Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Current Affairs

  • Pessimistic Thoughts on Political Discourse in America

    The following piece was written on 12 April 2006.  I repost it, slightly emended, because events since then have led me to believe that the grounds for pessimism are even stronger now than they were before.  It is becoming increasingly clear that conservatives and liberals/leftists live on 'different planets.'  And it is becoming increasingly clear which planet…

  • Obama Fails To Win Nobel Prize in Economics

    Here.

  • Yet More Evidence of a Lack of Common Sense Among Democrats

    It is hard to believe, but then again, given how preternaturally stupid and politically correct Dems are, maybe it is not so hard to believe:  a significant number of these jokers oppose photo ID when it comes to applying for Medicare and Medicaid benefits!  Here is John Fund, Making the World Safe for Medicaid Fraud: Americans expect…

  • Misplaced Moral Enthusiasm and Mel Gibson

    The L. A. Times reports that Mel Gibson's 2006 drunk driving conviction has been expunged.  Here is what I wrote about the case at the time (1 August 2006):  What's worse: Driving while legally drunk at 87 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone, or making stupid anti-Semitic remarks? The former, obviously. And yet…

  • The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care

    This entire book, by Sally C. Pipes, is available here in pdf format.

  • The Bigger the Government, the More to Fight Over

    Taking a page from Prager, I've already noted that big government makes for small citizens.  Let us also note that government expansion exacerbates political divisions and sets citizen against citizen.  Suppose we get to the point where Washington bureaucrats  dictate what types of cars and trucks will be manufactured.  Then you can be sure that there…

  • A. C. Grayling on the Roman Polanski Statutory Rape Case

    I find myself in complete agreement with Professor Grayling's commentary on the Polanski case.  Read it carefully; he makes several important points.  What is astonishing to me, however, is how this man can be so sane and judicious on this topic, and yet such a blithering gasbag of a lunatic when it comes to religion, as…

  • Barack Obama, College Administrator

    Victor Davis Hanson scores again. (HT:  KBJ) 

  • Is Glenn Beck Good for Conservatism?

    Glenn Beck is doing good work and he is effective.  Van Jones is out and ACORN has been defunded.  But Beck can exaggerate and misrespresent as in his attack on Cass Sunstein.  So is he a liability to the conservative cause as, I have maintained, Ann Coulter is?  David Frum and David Horowitz discuss the question…

  • Does He Lie?

    A fine piece by Charles Krauthammer.  Excerpt: And then there's the famous contretemps about health insurance for illegal immigrants. Obama said they would not be insured. Well, all four committee-passed bills in Congress allow illegal immigrants to take part in the proposed Health Insurance Exchange. But more importantly, the problem is that laws are not…

  • Universal Health Care

    I'm for universal health care: I want everyone to have health care. But the issue is not whether it would be good for all to have adequate health care, the issue is how to approach this goal. I can't see that increasing government involvement in health care delivery is the way to go.  We need…

  • Van Jones Is Out!

    And good riddance to him.  But no thanks to the miserable MSM who have failed to exercise due diligence in ferreting out this weasel.  (Nice piece of invective, eh?  'Ferreting out a weasel.' It just occurred to me.)  Michelle Malkin covers the story.  Follow her links.  Ron Radosh, who as a red diaper baby knows…

  • The Bigger the Government, the Smaller the Citizen

    The reckless fiscal irresponsibility of ObamaCare should be obvious to anyone whose head is screwed on properly.  But that is only one reason to oppose the leftist power-grab. Dennis Prager supplies another.

  • The Gun-Totin’ Obama Protester Was Black!

    If a black man exercises his Second Amendment rights, is he really black?  For liberals, the answer, apparently, is in the negative.  For them, apparently, the only real black is a liberal black.  Take a gander at this video clip.  You will see an Obama protester with a semi-automatic rifle slung over his shoulder, a…

  • Living in the Past: Is That Why You are Still a Dem?

    To understand a person, it helps to consider what the world was like when the person was twenty years old. At twenty, give or take five years, the music of the day, the politics of the day, the language, mores, fashions, economic conditions and whatnot of the day make a very deep impression. It is…