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  Thomas Paine - 1776


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THE BASIS OF RATIONALITY
Information gathered in the present, combined with that obtained and processed over past periods of time, is reprocessed by our mind. If the past information is either not factual or erroneously perceived, judgments reached will not have validity. To achieve validity, reason based on factual information must be utilized as the basis for making reevaluations of past judgments and evaluations of all new judgments. This website's purpose is to advance this rationale.

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Feb. 7; President Bush... suggested today that the time might be near to drop the income tax as a whole and replace it with a form of consumption tax. The Fair Tax is a consumption tax
 
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Wright rode into Iraq on March 20, 2003, with a platoon of First Reconnaissance Battalion Marines—the Marine Corps' special operations unit whose motto is "Swift, Silent, Deadly." These highly trained and highly motivated First Recon Marines were the leading unit of the American-led invasion force. Wright wrote about that experience in a three-part series in Rolling Stone that was hailed for its evocative, accurate war reporting. This book, a greatly expanded version of that series, matches its accomplishment. Wright is a perceptive reporter and a facile writer. His account is a personality-driven, readable and insightful look at the Iraq War's first month from the Marine grunt's point of view.

Sean Hannity states totalitarian regimes, such as Hussein's in Iraq, Hitler's Germany and the former Soviet Union, serve as breeding grounds for evil, thus justifying President Bush's policy of pre-emptive action against countries that could threaten American interests. 


An engaging book of essays from Pulitzer Prize-winning philosopher and historian Durant should be essential reading for anyone interested in the evolution of thoughts
 

An engaging narrative of key events leading up to the conferences at Yalta (Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin) and Potsdam (Truman, Churchill, Stalin)
By Michael Beschloss

This book provides a compelling look at a unique partnership, showing courage, grace and humor that defines it
By Christopher Anderson

powerofkings (2K)
The Power of Kings
This is a well written book that offers an opposite opinion to those generally held by followers of conservative ideology. Dr. Hiatt presents his interesting revolutionary proposal to replace the income tax with a federal property tax. In his rationale he well utilizes points of history including examples of feudal monarchies control of property to subjugate the people. Those conservatives interested in a theory that is certain to create adversarial opinions should consider reading this book.


"A compelling analysis of our nation's intelligence problems, including their historical roots...Provides a comprehensive prescription for correcting the deficiencies and improving national security." - Edwin Meese, former U.S. Attorney General

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GETTING IT RIGHT
A rollicking -- and revealing -- novel about the early days of the conservative movement

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This thought provoking book should be of interest to anyone concerned about Western security in the Post Cold War 
 

This book has been a standard introduction to its eponymous subject since its first publication in 1958


This book links some of the most fertile minds of our time to a centuries-old commitment to freedom, self-determination, and opposition to intrusive government

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A Review By Ben Cerruti of
Energy Victory by Robert Zubrin
If one where to agree with the author's premise that "the war on terror?\" in which the U.S. is now engaged is directly connected to energy dependence, he has presented in this book a rational approach to winning that battle in the next decade. By finding a way to diminish the outrageous profits that Saudi Arabia, the major source of inexpensively produced oil, both their direct and indirect funding of terrorism would, in turn, be diminished. ....read more....

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Book Review by Brad Ullrich, Land Use Editor
Conservative commentator and pundit Alan Caruba of The National Anxiety Center has another winner on his hands. Alan's first book, "Warning Signs", a compilation of op-eds and essays that was released a couple of years ago was welcomed by his readers as a handy way to access some of his best writings up to that point. "Right Answers" is the same format, a collection of Alan's more recent work broken down into several categories...

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WHY PROMOTING FREEDOM IS THE
ONLY REALISTIC PATH TO OUR SECURITY
Soon after arriving at the State Department earlier this year, I hung a portrait of Dean Acheson in my office. Over half a century ago, as America sought to create the world anew in the aftermath of World War II, Acheson sat in the office that I now occupy. And I hung his picture where I did for a reason.....

The Primary Reason for
Regime Change in Iraq

Speech - A.F. Academy June 2nd

By President George W. Bush
(www.freerepublic.com)
Excerpts from speech - "Fighting this kind of enemy is a complex mission that will require all your skill and resourcefulness. Our enemies have no capital or nation-state to defend. They share a vision and operate as a network of dozens of violent extremist groups around the world, striking separately and in concert. Al Qaeda is the vanguard of these loosely affiliated groups, and we estimate that over the years many thousands of recruits have passed through its training camps. 
 
