Super Why is a children’s show on PBS. It should be something I, as a parent, should love. It encourages reading, talks about letters, and discussing spelling. I don’t, though. Because it’s awful. On the show, the “Super Readers” jump into traditional fairy tale stories and try to save the day. In each instance, the creators of the show change the plot so much to | Read More »

A New War on Poverty             It has been 40 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson declared his well-intentioned, but poorly planned, war on poverty. Like so often happens, this far left administration fell back on traditional wealth-redistribution schemes, subsidizing economic inactivity and consumption while taxing work and productivity to pay for it. And, as Representative Jack Kemp, the hero of Reform Conservatism, so aptly | Read More »

When M. Stanton Evans published his book Black Listed by History, a story about Senator Joe McCarthy, I bought a copy and read with great interest.  It is one of the most well written and researched books that I have read in years.  Everything was documented and backed up by facts (and I did take the time to look up the documents and check Mr. | Read More »

I think most of us would agree that we are losing the culture war on homosexual marriage. While we await the decisions of the Supreme Court, arguments in public and private arenas continue. And they will continue, regardless of the ruling. Homosexuality has gone from being considered abhorrent, to tolerated, to normalized, to promoted. This is no surprise to many of us, and is merely | Read More »

This is in response to John Hawkins’ “7 Reasons Why Marriage is Falling Apart in America”. You totally missed the boat on the root cause as to why marriage is falling apart. In the last fifty years we have transitioned from a Christian to a completely secular culture. The laws, like no-fault divorce, and our sexual mores (acceptance of living together, illegitimacy, absentee fathers, homosexuality, | Read More »

We lost Andrew Breitbart just over a year ago. Since then, there have been endless discussions about how best to honor his memory, pondering over whether anyone could possibly fill his shoes. As I look back over the past year, I’m sad to admit that I think we as a conservative movement are doing a very poor job of carrying on Andrew’s legacy. Now, I don’t claim to | Read More »

Several gun ban bills are expected to be debated in the Senate soon, but Senator Harry Reid may have to deal with opposition from moderates. Everyone knows that moderate Democrats (especially those up in 2014) are concerned about voting for this bill. But who would have thought that liberals oppose these gun control bills? The Daily Caller interviewed a leading official of the ACLU who | Read More »

If I were to be invited to a masquerade ball or costume party, I think it would be fun to go as Abraham Lincoln. I would get the stovepipe hat and long full beard and practice my speech making voice; reciting the Gettysburg Address until I had it memorized. The other guests at the party would greet me as Mr. President as they smiled and | Read More »

Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO) is all over the news for some hysterically stupid remarks she made at a recent meeting of the Denver Post’s editorial board. But in the frenzy over her obviously ignorant remarks, we miss a point that needs to be emphasized about police response times. But first some background on the controversy she stirred up. Revealing Politics has an article in which | Read More »

I manifestly dislike trendy jargon in all of it’s manifestations. Especially in politics. For example, some years ago, suddenly it became all the rage to refer to public spending reductions as “taking a hair-cut“. Everybody from Chris Dodd to the detestable Dame Pelosi were talking about “hair-cuts”. I started to feel like I was in some vast federal Barber Shop. Of course, who can forget | Read More »

Minnesota taxpayers may now be on the hook for millions of dollars to fund the new Vikings stadium due to grossly incorrect revenue projections that were relied upon to garner votes for the the stadium bill’s passage last year. Many legislators were vocally skeptical about the financing plan during the stadium bill’s contentious passage. It now appears they were right. New electronic games in bars | Read More »

At the very dawn of our republic, John Adams uttered a prophetic phrase that rings through time to the present age. “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Often we who love small government forget that culture, that is, “We the People” are the one’s who shape our government first, not | Read More »

We here in the news and from a number of lawyers and citizens different ideas about what civil rights are and on what basis to judge what is or is not a Constitutional Right.  The answer, as I will lay out, is straight forward and clear. Our founding fathers had a clear definition of what rights should be guaranteed by the Constitution and should be decided | Read More »

