So I saw the Executive Branch tax returns today and a few interesting things popped out at me. Now I’m a humanities guy, so if I’ve misapplied or misinterpreted these numbers, please let me know… Barack & Michelle Obama’s AGI: $5, 505, 409 Obama Household Charitable Contributions*: $329,100 Charitable Contributions as % of | Read More »
I’m the guy who tends to vacillate between the confident smiles when I consider of the historical writing on the wall (Democrats WILL overreach, which guarantees their power will ebb swiftly) and knee-buckling fear of potential irreversibilities (entitlements can NEVER be undone! EVAH!). Stepping back to examine life’s broader perspective convinces me further that fear and panic are weak and fleeting emotions in the calm, | Read More »
I forget where I first encountered the theoretical proposition of a free market solution to federalism, but the e-mail forward I encountered below runs along those lines. The idea is intriguing: an amicable separation, giving the left half (literally) of the country free reign to implement and practice whatever “progressive” ideological programs and ideals, while the right half of the country is free to practice | Read More »
When you think financial system, what do you think of? Wikipedia says “the financial system is a set of complex and closely interconnected financial institutions, markets, instruments, services, practices, and transactions.” Close your eyes for just a second and imagine the American financial system: the never ending network of overlapping and interlocking relationships and connections. Mind boggling, isn’t it? Now, conceptualize “financial regulations.” Wikipedia says | Read More »
Remember during the campaign where Barack Obama got great mileage out of John McCain’s proposition to tax employer health care benefits? With mock horror and a plea to good ol’ American values, he said McCain’s plan was “so radical, so out of touch with what you’re facing, and so out of line with our basic values.” Guy Benson in yesterday’s National Review Online (“Obama is | Read More »
The American Medical Association is publicly coming out against the governments “public health care option.” The public health care option would be a government created, government controlled health insurance company that would “compete” with the 1,300 health care insurance companies to provide health care for those in America without it. A few problems with that (I’ll first summarize what Karl Rove said in today’s Wall | Read More »
Ladies & Gentlemen, the conservative choice for America… John Bolton Mr. Bolton’s greatest drawback at this point appears to be his unfortunate facial hair and hair cut, but President Clinton has established precedent to fix that problem, so that shouldn’t be an issue. Bolton grabbed my early favor with quotes like this in todays Washington Times… Conservative foreign policy is unabashedly pro-American, unashamed of American | Read More »
It didn’t have to be this way. If liberals in congress and the media had only acted like grown ups instead of losing their minds about “torture”, we could have avoided this whole messy thing. Instead, as soon as they took power they started calling for President Bush’s head on a platter over the torture issue. With no small amount of moral superiority I heard, | Read More »
Yesterday at American Thinker, I ran into an open letter from a recovering liberal, making amends for his past. It’s an interesting continuation of my previous post, concerning tone in the political debate as it regards liberals & conservatives. My basic contention is that, generally speaking, the left is either unwilling or incapable of engaging in a civilized, point for point debate on the issues, | Read More »
Promoted from the diaries by Neil Believe it or not, Salon.com has given a conservative the opportunity to fill their space. This weeks question in “Ask a Wingnut” gets to an important topic, one with implications far beyond the scope of the actual words. On the face of it, the Wingnut author does a good job answering the question: the Conservative record on science is | Read More »
It seems like it’s been 100 mph every day since January. The inauguration of The One, followed closely by the Tax Cheating cabinet debacle. Then we had President Obama reneging on his promise not to appoint lobbyists. Then there was the whole Porkulus fiasco followed immediately by President Obama promising to cut federal spending. By mid-February the Tea Party movement had been ideologically launched by | Read More »
When Ronald Reagan ran for President in 1979, he was running at the tail end of the big government, big spending, high tax, energy shortage years of the Carter administration (sound familiar?). One of Reagan’s principles was the “Big Tent” of conservatism, with room enough for all of us. One misconception about the Big Tent is that we will change to fit you, no matter | Read More »
It seems that all the world quakes in fear over the impending doom whose name is Swine Flu. Here in San Antonio, the Centers for Disease Control are closing school districts for two weeks, calling churches and closing them, and there’s a general sense that the sky just might be falling. From the AP, the Director General of the World Health Organization warns that this | Read More »
