One thing about Pulitzer Prize winner Leonard Pitts over at the Miami Herald, he doesn’t mince words. In his most recent article about “birthers,” Pitts calls them “morons,’’ ‘‘jackasses,” “imbeciles,” “idiots,’’ “doofuses” and “pinheads.” After admitting that name calling “lowers the level of discourse… forestalls thoughtful response and…does not suggest an excess of class,” Pitts says: Where the birthers are concerned, however, the level of discourse...

This article is dedicated to the memory of Marine Lt. Col. Earl Charles “Charlie” Rodenberg A few weeks ago we attended the “Celebration of Life” service for a dear friend and neighbor who passed away after a long and valiant struggle with cancer. Our friend’s final battle was as courageous as was his long service to country and to the Marine Corps. Marine Lt. Col. Earl Charles “Charlie” Rodenberg served his country with distinction for 24 years as a combat naval aviator, including...

During the 2010 elections, the heyday of the Tea Party, we were treated to some soaring oratory by real, “take-our-country-back” Americans: Those real Americans, real patriots, real believers who belong to the party of core values, the good party—the party of God. Feeling quite rejected and dejected, feeling like a fake American, I “rambled” about it then. After the shellacking we, fake Americans, got last November, I hoped that the rhetoric would stop—for a while it did. But,...

The Washington Post reports: Geraldine Anne Ferraro Zaccaro, 75, passed away Saturday morning at Massachusetts General Hospital, surrounded by her family. The cause of death was complications from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that she had battled for 12 years, according to a statement from her family. Ms. Ferraro earned a place in history as the first woman and first Italian-American to run on a major party national ticket, serving as Walter Mondale’s Vice Presidential running mate in 1984...

I am amazed at the flip-flopping and inconsistencies that are going on when it comes to supporting or opposing the coalition’s enforcement of the UN-established no-fly zone in Libya. There are those who supported the Iraq war and support the coalition’s present action in Libya. While I think they were wrong on Iraq, they are at least consistent. There are those who opposed the Iraq war and who oppose our involvement in Libya. While I think they are wrong on Libya, they are also at least consistent—these...

UPDATE, March 28 Yokota Air Base, just outside Tokyo, has become the nerve center and logistical hub for “Operation Tomodachi,” the U.S. humanitarian assistance efforts to help earthquake/tsunami/nuclear-power-plant-disaster-ravaged Japan. In the weeks that have followed the disaster, some 1,300 military and government workers have converged on Yokota, and “[s]uddenly, this usually sleepy airlift base has been transformed into the U.S. military equivalent of Grand Central Station” according...

UPDATE, March 27 The New York Times reports this morning on the Libyan rebels “first major victory since American and European airstrikes began a week ago.” The rebels’ advance was the first sign that the allied attacks, directed not only against Colonel Qaddafi’s aircraft and defenses but also against his ground troops, were changing the dynamics of the battle for control of the country. As night fell, rebel forces had recaptured Ajdabiya, a crucial hub city in eastern Libya, and had...

UPDATE: 16:15 ET March 19 AP has confirmed that the U.S. military has launched a missile attack against Libya’s air defenses. A senior U.S. military official says the strike was aimed at sites along the Libyan coast. The missiles were launched from U.S. Navy vessels in the Mediterranean. The official says the assault would unfold in stages and strike at air defense installations around Tripoli, the capital, and a coastal area south of Benghazi. That’s the rebel stronghold under attack...

UPDATE: 12:20 ET France has officially confirmed that its military are engaged around and over Libya. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in Paris, “Our air force will oppose any aggression by Colonel Gadhafi against the population of Benghazi…As of now, our aircraft are preventing planes from attacking the town…As of now, our aircraft are prepared to intervene against tanks.” Read More Here === UPDATE: 11:11 ET, March 19, 2011 The BBC reports, “French military jets over Libya”: French...

UPDATE, 6:30 AM ET March 19 The New York Times Reports: Forces led by Moammar Gaddafi entered the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi Saturday after airstrikes and fierce fighting as the United States and its allies prepared to launch military attacks on Libya. A warplane was shot down over Benghazi. Government troops — some reportedly in tanks — entered Benghazi from the west, in the university area. The city of 1 million quickly became a ghost town, with residents fleeing or seeking...

I came across “Ode Magazine” a couple of years ago and it has appeared on my screen almost daily since then. It is a rather unusual publication. It is “a print and online publication about positive news, about the people and ideas that are changing our world for the better.” I know, such a publication should not at all be “unusual,” but these days, alas, it is. Ode was founded in 1995 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands by Jurriaan Kamp and Helene de Puy who wanted to create an alternative...

UPDATE, March 17 From the Stars and Stripes: U.S. military personnel have delivered 40 tons of supplies to the hardest-hit areas of Japan, as humanitarian aid continues in the face of an ever-increasing threat from the failing Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant. The U.S. 7th Fleet reported that aircraft from the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group flew 15 sorties Wednesday, delivering food, water, clothing, medical supplies and blankets to parts of Japan affected by Friday’s earthquake and tsunami. Meanwhile,...

