Sarah Barracuda

→ post-gazette.com - Jack Kelly | 7 Sep 2008 | 12:52 pm MDT

The Battle of the Party Themes for 09/06/2008

→ Michael Barone from Creators Syndicate | 6 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

The national conventions are political shows staged to influence voters.

Soon, we can measure the bounce that the two tickets have received from their gatherings. But the more important question is whether the conventions establish arguments that are sustainable — over the course of the campaign and, for the winning ticket, over four years of governance. Four years ago, John Kerry' ...

Updated: Sat Sep 06, 2008

Report From a Forgotten War (5th and Last in a Series) for 09/05/2008

→ Oliver North from Creators Syndicate | 5 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

KABUL, Afghanistan — It is good to be heading home, where there are paved roads, no Russian landmines, and the man standing at the next intersection isn't going to blow himself to pieces trying to kill me, my family and my friends. At home, drinkable water comes out of a faucet, not just from a plastic bottle. Home is where meals come on plates — not in brown plastic bags — an ...

Updated: Fri Sep 05, 2008

Game Changer for 09/05/2008

→ Mona Charen from Creators Syndicate | 5 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin was the most inspired decision of his long race for the White House. The ads lampooning Barack Obama's messianic pretensions were skillful as well. But the Palin pick accomplished several goals at once.

It is, it must be acknowledged, a terrible year to be a Republican. A decidedly unpopular Republican president is finishing his second term. Republican ...

Updated: Fri Sep 05, 2008

Why Obama's "Community Organizer" Days Are a Joke for 09/05/2008

→ Michelle Malkin from Creators Syndicate | 5 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Rudy Giuliani had me in stitches during his red-meat keynote address at the GOP convention. I laughed out loud when Giuliani laughed out loud while noting Barack Obama's deep experience as a "community organizer." I laughed again when VP nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin cracked: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual re ...

Updated: Fri Sep 05, 2008

Toxic Beverly Hills for 09/05/2008

→ L. Brent Bozell from Creators Syndicate | 5 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

For months, the CW network has been pushing its reworking of the old teen soap "Beverly Hills 90210." When it finally debuted, Entertainment Weekly magazine joked: "'90210' is the Sarah Palin of TV shows — it's new, it's pretty, few people have seen it in advance ... and its main purpose is to remind you of a trusty old product while adding some new vigor and soap opera to ...

Updated: Fri Sep 05, 2008

McCain Refuses To "Quayle" His Running Mate for 09/04/2008

→ Matt Towery from Creators Syndicate | 4 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Those who say there's no media bias aren't saying anything right now. They're laying low.

First, my own minor mea culpa: A week ago, I wrote that Barack Obama had enjoyed little or no bump in the polls from the first nights of the Democratic National Convention. Then came a bump after all, thanks mainly to his high-flying acceptance speech and ringing endorsements from Bill and Hillary C ...

Updated: Thu Sep 04, 2008

JFK: Democrats' Role Model? for 09/04/2008

→ Larry Elder from Creators Syndicate | 4 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

The John F. Kennedy legacy came up repeatedly during the Democratic National Convention. But today, would JFK even be a Democrat?

Kennedy supported, in today's lexicon, a George W. Bush-like "belligerent" approach to fighting the Cold War, and told CBS' Walter Cronkite it would be "a great mistake" to withdraw the American presence from Vietnam. In his 1961 ...

Updated: Thu Sep 04, 2008

Savaging Sarah Palin for 09/03/2008

→ L. Brent Bozell from Creators Syndicate | 3 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

When MSNBC's Chris Matthews suggested in Denver that Barack Obama earned his present elevation in American politics, unlike "showcase appointments" like Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, he reminded the world of the peculiarity of liberalism. John McCain's selection of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate underlined it. Liberals find no joy when Republicans select women or minorities ...

Updated: Wed Sep 03, 2008

Academic Mismatch I for 09/03/2008

→ Walter E. Williams from Creators Syndicate | 3 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Which serves the interests of the black community better: a black student admitted to a top-tier law school, such as Harvard, Stanford or Yale, and winds up in the bottom 10 percent of his class, flunks out, or cannot pass the bar examination, or a black student admitted to a far less prestigious law school, performs just as well as his white peers, graduates and passes the bar? I, and hopefull ...

Updated: Wed Sep 03, 2008

Time to Go Nuclear for 09/03/2008

→ Austin Bay from Creators Syndicate | 3 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

"Das Leben Wahlen — Stop Kernenergie" the sticker reads in German.