When a pro-choice politician with scientific credibility among his tribe suddenly finds solidarity with the enemy camp, different ears perk up. It’s as if Newt Gingrich suddenly endorsed increasing capital-gains taxes. Or if Sarah Palin issued a moratorium on wolf hunting. When the “pro-choice politician with scientific credibility among his tribe” is Al Gore, the man who would be Chad, it’s even more scratch inducing. | Read More »
President Barack Obama has refused to receive repayment of TARP funds from several banks. Stuart Varney at WSJ reports, Some $340 million in TARP cash flowed back this week from four small banks in Louisiana, New York, Indiana and California. This isn’t much when we routinely talk in trillions, but clearly that money has not been wasted or otherwise sunk down Wall Street’s black hole… | Read More »
The President of the United States, leader (or, as Debra Messing would say, “ruler”) of the free world wrapped up an out of the country excursion, taking the Magical Traveling Gaffe Machine on the road. When he wasn’t giving the Queen of England a pre-loaded iPod and Michelle wasn’t knocking Prince Phillip out of the way to get next to her, he was doing this | Read More »
I don’t think I could tell you a single movie she’s been in, but she talks straight to Fox news about the leftist culture and cries of racism for anyone who disagrees with President Obama. My favorite comments, however, may be from the likes of Mandy Moore & Debra Messing at the bottom. Mandy Moore quips, “The sort of criticism over the last couple of | Read More »
Reconciliation reduces the number of votes needed to pass legislation in the 100-seat Senate to a simple majority rather than the 60 required to overcome resistance to major bills. The tactic also limits debate to no more than 20 hours and imposes restrictions on amendments. Bloomberg’s assessment of the “Reconciliation” tactic seems prett slippery in the context of a freely chosen representative legislature. See, from | Read More »
The Washington Post reports outrage on both sides of the aisle at failing insurance giant AIG’s payment of nearly $165 million in bonuses. Leading the charge of indignation is none other than His Highness, King Barry the Hopeful One. King Barry’s anger is pretty hollow, however, since AIG would be contractually obligated to pay these ridiculous bonuses to these failing giants. We all know how | Read More »
President George W. Bush refuses to comment on the fledgling Presidency of Barack H. Obama, saying that the President, “deserves my silence.” Bush’s comments contrast sharply with his former Vice President Dick Cheney, who tells anyone who will listen that the country is less safe because of the decisions President Obama and his administration (i.e. Eric Holder) have made. I agree with Vice President Cheney’s | Read More »
President Obama is expected to sign an executive order on Monday to loosen Clinton era restrictions on Embryonic Stem Cell research. An embryo is any multi cellular animal in a developmental stage preceding birth or hatching. A human embryo contains a totally unique DNA code, created from the union of a male sperm & female ovum. Left alone it would multiply, grow, and eventually become | Read More »
It’s good to see Michael Steele, the new chairman of the RNC squaring off against the DNC Chairman, Governor (VA) Tim Kaine. Conversations like this are a good tool for him to make the point that, regardless of what rhetoric Democratic policy is wrapped in (“we just care about the middle class, blah blah blah”), the summum bonum of political policy (on either side) ought | Read More »
The largely Democratic U.S. Senate (along with 3 (barely) Republicans Olympia Snowe & Susan Collins of Maine & Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania) thumbed their nose at a majority of Americans and voted 67 – 31 to foist debt upon generations of Americans by passing the Economic Stimulus bill. Before we jump into the specifics of this legislation, let’s answer the question about whether a government | Read More »
Washington D.C. is a funny place where things are usually what they seem, but those who live and move and breathe in it’s rarefied air only occasionally acknowledge things as they are. That leaves most of us publicly and/or privately scratching our heads, wondering whether reality is unwinding (ahem) or those we cast our votes for are liars or just naive. I have been lately | Read More »
<div class=”mceTemp”><dl id=”attachment_164″ class=”wp-caption alignleft” style=”width: 310px;”> <dt class=”wp-caption-dt”> <div style=”text-align: auto;”><img class=”size-medium wp-image-164″ src=”http://www.realityunwound.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/hope-progress-300×224.jpg” alt=”When? ” width=”300″ height=”224″ /></div> </dt> </dl></div> Washington D.C. is a funny place where things are usually what they seem, but those who live and move and breathe in it’s rarefied air only occasionally acknowledge things as they are. That leaves most of us publicly and/or privately scratching our heads, | Read More »
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