Category: Column

Ed Rendell, former Pennsylvania Governor and influential Democrat, drew no gasps of surprise or shocked response from his fellow liberal travelers when he recently articulated the left’s position that “the good thing about Newtown is, it was so horrific that I think it galvanized Americans to a point where the intensity on our side is […]

Once again, Conservatives have latched onto the bait tossed out by Progressives in their never-ending campaign to grab guns from the hands of law-abiding citizens. Gun control is just one aspect of the Progressive agenda; in essence, they want control of everyone and everything any way they can. Toward this end, they will tell you […]

In 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama inserted a speech into the Congressional Record decrying the increase in the debt ceiling that President Bush was asking for. It’s unfortunate that he didn’t actually deliver the speech, because it would have been a real stem-winder. “Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck […]

Like a lot of Californians, Stockton businessman Matt Davies, 34, expected that when Barack Obama was elected in 2008, the new administration would not prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries operating under a law passed by California voters in 1996. After all, as a candidate, Obama contended that he saw federal enforcement against medical marijuana as a […]

In the wake of the Connecticut school shooting, there is a desire to do something to try to prevent similar types of incidents from occurring again.:  The liberals understand this, and have run with it.:  They have run in the direction that feels good, but has no proof of effectiveness.:  Conservatives have the solution that […]

My great-grandmother Jane Purcell had a wonderfully full life. Part of her story is revealed in the 1940 U.S. Census, which the National Archives and Records Administration made available online to the public in 2012 at: 1940census.archives.gov: . In 1940, Jane and some of her extended family resided at 1509 Orchlee in Brighton Heights. She was 71 […]

Over the past two months, Europe’s problems seem to have disappeared from the headlines. However, the new French Socialist government is pushing ahead with policies that favor significantly higher government spending, greater regulation of business and commerce, and severely higher taxes on high earners. The long term effects of these policies, which I believe will […]

Martial arts movie legend Jackie Chan deserves a rhetorical roundhouse kick to the mouth. So does his pal PSY, the Korean rapper whose “Gangnam Style” music video has racked up more than a billion views worldwide. Both men have raked in big bucks from Western fans while trashing the very freedoms and cultures that made […]

Dear Socially Liberal Fiscal Conservative Friend, That’s pretty toothy, so I’m going to call you Bob. But whatever specific name you go by, Bob, you know who you are. You’re the sort of person who says to his conservative friends or co-workers something like, “I would totally vote for Republicans if they could just give […]

Liberals have an uncanny knack for designing solutions that do not address the problem at hand, and they’re doing it again in their current effort to use the Sandy Hook shootings as fodder for promoting stringent gun control measures. It’s as if President Obama and his fellow travelers lie in wait for the unfolding of […]

Following the school shooting horror in Newtown, Conn., our nation shares a heartfelt belief that something must be done. Polls instantly showed an increase in support for stricter gun control laws. Fifty-one percent of American adults expressed that view in Rasmussen Reports polling. But there is even more support (81 percent) for taking action on […]

Seung-Hui Cho, who committed the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, had been diagnosed with severe anxiety disorder as a child and placed under treatment. But Virginia Tech was prohibited from being told about Cho’s mental health problems because of federal privacy laws. At college, Cho engaged in behavior even more bizarre than the average college […]

The horrific Newtown, Conn., mass shooting has unleashed a frenzy to pass new gun-control legislation. But the war over restricting firearms is not just between liberals and conservatives; it also pits the first two amendments to the U.S. Constitution against each other. Apparently, in the sequential thinking of James Madison and the Founding Fathers, the […]

To judge from his surly demeanor and defiant words at his press conference on Monday, Barack Obama begins his second term with a strategy to defeat and humiliate Republicans rather than a strategy to govern. His point blank refusal to negotiate over the debt ceiling was clearly designed to make the House Republicans look bad. […]

If I were president, what would I do in the wake of the Dec. 14 Sandy Hook School shooting, which left 20 first-graders and six adults dead, if I wanted not only to advance an ambitious initiative to reduce gun violence but also to sign a law that actually worked? To punctuate what is at […]

When Barack Obama implored Americans to “do the right thing” on gun restriction during a news conference this week, the “right thing” should have been obvious to everyone. Absolute moral authority — it’s the only way to go. If you fail to see the picture as clearly as the president, you may be an extremist […]

One definition of “imperial” on: dictionary.com: is, “of the nature or rank of an emperor or supreme ruler.” At his news conference Monday, a petulant, threatening and confrontational President Obama spoke like an emperor or supreme ruler. All that was missing was a scepter, a crown and a robe trimmed in ermine. This president exceeds even Bill […]

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 […]

Last week, I appeared on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight.” For the past few weeks, Morgan had been inviting gun rights defenders ranging from the reasonable to the nutty, and then slamming them by appealing to the memory of the children slain at Sandy Hook. And when I appeared with Morgan, that’s precisely what I told […]

This week for the first time, the U.S. State Department in its: daily press briefing: spoke out about American Pastor Saeed Abedini who has been imprisoned in Iran for his Christian faith. The State Department expressed its “serious concerns” about his fate and acknowledged that the sole reason for his imprisonment in Iran is because of his […]

You know that old saying that there are no dumb questions? It’s not true. I know. As a journalist, I’ve asked my share of stupid questions. Yet even in the context of my own shortcomings, I do not understand what the White House press corps is thinking during what passes for a news conference in […]

The president of the United States will release a binder full of new gun-control executive orders on Wednesday. Instead of standing alone, bearing full responsibility for the imperial actions he is about to take, President Obama will surround himself with an audience of kids who wrote to him after the Newtown, Conn., school massacre. This […]

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 […]