"Just as events in Europe determined the outcome of the Cold War, events in the Middle East will set the course of our current struggle. If that region is abandoned to dictators and terrorists, it will be a constant source of violence andd alarm, exporting killers of increasing destructive power to attack America and other free nations. If that region grows in democracy and prosperity and hope, the terrorist movement will lose its sponsors, lose its recruits, and lose the festering grievances that keep terrorists in business. The stakes of this struggle are high. The security and peace of our country are at stake, and success in this struggle is our only option."....

flattaxrevolution
flat tax revolution
Everyone knows that the Federal Income Tax Code-all 9 million words of it-hurts economic growth and stock market values. The current federal income tax code is beyond redemption. It's complex, confusing, unfair and a corrupting influence on our economy and society. It's time to get rid of it and the IRS.

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What Makes Us Tick?
By Tom DeWeese
Our nation, indeed our world has become much polarized in the right/left spectrum. People now are categorized in one camp or the other based on certain ideas. We live in a world of sound bites. For example, today, if you attack the irrationality of the actions of the United Nations, you’re a “black helicopter kook.” If you support the idea that government should stay out of your bedroom you’re anarcho-lefty. There is confusion. The sound bites and instant labeling boxes us in and keeps us apart. If the shouting were to calm down, perhaps we might all find that the left and the right have some very common ideas....

The Proof's in the Pension
By John Tierney
 (N.Y. Times)
I made a pilgrimage to Santiago seeking to resolve the Social Security debate with a simple question: What would Pablo Serra do?....

There might be something about Islam
By Kathleen Parker
As Brits stiffen their upper lips and politicians hustle to reiterate that Islam is not the problem, cognitive dissonance grips the planet. If Islam is not the problem, what is? And are we not inviting self-defeat by refusing to recognize that Islam is at least part of the problem?....
 
Constitutional Myths and Realities
By Stephen Markman
Justice, Michigan Supreme Court
It might be nice if those policies that we favor were compelled by the Constitution and those policies that we disfavor were barred by the Constitution. is not, by and large, what the Constitution does. Rather, the Constitution creates an architecture of government that is designed to limit the abuse of governmental power. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 sought to create a government that would be effective in carrying out its essential tasks, such as foreign policy and national defense, while not coming to resemble those European governments with which they were so familiar, where the exercise of governmental power was arbitrary and without limits. Therefore, while the Constitution constrains government, it does not generally seek to replace the representative processes of government....

One of the reasons I prefer to be known as a conservative and not a Republican is that Republicans too often compromise their ideals, hoping the Left will like them. It never works. The Left despises them anyway and, in the end, they've sold out for nothing....

The Doctrine of Preemption
By George F. Will
What I will say tonight about the war on terror draws heavily on my earlier life as a professor and student of political philosophy. A long life in journalism and around Washington, D.C., has taught me not just that ideas have consequences, but that only ideas have large and lasting consequences. We are in a war of terror being waged by people who take ideas with lethal seriousness, and we had better take our own ideas seriously as well....

Two Faces of Islam
By Stephen Schwartz
Since its formation in 1932, Saudi Arabia has been ruled by two interdependent families. The Al Sa’uds control politics and the descendants of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab impose Wahhabism—a violent, fanatical perversion of the pluralistic Islam practiced by most Muslims. Stephen Schwartz argues that Wahhabism, vigorously exported with the help of Saudi oil money, is what incites Palestinian suicide bombers, Osama bin Laden, and other Islamic terrorists throughout the world. Schwartz reveals the hypocrisy of the Saudi regime, whose moderate facade conceals state-sponsored repression and terrorism. He also raises troubling questions about Wahhabi infiltration of America’s Islamic community and about U.S. oil companies sanitizing Saudi Arabia’s image for the West. This sharp analysis and eye-opening expose illuminates the background to the September 11th terrorist attacks and offers new approaches for U.S. policy toward its closest ally in the Middle East....

beneditarnold (5K)
Benedict Arnold
Drama Of The American Revolution
In Five Acts

By Robert Zubrin

Benedict Arnold was the greatest combat soldier of the American Revolution. Yet, in 1780, in collusion with the beautiful Tory agent Peggy Shippen and British spymaster John Andre, he attempted to betray General George Washing, the Marquis de Lafayette, Alexander Hamilton and the critical fotress of West Point into Royal hands. In this interesting narration in play written form, the author lays out most captivatingly the events of the times that could have led to the defeat of the American revelutionary army. It is highly recommended to those interested in American history and is well worth the read.

