Obamanation

Milestones on the Road to Serfdom

By Justin Katz | February 16, 2009 |

Linking to an illustrated Road to Serfdom, Instapundit Glenn Reynolds conveys a reader’s question about what page we’re currently on. Of course, one must take into consideration, as Michael Ledeen does, that American fascism is likely to have some significant differences in character from that described by Hayek, but I’d suggest that we’re somewhere around…

The Change Some Didn’t Believe In

By Justin Katz | February 14, 2009 |

There are a number of right-of-center Obama supporters from whom I haven’t heard any follow-up regarding their expectation that he would bring fresh air to government and would, actually, be a consummate centrist. Mark Steyn, for one, finds the possibility increasingly dubious: The “buy American” provisions in the “stimulus” will invite certain retaliation around the…

Mark Zaccaria: You Can’t Finance Growth with Deficit Spending

By Engaged Citizen | February 10, 2009 |

We all should be vitally interested in the goings-on in Washington, DC, regarding the Stimulus Package that’s making its way through Congress. The news reports may make it seem complicated and far away, but it won’t be long before the effects of what our lawmakers do to us on this matter come right home to…

A Tenuous Deal with the Devil

By Justin Katz | February 6, 2009 |

Generally speaking, the government ought to get out of the charity business, but if it’s going to appropriate funds, there’s no reason that it shouldn’t be able to work together with religious groups toward shared ends. For one thing, their spiritual motivation often enables lower administrative costs. The danger — the deal with the devil…

Drowning Goose, Frozen Gander

By Justin Katz | February 3, 2009 |

There’s some risk of “gotcha” opposition to the current president and his hordes of true believers, including in the media. Considering that the Katrina catastrophe still holds an important place in the self-persuasive arsenals of the anti-Bush crowd, Steve Gill is right to note a conspicuous difference in treatment: Last week a massive ice storm…

Money Makes the World Go Mad

By Justin Katz | February 2, 2009 |

Disappointingly, URI economics professor Len Lardaro sums up the zeitgeist of the times: “These may not be stimulus funds in the strict sense,” Lardaro said, but they convey the sense that government is attacking the crisis head on. Bryant’s Edinaldo Tebaldi displays another symptom of the intellectual virus currently infecting economics academia: To Tebaldi, the…

More Tax Aversion from the Tax-and-Spend Left

By Justin Katz | January 31, 2009 |

I’m sure Tom Daschle had every intention of filing three years of amended tax returns (one for every year since he was bumped from public office, I believe) whether or not he’d been presented with the opportunity of joining the Obama administration: Thomas A. Daschle recently filed amended tax returns for 2005, 2006 and 2007…

The Warm Glow of Press Affection

By Justin Katz | January 24, 2009 |

It was a sad sort of laugh, but I couldn’t stop the guffaw’s escaping into the tire shop’s waiting area when I read the following from AP writer Charles Babington (emphasis added): At one point in Friday’s meeting in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, GOP Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona objected to a proposal to…

I’ve Heard Better

By Justin Katz | January 20, 2009 |

Here is the text of President Obama’s speech. His victory speech was much better, not the least because it was much more gracious toward and tolerant of the other side. Among the first statements issued in the president’s new, “unified” tone? On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and…

So How Will He Do?

By Justin Katz | January 20, 2009 |

Fans of our new president perhaps imagine us non-fans as scowling through the day today, embittered by all that hope and rueful of the change to come. Me, I’m just going about my business, as I have on every inauguration day within my lifetime. That said, Andrew Stuttaford’s suggestion is an attractive one, although I…