12/09/2011 08:34 AM Halligan Nomination Debacle Exemplifies America’s Precarious Crossroads Finally, Senate Republicans have achieved a political and moral victory. Caitlin Halligan, a far-left judicial activist and Obama nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia was soundly rejected in a fifty-four to forty-five Senate vote on Tuesday. Though liberalism continues to ravage the nation, at least one extra-constitutional militant will not be spearheading the movement by exceeding and abusing the authority vested in the court system. 11/05/2011 01:35 PM Imagine. No Religion, too. There’s a woman who lives near me with a personalized license plate that proclaims she’s a WICCAN. If her idea of theology is a penetrating discussion with a pecan tree and she wants to proclaim her lasting commitment to cellulose; that’s her right. Even though the sentiment appears on a plate issued by the Commonwealth. 11/05/2011 01:34 PM The Tax Plan that’s Better than Cain’s, Perry’s or Gingrich’s Bold tax reform is front and center this campaign season.  First Herman Cain made waves and poll headway with his 9-9-9 tax plan, which involves national 9-percent taxes on personal and corporate income and a 9-percent national sales tax.  Now Rick Perry has followed suit with a 20-percent flat-tax plan, and Newt Gingrich has gone 5 better, with a 15-percent flat proposal.  And these ideas certainly haven’t fallen flat: tax reform is immensely popular among the Republican base. 11/05/2011 01:31 PM Those Who Read the Past Write the Future Unfortunately most of what we are taught in History survey classes in American schools consists of simplistic formulas.  Formulas designed to persuade those forced to attend the government controlled education mills that they should ride the same ideological hobby horses as whoever currently has the power to select textbooks and prescribe curricula.  Whether it was the rabidly pro-American imperial History of yesteryear that pushed lines such as, “We never started a war and never lost one,” and “We turned a raw wilderness into a civilized nation.” or, if it is the rabidly anti-American propaganda of today spouting lines such as, “America was founded by deists who used serial genocide and economic fascism to steal a nation, pollute the earth, and poison the sea” neither are correct. Both versions are merely two sides of an extremely myopic view which does not seek to discover nor promote the truth but instead seek to mold the next generation into what they think will be foot soldiers in their own crusade. 11/05/2011 01:29 PM We Need Safe Food, Not New Regulations Churchville, VA - Deirdre Schlunegger, the head of an organization named “STOP Food borne Illness,” warned recently on the Huffington Post website that the government won’t have enough money next year to implement the new safety inspections authorized by the Food Safety Modernization Act. That act was signed into law by President Obama last January, but the federal budget cuts demanded by Republicans may now prevent the food protection agencies from carrying it out. 11/05/2011 01:27 PM The Bane of Political Parties Harlingen, Texas, October 2011:  When it comes to viewing the workings of political parties my reaction has always been to see them as a destructive force, which impedes good governance.  These views have been fostered over the many years I have witnessed both the Democrat and Republican Party move their political agendas foreword, quite often to the determent of the American public. 11/05/2011 01:24 PM Kiss the European Union Goodbye In Paris on October 15th, a group of finance ministers and central bankers known as the G20, representing major nations, gave the European Union until October 23red to find an answer to the financial crisises that are tearing apart the EU and its monetary structure. 11/05/2011 01:22 PM Obama’s Misplaced Mideast Optimism Confidently commenting on the execution of Libya’s long-time dictator, Barack Obama stated that “the death of Mu’ammar al-Qaddafi showed that our role in protecting the Libyan people, and helping them break free from a tyrant, was the right thing to do.” About his own decision to pull all U.S. troops from Iraq in two months’ time, Obama asserted that “In Iraq, we’ve succeeded in our strategy to end the war.” He then drew triumphalist conclusions from these developments, bragging that they show “The tide of war(1) is receding” and “we’ve renewed American leadership(2) in the world.” 11/05/2011 01:21 PM Imperial Republics Fall Historians spend their life looking backwards.  Futurists spend their life looking forward.  My goal has been to blend the two disciplines into one seamless endeavor. 11/05/2011 01:18 PM Tapping natural resources to address Maryland’s economic problems We should develop previously unavailable energy resources to generate jobs, revenues - Maryland’s 7.2% unemployment rate is below the national average, but still too high. Budget shortfalls next year could reach $700 million or more, the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute warns. Many of our cities and counties likewise face mounting debt.