Christmas Wishes

To All My Democrat Friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

To My Republican & Independent Friends:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Before the primary process plays out, John McCain will bring Joe Lieberman on board as his vice president, with the promise of no more partisan politics. Lieberman will make history as the first independent VP with a real shot at the White House.

I believe that 1–3 candidates will name their VP’s before the primary process has run its course.

If Clinton chooses Richardson as a VP, she might be unbeatable. That would be scary. She will not choose Obama because (1) she will not take on someone who has attacked her; (2) he will not gain her even one extra vote (she has the Black vote already); and (3) Obama would not take it. Hilary wants Bayh, but her advisors will say no. She is not going to give her VP any power, not matter who she chooses.

When it comes to a VP, this could determine the race. Obama is the biggest question mark here. He can’t choose Richardson, as that would be two minorities on the ticket, and Democrats think in terms of groups as opposed to the best person for the job. So, I think Obama will choose outside the present candidates and find a moderate Democrat. I don’t think he will ask Lieberman, but he will ask a white male moderate Democrat to be his running mate.

This is about a modern man, one of us, he was not a scrooge, he was a kind, decent, mostly good man, generous to his family, upright in his dealings with others. But he did not believe in all that incarnation stuff that the Churches proclaim at Christmas time. It just didn't make sense to him and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just could not swallow the Jesus story about God coming to earth as man. I'm truly sorry to distress you, he told his wife, but I'm not going with you to church this Christmas Eve. He said he'd feel like a hypocrite. That he would much rather stay home, but that he would wait up for them. He stayed, they went. Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier, then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another and another. At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. Well, when he went to the front door, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They had been caught in the storm and in a desperate search for shelter they had tried to fly through his large landscape window. Well, he couldn't let the poor creatures lie there and freeze. He remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter -- if he could direct the birds to it. He quickly put on his coat and galoshes, trampled through the deepening snow to the barn, opened the door wide, and turned on a light. But the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in and he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow making a trail to the yellow lighted wide open doorway of the stable, but to his dismay the birds ignored the bread crumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them, he tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms -- instead they scattered in every direction except into the warm lighted barn. Then he realized they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature, if only I could think of some way to let them know they can trust me. That I'm not trying to hurt them, but to help them. How? Any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him. If only be a bird myself he thought. If only I could be a bird and mingle with them and speak their language, and tell them not to be afraid, and show them the way to the safe, warm barn. But I'd have to be one of them, so they could see and hear and understand.

At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sound of the wind. He stood there listening to the bells. Adeste Fideles. Listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. And he sank to his knees in the snow.

Hillary Clinton: There are several major problems with Hilary. (1) We are being bankrupted by government spending and entitlement programs, which make up by far the lion’s share of our national government budget (the military percentage of our budget is much smaller today than it was, say, 20–30 years ago). I don’t care who initiates a government program or who runs it, it going to go far over-budget. American’s today spend more on eating out than they do on health care; if we have a government-administrated health care system, it is going to cost us far more than the estimates that we hear from the candidates. Right now, social security and medicare threaten to bankrupt us; what do you think will happen when we add the largest industry our country has to government control? There is no such thing as free health care; the more government runs the show and the less we do, the more it is going to cost us. (2) Universal pre-K. Our educational system is screwed up enough as it is. Do we need more of the same? Do you have any idea how much this is going to cost? (3) Repealing the Bush tax cuts and giving the middle class tax breaks is not going to work in the real world. It sounds great on paper.

One more point: Hillary has nothing on Obama; she has to go back to his grammar school days in order to dig up anything negative on the guy. If he is this clean and if he gives her a serious run for the money, how far will she go?

Barack Obama: My biggest problem with Obama, apart from his liberal politics and the idea that more taxes, more government and more education can solve anything is, he has even less experience than Hilary. Hilary at least has a husband she can lean on when nothing works; Obama has not run his own company, he has not been a mayor and he has not been a governor. He is young. Let him be a two-term mayor of a big city or a two-term governor of some state, and then let’s see how he looks. If he had any personal integrity, he would have taken himself out of the race a long time ago.

John Edwards: I must admit to hating trial lawyers. However, Edwards is an extraordinarily insincere trial lawyer. His neighbors are poor and they don’t care for him. That should tell you about Edwards and the poor.

By the way, Edwards claims that 1 out of 4 homeless people are veterans? That is false. 1 out of 4 people who are homeless claim to be veterans. That is a whole different thing. That is typical of his insincerity.

Bill Richardson: This is the only Democrat with some sort of proven leadership (he was reelected as governor of New Mexico). I may disagree with everything that he stands for, but I have to grudgingly admit, he at least has some real executive experience.

I would hope that liberals will elect someone who can really do the job, as opposed to someone they like, someone who gets them, or someone who makes outrageous promises.

Rudy Giuliani: Rudy did a remarkable job with New York City, lowering taxes and reducing crime and welfare and even abortions. New York City has a greater economy than most national governments. I don’t care that he is liberal in some of the social issues; he is a proven politician. He has proven that he can actually take hopeless situations and work miracles with them. Another thing which I like about Rudy is, he will tell you his opinion, even if he knows you will disagree with it. Ask him a straight question and he will give a straight answer.

