Gnomon remembers back in 1972 when the debate over aborting babies first entered our innocent consciousness. One of the arguments abortion opponents made was that if we start legally killing fetuses, we will end up euthanizing the sick and unwanted.

"No, no," we were told. "You anti-abortion fanatics are just being hysterical. That could never happen. The memory of Nazi Germany is too fresh. We would never get into euthanasia."

Now, here we are in the 21st century debating which babies to euthanize outside the womb. Putting other people to sleep is already acceptable in Holland, Belgium, and Oregon.

Now we're back to the babies again.

Stress makes your white blood cells older, says a new study from the University of California, which makes you older, which makes you die.

"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones," says King Solomon.

"In your life expect some trouble
But when you worry
You make it double
Don't worry, be happy... ," says Bobby McFerrin

When authorities like these dovetail, we are inclined to believe it.

Having apparently skulked in that cave a bit too long, al Qaeda co-pilot Ayman Al-Zawahri sent out a tape today proclaiming America must change its policy and treat muslims with "mutual respect and exchange of interests," or die.

Since we already do that, we must assume he's referring to special muslims -- like him. However, it doesn't seem likely that ideas will be what we exchange with a bloody butcher like Mr. Zawahri when the chance finally comes.

Steve Gardner, the brother from John Kerry's "Band of Brothers" that didn't go along for the ride, has been ridden out of town on a rail for his troubles.

Read about it here and some one please find this man a job. One he won't be booted out of for speaking against a dangerous demagogue.

By essentially asking people, "Don't you think President Bush should refrain from installing scofflaws on the Supreme Court?" the AP/Ipsos poll (renowned for it's marvelous, uncanny accuracy!) was able to get a response they interpret as meaning, "Poll: Majority want Supreme Court nominee to uphold Roe v. Wade."

This even though other polls show 55% believe life begins at conception, 68% favor outlawing partial-birth abortion, and 62% either want abortions more strictly limited or eliminated altogether.

The morality factor, it has become customary to note, was a major force in this month's election -- much to the stupifaction of the media class. The seeming confusion in public opinion comes in because of two typically american traits: Our reluctance to overturn even stupid laws (which can be skewed to indicate we want to keep Roe v. Wade), and our natural preference for individual autonomy (which can be equivocated into meaning most citizens are "pro-choice").

Meanwhile, the Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk, Iraq says western media are suspiciously exaggerating stories of alleged chaos in Iraq. In his opinion, "Western newspapers and broadcasters are simply peddling propaganda and misinformation."

The truth, says Archbishop Sako, is that "Universities are operating, schools are open, people go out onto the streets normally."

Not only that, but there is no organized Iraqi resistance of any note. The bombers and beheaders are "Saudis, Jordanians, Syrians and Sudanese," with the collusion of a handful of Iraqis.

He's previously expressed his conviction that, "Iraq as an engine of democracy does not sit well with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Egypt, and other neighbors, because civil rights for non-Arab minorities, religious liberty, and legal reform would bring into question the power upon which atavistic tyrannies and proven systems of repression are based."

"Why is there so much noise and debate coming out from the West now when before, under Saddam, there were no free elections, but no one said a thing?" the Archbishop, who had his run-ins with Saddam back in the old days, asks thoughtfully...

We were wondering what cicada plagues were good for. Now, we know: their dead little bodies make things grow.

Not that they're terribly unsupportive -- issuing periodic fatwas on how blessed it is to kill westerners and nuke America for Allah -- but apparently, radical muslim clerics are not enthusiastic enough about the Jihad to please that paragon of Islamic theology, Mr. al-Zarqawi.

Perhaps he is perturbed that leaders from the part of Islam that still has some sense, are meeting in Abu Dhabi looking for ways to restore sanity to the psychotic faction of their religion. No particular criticism of Islam intended; we all have our own psychotic religious factions, do we not?

There is a strong current in Islamic history that has stressed the Quran's copious teachings on peace and brotherhood and downplayed its more belligerant aspects. They're not the first religion that's had to do that, either.

It would have been nice if they'd spoken up a little sooner. Still, the hope that a rational Islam may yet reassert itself provides one thin ray of hope in this otherwise churning cauldron of religion in hatred's service.

We've seen their craters. We've photographed them streaking through the sky. They've smashed through roofs bruising women and cows, and they killed all our dinosaurs. But this may be the first time we've actually got a picture of them doing these things ( in this case, to an innocent Australian light pole).

See the story and awesome newspaper-enhanced photo here.

