Romney on the beach
You’ve got to scratch your head over a private-equity zillionaire running for president at a time of great middle-class angst deciding that NOW is a good time to build a $12 million beachfront Xanadu in La Jolla.
Tags: 2012, politics, Republicans, Romney
Whatever the Supremes say, Obama will do fine
I do want the Supreme Court justices to to give ObamaCare a positive nod, but whether they do or don’t, Obama remains in good shape.
WHETHER OBAMACARE WINS OR LOSES, OBAMA WINS
Tags: culture, health care, liberals, Obama, politics
Fewer people could make Japan a nicer place
If Japan’s population falls by about a third to 87 million in 2060, as demographers predict, the crowded country will still have a population density 87 times that of today’s Montana, a state its size. If done through lower birthrates, I see no tragedy in fewer people.
SKY NOT FALLING WITH JAPANESE BIRTHRATES
Tags: Japan, population
Low fruit in cutting health-care spending
As the Supreme Court discusses whether the federal government can force Americans to obtain health coverage (I say “yes), let’s look at examples of obvious waste in spending.
HEALTH CARE THAT HURTS PATIENTS
Tags: health care, Medicare, private insurers
The price of gas and the cars we love
The automotive love of my life was a ‘79 Pontiac Grand Prix. If only his great personality could be matched with good mileage. I explain:
RISING GAS PRICES DON’T HURT LIKE THEY USED TO
Anonymous online bullies play the scarecrow
Anonymity in online forums can be good, but it’s mostly evil.
THE REAL PROBLEM WITH ONLINE ANONYMITY
Tags: culture, Internet, media, technology
After Olympia Snowe, is Scott Brown next?
As a survivor of the dwindling tribe of moderate New England Republicans, Scott Brown faces special challenges in winning re-election.
Tags: Democrats, liberals, Maine, Massachusetts, politics, Republicans, Rhode Island
Rush Limbaugh and the entertainment wing
A semi-sympathetic view of the Limbaugh blow-up
Tags: media, Republicans, right wing
Breitbart gone
Andrew Breitbart was often a blight on the civic culture not because he was a right-wing attack machine. If straight with the facts, that’s perfectly okay. When he was on target — ACORN, Weiner — he did everyone, liberals included, a service.
But Breitbart cheated with the facts. The creep side of him famously posted a video edited to show part of a speech given by black Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod that made her sound unsympathetic to white farmers, while leaving out the part in which she confessed to the errors of her former ways. She was fired by administration officials too lazy to check out the real story.
Sorry I can’t be as magnanimous as Sherrod in his passing.
Tags: media, right wing
Higher taxes for most, eventually
The idea that the federal budget can be balanced entirely through spending cuts is ludicrous. The idea that this can be done by raising taxes only on the rich is almost as. Everyone but the poor will have to pay more, eventually.
Tags: class, Democrats, politics, Republicans, taxes, Washington
