Townhall.com Weekend Journal  
Salem Radio Network
Michael Medved spoke with Robert Spencer, an author and expert on Islamic Terrorism about the Somalian pirates. Morning in America’s Bill Bennett spoke with former Assistant United States Attorney for New York Andrew McCarthy about the pirates from Somalia; Dennis Prager discussed the Christian-based dating site eHarmony and their devastating battle in court; Dr. Albert Mohler looks at the latest in the fallout of California’s Proposition 8—where the Golden State voted again to support traditional marriage.

Planet Obama
by Theodore Dalrymple
...For now, Obama’s election has restored American prestige. It denies anti-Americans the pleasure of charging America with irredeemable racism. But the roots of anti-Americanism are far deeper than the ostensible reasons for it. Americans no less than the rest of the world have reason to be skeptical.

Big Lies that Poison Thanksgiving and Subvert Our Sense of Honor
by Michael Medved
...lies about America's past badly distort current debates over public policy. It's not true, for instance, that governmental activism provides a necessary remedy for periodic economic downturns. In fact, leaders who courageously resisted the temptation of major federal initiatives at times of crisis presided over shorter, less painful recessions, while the ambitious innovations of Hoover and FDR worsened and prolonged the Great Depression...

Obama's Debt of Gratitude to George W Bush
by Jules Crittenden
As the transition progresses and Barack Obama's inauguration draws closer, it's a good moment to mull the gifts George W. Bush has left for the incoming president. Bush has made the world a better place, and if Obama wants to do the same, he will take the good things Bush has done and move forward with them...

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Proclamation
by President George Washington
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness"...

Thanksgiving Story Resonates in Year of Crisis
by Caroline Baum
...With proper incentives in place, the Pilgrims produced and enjoyed a bountiful harvest in the fall of 1623 and set aside "a day of thanksgiving" to thank God for their good fortune...We now know the Pilgrims' good fortune had nothing to do with luck. In 1623, they were responding to the same incentives that, almost four centuries later, are recognized as necessary for a free, productive and prosperous society. Just how necessary, we're about to find out.

Obama: First Moves
by George Friedman
...[Obama apparently] understands that a president can’t pursue his principles if he has lost the ability to govern. To keep that ability, he must build his coalition. Then he must deal with the unexpected. And later, if he is lucky, he can return to his principles, if there is time for it, and if those principles have any relevance to what is going on around him. History makes presidents. Presidents rarely make history.

The Snub that Wasn't
CNN
CNN was forced to correct a story after anchor Rick Sanchez manipulated a video in order to ridicule the president.

Obama's One-Trick Wizards
by Spengler
...One wants to ask the Wall Street wizards who comprise the talent pool for the incoming administration, "If you so smart, how come you ain't rich no more?"...They will bail out incompetent, failing firms and drop money from helicopters and call it a stimulus package. And it will turn out no better than it did for the humiliated Republicans.
Related: Bernanke: I Was Wrong About Subprime Crisis     U.S. Pledges Top $7.7 Trillion to Ease Frozen Credit

Why Reporters -- and Judges and Professors -- Are Biased
...The best analogy of the directing of all human endeavors toward a left-wing purpose would be those early medieval centuries of European life when just about everything man made was supposed to reflect a religious consciousness...Most moderns look upon that period as a dark age...

Legislating Immorality   
National Review
...the drive for same-sex marriage is in practice about legislating moral conformity — demanding that everybody recognize homosexual relationships in the same way, regardless of their own beliefs. Freedom of conscience, or diversity of belief, is the last thing the homosexual lobby will tolerate...

Admit We Don’t Know
by William Kristol
...At least the liberals, being more or less Keynesians, tend to agree on what should be done. The more idiosyncratic conservatives tend to be all over the lot. But, basically, it seems to me, we’re all flying blind. The markets are spiraling down, and our leading experts don’t have much of a clue as to what to do...