In response to President Bush having to personally go get his bodyguard because Chilean security goons wouldn't let him through:

"La Cuarta, a Santiago newspaper, described Mr. Bush's actions as a 'total breach of protocol' and referred to him as 'John Wayne ... definitely acting like a cowboy.' " (Washington Times, 11/24/04)

And making making it necessary to do that isn't a breach of protocol?

Just in time for the holidays: Our beef has been once again certified Mad Cow Free, and now it turns out the government exaggerated our nationwide obesity problem in a recent famous study.

Steakhouse gift cards make great holiday stocking stuffers!

As Paul Simon said, "These are the days of miracles and wonder." But clearly, we've moved beyond the boy in the bubble and the baby with the baboon heart.

You live in an age where you can bow down before an image of the Virgin Mary supernaturally impressed in a cheese sandwich, then go to your computer and blast away at JFK as much as you want.

What more can we possibly achieve?

Dan Rather is stepping gracefully aside from his news anchor job, but will continue to report on 60 Minutes II. Anyone unclear on why this is happening?

John Sylvester, the Madison, Wisconsin radio host who called Condoleezza Rice "Aunt Jemimia" has finally apologized for using that particular racial epithet -- mainly because it upsets too many other blacks he regards as non-Aunt Jemimas.

So, now he's turned to the warm, cuddly, totally non-offensive term "Trophy Black," denoting any person of color who serves in a Republican administration.

As President Truman did at the start of the Cold War, President Bush continues -- with the counsel of advisers and commissions -- to reorganize covert intelligence to meet new realities. One recommendation is to put all secret paramilitary operations under the Pentagon, which seems reasonable to us on the face of it.

Resistance is coming from the CIA old guard(as may be expected), the military (which usually likes getting more stuff), and conservative House Republicans.

Get with the program, guys. The old arrangements plainly did not work.

Oftentimes it's the little unguarded moments that reveal a man. With Lincoln, it may have been when he had his stovepipe hat shot from his head as he looked out over a live battlefield.

For the current President Bush, there are several incidents we are aware of that reveal his character. One of our favorites happened last night.

In Chile for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, the President was on his way in to a ceremonial dinner. Once he had passed and was posing for photos with his host and their wives, Chilean security at the door agressively blocked Mr. Bush's two Secret Service agents. That turned into a scuffle which eventually found one of the agents in a headlock.

As the confrontation verged on a fistfight, who should appear but the President of the United States. Rather than proceeding into the dining hall and letting his subordinates handle this problem, he had turned back to take care of it personally -- and alone.

Reaching over 2 ranks of Chilean security, he grabbed his head agent and pulled him through their ranks and into the hall. Noticing who was doing the pulling, the security guards finally relented and let the agent through.

Then the President straightened himself up, and went on about his business.

Time and again in the last 4 years -- standing on a firetruck at ground zero, throwing out the first pitch at the 2001 World Series in New York, flying into Baghdad for Thanksgiving last year -- Mr. Bush has demonstrated a refreshing fearlessness that has made him a quasi-folk hero to many.

And that, by the way, more than any other reason, is why we re-elected him this time: for the type of man he is -- paranoid liberal cultists notwithstanding. When the civilized world is under attack by amoral barbarians, you want a President who isn't afraid to dive into a fistfight when he has to, who doesn't leave such things to "the servants," as we suspect many Presidents and President-wannabes would.

Thank goodness tolerance and colorblindness are making such headway these days! A liberal Madison, Wisconson radio host displayed his recently by calling Secretary of State-to-be Condaleeza Rice "an Aunt Jemima" (Colin Powell is an "Uncle Tom," just to be evenhanded).

A conservative radio host in Milwaukee was suspended for 5 days earlier this month for using the term "wetback." No sign of that happening to the fellow who hurled the slur at Ms. Rice (it doesn't hurt that he's also the Program Director). We can let these things pass so long as they're directed at the Bush administration, evidently.

Not a peep out of Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson so far. The only black group to condemn him is the Faith Based Leadership Council, a group of 200 clergy of color.

No, no, it wasn't Bush that did it (despite the fact that he led in all the major polls virtually from the Republican convention to November 2nd).

It wasn't values, either (no matter what those pesky exit polls say).

And it wasn't the ads, the money, or the get-out-the-vote efforts that beat him.

No, muses Senator John Kerry, it was that darned Osama tape that came out just before election day -- that's what did it, don't you know.

So you see, by Mr. Bush being re-elected the terrorists won!

