Krauthammer 7/31/09

Obammacare: The Coming Retreat

My take on Charles Krauthammer's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: The costs of Health Care are prohibitive. Obama has been using accounting tricks to disguise them. The Congressional Budget Office gave the lie to them. Now it's busted.

Quote:

Whatever structural reforms dribble out of Congress before the August recess will likely not survive the year. In the end, Obama will have to settle for something very modest. And indeed it will be health-insurance reform.

My Views: It has always seemed to me that the real problem is too few doctors. I saw somewhere that the number of medical schools has actually declined in the last decade. They're too costly. That's where the country ought to put its healthcare priorities: more doctors.

Insurance seems to be driven by malpractice suits. Legal reform to cut the lawsuits would help there.

---

Charles Krauthammer is a more establishment columnist. He came to punditry by way of psychiatry (at Massachusetts General Hospital) via the New Republic Magazine. He appears on TV where you never see his wheelchair. Here's his Wiki bio.

He wrote a book which is pictured at the right. I am drawn by the substance and the thinking than any particular writing flair.

Coulter 7/29/09

Professor Plays the Race Card

My take on Ann Coulter's latest. Her column was published on Townhall.com.

Summary: Police answer a break-in call to find out the person was the inhabitant of the home. They ask additional questions and the guy freaks out. They arrest the guy and he yells race (he's black). Because he's a Harvard Professors with connections, this becomes a big story.

Quote:

Suppose a cop didn't arrest a guy who was ranting and raving -- in his own home -- and, an hour later, the hothead assaults someone. Policeman: I was as surprised as anyone that he shot his girlfriend! Every liberal in the country would demand the cop's head.

And by the way, try screaming at a judge that he's a racist and see what happens. Why should police officers deserve less protection than judges? They're in more danger.

My Views: I think that this is more about the elitist attitudes of the Ivy League than race. Race is just the excuse he used to play victim. If he wasn't black, then he would have yelled something else. Remember the Harvard President, Larry Summers - ejected because of his alleged sexist views - now in the Obama Administration? Same kind of stuff.

Trouble is that instead of providing intelligent "teachable moments" (Obama's phrase for this) we get this. Unfortunately, many people are taking away the opposite things from this then Obama intended.

---

Anybody who is as hated as Ann Coulter is must be doing something right. She is very right-wing but every left-wing blogger would love to write like her. I hate rants; opinion pieces must argue from the facts. Pay attention to how she uses facts and draws politically incorrect connections among them. People would do well to think and not just be outraged.

Here's her Wiki bio. Her latest book is at the right.

Krauthammer 7/24/09

Why Obamacare Is Sinking

My take on Charles Krauthammer's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: Health care has become the signature issue of the Obama Administration but hope and change are not what marks his effort. Old fashioned Democrat special-interest group politics is. Exhibit: The Trial Lawyers Lobby.

Quote:

This is not about politics? Then why is it, to take but the most egregious example, that in this grand health-care debate we hear not a word about one of the worst sources of waste in American medicine: the insane cost and arbitrary rewards of our malpractice system?

My Views: K leads with the image of rhetoric meeting reality. If only Obama's rhetoric matched reality. I for one was really hoping that a Democratic President could and would take on the Democrat special interests that have hobbled solutions to our political problems for so long. Yet, here there is no hope or change. He criticizes the Republican special interests and supports the Democratic ones. Same old politics; just lots more spending.

---

Charles Krauthammer is a more establishment columnist. He came to punditry by way of psychiatry (at Massachusetts General Hospital) via the New Republic Magazine. He appears on TV where you never see his wheelchair. Here's his Wiki bio.

He wrote a book which is pictured at the right. I am drawn by the substance and the thinking than any particular writing flair.

Krauthammer 7/17/09

We Retreat From the Space Age

My take on Charles Krauthammer's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: Not much is happening in Space anymore and that's a shame.

Quote:

America's manned space program is in shambles. Fourteen months from today, for the first time since 1962, the United States will be incapable not just of sending a man to the moon but of sending anyone into Earth orbit. We'll be totally grounded. We'll have to beg a ride from the Russians or perhaps even the Chinese.

My Views: At this point in time, we can't really say that we're retreating from Space. Obama has a review underway and may launch a new space intiative - or he may not. What bothers me is that we can never move ahead in Space if every few years when a new Administration moves in, they say cancel everything and start something new. It has to be an Obama program, not a Clinton one, and certainly not a Bush one.