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The Pentagon's New Map
By Thomas P. M. Barnett
The author, a knowledgeable U.S. Naval War College senior military analyst,  provides the rationale for new military planning based on economic globalization rather than on intermittent wars. He proposes that past planning required the identifiction of a major nation that could become a threat to our security. He states that 9/11 was what was required to enable the consideration of this new approach. By taking on the task of supporting the advances of economic globalization, the U.S. enjoys its benefits "out of rational self-interest". His view of the world is that it works in terms of a Core-Gap divide. He suggests integrating the non-functioning Gap countries into the functioning Core countries and further states the need to reduce globalization's grand complexity to four elements. Movement of people from Gap to Core, movement of energy and money from the Gap to a New Core and the exporting of the Gap's security that only America can provide. To improve our military, he suggests that conflicts between the military services can be minimized by eliminating their separate identities once a senior officer reaches flag rank. If this happens, the infighting over satisfying the desires of the respective services would vanish. This would then remove the obstacles to utilizing funding for military programs in a efficient and objective achieving manner. The breadth of his vision is impossible to capture in a review. The author provides a well thought out constructive view of what our country's leaders should be seriously considering in their pursuit of lasting security for Americans while at the same time removing the threat from Gap country elements by improving their lot. This book is a must read for those who desire the knowledge necessary to rationally understand the issue of our nation's security.

'Gay marriage' confusions
By Thomas Sowell
 (TownHall.com)
Few issues have produced as much confused thinking as the "gay marriage" issue. There is, for example, the argument that the government has no business getting involved with marriage in the first place. That is a personal relation, the argument goes. Love affairs are personal relations. Marriage is a legal relation. To say that government should not get involved in legal relations is to say that government has no business governing. Homosexuals were on their strongest ground when they said that what happens between "consenting adults" in private is none of the government's business. But now gay activists are taking the opposite view, that it is government's business -- and that government has an obligation to give its approval.....
 
Media Bias Basics
 (MediaResearch.org)
Thirty million Americans rely on broadcast television for their news. They form opinions based on what they hear and see and to a lesser extent, read. Since citizens cannot cast informed votes or make knowledgeable decisions on matters of public policy if the information on which they depend is distorted, it is vital to American democracy that television news and other media be fair and unbiased. Conservatives believe the mass media, predominantly television news programs, slant reports in favor of the liberal position on issues. Most Americans agree, as the data below indicate. Yet many members of the media continue to deny a liberal bias....

Insight Magazine Profiles Alan Caruba

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" Alan Caruba pulls no punches and takes no prisoners in debunking cultural myths and defanging political monsters in
Warning Signs"
Scott Hogenson, CNSnews
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cagovwaste (2K)

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Ghost Wars

By Steve Coll
The author, as a basis for his writing of the history leading up to the present mid-east situation, provides the vital details for the reader to understand the role played by Saudi Arabia in what has become our war on terrorism. He shows how petro dollars were the catalyst for the spread of the Wahhabi form of Islamic ideology into Pakistan and Afghanistan for export throughout the world.
How to Cure Health Care
By Milton Friedman
The United States spends a mind-boggling percentage of its GDP on a health care system that virtually everyone agrees is a disaster. Is there any way out of this mess? There is-and Milton Friedman has found it.

Universal Health Care
By Thomas Sowell  (TownHall.com)
Those of us who are getting on in years can remember a time when most people had no health insurance, when we simply paid the doctors or the pharmacies and went on our way, without giving it a second thought. I have especially painful memories of having a hospital bill of $50 for the treatment of a baseball injury back in 1949. You have no idea how big $50 was for me at that time. It was the most money that I had ever paid for anything. But the bill got paid off, a few dollars at a time, over a period of months. When and why did health insurance, paid by third parties, become widespread in the American economy? Like so many things that the government does, third-party health insurance grew out of problems created by previous government policies.....

WHAT WENT WRONG?
DID YOU KNOW?
As you walk up the steps to the building which houses the U.S. Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world's law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view - it is Moses and he is holding the Ten Commandments!
DID YOU KNOW?
As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower portion of each door.
DID YOU KNOW?
As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see the wall, right above where the Supreme Court judges sit, a display of the Ten Commandments!
DID YOU KNOW?
There are Bible verses etched in stone all over the Federal Buildings and Monuments in Washington, D.C.
DID YOU KNOW?
James Madison, the fourth president, known as "The Father of Our Constitution" made the following statement "We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for 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."
DID YOU KNOW?
Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of our country said, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
DID YOU KNOW?
Every session of Congress begins with a prayer by a paid preacher, whose salary has been paid by the taxpayer since 1777.
DID YOU KNOW?
Fifty-two of the 55 founders of the Constitution were members of the established orthodox churches in the colonies.
DID YOU KNOW?
Thomas Jefferson worried that the Courts would overstep their authority and instead of interpreting the law would begin making law....an oligarchy....the rule of few over many.
DID YOU KNOW?
The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said, "Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers."

