Optimist Club disbands after 24 years

Wonder how this last meeting will go ....

For an organization called the Quakertown Optimist Club, the future wasn't looking hopeful.
Fewer members agreed to help with the club's sporting and scholastic events for local children. And Quakertown's youngsters were losing interest in them.

Last summer, when only three members agreed to help organize the Optimists' annual golf outing, club President Bernard Kensky knew its 24 years of community service were coming to an end.

The Optimists will hold their last meeting Thursday. more....

Open letter to Europe By Herbert E Meyer. The American Thinker

Hi. Are you nuts?

Forgive me for being so blunt, but your reaction to our reelection of President Bush has been so outrageous that I’m wondering if you have quite literally lost your minds.

One of Britain’s largest newspapers ran a headline asking “How Can 59 Million Americans Be So Dumb?”, and commentators in France all seemed to use the same word – bizarre -- to explain the election’s outcome to their readers.

In Germany the editors of Die Tageszeitung responded to our vote by writing that “Bush belongs at a war tribunal – not in the White House.”

And on a London radio talk show last week one Jeremy Hardy described our President and those of us who voted for him as “stupid, crazy, ignorant, bellicose Christian fundamentalists.”

May I suggest you stop frothing at the mouth long enough to consider just what are these ideas we hold that you find so silly and repugnant?

We believe that church and state should be separate, but that religion should remain at the center of life. We are a Judeo-Christian culture, which means we consider those ten things on a tablet to be commandments, not suggestions.

We believe that individuals are more important than groups, that families are more important than governments, that children should be raised by their parents rather than by the State, and that marriage should take place only between a man and a woman.

We believe that rights must be balanced by responsibilities, that personal freedom is a privilege we must be careful not to abuse, and that the rule of law cannot be set aside when it becomes inconvenient.

We believe in economic liberty, and in the right of purposeful and industrious entrepreneurs to run their businesses – and thus create jobs – with a minimum of government interference.

We recognise that other people see things differently, and we are tolerant of their views. But we believe that our country is worth defending, and if anyone decides that killing us is an okay thing to do we will go after them with everything we’ve got.

If these beliefs seem strange to you, they shouldn’t. For these are precisely the beliefs that powered Western Europe – you - from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance, on to the Enlightenment, and forward into the modern world.

They are the beliefs that made Europe itself the glory of Western civilization and – not coincidentally – ignited the greatest outpouring of art, literature, music and scientific discovery the world has ever known including Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Bach, Issac Newton and Descartes

Europe is Dying

It is your abandonment of these beliefs that has created the gap between Europe and the United States. You have ceased to be a Judeo-Christian culture, and have become instead a secular culture. And a secular culture quickly goes from being “un-religious” to anti-religious. more...

MUST READ

The G.O.C. at Obnoxious Droppings recommended a story that we should all read found at A Sailor in the desert's site . Here's the story from The Collegiate Patriot .....

Damned if they do, Dead if they don't..."


Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it." --Thomas Paine

In their latest campaign to eradicate Jihadi vermin on the Iraqi warfront with Jihadistan, U.S. Marines and Army infantry have, in the last two weeks, purged Fallujah of more than 5,000 terrorist insurgents who were dug in throughout the city. The combat has been fierce.

A week into the Fallujah operation, an NBC photographer embedded with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, recorded video of a young combat-hardened Marine entering a room in a mosque where he found several insurgents on the floor under covers. Unable to determine if these enemy combatants were injured, dead or preparing to ambush his unit, the Marine raised his rifle in preparation to defend himself and his fellow Marines. When he detected movement from one of the combatants, the Marine yelled, "He's (expletive) faking he's dead! He's faking he's (expletive) dead!" and killed the Jihadi -- and that is where this story should have ended.

As it turned out, however, the Jihadi had been wounded the day before and the NBC photographer, Kevin Sites (whose photographs are featured on many anti-war Website), stepped up to get his 15 seconds of fame. Sites turned the video over to his network, telling them that he did not think the Jihadi was a threat, and within 24 hours, Lefty lynch mobs were forming to hang themselves a Marine.

