Justice Roberts Gets it Right
March 12, 2010
Scene at State of the Union Very Troubling
Barack Obama is the second Democrat president in a row to fail to understand the appropriate dignity and decorum required of the office of the Presidency. There are things you just don’t do and say, out-of-bounds and inappropriate, and it was altogether wrong for the President to call out the Supreme Court merely because he didn’t like one of their rulings. Chief Justice Roberts is to be applauded for saying what he did (a couple months after the fact, by the way, and only in response to a question). I’d be tempted, were I in his shoes, to skip that dog-and-pony show when next January rolls around.
Stossel on Education
February 18, 2010
Public education doesn’t work. If that fact isn’t as plain as the noses on our faces, we’re ignoring reality. Before I go further, quick aside: I always, when I write on education issues, try to be careful to signal my profound appreciation for the many good public school teachers/administrators out there, who take their jobs seriously, who put their students’ achievement ahead of their own advancement, who sacrifice to help prepare kids for society. Among these are many fine Christians who see their calling as taking their faith into the classroom–muted as they are required to be about it. I salute them, applaud them, and appreciate them.
But they are fighting, I believe, a losing battle. And not to recognize that fact is to doom us to continue the failed educational policies of the past half-century.
The fact is that, as Stossel points out, the elitists in control, from Comrade Obama on down, see more government involvement in our schools as a good thing, when the facts at hand argue just the opposite. We spend more; we get no discernible results. Right now, we are spending a boatload of money on public education, with little to show for it; there is effectively no correlation between the amount of money spent on education and the results in the lives of the students (remember that the next time they want to raise your taxes to support education). As Stossel concludes, “choice works, but government monopolies don’t.” And he’s right.
Krauthammer Nails It
January 25, 2010
Funniest and best point Krauthammer makes is in response to Comrade Obama’s silly sentiment, when he said that Scott Brown was elected “not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.”
Right, says Krauthammer in effect, so let us get this straight: Massachusetts voters are still so ticked at George W. Bush that they elect a Republican senator to Teddy Kennedy’s seat. Priceless.
Private Sector Experience Not Needed
December 17, 2009
Not in the Obama administration, at least.
We’re nearly a year into our latest presidential experiment. After our 8-year “let’s see what happens when we turn the government over to a teenager” approach (we call that the “Clinton Administration”), and another 8-year experiment we can label “let’s see what happens when we turn the government over to a ‘conservative’ who doesn’t see the redundancy between ‘compassionate’ and ‘conservative’” (the semi-disaster we call the “Bush II Administration”), we’re now hip-deep into the “let’s see what happens when we turn the government over to an utterly inexperienced leftist” experiment. Thankfully, the president’s poll numbers are dropping like a rock; after my shock that any American would vote for such a woefully-underqualified man for president, maybe the polls help restore a smidgen of my faith in the American public–but I digress…the point of this post is to ask you to go and look at a graphical representation of the lack of private sector experience of Comrade Obama’s cabinet appointees, in comparison with the other presidents since Teddy Roosevelt. Hint: the difference between this one, and all the rest, is stark and scary.
No wonder we’re getting the “solutions” we’re being offered…
In a Word…
September 21, 2009
The epitome of it. Seven men who have served this country under presidents Democrat and Republican, band together and with one voice plead with the President to cease and desist on this CIA probe–and Mr. Obama, apparently, knows more than these guys.
I keep wondering what’s the greatest threat about this man’s presidency: his far-left agenda, his gross inexperience, or his arrogance. Put together, they make for a powerful punch to the mid-section of this country.
The Stimulus that Didn’t Stimulate
September 18, 2009
Of course, the rhetoric from our Dear Comrade began a few weeks back, claiming that his master stroke of genius, the Ridiculous Government Pork Spending Bill of 2009 (that was the name of it, wasn’t it? Maybe not…) was the reason the economy was showing signs of life.
Ummm…no, Mr. President.
Oh, my, I hope Jimmy Carter doesn’t read this…
Joe Wilson, Part II
September 16, 2009
Joe Wilson’s rude outburst gave ammunition to the race-baiters–well, it actually didn’t, but that didn’t stop the race-baiters from playing the race card, injecting a racial tone into the whole conversation. It’s despicable; it’s unAmerican; it’s godless. But there were some of the usual hacks:
– Jimmy Carter–the little president who cried “race”–is either a liar or a loon (here’s the video). I’m honestly not sure which; he may be getting senile, I don’t know, and I’m honestly not trying to be mean–but when one says what Mr. Carter has, he’s either just lying through his teeth, or he’s just losing his mind. How else can one read his inane comments?