How, then, have we gotten to the point that everything we have done for 220 years in this country is now wrong and unconstitutional?

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A MOST IMPORTANT COMMENTARY ON THE MIDDLE EAST
Bernard Lewis provides an insight into the Islamic world that is priceless. He provides that which explains succinctly what has evolved in the last Century in the mid-east. This article should be circulated throughout the western world and its contents broadcast to those many who need to know what the actual historical facts are. The final words in this article send us an ominous warning "either we bring them freedom, or they will destroy us"....

Iraq- One Nation, Divisible
By John Tierney (October 24, 2006 New York Times)
An American in Iraq has finally gotten it almost right. J. D. Thurman, the major general who is the senior commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, has figured out the obstacle to America’s dream for Iraq. "Part of our problem is that we want this more than they do,” General Thurman told The Times’s Michael Gordon, alluding to American efforts to unify Iraqis. “We need to get people to stop worrying about self and start worrying about Iraq.”....

It is an act of thievery to take money to provide goods or services and then fail to do so. Our nation’s schools have become a great criminal conspiracy, promising to educate our children, but more often producing “graduates” without even the most basic skills, let alone a useful, wider body of knowledge....

It is quite evident that there are many who do not understand the nature of our enemy. They seem to have the belief that defeating the Taliban and Al-Qaida will make terrorism go away. It certainly would be helpful but pure logic tells us it falls far short of that goal. Common sense dictates that one must understand what motivates these terrorists in order to implement the actions that will lead to elimination of their acts against us. From what we observe, there should be no doubt that their motivation is derived from the tenets of the Koran (Quran) which are followed by devout Muslims throughout the world. To illustrate this I provide the following excerpts from the Koran (Quran):....

What Pope Benedict XVI actually said was vastly overshadowed by the Islamic reaction to one line from a lengthy, intellectually complex speech given on September 12th at the University of Regensburg, Germany...

"Oceans lash our coasts. Deserts Burn. The sky provides no shelter. Turmoil of Biblical proportions threatens not just our weather but life itself. Global Warming is upon us." Those words aren't from the preview trailer of the silly, overblown, over dramatic film, "Day After Tomorrow" that invaded movie theaters a few years ago. And they aren't just carefully selected "scare" words developed from a sweep through a thesaurus. These are the opening words to yet another hysterical diatribe passing as news these days on the subject of Global Warming. This particularly silly one greeted readers of a recent issue of Playboy Magazine....

In May 2006 I wrote, “I know about the “Peak Oil” theory that says we either have or are about the reach the point of diminishing returns regarding the world’s oil supply, but these recent discoveries suggest there is still plenty of oil to be found.” In that commentary I documented nearly a dozen new fields of oil and natural gas discovered since 1995...

They are one of the biggest publishers of textbooks in the world, and they wanted to use some of my writings in one of their products. My first thought was, "Gee, I'm coming up in the world." The second was, "How do they intend to use it?" So I asked for a sample. A good thing I did....

In late August, Democrats in the California legislature and Governor agreed to a deal that would impose a limit on all greenhouse gas emissions. As reported by the Associated Press, “The bill would require the state’s major industries—such as utility plants, oil and gas refineries, and cement kilns—to reduce their emissions of the pollutants widely believed to contribute to global warming.”...

Making Kids Eco-Crazy
By Alan Caruba
It’s back to school time for kids and, of course, for the environmental crazies that means creating a huge mythology of things that will kill them the minute they venture into the jungle of hazards and horrors that await them in school. The biggest hazard I encountered was a kid named Mario who, not surprisingly, ended up in jail. I did not worry about what my clothes were made from, if the acrylic paints would poison me, or the importance of using both sides of the piece of paper....

I cringe when the urban newspapers casually say we can make “lots of our auto fuel” as ethanol from cornstalks and wheat straw. If we turn the crop stalks into ethanol, we’ll have the only problem that could be bigger than an energy shortage—a topsoil shortage. That would throw the First World’s societies into the same sort of downward hunger and erosion spiral that bad farming has already forced upon Africa....

