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Sought-after Israeli expert and former chief of the Israeli army, Moshe Yaalon warned this week that Western efforts notwithstanding, there will never be peace in the Middle East until brokers like the United States acknowledge the true roots of the conflict. “No ideology, least of all radical Islam, can be defeated by concessions, which encourage, energize, and inspire Jihadists,” noted Yaalon. “Those who wish for peace must face and assimilate this fact, and realize that territorial concessions, or any concessions in any realm in the struggle against militant Islam, have been consistently counterproductive.”

A few nights ago, I had occasion to attend an event at a conservative organization here in Phoenix. I will not say which organization, but I have it on good authority—and observed for myself—that the organization is slowly being taken over by libertarians.In many ways, conservatives and libertarians draw from the same ideological well: 18th century classical liberalism. We have much in common when it comes to the notion that government should be limited. Of course, it's a matter of degree; conservatives see a need for a small government, to be sure—but not quite so small as the libertarians.We...

Political correctness began as a reasonable adjustment of manners, but as an ideology, it corrupts language and dulls thought.

Lizards Show Proof Of Adaptive Change By STAN FREEMAN   Italian wall lizards placed on a tiny island in the Adriatic Sea evolved over three decades to adapt to their surroundings.     AMHERST, Mass. — In 1971, five pairs of Italian wall lizards were transplanted by biologists from their home island of Pod Kopiste, in the South Adriatic Sea, to the neighboring but subtly different island of Pod Mrcaru, where none lived, as an experiment in evolution.How, if at all, would these creatures change?Largely insect eaters, the half-foot long reptiles would find themselves on an island where insects were...

While uninformed laymen erroneously believe the theory of evolution to be a product of Charles Darwin in his first major work of 1859 (The Origin of Species), the historical records are exceedingly clear that the evolution-creation-intelligent design debate was largely formulated well before the birth of Christ. Numerous famous writings have appeared on the topic for almost two thousand years; in fact, our Founding Fathers were well-acquainted with these writings and therefore the principle theories and teachings of evolution – as well as the science and philosophy both for and against that thesis – well before Darwin synthesized those centuries-old...

It's about ideology—and what the Democrats have done—not about race. Conservative and Republicans should be careful how they write about WrightBy Christopher Cook The campaign of Barack Obama for president has raised the issue of race in ways that it has not been raised in America for some time. This is primarily the result of the sermons of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the pastor who preached to Obama and his family for 20 years. The incendiary rhetoric of this pastor—with its anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, neo-Marxism, black liberation theology, and even racism—is something that Barack Obama cannot escape, even though he himself did...

We all know of people who make strange choices, but what about those who make self-defeating choices over and over and over again, so magnetized are they by spouses (and others) who are bad for them? The woman who marries a drunk, then a gambler, then a philanderer – the man who marries a gold digger, then a nag, then an iceberg. Time after time, this type ends up with a variation on an off-note theme, while friends and colleagues shake their heads and remark, “But he’s so smart…she’s so experienced.” That seems to be the universal reaction to last...

I came across this post tonight by an Islamic blogger who, today, tried his best to explain how Islam will dominate the world. If there’s any doubt about what Islam’s plan for the world is, then start here. First he explains why the West won’t embrace Islam: Why would the disbelievers and hypocrites hate for Islam to be implemented? Simply because they do not wish for their corruption, evil, crime, cheating, oppression, dishonesty, fraud, lies, tyranny, freedom, and deception to come to an end, and for justice (Islam) to prevail. Did you catch that? Yes he said the West does...

Radical Islam Is Growing in the US: Where’s the American Anger? by Thomas D. Segel It is very difficult to understand why Americans are not enraged at the thought of any radical Islamic movement, particularly in the United States. But, being unconcerned seems to be an understatement, for Islam is rapidly expanding in this country and there is already evidence that from evening prayer to the teachings of Islamic schools the tone is anti-American and anti-Christian. We have already seen the growth of the Muslim faith in Europe. Even in England there are already calls for the country to adopt...

VoteHelp is a nonpartisan candidate calculator that tracks the main politicians' stands on important issues. 1. Input your opinions 2. Weight the importance of the issues 3. Find out how each candidate's views match your own Question Your Opinion Importance ?1. I support a set timeline for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Strongly Disagree Disagree Slightly Disagree In the Middle Slightly Agree Agree Strongly Agree Not Important Not Very Important Below Average Average More Important Very Important Ultra Important2. I believe government should increase regulation of activities that appear likely to harm the environment. Strongly Disagree Disagree Slightly Disagree...

