August 7, 2014

King of the Mountain with Live Ammo

I have a simple question for people who support Hamas and other Islamist organizations: do you know why Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is fighting ISIS in Iraq?  After all, they are all Muslims. Islamist groups come in many varieties. ...

August 6, 2014

Hamas Combat Manual Explains Benefits of Using Human Shields

This is one of the many positive things to come out of Operation Protective Edge.  The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has found a Hamas combat manual explaining the importance of using human shields.  Below is an excerpt from the IDF report: ...

August 4, 2014

Obama Blunders at Israel's Expense

President Obama’s poll numbers are sinking fast.  Even his ardent supporters are beginning to have second thoughts about him.  It’s easy to understand why.  He’s been in office for almost 6 years, and like Pig-Pen in ...

July 26, 2014

Another Palestinian 'Day of Rage' but the Quest for 'Peace' Continues

Palestinians in the West Bank have called for yet another “Day of Rage”: A day after Israeli security forces killed at least two protesters amid a frenzied eruption of anger over the fatal shelling of a United Nations school, Palesti...

July 9, 2014

It's Time to Target Hamas for Elimination

Operation Protective Edge is underway, and it’s turning into a full-scale ground operation. No thinking person can blame Israel’s leaders for taking steps to protect their citizens from the tens of thousands of unprovoked rocket attacks t...

July 7, 2014

Who is Ultimately Responsible for the Cold-Blooded Murder of a Palestinian Teenager?

In the wake of three murdered Jewish teenagers in Israel, another issue has taken center stage: Jewish revenge killing.  A Palestinian teenager was burned alive, and it appears as though the culprits were Israeli Jews.  That savage murder h...

May 2, 2014

Flat Earthers and Global Warmers: Two Peas in a Pod

This may come as a surprise, but the Flat Earth Society still exists.  Although their numbers have declined over the years, there are those among us who believe that Earth is flat and that the sun and the moon are the same size. Al Gore and h...

April 28, 2014

Stop Funding the PA/PLO Now

As Alice of Wonderland famously said, things are getting “curiouser and curiouser.”  Mahmoud Abbas has a doctoral degree.  His dissertation is titled “The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism...

February 17, 2014

Turkey Abandoning Atatürk

In just a few short years under Islamist control, the legacy of Mustafa Kemal AtatГјrk has been all but wiped out in Turkey.  AtatГјrk is arguably the greatest Turk ever to have lived, and he is a shining example of real progressivism....

January 31, 2014

Israel's Worst Enemy -- Self-Seeking Politicians from the United States

In an op-ed for the New York Times, Avi Shlaim wrote, On Jan. 14, the Israeli defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, told the daily Yediot Aharonot, "Secretary of State John Kerry -- who arrived here determined, who operates from an incomprehensible obsess...

January 22, 2014

Good Riddance: Indict Corrupt Politicians

In a 14-count indictment, a federal grand jury charged former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell and his wife with corruption.  According to Jim Nolan at the Richmond Times Dispatch, In the first criminal indictment of a Virginia governo...

April 2, 2013

China and the Dollar's Global Reserve Currency Status

In 1993, U.S. News & World Report invited politicians, business leaders, academics, and others from around the world to submit questions that they believed would be vital at the end of the next 60 years for inclusion in their 60th anniversary edi...

April 1, 2013

Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Fiscal Reality

A few days ago, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released a fact sheet that should have shocked this nation, but it didn't.  Among other things, the report revealed that there were more than 110,000,000 sexually transmitted disease (STD) in...

March 30, 2013

A Battle is Raging for the Soul of America

President Obama was in Miami yesterday talking about the need for infrastructure improvements at the Port of Miami.  It's the same song that he's been singing since he was elected president in 2008.  According to the BBC,  Mr Obama...

March 27, 2013

Trouble is Brewing in America

Jim Carrey is an actor with a net worth of about $150 million.  He made his fortune by playing a fool in a host of movies and on television.  Little did we know that he is one. According to Ben Shapiro, Over the weekend, once-superstar ...

March 14, 2013

It's Time to Stock Up on Precious Metals, Guns, and Ammunition

If you are a regular reader of American Thinker, you already know that our nation's debt and deficit problems are unsustainable.  We need to look no further than the European Union to understand the problems associated with welfare states run wi...

March 11, 2013

It's Time for Effective Action against Radical Islamists in Israel

If you follow events in Israel and the Middle East closely, no doubt you have noticed that Jewish people living in Israel are getting fed up with the senseless violence that they have endured for so many years at the hands of Islamist radicals. ...

March 1, 2013

Reinstating the Draft is Not a Bad Idea

It was fall of 1970.  I was a junior in college, and by that time I had had the pleasure of getting to know several Vietnam War veterans who returned from Southeast Asia because of nonfatal injuries.  It seemed as though several of them wer...

February 27, 2013

Islamists' Primary Target

Two articles that appeared yesterday reveal an astonishing lack of historical perspective.  Both of them were written by people for whom I have a great deal of respect, Jonathan Tobin and Andrew McCarthy. Tobin and McCarthy point to the World Tr...

