William Murchison from Creators Syndicate

Power Vs. Liberty for 02/14/2012

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

"Compromise," in President Obama's lexicon, has a funny meaning. It means — with respect to the row over forcing religious employers to provide health insurance for contraception — "Oh, all right, if you're going to be that way about it, we'll make the insurance companies provide the coverage. Will that make you shut up now?"

It won't, I trust. It manifest ...

Updated: Tue Feb 14, 2012

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Planned Parenthood's Grand Delusion for 02/07/2012

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Go the website PlannedParenthood.org.

You know, Planned Parenthood, around whose rippling banner enlightened opinion rallied last week when news broke that Susan G. Komen for the Cure would, in the near future, cease granting it money. PP — just a big-hearted service organization for women, fighting breast cancer and other female afflictions with might and main. One could buy into ...

Updated: Tue Feb 07, 2012

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How to Split and Spoil a Party for 01/31/2012

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

What's all this "Republican establishment" vs. "grassroots populist" business; would somebody kindly inform me? I have rarely heard of anything nuttier.

The essence of this widely retailed story is that rebellious men and women of the grassroots wish to prevent the nomination of Mitt Romney for president. If Romney got elected, we are apparently to believe, he would s ...

Updated: Tue Jan 31, 2012

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In Search of a Bulldog for 01/24/2012

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

One South Carolina Republican woman said she craved to see a "bulldog" at the top of the GOP ticket. That would describe Newton Leroy Gingrich all right. The next follow-up question went un-posed: Do you want a bulldog heading up the executive branch of government, and if you do, to what end? — so he can leave teeth marks on legs all over Capitol Hill? Or so he can get a few use ...

Updated: Tue Jan 24, 2012

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Scott Walker for President? for 01/17/2012

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

While second- and third-rank Republican presidential aspirants snort over front-runner Mitt Romney's liabilities, one of the truly large issues in present day politics emerges in Wisconsin. To wit, can anything be done to corral the excesses of public labor unions?

The Wisconsin unions' answer is a smug no — though of course they don't put it that way. What they say is voters shoul ...

Updated: Tue Jan 17, 2012

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Newt, the Democratic Mole for 01/10/2012

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The New York Times' Bill Keller wants Hillary Clinton to replace Joe Biden on the Obama re-election ticket, but a better, likelier choice by far is available — one Newton Leroy Gingrich, reputedly a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination but in fact, an Obama surrogate working for Democratic victory in November.

I have proof. That's to say, Gingrich keeps opening his ...

Updated: Tue Jan 10, 2012

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A Role Model for Boehner for 01/03/2012

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The battle smoke lifts, the noise of past political combat dies away and we envision at last the right role model for John Boehner as he assumes the speakership.

Who else, I ask, but Nancy Pelosi?

The Rose of San Francisco will not go down in the speakership annals standing beside the honored likes of Henry Clay, Jack Garner and Sam Rayburn. Instead, she'll possibly go down as the ...

Updated: Tue Jan 03, 2012

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The Atheists and the Savior for 12/20/2011

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The death of the world's leading self-styled atheist (may his soul rest in peace) occasions reflection about his, shall we say, firm convictions regarding the truth of religion — any religion.

Christopher Hitchens, the English-born polemicist, was against 'em all, or at least said he was. The title of a best-selling book he published several years ago was, "God is Not Great: H ...

Updated: Tue Dec 20, 2011

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The Elections and the Court for 12/13/2011

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

A respectable school of political thought holds that most of the political nastiness on constant view today can be traced back to the liberal and Democratic vilification of Robert H. Bork's nomination to the U. S. Supreme Court, a quarter of a century ago. By the time Ted Kennedy and his associates were through with Bork, he seemed fitter for the gallows than for the country's highest bench. Th ...

Updated: Tue Dec 13, 2011

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What Cain Showed Us for 12/07/2011

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

With all these debates and polls and risings and fallings, we're supposed to think (I think) that there could hardly be a worse presidential selection process than this. Possibly, we should look on the bright side. The process digs up and conveys important information.

