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The Nation Magazine, is the largest and most influential journal of the American left. Since George W. Bush's election, it has seen its circulation soar, as those who call themselves "progressives" have been energized to combat what they perceive as the rising tide of conservative... More
Every once in a while I stumble across an opinion article that's so irrational, hate—filled and hypocritical that I feel compelled to comment on it. New York Times op—ed writer Paul Krugman's most recent
The amount of medical misinformation put out about Terri Schiavo has been truly stunning. The testimony of Terri's physicians who believe that some recovery is possible has been largely dismissed. Judge Greer's court and the media in turn, have focused only on the pessimistic interpretations of... More
At the heart of the controversy surrounding the court—enforced death of Terri Schiavo is a legal issue that the courts and the media have failed to address. Does a person have a legal right to consent to a crime? To understand why this is a central issue, a brief review of American... More
Though it hardly seems like it, it was not long ago that the best part of every Wednesday — rain or shine, good day or bad — was waiting impatiently for the computer to fire up and browse to the Washington Post or TownHall.com to read the weekly column by the late Michael... More
[Second of a three part series; part one can be found here.]
The transfer of Hitler's loyalty from the House of Habsburg to the House of Hohenzollern became concrete in August of 1914,... More
Nagoya is the city other Japanese love to look down on. I have been told confidently by many Tokyoites, Osakans, and especially by the haughty natives of Kyoto, that 'Nagoya has no culture.' Most foreign tourists only catch a glimpse of its massive castle (a reconstruction, since the original... More
During Easter Week, conservatives took a blow to the solar plexus. We thought that all we had to do was pass a law asking the federal courts to take a de novo look at the Terri Schiavo case, and presto, Terri would have another two years to live while the courts mumbled over... More
[The first in a three part series]
The recent contretemps over Prince Harry's wearing of a swastika on a (wildly inaccurate) Afrika Korps uniform at a masquerade party made headlines around the globe. All sorts of folk were up in arms: some called for abolition of the Monarchy,... More
In case you missed it, oil and wholesale gas prices hit all—time highs recently, with unleaded gas futures closing at roughly $1.58/gallon. As one can typically double this number to approximate what it might translate into at the retail level, this figure suggests that, some time soon we... More
In his landmark novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley conveys the vision of a technological nightmare in which man is forced, through conditioning... More
(Inspired by 'The Wrong Army,' by Jeff Edwards, USN, Ret., warrior and novelist)
America's forces have won all their wars,
From Revolution to war in Iraq;
And Lefties don't point to the Vietnam... More
I like Tony Blair and Jack Straw. Listening to the British Prime Minister committing his nation to standing shoulder to shoulder with the US after 9/11 provided a certain amount of comfort and reassurance. I appreciate the support many in the UK have offered the United States, especially in the... More
Not A Good Day To Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda
By Sean Naylor. (Berkley Books, NY, 2005) 425 pages, maps, photos, glossary, chapter notes, index.
Completed three years ago on March 19, Operation Anaconda was the major battle of Operation Enduring Freedom,... More
In 'Teri Schiavo— one physician's perspective,' Dr. Steve Collins examines the physiological brain function aspect of Schiavo's condition and speculates on the possibility of her experiencing pain but being unable to... More
Jon Meacham writes from a privileged platform. He is the religion editor for Newsweek, and he appears on television talk shows with some regularity. He uses his perch, however, to espouse the theology of the religious left.
That is, he cast doubts on the historical reliability... More
As an oncologist I frequently deal with the terminal care of patients and with end of life situations, and these are invariably complicated by the potential availability of medical interventions that can prolong life indefinitely. Such cases need to be individualized. They are never easy, are... More
It seemed so long ago that the old media and their liberal cohorts were able to mount successful campaigns manipulating the public into support for dubious propositions: Bill Clinton's veto of a GOP budget as a 'Republican shutdown' of the government; the public 'demanding' Campaign... More
Many judges these days like to refer to the Constitution of the United States as a "living, breathing document", implying that its text is designed to be flexible. It is not. The Constitution is a set of rules, and like any other set of rules, it is meant to be strict and uncompromising. Of... More
The conservative political punditry certainly called this one right. Wednesday, President Bush spoke out against the Minuteman Project, which consists of about 1000 US volunteers who have grown... More
On March 17, the Senate Judiciary Committee sent for consideration by the entire Senate the nomination of William G. Myers III to a seat on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Democrats have threatened to filibuster. Republicans have threatened to change the Senate rules to eliminate... More
There are two basic types of euthanasia: active and passive, Active refers to killing with a toxin which is what Dr. Jack Kevorkian did, and was jailed for.
