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06 October 2003
Federalist No.
03-41
Monday Brief
CONTENTS:
The
Foundation
Insight
ICTUS Imprimis
Family
Culture
Liberty
The Gipper
Opinion in Brief
Government
Re: The Left
Political
Futures
For the Record
Reader Comments
The Last Word
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THE FOUNDATION
"A general dissolution of principles and manners will
more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the
common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when
once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to
the first external or internal invader." --Samuel Adams
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INSIGHT
"Do not let us lose the conviction that it is only by
supreme and superb exertions, unwearying and indomitable, that we shall
save our
souls alive. No one can predict, no one can even imagine, how this
terrible war
against German and Nazi aggression will run its course or how far it will
spread
or how long it will last. Long, dark months of trials and tribulations lie
before us. Not only great dangers, but many more misfortunes, many
shortcomings, many mistakes, many disappointments will surely be our
lot. Death
and sorrow will be the companions of our journey; hardship our garment;
constancy and valor our only shield. We must be united, we must be
undaunted, we
must be inflexible. Our qualities and deeds must burn and glow through the
gloom
of Europe until they become the veritable beacon of its salvation. " --Winston
Churchill (1940)
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ICTUS IMPRIMIS
"The vice I am talking about is Pride or Self-Conceit:
and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility. ...
According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is
Pride.
Unchastity, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere flea-bites in
comparison:
it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every
other
vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind." --C. S.
Lewis
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FAMILY
"Too many suburban parents may be too easily satisfied
that their schools are doing a good job because the students there score in the
top 10 percent or 20 percent on standardized tests. Suburban schools may look
good compared to inner-city schools, but both look bad compared to their
counterparts in other countries." --Thomas Sowell
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CULTURE
"Feminists who are quick to file lawsuits for even the
smallest slight in this country are strangely reluctant to make common cause
with women in nations like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Why? Is it because
championing those women would imply that Western society -- which feminists
have
so long derided as sexist -- is far better than any others when it comes to the
treatment of women? Is it really arrogance, as the liberals would have it, to
believe that the system and the culture we've inherited is superior to others?
Or is it ingratitude to deny it?" --Mona Charen
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LIBERTY
"If you are unwilling to defend your right to your own
lives, then you are merely like mice trying to argue with owls. You think their
ways are wrong. They think you are dinner." --Terry Goodkind in "Naked
Empire"
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THE GIPPER
"What seems to have been lost in all this debate is the
simple truth of how a defense budget is arrived at. It isn't done by
deciding to
spend a certain number of dollars. ... We start by considering what must be
done
to maintain peace and review all the possible threats against our security.
Then
a strategy for strengthening peace and defending against those threats must be
agreed upon. And, finally, our defense establishment must be evaluated to see
what is necessary to protect against any or all of the potential threats. The
cost of achieving these ends is totaled up, and the result is the budget for
national defense. ... Since the dawn of the atomic age, we've sought to reduce
the risk of war by maintaining a strong deterrent and by seeking genuine arms
control. 'Deterrence' means simply this: making sure any adversary who thinks
about attacking the United States, or our allies, or our vital interests,
concludes that the risks to him outweigh any potential gains. Once he
understands that, he won't attack. We maintain the peace through our strength;
weakness only invites aggression." --Ronald Reagan
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OPINION IN BRIEF
"I'm not sure I like the idea of George II sucking
up to
the Democrats this way: Inviting the Kennedy Clan to a movie, meeting with the
Black Caucus (you'll notice it never changed its name to the African-American
Caucus), commiserating on the phone with Father Jackson, inviting congressional
Democratic leaders in for friendly one-on-one chats, going off to address the
retreats of the House and Senate Democrats. On the surface it looks like the
right thing to do: prove to the Dems that you really are interested in
bi-partisanship, in getting along with them and working with them, in
forgetting
old grudges and insults. On the surface it looks good. But there's a couple of
things young George needs to remember: First, don't woo your enemies at the
expense of your political base. And second, what he's doing is a waste of his
time if he doing it because he really thinks it will pay off. It won't.
Democrats look on friendly advances as signs of weakness, not as genuine
efforts
to seek cooperation for the good of the country. Young George can meet with
every Democrat in the country and it makes no difference. When he sends up
conservative appointees they will be savaged. When he sends of conservative
measures and proposals, they will be fought, mocked and blocked. When he says
things they differ with he will be sneered at, laughed at, criticized and
attacked as a dummy, a kook and an incompetent. It has always been this way and
it will always be this way. Trouble is some people, mostly Republicans, never
learn. I surely hope young George isn't one of those." --Lyn
Nofziger
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GOVERNMENT
"The power of coercion, which is inherent in the nature
of government, fundamentally undermines the claim that the government is
doing a
moral thing by helping people. Let me show why this is so. I am walking down
the street, eating a sandwich, when I am approached by a hungry man. He
wants to
share my sandwich. Now if I give him the sandwich, I have done a good deed, and
I feel good about it. The hungry man feels grateful to me, and even if he
cannot
repay me for my kindness, possibly he will try to help someone else when he has
the chance. So this is a transaction that benefits both the giver and the
receiver. But see what happens if the government gets involved. The government
takes my sandwich from me by force. Consequently, I am a reluctant giver. The
government then bestows my sandwich on the hungry man. Instead of being
thankful
to me, however, the man feels entitled to this benefit. In other words, the
involvement of the state has utterly stripped the transaction of its moral
value, even though the result is exactly the same. Now let's keep the same
scenario but change the outcome. I am approached by the hungry man, as before,
but this time, instead of agreeing to share my sandwich, I refuse to do so.
