Life's Inanities and Ironies

Nonprofits are on the front lines of the recession, tending to our neighbors in need. A new survey released March 21st finds that American charities expect 2011 to be another tough year of increasing demand and dwindling resources. The Nonprofit Finance Fund 2011 Survey finds that 85 percent of nonprofits expect demand for their services to expand this year, but fewer than half have the resources to meet that growing need. This comes after three consecutive years of increased demand on these nonprofits, the survey finds. “Years of economic uncertainty have forced nonprofits to adjust to the ‘new normal’ of scarce resources and increased demand,” said Rebecca Thomas, vice president of consulting services at NFF. “Some of the adjustments we’re seeing are creative and healthy... Other effects [such as] layoffs, people who need services being turned away... are further compromising the social safety net at a great cost to America.” That's a dire warning at a time when elected officia...

Vice President Joe Biden has a very clear idea of what should happen to a president who orders U.S. military forces to launch an attack on a foreign country without congressional authorization: impeachment. With some voices saying President Barack Obama should face impeachment for attacking Moammar Gadhafi’s forces in Libya, a videotape has surfaced from the 2007 campaign trail showing Biden threatening to impeach President George W. Bush if he attacked Iran without the approval of Congress. “I have written an extensive legal memorandum with the help of a group of legal scholars who are sort of a stable of people, the best-known constitutional scholars in America, because for 17 years I was chairman of the Judiciary Committee,” Biden said in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on “Hardball.” "I asked them to put together [for] me a draft, which I'm now literally riding between towns editing, that I want to make clear and submit to the United States Senate pointing out the...

Newt Gingrich has been incredibly brazen in the past few weeks, forming an exploratory committee to help consider his first steps towards a presidential bid in 2012. Yesterday it was reported that "if he runs for president he will make his announcement in early May outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia" and that he's leaning towards a "yes" on his decision to run. I'm in the George Will school of skepticism about Newt's run. I think of him as an attention hog with very few principles to rub together. Sure, he did a great service in 1994 as Speaker of the House. Sure, he knows a lot of history.* But look at his career after Congress! Vanity Fair really nailed Newt on his recent commentary regarding his adulterous past: In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network this week, Newt Gingrich blamed his history of philandering on patriotism: “There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt abou...

A look at our history books tell us why today’s American should not be willing to accept the new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home. They had waved goodbye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture. Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity. Most of their children came of ...