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Source: Fox News Forum Author: John Stossel Posted on 10.28.10 by Steve Trinward “Canada has announced it will ban the chemical bisphenol A — known as BPA — which is used to make plastic water and baby bottles. The head of the Canadian environmental group Environmental Defence is thrilled: ‘Kudos to the federal government. … We look forward to seeing BPA legally designated as “toxic” as soon as possible.’ But the evidence doesn’t actually show that BPA is toxic. Europe’s equivalent of the FDA concluded: ‘(T)he data currently available do not provide convincing evidence of neurobehavioral toxicity.’” (10/28/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/295452a Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Patrick Fleenor Posted on 10.28.10 by Steve Trinward “As congressional Democrats brace for an electoral shellacking next week, one question still seems to puzzle pundits: ‘Why didn’t President Obama do more to help the economy?’ The short answer is that his goal has always been to redistribute the economic pie – not necessarily grow it. That’s a shame, because he could have pursued policies that achieve both. ‘[W]hat people really want is fairness’ Mr. Obama stated during the campaign. ‘They want people paying their fair share of taxes. They want that money allocated fairly.’ After his victory, despite the economic crisis, he eschewed the Clinton mantra of ‘it’s the economy, stupid!’ and set out to make America more equitable.” (10/28/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2gycn69 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: staff Posted on 10.28.10 by Steve Trinward “In holding their ‘Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear’ on the National Mall Saturday, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are seeking to dial down the temperature on the nation’s political rhetoric. … But however much fun the event may be, there will be an air of futility to the proceedings. Sure, we should be more civil. Yes, we should have more productive debates. No, it isn’t good that we seem unable to disagree politely. But the Stewart-Colbert rally isn’t going to change any of this, because we’re far past any notions of the ‘two Americas’ talking past each other. We’ve entered another era, one more Orwellian and less conducive to compromise.” (10/28/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2g3q62e Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Conservative Author: Michael Brendan Dougherty Posted on 10.28.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Understandably, anti-war libertarians and traditional conservatives watching the Senate races have focused on Kentucky’s Rand Paul. But there are good reasons to look at Oregon’s Jim Huffman as well. … He has given reasons for conservatives to feel slightly uneasy. He is a moderate on social issues: he is pro-choice and supports same-sex civil unions. On immigration he supports funding efforts to enforce current immigration law, but also a guest-worker program. And he is wary of the populist turn in the conservative movement. … Huffman’s stated foreign policy positions are about restraint.” (10/27/10) Link: http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2010/10/27/a-sensible-senator/ Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 10.27.10 by Steve Trinward “For months, voters have been signaling their discontent with the president, his party, and their priorities; in less than a week, they appear poised to deliver a stinging rebuke. Yet rather than address the voters’ concerns with seriousness and respect, too many Democrats and their allies on the left have chosen instead to slur those voters as stupid, extremist, or too scared to think straight. … The smug condescension in this — We’re losing because voters are panicky and confused — is matched only by its apparent cluelessness. Does Obama really believe that demeaning ordinary Americans is the way to improve his party’s fortunes?” (10/27/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2g3e2kc Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: John Stossel's Take Author: John Stossel Posted on 10.27.10 by Steve Trinward “The Institute for Justice released a fun video today revealing the trevails of ‘Chuck’ — a poor sucker who wants to start a small business. The video makes a compelling case for how hard it is to start a business in America today. My favorite part is when ‘Chuck’ goes thru the maze of trying to get a street vendor’s permit in the city of Miami. … This video should be required watching for every government official who is getting ready to pass more regulations. ESPECIALLY those who are getting ready to pass more regulations and say that they also want to ‘create jobs.’ When will they learn that the best way to ‘create jobs’ is to LEAVE US ALONE?” (10/27/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/23habdd Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Fox News Forum Author: Sally Kohn Posted on 10.26.10 by Steve Trinward “Some Tea Party activists are complaining that their grassroots movement has been co-opted by the corporate mainstream Republican Party. Progressives are complaining that their hope-and-change president has been co-opted by pro-corporate, Democratic centrism. Books could be written about the myriad ideological divides between the Tea Party and Progressives, but I’m struck at this moment by our similarities. Perhaps it’s time for these populist insurgencies to unite in the short-term to topple the political status quo that hampers each of our long-term agendas.” (10/26/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/36puw6v Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Intellectual Conservative Author: Selwyn Duke Posted on 10.26.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “It has become apparent that most Americans simply don’t take voting very seriously. This is especially true of those who encourage voting. They’ll tell us that walking into a polling place and pulling a lever is our civic duty, but this isn’t true. Our civic duty is to cultivate wisdom in ourselves and become conversant with the issues; the walking and pulling part is just a natural by-product of that. Yet so many try to pull others to the polls, claiming that mass participation in the electoral process somehow makes our country better. I guess this is in the way that having everyone take a turn in the cockpit of a 747 would make air travel better or having everyone try his hand at brain surgery would make brains better.” (10/26/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2bqqb6j Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The Weekly Standard Author: Jonathan V. Last Posted on 10.26.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The American people are in for it. When Republicans lose elections, they blame each other: Talk radio blames the RINOs; the squishes blame the pro-lifers; the social conservatives blame the Big Business types, and so on. Each faction maintains that their party will never find acceptance with voters until the rest of the movement looks just like them. When Democrats lose, on the other hand, they blame America.” (10/23/10) Link: http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/paradise-lost_511744.html Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Spectator Author: Ryan Young & Alex Nowrasteh Posted on 10.26.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Only 1 in 20 people on earth live in America. But Americans won 4 of 11 Nobel prizes this year. Last year, it was 8 of 9. Many of those American laureates are immigrants. Today, about 1 in 8 Americans are foreign-born, but 1 in 4 American Nobel laureates since 1901 are foreign-born. Immigrants, it seems, are chronic overachievers. America would benefit by letting more in.” (10/26/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/33du6b3 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: James Carroll Posted on 10.25.10 by Steve Trinward “‘The approach [to build] a multicultural [society] and to live side by side and to enjoy each other … has failed, utterly failed.’ This statement at a political rally last week by German Chancellor Angela Merkel was greeted by a standing ovation from her listeners. She was speaking of how Germany’s immigrant population, mainly Turks, remains socially marginal. Using ‘we’ to refer to the nation’s majority population, she continued, ‘We feel tied to Christian values. Those who don’t accept them don’t have a place here.’ Hello? The 5 million Muslims living in Germany were on notice, but Merkel’s remarks reverberated across the continent — and the ocean. On both sides of the Atlantic, a rising tide of xenophobic hostility toward immigrants is threatening to swamp the foundation of liberal democracy.” [editor’s note: I was right there until the last phrase; as usual, liberty is being confused with “demoncrazy” - SAT] (10/25/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2bfgezp Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Orange County Register Author: Robert J. Samuelson Posted on 10.25.10 by Steve Trinward “To its practitioners, politics is about power: getting it, keeping it and using it. But for the nation, the basic purpose of politics is to conciliate. If everyone agreed on everything, politics would be unnecessary. So would democracy and elections. A dictator could govern by universally accepted preferences and policies. Without consensus, politics is how we resolve our differences short of resorting to violence. One reason so many Americans are unhappy with politics today is that it has abdicated its central role. It doesn’t narrow our differences; it exaggerates them.” (10/25/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2bblqbj Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 10.24.10 by Steve Trinward “My 7-year-old son knows better than to believe in the Tooth Fairy, but he was happy to act as if he did in order to cash in when he lost three teeth this month. He played his part convincingly, even slipping a note under his pillow asking if he could keep one of the teeth and still get paid for it. … As I listen to the usual suspects braying for the defeat of Question 3, the Massachusetts ballot initiative to roll back the state sales tax from 6.25 percent to 3 percent, it occurs to me that they aren’t so different from Micah. They’re too bright to actually believe in the Tax Cut Monster — a mythical fiend who punishes any drop in tax rates by ravaging police and fire departments, throwing the sick and poor into the street, and reducing public infrastructure to rubble — but they act as if they do in order to keep cashing in on the backs of Massachusetts taxpayers.” (10/24/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2b8xx4x Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: John Hughes Posted on 10.24.10 by Steve Trinward “When Cuba conceded that its economy had gone down the tubes, it sent delegations to far-off China, Vietnam, and Russia to learn how they ran their changing economies. American politicians need not travel so far for some tips to ease their own struggling economy. A quick trip across the Atlantic to Britain these days would offer some intriguing hints. There, a conservative new prime minister is calling on Britons to drastically curb the national debt, slashing the government budget by 19 percent, with a massive transfer of power ‘from the state to citizens, politicians to people, government to society.’ … David Cameron … promises a total transformation from the old ways of doing things: from a ‘high-spending, all-controlling, heavy-handed state,’ to ‘national unity and purpose, from big government to the big society.’ He says volunteers can handle some programs currently carried out by government. He says local authorities should take over many of its functions.” (10/21/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/354pdv8 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: WorldNetDaily Author: Ilana Mercer Posted on 10.24.10 by Thomas L. Knapp Mercer interviews Professor Dennis O’Keeffe: “Mercer: Why is it that one rarely hears Burke mentioned in American public discourse, yet my countrymen know and love Thomas Paine, who sympathized with the Jacobins and spat venom at Burke for his devastating critique of the blood-drenched, illiberal, irreligious ‘Revolution in France?’ O’Keeffe: Even Thomas Jefferson seems not to have grasped at first how different the French and American Revolutions were. The confusion continues today. Paine belongs to the Che Guevara ascendancy, which admires nothing unless a good dose of murder is present.” (10/22/10) Link: http://wnd.ha-hosting.com/index.php/index.php?pageId=218361 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Joshua Green Posted on 10.21.10 by Steve Trinward “Along with healthcare and Wall Street reform, President Obama wanted an ambitious law to combat climate change, one which put a price on carbon emissions through a system known as cap and trade. Raising the cost of dirty fossil fuels was supposed to persuade polluters to develop cleaner alternatives. But … cap and trade died in the Senate for the fourth time in recent years, and probably the last. … A good place to start is this new initiative, dubbed ‘post-partisan power,’ that was jointly developed by the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, the left-leaning Brookings Institution, and the Breakthrough Institute, a nonpartisan California think tank.” (10/21/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/22wk8pw Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Spectator Author: Christopher Orlet Posted on 10.21.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “I have taken a number of steps to better health. I have cut back on red meat, I try to get a bit of exercise now and then, and I have switched to whole wheat pasta. But a middle-aged guy can only do so much. Asking him to cut out beer, as far as I’m concerned, is putting too much of a strain on the doctor-patient relationship.” (10/21/10) Link: http://spectator.org/archives/2010/10/21/doctors-orders Filed under: CANDi Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 10.20.10 by Steve Trinward “Barney Frank can be ruthless in debate, especially when laying into opponents who try to evade the historical record. But as he pursues a 16th term in the US House, Frank seems to be attempting a little evasion of his own. Frank faces a spirited challenge from Republican Sean Bielat, a 35-year-old businessman and Marine Corps reservist. Bielat has turned Frank’s longtime support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the ‘government sponsored entities’ that aggressively enabled the subprime mortgage lending at the heart of the financial meltdown, into the major issue of the race. During a debate last week, Bielat charged: ‘By pushing for home-ownership, even among those who couldn’t afford the homes, Barney Frank put this country on a perilous footing.’ Frank, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, has always been ardent in his defense of Fannie and Freddie.” [editor’s note: Unlike me, Mr. Jacoby has never seen anything positive in Barney Frank; he’s got him dead to rights on this issue, though! - SAT] (10/20/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2frcqgn Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Fox News Forum Author: Theodore Bromund Posted on 10.20.10 by Steve Trinward “Today, George Osborne, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer — the man responsible for Britain’s budget — announced the results of a high-profile spending review. He promised cuts, and he delivered. The question is whether the cuts will be deep enough, and Osborne’s other policies wise enough, to restore Britain to financial stability. After 13 years of Labour profligacy, the need for cuts is obvious. Today, the government spends over 47 percent of Britain’s national income. Think about it: in the U.S., that would be like the doubling the size of the federal government overnight. Except during the world wars, the British government has never binged so heavily.” (10/20/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/27qq7ot Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Andrew White Posted on 10.20.10 by Steve Trinward “American combat troops have officially left Iraq, but religious factions there continue to jostle for power in the still-unformed government seven months after the March election failed to elect new leaders. Amid sectarian violence and competing foreign influences, Sunni, Shiite, Sadrist and Kurdish political leaders are struggling to negotiate a coalition government. Only by engaging fully with Iraq’s rival religious leaders can an authentic coalition