The problem with the Bush administration is that not enough of its officials have read the U.S. Constitution. Take, for example, Section 2 of Article 2. When dealing with foreign nations, it says that the President “shall have the power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur….”...

Gasoline at $3 per gallon tells us vehicle fuel is scarce in America right now. Some U.S. politicians propose to “fix” the high prices with an “excess profits tax” on the oil companies. If you want less of something, tax it. If you want less fuel at higher prices, just raise the taxes on the energy companies. If you want more of something, raise its price. Willing suppliers then find ways to provide it. Over time, competition and investment bring down prices. The excess profits tax is a political diversion to help you forget that it’s America’s own voters and politicians who have created our current pain at the gas pump: Many of the “excess profits taxers” have voted consistently against more energy....

Before the Israeli attack, Lebanon no longer existed, it was no more than a hologram. This is what the Lebanese journalist, Michael Behe, wrote on July 30. His commentary was posted on the website of the Metula News Agency in Beirut. To understand the Lebanese situation, it helps to know that, despite a history that dates back to biblical times, modern Lebanon was literally the invention of Western powers, England and France, after WWI in 1920. It became independent of France in the early 1940s....

At what point do Americans and the rest of the world begin to take Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, seriously? He is making no secret of his plans to acquire and use nuclear weapons against Israel, England and America. As any student in Psychology 101 learns, there is something called “projection” in which an individual “projects” onto another person their own intentions, motivations, and justifications. If I say you are planning to harm me, there’s a strong chance the truth is that I am planning to harm you....

Despite the U.S. Senate’s August vote to end the quarter century ban on offshore drilling, the Democrats could not resist recklessly exploiting the current price at the pumps and oil company profits for political gain while ignoring the most fundamental economics of our national dependence on this energy source. The bill now goes back to the House, which already passed it where a committee will work out an agreement on the separate versions....

Future American lawyers
take a stand for freedom

By Tom DeWeese
Many patriotic Americans have rightly worried about the nation's future in the hands of today's younger generation. Proven time and again is their lack of understanding for American ideals and principles of limited government, thanks to a woefully inadequate education from government schools.However, such fears received at least a small reprieve on January 24, 2006, when a group of law students at Georgetown University Law School staged a dramatic protest during a speech by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales....

Humans now control Earth’s climate, James Hansen of NASA told CBS’ “60 Minutes” last week. His evidence: the edges of the ice sheet are melting rapidly. Hansen says the speed of this melting proves that man-made greenhouse gases are responsible. Sorry, Dr. Hansen, but the melting edges of the Greenland ice sheet don’t prove your point. Melting around the edges is exactly what the Vikings saw on Greenland 1000 years ago when they named the island—for its green coastal meadows. They moved in with their cattle, and thrived for 300 years, during what we now call the Medieval Warming....
 
"Fed up" landowners have said "enough" to feeble efforts by Congress to "fix" the Endangered Species Act (ESA). That's why a coalition of property rights groups, led by the American Land Foundation, Stewards of the Range, the American Policy Center, Liberty Matters, and the PFUSA Grange have now gathered more than 6,300 signatures to a letter calling for repeal of the ESA....

Mexican politicians continuously demand increased immigrant visas for their citizens, an expanded guest-worker program, and amnesty for their illegal aliens living north of the Rio Grande. But while Mexico expects the United States to solve its social problems by allowing the border to serve as a safety-valve for job seekers, its government officials enjoy princely lifestyles and spend little of the nation's wealth on education and health care, which are crucial elements in promoting social mobility....

An ignorance of history can leave an entire generation vulnerable to threats they may otherwise dismiss as bombast. Most who lived during the 1930s rise of the Nazi’s Third Reich are dead and all that’s left are the images on the History Channel. That’s why the sight of goose-stepping Iranian soldiers is eerily redolent of goose-stepping German storm troopers....

Goodbye Europe
By Lowell Ponte
Europe’s botched civilization, perverted by socialism and lost faith, seems to have lost the will, the passion to sustain itself. If it continues to practice today’s multiculturalist leftism, Europe’s demographic doom will be sealed....

