The nonsense about President Obama being a Muslim has got to stop. I rise to defend him from this absurd accusation by pointing out that he is obviously an atheist.

Leave aside Obama’s fanatical opposition to allowing Illinois hospitals to save the lives of babies with God-given souls inadvertently born alive during abortions. Also leave aside the fact that neither of his parents were Christians. And leave aside his current crop of “spiritual advisers,” which is a collection of Mother Earth worshippers, polytheists and other nonbelievers.

Now rest from all that “leaving aside.”

The only evidence for Obama’s Christianity is that he faithfully attended the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ for 20 years.

Yes, the guy bellowing “God damn America!” is the one vouching for Obama’s Christianity. That’s like saying you got sober with the help of your A.A. sponsor Lindsay Lohan.

It is a fact that any non-retarded person (thank you, Rahm Emanuel!) sitting in the Rev. Wright’s church for 20 minutes, much less 20 years, does not believe in God. Even stepping inside Wright’s church for a moment to get out of the rain is borderline racist.

Jim Caviezel as Christ again — this time in English — “The Word of Promise: New Testament Audio Bible”

Going to Trinity United Church of Christ is even stronger evidence of non-belief than Bill Clinton returning from Sunday services to receive oral sex from Monica Lewinsky. This isn’t mere sin – everybody sins (though some with more frequency and less remorse than others).

Attending Wright’s church is the conscious, calculated decision to immerse yourself in hate-filled demagoguery and call it “Christianity.”

But according to North Korean TV’s Chris Matthews, it is a provable, scientific fact that Obama is a Christian because he says so. “Everybody watching right now,” Matthews said to his several viewers last week, “gets credit for being of the religion you say you are. … We accept that in America. It’s called freedom of religion and respect for religion.”

That would make professions of religious belief, unlike all other self-professions, unchallengeable. Liberals say conservatives don’t believe in civil rights. I say liberals are godless traitors. Why is one statement debatable and the other not?

Doesn’t anyone question the Christianity of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker? How about the Satanists claiming to be Christians who stand outside soldiers’ funerals with signs that say “God Hates Fags”?

And, for the record, the allegedly inviolate assertion of one’s own religious belief wasn’t so inviolate when it came to Ronald Reagan.

Tip O’Neill used to question President Reagan’s Christianity all the time, taunting the president for not attending church regularly. Matthews might remember that: He was working for O’Neill at the time.

In fact, parading to church in front of the TV cameras carrying a 10-pound Bible – like a certain serial adulterer, impeached president I could name – is strongly discouraged by the creator of the universe. (”Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 6.1)

Some conservatives have cited Obama’s near complete refusal to go to church to suggest he’s not the “devout Christian” who “prays every day,” as the White House claims.

But that’s not your proof, Christians. To the contrary, it’s Obama’s church attendance – back in Chicago – that proves he’s an atheist.

This was inadvertently admitted by Obama’s leading butt-boy, Richard Wolffe, on North Korean TV Monday night. Wolffe acknowledged that Wright’s liberation theology was not Christianity, but then forcefully distinguished Obama from the Rev. Wright –- i.e., Obama’s sole character witness for his alleged Christianity.

Of Glenn Beck’s denunciation of liberation theology as a false religion, Wolffe said: “Is he debating Jeremiah Wright or Barack Obama? They’re two different people. If he wants to debate liberation theology with Wright, he’s got something to talk about. But liberation theology hasn’t been anything espoused by this president.”

But it was espoused in the only church Obama ever attended regularly – for 20 years, no less – was married in and had his daughters baptized in. The title of Obama’s autobiography came from the title of one of Wright’s sermons, and snippets from Wright’s sermons have appeared in Obama’s work.

So the sole evidence of Obama’s supposed Christianity is his longtime pastor, who everyone admits is a racist nut.

No sentient human is required to take Obama’s profession of Christianity any more seriously than if it were coming from a 1980s blow-dried, money-grubbing televangelist with a mistress on the side.

All liberals are atheists. Only the ones who have to stand for election even bother pretending to believe in God.

Not being acquainted with any actual Christians, they aren’t particularly good bluffers. That’s why Democrats babble incoherently whenever the subject of religion comes up. Liberals acting devout always looks like the love scenes between Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis in “Top Gun”: awkward and unconvincing.

Former divinity student Al Gore famously botched a biblical verse, switching God’s instruction that we put heaven before earthly things (”For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” Matthew 6:21) by saying we should make the Earth our treasure. (In the druidical religion of liberalism, not separating your recyclables is a sin, but abortion is just a medical procedure.)

