Psychiatrists are displaying more than a Freudian slip when it comes to commenting on actor and high-profile Scientologist Tom Cruise’s comments about psychiatry and anti-depressant drugs. They’re calling his comments on the Today show and elsewhere “irresponsible.” In other words: the shrinks want him to shrink his comments. And if there is an underlying thread to some of their comments on radio talk shows and TV news clips it seems to be this: we won’t tell you how...

When the Supreme Court today handed down split decisions on how and whether the ten commandments can be displayed it also handed down something else: a foreshadowing of a monumental battle royal over Supreme Court nominations that could eventually make the word “nuclear” as in “nuclear option” seem like “bug spray.” The reason: the court reached a decision that left it (and future courts) plenty of wiggle room on this issue in the future. But its ruling also underscored...

We’ve had some problems over the past 24 hours with getting into our comments, trackbacks, etc. — all of which it turned out had to do with a server problem. We will be posting today but posts will be spread out. And for at least two hours tonight we won’t post while some repairs are being made to fix the problems. So DO check back. We’ll have posts on the Supreme Court rulings, etc. later on this site today. We’re going to hold off on some other posts we were going...

It doesn’t fit into the spin message, so some will say it isn’t backlash — but it sure looks and smells like backlash: President Bush and his hard-charging political team, which seemed to make all the right moves in winning re-election last year, have stumbled when it comes to governing in a second term, many Republicans say, leaving the White House scrambling to get back on track. Even as they expressed continued support for Mr. Bush and his goals, influential Republicans said...

FYI, if you send us a trackback we won’t know for a while, at least. There is some quirky thing going on where we can’t get into our own comments and trackbacks sections right now. We can only see them on posts done earlier. If you’re commenting on a post, I can probably see your comment since I receive email notification. But I may not be able to answer or respond to any comments in our comment sections for a while — and I won’t know who sends trackbacks until this...

Our periodic linkfest pointing you to interesting posts from DIFFERING viewpoints. These viewpoints do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Moderate Voice or its co-bloggers. Tom Cruise Revisited (OH, MOMMY DO WE HAVE TO?): Cut to the Chase’s Greg Angelo gives us some more perspective on TC. We love his opening lines: When we talk about “A-list” actors these days, the “A” seems to increasingly stand for “asshole.” It is no longer enough to pull down...

….at A Little More To The Right, one of the most lively conservative weblogs on the Internet. ALMTTR is a rarity among ideologically-grounded weblogs: it has a GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR. If you’re looking for a place to visit that gives you the conservative point of view (bluntly stated in most posts) PLUS authentic laugh out loud posts…you have to start visiting ALMTTR. When TMV was guest blogging on Dean’s World, he’d actually surf the web more than he does on his own...

The election of a prominent hardliner as Iran’s new President now complicates the situation — for American policymakers and, some analysts say, for Iran’s top religious leader as well. At issue is the surprise election of Tehran’s appointed Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the powerful Islamic Republic’s President. His election shocked most analysts, who now attribute it to his appeal to many of Iran’s poor in his campaign vowing to eliminate poverty — and to...

One of our favorite sites Punditdrome now has offers 50 blogs on its front page. This is the news/blog aggregator that lets you see the front pages of key and diverse blogs literally at a glance. We ran this great guest post by its author and encourage you to read it again.

Many kids today know him as the voice of Tigger in Disney’s Winnie the Pooh cartoons. Heart patients know him as a man who helped prolonged many of their lives. Kids raised in the 50s and 60s remember the magic he created on his kids’ show. Those who were parents in the 50s and 60s remember him as was a world-class novelty act — and a ventriloquist who never moved his lips. And to ventriloquists everywhere (like me) he was one of the last surviving “greats” of a once...

Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo had a widely discussed NYT op-ed last week on religious motivations for opposing embryonic stem cell research, and the need to ignore such pleas. This sentence is indicative of his argument: No doubt the president’s belief that human life begins with fertilization is shared by millions of Americans, including many Christians and evangelists. But it remains a minority view and one that the president applies inconsistently. His article got a rebuke on...

