William Murchison from Creators Syndicate

About That Gramm 'Gaffe' for 07/15/2008

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"Nation of whiners"? I don't know how you flesh out with mathematical exactitude ex-Sen. Phil Gramm's famous assertion of last week concerning how we talk about the economy.

I'll say this: There's a lot of whining go on, and if, as Phil avers, he was "talking about our leaders," not our people in general, he makes a serious point with something of the blunt force requ ...

Updated: Tue Jul 15, 2008

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Anglican Agonies for 07/22/2008

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

History's humongous wheel turns and turns and turns again. Over time, mud and sludge accumulate on even the sprucest institutions. Take the 500-year-old Anglican family of churches, Christianity's third-largest, after Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy.

With Anglicanism's biggest family event under way — the every-10-years gathering of bishops and archbishops in England — what the w ...

Updated: Tue Jul 22, 2008

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Does Obama Know What He's Doing? for 07/29/2008

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

There had better be something to this "divinely anointed'' business, because if there isn't, Barack Obama is setting himself up for the biggest political spill in recorded history — all the ways down the slopes of Olympus to whatever gunk lies below.

Which is to say, nobody, probably, can be as good as Obama's adoring followers, whether in Portland or Berlin, seem to believe. ...

Updated: Tue Jul 29, 2008

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McCain And The Computer for 08/05/2008

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Come on. Give an old man half a chance.

I speak for myself as well as for John McCain.

No more sneering talk of the sort we've heard lately concerning McCain's ineptitude when it comes to computers — an ineptitude he's striving to overcome.

Give us a break. At a moment of immense challenges to the national well-being, there must be, conservatively speaking, about 5,00 ...

Updated: Tue Aug 05, 2008

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The Georgia Crisis: Does Obama 'Get' It? for 08/12/2008

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When it's "change" you're merchandising, the easy phrases flow easily enough. Walls between people "cannot stand." With "improbable hope," we prepare to "to remake the world once again" — "a world that stands as one." "This is our moment, this is our time," proclaimed Barack Obama, when speaking in Berlin.

It was days ago ...

Updated: Tue Aug 12, 2008

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Main Street U.S.A. for 08/19/2008

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

One major problem with politics — as we've all probably figured out by now — is that politicians view every human challenge as political in nature, meaning, particularly these last few years. Objective No. 1 in the political trade is sticking to it The Other Party.

What else could explain Democratic obstinacy and obfuscation over offshore oil drilling? The national interest c ...

Updated: Tue Aug 19, 2008

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The Senator Who Won't Go Away for 08/26/2008

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

I might not have thought of this but for the anointing last weekend of Joe Biden as successor-designate to Dick Cheney — status to be confirmed, or disallowed, at the polls in November.

Joe Biden? What's Joe Biden doing still hanging around? Such was the thought that came to mind before another one surfaced — to wit, can't we ever get rid of any of these guys? Whatever happen ...

Updated: Tue Aug 26, 2008

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The Moose Is Loose for 09/02/2008

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It's a nutty year, a crazy time in our national life, and I've decided to decide — you'll be glad to hear this, John McCain — that the ostensibly nutty choice of Sarah Palin as running mate is nutty in all the right ways.

That's to say, it rearranges the political stage just hours after the Obama jubilee in Denver; it upstages, in fact, the Obama call for remaking America; it ...

Updated: Tue Sep 02, 2008

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Pushback Time for 09/09/2008

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

At the news that Sarah Palin would be John McCain's running mate, hundreds of thousands leaped to their feet. Hallelujah! Yippee! Boy, oh, boy!

In marketplace terms, we call Palin the-product-the-market-was-waiting-for, sort of like the better mousetrap, or the iPhone.

What exactly does the lady offer the electorate that Mitt Romney, say, or Tim Pawlenty didn't and couldn't, anywa ...

Updated: Tue Sep 09, 2008

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Hands Off The Marketplace for 09/16/2008

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

This may be the moment to say something warm and affirming about the marketplace economy — a "Bush doctrine" sort of positioning (if you don't mind, Charlie Gibson) of the battlefront for the economic wars ahead.

Wars? Goodness, yes. It's a presidential election year, and in presidential years the tendency among candidates is to proclaim instant solutions to whatever prob ...

