Try as he might while strutting around the stage, liberal hack Wolf Blitzer couldn’t get a rise out of any of the Republican presidential candidates during the debate last night sponsored by the Tea Party Express. From the outset, the candidates, like the good leaders they are, controlled the debate and the conversation. It was a performance by eight individuals (well six, anyway) that every conservative, every Republican, every Reagan Democrat and every Tea Party Patriot must have been proud. Excluding Ron Paul who is only included for comic relief and Republican Jon (nie come lately) Huntsman, both of whom would be eliminated if this were a reality TV show, the mainstream candidates were all extremely good at articulating what the majority of Americans are thinking these days. Here’s my take on how they stacked up.
Winners in this order:
Mitt Romney
Newt Gingrich
Rick Santorum
Michele Bachmann
Herman Cain
Rick Perry
And a distant:
Jon Huntsman
And not even registering:
Ron Paul
Shame on Ron Paul for intimating on his website on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 that America was to blame for the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and in the fields of Pennsylvania! Paul is finished as a credible candidate (as if he ever was one) and should quietly remove himself from the public arena. Please don’t waste our time by including him in any future debates. How humiliating for his son, Senator Rand Paul!
This September 11, like every September 11 we will all be reliving the horror of the brutal attacks on American soil by militant Islamic terrorists. And as we do every year, each of us will recall where we were and what we were doing at the time we heard the tragic news on that fateful day ten years ago. Let us also recall the nearly 3,000 human beings who lost their lives that day and the families they left behind. It is with great awe and tremendous appreciation that we remember the brave ‘first responders’ who gave their own lives to help others. The contrast between these great souls and the animals who attacked us could not be more striking. And let us not forget that more people were killed on 9/11 than during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
The attacks on the World Trade Center twin towers and on the Pentagon and in the fields of Pennsylvania were an overt act of war. Ten years later we are still at war with a brutal enemy who wants to bring sharia law to your town. This enemy thinks nothing of sending innocent children to do their bidding and then blowing them up…or stoning women to death and chopping off heads, hands and feet in the name of allah. Let us not be afraid to call them what they are. Let’s say it again…militant Islamic terrorists! We must redouble our efforts to destroy them and we must be prepared for a long fight. What ever it takes, we will root them out where ever they are.
We are grateful for President George W. Bush, our strong, steady leader who fearlessly set in motion the wheels that have brought the enemy to its knees. We are also grateful for our other great leaders like Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales, whose policies have kept us safe in the ensuing decade and still remain in place today. And finally, we thank all the wonderful men and women in uniform who have answered the call to serve their country and who are making the world a better place for everyone. May God bless each one of them and keep them safe until they all come home.
Since publishing our first article one year ago this week, What Makes US Great has slowly and steadily built up a loyal readership from all over the world. It has been gratifying to learn how many of us cherish the constitution and the principles that our great country was founded upon and to know the tremendous number of us who share the same belief in capitalism, a strong military, traditional family values, and the Judeo-Christian ethic. It has also been an inspiration to see how many people around the globe are interested in learning more about what makes the United States the great country that it is and who aspire to the same high standards as conservative Americans.
This past year we’ve touched on important issues such as the national debt, the budget deficit, union bullies, and burdensome government regulations. At the same time we have showcased some of What Makes US Great, including Living Legends from the Golden Age of Hollywood, Richard Nixon and our military heroes, past and present. In an effort to engage students and young readers, we have featured the Word of the Week, highlighting a useful English word used in one of our articles. The Word of the Week has become one of our most popular categories, attracting viewers from around the world. In the coming year we will have many new topics to discuss, in particular the 2012 elections, which many believe will be the most important in the history of our nation.
In addition to continuing the quality content that we have provided in the past, our goal for the coming year will be to increase the engagement of our readers through forums and polls. We would like to encourage you to offer your own views and suggestions in the ‘Comments’ section provided after each article or to contact us directly by email. As the past year progressed the number of visitors to What Makes US Great has exceeded some important milestones that a successful blog must attain. We want to thank each of you for your loyal support and encourage you to continue visiting our site. It is a real pleasure to connect with folks from around the world who share our love for the United States of America! May God bless you and your family.
Washington Dandies Surprised to Find Dust on Farms
Maybe we should see it as a good thing that the Washington bureaucrats left their cushy offices and the professors came down from their ivory towers to visit one of America’s most valuable institutions…the family farm. It was apparently the first time they noticed how hard the good people who operate them work to feed our country and, for that matter, the world. It seems it was also the first time they realized that there is actually dust out in the real world, especially out on the farmlands of America. One would think that sometime during their elite Ivy League education they might have learned that dust is a natural phenomenon, occurring everywhere there is an atmosphere like we have here on earth.
These two seem to be telling the Washington dandies to bug off!
A Natural Disaster
American farmers have coped with dust since the first settlers began tilling the ground centuries ago. More recently, they improved their coping skills by learning from their experiences during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, a natural disaster caused by the perfect storm of drought and severe wind erosion during a time of economic depression. The resulting devastation of farmlands eventually lead to improved farming practices such as crop rotation and contour plowing, which help prevent soil erosion. While many packed up and left the plains during the thirties, the majority of farmers hunkered down, gaining an even greater respect for the land as they pressed on. Now that the dust has settled for the time being, I think we can feel confident that if farmers are clever enough to survive in this difficult business, they certainly must know of the health hazards of dust particles and don’t need to be told to take precautions to protect their lungs and eyes. Most already voluntarily take steps to reduce the amount of dust produced by their daily operations and do not need another onerous (see WOW) regulation from the dandies in Washington.
Bureaucrats Try to Control a Reluctant Mother Nature
Back during the Dust Bowl, much like today, there was only so much that government bureaucrats could do to tame Mother Nature and it wasn’t until the drought ended and the rains came in 1939 that farmers recovered and began to get their lives and livelihoods back in order. The New Deal government of Franklin Roosevelt was not about to let a good ‘crisis go to waste’, however, and seized on the dust storms of the great plains as another opportunity to extend the tentacles of the federal government ever deeper into yet another aspect of American life. Seventy years later, the offspring of those agencies that were formed to manage the dust back then still exist. And guess what…there is still dust out on the plains!
Hard Working Americans
If meddling in dust control wasn’t enough, the bureaucrats are now trying to prohibit farm teens from driving a tractor on their own property, never mind they’ve been doing it without any problems since the first tractor hit the dirt on American farms toward the end of the nineteenth century. I recently heard from an 80 year old acquaintance about how she drove a tractor as a teen on her family’s farm. I’m sure she spoke for many others when she related how that experience contributed to the good work ethic which has lasted her a lifetime, not to mention the appreciation it gave her for the importance of food production in the United States and the valuable contribution made by those involved in this important work. A recent visit to my cousin’s farm brought home for me just how hard farmers work and how little they get in compensation. Most do it because they love the soil, they like to work hard and they enjoy the feeling that comes from contributing something of value to others! Hats off to American Farm Families…the very personification of the independent American spirit! They are truly a big part of What Makes US Great.
