Chicago Daily Observer

Does it matter whether Clinton, Obama, or McCain takes the Oval Office? Whoever does, government will grow, and taxpayers (Let’s not kid ourselves by calling them “citizens.”) will foot the bill. Actually, their children will when our staggering national debt (31,000 dollars for every man, woman, and child) comes due. At this point, Americans should hope for the candidate who is going to take the least amount of their money, and that is anybody’s guess. McCain may seem like the choice here, but he has been explicit about his plans to escalate prosecution of an illegal and unjust war that has cost the taxpayers 500 billion dollars. Remember those taxes you just paid? A third went to the War in Iraq. How high will it go under McCain?

If you are looking for a sign of hope, however, look at Congressman Walter B. Jones of North Carolina’s 3rd congressional district. ... Read More...

Not long ago the National Center for Health Statistics at the Center for Disease Control released data showing that the total number of live births in the United States in 2006 hit a nearly half-century high, approximately 4.3 million. The last time as many children were born in the U.S. was 1961, at the tail end of the baby boom.

With the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade darkening observed Jan. 22, the NCHS data might seem like welcome news, but before we uncork the champagne, let’s take a closer look. First, we should not be surprised to see the total number of annual births on the rise when, because of immigration, the total population of the United States is at an all time high: 301 million. Indeed, Hispanics, who bear more children than Americans of European decent, account for some, but not all, of the increase. Further, in ... Read More...

Quincy, Illinois’ most famous (or infamous: there’s no statue), son has died at 92: Brigadier General Paul Tibbets, Jr., pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress named for his mother. Only 30-years-old when he dropped Little Boy on the citizens of Hiroshima, Tibbets spent the rest of his life defending his action with a simple, utilitarian argument: Dropping the atomic bomb saved lives, Japanese as well as American, by ending the war. Would he have done it again? “Hell, yeah.” And he slept well at night, thank you. “There is no morality in war,” Tibbets said in 2002.
Now he knows the truth.
But do we? Americans are more than ... Read More...

On Monday, First Lady Laura Bush appeared on “Good Morning America” and encouraged Americans to recognize October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. She praised the work of “Susan G. Komen for the Cure” (formerly known as the Susan G. Komen Foundation).

If you have ever had Oprah on for more than five minutes, you know about the billions that “Komen for the Cure” has raised for breast-cancer research through its races and walks and partnerships with vendors of pink merchandise. But something you (and the First Lady) may not know:

:”Susan G. Komen for the Cure” has given more than a million dollars to Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood killed over a quarter-of-a-million unborn babies last year and distributed untold amounts of hormonal contraceptives. There is enough data linking both induced abortion and long-term use of hormonal contraceptives to an increased risk of breast cancer to choke an elephant.

Discussion of ... Read More...

Imagine you are a contestant on Jeopardy, and the category is “Sea Battles of the Late 16th Century.” Two choices remain: 1588 or 1571. Recent graduates of our public schools may not recognize either, but if you went to high school decades ago, you would know that 1588 was the year of the Spanish Armada.
In fact, the victory of Francis Drake and the rest of Queen Elizabeth’s pirates on that tragic day in August 1588 is the reason 1571 is unknown to most Americans. The defeat of the Armada heralded a new era during which Britannia, not Hispania, ruled the waves. As result, America ended up an English Protestant country, and in school we all learned English Protestant history.
Nonetheless, on October 7, 1571 a far more important battle raged at the mouth of the Gulf of Patras, which divided mainland Greece from Corinth. It was ... Read More...

Hard on the heels of the disturbing details of Michael Vick’s hobby came the predictable media outcry about the loss of another role model for young boys. Flashback to O.J. Simpson. The holding up of professional athletes for emulation is a moral affliction American culture seems unlikely to cast off. How many examples do we need? For every Lou Gehrig, there seem scores of cheaters like Sammy Sosa, social degenerates like Dennis Rodman, gamblers like Pete Rose, serial fornicators like Wilt Chamberlain, and adulterers like Kobe Bryant. I leave out the drug addicts, prostitute patrons, and all around insufferable egos.
Yet it is little wonder American boys revere athletes. From too young an age, they are driven by their misguided parents to participate in organized sports. Literally driven. No longer sufficient is the pick-up baseball or football game in the vacant lot at the end of the block. ... Read More...

Congressman Ron Paul’s contribution to American political life is more significant than those made by all the other presidential candidates—of both parties—combined. Romney, McCain, Clinton, Obama, et al, are dancing around the Iraq disaster that has cost 3,700 American lives, left maimed tens of thousands more, and provoked greater than ever hatred of America by the Islamic world. These candidates are ignoring the colossal failure of the government to stop the violent crime and depressed wages that are the bitter fruits of unfettered immigration. As they debate whose scheme is going to provide more pills for old people (the single wealthiest age cohort in the nation), Congressman Ron Paul stands radically apart from all of them.
I say “radically,” for Paul’s contribution has been to call to the fore of mainstream political discourse a proper understanding of America’s political roots. Since Abraham Lincoln expanded the authority of the central ... Read More...

Do you know who Kamisha Block is?
Why should you?
How about Zandra Worthy-Walker, Princess Samuels, or Alicia Birchett (mother of three young boys)? They are Iraq war dead from the month of August, Iraq female war dead, that is. They join the other 81 American servicewomen who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan since the start of the American invasion.
That’s right, 85: more than five times the American female death toll for the whole of the Vietnam War. When the number passes 100, will anyone outside the families of the fallen notice? Doubtful.

I wager that most Americans are unaware that the United States Government assigns women to de facto combat duty. Those who are aware would declare that women should be free to choose whether or not they serve under fire. “It’s a woman’s choice.” Sound familiar?

As in the case ... Read More...