Along comes a third man, who pulls out a gun, points it at my head, and forces
me to hand over my sandwich to him, upon which he gives it to the hungry guy.
What is the moral quality of the gunman's action? I think most people would
consider him an unscrupulous thug who should be apprehended and punished. Yet
when the government does precisely the same thing - forcibly seizing from some
in order to give to others - the liberal insists the government is acting in a
just and moral manner. This is clearly not true." --Dinesh
D'Souza
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RE: THE LEFT
"I happen to think George W. Bush is vulnerable in
2004.
But not on the war.... It would make more sense to argue that Mr. Bush has done
such a fabulous job on the war...that the whole anti-terror thing has been
pretty much wrapped up and we urgently need to get back to focusing on new
federal standards for mandatory bicycling helmets, or whatever Democrats
consider important these days." --Mark Steyn
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POLITICAL FUTURES
"The Republican Party may have once stood for fiscal
responsibility, but it has since succumbed to the temptation of playing Santa
Claus to whatever voter blocks it thinks will swing the next election. To those
who see government spending mainly as a means to buy re-election, reducing
waste
is a thankless and potentially dangerous distraction." --Heritage Foundation's
Brian Riedl
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FOR THE RECORD
"Recently in Iraq, an Army two-star general put himself
in for the Silver Star, a gallantry award, for just being there, and for the
Combat Infantryman Badge, an award designed for infantry grunts far below the
rank of this division commander. During the war, members of an Air Force bomber
crew were all awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for lobbing a smart bomb
from 30,000 feet onto a house where Saddam was rumored to be breaking bread -
even though Saddam's still out there somewhere sucking desert air. In 1944, the
only way a bomber crew might have gotten the DFC would have been if it had
wobbled back from Berlin on one wing and a prayer after a dozen-plus
missions of
wall-to-wall flak. ... The U.S. Air Force has approved more than 50,000 medals
for operations in the Middle East. The U.S. Army, trying to catch up with the
folks in blue who flew through all that imaginary Iraqi flak, has issued medals
as though they were Cracker Jack prizes. So far they've pinned on tens of
thousands of awards, from the coveted Distinguished Service Cross to the CIB.
More than 5,000 Bronze Stars alone have been awarded." --Col. David
Hackworth
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SELECT READER COMMENTS
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)"Today's quote from my daily calendar is a French proverb, 'One
may go a long way after one is tired.' Do you suppose that's what they say to
themselves in full retreat!"
"A Federalist is someone who wants
centralized government and an Anti-Federalist is someone who wants most
power to
remain in the individual states. So I decided I was an 'Anti.' But why then
do I
agree with your viewpoint and your writings? What is your definition of a
Federalist?"
Editor's Reply: Actually, at the time The Federalist papers
were
written, a federalist supported the central government as limited and
defined in
the new Constitution, and nationalists supported something more akin to the
Articles of Confederation. As noted on our Website's About Page,
"
The Federalist is an advocate of
individual rights and responsibilities as ordained by God and established
in the
governmental context framed by our nation's Founders in our Declaration of
Independence and its subordinate guidance, our Republic's Constitution, as
explicated by
The Federalist Papers. We
believe that role for our central government, as defined by The Federalist of
1787, was, and remains the correct role. The 'central government' defended in
the Federalist Papers and the Constitution as ratified in 1787 (and affirmed by
Ronald Reagan's executive order on Federalism) bears little resemblance to the
"federal government" today."
"I just read your essay on homosexual
advocacy in the Episcopal Church. Although I'm a Southern Baptist Chaplain
serving with the Marines, I was raised in the Episcopal Church and have a soft
spot in my heart for that denomination. I could tell from reading past comments
in
The Federalist that your editors
hold a
high view of Scriptural authority, but the exegesis and application of Biblical
truths in your essay put many a clergyman to shame. Outstanding scholarship!
Semper Fi!"
"Leftist politicians and their cadres are calling for
'sensible gun laws' despite plenty of evidence such laws have no effect on
crime. Thank to
The Federalist for
always
reminding them we already have two sensible gun laws, Article 2 of the Bill of
Rights and the Militia Act of 1792. It appears these Leftists did not pay
attention during civics class or logic class!"
"My heartfelt and
cerebral
gratitude for your journalism efforts can be expressed in the 50 word
limitation
of your comments page, though it deserves 500. Thank you for asserting the
Truth
in good humor as is the conservative's nature. This ending of a sentence from
the 9/26's edition -- 'for student performance in reeding, mathamaticks, or
sience' -- caught me off-guard. And I laughed and wept for our country. Thank
you for being 'a city on a hill that cannot be hidden'. Your service to our
citizens, the Faithful and the Constitution, are blessed. Though, I
subscribe to
the monthly magazine you are my weekly 'national review' online!"
"You
pegged it correctly in Federalist No. 39/40. Until there is discipline in
school
there is no education. Until there is discipline in the family there will be
none in school. As long as the welfare dept. continues to declare war on the
poor families by institutionalizing poverty and single-parent 'homes,'
there can
be no discipline there either. Simply put the government is slowly killing the
nation with regulations."
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THE LAST WORD
"Burlington's [VT] alternative paper has a penchant for
comparing Bush unfavorably to Adolf Hilter. Sitting along Church Street having
lunch or drinking coffee, I overheard plenty of conversations about
politics and
all of them seemed to start from the premise that George Bush eats kittens."
--Jonah Goldberg on why socialist Vermont is the
Lex et Libertas --
Semper Vigilo, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for the editors
and staff. (Please pray on this day, and every day, for our Patriot Armed
Forces standing in harm's way around the world in defense of our liberty, and
for the families awaiting their safe return.)
-- PUBLIUS --
--- End Message ---