These days it seems that questioning the institutions that form the cornerstones of all civil societies is in vogue. Lest we wallow in despair, let’s take some time to congratulate ourselves on the fact that we’ve progressed beyond the point at which obtaining our daily bread is our foremost concern, and we have time to re-examine the basis of morality. After all, the unexamined life | Read More »

Do you know what liberal means? It basically means freedom. Liberalism, to be more specific, classical liberalism is the ideology America was founded on. Classical liberalism is the true form of liberalism. It advocates a free market, limited government, civil liberties, political freedom and rule of law. A perfect example today of classical liberals is the Libertarian Party. The Republican Party is also pretty liberal | Read More »

This week the Supreme Court has been busy hearing two cases concerning the legality of same-sex marriage in the United States. No decision is likely to be made until the court takes their recess sometime in late June. Many think that the court is going to make a wide, sweeping decision, declaring that same-sex marriage is legal. But is that really the courts job? The | Read More »

40 years ago today the last of the personnel left Vietnam from the rooftop of the embassy, climbing a rope ladder to the hovering Huey chopper. The last two combat troops on the ground were Air Force Combat Controllers, of which our beloved Jeff Emanuel and I are alumni of. It seems like yesterday (I left in November of 1968 after the Tet Offensive in | Read More »

We have a redundant link to front page writers who are visible on the front page already, and a redundant link to Redundant links for Erick’s Posts which can be viewed on the front page AND the front page writer’s link; yet there is no link for diarists. This site was ruined when the “Cracken” was unleashed to dump popular writers with a PERMANENT ban | Read More »

Something that may not have been much considered on the Prop 8 case before the Supreme Court: The California Judicial Branch created a “right” to marriage for homosexuals within that state. In accordance with the State and US Constitutions, the People of CA Amended their Constitution to overrule the judicial branch. Should the US Supreme Court kill Prop 8, an Amendment to the CA State | Read More »

Political Independent New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a modern day prohibitionist. He has made national headlines for his crusade against salt, guns, soft drinks, Styrofoam cups, saturated fat, calories and tobacco. His government knows best campaigns have garnered the support of the likes of Piers Morgan who said “I agree with Mayor Bloomberg…He’s been big on gun control, big on smoking – he wants | Read More »

In my last post, I discussed the issue of marriage as a civil right versus the Constitutional right of freedom of religion. Essentially, the secular view of marriage as being between two people who love each other joining to form a single household is completely incompatible with the Judeo-Christian view of marriage, that being that a union is between a man, a woman and God. | Read More »

Freedom Taken for Granted Will Be Lost Throughout our history Americans have taken their freedom for granted. We are born with it intact, and are taught to expect the rights designated in the Constitution to apply to our lives from beginning to end. The original framers of this impressive document based its content on this premise, having defeated the British, and feeling the effects of | Read More »

Remember when not so long ago President Obama claimed the Muslim Brotherhood had zero chance at winning control of the Egyptian government? Good times, good times. So how is that working out for the Egyptians? Several thousand opponents of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood clashed with supporters of the Islamist group near its headquarters in Cairo on Friday, and at least 40 people were wounded, authorities said. | Read More »

Free Press is holding its National Conference for Media Reform next week. The conference agenda describes the Internet as “central” to freedom of expression, which is how all mass media technologies have been described since the invention of the printing press ushered in the mass communications era. Despite recognizing that the Internet is a mass media technology, Free Press does not believe the Internet should be accorded the same constitutional protections as other mass | Read More »

http://www.senatordinniman.com/legislative-services/legislation   Child Protection Task Force County Notification Act While most students are seen by a teacher during the school days many non-traditional or home-schooled children are not. This bill would require a school district to notify the county Children and Youth Agency when a child is enrolled in a home-schooled or cyber-school program. The County Agency would then be required to do a risk | Read More »

There was plenty of coverage of the rules changes during the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa (where I was an at-large delegate from Virginia). Erick Erickson blogged about it. The Blaze picked it up. Daily Beast, too. NBC. HuffPo. Long story short: The Romney campaign, through D.C. attorney Ben Ginsberg (and then-surrogate John Sununu), strong-armed the Rules Committee into changing a number of rules | Read More »

From the Diaries…

As you may have heard, my colleague and FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell has announced that he will be leaving the FCC in the next few weeks. This is a loss not just for the FCC, but for everybody who believes in Internet freedom. Rob has been one of the most important and eloquent champions of free-market conservatism in our time.

