In her recent appearance at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Lois Lerner, the IRS Director of tax-exempt organizations, pleaded the Fifth.  Thus, two very important issues are raised by this action.  The first significant topic involves the notion that if this entire IRS improper “targeting” scandal is as simple as Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has intimated that it is, why didn’t Lerner...

In order to better understand President Obama’s recent bout of amnesia regarding the current IRS “targeting” scandal, let’s examine some hypothetical moments involving prior administrations: “Mr. Lincoln, we suffered a tremendous beating at the Battle of Bull Run.  However, we, the staff, thought the news would be much too painful so we decided not to inform you.”  “Oh, Mr. Roosevelt, those pirates were acting up off the...

The familiar saying used to be, “I can afford it, but I don’t want it.”  Conversely, now it’s “I want it, but I can’t afford it.” Over the past few days, I’ve been studying both liberal and conservative columnists who have been analyzing the reasons for the pathetic so-called job recovery.  If one were to only look at the stock market, a claim could be made that the recovery is in full bloom — of course that’s the...

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., recently stated that a 35% U.S. corporate tax rate is too high.  Well, it’s excessively high for those corporations that have the ability to domicile billions of dollars overseas, thereby avoiding the wrath of the tax man.  But for American small businesses that have all their money right here in our country — apparently, and according to President Obama — the tax rate is just right. As Apple stock has...

I never thought that I would be saying this, but it’s time we started addressing Joe Biden as “Mr. President.”  The U.S. Constitution stipulation of “high crimes and misdemeanors” is vast, but abuse of power and serious misconduct in office certainly fits this category. Andrew Johnson, the 17th President of the United States, was impeached for challenging the Tenure of Office Act (1867) which prohibited the president from...

“There are no great men, just great challenges that ordinary men out of necessity are forced by circumstances to meet.”— former Fleet Admiral William F. (Bull) Halsey, Jr., United States Navy I recently thought about Admiral Halsey’s famous quote as I visually wandered through my biography collection of the Presidents of the United States in order to determine what I would read next.  Since I had just finished perusing a...

What happens when the music stops?  Baseball games usually end after nine innings, basketball and football games normally conclude after four quarters, and in horse racing the dramatic finish occurs as the first horse crosses the finish line. If you’re a mountain climber that reaches the summit and then realize that it’s time to go home — unless you’re in the top one-half percent in the country and wait for the helicopter to pick...