William Murchison's blog

The battle of the textbooks

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:00:47 -0500

Few things in life are as clear as the futility of a real debate on the clarity of America’s religious origins.

“Debate,” I said? Lay a finger, unsuspectingly, on The New York Times Magazine’s inspection of the attempt by so-called Christian fundamentalists to overhaul history textbooks, and you require treatment for first-degree burns.

Mad, mad, mad

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:47:06 -0500

Heavy weekend snowfall closed down the capital of the United States. Not that many outside the Washington Beltway were sorry about it. Possibly — by their reasoning — the blizzard was God’s gift to decent government, a holiday from the ceaseless commotion, braggadocio and show-offing that have become the capital’s principle pastimes.

Tax-cut time

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:15:58 -0500

It’s jobs, jobs, jobs now for the Obama team, rather than healthcare, healthcare, healthcare. You have to call it progress, particularly if you’re jobless, or fearful of becoming so at a time when 17 million Americans are either non- or underemployed.

Time for term limits

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:56:25 -0500

Back to the future — or something like that.

The last time Americans got wound up about the assorted misfeasances and incompetencies of the U.S. Congress, the national conversation opened itself to the possibility of term limits for the members.

Silent Night, Sordid Night

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:24:31 -0500

Americans sick over Congress’ “healthcare” outrage should be glad to sniff the generally unpolluted air of Christmas Eve in order, at last, to hear the angels sing.

A kind word for King George

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:55:05 -0500

Possibly the best reason for not understanding what’s in the Senate healthcare bill is that no senator knows for sure, not even Harry Reid, without whose subservience to the Obama White House we might have some idea what’s up; but let that go ...

Of government and 10.2 percent unemployment

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:56:34 -0500

If government would just stop trying to do everything in the world ... Well, wait. Let’s review what the U.S. government is currently up to:

Lions and Christians

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:59:00 -0500

The perceived necessity of a Manhattan Declaration would have jarred the Pilgrims from prayerful contemplation of game birds and the like at harvest festival time, 1621. What — religious liberty so uncertain a thing as to warrant, five centuries later, a 4,700-word document justifying Christian defense of Christian principles?

Can Washington make you buy health insurance?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:06:45 -0500

Yes, yes, says White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Congress has the power to make everyone buy health insurance. “I don’t believe there’s a lot of case law that would demonstrate the veracity” of comments to the contrary.

Comeback time for Christians

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:36:20 -0400

The Holy Father — Pope Benedict XVI — offers to let Episcopalians and other Anglicans of Catholic disposition join the Roman Catholic Church, while retaining characteristics of their Anglican identity. And who in the booming pagan market cares a flying broomstick what the pope does about anything?

Obama and his ‘enemy’ fetish

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:08:50 -0400

One element in last summer’s Obama ruckuses — there’s always an Obama ruckus going on, it seems — was a few placards at tea party rallies comparing the president to a certain A. Hitler. Both the comparisons and the ensuing ruckus they caused were rubbish. Couldn’t we all just see Obama heil-ing huge crowds to fury over national enemies and the like? Nope. Not a bit of it.

Political delusions

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:07:28 -0400

Plutarch tells us that, back in the fifth-century B.C., when the citizens of Athens were voting on whether to ostracize — i.e., throw out — Aristides the Just, one sourpuss explained his emphatic yes vote: “I am tired of hearing him called ‘the Just.’”

Freedom — the key foreign policy concept

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:52:12 -0400

George W. Bush got banged up badly for his foreign policy choices: Iraq, Guantanamo, “torture,” a certain tonal disdain for critics foreign and domestic. It will be interesting to see, in a matter of weeks or possibly days, how his successor, Barack Obama, fares with the critics.

The joys of failure

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:58:34 -0400

You know — you must — you can’t help it — aren’t you alive?! — that the marketplace isn’t perfect. Haven’t we all been told often enough, amid the political chatter concerning how to crack down on Wall Street?

Trials and the Celebrity-in-Chief

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:54:18 -0400

They’re all over him — swarms, flocks, flights of critics taking apart President Obama: his style, his motives, his modus operandi, assuming he has one.