Whatever Happened to the Ownership Society?
By LARRY P. ARNN  - president of Hillsdale College
Before Hurricane Katrina flooded the tear ducts of our politicians and the vaults of our treasury, President Bush had us talking about America’s “ownership society.” This is one of the best things he has done. He did it prominently in his reelection campaign. He did it bravely in relation to Social Security, which risks the outrage of the media and the votes of older people who always vote. If he did it in some ways foolishly, never mind. It showed promise because it had us talking about something central for a change. This question of ownership is at the heart of America. It always has been. “No taxation without representation” echoed in the hearts and spirits of our fathers because it called up the ideas they held most dear. If you may not tax me except as my representative, then for the same reason you may not govern me except by my consent. If you cannot take my property except by law and with difficulty, then my title to my property is real. It is truly mine. I own it. And if James Madison is to be believed, my ownership of my property stands on just the same footing as my entitlement to speak my mind or to say my prayers or to vote my conscience....

I do not recall doing much homework when I was growing up. Most certainly, I was not burdened with it in elementary school. It probably began in what is now called Middle School grades. I do recall wondering, after having spent the better part of the day in school, why the teachers thought that additional study at home would have any benefit?....

The thought came to me recently that we no longer hear from anyone about the historical practice of those in the medical professions swearing to the “Hippocratic Oath” upon graduation from medical school.   At one time all reputable medical men considered themselves bound by this oath  In further thought I realized that there  could be a reason and it might be in the oath itself.  I believe I was right and it is in the following excerpt from that oath.  “I will give no deadly drug to any, though it be asked of me, nor will I counsel such, and especially I will not aid a woman to procure abortion”  This leads me to the following thoughts....

EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE
By Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer, AG
A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Europe - your family name is appeasement." It's a phrase you can't get out of your head because it's so terribly true. Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives as England and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to toothless agreements. Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe where for decades, inhuman, suppressive, murderous governments were glorified as the ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities....

For a little more than a week now, the Blogosphere and airwaves have been inundated with all things Kelo. While it is impressive to hear and see such an uproar regarding personal property rights, Kelo's much more sinister second cousin has been quietly eating away at the right most Americans cherish....

There are those in government and elsewhere that still wish to insult the intelligence of the public by referring to a Social Security Trust Fund when it simply does not exist.  Let us look at the simple facts....


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THE MOST IMPORTANT COMMENTARY
EVER PROVIDED ON THE MIDDLE EAST
Talk by Israeli scientist, Haim Harari (honoraria and bio), at a meeting of the International Advisory Board of a large  multinational corporation, April, 2004.
 
As you know, I usually provide the scientific and technological "entertainment" in our meetings, but, on this occasion, our Chairman suggested that I present my own personal view on events in the part of the world from which I come. I have never been and I will never be a Government official and I have no privileged information. My perspective is entirely based on what I see, on what I read and on the fact that my family has lived in this region for almost 200 years. You may regard my views as those of the proverbial taxi driver, which you are supposed to question, when you visit a country....


ecoimperialism (149K)
ECO-IMPERIALISM
Reveals a dark secret of the ideological environmental movement. The movement imposes the views of mostly wealthy, comfortable Americans and Europeans on mostly poor, desperate Africans, Asians and Latin Americans. It violates these people's most basic human rights, denying them economic opportunities, the chance for better lives, the right to rid their countries of diseases that were vanquished long ago in Europe and the United States.
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CONSERVATISM IN AMERICA
******************************
Simply the finest anthology of modern conservative thought ever published. A must-read for conservatives of all ages.
******************************
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WORLD ISSUES
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Many Americans refuse to understand the simple answer.  Al Qaeda knows that the advance of democracy in the mid-east will spell the eventual demise of the power and control of Islamo-Fascists directly affecting those that profit from it.  Using warped elements of the tenets of the Koran these elements support the continued brain washing of the proletariat into becoming unproductive automatons so as to reap the rewards of oil producing revenue for their own well being....

There are those in the political arena and in the media who proclaim that the capture or killing of Osama Bin Laden and Abu Musab Al Zaqarwi would end Islamic terrorism.  They state that the U.S. should have gone after Bin Laden and Al Qaeda and not into Iraq.  Rational analysis defies this belief. It stands to reason that one must go to the cause of what drives this Islamic terrorism and then attempt to change that cause.  To understand what is the causal factor one must look to where the fomentation of it occurred and from whence it was derived....

This website has had posted a poll question relating to Islamic beliefs and recently also posted an essay by 'A Rational Advocate' whose content was related to that subject matter. The following is an email dialog that developed from the initial comments made by a visitor whom shall be called Ms X.  The commentary provides an interesting insight to the rationale of some non-Muslims relating to the subject matter....

