Quote-a-palooza
"The truth is, politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality's foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide. We need it because we are imperfect, and our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they're sinners can bring to democracy the tolerance it requires in order to survive. A state is nothing more than a reflection of its citizens: The more decent the citizens, the more decent the state. If you practice a religion, whether you're Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, or guided by some other faith, then your private life will be influenced by a sense of moral obligation, and so, too, will your public life." - Ronald Reagan
"Former Vice President Al Gore recently penned a book in which he rails against the current 'assault on reason' by the evil forces of Earth-hating right-wingery. He repeatedly invokes science as if it's his exclusive property... Gore talks about the dysfunction of political discourse today. But when it comes to global warming, he and his acolytes insist that the time for debate is over. In other words, Gore's ideal discourse would involve only discussion about how best to follow through on his prescriptions. But such high-minded objections sail over the chief source of Live Earth's lameness... But the outrage and passion felt so prepackaged, you almost expected Ludacris (who rapped about the evils of SUVs) to say, 'This moral outrage is brought to you by GE's Ecomagination'." - Jonah Goldberg
"There ought to be no question that declaring defeat in Iraq will encourage every terrorist organization and nation state that means us harm... Whatever political victory politicians might achieve by sustaining themselves in office will be lost to terrorists who will make sure that those who think they are secure in their congressional seats will face the ultimate insecurity in their homes and offices... At the risk of repetition, it is not enough for the president to plead for patience and understanding. He must do more- much more- and he must do it immediately. He needs to open a second front- a surge- in the propaganda battle. He should directly challenge those who want to give-up to provide him with a specific plan to win the wider war against terrorists should the defeatists prevail and Iraq devolve into chaos and become a base for launching new terrorist acts throughout the world. They don't have such a plan and a challenge from the president would expose their empty and self-serving rhetoric. ... The president expects our troops to be more aggressive, so he needs to demonstrate more aggressiveness at home." - Cal Thomas
"As I watched the [president's] news conference, it occurred to me that one of the things that might leave people feeling somewhat disoriented is the president's seemingly effortless high spirits. He's in a good mood. There was the usual teasing, the partly aggressive, partly joshing humor, the certitude. He doesn't seem to be suffering, which is jarring. Presidents in great enterprises that are going badly suffer: Lincoln, LBJ with his head in his hands. Why doesn't Mr. Bush? Every major domestic initiative of his second term has been ill thought through and ended in failure. His Iraq leadership has failed. His standing is lower than any previous president's since polling began. He's in a good mood... Is it defiance? Denial? Is it that he's right and you're wrong, which is your problem? Is he faking a certain steely good cheer to show his foes from Washington to Baghdad that the American president is neither beaten nor bowed? Fair enough: Presidents can't sit around and moan. But it doesn't look like an act. People would feel better to know his lack of success sometimes gets to him. It gets to them." - Peggy Noonan
"Do we really need a surgeon general at all?... There are plenty of private groups that are fully capable of instructing us on how to be healthy, wealthy and wise without government involvement. The American Lung Association can tell us not to smoke. Alcoholics Anonymous can preach sobriety. The American Medical Association can lecture couch potatoes on the benefits of losing weight and exercising more. Planned Parenthood and the Family Research Council can fight it out over when and how we should have sex. Surely someone can deal with overweight children. Given the government's track record of efficiency, being the nanny for 300 million Americans seems a little beyond its ability." - Michael Tanner on one of many government social services that are extra-constitutional
"The eight Democratic presidential candidates assembled in Washington recently for another of their debates and talked, among other things, about public education. They all essentially agreed that it was underfunded- one system 'for the wealthy, one for everybody else,' as John Edwards put it. Then they all got into cars and drove through a city where teachers are relatively well paid, per-pupil spending is through the roof and- pay attention here- the schools are among the very worst in the nation. When it comes to education, Democrats are ineducable... [N]ot a one of them even whispered a word of outrage about a public school system that spends $13,000 per child- third-highest among big-city school systems- and produces pupils who score among the lowest in just about any category you can name. The only area in which the Washington school system is No. 1 is in money spent on administration. The litany of more and more when it comes to money often has little to do with what, in the military, are called facts on the ground: kids and parents. It does have a lot to do with teachers unions, which are strong supporters of the Democratic Party. Not a single candidate offered anything close to a call for real reform." - Richard Cohen
"A young Air Force airman is fighting for his life in Camden, N.J. He was shot on Independence Day by a crazed gunman who reportedly had a beef with the military and the U.S. government and 'wanted to make a statement' on the Fourth of July. Have you heard about the plight of 22-year-old McGuire Air Force Base loadmaster Jonathan Schrieken? Probably not. The shooting got no mention in The New York Times- not even a squib in a back section... Now, imagine the scenario flipped: What if a soldier had attempted to murder a peace activist over the holidays in order to 'make a statement'? The Times would be holding front-page vigil, and Katie Couric's brow would be furrowed for a week. The yakkity yaks on 'The View' would be clucking their tongues about the culture of violence bred by the military- and who knows what Rosie O'Donnell would be dressing her poor child in to exploit the story on her website. Funny how the Root Causes crowd becomes so incurious about the root causes of crime when the suspects are anti-military nutballs and anti-war protesters." - Michelle Malkin