Quotable: David Limbaugh

From today’s column:

Reagan conservatives (and Libertarians) recognize that conservatism through liberal means is still liberalism. They strongly reject that they must abandon their fealty to fundamental constitutional restraints on government.

Super Duper Election Linkfest

From Doug Ross: Gomer Melts Down - Huckabee claims there’s a conspiracy against him, and proceeds to lose the facts left and right. Such as the fact that Clear Channel and Sean Hannity are not affiliated. Hannity is syndicated by ABC Radio.

Come on Huck, give it up already. You’ve damaged God, America, Arkansas (on top of the damage the Clintons have done to that (otherwise) fine state), and now you’re just hurting yourself.

WorldMagBlog asks Christian liberals to reexamine the nature of their belief: Evangelical Liberals Rejection Of Reality:

If you set government policy based on bad economics — i.e. policies based on economic principles that do not correspond to the way God created the world to operate — they will be counterproductive and bring unhappy results. They won’t “work.”

Hugh sees Romney surging and talk radio leading:

Once the score was clear after Florida –a McCain or Romney nomination– the Republican base quickly began to rally to Romney because the Republican base cares deeply about the issues that bind the Reagan coalition –tax cuts, originalist judges, free markets, and of course the value of unborn life and traditional marriage.

And WorldMagBlog tells us what to watch:

Super Tuesday will be key to deciding the presidential nominees but don’t expect the race for the nomination to end today — especially for the Democrats. McCain’s lead over Romney is widening, and if he captures the most states and delegates tonight he should emerge the clear victor. Obama has narrowed Clinton’s once-wide lead and Democrats award victory based on a combination of popular vote, delegates won, and states won. Expect some spin once the votes come in.

Now, stop reading and GO VOTE!

Having The Cake And Eating It Too

David Limbaugh, in his January 3rd column, contemplates the foundations of the American Experiment and the assaults against those foundations by ignorant yet usually well-meaning people of all stripes.

He asks whether or not conservatives have that “fire in the belly” necessary to motivate the country into entrusting its direction to their hands again.

Before Reagan was elected, there was much more for conservatives to be concerned over, the country had bought into massive economic and social lies and was being led by its nose down a path of recession. But Reagan led on ideas and hope, and with solid economic principles he allowed the country to see the truth in his dreams.

Have we now forgotten the strengths of America are not magic or unassailable permanent fixtures of our corner of the world?

We expect liberals to believe: We can punish the producers in this nation without reducing overall output and hurting all economic groups; we can socialize health care without destroying its quality, quantity and affordability; we can assault our traditional values and cultural institutions without eroding the nation’s character; unbridled, illegal immigration without assimilation will lead to multicultural Nirvana; and we will be secure at home if we’ll just be nicer to foreign nations and more sensitive to the terrorists’ concerns.

But what about conservatives? Do we also need a reminder that free nations are the exception in world history and that our liberty was purchased with the greatest sacrifices and will ultimately disappear without a rededication to our founding principles?

Read it all. Then tell Fred Thompson to get some fire in his belly.

His greatest strength is that he doesn’t need to be president. But his greatest failure is that he doesn’t recognize the necessity of at least acting as though we need him to be president. If the strength of his own convictions is this weak, what is there to entrust to him?

Please Crocodile, Eat Me Last!

“Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he’ll eat you last.” - Ronald Reagan

Presidential Pardons

The Center For Individual Freedom posted this quiz:

Who are the only two U.S. Presidents to date who did not grant any pardons during their terms of office?

George Washington and John Adams
James Garfield and William H. Harrison
Woodrow Wilson and Harry S. Truman
Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton

The Answer:

Presidents James Garfield and William Henry Harrison executed not a single presidential clemency action while in office, both having died before serving even one year of their terms.

Washington and Adams granted 16 and 21, respectively; Wilson and Truman’s pardons each topped 2,000; Reagan granted 406 and Clinton, 456.

Source: University of Pittsburgh School of Law

And some people are complaining about the communtation of one sentence? Don’t get me wrong. There are no excuses for obstruction of justice and perjury, but these figures from the records of other presidents put the situation in perspective.

Bonus question:
Which President signed the most clemency actions?

Answer:
Franklin D. Roosevelt signed 3687 clemency actions during his 12 years as President.

Students For Freedom, Nobel For Rush, Bush Is Right

Three stories caught my attention today, and for this reason: That conservative values of individual responsibility, recognition of absolute truth, and consistency of conviction in the face of repeated attack, always resonate, always work (even if they seem to fail in the short term), and always get their reward.

Reagan repealed what is known as the “Fairness Doctrine”, a policy which required that all publicly broadcasting media channels give “equal time” to all viewpoints on any issue or risk losing their licenses. This allowed the growth of Talk Radio, which has blossomed in a way quite without precedent among the conservative mainstream. There have been attempts by private liberal interest groups to duplicate the successes of conservative talk radio, but they have, without exception, failed miserably. Most recently Air America, a Soros-funded venture filed for bankruptcy protection. Only NPR, the federally-funded broadcasting corporation which would appear to be a thinly veiled arm of the American Communist Party.

Now, Pelosi, et al. wish to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine to force broadcast stations to do allow both sides of an argument regardless of monetary feasibility. The idea behind the success of conservative political talk radio is that people enjoy listening to it, they buy the products advertised on it, they support the stations who broadcast it. This is not a wild guess that people like to listen to conservative political talk, it’s a concrete, incontrovertible fact. If the fairness doctrine were reenacted, there would be backlash and then disinterest, lethargy and apathy would kick in. Stations would close and people would lose their jobs. Pelosi likes this idea, she wants Rush to lose his job so badly she’s willing for hundreds and thousands of small-town DJ’s and radio station personnel to lose theirs as well.

