Animals, and certainly humans, are the best judge of what makes them happy. This whale would have been better left in Mexican amusement park.

Op-Ed Contributor: ’Willy’ Didn’t Yearn to Be Free: "Keiko should probably never have been removed from his native pod. But, once that was done, nothing in his story suggests that this highly social mammal, imprinted on humans at an early age, was a serious candidate for return to the rough and tumble of life on the ocean waves. It is a classic anthropomorphic fallacy to believe that an animal's best interests are whatever a human would desire under similar circumstances.

In his latest domicile, Keiko was supported by an international team of experts who fed him dead herring at an annual cost of over half a million dollars and worked feverishly to continue to 'free' him. Despite all the money, time and sincere effort, Keiko did not die in the company of his own species, but up against a pier, seeking human consolation. "

A good article by Michael Novak on the truth of the Chistmas message. Not a perfect article, but a good one. Every Christian should rejoice that subjects that were out of the public agenda before 9/11 are back in the public eye. Are all faiths equally valid. Unbelievers like Dawkins would say that they are all equally spurious, that only his faith in science is valid. Those who piously hold irrationally to the validity of the objective "truth" of science are rabidly intolerant of those who disagree. Those who deny moral truth and think that the spirit of man is the activity of chemicals and molecules are the dangerous ones, but they will disappear in the religious wars of the 21st century, wars that began ib 9/11. See my article on Where Is the Soul?

Michael Novak on Christmas on National Review Online: "Recently, British scientist Richard Dawkins was described as 'an atheist, and a strenuous and militant and proud one.' (One does not hear often of humble atheists, but they do appear.) 'He thinks religious belief is a dangerous virus, and that it is a crime to infect the mind of a child with it.' He calls religions 'dangerous collective delusions' and 'sinks of falsehood.' He especially regrets the public influence of religion: 'He is made apoplectic by the pontifications of religious 'leaders' on such questions as whether human clones would be fully human.' For Dawkins, in short, 'Religion is superstition, like astrology, alternative medicine, and the rest.'"

The Eighth Commandment assures us that profits are right and moral if they be achieved without deceit or coercion. Wealth is the gift of God, who distributes His blessings according to His own purposes and plan.

Larry Kudlow: The Power of Profits: "Corporate profits are the mother's milk of business. Rising profits lead to business expansion, and falling profits lead to business recession. And right now profits are flowing in, yet another affirmation that the Bush boom is for real and that new jobs are on the way. "

What a great time to be an American!! Especially a Christian American, for it is from the Lord Jesus that all our blessings flow.

Paul Crespo: Hussein capture, Gadhafi move are `geopolitically significant': "Jerusalem -- It has been a great week for the United States and an extraordinary time to be in Israel. The amazing capture of the Butcher of Baghdad in a rat-hole near Tikrit was followed quickly by the surprise pronouncement of Libya's terrorist leader, Moammar Gadhafi, exposing his secret and well-developed weapons of mass destruction program and promising to dismantle it.

While some have tried to downplay the importance of Saddam Hussein's capture and have misjudged the lessons learned from Gadhafi's sudden WMD surrender, both are geopolitically significant.
These events are already sending shock waves worldwide. Their effect is especially evident here in Israel, where some argue that by reinforcing the American and Israeli strategic position regionally, they may help resuscitate the moribund peace process. The terrorize-and-wait strategy of the increasingly isolated Yasser Arafat is crumbling. "

What a great article from a great American citizen, who happens to be black. This read is a MUST! Click on the link below. Democratic liberals better wake up and smell the bacon--the black vote will undergo a dramatic shift in the next few decades. Our black citizens who want to get off the plantation of democratic racism [the party of Jim Crow, remember] need to take a look at fifty years of Democratic paternalism and condescension.

Larry Elder: Christmas encounter with a 'radical socialist': "This country allowed my father, a child of the Depression who never knew his biological father, to overcome Southern racism through pride, hard work and focus. My entrepreneurial-minded dad applied for a taxi license in a Southern court but was denied by the judge, who referred to my father as 'a nigger.'"

