"LONE-WOLF" ATTACKS: A DEVELOPING ISLAMIST

Watch out for the "carbon nightmare"? You have got to be kidding.

Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecess... Patrick J. Buchana... Best Price $17.80 or Buy New $17.97

Book Review: Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World, by Patrick J. Buchanan. Published by Crown Publishers, 2008.

Does anyone else ever get the impression that Pat Buchanan, in his role as a conservative pundit and writer, is somehow trying to be an antiquated version of a modern shock-jock? He seems to always be saying or writing something that is calculated to elicit strong reaction. A case in point is his conversation with Dennis Miller the other day on Dennis' radio show. Buchanan was on the show, of course, in order to hawk his new book.

Allow me to point out that I was driving while I was listening, so I may have not have caught every nuanced detail of the conversation between Dennis and Buchanan. But I got the impression that Pat thought that the Jews had a pretty good life in pre-World War II Germany right up until Kristallnacht (You will recall that Kristallnacht was the night of November 9-10, 1938, when Nazis, in response to the assassination of Third Secretary Ernst vom Rath by a Jew, assaulted hundreds of Jews, killed scores by lynching, burned synagogues, and looted shops throughout Jewish communities.). Buchanan's assertion left Dennis nearly speechless with incredulity.

Of course, Buchanan's controversial remarks had their desired effect: I purchased and read his new book. After reading the book, I have come to the conclusion that either Buchanan did not accurately communicate his position on the Dennis Miller show, or I misunderstood him. The position that Buchanan takes in Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War concerning Kristallnacht and the German treatment of Jews before and during World War II is as follows: While Jews were certainly mistreated in a Germany ruled by Hitler, the first time that they were actually killed was Kristallnacht. Jewish genocide did not occur in Germany until after the outbreak of World War II hostilities, and so, according to Buchanan's logic, the holocaust would never have occurred if Churchill had not insisted on going to war over Hitler's invasion of Poland.

Book Review: The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists, by Dr. Ravi Zacharias. Published by Zondervan, 2008.

E.J. Dionne, Jr. in his book, Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right, makes many ill-informed statements, but possibly one of the least-informed is a statement that he makes concerning the recent popularity of the books written by the neo-atheists. Dionne says the following: “The popularity of the neo-atheists' books suggests that those who have pushed religion to the right have done more to arouse enmity toward religion than to win adherents to faith.”

You may have noticed the books to which Dionne is referring. These are the books that have been churned out by the likes of Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins, and that have titles such as The God Delusion, The End of Faith, and God is not Great. All of these books try to provide new arguments for a very old idea, namely, the non-existence of God, and they have taken up prominent and seemingly permanent residence at your local bookstore. At my favorite Borders store, they can be found in various hardcover and paperback forms at a strategic endcap that they have occupied for over a year. I say “strategic” because the endcap is in a location that is required to be seen by any person exiting the restrooms.

In his statement about the popularity of the books written by the neo-atheists, Dionne is historically inaccurate. Rather than pushing religion to the right, those of us in the Religious Right are merely attempting to prevent liberals, such as Dionne, from pulling Christianity any further to the left. But putting aside Dionne's re-writing of history, are we to understand that a person searching for God, when confronted with the absolutes of Christianity as espoused by the Religious Right, will have the default reaction of embracing atheism? Such may be the case. I really do not know for certain, but neither does Dionne. I would suggest that a person searching for God is just as likely to default to atheism when confronted with the vagaries of the liberal Christianity that Dionne espouses.

Regarding the popularity of the books of the neo-atheists, Dionne re-writes history and makes a statement that has absolutely no basis in fact. Thankfully, in The End of Reason, Ravi Zacharias avoids such ill-informed statements. Admittedly, Zacharias does not speak to the “why” of the popularity of the neo-atheists' books, other than to suggest that their popularity may have more to do with their controversial nature than any substantive arguments. But Ravi does provide us with a fact-based, eloquent, logical refutation of the positions of Harris and his colleagues in neo-atheism.

PART IV OF A FOUR-PART POST

When statin drugs were first beginning to be commonly prescribed, many physicians were amazed at the near-miraculous-cholesterol-lowering results of the drugs, and I often heard physicians jokingly say that “They should put the stuff (referring to statin drugs) in the drinking water.” That was prior to any real public knowledge of the many negative side effects of statin drugs, and many of those physicians have certainly re-thought their whole-hearted endorsement of the drugs. But there is some irony to the idea of putting statin drugs into the drinking water, in that the most important cholesterol-lowering cure may be untainted drinking water, in and of itself.

The consumption of adequate amounts of water each day provides documented health benefits to an extent that it may be suggested that a person can not claim to seriously care about their personal health if they are not consistent and disciplined in their daily hydration. Stated another way, adequate daily water consumption is always the first step toward good health. The move toward improved health does not require one to purchase a fitness club membership, or to visit a physician, or to purchase a dieting book, or to spend fortunes on dietary supplements. Although a person may want to eventually do all of the foregoing, the first, simple step to good health should always be to turn on the water tap. The late Dr. F. Batmanghelidj, who probably was the foremost expert on proper hydration, recommended a daily water intake in an amount equal to 1 ounce per 2 pounds of body weight. So if you weigh 200 pounds, you need to drink 100 ounces of water every day.