government — and the security that it can provide — be achieved. I know, because I’ve spent years forging relationships among religious factions here in Iraq, and I’ve seen the problem, and the possibilities for peace.” (10/20/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2fw89bc Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Anthony Watts Posted on 10.19.10 by Steve Trinward “Five centuries ago, a German priest challenged the reigning theological ‘consensus’ about the clerical sale of indulgences, unraveling one of the great religious scams in history and inspiring the Protestant Reformation. This month, a senior American physicist challenged the reigning scientific ‘consensus’ about global warming. His action may prove to be the unraveling one of the great scientific mistakes in history and the beginning of a greatly needed reformation of the scientific community. Just as Martin Luther paid the price for his dissent, Dr. Harold Lewis is experiencing a sharp backlash in the wake of his Oct. 6 resignation letter from the prestigious American Physical Society (APS).” (10/19/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/22nhbx2 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: The American Spectator Author: F. Vincent Vernuccio Posted on 10.19.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Workers at some of America’s fast food restaurants could be in for some interesting times soon. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) is attempting to unionize several Jimmy John’s sandwich stores in the Minneapolis area. The IWW’s campaign against [sic] Jimmy John’s could be the start of organizing efforts at several other restaurant chains. (Today, only 1.3 percent of workers in the food service industry are union members.) This should concern not only restaurateurs, but also consumers and young workers.” (10/19/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2aeep8g Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Washington Times Author: Ed Feulner Posted on 10.18.10 by Steve Trinward “We use a variety of yardsticks to judge whether our country is on the right track. Is inflation up? Has unemployment dropped? What’s the stock market doing today? Here’s another one: Are Americans, who have long prided themselves on their freedom and self-reliance, becoming more dependent on government, or less? It’s a yardstick we seldom check. But we should. Consider health care. Before the 1960s, Americans who didn’t get their insurance through work typically got it through civic organizations such as churches and social clubs. Now they’re more likely to get it through government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The result? Greater dependence on government.” (10/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2evd2p2 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Tennessean Author: Richard Grant Posted on 10.18.10 by Steve Trinward “When judging the results of successive U.S. governments, it is common to focus on the simple matter of who the president was. But this neglects the importance of Congress in all legislative matters. We cannot understand the actions or the results of an administration without examining both its intentions and the context in which it served. … It is common, for example, to note the increases in the federal budget deficit during the years of the Reagan administration. Shallow analysts look at this one statistic and dismiss ‘Reaganomics’ as a failure. They fail to note that the national debt had been trending upward at an increasing rate during the ’70s, but peaked out during President Ronald Reagan’s first term. That began a 20-year downtrend in the rate of growth of the national debt.” [editor’ s note: Meanwhile we can only guess how much of a reduction Reagan could have created, had he been willing to cut the “defense” budget as much as he did the domestic one - SAT] (10/17/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2bsogmz Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Charles Dorn Posted on 10.17.10 by Steve Trinward “The 67 million of us who voted for Obama two years ago did so for a variety of different reasons. Some cast their vote because he is a black man, some because of his eloquence, some because he opposed the Iraq War, some because of his policies benefitted the poor and middle classes, and some simply because he seemed the antithesis of George W. Bush. … The FDR that Time alluded to is the one that most of us know — the charming man who repaired the US economy, conquered the fascists, defended the rights of minorities, and had the support of just about everyone in the United States. The problem is, that FDR is the product of nostalgia. In reality (as is often the case with reality), things were a whole lot more complicated. In fact, FDR’s actual record raises criticisms very much akin to the posthype gripes about Obama.” (10/15/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2wss7bt Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: James Carroll Posted on 10.17.10 by Steve Trinward “Who was Joan of Arc? Why, of course, everybody knows she was Noah’s wife. Actually, the ignorance of Americans about religion is not funny. Last month, the Pew Research Center published the ‘US Religious Knowledge Survey,’ revealing low levels of understanding about core teachings of mainstream religions. Survey participants knew little even of their own traditions. … About half of people surveyed did not know that the Koran is the Islamic holy book, the Dalai Lama is Buddhist, or Joseph Smith was Mormon. But the Pew survey itself points to the deeper problem, perpetuating in one of its findings, for example, the false dichotomy in Catholic theology between the ‘merely’ symbolic and ‘actual’ presence of Jesus in the Eucharist — as if sacraments, while pointing to God’s real presence, are not still symbols.” (10/18/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2egcp6e Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Spectator Author: Philip Klein Posted on 10.17.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Those who accept the idea that entitlement reform is the third rail of American politics should have to grapple with the rise of Rep. Paul Ryan. In the past year, Ryan has drawn a lot of heat for his ambitious plan to confront our nation’s looming entitlement crisis. Democrats from President Obama on down have eviscerated his ‘Roadmap for America’s Future,’ arguing it would destroy Social Security and gut Medicare. Yet Ryan is expected to coast to victory, just as he has in every election since he first ran in favor of Social Security personal accounts twelve years ago. And his constituents aren’t reflexively Republican.” (10/15/10) Link: http://spectator.org/archives/2010/10/15/grabbing-the-third-rail Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: WorldNetDaily Author: Ilana Mercer Posted on 10.17.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “President Barack Obama took to the podium well before President Sebastian Pinera did. Chile’s president bided his time patiently with the group of rescue workers in hard hats, until all 33 miners had surfaced from deep within the San Jose copper-gold mine, in northern Chile, where they had been entombed for 69 days. If not for the translator’s running commentary, I would not have guessed that the man with a beaming smile — so different from Obama’s gleam of dentition and Bush’s demented grin — last in-line to meet and greet the miners who ascended from hell, was none other than Chile’s president.” (10/15/10 Link: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=215533 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: The American Spectator Author: Aaron Eitan Meyer Posted on 10.14.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Lawfare, the abuse of the law and legal system to achieve strategic political and military goals, has taken many forms in the decade since Major General Charles Dunlap first defined the term as ‘the use of law as a weapon of war.’ On May 19, 2009, my colleague Brooke Goldstein and I warned ‘the next phase of Islamist lawfare may well center directly upon the internet itself.’ Our concern lay in the expiration of a contract between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the U.S. Commerce Department, which had been in place since November 25, 1998.” (10/14/10) Link: http://spectator.org/archives/2010/10/14/internet-freedom-under-siege Filed under: CANDi Commentary | |
