I was pouring my second cup of coffee that Tuesday morning, watching some special report about New York…and ended up watching live in horror the second plane slam into the Towers. And I had been in the Towers less than two weeks before that, visiting the Windows restaurant and strolling past the esplanade. As we found out later, three of my then company’s own employees perished at the WTC that day.

The war must go on, not because of the past 9/11 but to assure that another does not happen. The dead cannot be brought to live, but those alive must be kept far, far away from such horrendous deaths.

Will we win this long, drawn out war of attrition against a shadowy, sinewy, intelligent, and motivated enemy? That depends largely on our staying power. Since the end of the Second World War, it is said that we have become a selfish society unwilling to sacrifice too much for too long. Others have mocked us as an impatient society addicted to fast food and fast divorces. Are we a society like that indeed? Upon that answer will rest the ultimate fate of this long war on terror.

One of my favorite regular readers, a most delightful lady from South Carolina, made the pertinent observation that my blog posts, while thematically principled, suffered from being occasionally judgmental. I take that observation with good grace and seriousness and will strive to be less harsh in my reflections on others. For it is well said in the Scriptures that we all fall short of the glory of God. I am no exception. Many times in my life I have realized powerfully that 'but for the Grace of God, there go I'.

I hope my readers understand that while often rhetoric blurs the line, my contention is with the deeds of others, not the others as human beings. The fundamental dignity of the human being is a gift granted by the Creator at the inception of life and nothing can take that away. Hence, like true conservatives I do subscribe to the notion that basic respect due to human dignity is immanent regardless of a person's state or status...born or unborn, white or black, woman or man, saint or sinner. Those whose dishonesty, silence, and foul deeds harm others are not worthy of respect as good people...but they are still human beings and children of God and thus entitled to that basic dignity. As a conservative and a man of faith, I cannot believe otherwise.

Neither ethics nor empirical evidence seems to bother the Beltway fellas running the National Republican Senate Committee or the Republican National Committee. The former is busy bashing a Republican (Laffey in RI) in ads and the latter is actively supporting the Democrat-turned-Independent Lieberman over his Republican opponent in CT. These kind of bizarre infighting tactics were common amongst Democrats not too long ago...now the GOP has adopted them in the spirit of unprincipled bi-partisanship.

If principles or the concept of loyalty doesn't bother the latte-sipping, Washington Post reading, moderate image craving Beltway Republicans, at least evidence should. All the money and big guns couldn't help the believe-nothing incumbent GOP Congressman Joe Schwartz in Michigan last month. The same fate befell the Establishment-anointed Jeff Crank in Colorado that same week. It has been well said since time immemorial that those who stand for nothing, fall for anything. Is that the fate that NRSC and RNC are courting this fall?

Why do so many otherwise decent conservative staffers start going pink the moment they get to Washington, DC?

 Just remembered a merciless, but hardly inaccurate in the context of time, comment that a New York preacher made about the Democratic Party on the eve of the 1876 election. He called it, among other things, the party of "Rum, Ruin, and Rebellion"...recalling the party's  efforts to relax state liquor control laws and its contribution to the ruin caused by the then recently concluded War of the Rebellion.

I think today it'll be apt to call the national Democrats the party of "Drugs, Divorce, and Defeat". Recreational drug use, easy divorce, and defeatism abroad seem to be the defining creedo of the liberal Democratic philosophers of the current generation.

 

Family, family, family….it is profoundly bewildering to hear that word constantly bandied about by businesses, doctors, and liberals. Any set of under eighteen individuals with any number of adults under a roof does not make a family, no matter how hard we try to project that image. I know too many children living with a mother and her third boyfriend or second husband while the actual father of the children has voluntarily moved out of their lives or been cruelly forced out by our decidedly anti-family judges. Then you hear the nonsense of having ‘my second family’ (or even a third one)….read I just decided to have multiple litters with multiple partners. Ok, sometimes such hedonism is not the reason, but often it is. Would someone please give people a good dictionary with the proper definition of family in it?

