Dr. Robert R. Owens

A Born Again Bush Booster and the Stealth Stimulus

President Barak Obama faced the nation as a born again Bush Booster as he reversed years of personal commitment and regurgitated rhetoric presenting the extension of the Bush tax cuts as his plan for recovery.

Learning the Truth About Education

You can't know what you don't know, but you can know that you don't know. Knowing the difference is wisdom. Realizing that knowledge is the cure for ignorance should be the inspiration for education.

Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater

As America appears to swirl down the drain under the current maladministration, and as the new normal of 9-10% unemployment, crushing debt, and diplomacy by the wiki-wonks compromises our credibility it's time to recall that there must be limits if there's to be freedom. President Obama believes the Constitution is flawed, because it only speaks of "negative" liberties and it merely restrains government instead of empowering it. This reveals a lack of understanding of the American Experiment that is breath-taking to behold in the man elected to defend the Constitution.

Thanks for Nothing

Sometimes not getting everything you want is the best thing you can get. Sometimes enough is too much already. Sometimes the next time might be the last time if this time is just like the last time. Sometimes when we try to run out the time, time runs out on us. Then again, sometimes time seems to stand still, which is exactly the time we need to realize time never stands still.

A Principle for Peter in the 21st Century

The world is lining up to not buy our debt so we are buying it ourselves in a move we call by the innocuous acronym QE2, which is short for Quantitative Easing two.

My Name’s America and I’m a Debt-a-holic

Anyone who's walked down the twelve-step path or knows someone who has, which is almost everyone in America, has heard the saying, "Until you admit you have a problem there's no hope for a cure."

This isn’t a Recession

Perhaps the following examples are emblematic of our present precarious situation. The Progressive Congressional leadership apparently believes Steven Colbert is not only what they perceive as a conservative commentator they also believe his outrageous satirical views are worthy of a Congressional hearing. Not to be outdone by the pedantic puffery of his lockstep legislative sidekicks, our President, like millions of his devotees, apparently perceives John Daily as a serious news broadcaster. Together these two politically motivated comedians are what the left believes constitutes an effective counter-weight to Glenn Beck and his chalkboards.

Wanted a Kamikaze Congress for a Banzai Counterattack

During World War II when the no-longer sleeping giant was pounding on Japan's door their do-or-die military began Kamikaze attacks against our ever growing fleets in the Pacific. The Kamikaze pilots flew planes filled with bombs into American ships as the first and only honorable expression of the term suicide bomber. During America's island-hopping advance through the Japanese Empire the combination of courageous marines and naval supremacy led to defeat for the fanatically loyal Japanese. In many cases instead of surrender the last of the defenders launched a Banzai Counterattack. This was the earthbound equivalent of the airborne Kamikaze. A final charge into the face of overwhelming odds meant to either change the game in one decisive blow or to at least die honorably for a sacred cause.

I’ll See Your Hiroshima and Raise You a Nagasaki

I do not lightly use the names of the only cities in history obliterated by the use of Atomic weapons. The nature of the cause in which they forever stand as sentinels of determination precludes their use for any profane purpose. I wouldn't use such loaded terms unless the issue at hand wasn't equally as momentous within the flow of American History.

The Unconventional Convention

I've just returned from the largest Tea Party Convention ever held, the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Convention. As a person who has attended more political conventions than I can remember I can testify this was an unconventional convention.

What Did You Do to Save the Country?

One day our grandchildren may ask us this question. Will we have an answer that will make us and them proud or will we have to sit silent knowing we stood silent when it was time to speak or remained passive when it was time for action? Now is the time for all believers in limited government to stand up and be counted. Now is the time for all who believe, "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" to remember "That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Why Would a Capitalist Hate Capitalism

Dream From Our Forefathers

What is the American Dream? When asked this question most people today are programmed to say "To own your own home." That may be Freddie and Fannie's dream. That may be the bubble inflating vote buying politician's choice for our dream, but that isn't the American Dream. Owning your own home isn't the dream people sailed in tiny leaking over-crowded wooden ships across oceans to find.

Thugocracy

Extortion, intimidation, and scams: these are the tactics of thugs. On the streets of Chicago there are neighborhoods where the police won't enter after dark. Gangs of thugs rule the night protecting the neighborhood or engaging in what the police in other places quaintly call extortion, intimidation and other activities common to organized crime.

It’s Easy to be Critical

With the Not Ready for Prime Time Players holding court in the White House and the Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight in Control of Congress it is easy to be critical. However, as our beloved Republic drinks the dregs of the Grapes of Wrath in this, the Season of our Discontent, being critical is not enough. Those of us who believe in limited government, free enterprise and personal liberty need to offer an alternate vision of the future or the Progressive who are seeking to prove that the only problem with all former attempts at a regimented collectivist corporate state was that they weren't the ones implementing the 5 year plan will win by default.

Restoring Honor 8-28-10

To say that climbing on a bus with fifty strangers to join a caravan of hundreds of other buses jostling our way up the yellow-brick road to Oz put this Historian out of his comfort zone would not be an understatement; it would be a gross understatement.

Whose Responsibility is It?

Having spent time describing the three unalienable rights of life, liberty and property upon which our Republic was founded and from which all others flow it is necessary to speak of the natural responsibilities which form their inverse image. Peering through the looking glass at original intent we try to make sense of the present wonderland where rights and responsibilities are never what they seem.

Between Barack and a Hard Place

People learn by moving from the known to the unknown. An analogy inherently proposes the idea that if things agree in some respect they probably agree in others. Secular prophecy uses knowledge of the past and the present to predict the future. The past is the womb of the present and the present is the history of the future. As the past may be interpreted and the present may be misunderstood the future is never certain. Platitudes may outline the shape of something, but they can never define anything.

Too Many Rights on the Left

The United States was founded as a representative republic inspired by the soaring philosophy of the Enlightenment. As humanity clawed its way out of the depths of the Dark Ages thoughts of freedom found root and germinated in the minds of thousands.

The Fix is In

Falling like the staccato drumbeat of a pouring rain, the day-by-day assault by the ruling Progressives on the traditions and sensibilities of America has the no-longer-silent majority reeling. We were warned. The watchmen on the walls Buchanan, Limbaugh, Beck and others told us what was coming. They tried to alert those willing to vote for an untried community organizer because they wanted change that the change would change once the organizer got organized, so none of these transformative changes should surprise anyone. Obama the candidate told us what Obama the president would do. He said he wanted to be a transformative president. He told us his administration would be all about fundamentally transforming America. But it seems not many of the people who hoped for change were listening except to the hope and change part.