A Miraculous Message

"This is really a miracle find"
~ Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland

There are plenty of skeptics who will scoff at and dismiss the idea of a supernatural message attached to the archaeological find in Ireland a couple of weeks ago, during the early days of the Israeli-Lebanese conflict. A construction worker noticed that his bulldozer had unearthed a 1,ooo+ year old book of psalms in a soggy bog, open to Psalm 83.

The discovery of the ancient book is the first of its kind in Ireland, unusual enough in itself. But the fact that it was laid open to such a pertinent piece of Holy Scripture gives me goose bumps.

Call it the Druid in me, but I, for one, am given pause to consider the possibility of something beyond our ken signaling us to take heed of current events in a biblical context. Just have a look at the opening verses of Psalm 83:

1Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.
2For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
3They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee

Coincidence? Maybe. But those pesky Druid bones tell me that there is no way this is an accidental find.

The Logic of War

The only solution is the destruction of the aggressor. Otherwise the logic of the aggressor is to keep up the aggression. The aggressor doesn’t want peace, he wants victory. The only way to block that is to inflict defeat on him. There is no third way.
~ Greg Richards

Read the full article. It may sound like an oxymoron, but Greg Richards' logic is poetic.

On the Bubble

The good life sometimes can be lost quite unexpectedly and abruptly when people demand rights more than they accept responsibilities, or live for present consumption rather than sacrifice for future investment, or feel their own culture is not particularly exceptional and therefore in no need of constant support and defense.
~ Victor Davis Hanson, Real Clear Politics 7/27/06

In political discussions, I often offer my observation that modern Americans are soft, spoiled, and have no concept of the daily struggle to survive that most of the world's population endures. No one illustrates this truth with more factual grit and historical backup than Victor Davis Hanson.

"The Fragility of the Good Life" is not comfortable reading, but it is important for us to understand how quickly and easily the "American Dream" bubble could burst.

World War III?

We are not going to beat this enemy unless we get serious about it.
~ Jay Bryant, Real Clear Politics

Newt Gingrich thinks that WWIII has already started. Jay Bryant agrees.

Wherever one stands in answer to this question, it is clear to me that Israel's fight is our own fight. Their mortal enemies are ours. Israel is doing battle for itself and also for the U.S.A.

Hezbollah has always been one of the inevitable fronts in the GWOT, one that the United States would have to face eventually--again. It is the butchering force that murdered our Marines in 1983, and given the chance, it would certainly return to the continued killing of Americans. Our nation owes Israel full gratitude and support for stepping up to Hezbollah's brutal challenge.

Whether or not the current situation is World War III, one thing is certain: it is one war, worldwide.

A Troop's Viewpoint

Islamists who are killing thousands globally do not desire land or high profile UN resolutions. They don’t care about public opinion or battlefield victories. They want 6 to 8 million dead burning Jews. They want to party like its 1939. But make no mistake… the destruction of Israel is lock in step with their desire to destroy in its totality everything that is the United States.
~ From: VFF Troop's Blog - July 23, 2006

The Money Quote

$ $ $ $ $ $ $

"We will fight terror wherever it is because if we do not fight it, it will fight us. If we don't reach it, it will reach us"
~ Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz

$ $ $ $ $ $ $

Saturation Point?

In National Review Online, Victor Davis Hanson poses some excellent questions and answers about the unusual atmosphere of international restraint surrounding the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict.

Maybe, finally, the world had grown weary enough of terrorism to quietly support Israel as it digs in and takes a firm stand.

The Right Time

There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
~ Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, IV:3


Or, as Michael Ledeen puts it in his excellent article in National Review Online:

"It (Israeli-Hezbollah conflict) is a wondrous window of opportunity. As so often in our history, it was opened by our enemies. Let’s go for it."

The Real Lesson

...the Middle East problem was never about so-called occupied land -- but only about the existence of Israel itself. Hezbollah and Hamas...didn't so much want Israel out of Lebanon and Gaza as pushed into the Mediterranean altogether. ~ Victor Davis Hanson

Read it. Believe it. Understand it.

