The Nobel Peace Prize was announced shortly after the October edition of The Texas Pilgrim went to press, and a response simply could not wait until the next edition. The Nobel Prize has now reached a new level of irrelevance in selecting Barack Obama, someone who has accomplished absolutely nothing to advance world peace, except, […]
Archives for October 2009
Gems from the Iron Lady
Since she has retired from the world stage, I occasionally enjoy digging up some of my favorite nuggets from Margaret Thatcher, one of my heroes. This is from a 1981 speech: For me, pragmatism is not enough. Nor is that fashionable word “consensus”. To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, […]
Irving Kristol
A number of years ago I had the privilege of introducing Irving Kristol at a conference and spending some time with him discussing the issues of the day. He was one of my favorite essayists and intellectuals and I was a subscriber to his The Public Interest magazine until it ceased publication several years ago. […]
Neverland
It’s pretty hard to grasp the massive cultural chasm between the Hollywood elites of the left and normal Americans as manifest in their respective reactions to the recent arrest and possible extradition of Roman Polanski to finally face his punishment for rape, sodomy, and other sexual abuse of a 13-year old in 1977. First, it’s […]
Another Bailout
This bailout was of a different kind, and potentially much more serious. In meeting with Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s representatives in Geneva, the U. S. and other major powers allowed his regime a legitimacy and rehabilitation that no amount of imagination could have perceived following the fraudulent June elections. President Obama characterized the talks as […]
The War of Necessity
“This is not a war of choice; this is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9-11 are plotting to do so again…………..So this is not only a war worth fighting; this is fundamental to the defense of our people.”–President Barack Obama, speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, August 17, 2009. Well, […]
Dollar Watch
I have been harping on the misguided weak dollar policy of both the Bush and Obama administrations for well over a year, but I was struck by a recent article by David Malpass with this stunning revelation: “Measured in Euros, U. S. real per capita GDP is down 25% since 2000, while Germany’s is up […]
A No Jobs Recovery?
Conversation abounds as to the chances that we are moving out of the recession and on our way to a robust recovery. But the downer in these discussions is the continuing increase in unemployment rates and absence of any evidence of growth in job creation. No surprises here. As Robert Barro and Charles Redick remind […]