February 26, 2013

Get Ready for Obama's Impending Economic Free fall

Despite what the president may say when the Day of Reckoning finally arrives, he is ultimately responsible for what is likely to take place. Unbeknownst to most Americans and despite the fact that inflation at the grocery store and at the gas pump is...

February 21, 2013

The Oprahfication of America

A couple of weeks ago, my wife went to Massachusetts to take care of her sister's children so that she and her husband could take a trip to the Caribbean.  My wife ended up spending two weeks in the Bay State because of the mega storm that hit w...

February 18, 2013

President Obama has set in motion forces that he can't handle

Barack Obama is a terrible president. That's obvious to everyone who isn't chronically ignorant or incurably liberal.  By "liberal" I don't mean the classic definition of the word which has to do with being open-minded and objective. I mean the ...

February 13, 2013

Welcome to 21st Century America

A recent Gallup poll revealed that President Obama rates high on foreign affairs and low on the deficit.  That he is regarded highly by our fellow citizens on foreign affairs is disconcerting because he's doing more harm to us and to others than...

February 6, 2013

Lake Michigan Water Level Isn't at a 'Record Low'

Chicagoans awoke yesterday to frightening news: the water level in Lake Michigan is lower than it has "ever been": The water levels of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are lower than they have ever been, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday. T...

February 2, 2013

Bill Clinton is an Unusually Good Liar and Hillary is No Slouch

April 14, 2008 -- politically speaking, that was eons ago.  New York Magazine ran an article by Kurt Andersen about Bill Clinton titled "Falling Out of Love with Bill."  It began by focusing on one of the former president's most visible att...

February 1, 2013

Rahm Emanuel and Antonio Villaraigosa Need an Attitude Adjustment

You will recall that in early January, Bank of America froze the bank account of American Spirit Arms, a gun manufacturer in Scottsdale, Arizona, thus threatening the firm's ability to do business.  I wrote about it in a blog for American Thinke...

January 28, 2013

Dianne Feinstein's Stunning Ignorance

Last week, Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced gun control legislation that would among other things ban the sale, transfer, importation, or manufacture of "120 specifically-named firearms, certain other semiautomatic rifles, handguns, shotguns that ...

January 27, 2013

The Second Amendment is Not about Hunting

First things first: the Second Amendment to the Constitution is simple and clear.  The version of it that was ratified by the states reads as follows: A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the p...

January 18, 2013

Mohamed Morsi's 'I Didn't Say What I Said' Defense

This has to be the best example of the "I didn't say what I said" defense that I have ever seen.  Normal people with any sense of pride or shame would be reluctant to use it because it's so patently absurd, and it tells us a great deal about Egy...

January 16, 2013

Israeli Leaders Must Choose Their Own Course

Our president isn't satisfied proving that he has difficulty running one country.  Now he wants to run two: the U.S. and Israel.  Jeffrey Goldberg reports that President Obama told close confidants that "Israel does not know what its own be...

January 15, 2013

What will Syria's generals do when Bashar al-Assad meets his Maker?

Despite his bravado, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad's days are numbered, and he knows it.  The latest reports suggest that he's living on a warship in the Mediterranean Sea and that he's being protected by the Russians: Syrian President Ba...

January 14, 2013

If the president is serious about curbing gun violence, this is what he needs to do.

On Sunday, gun rights groups boldly predicted that President Obama's attempt to place further restrictions on "assault weapons" and high capacity magazines will fail in Congress.  I hope they are right. Gun rights groups on Sunday forecast tha...

January 11, 2013

Self Governance is Under Attack, not just the Second Amendment

On Wednesday, Rasmussen Reports released the results of a poll revealing that only "74% of American Adults continue to believe the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of an average citizen to own a gun."  This finding is perplexing because th...

January 9, 2013

BoA Deserves to be Sued

I applaud Selwyn Duke for publicly exposing one of the most bizarre banking practices that I've ever witnessed in his American Thinker blog titled "Bank of America Reportedly Freezing Gun Manufacturer's Accounts".  As he said, I support a com...

January 7, 2013

Punish the Guilty, not the Innocent

Thankfully, at least one Democratic senator gets the picture.  Senator Heidi Heitkamp said that Vice President Joe Biden's suggestion that we need stiffer gun laws is going way too far.  I think she's right. Newly elected Democratic Sen....

January 4, 2013

'Arabs. You can rent one, but you can't buy one.'

In the movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, there was an interesting exchange between Percy Alleline (played by Toby Jones) and Peter Guillam (played by Benedict Cumberbatch).  Percy had risen to the top of British intelligence (i.e., the Circus), a...

January 2, 2013

Rush Limbaugh is Right: Conservative Voters Hold the Key to Victory

I made a terrible mistake in 2012: one that I don't plan to repeat.  I urged voters to cast their ballots for Mitt Romney, but the evidence that conservatives didn't want Romney was ubiquitous.  They voiced their concerns energetically, and...

