Now that we have a President who doesn't just feel our pain but is inflicting some of our own on our enemies, it's time for the rest of the nation to get serious, as well. We can start with a national change of attitude: from understandable grief to controlled anger and from victim to victor.

That means maybe its time to replace all our pretty ribbons with "Don't Tread On Me" patches. Or shelving "I'm Proud to Be an American" and dusting off "From the Halls of Montezuma."

But if we're REALLY serious about putting an end to the terrorist threat, we need to take some concrete steps to show we're not just fooling around this time, such as:

* Unshackle Israel. For crying out loud, when it comes to terrorism, these guys play hardball, not tiddly-winks. It's time we stopped telling them to turn the other cheek. Who let the dogs out?!!

* Repeal the executive order banning the assassination of bad guys. Lifting the ban doesn't mean unleashing CIA death squads all over the world. But symbolism IS important. And symbolically, repealing this outdated executive order would have the same chilling effect as dumping a dead horse' s head in bin Laden's cot in the middle of the night.

* "Re-masculinize" the U.S. military. Tell the feminists to take a hike. Literally. If they can hack it, fine. But if they can't cut the mustard and meet the toughest of military performance standards . . . adios. The old saying is, "Don't send a boy to do a man's job." Ditto girls.

* Develop and deploy a national missile defense shield. It doesn't matter that the terrorists DIDN'T use missiles. The fact is, they COULD have. And the death toll and damage would have been FAR worse.

* Cancel the abandonment of the Navy bombing range on the island of Vieques. Our country's preparedness and national defense MUST take priority over sucking-up to gain favor from a political voting bloc.

* Arm pilots. Many are ex-military and trained to use weapons anyway. Flight attendants, too. And if we're REALLY serious, allow all qualified passengers - at the very least cops, military personnel and other law enforcement officers - to pack heat, as well (they can be given airplane-safe bullets upon check-in). Not knowing if the nun in Row 7-C has a Colt .45 or a Bible under her habit will give would-be terrorists something else to think about.

* Pass national conceal-carry legislation. It's no accident that most of our recent horrific mass murders have occurred in gun-free zones: churches, schools and airplanes.

* Repeal the ban on assault weapons. I recall former presidential candidate Elizabeth Dole questioning why anyone would need an AK-47. Well, who wants to confront an AK-47-toting maniac picking off kids in a playground, or senior citizens in a shopping mall, with a pea-shooter?

Ah, but that's a ridiculous scenario, Chuckster, the gun "safety" enthusiasts would say. Why, the odds of something like that happening in the U.S. are about as high as a band of terrorists hijacking four commercial airliners and flying them into the Pentagon and World Trade Center towers. Exactly.

* Publicly ridicule the dumbass ideas and policies of the left which helped contribute to the environment which allowed the 911 attacks in the first place. I checked, by the way, and there's NO constitutional right not to be made fun of. Nor is there a prohibition against calling a spade a spade. So we're on solid ground here.

Particular scorn needs to be heaped on Rep. Barbara Lee (the ONLY vote in Congress AGAINST the war of terrorism following 911), Jane Fonda and other self-righteous, lame-brain "peaceniks."

* Cut off any and all federal funds to the People's Republic of Berkeley, California . . . the breeding ground for anti-war crackpots and other misfits . . . and a city which actually banned fire trucks from flying the American flag lest it insult and rile up the protestors.

* Tell radical environmentalists to stick it in their ear or other appropriate orifice. Once and for all, this country needs to wean itself from Middle East oil. Start by immediately opening up ANWR for exploration. Then begin building new nuclear power plants like there's no tomorrow because . . . well, there isn't.

* Start killing off or phasing out all non-constitutional government programs such as midnight basketball, AmeriCorps and the National Endowment for the Arts. Every dime spent on liberal, feel-good programs is a dime that won't go toward eradicating the scurvy dogs who made no distinction between military and civilian targets on 911.

* Allow - no, ENCOURAGE - appropriate profiling. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, there's a darn good chance it's a duck. Sorry, but until little old ladies in blue hair and pearls start blowing up Pizza Huts with car bombs, they shouldn't be subjected to the same scrutiny as Omar the exchange student from Iran who just signed up for flying lessons.

* And finally, scrap all this self-esteem crap in our government schools and replace it with serious instruction on the nation's founding documents and revolutionary history. Too many Americans no longer appreciate the meaning of freedom and liberty. It's time to get serious about those concepts again, as well.