Some lingering issuese: China’s steady economic growth — and its military might and when it could use it….which could be sooner than many think if Bill Gertz is correct. Gertz, the Washington Times’ writer with solid military and intelligence sources, offers a troubling piece that basically says China is developing militarily at a break-neck pace and could move to take over Taiwan — a move that could spark military confrontation with the United States: China is building...

Balloon Juice’s JOHN COLE: The reason Rove’s remarks are being attacked as a stab in the back launched (at) all Democrats is because it is. He created a world with two lines of thought- one conservative, one liberal. The conservative position just so happened to be the one he thought was right, the one he aligned with the GOP, and the positions advocated by this Republican administration. The other line of thought he attributed to the opposition, who is the Democratic party. There was...

File this one in the When Will They Ever Learn Department. For some strange reason the winner of a radio contest wasn’t too happy when she found out that after dutifully listening to a late night show on a radio station for hours to win a contest in which she could win “100 Grand” she won it — and was awarded a Nestle’s 100 Grand candy bar. So she’s suing. And from what the AP reports the DJ wasn’t just unavailable for comment but he may be unavailable for...

Putting aside Karl Rove’s political piffle that attempted to say a lesson of 911 was to never trust those evil Democrats who just didn’t support the government after the terrorist attack (an assertion a cabbage with arms could find is false by doing a few minutes of Google search), here is a REAL LESSON of 911 — specific suggestions on how to better protect the public: NEW YORK – Tall buildings in the United States could be easier to evacuate, less vulnerable to fire, and...

If you’re a conservative cartoonist or know of a conservative cartoonist….a multipartisan blog is looking for YEW! The Unpaid Punditry Corp is actively looking for a conservative cartoonist since it now has a good liberal cartoonist. Contact them ASAP if you or someone you know is interested. A word on this. The great thing about weblogs is that all that matters is what you produce. No one KNOWS what your day job is (we are honest about it, making The Moderate Voice the only blogger...

A blogger impressively channels Sean Hannity.

….at Common Sense Desk, which is on our blogroll under Center Voices. This is a jewel of a centrist weblog. Every day Common Sense Desk offers you some of the top stories or issues dominating the day’s news. Many (but not all) are done via punch “pointer posts” that direct you to a post CSD feels is worth reading, with their own pithy comment. Common Sense Desk is a great road-map, a classy website and it….makes sense. Take A Peek and we KNOW you’ll take more...

Once in a while you come across a story of corruption so incredibly stunning, that you almost have to admire the people involved for taking it to a level of near art: The scale of the task facing Tony Blair in his drive to help Africa was laid bare yesterday when it emerged that Nigeria’s past rulers stole or misused £220 billion. That is as much as all the western aid given to Africa in almost four decades. The looting of Africa’s most populous country amounted to a sum equivalent...

A new poll showing consumer displeasure on how the economy is being handled has a result showing an even more significant trend: President George Bush is losing independent voter support in bushel-barrels and any support he had among Democrats has all but evaporated. Here’s the most dramatic paragraph: Among Republicans (36% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 84% approve of the way Bush is handling his job and 12% disapprove. Among Democrats (38% of adults registered to vote in the...

Could administration hawks have truly wanted hardline Tehran mayor Mahmoud Amhedinejad to win Iran’s presidency? Quite possibly, as I explore here.

We’ve given you our view on Karl Rove’s remarks (and we PROMISE next time we’ll tell you what we really think….) and a Republican’s view. Now here’s a reaction from Rick Heller, one of the most prominent and thoughtful centrist bloggers around: These are vicious remarks, and they are worse than Howard Dean’s about Republicans. Dean’s remarks were merely insulting, but they were not insidious, because no one would believe that most Republicans have never...

Do you call that a political statement? Or is it vandalism?

It sure looks that way when you watch him, doesn’t it?

Former CNN Crossfire host Tucker Carlson’s new MSNBC show is not only apparently in search of an audience but losing the thimble-full audience it has. TV Newswer reports: “The Situation” dipped to its lowest ratings point on Wednesday night, averaging 148,000 viewers, and scratching in the 25-54 demo with 39,000. A story about Tucker Carlson’s MSNBC ratings could be approached from two directions: “No one wants to watch The Situation!” or “Carlson isn’t...