Project 21: New Visions

Our nation's current political battle about same-sex marriage reminds me of the film "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" in which rivals fight it out in a cage to chants of "two men enter, one man leaves!" I also recall Tina Turner's song from the film. She belts out: "We don't need another hero. We don't need to know the way home." Conservatives might take Turner's lyrics to heart. Look at liberals these days. They championed Barack Obama as a superhero, but have discovered the cape doesn't fit. Conservatives need not repeat the liberals' folly. Obama recently revealed his "evolving" opinion on ...
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Attorney General Eric Holder and his band of merry litigators at the U.S. Department of Justice have sued Jacksonville, Florida over its fire department's promotion testing process. The Obama Administration contends that it discriminates against blacks. Less than a week later, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Jacksonville's firefighters union for the same reason because the union has input on the promotion process. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Thomas Perez said the Justice Department is suing because the Jacksonville test unfairly discriminates against black firemen because the tests "measure only a slice" of actual job duties and "stand in ...
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While students will not always need an ID to vote in the next election, they will need one to take an admissions exam. After a SAT cheating scandal left students in Great Neck, New York facing criminal prosecution, officials at the companies that administer college entrance exams announced strict new guidelines to verify that high school students taking the SAT and ACT in the future are who they claim to be. New identity-conscious rules were prompted because students were caught being paid to take college admissions tests for others. The goal of the strict new ID enforcement is to make ...
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How can I say this? The gradual escalation of racial rhetoric revolving around Trayvon Martin's death in Sanford, Florida has reached a level from which there may be no return. Recently, the New Black Panther Party held a conference call, parts of which were later posted on Breitbart.com. It sounded like the call — with fanatical speakers preparing supporters for a violent, blood-stained revolution (presumably against white people) and an overthrow of racist capitalism – came right of the 1960s. The New Black Panther Party call contained racist and hate-filled language toward white Americans, calling them "crackers," "honkies," "devils" and ...
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A ruling on the constitutionality of key elements of ObamaCare is expected from the U.S. Supreme Court by late June. That leaves months for speculation — and strategizing — about what will need to be done in the wake of that decision. Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), most Americans must be insured. The principal element under review is how that "individual mandate" works and how the government's decision-making power in the health care process has increased. ObamaCare fundamentally changes the nature, scope and implementation of medical care in the United States for the worse. In theory, ...
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Gasoline prices are on the rise — nearing $4 per gallon nationally. Deep public concern, undeniable according to recent polling, is forcing President Obama to pivot his attention back to the rising cost of energy during his presidency. In a recent speech at Prince George's Community College in Maryland, Obama attempted to dismiss criticism that the policies his administration has enacted over the last three years regarding energy. The President sought to dismiss former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's claim that he could bring down the cost of gasoline to $2.50 per gallon. Even though the President publicly appears to embrace ...
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During my years of listening to Rush Limbaugh — from the early 1990s, while driving across the middle of rural Indiana — he became the "mouthpiece" and de facto face of conservatives. He has become more and more hated by his critics, and has made more and more outlandish statements over time. He went through his noted drug crisis, a personal medical crisis, extreme weight loss and a faltering stint on Monday Night Football. It was only a matter of time before his mouth got him into trouble again. When Georgetown University student Sandra Fluke recently spoke before liberal congressmen ...
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In recent months, there have been a growing number of reports of cheating on standardized tests. Last fall, 20 people were arrested in connection with an SAT cheating scandal at a Long Island high school, leading the local prosecutor to bring charges against the students. Just last month, an official with Claremont McKenna College in California resigned after admitting to inflating the SAT scores of incoming freshmen to boost the college's standing in the U.S. News and World Report rankings. We teach our children that cheating is never acceptable, but the sad reality — and the dirty little secret — ...
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With soaring gasoline prices, increasing unrest in Afghanistan and threats of a nuclear Iran on his plate, President Obama made it a priority to call the Georgetown University law student criticized by talk radio host Rush Limbaugh for demanding free contraceptives. Using this cheap publicity stunt to shift attention from his policy failures may bolster Obama's standing with his left-wing base, but it will not help the President's standing with American families struggling to make ends meet. Defending "free" mandates at the expense of religious liberty and morals shows how out of touch Obama is with the average American family ...
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I travel by plane on a weekly basis.  While it is not the most pleasant experience these days, I've learned to deal with the scrutiny that is imposed on travelers in a post-9/11 America. In reality, I don't have much choice since flying is still the most convenient way to travel long distances. Like every other mildly irritated — or extremely frustrated — traveler, I'm required to provide a valid photo ID before I am allowed to fly. Of all the security measures that are imposed on us, including random pat-downs and full-body scans, the requirement that we present identification ...
