http://www.tedgalencarpenter.com/blog Promoting Peace and Freedom in the World Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:56:10 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've long argued that the mission in Afghanistan has morphed from a limited, focused effort to damage al-Qaeda into a foolish and expensive--in both blood and treasure--nation-building crusade.  But there is now evidence that we are spending billions of tax dollars and risking the lives of our soldiers to protect ... http://www.tedgalencarpenter.com/blog/?p=405 I haven't weighed-in on the "ground zero mosque" controversy before, although some of my colleagues at the Cato Institute have done so on both sides of the issue.  However, the tone of the opposition to the building of the mosque (actually a multi-functional Islamic cultural center) makes me increasingly uneasy.   First of ... http://www.tedgalencarpenter.com/blog/?p=389 The campaigns are well underway for the midterm congressional elections, and the vast quantities of hot air being vented could explain the extraordinarily high temperatures most the country has been experiencing this summer.  One of the most irritating features of this campaign season is the apparent GOP assumption that Americans have been afflicted by ... http://www.tedgalencarpenter.com/blog/?p=366 Sarah Palin has already acquired a reputation of being George W. Bush or Dan Quayle in a skirt.  In other words, there is a suspicion that there isn't a lot of activity between her ears.  Her latest comment on the bloated U.S. "defense" budget won't dispel those suspicions. Palin has made ... http://www.tedgalencarpenter.com/blog/?p=353 Just when you think that the guardians of airport security, the TSA (Terminally Stupid Agency), can't get any more obnoxious in the way that it treats hapless airline passengers, along comes this little gem.  The arrogant TSA bureaucrats have now moved beyond frisking grandmothers and small children as possible terrorists ... http://www.tedgalencarpenter.com/blog/?p=348 Yes, our zealous educational bureaucrats are at it again.  This time, yet another school in Texas imposed a bizarre, one-week suspension on an elementary school student.  Her offense?  Possession of a Jolly Rancher's candy that a friend had given her.  It seems the healthy food police insist that possession of such evil ... http://www.tedgalencarpenter.com/blog/?p=329 Last month, I spent nearly three weeks in Australia and New Zealand.  In addition to delivering some speeches on U.S. foreign policy, especially the future of America's role in East Asia, I held a number of meetings with defense and foreign ministry officials in both countries.  Three important insights emerged from ... http://www.tedgalencarpenter.com/blog/?p=321 Vice President Dick Cheney always impressed me as the most dangerous and vicious member of the Bush administration.  He seemed to regard war as the answer to every foreign policy problem, and his contempt for the Constitution and civil liberties was legendary. But his daughter, Liz Cheney, seems determined to outdo ... http://www.tedgalencarpenter.com/blog/?p=310 The good people of New York City have been saved from a pint-size criminal.  It seems that Patrick Timoney, a fourth grade student at PS 52, dared to bring a weapon to school.  That weapon was a 2-inch plastic gun from his Lego set.  The PS 52 principal lectured young ... http://www.tedgalencarpenter.com/blog/?p=306 Just when you think the "security" measures at the airports can't get any more absurd, along comes this gem.  It seems that the latest terrorist suspect is an 8-year-old Cub Scout, Michael "Mikey" Hicks.   The practitioners of security theater (taking highly visible measures to make travelers feel safer without actually ... http://www.tedgalencarpenter.com/blog/?p=301