Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
I guess it was inevitable sooner or later, but now we're here: last Tuesday, Chattanooga's City Council approved an ordinance to extend employment benefits for the city to domestic partners and not just those joined by civil marriage. As is the case with many unicameral legislatures, it takes two readings to make this official, and …
Continue reading "It's Crunch Time in Chattanooga for Same Sex Benefits"
This piece is, in some sense, obligatory. Just about everyone alive and out of the crib then remembers where he or she was when they learned that Jack Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas on 22 November 1963. Although there have been recent potshots at the Boomers’ obsession with the subject, it’s not a bad …
Continue reading "Camelot Not Quite: My Reflections on JFK, Fifty Years After"
National Journal's Ron Fournier is sorry: I'm sorry you campaigned for reelection on the famous false promise: "If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan. Period." I'm sorry your aides debated whether to tell the full truth (that people could keep their insurance only if it hadn't …
Continue reading "Thinking and Living Bureaucratically in America"
It's finally boiled over to the point where our sycophantic media can't ignore it: The breach became dramatic over the past week. Last Friday, Saudi Arabia refused to take its seat on the United Nations Security Council, in what Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi intelligence chief, described as “a message for the U.S., not …
Continue reading "The Saudi "Tipping Point" With the U.S. Is Iran"
And HHS Secretary Sibelius is on the hot seat: Embattled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will testify before Congress next week about the botched rollout of ObamaCare’s insurance exchanges after rejecting GOP demands to appear this week. The House Energy and Commerce Committee confirmed Monday night that Sebelius would meet with the committee …
Continue reading "Obamacare's Ecommerce Chickens Come Home to Roost"
Even an old Democrat pro like Leon Panetta is getting discouraged with the current Occupant: Then, to Obama. "This president -- he's extremely bright, he's extremely able, he's somebody who I think certainly understands the issues, asks the right questions and I think has the right instincts about what needs to be done for the …
Continue reading "If You Want to be Caesar, You've Got to Cross the Rubicon"
An interesting strategy: Many House Republicans, including some key leaders, have decided they can live with a government shutdown but not with the threat of default. In the hours ahead, look for the GOP to seek a deal with President Obama and Democrats on at least a short-term increase in the debt limit, while standing …
Our public education system is at it again: It started as a simple look at bullying. University of Texas at Arlington criminologist Seokjin Jeong analyzed data collected from 7,000 students from all 50 states. He thought the results would be predictable and would show that anti-bullying programs curb bullying. Instead — he found the opposite. …
Continue reading "Making More Proficient Bullies, One Anti-Bullying Campaign at a Time"
For stuff like this: Instead of facing an exorbitant premium increase once their combined earnings hits $62,041 if they were to stay married, each cohabiting adult can earn up to $45,960 before Obamacare’s “tax credit”-free premiums kick in. Their annual after-tax savings at age 60 if they shack up and keep their individual earnings between …
Continue reading "Someday They'll Scream for the Abolition of Civil Marriage"
I never thought I'd live long enough to see this, in Salon no less: The last president who had a plan for protecting American workers from the vicissitudes of the global economy was Richard Nixon, who was in office when foreign steel and foreign cars began seriously competing with domestic products. The most farsighted politician …
Continue reading "Praising Richard Nixon, a Act of Liberal Desperation"
