On Buckley

“You cannot paint the Mona Lisa by assigning one dab each to a thousand painters.”

No country for grouchy old white men

My column.

The truth about Castro

“Cuba features a universal health care system, a minuscule 1.9 percent unemployment rate, near-total literacy, complete political “unity” — and hundreds of thousands of people ready to risk their lives to get the hell out.”

A little late, but here I weigh in on Castro.

More Hillarinomics

I realize this sort of talk from Hillary is election-time populism and means nothing in practical terms, but the socialist overtones creep me out.

“We also have to reward work more,” Clinton told a small group of Ohio residents today. “and by that, I mean, I have people in New York working on Wall Street as investment managers, as hedge fund executives. Under the tax code, they can pay a lower percentage of their income in taxes on $50 million dollars, than a teacher, or a nurse, or a truck driver in Parma pays on $50,000. That’s very discouraging to people.”

I’m not an economist, but I’m relatively certain “we” don’t “reward” anyone for work, per se. Last I heard, folks negotiate the worth of a service or item in a competitive marketplace. (Though teachers typically work in a monopoly, but that’s another story.) You’re worth as much as someone is willing to pay you. There is no way to remedy this truth without destroying the economy and allowing the government to decide who is worth what. And, you know, I suspect being a slimeball hedge fund executive takes a certain level of skill and expertise, making it a pretty tough business to break into.

Moreover, I find Hillary’s contention that a hedge fund executive pays less in taxes than a nurse – even percentage-wise – remarkably dubious. A hedge fund hotshot, at the very least, is double taxed on his earning and pays a higher rate of income tax due to our progressive tax system.

But like I said, this is just election talk. I hope.

A second chance for the Second Amendment

“It’s election season, meaning candidates across the political spectrum will rediscover their love of shotguns and regale us with tender tales of hunting varmints.”

The potential for a rare constitutional victory .

Theater of the ridiculous

“For you masochists out there who enjoy four-hour, epic pitching duels, good news — baseball is now on C-SPAN!” Today’s column on the Clemens and the congressional fiasco.

You want answers?

This has been spreading across the web. It’s great.

Clemens: You want answers?

Congressman: I think I’m entitled to them.

Clemens: You want answers?

Congressman: I want the truth!

Clemens: You can’t handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has baseballs. And those balls have to be hit by men with bats. Who’s gonna do it? You? You,Congressman? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for steroids and you curse HGH. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that HGH, while illegal, probably sells tickets. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, sells tickets…You don’t want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that mound. You need me on that mound. We use words like fastall, slider, splitfinger…we use these words as the backbone to a life spent playing a sport. You use ‘em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and falls asleep to the Sportscenter clips I provide,! then questions the manner in which I provide it! I’d rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a bat and dig in. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you’re entitled to!

Congressman: Did you order the HGH?

Clemens: (quietly) I did the job you sent me to do.

Congressman: Did you order the HGH?

Clemens: You’re gddamn right I did!!

More realism, less wide-eyed idealism?

Today, my colulmn weighs in on superdelegates.

Who is more dangerous?

This Radley Balko post compares British pandering to Nazis during a 1938 sporting event and a similar surrender during the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

When I clicked through an excellent Daily Mail piece on the subject, I saw an astonishing poll up on the site. It asks: “Which of these men poses the bigger threat to Britain’s way of life?” The choices? Abu Hamza or the Archbishop of Canterbury.

At first I was a little surprised at the question. But then I remembered the context.

Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri is serving a seven-year prison sentence for “soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior leader of the Church of England and the man who this week stated that he believed it was “unavoidable” that Islamic sharia laws would coexist alongside British law.

So, tough call.

Online polls mean little, but, still, guess who’s winning big as of Sunday morning?

How can you tell a Rangers v. Flyers game is worthwhile?

The boxscore.

2nd Period

Philadelphia interference - 2 min 2:43, R. Cote
NY Rangers fighting - 5 min 12:33, C. Orr
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 12:33, R. Cote
NY Rangers fighting - 5 min 12:33, F. Tyutin
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 12:33, S. Downie
NY Rangers fighting - 5 min 12:33, R. Hollweg
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 12:33, J. Dowd
NY Rangers roughing - 2 min 12:59, served by P. Prucha
Philadelphia roughing - 2 min 12:59, M. Richards
NY Rangers misconduct - 10 min 12:59, S. Avery
NY Rangers interference - 2 min 15:15, J. Jagr
NY Rangers high sticking - 2 min 17:48, B. Dubinsky
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 20:00,
Philadelphia fighting - 5 min 20:00, M. Richards

Second coldest winter in …

… 15 years. Which, I understand, means nothing, in and of itself. Still, for your safety, don’t mention it to this guy.

The Stranglehold.

No Mormons in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Those pesky journalists …

As an editorial board member and an op-ed columnist, I would like to take offense at this Kentucky lawmaker’s attempts to bar my kind of people from legislative sessions. But, then again, being excluded from tedious state legislative sessions is probably a gift.

A lawmaker ridiculed in editorials and cartoons last year for his positions on environmental legislation is pushing a bill that would curtail the presence of the journalists he blames the most. …

The legislation he is pushing would list editorial writers and cartoonists as lobbyists. Since lobbyists aren’t allowed in the House or Senate while lawmakers are in session, those journalists would essentially be banned from the chambers

Yeah, screw the First Amendment!

Glenn Beck

I’ll be on Glenn Beck’s radio program today make that Feb. 11 Friday talking about Nanny State. You can find out when he’s on in your town here.

Conservatives vs. McCain

“Why do so many conservatives detest — and yes, “detest” is the most accurate word — John McCain?” It’s really not complicated.

Gas alert

Not sure how to take this one on. In a New Jersey Middle School, “intentional farting” is now detention worthy.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary definition for flatulence is brief: “flatus expelled through the anus.” And while it’s a natural bodily function, it seems some Camden-Rockport Middle School eighth-grade boys are taking it to new heights and making a game of seeing who can expel the loudest and grossest flatus.

How does a teacher make the call on deliberate flatulence? I’m not sure. But you know what, teenagers have some serious issues.

No Fatties

Three mentally deficient legislators in Mississippi want to make it illegal for restaurants to serve fat customers. Since two-third of Mississippians are supposedly overweight or obese the freedom to make food choices, evidently, no longer applies. Here is the bill.

Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor.

The Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management? Dear God.

I hate to even indulge this stupidity from other angles, but … will the wait staff be in charge of calculating BMIs of patrons wobbling in for grub? Or will the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management equip every greasy spoon in the state with weigh-in equipment? And what if one of these rotund Mississippians is looking for a salad a bowl of oatmeal?

Just curious.

They can’t even make the trains run on time.

The next time someone tells you we need more public “transportation”.

(AP)

Defending success in the real world

Why does Romney have to do it?