We’ll post more news as we get it, of course. Oh: and if you have any boy names that you think would work, feel free to post ‘em :)

Two and counting! Woohoo!

• Fred Thompson will run, advisers say
  (hat-tip to Argus-reader/Uncle BuzzFan)
• Thompson says he plans to run, wants to be 2008’s outsider

Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas‘ military wing in the Gaza Strip, said the willingness by some lawmakers to talk with Syria “is proof of the importance of the resistance against the US.

“The Americans know and understand they are losing in Iraq and the Middle East and that their only chance to survive is to reduce hostilities with Arab countries and with Islam. Islam is the new giant of the world,” he said.

I can’t add much to that.

(hat tip to the Emperor)

Al Qaeda in Iraq, along with the Iran-backed terrorists fighting alongside them, will declare victory — and, frankly, rightly so: they calculated that the people of the United States didn’t have the gut for a long, protracted struggle, and it would seem that they were right. I say “it would seem”, because I believe the people of the United States are up for the fight, no matter how long or bloody it gets — it’s our “leaders”, the media, and the blowhards that dance in and around both of these circles that think otherwise. Unfortunately, it’s these last groups that hold the reins and therefore dictate policy. So they hem and haw amongst themselves, wailing and moaning about how our country is so backwards because the decay of socialism isn’t nearly as far along as it is across the pond, or about how the pitiable ignorance of the plebes keeps them from recognizing the full extent of the danger of Global Worming Warming. All the while the real enemy plots and snickers, having learned how to perfectly tug the strings to make our “leaders” do what they want them to do: allow them to develop nuclear capabilities (Iran), establish countless agents inside their target’s borders (thank you, Prez, for those porous borders — gotta have those guest workers!), and continue to build up their currency reserves because we’re too afraid of the political ramifications of cutting off funding or relations (Saudi Arabia, the “Palestinians”, etc.).

As I browse the web, I sense among the writings of many authors — and more so among their reader’s comments — a growing sense that we as a country are nearing a day of reckoning. Our half-century of ignorant cavorting as a culture has sown us a future of misery, and I suspect (as, apparently, do an ever-growing number of you) that the harvest will begin within our lifetimes. We have strayed far enough from our roots — political, moral, cultural — that we no longer have the foundation necessary to withstand, as a country, a great struggle. As we find ourselves facing another world war (albeit one metastasizing in the shadows), I fear that our “leadership” will respond in one direction, a direction that is polar opposite to the direction that the people would respond in. I fear this disconnect will be such an overwhelming surprise to our “leaders” — even though it really shouldn’t be — that they won’t heed it, give it the full attention it deserves, and adjust their heading to match ours. I fear that this tension, driven by diametrically opposed responses to a growing existential threat, will lead to a great conflict within our country, made all the worse by the ignorance of many of us to the events leading up to it.

It’s important to me to point out that I don’t think this great internal conflict is directly related to the war on Islamic fascism (aka the incorrectly named “war on terror”) or in any way validates the goal of the terrorists to create a global Islamic state. The only way in which this conflict is tied to the “Long War” (my personal favorite name for it, as it’s been ebbing and raging since the 8th century AD) is in that it happens to be the external struggle that will force the people of the U.S. to finally make hard choices about what they want their country to be and to do. The terrorists will no doubt think that they have won a great victory when the U.S. descends into it’s internal conflict, but they will be wrong: the people of America will fight for their land, their freedom, and the idea of the Constitution of the United States until there are none left standing. Do not mistake the weakness and spinelessness of our “leaders” as representative of the at-large population. Any terrorist (or nation-state, for that matter) that mistakes the coming internal conflict in the U.S. for an opportunity to be exploited will be rudely awakened.

Regardless, I no longer feel we as a nation can do anything to prevent this eventuality — the will and presence of mind simply isn’t there in a nationally cohesive way. I continue to have faith that God will take care of us, and I will continually seek to match my wants and desires to His perfect will for my life. I will continue to prepare for the coming hardships that I think are inevitable; indeed, the only real question in my mind is, “How soon?” That the Lord will provision for us eternally does not preclude His allowing us to suffer temporally (and temporarily); indeed, my God-given nature — and background: Eagle Scout, engineer — compels me to prepare for the worst, even while I continue to pray for the best.

“We do not inherit the world from our parents — we borrow it from our children.”