Peggy Noonan: MORE CLARITY

In "We're Governed by Callous Children" Ms. Noonan defines the problem with those who govern us at all levels. THIS IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF AMERICA'S PROBLEMS.

A couple of great insights:


"But a larger part [of the reason we feel the problems can't be solved] is that our federal government, from the White House through Congress, and so many state and local governments, seems to be demonstrating every day that they cannot make things better. They are not offering a new path, they are only offering old paths—spend more, regulate more, tax more in an attempt to make us more healthy locally and nationally. And in the long term everyone—well, not those in government, but most everyone else—seems to know that won't work. It's not a way out. It's not a path through."

and:


"They [those who govern us] don't feel anxious, because they never had anything to be anxious about. They grew up in an America surrounded by phrases—"strongest nation in the world," "indispensable nation," "unipolar power," "highest standard of living"—and are not bright enough, or serious enough, to imagine that they can damage that, hurt it, even fatally."


Read the column - it is an insightful and non partisan look at our government.

Victor Davis Hanson: CLARITY II

Do we have a Harry Truman or a Jimmy Carter in the White House. VDH, a well respected historian, lays out the choices BHO has in this column.

History sometimes puts things in perspective, as his opening paragraphs confirm:


"Upon entering office, Barack Obama knew little about foreign policy. But then neither did Vice President Harry S. Truman when Franklin Delano Roosevelt died suddenly on April 12, 1945.

President Obama often invokes the supposed mess abroad—especially in Iraq and Afghanistan—left to him by George W. Bush. But Mr. Obama's inheritance is mild compared to the myriad crises that nearly overwhelmed the rookie President Truman.

All at once Truman had to finish the struggle against Hitler, occupy Europe, and deal with a nominally allied but increasingly bellicose and ascendant Soviet Union. Within months of taking office he had to make the awful decision to drop atomic bombs on Imperial Japan."


An interesting read!

Victor Davis Hanson: CLARITY

VDH in "All Falling Down....." offers great clarity in explaining his pessimism over the BHO Aministration policies. An important read, particularly for my lefty friends, to understand another center right view.

An example:


"Hoping that something good comes true —like being self-reliant through solar and wind—does not make it true; neglecting the riches at hand to dream about greater riches that do not exist is adolescent. Radical Islam hates the West, not because of what we do or say, but because of who we are: a dynamic, mercurial culture that challenges all the protocols of a traditional, tribal and religiously fundamentalist society.

Diplomacy is a tool to lessen, but not eliminate, tensions—a way to conduct foreign policy, not a foreign policy in and of itself.

I hope I am wrong about all of the above, and that human nature really has magically changed in the era of Obama. So close your eyes, listen to the Messiah’s voice, and repeat: “Debts will be forgiven by creditors; inflation will not follow from massive borrowing; breakthroughs in solar and wind will power our cars and heat our homes; enemies will admire our compassion and join us to achieve world peace; and terrorists are either misunderstood or provoked needlessly by our bellicosity that alone stands in the way of peace.”

Believe all that and you can lay back and enjoy the age of Obama."

Charles Krauthammer: CLARITY

If you want to understand the center right - and I include myself in this group - read this Der Spiegel interview with Mr. Krauthammer. I'm sure Der Spiegel was taken aback!

A sample:


"SPIEGEL: Why do Europeans react so positively to him [Obama]?

Krauthammer: Because Europe, for very understandable reasons, has been chaffing for 60 years under the protection, but also the subtle or not so subtle domination of America. Europeans like to see the big guy cut down to size, it's a natural reaction. You know, Europe ran the world for 400 or 500 years until the civilizational suicide of the two World Wars. And then America emerged as the world hegemon, with no competition and unchallenged. The irony is America is the only hegemonic power that never sought hegemony, unlike, for example, Napoleonic France. Americans are not intrinsically imperial, but we ended up dominant by default: Europe disappeared after the Second World War, the Soviet Union disappeared in 1991, so here we are. Of course Europeans like to see the hegemon diminished, and Obama is the perfect man to do that. "


The left should think about every word above and the Der Spiegel article!

Clarity on Obamacare

A couple of good articles today explainging the problem with Obamacare:


Robert Samuelson comments on "The 'Public Plan' Delusion".

Arthur C. Brooks explains "Why Government Health Care Keeps Falling in the Polls".



Worth the read to understand what is being considered!

The Saul Alinsky Presidency?

James Taranto in the WSJ's "Best of the Web Today" analyzes the comments of a blogger explaining why BHO and his administration are attacking Fox. Interesting take and worth the read. Let us hope he is wrong on their motivation.

Krauthammer: Insight into our White House

If you want to understand the silliness of the White House attacking Fox read Mr. Krauthammer's "White House Tactics Go Too Far".

