…is a relic of history. And a dangerous one.
Category Archives: Political Commentary
The Bump On The Road To Nowhere
Thoughts from Mark Steyn on the state of the economy:
The Department of Education issues search warrants? Who knew? The Brokest Nation in History is the only country in the developed world whose education secretary has his own Delta Force. And, in a land with over a trillion dollars in college debt, I’ll bet it’s got no plans to downsize.
Nor has the TSA. A 24-year-old woman has been awarded compensation of $2,350 after TSA agents exposed her breasts to all and sundry at the Corpus Christi Airport security line and provided Weineresque play-by-play commentary. “We regret that the passenger had an unpleasant experience,” said a TSA spokesgroper, also very Weinerly. But hey, those are a couple of cute bumps on the road, lady!
The American Dream, 2011: You pay four bucks a gallon to commute between your McJob and your underwater housing to prop up a spendaholic, grabafeelic, paramilitarized bureaucracy-without-end bankrupting your future at the rate of a fifth of a billion dollars every hour.
In a sane world, Americans would be outraged at the government waste that confronts them everywhere you turn: The abolition of the federal Education Department and the TSA is the very least they should be demanding. Instead, our elites worry about sea levels.
The country’s in the very best of hands.
The “Reformer” Opthalmologist
…is about to slaughter a town in Syria. Isn’t this sort of thing what caused the president to decide to get involved with Libya? Strategically, getting rid of Assad is much more important than getting rid of Moammar whathisname, but strategy has never been this gang’s strong suit.
[Sunday morning update]
Israel seems to be all in favor of removing the chinless one:
Allied with Iran, Mr. Assad has helped supply 55,000 rockets to Hezbollah and 10,000 to Hamas, very likely established a clandestine nuclear arms program and profoundly destabilized the region. The violence he has unleashed on his own people demonstrating for freedoms confirms Israel’s fears that the devil we know in Syria is worse than the devil we don’t.
A regime change in favor on one not so favorable to the Mullahs would be a strategic body blow against both Iran and Hezbollah.
And it looks like the White House is finally getting a clue. But only a partial one. It’s a lot more than just a “humanitarian crisis.”
Dude, Where’s My Freedom?
A call to arms from Paul Hsieh. These people don’t realize what totalitarians they’re becoming.
[Update a few minutes later]
A ranking of the fifty states for freedom. As expected, California is among the worst. I was a little surprised to see South Dakota come out so well. I’m also surprised to see that Alaska is so bad.
Mitt Romney’s Energy And Economic Ignorance
Sigh…
I really don’t want him to be the nominee. I think that Pawlenty would be much better. He at least had the sense to change his mind on cap’n’tax.
In Which The Dalai Lama
…declares himself an economic and ethical ignoramus:
“Still I am a Marxist,” the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader said in New York, where he arrived with an entourage of robed monks and a heavy security detail to give a series of paid public lectures.
Marxism has “moral ethics, whereas capitalism is only how to make profits,” the Dalai Lama, 74, said.
Well, he can afford to be. The rest of us? Not so much.
Bipartisan Stupidity
Thoughts from Virginia Postrel on the light-bulb ban.
[Update a few minutes later]
More bipartisan stupidity (or crony capitalism, take your pick): the hidden costs of the ethanol subsidy. If you wonder why food prices are going up, this is one of the big factors.
More Foreign Policy Insanity
So much for the “special relationship“:
There seems to be no reason for the Obama administration to back a demand for negotiations over the Falklands, unless it’s just to curry favor with anti-American regimes by tossing our allies under the bus as appeasement. It’s an absurd stance and an insult to the British, as well as to the actual people on the islands themselves.
There must be some reason, but I doubt if it’s a good one.
Why Does Anthony Weiner Have To Resign
…when Bill Clinton didn’t? I ask the question over at PJM.
[Update a few minutes later]
Well, maybe this is why the Dems are so mad at Weiner — he lied to the president.
I say big deal. It’s not like the president doesn’t lie to us all the time.
A Recovery Not Remarkable Enough
Apparently, Congresswoman Giffords is still a long way from being able to meet her obligations to her consitituents:
Asked for a blunt description of Giffords’ condition, her chief of staff, Pia Carusone, replied: “She’s living. She’s alive. But if she were to plateau today, and this was as far as she gets, it would not be nearly the quality of life she had before.”
As to whether she resembles herself before the shooting, Carusone said, “There’s no comparison. All that we can hope for is that she won’t plateau today and that she’ll keep going, and that when she does plateau, it will be at a place far away from here.”
The news may be sobering, but it’s not necessarily a surprise. The state of Giffords’ health has been closely guarded information as early, hopeful accounts of her rapid physical and motor recovery yielded to more cautious — and less frequent — reports. She remains at a Houston rehabilitation facility while her staff manages her day-to-day congressional business.
Well, her staff can’t vote for her. Her constituents are essentially unrepresented in Congress. If I were one, I’d be demanding her resignation so they can have a special election, and if it didn’t happen, I’d try to recall her. But her staff doesn’t seem to think there’s a problem:
As far as her political career goes, the only deadline her staff is keeping in mind is May 2012, when she would have to file for reelection if that is her plan.
So they plan to have this go on for at least another year, and perhaps the rest of her term. It’s a tragedy, but if she can’t perform the job, she needs to be replaced with someone who can.
[Update a few minutes later]
It looks as though there is an Arizona law that could take care of the situation, but the Republicans seem reluctant to use it.