Notably, the loudest protests of "war crimes" were from those who have never been closer to combat than the distance between their living-room lounge chairs and TVs. (Of course, it is a war crime to store weapons in a mosque as was documented, but the Lefties are not protesting that.) Indeed, the Leftmedia's mindless promotion of this video (as with the Abu Ghraib feeding frenzy: see -- http://FederalistPatriot.US/alexander/edition.asp?id=258) was tantamount to shaking a hornet's nest -- making the task of our fighting forces in Fallujah and elsewhere in the region all the more difficult. Actions have consequences, and the exploitation of this video empowered Jihadis in the region -- in effect, making life very difficult for our Armed Forces.

But what you're not hearing from NBC's Tom Brokaw or any other Leftmedia talkingheads in their wholesale condemnation of this incident is that Jihadis (knowing that U.S. military personnel have the decency to tend to wounded enemy combatants) have routinely booby-trapped the bodies of dead insurgents. In fact, one member of the Marine squad now being scrutinized was killed (and five others wounded) when attempting to check on a wounded Jihadi only days earlier. In addition, the Marine now being questioned for killing this wounded Jihadi suffered a wound to his face a day earlier when an injured Jihadi fired on him.

These facts notwithstanding, the Left and their media minions have now made this young Marine their poster boy for U.S. atrocities. Here, we would remind these hypocrites that a few short weeks ago, they were doing all in their power to support John F. Kerry's campaign for the most powerful office in the world. This would be the same JFK who received a Silver Star (with and erroneous "V") for chasing a wounded Vietcong combatant (described as a young boy in a loin cloth) around a hutch and shooting him in the back.

While we have strenuously questioned the merits of John Kerry's Silver Star for this action, we have never questioned his decision to kill this VC enemy, whom he judged to be a threat to his boat crew. By the Kerry standard, the young Marine in question should get a Silver Star. (Of course, enlisted personnel really have to do something spectacular to pin one of those on.)

Now that the Left is once again decrying military actions to liberate Iraq, please take a moment and join more than 115,000 grateful Americans who have already signed An Open Letter in Support of America's Armed Forces in support of our Patriots in uniform. These American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen have plowed the ground for liberty while protecting their countrymen back home. We remain the proud and the free because they have stood bravely in harm's way and remain on post today.

For this, we, the American People, offer our heartfelt thanks. Please support our troops -- let your voice be heard! Join fellow Patriots on the front lines in defense of our liberty and national sovereignty. Link to -- http://PatriotPetitions.US/USMIL(If you don't have Web access, please send a blank e-mail to: Each e-mail sent to this address will be counted as one signature for the petition.)

Memo to the Pentagon: Leave the reporters embedded, but have them check their cameras in the rear. Otherwise, the resulting Leftist hype will continue to jeopardize our mission -- and jeopardize the lives of American military personnel.

Quote of the week...

"Some 40 Marines have just lost their lives cleaning out one of the world's worst terror dens, in Fallujah, yet all the world wants to talk about is the NBC videotape of a Marine shooting a prostrate Iraqi inside a mosque. ... The al-Zarqawi TV network, also known as Al-Jazeera, has broadcast the tape to the Arab world, and U.S. media have also played it up. The point seems to be to conjure up images again of Abu Ghraib, further maligning the American purpose in Iraq. Never mind that the pictures don't come close to telling us about the context of the incident, much less what was on the mind of the soldier after days of combat. Put yourself in that Marine's boots. He and his mates have had to endure some of the toughest infantry duty imaginable, house-to-house urban fighting against an enemy that neither wears a uniform nor obeys any normal rules of war. ... When not disemboweling Iraqi women, these killers hide in mosques and hospitals, booby-trap dead bodies, and open fire as they pretend to surrender. Their snipers kill U.S. soldiers out of nowhere. According to one account, the Marine in the videotape had seen a member of his unit killed by another insurgent pretending to be dead. Who from the safety of his Manhattan sofa has standing to judge what that Marine did in that mosque?" --

The Wall Street Journal

Wanted: a Liberal Party

I've agreed with this for some time...........

The Democrats still don’t get it! I believe a two-party system is healthy. Most Democrats are good people, and I hate to see a once great party self-destruct. I would love to see a third party, called the Liberal Party, form as an alternative to Democrats and Republicans. Instead of destroying the Democrats, it could oppose the conservatives of both parties and allow mainstream Americans the choice that liberals so favor.

Liberalism is the reason I left the Democratic Party many years ago. I agreed with some positions but they came with too much liberal baggage. Seventeen percent of Americans admit that they are liberals (only 5 percent during elections) yet they manage to dupe nearly 50 percent of the voters through negative campaigning and fear tactics, not by promoting an agenda.