Pelosi’s friend, Mr. Chavez down in Venezuela has been enacting the fairness doctrine recently. The most popular radio station in Venezuela, which was critical of Hugo and his policies, was shut down recently amid massive protests. Students have led the protests claiming an affront to their rights as citizens of Venezuela. Students have led many protests and revolutions in recent times, and not always to their benefit. There were the drugged out protests of the rich, lazy, uncaring youth of the 60’s in America. There were the idealistic but misinformed and ultimately evil revolutions in Russia in the early 20th century which brought in the terrible times of communism, of which Hugo Chavez is either a willfully and evilly ignorant blind follower or an evil, knowing proponent. Sometimes, the proposed change is so much more radical than the actual need that in itself it is evil, such as many of the protested things of the 60s. A whole country is enslaved to communism, a whole generation is nearly wiped out, the American flag cannot fly proudly in a section of the world because of the self-interested pursuits of a privileged and drugged generation here in America.

But sometimes it is the courage and strength, the energy of youth which stands up for the right against the tyrannical likes of Mr. Chavez, the evil. Laying down their own bright futures in hopes of a brighter future, if not for themselves, for those who follow.

John Berlau at HumanEvents.com has written a response to the fawning Mr. Gore is receiving at the hands of the Nobel Peace Prize committee. In his article he submits that Mr. Rush Limbaugh is more deserving of a peace prize as through his works of education and confrontation peoples lives have been saved around the world. Mr. Gore, on the other hand, has only globally broadcasted misinformation, personal ideological greed, and terminal stupidity contained in a corpulent animated corpse to lay to his name. An idol of Mr. Gores’ is the author of Silent Spring, which can be directly blamed for causing the shift in public opinion against DDT which has allowed the resurgence of malaria around the world, and the resulting multitude of deaths, nearly all preventable by use of the tiniest amount of DDT.

Andrew McCarthy at NationalReview.com has written an article detailing the multitude of reasons which Bush has been, is, and continues to be right concerning the war on terror, and how those who disagree with him cannot help but follow him if only for self-preservation. While they wish they could pull out, liberals with any sense know they cannot, and therefore they will do nothing more than push mindless and useless “symbolic” and “non-binding” resolutions recommending pull out by certain arbitrary dates (I really should write about how meaningless words can be). Bush’s problem isn’t that he isn’t right, it’s that he’s not the communicator he should be. Reagan was a great communicator, Kennedy was a great communicator, Roosevelt (Franklin) was a great communicator. They communicated the needs and demands of a higher calling effectively and with words powerful and frequent. Bush has repeatedly failed to capture the ideas of the nation and draw them in the direction of his plans of America’s moral projectionism.

What’s So Hard About This?

What is so difficult about understanding the intentions of Iran? The London Free Press, in an article on the Prime Ministers statements regarding the act of war committed by Iran by seizing 15 British soldiers who were in Iraqi waters, makes some statements which are telling in their implication.

Tough talk in the last century involved phrases of specific and undeniable purpose and intent:

Reagan

Tear down this wall

Khrushchev

We will bury you

MacArthur

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it

Consider then the tough words uttered by Mr. Blair, an undeniably able communicator on the purpose and intent of this war:

I hope we manage to get them (the Iranian government) to realize they have to release them. If not, then this will move into a different phase.

The paper does report that Mr. Blair stated he was willing to, if necessary, use means other than diplomacy to achieve the release of Great Britain’s service men and women. The reporter then, apparently all a-tizzy over the chance that the UK may be opening new fronts against arrogant dangerous and insane tyrants, finds a Blair spokesperson who ‘clarified’, patting the anxious reporter on the head and saying: “there, there, it’s alright, Mr. Blair doesn’t mean we’ll try military solutions or kick the Iranian diplomats out of London, don’t worry your little head about it.”

Ah, the courageous media in action.

What this war needs is a lot more tough talk and tough actions backing up that talk. Where are the Churchills or Thatchers, Reagans and Lees, brave men and women who see what must be done and do it, damning the consequences. Admiral Farragut in the civil war when faced with a particularly dangerous stretch of the Mississippi river that had been mined by the Confederate defenders famously said

Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead

Quotables

Words mean things and ideas have consequences.

Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
~G.K. Chesterton

I reserve the right to be maximally offensive.
~Ezra Lavent

[A]t all stages of our lives — from the embryonic through the fetal, infant, child, and adolescent stages and into adulthood — we are human beings with dignity and the right to life. Our dignity does not come from having achieved a certain level of intellectual proficiency or even conscious awareness. … We have our dignity in virtue of the kind of entity we are: that is human being, a creature with a rational nature. And we became that when we came to be.
~Dr. Robert George

Atheists don’t find God invisible so much as objectionable. They aren’t adjusting their desires to the truth, but rather the truth to fit their desires.
~Dinesh D’Souza

It is really faith that is indispensable to almost all positive human activity. Because you can’t know the future, and if you don’t have faith, the pursuit of bodily pleasure and preoccupation with obstacles to it become your entire life. And the horizons darken.
~George Gilder

We believe that freedom is a gift from God and not a political grant from government. Freedom is neither license nor anarchy. It must be consistent with the great moral guide, the Covenanting Commandment.
~The Marysville Appeal-Democrat, Marysville California

Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.
~Daniel Webster

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
~Samuel Adams

It’s not that liberals are ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.
~Ronald Reagan

A day without radiation is a day without sunshine.