December 5, 2011
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Once Syrian rebels are armed, then what?
Opinion column
Two recent newspaper editorials illustrate the double-mindedness some feel about President Obama's decision to provide small arms and ammunition to Syrian rebels.
Obama’s ‘trust’ uttered in Newspeak
Opinion Column
Without the slightest hint of irony, President Obama said last week, “If people can’t trust not only the executive branch but also don’t trust Congress, and don’t trust federal judges, to make sure that we’re abiding by the Constitution with due process and rule of law, then we’re going to have some problems here.”
U.S. is following failed British medical program
Opinion column
For years I have been writing about the failures of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) as a warning for what the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) will do to health care here in the U.S.
We need more idols like Arvind Mahankali for Americans
Opinion column
The annual ritual known as the Scripps National Spelling Bee came and went last week with kids spelling words that, I suspect, many with graduate degrees couldn’t spell. The winner was Arvind Mahankali, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Bayside Hills, N.Y. Mahankali is the first boy to win the title since 2008.
Cameron vs. Churchill: Who was more credible?
Opinion Column
Following the hacking death of a British soldier by two alleged Islamic extremists, Prime Minister David Cameron said, “There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act.” Winston Churchill thought otherwise, but he lived in a time before political correctness ran amok and drew on his personal experiences serving in the Sudan and in the Crimean War.
Tyranny is no longer ‘lurking’ just around the corner
Given last week’s revelation that the IRS targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, it’s worth recalling President Obama’s Ohio State University commencement address. The president decried “voices” warning “that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner.” It’s no longer lurking. It’s here.
Benghazi, IRS: Son of Watergate?
Opinion Column
In his defense of President Obama, Press Secretary Jay Carney is beginning to sound a lot like Ronald Zeigler, Richard Nixon’s spokesman. Carney only has to use the word “inoperative,” as Ziegler did when incriminating evidence surfaced that proved his previous statements untrue.
Would things go better with Koch?
Opinion Column
‘Mainstream media” are alarmed by reports that billionaires Charles and David Koch are considering the purchase of Tribune Company’s eight daily newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times.
Immigration bill is full of holes
Opinion Column
There’s the story of a woman with five kids who was asked if she had to do it all over again would she have five children? “Yes,” she said, “just not these five.”
Hateful politics displayed over Thatcher’s death
The death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has prompted reactions from Britain’s far left that takes bad taste to new extremes. During its Top 40 music countdown Sunday night, BBC Radio 1 was “forced” to play a seven-second clip of “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” from the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz,” because Thatcher haters had bought enough copies during a feverish online campaign to bump it to the top of the pop charts. It ultimately reached the number two spot, 5,000 sales short of the top position.
Margaret Thatcher inspired self-reliance
Opinion column
There is a story about Margaret Thatcher, which is probably apocryphal, but speaks volumes about the strength of Britain's first female prime minister, who died Monday at age 87.
Could school choice be the answer?
Opinion Column
My first question after reading about seven teachers in an Atlanta public school accused of altering standardized test scores to make it appear students performed better than they actually did was: How could they!?
Why do liberals fear success for others in their party?
Opinion Column
There are many successful liberals, so why do so many of them wish to subsidize failure for the poor, instead of showing them how to succeed?
Public opinion shouldn’t trump principles
Opinion Column
History is full of warnings about what happens when people follow public opinion instead of standing by their principles. In its most extreme manifestation, public opinion might well become mob rule when vigilantes take the law into their own hands.
Obamacare prompting doctors to opt for retirement
Opinion column
Last week, politicians who helped craft the Affordable Care Act (ACA) celebrated in self-congratulatory style the third anniversary of that monstrosity which will soon extinguish health care as we've known it.
Confronting the truth of radical Islam in America
Opinion Column
President Obama should listen to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the “founder” of shuttle diplomacy.
Maryland law kicks out the death penalty
Opinion Column
The Maryland legislature recently voted to abolish capital punishment in the state, making Maryland the sixth state in the last six years to eliminate the death penalty.
Detroit's slippery slope is everlasting
Opinion column
Since the Motown sound went silent — except on oldies stations — and General Motors and Chrysler (but not Ford) required life support from Washington, there has been little to recommend Detroit, Mich., to visitors, much less its residents.
Who decides what’s fair in who we marry?
Opinion column
Given his track record on marital fidelity, former President Bill Clinton is not the person I would consult about “committed, loving relationships.” Clinton used those words in a Washington Post op-ed last week, urging the Supreme Court to overturn the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman, which he signed into law.
Examining the downside of orthodoxy
Opinion Column
It’s a safe bet that most conservative Republicans would rush to support a political leader with the following record, especially in a traditionally Democratic state.