The new Liberal National Committee (LNC) could be headed by Michael Moore, with co-chairperson Molly Ivins. Their spiritual mentors could be Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Howard Dean, who likes Job of the New Testament, could be top strategist and John Edwards could sue any liberals who vote otherwise. Only when the liberals quit feeding at the DNC trough can Democrats once again become the party of the people! Remember the DNC memo telling Democrats to claim voter fraud even if none was present? No wonder some Democrats really believe they were cheated!

Frank Bush Anderson

The 10 Worst Things About Being John Kerry.

LETTERMAN REPLIES: KEEP YOUR DAY JOB

10. Those smarmy “I could've beat him” looks I keep getting from Hillary.

9. All those scuzzy rappers from the Vote or Die campaign think we're homeys now and want to hang out at my crib.

8. At the Failed Democratic Candidates Support Group meetings, that ass Dukakis hogs all the jelly doughnuts.

7. When at parties at the Kennedy compound, I always hear Awnuld whisper something about “girlie man,” and everyone looks at me and giggles.

6. The voters have spoken and they think I have even LESS charisma than Al Gore.

5. If I want to see Bruce now, I have to buy a ticket.

4. Now that he's no longer my running mate, I no longer have any excuse for inappropriate physical contact with John Edwards.

3. God what was I thinking with that goose? That was lamer than Dukakis in the tank.

2. Since I dissed him in the debates, Al Sharpton won't let me be a contestant on that I Hate My Job show.

1. More quality time with Theresa.

European govts seek ways to promote moderate Islam

Welcome to the club.

PARIS: With concern growing about radical Islam in their midst, governments in western Europe are debating how to ensure that Muslim prayer leaders preach in the local language and spread messages of moderation rather than hate.

The killing two weeks ago of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, an outspoken critic of Islam, has prompted Dutch parliamentarians to call for a ban on foreign imams in future and for the local training of preachers committed to western ideals of tolerance. more....

UN Defends Decision to Withhold Oil for Food Program Evidence

The UN isn't obstructing, they're just holding back evedence.

United Nations officials have rejected charges that they are obstructing outside investigations into the Iraq Oil for Food program. The world body is vigorously defending a decision to withhold evidence from U.S. Congressional investigators.

The head of the U.N. panel investigating alleged fraud in the Iraq Oil for Food program has informed a U.S. Senate subcommittee that he will not turn over evidence or share witnesses until his probe is completed. more...

Tension Between Lurch and Swimmer (From Rush Limbaugh)

My friends, I'm happy to report to you that tension has developed here between Lurch and The Swimmer. That would be John Kerry and Ted Kennedy. The Lurch returns to the Senate today, "basking in his national profile." What is this, basking in his national profile? But he's once again laboring in a long shadow cast by the swimmer, Ted Kennedy. "Political insiders will be scrutinizing the delicate post-election political dance unfolding between Kennedy and Kerry with great interest. The pair are friendly rivals, but their staffers have clashed in the past as their divergent ambitions collided. Kennedy was miffed when Kerry profusely thanked his campaign staffers but failed to mention him during the Faneuil Hall concession speech, sources said. Some Kerry insiders, meanwhile, have privately grumbled about Kennedy's failure to raise more money for Kerry - a charge Kennedy allies dismiss."

Can you believe the pettiness? I can, but it's just amazing. Here's Kerry conceding, not thanking Ted Kennedy. If I were Ted Kennedy, I'd be thankful to be left out of that list of people. Thanking a bunch of people who actually engineered a defeat, along with the candidate, probably a sign of respect for Senator Kennedy to leave him out of the list. Or, you know, Bob Shrum and Mary Beth Cahill are the Kennedy wing of the Kerry campaign and Bob Shrum, who basically writes speeches for presidential losers, probably wrote Kerry's concession speech and there may be some hidden thing that we don't know about that Senator Kennedy was left out of that speech, but whatever, there's now tension between these two Massachusetts dinosaurs.

Legion to Pentagon: Stand up for Scouting

Finally, someone is standing up to the ACLU.

To: National Desk
Contact: Ramona Joyce, 202-263-2982, or Joe March, 317-630-1253 or 317-748-1926 (cell), both for The American Legion
INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 16, /U.S. Newswire/ -- The leader of the nation's largest military veterans organization today admonished the Pentagon (news - web sites) and America's leaders to stand firm against another move by the ACLU against the Boy Scouts of America who it claimed "engage in religious discrimination."