Ten Random, Politically Incorrect Thoughts
by Victor Davis Hanson
...6. Something has happened to the generic American male accent. Maybe it is urbanization; perhaps it is now an affectation to sound precise and caring with a patina of intellectual authority; perhaps it is the fashion culture of the metrosexual; maybe it is the influence of the gay community in arts and popular culture. Maybe the ubiquitous new intonation comes from the scarcity of salty old jobs in construction, farming, or fishing...

What Went Wrong?
by Victor Davis Hanson
...Conservatism’s social message used to be something like “Don’t do all the things that you are otherwise free to do” or “Just because we don’t make all your appetites illegal, does not mean that some are not immoral.” Conservative populism is not anti-intellectualism at all, but rather a disdain for excess and arm-chair elitism. In short, explain why conservatism appeals to the innate values of most ordinary Americans and the squabbling about the proper message disappears...

Moral Tradition and the Assault of the Activists
by Johannes L. Jacobse
...Human rights then, depend on a religion that serves as the source of a shared moral tradition and shapes a consensus on basic matters of right and wrong. If that tradition is abandoned the consensus shatters, and our ideas of what constitutes a human right are shorn from their moral moorings...

Climate Change Rules Shouldn't Hurt Economy - Germany
Dow Jones Business News
Italy and Germany agree that measures to cut greenhouse gases shouldn't weigh on the economy, Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a press conference Tuesday, indicating government support for tough new measures in Europe is waning. Any new European Union decisions on climate change and energy "must be taken in such a way as to not weigh on industry" in Europe...

Let Detroit Go Bankrupt
by Mitt Romney
...Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check...
Related: Big Three CEOs Flew Private Jets to Plead for Public Funds

On G-20 and GM: Economics, Politics and Social Stability
by George Friedman
...Thus the financial crisis became a recession, and the recession triggered bankruptcies. And because no one wants bankruptcies right now, everyone who can is using taxpayer dollars to protect the taxpayer from the consequences of mismanagement. And the last thing any one cared about was the G-20 concept for the future of the economic system.

Why Prop 8 Victory was Pyrrhic for Conservatives
by Rod Dreher
...The concept of marriage has largely been severed from established norms in the popular understanding and is now seen as a contract formalizing the love a couple (for now) has for each other. Today, marriage has no intrinsic meaning that people are meant to serve; rather, it can be shaped to support people's desires. This is the logical next phase in the development of modernity...

Is Gay the New Black?
by Dennis Prager
...Just as there were those who once believed that blacks and whites should not be allowed to be married, the argument goes, there are today equally bigoted individuals who believe that men should not be allowed to marry men and women should not be allowed to marry women...
More: If Democracy Doesn't Work, Try Anarchy

'Constitutional Crisis' Looms Over Obama's Birth Location
by Bob Unruh
...Citing the constitutional requirement that a president be a "natural born" citizen, the case discusses other state and federal court cases regarding "aspects of lost or dual citizenship concerning Senator Obama. Those challenges, in and of themselves, demonstrate Petitioners' argument that reasonable doubt exists as to the eligibility of the Democratic Party’s nominee for President," the case said...
More: Where's the Birth Certificate

Cancel the 'Blank Check'
by Jim Myers
..."It is just outrageous that the American people don't know that Congress doesn't know how much money he (Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson) has given away to anyone," the Oklahoma Republican told the Tulsa World. "It could be to his friends. It could be to anybody else. We don't know. There is no way of knowing"...

The Immorality of Pacifism  
by Dennis Prager
A pacifist believes that killing is always wrong. Don’t confuse this doctrine for a love of peace… War is not the answer? Depends on the question, doesn’t it. It was the answer to the Nazis; it’s the answer to Al Qaeda.

Obama: Fear and the Security Force
by Selwyn Duke
...its real mission is to radicalize American youth and use them to bring about ‘social change' through threats, pressure, tension and confrontation -- the tactics used by the father of community organizing, Saul "The Red" Alinsky. As bad as this sounds, I believe the reality will be far worse...

