Brief and Direct: How Can Our Favorites Fall from Grace So Fast?
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | June 16th at 07:26 PM |
From an answer to another RedState poster (with an edit at the end): To answer you straight, a reason conservatives have a hair trigger when it comes to their elected favorites is that it matters so much. If you are a member of a sizable majority, the occasional defection for whatever reason can make no difference at all; it can be understood as a tactical | Read More »
Brief and Direct: How Can We Know the News Is True?
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | May 8th at 07:03 PM |
Every bit of news must be weighed against common sense, not cynically, but clinically. Does what is being reported make good sense? Does it describe the way real people act? Remember that “real people” include dishonest people, uninformed people, good people, evil people, people with a different outlook on problems than you do, and people who may have MORE information than you have. Do the | Read More »
Brief and Direct: The Benefits of Obamacare
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | April 30th at 06:55 PM |
April 30, 2013–Washington, DC–The White House In a news conference this morning, President Obama was asked a question about the Affordable Health Care Act by reporter Chuck Todd: “Why does Senator [Max] Baucus… believe that this is going to be [a train wreck], and why do you believe he’s wrong?” The President’s answer is enlightening. “…A huge chunk of it’s already been implemented. And for the 85 | Read More »
Senator Jeff Flake Sets Record for Drowning in the Potomac Waters
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | April 22nd at 03:23 AM |
I’ll try to remain respectful toward the office, but it’ll be hard. After all, the man is either lying to our faces or under the influence of Potomac Fever. He went from conservative Congressman to fellow-traveler in about three months. My statement is provoked by a column, supposedly written by Senator Jeff Flake, which appeared April 20 in the National Review Online, titled “The Conservative Case | Read More »
Brief and Direct: Is Marriage a Right or a Rite?
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | April 1st at 10:03 AM |
Another in an sporadic series of short commentaries on current events Marriage Equality? “Marriage Equality” is a recently-coined euphemism for “gay marriage,” which is itself a euphemism as well. Our tender psyches apparently don’t respond well to euphemisms that get too close to saying what they mean, especially in advocacy advertising. Still, it’s a great phrase that conveys exactly what its proponents want to convey–that | Read More »
Brief and Direct: Why are Firemen Always the First To Be Laid Off?
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | February 25th at 08:33 PM |
Another in an unscheduled series of short commentaries on current events Maybe because we’ll miss them the most. Because the President has forgotten he’s already been elected and he’s been campaigning across the country to defeat his own idea, there are too many sources to quote regarding the dire consequences President Obama sees if the sequester, or Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA), isn’t averted. So | Read More »
Brief and Direct: Dr. Carson’s Inspiring Idea
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | February 25th at 12:41 AM |
Another in an unscheduled series of short commentaries on current events Setting the stage Dr. Benjamin Carson ruffled some feathers with his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast a couple of weeks ago. You can’t blame the Left for being ruffled–the speech was a High Right Fastball under the chin. They didn’t like anything he said, and they didn’t like the way he said it. | Read More »
Brief and Direct: Sequestration Needs to Happen
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | February 23rd at 01:14 AM |
Sequestration is to arrive soon, allegedly to the surprise of the President, the Democrats, and the popular press. According to at least one source in that popular press, if sequestration is allowed to take effect there will be numerous programs and services to the public curtailed. Other sources, such as Chris Cillizza of WaPo, provide a less pessimistic view. A good President would seize this opportunity | Read More »
In Support of Ben Howe’s “Messaging”
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | February 16th at 01:00 AM |
In response to Ben Howe’s It’s the Messaging, Stupid. It’s the Stupid Messaging. More than the messengers? I mostly agree. [D]umb, ill-prepared and gaffe-tastic candidates will always be a part of American politics. You don’t win by making a strategy that consists of preventing people you think are too dumb en masse from picking a candidate. You win by effectively selling your ideas. Yes. To | Read More »
Brief and Direct: An Answer from the Ayn Rand Institute
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | February 12th at 06:39 PM |
How is it possible that we lose to Democrats? Perhaps you have been asking yourself that question. After all, we win the debate on all the big issues, as verified by polls as recently as today, with questions in the form of “Do you agree with President Obama on…?” The majority of respondents don’t agree with him on anything except defense in general, while they | Read More »
