Liberals Use Emotion Instead of Reason
when making important decisions

Too many people seem to formulate their beliefs based upon other people's emotional outburts and bumper stickers rather than rational thought and objective examination of facts.  Apparently that is the case all over the country.  Even so-called conservatives know the power of emotional appeal and sentimental rhetoric, which is why, for example, the federal takeover of school standards was given the name of "No Child Left Behind."  What heartless beast of a Congressman would vote to leave children behind?  But you see, the Constitution does not authorize federal involvement in education issues.  The only way to keep people from mentioning that little technicality is to give that federal involvement an irresistibly warm and fuzzy name.

Other warm and fuzzy names that have been successfully applied in the past include "The Fairness Doctrine", "The Great Society" and "Social Security."  So-called conservatives use the same technique, which is one reason almost nobody in the Congress voted against the Patriot Act, even though they hadn't read it.  Many other words in the liberal vocabulary have their connotations -- some more sinister than others.

Usually it is the more liberal-leaning voters who operate this way.  That's why political candidates are chosen (subconsciously or not) on the basis of hair styles or general cuteness.  But even without the influence of television, people seem to be easily swayed by sound bites and one-liners.

Liberal (or "progressive") politicians and their allies in the news media would like us all to believe that we live in an endless series of crises that only the government can resolve.  Every day there's another emergency, another shocking update, or another politically incorrect outburst that must be addressed with more legislation.

And no matter what evil deed you've done, liberals will forgive you.  All you have to do is apologize, cry on television, and go into rehab.


Democrats Vs. Republicans: Who's The Most Greedy?.  Rich businessman Mitt Romney gave more than 16% of his income to charity last year.  A few years back, Barack and Michelle Obama gave less than 1% of theirs.  Aren't Republicans supposed to be the heartless ones?

Prez fans the flames.  State of the Union addresses are inherently political.  But there is something a bit unseemly about seeing the president exploit the raw insecurity many Americans feel about their finances, for election-year advantage.  This White House rarely hesitates to go there and President Barack Obama did so again last night.

Black Caucus charges voter ID laws aimed at Obama supporters.  The Congressional Black Caucus on Monday night [1/23/2012] took to the House floor to charge that voter ID laws popping up around the country are aimed at dissuading minority voters from voting, and making it harder for President Obama to win re-election.  "It is clear to me that whether racially based or not, this is a direct attempt, not only to undermine the election process, but a specific attempt to derail what surely would be and ought to be the re-election of Barack Obama," Rep. Donna Christensen (D-VI) said on the floor.

Is Obama 'Untethered to the Facts'? Are his lips moving?  Well, every commercial needs to grab the viewer's attention and this one does just that.  They come out fighting with "Secretive oil billionaires are attacking Obama."  That's an attention grabber, eh?  Right from the get-go, 'secretive oil billionaires.'  No names, no pictures, just a statement.

Don't trust your instincts.  Simple answers are so satisfying:  Green jobs will fix the economy.  Stimulus will create jobs.  Charity helps people more than commerce.  Everyone should vote.  Well, all those instinctive solutions are wrong.

Presidential nonsense:  Last week, President Barack Obama, at a Capital Hilton fundraising event, told the crowd, "We can't go back to this brand of you're-on-your-own economics."  Throughout my professional career as an economist, I've never come across the theory of "you're-on-your-own economics."  I'm guessing what the president means by — and finds offensive in — "you're-on-your-own economics" is that it's a system in which people are held responsible for their actions, that they take risks and must live with the results, that people can't force others to pay for their mistakes, and that they can't live at the expense of other people.

Obama: Republicans Want to Emulate China, Roll Back Minimum Wage, Prevent Unionization.  President Barack Obama accused Republicans of wanting to make America more like China, of seeking to roll back the minimum wage and of wanting to prevent collective bargaining and said the GOP wants to "get rid" of clean air and water rules.  Obama made the comments Monday [1/9/2012] at a campaign fundraiser at the Capital Hilton in Washington on the eve of the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary.

The Left's War on Voter Fraud Reform.  Although Democrats insist that little or no voter fraud is occurring, at least 55 former Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) employees or associates have been convicted of some form of voter fraud in 11 states, according to the Capital Research Center's Matthew Vadum.  Voter integrity rules are long overdue to prevent fraud, and Democrats seem to think that minority, young, and elderly people are morons who can't play by the same rules as everyone else.  The left's strategy is simple:  energize the base with false fears while depicting Republicans as barely disguised Klansmen with pitchforks and torches.

Will Obama steal the 2012 election?  The administration is trying to whip up minority frenzy, propagating the myth of widespread ballot suppression.  The goal is to foster a sense of racial persecution of blacks, intending to maximize voter turnout in November. ... Mr. Holder evidently wants to scuttle ID laws because he knows which organization will be hurt most:  ACORN.

Is Liberalism a Religion?  Whether the beliefs are true or false, if people didn't come to their religious convictions by means of reason, then reason isn't going to convince them to change their minds.  This same principle applies to collectivism and health care.  If people didn't come to the false religion of collectivism by means of reason, you are not going to talk them out of it by means of reason.  If you remember this principle, you will save yourself the agony of many, many pointless conversations.

Nation Reporter: 'Deep Racism' at the Heart of Food Stamp Reform.  With a record 46 million Americans now receiving food stamps and rampant abuse resulting in what the Wall Street Journal calls a "food stamp crime wave," Nation reporter Lizzie Ratner believes that "deep racism" is "at the heart of conservative food stamp critiques".

Obama tells the truth.  Whoever the Republicans nominate will have to run the same gauntlet of lies and false accusations from the left that will go unchallenged by anyone in the media.  Pro-abortion women will say the Republican candidate wants to turn the clock back to 1950s and put women back in the kitchen, when they are not getting back-alley abortions.  Civil rights relics will call other Republican proposals Jim Crow laws.  The selection seems random, such as the cry of the Wolf of Race over Republican proposals to require voters to show some ID at the polls.  It does not matter who Republicans nominate.  The race and sex cards will be played.

Sen. Boxer: GOP bill will kill 8,100 Americans.  California Democrat Sen. Barbara Boxer said on Tuesday [12/13/2011] that House Republicans will kill 8,100 Americans with the latest version of their payroll tax cut bill.  Speaking on the floor of the Senate, Boxer, the chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, assailed a provision House Republicans attached to their payroll tax-cut bill that would delay boiler regulations the Environmental Protection Agency recently enacted.

The Editor says...
 I challenge you to name three people who have died as the direct result of exposure to the exhaust fumes from boilers.

Anti-safety? Old union trope withers.  The old chest-thumping power plays used by public employee unions for years are not resonating with voters like they used to. ... Still, the union brass know no other way to behave, so they keep pounding their chests as if the ancient tribal call will be enough to send the reformers with the green eye shades back to their offices to cower in fear.

Democrat Economic Illiteracy Has Consequences.  The Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, visited Capitol Hill last week and claimed that the unemployment rate will increase if Congress fails to extend the eligibility period for federal unemployment benefits.  My first reaction to this Orwellian assertion was a quiet chuckle.  Then it dawned on me that most Democrats will believe this nonsense.  These are, after all, people who believed that health care would be made cheaper by a law that increases demand for medical services while reducing the supply of health care providers.

EPA Fracking Report and Energy Politics.  Yesterday's EPA report raising water pollution worries about fracking in Wyoming amounts to psy-ops in the Obama re-election campaign. ... The only way Obama can defend his energy policies is to raise fears of pollution.

More unsupported hysteria over fracking.  Fracking was first used in Oklahoma in the 1940s and in the years since has been employed in more than a million oil and gas wells across the nation.  There is not a single independently documented instance of groundwater contamination by fracking anywhere in the country, a fact that was confirmed as recently as May by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson during congressional testimony.  So why did the EPA announce Thursday [12/8/2011] in a draft report that chemicals "likely" associated with fracking were found at a drilling site near Pavilion, Wyoming?

Democrat says GOP trying to deny blacks the right to vote.  A Democratic lawmaker said Wednesday [12/7/2011] on the House floor that Republican legislators around the country are purposefully trying to deny blacks the right to vote by pushing for voter identification laws.  "It's no coincidence that a disproportionate number of these affected voters come from communities of color as well as the poor, the elderly and students," said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Waxman: Solyndra, Green Subsidies Saving People from 'Fires, Droughts, and Floods'.  Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said that Department of Energy subsidies, such as the the failed $535-million loan guarantee to solar company Sloyndra, were "saving" people from "fires, droughts and floods" that are caused by global warming.

Also posted under Global Warming is Blamed for Everything!

Jimmy Carter an Ally on the Left in Voter ID Crusade.  In every state that has enacted voter ID, most of the proponents are Republican and most opponents are Democrats.  "And it really got ugly when the [Republican-controlled Pennsylvania] House of Representatives took up the issue earlier this year," GOP State Rep. Curt Schroder recalled for Human Events.  "Supporters were called hatemongers and racist, and comparisons were made between us and Mississippians in the 1960s who tried to keep blacks from voting."

Wasserman Schultz accuses GOP of rigging elections with 'suppression laws'.  Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Wednesday night [11/16/2011] said Republican governors and legislatures are purposefully pressing for the enactment of voter-identification laws to suppress Democratic voter turnout in the 2012 election.  "State legislatures are attempting to impose voting restrictions that are the modern-day equivalent of poll taxes and literacy tests," the Florida congresswoman said on the House floor.

Transportation officials considering raising gas tax.  There is a new move to boost the taxes you pay every time you fill up.  A new state report shows California is hundreds of billions of dollars short when it comes to fixing its roads.  It is a funding gap that could delay more than 3,000 safety improvements.

The Editor scoffs...
 Yeah, right.  Excuses are always given when tax increases are proposed, and they always have something to do with safety, or protecting the children, or saving grandma from starvation.  For this reason, taxes never decrease or expire.

Keep Fear Alive.  The pairing of the conservative movement with bias has a long history that over the years, as it has become less defensible, has only become more intense. ... MSNBC's Chris Matthews told Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus in August that the Tea Party has "a bad attitude towards race, towards black people, towards immigrants."  He called mention of food stamps a "racist dog whistle."  He obsessed over the idea that Rick Perry wants to secede from the Union, and his colleague Howard Fineman called the Tea Party plan to cut back on entitlements a "slow-motion secession" from the rest of the country.

Top 10 Joe Bidenisms.  [#1]  Republicans want more rapes:  While trying to sell President Obama's jobs bill, Biden hurled a vicious attack on Republicans blocking the bill, saying that if the bill didn't pass, murders and rapes would increase:  "It's not temporary when that 911 call comes in and a woman's being raped, if a cop shows up in time to prevent the rape.  It's not temporary to that woman. ... I wish they [Republicans] had some notion of what it was like to be on the other side of a gun, or a 200-pound man standing over you, telling you to submit."

Payday Loans.  The mindset of the left was recently displayed in a big, front-page story in the October 30th issue of the San Mateo County Times.  It was an investigative reporter's expose of the "payday loan" business and its lobbyists.  According to the reporter:  "In California lenders charge up to $45 in fees on a maximum $300 loan.  This amounts to an interest rate of 460 percent, trapping some borrowers into a never-ending cycle of debt." ... Using this kind of reasoning — or lack of reasoning — you could quote the price of salmon as $15,000 a ton or say a hotel room rents for $36,000 a year, when no consumer buys a ton of salmon and few people stay in a hotel room all year.  It is clever propaganda, but do people buy newspapers to be propagandized?

Biden Continues to Warn of Rapes and Murders If Jobs Bill Isn't Passed.  Last week, Vice President Joe Biden warned that more people would likely be raped and murdered if President Obama's jobs bill is not passed. ... Today, Biden reiterated his warning at an event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Obama is Losing His Honor.  In a speech earlier this year, [President Obama] accused Republicans of wanting the elderly, autistic and Down syndrome children to fend for themselves.  And this week, the president described the Republican economic plan as boiling down to this:  "Let's have dirtier air, dirtier water, less people with health insurance."

Murders, Rapes, Falling Bridges and Phantom Jobs.  Where's the outrage?  Where are the media?  Why don't they ask Obama why he's proposing to spend $447 billion on projects that aren't even necessary and trying to scare the public into supporting them?  Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel famously said that "you never want a serious crisis to go to waste," but Obama has taken the maxim to a new level.  The enhanced version is:  "When all else fails to convince the electorate, fabricate a phony crisis, and fuel it with fear based on lies.

White House backs Biden's rape, murder remarks.  The White House on Thursday [10/20/2011] defended Vice President Joseph R. Biden's rhetoric that more Americans will be raped and killed if Republican lawmakers reject part of President Obama's jobs bill that would pay for more police officers on the street.

Biden's Criminal Lies.  Vice President Joe Biden's challenge to the GOP that blocking the jobs bill would mean more rapes and murders is beneath even the remarkably low standard he's set for that office.  His claim is also utterly bogus.

Obama: Republicans Want 'Dirtier Air, Dirtier Water'.  President Barack Obama said the Republican jobs proposal, released last week, would mean "dirtier air, dirtier water, less people with health insurance."  "The Republican plan says that what's been standing in the way between us and full employment are laws that keep companies from polluting as much as they want," Obama said in a speech at the regional airport in Asheville, N.C., on Monday [10/17/2011].

Sharpton: People Favoring Voter IDs Want to 'Revoke the Voting Rights Act'.  MSNBC's Al Sharpton lead a jobs rally in Washington, D.C., Saturday, and not surprisingly, he used the event to once again divide the nation along racial lines.  As he has disgracefully done on his PoliticsNation program on numerous occasions in recent weeks, Sharpton accused those favoring proper identification at the polls as wanting to "revoke the Voting Rights Act".

"They Won't Even Vote on It".  That's the subject line of an Obama campaign email blast sent out yesterday afternoon [10/4/2011], attacking House Republicans for not yet voting on his American Jobs Act:  "Though it's been nearly a month since he laid out this plan, House Republicans haven't acted to pass it," Obama campaign manager Jim Messina writes in the email.  "It's not clear which part of the bill they now object to:  building roads, hiring teachers, getting veterans back to work."  Of course, Republicans might lob the same charge right back at the Democrats.  The Senate GOP tried to force a vote on Obama's jobs act yesterday, but were blocked by Harry Reid, who simply doesn't have enough Democratic votes to pass the bill.

