Fellow blogger Mark Daniels just posted ”Two Helpful Primers on the Health Care Reform Debate,” linking to two good overviews of the health care reform debate and issues, one from The New York Times and the other from The Wall Street Journal. In this morning’s New York Times, there also happened to be an Op-Ed on “Why We Need Health Care Reform,” by a person who, albeit far from neutral on the issue, can certainly be called knowledgeable about it. The author makes, in my...

I am a Catholic, and I didn’t know. I didn’t know that the Catholic Church bars the draping of coffins with the American flag during funeral ceremonies in the church—even if the coffin contains the remains of a fallen military hero. I imagine that this “policy” applies to all national flags, because in an article in the Times Union of Albany, N. Y., quoting Ken Goldfarb, spokesman for the Albany Catholic Diocese, I read: Catholic funerals throughout the world follow...

For a moment, just for a brief moment, I thought that we were beginning to step back from the brink of all-out, take-no-prisoners combat on one of the most divisive issues surrounding healthcare reform. After alleging that her parents and her Down Syndrome baby would have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel,” “so his bureaucrats can decide…whether they are worthy of health care,” former governor Sarah Palin is now revisiting her incendiary implications that...

A week ago, in “The F-22 Program Cancellation: The Aftermath,” we discussed the recent cancellation of the F-22 Raptor program, and the potential impact on national security and on the aerospace defense part of the economy. Potential, because it is still too early to evaluate any concrete impact in either area. That doesn’t mean that aerospace defense and economic experts haven’t expressed their views and serious concerns. We looked at an early assessment by military correspondent...

Did you know that August is “National make-a-will month”? I didn’t, until I happened to hear Rush Limbaugh mention it today in an advertisement counseling his listeners on the importance of having a will and a living will, and providing the name of a company that would assist them in getting those important documents prepared. The company mentioned by Rush Limbaugh describes a living will as a document that “lets you specify decisions about artificial life support in advance....

A couple of weeks ago, Time Magazine’s cover story was “The Final days of Bush and Cheney.” It was a fascinating, intimate look at what TIME’s Managing Editor Richard Stengel himself describes as “The tale of the rift between George W. Bush and Dick Cheney…an inside look at the complex relationship that shaped so much of this decade.” The special report also tells us “why the struggle over their legacy is just beginning.” While the story touches...

I enjoy Deborah Solomon’s weekly interviews (”Questions For…”) in The New York Times Magazine, a column that has appeared in the Times’ weekend magazine since 2003. Although her interview techniques and the published results of her interviews have come under fire, I find them interesting and generally learn something from them. Sadly, I could not say the same about her “Questions for Alberto Gonzales” this weekend. The questions and answers were lame, whiny,...

This post is in three parts. First, the bad news about the economy. Second, the economy according to Fox News. Third, those glimmers of economic hope. The bad news: Today’s “good” news that the unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent—the first rate drop in 15 months—as the U.S. economy “only” shed 247,000 jobs in July, is of course no comfort to the millions of Americans who are still unemployed, and especially to those who have lost all hope of finding a job...

Leon Panetta, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, wrote a positive, forward-looking Op-Ed in the Washington Post this past weekend. It was titled, “Congress and the CIA: Time to Move On.” In his Op-Ed, Panetta rightly commends the men and women of the CIA for the crucial work they are doing to protect our country—for being “America’s first line of defense.” Panetta acknowledges that in the emotional aftermath of Sept. 11, some wrong judgments were...

Lilly and Ludwig Friedman on their wedding day, Jan. 27, 1946. Introduction: I received this touching article via e-mail a couple of months ago. A note at the end of the e-mail says: In MEMORIAM – 63 YEARS LATER It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred,...

Way back in January, 2009, I started posting on the F-22 Raptor program, on how, “One of the first weapon systems-related decisions the Obama administration will have to make is whether to purchase additional Lockheed-Martin F-22 Raptors, after the last one of a 183 aircraft order has been delivered.” Already back then, the F-22 issue, and those of related weapon systems, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, promised to be highly charged political issues, involving numerous and serious national...

I have been a vocal critic of the previous administration—as I am beginning to be of this administration—for what I believe is a shameful lack of recognition for the valor and heroism of our brave troops who have been fighting and sacrificing, oftentimes with their lives, in the hells of Iraq and Afghanistan. In turn, I have been criticized for “meddling in the business of the President, Congress and the Pentagon” and for “making it a popularity contest.” I categorically reject...

As a Vietnam War era veteran, I received most of my higher education using the (”old”) G.I. Bill—with extensions—and with the help of other military educational programs and assistance. So, on Monday, I was delighted to hear President Obama welcome the extension of GI Bill education benefits to our post-9/11 veterans with these words: While so many were reaching for the quick buck, they were heading out on patrol. While our discourse often produced more heat than light,...

