After hearing and reading many commentaries on President Obama’s “hot mic” conversation with Russian President Medvedev on Monday, I hold to what I wrote that day on the News page of this blog. This was the conversation: Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for […]
The worst thing regarding “Occupy Wall Street” and related anti-capitalist protests is that most popular defenders of capitalism—aside from Ayn Rand—do not understand capitalism well enough to defend it against the absurd arguments offered by public figures who support the chanting, mindless–and now violent–protesters. Consider the arguments by union leader Arthur Cheliotes, music producer Russell […]
In the Republican Presidential debate on Monday, September 12, this dialogue occurred: WOLF BLITZER, DEBATE MODERATOR AND CNN LEAD POLITICAL ANCHOR: … Ron Paul, so you’re a doctor. You know something about this subject. Let me ask you this hypothetical question. A healthy 30-year-old young man has a good job, makes a good living, but […]
The Republicans held out a little longer than I thought they would, but they capitulated in the end as I predicted (in a virtually riskless prediction). In return for a miniscule actual reduction in U.S. federal spending—estimated to be roughly $25 billion (from previously projected increases) in the current year, the only year that counts […]
Declare that raising the U.S. debt ceiling is off the table. Present to the public a specific plan as to how the U.S. should prioritize spending of available cash: payments first for the military and veterans, then for Social Security and Medicare (but not Medicaid), then for creditors (except for hostile governments such as China […]
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, speaking on “Fox News Sunday” this week, cited these statistics, which are remarkable though not in the way that Geithner meant: And remember this country, this great nation with our great resources today, one in eight Americans are eligible for food stamps today. Forty percent of Americans born today are born […]
As if having read my blog (Shared Sacrifice) from Tuesday and reprising his role as the villain, President Obama said this yesterday: Look, I want everybody in America to do well. I want everybody to have a chance to become a millionaire. I think the free market system is the greatest wealth generator we’ve ever […]
President Obama and fellow Democrats use the phrase “shared sacrifice” so often that the phrase is now a standard term. I have not heard any Republican use the term favorably, but neither have I heard any Republican dispute the notion. The only argument I have heard some Republicans raise is that the Democrats are hypocrites, […]
Today I celebrated Independence Day by reading the Declaration of Independence and some pages of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Anyone who wonders about the connection is invited to read the right-hand column of the home page of this blog. Second Renaissance Books once published a tear-off calendar, “Ayn Rand Quote of the Day • […]
Behold the mind-boggling irrationality of those directing American foreign policy. Today on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked a guest, “As you leave office, how much of a disappointment is it to you that Iran still [has] an active nuclear weapons program?” The guest replied, Well, I think it’s an ongoing problem for the […]