Tony Blankley from Creators Syndicate

Monsters, Muslims and Financial Crises for 03/12/2008

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The presidential campaign currently underway has missed the historically rare opportunity to engage the candidates for president in a serious discussion about how they would respond to a very likely impending recession brought on by twin banking and currency crises.

Usually financial crises — and the recessions that often follow — appear without much warning. But today, while ...

Updated: Wed Mar 12, 2008

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Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of a Recession for 03/19/2008

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Despite Sen. Obama's uplifting, if clever, speech Tuesday, the Democratic Party presidential contest looks more like a contest of racial identity. However, Democratic partisans take at least some comfort in the growing evidence of an impending recession. (What a cheerful party they are.) The hope is for a good deep recession that will drive the fearful American voters into the tender embrace of ...

Updated: Wed Mar 19, 2008

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More Than Bluebirds in the Sky for 03/26/2008

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

From a popular English World War II song:

There'll be bluebirds over

The white cliffs of Dover,

Tomorrow, just you wait and see.

There'll be love and laughter

And peace ever after

Tomorrow, when the world is free.

The shepherd will tend his sheep,

The valley will bloom again,

And Jimmy will go to sleep

Updated: Wed Mar 26, 2008

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Trouble in Pakistan and Turkey for 04/02/2008

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Plato defined man as "animal bipes implume" (a "two-legged animal without feathers"). While a rather sardonic definition, given our species' performance currently, I think Plato's definition is more fitting than the rather self-admiring title of Homo sapiens ("wise man"). Almost any news story that has appeared in the past few years woul ...

Updated: Wed Apr 02, 2008

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The Flickering Light of the News for 04/09/2008

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Two unrelated news items in the past week hint at a developing challenge to rational policymaking: First, there were the confusing accounts of what happened in Basra, Iraq. And second, there was The New York Times story that CBS is considering buying CNN's newsgathering so it won't need to gather some news itself.

The almost complete guesswork of what happened in Basra, and why, was the ...

Updated: Wed Apr 09, 2008

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Bush Raises Temp on Global Warming for 04/16/2008

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The last months of a presidential administration are often dangerous. Presidents — looking to their legacies — go to desperate lengths to try to enhance their reputations for posterity. A pungent example of such practices by the Bush administration was reported above the fold on the front page of The Washington Times Monday: "Bush prepares global warming initiative."

< ...

Updated: Wed Apr 16, 2008

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Rising Euro-Muslim Tensions for 04/23/2008

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Perhaps the greatest secular gift to the world by Judeo-Christian civilization is its seminal concept of the individual, which it raises above the tribe or the collective. In Genesis, we are told that man is made in the image of God. Deuteronomy tells us that "each human by his own sin is to be judged" and "do not punish children for the sins of their fathers." And of course ...

Updated: Wed Apr 23, 2008

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5 Economic Questions for the Candidates for 04/30/2008

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Prince Otto von Bismarck is credited with the sneering remark that "there is a special providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America." Of course, that was in the age of presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield and Chester A. Arthur, so Bismarck, the greatest statesman of his age, was entitled to look down on the quality of American leaders ...

Updated: Wed Apr 30, 2008

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Personal and Economic Recovery for 05/07/2008

Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Note to My Readers: I want to thank the many readers who e-mailed me over the weekend to thoughtfully inquire about my health after my Friday evening television appearance in which I was clearly having physical trouble. Many of you wondered whether I had a stroke. Blessedly, no. But over the weekend, I was diagnosed with a case of Bell's palsy — a temporary weakening of facial muscles on ...

Updated: Wed May 07, 2008

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Race and the 2008 Election for 05/14/2008

Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Race, the yet unclosed scab that has run deep through our history, is about to be discussed as it never has been in a presidential election. In fairness to the United States, racial attitudes (or man's view of the "other" man) is a universal phenomenon that in most countries either goes unspoken or results in straight-out ethnic cleansing and murder. Here in America, in our earnest st ...

