The areas of our lives touched by advertising have been growing like kudzu over the years, and have long passed the line of good sense much less good taste. Every time one leaves the house these days (or stays home for that matter) he or she seems to be assaulted by yet another way, another space, in which advertisers are peddling their wares. Promotional videos on supermarket checkout lines and placards on...

A new New Hampshire poll has good news for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, not-so-good-news for former House Speaker New Gingrich and good news for Rep. Ron Paul: Romney is ahead and Paul is rising: Newt Gingrich’s surge has slowed and Ron Paul has gained momentum, but Mitt Romney remains the clear front-runner in New Hampshire with a little more than two weeks until the nation’s first primary, according...

Conservatism, like Dr. Jekyll, has undergone an ugly transformation. Those who claim that mantle these days say they stand for liberty. However, they have long forgotten Edmund Burke’s caveat: “But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.” And, on the subject of restraint,...

As we all enjoy the day with family and friends I want to take the time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. As much as we may go back and forth on the issues I think we at TMV are a family and I am most appreciative of everyone. So Merry Christmas to all !

We need this:

A song for today:

All of us who write for or contribute to The Moderate Voice want to wish one and all a very Merry Christmas. Enjoy your time with family and dear friends because that’s what really matters. The best to YOU. Photo via shutterstock.com

In a recent interview, Mitt Romney predicted President Obama (and presumably his surrogates) would run “a campaign on envy and class warfare.” This envy would presumably be based on Romney’s financial success doing leveraged buyout takeover deals. Well sure. Who wouldn’t want to be able to borrow a heap of money using a target company’s own assets to gain control of that company,...

by Paul Szep (used with permission) WASHINGTON – ‘Twas the weekend after the debacle, when all through the town; everyone was thrilled to be rid of these clowns. The Congress deserved hanging by the monuments for their idiocy, but instead they were sipping Scotch after the deal they’d just botched. The middle class had no security and no clue about next year, with visions of unemployment and...

Every year, as Christmas approaches, I think again of A Christmas Carol. The world has always been opposed to the idea of Christmas — unless it can be turned into a money making proposition. If Christmas can serve the ends of business, by all means, it should be celebrated. But, as Marley’s exasperated ghost reminded Scrooge: “BUSINESS? Mankind was my business! Their common welfare was my...

“Spirit, are they yours?” Scrooge could say no more. “They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!”...

He didn’t quite make a formal endorsement but it’s the closest thing to it. For months I’ve predicted that the Bush family would be backing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. One sign: Republican political maven Karl Rove has clearly been critical of candidates giving Romney serious competition. But now The Act (endorsement) is (at least) partly done: Former President George H.W. Bush says...

I really cannot compete with the many recent and excellent TMV posts on this subject. I particularly enjoyed Walter Brasch’s post from yesterday confirming that anyone can guiltlessly embrace the many versions of this ancient holiday to which many cultures, religions, and people have contributed. I appreciate all the religious and secular aspects of Christmas. I feel sorry for those who wish to define it...

The 90 year old husband of Queen Elizabeth was hospitalized with chest pains earlier today and was given a stent to repair a blocked coronary artery. He is likely to spend Christmas in the hospital but is expect to make a full recovery.

Few of us pass the holiday season without at least one viewing of a Christmas Carol. But what many do not know is that there was a story behind the story, and the influence that it had on the author. In Dickens time it was quite common for one man to support not only his own family but the families of his and/or his spouses siblings. Dickens had a great burden on his back and it was not getting easier as his...

If you never played with an erector set you were certainly familiar with the product. The set was the invention of a man named Alfred Carlton (A.C) Gilbert. It would take pages to list all of the toys that he helped to invent but they include virtually every type of educational toy from chemistry sets to some of the most popular versions of model trains. He was also a pioneer in providing benefits to his employees...

(The Following is a re-post of The Fruitcake Chronicles. I first published this six installment short story in the Auburn Reporter Newspaper. Like a good fruitcake, I regift it every year. Merry Christmas!) The Fruitcake Chronicles: An Old Fashioned Christmas (Part 1 of 6) “Sir, I’m not going to ask you again.  Put the fruitcake down and step away from the Santa.”  The officer’s voice was measured...

We Bought a Zoo is a film that has little to do with its title. It’s not about the zany misadventures of a family trying to run their own zoo. Instead, it’s about a father dealing with the recent tragic death of his dearly loved spouse. It’s about heart broken kids trying to exist in a world where their mother is no longer able to comfort them. We Bought a Zoo is about cancer, about love,...

Bill Day, Cagle Cartoons This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com WASHINGTON – This is where I tell you that national polls don’t mean much, then I cite national polls. It’s a snapshot in time moment that reveals that 1979 feeling is still with us. It’s also why Mitt Romney remains the best person to give Pres. Obama a serious headache, with two excerpts from the Chris Wallace interview providing the proof,...

Democratic Party pols used to understand the obvious. If there were an issue that most people, most voters, held dear, and if it fell within the party’s own traditional policy parameters, these pols used to beat it to death and win elections with it. That was the way it was in the old days. Now these pols have been Obama-ed. They think deeply. They wallow in the depths of the counter-intuitive. They see...

RJ Matson, The St. Louis Post Dispatch This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

It is the Winter Solstice at precisely 9:30 PM PST (or 12:30 AM EST, 3:30 AM GMT). And, on the darkest day of the year, we manage to come to one of the darkest moments of the political year, coincidentally. I’ve never trusted neatness … Which brings me to a point I’ve wanted to make for some time: the “crisis” that the Tea Party screams out is not actually a crisis. It is an outcome....

With my best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a joyous holiday season to our readers, especially our veterans and active duty military. Two Christmases ago, in a “Christmas wish for our troops serving in harm’s way,” I expressed my empathy and admiration for the tens of thousands of our brave men and women who were serving in hostile territory , away from their loved ones, attempting to, in some fashion,...