I am glad to be neither Democrat nor Republican.

To be a Democrat is to be afflicted with the insanities of a barren life solely seen through a  political glass, where every aspect of  living has a political remedy that only Democrats can foist upon us all, if only they have enough power. Such a life is nothing but Band—aid measures, shortsightedness and finally condemned by unforeseen consequences.

To be a Republican these days, on the other hand, is to be rudderless, having forsaken the ideals that made the party and the nation great, and well, that is even sadder.

Who throws away such an inheritance but an ungrateful spendthrift? That is the Republican Party.

But I guess this is where the people want to be. It is a democracy, and I'm in favor of it, even when my guys lose.

Curiously, I find myself relieved from having to put up with all the political ads. I also find that now that the Dems are in power, I can look forward to finding my own solutions for myself and my family when it comes to security, since I know they have no answers, and people like me don't need complicated solutions, anyway, since we have common sense.

I can only imagine how the sufferers of BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) will revel in their new glut of power, and how they will feast on it, but I am nowhere near it, it's nowhere near me, and I don't feel the need, at least at this time, to stockpile weapons and canned goods, and move my family into a cabin somewhere in Idaho.

I want only to focus on that Eternal Country, to feed the flock, to clothe the naked, to pray for the prisoners, to be unashamed of my beliefs. There is no political route for me here, just as there were no political answers coming from Jesus to His followers, either. I haven't spent much time in church lately, since after 9/11/01 our pastor preached nary a word about the horrific events of the previous Tuesday morning. All he talked about was raising funds for the Water Slide Outreach in Hungary. Slippin' and slidin' fer Jesus.

Being powerless is for me a good thing. Being weak, I feel strengthened. There are many people in the world who hurt and are abused living under intolerable conditions; many are Christians, like me. I would rather identify with them than any political party in all its temporal glory.

Having said all that, I know what the consequences are probably going to be down the road, and the time I have now will be used to prepare myself and my loved ones for that possible eventuality.

I always tell my daughters that economies never stay strong forever, that justice is not always going to be a given, that truth will not win in the end sometimes, and to look into the forgotten abyss of history.

Not at the big wars, but at the calm times before the wars even started.

The one characteristic of people the whole wide world over and throughout time, is their cluelessness and irrational belief that all is well, when it isn't.

Reality is only real if we talk about it, right? If we just don't talk about the evils which stalk us the evils will never catch us... they don't exist, after all, if we don't talk about them.

People talked about "peace in our time," and treaties and agreements that were very reasonable were waved for the fawning press...we all saw where that went, now didn't we? And so we are once again governed by hypocrites and fools, who talk about timetables for quitting an active war zone, and prosecuting the president, damn the consequences, full speed ahead. Right over the cliff.

I don't plan on going over the cliff with them; people like me survive in all kinds of situations, and we will survive this, too. We just have to be courageous in stating the obvious. Courage is much easier when taken with a good snort of ridicule.

So, let us wait and watch, and occupy ourselves with better things. Let us go ahead and continue to warn our fellow countrymen, even though we know they won't believe or listen to us.

Happy days really are here, again.

God preserve the United States of America.

Jewel Atkins, aka Jauhara al Kafirah   11 14 06