David Harsanyi from Creators Syndicate

Commerce Is the Culture War for 02/15/2012

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

It's always curious to watch the champions of "choice" decide what choices to champion and what choices to dismiss for the common good.

If you believe that the Obama administration's decision to force Catholic institutions to pay for and offer (directly or indirectly) products the church finds morally objectionable is an assault on religious freedom and free speech, you probabl ...

Updated: Wed Feb 15, 2012

Obama's Halftime Hypocrisy for 02/08/2012

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

On Super Bowl Sunday, America was treated to the most expensive political commercial in history — brought to you by Chrysler — called "It's Halftime in America."

In a series of vapid non sequiturs, Clint Eastwood's gravelly voice pinned the promise of a city — no, a nation — to government dependency, claiming that "the people of Detroit" lost a ...

Updated: Wed Feb 08, 2012

Republicans' Obamacare Problem for 02/01/2012

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Once the presidential nomination process is settled — and Lord knows that day can't come fast enough — Republicans will get back to doing what they do best, getting on Barack Obama's case. Incredibly, though, they'll have to do it without one of their most potent arguments.

The Republican candidate, after all, can't effectively attack what he supports. Today both leading cont ...

Updated: Wed Feb 01, 2012

How To Fight Money in Politics: Free Will for 01/18/2012

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Have you heard about these terrifying super PACs? According to cable news anchors — and other trustworthy sources — they're like political super-bugs, resistant to free will.

Needless to say, the principled and high-minded political debates we've grown accustomed to are now over. Our unsullied national conversation is about to be defiled by a carpet-bombing of television ads ...

Updated: Wed Jan 18, 2012

The GOP's Creative Destruction for 01/11/2012

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Yes, it's true that unlike some Republicans, Democrats don't "enjoy firing people." They enjoy "investing" your money in exploding electric vehicles, bullet trains and other highly unprofitable but morally satisfying economic misadventures. Venture socialism is certainly empathetic.

Venture capitalism, on the other hand, happens to be useful.

And until ...

Updated: Wed Jan 11, 2012

Santorum: Conservative Technocrat for 01/04/2012

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Rick Santorum, like most Republican candidates, fashions himself the one true conservative running in 2012. If the thought of big, intrusive liberal government offends you, he might just be your man. And if you favor a big, intrusive Republican government, he's unquestionably your candidate.

People are taking a look at Santorum. Important people. People in Iowa. Even New York Times colum ...

Updated: Wed Jan 04, 2012

Bain Over Newt Any Day for 12/14/2011

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

This week, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney called on newly minted front-runner and noted historian Newt Gingrich to return the estimated $1.6 million he made providing "strategic advice" to Freddie Mac, the quasi-governmental agency that has done the hard work of making "toxic home mortgages" a forever feature of our national portfolio.

To this, Newt, the ...

Updated: Wed Dec 14, 2011

Obama vs. Capitalism for 12/07/2011

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

In Teddy Roosevelt's era, President Barack Obama explained to the nation this week, "some people thought massive inequality and exploitation was just the price of progress. ... But Roosevelt also knew that the free market has never been a free license to take whatever you want from whoever you can."

And he's right. Even today there are people who believe they should have free l ...

Updated: Wed Dec 07, 2011

Superfrauds for 11/23/2011

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Our government has the time to worry about school lunch menus in Boise, Idaho, but the Senate hasn't found the time to pass a budget in Washington, D.C., in nearly three years. H.L. Mencken famously wrote that every decent man is ashamed of his government. This one gives you little choice.

Gridlock is ordinarily the most constructive and moral form of government, but with entitlement pro ...

Updated: Wed Nov 23, 2011

Constitutional or Not, Obamacare Has To Go for 11/16/2011

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Is not doing something the same as doing it, and should government be allowed to force you not to do the thing you're already not doing by making you do it so you don't not do it anymore?

That is just one of the perplexing legal questions the Supreme Court will likely find a way to say "yes" to in July after it wrestles with the constitutionality of Obamacare.