Choose Life. Stop Nuclear Energy.

The sticker is an artifact from a visit to Germany in the early 1980s.

Das Leben Wahlen is printed in German Green Party green, with a very beautiful leaf. Stop Kernenergie appears in stark black and white, with a huge X over a nuclear power plant whose etche ...

Updated: Wed Sep 03, 2008

Abstinence Education Is Still a Good Idea for 09/03/2008

→ Mona Charen from Creators Syndicate | 3 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

No sooner was Bristol Palin's pregnancy disclosed than many in the liberal commentariat began to beat abstinence education (which Sarah Palin favors) about the head and shoulders. A blogger on the Daily Kos asked, "If Sarah Palin still supports abstinence-only sex education for public schools, after this experience with her daughter, what does that say about her judgment as a policy maker? ...

Updated: Wed Sep 03, 2008

The Drinking Age Myth for 09/03/2008

→ John Stossel from Creators Syndicate | 3 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

There's a myth in this country that the drinking age is 21. But that's only the legal age. The fact that government says you can't drink before 21 does not mean younger people don't drink.

More than 100 college presidents understand this, and now they want the minimum drinking age reconsidered (http://tinyurl.com/6kg4kc).

"The 21-year-old drinking age is not working," sa ...

Updated: Wed Sep 03, 2008

The Four Stages of Conservative Female Abuse for 09/03/2008

→ Michelle Malkin from Creators Syndicate | 3 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

There's something about outspoken conservative women that drives the left mad. It's a peculiar pathology I've reported on for more than 15 years, both as a witness and a target. Thus, the onset of Palin Derangement Syndrome in the media, Democratic circles and the cesspools of the blogosphere came as no surprise. They just can't help themselves.

Liberals hold a special animus for constit ...

Updated: Wed Sep 03, 2008

Foreign Policy "Experience" for 09/02/2008

→ Thomas Sowell from Creators Syndicate | 2 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Now that the Democrats have recovered from the shock of Governor Sarah Palin's nomination as the Republican's candidate for vice president, they have suddenly discovered that her lack of experience in general— and foreign policy experience in particular— is a terrible danger in someone just a heartbeat away from being President of the United States.

For those who are satisfie ...

Updated: Tue Sep 02, 2008

A Knock or a Boost? for 09/02/2008

→ Thomas Sowell from Creators Syndicate | 2 Sep 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Since Governor Sarah Palin's daughter is not running for election this year, it is amazing how much the media has suddenly become obsessed with her. Her pregnancy not only made the front page of the New York Times, a printed announcement of her pregnancy stayed at the bottom of the television screen on CNN for what seemed to me to be about an hour or more.

Investigative reporters have ob ...

Updated: Tue Sep 02, 2008

McCain's masterstroke

→ post-gazette.com - Jack Kelly | 30 Aug 2008 | 10:00 pm MDT

Outrageous Vulnerabilities for 08/30/2008

→ Michael Barone from Creators Syndicate | 30 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

As this is written, with a deadline looming, I have not heard Barack Obama's acceptance speech at Invesco Field and have not learned who is John McCain's choice for vice president.

You know more about these things than I do. So I will write about something I may know more about, and which has been the subject of some concern at the Democratic National Convention: the Democrats' charge th ...

Updated: Sat Aug 30, 2008

Report From a Forgotten War (4th in a Series) for 08/29/2008

→ Oliver North from Creators Syndicate | 29 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

HERAT, Afghanistan — A Taliban sentry fired the first shots shortly after 2:30 a.m. as Afghan commandos and U.S. Special Operations Command troops surrounded the compound at Aziz Abad. Though the Marine Special Operations Team had employed a daring deception to achieve surprise, they were engaged heavily by gunfire from AK-47s and machine guns almost immediately after deploying at the obj ...

Updated: Fri Aug 29, 2008

Barack "The Silencer" Obama's Gangland Assault on Free Speech for 08/29/2008

→ Michelle Malkin from Creators Syndicate | 29 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Where are all the free speech absolutists when you need them? Over the past month, left-wing partisans and Democratic lawyers have waged a brass-knuckled intimidation campaign against GOP donors, TV and radio stations, and even an investigative journalist because they have all dared to question the radical cult of Barack Obama. A chill wind blows, but where the valiant protectors of political d ...

