Townhall.com Special Edition: The Year in Review  
Salem Radio Network
Bill Bennett interviews Fouad Ajami, director of the Middle East Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University, about the voting in of Hamas in the Palestinian elections; Hugh Hewitt brings in several experts to discuss the Muslim cartoon controversy—including blogger Joe Carter and Salem hosts Michael Medved and Dennis Prager; and Dennis Prager speaks with columnist Charles Krauthammer about the "Second Lebanon War."

Looking Back on the Follies of the Year Ahead
by James Lileks
History, a wise man said, is a pack of tricks we play on the dead. Very well: Let's get out the deck and deal. As we stand on the cusp of 2008, let's look back on the follies of 2007...

Happy New Year
by Oliver North
...As we reflect on things at the end of this year, let us ask ourselves why our confidence to overcome hurdles has eroded and how we can reclaim it. Officials in Washington may not want to admit it, but there is a "long haul" ahead against Islamic jihadists. For that, we need to add to the best-trained, best-equipped fighting force in the world. And for the fact that we did not experience an attack on our homeland in 2006, we need to thank them, as well as the professionals in our homeland security agencies...

Kwanzaa: Holiday from the FBI
by Ann Coulter
...More African-Americans spent this season reflecting on the birth of Christ than some phony non-Christian holiday invented a few decades ago by an FBI stooge. Kwanzaa is a holiday for white liberals, not blacks. It is a fact that Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by a black radical FBI pawn, Ron Karenga, aka Dr. Maulana Karenga. Karenga was a founder of United Slaves, a violent nationalist rival to the Black Panthers and a dupe of the FBI...

The Underappreciated President
by Fred Barnes
[Gerald Ford's] greatest feat, leading America out of the traumas of Watergate and Vietnam, has routinely been viewed as an important but hardly towering achievement. But it was no small accomplishment. It was not something that any politician who stepped into the presidency, unelected, in August 1974 could have pulled off. It took a strong personality and guts...
George Will: Ford Remembered

A Comedian's Sigh, the 4th Commandment, and a Better New Year
by Michael Medved
...the Fourth Commandment, in other words, belongs in the Top Ten not because it requires your attendance in church or synagogue (it doesn’t) but because it forces you to take a look at creation and your place in it. The purpose is perspective – the sort of perspective that’s only achievable when you forget about the urgent and the pressing and concentrate instead on the important and timeless...

The Culture War is About the Authority of a Book
by Dennis Prager
If you want to predict on which side an American will line up in the Culture War wracking America, virtually all you have to do is get an answer to this question: Does the person believe in the divinity and authority of the Five Books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah?...
Now consider this: 1st Muslim Congressman Thrills Crowd in Dearborn

And speaking of values...

A Battle for Global Values
by Prime Minister Tony Blair
...Let me be quite plain here. I do not always agree with the United States. Sometimes it can be a difficult friend to have. But the strain of anti-American feeling in parts of Europe is madness when set against the long-term interests of the world we believe in. The danger with the United States today is not that it is too involved in the world. The danger is that it might pull up the drawbridge and disengage...

Biggest Story of Our Time: Our Self-Extinction
by Mark Steyn
...Christmas is a good time not just for Christians to ponder the central proposition of their faith -- the baby in the manger -- but for post-Christian secularists to ponder the central proposition of theirs: that religion is a lot of goofy voodoo nonsense and that any truly rational person will give it the bum's rush. The problem with this view is that "rationalism" is looking less and less rational with each passing year. Here are three headlines from the last couple of weeks...

God Rest Ye Merry
by Wilfred M. McClay
...“To save us all from Satan’s power/ When we were gone astray”...The darkness does not go away. Not now, not yet. But the light that shines into it can make even the bleakest midwinter into a landscape glistening with promise. So may it be for each of us, this and every Christmas.

U.S. Borders: Going-Going-Gone!
by Wes Vernon
...North American "Security and Prosperity Partnership," being implemented by the Department of Commerce, could pave the way for a transnational entity called the North American Union....Some experts say that up to a million people in Texas stand to lose their homes and 584,000 acres of rich farm and ranchland are to be destroyed, all for a privately funded [international] highway...

Berger And Lies
Investor's Business Daily
Sandy Berger deliberately pilfered and hid classified documents. So why is Scooter Libby the one facing prison time? And why aren't these docs on the front page of the New York Times?...

