BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Some of those caught looting stores last week in Britain were asked why they did it. Four teenagers explained to Sky News that they viewed it as “a shopping spree.” One teen blamed the government: “They say (they) are going to help us but I don’t see any of it. There has to be more opportunities and jobs. Help us at least and then maybe everyone will settle down.”

This is the triumph of the entitlement mentality and the welfare state. Conservative MP Eric Pickles wasn’t buying it: “I think that is them trying to justify being thieves, robbers and burglars.” Read More»

My father was a product of the Great Depression and World War II. Like so many others of his generation, he, like his parents before him, knew how to “do without.”

When he told us, “we can’t afford it,” that did not mean our family was deprived of material things we deserved; instead it marked a boundary not to be crossed because on the other side, waiting to greet us, were the twin demons of bad credit and financial ruin.

“Always pay the bank,” was my father’s sound advice. And so I have, which is why my credit score remains high. Read More»

Texas Republican governor and potential presidential candidate Rick Perry will headline a “Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis” on Aug. 6 at Reliant Stadium in Houston.

The ACLU of Texas and liberals are predictably upset. Read More»

When parents send their children off to summer camp, they reasonably expect them to return refreshed and more attuned with the world than when they left home. Even in their wildest nightmares, they don’t foresee them returning in a pine box. Read More»

PLYMOUTH NOTCH, Vt. — If your disgust over America’s crushing debt and the irresponsible leaders who refuse to reduce unnecessary spending has reached the fed-up point, there is an easy solution beyond whatever compromise might be reached in the current standoff between President Obama and congressional Republicans. Vote Republican in 2012.

But don’t vote for just any Republican, rather vote for conservatives who believe the foundational principles of America still work and can rescue us from default, placing the country back on a track that leads to prosperity and greater liberty. Read More»

When Atlantis lifted off on its final mission scheduled for Friday, it brought to an end an era of space exploration that began for the U.S. with the Soviet launch of the unmanned satellite “Sputnik 1” in 1957 and the first man to fly in space, Russia’s Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961.

Alan Shepard followed Gagarin into space on May 5, 1961, becoming the second person, and the first American, to fly in space and under John F. Kennedy’s vision and with resolve and resources, the U.S. reached his stated goal of “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth” on July 20, 1969. Read More»

Is there a profit-making business — other than TV networks and The New York Times — that so disrespects its audience it works overtime to offend them?

What other business metaphorically flips the bird to those who don’t subscribe to their social, cultural and political worldview? That is precisely what big media does to a large number of potential viewers and subscribers. Read More»

I bet you didn’t know that federal law enforcement officers representing the Department of Education (DOE) can break down your front door if you are suspected of violating the law.

I was not aware of this until I heard what happened to Kenneth Wright of Stockton, Calif. On June 7, at 6 a.m., Wright was awakened by a knock on his door. According to his account, he came downstairs in his boxer shorts, but before he could reach the door, federal police officers stormed in. They were looking for his estranged wife, who was not in the house. Wright has no criminal record. Read More»

If the big media in 2008 had dedicated the resources they are now squandering on Sarah Palin’s emails from when she was governor of Alaska and probed Barack Obama’s background and associations, she might now be vice president of the United States and Obama might still be a junior Illinois senator.

Regardless of what you think of Palin, the vultures attacking her 24,000 pages of emails may represent the most flagrant example of bias since, well, since their attacks on any other Republican. “It could be fun,” said Ken Schwenke of the Los Angeles Times about the email probe. Read More»

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — The extinct political slogan, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation,” may be supplanted by what is happening in the United Kingdom.

There is a form of functional political illiteracy here that does not bode well for the United States should it follow Britain’s very bad example, particularly on matters involving immigration and healthcare. Read More»