Updated: Wed Nov 16, 2011

You Want More Equality? Support More Capitalism for 11/02/2011

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

A person can't go but a few clicks on the Internet these days without tripping over some shocking item about the "explosion" of income inequality that has, like the dark smog of capitalistic excess, been choking the life out of this unjust nation. And when it comes to inequality, there is certainly only one vital question we must ask ourselves: Who cares?

If the wealthy get wea ...

Updated: Wed Nov 02, 2011

The Real Luddites for 10/26/2011

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Have you noticed that any person who exhibits any skepticism about global warming alarmism will, sooner or later, be called a Luddite?

"Are you a Luddite, a troglodyte? Are you a part of 'The Planet of the Apes' that doesn't want science? Where would you place yourself in this argument?" newscaster and anti-simian Chris Matthews "asked" a congressman a few years back. ...

Updated: Wed Oct 26, 2011

The State of the Union: A Poll for 10/19/2011

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

"David Axelrod, President Barack Obama's senior campaign strategist, pushed back against negative media accounts surrounding the president's approval rating and said recent polling shows the majority of Americans agree with Obama's plan to create jobs." — CNN

Question: President Barack Obama is proposing a new affordable jobs plan that is supported by economists* ...

Updated: Wed Oct 19, 2011

It's Not Romneycult; It's Romneycare for 10/12/2011

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

At the Values Voter Summit, Republican primary candidate Rick Perry was introduced by a megachurch pastor, named Robert Jeffress, who offered the audience an extraordinary false choice: "Do we want a candidate who is a good, moral person or one who is a born-again follower of the Lord Jesus Christ?"

Answer: We want a candidate who will cut capital gains taxes.

Now, Jeffr ...

Updated: Wed Oct 12, 2011

Occupy Wall Street: A Manifesto for 10/05/2011

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men, women and transgendered — and any other human who is able to elude the tyranny of work for a couple of weeks — are created equal. We gather to be free not of tyranny, but of responsibility and college tuitions. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that a government long established and a nation long prosperous be changed for light and ...

Updated: Wed Oct 05, 2011

GOP Field a Gift for Obama for 09/28/2011

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Don't for a second believe that a politician is destined to lose re-election simply because he has been an unmitigated disaster. That would be unfair to your senator or your congressman, and it certainly wouldn't be fair to countless two-term presidents. Any elected official can overcome self-induced failure with a little help.

And it doesn't hurt to pray: "Dear Lord, may the contem ...

Updated: Wed Sep 28, 2011

Let's Eat the Rich for 09/21/2011

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Some wiseguys at the Economic Freedom Network just released a survey alleging that the United States has fallen from the sixth-freest economy in the world to the 10th-freest. The survey is based on four foundations of a healthy capitalist society: "personal choice, voluntary exchange coordinated by markets, freedom to enter and compete in markets, and protection of persons and their proper ...

Updated: Wed Sep 21, 2011

A Jewish Case for Mel Gibson for 09/14/2011

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

It seems that we American Jews have a sacred duty. It has nothing to do with skullcaps or boiling a goat in its mother's milk. No. It is our obligation to be perpetually offended and hypersensitive, lest something terrible happen.

So naturally, when former movie star and director Mel Gibson announced that he will be involved in producing a movie about the life of Jewish icon Judas Maccab ...

Updated: Wed Sep 14, 2011

You Don't Have To Be 'Smart,' Just Right for 08/31/2011

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Folks in the media often judge the intellect of candidates using one crucial question: Do you agree with me?

Now, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, leading Republican presidential candidate, readily admits that he's not a scholarly type. But if your spider senses, like mine, are tingling, it probably has more to do with Perry's slippery politics than it does with his aversion to curling up with a d ...

Updated: Wed Aug 31, 2011

'Science' When It Suits Them for 08/24/2011

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

So every now and then, liberals are treated to a big self-righteous laugh at the expense of some backwoods Christian conservative candidate who "ignores science" by doubting evolution or global warming — or, gasp, both.

Much, for instance, has been made of Texas Gov. Rick Perry's recent suggestion that evolution is a "theory that's out there" with "gaps in ...

Updated: Wed Aug 24, 2011