Doug Patton

If Ever We Needed Christ in Christmas, It Is Now

This year, the politically correct gestures of seasonal salutation (Happy Holidays, Season’s Greetings, etc.), which for too long have served as substitutes for the real thing, have become vacuous, stale and boring. This year, somehow, they seem especially inadequate to express the sentiment we so desperately need to hear at this moment in time.

Right-to-Work in Michigan: 24 down, 26 to go

Back in the late 1970s, when the now-legendary Lee Iacocca took the reins at Chrysler, he was reputed to have told the union bosses, “Look, boys, I’ve got a shotgun to your head. I’ve got thousands of jobs at seventeen bucks an hour. I’ve got no jobs at twenty.”

One More Component in Electing a Conservative President

Last week, I outlined a series of proposals for electing our next conservative president, including a needed societal shift in culture, education, news and entertainment media and essential control of our southern border. However, there is another very important component: a fundamental change in the way we elect our chief executive.

Will We Ever See Another Conservative President?

After the shellacking taken in this year’s presidential election, will we ever see another conservative president? In the past, I have opined with great optimism in this space about the strength of the “farm team” of courageous conservative leaders — men like Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan, John Kasich, Rand Paul, Bob McDonnell, Scott Walker and Ted Cruz, and women like Nicky Haley, Susanna Martinez, Sarah Palin and Deb Fischer — whose ascendency gives dispirited conservatives hope for the salvation of the Republic in the years to come.

Why I’m Thankful in 2012

The older I get, the more I realize the importance of the little things that are right in front of me to appreciate all year long. So, once again, as we celebrate Thanksgiving, this uniquely American holiday, here is the list of blessings for which I am thankful in 2012.

Petraeus’ Testimony Will Make Little Difference

The fall of retired Army General David Petraeus is a story as old as the Garden of Eden. Sin has consequences. It does not undo a lifetime of service, nor does it negate every good deed ever performed, but it leaves a mark, a scar, like nails driven into a fine table top. The nails can be removed, just as transgressions can be forgiven, but the scars will remain.

John Galt Calling: Had Enough?

“They believe in free stuff. We believe in free people.” - U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, 2012 vice presidential nominee

Meanwhile, Back in Benghazi…

The national media must be breathing a collective sigh of relief at having Hurricane Sandy come along to help them avoid covering Benghazigate, the biggest scandal of the most corrupt presidential administration in the last one hundred years — perhaps in American history.

Campaign Commercials Romney Should Run

Because he is now the only person standing between the American people and four more disastrous years of you-know-who, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is unquestionably my pick for President of the United States. However, like millions of other American conservatives, my first, second or third choices during the Republican presidential primary season were, in fact, someone else — and the last couple of weeks have reminded me why that was the case.

Roberts Rules, now it’s the People’s Turn

Even as more qualified legal scholars than I could ever hope to be analyze the ramifications of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ convoluted ruling on the so-called Affordable Care Act (more appropriately dubbed “Obamacare”), a new sport has arisen among pundits, talking heads, court watchers and other members of the chattering classes — a game of attempting to determine Roberts’ motive for upholding the president’s signature legislative achievement.

Obama Team’s Leaks Are, Indeed, ‘Offensive’

The spectacle of the elite media — CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, The New York Times, etc. — hiding their collective eyes to the increasingly outrageous scandals coming out of the Obama administration, must remind Vladimir Putin of the good old days when he was a KGB thug and his fellow Russians got their information from a small handful sources such as the official Soviet newspaper, Pravda (Russian for "Truth").

Government Does Very Few Things Well

It is almost axiomatic that if something can be done efficiently by the private sector, local government will try to restrict it, tax it, regulate it or take it over. If local government somehow manages to do something well, state officials will do their best to make sure responsibility for that thing is transferred to them. And if, by some miracle, state government is in charge of a thing that is functioning properly and economically, you can rest assured the feds will conclude that, against all logic and historical evidence, they are the entity that can best serve the public in that area.

Liberals Are Waging the Real War on Women

I’m trying to figure out how to explain to my grandchildren that they are growing up in a society, mostly of my own generation’s making, which has put its stamp of approval on some of the vilest practices ever known to civilized man.

Memorial Day 2012 Was a Solemn Occasion

On Sunday morning of Memorial Day weekend, my family and I gather at a small rural cemetery on a windswept hillside, surrounded by rich Iowa farmland, as the local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars honors the men buried there who served in all of America's wars, from the War of 1812 to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

For the Left, Their Ends Always Justify Their Means

In the 1984 U. S. Senate race in Iowa, incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Jepsen was facing his first re-election bid. His General Election opponent was a congressman named Tom Harkin, one of the most underhanded Democrats ever to lie through his teeth in the pursuit of higher office.

Weapons of Mass Distraction: Barack Obama Has No Clothes

Each week, the Obama administration (which has become indistinguishable from the Obama campaign) becomes more reminiscent of the old children’s story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” with the national media elites playing the members of the king’s fawning court, pretending that the president is not naked, that he is, in fact, resplendent in the best finery, and that his ever more absurd pronouncements are somehow credible. The latest issue is same-sex marriage.

Entitlement Mentality on Display in Nebraska

Gretna, Nebraska — A revealing scene in the Depression-era film “Cinderella Man” presents a very different worldview from the entitlement mentality of today. Heavyweight fighter Jim Braddock is so embarrassed about having to take help from the government in order to feed his family that when he subsequently earns the money, his first inclination is go to the agency dispensing “relief” and pay back every cent he received. Can you imagine that happening today?

Soros or ALEC: Whom Would the Founders Support?

Who would the Founding Fathers have trusted with the future of the nation they created, George Soros or ALEC? And just who (or what), you may be asking yourself, is ALEC? Well, I’m glad you asked. And don’t feel ill informed, because until a few months ago, ALEC was not on my radar screen, either.

Dems’ War on Motherhood a Surefire Loser

Rush Limbaugh made one provocative remark about a woman whom Nancy Pelosi had used as a prop to spread propaganda in favor of "free" contraceptives, and the press immediately lapped up the DNC line that the conservative talk show host’s comments somehow reflected the view of the entire Republican Party. This, along with Catholic clerics attempting to defend the First Amendment, was supposedly the opening salvo of a "war on women."

Now More Than Ever, We Need the Fair Tax

It's that time of year again. Dig out those receipts showing every possible legal deduction. Find all those canceled checks proving that you paid all those doctor bills last year.