One of the consistent, indisputable and well-deserved comments made about GOP spokesman Rush Limbaugh is that he is a brilliant man. And he is. Take his well-publicized remarks that he hopes Obama will fail. More precisely, his extended and detailed remarks on this subject, on his radio show on February 13, 2009: I’ll say it again. Not only do I want Obama to fail, I want this package to fail. I want this to blow up in their face. I hope the stimulus bill fails. I hope it does exactly what...

As my wife so often reassures me, I am hardly ever right. So, when I am proven right it is an occasion to celebrate. How about when I am proven one-third right? Can I just pat myself a little on the back? You be the judge. But, you ask, how can someone be one-third right? Well, you may remember—if I was fortunate enough to attract your attention—that one week ago, in “Rush Limbaugh, Michael Steele and Newsweek’s ‘Dignity Index,’” I suggested the following candidates...

On a somber day in April, 1957, I said goodbye to my parents and little sister as I boarded the KLM airplane at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport that would take me to the promised land, the United States of America, where I would realize my dream. I was only 17. I use these words, because I just read a heartrending article in the Dutch NRC Handelsblad that includes these words: Jelle Hans Reitsma was originally from Friesland, a rural area in the northern Netherlands. In 1988, at age 17, he had...

In my post yesterday, on the human slaughter in Darfur and on the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) issuance of an arrest warrant for Sudanese head of state Omar al-Bashir, I mentioned columnist Nicholas D. Kristof several times. Mr. Kristof has been the one consistent, eloquent and persuasive voice since the Darfur “conflict” started several years ago. True to form and like clockwork, Kristof this morning reacted to the disturbing decision by al-Bashir to expel aid groups...

The “Darfur Conflict”—the genocide in Darfur is a better term—seems somewhat complicated. One soon comes to that conclusion when researching the historical background, the causes, the warring parties (better term: the pillaging, raping and murdering thugs) involved, and what roles the Sudanese government, the United Nations, the international community and, yes, the United States have played and are playing in this human tragedy. The “Conflict” became even more...

When I was a teenager living in the Netherlands in the 50s, the reigning monarch was Queen Juliana of the Dutch Royal House of Oranje-Nassau. In 1980, her daughter, Beatrix, became Queen of the Netherlands. She is still the reigning monarch. Since moving to the U.S. about 50 years ago, I have not kept close tabs on the Dutch Royal family. Therefore, I was quite surprised when I read the following headline this morning in the Dutch newspaper, the NRC Handelsblad: “Dutch princess Máxima holds...

Those of you who can still afford to do so, probably consult one of the the Michelin Red Guides to select your favorite restaurant when traveling abroad or when visiting New York, Las Vegas or Los Angeles. And those of you who have been untouched by our current “lean times,” probably look for those restaurants with a three-star rating, indicating that the restaurant offers “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey” The Michelin stars are awarded very sparingly and are...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy In “Bring Sean Home” I wrote on the heart-rending story of an American father’s, David Goldman, desperate fight to bring his son home, an 8-year old boy who is being held in Brazil in violation of all international norms, and human decency. NBC has been right on top of the story, all along—kudos to you, NBC—and such media and public attention are finally having some results. In the March 4,...

Newsweek has a weekly feature called “The Dignity Index,” a graphical depiction which in Newsweek’s own words is “a weekly mathematical survey of dubious behavior that measures, on a scale of 1 to 100, just how low a person can go.” Usually, three personalities qualify for the weekly honors. I have made a suggestion to Newsweek for next week’s “Dignity Index.” But, since the chances of Newsweek listening to me are around zero (on the dignity index),...

Perhaps what attracted me to read this book was its subtitle: “A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon”— especially the last part, that bit about the Amazon. Not that I am adverse to reading about love and murder, but because of the fact that as a young boy I spent several of my summer vacations at the edge of the Amazon rainforest. But the book’s “Amazon” is is not today’s Amazon jungle, “El Oriente.” It is the Amazon jungle...

In my “It’s Now Rush vs. Steele,” a couple of hours ago, I mentioned Limbaugh’s tirade against Michael Steele. At that time there were no transcripts available…yet. Well, now the blogosphere is full of them. For example, at The Note: Limbaugh Goes to Mat With RNC Chair Limbaugh, asked to respond, said he’d save his counter-attack for his listeners. “I’ll handle it on the radio,” he wrote in an e-mail. He did just that, lacing into Steele and saying the recently-elected...

Rush Limbaugh, the Conservative icon on loan from God, role model for America’s youth, the man who proudly wears the size XXX-Large mantle of GOP leadership, the de facto voice of Conservatives gave a “brilliant” performance this weekend during his first national address to the nation at the Conservative Political Action Conference — an address that was broadcast live not only by Conservative Fox, but also by C-SPAN and CNN. Paul Watson put it this way: “CNN, for one,...

