Archive By Section - Columnists
Quake closes the Washington Monument
HOLLYWOOD - God bless America, and how's everybody? The Washington Monument was closed due to cracks in the concrete after Tuesday's quake hit the capital. Rumors that the monument was leaning turned out to be false. It's been standing up straight for 100 years and it may be time to consult a physician. Bill Clinton discussed his vegan diet Friday, saying while vegetarians don't eat meat, poultry, fish or seafood, vegans also shun dairy, eggs ...
Let's us get some of that crack
BEVERLY HILLS - God bless America, and how's everybody? Washington D.C. residents were reeling Friday after being hit by an earthquake and a hurricane in the same week. The streets were chaotic. The Washington Monument had to be closed after the earthquake when former Mayor Marion Barry heard it had crack in it. New Yorkers stocked up on water, canned goods and emergency supplies on Friday as Hurricane Irene spun north. They needed to replenish ...
The job, and bills, fall to us -- again
With approximately 135 different tribes within its borders, the hard lifting in Libya now begins. It is incumbent upon the United States to take a lead role in this vital area.
Earthquake is a Great Depression
HOLLYWOOD - God bless America, and how's everybody? Washington D.C. was hit by an earthquake Tuesday, shaking the East Coast. To survive an earthquake you must carry an earthquake preparedness kit with a transistor radio, a flashlight and a can of tuna. If it didn't look like the Great Depression before, it does now. New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg went on the air Tuesday to calm New Yorkers after they felt their first earthquake. The ...
Here's a suggestion, stop suggesting
This time I was about to get on my plane at San Diego International Airport when I went to the newsstand to buy a copy of the Los Angeles Times. As the clerk rang it up she asked me in a robot-like type tone:
Killing jobs doesn't build economy
President Barack Obama says he will get focused on the jobs problem just as soon as he returns from his August vacation in Martha's Vineyard.
sTop making deals that hurt America
Republican deals with Obama are killing US Writing a syndicated column in 2011 is night and day different from when we started writing for publication in the 1990's. The overriding change is the volume and immediacy of feedback. In the 1990's we would receive the occasional letter applauding or challenging our thesis, facts and motives. Today we find our e-mail inbox and comment sections so full it is difficult to read it all. We take ...
Perry is gunning for Bernanke
HOLLYWOOD - God bless America, and how's everybody? GOP candidate Rick Perry said Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is committing treason if he prints more money. Perry warned him that he'll be treated ugly if he comes to Texas. The next day Laura Bush called and said if he doesn't tone it down she is going to leave him. Perry got into a war of words with the White House Monday over the tone of his ...
That penny wouldn't buy very pleasing thoughts
Everyone has a story about getting ripped off by an airline, abused by the phone company, or hosed at the department of motor vehicles.
Perry sued for daring to pray
The hysterical reaction to Republican presidential hopeful Gov. Rick Perry's faith is about as overblown as his home state of Texas is big.
Kansas City attacked by racist mobs
HOLLYWOOD - God bless America, and how's everybody? Kansas City had flash mob attacks at the Plaza district Saturday, joining Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Washington in race-based melees by flash mobs. It's tense. The Ku Klux Klan is advising convenience store owners to put the crackers up front to scare them away. Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced his candidacy for president Saturday in South Carolina. He's a fervent evangelical Christian. The Democrats are already demanding to ...
Just consider the real science
I am a "climate change convert." Like many conservatives, I was traditionally skeptical of the science supporting anthropogenic global warming (AGW). Today, I am skeptical no longer. Like conservative blogger D.R. Tucker, on this issue, I was ultimately "defeated by facts." According to Tucker's article "Confessions of a Climate Change Convert" on FrumForum, reading the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was the critical moment in his conversion process. In ...
Rural towns are at risk in America
As a resident of a small town (Belfast, Tenn.), I am distressed by the 2010 U.S. Census. Rural population is declining both as a percentage of the U.S. total (down to 16 percent, compared to 20 percent a decade ago and a whopping 72 percent a century ago) and in absolute terms (a loss of 11 million residents since 1990). Demographers warn of a mid-century America characterized by sprawling megalopolises with virtual ghost towns in ...