By Steve Finefrock Even the best can blow it – having failed to understand very old, established lessons. The interface between politics and entertainment is most entertainingly entered by Jay Leno’s famed phrase – and oft-stolen by Fred Thompson – that politics is show-business for ugly people. Frank Luntz reveals a classic error quite forthrightly in “Words That Work� regarding a wee tiny mistake in his focus-group groundwork for the ’92 Perot campaign. Somewhere in his early education, he’d not absorbed the dramatic concept of the Three-Act Structure. And politics is about drama as much as about policy. As a...

Life in southern Israel is unbearable. Since last January, on average, 6.3 mortars and rockets have been fired from Gaza on southern Israel every day. As Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i warned the heads of the communities around Gaza last week, due to the improvements in the Palestinian arsenal since Israel vacated Gaza two years ago, the Palestinians now field missiles and rockets with extended ranges that place 130,000 Israelis under threat of missile attack. Wednesday, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi made clear that if Israel wishes to secure its citizens there is only one thing it...

Presidential primary campaigns illustrate politics as manipulation of, as well as pandering to, public opinion, with no necessary connection to political wisdom. Gail Collins, editorial page editor of the New York Times, in a December 8 edition op-ed article, reflects liberals’ embrace of mobocracy at the expense of Constitutional government. She writes: "Romney’s message, which boiled down to let’s-all-be-religious-together, was certainly different from the John Kennedy version, which argued that a candidate’s religion is irrelevant. But then Kennedy was speaking to the country, while Romney had his attention fixed on the approximately 35,000 Iowa religious conservatives who will tip the...

For thousands of years, people have pondered the age old question, why I am here and what happens when I die. Depending on the answers a person hears during this time on earth, there can be a variety of different explanations. For many of us, there is the notion that we are here to serve a higher purpose. For others, life is simply what we make of it and it’s over when our bodies cease to function. Which answer is correct and how do we know? The secular position on this question could be summed up by saying that, “the...

We have come to a point in the 2008 presidential election cycle where both political parties’ candidates are fielding questions about religion. While religion is a personal issue for an overwhelming majority of Americans, religion in government has been frowned upon ever since the ACLU took an active roll in purging it from the “public square.” So, it would seem at odds with the dogma of the Secular Progressive Left that religion should be an election issue at all. Yet each candidate has had to answer questions about their faith, with Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney being literally scrutinized on...

Sweden: "The Highest Standard of Living Anywhere" The beautiful nation of Sweden has the highest standard of living in the world.

The Road Less Traveled by: Heyecan Veziroglu, October 25, 2007 Although something of a liberal icon because of his presence at President Kennedy’s inauguration, poet Robert Frost was anything but left-wing, according to a friend who knew him well. Dr. Peter Stanlis, distinguished Professor Emeritus, Rockford College who has been Frost’s friend said the most celebrated American poet of the 20th Century was 90 when he spoke at the Kennedy inauguration on January 20, 1961. He added that in his poems, Frost examined social and philosophical themes, but his hostility towards President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” was evident. Frost...

Those who label Ann Coulter an anti-Semite do damage to the battle against anti-Semitism. I say this as a committed Jew, a religious Jew, a Jewish writer and lecturer, a past college instructor in Jewish history, co-author of a widely read book on anti-Semitism, recipient of the American Jewish Press Association's Prize for Excellence in Jewish Commentary, instructor in Torah at the American Jewish University, and a man who has fought anti-Semitism all his life. There is nothing in what Ann Coulter said to a Jewish interviewer on CNBC that indicates she hates Jews or wishes them ill, or does...

I like libertarians. I didn’t used to, but I do now. In fact, foreign policy and a couple of moral issues aside, I might even call myself one. Libertarianism answers most economic and often social questions in a straightforward, logical and sustainable manner. It puts the reasoning of liberalism and big government conservatism to shame. That said, some of the people behind libertarian activism make it really, really hard for anyone to appreciate the movement. Libertarians who have taken it upon themselves to convert all other Americans at any cost, because they are convinced that countless Americans are really libertarian,...

October 14, 2007, 0:00 a.m. The Ideologues Have ItGetting comfortable. By Mark Steyn Peter Robinson, a Reagan speechwriter in the last years of the Cold War, posed an interesting question on “The Corner� the other day. He noted that on February 22, 1946, a mere six months after the end of the Second World War, George Kennan, a U.S. diplomat in Moscow, sent his famous 5,000-word telegram that laid out the stakes of the Cold War and the nature of the enemy, and that that “Long Telegram� in essence shaped the way America thought about the conflict all the...