All the ambulatory Presidents showed up yesterday in the rain at the new Clinton Library and demonstrated that, when all else is said, the Presidency is really a small, private club composed of the only men who can understand each other.

As is customary on such occasions, everyone was cordial. Here's what Mr. Clinton said; Here are Mr. Bush's remarks.

Server glitches made it difficult or impossible for many of you to reach us yesterday. We apologize, and they seem to be fixed now.

Yes, there is a World Toilet Organization crusading for every person's right to clean waste management facilities. At this very moment they are holding a summit at the Bejing International Hotel to ensure that the 2008 Olympics in no way falls short regarding this most basic of human rights.

And Friday November 19th is World Toilet Day.

In tones reminicent of the way the defunct Soviet Union used to announce space missions, Russian President Putin said yesterday that his country is working on "weapons that not a single other nuclear power has, or will have, in the near future."

This sounds like he's building the Death Star, but apparently refers to other, more normal weapons. The new, sea-launched, supposedly Star Wars-proof Bulava is the prime candidate. Playing it up like this plays well at home, of course.

Still, when the head of Russia starts sounding like Khrushchev or Emperor Palpatine, it can still make the world do a double-take.

One of our favorite contemporary writers, Peggy Noonan, makes a remarkable point on Condi Rice heading up the State Department:

"Look at it this way. In every U.S. embassy and consulate in the world very soon, non-Americans will walk in to see two things: a picture of the American president and next to it a picture of the young black woman who is this nation's secretary of state. They will notice this, and consciously or not they will think: This truly must be some kind of country."

So true, and so american!

The Christian Science Monitor doesn't think this last election was an election because so many incumbents were re-elected. Why is this bad? Because...

"[It] reduces the contest of ideas that drives democracy. Legislative offices need fresh faces along with experienced hands to avoid entrenchment in lawmaking bodies."

While we understand that gerrymandering your congressional district to ensure you're re-elected is rather unfair (and has been since it began in the 18th century), it seems to us that the "contest of ideas" has never been more alive.

Extreme fringe groups, left and right, will disagree of course, but the last two elections have been held against the background of the nation's alleged "polarization," which is generally deplored. But what is this "polarization" other than people taking sides in the contest of ideas?

This last election offered a clearer choice between competing ideas than any since 1980, nationally and locally. While re-configured congressional districts may reduce competition in an isolated area, it has had the effect of increasing and sharpening it overall -- in the public mind as well as in Congress.

Michael Moore-type partisans tend to fuzz up the issues with paranoia and half-truths, but the 2004 election demonstrated once again the people's ability to pick their way wisely through the minefield of fact and opinion -- an ability we have been able to depend on for 230 years now.

When the people have plain presentation of the choices and ideas facing them, it can only be good for democracy. And, thanks to the ancient art of gerrymandering, the ideas are clearer than ever -- much to the discomfort of some.

President Bush, as everyone already knows, has picked Condoleezza Rice to be his new Secretary of State. In doing so -- along with his previous choice of Alberto Gonzalez as Secretary of Justice -- the President has signaled in no uncertain terms that there will be no slowing or turning back in his second term.

These are people that have been the true architects, along with Mr. Bush himself, of the major initiatives of the first term. In many ways, Ms. Rice already was the Secretary of State; Mr. Powell merely added his considerable prestige to policy.

As one of the foremost geopolitical thinkers of our time, Ms. Rice is the best of all possible choices for State in the Gnomon's opinion. Let's hope that she leaves a deep impress on that most recalcitrant of Cabinet-level departments.

The great but unpredictable Leonid Meteor shower begins this week. There's no better time to go out and watch your planet being bombarded from outter space.

The American Meteor Society explains meteor showers in general here, and the Leonids in particular here.

According to Time Magazine, Al Qaeda would like to smuggle some nuclear weapons in through Mexico. What's siginificant about this is not the story itself -- that's been around for some time. It's that it appeared in Time, which for unaccountable reasons is considered a reputable news source in high places.

Can we close the borders now?

It's become apparent even to the New York Times that there was no significant voter fraud in the recent election. This, however, has not prevented liberal cultist true believers like MoveOn.com and People for the American Way from fervidly clinging to the doctrine that the election must have been stolen somehow -- by Halliburton, no doubt.

It must be true; after all, they lost! That's evidence enough, I should think. The great mass of humanity has been hopelessly deceived, of course, because a consortium of government, media, business, scientists, theologians, and the Illuminati are conspiring to keep the Truth from us.

