Making Life Work

By: John Klassek

    We all want to live in safe and peaceful times. But, do we today?

    The past 70 years since World War II should have taught us that the price of freedom has been paid in blood. And yet, since then we have seen more bloodshed with more lives lost—the statistics are simply overwhelming. We’ve watched the development of frightening nuclear armaments coupled with failed United Nations resolutions. Anyone who seriously considers where we are today cannot help but wonder where we’re headed!

   Do far-off economic uncertainties and radical Islamic threats to destroy other nations in a blazing fireball all seem a bit irrelevant? It’s all a matter of perspective. A million starving people in Sudan is less important than...

By: Ronald L. Dart

    They are people of the desert. To the western eye, they appear backward, undeveloped, fanatical, even bizarre. Yet they are the remnants of one of the greatest empires the world has ever known. And they are destined to effect your life more directly than you can ever imagine.

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Shortly after the 2004 elections, I spoke with a despondent elderly gentleman who didn’t know me as well as he thought he did.  “This isn’t the same country I grew up in,” he said.  He was bemoaning the fact that social conservatives had gotten their way.  “I see no difference between them and the Taliban.” 

    I was so taken aback by this that I flat-out didn’t know what to say.  I am clearly a social conservative and some might argue a member of the religious right (though I doubt they would accept me given my unorthodox theological views), and yet I have no desire to string infidels up by the neck from soccer goals.  In fact I would fight till exhaustion for the ACLU’s right to proclaim their opinions, though contrary...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Tod Robberson of the Dallas Morning News made an interesting leap of logic recently that illustrates in part the moral confusion of our times.  Writes Mr. Robberson, "In the past three months, Muslims around the world have rampaged against cartoons in a Danish newspaper deemed to be mocking Islam, and an Afghan (sic) faced the death sentence for converting to Christianity.  Meanwhile, two popular Christian preachers in the U.S. stoked the flames by labeling Islam as an evil or violent religion."      Mr. Robberson goes on to characterize both the Christian and Muslim subjects of his opening paragraph as extremists.  Not knowing precisely who the two Christian are, let’s take a look at the interesting comparison he attempts to...

By: Ronald L. Dart

    In reading one of the big three news magazines this week, I came on a point and counterpoint presentation between Bob Barr and Charles Krauthammer on the NSA eavesdropping issue so much in the news. Bob Barr made the case that what the president did was wrong. Krauthammer made the case that it was necessary.

    What was of special interest to me was that Barr argued cogently and solely on the basis of the legal issues. Whether he is right or not would have to be settled in court. But Krauthammer made his case on specific examples of what has been done and...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    On a recent tour of the internet I was aghast at the revisionist view of the blundering exploits of a certain Neville Chamberlain of Great Britain. Chamberlain was the Prime Minister prior to Winston Churchill, and he believed that Adolph Hitler could be bought off with pieces of someone else’s real estate. He proudly called the policy of putting a slice of Czechoslovakia under the Nazi jackboot “Appeasement”, and he congratulated himself for bringing home “peace in our time.”

    Some well-meaning people actually believe that Chamberlain’s policy failed not because it was based on a flawed theory, but because the evil Winston Churchill sabotaged it. Supposedly, if Chamberlain’s view had prevailed, World War II would have...

By: Ronald L. Dart  

    Should it be closed down? Should we care? I have a problem with the growing chorus calling for shutting down the Terrorist detention facility there. So far, I have heard none of the political types suggest what we should do with these very dangerous men. I don’t see how we can possibly let them go. And I worry a lot about second guessing the very able men who are managing this situation.     It is legitimate for senators and congressmen to ask the defense department any questions they want. There is no need for them to ask the questions on the front page of a newspaper. Why do they do that? Politicians are publicity hounds, but when they do this, they aren’t considering the consequences of doing it in time of war.    ...