tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-109107492012-01-31T09:15:38.788-08:00Culture Criticism with a Philosophical and Literary Flair. Diagnosing Moral Malpractice since 1989.RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.comBlogger2561100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-73760782574566333432012-01-31T09:14:00.000-08:002012-01-31T09:15:38.807-08:00

A high-speed railroad takes a long time to stop—not because the imaginary vehicle travels so fast and carries so many passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles and points south, but rather because career politicians like Jerry Brown are determined to build legacies for themselves, come hell or high-water. The governor’s recent State of the State Address was vintage Moonbeam. Brown claimed

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-88449790422474814432012-01-19T11:04:00.000-08:002012-01-19T11:07:17.483-08:00

It happens all the time. Someone reads an opinion piece with which he or she disagrees and then responds with a stream of venomous rhetoric directed toward the author—occasionally myself. It comes with the territory—the kitchen and heat. What’s noteworthy, however, is how often critics accuse yours truly or other political opponents of hatred in messages brimming with that very quality—an

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-19306206066146607792012-01-05T14:35:00.000-08:002012-01-05T14:35:52.846-08:00

Here’s an electoral item indicative of the morally confused thought process now employed by many Americans, especially Californians. The Adult Film Workplace Condom Initiative recently gathered enough signatures to be placed on a ballot for Los Angeles voters. This proposal, backed by more than 70,000 hyper-conscientious Angelenos, would require adult film companies to use condoms in their

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-57649895369601838392011-12-22T22:16:00.000-08:002011-12-22T22:16:43.872-08:00

Jon Stewart mocks the idea of a “War on Christmas” by featuring images of huge Christmas (or “holiday”) trees located in public spaces throughout the nation. The bit provides a stark verbal-visual juxtaposition for the amusement of progressive nabobs. Logically, such anecdotal evidence is as invalid as concluding that malnutrition doesn’t exist based on photographs of overweight Americans. If

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-51926103861266911012011-12-08T20:17:00.000-08:002011-12-08T20:19:22.978-08:00

Break out the bubbly. California’s unemployment rate plummeted to 11.7 percent in October (down from 11.9 the prior month). If national stats for November are any indication, the Golden State may approach 11 percent by Christmas. But before the party gets too euphoric, some Grinchly accounting is in order. First, it’s worth noting that only Nevada’s October unemployment rate (13.4) exceeds that

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-36211566544604631982011-11-24T11:35:00.000-08:002011-11-24T11:35:38.910-08:00

A video on the Occupy San Diego website asks mostly young participants in this event to describe how they feel—in one word. Terms like “angry” and “frustrated” are common. Other popular responses concern feelings of exhilaration. The word “thankful,” however, is conspicuously absent from this verbal potpourri. Gratitude isn’t a sentiment that’s typical among folks who delight in expressing

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-74608384076342985782011-11-10T22:27:00.000-08:002011-11-10T22:27:44.901-08:00

San Diego’s Patrick Henry High School made national headlines recently—not for academic achievement but for pushing the social envelope a bit further in a direction that tickles the fancy of progressives. Specifically, the school selected a girl (presumably a lesbian) as homecoming king. Her girlfriend was picked as homecoming queen. For folks whose understanding of sexuality is shaped by the

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-43982584165388231362011-10-27T10:28:00.000-07:002011-10-27T10:29:36.361-07:00

Like a bad case of the flu, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and its nationwide spawn won’t go away. Predictably, mainstream media and their political cronies (including the leftist-in-chief) have tried to spin these demonstrations as progressive versions of the influential Tea Party rallies—judgments akin to dramatic comparisons that put Paris Hilton in the same league as Katharine Hepburn. I was

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-58189487700220227862011-10-13T22:28:00.000-07:002011-10-13T22:34:46.873-07:00

“Occupy Wall Street” has come to L.A. and San Diego. Fortunately, the small contingent of youngsters holding anti-capitalist signs at Ynez and Rancho California in Temecula last Saturday would have had a hard time occupying the nearby Pat & Oscar’s—a corporate enterprise that has filed for bankruptcy and shuttered two Carlsbad outlets thanks to an economy that’s been run for years by the

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-42785667669318616842011-09-29T12:00:00.000-07:002011-09-29T12:00:07.342-07:00

Merryle Rukeyser once said on his son’s long-running “Wall Street Week” TV show that a liberal is someone who’s liberal with other people’s money. The half-billion dollar loan dished out by President Obama’s Energy Department to the politically connected and now bankrupt Solyndra Corporation is a potentially criminal case-in-point. Rukeyser’s aphorism was given additional weight by Professor

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-21441969610151243482011-09-16T11:00:00.000-07:002011-09-16T11:01:29.313-07:00

Conspicuously absent from President Obama’s “jobs speech” last week was the “green jobs” refrain that punctuated prior rhetorical efforts. Looking on the bright side, perhaps the President’s economic team has finally gotten it through their skulls that quixotic wind and solar investments have been a bust. The more likely reason “green jobs” didn’t accompany “pass this bill now” in the

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-86213620012008497882011-09-01T09:37:00.000-07:002011-09-01T09:38:34.393-07:00

