Kenneth Connor
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Articles by Kenneth Connor
January 24, 2012
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." No doubt this truism was at the top of Newt Gingrich's mind as he responded to John King's lead off question in the CNN Republican debate in South Carolina last week.
Mary Ann Gingrich, the second ex-wife of thrice married Newt, alleged in an interview ...
October 25, 2011
After nearly a decade of deployments, surges, and setbacks, after thousands of lives lost and over one trillion in taxpayers dollars spent, President Obama has announced that in keeping with the timetable originally established by President Bush all U.S. troops will withdraw from Iraq by the end...
November 15, 2011
In March 1964, New York City was rocked by the grisly murder of Kitty Genovese. Returning home from her job at a local sports bar, Genovese was attacked in the parking lot of her apartment complex and stabbed in the back while fleeing from her assailant. The murderer later returned to find Genoves...
December 20, 2011
Humility is not a virtue readily found in America today especially on the field of play. A football player makes a touchdown, a forward slam dunks the ball, or a designated hitter rockets a grand slam out of the park, and it's all about high-stepping, chest-bumping, trash-talking and other over-t...
January 10, 2012
In politics, as with many competitive enterprises, frontrunners love to promote the myth of inevitability. Having squeaked out the narrowest of wins in Iowa and now polling favorably in New Hampshire, Mitt Romney is attempting to capitalize on the notion that his nomination is inevitable. If Repub...
October 04, 2011
The need to worship is hardwired into the human psyche. Yet, as unfashionable as it's become in the last century to worship the God of Creation, the same cannot be said of the worship of political heroes. The most notable and horrific examples that come to mind are found in the frenzied, almos...
September 13, 2011
On Sunday, September 11, 2011, Americans across the country and around the world joined together to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. On virtually every television station, images of the horror and heroism of that day were interwoven with tributes to the fallen and inspiring acc...
July 29, 2011
"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12 (NIV)
Campus Crusade for Christ, one of the world's leading evangelistic ministries, is changing its name.
Apparently the passage of time and changing cultural sensit...
July 01, 2011
"[S]ome things must be said, and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice." Ayan Hirsi
In her best-selling autobiography, Infidel, Somali-born writer, politician, and activist Ayan Hirsi catalogs a lifetime of grievances against the Muslim culture and religion. Throughout ...
June 24, 2011
In modern politics, the "single issue voter" gets a pretty bad rap. He is seen as unrealistic and intellectually myopic, a disservice to his party and, ultimately, his cause. Politics, after all, is about pragmatism; it is the art of the possible, and no thinking person allows themselves to be gui...
June 10, 2011
In December, 2007, the Boston Globe published a Q&A with then-candidate Barack Obama in which the subject of Executive War Powers was addressed. "In what circumstances, if any," Charlie Savage asked, "would the president have constitutional authority to bomb Iran without seeking a use-of-force auth...
June 17, 2011
This week in Manchester, New Hampshire, seven Republican contenders faced off in the first GOP primary debate of the season, attempting to make their case to the American people for why they are better suited than President Obama to lead the country in these challenging times. In an evening relativ...
May 27, 2011
"Israel has no better friend than America, and America has no better friend than Israel." Benjamin Netanyahu
In a speech before a joint session of Congress this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed what so many of us know to be true: Israel is the only true friend America h...
May 20, 2011
"Pay all your debts, except the debt of love for others never finish paying that." Romans 13:8 (TLB)
As predicted, the American government this week reached it's $14.3 trillion debt limit. With our credit line officially tapped out, our leaders in Washington are scrambling to cobble togeth...
May 06, 2011
When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy. Proverbs 11:10, NIV
We finally got him. Almost a decade after the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, justice has been meted out to the mastermind of Islamic terror, Osama bin Laden.
Though ...
April 29, 2011
Let's not kid ourselves: The policy train in American government has largely been driven by powerful special interests. These enterprises invest enormous amounts of time and money in political campaigns in order to ensure that their agenda is advanced on Capitol Hill. Over the years, particular in...
February 18, 2011
Inside the beltway, discussion of President Obama's proposed budget for fiscal year 2012 has provoked the "Sturm und Drang" that we have come to expect in the polarized partisan atmosphere that predominates in Washington.
The President maintains that his $3.7 trillion proposal which would produ...
February 25, 2011
Many times, the problems in life that seem most complex are quite the opposite: They are simple issues that have been complicated and muddled by factors such as emotion, obstinacy, greed, and dishonesty. Such is often the case with budgets. Whether you are managing a household, a state, or a count...
April 01, 2011
As the Iowa caucuses loom, potential contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination are jockeying for position, each eager to establish themselves as the person best-suited to take on Barack Obama. Needless to say, there has been a lot of temperature-taking a lot of fingers in the win...
