By Selwyn Duke
While the Obama administration has chosen the southern side
in the Mexican-Arizonan border war, most Americans stand with their
countrymen. They are troubled by the
strain illegals place on services, the drugs and thugs moving north and
blue-collar job prospects moving south.
Then there is another factor: the political and cultural one.
By Selwyn Duke
Shortly after Barack Obama was elected, one of his supporters,
alluding to George W. Bush’s supposedly lacking intellect, said to me,
“I’m just happy to have someone intelligent in the White House.”
I’m sure Rahm Emanuel would be very
flattered.
Whatever you think of Bush, admittedly, his habitually knotted tongue
did give birth to Bushisms, things such as “misunderestimated.” Cute.
Then there are the “Yogiisms” of former baseball player and manager Yogi
Berra, pronouncements such as “I think I made the wrong mistake,” which
in a sense makes sense (you can get away with some mistakes, but the
fatal one will do you in). Now I’m here to tell you that Barack Obama is
giving us some new "-isms," and I don’t speak of communism or even
socialism. I mean the Obamanism.
Read the rest here.
By Selwyn Duke
Tax 'Em
High
All around the realm was heard a fateful cry:
'Twill make us sleep the nightmare if ye tax the other guy.
We can accept the yoke of poor polity,
If the misery cursing all gives equality.
Play one group against another, and us all you may ream,
Too busy envying each other we ignore your wicked scheme.
'Tis the rhyme of the time, no matter tyranny be nigh;
'Twill make us sleep the nightmare if ye tax the other guy.
Tax 'em high!
A study was once conducted in which participants
played a game involving the accumulation of money. It had an interesting
finding: Those describing themselves as leftists were much more willing
than others to give up a bit of their own cash if it meant taking more
from somebody else. What motivated this? It’s called envy, and we used
to call such people immoral. Now we call them "liberals."
Read the rest here.
By Selwyn Duke
Despite being thoroughly unqualified to occupy the bench,
Elena Kagan will most likely be confirmed to the Supreme Court. This is because most of our 100 senators are
almost as unqualified to judge a judge as she is to be one. What is the proper criterion to apply? Well, a simple analogy illustrates the point
best.
Let’s say you needed to hire a football referee. If he said that he was a “pragmatic” referee,
viewed the rule book as “living” and thus would interpret the rules to suit the
“times,” would he be your man?
By Selwyn Duke
While I’m no fan of the Attention Deficit Disorder diagnosis,
I think it may be applicable to Barack Obama.
After all, the man seems to suffer from a case of it that mainlining
Ritalin wouldn’t remedy.
Just consider Obama’s relationship with Jeremiah Wright. Despite calling the prejudiced preacher a
friend, mentor and uncle, despite sitting in Wright’s church for 20 years,
despite being married and having his daughters baptized by him, Obama says he
was completely unaware of the bigot’s anti-American, anti-white, anti-Jewish,
anti-Western and anti-Christian
views. And, just so we can appreciate
the severity of Obama’s affliction, Wright has quite conveniently provided a
reminder of what those unforgettable views are.
The scene was a five-day seminar at the Chicago Theological Seminary
where, for a mere $1000 if taken for college credit and $300 if not, you could
be enlightened by Wright on matters of race, brotherhood and Zionism and kibitz with
him during lunch breaks. Reporting on
the wisdom he imparted, the New York Post
wrote:
By Selwyn Duke
The gulf oil gusher is a disaster of great proportions. We’ve all
seen the pictures of petroleum-soaked birds and dead fish, and the
area’s economy is on life support. The mishap truly is a tragedy for
all, from Gulf residents to English pensioners to marine wildlife to,
yes, BP itself. As bad as this is, however, there’s a way to make the
situation worse: by compounding it with another tragedy, one both
foreseeable and preventable.
Following the Emanualesque motto “Never let a good crisis go to
waste,” some would use the Deepwater Horizon accident to push an
anti-oil agenda. And given people’s tendency toward emotional reactions,
millions of others are willing to support them. It’s much as how there
was a hue and cry for gun control after the Columbine and L.I.R.R.
massacres. Passion may not govern wisely, as old Mr. Franklin warned,
but she sure does govern.
Read the rest here.
By Selwyn Duke
After seeing Barack Obama’s golf
swing, I’m confronted with the staggering possibility that he might
actually be better at governing than golfing.
And this is despite the fact that he seems to devote more time to the
latter, an impression that has won him much bad publicity.
By Selwyn Duke
When people discuss the overall effects of the Internet, they
will weigh the good and the bad. On one
side, they may mention how the Web, along with talk radio, has broken the
stranglehold over public opinion the mainstream media once enjoyed; on the
other, they may cite the pernicious effects of pornography, cyber-bullying or
the loss of privacy. Whatever the
analysis and verdict, though, it never truly captures how tangled a Web we have
woven. This is because seldom recognized
is a simple and profound fact: The Internet is one of the most powerful forces
ever unleashed by mankind.
By Selwyn Duke
If you accept the old stereotype, you believe that big government is a
sworn enemy of big business. You believe that, were it not for
Washington’s protection, we’d all be under the boot of rapacious robber
barons. In reality, however, the two bigs have far more acquaintance
with each other than with the little guy.
Another old stereotype is that Republicans "mainline" corporate
money, and they certainly aren’t averse to such a diet. Yet this
stereotype is also deceptive. For example, it is well-known that Barack
Obama not only received cash from oil giant BP — he was the biggest
recipient of it in 20 years. And, as a quid pro quo
some say, his administration granted the corporation a waiver freeing it
from environmental regulations. BP isn’t alone, either. The securities
and investment industry has given the majority
of its donations to Democrats during this election cycle, helping the
party raise more money than the GOP.
Of course, there is the truism that “money follows power,” but
donations don’t tell the whole story.
Read the rest here.
By Selwyn Duke
If you thought that “one man, one vote” reflected the full
flowering of representative democracy, think again. In the village of Port Chester, N.Y., just a
few towns north of my locality in Westchester County, there is a new
system. It’s “one man, six votes” —
brought to us courtesy of the U.S. Department of Injustice and a lunkhead of a
federal judge named Stephen Robinson.
selwynduke.com 