Updated: Fri Aug 29, 2008

Celebrities Embarrass Obama for 08/29/2008

→ L. Brent Bozell from Creators Syndicate | 29 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Barack Obama's campaign has been seriously frightened by John McCain's celebrity-mocking ads. Those celebrities were virtually nowhere to be found for most of the Denver convention. While the Obama machine may control the inside of the convention, outside these celebrities are clearly out of control — again.

That overbaked tart Madonna kicked off her latest concert tour with a fair ...

Updated: Fri Aug 29, 2008

Changes in Politics for 08/29/2008

→ Thomas Sowell from Creators Syndicate | 29 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

One of the few political cliches that makes sense is that "In politics, overnight is a lifetime."

Less than a year ago, the big question was whether Rudolph Giuliani could beat Hillary Clinton in this year's presidential election. Less than two months ago, Barack Obama had a huge lead over John McCain in the polls. Less than a week ago, the smart money was saying that Mitt Romn ...

Updated: Fri Aug 29, 2008

Major Media Decide -- Vote Obama for 08/28/2008

→ Larry Elder from Creators Syndicate | 28 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Lawyers call this a "declaration against interest."

Washington Post ombudsperson Deborah Howell wrote a column in her own newspaper comparing the paper's front-page coverage of Democratic nominee Barack Obama with that of Republican nominee John McCain.

Her findings? Examining stories from June 4, when Obama became the presumptive nominee, until Aug. 15, the Post ran 142 ...

Updated: Thu Aug 28, 2008

Democrats Would Have Been Smart To Skip Convention for 08/28/2008

→ Matt Towery from Creators Syndicate | 28 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Democrats were scratching their heads and trying to figure how it was that Republican presidential nominee John McCain had inched further up in the polls during this, of all things, the week of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. But the only real mystery is why they were so mystified.

The Democrats' first misstep came on the first night of the proceedings, when they staged a d ...

Updated: Thu Aug 28, 2008

Energy Independence II for 08/27/2008

→ John Stossel from Creators Syndicate | 27 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

"John Stossel sounds like a real defeatist. ... We have our backs to the wall, and he's raising the white flag."

"Stossel has lost his mind."

My column last week mocking "energy independence" angered people. (http://tinyurl.com/6aauwu).

I argued that "independence," a favorite slogan of vote-hungry politicians, would require the gover ...

Updated: Wed Aug 27, 2008

Tsar Wars Versus Star Wars for 08/27/2008

→ Austin Bay from Creators Syndicate | 27 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

As the Russo-Georgian War's August gunfire slips into a murky September ceasefire, the Pentagon reports that the Russians "are still not living up to the terms of the ceasefire agreement."

So, what does Russia want?

The question intentionally echoes, "So what did Stalin want?" — which historian John Lewis Gaddis asked then answered in his award-winning bo ...

Updated: Wed Aug 27, 2008

No Nastiness In Springfield? for 08/27/2008

→ L. Brent Bozell from Creators Syndicate | 27 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

For two years now, we've heard Barack Obama's media allies tell us how he was somehow Not a Politician, that he was the pragmatic soul of civility who was "uniquely qualified to nudge the country toward the color purple." (So said Newsweek.) If that myth hadn't died under tons of weight to the contrary by now, it certainly should have expired in Springfield, Ill., when he selected Joe ...

Updated: Wed Aug 27, 2008

Is College Worth It? for 08/27/2008

→ Walter E. Williams from Creators Syndicate | 27 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

As parents pack their youngsters off to college, they might ask themselves whether it's worth both the money they will spend and their children's time. Dr. Marty Nemko has researched that question in an article aptly titled "America's Most Over-rated Product: Higher Education (www.martynemko.com/articles/americas-most-overrated-product-higher-education_id1539)."

The U.S. Depart ...

Updated: Wed Aug 27, 2008

What I Saw at the Discombobulation for 08/27/2008

→ Michelle Malkin from Creators Syndicate | 27 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

DENVER — Never was so much hype created by so few to simulate the appearance of so many.

The hard-core left vowed to turn out 50,000 protesters for the Democratic National Convention this week. They pledged to "Re-create '68" and cause the kind of tear-gas-infused revolutionary havoc that marked the DNC in Chicago four decades ago. Police prepared for the worst riots. Med ...

Updated: Wed Aug 27, 2008

This Historic Candidacy for 08/26/2008

→ Mona Charen from Creators Syndicate | 26 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

I so wish I could support Barack Obama. It would be great — truly magnificent — to elect a black president of the United States. Watching the convention coverage on Monday night, I was moved by my friend Juan Williams' almost tearful reaction to Michelle Obama's address. He shook his head in amazement that an African-American woman was in the position she was. And it moved me to see ...

