We at the Phalanx will not be able to publish an assortment of gripes this Friday, but we would like to leave you with the following thoughts to ponder this morning: The US and EU are now preparing to refer Iran to the UN Security Council. Quite simply this will have absolutely no affect on Iran’s nuclear activities. If anything it may hasten them. At no point in the history of modern man has sanctions EVER succeeded in persuading an enemy to curtail an undesired action. It did not work against fascism in the 30s or communist revolutions in the 50s and 60s or Islamic tyrants thereafter. It will not work here. Libya, for example did not reform its ways because 20 years of sanctions was just the right amount of force. Libya reformed out of fear that the US and its allies might use force on the wayward nation. Iran has no such fear and is thus inclined to pursue its nuclear ambitions. Even if Iran were of the belief that the US might use, force, witness Iraq and the mockery the left has made of that overture. A nuclear Iran is a foregone conclusion…depend upon it.

George Gillespie, an Ohio man is suing AOL and fellow internet chat room buddies for harassment. He is suing for the tidy sum of $25,000. What can we say of this. Sadly, our court system allows such frivolity to prevail on numerous occasions. A loser pays legal system would ensure that such opportunists are kept at bay. Who knew that insults online were so costly?

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pit are having a baby. If you in any way care about this news you are most certainly lost and reading the wrong web site. Those who care about such news represent all that is in decline in America. Those who are more interested in fluff and pop culture than substance are one of the fundamental causes of America’s slide from preeminence. But go ahead and obsess over the news, after all someone has to work fast food, we’ll get our scientists, doctors, businessmen and engineers from some place else.