The Slow Dismantling of Obamacare

Things aren’t going so well for Obamacare.

Even Democrats in Congress aren’t huge fans any more. It seems after passing the law and finding out what’s in it, the allure has faded—so much so that Congress actually repealed part of Obamacare in the fiscal cliff deal last week.

That’s right—part of Obamacare has been completely undone. It was the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, essentially a new entitlement program for long-term care. But this new government program for people who end up needing assisted living or other long-term services was poorly designed and bound to fail,  as Heritage’s Alyene Senger explains. Amy Payne - The Hertigage Foundation - Click To Read More...

P.J. O'Rourke: Dear Mr. President, Zero-Sum Doesn't Add Up

But the worst thing that you've done ( Obama ) nternationally is what you've done domestically. You sent a message to America in your re-election campaign. Therefore you sent a message to the world. The message is that we live in a zero-sum universe.

There is a fixed amount of good things. Life is a pizza. If some people have too many slices, other people have to eat the pizza box. You had no answer to Mitt Romney's argument for more pizza parlors baking more pizzas. The solution to our problems, you said, is redistribution of the pizzas we've got—with low-cost, government-subsidized pepperoni somehow materializing as the result of higher taxes on pizza-parlor owners.

In this zero-sum universe there is only so much happiness. The idea is that if we wipe the smile off the faces of people with prosperous businesses and successful careers, that will make the rest of us grin.

There is only so much money. The people who have money are hogging it. The way for the rest of us to get money is to turn the hogs into bacon. P. J. O'Rourke - Wall Street Journal - Click To Read More...

Obama mentions Himself 63 Times In Short Inouye Eulogy

At his narcissistic best, Obama mentions himself 63 times in a speech at the funeral for the late Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii.

He begins with a slight of hand about democracy and then goes into great detail about a small boy growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia. The president takes the occasion in the eulogy to touch several times on his platform, his views and goes to great lengths to personalize Inouye's moment for himself.

The words "I", "me" continue for a staggering 63 times only mentioning Inouye in passing at the end of this very short (for Obama) speech. The camera pans to the dignitaries and stoic, unhappy military who are seated in the church for the service. A short camera shot takes in President Clinton who is shaking his head possibly in disbelief.

If Obama does the euogly for your special service, be sure to set the ground rules first.

Rule #1. It's not about him.

Guns, Mental Illness and Newtown

There were 18 random shootings in 1980, 54 in 1990 and 87 in 2000.

Has the rate of random mass shootings in the United States increased? Over the past 30 years, the answer is definitely yes. It is also true that the total U.S. homicide rate has fallen by over half since 1980, and the gun homicide rate has fallen along with it. Today, Americans are safer from violent crime, including gun homicide, than they have been at any time since the mid-1960s.

Mass shootings, defined as four or more fatalities, fluctuate from year to year, but over the past 30 years there has been no long-term increase or decrease. But "random" mass shootings, such as the horrific crimes last Friday in Newtown, Conn., have increased.

Alan Lankford of the University of Alabama analyzed data from a recent New York Police Department study of "active shooters"—criminals who attempted to murder people in a confined area, where there are lots of people, and who chose at least some victims randomly. Counting only the incidents with at least two casualties, there were 179 such crimes between 1966 and 2010. In the 1980s, there were 18. In the 1990s, there were 54. In the 2000s, there were 87.

If you count only such crimes in which five or more victims were killed, there were six in the 1980s and 19 in the 2000s.

Why the increase?

Click to read more ...

Will The Violence Ever End?

The anti-gun propaganda campaign begun by the Democrat-media complex seems to be having an impact, as liberals on Twitter called for the murder of NRA members and a repeal of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, Freedom Outpost reported Saturday.

"Murder every NRA member," one person tweeted. The message was deleted, but not before being captured by Freedom Outpost.

"Can we now shoot the #NRA and everyone who defends them?" asked "John Cobarruvias."

"Someone should shoot this m*****f****r NRA President David Keene," added "Michael Mayer."

Once again we are faced with the horror of a maladjusted young man with access to guns. It's been a long journey since August 1, 1966 when Charles Whitman, in the first mass killing, undertook his shooting spree in Austin Texas.

Armed with a rifle Whitman climbed the campus bell tower and for 96 minutes took aim and murdered 13 people, an unborn child and wounded 32 others as they walked to class. He was a flawed engineering student and former Marine  who, the night before, fought with his father after coming home drunk. The rest is history.

Our expectations about life are now gone. Shattered.

Click to read more ...

Does Rice Victory Signal Cliff Defeat?