A few days ago, ELROD posted an interesting and eye-opening article, the opening sentence of which was “You think it’s bad here in the US of A?” The article, “Eastern Europe is Broke,” was about the dire financial straits many of the nations of Eastern Europe find themselves in today, after several years of “astonishing growth.” ELROD refers to this as phenomenon as “Oh, the good old days. Well, they’re done. Kaput” I voiced a similar concern about...

The President’s 2010 proposed budget calls for a 2 percent pay raise cap for federal civilian workers and a 2.9 percent pay raise cap for our military. Well, it seems that all hell has broken lose with some federal employees unions. Some federal employees and unions are unhappy about, according to the Washington Post, “The lack of movement toward closing the pay gap between government workers and those in the private sector .” OK, perhaps there is some merit in their desire to...

Today, in “Obama Plans Major Shifts in Spending” the New York Times reports that: President Obama’s new budget blueprint estimates a stunning deficit of $1.75 trillion for the current fiscal year, which began five months ago, then lays out a wrenching change of course as he seeks to finance his own priorities while stanching the flow of red ink. Then, in a set of articles, “Drilling Down on the Budget,”the Times provides more details on such “drilling down”...

I have been writing about the pending decision by the Obama administration on whether to permit media access to our returning fallen heroes when they touch American soil at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. At the White House daily press briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, had this to say about that just a few minutes ago [I hope I copied it all correctly]: The Secretary of Defense will talk fairly shortly [about this] at the Pentagon. The President has asked the Secretary of Defense to review...

The President gave his first Address to the Nation before a Joint Session of Congress Tuesday night. Politicians, journalists, pundits, bloggers, etc. have all by now expressed their opinions on, and done their analyses of the address. My opinion of the speech is really not that important—albeit the readers of my posts can probably guess that I thought the speech was “to the right of spectacular.” So, instead of spouting more opinion, I would like to do a roundup of opinions and...

In “A Note Personally Penned, Then Signed ‘Barack.’ Priceless,” we saw how President Obama personally handwrites letters to kin of our fallen troops and, after they are typed, adds his signature, “Barack.” In an interesting piece by Jake Tapper, ABC News’ Senior White House Correspondent, we learn that President Obama reads 10 letters a day from regular citizens like you and I. According to the article: Every day President Barack Obama is handed a special...

I have written several posts on the upcoming decision by the Obama administration on how many additional F-22 Raptor fighters to purchase after the last one of the current 183 aircraft order has been delivered. There are reports that Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz will ask for 60 more F-22’s. As the decision nears, the media and especially the blogosphere are full of reports, rumors and just pure speculation on this issue. In my “The F-22 Raptor, It’s Almost Time To...

Now that “Change” has come to the White House, the question that is on every American’s mind is what the Obama administration, the new Justice Department, will do about the abuses of the Bush years. Senator Patrick Leahy, a six-term Democratic Senator, a former prosecutor and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and someone who would be intimately involved in any process subsequent to such decisions, has expressed his opinion—and his preference—in a TIME article,...

TIME Magazine this week reported on the somber decisions facing the new President when it comes to Afghanistan. President Obama has already ordered two more U.S. Combat brigades into Afghanistan, and may have to send more of our troops. As he announced the troop movements, Obama said: “There is no more solemn duty as President than the decision to deploy our armed forces into harm’s way.” In reporting this somber news, TIME writes: The President has been writing a letter to the...

Conchita Cintrón. That name evokes fond memories of and nostalgia for my years as a young boy in my native Ecuador, just as another name does: Evita Perón. However, there is one notable difference. I have continued to frequently come across the name of that famous personality, the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until 1952, the charismatic, idolized, all but canonized Evita Perón. But, I don’t believe that I have heard or read again about Conchita Cintrón, perhaps the most famous...

As I have mentioned before, I often find that regular people, people like you and I, can look at the issues of our time and come up with more sensible, down-to-earth opinions—and sometimes solutions—than the pundits and the politicians. That’s why I like to read the “Letters to the Editor” sections of the various newspapers and periodicals. The issue of lifting the ban on photographs, or of any other public visual record, of our returning heroes when they first touch...

It was just another day of ordinary but dangerous duty at the entrance to a Marine and Iraqi police encampment in Ramadi, Iraq, for Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, from Sag Harbor, N.Y., and Cpl. Jonathan T. Yale, from Burkeville, Va., just about a year ago, on April 22, 2008. The two Marines were standing guard at at the entrance to the encampment, when suddenly a truck began to rapidly weave around concrete obstacles towards the gate to the compound. The rest is the stuff of heroes. The truck was...

Yesterday, I posted a piece on why I feared that the Netherlands’ economy is also beginning to be seriously affected by the global financial/economic crisis. Lo and behold, this morning my worst fears seemed to be totally confirmed. A news article in the Dutch NRC Handelsblad carries the dreadful headline: “Heineken reports 87 pct fall in full year profit.” You have to understand that Heineken is my favorite beer, and if anything happens to it, it will be the end of the world,...