Worthy Opinions

When the present economic downfall was really getting under way last fall, Ken Lewis, the CEO of Bank of America, was lauded around the world for scooping up Merrill Lynch in a fire sale.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is demanding an explanation from Israel as to why the UN Headquarters in Gaza was shelled by Israeli artillery. Ban told the AP reporter Ibrahim Barzak, “I conveyed my strong protest and outrage to the defense minister and foreign minister and demanded a full explanation.” Barzak, known as a Palestinian propagandist rather than as an unbiased journalist, reported that a UN official speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press said that the U.N. compound in Gaza had only that morning become a makeshift shelter for hundreds of Gaza City residents seeking sanctuary from relentless Israeli shelling.”

It’s a jihad, or holy war, against Israel, says Osama bin Laden in a new video release from some cave somewhere. The issue is not, however, the formulation of a Palestinian state living side by side in peace with Israel. If that were the case, the Palestinians would have made sure that Gaza was a peaceful pristine example instead of raining missiles down on innocent Israeli civilians day in and day out for years.

Three cheers for the loyal opposition. There was, however, none. The senate chamber sat nearly empty at one of the most important hearings in the nation’s history. In fact, at one point, Republican senators occupied one of 12 chairs at the Senate confirmation hearing of soon-to-be Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. By the end of the hearing only six senators were present. This is the very image of defeatism and irresponsibility. And that is the reason that America is drowning beneath the wave of socialism and facing an era where freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to pursue life and happiness will be swallowed up by the leviathan of federal government, history’s new handmaiden to the one world order.

The Congressional Budget Office recently announced that the United States will be running its first trillion-dollar deficit this year — $1.2 Trillion if we count the pocket change. That’s about three times more than it’s been in any other year. Most Americans seem ready to agree with congress that this is necessary in order to save the economy from becoming totally frozen. After all, George Bush recently explained that he had to give up on free-market principles in order to save the free market because he had been warned by his experts (who never saw any of this coming) that we were facing an economic peril “greater than the Great Depression.”

In June of 2008, U.S. President George Bush taught us that “one of the things important about history is to remember the true history.” With that as our guide, and this being the final days of a truly historic presidency, I’d like to reflect on the wisdom of the previous year that got us where we are now.

“It’s too big to fail, it’s too big to fail,” has been the mantra of the U.S. government bailout program. If crises occur because these organizations are such behemoths that a single institution falling can cripple the economy under it, why have the top gurus in the Bush administration insisted upon making each institution far bigger still in order to save it?

During the winter of our discontent, which was January and February of 2008, the Bush administration fiddled as the U.S. was falling. While the Gurus of Government played happy music on their violins, singing that the economy was “fundamentally sound,” I was telling friends that we had entered a recession that had all the makings of another depression.

How do thousands of the world’s supposedly most brilliant investors fall for a con like Bernard Madoff and lose their shirts and slacks? The puzzle is not to explain how one person can be such a great con. There was nothing genius about his plan. His form of pyramid scheme, known as a Ponzi scheme, is one of the most common financial fiascoes in the world, known to all investors.

Newdow is at it again. This time, he’s seeking an injunction from the federal district court in Washington against Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, and Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren in an attempt to remove all references to God from the ceremony.