Fortunately, during this apocalyptic end-time era, a small, select group of special people -- led by the prophets George Soros and Barbara Streisand -- has been blessed to understand the Truth so they can warn the world of the impending doom being brought down upon it by the anti-christ, George W. Bush, and his evil cohorts.

So in his Saturday radio address did the President "Paint a Rosy Picture of the Iraq Situation," or did he "Warn of Growing Violence" there? It seems to depend on which AP correspondent you talk to.

What's happening with our kids? An 11-year old Los Angeles girl was booted from school for cartwheeling too exuberantly at lunchtime.

Then the police Tasered a 6-year old in Miami. Granted, he had a piece of glass but -- 50,000 volts? Is that what it takes to stop recalcitrant first graders these days?

This ABC news article compassionately relates the story of disillusioned Democrats fleeing to places like Italy for asylum because "the United States is changing in ways they do not like."

"'How could our country be heading backward? How could so many people miss or choose to ignore the obvious failures of the Bush administration?" wails one dejected Vermont college professor before scampering away to Tuscany to brood.

Not that long ago that it was conservative Republicans that felt the United States was changing in ways they did not like. Unlike these fragile people, they did not make a mass exodus to into exile where they could nibble biscotti and rail at the wrongheadedness of their poor, deluded countrymen. Rather, they stayed and did something about it.

Now, with the proverbial shoe on a different foot, liberal Democrats can only flap their hands and run away, searching for a more likeminded place where they will not have to suffer the indignity of contradiction and competing ideas.

This all reinforces the Gnomon's view that the dichotomy between liberal and conservative that runs through all history has its roots in the natural human predisposition, identified by William James long ago, to be either "Tough-minded" or "Tender-hearted." Tough-minded people tend to develop into conservatives, while the Tender-hearted mostly become liberals. (Some, of course, such as ourselves, start out Tender-hearted but are compelled by reason to try and develop a tough mind).

Tender-hearted people are needed; properly grounded they can act as the concience of a society. Today's groundless, logic-less, feeling-based liberals are an abberation from the long tradition of true liberalism that stretches back to the roots of our nation. Rather than helping build the country arm-in-arm with their tough-minded brethren, they are reflexively corrosive, yammering critically from the margins with invincible arrogance, corrupting any uncomfortable facts Michael-Moore-like to fit their hysterical worldview.

When they find this fails to convince voters -- even when fronted by a bland type like Senator Kerry rather than someone more to their tastes, like Dr. Dean -- they take their ball and huff away.

(NEXT: A suggested cure)

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."

- Bertrand Russell

You're certain of that, are you Bertrand?

The Gnomon honors all those who have risked everything to defend and advance freedom and democracy. God bless you all.

Allied troops taking the pestilent hole of Fallujah have discovered the butcher-houses where Muslim Supremacist terrorists sadistically hacked the heads off helpless captives in the name of God. At least one hostage has been found in pitiable condition at the Fallujah jail.

NPR reports this morning that they may also have discovered a cache of Sarin nerve gas.

Using cloud-penetrating radar, the Cassini-Huygens probe has spotted something apparently flowing on Saturn's smoggy moon, Titan.

Is it lava? Methane ice? Erosion? Something else? Maybe we'll find out when the Huygens part of the probe is dispatched to the moon's surface in January.

A mystery sub has been prowling the ocean depths off the coast of Japan. The craft is now reported to be heading north, shadowed by Japanese tracking vessels. Rumour is that it's a Chinese sub looking for oil in places it shouldn't -- but nobody knows for sure, at the moment.


UPDATE: [November 12, 2004 6:11 pm] Japan is pretty sure it was a nuclear sub from China, and they're complaining loudly.

Egypt has agreed to host a funeral for the malignant Mr. Arafat so arab leaders don't have to enter Israel's aura, and plans are in place to bury him at the little compound he's hunkered down in for the last several years. BBC correspondents weep at the "pathos" of his imminent passing -- akin to feeling remorse that poor Mr. Hitler felt driven to commit suicide.

Renowned cultural observer Madonna explains the US election results this way:

"People are becoming very polarized. We have people who don't want to think, and who just want to guard what is theirs, and they're selfish and limited in their thinking and they're very fearful in their choices."

How eerie. It's as though she read our minds.

Poverty breeds terrorists, right? Nope. Not according to a massive study by Alberto Abadie at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. What does? Lack of freedom. And what stamps out terrorism better than anything else? Freedom.