March 25, 2011
It's deja vu all over again in Washington, as Republicans and Democrats face off over the budget and the possibility of a government shut-down looms on the horizon. Just as in the budget showdown of 1995, the liberal Left is doing everything in its power to skew the terms of the debate, invoking cl...
April 22, 2011
With Washington's budget showdown over for now, at least attention has shifted to the next major government funding crisis on the horizon. With a mere $80 billion between the government and default, lawmakers, lobbyists, and Obama officials are scrambling to make the case for an extended line o...
April 15, 2011
In the days leading up to the eleventh-hour budget deal reached last Friday, the Liberal Left was out in frenzied force, gnashing their teeth in opposition to GOP efforts to end public funding for Planned Parenthood. Democrats invoked their tried-and-true class warfare rhetoric, insisting that Repu...
April 08, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011 marked the 43rd anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s tragic death. Cut down in his prime by an assassin's bullet, Dr. King's legacy is one of perseverance, bravery, and sacrifice. He was a man bold to stand against a culture steeped in racism and institutionalized pre...
March 18, 2011
In America, it´s easy to take freedom of speech for granted. After all, for citizens of the United States, free speech is a birthright, an ideal deeply woven into the fabric of society and culture. Sometimes, however, our ideals come into conflict with reality, and our convictions are put to...
January 21, 2011
Ike's Admonition
By Ken Connor
The 50th anniversary of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's famous farewell address to the nation has prompted much discussion about the prescience of his message. Has Eisenhower's vision of an America dominated by a military-industrial complex come to fruition? W...
February 11, 2011
"We like to pretend that our experiments define the truth for us. But that's often not the case. Just because an idea is true doesn't mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn't mean it's true. When the experiments are done, we still have to choose what to believe." fr...
January 28, 2011
"[The right to trial by jury is] the most transcendent privilege which any subject can enjoy, or wish for, that he cannot be affected either in his property, his liberty, or his person, but by the unanimous consent of twelve of his neighbors and equals." Sir William Blackstone, from Commentaries on...
January 14, 2011
Why Waste A Good Tragedy?
By Ken Connor
The tragic shooting in Tuscon, AZ continues to dominate the headlines and occupy the attention of our President and Congress. Fueled by the relentless nature of the 24-hour cable news cycle and the modern impulse to derive a sociological lesson from eve...
November 19, 2010
The Road Ahead: Tax and Spend or Cut and Save?
By Ken Connor
As Congress' lame duck session gets underway, the nation is watching to see if the Democrats will attempt to capitalize on their last few weeks of hegemony before a huge shift in power occurs. Foremost on the agenda are the soon-to-...
October 24, 2010
"We
take our form-freedom balance in government for granted as though it were natural. There is form in acknowledging the obligations in society, and there is freedom in acknowledging the rights of the individual
. There is a balance here which we have come to take as natural in the world. It i...
October 21, 2010
The plight of elderly Americans has been a top concern of the Center for a Just Society since our inception in 2005, and as senior citizens comprise an ever increasing percentage of our nation´s population, the need is greater than ever to draw attention to a little discussed, little known epi...
October 05, 2010
It´s hard to imagine how the American public´s opinion of Congress could get much worse than it is already, but last week, Representative Zoe Lofgren tested this notion when she invited Comedy Central comedian and faux pundit Stephen Colbert to testify on Capitol Hill. At a time when ou...
September 24, 2010
As the midterm elections rapidly approach and Tea Party candidates continue to gain ground in primary battles across the country, the Republican establishment is beginning to feel the sand shift beneath their feet. Rather than resigning themselves to irrelevancy however, key leaders within the GOP ...
September 21, 2010
It´s deja vu all over again in Washington as the midterm elections rapidly approach and all signs point to an electoral route of the party in power. Four years ago, the Beltway was abuzz with news of a GOP bloodletting the result of an increasingly unpopular President, an unpopular war, a sp...
September 21, 2010
For a long time, the western world has largely accommodated competing religious views with a "whatever floats your boat" mentality. Religious pluralism has been respected, and the right to choose one´s own faith, or no faith at all, has been protected. Occasionally, tensions between competin...
June 25, 2010
It's been a rough few weeks for BP CEO Tony Hayward. Watching the embattled executive weather several hours of angry cross-examination on Capitol Hill last week, one almost felt sorry for the man. After all, it's difficult to take an ethical lecture seriously when its coming from the nation's most...
July 02, 2010
"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion." Thomas Jefferson
As if President Oba...
June 18, 2010
There's recently been some chatter in the blogosphere debating the need for a new amendment to the Constitution one that would require laws passed by Congress to apply to lawmakers equally as they apply to the rest of American citizens. The feasibility of such a measure is questionable, and curre...