Dogma Without God
by Daniel Henninger
...Atheists and the unchurched undervalue the extent to which they are getting a free ride on the social strength that religious-based virtue provides. It's one thing to write in a book that we don't need them. But I'd rather not run the real-world experiment of navigating without them. And this is why this weekend so many will spend an hour with virtue's originalists.

Consequences of the 'Blind Sheikh's' Eventual Death
by Fred Burton
...In a 1998 news conference, al Qaeda members read Rahman's purported last will and testament, saying it called for "violent revenge" should he die in U.S. custody. However, although jihadists might dedicate a future attack to Rahman, or claim one in his name or memory, his death will not be the real motivation.

Our Allies, the Summer Soldiers
by Ed Koch
...Let's convey to them our intention to pull our troops out of Europe, out of South Korea, out of Japan and wherever else they are stationed overseas. Let our allies contemplate what life will be without us at their side.

Ten Principles of Conservatism
by Terence P. Jeffrey
As a very political year approaches an end, and a new presidential election cycle looms, it’s a good time for conservatives to step back from partisan politics and reflect on their cause. What do conservatives believe? Here are 10 principles worth pondering...

Kidnappings on Rise in South Texas
by James Pinkerton
...Crime in Mexico — gangland decapitations have become a gruesome fad this year — has grabbed most of the headlines. Meanwhile, the kidnapping trade has quietly flourished in the Rio Grande Valley, where Americans have about the same chance of getting abducted as they do in Mexico, officials say...

When Jackals Play Watchdog
by Peter Brookes
What do China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia have in common? Well, for one, they have dreadful human-rights records. For another, they're supposed human-rights watchdogs - as members of the United Nations' new Human Rights Council...

Giving in America: Tis the Season
by Doug Wilson
The Christmas season has always inspired me. It’s a time for giving gifts, cherishing family, and reconnecting with old friends. It’s a time for personal generosity and philanthropic giving. It’s also a perfect time to examine the state of charitable giving in America...

Townhall.com Weekend Journal  
Salem Radio Network
Hugh Hewitt speaks with world columnist Mark Steyn about the Iraq Study Group report and how the media elite treated it; Dennis Prager discusses the Holocaust denial conference sponsored by the government of Iran and contrasts this with the suggestion by the Baker Commission's ISG report that we speak to the rogue nation; and Michael Medved interviews Brigitte Gabriel, a Lebanese Christian who has been warning the world about Iran and others in the Muslim world who want to eradicate competing belief systems.

Want to Reduce Poverty? Lower Those Tax Rates
by Matthew Ladner
When the US government ended "welfare as we know it" in 1996, it handed responsibility for reform to the states. In so doing, it also created a real-world test of two competing economic strategies used to fight poverty. The results are in and the lessons are clear: Low tax rates lift up the lives of America's poor...

Charitable Gift Ideas for This Holiday Season
by Debra England
...Americans are such a generous people that of $250 billion in annual charitable giving, 75% comes from 225 million private individuals - far outweighing the donations of foundations. By adopting a strategic, investment-minded approach to funding, everyday Americans can amplify the impact of their charitable giving while supporting the values upon which our nation was founded...

The Intolerance of Tolerance
by Greg Koukl
...Most of what passes for tolerance today is nothing more than intellectual cowardice, a fear of intelligent engagement. Those who brandish the word "intolerant" are unwilling to be challenged by other views or grapple with contrary opinions, or even to consider them. It's easier to hurl an insult—"you intolerant bigot"—than to confront an idea and either refute it or be changed by it...

Targeting Che
Investor's Business Daily
Target, the retailer that distinguished itself last year by banning Salvation Army bell-ringers, has topped itself this yuletide by selling Che Guevara CD cases for a little tyrant-chic right under your tree...

Intrusive Facts
by Jed Babbin
In the midst of about three hours of Pentagon briefings Tuesday a few seemingly disjointed facts emerged. Each is a major data point that exposes the vacuity of the Baker-Hamilton ISG's recommendation to negotiate with Syria and Iran...
Related: James Baker's Fiasco     VDH: Talking to Iran a Mistake for Strategic, Moral Reasons

Failing to Know the Enemy, And Ourselves
by Jack Kelly
...The pressing business of Congressmen (raising money for their re-election campaigns and stuffing earmarks into appropriations bills) takes up a lot of time. But is it too much to ask that members of the intelligence committee -- especially the chairman of the intelligence committee -- know the basic facts about the enemy who attacked us on 9/11?...

