National Politics

The More Things Change

By Marc Comtois | April 14, 2008 |

From Time (h/t): The Middle American’s faith is not merely grounded upon nostalgia and emotion. He believes in a system that did work and in large measure still does; a brilliant, highly adaptable system, heir to the Enlightenment and classic democracy, with innumerable, ingenious, local accretions. But the country has become too complex and the…

Obama of the Working Class: Their Evil Values Are Just Blankies

By Justin Katz | April 12, 2008 |

Not unlike other wealthy faux-populists who wish to manipulate poor and working class citizens for their own aggrandizement, Barack Obama apparently thinks that the change that will bring unity will entail an optimistic lunge past some of those wicked security blankets… you know, like religion: You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania,…

Charity with Other People’s Money

By Justin Katz | April 2, 2008 |

When things go wrong for people, society ought at least to weight the costs of helping, even when the problems are wrapped up in the esoteric complexities of modern finance, but when I read news like this, I can’t help but wonder from where the money’s coming: The legislation is likely to draw on elements…

An Assassinated Mythology

By Justin Katz | March 16, 2008 |

The following passage from Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism struck me as relevant to the (thankfully abated) speculation of Barack Obama’s assassination: On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. As if on cue, Dallas was christened “the city of hate.” A young TV reporter named Dan Rather heard a rumor that…

Lighter than Expected

By Justin Katz | March 8, 2008 |

Well, the memo’s gone out. The You Tube videos are in production. The party line: McCain’s got a temper! Watch the video over on RIFuture. Watch as the Senator rips a chair right out of the floor of the bus like Sam Kinison and pins the reporter’s note-taking hand in the overhead storage compartment. Actually,…

Who Wants to Kill Barack?

By Justin Katz | February 26, 2008 |

When speculation becomes front-page news, one gets the impression of legend building. If Barack Obama wins and lives to tell the tale, he’ll be the One Who Lived. The great hope whom they managed to protect (unless the reality disappoints terribly): His wife, Michelle Obama, voiced concerns about his safety before he was elected to…

More Derb on Mrs. O

By Justin Katz | February 24, 2008 |

John Derbyshire has done what few non-college professors are willing to do: he’s actually read Michelle Obama’s senior thesis. Overall, he believes (and I agree) that it will and should have minimal effect on the presidential race, but he makes a worthy point: … the slight negative is negative because the thesis reveals a cast…

A President You Can’t Get Out of Your Head

By Justin Katz | February 23, 2008 |

In today’s Providence Journal, a young Ivy Leaguer with a hyphenated name adds too my still-short list of old-man moments (note the sentence that I’ve italicized): But that is all that I have ever known as an adult: a reviled America under George Bush, and a Congress dominated by petty bickering instead of big ideas.…

Roland Benjamin: Ask Not What Your Country Can Do (to Make You More Productive)

By Engaged Citizen | February 22, 2008 |

Elements of Senator Obama’s economic plan described in this Washington Times editorial have the makings of a staggering economic impact. If you subscribe to the notion that individuals should earn as much as their skills, talents, and minds will permit, then you will be incredulous at the alternative Senator Obama is presenting to the household…

Geldof – Press Has Shortchanged Bush’s Successful Africa Policy

By Marc Comtois | February 20, 2008 |

Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof is chastising the US Press corps for under-reporting the positive effect that President Bush’s Africa policy has had: Mr. Geldof praised Mr. Bush for his work in delivering billions to fight disease and poverty in Africa, and blasted the U.S. press for ignoring the achievement. Mr. Bush, said Mr. Geldof,…