December 31, 2012

President Obama is Responsible for Our Fiscal Mess

President Obama is responsible for our fiscal mess.  I'm not exaggerating, and I'm not saying that simply because I think that Barack Obama is a terrible president, although I do think that he's an awful president.  I'm saying that because ...

December 29, 2012

Unemployment Benefits are Becoming a Dependence Problem

Imagine that you meet a young woman and after introductions, you ask, "What do you do?" "I'm unemployed," she says. "That's too bad.  I hope you find a job soon." Nothing unusual so far, but the conversation is about to take an interesting...

December 28, 2012

Surrendering Ground on our Second Amendment Rights is Naïve

Liberals and other know-it-alls assume that our arguments for defending our Second Amendment rights, no matter how rational, are totally worthless.  Trying to change their minds is a fool's errand.  Unfortunately, for that to happen they wi...

December 26, 2012

The left's Alinsky tactics in the gun debate

In a blog for today's American Thinker, Joseph Smith says that National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre is getting the "Alinsky Treatment" from leftists in the media and elsewhere.  He's correct because as he said, they...

December 24, 2012

People are Buying Guns and Ammunition for a Reason

It's 2:00 a.m.  You are at home in your bed sound asleep.  Your wife is sleeping beside you, and your children are asleep in their rooms down the hall. The muffled sound of a window breaking interrupts your slumber.  You're groggy a...

December 21, 2012

Useful Idiots and the Newtown Massacre

I have a strong hunch that people who are commonly referred to these days as "useful idiots" don't like that term.  That shouldn't surprise anyone because no one likes to be thought of as an idiot, any type of idiot. That said, the useful idio...

December 18, 2012

Let's Have a National Discussion, but Let's be Honest

Gun control legislation, or talk about it, is making its way across the nation.  As expected, opportunists and hypocrites in Congress (and there are lots of them) are scrambling over each other to be first in line to share in the afterglow of th...

December 17, 2012

Michael Mann vs. NRO and Mark Steyn: It's Time to Rumble

National Review Online (NRO) is currently running an ad/article explaining that Professor Michael Mann, the creator of the highly questionable "hockey stick" graph that global warming alarmists latched onto to pummel the entire world with dour warnin...

December 14, 2012

Palestinian Propaganda Isn't 'Unraveling'

Palestinian propaganda isn't "unraveling."  It's taking hold and beginning to roll with a force that may be impossible to stop.  The word "unravel" means to come undone, but that's not what's happening.  Palestinian propaganda is co...

December 12, 2012

Michigan Auto Union Reactions a Harbinger of Things to Come?

In the early 1980s, Ford and Chrysler were struggling to make ends meet and Chrysler needed a government bailout to keep going.  General Motors' predicament in the 1980s wasn't life threatening so it continued along its merry way without making ...

November 28, 2012

First the Internet, Then Sovereignty

There's a power grab taking place under the not-so-watchful eyes of the U.S. electorate -- by that I mean the same people who voted to re-elect President Barack Obama despite overwhelming evidence that he did a miserable job during his first term in ...

November 26, 2012

Peaceful Coexistence with Radical Islamists is Impossible

The landscape in the Middle East and North Africa has been in a state of radical flux since the beginning of the Arab Spring in December 2010.  The term "Arab Spring" is a misnomer, though.  In reality, it is a progressive revolution throug...

November 22, 2012

The Gaza ceasefire is the end of the beginning.

Anyone who believes that the current ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas terrorists in Gaza will hold has to ignore modern Middle East history, Hamas, and the Palestinian and Hamas charters.  With regard to modern history, we need to look bac...

October 24, 2012

We Need a President who Tells the Truth about the Middle East

If there was ever doubt in anyone's mind about the goals of so-called "Palestinians," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' recent letter to the residents of Gaza should settle the matter once and for all: In an open letter penned to the r...

October 18, 2012

What if President Obama told the truth about Islamist terrorists?

I'll begin with a caveat: Barack Obama is not stupid.  He's left-leaning politically to the point that he has difficulty fathoming the right side of an issue, figuratively or literally; he's inexperienced and naïve; he's devious and I think sini...

October 15, 2012

Romney or Obama? It's a No-brainer

Warren Buffett, founder of Berkshire Hathaway, has made billions of dollars for himself and his investors by betting on the movement of stocks, bonds, commodities, and other investments. He is a guru in the financial services industry. Before he die...

October 10, 2012

Enough with Affirmative Action Presidents

I taught at the University of Virginia for 25 years.  During my time at UVA, I had three deans, and one of them was a black woman and an affirmative action hire.  She turned out to be a disaster.  Although the president made a mistake ...

October 5, 2012

George Bush Gets a Reprieve

At long last, President Obama has someone else to blame for his miserable job performance besides George W. Bush.  It's John Kerry.  According to Matt Latimer of The Daily Beast: The president would have been better off having a Magic 8-ba...

