Alan Caruba

A Snowy Halloween

Some folks in my home state of New Jersey woke up to a blanket of snow the same week as Halloween. The state’s largest daily headlined the story as “October Surprise: Snowfall snarls traffic and cuts power to 62,000 homes.” In a swath of northern counties, snow fell as if it were mid-winter. Fourteen inches of snow fell at High Point State Park.

Forgetting 9/11’s Legacy of Fear

As the election nears, it occurred to me that we have forgotten the fear that we felt on 9/11, the shorthand for the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. It has been replaced by a new set of widespread fears that are communicated to me every day either personally or via the Internet.

A Year After Obama’s Elected

For all the joking about Sen. Barack Obama thinking of himself as “the Messiah” or even, as Minister Farrakhan of the Black Muslim movement declared, being the Messiah, the fact of the matter is that he is just a man.

The Man From Mombassa

I have a friend who recently referred to Sen. Barack H. Obama as “the man from Mombassa.”

San Francisco: the Epicenter of Stupid Ideas

In the 1980s I found myself traveling all over the United States in the employ of a corporation’s quarterly newsletter. I visited many cities and places, discovering the unfailing courtesy and good will of Americans everywhere I went. One of my favorite places was San Francisco. It is picturesque, sits beside a bay spanned by a marvel of engineering, and has great restaurants, hotels, and other attributes.

Immigration in Reverse

America has an estimated twelve million illegal immigrants and, for an increasing number of them, the downturn in the economy, particularly in the housing construction sector, is even worse for them than for native-born Americans.

Everything is in Free Fall

It increasingly seems that not only is the economy in free fall, but so too have been the nation’s cultural values. I do not know if there is a link, but I would not be surprised if there was.

Green Drivel, Green Deceit

We are all so besieged by the drivel that Greens put out daily that it is easy to forget how idiotic it is and, in many cases, how deceitful it is.

Ruining America

George Washington warned against “factions” by which he meant political parties, but even in the earliest days of the new republic, the most natural of human inclinations was to band together with like-minded people to elect one’s preferred candidate to office.

The Attention Span of Fungus

We call it “news” because, presumably, the news media is providing us with some “new” information about events in the world. If editors and reporters could not come up with something new to write about, your daily newspaper or television news program or channel would cease to exist.

Middle East Flashpoint

What does Joe Biden know that the rest of us don’t? He’s predicting that, if elected, President Barack Obama would be “tested” within six months of taking office. I’m thinking it would be more like six days or six weeks.

When You and Everyone Else You Know Are Crazy

We are now entering the final two full weeks of the campaigns and, if you feel like you and everyone else you know is crazy, you’re right.

With “Friends” Like These

In a recent letter to its members, Friends of the Earth, one of the larger environmental organizations, claimed that “warming means war.”

Let’s Go Nuclear

How do you know when a Green—hardcore environmentalist—is lying to you? When his lips are moving. Okay, it’s a cliché used in other cases as well, but it is especially true when the latest absurd claim comes flying at you courtesy of the mainstream media.

The IRS Will be Hiring

If Barack Obama is elected, the Internal Revenue Service had better double its workforce because the amount of cheating on tax returns will rival Italy’s.

The Avocado Index: High Finance in Hard Times

I have what I call my “Avocado Index.” I happen to like avocadoes, even if they are an acquired taste. My problem, however, is that a single avocado now costs $2.50 at my local supermarket.

Too Close to Call

As someone who gives praise to a merciful God for the invention of the Internet connection to my banking information, I will not pretend that I understand much about the arithmetic of polls except that they seem to be wrong a great deal of the time.

Race as an Election Factor

I find it remarkable that so little attention has been paid to the role of race in the 2008 election, especially since, for the first time in the nation’s history, one of the parties has nominated a man who, though biracial, identifies himself as Afro-American or Black.

States & Utilities Unite to Rob Energy Consumers

Energy consumers in ten northeastern States are going to see their bills rise and probably not even know why. They will assume that it is tied to the cost of oil, natural gas, or coal, but it does so only obliquely.

At the Core of Election Corruption

A lot of people who know politics far better than I are beginning to openly worry if John McCain can close the gap with Barack Obama. At a time when voter registration investigations and scandals are erupting in more than a dozen states, McCain insists on calling Obama “a decent man”, but his record suggests otherwise.