June 17, 2010
A week after Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (otherwise known as Massive Bank Bailout Number One), noted journalist and polemicist Christopher Hitchens penned a scathing indictment of the measure in which he lambasted the contemptible state of America´s governm...
March 21, 2010
"We are bound by an inescapable garment of mutuality: Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail, 1962
After the American colonists´ petition to King George III for political representation in Parliament was rejec...
March 12, 2010
"Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent." Psalms 71:9 ESV
"You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD." Leviticus 19:32 ESV
In Christopher Buckley´s 2007 novel Boom...
March 05, 2010
"For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories." Plato
Over the course of the last century, Americans have become increasingly obsessed with psychology. We have embraced a therapeutic culture which posits that everyone is a victim, consciously or not, of emotional and en...
February 26, 2010
On February 22, 2010, nine months after President Obama signed the legislation, new credit card rules designed to protect consumers from the unscrupulous and manipulative tactics of credit card companies went into effect. The legislative momentum that led to the passage of the Credit Card Accountab...
February 19, 2010
"I´m like Punxsutawney Phil, but do you know what it means when I see my shadow? It means the earth is dying. Have you been outside today? It´s 60 degrees in late November. I mean there´s a Christmas tree in front of this building and guys are wearing flip-flops. You can´...
February 12, 2010
Three years ago, the medical community was stunned when Rom Houben―diagnosed to have been in a persistent vegetative state since a horrific car crash in 1983―was discovered to be fully conscious and aware. Unable to speak or communicate, he´d lived as a prisoner in his own body fo...
February 05, 2010
"We have met the enemy and he is us." -Pogo Possum
On January 24, 1995, President Bill Clinton delivered his State of the Union address to a Congress that looked radically different than the body of representatives that the President faced only one year earlier. Motivated by Newt Gingrich´s...
January 29, 2010
Anyone but Bush. This was a popular and oft-repeated phrase during the twilight of our 43rd president's first term. People incensed by the war in Iraq, people offended at the idea of a plain-talking Texan representing America around the globe, and people horrified by the President's overt embrace ...
January 22, 2010
"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother´s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother,...
January 15, 2010
Less than a month ago, on December 19, 2009, all eyes in Washington were fixed on one man: Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat from Nebraska. Senator Nelson found himself the man of the hour when it became clear that his vote and his vote alone was the only thing preventing the controversial Senate health...
December 18, 2009
"The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower is the slave of the lender." (Proverbs 22:7 ESV)
In the Old Testament book of Proverbs, King Solomon details the differences in thought, word, and deed between a wise man and a fool. In addressing the foolishness associated with borrowing money, h...
October 23, 2009
The subject of how best to honor and care for those facing death due to terminal illness or old age has always been controversial. As talk of "death panels" and "rationing" stirs debate over the government's proper role in health care, two new studies funded by the National Institutes of Health are...
December 04, 2009
"... to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough—the prime requisite is rightly to apply it." -Rene Descartes
"Don't bother me with facts, Son. I've already made up my mind." -Foghorn Leghorn
As world leaders prepare to gather in Copenhagen to discuss a global strategy for combatti...
November 20, 2009
Affordability, accessibility, quality―the hallowed trifecta at the center of the debate over health care reform. Proponents of reform argue that these three goals must be achieved for all Americans before any reform effort can be called a success. As a means to this end, supporters of market...
October 02, 2009
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
-Thomas Jefferson
The principle of "informed consent" is well established in American law and life. Whether preparing to undergo surgery or take out a loan, consumers have ...
September 11, 2009
"In the state of nature... all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law."
Charles de Montesquieu
In the ongoing debate over health care reform, critics on the right are increasingly citing th...
September 04, 2009
Sometimes fairy tales are better than non-fiction at communicating essential truths. Anyone who has read Shakespeare or been transfixed by the tales of Tolkien or C.S. Lewis understands this well.
In Steven Spielberg's blockbuster movie interpreting Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, viewers expe...
August 14, 2009
Ask any politician in the free world, and they will tell you that intense public scrutiny and uncomfortable clashes with detractors are all in a day's work for an elected official. The general expectation is for the recipients of such scrutiny to navigate the choppy waters of public discourse with ...
August 07, 2009
One of the most controversial issues of the current health care reform debate is the concept of health care rationing—allocating medical care according to predetermined criteria that dictate how much and what kind of care a given patient will receive under a government-run system. Setting asi...
July 24, 2009
"If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs.... Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart;...
July 17, 2009
Religious bigotry is alive and well in the scientific community, as evidenced by its response to President Obama's decision to appoint Dr. Francis Collins as the head of the National Institutes of Health. Though renowned for leading the team of scientists that successfully mapped the human genome, ...
July 10, 2009
There is no doubt that President Obama's most valuable political asset is his remarkable charisma—his ability to send the spirit of the nation soaring on the wings of hope and change. Among the hopeful visions and promises of change articulated by Mr. Obama in his inaugural speech this past J...