Howard Dean told a reporter his favorite book of the New Testament was Job.

It took the Democrats’ born-again Christian Jimmy Carter three decades to announce, in 2005, that he didn’t think Jesus would approve of abortion (”unless the mother’s life or health was in danger or perhaps the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest,” etc. etc.).

There’s only one true Christian liberal in the country, and that’s Mike Huckabee.

Usually it takes a national government to spend itself into a debt measured in the trillions. Yet it comes as little surprise that the same profligacy that pervades the corridors of federal power infects this country’s 87,000 state, county and municipal governments and school districts. By 2013, the amount of retirement money promised to employees of these public entities will exceed cash on hand by more than a trillion dollars.

That’s according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, which earlier this month released a troubling analysis of 126 state and local pension plans. The center’s researchers found in the wake of the stock market collapse that measures of pension program solvency hit a 15-year low with no signs of improvement on the horizon. This means taxpayers will be left picking up the tab.

The reason pension plans are headed toward financial disaster is simple. Ever-expanding public-sector unions have flexed their political muscle and larded up with lavish benefits to be be paid out decades from now. In a properly run,private-sector business, future retirement benefits are paid for using present-day contributions. This is not the case when lawmakers have the power to boost public-employee benefit packages while using accounting gimmicks to conceal and pass on the debt to future generations.

California’s public-employee retirement system stands in the most perilous condition, facing a half-trillion in unfunded liabilities. That’s not surprising when you consider a California highway patrol officer can retire at age 50 and collect up to 90 percent of his salary for the rest of his life. According to the agency’s website, a typical officer’s pay will reach $109,147 after just five years on duty – an amount that can rise significantly with overtime benefits. That means a fit and healthy 50-year-old “retiree” who began work at age 20 would receive $98,232 a year from taxpayers for the rest of his life, and nothing prevents him from taking another government job to collect two paychecks. This form of double-dipping is rampant.

While most private-sector firms have trimmed their work force during the recession to achieve more efficient and profitable operations, public agencies have expanded. State and local governments employ about 15 million individuals, a figure that has jumped up 40 percent from 1992. By 2016, the number of state and local bureaucrats is projected to reach 20 million. Too many of these people are being promised far too much money, leaving state and local systems as bankrupt as Social Security, Medicare and other multitrillion-dollar federal entitlements.

To his credit, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger considers addressing his state’s “pension bubble” to be one of his top priorities. On Wednesday, he introduced legislation that would raise the full retirement age for new police hires to 57 and reduce the benefit paid in our example to $88,409. It also would reclassify billboard and milk inspectors as “miscellaneous” employees, instead of “safety” workers entitled to bigger handouts.

Despite the modest nature of the proposed changes, it’s unclear whether California lawmakers have the backbone needed to pass the measure over the objection of the all-powerful union voting bloc. The rest of voters across the nation, the ones who will be paying for this mess, need to wake up and encourage legislators to reform public pensions before it’s too late.

by David Aikman

Virtually every major thinker who has written on the subject of war—from Germany’s Clausewitz to ancient China’s Sun Tzu—has agreed on one main dictum: “Know your enemy.” Understood in that thought is the concept of correctly naming your enemy. Yet a strange thing has happened as the Obama administration has taken up the challenge of standing up to global terrorism that first fell upon President George W. Bush after the calamitous events of 9/11 in 2001.

Every American with a morsel of common sense has figured out that al-Qaeda and its global franchise of like-minded terrorists have been inspired by an Islam-based ideology that seeks — in the name of a global Islamic caliphate — to overthrow the U.S. and the West, democracy, and all the individual rights upon which America was founded.

Every new, turgid, and tedious propaganda blast by Osama bin Laden’s number two, the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri…every boastful threat by foreign terrorist groups or by recently apprehended Islamic terrorists in the U.S., makes it clear that terrorist acts plotted against Americans have been inspired by the Muslim call for jihad (which actually means “struggle” but is often translated as “holy war”). The Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, who had received training with the Taliban in Pakistan, described himself simply as a “Muslim soldier.” The prime suspect in last year’s Fort Hood massacre of 13 Americans, Major Hasan, had ordered a business card that described him as SoA (“Soldier of Allah”). Hasan had been in email contact with American-born terrorist organizer Anwar al-Awlaki.

