Michael R. Shannon's Past Articles

215 articles

Two Wrongs ≠ A Right

published: January 28, 2013

It pains me to criticize Republicans acting aggressively on their own behalf, because lately it’s been rare. Sometimes it appears national GOP leadership would be content to emulate the panda...

Conservative Pacifists in the Culture War Part 2

published: January 21, 2013

Christ was no doubt on to something when He limited His public ministry to three years. Any longer and a mere human may forget what he said before or, even worse, lose enthusiasm for an earlier mes...

Gov. McDonnell Suffering from Legacy Fever

published: January 20, 2013

Judging from Gov. Bob McDonnell preoccupation with liquids one would almost think he’s a naval man, rather than an Army reservist. First he tried to free demon rum from state control by priva...

House Republicans Have More Than Two Options

published: January 06, 2013

There were a few anxious moments in the White House last night and early Thursday morning. For a brief moment it looked liked John Boehner’s re–election as Speaker might be in trouble. ...

Won’t You Come Home Bill Bolling?

published: December 30, 2012

Virginia’s Lt. Governor Bill Bolling is going to have to lose a considerable amount of weight and drastically increase his time on the tanning bed to physically resemble Charlie Crist, but Bo...

Surprised a Degraded Culture Produces Depraved Individuals?

published: December 23, 2012

Last Friday was evidently International Maniac Congruence Day. In Newtown a 20–year–old loser — whose newspaper photo bears a striking resemblance to the SS Totenkoph insignia &md...;

Misinterpreting Obama’s Tax Mandate

published: December 16, 2012

I have written before regarding Obama’s legitimate claim to a mandate for raising taxes on the “rich.” He made no secret of his plan to raise taxes during the campaign and voters ...

Let Obama Leap the Fiscal Cliff Alone

published: December 09, 2012

A recent editorial cartoon summarizes the political situation surrounding fiscal cliff negotiations. Two men are poised to fall down a steep incline. The one holding a newspaper that reads ‘t...

Evangelicals Flying Blind

published: December 02, 2012

Prominent on the list of things we didn’t know we needed is the new code of ethics for preachers released this year by the National Association of Evangelicals. It appears evangelical pastors...

Distinguishing Leadership from Politicianship

published: November 28, 2012

The feds aren’t alone in dealing with budgets this time of year. Although “dealing” is somewhat generous, since Uncle Sam doesn’t have to balance his. Congress and the Presi...

Republicans Advocate Surrender After Defeat

published: November 18, 2012

Evidently Romney campaign consultants were paying way too much attention to Michelle Obama’s War on Cafeteria Lunch Ladies. Consequently, when her husband offered a campaign built around Brea...

RepubliKKKans Fail to Defeat Obama

published: November 12, 2012

Tuesday I spent almost an hour waiting in line with a bunch of racists. Previously I would have described the experience as I waiting in line to vote, but thanks to the Associated Press, I now know...

Hurricane Sandy: Obama’s Social–Worker–in–Chief Moment

published: November 04, 2012

Hurricane Sandy — much like Barack Obama — turned out to be an over–hyped phenomenon that failed to deliver. Our portion of the storm in Northern Virginia was so weak the Multicul...

Private Sector Ends Unwanted Alien Invasion

published: October 28, 2012

Prince William County, VA is suffering the ill effects of another alien invasion and a collection of politicians is engaged in vigorous hand–wringing over possible solutions. No, this isn&rs...;

Gargoyle Joe Is Your Debate Firewall?

published: October 15, 2012

What does it say about a campaign when its hope for putting a stop to a precipitous decline in the polls is Joe Biden? Last night fireman Joe was at his pompous, bloviating best in the Vice Preside...

The Media Beats a Dead Macaca

published: October 07, 2012

Former Virginia GOP Senator George Allen has always been more politician than movement conservative. Allen throws us the occasional social issue vote — he opposes abortions, except in the pol...

Finally a Democrat on the Right Side of Taxes

published: September 30, 2012

Tim Kaine — known here as Gov. Flowmax after closing Virginia’s interstate rest stops — occasionally comes down on the right side of an issue. During the Fairfax Chamber of Commer...

Taxation Without Participation

published: September 23, 2012

Michael Kinsley described a “gaffe” as anytime a politician is caught telling the truth. This is particularly accurate for Republicans and conservatives as is demonstrated by the reacti...

President Obama: Jihad Your Chance to Win the Election

published: September 17, 2012

The term for Christians and other non–Moslems living in Islamic countries is “dhimmi.” Think of it as Jim Crow with a turban. Think of it as Jim Crow right now. According to Mitc...

Social Security: Issuing Checks & Hollow–Points

published: September 09, 2012

Some of the more excitable members of the conservative Internet commentariat sounded battle stations when they learned the Social Security Administration (SSA) wanted to buy 174,000 hollow–po...

Dang! I Missed Todd Akin’s Keynote Address

published: September 03, 2012

Life for a Comcast customer can be so frustrating. I’ve just gone 10 rounds with my DVR and the cable guide’s “search” malfunction. And I sit here in abject defeat. My goal...

The Inverse Political Ratio Between National Prominence and Life.

published: September 02, 2012

When Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell ran in 2009 the Washington Post spent the campaign trying to persuade the FTC to penalize him for false advertising since his campaign was not built around social i...

You Don’t Have to Be President to Impose Amnesty

published: August 20, 2012

Where I live we’ve already had extensive experience with small scale unilateral amnesty for illegal aliens without actual legal authority. Ours came courtesy of a “morally sensitive&rdq...;

Chick–fil–A: Fast food, faster hate

published: August 07, 2012

My sympathy goes out to the president of the Chamber of Commerce where I live. Here Rob Clapper was simply trying to line up an interesting speaker and suddenly he’s in the midst of a controv...

Gun Control Laws Only Control the Law Abiding

published: July 29, 2012

Just like the majority of police officers who never have to fire their gun during the course of a career, most civilians will never be shot at while watching a movie, browsing in a shopping mall or...