The Herman Cain collapse brings these ruminations to mind. Cain was never my label of joy juice, but many Americans, ge ...

Updated: Wed Dec 07, 2011

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The 'Inequality' Game for 11/28/2011

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Bull corn, Sen. Schumer.

(That's the way we used to talk back in simpler times, when language and political thought still awaited the debasement they've come to know in latter times.)

New York's senior senator, Charles Schumer, contends that "a major shift in public opinion" has placed "jobs and income inequality" atop the list of political issues for 2012.

Updated: Mon Nov 28, 2011

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Football and Money for 11/21/2011

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

In the great scheme of things — greater things than worldlings imagine on a trip to the mall — it doesn't matter a bit that Texas A & M and the University of Texas are winding up their celebrated Thanksgiving Day, football rivalry.

What matters — maybe more than a little bit — is the reason for the rivalry's end: filthy lucre, as the Apostle Paul called it, al ...

Updated: Mon Nov 21, 2011

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The High Court and Obamacare for 11/15/2011

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

As anticipated, the U. S. Supreme Court will join 300 million fellow Americans in rendering judgment on Obamacare. But with this difference: The high court's judgment, expected next June, will be the judgment that sticks.

The rest of us — members of Congress and lower court federal judges included — merely spout off with force and vehemence. We love the health care law. We h ...

Updated: Tue Nov 15, 2011

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Why We Don't Have Better Presidential Candidates for 11/08/2011

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The sagacious editorial page of the Wall Street Journal raised this question the other day of a too-little-noticed point concerning the long-running Herman Cain affair.

The Journal addressed the much-discussed question of "why we don't have 'better candidates.'" Take a guess. "Because no normal person would risk it."

On the nose! No "normal" person, ...

Updated: Tue Nov 08, 2011

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Cain and the Liberals for 11/01/2011

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Republicans by the boxcar load adore him. You know what that means if you're a certain kind of Democrat, and the "him" in question is Herman Cain.

It means Cain lovers — even or perhaps especially, folks in Dixie, who might have lynched him 80 or 90 years ago for his uppity ways — are playing a dark, devious game. They're using a black man to: 1) show how non-racis ...

Updated: Tue Nov 01, 2011

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So What Now? for 10/25/2011

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The war that presidential candidate Barack Obama called "stupid" ends in a few weeks by order of President Barack Obama, who thinks we've done about all we can in Iraq. In which case, he may be right. Though, he neglects to shine much light on the road that now lies before his country — in regards to the United States' role in the world.

Possibly, no other president, at t ...

Updated: Tue Oct 25, 2011

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Playing The ‘Greed' Card for 10/18/2011

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

"The protest against corporate greed born last month on New York's Wall Street spread across the world Saturday," according to The Los Angeles Times. But hold on! The Times is engaged in a question-begging exercise — one with tendencies that deserve to be, but certainly won't be, shut down promptly. Such is the nuttiness of our era.

"Greed" has brought us to thi ...

Updated: Tue Oct 18, 2011

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The Nuttiness of the 'Occupation' Movement for 10/11/2011

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Al Sharpton, Nancy Pelosi, different leaders of varied labor unions — pour it on, folks! Show your political solidarity with all the "occupations" going on around the country! Speak to us in anguished tones about the awfulness of free market mechanisms like banks and the horror of earning more money than someone else.

While you're at it, tell us what you're going to do a ...

Updated: Tue Oct 11, 2011

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There Go The Media -- Again for 10/04/2011

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

"I, Rick Perry, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and I further will avoid physical proximity to racially charged names susceptible of scandalizing the media on pain of public disembowelment."

Would that ...

Updated: Tue Oct 04, 2011

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The Endless Campaign for 09/27/2011

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Possibly the biggest argument against big government is that if it weren't so big we'd wait until election years to hold election-year arguments over what to do about big government.

President Barack Obama understands the calculus concerning the endless election campaign. While angling for the Republican support he requires to get anything useful or useless — either one — pa ...

Updated: Tue Sep 27, 2011

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