Updated: Tue Aug 26, 2008

Anarchy on the Internet for 08/26/2008

→ Thomas Sowell from Creators Syndicate | 26 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

The Internet provides vast amounts of information but it can also spread vast amounts of misinformation, or even deliberately misleading disinformation.

For more than two weeks, scarcely a day has gone by without e-mails pouring in to me, asking about columns that someone has written and brazenly spread around the Internet with my name on them.

Most of these e-mails have come from ...

Updated: Tue Aug 26, 2008

Random Thoughts for 08/26/2008

→ Thomas Sowell from Creators Syndicate | 26 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Random thoughts on the passing scene:

If you took all the fraud out of politics, there might not be a lot left.

The reason so many people misunderstand so many issues is not that these issues are so complex, but that people do not want a factual or analytical explanation that leaves them emotionally unsatisfied. They want villains to hate and heroes to cheer— and they don't ...

Updated: Tue Aug 26, 2008

Obama is his own worst enemy

→ post-gazette.com - Jack Kelly | 23 Aug 2008 | 10:00 pm MDT

The Chosen Obama Narrative for 08/23/2008

→ Michael Barone from Creators Syndicate | 23 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Once upon a time, the two parties' national conventions chose presidential nominees. Now, they are television shows that try to establish a narrative — one that links the long-since-determined nominee's life story with the ongoing history of the nation, one that shows how this one man is perfectly positioned to lead America to a better future. The hope is that the nominee will get a bounc ...

Updated: Sat Aug 23, 2008

Bracing for The Goo for 08/22/2008

→ L. Brent Bozell from Creators Syndicate | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

When Sen. John Kerry arrived in Boston for the last Democratic convention, the TV news stars thought they'd died and gone to political heaven. Dan Rather said Kerry's speech drove the crowd in Boston into "a 3,000-gallon attack about every three minutes," and Newsweek's Jon Meacham was comparing Kerry to Abraham Lincoln on MSNBC. If media liberals can get that excited over Kerry, view ...

Updated: Fri Aug 22, 2008

Report From a Forgotten War (3rd in a Series) for 08/22/2008

→ Oliver North from Creators Syndicate | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

HERAT PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN — Our Fox News' "War Stories" team has moved to a former Soviet military base in western Afghanistan, about 50 miles from the Iranian border. We're now with the 207th Afghan Commando Battalion and their U.S. Special Operations Command, Army and Marine counterparts. This remarkable unit celebrated the 89th anniversary of Afghanistan's independence from ...

Updated: Fri Aug 22, 2008

McCain's Luck for 08/22/2008

→ Mona Charen from Creators Syndicate | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

"Sickly. Weak. Feeble. Pick your choice." So began a Washington Post story about John McCain's presidential campaign almost exactly a year ago. "The one-time front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination has disappointing poll numbers and deathly results from the second quarter of fundraising. His failed effort to push through a comprehensive immigration bill has aliena ...

Updated: Fri Aug 22, 2008

Abu Ghraib-i-fying America's schools for 08/22/2008

→ Michelle Malkin from Creators Syndicate | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

The citizens of the world who hate America are going to love the latest agitprop released this week by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. In a document titled "A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools," the left-wing groups seek to paint a horrifying portrait of the nation's classrooms as Abu Ghraib-like torture chambers.

McCain vs. Obama: Showdown at Saddleback for 08/21/2008

→ Larry Elder from Creators Syndicate | 21 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Oh, no, not another "town hall" meeting.

Or at least, that's how I first reacted when I learned Rev. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church intended to host an Obama-versus-McCain town hall forum at the evangelist's California church.

But the rules, this time at least, seemed intriguing. Warren intended to ask each candidate one-on-one questions for one hour, with the rival of ...

Updated: Thu Aug 21, 2008

A Word of Thanks for Newt Gingrich for 08/21/2008

→ Matt Towery from Creators Syndicate | 21 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

It's ironic that when former aides or colleagues of prominent Democrats opine on the presidential race, for example Donna Brazile, who appears both on ABC and CNN and ran Al Gore's 2000 campaign, they are never asked to do a mea culpa about potential bias or conflicts. They just comment away on Democrats, Republicans, issues or whatever they like.

That's fine, because for once I'm not go ...

