Muslim, but Presumed Innocent

By Alan Caruba | 11/06/09

The earliest indications are that Major Malik Nadal Hasan, the alleged killer of thirteen soldiers who wounded 30 more at Fort Hood, broke under the stress of his forthcoming deployment to Iraq in his capacity as a psychiatrist. Up to the shooting on November 5, he was reportedly doing everything he could to avoid being sent to the Middle East. Native-born and deemed a good American who enlisted in the U.S. Army, Hasan is the son of ... read more »

The Iniquitous Iranian Mullahs

By Alan Caruba | 11/06/09

    On November 4, 1979, some Iranian “students” took 53 American diplomats hostage. This iconic act broke every international law ever set to page or parchment. As this is written thirty years later, the Iranians are holding three American tourists who wandered across a border between Iraq and allegedly into Iran’s Kurdistan province. They were seized in August. Taking hostages is what the Iranian... read more »

The Economic Recovery Fantasy

By Alan Caruba | 11/05/09

I freely confess that I regard it as a triumph if I can balance my checkbook. My Father was a Certified Public Accountant and surely despaired of his second son (the first became a CPA!) who had no head for numbers. Like most Americans, though, I find it laughable, if not outright mockery, when the White House and the lapdog media tell me that the nation is now recovering from the recession. The media, as just one example, is bleeding... read more »

A Turning Point, Swiftly Reached

By Alan Caruba | 11/04/09

The November 3rd elections were a turning point, swiftly reached. The inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama was followed by Tea Parties around the nation that aggregated into the huge September 12 rally in Washington, D.C. And barely two months later, the election of Republican governors in Virginia and New Jersey. In Maine, the voters repealed the authorization of same-sex marriage, an anathema as morally debased as abortion. My... read more »

I Hate Daylight Saving Time!

By Alan Caruba | 11/01/09

I hate “Daylight Saving Time” and regard it as a totally bogus excuse to screw up everyone’s life in the quest for one more hour of daylight during the wintertime. This end-of-October ritual and its “spring forward” counterpart is idiotic. The fact is the daylight or lack of it will be there no matter what the clocks say. You do not “gain” anything by having to change all your clocks and other... read more »

Every Day is Groundhog Day in the Middle East

By Alan Caruba | 11/01/09

In the movie, “Groundhog Day”, the main character wakes up day after day, trapped in the same events, desperately looking for a way out of that living nightmare. It’s a very good metaphor for the Middle East. Here are some quotes from a book whose title I will reveal in a moment: “The only truly transcendent law in the Middle East is that of unintended consequences.” “Nation-building and the... read more »

The Swine Who Live to Scare You

By Alan Caruba | 10/31/09

For a very long time I have made my living as a business and science writer. That profession tends to make one fond of facts. It’s the reason my blog’s URL is “facts not fantasy” and why I call it “Warning Signs.” It is the reason I founded The National Anxiety Center in 1990 as a clearinghouse for information about “scare campaigns designed to influence public opinion and policy.” We... read more »

Saluting for the Cameras

By Alan Caruba | 10/30/09

Presidents engage in all kinds of ceremonial events. Every Thanksgiving, they “pardon” a turkey so it doesn’t end up on the White House menu. They make sure they are photographed with the winning teams of various sporting series. Every Easter they can be found at the White House Egg Roll accompanied, I have always suspected, by a Secret Service agent in a large bunny costume. The other evening, shortly after midnight,... read more »

Are They Stupid or Evil or Both?

By Alan Caruba | 10/29/09

It is an ancient question about any group of people who constitute a government. Are they stupid or evil? Or both? Or just stupid and the evil flows from their stupidity? I rather imagine the Roman senators lounging around in their bath houses and asking one another whether Quintas Fabius Maximus Eburnus is a moron or has something up the sleeve of his toga? My thoughts on this have naturally turned to Madame Speaker, Nancy ... read more »

Afghanistan, Bananistan

By Alan Caruba | 10/28/09

Though it pains me deeply, I have to agree with President Obama’s reluctance to send more troops into Afghanistan. Perhaps he is thinking about the problems the Soviet Union encountered even though they had an estimated 100,000 troops there in the 1990s? Perhaps he is wondering why the United States has been there now for eight years with not much to show for it? I am not interested in the “politics” of the... read more »