God & The Democrats
By Philip Mella08/30/2006
In an inadvertently revealing editorial in Slate, Amy Sullivan provides convincing evidence that since the 2004 election when Democrats understood the importance of religion in politics, they have actually lost ground. More critically, if they heed Ms. Sullivan's advice, their dream of capturing the elusive moderate voter will never see the light of day.
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E.J. Dionne's 'Old Liberalism'
By Philip Mella08/25/2006
In an editorial in the Washington Post, E.J. Dionne analyzes liberalism’s ‘downside,’ but his conclusions are far too self-flattering and restrained. He lionizes David S. Brown’s biography of Richard Hofstadter, who was famous for his “icon-smashing approach to America’s heroes,” but argues that he went awry by emphasizing American populists “whose revolt was as much a reaction to the rise in the cosmopolitan big city as to economic injustice.”
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Judge Taylor Gets "Fringed"
By John McDonald08/23/2006
No, Judge Anna Taylor Diggs did not vote for Ned Lamont. Apparently she has done something even worse. She had the audacity to defend the Constitution of the United States of America, ruling that President Bush’s “terrorist surveillance programs” were illegal and a direct violation of the first and fourth amendment, not to mention the FISA legislation passed by Congress.
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Juan Williams: Honesty & Insight
By Philip Mella08/21/2006
So, it is, in fact, a matter of values. In a remarkably honest and insightful editorial, Juan Williams builds not only only Bill Cosby's incisive criticism of the black culture, but actually hearkens back to Senator Patrick Moynihan's research in the 1960s that provided strong evidence of aberrant cultural behavior in blacks.
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Notes From The Angry Left Fringe -- Lamont Win Shows It's Bush and the Republicans Who Are Really Out There
By John McDonald08/17/2006
I would have written sooner, but I just couldn't drag myself from the redwood hot tub.
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Great Britain: Saved by 'Sneak & Peak' Warrants
By Philip Mella08/10/2006
Lost in the intense and breathtaking reporting concerning the averted terrorist airline attacks in Great Britain was a side bar report that the key intelligence that MI5 and Scotland Yard gleaned was from so-called 'sneak and peak' warrants.
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The NY Times on the Lieberman-Lamont Election
By Philip Mella08/09/2006
In its inimitable fashion, today's lead New York Times editorial provides unwitting evidence of how the left wing of the Democratic party has redefined the center.
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Our Two Enemies: Abroad & at Home
By Philip Mella08/03/2006
Clarifying the scope and depth of one's enemy is the first step in mounting a successful counter-offensive. One of the West's most profound errors in the past six years has been a studied misappraisal of the nature and resiliency of the Islamic extremists. In a lucid and cogent editorial in the London Times, Amir Taheri provides an accurate rendering of this vile enemy's intentions, which is an apt antidote to the ill-advised way that many in the West dismiss the true nature of this threat.
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Thoughts Versus Deeds
By Philip Mella08/02/2006
Yesterday, radio talk-show host Dennis Prager discussed the moral and religious differences between using thoughts versus deeds as our guide to a more meaningful spiritual life. He noted that Judaism emphasizes the notion that deeds are the ultimate arbiter of one's behavior, that the most reliable calculus of moral certitude is action, not thought.
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