Now what were these fellows thinking of when they planned their dastardly deeds? Was it Zen Buddhism, or Hindu mysticism? I don’t think so. Like Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the 9/11 hijackers, they were carefully acting out Islamic ideas found in the Koran and in recent Islamic writings with the hope of spending eternity in the Muslim paradise surrounded by dark-eyed virgins.

There seem to be only about three Americans who doubt this: President Obama, White House aide for counter-terrorism John Brennan, and Attorney General Eric Holder. When Holder was asked in May at a congressional hearing by Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) whether Hasan, Shahzad, and Nigerian failed Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab might have been inspired by radical Islam, Holder repeatedly said that there had been “a variety” of factors. He flatly refused to say “radical Islam” or any form of Islam had possibly been the ideological inspiration behind the actions of these individuals.

Brennan recently made remarks during a Washington speech in which he said flatly that the White House would not use the phrase “Islamic terrorism” or even refer to “jihadis.” He used the utterly specious argument that jihad can mean a spiritual struggle to combat one’s sinful nature. Yes, it can. But the overwhelming consensus of students of Islamic history is that this interpretation of jihad refers to what Mohammed called “the greater jihad.” (See related commentary) The Koran itself quite specifically calls on Muslims to fight “the lesser jihad,” which is real fighting. It says, in Surah 9:29: “Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.”

There are, of course, Surahs (chapters) in the Koran which advocate peaceful relations with followers of Judaism and Christianity. But these verses, “revealed” to Mohammed during the early period of his life, are “abrogated” (nullified) by the bloodthirsty verses from the later period.

It needs to be said that there are millions of Muslims who are not terrorists and who do not engage in any violent form of jihad. But the vast majority of the world’s terrorists since the 1990s have been Muslims, and all of them have been inspired by Muslim writers and thinkers who unquestionably justify violence on Islamic textual grounds against non-Muslims. To be unwilling to name the terrorist acolytes of such thinkers as “Islamic terrorists” or “radical Muslims” is akin to refusing to describe Hitler’s thugs during World War II as Nazis. If they weren’t Nazis, what were they—misunderstood Berlin suburbanites who had been rejected by Harvard? The frightening thing about Brennan’s approach is that either he is lying about Islam, or he is classically ignorant of Islam and the history of its thought.

What about President Obama? In Turkey in April 2009 he roundly declared that the U.S. did not consider itself a Christian nation even though many of its citizens were Christian. He implied that Turkey also shared a sort of multicultural view of the Muslim faith—similar to his view of American Christianity—that is followed by the majority of its citizens. That is almost certainly a grave misjudgment because Turkey’s ruling political party, the AKP (the Justice and Development Party), is trying to move the country in a decidedly more Islamic direction. Obama’s understanding of Islam seems sentimental and emotional, based on his own early experiences of attending mosque with his step-father in Indonesia. But to move from that position to one requiring American officials to avoid mentioning the very ideology that seeks to destroy American freedom is dangerously reckless.

If you don’t recognize your enemy and refuse to name him, whom on earth are you pretending to fight?

by Dennis Prager

Perhaps the most telling of the recent revelations of the liberal/left Journolist, a list consisting of about 400 major liberal/left journalists, is the depth of their hatred of conservatives. That they would consult with one another in order to protect candidate and then President Obama and in order to hurt Republicans is unfortunate and ugly. But what is jolting is the hatred of conservatives, as exemplified by the e-mail from an NPR reporter expressing her wish to personally see Rush Limbaugh die a painful death — and the apparent absence of any objection from the other liberal journalists.

Every one of us on the right has seen this hatred. I am not referring to leftist bloggers or to anonymous extreme comments by angry leftists on conservative blogs — such things exist on the right as well — but to mainstream elite liberal journalists. There is simply nothing analogous among elite conservative journalists. Yes, nearly all conservatives believe that the left is leading America to ruin. But while there is plenty of conservative anger over this fact, there is little or nothing on the right to match the left’s hatred of conservative individuals. Would mainstream conservative journalists e-mail one another wishes to be present while Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi or Michael Moore dies slowly and painfully of a heart attack?

From Karl Marx to today, the Left has always hated people on the Right, not merely differed or been angry with them.

The question is: why?

Here are three possible answers.

First, the left thinks the right is evil.

Granting for exceptions that all generalizations allow for, conservatives believe that those on the left are wrong, while those on the left believe that those on the right are bad, not merely wrong. Examples are innumerable. For example, Howard Dean, the former head of the Democratic Party said, “In contradistinction to the Republicans … (Democrats) don’t believe kids ought to go to bed hungry at night.”

