It’s a safe bet that most people—whatever their political affiliation—would admit that the talent level, let alone considerations of sincerity and integrity, of our current crop of “leaders” and wannabees pales when compared to the nation’s founders. While several Ph.D. theses could be written on this subject, let’s examine a few reasons behind this intolerable
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In this most recent chapter of the saga of senseless violence, 32 students and faculty perished on 16 April 2007. The perp was a—stop me if you’ve heard this before—disaffected loner, who harbored much resentment, and blamed others for his supposed misfortune. While there has been a flood of media coverage, and countless would-be sages
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What better time to talk about faith than during the season of the Church’s most solemn holiday? Ever since the early 1960′s, especially in light of the Murray v. Curlett and Abington v. Schempp Supreme Court decisions, effectively banning school prayer and mandatory bible readings, there has been endless media devoted to how a once
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Looking at the domestic political scene, the only thing more depressing than the presidential campaign starting this early is the appalling quality of the candidates. Let’s examine how we got ourselves into the present circumstances. Long ago, most who got into politics considered it a short-term form of public service, and while some of these
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The Culture and Media Institute has just released its National Cultural Values survey. 2,000 Americans aged 18 and older were asked a series of questions on moral issues. Here are some key findings: 74 percent, including majorities of every major demographic group, say they believe moral values in America are weaker than they were 20
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In recent weeks, I have commented—negatively—on our leaders, and have examined the flawed process whereby candidates are vetted, and eventually entered into races. I did receive some e-mail asking me to look at the problem from another angle, namely, why talented people of high integrity seldom run for office. One immediate answer is that they
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An important quote from George W. Bush’s speech on January 10th signaled a new direction in the Iraq War: “We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies
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Not surprisingly, the December 30th execution of Saddam Hussein brought forth a good deal of bloviating, much of which was ill-advised, if not plain stupid. Consider this jejune statement from Holy See Press Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J.: “The execution of a capital sentence is always tragic news, a cause of sadness, even when
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Since the run-up to the 2008 presidential campaign has—sadly—already begun, let’s start 2007 with some myth-shattering thoughts about getting elected. The talking heads were in universal agreement that the very close and relatively close presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 demonstrated how “polarized” the voters are. In a technical sense, this is true, but not
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Amil Imani, an ex-pat Iranian now living in the US, recently posted an interesting article to the American Thinker website. His premise is that the current theocratic and despotic rulers of Iran are not true Iranians in the sense that they do not portray the ancient traditions started by King Cyrus the Great. This Cyrus
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