The Editor says...
 I would be happy to answer Mr. Obama's remarkably stupid question.  The federal government has no constitutional authority to engage in "building roads, hiring teachers, [or] getting veterans back to work."  Those matters are "reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Obama mocks Perry, Republican debates.  President Obama broadened his attack on Republicans Sunday night, firing an indirect shot at Texas Gov. Rick Perry and condemning audience members at recent Republican debates. ... "I mean has anybody been watching the debates lately?" Obama said.  "You've got a governor whose state is on fire denying climate change."

Why Voter Photo Identification Is Crucial to Our Republic.  Voter identification requirements have been a source of contention for some time, despite increased evidence of voter fraud in recent elections.  Generally, the left opposes such requirements, and the right favors them.  As is usually the case, the left's position is based upon emotion, while the right's is more pragmatic — i.e., how to implement a simple constitutional mandate.

Obama's 'Hate the Rich' Campaign.  It angers me that Obama and his minions in the liberal media have put achievers, risk-takers, on the defensive.  It angers me that Obama's followers think that they are entitled to the fruit of someone else's labor.  Americans are extremely generous and willing to help people in need, domestic and foreign.  But no one is entitled to share in the bounty resulting from someone's risk, blood, sweat, and tears.  Any government which confiscates and redistributes wealth is immoral and evil.

EPA To Shut Down 20% of Coal Plants in 2012.  Susan Kraemer at CleanTechnica can barely contain her excitement at the prospect of environmental regulations.  In an article titled "Obama's EPA Cues 130 Billion Race to Cut Pollution By 2015", she reports that the EPA will shut down 20 percent of coal plants through the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule.  She acknowledges the cost of these regulations ($130 billion), but insists that this is actually good for the economy.  How, pray tell, does $130 billion in regulatory expenses transform into a $130 billion boon?

How did anyone survive before the EPA existed?
 Dems: Heart attacks, asthma, deformed babies if EPA reined in.  House Democrats on Thursday evening [9/22/2011] warned that Republican attempts to rein in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations would lead directly to adverse health effects across America.

Our floundering 'federal family'.  In societies governed by persuasion, politics is mostly talk, so liberals' impoverishment of their vocabulary matters.  Having damaged liberalism's reputation, they call themselves progressives.  Having made the federal government's pretensions absurd, they have resurrected a supposed synonym for the government, the "federal family."  Having made federal spending suspect, they advocate "investments" — for "job creation," a euphemism for stimulus, another word they have made toxic.

Beating the Racism Card.  [The 2012] campaign is going to be about one thing:  racism.  No matter what else happens, racism will be the theme. ... This is the essence of totalitarian thought control:  you cannot win, you cannot remain aloof, you cannot get out of the game.  That being the case, the game board must be broken, the pieces scattered, and the rules burnt.

Obama Nation: The Power of Panic.  President Obama and the Democratic Party effectively turned every controversial issue they faced over the past three years into a potential crisis, and convinced the American people to support their solutions without question to avert presumed dire consequences.  Important works of legislation capable of changing the American way of life were passed on the basis of "we have to pass this now — or else!"

The Department Of Doublespeak.  The government's image well earned by its excesses are what the administration wants the public to forget when it uses the phrase "federal family."  In reality, our "federal family" is actually Big Brother — a ruling presence that burdens, manipulates, plunders, abuses and surveils the people.  Big Brother demands obedience and doesn't tolerate dissent. ... Covering up a government's reputation by referring to it as a family doesn't change the facts that produced the sullied reputation.  It is still an unwelcome force by any other name.

The Democrats' Invincible Ignorance.  I'm hearing from a disturbingly high number of people who apparently buy the Democratic Party line with no question whatsoever.  They exhibit a remarkable, frightful willingness to act against their own interests in blind service to partisanship and ideology.

Messiah of Hate.  The time when the Obama brand still seemed like it might have something to offer the American people is long past.  There will still be voters who go to the polls and pull the wrong lever, but they won't do it because they seriously believe that another term will make America a better place.  Rather they will do it for reasons of identity.  Political identity, racial identity and because 'anything is better than voting GOP' is also an identity.

Gore urges Obama to block pipeline for 'dirtiest source of fuel on the planet'.  Former Vice President Gore called on President Obama late Wednesday [8/31/2011] to reject a pending permit application for a controversial pipeline project, calling the oil that it would carry "the dirtiest fuel on the planet."

The Editor says...
 I thought coal was supposed to be the dirtiest fuel.  In any event, the dirtiness of a coal mine doesn't matter to most people, as long as the coal goes straight to a power plant and is converted into electricity.

Big Three Nets Ignore Rep. Carson's Lynching Smear of Tea Party.  Representative Andre Carson's inflammatory attack on the Tea Party has yet to have receive any attention from the Big Three networks.  As reported by Politico on Wednesday, Rep. Carson accused Tea Party-friendly members of Congress of wanting to bring back Jim Crow and went so far to accuse his colleagues of wanting to bring back lynching:  "Some of them... would love to see you and me... hanging on a tree."

Andre Carson: Tea party wants blacks 'hanging on a tree'.  A top lawmaker in the Congressional Black Caucus says tea partiers on Capitol Hill would like to see African-Americans hanging from trees and accuses the movement of wishing for a return to the Jim Crow era.

'Climate scepticism is the new racism' says Gore.  Just as "racist" has been honed over the decades by liberal-lefties for casual use as a deadly weapon against anyone who disagrees them, so "climate denier" has become the new leftist shorthand for "evil, wrong, uncaring, right-wing — and almost certainly funded by Big Oil."  In both cases, the intent is the same:  to close down the argument by implying that your opponent is so morally compromised that his case isn't even worth consideration.

No, Showing Identification is Not a 'Poll Tax'.  There's an entirely absurd op-ed by Georgia Congressman John Lewis in today's New York Times about voter ID laws. ... What's odd is that Lewis and others constantly criticize voter ID laws without defining what they think would be sufficient proof of identity.  Do Lewis and other Democrats simply think showing up at the polls and taking someone's word that they are who they say they are should be sufficient?

7 Reasons Why Liberals Are Incapable of Understanding The World.  [#3]  Liberals emphasize feeling superior, not superior results.  Liberalism is all about appearances, not outcomes.  What matters to liberals is how a program makes them FEEL about themselves, not whether it works or not.  Thus a program like Headstart, which sounds good because it's designed to help children read, makes liberals feel good about themselves, even though the program doesn't work and wastes billions.  A ban on DDT makes liberals feel good about themselves because they're "protecting the environment" even though millions of people have died as a result.

The Democrats' Big Lie.  There are very few things the left is really good at, but one of them is propaganda, its bread and butter, the biggest arrow in its quiver.  While extolling "the working class", the socialist movement has always been an almost exclusive preserve of radical intellectuals.  These people, whose primary habitat is the ivory towers of academia, are far removed from reality.  They spend their lives talking non-stop, engaging in verbal games and coming up with slogans and catch-words and phrases, sometimes quite ingenious.

Facts? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Facts.  Progressives just like feeling good about what they believe in.  Thus, it completely eludes progressives why companies refuse to hire, or ship jobs overseas at every opportunity.  In prog-world, companies exist primarily to re-distribute wealth, not make a profit or turn out a product.  In prog-world, every business owner is suspect until proven otherwise, even as thousands of rules and regulations must be substituted for common sense and common decency.

Nancy Pelosi: 'You can kiss Medicare goodbye'.  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi held a mid-morning press conference Thursday [07/28/2011], sharply denouncing Speaker John Boehner's debt limit plan, which will come up for a vote later in the day.  If Boehner's proposal becomes law, Pelosi said, "You can kiss Medicare goodbye."

'Life on this planet' about to change.  That thoughtful observer of the passing parade, Nancy Pelosi, weighed in on the "debt ceiling" negotiations the other day:  "What we're trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget.  We're trying to save life on this planet as we know it today."  It's always good to have things explained in terms we simpletons can understand.

To [Heck] with You People.  Tom Friedman — who knows a bit about Hezbollah — calls the tea partiers the "Hezbollah faction" of the GOP bent on taking the country on a "suicide mission."  All over the place, conservative Republicans are "hostage takers" and "terrorists," "terrorists" and "traitors."  They want to "end life as we know it on this planet," says Nancy Pelosi.

Al Franken Unveils Sign During Senate Floor Speech On Debt Crisis.  Yesterday [7/27/2011], Minnesota Senator Al Franken (D) addressed fellow members of the Senate with the help of a rather striking visual aid.  While explaining to his fellow politicians that, if a bill to increase the debt ceiling isn't passed by the August 2nd deadline, there would be no money for veterans, students or federal agents fighting terrorism, Franken elected to really drive his point home by unveiling a large blue and yellow sign reading "WELCOME TERRORISTS."

It's Not Fair!  Like little kids, liberals love to use the phrase "It's not fair."  When somebody is rich, liberals say "It's not fair."  Kind of reminds me of my younger brother when we were little.  Sometimes liberals use the phrase "redistribution of income" instead of "it's not fair" when they want to elevate the conversation and sound grown up.  What's kind of interesting is that when it comes to liberals' toys and money, they're very reluctant to give them up.  Whether it's taxes, toys, money, or political positions, "it's not fair" when they are held to the same standards as other Americans.

Class warfare, Obama-style.  President Obama is pushing for what he calls a "reasonable proposition" of tax increases mainly on those families with incomes of $250,000 or more.  "We weren't balancing the budget off of middle-class families and working-class families," he said last week.  "And we weren't letting hedge-fund managers or authors of best-selling books off the hook."  Left unsaid was that the top 10 percent of earners are already on the hook for around 70 percent of total income taxes, and the bottom 50 percent pay next to nothing.  If "fairness" was as important to liberals as they say it is, they would be seeking balance by raising taxes on the low end of the income scale.

Job-killing corporate jet tax.  President Obama is rummaging for cheap political points by attempting to tax corporate jets.  Apparently, if one uses a private jet, even for business, one must be punished.

An Industry Maligned.  The president won't let go of his obsession with the corporate jet tax break.  Eliminating the tax break is fine.  But there's no excuse for using the bully pulpit to beat up an industry struggling to recover.

Bloomberg Wants to Take Away Your Guns Before Al Qaeda Gets Them.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his little outfit "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" are at it again.  Hoping to gain traction for what has heretofore been an absolutely pathetic gun control campaign, Bloomberg is rolling out all the stops by trying to scare us into thinking Al Qaeda agents are buying their guns at U.S. gun shows.

The Education of a Compassionate Conservative.  [Scroll down]  Leftist assumption of control of academia and the media was so swift and thorough during the 1970s and 80s only because many conservatives had swallowed the liberal line that such values as self-reliance, merit, individualism, and fairness were not only immoral and indefensible but quite possibly racist and borderline fascist as well.

President Obama's war on facts.  President Obama's "corporate jet" line from his press conference Wednesday [6/29/2011] is crashing along with a host of other claims that fact-checkers dismissed in the hours after his speech.  Obama referred to private jets six times in his remarks, essentially describing the Republican position on how to decrease rampant deficits as being "willing to compromise their kids' safety so that some corporate jet owner continues to get a tax break."

The Alinsky Alert System.  Rule Number Five of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals calls for ridicule of the opposition whenever there is opportunity.  Alinsky dedicated his book to Lucifer and therein opened the gate to misconduct, just so long as it serves the cause.  It seems the more vitriolic the attack the better.  And truth, accuracy, fairness, all those things are simply a crutch for weak people and have no play in the radicals' game unless used in some kind of guise.  Today, Rule Number Five is the strongest tool that the liberals have among them and in light of current events, its use can only increase.

DNC Chair: GOP Aims to "Literally Drag" the Country Back to Jim Crow Era.  Lost the maelstrom of Weinergate was this delightful piece of intellectually honest, measured rhetoric from new DNC Chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).  Thank goodness for Democrats, our nation's self-appointed civility police force.

Voter ID is no Jim Crow — I would know.  Having experienced the psychological pain of Jim Crow laws first-hand, I won't allow those who likely only read about Jim Crow in history books to trivialize it.  That's why I'm outraged about a recent edition of TV One's "Washington Watch" in which host Roland Martin and Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) compared state-level voter identification rules to Jim Crow.  To the contrary, requiring valid identification in exchange for something as sacred as a ballot is a pragmatic approach to governing.

Asking Voters for ID Is Not a Race Issue.  I don't get why [E.J.] Dionne thinks some people would have a hard time producing ID because of the color of their skin.  I can understand other reasons — homeless people might have a difficult time proving their place of residence, or illiterate people might not be able to fill in the paperwork — but to imply that getting and using an ID is somehow too difficult or onerous for some racial groups seems very condescending to me.  What does skin color or ethnic background have to do with it?  When we ask people to produce ID to get healthcare, as I had to, or to prove their identity to get an Amtrak ticket, no one says this is a return to segregation.

Rep. Steve King compared to McCarthy in ACORN floor spat.  Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) made the comparison in comments on the House floor after King attempted to exclude dozens of groups related to ACORN from receiving government funds through an amendment to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations bill.  King proposed an amendment that would deny DHS funding to several ACORN affiliates across various states.

New DNC Boss Calls GOP 'Anti-Women'.  In an emotional assault on the Republicans, new Democratic Party Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz today called the GOP agenda "anti-women" and "a war on women" that will backfire on Republicans in the 2012 election and provide a cushion for President Obama's re-election bid.  "It's just so hard for me to grasp how they could be so anti-women as they are," she said at a breakfast roundtable with reporters.

Mediscare: The Surprising Truth.  The Obama administration has repeatedly claimed that the health-reform bill it passed last year improved Medicare's finances.  Although you'd never know it from the current state of the Medicare debate — with the Republicans being portrayed as the Medicare Grinches — the laim is true only because ObamaCare explicitly commits to cutting health-care spending for the elderly and the disabled in future years.

