Archive for the ‘US current affairs’ Category
Will Obama be a one-term failure?
August 29th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
As long-term readers of NightHawk will know, I backed Barack Obama for the US Presidency from the moment he was elected to the Congress.
I first blogged about Obama in April 2004. Then I blogged 11 times on the Illinois Senate race which he won in November 2004. In my last posting on that election, I [...]
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What Americans believe
August 21st, 2010 by Roger Darlington
In the United States, a new national survey by the Pew Research Center finds that nearly one-in-five Americans (18%) now say President Barack Obama is a Muslim, up from 11% in March 2009. Only about one-third of adults (34%) say Obama is a Christian, down sharply from 48% in 2009. Fully 43% [...]
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The strange world of the Amish
August 17th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just finished watching the last of the four fascinating television programmes in a Channel Four series called “Amish: The World’s Squarest Teenagers”. The Amish are an amazing religious community, based almost totally in the United States, who effectively live life as their predecessors did when they emigrated from Switzerland in the 1700s & 1800s.
They [...]
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The American dilemma
July 18th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
From a non-American perspective, President Barack Obama seems to have done well in his first year and a half in the White House. He has managed to push through Congress three huge measures: an economic stimulus package, major healthcare reform, and a restructuring of the financial sector.
And yet, and yet, his poll ratings are so [...]
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Can God stop the BP oil spill?
June 22nd, 2010 by Roger Darlington
The Louisiana Senate unanimously passed a resolution declaring a day of prayer in an effort to invoke God’s help in stopping the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. You can read the full text here.
So, did it work? Well, the day of prayer was last Sunday. Noticed any difference at the spill? I have [...]
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The racial divide in the USA
May 19th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
As explained in this article, a report released this week by Brandeis University in Massachusetts reveals that a typical white American family is now five times richer than its African-American counterpart of the same class.
White families typically have assets worth $100,000 (£69,000), up from $22,000 in the mid-1980s. African-American families’ assets stand [...]
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“Yes we did”
March 22nd, 2010 by Roger Darlington
It’s terrific news that at long last President Barack Obama has managed to win health care reform and extend coverage to some 32 million Americans. But it was a close call won only after enormous effort and much compromise.
Last night, the House of Representatives approved the bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve by [...]
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Who would be Obama’s Chief of Staff?
March 7th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff, is coming in for a rough side as the President’s record itself is assailed from different perspectives. As this article in the “Observer” explains, Emanuel is being attacked from both angles: on the one hand, there are those who say he is too conservative and has let [...]
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Snow in Washington DC
February 9th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
My friend Carrie lives in Washington DC where the Federal Government has been closed down by snowmaggedon. This is her house.
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Sarah Palin’s top three prorities
February 7th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Read Sarah Palin’s answer, when asked what she thought that a Republican-controlled Congress’s top three priorities should be, here.
One of the fundamental principles of the United States Constitution is the separation of religion and the state – but Palin wants the Congress to seek “divine intervention”.
And Americans criticise Iran for being a theocracy.
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