Almost five years into the Afghanistan war and three years into the Iraq war, something started to nag at me, something just didn’t seem right. In spite of the high number of casualties (killed in action and seriously maimed and wounded); in spite of the heroic deeds we knew our brave troops were accomplishing; and in spite of the importance of those wars to the security of our country, a woefully small number of Medals of Honor, our nation’s highest military award for battlefield valor, were...

In my post yesterday ( “A Great Navy Tradition On Display at Bath Iron Works Tomorrow, August 1), I wrote that, today, at the Bath Iron Works, in Bath, Maine, the Navy planned to christen its newest Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, named after Medal of Honor recipient Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham. Scanning for news reports on the christening ceremony this morning, I searched the New York Times files for “Bath Iron Works.” To my shock, the very first entry that popped up carried the...

The U.S. military, by its very nature, is full of history and traditions. Recently, I learned about one of those great historical traditions. The U.S. Navy has the long and honorable tradition of naming war ships after its fallen heroes. This tradition dates back to well before World War I. One report has it that it goes back to 1819, even before the Civil War. The USS Farragut, a guided missile destroyer commissioned in June 2006, was named after a very early hero, Admiral David Farragut, the...

The markets were well on their way to shatter all kinds of records today. Towards the end of the market day, however, they shed some of their gains. Nevertheless, we still had, once again, a good upward movement in the markets—one of those movements that some critics persistently call “meaningless day-to-day fluctuations.” Let’s see what today’s meaningless market fluctuations resulted in: U.S. stocks rose across the board as stronger-than-expected profit reports and...

As it should have become clear from my recent writings on Dahlia Lithwick, I think she is brilliant in her analyses of the U.S. Supreme Court, its justices, cases and opinions. But her talents don’t stop at the Supreme Court’s magnificent entrance. I came across a set of 18 little poems, written by Lithwick over at Slate. I am told they are written in “haiku form.” Since I am not familiar with haiku, I looked up a definition in Wikipedia. This is what they have to say: Haiku...

Dahlia Lithwick, a contributing editor to Newsweek and senior editor at Slate, is a brilliant Constitutional lawyer and scholar who has written extensively on the United States Supreme Court and on the Court’s cases and opinions. No wonder she has been intensely focused on what impact the recent elections will have on the composition of our country’s highest court. In fact, Lithwick was pondering that issue even before the 2008 presidential election was decided. She has not only been...

Yesterday, I wrote on Texas Governor Rick Perry’s follies, including his secession nonsense, his refusal to accept federal funds to help the Texas unemployed, his phony anti-Washington rhetoric, and his sheer hypocrisy when it comes to rejecting and then accepting—begging for—federal stimulus funds and federal loans. I also quoted an Austin American-Statesman editorial blasting Perry for similar politicals missteps. The Statesman used a very appropriate analogy: The old caution...

The Austin American-Statesman reports today that U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is planning to run against Texas governor Rick Perry next year, is making inroads with previous Perry “loyalists” and “chipping” into Perry’s “rich donor base, taking 21 percent of $6.7 million she raised from December through June from 35 percent of Perry’s historically staunchest backers.” Perry does continue to benefit from high dollar donors; however, these...

Update to “One More Fallen Hero to Receive the Medal of Honor” The Following is a White House statement on the award of the Medal of Honor to Staff Sergeant Jared C. Monti, U.S. Army: THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _____________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release July 24, 2009 On September 17, President Barack Obama will award Staff Sergeant Jared C. Monti,...

Azle,Texas is a small town, about 10 miles northwest of Fort Worth, with a population of about 12,000—about 93 percent white and 4 percent Hispanic. It is suddenly in the national news. The reason: one of its residents has posted a “Hispanics Keep Out” sign on the front of his or her home. Reportedly the sign has been up for months. According to khou.com, “Many residents said they would like to see the sign, which has been up for months, taken down.” When asked by a...

According to The Daily News Tribune: Janet Monti was home nursing a cold when the call came in. At first, she thought it was a joke. A person who claimed to be a White House aide asked if she would be around for the next half hour. Ten minutes later, she was on the phone with the President. “He said, ‘I hear you’re a little under the weather,’” she recalled of President Barack Obama’s first words to her. His next words made her swell with a mother’s pride. The president told her he...

Sorry, Rush. Very sorry that your market investments (I am sure you have one or two) have risen in value by about 10 percent if tracked by the DJIA, and by about 30 percent according to the NASDAQ composite, since the day president Obama took the economic disaster over from Mr. Bush Actually, since the market lows in early March 2009, those two indices have risen a whopping 34 percent and 55 percent, respectively. What a bummer. Across the board, all kinds of market records were broken today. As...