Year: 2013

Republicans and conservatives may not have to wait until 2016 to get out from under the ravages of an ultra-liberal Obama Administration. History suggests that almost every two-term incumbent faces a sixth year curse in which his party fares terribly in the midterm elections. In nine of the ten sixth-year Congressional elections since 1910, the […]

When I attended primary and secondary school — during the 1940s and ’50s — one didn’t hear of the kind of shooting mayhem that’s become routine today. Why? It surely wasn’t because of strict firearm laws. My replica of the 1902 Sears mail-order catalog shows 35 pages of firearm advertisements. People just sent in their […]

The birth, and the apparent death, of the trillion dollar platinum coin idea may one day be recalled as a mere footnote in the current debt crisis drama. The ultimate rejection of the idea (which was to use a loophole in commemorative coinage law to mint a platinum coin of any denomination) by both the […]

It’s hard for a lot of people, particularly on the right, to recognize that the conservative movement’s problems are mostly problems of success. The Republican Party’s problems are much more recognizable as the problems of failure, including the failure to recognize the limits of that movement’s success. American conservatism began as a kind of intellectual […]

Socialist French President Francois Hollande is in the pilot’s seat in the world’s latest military incursion. We’re not used to seeing the French lead the way into battle, but it’s becoming increasingly frequent. Some 63 percent of the French support Hollande’s decision to take military action in Mali, according to a poll conducted by the […]

There is no question that liberals do an impressive job of expressing concern for blacks. But do the intentions expressed in their words match the actual consequences of their deeds? San Francisco is a classic example of a city unexcelled in its liberalism. But the black population of San Francisco today is less than half […]

President Obama’s latest news conference was further confirmation that his voracious appetite for spending was not satisfied but whetted by the fiscal cliff deal, which he views as an appetizer. We were told that the GOP achieved a coup in the fiscal cliff negotiations because they lured Obama into an agreement to lock in the […]

On Nov. 29, 1766, Benjamin Franklin wrote for the London Chronicle: “I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. — I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy (SET ITAL) in (END ITAL) poverty, but leading or driving them […]

If laws were enough to deter criminal behavior prisons would be empty. The latest effort to “control” guns in America is as likely to deter someone intent on breaking the law as outlawing lust would affect one’s libido. What’s in a heart can’t be controlled by restricting what’s in a hand. Following the Newtown tragedy, […]

Every year about now, the media introduce us to the most fascinating people of the prior year. They always overlook people like Joe Horne. A tailgunner in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Horne and his crew enjoyed 11 successful missions. They didn’t expect to survive their 12th: orders to bomb a heavily […]

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which focuses on constitutional and human rights law, announced today American Pastor Saeed Abedini, a U.S. citizen being held in an Iranian prison because of his Christian faith, has told his family that he is being threatened with death. The: letter, released today to family members in Iran, […]

As most of you know, Vice President Joe Biden has been appointed by Obama to make certain that another Sandy Hook never goes down on American soil. Being an American who digs freedom, I’m not getting the warm and fuzzies about this legislative venture. A myopic cyclops staring into the sun can see where this […]

There’s an epidemic in this country, something that has or will affect all of us in our lives. And the government needs to act to protect us from those who may do us harm. This plague is particularly felt in schools. The children must be made safe. President Obama, bravely speaking out against this horror,said, […]

It’s often good fun and sometimes revealing to divide American history into distinct periods of uniform length. In working on my forthcoming book on American migrations, internal and immigrant, it occurred to me that you could do this using the American-sounding interval of 76 years, just a few years more than the Biblical lifespan of […]

The latest horror movie from Washington — “The Fiscal Cliff” — finally came to an exciting end in the early hours of 2013. But after two years did its climax — more taxes, more spending and more chicken-livered can-kicking by our politicians — really shock any of you over the age of six? Didn’t think […]

Forty-one dollars in tax increases for every one dollar in spending cuts. That’s the shrewd deal Speaker of the House John Boehner negotiated with President Barack Obama. Obama, Boehner and other congressional leaders have known for a year and a half that these automatic tax increases and so-called spending cuts – also known as the […]