September 24, 2012

President Obama's Distortions on '60 Minutes'

Yesterday on CBS' 60 Minutes, Barack Obama made a bold statement--one that voters need to think about long and hard before they cast their ballots: Well, let's see what I've done since I came into office. I said I'd end the war in Iraq. I did. I sai...

September 23, 2012

Are American voters waking up to reality about Israel and the Middle East?

Two recent events suggest that the conversation in the U.S. about Israel and the Middle East may be changing for the good.  One of them involves GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.  In a High Holy Days conference call with American Rabbis...

September 20, 2012

Palestinians Don't Want Peace with Israel and Mitt Romney was Correct to Say So

The Palestinian and Hamas charters call for Israel's destruction.  Mahmoud Abbas (a.k.a. Abu Mazen), President of the Palestinian Authority, wrote a doctoral dissertation titled The Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Mov...

September 17, 2012

It's Time to Get Serious about Iran

On CBS' 60 Minutes yesterday, Lesley Stahl interviewed Meir Dagan, ex-head of Israel's Mossad.  Stahl opened the segment titled "The Spymaster Speaks" by explaining that Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu had injected himself into the U.S...

September 12, 2012

Islamism's Future and What it Means for the West

An interesting situation is developing in the Middle East.  According to today's Israel Hayom, Egypt is attempting to persuade Iran to abandon its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: Egypt is trying to convince Iran to drop its unques...

September 5, 2012

Democrats Did Not Drop God's Name from Their Platform

n CBN New's The Brody File, a post from yesterday is titled "Exclusive: Democrats Drop 'God' From Party Platform."  That's true, but the text reveals a serious error.  The first sentence in the text says, "Guess what? God's name has been ...

September 2, 2012

Obama's failure of leadership

On Saturday, President Obama was in Urbandale, Iowa doing what he does best: talk.  I didn't hear him personally, but I could imagine his cadence.  Like a folksy preacher who has devoted his life to moving his congregates, Obama warned his ...

August 24, 2012

Energy Independence by 2020 Isn't Fast Enough

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is calling for U.S. energy independence by 2020.  While he deserves kudos for taking an important step that will elevate energy in the national debate that accompanies presidential elections, Romney's plan ...

April 27, 2012

It's Time for the New York Times to Face Reality

To fully appreciate what I'm about to say, you need to watch the YouTube video below, or click here. More than anything that I've seen or read thus far, this video demonstrates what's wrong at the New York Times.  Genera...

April 21, 2012

Today's liberals are much like England's 18th century leaders

There was a time when the word "liberal" meant to think freely and openly.  Our Founding Fathers were liberals because they believed that free men can govern themselves.  In the 18th century, the British Empire ruled the waves; the U.S. was...

April 20, 2012

Knowing Your Enemy is a Crucial Aspect of a Winning Political Campaign

To win the 2012 presidential election, right-minded people need to understand this crucial fact: you must know your enemy.  Sun Tzu, a 6th century B.C. Chinese general, explained it this way in The Art of War:  "It is said that if you know...

April 14, 2012

The Democratic Party Is Rotten Through and Through

Hilary Rosen is a frequent visitor to the White House.  According to White House visitor logs, she has visited the president's home 35 times since he took office, but on Thursday, Press Secretary Jay Carney did his best to distance President Oba...

April 9, 2012

Don't Take Shaul Mofaz's Comments to the New York Times too seriously

On Sunday, an article that I wrote titled "War in the Middle East May Be Inevitable" appeared in American Thinker.  It dealt with Moshe Arens' assessment of Shaul Mofaz's defeat of Tzipi Livni for head of the Kadima Party in Israel.  Accord...

April 8, 2012

War in the Middle East May Be Inevitable

Moshe Arens is one of the most knowledgeable people in Israel today.  He understands Israel's predicament as well as anyone, and that includes Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.  Arens has served as Israel's minister of defense and minister...

April 2, 2012

The American Sociological Association is Off its Rocker

On March 29th, the American Sociological Association (ASA) issued a press release titled "Study: Conservatives' Trust in Science Has Fallen Dramatically Since Mid-1970s: Trust in Science Has Also Declined Among People Who Frequently Attend Church." ...

March 28, 2012

Coming Soon:The Global March to Jerusalem

Friday March 30th is an important day for Israel.  That's when Arabs celebrate Earth Day each year, but this year as many as 2,000,000 Arabs, Muslims, and their well-wishers will gather on the Lebanese and Jordanian borders with Israel and at We...

March 27, 2012

The United States Can't Buy Peace in the Middle East

Since the Camp David Accords were signed in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the United States has been attempting to buy peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors, but the A...

March 26, 2012

There are Credible Experts who believe that Attacking Iran Now is a Good Idea

If you are searching for a fair and balanced analysis of the Iran issue, you won't find it in Nicholas Kristof's article in Saturday's New York Times titled "The False Debate About Attacking Iran."  He begins his argument with an analogy that is...

March 24, 2012

Obama is Fooling Lots of People on Israel

Commentary is a wonderful source of information and analysis, and Seth Mandel who is with Commentary is a gifted writer and a great thinker.  That's why I was dismayed when I read the title of his article on Thursday: "Obama Still Not Fooling An...