Climate Activists Target States With Lawsuits.  A group of attorneys using children and young adults as plaintiffs plans to file legal actions in every state and the District of Columbia on Wednesday [5/4/2011] in an effort to force government intervention on climate change.

Left-leaning Center for American Progress blames Republicans for devastating tornadoes.  The left-leaning Center for American Progress published a blog post Thursday [4/28/2011] blaming Republicans for the tornadoes that devastated the South earlier this week.

CAP capitalizes on southern storm deaths.  [A recent] post by Brad Johnson really is a new low for the Center of American Progress:  "Storms Kill Over 250 Americans In States Represented By Climate Pollution Deniers." ... The official line at CAP now is that all weather events, all the time, everywhere, are all the direct result of global warming.

This was also posted under Global Warming is Blamed for Everything.

New ad portrays GOP attack on EPA as assault on babies.  With several key votes set for next week on the GOP's ongoing assault on the Environmental Protection Agency, this new ad gives us a hint on how the left intends to respond — by portraying the GOP push as an assault on children.

Obama's Character Defect.  Challenging people's character, their motivations, and their patriotism is back in fashion.  And so, in Barack Obama's world, the Republican vision for America consists of crumbling roads, collapsing bridges, young people unable to go to college, grandparents unable to afford nursing home care, and — this one is particularly classy — autistic and Down's Syndrome children will have to fend for themselves.

Obama's charity state.  President Obama made a big to-do about a big speech about his allegedly big new plan to reduce the really big deficit and fix the country the way a president is supposed to.  Predictably, he dusted off old far-left mantras as tired as Joe Biden at an Obama speech, spouting yet again that the way to end deficits is to raise taxes.  The rhetoric on the left is getting more shrill by the minute, with accusations of Republicans wanting to "steal" from poor people, women and senior citizens.  Yes — "steal" — as if there is money that is theirs and mean old Republicans want to break into their homes in the middle of the night and lift it from their wallets.

The Choice In 2012: Emotion Versus Ideas.  On Monday [4/4/2011] we witnessed the beginning of two campaigns to shape the direction of the nation's future.  President Obama declared that he would seek re-election in 2012, kicking off his pursuit of a second term with a web ad geared toward recruiting grassroots workers who would try to keep him in the White House.  In Congress, a much different campaign was launched by the Republicans, with Chairman of the Budget Committee Paul Ryan's release of the 2012 Republican budget.  Comparing these two opening salvos for next year's election, America's choice can be boiled down to a simple choice between the emotional ploys of the left, and the comprehensive solutions of the right.

They were outraged over "Death Panel" claims, but...
 NBC Doesn't Object to Dem Calling GOP Budget a 'Death Trap'.  On Tuesday's [4/5/2011] NBC Nightly News, a report on the Republican 2012 budget proposal included a sound bite from Democratic Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who decried the plan and ranted:  "Medicare would become little more than a discount card.  This plan would literally be a death trap for some seniors."

Rep. Louise Slaughter: GOP Freshmen Came to Washington 'To Kill Women'.  Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) said today [4/7/2011] that the new Republicans elected to the House of Representatives last November came to Congress "to kill women."  She also likened Republican efforts to prohibit federal funding of abortion except in cases of rape, incest or where the life of the mother is endangered to actions taken by Nazis.

Schumer the extremist.  The New York Democrat was caught unaware that others were listening during a conference call he held with colleagues.  Mr. Schumer spoke a bit too liberally about his party's strategy to win the budget battle set to heat up next week.  "I always use the word 'extreme,' that's what the caucus instructed me to do the other week," Mr. Schumer is heard saying on tape to describe Republican proposals.  His favorite soundbites are:  "'Extreme cuts' and 'all these riders' and 'Boehner's in a box, but if he supports the Tea Party there's going to inevitably be a shutdown.'"

Even In California ...  Public-employee unions are being pummeled by Republican legislators and governors all over the country.  But they still seem to think they have the people on their side.  In Wisconsin they're talking recall against Gov. Scott Walker and his state house allies.  In California, they admit to losing some ground.  But they figure on winning it back with one of their tried-and-true ad campaigns, pulling on the public's heartstrings about teachers, cops and firefighters.

Gimme Gimme: A Tour of the Entitlement Mentality.  In the comment section of a recent NRB post regarding public employee unions and the related protests in Wisconsin, one of our readers demonstrated a curious inability to distinguish force from choice.  The exchange was instructive of the entitlement mentality propagated by the Left.  It is a worldview which includes relativism so extreme that it disputes the definition of words.

Understanding Keith Ellison.  It's weird watching Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Keith Ellison take his place on the national stage in opposition to Peter King's hearing on homegrown Islamic extremism this week.  Yesterday he played his role to the hilt in his testimony at the hearings, turning on the waterworks in the conclusion of his testimony.  The Star Tribune was duly impressed.

The tears of a clown.  Yesterday, Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison started crying during Republican Congressman Peter King's hearing on Muslim radicalism.  Ellison was describing the death of Mohammad Salam Hamdani, a Muslim killed on 9/11, when his voice began to crack.  I was watching the hearing at home, and I instantly felt sorry for the guy.  Here he was defending his faith and those who hold it, and it was overwhelming.  Then, I thought:  this dude is faking it.  For one thing, the sequence seemed off.  When people cry, the process is pretty much the same.

Obama plays the Medi-scare card against Republicans.  Medi-scare is back.  This week President Obama marched out Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to start a new Democratic campaign aimed at frightening senior citizens.  Her message:  They will be left with unfilled prescriptions, canceled rehab sessions and a thousand other pains because of spending cuts being sought by the terrible, hard-hearted Republicans in Congress.

Salvaging Government Journalism.  It's SOS time at National Public Radio — "save our subsidies."  Today [3/7/2011], NPR will put CEO Vivian Schiller in front of a sympathetic National Press Club audience to plead for Congress to spare its funding.  And if the announcement is anything to go by, Ms. Schiller will tug at the heart strings by insisting that "rural and economically distressed communities" will be hardest hit by this "significant blow" against public broadcasting.

Sen. Boxer on PBS cuts: 'Republicans have a vendetta against Elmo'.  Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that House Republicans want to strip government funding of PBS because they have a "vendetta against Elmo."

Harry Reid blasts 'mean-spirited' Republicans who want to cut taxpayer-funded poetry festival.  Amid calls for cuts to the federal budget, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid defended the National Endowment for the Arts during a floor speech Tuesday [3/8/2011], calling Republican proposals "mean-spirited" and saying events like government-funded poetry festivals should not be sacrificed to reduce the deficit.  "The mean-spirited bill, H.R. 1, eliminates National Public Broadcasting.  Now, that is really saying a lot, madam president.  It eliminates the National Endowment of the Humanities, National Endowment of the Arts.  These programs create jobs," Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said.

Rep. Rangel: Abolishing unions' collective bargaining 'close to slavery'.  State governments taking steps to "abolish" collective bargaining rights for workers is similar to slavery, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) contends.

'Waiting for Superman' Exposes Human Cost of Collective Bargaining.  With what's happening today in Wisconsin we're hearing a lot about civil rights and workers rights and all those buzz words the Left uses to make something wicked sound noble.  The idea that collective bargaining is some kind of right is beyond absurd.

The Democrats' Tactic: Fearmongering.  Democrat leaders have been working overtime to foster fear among Americans by exaggerating the potential repercussions of a shutdown of the federal government.  Why?  Fearmongering is a great diversionary tactic for Democrats who do not want to be held accountable for out-of-control government spending and who have no intention of getting serious about budget cuts.  They myth of a reign of chaos induced by a government shutdown is just that — a myth.

Runaway Trains of Bureaucracy.  ObamaCare will spawn hundreds of new bureaucracies, and every one of them will begin chugging down the tracks, picking up steam and finding new challenges that require broader powers and increased funding.  Each one will produce a billowing cloud of paperwork to justify its existence, and acquire Congressional engineers who believe its acceleration is a moral imperative.  Demanding restraint from any bureaucracy is considered an act of heartless cruelty to its intended beneficiaries.

5 Political Catchphrases You Should Never Believe.  One of the most tragic things about modern politics is that it's practically impossible for the average American to understand what's going on without an interpreter.  By that, I mean that the "Saving Kittens, Baby Pandas, and Puppies Act of 2011" may actually be a bill that gives $10,000 tax credits to lawyers who defend sleazy zoos from negligence suits.  From there, things only get worse because the newspapers blindly parrot whatever the liberal line is on the bill...

How the Left Sees the Union Crisis in Madison.  For the Left, there is no real fiscal crisis.  The states can easily afford to give the public sector unions everything they ask for.  There is one easy answer:  tax the rich.

Journalists' sob stories block reform.  Now that budget battles have begun in earnest all around the country, those advocating spending cuts, Democratic and Republican, had better not expect any help in furthering their cause from the mainstream news media.  In fact, the news media might be their most formidable foe.  How so?  Well, now that we know the targets of the cuts, the news media, suckers for a sob story, are already throbbing with carefully orchestrated, heart-rending tales about what devastation those cuts will cause:  Children who won't be fed; students unable to afford college; classrooms bursting at the seams; cancers that will not be treated; trains that won't run; roads that won't be built; families becoming homeless or freezing in their unheated homes; single mothers who will lose child care and job training; food that will not be inspected; water and air that will be more polluted; farmers who will be forced from their land; playgrounds, parks, museums, libraries and health clinics that will be closed.  You know the drill.

7 Non-Political Differences Between Liberals and Conservatives:  If you understand one thing about liberals, understand this:  Liberalism is nothing more than "childlike emotionalism applied to adult issues."  That's why they don't care very much about whether the programs they advocate work or not.  Proposing programs isn't really about what will help the most people to liberals; it's about making them feel good about themselves.

Is This How a President Should Act?  We are witnessing the logical conclusion of the Democratic Party's philosophy, and it is this:  Your tax dollars exist to make public sector unions happy.  When we run out of other people's money to pay for those contracts and promises (most of which are negotiated outside of public view, often between union officials and the politicians that union officials helped elect), then we just need to raise taxes to cover a shortfall that is obviously Wall Street's fault.  Anyone who doesn't agree is a bully, and might just bear an uncanny resemblance to Hitler.

The "Judicial Activism" Ploy.  Barack Obama has a rhetorical solution for every problem.  Remember the repeated claims of "shovel-ready" projects that needed only federal stimulus money to get started?  Last year the President quietly admitted that there were not many "shovel-ready" projects, after all.  But the phrase served its political purpose at the time — and that was obviously all that mattered.  Now, in the wake of rulings by two different courts that ObamaCare is unconstitutional, rhetoric is being mobilized again, without any fussy worries about facts.

Americans Don't Have 'Sputnik Moments'.  Khrushchev had his Sputnik Moment.  The Soviets had their Sputnik Moment.  Communist sympathizers throughout the world had their Sputnik Moment.  But despite President Obama's comment during the State of the Union Address, Americans don't have Sputnik Moments.

Obama's Rathole Moment.  If there were a Nobel Prize for historical misstatement, this "Sputnik moment" speech would be the odds-on-favorite. ... It is almost as if Obama believes that in some dysfunctional inner-city school, there are kids with poor English skills about to drop out, but if we just rescue them and get them to return to the classroom and study algebra, America's future will be saved.  Yes, a bunch of middle-aged, nerdy white males got us to the moon, but it will take an entire village of ethnically, racially diverse and gender-balanced people, many of whom were the first in their family to finish high school, let alone attend college, to get us to Mars — a Spaceship Rainbow.

The Truth About 'Investments' Hurts.  "Think and grow rich" might work for an individual envisioning business success, but it is delusional as national economic policy.  We can't wish or will the country to prosperity, or recover from a recession caused by too much debt by incurring more debt.  "Together We Thrive" was not only inappropriate as a theme for a memorial to the victims of the Tucson shooter, it is the economic policy of a collective society, not of a free one.

The Biggest Lie in American Politics.  For decades, liberals have used "big business" as a bugaboo.  Leftists say corporations are mean, heartless and cruel — and what's more, they're inherently capitalist and conservative.  When the economy tanks, liberals blame right-wing corporations; when the regulatory state fails, liberals claim that corporations have perverted the system.

The 'Your Money Is Not Yours' Crowd.  One branch of American politics shares [Paul] Krugman's view that the money you earn — the material manifestation of your mental and physical labor — is not yours.  It belongs to the government.  This view was recently on display when some referred to the extension of the Bush tax rates as "tax cuts."  With tax cuts, taxpayers pay lower rates.  With an extension of tax rates, taxpayers keep paying the same rate.  Extending the Bush tax rates prevented tax rates from going up.  Nobody got a tax cut.

Calling Out Race Exploiter Al Sharpton.  [Al] Sharpton appeared on MSNBC with a panel of white liberals discussing gun control.  Speaking about gun violence in the black community, Sharpton said, "There are no gun manufacturing plants in the black community."  Wow, talk about passing the buck.  So according to Sharpton, black youths shooting each other, as always, is whitey's fault.  Evil gun manufacturers infiltrated the black community.  Poor powerless simple minded blacks, seduced by the shiny things, purchase their guns and use them on each other.  Incredibly, sycophant white liberal members of the MSNBC panel nodded in agreement with Sharpton.

No Apology Here: Congressman Cohen Defends Nazi Comment.  ABC News Jonathan Karl reports:  Congressman Steve Cohen, D-TN, says he has no intention of apologizing for comparing Republican rhetoric with Nazi propaganda.  "I didn't say anything that deserves an apology or requires an apology," Cohen told ABC News.  "I would never refer to Republican colleagues in an untoward way, I was talking about political propaganda."

Democrat Compares Republicans to Nazis.  The newfound civility didn't last long.  Political rhetoric in Congress doesn't get much nastier than the words of one House Democrat during the debate on repealing the health care law.  In an extraordinary outburst on the House floor, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) invoked the Holocaust to attack Republicans on health care and compared rhetoric on the issue to the work of infamous Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

The Hypocrisy Underlying Obama's Speech:  If Obama's opponents in Congress allow this unrelated tragedy to become an excuse for what liberals do best — promoting raw emotionalism over reason and facts — then they deserve to lose the ground they worked so hard to gain.  Here's hoping we get back to reality ... and soon.