Madrassas, Islamic Schools, and American Public Schools do have a similarity.  This similarity lies in the fact that they both graduate students that have been indocrinated with a unilateral social ideology.  Some may argue that Madrassas deal with religion but, in fact, the tenets of the Koran that are taught include much involving the manner in which the society must function....

Evidently there are some in the Western World that think the answer to this question is yes.  In the U.S.A. we find among them many candidates vying to be the Democratic candidate for President, acting as if we should have continued passively after 9/11 and our military activity in Afghanistan, waiting for the next attack by the terrorists on some target within our 50 states.  In Britain, where our President has visited recently, they attack the actions of Tony Blair and the Coalition of the Willing in their effort to bring democracy to Iraq.  Their actions convey the feeling that they seem to be on the side of the terrorists and thus to support the longevity of terrorism.....

This is a World War
By Ben Cerruti
Many pundits, politicians, members of the press, and others in our society, maintain the view that the armed conflicts existing around the globe are not necessarily connected. However, this view does not hold up when the obvious facts emerge to show that there is a common thread that exists to tie them together. This thread is terrorism.....

The facts regarding Iraq’s decaying infrastructure and the severity of the additional damage done to it by looters, not withstanding that incurred during the war, have not been broadly circulated to date. A number of credible sources involved in the Iraq reconstruction have reported details of the conditions they face. For instance, it has been reported that even toilets from all schools have been removed by looters and every drop of sewage in Iraq flows directly into the rivers. Also, major power plants and substations have never been maintained over their 30 year plus life and are operating at a fraction of their rating. In addition, substations have been completely destroyed by looters and power lines dismantled in order to sell the copper to Iran.....

WIN THE BATTLE - LOSE THE WAR
By Ben Cerruti
It is apparent that there is confusion in the mind of many people. It lies in the view that they think we have engaged in a war in Iraq that is winding up with the U.S. as winners. The events that have transpired involving mid-east terrorists over the last 20 plus years, culminating with the events on 9/11/2001, can only lead any rational person to the conclusion that our war is against terrorism and we are far from winners of that war yet......

TRUMAN WAS WRONG
By Ben Cerruti
What with all the hoopla over the North Koreans recent nuclear saber rattling one would think that some mention would be made of what got us here. We hear nothing about the Presidential decision that led to the permanent separation of Korea into two states. Fifty two years ago a confrontation between President Truman and General Douglas MacArthur, over far east policy leading to this decision, dominated the news. It resulted in the removal of MacArthur from his position as Commander of the U.N. armed forces then fighting the North Koreans.....

President George W. Bush, speaking a short time ago to the German Parliament, said

"...others killed in the name of racial purity or the class struggle.  These enemies kill i n the name of a false religious purity."

Thus he rightly linked despots like Osama bin Laden, and those that support his ideology, to Hitler and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.....

A view appears to exist that America is more dependent on the receipt of mideast oil than the supplier is dependent on the revenue from its sale. As a result we find contentious argument both inside and outside of government as to the need and methods for making our economy less dependent on foreign oil....

The following burning question, I would think, should rationally enter the minds of the greater majority of civilized people in this country and world. Why would educated young Muslims take the lives of innocent victims along with their own in the conduct of suicidal missions in support of a cause? It would appear contrary to any religious belief, including that of Islam.....

This morning I posed myself the following questions. (1) Why can’t the causes behind the acts of terrorism on our country dating back a decade be determined by a rational analysis? (2) Why can’t we wean ourselves away from dependence on the resources of the region of the world that threatens us?......


POLITICAL ISSUES
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Why do so many seemingly good people with a liberal bent become pent up with rage when they read or hear the word "Christian" in a conservative context.  In their diatribe they invariably relate the word to their villainous foe "the religious right", or as it is sometimes called, "the Christian right".  Regardless of the possible merits to be found in the presented material, they lose rationality when they see the word "Christian" even though it may only be referencing the most positive moral virtues and perspective.....

The creator’s of our Constitution were so concerned that the Federal Government would usurp the powers of State Government that they included provisions to lessen that possibility.  However, time has taken its toll on these provisions and the politics they had hoped to minimize has reared its ugly head in the Supreme Court to further erode the powers of State Government.....

VOTING ON PRINCIPLE
By Ben Cerruti
In general elections should a person vote for a candidate or his party affiliation? There are various reasonable arguments that can be proposed to justify voting in either manner. Perhaps it would be well to look at the motivation for voting.......