This finding dovetails with the studies of that other geopolitical expert, George W. Bush. To quote from one of his recent dissertations:

" A democratic Iraq has ruthless enemies, because terrorists know the stakes in that country. They know that a free Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will be a decisive blow against their ambitions for that region...

" As we have seen in other countries, one of the main terrorist goals is to undermine, disrupt, and influence election outcomes. We can expect terrorist attacks to escalate as Afghanistan and Iraq approach national elections.

"These two nations will be a model for the broader Middle East, a region where millions have been denied basic human rights and simple justice. For too long, many nations, including my own, tolerated, even excused, oppression in the Middle East in the name of stability. Oppression became common, but stability never arrived. We must take a different approach. We must help the reformers of the Middle East as they work for freedom, and strive to build a community of peaceful, democratic nations.

"This commitment to democratic reform is essential to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. Peace will not be achieved by Palestinian rulers who intimidate opposition, tolerate corruption, and maintain ties to terrorist groups. The longsuffering Palestinian people deserve better. They deserve true leaders capable of creating and governing a free and peaceful Palestinian state."

-- Dr. George W. Bush, United Nations, September 21, 2004

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Leadership Council rolls their cart by the Paris hospital calling "Bring out 'yer dead!" Yasser Arafat reports he's "not dead yet."

Democrats and their sympathetic journalists continue beating themselves up about getting trounced by President Bush. So far, they've concluded that they either need to be more liberal, or more conservative, or else stay the same and do better marketing next time.

Former-President Clinton also gave his diagnosis: "Just be more like me!"

Despite polling 51% of the vote with a margin of over 3.5 million votes beyond his opponent, the press is proving obsessive in terming the President's election triumph "extremely close." To clarify this for the sake of posterity, just how does Mr. Bush's victory stack up to other elections?

The answer is: while not a landslide of Reaganesque proportions, the President's victory compares well with others -- including some that one never hears called "extremely close."

We did the research so you don't have to, utilizing the wondrous resources available at US Election Atlas.org:

Clinton
President Clinton had a victory margin of 5,805,256 votes (43%) in 1992, expanding that to 8,201,370 (49%) in 1996. Of course, in addition to his Republican opponents he also had to fight off H. Ross Perot both times.

Carter
Perhaps most like this election's results was the 1976 race between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. Carter won with 50.8% of the vote, while Ford got 48% -- very similar to this year's percentages. But Carter's margin of victory was only 1,683,247.

Nixon
In 1968, a truly divisive year of polarized and angry voters, Richard Nixon won by only 511,944 -- 43.42% for him, 42.72% for Hubert Humphrey. (Oddly, this is almost exactly the 2000 popular vote margin of the explosive Mr. Gore. One wonders how the press would have spun it if he had triumphed somehow in the Electoral College.)

Kennedy
This is well known but bears repeating. President Kennedy, the Democrat archetype for what Presidents should be like, defeated Richard Nixon by a rather disputed margin of only 112,827 votes. Kennedy 49.72%, Nixon 49.55% were the final statistics.

Mr. Nixon did what Senator Kerry did (and Mr. Gore did not), famously deciding not to pull down the pillars of the temple in a fight to rule over it. Although this is all sometimes noted in history books, we do not recall much talk of Mr. Kennedy being regarded as a less-than-legitimate President for all the closeness of the vote. How politics has degenerated since then!

Truman
The President we believe is in many ways most similar to Mr. Bush. He defeated Dewey by 2,188,055 votes and 49.5%, Much to the head-wagging perplexity of the media of his time. This was mainly because (like Mr. Bush) he earned the trust of the common people, which the big-city elite could neither imagine or fathom.

Roosevelt
Franklin Roosevelt, the towering giant of the 20th century, won several landslides, of course. On the other hand, in 1944 he only triumphed by a margin almost indentical to that of President Bush: 3,594,987 ballots and 53%.

And for the sake of historical curiosity...


Lincoln
The greatest of all Presidents did not triumph by the greatest of all margins. Of course, there were a lot fewer voters back then (only about 4 1/2 million in 1860). Lincoln won the 1860 election by a mere 485,706 votes and a measly 39.82%, due to the four-way contest that year.

In 1865 he did somewhat better, but with a smaller margin: 405,581, but 55.02%.

Epilogue
Mr. Bush's victory this year is not a hairsbreadth triumph. In a hard-fought contest, he withstood as much paranoid propaganda and deluded vitriol as any President ever has and emerged with a victory quite similar to those of most other Presidents, and better than many.

Once again: This was not a "squeaker;" it was a reaffirmation, and a mandate.