By the time you read this, there’s a good chance that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will have held the Fed’s first press conference following a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee—the Fed committee that controls monetary policy. Leading up to this historic moment, the popular press has repeated a well-rehearsed rhetorical dance as […]
If you had been living on another planet the last three years, you would be shocked to learn that the credit-rating agency, Standard and Poor’s (S&P), has placed the current AAA credit rating for the debt issued by the U.S. Treasury on a “negative watch” status. Most of us who live on planet earth had […]
Aaron Proctor, a Philadelphia-based libertarian writer, can count himself the latest victim of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization that ironically claims to work for civil rights. Proctor, a colorful commentator for the Philadelphia version of Examiner.com, had the temerity to investigate CAIR’s dubious background in connection with its Philadelphia branch’s planned fundraising […]
With Washington’s budget showdown over – for now, at least – attention has shifted to the next major government funding crisis on the horizon. With a mere $80 billion between the government and default, lawmakers, lobbyists, and Obama officials are scrambling to make the case for an extended line of credit. But just as with […]
According to a 1991 Book of the Month Club / Library of Congress survey that asked what book had most influenced their lives, the two top picks by respondents were the Bible and Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Coincidentally, this is a big week for both Christians and Randians. The former are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus […]
The Muslim Brotherhood’s mask is slipping in Egypt. Small “d” democrats there and elsewhere are alarmed by top Brotherhood officials who now aver openly what has been utterly predictable: Once in power they will impose shariah – the totalitarian, supremacist politico-military-legal program practiced in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, Sudan and increasingly elsewhere. The prospect that […]
“[W]e could well take example from Russia,” advised Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, “where birth control instruction is part of the regular welfare service of the government.” Sanger, racial-eugenicist who spoke to a 1926 KKK rally, whose work included a “Negro Project,” who wished to rid America of “human weeds” and “morons” and “imbeciles,” and […]
Proposition 8 is an amendment to California’s State Constitution. It was passed by a comfortable margin via ballot initiative in 2008. Prop 8 maintained the age-old definition of marriage in the Golden State as requiring binary male-female compatibility. It remains tied-up in Federal Court today. Back in February of 2010 it became rumored that retired […]
Question for those of you concerned about the size of federal debts and deficits: Would you endorse a plan which would add another five or six trillion dollars to the federal debt over the next decade while increasing Uncle Sam’s annual expenditures by $1.1 trillion? If so, you’re in luck. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul […]
President Obama put all his cards on the table yesterday. He made his big announcement on his response to our current fiscal crisis and festering national debt. He wants to raise taxes (Quell surprise!) and will not touch any entitlement program to reduce uncontrollable spending. He has got to be kidding, right? Wrong. The President […]
Distributivism, also known as Distributism, is an economic theory formulated by Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton largely in response to the principles of Social Justice laid down by Leo XIII in his encyclical Rerum Novarum. Its key tenet is that ownership of the means of production should be as widespread as possible rather than […]
President Obama’s recent trip to three Latin American nations was absolutely surreal. For one thing, he launched a war against Libya from there. For another, he lauded and pledged support for offshore drilling in Brazilian waters that he has shut down in our own. And he spoke glowingly of the progress of democracy as though […]
In his engaging new biography, Johnny Appleseed: The Man, the Myth, the American Story, journalist Howard Means scrubs away nearly two centuries of rumor and myth to uncover the truth about 19th-century pioneer nurseryman John Chapman, a national folk hero whom most of us know only from Disney cartoons and children’s books. Means’ meticulous research […]
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutolu grandiloquently proclaimed a few days ago that, “If the world is on fire, Turkey is the firefighter. Turkey is assuming the leading role for stability in the Middle East.” Such ambition is new for Ankara. In the 1990s, it contentedly fulfilled its NATO obligations and followed Washington’s lead. Starting about […]
Defenders of the Federal Reserve have been out in force recently declaring the triumph of Money Printing 2, James Grant’s suggested more truthful term for “quantitative easing.” Some pundits point to an 18-percent increase in the S&P 500 since last August, when the Fed’s policy was announced. They also laud a significant increase in inflation […]
House Speaker John Boehner has succeeded in making the largest cut to the bloated federal budget in American history. In this he surpasses even the great Ronald Reagan, who still deserves all honor and praise for defeating the Evil Empire and ushering in tax reform and economic dynamism in political economy. The Speaker has initiated […]
President Obama’s recent explanation for militarily engaging Libya is yet another example of how U.S. leaders increasingly rationalize their policies via sentimental and idealistic platitudes, rather than reality or the long view—or just plain common sense. In a speech replete with moralizing intonations, Obama did manage to evoke U.S. “interests”—six times—though he never explained what […]
The Thomas More Law Center announced [Wednesday] that it has filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan against the City of Coldwater on behalf of the Common Sense Patriots of Branch County and two of its members, Barbara Brady and Martin Lepper, alleging that the City’s recent […]
The military intervention in Libya by the United States and NATO offers new evidence that the just war theory stands in need of rethinking. The theory is fine as far as it goes. The problem is it doesn’t go far enough. People who say the just war theory should be scrapped because modern warfare makes […]
The budget deficits from the first two years of the Obama administration are of sufficient magnitude to spring Dr. “Billions and Billions” Carl Sagan from his grave. Sagan could sue for copyright infringement for misuse of astronomical numbers. On second thought, the figures now being bandied about are in the trillions, which no doubt would […]
In 2008, the Toronto Sun reported that “hundreds of [Greater Toronto Area] Muslim men in polygamous marriages — some with a harem of wives — are receiving welfare and social benefits for each of their spouses, thanks to the city and province, Muslim leaders say.” “Polygamy is a regular part of life for many […]
When Pastor Terry Jones, 59, announced an intent to burn a Koran on the anniversary of 9/11 in 2010, the U.S. government, fearing attacks on American troops abroad, put intense pressure on him to desist and eventually he called off his plans. Jones, however, did not cancel the ceremonial judgment of the Islamic scripture – […]
Today a federal judge ruled that Spartanburg County School District No. 7 did not violate the Constitution by allowing students to earn elective credit for released time courses. U.S. District Court Judge Henry Herlong issued an emphatically worded order in Freedom of Religion Foundation v. Spartanburg County School District No. 7, holding that the District’s […]
The Libya situation is complicated. I envy no president stuck with the task. Among the complexities, the most daunting unknown is what’s behind the opposition. We would all like to see Moammar Gaddafi tossed to the ash-heap of history, but the rub is who, or what, would replace him. What a tragedy it would be […]
