Opinion Forum

Is Governor Romney an Edsel Republican?

February 1st, 2012

By Dan Miller Of course not! Remember the Ford Edsel? A really spiffy new car with a two-tone paint job, lots of chrome and an unfortunate distraction in front? The Edsel in no manner resembles either the Republican party of today or its favored candidate; perish all such heretical conservative thoughts lest you be deemed [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: advertising, Edsel, election, Ford, marketing, promotion, Romney, satire
Categories: History, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

Confesssion: I Did Not Watch the SOTU Last Night

January 25th, 2012

By Dan Miller I had three good reasons: there wasn’t enough rum, it was past my bedtime and our dogs, fearing for what little remains of my sanity, wouldn’t let me. However, I have read much of the commentary and based on that will provide a post-partisan analysis in keeping with the spirit of the [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: campaign, dull, economy, election, Obama, partisan, satire, SOTU, taxes
Categories: Humor, News, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

After the State of the Union: Who Can Defeat Obama?

January 25th, 2012

By Tom Carter As I watched the President’s State of the Union address last night, this question was rattling around in my mind: Who can defeat Obama? Based on performance quality in delivering a prepared speech, the answer is that none of the current Republican contenders is up to the task. That highlights a defining [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: candidates, election, facts, Gingrich, Obama, Republican, Romney, SOTU
Categories: Media, News, Politics | Comments (0) | Home

Get Ready for Higher Gas Prices

January 22nd, 2012

By Dan Miller Why an oil refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands will shut down by mid-February. An oil refinery in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, will shut down by mid-February. It is owned by Hovensa, a joint venture of U.S.-based Hess Corp. and Venezuela’s state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA). Losses at [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: environment, EPA, gas, oil refinery, prices, U.S. Virgin Islands, Venezuela
Categories: Economics, News, Politics | Comments (0) | Home

Success Is Great!

January 21st, 2012

By Dan Miller If at first the jerks try to stop you, try again. Laura Dekker, a then thirteen year old young lady from the Netherlands, had long wanted to sail solo around the world in her twenty-six foot sailboat Guppy. Although delayed by Dutch officials she didn’t yield and was eventually able to do [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: around the world, Laura Dekker, Netherlands, record, sailing, teenager
Categories: Life, News | Comments (4) | Home

We need a Reasonable Everything Board (REB)

January 20th, 2012

By Dan Miller Six reasonable Democrats in the House (please excuse the redundancy) want a Reasonable Profits Board (RPB) to impose additional taxes on sellers of oil and gas. Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), want to set up a “Reasonable Profits Board” to control gas profits. The Democrats, worried about higher [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: board, Democrats, gas, oil, profits, reasonable, REB, RPB, satire, taxes
Categories: Humor, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

Fact and Opinion in the News

January 14th, 2012

By Dan Miller All the news and opinions that fit. Letters from Art Brisbane, the New York Times’ public editor, on the subject of “liberal” bias in opinion pieces, are excerpted here. A problem is that the line between fact and opinion, to the extent that one is a recognizable, can often be unclear. If [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: bias, Costa Concordia, Iran, liberal, New York Times, News, torpedo
Categories: Media, News, Politics | Comments (3) | Home

Italian Cruise Ship “runs aground”

January 14th, 2012

By Dan Miller It has been widely reported that the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia “slammed into shallow water off Italy’s western coast.” Authorities are looking at why the ship didn’t hail a mayday during the accident near the Italian island of Giglio on Friday night, officials said. “At the moment we can’t exclude that [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: aground, Costa Concordia, Giglio, Greece, Iran, Russia, submarine, torpedo
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

Should We Change the Republican Candidate Debates?

January 11th, 2012

By Dan Miller An article about debates among candidates for election as Venezuela’s president made me wonder whether this is a good idea: This week Globovision started a new series of shows, with a real debate that is not a debate. In short: they taped on the same day the 6 candidates with more or [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: candidates, debates, election, Republican, U.S., Venezuela
Categories: News, Politics | Comments (3) | Home

How Sincere Was the Grief Shown at the Death of Kim Jong-il?

January 11th, 2012

By Dan Miller Some of it probably came not from the heart.