Or take Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., who, among many similar comments, said, “I want to say a few words about what it means to be a Democrat. It’s very simple: We have a conscience.”

Has any spokesman of the Republican Party ever said anything analogous about Democrats not caring about the suffering of children or not having a conscience?

Second, when you don’t confront real evil, you hate those who do.

You can see this on almost any school playground. The kid who confronts the school bully is often resented more than the bully. Whether out of guilt over their own cowardice or fear that the one who confronted the bully would provoke the bully to lash out more, those who refuse to confront the bully often resent the one who does. During the 1980s, the left expressed far more hatred of Ronald Reagan than of Soviet Communist dictator Leonid Brezhnev. And, when Reagan labeled the Soviet Union an “evil empire,” the liberal world was enraged … at Reagan.

Those (usually on the left) who refused to confront communism hated those (usually on the right) who did. They called the latter “war mongers,” “cold warriors,” charged them with having “missile envy” and with loving war.

Today, the left has similar contempt for those who take a hard line on Islamic terror. The liberal and leftist media routinely place quote marks around the words War on Terror. To the left, such a war is manufactured by rightists for nefarious reasons (oil, self-enrichment, imperialism, etc.). Indeed, the Obama administration has actually forbidden use of the term “Islamic terror.” America is at war with a nameless enemy. The real enemies the Democratic administration is prepared to name are the Republican Party, tea parties, Fox News and talk radio.

Third, the left’s utopian vision is prevented only by the right.

From its inception, leftism has been a secular utopian religion. As Ted Kennedy, famously quoting his brother Robert F. Kennedy, said, “Some (people) see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not?” That exemplifies leftwing idealism — imagining a utopian future. There will be no poor, no war, no conflict, no inequality. That future is only a few more government programs away from reality. And who stands in the way of such perfection? Conservatives. How could a utopian not hate a conservative?

To put in another way, the famous ’60s left-wing motto “Make love, not war” embodies the problem as the left sees it: The left makes love in the world and the right makes war in the world. How could you not hate the right? The right, with its beliefs in a strong military; in individuals, not the state; taking care of themselves, their families and their neighbors; and in punishing criminals, is the anti-Love, a figure as reviled on the left as the antichrist is to Christians.

This hatred will only increase if the left feels its programs to greatly increase the size of the government are in any way threatened in the forthcoming elections. The problem is that this hatred does not decrease even when the left is in power.

Hatred of conservatives is so much part of the left that the day the left stops hating conservatives will mark the beginning of the end of the left as we know it.

by Dennis Prager

If every school principal gave this speech at the beginning of the next school year, America would be a better place.

To the students and faculty of our high school:

I am your new principal, and honored to be so. There is no greater calling than to teach young people.

I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming to our school. I am making these changes because I am convinced that most of the ideas that have dominated public education in America have worked against you, against your teachers and against our country.

First, this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity. I could not care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow or white. I could not care less if your origins are African, Latin American, Asian or European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the Mayflower or on slave ships.

The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual identity — your character, your scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity this school will care about is American. This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans.

If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial or religious identity through school, you will have to go elsewhere. We will end all ethnicity-, race- and non-American nationality-based celebrations. They undermine the motto of America, one of its three central values — e pluribus unum, “from many, one.” And this school will be guided by America’s values.

This includes all after-school clubs. I will not authorize clubs that divide students based on any identities. This includes race, language, religion, sexual orientation or whatever else may become in vogue in a society divided by political correctness.

Your clubs will be based on interests and passions, not blood, ethnic, racial or other physically defined ties. Those clubs just cultivate narcissism — an unhealthy preoccupation with the self — while the purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself. So we will have clubs that transport you to the wonders and glories of art, music, astronomy, languages you do not already speak, carpentry and more. If the only extracurricular activities you can imagine being interesting in are those based on ethnic, racial or sexual identity, that means that little outside of yourself really interests you.

Second, I am uninterested in whether English is your native language. My only interest in terms of language is that you leave this school speaking and writing English as fluently as possible. The English language has united America’s citizens for over 200 years, and it will unite us at this school. It is one of the indispensable reasons this country of immigrants has always come to be one country. And if you leave this school without excellent English language skills, I would be remiss in my duty to ensure that you will be prepared to successfully compete in the American job market. We will learn other languages here — it is deplorable that most Americans only speak English — but if you want classes taught in your native language rather than in English, this is not your school.

