Recent Viewpoints

As Congress is about to convene, it is worth considering what will be the congressional agenda for this year. Actually, we don’t have to guess what the Republican leadership has planned for the first few months of the new Congress. Representative John Boehner and Senator Mitch McConnell proposed and solidified their plans right after the November election. First, they plan to get quick congressional action on a number of bills that have been stalled in Congress. One is to approve…

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that “After years on the back burner of the nation’s educational agenda, civics is making a comeback, with a number of states mandating new classes or assessments and a burgeoning national push for high-school seniors to pass the exam required of new citizens.” Websters Dictionary defines civics as “the study of the rights and duties of citizens and of how government works.” The Wall Street Journal points out that civics lessons cover “the…

The new Congress is about to convene. The new leadership should consider changing a tradition left over from the previous Congress. Columnist Derek Hunter put it this way: “It’s time to kill the lame duck.” He makes a convincing case that it is time to abolish lame duck sessions in Congress. He asks, “why should people whom the voters unambiguously said they no longer wish to have represent them have two full months to do just that in every conceivable…

Let me begin by wishing you a Happy New Year. Have you made any New Year’s resolutions? Whether you have or not, I want to encourage you to “strive for mediocrity.” I have borrowed the phrase from an article written by Tristan Taylor Thomas. His argument is that we should consider a number of things before we make any resolution. His advice to us is not to pick something that is too big to achieve. When we aim lower and…

It is that time of year for many to make New Year’s resolutions. It may surprise you to know that the tradition goes all the way back to before the time of Christ. Janus was the name of a mythical king of early Rome whose face was placed at the head of the calendar. With two faces, Janus could look back on past events and forward to the future. The New Year has not always begun on January 1. In…

When Sony Entertainment decided not to release the movie, The Interview, we talked on radio about the reasons for their decision. In the midst of the charges of cowardice and other criticisms came the legal concern. If they did release the film and something happened in a theater, would Sony be sued? I think we all know the answer to that. Of course, they would be sued. This led to an interesting discussion of whether an artist (writer, musician, producer,…

We’re hearing a lot from politicians about environmental policy.  I haven’t heard any of them mention that one solution might be: promoting marriage. Currently the environmental movement is all about climate, as if we can really affect that. If you don’t think global warming is taking place or is a problem, it doesn’t mean you favor rampant abuse of the earth. One can be a global warming skeptic — as I am —­ and still exhibit concern for the environment….

One day after Christmas, I would like to ask you a question. How much did you spend on Christmas? If you are like most Americans, you probably would answer that you spent more than you planned to spend. Dave Ramsey estimates that half of all Christmas shoppers will spend more  than they planned and will go further into debt. It is understandable. Advertisers started promoting Christmas long before Thanksgiving. It wasn’t uncommon to see some Christmas decorations and ads alongside…

On this Christmas day, I think it would be good to reflect for just a moment on the Incarnation. God became man and took on human flesh. This is a great theological  Malcolm Muggeridge wrote this to describe the importance of the birth of Christ. “Thanks to the great mercy and marvel of the Incarnation, the cosmic scene is resolved into a human drama. A human drama in which God reached down to relate Himself to man and man reaches…

The crowd that’s fighting for, and mostly winning, recognition of sexual orientation as a protected minority has added another demand. There’s a big push to include transgendered behavior in the list of proclivities to be lionized and protected. Even in Middle America: A Nebraska school district recently instructed its teachers to stop referring to students by “gendered expressions” such as “boys and girls,” and to instead use what school officials term “gender inclusive” descriptions such as “purple penguins.” A training…

We live in a “culture of dependence.” That was a phrase coined by Michael Barone who used it on my radio program. One example he used to illustrate the “culture of dependence” was an exchange between a CNN reporter and a man at a tea party event in Chicago. The CNN reporter asked him, “Do you realize that you’re eligible for a $400 credit?” When the man refused to lower his “drop socialism” sign, the reporter went on to say,…