Updated: Thu Aug 21, 2008

The Idiocy of Energy Independence for 08/20/2008

→ John Stossel from Creators Syndicate | 20 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

It's amazing how ideas with no merit become popular merely because they sound good.

Most every politician and pundit says "energy independence" is a great idea. Presidents have promised it for 35 years. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we were self-sufficient, protected from high prices, supply disruptions and political machinations?

The hitch is that even if the United State ...

Updated: Wed Aug 20, 2008

Economic Myths for 08/20/2008

→ Walter E. Williams from Creators Syndicate | 20 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

By taking a couple of courses in economic theory, we could immunize ourselves from nonsense spouted by politicians and pundits, but in the meantime check out Professor John R. Lott's "Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works."

His first chapter is "Are You Being Ripped Off?" It addresses myths about predation where it's sometimes alleged that corporations will charge ...

Updated: Wed Aug 20, 2008

Crime and Warfare: An Anatomy of Terror for 08/20/2008

→ Austin Bay from Creators Syndicate | 20 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

One reason the debate question, "Is terrorism warfare or crime?" irks me is that it is patently both.

Take Colombia's sad experience as a particularly prima facie example. All but the most ritually blind Marxists now concede Colombia's "leading insurgent army," the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), is a narcotics cartel with a residual political agenda. O ...

Updated: Wed Aug 20, 2008

Silence on Georgia

→ post-gazette.com - Jack Kelly | 16 Aug 2008 | 10:00 pm MDT

Echoes of Berlin for 08/16/2008

→ Michael Barone from Creators Syndicate | 16 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Last week, the two erstwhile communist superpowers were in the spotlight. Starting on Aug. 8, China staged the Olympics — an event on the schedule for years. Also on Aug. 8, Russia invaded the independent republic of Georgia — which apparently caught our government flatfooted. George W. Bush remained in Beijing watching the Olympians, while Vladimir Putin, making no secret of who is ...

Updated: Sat Aug 16, 2008

Report From a Forgotten War (2nd in a Series) for 08/15/2008

→ Oliver North from Creators Syndicate | 15 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

CAMP BASTION, HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan — This British-built fortress, perched on a plateau in southwestern Afghanistan, is well-named. Surrounded by miles of open desert, the citadel has its own concrete runway, water supply, sewage, electricity, Level 3 trauma hospital, even fire mains — all constructed in the past 30 months. The heavily armed camp is home to British, Danish, ...

Updated: Fri Aug 15, 2008

'Where You From?' for 08/14/2008

→ Larry Elder from Creators Syndicate | 14 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

"Where you from?"

An illegal alien from Mexico, Pedro Espinoza, allegedly asked that of Jamiel Shaw Jr., 17 — before Espinoza shot and killed him.

Shaw, a promising high-school student athlete wooed by Stanford and Rutgers, was gunned down at 8:40 p.m. just three doors from his Los Angeles home, where his father, Jamiel Shaw Sr., awaited his arrival from the mall. ...

Updated: Thu Aug 14, 2008

The 3 a.m. Phone Call Is Real for 08/14/2008

→ Mona Charen from Creators Syndicate | 14 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Hillary Clinton's best anti-Obama ad came to be known as the "3 a.m. phone call." It stoked voter worries that in the event of an international crisis, the first-term junior senator from Illinois might be out of his depth. On Aug. 8, the White House phone did ring, alerting President Bush that the Soviet Union, um, that is, Russia, had just sent columns of tanks and armored personnel ...

Updated: Thu Aug 14, 2008

Wasted Days and Wasted Nights: The Coming Presidential Conventions for 08/14/2008

→ Matt Towery from Creators Syndicate | 14 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Thanks to the timing of this year's Olympic games, the Democrats and the Republicans will be holding their presidential nominating conventions back to back. So by the time their staged, silly goings-on are over, the voters will have less than two months to properly vet John McCain and Barack Obama.

There was a time when the political conventions meant something. Few recall that John Kenn ...

Updated: Thu Aug 14, 2008

Patterns of Black Excellence for 08/13/2008

→ Walter E. Williams from Creators Syndicate | 13 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Most people know the tragic state of black education today. We know that billions of dollars are spent on federal government programs such as No Child Left Behind and the billions spent by state and local governments. If you were to ask an education "expert" to explain the tragedy, you'd get answers such as racial discrimination and underfunding.

My colleague Dr. Thomas Sowell ...

Updated: Wed Aug 13, 2008

Whose Business Is It Anyway? for 08/13/2008

→ John Stossel from Creators Syndicate | 13 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

"Stossel is a pig."

