Alan Caruba column

Best known these days as a commentator on issues ranging from environmentalism to energy, immigration to Islam, Alan Caruba is the author of two recent books, "Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy" and "Warning Signs" — both collections of his commentaries since 2000 and both published by Merril Press of Bellevue, Washington.

His commentaries are posted on many leading news and opinion websites, and frequently picked up and shared by blogs as well. Caruba has his own popular daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.

In addition to the Center, Caruba — a longtime book reviewer — also posts a monthly report on new fiction and non-fiction at http://www.bookviews.com. The site recommends around sixty books each month on topics that include history, biographies, health, business, parenting, books for children and younger readers, and new novels. Caruba is a founding member of the National Book Critics Circle.

Initially a fulltime journalist, Caruba is a veteran public relations counselor who is often asked by members of the news media to comment on news involving PR issues. A longtime member of the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of Science Writers, Caruba maintains an Internet site for his professional practice at http://www.caruba.com.

Caruba resides in the Gaslight Commons in South Orange, New Jersey. In his former career as a journalist, he was the editor of a weekly newspaper, the East Orange Record, and as a columnist and feature writer for the Morris County Daily Record. He has been a contributor to many consumer and trade magazines. These days, his writings can be found in a variety of newspapers as well as on the Internet.

Alan Caruba

July 25, 2010

The unemployment rate keeps climbing and the polling results for the President and Congress keep falling. Conservatives are well aware that the Obama . . .

Alan Caruba

July 21, 2010

There is no single duty that a President has as Commander-in-Chief that is more important than ensuring the nation's engines of defense remain at a level that . . .

Alan Caruba

July 18, 2010

"The hope that fired up the election of Barack Obama has flickered out, leaving a national mood of despair and disappointment. Americans are dispirited over how . . .

Alan Caruba

July 14, 2010

You may have noticed that the mainstream media has virtually dropped "global warming" as a topic worth reporting. That can be traced to "Climategate," the . . .

Alan Caruba

July 11, 2010

I was frankly surprised when Barack Obama was elected President in 2008. I thought his self-identification as a black American would tip the scales to John . . .

Alan Caruba

July 4, 2010

Not far from where I live in New Jersey, in Montclair, Richard and Cynthia Murphy were arrested as Russian sleeper agents, allegedly in the employ of the SVR, . . .

Alan Caruba

June 27, 2010

Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! All those with business before the court of public opinion will draw near. A bill of indictment has been issued for Barack Hussein Obama, . . .

Alan Caruba

June 20, 2010

The Gulf of Mexico could turn into a giant dead zone if some means cannot be found to staunch the flow of oil and toxic gases emerging from the damaged well . . .

Alan Caruba

June 13, 2010

I do not know what it is about Islam and liberalism that causes both to turn logic and truth on its head, but we have been witnessing it in different ways in . . .

Alan Caruba

June 8, 2010

Next to the huge international hoax about global warming allegedly caused by carbon dioxide, the biggest lie being told to Americans these days is that we are  . . .

Alan Caruba

June 6, 2010

There is a cruel calculus of war. It is the number of casualties required to win. Beyond that, it is the consequences of losing. Sixty-six years ago, on June . . .

Alan Caruba

June 2, 2010

For anyone who has followed Al Gore's Green Brick Road to the land of Global Warming, there has to be more than a bit of schadenfreude — taking pleasure in . . .

Alan Caruba

May 31, 2010

Ever since polls have been taken there have been presidents who encountered disapproval during their terms in office. Usually history exonerates them to some . . .

Alan Caruba

May 24, 2010

When the government controls the provision of energy, it controls the lives of all citizens and the growth or failure of the nation's economy. Everything else, . . .

Alan Caruba

May 19, 2010

"Denial" is not a river in Africa, nor is it a proper term for the legion of climatologists, meteorologists, geologists, and others like myself who have devoted . . .

Alan Caruba

May 16, 2010

For some time now friends have been asking me why I haven't written anything about the Arizona law, amnesty, illegal immigration, and Mexicans. The problem . . .

Alan Caruba

May 14, 2010

It's not just the lies about climate change. It's not just the lies about renewable, wind and solar, energy. It's not just the lies about so-called . . .

Alan Caruba

May 11, 2010

It is almost beyond comprehension that Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) will introduce the Cap-and-Trade Act on Wednesday, May 12th, for . . .