Third, because I regard learning as a sacred endeavor, everything in this school will reflect learning’s elevated status. This means, among other things, that you and your teachers will dress accordingly. Many people in our society dress more formally for Hollywood events than for church or school. These people have their priorities backward. Therefore, there will be a formal dress code at this school.

Fourth, no obscene language will be tolerated anywhere on this school’s property — whether in class, in the hallways or at athletic events. If you can’t speak without using the f-word, you can’t speak. By obscene language I mean the words banned by the Federal Communications Commission, plus epithets such as the “N” word, even when used by one black student to address another black, or “b***h”, even when addressed by a girl to a girlfriend. It is my intent that by the time you leave this school, you will be among the few your age to instinctively distinguish between the elevated and the degraded, the holy and the obscene.

Fifth, we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school, self-esteem will be attained in only one way — the way people attained it until decided otherwise a generation ago — by earning it. One immediate consequence is that there will be one valedictorian, not eight.

Sixth, and last, I am reorienting the school toward academics and away from politics and propaganda. No more time will devoted to scaring you about smoking and caffeine, or terrifying you about sexual harassment or global warming. No more semesters will be devoted to condom wearing and teaching you to regard sexual relations as only or primarily a health issue. There will be no more attempts to convince you that you are a victim because you are not white, or not male, or not heterosexual or not Christian. We will have failed if any one of you graduates this school and does not consider him or herself inordinately lucky — to be alive and to be an American.

Now, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of our country. As many of you do not know the words, your teachers will hand them out to you.

The Wikipedia Encyclopedia defines syndrome this way: In medicine and psychology, a syndrome is the association of several clinically recognizable features, signs, symptoms, phenomena or characteristics that often occur together, so that the presence of one feature alerts the physician to the presence of others. In recent decades, the term has been used outside medicine to refer to a combination of phenomena seen in association.

The dictionary defines Pollyanna as “excessively optimistic person”… In other words, a positive thinker. To sum that all up someone who has the Pollyanna Syndrome is one who finds cause for gladness in the most difficult situations.

You are probably familiar with the Disney movie entitled “Pollyanna” that came out in 1960. The movie was taken from a book written by Eleanor Hodgman Porter in 1913. If you are unfamiliar with Pollyanna, she was a little orphan girl who came to live with her aunt in a small town that had its fair share of grumpy people. She was noted for keeping her chin up during disasters. She would play a game she called the ‘glad game’. For every negative she would look for a positive.

When Jim, the editor of the Town of Burlington website, asked me to submit a ‘happiness’ article I told him I needed to give it some thought. Not because I couldn’t think of anything to be happy about, but I needed to narrow it down. There are many reasons why I am ‘glad’ to be living in this community. I finally decided to write about my wonderful neighbors. All of our neighbors.

Take for instance the lady that lives next door to me. She always has a smile on her face and a kind word or two coming from her lips. She allows her dog to visit with my family and I. That brings us happiness and her dog is happy too because he gets a dog biscuit. If we go on a trip she takes care of our mouthy cat. Even though I know our cat can be a handful, not to mention irritating, she never complains, she gladly does it.

Then there is the wonderful couple down the road. They live close to the cemetery. My daughter will walk to that cemetery. She enjoys learning about the local history. She spends her time there weeding around the headstones. What I appreciate about this couple is that they keep and eye out for her while she is there. This makes us happy. This couple also enjoys walking. They do it mostly, I’m sure, for exercise, but when they see trash alongside the road they pick it up. They are conscience of our environment and keeping the community beautiful. This should make us all glad.

My parents live in the next town over, same community. They are getting older, that is just a fact, even though most days they won’t admit it. They work hard, like most do, to keep their home and property nice but it isn’t always easy. Last winter after a heavy snowfall, don’t ask me which one, a man I’ve known most of my life, since we were neighbors growing up, just decided to plow their driveway for them. It is not an easy driveway either, I know, I’ve done my fair share of shoveling it. My parents offered him payment but he refused. He went away happy knowing he helped them and they were happy too.

Another neighbor of mine will just stop by with a friendly “hello, how are you?” My husband gives him wood shavings so he can use it for bedding for his animals. In turn this neighbor will drop off some food once in a while(best steak we’ve ever eaten). But it is more than just that. He is very knowledgeable and when he stops by to chat I learn so much from him. On his last visit I learned why many of the tree tops are turning brown and why we should drink organic milk(homogenized milk isn’t good for us). He is upbeat and positive. Neighbors like these reinforce the fact that this is a great community to live in.

