This past year, I heard David Brooks speak in Minneapolis. As you can tell from his writing, Brooks is witty and smart, funny and thoughtful. He also, as far as I'm concerned, is incredibly wrong on some issues.
When Brooks says "the health care debate is fundamentally a debate about values" [...]
Amazing article that I found at my friend Andrew Tobias' blog this morning. A doctor in India is able to perform quality heart surgery at a fraction of the cost in the U.S.
In a second-floor operating room one October morning, Dr. Shetty finished [...]
The United States is distinct from many other nations on the planet. Only a few people can claim that they have descended from ancestors who have been here for centuries.
For the rest of us, we are immigrants. Our parents or grandparents or great grandparents [...]
Suppose someone on the Titanic had warned of an iceberg ahead. Suppose they had issued that warning in time to avoid the sheep careening into it.
People can see that iceberg, and they are telling us to steer clear.
The planned deficits will have destructive consequences [...]
A man who shines light on what it means to be an American, and on doing what one must to strive and succeed.
Born in 1975, Mebrahtom (his full name means "let there be light") grew up in an Eritrean village with no electricity and [...]
Are you a Democrat? Are you a Republican? Are you libertarian or conservative or liberal or progressive or moderate or far this or that? As an American, it is your right to hold the beliefs that make the most sense to you.
Whether you are black [...]
What do you do if the data for your theory seems to contradict it? Do you do more research? Re-check your efforts and conclusions? Revise and reshape your beliefs?
No.
If you're among some who subscribe to man-made global warming, you just lie.
Controversy has exploded [...]
My friend Christopher Fountain may be a Realtor. That does not mean, however, that he can't be an expert on Real Issues outside of Real Estate. Here is but one.
Number of AP reporters assigned to story:
• ObamaCare bills: 2
• Palin book: 11
Number of pages in document being [...]
How do you know a politician is lying? His lips are moving.
Ten weeks after 9/11, Senator Schumer said this:
There are also those prisoners of war who we have captured and will capture in Afghanistan and other countries who will receive a trial of some sort. It is clear we [...]
So you're young and starting out, and you'd like to get experience, knowledge and skills - even if it means making a very modest wage. Or, you've been out of work, and you'd like an employer to take a chance on you at an price - in the hopes that [...]
We learned the other day that it took eleven AP reporters to fact-check Sarah Palin's new book, Going Rogue. Understandable, given the high level of importance to the public! (Ahem.)
But - where, oh where, are the multitudes of reporters when our Nobel prize winning [...]
I'm a huge believer in as much transparency as possible in government. (Defense and intelligence are areas where it is tough.)
Still - this is a bit too much transparency, doncha think?!
Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 9th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved [...]
No, I am not casting slurs at our president. I am only following through the logic of Representative Jim Moran of Virginia, who claims that "It is un-American to hold anyone without a trial" - and apparently that sort of trial must be one in our federal courts. Military [...]
Criticism of any country should always be entertained and examined.
This, however, is pure, unadulterated anti-semitism.
Introduced amidst a chorus of boos, Ayalon had scarcely delivered his eighth sentence when various students began shouting obscenities at him and delivering impromptu sermons on their view [...]
And I use the phrase "at work" advisedly.
• Three of every four stimulus grants, contracts and loans approved in Michigan created or retained one job or less.
• Fewer than 700 awards had received some money, and nearly half of those -- 327 -- had created one job or less, [...]
Might THIS be contributory??!
After working for the state department of education for more than a decade, Reich went into private practice, specializing in education law, Newsday recounts. But at the same time that his law firm collected millions of dollars for representing school districts, Reich was simultaneously reported to [...]
It's not poor people who are bad. They, like anybody else, are only human.
It's the system that incentivizes them to be poor.
When multiple income-based programs are piled on top on one another, the implicit marginal tax rate can reach or even exceed 100 percent.
The chart above ([...]
Iran, with Ahmadinejad, Holocaust denier, radical Islam and the Koran? Or Israel and democracy?
[...]If the "jobs stimulus" can do this in Massachussets, just imagine what it can do for health care.
“We see $15 million construction projects with no jobs, and a $900 shoe sale that created nine jobs. Both are obviously wrong,’’ said Michael Balsam, chief solutions officer for Onvia, a Seattle [...]
Freedom isn't full without free markets.
The history of the Wall symbolises the truth that a free society, based on private ownership of the means of production, best delivers what people want. May I add that, for Africans, faced with a plethora of trade barriers and protectionist measures which impede [...]
We all know what it is. Continuing to perpetrate the same activity, yet hoping - again and again - that this time, the outcome will be different.
Does anyone really believe what Congress is telling us about the costs of their potential health bill?
No other Big Government program has ever [...]
Is political correctness killing us?
Sadly, the answer appears to be "yes."
Joe Gandelman asks the right question: “If American intelligence agencies missed the signs pre-911 and they missed a big hint pre-Foot Hood, exactly what are they missing now, as you read this post?” I would also add this: [...]
The more you read the fine print of the Democratic health insurance proposal, the more you realize how perverse the incentives and what a truly nutty outcome seems likely to occur due to its details.
Obamacare could have the unintended consequence of raising health insurance premiums and causing a decline [...]
Surely it comprises many, many activities.
But - should threatening Democratic strategists about where they appear and to whom they speak be among those roles?
Fox's audience is by far the largest of the cable networks, with an average of more than 2.1 million viewers in prime-time this year. CNN is [...]
So the Republican health plan would reduce health premiums and cut the deficit.
Compare and contrast to what the Democrats want to do in their almost 2,000 page bill. Then decide: which kind of change do you really wish to believe in?
[...]And no one is around to deliver care?
Dr. Herbert Pardes, CEO of NY-Presbyterian Hospital explains what might happen and why.
The fundamental reason why medical students are not entering primary care on their own is that they can't afford it. Medical-school tuition can cost a [...]
Do you think of yourself and your neighbors as sheep? Do you need the government to tell you how to run your business and where, how and what to eat? Do you need the government to supply you with most of the necessities of life, [...]
Instapundit linked to this post by JD Johannes, someone who has seen war up close and personal.
Begeleiter said, "Taking pictures of the returning casualties to Dover is a measure of the human cost of war. Do you want the government ultimately to have control over what we see [...]
When a president faces enormous economic challenges, or foreign policies challenges - or difficult issues of whatever nature - are they the fault of the President of the Moment?
No matter who is currently president, it goes without saying that what that president must face is in part inherited. All of [...]
The next time that someone tells you "statistics show you" - remember that caution is advised.
If you'd like to see an example of how statistical data can be distorted, then read this.
[...]The House Republican Conference, meanwhile, has gone to the Herculean effort of tabulating the new federal boards, bureaucracies, commissions, and programs that would be established by the House bill--all in the name of cutting [...]
Why do some Democrats choose to appear on Fox?
“They are the most professional network of any I have dealt with,” he said. “If you are a Democrat who wants to deliver mindless talking points on Fox, it’s probably best to [...]
I am not knowledgeable enough about Congress to judge whether the title of this article is accurate or not. But - read through and see what you think.
If it's not the worst, then it certainly is up there on the Hall of Shame!
Here's what Senator Lieberman thinks.
"I'm all [...]
The U.S. and Israel - going in different directions.
[...]