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Source: National Review Author: Pat Sajak Posted on 10.14.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “None of my family and friends is allowed to appear on Wheel of Fortune. Same goes for my kids’ teachers or the guys who rotate my tires. If there’s not a real conflict of interest, there is, at least, the appearance of one. On another level, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan has recused herself from nearly half the cases this session due to her time as solicitor general. In nearly all private and public endeavors, there are occasions in which it’s only fair and correct that a person or group be barred from participating because that party could directly and unevenly benefit from decisions made and policies adopted. So should state workers be able to vote in state elections on matters that would benefit them directly? The same question goes for federal workers in federal elections.” (10/13/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/36dqw9g Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Orange County Register Author: Walter E. Williams Posted on 10.14.10 by Steve Trinward “Laws, policies and regulations based on over-caution and political correctness can kill. We need to make invisible victims, visible. … The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is charged with ensuring that drugs are safe and effective. Drugs must meet FDA approval before they can be marketed. FDA officials can make two kinds of errors. They can approve a drug that has unanticipated, dangerous side effects that might cause illness and death. … FDA officials have a bias toward erring on the side of over-caution. If FDA officials err on the side of under-caution, approving an unsafe drug, they are attacked by the media, patient groups and investigated by Congress. Their victims, sick and dead people, are highly visible. If FDA officials err on the side of over caution, keeping a safe and effective drug off the market, who’s to know? The victims are invisible.” (10/14/10) Link: http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/drug-271025-fda-year.html Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Fox News Forum Author: Sally Kohn Posted on 10.14.10 by Steve Trinward “History books will celebrate Barack Obama as one of the greatest American presidents of all time. If we’re smart, we’ll start celebrating him more now. President Obama created at least 800,000 jobs and as many as 2.4 million new jobs through emergency economic stimulus, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Perhaps more importantly, faced with an economic crisis of extraordinary proportions — brought on by failed policies under Republican leadership — President Obama put the breaks on recession and started the slow climb to recovery. According to a survey of 50 independent economists conducted by USA Today, without the actions taken by President Obama, the unemployment rate would be even higher than it is now and a dire situation would be much, much worse.” [editor’s note: Satire? Finding this on Fox News, I had to read the whole thing to decide whether it was a spoof, or their site got hacked; read and judge for yourselves - SAT] (10/13/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/27dgmnm Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: In These Times Author: Ralph Nader Posted on 10.14.10 by Steve Trinward “This time the big banks and mortgage servicing companies, with their long, one-sided fine print contracts, may have outsmarted themselves. The newspaper headlines and the network television news are blazing news of the erupting fraudulent foreclosure process. This long-overdue coverage is generating public visibility and suddenly hundreds of thousands of foreclosures may be questioned due to what one commentator delicately called ‘flawed paperwork.’ That is a euphemism for fraudulently executed contracts violative of state laws regarding home title changes.” [editor’s note: Yes, and as long as Mr. Nader is focusing on the fraud and deception involved, he is well within libertarian boundaries - SAT] (10/14/10) Link: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/6552/seeking_fair_contracts/ Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: John Stossel's Take Author: John Stossel Posted on 10.13.10 by Steve Trinward “The 2010 Index of Economic Freedom lowers the ranking of the United States to eighth out of 179 nations — behind Canada! A year ago, it ranked sixth, ahead of Canada. Don’t say it’s Barack Obama’s fault. Half the data used in the index is from George W. Bush’s final six months in office. This is a bipartisan problem. … The index demonstrates what we libertarians have long said: Economic freedom leads to prosperity. Also, the best places to live and fastest-growing economies are among the freest, and vice versa. A society will be materially well off to the extent its people have the liberty to acquire property, start businesses, and trade in a secure legal and political environment.” (10/13/10) Link: http://www.creators.com/opinion/john-stossel/freer-is-better.html Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 10.13.10 by Steve Trinward “‘We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,’ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last spring about her party’s 2,000-page healthcare overhaul. What she didn’t realize was that the more Americans find out about ObamaCare, the more they turn against it. Virtually from the day it was signed, a majority of Americans have favored repealing the massive law. According to two polls released this past week — one a national survey by Rasmussen, the other a poll of key congressional districts for The Hill — they still do. … As health insurers are forced to raise premiums in order to cover the cost of the new benefits required under ObamaCare, Americans are finding out just how ‘affordable’ the Affordable Care Act really is.” (10/13/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2e6opv3 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Fang Li-Zhi Posted on 10.13.10 by Steve Trinward “I heartily applaud the Nobel Committee for awarding its Peace Prize to the imprisoned Liu Xiaobo for his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China. In doing so, the committee has challenged the West to re-examine a dangerous notion that has become prevalent since the 1989 Tiananmen massacre: that economic development will inevitably lead to democracy in China. … More than 20 years have passed since Tiananmen. China has officially become the world’s second-largest economy. Yet the hardly radical Liu Xiaobo and thousands of others rot in jail for merely demanding basic rights enshrined by the UN and taken for granted by all Western investors in their own countries.” (10/13/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/246qlvf Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Conservative Author: Gerald J. Russello Posted on 10.13.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Distributism is often misconstrued as a ‘third way’ between capitalism and socialism, taking the best of both but modulating their excesses. This is incorrect. As Medaille shows, distributism is not so much — indeed not at all — a ‘third way’ between different approaches but a different road entirely. This is in part because capitalism and socialism are not themselves separate ways. Marx and Hayek both contended, for example, that should their views be adopted, the state would wither away. Instead, under either communist regimes or capitalist economics, the growth of the state has increased, and with it has come increased reliance on centralized power and a crushing debt burden.” (10/13/10) Link: http://www.amconmag.com/blog/distributism-more-than-a-middle-way/ Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Fox News Forum Author: Gerald Molen Posted on 10.12.10 by Steve Trinward “It’s utterly amazing that our nation’s leadership is able to send our troops around the world and overnight have sleeping quarters (known in military parlance as ‘billets’) constructed to house them. It is equally amazing that the required arms (bullets) can be shipped with equally profound efficiency and timely deliverance to any spot determined by that same leadership, anywhere in the