Monthly Archives: July 2014

Archive of posts published in the specified Month

Political Modesty

Politics in the Modest Age by Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal Why are we talking about Harry Truman? You know. We live in a time when politicians relentlessly enrich themselves. We are awed and horrified by the wealth

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Illiberalism

From the Editors at National Review, Progressive Illiberalism The prevailing view in Democratic circles is that Americans enjoy constitutional and legal rights when acting alone but not when acting jointly — i.e., not when it matters most to public affairs.

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Subsidizing Consumption vs Production

“As with the Connecticut parking spaces, we have through the entitlements (and through the tax preferences given to employer-based medical benefits) done a great deal to encourage the consumption of health-care services while doing nothing to encourage the production of

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More Piketty Distortions

from Why Piketty’s Wealth Data Are Worthless by Alan Reynolds in The WSJ: Tax reporting. Tax laws were changed from 1981 to 1997 to require that more capital income of high-income taxpayers be reported on individual returns, while excluding most capital

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Foreign Aid and Moral Supremacy

from The Folly of the 0.7% Foreign-Aid Solution by Ian Birrell in the WSJ: Yet this concept is increasingly discredited in both donor and recipient countries. Study after study has found aid to be ineffective and even counterproductive: Big flows

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Unfinished Wars

We debate the War in Iraq and the War in Afghanistan, but these are merely campaigns, engagements or battles in a much greater conflict. We can afford to lose a battle or two, or even the majority of the engagements;

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Are People an Asset or a Liability?

Kevin Williamson writes Welcome to the Paradise of the Real in The National Review Online.  It is a bit long but quite worthy of the time to read it in its entirety. Excerpts: None of those problems facing the poor — and

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Korean Lessons Unlearned

Excerpts from Destabilizer-in-Chief by Mario Loyola in National Review: The Korean War is justly remembered as a valiant struggle. And yet the conflict could have been avoided but for a major blunder on the part of the Truman administration. The year before

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The Illusion of Certainty

Our financial system is man made; controlled by laws passed by legislators, administered by some very educated bureaucrats , and often staffed by Phds. We have numerous agencies from the SEC to the FDIC to the Fed to Fannie Mae

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Reading 2014 07 08

Chicago and Black Criminality Many places with less-restrictive gun laws have less gun violence than Chicago, which already sports some of the toughest gun restrictions in the country. The gun-ownership rate in rural areas is higher than in urban areas—a

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The Embarrassingly Rich

From Daniel Greenfield a Frontpage, Poor Little Rich Liberals: If Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden can’t convince Democrats that they’re just one step away from begging for spare change on street corners, Elizabeth Warren is waiting in the wings. After

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The Foundation Dodge

Ann Althouse writes in her blog, Althouse, Behind that “Hillary Clinton Says She’s Donated All University Speaking Fees” headline. Excerpt: What is her salary from the foundation? How much of her expenses are covered by family foundation money? How many

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Libertarian Fallacies

From American Thinker, Russell Kirk vs. the Libertarians, by Kung Fu Zu and Brad Nelson Excerpts: This faith in the power of logic and lack of imagination as regards human motivation is something not uncommon among intellectuals of all stripes.

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Capital Cooperation

Kevin Williamson writes in The National Review, iPencil, Nobody knows how to make a pencil, or a health-care system Excerpts: It is remarkable that we speak and think about commerce as thoughcompetitiveness were its most important feature. There is, as noted, a certain

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Meaningless Averages

From my article in American Thinker, Everything that Counts” excerpt: Just as Piketty’s task is distorted by the focus on categories instead of real people, so is his categorization of the “average” rate of return, which is critical to his thesis

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Running Out the Clock

Peggy Noonan writes in The Wall Stree Journal, The Daydream and The Nightmare Excerpts: In a truly stunning piece in early June, Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown and Jennifer Epstein interviewed many around the president and reported a general feeling that

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Scandal Management

from Obama’s Scandal Playbook by Katie Pavlich in Townhall: Summary: Play Dumb The president and his political appointees knew nothing about what happened while it was happening and only learned about (insert scandal here) for the first time in the

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Ending a War Badly

Victor Davis Hansen writes in the National Review How Obama Lost the Middle East The more Obama campaigned in 2008 on a failed war in Iraq, a neglected war in Afghanistan, an ill-considered War on Terror, and an alienated Middle

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The Executive Power of an Emperor

  from USA Today, Kirsten Powers writes Obama’s Imperial Overreach Excerpts: Notice that the former constitutional law professor did not make a substantive legal case in defense of his executive power grabs. He merely stated that what he did was

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