This post is built on a comment I made yesterday on a post by Liz Emrich. That excellent post was related to, but not intended to address, the specific point that concerns me. But this issue deserves serious discussion followed by governmental action now.  I am not saying that there has… Read full post »

Above is a file photo of a 1957 250 cc Maico Typhoon, identical to the bike I rode while at Wichita University.  It was a 2 stroke bike so you had to premix the oil into the gas. I put a lot of miles on that little bike,… Read full post »

My best friend is a bright, open minded and sensible conservative.  Generally we are pretty much at the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to politics and economics.  He wrote me an email this afternoon attaching a new chart showing a total exposure of the Federal Reserve System at… Read full post »

I have been reading reams of words, not only here on OS but in every conceivable news and opinion site on the internet, by every single talking head on every news network.  We are bombarded with why Obama should make Clinton his Secretary of State; why he shouldn't hire her and… Read full post »

Top: Old Executive Office Building (EOB) viewed from White House side.

Middle: Old Executive Office Building viewed from front, Pennsylvania Avenue, side.  West Wing of the White House can be glimpsed on left.

Bottom: West Wing White House Portico… Read full post »

Top: A Maico Typhoon Street Bike

Bottom: A Honda CB 350 Street Bike

Life is better when traveling on two wheels.  When I was growing up in Kansas, then California, and then back to Kansas, I had a succession of bicycles. 

At around age… Read full post »

In a special investigative report that will hopefully get some attention - and outrage - two Washington Post reporters and two helping investigators have uncovered a disgusting practice that has been going on for months in the Bush administration.   They have uncovered a practice that has b… Read full post »

Tonight Rachel Maddow had as a guest one of the really brilliant military and international relations minds in our nation: Andrew Bacevich. He is Professor of International Relations and History, Boston University. (BS, United States Military Academy; MA, PhD, Princeton).

The Rich Man and Lazarus: Approaching the Coming  Holidays

One of the things that I miss the most being retired is researching, writing and giving sermons.  Several members of the OS family have asked why I  mostly write about politics and not about the vocation that is my passion. … Read full post »

I have fallen way behind in reading the hard copy magazines that I get.  The Nov. 3 issue of Newsweek, that arrived in late October, contains a very useful and informative explanation of the most famous earmarked project in the last decade or so: the doomed “Bridge to Nowhere.”

Its au… Read full post »

Yesterday Randy Smith blogged "Chill, conservatives...Obama wont be as bad as you suspect."  He is certainly correct in that assessment.  But there will be some very right wing nuts who will think Obama is the incarnation of Satan and will hate the very idea of him being President, regardle… Read full post »

Paul Krugman has an interesting column in today's New York Times called "When Consumers Capitulate."  You can read the full column HERE.

He argues that consumers are beginning to do the long term right thing by tightening their belts and paying down debt, but that, ironically, they are doing it… Read full post »

I just watched Chris Matthews allow Tom Delay to slime and slander Barack Obama for over ten minutes in the opening of Hardball.  Chris allowed him to spew his vitriol without even one challenge. 

Delay called Obama a Marxist, a communist, a socialist, and worse.  He said Obama would… Read full post »

Sen. Obama has been tracking to the center ever since he got the nomination as the Democratic candidate for President.  And while that gives many on the left side of the party considerable heartburn, it has been the correct move because it appeals to independents and moderate Republicans, and, a… Read full post »

Most of us political junkies have, both by design and by accident, chosen our television “news and commentary” sources from a very narrow ideological spectrum that we find comfortable.  In my case, as an ideological liberal with centrist tendencies, I get most of my TV updates and op… Read full post »

I moved to Washington  DC in July, 1963.  A bright eyed and anxious 23 year old, I was nearly overcome by my good fortune to be invited to work in the Executive Office of the President, Bureau of the Budget.

I was the low guy on the totem pole and often… Read full post »