One Swan A-Swimming

November 26, 2008 | Filed Under Family, John Armor, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture | 1 Comment

-By John Armor

Three miles south of Highlands, North Carolina, the road to Dillard, Georgia, goes through a golf course. It is not just any golf course. It is the one that the great Bobby Jones designed just before he created his masterpiece at Augusta.

Jones had a personal stake in the Highlands Country Club course. He built his retirement home straight across the crescent-shaped lake which surrounds the 18th green, from the flag. Like the rest of the course, the 18th is a demanding hole, a chip across the lake to a teacup of a green that slopes away to all sides so approach shots that are only slightly off, “get wet” as the golfers say.
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The Pinball Bailout?

November 17, 2008 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, John Armor, News, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, Taxes, The Law | No Comments

-By John Armor

Is the proposed bailout of the “big three” auto makers really for them? Or is it something else entirely?

Here I sit in a farmhouse on the Eastern Continental Divide. From my front porch, I can see most of upstate South Carolina. In that territory are several auto manufacturing plants that are doing just fine, thank-you-very-much. To my left, or west, is the Tennessee border. Over those mountains are several more auto plants which are quite healthy, also.

So, let’s chuck in the trash the idea that auto manufacturing in the US is failing generally. It isn’t. It is just the “big three” American manufacturers. Properly, it should be called the “big two and a half,” since Chrysler is in the bucket, once again.
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The Barack Obama - King George Connection

November 16, 2008 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Censorship, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Europe, Foreign Policy, GOP, Government, Corruption, John Armor, Media Bias, News, President, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture | No Comments

-By John Armor

Barrack Obama seems poised, based on his associates and his appointments to date, to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine for American radio programming, If he does that administratively through his naming of a new Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, he’ll be taking a page out of King George III’s book of policies toward the American colonists.

Say what?

Isn’t that a bit of a stretch since the number of radio stations in 1776 was shockingly low, and King George did not have a Royal Communications Commission? Well, actually he did, and thereon hangs a tale.
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President Obama: How Bad Will It Be?

November 8, 2008 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Energy, Europe, Foreign Policy, Government, Corruption, Islam, Islamofascism, Israel, John Armor, Media Bias, News, President, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture | No Comments

-By John Armor

Let us take two sources – the statements made by Barack Obama as a candidate and the lessons of history – combine them and make some predictions. The results are not pretty.

These three results — a new World War, a new Great Depression, and permanent damage to the Constitution – are given in decreasing order of damage to the United States. That happens to be the reverse of their odds of happening. Though to me, as a student of the US Constitution, the last item is still critically bad.

Based on his repeated comments about Iran and Pakistan, Obama will coddle our sworn enemy, Iran, and will invade and antagonize our shaky but critical ally, Pakistan. Yes, I know we have done cross-border raids into Pakistan’s lawless border territory. But we have kept those in the lowest possible profile to avoid antagonizing a critical ally whose population is mostly Muslim and who possesses working nuclear weapons.
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“Smoke and Mirrors,” The Anderson Analysis

November 4, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Government, Corruption, History, John Armor, Media Bias, News, President, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Taxes | No Comments

-By John Armor

Anybody remember John Anderson? Let’s not always see the same hands. John Anderson was a Congressman from Illinois who ran as an independent for President in 1980. I remember him well, because I was involved in his campaign from the beginning.

Yes, all my life I’ve had a penchant for lost causes. Call it the Rhett Butler syndrome – Rhett joined the Confederacy only after the burning of Atlanta. I wrote a key memorandum to John Anderson urging him to drop out of the Republican Party and out of a debate in Dallas on 22 March as I recall, declare as an independent, and use the method I suggested to make the ballot in all 50 states. He did that, and that, and achieved that access.

Anyway, fringe candidates don’t have the same obligation to avoid saying anything that will offend anyone, on any basis, to the extent that can be done. Therefore, fringe candidates occasionally speak snippets of truth that go right to the heart of the matter. Anderson did that in 1980.
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Brides from a War Long Ago

October 27, 2008 | Filed Under Europe, Family, Foreign Policy, History, John Armor, Military, News, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture | No Comments

-By John Armor

This weekend I joined a new family. The members of this family speak fluent German, French, Italian, Polish, Russian. They also speak fluent Chinese, Japanese, Tagalog. And they speak English in the accents of at least five different nations. Lastly, the heart of this family is a group of women who are all at least eighty years old.

As I write this, I’m at the annual reunion of the WW II War Brides Association. The children of war brides and their spouses are also welcome here. But the raison d’etre is the women, like my mother-in-law, who was raised in Paris, married an American soldiers right after the end of WW II, and came to the United States to live.

A large number of the war brides are from England, for a logical reason. The G.I.s spent more time in that country, preparing and staging for the invasions of North Africa, Italy, and finally France, then they spent on the ground anywhere else. A large number are also from Australia, since G.I.s staged there for the attacks “up the islands,” as they say, from the Philippines to Japan.
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Academics and Ayers: “Whatsoever Things are True….”

October 19, 2008 | Filed Under Congress, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, John Armor, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Taxes | No Comments

-By John Armor

This is now the 14th year of these weekly column. I’ve never used a Bible verse in these secular sermons. Here’s the exception to that rule.

Today’s text is from Phillippians 4:8. The King James Version is preferred for the beauty of its language:

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

The first task of every preacher who’s ever mounted a pulpit is to connect the Reading with the real world. Today’s sermon is about politics.
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