Mike Huckabee: When he was a 2^nd tier candidate, I favored Huckabee more than the rest, although I never expected him to break out of his 2^nd tier candidacy. Now that he has, I have become less enthusiastic. Overall, he did lower taxes in Arkansas and I recent drove on the Arkansas roads and they are noticeably better. He can connect with people probably better than any other candidate. My biggest problem with Huckabee is, I get the impression that he depends too much upon government to solve problems. However, he does favor a flat tax or a fair tax, which is long overdue.

Mitt Romney: Mitt appears to be the perfect candidate. He looks presidential and he says all the right things. He is also a businessman and I would so much prefer to see a businessman in office as opposed to a lawyer. My biggest problem with Mitt is, he tries to be all things to all people and he sometimes presents himself as something which he is not (like a hunter). On the other hand, Rush spoke to him for 45 minutes and believed him to be absolutely genuine. Romney’s biggest asset: he gave the best speech of the campaign.

John McCain: I have a great deal of respect for McCain, and more or less trust him when he talks about exposing those who insert earmarks into funding bills. But, how do you expose 11,0000 earmarks? I am also suspicious of his positions on campaign funding and immigration. I believe that he has sincerely turned around about immigration, but is he up to the job?

Fred Thompson: Fred had the greatest moment in any debate when he refused to just raise his hand and give a yes or no answer. When I hear him, he connects with me more than any other candidate does. My biggest problem with him is, he does not have any administrate experience.

No matter what, most of the news you will hear about our economy is that it is tanking. If the stock market is going up, they will say, that is only an indicator of where rich people are. When it goes down, it suddenly is indicative of our economy. Read that story—note how it is phrased. The percentage increase of internet sales is not as high as previous years. From Dec. 1 to Dec. 14, there was only an 18% increase in sales. We have a couple of generations of people (those born during or after the Carter administration) who have no clue as to what a bad economy is.

RUSH: This is yesterday in Council Bluffs, Iowa. This is at a campaign stop. This is a portion of a speech Mrs. Clinton gave.

HILLARY: There's so much we can do if we work together as a world. Now, remember that movie Independence Day where invaders were come from outer space and the whole world was united against the invasion? Well, why can't we be united on behalf of our planet? And that's what I want to do, to get more and more people to understand that and be involved to protect our environment.

RUSH: Well, let's talk about movies. You know, I remember the movie Mars Attacks. Remember the little green guys showed up from Mars wearing little glass helmets and so forth and they started zapping and laughing at everybody and they had this funny little language -- "Ack! Ack! Ack! Ack!" -- when they talked to each other. Jack Nicholson is the president. The first lady is Glenn Close. Nicholson adopts a Hillary. These guys walk in and they gun down everybody in the Senate with their little Martian weapons, and finally they head over to the White House to take care of Nicholson and Nicholson gives a little speech. Folks, if she can cite a movie, that we all need to work together in the world to save the planet; I can cite one too. So here comes a little Martian leader with his little glass helmet there with the big bug eyes and veins all over his face, and these Martians don't walk. They just sort of glide in the room, and Nicholson rolls up his sleeves, "Come on, you people. What is it with you little people? We could do so much working together. Look at what we both bring to the table! I don't know what your problems are, but let's sit down and talk about them. This carnage must stop," and, of course, the little Martian leader has his two minions, one on each side, and he looks around at each of them and sort of goes, "Ack! Ack!" and smiles and offers his hand. The little Martian leader offers his hand to Nicholson. Nicholson takes the little Martian leader's hand and shakes it and then the Martian leaders pops Nicholson with his weapon, kills him, and the little Martian flag pops out of the chest cavity of the dead president of the United States. So if I'd have been in the audience I'd have said, "Mrs. Clinton, remember the movie Mars Attacks? Remember, if you just blame your own country for the problems that the world is having, and think all you gotta do is get together and what if the people are like the Martian leader in Mars Attacks, you're going to end up like the rest of us..." Citing a movie, Independence Day! Remember, now, the reputation: This is the smartest woman in the world citing movies as foreign policy examples.

As Rush points out, all this hand-wringing and tears occur while 60% of the US is under ice and/or snow.

Who would have ever thought that this could be a controversy? In the background of the Huckabee Christmas message is a bookshelf which looks like a cross. He claims it is unintentional, but it does stand out. But why the controversy? He mentions Jesus Christ, whose birthday is celebrated on Christmas—and this is a Christmas ad. Even if the image of the cross was intentional, so what?

But it drives Hardball Chris Matthews crazy and whoever his guest was. And there are comments on this story like, just what America needs, its own crazy, militant brand of religion. we can have our own American Taleban!! Huckabee can be our Osama :) And, of course, in the same list of comments, Huckabee is called a Bible-thumper from the Dark Ages. What is scary is, these people are serious and they believe what they are writing.

And what is embarrassing to the Republican party is, presidential hopeful Ron Paul comments on this story quoting Sinclair Lewis, who said, "When fascism comes to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag carrying a cross." Ron Paul apparently forgot about all the fascists carrying crosses who settled our country in the first place, many of whom died for our flag. What a foolish thing to say!