More about Obama's Arizona speech / pep rally.

Liberals' Civility Test.  A week after President Obama's stirring remarks at the Tucson memorial service comes an important Civility Test for liberals.  ABC's Jonathan Karl reports that Democratic Representative Steve Cohen went to the well of the House and compared what Republicans are saying on health care to the work of the infamous Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

'Civil' Discourse:  A One-Way Street?  In the wake of the attempted murder of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, and the murders of six of her constituents who went to see her at a local Safeway grocery store, the American people have been hearing a lot about the need to return to "civility" in our political discourse.  What exactly does that mean?  It depends upon whom you ask.

Incitement to Tyranny.  The left-wing radicals are at it again, folks.  They're revving up their engines on the revolutionary wings of national mourning — and sparking the now very familiar incitement-to-tyranny fires among an anxiety-ridden populace. ... Another religious zealot of the "government can heal all wounds" cult, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) has used the Arizona tragedy to declare that "the FCC isn't working anymore" and demand a return to the "Fairness Doctrine."

Incitement to Tyranny.  The big-government cultists' reaction to the Arizona madman's rampage couldn't possibly have been more predictable.  Mounting a "never let a crisis go to waste" assault on the nation's airwaves, liberals have spun this tragic and insane act exactly as an unnamed Democrat source told Politico they should:  "They need to deftly pin this on the tea partiers. ... Just like the Clinton White House deftly pinned the Oklahoma City bombing on the militia and anti-government people."

The Constitution Fetish.  Is there anything richer than a gaggle of smarmy progressives snickering at the conservative "Constitution fetish"?  "Fetish" is the fashionable Left's latest suggestive imagery turned talking point, a dig at the new Republican majority in the House, which began its session this week by reading the Constitution aloud.  It's as if Dracula were complaining about a crucifix fetish.  "Fetish," like "tea-bagger," slides easily off the tongues of the Big Thinkers who get their dithering law from Dalia Lithwick and their sophomoric style from Bill Maher.

'Politicians SHOULD be afraid of the people!' says dangerous US radical politician.  [Scroll down]  It only requires the most basic commonsense to appreciate, for example, that you know how to look after and spend your money better than the government does; that talent and hard work deserve better rewards than laziness and ineptitude; that education requires a certain amount of discipline and "elitism"; that people behave better when they accept responsibility for their own actions; that the law should be blind to race and religion, offering no special favours to privileged minorities; and so on.  This is why you'll so rarely hear the liberal-left arguing its case on the basis of facts or hard evidence.  Instead, when it's not emotionally blackmailing us with false sentiment, it's busy besmirching the name of its opponents by making out that the reason they think they do is not because they've thought long and hard about the world and seen it as it is but because they're evil.

Conservatives in the Crosshairs.  The bullets had hardly stopped whizzing when a cataract of commentary descended.  The first inundation came mostly from the Left.  Its basic message was epitomized by Paul Krugman:  The shooting was probably politically motivated.  The Tea Party.  Sarah Palin.  Scary.  "The climate that preceded the Oklahoma City bombing."  Beck.  Limbaugh.  "The evils of Partisanship."  "Culture of hate."  Et cetera.

The End Begins?  By a 236-181 margin, the House on Friday approved rules for the debate leading up to Wednesday's [1/5/2011] up-or-down vote on repeal legislation.  Democrats, fearing they may lose their grip on Americans' health care, launched into hysterics right away.

This Is No Reason For Reform.  Over and over we were told Washington had to take over health care because so many Americans lack insurance due to pre-existing medical conditions.  So how many fall into this category?  Try 8,000.  You read that right:  In this nation of nearly 311 million, the Democrats overhauled the world's best health care system to benefit 8,000 people.

The Constitutional Hypocrisy of the Left.  It was only a few years ago that Democrats accused George W. Bush of "shredding our Constitution" by monitoring international phone calls of suspected terrorists.  (The Constitution prohibits "unreasonable" searches.  Apparently Democrats think monitoring communications of foreign terrorists is "unreasonable," but full-body scans and pat-down searches of the traveling public at airports is quite reasonable).  And how could you forget that Bush "shredded the Constitution" by keeping terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay without trials? ... Never mind the fact that Barack Obama hasn't closed Guantanamo as he promised, has he?  Not that many shrieks of protest from the political Left.

Everyone Knows...  It takes courage to stand up to the bromides masquerading as current truth.  Until the environmental movement was unmasked over global warming, those who challenged the prevailing sentiment were perceived as cranks.  That tag hasn't evanesced despite evidence of wrongdoing by the so-called environmental scientists.  Similarly, Mayor Michael Bloomberg invokes libertarian principles when he wants to burnish his liberal credentials, then considers it appropriate through ukase to impose his view on what New Yorkers should eat and drink.  While he doesn't quite say "everyone knows," it is implied in his public commentary.  "Everyone knows transfats are bad for you."

Internet Access Is Not a 'Civil Right'.  When bureaucrats talk about increasing our "access" to x, y or z, what they're really talking about is increasing exponentially their control over our lives.  As it is with the government health care takeover, so it is with the newly approved government plan to "increase" Internet "access."

Sen. Menendez writes concerned letter to Santa about global warming affecting the North Pole.  U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez today [12/23/2010] posted a letter to Santa Claus on his Huffington Post blog, expressing concern that Santa may have to leave the North Pole because of melting Arctic sea ice.

Global Warming Grinch.  Two days before Christmas, Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey sent a bizarre open letter to the North Pole to warn Santa about the "dramatic melting of the Arctic sea ice" due to the effects of carbon emissions.  "I am worried about your safety and your ability to deliver billions of Christmas gifts if the ice cap on the North Pole no longer stays frozen all year," the senator wrote.  "What will happen to your house, your workshop, the elves' houses and your reindeer barns?"

Enviros Play Their Christmas Card.  First it was the cuddly polar bears (Warning:  Polar bears only look cuddly from a distance.  They are not really.  Should you by chance have a close encounter with a polar bear, do not attempt to cuddle with it) and the cute little penguins, and now USA Today reports that reindeer are endangered by climate change.

More about the liberals' use of polar bears for emotional leverage in the global warming debate.

The dangerous center.  It's a favorite refrain of the mainstream media to extol "centrism" and curse "extremism."  If you're looking at a large enough spectrum — say, with Stalinism, eugenics, slavery, and anarchy as the "extremes" — I agree, but within the confines of American politics, where the extremes are Jim DeMint and Bernie Sanders, this is silliness.

Memo to Conservatives: Quit Apologizing for Capitalism.  It's a testament to the power of propaganda and the appeal of emotion over reason that a system that has produced the greatest prosperity in world history is castigated on moral grounds, while those systems that have proliferated abject misery, poverty, tyranny and subjugation are hailed as morally superior.  Granted, most leftists don't openly confess their hostility to capitalism, but they come close, especially in their endless waging of class warfare.

And Everybody I Know...  If conservatives rally around the flag in times of crisis, liberals rally around the clique.  Their assurance that they are right coming from three little words.  "Everybody I Know."  The crazies clinging to their guns and religion might have voted for the Republicans, but everybody I know voted progressive.  Some wingnuts might not believe in Global Warming, but everybody I know does.  Some greedy people might want tax cuts, but everybody I know thinks taxes are too low.  Belief grouping is a natural human tendency, but it becomes dangerous when it's used to make decisions for a majority, based on the worldview of a minority.

'Tax cut' rhetoric doesn't cut it.  Let's face it, politics is largely the art of deception, and political rhetoric is largely the art of misstating issues.  A classic example is the current debate over whether to give money to the unemployed by extending how long unemployment benefits will be provided, or instead to give "tax cuts to the rich."

Dissecting The Demagoguery About 'Tax Cuts For The Rich'.  Democrats' insistence that the "rich" pay more in taxes is rivaled only by Republicans' apparent inability or unwillingness to engage them on this specific issue.  In [an] excerpt from testimony submitted to the Senate Finance Committee, economist Thomas Sowell attempts to fill that void.

Why the Democratic Party Cannot Survive.  Democrat principles are based on government being a force for good.  Government is presumed necessary to help individuals and ensure "social justice" (a term impossible to reasonably define).  This philosophy leads to bigger government, as in more spending, more taxes, and more regulatory control.  For Democrats, the keyword is "more," as in more government.

Welfare Creep in Laredo.  [Scroll down]  Poke around the Assurance Wireless web site a bit, and you find that this program, which is already available elsewhere and similar to existing programs, is made possible by the Universal Service Fund.  That was set up in 1996, ostensibly to expand communications networks.  At the time, some predicted that it would end up as some sort of welfare.  And so it has. ... Laredo's cell phone giveaway is an example.  The city is going for a one year grant from the USF, under the full and reasonable assumption that once the federal spigot is turned on, it won't be turned off no matter how dire our deficit situation gets.  Any threats to the free phone program will be blamed on the horrible, heartless Republicans, of course.  Democrats like [Veronica] Gonzalez believe that this is their party's route back to power:  drive up dependence, smear the Republicans for resisting, secure the Hispanic vote to the Democratic Party forever.

Playing the Hate Card.  The view that marriage means one man and one woman and that children flourish when raised by a married mother and father is rooted not only in biblical teachings but also in common sense; it's a truth proven by science as well as centuries of lived experience.  But children know that "hate" is a bad thing, and no one wants to be labeled a "hater."  It's not hard to imagine the pressure tactics that our children soon will face:  keep silent or risk being slapped with the label — "hater" — that will define them socially for years.  The label of "Hater" quickly shuts down reasonable discussion or open disagreement.  And that's the real point:  to intimidate proponents of traditional morality into keeping silent.  Put differently, it's to lock traditional morality in the closet so social engineers can be free to redefine marriage as they wish.

Woe Is Me!  In today's America, feelings have replaced facts as our governing policy.  Shame has been relegated to the back of the bus, and squeaky wheels have been given the place of honor.  Merit has been replaced by grievance-mongers.  Accomplishment and material success are vilified as having been attained on the backs of the have-nots.  And that's not fair!  In a rush to attain unearned moral virtue, millions of Americans have bowed to the PC police and advocated issues about which they know nothing in a desperate attempt to appear relevant, compassionate, and non-judgmental.  Useful idiots reign supreme.

Obama's Core Supporters and the Corruption of Idealism.  Unable to engage in rational argument, they fall back on slogans that mirror the protests of forty years ago.  One can only wonder if their youthful identification has blinded them to the fact that they are following not a heroic young leader to a new tomorrow, but a pied piper who leads them to their own destruction.

Financial Bigotry.  The "tax cuts for the rich" debate needs a new focus.  We are missing the point of the tax debate.  It is not about taxation in a recession.  The wealthy will be comparatively well-off regardless of the economic environment.  It is not about the wealthy's ability to promote job creation.  Our government does not care about private-sector growth when it considers government employment an acceptable (and even more valuable) alternative.  And it's certainly not that Republicans are in love with the rich, since households that vote Democrat tend to have higher incomes than those that vote Republican.

The Most Anti-Catholic Political Ad You'll Ever See.  A Democrat Party supporting independent non profit group has sent out perhaps THE most anti-Catholic political advertisement I've ever seen. ... What this is about is the fact that the Church stands strong against abortion and gay marriage.  And that makes some very angry.

Brass Oldies.  More than 80 years ago, the "tax cuts for the rich" argument was refuted, both in theory and in practice, by Andrew Mellon, who was Secretary of the Treasury in the 1920s.  When Mellon took office, there was a large national debt, the economy was stagnating, and tax rates were high, though the tax revenues were still not enough to cover government expenditures.  What was Mellon's prescription for getting out of this mess?  A series of major cuts in the tax rates!

Obama's Screaming Meemies May Be A Recording.  Obama is talking to his sheeple — back on the campaign trail.  The only thing he knows how to do is campaign.  He was doing it here in the west this week but it is always the same old story and lies.  They always fill the audience with his union supporters and other special interests that will scream and cheer on cue at his every word.  I am almost convinced that the screaming and cheering is a recording that they put on the videos.  It is just so silly to hear this screaming and cheering after every statement, when he has said absolutely nothing.  He tells them that "undocumented workers" will get free healthcare and they all scream and cheer, why?

NPR and the Liberal Subculture that Worships It.  NPR's reputation seems based largely on aesthetic considerations.  Its personalities are articulate and employ a more extensive vocabulary than commercial radio; its programs are professionally produced, with a slickness that conservative media cannot match; and its reporters are generally skilled at sounding calm and objective, even when they manifestly are not.  The more one begins to delve into the substance of NPR's programming, however, the more one senses that the network is neither particularly smart nor particularly informative.

More about NPR.

Obama's Politics of Fear.  As out-of-touch as ever with the mood and motivations of his fellow citizens, Obama carefully considered the change in the today's political climate and concluded not only are voters in this election motivated by fear, their fear is irrational because they obviously don't have the intellectual capacity to understand all of the great things that Democrats have done for them over the past nineteen months.

Red Herring Politics.  This year's October surprise that is getting the biggest play in the media is the revelation that California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman once employed a housekeeper — at $23 an hour — who turned out to be an illegal immigrant.  It is great political theater, with activist lawyer Gloria Allred putting her arm protectively around the unhappy-looking woman.  But why anyone should be unhappy at getting $23 an hour for housekeeping is by no means clear.  Maybe she is unhappy because Meg Whitman fired her when she learned that her housekeeper was an illegal immigrant, despite false documents that indicated she was legal when she was hired.

The 'Rich' Have Another Name:  'Employers'.  The LA Times proudly proclaims, "Obama blasts continued tax cuts for the rich!"  But every time you hear leftists refer to "the rich," remember that "the rich" are also known by these other terms:  employers, investors, the self-reliant, self-starters.