Many moons ago ABC’s Sam Donaldson compared the French and American Revolutions—implying that the two events were historical twins. Even then I knew enough history to conclude that this simplistic equation was bogus. Unfortunately, I didn’t know just how wrongheaded the comparison was until I read Ann Coulter’s recent book “Demonic”—in particular the chapters about the slaughter of over half a

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-27439315540024941002011-08-19T09:07:00.000-07:002011-08-19T10:22:58.006-07:00

While driving to the central coast a few weeks back, I often wished that some of the state fundsemployed over the last decade on mass transit schemes would have been used to repair or widen the roads connecting Menifee and San Luis Obispo. Perhaps in answer to my starless wish, it now seems increasingly likely that more rational cost estimates may derail the high-speed San Francisco to San

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-19785109203232623562011-08-01T22:23:00.000-07:002011-08-01T22:23:07.090-07:00

Responding to a recent 150-million dollar reduction in funding for the University of California system, UC’s vice president for budget and capital resources, Patrick Lenz, insisted that the state’s campuses and offices have already “cut to the bone.” Not exactly. Despite “draconian” cuts that professional education bureaucrats are paid to lament, campuses throughout the UC system obviously have

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-24215492016541301982011-07-21T11:20:00.000-07:002011-07-21T11:21:55.553-07:00

A new state of South California? It’s about as likely to happen as the current state of California is to balance this year’s budget without using smoke-and-mirrors. Still, at the end of June Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone proposed a conference to consider forming a new state that would be carved out of 13 counties in Southern California--including Riverside, Orange and San Diego

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-33753455972307466842011-07-07T13:36:00.000-07:002011-07-07T13:36:43.820-07:00

It was a week and two days before the fourth of July when the U.S.A. and Mexico squared off in a Gold Cup soccer match. The stadium was packed with fans, the vast majority of whom were supporting the green-clad Mexican squad. During the American national anthem the boisterous crowd bounced beach balls back and forth and tooted their noisy air-horns. Then throughout the contest a torrent of

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-71453584170897089932011-06-24T11:54:00.000-07:002011-06-24T11:55:02.592-07:00

The first rule of holes: When you find yourself stuck in one, stop digging. It’s an axiom that’s obvious to most folks who aren’t professional politicians. Governor Brown, however, seems determined to keep working the shovel by pushing for an extension of “temporary” tax hikes to fill the substantial hole that remains in the state’s balance sheet. Accordingly, Brown vetoed the budget passed by

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-82749235862901693282011-06-10T18:19:00.000-07:002011-06-10T18:19:59.959-07:00

It’s commencement season. That means graduates throughout the Southland are often being treated to the predictable pop-cultural prattle of various commencement speakers. After perusing lists of graduation presenters throughout the nation, it seems one could do a lot worse than the mostly profession-based speakers at UCSD ceremonies. One name, however, stuck out as indicative of a trend away

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-86746311892193533352011-05-28T15:21:00.000-07:002011-05-28T15:22:53.943-07:00

In 2006, journalist Robert Samuelson noted that Democratic politicians had adopted a new corporate bete noire, Walmart. Sam Walton’s retail giant was displacing Exxon Mobil and Microsoft as the villain du jour for business-loathing do-gooders. As a thought experiment, Samuelson suggested that critics should simply nationalize the company and double wages that then averaged about 50% above the

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-18102519914257415602011-05-12T11:05:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:27:17.618-07:00

The Edwards Cinema complex in San Marcos shrugged off “Atlas…” last week. Before its run was finished, however, I caught a Tuesday matinee performance. After three weeks the flick attracted an audience of perhaps a dozen souls. Overall, the film version of Ayn Rand’s classic novel has grossed a bit more than four million dollars—not too bad for a movie that opened in only 299 theaters.

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-30599419517520538742011-04-12T10:28:00.000-07:002011-04-12T10:30:22.797-07:00

“It is extremely unfortunate that this incident took place on what was otherwise a great day at Dodger Stadium…” This obtuse statement by Dodger management after the brutal beating of Giants fan Bryan Stow in the stadium parking lot is reminiscent of the cruel joke about Lincoln’s assassination at Ford’s Theater: “Mrs. Lincoln, aside from the shooting, how was the play?” Meanwhile, Stow

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-61391533036937669292011-04-01T10:41:00.000-07:002011-04-01T10:41:54.508-07:00

In the Texas of my youth there was an ongoing verbal jousting match between the Lone Star State and California. One native joke had a West Coast visitor disparaging a puny Texas watermelon—only to be informed that he was eyeing a Texas-size grape. Californians responded with similar estimates of the Golden State. In February an outsider to this interstate rivalry, journalist Mark Hemingway,

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-29312711976624403482011-03-18T11:11:00.000-07:002011-03-18T11:11:48.063-07:00

I wasn’t exactly “shocked, shocked” when I heard fundraisers on a local public television station imploring viewers to urge Congress to support federal funding for PBS. I was, however, a bit surprised, since using public money to lobby for more government support seemed to me a clear no-no. Apparently the “smarter-than-thou” haughtiness that oozes from NPR microphones has now infected folks

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-5334552574132389642011-03-04T09:38:00.000-08:002011-03-04T09:40:58.232-08:00

