In a country with a make-it-up-as-you-go morality, we trust no one that we do not have a first hand relationship with.  We extend some degree of trust to businessmen since there is a marketplace passing judgement on their efforts.

We, however, trust no one in government.  Judges, legislators and bureaucrats are all members of the power seeking class, and can be trusted not at all.

So, are you saying that although Palin is a serious libertarian /  conservative who has the cojones to confront the establishment statists of both parties, she comes up short because she lacks Lady Thatcher's articulation talents and she is therefore inferior to the play-it-safe GOP drones?

The perfect is the enemy of the good, and we have far too few good conservative politicians to take a pass on anyone of Palin's abilities.

FJG;  "If she wants to play politics again she needs to go back to her roots and do some things worth doing, to show what needs to be done and that she is the one that can do them."

We assume that the poll is referring to the 2014 senatorial election.  Palin should run and capture the seat.  Then, in 2016, she can run with approximately the same political stature as Obama, but with actual leadership experience.

Palin/Cruz.  Or Cruz/Palin.  Either way, the GOP will finally matter.

We're in.  Just ordered the Kindle edition.  We read books together, so you can call this a two'fer.

Historically, there has always been a degree of homosexuality in the military.  Occasionally there is homosexual aggression against male military members.  We don't hear about it in the media because it is taken care of in back alley confrontations.  Problem solved.  It isn't uncommon to hear stories about such confrontations.

Our personal view of homosexual activity isn't relevant to this post.  It is about sexual assault targets determining not to be victims.

If we're not mistaken, we are talking about the military.  Isn't that where men and now women are trained to do violence, even to kill, to overcome an enemy threat?  Napoleon said that an army marches on it's stomach.  Had he known more about human physiology, he would have said that an army fights on it's testosterone.

Human physiology is a very real and immutable part of reality.  Once the testosterone starts to flow, whether in training or actual combat, instinct gains prominence.  Don't believe it?  Try getting between a bull moose and a cow in-season.  

Humans are different... to a point, but instincts are overcome by self-discipline, not rule books and punishment.

Women are being trained to assume positions among men trained to be aggressive, not simply assertive.  Women are being run through physical training and taught to use violence against aggressors.  Where is that training being employed?  Can they not handle a male counterpart when he is over the line?

This isn't an issue about women as victims.  It is about women failing to defend themselves even though that is their training and what is expected from them.

We can only add our agreement.  And it is doubtful that almost any civilian could manage the poise and grace which the marines bring to an otherwise menial task. 

As Rush fans, we find the parsing of his pronouncements to be a temptation, and caught the very inference he made, as noted by Richard Fulmer.

But, we walk with great care in being critical of him.  Rush is virtually the only powerful voice that consistently presents the message of conservatism to a mass audience, and we do not want to diminish his influence, lest we unknowingly become a tool of his critics.  If Rush starts to wander off the reservation, a happening we do not anticipate, then we will join the critics.

But that will not be because he articulates a point in-artfully.

Funding is a function of a budget.  The US congress has not passed a budget in four years.  Their solution is continuing resolutions, which merely approve the previous years spending limit, but do not require that the original department budgets remain in place.  The result is that each year the same amount of spending is authorized.

But, the other element in this charade is the debt limit.  The new Secretary of the Treasury, Jack Lew today demanded that the congress approve another increase in that limit.  To the administration, this is a non-negotiable demand, to use his characterization.  Of course this is superfluous, because the Republicans operate in utter terror the moment the rebellious Tea Party members show signs of disapproval.

Bottom line;  there is no mechanism currently functioning within the legislative branch of government to block Obamacare. 

The only way it can be blocked is by courageous action, and if you are expecting that, you haven't been paying attention.

The money supply is expanding apace, but borrowing at record levels offsets the effect of the printing press.  As long as we borrow as fast as we print money, the inflationary explosion will not erupt.

But, when the debt bubble collapses, not only will the economy suffer a massive contraction, but the hyper inflation will be upon us as a second blessing.  When the collapse comes, it will be a mighty crash.

The obscene photo of a dead American diplomat being abused by his Islamist murderers is the symbolic statement that best describes the man who declined to take the 3:00 AM crisis phone call, even though it first came during normal working hours.  The photo of a crowd of Americans protesting the government headed by said same president, and being persecuted by that government, adds a dimension of reality to this surreal administration.

We are in danger of conflating the comments of the Pope with the doctrine of the Church.  You are correct in your defense of the Pope, but less so in your understanding of the reaction.  We are all too aware of the leftward tilt of the Conference of Bishops, and the efforts of liberationist theology to support progressivism.  That America has proven capitalism to be the most perfect system to express freedom and to help the poor seems to have been lost on the church.  And now, as America perverts the principles of Locke and Adam Smith, the collapse finds enthusiastic support in the economic ignorance of the Pope himself.

This isn't about doctrine, it is about practice.

It is curious that, at a time when we decry the loss of our Constitutional republic to the forces of godless progressivism, we still display our ignorance of the Western Judeo-Christian world view that impelled the Founders towards the ideas that gave us the greatest gift any people ever received; a government based upon the laws of nature and of nature's God.

Western Judeo-Christianity was the sole basis upon which the Founders established both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  Sadly, they failed to foresee a time when our understanding of their intent was so diluted that we would be unable to distinguish between the presence of a Bible, and the feigned offense of those who hate not only the Bible, but the very foundation of America.

"A simple National VAT".

By definition, there is no "simple VAT tax".

The European VAT is a tax on every stage of production of a commodity.  Tax digging the ore, Tax smelting it into metal, Tax transporting it to the rolling mill, Tax the rolling of the metal into sheets, Tax transporting it to a manufacturer, Tax the manufacturing process, Tax shipping it to a store, Tax the purchase.  It is a bookkeeping nightmare designed to grow the bureaucracy.

A simple Retail Sales Tax captures the taxes without the leviathan bureaucracy.  Remember, when a politician proposes a VAT tax, he is looking for a way to really screw you. 

You are correct.  Nevertheless, we refer you back to the third sentence;

"If you expect that to occur, you really haven't been paying attention."

It is unfortunate, but not unusual, that a man of limited experience in a corrupt third world country would universalize his experience, rather than seek a broader context for his pronouncements.

A bit of education, ala; Fr. Sirico, would go a long way towards clarity of communications.  The Pope rightfully condemns the corrupt world of statist capitalism and then looks to the even more corrupt principles of socialism for his solution.

As Dennis Prager says, prefer clarity over agreement.