One finds it hardly surprising that the most recent spate of bombings and terror attacks have targeted Israel and India....two widely different countries with amazingly deep common faith in representative democracy. Perhaps it is in our interest, long term visionary interest, to forge a pact of freedom-a common NATO like alliance-with those two nations and others like them. Let us face it, most of the 'old' democracies in Europe are weak and unsure of themselves and take their democratic institutions for granted. It is the likes of Israel, India, Turkey, Botswana, and Lithuania that take the business of democracy seriously enough to defend it vigorously. A sad but remarkable analogy to the state of the Christian faith in the world: except the United States, the rest of the Western world is largely indifferent to Chrsitianity while the most robust examples of shining faith are found amongst Asians and Africans. Will we be looking for the strongest pillars of Western Civilization in Asia and Africa one day? Someone from New York City, the abortion capital of the United States, has hardly any right to preach Judeao-Christian values to a Nigerian Catholic after all. Just wondering.

 

Finally we may have the hidden weapon to beat the Japanese competitive juggernaut. Under heavy influence from the American Bar Association, the Japanese have agreed to drastically increase the number of lawyers who are allowed to practice in that country. Well, for once it seems, the ABA has done a yeoman’s job on behalf of the United States! How better to squelch the competitive spirit of a foe than letting loose on it armies of gladiators who thrive on dubious litigation and aggressively stop any idea of reform in its tracks! Just wait a few years and the Japanese will also have judges who consider themselves gods (until now only the Emperors did!).

Cool. That’s one way to bring down the trade deficit. I am recommending the ABA for a Medal of Freedom.

The networks had a big story this week about how clueless most parents were about the ready availability of drugs at parties their children frequent. As usual, the media got it wrong. Parents are not unaware of that phenomena.....procreators are. Real parents who are involved in the lives of their children love their offsrpring enough to set good examples, make sacrifices, and establish readily enforced boundaries of conduct. It is the sperm and egg donors whose highest values are hedonism and keeping up with Joneses that have kids who end up doing horrible things to themselves and the rest of society.

I have known kids and families of all kinds. Yet, I rarely  find a kid who comes from a two-parent  family where a parent stays at home to raise the children, to have indulged in illicit drugs. Illicit drugs, sexual promiscuity, and failing academics go hand in hand.....no matter how loud the do-anything-you-please chorus sings otherwise. Send the signal that a parent is permissive on one of those three things, and see how the other two follow in quick succession. Real parents don't send those kind of idiotic signals implicitly or explicitly.

Procreators do.

Let us be real. Teens are impressionable. You preach 'tolerance' for deviant behavior, cheat on your spouse, and expect your kids to believe in absolutes of 'right' and 'wrong'? Pleaaaseee!

Teenagers are not my favorite kinda people. Most are boisterous, often disrespectful, and largely clueless about the realities of the world. But most of the blame for this sorry state of affairs falls on men and women who brought them to the world and left them to fend for themselves without an ethical compass. Talk about child endangerment.

 

On my way back from Denver, I stopped at my old college hangout and was thrilled to see a few friends I hadn’t seen in a while. One of them is now a teacher, a card carrying member of the NEA at that. She is the stuff that good teachers are made of, caring, articulate, and concerned about what her kids learn. Nonetheless, she took exception to my using ‘liberal’ as an adjective before ‘Democrat’ everytime I mentioned it. My friend has a valid point: not all Democrats are liberals and indeed there are many good moderates (and even good liberals) amongst them.

But the question so many good moderates fail to answer is that where are the moderates? Where is the moderation? In the case of official NEA policy (which I am sure my friend does not endorse in totality), there is not a shred of moderation or even liberalism for that matter. The NEA’s attitude towards the rest of society smacks of intolerance and superiority complex. It doesn’t want parents to guide the education of their own kids; it believes that the First Amendment stops at the school gate; it wants to retain its monopoly on education no matter how horribly the students do; the list of NEA’s intransigence is endless. And get this: the superintendent of the public school district sends his kids to private school!

