Tuesday, January 28, 2014

State of the Union

Apparently the State of the Union is that the union is not big enough. That is, every solution proposed in SOTU was a government solution.

More investment. Read sending tax money to connected cronies.

Higher minimum wage, because the answer to unemployment is making it more expensive to employ low skilled workers.

More regulation to save us from the horrors of global warming when temperatures have been stable for more than a decade.

Even when the President credited private sector successes like the oil sector, he neglected to mention them as private sector successes and instead implied they were the end product of government policy.

Instead of focusing on new ways to regulate our economy and the individual citizens, we should be freeing the creative forces that make this country great. Instead of praising a lowered unemployment rate - ignoring the fact that it comes from people leaving the job market and not more people finding jobs - while attacking the successful, we should help the successful create more jobs.

The state of our union is bruised and battered. But we are not out of fight.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

The real Chris Christie

I'm an unapologetic conservative. I recognize that someone like Chris Christie is the best we can get in New Jersey. But that doesn't mean I want him as a Republican standard bearer.

More than his weakness on gun rights or gay marriage, it was video of him mouthing off to a guy on the street when it was clear Christie had bodyguards backing him up. It doesn't take much guts to be tough when you have muscle. I'd liked the brash, straight talking Christie. In the end, this guys was just a big talking bully.

He's the Republican version of Bill Clinton. His main policy concern is getting elected and doing what's right for Christie. That's why one of the most dangerous places in the world to be is between Christie and TV cameras if there's an opportunity for him to violate Reagan's 11th Commandment and attack other conservatives like Rand Paul.

Luckily, the thuggish nature of the Governor is showing itself in how his aides shut down traffic to punish a mayor who refused to kiss the ring. School kids were trapped in gridlock. So were emergency vehicles. An elderly woman died.

Even if Christie did not order the action, he fostered the climate. After all, his temper is not simply legend but his trademark. What aide in his right mind would pull that kind of trick if he thought Christie would blow up?

No, this is just how they get business done.

We've seen the Chicago way with Barack Obama. Imagine Christie's Jersey way. Imagine the damage a statist like him could do, especially if he has a GOP House and Senate. Remember that before Obamacare, the biggest entitlement expansion since LBJ came from GWB.

I think conservatives need guts. They need to be willing to fight in the street. Playing the civility game doesn't do much for us.

But we need the right fighter.

Christie ain't it.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Hangover 3

I watched the Hangover 3 this week. Some people panned it as the worst of the trilogy but I beg to differ. They couldn't do the same thing again. Another bachelor party for these guys would have us thinking the same thing: are these guys as stupid as the teenagers who go to the haunted lake after the fourth or fifth massacre that occurred there?

So they went a different direction and pulled some things together in a good kind of way.

Plus it's guy humor my gal can enjoy. That's priceless.

Global warming? Or hoax warning?

So what happens if a bunch of "global warming researchers" get trapped in Arctic ice, after Al Gore famously predicted that no such ice would exist by this point in time?A deafening silence from the global media.

When evangelical Christians make end time predictions, the media waits with baited breath for the prophecy to be proven wrong. When a politician who has made billions off junk science gets egg on his face, it's not a story.

It's this kind of thing, along with 15 years of temperatures not rising, that lends evidence to the notion the issue isn't global temperature but political control. Or is it simply coincidence that every solution to this "crisis" is more control of our personal and economic lives?