Most everyone has heard of Obamacare, the unpopular name critics appended to the president’s 2,400-page Affordable Health Care Act monstrosity. Make way for a new epithet courtesy of the Republican Party of Florida: “Obama Flight Delays” to describe the ‘in your face’ FAA furloughs that mired weary travelers at airports across the country.   Read the rest of this entry »

Ex-Clinton counsel Seth Waxman said that the FAA should be able to “pick and choose how to reduce spending within the air traffic organization activity so as to minimize the adverse effects of sequestration on the FAA’s core mission priorities.” Waxman doesn’t get it. The FAA made its choices and they are not intended “to minimize the adverse effects” on travelers.”   Read the rest of this entry »

In 1993, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D., N.Y.) coined the phrase “defining deviancy down."* Moynihan’s thesis was that, as a society, America has been “re-defining deviancy” so as to exempt conduct previously stigmatized, and quietly raising the "normal" level for behavior that was abnormal by earlier standards.   Read the rest of this entry »

It’s obviously time to call on Harry Reid and Diane Feinstein to introduce legislation banning the sale of knives or other sharp instruments. (The weapon in Texas was described as a razor edged weapon that sounds like a box cutter.) At the very least, knife registration should be mandatory and every person who buys one should submit to a background check. Since the Obama administration wants us to follow Great Britain into government run health care, we can now actually be first to outlaw cutlery, especially the scary looking ones with the black handles. But we’ll have to hurry.   Read the rest of this entry »

The author’s claim that he offers a “new understanding” seems overblown to this reviewer. Truth to tell, there is little in this book about the American Civil War that hasn’t been covered by other historians. Fleming’s contribution is more a matter of emphasis than originality. That having been said, this is an interesting and readable book. In the course of Fleming’s narrative he casts light on some little discussed related events, one of which will be addressed later in this review.   Read the rest of this entry »

Margaret Thatcher’s death has particular poignancy for America today. She not only understood the socialist mentality, she articulated it in terms accessible to everyone. Would that members of the Republican Party had her acuity and clarity.   Read the rest of this entry »

When civilization breaks down, people unused to protecting themselves become victims.   Read the rest of this entry »

In his new book, Delbanco traces the development of colleges in the American colonies. He begins in1636 when Puritan emigrants established a New England college and named it after its benefactor, John Harvard. A fund appeal to prospective donors in England said the college would “advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity.”   Read the rest of this entry »

Unaware of the wiles of the snake-in-the-grass 
And the fate of the maiden who topes, 
She lowered her standards by raising her glass, 
 Her courage, her eyes and his hopes. 
She sipped it, she drank it, she drained it, she did! 
 He promptly refilled it again, 
 And he said as he secretly carved one more notch 
 On the butt of his gold-headed cane, Have some Madeira, m'dear. This administration and its minions have been caught in so many distortions, exaggerations and just plain lies that keeping track is becoming a full time job. Here are a few more to add to the ever-growing list.   Read the rest of this entry »

To say this book presents a panoramic account of the years in the subtitle only hints at what is between the covers. Much has been written about the Civil War period and, more recently, the Revolutionary War period, but the years between have not received the attention they deserve. Howe makes up for the deficit.   Read the rest of this entry »