The Envious Feminists.  People are emotional beings, often governed more by feelings than reason.  And this is never truer than with leftist people.  If you want to understand liberals, know that most of their ideology is simply a pseudo-intellectual justification for what feels right to them.  As for these feelings, the one stereotypically associated with the left is compassion, which supposedly manifests itself in mercy, charity, forgiveness, and temperance.  In reality, though, the feeling that far better characterizes the left is envy.

Social Security Bait and Switch.  Democrats are trying to keep control of Congress by scaring the wig off grandma with a phantom GOP plot against Social Security.

Nil, Baby, Nil.  "Where is the outrage?  Where are the millions marching in the streets, where is the round-the-clock roadblock coverage tracking every moment of the crisis?"  Such were the questions asked by the Huffington Post's Peter Daou in late May.  And the declarations were no less bracing.  "We are at an inflection point, one that will likely determine the fate of our species," he informed readers.  The "planetary emergency" to which he was referring was not, as one may be forgiven for thinking, the appearance of alien spacecraft above civilization's greatest structural landmarks.  Daou's concerns were grounded in earthly developments.  Or, rather, a single earthly development:  a pipe broke.

The Parade of Bleeding Stumps.  As public spending becomes an increasingly important issue for the November elections, be prepared to see the left engaging in hysterical scare-mongering about the potential effect of spending cuts.  This has been seen recently in Britain, where such scare-mongering already has its own label — "The Parade of the Bleeding Stumps."  This unsavory phrase originates in British government bureaucracy and darkly refers to the Civil Service's clever response to the threat of spending cuts.

Obama decries demagoguing while, well, demagoguing.  As the granddaddy of political demagoguery, President Obama might have outdone himself with his recent admonition to political opponents not to "demagogue" the immigration issue.  A "demagogue" is "a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument."

Sour Grapes.  What is it about liberals that compels them to be such obnoxious, self-righteous know-it-alls?  Does it ever occur to them that there might be a reason for the things someone does?

Ending Birthright Citizenship.  When the open-borders lobby runs out of excuses for amnesty, their final resort is to "do it for the children."  Last year Nancy Pelosi told a crowd in San Francisco that "Our future is about our children" and "Taking parents from their children ... that's un-American."  When the speaker of the House considers enforcing our immigration laws "un-American," it becomes the constitutional duty of the states to stand against illegal immigration.  This is why I introduced SB 1070 into the Arizona legislature, which has prompted a much needed national debate about immigration.

Obama's Empathy Card.  Indeed, from his meagerly documented Harvard Law School days to his remarkably (to say the least) brief senatorial debut and eventual presidential election, Obama seems to have providentially benefited, again and again, from his followers' peculiar dependence on fleeting emotional impulses — in particular the mystifying, near-invincible pathos of empathy, which liberals rank as the most reliable gauge for making life-altering decisions.

Franken warns that GOP Congress would bring 'truly dangerous agenda'.  Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), addressing a convention of liberal bloggers and activists Saturday evening [7/24/2010], implored the left to fight to stay in power in the midterm elections.  "If Republicans take back Congress they'll implement a truly dangerous agenda," Franken told the Netroots Nation gathering in Las Vegas.  "Everything is on the table, from repealing healthcare reform to privatizing Social Security."

The Editor says...
 All that stuff was "on the table" the last time Republicans had the majority — and that which Al Franken so greatly fears did not come to pass.

Obama Is Wrong; Alternative Energy is Not an Alternative.  Obama is using the oil spill in the Gulf as an emotional lever to push his cap and trade policy.

The Truth About the Humane Society Of the United States.  Over the course of the last few months, the Center for Consumer Freedom has ramped up its effort to educate Americans about the deceptive fundraising and spending practices of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).  Most Americans don't realize that less than one half of one percent of the society's revenue goes to support hands-on pet shelters, despite their use of tear-jerking ads...

Obama and the Morning After.  Of course, the press sold Obama like the newest form of crack, getting the public fixated on his every word.  The same media that stalks Angelina and Paris anointed Obama the ultimate celebrity.  And to the addicted masses, entranced by leering reality shows and 24/7 texting, the Obama Show was just another sexually charged extravaganza.  But while reporters behaved like lovesick schoolgirls, Obama's sex appeal wasn't just manufactured by the press.  His handlers carefully crafted his image to seduce and excite.

Security Policy by Bumper Sticker.  Liberal approaches to foreign policy continue to rely more on wishful thinking than on realism or maturity.  But even in the context of liberalism, President Obama's recent policy declarations on the matter of nuclear weapons are juvenile and disturbing.  Speaking in Prague, the president declared, "I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons."  Has the president really thought this through?

Has Obama "Stimulated" the Economy Yet?  In the past sixteen months, Mr. Obama's immediate, short-term political need has produced a lot of public policy that positions the President to appear as though he's rescuing people — rescuing them from the economic downturn, from "greedy bankers" and "rich executives," from the threat of home foreclosure, from credit card debt, and so forth.  And part of the political calculus involved with this kind of policy is the assumption that as long as the President gives away enough "things" to the American electorate, and appears as though he's doing enough to "protect" them, the electorate will continue to vote for him and his party, regardless of what the economy does.

Demonstrations and Dependency.  Raucous public protests are hardly new but their celebration, at least in the US, is traceable to the 1960s anti-Vietnam War student activism and the civil rights movement.  Marching and chanting "for justice" soon infused civics textbooks and documentary films, not to mention the liberal-dominated mass media.  As a result, almost anything became possible, from the unqualified obtaining a college degree to saving the planet, if the public demands were sufficiently loud and strident.

The Remarkable Rise of Jan Brewer.  As women have moved into the forefront of conservative politics, they have become targets for serious assaults from the left.  The treatment they receive is far worse than that given male politicians of the same order, as we have clearly seen with Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann.  Families, looks, personality, grooming, every last element of their lives and persons becomes fodder for some of the trashiest elements of the contemporary political scene.  No insult is too low, no attack too foul.  The gentleman has truly become an extinct species, at least on the left side of the fence.  But nothing of the sort has happened with Jan Brewer.

A Bumper Sticker Presidency.  Is there any experience more delightful than being stuck in a traffic jam, choking on exhaust fumes behind a hybrid car festooned with leftist slogans?  Actually, yes!  This would be living in America, circa 2010, scarfing down Chairman Barack's toothsome and intellectually nutritious daily ration of brilliant policies, ultimately derived from liberal bumper stickers.  Is it not the most obvious fact on the planet that all of Obama's ideas are merely implemented leftist slogans?

Twelve Million Illegals — or Thirty?  It is no surprise that the American left is in hysterics regarding the new immigration law passed by Arizona.  In the fevered constitutions of those raised to believe feelings matter most, hysteria, race-huckstering, name-calling and outright lying are considered a viable substitute for a logical argument.  Intellectual dishonesty has been the left's stock in trade for decades.

Narcissism, Power, Fear of Death, and Liberalism.  Could it be that for liberals and certain therapists endowed with self-importance but without religion, influencing others is all they have?  Forcing others to do as they wish fends off their fear of insignificance, which is why it is so urgent that others go along.  It keeps their legacy alive.  Notice how many times people bring up "Ted Kennedy's legacy" of health care.  Is this more about keeping Kennedy's name immortal and his image alive than about real solutions to real-world problems?

President Obama Makes Poverty Permanent.  There's an old story — not apocryphal, unfortunately — in which a politician is heard to moan:  "50% earn less than the median income.  Something needs to be done!"  Oh, how I weep for those unfortunate people!  No, not those with less money, but those who find such cris du coeur convincing.

More about Poverty and Dependency in America.

When Lame Ducks Attack.  [Scroll down]  The party currently in power can't be expected to take defeat well.  Liberals, just like their toddler counterparts, can't modulate their emotions.  In other words, they are prone to tantrums.  Unlike toddlers, whose impact on the rest of the world is minimal, rulers of the Thugocracy can't be trusted to behave with a modicum of decorum in defeat.  The time between election day and the official ousting of the vulgarians may well make today's tumult and danger seem tame.  Be prepared.

(Tea) Party On.  [Scroll down slowly]  We live in a country where most peoples' knowledge of history is minimal and their attention span is limited by technologically-driven distractions.  Sound-bytes aimed at destroying the credibility of the Tea Party movement are being driven by those who know full well that "volume" — aka, the lie repeated often enough — is often the determining factor in winning the hearts and minds of the general public.

The Closing of the Liberal Mind:  The current issue of The New Republic contains a vapid, mean-spirited, and indefensible attack on one of the most important intellectual figures of our time.  Alan Wolfe's review of Thomas Sowell's new book, Intellectuals and Society, is not even a review.  Not a single idea presented in the book is addressed in Wolfe's text, which is simply a lengthy ad hominem attack on Sowell that displays astounding ignorance of both Sowell and his important intellectual oeuvre.

The Big Lie of Health Care Reform:  One-Sixth of the US Economy is threatened with a takeover by the Federal Government on the erroneous rationale that "Tens of millions of people in the US are without health care insurance, and therefore are being denied access to adequate health care."  Unjust!  Unfair!  This is, of course, an absolute lie.  And nor do some large number of people "die every day from lack of health insurance coverage."  That too is a lie.

We The People Losing Control Of Government.  Demagogue — a word of Greek origin — means a person who uses falsehoods, prejudices and emotional appeals to gain power.  Huey Long, governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932, U.S. senator from 1932 to 1935 and creator of the Share Our Wealth Program, fit that definition.  Long stirred crowds with fiery denunciations of corporate greed.  Ultimately, even fellow Democrats grew alarmed and backed away from his legislation.  Demagogue also describes how President Obama revved up crowds as he crisscrossed the country selling his health legislation.

A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC.  Put the errors together and it can be seen that one after another they tick off all the central, iconic issues of the entire global warming saga.  Apart from those non-vanishing polar bears, no fears of climate change have been played on more insistently than these:  the destruction of Himalayan glaciers and Amazonian rainforest; famine in Africa; fast-rising sea levels; the threat of hurricanes, droughts, floods and heatwaves all becoming more frequent.  All these alarms were given special prominence in the IPCC's 2007 report and each of them has now been shown to be based, not on hard evidence, but on scare stories, derived not from proper scientists but from environmental activists.

Debating Obama's Health Care Clichés.  As I listened to the congressional Democrats recite their arguments for the Pelosi health care bill, I was reminded of those Bazooka gum wrappers.  Their speeches consisted of trite phrases devoid of any depth or intelligence, the words selected only for their emotional impact.  These arguments sound so compelling — as long as no measurable time is spent thinking about them.

Slavery and the healthcare debate.  Last week the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid compared conservative opponents of his massive takeover of the American health system to slaveholders and segregationists.

Secondhand Hate:  Another step downhill for modern liberalism.  "They have ardent supporters who are nearly hysterical at the very election of President Barack Obama," Senator Sheldon Whitehouse roared about his Republican opponents in the closing hours of the Senate health care debate on December 20. ... Two weeks earlier, Majority Leader Harry Reid likened opponents of his bill to those who opposed the end of slavery.

When the Charm Rubs Off.  His Dec. 8 televised economics speech at the Brookings Institution was followed on Dec. 10 by his televised Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, which was remarkable for 38 uses of the pronoun "I."  And for disavowing a competence no one suspected him of. ("I do not bring with me today a definitive solution to the problems of war."  Note the superfluous adjective.)  And for an unnecessary notification.  ("Evil does exist in the world.")  And for delayed utopianism.  ("We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes."  But in someone's.)  And for solemnly announcing something undisputed.  (There can be a just war.)  And for intellectual applesauce that should get speechwriters fired and editors hired.

Deliberative Analysis: RIP.  A troubling trend has emerged in regard to hot-button issues like anthropogenic global warming and health care.  It may not come as a surprise, but there no longer appears to be an interest by many on the left to engage in deliberative analysis and debate about proposed legislation.  There are a handful of stereotypical accusations and responses from the left, whether from the Democrat leadership (including the president), or the average, everyday liberal.  These irrational attacks must be addressed, broken down, and put away for good.

The Myth of the World Community.  Americans have been imprinted as never before from a very early age with the idea that they are part of a global community, rather than merely one nation.  But behind the olive branches and the posters of smiling children, lies a very different truth entirely.  The entire notion that there is a world community is itself mostly a myth.

Reid's Teachable Moment.  Harry Reid is an obvious product of a government education that he and other Liberals are inflicting on the rest of America, and he should be the poster child for school choice.  In his recent comment regarding Republicans' efforts to block "healthcare" legislation, Reid invoked the ghosts of Democrats past, claiming that Republicans tried to block emancipation and civil rights for blacks.  I believe Reid gave America yet another teachable moment.

Reid Compares Opponents of Health Care Reform to Supporters of Slavery.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took his GOP-blasting rhetoric to a new level Monday [12/7/2009], comparing Republicans who oppose health care reform to lawmakers who clung to the institution of slavery more than a century ago.

At what point does a liberal become a Stalinist?  I've started to gently question the beliefs of the liberals I know, without getting into any loud argument.  Much to my surprise, some of the gentle-sounding people I know actually talk murderously at times.  I wouldn't have believed it, because these are people I like a lot.  They have a warm side.  In their own minds they all believe they are driven by love and compassion.  And yet, some of them — certainly not most — seem ready to hang the current media scapegoat from the nearest gallows.  I also know a lot of really sweet, dumb liberals, people who are so desperate to be loving that they rationalize all the nonsense they are fed by our media.

Democrats and the Politics of Rage.  As liberal ideas have continued to lose at the polls over the last two decades, Democrats have become the party of utopian rage as they persist in replacing real political debate with effusive attacks on conservatives while promising to create an idyllic society for Americans.  Barack Obama epitomized these politics when he built a movement offering hope as his main political platform.  To bolster this emotionalism, Democrats have resorted almost whole-heartedly to conjuring up visions of racist conservatives opposing the first black president primarily because of his skin color.

I Thought 'Dissent Is Patriotic'.  Living in liberal Los Angeles, I am surrounded by people — and bumper stickers — I do not agree with.  One of the more popular liberal bumper stickers of the last decade tells us "Dissent is Patriotic."  Now, as it happens, it is impossible to truly disagree with that phrase, not because it is self-evidently true, but because it is self-evidently meaningless.  As are most left-wing bumper stickers.

