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August 24, 2010
Posted by Carla René in: Accountability, Advice, African-American, Attitude, Biography & Memoir, Book Marketing Online, Book Review, Books, Business, Business Management, Cancer, Cap and Trade, Children, China, Climate Change, Commentary, Comments & Discussion, Communications, Communism, Community, Computers, Congress, Contributor's Audio/Video, Creative Writing, Current Events, Democracy, Democrat, Diet, Economic Crisis, Economics, Education, Energy, Entertainment, Environment, Environmental Issues, Faith, Family, Fiction, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Freedom, Freelance Author, General Topics, Geopolitical Events, Global Warming, Governance, Habit Change, Health & Fitness, Healthcare, Heroes, History, Homeland Security, Humor, Inspiration & Motivation, Internet, Internet Advice, Interview, Islam, Journalism, Latino & Hispanic, Legal, Life Experiences, Lifestyle, Literature, Marketing, Marriage, Medical, Men's Issues, Mental Health, Mexico, Military, Minorities, Morality, Motivation, Music, Native American, Nature/Wildlife, Non-Fiction, Nutrition, Opinion, Personal Experiences, Philosophical Genres, Poetry, Politics, Publishing, Question of the Day, Recovery, Relationships, Religion, Republican, Rhyme, Satire, Self-Help, Sex, Short Stories, Social Aspects, Social Classes, Social Issues, Sociology, Spirituality, Sports, Technology, Television, Terrorism, The Economy, The Media, The Pundit's Corner, The Writer's Corner, Travel, Uncategorized, Website Instructions, Weight loss, Wellness, Women's Perspective, Women's Rights, Working Women, Workplace, World Issues, Writing Essentials
Begun back sometime in 2001, this book was originally a fluke of an idea… [...]
August 22, 2010
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Accountability, Commentary, Current Events, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Governance, Homeland Security, Latino & Hispanic, Legal, Mexico, Minorities, Opinion

By Alan Caruba
It is increasingly obvious that the Obama administration is more interested in protecting Mexicans than Americans.
Case in point; Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has eleven suspects accused of murdering law enforcement officers in his maximum security county jail in downtown Phoenix. As reported in the August 18 Washington Post, “Justice Department officials in Washington have issued a rare threat to sue (Arpaio) if he does not cooperate with their investigation of whether he discriminates against Hispanics.”
“The standoff comes just weeks after the Justice Department sued Arizona and Gov. Jan Brewer because of the state’s new immigration law,” the Post noted. The latest word from Americans for Legal Immigration is that twenty-two States now have lawmakers developing versions of Arizona’s illegal immigration crackdown bill SB 1070.
So nearly half the States are aligning themselves with Arizona. Why? Continue reading Mexico, Bloody Mexico
August 19, 2010
Posted by Michael Crumling in: Accountability, Commentary, Current Events, Faith, Freedom, Governance, Homeland Security, Islam, Morality, Non-Fiction, Opinion, Politics, Religion, Terrorism, World Issues
I watched with interest, a news story about people angry and suing because of a cross beside the road which honors the memory of a fallen police officer, killed in service to his community. They allege that because the police department insignia is affixed to the cross, it represents the government promotion of religion. The cross also has the officers’ name affixed. It might just represent who the man was in his life. He served his community as a police officer. Perhaps he was a Christian. One thing we do know for certain is that he is dead. He died serving the rest of us. It is hardly an example of establishment of religion. The separation of church and state is hardly relevant. It is no different than what you might see in Arlington National Cemetery, which one may note is on government property. There may be a dozen reasonable people who would be offended by this display. Continue reading A Mosque Grows in Mahattan
August 18, 2010
The study suggested that we not only need to encourage healthy eating habits for young children, but also need to set a good example by refraining from making negative comments about people who are overweight. Children of course, are mirrors of us and they pick up our attitude, which results in bullying behavior. In effect, we indirectly teach our children to bully. However, there is a bigger picture. We need to remember that each and every person has habits about which he or she is not proud. The difference is that if over-eating is the habit, it cannot be hidden. It is on display for all to view. [...]
August 18, 2010

By Alan Caruba
Having written for a decade that the Earth has been cooling, it was rather disconcerting to receive a news release from Accuweather reporting that “The year 2010 is on track to become the hottest year on record since modern record keeping began, according to climate researchers at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).”
It turns out there is an explanation for the unusual levels of heat from Russia to Pakistan to Japan. It is a meteorological phenomenon called “blocking events” and they are related to the jet stream. Continue reading Why it’s Too Darn Hot
August 13, 2010
Why are our leaders ‘Islamic’ ignorant?
By Ben Cerruti
The present brouhaha over the proposed construction of a Mosque near ground zero provides reason to view many of our leaders as ignorant, especially those in New York and Washington. They obviously are not knowledgeable with the tenets of the Quran that comprise more of an ideology such as Marxism, Fascism or Capitalism, than a religion. Cloaked in the cover of a religion, Islamism is being treated as just another spiritual entity. In fact it is a socio-political movement whose purpose is to convert society to its conformed totalitarian way of life.
A reasonable progression of facts in this regard follow: Continue reading Why are our leaders ‘Islamic’ ignorant?
August 7, 2010