A sample:


"Fox News is no monopoly. It is a singular minority in a sea of liberal media. ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, NPR, CNN, MSNBC vs. Fox. The lineup is so unbalanced as to be comical -- and that doesn't even include the other commanding heights of the culture that are firmly, flagrantly liberal: Hollywood, the foundations, the universities, the elite newspapers."



If you do not see this, your perception of available news is being seen through ideological glasses!

He also points out that using a Mao idolater like Anita Dunn, whose ignorance was shown in the clip of her 2005 speech to high school students, does not help their credibility! I liked his clear expanation of the stupidity of her speech:


"Defend Fox from the likes of Anita Dunn? She's been attacked for extolling Mao's political philosophy in a speech at a high school graduation. But the critics miss the surpassing stupidity of her larger point: She was invoking Mao as support and authority for her impassioned plea for individuality and trusting one's own choices. Mao as champion of individuality? Mao, the greatest imposer of mass uniformity in modern history, creator of a slave society of a near-billion worker bees wearing Mao suits and waving the Little Red Book?"

Now that is pretty easy to understand!

Mark Steyn on MSM Limbaugh lies and BHO Administration Member Adulation of Mao

Mark Steyn in "Limbaugh Bad, Mao Good" catches the tone of the MSM/BHO Administration perfectly. Lie to defeat a very successful conservative; praise a communist dictator responsible for a minimum of 40 million dead Chinese to our high school students for following his own path!

Seems just a bit sick to me!

His last three paragraphs hold an important message for my lefty friends:

"Twenty years ago this fall, the Iron Curtain was coming down in Europe. Across the Warsaw Pact, the jailers of the Communist prison states lost their nerve, and the cell walls crumbled. Matt Welch, the editor of Reason magazine, wonders why the anniversary is going all but unobserved: Why aren't we making more of the biggest mass liberation in history?

Well, because to celebrate it would involve recognizing it as a victory over Communism. And, after the Left's long march through the institutions of the West, most are not willing to do that. There's the bad totalitarianism (Nazism) and the good totalitarianism (Communism), whose apologists and, indeed, fetishists can still be found everywhere, even unto the White House.

Rush Limbaugh's remarks are "divisive"; Anita Dunn's are entirely normal. But don't worry, the new Fairness Doctrine will take care of the problem."

Mr. Limbaugh: We Should All Be Ashamed!

Rush Limbaugh documents the intimidation tactics used by the left to bar him from being an NFL owner. A wise summary:


"As I explained on my radio show, this spectacle is bigger than I am on several levels. There is a contempt in the news business, including the sportswriter community, for conservatives that reflects the blind hatred espoused by Messrs. Sharpton and Jackson. "Racism" is too often their sledgehammer. And it is being used to try to keep citizens who don't share the left's agenda from participating in the full array of opportunities this nation otherwise affords each of us."


The left should be very ashamed of their actions, and the followers should give this incident some very serious thought!

WHERE BHO HAS TAKEN US

Charles Krauthammer summarizes the first nine months of the BHO administration. It is already embarrassing. Let's hope it is not lethal!



He concludes with his view of the Russian view of todays U.S.:





"The Russian leadership, hardly believing its luck, needs no interpreter to understand that when the Obama team clownishly rushes in bearing gifts and "reset" buttons, there is nothing ulterior, diabolical, clever or even serious behind it. It is amateurishness, wrapped in naivete, inside credulity. In short, the very stuff of Nobels."





Harsh words - but before you judge read his justification in the column and hope he is incorrect!

Clarity of Sowell and Insight of Prager

Thomas Sowell explains an important aspect of free market economics where political ignorance has lead us to our current problems and will get much worse if our politicians do not wake up! If you have any interest in economics, this is an important read.

Dennis Prager explains the choice of BHO for the Ig-Nobel Prize. You can support the choice or not, but at least take the time to understand the reason why!

The Absurd Ig-Nobel Prize

The right and left finally agree on something!

Peggy Noonan, my favorite writer among pundits, and a center right person who was enamored with BHO the last year of W's Presidency (I'll bet she voted for him!!) summarizes her thoughts in "A Wicked and Ignorant Award". Her two opening paragraphs pretty well sum it up, but read the whole thing for her excellent suggestion on how BHO should handle it:


"It is absurd and it is embarrassing. It would even be infuriating if it were not such a declaration of emptiness.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has embarrassed itself and cheapened a great award that had real meaning. "


Meanwhile, Maureen Dowd, about as far left as you can get on most issues but one who I occassionally agree with - I guess when she gets off the "ideologue bus" - writes "Ghandi Wuz Robbed",a typically clever view of this absurdity with a phone call from Bill Clinton to W! Not to be missed!! A taste is the second comment by Clinton to W:


"CLINTON: First that prig Carter. Then that prig Gore. And now President Paris Hilton. The guy’s in office three days and he gets the peace prize? He should have gotten the Nobel in chemistry, because chemistry’s all he’s got. Talk about a fairy tale. This ... is ... just ... wrong! It’s killing me, man. I feel like my head’s explodin’. First I had the vast right-wing conspiracy, and now I have the vast left-wing conspiracy."


