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World Watch

 Mini-WorldWatch - December 21, 2008
Bailouts

Something extraordinary happened to me today. Somebody actually asked me for my opinion.

You have to understand how rare this is. Because I have so many chances to sound off about -- well, about everything -- it's not as if there's an opinion shortage anywhere near me.

Read More

 November 4, 2008
This Very Good Election Year

As I write this column, Americans are voting.

In Greensboro, the kids are out of school because so many of their buildings are being used as polling places.

My wife canceled the tomorrow's session of the six a.m. New Testament class she teaches in our home, so that her high-school-age students could stay up late tonight to watch election returns.

I thought of my good friend who until 2008 lived in a country where elections are meaningless, because brutal intimidation and institutionalized voter fraud guarantee that the ruling party is reelected every time. Soon his family will join him here in the United States (legally, in case you wonder). He loves his native country -- but he loves freedom more.

And that's what it's about when we vote.

Read More

 WorldWatch Extra:
America Unplugged!
Obama's Cruel Tax on the Poor

Obama's "ideological" energy plan would cripple U.S. economy

Obama isn't cutting taxes for the poor, because they don't pay any.

Instead, he's planning to make it so expensive to generate electricity that only the rich can afford to use their appliances whenever they want.

Why? It's all in the name of Obama's True Belief in Global Warming. He says it himself -- he'll take coal off the table as an "ideological matter." Even if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, he's opposed to pursuing it.

He wants to put a huge penalty on companies that emit carbon -- which means that starting up new coal-powered electrical plants will be prohibitively expensive. In Obama's own words, "It will bankrupt them."

Read More

 October 26:
What Really Matters As We Vote

Sometimes it seems like this election is one big pillow fight. The air is now so full of floating feathers that it's hard to see the furniture, and the media isn't helping, as they blow the fluff around.

But there are solid issues in this election, and how we vote will have lasting effect on our future.

Read More

 October 12, 2008:
Upholding the Constitution

On one extreme, we have the idea that the Constitution is a written document that can only be altered by a deliberately time-consuming process of amendment.

On the other extreme, we have the idea that the Constitution means whatever a group of judges says it means.

The Constitution itself belongs to the first group -- it declares that it can only be changed through the amendment process.

Read More

 October 5, 2008:
Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?

An open letter to the local daily paper -- almost every local daily paper in America:

I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

Read More

OA Links of Interest
• Many people have asked OSC where they can get the facts behind the rhetoric about the war. A good starting place is: "Who Is Lying About Iraq?" by Norman Podhoretz, who takes on the "Bush Lied, People Died" slogan.
Past Links
OA Recent Guest Essays
 Position on Immigration
By Jason F. Smith
April 15, 2008
 Divided We Fall
By A. Preston Moser
April 12, 2008


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