Trouble is that space programs need consistent progress, not cancellations and new projects all the time. If there is a new Obama program, and if it is an improvement over the ones the earlier Presidents had, and if our country will follow through on it, then this is well and good. At this point, I hope so.

---

Charles Krauthammer is a more establishment columnist. He came to punditry by way of psychiatry (at Massachusetts General Hospital) via the New Republic Magazine. He appears on TV where you never see his wheelchair. Here's his Wiki bio.

He wrote a book which is pictured at the right. I am drawn by the substance and the thinking than any particular writing flair.

Coulter 7/16/09

Senate Hearings on Court Nominees: Excercises in Hypocracy

My take on Ann Coulter's latest. Her column was published on Townhall.com.

Summary: The treatment of Sonia Sotormayor is compared to how past Republican nominees have been treated. Her list includes:

1. Clarence Thomas
2. Miguel Estrada
3. Janice Rogers Brown and of course,
4. Robert Bork

Quote:

To the extent that the Sotomayor hearings have been less than civil, it is, again, liberals who have made it so, launching personal attacks against the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions, and even the fireman whose complaint started the Ricci case.

My Views: I had forgotten how the Democrats have treated minority nominees by Republicans until she reminded me in this column. My response to the hypocracy of this is emotional but sometimes emotionalism is a good thing. It is important that the only reason that this Hispanic nominee is so significant is because past men and women of Hispanic and other backgrounds were blocked by these very Senators - and blocked because of their ethnic origins, too. Shame!

---

Anybody who is as hated as Ann Coulter is must be doing something right. She is very right-wing but every left-wing blogger would love to write like her. I hate rants; opinion pieces must argue from the facts. Pay attention to how she uses facts and draws politically incorrect connections among them. People would do well to think and not just be outraged.

Here's her Wiki bio. Her latest book is at the right.

Will 7/15/09

Big Labor: This Special Interest's Hold on the Democrats Never Changes

My take on George Will's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: This starts with giving Big Auto to Big Labor but most of the column concerns regulating Federal Express for the benefit of UPS because of union concerns.

Quote:

How does the Obama administration love organized labor? Let us count the ways it uses power to repay unions for helping to put it in power.

My Views: Everyone should know that whenever Democrats get into power, there's going to be a tilt towards labor unions. While the last few months have been as a big a tilt as at anytime before, the hope that is getting squashed is the hope that Obama would be a different kind of Democrat. Sadly, when it comes to Democrats servicing their party's special interest groups, there is no change in their past behavior and hopes that they will do so get continually squashed.

---

George Will almost didn't make it as a syndicated columnist. His style was considered too erudite for a general audience.

Whatever one thinks of his views, read his work for use of language and for how he marshals facts and uses logic.

Here's his Wiki bio.

His latest book is at the right.

Will 7/12/09

Higher Taxes Soon

My take on George Will's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: The government's intervention in the economy is costly and hurtful which means that those who think that economic improvement is based upon government intervention will want more and to pay for it government will have to raise taxes.

Quote:

Economic policy, which became startling when Washington began buying automobile companies, has become surreal now that disappointment with the results of the second stimulus is stirring talk about the need for a . . . second stimulus.

My Views: This column is a short history of the stimulus policy. That this policy started with George Bush - with the support of John McCain - makes it a bi-partisan mistake. It hasn't worked. To really fix things will require a kind of thinking that the present government is unlikely to experience.

Taxes are going to go up. The tax code is going to get more complicated. And the IRS will have to emphasize enforcement as more Americans stop filing and go to non-traceable bartering. This is great news for us CPA's as it will mean more work for us. Yippee!

---

George Will almost didn't make it as a syndicated columnist. His style was considered too erudite for a general audience.

Whatever one thinks of his views, read his work for use of language and for how he marshals facts and uses logic.

Here's his Wiki bio.

His latest book is at the right.

Coulter 7/10/09

Forgetting Sarah Palin

My take on Ann Coulter's latest. Her column was published on Townhall.com.

Summary: If the Left is so against her, then why do they keep talking her up?

Quote:

She's like the ex-girlfriend they're SO over, never want to see again, have already forgotten about -- really, it's O-ver -- but they just can't stop talking about her.

