Teddy Roosevelt once observed, "Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country."

There is a long list of politicians that could be compared to Teddy's insight. However for the purpose of this exercise let's focus on just one each of "the good, the bad and the ugly."

The good: Ron Paul
In Sunday's WorldNetDaily Q&A we saw the product of a recent interview I had with Congressman Ron Paul of Texas on March 16th, definitely one of "the good."

I asked the congressman if "you ever pause coming out of the cloak room sometimes and wonder, 'Gee wouldn't it be cool if the guy sitting next to me was a Louis McFadden or Charles Lindbergh's dad or someone like that?'" He replied, "I think it would really be great, and I'm always looking for them. ..." Then, I kind of prodded him that no one seems to have the knowledge or stones to get up and do what McFadden did when in 1933 he excoriated the scam of the Fed and fiat money.

On May 23, 1933, Congressman Louis T. McFadden, brought formal charges against the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank system, the Comptroller of the Currency and the Secretary of the United States Treasury for numerous criminal acts, including but not limited to, conspiracy, fraud, unlawful conversion and treason.

The petition for articles of impeachment was referred to the Judiciary Committee and has not been acted on in 68 years. Then, lo and behold, last week Paul, who is a member of the House Banking Committee, rose to speak out in a televised House floor speech on the evils of the U.S. fiat money system. Hoorah!

Unlike the great unwashed, Paul refused to kiss the ring or derriere of Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan. Greenspan's solution to the dragging economy is to print mo' money, mo' money -- inflate currency faster and lower interest rates. Paul dared to challenge the omniscience of Greenspan.

"Fiat money means the money is created out of thin air and the characteristic of a fiat monetary system is that you have over-speculation, you have stock market booms, you have stock market crashes and you have a business cycle." He went on to say central planning concepts don't work in banking and monetary policy any more than they do in government. Give 'em hell Ron!

Then taking a page out of McFadden and a page out of Dr. Jacques Jaikaran's "The Debt Virus": "The whole principle of fiat money is that when you create new money, you devalue the value -- you lower the value of the dollar, and this is what is happening. Right now, we're increasing the money supply ... at the rate of 20 percent per year. This means that ultimately that dollar that we use to purchase goods and services will go down in value. Yet the only thing that we hear about is the cry to the Federal Reserve: Just print more money, faster, because that will save us all. It will raise the stock market. It will make sure that the economy does not go down, go into a downturn."

Paul said the U.S. needs monetary reform -- specifically currency reform like breath. God Bless Ron Paul, and McFadden smiled.

"We have to have a time when once again we have a money that can't be created out of thin air," he said. "We have to have money of value -- something that government and politicians can't create out of (thin air.)"

Yeehawh and Amen!

The bad: Eric Shinseki
"Perfumed Prince" is a phrase coined by Colonel David Hackworth. Four-star Gen. Eric Shinseki -- U.S. Army chief of staff and perfumed prince par excellence -- is the chairborne idiot who conceived of converting the Army Ranger's black beret into general issue for all soldiers.

Allegedly his brain flatulence was intended to improve morale. Instead the soon to be ubiquitous ("made in China") black beret will to some be a constant reminder of the contempt and loathing whizzed on the military by the former regime during the "dark days." As if the Bill Clinton taint and stench weren't sufficient, henceforth the U.S. Army's garrison cover will be a "Monica beret."

And puh-leeze don't buy into that poorly crafted fiction of Army spin control that the Rangers "requested" a color change to tan and are happy with their new distinctive beanie. Bullfeathers! Shinseki had neither the grace nor good sense to acknowledge his FUBAR decision and concocted the tan beret as a face- (or butt-) saving device. Apparently it was better in the chief's view to insult and demean the honor, sacrifice and history of Rangers than upset some CHICOM hat maker.

Shinseki is a small dollop of pond scum masquerading as a man and although he can gag order active duty troops to "Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full," he is beneath contempt and deserves the ignominy he can only avoid while still on active service. He will spend his eventual (but soon enough) retirement avoiding any and all former Rangers.

The ugly: Stewart Bell
This piece of work is festering ooze on the belly of a warthog. He is the penultimate politically correct nincompoop.

District Attorney Bell reportedly announced he would not prosecute a former Las Vegas policeman for stalking, feeding booze to, and seducing a young boy on any sexual charges. Why? According to Bell, because such action might be "discriminatory toward homosexuals."

A narcotics detective, Vinten Hartung, badge-bearing, gun-carrying narc lures the kid into a sexual relationship plying him with booze. And the DA is worried about offending gays? Does anyone have any doubt what would have happened to the 42-year-old cop if the object of his sexual pursuit had been a girl? Bell drops the felony molestation charges but continues to investigate on two lesser charges of stalking and furnishing alcohol to a minor. Huh?

Reportedly Bell said, "We in essence concluded neither the state nor the federal authorities are able to pursue the sexual offenses." Notwithstanding that is supposed to be his job. Bell claims to do so "discriminates against a class of people, and that's not allowed under the equal protection clause of the Constitution."

The bones of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and every framer of the document this moron denigrates are clawing at the dirt to rise up like a Stephen King fantasy to strangle this DA.

At least so far, homosexuals are not a protected class with special immunity from the law. There is a gaggle of legal citings (the kind of stuff lawyers and especially prosecutors normally wade in) confirming the Constitution "neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens." In fact and on point the courts have stated, "Equal protection of the laws is not achieved through indiscriminate imposition of inequalities." The very concept of gifting immunity or favoritism in an effort to avoid some political dustup from a vocal and well-organized minority is inexcusable.

Is this Vegas dust bunny actually suggesting perverts can prey on kids with impunity if or when it is buzzworded as an "intimate homosexual relationship," regardless of the age of the victim?

I'm outraged. However, if you think DA Bell is right and I'm wrong feel free to contact him and register your support.

You can contact him by e-mail, phone (702-455-4711) or snail mail:

Stewart L. Bell
200 South Third Street, 7th Floor
Las Vegas, NV 89155

Alexis de Tocqueville said, and it is as true now as when he wrote it, "Americans are so enamored of equality they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom."