he visited in prison. He knew God and was able to teach the rest of us about Him — and now, with His message so well taught, God called the pope home, for a well-deserved servant's rest. We will not see another Pope John Paul II anymore than we will see another Mother Teresa or Ronald Reagan, but as with them, we can continue to hear him.

The battle against atheistic Soviet Communism was the battle of the last century, commencing in 1917 and finishing in 1991. The moral battle of the next century will be the fight for the dignity of human life. John Paul II helped us win the last, and has left us words of wisdom, a coherent philosophy, and an example, to guide us in our new fight.

In that way, then, the death of Pope John Paul II is a significant symbol, and a bridge — a bridge from one century to another.

Paul Kengor, in The 20th Century Ends

On the Theory of Evolution and its zealots:

A scientist who does not admit he might potentially be wrong is really a theologian.

Paul, at Wizbang

Update, 3/25: Paul recants... but I think the intended spirit of the quote still holds true.

Hillary Clinton demanded an improved national ratings system for video games and music and children's television. She's got to get these ratings in place, and quickly. Bill Clinton on Spring Break comes out on Sony PlayStation next week.

Comedian Argus Hamilton

President Bush, after reeling off facts and figures about the proposed reform of Social Security, while speaking in Raleigh today:

Not bad, for a History major.

It did this old History major's heart some good to hear that.

[Political Science majors, take note: having a grasp of actual history is often a far superior tool for dealing with the real world than having an education in the theoretical aspects of governance. Maybe that's why Bush has been as successful as he has been in office.]

Mike at Cold Fury:

I just wish people would stop referring to the yammering d***weed [Ted] Turner as "the mouth of the South." If that ultra-liberal carpetbagger ever tried to hang out with any real Southerners, they’d most likely beat his ass like a drum just for "Captain Planet" alone.

I'd stand in line for that.

When you flirt with death, you run the risk that death has something more serious in mind.

James Taranto, in today's Best of the Web, the item headlined "The Jerk That Flirts With Death."

[Hey, Jimmy — ever heard of the HTML <a name="..."></a> tag? Highly recommended.]

A national party no more:

All the Democrats who now say that the party has foolishly given up on the South, that it is unable to connect with religious voters, that it is too beholden to liberal orthodoxy on social issues, that Americans don't trust it on national defense, and that it doesn't speak the language of most Americans should take a deep breath and repeat after me: "Zell Miller was right."

Rich Lowry, in "Zell Was Right" at NRO

With Congress now back in session, I thought it might be a good day to roll out some oldies-but-goodies.

Alexis De Tocqueville:

The debates of that great assembly are frequently vague and perplexed, seeming to be dragged rather than to march, to the intended goal. Something of this sort must, I think, always happen in public democratic assemblies.

Henry David Thoreau:

If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonal experience and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not long retain her rank among the nations.

Mark Twain:

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

Will Rogers:

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.

With Congress, every time they make a joke it's a law, and every time they make a law it's a joke.

Personally, every time Congress goes into session, regardless of who's in charge, I'm inclined to hide my wallet and clean my shotguns.

Scanning my Quote of the Day archives, trying to avoid anything election-related, I found a true gem, completely devoid of political content or context:

When first you hold [your child's] hand it’s a tight small walnut balled in protest against the cold and the light. Then it’s the small collection of wiggly digits you’re washing forty times a day. Then it’s big enough so its fingers fit into yours. You’re no longer holding the hand at the wrist; now you weave your fingers together instinctively. I don’t think it’s possible to do this, ever, without some voice in the back of your head steeling you for the day when she pulls away, and pulls away for good. Or at least for a few years. Four, ten, twenty – what counts is that you’ll hold hands again at the end.

James Lileks on parenthood. I think this falls into the category of "Eternal Truths." I wish I could write so well and so profoundly.

Heard today:

I have two predictions for 2005.

First: a star in the Andromeda Galaxy, over 2 million light years from Earth, will explode in a supernova of unprecedented power.

Second: within 12 hours, the Democrats and the media will blame George W. Bush.

Predictions by an unknown caller to the Bill LuMaye show on AM 680 WPTF, Raleigh.

... But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT."

Clement Clark Moore, the conclusion of A Visit from Saint Nick

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

The Gospel according to John, Chapter 1, verses 1-5

You know something, sweetheart? Christmas is... well, it's about the best time of the whole year.

When you walk down the streets, even for weeks before Christmas comes, and there's lights hanging up, green ones and red ones, sometimes there's snow and everyone's hustling some place. But they don't hustle around Christmastime like they usually do. You know, they're a little more friendlier... they bump into you, they laugh and they say, "Pardon me. Merry Christmas"... especially when it gets real close to Christmas night. Everybody's walking home, you can hardly hear a sound. Bells are ringin', kids are singing, the snow is coming down.

And boy what a pleasure it is to think that you've got some place to go to. And that the place that you're going to, there's somebody in it that you really love. Someone you're nuts about.

Merry Christmas.

Jackie Gleason, as Ralph Kramden in The Honeymooners

There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.

Erma Bombeck

The Son of God became a man to enable men to become the sons of God.

C. S. Lewis, elegantly summing up the meaning of Christmas

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

Ebeneezer Scrooge, in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

The Gospel According to Luke, Chapter 2, verses 1-20

'Twas the night before Christmas, he lived all alone
In a one bedroom house made of plaster & stone.

I had come down the chimney with presents to give
And to see just who in this home did live.

I looked all about a strange sight I did see,
No tinsel, no presents, not even a tree.

No stocking by the fire, just boots filled with sand,
On the wall hung pictures of far distant lands.

With medals and badges, awards of all kind
A sober thought came through my mind.

For this house was different, so dark and dreary,
I knew I had found the home of a soldier, once I could see clearly.

I heard stories about them, I had to see more
So I walked down the hall and pushed open the door.

And there he lay sleeping silent alone,
Curled up on the floor in his one bedroom home.

His face so gentle, his room in such disorder,
Not how I pictured a United States soldier.

Was this the hero of whom I’d just read?
Curled up in his poncho, a floor for his bed?

His head was clean shaven, his weathered face tan,
I soon understood this was more then a man.

For I realized the families that I saw that night
Owed their lives to these men who were willing to fight.

Soon ‘round the world, the children would play,
And grownups would celebrate on a bright Christmas day.

They all enjoyed freedom each month of the day,
Because of soldiers like this one lying here.

I couldn’t help wonder how many lay alone
On a cold Christmas Eve in a land far from home.

Just the very thought brought a tear to my eye,
I dropped to my knees and started to cry.

The solder awakened and I heard a rough voice,
“Santa don’t cry, this life is my choice;

I fight for freedom, I don’t ask for more,
My life is my God, my country, my Corps.”

With that he rolled over and drifted off into sleep,
I couldn’t control it, I continued to weep.

I watched him for hours, so silent and still,
I noticed he shivered from the cold night’s chill.

So I took off my jacket, the one made of red,
And I covered this Soldier from his toes to his head.

And I put on his T-shirt of gray and black,
With an eagle and an Army patch embroidered on back.

And although it barely fit me, I began to swell with pride,
And for a shining moment, I was United States Army deep inside.

I didn’t want to leave him on that cold dark night,
This guardian of honor so willing to fight.

Then the soldier rolled over, whispered with a voice so clean and pure,
“Carry on Santa, it’s Christmas day, all is secure.”

One look at my watch, and I knew he was right,
Merry Christmas my friend, and to all a good night!

Major Bruce W. Lovely, “The Soldier's Night Before Christmas”

God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Le