Gregory J. Rummo h0ds it backwards. The present is controlled by the future, not by the past. Without Christmas there would be no Hanukkah. The reason God preserved Israel was because of His Promise that Messiah would come. Israel must be preserved because of the Promise given to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David that the Seed of the Woman [Jesus Christ] would bruise the head of the Serpent.

Israel is rooted in the past. Christians in the future. There is no greater difference that could be stated than this. Israel rejected Christ because they lived in the past, "We be Abraham's children." Christians receive Christ because they look for His glorious appearing and the resurrection of the dead.

Rummo - 2003, December 19: "As Christians prepare to celebrate Christmas, Jews will celebrate Hanukkah. The two feasts have more in common than many realize and it is no stretch to say if it were not for Hanukkah, there would be no Christmas. "

Dave Shiflett on Lawyers on National Review Online: "No one should underestimate the dismay 'personal responsibility' strikes in the heart of some trial lawyers. The plaintiff's bar works long and hard to ensure clients are not held responsible for their own injuries. In some states, for example, seat-belt information -- did the plaintiff fail to buckle his seatbelt, which might that have prevented him from sailing through the windshield? -- is difficult, if not impossible, to admit as evidence. When someone pours hot coffee in her own lap, the temperature of the coffee becomes the issue"

Isn't this the height of irresponsibility to the law by the lawyers themselves? Their greed will be their undoing, for no system can endure that loses the moral high ground. The moral rot will destroy the profession itself, just as it destroys doctors who embrace the right-to-death philosophy of abortion and euthanasia. This is a disturbing article. Of course, the modern church ignores or denies the doctrine of hell for precisely this reason: it is much too personal. It is better to have a collective hell of global warming, nuclear war, silent spring, or ??. Did Jesus mean by his words, "Judge not" that we are to deny the image of God in ourselves and others, and become blind leaders of the blind. See my article on this subject at the Basket of Figs site: Judge Not!

David Horowitz: Xmas Present From Progressives: Starvation:
"Because soft progressives cover for hard-line progressives like Stalin, Castro and other political monsters -- preferring to demonize George Bush and John Ashcroft instead -- these atrocities continue.

"The left's inability to understand the most basic economic fact -- that people need an incentive to produce -- has caused the unnecessary deaths of tens of millions of people -- mostly poor -- in the last 75 years. But thanks to a politically corrupted media and educational system, their pig-headed pursuit of socialist fantasies goes on."

These are the talking heads at CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, writers for the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, and doctrine-denying preachers.

This is moral failure, not political failure. The moral failure is the denial oof the validity of the Eighth Commandment, which forbids taking of private property.

The "share the wealth" schemes of "progressives" of all sorts: liberals, socialists, communists, liberation theology, etc., all base their vain and cruel dreams on the idea that it is immoral to be rich if someone else is poor; that moral virtues like hard work, frugality, saving, temperance, and responsibility are not to be factored into the moral equation: the only thing is the spreadsheet.

It is interesting, though, the equality of land ownership in the Bible is the one thing that the "progressives" ignore. Instead, they would have land or its control pass to the state so that no one really owns any land.

Under the law God gave Israel, debts were forgiven every seventh year and all land returned to the family of the original owner at the year of jubilee, or the 49th year. This guaranteed economic liberty without theft. Those who loaned money and those who bought land knew the law, and the price and terms would be adjusted accordingly. Wealth remained firmly in private hands, assuring that the arrogance of power would find no means of executing its tyranny.

This article was published yesterday, on Christmas Day.
WorldNetDaily: Was Jesus actually born today?

