Americans: Be careful what you ask for for...

"You have heard it said that this is an age of moral crisis. You have said it yourself, half in fear, half in hope that the words had no meaning. You have cried that man's sins are destroying the world and you have cursed human nature for its unwillingness to practice the virtues you demanded.

"Since virtue, to you, consists of sacrifice, you have demanded more sacrifices at every successive disaster. In the name of a return to morality, you have sacrificed all those evils which you held as the cause of your plight. You have sacrificed justice to mercy. You have sacrificed independence to unity. You have sacrificed reason to faith. You have sacrificed wealth to need. You have sacrificed self-esteem to self-denial. You have sacrificed happiness to duty.

"You have destroyed all that which you held to be evil and achieved all that which you held to be good. Why, then, do you shrink in horror from the sight of the world around you? That world is not the product of your sins, it is the product and the image of your virtues. It is your moral ideal brought into reality in its full and final perfection. You have fought for it, you have dreamed of it, and you wished it..."

-- John Galt in Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

While many of us warned before the 2008 election that our very way of life would come under an irresistible attack should Obama win with control of the Congress, few of us every imagined the sheer audacity of his power grab. As many of us slog our way through the dog days of summer, wondering if the 7.3% run-up in the DJIA this week is a harbinger of good times to come, Obama looks to slice the hamstrings of America with his Health Care Evisceration Act. Should enough Americans fail to act; should enough Americans sit on the sidelines blissfully ignorant of the peril we face; should enough Americans cede the liberty of themselves and their posterity to a smooth-talking liar and to his thugs; should enough Americans not care enough to make a phone call or write a letter or stand in the streets, then no one should shrink in horror at the site that will be America in 2010. It will be nothing more than that which we allowed the Great Charlatan to steal from us.