The NEA is a lot of things..moderate it is not. And I doubt it is liberal either. Probably the word ‘spoiled’ and ‘totalitarian’ is best used to describe this organization.

So, KsReaganite had to go through the royal mess that Denver Airport was in the aftermath of the London revelations. But he is glad to be back home in Dorothy and Toto's land. On reflection, there is one tiny silver lining for us in the unfolding drama in England: much of the public that had simply become oblivious to the enemy's threat has been shocked back into reality. And the reality is that for most parents, the safety of their offspring is far, far more important than the dubious pronouncements of Nancy Pelosi, the Dixie Chicks, and Chucky Schumer. Hence the concept of "security moms". Security is back on the front stage again.

Can the security of this country, its families, and its allies be entrusted to the 'cut and run' crowd like Jack Murtha? Should it be placed in the hands of the mentally myopic like Albert Gore who can easily panic and push a few nuke buttons? No, we need to keep the faith, stay the course, and hold the line. It is not a coincidence that since 9/11, no other attach has taken place on American soil. Guess who has been in charge of the intelligence, security, and national defense structure during that time? Yep, it's the Bush-Rumsfield-Cheney crowd with strong support from the pro-America part of Congress.

Speaker Pelosi---the sweetest title in the ears of our enemies.

Heavy PAC money, a brevy of top name campaigners including the President, Vice President, and Congressional leadership, and yet....sometimes that is not enough. I am sitting in the Colorado Rockies as results trickle in from two key primary races: next door in CO-05 and further north in MI-07. Heavily favored candidates, including the incumbent in Michigan, lost to insurgents.  The entire Republican establishment was brought to bear to help moderates Jeff Crank and Congressman Schwarz. It didn't work. Republicans should take heed: the profligate spending, the arrogance of incumbency, and cavorting with sleazy Washington lobbyists is taking its toll. If rank and file Republicans are so unhappy, can you imagine what the general electorate is thinking?

There is time. Congressional Republicans have about 90 days to prove to the country that they are different, not just in rhetoric but also in style and policy, from the corrupt Foley-Wright-Rostenkowski gang they had replaced in 1994 on the platform of reform and responsibility.

Or else, we better get ready to live under the Pelosi-Kennedy bi-coastal politburo whose disdain for regular Middle America values is legendary. Remember, these are the people who send their kids to good private schools but want YOU to send your progeny to failing public schools. These are the leaders who want provide 'understand' the terrorists and the criminals rather than fight them. These are the protectors of children who think your 14 year old daughter needs your permission to get a tattoo but only her boyfriend's nod to get an abortion.

 

I was reading the latest updates on the gubernatorial campaign in Florida. The two leading GOP candidates are, well, quite contemporary. One, the anointed darling of the social conservatives is an admitted drug-user and adulterer. The other, preferred by the Sunshine establishment, is a divorced, tanned, slick, lawyer who is willing to be whatever he needs to be to appear center-right establishment material. As for the Democrats, well…they are Democrats, enough said.

One has to wonder that for all the hype about protecting marriage, why cannot most of these public role models stay married?

The greatest gift my parents gave us three siblings was the example of their own marriage…about to celebrate its thirty seventh anniversary this month. Both of them are ordinary people who have demanding careers, demanding children (okay, I admit!), and demanding schedules. They have their ups and downs..heck, they are from different countries and even spoke different languages growing up. They don’t go around with license tags that proclaim ‘I Love My Husband’ or ‘I Love My Wife’. Rather, they are quiet, unassuming, normal people who have always believed that if their children were happy, they were happy (as opposed to the therapist line that as long as YOU are happy, your children will become happy too). The other thing they have always passionately believed in is that a person’s word is his/her bond: when you pledge love, honor, and fidelity to your spouse for life, well, for life it is. Breaking that promise is unethical, pure and simple.