Florida governor Rick Scott recently said “No thanks” to 2.4 billion federal dollars for a high-speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando. The governor, based on empirically-grounded estimates in a Reason Foundation study, foresaw significant cost overruns and doubted the optimistic annual ridership estimate of three million. In prior weeks governors in Wisconsin and Ohio also declined a small

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-16466977856275099742011-02-17T11:02:00.000-08:002011-02-17T11:02:56.677-08:00

President Obama’s recent State of the Union Address reprised the “green jobs” theme that he constantly touted in his 2008 campaign as the key to America’s economic future. Those stump speeches were regularly punctuated with references to the great job Spain was doing in this arena. At least candidate Obama’s misguided economic assessment occurred before the release of a 2009 study by a research

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-76653322490069694672011-02-03T10:27:00.000-08:002011-02-03T10:31:52.895-08:00

After the President’s State of the Union address, we now know how the U.S. will deal with an annual budget deficit of 1.5 trillion dollars. (That’s $1,500,000,000,000.) The answer is “green jobs” and high-speed rail. California, with an unemployment rate of 12.5 % and a huge, chronic budget deficit, knows all about the benefits of green jobs and high-speed rail. A bit more than two years ago,

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-39073975884455565882011-01-17T11:46:00.000-08:002011-01-17T11:47:56.257-08:00

It used to be that death and taxes were the only sure things in life. To that list must now be added litigation over the Mt. Soledad cross, litigation entering its twenty-second year. Death has claimed the original plaintiff, an atheist-veteran named Philip Paulson. Unfortunately the American Civil Liberties Union continues to devote its substantial resources toward the ultimate goal of

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-72536224928573023232011-01-06T11:01:00.000-08:002011-01-06T11:01:11.708-08:00

How to balance the state’s budget? That is the question. The political class ensconced in Sacramento has made clear its preference—higher taxes. Unfortunately for these self-infatuated mandarins, California voters have defeated numerous revenue-enhancing propositions in recent years—most of them quite handily. On the other hand, voters also soundly rejected the four ballot measures put

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-1455460257325009042010-12-20T14:06:00.000-08:002010-12-20T14:06:06.294-08:00

An unexpected Christmas present for California’s school children came two weeks early when Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in an address to state leaders declared the union leadership of United Teachers of Los Angeles an “unwavering roadblock to reform.” The mayor acknowledged that his own career included stints as a legislative advocate for the California Teachers Association and as a

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-3500164922446740912010-12-09T10:17:00.000-08:002010-12-09T10:17:26.616-08:00

Near the end of a recent column about the November election I noted that the power of public employee unions and a seismic demographic shift have made California the bluest of blue states. That demographic trembler merits closer attention. According to data gathered by the Public Policy Institute of California, in 1970 almost 80% of the state’s population was classified as white. A bit over 10%

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-33650992479232566112010-11-26T13:22:00.000-08:002010-11-26T13:23:07.157-08:00

Turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce and butter rolls weren’t the only things associated with Thanksgiving this year. For thousands of air travelers random pat-downs and revealing body scans were put on the menu beside the partial disrobing that is standard fare for the Transportation Security Administration. A couple of weeks prior to the holiday rush at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field an Oceanside

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-36987731484455840672010-11-19T07:20:00.000-08:002010-11-19T07:20:12.249-08:00

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch famously quipped that the people had voted him out of office “and now the people must be punished.” One might say the same of California voters who—apparently enjoying double-digit unemployment, massive state debt, environmental extremism, and unsustainable public pensions—sent Barbara Boxer back to Washington. Indeed, Democrats strengthened their stranglehold

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-66197030597189457342010-11-19T07:07:00.000-08:002010-11-19T07:07:41.646-08:00

After going carefully through the various propositions in the state voter guide, I spied a mailer on my table that sported this partisan label: “Continuing the Republican Revolution.” A bald eagle was prominently displayed beside an extended quotation that lauded Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday and his “ideals of limited government, lower taxes, and personal freedom.” At the left top was a cute

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-84440840010783835572010-10-15T12:48:00.000-07:002010-10-15T12:48:23.843-07:00

On the same day last week I received two slick mailers about Riverside County’s Measure L—one pro and one con. A voter would hardly guess (based on the information in the two glossy boards) that they were talking about the same proposal. Measure L is designed to lock in the current generous retirement benefit formula for public safety employees in Riverside County--unless there is a majority

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-60415768124995564172010-09-28T17:06:00.000-07:002010-09-30T10:52:38.078-07:00

Last Tuesday attorneys for the Vista Unified School District filed a complaint in State Superior Court against the Vista Teachers Association, the California Teachers Association, and the National Education Association. That’s big news for a board composed mostly of folks who sit where they do thanks to VTA support. (Jim Gibson is the glaring exception.) Perhaps it was the threat of personal

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-24622604102187789772010-08-16T16:10:00.000-07:002010-08-16T16:10:52.188-07:00

The 417,000 Riverside County citizens and 655,000 San Diego County citizens who voted for Proposition 8 are irrational—plus all major civilizations that ever existed. That’s the essential message in Federal Judge Vaughan Walker’s 136-page tome that dismissed the decision of over 7 million Californians in November of 2008. According to this black-robed demigod, Proposition 8 "fails to advance

