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What the American People Hate

I heard Senator Mark Begich of Alaska on NPR one evening this week saying, “The Republicans are being held hostage by a small group in their party for political advantage and the American people hate it.” This, naturally raised the question, if the latter is true, where is the political . . . . Continue Reading »

Escapism

I can’t help but notice it here, notice it there, notice it everywhere.  A few days ago, I read Steve Hayward, on Powerline , asking, ” So When Can We Expect Obama’s Malaise Speech? “  This does feel familiar, a sense of dread, a hopelessness.  Well, in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Syria and What is Good

I thought John Kerry did a beautiful job, a presidential job, trying to convince the American people and the world that we ought to go to war against Syria.  Really brilliant, save one problem, that we would be siding with Al Qaeda in the conflict.  Or rather, not siding with them as much . . . . Continue Reading »

Privacy and the NSA — Arguments

Certainly there are arguments about data collection.  Facebook does it, Google does it, and why they should be free to quietly collect some kinds of personal data and not the NSA?  Maybe folks being squeamish about the NSA and other agencies of government collecting  varieties kinds . . . . Continue Reading »

Everyone Deserves a SWAT

One of the consequences of the inner city violence that Peter mentions in the previous piece was the rise of the SWAT team. The country’s first official SWAT team started in the late 1960s in Los Angeles. By 1975, there were approximately 500 such units. Today, there are thousands. According . . . . Continue Reading »

Detroit Regrets

Someone recently told me that he was going to Detroit.  I felt sorry for him, knowing that last trips to Detroit, driving form the Cleveland area, had been through areas that looked as devastated as anything seen in post WWII photos.  I had not read of improvement, in fact of . . . . Continue Reading »

As Marriage Multiplies in Meaning

I bumped into this piece, ” Polygamists Celebrate Supreme Court’s Marriage Rulings ” and thought, well, of course they do.  Anything goes now.  Who is to judge?  Marriage means what we want it to mean.  What we could discuss, since the morality argument is . . . . Continue Reading »

Growing up Without Privacy

We give ourselves to BIG DATA with every trackable transaction and communication. ” Corporate competition to accumulate information about consumers is intensifying even as concerns about government surveillance grow, pushing down the market price for intimate personal details to fractions of . . . . Continue Reading »

Maybe Not Flat Tax, but Anything Else?

Here is my argument with Pete this morning. The current progressive tax system is based in a class-envy model of taxation.  But we have lived with that for a long time.  It has fueled ever bigger government, but we have lived with that for a long time.  Our income tax system is . . . . Continue Reading »

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