The attempt by the Left to actually destroy religion in this country (front and center on Meet the Press this AM) is now on the front burner in almost all media. My question still revolves around the cowardice of most Christian churches to defend and proclaim their faith; see my post regarding Flagstaff AZ. God doesn't die until we allow Him to be killed.

E-mailer Bill D links to this Hillary for President 2008 musical number. Pretty funny and pretty scary too.....

Eric Hoffer is one of the great "persons with insights" of the 50s and would be relevent today were it not for the fact that he said things the elites don't want to accept. Terp refers us to Hoffer once again; a working class guy who had a real brain. Take this post as one more referral to a first rate mind. I can only say that his books are now dirt cheap and well worth the read.

A question I have repeatedly asked on this site is whether a society with a long history of despotic rule and acceptance of autocratic rule can embrace democracy. This question is addressed once again by VDH who directs his readers to a book by Natan Sharansky called The Case for Democracy. The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror. The more you think about a people to whom democracy is double talk the more you wonder if democracy has a place everywhere on the planet. Freedom is a concept without an audience in lots of places.

Sharansky starts with an analysis of "free" societies and "fear" societies. A society is "free" if it passes the "town square" test: "Can a person walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm?" Such societies will be free, if not always just. But those societies that flunk the "town square" test are "fear" societies, unfree and unjust.

Can any Muslim society pass the fear test? To those of you who answer Afghanistan, Turkey, Ukraine (at least 40% Muslim), and now Palestine I say wait. The test for democracy is tough times. Is Afghanistan a miracle, or is it what people really want if given the chance?