I guess we're kind of looking a gift horse in the mouth, but doesn't Susan Rice's withdrawl seem kind of easy and convenient? It was almost callous the way that the President was more than willing to put her on the battlements in the face of full McCain assault. He stood behind her so tenaciously. But what many saw as loyalty, now has been shown for the political cunning it was.

From the moment of the Rice - Benghazi fumble, Susan Rice was done and the administration knew it. But as our good friend Rahm knows, you never let a good crisis go to waste. 

So the President dangles Rice, like a piñata, in front of McCain. He allows the Republicans to fantasize about picking her carcass clean during an arduous confirmation process. And just as we appear to be plummeting over the fiscal cliff for lack of compromise, Ms. Rice bows out. It is no coincidence.

This is the canary in the dealmaking coal mine. Obama caved on Rice. What will the GOP have to cave on and by how much?

Democrats (Heart) Socialism

On  the strength of a capitalist economic system, America created a material standard of living for the world to envy while providing its citizens with high levels of personal freedom. But today capitalism, and attendant freedom, are being systematically dismantled in America (and being depth-charged in Europe), while understanding and appreciation of these things are receding. Gallup provides proof of this, and confirms conservatives' fears and suspicions.

Loyal elves in the media wing of the Democratic Party establishment -- aka the mainstream media -- hyperventilate when Barack Obama is identified as a socialist, or the Democratic Party is accused of promoting socialist policies. "Vile and unfair accusations," they wail, before retiring to their fainting couches. Larry Thornberry - American Spectator - Click To Read More...

Larry Thornberry writes for the American Specator, The Washington Times and numerous other publications. You can find his full articles, reviews at Amazon, as well as his blog at American Specator.

Kindly Note the Impending Bankruptcy

Previously on The Perils of Pauline:

Last year, our plucky heroine, the wholesome apple-cheeked American republic, was trapped in an express elevator hurtling out of control toward the debt ceiling. Would she crash into it? Or would she make some miraculous escape?

Yes! At the very last minute of her white-knuckle thrill ride to her rendezvous with destiny, she was rescued by Congress’s decision to set up . . . a Super Committee! Those who can, do. Those who can’t, form a committee. Those who really can’t, form a Super Committee — and then put John Kerry on it for good measure. The bipartisan Super Committee of Super Friends was supposed to find $1.2 trillion dollars of deficit reduction by last Thanksgiving, or plucky little America would wind up trussed like a turkey and carved up by “automatic sequestration.” Mark Steyn - NRO - Click To Read More...

Once again our favorite conservative writer points out we can not have American sized taxes and European size government.

But we do think he is on to something and it's more than sharing our fondness for zombies. It's obvious that if you confiscated every penny the Forbes 400 have, it would be enough to cover just over one year’s federal deficit. Since this is the case why not raise taxes on everyone. Taxing the rich is a mind numbing futile exercise not worthy of our elected officials. We voters deserve better. If we care about the solvency of our country really change how this game is played and get serious.

Forget taxing the rich, it will never be enough. Tax everyone. The 47 percents need, as our friend Sheila Blair said, some skin in the game. They live here too. - DSMW

Who's The Fairest Of Them All: The Fallacy Of Taxing The Rich

"A Rising tide lifts all boats' John Kennedy replied when asked about his tax cuts for the economy.

If everyone in America had read Stephen Moore’s new book, Who’s the Fairest of Them All?, Barack Obama would have lost the election in a landslide.

The point here is not to say, “Where was Stephen Moore when we needed him?” A more apt question might be, “Where was the whole economics profession when we needed them?” Where were the media? For that matter, where were the Republicans?

Since Who’s the Fairest of Them All? was published in October, there was little chance that it would affect this year’s election. But this little gem of a book exposes, in plain language and with easily understood facts, the whole house of cards of assumptions, fallacies, and falsehoods that constitute the liberal vision of the economy. Thomas Sowell - NRO - Click To Read More...

Can Mohammad Morsi Be Trusted To Broker Anything?

"The enemy knows nothing but the language of force," said Mohammed Badie, senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. He goes on "Be aware of the game of grand deception with which they depict peace accords,"

The Muslim Brotherhood doesn't recognize Israel. Its members refuse to hold direct talks with Israeli officials. Because of this, Mohammad  Morsi seems a strange choice to be tapped by President Obama to broker a Palestine, Israel peace agreement.

Morsi has said he will abide by the terms of Egypt's 1979 treaty with Israel, and many members of the Muslim Brotherhood say they are in little hurry to enter into armed conflict with the Jewish state.

Here in the U.S. Mohammad Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood  and Egypt's role in brokering the peace accord is hailed has a corner stone in Hilary Clinton's tenure as Secretary Of State. To our view it's a bit like asking your mafia cousin Vinnie to watch the restaurant. - DSMW