Better Banter

Disappointed in some of the races. We got the ones we were supposed to get, but not many of the true toss-ups. Toomey and Kirk being the exceptions. The Tea Party certainly inspired a lot of the change, but Miller, Angle, and O'Donnell going down in flames does not bode well for 2012. On the other hand, I'm excited about Rubio, excited about Kasich, and excited about Col. Allen West winning a House seat in Florida. Disappointed McClung (the rocket scientist in Arizona) couldn't beat the incumbent, but she was badly outspent. Amazed Barney Frank beat Bielat by such a huge margin given what a scumbag Frank is and what a smart, stand-up guy Bielat is. But it's on par with Rangel winning with 85% of the vote. He's a criminal and a gangster, but he's our criminal . That must be the thought process. If you don't believe government should be about laws being applied to people equally, and think it should be about changing outcomes and getting more for your group,

I sit puzzling over why it seems that Republicans are the only ones who are serious about tossing out the unethical in their ranks. Charlie Rangel, Mark Dayton, Barney Frank spring to mind as I watch the returns. But it occurred to me that if you subscribe to the concept of a "gangster government" as Michael Barone termed the Obama administration, it doesn't make any sense to vote for anyone but your own gangsters.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! For your reading enjoyment (this has nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day), please see the latest Doctor Zero piece. The entire thing is just too damn good to pull a quote from, so go read it all. Right now. I guarantee satisfaction or your money back. Concluding paragraph is fantastic. It definitely makes me long for a politician who can think on his feet with this kind of command of language, and this level of clarity of principle. He (or she) would make an utter fool of anyone in the next chair on Meet the Press.

How many times did Obama say he's a "stalwart ally of Israel" on the campaign trail? He sure has a funny way of showing it : Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, has told the country's diplomats there that U.S.-Israeli relations face their worst crisis in 35 years, despite attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office to project a sense of "business as usual." Apparently, the crisis is due to the Obama administration taking grave offense over a "diplomatic gaffe" that occurred while Slow Joe Biden was visiting Israel (they announced construction plans for new settlements while he was in the country). Really? Do we need to start listing all of the diplomatic offenses that "The One" has committed toward our allies in a scant year in office? You know what they say about people in glass houses. How about the Falklands and throwing the Poles under the bus for starters? But Barack has been offended, s

Great post from "Captain Capitalism" about his $38 visit to the doctor . No, that wasn't the co-pay. That was the cost of the visit. As he points out, it was less than an oil change. It's funny how cutting out layers of paper-processors can save money. Everyone who touches your insurance claim needs to take a slice. And so does their boss, and their boss' boss, and every executive. Oh, and the government expects to get their portion of each of  those portions, plus a nice chunk of the overall profits. And not one of those people in the long line of people getting paid actually provides a service to you the patient. Well, except for the doctor, who is increasingly becoming an afterthought. After all, the government is ready to slash "reimbursements" to doctors as a way of controlling the costs of this monstrous new bureaucracy, designed, without irony, to make health care affordable. What would car insurance premiums be if oil changes and other routine ma

The Democrats are pretty amazing. Now that they've got this "reconciliation" bill on health care that could pass without going back to the Senate and getting 60 votes, they're seeing what else they can stuff in there. Like taking over the student loan industry (a natural extension of health care, obviously). Really. http://www.nas.org/polArticles.cfm?Doc_Id=1201

Yesterday, Barack Obama railed against big insurance companies and their "greed" as he publicly pushed for health care reform to be passed through reconciliation. There are so many things to say on this topic but I will limit myself to just a couple. First is the continued Orwellian language Obama has been relying upon in so many instances over the past year. His new mantra is that health care reform deserves "an up or down vote." What he means, of course, is a simple majority vote, which can be achieved via the reconciliation process. But he can't say "simple majority," due to the election of Scott Brown in the most liberal state in the union. Brown's election was in no small part a referendum on health care reform, and a referendum on the public value of the filibuster. It was Massachusetts, a state that is discovering its own woes with an ambitious health care system, standing athwart history, yelling "Stop!" So to say "simple maj

James Taranto points us to this story in the Boston Globe : You probably missed this, with all the U.S. Senate election excitement, but a new law quietly went into effect Jan. 1 that may have more of a day-to-day impact on our daily lives than anything Scott Brown does. That's right -- government mandated toothbrushing . No not you, silly. The kids. The state Department of Early Education & Care is requiring all children in day care longer than four hours and/or who eat a meal to have their teeth brushed on-site. (Parents send in the brush, which is to be replaced every few months, or if the kid is out sick.) The Globe column continues by pressing those who take exception to this rule to explain themselves. My first response is "bite my ass." My second response is, just because something is good for you doesn't mean the government has the duty or right to force people to do it. If I'm OK with my kids getting their teeth brushed twice a day, and my da

I posit that if Scott Brown does indeed win today's special election for the open Massachusetts Senate seat, Democratic congressmen everywhere will indeed respond by crapping their pants. Unfortunately, there's a slim chance these fat cats will be sitting on vinyl when it happens.