Passive euthanasia refers to withdrawal from a life—sustaining treatment. The precise definition of life sustaining... More
Dear Terri,
You don't know me and you never will. Unfortunately, I know a lot more about you than you could have ever imagined. I am not alone; there are millions of your fellow Americans who can say the same thing. The information I have been given about you is... More
For the third time in a week, the New York Times has devoted space on the front page of its main news section to a sports article. The first story covered the baseball steroid hearings in Congress. The second was a feel—good puff piece on how victories by low—seeded teams... More
The case of Terri Schaivo uncorks a nettlesome series of moral propositions every bit as difficult as some theoretical scenario crafted by a philosophy professor to taunt his freshmen. It pits a spouse's responsibility against a parent's love. It pits a state bench against the... More
Whenever you hear the phrase, 'It's not about the money,' one thing is absolutely certain: it's about the money. Of all the complicated, convoluted, and heart—wrenching aspects of the Terri Schiavo case, one thing that proponents on both sides of the issue have been very quick to point out... More
On July 17th, 1996, TWA flight 800, headed for Paris, exploded over the Atlantic Ocean at 8:30 PM, just minutes after takeoff from JFK Airport. Immediately, suspicion arose that the plane had been shot down by a missile fired from a boat offshore. Several dozen people on the southern shore... More
While the Republican Party rightfully celebrates the re—election of President Bush and a slew of other Republicans in Congress, now is precisely the time for Republicans to extend their dominance in areas heretofore considered terra incognita: the nation's urban areas.... More
The Iranian mullahs are intractable in their all—out push to achieve nuclear weapons as soon as possible. They cunningly toy with the West while cynically insisting that their nuclear program is intended to only produce peaceful nuclear energy. Meanwhile they prevent full... More
Venezuela is now like a house on fire in the name of Marxist revolution. The worst of it is in land confiscations. The regime is declaring productive land "unproductive" and expropriating it for redistribution to "the people." When it can't do that, it's digging deep into history — the... More
Poetry is a window on the human soul.
Sad to say, American poetry has fallen on hard times. At least that branch of it represented by the dozen or so poets recently outraged by an article we published ... More
Right now two issues are roiling the country that involve the question of 'principle' — whether 'in principle' the U.S. Congress has the right to intervene in hopes of saving Terri Schiavo's life, and whether the CIA 'in principle' should torture captured al Qaeda fighters in hopes of... More
In a press conference with President Bush the other day, several reporters put on display their nettlesome proclivities. The President is a classy man and did not respond to the nitwittery as it... More
Amidst a shifting of political tectonic plates in the Middle East and major media thinking aloud 'Could Bush have been right?', Karen Hughes has been nominated for the post of Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy with the rank of ambassador. As such, she faces a situation... More
A flickering dawn lights Islam's hills
A faint emerging light.
Can the torch of Lady Liberty
Flare away Medieval night?
How fitting our bold symbol
Of all that's good and right
Eyewitness to the Jihad's wrath,
Stands forefront in this fight.
Her torch is not... More
Each political revolution is unique, but in all revolutions the decisive moment comes when the crowd surges and the dictator turns to his military leaders and gives the order to shoot. If the order is obeyed and the army shoots into the crowd, there's a good chance the revolution will fail... More
Bolivia, to which democracy returned in 1982, used to be called Latin America's youngest democracy; but if things continue to spiral out of control here in the next few days, it may very well shed its twenty—three year history of democracy and return, once again, to rule by a de... More
Weir Thinking... More
After six decades of expansion, the tendency of judges to impose their preferences on society, rather than simply interpret the law as written, may have reached its apogee. Judicial activism, as this writing of law from the bench is known, faces a confluence of forces which promise relief for... More
After Harvard University president Lawrence Summers dared to suggest that innate differences between men's and women's aptitudes for high—level math and science careers may be one of the reasons for the lower percentage of female math and science professors at major research universities,... More
Ask the average American what a VNR is, or a B—roll; and even the educated citizen isn't likely to have a clue, unless he or she has been involved in advertising, public relations, or some other form of mass communication.