In a strongly worded letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, American Legion National Commander Thomas P. Cadmus responded to news that the Pentagon has agreed to warn military bases worldwide that they should not directly sponsor Boy Scout troops, partially resolving claims that the government has improperly supported a group that requires members to believe in God. more...

If you want the true story of the middle east

It can be found at middle east facts .

May Arafat be remembered for the death and destruction of both Jews and Arabs, rather than his fake "peace" gestures. Arafat is an evil man and should be remembered as such.

French consider naming streets after Arafat

Several French municipalities governed by communist and left-wing majorities are considering naming a street or a square after Yasser Arafat.

The French police intelligence service, Renseignements Generaux, reportedly warned the Ministry of Interior that such initiatives might trigger heated polemics and tensions between Jews and Muslims, especially neighborhoods ridden by ethnic violence. Gee, Ya think?

In several suburban cities near Paris and Lyons governed by communist mayors, large Muslim and Jewish populations live side by side.

An Open Letter to Maureen Dowd

Dearest Elite and Most Enlightened Maureen:

Ours is a Nation wherein we are the drooling, Neanderthal, war-mongering Red-Staters. You are the freethinking, lucid, peace-loving Blue-Staters. We are the toothless, barefoot, OshKosh B’Gosh Conservatives. You are the handsome, well-cultured, stylish Liberals. We are the hate-filled, dogmatic, fanatical Christians. You are the tolerant, agnostic, atheist, new age, pantheist, moral relativist…whatever…(man that’s a mouth full! Pick one will ya!?). These are the “truths” you hold to be self-evident – that not all American’s are created equal.

But alas – woe, so very woe are we. There’s a rift in the time/space continuum. Our respective worlds have been turned upside down! Red Staters are troubled and confused! We’re concerned for both ourselves, and for you disenfranchised Blue-Staters. Our anxiety to wit: Your formerly pithy column has of late, betrayed your complete loss of control and forecasts your looming political self-destruction. As Document Daddy Dan Rather might have put it – you’re madder than a rattlesnake in juggling contest. How can we help? What can we do? Maureen, your apoplectic … inhale … breathe… think happy thoughts … happy thoughts! more...

1994 Nobel Peace Prize winner Yasser Arafat Dies

May he Burn in Hell.

Very few people know that 30 years ago, Arafat's Al Fatah had a terrorist arm called Black September which was responsible for the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, a brutal deed that shocked the world. Still fewer know that in March 1973, Arafat ordered a Black September attack on the Saudi embassy in Sudan, where our Ambassador Cleo Noel, our Deputy Chief of Mission George C. Moore and Belgian diplomat Guy Eid were taken hostage at a reception. They were brutally murdered, said to have been shot in a way that made their deaths especially agonizing.

These murders were front-page news for days, but Arafat's role is little known because it was discovered in super-secret communications intercepts of the National Security Agency. It was kept secret for years until James J. Welsh, who was the NSA's Palestinian analyst, decided that his obligation to let the truth be known outweighed his pledge to keep his work secret. He revealed that he worked on the intercepts of Arafat ordering the murder. more....

Russia has pledged to write off part of Iraq's national debt

I guess you can't say that Russia isn't doing their fair share in Iraq anymore. They're relieving some of the debt. owed by the 'Iraqi people' , and working out a payment plan for the rest. Oh, and of course because of that, they 'd like some more oil deals.......

Russia is "prepared to substantially reduce the debt and also to reach agreements on the repayment of the remaining part of the debt", Fedotov said. However, he conceded that negotiations on the amount of the debt have not yet begun.

In exchange for Iraqi debt writeoff, Moscow now expects some benefits from helping to rebuild the country, notably oil deals. Russian government and oil-industry officials have made it no secret that they expect more oil deals in post-Saddam Iraq, but this is where things might get sticky. Negotiations on the amount of the Iraqi debt Russia will forgive could eventually unearth a sensitive issue for Moscow: allegations of graft in the UN-run oil-for-food program in Iraq. more....

If You want some interesting reading today....

Especially if you're a marine, former marine, patriot, conservative, or even a liberal who want's to understand what values that are held in the vast majority of the people of this great land, may I suggest a visit to Obnoxious Droppings .

