Author Archives: Brother Bob
To most of us who live outside of the beltway or state capitols the concept of making outrageous financial promises that can never be kept sounds absolutely insane, and sadly for you this is just basic strategy to win an election. Continue reading
Wikipedia defines investment as “investment is the amount purchased per unit time of goods which are not consumed but are to be used for future production.” In other words, investment is something willingly purchased at the present time in hopes of gaining a return on that investment. Over time, whether or not is is a good or bad investment will be based on growth or failure to grow. This is why government spending can not be called investment in the strictest sense of the word. Society can benefit by items purchased by the government, such as: Continue reading
A few months prior to the 2008 election my friend The Destroyer of Colons asked me, “When Bush is gone, who are liberals going to hate?” He was only half joking. “Not to worry,” I assured him with a smile, “liberals can always find someone to designate as an object of their hatred.” Continue reading
While the Tea Party has been portrayed as angry mobs on the verge of violence by the mainstream press, in reality you’ll never find so many law abiding, peaceful people in one setting. Compare that to how somehow the MSM narrative has managed to overlook this string of crimes and other inconvenient truths about the OWSers.
For that matter, the left had such a difficult time finding evidence supporting their claims about the Tea Party that they had to start planting people with fake signs. This had the dual effect of bolstering the Tea Party’s credentials while indicting the MSM, confident that any reporter would be so happy to find a sign that fit their narrative that they wouldn’t be bothered with such pesky steps like verifying that their source was an actual Tea Partier. Continue reading
A favorite straw man of the left is to claim that Tea Partiers want to abolish taxes and/or government. This could not be farther from the truth. What is being questioned is how wisely our money is being managed by our elected officials. This is where the question over the wisdom of trillion dollar deficits comes into play. To paraphrase one of your most admired orators, “It’s not racism; it’s math.” Continue reading
Yep, the lefties are at it again. Seething with impotent rage over their inability to capture the spirit of the Tea Party they are making yet another attempt at imitation. I’ve documented previously how Leftists’ responses to the Tea Party have resembled the Five Stages of Death and Dying. The coffee party fizzled, the “No Labels” movement was anything but, and jumping up and down and screaming “Racist terrorist tea bagging downgrade!” until they were red in the face hasn’t changed the dynamic. Continue reading
With the uproar over Bank of America introducing $5 monthly fees for the privilege of using their debit cards, there is an angle to this that everyone is missing – the law of unintended consequences. Wizbang’s Jay Tea blogged about this very point over the weekend, and I want to take his point a bit further. The law of unintended consequences is going to be one of the chapters in my ongoing (which will end up being nine or ten parts) Economics for Politicians series, but this particular incident warranted its own post. Continue reading
The recent release of the two hikers who have been held by Iran brought the two of them briefly back into the news cycle. Sadly other larger events such as the economy have kept them out of the forefront, but there is … Continue reading
It was either after the 2006 or 2008 elections (I can’t recall which) that House Majority Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressed her incoming Freshman class and advised them something to the effect of, “You’re number one priority is to get re-elected.” Her reason for this makes sense from a beltway perspective – in order to push grand changes your party needs to gain and hold power. Obamacare and how it was passed is a perfect example of this. Government takeover of the health care industry has been a holy grail for leftists for some time (Apparently the rest of us are too unenlightened to want to emulate systems that will bring 18 month standard waiting periods for surgery or turning family doctors into an endangered species ), and the majorities that the 2008 election provided were the perfect opportunity. Continue reading
With “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” ending, the subject of gays serving in the military is making the discussion rounds again, and I thought this would be a good a time as any to chime in. Without going too deep into the issue the biggest arguments for and against break down into two main schools of thought. Those in favor of allowing gays to openly serve argue that we’re keeping qualified personnel from serving during a time of need and this is discrimination akin to racial integration in the military. Those against argue that the sexual element interferes with unit cohesion and creates an unnecessary distraction. Or to repeat a phrase that Rush Limbaugh likes to use, “the purpose of the military is to hurt people and to break things. It is not the place for a social experiment.” Continue reading