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LIBERTY VS. DEMOCRACY


Would you prefer to live in a country that has:

(1) The rule of law with an honest civil service, strong protection of private property and minority rights, free trade, free markets, very low taxes, and full freedom of the speech, press and religion, but not a democracy?

(2) Democracy and a corrupt court and civil service, many restrictions on economic freedom, including very high taxes, with limited rights for minority religions, peoples and speech?

Many mistakenly believe democracy means liberty, but a quick review of world democracies show that is not true. Almost all democracies restrict economic liberties more than necessary. Many have corrupt court and civil service systems, inhibit women's rights, constrain press freedom and do not protect minority rights and views.

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A WIMPY METROSEXUAL HOOKED ON THE COCAINE OF ADULATION


My president went to Trinidad and Tobago, and all I got was this lousy Che Guevara T-shirt.

At a Caribbean resort, Obama grinned through a semi-erotic encounter with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, then failed to answer a "strategic rape" charge lodged against America by ex-Sandinista Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua (who knows plenty about rape).

Ignoring America's allies in favor of photo ops with anti-American leftists, such as Ecuador's Rafael Correa and Chavez, Obama blamed the United States for Latin America's problems.

Obama needs to get up off his knees. Foreign leaders have already pegged him as the wimpiest metrosexual this side of the men's grooming-products counter at Barney's.

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A CONSERVATIVE HAT TRICK

[This is the text of a speech I just gave at the Leadership Institute in Washington DC.  Founded in 1979 by Morton Blackwell, the LI has trained tens of thousands of conservatives for leadership in politics, media, and academia.  I encourage you to consider participating in and supporting its efforts. ---JW]

A CONSERVATIVE HAT TRICK: Achieving Limited Government, Energy Independence, and Victory Over Islamofascism
Leadership Institute - December 6, 2006

I've been a conservative all my life - even in high school and college.  I never went through some juvenile left-wing trip, I always thought Che Guevara was a commie thug, always admired Barry Goldwater and of course, Ronald Reagan.

Yes, I'm an Ayn Rand Objectivist, Ludwig Von Mises laissez faire capitalist type of conservative, yet I've always thought that the conservative political movement held the best actual hope in reality for solving many of America's most basic problems.

In truth, though, I don't care about problems.  I care about solutions.  Problems are not important.  Only solutions to them are.  So this morning, we are not going to talk about problems - however easy and tempting it would be to do so in our post-November 7, Speaker Pelosi world. 

Instead we are going to talk about solutions, solutions to three of the largest problems we face today.  How do we achieve genuinely limited government, end our dependence on foreign oil that subsidizes our enemies, and defeat a threat to our liberties greater than even Soviet Communism, that of Islamofascism?

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ACHIEVING PROSPERITY IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE


Suppose you were appointed global economic czar, and your task was to bring the world's per capita income up to the level of Ireland – which is almost that of the US. Would you:

(A) Insist the world's rich nations transfer substantial wealth though massive foreign aid to the poor nations?

(B) Insist all nations adopt policies that would make them as economically free as the top 10 freest economies today?


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SHOULD PAKISTAN’S NUKES BE DESTROYED LIKE IRAN’S?


In the current era of ideological polarization, throughout the West, the Right and the Left diverge on almost every issue. One of the few convictions that still unifies national security strategists across the ideological spectrum is that it would be a global calamity of the first order if al-Qaeda gets its hands on nuclear weapons.

Unfortunately, due to the rapid demise of nuclear-armed Pakistan as a coherent political unit, this nightmare scenario is looking more possible than ever. Indeed, if events continue to move in their current direction, it is more likely than not that in the near future, the Taliban and al-Qaeda will take possession of all or parts of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.

Given the failure of the US's political strategies of securing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal by supporting Pakistan's government, and fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, it is becoming apparent that the only sure way to prevent the Taliban/al-Qaeda from taking control over Pakistan's nuclear weapons is to take those weapons out of commission.

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THE IRAQ SENILE, STUPIDITY, AND SURRENDER GROUP


One hundred and forty years ago, British philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) wrote:

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse... A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. (Dissertations and Discussions 1867 Vol.1 p. 26.)
A perfect description of the Democrat Party leadership and the editors of the New York Times today.  Which is why they are hyping the Iraq Study Group Report to the moon. 