March 22, 2012

The Taker Nation

From time to time, I am a guest on WJJC radio in Commerce, Georgia -- a town in the Greater Atlanta area.  Actually, I'm their "economic expert", and I typically appear on the show when they are discussing economic issues, but since I have writt...

March 21, 2012

Education and National Security At Odds

The entire world faces an imminent threat from radical Islamists.  Pretending that it isn't so makes no sense, and misleading our young people about the true nature of the treat we face is criminal. Yesterday, the Council on Foreign Relations (C...

March 20, 2012

Hollywood Celebrities are in Obama's Pocket

Hollywood luminaries are using their names, faces, and pocketbooks to try and convince voters that Barack Obama is a great president who deserves their support. A host of Hollywood celebrities are taking center stage right now in a campaign to reelec...

March 18, 2012

Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's America is Callous and Cruel

On March 10th, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a speech at the Women in the World Summit in New York.  It was revealing since it laid out part of the foundation for the Democratic Party's 2012 presidential election campaign.  B...

March 17, 2012

Gallup: Republicans more sympathetic to Israel than Democrats

A Republican Jewish Coalition news release on Friday included some revealing information: Washington, D.C. (March 16, 2012) -- The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) today released an analysis of support for Israel broken down by political affiliatio...

March 12, 2012

Jew Haters Find a Cause Célèbre to Justify their Barbaric Behavior

On Sunday, Iran's Foreign Ministry called Israel's attack on Gaza a war crime and urged "Muslim countries, regional and international organizations, including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and all independent governments and nations to tak...

March 8, 2012

The cost of ignorance where the Middle East is concerned can be lethal.

Making sense of what is taking place in the Middle East is difficult at best, and it's impossible if you don't understand the way players in the region think.  An article in today's Tehran Times provides a glimpse of reality in that turbulent pa...

March 7, 2012

After Super Tuesday, It's Time to Narrow the Field

Super Tuesday was a great day for Mitt Romney.  He won 6 states including Ohio: a state that will be a swing state in November.  Rick Santorum won 3 states, and Newt Gingrich won 1 state - Georgia, his home state.  To date, Mitt Romn...

February 29, 2012

Santorum's robocall maneuver in Michigan strikes at the heart of his message

Rick Santorum didn't invite Democrats to join his team because he stands for principles that they believe in. Rick Santorum's robocall maneuver trying to convince Democrats to vote for him in the Michigan GOP primary says a lot about his core beliefs...

February 26, 2012

No One is Safe under Islamist Regimes -- not even Muslims

President Obama, leaders in his administration, and most Democrats in Congress would have us believe that the Arab Spring is good for Arabs in the Middle East and for the rest of the world because it is a prelude to democracy.  They fail to reco...

February 25, 2012

For Conservatives, Winning's the Thing

I'll begin by quoting President Obama: "Let me be clear: this is not about me."  If we elected a president who met all of my criteria, he would: oppose abortion on demand without constraint; support a pro-life agenda; support the Defense of Ma...

February 22, 2012

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi is Deluded

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi's comment yesterday that "Iran's nuclear achievements have startled Western countries" shows how deluded he is.  Since he's Iran's spokesman, it indicates that the entirety of Iran's government lives in ...

February 21, 2012

Philanthropists, do you know where your money is?

I spent my professional life as a faculty member at the University of Virginia, and I watched what fundraising became at my school over 25 years.  Today, I am a professor emeritus at UVA, and I still wonder if donors have any idea what they are ...

February 19, 2012

The Greek Tragedy is a Case Study in Class Warfare

Greece is in a financial bind, and if Greece's problems can't be solved, it could mean the beginning of the end of the eurozone experiment.  European leaders are confident that they can close a deal with Greece on Monday and stave off disaster, ...

February 15, 2012

The Arab Spring in Egypt Means Government Sanctioned Extortion and Hostage-Taking

In case you were wondering what the Arab Spring in Egypt and the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood as a political force in the Land of the Pharaohs would mean in practical terms, you don't need to wait any longer because we now know the answer....

February 12, 2012

Al-Qaeda Supporting Syrian Revolt

According to RT, Russia's most popular newspaper, al-Qaeda is supporting Syrian rebels: The leader of Al-Qaeda has voiced his support for the Syrian uprising. He called on Muslims to join the opposition in Syria in their drive to oust President Bash...

February 11, 2012

If Mitt Romney Can't Attract Conservative Support, We May Need a Brokered Convention

GOP presidential hopefuls and conservative pundits alike have denounced the use of attack ads.  Some of them have argued that those ads hurt the conservative cause and could lead to four more years of Obama.  Are they right?  I don't t...

February 10, 2012

Ten Things to Consider Before Launching an Attack against Iran

Sun Tzu, a 6th-century B.C. Chinese general and military strategist and the author of The Art of War, laid out arguably the most comprehensive treatise on strategy ever written.  I referenced his insights frequently in my strategy classes at the...