To those of us who have had such experience, however, a VNR... More
Once in a while I hear a student or another sincere thinker assert that communism in its purest form is good, but that no society has yet practiced it purely. If a society were to do so, it would make capitalism look like, well, Soviet and Eastern European communism of only a decade and a half... More
In the past several months as the debate over Social Security reform has taken center stage in the theater of the absurd that is modern American politics, the idea has been floated that the entire pay—as—you—go structure of this system closely resembles a Ponzi scheme, albeit... More
Remember the stolen gubernatorial election of November 2004 in Washington State? Seattle blogger Stephan Sharkansky got a look last week at some poll books in Democratic King County. At the Denny Terrace polling station (a public housing project)... More
At the Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament at the United Center in Chicago this week, ten of the eleven teams were allowed to bring their mascot. The outcast was the University of Illinois, the number one seed, the tournament winner and the number one—ranked team in the nation. Their... More
'First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.'
Baseball has long had a troubled history with our nation's capital. Once home to the notorious perennial losers, the Washington Senators, abandoned by major league baseball altogether in the... More
Imagine that the United States was instituting a brand—new Constitution, and suppose it had been drafted in secret by only two people, a former President of France, Giscard d'Estaing, and an... More
Is there any doubt that there's something seriously wrong with a judicial process which leads to the prohibition of the care and feeding, by her own parents, of a brain damaged woman? Of course, the woman to whom I refer is Terri Schiavo.
We've all become aware of Terri's situation in... More
In 1965 I stopped working for Department of Defense think tanks and became a professor at Temple University. One of my contractual obligations — right in the middle of anti—ROTC demonstrations and of protests against the Vietnam war — was to teach graduate and undergraduate... More
There is intriguing news out there for deep spacers, CloseEncounter—ites, and really, really lonely people. For $3.99 a minute the folks at www.TalkToAliens.com will beam your phone call into space so you can communicate with...whoever... More
Our national song made news recently, thanks to the launching of the National Anthem Project. Highlighting widespread ignorance of the Anthem's lyrics,... More
Today marks the first day high school students around the country will take the New SAT. Changes to the college entrance exam are outlined on the College Board
Columbia University president Lee Bollinger has made good on his threat and discontinued the university's 10—year participation in a professional development program for training New York City K — 12 public school teachers. The dropped training program guided the teachers in how to... More
Remember the concept 'Owning a piece of the American Dream?' That goal you had when you graduated from college to eventually own your own home?
Well, some recently released statistics suggest that, although the percentage of homeowners in our nation is at an all—time... More
The Old Guard of the legacy media is crumbling before our eyes, in large part because of the blogsphere and other alternative media. This is no less the case for the Army Times, which has finally published a series of articles and an editorial on military bloggers. In... More
I demand to know where the human rights and women's rights groups are over the case of the Floridian woman Terri Schiavo. Where are her civil rights? Did she lose them the moment she could no longer audibly answer or respond for herself?
Human rights organizations stand and give tirade... More
Martha Stewart, AKA, Domestic Diva, Home Furnishings Honcho, Bilious Billionaire, and Foul—mouthed Bully toward those too powerless to fight back, was recently released after 5 months in prison for obstruction of justice. As expected, her release has become a promotional event, and, with... More
If Americans of all ages ever recognize the degree to which they've been conned by the proponents of failed government programs such as Social Security, they will likely respond in a manner reminiscent of the Boston Tea Party. And it is not hard to imagine a few career politicians floating in... More
Like millions of other Americans, I will be tuning—in tonight to the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather for the first time in well over a decade. I don't really expect Dan Rather to own—up to any of his egregious sins as a newsman, or even show the merest hint of self—reflection... More
Ever since 9/11, Muslim leaders who have access to the national media have told us that Islam is the religion of peace and that violence does not represent the essence of Muhammad's religion.
Even President Bush and Britain's Prime Minister Blair have repeated this assertion, saying that... More
Everybody now knows that President Larry Summers of Harvard, leader of an institution devoted both to truth and phonics (VE—RI—TAS, it says on the Harvard crest), is in serious trouble for pursuing truth. It is a situation beyond parody. But inquiring minds are bound to... More
In what almost has become a perverse annual tradition, Bolivian mobs again have blocked city streets and highways around the country. This—and the promise of further unrest in the coming weeks—forced embattled President Carlos Mesa to offer his resignation Sunday night. The Bolivian... More
'Red Ken' Livingstone, the Lord Mayor of London, is a classic European demagogue, and his rise to power may signal the end of what was once the greatest boon of British civilization: a level of civic tolerance unsurpassed anywhere in Europe. It is another heartrending sign that Britain is... More
The desperate left is reviving old clichés and images, fighting a reactionary rear—guard effort to defend the vision of a secular state and society they have tried to build in the Twentieth Century. Faced with continuing losses at the polls, they are resorting to amplifying the volume of... More
Illustrating the abhorrent yet entirely predictable behavior of those on the left, Rush Limbaugh explains, 'A tiger is a tiger. A snake is a snake. And a liberal is a liberal.' To which he might add, a 'moderate' is a liberal too. Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, outspoken Republican... More
In light of the recent run—up in oil prices to more than $50/barrel, and the statement by OPEC Acting Secretary—General Adnan Shihab—Eldin that prices may spike to as high as $80/barrel within two years, it may be instructive to take a 35,000—foot view of the world oil... More
'Everyone knows' there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq when Bush decided to invade in 2003. If there were any doubts about that, surely they were laid to rest by the Duelfer Report, the official findings of the Iraq... More
Sometimes the simplest solutions are the most striking. Blogger Miguel Octavio in Caracas, Venezuela, has suggested the best way for Venezuela to draw some earnings from its Citgo refineries here in the U.S. is to sell... More
Atheism, that mammoth godlessness that overarched the scientific age, is declining, that is, according to UPI's Uwe Siemon—Netto.