They hope to use the hype to force President Bush to surrender in Iraq.  They will not succeed.

Yesterday (12/06), I and a small group of conservatives met with a top White House aide (whose comments were not for attribution so I can't name him).  In so many words, he told us that President Bush's response to the Iraq Study Group Report and the media hysteria around it is:  "Thank you for sharing."

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RECOGNIZING SOMALILAND



To The Point supports the recognition of Somaliland as a viable nation independent of Somalia. As Richard points out, even though Somaliland is a success and Somalia an anarchic failure, our State Department refuses to advocate its recognition, for fear that would be announcing that the borders of most African states are make-believe - which they are. Somaliland is one of To The Point’s “Liberation Links” listed in the left side bar. You can learn more about Somaliland by going to www.somalilandnet.com -- JW


What is Somaliland? Don't be embarrassed if you don't know. Very few people know, and that is the beginning of the problem. Somaliland is not Somalia, but is a part of what used to be Somalia -- and it may or may not be an independent country. As you may recall, Somalia was the country in which the famous "Black Hawk down" incident (and later movie) occurred. Somaliland is on the Horn of Africa, surrounded by Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and the Gulf of Aden.

First, a little history:

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THE SPRING APOLOGIES TOUR


The real climax of Mr. Obama's Spring Apologies Tour wasn't his photo op with our troops in Baghdad or even his "American Guilt" concerts in Western Europe.

While fans in the press cheered wildly at every venue, the real performance came in Turkey. And it was a turkey.

For those who believe Obama means well - or that Jimmy Carter, his policy godfather, meant well:  the road to embassy takeovers and strategic humiliation is paved with good intentions, coupled with distressing naïveté.

On every stage, Obama draped Lady Liberty in sackcloth and ashes, drawing plentiful applause but no serious economic or security cooperation in return. Then, in Turkey, he surrendered our national pride, undercut our interests and interfered in matters that aren't his business.

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SHARIA WATCH


Ufda.  That's Swedish for "Wow" - or more colloquially, "Holy Anti-Islamofascism, Batman!"  The worldwide response to our memo calling for The Creation of an Anti-Islamofascism Movement last week, patterned on the Anti-Communism Movement during the Cold War, has been truly astounding.

The memo has gone "viral," with blogs reproducing it all over the Internet.  Dozens of groups have contacted us wanting to cooperate and participate.  My co-author Steve Baldwin and I have lost count of the number of supportive emails.

Folks, we have a phenomenon here.  It won't be long now before we have a movement with an organized infrastructure dedicated to identifying and targeting the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the Islamofascists.

But as this is being built, people are impatient to start doing something now.  So we are proposing an action program called Sharia Watch.  There will be a Sharia Watch website up soon coordinating folks' participation across the country, but in the meantime, you can engage in a Sharia Watch on your own in your community.

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THE BURSTING OF MR. OBAMA’S GREEN ENERGY BUBBLE


With the selling of Mr. Obama's economic agenda now reported in full gear, it is an opportune moment to take another look at what he has told us he would do and, more importantly, what he hasn't told us about the economic cost of his energy plans.

The answer to the former question is straight forward. In his address to Congress, he pledged to double the production of renewable energy in the next three years, lay down thousands of miles of new transmission lines and introduce a "market-based cap on carbon pollution" to promote clean energy, fight global warming and "put Americans to work making homes and buildings more efficient."

Perhaps the best place to start seeking  answers as to how costly and realistic this agenda is likely to turn out is to look at the record of the three countries Mr. Obama specifically mentioned as  leading the United States in the renewable energy revolution: China,  Japan and Germany.

That record shows that such a revolution is a fantasy and that the green energy bubble has burst.

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THE FRAUD OF DARFUR


The latest liberal cause célèbre is the "humanitarian crisis" of "genocide" in Darfur.  It is very difficult to find on this earth a more remote wasteland having no connection whatever to American interests than this patch of the Sahara Desert in western Sudan. 

But of course, that is precisely why liberals are so hysterical about it.