Alan Caruba

May 9, 2010

We are now nearly nine years passed the attack on September 11, 2001 that killed some 3,000 Americans in the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and seventeen years since . . .

Alan Caruba

May 6, 2010

I feel sorry for atheists and this is particularly true on the National Day of Prayer, May 6th. Curiously, almost every atheist I know has read the Old and . . .

Alan Caruba

May 2, 2010

Lately I have been playing with the question, is the United States of America too big to fail? Greece's bonds are now rated as "junk." It will have to be . . .

Alan Caruba

April 21, 2010

It is no accident that April 22, Earth Day, is also the birth date of Vladimir Lenin, an acolyte of Karl Marx, the lunatic who invented communism as an . . .

Alan Caruba

April 20, 2010

While America maintains the greatest military power in the history of mankind, fearful of another terrorist attack on its soil, it is being destroyed from . . .

Alan Caruba

April 18, 2010

Among the legacies of Richard M. Nixon, famed for the Watergate scandal that forced his resignation, it should be noted that he created the Environmental . . .

Alan Caruba

April 14, 2010

President Obama, his weird circle of advisors (czars), and the ideologues within the Democrat Party led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid . . .

Alan Caruba

April 10, 2010

We now live in a nation that will not name its enemy. Homeland Security wants to eliminate terms like Islamic jihad or terrorism from its vocabulary lest we . . .

Alan Caruba

April 8, 2010

The British, when they still ruled the American colonies, learned to their displeasure what a bad idea it is to pick a fight with patriots. By the time the . . .

Alan Caruba

April 3, 2010

I come from a generation, just as several before it, that was drafted into military service. The Draft, conscription, goes back to the days of the Civil War and . . .

Alan Caruba

April 1, 2010

Lisa Jackson, Obama's EPA director, has just announced the agency's new auto regulations of gas mileage based on global warming. In addition, the agency asserts . . .

Alan Caruba

March 30, 2010

I keep wondering when the world is going to begin to take Islamic terrorism seriously. The world's leaders and, in particular, the media could begin by . . .

Alan Caruba

March 29, 2010

As the sun begins to set on an America whose dollar set the standard and whose capacity for manufacturing was unchallenged, a new superpower is emerging and it . . .

Alan Caruba

March 24, 2010

"Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy that did not commit suicide." — John Adams (1835-1826)  . . .

Alan Caruba

March 23, 2010

On Tuesday, March 23rd, when Benyamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of the Jewish state of Israel, meets with President Barack Hussein Obama, a Muslim, he will . . .

Alan Caruba

March 20, 2010

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than . . .

Alan Caruba

March 17, 2010

Don't you think, if the Democrats had the votes for Obamacare, it would be the law of the land right now? I have been telling friends for days that it doesn . . .

Alan Caruba

March 15, 2010

During what can only be hoped will be the final struggle between the socialist and capitalist approach to health care the debate is focused on the cost of . . .

Alan Caruba

March 14, 2010

Both my Father and older brother were Certified Public Accountants. Around the dinner table, the Internal Revenue Services was spoken of as the adversary. "Tax . . .

Alan Caruba

March 7, 2010

One of the keystones of the Obama administration's energy policies has been a very expensive emphasis on "clean energy," sometimes called "renewable energy," . . .

Alan Caruba

March 4, 2010

What was that most homeowners and apartment dwellers most feared in the recent record-breaking blizzard that hit the northeast? The answer is losing . . .

Alan Caruba

March 3, 2010

The author and conservative icon, Ayn Rand, wrote that "The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default; by the moral . . .

Alan Caruba

February 27, 2010

After seven and a half hours of the Republicans trying to introduce some rationality into the discussion of Obamacare, the "reform" of Medicare that actually . . .

Alan Caruba

February 25, 2010

"In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of . . .

Alan Caruba

February 20, 2010

As the massive global warming fraud implodes, the one aspect of it that has not been explored in depth is the equally massive waste of billions of dollars spent . . .

Alan Caruba

February 14, 2010

The most enduring images of the Great Depression from 1929 through to the beginning of World War II for America in 1941 were those of homeless people, hobo . . .

Alan Caruba

February 11, 2010

The announcement by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that Iran was now "a nuclear state" . . .

Alan Caruba

February 6, 2010

Perhaps it is just the product of the times in which I grew up and my experience with the events of the world. Or perhaps it is the spin that has been added to . . .

