“I disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it.” -- Voltaire (1694-1778) When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he included in it a list of the colonists’ grievances with the British government. Notably absent were any complaints that the British government infringed upon the freedom of speech. In those days, speech was as acerbic as it is today. Yet, if words were aimed at other colonists or at Parliament, all words were lawful. If they...

In 1966, Charlotte E. Keyes wrote a famous article for McCall’s magazine titled “Suppose They Gave a War and No One Came.” Special Counsel Jack Smith may be contemplating the same fate. Putting the tongue-in-cheek title aside, the odds are that some people will come to any trial of President Donald Trump. After all, a lot of people have to come from the judge to the jurors and counsel. However, Smith has had an ominous week that could severely complicate his plans for convicting Donald Trump...

Forget about stopping the purported evil despot Vladimir Putin intent on taking over all of Europe and maybe the rest of the world. Forget about helping — try to keep a straight face on this one — the democracy and freedom supporting nation of Ukraine. United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken was out last week promoting a new reason to continue supporting the Ukraine War — ensuring there are more American jobs in the military-industrial complex. Speaking Thursday in a joint press...

I do not believe that anything I say about what is happening in Gaza will affect Israeli or American policy in that conflict. But I want to be on record so that when historians look back on this moral calamity, they will see that some Americans were on the right side of history. What Israel is doing in Gaza to the Palestinian civilian population – with the support of the Biden administration – is a crime against humanity that serves no meaningful military purpose. As J-Street, an...

Once a dictator, always a dictator. Power-hungry, lawless and steadfast in its pursuit of authoritarian powers, the government does not voluntarily relinquish those powers once it acquires, uses and inevitably abuses them. Likewise, any presidential candidate who promises to be a dictator on day one, if elected, will be a dictator-in-chief for life. Then again, the president is already a dictator with permanent powers: imperial, unaccountable and unconstitutional thanks to a relatively...

With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the running as an independent candidate in the 2024 presidential election, it’s a good time to revisit a part of the US election process that seems specifically designed to protect the status quo. In 1987, a strange thing happened on the treacherous road to US democracy. Instead of the League of Women Voters (LWV) sponsoring the US presidential debates, something the ladies had done without a hitch since 1976, the campaign teams of George H.W. Bush and Michael...

The two-part Washington Post report on the failed Ukraine counter offensive was written primarily to blame Ukraine for the debacle and exonerate the United States. My analysis of those articles (here and here) highlighted astounding miscalculations and malpractice by U.S. and NATO advisors. The fundamental flaw is the U.S. military personnel are pretending to have experience that they do not have. The U.S. military is like a Driver’s Education school. They are qualified and competent...

President Biden recently repeated the claim that high prices are caused by greedy businesses. Biden is not alone in trying to gaslight the people into thinking price inflation is rooted in the actions of private individuals and not the fiat money system Americans have lived under since 1971. In the media we see excessive consumer spending on luxury items, for example, being blamed for continued price inflation. The fact is that increased consumer demand can only cause prices to rise in those...

Aside from Israel, the United States is the nation most responsible for the pain and suffering people in Gaza are experiencing due to Israel’s devastating military action of the last two months. This is because the US is now and long has been the number one provider of weapons to Israel, as well as the source of much intelligence employed to direct the use of those weapons. The Israel government bears responsibility for its ongoing devastating attack on Gaza. But, the destruction, with truth...

Palestinians have become sand in the eyes of the Mideast. How did this happen? From where did they come? Nowhere, according to the late Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. She insisted Palestinians did not exist and were merely human flotsam and jetsam. That was pretty rich coming from Golda Mabovich, born to a Jewish family in Kiev, Russia. So where did the Palestinians come from who are now under terrifying siege by Israeli forces in and around Gaza, with 15,000 killed so far by Israeli...

I was watching the 2002 war movie We Were Soldiers a couple of nights ago. I’ve seen it before but it’s such a great movie that I periodically re-watch it. It stars Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott, Keri Russell, and others. The movie is based on a true story. It dramatizes the Battle of la Drang in Vietnam, which was the first major battle between US military forces and North Vietnamese forces. The battle took place in November 1965, two years after President...

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.”  -- Hosea 8:7 The debacle of the nearly 20-year American occupation of Afghanistan continues in Joe Biden’s America today. This disaster began when President George W. Bush -- stung deeply by the intelligence that he failed to heed, thus enabling the attacks of 9/11 to take place unimpeded -- convinced the American people and Congress and most of our allies that the bad guys who ran Afghanistan in the early part of this...

A number of serious commentators – one being U.S. Professor Victor Hanson – are warning: “Brace yourself for what’s coming in 2024”. Hansen sees bad omens darkening the future. Is he exaggerating? Perhaps not. One cannot but notice how bad tempered Americans and Europeans generally have become. Calm, reasoned discussion of issues is gone; Yelling, emotivism and ‘othering’ is commonplace; something bad is coming. A gut feeling, Tucker Carlson says. “There are “angry people who...

To a nation of snowflakes, Christmas has become yet another trigger word. Indeed, the season for giving has turned into the season for getting…and for getting offended. Over the years, Christmas casualties in the campaign to create one large national safe space have ranged from the beloved animated classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (denounced for promoting bullying and homophobia) to the Oscar-winning tune “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” (accused of being a date...