The State of the Union

Death Be Not Proud — John Donne (1572 — 1631)Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrowDie not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.From rest and…

http://www. youtube. com/watch? feature=player_embedded&v=xxLNKnLaDG8For any taxpayer who manifests even a bare interest in how his or her federal taxdollars are spent, no admission could be more disturbing or frustrating the Waxman’s fluster comment to…

Thou canst not then be false to any man. (Hamlet, I, iii)What an example of pressed and hurrried fatherly advice, yet the chain of maxims and epithets does more to expose the folly and naivete of an old courtier mimicking the plain platitudes of royal court life…

Paraphrasing Alphaville’s hit “Forever Young”, Redondo Beach Unified Superintendent StevenKeller remarked about his district’s looming budget concerns: “We always planfor the worst and hope for the best.” Ouryouth should not be…

Anywhere Out of the World This life is a hospital where every patient is possessed with the desire to change beds; one man would like to suffer in front of the stove, and another believes that he would recover his health beside the window. It always seems to me that I…

Speech from Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Great Dictator’ I am tired of populists who look to ensnare the souls and minds of human beings, as if appealing to their sense of self tied in with their meaning in a group will liberate man from his present…

Russian-Jewish dissident Natan Sharansky implored his fellow Israelis to look beyond their domestic differences and remember their common heritage and dedication to each other and the Jewish state. They may not agree with their different views on foreign and domestic…

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute…

He was the closest to Christ, the only disciple who stayed with Jesus, even as He hung on the Cross. Jesus commissioned him to take care of His earthly mother. Five times (the number of grace), John describes Himself as the “disciple whom Jesus loved”….

He lost his momentum one month into his campaign last year, when the GOP voters realized that he could not communicate effectively. He stumbled in debate after debate, quickly attempting to recover the surge of enthusiasm that he has initially harnessed when he…

Despite the Republican-backed welfare reform package that President Bill Clinton signed in 1996, and despite the steep drop in welfare cases in the Golden State, California still had to shoulder the largest burden, in which one third of national welfare recipients…

Iran is not the final threat to avoid or despair over. Newt Gingrich is not the answer to our nation’s political problems, either, a religious man whose chronic failures have evinced a capacity for opportunism, not opportunity. Mitt Romney is not real, simple as…

“The gospel of God creates the sense of need for the gospel. Is the gospel hidden to those who are servants already? No, Paul said, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who…

By empowering a federal judge to shred current employee contracts and permit the city to redraw its pension outlays, the City would save itself from certain political and fiscal disaster, while forcing the nasty and unpopular decisions on an unelected representative,…

They want the UK out of the Eurozone. With the looming collapse threatening the Common Market, the British public are growing weary of their attachment to the Continent’s financial misfortunes. They have long opposed casting aside the British pound, still…

According to recent reports from the state budget offices, stripping public unions of their collective bargaining rights has enabled cash-strapped school districts and other government agencies to cut costs. Requiring that public employees contribute more toward their…

The reason for one’s optimism makes all the difference.If a man trusts in his own effort or his own chance, then he is doomed to fail:”Trust in the LORD with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)If we are…

On the contrary, Columnist George Will has argued time and again. Advertising interest a beer drinker to drink a different beer. Whether he will or not is a matter of inner conjecture and cost-analysis, a process which many elitists dismiss as non-existent among the…

Everyone wants to believe in a knight in shining armor, one who typifies all the greatness that man thinks he can create of himself. People want to be powerful; minorities want to feel that they can take down an enemy, as many have brought up in liberal-elitist public…

Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, is unveiling his proposal to overhaul California’s public employee pensions Thursday. Here are highlights of the plan, according to a draft report obtained by The Associated Press: Require all new and current employees to contribute…

He is a capitalist exploiter, one who cashes in on the anti-American chic that pervades academia and Hollywood, a wasteland of hyper-equality dedicated to playing up the downtrodden only because they are such. Rather than balancing out the inherent inequalities in the…

Now trying to shore up support from the 18-49 demographic which swept him to power on the frothy fumes of “hope and change,” the Vanity in Chief wants to reinforce the of his modish telegenic aura, now tarnished with the frustrating reality that the…

Once again, government is attempting to manipulate market practice, not so much to improve the suffering economy, but to score votes with fickle demonstrators attacking feckless institution as the cause of the economic malaise that has slowed this country down….

Governor Perry, please avoid such empty parries and thrusts. Mitt Romney is on the ropes, having been unable to raise his polling numbers above the low 20s. But caving in to populist fears of “not having enough” will not be enough to re-persuade an…

Is that too harsh? How about “Sell-out self-aggrandizing politician?” Then against, that’s quite redundant. I respect Mr. Lieu’s actions on behalf of veterans and streamlining review for new constructions projects, but what about the rest of…