Bookworm Room

Is our democracy germinating the seeds of its own destruction? Alexis de Toqueville warned, “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” That day has come. It is not yet gone. Democracy  in ancient Athens lasted about 250 years. We in the United [...]

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There’s a fiery debate over whether Republicans won or lost the budget round over discretionary spending.  Good examples of the pros and cons on that debate are Peter Wehner (Boehner did great) and Dick Morris (Boehner was a spaghetti-spined disaster). What do you think?

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DQ here.  My wife works for the government.  She received an e-mail today from the Dan Tangherlini, Assistant Secretary for Management, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Performance Officer, U.S. Department of the Treasury.  The message related to the possible shut down of the government and it began with the following paragraph: Throughout the discussions about funding [...]

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I am cheap.  Very cheap.  That means that I’m a bargain hunter.  I like used books and cheap clothes.  I prefer to buy American but, if my pocketbook tells me that America isn’t a good deal, I’ll usually follow my pocketbook.  Usually, but not always.  If buying something from another country would put me in [...]

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I find Ron Paul abhorrent, and I worry about Rand Paul, who seems like a slightly more polished version of Daddy.  Nevertheless, even creepy people can be right, as Rand Paul is about government spending. His point, basically, is that Republicans and Democrats are battling over bandage quality, rather than actually treating the wound.  The [...]

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I was reading Rick Steves’ Italy 2011 (the 2010) version, when I was surprised to learn this little fact on page 21: Because Europeans are generally careful with energy use, you’ll find government-enforced limits on air-conditioning and heating.  There’s a one-month period each spring and fall when neither is allowed. For those of us in [...]

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It’s not often I get the pleasure of laughing out loud when I read a “serious” political piece, especially one from an Obama acolyte, but I have to admit that this one completely lifted my mood.  The author, David Kendall, at heart, seems to be an honest soul because he recognizes that there is nothing [...]

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In 1832, Andrew Jackson vetoed a bill granting a new charter to the Second National Bank.  In a statement justifying that veto, he wrote a stirring statement defending equality of opportunity, and acknowledging how ridiculous it is to pretend that government can force equality of outcome: It is to be regretted that the rich and [...]

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Democrats are the friends of big business, Conservatives are the friends of small business. Democrat government inevitably ratchets its way to corruptocracy. If you don’t agree with this, can we at least agree that Democrats favor highly regulated economies and societies and conservatives don’t? Let me explain with two examples. 1) The Wall Street Journal [...]

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Rumor has it that the President is going to use the State of the Union address to call for more government spending.  Much more government spending: President Barack Obama will call for new government spending on infrastructure, education and research in his State of the Union address Tuesday, sharpening his response to Republicans in Congress [...]

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The U.S. is already bankrupt

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Remember that Rockwell song from the 1980s?  “I always feel like somebody’s watching me….“  It turns out that, if you’re having any dealings with the FCC, that feeling is right on the money.  I just received the following email from a friend: I just called the FCC and asked for info on how to make [...]

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Mitch McConnell proved himself, really proved himself, when it came to the omnibus spending bill.  Kimberly Strassel explains: This week Democrats unveiled a $1.2 trillion omnibus, legislation as pure an insult to the electorate as it gets. It was a 1,924-page monstrosity that nobody had time to read. It took 11 spending bills that Democrats [...]

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I have friends who have taught in inner city schools.  Without exception, they have told me that, if a child’s parents are drug-addled, the school lunch may be the only meal the child gets.  There is a tremendous virtue to feeding starving children. Having said that, I found revealing a statement Michelle Obama made after [...]

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Do you think this story is real or a hoax?  If real, it’s terribly disturbing.  If it’s a hoax, well, it’s also terribly disturbing that someone would do something like that.  Right now, Noisy Room is assuming it’s real but, because NR is committed to honest reporting, any useful information one way or another would [...]

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I think Nancy’s new motto should be “La, la, la!  I caaan’t hear you!”

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I wasn’t paying attention to this, but it turns out that San Francisco, which already has a fairly comprehensive public transportation system, wants another 1.7 miles underground — at a cost of $1.6 billion.  Think about it.  That cost is almost one million one hundred million for every tenth of a mile. Now, I know [...]

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I was talking with my lib friend yesterday (the same one who said Tuesday’s vote would inaugurate fascism in America), when he opined that Boehner had said something incredibly stupid. “What?” I asked. “He said something along the lines of ‘the American people want us to lower spending and create more jobs.’” I replied, “Well, [...]

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Civil rights are much discussed lately, primarily because Progressives with bully-pulpits are furious that Glenn Beck held a rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s famous civil rights rally at that same location.  To hear them tell it, in the wake of the “Civil Rights Movement,” civil rights are [...]

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If you subscribe to the WSJ, I urge you to read Liberalism and Public Works, which uses Chris Christie’s decision to shut down the tunnel project as a springboard to explain that liberal entitlement programs have destroyed public works programs: To govern is to choose, or ought to be. And the reason New Jersey and [...]

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We have enjoyed spirited discussions on these pages with Book’s question about universities and the values thereof. A recurring theme that I hear among Liberals is one of educational snobbery. I heard this with regard to G.W. Bush (despite his Harvard MBA) and now we hear it about Sarah Palin and other conservative candidates that [...]

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New Jersey missed out on $300 million in federal “Race to the Top” education funds.  It turns out that the state DOE filled out the application wrong.  But before you start ripping Chris Christie for government mismanagement, check out his masterful, and simultaneous, acceptance of responsibility and attack against the feds: His approach, by the [...]

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One of the things that I try to understand is the Great Divide between today’s Liberals and conservatives that has left us talking past one another on policy issues. Frankly, I have concluded that discussion with Liberals is often futile because we attribute different meanings to words and concepts. One of those concepts, I suspect, [...]

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Danny Lemieux sent me an email regarding Social Security that I reproduce here.  I know that the bit about the “not for identification” is true, because I have in front of me my card, which has that message, and my children’s cards, which don’t.  I do not know if the rest of the email message [...]

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Although it’s been open for more than a year now, I went for the first time today to the newly rebuilt California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.  My visit there was an interesting contrast to my first visit, some years ago, to the newly rebuilt De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Although [...]

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