Alan Caruba

Where’s Our National Guard? Overseas

Here’s an interesting fact. Between now and the end of President Bush’s term in office, almost half of the soldiers who are scheduled to deploy to Iraq will come from the National Guard.

Let’s Declare Victory and Leave

At a point in the Vietnam War when it was dragging on, costing lives, and there was no end in sight, some politician suggested that the United States simply declare victory and leave. In the end, we did leave and it was pretty much a rout.

The Nation’s Governors Sleepover Party

Take heart, America! Your nation’s governors have been meeting in Philadelphia this weekend for the National Governors Association centennial meeting. From Friday through Monday they are attending various sessions that are almost all devoted to the environment.

Are These People Stupid, Nuts or Both?

There are two states on opposite sides of the nation where, if something really stupid can be proposed, they represent the most fertile ground. I speak, of course, of New Jersey and California.

A New Definition of Agriculture

When is a car not a car? When you decide to call it a bicycle. When is a horse not a horse? When you decide to call it a cow. Just because you call something a name that does not properly describe it does not change its reality, but I live in New Jersey where reality is subject to the whim of the morons we elect to represent us.

The Greens HATE Oil

I have marveled for years at the failure of Americans to make any connection between the hatred for oil that has dominated environmental activities and the reason why we are all now paying over $4.00 a gallon at the pump.

Back to the Democrat Future

Are we in some kind of weird time warp? Is it the 1970s all over again? Or the 1980s?

Learning to Love Nuclear Energy

For those of us who have been warning that America is going to start running out of electricity soon if the governors of our various states do not permit the construction of either or both coal-fired and nuclear plants, the news that Republican candidate, John McCain, says he wants a crash program to build nuclear plants should be greeted with joy.

Optimists vs. Pessimists

We all know someone who is either an optimist or a pessimist. In general, optimists are more fun to be around. They are the ones with the most enthusiasm, the risk-takers, and the ones who pick themselves up after encountering a problem and consider it a learning experience.

Loony Harry Reid

This nation is in serious trouble because it has people in very powerful elected positions that say crazy things.

Dumbing Down America’s Colleges

The process that began in the 1960s to transform America’s elementary, middle and high schools into places where students could literally graduate without being able to read their diploma, where the teaching of mathematics was reduced to mush without rules, and where it was more important for students to feel really good about themselves than having to measure up scholastically with millions in foreign nations, has now reached the campuses of America’s colleges and universities.

Signs of the Times

The headlines and stories of failing newspapers are beginning to gain momentum. In my home state of New Jersey, the venerable northern daily, The Record, is abandoning its office in Hackensack and the reporters it retains will simply function “in the field” via laptops and cell phones. In Tampa the Tribune will cut its workforce and the same is happening to the Los Angeles Times.

Can America Survive?

With the advent of the Fourth of July, I know the expectation is that some patriotic prose is expected. I also know there have been many previous Fourths when Americans could have legitimately asked whether the United States of America would survive.

Brainwashed Masses

This is pure conjecture, but I am beginning to think that the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain, while appearing to be completely detached from reality, i.e., the real lives of Americans, are actually some kind of political alchemy, a potion brewed to influence our rational minds in ways that will cause us to vote for one or the other candidate.

McCain’s Green Babble

A lot of us are going to figuratively hold our noses and vote for John McCain because the notion of Barack Obama as President is too awful to contemplate, but if you go to JohnMcCain.com, you will find some of the worst Green babble posted on his “Issues” page and bodes ill for ridding us of a lot of bad science and worse “solutions” to solve so-called environmental problems that do not even exist.

The Obama Fantasy

My eye was caught by an article in the Sunday paper. “Flip-flops suggest a more politically practical Obama” was the headline. It was an analysis by Margaret Taley of the McClatchy-Tribune News Service.

Real Independence Means Secure Borders

As we celebrate our nation’s independence, it is worth keeping in mind that real independence depends on having secure borders. A nation that cannot or will not protect itself from a massive and intentional invasion for the purpose of changing its population and politics is a nation that will not exist very long.

He Kept Us Safe

I know any number of people who truly hate George W. Bush. The mainstream media are always telling us that John McCain will lose because the Democrats have hung “George Bush’s third term” around his neck and is counting on the rather widespread disaffection for the President, whether it be Democrat or Republican.

Is the North Pole Melting? Forgetaboutit!

The latest story to get scientists emailing furiously among each other was the one in the Telegraph, a British newspaper, that all the ice around the North Pole would melt away this summer.

The Supreme Court Affirms the Second Amendment

Eighty million Americans breathed a sigh of relief when the Supreme Court struck down the Washington, D.C. ban on gun ownership. Had the Court not supported the Second Amendment that asserts the right of Americans to own guns, the next step would have been efforts to take their guns away and to insure that no one could purchase one for self-defense.