About three weeks ago, Reuters quoted Afghan President Hamid Karzai saying: “God forbid, if ever there is a war between Pakistan and America, Afghanistan will side with Pakistan,” Karzai also said: “Afghanistan will never forget the welcome, the hospitality, the respect, and the brotherhood showed by the Pakistani people towards the Afghan people…Pakistan will never betray their brother.” According...

Sometimes so much can be said with so few words. How about with 29 words: “Homeless veteran” should be a cultural oxymoron. The mere thought of it is profane. What kind of civil society leaves its defenders on winter streets, even for one night? * Just 29 little words. What a powerful, poignant message. Think about it this Veterans Day. * A November 5, 2011, Letter to the New York Times Editor by Mark...

Trap and Release by Peter Funt PHOENIX – When uninvited raccoons damage the lawn behind my house, I trap them, drive about five miles, and release them into the forest. Recently a guy saw me and asked that I stop. “We have our own raccoon problems,” he explained, adding that he also traps the critters. “So where do you take them?” I asked. He described a spot that turned out to...

Violet’s dad has passed away. This means Charlie’s mother is, I believe, the only parent still living. According to family he was often asked to quote his epic line “Violet you’re turning violet Violet” and did so with great pleasure. Of course the sad thing is that he had decades of service in the entertainment industry but is only remembered for this. However if we can all take...

The Family Research Council, a social conservative advocacy nonprofit headed by Tony Perkins, has awarded Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), a Tea Party freshman in Congress, a 100 percent rating as a “True Blue” member of Congress because of his “unwavering support of the family”: “We thank Cong. Walsh who has voted consistently to defend faith, family and freedom,” said the Council’s President, Tony...

UPDATE: I have just finished watching the CBS 60 Minutes special on Operation Proper Exit. If you have watched it, thank you. If you haven’t, please watch it when you can (I will try to have a video in the next update) It will change your outlook on these brave young men — these Wounded Warriors — who have given it their all; on war; perhaps on what life is all about … (Have a handkerchief...

The latest tactic in the anti-abortion arsenal is advocating passage of so-called personhood measures, and it is likely that Mississippi will do so when it elects a new governor next Tuesday. The Mississippi measure defines a person as “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof.” While this sounds pretty straightforward, legal observers say...

For several years now, Greece has been presenting on a global stage, a never-ending “Waiting For Godot” comic-tragedy in which there is constant worldwide audience participation despite a complete lack of plot, or any ideas on how to end this story. A Greek default on its international debts may not bring down the global financial system, but it regularly paralyzes governments, bondholders, and stock markets...

Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain is currently fighting off three questionable claims of sexual harassment that allegedly occurred between 10 and 20 years ago. Two of the claims were reported as settled quietly and one was never disclosed until recently and after most applicable time limits on filing lawsuits have run out. From the viewpoint of this writer (TMV’s alleged misogynist as some past...

The Occupy Wall Street protests entered a new and potentially violent phase this week as protesters shut down operations at Oakland’s busy port in the latest demonstrations against economic inequality and police brutality. A small splinter group wielding makeshift shields broke off and roamed through downtown streets spraying graffiti, burning garbage and breaking windows. They were confronted by police...

California’s high speed rail project has now generated sky high shock due to its new estimated price: In what transportation experts say could be a cautionary tale for the rest of the country, the estimates for the cost and finish date of California’s signature high-speed rail project have been dramatically altered. The new cost estimate, formally released Tuesday by the California High Speed Rail...

It will require this kind of balancing act for the GOP to retake the White House Shortly after midnight exactly one year from this Sunday the first voters will go to the polls in two tiny New Hampshire towns to vote in a presidential election that will be singularly significant in defining the course of American politics in the years to come. Before the sun sets in Hawaii on November 6, 2012, 130 million...

While the juxtaposition of headlines on The New York Times homepage today was unintentional, it probably elicited a few chuckle: As Last Bastion of Civility, the South Sees Manners Decline 4 Georgia Men Arrested in Terror Plot The men, all aged 65 and over, were part of a fringe militia group in what the Justice Department described as a plot to use guns, bombs and the toxin ricin to kill federal and state...