Scott does a 180 on health care act
Opinion Column
Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) was one of those tea party stars whom voters believed had the courage of his convictions when he promised, as recently as last summer, to block The Affordable Care Act in his state. But last week, writes the Orlando Sentinel, “Scott made an abrupt about-face, embracing a three-year expansion of Medicaid coverage for about 1 million low-income Floridians that will be paid for by the health care law.”
Ryan’s hope is to buy time in order to win war
Opinion column
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is looking beyond today and the beginning of the sequestration. In an interview I conducted with him on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Ryan told me he believes a majority of Americans will come to understand how bad the debt is after the rhetoric gives way to reality.
Obama playing on people’s emotions
Opinion Column
At the end of 1995 and stretching into January 1996, the federal government “shut down” because of an impasse between President Bill Clinton and House Republicans led by then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Double threats just get in the way
Just as Lenin’s body remains on public display in Russia, because one never knows when he might be useful to rally the masses, so, too, does the ghost (but thankfully not the body) of the late Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) remain a useful symbol for Democrats in Washington.
State of the Union speech recycled
Opinion column
President Obama’s approach to so-called “climate change” appears to include recycling old ideas.
Carson was out of line at prayer breakfast
Our politics have become so polarized and corrupted that a president of the United States cannot even attend an event devoted to drawing people closer to God and bridge partisan and cultural divides without being lectured about his policies.
Media has double standard on drone attacks against Americans
Opinion column
An unsigned and undated Justice Department white paper, obtained by NBC News, reports The New York Times, “... is the most detailed analysis yet to come into public view regarding the Obama legal team’s views about the lawfulness of killing, without a trial, an American citizen who executive branch officials decide is an operational leader of Al Qaeda or one of its allies.”
Government shouldn’t define what constitutes a ‘church’
Under pressure from religious and conservative groups, the Obama administration has offered another compromise on the issue of birth control coverage within the Affordable Care Act.
‘60 Minutes’ missed opportunity to ask hard questions
In the days of the late Mike Wallace, “60 Minutes” was known for hard-hitting, aggressive journalism that asked the questions viewers wanted answered and held the powerful accountable.
GOP needs vision, optimism to rebound
Opinion Column
Some political commentators are dancing on what they believe to be the grave of the Republican Party, claiming that the only way the GOP can have a viable future is for them to behave like Democrats.
Laws alone don’t protect
Opinion Column
If laws were enough to deter criminal behavior prisons would be empty.
Senators should press Hagel for answers
Opinion column
Biography isn't policy. President Obama's choice for secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, former Nebraska Republican senator, has a resume most politicians can envy: a clean senatorial record, no ethical lapses and two purple hearts from a war many opposed and many more tried to avoid.
Female vs. male senators
Opinion Column
As the son of a woman, the husband of a woman and the father of daughters and granddaughters, I celebrate the record number of females who are now United States senators. However, I do see some differences in the way these and other women are treated, depending on their party, policies and beliefs.
U.S. tax rates fueling expatriation
With so many foreigners wanting to become U.S. citizens, it’s still a shock to know someone who has relinquished his citizenship. It is another reason for simplifying the U.S. tax code.
U.S. soldiers did not die in vain in Vietnam
Opinion column
It has been 50 years since President John F. Kennedy ordered U.S. “advisers” to South Vietnam to help battle the communist North and 37 years since the end of that divisive war and the country’s unification under Communism. Today, Vietnam is fighting a war with itself.
What is the answer to unexpected evil?
Trying to explain an evil act like the one that killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., is on a par with explaining how the universe was formed.
GOP looking at back-to-the-future shift
Opinion Column
Sitting in the room at the Jack Kemp Leadership Award dinner last week, listening to Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, and Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican and of late the GOP vice presidential candidate, I sensed more than a generational shift in party leadership.
Egypt poised to accept extremism
The opening scene-setter for the 1996 film “Independence Day” might serve as a metaphor for what Egyptians could face if a draft constitution written by a panel dominated by Islamists and based on Sharia law wins approval in a referendum: “A loud rumble is heard. Suddenly, we are covered in darkness as the shadow engulfs us. Only the image of our Earth hangs in the air, until a huge silhouetted object suddenly blocks our view.”
Spending other people's money is a taxing job
Congress returned to "work" this week (now there's a laugh) to complete its lame-duck session before taking another holiday. Spending other people's money is a taxing experience.
Clash of civilizations an indisputable fact
Opinion column
The diplomatic hosannas for Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi following his brokering of the recent ceasefire between Hamas and Israel were still being heard even as the former head of the Muslim Brotherhood started behaving like a pharaoh. Morsi “temporarily” seized new powers that, among other things, forbid judicial review of his policies.
