"Corrupt the young, get them away from religion. Get them interested in sex. Make them superficial, destroy their ruggedness. Get control of all means of publicity and thereby: Get the peoples' mind off their government by focusing their attention on athletics, sexy books and plays, and other trivialities. Divide the people into hostile groups by constantly harping on controversial matters of no importance. Destroy the peoples faith in their natural leaders by holding up the latter to ridicule, contempt and obloquy. Always preach true democracy but seize power as fast and as ruthlessly as possible. Encourage government extravagance, destroy its credit, produce fear with rising prices, inflation and general discontent. Foment unnecessary strikes in vital industries, encourage civil disorders and foster a soft and lenient attitude on the part of government towards such disorders. By specious argument cause the breakdown of the old moral virtues: honesty, sobriety, continence, faith in the pledged word, ruggedness. Cause the registration of all firearms on some pretext, with the view of confiscating them and leaving the population defenseless." ...  Vladimir Ilich Lenin

The above quote rocked me when I read it on Brad Todd"s "Fundamentally Right" blog. This must be the "mission statement" for the Democratic Party and especially the power brokers of the far left. I am particularly taken with the phrase "destroy their ruggedness," as this has been one of this woman's pet peeves almost from the beginnings of the women's movement in the early seventies. The schools, the media  and political correctness have combined in our culture to produce an entire generation of wimps and turning many of the earlier "baby boomer" generation into what is generously called today the "metro sexual." The woman's movement was the biggest boon to the lazy and irresponsible man ever to come down the pike. Suddenly men no longer had to worry about being the "main provider" for their family, suddenly the idea of being the "protector" took on a nasty connotation. Oh it started with the little things like some women taking offense at having a door opened for them or a chair pulled out ... innocuous it would seem, but men became confused and befuddled. Should they or shouldn't they? Eventually they took the easy way and didn't. We have been led down the path of believing our kids can no longer navigate a couple of blocks to school but must ride a bus, playing football is for "dummies" and "brutes," not children of sensitive geeky parents. We live in a country so reduced to the concepts of the quote above that we define people's place in society by whether they like the thrills of NASCAR. One of those, you must be a Redneck if... kind of things, and oh, yes, perhaps you even married your sister. Whole segments of our society are mocked for their deep religious beliefs and looked down upon as weak and needing their God as a crutch. We call in cops to handcuff 5 year olds or to taser 7 year olds because good old-fashioned discipline is now considered abuse.

And then there is the trashing of our leaders. How many times have you heard some wimpy commentator ridiculing President Bush's mental abilities, despite the fact the man has an MBA from a prestige Ivy League school and a good life foundation of common sense? I can't even begin to estimate the number of times I've heard news media types complaining about having to hike the hills and deal with the President clearing brush and doing "manly" things on his ranch in Crawford, TX. Ruggedness is definitely not high on the media's list. And how many "controversial matters of no importance" have we heard out of the mouths of the likes of Nancy Pelozi, Ted Kennedy, John Dean and the rest of those left wingers and the Hollywood crowd? Lenin advises, "By specious argument cause the breakdown of the old moral virtues: honesty, sobriety, continence, faith in the pledged word, ruggedness" .... sounds way too much like my home state of California and by extension our country.