Opinion Forum

The Rookie President

March 31st, 2009

Thomas Sowell wrote a column today, A Rookie President, about the danger of having a very inexperienced president, especially now. Here’s part of it: We now have a rookie President of the United States and, in the dangerous world we live in, with terrorist nations going nuclear, just one rookie mistake can bring disaster down on [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: leadership, Obama
Categories: Politics | Comments (21) | Home

Religious Controversies

March 30th, 2009

Here are two interesting posts touching on religious controversies: At Preemptive Karma, The Catholic War Against Children looks at the Catholic Church’s stance on abortion and its reaction to abuse scandals. At Wind Rose Hotel, Harvard researchers agree with Pope Benedict on condoms in Africa discusses Harvard University research support for the Pope’s comments.

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: HIV/AIDS, religion
Categories: Life, News, Politics | Comments (5) | Home

Something About Obama II

March 29th, 2009

David Rothkopf is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment and a former Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce in the Clinton administration. In Where Are the Leaders? in The Washington Post today, he discussed the lack of leadership in the Obama Administration and, more broadly, in the world. He began: You wake up in the morning and once again [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: leadership, Obama
Categories: Politics | Comments (3) | Home

Something About Obama

March 28th, 2009

There’s something about Barack Obama that worries me. It’s been in the back of my mind since the early days of the primary campaigns, and I’ve only recently begun to understand it. He’s a man more of form and less of substance who, like a chameleon, instinctively displays the colors most suitable to his environment and most [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: leadership, Obama
Categories: Politics | Comments (5) | Home

It Doesn’t Take a Prophet

March 27th, 2009

About a month ago, I wrote an article on inflation. Well, the specter of it is rearing its ugly head with this Reuters Story. China, the largest holder of US debt in the world, doesn’t plan on dumping the dollar, but they have indicated that they will probably not be making as many Treasury purchases. [...]

Articles written by Brian Bagent
Tags: economy, inflation
Categories: Economics, Politics | Comments (3) | Home

My Day Wednesday

March 26th, 2009

On Wednesday, my friend Jamie came home with me after school. When we got home, we played the “Twilight” board game. Then, while we were eating my grandma yelled for us to come. We went and saw two kittens! Our cat (Jenny) had kittens! We didn’t even know she was pregnant! The kittens still have their eyes closed, [...]

Articles written by Amber
Tags: cat, friend, weather
Categories: Life | Comments (13) | Home

Feeling the Pain

March 25th, 2009

I feel wiped out. And it’s not from the flu. It’s from the financial news. Several people I know lost their families’ life savings that were invested with Wall Street wizard Bernie Madoff. My bank, which has been on a buying spree of failing financial firms, was insured by AIG. Not long ago, the president [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: AIG, economy, Social Security
Categories: Economics, Politics | Comments (14) | Home

More on AIG

March 24th, 2009

The Rank Hypocrisy Continues Unabated Wow. I watched the 60 Minutes interview with President Obama regarding the AIG bonuses that came as such a surprise to the Administration and to Congress. The prevarication and obfuscation continues. The President lays this entire mess at the feet of Wall Street, completely ignoring the laws and regulations that the financial industry has [...]

Articles written by Brian Bagent
Tags: AIG, economy, Obama
Categories: Economics, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

Summer Vacation

March 23rd, 2009

Summer is coming up so fast and so is Summer Vacation! The last day of school is May 29th. It feels like this year has gone by really fast. I can’t believe it’s already almost April! I am excited for the school year to be over, but I love going to school and learning. Also, [...]

