Archive for May, 2009

Trust is a fragile commodity, easily lost and difficult to regain. As an asset in the public arena, honesty appears to be in shorter and shorter supply. Even as considerable rhetoric continues to be devoted to restoring “trust” in government, recent studies clearly indicate we remain a society awash in dishonesty and mistrust.

One of the more revealing annual surveys of this phenomenon is conducted each year by the non-partisan Ponemon Institute . The institute’s annual “Privacy Trust Study of the United States Government” probes the views of citizens across the country to gauge their level of trust regarding various federal government agencies.

For the past four years, the U.S. Postal Service has received the highest score . Although that may surprise some people, what should universally shock Americans is the fact that the U.S. Department of Justice is among the least trusted of federal agencies. That’s right — the one government office tasked above all others …

Continue reading Nation of doubters has lost faith in government »

Jack Kemp, former Republican Congressman from New York and who also served as first President Bush’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the GOP vice presidential nominee in 1996, died over the weekend at the age of 73.  Before serving in the Congress, Kemp was a top pro football quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. 

A few days before Kemp’s death, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, also a Republican, left the GOP and declared himself a Democrat.  While Specter’s loss to the GOP was headline news across the  country, Kemp’s passing barely rated notice among the national media.  Yet, Kemp’s loss is more revealing of the state of the national Republican Party than is Specter’s symbolic defection.

Jack Kemp’s passing signals the loss of one of the best of the young, energetic conservative leaders who cut their teeth on the Goldwater-Reagan movement that truly was the birth of what had been, until the presidency of Bush II, the modern Republican Party – a movement that …

Continue reading Jack Kemp’s Loss Overshadows Specter’s »

The population of the United States is well over 306 million people.  In a normal year, our country sees literally millions of flu cases, with thousands of fatalities. To date this year, there have been about 100 cases of Swine Flu confirmed.    The percentage of the population thus infected with this latest flu strain is far too small to bother calculating.  Yet, the limited appearance of the disease has brought this greatest nation on the face of the earth virtually to its knees. “Pandemic” and even the dread “E word” — “epidemic” — are being thrown about with abandon by the media and by public officials from small-town mayors to national politicians.  Congressmen and senators are scrambling to update their webpages and issue news releases exhibiting their concern.  Billions more taxpayer dollars are being rushed to the pockets of bureaucrats to defend the nation against the Swine Flu onslaught.  And now, no less a leadership figure than the vice president of …

Continue reading Vice President Walter Mitty »