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-76520125022124354402010-08-03T15:37:00.000-07:002010-08-03T15:37:08.591-07:00

Now that federal Judge Susan Bolton has put on hold the most controversial provisions of Arizona’s new immigration law, cities that have taken their own measures to discourage illegal immigration may be having second thoughts. Temecula, Menifee, and other city councils have recently passed ordinances that will require businesses to verify their workers are in the country legally. The method

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-45402782760758711762010-07-15T15:18:00.000-07:002010-07-15T15:18:09.917-07:00

“Despite recent rains, California’s Water Crisis Continues.” That was the headline of an article in a 12-page brochure distributed in Riverside County by the Eastern Municipal Water District. That pessimistic pronouncement reminded me of a column I wrote back in 1996 that parodied the media mantra discounting the beneficial effect of the heavy rains Southern California had been experiencing. My

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-64292047781749859932010-07-07T17:17:00.000-07:002010-07-07T17:20:04.878-07:00

At least one SoCal radio station has been promoting a charity that’s soliciting funds by asserting that many children in the area are going hungry this summer because they’re no longer getting the free meals that were provided at school. This sales pitch raised a question in my mind because over thirty years ago I worked in a government food stamp office in Atlanta, Georgia. I knew first-hand

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-85164022996914224682010-06-22T11:59:00.000-07:002010-06-22T11:59:10.433-07:00

There were at least two reasons to vote for Proposition 14—the constitutional amendment that promised to save Californians from themselves by making primary elections non-partisan. First, given the state’s fiscal fiasco, it’s hard to think that voters could do worse under an open primary system than they’ve done under the current set-up. Second, the fact that Nancy Pelosi was against the

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-65827628272585524752010-06-09T17:00:00.000-07:002010-06-09T17:01:06.091-07:00

Recently State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth joined with Gov. Schwarzenegger in penning an article that calls for significant reform of California’s public employee pension system. That system, according to a group of Stanford University researchers, puts the state’s unfunded pension liabilities at a staggering 500 billion dollars. Hollingsworth’s SB 919 is the specific legislation designed to

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-80644963499352841372010-05-28T19:18:00.000-07:002010-05-28T19:19:23.013-07:00

Only in the alternate universe of leftist thought could a law that basically requires state and local officials to enforce existing federal immigration law be compared to Nazism. That’s the “big lie” being drummed into the public mind in unintended tribute to that master of Nazi propaganda—Joseph Goebbels. It’s no surprise that the supreme political panderer, Jesse Jackson, distorts the

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-51447385517658442992010-05-28T19:00:00.000-07:002010-05-28T19:01:45.748-07:00

Recently a reader of this newspaper [the North County Times] sent me a detailed message that argued for a simple but important proposition: Apply the same conflict of interest laws and standards to elected officials that are repeatedly hammered into civil service employees. One might think the same standard already applies to both groups. But judging by the ethics panel report that examined the

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-58290906321127878092010-04-18T08:12:00.000-07:002010-04-18T08:12:38.883-07:00

Friday has been designated a Day of Silence in most of the nation’s schools by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). On April 16, many high school (and some middle school) students won’t speak during the day in order to show solidarity with gay classmates. This now-annual event raises a plethora of questions about student rights and the role public schools should play

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-32393872379227843872010-04-02T10:20:00.000-07:002010-04-02T10:20:40.227-07:00

Recently a Los Angeles TV station announced that California lottery sales were down and efforts were afoot to boost this flagging source of state revenue--last year netting about a billion dollars. That’s just the thing, I thought. Let’s tempt folks who can’t afford it to fork over more cash on the 15-million-to-one chance that their tickets will catapult them (and lift California) out of a

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-35686585405774360682010-03-26T13:55:00.000-07:002010-03-26T13:55:20.616-07:00

My recent column extolling the vices of the Department of Motor Vehicles prompted several readers to send me their own DMV horror stories. One Escondido writer noted that, unlike my Temecula trip, no separate and shorter line existed for her appointment—making the entire system a farce. Another wily reader mentioned how he trekked up from Oceanside to the San Clemente DMV where he was able to

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-88220689320750809542010-03-12T09:45:00.000-08:002010-03-12T09:47:54.376-08:00

Here’s a way to guarantee a “no” vote on the Obama-care legislation pending in Congress. Require representatives who plan to vote “aye” to first visit a California DMV office. Such a pilgrimage to the Mecca of governmental incompetence would doom any initiative that threatens to put health care in the same bureaucratic hands. While living in Oceanside, I once considered transacting business at

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-42280449963144418242010-03-02T13:07:00.000-08:002010-03-02T13:07:12.108-08:00

Yet another trial of the century is almost over. This one was held in San Francisco and dealt with the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8. Presiding was U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker—a jurist whose homosexuality doubtless had no bearing on his brazen attempt to transform the proceedings into a publicly telecast show trial. This particular farce was dedicated to the proposition

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-54091194933951966942010-01-28T13:48:00.000-08:002010-01-28T13:49:46.745-08:00