Beware of Illegal Aliens Seeking Hazmat Licenses
by Michelle Malkin
...Illegal alien Mohammed Yusef Mullawala, 28, of Jamaica, N.Y., had obtained driver's licenses from New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island. He was reportedly in a hurry to get a commercial driver's license and a permit to haul hazardous cargo...

Capital Punishment--Another Argument For It
by Dennis Prager
...those who still wish to argue for keeping all murderers alive will need to argue something other than "an innocent may be killed." They already support a policy that ensures innocents will be killed.

How Jewish Family Values Shaped Christianity
by Lisa Miller
...It all began with the habits and culture of Judaism. The emphasis on family, on sexual morality, on caring for one's kith and kin—all were (and are) sacred Jewish traditions, and the transmission of those mores from a relative backwater of the Roman Empire in the first years of the Common Era to our own time is the unlikely result of Mary and Joseph's parenting, the disciples' failed apocalyptic hopes and, ultimately, the early Christians' search for a way to survive once they realized the Second Coming was not as imminent as they first believed...

Townhall.com Weekend Journal  
Salem Radio Network
Hugh Hewitt talks to the Founder and President of the Center for Security Policy Frank Gaffney about Robert Gates' confirmation hearing; Michael Medved interviews Dennis Prager regarding his controversial take on the Muslim Minnesota congressman who said that he will take his oath on the Koran; and Bill Bennett speaks with Herb London, President of the Hudson Institute about the Democrats' refusal to give John Bolton an up or down vote which then led to his stepping down.

Dictatorships & Double Standards
by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick (1979)
...a posture of continuous self-abasement and apology vis-a-vis the Third World is neither morally necessary nor politically appropriate. No more is it necessary or appropriate to support vocal enemies of the United States because they invoke the rhetoric of popular liberation. It is not even necessary or appropriate for our leaders to forswear unilaterally the use of military force to counter military force. Liberal idealism need not be identical with masochism, and need not be incompatible with the defense of freedom and the national interest.

Fed-Mexico Plan Eases Bank Transfers
by Jerry Seper
...The taxpayer-subsidized program "seems designed to facilitate the transfer of wealth by illegal immigrants to bank accounts outside the United States," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a Washington-based public watchdog agency...

Understanding James Baker, Co-Chair of the Iraq Study Group
by Richard Booker
...Along with his many accomplishments and positions in government, Baker is the senior counsel for the Carlyle Group, a major international financial organization with extensive interests in the Middle East, including the Saudi royal family and the bin Ladens. His law firm, Baker Botts, is representing the Saudi government in the 9-11 victims lawsuit against Saudi Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz...

Our Pearl Harbor
by Victor Davis Hanson
...after Pearl Harbor, Americans believed they had no margin of error in an elemental war for survival. Today, we are apparently convinced that we can lose ground, whether in Afghanistan or Iraq, and still not lose either the war or our civilization. Of course, by 1945, Americans no longer feared another Pearl Harbor. Yet, we, in a far stronger and larger United States, are still not sure we won't see another Sept. 11...

The Danger of Engaging with the Enemy
by Jeff Jacoby
...negotiating with Iran and Syria over the future of Iraq is about as promising a strategy for preventing more bloodshed as negotiating with Adolf Hitler over the future of Czechoslovakia was in 1938. There were eminent "realists" then too, many of whom were gung-ho for cutting a deal with the Fuehrer...No regimes on earth have more to gain from an American defeat in Iraq than the theocracy in Iran and the Assad dictatorship in Syria. They have every incentive to aggravate the Iraqi turmoil that has so many Americans clamoring for withdrawal...
Part One in this series: Fighting to win in Iraq
Related: 'This is Unfair' Say Iraqis on US Panel Withdrawal Recommendation

Carter Book Criticized
Associated Press
A longtime aide to Jimmy Carter has resigned from the Carter Center think tank, calling the former president's new book on Israel and the Arabs one-sided and filled with errors...

Islam Gets Concessions; Infidels Get Conquered
by Raymond Ibrahim
...Put another way, when Muslims beat infidels, it's just too bad for the latter; they must submit to their new overlords' rules with all the attendant discrimination and humiliation mandated for non-Muslims. Yet when Islam is beaten, demands for apologies and concessions are expected from the infidel world at large...

Gaza Stripped
by Joseph Braude
...During Arafat's rule, the United States, World Bank, European Union, and Arab governments poured $7 billion into the Palestinian Authority to try and help forge a viable Arab-Israeli peace. As much as half that sum is reported to have gone AWOL, with only a small fraction recovered to date. And Suha [Arafat] has proved to be only one of several big-time beneficiaries...