"Wait and see how he is going to react when he [gets] fired by ABC News without a reason, just because he is skinny like a monkey."

Lots of "20/20" viewers hated what I said about age discrimination laws on TV (http://tinyurl.com/6awjda).

Most everyone says anti-discrimination laws are good laws, especially those that protec ...

Updated: Wed Aug 13, 2008

The Russo-Georgia War's Dire Diplomatic Aftermath for 08/13/2008

→ Austin Bay from Creators Syndicate | 13 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

As I write this column, Russian troops have halted their main attack just short of Tbilisi, Georgia's capital. That's smart diplomatically and sharp militarily. In late 1994, the Russians attempted to drive Chechen rebels from Grozny, Chechnya's capital, and suffered a terrible defeat. Georgia lacks Russia's vast military arsenal, but Georgian infantrymen are motivated, and the "closed-ter ...

Updated: Wed Aug 13, 2008

Nonsense on energy

→ post-gazette.com - Jack Kelly | 9 Aug 2008 | 10:00 pm MDT

The Ghosts of Political Leanings for 08/09/2008

→ Michael Barone from Creators Syndicate | 9 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

To understand changes in the political map, we naturally tend to look for contemporary explanations. But American political alignments are not written on an empty slate. Beginnings matter, and the civic personalities of states tend to reflect the cultural folkways of their first settlers.

So I was not startled when I compared state poll results in this election with the results of the 20 ...

Updated: Sat Aug 09, 2008

Report From a Forgotten War (1st in a Series) for 08/08/2008

→ Oliver North from Creators Syndicate | 8 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan — To Americans of my generation and older, the Korean War is the "Forgotten War." For this generation, it's Afghanistan — or to be precise, Operation Enduring Freedom.

This seven-year-long campaign against al-Qaida and the Taliban in the shadow of the Hindu Kush didn't start out as a "forgotten war." On Oct. 7, 2001, less than ...

Updated: Fri Aug 08, 2008

Newsweek Story on South Paints Untrue Vision for 08/07/2008

→ Matt Towery from Creators Syndicate | 7 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

The cover story in this week's Newsweek is entitled "The End of the South." Some of the story's observations ring true enough. Yet the tone of the piece, and its accompanying photos, paint an oversimplified "black and white" portrait of a land that is actually — like most everywhere else — a colorful mix of the flattering and the not-so flattering.

The mai ...

Updated: Thu Aug 07, 2008

The Next Time You Say, 'Bush Lied, People Died' -- Think for 08/07/2008

→ Larry Elder from Creators Syndicate | 7 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Listening to National Public Radio on the way home from work, I found the interview — at least at first — fun enough.

NPR's Terry Gross interviewed comedian/actor Will Ferrell, actor John C. Reilly and writer/director Adam McKay — to promote a new film.

All yukked about their careers, and then the interviewer asked Adam McKay how he and Ferrell began their collab ...

Updated: Thu Aug 07, 2008

The Sky Isn't Falling for 08/06/2008

→ John Stossel from Creators Syndicate | 6 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

In this column I often take a skeptical look at liberal scare-mongering about global warming and cancer threats from pesticides, Teflon frying pans, plastic bottles, cell phones, etc. The liberal scaremongers' solution is always: more government.

But conservatives scare people, too.

When I was growing up, most everyone agreed that it would be a terrible thing if young people were ...

Updated: Wed Aug 06, 2008

"Rheostat Warfare": An Interview With Gen. David Petraeus for 08/06/2008

→ Austin Bay from Creators Syndicate | 6 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Victory in war is tough to define. Hollywood's version of victory in World War II provides a finality that history lacks. Gen. MacArthur meets the Japanese emissary on the battleship Missouri, and the curtain falls. Except trouble brews in Korea, China's civil war continues, the Soviet Union imprisons Eastern Europe and the triumph of World War II — dancing in Times Square on V-E Day &mda ...

Updated: Wed Aug 06, 2008

A Nation of Thieves for 08/06/2008

→ Walter E. Williams from Creators Syndicate | 6 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am MDT

Edgar K. Browning, professor of economics at Texas A&M University, has a new book aptly titled "Stealing from Each Other." Its subtitle, "How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit," goes to the heart of what the book is about. The rise of equalitarian ideology has driven Americans to steal from one another. Browning explains that certain kinds of equality ...

Updated: Wed Aug 06, 2008