Alan Caruba

February 3, 2010

When President Obama announced he would commit the nation to reduce "greenhouse gas emissions" in accordance with the failed UN Copenhagen Climate Change . . .

Alan Caruba

January 31, 2010

All across America, various environmental organizations have been engaged in schemes to deter development such as housing, new energy plants, or the horror of a . . .

Alan Caruba

January 28, 2010

After the State of the Union speech and the instant analyses on television and the punditry that follows on newspaper's editorial pages and, of course, on news . . .

Alan Caruba

January 24, 2010

"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." — Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister It began as a . . .

Alan Caruba

January 20, 2010

Yes, it's true. The emperor has no clothes. Even in a State where you cannot swing a dead cat without hitting a dozen Democrats, the voters said "No." "We . . .

Alan Caruba

January 18, 2010

The earthquake in Haiti is a perfect example of the arrogance of environmentalists who are always running around crying "Save the Earth" or making claims that . . .

Alan Caruba

January 16, 2010

I have a friend who lives with his blind Malamute dog, Boris, in a cabin deep in the Missouri woods. He is as self-sufficient as one can be, but he is not one . . .

Alan Caruba

January 15, 2010

Barack Obama taught a University of Chicago Law School course on the U.S. Constitution. In response to inquiries during the campaign, the school released the . . .

Alan Caruba

January 10, 2010

"I was impressed as never before by the utter lack of logic of the man, the scantiness of his precise knowledge of things that he was talking about, by the . . .

Alan Caruba

January 7, 2010

Some say the world will end in fire; Some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I . . .

Alan Caruba

January 2, 2010

I have this theory about Barack Obama. I think he's led a kind of make-believe life in which money was provided and doors were opened because at some point . . .

Alan Caruba

December 27, 2009

If you felt a frisson of fear on news that the Senate had passed Obamacare the day before Christmas, then you now know what it was and is like to live in a . . .

Alan Caruba

December 26, 2009

If there is an American remaining who does not understand that the Islamic revolution is at war with our nation and the West, then they are in serious denial.  . . .

Alan Caruba

December 24, 2009

The news of the day before Christmas is that former President Jimmy Carter has apologized for anything he has said or done to offend America's Jewish community . . .

Alan Caruba

December 20, 2009

When I listen to politicians arguing the merits of some piece of legislation, I am usually 99% sure they have no idea how demography — population — will effect . . .

Alan Caruba

December 17, 2009

When President Obama shows up in Copenhagen to take part in the greatest fraud perpetrated worldwide in the modern era, there is only one thing you need to know . . .

Alan Caruba

December 12, 2009

Historians are likely to look back at 2009, the first year of Barack Obama's term in office and assess the damage it has done to Americans and to the image of . . .

Alan Caruba

December 10, 2009

One of the great ironies of the Climate Change Conference taking place in Copenhagen is that its focus is on "global warming" at a time when Planet Earth has . . .

Alan Caruba

December 6, 2009

"Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century's developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged . . .

Alan Caruba

November 28, 2009

When President Obama delivers a speech on why he is going to send more thousands of U.S. troops and spend more billions on the eight-year-old conflict in . . .

Alan Caruba

November 24, 2009

The revelations that scientists at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU) doctored the data supporting the global warming claims of the . . .

Alan Caruba

November 23, 2009

For those of us "skeptics" and "deniers" who have been jumping up and down, pointing at the Sun, and saying, "See, it's the Sun that determines how warm or cool . . .

Alan Caruba

November 21, 2009

I never cease to marvel at the environmental alarmists who create one "crisis" after another using wretchedly bad "science" to support their scams. On Tuesday, . . .

Alan Caruba

November 15, 2009

You will recall that, shortly before the end of the 2008 political campaign, the White House announced a threat to the entire financial system and called on . . .

Alan Caruba

November 8, 2009

I have long harbored strong doubts about the knowledge that most Americans possess regarding the sources of energy they largely take for granted. We flip a . . .

Alan Caruba

November 6, 2009

The earliest indications are that Major Malik Nadal Hasan, the alleged killer of thirteen soldiers who wounded 30 more at Fort Hood broke under the stress of . . .

Alan Caruba

November 4, 2009

The November 3rd elections were a turning point, swiftly reached. The inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama was followed by Tea Parties around the nation that . . .