There is simply no talking to the Islamic terrorists. Israel is rightfully tired of talking and is acting in self defense. As the U.S.A. would, if surrounded by fanatics who actively wanted to wipe our country off the map.

There is a cautious saying, "Trust God, but lock your car." Israel is teaching us that we can pray for peace, but we must be prepared to fight for it.

Common Sense About Chaos

The Arab and other Muslim enemies of Israel (for the easily confused, this does not mean every Arab or every Muslim) want Israel destroyed. That is why there is a Middle East conflict. Everything else is commentary. ~ Dennis Prager

At Townhall.com, Dennis Prager analyzes the Mideast conflict in simply stated sentences that ring with truth and clarity. Prager gives the most straightforward and cogent explanation about the root of endless war in the Mideast I have yet read.

Also at Townhall, Mark Steyn presents his customarily insightful observations in an interview today with Bill Bennett.

A chat with Madeleine "Diplomacy is essential" Albright isn't going to do anything to staunch the bleeding, no matter how highly the lady thinks of herself. "I'm certainly willing to play whatever role I'm needed to play," she loftily informs ABC news.

Excuse me, but whoever said you're needed, dearie?

And I'd like to know what role she could play among killers who want a country "wiped out from the map" and who have no problem stating that goal for all the world to hear.

Be grateful that Albright is screaming from the sidelines this time around. Her kinder, gentler approach would get a lot of people killed. Of course, such a negative outcome to her noble efforts would most certainly be Bush's fault. But that's another post.

Angel Proud

"Project Valour-IT" is the name of Soldiers' Angels program providing laptops to recovering wounded members of our military. The program was started in August 2005, and since that date the Soldiers' Angels have personally presented 500 laptops to our recuperating troops across the country.

News like this makes me very proud to be a member of the Soldiers' Angels organization. I volunteered in March 2004, just months after Patti Patton-Baden founded it, and was one of a few hundred Angels at the time. Today, there are over 80,000 individual "Angels," in addition to many church, school, and community groups, that "adopt a troop" stationed overseas. The Soldiers' Angels write cards, letters, and--the most fun of all--send care packages to their assigned troops.

If you're looking for a worthy cause to support, look no further. Visit the Soldiers' Angels homepage and sign up to give tangible appreciation to those who offer their lives to keep us protected at home.

The Soldier's Angels motto is: "May no soldier go unloved." Roger, that.

An Iraqi's Perspective

From an Iraqi perspective I believe that a powerful strike to Hizbollah will be in Iraq's national interest. Those extremists...want a war and I think they're going to get one. ~ Omar, Iraq the Model, July 12, 2006

Read the entire post to see how an Iraqi observer understands what's at stake.

There's excellent blogosphere coverage on this current battle in the ongoing GWOT. Read, or listen to, Mark Steyn's interview on Hugh Hewitt's show yesterday, also Robert Tracinski's article "The War Comes to Us," for starters.

It's difficult to believe that there are still those who don't believe a fight against radical Islamists is necessary.

What Terrorists Fear

Terrorists of all stripes despise democracy, for democracy means having to respect the interests of human beings who are political opponents. ~ Austin Bay

The least of the terrorists' faults is their small-minded fearfulness. One need look no farther than yesterday's Bombay train atrocities, where the death toll has reached 200, to see proof of that fact. The targets were first class seats on commuter trains. The terrorist mission was to take out the high achievers of India's increasingly successful democracy--the professionals who are learning, advancing, making money and bettering their lives, all without benefit of totalitarianism.

The exact perpetrators are still a mystery, but their motives are not. Whoever these terrorists are, they wanted to knock Indians down, put them back in their helpless, submissive place, under the thumb of radical backwardness.

Like all terrorists, the Bombay bombers are vicious, brutal, and cowardly. Those are not inspiring leadership qualities. Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh has vowed to "fight and defeat the evil designs of terrorists." Already today, India's stocks have risen in the wake of yesterday's violence. India's finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, said the terror attacks on Mumbai (Bombay), the country's financial capital, would not drag down India's economy. "The long-term India growth story is intact," declared Chidambaram.

Such straightforward resolve is what terrifies a terrorist.