This is Hiroshima today.
By Alan Caruba
It was sixty-five years ago, August 6, 1945, and the anticipation of the end of the war in the Pacific swept across America when the news that an atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Surely they would surrender, but there was no response from the Emperor or Japanese high command.
A second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki six days later. And still we waited! Finally, on August 15, Japan announced its acceptance of an unconditional surrender. That avoided what military experts of the time estimated would be casualties in the hundreds of thousands if the U.S. had been forced to invade.
By May of 1945 the allies had defeated Nazi Germany and secured its surrender. What followed was the division of Europe as the Soviet Union seized control of its Eastern bloc nations. They would remain under its oppression until it finally collapsed in 1991. Continue reading Hiroshima 1945, Hiroshima 2010
July 31, 2010
Kenneth Ring, PhD and Ghassan Abdullah, editors: Letters from Palestine: Palestinians Speak Out about Their Lives, Their Country, and the Power of Nonviolence. Paperback, $26.95. Wheatmark, Tucson, Arizona, 2010. Website: www.wheatmark.com.
For Palestinians, 1948 was a catastrophe. When Israel was born, between 700,000 and 800,000 Palestinians were expelled from their ancestral homes, farms, villages and towns and became permanent refugees. For them this murderous ethnic cleansing was their Holocaust. Sixty-two years later, it continues. For those who live in what was Palestine, the experience is one of contempt, persecution and eradication.
The following quote from professor and peace activist David Shulman’s book Dark Hope is a description of what it is like on the ground. “What we are fighting in the South Hebron Hills is pure, rarefied, unadulterated, uncontainable human evil. Nothing but malice drives this campaign to uproot” people from their homes. … “They led peaceful, if somewhat impoverished lives, until the settlers came. Since then, there has been no peace. They are tormented, terrified, incredulous, as am I. What black greed, what unwitting hatred, has turned Israeli Jews into the torturers of the innocent?”
The stories in Letters from Palestine are by people who live this reality on a daily basis. Some are refugees who cannot return. Most live in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. In reading their stories, two things are clear: no human being should have to endure what they have endured, on a daily basis, for sixty-two years. It is immoral to allow it to continue. Continue reading A Powerful Testimony to Courage and a Call to Action: a book review
July 26, 2010
If you are reading this post there you are not poverty stricken. You have a way to get to the world wide web even if it means going to the library or sitting at a neighbor’s computer. Maybe you grew up poor and worked your way out of a bad situation. Maybe you cry poor whenever someone asks you for help. You may regret living from paycheck to paycheck, you may eat meat only once a week, go to the movies only once a year. Your cable may be turned off and you dropped your cell phone and can’t afford to get a new one until it’s time to renew the contract. We know what it is to have expensive taste with little money but trust me, right now, we don’t know poverty. Continue reading We Don’t Know Poverty
July 6, 2010
You may not be aware of this but shortly after 9/11 a movie was to be released called “Rats!”. It was about that yucky vermin taking over New York city. Someone brightly and bravely decided that the movie should not be shown for a long time. Didn’t matter though, NYC has a ton of rats. More rats than people. But some idiot somewhere in Albany decided to cut back on extermination efforts in the city. That movie, which I never saw, may soon become a reality. Continue reading Budget Cuts and Rats!
July 5, 2010
Singapore’s casino resorts are open, but there’s still plenty of work to be done. [...]
July 4, 2010
“The Orator, with his Flood of Words….”
It’s been a long time since I debated John Kerry’s Liberal Party at Yale. (We, the Conservative Party, whopped ‘em good.) Even longer since I debated in high school. Having listened to and analyzed President Obama’s speech on immigration, I’m more convinced than ever that Obama is a one-trick pony, an increasingly unsuccessful one.
The war in Afghanistan is in trouble, and the Talban might snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Therefore, Obama gives a speech. The American economy is in trouble and high unemployment persists. Obama gives a speech. Spewing oil in the Gulf is unchecked. Obama gives a speech. Drugs and criminals are running across the border into Arizona. Obama gives a speech. You get the idea.
When he gives a speech, he sounds like he is addressing the subject at hand. But that is only an illusion, an illusion that even his former supporters are beginning to recognize for what it is. Continue reading “The Orator, with his Flood of Words….”
June 23, 2010
I am sure over the years many Generals have not agreed with the Commander in Chief of the United States. But they didn’t talk about it in magazines or say such disrespectful things as General McChrystal reportedly said in a Rolling Stones article. Now the entire nation is waying in on the insubordination of [...]
June 16, 2010