Marco Rubio may be the next Reagan
Conservatives have been dreaming that a political reincarnation of Ronald Reagan would lead them to an electoral promised land. I never put my faith in such a possibility, because the past is a dangerous place in which to live. Reagan never lived in the past, though he learned from it.
Groundhog Day: Middle East version
In the film "Groundhog Day," Bill Murray wakes up each morning and relives the previous day.
Changing America is still a dream within reach
A look at the electoral map indicates the Republican Party won in square miles. Unfortunately for them, electoral votes, not landmass, won President Obama a second term.
After the presidential election, what comes next?
Opinion Column
Presidential elections decide only who wins the White House and a congressional majority. They don’t by themselves solve the nation’s problems.
How does one judge another as a racist?
When white liberals voted against the confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas (including then-Senator Joe Biden) were they racist? Many white liberal Democrats are working overtime to defeat Rep. Allen West, Florida Republican. Are they racist?
McGovern a good friend and example
Former South Dakota Democratic Senator George McGovern, who died Sunday, had all manner of evil said about him because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. He was called unpatriotic, disloyal, an appeaser and an enabler of communism. Those were the printable slanders.
Wanted: New, workable foreign policy
Opinion Column
On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney delivered a foreign policy speech to cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va. He was correct in his indictment of the Obama administration for its numerous failures -- especially in the Middle East -- and his embrace of Ronald Reagan's "peace through strength" philosophy. A strong and respected America is less likely to be attacked.
Spending, not Romney taxes, the issue
Did anyone think the release of Mitt Romney’s tax returns would satisfy Democrats and make them focus on the real issues in this campaign, including President Obama’s failed domestic and foreign policy record and approaching massive tax increases? If so, please call me for a great deal on Arizona swampland.
Will the media hold Obama to the standard it's set for Romney?
There's another video, this one of Mitt Romney speaking to donors at a fundraiser in Boca Raton.
'Spineless amoeba' describes Obama foreign policy
'How could this happen?" asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in response to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others.
Choice needed with public schools
An oft-quoted line from then-governor of Massachusetts Calvin Coolidge might be updated to include "the public interest," as well as public safety.
Politicos miss a Noble effort
Columnist Leonard Pitts wrote a story for the front page of last Sunday's Charlotte Observer indicting both parties for failing to speak up for the poor. He inspired this column.
Tampa has big boy (and girl) night
The delayed opening of the Republican National Convention worked to the advantage of the GOP by both heightening anticipation and forcing the elimination of extraneous speakers, which there are always too many of at these things.
Romney's chance is coming soon
This week when Mitt Romney strides to center stage to deliver his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, he might draw inspiration from an unlikely source: the song "I Am What I Am" from the musical "La Cage Aux Folles."
Brown leaves a legacy of damage
When women complain about men who can’t commit, they can thank — or blame — two people: Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner and the former editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurley Brown, who died this week at age 90.
Romney plus Ryan equals real change
Last Thursday's Wall Street Journal editorial "Why Not Paul Ryan?" made the case for his selection as the Republican vice-presidential nominee in this statement: "Romney can win a big election over big issues. He'll lose a small one."
Suppose Michele Bachmann is right?
Like the ghosts of Shakespeare's Banquo or Dickens' Jacob Marley, the specter of the late commie-hunting congressman from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, will always be with us. It is summoned up today, by some on the left, who use it as a tool to thwart legitimate questions about people and ideologies that seek to destroy America.
Government has habits of ineffectiveness
Stephen Covey, the management guru who died this week, would have had a hard time selling his books in Benjamin Franklin's America, or Abe Lincoln's. His best seller "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" would have been considered a self-evident truth, one drummed into earlier Americans by schools, churches and the Puritan ethic.
NAACP tied to Democratic Party ideals
Mitt Romney's speech to the NAACP convention in Houston was -- according to one's political perspective -- a "calculated move on his part to get booed ..." to help his white base (Rep. Nancy Pelosi), or a presentation to "independent thinking adult citizens" whom he treated as equals (Rush Limbaugh).
Should West believe Egypt's new president?
Throughout America's history, there have been people who denied threats from our enemies. During the Revolutionary War, significant numbers sided with the British monarchy. Enablers in politics, the media and even religion helped Communism remain in power for seven decades in the Soviet Union. German Nazis had their U.S. apologists.
Being an 'extremist' better than abandoning convictions
Don't you find it odd that the word extremism seems to apply only to conservative Republicans? Terminology often drives political discourse and those who control the terms often determine the outcome.