– Maureen Dowd, who’s never been too worried about accuracy or fairness; she hears “an unspoken word in the air: ‘You lie, boy‘”. Well, hmmm, Ms. Dowd, wonder why you hear it? Maybe it’s what you’re listening for? Maybe you’ve got those ears trained to detect what isn’t there, because you’ve been schooled well in playing that race card every time things get a little hot for your leftist of choice, if he happens to be black? Thank you, by the way, for mentioning that “no Democrat ever shouted ‘liar’ at W.”, a fact as irrelevant as it is misleading (“lying with the truth”, is what I’m coming to call it); it may be technically true, of course, but to paint a picture of Democrats being genteel and warm toward the ex-Prez is, as we all know, total malarkey.
Funny: when I think of liberals, I’m reminded of a rude/hilarious remark by Jack Nicholson in As Good as it Gets: remember the scene on the elevator with the lady who compliments Nicholson’s gruff, insufferably rude character on his abilities? “How do you write women so well”, she asks (and I paraphrase). “Well”, Nicholson says, “when I want to think of a woman, I think of a man, and then subtract reason and accountability”. OK, it’s crude and unfair, and my female readers probably hate me for referencing it–but you gotta admit, it’s a funny line. My point is that it must be nice to be a liberal and not have to really concern oneself with things like factuality and consistency.
– Certain U.S representatives who follow right along, all too eager to make political hay by making ugly allegations, despite a dearth of evidence.
And so a few thoughts:
1. Racism is an ugly, egregious, godless evil. It is inexcusable, a remnant of our fallen nature. Any civilized society must continue to work until racism is shamed out of existence.
2. Racism is practiced by people of all colors, ethnicities, and political sensibilities. White conservatives do not have a corner on the racism market. Yes, it is racist to take the color of an individual into account when voting. It is racist to vote against a black man (or woman) just because of the color of the person’s skin. It is also racist to vote for a black candidate simply because of the color of that person’s skin. Those of us with half a brain know that there were people on both sides of the coin in the last election, people who voted against President Obama because he was black, and others who voted for him because he was black. Both are wrong, any way you slice it.
How come folks in the latter camp get away with their racism?
3. Racism is still alive in America. Anyone who suggests otherwise is, of course, out to lunch. There are nutjobs among the Teaparty movement, racists who make graphic, inappropriate signage. There are nutjobs among the liberal elite as well, less likely to espouse in-your-face bigotry, but more likely to espouse “the soft bigotry of low expectations”. When we fail to hold people to equal account despite skin color, and the basis for our failure is skin color, we engage in that “soft bigotry”.
4. We have made great strides in this country in the area of racism in the last 50 years. If you don’t understand or agree with that, please stop reading this post and learn some history.
Nothing else I say will matter to you until you do, and nothing has already, probably.
5. The Jimmy Carters, Jeanine Garofalos, and Maureen Dowds of the world set back racial progress every time they turn an event like the Joe Wilson comment into a racial thing. There is enough real racism that we ought to continue to combat that to find it where it is not there is the equivalent of the little boy who cried wolf. One is tempted to draw the obvious conclusion: when you’re losing the argument, attack the opposition. The liberal argument is being lost–as it is every time it finds itself exposed to the light of day and seen for what it is. And so you’ve got these simpletons whipping out the race card and playing it. How will we know when we’ve put racism to bed once and for all? I doubt we’ll ever fully do that, of course, but it’ll be a good sign when no longer do the Carters and their ilk pull out that card and play it at every opportunity.
6 (and final). Political dissent does not prove racism. It doesn’t even suggest racism. It doesn’t have anything whatsoever to do with racism (at least by its simple existence). I opposed most of Mr. Carter’s policies, Mr. Clinton’s policies, and frankly, a good deal of W.’s policies (particularly the longer he stayed in office). I suppose I was racist against these guys? Right. Where y’all getting the really good stuff? ‘Cause you’re sure smoking it…
Look, Barack Obama proved an extraordinary candidate and swept into office; though I don’t like his policies, he’s a great politician who made it to the top, regardless of color. Now that he’s there, he must be held to account for what he does. To do otherwise, just because he’s black (half-black/half-white, actually, but that’s irrelevant, of course), is to engage in that soft bigotry, and that’s every bit as bad–and more insidious–than the clowns in the white robes. Do we believe that people are “created equal”? Either we do, or we don’t. I do.
I’m not convinced that Mr. Carter really does.
This phrase comes from the 1978 "Jonestown massacre" in which most members of the Peoples Temple cult, blindly following their leader Jim Jones, committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
Osborne: A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God
Schlossberg: Idols For Destruction