Updated: Wed May 14, 2008

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Onward Into Cheerful Political Battle for 05/21/2008

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Look, I am as willing as the next conservative pundit to throw back a tumbler or two of whiskey and whine about our plight this election season. But in the past week, the Republican/conservative (hereinafter: RC) depression has become pathological. From the pages of The Wall Street Journal to Human Events to the Republican Conference in the House of Representatives, RC comments are sliding from ...

Updated: Wed May 21, 2008

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Memorial Day 2008 for 05/28/2008

Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

On Monday, I went to Memorial Day services in our little village of Great Falls, Va., about 20 miles from downtown Washington. About 80 local citizens turned out — not bad, given that only a few thousand souls live in the area. The site of the service, now 4 years old, is a small memorial area next to our public library. After the terrible events of Sept. 11, a handful of local folks conc ...

Updated: Wed May 28, 2008

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Obamaconomics for 06/04/2008

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Last year, Barack Obama said: "I believe that America's free market has been the engine of America's great progress. It's created a prosperity that is the envy of the world. It's led to a standard of living unmatched in history. And it has provided great rewards to the innovators and risk takers who have made America a beacon for science and technology and discovery. … We are all in ...

Updated: Wed Jun 04, 2008

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Who Is Obama? Where Is the Press? for 06/11/2008

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

How would one sneak a left-wing radical into the Oval Office in broad daylight? Perhaps the same way that President George W. Bush got two strong conservatives on the Supreme Court: Find a candidate without a paper trail on the most controversial issues. For those of us who suspect but cannot yet prove that Barack Obama is a genuine radical leftist, his lack of much of a voting record is going to ...

Updated: Wed Jun 11, 2008

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Democracy in Decline for 06/18/2008

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The broad, sneering European-elite response to the plucky Irish vote to oppose the further centralization of governmental power in the European Union and the emerging opinion in China suggest that from Brussels to Shanghai, democracy may be losing its appeal.

Democracy, broadly understood as government by the people being governed, has been the upward aspiration of Western civilization f ...

Updated: Wed Jun 18, 2008

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Was Iraq Worth It? for 06/25/2008

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It has been fashionable — indeed, de rigueur in political and media circles — to view contemptuously President Bush's assertion that we are fighting the terrorists in Iraq so we don't have to fight them here. Even conservative commentators have tended to tiptoe around the proposition. We are all far too sophisticated to believe such simplicities. Nor will any self-respecting public ...

Updated: Wed Jun 25, 2008

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Formed on the Anvil of His Captivity for 07/02/2008

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

As of today, Sen. Barack Obama is about halfway through his "patriotism theme week" message cycle. As of 2008, Sen. John McCain is about seven-ninths through his patriotism theme life cycle. I guess that is the difference between the new politics and the old patriotism.

The Obama campaign launched its new politics patriotism week last Sunday, with retired Gen. Wes "Speiche ...

Updated: Wed Jul 02, 2008

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The Obama Glissade for 07/09/2008

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Way back in June, Sen. Barack "middle name not permitted to be mentioned" Obama campaigned on the theme of "Change We Can Believe In." Now, several days later, his theme should be "Change We Can't Keep Up With." Apparently, the change he was calling for was not for Washington politics, but for his primary campaign positions. Abortion, gun control, capital punishmen ...

Updated: Wed Jul 09, 2008

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Tacking to the Center Is Tacky for 07/16/2008

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

From Australia to London to almost all points in between, if there are two things people know about Barack Obama, one of them is that he recently has changed his positions on abortion, gun control, capital punishment, FISA laws, the status of Jerusalem, faith-based federal programs, public financing of his campaign, welfare, NAFTA and free trade, the surge in Iraq, and his commitment to the Rev ...

Updated: Wed Jul 16, 2008

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The GQ Statesman for 07/23/2008

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Watching Obama glide through his foreign trip so far, nervous Republicans and other patriots have to hope that American voters will not view Obama through the eyes of a Hollywood casting director. That's because one could not cast a man who visually can portray a worldly statesman better. We all must envy his ability to effortlessly drape his tall, imperially slender form in gilded Louis XV cha ...

Updated: Wed Jul 23, 2008

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