Wall Street Socialism Paves Way for Global Government
by Clif Kincaid
...First it was “Big Government to the Rescue.” But since that didn’t work, we now need “Global Government to the Rescue.” We will not only lose our money but the sovereignty of our nation. Our media have been active accomplices in this unfolding catastrophe.

Emanuel Volunteers Americans to Do 'A Lot'
by Bob Unruh
...WND reported last weekend when the official website for Obama, Change.gov, announced he would "require" all middle school through college students to participate in community service programs. However, after a flurry of blogs protested children being drafted into Obama's proposed youth corps, officials softened the website's wording...

MSNBC Retracts False Palin Story; Others Duped
by David Bauder
...The hoax was limited to the identity of the source in the story about Palin—not the Fox News story itself. While Palin has denied that she mistook Africa for a country, the veracity of that report was not put in question by the revelation that Eisenstadt is a phony...

Progress Doesn't Come from Washington
by John Stossel
...In a free society, with constitutionally limited government, the president would be a mere executive who sees to it that predictable and understandable laws are enforced. But sadly, the prestige and power of the presidency have grown, and liberty has contracted. That is not something to celebrate...

Some Positive Reactions from the Right
by Dennis Prager
...One would expect that I would be devastated at Barack Obamas election -- as devastated as liberals were at the reelection of George W. Bush in 2004. I am not -- yet. Here are some reasons why...The treatment of President George W. Bush by liberals has been despicable, undeserved and unprecedented. We who oppose Barack Obama's policies will, hopefully, act in accordance with conservative values of decency...

Remembering Our Veterans
Veterans Day
by William Holston
Although we Americans don't always appear to remember the sacrifice of our veterans, there are people in other countries that clearly do. Recently, my 86 year old father was in the hospital. One of his excellent nurses was from the Philippines. I mentioned to her that my dad had been in the Philippines during World War II. The nurse asked, "During the Japanese Occupation?" I said yes, that he was in the Army Air Corps in the South Pacific and had landed in Manila on the way home. She said, "So, you're one of those guys who liberated us?"...

Superficiality
by Jon W. Ulrich, Exclusive to the Nixatron Blog-Times
...The American populace has spoken, and they have selected rhetoric over substance, untested promises over proven sacrifices, and even hope over hard work. I have serious doubts about President-Elect Obama, and only he can prove me wrong. Let’s pray that there is more to the man that what we see on the surface.

Show Me the Money
by Thomas L. Friedman
...to everyone overseas I say: thanks for your applause for our new president. I’m glad you all feel that America “is back.” If you want Obama to succeed, though, don’t just show us the love, show us the money. Show us the troops. Show us the diplomatic effort. Show us the economic partnership. Show us something more than a fresh smile. Because freedom is not free and your excuse for doing less than you could is leaving town in January.

The Happiness Hour  
with Dennis Prager
Hour Two of Dennis' Friday show focuses on happiness as a choice. This week he discusses happiness and the post election blues for those whose candidate(s) didn't win.

Obama To Re-Appoint Pro-Fairness Doctrine Commissioner To The FCC
Say Anything Blog
...Henry Rivera, a longtime radical leftist, lawyer and former FCC commissioner, is expected to lead the push to dismantle commercial talk radio that is favored by a number of Democratic Party senators. Rivera will play a pivotal role in preventing critics from having a public voice during Obama’s tenure in office...