It’s official. Kris Humphries wanted to live in his native Minnesota. Kim Kardashian wanted to live in LA. They never discussed it before the wedding vows and didn’t work it out after the marriage. So what choice did Kim have? Divorce was the only solution. You can learn more about this theory of reality-show-for-profit romance, marriage and separation at TMZ . Not to worry though. USA Today is confident...

No Shame by Michael Reagan Reporter: ‘We’re Not Going To Get Into Details Of Exactly What Happened’… Fmr. Secy: Not the Cain I know… CAIN FLASHBACK: ‘I’M READY FOR HIGH-TECH LYNCHING’… Coulter: ‘They Are Terrified Of Strong, Conservative Black Men’… RUSH: ‘Unconscionable Racially Charged Attack’… ‘Occupy Politico’… The...

That’s the idea behind Bank Transfer Day, organized by California citizen-activist Kristen Christian. No she doesn’t work for a credit union. No, she’s not part of Anonymous or OccupyWallStreet. Her motivation? The response of Bank of America et al to a rule finalized this summer that would restrict banks to a maximum of 21¢ per debit-card transaction. In response, the banks said that they...

You know, 40 years ago, an entire decade might go by without a sexual accusation or scandal. Profumo, anyone. And nowadays, it seems like, well, only a day or two and there’s another ‘wide stance’ or another batch party hired dancer claim, or another this that or the other claim regarding body parts. And using those body parts, whether words from mouth, or bird from south, to… do something...

These are starving children. And this is a dead congressman.

YES, THAT’S WHO YOU THINK IT IS I wrote the other day that support for the legalization of marijuana is higher than support for Barack Obama with nearly half of all adult Americans in favor of ending the criminal penalties for personal use that further overcrowd our prisons. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Shortly after taking office, the new president — himself a pot smoker as a teenager...

BENEDICT ARNOLD WOULD APPLAUD TODAY’S REPUBLICANS As loaded as the word traitor and all that it connotes is, I can now say without qualification but with considerable sadness that the never ending Republican obstructionism in Congress has reached traitorous levels. Recall that it was a healthy (pardon the term) majority of congressional Republicans who reached across the aisle in August to join Democrats...

I don’t think anyone would describe Pulitzer Prize Winner for Commentary Kathleen Parker as a Liberal. A member of the Washington Post Writers Group, she describes herself politically as “slightly to the right of center.” Sharon Grisby, deputy editorial page editor, The Dallas Morning News, has described her writing and her journalistic talents as follows: In a media genre that’s all too...

And that is not leadership. Whether we’re talking Herman Cain’s economic plan (9-9-9 or 9-0-9) or how he and his campaign are failing to deal with Politico’s reporting on the settlement specifics between the National Restaurant Association (when Cain was its head) and two of its former employees regarding alleged sexual harassment in the workplace, Cain seems to believe that he can reduce,...

Ya gotta feel sorry for the Left. So lost and leaderless they have to trot out 92 year old Pete Seeger and unheard-of-since-Alice’s-Restaurant Arlo Guthrie to draw attention to their participation in OWS. It’s fine that Pete and Arlo get to be relevant one more time, but it says too much about the vacuum that has become the American Left. That’s not to say that a little class warfare isn’t called...

this from the South Bend Trib. the only newspaper within a many mile area from my small hometown population 600. Harry Houdini was like a folk hero where I grew up… and every year on Halloween, people waited til near midnight to tell the story, not of his life… but of his life after. You decide. Houdini was never convinced in his lifetime that the dead could contact the living. But he vowed to continue...

I had originally planned to write this for Halloween, the day that UNESCO or WHO, or one of them acronyms calculates that the world population will reach seven billion. But though the papers have jumped the gun all week, prisoner of the zeitgeist that I am, I have held on until today. Happy Halloween. (All seven billion of you.) SEVEN BILLION, kiddies: Seven billion kiddies. We have overgrazed our forage, we...