Dennis Prager from Creators Syndicate

See This Film (or Stop Complaining About Hollywood) for 06/30/2009

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

With the possible exception of university administrations, there is no institution as bereft of courage as Hollywood.

In Hollywood courage is defined as savaging oil, power and tobacco executives on film. Or producing yet another movie on the evils of the Iraq War.

But if courage means doing what is unpopular — especially among one's peers — I can recall precious few p ...

Updated: Tue Jun 30, 2009

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Obama Is in Russia, but Honduras Is Where the Action Is for 07/07/2009

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The importance of the summit meeting in Moscow between President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pales in comparison to the events taking place in Honduras.

Whether or not the United States and Russia reduce their nuclear arsenals is ultimately meaningless. But whether Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro are victorious in Honduras or whether the movement toward left-wing autho ...

Updated: Tue Jul 07, 2009

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Why I Came to Honduras for 07/14/2009

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

"Why have you come to Honduras?"

That is the question posed to me by Hondurans, surprised that anyone from the outside world, let alone from the media, cares enough to now visit their small country (population 8 million), a country that they themselves consider relatively insignificant.

The question is a valid one. The U.S. State Department has issued a travel alert (thr ...

Updated: Tue Jul 14, 2009

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Americans Are Beginning to Understand the Left for 07/21/2009

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

There is only one good thing about the Obama administration's attempts to nationalize most health care and to begin to control Americans' energy consumption through cap-and-trade: clarity about the left. These attempts are enabling more and more Americans to understand the thinking and therefore the danger of the left.

The left has its first president — with the possible exception ...

Updated: Tue Jul 21, 2009

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Americans Are Beginning to Understand the Left for 07/21/2009

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The left has its first president — with the possible exception ...

Updated: Tue Jul 21, 2009

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10 Questions for Supporters of 'ObamaCare' for 07/28/2009

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

1. President Barack Obama repeatedly tells us that one reason national health care is needed is that we can no longer afford to pay for Medicare and Medicaid. But if Medicare and Medicaid are fiscally insolvent and gradually bankrupting our society, why is a government takeover of medical care for the rest of society a good idea? What large-scale government program has not eventually spiraled o ...

Updated: Tue Jul 28, 2009

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What the Gates-Crowley “Teachable Moment” Really Teaches for 08/04/2009

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Readers on the left will be shocked, if not incredulous, to learn that neither I nor any conservative I know realized why the president asked Vice President Joseph Biden to join him, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley for their fabled “beer summit” at the White House.

I had simply assumed that the president invited Biden in order to lessen an ...

Updated: Tue Aug 04, 2009

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I Thought 'Dissent Is Patriotic' for 08/11/2009

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Living in liberal Los Angeles, I am surrounded by people — and bumper stickers — I do not agree with.

One of the more popular liberal bumper stickers of the last decade tells us "Dissent is Patriotic." Now, as it happens, it is impossible to truly disagree with that phrase, not because it is self-evidently true, but because it is self-evidently meaningless. As are m ...

Updated: Tue Aug 11, 2009

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Now Yale Embarrasses the Idea of the Western University for 08/18/2009

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

When I was a graduate student at Columbia University in the early 1970s, I came to the then-tentative conclusion that I would probably never encounter a morally weaker, more cowardly group of people than college administrators.

While there are exceptions to this rule and there are other institutions that regularly exhibit as much moral cowardice as universities do, nearly 40 years later ...

Updated: Tue Aug 18, 2009

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This Week, It Was Scotland's Turn To Shame the West for 08/25/2009

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Whenever I think that some Western country or institution has reached a low point, shortly thereafter, sometimes the very next week, another Western government or institution proves me too optimistic.

Last week, it was the news that the Yale University Press will not allow any picture of Muhammad to appear in its forthcoming book on the Muhammad cartoons controversy. Not only will Yale n ...