Oh dear! [whine] Bush's policy must be bad, because there are famous people who don't like it. [wring hands] Along with Ronald Reagon and Harry Truman, this president really believes that liberty is better than slavery. The Cold War Warriors all believed that it was better to be "Red and Dead" and that it was better to leave millions of people in bondage under the heel of brutal dictatorship than to risk war, which had become "unthinkable." [I guess it was "thinkable" in 70 a.d., when the bodies of the citizens of Jerusalem were thrown over the walls of the city, filling the ravines, rotting in the sun until rivers of putrifaction ran; when Roman soldiers disembowelled Jews who tried to escape in order to find gold coins that they believed the Jews had swallowed; or that war was "thinkable" when Joshua put to the sword every man, woman, boy, girl, child and baby in the conquest of Canaan--or it was "thinkable" when _______________ (fill in your own blank)]

By God's grace, I will live in church and state as a free man, a king and a priest before God so long as I shall live, or by the grace of God, I shall not live at all. I will fight for my liberty in Christ and in so fighting for my liberty in Christ, I will be fighting for every man's liberty. I can do this because Jesus Christ has fully satisfied for all my sins, leaving me in bondage to no devil and no man. Not even the dogs are allowed to bark against the people of the Lord. See Exodus 11:7 and Romans 8:33.

The Reformation produced men who understood the nature of liberty from the bondage of state and church. We have all benefitted from this.

2 Corinthians 8:9 "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." It is in these riches of Christ that the Christians stands free in Christ. It has been worth dying for, and it is worth dying for now. It is better to die for something than to live for nothing.

The Claremont Institute: Walter Mondale Loses It: "President George W. Bush seems to have driven his political opponents nuts. Howard Dean's reference to the 'most interesting theory' that President Bush might have had foreknowledge of the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States suggests that Dean has gone around the bend.

But Dean is in good company with many of his fellow Democrats. Former Vice President and Democratic elder statesman Walter Mondale has joined the crowd, although he distinguished himself with spectacularly bad timing."

It is time to recognize that Jesus' words are true: if you are not for Him, you are against Him. Neutrality in some things is hostility to the truth. As Christians we are not even to pretend for a moment that Jesus Christ is not the only Savior for the world. The Bible is clear, if a man does not believe in Christ he will go to hell at the last day. Don't be ashamed of that message. Be good to all men, but don't deny the truth for political reasons.

FOXNews.com - Top Stories - Christian References a No-No at Public Schools: "A New York City school allowed a Hanukkah menorah and the star and crescent of Islam to be displayed on school property as historic symbols, but banned a nativity scene because it was deemed religious.

"Elsewhere, prayers have been stopped at school football games and one Seattle high school student had his state-sponsored college scholarship stripped when officials discovered he'd be majoring in theology. "

But of course, "holiday" cannot last either. No one is concerned about any Holy Day nowadays. We are much too interested in sex and possessions to think of anything as "holy." Smacks of fanaticism, don't you think?


Rich Lowry on Christmas on National Review Online: "But the triumph of such potential offensiveness was only temporary, and soon a reaction against it began, initially led by store clerks ordered to refer to the annual late-December holiday only as 'Holiday.' By the late 20th century, Holiday had evolved into something close to its current version, in which no religious affiliations, symbols or meanings are allowed to interfere with the enjoyment of the Holiday Spirit."

Christians need to remember the words of Christ, "He that is not with me is against me." When does "tolerance" and "multiculturalism" become a denial of Christ? The answer to the question is not hard. Denial of Christ comes the minute you receive or pretend to receive the idea that salvation and blessedness can come without Him. Is a little social acceptance worth your soul?

Jay Nordlinger on Christmas on National Review Online: "A lot of us have been irked by 'Happy Holidays,' in place of 'Merry Christmas,' for a long time. Many years ago, I was working at a large firm in Washington, and it was 'Happy Holidays,' 'Happy Holidays,' 'Happy Holidays,' until you wanted to scream. One afternoon, just before Christmas, I said to a friend there, 'Merry Christmas.' I said it in a soft, gentle, but kind of mischievous way. He just grinned at me, understandingly. You would have thought we were engaging in something subversive, which was just plain weird."

Scrooge was right, of course. Dickens' stories were anti-Christian and anti-love, as sentiment always is. Never trust anyone who sees spirits. To paraphrase Scrooge, "Are there no Scriptures? Is there no Christ? Is there no consequence for wrong-doing?"

