Category: Politics
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Obama’s Abuse of Power
From an article by David Harsanyi: The president, who has often said he will work around Congress, also justifies his executive bender by telling us that Americans are clamoring for more limits on gun ownership. So what? These rights — in what Piers Morgan might call that "little book" — were written down to protect…
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Welcome to Fascist Amerika
Leftists like to call conservatives fascists, but it is the fascism of the Left that is taking hold. Two more pieces of evidence as part of a massive cumulative case: Obama Willing to Use Executive Orders on Guns At a news conference on Monday, exactly one month after the school massacre in Newtown, Conn., Mr. Obama…
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Fiscal Irresponsibility as Politically Rational: The Fiscal Prisoners’ Dilemma
Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane, Regaining America's Balance. Excerpt: There are two paths toward reducing deficits and debts of the magnitude we face: raising taxes or cutting spending. A balanced compromise would involve some amount of both, but the two political parties face strong electoral incentives to do neither. If Republicans push for reduced spending,…
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What the Gun Debate is Fundamentally About
At bottom, the gun debate boils down to a conflict of visions, to borrow a phrase from Thomas Sowell. This is well-explained by Mchael Medved in The Liberal God Delusion. Excerpt: Consider the current dispute over the right response to gun violence. At its core, this argument comes down to a visceral disagreement between relying on self-defense…
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The Four Gs
Conservative: God, guns, gold, grub Libertarian: guns, gold, grub, grass Liberal: government, government, government, government.
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On Being 26 Rather Than 62
W. K. writes, You recently mentioned your being very happy, given what's wrong with the world, to be 62 rather than 26; I am 26. Although, sadly, I think liberalism will run until it destroys itself as a parasite that destroys its host, this metaphysical fact of evil's being self-destructive is reason enough for hope.…
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Politics is War and Conservatives Need to Learn How to Fight
The Left accepts and lives by what I call the Converse Clausewitz Principle: Politics is war conducted by other means. (Von Clausewitz's famous remark was to the effect that war is politics conducted by other means.) The party that ought to be opposing the Left, the Republicans, apparently does not believe that this is what…
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The Crisis of American Self-Government
Harvey Mansfield interviewed. Excerpt: Consider voting. "You can count voters and votes," Mr. Mansfield says. "And political science does that a lot, and that's very useful because votes are in fact countable. One counts for one. But if we get serious about what it means to vote, we immediately go to the notion of an…
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Tribal America
One of my darker thoughts is that in the end tribal allegiances trump whatever people piously imagine unites us. For a time the great American experiment worked. People assimilated under the aegis of e pluribus unum. People valued liberty over material equality. But now talk of these ideals seems quaint to a growing number. Books…
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Guns and Punitive Taxation
Seldom Seen Slim points us to the latest anti-gun outrage: The Cook County Board of Commissioners on Friday handily approved the county's 2013 budget, complete with some $40 million worth of new taxes on the sales of guns and cigarettes. [. . .] A previously proposed "violence tax" of a nickel per bullet sold in…
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It’s the Welfare State, Stupid
When one reads a piece by Robert Samuleson, one feels oneself in the presence of a clear, penetrating, and honest intellect: By all means, let's avoid the "fiscal cliff": the $500 billion in tax increases and federal spending cuts scheduled for early 2013 that, if they occurred, might trigger a recession. But let's recognize that…
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Robert Reich on the New American Civil War
Robert Reich bemoans the New American Civil War as he calls it: I know families in which close relatives are no longer speaking. A dating service says Democrats won’t even consider going out with Republicans, and vice-versa. My email and twitter feeds contain messages from strangers I wouldn’t share with my granddaughter. What’s going on?…
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Why We are Headed for a Fiscal Cliff
A short video. It explains the difference between discretionary and mandatory spending and why not even mandatory spending is covered by tax revenues. Mandatory spending comprises the entitlements and the interest on the national debt. A balanced budget is not possible given the way the government is currently structured. A re-design is needed. It must…