Brief and Direct: Beware the Shiny Objects
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | February 2nd at 01:58 AM |
In a recent diary, I made a case that we are too often distracted by “shiny objects” put into play by the Democrats and kept in the public eye by their minions in the press. Examples I used included gun control, but the shiny new issue of Immigration Reform has been rolled out since then, with the help of our two Arizona Senators, Marco Rubio, | Read More »
Brief and Direct: Immigration Policy
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | January 28th at 04:38 PM |
Talk of “comprehensive immigration reform” bubbled to the surface last week. We’ve seen this coming for some time. Since long before the last election. In fact, as long ago as July, 2006. Then, today, CBS Miami, 1/28/2013: Rubio Pitching Bipartisan Comprehensive Immigration Reform “A bipartisan group or [sic] Senators including Senator Marco Rubio are set to unveil a new comprehensive immigration reform package at a Monday afternoon | Read More »
The State of the Union message that will NOT be presented in January
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | December 31st at 06:35 PM |
Mike DeVine recently commented on Redstate (about the gun-control debate) that “The real issue is whether the DC police charge [David] Gregory with the crime he committed on national TV [displaying a rifle magazine]. If not, its just another nail in in the coffin of what used to be the Rule of Law in America.” I couldn’t agree more. The Rule of Law has become Rule by the | Read More »
OK, Democrats, You Got What You Wished For
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | November 15th at 01:49 AM |
Your man won. You even increased your lead in the Senate, although it seems we may have increased our own majority in the House. But that doesn’t matter, because the fact is House Republicans can’t get anything they really want past the Senate’s majority or the President’s veto. The best they can do is to come to some kind of agreement with your Senate Democrats | Read More »
President Obama Has No Foreign Policy – Updated
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | October 20th at 05:01 AM |
President Obama has already been exposed as not even an empty suit, but an empty chair. It’s time to expose his foreign policy attempts for what they are–empty words. Almost any set of policies can have enough cohesion to generate a “three-legged stool” analogy. For the Reagan Administration the legs might have been (1) Strength through a military strong enough to be feared, (2) Diplomacy carried | Read More »
What the (bleep) Is Romney Doing?
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | October 16th at 02:59 AM |
The human brain is a marvelous thing. Each one is unique. Some work better than others, but many of them see things the same way. It’s evolutionary. We’re programmed to look for patterns, and if a pattern is identified we all tend to see it. But sometimes what is obvious isn’t real. And sometimes we need to stop and think about what pattern we should | Read More »
Republicans in Danger of Falling Prey to Unintended Consequences
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | June 25th at 02:47 AM |
Two things may happen this week: A contempt-of-congress order against Attorney General Eric Holder may be issued by the full House. The U.S. Supreme Court may find that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. Both of these are big news. Really big news. Only one of them, however, is of a nature that will be almost 100% favorable to the Republican Party, and that’s the | Read More »
Short Spots for the Romney Campaign – FREE!
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | June 1st at 02:50 PM |
So President Barack Obama wants to criticize Governor Mitt Romney’s record of leadership in Massachusetts. Let’s compare that record to Obama’s record in Illinois. Romney worked with a Democratic legislature to bring Massachusetts back from deficit financing to prosperity. To do that, he had to negotiate, to make real decisions, to pick a path. Barack Obama, while a state senator in Illinois, also made decisions–including | Read More »
Observations after the Arizona Republican Convention
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | May 15th at 04:12 PM |
I was an elected delegate to the Arizona Republican Convention. It was a first for me and obviously it was interesting, but it was also disappointing. Disappointing because Non Paul conservatives in the party couldn’t make the effort to actually participate in party activities and mount some competition for the Ron Paul activists. That isn’t in any way a slam at the Ron Paul delegates; | Read More »
Saturday Book Report
By: Flagstaff (Diary) | April 28th at 05:18 PM |
Taking some time off from obsessing about the national security, political, and policy problems we face as we careen towards the abyss, I have a book review that might be helpful as you browse garage sales and bookstores this weekend. The book is Killing Lincoln, 2011, by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugas. Unlike many marketing descriptions, O’Reilly’s blurbs this time are very accurate–”With an unforgettable | Read More »