America Needs a Climate Change Revolt.  [Scroll down]  In order to implement all this equality (also known as "social justice"), it takes a crisis.  Just this week, U. S. Rep. Alan Grayson, a Democrat from Florida, went on the House floor to say the Republican plan for health care is for people to "die quickly."  He charged that 45,000 people perish each year for lack of health insurance.  He even called the situation a "holocaust."  The Democrats seem to think if they can scare the dickens out of people, they can pass their agenda.

The Straight Poop On Radical Islam.  The problem is that liberals are not only nuts, but inconsistent.  They very much want to send our military to Africa to stop the savagery in the Sudan, but didn't want to see it employed against the equally barbaric Saddam Hussein, Pol Pot or Ho Chi Minh.  Funny how you never hear them insist that we have no business in Darfur because Sudan didn't attack us on 9/11 or point out that we have no compelling interest in sub-Sahara Africa.  But that's to be expected when people get their information from Bill Maher and Jon Stewart and their talking points from the likes of Bono and the Dixie Chicks.

Obama and faith:  Of all the silly arguments that have been passed off as deeply profound in American politics, the notion that politicians can't "impose" their personal morality on others has to top the list.

Opposing Obama is Satan's work?  A "right" to health care means the state must compel more than just payment.  It must compel medical care providers to render their services regardless of compensation or any other consideration.  If someone has a "right" to medical care, then a physician may not deny any care for any reason.  Doing so would be an infringement of the patient's "rights."

'Empathy' Is Code for Judicial Activism.  Mr. Obama said he wanted to replace Justice David Souter with someone who had "empathy" and who'd temper the court's decisions with a concern for the downtrodden, the powerless and the voiceless.  "Empathy" is the latest code word for liberal activism, for treating the Constitution as malleable clay to be kneaded and molded in whatever form justices want.  It represents an expansive view of the judiciary in which courts create policy that couldn't pass the legislative branch or, if it did, would generate voter backlash.

Thumbs-Down On Obama's 'Empathy' Standard.  Most Americans reject the broader criteria that judicial activists think can be brought to bear on Supreme Court decisions, including the "empathy" standard that President Obama has said is important in particularly difficult cases, a new IBD/TIPP Poll shows. ... On the empathy factor, a majority (51%) disagree with a statement paraphrasing remarks Obama made in 2005:  "When it comes to the Supreme Court justices, law and precedent should determine rulings in 95% of the cases, but in the really hard and important cases, justices should go with their heart."  Only 23% agree with the statement.  Most independent voters (58%), conservatives (61%) and moderates (50%) disagree with it.  Democrats (31%) and liberals (35%) are the leading supporters of the concept that justices should go with their heart.

Photographic Fraud.  Over the past two decades, judicial-confirmation hearings have often become exercises in character assassination against nominees that senators oppose for political reasons having nothing to do with the inflammatory charges that are aired on nationwide TV.  Judges who have for years supported civil rights have been depicted as racists.  Other events in their careers have been twisted beyond recognition.  Utterly irrelevant questions have been raised to appeal emotionally to uninformed television viewers.

The Six Problems With Modern Liberalism.  [#1]  You really didn't learn everything you needed to know in kindergarten:  Liberals love to think of themselves as sophisticated, nuanced intellectuals, but the truth is they have a kindergartner's view of the world.  If it has been defined as "nice" to people they like, they're for it.  If it has been defined as "mean" to people they like, they're against it — and that is about as deep as it gets.

I wish I were a liberal.  I'd like to be a liberal because then I'd be rewarded for all my shortcomings and nothing would ever be my fault.  I'd be an important cog in the wheel of social justice, and a cherished warrior in the current fight for equality. ... I'd like to be a liberal because everyone knows that conservatives are racist, homophobic, stupid and, well, beneath contempt.  Conservatives are motivated by — gasp — profit, instead of being nice.

The Notional Dangers of the Fictional Far Right.  Listen to Nancy Pelosi or Barney Frank or MSNBC reporters or the New York Times.  What is the mythical danger?  It is the "far right."  [But] the far right of the liberals' imagination simply does not exist.

Obama Loses His "Cool".  When the generation of Americans under the age of 30 gets around to realizing that this handsome young president might not be nearly as cool as they'd hoped, it won't be hard to affix a date on when the milk began to sour. ... Scratch a young Obama voter and you won't necessarily find someone who likes bailouts or cares about financial market regulations one way or another.  Instead you're likely to hear about how the awful Republicans wage wars, bait gays and racial minorities, and basically act like a bunch of mean old white men.  Party membership and voting are frequently more about group identity than philosophical orientation about the proper role of government.

Five Useful Idiots.  When there is no substance to a tantrum one must assume it is just a ploy for attention.  This generally comes from kids who were put into day-care too early and too often.  The irony is that America's move towards socialism drives up taxes, which forces mothers to work.  This, in turn, forces kids into day care.  This makes the kids seek attention by adopting political positions which happen to be chic (like socialism).

Honk!  You're Hateful.  Leftists have always confused their good intentions with actual virtue.  The tyranny allowed to spread by left wing appeasement, the neighborhoods and families destroyed by their corrupt welfare programs, the millions of lives snuffed out by environmentalist hysteria — these don't show up on their moral scorecards because they meant so very well.  Indeed, so swathed are they in the warm glow of their purposes, any question about the actual results of their actions strikes them as shockingly cruel.

The Age of Irresponsibility.  [Scroll down]  Suspicion.  Paranoia.  Contempt.  Resentment.  This sort of thinking doesn't make for reasonable politics.  And here, ultimately, is the problem with populism.  It is good at diagnosis but bad at prescription.  Are a large number of the folks in charge not performing their duties?  Yes.  Is American society suffering from a deficit of personal responsibility?  Absolutely.  But the populist too often goes overboard.  His rhetoric becomes too fiery.  His anger feeds on itself.  Asked what steps he'd take to address the problems he has identified, he says little more than "Throw the bums out!"  But that doesn't get us anywhere.  There are always new bums to take the old bums' places.

Mob Rule In D.C..  Of all the alarming things going on in Washington these days nothing is as shocking, or disheartening, as the collapse in respect for the rule of law and the Constitution.  Just look at the flap over AIG's bonuses. ... While letting AIG pay some employees retention bonuses might seem wrong or even immoral to some, it wasn't illegal.

Political Economy:  Mob Rule.  Cue the mob. It's time to storm the castles where rich folks — and quite likely just upper-middle-class folks — play games with our money.  Bankers and financiers are obviously all evil, even the ones who are trying to save us from impending catastrophe. ... That pretty much captures the mood of the public these days, exacerbated by name-calling and posturing on Capitol Hill and even encouraged — to a point — by President Obama.

The Gravy Train Is About to Leave the Station.  Now that the Democrats control all branches of government, there is only a debate about the level of "compassion," not whether any of this enormous spending that will mortgage our future to other nations is worthwhile.  In fact, President Obama echoed others when he said at his Monday night news conference there is no guarantee that any of this will work immediately, if at all.  That's a revealing statement about liberalism.  It doesn't matter if liberal ideas work, only that liberal intentions are good.

A Fool And Your Money.  Once again we have stubborn liberals who refuse to admit that their strategy is wrong and will not work, and instead not only give credence to their agenda with this scheme, but do so under the guise of "fairness".  Massachusetts Democrats recently advocated voting rights for illegal immigrants because it is an issue of "fairness".  President Obama aims to change the social fabric of this country because as is the system lacks "fairness".

Psychiatrist Says:  Liberalism Is A Mental Disorder.  Psychiatrist Lyle Rossiter, MD, wrote a book entitled, The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness, in which he claims that the ideology motivating liberals is actually a mental disorder characterized by strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions.  "Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave."

Welcome Back to Democratland.  It is a world in which facts always bow to feelings.  What matters is not so much that you do good, but that you feel virtuous, or perhaps more to the point, are seen to be virtuous.

I hope Obama Fails, too.  The left absolutely hated George W. Bush.  Their contempt for him was so profound and palpable that it was even given a name by psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer:  Bush Derangement Syndrome.  Now, most of the millions of leftists who despised the ex-president absolutely wanted him to fail; in fact, while they're loath to admit it, they felt this way even when his success was synonymous with our nation's (this even included the failure of the Iraq war).  And "felt" is the operative word; they were governed by emotion and hated the man with a burning passion.

Liberal emotion vs. Conservative logic:  It takes a lot more integrity, character, and courage to be a conservative than it does to be a liberal.  That's because at its most basic level, liberalism is nothing more than childlike emotionalism applied to adult issues.

Explaining Liberal Thinking In A Single Column.  Since liberals tend to support or oppose policies based on how those policies make them feel about themselves, they do very little intellectual examination of whether the policies they advocate work or not.  That's because it doesn't matter to them whether the policy is effective or not; it matters whether advocating the policy makes them feel "good" or "bad," "compassionate" or "stingy," "nice" or "mean."

Senate Finance Chairman: Congress Must Spend Money to 'Show it Cares'.  Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said the federal government is going to have to spend a "significant" amount of money if it is going to get the country out of its current economic troubles — despite rapidly ballooning federal deficits, historic unemployment, and the hundreds of billions already spent.

Study:  brain switches off rationality when given 'expert advice'.  Financial advice can make us take leave of our senses, according to research that shows how the brain sets aside rationality when it gets the benefit of supposedly expert opinion.  When a bank manager or investment adviser recommends a financial decision, the brain tends to abdicate responsibility and defer to their authority with little independent thought, a study has suggested.

Big Oil Democrats:  Here is how you know Republicans are on the winning side of the oil drilling issue.  It's not that two-thirds of the American people support offshore drilling.  It's that the Democratic response has been to simply point at Republicans and shout, "Big Oil!"

Obama is dangerously unfit to be president.  "We are the ones we have been waiting for!"  Waving one's hands aloft and screaming "Yes we can!" is Obama's calculatedly emotional response to complex issues that require careful, thoughtful analysis.  The record of history is a mournful litany of the horrors wrought by cynical demagogues whose sole message was themselves.

Obama's Moral Equivalence Problem:  I guess we really shouldn't be surprised that Barack Obama sees no difference between our toppling of Saddam Hussein and Russia's invasion of Georgia.  On an emotional level — which is where most liberals live and breathe — the comparison is attractive.  But on an intellectual level, it is stupid and deceitful.

Mixing It Up With Left-Wingers.  If I had to describe liberals in a single word it would probably be "feminine."  In most cases, I wouldn't regard that word as a pejorative.  In its best sense, it conveys sensitivity and an emphasis on the emotional.  As it relates to liberals, it simply means that feelings trump everything else.  So it is that liberals love the idea of the U.N., excited by the notion of a lot of nations sitting down and talking out their problems, as if to a marriage counselor.  Unfortunately, when dealing with evil nations with evil intentions, the U.N. is nothing better than a bad joke.

Environmental extremism must be put in its place in the climate debate.  Environmental extremists have successfully applied intense emotional pressure — both moral and political — "you don't care about the planet, the children, or the future if you question us", let alone disagree, they assert.  Many politicians are caught in an awkward position because, while they understand how environmental extremism poses a very serious threat to our economies, including the ways that have brought us peace and prosperity, they also don?t want to be accused of not caring about the environment.

Sarah Palin and the Experience Factor.  Why is it that liberal misrepresentations are never fully addressed before they become established as received wisdom?  Whatever the topic may be, the left is consistently allowed to set the terms on which the argument takes place. ... In the past few years we've seen "WMDs were the sole reason for invading Iraq", "CO2 is the major driver of climatic trends", and "Karl Rove is the Devil Incarnate", to consider only three.  Each case is demonstrably false, yet each case has been allowed to dominate the public debate.

Are Polar Bears Really an Endangered Species?  Environmentalists use charismatic megafauna to raise awareness of and promote policy solutions to perceived environmental threats.  Studies show charismatic species are more likely to be protected than are less photogenic animals.  Giant pandas are charismatic megafauna, as are whales, salmon, eagles, and caribou.  The latest example is Ursus maritimus, the polar bear.  Environmental groups, claiming manmade global warming threatens the polar bears' survival, have called for an endangered species listing with extraordinarily far-reaching consequences.

Poll:  Humans Don't Cause Global Warming.  The survey confirmed wide discrepancies in belief between Americans identifying themselves as Democrat or Republican. ... Tom Kilgannon, president of the nonprofit Freedom Alliance, says the reasons for this partisan divide are simple.  "Those on the left are more likely to accept the global warming theory for two reasons," Kilgannon said.  "First, they tend to make public policy decisions based on emotion as a first reaction."  And second, Kilgannon continued, global warming fits the usual Democrat call for bigger government.

Populists equalize poverty.  Populism is back in fashion.  By populism, I mean the exploitation of the uninformed, angry impulses and unfiltered passions of the masses.  That anger and resentment has historically been directed at the usual villains and cardboard stereotypes:  bankers, insurance companies, "big pharma" (that means drug companies), agri-business, "the military-industrial complex," free trade, free markets and, of course, "the rich."

Oil Woes Left and Right:  So much for the idea that Bush went to war for cheap oil.  Yes, I know, they're now imagining that high gas prices are actually lining the pockets of the president's cronies at Exxon and Sunoco.  But this is not an argument advanced by grownups. … Conservatives are right to stress the virtues of non-carbon-emitting nuclear power, and liberals have strenuously opposed it for reasons that are 90 percent emotional and 10 percent rational.

A Skeptic's View of Voting:  Let's face it, ladies and gentlemen, if we raised the voting age to, say, 25, the Democratic party would go the way of the dodo and the Whigs.  Liberals want young kids voting for pretty much the same cynical reason they want to extend suffrage to illegal aliens, convicted felons and dead people.  It takes a certain mentality, a certain degree of gullibility, after all, to believe … that "hope" and "change" are any more profound and meaningful than "Tastes great, less filling" or "My bologna has a first name."

