Category: Politics & Government

Opinions on contemporary political happenings and the workings of civil government.

The Budget, the Debt, & the Media

  

The budget and economic issues are once again going to come to the forefront shortly, if they haven’t already. Republicans and Democrats couldn’t be further apart in their view of the status of things and what needs to be done. While Republicans are warning against raising the debt ceiling without significant cuts in spending, Democrats have a different take on the situation: President Obama himself has yet to get serious about the coming economic Armageddon. When he does mention it,… Read more »

Double Standards & Discernment

  

In the wake of the successful takeout of bin Laden, there are some who say we shouldn’t criticize the president anymore. I say we give him credit where it is due, but we keep in mind his overall performance and not let one correct decision cloud our memories or lead us to think that in foreign policy and the war on terror, he is on target. In fact, I believe the following illustration is a perfect representation of where he… Read more »

Easy Choice

  

It appears there is a direct line that can be drawn between the enhanced interrogation tactics used on captured terrorists and the trail to Osama bin Laden. Some continue to believe these tactics are too strong, but we should keep at least two things in mind: first, no one dies from waterboarding; second, it was very effective and has helped save lives. Isn’t that much better than the way some countries deal with those who attack them? What would critics… Read more »

The Appropriate Response to the Death of bin Laden

  

I’ve had a couple of different questions directed at me after the news of Osama bin Laden’s death. Let me use my post today to give my perspective on these questions. One of the questions is ancient—not new at all—dealing with the concept of a “just war.” There has been a strand of Christian thought that rejects the idea that any war is just. This viewpoint, normally labeled pacifism, says it is always wrong to take up arms regardless of… Read more »

Qualifications for the Presidency

  

I’m glad President Obama is an American citizen. Otherwise, we would have had a major constitutional confrontation on our hands. There would have been a multitude of voices declaring that the provision in the Constitution that requires the president to be a natural-born citizen is discriminatory and should be ignored. The saddest part is that they might have won with that argument, given our national ambivalence toward fidelity to our Founding documents. So Obama has met the minimum requirements for… Read more »

Worthwhile Reading

  

If you have been a regular reader of this blog, you can’t have escaped noticing that two of my academic interests are Ronald Reagan and Whittaker Chambers. I have worked for a number of years on a book comparing the two; the manuscript is finished now, and I’m in the process of trying to find a publisher. That may be a backward way of writing a book, but I never knew when or if I would actually have time to… Read more »

Old, Tired Rhetoric

  

It gets old. What am I talking about? The old, tired rhetoric from the Left that tries to convince Americans that conservatives and/or rich people are to blame for everything. First, a little perspective correction: not all conservatives are rich. Many of those rich people are liberals. Ask any Kennedy or Rockefeller serving in politics whether they have ever had to work in a factory. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are liberals as well. Let’s do away with the easy… Read more »