I am sure she is for most of his domestic initiatives and is glad W is gone, but at least she recognizes absurdity! Well worth reading!

A view of how Dem's win the Presidency since FDR

Michael McBride in "Our President, Chauncey Gardner" explains why BHO is President and why he will not be ofter January 21, 2013. An interesting view particularly for my lefty friends.

How the Dems win:


"The formula is simple, run from obscurity. This is the Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton formula. Come fast from nowhere, with little political baggage, let the polls define your positions, pander as required, remain an enigma as long as possible, be a good orator, avoid specifics, and win the Presidency."


We will see!

Larry Kudlow Lays Out Reasons to Try Supply Side Economics.

In "The Mundell-Laffer Solution" Mr. Kudlow reminds us that Democrat and Republican administrations have solved our economic problems with supply side approaches in the past (W, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and JFK) so how about trying it now before disaster strikes!

His final two paragraphs summarize:


"Again, I know I'm a supply-side fossil and a relic of the past. But the Mundell-Laffer policy plan -- which has worked historically for Republicans and Democrats -- could truly save the nation and its economy at this critical juncture. Monetary restraint and the incentives of lower tax rates will solve the dollar and unemployment problems.

In our supposedly post-partisan era, why not give it a try, President Obama?"

Unfortunately, the joke is on us!

"Is Obama Becoming a Joke?" comments on the "jokes" the media is now finding in BHO's first 8+ months in office.

David Paul Kuhn of RealClearPolitics summarizes the SNL performances that are now feeding on BHO, as well as other current comedians performances, and gives an interesting explanation of why, as well as a brief history of Presidential "joking".

His last paragraph is insightful:


"As Garry Trudeau, of "Doonesbury" fame, told one reporter, "For something to be funny, the audience has to be in a position to sense the truth of it." And SNL's lampoon of Obama was funny."

Best comment on Glenn Beck I've Read:

Jonah Goldberg in his column "In Defense of Glenn Beck" says the following regarding the controversial pundit:

"Still, much of the anti-Beck backlash (He's an extremist! He's paranoid! He's hate-filled!) from the left is hard to take seriously. First, this is a crowd that lets Michael Moore and Janeane Garofalo speak for them, and that celebrated the election of unfunny man Al Franken to the Senate."


Lots of truth in that comment!

Thomas Sowells Wisdom

In his column "A Letter from a Child" Mr. Sowell comments on our education systems' problems.
A couple of paragraphs:

"Parents send their children to school to acquire the knowledge that has come down to us as a legacy of our culture-- whether it is mathematics, science, or whatever-- so that those children can grow up and go out into the world equipped to face life's challenges.

Too many "educators" see teaching not as a responsibility to the students but as an opportunity for themselves-- whether to indoctrinate a captive audience with the teacher's ideology, manipulate them in social experiments or just do fun things that make teaching easier, whether or not it really educates the child."


I didn't see any of this as a student - graduated high school 1960, college 1964. Read the article and I'd be interested on comments from those educated after 1970 if you now recognize some of the manipulation. Or is Mr. Sowell all wet!

SO YOU THINK "DEATH PANELS" WAS EXCESSIVE RHETORIC?

You might want to read Canada's National Post article "Choosing Health" on Ontario's recent decision to cut off funding for a serious illness. That is a "death panel", folks!


"Most Canadians believe this [death panels] is a gross exaggeration of reality. But then how to characterize Ontario's decision to cut off funding for colorectal cancer patients taking a life-prolonging drug, in order to save $9-million a year?

Andre Marin, the province's plain-speaking ombudsman, said the decision "verges on cruelty." Marin said the "arbitrary" limit on the number of cycles of the drug Avastin that Ontario will fund forces patients to pay out of their own pockets or abandon treatment."


Now you can call the Ontario bureaucracy who made this decision whatever you want, but if I needed the medicine involved I would call it a "death panel."

No, it is not the same as insurance companies limiting payments on procedures. The difference is not hard to see - even for the strongest ideologue: you can choose another insurance company; you cannot choose another country. This is competition that keeps them honest!

Ask the Canadiens who come here in large numbers of health care! And are looking aggressively for "private options" to solve their single payer failure.