July 03, 2009
Last week, in the midst of President Obama's efforts to push unprecedented expansions of federal regulatory authority through Congress, North Korea's bellicose threats of nuclear annihilation, and the Iranian regime's brutal campaign to suppress political dissent, the American public's attention was...
June 19, 2009
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
—The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America
When Republican governors like Bobby Jindal, Haley Ba...
June 13, 2009
In public school classrooms across the country, religious liberty is under assault. Last month in Florida, two Christian student leaders at Pace High School were barred from speaking at their graduation ceremony due to fears they might mention their faith in violation of a court order stemming from...
June 06, 2009
Last week in Washington state a 66-year-old woman with terminal cancer made history as the first person to undergo physician-assisted suicide since that state legalized the practice in November of 2008.
Proponents of legalized suicide celebrated Washington's approval of this policy as a victory f...
May 21, 2009
In his much ballyhooed commencement address at Notre Dame, President Barack Obama urged protagonists in the abortion debate to respect the opinions of those whose views differ from their own.
Should abortion opponents respect the views of those who advocate abortion on demand? Absolutely not!
...
May 15, 2009
Contrary to popular reports by Democrats and members of the chattering class, the Republican Party is not dead—not yet.
In the aftermath of the 2008 elections, however, the GOP is hemorrhaging badly. It is dazed and confused. It is moribund, but it is not dead yet. Whether the Party of L...
May 08, 2009
The minute Justice David Souter announced his imminent retirement from the Supreme Court, the media began to engage in rampant speculation about who President Obama would nominate and what criteria would guide his decision. Unfortunately, most of the speculation centered on wrong-headed criteria li...
April 24, 2009
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May 01, 2009
Carrie Prejean's show of support for traditional marriage in the Miss USA Pageant has provoked a firestorm of controversy. Responding to judge Perez Hilton's politically charged question on whether other states should follow Vermont's lead in legalizing same-sex marriage, Prejean (Miss California) ...
April 17, 2009
For more articles and resources from Mr. Connor and the Center for a Just Society, go to www.centerforajustsociety.org
April 10, 2009
Many justice-hungry conservatives are angered at the recent dismissal of ex-Senator Ted Stevens's conviction for lying about gifts he received while in office. Conservatives are fierce in their defense of law and order. They believe in strong, swift justice. To see Stevens get off on "legal techn...
April 03, 2009
Controversy has erupted over Notre Dame's invitation to President Barack Obama to speak at its May commencement ceremony. The President will address the university and receive an honorary doctorate in law. Bishop John J. D'Arcy of the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese has decided not to attend the comm...
March 28, 2009
Let's not kid ourselves. The prevailing modus operandi of Washington politicians—Democrats and Republicans alike—is "pay to play." Money is the "mother's milk" of politics. Nothing warms the hearts of members of Congress as much as campaign contributions. Special interests invest in poli...
March 20, 2009
Americans appear to be losing faith in God and in our cultural institutions. Is the loss of confidence in one related to a loss of confidence in the other? The answer is unequivocally yes.
How we view God inevitably determines how we view our fellow man. And how we view our fellow man, in turn...
March 13, 2009
On Monday President Obama issued an executive order, removing the restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) instituted by former-President Bush. ESCR has provoked great controversy because it necessarily involves the destruction of nascent human life. Two alternative ...
March 06, 2009
In a move that surprised no one, mega-insurer A.I.G. and car manufacturers General Motors and Chrysler have all asked the federal government for more bailout money. G.M. and Chrysler's fate is up in the air, but, with the Democratic dominance in Congress, it is likely that they will get the extra $2...
February 27, 2009
Ken Connor is an attorney and co-author of "Sinful Silence: When Christians Neglect Their Civic Duty" He is also Chairman of the Center for a Just Society. For more articles and resources from Mr. Connor and the Center for a Just Society, go to www.centerforajustsociety.org
February 20, 2009
Stimulus: "something that rouses or incites to activity" (Merriam-Webster)
Barack Obama promised to get the economy's mojo working again with the passage of an almost $800 billion stimulus package. Wall Street responded with a Bronx Cheer and a 300 drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Wh...
February 13, 2009
For more articles and resources from Mr. Connor and the Center for a Just Society, go to www.centerforajustsociety.org
February 06, 2009
Ken Connor is an attorney and co-author of "Sinful Silence: When Christians Neglect Their Civic Duty" He is also Chairman of the Center for a Just Society. For more articles and resources from Mr. Connor and the Center for a Just Society, go to www.centerforajustsociety.org
February 07, 2009
For more articles and resources from Mr. Connor and the Center for a Just Society, go to www.centerforajustsociety.org