Obama's Chief of Staff Pick a Freddie Mac Alum - Will Media Notice?
by Jeff Poor
...“Clinton’s going-away gift to Emanuel was a seat on the quasi-governmental Freddie Mac board, which paid him $231,655 in director’s fees in 2001 and $31,060 in 2000,” Lynn Sweet wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times on Jan. 3, 2002. During the time Emanuel spent on the board, Freddie Mac was plagued with scandal involving campaign contributions and accounting irregularities...
More: Rahm Flashbacks     Choice Signals Shift Away from Campaign Emphasis of Unity     Aggressive Style Called 'Cross between a Hemorrhoid and a Toothache'

Obama's Challenge
by George Friedman
...Presidents are elected by electoral votes, but they govern through public support. Obama and his supporters will say there is no danger of a repeat of Bush — who believed he could carry out his agenda and build his political base at the same time, but couldn’t. Building a political base requires modifying one’s agenda. But when you start modifying your agenda, when you become pragmatic, you start to lose your supporters...
More: Dick Morris: President Obama--A Trustee in Bankruptcy

The Treatment of Bush Has Been a Disgrace   
by Jeffrey Scott Shapiro
...Our failure to stand by the one person who continued to stand by us has not gone unnoticed by our enemies. It has shown to the world how disloyal we can be when our president needed loyalty -- a shameful display of arrogance and weakness that will haunt this nation long after Mr. Bush has left the White House.

Who Will Run America?
by John Stossel
...Williams pointed out that the White House doesn't govern what happens in your house. And a president certainly cannot control the economy. We, all of us, run the country. "Politicians have immense power to do harm to the economy. But they have very little power to do good," Williams says. The failure to understand this is at the root of many of our problems...

An Election Day Note: Thanks, President Bush   
by Andrew Breitbart
...The fact that the United States has not been attacked since Sept. 11, 2001, far exceeds the most wishful expert predictions of the time. Perhaps facing another al Qaeda-led barrage would have reinforced our need for national unity, caused us to recognize the gravity of the Islamist threat and fortified Mr. Bush's standing at home and abroad. Yet, thankfully, that never happened. And Mr. Bush has been punished for this obvious success...

Will Americans Really Vote to Fundamentally Transform America?
by Dennis Prager
...aside from those who hold left-wing views, relatively few want America fundamentally transformed. This can be seen by analyzing the largest groups voting for Barack Obama...

In the Tank for Obama
by Jack Kelly
...The problem hasn't been the tough reporting on Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, Mr. Malone wrote for the ABC News Web site Oct. 24. It's been the virtual absence of such reporting on the Democrats: "Are Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko that hard to interview?" Mr. Malone asked. "All those phony voter registrations that hard to scrutinize? And why are Sen. Biden's endless gaffes almost always covered up? "If the current polls are correct, we are about to elect as president of the United States a man who is essentially a cipher, who has left almost no paper trail, seems to have few friends (at least who will talk) and has entire years missing out of his biography," Mr. Malone said.

Obama's Spiral of Silence
by Wynton Hall
...when mass media create an impression that the majority of society holds one view on a topic, those who hold minority opinions are cowed into a “spiral of silence” for fear of reprisal or isolation from those in the majority.

Townhall.com Weekend Journal  
Salem Radio Network
Bill Bennett had a conversation with Texas Senator John Cornyn about the one area where an Obama presidency can last a generation: The courts; Michael Medved caught up with an old colleague of Barack Obama's, Prof. John Lott; Dennis Prager discusses Barack Obama's notion of "change;" Bill Bennett sat down with Newt Gingrich to learn more about the direction of Congress should Democrats get their way.

Reality Check: The Cost Of Obama's Campaign Promises
CBS News
...He gave us a very compelling vision with his ad buy tonight. What he did not give us was any hint of the cold reality he's facing or a sense of how he might prioritize his promises if voters trust him with the White House.
More: Obama Lays Plan to Deaden Expectation After Election Victory

Marching Toward a Dark River
by Wesley Pruden
...How could a man with no record, no experience, no known convictions and no known core beliefs so mesmerize the millions to turn themselves, their children and their country over to a man armed only with neatly pressed pants, a good shoeshine and a seductive voice? We don't even get the salesman's smile...
More Obamania: 'Raffles' Chance To Join Him Election Night     Spent $700,000 for Stage, Lights in Berlin     Kenyan Aunt in US Illegally     Bumps Reporters Critical of Him Off Plane