Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

MAJOR QUESTION: WILL THE UNITED STATES, ISRAEL, AND THE REST OF THE FREE WORLD SURVIVE OBAMA'S (HOPEFULLY SHORT) TENURE?

Charles Krauthammer, commenting on Sarkozy's astonishment at Obama's naivete at the U.N.:

"When France chides you for appeasement, you know you’re scraping bottom."

Krauthammer concludes his article (which should be read in full):

 ". . . A day earlier in addressing the General Assembly, Obama actually said, “No one nation can . . . dominate another nation.” That adolescent mindlessness was followed with the declaration that “alignments of nations rooted in the cleavages of a long-gone Cold War” in fact “make no sense in an interconnected world.” NATO, our alliances with Japan and South Korea, our umbrella over Taiwan, are senseless? What do our allies think when they hear such nonsense?

Bismarck is said to have said: “There is a providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children, and the United States of America.” Bismarck never saw Obama at the U.N. Sarkozy did."

THE FAITH OF FLORIDA QUARTERBACK TIM TEBOW

Mark Earley reports:

There’s a reason you’ll find cover stories about Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. And it’s not just his football prowess.

America’s largest church has a capacity to hold 16,000. But while Tim Tebow may not be a preacher, when he runs into the University of Florida’s football Stadium—affectionately known as “The Swamp”—his congregation numbers just over 90,000. And you can bet they’re hearing Tim’s message.

It’s not just that this University of Florida quarterback wears Bible verses etched into his eye black on game days. Tim Tebow has been making headlines for more than simply his Heisman Trophy win as a sophomore and his two national championships. This summer the New York Times, GQ, and Sports Illustrated all covered the quarterback’s strong Christian faith.

DR. ZERO ON THE "NEAR HORIZON" (HEALTH CARE) AND LONG RANGE POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES AND NECESSARY REBELLIONS

I don't know how to title Dr. Zero's valuable reflection on what kind of reaction there might be if Democrats ram through an unwanted health care bill, but I think his work stimulating and well worth reading.

[...] Big Government wants this health-care plan much more than the American people, who have organized with remarkable vigor against it. If the Democrats short-circuit representative government and reasoned deliberation, to force the greatest expansion of government power in American history down our throats with a parliamentary trick, it would be a triumph of power and aggression for a State that has come to see its people as obstacles to be overcome, rather than constituents to be served. . .

. . . If they muscle health-care reform through, they face an electoral bloodbath in 2010 from a population justly furious at the notion of industries nationalized through half-written bills, hustled through Congress at breakneck speed.

If the population isn’t furious about that, then we have reached the end of this chapter in American history – a chapter that began with a sprawling agrarian nation mastering the power of industry to defeat world-conquering monsters, and rebuild the broken nations of its grandparents. I do not believe that chapter will end with a tired, timid people agreeing they cannot be trusted to take care of their own bodies, but I speak from faith, not prophecy.