The Hidden Costs of Voting Early:  If people go to the polls during a swing in public opinion for one of the candidates, they may vote emotionally instead of rationally.  These days, much of the information released about the candidates must be dissected and discussed before it can be considered reliable.  It's hard to distinguish what is fact from fiction because the news is slanted by the opinion of the reporters. ... Complicating matters, the education system in this country is not providing voters a well rounded education that teaches them to think for themselves.  Much of what students learn these days is colored by a politically correct agenda or by the instructors charged with them.

The Bullet Counters:  The biggest and most common talking point when the police fire at someone is counting how many bullets they fired.  There are politicians, media people and — above all — community activists who can work themselves into a rage over how many bullets were fired.  If we stop and think — which of course the demagogues hope we will never do — it is hard to see any moral difference between killing someone with one bullet or with dozens of bullets.

The Dissent Deceit:  The latest example of utter nonsense is Obama's contribution, "The Audacity of Hope."  My fellow Americans, there is nothing audacious about hope.  Hope is what makes people buy lottery tickets instead of paying the bills.  Hope is for the old gals feeding the slots in Atlantic City.  It destroys the inner-city kid who quits school because he hopes he'll be a world-famous recording artist.

'Hope' and 'change' a gimmick.  If we just look beyond the attractive Obama package and ourselves for a moment, we might remember that the election is about actual issues.  What are we hoping for?  What is the "change" that the pro-Obama Kennedys are so excited about?  The fresh, young face of Obama represents change, yes.  But he also represents something very familiar:  liberalism.  Government as a permanent, inefficient, out-of-control crutch.

Liberalism is an Addiction.  Liberals have an impossible time defending their beliefs, which is why they rely on slogans and catch phrases, unfounded rumors and ad hominem attacks, on those who, like Sara Palin, think clearly and live according to Judeo-Christian principles.  The brains and values of left-wingers have decomposed to the point where they actually believe Keith Olbermann, Rosie O'Donnell and Chris Matthews make sense and that people like Whoopi Goldberg, Al Franken and Bill Maher, are funny.

Whoopi Goldberg and the Slavery Question.  On the September 12 edition of "View," host Whoopi Goldberg asked Senator John McCain, "Do I have to be worried about becoming a slave again?"  Goldberg's question was obviously a loaded attempt to either stump McCain or force him into saying something politically incorrect.

The Editor asks...
 When was Whoopi Goldberg released from slavery?

Phony-Ops build the Obama Myth.  Barack Obama's appeal to his legions of enthusiasts rests in no small part in their hearts.  And where the heart is concerned, myths, images, and archetypes work their wonders on the nonrational faculties of the mind.  The biggest Phony-Op of the election season so far was that giant riverfront photo in Portland, Oregon with "the masses" yelling their lungs out, as if for a messianic King.

The Rev. Wright Connection Still Haunts Obama.  It's a little dangerous in interpreting polls to assume that voters' thinking proceeds along logical lines.  People who aren't professionally involved in politics, whose knowledge comes from bits and snippets of news, can hold beliefs that are contradictory or in tension with each other.  They don't feel obliged to resolve contradictions.

Barack Obama 'saves the world' (between speeches).  First, it was "Change you can believe in," a nice friendly bit of folderol that was no more scary than "I Like Ike." … But lately the slogan coming out of the Obama campaign is "We can save the world," which shows that some people can believe anything — and will — without the slightest provocation or evidence.

We Scream, We Swoon.  How Dumb Can We Get?  What was this, the Beatles tour of 1964?  And when they weren't screaming, the fair-sex Obama fans who dominated the rally of 16,000 were saying things like:  "Every time I hear him speak, I become more hopeful."  Huh?

Will Hillary's 'Secretary Of Poverty' Solve Problems Of The Poor?  The Do Something Disease compels posturing that shows off the compassion of politicos, rather than policies that actually improve the lives of afflicted citizens. Results don't matter, as long as the leader manages to demonstrate concern.  Good intentions — feelings — count for everything, with no consideration of real world consequences.

The Editor says...
 You may recall that Lyndon Johnson said he was going to end "poverty as we know it" about 44 years ago.  Even the liberals don't believe poverty can be eliminated, which may be why the news media brushed off the idea.  Let history be your guide:  Did the creation of the Department of Education solve all the public education problems -- or make them worse?  What about the Department of Energy?

The Anger of the Left:  Particular issues can arouse passions here and there for anyone with any political views.  But, for many on the left, indignation is not a sometime thing.  It is a way of life. … There doesn't even have to be any identifiable individual to arouse the ire of the left.  "Tax cuts for the rich" is more than a political slogan.  It is incitement to anger.

Dangerous Demagoguery.  Most people have too much of a sense of decency and too much common sense to have gone along with those horrors unless someone found a way to turn off their thinking and turn on their emotions.  That is how Jim Jones led hundreds of people to their deaths at Jonestown.  On a much larger scale, that is how Lenin created a regime of mass murder in Russia, how Hitler did the same thing in Germany and Mao in China.

Why a Black Artist Replaced the National Anthem:  [Scroll down]  The left's second contribution to Marie's value system has been its elevation of feelings above other values.  For example, one determines right and wrong on the basis of how one feels (as opposed to, let us say, asking what one's religion, or God, or any moral law that transcends one's own feelings would say on a given matter).  Now, the elevation of one's feelings above other considerations is generally viewed as a form of narcissism.  And while narcissism is as old as humanity, until the 1960s it was generally regarded as a character flaw.  Since the 1960s, however, it was more often heralded as a virtue.

The Identity Trap:  Both the feminist movement Clinton rides and the civil rights rhetoric Obama uses were constructed at a time when the enemy was the reactionary white male establishment.  Today, they are not facing the white male establishment.  They are facing each other.  All the rhetorical devices that have been a staple of identity politics are now being exploited by the Clinton and Obama campaigns against each other.  They are competing to play the victim.

Anti-liberal universities.  Classic liberals must be turning over in their graves when they see today's institutions of higher education.  University officials are silent while students shut down reasonable debate based on facts replacing it with emotional mob rule.  This behavior is the antithesis of historical liberalism that has stood for a free exchange of ideas.

Infantilism Of the Left:  Deep thinkers need not apply for admittance to the left side of the political spectrum.  Demagogues rely on this, and depend on emotion to carry their arguments.

Barack Obama — I'm sure we've seen him somewhere before.  Every time I listen to [Obama], I … find my mind wandering, asking itself things like:  'What does "the challenge of hope" mean?' … His is a rhetoric that soars and takes flight, but alights nowhere.  It declares that together we can do anything, but doesn't mention any of the things we can do. … Maybe Obama is so successful because he's the supreme master of what American politics excels in:  high-flown language that denotes as little as possible.

It's Not Change, Stupid.  After Iowa, poll readers, pundits, Republican and Democratic candidates declared the voters wanted "change."  No matter what "change" actually is, no matter that "change" means different things to different people:  "change" is what the voters want. … The sorry truth is that "change" was merely a phantom conjured by the political elite — a nano-trend, a shorthand, a figment, a wild goose chase.

The Democrats' bitter harvest.  "No war for oil" and "Bush lied; people died" are snappy short slogans that are essentially meaningless.  The bottom line is the Democratic Party hasn't had a new or original idea in nearly 40 years and that's why they will remain in the wilderness, no matter how low Bush's ratings fall.  The Democrats appear to be relying on events over which they have little or no control to transpire and bring them back into power.

Liberal Hatemongers:  A politically progressive friend of mine always seemed to root against baseball teams from the South.  The Braves, the Rangers, the Astros — he hated them all.  I asked him why, to which he replied, "Southerners are prejudiced."  The same logic is evident in the complaint the American political left has with conservative voters.

Blue America:  The land of the easily offended.  For one thing, conservatives are so used to being labeled as stupid, bigoted, ignorant, racist, homophobic, sexist, insensitive and intolerant that it is almost impossible to offend them.  Moreover, the culture does not allow them to feel offended, since they are not an officially designated minority.  For another, liberal positions are far more emotion-based than reason-based.

Liberal emotion vs. Conservative logic:  It takes a lot more integrity, character, and courage to be a conservative than it does to be a liberal.  That's because at its most basic level, liberalism is nothing more than childlike emotionalism applied to adult issues.  Going to war is mean, so we shouldn't do it.  That person is poor and it would be nice to give him money, so the government should do it.

Brother, can you spare a CHIP?  This would seem to be a fairly typical media trajectory.  The Democrats sign up a sick kid to read their Saturday morning radio address. … who needs facts when you've got the human-interest angle sewn up?

The Democrats' Unhealthy Poster Child Abuse:  After 12-year-old Graeme Frost delivered the Democratic radio address, which was penned for him by Senate staffers, conservatives across the Internet asked the questions the mainstream media wouldn't ask about the family's financial situation.  The couple claims an annual income of about $45,000.  Neither the Democrats nor the Baltimore Sun indicates how they verified that assertion before circulating it.  What is verifiable:  The Frosts own a home in Baltimore purchased for $55,000 16 years ago — and now worth an estimated $300,000.  That's a lot of equity.

If Congress Truly Wants to Help Children:  There has been a whole lot of hoopla over the past few weeks with the Democrats' latest attempt at foisting an expanded socialist encroachment upon the American electorate (SCHIP), via the really-getting-old-now, "It's-for-the-Children," ploy.  Nancy and Hillary both need to re-read their worn copies of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.  That ruthless revolutionary knew that once the folks see through your tactic, it becomes not only tiresome, but downright irritating.

Child's Play.  In truth, I do love kids.  But it's the "the" in The Children that's the problem.  It transforms children into a principle for which any violation of limited government is justified. … The idea was as simple as it was brilliant:  By making The Children the beneficiaries of welfare rather than the adults, the left could portray any attempt to curb the welfare state as "anti-child."

Get Ready for Bad News:  If you're not totally miserable and afraid by Election Day, Nov. 2, 2004, it will be due only to your understanding of what the Democrats are always up to.  They have only one arrow left in their quiver with which to grab back power:  scare tactics and the guilt trip.

My own Inconvenient Truth:  It's no wonder the political left is all over the global warming phenomenon, as it falls into line with the rest of their causes that require no logical argument, only a bumper sticker, protest sign, or T-shirt.  No matter what the weather happens to be doing — whether its snowing or scorching hot — these people will simply point to the nearest window and mumble, "Yeah man, global warming."

The Editor says...
 Global warming is a perfect example of a left-wing cause that is based on bumper stickers and sound bites rather than logic and evidence.

Populists equalize poverty.  By populism, I mean the exploitation of the uninformed, angry impulses and unfiltered passions of the masses.  That anger and resentment has historically been directed at the usual villains and cardboard stereotypes:  bankers, insurance companies, "big pharma" (that means drug companies), agri-business, "the military-industrial complex," free trade, free markets and, of course, "the rich."  This mentality feeds on conspiracy theories and simplistic fantasies about the way the world works.  It seeks to impale the minority of "haves" on the pitchforks of the more numerous "have nots."

Why liberals fear global warming far more than conservatives do.  The usual liberal responses — to label a conservative position racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic or the like — obviously don't apply here.  So, liberals would have to fall back on the one remaining all-purpose liberal explanation:  "big business."

Stop your sobbing.  [Rachel Carson's] "Silent Spring" set the template for nearly a half century of environment writing:  wrap the latest scientific research about an ecological calamity in a tragic narrative that conjures nostalgia for Nature while prophesying ever worse disasters to come unless human societies repent for their sins against Nature and work for a return to a harmonious relationship with the natural world.  Eco-tragedies are premised on the notion that humankind's survival depends on understanding that ecological crises are a consequence of human intrusions on Nature, and that humans must let go of their consumer, religious, and ideological fantasies and recognize where their true self-interest lies.

A Democratic ploy for sympathy vote.  During the last election, the Democrats paraded Christopher Reeves out as a spokesman for stem-cell research.  Remember, if we did not elect John Kerry, Chris would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.  The new "victim" for this year's dog-and-pony show is none other than actor Michael J. Fox.

The leftist gush:  Democrats appeal to reason while Republicans appeal to emotion, or at least that's the claptrap you get in a recent article in the New York Review of Books as one leftist praises another and both conveniently overlook a mountain of contrary evidence.

The Return of the Thought Police.  I mean no disregard for the sufferings of crime victims when I say we should be wary of laws named after them.  However well-intentioned, penal laws that memorialize victims deter reasoned debate about the rights of the accused.  They rely on emotional blackmail:  Oppose a law named for a murdered child, and you seem to insult her memory and exacerbate her parents' grief.

Frivolous politics:  Part IV.  It is not necessary to denigrate individuals in order to criticize their policies.  Unfortunately, there are too many voters — in both parties — who act as if choosing whom to vote for is like choosing sides to cheer or boo at a sports event.

In Politics, Aim for the Heart, Not the Head.  Given the enormous proliferation of policy questions today, surfing the emotional wave nowadays may be even more important than it was in 1935.  George E. Marcus, president of the International Society of Political Psychology, said modern research confirms that unless political ads evoke emotional responses, they don't have much effect.  Voters, he explained, need to be emotionally primed in some way before they will pay attention.

More politics of envy from the Democrats.  Wealth, of course, is produced by individuals going to work.  Not by politicians getting them ticked off that their neighbor is making more than they are.  But the latter is what the Democratic Party is about.

Bait and switch:  Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) was one of the few who actually talked about the Marriage Protection Amendment itself.  He called any vote for the amendment "a vote for bigotry, pure and simple."  Well, that's pretty straightforward.  If Mr. Kennedy is correct, then about half the Senate, the president of the United States, the Pope, Billy Graham, the late Mother Teresa, Franklin Roosevelt, the Founding Fathers and a majority of the U.S. electorate are or were drooling, raving hatemongers.

Zoning challenges now extend to feelings and belief.  Remember when the city of Berkeley, Calif., declared itself a "nuclear-free zone"? … Many communities, mostly left-leaning university towns, have declared themselves nuclear-free.  Churches too.  The Unitarian Universalist Association is a nuclear-free zone.  These moves led to a broad "zone" movement, which is dedicated to the idea that communities can get rid of hate, violence, drunkenness, bullying and nuclear fears, mostly by emphatically declaring these evils to be gone from their areas.

