Gadfly ONLINE

Operation Vigilant Eagle: Is This Really How We Honor Our Nation’s Veterans?

by John W. Whitehead on May 22 2013

Just in time for Memorial Day, we’re being treated to a generous serving of praise and grandstanding by politicians, corporations and others with similarly self-serving motives eager to go on record as being pro-military. Patriotic platitudes aside, however, America has done a deplorable job of caring for her veterans. We erect monuments for those who die while serving in the military, yet for those who return home, there’s little honor to be found.

Despite the fact that the U.S. boasts more than 23 million veterans who have served in World War II through Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan, the plight of veterans today, while often overlooked, is common knowledge: impoverished, unemployed, lacking any decent health benefits, homeless, traumatized mentally and physically, struggling with depression, thoughts of suicide, marital stress. READ MORE.

Benjamin Franklin and the U.S. Constitution

by Gary Siebel on May 21 2013

Let us suppose 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin was actually healthy at the 1787 Federal Convention in Philadelphia, in short, that he was fully Franklin. Would such a person have had little impact on the Constitution?

To put it in a modern context, think in terms of, say, Mr. Warren Buffett, who at 82, still healthy and wealthy in 2012, was influencing national tax policy in America — would he have been without influence at the Federal Convention that invented the Constitution? Throw in a local residence with a dining room with seating for 24 about two blocks away, have him tell humorous stories in the most engaging manner of any delegate (indeed, of anyone in Philadelphia), give him the highest IQ in the room, make him governor of the State (elected unanimously) and the most prestigious man in America, with a constant stream of distinguished visitors to his house, and provide him the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong desire for unifying the colonies, slash, States — would such a man have had little influence on the Constitution? READ MORE.