Flood plains began to resemble the Father of Waters during recent storms that dumped in excess of five inches of rain on much of Southern California. It wasn’t exactly the “Grapes of Wrath” scenario that’s been spun by global warming enthusiasts. Though a week-long storm constitutes only anecdotal evidence, it’s worth noting that prudential caveats are almost never mentioned when a weather

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-41848660242421400862010-01-14T10:48:00.000-08:002010-01-14T10:53:57.387-08:00

Gov. Schwarzenegger delivered his final State of the State address earlier this month—a rhetorical swan song that combined Terminator tough talk with budgetary ideas reminiscent of Kindergarten Cop.While blasting the state legislature for its inaction on the deficit (now estimated at 20 billion over the next 18 months), the governor engaged in his own bit of Last Action Hero

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-47271447644159922762009-12-24T17:15:00.000-08:002009-12-24T17:16:51.284-08:00

I confess that I missed the Extra interview and the Inside Edition interview and any other interviews that might now have been given by Tiger Woods’ Escondido connection, Jaimee Grubbs—aka Mistress #2.But having perused Ms. Grubbs’ comments on the Internet, I think they warrant enshrinement as a premier paradigm of the moral doublespeak that pervades our nation—thanks to four decades of intense

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-29596852365532400152009-12-15T07:51:00.000-08:002009-12-15T07:53:47.023-08:00

Last Tuesday’s North County Times editorial page featured a fortuitous pairing: Richard Cohen’s syndicated column about war deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan and a local article praising secular humanism. The latter piece suggested that secular humanists have no problem with Christmas—an odd assertion in view of aggressive, ongoing efforts by the ACLU and likeminded “humanists” to ban religious

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-22054604842440708982009-12-02T12:38:00.000-08:002009-12-02T12:42:20.665-08:00

The Devil’s Delusion, so says author David Berlinski, was a book written for those who feel that “the scientific community holds them in contempt.” This fall’s paperback edition would make a provocative stocking-stuffer for that snooty uncle who’s always touting the superiority of fact-based science to religious superstition.Composed with characteristic panache, Berlinski’s intellectual exposé

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-9877601836496403512009-11-25T10:43:00.000-08:002009-11-25T10:48:46.626-08:00

On October 11 Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill designating May 22 as Harvey Milk Day—the date on which California schools will be encouraged to perform “suitable commemorative exercises” based on the late San Francisco Supervisor’s life and contributions. That word “suitable” deserves close scrutiny.What most Californians know about Harvey Milk is based overwhelmingly on the movie for which

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-628964530045726842009-11-20T16:31:00.000-08:002009-11-20T16:37:44.441-08:00

Obama's Radical Rogues Gallery?November 20, 2009by Phyllis SchlaflyAnother kooky Barack Obama appointee became publicly known this month and quickly was thrown or voluntarily threw herself under the bus. Anita Dunn, the White House communications director (who led Obama's war on Fox News), said that Mao Tse-tung was one of her two favorite "political philosophers" whom "I turn to most" for

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-10672326050262806992009-11-13T09:52:00.000-08:002009-11-13T11:08:15.392-08:00

It is becoming increasingly clear that Anonymous has not read (and apparently does not intend to read) anything that David Berlinski has written. The book by Berlinski that prompted my original post focused on the "Scientific Pretentions" of "Atheism" as promulgated by individuals like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. The book is overwhelmingly one of philosophical analysis

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-80486341158873824732009-11-06T11:31:00.001-08:002009-11-06T11:36:03.629-08:00

Anonymous asks me to justify the use of the word “prominent” in describing David Berlinski’s scholarship. The term “prominent” covers a wide range of meaning from “noticeable” and “widely known” (which Berlinski is by virtue of his writings) to someone who is “favorably known” within a particular discipline (which Berlinski is not by reason of his dissent from regnant Darwinian Orthodoxy). I

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-37495284558236529252009-11-04T12:06:00.000-08:002009-11-04T12:26:22.255-08:00

Here is a succinct (but detailed and precise) summary of the fatal flaws of Darwinian evolution, presented by a prominent scholar and critic of the theory. Berlinski, it should be noted, is a (self-described) secular Jew--not a "religious partisan."http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=1ca11f31ea13123dd125Here is a link to a article published in 1996 in Commentary Magazine and included in the

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-76263077881318107532009-10-29T20:44:00.000-07:002009-10-29T20:47:01.703-07:00

“What are they so upset about? What’s wrong with these folks?” That’s the typical news spin put on the Tea Parties that sprang up across the country this spring—climaxing in the huge September 12, Washington D.C. march that was undercovered and diminished by the mainstream media. The North County Times has provided prominent coverage of specific local events, but the paper’s natural reliance on

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-12217040098080691502009-10-28T19:34:00.000-07:002009-10-28T19:36:23.788-07:00

Molotov Mitchell is billed the Ann Coulter of videos.Judge for yourself:http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=114193

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-37945914576834882682009-10-15T12:12:00.000-07:002009-10-15T12:43:29.540-07:00