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Education experts, counselors and parents often debate the question, "How do we persuade students to start thinking about college?" The answer, according to D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown, is simple and innovative: Require all students in District schools to take a college-entrance exam and apply to a college. Announced in January, Brown's plan has been described as "dramatic" and "provocative," and he defends it saying, "We have to get more young folks prepared to go to college." Brown's idea already is under attack and is certain to become an even bigger target as it is considered by the D.C ...
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The Reverend Jesse Jackson and other establishment civil rights leaders scolded South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley earlier this year, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day no less, for her state's voter identification law. They reminded her that her Indian ancestry (Gov. Haley's parents are from Amritsar in India's Punjab Province) makes her a minority. NAACP president Benjamin Jealous, a hostile opponent of ballot security measures, said that — by participating in King Day observances — Governor Haley is "willing to deify the dreamer and desecrate the dream." A more solemn Jackson intoned: "She couldn't vote before 1965, just as I ...
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It is often said that people truly cannot understand the United States of America until they have thoroughly traveled the nation. I'd like to challenge that reasoning somewhat — expanding it to argue that one really cannot understand our nation until they have obtained a passport and traveled outside its borders. I would add that this is particularly true for black Americans who are often trapped in inner cities and regularly surrounded with seemingly inescapable crime, violence, discrimination and poverty. For these people, foreign travel can provide a unique experience. One of the greatest privileges one has as an American ...
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Fearing a political backlash over his rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, President Barack Obama tried to use his State of the Union address to appease critics of his war on fossil fuels. By stealing conservatives' "all of the above" energy policy, Obama is trying to diffuse criticism of his flawed energy policy. In particular, Obama's call for more oil and gas drilling in his State of the Union address was meant to deflect attention away from his failure to approve TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline. TransCanada has already invested $1.9 billion in the project and abided by the federal regulatory ...
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The ubiquity of email, social networking websites and other factors are causing a steady decline in the number of people using the services of the 236-year-old U.S. Postal Service. As banks, credit card and utilities companies increasingly offer online payment options, people frequently pay bills without using the USPS.  The result has been a decrease in first-class mail volume from 104 billion in 2001 to 73.5 billion in 2010, with further decline expected over the next decade. Many groups, including the National Association of Letter Carriers, urge Congress to take action to save the USPS from an impending demise.  In 2006, Congress acted ...
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There were reports of babies out in the cold for hours in Houston. In Indianapolis, two dozen police officers used pepper spray to control an unruly crowd that pried shopping center doors off their hinges. These were just a few of the scenes caught on video across America as people tried to get their hands on a pair of sneakers. These instances point to a moral breakdown of our society — especially among young people with misguided priorities who are not held accountable for their actions.  Morals have seemingly taken a back seat to things that are thought to be ...
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Occupy Wall Street protesters are embraced by our President, lauded by members of Congress and by others as a movement that is good for America — as opposed to, in their opinion, the Tea Party movement. The Occupy effort, months old now, is still receiving unprecedented positive media coverage. Unlike the Tea Party, however, this new group of activists is involved in violence, lawbreaking and many other despicable actions. But, if you listen to the media, the Tea Party and Occupy protesters are voicing similar positions and act alike. In reality, they are worlds apart. For example, the Tea Party ...
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Self-appointed and media-approved members of the black "leadership" in America appear either silent or openly supportive when it comes to rewarding the actions of illegal immigrants. This is in direct contrast to how the civil rights establishment, black and otherwise, operated in the past. Past generations of civil rights leaders appeared to understand the negative effects of illegal immigration on their constituents and communities. Their words and actions helped protect the gains of working-class Americans in contrast to their successors' calls for amnesty and open borders. For example, Cesar Chavez, the Hispanic labor advocate lionized by the left, advocated for ...
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Glenn Beck was more ahead of his time than I realized in 2009 when he aired his first program to prove the existence of black conservatives. Despite Beck's assistance, we remain largely unseen on the news channels. As a black conservative advocate of how blacks should (and, in many instances, do) embrace conservative values for more than a decade, the media does not call us as often as it should. Black conservative voices must become ubiquitous. We aren't anomalies. The problem is that we aren't being heard. That's a shame since it is precisely because black conservatives are infrequently invited ...
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In the past several months, there have been increasing attacks on the SAT — the college admissions-related standardized test — that include charges that it is racially and culturally biased. Additionally, activists are pushing colleges and universities to adopt a test-optional policy that would give each student the option to exclude test results from his or her admissions package. Some of this effort is rooted in concern for students' self-esteem. At the moment, the SAT is still very much a factor in the college admissions process. To that end, seven students were recently arrested in an alleged SAT cheating scandal ...
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