Those who break that promise are selfish, unethical, and woefully weak. Not exactly the kind of people I want to trust with the Constitution. Do you?

An old man I once knew gave this piece of advice to his grandchildren: don't become policemen, railway officers, or customs inspectors. Having lived his life in the Indian subcontinent, the gentleman knew that those three professions were the pitholes of bribery, corruption, and sheer malfeasance. An honest civil servant to a fault, he did not want his progeny to be tempted or tainted by colleagues who made a living by doing wrong under the guise of public service.

Different time, different place.

Were I in the shoes of that old Indian civil servant, my advice to my progeny here in the good 'ole USA would have been to avoid being lawyers and therapists. Not necessarily because of monetary corruption in those professions but largely because those occupations are built around the concept of short-circuiting the truth. To make a living by encouraging others to repress the truth is not a livelihood I would wish upon those I care about. Most lawyers and almost all therapists do that. The few good ones who want to be true to their conscience and values are faced with tremendous peer pressure to become members of the proverbial club.

 

Facts rarely get in the way of the mind-numbing, make believe piety for America’s mainline Protestant churches or many of their congregants. Their bishops make thunderous pronouncement about how they represent ‘millions’ of Christians; their sermons are filled with venom for capitalism and war; their newsletters proclaim lobbying days for defending ‘reproductive choice’. All in the name of a God whose very name is often referred to in hushed tones lest a neighbor think one belongs to the Christian ‘Right’.

Who are these ‘mainline’ churches?

Well, for starters, there is nothing mainline about them. These are diminishing denominations, ELCA Lutherans, United Methodists, UCC, Episcopalians, USA Presbyterians, with a proud past and a largely inconsequential future. For all the majestic trappings of the installation of the new Episcopal presiding bishop earlier this year, for example, the fact remains that Episcopal churches are largely empty and graying today. The same accelerating trend is seen, with minor exceptions in individual congregations, across all of the mainline denominations. No amount of ‘outreach’, ‘mission’, and ‘openness’ seems to change that.

At the same time, in the same communities, there are many churches which are struggling to find room for exponentially increasing congregations. These are the evangelical, charismatic, fundamentalist, Southern Baptist, Eastern Orthodox, and conservative Catholic churches. More than one in three Americans worships at a church like these….and many of these Americans are businesswomen, lawyers, accountants, dentists, and MBAs. They are not the unwashed, ignorant, pitiful people that they are often portrayed by the snooty denizens of the mainline clergy.

Let us face it. Most mainline Protestant churches (and many Roman Catholic ones) are little more than Sunday morning coffee clubs with a feel good sermon thrown in for good measure where people go to feel good about themselves. There are no absolutes to live by, no commandments to follow, no preachers to distinguish between right and wrong and fear offending the polite sensibilities of the ‘believe nothing’ class.

No wonder that people who want to go to church, go to a church, not to a coffee klatch housed in a church building with pretentious vestments, dopey relativism, and illusions of non-existent grandeur.

And then they wonder why their ‘churches’ are going the route of dinosaurs.

 

So the other evening I am at a wedding reception, and my date and I end up sitting next to some local judge and his wife. Real nice people. Seems we have some mutual friends and even similar political outlooks. To relieve the boredom usually triggered by ludicrous post-nuptial monotonies of the bride’s- and groom’s friends, the judge and I strike up a conversation. A middle aged man with wits and wisdom, he certainly has kind words for my personal and professional achievements. With a wink towards his wife and then my date, he asks the obvious, “So why isn’t a good young man like you hitched up yet?”

Oh boy, poor judge…he let the wedding aura get to him. My answer, provided below, left him embarrassed, silent, and then stammering semi-legible banalities:

“Why would I do that, Your Honor? So that someone like you can take away my home, my children, half my income, and give it to a woman who stabbed me in the back with dishonesty, cheating, and lies? How stupid do I look to you? Sorry, but I don’t believe in rewarding wrongdoing or punishing the victim.”