It’s time for some common-sense media control.
Category Archives: Political Commentary
Foreign Policy Screwups
Note that these are just the top five of the year, not only five. Given the election results, expect it to continue.
The State And Local Income Tax Deduction
Time to eliminate this subsidy to the rich.
Help, I’ve Fallen Down!
…and I can’t testify about Benghazi.
I’m sure the timing of this is purely coincidental.
A False Sense Of Security
It’s past time to put an end to “gun-free” zones.
Also, what can we do to stop massacres? Disarming the law abiding is exactly the opposite of what we need to do.
[Update a few minutes later]
The key difference between the Clackamas mall shooting and Sandy Hook Elementary.
Autism
The vast number (like 99.999….)% of autistics, and particularly Asperger’s sufferers have not, and will not slaughter kindergarteners. So let’s stop talking about the autistic sociopath?
My Fearless Prediction From The Latest Massacre
Someone will propose that kindergarten teachers with autistic children not be allowed to own guns.
The Doctor Won’t See You Now
Thoughts on the current state of the American health-care system, from Mark Steyn:
They gave her the usual form to fill in, full of perceptive inquiries on her medical condition: Do you wear a seat belt? Do you own a gun? How many bisexual men are you now having sex with? These would be interesting questions if one were signing up for eHarmony.com and looking to date gun-owning bisexuals who don’t wear seat belts, but they were not immediately relevant to her medical needs. Nevertheless, she complied with the diktats of the Bureau of Compliance, and had her medical records transferred, and waited . . . and waited. That was August. She has now been informed that she has an appointment with a nurse-practitioner at the end of January. My friend pays $15,000 a year for health insurance. In northern New Hampshire, that and meeting the minimum-entry requirement of bisexual sex partners will get you an appointment with a nurse-practitioner in six months’ time.
Why is it taking so long? Well, because everything in America now takes long, and longer still. But beyond that malign trend are more specific innovations, such as the “Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology,” which slipped through all but unnoticed in Subtitle A Part One Section 3001 of the 2009 Obama stimulus bill. Under the Supreme National Coordinator, the United States government is setting up a national database for everybody’s medical records, so that if a Texan hiker falls off Mount Katahdin after walking the Appalachian Trail, Maine’s first responders will be able to know exactly how many bisexual gun-owners she’s slept with, and afford her the necessary care.
If she’s really paying over a thousand a month for insurance, she’s overpaying. She should cut back to a high-deductible catastrophic plan, and just pay the doctor (or nurse practitioner) herself.
And ObamaCare is just going to make all this much worse.
Potential Massacre Mitigation
By coincidence, the (lame duck) Michigan legislature passed a bill allowing concealed carry in places where it had formerly been outlawed, including schools and day-care centers. But they still have the option of banning it themselves. Still, it’s a big step forward.
The Federal Regulatory Tsunami
Scheduled to hit this year, with no warning. It’s like we’re reliving the Roosevelt administration.
[Update a while later]
Related: The wages of Wickard:
“The exhibition of the Hemingway cats is integral to the museum’s commercial purpose, and thus, their exhibition affects interstate commerce,” the court said. “For these reasons, Congress has the power to regulate the museum and the exhibition of the Hemingway cats.”
The USDA acted after a visitor complained several years ago about the museum’s care of the cats. The agency wanted the museum to obtain an animal exhibitor’s license; either cage the cats at night, construct a higher fence to contain them, or hire a night watchman to keep an eye on them; tag each cat; and construct “elevated resting surfaces” for animals, according to the opinion.
Can it get more ridiculous? I often say I’m glad that we don’t get all the government that we pay for, but things like this make me wonder if we actually do.