So, while Pollyanna was just a little girl with a big dose of positive mental attitude, we can learn a thing or two from her. I’m not saying we have to turn into her, but when you think about it, positive thinking is the only sensible way forward……..Do me a favor. Play the ‘glad game’….right now. Take a minute to think of something positive(perhaps a nice neighbor)….What have you got to lose?….You just may be happier.

editor’s note:  Lori is the proprietress of the Owl and Moon gift shop in the village of West Burlington. See the Businesses section for more information.

By Dennis Prager

A terrible thing happened to America on Sunday, March 21, 2010 (with the passage of the “Obamacare”).

The country took its biggest step ever down a road diametrically opposed to its original intent of keeping the state small so that the individual can be free and great.

Therefore, in this unprecedented crisis of values, this is what needs to be done:

1. Know and teach America’s core values.

We got to this point solely because over the past few generations, Americans have forgotten the values that have made America distinctive and great. Even the “Greatest Generation” failed to communicate them.

In a nutshell, they are what I call the American Trinity: “In God we trust,” “Liberty” and “E Pluribus Unum.” The left has successfully made war on all three — substituting secularism for God and religion in as much of American life as possible; substituting equality (of result) for liberty; and multiculturalism is the opposite of “E Pluribus Unum.”

People who do not understand American ideals — especially small government — now dominate our schools, our entertainment media and our news media.

(My own contribution here is a video titled, “The American Trinity” at prageru.com. Please view it and forward it.)

2. Recognize that we are fighting the left, not liberals.

Conservatives and centrists are no longer fighting liberals. We are fighting the left.

Liberalism believed in American exceptionalism; the left not only does not believe in it, the left opposes it. President Obama, when asked if he believes in American exceptionalism, replied, “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism, and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”

Liberalism believed in creating wealth; the left is interested in redistributing it.

Liberalism believed in a strong defense. The left believes in cutting defense and a strong United Nations.

3. Democrats should be referred to as Social Democrats. This is not meant to be cute, let alone as a slur. But calling Democrats Social Democrats is an effective way of reminding Americans that there is no longer any difference between what is now known as the Democratic Party and the Social Democratic parties of Europe. When the Democratic Party returns to its roots as a liberal, not a left-wing, party, we will happily resume calling the party by its original name. However, since no Democrat can cite a significant difference between the Democratic Party and the SD parties, there is no good reason not to use the more accurate nomenclature.

4. Work tirelessly to repeal the bill.

We must single-mindedly work to repeal the government health plan. We all know that it is difficult to repeal entitlements because they are like drugs and it is very difficult to wean people off drugs. But it is not impossible. We need to warn our fellow Americans that entitlements will do to America what drugs eventually do to addicts.

All Republicans must run for office on the “repeal” issue. Even when they lose, the difference between right and left, between Republicans and Social Democrats will have been made clear; and clarity is our best friend.

5. Our motto: “The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen.”

I used this phrase in addressing the Republican members of Congress. It has become widely used, including by Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., on the House floor during the Congressional debate on Sunday. It encapsulates this epic battle of American values versus leftist values. Every movement needs a motto. I nominate this.

6. Do not let other matters distract.

Neither Republicans nor conservatives are united on every issue facing America. Immigration is one example. But we are united on the big government vs. free individual issue, which, more than anything else, has defined America. If we allow any other domestic issue to divide us, we will lose.

And here’s why: If Americans forget what America stands for, it won’t help us if there is not one illegal immigrant here. And if we do remember what it means to be American, we can handle anything.

7. Acknowledge that we are in a non-violent civil war.

I write the words “civil war” with an ache in my heart. But we are in one.

Thank God this civil war is non-violent. But the fact is that the left and the rest of the country share almost no values. The American value system and the leftist value system are irreconcilable. If the left wins, America’s values lose. If American values prevail, the left loses.

After Sunday’s vote, for the first time in American history, one could no longer confidently believe that the American system will prevail. And if we don’t fight for it, we don’t deserve it.

posted May 15, 2010

The Post noted the lack of people investing in Arcuri’s campaign, and the close race he had two years ago against self-made businessman Richard Hanna.

Reporter Chris Cillizza wrote, “Rep. Michael Arcuri (D) said he got the picture in 2008 when he nearly lost a race that Republicans barely targeted. Or not. Arcuri has one of the smallest bank accounts of any member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Frontline” program at less than $500,000.”