It's OK to blame Obama for economy
President Obama, the Democrat party and their members of Congress have spent years blaming former President George W. Bush for the nation's current economic woes, which is akin to blaming the bank's tellers for a bank robbery, or for the dishonesty of their bosses, the bank's executives who were looting the till.
Offshoring isn't a good idea
The claim first made 10 years ago and repeated by Republican and Democratic administrations that corporate offshoring would increase domestic employment turned out to be a painful hoax perpetrated on American workers
Articles by Section - Columnists
Can I take a deduction for that?
HOLLYWOOD - God bless America, and how's everybody?
Learning From the Rise and Fall of Michelle Rhee
At some point, we need to stop believing in miracles, at least in education. While we're still getting over the RICO indictments handed down in the Atlanta cheating scandal comes the revelation that the success Michelle Rhee achieved as the "no excuses" superintendent of Washington, D.C.'s public schools was the product of massive cheating. Those asking why Rhee isn't under indictment just like her former colleague in Atlanta are missing the bigger question: If she's ...
Benghazi Smoke Screen
Up until about an hour ago, most Americans thought Benghazi was the guy who palled around with John Cassavetes back in the '60s, but now it's obvious we're talking about the foreign policy arm of a multi-ramped tar pit the president has found himself swimming -- up to his armpits. Yes, friends, it's pity time at the White House.
Scandal Advice from the Master
Bill Clinton, wearing a white toga and a crown of gold, sat in a garden while attractive women fed him grapes. President Obama, having just suffered the most devastating week of his presidency, sat nearby, seeking advice in the art of telling whoppers. Using the Socratic method of teaching, Clinton began to tutor his new student.
Our zoo is famous and other local news
Tying up a few loose ends on stories that didn't make the front page:
IRS Scandal another Reason Why We Need the Fair Tax
"It will create a bureaucracy with the efficiency of the Post Office, the frugality of the Pentagon and the compassion of the IRS."– Mantra of those who opposed HillaryCare in the 1990s.
The Government Can’t Be Trusted With Our Health
"We have a large government," political consultant David Axelrod offered as a plea of ignorance to all of the scandals swirling around his boss. "Part of being president is there's so much beneath you that you can't know because the government is so vast." And yet, thanks to Axelrod and Obama, we now stand on the precipice of the largest expansion of government power in almost half a century: Obamacare, officially known as the Patient ...
Speech to the Best Graduating Class Ever
Students, faculty, family members and friends, it is my great honor to deliver your commencement speech today.
Gang of Eight: Never Have So Few Told So Many Lies
For three more weeks, the Senate Judiciary Committee will debate the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, S. 744. During the 45 years I've studied Washington politics, including 25 years of editorializing on the dreary subject, I can say without hesitation that no more anti-American legislation has ever been introduced.
The Second Term Curse Crashes Down on Barack Obama
You might say that May 10, 2013 was when the "second term curse" officially struck President Barack Obama -- and that May 13 was when it flattened him. Obama's administration has been hit with a triple whammy blast from a massive political stun gun.
It’s Harvest Time in Washington
Not even Barack Obama can defy the laws of physics.
The Batty Battalion
You do realize that Washington, D.C. is not the real world, don't you? It's a state of mind. An altered state of mind. Where you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Slammed when you stand and rammed when you run. Berated if you lie and lambasted for the truth. Where even the slightest of breeze can carry the pollen of disaster. And the pack on top knows the best way to avoid ...
Keep Those Catalogs Comin’
What America needs is a good Productivity Boosting Nap Pod, a device that looks like a dentist chair with a roof. As luck would have it, this 310-pound unit, that "provides optimal ergonomics for napping," is available from Hammacher Schlemmer for $16,000. Dagwood Bumstead take note.
Even the bugs are getting audited
HOLLYWOOD-Happy Wednesday, everybody, and God bless America.
