Craig's Corner

President Obama was at his eloquent best this week at the U.N. when he said the strongest weapon against hateful speech "is not repression; it is more speech. … We cannot ban blasphemy.”   He apparently was ignoring last week's White House’s request for Google to remove a Muslim film from You Tube (which they denied).   The beloved cartoon character made popular by Disney is more and more human and Mister Geppetto’s head is spinning around.   Mitt Romney’s no honest Abe Lincoln himself.   The Washington Post actually has assigned the Romney/Ryan campaign 4 Pinocchio’s.   At the Republican convention the campaign said     “we won’t be dictacted by fact checkers.”   Honesty seems to have no place in a Presidential campaign. There’s no Constitutional right for truth.   CNN outlines how the half-truths are commonplace in this campaign on all sides.   Americans used to aspire to truth and justice. Instead the next six weeks will be a battle to the bottom.

This weekend is the September equinox – autumn begins.   In many parts of the country leaves are starting to change color:   fall is in the air.    The chill covering the United States has less to do with meteorological patterns than with a technology intrustion.   Three recent events provide an interesting and disturbing view at how little Americans resist the whittling away of freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Congress   last week passed a reauthorization of the FISA Amendment Act, a law that gives unchecked surveillance authority to the government. The National Security Agency is permitted to conduct surveillance of Americans’ emails and phone calls without a warrant and without having to report to any authority.   The Fourth Amendment’s promise of protection against unreasonable searches has not yet even been challenged by a law that’s been on the books for over a decade and is regularly renewed - even in this hyper partisian environme

11 years ago this week the attacks of September 11 forever changed the United States and the world.   One year ago next week the U.S. military joined the rest of the western world by allowing lesbians and gays to serve in the military without lying.   The first academic study was released the other day that shows that the repeal “did not harm the military, and if anything made it easier for the Pentagon to pursue its mission.”   A new book by the pseudonym Mark Owen "No Easy Day," gives an inside account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden that differs from the official narrative.   Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the Navy Seal should be disciplined.   It’s all rather contradictory.   Osama bin Laden and his followers executed the worst attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor.   (We assume it was bin Laden, there actually hasn’t been any trial – military or civilian – that proves it.)   President Bush then launched a series of military engagements authorized

I remember being on vacation with a good friend who then "connected" with somebody. Their holiday romance was exactly what those sorts of things are: fun, festive and fleeting. For me it was much like being a third wheel. Being the extra add-on in a world of duos is awkward. As a single person it’s not uncommon for restaurants to tack on an extra chair with a table for two rather than give up a four top. With all of the hoopla surrounding the major party conventions these past few weeks, I can’t but help feeling a bit like that third wheel again. The Libertarian party held its convention last Memorial Day. C-Span covered it. Each of the major networks gave the pro-forma coverage to Gov. Gary Johnson being selected as the Presidential nominee. The pundits and press coverage of Libertarian politics tends to include qualifying phrases (“extreme”) that diminish any value of what the substance of the issue might be. The party is the third largest in the U.S. and (a