My Views: I think that the left perceives SP as weak and think they can exploit her as much as possible. Let's not forget animus. She's attractive and articulate.

The same as that girl who was Miss California. Why did she excite such animus? She wasn't running for anything. Yet the denunciations were out of all proportions to the incident.

This explanation for the anti-SP behavior may seem to be improbable at first brush but coupled with the behavior towards other beautiful, attractive, Conservative women seems to establish a pattern.

---

Anybody who is as hated as Ann Coulter is must be doing something right. She is very right-wing but every left-wing blogger would love to write like her. I hate rants; opinion pieces must argue from the facts. Pay attention to how she uses facts and draws politically incorrect connections among them. People would do well to think and not just be outraged.

Here's her Wiki bio. Her latest book is at the right.

Krauthammer 7/9/09

The Very Retro Moscow Agreement

My take on Charles Krauthammer's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: Obama signed a treaty this week that appeared to bring back the glory days of the Kissinger years. Sadly, all this accomplished was to make Obama look good. All style, no substance.

Quote:

Poland and the Czech Republic thought they were regaining their independence when they joined NATO under the protection of the United States. They now see that the shield negotiated with us and subsequently ratified by all of NATO is in limbo.

My Views: CK rests his case on the premise that defensive missles are critical. This is dubious. They didn't work very well against Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War. CK vastly over-rates their importance. The real trouble with Obama's diplomacy is that like much else we are seeing, it is reflexive left-wing ideology rather than any thing broadminded or creative. The problem with Russia today is it's agression against it's neighbors (eg. Georgia).

---

Charles Krauthammer is a more establishment columnist. He came to punditry by way of psychiatry (at Massachusetts General Hospital) via the New Republic Magazine. He appears on TV where you never see his wheelchair. Here's his Wiki bio.

He wrote a book which is pictured at the right. I am drawn by the substance and the thinking than any particular writing flair.

Will 7/8/09

The McNamara Mentality

My take on George Will's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: Robert McNamara was Chairman of Ford Motors in the 1950's and then Secretary of Defense under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He championed the idea that elites in Washington could use principles of social sciences to manipulate populations and control events.

His failures in Vietnam was blamed on the failures of conservative ideas on military intervention rather than on the failures liberal ideas on government control.

Quote:

Today, something unsettlingly similar to McNamara's eerie assuredness pervades the Washington in which he died. The spirit is: Have confidence, everybody, because we have, or soon will have, everything -- really everything -- under control.

My Views: His and his administration's failures did not just pertain to ideas but to arrogance - the arrogance of the elites towards the rest of the human race. In his later life, he denounced the Vietnam War but blamed LBJ, blamed conservatives, did everything but seriously address the very real problems with the liberal establishment's concensus of that war. He was just as much a follower of leftwing ideology in old age as when he was in power and in his prime.

That's the problem with the mentality that McNamara represented then and Obama represents today.

---

George Will almost didn't make it as a syndicated columnist. His style was considered too erudite for a general audience.

Whatever one thinks of his views, read his work for use of language and for how he marshals facts and uses logic.

Here's his Wiki bio.

His latest book is at the right.

Krauthammer 7/3/09

Civil Rights Should Not Be Extremist

My take on Charles Krauthammer's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: In New Haven, Connecticutt, no blacks scored high enough on the firemen's promotion test to qualify, so the test was thrown out and no promotions were made. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the white firemen.

Quote:

The defenders of the old racial order, led by Ginsburg, objected sternly, declaring that the white firefighters "had no vested right to promotion." Of course they didn't, but they did have a vested right to fairness, to not being denied promotion because of their skin color.

My Views: Note that the policy of reserving jobs for blacks does in fact give a vested right to promotion based on skin color.

It is this kind of stuff that causes Americans to not give the Civil Rights issue the respect that it is due. Left wingers need to moderate their stridency of rhetoric and their extremist policies. This kind of stuff ought to be labeled with that word "extremist" and then disgarded by the Civil Rights leadership. Then concentrate on common-sense battles to fight. Goodness knows, there's plenty of them to fight on the Civil Rights front!

---

Charles Krauthammer is a more establishment columnist. He came to punditry by way of psychiatry (at Massachusetts General Hospital) via the New Republic Magazine. He appears on TV where you never see his wheelchair. Here's his Wiki bio.

He wrote a book which is pictured at the right. I am drawn by the substance and the thinking than any particular writing flair.