February 5, 2012

A World Tax? Keep Your Eyes on the Internet

The United Nations is finally moving toward the creation of a world tax: "No one should live below a certain income level," stated Milos Koterec, President of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. "Everyone should be able to acces...

January 29, 2012

Newt and the Truth Factor

The most important lesson GOP candidates can learn from the Gingrich freefall is that honesty counts. Newt Gingrich's surprise victory in the South Carolina GOP primary followed closely on the heels of his performance in the last debate before the el...

January 28, 2012

The United States Should Impose Even More Severe Sanctions against Iran

Russia and Turkey joined forces to declare that more sanctions against Iran will not help to resolve the nuclear issue.  Instead of sanctions, they have called for more talks with the 5+1 group that includes the United States, Britain, France, R...

January 26, 2012

Slouching Toward Armageddon with George Soros

George Soros, the billionaire investor and funder of radical leftist causes around the globe, believes that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, and this time I agree with him.  That's not to say that Soros isn't interested in making more...

January 24, 2012

Higher Education Needs a Complete Overhaul

In an article for today's FrontPage Magazine titled "Schools of Education: The Academic Slums," Walter Williams was right on the money.  Speaking about schools of education, he said, "Education professors drum into students that they should not...

January 22, 2012

Why Mitt Romney Lost the South Carolina Primary

I live in South Carolina.  For the past week, I have been inundated with robocalls and campaign material from all the GOP hopefuls.  I watched and read about the debates, and I listened to what people had to say about the candidates.  ...

January 21, 2012

Oprah and the Obesity Epidemic

Data released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contains good news and bad news.  The obesity rate in the U.S. has leveled off, but 35.7 percent of our adult population is obese.  That's about 78,000,000 Amer...

January 21, 2012

What We're Learning about Obamacare isn't Good -- Especially for Seniors

While I taught at the University of Virginia, I served for a while as associate dean.  My dean at the time, Bill Shenkir, used a phrase that I thought was particularly helpful when we were contemplating major decisions: "Let's reduce the fog fac...

January 17, 2012

Preparing for a Showdown in the Middle East?

Both China and Russia are strong allies of Iran, and both countries have made it clear that they oppose unilateral sanctions against Iran.  Xia Ming, a professor at the City University of New York, said, "China and Iran are facing strong Western...

January 15, 2012

Saving Face: The Middle East Minefield

There's a caste system in the Arab world, and Palestinians are at the bottom.  Despite all of the rhetoric that you hear, Palestinians as a group are regarded as contemptible by their Arab brethren.  In Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, or any ot...

January 15, 2012

Jon Stewart Calls Out Hypocritical Lefty Journalists

Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, ran a segment on his show a few days ago that was both funny and right on the money.  If you didn't see it, you should take a few minutes to watch it: Jon Stewart calls out h...

January 14, 2012

It's Time to hold our Elected Officials Accountable

No Senator has been expelled from the Senate since the Civil War and no Representative has been expelled from the House since 2002. President Obama believes that he's the 4th best president in U.S. history.  That's what he told Steve Kroft in a ...

January 13, 2012

The 2012 Election Isn't Only About Electing Someone besides Barack Obama

Warren Buffett is a brilliant investor, and he's a wily gamesman, too.  In an interview with Time magazine, he offered to match the contributions made by Republican members of Congress to pay down the national debt: "Looking to keep up pressure...

January 10, 2012

The Last Chance

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) sent President Obama a letter last week in which he said, "More and more people have come to believe that America is becoming a deadbeat nation."  Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich ran into a buzz saw last week w...

January 8, 2012

Seven good reasons not to support Obama in 2012

As we approach the final leg of the 2012 presidential election campaign, it helps to examine a few statistics that tell the tale about President Barack Obama's performance in office: Unemployment rate: January 2008 -- less than 5% January 2012 -- 8...

January 4, 2012

What's the problem with South Carolina's voter ID law?

President Obama is attempting to prevent states from making sure that elections are fair and honest because he can. A couple of days before Christmas, the United States Justice Department rejected South Carolina's voter ID law. From AP:  "The J...

January 3, 2012

If Israel Falls, There Will Be Hell to Pay

Misinformation about Israel and her dealings with her Arab neighbors abounds.  Even highly regarded news sources are prone to publish articles that are full of bogus "facts."  For instance, an article in Tuesday's BBC by Martin Asser titled...

January 1, 2012

A Simple Way to Think About the U.S. Debt and Deficit Problems

A SnyderTalk reader sent me an email which contained the information below.  It's a simple way to think about the U.S. debt and deficit problems.  The numbers are several months old so the problems we face are actually worse than the number...

December 30, 2011

Don't Underestimate the Power of Social Networking

Digg is a social networking website where people share online content with others:  "Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surface...

December 26, 2011

Herman Cain is a good man, but he wasn't a serious candidate for President of the United States.

 If the GOP nominee for President of the United States is not prepared to handle Barack Obama in a one-on-one debate, he or she will be mincemeat and Obama will be re-elected. I have not decided who I will support for the presidency in 2012, but...