I have had the privilege of working with Rob for several years, first as a lawyer in the FCC’s Office of General Counsel and now as a fellow Commissioner. In that time, I have come to know Rob as a colleague and as a friend. Before he steps down, I want conservatives to know about the terrific work he’s done to modernize communications regulation and defend liberty.

It’s bad enough that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has decided to continue the relationship with failed Romney consultants Targeted Victory to send the RNC’s mass emails.  What’s so harrowing is the cynicism and sloppiness Targeted Victory brings to the table to fulfill that contract. One would think that Targeted Victory, in fulfilling the RNC email contract, would take extreme care and would want to remove | Read More »

Ann Coulter noted today that any Republican effort to overturn Obamacare by legislative initiative by or means of a government shutdown would be futile. The president would veto any successful legislation and the Republicans would lose the politics if the government were to shut down.  Coulter said the first priority of Republicans is to win elections. She suggested that implementing Obamacare could fuel its own | Read More »

  Following the GOP’s decisive defeat in November’s presidential election, the RNC assembled a special committee to analyze what went wrong and make recommendations for the future. The five members of the committee, made up of former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, former Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi, GOP consultant Sally Bradshaw, Puerto Rico Committeewoman Zori Fonalledas, and South Carolina Committeeman Glenn McCall, released their | Read More »

In my career as a network administrator, I’ve been asked to break into three e-mail boxes of existing employees (entering into departed employees e-mail is routine and I’ve lost count of how many of those I’ve done). Twice I did so after verifying that it would be legal to do so, the third time, I regretfully told my bosses boss that company policies were so | Read More »

Ten years after the invasion of Iraq, most Americans appear to believe that the war was not worthwhile. Perhaps they are correct, but we cannot know for sure because we do not know what would have happened. Consider, for example, the run-up to World War II. Churchill believed that the time when Hitler could have been stopped without a major war would have been when | Read More »

[Update:  I got quite a lot of negative feedback about the "tone" of this entry.  I admit I was ticked off when I wrote it and probably should have let it sit for a day or so.   Having said that, I stand by the point, which I think is valid.   However, I do confess to being, as one commenter said, "tone deaf."  ] | Read More »

When I wrote the first Destruction of the Liberal Arts article I did not think it was going to develop into a recurring series.  In the first installment, I wrote about how a student was being verbally assaulted by a professor, and other members of the class, on the 11th anniversary of 9/11 for memorializing the victims.  You can read that article here.  Recently, I | Read More »

This is a very brief diary reflecting frustration with the Republican Party. I used to think that electing and reelecting Barack Obama was the single most tragic event in the history of freedom. I have since decided it was electing and reelecting Priebus as head of RNC. Unfortunately, he seems to have no instincts for national politics, though he seems to have tremendous instincts for | Read More »

During a press conference in support of privatizing Pennsylvania’s liquor stores, Big Labor Boss Wendell W. Young, repeatedly shouted and interrupted speakers at the podium.  Young, who received $287,386 in compensation last year, is the Local 1776 representative for United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents many of Pennsylvania’s liquor store employees. Commonwealth Foundation’s President Matthew Brouillette captured the above video of Young cursing and yelling | Read More »

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/03/the-administrative-state-in-one-photo.php Anybody have a copy of this photo in an aspect ratio that will work as a Facebook cover picture?

