The American Spectator

The Nation's Pulse

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Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights -- for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture -- is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination.

br> And while on the subject of the Catholic Church, here's a shout-out to its German shepherd, Pope Benedict XVI. His remarks on the incompatibility of Islam and reason sparked a debate that had heretofore gone unrealized. No less than a French philosophy teacher, Robert Redeker (who remains in hiding for his life), was inspired to write : br>

In the opening up to others, specific to the West, a secularization of Christianity appears, whose bottom line is summarized as follows: the other person must always pass in front of me. The Westerner, the heir to Christianity, is to be the one to make his soul exposed. He runs the risk of passing himself off as weak.

With the same ardor as Communism, Islam treats generosity, broadmindedness, tolerance, gentleness, freedom of women and of manners, democratic values, as signs of decadence. These are the weaknesses that it seeks to exploit, by means of "useful idiots," those of good consciences imbued with fine sentiments, in order to impose the Koranic order on the Western world itself.

br> And so we must always give thanks to the guardians of our Western values, those who stand between us and the tyrannies that confront us; our valiant troops serving around the globe. They are truly a gift from God to the nation they serve and living proof that, "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

On a personal note, I'd like to add my thanks to God for his many blessings on me this year, which included traveling a bit of our great country by steamboat to see his handiwork up close and meditate on its beauty. And more importantly, after a trip to Calcutta, India, a reaffirmation of the feelings of immense gratitude to him and my grandparents for making me an American.

topics:
Islam, Abortion, Constitution, Supreme Court, Communism, Immigration