Atheism just doesn't hack it any more. It's got as many... More
March 6th marks the thirty—fifth anniversary of the Manhattan town house explosion that killed radical activists Diana Oughton, Ted Gold and Terry Robbins. Oughton, Gold and Robbins were all... More
This week's Indonesian court verdict against Abu Bakar Bashir on 'evil conspiracy' charges meted out a pickpocket's punishment to a terrorist ringleader responsible for an atrocity second only to 9/11. Bashir's 2 ½ year sentence for the October 2002 Bali nightclub bombing is a parody of justice... More
One day recently, while performing some house—husbandly chores, I tuned in to National Public Radio for diversion. In short order I heard the story of some women who have started "Mistresses Anonymous" to help deal with the pain, rage, and frustration; of those "other women" in our... More
Even his most ardent opponents are wont to acknowledge Justice Antonin Scalia's intellectual brilliance. If you've never watched his devastating fire handily blasting the drunken jurisprudence of postmodernism, you owe yourself a read some evening. It's an irreverence that... More
Poetry is a window on the human soul. But the politics of American poetry, in recent years have veered into more and more radical territory, as an increasing number of poets openly declare their allegiance with 'Palestine,' and implicitly, with terror. Academics with one foot in Middle Eastern... More
Iran's headlong rush to develop nuclear weapons has been the top story in both the legacy and the new media for the last several months. The mullahs' on again/off again deals with the E—3 (UK, France, and Germany) and Russia, and their
One Sunday this past November, President Bush's chief strategist Karl Rove went on the talk show circuit to discuss the possibility that 2004 would be depicted by historians as being a realigning election. A little over three months later, with the nation fixated on Social Security reform,... More
Sixty years ago, on March 11, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur landed on Corregidor after forces from General Walter Krueger's 6th Army had liberated it. As General Krueger would later write in his book From Down Under To Nippon,
'General MacArthur, accompanied by... More
Another suicide—homicide bomber strikes Tel Aviv, for which Islamic Jihad claims 'credit.' A suicide car bomber in... More
[Editor's note: The proposed withdrawal of Israeli settlers from Gaza and a portion of the West Bank (also known as Samaria) has proven to be a highly controversial policy of the Sharon government. Some critics of the Labor Party government's policies during the Oslo process have been... More
Have you ever been in the middle of a sound, warm sleep, completely undisturbed in absolute darkness and comfort? Has anyone ever unexpectedly shone a bright light on you as you slept? How did you react? Were you startled? Did you wake up and stretch your arms or legs?
That's exactly... More
The relief seems somewhat tempered, doesn't it though? As the Pope goes through one physical crisis after another, the mainstream media goes on high alert, with breathless excitement and anticipation, only to be let down by the Pontiff's annoying durability. One doesn't need to be clairvoyant to... More
With virtually no attention from the mainstream media, the United States has been taking actions calculated to ratchet—up pressure on the mullahs of Iran. A complex plan has been carefully crafted to avoid a direct military attack on Iran, which would inflame nationalism and build support... More
I am so sick of the liberal left, both domestic and foreign, constantly berating America as being morally bankrupt and a plague upon mankind. To them, we are quite singularly responsible for all the evil in the world through our crass, greedy, capitalistic practices. So, Sunday night, this... More
In the current campaign for Social Security reform, we should not lose sight of the forest for the trees. All the talk about trust funds, caps, IOUs, actuarial scoring, and bankruptcy is mere ritual, the rich symbolic... More
Every two years, both major political parties fight hardest over open Senate and House seats. These seats tend to change hands between the parties a lot more often than incumbent Senate and House members are defeated running for re—election. In 2008, we will have a real rarity... More
