Today is the 93rd birthday of the greatest American of the 20th century: Ronald Reagan. More than any other American of our day, he embodied the moral ideal personified by Aristotle as the man of Megalopsychia, the Great-Souled ManThe Great-Souled Man had a character of such integrity, inspiration, and achievement in the real world that his life expressed, for Aristotle, the Kalon, Moral Beauty. Five years ago, I wrote the following tribute to this extraordinary man. It will be published in To The Point on every February 6th from now on.

To go beyond all the outraged wailing and shocked gnashing of teeth over the MTV Super Bowl Half-Time Show, and understand what is really going on culturally, the place to begin is with William Strauss & Neil Howe’s 1991 book, Generations: The History of America’s Future-1584 to 2069.

If you were to describe in one word the Democrats fantasizing they can beat Bush in November, you would say Dean is a hothead, Clark an egomaniac, Sharpton a hustler, Edwards an ambulance-chaser, Kucinch a kook, Lieberman a moderate, and Kerry…?The word that Democrats want to apply to Kerry is “electable.”  What does this mean?  Exactly nothing, for that’s all he is -- that somehow he possesses some magical capacity to defeat GW.

The critical insight about the Soviet Union that led to its downfall was -- as I explained in countless Reagan Doctrine briefings during the 1980s -- that the Soviet Union didnt simply possess an imperialist empire of colonies beyond its borders: it was itself a colonial empire within its borders.

Well, if Bush’s immigration reform proposal isn’t about either, then what is it about? Special interest politics, of course. Please pardon the redundancy — for all politics in the US today is about special interests.

The Greeks called it the Euxine Sea. Jason and the Argonauts sailed across it to steal the Golden Fleece from the King of Colchis. The great city of Byzantium was built at its entrance, which became Constantinople, which became Istanbul.The 20th Century didn’t hear much about the Black Sea because, except for its southern Turkish shore, it was a Soviet lake. Early in the 21st Century, however, to the chagrin of the Russians and the joy of non-Russians who populate its shores, George Bush is transforming the Black Sea into an American Lake.

Let’s say there’s this fellow named Joe. He makes a living as a highway bandit robbing travelers. Any victim who gives him any trouble he kills. Joe has a special hatred for Jews. “Kill Jews wherever you find them,” he tells the members of his gang. At age fifty, Joe tells his best friend that he fallen in love with his daughter and wants to marry her. She is six years old. They are married and Joe starts having sex with the little girl when she is nine years old. Joe tells his gang that God talks to him. As the Messenger of God, every word of Joe’s is the Word of God. Anyone who refuses to believe this, Joe has his gang members kill them. Here’s the question: Is Joe a criminally insane pervert and moral monster, or is he worshipped by hundreds of millions of devout followers who deeply believe that he is the most moral human being who ever lived? The answer is: he is both. Joe’s real name is Ubul Kassim, an Arabian bandit chieftain who became known as Mohammed (“The Praised One” in Arabic) and founded the religion of Islam…

It wasn’t that long ago that a good many European Jews swore an oath: Never Again. Never Again will Nazi-like anti-Semitism be tolerated. Never Again will Jews be meekly herded down a path that leads to Zyklon-B showers. So in response to the explosion of anti-Semitism in France, what is the advice of France’s chief rabbi, Joseph Sitruk? Replace yarmulkes with baseball caps. "I ask young Jews to be alert, to avoid walking alone, to avoid wearing the yarmulke in the street or in the subway and consequently becoming targets for potential assailants," Rabbi Sitruk cautions. "I ask them to replace the yarmulke with the baseball cap.” This is the best way, he warns, “to protect our young people." Au contraire, Monsieur Rabbi. The best way for your young people to protect themselves would be for them to learn how to beat the crap out of those who attack them. Someone needs to make Rabbi Sitruk write 500 times on a blackboard the French translation of: The Best defense Is A Good Offense…

The older you get, the more staying in shape is like being the Red Queen of Wonderland: You have keep running faster and faster to stay in the same place.I want to wish you all a healthy and strong 2004. I can’t tell you how to achieve this, however, because I’m not you and we all have our individual differences and preferences. What I could do is tell you what works for me. This means I don’t have to insert any boilerplate blather about “consult your physician before doing any of this stuff.” You get to make up your own mind about that, and adapt for yourself whatever you think may be useful...