Almost two years ago to the day my column in the North County Times asked whether a Montebello schoolteacher named John Monti was being “Nifonged” by then San Diego City Attorney, Mike Aguirre.“Nifonged” is the verb coined to describe the prosecution of an innocent individual for political purposes—as the North Carolina D.A., Mike Nifong, did to three Duke lacrosse players. Nifong’s brazen

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-12823797748531974102009-10-02T10:20:00.000-07:002009-10-02T10:22:54.859-07:00

Plans for President Obama’s nationally televised back-to-school speech had local superintendents and board members scrambling to come up with various opt-out compromises that might satisfy parents who feared the worst.After the speech, however, there’s been a lot of back-pedaling by school officials who found the address innocuous and heavy on personal responsibility. Several Letters to the

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-74497199524857803072009-09-17T08:55:00.000-07:002009-09-17T08:57:02.769-07:00

Walt Whitman described his poetic musings as a “barbaric yawp.” The phrase more accurately describes the character of collective democratic discourse.When three thousand citizens come together to demonstrate their unhappiness—as happened at Oceanside’s amphitheater on Thursday before Labor Day weekend—you can bet that the ideas expressed won’t be nuanced. Detailed arguments don’t fit on a poster.

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-55201149966609605742009-09-16T11:51:00.000-07:002009-09-16T11:59:22.602-07:00

Here is a reasonable statistical/visual analysis of the 9/12 rally in Washington D.C. that puts the number well north of one million.http://www.scribd.com/doc/19743935/The-Real-Number-of-Protesters-Zac-MoilanenMoilanen is from Indiana University.

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-37394096272808718032009-09-08T11:20:00.001-07:002009-09-08T11:21:31.802-07:00

Was it an imbroglio, a kerfuffle, or an assault? And if the latter, who was assaulted? Was the hostess of Francine Busby’s Encinitas rally assaulted by a rogue policeman or was the officer assaulted by a gaggle of Busby supporters who were mightily offended at having standard police procedures applied to their better-than-thou coastal selves?District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis decided that

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-12157675009660212432009-08-21T09:01:00.000-07:002009-08-21T09:02:48.406-07:00

Last month I highlighted a speech by NEA chief counsel Bob Chanin to the union’s national convention in San Diego—an invective-laced stem-winder that could be summarized as follows: What’s good for the union is good for public education.There was no evidence presented that corroborated this self-serving assertion, but the idea obviously had a receptive audience—including officials of the Vista

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-84228558803635940412009-08-07T12:10:00.000-07:002009-08-07T12:17:54.847-07:00

Solutions to California’s budget woes frequently echo the type of wishful thinking displayed by President Obama last month when he responded to a question about what Americans would have to give up for government-managed health care.The President observed that Americans would have to “give up paying for things that don’t make them healthier”—then provided a simplistic example that assumed his

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-6228303712534746632009-07-23T10:50:00.000-07:002009-07-23T10:52:23.435-07:00

It’s not the kind of news AP generally cares to print—and I found no local reportage on the story. I refer to a speech given by the National Education Association’s retiring General Counsel Bob Chanin at the group’s convention in San Diego during the long Fourth of July weekend. The entire presentation is on YouTube. I provide a few salient snippets below:About the NEA’s effectiveness as an

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-60594966460274551282009-07-16T18:10:00.000-07:002009-07-16T18:11:52.874-07:00

“Legoland cancels tribute to Jackson.” That’s a local headline that catches the eye.According to this July 3 North County Times story, the Carlsbad amusement park was planning to install “a 4-inch-tall model of the ‘King of Pop’ in the park’s popular Miniland Southern California attraction” but pulled the pint-sized plug on the project because of “unresolved legal issues.” The article also noted

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-76051283429816356752009-07-06T13:47:00.000-07:002009-07-06T13:50:04.727-07:00

Paul Begala is having a grand time celebrating the infidelities of Nevada Senator John Ensign and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. Both Republicans resigned party posts after their extra-marital affairs were exposed, and both know their futures within the party are greatly diminished or nonexistent. Fortunately for Democrats, cheating entails no comparable sanctions on their side of the

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-46898771717698141752009-07-04T11:06:00.000-07:002009-07-04T11:12:41.928-07:00

Here is an IBD article by a Canadian on that nation's much-ballyhooed and little-publicized socialized health care system--a deadly model of rationed and delayed care that even seeks to control the number of babies delivered by hospital!http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=331427651488835

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-19526734390933234122009-06-24T13:52:00.000-07:002009-06-24T13:54:59.060-07:00

Three anecdotes come to mind when I consider the hysteria that greets any cost-cutting proposal for California’s 20-billion-plus budget deficit.The first is a classroom comment made decades ago by a naïve seminary student who’d obviously never paid a water bill in his life. The young man opined that various public services should be provided at no cost—just like water is.The second was an

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-15403751045608428562009-06-10T17:06:00.000-07:002009-06-10T17:07:52.500-07:00

A letter writer to the North County Times recently complained because I noted in a column that “Obama’s minions” are intent on undoing conservative talk radio. The objector, who claimed that no facts supported my assertion, is doubtless dependent on the MSM for his view of things and oblivious to the fact that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as well as Senators

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-40170965452417080282009-05-28T09:47:00.000-07:002009-05-28T09:51:07.413-07:00