December 25, 2011

Quantitative Easing by the European Central Bank Could Ignite More Violent Outbursts around the World

Following the lead of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, the European Central Bank (ECB) is considering quantitative easing: "A top European Central Bank policymaker has called for 'quantitative easing' to be used to boost the euro zone economy if defl...

December 24, 2011

2012 Promises to be an Especially Difficult Year for Israel

Muslim persecution of Christians is a growing problem in the Middle East: "When the major media reported a few months ago that Iranian Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani was set to be executed for leaving Islam, many Western people were shocked...

December 22, 2011

Obama's 2012 Iran Gambit?

Don't be surprised if President Obama decides to take out Iran's nuclear capabilities to shore up his candidacy. Elad Benari at Israel National News reported that Dennis Ross, President Obama's former Middle East Advisor, said that the president is "...

December 20, 2011

The United States is Failing and We've Done it to Ourselves

As a nation, we are failing.  We are failing ourselves; we are failing our children; and we are failing our grandchildren.  We are failing our allies and our creditors, too.  The evidence is all around us, and we could see it if we wou...

December 16, 2011

Young Voters are Waking up to Reality

Harvard's Institute of Politics released a report on Thursday titled "Survey of Young Americans' Attitudes Toward Politics and Public Service: 20th Edition."  According to Alana Goodman, the report's conclusions should "alarm" President Obama....

December 15, 2011

Reading the Tea Leaves

Wednesday's business news revealed some unnerving developments: Crude oil prices are tumbling. Corporate executives are uneasy about Eurozone problems. Eastern European countries are shying away from helping Western European countries. The euro is un...

December 13, 2011

If Islamists win in Iraq, the U.S. loses

With no U.S. boots on the ground to protect our interests or the Iraqi people, Islamists see Iraq as easy pickings. Yesterday President Obama met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the White House to talk about Iraq's future after the Unite...

December 12, 2011

If you don't sweat the presidency, you'll get four more years of Obama

In today's American Thinker, Gene Schwimmer's article titled "Don't Sweat the Presidency, Focus on Congress" alarmed me.  I agree with his premise that choosing between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich is difficult because neither of them is a true...

December 11, 2011

Climate Change Debate about Global Wealth Redistribution

Conferees at the climate talks in Durban, South Africa feared that they would close the conference with no deal, but on Sunday in the waning moments after a heated debate, they were able to stitch together a package that the chair said "saved tomorro...

December 9, 2011

The LGBT Agenda and the 2012 Presidential Election

Michael Brooks famously said, "Desperate people do desperate things," and President Obama's actions of late indicate that he is behaving like a desperate man.  Finally, the president is coming to terms with stark reality.  Members of his ow...

December 8, 2011

Obama's truth problem today

Today in a hastily arranged news conference, President Obama lambasted Republicans in the Senate for blocking a vote on his nominee to head up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray.  The pr...

December 4, 2011

You Can't be Pro-Obama and Pro-Israel

Since the day he took office, President Obama has been anti-Israel. Barack Obama has failed to achieve the bipartisan results that he promised to seek while running for office. In fact, he has created a chasm between the political left and right in t...

December 2, 2011

You Will be Called a Racist if You Oppose Barack Obama

  Opinion polls can be very misleading because they tell us how people feel at any given moment. Today, people may believe that President Obama is doing a terrible job and that he shouldn't be re-elected because the European debt crisis is on th...

December 1, 2011

The Global Economy at Cliff's Edge

President Obama is stoking a fire that can rage out of control in the blink of an eye if he continues with his class warfare agenda. As November 2011 has drawn to a close, the global economy still has a long way to go before it's out of danger. ...

November 29, 2011

Hamas is No Peace Partner for Israel

In an article for Hudson New York titled "Hamas and Fatah: The Unity Government That Isn't - and Won't Be," Khaled Abu Toameh explained that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are in the enviable position ...

November 27, 2011

No Road Leads to Peace between Israel and the Palestinians

There are many reasons why a Palestinian state of any sort cannot work.  Chief among them is that Palestinians lack the prerequisites for a nation: common purpose; the desire to live in peace so the nation's citizens could carry on normal lives ...

November 25, 2011

We need term limits now

  The odds of being re-elected to Congress are staggeringly high, and as Jay Haug points out in his blog titled "Why Congressional Approval Ratings Are Meaningless," it's been that way for a very long time with one notable exception -- the 1980 ...

November 22, 2011

President Obama and his warped sense of 'fairness.'

On Monday, the congressional super committee announced that it had failed to reach an agreement.  In his typical kneejerk fashion, President Obama blamed Republicans.  He said, "Despite the broad agreement that exists for such an approach, ...

November 21, 2011

Lying is never good policy-even when it's politically expedient

Anyone who thinks I'm an Obama supporter doesn't read SnyderTalk, and he/she certainly hasn't read my book If You Voted for Obama in 2008 to Prove You're Not a Racist, You Need to Vote for Someone Else in 2012 to Prove You're Not an Idiot.　 That said...