Updated: Tue Aug 25, 2009

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The Bigger the Government, the Smaller the Citizen for 09/01/2009

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Those of us who oppose a massive increase in the role the national government plays in health care ("ObamaCare") do so because we fear the immense and unsustainable national debt it would incur and because we are certain that medical care in America would deteriorate. But there is a bigger reason most of us oppose it: We believe that the bigger the government becomes, the smaller the ...

Updated: Tue Sep 01, 2009

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The Left Is Right -- Taxes Are a Moral Issue for 09/15/2009

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

One principle that all those on the left hold is that taxes constitute more than an economic issue; they are, first and foremost, a moral one. Economists on the left may argue for higher taxes on economic grounds but they and we know that at bottom, higher taxes, especially "taxing the rich," is what they believe morality demands.

For example, there are obviously only two possi ...

Updated: Tue Sep 15, 2009

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Reflections on the Death of My Mother for 09/29/2009

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

My mother, Hilda Prager, died 10 days ago.

Because she has consumed my thoughts since then, I thought I would share some of them with my readers.

1. On the age a parent dies

One of the first things most people ask when a person loses a parent is how old he or she was. This is entirely normal, yet it demands explanation. It is entirely normal because people regard the death ...

Updated: Tue Sep 29, 2009

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Child Rape and the Values of People Who Make Films for 10/06/2009

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

"In defending the director (Roman Polanski), the entertainment industry faces a risk that it will seem out of touch with the audiences it seeks to connect with at the movie house." — The New York Times, Sept. 30, 2009

What is important in the Roman Polanski issue is not whether the renowned film director should be extradited from Switzerland to the United States. Given th ...

Updated: Tue Oct 06, 2009

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Why President Obama Was Awarded the Nobel Prize for 10/13/2009

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Nobel Peace Prize, already devalued, has sunk to a new low. This assessment has nothing to do with one's estimation of this year's recipient, President Barack Obama. Most of those on the left, with a few predictable exceptions such as the New York Times, regard giving the president the award as belittling him and the prize.

How did this happen? What was the Oslo Committee's motive?
Updated: Tue Oct 13, 2009

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Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President for 10/20/2009

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

According to the Jerusalem Post, as recently as six weeks ago, just 4 percent of the Jews of Israel regarded President Obama as pro-Israel. Even if exaggerated, it is likely the most negative Israeli view of an American president since Israel's creation.

If you think Israelis are irrational in this matter, perhaps Tibet will help persuade you otherwise.

Yes, Tibet.

Whereas ...

Updated: Tue Oct 20, 2009

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Democrats' Policies Based on Dogma, Hopes, Dreams, not Reality for 10/27/2009

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

How is one to rationally explain the Democrats' belief that the government taking over another one-sixth of the American economy is a good thing?

The answer is religion.

Given the huge economic failures that the left itself attributes to Medicare and Medicaid and given the economic collapse or near collapse of these systems in other countries, the left's prescriptions can only be ...

Updated: Tue Oct 27, 2009

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A Society that Venerates Lawyers More than Doctors for 11/03/2009

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Those of us who are not true believers in expanded government are certain of the following:

If the 1,990-page House Health Care Bill becomes law, the average American will receive worse health care, American physicians will decline in status and income, American medical innovation will dramatically slow down and pharmaceutical discoveries will decline in number and quality. And, of cours ...

Updated: Tue Nov 03, 2009

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Intimidated Americans Claim Not To Know Hasan's Motives for 11/10/2009

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

One reads and hears with increasing disbelief and anger that we don't know the motive or motives of Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army major who fired over 100 shots at his fellow American soldiers in order to murder and maim as many as possible. Hasan ended up allegedly murdering 13 people, but government and Army spokesmen and the mainstream media claim they just can't figure out why he did this. Th ...

Updated: Tue Nov 10, 2009

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The Silver Lining of the Left in Power for 11/17/2009

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

There may be a major silver lining for conservatives and for America's future thanks to the foreign and domestic policies of President Obama and the Democrat-controlled House and Senate: For the first time in their lives, millions of Americans are coming to understand the left.

It is difficult to overstate how important this is. For decades, the left has largely controlled the news media ...

Updated: Tue Nov 17, 2009

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