Alan Caruba

November 1, 2009

In the movie, "Groundhog Day," the main character wakes up day after day, trapped in the same events, desperately looking for a way out of that living nightmare . . .

Alan Caruba

October 28, 2009

Though it pains me deeply, I have to agree with President Obama's reluctance to send more troops into Afghanistan. Perhaps he is thinking about the problems . . .

Alan Caruba

October 25, 2009

I am always amazed at the variety of choice that exists in my local supermarket. There are other supermarkets in the area, but the one I frequent most has lower . . .

Alan Caruba

October 20, 2009

Not long ago U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, told everyone they only had a few weeks in order to save the Earth from "climate change" and this week it's . . .

Alan Caruba

October 18, 2009

It has finally dawned on me why President Obama and the Democrats in control of the Congress rushed to pass an unread "stimulus" bill "redistributing" billions . . .

Alan Caruba

October 11, 2009

As the greatest hoax of the modern era, "global warming," bites the dust around the world, it behooves us all to contemplate why environmentalists — Greens — . . .

Alan Caruba

October 3, 2009

No single government agency has grown so big and so fast as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and no single agency threatens constitutionally guaranteed . . .

Alan Caruba

September 30, 2009

Here's a look at the introduction of a draft bill co-sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), co-sponsored by John Kerry (D-MA). It is the Senate alternative to . . .

Alan Caruba

September 27, 2009

It is not a new observation, but it is one that needs review and repeating every so often. Why do liberals always seem to get on the wrong side of any issue . . .

Alan Caruba

September 22, 2009

When World War Two arrived at America's doorstep, we had to virtually build an Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines from scratch. The war had been raging in Europe . . .

Alan Caruba

September 20, 2009

Iran has been at war with the United States for thirty years. When one's life spans time from the beginning of World War Two, the decades of the Cold War, . . .

Alan Caruba

September 13, 2009

There have been many mass marches on Washington, D.C., so the locals know how to make plans to anticipate the congestion and the police are polite and skillful . . .

Alan Caruba

September 9, 2009

Has it been eight years? What I learned from 9/11 was that a lot of Americans have concluded that it was America's fault we were attacked. That may sound . . .

Alan Caruba

September 6, 2009

In November 2008, I wrote of Afghanistan, "Having lived through the long years of the war in Vietnam, I can tell you that Afghanistan looks and smells like . . .

Alan Caruba

September 2, 2009

"Tailgunner" Joe McCarthy, a 1950s U.S. Senator who lent his name to any effort to expose America's enemies, was right. At the height of his fame, he said the U . . .

Alan Caruba

August 30, 2009

Here's a question that has been nagging me for months. Are Obama's ever-growing number of "czars" constitutional? I am not a constitutional scholar, but I have . . .

Alan Caruba

August 23, 2009

Though most Americans are unaware of it, the rest of the world is taking an active interest in the sometimes heated debate we are having regarding the alleged . . .

Alan Caruba

August 15, 2009

Referring to a 1990 report in The Economist, the editors recently said, "To revisit the Arab world two decades later is to find that in many ways history . . .

Alan Caruba

August 8, 2009

In 1898, an article by the great French novelist, Emile Zola was published in L'Aurore. It was addressed to the President of France. Zola accused the military . . .

Alan Caruba

August 2, 2009

The term "the perfect storm" has come to mean how circumstances and bad judgments come together to create havoc and death. I have begun to conclude that . . .

Alan Caruba

July 27, 2009

Ten minutes into the answer to the first question asked at President Obama's latest press conference, I had a kind of epiphany. This guy should be called the . . .

Alan Caruba

July 26, 2009

I have often wondered why it is such a tiny nation as Israel commands so much news coverage. Having declared its sovereignty in 1948, it is now just over sixty . . .

Alan Caruba

July 19, 2009

I recently read an interesting book by Christopher Kelly, "The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and The Fall of Rome." Our popular image of Attila is that of a . . .

Alan Caruba

July 12, 2009

If you can have a pride of lions and a gaggle of geese, then I suggest that the forthcoming July 17-20 meeting of the National Governors Association can be . . .

Alan Caruba

July 8, 2009

An estimated 2,000 "Tea Party" nationwide protests against excessive taxation did not get much coverage in the nation's mainstream media. You had to visit . . .