American-Manifesto.com In Defense of American Exceptionalism

Homicide has dropped of the list of the top causes of death in the U.S. at the very time that gun ownership is expanding.  Want some antacid on the side, guys?

If higher tax rates are the answer to our debt crisis, why is Europe in such serious trouble?

While I have a certain amount of sympathy for people who get tear gassed (I know from personal experience what it’s like), I can’t help but note a certain irony.
These are not libertarians demanding to be left alone.  These are people demanding bigger, stronger government.  They failed to understand the longstanding conservative warning that “a [...]

During the fight over the debt ceiling, I kept hearing from the left that the rich need to pay their fair share.  Setting aside the fact that the top 5% earn 35% of income but pay 60% of taxes, and the fact that higher tax rates on the wealthy produce less tax revenue, I expect [...]

As I have mentioned many times, I am not a fan of political parties.  I am more sympathetic to the Republican Party because it sometimes does the right thing on taxes, spending, regulation and freedom, in contrast to the Democrats who invariably get it wrong.  But I generally view political parties as unhelpful, if unavoidable.
Given [...]

Apparently, before he was sent to a watery grave, Osama bin Laden complained that Al Qaeda had an image problem: it didn’t appear religious enough.  So, Bin Laden proposed renaming Al Qaeda to “Restoration of the Caliphate Group.”
This is buried in the middle of an AP piece but it is, I think, quite significant.  The [...]

“There’s this kind of stereotype or myth that the deep blue states are more economically restrictive but more personally free. But the data doesn’t actually bear that out . . . Liberals tend to want to constrain your freedom in all areas.” [Emphasis added.]
William Ruger, co-author of Freedom in the 50 States study, as quoted [...]

The latest estimate of unfunded federal liabilities is $62 trillion over the next 20 years.  According to USA Today, that’s $534,000 per household (I’m not sure how they are defining household).
My math puts that at $200,000 per person over the next 20 years, or $10,000 per person per year over the next 20 years.  That’s [...]

In the aftermath of Obama’s recent proposal that Israel’s borders should be redrawn to something resembling its 1967 borders, I have seen several commentators argue that we have not been an honest broker between the Israelis and Palestinians.  They mean, of course, that we have favored the Israelis over the Palestinians.
If you consider the conflict [...]

A report was recently released detailing the truly appalling treatment of the elderly by NHS in the UK.  You can scratch the word “elderly” from the real world conditions I suspect.  People who will do the types of things documented in the report will not limit their cruelty to senior citizens.

The media have long ignored the epic wrongness of Joe Biden, probably because they agree with him and he sounds authoritative.  His latest blunder was saying that Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak wasn’t a dictator.
It was reported matter-of-factly here and there without fanfare.  But ask yourself this: what if Sarah Palin said that?  We’d be hearing [...]

The left has utterly lost its grounding in reality.  They seem to be suffering from a kind of mass psychosis in accusing conservatives of being in any way responsible for the mass shooting in Arizona.  The guy seems to be stone-cold crazy.  Nothing more, nothing less.  To the extent that he appears to have any [...]

The NY Times had an interesting piece a couple days ago focusing on the “lost generation” of workers in Europe.  Essentially, there are no jobs for young people.  The European economies are so bad that “young” includes people well into their 30s.
The Times, of course, doesn’t connect the dots so I’ll do it for them: [...]

The early census results are in and the winners of new seats in Congress are in the south and the west.  The losers are in the northeast and midwest.
Funny enough, the areas of the country that are growing in population are the areas that have dynamic economies and relatively conservative values.  Now who could have [...]

Jonathan Chait, referencing a Washington Post article, is accusing conservatives of epistemic closure in their treatment of Obama’s comments on American Exceptionalism.  Please.
First of all, the description of of American Exceptionalism as “the idea that the United States is inherently superior to the world’s other nations” is wrong.  It would better be described as “the [...]

The left likes to indulge in the idea that is follows a principled foreign policy, as opposed to those horrible, belligerent conservatives.  Among the multitude of problems for the left is that in the real world, their stance is not perceived as principle but as weakness.  Weakness in the face of an aggressive and hostile [...]

A gay Texas couple recently held an e-wedding using Washington, D.C. law.  Now who ever would have seen that coming?

Well wouldn’t you know it.  The first civilian trial a Gitmo detainee ended disastrously for the Justice Department.  Ahmed Ghailani was acquitted on 280 or so counts.  The only conviction was on a conspiracy charge.
So despite all the promises from Obama, Holder and the left that there would be no problem with civilian trials, there [...]

It’s amazing to me that Progressives Regressives still pass themselves off has being pro-freedom.  As far as I can tell their ideology is about control and little else at this point.  Case in point: San Francisco just banned the Happy Meal.
Can you really claim to be interested in liberty while banning Happy Meals?  Maybe they’ll [...]

Oklahoma voters approved an amendment to their constitution that bans the use of Sharia law (as well as international law) in its state courts.  A federal judge promptly put issued a temporary restraining order.  I find the left’s reaction to it informative.
Politico has a nice concentrated dose of leftwing thought by people who are supposed [...]