November 17, 2011

US family indebtedness to government keeps rising

There is a huge gap in net worth between the young and the old in the United States, and experts tell us that the gap is the "widest ever."  According to a recently released Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data, "The typical U.S....

November 15, 2011

Herman Cain should stick to making pizzas.

In an interview on Monday with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Herman Cain responded to a question about whether he agreed with President Obama's handing of the Libya situation in a way that can only be described as amateurish.  To fully ap...

November 13, 2011

The 2012 Presidential Election Will Be Won or Lost in the Middle

The odds of President Obama being re-elected are much higher than the odds of him being elected in 2008.  Don't take anything for granted, because this battle won't be easy.  The 2012 presidential election promises to be a real humdinger....

November 6, 2011

Green Energy: Damn the Facts, Full Speed Ahead!

In 2008, a group of more than 31,000 scientists signed a petition dissenting from the position of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that man-made CO2 emissions are destroying our planet.  More than 9,000 of the...

November 1, 2011

'Democratic' Arab Spring Becoming an Islamist Arab Winter

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a cruel dictator.  He believes that killing his own citizens is collateral damage associated with governing, and he's not alone.  Arab countries have been ruled by people like Assad for millennia.  Y...

October 29, 2011

The United States Can't Afford Four More Years of President Obama

Occupy Wall Street has taken center stage for the Democratic Party and their enthusiasts.  The ragtag mob of malcontents is getting support from unions and the likes of billionaire hedge fund guru George Soros, both connected with the Democratic...

October 13, 2011

Radical Islam: A Problem World Leaders Must Confront

Radical Islam is a growing problem throughout the world.  In Europe, it's a burgeoning issue that politicians have been unwilling to address properly because of the influence of Muslims there, but it's a critical problem in the United States, to...

October 9, 2011

We Need Jobs, Not Another Jobs Speech by the President

President Obama was under a lot of pressure after an August 2011 jobs report told the tale in no uncertain terms.   Job growth in that month was zero, and the unemployment rate was stuck at a disturbingly high level -- 9.1%.  Following...

October 6, 2011

The Skunk Tells the Hound that He Stinks

President Obama's latest "jobs" initiative is just a rehash of his previous "jobs" initiatives.  It's classic political gimmickry--all fluff and no substance.  It wasn't and isn't about jobs.  It's about positioning Obama to claim duri...

July 24, 2011

The Truth About the Palestinians

The West Bank doesn't belong to the Palestinians, and it never has.  The argument that Israel is "occupying Palestinian territory" is a complete fabrication, but that doesn't prevent Israel haters from buying it.  Danny Ayalon, Israel's dep...

May 27, 2011

Our government has made promises that we can't fulfill even if we raise tax rates to stratospheric levels

If I were still teaching strategy full-time, I would require my students to watch Too Big to Fail, and I would devote 2 class periods to discussing it.  In the first class, we would talk about what happens when do-gooders in Washington decide th...

May 4, 2011

Palestinians once again prove they are not interested in peace

The aftermath of Osama bin Laden's bullet to the head proves one thing beyond any reasonable doubt.  The Palestinians on whom the two-state solution depends for success don't want peace with Israel.  The reactions of Palestinians to bin Lad...

April 28, 2011

President Obama has a bad habit of avoiding the straight, simple truth

Yesterday, President Obama finally put the birther issue to rest by producing his long form birth certificate for everyone to see.  That doesn't mean that there won't be any more arguing back-and-forth at the fringe, but most people are now sati...

April 22, 2011

The Climate is Changing Alright, But It's Getting Cooler

Our government is in the process of imposing strict controls to reduce greenhouse gases in hopes of staving off global warming even though earth's atmosphere is cooling.Monday's Washington Post included an op-ed piece by Fred Hiatt titled On climate ...

April 17, 2011

Syria Heading from Bad to Worse

Typical newspaper readers and those with untrained eyes probably read past the report on Monday that Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammad Riad Shaqfa declared support for anti-Assad protesters in Syria.  Likewise, they probably failed to gr...

April 15, 2011

The Next Gaza War Will Be a Coordinated Attack

There should be no doubt that the next Gaza war won't resemble the 2008-2009 war, and it could start at any time.On Thursday, April 7, an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip by a Hamas terrorist slammed into an Israeli school bus loaded with ...

April 14, 2011

Obama's Strategy? He Doesn't Have One

One thing stands out in my mind about President Obama's so-called "budget strategy."  He doesn't have one.  You can see evidence of Mr. Obama's strategic vacuum in everything he does.  Take the much ballyhooed budget speech h...

April 1, 2011

If Assad Falls, Who Wins in Syria?

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad took to the airwaves on Wednesday and addressed the Syrian people from the parliament.  He told them that Israel and Western powers including the United States are fomenting unrest in his country and trying to top...

March 30, 2011

Obama's Slippery Slope

US involvement in the Kosovo War was based on a principle first espoused by Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain -- "We have a responsibility to act."  President Bill Clinton wasn't convinced at first, but after Blair's unyielding camp...