Author Archive

Yesterday, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs caused a stir when he suggested that Democrats could lose the House this November election season.  Said Gibbs: I think there’s no doubt there are enough seats in play that could cause Republicans to gain control. There’s no doubt about that. Did Gibbs gaffe??  Some Democrats think so.  According to this Politico story, party supporters are angry: But Democratic strategists are privately grumbling that the White House press secretary... Read More→

Mark Steyn is certainly a genius, and succinctly sums up the essential failure of the American media, and also difference between politically engaged conservatives and every single other significant stripe of American politician: Referring to Richard Cohen’s June 22 piece President Obama’s enigmatic intellectualism in which Cohen writes “this, of course, is the Obama enigma: Who is this guy? What are his core beliefs?” Steyn writes in response, “Gee, if only your newspaper... Read More→

The tragedy of massive government interventionism continues, even as the human spirit searches among the economic debris for hope. From MarketWatch: First-time applications for state unemployment benefits rose by 12,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 472,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday, providing further evidence that U.S. labor markets remain very weak. The previous week’s initial claims were revised higher by 4,000 to 460,000 as more complete data were collected. Read... Read More→

Tonight the Libertarian Party of Manhattan met to nominate their candidates for the upcoming election season.  The night’s “main event” was between Mr. Ryan Brumberg and Mr. Dino LaVerghetta, both registered Republicans running for the 14th Congressional seat.  You can visit their websites here and here, respectively. I am not going to comment on the night as a whole, or even on the contest between Mr. Brumberg and Mr. LaVerghetta (which ended first in a tie!).  Rather, I would... Read More→

Success or failure? Our federal gov’t has been subsidizing the residential mortgage business to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, possibly trillions depend on how you count it (that is, if you can count it).  One such program, Term Asset-Backed Securities Lending Facility (TALF).  This March 25, 2010 CNN report announced the end of this $100 billion program, and noted that it was extraordinarily successful.  The CBO estimates that the total cost to bail out mortgage originators... Read More→

Recently “crowned” Miss USA Rima Fakih from Michigan is embroiled in a mini-scandal, as pictures of her pole dancing at a Detroit “gentleman’s club” emerged shortly after winning the pageant. In this day and age, when pole dancing is offered at “fitness centers” for women (and certainly some men) to keep in shape, this story is hardly that surprising.  What is slightly more surprising is how mainstream journalism treats the subject.  Writing on MSNBC.com,... Read More→

I’m sitting here this morning, unable to do much work, stunned by the Euro bailout.  What we’ve done is invest in a state of perpetual financial crisis.  I think of it like this: 1) Greenspan/Bernanke drop our interest rates to 1% for something like 1 or 2 years 2) The real estate boom ensues, distorting industry globally 3) The mortgage industry defaults, destroying balance sheets and blowing up all derivatives 4) The Fed/Fed gov’t bail out the banks of America, creating a nearly... Read More→

Dow down nearly 1,000 points earlier today. The Obama recovery is in full swing now… Hate that I was so right. See every other thing I’ve written, here. Wonder what Stimulus 3 will look like?  4? 5?  Read More →

Victor Davis Hanson dissects the Orwellian euphemism and dysphemism of our president in his NRO article today.  The first 3 paragraphs, for your enjoyment: Barack Obama once warned, “Don’t tell me words don’t matter!” He was right. They do. These days, financiers and investors are a “bunch” of “fat-cat bankers.” When your 401(k) tanks, surely a “bunch” of “fat-cat” miscreants who run a “bank” did it. I have a fat cat — and nothing is more unpleasant than to see... Read More→

The most refreshing thing about Fox News is that they usually strike a different chord than the other media outlets.  Most recently, this can be see in their overall support of the Tea Party, and their refusal to correlate the nascent protest with an exegesis on political manners.  Fox News is the preferred outlet for conservatives, and generally I find myself in the position of defending the courageous network. Having said that, I confess that inference leads me to believe they attract a certain... Read More→