By Alan Caruba
President Obama is one of the most articulate we have had in that office. His ability to deliver a speech or a short talk such as his first from the Oval Office Tuesday evening is impressive. He knows how to deliver an address.
What he doesn’t know or doesn’t care about is the difference between the truth and a lie.
His fifteen-minute address was the piling on of one lie after another regarding America’s use of energy and its needs for the future. Continue reading Obama Asks America to Commit Suicide
June 7, 2010
I don’t know what is happening in other parts of the world, but in Britain there is a dispute between the news aggregators, such as NewsNow, and the so-called Fleet Street newspapers (the nationals) because the national dailies wish to prevent the news aggregators linking to their free content without paying for the privilege.
The least one can say of this initiative is that it is peevish and curmudgeonly and, up until now, you might even have described it as stupid.
But not any more.
It is suicidal.
Not only can Digg and StumbleUpon waltz around these restrictions, as can Facebook and Twitter, but a new form of open citizens’ journalism is emerging. Continue reading Newspapers die, journalism rises
May 28, 2010
Posted by Muhammad Cohen in: Biography & Memoir, Book Review, Books, Business, Current Events, Economic Crisis, Economics, Finance, Journalism, Morality, Non-Fiction, Publishing, The Pundit's Corner
Harry Markopolos, who tried to stop Bernard Madoff’s multibillion dollar fraud, is a genuine hero. But he needed a ghostwriter to tell his story properly. [...]
May 17, 2010
Many Saturdays as a young girl I was given the reward of spending the afternoon with my dad at the paper where he was the city editor. It was more than the joy of getting away from younger siblings and the chores being the oldest brought me. It was a place that I got to get the news before anyone else. Before the national news made the paper it came through on the Associated Press machine, a ticking time-bomb in my dad’s office that printed out the news in a flash. I would go there and sit with a pile of paper in my lap that covered everything that was happening in the world. Sometimes I couldn’t believe all the things that were happening, and weren’t getting reported on in a daily black newspaper. In fact sometimes things weren’t reported in any of the local papers at all. It was as if keeping the public in the dark about some news was the best way to keep the country focused on national issues of importance.
Today we have our own buttons to leaking news with computers, instant news and messaging and cell phones that will alert you when a celebrity has a baby or when a celebrity takes a drink. It is news faster than the old AP machines could peck out. It’s too much news that brings us so much information. And a lot of that information is about war. Continue reading Too Much News, Too Much War
May 17, 2010

By Alan Caruba
For some time now friends have been asking me why I haven’t written anything about the Arizona law, amnesty, illegal immigration, and Mexicans.
The problem with trying to see all sides of the problem is that, sooner or later, you have to pick a side. That is what Americans are doing in light of the recent law passed in Arizona; a law that mirrors a federal law that, quite simply, is not being enforced.
What exactly were Arizonans expected to do in light of the fact that their border with Mexico is now a war zone?
A typical bachelor, I pretty much have the same thing for lunch every day, a soft tortilla in which two thin slices of smoked turkey are placed. Thirty seconds in the microwave and about six bites later lunch is over. And every day I look at that damned tortilla and I think about Mexicans.
Not Carlos Slim, one of the richest men in the world, but those poor souls trekking across deserts or sneaking in any way they can because, presumably, Mexico sucks so badly that their only hope is the land of the free and the home of the brave. Continue reading Thinking About Mexicans
May 16, 2010
There are several commercials airing on New York television lately about a tax Governor David Patterson wants to put on sodas, special waters and juice drinks. The voice wants Albany to “stay out of our grocery baskets.” It says if they were busier getting rid of overspending they would not need to tax the little guy. The problem is the little guy isn’t so little anymore. He is overweight and careless when it comes to food consumption. It isn’t as if the state is taxing something that people need. They are putting a tax on non-essential junk drinks. In a sense they are trying to help the little guy get back to his right size. Continue reading The Overpriced and Overweight New York Grocery Cart
May 14, 2010
Posted by seamus in: Accountability, Advice, African-American, Commentary, Comments & Discussion, Communications, Congress, Creative Writing, Current Events, Democracy, Democrat, Economics, Entertainment, Freedom, Governance, Homeland Security, Inspiration & Motivation, Islam, Journalism, Life Experiences, Minorities, Morality, Motivation, Opinion, Personal Experiences, Politics, Republican, Social Aspects, Social Classes, Social Issues, Terrorism, The Economy, The Media, The Pundit's Corner, World Issues
Amazing how many high government officals (including the Attorney General), political pundits, politicians, school officials and religious leaders comment so harshly on the immigration law in Arizona and publicly admit they haven’t read the ten page document.
The document basically states that when being stopped for a traffic violation or questioned concerning a crime that [...]
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America Goes Buggy Over Bed Bugs
America Goes Buggy Over Bed Bugs
By Alan Caruba
When The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and all other media in America begin to devote lots of space and time to the subject of bed bugs, you know America has a real pest problem.
Uniquely, I know a lot of pest control professionals because I have worked closely with the industry for a quarter century providing public relations services.
So let me say that I have the ANSWER to the nation’s plague of bed bugs.
It’s called PESTICIDES. Continue reading America Goes Buggy Over Bed Bugs