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April 10, 2009 U.S. has been fighting Islamic fundamentalism since colonial eraBy Bryan Fischer As we watch the Somali pirate incident unfold in the Middle East, it serves as a reminder that, besides 9/11, Islam has had one other shaping influence on the history of the United States: we have a navy, thanks to the sea-going Islamic thugs of Thomas Jefferson's day, the Barbary Pirates. Even prior to our Declaration of Independence in 1776, Islamists under the control of an Ottoman warlord in Algiers were pirating American ships and enslaving their Christian crews. Thus our forefathers had early experience with...

The video speaks for itself. No additional commentary is necessary. So, instead of commentary, I merely provide some of Thomas Jefferson's wisdom to introduce this fine piece: "Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. The course of history shows us that as a government grows, liberty decreases." "The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." Video after the jump.

For young Somalis, piracy offers power, prosperity The Associated Press There are several known pirate groups in Somalia. One is based in the southern port town of Kismayo, which is controlled by Islamic insurgents. ... http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iR9XICoYi0CQt77GJUw5lNAPpG_AD97EGS200 Hot Air » Blog Archive » Somali pirates seize American ship, crew ... by Ed Morrissey Jefferson Versus the Muslim Pirates …one cannot get around what Jefferson heard when he went with John Adams to wait upon Tripoli’s ambassador to London in March 1785. When they inquired by what right the Barbary states preyed upon American shipping ... So here was an early instance...

The Mike Church take on the Simon & Garfunkel classic, "Mrs. Robinson"

"Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti republican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people--a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword...

I found the video at MRC but it wont open. Anyone know where I can find this video showing Gore stating after looking at our founding fathers busts "Who are these guys" when touring Monticello?

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe Thomas Jefferson The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. Thomas Jefferson It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which, if acted on, would save one-half the wars of the world. Thomas Jefferson I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense...

Just thought I would post an email I just received from my politically astute friend. Although I don't agree with most of Thomas Jefferson's policies, it really doesn't matter because he is long gone! John Kennedy once said to a assembled group of scholars in the White House, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." The quotes below could prove his point. When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in...

“If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, and give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses. And the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they do now, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means...

Later this month, an archaeologist at Thomas Jefferson's historic home of Monticello in Charlottesville, Va., will speak at Smith College about the use of the late president's plantation by the estate's residents, both free and enslaved. Sara Bon-Harper, archeological research manager, will lecture at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24, in McConnell Hall, Room 103, about "Defined Spaces: Landscape on the Monticello Plantation." The event is sponsored by the Program in Archaeology and the Lecture Committee and is free and open to the public. Bon-Harper's work at Monticello focuses on an archaeological survey of the original 5,000-acre plantation and the excavation...

On the morning of Wednesday, March 4th , 1801, Thomas Jefferson emerged from the Conrad and McMunn boarding house at New Jersey Avenue and C Street, where he had been residing for several months. Demonstrating his desire for “republican simplicity,” Jefferson broke the precedent set by his predecessors Adams and George Washington, who had worn elegant suits and swords for their inaugurations and been driven to the ceremonies in liveried coaches. The tall, 57 year-old Virginian wore, the Alexandria Times reported, the clothes “of a plain citizen without any distinctive badge of office,” and walked the short distance to the...

Learning From Conservative History: Main Trails . . . and Less-Traveled Paths - 01/02/09 This is part three of a symposium on contemporary conservatism hosted by ISI at Yale in November, 2008. Read part one. Read part two.By training, I am an historian. I love the discipline and believe that historical mindedness—the ability to see and understand the grounding of current institutions, issues, and events in the complex matrix of the past—this is the superior way to make sense of reality.All the same, I have been troubled for over a decade by the growing interest of American conservatives in...

Jefferson, in Some Cases, Could be Called a Prophet. When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe. -- Thomas Jefferson The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. -- Thomas Jefferson It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle, which, if acted on, would save one-half the wars of the world. -- Thomas Jefferson I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent...

Loading up the nation with debt and leaving it for the following generations to pay is morally irresponsible. Excessive debt is a means by which governments oppress the people and waste their substance. No nation has a right to contract debt for periods longer than the majority contracting it can expect to live. "I sincerely believe... that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale." --Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816. ME 15:23 "[With the decline of society] begins, indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia...

Subject: Words of Thomas Jefferson Our third President could very easily be called our greatest prophet. Here are some quotes from his prolific writings. When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe. The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. I predict future happiness...

The irony in this story is thicker than Rosie O’Donnell’s thigh. A hijacked Saudi tanker, the Sirius Star, taken by pirates off the coast of Somalia last week, is being threatened by Islamic militants who say they will “rescue” the ship from the pirates. Stating the hijacking is a crime against Islam (and really, what isn’t these days?), members of the Somali Islamist group al-Shabab arrived in the town of Harardhere to battle the pirates. Now before we go any deeper into this story let us get some things straight. Piracy is in fact against Islam...

Maritime officials said pirates off the coast of Somalia Friday hijacked another ship and released one that had been held for more than two months. Officials said three crew members escaped as pirates boarded the Liberian-flagged chemical tanker Biscaglia. A warship on patrol near the ship sent a helicopter to intervene. It arrived after pirates seized the ship, but rescued the three crew members who had jumped into the Gulf of Aden. At least 25 other crew members are still on board the hijacked ship. They are reported to be mostly from India and Bangladesh. Also Friday, Kenyan authorities said...

Details about another ship that was hijacked by Somali pirates and one that was released with the crew unharmed. Question: Why not have weapons aboard ships that sail these waters similar to our troops with rocket launchers that home in on a target painted with a laser beam. My guess is that putting a few prirate boats in orbit might discourage other pirates in the area...just a thought.

WASHINGTON -- Piracy has long been the consequence of disorder. America's first foreign war -- undeclared but authorized by Congress -- was waged by President Thomas Jefferson against the Barbary pirates. It is instructive history for those who believe that the problem of Somali piracy can be solved the same way. By the late 1700s, the European powers were incapable of maintaining maritime law and order, and Islamic piracy became a flourishing enterprise in the Mediterranean and along the Atlantic coast of North Africa. Despite "tribute" payments to the "governments" in Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and Morocco by the British, French...

This Thanksgiving Day while we are eating turkey and stuffing and watching the Philadelphia Eagles get trounced by Denver, one of our allies is on the brink of all-out war with radical Islam. The Indian Navy has taken lawful action to protect maritime commerce in the Gulf of Aden from the Somali Pirates (above right). Is the Muslim terrorist attack on Mumbai (above left) retaliation for India’s defense of shipping. MFP pities the fool that underestimates the Indian military.