The sociologist Peter Berger once famously observed that if India is the most religious country in the world and Sweden the least religious, then America is a nation of Indians governed by Swedes.The November vote on Proposition 8 that reaffirmed the definition of marriage as the legal union of a man and a woman illustrated that even in Euro-leaning California, a gap between ruling class and

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-90014843328702270182009-05-24T16:33:00.000-07:002009-05-24T16:38:37.914-07:00

Here is family psychologist John Rosemond's take on the proper education of children--a position that draws on the insight of writer Flannery O'Connor:In her 1963 essay, "Total Effect and the Eighth Grade," Flannery O'Connor's purpose was to argue for requiring children to read the classics that defined Western Civilization. In the course of making her case, she said something that every parent

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-24243629709122779082009-05-14T10:01:00.000-07:002009-05-14T10:04:44.769-07:00

The Donald has declared that Carrie Prejean can keep her Miss California title. Trump’s “you’re not fired” decision ended a chapter in the media frenzy swirling around the Vista High School graduate--but it didn’t close the book.Following Trump’s announcement, Keith Olbermann, MSNBC’s prime-time hatemonger, launched a six-minute tirade against Prejean that showed the leftist network’s verbal

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-43545546242061789102009-05-05T10:19:00.000-07:002009-05-05T10:21:00.958-07:00

Miss California, Carrie Prejean, 2005 Vista High graduate and student body president, is asked a politically charged question about gay marriage by a gay activist and blogger who calls himself Perez Hilton. She provides an almost apologetic response at the conclusion of which she expresses her belief that marriage should continue to be—as it has been throughout history—between a man and a woman.

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-34246615492969661302009-04-17T13:21:00.000-07:002009-04-17T13:30:57.103-07:00

On April 15th dangerous homegrown terrorist types in hundreds of cities around the country gathered to peacefully protest what they see as an unprecedented expansion of government authority and spending that promises to triple the national debt in eight years.In Oceanside, scores of these Timothy McVeigh wannabes were cleverly disguised as mothers with kids or mature ladies tastefully garbed in

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-69118294533904889422009-04-14T17:03:00.000-07:002009-04-14T17:21:40.905-07:00

The irony of this incident tempts even the skeptical to wonder whether some "invisible hand" was at work in this "accident" that ended the life of the owner of the nation's largest for-profit abortion chain at a Catholic Cemetery where a memorial is dedicated to the unborn victims of abortion.

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-87751039437550359682009-04-09T18:00:00.000-07:002009-04-09T18:02:15.654-07:00

Watermelons: “green” on the outside, “red” on the inside. That popular definition of environmental statists is what Czech President Vaclav Klaus had in mind when he denounced global warming zealots for promoting “a new religion” that “threatens to undermine freedom and the world’s economic and social order.”Klaus would not have been welcome a week ago Saturday when lights were dimmed in San Diego

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-54052005310980744822009-03-26T17:16:00.000-07:002009-03-26T17:18:20.036-07:00

Barack Obama: Infanticide Supporter.

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-17208631324579416952009-03-25T11:32:00.000-07:002009-03-25T11:34:12.318-07:00

Customers who peruse the Current Affairs section at a prominent Oceanside bookstore may be getting a preview of what access to contrary opinions will be like if the Obama Administration reinstitutes governmental regulation of radio broadcasts.Whether a left-wing patron or some Obama-worshipping employee is responsible, I don’t know. What I do know is how frequently I find conservative books

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-31669872116744509132009-03-06T08:31:00.000-08:002009-03-06T08:33:32.473-08:00

The March 1 Perspective pages of the North County Times contained a spirited two-on-two reprise of arguments for and against Proposition 8.I say “two-on-two,” but supporters of the November measure doubtless noted that one of the arguments against overturning Prop. 8 was authored by an editorialist who opposed the law but hopes to preserve the integrity of the amendment process. Thus, only one of

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-37281587266857001402009-02-25T16:54:00.000-08:002009-02-25T16:57:45.795-08:00

Here's an AP story, for goodness sake, that exposes the "emptiness" (i.e. deceptions, lies) in the Obama-Messiah's Congressional Address last night. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090225/D96IFSC80.html

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-18904377302679978532009-02-25T16:48:00.000-08:002009-02-25T16:53:18.699-08:00

Last week a jury determined that four San Diego firefighters who were ordered to participate in a 2007 Gay Pride parade had been sexually harassed.The four were awarded a total of $34,300 in damages—a figure that clearly suggests a “separate and unequal” calculus when it comes to harassment of straight employees by a sexually demonstrative crowd. One can hardly imagine any jury coming up with

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-65697307991711316022009-02-10T09:33:00.000-08:002009-02-10T09:42:42.723-08:00

Cutting down large trees is a mortal sin according to the green mores of many Californians—an offense that prompts significant television and newspaper coverage when someone decides, as recently happened in Encinitas, to take a stand (or a seat) in the branches of an endangered leafy organism.Even health concerns engendered by bird poop right outside an Oceanside restaurant don’t mitigate the

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-69061018970488009252009-01-22T18:36:00.000-08:002009-01-22T18:38:28.422-08:00