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: bears, birds, death, Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un, mourning, punishment, satire
Categories: News, Politics | Comments (3) | Home

Supreme Court, EPA and Overreach

January 10th, 2012

By Dan Miller Oral arguments were heard at the Supreme Court today in Sackett, et al., v. EPA, challenging actions by the Environmental Protection Agency to keep Michael and Chantell Sackett from building their home on land belatedly declared damp by the agency. Construction screeched to a halt upon the order of three agents of [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: Clean Water Act, EPA, home, property, Sackett, Supreme Court, wetland
Categories: Law, News, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

Kim Jong-un Is Really Cool!

January 8th, 2012

By Dan Miller Here is a new video showing North Korea’s newly ascended leader, Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-kool, riding a horse, driving a tank, preparing to fly an airplane and doing other stuff most any guy of his age would enjoy. He even seems happy.

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: DPRK, Kim Jong-un, North Korea, Obama, religion, satire, succession
Categories: News, Politics | Comments (0) | Home

Our Foreign Policy Is OK for a Second-rate Nation

January 7th, 2012

By Dan Miller Herds of horses have leaders. They establish dominance by fighting all comers and by protecting the lesser horses within the herd. Eventually, fighting ceases to be necessary. A hard stare, the baring of teeth or even a kicking gesture become sufficient. Only when the dominant horse weakens or a new horse is [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: Ahmadinejad, Chavez, foreign policy, Iran, Latin America, Venezuela
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (0) | Home

Further Speculations on North Korea

January 3rd, 2012

By Dan Miller Strange things can happen behind closed doors. As I’ve observed many times, North Korea is a black hole from which little light emerges; what little useful information escapes usually consists of propaganda and speculation. Here’s some more speculation. Part of the Eurasia Group report about the top risks of 2012 involves North [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: DPRK, Kim Jong-un, North Korea, stability, succession, transition, violence
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

What Are “Conservatives?”

January 2nd, 2012

By Dan Miller We have more agreements than disagreements and should make the most of our agreements. The label “Liberal” has been abused to the point that it no longer has the clear and rather inclusive meaning it once had, an open and reflective mind but not an empty head. The equally simple label “Conservative” [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: abortion, conservative, Constitution, liberal, religion, spending, taxes
Categories: News, Politics | Comments (5) | Home

Previous Psychiatrist Pens Presidential Pardon Petition

December 30th, 2011

By Dan Miller No, not for trying to help Chávez appear to be sane, something Chávez has rarely if ever managed. Instead, it was reported here that CARACAS – Psychiatrist and former university chancellor Edmundo Chirinos, who says that President Hugo Chavez was his patient, asked the Venezuelan head of state for a pardon to [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: Hugo Chavez, insane, murder, pardon, prison, psychiatrist, sanity, satire
Categories: Humor, News, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

Iraq: Hot News and History

December 29th, 2011

By Jan Barry “Crisis plagues Iraq as U.S. troops depart — As the last U.S. soldiers exited Iraq Sunday and debate was raging about the nation’s future, political crisis erupted in Baghdad that raised fears of more sectarian strife to come. Iraqiya, a powerful political bloc that draws support largely from Sunni and more secular [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Britain, casualties, costs, democracy, hubris, Iraq, U.S., violence
Categories: History, Military, News, Politics | Comments (3) | Home

The Religion of Kim in North Korea

December 28th, 2011

By Dan Miller North Korea worships the Kim Dynasty. Religion takes many forms. Some find various forms desirable, some find them undesirable. This article looks at religion in North Korea, where there is little if anything to find desirable from a Western perspective but much to find undesirable. In North Korea, with an estimated population [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: DPRK, Kim Dynasty, Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un, North Korea, religion, satire
Categories: News, Politics | Comments (0) | Home

The Center of the Earth, North Korea, and Different Cultures

December 22nd, 2011

By Dan Miller Reality is often not as we think or wish it were. I spent the past couple of days writing this article about the impacts of Korean culture and history on its future as well as ours now that Kim Jong-il is dead and his young son, Kim Jong-un, is nominally in charge. [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: DPRK, foreign policy, Kim Jong-un, North Korea, personalities, succession
Categories: History, News, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

Kim Jong-il Has Passed to His Long Hoped For Reward

December 20th, 2011

By Dan Miller Will the son of the Wicked Warlock be any better? Here is my article on the unlamented (except perhaps by those in North Korea who know their place) passing of North Korean dictator and Dear Leader Kim Jong-il. His death, on the morning of December 17th, was officially announced at about noon [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: death, Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un, North Korea, satire, succession
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

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