Articles written by Amber
Tags: family, friends, garden, summer
Categories: Life | Comments (2) | Home

Inept Government

March 22nd, 2009

One of the reasons I didn’t vote for Barack Obama is that he had no executive management experience. Not surprisingly, the Obama Administration evidences all the symptoms of inept and confused management. The abysmal performance of Congress is because it’s, well, Congress. Lots of people, some of them not used to criticizing Democrats, see this mess for what it is. Here’s a [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Congress, economy, Obama
Categories: Economics, Politics | Comments (8) | Home

Bonuses and Mexican Trucks

March 21st, 2009

Charles Krauthammer’s column in The Washington Post yesterday was typically succinct on two major issues the Obama Administration and Congress are busily making a mess of — the AIG bonuses and NAFTA-required provisions for Mexican trucks to operate in the U.S. The column begins: A $14 trillion economy hangs by a thread composed of (a) [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: bonuses, Congress, NAFTA, Obama, trucks
Categories: Economics, News, Politics | Comments (6) | Home

Spring Break

March 20th, 2009

Spring Break is finally here! Our Spring Break from school started last Friday, and on Saturday we left to go see our family. It took us six hours to get there, but it was worth it. I got to see my aunt, uncle, and my three cousins. One of my cousins I didn’t get to [...]

Articles written by Amber
Tags: relatives, school, Spring Break
Categories: Life | Comments (1) | Home

A Tragic Loss

March 19th, 2009

Chuck Butcher, a good and decent man known to many in the blogging community, just lost his son under truly tragic circumstances. He wrote a deeply moving post about it, So Long, My Boy. As you read his words, remember that most of the things you worry about in life are truly meaningless. (Via Preemptive Karma)

Articles written by Tom Carter
Categories: Life | Comments (2) | Home

Contracts and Bonuses

March 19th, 2009

Contracts are the glue that holds our economy together and, in a broader sense, our society. If we ever get to the point where we can’t rely on the validity, predictability, and legality of contracts, everything else will deteriorate. Think about it–contracts aren’t just legal agreements among businesses, labor arrangements between businesses and unions, and compensation agreements between [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: AIG, Congress, economy, Law, Obama
Categories: Economics, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

Blowing Smoke on Bonuses

March 17th, 2009

There’s an interesting article in The New York Times on the AIG bonuses that have generated so much righteous indignation. President Obama is outraged, Senator Chris Dodd is threatening to tax the people receiving those bonuses at a 90 percent rate, Representative Barney Frank is mumbling something unintelligible, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wants to subpoena AIG’s records, [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: AIG, economy, Obama
Categories: Economics, Politics | Comments (16) | Home

The GOP and Minorities

March 16th, 2009

Shelby Steele is an award-winning author, documentarian, and public speaker with an acute grasp of American race relations, social culture, and identity politics. He’s presently a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. His opinion articles have often appeared in publications such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Steele has written an insightful article, Why the GOP Can’t Win With Minorities, in which [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Democrats, Republicans, Shelby Steele
Categories: Politics | Comments (9) | Home

More Chickens Roosting

March 16th, 2009

I wrote Chickens Coming Home To Roost a couple of days ago to highlight the fact that the expectations created and some of the promises made during the Obama campaign aren’t being fulfilled. It’s still early days, of course, but there are discouraging signs, particularly Obama’s questionable focus on the economic crisis. If you present yourself (or [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: economy, Obama, stimulus
Categories: Economics, News, Politics | Comments (5) | Home

Thoreau on Clergymen

March 15th, 2009

The Blog of Henry David Thoreau is a nice place to go now and then. It’s refreshing to read his thoughts, realizing how little some things change. Here’s an observation from his Civil Disobedience as valid today as it was in his time: “The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: literature, Thoreau
Categories: Arts, History, Life | Comments (0) | Home

Chickens Coming Home To Roost

March 14th, 2009

President Obama’s pastor, mentor, and spiritual leader of 20 years screamed from the pulpit, “America’s chickens have come home to roost!” The crowd in his large church cheered, laughed, and clapped. Reverend Jeremiah Wright was talking about the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, of course. But we were all relieved to learn that candidate [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: economy, Obama, stimulus
Categories: Economics, News, Politics | Comments (9) | Home

The Future of Capitalism

March 13th, 2009

The Financial Times is running a major series called The Future of Capitalism. It includes numerous articles, analyses, and features. The real value of this series is that it takes a step back from the immediacy of crisis reactions and permits thoughtful reflection on where we are and where we should be going. Many will disagree [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: capitalism, economy
Categories: Economics, Politics | Comments (5) | Home

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