There are numerous health benefits associated with adequate water consumption that we will discuss in a future article, but it can be argued that the most signicant health benefit of water is it's role in lowering cholesterol levels. We will discuss here two ways in which drinking water may lower cholesterol.

Sarasota Herald-Tribune editorial board endorses Obama for President?

The editorial in today's Sarasota Herald-Tribune titled, "Bush's shot misses the mark", should be retitled "We endorse Barack for President".

It reads straight from the Obama play book. I wonder if they just cut and pasted the editorial from an e-mail from the Obama campaign. Or maybe from Howard Dean.

The Herald-Tribune uses the two pronged Obama attack plan. The first prong is to talk about and denigrate President Bush. The hypocrisy of this position is Obama said he was a new type of politician who would reach across the aisle and work with others. He would bring hope and change. There is no hope, change or reaching across the aisle in what Senator Obama says or does. His words speak louder than his actions.

Obama uses the same old attack politics of 2000. Talk down President Bush, talk down Republicans, and attack the administration using the same worn out phrases and sound bites.

Obama is not an agent of change. The only change he wants is him in the oval office. Nothing else.

Using this Obama tactic, the editorial board says President Bush's speech before the Knesset, "came across as clumsy and self-serving."

I don't think the editorial board took the time to watch the speech. For those who would like to see a video of the entire speech please go here.

In the speech the members of the Knesset and audience gave numerous standing ovations to President Bush. It was a historical speech because it addressed the strong alliance and historic bonds between Israel and the United States.

The President properly pointed out that, "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along....We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is: the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

The second Obama tactic is to say what is wrong with talking to our enemies.

The Herald-Tribune uses this Obama tactic by saying, "Just because the United States engages in talks with a hostile foreign power does not mean that America will give in to its demands."

Well we agree.

The audacity of liberal Democrats - "I know better than you how you should live your life and spend your money."

We continue to be amazed by statements of national and local liberal Democrats. Their sheer arrogance and disdain for every day taxpaying workers and their families is breathtaking.

We have so many examples that it is hard to select just a few but we will try.

Let us start with Senator Barrack Obama. Here is his unbelievable statement at a campaign rally in Roseburg, Oregon on May 17th.

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK."

Now let us go to a comment by our own Florida District 69 Representative Keith Fitzgerald, a Democrat. Representative Fitzgerald said at a recent Tiger Bay forum, "We can't let taxpayers tell us how to spend tax dollars".

I wonder which taxpayers Keith is referring to?

Then we have our one and only Democratic School Board member Shirley Brown. Shirley had an e-mail exchange with Sarasota resident and tax payer George Fuller about spending. Here are excerpts from that exchange:

George said in his e-mail to School Board member Brown, "Reading last week's front page article about government job cuts one is led to believe it is unfair [that] government employees are laid off. The story misses the point…….the people were hired in the first place because tax money was available and to government types that means expand the workforce.

I defy the average citizen to notice the government cuts in personnel in their personal lives. I defy anyone to tell me they noticed an increase in government services when a new government employee was hired.

Face it, your government, my government, has been spending millions of dollars needlessly for years. Would the millions wasted by government have been better utilized by the taxpayers?

The scary part is we are only talking about local government. I cannot begin to imagine the waste and corruption in the State and Federal Government and we probably don't want to know. The result might be worse than the Boston Tea Party."

Here is Shirley Brown's reply, "I do believe that there is often a direct relation to the number of government and employees and the increase in the population served. I know that is true for the school district. As the number of students increase, we must increase the number of teachers then later schools, principals, janitors, etc...

I agree that government should never over tax its citizens and that we can't tax our way out of an economic downturn. But I can't agree with the statement that taxpayers know how to spend their money better. One just has to look at the bigger and bigger gas guzzling SUV's and Hummers that were purchased over the last 10 years or the increase in spending on designer clothes and spa treatments or the rush to get rich quick in the real estate market. Taxpayers foolish borrowing and spending along with greedy business practices have to share in the blame of our current economic woes. It is not all government's fault."

WOW! Amazing, outrageous, unbelievable.

Are you connecting the dots between Senator Obama, State Representative Fitzgerald and School Board member Brown?

Each truly believes that they (big government) are in a better position to determine how to spend your and my money than we are. Senator Obama and Board member Brown clearly know best how we should live our lives.

Frightening isn't it.

It is for these reasons that we support Senator McCain for President and Laura Benson for the Florida House District 69 seat. Ms. Brown is not up for re-election but we must be wary of her attitude toward you and me, now and into the future.

Here is in their own words the "Audacity of liberal Democrats" for all to see. Words do matter.