None of all the momentous events that occurred in 2003 -- the recovery of the US economy, the invasion of Iraq and military overthrow of Saddam’s regime, the capture of Saddam, the capitulation of Libya’s Kaddafi, you name it -- was the most important. The single most important event of 2003 is the one that didn’t occur: there was not one single successful terrorist attack in the United States.This is the single greatest achievement of the year -- and note the identifier achievement. This is not a lucky accident -- although luck and chance played a role as in most everything else in life. But those who are truly wise know that to a very considerable extent, you make your own luck, and this is what George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and John Ashcroft have done.One of the most amusing sights of 2003 was to see so many people turn their brains into jello over John Ashcroft. Anyone who has personally known Ashcroft can testify to his decency and integrity. Yet he and his Patriot Act became the focal point of hate for both the Loony Left and the Loony Right -- the Hollywood Left and Dizzy Dean Democrats see eye-to-eye with Jane Fonda Libertarians like Lew Rockwell, Pro-Moslem Conservatives like Grover Norquist, and Hate-Israel Paleocons like Pat Buchanan…

Merry Christmas! Wait — that was yesterday, wasn’t it? Nevertheless, today, December 26, is the First Day of Christmas. Ancient Christians celebrated “The Holidays,” as our militant secularists insist on referring to them now, starting with the day after the birth of Jesus and ending on January 6th, the visit of the Magi in Matthew 2:11 known as the Epiphany. Start with 12/26 and end with 1/6 and you get: the Twelve Days of Christmas.

You may be really tired of hearing Christmas songs by now, including this one, yet you may still be wondering what the heck partridges in

The founder of the Palestinian terrorist movement was Amin al-Husseini. As Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, he organized Arab rampages killing Jewish settlers in Palestine throughout the 1920s, formed an alliance with the Nazi Party of Germany in the 1930s, met with Adolph Hitler in Berlin in November 1941 to encourage him to slaughter Jews in Europe so they couldn’t escape to settle in Palestine, ordered Arab families to flee Israel upon independence so Arab armies could invade in 1948, founded the Palestine Liberation Organization, mentored his nephew Rahman Abdul Rauf al-Qudwa al-Husseini, and turned the leadership of the PLO over to him. His nephew assumed the alias of Yasser Arafat.

If I ask you to think of India, the image that most likely appears in your minds eye would be the Taj Mahal. Arguably the most famous building in the world and considered by many to be the most beautiful structure mankind has ever created, it was completed in 1648 by the ruler of India, Shah Jehan, to immortally entomb his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal.There is a painful problem with this image, however, for the great majority of folks in India: the Taj Mahal isnt an Indian building. Its Moslem, and thus for Indians a symbol of Islamic imperialism.

Bill Safire is normally the only thing worth reading in the New York Times, and he proved it with his latest column (datelined 12/8/03), which is devoted to completely messing up the mind of every Bush-hating Democrat in America.

It is a commonplace in a story or article about the Arab-Israeli conflict that mentions Jerusalem to repeat the Moslem mantra that “Jerusalem is the third holiest city in all Islam, next to Mecca and Medina.” You’ve heard this innumerable times -- but how come? Just why is Jerusalem so important to not just Jews and Christians but Moslems as well?

This is a black day, a day for anyone associated with the Republican Party to be ashamed and embarrassed. Piling a new trillion-dollar Medi-Pander entitlement to appease geezer-beggars on top of all the others that the Republicans should be busy eliminating is way, way beyond scandalous. Why, then, has the Republican Party from President Bush on down become determined to betray its basic principles?

Let’s play fill-in-the-blanks. In general, Americans and Europeans are Christians. Arabs are Moslems. Indians are Hindus. Chinese are _________? If you have trouble filling in the last blank, it’s because the answer is blank. From time immemorial, the Chinese have been the least religious of any of history’s major civilizations. Daoism, Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism are rationalistic quasi-religions lacking any personal relationship with a transcendent deity or deities. The ancestor- and spirit-worship of Chinese folk religion is individualized to families only.

A year from now you and I will be celebrating George W. Bush’s re-election. It’s in the bag, and the reason why is deeper than the economy or Iraq. It’s because GW figured out Bill Clinton’s secret while the Dems forgot it.

I love the way President Bush mispronounces the Iraqi dictator’s name:  SAH-dum, not sah-DAM.  Whereas the latter pronunciation in Arabic means “One Who Confronts,” the former means “Barefoot Beggar.”  Be assured that when GW says SAH-dum in his speeches broadcast to the Arabic world, he is doing it on purpose.

The Barefoot Beggar has finally agreed to let in UN inspectors because he is confident he can hide his WMD — weapons of mass destruction — from them.  But if GW tells Dick Cheney to give his former colleagues at Halliburton a call about utilizing oil field discovery technology, that

Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?  It's the Left -- liberals, left-wingers, socialists, commies, pinkos, the Noam Chomskys and Alec Baldwins and Barbra Streisands -- that hates America.  But the Right -- good old flag-waving patriotic God Bless America conservatives?  How could they possibly be anti-American?  It sounds ridiculous.Yet whatever sense or nonsense it makes, Anti-Americanism is seeping into the entire conservative movement and is threatening to splinter it into pieces.