President Bush had threatened a veto if the Homeland Security Act did not include provisions that would allow the new department flexibility in dealing with employees.  Such provisions to include the right to waive collective bargaining rules and to eliminate the lengthy and difficult procedures to move or terminate federal employees now existing in federal law.  With difficulty, and some compromise with members of Congress, the Act was finally enacted with provisions that somewhat minimzed the ability for public employee unions to adversely affect homeland security........

A visitor to this web site recently had comments to make about the essay “Are You Conservative or Liberal?” written by “A Rational Advocate“. As a result, an interesting dialog developed that should be of possible interest to other visitors and it follows.....

The answer to this question, as used in political connotation, requires an understanding of the respective terms. This process involves the semantics of their use in discourse. It stands to reason that a mutual understanding of the words and terms when utilized in discussions is required for communication between the parties involved to convey true meaning to the discourse.......

We have been witness to a continuing use of class warfare by those in government, abetted by the media and an assortment of special interest groups and individuals.  In this essay we will consider the methods they use to establish definitions as it relates to the redistribution of income......

What are the reasons for contributors to provide money to candidates for public office? Common sense tells us that they are as follows:
1. Ideological, meaning to promote the ideals in which the contributor believes.
2. Self-seeking, meaning to gain from the candidate commitment to actions that will be economically beneficial to the contributor.....

There are those that claim that elections are the most effective method of holding legislators accountable for their actions.  In a truly democratic system this might be possible but unfortunately ours is not such a system as experience tells us....

There is a great misuse of meanings of certain words and phrases by many in our society, with the greatest abusers being many media and political persona and social opportunists (self-serving individuals and groups).  It is especially disingenuous when this practice takes place in the categorization of people for the purpose of pitting one category against the other....


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SOCIALISSUES
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OREGON, THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH,
EUTHANASIA AND ABORTION

By Ben Cerruti
Hitting recent headlines was the cognizant U.S. District Judge's confirmation of the Oregon voter-approved law allowing doctors to assist in the death of terminally ill patients. I wonder if this Judge is aware of the Hippocratic Oath. The Hippocratic Oath, of course, is what historically was taken by those entering the medical profession upon graduation from medical school........

A visitor to this web site recently had comments to make about the essay "Homosexuality Is Not Normal" written by “A Rational Advocate“. As a result, an interesting dialog developed that should be of possible interest to other visitors and it follows...

Why do homosexual couples who wish to establish a union between themselves insist on having the government allow them to be endowed with the same marriage title provided to heterosexual couples? Why are they not satisfied with being provided the same legal provisions in the form of a title called "civil union"? A single answer to both questions is obvious. They want society to consider their relationship normal. The reason the government should not concede to their demands is also obvious. Their relationship is not normal because man and woman were put on this earth with complementary sex organs meant to procreate the species....

Another visitor to this website recently had comments to make about the essay  "Homosexuality Is Not Normal"  written by “A Rational Advocate“. As a result, the following dialog developed between the visitor, who is given the name Mr. H, and A Rational Advocate (ARA)....

WHY GO TO MARS
By Ben Cerruti
The Space program had become another humdrum government program to the average American before the tragic loss of Columbia. It took that event to awaken us to think about this program and the reason for its existence at this point in time......

The 4th Constitutional Amendment states:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized" - Recently Representative Howard Berman, Democrat from California, introduced HR5211,a bill to indemnify holders of copyrights on files who use technological means to enter one's Computer and disable the use of such files.......

Altruism is defined as regard for and concern for the welfare of others. An Altruist is defined as one who adheres to the practice of Altruism. A problem exists in our society in the interpretation of actions versus intentions. The  premise I take here is that a person cannot perform an altruistic act that does not fulfill a personal intent to commit it. Thus the definition of Altruism contradicts itself.

DO WE WANT THIS BRAVE NEW WORLD?
By Ben Cerruti
Published in 1932, a novel by Aldous Huxley, entitled “A Brave New World”, described a fantasized society of the far future which has, as time progresses, becomes less a fantasy and more a possibility. This society controlled by an authoritarian centralized government practices mass breeding of humans in laboratories, called hatcheries, replacing normal maternal reproduction......

LOVE AND SEX
By Ben Cerruti
Love is a most misused word.  Saying things like “I Love Cookies” or  “I Love It” or “I Love to Ski”, when the word that should be used is “like”, is innocent enough....However, the word love also has another common misuse, with which we are also all familiar, but this misuse sometimes gives the user of the term a lot of grief....

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