By any reasonable measure, Marco Rubio struggled, mightily, during parts of the G.O.P. debate on Saturday night. Chris Christie savaged the Florida Senator for his inexperience and his reliance on canned talking points. Rubio responded, to a degree, with canned talking points, thereby demonstrating Christie’s basic critique that Rubio is an empty suit, similar to […]
Archives
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New Hampshire and the Debate Hypothesis
09 Feb 2016
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The Mosque and the President
04 Feb 2016
OK, President Obama spoke at an Islamic mosque yesterday. I say “so what.” But hear me out. I have no issue with him speaking to any religious group in his capacity as president of the United States. Even what he said, at least as reported, was not particularly problematic. He said for example, that Islam […]
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Have we reached a critical mass of voters? On what issue you might ask. On whether big government is bad on the whole. I have read a couple of articles recently, addressing that question. I don’t honestly know whether or to what extent people may believe big government is basically good. But here is a […]
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Republicans on the Brink
22 Jan 2016
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” H.L. Mencken Perhaps the moment will melt in the snows of Iowa and New Hampshire, dissolved for all but those obsessed with electoral trivia. Paul Tsongas, Phil Gramm, and Pat Robertson were major players for […]
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Like many of our readers, I can’t watch Mr. Obama’s SOTU. His ability to distort reality is amazing, and simply raises my blood pressure. So why watch? Well, actually because I was hooking up a new TV setup while it was playing and had to check signal. I wasn’t listening very long (maybe a few […]
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If only all news coverage resembled Wes Anderson films. Here is CNN's take on the #SOTU in Anderson's style. https://t.co/jpatTzm2Oo — Mark Caleb Smith (@markcalebsmith) January 13, 2016 #SOTU always strikes me as too monarchical as we practice it. Far too much adulation of the president–any president–in this setting. — Mark Caleb Smith (@markcalebsmith) January […]
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It’s easy in an image-filled world of instant news for conservative Christians to see Christmas as under attack. And indeed it is…anything that points to a sovereign, saving God is something that humanist religion seeks to destroy. But….this is nothing new in Christian history, nor is it indicative that God is losing control, as He […]
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Why conservatives would generally hold their nose if Mr. Trump is the Republican nominee and vote for him
18 Dec 2015
There are many attributes of Mr. Trump to praise and condemn. His willingness to take on the crazy political correctness of the left today is both. In some ways, he’s like Ross Perot of 20+ years ago; about half of what Mr. Perot said was so dead right on that it was incredible. Unfortunately, the remaining […]
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“Dark Matter” in the Federal Universe
11 Dec 2015
I regret I cannot compete with my colleague Mark Smith for sheer humor. In fact, talking about Federal regulations can be really boring. But what they lack in pizzaz, they make up for in importance–unfortunately in a negative way. I read a very illuminating study by Clyde Crews, entitled “Mapping Washington’s Lawlessness: A Preliminary Inventory […]
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I just finished reading another interesting book, at least to me it was interesting. And I think I can convince you that you should consider reading it too. The book, authored by Thomas Albert Howard, is entitled God and the Atlantic: America, Europe and the Religious Divide (Oxford, 2011). It runs to 256 pages, including […]