The U.N.'s Fallujah Folly

In an extraordinary letter to the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and Iraq, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan wrote of his concern at "reports of major military offensives being planned by the multinational force in key localities such as Falluja." (Find excerpts of Annan's letter here.) Annan cautioned that,

The threat or actual use of force not only risks deepening the sense of alienation of certain communities, but would also reinforce perceptions among the Iraqi population of a continued military occupation… This is the moment for redoubling efforts to break the cycle of violence and open a new chapter of inclusiveness and national reconciliation. more....

Here's a good letter to the editor..

Seems that the democrats (aka losers) want the nation to be 'healed' by adopting their solutions to the issues. Here's a letter to the editor outlining what WILL be done.

Here's the agendaNot surprise that your lead editorial on Nov. 3 was headlined "The healing time." There is nothing wrong with that, but I doubt that's what it would have been if John Kerry had won. So let me outline some of the things I think the winners voted for.

They want the war on terror prosecuted as a war, and not as a law enforcement problem. They want a free and democratic Iraq to further the spread of freedom and peace in the Middle East. They want Social Security and health care programs fixed the right way. They want the tax cuts made permanent, especially the death tax cut, in order to continue to fuel a growing and prosperous economy. They want the current tax code reformed. They want the investigation of the fraud involved in the U.N's handling of the Oil for Food program concluded expeditiously, so we can identify the guilty and find out who our true allies and friends are. And finally they wanted a president who would never turn over the security of our nation to foreign countries and a corrupt U.N.

So let me suggest we all work together on these endeavors and maybe we can then consider ourselves healed.

Jeopardy question -

What leader does Jessie Jackson and Lewis Farrakhan fear will be looked up to and take away much of their influense, so much so that they agreed to appear on TV together?

Who is Barack Obama .

Some of our democratic friends now understand.

Here are some arguments that are being made that the Democratic party has simply not responded to, in the larger sense of the word "response":

Whatever the UN was, might have been, or should be, it now isn't. Genocidal tyrannies are on the Human Rights commision. Saddam Hussein funneled over 1.7 billion dollars to various decision makers and world leaders to weaken his sanctions program. One out of every three votes is about Israel. Until the UN is significantly reformed, you shouldn't take its decisions seriously.

If we view 1000 or even 10,000 dead soldiers as unacceptable, we will never be able to fight a real war again.

Proportional response with no preemption allows the other side to set the pace of the battle.

Throughout history, governments have had a strong interest in promoting long-term child-rearing heterosexual relationships. That is why governments create a legal definition of Marriage and provide lots of benefits to heterosexual couples who enter into it. This has been true for States throughout history independent of the religious beliefs of the populace. Worrying about changing that definition, even to the point of deciding against a change, is not automatically sexism or bigotry.

If you never are willing to draw a line where human life starts, there will be no line.

Just because it says something in the Bible doesn't mean there are no ancillary arguments supporting it. And just because someone uses the Bible as a source of their morality doesn't mean that any particular view of theirs is wrong. Actually, stuff that's lasted for thousands of years is more likely to be useful than stuff that was dreamed up in a French philosophy book.

I am not saying that all these arguments should win. But I do not hear enough Democrats elucidating reasoned counterarguments to these positions. "Bush insulted our allies and the UN," "Bush lied, people died," "We have become the aggressor," "Homophobia," "Religious nut." These are not responses, these are dismissals. When Democrats start actively responding, we will succeed. Until then, we will be increasingly ignored as irrelevent.

The article is titled To My Fellow Democrats . I found this link to it on The Best View.

Election spared us the worst; let's rethink to achieve the best

Can you imagine what it would be like to have a Massachusetts liberal filling the federal courts across the country, including the Supreme Court, with liberal judges who would be turning more criminals loose for decades to come, as well as repeatedly overruling the voting public's right to govern themselves on such things as gay marriage? more....

Daley: Tax Increase Could Be In City's 2005 Budget

This is why I have to move to one of them 'RED' states....

CHICAGO -- Mayor Richard M. Daley said Thursday that Chicago residents may end up paying higher taxes as the city tries to balance its 2005 budget.

Daley said increasing sales taxes and raising property taxes are two of many options being considered. How about looking further into corruption, or better yet, like every citizen does - control spending.

Alderman Thomas Allen said raising the sales tax to 9 percent would gain revenue, but it could also could hurt the city's retailers because some shoppers might go to the suburbs for big-ticket items. - YA THINK ?? more....

Going out of Town for a week

I'll be back on Saturday 11/6. Y'all come back now, Hear?