Somebody complained about my list of worst human beings—“Geez Louise what a downer of a list that is.  It’s depressing.”—and then asked for a list of best Americans.  So here it is, just in time for the new year, the official 2010 list of best human beings in America:

Sarah Palin

She drives the liberals crazy (never a long drive) and that’s a strong recommendation right off the bat.  Add her dependability when it comes to being right, her proud in-your-face American normalcy which provides a wonderful contrast to the pseudo-sophisticated freedom-sucking government leeches of the political class, her courage and perseverance in the face of cruel and nearly hysterical personal criticism, and her staunch defense of American values—add all of that and Palin is a shoo-in for the list.

If she wasn’t standing up and saying what she’s saying, who else would have the guts?

Remember when she accused the Democrats of writing “death panels” into Obamacare?  The din from leftwing ridicule was deafening.  When the lefties were done attacking her IQ and making jokes about her family, they sheepishly sat down and erased the language in question from the legislation, a tacit admission that she was right.  Then, last week on Christmas morning, President Obama’s un-vetted socialist-whackjob Medicare czar, Donald Berwick, reinstituted the death panel by regulatory fiat.

As usual, she was right.  She’s always right.  That’s one reason the liberals hate her so much.

But there’s a bigger reason: her life itself is an affront to them.  Sarah Palin is an attractive, heterosexual, happily-married, family woman who, when told that her unborn son had Down syndrome, made the moral decision to give birth and love him.  Then her teenage daughter got pregnant and didn’t have an abortion either!  Great gobs of goose grief!

To your typical, unhappy, Berkeley lesbian who considers abortion a sacrament, the Palin family is like Kryptonite to Superman.

Pamela Geller

Sometimes it seems like all conservative women are good looking, doesn’t it?  Here’s another one.

Pamela Geller owns and operates the website Atlas Shrugs which is everything this website aspires to be when it grows up.  She also writes columns for Andrew Breibart’s various websites, for American Thinker, and for other publications while appearing regularly on various television networks and talk radio shows.

She is also a published author.  In her spare time she’s probably a Le Cordon Bleu Certified Master Pastry Chef and volunteer firefighter, I don’t know for sure.

She is absolutely fearless when it comes to confronting issues.  She tackles issues that most conservative pundits won’t touch because they’re afraid of the ridicule—like the fact that Barack Obama won’t produce a birth certificate, like the hypocrisy and ulterior motivations behind the Ground Zero mosque, and like the illegal foreign contributions to Obama’s presidential campaign.

She doesn’t just write about stuff.  She gets out in the streets and fights for what she believes.  Last June she organized a protest against the Ground Zero mosque that made national headlines, followed it up with a repeat on September 11, and has another protest against the mosque scheduled for this coming January 12.

In November Ms. Geller won the Annie Taylor Award for Courage from the David Horowitz Freedom Center.  Afterward she went out and saved the world from Lex Luthor.

Thomas Sowell

Mr. Sowell is at the top of another list: the people I most want to meet in person.  The way he writes, the way he thinks and expresses himself—doggone it I just plain like him.  Someday, God willing and the Creek don’t rise, I will get to have dinner with him and a set of convivial friends and we will talk until we solve all of the world’s problems.  (I hope he drinks.)

Hey, some guys have fantasies about Halle Berry; I have fantasies about dinner with Thomas Sowell.  I’m a nerd.

He deserves admiration for the courage he has displayed since Barack Obama was elected president.  It can’t be easy for a black man to stand up for conservative principles when the first black president is a communist.  The pressure and antagonism from Sowell’s fellow black Americans is something that can only be imagined but he doesn’t pull his punches in his columns, nor in his books.  Thomas Sowell believes in individual rights and freedom, simple as that, and he uses his considerable writing talents to fight for his beliefs.

A weak or cowardly person would pick race over principle and many do.  Not him.

Lt. Col. Terry Lakin

Who is Terry Lakin?  There’s a good chance you haven’t heard of him because the mainstream media is in cahoots with the Democrat Party so they refuse to properly cover certain news stories.  Terry Lakin was—“was” because while you and I are out celebrating the new year tonight, Terry sits in a Leavenworth prison cell stripped of his military rank and military honors—Chief of Primary Care and Flight Surgeon for the Pentagon’s DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic.