It is only with the most extreme caution and reluctance that someone making repulsive and racist statements should be labeled a Nazi.  Hitler's crimes were so monstrous that most comparisons to them cheapen and insult their horror.  Yet there are times when such comparisons are justified and Malaysian leader Mohammed Mahathir's now-infamous speech is one of them.

It was a gorgeous spring day in Washington D.C. when I got a call from Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). The year was 1995. "Hey, Jack, can you come to my office late this afternoon? The Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg and his entourage will be here and I'd like you in on the meeting."

Ordinarily, I suggest that you forward my articles to any friends whom you think would appreciate them — but this is an exception. I’m going to ask you, as a TTP member, to keep this to yourself.

There is talk in certain, shall we say, “corridors of power” here in Washington about an “Ultimate Solution” to the whole Arab-Israel Gordian Knot that is so breathtaking and mind-blowing that I’d just like to keep it between ourselves for now.

Here’s the background and the outline.

We start with how the countries of the Middle East were created out of the shards

As the libs gloat and revel over the travails of Rush Limbaugh, their books bashing Bush take over the bestseller lists, their media hails Democratic presidential wannabes as saintly saviors of America and subjects us to a daily deluge of disaster in Iraq, it's time for the good news.

The now-legendary late-hit of the Los Angeles Times on Arnold five days before the election has had the salutary effect of making the major media's liberal bias unavoidably clear to all.

Ten years ago, in 1993, Sylvester Stallone made a movie entitled Demolition Man .  He played a Los Angeles super-cop in the late 90s who is framed and sentenced to being frozen in suspended animation.In 2032, he is revived to solve an unprecedented crime wave.  He knows nothing of what has happened in the intervening 35 years.  Stallone's partner is a lady cop played by Sandra Bullock.  As they are driving down a LA street, Stallone asks where they are going."We are going two more blocks to turn left at the Schwarzenegger Presidential Library, then continue..."Stallone interrupts her.  "What did you just say about a library?" he asks."Well," Bullock explains, "After we passed the 32nd Amendment to the Constitution which allowed a naturalized citizen to become president..."Stallone interrupts her again.  "You mean that guy..."  He shakes his head with weary incredulity, waving off the rest of Bullock's explanation.  "I don't want to hear about it."Where did Stallone get his crystal ball?

There is an organization of conservatives which has met in private thrice annually since 1981.  As a member for over 20 years, I am obliged not to mention its name or membership.  Suffice it to say that virtually every major conservative figure in America belongs.

One of the most amusing things about the Washington Circus is how media feeding frenzies are almost always about phony irrelevant scandals, while truly serious scandals are ignored.

Let's start with two things we know for sure about Hillary.  First, she wants to be President.  Second, she will do anything to be so.  There is no lie she won't tell, no friend she won't destroy, no pledge she won't break, no slander she won't spread, no political dirty trick she won't employ in order to reside in the White House again, this time as the POTUS.Now let's look at one thing you should know about George W. Bush.  He's smarter than Hillary.

I recently received a very kind letter from ToThePointer Hagan Hetz, of the famous Fairview Evergreen Nurseries in Pennsylvania (www.fairviewevergreen.com). He wanted to know what I thought of President Bush's September 7 address to the nation on Iraq. OK, Hagan, here it goes. While listening to GW, I was thinking about Alberto Fujimori.

It is impossible for the ordinary human mind to fully grasp the evil of Joseph Stalin.  He purposefully engineered the starving to death of over ten million people in Ukraine.  In terms of mass murder, Stalin's Ukrainian Holocaust was an even greater crime than Hitler's Jewish Holocaust. Millions more were hauled off to be enslaved and die in the Gulag, or tortured and shot for the slightest suspicion of anything Stalin was suspicious of.  Many of his closest deputies were ordered to put their parents, wives, or children to death to prove their loyalty. Yet this tyranny, this monstrous evil, is not a mystery.  Evil exists, deeply embedded in certain human souls.  That isn't mysterious;  it is a basic fact of  human society.  The true mystery is why and how such is evil is tolerated.  Stalin tyrannized the Soviet Union for thirty years.  In all those years, there is not one single known attempt on his life.  Not one. Which then, is the greater depravity:  Stalin killing people, or no one killing him?  The former, of course.  Evil itself is the greater evil -- but toleration of it is the greater mystery.

When Albert Einstein wrote and offered his initial papers on the Special Theory of Relativity in 1905, he was an unknown clerk in the Swiss Patent Office with no academic credentials.  Needless to say, for established professional physicists, the overthrow of the principles upon which their lives' work was based by a 26 year-old kid nobody every heard of did not go over too well.So almost 100 years later, here comes another kid, a high school dropout no less, who may impact 21st Century science the way Einstein did the 20th.  Peter Lynds, a 27 year-old broadcasting school tutor from Wellington, New Zealand,  may change the way that we think about time and its relationship to classical and quantum mechanics and cosmology.