Bill Schorr, Cagle Cartoons This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to appear on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

I am the first to admit that I am the king of dumb mistakes. Whether it’s in my personal life or my professional one, I am quite capable (indeed sometimes it seems eager) to make dumb blunders. Normally they are pretty minor but once in a while I do make a whopper of a blunder. I accept this as simply part of being a human being But I have some friends who work in the entertainment industry and I have...

… not to go back to the moon. Moon Cat has already rendered the effort meaningless.

The evolution of the health care debate has taken us on a wild ride. At first the goal was to have national health care, which sparked fear into conservatives based on the argument that innovation will be stifled by lack of competition. This led to a compromise between Democrats and Republicans which produced the public option. This way, the insurance companies were not directly cut out of the picture with...

The White House has just released the text of a controversial back-to-school speech that President Barack Obama will be making to our children tomorrow. The speech will be broadcast directly into the schools, mainlining into the minds of our vulnerable children in a brazen attempt to, in the guise of civics education, indoctrinate our young ones and to fill their little heads with communist propaganda. No...

Why is President Obama’s popularity fading? You can hear a lot of answers to this question. But for me the answer is obvious, and comes down to the two C’s—change and continuity. He promised the former, but when it comes to the most basic issues facing the country, the economy and foreign affairs, he’s governing in keeping with the latter. On this Labor Day, just consider who is setting this...

Buried in the weekly Sunday back-and-forth wrangling over the health care reform bill – and the public option in particular – was a particularly important comment from Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson today: I think [Obama] has to say that if there’s going to be a public option, it’s going to be subject to a trigger. Nelson added in his remarks on CNN that this shouldn’t be just a...

Part of the spirit and the culture of the U.S. military is the creed that you don’t leave anyone behind—whether injured, captured, or dead. For example, the U.S. Army Ranger Creed, the oath Army Rangers take, includes these words: “I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy …” Several books and numerous articles have been devoted to this honorable subject. The risks...

I’m not gloating but two New York Times columnists agree with my assessment that U.S. military presence in Afghanistan is untenable although neither go as far as my desire to pull out all our troops. Normally, opinions by New York Times columnists are not those that sway the powers in Washington. But in the case of Afghanistan the White House and Pentagon should be taking notes. One columnist is Thomas...

I have a story to tell that relates to the brewing controversy over President Obama’s speech to the nation’s school children next Tuesday. It was during the war years of 1943-45. Our grade school teachers made it a contest. Who could raise the most money for Infantile Paralysis. The money was for research to cure the disease that crippled President Franklin Roosevelt in the prime of his life. The...

Obama and his crew may think they can fool us conservatives. These folks think we can’t spot a con or an outright conspiracy when we see it. Well, Mr. President, it turns out you’re wrong about that. That value of education speech you were planning to broadcast to school kids. Sounds innocuous, doesn’t it? At least at first hearing. Well, if you have the kind of smarts we’ve got, there’s...

President Obama this weekend at Camp David is studying a classified report submitted by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, that some say could be a game changer by putting a larger emphasis on “protecting the Afghan people.” You can bet he will not take my advise and that of a growing number of both liberals and conservatives that the U.S. should pull its forces...

I have a developing story for you all, courtesy of libertarian blogger Radley Balko: Jonathan Ayers, a 29 year old pastor of Lavonia, Georgia was shot and killed last Tuesday by undercover narcotics officers during a botched drug bust. The shooting occurred around 2:30 in the afternoon just outside a Shell station in Toccoa, Georgia, where he had just returned to his car after getting money from the ATM. ...

Olympia Snowe. [Crossposted at my personal blog.]

While many Americans were accused of not supporting our troops, of being unpatriotic, and worse, for criticizing our involvement in Iraq and the way that war was being managed, I will not accuse Conservative George Will of anything. In ‘Why are we still in Afghanistan?”, (replace “Afghanistan with “Iraq” and see how familiar that sounds), George Will is having second thoughts about...

Lost in the debate over whether or not the government can run anything right is the glaringly obvious: our National Park System is absolutely fantastic. My family and I had the chance to explore many parks in the West last summer, including Grand Canyon, Bandelier, Yellowstone, Zion, Bryce, Devil’s Tower and Mount Rushmore. The natural beauty, cultural and historical preservation, and customer service...

In a low turnout election last night to fill the seat left vacant by former Rep. Ellen Tauscher (and current Obama administration official) California Lt. Governor John Garamendi was the top finisher with 26% of the vote. Given the heavy Democratic tilt of the district (about 2-1) it is likely he will win the November runoff. This would leave a vacancy in the office of Lt. Governor and bring about some interesting,...

For the first time in my life, professional pollsters tracked me down and actually asked my opinion on what they considered vital questions on the state of the union. Naturally, I was flattered. But the conversation went downhill in a hurry. It was a legitimate poll conducted by Pew Research Center of Princeton, New Jersey, and I suspect the woman conducting the poll was a college student. I am also guessing...

I’ve been an economics and financial writer for 30 years. I used to enjoy my work. I used to take pride in it. The markets were kinky, sure, but that made the writing more fun. And even though a slew of picaresque and flagrantly self-serving characters might for a time generate oddball quirks in markets and even the overall economy, even in the midst of the most extreme bouts of irrationality there were...

So I’m reading through the results of today’s local German elections and I’m marveling at the political analysis. Three states – Thuringia, Saarland and Saxony – held local elections and the result was a mixed bag where near-majority Christian Democrats lost to a plethora of minor parties on the left and right including the Free Democrats (economic conservatives), the Left Party...

Today the voters in Japan are headed to the polls and if the pre-election polling is correct the long dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is going to experience a defeat, quite possibly by landslide margins. The LDP has ruled Japan for almost all of the 54 years since the end of World War Two but they have suffered major losses recently, including the loss of control of the less powerful upper house. This...

As the nation pays its final respect for the life and times of Sen. Edward Kennedy it has become clear to me we will never again see a politician of his stature grace the halls of Congress. That is sad. What struck me was the litany of friends and foes alike who all agreed on one basic principle: Ted Kennedy was a man of his word. He was passionate in his beliefs even though many disagreed. He was an engaging...

Siena Research recently concluded their sweeping August poll of New Yorkers’ political leanings and the results contain some shocks and some yawns, as usual. Two things are obvious, though. First, having given total control executive and legislative power to the party of the Donkey, Empire State denizens are absolutely sick of the Democrats they elected. Second, they are still in no mood to replace most...

You may think you’ve got it bad, but at least you’re not part of the next generation of punk rock. Think about the low points of your life, then watch this video and just be glad you are who and where you are. (Warning: Some inappropriate language, so avoid if that would offend.) I’m Fat and Nobody Likes Me

Remember those kid sandlot games we played where the oak tree was the goal line on one side of the field and the public restroom the goal line on the other. The sidelines were marked by Fatso’s dad’s Chevy on one side and Jimmy’s mom’s lawn chair on the other. Any disputes over the mock gridiron’s imaginary chalk lines were settled with a do over. Folks, welcome to the National...