Barack Obama in his inaugural address observed that “the time has come to set aside childish things”—that the time “of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions…has surely passed.”That rhetoric is sound advice for Californians who just last November, in the midst of an economic recession and rising budget deficits, voted to approve a 10 billion dollar high-speed rail

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-22846101552412097882009-01-22T18:28:00.000-08:002009-01-22T18:29:18.753-08:00

A popular aphorism identifies three types of lies—lies, darn lies, and statistics. A variation on that theme declares that figures don’t lie, but liars figure.Both observations apply to the widely publicized study by Northeastern criminologist James Fox that touted an “alarming” increase in murders by and of black teenagers and attributed the spike to (what else) cuts in federal programs during

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-8799449867257056352009-01-06T19:00:00.000-08:002009-01-06T19:04:26.979-08:00

Mark Steyn on Gaza, crucifixion, and Western wishful thinking.

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-6916160594822884702008-12-22T14:43:00.000-08:002008-12-22T14:44:09.053-08:00

It’s amazing what people focus on in order to avoid having to deal with really serious problems. Psychologists see this phenomenon all the time, where toilet seats and personal ticks become the ostensible reason for huge rows out of all proportion to the alleged offense.The same mind-games apply in the world of politics. While public budgets and economic activity in California are going to heck

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-5558122056815184282008-12-16T10:06:00.000-08:002008-12-16T10:08:01.613-08:00

Another thousand meters, a matter of seconds, and the F-18 jet would have crossed I-805 and crashed in the uninhabited western terrain of Miramar Air Base. Assuming the pilot’s successful ejection, the event would have been a scary and costly “incident.” As it was, the aircraft destroyed two houses and killed four members of a family—an infant, a 15-month old child, a wife, and her mother. The “

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-57262596505942094682008-12-02T15:42:00.000-08:002008-12-02T15:43:40.442-08:00

When belt-tightening time comes, every group has reasons for preserving its share of the public pie—for explaining why a budget cut will precipitate an apocalypse of Katrinaesque proportion.My favorite self-serving rationale was put forward by an arts group that claimed cuts in its budget constituted an attack on the poor. I don’t know if the perpetrators of this argument actually believed what

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-19388012761715529212008-11-18T08:07:00.000-08:002008-11-18T08:12:01.109-08:00

In the wake of California’s Proposition 8 vote, the rhetoric against its supporters has grown increasingly strident. In the name of freedom of speech, I presume, letters have been published on the page opposite that blatantly accuse those who oppose same-sex marriage of bigotry.I doubt that messages exhibiting the same degree of animus toward “No on 8” activists would make it to print (nor should

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-22688594307725474972008-10-31T18:04:00.000-07:002008-11-05T20:03:34.904-08:00

Why are some folks so eager to brand political opponents as hateful bigots? And what follows, logically, from the widespread acceptance of this practice?One thing that follows from viewing adversaries as ranting haters is sign vandalism—as numerous statewide stories about the disappearance of “Yes on Prop 8” signs indicate. The rationale one enthusiastic North County sign-snatcher gave for her

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-35736460004474665312008-10-31T17:55:00.000-07:002008-10-31T17:58:27.566-07:00

This Wall Street Journal article by James Freeman analyzes the "deregulation" that did NOT occur under the presidency of George W. Bush.

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-6113717873484105802008-10-21T09:26:00.000-07:002008-10-21T09:33:24.709-07:00

Injustice is good and justice is naiveté. That’s the proposition Socrates’ irascible interlocutor put forward in The Republic—a viewpoint the Greek philosopher admitted was hard to counter because it fell so far outside the norms of ethical discourse.The debate about gay marriage falls in the same category. Who would have thought twenty years ago that politicians and activists would seriously

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-31852149039907406652008-10-15T16:18:00.000-07:002008-10-15T16:33:35.264-07:00

Princeton Professor Robert George discusses "Obama's Abortion Extremism."This is a withering critique of Obama's extreme stand on abortion that promises to make all Americans complicit in this slaughter by doing away with the Hyde Amendment, funding abortions with taxpayer money, and ditching parental notification laws in all the states. With Barack, even living babies will be in danger."Sen.

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-68367155105606953492008-10-13T21:37:00.000-07:002008-10-13T21:41:00.839-07:00

Obama's treatment of political opponents in Chicago (see THE CASE AGAINST BARACK OBAMA) foreshadows this fascist-style intimidation on the part of Obama workers and the Feds.Roger Hedgecock's World Net Daily article.

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-33041922870546979712008-10-02T08:56:00.000-07:002008-10-03T13:42:35.468-07:00

“No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.” That’s the simplified version of H. L. Mencken’s sound bite unfriendly proposition.As evidence in favor of the maxim, I point to the popular wisdom that “deregulation” got America into its current financial straits—a mess whose local consequences are happily exaggerated by gee-whiz graphs that transform a leveling

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10910749.post-54751911653920075722008-10-01T18:11:00.000-07:002008-10-01T18:17:33.594-07:00

Give this article by Peter Ferrara a look if you think deregulation is the root of the financial crisis.Note especially this YouTube video of Democrat perfidy.

RKirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15893241965610205006noreply@blogger.com0