world. And yet, the same leadership fails to deliver election ballots to the very people who defend the right to vote for every other American. Is that a failure in leadership? … As a former United States Marine, I find it utterly unconscionable that our troops are denied the same rights as those citizens who refuse to even bend over and pick up a piece of trash they have so selfishly discarded on the street.” (10/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2bglcfs Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: James Carroll Posted on 10.12.10 by Steve Trinward “It is commonly observed that 1492, in addition to being the year of Christopher Columbus, was also the year of the Jews — their expulsion from Spain by the same Ferdinand and Isabella who sponsored the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. … This notion of a group’s innate biological inferiority tragically gripped the European imagination just as the encounter with the New World occurred. It was a decisive factor in the creation of modern racism that determined so much of what came in the wake of Christopher Columbus. … The racist myth of European superiority still shapes the story of the colonial conquest — starting with how the Caribs, Mayans and Aztecs are remembered as never having had a chance against Spanish steel and gun powder. But it wasn’t technological genius that led to the dominance of the newcomers, nor was it their courageous soldiering, intellectual heritage, or moral superiority — much less the favor of God.” (10/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2ukeawt Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: NewsRealBlog Author: Lisa Richards Posted on 10.12.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Radical libertarians are equivalent to leftist Saul Alinskyites. Both despise government and the Constitution, seeking to destroy America. Alinksy wanted a community government; radical libertarians want Rothbardian uprisings to destroy government and wealth altogether for communal equalty. To accomplish this, radical libertarians demand anarchy.” (10/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/34nt8eo Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: The American Spectator Author: Philip Klein Posted on 10.12.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The Constitution has never been amended through a convention of the states, and this route remains controversial, with many conservatives fearing that the meeting would turn into a circus in the modern media age, and open the door to a wholesale rewriting of the nation’s founding document. Yet a new body of research suggests that these fears are unwarranted, and that there are enough checks built into the system to prevent what scholars refer to as a ‘runaway convention.’” (10/12/10) Link: http://spectator.org/archives/2010/10/12/is-it-time-for-a-convention Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Conservative Author: Philip Giraldi Posted on 10.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Normally the White House’s replacement of the National Security Advisor relates more to tone than substance, but the leadership shift from Marine General James Jones to Tom Donilon could have serious consequences. … Donilon, who has no actual experience in national security or foreign policy formulation apart from working on several staffs, is a lawyer by training and a Washington lobbyist.” (10/11/10) Link: http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2010/10/11/the-return-of-sandy-berger/ Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 10.10.10 by Steve Trinward “What do you call a Supreme Court that within the last few terms has ruled that carbon dioxide can be regulated as ‘air pollution’ by the Environmental Protection Agency? That gave captured terrorists and enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay the right to petition for release in federal court? That has relied on foreign law when defining provisions of the Constitution? How would you characterize a Supreme Court that said local governments can seize people’s property by eminent domain and turn it over to private developers in order to generate more taxes? That declared it unconstitutional to impose the death penalty for murders committed by killers younger than 18? And that barred the death penalty as well for the rape of young children … ?’” [editor’ s note: As usual, the real issue is NOT liberalish-socialist vs. conservatoid-fascist; the real issues (aren’t they always?) are constitutional restraints & protection of liberty. And on those lines, this court is among the most odious & meddlesome in history! - SAT] (10/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2899hhb Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Orange County Register Author: Peggy Noonan Posted on 10.10.10 by Steve Trinward “If you write a column, you get a lot of e-mail. Sometimes, especially in a political season, it’s possible to discern from it certain emerging themes — the comeback of old convictions, for instance, or the rise of new concerns. Let me tell you something I’m hearing, in different ways and different words. The coming rebellion in the voting booth is not only about the economic impact of spending, debt and deficits on America’s future. It’s also to some degree about the feared impact of all those things on the character of the American people. There is a real fear that government, with all its layers, its growth, its size, its imperviousness, is changing, or has changed, who we are. And that if we lose who we are, as Americans, we lose everything.” (10/09/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/29e8ugq Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Conservative Author: Patrick J. Buchanan Posted on 10.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “‘The lessons of history … show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.’ These searing words about Depression-era welfare are from Franklin Roosevelt’s 1935 State of the Union Address. FDR feared this self-reliant people might come to depend permanently upon government for the necessities of their daily lives. Like narcotics, such a dependency would destroy the fiber and spirit of the nation. What brings his words to mind is news that 41.8 million Americans are on food stamps, and the White House estimates 43 million will soon be getting food stamps every month. A seventh of the nation cannot even feed itself.” (10/07/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2epxylz Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Lawrence Korb & Laura Conley Posted on 10.07.10 by Steve Trinward “Speaking last week at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with journalists, Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, remarked that he hoped to avoid ‘massive cuts’ in defense, which ‘would be dangerous now, given the national security requirements that we have.’ Yet cutting the baseline defense budget, which is now even higher than it was at the height of the Reagan buildup, may ironically be one of the best tools we have to meet our national security needs.Adm. Mullen’s remark fails to acknowledge a central truth about national security: No country can buy perfect security no matter how much it spends, and any attempt to do so will eventually reach the point of severely diminishing returns.” (10/07/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/28g262d Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 10.06.10 by Steve Trinward “The policies of the Chinese government make it possible for Americans to acquire a vast array of products at affordable prices. For that high crime and misdemeanor, the US House of Representatives voted last week to punish China. The vote on HR 2378, which would authorize punitive tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States — which include everything from clothing, furniture, and toys to refrigerators, computers, and sporting goods — was a lopsided 348 to 79. It was accompanied by equally unbalanced congressional rhetoric. ‘They cheat to steal our jobs,’ fumed Mike Rogers of Michigan, while California’s Dana Rohrabacher denounced the Chinese as a ‘clique of gangsters.’ … But what exactly is so awful about selling good stuff cheap to tens of millions of US consumers?” [editor’s note: Sad to see a once proud, early-day libertarian (Rohrabacher], BION!) turned so totally into a statist over time in Congress - SAT] (10/06/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/36pn4mu Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: John Hughes Posted on 10.06.10 by Steve Trinward “It follows the eclipse of similarly stultified economies in three other lands of lingering communist persuasion — China, Vietnam, and North Korea. All have either moved, or appear to be moving, to free, market-based economies while retaining a communist structure to continue harsh political control. Cuba may be no exception. It recently announced plans to dump hundreds of thousands of government workers into a suddenly authorized private sector. That doesn’t mean democracy is right around the corner. Though the brothers Castro, Fidel and Raul, may soon be passe, some Cuba-watchers expect their successor may be a tough, but as yet unidentified, general from the powerful military who will use the Communist Party structure to maintain authoritarian rule.” [editor’s note: Now, if he would only drop the bogus “capitalism” label, and call it a “free market” system … - SAT] (10/06/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2f4geyt Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: National Review Author: Jonah Goldberg Posted on 10.06.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Some civil libertarians seem to think we can never, ever kill an American citizen without a trial by jury (and perhaps not even then). That argument would have been silly during the days of conventional warfare. Now it’s plain crazy. And the Obama administration is right. This is no job for courts. Wars and how we fight them are political decisions, properly left to Congress and the president. So, let’s have Congress and the president come up with some clear, public rules.” [editor’s note: Of course, Goldberg leaves out that the “political decision” to go to war has not been made by the only entity, Congress, empowered to make it - TLK] (10/06/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/39vbdex Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Jack Carlson Posted on 10.05.10 by Steve Trinward “Two years ago, Democrats were clamoring to ride in on Barack Obama’s coattails. Proximity to the Obama persona was a prized political asset. Today, amid dim presidential polling numbers, anxious Democrats are keeping their distance. … To understand Obama’s fall, we must understand his rise; and to do that, we must look to ancient history. It was neither for his resume nor his policies that America fell in love with him. In fact, Obama’s policy priorities have turned out to be quite unpopular. It was instead by following the lead of Rome’s greatest emperors that Obama won (temporarily) America’s awe and devotion. This sort of ruler cult begins to crumble, of course, when the ruler is required to make decisions and take positions under unprecedented media scrutiny.” [editor’s note: This might be one of the most important analyses yet done on the nekkid emperor - SAT] (10/05/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2cfboqn Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: HDS Greenway Posted on 10.05.10 by Steve Trinward “‘Everyone’s quick to blame the alien,’ said Aeschylus a couple of millennia ago, and you might lose your citizenship rights in Ancient Greece if you called an Athenean official a Scythian. Nativism and xenophobia had their uses in early societies when it was necessary for survival to keep the cohesion of clan, tribe, or city state. … But a couple of millennia on, if there is anything to the concept of American exceptionalism, it is that, more than any country, ‘America is bound to become the first new global society made up of all world religions and civilizations,’ as Professor Jose Casanova put it. Out of many, one. That is why Americans should be alarmed at the rising anti-Islamic tide that threatens so much of what this country stands for.” (10/05/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/24f5dbv Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Spectator Author: Doug Bandow Posted on 10.05.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The USPS is in crisis. It is locked in a declining market. It can only survive with indirect taxpayer subsidies and a ban on private competition. Instead of forcing Americans to pay more for less service, Congress should open mail delivery to all comers.” (10/05/10) Link: http://spectator.org/archives/2010/10/05/postal-bankruptcy Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: San Francisco Chronicle Author: Deepak Chopra Posted on 10.04.10 by Steve Trinward “All of the ways that we deal with darkness will fall short unless there is a solution that lies beyond the divided self. As long as one part of you wants to get better while another part of you holds on to negativity, you will be conflicted. The world’s wisdom traditions all teach that there is a way out of the divided self; therefore, by following this way, one should find healing from everyday problems like depression and anxiety. Calling them everyday is not to diminish the suffering that is caused. I could have called them age-old problems or the burden of being human. But the solution to negativity is also age-old and part of being human. In practical terms there are three parts to the spiritual solution.” (10/04/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/3x8nax5 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Orange County Register Author: Steve Chapman Posted on 10.04.10 by Steve Trinward “No one spends money like the federal government. This year, it will shovel out $3.7 trillion, which works out to $7 million a minute. So it may surprise you to find out the clearest lesson from the Obama administration’s fiscal stimulus program: The government is not very good at spending money. On the contrary, it’s slow and clumsy. Nearly a third of the $787 billion package, signed into law in February 2009, was assigned to infrastructure projects — from fixing roads and building bridges to weatherizing buildings and upgrading electrical grids. The idea was to simultaneously improve our physical facilities while putting people back to work, which, in turn, would provide a badly needed surge of adrenaline to the overall economy. But it hasn’t quite worked out that way.” (10/03/10) Link: http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/money-269092-federal-spending.html Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: National Review Author: Mario Loyola Posted on 10.04.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “For the surreal North Korean regime, these days must seem like the Twilight of the Gods. The state’s unification strategy, its raison d’etre since the ‘military first’ doctrine emerged in the early 1960s, has visibly and utterly failed. The people have been starving for decades. The government is almost friendless. The state religion — a grotesque amalgam of Stalinism, Confucian collectivism, and god-worship of the Kim dynasty — is melting into a tide from all sides. They have nuclear weapons, which must feel a bit like wielding a Gotterhammer, but it has gotten them precious little of what they hoped for. Perhaps most important, Red China’s emergence as a major capitalist power presages nothing good for this aging and decrepit relic of Stalinism. In an inversion of the Wagnerian tragedy, the dwarf has been undone by the mighty.” (10/04/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/38rukst Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Spectator Author: L. Brent Bozell III and Dan Gainor Posted on 10.04.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “A free press is a foundation of a free society. For any university president to argue against it would seem unusual. When it’s also the head of the Columbia School of Journalism, then people on both left and the right have reason to scratch their heads in bewilderment. Bollinger has called for federal funding of the media in a piece with the terrifying headline: ‘Journalism Needs Government Help.’ He advocates for the creation of an ‘American World Service that can compete with the BBC and other global broadcasters.’ And he wants government to pay for it. This is not just a bad idea, it’s a dangerous one.” (10/04/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/27uz5qp Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Elaine L. Chao Posted on 10.03.10 by Steve Trinward “In 1967, Dustin Hoffman’s character in The Graduate received a single word of advice for his future: ‘Plastics!’ If Hollywood were to remake that movie today, the updated scene would offer two words of counsel: ‘Government job!’ After all, a number of recent studies conclude that federal workers earn 20 to 30 percent more per hour than their private sector counterparts. And where local, state, and federal government workers really come out ahead isn’t just in pay; it’s in the benefits. Most private sector workers can only dream of getting the generous lifetime pension and health benefits typical of government service. These dream benefits are fast becoming a nightmare for taxpayers.” (10/01/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/24epqh9 Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: James Carroll Posted on 10.03.10 by Steve Trinward “This is the season of the United Nations. Over recent weeks, a succession of world leaders has addressed the UN General Assembly, an annual freewheeling from bluster to gravitas. That representatives of member states (currently 192) successively rise to the podium embodies the global body’s purpose. Sixty-five years ago this month, the organization came into existence as a desperate attempt to replace war with words. Since then, words have never been in short supply. Neither, alas, have wars.” (10/04/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/24mylwv Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: John Stossel's Take Author: John Stossel Posted on 09.30.10 by Steve Trinward “I really wanted to like Linda McMahon. I wanted to like the Connecticut Senate Candidate even though I once sued her (I guess I actually sued the sleazy business she and her husband run) because one of her wrestlers beat me up. The wrestler claimed his boss Vince McMahon had told him to ‘teach Stossel a lesson’ for doing a 20/20 story on how pro wrestling is faked. I learned my lesson: Don’t confront 280lb lunatics who work for the McMahons. Anyway, I wanted to like Linda McMahon because she talks about fiscal responsibility and deregulation, and she’s running against a truly despicable lawyer parasite. I liked her today when I read this headline: McMahon: Congress should consider lowering minimum wage … But then, the media jumped on that, and … McMahon praised the minimum wage. … What a wimp. If so-called Tea Party Republicans won’t advocate sensible economics, who will?” (09/30/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/29jw93n Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Christine Morabito Posted on 09.30.10 by Steve Trinward “I attended my first Tea Party rally on Boston Common in 2009. The event blew me away; as a conservative in Massachusetts, I’ve never been surrounded by so many who share my concern about a government that’s out of touch and out of control. And in November, voters like us may very well succeed in rolling back the state sales tax from 6.25 percent to 3 percent. Opponents, predictably, are ringing the apocalyptic bells, warning about cuts to police, fire, and education in order to coerce people into voting no. … we witness these same shenanigans every time we ask government to cut anything. We may as well ask them to donate a kidney. If Question 3 passes, long-suffering taxpayers will be afforded the opportunity to force state government to do what it has been unwilling to do: act responsibly with our money.” (10/01/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2857hrv Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Courtney E. Martin Posted on 09.30.10 by Steve Trinward “Last month, several state witnesses took the stand in a Haifa District Court to testify in the civil law suit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the state of Israel. Many may still recall the disturbing photographs that wallpapered the world’s media outlets of Ms. Corrie, a 23-year-old activist from Walla, Walla, Washington, being crushed under a military bulldozer while trying to defend a Palestinian home in Rafah, Gaza under threat of demolition. You may not immediately relate to Corrie’s story, but you should. We live in a world where we are all implicated in war, where we are all vulnerable to the violence that emerges out of poverty, segregation, and oppression. We are all Rachel Corrie standing in front of a bulldozer, and yet we are also all the Israeli soldier who was driving it, just trying to do his job.” (09/30/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/273kv5t Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Conservative Author: Patrick J. Buchanan Posted on 09.30.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The neocons are nervous the Tea Party may not sign up to soldier on for the empire. Writing in The Washington Post, Danielle Pletka and Thomas Donnelly of AEI have sniffed out the unmistakable scent of ‘isolationism’ among Tea Party favorites. They are warning that the old right and Tea Party might unite in a ‘combination of Ebenezer Scrooge and George McGovern, withdrawing from the world to a countinghouse America.’ Sorry, but the old neocon name-calling won’t cut it this time. After Iraq and Afghanistan, the American people are not going to give the establishment and War Party a free hand in foreign policy.” (09/30/10) Link: http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2010/09/30/tea-party-vs-war-party/ Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Spectator Author: Dan Peterson Posted on 09.30.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The 14th Amendment was passed in the aftermath of the Civil War primarily to ensure that state and local governments in the South could not deprive blacks of their constitutional and civil rights, including the right to own and use firearms for protection against unlawful violence. The Supreme Court has at long last given teeth to that right. It is surely an irony that Mayor Daley and the city council are now engaged in ‘massive resistance’ to the Court’s decision protecting the civil rights of Chicago’s residents.” (09/30/10) Link: http://spectator.org/archives/2010/09/30/a-splendid-precarious-victory Filed under: 2AM Commentary and CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: John Stossel's Take Author: John Stossel Posted on 09.29.10 by Steve Trinward “Nine months almost to the day after the Highway Loss Data Institute released a study that found laws against hand-held cell-phones didn’t reduce accidents, the Institute has published a new report on ‘texting while driving bans.’ Again, the data shows that laws against texting while driving don’t reduce the number of collisions. In fact, the laws may even lead to more accidents. Why? … Just because something is wrong or dangerous doesn’t mean that banning it will solve the problem. Texting is just one of many activities that distract drivers.” (09/29/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/23b6prn Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Jeff Jacoby Posted on 09.29.10 by Steve Trinward “An essential function of our criminal-justice system is to prevent self-appointed vigilantes from taking revenge on those who commit savage crimes. A civilized society understands the hatred and revulsion and thirst for vengeance such crimes can inspire. But it insists that punishment be meted out only by the state, not by outraged private parties — and only after due process of law, complete with a fair trial, an impartial judge, the right of appeal, and elaborate protections for the accused. And punishments that fit the crime.” (09/29/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/25xqbto Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: San Francisco Chronicle Author: Debra J. Saunders Posted on 09.29.10 by Steve Trinward “The House Republicans’ ‘Pledge to America’ calls for an extension of the Bush tax cuts for all; a rollback of government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels; ’strict budget caps;’ an end to the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the rest of the Obama stimulus package. What’s not to like? Having been asked what they would do differently if they ran the House, the Republicans came up with an answer. Meanwhile, the Democrats run the House, but they are not acting as if they are in charge. They haven’t passed a budget. They’re putting off a vote to extend all or some of the Bush tax cuts until after the Nov. 2 election. They’re acting like lame ducks before they become lame ducks. They can’t seem to get much of anything done, except deflect attention from their fecklessness to gaps in the GOP pledge.” [editor’s note: Now if the GOP Pledge were more than words for once … there might indeed be some cause for cheers - SAT] (09/28/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/22p4kok Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: National Review Author: Rich Lowry Posted on 09.29.