For Illegal Aliens, Crime Pays – and So Do We
Family Security Matters
...a disproportionately high percentage of illegal aliens are criminals and sexual predators. That is part of the dark side of illegal immigration. When we allow the “good” illegal aliens into America, we get the bad ones along with them. The question is, how much “bad” is acceptable and at what cost to us, literally and philosophically?...

Congress Open to Passing Bill on Immigration
by Charles Hurt
Congress will approve an immigration bill that will grant citizenship rights to most of the 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S. after Democrats take control next month, predict both sides on Capitol Hill...

Civil Wars or Proxy Wars?
by Spengler
...A long war of attrition against Iran will succeed unless Iran can break out of encirclement, which in practice means acquiring nuclear weapons...but if the West as well as the Saudis is confident that nuclear weapons remain out of Iranian reach, the Richelieu strategy of slow and bloody attrition might be just as effective.

Radioactive Spy an Islamic Convert?
World Net Daily
...Their biggest fear, the paper reports, is that Litvinenko, who died of polonium-210 poisoning in a London hospital, may have been helping al-Qaida or other extremist groups get hold of radioactive material to be used in a devastating "dirty" atom bomb. Britain's secret intelligence service MI6 had earlier learned that al-Qaida was prepared to pay $3 million a gram for polonium 210, G2 Bulletin reported last week...

The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness
by Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr, MD
...To rescue the people from their troubled lives, the agenda recommends denial of personal responsibility, encourages self-pity and other-pity, fosters government dependency, promotes sexual indulgence, rationalizes violence, excuses financial obligation, justifies theft, ignores rudeness, prescribes complaining and blaming, denigrates marriage and the family...As is the case in all personality disturbance, defects of this type represent serious failures in development processes...

Townhall.com Weekend Journal  
Salem Radio Network
Professor Arthur Brooks discusses a detailed study with Hugh Hewitt that reveals the relationship between worldview and generosity; Patrick Fagan appears on Bill Bennett's program to talk about the unprecedented numbers of women who are having children out of wedlock; and Michael Medved interviews Robert G. Williscroft, author of the new book "The Chicken Little Agenda."

Obsessed with Iraq, We've Lost Sight of the Rest of the World
by Garry Kasparov
...As the world's sole superpower, the U.S. has become a lightening rod. Any intervention causes resentment, and even many traditional allies oppose U.S. plans almost out of hand. America's overly proactive foreign policy has also allowed other nations to avoid responsibility for their own safety, and to avoid making the tough decisions that come with that responsibility. At the same time, the U.N. has become a perfect example of a broken institution...
Related: Iraq Study Group Has Reached a Consensus     A 1991 Kurdish Betrayal Redux?

About Those Imams
by Richard Miniter
...Contrary to press accounts that a single note from a passenger triggered the imams' removal, Captain John Howard Wood was weighing multiple factors...

White House Warned on Airlines
by Sean Lengall
...The Transportation Department, under orders from President Bush, is proposing to allow foreign investors to increase stock ownership in U.S. airlines from 25 percent to 49 percent...

Arabs May One Day Miss George W. Bush
by Michael Rubin
...The majority of Arab civil society may celebrate Bush's election rebuke and welcome the end of the Bush years but, as anger fades and Washington re-embraces realism, Arab reformers from Rabat to Riyadh may find they have missed their best opportunity, while dictators and theocrats seize theirs...

Police Report, Passenger Reveal Flying Imams Up to No Good
Pajamas Media
...When six traveling Muslim clerics were asked to deplane last week, it looked like another civil rights controversy against post-9-11 airport security. Now new information is emerging that suggests it was all a stunt designed to weaken security...

Democrats Reject Key 9/11 Panel Suggestion
by Jonathan Weisman
...with control of Congress now secured, Democratic leaders have decided for now against implementing the one measure that would affect them most directly: a wholesale reorganization of Congress to improve oversight and funding of the nation's intelligence agencies...

Blood and Oil
by Victor Davis Hanson
...With a divided U.S. government and a slight dip in world prices, there is a window of opportunity. Democrats can ask for more mandated conservation and alternate energy; in exchange, Republicans can bargain for more drilling and nuclear power. In World War II, an energy-independent United States bombed the oil fields of the Third Reich to stop Hitler's killing. Today a wartime but energy-hungry America is daily enriching our worst enemies...