Jennifer Nicholson Graham on Compassion on National Review Online: "As a mother, I still worry about Tiffany and her brother, but, as a conservative, I know that as long as the neighborhood — the village — cared for them, her mother never would. Maybe, with the help of a jail and a poorhouse, the little family will get it together, discover the value of work. It's a long shot, but, as the magnet on my refrigerator says, 'Dreams come true at Christmas.'"

Andrew Apostolou on Iraq & Libya on National Review Online: "Yet the evidence indicates that what brought Libya to the table was not multilateral engagement, but the brave and much criticized strategy of forcing terrorism sponsoring dictatorships to meet their obligations or meet their Maker. Indeed, the Libyans appear to have boosted rather than curbed their WMD ambitions after the U.N. suspended sanctions in 1999. The appeal of WMDs for Khaddafi and others was their potential value, not just as weapons with which to attack or deter, but also as bargaining chips. WMDs were hooks upon which to catch credulous foreigners looking for dialogue and oil contracts."

The wimps in France and Germany might learn from the use of strength to do good. There is a time and place for everything, even for a cat 'o nine tales. The "rod is for the fool's back," is the way Solomon put it.

Andrew Apostolou on Iraq & Libya on National Review Online: "Libya's announcement that it will close down its weapons-of-mass-destruction programs is an important vindication of American and British foreign policy. After nine months of talks, Colonel Khaddafi's regime has acknowledged the existence of weapons that were long denied. According to initial reports, Libya had the ability to manufacture chemical weapons, had attempted to acquire the ability to produce both nuclear and biological weapons and had ballistic-missile programs. The American-intelligence assessment that Libya was up to no good has been proved correct. Israeli intelligence, which had long been dismissed for pointing to Khaddafi's nuclear ambitions, has chalked up a much-needed success."

The wimps in Paris and Berlin could well learn the value of the right use of power to do good.

Andrew Apostolou on Iraq & Libya on National Review Online: "Libya's announcement that it will close down its weapons-of-mass-destruction programs is an important vindication of American and British foreign policy. After nine months of talks, Colonel Khaddafi's regime has acknowledged the existence of weapons that were long denied. According to initial reports, Libya had the ability to manufacture chemical weapons, had attempted to acquire the ability to produce both nuclear and biological weapons and had ballistic-missile programs. The American-intelligence assessment that Libya was up to no good has been proved correct. Israeli intelligence, which had long been dismissed for pointing to Khaddafi's nuclear ambitions, has chalked up a much-needed success."

Andrew Apostolou on Iraq & Libya on National Review Online: "Libya's announcement that it will close down its weapons-of-mass-destruction programs is an important vindication of American and British foreign policy. After nine months of talks, Colonel Khaddafi's regime has acknowledged the existence of weapons that were long denied. According to initial reports, Libya had the ability to manufacture chemical weapons, had attempted to acquire the ability to produce both nuclear and biological weapons and had ballistic-missile programs. The American-intelligence assessment that Libya was up to no good has been proved correct. Israeli intelligence, which had long been dismissed for pointing to Khaddafi's nuclear ambitions, has chalked up a much-needed success."

One side benefit of the overthrow of Saddam. How many other two-bit dictators are having second thoughts?

Telegraph | News | Revealed: the real reason for Gaddafi's WMD surrender: "One Cabinet minister said: 'It demonstrates that change can be brought about by standing tough. There is no question that this change of heart by Gaddafi was brought about by the fact that the US and Britain were seen to be standing up to and called Saddam Hussein's bluff.'"

Anyone want to take a bet on how much of this was money paid by European and United Nations connections to Iraq? A side bet that this was the reason for opposition on doing anything about Iraq. It would be interesting to know if any of this money was used to corrupt American elections.

More Than $1 Billion in Iraqi Assets Found in Foreign Banks (washingtonpost.com): "Officials are pressing the hunt for many billions more Hussein is believed to have moved out of Iraq, worried that those funds are going to terrorist groups or are financing Hussein loyalists' attacks on U.S. troops. 'There was a staggering amount of plunder as a result of the oil-for-food program and other schemes,' said the Treasury Department's recently departed general counsel, David Aufhauser, who until this month helped direct the search. 'While some was spent on ostentatious palaces, most is unaccounted for.' "