Hanna outraised Arcuri in the first quarter by some $150,000, and most of Arcuri’s financing came from outside the 24th Congressional District. About 91 percent of Hanna’s donations were from residents of the 24th Congressional District, and area business leaders also invested in Hanna’s campaign and message of jobs and opportunity.

To see the entire analysis by the Post’s Cillizza, visit The Fix.

And it’s generating a surge of alarm among small-farm operators and natural food advocates.

“S. 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010, may be the most dangerous bill in the history of the U.S.,” w

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

What is devastating the world’s honeybees?

In what appears to be a honeybee mystery of Armageddon proportions that has baffled scientists and beekeepers, more than one-third of the nation’s commercial honeybee population is mysteriously disappearing – and researchers warn the unexplained phenomenon threatens one-third of the American diet.

Entire colonies of honeybees are abandoning hives and food stores, including honey and pollen. In collapsed colonies, adult bees mysteriously disappear, and there is no accumulation of dead bees. Even hive pests such as wax moths and hive beetles are nowhere to be found around affected colonies. Likewise, other honeybees are reluctant or unwilling to rob the abandoned hives of honey.

Only days before a honeybee colony collapses, according to Bee Culture Magazine, the colony appears to be strong and fully functional.

Then, it explains, the affliction travels like a wave through a beeyard.

Researchers have termed the phenomenon Colony Collapse Disorder, a syndrome characterized by sudden disappearance of adult honeybees in a colony.

Why should Americans care?

Experts warn the implications for the world’s agriculture are nothing to be ignored: according to the United States Department of Agriculture, a full one-third of the human diet depends on honeybee pollination of crops – especially fruit, nut, vegetable and seed production in the United States.

The list of crops that depend on honeybees is long: almonds, apples, apricots, avocadoes, blueberries, boysenberries, cherries, citrus fruits, cranberries, grapes, kiwi, loganberries, macadamia nuts, nectarines, olives, peaches, pears, plums, raspberries, strawberries, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, cantaloupe, honeydew, onions, pumpkins, squash, watermelon, alfalfa hay and seed, cotton lint, cotton seed, legume seed, peanuts, rapeseed, soybeans, sugar beets and sunflowers.

Ohio State University’s state honeybee specialist, James Tew, told the Dayton Daily News, “The average person should care. Bees of all species are fundamental to the operation of our ecosystem.”

Tew said if bees are unable to pollinate the nation’s crops, Americans could be forced to settle for a menu of wheat and corn.

Cindy Kalis, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Agriculture, told the Daily News an estimated 50 to 70 percent of hives kept by beekeepers died during the 2009-2010 winter season. The state relies on bees to pollinate an estimated $44 million worth of crops.

The Congressional Research Service reports bee pollination is responsible for an estimated $15 billion to $20 billion in added crop value annually – or 23 percent of total U.S. agriculture production in 2006. The California almond industry, worth an estimated $2 billion annually, relies on nearly 1.5 million honeybee hives for cross-pollination. That’s approximately one-half of all honeybees in the United States. Almonds are the top California food export and the nation’s sixth-largest food export to more than 90 countries.

Beekeepers began noticing unprecedented losses in the U.S. honeybee population in 2006 – when 600,000 bee colonies in the U.S. mysteriously disappeared.

The Congressional Research Service report features this map of U.S. states reporting CCD (yellow states) as of 2009.

The USDA’s 2007-2008 progress report indicates that CCD studies led researchers to conclude that “no single factor alone is responsible” for CCD, prompting them to further examine a hypothesis that CCD may be “a syndrome caused by many different factors, working in combination or synergistically,” including “an interaction between pathogens and other stress factors.” According to the USDA, researchers are focused on the following three major possibilities:

1) pesticides that may be having unexpected negative effects on honeybees;2) a new parasite or pathogen that may be attacking honeybees, such as the parasite Nosema ceranae or viruses; and

3) a combination of existing stresses that may compromise the immune system of bees and disrupt their social system, making colonies more susceptible to disease and collapse. Stresses could include high levels of infection by the Varroa mite; poor nutrition due to apiary overcrowding, pollination of crops with low nutritional value, or pollen or nectar scarcity; exposure to limited or contaminated water supplies; and migratory stress.

Bee virus transmitted by parasites?

In 2007, scientists found a strong association between CCD and a virus transmitted by parasites.

Deadly, parasitic Varroa mite attaches itself to honeybee’s thorax where wings meet (photo: USDA, Scott Bauer).

