The left exaggerates the bad elements of the country’s past (slavery and discrimination, example) as a tool to discredit the better elements (such as limited government and a can-do culture that combined to produce a uniquely prosperous nation). Do they apply the same logic to their own history? To quote John Boehner, “Hell no!”.
The left’s [...]
Apropos of my previous post, I encountered this video review of some lefties during the Bush years. The closing quote: “We’ll have to kill somebody I guess.”
But the media tells us it’s the Tea Parties that are scary and dangerous. Riiiight.
I am firmly convinced that the left exists in a self-congratulatory echo chamber. This is particularly true in certain areas of the country. One of the consequences of this is often that their logic and ideas are unchallenged, untested, and just plain sloppy. They are not stupid or evil people. They simply aren’t rigorous in [...]
The Wall Street Journal recently noted a study that observed that women who are more financially secure and live in safe locations tend not to seek manly men as mates. This is entirely consistent with my contention that people who support the post-masculine, metrosexual approach to life fail to notice they are standing on [...]
Now boarding on track 1600, the Fiscal Train Wreck Express, making stops in Kickback Nebraska, Purchased Louisiana and a town near you! Amenities include IRS audits, statist coverage mandates, a crushing tax burden and fiscal instability. Ladies and gentlemen, please note a schedule change: this train will not be stopping at Freedom Junction. All aboard!
Congratulations to Susan McClaren, of Phoenixville, our latest Preening Twit Award winner for this example of leftwing mental puffery.
Imagine what it would be like to be able to see a doctor when one is not feeling well; not to fear care because of cost; and not to be funneled into the overburdened emergency room just [...]
To the ever-growing list of things where the Obama administration is the polar opposite of his campaign we can add this: his administration has declined more Freedom of Information requests in 2009 than the Bush administration did in 2008 despite an 11% decline in requests for 2009. Obama, of course, campaigned on being Mr. Transparency.
From [...]
Borepatch has a nice post on progressivism (hat tip to Newbie Shooter). Here’s my current summary of progressive agenda:
1. Guarantee an expansive and virtually unfettered right of individuals to pursue all the meaningless distractions that modern life has to offer.
2. Restrict and regulate the areas of life that actually have real significance (freedom of expression, [...]
New Jersey is a shining example of this. And there is finally some recognition of the fact that NJ is losing many of its wealthiest residents for blindingly obvious reasons: the taxes are too high and the business climate too hostile.
The left, of course, continues to be in denial about a basic fact of the [...]
Scott Brown has scored a stunning upset victory in the Massachusetts senate race. We’ve all seen the elements of the shock factor: Massachusetts until now had an all Democrat congressional delegation, the Senate seat had been held by Ted Kennedy, John Kennedy or a hired temp since the 1950s, Scott Brown was down in the [...]
I have seen repeatedly in the healthcare debate an argument from the left along the lines of “someone who is sick and uninsured isn’t really free”. I always thought that was a bizarre assertion. Well I recently read an article on the Progressive giant, John Dewey and that very formulation played a big role in [...]
It seems to me that one of the big mistakes that supporters of gay marriage make is that they begin with the assumption that gay marriage and traditional marriage are equivalent and interchangeable. In other words, they simply begin with a civil rights argument without ever establishing its applicability. And I actually agree, if gay [...]
Mrs. Manifesto and I had the opportunity to see Invictus over the weekend. I was not entirely sure what to expect but I have to say this is a great movie. I’m not interested in doing a movie review but I wanted to briefly note that there is a very conservative theme to it.
The movie’s [...]
To the multitude of differences between Pres. Bush and Pres. Obama we can add: their preferred vacations. Pres. Bush would famously go to his Texas ranch and do manual labor around the homestead. Pres. Obama, on the other hand, has gone off to a vacation home in ritzy Waikiki Beach, where his manual labor consists [...]
Not really, of course. This is a case of correlation not causation but there is a very clear pattern to state-by-state happiness data published recently in Science. The Wall Street Journal published a summary (here is their chart). The happiest states overwhelmingly voted for McCain in the 2008 election and the least happy states unanimously [...]
One of the points defenders of traditional marriage make is that marriage is, first and foremost, about creating and raising children. It’s not, despite what many proponents of gay marriage contend, about an expression of love. You don’t need marriage for that. While obviously you don’t need marriage to create or raise children, your chances [...]
A letter to the editor in today’s Inquirer complained about a previous article that referred to hunting as a sport. The author wrote that “a sport involves two equally matched teams on a level playing field”. Oh yeah? Clearly she’s never watched a 76ers game. They’re 5 and 14 as of today. I’ll bet the [...]
I read a NY Times article titled Fathers Gain Respect From Experts (And Mothers). The basic idea is that research is making two things clear:
1. Fathers matter
2. When parents have good relationships, children benefit
I was preparing to make some derisive comments about how many PhDs it takes to figure out something this blindingly obvious when something jumped [...]
Pres. Obama has signed into law the Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes Act. This is a big step in a very dangerous direction. The left apparently believes that prosecuting ideas is a good idea. If someone is murdered it is a crime regardless of who they are or why it happened. Are they somehow more dead [...]
Today’s WSJ correctly identified the motivations behind Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize. Yes, there’s an element of hope, change, peace and all that unattainable nonsense. The real story is an end to American Exceptionalism.
What ideals are those [promoted by Obama]? Well, the Nobel citation declares that Mr. Obama’s “diplomacy is founded in the concept that those [...]