A True All-Star

Read what Oakland A's All-Star pitcher Barry Zito is doing for our military tonight. Barry, no matter what happens in the game, you are a winner!

UPDATE: By my count, there were eleven strikeouts in last night's All-Star game. That's $5,500 for our troops in Walter Reed Army Medical Center, just from Barry.

Other 2006 Major League Baseball All-Stars who are participating in Strikeouts for Troops:

- Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees
- Manny Ramirez, Boston Red Sox
- Jermaine Dye, Chicago White Sox

All MSM's Horses

...and all MSM's men
Couldn't put Keller together again.

That's the bottom line to the blow-the-U.S-cover story on the financial tracking of terrorists published by the New York Times. Today's San Diego Union Tribune has an excellent article by Robert J. Caldwell on how the public isn't buying the NTY tapdance, in addition to the letters by Treasury Secretary John Snow and the verbose justification from the NYT Executive Traitor, Bill Keller.

Keller expends hundreds of words defending his agonizingly difficult decision to publish the non-story that supposedly everyone knew about. He makes the case that it was his duty to publish and our right to know, while simultaneously maintaining that the story was common knowledge.

I know. I'm confused on Keller's logic, too--but not on his motive. I'm completely clear on that, as are most Americans.

It doesn't matter how many flowery phrases you employ to try to flail your way out of hot water, Bill Keller. In your dedication to harming the Bush administration any way you could, you placed every American in peril. That was an acceptable price to you--but not to the rest of us.

So stop whining. You're compounding your already assinine persona. Accept reality. You screwed up, and the whole country knows it. If you ever grow the stones to face up to your mistake and apologize to the U.S., that would be some news that's fit to print.

Crossing Time

...this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Yesterday's ruling by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kennedy provides a ray of hope for the 76% of San Diegans who voted to keep intact the cross that's part of the beautiful veterans memorial atop Mount Soledad.

A cross has graced that scenic hilltop for nearly a century. The current cross has been part of the memorial since the mid-1950s. Prior to that, two earlier crosses adorned the hill. The first cross was erected in 1913, a second in 1934. I've posted a family snapshot of the second cross, taken by my mother during a visit to San Diego in 1942.

No one seemed to have had a problem with any of the Mt. Soledad crosses until 1991. Shall one atheist be permitted to override the will of three-quarters of his fellow citizens? Time, and the high courts, will tell.

"Hey, I Worked For Her!"

I saw "The Devil Wears Prada." It's difficult to assign it a genre, because to me it qualifies as a blend of documentary, comedy, historical drama, and horror.

Ah, yes. The Boss From Hell. I've certainly worked for her (shudder). She appears in my 2003 book, Working Over Time. You've probably had your own work experience with her, too. Remember? The boss who is phony, ruthless, joyless, unreasonable and impossible to please.

As is her wont, Meryl Streep sashays away with the film playing the b*tchy Miranda Priestly. Anne Hathaway gives a solid performance as Andy Sachs, the "little girl lost" in the brutal, big city business world, and Emily Blunt is a delightful surprise as the British "First Assistant."

If you've read and liked the book, you won't be disappointed by the film. And if you've spent any significant time working as an assistant, you'll recognize the hellish atmosphere that permeates the posh offices of "Runway" magazine. It's a state of being no amount of designer couture could disguise.

How Would It Read Today?

I've linked the text of the Declaration of Independence. By today's standards, it's terribly incorrect, politically speaking. If it were drafted today, a lot would have to change before it was considered signature-worthy.

Here are just a few red alert words that popped out at me in a quick reading:

Nature's God
Creator
Divine Providence

What were the Founders thinking, incorporating such theological references in a public document? If only they could see how we've progressed in modern America, where any mention of the deity in the public domain is subject to deletion. Young people are forbidden to mention God in high school graduation speeches, Christmas manger scenes are outlawed, a time-honored memorial cross is ordered stripped from a hilltop to avoid the "establishment of religion"--this last despite 76% of voters pleading via the ballot box to keep the monument standing. Yes, this scrupulously non-theistic culture must be what our Founding Fathers had in mind.

I've only one comment regarding the difference between the "Spirit of 1776" and the lack of same in 2006: God help us.