Harry Reid and the end of liberal thought:  The highest-ranking Democrat in America, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, described the Senate bill making English the national language of the American people as "racist."  And the New York Times editorial page labeled the bill "xenophobic."  Welcome to the thoughtless world of contemporary liberalism.  Beginning in the 1960s, liberalism, once the home of many deep thinkers, began to substitute feeling for thought and descended into superficiality.

The Democrats have issues.  The Democratic leadership is fractured and dominated by people who are hysterical, abusive and oblivious.

Liberals and the Woman Who Hates Them.  Reacting with stupefied indignation whenever someone disagrees with them — especially in a way that makes people point and laugh at liberals — they seem to be in a constant state of outrage.  Liberals, and the conservatives who fear them, have a look of perpetual outrage, kind of the way Nancy Pelosi has a look of perpetual surprise.


Liberals tend to shout down their opponents instead of reasoning with them.

The Illiberalism of liberals.  Do you see a pattern here?  Does there not seem to be a concerted effort to prevent any person with whom the liberal activists disagree from being heard in Vermont?  Is there not an effort to restrict First Amendment rights?

Thought Police:  The Left vs. Free Speech.  For expressing my views to readers like you on these pages, hardcore leftists believe I should be put on trial as a war criminal.  It tells you all you need to know about the extreme left's view of the First Amendment:  Free speech is great, as long as it's their free speech (or extreme pornography).  But dissenting views must be censored.  The more effective the opponent, the more important it is to shut him down.

Online activists on the right, unite!  A digital war has broken out, and the conservative movement is losing.  Read the comment sections of right-leaning blogs, news sites and social forums, and the evidence is there in ugly abundance.  Internet hooligans are spewing their talking points to thwart the dissent of the newly-out-of-power.  We must not let that go unanswered.

Being Shouted Down:  On March 11, I joined a growing fraternity — conservatives who've been prevented from speaking on college campuses.  Student storm troopers have become the final arbiters of who may speak and what views may be expressed in academia — once dedicated to free inquiry and open discussion, now as intellectually open as a Stalinist gulag.  The academic archipelago?


Democrats Eager to Exploit Anger Over Gas Prices.  Democrats running for Congress are moving quickly to use the most recent surge in oil and gasoline prices to bash Republicans over energy policy, and more broadly, the direction of the country.

Democrats Try to Use Katrina as G.O.P. Used 9/11.  Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, toured a house on Friday [4/24/2006] that the Hurricane Katrina floods wrecked, picking up debris, lamenting the federal response and leaving little doubt of the powerful symbolism his party sees in the ruined neighborhoods here.  As Mr. Dean's well-covered hurricane-cleanup mission suggested, New Orleans may well become for Democrats in 2006 and 2008 what New York was for Republicans after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, an evocative metaphor rooted in tragedy that can potentially be turned to electoral advantage.

[Notice that Mr. Dean manages to clean up debris without getting his white shirt dirty.]

Anti-Poverty Spending Grows.  Brian Riedl, senior policy analyst in federal budgetary affairs at The Heritage Foundation, … called for facts to overcome emotion in the claim the rich are shortchanging the poor.

Chill out over global warming.  You'll often hear the left lecture about the importance of dissent in a free society.  Why not give it a whirl?  Start by challenging global warming hysteria next time you're at a LoDo cocktail party and see what happens.

A post-9/11 vocabulary test:  You see it in the refusal to profile at the airport, limit immigration from terrorist-enabling countries, and shut down Saudi pilot training programs — even to this day — for fear of hurting feelings.  You will see it throughout the week-long commemoration of 9/11 as pundits and scholars deemphasize the jihadi roots of the terrorist attacks in favor of "dialogue" and "tolerance" and self-flagellation.

Liberals and Their False Idols:  As psychiatrist Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr., points out in his new book, "The Liberal Mind:  The Psychological Causes of Political Madness," … the liberal agenda preys on weakness and feelings of inferiority in the population by creating and reinforcing perceptions of victimization; satisfying infantile claims of entitlement, indulgence and compensation; augmenting primitive feelings of envy; rejecting the sovereignty of the individual and subordinating him to the will of the government."

Democrats oppose windmill power because the windmills are unsightly.  U.S. Reps. Alan Mollohan and Nick Rahall, both West Virginia Democrats, are leading a high-profile fight against industrial wind farms on the state's mountaintop ridges. … Mollohan wrote, "Because of the huge physical size of these projects, their starkly industrial appearance, and the fact that they dominate the view of the entire area in which they are located, these projects naturally raise concerns when they are proposed to be sited in areas that people enjoy for their scenic, natural beauty."

"Success, simply by its existence, is proof positive to the Modern Liberal of some kind of chicanery and likely bigotry.  Failure, simply by its existence, is enough proof to them that failure has been victimized."

Coulter Foes Launch Hate-Filled Attacks.  Many of those writing the negative e-mails are outraged that a conservative would ask a conservative author questions from a conservative's perspective for a conservative newspaper.  One person writes, "You are so unfair and unbalanced!"  Well, there goes my shot as a Fox News anchor.

Liberals from another planet.  Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be a liberal, and to have self-righteous blowhards like Ted Kennedy, Robert Byrd and Charles Schumer, speaking for me.  And then I wake up screaming.

"Unhinged":  Michelle [Malkin] deliberately chose the title, "Unhinged," purposely, to convey that the American Left, generally speaking, has long since come unglued, giving itself over to irrationality and extremism rather than reasoned discourse.

Patrick J. Kennedy faithful flooding Rhode Island GOP with 'hate mail'.  Rhode Island Republicans have received piles of "hate mail" from supporters of U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, angry that the GOP has called for the troubled six-term congressman to step down.  "This has clearly hit a raw nerve somewhere," Rhode Island GOP spokesman Chuck Newton told the Herald.  "We've received mountains of hate mail from all over."

The Senator who cried 'bigot'.  According to Minority Leader Harry Reid, even suggesting the Constitution should protect marriage as the union of husband and wife constitutes something like hate speech:  "For me, it is clear the reason for this debate is to divide our society, to pit one against another," Reid said.  "This is another one of the president's efforts to frighten, to distort, to distract and to confuse America."

The Terrell Owens Democrats.  The Terrell Owenization of the Democratic Party is pretty much complete.  Selfish, media-hogging, and utterly unconcerned about the impact of what they are doing to their team, the Dean-Reid-Pelosi Party has thrown its ongoing collective temper tantrum for months now.  And the media has shown up whenever they chose to flex their muscles in the driveway.

Attack dogs:  The boy who cried "Wolf" at least took the precaution of doing so when there was no alleged predator in view.  If he'd stood there crying "Wolf" while pointing at a hamster, he would have been led away for counseling.  That's the stage the Senate Democrats are at.

Your Turn.  Liberals seldom bother to attempt to marshal arguments.  Instead they resort to launching personal attacks and changing the subject.  Sometimes both in the same e-mail.

Fake but accurate.  Again.  Senator Ted Kennedy looks ridiculous today, in the wake of his foolish reliance on a bogus story of "repression" under the Bush administration's anti-terror efforts. … So the Senator's negative opinion, based on fiction, somehow is still real.  Because feelings matter more than facts, I suppose.

Good Economy, Bad Polls, What Gives?  President Bush's political opponents are always available and willing to poor-mouth the economy.  When he first entered Washington, all the talk was of recession.  That ended quickly, but Democrats clutched on to the budget deficit, caused of course by President Bush's tax cuts "for the rich."  Then it was unemployment; the worst economy since Hoover, they told us.  But the jobs situation improved during the 2004 campaign, so the "disappearing middle class" became the freak-out du jour.

Democrats Will Lose Because They Offer No Hope.  The Democrats offer no hope. It's that simple. The belief system of the Democratic Party is predicated on the assumption that there is no hope.  There is no hope that the poor and aged will ever be able to live financially independent of government aid.  There is no hope that we can still create a lasting peaceful democracy in Iraq.  There is no hope that we can guard our borders and remain the beacon of light on the hill.  There is no hope that women can survive having an unwanted child, even if that child could find love elsewhere.  There is no hope that those on welfare can take the reins of their own destiny.  There is no hope that God can be both primary in our hearts and ancillary in our politics.  There is no hope that marriage can remain a solely heterosexual institution.

Katrina Aftermath Highlights True Political Motives.  For liberals, the scope of the Katrina catastrophe, and the degree to which America is preoccupied with it, represent a golden opportunity to exploit emotions and distort circumstances as a means to maximize the political mileage that might be gained from it.  Such callous behavior, while heartless and absolutely appalling, is also absolutely consistent with standard liberal operating procedure.

Liberal reactions to the marriage amendment are not deep.  Virtually every news report about President George W. Bush's support for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman describes it as "pandering" to the "far Right," the "radical Right" or, less pejoratively, "social conservatives" of the Republican Party.  Democrats regularly describe the amendment as enshrining "discrimination in the Constitution."  In the words of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., "A vote for the amendment is a vote for bigotry — pure and simple."

Hate speech from the left - 2005 edition.  [2004 was] another year in which liberals engaged in, and mostly got away with, grotesque slanders and slurs about conservatives — the kind of poisonous rhetoric that should be unheard-of in a decent society.  Once again, too many on the left — not crackpots from the fringe, but mainstream players and pundits — chose to demonize conservatives as monsters rather than debate their ideas on the merits.

The extreme sport of insult:  The hard left decided long ago that George W. Bush is Hitler.  In maddened corners of the Internet and at swastika-choked antiwar marches, Bush is shown with a Nazi uniform or a Hitler mustache.

DNC Stands By Rangel After 'Hate Speech'.  The Democratic National Committee yesterday [9/27/2005] refused to distance itself from Rep. Charles Rangel's comparison of President Bush to an infamous Southern segregationist, Theophilus "Bull" Connor, remarks the Republican National Committee identified as "hate speech" and urged the DNC to repudiate.

A major problem for the Democrats:  The headline is this:  "Democrats Fragmented and in Disarray."  The story has two aspects that must trouble those Democrats who understand media.  The first aspect is that it is filled with dire portents.  Journalists are attracted to dire portents whether the portents are true or palpably absurd.  The second aspect that must trouble Democrats is that this news story happens to be true.

Catchy slogan
Catchy slogans make great bumper stickers, but they usually don't mean anything.  Take this one, for example.  Wouldn't it be more meaningful (and honest) to say, "Vote for the Abortion Party", or, "Vote for the people who brought you 1.6–Gallon Toilets", or "Let's Outlaw Everything that isn't Mandatory"?

Democrats' language is for 'losers'.  The Democrats' awkward new slogan — "Together, America can do better" — may not say much more than "Anybody would be an improvement on the current bunch of bozos," yet many Democrats are hoping that it will be enough to bring the party back to life this fall.

Supping at the children's table.  We must look at the Republicans as the Adult Party and the Democrats as naughty children sent to sup at the children's table.  Republicans lead, Democrats rebel.  George W. nominates serious judges and the Democrats throw tantrums.  Conservatives, dominant in the Adult Party, who try to conserve traditional ideals are, ironically, in the vanguard.

Hating Bush:  We have reached the point where much political debate consists of insults and name-calling, every attack is likely to be called a "lynching," and tired expressions such as "institutional terrorism," "institutional racism," and "intellectual McCarthyism" are supposed to be taken as real arguments.

Self-indulgence:  The enraged speeches and street disorders across the country that accompanied the inauguration of President Bush may tell us more than we want to know about what is happening to this country.  Elections are supposed to be an alternative to other ways of settling political differences, including riots, military coups and dictatorships.  But riots have been re-christened "demonstrations" by the mealy-mouth media.

Hate in America:  The protesters, while unable to disrupt the Republican National Convention as intended, represented a disturbing new development in the nation's politics:  hatred in the streets.  The organized demonstrations were purely negative, attacking George W. Bush with scant expression of support for John Kerry.  Individual marchers singled out any person they thought might be a convention delegate, firing off angry, often obscene, denunciations.

Politics Of Hate:  Its one thing to scare senior citizens about Social Security reform with hate speech, but to go so far as staging an assassination of the president over his idea for a Social Security fix, is kind of over the top.  In researching the politics of hate, I was surprised to get 1,690,000 hits on Google for "hate Bush."  But I was astonished to get 1,140,000 for "kill Bush."

Blind Anger.  Anger, the most toxic of emotions, has poisoned the American left and much of the Democratic Party. ... Anger has become the fashionable political mood in America's faculty lounges, big city newsrooms, and Democratic political events.  Anger is a terrific motivator.  Angry people contribute money, go to events, wear buttons, t-shirts, and funny hats, and readily slap bumper stickers on their Volvos, Beetles, mini-vans, and Lexuses.

The Ignorant and the Idiotic?  On the web, embittered liberals and Democratic activists are peddling spurious stories, urban legends really, about how IQ is inversely correlated with voting Republican.  In reality, no correlation exists.

Liberal chattering class unhinged.  Democrats have acted like victims of robbery the last four years, but now they're acting like women scorned, rejected by a dueling banjo-wielding electorate.  I guess I suspected they'd take their losses badly, but I didn't realize they'd unshackle all gentlemanly restraints on their septic bitterness.

Morals hypocrisy:  Isn't it ironic that liberals seem to resent conservatives for promoting moral issues and being judgmental when every ounce of their leftist fiber bristles with an air of moral superiority?  It's a turf thing, a matter of entitlement.  Liberals are truly annoyed that large segments of the population vote Republican primarily because of social issues, when for decades the "progressives" have claimed to have a monopoly on morality and compassion.

Michelle Malkin Axed for Views.  My experience, both as a columnist and an observer of life, is that liberals consider any bold assertion of conservative political thought "mean-spirited."  Indeed, the liberals' favorite charge against conservatives is that they are intrinsically mean, uncompassionate people.


"Life is a comedy to those who think
  and a tragedy to those who feel."

— George Santayana *        

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