(EDITOR’S NOTE:  This is a cut and paste of an article from American Thinker.  It did NOT come from the Washington Post.  No matter what the source, we respect intellectual property at Redstate and do not allow wholesale copying of other people’s work.  This post has been edited to remove all but the first paragraph of the original) I never would have imagined that I | Read More »

Great doctors do the impossible; they save the un-savable. Doctors innovate and create new procedures to cure patients at the risk of criticism from their peers, as well as the risks of lawsuits. Great doctors think beyond the known in order to save a patient because the immediate life of the patient is paramount above all else. So why can’t Washington politicians act like great doctors | Read More »

Paul Ryan released his outline of the GOP budget proposal yesterday and I couldn’t help cringing when I heard the news report: “Ryan’s budget proposal would also repeal Obamacare” (paraphrased). I can’t imagine there’s much in the actual proposal that I disagree with but I’ve always been uncomfortable with the idea of “repeal”. Not in principle mind you. Obamacare is a public-policy black box. In | Read More »

I wrote a piece today analyzing the numbers in the Congressional District 18 race between Allen West and Patrick Murphy.  You can read it here… Who will beat the nation’s ‘most vulnerable Democrat’? FEBRUARY 19, 2013 BY RICHARD DENAPOLI Congressman Patrick Murphy, who recently eked out a victory over former Congressman Allen West in District 18, has now been labeled  the “most vulnerable Democrat.” Sabato’s Crystal Ball, the product of | Read More »

Jennifer Rubin—WaPo’s token conservative—said it perfectly: McCain lost his cool with Rand Paul and sounded like the old man down the street screaming to the new kids on the block, “Get off my lawn!” The real reason McCain and Lindsey Graham embarrassed themselves on the floor of Senate had nothing to do with what Rand Paul said. Rand Paul’s ideas terrify McCain, Graham, and most of | Read More »

As Mark Levin calls him, the “Arlen Specter of South Carolina” is running his mouth against libertarians again. Associating them with anti-war liberals…oh wait, where have they gone? Anyhow, you might remember one of his previous attacks, in which he claimed libertarians have no place in the Republican party. Needless to say he got booed by the audience, and was subsequently smacked down by Governor | Read More »

It’s a very short post, but here’s the news: The Obama Administration, I think, is raising the Big Shiny Object of Iraqi failure just as Egypt is about to fall into the abyss: Judging from the articles at the Financial Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, the pretext creation of “Iraq as Failure” has been ramped up to an extremely high volume. | Read More »

The administration of our Celebrity-in-Chief is seeking to deny the Romeike family, who home-schools their kids, political asylum from Germany, where home-schooling is illegal. The Obama administration claims that home-schooling is not a right; therefore, Germany is not violating the Romeike family’s rights. If the Romeike family loses their appeal in court, they could be deported. See the video here. All this comes on the | Read More »

Welcome to the GOP organization meeting for the 2016 election. No, you can’t be part of our group because you support gay marriage. Neither can you because you believe in evolution. Don’t want you either because you believe there are some circumstances where abortion should be legal. Not you either, you think global warming is bad. No need for you, you won’t agree that we | Read More »

I’m listening to Rand Paul right now.  I hope he realizes that if he plays this right, he can break right through into the consciousness of the Low Information Masses.  He needs to add some humor…  The subject is perfect, this is a defining opportunity for him.  Erik if you are in DC, slip him some humorous and on-target lines.

Look, I think we are at war and that means enemy combatants on US soil, regardless of their original citizenship can be targeted as soldiers in a war. Rand Paul invoking the 5th Amendment for enemy combatants is batty to me. However, he is espousing some pretty interesting old ideas that Republicans ought to consider again. It is interesting to note that he is discussing | Read More »

For the last four years, our economy has grown at just 0.8% per year. As a result of this anemic growth, 23 million Americans are struggling to find work, and millions more are being denied a fair opportunity to achieve the American dream. Economic growth these past four years has been a small fraction of historic levels: since World War II, our economy has averaged | Read More »

The title is a paraphrase of a quote from a deceased Democratic Senator, Patrick Moynihan: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”   You can interpret this a few ways, but the most likely to be true (but not the ONLY way that could be) is that there is a correct answer to every question and choosing to believe the wrong one | Read More »

It is somehow fitting that Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez left the realm of the living on this day, the 60th anniversary of the death of one of the world’s most murderous dictators, Josef Stalin. While the crimes of Chavez fail to compete with the atrocities inflicted by Stalin, he was guilty of the same crimes of enslaving millions through a failed ideology. Under the guise | Read More »