The history of Christianity has been replete with examples of various theological disagreements and contrary schools of thought, even within the pale of orthodoxy. Modern times have provided us no relieve from this syndrome, which speaks to the inherent imperfections of human discourse and understanding. There is one concept, more than any other, which can account for the great religious polarization within the Christian community, as well as the blue/red divide so evident in the political realm. As a teenage youth and a fresh convert to Christianity from a nominal belief in God, I never perceived distinctions such as "liberal...

So many of the administration's present problems derive from squeamishness about ideological confrontation that any effective Long Telegram would have to address. When President Bush declared a "war on terror," cynics understood that he had no particular interest in the IRA or the Tamil Tigers, but that he was constrained from identifying the real enemy in any meaningful sense: In the fall of 2001, a war on Islamic this or Islamic that would have caused too many problems with Gen. Musharraf and the House of Saud and other chaps he wanted to keep on side. But it's one reason, for...

Peter Robinson, a Reagan speechwriter in the last years of the Cold War, posed an interesting question the other day. He noted that on Feb. 22, 1946, a mere six months after the end of World War II, George Kennan, a U.S. diplomat in Moscow, sent his famous 5,000-word telegram that laid out the stakes of the Cold War and the nature of the enemy, and that that "Long Telegram" in essence shaped the way America thought about the conflict all the way up to the fall of the Berlin Wall four decades later. And what Mr. Robinson wondered was...

The United States and governments of the West must use every means available to combat Islamofascist aggression and expansion, both here in the West and in the Middle East. One of the most critical aspects in the war against Islamofascism is the war of ideas. This aspect represents the battle between the Wahhabi, Salafist and radical factions of the Sunni and Shi’ite sects of Islam and the ideology of inalienable rights as embraced by Western Civilization. If we in the West are to neutralize the aggressive Islamofascist threat to our way of life we must engage in the war of...

My sons are both in high school and are under the common teenage misconception that they are liberals. They parrot what they hear from their teachers, their friends at school, and their father from my first marriage. They don’t necessarily want to engage me in debate about my conservative beliefs. They just want to tell me I’m wrong and that I don’t know of what I speak. When I provide an explanation for my observations or present facts for why something occurs in our government, they don’t listen. It’s almost as though they stick their fingers in their ears and...

Had I not been listening to Beyond Belief one afternoon last week – ... I would never have known that some Islamic scholars believe an embryo to be a human being only after the 40th day. I almost dropped my Scotch pancake when a guest pronounced that it would be permissible, under Islam, to let a pregnancy progress to 40 days, then abort the foetus and harvest its tissue to treat a sick sibling. Neither was it dull to hear the same speaker suggest that embryologists should regard Muslim countries as liberal havens for research on the unborn. Shaykh Ibrahim...

Every so often I hear from a self-anointed right-wing commissar that I’m not really a conservative simply because he’s disagreed with something I wrote. The most annoying aspect of being called on the carpet is that it serves to remind me that some of those on the right can be every bit as dogmatic and self-righteous as the pinheads on the left. So, I will now list my core beliefs and you can all decide for yourselves whether when I claim to be a conservative, I’m guilty of misrepresentation. For openers, I’m in favor of capital punishment. The sixth commandment,...

Although many persist in denying it, I continue to believe that what September 11, 2001 did was to plunge us headlong into nothing less than another world war. I call this new war World War IV, because I also believe that what is generally known as the cold war was actually World War III, and that this one bears a closer resemblance to that great conflict than it does to World War II. Like the cold war, as the military historian Eliot Cohen was the first to recognize, the one we are now in has ideological roots, pitting us against...

If there is one thing for certain in this world, it is when Jack Nicholson plays the male protagonist in a film, his performance will be outstanding. As McMurphy, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, his impression on me is as compelling today –as it was over 30 years ago when I first watched him bring to consciousness the minds of assorted inmates staying on Nurse Ratched’s ward of the mental institution. The message I took away while watching McMurphy undermine Nurse Ratched’s authority over her unit -until she has him lobotomized, stands the test of time. Power hungry...

It is utterly fascinating how a traditionally anti-war left-leaning movie industry can release such incredibly produced, blockbuster "good vs. evil" fantasy epics – such as Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series – yet demonstrates complete denial about how these hit movies actually mimic the world around us. I suspect just as Tolkien never acknowledged at the time of writing his trilogy that it was an allegory for WWI – he couldn’t help but be subliminally influenced by events around him – the left-leaning movie industry can only accept the reality of what is happening in the world...

