“I remember that my old schoolmaster, Dr. Peabody, said, in days that seemed to us then to be secure and untroubled: ‘Things in life will not always run smoothly. Sometimes we will be rising toward the heights – then all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The great fact to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward; that a line drawn through the middle of the peaks and the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend.’…And so today, in this year of war…we have learned lessons – at a fearful cost – and we shall profit by them. We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other nations far away. We have learned that we must live as men, not as ostriches, nor as dogs in the manger…The Almighty God has blessed our land in many ways. He has given our people stout hearts and strong arms with which to strike mightily blows for freedom and truth. He has given to our country a faith which has become the hope of all peoples in an anguished world.” – President Franklin Roosevelt, January 20, 1941.

Quote of the Week

“The danger that people feel here is coming from terrorists and insurgents who are trying to destroy the possibility of this country becoming a democracy. Now where do we stand in that fight? We stand on the side of the democrats against the terrorists. And so when people say to me, ‘Well look at the difficulties, look at the challenges,’ I say, ‘Well, what’s the source of that challenge?’ The source of that challenge is a wicked, destructive attempt to stop this man, this lady, all these people from Iraq, who want to decide their own future in a democratic way, having that opportunity. And where should the rest of the world stand? To say, ‘Well, that’s your problem, go and look after it,’ or, ‘You’re better off with Saddam Hussein running the country’ – as if the only choice they should have in the world is a choice between a brutal dictator killing hundreds of thousands of people or terrorists and insurgents. There is another choice for Iraq – the choice is democracy, the choice is freedom – and our job is to help them get there because that’s what they want. Sometimes when I see some of the reporting of what’s happening in Iraq in the rest of the world, I just feel that people should understand how precious what has been created here is.” -Prime Minister Blair, Wednesday, in Iraq.

Malkin Award Nominee for Hysterical Use of Ideological Cliches

“The liberal elite think their superior wisdom, and their control of education and the media, should convince us to become a bunch of pagans. They fantasize we will give up our guns, values, morals, and Constitution. They romanticize we will embrace socialized medicine, tolerate failing schools, and become mindless socialist whimps eager to be euthanized before becoming a burden on society.” -Donald R. May, Townhall.com.

All – Time Malkin Award Nostalgic Entry

How could we forget the classic Pat Robertson fund-raising pitch: “The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.” Now, that’s how it’s done, ladies and gentlemen.

The Prince and Islam

Prince Charles has been doing his small bit to encourage interfaith dialogue and discourse. He is unfairly maligned in my opinion. His recent effort has been to encourage Muslims not to execute apostates. Now this was a small aspect of political Islam I was actually unaware of. If you’re a Muslim convert to Christianity in many Islamic states, you can be executed? In private discussions with British Muslim groups, Charles was told essentially to stay mum: “It is understood that the Muslim group, which included the Islamic scholar Zaki Badawi, cautioned the prince and other non-Muslims against speaking publicly on the issue. It argued that Islamic moderates could have more influence on the traditional position if the debate remained largely internal. A member of the Christian group said yesterday that he was “very, very unhappy” about the outcome.” Isn’t freedom of religion something we should insist upon in Iraq?

Dear Prudence

Slate’s often diverting advice columnist answers a gay correspondent who’s offended when someone finds out he’s gay and says: “What a waste.” Here’s Prudence’s reply:

“Prudie believes you are misinterpreting the remark. Rather than implying that the gay person has “no sort of life of their own,” Prudie finds it to mean, “You are GORGEOUS.” (And it’s the straight person’s loss that you bat for the other team.) It is meant both as a compliment and a lighthearted statement. As you may have divined, Prudie has made this comment, herself, and always to a big smile in response.”

Well, almost. The key way to figure this out is to reverse roles. If it emerges in conversation that a man is married to a woman, would he be offended if a gay guy were to say, “What a waste”? I think he would. Or am I wrong?

Mr. Sullivan writes every day for www.andrewsullivan.com.