Now, maybe I am over-reacting to the comments, as these are people who would not vote for a Republican no matter who the Democratic candidate is. They are not really offering serious political discussion, they are simply smearing Huckabee for believing in Jesus Christ.

Hillary claims that she has been fighting for 35 years for the kids. Then why does she need her mother to do an ad for her campaign. Why not gather up a few dozen kids whose life Hillary has changed and have them give their testimony? That’s because there are none.

RUSH: Oh, that's a great question -- and I, of course, have the answer. Here's the answer. Take a look at the greatest generation; take a look what they did. Most of them endured the Great Depression, either when they were young or young adults, then along came World War II, Korea. These are people that lived in a country, at that time, much, much, much less affluent than it is today. They had to learn very early in life that there were things far larger than themselves, far more important. Hell, the country was attacked. We had a depression. You had to go to college to get an education to have a chance at a decent job. You know, those of us alive today, we can't even relate to a depression. We're in the most robust economy in the history of mankind. We've got the Drive-By Media trying to tell everybody we're on the precipice of a recession, and everybody is panicking about it. We don't know what hard times are! They did. They understood commitment, duty, honor, country. They united, all came together. Whatever differences they had were put aside. They were fighting World War II all over the world, and there weren't any major dissenters in Congress of a major political party. We were totally unified.

After that, guess what happened? Nikita Khrushchev shows up at the UN, bangs his shoe and says, "We will bury your children." My parents and grandparents took him seriously. They had to. Look at what they had been through already. Then they had to gear up for what that portended, the Cold War. Then they had Korea thrown in there. They had a rigorous, very difficult, very hard life. They did not want their kids and their children to have to live that way. Every generation wants better, in terms of economics and opportunity and all kinds of things, for their kids than they had for themselves. That's human nature, and it's always been that way, and the sixties generation came along, the Baby Boomers -- and I'm one of them -- and life has been a piece of cake. We've had to invent our traumas. Attention deficit disorder. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. We haven't the slightest clue how tough life really was. We've had to make ourselves think it's tough. Now, in our minds, it's been hard. I'm not saying that the stress that people today go through is any different or less than the stress of previous generations. It doesn't matter. The fact is, we all feel the stress. My point is, we've had to manufacture most of the reasons for it.

As such, we have had affluence and opportunity like our parents and grandparents couldn't dream of -- and, as such, we've had all this time on our hands to do what? Think about ourselves, and be concerned about ourselves. Some of us are 56, some of us are 55, and on certain days, we still feel like we're 18. When my dad was 40, he was 40; and when he was 45, he was 45, and he felt 45. When he was 50, he felt 50. He'd been through hell. Every one of his friends felt the same way. We, at 56 and 55, we can go around and pretend like we're in high school on the weekend if we want to. We don't think of ourselves as our age. I'm 56. It's the last thing on my mind that I'm 56. I don't feel it. I don't feel it physically, psychologically, emotionally. I feel young and spry, and this is because we didn't have to learn to grow up real fast. We didn't learn as soon as our parents did that there were things much larger in our lives than us -- and part of the sixties generation still hasn't, and that's why they're who they are. The left-wing sixties generation crowd -- the godless bunch, the atheists, the people who think man is the beginning and end of all things, people that buy into this global warming hoax -- are so inwardly focused, so self-focused, so unable to realize that there are things larger than themselves.

In fact, people who do realize there are things much larger in life than themselves -- people who realize there are questions that we can all ask that we will never on this Earth be able to answer

-- those kind of people, who have that faith and those beliefs, provide a threat to certain elements of the sixties generation, because their faith is in themselves, and that kind of faith with no boundaries frightens people who have not yet learned that there are things much larger and more important than themselves. You say, "How did that generation, the greatest generation, produce the Baby Boom generation and some that have followed?" It's simply because they wanted their kids to have a better life than they did. They didn't want them to go through a Great Depression. They didn't want them to go through a world war. That's why when Khrushchev banged the shoe, they took the Cold War seriously. Look at the money these people paid in taxes and everything else that it cost them to fight all these wars and go through the Great Depression. They didn't want that for their kids.

Lo and behold, at the same time the Cold War is going, we have an economic boom coming in the fifties with Eisenhower, then JFK. We started an economic renaissance, a technological renaissance in this country that produced more and invented more in 50 years than the prior thousands of years of human civilization. There are a lot of reasons for that, the freedom that we have to be creative and inventive in this country. But it really... The root of it is that they just did not want their kids to have to go through what they did. So it was sort of a hands-off, laissez-faire type of parenting, in some cases -- and in other cases, by the way, some of the anti-war leftist kids in the sixties were actually obedient to their parents, and when you say that, "What do you mean? They were radical. They were protesting authority." No, they were just being obedient in the sense that their parents were telling them, "Don't be hemmed in, you know? Don't accept convention. Go out and be fruitful and multiply," and all this sort of things, things that their parents wanted to do when they were young or growing up but didn't have time for because there were too many serious things on the table.

Conservative Review
Issue #4	A Digest of this Week’s News and Views	December 23, 2007