Not many in the media, much less in the general public, have a real understanding of what is incessantly and mistakenly called the "war on terror," and for this reason, our military initiatives in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as peacemaking efforts in Palestine, have all come a cropper. Our enemies are not just a few numbers of radical Islamists, committed to violent and subversive acts. They are only the activist vanguard of a sizeable population of Muslim sympathizers with an agenda: to establish Islamist states throughout the world, whether by subverting established governments, or by letting increasing Muslim demographics...

The Republican Party is in a crisis right now. It is not due to the Democrats taking over control of Congress. It has to do with losing the vision of conservatism. If anything, Republicans lost Congress because they have lost the vision of political conservatism that Ronald Reagan brought to this country. They have allowed themselves to be cowed by the sheer amount of noise that the left has generated in attacking conservative principles. This wall of noise has fooled Republican leadership into thinking that conservatism is not popular in America, that the people want liberalism. In fact, nothing could...

A letter in my local newspaper starts with "Shame on Representative Mary Bono for defying the demands of the American people to end the Iraq disaster." Disaster? I always thought that we had created a success in Iraq by having our armed forces in the heart of the Middle East with a new giant embassy loaded with all kinds of listening devices, thus helping to prevent further attacks on the United States. In addition to creating this island of Freedom in the Middle East, we were also able to rid the world of a corrupt despot who had used WMDs...

It is difficult to value something when its worth is unknown. The adage of one child being given a toy only to leave it out in the rain to rust, never understanding the toys worth, while another child made to earn the same toy is found to take care of it, valuing its worth, is a fitting analogy. This basic truth applies to our American heritage and the continued welfare of our nation. Most of us have never had to take up arms to protect our freedoms, our liberties, our rights as guaranteed under The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution...

The main problem with pacifism is that it doesn’t work in all situations. The main problem with pacifists is that they’re convinced it does. Gandhi persevered for years and ultimately gained independence for India, but that was because, for all its faults, England was basically a civilized, Christian nation. It was possible to arouse the sympathy and good will of the British people. Had he tried it with Nazi Germany, he would have died in an oven. There’s no getting around the fact that being a pacifist has a nicer ring to it than being, say, a warmonger. But when...

I alluded to this point briefly in this week’s radio spot, and I think it imperative that a discussion be initiated on another reason for the Virginia Tech shooting that will be avoided by mainstream media analysis: the need for Teacher Control. Yes, it was a gun that enabled the student Cho Seung-Hui to carry out the ultimate in angst, but what made him so angry, as he wrote, about America that he chose to go out in a blaze of glory and take innocent people with him? A little background here…

A simple statement made by a national legislative leader in Washington this week indicates that a war is being lost, but it is not the war in Iraq. It is the defeat of the War of Ideas taking place nowadays in the US Congress. One striking example is a declaration by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that "the United States had lost the war in Iraq", a conclusion he said he’d communicated to President Bush at a meeting last Wednesday. "This war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything, as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday",...

Excerpted from http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/04/post_47.html USA Today has complained about copyright issues, so cut and paste the link to read the full article: -------------------------------------------------------- My local Barnes & Noble has the following titles on display — Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam ; The Quotable Atheist; Letter To A Christian Nation; God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist; and The God Delusion, which is a New York Times best-seller. Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., has become the first member of Congress to announce that he doesn't believe in God. He's probably just looking for a...

Environmentalists constantly reference the scientific consensus that human activity is changing the global climate. "You have the strongest consensus we have seen in the science community about global climate change since the conclusion that tobacco caused lung cancer," asserts Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) president Kevin Knobloch. Greenpeace also argues, "There is, in fact, a broad and overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, is caused in large part by human activities." And Friends of the Earth has gone after Exxon Mobil because it "has repeatedly attempted to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change and actively resisted attempts...

ABSTRACT:We propose a model of motivated skepticism that helps explain when, how, why and under what conditions citizens are prone to be biased political information processors. We report the results of two experimental studies that explore how citizens evaluate arguments about two political issues – affirmative action and gun control – to test hypotheses predicting motivated reasoning. As predicted, in situations where participants (Ps) are presented with a balanced set of pro and con arguments, we find strong evidence of a prior attitude effect such attitudinally congruent arguments are evaluated as stronger than attitudinally incongruent arguments. When reading the pro...

In a recent article in USA Today, the headline reads, “Democrats manipulate military policy for political gain, Bush says.” The actual article ends up quoting Democrat denials and counterattacks as much as the president, but the headline, and Mr. Bush, are accurate. You have to ask, What is the real agenda for Democrats? Why do they say we must end the war on terror, even claim there is no such thing, when we all know the Islamists have declared war on the USA, whether we wanted it or not? Many conservative commentators claim the Democrats have embarked on this crazy...