Citizen and government recall fable
In the Aesop Fable "The Grasshopper and the Ant," there are moral, economic and political lessons for our time, or any other.
President's 'other gospel' on display
It is one thing to talk about "fairness" when it comes to allowing gays and lesbians to marry; it is quite another to claim biblical authority for such relationships.
'Finding Your Roots' highlights history
'Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr." is another of the Harvard professor's wonderful television series for PBS. This is "must-see TV" and a more than worthy sequel to three previous projects Gates has hosted about how some of us came to be what and who we are.
Latest salvo fired in ‘Mommy Wars’
Virtually everything said and done in a presidential election year distorts the truth, much like concave and convex mirrors in a carnival attraction alter one’s true reflection.
Inspiration plus perspiration equals success
Next week the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans (www.horatioalger.org) will celebrate its 65th anniversary. I confess I did not know of its existence until I read their ad in an airline magazine. I am familiar with Horatio Alger, the man, who inspired generations of boys, and later girls, with stories of people overcoming difficult circumstances to succeed, but I was ignorant of the association that carries on his vision.
It's time for the main health care event
Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear three days of oral arguments in the healthcare lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, otherwise known as "Obamacare."
Republican campaign strategy tricky
Rick Santorum deserves credit for his impressive primary victories in Mississippi and Alabama. Newt Gingrich led us to believe he would win both states.
Where's the hope for the GOP?
You've got to hand it to Democrats and the Obama re-election campaign. Like a quarterback who looks left to draw the defense away from his intended target on the right, Democrats have managed to divert our attention.
A sincere apology goes a long way
The first apology by Rush Limbaugh, posted on his website over the weekend, sounded forced, qualified, almost defensive. The second, broadcast live on his Monday show, sounded sincere and heartfelt.
America should leave Afghanistan now
Most wars have a turning point that either signals the road to victory or the ditch of defeat. In Vietnam, the 1968 Tet Offensive by communist troops against South Vietnamese and American forces and their allies is regarded as the turning point in that conflict. Though communist forces suffered heavy losses, which would normally define defeat, CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite and others in the U.S. media, portrayed the operation as an allied loss, thus encouraging not only the anti-war movement, but North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops who believed all they had to do was hang on until America grew tired of the war and quit.
Rachel Maddow and my lesson in civility
When one writes about moral convictions, it’s probably a good idea to consistently live up to them. That way people can still disagree with your convictions, but they have a difficult time accusing you of hypocrisy.
Jobless rate doesn’t tell whole story
The Obama administration is touting the latest unemployment numbers released last week by the U.S. Department of Labor as proof its policies are working. But a closer look at the actual number of able-bodied people who are willing to work, but are not, reveals a different picture.
Decision on Iran is coming closer
One of several casualties of the vitriolic name-calling between Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich is what to do about Iran.
Are we headed to war through weakness?
One of the memorable slogans from the Reagan administration was "peace through strength." Reagan believed a strong defense was a safeguard against enemy attacks and the best hope of victory should America go to war.
Conservatives see three victories
While most attention is focused on the presidential race and Republican hopes to oust President Obama from office, some significant steps were taken last week on issues dear to the hearts of conservatives.
GOP should take on radical Islam
When the Republican presidential candidates tire of bashing each other, perhaps they will start addressing the expansion of radical Islam.
Don’t die stupid in dumbed-down culture
A friend of mine hands me what looks like a business card. It says, “Don’t Die Stupid.” As America begins another round of voting to select the next president, or retain the current one, what we need is a stupid test. Flunk it and you shouldn’t vote.
Governments need diets for 2012
According to the Mayan "long count" calendar, the final day on Earth is less than a year away, on Dec. 21, 2012.
There’s always grieving at Christmas
‘There’s a grief that can’t be spoken. There’s a pain goes on and on. Empty chairs at empty tables; now my friends are dead and gone.”
Witnessing the death of an atheist
Perhaps not since Madalyn Murray O’Hair and Carl Sagan has there been such an “evangelical” atheist as Christopher Hitchens, the writer and social commentator who died last week after a long and public battle with esophageal cancer.
Romney now out in front
For weeks the media have complained that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been shielded from probing interviews. The criticism is valid.
Now is a difficult time for Jews
In a season in which there is very little “peace on Earth” and even less “good will towards men,” it is a particularly tough time for Jews, who may be finding it more and more difficult to tell who their real friends are.
Just what is wrong with adultery?
We live in a bipolar culture. We allow ourselves to be drenched in sexual images in movies, on television and on the Internet and then defend First Amendment protection to even the most graphic of them. Then, when a politician acts out what culture promotes, we criticize him, especially if he’s conservative, branding him with the equivalent of a “scarlet letter.”
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