Good News

First of all I hope all of you had a good Hogmanay (Scottish New Years Eve) and will have a bright New Year. There does seem to be more good news that is not being widely reported in the MSM. First, let me point you to an article in Investors Business Daily that says thing are good all over.

The New Year: Despite natural disasters and the casualties of war, Americans say 2005 was better than 2004 — and a huge majority expect things to improve again in 2006. Truth is, things are better the world over...

A new Quinnipiac University poll of about 1,200 registered voters found the hopefulness of Americans as unflappable as ever — with no rose-colored glasses in sight.

Fifty-three percent thought 2005 was better for them personally than 2004; only 33% thought it was worse. Among those ages 18 through 29, 68% thought 2005 was better for them than 2004; only 24% called it worse. With 4.5 million new jobs in the last 2 1/2 years, GDP growth over 4% and a 5% unemployment rate, those numbers shouldn't be a great shock.

As to the future, 79% thought the new year would be better for them personally, with only 10% predicting a worsening. Of 18- to 29-year-olds, the number rose to 93%, with only 3% pessimistic about 2006. For those in their 30s and early 40s, 85% thought the near future would be bright...The world has a great deal to celebrate. Incomes are up worldwide, and they continue to rise. Life spans are up, from an average of under 50 years at the beginning of the 20th century in the U.S. to 77 today — an increase exceeding 50%. Life expectancy was around 40 years in China and India a half-century ago; today it's well above 60

If you read the daily nattering negativity of the Media and the of the Democratic Party and its left wing, some of this might be hard to take, so I suggest that you may need to have your anti-depressants handy. If good news is deemed by you to be bad, this is very, very bad. Next comes one of my favorite authors, Ralph Peters in his op-ed piece in the Post.

IRAQ made impressive progress in 2005. You wouldn't have known it from the daily news coverage or the surrender-now demands of left-wing extremists, but the long-suffering nation marched forward.

Here and abroad, the enemies of freedom insisted that failure was inevitable. Terrorists, insurgents, journalists with agendas, global America-haters and the Democratic Party's national leadership all tried to force our troops out of Iraq, no matter the consequences for the 26 million human beings who'd be left behind.

But the Iraqis refused to fail. Our troops refused to fail. And the Bush administration refused to fail.

Thank God.

Over the last 12 months, the pessimists called every major development wrong. But that won't stop them from doing everything they can again this year to devalue freedom, discredit democracy, drive Iraq toward civil war, encourage the terrorists and, above all, embarrass the Bush administration.

Our critics, foreign and domestic, will continue to ignore the human rights of millions while shrieking over the "mistreatment" of imprisoned terrorists and demanding a "fair" trial for Saddam (in Europe, with no death penalty). But the left's self-righteous bluster sounds more like sour-grape nagging every day.

CONSIDER just a dozen of the many reasons for optimism about Iraq:

Amen and his 12 points should be read as well as the entire short article. Here is one of my favorite graphs.

WE should be encouraged by the progress in Iraq and heartened by the American people's distrust of elitist propaganda. From Hollywood's latest anti-American rant to the decaying New York Times, the stars of the America's Most Arrogant Show have had to learn yet again that we don't take orders from trust-fund snots, campus cowards or actors (when Alfred Hitchcock said, "Actors are cattle," he was being far too kind).