Bedrock

Have you noticed that the so-called progressives don't have a clue what progress is? For most of us, progress is advancement or getting ahead. Progress is making things better, but progressives seem determined to make things worse. Like an inept doctor, progressives have a cure that is worse than the disease; but like snake oil salesmen, they're pretty good at selling their hokum to gullible, unsuspecting people. Last week, I listened to a young man say that the thing to do about the energy crisis is to raise the price of gasoline, significantly. I was sitting outside at a coffee shop, and he and a young woman were carrying on an animated conversation that I couldn ’t help but overhear. I haven’t heard that suggestion, offered seriously, in a long time. Except for those with bizarre political views, those who see raising prices as a solution know very little about economics, science, or people. Where does such naiveté come from? I suspect is comes from the brainwashin...

Citizen Action: A Bedrock Value As I read and listen to people discuss the current candidates for President and the prospects for a Democrat Party domination of Congress, one thing seems clear to me: the substance of the issues is probably well over the heads of many of our fellow citizens. I don’t say that to be insulting or condescending. As a pastor and preacher, I realized, many years ago, that educated people tend to express themselves in language often unfamiliar to everyone else. A person like Barach Obama plays to that; he uses positive sounding generalities that seem to make sense. In response or reaction, those who read past his rhetoric, disagree, and oppose him tend to use terms that many hear only as opposition. If Hannity says it, then it’s conservative, pro-Bush, and Right-wing; they never really hear the content of arguments he attempts to make. For some people, all the want to hear is Obama's promise to leave Iraq because that war was wrong or all war is ...