I am a citizen of the United States of America by birth, but American by choice. Two very important labels that I am proud to wear. Here are a few others that other people have attempted to apply to me: conservative, liberal libertarian, Italian-American  political animal catholic, Mormon moron, american invader, killer pro-life, pro-choice anti-gay, homophobic misogynistic, christian atheist, centrist RINO, republican …and many more. So who cares? THEY do. Why does it matter what | Read More »

This is in response to the front page story on the Dem advance in TX. The comments in the article where veering off the strategic approach I wanted to take – hence this diary. My opinion is that the supposed Dem initiatives in TX is a head fake – a misdirection. We would do well to consider our relative strength in TX compared to other | Read More »

Obamacare Provider Fees were posted in the federal register today. These ‘Obamacare Provider Fees’ are the health insurance plan taxes via Obamacare. The fees total $10 billion+ per year. The full proposal can be found here: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/03/04/2013-04836/health-insurance-providers-fee These ‘fees’ will be passed on to consumers and will increase an average HC plan by $300/year starting next year. A background story from thehill.com can be found | Read More »

Welcome to the Democratic organization meeting for the 2016 election. No, you can’t be in our group because you support traditional marriage. Neither can you because you engage in a healthy scientific debate about evolution and it’s implications. Don’t want you either because you don’t believe that abortion should be legal in all cases. Not you either, you don’t tow the partisan line on an | Read More »

I have followed the gun debate with some interest.  I am Texan and have lived with guns my whole life.  I also have children and estblished the same house rules for my own kids that my parents established when I grew up. My mother had a few hard and fast rules. Ammo was NOT to be kept with guns at home.  Treat EVERY gun as | Read More »

When I first joined Congress, I knew we had a debt problem and I knew that we spent way too much money. The numbers are almost overwhelming. Billions and trillions of dollars are not something that any ordinary person can relate to. Luckily, I was a high school teacher before I came to Washington. As a teacher, I had to make things understandable for my | Read More »

It’s not getting much love in the comment section – but I wouldn’t expect it to there, not with statements like this! “(Paul, Lee, Cruz and Rubio) are without much doubt the most pro-liberty members of that house).” Read the article at - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robin-koerner/rand-paul_b_2770800.html   I have to wonder though – how much longer is Robin Koerner going to be writing for them after that article?! | Read More »

Jay Laze, owner of All Around Pizza in Virginia Beach appeared on CNN’s Piers Morgan to defend his new policy of giving a 15% discount to customers who come in carrying a firearm. It is funny to see how opposed to this idea Peirs Morgan is:

An across-the-board 10% cut of all federal employees, equally cut by each department, sub-department, divisions, etc., so that there is equal distribution of cuts in low-level staff, middle-mgmt & admins, and upper-level mgmt/admins/execs, even congressional and presidential staffers). The eventual increase in staff will only be benchmarked to no more than the rate of annual increase in population growth. All federal employees (in all levels | Read More »

The hysteria in Washington over sequestration is both strange and amusing. The president would like us to believe that cutting just over 2% of our $3.5 trillion budget this year will leave kids without vaccines, meat without inspectors, planes without air traffic control and streets filled with criminals and no police to stop them. Republicans, on the other hand, are wasting time blaming President Obama | Read More »

I’ve never told anyone this before; John Kerry saved my life in Vietnam. I haven’t mentioned it till now because doing so requires an admission of wrongdoing on my part – an admission, which, to his credit, John Kerry (whom I’ve always known as “Skipper”) has shielded me from making. The time has come though, to pay back old debts, to demonstrate my gratitude to | Read More »

For centuries, governments have used restrictive gun laws to control their citizens — subjects, really. Whether you’re fighting against slavery, racism or an oppressive government, tyranny is tyranny. We have the 2nd Amendment to protect us from exactly that. The president of the Frederick Douglass Society explains how gun control was used in the south to keep African-Americans from fighting back. They needed to be prevented from defending themselves against a | Read More »

Believe it or not, in an article entitled “Why Are Teen Pregnancy Rates So Low in North Dakota? Fracking.” Slate.com’s xxFactor just admitted the moral bankruptcy of every position of the left. The left’s positions on abusing environmental regulations destroyed the jobs that young men from less advantaged households used to be able to find. Youth unemployment destroyed the foundation of the family leading to | Read More »