Terry Lakin “was” a highly honored Army medical officer, having received the Army Flight Surgeon Badge, Combat Medical Badge, the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Achievement Medal with one Oak Leaf Clusters, the National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Service Star, the Armed Forces Expedition Medal, the Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon sixth award and the NATO service medal.

He has served the United States in Honduras, Bosnia, El Salvador, Korea, and Afghanistan.

Altogether, even before what happened this year, his was clearly an exemplary life.  But sometimes a man with principles takes things to a higher level and stands up for those principles even when it costs him everything, including his career.  In February he received orders for deployment to Afghanistan—again—and refused.

For over a year he had asked, through his chain of command and through his congressional delegation, for proof that Barack Obama is eligible to serve as his Commander-in-Chief, and when he received his orders and saw that the U.S. government was again asking him to provide certified “copies of his birth certificate”—the very thing our president refuses to provide—well, Lt. Col. Terry Lakin had had enough.

Fair is fair.  If the troops going into harm’s way have to provide proof of citizenship, then their Commander-in-Chief damn well should, too.

On December 16, after a sham trial in which he was refused the right to discovery, witnesses, and argument, he was sentenced to six months in Leavenworth and given a dishonorable discharge—which plants a new definition of “dishonorable” in the next edition of Webster’s.

When you compare the honor of Barack Obama, who either is a natural born citizen and refuses to produce his birth certificate through sheer disdain for the political process which elected him or is not a natural born citizen and is therefore an illegal and dishonest pretender, to the honor of Terry Lakin, well, Webster’s might have to banish the word entirely because it no longer has meaning.

Salvatore Giunta

But hold the presses, Webster!  Maybe honor isn’t dead yet.

Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta is the first living recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor (the highest military honor possible) since the Vietnam War.

On October 25, 2007, he was leading a patrol in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, when the unit was ambushed by well-armed and well-coordinated insurgent forces.  Instead of ducking for cover and praying for a miracle, like most of us would have done, Giunta repeatedly ran directly into enemy fire to save his fellow soldiers.  At one point, seeing that somebody was missing, he ran to the top of a hill where he saw the missing soldier, wounded and helpless, being carried away by two of the enemy.  Giunta ran after them, engaged the two insurgents, and saved his friend.

Remember, the Congressional Medal of Honor is the highest honor a soldier can receive, but listen to what Sal says about it:

“I’m not at peace with [receiving the medal] at all.  And coming and talking about it and people wanting to shake my hand because of it, it hurts me, because it’s not what I want.  And to be with so many people doing so much stuff and then to be singled out—and put forward.  I mean, everyone did something.

“I’m average.  I’m mediocre.  This is only one moment.  I don’t think I did anything that anyone else I was with wouldn’t have done.  I was in a position to do it.  That was what needed to be done.  So that’s what I did.”

From Reno, Nevada, USA

January 3, 2010 - Love that Sarah Palin is at the top of the list! Palin for President 2012! - Casey L., Michigan

J.P. replies: Just my opinion but I don’t think she can win unless she changes her voice.  The way she speaks is too screechy and irritating, something easy to fix by spending a little time with a voice coach.  I like her a lot (obviously) but her voice drives me up a wall.

January 2, 2010 - I just subscribed. Look forward to some great columns. Thanks for your list of The Best Human Beings in America, especially Lt. Col. Terry Lakin. Build the fence. No more illegal immigrants. No to Latino machismo culture. Cancel Obamacare. Bring back DADT. Cancel the START Treaty. Support recall elections for Lisa Murkowsky, Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, etc. - Tom T., San Francisco (hard to believe)

J.P. replies: Know what you mean by “hard to believe” but at least you’re not the only conservative in the Bay Area—at least you have Robin of Berkeley.

January 1, 2011 - Hear Hear! Bravo!! Well done! You couldn't have chosen a finer group of Americans. God Bless them all please and keep them safe. - Mt Top Patriot, Maryland

January 1, 2011 - Wow JP -- bless your soul. Yours in liberty, - Pamela Geller, South Carolina

January 1, 2011 - Outstanding list! - Shayne, Chicago

January 1, 2011 - Great list. I especially liked the ending to the Pamela Geller piece. I also happen to agree. She's ferocious. I love her, in a very non-stalker kind of way. :) Found you through Doug R. Great stuff! Happy new year! - Robot, Texas

January 1, 2011 - Excellent. - Bernie, California