The New York Times today has an “Op-Chart” purporting to depict “The Pentagon’s biggest boondoggles.” According to the Times, the list of “boondoggles” is “just a sampling of what systems could be ended without endangering America; indeed, abandoning some of them might actually enhance national security.” Some of the alleged “boondoggles” whose abandonment, according to the Times, would actually enhance our national security include our Ballistic Missile Defense system and...

Texas State Representative Leo Berman, R-Tyler, has sponsored a bill “relating to the establishment of English as the official language of Texas” and the requirement that official acts of government be performed in English. The proposed legislation cites several reasons why such a bill is necessary, including: * the people of the United States have brought to this nation the cultural heritage of many nations; * the people of the United States, despite their many differences, have...

UPDATE: Washington Post, 20:12 ET, March 15: New assessments of the explosion at Unit 2 of Japan’s stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant Tuesday heightened fears that it will begin spewing large amounts of radiation. The explosion probably damaged the main protective shield around the uranium-filled core inside one of the plant’s six reactors. Such a breach would be the first at a nuclear power plant since the Chernobyl catastrophe in the Soviet Union 25 years ago. The latest explosion —...

Gabriel Ledeen, a former U.S. Marine Captain and two-tour veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom asked the following question at the Huffington Post last week: “Who supports the U.S. soldier?” He was referring to an oft-debated and emotional issue that comes up whenever our nation is engaged in combat operations: Can Americans support our troops in combat while at the same time opposing the cause, the mission, the war? In his article, Ledeen eloquently and passionately claims that opposition to...

[This post is dedicated to Jerry Remmers. I wonder how Jerry, as a journalist and a person with great empathy, would have come down on this issue. He may have already] Almost a year ago, just as the Snyder v. Phelps case was starting to make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, I had strong opinions about this issue. On April 1, 2010, I wrote: Imagine your only son is killed in Iraq or in Afghanistan while serving his country. Imagine the day arrives for your son’s funeral and family and friends...

The weather forecast for Austin, Texas, reads, “Warm, some sun today [Friday], chance for rain, cooler temps this weekend.” We certainly hope for some cooler “temps” tomorrow, Saturday, and certainly for some cooler heads, as the Texas Nationalist Movement will be holding a rally tomorrow, “the 175th anniversary of William Barret Travis drawing the line in the sand at the Alamo,” to urge Texans to “draw another line in the sand for the Texas Legislature.” According to the “Petition...

First, a Texas state representative, Leo Berman, R-Tyler, joined the “birthers’ movement” by introducing a bill with a real Texas twang. A bill that would require presidential candidates to present their birth certificates to the Texas secretary of state “because we have a president whom the American people don’t know whether he was born in Kenya or some other place.” Now, another Texas state representative, tea party favorite Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, has introduced a bill with both...

Readers will remember the unconscionable appearances by members of a so-called religious group from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, at military funerals claiming that the deaths of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are God’s punishment for America’s acceptance of homosexuality. They show up at military funerals regardless of whether the fallen hero was gay or not. They appear at funerals of our heroes carrying signs proclaiming “God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11,”...

When discussing federal “benefits” to individuals one of the arguments that is made by those opposing such benefits is that it leads to a nanny state, that it increases the size of government and the size of its spending, deficit, debt, etc. I use the word “benefits” circumspectly because many of these so-called benefits have—to some extent—already been paid for with our taxes and with the taxes of those “others.” And indeed one of the most common complaints is that...

Now a Texas State representative, Leo Berman, R-Tyler, has joined the “birthers’ movement” and other states by saying that his proposed bill to require presidential candidates to present their birth certificates to the Texas secretary of state is necessary “because we have a president whom the American people don’t know whether he was born in Kenya or some other place.” In a regular column in the Austin American-Statesman, “PolitiFact Texas,” that “sorts out the truth in politics,”...

UPDATE: The Department of Justice has posted an extensive press release at their web site with additional details on yesterday’s arrest of Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari. These are some of the highlights: Aldawsari is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in Lubbock at 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning. Aldawsari, who was lawfully admitted into the United States in 2008 on a student visa and is enrolled at South Plains College near Lubbock, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a...

Say what you will about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks—and plenty has been said about them. Because of them a window has been opened on foreign relations in an age of international intrigue, conflict, terrorism and open warfare. We may not like how that window got opened; we may or may not like what we see through that open window and we may be offended by the fetor entering our home through that open window, it is an undeniable fact that the window has been slammed wide open. As the world watches...

One can always count on seeing some very exciting and spirited debates at The Moderate Voice, whether the subject or issue is religion, politics, culture, war, gender issues, our military, women in combat—or just plain principle and individual rights. Well this one has just about a little bit of “all of the above” and I am curious as to how the debate will go. Readers may remember that, back in 2001, Martha McSally, then an Air Force lieutenant colonel and A-10 fighter pilot stationed...