WHAT IS REALLY CAUSING US TO LOSE OUR RIGHTS?

Over at RCPBlog Tom Bevan received this on point observation from a reader:

• "Let's win the war on terror. If that means suspending a few rights - fine. Actually, more rights have been lost to the Environmental Protection Agency than to the Patriot Act or any other legislation meant to keep us safe. For example, and this is only a partial list: I can no longer fish where I want, burn leaves when necessary, drive where I want, water where I want, smoke where I want, dispose of cuttings where I want, swim where I want, have access to inexpensive fuel, make our wine where we want, press our olives where we want, and frankly do quite a few other things because our rights to do so have been subjugated to a few fanatics."

The Patriot Act is extremely minor compared to the above. Think about it!!

THE BIG STORY OF 2005

OK my DEM friends, set aside your NYT, WaPo, LAT and any other MSM sources you depend on to support your vision of the world, and listen to Austin Bay tell you the REAL BIG STORY!

The money quote for me is the following comment on why television - which I believe drives the MSM in general - doesn't get it:

• "Television, the medium where image is a tyrant, finds incremental economic and political development a particularly frustrating story to tell. A brick is visually boring -- a bomb is not. The significance of a brick takes time to explain, time to establish context, while a spectacular explosion incites immediate visceral and emotional responses. In the long term, hope may propel millions -- hope that democracy will replace tyranny and terror. But in the short haul, violence and vile rhetoric, like sex and celebrity, guarantee an immediate audience. " (My emphasis!)

I find little to argue with in Mr. Bay's summation of the real "Big Story", and I hope you will give this sea change some consideration as a reason to pursue W's strategy.

"THE EMBARRASSMENT"

Ted Kennedy, for whom this entry is named, used an unsubstantiated rumor, since proven false, in his Boston Globe op-ed piece last Thursday. Anything to rip W!

He is not only an embarrassment to himself and the Dem's, but to his family name!

See the attached Hugh Hewitt entry for details, and the implementation of the "fake but true" defense, late of Mapes fame!

http://hughhewitt.com/archives/2005/12/25-week/index.php#a000876

"IF YOU EXECUTE, THEY WILL STOP MURDERING!!"

Joanna Shepherd, a professor of law at Emory Law School, writes a lengthy analysis in the Christian Science Monitor which concludes that Capital Punishment only deters if you in fact execute those found guilty! DUH!

Her comment on the "brutalization effect' - her term for an effect caused by "setting an example of killing to avenge grievances." - amuses me. Does she really believe our no longer brutal executions - Tookie left us after a lethal injection, hardly brutal in the common meaning of the word - really are perceived by some as authorization to do the same?

Since we execute so few, perhaps if we started using Saddam's favorite, a shredder, to execute the guilty, we would do some serious deterrence! (I am only joking for effect - save your nasty comments!).

Read the entire article and see why it takes her so many words to confirm the obvious.

"THE MEDIA'S WAR" dissected by Mr. Sowell

Thomas Sowell comments on the main stream media's reporting of the Iraq war.

• "The media seem to have come up with a formula that would make any war in history unwinnable and unbearable: They simply emphasize the enemy's victories and our losses."

Reporting only our losses and the insurgents attacks is emphasizing their victories!

• "Utter ignorance of history enables any war with any casualties to be depicted in the media as an unmitigated disaster."

The question is why do they want us to lose? My opinion: the elitists - particularly on the left, which includes the vast majority of influential media - are still trying to apologize for our countries - and their - success and riches, which they feel was only achieved at the cost of the rest of the world.

What they don't realize is that the "market" works in this method. We can't all be winners!

Read this short but insightful analysis!

A Rational Analyses of Parental Notification from a Pro Choice Advocate

Jonathan Turley, whom I do not often agree with, hits the nail on the head with his analysis of the parental notification case heard this week by the Supremes. Why do the extreme factions have to set the agenda for the subject of abortion?

Maybe it's time we all get involved at some level!