A USDA research team published results of genetic screening of honeybee colonies affected by CCD and healthy hives. The only pathogen found in 96.1 percent of CCD-plagued colonies – but not in the non-CCD colonies – was the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus, a virus that may be transmitted by the Varroa mite, a parasite that feeds on the blood of adult bees, larvae and pupae. Varroa mites are visible to the naked eye and attach themselves to a honeybee’s body. They are known to transmit a number of pathogens and viruses.

Close-up photo of Varroa mite

According to the Agriculture Research Service, the USDA’s principal intramural scientific research agency, “IAPV was initially identified in honeybee colonies in Israel in 2002, where the honeybees exhibited unusual behavior, such as twitching wings outside the hive and a loss of worker-bee populations.”

IAPV was also reportedly found in package bees imported from Australia and royal jelly imported from China, the USDA’s Bee Research Laboratory stated in a report titled, “Historical Presence of Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus in the United States.” According to those researchers, the results from their survey indicate “IAPV has been circulating in U.S. bee populations since at least 2002″ and the virus predates the latest incarnation of CCD.

ARS entomologist Jeffrey Pettis, research leader of the agency’s Bee Research Laboratory in Maryland, noted, “This does not identify IAPV as the cause of CCD. What we have found is strictly a strong correlation of the appearance of IAPV and CCD together. We have not proven a cause-and-effect connection.”

Viruses, bacteria and fungi testing

During a study published in August 2009 and conducted by ARS and university scientists, researchers looked at more than 200 individual variables in 91 colonies from 13 apiaries in Florida and California.

The researchers screened bees for bacteria, mites, Nosema (protozoan parasites), numerous viruses and nutrition status. They were unable to consistently find one single variable in honeybee colonies that had CCD; however, the pathogen levels were found to be higher in those CCD-affected bee colonies.

“Overall, CCD colonies were co-infected with a greater number of pathogens – bacteria, microparasites like Nosema, and viruses,” ARS reported. “Overall, 55 percent of CCD colonies were infected with three or more viruses, compared to 28 percent of non-CCD colonies.”

Despite the increased pathogen levels, the study was unable to show whether the elevated levels caused CCD or were simply the result of CCD. Researchers explained that higher levels of pathogens may have caused CCD symptoms, but it is still not known how the bees became infected with so many pathogens.

‘More complicated than we first believed’

While many have suggested pesticides could be a culprit, the ARS team also screened the bees for 171 pesticides.

The study found no link between increased pesticide levels and CCD. In fact, one insecticide, Esfenvalerate, used to fend off pests such as moths, flies, beetles and other insects on vegetable, fruit and nut crops, was found to be more prevalent in non-CCD colonies. The insecticide was found in 32 percent of healthy colonies but only 5 percent of the colonies with CCD.

Likewise, Coumaphos, used to treat Varroa mites in honeybees, was also found in higher levels in healthy colonies. However, pesticides have not been ruled out as a cause of CCD.

Healthy honeybees on honeycomb

Meanwhile, researchers report the number of managed honeybee colonies has dropped from 5 million in the 1940s to 2.5 million today while demand for pollination has increased. Commercial beekeepers truck hives long distances to provide pollination services in several states. Some researchers believe the stress of long journeys could be impairing the bees’ immune systems, making them vulnerable to viruses. The weakened bee industry impacts commercial beekeepers, limits the variety of crops available to consumers and increases costs to both growers and consumers.

The CCD problem is so widespread that Britain’s 20,000 amateur beekeepers have been asked to register their insect in a national database, London’s Telegraph reported.

A Jan. 7, 2010, Congressional Research Service report revealed that total ARS funding for honeybee and CCD research has averaged $7.7 million in 2007 and 2008, $8.3 million in 2009 and $9.8 million in 2010.

Researchers have been working feverishly to find the cause of CCD, and, according to some estimates, there are as many as 200 proposed hypotheses for the phenomenon. A national USDA survey report on honeybee losses during the 2009-2010 winter season is set to be released within weeks.

The 2010 prognosis doesn’t look good, Jeff Pettis, research leader at the USDA’s Bee Research Laboratory, told Discovery News.

“We obviously think it’s more complicated than we first believed as in we don’t believe that we’re looking for a single virulent pathogen, although that can’t totally be ruled out,” Pettis told Discovery News. “At first we were thinking that we’d find a single causative agent, a virulent pathogen sweeping through the bee population, and that doesn’t appear to be the case.”

In 2007, beekeepers lost 32 percent of colonies. In 2008 they lost 36 percent, and in 2009, 29 percent. Pettis said the 2010 numbers may be just as bad – or worse.