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Whatever else you think of Democrats, they are lousy amateur sociologists and political scientists. Whenever the public rejects them, it’s a ‘temper tantrum,’ in late ABC News anchor Peter Jennings’s term for the 1994 electoral rout. Liberal Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson has teed up that tried-and-true explanation for this fall: ‘The American people are acting like a bunch of spoiled brats.’ Obama has his own theory of voter irrationality.” (09/28/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2dsl5sw Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Spectator Author: Neal B. Freeman Posted on 09.29.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Some of my colleagues describe Maine’s attitude as anti-business. I don’t see it that way. In my own experience, Maine seems to be agnostic on the question. The established wisdom — be it from the dominant unions or the academy or the loudest voices in the political conversation — seems to be that business exists for one reason only: to pay taxes. And that, derivatively, business hires employees so that they can pay taxes, too. If the fissiparous character of business creation is left unexamined — if no thought is given to its macroeconomic value or its social utility — then business can make only the weakest of claims on public support.” (09/29/10) Link: http://spectator.org/archives/2010/09/29/let-slip-the-dogs-of-tax-war Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Joanna Weiss Posted on 09.28.10 by Steve Trinward “Maybe it won’t matter to voters in Delaware, but maybe it will: Christine O’Donnell, first famous for being the surprise Tea Party victor in the Republican Senate primary, is now a lot more famous for dabbling in witchcraft and fighting the scourge of masturbation. So she says in the decade-old videos from ABC and MTV that circulated on the Internet last week, and turned up as the season-opening sketch on Saturday Night Live. O’Donnell claims she made those statements in the blush of youth, though her definition of ‘youth’ is generous, at best; she was roughly 27 when she railed against self-love on MTV’s ‘Sex in the 90s.’ But let’s take her at her word: assume that now, at 41, she’s different and mature and deeply serious about finding market-based solutions to the energy crisis. What, then, to make of the video record that has dogged her, a decade later? Should there be a statute of limitations on the public artifacts that establish who you are?” (09/28/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2eyoklf Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: National Review Author: Andrew Stuttaford Posted on 09.27.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “After the destruction that the drug warriors have caused in this country and others (not to speak of their disastrous contribution to the war in Afghanistan), a little more humility on their part would go a long, long way. We’ve yet to see it. No matter. I had a look at the report cited by [Bill] Bennett and, having done so, I can only congratulate him on the deft way he has borrowed the classic liberal technique of persuasion by crisis. I guess big government types are pretty much the same on either side of the aisle.” (09/26/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/28c6pvd Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Fox News Forum Author: James P. Pinkerton Posted on 09.26.10 by Steve Trinward “No doubt the intemperate, even nutty, comments made by Oliver Stone, director of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, which opens today, have drastically shrunk the potential audience of his film. In a way that’s a shame, because for all of Stone’s faults, and for all the movie’s faults, there’s an important message — about how our free enterprise system has been perverted into a bailout system for the well-connected — that deserves to be heard. The new film, of course, is a sequel to 1987’s Wall Street, which introduced Michael Douglas as Gordon ‘greed is good’ Gekko.” (09/24/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/34zeola Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: The American Spectator Author: Andrew G. Biggs & Jason Richwine Posted on 09.26.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “What recession? Government workers are probably wondering what all the fuss is about. The private sector has lost 2.5 million jobs since the Obama administration’s stimulus bill was passed, while the public sector — federal, state, and local government combined — has added 416,000 jobs over the same period. Although 85 percent of Americans work for private employers, the administration’s own Recovery Act database admits that four out of five jobs ‘created or saved’ were in government. Likewise, average pay has risen in the federal, state, and local government, while private sector wages have fallen. More jobs, better security, and rising wages — it’s boom time in the public sector.” (09/24/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/2gy23zk Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Joshua Green Posted on 09.23.10 by Steve Trinward “On Monday, in a town hall meeting intended to reassure beleaguered voters, the opening questioner, Velma Hart, told the president, ‘I voted for a man who was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class and I’m waiting sir, I’m waiting. I still don’t feel it yet.’ Hart voiced the frustrations of the countless middle-class Americans who, polls indicate, will abandon the Democrats in November. White House officials are frustrated, too, believing that they have achieved much of what the president promised: bring health care to millions, reform Wall Street, and withdraw combat troops from Iraq. So why do voters act as if the administration has failed?” (09/23/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/23hdu3q Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: In These Times Author: Margaret Smith Posted on 09.23.10 by Steve Trinward “On November 2, ballots in Oakland and Berkeley, Calif., and North Carolina will offer voters something new: an instant runoff voting (IRV) system that is gaining steam as dissatisfaction with the electoral status quo persists. Advocates say IRV can improve voter turnout, support multi-party politics, and save both candidates and taxpayers money. But the movement to replace the traditional system has been slow to gain traction in the United States, despite its relative popularity abroad.” (09/23/10) Link: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/6434/instant_election_reform Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Walter Rodgers Posted on 09.23.10 by Steve Trinward “Let me get this right. We are in a painfully stubborn recession that began in the last years of George W. Bush’s presidency. And, if polls are right, President Obama, in office less than 21 months, is soon to be punished by voters who want to saddle him with a new, vindictive Republican Congress in November, committed to obstructing and blocking every White House initiative. Huzzah! Let’s elect a GOP House and Senate, abolish federal taxes, and bankrupt the American Republic. After the 1929 stock market crash, it took 11 or 12 years to pull the country out of the Great Depression. Poor Mr. Obama! He’s been given less than two years to perform some economic alchemy. Time’s up, Obama! Americans demand instant gratification after their binges.” [editor’s note: While this factor may have contributed to the mess, it was indeed government policy (and failure to enforce existing laws & oversight) that created most of it! - SAT] (09/23/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/34khzkc Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary | |
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