The first thing to understand is that there are no Christians in Darfur.  They're in the south, Darfur is way over there in the west.  The conflict, which started in 2003, is between camel-herding nomads and farmers in the desert - both of whom are Moslem.

The Darfur Conflict is purely Moslem:  Moslem versus Moslem.  No Christians are involved.  It is strictly Moslem tribal warfare.

The infamous "Janjaweed" militias of nomadic Abbala tribesmen are all Moslem.  The Fur, Zaghawa, and Massaleit farming tribes they are attacking are all Moslem. 

Moreover, there is not one side versus another.  It's chaotic tribal warfare between dozens and dozens of tribes who are continuously switching sides - sometimes right in the middle of a battle.

If there is anyplace in the world that America has no interest being involved in, this is it.

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WHEN MONEY DIES


Inflation is a way that governments can pay off their debts (albeit with depreciated currency) without outright default or overt tax increases.  In the U.S., government debt has grown to impossible-to-pay levels.  Yet the spending is rapidly accelerating. 

The immensely costly new programs being created on an almost daily basis by the Obama Administration and the Democrats (mostly) in Congress come at a huge price, most of which (along with the continuing burden of Medicare and Social Security, etc.) can only be paid for by continually increasing the money supply into hyperinflationary territory. 

It is thus highly instructive to read the best account of what actually happened during Germany's hyperinflation of the early 1920s.  Until now, this was difficult and very expensive to do.  Amazon, for example, has only one single copy of When Money Dies:  The Nightmare of the Weimar Collapse by Scottish writer and Conservative politician Adam Dugdale Fergusson.  The price is $2,500!

Now there is a way to read it for free.

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GEORGE BUSH’S GEOPOLITICAL GENIUS


George W. Bush may be historically recorded as America's most frustratingly puzzling president.  He is fundamentally a decent man, a genuine Christian with enormous moral courage.  This is what infuriates the Left about him.

It is his incomprehensible blind spots that drive conservatives around the bend.  The one regarding illegal immigration is the worst, with many saying impeachably so.  His refusal to destabilize Iran, which most likely will cause the Iraq War to be lost, is another.

Yet with other geopolitical issues, he sees with astounding foresight and clarity.  The best example is India.  The first thing he asked Condi, when she became his National Security Advisor, was about India.  She hadn't thought about it.

"Biggest democracy in the world, only country in Asia capable of standing up to China," he explained.  "I want a plan from you on how we develop a military, political, and economic alliance with India."  Condi said she'd get right on it.

"Oh, yes," he added, "make sure it includes support for military cooperation between India and Israel."

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AN INVESTMENT STRATEGY FROM A BILLIONAIRE


[To The Point is honored to have legendary investor Robert Agostinelli tell us his investment strategy in what he calls "Obambi Land."]

With the zealot flame of blind activism taking advantage of the dislocation in the banking and real estate markets, we are faced with near unprecedented conflagration in the global markets that we all rely on to manage our wealth.

Absent this opportunist attempt to "melt" down the free market system  and impose a social democrat's illiberal  and centralized dream on all Americans, my advice would be more measured. However this is not the reality with which we are confronted.  

Thus, here are my thoughts on investing in Obambi Land for my friends at To The Point.

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A DAY TO CELEBRATE


Today is November 9th.  It is a very special day in the history of the world.  No, not because it's my birthday.  Because on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell.  Today is World Freedom Day.

It seems so long ago, doesn't it?  Yet for anyone who isn't still a kid,  the fear of the Soviet Union, the tyranny and genocidal oppression inflicted by the Soviets upon so much of the world, epitomized by the Berlin Wall, is what we grew up with.  Hardly anyone could even imagine it going away.

I'm recalling this history because it comes to mind now that there is a new inevitable doom engulfing Europe.  Like the Soviet Union, it can't be resisted, Europe's fate is sealed, blah, blah, blah.  This is, of course, the inevitable transformation of Europe into Eurabia, the inescapable submission of Europe to Islam.

The problem is serious.  The Soviet threat was very, very real, and so is that of Islam.  But problems are not important.  Only solutions to them are.  By focusing on the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the Soviet Communists, we were able to defeat them.  We can do the same with the Islamic Fascists..

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