Updated: Tue Sep 16, 2008

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Big, Big Government for 09/23/2008

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Not a one of us non-economists — and probably not a lot of economists either —know for sure how the Paulson-Bush rescue plan will play out now or down the line.

I venture a guess that is grounded less in dense economic theory than in some apprehension of the human condition. The guess is that the politicians, 2008 fashion, will muck things up in considerable degree. There is ...

Updated: Tue Sep 23, 2008

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Happy Days For Obama for 09/30/2008

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

So here we are — wherever "here" is, economically, financially speaking. The House balks at the bailout. The markets tumble. What next? No expert who tells you he knows what's ahead is to be believed, and you can tell him a colleague said so.

I wonder if we might, anyway, engage in some guess work. I have a few notions of my own.

I think the election of Barack Obam ...

Updated: Tue Sep 30, 2008

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Religion, Maher-Style for 10/07/2008

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"Grow up or die," Bill Maher admonishes viewers at the end of "Religulous," which is kind of an odd statement for a guy to make on wrapping up a cinematic assault on religion: mocking, jesting, wise-guying to beat the band.

But we've only just found out at this point where the movie was going all along. Past the staged crucifixion at Orlando, Fla.'s, Holy Land theme p ...

Updated: Tue Oct 07, 2008

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Ready To Lead? for 10/14/2008

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

He might still win. And then, again, he might not. What matters most, in some sense, is that Capt. John McCain has chosen not to strike his colors. There is enormous potential significance in McCain's attempt to rise from the inanity and waste of the weeks since the GOP presidential convention.

How do we know for sure he's making the attempt? We can't for sure. We can't know anything in ...

Updated: Tue Oct 14, 2008

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The Obama Moment for 10/21/2008

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

There is, as duly reported, a tide in the affairs of men, and Barack Obama rides it: hardly dampening his dress shoes as he surges toward authority and power.

From John McCain's perspective, it's just one thing after another: losing the Colin Powell endorsement to Obama, watching the Obama campaign take in a record-breaking $150 million in contributions for September, seeing (subliminall ...

Updated: Tue Oct 21, 2008

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The Great National Dice-Roll for 10/28/2008

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

I can't at this point think of anything new to say about the election. Here's something old, in that case: McCain's the one, and not just because, when it comes to "old," he qualifies.

Well, yes — the age thing, too. Many of us like our presidents with a liver spot or two, and perhaps a hesitation in the gait: reminders of experience and mortality. The nearest we get to s ...

Updated: Tue Oct 28, 2008

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The Party Of Happiness for 11/04/2008

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Oh, all right. The Republican party didn't manage to sell Americans on the need to elect John McCain as their maximum leader. Forget the small stuff: Republicans are happier people than Democrats. We have it on reliable authority, that of the non-partisan Pew Research Center. I invite fellow McCain voters to put aside their melancholia of the moment to wallow in the good news.

A Pew poll ...

Updated: Tue Nov 04, 2008

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So Here's What We Do, Gang for 11/11/2008

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Advice for conservatives in the Age of Obama.

1. What is, is. Don't waste valuable time with rehashes of how wonderful things used to be, or would be right now, if only…! A romantic streak informs conservatism: a dreamy connection to realities unglimpsed because they are dead or yet unborn. Don Quixote was a conservative. We can honor his idealism without wishing to replicate his practi ...

Updated: Tue Nov 11, 2008

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Calling Things By Their Right Names for 11/18/2008

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The placard in the photo of a recent rally favoring gay marriage asks, bluntly, "Family. Isn't It About Love?"

Well, hmm. You might indeed incline to such a view. Then, again, you might wish to broaden the perspective, in keeping with normative modes for understanding the foundational human structure we call family.

You'd want to begin with the acknowledgement that where ...

Updated: Tue Nov 18, 2008

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Thanksgiving 2008 for 11/25/2008

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Thankful for … (BEGIN ITALS) what?! (END ITALS)

The question is bound to surface the moment heads incline in reverence at the Thanksgiving table, over pre-dinner drinks, post-dinner drinks, kitchen clean up, trash take out.

Answers will vary. What won't vary is the perception that Thanksgiving 2008 brings trials of a sort not experienced in the United States of America in some yea ...

Updated: Tue Nov 25, 2008

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