Month: July 2010

An old friend recently told me in an email that she worries about the leftism of her grandchildren: I must say I do not understand my grandchildren’s liberal leanings. It amazes me that intelligent people can believe in this administration. It is making me ill when I permit myself to dwell on it. I replied,…

Housing starts fall again. We may not see a rebound for a long time — and if we do see one soon, that may actually be a bad thing. Both Dems and the GOP created a housing bubble by encouraging lenders to make loans to people who weren’t good risks through policies at Fannie, Freddie…

I’m having an interesting discussion at Moral Authority about the homosexual plot to destroy American values and take down American civilization. That is not the first time American civilization took the short road to decline. Marriages were once decided on the basis of economic interests and personalities mostly by parents. And then by 1830 or…

I think we can learn a couple of things from this. One is: the government is not your friend. If you want their help they are not your servants. They are your masters. Be prepared to kiss a lot of butt from the get go. Government functionaries are like this as a class. Throw in…

A recent editorial in The Economist addresses whether Dr. Donald Berwick (new head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) really intends to ration health care as many conservatives suspect. The editorial calls this claim “politically explosive” but then goes on to defend and rationalize health care rationing: That leaves the third charge levied…

I think a good way to start off a look at fascism is to look at the root: fasces. Fasces are a bundle of wooden sticks with an axe blade emerging from the center, which is an image that traditionally symbolizes summary power and jurisdiction, and/or “strength through unity”. In other words the root of…

As a longtime conservative, I believe in building coalitions. We can’t agree on everything, and it doesn’t help the cause to concentrate on areas of disagreement. So says Robert Knight in a Washington Times editorial which concentrates on an area of disagreement on which I’d love not to concentrate. In fact, I would so love…

In condemning homosexuality Robert Knight, makes an interesting point. This is no small disagreement. Conservatism, if it means anything, reflects the understanding that, as Russell Kirk said, “there exists a transcendent moral order, to which we ought to try to conform the ways of society … such convictions may take the form of belief in…

The most personal of personal information about you — your health records — will soon be online, in the form of what the government calls an “EHR” (short for “Electronic Health Record”): New federal regulations issued this week stipulate that the electronic health records–that all Americans are supposed to have by 2014 under the terms…

I agree with Tom Smith that “the new DOJ website is kinda creepy.” And I’m also inclined to agree with the majority of those who took Glenn Reynolds’s poll that it’s only creepy if a website design by Darth Vader creeps you out. It’s not so much that it creeps me out (I’m actually kind…

Last night I stumbled onto a very strange account of one of the worst mass murders in United States history. I wasn’t really looking for it, but a friend emailed me a link to a site which lists the worst crimes committed within each state. Naturally, as I’m living in Michigan, my curiosity led me…

Instapundit has just put up a piece that deserves repeating in its entirety. WHAT TO DO? In response to this piece by Angelo Codevilla on America’s ruling class, readers wonder what to do. Well, a few things suggest themselves. First: Mockery. They are very mockable, and they are very thin-skinned. That leads them to erupt…

In the interests of science I like to run videos of science experiments from time to time. This one explores buoyancy, displacement, acceleration, energy transfer and probably a few other engineering if not scientific principles. Pay close attention. In fact to master all the concepts you probably ought to watch it several times. You can…

For some time, I’ve been predicting that the copyright laws would ultimately be used to defeat free speech. There are now countless examples. Remember when the New York Times tried to take down a parody site? When Michael Savage did the same thing by claiming that when his critics merely quoted his material to ridicule…

Speaking of local Ann Arbor politics, a woman named Patricia Lesko is running for Mayor, and among other things, she has criticized the fiscal irresponsibility of the incumbent administration. For daring to challenge the ruling establishment, she is being viciously attacked. Nothing unusual there, save the way they’re going about it. Ms. Lesko happens to…

That’s how government pension plans are described in this highly informative video I found via Michigan Capitol Confidential: What is happening is worse than most people imagine. Most people tend to think that the people on the public payroll are at least “working” in some capacity or another. But as the above documents, they often…

There appears to be a Republican sex scandal brewing in Chicago. I’m not going into all the details. For that you can start with the link provided (and some more below). What I want to look at is who is involved. Both Roupas and “The Prophet” are “Romney Guys”, a special brand of Republican we’ve…

It seems that there is a lot of excitement about purported Tea Party Racism. However, a former NAACP Chapter President isn’t buying it. The Rev. C.L. Bryant, a black Tea Party activist who used to be an NAACP chapter president in Texas, said charges of racism are lies intended to further a liberal political agenda.…

Few things better illustrate the perfidy and dishonesty of left wing activists than a stunning example I found at Bob Owens’ blog. A man wearing Nazi garb and spouting Nazi slogans showed up at a Tea Party rally, where he was promptly and angrily confronted, told he was not welcome, and all of this was…

When I read that Bill Clinton was helping out in the Obama White House — both as an adviser and as a fund raiser, I have to say I was startled, as there’s no love lost there. Because of the polls and the sour mood among the voters, the left is generally freaking out; there’s…