People seem to have figured out that the easiest way to promote an un-American agenda, one at odds with American interests, in a post Vietnam, sexual revolution and socially evolved world, is to frame the discussion in terms of minority victimization. It works every time. Don’t mess with what works… People aren’t pro-traditional marriage and family values anymore, they are anti-gay rights, because gays are a numerical minority and that alone makes them a protected species in progressive America. We aren’t just pro-life, we are anti-women when we suggest that each innocent human life has a right to exist, and...

On a college campus, where diversity is touted as "an indispensable element of academic excellence," diversity of ideology is being squelched. Not wanting to reveal her identity for fear of endangering her job, Dr. Miriam Grossman anonymously wrote Unprotected, a book which provides an unpopular explanation to the epidemic of suicide, depression, eating disorders and sexually transmitted diseases on America's college campuses. A psychiatrist at UCLA Student Psychological Services, Dr. Grossman says that she was "outed" on Dr. Laura Schlessinger's popular radio program. She is now speaking to organizations and on radio programs that recognize the value of her unpopular...

After Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's landslide reelection last year, the California Republican Party is left fighting over millions of dollars of debt, unable to pay the salaries of county executive directors or cash bounties to workers registering new GOP voters. As Republicans prepare for their weekend convention, the dispute has descended into "accusatory and obnoxious" exchanges over politics, finances and the direction of the party, according to e-mails obtained by Political Muscle. Schwarzenegger's campaign is planning two spring fundraisers to get the GOP solvent again. The party is about $4.6 million in debt. ... The dispute represents a larger fight within...

The newly elected Democratic class of 2006, which is set to descend on the Capitol next week, will hardly be the first freshmen to arrive in Washington promising to make a difference. The last time Congress changed hands, the Republican freshman class of 1994 roared into town under the leadership of Newt Gingrich as speaker and quickly advanced a conservative agenda of exceptional ambition.Many in the class of 2006, especially those who delivered the new Democratic majorities by winning Republican seats, show little appetite for that kind of ideological crusade. But in interviews with nearly half of them this week,...

The Right Stuff By Elihu GrantPosted November 9, 2006 A review of American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia edited by Bruce Frohnen, Jeremy Beer, and Jeffrey O. NelsonIf you need to find out in a hurry?and who knows when such a need might arise??what year Walter Berns was born (1919) or how many condensed editions of The Road to Serfdom were distributed by the Book-of-the-Month Club at the end of World War II (600,000), you will readily find the answers in this indispensable new collection of data about the American conservative movement, published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and edited by...

Demo(n) parents form play group Outlet available for like-minded to talk politics Parents who want to add some political zip to outings with their children might consider the new Tucson Democratic Playgroup. Golda Velez came up with the idea to provide like-minded parents with an outlet for political discussions. Velez, a home-based computer programmer with two children, also hopes the new group can become politically active. "We'll let the kids play while we can talk about politics and be effective," said Velez, who was the Southern Arizona volunteer coordinator for 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry. "Parents always chat. Now we...

It is sad and worrying that Muslims have given birth to a united international front to attack the Pope and ask for public apologies. From Bin Laden to the Muslim Brotherhood, from Pakistan to Turkey, from al Jazeera to al Arabiya, the transversal and universal alliance, which has already come into being following the Danish cartoons affair, has reappeared. Reaffirming very clearly that the root of evil is like a blind and prevailing ideology which outrages the faith and darkens the minds of many Muslims. Why do not Muslims, especially the so called moderates, react with such strength and intensity...

As tensions have risen significantly over the last few weeks between Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon and Israel, many Montrealers, myself included, have grown accustomed to the spontaneous anti-Israel rallies that have taken place along the main thoroughfares in downtown Montreal. (Video excerpted from CBC footage aired on July 30, 2006. (launch by external player)Most media reported that the rally had been peaceful.) This Sunday was no exception, as the situation in the Middle East escalated a notch after an IDF-guided missile missed a Hezbollah weapons cache in the southern Lebanese town of Qana, hitting a home where over 50 civilians...

The 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries have witnessed the most spectacular population growth in human history, most of it in Third World countries. The world’s population, estimated at 6.4 billion in 2006, grows by more than 70 million people per year. In sixty years, Brazil’s population has increased by 318 per cent; Ethiopia’s by 503 per cent. There are now 73 million people in Ethiopia – more than the population of Britain or France. At the same time, many of the most economically successful countries, both in the East and in the West, have problems with ageing...